by such like passages as these All the commandments of the Law be they preceptive or prohibitive if a man transgress against any of them either erring or presuming when he repents and turns from his sin he is bound to make confession Whosoever brings a sin or trespass offering for his error or presumption his sin is not expiated by his offering until he make a verbal confession And whosoever is guilty of death or of whipping by the Sanhedrin his sin is not expiated by his whipping or his death unless he repent and make a confession And because the Scapegoat is an atonement for all Israel the High Priest maketh a confession for all Israel over him The Scapegoat expiateth for all transgressions mentioned in the Law be they great or little Maym. in Teshubah per. 1. This their wild doctrine about repentance and pardon being considered in which they place so much of the one and the other in such things as that the true affectedness of the heart for sin or in seeking of pardon is but little spoken of or regarded we may well observe how singularly pertinent to the holding out of the true doctrine of repentance this word is which is used by the Holy Ghost which calleth for change of mind in the penitent and an alteration of the inward temper as wherein consisteth the proper nature and vertue of repentance and not in any outward actions or applications if the mind be not thus changed And thus as our Saviour urging the duty of repentance upon them from this reason because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand argueth to them from one of their own confest opinions so in this original word by which repentance is called for another opinion of theirs seemeth also to be looked upon but with gainsaying and confutation because they placed so much of repentance if not all repentance in outward things And so when the Ministery of the Gospel calleth for Repentance and in such a word as betokeneth a change and alteration of the mind it doth at once confute the double error that was amongst them which was either about not needing of repentance but insisting upon legal righteousness or if they were to repent it was to be chiefly performed by confession or offerings or some outward action III. Thirdly It is observable in this preaching of Christ that to his admonition to repent he also adjoyneth the other To believe the Gospel which John the Baptist that we read of had not done Matth. 3. 2. And yet John preached the Gospel too for his Ministery is called the beginning of it Mark 1. 1 2. and he preached that they should believe Joh. 1. 7. But his doctrine did mainly aim at the declaring of him that was to preach the Gospel that when he came to preach it he might the more readily be believed Joh. 1. 31. Act. 19. 4. Johns chiefest and most intended task and purpose was to point out Christ and to bring the people to be acquainted with his person and to take notice of him as the Messias the great Prophet to whom it was reserved to publish the great things of the Gospel that when he came openly to preach it as now he doth he might be the better intertained and hearkned after And thus John makes ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. 17. And now that this great Preacher for whom attention and regard was prepared by all the bent of Johns Ministery is come to preach and publish the Gospel in its full clearness and manifestation He calleth for repentance and belief of it as Act. 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith or believing in order of the work of grace is before repentance that being the first and mother grace of all others yet is it here and in other places named the latter 1. Because though faith be first wrought yet repentance is first seen and evidenced both to the heart of him that hath it and to the eyes of others 2. Because a poor broken and penitent heart is the most proper receptacle of the Gospel Esay 61. 1. Matth. 11. 5. Now by the Gospel is not only here meant the good and glad tidings of Salvation as the word signifies in the original and as it is taken in other places but it is also held out here by our Saviour with a singular emphasis and circumstance namely as the new Law and Covenant which God had promised to give unto his people and which they expected from the Messias The Gospel as it signifies the good tidings of Salvation and Salvation by Christ was very abundantly held out in the Law and the Prophets and if Christ proposed the word here but in that sense he proposed his Ministery but like unto theirs But as in the Synagogue of Nazareth he had begun to assert himself the highly anointed one of the Lord for the singular work of publishing the new Law Luk. 4. 18. so now and forward he doth openly proclaim himself to be he whom the Lord had appointed and anointed for that end and that his Ministry and doctrine was that Gospel or glad tidings which God had promised to send by the Messias And in this sense it is that he calls upon them to believe the Gospel not only in regard of the tenour but also in regard of the dispenser and dispensation of it he the great Prophet and that according to the promises of God and the expectation of the Nation The Lord had foretold them copiously by the Prophets that Messias should be the great Teacher and Lawgiver in the last days and this had put them in expectation of a new Law and doctrine when he should come Esay 2. 1 2 3. In the last days the mountain of the Lords house shall be established on the top of the mountains c. And many people shall say Come and let us go up c. And he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths c. This Teacher saith David Kimchi is the Messias And wheresoever it is said in the last days it meaneth the days of Messias And so in Esa. 11. 4. With righteousness shall be judge the poor and reprove with equity This the Chaldee Paraphrast expresly and nominatim understandeth of Messias And so he doth that in Esa. 42. 1. c. And so in Esa. 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings or that preacheth the Gospel which though the Apostle in Rom. 10. 15. apply generally to the Ministry of the Gospel yet doth the Context in the Prophet shew that it is primarily and especially to be understood of Christ whom the Chaldee Paraphrast nameth Syllabically at vers 13. Such another Prophesie of Christ being the great Teacher when he should come is that which is so much retched and abused towards the countenancing of Enthusiasm Esa. 54. 13. And all thy children shall be taught of God where
Vid. Gloss. in Ioma in Talm. Babyl per. 1. Job Ezra Daniel and Chronicles places that might most affect and prepare him for the service The day being come which was so strict a Fasting day e e e Kerithuth per. 1. as that to eat any thing or to do any work on it fell under the penalty of being cut off the High-Priest is now to prepare himself for the business And first he puts off his ordinary wearing Cloathes bathes himself in water f f f Mid. per. 5. his bathing this day was on the roof of the room of Happarbah a fine Sheet hanging betwixt him and the sight of the People wipes himself dry with a Towel and puts on the rich Garments of the High-Priesthood washeth his Hands and Feet killeth the daily Sacrifice burns the pieces offers the Incense dresseth the Lamps and doth all the service belonging to the ordinary daily service And so he doth by the Bullock and seven Lambs of the extraordinary Sacrifice And when he had done with these he washed his hands and his feet again g g g Maym. ubi supra per. 4. Then put he off his rich Robes again and bathed himself and put on the white Linnen Garments appointed Levit. 16. 4. and performed the peculiar services of that day as first he goeth to his own Bullock Levit. 16. 6. which stood between the Temple and the Altar laid his two hands upon his head and made this confession Ah Lord I have sinned done perversly and transgressed before thee I and mine house I beseech thee O Lord expiate the sins perversities and transgressions whereby I have sinned done perversly and transgressed I and mine house as it is written in the Law of Moses thy servant saying for on this day he will expiate for you to purge you from all your sins before the Lord that ye may be clean h h h Id. ibid. per. 3. Then went he to cast the Lots upon the two Goats on the North-East part of the Court below the Altar The two lots were ordinarily of Gold pieces just of one and the same bigness on the one of them was written for the Lord and on the other for Azazel these were put into a Box into which the Priest could put both his hands this Box was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The two Goats were set before him one before the right hand and the other at the left and on his right hand stood the Sagan and on his left hand stood chief of his Fathers house He put his hand in the box and took out the lots and opening his hands if the lot for the Scape-goat came in his right hand the Sagan said to him Sir lift up your right hand and so the right hand Goat was the Scape-goat And if that lot came in his left hand the chief of his Fathers house said to him Sir lift up your hand and then that was the Scape-Goat that was on the left hand And he tied a Scarlet list upon that Goats head and set him there from whence he was to be sent away and the other Goat he sent where he must be killed This Scarlet list is called commonly by the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lingula coccinea the Scarlet tongue because it was broad and fashioned like a tongue And they expected that when it was tied upon the Scape-Goats head i i i Ioma per. 4. in Gemara it should turn white And so they say it did k k k Iuchasin fol. 15. col 1. in the time of Simeon the just and that the lot for the Scape-Goat came still up in his right hand and this they ground upon Esay 1. 18. Having thus set the two Goats ready against their time comes he returned again to his own Bullock where he left him standing and lays his hand upon his head a second time and makes a second confession in the very same words that he had done the former save that when he had said wherein I have sinned done perversly and transgressed before thee I and my fathers house he added and the sons of Aaron thy holy people as it is written in the Law of Moses c. Then killed he the Bullock took the blood and gave it one to stir that it should not congeal He himself took a Censer full of Coals from the Altar and set them down upon a Bench in the Court and from a Vessel brought him he took his hands full of Incense and put it into a Dish The Censer of Coals he took in his right hand because it was hot and heavy otherwise he should have carried it in his left and the Dish of Incense in his left hand and so he went into the Holy of Holies and came up to the Ark and there he sets his Coals down empties the Incense into his hands again and so lay it on the coals and stays till all the room be full of smoak and then comes backward out from within the vail having his face still toward the Ark Being come out he made this short Prayer O Lord God let it be thy good pleasure that this year may have seasonable rains if it have been droughty And let not thy Scepter depart from Judah and let not thy people Israel want sustenance and let not the prayer of wicked transgressors come before thee and so he came out Then took he the blood of the Bullock which had been stirred about all this while for congealing and brought it within the most holy place and sprinkled of it eight times once upward and seven times downward between the bars of the Ark and having so done he came out thence set the rest of the blood in the bason in the Holy place and came forth Then slew he the Goat took the blood of it into the most holy place and sprinkled it there eight times as the other came forth and set it down in the holy place took up the Bullocks blood and sprinkled it eight times before the vail and so he did by the Goats blood then mingled he them together and sprinkled therewith the golden Altar going round about it He began first with the North-east corner so to the North-west and to the South-west and ended at the South-east then sprinkled he the body of the Altar it self seven times and so came out and poured the remainder of the blood at the foot of the burnt offering Altar on the West-side And now he goes about to send the Scape-goat away he first laid his hands upon his head and made this confession Ah Lord thy people the house of Israel have sinned and done perversly and transgressed before thee I beseech thee now O Lord expiate the sins perversities and transgressions which the house of Israel thy people have sinned done perversly and transgressed before thee as it is written in the Law of Moses thy servant For this day he will expiate for you to purge you from all your sins that
the first Chap. 1. 17. That in the Gospel is revealed the Righteousness of God justifying as in the Law was revealed his righteousness or justice condemning and that from faith of immediate innixion upon God as was Adams before his fall and as was that which the Jews owned in God to faith in the righteousness of another namely Christ. This way of justification he proveth first by shewing how far all men both by nature and action are from possibility of being justified of or by themselves which he cleareth by the horrid sinfulness of the Heathen Chap. 1. a large proof of which might be read at Rome at that very instant and little less sinfulness of the Jews though they had the Law Chap. 2. 3. and therefore concludeth Chap. 3. 30. that God justifieth the circumcision by faith and not by works as they stood upon it and the uncircumcision through faith for all their works that had been so abominable and that seemed so contrary to justification In Chap. 4. he taketh up the example of Abraham whom the Jews reputed most highly justified by his works for they had this saying of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham performed all the Law every whit but he proveth that he found nothing by his own works but by believing he found all In Chap. 5. he proves the imputation of Christs righteousness for Justification by the parallel of the imputation of Adams sin for condemnation Not at all intending to assert that as many as were condemned by Adam were freed from that condemnation by the death of Christ but purposely and only to prove the one imputation by the other It was a strange doctrine in the ears of a Jew to hear of being justified by the righteousness of another therefore he proves it by the like mens being condemned for and by the unrighteousness of another Two close couched passages clear what he aimeth at The first is in ver 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the World c. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As properly requireth a So to follow it as you may observe it doth in ver 15. 18 19. but here there is no such thing expressed therefore it is so to be understood and the Apostles words to be construed to this sense Wherefore it is or the case is here as it was in Adam as by one man sin entred into the World c. there imputation so here The second is ver 18. in the Original verbatim thus As by the transgression of one upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one upon all men to justification of life What upon all men Our Translation hath added some words to clear the sense but the shortness of the Apostles style doth better clear his intent namely to intimate imputation as speaking to this purpose As by the transgression of one there was that that redounded to all to condemnation so by the righteousness of one there is that that redoundeth to all to justification of life And to clear that he meaneth not that all that were condemned by Adams Fall were redeemed by Christ he at once sheweth the descent of Original sin and the descent of it for all the death and righteousness of Christ Quae tamen profuerunt antequam fuerunt Ver. 13. For till the Law sin was in the World but sin is not imputed where there is no Law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses By what Law was sin sin and did death reign when the Law was not yet given Namely by that Law that was given to Adam and he brake the guilt of which violation descends to all Having to the end of the fifth Chapter stated and proved Justification by faith in Chap 6 7 8. he speaks of the state of persons justified which though they be not without sin yet their state compared with Adams even whilst he was sinless it is far better then his He invested in a created finite changeable humane righteousness they in the righteousness of God uncreate infinite unchangeable He having the principles of his holiness and righteousness in his own nature they theirs conveyed from Christ He having neither Christ nor the Spirit but left to himself and his natural purity they having both See Chap. 8. 1 2 9 10 c. At the nineteenth verse of Chap. 8. he begins upon the second mystery that he hath to treat upon the calling of the Gentiles whom he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Creation or Every Creature by which title they also are called Mark 16. 15. Colos. 1. 23. and he shews how they were subject to vanity of Idolatry and the delusions of the devil but must in time be delivered from this bondage for which deliverance they now groaned and not they only but they of the Jews also which had received the first-fruits of the Spirit longed for their coming in waiting for the adoption that is the redemption of their whole body for the Church of the Jews was but the child-like body and accordingly their Ordinances were according to child-like age of the Church but the stature of the fulness of Christs mystical Body was in the bringing in of the Gentiles Being to handle this great point of the Calling of the Gentiles and Rejection of the jews he begins at the bottom at the great doctrine of Predestination which he handles from ver 29. of Chap. 8. to Chap. 9. 24. and then he falls upon the other That Israel stumbled at Messias and fell seeking indeed after righteousness but not his but their own and that they are cast away but not all A remnant to be saved that belonged to the Election of Grace As it was in the time when the World was Heathen some of them that belonged to the Election came in and were proselyted to the worship of the true God so some of these while all the rest of their Nation lie in unbelief And in this unbelief must they lie till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and then all Gods Israel is compleated The most that he salutes in the last Chapter appear to have been of the Jewish Nation and the most of them though now at Rome yet some time to have been of Pauls company and acquaintance in some other place The expulsion of the Jews out of Rome by Claudius Decree might very well bring many of them into his converse as well as it did Priscilla and Aquila whom he names first among them Epenetus was one of his own converts of Achaia Mary had bestowed much labour on him yet he hitherto had never been near Rome He that would dispute the point of the first planter of the Gospel at Rome might do well to make the first muster of his thoughts here And whereas the Apostle speaks of the faith of the Roman Church as spoken of throughout the World Chap. 1. ver 8. it is very questionable whether he
ought not to be done Lev. 4. 2 13 22 27. that is that they were offered for sins of ignorance against negative precepts But the Hebrew Doctors do generally confine them to those sins done ignorantly against negative precepts that if they had been done wittingly had deserved cutting off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a R. Sol. in Levit. 4. A sin offering was not not offered saith Rabbi Solomon but for a matter which if wittingly done against a negative command deserved cutting off but being ignorantly done it required a sin offering And so the Talmudick Treatise Kerithuth when it had reckoned up the six and thirty offences against such precepts that bring under the liableness of being cut off it concludeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b Kerithuth per. 1. Any of these committed wilfully deserve cutting off but if ignorantly done they require a sin offering c c c Maym. in Shegag per. 1. And whosoever saith Maymony transgresseth ignorantly against any of the negative precepts in which there is an action for which men become liable to cutting off he is bound to bring a sin offering and it is an affirmative command that he offer a sin offering for his errour and every transgression for the doing of which wilfully a man deserves cutting off for the doing of it ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering Aben Ezra goeth yet a little further but for ought I find he goeth alone for he desineth a sin offering to be d d d Ab. Ezra in Lev. 1. for a sin of ignorance against a negative precept which if wilfully committed deserved cutting off or whipping In the addition of this last word whipping I find not the rest of his Nation to agree with him for divers offences against prohibitions of the Law fell under whipping that fell not under cutting off and the Jews do most unanimously apply a sin offering to a sin of ignorance only whose wilfulness had incurred cutting off And the reason of this their limitation is in regard of the nature of the transgression or offence for whereas e e e 〈…〉 they number 365 negative precepts according to the number of the days in the year yet do they bring the number of sin offerings f f f 〈…〉 only in reference to three and forty of them meeting those sins of ignorance only with sin offerings which were most near a kin to those of the bighest danger but that ignorance did mitigate and make the qualification It is true indeed that there are some sin offerings appointed by name which cannot exactly be brought under this predicament of which we are speaking as was the sin offering of Aaron upon his consecration Lev. 9. 2. the sin offering of the woman at her purification Lev. 12. 6. and of the Leper at his cleansing Lev. 14. 19. for we can hardly ascribe these as offered for some particular sin of ignorance against some negative precept the wilful violation of which had deserved cutting off But they seem rather to be offered that they might make sure work to meet with that danger or offence that it was possible they might lye under and not know of it and so they were very near the nature of trespass offerings as a sin offering is also called Lev. 5. 6. But where the Law doth give the rules for sin offerings it nameth not any particular offence but only this general that they were to be presented in reference to the ignorant offending against a negative command and therefore to reduce them to particulars it was most pertinent to allot them to that ignorant offending which if it had proved wilfulness had made the forest breach betwixt God and Man the reconciling of whom was the end of Sacrifice Let us take one or two examples for the better understanding of what hath been spoken and then we will look after the sin offerings in their several kinds It was a negative precept the wilful and witting violation of which deserved cutting off Thou shalt do no work on the seventh day g g g Id. in Sabbath per. 1. And what is a man liable to for working on the Sabbath If he did it of his own will presumptuously he is liable to cutting off and if witnesses and evidence of it came in he was to be stoned but if he did it ignorantly he was to bring the appointed sin offering when he knew what he had done And all along the Treatise of the Sabbath they are the words of Maymony wheresoever it is said he that doth such or such things is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty it meaneth he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liable to cutting off and if there be witness and evidence he is liable to be stoned but if he did it ignorantly he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound to bring a sin offering Another offence that deserved cutting off was going into Sanctuary in uncleanness which was contrary to that frequent prohibition that no unclean person should come there And if any unclean person did wittingly and presumptuously go in thither in his uncleanness he became liable to cutting off if witness came in that he had done this presumingly and knowingly he was to be whipt or mauled with the rebels heating as hath been observed and if he did it ignorantly he was to bring his offering which offering in something indeed differed from the sin offerings in other cases for whereas every one of them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an appointed sin offering of some beast or other this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h h h Kerithuth per. 1. an offering ascending or descending i i i Gloss. ibid. that is of a higher or lower value according to the persons ability that did offer it if he were rich he brought some Beast but if he were poor two Turtles or Pigeons or a tenth deal of flower yet was the rise or occasion of this his offering suitable to all the other By these examples may easily be apprehended the like proceeding in the rest of the six and thirty or three and forty for into so many the six and thirty do branch themselves but concerning the committing the thing wilfully and suffering for it or ignorantly and offering for it Now for the distinguishing of sin offerings they were either sin offerings of the whole Congregation or sin offerings of particular persons Lev. 4. 3 13 22 c. But when we speak of the sin offerings of the whole Congregation the words admit some scrupling whether it mean the whole body of the people or the Sanhedrin only who were their representatives And we must answer that it meaneth both For 1. There was the sin offering Goat which was offered on the day of expiation it was an offering for the whole Congregation Lev. 16. 15. the disposal of which we shall observe afterward and this we may take for the whole body of the people undividedly 2. There was the
Kingdom of Heaven to Repentance since they themselves to whom this is preached do acknowledge that thus the Kingdom of Heaven or the manifestation of the Messias is to be brought in For however the Gemarists who dispute of this were of a later age yet for the most part they do but speak the sense of their fathers III. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance as it does very well express the sense of true repentance so among the Jews it was necessary that it should be so expressed among whom repentance for the most part was thought to consist in the confession of the mouth only r r r r r r Maimon in Teshubah cap. 1 Whosoever out of error or presumption shall transgress the precepts of the Law whether they be those that command or those that forbid when he repents and returns from his sins he is bound to make confession Whosoever brings an offering for a sin committed either out of ignorance or presumption his sin is not expiated by the offering untill he makes an oral confession Or whosoever is guilty of death or of scourging by the Sanhedrin his sin is not taken away by his death or by his scourging if he do not repent and make confession And because the scape Goat is the expiation for all Israel therefore the High Priest makes confession over him for all Israel It is worthy observing that when John urgeth those that came to his Baptism to repent it is said that they were baptized Confessing their sins which was a sign of repentance highly requisite among the Jews and necessary for those that were then brought in to the profession of the Gospel that hereby they might openly profess that they renounced the Doctrine of Justification by the works of the Law It is worthy of observing also that John said not repent and believe the Gospel which our Saviour did Matth. IV. 17. And yet John preached the Gospel Mark I. 1 2. Joh. I. 7. for his office chiefly was to make Christ known who when he should come was to be the great Preacher of the Gospel Therefore the Baptist doth very properly urge repentance upon those that looked for the Messias and the Text of the Gospel used a very proper word to express true and lively repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand I. The Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew is the Kingdom of God for the most part in the other Evangelists Compare these places The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. IV. 17. The Kingdom of God is at hand Mark I. 15. The poor in Spirit theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. V. 3. Blessed are the poor for yours is the Kingdom of God Luke VI. 20. The least in the Kingdom of Heaven Chap. XI 11. The least in the Kingdom of God Luke VII 28. The mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Chap. XIII 11. The mysteries of the Kingdom of God Luke VIII 10. Little children of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Chap. XIX 14. Little children of such is the Kingdom of God Mark X. 14. And so we have it elsewhere very often For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven is very usually in the Jewish dialect taken for God Dan. IV. 25. Matth. XXI 25. Luke XV. 21. Joh. III. 27. And in these and such like speeches scattered in the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death by the hand of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The name of Heaven is profaned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Worship of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the help of Heaven c. s s s s s s Eâ—ias Levit. in â—â—â—â—â— For they called God by the name of Heaven because his habitation is in Heaven The story of the Jews is related groning out under their persecution these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Heavens that is as the Gloss renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ah! Jehovah II. This manner of speech the Kingdom of Heaven is taken from Daniel Chap. VII 13 14. Where after the description of the four earthly and Tyrannical Monarchies that is the Babylonian Mede-Persian Grecian and Syro-grecian and the destruction of them at last the entrance and nature of the reign of Christ is described as it is universal over the whole World and eternal throughout all ages Under whom the Rule and Dominion and Authority of Kingdoms under the whole Heaven is given to the people of the Saints of the most High vers 27. that is Whereas before the Rule had been in the hands of Heathen Kings under the Reign of Christ there should be Christian Kings Unto which that of the Apostle hath respect 1 Cor. VI. 2. Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World Truly I admire that the fulfilling of that Vision and Prophesie in Daniel should be lengthened out still into I know not what long and late expectation not to receive its completion before Rome and Antichrist shall fall since the books of the Gospel afford us a Commentary clearer than the Sun that that Kingdom of Heaven took its beginning immediately upon the preaching of the Gospel When both the Baptist and Christ published the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven from their very first preaching certainly for any to think that the fulfilling of those things in Daniel did not then begin for my part I think it is to grope in the dark either through wilfulness or ignorance III. The Kingdom of Heaven implies 1. The Exhibition and manifestation of the Messias Matth. XII 28. But if I by the finger of God cast out Devils the Kingdom of God is come upon you that is Hence is the manifestation of the Messias See Joh. III. 3. XII Chap. 13 c. 2. The Resurrection of Christ Death Hell Satan being conquered whence is a most evident manifestation that he is that eternal King c. See Matth. XXVI 29. Rom. I. 4. 3. His vengance upon the Jewish Nation his most implacable enemies this is another and most eminent manifestation of him See Matth. XVI 28. Chap. XIX 28. 4. His Dominion by the Scepter of the Gospel among the Gentiles Matth. XXI 43. In this place which is before us it points out the exhibition and revelation of the Messias IV. The Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Kingdom of Heaven very frequently occurs in the Jewish Writers We will produce some places let the reader gather the sense of them t t t t t t Beracoth cap. 2. hal 2. R. Joshua ben Kercha saith In reciting the Phylacteries why is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O Israel Deut. VI. 4. c. recited before that passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it shall come to pass if you shall harken Deut. XI 13. c. To wit that a man first take upon himself the Kingdom of Heaven and then the yoke of the Precept So the Jerusalem Mishnah hath it but the Babylonian thus That
had seen the figure and pattern of a glorious Tabernacle so now in this second forty days fast he desireth to have a sight of the glory of God On the thirtieth day of the month A◠he goeth up again with the two Tables and beginneth another forty days fast and seeth the Lord and heareth him proclaim himself by most glorious attributes and receiveth some commands from him On the tenth day of the month Tisri he cometh down with the glad tydings that all is well betwixt God and Israel with the renewed Tables in his hand and with commission to set about making the Tabernacle CHAP. XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL. World 2515 Moses 82 Redemption from Egypt 2 AND so do Israel fall about that work which by the first day of the month Abib the first month of the next year is finished and it begun to be erected when it is set up the cloud of glory filleth it and God taketh up his seat upon the Ark in figure of his dwelling amongst men in Christ. The Book of LEVITICUS OUT of the Tabernacle newly erected God giveth ordinances for it and first concerning Sacrifice to represent Christs death as the Tabernacle it self did represent his body The whole time of the story of Leviticus is but one moneth namely the first month of the second year of their deliverance and not altogether so much neither for the very first beginning of the month was taken up in the erecting of the Tabernacle of which the story is in Exod. 40. CHAP. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII RUles given for all manner of sacrifices This is the first Oracle given from off the Mercy-seat There is the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first word of the Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 written less then all his fellows and it seemeth by such a writing to hint and intimate that though this were a glorious Oracle yet was it small in comparison of what was to come when God would speak to his people by his own Son whom the Ark Mercy-seat and Oracle did represent CHAP. VIII IX THE seven days of the consecration of Aaron and his sons follow after the time of the setting up of the Tabernacle and were not coincident or concurrent with that time as the Jews very generally but very groundlesly do apprehend as Seder Olam Tanchum ex R. Joseph Baal Turim Ab Ezra R. Sol and others For 1. this command for their consecration is given out of the Tabernacle now erected as well as the rules for sacrifice were And 2. they abide the seven days in the Tabernacle Chap. 8. 33. and the very first day of the seven the congregation were gathered to the door vers 3 4. which undeniably shew that it was finished and set up when these seven days of consecration began CHAP. X. THE death of Nadab and Abihu was on the very first day that the service of the Altar began namely on that eighth day after the seven of the consecration when Aaron and his sons offered sacrifices for themselves and the people This appeareth plainly by comparing the third and fifteenth Verses of the ninth Chapter with the sixteenth Verse of this tenth Chapter and thus the service of the Sanctuary by an accident began with Death and Judgment NUMBERS IX to Ver. 15. AFter the end of the tenth Chapter of Leviticus in the proper order of story are the first fourteen Verses of the ninth Chapter of Numbers to be taken in which treat concerning the Passover For the Tabernacle being reared on the very first day of the second year of their coming out of Egypt namely on the first day of Nisan these orders and rules concerning Sacrifices and the Priests consecration were given and the eight days of Priests consecration and Sacrifices were accomplished before the fourteenth day of that month came when the Passover was to be kept by an old command given the last year in Egypt and by a second command now given in the wilderness so that this order and method is clear Now the reason why this story of this second Passover is not only not laid in its proper place in this Book of Leviticus but also out of its proper place in the Book of Numbers for the Book beginneth its story with the beginning of the second month but this story of the Passover belongeth to the first month The reason I say of this dislocation is because Moses his chief aim in that place is to shew and relate the new dispensation or command for a Passover in the second month which was a matter of very great moment For the translation of that feast a month beyond its proper time did the rather inforce the significancy of things future then of things past as rather recording the death of Christ to come then their delivery from Egypt when it hit not on that very night This story therefore of the Passover transferred to the second month upon some occasions being the matter that Moses chiefly aimed at and respected in that relation and history he hath set it in his proper place for so is that where it lies in the Book of Numbers and intending and aiming at the mention of that he hath also brought in the mention of the right Passover or that of the first month as it was necessary he should to shew the occasion of the other LEVITICUS XI XII XIII XIV XV. AFter the rules for things clean and fit for sacrifice the Lord cometh to give rules for things clean and fit to eat and clean and fit to touch for this was the tripartite distinction of clean or unclean in the Law Every thing that was unclean to touch was unclean to eat but every thing that was unclean to eat was not unclean to touch every thing that was unclean to eat was unclean to sacrifice but every thing that was unclean to sacrifice was not unclean to eat for many things might be eaten which might not be sacrificed and many things might be touched which might not be eaten And under the Law about clean and unclean there is exceeding much of the doctrine of sin and renovation touched considerable in very many particulars 1. By the Law of Moses nothing was unclean to be touched while it was alive but only man A man in Leprosie unclean to be touched Lev. 13. and a woman in her separation Lev. 12. but Dogs Swine Worms c. not unclean to be touched till they be dead Lev. 11. 31. 2. By the Law of Moses uncleanness had several degrees and Leprosie was the greatest There was uncleanness for a day as by touching a dead beast for a week as by touching a dead man for a month as a woman after Child-birth and for a year or more as Leprosie 3. Every Priest had equal priviledge and calling to judge of the Leprosie as well as the the high Priest 4. The Priests that were judges of Leprosie could not be tainted
them to be humbled some for their fathers guilt some for their own and some for both and to acknowledge that their being alive till now and their liberty to enter into the Land was a free and a great mercy for their own and their fathers faults might justly have caused it to have been otherwise with them 2. They had imitated their fathers rebellion to the utmost in their murmuring at Kadesh at their last coming up thither and in the matter of Baal Peor and therefore he might very well personate them by their fathers when their fathers faults were so legible and easie to be seen in them 4. He reckoneth not their second journy to Kadesh by name but slips by it Chap. 2. 1 4. Nor mentions their long wanderings for seven and thirty years together between Kadesh and Kadesh but only under this expression We compassed mount Seir many days Chap. 2. 1. because in that rehearsal he mainly insisteth but upon these two heads Gods decree against them that had first murmured at Kadesh and how that was made good upon them and Gods promise of bringing their children into the land and how that was made good upon them therefore when he hath largely related both the decree and the promise he hastens to shew the accomplishment of both 5. In rehearsing the Ten Commandments he proposeth a reason of the Sabbaths ordaining differing from that in Exodus there it was because God rested on the seventh day here it is because of their delivery out of Egypt and so here it respecteth the Jewish Sabbath more properly there the Sabbath in its pure morality and perpetuity And here is a figure of what is now come to pass in our Sabbath celebrated in memorial of Redemption as well as of Creation In the fifth Commandment in this his rehearsal there is an addition or two more then there is in it in Exod. 20. and the letter Teth is brought in twice which in the twentieth of Exodus was only wanting of all the letters 6. In Chap. 10. ver 6. 7 8. there is a strange and remarkable transposition and a matter that affordeth a double scruple 1. In that after the mention of the golden Calf in Chap. 9. and of the renewing of the Tables Chap. 10. which occurred in the first year after their coming out of Egypt he bringeth in their departing from Beeroth to Mosera where Aaron died which was in the fortieth year after now the reason of this is because he would shew Gods reconciliation to Aaron and his reconciliation to the people to Aaron in that though he had deserved death suddenly with the rest of the people that died for the sin of the golden Calf yet the Lord had mercy on him and spared him and he died not till forty years after and to the people because that for all that transgression yet the Lord brought them through that wilderness to a land of rivers of waters But 2. there is yet a greater doubt lies in these words then this for in Numb 33. the peoples march is set down to be from Moseroth to Bene Jahaan ver 31. and here it is said to be from Beeroth of Bene Jaahan to Moseroth there it is said Aaron died at mount Hor but here it is said He died at Moseroth now there were World 2553 Moses 120 Redemption from Egypt 40 seven several incampings between Moseroth and mount Hor Numb 33. 31 32 c. Now the answer to this must arise from this consideration that in those stations mentioned Numb 33. From Moseroth to Bene Jaahan to Horhagidgad c. they were marching towards Kadesh before their fortieth year and so they went from Moseroth to Bene Jaahan But in these stations Deut. 10. 6. they are marching from Kadish in their fortieth year by some of that way that they came thither and so they must now go from Bene Jaahan to Moseroth And 2. how Moseroth and mount Hor Gudgodah and Horhagidgad were but the * * * As Horeb and Sinai were though they be counted two several incampings of Israel Exod. 17. 1 6. and 19. 1. compared same place and Country and how though Israel were now going back from Kadish yet hit in the very same journies that they went in when they were coming thither as to Gudgodah or Horhagidgad to Jotbathah or Jotbath requires a discourse Geographical by it self which is the next thing that was promised in the Preface to the first part of the Harmony of the Evangelists and with some part of that work by Gods permission and his good hand upon the Work-man shall come forth 7. It cannot pass the Eye of him that readeth the Text in the Original but he must observe it how in Chap. 29. ver 29. the Holy Ghost hath pointed one clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To us and to our Children belong the revealed things after an extraordinary and unparalleld manner to give warning against curiosity in prying into Gods secrets and that we should content our selves with his revealed will 8. Moses in blessing of the Tribes Chap. 33. nameth them not according to their seniority but in another order Reuben is set first though he had lost the birth-right to shew his repentance and that he died not * * * So the Chaldee renders ver 6. Let Reuben live and not die the second death the second death Simeon is omitted because of his cruelty to Sichem and Joseph and therefore he the fittest to be left out when there were twelve Tribes beside Judah is placed before Levi for the Kingdoms dignity above the Priest-hood Christ being promised a King of that Tribe Benjamin is set before Joseph for the dignity of Jerusalem above Samaria c. 9. The last Chapter of the Book was written by some other then Moses for it relateth his death and how he was buried by the Lord that is by Michael Jude 9. or Christ who was to bury Moses Ceremonies The Book of JOSHUA THIS Book containeth a history of the seventeen years of the rule of Joshua which though they be not expresly named by this sum in clear words yet are they to be collected to be so many from that gross sum of four hundred and eighty years from the delivery out of Egypt to the laying of the foundation of solomons Temple mentioned 1 Kings 6. 1. for the Scripture hath parcelled out that sum into these particulars forty years of the people in the wilderness two hundred ninety and nine years of the Judges forty years of Eli forty of Samuel and Saul forty of David and four of Solomon to the Temples founding in all four hundred sixty three and therefore the seventeen years that must make up the sum four hundred and eighty must needs be concluded to have been the time of the rule of Joshua CHAP. I. World 2554 Ioshua 1 JOSHUA of Joseph succeedeth Moses the seventh from Ephraim 1 Chron. 7. 25. and in him first appeared Josephs birth-right 1 Chron. 5. 1. and
