affectionate Woman the Christian Church had a Wilderness to hide her self in provided for her by God's most gracious providence whither she was born as upon Eagles Wing and he had done this Old Testament Church Exod. 19.4 where the same Phrase is used when she fled from the face of that Dragon Pharaoh here Revel 12.6.14 Messiah's Church harmoniz'd with Moses's Church having two wings of a great Eagle wherewith she did flye into such hiding solitary places as God prepared for securing her in her being in the worst of times and wherein he fed her v. 6. tho' he did not feast her yet he nourished her v. 14. and kept her alive during the long lease of Antichrist as he had done this Church in the Wilderness for forty years Grotius saith that these wings allude not only to Israel's flight out of Egypt into the Desart but also to the History of David who cryed Oh that I had the wings but of a Dove not of an Eagle Psal 55.7 8. that he might be saved from that Dragon Saul God gives rest to his Church from persecution Act. 9.31 and always preserves her being tho' in a Wilderness tho' she want her splendor and well-being Mat. 16.18 Mark Thirdly As Michael and his Angels were too hard for the Dragon and his Instruments in Warring against the Old Testament-Church for Pharaoh was drowned Amalek was discomfited and the Countries of King Sihon and King Og were conquered by Christ's conduct the Captain of Israel's Hosts in the Wilderness Josh 5.13 Heb. 2.10 Even so the Dragon and his Instruments make war against the New Testament Church Revel 12.7 while she brought forth many Children unto God under the name of the Man-child v. 5. even Christ Mystical as Mr. Joseph Mede interprets it from Gal. 4.19 yet can he not prevail v. 8. but is totally routed and ruined so as not to rally or rage any more for he is cast out of Heaven v. 9. that is from molesting the Church at that time and down to the Earth as Wrestlers saith Grotius cast down the weaker to the ground so Michael or Christ whom none is like in strength Psal 89.8 prevails against the Devil the strong Man is mastered by the stronger Man Luke 11.21 22. and is at last by him cast into Hell Revel 20.10 As the Devil and all his Imps could not obstruct the passage of Moses's Church from possessing the Earthly so nor Messias's Church from entring the Heavenly Canaan Fourthly Now follow the more Particular Remarks upon all the forty two stages Recorded by name in Numb 33. from v. 1 to v. 50. especially where any memorable matter is mentioned befalling Israel in their Wilderness wandring at any one of those particular places For the accomplishing of which work I have truly travelled to furnish the Reader with the choicest cream and quintessence extracted out of the best Learned Rabbins Antient Fathers and Modern Divines both Criticks and Commentators in various Languages The First particular Remark is upon Rameses the first Stage that Moses mentioneth Numb 33.3 beside what is above-said hereof in the General Remarks Mark moreover First That Raamses Hebr. signifies Worms-or Moths the Mystical meaning whereof may well be that as Egypt signifying Anguish and Tribulation and representing this present Evil World that wallows in wickedness is no sit place for the true Israel of God to abide in therefore the Lord calls his Adopted Children out of Egypt Exod. 4.22 Hos 11.1 Heb. 12.23 c. as before for nothing but anguish attends them there John 16.33 c. So Rameses tho' a Treasure City Exod. 1.11 yet our Lord cautions us Lay not up your Treasure where the Worm or Moth may corrupt it Mat. 6.19 Rameses was but a City wanting foundations and made up only of Mortar c. Exod. 1.11 14. Whereas if we according to Christ's Councel lay up our Treasure in Heaven which is a City that hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is the Great Creatour Heb. 11.10 then need we not fear any Moth or Worm to corrupt it or any Thief to break through and steal it for 't is a City above the reach both of Malignant Men or Dawned Devils Hereupon the Seed of Abraham cannot find rest here below in places built by frail creatures Heb. 11.8 9 10 13 to 17. for they hear their Creator crying Arise Depart this is not your Rest for it is polluted Mic. 2.10 and Arise let its go hence saith Christ John 14.30 Mark Secondly Israel marcheth from Rameses to Succoth which signifies Booths built of Boughs as before Behold here the Infant Estate of the Old Testament Church Numb 33.5 At Succoth like a company of Sucking Children they fall upon Building Childish Summer-houses with Boughs and Branches of Trees no better Buildings no fairer nor firmer Fabricks could be expected from them when they came thus rawly out of the Egyptian slavery and were only come now to the first step from Egypt of their forty two stages and stations in the Wilderness and newly entred under the Conduct of Christ cloathed in the Cloud who here came to be as a Schoolmaster to this company of Children and to take his first Tuition of them Exod. 13.20 21. These Children of Israel as they are frequently stiled in Scripture being now but as it were in their A. B. C. could not possibly but be very ignorant of Canaan's glory and of Sion's Excellency when they can sit down in Succoth thus satisfied with such sorry Coverings as Booths of Boughs N.B. First Christ came now and became a new School-master to those simple Children and taught them they must have a better covering he therefore covers them with his cloudy Pillar Wo to them that cover with a covering but not of Christ's Spirit Isa 30.1 and of his Merit also Put on the Lord Jesus Rom. 13.14 N.B. Secondly Grown Christians brought into the Beauty of Sion may not forget they were once but in Succoth Catechumeni A. B. C. Scholars having very little knowledge of God and but Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 2. 1 Joh. 2.12 13. There is first the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or being of a Believer then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or well-being and beauty thereof As we may not stay alway at Succoth but press on to Sion He is a Monster that grows not up from being a Child Rehoboam is call'd a Child when grown up a Man 2 Chron. 13.7 So in Sion we must remember Succoth to humble us c. Mark 3d. The second Stage they came to was Aetham which signifies hard ground as before only hinted Thus there layeth hard ground betwixt us and Heaven which Canaan typified many Losses and Crosses many Tryals and Troubles c. We have great need therefore to be well shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace Eph. 6.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well booted Christians that we prove not Habers upon this hard ground 'T is the Conduct of Christ that
Apostate for it he confessed it but saying he was only fal'n off from the Devil c. nor may we keep Company with the Incorrigible See Ephes 5.7 11.2 Thess 3.14 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16 c. Tit. 3.10 c. The fifth Remark is Paul's Apostle-ship and Ministry was confirmed by his working Miracles at Ephesus verse 11 12. N.B. Those Miracles he wrought there were not common and ordinary or such as might happen by chance but special or singular such as had been wrought by Peter Acts 5.12 15. and such as our Saviour had foretold and promised John 14.12 Insomuch that even Handkerchiefs or Aprons having but touched Paul's body and being brought unto the Diseased became by a Miracle the most Soveraign means both to cure diseases and to cast out Devils N.B. which were greater Works than Christ did for the matter tho' not for the manner of them because Paul did not these things in his own name but in Christ's nor did he preach up himself the Churche's Bridegroom or Husband but her Servant for Jesus's sake N.B. God was pleased to put a power into those improbable unlikely and in themselves Contemptible means to work miracles for two Reasons 1. That the power of Christ whom Paul preached might the more evidently be manifested therein And 2. That such as were absent tho' never had seen Paul nor heard him preach might yet have an high and honourable estimation of and veneration for Christ and his Gospel These Miracles did magnifie much Paul's Ministry N.B. Nor doth this make any thing for palliating the Superstitious use of Popish Relicts so much reverenced tho cheats by the Papists The sixth Remark is The Devil would gladly be God's APE ver 13.14 N.B. The Jewish Jugglers there would by all means imitate the Apostles in casting out Devils designing thereby if they could have done it by their Charms effectually to have persuaded the people that all the Apostles miracles were but Magical Exorcisms Yet those Exorcists pretended to charm in the Name of the Lord Jesus as if there had been in the bare Words and Syllables which they propounded a power of Miracles N.B. Tho' there be certainly none in them yet the true God being willing to be known and owned rather than that the names of the false Gods should be called upon hath sometimes put forth his power in such Superstitious Invocations Matth. 12 27. Tho' now to those Vagrants like our Gipsies Vagabonds God would not give this honour because he was now manifesting the Majesty and Glory of the Messiah so would not concur with any that came not in his Authority as well as name yet whatever had been formerly done by calling on the God of Abraham as Josephus Relateth strange Storys thereby 't is abominable impiety because God's Word warrants no such practice nor gives one promise to act faith on in so doing The seventh Remark is The Devil by Divine permission hath power over those that prophane the name of Christ taking it in Vain against the 3d. Commandment tho' they be descended from never so honourable predecessors and themselves never so much pretenders to a Veneration for the name of Jesus c. Mention is made here for a clear manifestation of this truth That there are Seven Sons of Sceva one that had been high Priest or of the chief of those 24. Courses of Priests divided by David 1 Chron. 24.4 who became Vagabounds wandring up and down to conjure out evil Spirits in the name of the God of Abraham as Josephus saith in his Eighth Book c. merely to pick a livelihood out of that Trade as our Jugglers do but turned their Tone here when they saw how the Apostle wrought miracles in the Name of Jesus they likewise adjured evil Spirits by Jesus whom Paul preached verse 13 14. N.B. This should teach all Parents especially Ministers to use their utmost indeavours that their Children be well educated That great High Priest Pope Paul the third thought it sufficient to say of his Dissolute and Bloody Son Farnesius haec vitta me non commonstratore didicit he never learnt those Debauchees of his Father What these Seven Sons learnt of their Priestly Father the Scripture is silent yet are they called here certain Vagabond Jews and Exorcists or Conjurers who thought to work as mighty miracles as Paul did but the Devil proved too hard for them Saying Jesus I know for he had destroyed the Devil's works Heb. chap. 2. v. 14. and Paul I know for he had felt his fingers in that Messenger of Satan 2 Cor. chap. 12. v. 7. and yet had thrown the Devil out of his Trenches 2 Cor. 10.4 but who are ye tho' they to wit Jesus and Paul have a Commission to cast me out yet I know ye have no power to cast me out too N.B. Here the old Lyar spake truth confessing that he was under God's Command signified to him by the least of God's Ministers v. 15. The possessed by the power of the Devil who hath not lost his natural tho' he hath his moral and Spiritual power Rushes upon those Exorcists Masters all the seven tears their Cloaths wounds their bodies and had not God here limited the Devil had unavoidably destroyed them all However that he did thus much mischief to those who were his own Vassals may well be wondered at because the Devil usually and willingly Co-operateth with Conjurers and Witches called Begnalath of the Mistress of a Devil 1 Sam. 28.7 suffering himself to be commanded by them out of others bodies that they might confederate with him in their Souls but here God over-ruled all and defeated the Devil in his wicked practices making all serve the farther advancement of the Gospel which Paul preached The eigth Remark is This Execution of Divine Vengeance wrought wonderfully for the Conviction and Conversion both of Jews and Greeks Acts 19. ver 17. insomuch that many believed and came and confessed their sinful Deeds verse 18 19. N.B. When these Sinners saw that God undertook the patronage of this preacher of the Gospel making the Devil his Executioner upon the Sons of Sceva for prophaning the name of Christ this did not only strike them all with terrour but also they believing that God's power was above the Devil 's thereby became sensible of their danger in being led still Captive by the Devil at his will and would keep his Council no longer but laid ope their spiritual mutual Sores of former Diabolical Delusions by a publick and ingenuous Confession that the Balm of the Gospel might be the more effectually powred into them N.B. As the fear of God's Judgments moved them to Confess their sins not privately in the ears of a Priest as Papists do but publickly in the hearing of all which was some ease and cooling to their Consciences like giving Vent to a Vessel ready to break and cooling the blood by breathing a Vein and their Confession by the Mouth was made unto Salvation Rom.