me Paul taketh the world to come in this sense Heb. 2. 5. 3. Baptism had been in long and common use among them many generations before John Baptist came they using this for admission of Proselytes into the Church and baptizing Men Women and Children for that end Talm. in Jebamoth cap. 4. and Maym. in Issure biah cap. 13. A person is not a Proselyte till he be both circumcised and baptized Id. in Chettuboth cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A little one they baptize by the appointment of the Consistory And Maym. in Avadim cap. 8. An Israelite that takes a little Heathen Child or that finds an Heathen Infant and baptizeth him for a Proselyte behold he is a Proselyte Hence a ready reason may be given why there is so little mention of baptizing Infants in the New Testament that there is neither plain Precept nor Example for it as some ordinarily plead The reason is because there needed no such mention baptizing of Infants having been as ordinarily used in the Church of the Jews as ever it hath been in the Christian Church It was enough to mention that Christ establisht Baptism for an Ordinance under the Gospel and then who should be baptized was well enough known by the use of this Ordinance of old Therefore it is good plea Because there is no clear forbidding of the baptizing of Infants in the Gospel ergo they are to be baptized for that having been in common use among the Jews that Infants should be baptized as well as Men and Women our Saviour would have given some special prohibition if he intended that they should have been excluded so that silence in this case doth necessarily conclude approbation to have the practise continued which had been used of old before Johns Baptism differed from that before only in this that whereas that admitted Proselytes to the Jewish Religion this admitted and translated Jews into the Gospel Religion that was a Baptism binding them over to the performance of the Law as their Circumcision did but this was a Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins as was observed before 4. Though some of the Nation expected that the Messias would come and redeem them though they were impenitent as some of the Gentiles plead in Talm. Bab. Sanhedr cap. 10. R. Samuel in articulis fidei Judaicae yet was it more generally held and with good reason that the Messias would look for a repenting Generation and thereupon others of the Gemarists in the place alleadged say If Israel repent but one day presently the Messias cometh Upon the consideration of these things it will appear the less strange that the People flowed in to Johns Baptism in so great a conflux this being the time about which the Nation expected the appearing of Messias Baptism being a thing most commonly known and used among them and this Baptism of repentance administred preparatively toward the entertainment of Christ now ready to come being sutable to their own apprehensions of the necessity of repentance against his coming Baptism was besides other tendencies of it as a badge whereby those that received it and stuck to it were marked out for safety and preservation against that destruction that was to come upon the Nation for unbelief Therefore John construes their coming to be baptized their fleeing from the wrath to come and Peter in the same sense doth say that Baptism doth now save 1 Pet. 3. 21. as the Ark had done in the destruction of the old World so this from the destruction now coming And Acts 2. 40. to his admonition to Repent and be baptized he addeth Save your selves from this untoward Generation § MATTH Chap. III. from Ver. 13. to the end § MARK Chap I. Ver. 9 10. 11. § LUKE Chap. III. Ver. 21 22. CHRIST XXX CHRIST is baptized being thirty years old initiant Josephs Age at his appearing before Pharaoh Gen. 41. 46. The Priests at their entrance into their Office Numb 4. and Davids when he began to reign 2 Sam. 5. 4. He hath now three years and a half to live and to be a publick Minister of the Gospel as the Angel Gabriel had told Dan. 9. 27. that in half of the last seven of the years there named he should confirm the Covenant R. Jochanan saith Three years and an half the Divine Glory stood upon the Mount of Olives and cried Seek the Lord while he may be found Midr. Till fol. 10. col 4. This space of time had been renowned before by Elias his shutting up Heaven Luke 4. 25. James 5. 17. and now Heaven is opened by the persecution of Antiochus when all Religion was destroyed Dan. 12. 7 11. and now redemption and restoring is come Christ therefore living three years and an half and dying at Easter it follows that he was baptized in Tizri about the Feast of Tabernacles at which time of the year he had been born and was now when he was baptized nine and twenty years old compleat and just entring upon his thirtieth to which add his three years and an half after his Baptism and it resulteth that he died being two and thirty years old and an half the exact time of Davids reign in Jerusalem 1 Kings 2. 11. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years seven years reigned he in Hebron and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem that is in Hebron seven years and an half 2 Sam. 5. 5. and in Jerusalem two and thirty years and an half so the Jerus Talm. counteth well in Rosh hashanah fol. 1. col 2. As Christ by Circumcision was admitted a Member of the Church of the Jews so is he by Baptism of the Church of the Gospel being withal installed into his Ministerial Function by Baptism and Unction of the Holy Ghost as the Priests were into theirs by washing and anointing SECTION X. LUKE Chap. III. from Ver. 23. to the end of the Chapter CHRISTS Genealogy by his Mothers side MATTHEWS Genealogy and this as they run by a different Line so they are brought in upon different ends Matthew intends to shew that Jesus Christ was the Son promised to David Luke shews him the seed of the woman promised to Adam Gen. 3. 15. who in the next following Section begins to break the head of the Serpent Therefore when that promise to Adam beginneth to take place in Christs entring upon his Ministry and in his being sealed for the Messias by the Holy Ghost this Genealogy is divinely woven in Matthew derives his Line by the Pedigree of Joseph his supposed Father and draws it from Solomon Luke by the Pedigree of Mary his Mother and draws it from Nathan For as the Jews looked on him as the Son of David they would regard the Masculine Line and the Line Royal therefore Matthew giveth it at his birth But looked on as the seed promised to Adam the seed of the woman he was to be looked after by the Line of his Mother And whereas
were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these add to them But James findeth out a temper betwixt those that would have all these yokes imposed and those that would have none that so the Jews might have the less offence and the Gentiles no burden neither And that was that the Gentiles might be required to restrain from eating things offered to Idols and strangled and blood and fornication The three first were now become things indifferent however strictly they had been imposed by the Law before Christ having by his death done down the partition wall and laid these things aside as useless when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all therefore the whole Council upon the motion of James think it fit that the Gentiles should thus far Judaize till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needless niceties aside The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others Avodah Zarah per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden and their prohibition meaneth the prohibition of their use Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used viz. before it was offered but what is brought out is prohibited And bottles and cans used in Idolatry and an Israelites wine put in them are prohibited to be used Maymon in Avoda Zarah per. 7. A beast offered to an Idol is forbidden for any use yea even his dung bones horns hoofs skin yea though there were only a hole cut in the beast to take out the heart and that alone offered Divers other things used in Idolatry are mentioned and prohibited The observing of all which helpeth to clear the distinction of the words used in the Text namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these properly were not one and the same thing for every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buâ—… contra every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For divers things were used at an Idolatrous offering which themselves were not offered as knives dishes and the like which cannot be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet by these traditions were prophane and unclean and prohibited to be used About not eating of blood they expounded the prohibition of the Law in that point unto this purpose He that eats blood to the quantity of an olive if presumptuously he is to be cut off and if ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering Talm. in Cherithuth per. 1. 5. Maym. in Maacaloth Asuroth per. 6. By things strangled their Canons understood any thing that died of it self or that was not killed as it ought to be And he that eat to the quantity of an olive of the flesh of any cattel that died of it self or of any beast or any fowl that died of it self was to be whipt as it is said Ye shall eat no carcase and whatsoever was not slain as was sitting is reputed as if dying of it self Talm. in Zevachin per. 7. Maym. ubi super per. 1. Therefore they had their rules about killing any beast that they were to eat of which the Talmudick Treatise Cholin discusseth at large Now as concerning fornication it is controverted first whether it mean bodily or spiritual and secondly how it cometh to be ranked among things indifferent as the other named were it self being of no such indifferency whethersoever is meant the one or the other The former certainly is not meant for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reacheth that to the full and more needed not to be spoken to that point The later therefore is meant but why named here with things indifferent Not because it was indifferent as well as they Nor because it was so very offensive to the Jews as were the other for they made but little of fornication themselves according to the common taking of the word fornication but fornication here seemeth to translate their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that meaneth with them marriages in degrees prohibited which the Gentiles made no matter about and so the Apostles would bring the convert Gentiles under obedience of the Law Levit. 18. Before we part from this Council as it is commonly called we may thus far take notice of the nature of it as to observe that it was not a convention premediated and solemnly summoned but only occasional and emergent and that it was only of those Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem at the instant when the matter from Antioch was brought thither and the other Apostles that were abroad were not fetched in nor indeed needed any such thing for the message from Antioch required not so much the number of voices as the resolves of those Apostles that had especially to deal with the Circumcision and whom the Antiochian Church doubted not to find ready at Jerusalem The matter being determined Letters are dispatched with the Decrees unto the Churches by Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas they come to Antioch and there abide a while and at last go their several ways Judas to Jerusalem and Paul Barnabas and Silas away among the Gentiles It was the agreement between Paul and Barnabas on the one party and Peter Jameâ— and John on the other that those two should go among the Gentiles and these three among the Circumcision Gal. 2. 9. James abode at Jerusalem as the residentiary Apostle of that Country Gal. 2. 13. Act. 21. 18. and there at last he suffered Martyrdom Peter and John went abroad among the Jews dispersed in forreign parts so that at last you have Peter at Babylon in the East and John at Patmos in the West and by this we may guess how they parted their imployment between them When Paul and Barnabas are to set forth they disagree about Marks going with them Barnabas being his uncle would have had his company but Paul denied it because of his departure from them before Mark it seemeth was at Antioch at this time and it may be a quaere whether Peter were not there also Gal. 2. 11. and when the contest twixt Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they part asunder Barnabas taketh Mark and Paul Silas and go their several ways and it is questionable whether they ever saw one anothers faces any more Only Paul and Mark were reconciled again and came into very near society as we shall observe afterward CHRIST LI CLAUDIUS XI ACTS CHAP. XVI PAul and Silas having travelled through Syria and Silicia come to Derbe and Lystra there he Circumciseth Timothy whom he intended to take along with him and to breed him for his successor in the Ministry after his death Timothy was a young man of very choice
down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the Earth till the World was become Christian and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again The destruction of which is set down vers 9. by fire from Heaven in allusion to Sodom or 2 King 1. 10 12. and it is set close to the end of the World the Devil and the Beast Rome imperial and the false Prophet Rome Papal are cast into fire and brimstone vers 10. where John speaks so as to shew his method which we have spoken of The Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet the Devils agents and what became of them Chap. 19. vers 20. And now the story of the Devil himself for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart and now he brings the confusion of all the three together and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark and whose names were not written in the Book of life REVEL CHAP. XXI THE Jerusalem from above described The phrase is used by Paul Gal. 4. 26. and it is used often by the Jews Zohar fol. 120. col 478. Rabbi Aba saith Luz is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem which is above which the holy blessed God gives for a possession where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land but to an impure Land no blessings to be at all Compare Revel 21. 27 22. 15. Midras Till in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is built as a City that is compact together R. Jochanan saith The holy blessed God said I will not go into Jerusalem that is above until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below c. Ezekiels Jerusalem as we observed was of a double signification namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem the Church under the Gospel and that most especially At that John taketh at here and that is the Jerusalem that he describeth And from Isa. 65. 17 18. joyneth the creating new Heavens and a new Earth and so stateth the time of building this new Jerusalem namely at the coming in of the Gospel when all things are made new 2 Cor. 5. 17. A new People new Ordinances new Oeconomy and the old World of Israel dissolved Though the description of this new City be placed last in the Book yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst theâ—â— as he had done in the midst of Israel Levit. 26. 11 12. That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow death nor pain vers 4. which if taken litterally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven of which the glory of this Jerusalem may indeed be a figure but here as the other things are it is to be taken mystically or spiritually to mean the taking away the curse of the Law and the sting of death and sin c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Jesus The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase Ezekiel and Isaiah as compare these The Bride the Lambs wife vers 9. Sing O barren Heathen that didst not bear c. Thy Maker is thine Husband thy Redeemer c. Isa. 54. 1 5. Vers. 10. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain Compare Ezek. 40. 2. That great City holy Jerusalem c. This refers to great dimensions of Ezekiels Jerusalem as also to the squareness the three gates of a side c. The glory of it described from thence and from Isa. 58. 8. 60. 2 3. 54. 11 12 c. The wall of it twelve thousand furlongs square or fifteen hundred miles upon every quarter East West North and South three thousand miles about and fifteen hundred miles high Wall of salvation Isa 26. 1. 60. 14. The foundations of the walls garnished with twelve precious stones see Isa. 54. 11. as the stones in the Ephod or holy Breastplate three upon every side as these were three and three in a row The first foundation stone here is the Jaspar the stone of Benjamin for Pauls sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles The Jerus Talmud in Peah fol. 15. col 3. saith expresly that the Jaspar was Benjamins stone for it saith Benjamins Jaspar was once lost out of the Ephod and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it Some said Damah the son of Nethina hath one c. And I saw no Temple therein c. vers 22. here this Jerusalem differs from Ezekiels that had a Temple this none and it is observable there that the platform of the Temple is much of the measures and fashion that the second Temple was of but the City of a compass larger then all the Land which helpeth to clear what was said before of the double significancy of those things they promised them an earthly Temple which was built by Zerobabel but foretold a heavenly Jerusalem which is described here REVEL CHAP. XXII FROM Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from several passages of Scripture besides John doth still magnifie the glory happiness and holiness of the new Jerusalem Lively waters of clear Doctrine teaching Christ and life by him flowing through it continually Ezek. 7. 1 9. Cant. 4. 15. The Tree of Life lost to Adam and Paradise shut up against him to keep him from it here restored Then a curse here There shall be curse no more vers 3. See Zech. 14. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anathema non erit amplius c. He concludeth These sayings are faithful and true so he had said before at the marriage of the Lamb Chap. 19. 9. and again at his beginning of the story of the new Jerusalem Chap. 21. 5. referring to the several Prophesies that had been of these things and now all those sayings and Prophesies were come home in truth and faithfulness He is commanded not to seal his Book as Daniel was Dan. 12. 4. because the time of these things was instantly beginning and Christs coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and casting them off and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door within three and an half or thereabout to come if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year There are two years more of Nero and one of confusion in the Roman Empire in the Wars of Otho Vitellius and Vespasian and the next year after Jerusalem falls And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the New Testament as by the consent of all it was then may we say Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing and from
7. c. 1 Sam. 4. 21. 1 Chron. 4. 29. and sometimes by the standers by at the birth as Gen. 38. 29. and 25. 25. Ruth 4. 18. but the Father at the Circumcision had still the casting voice whether the name should be so or no as appeareth by Jacobs changing Ben-oni into Benjamin Now Zacharie being dumb and the mother having given it no name at the birth the persons present undertake to call it by the name of the Father And now is he in circumcising that is the man appointed to be the first overthrow of Circumcision by bringing in Baptism instead of it R. Solomon from the Talmud in Sanhedrin expoundeth Jerem. 25. 10. I will take from them the sound of the milstones and the light of the candle to this sense The sound of the milstones signifieth the Feast at a Circumcision because they ground or bruised Spices for the healing of the sore and the light of the Candle signieth the Feast it self Thus do they confess a decay of Circumcision to be foretold by the Prophet and yet they stick not to deny most stiffly that Circumcision must ever decay Vers. 63. He wrote saying That is expressing or To this purpose as Exod. 18. 6. And Jethro said to Moses I Jethro come unto thee That is he signified so much by Letter as the serious viewing of the story will necessarily evince And so 2 King 5. 6. And he brought the Letter to the King of Israel saying not that Naaman that brought the Letter spake the words that follow but the Letter it self spake them John The Lord hath been gracious A name most fit for him that was to be the first Preacher of the Kingdom of grace and to point out him that was grace it self Rabbi Jochanan sayd what is the name of the Messias Some said Haninah Grace as it is said I will not give you Haninah that is the Messias who shall be called gracious Jer. 16. 13. Talmud bab in Pesach cap. 4. Vers. 64. And his mouth was opened Infidelity had closed his mouth and now faith or believing doth open it again And herein may this case of Zachary be fitly compared with the like of Moses Exod. 4. For he for distrust is in danger of his life as Zachary for the same fault is struk dumb but upon the circumcising of his child and recovery of his faith the danger is removed as Zacharies dumbness is at such a time and occasion as Psal. 116. 10. He believeth and therefore doth he speak And the tongue of the dumb doth sing Esa. 35. 6. And his tongue Our English hath added loosed for illustration as also hath the French and some say it is found in some Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But first no such word is expressed either in the Syrian Arabick Vulgar Latine Italian Erasmus or other Translators Nor secondly needeth there any such word to make a perfect sense but it may well help the simple and vulgar capacity what our English hath added Vers. 66. Laid them up in their hearts It could not but affect all that heard of this strange birth of the Baptist with wonder and amazement and singular observation both in regard that so many and great miracles were wrought in this time when miracles were so much abated and decayed as also in consideration that there was never birth before that had so many concomitants of wonder and miraculousness as the birth of this child Not of Isaac the glorious Patriach not of Moses the great Prophet nor of any other whatsoever that had been in former times And the hand of the Lord was with him Either the special favour and assistance of the Lord as Ezra 7. 6. and 8. 22 c. or the gift of Prophecy at capable years as 1 Sam. 3. 19. for so the hand of the Lord doth signifie Ezek. 1. 3. 37. 1. 40. 1. Psal. 80. 17. 1 Chron. 28. 19. Vers. 68. Redeemed Greek ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath made or wrought redemption In the very phrase implying a price paid for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth It is used again Chapter 2. 38. and by the LXX Psal. 111. 9. and 130. 7. and by Theodotion for satisfaction Prov. 6. 35. Vers. 69. An horn of Salvation Psal. 18. 1. 2 Sam. 22. 3. Vers. 70. Which have been since the World began Adams calling his wives name Eve or life in apprehension of the promise of the seed of the woman that should break the head of the Serpent Eves calling her Sons name Cain a purchase because she had obtained a man even the Lord or the Lord to become a man and her naming her other Son Seth or setled c. these were Prophecies that spake of Christ from the beginning of the world Vers. 71. That we should be saved from our enemies This hath sweet reference to the promise given at the beginning of the World from which time he had traced Prophecies in the verse preceding I will put enmity betwixt thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed He shall break thine head Gen. 3. 15. Where in the former words of the verse I will set enmity c. there is an expression who are our enemies namely the Serpent and his seed and in the latter he shall break thine head there is an intimation how we shall be saved namely by Christs breaking the head and power of Satan So that the former verse and this being laid together they arise unto this sense that all the Prophets from Adam and upward had their eye upon the promise in that garden and spake of salvation and delivered by Christ by his breaking the head and destroying the kingdom of the Devil Vers. 76. The Prophet of the Highest As Aaron to Moses Exod. 7. 1. Prophecy had been now very long decayed and but little thereof had been under the second Temple it is now reviving in an extraordinary manner and this child is to be the first of this race of Prophets that is in rising and to be the Harbinger of Christ himself Vers. 77. To give knowledge of salvation by remission c. The knowledge of salvation that the Law held forth at the first view was by legal righteousness and absolute performance of what was commanded but John who was to begin the Gospel brought in another Doctrine and gave the people knowledge of salvation by another way namely by the remission of sins as Rom. 4. 6 7. And this is the tenor of the Gospel Vers. 78. The day spring from an high Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the LXX to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The branch Esa. 4. 2. Jer. 23. 5. Zech. 3. 9. 6. 12. the name of Christ and so it may be understood of Christs personal coming and appearance amongst men as God is said to have visited Sarah Gen. 21. 1. that is not only in merciful dealing with her as to give her a child but also in personally
he do paraphrase it thus According as I by an humble submission desire to be baptized by thee so it becometh us because we are sent of God the Father to call men away from all unrighteousness and to teach the people to fulfill and perform in work whatsoever is right omitting nothing be it never so little which we know to be agreable to the will of God Therefore he importeth not that by the receiving of baptism all righteousness is fulfilled but that by them that are Masters and Teachers of all righteousness nothing is to be passed over which is right although they be not bound thereto by necessity and though the thing it self seem never so small Which exposition though it be good and sound in regard of the truth contained in it yet seemeth it not to be punctuall and seasonable for this place For whereas the very marrow and pith of it lyeth in this that Christ and John being teachers of the people must practice themselves what they teach others to practice and therefore must Christ be baptized for example to others let the Reader judge whether the inference be good by this that John himself was never baptized and consequently whether the application of such a sense to these words be fitting and agreeable Sixthly Chemnitius yet goeth nearer the text and the mark and bringeth the word Righteousness to reflect upon men explaining it thus that since Christ came to conferr and apply righteousness to men and accordingly to sanctifie every thing and means that might conduce to convey the same unto them therefore would he thus consecrate baptism by his own being baptized and give vigor to it to be a seale and strengthener of righteousness and grace begun and in this sense he saith that it becometh him to fulfill all righteousness or every thing whereby the righteousness of man may be forwarded and promoted and because John was the Minister of Baptism therefore in the word us he joyneth him also in the fulfilling with him To this purpopose he and far more largely coming as close to the mark as any we meet with and yet if I judge aright not so close as to hit it in these two respects First in that he seemeth to hold and so also do many others with him that Christs performance of the several parts of righteousness personally in himself was requisite to the sanctifying of such things to others whereas his very institution of any such a thing giveth validity sufficient to it without his own actual example As in this very thing in hand concerning baptism if Christ instituted that in the hand of John for a Sacrament to continue in his Church for ever I cannot see what vertue vigor or efficacy his being baptized by John added to it more than his institution of it before had done save only for the more sensible reverence of it in the eyes of the People Secondly and chiefly because it is harsh and bold to conceive that Christ in the performance of any thing that might tend to mans justification should take a man to be a sharer and co-worker in such equality as the words thus and us do make the Baptist. By righteousness therefore in this place may rather be understood the equity and justice of the Law and Christs fufilling of the same Not the moral for that opinion we refused before but the other parts of it which were either Prophetical or figurative and tipical Not denying his fulfilling the moral Law neither for that he performed to a tittle being without the least taint of sin either in thought word or deed but rather illustrating and setting forth his performance of that the more in that he was also so punctutual to fulfill the other parts of the Law which were less material And to this exposition of righteousness namely for the equity of the Ceremonial or typical Law not only the matter or thing in hand it self but even every word also that is in this clause do give their consent and confirmation For first if we look upon the Ceremonial Law it self and the reason why it was given we shall find that it was neither so exact and exquisite in regard of it's injunctions nor so strict or necessary to be performed in it self according to the Letter as it was in regard of its significancy of good things to come the force and vertue of it consisting not so much in its very verbal precepts and corporal observances as in its representative and typical predictions and fore-shewing of some better things to come thereafter And howsoever those Rites and Ceremonies had their obedience in the practices of the Jews yet their equity and very intent indeed they had not but in the fulfilling of Christ. Secondly if we look also upon baptism which was the matter now in agitation and the baptism of Christ also how they were both fully and plainly prefigured under legal Rites and Ceremonious observances was shewed before Thirdly it was requisite that Christ should fulfill the Ceremonial Law as well as the moral in some kind of necessity though not as much for the one as for the other For as the Moral was a Law of Faith so also was the Ceremonial a Law of hope as the judicial was also of Charity In the Moral Law it was shewed to man what he was to do but withall he saw by the same Law his own disability and impossibility of performing what was to be done The sight of this driveth man to lay hold of Christ that performed that Law for him and thus the Law though it be according to the letter a message of death yet in the spirit it is a doctrine of Faith unto life The Jew being thus entred by the moral Law into the School of Faith then came in the Ceremonial and was as an usher of hope for by those rites and legal observations the memory of Christs coming was continually kept fresh and the eye and expectation and the fruit and application of his performance of the moral Law for the good of men dayly read in those typical and shadowed lectures As therefore as it was absolutely necessary that Christ should fulfil the moral Law in regard of all men so was it respectively necessary that he should answer and accomplish the Ceremonial in regard of the Jew For if the outward observance thereof were for nothing so much as to lead his eye and expectation to Christ and the very life and equity thereof were included in him how necessary was it that for the sake of that people and for confirmation both to them and all others that he was Christ that was to come that he should fulfill that part of the Law as well as the other At the least how fitting And so he saith in the place in hand Thus it becometh us to fulfill all the equity of the Ceremonial Law Now the Ceremony to which our Saviour looketh in these words was the washing of the Priests in water when
as to the instruction conviction benefit and advantage of men And therefore although the humane nature of Christ through the uniting of it to the Godhead did abound in all holiness and wisdom and graces as to the knowing of God and the best things to the enjoyment of the vision of God and communion with him to the being and persisting absolutely without the least corruption to the entire performing of the whole Law and to a non-possibility of committing sin all which capacities tended towards the satisfaction of Gods justice and mans redemption yet for the ministration of the Gospel and for his working upon the bodies minds and affections of men by teaching preaching and working miracles he is indued with the immediate gifts of the Spirit as it was the way of God to deal with Prophets and prophetick men which gifts did not so properly accrew from the union of the two natures as from the unction of the Spirit The result of the union of the two natures being more properly acceptance with God in the work of Redemption and the fruits of this unction being to the acceptance with men in the work of the Ministery And whereas it is not to be denied but that Christ before the Holy Ghost came upon him at his baptism had the power of miracles and Prophetick wisdom in him as appeareth by his disputing with the Doctors at twelve years old this was through the fulness of the Holy Ghost that was in him even from his mothers womb as it was and much more than it was with John the Baptist Luke 1. 15. and that with this difference from what it is now that it was then upon him as one to be ordained and now upon him as ordained already to the Ministery Now the difference of the fulness of the Holy Ghost in Christ from other men who are also said to have been filled with the Holy Ghost as Luke 1. 67. Acts 6. 5. may appear in these particulars 1. In the measure which may be measured by consideration of the difference of the persons and of their employments for Christ was more capable by infinite degrees of the fulness of the Holy Ghost than meer men were or could be and his employment being also so infinitely beyond the employment of men the measure of the Holy Ghosts fulness in him must needs be accordingly beyond all measure 2. In the manner and vigor of acting The power of the Prophets in working of miracles was exceeding great indeed and wondrous and their descrying and discovering the will of God and things to come was exceeding wonderful and sublime but they could neither do nor tell all things nor could they act upon all occasions but had always their bounds and had sometimes a recess of the Spirit or departure of it from them As Isaac can see what shall befal Jacob and Esau many hundred years after yet cannot know Jacob from Esau when he is in his arms And Jacob can tell what shall become of all his sons in the last time to come yet cannot tell what is become of his best son Joseph in his own time for 13 years together So Moses hath power over Egypt yet hath not power over his own stammering and the Prophet at Bethel can command the Altar that it rent it self but cannot command the Lion not to rent him Thus to this great gift of Prophecy on men as to the Ocean God set its bound which it might not pass and so far might the operating of it go and might go no further but with Christ it was not so He could work what miracles he would when he would how he would and on whom he would he could reveal all truths resolve all doubts clear all difficulties know all thoughts and had no limit of the vigor and acting of the Spirit upon him but his own will §. Was led by the Spirit into the wilderness Namely into the wilderness of Judea For 1. that was in mention in the story next preceding Matth. 3. 2 3. and a wilderness being here spoken of without any further mention what wilderness it was none can so properly be understood as that of Judea which was last named before 2. It is said by Luke that Jesus returned from Jordan by the word returned importing that he came back when he went to his temptation on the same side Jordan on which he was baptized Now that the wilderness of Judea lay on that side is more evident than needeth any demonstration Chemnitius indeed hath supposed this wilderness where our Saviour was tempted to have been the great desert of Horeb or Sinai and he giveth these three reasons for it 1. Because other wildernesses have their distinguishing titles as of Ziph 2 Sam. 23. 14. Shur Exod. 15. 22. Engedi 1 Sam. 24. 11. c. but this wilderness of Horeb is called the wilderness by a special emphasis without any other addition and so is the wilderness mentioned in this story But this is easily answered that it wants its distinctive title here because it was named by it a little before and called the wilderness of Judea 2. Because saith he Mark saith that Christ in this wilderness was with the wild beasts now in other wildernesses there are either dwellings of men here and there or they are not altogether remote from the converse of men but in the great desart of Horeb there were only wild beasts as there are mentioned to have been here Ans. Mark when he saith Christ was with wild beasts doth not therefore inforce that that wilderness was without either men or dwellings But first That Christ for that time avoided both the one and the other and kept himself in the wildest places and most retired from humane society And secondly the Evangelist seemeth to regard rather the state of Christ than the state of the place and to shew Christ to be the second Adam as in the temptation which he was now about so in his safety and security among the wild beasts as Adam in innocency had been and they hurt him not The wilderness of Judea had indeed both cities and villages and dwellings of men in it but withall it had some places wild in it without any such habitations and it had wild beasts in it in those places 1 Sam. 17. 28. 34. 2 Sam. 23. 20. Jer. 49. 19. 3. By this supposal he addeth that this wilderness where Christ was tempted was the great desart of Horeb there is a fair answerableness found out between this story and the story of Israel in that place and betwixt this fasting of Christ and of Moses and Elias in the same desart Answer it is true there would be so indeed but the being of the thing cannot be grounded upon this correspondency but this correspendency must be built upon the thing first found so to be and if this may argue for Horeb desart we may as well argue for Judea wilderness for there the sore tryals of David under the persecution
better than to use an expression from the morning and evening Lamb that was offered at Jerusalem For besides that 1. John had had newly to deal with Priests and Levites whose chief employment was about that Lamb. And 2. besides that it was about sacrifice time on the second day when John useth these words between three and four a clock in the afternoon ver 39. And besides that 3. the Lamb represented the innocency and purity of Christ in his being without spot and the death of Christ in being offered up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Mart. Epist. ad Tarsenses It was 4. most proper and pertinent to the doctrine and preaching of John which he had used before to use now such an Epithet for Christ when he came in sight For he had still spoken of remission of sins and remission of sins still to all that had come to be baptized Mar. 1. 4. a doctrine not usual among them that stood upon their own righteousness and performance of the Law and therefore when Christ first appeareth he from an allusion to the daily Lamb upon whose head the sins of the people were confessed and laid sheweth how remission of sins cometh indeed namely by the sacrifice of this Lamb of God Christ who should bear and take away the sins of the world as that Lamb did in figure the sins of the Jews Vers. 31. And I knew him not The clause is spoken to and explained in the Notes on Matth. 3. 14. §. But that he might be made manifest to Israel therefore am I come baptizing The baptism of John did tend to the manifesting of Christ especially two ways 1. Because by the strangeness of his Ministery and the wonder of such a baptism as his was the eyes of all the people were drawn to look after what he meant by it For though his baptism for the manner of it was suitable to the baptism so well known among the Jews as was observed before yet was the doctrine and end of it so strange to them that it put the whole Nation to an enquiry what was in it And 2. then did John preach Christ as ready to come to every one that came to be baptized Vers. 39. They came and saw where he dwelt It is questionable whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here doth intimate his Inn or his habitation but I rather understand the latter and that the place was Capernaum where Christ had an habitation and was a member or Citizen of that City For though he was a Nazarite in regard of his mothers house and residence yet it is very probable he was a Carpernaite by his father Josephs For 1. Observe that Capernaum is called his own City Matth. 9. 1. compared with Mar. 2. 1. 2. There he pays tribute as the proper place where he should pay it Matth. 17. 24. 3. When he is refused at Nazaret his mothers Town he goeth down to Capernaum his fathers Luke 4. 31. 4. His resort to Capernaum was very frequent and his abode there very much John 2. 11. Luke 4. 31. John 6. 17. Luke 10. 15. 5. That his father and mother are very well known there John 6. 42. 6. That in regard of this frequency of Christs being in this Town and its interest in him as an inhabitant and member of it Capernaum is said to be lifted up to Heaven Now Capernaum standing upon the banks of Jordan and on the very point of the lake of Genazaret as Jordan began to spread it self into that lake he and these disciples that go with him pass over the water before they come thither for now they were on the other side Jordan where John baptized Vers. 40. One of the two was Andrew Simon Peters brother Who the other was it is uncertain and undeterminable possibly it might be the Evangelist John himself but there is no fixing on him or any other particular man but this may be observed that Peter was not the first that came in for a Disciple to Christ but his brother Andrew and another And it was well he was not the first that so much of the Romanists boastings may be stopped §. We have found the Messias Andrew speaketh 1. In reference to the expectation of the Nation that looked so much and so earnestly for the coming of Christ and for his coming at this time 2. In reference to the opinion of the Nation that held that when Christ came none should know whence he was Joh. 7. 27. And 3. in reference to the common and constant testimony of John that spake so much of Christ to come after him The word Messias doth solely and singularly betoken Christ as it is interpreted most pertinently by the Evangelist here and Chap. 4. 25. For though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew in the Scripture signifieth any anointed one whatsoever yet in this Greek form Messias it never signifieth but only Christ. Nor is the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Hebrew Authors but in the same sense and so it is used infinitely among them sometimes set single without any other addition and very often with this addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King Messias as he that is never so little versed in Jewish Authors will find in great variety In this propriety the word is used Dan. 9. 25 26. and so was it confessed by the Ancient Jews though the Modern would elude it The Jews of the Talmud age say that the end of the Messias was spoken of in the Book of Cetubhim aiming at this place but how the latter generations turn off such a sensee see in R. Saadias and Rab. Sol. in loc c. Vers. 42. Thou art Simon Christ nameth him at the first sight and hereby sheweth that he was the Messias in that he could thus name Simon and his father with whom he had had no converse before Simon or Simeon as the Syriack renders it for they are all one as Acts 15. 14. was a name that was exceeding much in use among the Jews at this time as Matth. 27. 32. Mark 3. 18. Luke 2. 15. Acts 8. 9. 13. 1. c. And it was very frequent in use in their Schools in putting of cases as Reuben borrowed such a thing of Simeon c. The Jews themselves seem to have brought the Hebrew word Simeon into this Greek manner of pronouncing Simon for their own Authors speak of one Rabbi Simon §. The son of Jona Bar Jona in the Syriack Matth. 16. 17. and Simon Jona in the Greek Joh. 21. 15 16 17. There are that conceive a corruption to be in the writing of this word for say they it should be Joanna And of that mind is Jerome the Vulgar Latine Erasmus at Joh. 21. 15. and of that writing is Erasmus his Greek copy there and some others here But upon what ground this facil and most general reading of Jona for so the Syrian Arabick most and best Greek Copies and most translations utter
them verified of himself to the utmost extent as being anointed Preaching the acceptable year of the Lord with an Emphasis put upon the word the and some other particulars as may be observed It is an ordinary style with the Prophets to speak things as in their own persons or of themselves which sometimes were not punctually and literally applicable to them only nay which sometimes were not so applicable to them at all but whose truth and sense was made good only in Christ as Psal. 16. 10. with Acts 13. 36. Psal. 22. 16. They pierced my hands and my feet Esay 8. 18. with Heb. 2. 13. Zech. 11. 12 13. with Matth. 27. 9. c. How the Spirit of the Lord came upon Christ and dwelt upon him in measure above measure hath been observed before only let the Reader observe how sutable this Text in the mouth of Christ is to the words of the Evangelist in the beginning of this Section Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit § Because he hath anointed me The Greek expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so rendred by some Expositors on the one hand some on the other that in a manner a clean contrary sense is put upon it Some thus The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath anointed me and so they make the reason of his anointing to be because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him To this sense the Syriack renders it who utters it thus The Spirit of the Lord is upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because of this he hath anointed me and so Beza Cujus rei gratia unxit me The Vulgar propter quod Brucioli Per cagione del quale c. But others amongst which is Erasmus and our English do read it The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me which though it speak not the literal construction of the Greek particle so very punctually yet doth it the Hebrew by which the Greek is to be stated and which the Chaldee so reads as that they do make the Lords anointing him to be the cause of the Spirits being upon him which is a far more easie and profitable sense Object But was not his anointing by the very coming of the Spirit upon him at his Baptism and so these two things are so far from being the cause and effect one of another that indeed they were but one and the same thing the holy Spirits coming upon him was his anointing and his anointing was nothing but the Holy Spirits coming upon him Answer If by anointing we will understand his exalting and setting up and apart as the Jews expound the word in the text of Esay for this office and work that the Text speaketh of than was his anointing before the Spirit of the Lord came upon him for he was set apart for Mediator and Minister of the Gospel before and so his anointing was the cause and reason why the Spirit came upon him namely to fit him and act him to that office to which he was set apart But if by anointing we will understand a visible and an apparent instalment of him into the present execution of that office unto which he was designed before than was his anointing and the Spirits coming upon him but the very same thing for the Spirits coming upon him was that anointing And in this sense are we to understand his anointing here and yet even in this sense are we to take his anointing to be the cause of the Spirits being upon him though the Spirits coming upon him was the very way and manner of his anointing but we are to understand it thus with difference and distinction of time At the very instant of the Holy Ghosts coming upon him at his Baptism that was his anointing and installment into the execution of his function but all the time following while he executed his function the Holy Ghost rested upon him why Because the Lord had anointed him with the Holy Ghost at his Baptism and so the Emphasis of the clause lies in the verb understood and limited to its time the Holy Ghost is now upon me and continueth still upon me because the Lord hath heretofore anointed me with the Holy Ghost And herein is the difference apparent of the measure and manner of the Holy Spirits being upon the Prophets and his being upon Christ They had not the actings of the Spirit alwas upon them nor are they visibly anointed with it as he was both § To preach the Gospel to the Poor c. Here are six particulars in this portion of Scripture as parts of Christs Ministery which though they may be all applyed to any one particular person to whom the Gospel and Ministery of Christ powerfully and effectually came for such a poor wretch had the Gospel preached to him his broken heart was heald he heard of deliverance from the bondage of Satan c. yet have they all their singular and several intentions and meanings and so are to be expounded and understood for the taking up of the verse in its full sense and life 1. Christ was sent to preach the Gospel to the Poor in the Text of Esay it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the meek or humble and accordingly rendred by the Chaldee Paraphrast and so the sense is made the readier namely that by the poor here is meant the poor in Spirit as Mat. 5. 3. Such as went out of their own righteousness and by the convictions of the Law did find themselves to be nothing and worse than nothing to such Christ was sent to Preach the Gospel and such received it Mat. 9. 12 13. 11. 5. Christ preached to to all that came about him to hear him but he speaketh here of his Preaching the Gospel in the proper power and fruit of it viz. so as that it was received Now this is the first composure to the receiving and intertaining of the Gospel when a soul by the power of the Preaching of the Law is thrust off from all security either in sin or self-righteousness and becomes so poor in his own spirit that he finds himself nothing but wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and in need of all things The title of poor is as common a name for the Saints of God especially in the Old Testament as any name whatsoever and that not only because of their depressed and oppressed condition by the wicked but because of their poverty of spirit and abasedness in their own eyes they knowing how poor they are and living by continual begging of grace at the hands of God The Hebrew word is sometime written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poor in the text and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humble in the margin as Psalm 9. 13. and sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the text and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the margin as in the same Psalme verse 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated poor by the
the oven or on the coals before Sun-set it was no violation of the Sabbath though they stood baking when the Sabbath was come in And so skins or vessels if they were delivered before Sun-set to the Skinner or Washer it was not Sabbath breach if they lay soking in the tanpit or water on the Sabbath And so Piske Sabbath explains it also though by another example It is lawful saith it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 near night to put water to gummes copperas to make ink to put flax into an Oven to dry to lay a net or set a trap for a wild beast or vermine It is lawful to do these things near night though the efficacy of the things as the ink soaking the flax drying and the net catching be on the Sabbath when it is come in Maymony in his tractate of the Sabbath per. 5. is yet plainer On the Eve of the Sabbath they light up a candle and he that lights it must do it whilest it is yet day before the Sun go down From the Sun-setting till the appearing of three middling Stars that space is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Between the Suns and it is doubtful whither that space belong to the day or to the night And therefore they light not up the candle in that time And he that doth any work in that space on the Eve of the Sabbath or at the going out of the Sabbath ignorantly he is bound to bring a sin offering And these Stars are not great Stars such as are seen by day nor little Stars which are not seen but by night but midling Stars between both and when three such midling Stars can be seen it is night undoubtedly Compare Nehem 13. 19. Vers. 34. And he suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him Christ healed all diseases with his touch for Luke saith he Laid his hands on every one of them and â—ealed them but he cast out Devils with his Word for so saith Matthew He cast out the Spirits with his Word and he prohibited them to speak a word because they knew him The expression in the Greek doth carry it indifferently To speak because they knew him or To speak that they knew him and it is indifferent whether way it is translated for the sense is the same but the question is why Christ would not permit them to speak upon this reason Some say because they should not utter him before the time Others because it was not fit the Devil should preach Christ to which I cannot but add what was spoken of before namely that the people should not be terrified by the presence of Christ among them as the Devil if he might have had liberty would have set it forth Matth. Chap. 8. Vers. 17. Which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet Himself took our infirmities c. However the latter Jews would elude the Prophecy of that Chapter out of which this quotation is taken viz. Esay 53. and would take it off from being applyed to Christ yet the ancient learned of the Nation in old time did so apply it as may be perceived by the gloss of the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place and by a remarkable passage in the Talmud The Chaldee renders it thus verse 4. Surely he shall pray for our sins and our iniquities shall be pardoned for his sake c. Verse 5. He shall build the House of the Sanctuary which was prophaned because of our sins and given up for our transgressions and by his doctrine peace shall be multiplyed upon us and if we hearken to his words our sins shall be pardoned to us Verse 6. It pleaseth the Lord for his sake to pardon all our sins Verse 8. He shall bring up our captivity from affliction and punishment and the wonders that shall be done to us in his days who shall tell c. The Talmud likewise in the Treatise Sanhedrin hath this observable passage What is the name of the Messias c. Some said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leprous according to that Surely he hath born our Sicknesses c. And Messias sitteth in the gate of the City Rome as the Venetian Edition hath it And by what token may he be known He sitteth among the diseased poor c. Per. cheleck fol. 98. Now in this allegation and application of the Evangelist out of the Prophet there seemeth to be some hardness and impertinency upon these considerations First because the Prophet speaketh of Christs taking humane sicknesses upon himself but the Evangelist applys it of taking away diseases from others 2. He applyeth that to bodily diseases which the Prophet seemeth to understand of the diseass of the soul. And so Peter doth interpret it 1 Pet. 2. 24. The Prophet speaketh of the time of Christs Passion and what he then suffered of misery in himself but the Evangelists applie it to the time of his actions and what he then did for benefit to others Answer It is true indeed that this application will appear so harsh if all the Emphasis and stress of Esays speech be laid upon the word Our as it is most generally laid there For it is commonly interpreted to this sense He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief but the sicknesses and sorrows that he bare were ours and not properly his own for he bare them for our sakes Which construction is a most true but not a full rendring of the Prophets meaning for he intendeth also a further matter which the Evangelist in his allegation doth apparently look upon and that is this viz. The concernment of Christ in our sicknesses and sorrows and his power in reference unto them or concerning them The Prophet when he saith he bare our sicknesses c. meaneth not only that what he bare was for our sakes but that it concerned him and belonged to him to bear them and he was able to bear them and to deal with thâ—â— And this sense the Evangelist followeth in his quotation when having recorded that Christ healed all the diseased that were brought unto him he produceth this place of Esay and saith that in him was fulfilled that prediction concerning the Messias which telleth that he was to deal and was able to deal with our infirmities and sicknesses for so far do the words of the Prophet reach and the application of the Evangelist so taken is smooth and facil And howsoever the Text of the Prophet do refer and intend more singularly to the time of Christs passion in regard of our sorrows and sicknesses being then chiefly upon him yet is the sense given applicable also to all his time as that he had always to deal with our sicknesses and sorrows Now in that Peter applyeth the Prophets Text to the diseases of the soul when he utters it He bare our sins which is also the Translation of the Septuagint he speaketh it in the highest and most proper sense as regarding that diseasedness of which our Saviour did especially come
couples for breed and the odd one for Adams sacrifice upon his fall but of unclean only one couple for the propagation of the kind Vers. 26. Man created by the Trinity about the third hour of the day or nine of the clock in the morning CHAP. II. The three first verses that treat of the institution of the Sabbath are according to their proper Order of time to be taken in at the end of the third chapter Vers. 4. c. On the morning of the sixth day a mist that had gone up from the Earth fell down upon it again in rain or dew and watered the Earth with which watering the trees and plants budded to maturity in a trice this dew being as a natural cause thereof yet the effect being withal exceeding supernatural because â—o speedy Vers. 7. Of the dust of the Earth thus watered God created the body of man and to this the Psalmist alludeth The dew of thy youth Psal. 110. 3. And into that Earth so prepared he breatheth the Spirit of Life and Grace Ephes. 4. 24. Vers. 10. Eden watered by a river that overflowed it once a year after the manner of Nilus and Jordan Chap. 13. 10. To Adam thus created and made Lord of the creature the Lord himself bringeth the creatures to receive their names which he giveth to them agreeable to their natures and that at the first sight shewing at once his dominion over them and his wisdom among them all he seeth no fit match for himself but by seeing every one of them mated and that they came before him by pairs he is brought to be sensible of his own want of a fellow which thereupon God provideth for him out of his own body of a rib which part of him might best be spared And thus the Creation endeth in the making of the woman CHAP. III. The woman thinking it had been a good Angel that spake in the trunk of the Serpent she entreth communication with the Devil who perceiving her both to add and to diminish to and from the Commandment that was given them groweth the more impudent to tempt and seduceth her by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as 1 John 2. 16. And she perswadeth her husband and so they both are fallen on the very same day that they are created Gen. 9. 1 2 3. Psal. 49. 12. Christ is promised before the man and the woman are censured and they are questioned also before they be sentenced but so was not Satan for God had mercy in store for them but none for him The curse is not upon man himself but upon the Earth to teach him to set his affections on things above and not on the cursed ground and not to look for an earthly Kingdom of Christ on this Earth which the Lord hath cursed Adam apprehendeth and layeth hold upon the promise by Faith and in evidence of this his faith he calleth his wives name Eve or Life because she was to be the mother of Christ according to the flesh by whom life should come and of all believers that by faith should live in him for an outward sign and seal of this his Faith and for a further and more lively expression of the same God teacheth him the rite of sacrifice to lay Christ dying before his eyes in a visible figure And with the skins of the sacrificed beasts God teacheth him and his wife to cloath their bodies And thus the first thing that dieth in the world is Christ in a figure At the end of this third chapter imagine the three first verses of Chap. 2. concerning the Sabbath to be observed to come in and suppose the texture of the story to lye thus Adam thus fallen censured recovered instructed and expelled Eden on the sixth day the next day following he by Gods appointment keepeth for a Sabbath or an holy rest and spendeth it only in divine duties Now the reason why it standeth in the place where it doth Chap. 2. Is partly because Moses would lay the seven days or the first week of the world altogether without interposition and partly because he would shew by setting it before Adams fall that had he persisted in innocency yet must he have observed a Sabbath The seventh day or Sabbath is not bounded in the Text with the same limits that the other days are for it is not said of it as it was of them The Evening and the Morning were the seventh day because a time should come when it should have a new beginning and end and though to the Jews it was from Even to Even yet from the beginning it was not so expressed CHAP. IV. Cain and Abel twins of one birth and first was born he that was natural and after he that was spiritual The faith of Abel appeared in the very materials of his sacrifice it being of slain beasts and so a representation of the death of Christ for this it is fired from Heaven and Cain's is not though his dry ears of Corn were materials far more combustible Cain and Abel were both their own Priests for it cannot be proved that Sacrifices were ever offered but upon emergent occasions till the Law fixed it for a common service and he that had such an occasion had liberty to be his own Priest even under the Law as it appeareth by Gedeon Manoah c. and then much more was that liberty before The word Sin in vers 7. seemeth rather to signifie an offering or attonment for sin than punishment For first God cometh not to deject Cain lower than he was but to raise him from his dejection as it appeareth both by his deigning to give him an Oracle from Heaven and also by the words wherewith he beginneth Secondly If the words Sin lieth at the door intend suddain Judgment ready to devour him what dependance can the words following have with these If thou do not well thou shalt certainly be punished and thy brothers desire shall be subject to thee for this were to threaten poor Abel more or at least as much as Cain Thirdly The Original word Chateath as it signifies Sin so also doth it the sacrifice for sin as Hos. 4. 8. 2 Cor. 5. 21. And all along Leviticus and it was the custom according to which Moses speaketh as best known to lay the Sacrifice at the Sanctuary door Vers. 14. Cain sensible of his punishment though he was not of his sin beggeth of God that he might die to ease him of it Therefore let any one that findeth me kill me but this God denyeth to him reserving him to a lingring punishment and Cain being assured of long life giveth himself to all sensuality to sweeten it as much as he can and this is the way of Cain Jud. vers 11. Vers. 23. Lamech in horrour of Conscience for his Polygamy which now began to be examplary to the general corruption of the world acknowledgeth his sin seventy times greater than
9. I believe that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more than men had done before His Resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sins were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to be imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus far each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vail of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these ground works of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three years and an half the year of his death the year of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew him not when he came amongst them SECTION XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworn by it to the ten Commandments Exod. 24. WHEN Israel cannot indure to hear the ten Commandments given it was ready to conclude that they could much less keep them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremonial and Judicial to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandments sworn and entred into Covenant and these made them a Ceremonial and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against traditions 2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two Tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the eighty eighth and eighty ninth Psalms And of equal Antiquity with them or not much less was the penning of the book of Job most probably written by Eliâ—u one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probability 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my Body are to be understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant but only those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcel of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Moral Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospel Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to hear 3. The ten Commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they been written and laid up in this book what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandments in the beginning of his book why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandment is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremonial And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the works of Creation Exod. 20. 10 11. SECTION XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Galf. Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meat The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainly do they break the greatest Commandment of that Law to extreamity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had been lost they intended to return for Aegypt Griveous was the sin for which they must look for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their Divine conductor departeth from the Camp which was now become prophane and unclean Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly the Building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sin God gave them to worship all the host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. Fiftly Moses bruised the Calf to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drink Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same tryal that carnal did Numb 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drunk made their belly to swell and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their own if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chief agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary
Sacrifices were slain at the place of the rings and so upon this occasion an Israelite might and must come within the Court of the Priest 6. The manner was thus * * * Tosaph in Menachoth per. 10. Maym. ubi supr the Sacrifice was so set as that the offerer standing with his face towards the West laid his two hands between his horns and confessed his sin over a sin offering and his trespass over a trespass offering and over a burnt offering he confesseth his transgression both against affirmative and negative precepts and his confession was in this wise I have sinned I have done perversly I have rebelled and done thus and thus but I return by repentance before thee and let this be my expiation And presently after this his confession was the beast to be slain 3. The killing of the Sacrifice was regularly and ordinarily the Priests work and office yet might it upon occasion be done by another or if it were done by another it was allowable For whereas the Law saith And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord and the sons of Aaron the Priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it Levit. 1. 5. as making a distinction betwixt the he that killed the bullock and the Priests that took the blood the Hebrew Doctors have observed not impertinently from hence that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g g g Maym. in Biath Mikdash per. 9. in Corbonoth per. 5 R. Sol. in Lev. 1. The killing of the Sacrifices was lawful by strangers yea of the most holy sacrifices were they the sacrifices of a particular person or of the whole Congregation And upon these words And the sons of Aaron the Priests shall bring the blood it is a received tradition that from thence most properly did begin the Priests office more peculiarly see 2 Chron. 30. 16 17. 4. The fleaing of the slain Sacrifice was not so inseparably the Priests office but that a stranger or one that was not a Priest might do it And so Maimonedes asserteth in the place cited above that the fleaing of the sacrifice and the dividing of it into pieces and bringing wood to the Altar done by strangers was lawful This they did especially at the Passover and other festival times when the Paschal Lambs and the other offerings were so many that the Priests could not serve to kill and flea them but whosoever killed or flead the Priests ever sprinkled the blood and none else might do it When the number of the beasts to be flead were not too many for that receipt they hung him by the legs upon the hooks that were fastned in the lower pillars which we have described elsewhere and in the transom over them for that purpose i i i Ibid. Sect. 9. but at Passover when there were more Lambs than that room would admit two men took a staff or bar divers of which staves stood there for that end and laying it upon their shoulders they hung the Lamb upon it and as he hung thus between them they flead him Rabbi Eliezer saith if the Passover fell on the Sabbath on which day they might not meddle so well with carrying of Staves a man laid his hand upon his fellows shoulder and his fellow laid his hand upon his shoulder and upon their arms they hanged up the Lamb and so flead him All the skins of the most holy sacrifices that is burnt offerings sin offerings and trespass offerings fell to the Priests and the Priests of the Course salted them all week and on the eve of the Sabbath divided them but the skins of the other sacrifices fell to the offerers or owners themselves 5. The sprinkling of the blood was to be before the sacrifice was flead for this was the rule and that agreeable to the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They flead them not till one had sprinkled the blood for in the Law there is mention of the sprinkling the blood before there is mention of fleaing Lev. 1. 5 6. The manner of their sprinkling of the blood upon the Altar and the circumstances about that were very various we will take up the chiefest of them in their order First The blood that was to be sprinkled was to be taken in a dish or vessel of the service and not in a common vessel of a mans own and that is a constant and rational maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k Vid. Zevac per. 5. per totum That the taking of the blood of the Sacrifices must be in a vessel hallowed for the service Secondly l l l Ibid. per. 2. ab initio These several sorts of people might not take the blood to sprinkle it and if they did it was polluted 1. A stranger or one that was not a Priest 2. A Priest a mourner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he that had one dead in his family that day for m m m Glosse in Misâ—ajoâ—h ibid. whosoever had one dead in his house all that day of the parties death he was called a mourner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. He that had been unclean so that he was to wash that day and his Sun was not yet down 4. He that had been under a longer uncleanness and his atonement not yet made 5. A Priest that had not all the holy garments on that he ought to wear 6. One uncircumcised 7. One that was unclean 8. One that sate or stood on any thing whilest he took the blood but on the very pavement of the Court for in the service they might not stand upon any vessel or beast or hide or on his neighbours foot but on the bare pavement 9. He that took the blood with the left hand some held it unlawful but others were of another mind Thirdly n n n Zevech ib. Whereas there was a red line about the Altar just in the middle between the bottom and the top the blood of some sacrifices were to be sprinkled beneath that line and some above and if that that was to be sprinkled below was sprinkled above and if that that was to be sprinkled above was sprinkled below it was unlawful Fourthly o o o Maym. in Corbanoth per. 5 The sprinkling of the blood of burnt offerings and trespass offerings and peace offerings went all by one rule and manner and it was thus The Priest bringing it to the Altar was to sprinkle it below the red line and he was to sprinkle it into the fashion of the Greek Gamma or into this form Γ for so is the tradition in the Gemara of p p p Zevach. per 5. fol. 53. the Treatise Zevachim cited ere while and so is the meaning of Maymony when he saith it was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the meaning of the thing is this He was to go as the margin of the Talmud glosseth to a corner of the Altar and to cast the blood out of the vessel so as that it
should spread to two sides of the Altar at once which my last named Author gives more plainly thus and more at large q q q Maim ubi sâ—p He was to sprinkle it out of the vessel but two sprinklings upon two sides of the Altar namely at the North-east corner and at the South-west corner and he must take care to sprinkle the blood at the corner so as that it may go on both the sides of the Altar like a Gamma thus Γ so that the blood at the two sprinklings may be found upon all the four sides of the Altar Their meaning is this that as he stood on the East side of the Altar near to the North-east corner he must cast the blood out of the vessel with such a compassed and kembo cast that part of it may light on the East side on which he stands and part of it on the North side And the like was he to do standing on the West side near the South-west corner that part of it might light on the West side on which he stood and part of it on the South And thus they accounted that they answered the command which did enjoyn them that they should sprinkle the blood round about upon the Altar Lev. 1. 5. 3 8. And the rest of the blood they poured upon the foundation of the Altar on the Southside By this may that difficult expression be understood which occurreth exceeding frequently in the Jewish writers when they are speaking about sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifices that such and such Sacrifices blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to have two sprinklings which are four The disposal of the blood in sprinkling they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a giving and some bloods were to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four givings or sprinklings namely on the four corners of the Altar and others were to have but two as these mentioned at the two corners of the Altar but these two proved as much as four because they sprinkled all the four sides of it after the manner described The sprinkling of the blood upon the horns of the Altar as the blood of the sin offerings was used shall be observed by and by and so shall the extraordinary conveyance of the blood of the Paschal Lambs to the Altar be observed when we come to Treat of the Passover 6. s s s Tamid per 4. The Lamb to be slain for of the daily Sacrifice we will take an example was bound his forelegs and hinder legs together and laid thus bound with his head toward the South and his face toward the West and he that killed him stood on the East side of him with his face Westward He killed him and one took the blood and sprinkled it and then he hanged him up upon some of the hooks in the low pillars and began to fleâ— him He flead till he came down to the breast and when he was gone so far he cut off his head and gave it to him that was alotted to take it and carry it to the Altar he cut off the legs and gave them to another and so he goes on and fleas him out he then cuts open the heart and brings out the blood there cuts out the two shoulders and gives them to him that was alotted for their carriage cuts off the right leg and with it the stones opens him quite and takes out the fat and lays it at the slaughter place he takes out the bowels and gives them some to wash who first washed them well in the washing room and then washed them a little again on the marble tables then takes he the knife and parts between the lights and the liver but takes them not out yet he takes off the breast and gives it to him that was to carry it and so goes along the right side and cuts that out and goes down to the spine bones and there cuts out the â—oins and so proceeds in other parcels the manner how is at large related in the Treatise and Chapter cited above in the margin but not so very material or necessary to our present pursuit as to spend much time and labour thereupon the learned Reader will peruse it there and the unlearned would think it too tedious to peruse it here 7. The several Priests with the several parts of the divided Sacrifice in their hands come to the rise of the Altar t t t Maym. in Corban per. 6. and there they lay them down and salt them For this the Law was very strict Lev. 2. 13. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer Salt and their observance of it was answerably strict also for * * * Id. in Issure Mizbeahh per. 5 nothing came on the Altar unsalted but only the wine of the drink offering the blood sprinkled and the wood of the fire and in three places they used salt in the chamber of the salt they salted the skins of the Sacrifices upon the rise of the Altar they salted the parts of the Sacrifices and on the top of the Altar they salted the handful of flour and oil and the frankincense Lev. 2. 2. and the most offerings that were to be burnt and the burnt offerings of birds This Typical Law our Saviour raiseth to signifie the seasoning of every man with the Word of God which he calleth salting with fire Mark 9. 49. for the word is called fire Deut. 33. 2. Jer 5. 14. 20. 9. 23. 29. 1 Cor. 3. 13 c. And when he saith Every one shall be salted with fire u u u Bezain â—â— Non praedicit aliquid futurum sed ostendit quid ab omnibus requiratur nempe ut verbo incorrupto conditi sese Deo consecrent The parts of the Sacrifice being salted the Priest that was to offer them took them up carried them up to the Altar and threw them confusedly into the fire he first cut out the sinew that shrank and threw it among the ashes and then he cast all the pieces on an heap into the fire without any order For though the Law injoined that the pieces should be laid in order upon the fire Lev. 1. 8. and although their manner was to lay the beast on the fire as like to his posture whilest he was alive as they could namely his head before and his shoulders and foreparts next and the rest in order yet at the first laying of them on they thought they found some colour in the Law of injunction that they should scatter the flesh as well as sprinkle the blood and therefore they threw them on at the first without any order or distinction and then they ordered them and so let them lie to burn SECT II. Sin offerings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Law concerning Sin offerings doth particularize no more about the occasion of them but only thus that they were to be offered for sins ignorantly committed against any of the Commandments of the Lord concerning things which
27. 2. The High-priests Bullock for ignorantly committing something that should not be done Levit. 4. 3. the blood of this Bullock was brought within the holy place and his flesh and skin c. burnt without the Camâ— vers 11. This Bullock is called by the Hebrew writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * * * Maym. ubi supr The Bullock that was offered in reference to all the Commandments ‖ ‖ ‖ Ab. Ezra in Levit. 4. And there are some that say that he was to offer such a sin offering once every year which as it was for an atonement for himself so as Baal Turint applies it it was for incouragement to others to confess their sins * * * Haal Tur. in Levit. 4. The Law commands saith he that the sin offering of the High-priest be burnt publickly in the place of the ashes that no man might be ashamed to confess his sin for lo the High-priest sinned and confessed his sin and brought his sin offering 3. There was the sin offering of the Ruler Levit. 4. 22. this was to be a male Kid vers 23. his blood put on the horns of the Altar his fat burnt on the Altar and the flesh eaten vers 25. c. 4. There was also the sin offering of any particular private person Lev. 4. 27. this was to be a Lamb or Kid but females the blood put on the horns of the Altar the fat burnt and the flesh eaten by the Priests These were the several sin offerings that were to be offered some upon express and singular command and some upon the general rule of seeking atonement upon discovery of a sin unwittingly committed Now for the more compleat understanding of the manner of the managing and disposing of these sin offerings we may observe these several particulars and circumstances about them 1. That the place and manner of presenting killing and laying hands upon the sin offering was the same with the place and manner of these things with the burnt offering 2. That the blood of those that was brought into the holy place was thus disposed * * * Tosaph ubi supr The Bullocks that were burnt and the Goats that were burnt without the Camp between the time of their killing and sprinkling of their blood upon the Altar of burnt offering the Priest went in and stood between the Golden Altar and the Candlestick the Altar was before him he dipt in his finger and sprinkled the blood seven times towards the most holy place and at every dipping and sprinkling he also put the blood upon a horn of the Altar 3. The blood that was not brought within the holy place was put upon the horns of the burnt offering Altar and so was some of the blood also that was brought out of the holy place again and the manner of that rite was thus a a a Malm. ubi supr ver 5. Talm. in Zeâ—ac per. 5. The Priest went up the rise or bridge of the Altar and went off on the right hand to the circuit of the Altar and first to the South-east horn of it he dipped his foremost finger of his right hand in the blood which was in the vessel and dropt it or sprinkled it upon the horn and then wiped his finger on the side of the dish and got off the blood that remained on it then went he to the North-east horn and did after the very same manner and so at the North-west corner and likewise at the South-west And this was the blood that was bestowed above the red line that went about the Altar just in the middle and only the blood of sin offerings was sprinkled with the finger 4. Whereas it is said that the rest of the blood he poured at the bottom of the Altar it is to be understood upon the foundation and either upon the South or West side because in the South-west corner of it were the two holes into which the blood sunk of which we have spoken in the description of the Altar Some distinguish the pouring of the blood thus that which had been in the holy place was poured on the West side and that which had not been there was poured on the South b b b Tosaph ubi â—â—te but Rabbi Simeon saith both the one and the other were poured on the West side and they fell into an underground channel and they were conveyed into the valley of Kidron and sold to the Gardiners to fatten their grounds But R. Meir asserteth that the wise men said that they were not put to any use at all 5. c c c Maym. ubi supr per. 1. Those Goats and Bullocks that were burnt without the Camp were cut into pieces skins and all upon them and cast into the fire even as the burnt offering was laid on the fire upon the Altar 6. These sin offerings that were not so burnt without the Camp were eaten by the Priests after the fat was offered upon the Altar Levit. 6. 25 26. 10. 17. and the eating of them was in the Court. And in corrupt times it is charged upon the Priests that in their service they regarded not devotion but only to fill their own bellies making those their God They eat up the sin that is the sin offerings of my people and set their heart on their iniquity Hos. 4. 8. SECT III. Trespass Offerings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 TRespass Offerings as to the cause and occasion of their offering up were so like to sin offerings as that they seem brethren and it is something nice and intricate to distinguish betwixt them For as Sin-offerings came for offences against negative precepts so did these and as those were offered for such offences ignorantly committed so likewise were these and as those had a reference to the danger of cutting off so had these also and yet a difference is betwixt them but such a difference as that these Trespass offerings were but in order to the other Now Trespass-offerings were of these two kinds there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a Maym. in Corban per. 9. a doubtful trespass offering and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a trespass offering undoubted and these were so called not in regard that there was any doubt in the offering whether it were an offering or no when it was presented but because there was some doubtfulness or there was undoubtedness in the cause of its Offering The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doubtful or Suspensive Offering for so the word most properly signifieth is conceived by some of the Jewish Writers to be so called because it suspended the party that had committed a Trespass from that penalty that was due to him for it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b Gloss. in Misuajoth in 8. Because it suspendeth and fenceth him against the due castigations Which though indeed it carrieth a truth with it yet is the Etymology of the Phrase more generally given to be