not man for the Sabbath Mat. 2.27 that we might sanctifie it and keep it holy unto God and to all those that truly sanctifie it the Lord makes it a Blessing indeed to them 3 God gave the Sabbath as a most Royal and Soveraign gift to Man he made the Sabbath for Man not Man for the Sabbath as before and bestowed it as a peculiar favour and Prerogative on Man as appeareth by three Scriptures the first is Exod. 16.29 The Lord hath given you his Sabbath This was Gods gift to man from the Creation for seeing from that very time there was a solemn Worship of God as is evident in Cain and Abel's Sacrifices to God so there must be a solemn time set apart for that Worship and what time could be more fi◠than that day which God had sanctified by his own Example For the godly Posterity of Seth did publickly and in solemn Assemblies serve the Lord Gen. 4.26 separating themselves from the wicked Off-spring of Cain and they must have a prefixed time for their publick and external Worship which must be the Sabbath that the Lord their God had given them The second Scripture is Neh. 9.13 14. The Lord gave them right Judgements good Commandments whereof the fourth was one All good in respect 1. of the Author 2. Of the Matter 3. Of the Effect inasmuch as they make those good that observe them And above all these godly Levites doth instance that as a most special favour in Gods making known his holy Sabbath to them v. 14. which they reckon up with Gods raining down Manna from Heaven upon them v. 15. and his broaching the flinty Rock to give them Water that this ancient Church might give no warrant to a dry Communion And well may the Sabbath be thus ranked inasmuch as 't is the day whereon God gives his Church Angels food and Living waters out of Wells of Salvation Though God rained down no Manna upon the Jewish Sabbath Exod. 16.27 yet he doth upon the Christian and upon that more especially yea most of all upon the Supper-Sabbaths whereon we all eat the same Spiritual Meat and drink the same Spiritual Drink with them Sacramentally at the Lords Table 1 Cor. 10.2 3 4. The third Scripture is Ezek. 20.12 which comes in with a Moreover as an high remark upon this divine Gift Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths The Relatives My and His God adjoyns with the Sabbath so frequently doth much advance the greatness of the Gift for whatsoever is Gods or of God must needs be great and excellent the Stream is like the Fountain and the Effect like the Cause This divine Donative the Sabbath was a most precious Dowry and Endowment both to our first Parents and to all their Posterity without which even the best would run wild and forget God were it not that a Weekly-Sabbath walls in our wild Natures The Sabbath was made for Man as a sweet Mercy to him It was made for Mans safety and advantage both to his Soul and Body which the superstitious Jews formerly great neglecters of it mistaking would not defend themselves on that day and therefore their City was taken once by Ptolomy and again by Pompey on the Sabbath-day If it stands in the way of Mans Safety 't is not to be observed The Third point to be handled is Why did God give this great Gift to Man in the beginning of time Answ For Divine Contemplation as well as for Divine Invocation and Action When God had compleated his Creation having made all very good Gen. 1.31 So good as caused Complaisancy in God himself and commanded Contemplation in man also That this latter might be done as well as the former as God had given Man a Soul to contemplate with it being the proper act thereof so he gave him a Sabbath to contemplate in which was a day set apart wherein Man might regard the Works of the Lord and the Operations of his hands Psal 28.5 When Man beholds a great Garden rich stored with Fruits and Flowers this calls his Eyes on every side of it besides there is a general Itch in mans Nature to be taken with Pageants Plays strange Sights and rare Shows which oft are sinful or however vain and at the best imperfect and unsatisfactory How much more ought man upon the Sabbath-day to admire the curious and glorious Frame and Fabrick of the World which in all its parts is so admirably accomplish'd with Curiosity Variety and Suitableness both to the Need and Nature of Man This the Psalmist sheweth in his Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day Psal 92.1 2 3 4 5. which Psalm was set on purpose as a Canon to the Church for Sanctifying that Queen of Days all being an admiration of Gods mighty Works The Sidonians agreed among themselves to chuse him for their King who first discovered the Sun the next morning and while others gazed upon the East one onely wiser than the rest looked Westward who though scoffed at by his Competitors first saw the Sun-shine upon the tops of the Mountains So we may behold God Per Species Creaturae in the Creature as in a Mirrour or on a Theatre Vt Solem in Aquis ita Deum in operibus Contemplamur God is seen in his Works as the Sun is seen in the Waters and therefore we should study not onely the Book of Gods Word but also the Book of Gods Works even that great Folio of the World that Book with three Leaves Heaven Earth and Sea See my Crown of a Christian from page 125 to page 145. this Book leaves the Heathens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inexcusable Rom. 1.19 20. who may behold God the Creator though not God the Redeemer in it either by way of Negative Causality or Eminence And we have but half the benefit of the Creature for which it was created if we get not Spiritual as well as Temporal good by it How the Jewish was was changed into the Christian Sabbath I refer the Reader to my Christian walk on the Lords day Whatever clearness there seems to some to be wanting as to the change of the day yet sure I am there is no want of clearness as to the choice of the day seeing both Christ and his Apostles did chuse this First day for religious Assemblies and Exercises which I have at large discussed in a distinct Discourse on this Subject All I shall say here is onely that the change of the Day from the Last to the First of the Seven was one of those things that Christ taught his Apostles betwixt his Resurrection and Ascention those Forty days he conversed with them Acts 1.2 3. and his Apostles were guided by Christs Spirit he gave them Joh. 16.13 Hence I infer 1 If a Seventh day be such a divine Gift to Man why should any man jear as the Heathens did who said Sabbatizing was a losing of the seventh part of precious time or as our late Anti-sabbatarians who call'd
sin and in promoting it when it was procreated to its Giant-like magnitude in those over-grown Giants was the Eye The Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair Gen. 6.2 Thus 't is said of Eve that she saw the Apple a beautiful Object Gen. 3.6 The Eye was the Cinqueport where sin landed both in the birth and in the growth of it Thousands have died of the wound in the Eye If sin do not find an open entrance either by the window of the Eye or by the door of the Ear it cannot well convey it self into our Hearts Beauty whether in persons or in things is a perilous Bait 'T is not safe gazing upon beautiful Objects lest the Tempter use the Eye as a Burning-glass to set the Heart on fire Lust is sharp sighted and no one means hath more enriched Hell than beautiful faces Job therefore made a Covenant with his Eyes lest they should be loop-holes of lust and windows of wickedness Job 31.1 and David prayed against the abuse of them Psal 119.37 The third Note is Although those Giants Moses mentioneth Gen. 6.4 were as overgrown in their Guilt as they were in their Bulk neither fearing God nor Man but by a Cyclopick Impudence did provoke God to his face c. yet in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy Hab. 3.2 saying Mans days shall yet be an hundred and twenty years v. 3. So long would God respite his Declared Judgments to prove Man if yet he would repent of his sin and return to his God 'T is a wonder a God of so much power to ease himself at his pleasure of his Adversaries upon the first provocation Isa 1.24 should yet be a God of so much patience as to bear with them and forbear sinners for so long a time The wickedness of man was then great in the Earth v. 5. especially in those great Giants call'd Nephilims Hebr. because they were faln from God and Godlines◠as the word Naphal signifieth and faln into the bog of wickedness Burgensis thought them to be Devils in mens shape and call'd Nephilims because they with Lucifer were faln from Heaven but the Invalidity of this Notion appeareth in this That the Deluge could not Drown Devils who are Spirits and therefore they were not Devils but Men indeed Incarnate Devils that drew down the Deluge Yet though God was wearied out in his patience with these corrupt and incorrigible ones who would have faln upon him if they could as they had faln from him insomuch that he is moved to make a final Resolution for their Utter Ruine still Mercy that is over all the works of God Psal 145.9 triumphs over Justice Jam. 2.13 and grants a Lease of an hundred and twenty years Respite from the Floud in which term of time they might by Noah's Preaching and preparing the Ark be brought to Repentance or if not to perish for ever This long-sufferance of God the Apostle extolleth 1 Pet. 3.19 20. 2 Pet. 2.5 shewing the sum and end of all the Sermons Noah Preached to them that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the spirit 1 Pet. 4.6 that is they Repenting and Turning to God might be dead because of sin but the Spirit be life because of righteousness Rom. 8. v. 10. But alas though they had the space of Repentance they wanted the grace of Repentance Rev. 2.21 As Noah was warn'd of God Heb. 11.7 so that wicked World was warn'd of Noah concerning their approaching Peril if they did not prevent it by Repentance Noah did this by the Spirit of Christ who is said to go unto this old World as an Embassador sent by his Father he went and Preached 1 Pet. 3.19 to wit Righteousness and Repentance 2 Pet. 2 5. and the Faith of the Gospel 1 Pet. 4.6 whereby some possibly of those many that perished in the waters might be eternally saved by Christs sanctifying that Providence as an Ordinance to them and his mercifully speaking to their hearts thereby yea and inter pontem fontem he might give to them the Grace of Repentance though they had not improved the hundred and twenty year space of Repentance as he did to the penitent Thief on the Cross Nunquam serò si seriò poenitentia vera nunquam est sera If Repentance be but true 't is never too late Oh how doth this magnifie the matchless Mercy of God! that though they were judged according to men in the flesh to the Drowning of their Bodies in the Floud yet might they live according to God in the spirit their Souls being saved by the Grace of Christ even at the eleventh and last hour of their day 1. Infants were not obstinate so might be saved 2. As all in the Ark not saved so all out of the Ark not damned 3. All dying without Baptism not lost 1 Pet. 3.21 nor all Reprobate who were out of the Ark for some might be ignorant of Noah's Preaching and preparing the Ark so were not wilfully disobedient The fourth Note is As the Old World notwithstanding this long Respite of an hundred and twenty years was at last destroyed by Water so this present World after the long Lease of the Gospel shall be destroyed by Fire Those are the two most unruly and most ruining destructive Elements Ludolfus hath an excellent Observation As God destroyed the Old World by Water to quench that exorbitant Heat of Lust that was then found in it so he will destroy this present World by Fire to warm that notorious Coldness of Love that shall at last be sound in it Christ hath foretold that the love of many shall grow cold Matth. 24.12 As Moses had told how all flesh had corrupted his way with fleshly lusts making a carnal choice of beautiful Bed-fellows more out of blind Affection for lustful love is always blind than from solid Judgment without either Care or Fear of being corrupted by them Exod. 34.16 1 King 11.2 3. or any regard of either grief to the Godly or of scandal to their own Profession for they are called Sons of God at large that had called themselves by his Name Gen. 4.26 yet no better than loose profligate Professors Apostates from the Power of Godliness These Sons of Seth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.27 burned in their lust or were scalded as the Greek word signifies at the sight of the fair Daughters of cursed Cain took them to their Beds never considering while they were led by the lusts of their Hearts and by the sight of their Eyes like Solomons Yonker Eccles 11.9 the suitableness of matching 2 Cor. 6.14 nor the deceitfulness of Beauty Prov. 31.30 nor the difficulty of finding a virtuous Woman Prov. 31.10 nor observing while they chose by their Eyes that a fair Helena without may he a Railing Hecuba within or an Earthen Potsheard covered over with Silver Dross Prov. 26.23 These men were the worse because they should
Church on Earth The 2. is Though the Ark lay all along thus flat and floating so that if the Devil that Prince of the Air Eph. 2.3 could have raised but one Storm in that whole years time against Noah as he did afterwards against Christ Matth. 8.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sea-quake like an Earth-quake that shakes down strong Mountains and Castles the Ark had certainly been overwhelmed because of its fashion and posture and all in it been drowned Oh the Amazing Power and Providence or God attending Noah and the Ark his Eyes were upon it for good from the beginning of the year to the end thereof Deut. 11.11 God held the Wind in his Fist Prov. 30.4 so as not to suffer one puff of a tempestuous Storm to blow for all that whole year to endanger the Ark. This may well be concluded because 't is expresly said That after the Floud God made a VVind to pass upon the Earth Gen. 8.1 which importeth that all the time of the Deluge there was a great Calm and though some Natural Cause thereof may be assigned seeing Storms do ordinarily arise from Vapours ascending out of the dry Earth all which this Dowsing Deluge suppressed yet this was certainly a Supernatural Calm from Gods fatherly Providence for Noahs preservation Thus it is with the tossed Church God commands the VVinds and the Sea and both obey him Matth. 8.27 The 3. is As the Ark after all its tossings landed safely on Mount Ararat at the length and there had a Quietus est or long Rest So the Church Militant after all shall land safely and be triumphant in Heaven on those Everlasting Mountains The 4. is As the Ark was made in the fashion of Mans Body lying along upon his back with his face upward which is the very Model by which all Ship-Carpenters do build all their Boats Ships c. with a Bottom-tree like the Back-bone of a Mans Body lying with the face upward and so many Ribs arising up from it so it teacheth the frailty of Man while in the body variis agitatus in undis tossed up and down like a Tennis-ball by Fortunes Racket or like this Ark by the Waves of this over-grown Floud living always at the Sign of the Chequer sometimes in the VVhite of Mercy and sometimes in the Black of Misery Man is exposed to many Changes here below walking in changeable Colours and none tan say I am that I am but God Exod. 3.14 The 5. is An the Ark had the form of a Coffin which is always made according to the proportion of Mans Body in its length six times the breadth and ten times the depth or height This was the proportion of the Ark to mind Man of his Mortality and to teach him that great Truth of Mortification which maketh up the Church of God as the Apostle applies this Type to Baptism 1 Pet. 3.20 21. whereby we are become dead and buried with Christ Rom. 6 3 4 6. to wit by the Baptism of the Spirit accompanying the Baptism of VVater and shall have as sure a Resurrection as Christ had out of his Coffin or Grave and as Noah had out of the Ark made Coffin-wise wherein he seemed to lye buried for a long time The Church and her Cause shall come out of her Coffin and at last shall rest after all her Tossings safely upon Mount Ararat Acts 9.31 The 4th Remark wherein the Ark resembles the Church is its Accoutrements of a Window and of a Door wherewith it was framed and furnished Gen. 6.16 1. The Window Hebr Tsohar a clear light about the top of the Ark which some think was made of Chrystal that it might both take in Light and keep out Rain And the word is in the singular number to shew there was but one Light for this great Fabrick and this was placed in that Cell where Noah c. lodged seeing Beasts Birds and creeping things do not dislike Darkness As the Ark it seems had but one VVindow so the Church hath but one Spirit to enlighten her Eph. 4.4 There may be many Ignes fatui or false Lights but the true Illumination is but one This one VVindow was but a little Light to so great a Vessel to typifie that the Church while Militant on Earth doth but see through a Glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 until she become Triumphant in Heaven and then shall he see as she is seen 1 John 3.2 Therefore none are to boast of their high Attainments of Knowledge here for the best of men are but men at the best and know nothing yet as they ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 'T is well said by Origen Ignorantiam meam non ignoro I am not ignorant that I am but ignorant Alas it is with us here as with a Prince while in the womb he lyes pent up there in a dark Prison but when born and brought up he shineth forth with all the glory of his Fathers Court So 't is with us on Earth we are here confined to dark Cloysters as the Inhabitants of the Ark were and the greatest part of our Knowledge is but the least part of our Ignorance and yet how prone is proud man to think that he knows all that is knowable Hence it comes to pass in some Churches as it was in Alcibiades Army where all would be Leaders and none content to be Learners Some Hebrew Doctors say this VVindow or Tsohar Hebr was a pretious Stone or Carbuncle which hanged in the Ark and gave light to all the Creatures therein though this hold not true concerning the Ark seeing Noah is said to open the Window Gen. 8.5 6. yet holds it eminently true concerning the Church which is enlightened by Christ that precious Pearl and that Enlightening Enlivening Living Stone The 2. Implement of the Arks Fabrick was a Door Hebr. Upethach This is also in the singular number there was but one Door for this great House of three Stories high and that fixed in the side of the lowest Story resembling that one Wound opened in the side of our Saviour John 19.34 yet the Door was doubtless a very vast and prodigious Door both wide enough and high enough to receive into it Camels and Elephants Yea it was so great and heavy that when all the Beasts clean and unclean together with those overgrown Creatures came as it were out of Gods hands whose Commands as their Creator they all obeyed to Noahs hand who handed them it at this Door and all others design'd to be saved Noah could not well shut this Door himself and 't is easily supposed the Scoffers without would do no such service for him and therefore the great God in whose sight Noah hand found grace Gen. 6.8 undertakes this mean Office to be Key-turner or Door-keeper and shuts the Door after Noah Gen. 7.16 and therefore it could not but be well shut for what God doth is always well done Even the Vulgar said of Christ He hath done all things well
saith and that very probably no sooner was Sarah taken into Abimelech's Court but he and his whole Family were smitten of God with some deadly Diseases when his Physicians consulted with could give neither Satisfaction nor Cure Then God told him in a Dream if he perfected his sin he was but a dead man c. By this Disease coming as out of an Engine immediately from God he was restrained from sin ver 6. and 17. and constrained to restore Sarah to her Husband all which teach us 1. That even Kings themselves may not be Licentious to do what they list but they are under limitation both of Humane and Divine Laws 2. Adultery even in Kings is punishable with Death both Popes and Emperors have been justly cut off by the Just Hand of God in and for this abominable sin 3. Ignorance cannot altogether excuse Sin as in Abimelech here it may excuse à Tanto something Luke 12.48 but not à Toto altogether 4. The whole Family may be blessed or cursed for the Masters sin as here ver 17 18. and Luke 19.9 This day Salvation is come to thy House as thou art a Son of Abraham Thus also the sins of Kings bring Plagues upon Kingdoms 2 Sam. 24.17 Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi ver 9. here Thou hast brought on me and on my Kingdom this great sin 5. So dear to God are his Saints that he severely punisheth even Kings for their sakes he suffereth no Man to wrong them so as though they may heavily oppress them they shall ever utterly suppress them Psal 105.14 15. Touch not mine Anointed is spoke to not of Kings Be wise now therefore O ye Kings kiss the King of Kings lest he be angry Psal 2.10 Revel 19.16 Potentes potenter torquebuntur ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia Great Sins under great Mercies bring great Plagues and Judgments 6. Things wilfully taken away must be willingly restored Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Knowledge must reform wherein Ignorance hath offended till Sarah was restored no Mercy could be expected Lastly Those two Captivities of Sarah may resemble the two Captivities of her Seed the Old Testament Church First In Egypt under Ten Plagues 2dly In Babylon sent out with good Conditions Thus it befalls both the Church of Christ and the â—â—â—l of a Christian they are sometimes Captivated by Beelzebub that Prince of black Gypsies 〈◊〉 Devils or by Abaddon that God of this World which lyeth in wickedness 1 John 5.19 or King of all the Uncircumcised in the Mystery as Sarah was in the History yet both are not only seasonably and safely rescued but also brought off abundantly Enriched as she was with her Sheep and Oxen c. coming Richer out of Temptation than they went into it which leaves them through sanctifying Grace always better than it found them Oh that there were that Beauty in us which was in her The fifth Mystery of Sarah's Person in the History of her Life was her Constancy and Faithfulness to her Husband she was a Loving and Loyal Wife to him not hankering after strange no not though Royal Flesh as was Pharaoh and Abimelech Abraham was a covering of Eyes to her Gen. 20.16 Her Reverend regard to such a Reverend Husband made him a better Veil betwixt her Eyes and the Eyes of wanton Person than that Veil which Abimelech gave a Thousand Shekels of Shillings to her Husband to purchase for her that she might cover her Face with it whereby she might be known to be a modest Matron as well as a Married Woman in subjection to the Man Gen. 24.65 and 1 Cor. 11.3 6 7 10. Hence the Supouse took it ill that her Veil was pulled off whereby she might be judged to be a light and dishonest Woman Cant. 5.7 We should shun and be my of the very shew and shadow of sin if either we tender our Credit abroad or our Comfort at home Oh what a comfortable Companion was Sarah to Abraham in all his Travels and Troubles doing him good and not evil all her days Prov. 31.12 She was constant in her Conjugal Yoke carrying on and even her part thereof not drawing the contrary way and did stick to him with faithful Affections in all Changes and Chances whatsoever yea though she suffered many hardships as before with him and was oft put very hardly to it yet was she not afraìd with any amazement 1 Pet. 3.6 driving out all servile fear of the World with a stronger filial fear of God as the stronger Nail drives out the Weaker Oh that the Churches of Christ and the Souls of Christians could be so constant and faithful to their Lord and Husband as she was to hers Hos 3.3 We must bear his Cross after him Luke 9.23 here on Earth if we would wear his Crown with him in Heaven The sixth Mystery of Sarah's person in the History of her life was in having her faults transmitted from her self to her Husband as Gen. 18.13 The Lord said to Abraham wherefore did Sarah laugh Here was Sarah's sin doubled 1. Her Unbelief of Gods promise 2. Her Untruth she covered her Unbelief withal yet all is charg'd upon Abraham the Wives sin reflects upon her Husband and this is not all learnt from hence but it teacheth also that the Spouses Beloved bears upon him all her Transgressions Surely he hath born our griefs and the Chastisement of our Peace was upon him Isa 53.4 5. He bore our sins in his own body upon the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 He the true Scape-goat taketh away the sins of the World Joh 1.29 Bearing them into the Land of forgetfulness Lev. 16.21 As this is a continual practice of Christ for us so this posture of his carrying away our sins should be as a perpetual Picture born about in our hearts Seeing his satis-passion is our satisfaction he took upon him whatever was Penal and Satisfactory to Divine Justice that belonged to Sin whereby we may be made Free Joh. 8.36 He was content to go down to the Wine-Press that we might be brought up into the Wine-Cellar or into the Banqueting-House Isa 63.3 Cant. 2.4 'T was the manner of those that offer'd their Burnt-Offerings of old to lay their Hand upon the Head of Beast Offered signifying the imputation of our Sins upon Christ this is done now by Faith Oâ— that as Christ was Crucifixus so he may be Cordifixus fixed to our Hearts as to his Cross The last Mystery of Sarahs Person in the History of her Life is she in conjunction with Hagar and with their two Sons represents the two Covenants Gal. 4.24 c. which indeed is the main Mystery and that which hath most manifest Manuduction to it by the blessed Apostle under the Infallible conduct of the Holy Spirit In this Main or Principal Mystery there be manifold Members all coupled together in couples and compared per pares by pairs As 1. Here is the Shadow or Type 2. Here is the Body
by Authority taken from thence It seems this great Doctor of the Gentiles was not of the same opinion with those Jesuits who say that the Epistles of the Apostles were intended only for the use of those Persons and Churches to whom they were first written how much more all the Books of the Prophets in the Old Testament must be antiquated and not concern us as some Jesuited Enthusiasts say in our Day prefering their own Phantastick Revelations above the Rule of Scripture though both Testaments were writ by Divine Inspiration We must rather be of Godly Josiah's Mind who saith concerning Moses many hundred years before him that Moses wrote for us 2 Kin. 22.13 the Book of the Law which Moses wrote with his own hand v. 8. and 2 Chron. 34.14 and ordered to be laid up in the sides of the Ark Deut. 31.26 this Book good Josiah reckoned did speak to them in his Day and feared that great Wrath was kindled against them because they had not hitherto hearkened to do all that was written as he saith concerning us Reckoning aright that General Directions Recorded in Gods Word do Infallibly concern all Ages as 1 Cor. 10.6 11. or likewise of Blessed Stephens Mind who speaking of such as live in the Days of the New Testament saith that Moses recieved the lively Oracles of God to give them unto us Act. 7.38 Moses did indeed deliver those Oracles to the Fathers of the old Testament but they receiv'd them to give them unto us under the New and thus the writings of all the other Prophets after Moses were written for us and for our Learning for Paul's learning and for the learning of that famous Church of Rome the fame of whose Faith was publish'd through the World Rom. 1.8 how much more for our Learning who come far short of their high Attainments and cannot pretend to a greater Perfection The fifth Argument If the Old Testament was disannulled by the Death of Christ then the Church was without a Canon or Rule from that time for many years until the N. Testament was written but this is to suppose what may not be supposed For those Scriptures in which Timothy had been trained up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a Child and wherein Paul exhorts him to continue they being profitable to teach reprove c. 2 Tim. 3.15 16. must be the Scriptures of the Old Testament seeing at the time of Timothy's Childhood none of the New Testament was written for Timothy was taken into Paul's Fellowship before any either Gospel or Epistle was published some of the Epistles were writ before any of the Gospels as that of the first to the Thessalonians yet this was writ after Timothy had joined himself to Paul for Paul's Preaching to the Thessalonians must be before his writing to them as appeareth by many passages in that Epistle yet Timothy was taken into Paul's company before Paul Preached there for the former was done Acts 16.1 2 3. but the latter not till afterward Acts 17.1 c. So that the first New Testament Scripture not being writ when Timothy was grown up and received into Paul's Society see Lightfoots Harmony and Chronology for this It necessarily follows that those Scriptures wherein Timothy was trained up from his Childhood were the Scriptures of the Old Testament yet Paul's Testimony of those very Scriptures was that they were Divinely Inspired and profitable to teach Truth to convince Errour to reprove Vice to instruct in Righteousness and to make wise unto Salvation v. 15 16. The consequence then is evident from hence that the Old Testament could not be look'd upon or supposed by the Church as an obsolete and cancell'd Bond or that the Church was then without a Canon The sixth Argument If the Scriptures of the Old Testament were given by Divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3.16 And if the holy men of God the Prophets wrote them as they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 and their Writings were therefore called The Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 then without all controversie there must be the same holy and heavenly Truth or Divine Doctrine found in them as is in the Scriptures of the New Testament There being but one Spirit as there is but one God one Faith breathing in both Testaments Eph. 4.4 'T was this one Spirit which inspired the Pen-men of them both who is the Spirit of Truth John 14.17 leading both the Prophets and the Apostles into one and the same Truth John 16.13 14 15. Therefore the Books of both should be received with the same Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 and neither of them ought to be refused NB. 1. To reject the Old Testament is to reject the Holy Spirit that speaks in it 2. 'T is not only rejecting but resisting the Holy Ghost as Stephen charges the Stiff-necked Jews for rejecting the words of the Prophets which they had spoke to them by the Spirit Act. 7.51 Let none now commit the same sin 3. It can come from no other than from the Inspiration of the Devil to reject the Old Testament which was writ by the Inspiration of God contrary products must proceed from contrary principles The seventh Argument If the Old Testament Scriptures be profitable for such blessed uses as are afore-mentioned then they who cast them away as unprofitable are not only Enemies to the Churches Profit and Edification and are Friends to Errour Vice and sinful Folly all which three the Apostle declareth are disappointed by those Scriptures convincing Errour reproving Vice and making wise to Salvation but are also Blasphemers against God and his holy Spirit that did dictate and indite them There be blasphemous deeds as well as blasphemous words Ezek. 20.27 Now to blaspheme any part of the holy Scriptures either by word or deed is Blasphemy in an high degree and at least borders near upon that unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost Matth. 12.31 32. That Opinion of rejecting any part of the holy Canon of the Scriptures which is undoubtedly very hateful to God as well as hurtful to men can never be a good Opinion 'T is not Heaven but Hell-born The eighth Argument If the Prophets as well as the Apostles be the Doctrinal Foundation of the Church as Christ is the Personal thereof 1 Cor. 3.11 then the Books of the Prophets Moses c. may not be rejected But the Antecedent is clear from Eph. 2.19 20. speaking of a Gospel-Church Therefore the Consequent must be clear also Mark well Paul puts no difference betwixt the Doctrines of the Prophets and that of the Apostles he makes them not two but one only Foundation therefore we cannot be true Christians nor indeed a true Church as the Ephesians were and that of Ephesus was unless we be Built upon both such as remove themselves from the Foundation of the Prophets may ere long make as little matter of Building upon the Apostles not regarding any written Word at all but rather