because there is a suspence and doubtfulness in and about the matter concerning which it was to be offered There is a story in the Treatise Kerithuth concerning Baba Ben Bota c c c Kerithuth per. 6. sect 3. that he offered one of these suspensive trespass offerings every day in the year but only on the next day after the day of expiation And one day he said By this Temple if they had let me alone I had brought such an Offering on that day also but they said to me stay till thou come into some doubtfulness And the wise men say they bring not a suspensive trespass offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for such an offence as which wittingly committed deserveth cutting off and unwittingly committed claimeth a sin offering Agreeable to these last words there is a passage in another place of the same Treatise where having reckoned the six and thirty transgressions that deserve cutting off it concludeth that d d d Ibid. per. 1 sect 2. any of these committed wittingly deserve cutting off and if unwittingly a sin offering and if it be not known then a suspensive or doubtful trespass offering By both which testimonies it is apparent that sin offerings and these suspensive trespass offerings were so near a kin that the latter is not accounted due unless there be a possibility of the dueness of the other and the one is offered for a thing committed unwittingly and the other for a thing committed unwittingly and unknown The main difference of them lay in this a sin offering was for a thing done indeed unwittingly against one of the negative precepts and now known to be certainly done but a trespass offering was for a thing doâ—… indeed but doubtful whether a precept was violated by the action and the party is not yet knowing whether he trespassed or not yet was he to bring a trespass offering which as was said before might fence him against the penalty of cutting off and if he once came to know that he did offend against a Commandment in the action then he was to bring a sin offering The Talmudists give these examples in the case e e e Ibid. per. 3. Tosapht in Kerithuth per. 2. He that eats fat namely that fat of the inwards which in any Sacrifice was to be offered up if he did it wittingly he was to be cut off if he did it unwittingly he was to bring a sin offering as soon as he knew what he had done But our case in hand is this A man is at a Table where there is that fat that might not be eaten and another fat that might for they might eat fat Beef or Mutton though they might not eat the fat of the inwards he eateth one of these fats he knoweth not whether he supposeth he eateth the fat that was lawful to be eaten but it is possible he eateth that that is unlawful for this possibility or probability that he may be under a guilt he is to bring a trespass offering suspensive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though he knew not whether he offended yet or no. He that wittingly lay with his sister was to be cut off he that he did it unwittingly was to bring a sin offering assoon as he knew what he had done But here is the case we are about f f f Gloss. in Mishuajoth ubi ante A mans Wife and his Sister are both in one bed he lieth with one of them supposing it to be his Wife it is possible it was his Sister for this he is to bring a doubtful or suspensive trespass offering because it is doubtful whether he be not under a transgression And this kind of Offering was in this regard called doubtful or suspensive because it was in suspence whether he were guilty or no and it did also suspend that guilt and penalty which did lie or might light upon him Divers such particular examples might be produced we shall only add one or two more in the words of the Author of Tosaphta g g g Tosaphâ— ubi supr There are two men together and the one of them offends but it is not known which of them Rabbi Josi saith that both the one and the other must bring a suspensive trespass offering and make confession He that eateth the quantity of an olive of fat or the quantity of an olive of flesh that hath lain so long before it be sacrificed that it stinketh or the quantity of an olive of what is left of the Sacrifice or the quantity of an olive of what is unclean unwittingly he is to bring a sin offering but if it is doubtful whether he eat it or eat it not then he is to bring a trespass offering He that lyeth with his Sister or his Fathers Sister or his Mothers Sister or his Wifes Sister or his Brothers Wife or his Fathers Brothers Wife or a Woman in her separation he is to bring a sin-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if it be doubtful whether he lay with them or no he is to bring a suspensive or doubtful trespass offering A mans Wife and his Sister are together and he lyeth with one of them but he knoweth not whether He hath two Wives the one is in her Separation and the other is not he lyeth with one of them but he knoweth not whether There is before him fat and something left of the Sacrifice he eateth of the one but he knows not whether There is the Sabbath and the day of Expiation he worketh on the one of them but he knows not whether Rabbi Eliezer adjudged him to bring a sin offering But Rabbi Joshua acquitted him Now Rabbi Josi saith although that Rabbi Joshua acquitted him from a sin offering yet he adjudged him to a trespass offering suspensive By these examples it is reasonably well apparent of what nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the suspensive trespass offering was in the repute of the Hebrew Doctors but for the greater clearing of it we may yet go with them one step further A man finds himself in this possibility of having offended though it be utterly uncertain to him whether he have offended or no yet in Conscience was he bound to bring this his suspensive trespass offering because it is possible he is in the offence this is the case in the examples given But this is not the utmost there comes in witness that he did undoubtedly eat of the fat that was forbidden that it was his Wife in her separation that he lay withal or that it was his sister or the like he is not yet convinced that it was so but yet is doubtful and in suspence he is to bring his suspensive trespass offering because though it be certain in it self that he hath offended yet is it not so as yet to him But whensoever he shall be convinced that he did commit the offence indeed then is he to bring his sin offering And thus was the suspensive trespass offering in order
o o o Iuchasin fol. 60. Doves stood one day in Jerusalem at a Denarius of Gold Rabban Simeon the son of Gamaliel said By this Temple I will not sleep this night till they be at a Denarius of silver he went into the Sanhedrin and determined thus A Woman that hath five apparent births and five apparent fluxes is to bring one Offering and she may eat of the Sacrifices and there is no more due from her upon the rest And thus Doves came that day to half a Denarius The manner of offering of these Birds was thus p p p Zevachin per. 6. If they came for a Burnt Offering the Priest went up the rise of the Altar and turned off to the circuit and there at the Southeast corner he wrung off their heads opened them wrung out their bloud upon the side of the Altar salted the head where it was wrung off and cast it into the fire took out the inwards and cast them to the heap of Ashes salted the Birds and cast them into the fire And if they came for a sin offering he wrung off their heads sprinkled the bloud on the side of the Altar and squeezeth out the rest of the bloud at the foundation and there was no more to be done but the Priest to take the birds for his own to eat Only in the sprinkling of the bloud of these birds either being for burnt offering or sin offering the manner was clean different and contrary to the sprinkling of the bloud of Beasts q q q Kinnim per. 1. for the bloud of beasts in burnt offerings was sprinkled beneath on the Altar below the red line that went about it and the bloud of sin offerings above but as for those birds their bloud when they were offered for burnt offerings was sprinkled above and when for sin offerings it was sprinkled beneath SECT IV. Peace Offerings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 WE need not to go very far to find out the reason and notation of Peace Offerings as some have done concluding that they were so called a a a R. Sol. in Levit. 3. because they made peace in the World peace for the Altar peace for the Priests and peace for the owners but do but set them in Antithesis and opposition to those Offerings that have been spoken of already and their name and nature will shew it self Burnt Offerings Sin Offerings and Trespass Offerings were presented and offered up under the notion of some offence committed and some guilt that he that brought them either did or might lie under but Peace Offerings came not under any such liableness offensiveness or suspition but were presented in reference to the parties more comfortable and more unguilty condition as being offered either by way of thanksgiving for good obtained or by way of Vow or free Devotion And this sense it may be the Septuagint looked after when they translate Peace Offerings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifices of deliverance or salvation The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth peace offerings is derived doth signifie as it is well known either peace or prosperity and the peace offerings accordingly may be conceived to have relation to this double signification For some peace offerings were offered in way of devotion as free will offerings to continue or to compass peace with God Some in way of thanksgiving and these were for prosperity or good obtained already and some by way of vows and these were offered that prosperity or good might be obtained for the future For this division of peace offerings into thanks offerings free will offerings and offerings for Vows is held out by the Law Levit. 7. We will first begin with some peace offerings that were of an extraordinary quality and Heteroclites from the common rule and these were the peace offerings of the Heathen which even they offered at the Temple The Mountain of the House is very commonly called by Christian Writers The Court of the Gentiles as hath been said before for into that might even Heathens come and they might bring offerings with them and those offerings were offered up even as were the Sacrifices of the Israelites And in allusion to this it is that in the Revelation when the Angel is measuring the Temple he is bidden not to measure the outer Court but to leave that out for that was given to the Gentiles Rev. 11. 2. Concerning these Sacrifices presented by the Heathen Maymonides gives us this testimony and Tradition b b b Maym. in Corban per. 3. They receive not of the Heathen but burnt Offerings only because it is said From the hand of the son of a stranger ye shall not offer the bread of your God They receive even burnt offerings of birds from an Heathen yea though he be an Idolater But they receive not from them peace offerings nor meat offerings nor sin offerings nor trespass offerings And likewise for burnt offerings they receive them not from the Heathen if they come not by way of free will offering or by way of Vow A Heathen that bringeth peace offerings they offer them as burnt offerings because the Heathens mind is towards Heaven Doth he vow peace offerings and gives them to Israel that Israel may be atoned for the Israelites eat them as if they were the peace offerings of Israelites and if he give them to the Priest the Priest eateth them An Apostate Jew that is fallen to Idolatry and that prophaneth the Sabbath presumptuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they receive not from him an offering at all no not a burnt offering which they would receive from the Heathen In which relation of his when he saith they do not receive peace offerings of the Heathen and yet afterward he saith they do and so seemeth to contradict himself these things observed will clear his meaning and shew that he speaketh exceeding full and good sense 1. That they refused not a Heathens offering because in tendring of it he shewed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his mind was something towards God and that some devotion was in him Yet 2. they would not receive a sin offering nor a trespass offering from him because he was not under those Laws upon which sin offerings and trespass offerings did arise 3. Nor yet would they receive a meat offering or a peace offering from him under that notion or in that latitude of a peace offering because bread was to be offered with it and it was prohibited that they should offer the bread of their God received from a stranger 4. But every Sacrifice that he offered must be offered by him under one of those two notions under which a peace offering came namely either as a free will offering or a vow and yet it must not be sacrificed under the notion of a peace offering but must be offered up as a burnt offering because brought in devotion to God and not to be eaten by
receive on the day of Pentecost p. 271. Then they receive a Commission to go to all Nations whereas before they were confined to the Jews p. 272. They were again filled with the Holy Ghost so that now they had a power to bestow the same upon others p. 277 278. This power belonged only to the Apostles which they gave only to such as were to be Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel p. 281. Some of the Apostles were Ministers of the Circumcision and others of the Uncircumcision having Agents under them to carry on that work and to shew their agreement and harmony therein p. 329 To three of them viz. Peter James and John Christ did shew himself in his greatest Power Glory and Combat above any of the others the reasons why p. 635. The Apostles could not ordain Apostles as they did other Men by laying on of Hands but by Lot which was an immediate Hand of Christ. p. 745. Apostles were an Order for ever unimitable in the Church and so not Predecessors to or Patterns of Bishops as the Popish Writers plead 787 789 Apparitions of Christ after his Resurrection were eight times particularized 734 735 Architriclinus what he was 547 Areopagus a great Court at Athens where Paul converted Dionysius one of the Bench. 295 Ariel and Harel what they signifie and how they differ 2034 2035. * Ark of Noah its Dimensions being vastly large together with the Partitions of it the creatures in it were without enmity c. p. 5 693. Ark of the Covenant what and how placed in the Temple p. 1086 1087. * The Motions and Stations of the Ark. 2060 to 2062 * Artaxerxes the same with Ahasuerosh a greater Prince than Darius c. 140 Arts Chaldean and curious what 820 Asaph a chief Singer in the Temple and his Sons under him 70 Ashes the way and manner of sprinkling them 981 982 Asmonean Family where it began 909 Asses white Asses were for Men of State and Princes to ride upon among the Israelites 48 50 Assyrian Monarchy its rise growth and end 113 114 Astrologer Wizzard or great Mathematician one that used the Chaldean and curious Arts were much the same 436 820. One of which was Thrasyllus the Intimate of Tiberius a strange Prediction of his 820 Astyages the same with Darius 135 Asuppim the Gates and House of it where and what 1057 1058 * Ave Maria being used as a Prayer shews how senseless Popery is 412 Augustus A Title for one that worthily administred in the Commonwealth 424 Ax as the Ax is laid to the root of the Tree c. after divers meanings is to be understood of the Judgments of God 459 460 B. BALAAM curseth Israels first and last enemy he went to his place signifies he went to Hell Page 37 Baptism It was used in the days of Jacob. p. 18. It was the way to admit Heathens into the Religion of the Jews and by it John admitted the Jews into another Religion than their own viz. the Gospel Religion p. 208 210 408. Many Generations before the times of Christ or the Baptist this was used for the admission of Proselytes into the Church both Men Women and Children p. 209 210 450 525 526. 527. proved out of Jewish Writers This shews why there is so little reason given in the New Testament for the Baptism of Infants because it was so ordinary in the Jewish Church before Christs time p. 210 525 526 527. proved out of Jewish Writers When the Sanhedrim send some Pharisees to question John about the authority by which he baptised they say not a word of Baptism it self that being no strange thing but of long use amongst them p. 212. Whether it may be administred by private men p. 217. Whether inconsistent with Preaching Paul saying I came not to baptize but to preach p. 217. There was three forms of Baptism Of John who baptized in the Name of the Messias then ready to come he not knowing for most of his course that Jesus of Nazareth was he p. 276. Of the Disciples who baptized into the Name of Jesus such as believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messias p. 277. Of the Disciples again among the Heathen who baptized them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost because there was no controversie about Jesus of Nazareth being the Messias among them p. 277. Believing gave admission to whole Housholds unto baptism p. 294. Baptism not to be administred twice none were rebaptized p. 298 299. Baptism was made a Badge or Mark of safety from that approaching vengeance that was a coming on the Jews and Jerusalem both by the Baptist and Peter p. 339. The difference of Baptism under the Law and under the Gospel p. 455. Confession of sins was after not before Baptism p. 457. It was vastly differing from Circumcision yet succeeded it with the reasons of both p. 465 c. It was practised among the Jews even from the first use of Circumcision proved from Scripture and Jewish Writers p. 465. 466. 526 527. The Baptism of John and that since used in the Christian Church were not differing at all except in the form of words p. 467. Baptizing with the Holy Ghost what p. 467 468. Why Christ who needed no cleansing being purity it self would be baptized eight reasons p. 472. Why John refused to admit Christ to baptism p. 472. Whether Women were baptized by John answered affirmatively p. 476. So Jacob admitted Females into the Church by Baptism p. 465 466. The time when Christ was baptized p. 476 477 478. the place where and manner how 478. As soon as any were baptized they used to come out of the water and pray p. 479. The Baptism of John tended to the manifesting of Christ two ways especially p. 530. Baptism is expressed by being born of water p. p. 571 572. Why Christ did not baptize p. 581. The Apostles were baptized by John the Baptist not by Jesus so that his Baptism and theirs were the same p. 581. What the manner of the baptizing of the Jews was before John Baptist came p. 583 584. How far the Baptist did imitate the Jews in their manner of baptizing p. 584. Dipping in Baptism not always practised in the beginning of the Gospel p. 584 585. The term Baptism is used to denote sharp sufferings yea Death it self 250 Barchochebas and Cochebas the same with Ben Coziba he called himself the Messias coyned mony with his own stamp tortured the Christians to make them deny Christ was at the Head of a most desperate Rebellion and reigned two years and an half 366 367 Barjesus commonly called Elymas the same in sence with Magus a Magical Jew who did with tricks and wonders go up and down confronting the Gospel 289 Barrenness or want of Children ascribed to the women throughout the Scripture 397. Marg. 408 Bathings When used and after what manner 941 Bath Kol a Voice pretended to be from Heaven to magnifie some of
the other side of Amana Many Nations were united into one Language that is the old Syriac namely the Chaldeans the Mesopotamians the Assyrians the Syrians Of these some were the sons of Sem and some of Cham. Though all had the same Language it is no wonder if all had not the same letters The Assyrians and Israelites refer their original to Sem these had the Assyrian writing the sons of Cham that inhabited beyond Euphrates had another perhaps that which is now called by us the Samaritane which it may be the sons of Cham the Canaanites used III. That the Law was given by Moses in Assyrian letters is the opinion as you see of some Talmudists and that indeed the sounder by much For to think that the Divine Law was writ in characters proper to the cursed seed of Cham it agreeable neither to the dignity of the Law nor indeed to reason it self They that assert the Mother writing was Assyrian do indeed confess that the characters of the Law were changed but this was done by reason of the sin of the people and through negligence For when under the first Temple the Israelites degenerated into Canaanitish manners perhaps they used the letters of the Canaanites which were the same with those of the Inhabitants beyond Euphrates These words of theirs put the matter out of doubt The Law was given to Israel in the Assyrian writing in the days of Moses but when they sinned under the first Temple and contemned the Law it was changed into breaking to them Therefore according to these mens opinion the Assyrian writing was the Original of the Law and endured and obtained unto the degenerate age under the first Temple Then they think it was changed into the writing used beyond Euphrates or the Samaritane or if you will the Canaanitish if so be these were not one and the same but by Ezra it was at last restored into the original Assyrian Truly I wonder that Learned Men should attribute so much to this tradition for whence else they have received their Opinion I do not understand that they should think that the primitive writing of the Law was in Samaritane seeing that which the Gemarists assert concerning the changing of the characters rests upon so brittle and tottering a foundation that it is much more probable that there was no change at all but that the Law was first writ in Assyrian by Moses and in the Assyrian also by Ezra because the change cannot be built and established upon stronger arguments A second question might follow concerning Keri and Chethib and a suspicion might also arise that the Text of the Law was not preserved perfect to one Jot and one Tittle when so many various readings do so frequently occur Concerning this business we will offer these few things only that so we may return to our task 1. These things are delivered by Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q q q q q q Hieros Taâ—nitâ— fol. 68. 1. They found three books in the Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meoni The book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zaatuti and the book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hi. In one they found written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eternal God is thy refuge but in the two other they found it written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. XXXIII 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They approved or confirmed those two but rejected that one In one they found written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in two it was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he sent young men of the children of Israel Exod. XXIV 5. Those two they confirmed but that one they rejected In one they found written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was nine but in the two was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was eleven those two they confirmed and that one they rejected I do much suspect that these three books laid up in the Court answered to the threefold Congregation of the Jews namely in Judea Babylon and Egypt whence these copies might be particularly taken For however that Nation was scattered abroad almost throughout the whole World yet by number and companies scarcely to be numbred it more plentifully encreased in these three Countries than any where else In Judea by those that returned from Babylon in Babylon by those that returned not and in Egypt by the Temple of Onias The two Copies that agreed I judge to be out of Judea and Babylon that that differed to be out of Egypt and this last I suspect by this that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zaatuti smells of the seventy Interpreters whom the Jews of Egypt might be judged by the very sake of the place to favour more than any elsewhere r r r r r r Massecheth Sopherim cap. 1 art 8. For it is asserted by the Jewish Writers that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was one of those changes which the Septuagint brought into the sacred Text. II. It is therefore very probable that the Keri and Chethib was compacted from the comparing of the two Copies of the greatest authority that is the Jewish and the Babylonian which when they differed from one another in so many places in certain little dashes of writing but little or nothing at all as to the sense by very sound counsil they provided that both should be reserved so that both Copies might have their worth preserved and the sacred Text its purity and fulness whilst not one jot nor one tittle of it perished VERS XXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye have heard THAT is ye have received it by Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s s s s s s Sanhedr cap. 11. hal 1. If they havâ— heard that is learned by tradition they speak to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They learned by hearing that is by Tradition a saying very frequent in Maimonides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was said by them of old time That is It is an old Tradition For the particular passages of the Law which are here cited by our Saviour are not produced as the bare words of Moses but as cloathed in the Glosses of the Scribes which most plainly appears above the rest vers 43. and sufficiently in this first allegation where those words Whosoever shall kill shall be guilty of the judgment do hold out the false paint of Tradition and as we observe in the following verses such as misrepresents the Law and makes it of none effect If it be asked why Christ makes mention of those of old time It may be answered that the memory of the antienter Fathers of the Traditions was venerable among the people Reverend was the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the first good men and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first wise men Therefore Christ chose to confute their Doctrines and Glosses that he might more clearly prove the vanity of Traditions when he reproved their most famous men But the sense which
Whosoever putteth away his wife let him give her a bill of Divorsement NOtice is to be taken how our Saviour passeth into these words namely by using the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it hath been said This particle hath this Emphasis in this place that it whispers a silent objection which is answered in the following verse Christ had said Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already But the Jewish Lawyers said If any one sees a woman which he is delighted withal above his wife let him dismiss his wife and marry her Among the Chapters of Talmudical Doctrine we meet with none concerning which it is treated more largely and more to a punctilio than of Divorces and yet there the chief care is not so much of a just cause of it as of the manner and form of doing it To him that turns over the Book Gittim as also indeed the whole Seder Nashim that part of the Talmud that treats of women the diligence of the Masters about this matter will appear such that they seem to have dwelt not without some complacency upon this article above all others God indeed granted to that Nation a Law concerning Divorces Deut. XXIV 1. permitted only for the hardness of their hearts Mat. XIX 8. In which permission nevertheless they boast as though it were indulged them by more priviledg When God had established that fatal Law of punishing Adultery by death Deut. XXII for the terror of the people and for their avoiding of that sin the same merciful God foreseeing also how hard occasion being taken from this Law the issue of this might be to the women by reason of the roughness of the men lusting perhaps after other women and loathing their own wives he more graciously provided against such kind of wife-killing by a Law mitigating the former and allowed the putting away a wife in the same case concerning which that fatal Law was given namely in the case of Adultery So that that Law of Divorce in the exhibition of it implied their hearts to be hard and in the use of it they shewed them to be carnal And yet hear them thus boasting of that Law k k k k k k Hieros in Kiddushin fol. 158. 3. The Lord of Israel saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he hateth putting away Mal. II. 16. Through the whole Chapter saith R. Chananiah in the name of R. Phinâ—has he is called the Lord of Hosts but here of Israel that it might appear that God subscribed not his name to Divorces but only among the Israelites As if he should say To the Israelites I have granted the putting away of wives to the Gentiles I have not granted it R. Chaijah Rabbah saith Divorces are not granted to the Nations of the World Some of them interpreted this Law of Moses as by right they ought to interpret it of the case of Adultery only l l l l l l Gittin cap. 9. hal ult The School of Shammai said a wife is not to be divorced unless for filthiness that is Adultery only because it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he hath found filthy nakedness in her that is Adultery m m m m m m Gemara â—b Rabh Papa said If he find not adultery in her what then Rabba answered When the merciful God revealed concerning him that corrupted a maid that it was not lawful for him to put her away in his whole life Deut. XXII 29. you are thence taught concerning the matter propounded that it is not lawful to put her away if he shall not find filthiness in his wiâ—e With the like honesty have some commented upon those words cited out of the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he hateth putting away n n n n n n Ibid. R. Jochanan saith The putting away of a wife is odious Which others also have granted indeed of the first wife but not of those that a man took to himself over and above For this is approved among them for a Canon o o o o o o Maimon in Gerushin cap. 10. Let no man put away his first wife unless for adultery And p p p p p p Gittin in the place above R. Eliezer saith for the divorcing of the first wife even the Altar it self sheds tears Which Gloss they fetch from thence where it is said Let no man deal treacherously towards the wife of his youth Mal. II. 15. The Jews used Polygamy and the divorcing of their wives with one and the same license and this that they might have change and all for the sake of lust q q q q q q Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 10 14. It is lawful say they to have many wives together even as many as you will but our wise men have decreed that no man have above four wives But they restrained this not so much out of some principles of chastity as that least a man being burdened with many wives might not be able to afford them food and clothing and due benevolence for thus they comment concerning this bridle of Polygamy For what causes they put away their wives there is no need to enquire for this they did for any cause of their own free will I. It is commanded to divorce a wise that is not of good behaviour and who is not modest as becomes a daughter of Israel So they speak in Maimonides and Gittin in the place above specified Where this also is added in the Gemarists R. Meir saith As men have their pleasures concerning their meat and their drink so also concerning their wives This man takes out a fly found in his cup and yet will not drink after such a manner did Papus ben Judah carry himself who as often as he went forth bolted the doers and shut in his wife Another takes out a fly found in his cup and drinks up his cup that he doth who sees his wife talking freely with her neighbours and kinsfolks and yet allows of it And there is another who if he find a fly in his basket eats it and this is the part of an evil man who sees his wife going out without a vail upon her head and with a bare neck and sees her washing in the baths where men are wont to wash and yet cares not for it whereas he is bound by the Law to put her away II. r r r r r r Maimonides in the place above If any man hate his wife let him put her away excepting only that wife that he first married In like manner R. Judah thus interprets that of the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he hate her let him put her away Which sense some Versions dangerously enough have followed R. Solomon expresses the sense of that place thus It is commanded to put away ones wife if she obtain not favour in the eyes of her
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self c. THE Law forbids perjury Levit. XIX 12. c. To which the Fathers of the Traditions reduced the whole sin of swearing little caring for a rash oath In this Chapter of Oaths they doubly sinned I. That they were nothing at all solicitous about an Oath so that what was sworn were not false They do but little trouble themselves What How How often how rashly you swear so that what you swear be true In the Talmudick Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shevuoth and in like manner in Maimonides oaths are distributed into these four ranks First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Promissory oath when a man swore that he would do or not do this or that c. And this was one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twofold Oaths which were also fourfold that is a negative or affirmative Oath and again a negative or affirmative Oath concerning something past or a negative or affirmative oath concerning something to come namely when any one swears that he hath done this or that or not done it or that he will do this or that or that he will not do it Whosoever therefore swears any of these four ways and the thing is not as he swears for example That he hath not cast a stone into the Sea when he hath cast it that he hath cast it when he hath not that he will not eat and yet eats that he will eat and yet eateth not behold this is a false oath or perjury f f f f f f Maimon in 〈◊〉 c. 1. g g g g g g â—aâ—mâ—d in Sâ—â—vâ—â—th c. 3. Whosoever swears that he will not eat and yet eats somethings which are not sufficiently fit to be eaten this man is not guilty Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A vain or a rash oath This also is fourfold but not in the same manner as the former 1. When any asserted that with an oath which was contrary to most known truth as If he should swear a man were a woman a stone-pillar to be a pillar of gold c. or when any swore that was or was not which was altogether impossible as that he saw a Camel flying in the air 2. When one asserted that by an oath concerning which there was no reason that any should doubt For example that Heaven is Heaven a stone is a stone c. 3. When a man swore that he would do that which was altogether impossible namely that he would not sleep for three days and three nights That he would tast nothing for a full week c. 4. When any swore that he would abstain from that which was commanded as that he would not wear Phylacteries c. These very examples are brought in the places alledged Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An oath concerning something left in trust Namely when any swore concerning something left in trust with him that it was stollen or broke or lost and not embezzel'd by him c. Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Testimonial Oath before a Judg or Magistrate In three of these kinds of swearing care is only taken concerning the truth of the thing sworn not of the vanity of swearing They seemed indeed to make some provision against a vain and rash oath namely 1. That he be beaten who so swears and become cursed which Maimonides hints in the twelfth Chapter of the Tract alledged with whom the Jerusalem Gemarists do agree h h h h h h Shâ—veth fol. 34. 4. He that swears two is two let him be beaten for his vain oath 2. They also added terror to it from fearful examples such as that is in the very same place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There were twenty four assemblies in the South and they were all destroyed for a vain oath And in the same Tract i i i i i i Fol. 37. 1. a woman buried her Son for an oath c. yet they concluded vain oaths in so narrow a circle that a man might swear an hundred thousand times and yet not come within the limits of the caution concerning vain swearing II. It was customary and usual among them to swear by the Creatures k k k k k k Maimonid in the place above cap. 12 If any swear by Heaven by Earth by the Sun c. although the mind of the swearer be under these words to swear by him who created them yet this is not an Oath Or if any swear by some of the Prophets or by some of the Books of the Scripture although the sense of the swearer be to swear by him that sent that Prophet or that gave that Book nevertheless this is not an Oath l l l l l l Talmud in the place above cap. 4. If any adjure another by heaven or earth he is not guilty l l l l l l Bab. Berac fol. 55. They swore by Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By heaven so it is They swore by the Temple n n n n n n Cherithuth cap. 1. hal 7. When Turtles and young Pigeons were sometime sold at Jerusalem for a peny of gold Rabban Simeon Ben Gamaliel said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this Habitation that is by this Temple I will not rest this night unless they be sold for a peny of silver o o o o o o Ketubboth cap. 3. Tosapht ibid. R. Zechariah ben Ketsab said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this Temple the hand of the woman departed not out of my hand p p p p p p Bab. Kiddushin fol 71. 1. R. Jochanan said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Temple it is in our hand c. q q q q q q Juchas fol. 56. col 1. Bava ben Buta swore by the Temple in the end of the tract Cherithuth and Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel in the beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so was the custom in Israel Note this so was the custom They swore by the City Jerusalem r r r r r r Tosapht ad Nedarim cap. 1. R. Judah saith He that saith By Jerusalem saith nothing unless with an intent purpose he shall vow towards Jerusalem Where also after two lines coming between those forms of swearing and vowing are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem For Jerusalem By Jerusalem The Temple For the Temple By the Temple The Altar For the Altar By the Altar The Lamb For the Lamb By the Lamb. The Chambers of the Temple For the Chambers of the Temple By the Chambers of the Temple The Word For the Word By the Word The Sacrifices on fire For the Sacrifices on fire By the Sacrifices on fire The Dishes For the Dishes By the Dishes By all these things that I will do this to you They swore by their own heads s s s s s s Sanbedr