Chap. 7.8 which he did not the like for any other though at present he placed her in the Palace of David Which soon grew too narrow to entertain the Grandeur of Her that was the Daughter of so powerful a King whereas his other Wives were Daughters of such Nations as were Subjects and Tributaries to him Yet are we told here that Solomon did serve God and Himself before he served this great Queen for his Wisdom did well chuse in the first place to build a Temple for God's Worship and then a Palace for himself which he likewise finished and in the third place a Palace for this Queen distinct from his own but adjoining close to it therefore he finished his own before it Chap. 7.8 The second Means of confirming the Kingdom of Solomon were Internal which be two 1. His Piety And 2. His Prudence Remarks first upon his Piety highly extoll'd in ver 3. The 1. is Solomon is said to Love the Lord which is the great command Matth. 22.36 37. The fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 and is not only the best ground of Obedience Joh. 14.15 but also laies an Holy constraint to do all Duty 2 Cor. 5.14 And this is said of Solomon to evidence the Sincerity and Ardency of his Soul towards God in his younger Years though his Zeal fail'd after The Second Remark is The Excellency of Solomon's Piety is first set off by the contrary to it namely the Impiety and Will-worship of the People ver 2. Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescunt One contrary placed by another gives Lustre to each other The People worshipped in high places which was expresly forbidden in the Law of God Levit. 17.3 4. Deut. 13.14 This was therefore Will-worship and Impiety in the People the Reason rendred there because no Temple was yet built this only excus'd them a tanto but not a toto in part but not wholly for they had then other places to offer Sacrifices at as Gibeon where the Tabernacle and the Altar of Moses were 1 Chron. 16.39 and 21.29 and 2 Chron. 1.3 5 6. And they had Sion where the Ark of God was 2 Sam. 6.16 17. and 1 King 8.1 and they having the Tabernacle were as much confined to it as to the Temple Deut. 12.2 3 4 5 6 7 8 11 12 13. But long Custom even from some Patriarch's Practice made this Heathenish Custom Jer. 7.31 Ezek. 6.3 4. Hos 10.8 More imitable and the Law of the Tabernacle less regarded But Solomon's Piety in building a glorious Temple must be the most probable means to call off the People from their former vain Customs both sweetly and swiftly The Third Remark is Solomon's piety is next illustrated by its own exercise in his Worshipping God both at Gibeon where the Tabernacle of God was ver 4. and at Sion where the Ark of God was ver 15. and though it be said Only he Sacrificed in High Places ver 3. which seemeth to tax Solomon of the same folly with the Wilworshipping People But this must be looked upon as very improbable that the Holy Spirit should so highly commend him for his transcendent Love to God and discommend him for so gross a failure and all with one Breath in one Verse Therefore those High Places there mentioned may relate to the People's practice or only to Gibeon and Sion where Solomon as we read only worshipped Though the word High Place be usually taken in an ill sense yet here ver 3. and 2 Chron 1.3 't is taken in a good sense which is plainly explained by the subsequent verses in both those places above quoted And though it be said here that Solomon Sacrificed in High-places in the Plural Number yet both those High-places are expresly mentioned to be Gibeon and Jerusalem both places permitted by the Lord untill the Temple was erected Compare ver 4 15. here with 2 Chron. 1.3 4 5. where we find recorded how Solomon did his Devotion in both those places As First At Gibeon call'd the Great High-place where was the greatest Synagogue in the Land for there stood the Tabernacle and the Brazen Altar that Moses had set up being brought thither as to its place the chief Residence of the Sons of Ithamar who waited on the Sanctuary when Shilo fell Thither did Solomon go and all the Congregation with him 2 Chron 1.3 and there offered Sacrifices described both in their quantity and quality ver 4 15. here and in that place God appeared to him ver 5. which was a Divine approbation of Solomon's Piety in this High Place There God gave him the Grace of Wisdom in the highest degree of a Spiritual Habit. And Secondly We read of his going from Gibeon which first submitted to Joshua Josh 9.3 4. and was afterwards given to the Priests and Levites Josh 21.17 up to Jerusalem where he stood before the Ark of God and offered up Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings c. ver 15. and 2 Chron. 1.13 And there God gave him the Act and Exercise of that great Habit of the Grace of Wisdom before given him when he determined that dark and doubtful Case betwixt the two Harlots when he was saith Dr. Light foot but Twelve Years Old Thus far of Solomon's Piety the first Internal means of his Confirmation in his Kingdom The second means of his Establishment was his Prudence or Wisdom which is to be discoursed upon under a double Head The first is How Solomon obtained it and secondly How he Exercised it Remarks upon the former are First Solomon went to Gibeon to seek God by Prayer as well as by Sacrifice that he might be the better prepared to Build the Temple whereunto he now thought it high time to Address himself both after a Three Years preparation for materials and after the slaughter of Shimei the last of his Malecontents Now when he had spent all the Day in most Passionate and Pathetical Prayers for Wisdom in his so great Undertakings and Government 't is probable saith Peter Martyr N. B. He begg'd the same Petition in his Dream by Night for what we earnestly long for while we are Waking we usually Dream of them in our desires when Asleep The Second Remark is The Lord appeared to Solomon at Gibeon ver 5. The King had spent all the Day in due Devotion and God appeared to him at Night to evidence to him his acceptance of that Worship N. B. Dr. Hall hath this Divine Contemplation upon it Well may we expect to enjoy God when we have been duly and truly serving him That Night cannot but be surely Happy when the Day before hath been Sincerely Holy And in 2 Chron. 1.7 where the same History is recorded there is no mention neither of Solomon's Sleep or of Dream but barely That God appeared to him by Night which makes some Learned Men to think this was a Vision and not a Dream and the rather because Solomon so largely Answers God's Question in it The Third Remark is
had in perfection from the first but in Natural Acquired and Experimental Knowledge only such as to be Angry and Grieved Mark 3.5 6.6 and to be Ignorant of some things Mark 13.32 Mat. 24.36 The Son knew not the last day but from the Father This was Ignorantia morae privations non pravae Dispositionis Notewel If Christ thus humbled Himself that he might Suffer for us both in Soul and Body c. How should we be content to be Humbled even to a Nothingness for His Glory and the Churche's Good and how should we be content to be Humbled One for Another The same Mind that was in Christ should be in us Phil. 2.5 6 7. and we should wash one another's Feet as He gave an Example John 13.14 15. 'T is a shame for Man to be so-Proud where God hath been so Humble c. Notewel Secondly As Christ was Conceived in the Womb of the Virgin so must He be Conceived in the Heart of a Christian Gal. 4.19 Paul had a Travelling Spirit till Christ were formed in them This he did promote by two Means 1. By casting the Seed of the Word into their Souls which being Hid in the Heart Psal 119.11 and Well Watered there by the Ordinances will Through Grace breed Christ 2. He presseth them to min â—his word with Faith Heb. 4.2 otherwise It will be as a Miscarrying Womb No sooner did Mary Believe what the Angel had told her but she straight way Conceived Christ Luke 1.35 38. So Faith is a necessary Ingredient for Conceiving Christ Spiritually for Christ dwells in our Hearts by Faith Eph. 3.17 All which we may know by the â—abe's Motion as in the Womb. And without this we can have no comfort in the Literal unless we can feel the stirrings of the Spiritual Conception also The Antients say That Mary carry'd Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in her Heart as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in her Arms. Notewel Thirdly As the Literal so the Spiritual Conception cannot be wrought by any Power of Nature but by the Overshadowings of the Spirit of Grace As the Watry Cloud Overshadows a Fleece of Wool and the Rain thereof soaks and sinks into it insensibly so did the Spirit into the Virgin 's Womb and so sometimes into our Hearts Many may abound with the Power of Nature and be indued with all Natural Excellencies yet not have Christ Conceived or formed in their Hearts This cannot be till the Power of the Holy Ghost come upon us which the Wisest Sages and the greatest Luminaries of the Heathen World were strangers to 1 Cor. 2.8 Eph. 4.18 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 There can be no fiducial Assent of the Heart to own Christ as our Lord but by the Spirit Notewel Fourthly As Christ was Conceived by the Holy Ghost that Man's Nature and Sin might be Severed Asunder All born from the first Adam had Nature and Sin so joined together that none could take Man's Nature but He must take his Sin too till the second Adam came to part these two by his Supernatural Conception So All that have Christ Conceived in their Hearts by the Over-shadowings of the Spirit shall feel this parting Power of Christ who was the first from Adam that purify'd Man's Nature and parted it from Sin Thus it was in Regenerated Paul The good He would do He did not The evil He would not Do He Did Rom. 7.19 Sin was one thing in him and Nature Imported in the word I was another would to God we may All have this parting power of Christ to say as the Apostle 't is no more I but Sin that Dwells in me that though we keep the Nature of Man yet Sin may be parted from us As a spark of Fire may but up Towns and Cities c. So this Spirit of Burning can consume a World of Corruption in us Notewel The Fifth Mystery arises from the Third Particular to wit The Commotion at Christ's Conception Joseph cannot sleep Mary must be put away and the Angel must come to quiet all c. Mat. 1.19 20. Thus there is much ado when Christ is conceived in any Christian Heart such a one presently becomes a Table-Talk A Song of the Drunkards Psal 69.12 Men say He is Mad or at least Melancholy Acts 2.13 15. Mark 3.21 Oh what a Rout is made about it and nothing but an Angel from Heaven can hush all not only without in the World but also within in the Christian's own Conscience c. CHAP. III. AFter Christ's Conception followeth his Birth to be Discussed wherein consider five Particulars 1. The Person of whom he was Born 2. The Time When. 3. The Place Where 4. The Manner How 5. The Manifestation of it First of the First First The Person of whom He was Born Wherein two Branches be observable 1. He was Born of a Virgin 2. Of the Virgin Mary Mat. 1.23 1. Of a Virgin for three reasons 1. That he might be freed from the Guilt of Sin which comes by the course of Nature All have sinned in Adam Rom. 5.12 who proceed from his Loins by ordinary Procreation Though Christ was as a Man in Adam yet not simply so as other Men Are both from Adam and by Adam He was from him in his Humane Nature but not by him as a Procreant Cause by Ordinary Generation Therefore was he Born of a Virgin not in the common course of Nature that the purity of his Conception and Birth might sanctifie the Impurity of Ours Christ Began at the farther end of Man's Sin the first Tincture whereof is when Conceived and Brought Forth both in Iniquity Psal 51.5 That he might be our Compleat Saviour The 2d Reason is To Fulfil the Prophecies of Him Isa 7.14 Gen. 3.15 A Virgin shall bring forth Immanuel and the Seed of the Woman Born without the Seed of Man shall be the Breaker of the Serpent's Head and by this Signal and Singular Sign he was known to be the Saviour of the World The 3d Reason is That the strangeness of Christ's Birth might awake a Drowzy World to expect strange matters by his Life Yea much more than at the strange Births of Isaac Jacob Moses Samuel Samson and John Baptist The World did wonder a little at it Luke 2.18 'T is a wonder that they wondred no more that Christ should be Born of a Woman without Man whereas All the World wonders after the Beast Rev. 13.3 and not at this that the Son of God became the Son of Man to make us Sons of Men to be the Sons of God Learn hence a fourfold Mystery 1. What is Impossible with Man is yet possible with God Mat. 19.26 That a Virgin should bear a Son is Impossible by the Power of Nature yet Possible by the Power of God 'T was Impossible in Nature that Sarah when her Womb was Old and Cold should bear a Son yet was it possible with
one Sabbath might pass over the Child to prepare it for the Ordinance Thirdly Yea this Eighth Day was so precisely observed that if it did fall upon the Sabbath-Day yet they Circumcis'd the Child from thence came their vulgar saying Circumcisio sabbatum pellit Circumcision drives away the Sabbath and upon this Christ made some reflections saying Ye on the Sabbath Day do Circumcise John 7.22 Intimating thereby If you may wound a man on the Sabbath day for that was done in Circumcision Why may not I heal one And if you may heal one Member of the Circumcised on the Sabbath-Day why may not I make a man every whit whole thereon If you be at some pains to cure the Circumcised Member with your Hand why may not I without any pains cure this man with my word only May not my Miracles as well as your Sacraments Glorifie God on the Sabbath-day Fourthly Others say the eighth Day was appointed for Circumcision because the Life of a Child is very uncertain all the first seven Days and certainly less able to undergo the pain thereof therefore was it deferred till that Day which may serve to convince those that think God hath simply tyed Salvation to Sacraments for it might have been accounted Cruelty in God to forbid Circumcision till the eighth Day had Salvation depended upon it because the Infant might dye before The Covenant indeed is absolutely necessary to Salvation but the Seal thereof is not so but respectively only as the Sacraments are the Counsel and Command of God they ought not to be rejected Luke 7.30 The want of them is therefore dangerous but the contempt of them is in the Fathers Phrase plainly Damning Lastly The Sentiments of the Antients Ignatius Cyprian and Austin concurr in this that the first Day Sabbath or Lord's Day was wrapp'd up in the Institution of this eighth Day for Circumcision as well as intimated by the number of eighth Persons saved in Noah's Ark and by the Title Shemenith which signifies eight set upon several Psalms to signifie that the eight Day next to the seventh or Jewish Sabbath or first Day should be the Day of our Lord 's rising both to revive us and whereon to bestow Spiritual Circumcision upon us When the Shadow ceased the Truth and Substance prefigured thereby did take its place The Jewish Synagogue and Sabbath ceased at the entrance of the Christian Church and Lord's-Day See more of this Point in my Christian-walk and Chapter upon the Lord's-Day-Sabbath c. The Second Thing considerable is the performances of it to wit the Act of Circumcision which was a cutting away the Praeputium round the Instrument of Generation When God intended to root out the cursed Canaanites and to plant his People in their Place the Covenant was that they should fear the Lord and not walk in the ways of those Nations Lev. 20.23 So the sign of that Covenant was such as had reference to those Sins of the Flesh wherein the Canaanites had wallowed Lev. 18.24 25 to the end Therefore the Amputation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superfluity of Naughtiness so call'd James 1.21 was commanded the People of the God of Abraham lest their Vncircumcision should usher in their utter Excision This Circumcision of the Foreskin signified that they had better be flayed and have their Skin quite stripped off than to have it as a Skin-bottle hanging in the Smoak of filthy Desires land blown full of unclean Motions with the breath of Beelzebub Hence Esau was call'd prophane because He was the first that drew forth the Foreskin after he was circumcis'd whereby He denyed God and the Character of God's People saith Epiphanius This Act of Circumcision had a fourfold Use 1. A Political to distinguish the Jews from the Gentiles 2. A Moral Vse to mind them of mortifying their Sins 3. A Theological Vse to remind them both of God's Holy Covenant with them and of their being an Holy Seed to God And 4. An Eternal Vse in the thing signified by it The Mystery that this History Points at is that Circumcision of the Heart which Origen describes is Purgatio animae abjectio vitiorum And the Apostle calls it the putting off the Old Adam with his Actions by the Circumcision of Christ that is through his Merit and Spirit Col. 2.11 Rom. 2.28 29. The true Circumcision is made without hands and is that of the Heart in the Spirit not of the Letter c. Oh how honourable is the work of Mortification to be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if equal with a Mansion of Glory not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 yet this wonderful Work of the Spirit is wrought by the Word upon the Hearts of Christians at their first Conversion when they are let blood in the Heart-Vein as those were Acts 2.37 whereby Corruption of Nature that sink of Sin is wounded beloved Sins cast away with Sorrow and the Sinner received into Everlasting Communion with God and his People The Word Gnorlah Praeputium or Foreskin is applyed to the stoppage of the Mouth Exod. 6.30 of the Ear Jer. 6.10 and of the Heart Lev. 26.41 Isa 6.10 Acts 7.51 hindring the Operation of all these to good Oh pray that Christ may thrust his Holy Hand into thy Bosom and pull off that abominable Foreskin Sin is the Devil's Vomit the Soul's Excrement and the very Garbage of the World therefore must it be cast away into Kidron or Town-ditch as Hateful to God and hurtful to Man James 1.21 The Duty is ours Deut. 10.16 but the ability for doing it is God's Deut. 30.6 in the former God bids us Circumcise our Hearts in the latter he says He will do it for us Urge him with his Promise and doubt not of his Power jubendo juvat while God gives out the command He gives Power to obey as to the Man with the wither'd Hand Stretch it out c. Mark 3.5 The Third Thing considerable is the Reasons why Christ was circumcised seeing He needed it not upon accounts aforesaid The Reasons were these First That He might shew himself a Member of that circumcised People John 1.11 Secondly To testifie that He was our surety and took our Sins upon himself so as to satisfie for them Gen. 44.22 Psalm 119.122 and Heb. 7.22 Thirdly To signifie that he was a Debtor to the Law and came fully to fulfil it on our behalf Gal. 5.3 and Matth. 3.15 and 5.17 Rom. 2.17 Fourthly This was a part of his Humiliation and bleeding Passion Fifthly Christ was both Circumcised and Baptized to teach us that 1. The whole Efficacy of the Sacraments depend wholely and solely upon him 2. That he was the Mediator of Mankind both before and under the Rigour of the Law as well as under the Grace of the Gospel 3. That he is the Knot and Bond of both Covenants 4. That all kind of Sinners both Jews and Gentiles might have all kind of Comfort in Christ as in an
of his youthful Vigour and Vanity Or Naim Hebrew signifies the moving of them for thus the whole City was mightily moved at this mighty Miracle Luke 7.16 The Third Remark is A Young Man may be a Dead-Man This Widow's Son is call'd a Dead-man Luke 7.12 and a Young-man ver 14. assoon goes the Lambs-skin to the Market saith the Proverb as the Old Sheep Senibus mors in Januis Adolescentibus in insidiis Saith Bâ—rnard Death seizeth upon old men yet lyes lurking as in an Ambushment for the youngest As the Old must dye so the Young may Dye Our Drecrepit Age both Expects Death and Sollicits it but Vigorous Youth looks strangely upon that Grim Sergeant sent of God to Arrest it so soon The Fourth Remark is 'T is no new device or novelty to have burying places without the City 't is said here when Christ came to Naim he meets Men with a Dead Man carried out of the City ver 12. for they might not as holding it unhealthful and unwholesome to Bury within the Walls open Graves and Interr Corps in the City Therefore N. B. Note well Let not any Survivers murmur at the Burying of their near and dear Relations in the Suburbs of this City seeing it was so here and the Resurrection will find them any where The Fifth Remark is 'T is no untrodden path for an only Son to dye as well as an only Husband This good Woman as the sequel demonstrates loses first her only Husband therefore is she call'd a Widow and now as if the loss of her Head were not great enough she must lose her only Son who might have been to her what Obed was to Naomai a restorer of her Life and a hourisher of her Old Age Ruth 4.15 This her only Branch must be lopped off from the Tree also then murmur not at such strokes c. The Sixth Remark is Yet Christ's Compassion is toward such as are under such severe strokes 'T is said v. 13. When the Lord saw her he had Compassion on her and said weep not All this and more was done upon Christ's own accord from his Free-Grace and Unrequested This Widow did neither beseech his Bowels to Pity her nor his Power to Raise her Son Christ had and hath still a most tender Heart and will pity and provide more for his Praying People than they ask of him The Seventh Remark is As Christ touched the Bier and spake to the Dead Arise whereby the Dead-man was raised to Life and Restored to his Mother ver 14 15. N. B. Note well So a word of Christ's Mouth and a touch with his Hand shall suffice to revive the Slain Witnesses and to restore them to the Church their Mother Oh that God may thus visit his People and be Glorified as ver 16. However it shall be enough at the last Day to Raise up all the Dead John 5.29 1 Thes 4.13 c. The Eighth Remark is Sometimes Christ commanded secresie in his working Miracles as Mark 5.43 Luke 8.56 but five Persons were Witnesses of Jairus's Daughters being raised to life c. but this and that of Lazarus was done openly in the sight of the multitude without charge of Privacy as in Capernaum where Christ had been laughed to scorn and had newly denounced a Curse against that City but there were no such causes here All is done in open view Solomon saith Every thing is Beautiful in the right Season So are all Christ's Acts doing all well Mark 7.37 CHAP. XV. NOW follow many more matchless Miracles whereby the Lord backed his Divine Oracles and Doctrine of Truth The first and next now to be gloss'd upon is Christ's Casting out of the Deaf and Dumb Devil Mat. 12. from ver 22 to 46. Mark 7.32 with 9.17.11.17 Luke 11. from ver 14 to 27. This is illustrated by many Remarks The First is Both Matthew and Mark do introduce this Miracle by premising a general account of an Ambulatory Hospital following Christ from all parts Great Multitudes followed him from place to place Mat. 12.15 yea some of Esau's Posterity Idumeans as well as Jews throng to touch Christ Mark 3.7 8 9 10. and he healed the Diseases and Plagues of all that came to him and cast out Devils Mat. 8.16 12 1â— to which is added When the unclean Spirits saw him they fall down before him crying Thou art the Son of God Mark 3.11 The matter was well amended since Satan's first onset upon Christ in the Wilderness c. Where he then doubted saying If thou be the Son of God Mat. 4.3 6. The same Power can change his note to us The Second Remark is As Devils truckled to Christ's Power in his own Person so they did to that wherewith he impowered his Apostles whom he gradually gathered to be with him to see his Glory John 1.14 39 c. to be Witnesses of his Works Acts 10.39 41. And to learn as his Auditors the Doctrine of the Gospel that they were to Preach N. B. Note well So that the very Apostles themselves did not at their first mission into the Ministry Preach by the Spirit but what they had heard about a Twelve-month from the Mouth of their Master When Christ had Called and Chosen them to the number of twelve answerable to the twelve Tribes of Israel and throughly instructed them both for Praying and Preaching work He gives them not only a free Mission Mark 3.13 but also a free Commission both for curing Diseases and for casting out Devils Mat. 10.1 6 8. Mark 3.14 15. Luke 6.12 c. with 10 17. 9.1 Satan falls as Lightning from Heaven before them Luke 10.18 and that Serpent hurts them not Mark 16.18 Nor can he finally or totally hurt either Christ's Ministers or Believers that are his Members The Third Remark is Simon the Pharisee Invites Christ to a Feast Luke 7.36 It was fit he should feast sometimes that fared so hard mostly He is call'd Simon the Leper Mat. 26.6 Mark 14.3 whom Christ had healed of his Leprosie and who therefore entertains his Healer in way of Thankfulness to a Dinner and Christ's foregoing Words The Son of Man is come Eating and Drinking c. Luke 7.34 might possibly induce him to make this Invitation as haply Christ's others words Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden Mat. 11.28 might invite the Woman-Sinner to prostrate her self at Christ's-feet c. leaning on his left Elbow at Meat Luke 7.37 38. This was Mary Magdalen out of whom Christ had cast seven Devils and became a consort with a Court-Lady Joanna c. who had been healed by Christ also Luke 8.2 3. The self same Mary that was Sister to Lazarus John 12.2 3. Mark 15.40 16.1 Luke 24.10 Where we may not imagine Lazarus's Sister must neglect to be about the Burial Seeing Christ foretold that she should do that Office John 12.7 This Mary the Antients say was Married to a Noble Person of
of the Walls of the House till utterly demolished Lev. 14.41 to 46. still stupidity and diffidence broke forth again in the Disciples saying Whence shall we have so much bread c. Mat. 15.33 and Mark 8.4 They forgot the former Miracle of the five Loaves but waving their own Experience of Christ's Power they consult Appearances of Reason about furniture of Means so cannot see through a seeming difficulty The 5th Remark is This Apparent Impossibility of feeding four thousand with seven Loaves and a few small Fishes as before five Thousand with five Loaves and two Fishes was only to give the greater lustre unto Christ's Miracle who never works any but when need is and means fail yet did he not despise the Disciples Loaves in either Miracle but drove them so far as they would serve though he could have wanted them Eeking out what was wanting for such a multitude with his effectual blessing without which never so many Loaves could not feed or fill Lev. 26.26 Mat. 4.4 c. The 6th Remark is The Congruity and Disparity of this and the former Miracle of feeding with a few Loaves a great Multitude First The Congruity In both they were but ordinary People not Great Men for whom Christ did thus John 7.48 49. no Rulers not many Mighty c. though some there be 1 Cor. 1.26 Little Fishes bite more at the bait of the Gospel Mat. 11.5 than great ones and those meaner People were many of them first cured and then catered for Mat. 14.14 15.30 yea their Merit was not the cause but their misery was the occasion of drawing forth his mercy and tender compassions Mat. 14.14 15.32 with Mark 6.34 8.2 Secondly The Disparity 1st In the former the People had only fasted one day from Morning past Dinner time to Evening Mat. 14.15 Luke 9.12 Mat. 6.35 but in the latter they had been two nights and three days with Christ in that Desart therefore their necessities now must needs be greater and accordingly was Christ's Commiseration towards them who were so Intent upon their Attending his Doctrine and Miracles as to forget both themselves and their families all their Provisions brought from home being now spent 2d In the former it was only They need not Depart Mat. 14.16 but in this latter it is I will not send them away fasting Mat. 15.32 when Man desires a matter out of the reach of his power He only saith I would it were so but Christ here to shew his Omnipotency saith I will have it so 3d In the former the People sat down upon the Grass Mat. 14.19 Green Grass Mark 6.39 John 6.10 but in this latter they sat down upon the bare ground Mat. 15.35 Mark 8.6 The Popish Postillers play with their wanton wits upon this disparity or difference saying Their lying down upon Grass signfies Chastity for all Flesh is Grass Isa 40.6 The Sun rising makes Grass wither Jam. 1.11 now Fleshly Lusts may be trodden underfoot but upon the bare ground here intimates that we must not have an Immoderate love to the things that are on the Earth but to mortifie our Earthly Members Col. 3.2 5. whereas more solid Judgments dare not squeeze Scripture thus where no more was meant save only there was much Green Grass upon the ground at that time of the year about the Passover when the first Miracle was and 't was all gone at the second Lastly Though in both their was Christ's Craving a blessing N.B. Note well To shew we must not feed like Beasts that look not up to God the giver c. his breaking and giving to his Disciples to shame them out of their Unbelief by making them Actors in that very work which they could not believe they should possibly behold they had experience before of the like Miracle in the very like case As likewise to intimate to them that they should be his Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4.1 and Fellow-workers with Christ 2 Cor. 6.1 yet in this latter there be more Loaves than in the former fewer feaders and fewer fragments unless the latter Baskets were bigger than the former as the two Greek words may intimate however one Basket only had proved the Miracle as well as an hundred N. B. Note well Divine Wisdom glorifies it self as it pleaseth yet ever in a way sufficient to manifest Divine Power which hath the greater lustre in the fewer means and to teach us 't is not the measure or muchness of Meat but 't is God's Blessing that feeds and satisfies c. The Antient Fathers do abound with Allegories upon the difference of those two feeding Miracles saying 1. The five thousand answered the five Senses and the four thousand the four Evangelists the number of four being the square or perfect number as as quadrangular Stone lyes most firm hence Homo Quadratus a Man stable in his purpose and practice c. so Hieronimus 2. The Company fed with the five loaves set forth the Church of the Jews so this that of the Gentiles which was as four thousand because gathered out of the four quarters of the World they fasted three days to signifie their sympathizing with their Saviour who lay three days in the Grave v. Thus Hillary 3. Others with the Gloss say as the five thousand answers the five Senses so the four thousand the four Cardinal Vertues Temperance Prudence Fortitude and Justice and in both neither Women for their Levity nor Children for their Infirmity are numbred for none are admitted to the Lord either in Old or New-Testament but such as grow up to a perfect man Eph. 4.13 and both Companies are fed upon a Mountain to shew that both Testaments contain High and Heavenly things and the Apostles gather the seven Basketsful here to set forth the seven Graces of the Spirit c. These and the like Allegories I insist not upon because though a good use may be made of some yet others are but vain speculations and too nice curiosities which can render no solid fruit to the serious Reader c. I shall and only that of Chrystostom who saith the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be larger Vessels than the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so large a Basket as could contain the body of Paul Acts 9.25 or it was to shew the pleasure of Divine Power causing the Meat so to abound as that sometimes there remained more and sometimes less that those two Miracles might not be confounded However seeing the People whose bellies Christ had filled with the first Miracle to the five loaves were so far transported as to take and make him King by Force John 6.15 therefore immediately after this second Miracle of feeding them Christ withdraws from them into the Coasts of Magdala which was supposed to be Mary Magdalen's Country Mat. 15.39 called also the parts of Dalmanutha Mark 8.10 which place might have two names as the Gadarens and
necessary it is to compare all the four Evangelists together for compleating the whole Account of the Life and Death of our Dear Lord. And this Evangelist John assures us of this great Truth as being an Eye-witness of this double Witness in the blood and Water John 19.34 35. No more than what he saw with his Eyes doth the declare to us 1 John 1.3 He saw one of the Souldiers pierce the sides of Christ after he had given up the Ghost with a Spear and forthwith came there out Blood and Water which the same Author in his first Epistle calls the two things that bore Record or Testimony upon Earth This is he that came by Water and Blood not by Water only but by Blood also 1 John 5.6 Here was the foretold Fountain opened Zech 13 1â— even the sides of our Saviour to wash away Man's sin and uncleanness The God of Nature hath in such Wisdom qualified the Natural Heat of Man's Heart that nor only the Lungs are so placed as to blow cool Air upon it but also it is Situated as in a Vessel of water called the Pericardium for the Farther cooling of it and this is a Received Rule among all Learned Naturalists that if this Pericardium or skin of water about the Heart be pierced it is impossible for the Heart which is the prâ—mum vivens ultimum Moriens the first part that lives and the last that dies in Mankind should preserve life in it any longer So that this Wound the Souldier gave our Saviour in his side was a most manifest witness of the Death of Christ and as the Water and Blood did Represent the two Gospel-Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper which did properly flow from the sides of Christ all the other five Mock-Sacraments in the Romish Church flowed only from the sides of Antichrist so they Resembled the two Grand Graces the Water had the Resemblance of the Grace of Sanctification and the Blood of the Grace of Justification These two Graces this beloved Disciple would not have divided each from other Therefore he saith that Christ came by both not by Water only but by blood also To shew that we are both Sanctified and Justified by the Death of our Dear Jesus the water of our Sanctifying grace washes us from the filth of sin and the Blood of Justifying Grace cleanseth and purgeth us from the guilt of sin And seeing we are but in part and not throughly Sanctified for there is ever some remaining Corruption uncleansed Joel 3.21 c. and 't is only carryed on gradually and as it were by Inches therefore the main matter of the Joy of our Salvation consisteth more in our being Justified because the grace of Justification is one gracious Act changing our State of Wrath at one instant into a State of Favour with God and spreading a Mantle as it were to cover out of God's sight the Multitude of our black sins past present and to come by the Red Robes of our Redeemers Righteousness imputed to us So that this blood and water hold forth both the imputed and the imparted Righteousness of Christ and what our Lord hath joyned together that let no Man put asunder No Man can be truly made partaker of that Righteousness which is imputed unless he have also that which is imparted our Sanctification is a blessed Evidence of our Justification We have not need of the blood only but of the water also And tho' this Apostle in 1 John 5.8 make three Witnesses on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood yet he saith these three agrees in one for Gods Spirit doth witness with our Spirits that we are truly Justified and Sanctified by Christ Rom. 8.15 16. And this is highly Remarkable that these Kill-Christ's can do nothing against him but as God had Decreed they may kill him and wound him when killed but the least bone in this Paschal Lambs Body they cannot break as it is written Exod. 12.46 Numb 9.12 No more can Satan or his Imps break the least bone of Christ's Mystical Body his Church Let us now take a general prospect of the Death of our Dear Redeemer and make some profitable Inferences from the Sundry Circumstances thereof The 1. Inference is Oh! What an heinous Evil an only Evil Ezek. 7.5 a very bitter thing Jer. 2.19 is sin that could by no possible means admit of any proportionable Expiation or Commensurate satisfaction for it but either by the Death of the Son of God the sinners Surety or by enduring the Eternal Flames of Hell in the sinners themselves every Man as well as the first Man Adam hath eaten the Forbidden Fruit of Sin and the Divine Doom for that Crime of High Treason against the Great God of Heaven the King of Kings is dreadfully Denounced in the open Court of the Holy Scriptures to wit that the Sinner shall surely Die either by himself or or by his Surety There is an infinite offence in every Act of sin as it is acted against the Authority of an Infinite God And should the sinner live for ever upon Earth he would sin for ever against Heaven therefore Eternal Torments are appointed for that Eternal principle of sinning in the faln sinner to satisfie Divine Justice And such suitable satisfaction thereunto the Highest and most Glorious of all the Created Angels in Heaven much less any Mortal Man or the Mightiest Monarch upon Earth could not possibly undertake to make No it must be only the only Son of God that could pay down the full price of our Redemption The 2. Inference is Oh! what a sad case is this that of all Impenitent Ones and Unbelievers who have no interest in the Death of this Son of God who Dyed as the Son of Man to satisfie the Justice of God from the sins of Men These cannot say that Christ dyed for us as Gal. 2.20 c. He gave his Life a Ransom for many Matth. 20.28 But for none such as these and therefore they are like unless they Repent and Believe to bear the Eternal Wrath of God yea and it may be of Man for a while too in themselves which our Dear Redeemer hath born upon the Cross for all True Penitent and Believing Persons The 3. Inference is Oh! how Hateful and Sinful Rom. 7.13 should sin be to every Soul that cost our Saviour so much unparallel'd Sufferings to satisfie for it surely could we but take a view of sin as it lay on our Saviour's Back with such weight as to squeeze out his very Hearts blood out of his Body we should then hate it with a perfect Hatred for Torturing him whom our Souls love Nature teacheth us to avoid that Wound which is hardest to Cure and most Mortal to Life therefore do we guard to our utmost our Heads and Hearts with holding our Hands betwixt them and the Blows And should not Grace teach us to avoid sin which makes the worst Wound in the World as it wounds the Soul and