cap. 3. hal 2. One is bound to swear to his neighbour and he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vow or swear to me by the life of thy Head c. VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swear not at all IN the Tract Demai t t t t t t Cap. 2. hâ—lac 3. are some rules prescribed to a religious man among others That he be not too much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in swearing and laughing Where the Gloss of R. Solomon is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 means this Be not much in oaths although one should swear concerning things that are true for in much swearing it is impossible not to profane Our Saviour with good reason binds his followers with a straiter bond permitting no place at all for a voluntary and arbitrary oath The sense of these words goes in the middle way between the Jew who allowed some place for an arbitrary oath and the Anabaptist who allows none for a necessary one VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou canst not make one hair white or black That is Thou canst not put on gray hairs or lay them aside VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let your communication be yea yea nay nay IN Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 u u u u u u Maimon in Pâ—ab cap. 5. Giving and receiving that is business among the disciples of the wise men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be in Truth and Faith by saying Yes yes No no or according to the very words concerning Yes yes concerning No no. x x x x x x Gittin cap. 7. hal 1. If it be said to a Lunatick shall we write a bill of Divorce for your wife And he nod with his head they try thrice and if he answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to No no and to Yes yes they write it and give it to his wife VERS XXXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ye have heard that it hath been said An eye for an eye c. THIS Law he also cites as clothed in the Gloss of the Scribes and now received in the Jewish Schools But they resolved the Law not into a just retaliation but into a pecuniary compensation y y y y y y Bava Kama cap. 8. Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. Does any cut off the hand or foot of his neighbour They value this according to the example of selling a servant computing at what price he would be sold before he was maimed and for how much less now he is maimed And how much of the price is diminished so much is to be paid to the maimed person as it is said An eye for an eye c. We have received by Tradition that this is to be understood of pecuniary satisfaction But whereas it is said in the Law If a man cause a blemish in his neighbour the same shall be done to him Lev. XXIV 19. It means not that he should be maimed as he hath maimed another but when he deserveth maiming he deserveth to pay the damage to the person maimed They seemed out of very great charity to soften that severe Law to themselves when nevertheless in the mean time little care was taken of lively charity and of the forgiving an offence an open door being still left them to exaction and revenge which will appear in what follows VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek THAT the Doctrine of Christ may here more clearly shine out let the Jewish Doctrine be set against it to which he opposeth his z z z z z z Bava Kama cap. 8. hal 6. Does any one give his neighbour a box on the ear let him give him a shilling R. Judah in the name of R. Josi of Galilee saith Let him give him a pound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Does he give him a blow upon the cheek Let him give him two hundred Zuzees if with the other hand let him give four hundred Compare with this passage ver 39. If any shall strike thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Does he twitch him by the ear or does he pull off his hair or does he spit so that his spittle falls upon him or does he take away his coat Note this also and compare ver 40. with it He that will take away thy coat c. or does he uncover a womans head in publick Let him give four hundred Zuzees They fetch the reason of so severe a mulct chiefly from the shame done him that is thus injured and from the disgrace of the thing it self and moreover from the dignity of an Israelite which is declared at large by the Gemarists upon the words cited and by a a a a a a In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1 2 3 c. Maimonides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those mulcts say they are established and inflicted according to the dignity of the person injured But R. Akibah said Even the poorest Israelites are to be esteemed as though they were persons of quality divested of their estates because they are the Sons of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Hence the entrance to our Saviours Doctrine lyes easie 1. He cites the Law of retaliation that by laying one against the other Christian charity and forgiveness might shine the clearer 2. He mentions these particulars which seemed to be the most unworthy and not to be born by the high quality of a Jew that he might the more preach up Evangelical humility and patience and self-denial But why was the law of retaliation given if at last it is melted down into this On the same reason as the Law of death was given concerning Adultery Namely for terror and to demonstrate what the sin was Both were to be softned by charity this by forgiveness that by a bill of divorce or if the husband so pleased by forgiveness also VERS XL. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And if any will sue thee at the Law and take away thy coat c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coat that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talith So in the words of the Talmud alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He takes his Coat Of this garment thus the Aruch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talith is a cloak And why is it called Talith Because it is above all the garments that is because it is the outermost garment In this upper garment were woven in those fringes that were to put them in mind of the law of which there is mention Numb XV. 38. Hence is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b b b b b b Bab. Sâ—habb fol. 23. 2. He that takes care of his skirts deserves a good coat Hereupon the disgrace was encreased together with the wrong when that was taken away concerning which they did not a little boast nay and in which they placed no small religion Mat. XXIII 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will he give him a stone g g g g g g De benefic lib. 2. cap. 7. HERE that of Seneca comes into my mind Verrucosus called a benefit roughly given from a hard man panem lapidosum stony bread VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you c. h h h h h h Bab. Schab fol. 31. 1. A Certain Gentile came to Shammai and said Make me a Proselyte that I may learn the whole Law standing upon one foot Shammai beat him with the staff that was in his hand He went to Hillel and he made him a Proselyte and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is odious to thy self do it not to thy neighbour for this is the whole Law VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Broad is the way IN these words concerning the broad and narrow way our Saviour seems to allude to the rules of the Jews among their Lawyers concerning the publick and private ways With whom a private way was four cubits in bredth a publick way was sixteen cubits See the Gloss in i i i i i i Cap. 2. hal 1. Peah VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gate UNDER this phrase are very many things in religion exprest in the holy Scripture Gen. XXVIII 17. Psal. CXVIII 19 20. Mat. XVI 18 c. and also in the Jewish Writers The gate of repentance is mentioned by the Chaldee Paraphrast upon Jer. XXXIII 6. and the gate of prayers and the gate of tears k k k k k k Bab. Berac fol. 32. 2. Since the Temple was laid wast the gates of prayer were shut but the gates of tears were not shut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Straight gate seems to be the Greek rendring of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pishpesh a word very usual among the Talmudists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Tamid cap. 1. hal 3. With a key he opened the little door and out of Beth mokad the place of the fire hearth he entreth into the Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Aruch is a little door in the midst of a great door VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In sheeps cloathing NOT so much in woollen garments as in the very skins of sheep so that outwardly they might seem sheep but inwardly they were ravening Wolves Of the ravenousness of Wolves among the Jewes take these two examples besides others m m m m m m Taanith c. 3. hal 7. The Elders proclaimed a fast in their Cities upon this occasion because the Wolves had devoured two little children beyond Jordan n n n n n n Hieros Jom tobh fol. 60. 1. More than three hundred Sheep of the sons of Judah ben Shamoe were torn by wolves VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By their fruits ye shall know them THAT is a Proverb not unlike it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Bab. Berac fol. 48. 1. A Gourd a Gourd is known by its branch VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As one having authority and not as the Scribes IT is said with good reason in the Verse going before that the multitude were astonished at Christs doctrin for besides his divine truth depth and convincing power they had not before heard any discoursing with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority that he did The Scribes borrowed credit to their doctrine from Traditions and the Fathers of them and no Sermon of any Scribe had any authority or value without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rabbins have a Tradition or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wise men say or some Traditional Oracle of that nature Hillel the great taught truly and as the tradition was concerning a certain thing p p p p p p Hieros Pesachin fol. 33. 1. But although he discoursed of that matter all day long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They received not his doctrin until he said at last so I heard from Shemaia and Abtalion CHAP. VIII VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou canst make me clean THE doctrine in the law concerning Leprosy paints out very well the doctrine of sin I. It teacheth that no creature is so unclean by a touch as man Yea it may with good reason be asked whether any creature while it lived was unclean to the touch beside man That is often repeated in the Talmudists That he that takes a worm in his hand all the Waters of Jordan cannot wash him from his uncleanness that is while the worm is as yet in his hand or the Worm being cast away not until the time appoynted for such purification be expired But whether it is to be understood of a living or dead worm it is doubted not without cause since the Law treating of this matter speaketh only of those things that dyed of themselves See Levit. XI ver 31. Whosoever shall touch them when they be dead c. and ver 32. Upon whatsoever any of them when they are dead shall fall c. But whether he speaks of a living worm or a dead uncleanness followed by the touch of it for that day only For he shall be unclean saith the Law until the Evening but the carkas of a man being touched a weeks uncleanness followed See Num. XIX II. Among all the uncleannesses of men Leprosie was the greatest in as much as other uncleannesses separated the unclean person or rendred him unclean for a day or a week or a month but the leprosy perhaps for ever III. When the Leper was purified the leprosy was not healed but the poison of the disease being evaporated and the danger of the contagion gone the Leper was restored to the publick congregation Gehazi the Servant of Elisha was adjudged to perpetual leprosy and yet he was cleansed and conversed with the King 2 King VIII 5. cleansed not healed Thus under Justification and sanctification there remain still the seeds and silth of sin IV. He that was full of the leprosy was pronounced clean he that was otherwise was not Levit. XIII 12. If the leprosie shall cover the whole body from head to foot thou shalt pronounce him clean c. A law certainly to be wondred at Is he not clean till the whole body be infected and covered with the leprosy Nor shalt thou O sinner be made clean without the like condition Either acknowledg thy self all over leprous or thou shall not be cleansed VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iesus touched him IT was indeed a wonder that when the leprosie was a creeping infection the Priest when he judged of it was not hurt with the infection It cannot be passed over without observation that Aaron being bound under the same guilt with Miriam bore not the same punishment for she was touched with leprosie he not Num. XII And also that Uzziah should be confuted concerning his
incroaching upon the Priesthood no other way then by the plague of leprosie In him God would magnifie the Priesthood that was to judg of the leprosie and he would shew the other was no Priest by his being toucht with the leprosie It can scarcely be denied indeed that the Priests sometimes might be toucht with that plague but certainly they catched not the congion while they were doing their office in judging of it This is a noble doctrine of our high Priest the Judge and Phisician of our leprosie while he remains wholly untouched by it How much does he surpass that miracle of the Levitical Priesthood They were not touched by the contagion when they touched the leprous person He by his touch heals him that hath the infection VERS IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Go shew thy self to the Priest c. OUR Saviour would not have the extraordinary manner whereby he was heaâ—d discovered to the Priest that he might pay the ordinary duty of his clâ—…g And surely it deserves no slight consideration that he sends him to the Priest However now the Priesthood was too too degenerate both from its institution and its office yet he would reserve to it its priviledges while he would reserve the Priesthood its self Corruption indeed defiles a divine institution but extinguishes it not II. Those things which at that time were to be done in cleansing of the leprosie according to the Rubric were these Let him bring three beasts that is a sacrifice for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sa risiâ—e for transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a burnt offering But a poor man brought a sacrifice for sin of birds and a burnt offering of birds He stands by the sacrifice for transgression and laie both his hands upon it and slays it and two Priests receive the blood the one in a vessel the other in his hand He who receives the blood in his hand goes to the Leper in the chamber of the Lepers this was in the corner of the Court of the Women looking North-west He placeth him in the gate of Nicanor the East gate of the Court of Israel he stretcheth forth his head within the Court and puts blood upon the lowest part of his ear He stretcheth out his hand also within the Court and he puts blood upon his thumb and his foot and he puts blood also upon his great toe c. And the other adds oyl to the same members in the same place c. The reason why with his neck held out he so thrust forth his head and ears into the Court you may learn from the Glosser The gate of Nicanor saith he was between the Court of the Women and the Court of Israel but now it was not lawful for any to enter into the Court of Israel for whom there was not a perfect expiation And on the contrary it was not lawful to carry the blood of the sacrifice for transgression out of the Court. Hence was that invention that the Leper that was to be cleansed should stand without the Court and yet his ears his thumbs and his toes to which the blood was to be applyed were within the Court We omit saying more it is enough to have produced these things whence it may be observed what things they were that our Saviour sent back this healed person to do The cure was done in Galilee and thence he is sent away to Jerusalem silence and sacrifice are enjoyned him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. See thou tell no man c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And offer the gift c. And why all these things First Christ makes trial of the obedience and gratitude of him that was cured laying upon him the charge of a sacrifice and the labour of a journy Secondly He would have him restored to the communion of the Church from which his leprosy had separated him after the wonted and instituted manner He provides that he himself give no scandal and the person healed make no Schism and however both his words and gestures sufficiently argue that he believed in Christ yet Christ will by no means draw him from the communion of the Church but restore him to it Hence is that command of his to him See thou tell no man but offer a gift for a testimony to them that is Do not boast the extraordinary manner of thy healing think not thy self freed from the bond of the Law in case of a leper because of it thrust not thy self into the communion of the Church before the rites of admission be duly performed but however you have no business with the Priest in reference to the purification and cleansing go to the Priest nevertheless and offer the gift that is due for a testimony that you are again restored into communion with them This caution of our Saviour hath the same tendency with that Mat. XVII 27. That we be not an offence to them c. VERS VI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lyeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Layd forth Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A dead man layd forth in order to his being carryed out The power and dominion of the disease is so expressed The weak person lyeth so that he is moved only by others he cannot move himself but is as it were next door to carrying out So ver 14. of Peters Mother-in-Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was layd and sick of a fever VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall be east out into outer darkness HEAR O Jew thy most sad but certainly most just Judgment concerning thy eternal blindness and perdition For whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Outer darkness signifies whether the darkness of the Heathen for to the Jewes the Heathen were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are without or that darkness beyond that Es. IX 1. or both our Saviour clearly intimates the Jews were thither to be banished but that they were to be recalled again he intimates not any where if so be by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of the Kingdome they be to be understood which who is there that denyes VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Even was come MARK adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the sun was now set and the Sabbath was now gone I. The Sabbath was ended by the Jews at the Supper or the Feast In which they used a candle as they did upon the entrance of the Sabbath and wine and spices and the form of blessing over a cup of wine and then over the candle and then over the spices Does the Sabbath end when he is now in the middle of his Feast He puts an end to his eating washes his hands and over a cup of wine he gives thanks for his food and afterwards over that cup he useth the form of prayer in the separation of the Sabbath from a common day If he be now drinking when the Sabbath goes out he ceaseth from drinking and recites the form of
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
guilty Let us see whether thou canst smell and judg And when they saw that he could not smell and judg they slew him VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By whom do your children cast them out BY your Children Christ seems to understand some disciples of the Pharisees that is some of the Jews who using Exorcisms seemed to cast out Devils such as they Act. XIX 13. and yet they said not to them Ye cast out Devils by Beelzebul It is worthy marking that Christ presently saith If I by the Spirit of God cast out Devils then the Kingdom of God is come among you For what else does this speak than that Christ was the first who should cast out Devils which was an undoubted sign to them that the Kingdom of Heaven was now come But that which was performed by them by Exorcisms was not so much a casting out of Devils as a delusion of the people since Satan would not cast out Satan but by compact with himself and with his company he seemed to be cast out that he might the more deceive The sense therefore of Christs words comes to this That your Disciples cast out Devils ye attribute not to Beelzebul no nor to Magick but ye applaud the work when it is done by them They therefore may in this matter be your judges that you pronounce these words of my actions out of the rankness and venom of your minds m m m m m m Bab. Joma fol. 57. 1. In the Gloss mention is made of a Devil cast out by a Jew at Rome VERS XXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in that which is to come THEY that endeavour hence to prove the remission of some sins after death seem little to understand to what Christ had respect when he spake these words Weigh well this common and most known doctrine of the Jewish Schools and judg n n n n n n Hieros Sanhedr fol. 37. 3. Bab. Joma fol 86. 1. He that transgresses an affirmative precept if he presently repent is not moved until the Lord pardon him And of such it is said Be ye converted O backsliding Children and I will heal your backslidings He that transgresses a Negative precept and repents his repentance suspends judgment and the day of expiation expiates him as it is said This day shall all your uncleannesses be expiated to you He that transgresses to cutting off by the stroke of God or to death by the Sanhedrin and repents repentance and the day of expiation do suspend judgment and the strokes that are laid upon him wipe off sin as it is said And I will visit their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with scourges But he by whom the Name of God is profaned or blasphemed repentance is of no avail to him to suspend judgment nor the day of expiation to expiate it nor scourges or corrections inflicted to wipe it off but all suspend judgment and death wipes it off Thus the Babylonian Gemara writes but the Jerusalem thus Repentance and the day of expiation expiate as to the third part and corrections as to the third part and death wipes it off as it is said And your iniquities shall not be expiated to you until ye die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold we learn that death wipes off Note this which Christ contradicts concerning Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost It shall not be forgiven saith he neither in this world nor in the world to come that is neither before death nor as you dream by death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the world to come I. Some phrases were received into common use by which in common speech they opposed the Heresie of the Sadducees who denied Immortality Of that sort were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hell c. o o o o o o Bab. Bâ—racoth fol. 54. 1. At the end of all the prayers in the Temple as we observed before they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever But when the Hereticks brake in and said There was no Age but one it was appointed to be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For ever and ever This distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This world and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world to come you may find almost in every page of the Rabbins p p p p p p Targ. in Râ—th Chap. II. 15. The Lord recompence thee a good reward for this thy good work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this world and let thy reward be perfected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the world to come q q q q q q â—aal Tâ—rim Tancâ— in Gen. 1. 1. It that is the History of the Creation and of the Bible begins therefore with the letter Beth in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bereshith because two worlds were created this world and a world to come II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world to come hints two things especially of which see r r r r r r In Sanhedr Cap. Châ—lâ—k Rambam 1. The times of the Messias s s s s s s â—â—riâ— Cap. 1. Hâ—l ult Be mindful of the day wherein thou camest out of Egypt all the days of thy life The wise men say By the days of thy life is intimated this world By all the days of thy life The days of the Messias are superinduced In this sense the Apostle seems to speak Heb. II. 5. and VI. 5. 2. The state after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t t t t t t 〈◊〉 fol. 5â— The world to come is when a man is departed out of this world VERS XXXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign I. THEIR Schools also confessed that signs and miracles were not to be expected but by a fit generation u u u u u u Hieros Soâ—ah fol. 24. 2. The Elders being once assembled at Jericho the Bath Kol went forth and said There is one among you who is fit to have the Holy Ghost dwell upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that this generation is not fit They fix their eyes upon Hillel the Elder The Elders being assembled again in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an upper room in Jabneh Bath Kol came forth and said There is one among you who is fit to have the Holy Spirit dwell upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that the Generation is not fit They cast their eyes upon Samuel the Little II. That generation by which and in which the Lord of Life was Crucified lay and that deservedly under an ill report for their great wickedness above all other from the beginning of the world until that day Whence that of the Prophet Who shall declare his generation Esai LIII 2. that is his generation viz. that generation in which he
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk any more in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him 3. It was not unusal to defer the payment of the half Shekels of this year to the year following by reason of some urgent necessity Hence it was when they sat to collect and receive this Tribute the Collectors had before them two chests placed in one of which they put the h See Shekal cap. 2. Maimon ibid. Tax of the present year in the other of the year past u But it may be objected Why did the Collectors of Capernaum require the payment at that time when according to Custom they began not to demand it before the fifteenth day of the month Adar I answer 1. It is certain there were in every City money changers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to collect it and being collected to carry it to Jerusalem Hence is that in the Tract cited The fifteenth day of the month Adar the Collectors sit in the Cities to demand the half Shekel and the five and twentieth they sit in the Temple 2. The uncertain abode of Christ at Capernaum gave these Collectors no unjust cause of demanding this due whensoever they had him there present at this time especially when the feast of Tabernacles was near and they about to go to Jerusalem to render an account perhaps of their Collection But if any list to understand this of the Tax paid the Romans we do not contend And then the words of those that collected the Tribute Does not your Master pay the Didrachm seem to sound to this effect Is your Master of the Sect of Judas of Galilee CHAP. XVIII VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven IT cannot be passed over without observation that the ambitious dispute of the Disciples concerning Primacy for the most part followed the mention of the death of Christ and his Resurrection See this Story in Mark IX 31 32 33. And Luke IX 44 45 46. He said to his Disciples Lay up these discourses in your ears for the time is coming that the Son of man is delivered into the hands of Men. But they knew not that saying c. and there arose a contest between them who among them should be greatest Also Matth. XX. 18 19 20. He said to them Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the Chief Priests c. Then came to him the Mother of Zebedees children with her sons saying Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand c. And Luke XXII 22 23 24. The Son of man indeed goeth as it is determined c. and there arose a Contention among them who of them should seem to be the greater The dream of the earthly Kingdom of the Messias did so possess their minds for they had suck'd in this Doctrine with their first milk that the mention of the most vile death of the Messias repeated over and over again did not at all drive it thence The image of earthly pomp was fixed at the bottom of their hearts and there it stuck nor by any words of Christ could it as yet be rooted out no not when they saw the death of Christ when together with that they saw his Resurrection for then they also asked Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel Acts I. 6. However after Christ had oftentimes foretold his death and resurrection it always follows in the Evangelists that they understood not what was spoken yet the opinion formed in their minds by their Doctors That the Resurrection should go before the Kingdom of the Messias supplied them with such an interpretation of this matter that they lost not an ace of the opinion of a future Earthly Kingdom See more at Chap. XXIV 3. VERS VI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is good for him in Talmudick Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be said in distinction from those very small Mills wherewith they were wont to grind the spices that were either to be applied to the wound of Circumcision or to be added to the delights of the Sabbath Hence the Gloss of R. Solomon upon Jer. XXV 10. The sound of Mills and the light of the candle the sound of Mills saith he wherewith spices were ground and bruised for the healing of Circumcision That Christ here speaks of a kind of death perhaps no where certainly never used among the Jews he does it either to aggravate the thing or in allusion to drowning in the dead Sea in which one cannot be drowned without some weight hung to him and in which to drown any thing by a common manner of speech implied to devote to rejection hatred and execration which we have observed elswhere VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Their Angels in Heaven do always behold c. THIS one may very well expound by laying to it that which is said Heb. I. 14. The Angels are Ministring Spirits sent to minister for them who shall be heirs of the salvation to come As if he should say See that ye do not despise one of these little ones who have been received with their believing parents into the Gospel Church for I say unto you that after that manner as the Angels minister to adult Believers they minister to them also VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If he lose one does he not leave the ninety and nine c. A Very common form of speech a a a a a a Peah cap. 4. Hal. â— In distributing some grapes and dates to the poor although ninety nine say Scatter them and only one Divide them They hearken to him because he speaks according to the Tradition b b b b b b â—ieros Schabh fol. â—4 â— If ninety nine die by an evil eye that is by bewitching and but one by the hand of Heaven that is by the stroke of God c. If ninety nine die by reason of cold but one by the hand of God c. VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tell him his fault between thee and him alone THE reason of the precept is founded in that charitable Law Levit. XIX 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but thou shalt surely reprove him and shalt not suffer sin in him Here the Talmudists speak not amiss c c c c c c Bab. â—â—achin fol. 1â— â— The Rabbins deliver Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart Perhaps he does not beat him he does not pull off his hair he does not curse him the Text saith In thy Heart speaking of hatred in the heart But whence is it proved that he that sees his brother doing some foul action is bound to reprove him Because it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
holy treasuries b b b b b b Zevachin fol. 54. 2. They were two as to their end but four as to the dispatch of them to that end c c c c c c Shekalim cap. 5. hal 6. There was a Corban 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the repair of the building of the Temple and there was a Corban 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the preparing such things as were necessary for the Divine Service in the Temple And both were two The duplicity of the former you have in this tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There were two chambers in the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The chamber of the silent or of the private where pious men offered privately whence the children of pious parents were nourished also privately That is they did their charity secretly for this pious use that it might not be known who did it There are some who think these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Silent ones were the same with the Esseans of which we will not dispute nor do we number this charitable Treasury among the Corbans concerning which we are now treating because it conferred nothing to the business of the Temple But the Tradition goes forward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there was the chamber of the Vessels where whosoever offered any vessel laid it And after thirty days the Treasurers opened the chambers and whatsoever Vessel was found in it which was useful to the repairing of the building was laid up for that use And whatsoever was not useful was sold and the price of it went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the chamber for the repairing of the House You observe how there was a Corban of Vessels or Instruments of Iron Brass Silver c. And a Corban of Mony both for the same end that is for the repair of the building and structure of the Temple and Courts if by some means or other they might fall down or might receive damage by the injury of time of tempests or rains Maimonides adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d In Shekalim cap. 4. The Vails of the Temple also come out of the chamber for the repair of the building but the Vails of the doors out of the Corban 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the chamber Of which afterwards SECT II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Corban chests THERE was also a double Corban whence the charges of things necessary for the Divine Worship were defrayed The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or certain Chests of which thus the Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e e e e e e Shekalim cap. 6. hal 5. Joma fol. 55. 2 There were thirteen chests in the Temple in which was written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New Shekels that is of the present year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Old Shekels or Shekels of the year past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turtles c. f f f f f f In the place above cap. 2. Maimonides still more largely and plainly In the Temple were thirteen chests formed like Trumpets that is narrower below and more broad above The first was for the Shekels of the present year The second was for the Shekels of the year past The third for those who were to bring an oblation of two Turtles or Pigeons one for a burnt Offering the other for a Sacrifice for Sin the price o◠it they cast into this chest The fourth for him who otherwise ought an oblation of birds The price of it he cast into this chest The fift for him who voluntarily offered mony to buy Wood for the Altar The sixt for him who offered mony to buy Frankincense The seventh for him who offered Gold for the Mercy-seat The eighth for that which remained of the Sacrifice for sin Namely when one dedicated mony for the Sacrifice for sin and bought a Sacrifice with it and something remained over and above let him cast that into this chest The ninth for that which remained of the Sacrifice for transgression The tenth for that which remained of the Pigeons for the Women that had Fluxes and that were delivered from Child-birth The eleventh for that which remained of the Oblations of the Nazirite The twelfth for that which remained of the Sacrifice of the Leper The thirteenth for him who offered monies for the burnt offering of cattel And upon each chest was written that for which the mony that was laid up in it was appointed In one of these chests the Widdow commended by our Saviour cast in her two mites but where they were placed we will enquire by and by SECT III. The Corban 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chamber THERE was also a Chamber in which whatsoever mony was collected in these chests of which we have spoken was emptied out into three other chests which is called by the Talmudists emphatically and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Chamber g g g g g g Joma f. 64. 1. There were three chests each containing three Seahs into which they empty the Corban and on them were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And why saith R. Jose was Aleph Beth Gimel writ upon them Namely that it might be known which of them was filled first that it might first be emptied R. Ishmael saith the inscription was in Greek Alpha Beta Gamma h h h h h h Shekalim c. 3 The chests which are here spoken of were those into which the three greater were emptied which always stood unmoveable in the Chamber The manner of the emptying of which take from the words of the Gloss in the place alledged Those chests in which the mony was laid up did contain twenty seven Seahs each nine and they were covered with a linnin cloth He who was to empty entred with three chests containing nine Seahs He first filled the chest marked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the first of the three great chests and then covered it with the linnin cloth Then he uncovered the second of the great chests and out of it he filled the second chest marked with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and covered it again Then he uncovered the third of the great chests and filled the third chest marked ◠but covered not the other again c. Moreover of the manner and time of this emptying thus the Masters speak i i i i i i Ibid. Thrice in a year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They take care about the Chamber for let me render it thus in this place that is as the Gloss writes Out of the thirteen chests they transferred whatsoever had been collected in them into these three great ones which were in this chamber and in like manner they emptied them into three less of which before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About the space of half a month before Passover before Pentecost and before the Feast of Tabernacles or in the beginning of the month Nisan and of the month Tisri and fifteen days before
like in Kiddush e e e e e e Fol. 71. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elias comes to distinguish the unclean and purifie them c. When therefore they saw the Baptist bring in such an unusual rite by which he admitted the Israelites into a new rule of Religion they ask him by what authority he doth these things if he himself were not either the Messiah or Elias or one of the Prophets raised from the dead It is very well known that they expected the coming of Elias and that from the words of Mal. IV. 5. not rightly understood which mistake the Greek Version seems to patronize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will send you Elias the Teshbite which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they add of themselves in favour of their own Tradition which indeed is too frequent an usage in that Version to look so far asquint toward the Jewish Traditions as to do injury to the Sacred Text. VERS XXIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lamb of God SAINT John alludes plainly to the Lamb of the daily Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in shadow took away the sins of Israel I. It was commanded in the Law that he that offer'd the Sacrifice should lay his hand upon the head of the Sacrifice Levit. I. 4. III. 2. IV. 4 c. II. The reason of which usage was that he might as it were transfer his sins and guilt upon the head of the offering which is more especially evident in the scape-goat Levit. XVI 22. Hence Christ is said Himself to have born our sins in his own body on the tree I Pet. II. 24. as the offering upon the Altar was wont to do He was made by God a sin for us II Cor. V. 21. that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sacrifice for sin III. The same rite was us'd about the Lamb of the daily Sacrifice that was offer'd for all Israel The stationary men as they were called or the Substitutes of the people laying their hands upon the head of the Lamb. a a a a a a Taanith cap. 4. hal 2. To this therefore the words of the Baptist refer The Lamb of God that is the daily Sacrifice taketh away the sins of the world as the Sacrifice did for all Israel Behold here the true Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world VERS XXXVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where dwellest thou THE proper and most immediate sense of this is where dwellest or where lodgest thou But I could willingly render it as if it had been said Where dost thou keep thy Sabbath and from thence conjecture that day was the evening of the Sabbath For whereas it is said and they abode with him that day it would be a little hard to understand it of the day that was now almost gone and therefore we may suppose it meant of the following day for it is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was now the tenth hour It was about the middle of our November when these things fell out in Bethabarah as will easily appear to any one that will be accurate in calculating the times and that little that was left of that day was then the tenth hour It was then about Sun-set and as it were the entrance of a new day so that it might more properly have been said They abode with him that night rather than that day only the Evangelist seems to point out that they remain'd with him the next day which that it was the Sabbath I will not so much contend as not without some reason suppose b b b b b b Cesar. Comment lib. 4. Or Oppi de Bell. Alexand. Cesar duabus de causis c. Cesar for two reasons would not fight that day partly because he had no Souldiers in the Ships and partly because it was after the tenth hour of the day VERS XLI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He findeth his Brother SO c c c c c c Sanhedr fol. 30. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rab Nachman bar Isaac found him with Rab Honna and many such like expressions in the Talmudick Authors as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have found VERS XLII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son of Iona. I Do not see any reason why the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joannes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joannas should be here put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jona or why any should contend as many do that it should be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joannas I. In the third Chap. of St. Luke the name Joanan is sounded three ways in the Greek Pronunciation of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Janna v. 24. so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joanna v. 27. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jonan v. 30. but never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jona II. Jona was a name amongst the Jews very commonly used and we meet with it frequently in the Talmudick Authors written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jonah why therefore should not Peter's father be allow'd the name of Jonah as well as that of John III. Especially when this Son of Jonah imitated the great Prophet of that name in this that both Preached to the Gentiles and both began their journey from Joppa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is by interpretation Peter Vulg. Qúod est si interpreteris Petra which is by interpretation a stone So Act. IX 26. Tabitha which being interpreted is Dorcas Beza Caprea a Goat But what do the holy Penmen of the Scriptures make Lexicons or play the School-masters that they should only teach that the Syriack word Cepha in the Greek language signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stone and Tabitha Dorcas that is a Goat No rather they teach what Greek proper names answer to those Syriack proper names for the Syriack proper name is here render'd into the Greek proper name and not an appellative into an appellative nor a proper name into an appellative But let the Vulgar have what it desires and be it so Thou shalt be called a Rock yet you will scarce grant that our Blessed Saviour should call Simon a rock in the direct and most ordinary sense There is no rock save our God II Sam. XXII 32. where the Greek Interpreters instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rock have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creator Which word St. Peter himself makes use of I Pet. IV. 19. shewing who is that rock indeed There is a rock or stone of stumbling indeed as well as a foundation stone and this stone of stumbling hath St. Peter been made to the fall of many thousands not by any fault of his but theirs who through ignorance or frowardness or both will esteem him as a rock upon which the Church is built If therefore they will so pertinaciously adhere to that Version Et tu vocaberis Petra let it be render'd into English