Sanctis cap. 2. saith that those Malitious Monsters of Mankind did bind the Tomb of Christ's Body with strong Grapples and Labels of Iron on purpose to cross the Tales as he saith and disappoint the unchangeable Decrees of the divine Determined Counsel But mark how God here overshoots the Devil in his own Bow Gods Providence makes use of those Enemies Malice to make the matter of our Lord's Burial and Resurrection much more Conspicuous and Manifest to all Men for the more their crafty Counsel and carefullness was to keep Christ under the Earth and to prevent his Resurrection by their politick provisions all this did but render our Lord's Resurrection the more Divine and Glorious because it was accomplished Maugre the Malice of Men and Devils They can expect no good Success that dare fight against God Thus have we an account of our Lords Body how it was held faster in the Grave by the Divine Decree than by all those Humane yea Hellish Devices before mentioned it must not lie so long Buried as these Miscreant Men would have it which they designed to be for ever no it must lie no longer than the most Wise God would have it according as it was foretold in his Holy Scriptures God ordained that Christ's Body should lie Buried until the Third Day least his Adversaries should object in their Cavilling and Malicious manner that he had not been really dead yet shall it not lie there until the fourth Day least his Disciples Faith should flag and founder through his too long absence from them which he had told them often should be but for a little time and besides this the word saith that God would not suffer his Holy one to see Corruption Psal 16.10 Acts 13.35 He must not stink as Lazarus did at the fourth Day The next Inquiry is where was Christ's Soul all this time that his Body was buried in the Grave The Romanists Answer That Christ's Soul went down to Preach unto those Souls in Purgatory from their mistaking that Text by the which he also went and Preached unto the Spirits that are in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 as also that Article of the Creed He Descended into Hell both these Errours may briefly be thus corrected As 1. That cannot be the Sense of the Apostle Peter's Sentence for the Relative by the which can have no Antecedent but the Spirit ver 18. whereby he was quickened now the Spirit there cannot signifie the Soul of Christ unless we will affirm that he was quickened and Raised out of the Grave by the Vertue and Power of his own Soul which ought not to be affirmed But we must say this was done by the Efficacy of his Divine Nature which is call'd the Spirit in this place and in that 1 Tim. 3.16 Justified in the Spirit that is the power of the Godhead did so manifest it self Marvelously in that weak flesh of Christ that though he became a weak Mortal Man yet the Vertue of his Divine Nature whereby he Raised himself from the Dead did so convincingly shine forth as to make all the World believe that he was and is God And thus that Apostle must be understood that though Christ was not present in the Old World with his Corporal presence as he was at his Incarnation in the New World yet was he present with those Antediluvians in his Divine Nature which is both ever and every where whereby he Spirited Noah to be a Preacher of Righteousness unto the Disobedient of that Day who because of their Disobedience to Christs call at that time sent by the Spirit to call them to Repentance were then Drowned in that Universal Deluge and now Imprisoned in that Everlasting Prison of Hell where they lie confined till the Day of Judgment and then their drowned Bodies shall be brought to their damned Souls to receive the full recompense of their Rebellion against God that as Soul and Body sinned together so they must suffer together for ever more As to the 2d Errour or Cavil grounded upon the Article of Faith He descended into Hell must be thus corrected The word Sheol which signifies Hell is largely Interpreted for the Grave also therefore that phrase Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell Psal 16.10 is read in the Grave in the Old Translation And Sheol is read the Grave in the New Translation Gen. 37.35 I will go down into Sheol or the Grave unto my Son saith Jacob concerning Joseph who was too good a young Man to go down to Hell and who was not gone down̄ to the Grave neither in Jacob's Sentiments for he conceited some Evil Beast had devoured his Body ver 33. Therefore by Sheol Jacob must mean the State of the Dead wherein He thought Joseph to be and neither in the Grave nor in Hell And thus 't is said of Jesus who is Joseph our Brother that He descended into the Deep Rom. 10.7 which is there explained by its Antithesis to bring him from the Dead and 't is said of him that He descended into the lower parts of the Earth Ephes 4.9 Yea Christ saith of himself that he must lie some time in the Heart of the Earth which David calls in Psal 139.15 His Mothers Belly as the Earth is the Grand Mother of all Living and Dying Mat. 12.40 but 't is no where said in Scripture that Christ's Soul Descended into Hell which is the place of the Damned but the contrary is Asserted even by our Saviour himself that the same day wherein he Died the Soul of the Penitent Thief should be with his Soul in Paradise Luke 23.43 So that Christ's descending to Hades can admit of no other meaning than of his going down into the State of Death and his Body lying under the Power of Death till the Third Day The 3d Remark is The Consequences and Effects of Christ's Burial which are all exceeding comfortable to us As 1st Our Lord was Buried as well as Died to make a more compleat Conquest over Death As he had Conquered that Adversary in the open Field upon the Cross in giving up the Ghost at his own good will as above and not at the ill will of commanding Death so now he pursues Vanquished Death into its own Den and its Retreating Fortress and there becomes Death to Death it self strangles and unstings it upon its own Dunghill and loosing yea breaking the bonds of it 1 Cor. 15.55 Acts 2.24 27 31. 13.29 30 c. Sampson's Victory was the Greater that he suffered his Enemies to bind him So was our Saviour's who suffered himself to be bound with the Chains of Death and to be laid in its Strongest Hold in the very House and Cabin of Death Job 17.13 and then conquers it 2dly That he might destroy him who had the Power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 as Satan is the Author of Sin so in that respect he is said to have the Power over Death for Sin brought in Death and Death is
from whence it is manifest that the dedication of this day had not its Original from the Apostles as if they had power to appoint it of themselves but from their Lord who having breath'd his Spirit upon them whereby they had such Divine Illumination as to know the mind of Christ by his holy pattern that the first day should be consecrated for the Christian Sabbath c. But of this point see more both before and after adding only this here that seeing this Sabbath is from Christ let us beware we be not worse than Judas condemned of all who Stole yea from Christ yet only his Money Alas 't is far worse to Steal Time Service and Duty from him and our own Souls also c. The Fifth Appearance of Christ was to the Ten Disciples Peter being present but Thomas absent Luke 24.36 to 49. John 20.19 to 26. Mark 16.14 Simon Peter after his former Foul fall yet rising again by Repentance and running with John to make a fuller inquiry after the Truth of his Lord's Resurrection was well Rewarded for this his forwardness for first an Angel Animates him and frees him from his Anxiety Mark 16.7 and then Secondly he received farther Confirmation and comfort from Christ himself appearing to him Luke 24.34 1 Cor. 15.5 now his disjoined Soul being thus happily put into Joint again he hereupon joins himself de novo with the Chorus or Colledg of Apostles and there waits with them that were now newly crept out of their secure lurking holes Though these fresh Tidings and Reports of their Lord's Resurrection for farther manifestation and whom he bad now put into a full perswasion that the Lord was risen indeed and in that transport they all Unanimously tell those two Travelling Disciples to Emmaus that he had appeared unto Simon as above Then Christ came and made his appearance Object How can this be call'd the Fifth when John expresly calls the next but one of Christ's Appearances but the Third John 21.14 and Mark makes this appearance to the Apostles the last of all Mark 16.14 Answ 1st John's Phrase the Third time must be meant in Relation to Days or to the Disciples If to Days then it holds true that the Appearance John speaks of there was the the Third day for on the First day the day of his Resurrection he appeared Five several times to several Persons this Fifth being the last of that day Then the next first day Seven night he Appeared again which made the Second day of his Appearance and then his appearing again at the Sea of Tiberias which John there speaks of makes the Third day or time and so it was likewise as respecting the Disciples for the First time of Christ's Appearing to them was on the very day he Rose up from the Dead His Second time was that day Seven night when Thomas was present and that at Tiberias Sea made the Third time of his Appearing to his Disciples together though he had to others c. Answ 2d As to Mark 's making this Appearance the last his account of them is short as in many other Historical passages He therefore Sums up all Christ's Appearances in this one and makes it the last because it lasted all the time from Christ's Resurrection to the very time of his Ascension thus both those Objections as remora's are removed out of our way The general account of this Fifth Appearance of Christ in short is this the Disciples were now newly as it were conjured out of their lurking holes of concealment by those Rumors and Reports flying abroad of their Lord's Resurrection and convening to consult about this Matter Ten of them were gotten together Thomas only being absent yet very privately in a Secret place having the Doors fast lockt to them for fear of the Kil-Christ's though this closeness might conceal them from the Jews yet could it not from Jesus for he by his Divine power conveyed himself suddenly and marvellously in among them no man unlocking the door for his enterance and stood in the midst of them This unexpected Apparition did at first affright them suspecting it to be some Spectrum c. But to take off their consternation he first comforts them and then confirms them in a belief of the Truth of his Resurrection by convincing Demonstration both in beholding with their Eyes and in handling with their hands his solid Body retaining still the Skars of his Crucifixion in the several parts of it After this he breathed upon them the Holy Spirit and committs to them their Apostolical Offices Luke relates this History briefly Luke 24.36 but John more largely John 20.19 c. But more particularly we have herein a plain prospect of these several famous remarks The First is the time when which was in the Evening of the very same day that he Rose upon John saith the same day at Evening being the first day of the week c. John 20.19 And Luke saith as the Ten Disciples were talking together with the Two Travellers at Emmaus Luke 24.33 34 35 36. But Mark adds As they sat at Meat He Appeared to them Mark 16.14 Thus have we here Christ's Exemplary Establishment of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath that we might learn of him to do as he did in spending the whole day morning middle and the Evening at which time this last of the Five Appearances or this one and the same day of his Resurrection was even the whole day in Divine Devotion and Duties And thus Those scattered Sheep did on that day Assemble together those faln Disciples rose up from their foul falls on that day which their Lord rose upon and did Undoubtedly spend at least the Evening of it in Divine Discourses c. Then comes our Lord into the midst of them and so will he do to us if we do so c. as they did c. The time of this Appearance must not only be night time but late at night also for the two Disciples had sat down to Supper that Evening and had after that to Travel Seven Miles and an Half from Emmaus to Jerusalem where they found the Eleven together and as Mark saith sitting at Supper 't is not improbable they had spent some considerable time in praying weeping and comforting one another before they took any refreshment And some say Thomas was with them at the first but went out before Christ came because he would not believe the Relations either of the Holy Women or of his fellow Apostles or of the two Disciples that were now returned thither from Emmaus However this Teacheth us 1. That the Saints when they meet together ought to hold Holy Conference one with another concerning Christ and matters tending to Edification c. As those Apostles of the Lord did here 2. When the Saints cannot hold their sacred Assemblies and Godly Conferences by day they may lawfully do it by night notwithstanding all the base slanders that
a wicked World casts upon them for so doing Thus those Holy men did here with the doors shut and thus they did after Acts 12.13 with ver 6.18 c. And 3. That the Zeal of God's glory and our Soul 's good should sometimes so eat us up as to make us forget to eat bread Thus was it with our Lord often Jo. 2.17 4.31 32 33 34. Matth. 21.18 c. And thus it was with the Apostles here who had a long fast for a Supper even the distance of time wherein the two Foot-men could foot it betwixt Emmaus and Jerusalem c. The Second Remark is the place where which in general was Jerusalem whence we may note that our Lord is oft better than his word of promise but never worse The promise was only that the Lord would go before them into Galilee Matth. 28.7 And there to make his Appearance to them yet better things were performed than were promised for no fewer than Five times had Christ now appeared to one or other of their Company either about nigh or in Jerusalem before that Solemn Appearance in Galilee afterward If inquiry be made why should Christ appear in Galilee according to that promise rather than in Judea 'T is answered for these Reasons 1st as Galilee Hebr. signifies Transmigration so herein was intimated the passing over of the Gospel of Christ from the Jews to the Gentiles mentioned Acts 13.46 2dly because he had more Disciples in Galilee than in Judea to whom he would have his Resurrection testified by Eye witnesses Acts 10.41 For there as some say he shewed himself to five hundred at once 1 Cor. 15.6 Christ was willing to satisfy many together and withal to confirm all 3dly Because in Galilee all his Disciples might meet more safely and freely than in Judea where they feared the Pharisees c. N.B. That place which bids Christ and his Gospel most welcome must be appointed the place of his meeting them But in particular the place was where there was a private House in Jerusalem and situated in some Retired part of it least obvious and exposed to publick View or Resort there were this Apostolical Society Assembled Secretly having the doors shut upon them for fear of the Jews John 20.19 Their fear that the malice of the Kill Christ's would were they discovered in their meetings break in upon them lay Sedition to their charge and much easilyer execute them than they had done their Master Therefore is the reason rendred both why they meet in the night time and why in a secret place and keeping the doors shut Teaching us 1st Not only that the Night time may be canonical hours for Divine Worship in case of persecution as well as the day as before for it was the practice of the primitive as well as of those primo-primitive Christians from fear in the Ten persecutions as Tertullian tells us and Pliny the Second in Traian's time speaks of cantus Antelucanos c. their singing Psalms together before the day did Dawn which was the greatest crime that Sage Heathen could find in them But also that God may be acceptably worshiped in private places when and where publick places are denyed c. For the Apostle's Rule is that men must pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 He confines not God's worship to Temples God is as little a respecter of places as of persons hereby they had the Appearance of Christ among them according to his promise wherever two or three be gathered together in my name there will I be in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 whether the place be Publick or Private This 2dly Teacheth us that it is our duty to avoid all needless dangers The Apostles here well knew that those Jews who had Killed their Lord would make no scruple to Kill his Disciples therefore are they careful for their own security and not wittingly and willingly rush headlong into eminent and evident Hazards There is a Will-suffering as well as a Will-worshiping Though the Cross be needful and must be born when it lies betwixt us and our duty and God lays it on There is then no going aside from it or leaping over it yet must we have a care that we rush not or rashly run into needless Crosses and bring them without a call upon our own heads This is a tempting of God The care of the means belong to us but the care of the end belongs to God We loose the comfort of bearing the Cross which we wilfully wrest and wrestle our selves under This is to be righteous and wise overmuch and why shouldst thou destroy thy self Ecclus. 7.16 3dly It Teacheth us likewise how differing are the Actings of one and the same godly man according to the strength or weakness of Grace in him Thus it was with those Apostles while their Faith was weak they were for Absconding and creeping into corners c. But when their Faith was made strong by the powring out of the holy Spirit on Pentecost Day upon them then by the strength of their great Grace daily in the Temple as well as from house to house They ceased not to Teach and Preach Jesus Christ Acts 5.42 Even severe Stripes could not scare them from their duty now whom threatning words which brake no bones affrighted before Every man therefore must measure his own actings according to his strength or weakness The more or less strength a man hath accordingly is his courage more or less and none ought presumptuously to put forth themselves beyond the strength of their Grace received as is the man so is his strength Judges 8.21 and as is his strength so ought to be his undertakings and actings If we faint in our Spirits when in trouble then is our strength but small Pro. 24.10 That privacy in the Apostles here was no worse in their state of weakness but prudent piety but such a practice when grown up to a state of strength would have been no better than Pusillanimity where strength of Grace is there 't is better to stand the ground and rather die than fly But in case of weakness 't is safer to fly as that young man did Mark 14.51 52. than to dishonour God as poor Peter did in staying and then in denying his Lord. The 3d Remark is the manner how our Lord appeared to the Eleven This he did without giving any Indicant signs either of his approach by the Sound of his Foot-steps or of his enterance for the Doors were shut and no Key was heard to be turn'd nor any bolt drawn back to open them yet comes he in invisibly to them and stands in the midst of them though the way whereby he came was sensibly apparent to none There be divers opinions how this could be 1. Some say that Christ might slip in unseen when the Doors were opened to let in the two Disciples that came from Emmaus into the Room among them but this cannot correspond with the Scope of the
upon the death of the other should become James the great and be brought into the same Rank Office and Imployment to which may be added how Antiquity did honour him with the Title of James the just who was among Believers espetially among those in Judaea of great Reputation and Authority The Tenth Appearance of Christ the last of all was That upon Mount Oliver St. Luke saith He lest them forâ—h as far as Bethany Luke 24.50 Bethany was near Jerusalem and bordering upon the Mount of Oliver Mark 11.1 and Act 's 1. 〈◊〉 At this Bethany his three dear Friends dwelt Laâ—drâ—s Mary and Martha From hence he went to his Cross and from hence also he would go to his Crown for from this place he ascended up to Heaven This last we may well suppose was the great grand and most general Appearance whereunto more than 500 were Assembled that Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 15.6 to take their fast farewel of their Ascending Saviour All his numerous Disciples but of Galilee as well as those fewer out of Judaea for the Disciples that met in Jerusalem were reckoned no more than one hundred and twenty Acts 1.15 however numerous that on Mount Tabor's meeting in Galilee was yet now when he remanded his Disciples back from Galilee to Jerusalem and there comes again to them leading them out thence to the Mount of Olives for more secresie from fresh uproars and became no wicked ones must be witnesses of his Ascension Acts 10.47 This last Manifestation upon Earth must be to a more numerous meeting This Opinion saith Peter Martyr on 1 Cor. 15.6 is backed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above which respects place as well as number implying saith Grotius with Peter Martyr that Christ shewed himself on high as standing up upon some Rising ground or lifting up himself into the Air to be plainly viewed by this great Company so they all conspicuously beheld him in his own former figure and lineaments nor yet in the Majesty of his glorified Body lest they should mistake him for some glorious Angel and not as one who was Crucified dead and buried Note Therefore did he hide his Glory during the forty days rather for their sakes than for any want of it in himself for it was necessary for the Disciples that they see him so as to know him that they might the better Preach the great Truth of the Resurrection Pareus saith likewise with others that this last was the solemnest meeting it being Christ's Valedictory Appearance to above five hundred persons at once this must needs be a General Assembly for settling the great Fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion to be known believed and observed in the Gospel-Churches to the end of the World Note At this last meeting which Paul also mentions 1 Cor. 15.6 with five hundred Brethren Christ's last work was to settle a Gospel-Ministry then Baptism c. as is principally and largely described by Matthew and Mark and more briefly by Luke and John By all those Testimonies it is manifest that this numerous meeting was when all the Disciples were returned from Galilee to Jerusalem at which the Lord gave out his commissions to the Apostles and first Indued them with a full power of Preaching the Gospel to all the World and of Baptizing all Nations for remitting of sins also he gave them Ministerial Authority he likewise set them to the Rights about their Doting expectations of a Temporal Kingdom which they more especially looked for now that their Lord was Risen from the dead a work far above all his former Miracles while he was living and had now brought them to Jerusalem again with such a confluence of followers and where he taught them things pertaining to the Kingdom of God c. Acts 1.3 4 5 6 7 then gave he them commandment to tarry at Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit was sent them at length he led them forth as far as Bethany and they all looking on he Ascended into Heaven verse 9 c. The Grand Remarks that concern this last and most solemn meeting must be collected by piece-meal out of the four Evangelists The first out of Matthew chap. 28. verse 18 c. Jesus came near and spake to them c. This he did saith Grotius in his last Appearance as appeareth by comparing this place with John 21.15 c For Matthew makes a Compendium here of all the principal heads of Christ's Sermons that he Preached to his Apostles not only in that Mount but at Jerusalem both before and after when being at Bethany he was about to Ascend c. Then Christ came nearer and in a more familiar manner to do away at once all their doubts fully as he still draws nearer to all his weak doubting Disciples and communicates himself more familiarly to them plainly saying All power in Heaven is given to me He had it from Eternity as God Phil. 2.7 now 't is given him as Man for Redeeming Mankind at his Resurrection ver 8. Here Christ praemiseth his power yea and promiseth his presence Mat. 28.20 the better to perswade the Apostles to undertake this Work his great Work of subduing the World to the Obedience of Faith To incourage them therefore therein he faith I have all power in Heaven that is to send the Holy Spirit thence to you Asts 2.33 and to take you into Heaven when your Work is done Mat. 25.34 and on Earth too that is a power to gather my Church out of all Nations Ps 2.8 Mark 16.15 16. and to Rule as Lord over all Acts 10.36 43 Eph. 1.20 21 22. Rev. 17. ver 14 Dan. 7.14 go ye therefore forth in this my strength as Gideon did Jud. 6.14 execute your Office and Fear not the Face of Man doubt not of sucess for though ye be but Barley Cakes Course and Contemptible yet in my Name ye shall overthrow the Weak Tents of a Wicked World and the strong holds of the Subtle Serpent Jud. 7.13 Your despised Lamps and Pitchers shall Atchieve great matters ye shall Disciple all Nations deliver to them my Doctrine and Sacraments and reduce them from their Extravagances into an Universal Obedience the whole Man unto my whole Law and though your Work be hard and above any humane hand yet shall ye and your Succesors have my Divine presence to preserve you from your Enemies to prosper you in your Enterprizes and to perform for you whatever heart can wish or need require ver 19.20 This precious promise I will be with you includes to protect to direct to comfort us to carry on our Grace and to Crown us with Glory The 2d Remark is From the Evangelist Mark Chap. 16.14 c. Who Sums up all Christ's Appearances in one so useth his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Postremo or lastly Comprizing this last Appearance as well as those that went before his last charge to the Apostles go Preach the Gospel to every Creature ver 15. not in Judea
only as before Matth. 10.5 6. to the Jews but also to all Gentile Nations now the Partition Wall being broken down Eph. 2.14 not that they were immediately to go forth for they were to stay till the Spirit came N. B. And Mark joins with Matthew in shewing that Faith and Baptism cannot save without Obedience adding only the Apostle's Credential Letters to wit the miracles done by them a necessary fence for the young Plants of the Gospel N.B. But this Evangelist Mark 's Conclusion makes it more plain that he comprehendeth this last Meeting so then after the Lord had spoken to them c. ver 19 that is all the precepts and promises which he had to deliver during that time to his Apostles concerning the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 he had nothing now to say but to Seal all with sending the Spirit he was lifted up into Heaven a Blessed resting place after he had been tyred out on Earth taking along with him the earnest of our flesh and sending down the earnest of his Spirit which are two sure gages that our Bodies and Spirits shall meet again at the Resurrection The Spirit came and made the Gospel-Ministry successful attending it with signs verse 20. Mark knew it was most needful for us to know that Appearance mostly which Established a Gospel-Ministry The Third Remark upon this last Appearance is from Luke Chap. 24.47 48 49. where Christ gives out his Commission and Institution of a Gospel Ministry again Defining the Office of Teaching what and whom the Apostles ought to Teach and promiseth to send the Spirit but withal commands them to tarry at Jerusalem till the promised Spirit came upon them which precept is a most pregnant proof that the Evangelist speaks here of Christ's last Appearance for before this they were at liberty to go into Galilee and never till now confined to stay in Jerusalem Whereas they went whither they would before this some to Emmaus others to Galilee c. But now they must tarry here Ten Days more till the day of Pentecost came c. St. Luke goes on here giving us an account how Christ led them out of the City to Bethany ver 50. and there the Disciples had the Lord 's both Benedixit and Valedixit c. He both blessed them as Jacob and Moses did the Patriarchs at their departures and bid them farewell Then did the Disciples return to the City and there put themselves into a posture to receive the Comforter ver 51 52 53. preparing themselves Ten Days for the Spirit 's coming and their Reception of it c. The 4th Remark is from John who likewise gives the like account of the Apostle's Mission into the Ministry and Commission that did impower them for the Remission of sins c. But because he placeth it not upon this last Appearance before his Ascension but upon the last of the Five Appearances upon the very First Day of Christ's Resurrection John 20.19 21 22 23. therefore meet we here with the most obscurity which yet may be cleared by considering 1. That John writing the last of the Four Records only what the other had omitted save where the Contexture of the History required hereupon he saith nothing of Christ's Ascension because both Mark and Luke had left it needless as to him they having spoke largely of it already and why Matthew saith nothing of it too 't is supposed because he wrote his Gospel in Judea where none doubted of it seeing 500. Eye-witnesses thereof put it past all doubt in that Countrey but both Mark and Luke writing to those that lived out of Judea it was more necessary for them to Record his Ascension This Specimen is enough to take off Scruples about such Historical passages that are not alike related by all the Evangelists as to circumstances if it be 2. considered that John mentioneth here the substance of a Gospel Ministry's Institution as to both the mission and commission c. though not the same circumstances of time and place with the other Evangelist which yet he abundantly supplies with other new circustances omitted by the rest as the Lord 's Saluting his Apostles twice with Peace be to you the better to make them Preach the Gospel of Peace As my Father sent me so send I you not to destroy but to save Souls and likewise his breathing upon them as God did upon Adam whereby he became a living Soul And saying Receive ye the Hâ—ly Gâ—â—â—â— â—â—â—maâ—â—â— those make but â—â—d 〈◊〉 heâ— that receive him not first c. By the Divine 〈◊〉 tâ—ings of Christ upon their hâ—â—â—s c. But 3. Suppose it be not the same History yet is it at the least a Material Branch of it as to the power of the Keys in remitting or Revenging Sin as Peter did on Ananias and Saphira Acts 5.5 10. It was a pawn and pledge of that promise of the Father afterwards powr'd out at Pentecost for inabling them to speak with Tongues and to work miracles whereof Thomas though absent at that time was made partaker as well as the power of remitting sin c. Without his being breathed upon with the rest and so was Paul also long after though one born out of due time 1 Cor. 15.8 To whom Christ Appeared from Heaven Acts 9.5 as he had done to Stephen in Heaven Acts 7.55 and as he had done all these Ten times to others while he was on Earth Yea and more such Appearances here might probably be which as John intimates Chap. 20.30 are not written yet enough is to make us believe ver 31. So that it is not at all improbable to say that Christ might Celebrate all the Six first Days that were within the Forty Days after his Resurrection for the fuller establishing it as our Christian Sabbath and these last Four Days may seem little enough to settle his Church and to dispatch so much work as is before mentioned though this be not written as all could not be John 21.25 before his final farewel and disappearance at his Ascension which history begins the Acts of the Apostles to which place I adjourn the Discourse thereon The good Lord help us to be duely prepared for his last and great Appearance at the last day We should be both looking for and hastening unto the coming of our Lord 2 Pet. 3.12 It will be sudden therefore be we always ready Matth. 24.44 c. Having our Loins Girt and Lamps Burning Luke 12.35 Like wise Virgins to meet our Blessed Bridegroom Matth. 25.10 Crying Come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.20 Amen Δάξα Ï„á¾· Θεῷ The end of the first Part. The Second Part of the New Testament CONTAINING Christ's Ascension and the Lives of all the Apostles CHAP. I. Of the Antecedents of Christ's Ascension NEXT to the most Illustrious Life of our Lord Jesus God man whose life is the light of Men John 1.6 the Lives of the Holy Apostles do succeed whose Lives and Actions had greater lustre and