h h h h h h De Bell. Sacr. lib. 10. cap. 31. VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He will reprove the world of sin c. THE Holy Spirit had absented himself from that Nation now for the space of four hundred years or thereabout and therefore when he should be given and pour'd out in a way and in measures so very wonderful he could not but evince it to the world that Jesus was the true Messiah the Son of God who had so miraculously pour'd out the Holy Spirit amongst them and consequently could not but reprove and redargue the world of sin because they believed not in him VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of righteousness c. THAT this righteousness here mention'd is to be understood of the righteousness of Christ hardly any but will readily enough grant but the question is what sort of righteousness of his is here meant whether his personal and inherent or his communicated and justifying righteousness we may say that both may be meant here I. Because he went to the Father it abundantly argu'd him a just and righteous person held under no guilt at all however condemn'd by men as a malefactor II. Because he pour'd out the Spirit it argu'd the merit of his righteousness for otherwise he could not in that manner have given the Holy Spirit And indeed that what is chiefly meant here is that righteousness of his by which we are justify'd this may perswade us that so many and so great things are spoken concerning it in the Holy Scriptures Isai. LVI 1. My Salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed Dan. IX 29. To bring in everlasting righteousness Jer. XXIII 6. This is his name by which he shall be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS And in the Epistles of the Apostles especially those of St. Paul this righteousness is frequently and highly celebrated seeming indeed the main and principal subject of the Doctrines of the Gospel In the stead of many others let this serve for all Rom. I. 17. For therein viz. in the Gospel is the righteousness of God reveal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from faith to faith which words may be a good Comment upon the foregoing Clause I. The Law teacheth faith that is that we believe in God But the Gospel directs us to proceed from faith to faith viz. from faith in God to faith in Christ for true and saving faith is not a meer naked recumbency immediately upon God which faith the Jews were wont to profess but faith in God by the mediation of faith in Christ. II. In the Law the righteousness of God was reveal'd condemning but in the Gospel it was reveal'd justifying the sinner And this is the great mystery of the Gospel that sinnes are justify'd not only through the grace and meer compassion and mercy of God but through Divine justice and righteousness too that is through the righteousness of Christ who is Jehovah the Lord our righteousness And the Spirit of Truth when he came he did reprove and instruct the world concerning these two great articles of faith wherein the Jews had so mischievously deceiv'd themselves that is concerning true saving faith faith in Christ and also concerning the manner or formal cause of Justification viz. the righteousness of Christ. But then how can we form the Argument I go unto the Father therefore the world shall be convinc'd of my justifying righteousness I. Let us consider that the expression I go unto the Father hath something more in it than I go to Heaven So that by this kind of phrase our Saviour seems to hint That work being now finisht for the doing of which my Father sent me into the world I am now returning to him again Now the work which Christ had to do for the Father was various The manifestation of the Father Preaching the Gospel vanquishing the enemies of God sin death and the Devil but the main and chief of all and upon which all the rest did depend was that he might perform a perfect obedience or obediential righteousness to God God had created man that he might obey his Maker which when he did not do but being led away by the Devil grew disobedient where was the Creator's glory The Devil triumphs that the whole humane race in Adam had kickt against God prov'd a rebel and warr'd under the banners of Satan It was necessary therefore that Christ clothing himself in the humane nature should come into the world and vindicate the glory of God by performing an intire obedience due from mankind and worthy of his Maker He did what weigh'd down for all the disobedience of all mankind I may say of the Devils too for his obedience was infinite He fulfilled a righteousness by which sinners might be justify'd which answer'd that justice that would have condemned them for the righteousness was infinite This was the great business he had to do in this world to pay such an obedience and to fulfill such a righteousness and this righteousness is the principal and noble theme and subject of the Evangelical Doctrine Rom. I. 17. of this the world must primarily and of necessity be convinc'd and instructed to the glory of him that justifieth and the declaration of the true Doctrine of Justification And this rightequsness of his was abundantly evidenced by his going to the Father because he could not have been receiv'd there if he had not fully accomplisht that work for which he had been sent II. It is added not without reason and ye see me no more i. e. Although you are my nearest and dearest friends yet you shall no more enjoy my presence on earth by which may be evinced that you shall partake of my merits especially when the world shall see you enricht so gloriously with the gifts of my Spirit VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of judgment because the Prince c. IT is well known that the Prince of this world was judged when our Saviour overcame him by the obedience of his death Heb. II. 14. and the first instance of that judgment and victory was when he arose from the dead the next was when he loos'd the Gentiles out of the chains and bondage of Satan by the Gospel and bound him himself Revel XX. 1 2. which place will be a very good Comment upon this passage And both do plainly enough evince that Christ will be capable of judging the whole world viz. all those that believe not on him when he hath already judg'd the Prince of this world This may call to mind the Jewish opinion concerning the judgment that should be exercis'd under the Messiah that he should not judg Israel at all but the Gentiles only nay that the Jews were themselves rather to judg the Gentiles than that they were to be judg'd But he that hath judg'd the Prince of this world the author of all unbelief will also judg every unbeliever too VERS XII
lookt toward one another but when they did not then they turn'd their faces toward the walls Thus Onkelos comments upon this place of the Chronicles I hardly think he Targumizeth on the Book for the Targum at least that is in our hands renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Cherubins are made of lilly-work VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Touch me not for I am not yet ascended c. THESE words relate to what he had spoken formerly about sending the Comforter and that he would not leave them comfortless c. And this probably Mary Magdalen's mind was intent upon when she fell at his feet and would have embraced them But he I must first ascend to my Father before I can bestow those things upon you which I have promised do not therefore touch me and detain me upon any expectation of that kind but wait for my Ascension rather and go and tell the same things to my Brethren for their encouragement VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted HE had formerly given them a power of binding and loosing and therefore probably bestows something more upon them now than what he had conferr'd before For I. It would seem a little incongruous for our Saviour to use an action so new and unwonted such as was his breathing upon them to vest them only with that power which he had before given them II. The power of binding and loosing was concern'd only in the articles and decisions of the Law this power which he now gives them reacht to the sins of mankind That power concern'd the Doctrines this the persons of men Now that we may understand the words that are before us let us a little consider what is said Luk. XXIV 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Which words we may suppose he spoke before he utter'd what is in this verse And so might there not upon the occasion of those words arise some such scruple as this in the Apostles breasts Is it so indeed must remission of sins be Preached to those in Jerusalem who have stain'd themselves with the blood of the Messiah himself Yes saith he For whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them To this those words of his upon the Cross have some reference Luk. XXIII 34. Father forgive them c. And indeed upon what foundation with what confidence could the Apostles have preacht remission of sins to such wretched men who had so wickedly so cruelly murder'd their own Lord the Lord of life unless authoriz'd to it by a peculiar commission granted to them from their Lord himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose soever ye retain they are retained Besides the negative included in these words that is If you do not remit them they shall not be remitted there is something superadded that is positive That is I. There is granted to them a power of smiting the rebellious with present death or some bodily stroke II. A power of delivering them over to Satan Whence had St. Peter that power of striking Ananias and Sapphira with so fatal a bolt whence St. Paul that of striking Elymas blind whence of delivering over Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan if not from this very commission given them by Christ Christ himself never exercis'd this power himself it was not one person whom he stroke either with death or any afflictive disease some indeed he raised when they had been dead and infinite numbers of the sick and diseased whom he cured He snatcht several from the power of the Devils he deliver'd none to them That the Apostles therefore might be capable of performing things of so high a nature it was necessary they should be backt and encourag'd by a peculiar authority which if we find not in this clause Whose soever sins ye retain they are retained where should we look for it And therefore when he endows his Apostles with a power which he never thought fit to exercise in his own person no wonder if he does it by a singular and unusual action and that was breathing upon them ver 22. But we must know that whereas amongst other mighty powers conferr'd we reckon that as one viz. delivering over unto Satan we are far from meaning nothing else by it but Excommunication What the Jews themselves meant by that kind of phrase let us see by one instance d d d d d d Succah fol. 53. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those two men of Cush that stood before Solomon Elihoreph and Ahijah the Scribes Sons of Shausha On a certain day Solomon saw the Angel of Death weeping he said why weepest thou He answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because these two Cushites entreat me that they may continue here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon deliver'd them over to the Devil who brought them to the borders of Luz and when they were come to the borders of Luz they dy'd Gloss. He calls them Cushites Ironically because they were very beautiful They entreat me that they might continue here For the time of their death was now come But the Angel of death could not take their souls away because it had been decreed that they should not die but at the Gates of Luz Solomon therefore deliver'd them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Devils for he reign'd over the Devils as it is written And Solomon sat upon the Throne of the Lord for he reigned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over those things that are above and those things that are below Josephus also makes mention of the power that Solomon had over Devils e e e e e e Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God taught him an art against Demons The belief of either of these stories is at the liberty of the Reader Only from the former we may make this observation that a power of delivering over to Satan was even in the Jews opinion divine and miraculous We acknowledg this to have been in the Apostles and in the Apostles only and I know no where if not in the words we are now treating of from whence otherwise the original of this power and authority can be deriv'd III. It seems further that at this very time was granted to the Apostles a commission to confer the Holy Spirit on those whom they found qualify'd and that in these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost i. e. Receive ye it to distribute it to others For although it cannot be deny'd but that they receiv'd the Holy Ghost for other reasons also and to other ends of which we have already discours'd yet is not this great end to be excluded which seem'd the highest and noblest endowment of all viz. that Christ breathing upon them inspir'd them with the Holy
such as I described unto you false Teachers that pretended to the Spirit and to preach and work Miracles by the Spirit And I shall discourse a little concerning the great delusion that is by pretence of the Spirit and this the rather that I may speak something like in subsequence to that I treated upon at our last Meeting Then I exhorted you to hold Communion by the example of Christ. For separation I then told you was the undoing of our Church Now I give caution against the pretence of those that Preach and Expound Scripture by the Spirit For that is the cause of Separation and hath proved the ruine of Religion And although this change of times doth seem to promise that this delusion in time will dye so that the present discourse may seem not so very pertinent yet doth that mischief now live move delude and captivate silly souls little less than it hath done all along Therefore give me leave a little to discover this delusion to you that you may not only be the better fenced against it that it do not deceive you but that you may be the better furnished to stop the mouths of those that pretend to it For the prosecuting this argument you must distinguish between the false pretence to the Spirit of Sanctification and to the Spirit of Revelation By the former men deceive themselves by the latter others They deceive themselves by conceiving they have the former because they have something like it but these deceive others by the pretence of the latter though they have nothing like it There is no grace but there is a false coin minted by the Devil to dissemble it As the Harlot takes the live-child from the unwitting mother and fosters the dead one in the room and so lyes the poor woman deceived and so the poor man is deceived and thinks he hath saving grace when t is but common and the Spirit of Sanctification when t is but the Spirit of Bondage But I shall not insist on this But proceed to the other pretence viz. to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophesie whereby these in the Text deceived others I shall not need to shew you how this hath been the great cheat in all times There were false Prophets before the captivity and false Prophets after it such pretenders almost in all times I shall strip this delusion naked and whip it before you by observing these four things I. No degree of holiness whatsoever doth necessarily beget and infer the Spirit of Revelation as the cause produceth the effect It is the first cheat that these men put upon themselves and others by concluding I am a Saint therefore I have the Spirit and I preach and expound Scripture by the Spirit whereas I say no degree of Sanctification doth necessarily beget and produce that of Revelation I clear this from the nature of the thing it self and by examples First From the nature of the thing The Spirit of Holiness and Revelation are far different therefore the one is not the cause of the other The cause and the effect have a parity and similitude one with another but these are far from being so 1. They are impartible to different subjects Holiness only to holy men the Spirit of Revelation sometimes to wicked men So it was imparted to Balaam Numb XXIII so likewise to Judas and Caiaphas 2. They are bestowed upon different ends Holiness for the good of him that hath it Revelation for the benefit of others 3. They are of different manners and operations The Spirit of Sanctification changeth the heart Paul is a Saul no more Revelation doth not Judas is Judas still 4. They are of different Diffusion in the Soul Sanctification is quite through I Thess. V. 23. Revelation only in the understanding 5. They are of different Effects Sanctification never produceth but what is good Revelation may produce what is evil Knowledge puffeth up Now see what a cheat they are in This to themselves if they believe it themselves and to others that believe it in this argumentation I am holy therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation To the further confuting of this add but two Examples 1. The first Adam He was as holy as created nature could be and yet had he the Spirit of Revelation Not the Spirit at all He was most holy yet had not the Spirit of Sanctification most full of knowledge yet had not the Spirit of Revelation but all his holiness was founded only in his nature as he was created God made him holy and left him to stand upon his own holiness and had not the assistance of the Spirit at all So he had great knowledge yet not the Spirit of Revelation either to know things to come or to know things beyond their natures and causes But 2. Consider the second Adam He was holiness it self yet had he not the Spirit of Revelation by that holiness In Christ there were two things The holiness of his person by union with the Godhead and the Indowment of the Spirit upon his person He was so holy that he was not only without sin but he was impeccable Rom. VIII 2. as we are a Law that cannot but sin so he contra Now this holiness of Christs person or nature is to a clean different end to what the guifts of the Spirit upon him were His person was so holy that he might perform the Law satisfie justice pay obedience conquer Satan But the guifts of the Spirit were to fit him for Mediatorship to cast out Devils to reveal the will of God to work Miracles to confirm that Doctrine As these differ in their ends so are they from different originals holiness from the purity of his nature indowments by extraordinary donation If he had the Spirit in extraordinary guifts of Revelation and Miracles by vertue of his holy nature why was that Spirit given so visible Matth. III. and given when he was to begin his Mediation Consider his own words Mark XIII 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father Some are ashamed to confess their ignorance of any thing yet he doth it plainly For the Divine Nature in Christ acted not to the utmost of its power T is clear from this passage of Christ that by his nature he had not the Spirit of Revelation but he had it by the immediate guift of God For it pleased not God so to reveal that day and hour to him while he was here on Earth So that by this example you may see much more the fallacy of that argument I am a Saint therefore I have the Spirit of Revelation Whereas Christ himself could not say so II. The Spirit of Revelation is given indeed to Saints but means little that sence that these men speak of but is of a clean different nature The Apostle prays Ephes. I. 17. That God would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom
cursed that Adam and all the Saints of God might not look for blessedness upon the Earth but in Christ nor for Christ nor his Kingdom upon this cursed Earth but in Heaven O Jew the Earth is cursed where canst thou find a place upon it for Messias blessed Kingdom All is but as Meshek and the Tents of Kedar to him he finds not a place here to lay his head I may say the title over Christs head was and is a stumbling block under the Jews feet where it was written Jesus of Nazareth and they looked for Messias of Bethlehem King of the Jews and they saw nothing in him but poverty and contempt In Joh. XVII 24. Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Where I am where is that Not here wherein is poverty contempt and dishonor as he experienced when he was here but to see my glory there where he is glorified Alas What treatment can he provide for them here Can he spread a table for their full satisfaction in this Wilderness where he found none for himself The dish he sets before them is In this world you shall have tribulation but be of good chear there is better chear provided for you in my Fathers house This is but a Wilderness you are passing through Canaan is the land provided for the flowing with milk and hony In my Fathers house there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many abiding places here you are flitting from place to place and no abiding but I have prepared a Rest for the people of God An unfit place here where there is nothing but changes and vicissitudes and where in a moment Amnons mirth and feasting may be turned into mourning and misery All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change cometh saith Job Why he met with changes enough but he means his great change when he should be changed no more than that that he looks for and trusts in An unfit place this when the house may be blown down whilst we are feasting in it as it happened to Jobs children This World then is no fit place for Christ to entertain his people in Secondly A believer in this World is not yet capable of the Entertainment that Christ has to give him therfore that is reserved for him in his Fathers house As Christ tells his Disciples I have many things to speak to you but you cannot bear them So I say in our present case Christ hath many excellent treatments to entertain them withal but here they are not fit for them while we are in this corruptible flesh we want the wedding garment Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God So corruptible bodies are not garments fit for these divine entertainments 1. The Soul in these bodies does not act to the utmost extent its nature is capable of It is like a bird that let out injoys a whole World of liberty but not before There is a kind of immensity in the Soul and this is one part of Gods image Any one Soul among us could hold as much wisdom goodness c. as God in its degree and capacity but it is straitned in these bodies that it cannot act to such an extensiveness As the River is straitned within its banks till it fall into the Ocean so the Soul here is straitned by ignorance infirmities pressures but at death it slips into the Ocean of Eternity where there is no more straitness 2. How impossible is it in these mortal bodies to see God as he is How hard through the fogs of flesh to see the things of God How impossible to behold God in his essence In the mount will the Lord be seen and not in the low vallies of mortality and corruption Oh! I cannot but with rapture consider of the strange and blessed change that blessed Souls find as soon as ever departed Here we are groping after him and much ado we have to discern a little of him here one cloud or other is interposing twixt our contemplation and that Sun But as soon as we are got out of the body we behold that incomprehensible light as he is Oh! what rapture of Soul will it be to see all clouds dispelled and to look with open full eye upon the Sun Oh! this is our God we have groped we have waited for him What the Apostle saith II Cor. III. ult But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory This is of transcendent comfort for believers it being their happiness here to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and to be changed into the same image What ravishment of Joy will it be to find it effected to the utmost in Eternity 3. How impossible is it to keep the heart fixed on God here While flesh hangs on it that will be making it to flag aside A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise April 6. 1666. I JOHN V. 16. There is a sin unto death I do not say that he should pray for it AND it is a deadly sin indeed that outvies and excludes the charity of this Apostle A man as his Writings evidence of him and as Ecclesiastical History testifies concerning him composed altogether of Charity His Epistles evidence to you how urgent he is for love one to another and Ecclesiastical History will tell you that his common salutation to all he met was Let us love one another But here he hath met with a wretch to whom he cannot find in his heart to say God speed A deadly sin and a deadly sinner to whom he cannot allow the Christian the Common the needful Charity of his own or other mens prayers O no It is a sin unto death The uttering of the first clause There is a sin unto death may not undeservedly nor impertinently move such another inquiry in the Congregation as the uttering of those words of our Saviour One of you shall betray me did move at his Table every one then to say Is it I and every one here to say is the sin mine As it was time for every one of Israel to look about him lest the thing should fall to his share when Joshua proclaimed among them There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee O Israel Josh VII 13. So when the Holy Ghost proclaimeth in the words of the Text There is a sin unto death is it not time is it not pertinent for every one that is within hearing to look about and take heed lest this dead Concubine do lie at the threshold of his door as she did in Gibeah Judg. XIX And what hath any notorious sinner to say for himself why the Law of the Text should not proceed against him and condemn his profaneness uncleanness wickedness unconscionableness under the name and title of a sin unto death seeing it seemeth a great deal more currant that
to strike Elymas with blindness and to deliver Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan but from that Apostolick power which Christ granted to the Apostles in these words Well might not these sins very well be called sins unto death that were overtaken with such deadly and dreadful penalties Was not that sin a sin unto death that was to be retained as retaining is set in di rectopposition to remitting Thus may we bring the subjectum quaestionis into a farnarrower compass than the Rhemists bring it who do bewray their ignorance one way that they may serve their own turn another their ignorance of the proper original of the Phrase sin unto death that they may serve their turn about praying for the dead The greatest difficulties of the Scripture lie in the Language for unlock the Language and Phrases and the difficulty is gone And therefore they that take upon them to preach by the spirit and to expound the Scripture by the spirit let them either unlock to me the Hebrew Phrases in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New that are difficult and obscure or else they do nothing Now to attain to the meaning of such dark and doubtful Phrases the way is not so proper to put on them a sense of our own as to consider what sense they might take them in to whom and among whom the things were spoken and written in their common Speech If it were well considered how the Jewish Nation understood binding and loosing in their Schools and in their common Speech we should never need to mint such senses of our own to put upon the Phrase it would so be done to our hands Such an obscure Phrase is that of our Saviours about the sin against the Holy Ghost that it shall never be forgiven neither in this life nor c. And the collection that the Rhemists make upon it may seem very Logical for in that he saith that sin shall not be forgiven in the World to come doth it not argue that some other sins are then forgiven But this is their own sense and Logick it is not our Saviours Now how should we know our Saviours sense By considering how they would understand it to whom the words were spoken in their common acceptation and Language viz. they would soon understand it to be a direct facing and confuting of their foolish opinion concerning forgiveness of blasphemy against God which was that repentance and the day of expiation expiated a third part of the sin corporal punishment inflicted by the Magistrate expiated another third part but death did quite wipe it clean out for say they it is written This sin shall not be purged from you till you die which argues that it was purged by death No saith our Saviour neither in this life either by repentance nor day of expiation nor corporal punishment nor pardon in the life to come by the purging and wiping out of death Such an obscure Phrase is this before us A sin unto deâ—th and it seems a fair sense which the Rhemists have put upon it of their own viz. that it should mean A sin a man liâ—es in till he die But this is their own sense it is not the Apostles Now how should we know the Apostles sense By considering how they understood this Phrase in their common Language to whom he wrote And how was that Take it up by this Observation That in the Jewish Schools and Nation and Language this was a most frequent and ordinary saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a man do such or such a thing as should not be done ignorantly he is to bring a sin offering and that attones for him But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he do it wilfully he is bound over to cutting off And in this they speak but the words of the Law in Numb XV. 27 28. If any soul sin through ignorance he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering And the Priest shall make an attonement for him that sinneth ignorantly But the soul that doth ought presumptuously whether he be born in the Land or a Stranger the same hath reproached the Lord That soul shall be cut off from among his people Now what is meant by cutting off If you ask some they will put a sense of their own upon the Phrase and tell you it means a cutting off or separating a person from the Congregation and publick Assemblies by Excommunication But ask the Jews to and among whom the thing was spoken what it means in their common speech and acceptation and they will tell you cutting off means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death by the hand of Heaven Death or destruction by the hand of God Interpreting the matter to this purpose that if a person sinned wilfully and presumptuously there was no sin offering allowed in that case but the party so offending fell immediately under liableness to divine vengance to be destroied or cut off by the hand of Heaven And this interpretation of the Phrase of cutting off the Apostle Paul doth justifie in that passage Heb. X. 26. If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment c. That Text of Moses lots out the family of the Achan that we are speaking of the sin unto death and this Text of the Apostle takes him by the poll and tells what sin it is It tells you what sin it is viz. Sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth It limits to you why it is called a sin unto death because there is no other way upon the committing of it but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation And it gives you some intimation why no praying for it because no sacrifice for it Before we come to speak upon the words we have some cause to muse and mourn over them As it is said Origen wept over that passage of the Psalmist that after his Apostasie stung him in Psal. L. 16 17. But unto the wicked God said what hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and casteth my words behind thee If there be no sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation when we have sinned wilfully after we have once received the knowledge of the truth Men and brethren what shall we do Take the truth in the sense that may help most to favour us for the Gospel as it means there indeed And take sinning wilfully for as exclusive a term as you can to shut and exclude us out of the guilt here intended yet who can say but he hath sinned wilfully since he received the knowledge of the Gospel over and over If I should take Jeremiahs course in his fifth Chapter and vers 4. and forward sending first to the poor or inferior rank and ask
sin unto death viz. that brought to an immediate liableness to cutting off by divine vengeance Now this was a sin of presumption and despising the Word of God as Moses explains what that presumptuous sinning is in a high degree which as the Apostle tells in the same Chapter that it was a treading under foot the Son of God c. Therefore it is no wonder if with Paul there be no Sacrifice for it and with this Apostle no praying for it But why does not this our Apostle speak out and say I say he should not pray for it but says only I do not say that he should Let me lay to this expression that passage of our Saviour Matth. XVIII 17. If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publican By which our Saviour doth not excommunicate such a one out of the Church for he saith not let him be to the Church but thee as a Heathen But he dischargeth and acquitteth the party injured from those duties and offices which he ought otherwise to him as a brother Our Apostles expression is much like to the same tenor He takes care of the Consciences of the people of God as well as he sheweth the two conditions of the sinner he speaketh of There were some that might be in a strait what to do in this case They were commanded by their Lord and Master to pray for their enemies these enemies of theirs were become so like their Father the Devil that it might pose their Consciences whetheâ— they should pray for them or no. Therefore this divine Apostle useth a happy temper that he will lay no charge on them that are so pinched to pray for them nor indeed forbid those to pray for them that are more inlarged for undoubtedly the indifferent expression of the Apostle as I may call it seems plainly to carry with it such a consideration Ye see here in the Text a deadly wounded wretch like Amasa II Sam. XX. wallowing in his own blood if you call in Moses and Paul to give their Coroners verdict concerning the manner and cause of his death from those Texts of theirs that we have cited they will tell you that he is felo de se that he destroied himself and they will tell you that it was by wilful sinning after the knowledge of the truth wilful sinning against the Word of God That sin is the more desperately deadly by how much it is the more desperately wilful Hos. V. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the Commandment One would think it should be because he did not willingly walk after the Commandment but by Commandment is meant the idolatrous Commandment of Jeroboam the Statutes of Omri and Ephraim was broken in pieces because he walked after them and broke the more because he walked after them willingly If the motions of sin which are by the Law do work in them to bring forth fruit unto death as the Apostle says Rom. VII 5. much more the motions of sin which are clean against the Law I must confess I do not understand the irritating or provoking power of the Law which some collect from this place for to me it is without doubt that the meaning of the Apostle is The motions of sin that were by the Law mistaken not efficiently for such was the Judgment of the Jews concerning the Law viz. That it did restrain only the outward action but regarded not the internal motion and so the Apostle seems to give some hint of his own mistake a while of the Law about the point of lust Now if the fruit of those motions of sin which are by the mistake of the Law be so deadly how must the actings of sin which are against the known Law wilfully committed be much more deadly Among the grains shall I call them or the talent weights that are cast into the scales to make sin weigh exceeding sinful this adds not the least aggravation if it do not indeed the greatest that it was done knowingly and wilfully And therefore in that cousen german sin to this we are speaking of for to me they are clearly distinct the sin against the Holy Ghost the grievousness of it in comparison of sinning against the Son lies not in regard of the persons sinned against as if the Holy Ghost were a nobler person than the Son but in regard of the manner of sinning the Son they knew not in so much humility and so blasphemed him out of ignorance but they saw the apparent evidence of the Holy Ghost in the miracles they saw and yet blasphemed him wilfully This dies the sins of wicked men of so deep a dye above the sins of the Saints of God because those sin with whole propensity of mind these of infirmity and against their wills And I cannot but remember the determination of St. Austin in a point of this nature About chaste Christian matrons and virgins that were ravished by the enemy when he broke into the City he determines well that they were not defiled though they were defiled their minds pure though the body polluted and he concludes Duo fuerunt ast unus adulterium commisit there were two in the action but one of them in the adultery And that here one sinned wilfully the other had no mind to the sin at all This then if there were nothing else doth sufficiently aggravate the grievousness of wilful sinning that it carries the very image and superscription of the sin of the Devil it is as it were flesh and bone of his bone and sin of his sin very Devil of very Devil Does any ask me what was that sin of the Devil It has been conceived by many that it was such a Pride as made him aspire to be equal with God or above him to set his Throne even with God or to unthrone him and to this purpose have those words been applied Esa. XIV 12 13. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning c. For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God c. I will be like the most High Which words indeed mean only the arrogance and haughtiness of the proud King of Babylon Does any one then ask me what was the sin of the Devil I should answer desperate malicing the honour and happiness of man in which God had placed him and desperate despising and scorning of that charge and command that God had laid upon Angels concerning man that they should attend him and keep him in all his ways And both these desperately wilful for he could sin at no lower rate for he could not sin of ignorance being an Angel and an Angel could have no tempter to sin but himself I shall not go about to define or circumscribe exactly the bounds wherin to conclude wilful sinning I shall not confine this evil spirit with any circle
turned into Glory Faith into fruition Sanctification into impeccability and there will be no need of the Spirit in our sense any more So that Having the Spirit is understood of man considered only under the Fall II. Having the Spirit speaks of having it for mans Recovery The Spirit is given for his Recovery viz. what God will have recovered Let us look back to the Creation That lesson is divine and pertinent Eccles. XII 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth There is more in it than every one observes It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Creators in the plural and teaches two things That as the first lesson Youth is to learn is to know his Creator so therewith to learn to know the Mystery of the Trinity that created him God created all things and man an Epitomy of all by the Word and Spirit Son and Holy Ghost XXXIII Psal. 6. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his Mouth Joh. I. 3. All things were made by him and without him was not any made that was made Job XXXIII 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Now when Gods creation in man was spoiled by Son and Spirit it is repaired So that as Christ saith of himself I come to seek and to save that which was lost so the Spirit came to restore and repair what was decayed This is the meaning of the new creature 2 Cor. V. 17. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature Eph. II. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Who works this Christ and the Spirit Something Christ doth by his blood viz. restores righteousness the rest by his Spirit viz. recovers holiness Nay I may add the Spirit is given only for mans Recovery The Spirit created man so perfect to try him Spiritus movens the Spirit moving is to try man outward administrations are to try him but when sanctification comes it hath a further purpose Compare man in innocency with man after the fall His state in which he then was was to try him But will the Spirit alway have his work of so uncertain issue Will he never act but for trial and leave the issue to the will of man God when he intended not innocency for the way of Salvation left man to himself Doth the Spirit the like in a way intended for Salvation Who then could be saved Spiritus movens the Spirit moving I said was given to try inhabitans inhabiting only and undoubtedly to Recover III. Having the Spirit presupposeth having of Christ vers 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christs contra If any have the Spirit he hath Christ. These terms are convertible He that hath Christ hath the Spirit and vice versa he that hath the Spirit hath Christ. As He that hath the Father hath the Son and he that hath the Son hath the Father also As Son and Spirit cooperated in mans creation so in his renovation Personal works are distinct but never separate Christ to Justifie the Spirit to Sanctifie but never one without the other The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ is it possible then to have the Spirit absque Christo without having Christ And he is called his Spirit not only quia procedit a filio because he proceeded from the Son but because he gives him and is a purchase of his blood As the Spirit moved on the Waters so he moves on the blood of Christ he comes swimming in that and it is ex merito sanguinis from the merit of his blood whosoever hath him See Gods way of cleansing the Leper which is an Emblem of cleansing a sinner XIV Levit. 14 15 17. And the Priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and the Priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed c. And the Priest shall take some of the Log of oyl c. And the Priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear c. First Blood and then Oyl On whom is the unction of the Spirit on him is first the unction of blood As the person is accepted before his Service Gen IV. 4. The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering So the person is first Justified before Sanctified God doth not new-create a person whom he accepts not IV. He that hath the Spirit hath a twofold work of the Spirit common grace and sanctifying grace We may consider the Spirit as Creator and Sanctifier and thirdly acting in a Work between both When he teacheth man arts indues him with intellectual abilities he then works as Creator in bonum Universi for the good of the Universe When he sanctifieth he doth it for the recovery of the Soul Now there is a work between both that is more than he doth as Creator and less than as Sanctifier but in tendency to the latter but as yet it is not it viz. Common grace Such is Illumination to see ones Condition Conviction with feeling Conscience active thoughts of Soul This is called grace because more than nature Common because wicked men have it sometimes as appears by Heb. VI. 4. And you read of Felix his trembling at S. Pauls Sermon Now the Spirit never worketh sanctifying grace but first useth this to make way He plows the heart by common grace and so prepares it for sanctifying grace In this Chapter at vers 15. There was the Spirit of fear before that of adoption As the Law was given first so the work of the Law is first Rom. VII 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I died As Moses delivered the people of Israel into the hand of Joshua so the Law when it hath sufficiently disciplined us commits us into the hand of Grace As in Gal. III. 17. The Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the Law c. cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect The Law is subservient to the promise so this work of the Law to Grace Is a meer work of the Law sanctifying Grace True the work of the Law goes along with grace hence many a gracious heart is under terrors But is the first work of the Law Grace No it is to fit the heart to receive Grace Many now a days say I have the Spirit How came they by it If they have it it is an unnatural birth not bred and born after Gods ordinary way To day debauched to morrow turn Sectary and then have the Spirit That was a wonder in the Prophet speaking of one that before she travailed was delivered such a wonder is this if it be so No God causeth this work of Common Grace to prepare and fit us for the reception of the Holy Spirit V. The Spirit worketh both these by the
Word The Spirit gave the Scriptures and he useth them for the end why they were given viz. mans Salvation The Spirit unhingeth not the Essential actings of the Soul but works with them Now the acting of the Soul is by reasoning and perswasion The Will chooseth being perswaded by the Understanding and the Understanding is perswaded by the object And so the Spirit does in the work of Grace Gen IX 27. God shall perswade Japhet 2 Cor. V. 11. We perswade men Now this is not done but by the Word The heart is moulded by the Spirit to receive perswasion but by the Word he works perswasion in us Common grace first grace growth of Grace are thus all wrought by the Word I mean Common grace where sanctification is to follow Sometime there is stirring of Conscience in wicked men from horror and affrightments and sometimes from the Law for the glorifying of it but where healing must come the wound is made by the Word and the healing is effected by the Word A man is perswaded and satisfied that he is in an undone condition How is he so perswaded By the Word The Law does it Rom. VII 9. before mentioned A man is perswaded to rest on Christ. The Word doth it Faith comes by hearing That in Joh. VI. 45. will illustrate this It is written in the Prophet And they shall be all taught of God Taught of God who had been taught of the Devil Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me Cometh unto me as Teacher And how did they hear and learn from the father but from the Word of the Father Growth of grace also is built up by the Word 1 Pet. II. 2 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby What sets man upon obedience and striving against sin longing after God c The Word continually applied Man lives by the Word grows by the Word This is the means that the Spirit useth They that speak of a Light within them that serves for all if they mean Light from the Word let them then own the Word if they mean the Light of nature that never yet lighted man to Heaven That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World viz. The Gospel that went through the World t is clear that the Evangelist means that there Joh. I. 9. VI. Having the Spirit speaks not perfection in him that hath it It speaks Holiness not Sinlesness Take this in the mouth of two witnesses as holy as any First S. Paul Rom. VII 17. Sin dwelleth in me and 25. vers with the flesh I serve the Law of sin Secondly S. John 1 Ephes. I. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us To them that distinguish not betwixt holiness and perfection but say they are perfect because they think they are holy I say two things 1. They are little seen in their own hearts 2. Little seen in the Scripture and Divinity For the Scripture is abundant to the contrary and Divinity makes the contrary most plain and facil to be understood It is a Paradox Adam had perfection though not the Spirit a Believer hath the Spirit yet not perfection and yet the Believers imperfection is more excellent than Adams perfection I might instance First in the foundation of eithers holiness Adams from his Creation and nature a Believers from the Spirit and grace Secondly In the amissibleness of Adams Adams was liable to losing a Believers not Thirdly In the manner of Acting of which anon I cannot but observe that in Ephes. IV. 24. The new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred two ways and both to the present purpose The English well and according to the Hebrew Idiom reads true holiness and so the Apostle seems to compare the holiness of the new man with Adams His was true holiness but this truer and more excellent though imperfect It is rendred also The holiness of truth The Gospel is oft called Truth and if it be so to be rendred here then it means Evangelical holiness not only in opposition to Legal but to Adams Evangelical holiness is the holiness and that that indeed restores the Image of God After God created in righteousness and the holiness of truth Hence is that in 2 Pet. I. 4. That by these ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature Adam was not partaker of Gods holy nature but only of his creation if his holiness were any yet it was mans only but a Believer is partaker of the Spirit when he hath holiness Let me ask this Question and Answer it and that will clear all Why are we justified by perfect justification and righteousness for so we are because it is by the righteousness of Christ which is called the righteousness of God when we are not sanctified by perfect sanctification and holiness though sanctified by the Spirit of Christ I answer First It is needful that Justification be perfect for if we are not justified from every sin it is all one as if we were from none As break one Command and break all so unjustified from one sin and unjustified from all For 1. Such persons are not accepted of God 2. They are liable to condemnation therefore Justification must be perfect But in sanctification t is not so as I shall observe by and by A man may be truly though not perfectly holy Secondly It is Gods will and disposition to glorifie his grace in holiness by its living and acting in and against contrariety As it was Abrahams glory in Rom. IV. 18. Who against hope believed in hope Whether is it greater to be holy in the midst of sinfulness or as Adam to be holy when no sin touched him Which was greater for Lot to be holy in Sodome or in Abrahams house Compare a Believer with Adam Adam had Gods Image the Believer hath Gods Image restored What was Gods Image in Adam It consisted first in the Essence of his Soul and made him spiritual intellectual immortal and secondly in the qualification of his person and made him holy righteous The former is not lost nor extinguished by sin nor could only spoiled and soiled The Devils for all their sin yet are spiritual intellectual immortal substances The latter did embalm and keep fresh the former His holiness kept his spiritualness his intellectual nature in the right temper while he kept it Now to a Believer there is so much holiness as to do the same thing He is spiritual though he be flesh his Holiness makes his intellect right viz. To know God and love him and preserves him to immortality nay goes beyond Adam in operation As namely 1. He knows God in Christ which full revealing of God Adam did not attain to 2. He loves God more excellently than Adam did or could do Adam had no pul-back
things considered it is past all doubting that when he saith Whatsoever cometh out to meet me that he meaneth some man or woman or child of his family And child he had none but only this one daughter vers 33. And it is very like he little thought of her when he made his Vow but some of his men or maids And whereas our English hath rendred it favourably because of the great question that is raised upon his Vow Whatsoever cometh out the Hebrew original will most properly bear it He that cometh forth and so the Greek Latine and other Translations bear it For he was now upon an extraordinary and very great design viz. To go and fight with the potent army of the Ammonites his forces not being very great And therefore it is very likely that he makes an extraordinary Vow to his extraordinary design he was upon Now this had been but an ordinary and common business to Vow if I return from the children of Ammon with victory I will offer the first Lamb or Ram or Bullock I meet withal at my coming to mine own house Had this been any great Vow for the imploring his prospering in the great undertaking he went about But to dedicate a man or a woman to God spoke high and something like the greatness of the design And how he served his daughter when she came first to meet him is the great question and dispute Some tender of Jepthahs credit and reckoning it not fit to lay more hard things on him than the story will well bear therefore to make the best of it hold that he did dedicate to God not sacrifice his daughter he devoted her to God in keeping her a Recluse and Nun and never to be married though he had no other child and so his family was like to fall But on the contrary First Nunship and Vow of Virginity by the Papists indeed is pretended to be a great piece of devoting and consecrating the party to God But that it is so never was nor ever will be proved but only pretended and with a loud noise cried up as they did in the great hubbub at Ephesus Great is Diana of the Ephesians when none could understand or see any reason for such a hubbub and outcry Certainly among the Jewish Nation they were so far from accounting the Vow of Virginity a piece of Devotion and Religion that they accounted it a reproach for a woman to be childless nay a reproach for a woman not to be married You remember that saying of Elizabeth that had thitherto been barren Luke I. 25. Thus the Lord hath dealt with me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men A great reproach for a woman to live and die childless but God hath taken away that reproach from me in giving me a child And a greater reproach it was for a woman not to be married And hence is that in Psal. LXXVIII 63. Their young men were slain by the sword and their maidens were not praised for so it is in the Original which our English hath rendred were not given in marriage For it was a dispraise for a woman not to be married Nay the Jews in their Traditional Law by which they were led too much did not only account it a shame not to be married but a sin and a breach of Gods command For those words Gen. I. 28. Be fruitful and multiply they account not only a blessing but a Command and reckon it the first Command of the six hundred and thirteen commands that are in the Law And to this opinion of theirs it is that the Apostle reflects 1 Cor. VII 25. Where treating concerning virginity and marriage he saith Now concerning Virgins I have no command from the Lord but I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful Secondly To this may be added that Persons dedicated to the Lord were not thereby bound to perpetual Virginity For we read of some that were so dedicated that yet for all that married As Samson a dedicate Nazarite yet took him a wife and that of the daughters of the Philistins And Samuel dedicated by his parents and yet afterwards married and had children So that whereas the Papists account vowed Virginity so great a piece of Religion and Devotion and thereupon their Nuns and their Priests must not marry they will hardly find the least warrant for it either in the Old Testament or the New It is meerly an invention of their own as indeed is most of their Religion and clearly without any warrant or allowance of God It is very unlikely therefore that vowed Virginity should be ever so much in fashion or request in the Jewish Nation as for them to account it so great a piece of Religion or that Jephtha should account that a noble performance of his Vow and account it a great Vow to devote his Daughter to perpetual Virginity But if that were not the intent and action of his Vow what did he to his Daughter Did he really sacrifice her and offer her up for a burnt offering Thaâ— was less Religion and less in custom in the Nation to sacrifice a person And can it be imagined that Jephtha that the Apostle reckons among the faithful should do such a thing I answer Very true But may we not think him though faithful yet for the present that he might fall under ignorance and a blind zeal It is indeed something hard and strange to think so uncharitably of such an one as he was But The Fathers of old were almost unanimously of the mind that he really sacrificed his daughter They that have purposely handled this question will tell you that Tertullian Athanasius Nazianzen Hierom Ambrose Chrysostom Austen Theodoret and others were of that mind Besides Jewish Writers that might be produced I will name but two the Chaldee paraphrase and Josephus And divers modern Christians are of the same mind But still the objection will return What such a man as Jephtha murther his own Daughter and offer her in sacrifice Would the Apostle ever have reckoned him among the noble army of Faithful ones had he done such a thing as this I answer First That comes but a little short of this that is said of Solomon 1 King XI 5. Solomon went after Ashtoreth the Goddess of the Zidonians and Milcom the Abomination of the Ammonites Let the Jews plaister the case the best they can and say that he himself did not worship these Gods but only suffered his wives to worship them and that he did not build those high places for Chemosh and Molec vers 7. but only suffered his wives to build them Yet how deeply was he guilty in suffering such a thing But the Text tells you that he himself went after these Gods which in Scripture language signifies commonly the real committing Idolatry with such Gods And do but remember what the service of Molec was and offering
blessed for ever So that the great Angel Christ at the giving of the Law was the speaker and all the created Angels his silent Attendants And this Observation might be useful in some points of Divinity that Christ gave the Law as well as he gave the Gospel But Thirdly The Prophets and Ministers in Scripture phrase are usually called Angels Do I need to give instance Eccles. V. 6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say before the Angel or Minister at the Temple that it is an error Mal. II. 7. The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth for he is the Messenger or Angel of the Lord of Hosts And Chap. III. 1. Behold I send my Angel i. e. my messenger before thy face And to spare more you remember that in Revel I. ult The seven stars are the Angels or Ministers of the seven Churches So that the words before us may be reduced to this sense Ye received the Law by the disposition preaching and explaining of the Prophets and Ministers and have not kept it And to this sense speaks that Heb. II. 2. For if the word spoken by Angels that is Gods messengers the Prophets were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord. That is If the word in the mouth of the Prophets might not be transgressed but there was a just recompence of reward paid to the transgressor much more he must be paid that neglects the Salvation spoken by the Lord Christ. And to the like sense may that be taken in Gal. III. 19. The Law was added because of transgression being ordained disposed of preached by Angels i. e. Prophets and Ministers in the hand of a Mediator And this sense of Angels in the Text agrees very well with the words of Steven a little before Your Fathers persecuted and killed the Prophets the Lords Angels or Messengers and ye have received the Law by such Angels or Ministers but have not kept it For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Angel in the Greek Tongue signifies any messenger among men as frequently as it does the Angels in Heaven And so taking all these constructions together the words do fairly lead us to consider what cause or reason God hath given men to keep his Law and Commandments but men will not keep them Some have written large and excellent Discourses concerning the equity and reasonableness of Christian Religion And how large a discourse might be made upon this particular in our Religion How it is agreeable to all the reason in the World to obey and keep Gods Commandments which he hath given The Socinian requires a natural reason for what is supernatural or else he must not believe it Because it cannot be demonstrated in Logick Philosophy Mathematicks how three should be one and one should be three therefore we must not believe that there are three Persons in the Trinity and but one God But the wiser and more solid discourse would be rather to shew a reason why we are to believe such a thing than to seek a reason why or how such a thing is For there may be a plain reason to believe an article of Faith the reason of which thing reason cannot fathom So it may be but a sawcy wild inquiry what reason God had to give such and such particular commands But it may be a pious and humble inquiry to search what reason we have to keep his Commandments now he hath given them I. And the first reason we meet withal in all regular method and order is because he hath given them therefore we should keep them Ye received the Law by the disposition of Angels therefore ye should have kept it The Command in it self does not only challenge our obedience of it but the very giving of it does also challenge it There is a bond in the giving as well as a bond in the Command it self viz. a bond of love and mercy that would impart his Will and Commands David in Psal. CXLVII ult accounts it an incomparable mercy that Israel had above other Nations That God made his Law known to Jacob and his statutes to Israel And dealt not so with any Nation besides neither had they knowledge of his Law And God himself instituted the Feast of Pentecost at that just time of the year when the Law was given that they might celebrate the Memorial of that great mercy as he had instituted the Feast of the Passover at that just time of the year when they were delivered out of Egypt that they might commemorate the memory of that mercy He would have them to own the giving of the Law an equal mercy with their delivery out of bondage And what was the treasure of the Ark or the precious things that were laid up there The two Tables and Pot of Manna The Pot of Manna that minded them of the merciful and miraculous food wherewithal the Lord fed their bodies and the two Tables which minded them of the divine and heavenly food of their Souls that Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God That passage is worthy a great deal of meditation Luke XII 47 48. He that knew his Masters will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knew it not and committed things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with a few stripes Now whether do you think it better to know our Masters will or not to know it To have God to impart his Commands to us or not to impart them Herein it might seem better not to know his Commands because it we keep them not not knowing them there will follow the fewer stripes but the more if we know them and break them But this weighs the ballance down on the other side that it is impossible to avoid stripes if there be not the knowledge of Gods Commands it is possible to avoid them if there be knowledge More stripes indeed will be added if we keep them not but if we keep them no stripes at all If we should dispute this question whether God shewed more mercy in giving his Law and Commandments or in giving the Gospel and promises This might make some stand about the determination because though the promises are given of an infinite mercy yet there is no possibility of coming up to the attaining of the promises but in the way of the Commandments In the Promises God shews that he would do good to us and save us and in the Commandments he shews that he would have us to do good to our selves and save our selves Say not therefore that it was any severity in God to lay any such binding Commandments upon men acknowledge it mercy that he would make known his Will and Commandments to thee Wouldst thou
that with God the times of the afflictions and Condition of his people are most certainly determined because all times are determined by him For the further clearing of this Point I might discourse distinctly of these two things I. That it is Gods determination that his children shall be afflicted II. Gods determining of their afflictions leaves not the time they shall last undetermined It is the latter of these I shall prosecute The Providence of God herein is not like the Ostrich that lays Eggs and leaves them in the sand as if he determined of the thing and left the time of its lasting at random but he weigheth and setteth the one as well as the other In Mene Mene Tekel Upharisin the two latter words are either of them two several Languages Tekal in Chaldee is He hath weighed Tekel in Hebrew Thou art light Parsin in Hebrew is the Persians in Chaldee They divide And accordingly Daniel doth render them So in Gods determination of the Saints affliction as those words speak of Gods determining that Kingdom there are two several providences viz. as to the thing it self and as to the manner and time of it these two are twins born together in Gods decree and when he determines the one he determines the other In those passages in the Revelations where the Church is in the Wilderness in a sad and solitary condition a thousand two hundred and sixty days Chap. XII 6. And where the beast blasphemes and tyrannizes forty two months Chap. XIII 5. though the time be not that time definitely yet the very expressions shew the times defined and determined with God Allusion is made to the time of Antiochus tyrannizing over Religion three years and an half not as though the Church was to be bewildred three years and an half and no more and no less but by using the memorial of that sum of three years and an half he speaks the sad condition of the Church in that time it was in the wilderness as the times under Antiochus were sad And so concerning the Beasts blaspheming t is not meant as though he were to blaspheme and tyrannize forty two months exactly take them either of days which make three years and an half or of years a thousand two hundred and sixty years but by the memorial of the time of Antiochus rage and mischief the rage and mischief of the Beast is intimated So I say though the time intended be not exactly and punctually the time named yet when so punctual a sum is named it must needs argue that the time intended is punctually determined with God But need I to spend time to prove this to them that have learned that not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father and that the hairs of our heads are all numbred Matth. X. 29 30. which last passage puts me in mind of that Luk. XXI 18. There shall not an hair of your head perish Observe vers 16. Some of you they shall cause to be put to death And yet Not a hair of your head fall to the ground not a hair perish With many a Saint of God head and all have fallen to the ground as it was with them Revel XX. 4. that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus And yet not an hair of their head perish Some Expositors take this to have its accomplishment in the Resurrection when the Saints say they shall rise with all their hair Which granted yet the Exposition is far fetched The expression is a Proverbial speech as appears by 1 Sam. XIV 45. Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel God forbid as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground The meaning is he shall not suffer the least hurt or injury And to apply it to that passage of our Saviour and it speaks this comfortable Doctrine That the Saints of God in the bitterest persecution yea in death it self suffer not the least hurt or damage But however take it in what sense you will if our hairs be numbred and it be promised that not one of them shall fall to the ground then undoubtedly nothing befalls the Saints concerning affliction fortuitous or by hap hazzard but the thing matter manner measure time of affliction is determined by God Is there not an appointed time for man on Earth Job VII 1. There is an appointed time for every man which he shall not pass Job XIV 5. Be his end never so casual accidental in the Eyes of men yet it is prefixed by God and he cannot pass it or go beyond it And can we think any thing occurs to a Saint of God in the way to his end that is not likewise fixed A SERMON Preached upon HEBREWS X. 29. And hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing THE whole Verse runs thus Of how much sorâ—er punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace The spring head of this verse is at vers 26. and that bubbles out fire and brimstone Not a more dreadful portion of Scripture at the first reading and hearing in all the Bible A Text which speaks much like as the Law was spoken in Fire and Thunder If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries No sacrifice for sin if any sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the Truth and nothing but fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation If the Truth mean here the Gospel as undoubtedly it doth then Men and brethren what shall we do Who hath not sinned wilfully since he received the knowledge of the Gospel Nay our English translation is as favourable as may be for the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willingly and that makes the case still sadder For who hath not sinned willingly nay who not wilfully since he received the knowledge of the Truth of the Gospel against Knowledge against Truth against the Gospel That Chyrurgeon had need of a tender hand that is to dress a wounded heart gashed with the keen and cutting edge of this dreadful Scripture If any heart should be darted through with this arrow of the Almighty and that the reading or hearing this Text wounds his heart to the very root as the story is Origens heart after his Idolatry was wounded with reading those words in Psal. L. 16 17. But to the wicked God said What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or to take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee So that upon reading them he sat down and wept and all the Congregation wept with
one against another whereas there is nothing in the world of which you can give less a reason Why a Man should love every Man in the world I can give variety of reasons but why any one should hate any one Man in the world the invention of Men and Devils cannot give a solid reason He hath wronged thee So hast thou done others He hath deceived thee So hast thou but too oft done thy self He hath been offensive to thee So hast thou been to God Thou canst give no reason why thou shouldst hate thy Brother but the same will be reâ—orted upon thee that for the same cause thou shouldst hate thy self II. To love our Neighbour as our selves This is a Royal Law Jam. II. 8. or the Law of the King And that which the King of his Church hath not only given but a Law which he put himself also in subjection to Deny else his doing for mankind Did he not love his Neighbour Man as himself when he left the bosom of his Father to take the nature the infirmities the sins of Man upon him Did he not love his Neighbour Man as himself when he laid down his life for him and that with as exquisite cruelty anguish and torture executed against him as Men and Devils could invent And if you doubt of his love to Man his Neighbour look into the wound in his side and put your finger into the print of the nails in his hands and feet and ask how those came there And when this Patern and Copy of Love sends his choise Apostle into the world to testifie his love to the world he warrants and he inables him to express as much love to Men as it was possible for Man to express Look else upon his indefatigable pains for the good of Men his sufferings his troubles his bonds and imprisonment and in a word the constant course of his life and ministry And all for the benefit of Men in the service of his Master And then believe the better what he speaks here That he could wish himself accursed that they might be saved This is the Copy of a Christian and not of an Apostle only And this must every one of us write after in the best degree we can Now if any inquire what is the proper reason and ground of the love of our Neigbour I might treat at large of these things That a Christian is to love every one I. For his own sake II. For Gods sake III. For his Souls sake I. For his own sake If any ask why the Answer is ready because he is thine own flesh and blood All the Nation of Israel is akin to our Apostle as all descending of one blood So this same Apostle tells that all the men in the world do Act. XVII 26. God hath made of one blood all Nations of Men. Men of all Nations are akin for they are all of one blood Nay that of the Prophet seems to bring the kindred something nearer Es. LVIII 7. That thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh The Prophets meaning is That thou hide not thy self from the poor when he comes to seek relief and comfort from thee A poor tattered miserable creature that it may be thou wouldst scorn to look upon or be loath to come near or have any thing to do withall yet for all thy goodliness he is thine own flesh II. For Gods sake Because he commands it urges it and it is pleasing to him Doest thou love God This Love of God is to keep his Commandments And there is hardly any Command that is urged more than Love and Unity and affection one towards another III. A third bond that should tye us to love our Neighbour is For his Souls sake This was that that especially moved the Apostle to such an Affection towards his Nation He had as little cause upon any outward or carnal respect to love them as a man could have They were indeed his Brethren but Brethren Enemies they were his Kinsmen but spiteful Kinsmen he never enjoyed peace or safety for them When were they not clamouring against accusing whipping persecuting imprisoning him and seeking his life And yet he cannot but love them wish them well for their Souls sake You would think the Apostle little loved the incestuous Person 1 Cor. V. but his very severity was out of love to his Soul vers 5. That the spirit might be saved When he gave up Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan one would think he heartily hated them when he dealt so severely with them but it was that if possible good might accrue to their Souls For consider his reason of that action I have given them up to Satan Why Not that I might plague them revenge my self on them bring them to ruine but that they might learn not to blaspheme 1 Tim. I. 20. That if it may be they may learn better manners and Religion The Kings Daughter is black but comely Cant. I. Black because the Sun hath looked upon her She was born in the Morians Land But she is glorious within because of her virtuousness and goodness The sinful Souls of men as they are sinful are black deformed things but as they are Souls and in regard of their Essential constitution they are lovely and precious And there is more in any Soul in the World to move thee to love him than there is in his Person or Actions to move thee to hate him And how great is the beauty of the Soul when it carries the image of God himself Even the poorest and most contemptible Soul in the world carries the image of God upon it It is Gods own argument against Murther Gen. IX 6. Whoso sheddeth Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he Man The very same may be used against the hating of our Neighbour the seed of Murther thou shalt not hate thy Neighbour for in the image of God he made thy Neighbour Object But I had thought that by the fall of Man the image of God had been quite lost from him For I have often heard that every Man is born in the sinful image of Adam but the glorious image of God is utterly gone off from him And so the Apostle Rom. III. 23. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God Answer Do you not observe that Gen. I. 26. where mention is made of Adams Creation that God said Let us make Man in our image after our likeness Where the image of God refers to the Essence of mans Soul the likeness to the qualities The Qualities were Holiness and Righteousness in the likeness of God And so the Apostle Eph. IV. 22 c. tells That when any soul is restored again to the likeness of God it is in Holiness and Righteousness This is utterly lost in humane nature till Grace restore it in any Person But the image of God that is in the Soul viz. as the Soul is a Spiritual
strength is firm But vers 19. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors So God tells Pharaoh I have preserved thee alive that I might make my power known in thee II. Sometimes Gods forbearance to cut off the wicked is for their punishment not only when he strikes them with horror as he did Lamech but when they prosper Let Ephraim alone was Ephraim's punishment The Uses of this Discourse might be these 1. To Examine while we live and prosper whether it be for our punishment 2. To be jealous of an untroubled condition 3. This may teach with more patience and chearfulness to bear the Cross. For as Gods suffering men to succeed and prosper is sometimes a judgment a token of his displeasure so afflictions and troubles may be signs of his care and good will 4. Not to envy the prosperity of the wicked 5. To labour so to live as to be able to give a comfortable account of long life and age A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 5. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me THE first Commandment with threatning as Paul saith the first of the second Table was the first with promise Ephes. VI. And the threatning is most properly affixed to the Command against Idolatry Because God hath a special enmity and quarrel against Idolatry as one of the greatest derogations to his honour that can be in the World Observe in the Prophets the great complaint against the people is for Idolatry and unrighteousness The former the great injury done to God the later to Men the former the height of Impiety the later of Uncharitableness When man is bound to love his neighbour as himself to shew him mercy to be helpful to him and useful to him in all ways of charity how high an iniquity is it to defraud undermine oppress and deal injuriously with him And when bound to worship God alone as the great dreadful and glorious Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things in them how abominable a wickedness is it to give this honour to a piece of wood a stock or stone of our own framing How God detests this he hath uttered abundantly in Scripture partly by proclaiming Idols to be abominable to him Deut. VII 25. and XXVII 15. And by giving them names of the greatest abomination Vanities 1 King XVI 26. Jer. XIV 22. Lyes Esa. XLIV 20. Jer. X. 14. And so is that to be understood Rev. XXII 15. Without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Jonah putteth both the names together Jonah II. 8. They that observe lying vanities Nay the very name of abomination it self is given them 1 King XI 7. Nay the very name of Devils is given them Deut. XXXII 17. 1 Cor. X. 20. And as thus in his word he hath shewed his detestation against Idols and Idolatry so hath he also in his providence by those fearful judgments that he hath shewed against them that have been Idolatrous Witness Jeroboam and his house Ahab and his rooted out and devoured by this deadly canker themselves and their posterity undone according to the threatning here Visiting the sins of the Fathers upon the children It were a wonder and thing of amazement that the Church of Rome should ever be so zealous for Images were it not that there is something more behind the curtains than is seen They distinguish betwixt an Image and an Idol and say They worship not the Image but before it only for a memorandum But to omit the vanity of such a distinction which hath been abundantly confuted by our Divines where is their care of that rule of the Apostle To avoid all appearance of evil Certainly if there be not the appearance of Idolatry in worshipping before an Image what call you the appearance of Idolatry The Heathen persecutors of old thought their turn served if they could bring Christians to cast a little incense into the fire before an Idol Here the Christians might have pleaded it was not in worship to Idols but to please their Masters but they saw in it so much appearance of Idolatry that they gave up their lives rather than to consent to such an appearance of evil But that that is behind the curtains with the Papists is covetousness and gain of mony And if it were not that I make no question but they would be fâ—r cooler in pleading for their Images than they are It is upon very good reason that the Apostle calls Covetousness Idolatry for it is not only making mony our God but it is the very Father and Mother of Idolatry This is it that hath made these men so bold with adoring of Images so bold as to take away this Commandment against Idolatry out of the Ten though a Command so needful so dreadful and that hath so terrible a threatning with it For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God A Command that one might wonder at but that you can never enough wonder at the wickedness of mens hearts First One would wonder that ever such a Command should need Thou shalt not worship a stock or stone nor make that thy God which thine own hands have made Reason and light of nature and common sense one would think should so cry this down to men that have their wits about them that there might not any such Command from God be needful You may see how the Spirit of God does stand as it were wondring at the sottishness of those that make and worship Idols in Esa. Chap. XL. and three or four Chapters forward And did you see a Heathen or do you see a Papist worshipping and bowing down to the stock of a tree as he calls it there whether have you more cause to mourn to see God so dishonoured or to think what a stock and stupid thing sinful man is become to pray to or trust in a piece of wood or stone Secondly One might wonder that such a Law given should be so broken A Law so easie to keep and in so sensless a thing to break it Of all sins what easier to avoid than falling down to the stock of a tree And yet how were men infatuated with it as the Heathen and Israel were continually Who would have thought that Israel having seen the wonders in Egypt and the glory of God at Sinai should ever especially so suddenly have worshipped a golden Calf and said These are thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt What monstruous madness and senslesness is there in this Idolatry That 1. Whereas God made man for man to think that he can make a God 2. Man that can see and hear and speak and stir to think that his help should lye in that that can neither see nor hear nor speak nor
and Earth and in the same instant created the Angels with the Heavens Now these Angels that fell were not fallen doubtless before man was made For upon creating of Man who was the last of the Creation it is said Gen. I. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good and there was yet nothing bad or evil in the world no Angels fallen no sin at all But when those that fell saw the dignity and honour and happiness that God had placed man in a piece of clay a lump of earth dust of the ground and that he put all Creatures under his feet as it is Psal. VIII 5 6. yea and gave Angels charge to attend him as it is Psal. XCI 11 They maliced this happiness and honour and scorned this service and attendance and damned themselves meerly upon this spite at Man Would they therefore think you delay any time of tempting man to try whether they could shake him out of his happiness and honour and bring him into the same condemnation with themselves No the Devil never since slacked time and put off any opportunities of doing mischief much less would he then when he had mischieved himself with such a spleen Secondly I might speak of divers things As that if Adam had kept the Sabbath in innocency he had kept the Law that if he had continued any time without sin he had begot Cain without sin if Eve had been a little practised in obedience she had not so soon been shaken when she came to be tried that their speech sheweth that no fruit had been eaten before But that which is especially considerable is that the Redemption was to be shewed instantly upon the Creation Since Christ was to be set up Lord of all the Saviour of all that are saved and the second Adam repairer of the ruines of the first it was not only fit but indeed needful that he should be proclaimed King and Saviour even the first day of man I do not say it was needful that Adam should fall on his first day that Christ might be proclaimed on his first day and yet I say it was needful that Christ should be proclaimed that day viz. that he might be set up Lord of all men from the first day of man But especially that what stability or firmness there is in obedience and holiness it might be founded in Christ alone I could almost say it was needful that Adam should fall on the day of his Creation not in regard of any necessity God put upon him but in regard of the â—ickleness of created nature being left to it self When I say it was almost needful I mean almost inevitable but that he left intirely to himself and to his own strength should stand the temptation of an Angel a Creature so far above him by nature and so far wiser than he though he were full of wisdom And you see Satan did not so much tempt his strength as his wisdom and there he overturns him by a trick of subtility out-witting his wisdom However it was fit the Redeemer should be held forth even the first day of man as the heir of all things Heb. I. 2. as the root of all to be saved and the sure foundation of all holiness grace and eternal life And III. Do but observe what correspondence there is twixt the Fall and Redemption and the later will speak the former to have been on Adams first day Redemption was wrought on the sixth day as the Fall had been on the sixth day And when Christ had wrought that great work he rested the seventh day in his grave as God rested on the seventh day when he had wrought the great work of Creation To this purpose I might also apply the particular times of the one and the other About the third hour the hour afterwards of sacrifice and prayer it is very probable Adam was created And Mark tells you Chap. XV. 25. And it was the third hour when they crucified him that is when they delivered him up to Pilate to be crucified About the sixth hour or high noon Adam most probably fell as that being the time of eating And John tells you Chap. XIX 14. that about the sixth hour he was condemned and led away to be crucified And about the ninth hour or three a clock afternoon Christ was promised which Moses calls the cool of the day and about the ninth hour Christ cried out with a loud voice and gave up the Ghost Such Harmony may be found betwixt the day and hours of the one and of the other the later helping to prove and clear that Adam fell on the sixth day the day on which he was created and continued not in honour all night Ah! what a glassy brittle thing is poor humane nature when it is so shaken all to pieces from so great perfection that it holds not whole above three hours or thereabouts And that it held whole so long was because it had not yet met with a temptation And that Satan offered not a temptation all that while was because he would hold off till they came to their time of eating and their first meal proves their poyson But Ah! the glorious and divine power of the grace of the Lord Jesus that inables a poor sinful Soul to hold out against the shocks of all the temptation of Hell and to break through all and to get to glory Compare Adam shaken with the first temptation the Devil offers with Job not shaken with all that the Devil could do and to the praise of the glory of his grace as it is said Ephes. I. 6. we have cause to cry out all our lives and so do Saints in glory to eternity Great is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now read the words carrying this that hath been spoken in your minds In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it And on the sixth day Adam fell and Christ was promised and on the Seventh day God rested and blessed the Sabbath day c. And so the Chaldee Translater of the Psalms considers of the thing For upon Psalm XCII which is intituled for the Sabbath day he saith thus A Psalm or Song which Adam the first man sung concerning the Sabbath day And the same Chaldee Translater on Cant. I. yet more plainly When Adam saw that his sin was forgiven when the Sabbath came he sung a Psalm as it is said A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day And now looking on this first week of the world in this prospect viz. as sin come into the world and Christ promised before the seventh day came it will give us a clearer prospect of the Sabbath and of Gods resting viz. I. That God had created a new creation before he rested on the Sabbath For when Adam and mankind by his fall was shattered
all to pieces and the noblest Creature to whom God put all other Creatures in subjection was himself become like the beasts that perish the beasts that were put in subjection to him and when Satan the enemy of God as well as man had thus broke all to pieces the chief work-manship of God here the world was mar'd as soon as made And as God in six days made Heaven and Earth and all things therein so before the sixth day went out Satan had mar'd and destroyed him for whom all these things were created God therefore coming in with the promise of Christ who should destroy Satan that had destroyed all and having now created a new world of grace and brought in a second Adam the root of all were to be saved and having restored Adam that not only from his lost condition but into a better condition than he was in before as having ingrafted him and all believers into Christ a surer foundation than natural perfection which he had by Creation but had now lost then he rested as having wrought a greater work than the Creation of nature But then you will say that the first Sabbath was of Evangelical institution not of moral that then the law for keeping of it was not written in Adams heart but was of Evangelical revelation I may answer truly that it was both For though Adam had not sinned yet must he have kept the Sabbath And to this purpose it is observable that the institution of the Sabbath is mentioned Gen. II. before the fall of Adam is mentioned Gen. III. partly because the Holy Ghost would mention all the seven days of the first week together and partly to intimate to us that even in innocency there must have been a Sabbath kept a Sabbath kept if Adam had continued in innocency and in that regard the Law of it to him was Moral and written in his heart as all the Laws of piety towards God were It is said Gen. II. 15. The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress and keep it Now if Adam had continued in innocency do you think he must have been at work dressing and keeping the Garden on the Sabbath day as on the other six He had Gods own copy so laid before him of working six days and resting the seventh that he could not but see that it was laid before him for his Example But you will say All the Moral Law was written in Adams heart as soon as he was created now the Law to keep the Sabbath could not be because the Sabbath was not yet created nor come And by then the Sabbath came the Law in his heart was blurred by sin and his fall I answer The Law writ in Adams heart was not particularly every Command of the two Tables written as they were in two Tables line by line but this Law in general of piety and love toward God and of justice and love towards our neighbour And in these lay couched a Law to all particulars that concerned either to branch forth as occasion for the practice of them should arise As in our natural corruption brought in by sin there is couched every sin whatsoever too ready to bud forth when occasion is offered So in the Law in his heart of piety towards God was comprehended the practice of every thing that concerned love and piety towards God as occasion for the practice was offered Under this Law was couched a tie and Law to obey God in every thing he should command And so though the command Eat not of the forbidden fruit was a Positive and not a Moral Command yet was Adam bound to the obedience of it by virtue of the Moral Law written in his heart which tyed him to love God and to obey him in every thing he should command And so the Sabbath when it came although you look upon it as a positive command in its institution yet was it writ also in Adams heart to obey God in that Command especially when God had set him such a Copy by his own resting II. A second thing observable in that first Sabbath and which was transmitted to posterity as a Law to keep is that now it had several ends As in man there is something of the perfection of every Creature a Spirit as Angels Life as Beasts Growth as Trees a Body as Stones so the Sabbath hath something of the excellency and of the end of every Law that was or could be given There are four sorts of Laws which God hath given to men Moral Commentorative Evangelical and Typical Moral Laws are given in the Ten Commandments Commemorative Laws as the Law of the Passover to commemorate the delivery out of Egypt Pentecost to commemorate the giving of the Law Typical as Sacrifices Priesthood Purifications sprinkling of blood to signifie good things to come as the Apostle speaks and to have their accomplishing in Christ Evangelical such as repentance self-denial believing c. Now the Sabbath is partaker of all these Ends together and hath the several excellencies of all these ends included in its self And so had that first Sabbath appointed to Adam First The Moral end is to rest from labours So in this fourth Commandment six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work c. So Jer. XVII 21. Thus saith the Lord Take heed to your selves to bear no burthen on the Sabbath day nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem Neither bring forth a burthen out of your houses neither do you any work but hallow the Sabbath day as I commanded your fathers Oh! then I celebrate the Sabbath saith the Sabbath-breaker for I do no work but play and recreate and drink and sit still and do no work at all Friend dost thou think God ever established idleness and folly by a Law That he hallowed the Sabbath day to be a playing fooling sporting day But Christian how readest thou as a Christian The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God not a Sabbath for thy lust and laziness And in it thou shalt do no manner of work of thine own but the work of the Lord thy God And the rest that he hath commanded is not for idleness but for piety towards God for which end he gave all the Laws of the first Table viz. to leave communion with the world and worldly things that day and to have it with God as in Esai LVIII 13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy days and call the Sabbath a delight As Moses to betake our selves to the mount of God and there to have communion with him To get into the Mount above the world and there to meet God and converse with him To be in the Spirit on the Lords day and not to recreate the Body but the Soul
Balaam loved the wages the wages of unrighteousness yet he could wish to dye the death of the righteous Numb XXIII 10. Even Conscience beareth witness to this truth that dying in any sin is damnable But how is it possible but some sin will stick to the best of men I answer II. True that there is no man living without sin but we are to distinguish upon two things First Twixt sin and guilt If we consider presly it is not the sin that immediately damns but the guilt of the sin A thief hanged the sin of robbing is past and gone but the guilt of it brings him to the gallows so sin as to the act is over and gone but the guilt sticks Now there is some sin which binds not a man over to guilt to condemn him Psal. XXXII 2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin There is sin but the guilt of it is not charged on men But what sin is that I might answer All sins already pardoned have they been never so great Rom. VIII 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth But we speak of sins that stick at the instant of death Therefore Secondly We distinguish upon the sticking of sin to the flesh and to the heart A Saint hath sin sticking to the flesh not to the heart Rom. VII ult With the mind I serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of sin As if we get the disease from the heart it is not so deadly so Saints having got sin from their hearts it is not damning to them They hate it but it cleaves to their flesh So that the guilt of such sins is pardoned all along because the Saint all along strives and prays against them It is not I but sin in me Not my heart or consent but sin in my flesh that will neither be got out nor quiet In a word a dying sin cannot kill a dying man Sin is mortified all along and if in death it stirs yet it is dying and hath not power to kill And this have I spoken to remove that error about this Article of the Creed that Christ descended to Hell to fetch Souls to Heaven that yet wanted something to bring them thither II. A second opinion and interpretation is that he descended locally to triumph over II. the Devils and the damned An Interpretation that seems to carry more sense and innocence and yet is far from the meaning of the Article To take it into examination First To consider something concerning Christs Soul when separate from his body I. It is undoubted that it went to Heaven assoon as departed and it is very unwarrantable to look for it in Hell unless we have good evidence of the Scripture at least of reason for it His words on the Cross to the good thief were To day shalt thou be with me in Paradice Luke XXIII 43. and his last words to God were Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit vers 46. Now who can doubt but he was instantly in Heaven and his Soul with God And when and indeed why should it go to Hell Christ was dead but thirty six hours and his Soul to be on the Cross in Heaven and Hell in that time is a flitting up and down that unless the Spirit of Christ himself in Scripture tell us so how can we believe it That it flitted from the Cross to Heaven Scripture is plain but that it flitted from Heaven to Hell we are yet to seek Ye shall seek me and not find me Truly according to this opinion we know not where to seek him nor to find him in that time If you will take the propriety of his own words Luke XXIII 46. Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And John XVII 11 13. I am no more in the World but these are in the World and I come to thee And now I come to thee you may certainly conclude that his Soul was with God while it was separate but that it was in Hell any moment of that time there is not one tittle of Scripture to give any evidence but Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell and this Article of which we shall shew a far other sense II. Was it possible that Christs Soul should go from Heaven to Hell The Souls of the glorified Saints cannot and I question whether Christs could or not See Luke XVI 26. Between us and you there is a great gulph fixed so that they which would pass from us to you cannot Whence I observe two things 1. What is meant by a great Gulph an unsuperable unpassableness from one to another But especially 2. They that would pass from hence to you Are there any in Heaven that ever would go to Hell The Devils indeed chose it but I question whether they understood what Hell meant so well as they do now But never blessed Soul did nor could do it They are too much delighted with the happy enjoyment of God to make such a choise But Christ by that expression in the Parable does the more shew how it is impossible for a Soul once in Heaven to go thence to Hell that if it could be supposed they would do it it cannot be done And could Christs Soul do it any more Could Christs Soul have any delight to leave the joys of Heaven to go to Hell III. There is no reason no Scripture to tell us that Christs Soul had any thing to do as to the work of Redemption or Mediatorship when separate from the body What will you make of this Triumphing Was it any part of his Redeeming or Mediatorship If it were not what was it If it were why not acted per totum Christum by whole Christ Christ performed the whole Law as Totus Christus whole Christ viz. As to his humane nature in Soul and Body He was upon the Cross as Totus Christus Whole Christ he rose ascended sits in Heaven as Totus Christus Whole Christ Body and Soul And we are bound to believe in toto Christo In whole Christ as Redeemer and Mediator as God so perfectly Man of Body and Soul consisting And it were but an improper piece of Faith to believe so great a thing as his work in Hell is made to be to be done by a part of Christ for his Soul was but one part of him But Secondly Let us speak a little to this Triumphing I. The opinion is taken up I suppose in allusion to the custom of the Romans They conquered and then led their prisoners in Triumph the Conqueror in his triumphal Chariot the Captives in chains after it Cleopatra would kill her self rather than be thus led in triumph Now what was this but a pompous proud and vain shew And what will they make of this Triumph of Christ Nothing but a shew For what did he in this Triumph Who can imagine what but shew himself there Did he
of the Gadarens reconciled with Matth. 8. 28. 70 7. 26. A Greek a Syrophenician by Nation reconciled with Matth. 15. 22. 202 8. 10. Parts of Dalmanutha reconciled with Matth. 15. 29. 307 10. 21. Iesus looked upon him and loved him 596 11. 13. The time of Figs not yet why then was the Figtree cursed for having no Figs upon it 225 to 228  25. Love to stand praying 156 12. 7. This is the heir come let us kill him 583  4. The Treasury 299 13. 32. But of that day and hour knoweth no Man not the Angels neither the Son but the Father 1407 15. 23. Wine mingled with Myrrhe reconciled with Matth. 27. 34. 267 617  25. It was the third hour reconciled with Iohn 19. 14. 356 357 16. 15. Go ye and preach the Gospel to every creature 1149 LUKE Ch. vers  Page 1. 80. JOhn was in the deserts 113 4. 16. He went to the Synagogue and stood up for to read 1040 9. 51. When the time was come that he should be received up 556 12. 47 48. He that knew his Masters will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes 1230  51 52. Suppose ye that I come to give peace on Earth I tell you nay but rather division reconciled with Isa. 2. 4. 11. 9. 1042 1061 17. 11. He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee 362  21. The Kingdom of God is within you 116 18. 11. To stand praying 156  12. The Pharisee fasted twice a week 167  32 33. The Son of Man shall be delivered to the Gentiles c. 1167 20. 38. Not the God of the dead but of the living for all live to him 1118 21. 18. Not an hair of your head perish 1251 22. 30. That ye may sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel 1058  53. This is your hour and the power of darkness 1255 24 44. In the Psalms 265 26. 29. Until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom 691 JOHN Ch. vers  Page 1. 4. IN him was life and that life was the light of Men. 1090 4. 35. Say ye not there are four months and then cometh harvest c. 1147 1148 5. 25. The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live 1057 1105 1123 7. 27. When Christ cometh no Man knoweth whence he is 112  37 38. Jesus stood and cryed if any Man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water 1039  39. The Holy Ghost was not yet 1283 8. 6. Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground as though he heard them not 1080 1081  44. He was a murderer from the beginning 1323 10. 17 18. I lay down my life no Man taketh it from me that I may take it up again 1354 11. 47 48. This Man doth many miracles if we let him alone c. 654  51. But being High Priest that year he prophesied 1068  54. A City called Ephtaim 50 13. 1 2. And Matth. 26. 6. The Suppers here mentioned were the same however otherwise interpreted 252 to 254 260 261  38. The Cock shall not crow c. 261 14. 30. The Prince of the World cometh and hath nothing in me 1256 16. 7. It is expedient that I go away from you for if I go not away the Comforter c. 1129  13. When he the Spirit of truth cometh he will guide you into all truth 1034 17. 24. Father I will 413 18. 31. It is not lawful for us to put any Man to death 248 1080 1108 1109 c.  39. Release one at the Passover 356 19. 14. About the sixth hour reconciled with Mark 25. 25. 356 357 29. Put it upon Hyssop reconciled with Matth. 27. 48. 617 20. 23. Whose sins ye remit 207 21. 22. Tarry till I come viz. in vengeance 1074 28. 29. All that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth 1233 The ACTS Ch. vers  Page 2. 17. IT shall come to pass in the last days Understood of the end of Ierusalem not the World 1048  20. Before the great and notable day of the Lord come 626 3. 21. Times of restitution of all things 210 4. 6. Iohn Suspected for Rabban Iocanan 16  16 17. That indeed a notable miracle is done by these Men But that it spread no further c. 1275 5. 37. â—udas of Galilee 362 6. 9. Synagogue of the Alexandrians and of the Libertines 35 36 7. 14. Threescore and fifteen Souls compared and reconciled with Gen. 46. 27. 667  16. The bones of the Patriarchs where buried 408  30. When forty years were expired concerning the age c. of Moses ibid. 9. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost 1283  36. Tabitha much mentioned amongst the Talmudists 18 10. 34 35. God is no respecter of persons 1210 1211 13. 33. As it is written thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee 1104 19. 13. Calling over them in the Name of Jesus 162 23. 5. I wist not that it was the High Priest 1289 1290 ROMANS Ch. vers  Page 1. 17. RIghteousness of God revealed from faith to faith 1051 1052 1064 1075 1077 1078 2. 11. God is no respecter of Persons 1210 1211 3. 19. Whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them which are under the Law 535 4. 11. Sign of circumcision the seal of the righteousness of faith which he had being yet uncircumcised 273 274 1076 1126 1133 1134 7. 5. The motions of sin which were by the Law did work 1098 8. 15. Abba Father what 354  19 20 21 22 23. For the earnest expectation of the Creature waited for the manifestation of the Sons of God c. 359 360 1089 1147 to 1149 11. 5. The Elect and the remnant according to the election of grace explained of the Elect of the Jews 574 1146 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers 230 marg 1 CORINTHIANS Ch. vers  Page 6. 2. DO ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World explained of Christian Magistracy 1158 1159 1119 7. 12. But to the rest speak I not the Lord. 1124  36. If a Man thinketh he behaveth himself unseemly towards his Virgin c. 1219 10. 11. Upon whom the ends of the World are come explained of the destruction of Ierusalem c. and the end of the Jewish State 1074 1117 11. 19. There must be Heresies among you 1279  21. Every one taketh before other his own Supper 658  32. When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we may not be condemned of the World 1226 2 CORINTHIANS Ch. vers  Page 1. 8 9. WE were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life c. 790 4.
〈◊〉 Power very usually referred to Miracles not to Discipline Page 750 Ε. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes is rendred from the single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I. Page 568 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beat what 228 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one limited 1157 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 1144 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an untimely birth used for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 789 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wilfully how to be interpreted Heb. 10. 26. 1096 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoned what 228 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the writings of the Apostles frequently denotes the Gentiles as well as the Greeks 558 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie that which is over and above or all that you have 432 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away 752 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is too much transported 337 338 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may or let me 646 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those without in Jewish speech signified the Gentiles 339 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 command answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 757 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports the Country as well as the Desert 113 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is it or what is to be done it answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used a thousand times among the Jewish Writers 786 1155 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what in the Seventy 689 Η. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved him put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he persuaded him Page 596 Ι 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put for Men of no degree or quality meer vulgar Persons p. 653. Private Persons Members of the Church distinguished from Ministers very usual among the Rabbins p. 786. Rendred unlearned 1 Cor. 14. 16. Page 1156 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jot and Tittle that they shall not perish in the Law 137 to 139 Κ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes remorse or compunction in the Seventy Page 711 712 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Antipatris 55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Title the duration of the Tittles of the Hebrew Language Page 137 140 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Place 61 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communion among the Jews this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mixing the manner and sence of which is shewed out of the Jewish Writers 768 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a peculiar propriety in Sacred Writ which it hath not in prophane Authors imporâ—ing the Nations not Jewish p. 438. Thus the Jewish Schools also used it 534 535 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creature for the Gentile world 1147 1149 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimates a deep and profound reach answering the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prudent counsels 781 782 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cymbal what kind of Instrument 782 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinguished 333 334 Λ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayings how rendred by many Versions Page 359 Îœ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies bring them into learn to be Disciples Scholars Page 1124 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes inward vanity and emptiness of mind 708 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is drunk may bear a favourable interpretation 776 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very well express the sence of true Repentance with respect to the Jews 114 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for henceforward or hereafter 692 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath after or the week between the two Sabbaths 692 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transmigration of Souls that is of holy Souls into other Bodies was the opinion of the Pharisees 569 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be distinguished from a smaller sort of Mills used by the Jews 213 Î. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lawyer was a Doctor of Traditions Page 434 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Teacher of the Law was a more profound traditionary Doctor of the Law then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was c. 434 Ξ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ—ts what and whence derived Page 345 Ο. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us what the meaning referring to the Jews to whom it was writ Page 1145 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those without in Jewish speech were the Gentiles 339 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of little faith what Page 162 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Coast what 311 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true holiness and the holiness of truth 1152 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the night 271 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for how used 415 Î . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Advocate Comforter the Jews expected their Messiah under this Title Page 600 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence derived it signifies equally Consolation and Exhortation 655 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Appartment into which the High Priest betook himself for some time before the day of Attonement 554 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture and the Jewish Writers is used for the Gentiles or the Heathen World 708 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what and whence derived 352 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17. 31. diversly construed 1101 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished 333 334 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wicked one why the Devil is so called 1306 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Appartment c. as under the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which see but six words foregoing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends singing of Psalms and Preaching as well as Revelation in order to Prophesie 785 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fift how understood 344 345 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tower of Strato what 54 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burn a Jewish story upon it 758 Σ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Sabbath after the second or the second Sabbath after the first what Page 184 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scopo the Viewer what 41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wise Man what 742 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to be the Greek rendring of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much used among the Talmudists 164 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have dealings to borrow for use c. 539 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Disputer what 742 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Assembly 635 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 companying or mixing together put for a more intimate friendship or alliance Page 751 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fifty Copies of the Gospel what they were 1079 Τ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is it or what is to be done it answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used exceeding often in the Talmud and in Tanchum Page 786 1155 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exchangers what 248 Î¥. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Adoption of the Body or the Adoption of the Soul what Page 1149 1150 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son put for Messias very frequently Page 351 〈◊〉
Yea he was under the obligation of the Ceremonial Law and that in three respects p. 1037. Christs lineage or discent was most of younger Brothers p. 1089 1090. Why Christ was Baptised p. 1125. Christ conformed to many things received and practised in the Jewish Church and civil converse in several instances p. 1137 1139. Christ sets himself against them that set themselves against Religion p. 1164. Christ sending his Gospel bound the Devil from his former abominable cheating p. 1171. He delivered the Law on Mount Sinai and is called the Angel by Stephen the Proto-Martyr upon that account this proves him to be God against the Arian and Socinian p. 1229. He was sanctified by his own blood p. 1254. Christs blood called the blood of the Covenant and why p. 1254. He suffered as much as God could put him to suffer short of his own wrath p. 1255. The wrath of God not inflicted upon Christ in his sufferings p. 1255. His victory over Sin and Satan in his sufferings was by his holiness not by his God-head p. 1255 1256. The obedience of Christ made his blood justifying and saving p. 1255. His obedience conquered Satan and satisfied God p. 1256. He died meerly out of obedience p. 1257. He was sanctified by his own blood to the Office of Mediator p. 1254 1257. Acceptance with God and coming to him is only through Christ. p. 1261 1262. Christs obedience does not dissolve the obedience of a Christian. p. 1263. What it is to be separate from Christ. p. 1297. The Church of the Jews was only a Child under age till Christ came p. 1334. His descent into Hell the improper meaning as to what the Church of Rome understands by it p. 1341 to 1347. Where was the Soul of Christ when separate from the body p. 1344. His victory and triumph over Devils what p. 1345 1346. His Kingdom began at his Resurrection p. 1345 1346. His descent into Hell is supposed by some to be the Torments he suffered on the Cross. p. 1347. He did not undergo the anger or wrath of God but the Justice of God in his sufferings p. 1348 1349 1350. It was impossible Christ should suffer the Torments of Hell or be in the case of the damned p. 1350. His expiring upon the Cross considered both in it self and in the manner of it Page 1354 Christian Churches were modelled by our Saviour very near the Platform of the Jewish Synagogue worship 1041 1139 Church of the Jews Christ had a peculiar care of the Jewish Church though but too much corrupted while it was to continue a Church and therefore sends the Leper to shew himself to the Priests p. 165 166. How it may be said to have been a National Church p. 1036. It was only a Child under age till Christ came p. 1334. Wherein its Childhood did consist 1334 Churches in Houses what 794 795 Churches Christian Churches under the Gospel were by Christ himself and his Apostles modelled very like to the Platform of the Synagogues and Synagogue worship under the Law proved in several instances p. 1041 1139. The several Ages and Conditions of God's Church from the beginning of the World p. 1088 Churches in the Apostles days had many Ministers belonging to each and the reason of this 1156 1157 Circumcision at it Children received their Names p. 387. Circumcision as given by Moses gives a right understanding of the Nature of the Sabbath p. 557. Peter was a Minister of the Circumcision among the Hebrews p. 741. An Israelite may be a true Israelite or a Priest a true Priest without Circumcision 760 761 Cities of Refuge their Number and Names p. 47 48. Cities of the Levites the Lands about them large called their Suburbs these Cities were Cities of Refuge and Universities p. 86. A great City was such an one as had a Synagogue in it p. 87. Not any thing troublesom or stinking were to be near a City p. 87. Cities Towns and Villages how distinguished p. 333. 334. What number of Officers in Cities and what their Places and Employments 638 Cleansing what the Leper was to do for his cleansing 165 Climax of the Tyrians what place 61 Cock-crowing at what time p. 262. Whether there were Cocks at Jerusalem being sorbid by their Canons p. 262 The Jewish Doctors distinguish Cock-crowing into first second and third 597 Collections were made by the Jews in forrain Nations for the poor Rabbins dwelling in Judea 792 Comforter was one of the Titles of the Messiah 600 Coming of Christ in the Clouds in his Glory and in his Kingdom are used for the Day of his Vengeance on the Jews 626 Coming to Christ and believing in him how distinguished 1261 1262 Commandments or Commands Commands of the second Table chiefly injoyned in the Gospel and why p. 1064 1114 1115. God will not have his Commands dallied and trifled withal p. 1227. Why we are to keep the Commands of God p. 1130. The Commandments of the Law were given for Gospel ends 1231 Communion of the Jews what and how made p. 768. Christ had Communion with the National Church of the Jews in the publick Exercise of their Religion proved by many instances 1036 1037 1039 1040 1041 Confession of sins at the execution and death of Mulefactors say the Jews did expiate for their sins 1275 Confusion of Languages was the casting off of the Gentiles and the confusion of Religion 644 Conjuring so skilful were the Jews in Conjuring Enchantments and Sorceries that they wrought great Signs and Wonders and many villanies thereby 244 Conscience how to clear the state and nature of it when it is doubting some heads for such an undertaking hinted p. 1054 The great power of conviction of Conscience p. 1082 1803 1804. Conscience is an assurance given by God of the last Judgment 1104 1119 Consistories that were of more note out of the Talmud 85 Consolation of Israel It was an usual Oath among the Jews Let me see the Consolation or Let me see the Consolation of Israel 393 Conviction of Conscience the great power of it p. 1082 1083 1084 Corban signifies a thing devoted and dedicated to sacred use p. 201. Corban was the Treasury there was a Corban of Vessels or Instruments and a Corban of Mony p. 299. The Corban Chests how these were imployed to buy the dayly Sacrifice and Offerings p. 300 301. The Corban Chamber p. 300 301. The Corban Chests and the Treasury were in the Court of the Women p. 301. Corban a Gift what 345 Corinth where seated 737 Covenant the blood of it put for the blood of Christ. 1254 Covenant of Grace Souls raised in the first and second Resurrection by the vertue of this but not alike p. 1235. The Tenor and vertue of this Covenant distinguished 1236 Covetousness called an evil Eye 162. What it caused Balaam to do what he got by it and how many Israelites were destroyed by it p. 1181. The sad fruits of Covetousness and Apostasle 1181 1182 Councellors Chamber
p. 1077 1078. Why we are justified by perfect Justification and not sanctified by perfect Sanctification or holiness answered 1153 K. KARAITS the difference between them and those that are said to be without Page 339 Kedron what 37 c. Kenite Salamean or Salmean the same and what 499 Kenites who 329 Keri and Cethib or the differing reading of the Hebrew Text what 139 140 Ketsarah a little City without Zippor 75 Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven what 205 c. Kidron the Brook was a sort of Sinck or common Sewer to Jerusalem 607 Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew is called the Kingdom of God in the other Evangelists p. 114. The Kingdom of Heaven implies four things p. 115. The Phrase very frequently occurs in the Jewish Writers p. 115. By it they mean the inward love and fear of God as also the Exhibition and Revelation of the Messiah p. 116. To be of the seed of Abraham or the stock of Israel the Jews supposed was sufficient to fit them for the Kingdom of Heaven 533 Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew is called the Kingdom of God in the Evangelists p. 114. The Kingdom of God coming in power is used for Christ's coming in his vengeance and power to destroy the unbelieving and wicked Nation of the Jews p. 346. Kingdom of God or of Heaven what in the Gospel And what among the Jews 461 462 Kiriath-Jearim in former time was called Baal or Baalath 42 Knee in what use in Adoration 347 Know in Scripture is used for own and acknowledge 699 Kubi where situate 51 L. LAbourers a Jewish Parable concerning them Page 221 Lake of Genesaret in the Old Testament called the Sea of Cinnereth in the New also the Sea of Galilee and Sea of Tiberias 65 Lake of Samochonitis in Scripture is the waters of Merom c. 64 Land of Israel how divided by the Jews p. 1 2. The Land possessed by those that came up out of Babilon was divided into three parts p. 2. Several great Mysteries and Offices confined to the Land of Israel p. 2. The Talmudick Girdle of the Land under the second Temple what p. 3. A great part of the Land viz. South-Judea was cut off under the second Temple p. 4. Jewish Idumea what part of the Land p. 4. The seven Seas according to the Talmudists and the four Rivers compassing the Land what p. 5. A description of the Sea Coasts thereof out of Pliny and Strabo p. 10 11. Land of Israel was the Land of the Hebrews before it was the Canaanites the original Title of it from the confusion of Tongues p. 326 327. It s breadth and length 319 to 323 Language of Ashdod what 505 Language Hebrew Language put for the Chaldee Language 545 Languages the Confusion of Languages was the casting off of the Gentiles and confusion of Religion p. 648. The Fathers of the Sanhedrim were to be skilled in many Languages 782 Lasha is Callirrhoe 296 Last Days and Times put for the times immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish State p. 626 1074. Last Days what they generally signifie in Scripture 1074 1097 1104 1117 Last Days of Jerusalem are characterized in one regard for the best in another for the worst of times p. 1179. Last Days of Jerusalem and the Jewish State are named as the last days of the World 1186 1200 Lavatory of Bethany what 305 Laver described 33 34 Law Christ was to bring in a New Law but not to abolish the old p. 137. The Text of the Law was writ in the Hebrew and not in the Assyrian Letter p. 138 139. Law written and Oral what And how explained by the Scribes and Doctors p. 422 423. What the difference between coming to God in the Law and coming to God by the Law p. 599. Law used for the Scripture i. e. Moses and the Prophets â—oo both the former and the later p. 787. Women not allowed to read the Law in the Jews Synagogues though a Child or a Servant might p. 788. The Jews say there are six hundred and thirteen Precepts in the Law of Moses p. 1114. Christ was a member of the Church of the Jews proved and under the obligation of the Law p. 1037. The Law was thought by the Jews to restrain and bind the outward Action only not regarding the inward Thought p. 1098. The Jews read the Books of the Law and Prophets only in their Synagogues the rest they read not p. 1102. The manner of giving the Law is an assurance of the last Judgment p. 1119. Judaick and Mosaick Law how distinguished by the Jews p. 1199. Whether God shewed more mercy in giving the Law or in giving the Gospel p. 1230. The commandments of the Law were given for Gospel ends p. 1231. The performing of the Law in one sense is impossible yet the keeping of it in another is possible 1231 Law Ceremonial Christ was under the obligation of the Ceremonial Law and that in three respects p. 1037. Ceremonial Law why instituted p. 1069. It was not the Covenant of Works but the Mode or Manner of the administration of the Covenant of Grace Page 1069 Law Moral obligeth under the Covenant of Grace 1069 1070 Law writ in Adams heart upon Creation what 1325 Lawyers were Doctors of the Law they were of several sorts p. 421 to 423. Lawyers and Teachers of the Law what 433 434 Laying hands upon the sacrifice what and for what end 531 Lazar used for Eleazer 454 Lazarus his Soul was in Heaven those four days he was dead 1352 Learners or Disciples after the days of Rabban Gamaliel did use to sit while they were instructed p. 395 396. They had power to ask the Doctors any questions as they went along in their Expositions and Lectures 396 Learning humane Learning is exceeding useful nay exceeding needful to the expounding of the Scriptures p. 1033. Two objections of those that deny this Proposition answered 1034 Leaven put for Doctrin and a naughty Heart and Affections 204 Lectures at them the Gesture was the Teachers sat and the Learners stood 193 Legion includes an unclean company and of exceeding power 340 341 Legends two or three of them Papal and Judaical 494 495 Lepers how they were to dwell alone 460 461 Leprosie and the Doctrin of it under the Law points out very well the Guilt and Doctrin of Sin p. 164 165. The custom of putting the blood upon the Ear of him that was cleansed of a Leprosie according to that command Lev. 14 14. what 1038 Levites The Cities of the Levites and the Land about them was large called their Suburbs being Cities of Refuge and Universities They and the Priests were the setled Ministry of the Church of Israel they always lived upon Tithes when they studied in the Universities or preached in the Synagogues and attended on the Temple Service p. 86. Priests and Levites what was lawful and unlawful in them 382 Libanus called the Mountain