by Ezekiel Chap. 48.31 and more fully Amplified by John Rev. 21. ver 12.14 16. where the New Jerusalem is the Emblem is described to consist of 12 Gates which are 12 Pearls and had 12 Angels to watch them The Wall of that Holy City hath 12 Foundations whereon were written those 12 Apostles answering the 12 Tribes of Israel And the measure of this City is 12 Thousand Furlongs Then again Rev. 22.2 The Tree of Life that stood in the midst of the Street of that Holy City beareth 12 manner of Fruits yea and yieldeth its Fruits in every of the 12 Months of the Year in Winter as well as in Summer So that all along here is Relation to the affairs of the Church God seemeth to affect the number of 12 above all others Note From which weighty consideration Dr. Potter doth wittily and learnedly make his Remarkable conclusions both about the Measure of the Wall of this New Jerusalem and about the number of the Apocalyptick Beast Saying to the first That the measure of the Wall of the City is said to be 144 Cubits which cannot be the measure of the compass it being too little for that nor either of the heigth or breadth of the Wall it being as much too great for both of them therefore must it be meant of the Square-measure or Root-number of 12 For 12 times 12 make 144. So that the Wall was 12 Cubits high and 12 Cubits broad Rev. 21.17 The like observation that Doctor makes upon the 144 Thousand the number of Christ's sealed Servants Rev. 7.4 and of his Holy Retinue that would not comply with Antichristian Idolatry Rev. 14.3 4. The Square Root of which number is 12 also But on the contrary as the latter The number of the Beast is said to be 666 Rev. 13.18 The Square Root of which number saith he is 25 a number that is much affected by Antichrist in his 25 Parishes Cardinals Gates Windows Altars Articles Holy days c. As the number 12 is by our Lord Christ Matthias must be chosen to make up the Eleven remaining Apostles the Round and Root-number of Twelve and because no Apostle had power to ordain another the Lord himself must make the choice by ordering the lot to fall upon this Man Pro. 16. last Acts 1.26 And he must be such a Man as had been an Eye-witness of the Lord's Resurrection Acts 1.22 which was a point not only of greatest difficulty to be believed but also of weightiest importance for supporting the Christian Faith and not only of that but also of the whole Doctrine Life Death Resurrection and Ascension too whereof Matthias was one of the Spectators upon Mount Olivet which was the place from whence he Ascended into Heaven Mark 16.19 Luke 24.51 Acts 1.19 12. Bethany laying in the bottom of it and the Garden wherein he had his Agony and was betrayed c. And this Mount our Lord chused to Ascend upon be cause it was in the view of Jerusalem where he had been scorned condemned and crucified about the same distance from the City as was betwixt the Ark and the People Joshua 3.4 From hence the rather our Lord Ascended that he might begin to receive his Crown and Glory nigh to the place where he had endured his Cross and Contempt c. Because I did adjourn our Lord's Ascension to this proper place where we have not only the Twelve Apostles those same principal secretaries of the Spirit and therefore his Successors but also many more Disciples eye-wittnesses thereof let me here give a distinct Discourse upon it as before upon his Resurrection The Grand Remarks upon Christ's Ascension be reducible to those three Heads 1. The Antecedents 2. The Concomitants 3. The Consequents of it which was the Second degree of his State of his Exaltation as his Resurrection was the first And his sitting down at God's Right-hand a place higher than that of Angels those Ministring Spirits that stand about the Caelestial Throne is the Third degree In the general first Matthew saith nothing at all of our Saviour's Ascension nor doth John give us any account thereof Mark is very brief Mark 16.19 20. But Luke is large upon it both in his Gospel Luke 24.50 51 c. and in his Acts of the Apostles the undoubted Author of which Book was that Evangelist as the Preface plainly implies where he gives a more full History of Christ's Ascension Acts 1. from ver 1. to ver 13. Note The commonly received opinion is that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel Eight years after Christ St. Mark his Ten after St. Luke his Fifteen after and St. John his Forty two years after our Lord's Death St. Matthew wrote his Gospel in Judea so mentioneth nothing of Christ's Ascension because there was none in that Countrey who doubted of it being seen of above 500 so nigh Jerusalem c. But Mark and Luke wrote theirs out of that Countrey where they found many that heard nothing of it And seeing they both had recorded it There was no need for John to mention it whose principal work was to Relate such passages as had been omitted by all the other three The hardned Jews will by no means believe the Ascension of Christ into Heaven but on the contrary do make his Descent into Hell their principal and unquestioned Article blasphemously affirming that our Christ is tormented there in boyling and scalding Zoah or Dung because he received not the Traditions of their Chachamims or Elders yea they make him a false Prophet and a Prophane wretch like Esau aying The Soul of Esau entred into the Body of Christ for this cause they call Christians Edomites as the Jew of Maroceo pag. 172.173 saith More particularly now The first Remark of his Ascension is the Antecedents thereof which have a short relation by St. Mark Chap. 16.19 after the Lord had spoken to them to wit when he had delivered all the precepts and promises which his pleasure was to deliver to his Disciples during the 40 days he endured upon Earth N.B. though immediatly when he rose from the Grave his Right was to go up to Heaven but he waved his own Glory so long for the Churche's good Now having nothing more to say or do for settling his Church save only to Seal up all by sending the Holy Spirit he Ascends up into Heaven Luke Chap 24.50 51 is more large Relating how he led his Disciples forth as far as that part of the Mount of Olives which belonged to the Village of Bethany being a place where he had oft been praying and where as some say he mounted the Ass and Rode in Triumph to the City here will he take his Chariot of State and ride in Triumph up from thence into Heaven but first he doth lift up his hands and blesseth his Disciples here which was not so much the posture Accommodated to the Religious Action of his praying for them but rather a more Authoritative Act in the most
Heaven and most remote from Noise and Company yet Capacious enough to contain an Hundred and Twenty Persons So a place fittest for this Service of God c. 3. The Persons who were Materials and the Constituting members of this first Constituted Gospel Church are described by their Names Number and Holy Exercises Acts 1.12 13 14 15 c. Amongst whom is named as one of them Mary the Mother of our Lord verse 14. Which is the first time we hear any thing of her after Christ's Death not any of the Evangelists Recording one word of our Lord 's appearing once to her during the Forty days of his tarrying upon Earth yet the Romanists will have her to Command her Son in Heaven in his State of Exaltation who would not be commanded by her at the Marriage-Feast in his State of humiliation saying to her What have I to do with thee Woman c. John c. 2. v. 4. Note There were Holy Women mingled among the Men who waited for the promise of the Spirit and for ten days they all put in suit by their Daily Prayers and no doubt but those of the Feminine Sex might make Masculine Prayers for obtaining the promised Comforter during those ten days of waiting Peter the designed Minister of the Circumcision among whom he now was stood up that this New-planted Church might chuse one in Judas's room to Organize it with a compleat number of Officers that there might be twelve Apostles answerable to the twelve Patriarchs and the twelve Tribes of Israel The Church hereupon chuseth two Joses and Matthias for the Lord to chuse one of them by lot according to Pro. 16.33 which fell to Matthias By that time that their number was compleated wanting nothing now but extraordinary Qualifications for their extraordinary Service in their Generation-work the day of Pentecost came and the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon them This we have Related at large in the 2d Chapter of the Acts This Feast was instituted in Remembrance of the Law delivered to Moses in the Mount fifty days after Israel's departure out of Aegypt at which time they kept the Passover which was their Feast of Unleavened Bread Lev. 23.16 Therefore was it call'd Pentecost which signifies fifty and the Feast of Weeks Exod. 34 22. because it was to be observed Seven Weeks exactly after the Passover Deut. 16.9 And 't is call'd also the Feast of first Fruits of their Wheat-Harvest Exod. 34.22 now that there might be the most Adapted and Accommodated Congruity and Correspondency betwixt the Type and the Antitype as the Law was given upon that fiftieth day Exod. 19.1 11. So the Gospel which is our Lord's Law that great Lawgiver Isa 33.22 must be given upon the self same day Then also were the gifts of the Holy Spirit poured down in most plentiful manner which were the blessed first fruits of the Gospel-Wheat-Harvest after our Lord was Ascended up into Heaven and had sat down but ten days at the Right hand of God Besides not only the Holy Ghost and God's love thereby Rom. 5.5 is sent down and shed abroad on the fiftieth day after that Christ our Paschal Lamb and Passover was Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 But also this same fiftieth day did fall upon the first day of the Week the more to honour this day to Recommend it to us as the New Christian Sabbath day as Christ had done by his Resurrection upon that day and by his Sundry Appearances to the number of ten upon the same first day of the Week during the Forty days before his Ascension Note We never read of his once appearing all that time upon the seventh day of the Week which was the Old Jewish Sabbath day and which certainly he would have honoured by so doing had he intended that day to be still the perpetual Sabbath nor did he send the Comforter upon that seventh day but upon the first day of the Week again which was the Eight-first-day inclusive after his Resurrection upon the first day of these Eight first days compleating the fifty or Pentecost-Feast Our Lord after he was Ascended and sat down with an Heavenly welcome in Heaven for accomplishing his whole Redemption-work on Earth stayed yet his hand for ten days that as his death was at the Passover so his dignity should be at Pentecost For at both them two Feasts all the Males were to appear in Jerusalem not only out of all the 12 Tribes but also out of every Nation where the Jews had been dispersed that as all these have been witnesses of the injury done to Jesus so they might likewise behold the fruits and effects of his Glory N.B. Thus are we bid to wait but ten days as those did here Rev. 2.10 And then the Comforter will come to us in the mean time let us get up to the mountain of Myrrh and to the hill of Frankincense Cant. 4.6 that is wait in repenting and in praying work till these ten days of dark shadows flee way c. Now whilst this Primo-primitive Church were waiting together with one accord as if there had been but one Soul for an hundred and twenty Bodies there comes unexpectedly at the end a rushing mighty wind that shakes this upper Room The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Power 2 Tim. 1.7 and fills every corner of it to fit them for receiving the fiery Cloven-Tongues that came and sat upon each of them N.B. which was a blessed Antidote against that confusion of Tongues wherewith the Builders of Babel were plagued from Heaven The pure Lip and Language even the unity of Faith in the Bond of Peace is promised to Zion's Builders Note Hereby the Apostles were inabled to speak in all Languages having the gift of Tongues Superadded to those great gifts and graces of the Spirit which now they received in a more excellent and extraordinary manner than formerly When the Native Jews and the two sorts of Proselites both those of the Gate owning only the Precepts of Noah and those of Righteousness who were circumcised c. heard them all speak the wonderful works of God in Christ's Death Resurrection and Ascension c. and this in every Lingua as filled with the Spirit This procured contrary events and effects for that part of the Auditory that was good were amazed and forced into a Rapture the Object being too strong for the faculty so do only ask at present one another's sentiments of this wonder c. Because they could not fathom the depths of the marvelous Divine Dispensation this drove them into an Extacy as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Acts 2.11 12. and therefore they request one of another to be resolved of a reason concerning them But the bad part of the Authority to wit the Scribes Pharisees c. who understood not Foraign Dialects mocked saying These men are drunk with New-Wine ver 13. thinking with this Aspersion to perswade the People that the Apostles did but
will go forth against his Rebbels conquer them fetch them in and set his Feet of fine Brass Rev. 1.15 upon the necks of them as Joshua did upon the necks of the Conquered Kings both his and his Servant's feet Josh 10.24 Peter had also put hard upon this People to save themselves from this untoward Generation verse 40. charging them as Paul did Timothy 2 Tim. 2.14 in God's Name by his Authority whom he call'd in as a Witness against them if they refused and urging that no less than the Salvation of their Souls depended upon their abandoning the company of wicked persons in their prophane practices aâ—â—l how few do forsake the society of sinners when the whole World is said to wallow in wickedness 1 John 5.19 They were principally call'd from the company and communion of the Scribes and Pharisees who were the sworn Sword-men of Satan and most professed Enemies to Christ and his Kingdom This rouzing stinging Sermon took deep impression upon them made them cry out Oh! what shall we do not what shall we say or what shall we profess for Real Conversion goes farther than a Verbal Profession not in speech and word only but in heart and deed also They must needs know if any hope of pardon were for such sinners as they c. Thus this warm word of Peter's first Sermon had an abiding work upon those good Hearers hearts and fixed them in the Apostle's Fellowship c. so that it was with them as it was with the Philippians who no sooner had received the Gospel but they were in Fellowship to a day and stedfastly continued in it Paul thanks God for their Fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now Phil. 1.3 5. They continued stedfastly in the Communion of the Gospel and persevered in all Christian-Exercises from the first time of their receiving the Grace of Christ Note The Communion of Saints was not only an Article of their Belief but it was also a principal point of their practice therefore did the Apostle make request for them with joy verse 4. implying that such as persevere not in Fellowship do grieve the spirits of their faithful Ministers and as much as in them lies do quench the Spirit in their Pastors which cannot be done but to the prodigious detriment and disadvantage of the Apostates themselves who like Spiritual Vagabonds with Cain turn their backs from the presence of the Lord in his Ordinances Note Communion of Saints must needs be a very great priviledge upon Earth seeing it is like to be one of our greatest priviledges in Heaven Godly Society is the Symbolum sign or badge the distinguishing character of Saints from Sinners and their sinful Societies Psal 119.63 Nor is there in the whole World any such Fellowship Union und Communion as among the Saints Cant. 6.9 No such oneness or intireness any where Other Societies are but as the Clay in the Toes of Nebuchadnezzar's Image they may cleave together but cannot incorporate one into another As the Curtains of the Tabernacle were coupled together by Loops so the Saints by Love And as the Stones of the Temple were so closely cemented together that they seemed to be all but one Stone so ought it to be in the Church of Christ No good man can be content to go to Heaven alone c. Thus those new Converts did continue in the Apostle's Communion with all stedfastness and without any deviation or declinings c. which was a clear demonstration of the truth and reality of their Conversion that they were not as too many Temporary Professors or Stony-ground Hearers Mat. 13.20 21. who for the present are affected with what they hear and with a flashing Joy receive the Word but for want of the depth of Earth Mark 4.5 and of the Root of the matter Job 19.28 they soon spue up their Profession their stomachs are so squeezy as to be offended at opposition because they cannot divide Christ and his Cross let Christ keep his Heaven to himself for all them If it cannot be had upon any other terms But those here had Principles to maintain them they were enlightened not by flash of Lightening but by the Sun-beam so continued stedfast notwithstanding all the following Persecutions They through Grace weathered out the point and Rode out the Storms that arose after excepting Ananias c. Note Thus far of the Friends of this New Church now concerning its Enemies we have this account that God put such an Awe and Fear upon them that they durst not attempt to make the least opposition as yet against them None were found among the very Pharisees so fool-hardy as to molest or hinder their publick Exercises This new and miraculous estate and power of the Church the wonderful increase of it with three thousand Souls verse 41. and the Miracles which they saw or at least heard of verse 6. struck them with such a panick fear that they were plainly confounded verse 7. For this Restraint the Apostles praised God and for having so much favour among the People verse 47. Note After those special Effects follow those that were general to wit their community of goods both for the Body and for the Soul 1. As for the Body They had all things in common verse 44 45. not so as to destroy Property for then the Eight Commandment had been Repeal'd Christ came not to destroy the Law c. This was only a peculiar practice for that place and for that time wherein Charity and Hospitality much abounded by the abundance of the Spirit then Resting upon them After this Ananias's possession was call'd his own and so was the Money he received for the Sale of it Acts 5.4 So Mary had her own house Acts 12.12 and Lydia also Acts 15.15 2. As for the Soul they had not only Temporal things common but also Spiritual the same holy Exercises Ordinances in community verse 46. The Apostles Preaching in Solomon's Porch to a vast confluence of such as came to the Morning Sacrifice and Service so he spreading the Net of the Gospel where there were the greatest concourse of Fish hereby three thousand were caught the effect of Christ's prayer for them Luke 23.34 and they frequently enjoyed Breaking of Bread that sacred Rite Christ used Matth. 26.26 put for the Eucharist in conjunction with Preaching and Prayer Lastly The Doxology concludes in their praising God for this great Grace from himself on them and for the favour he gave them in the Eyes of those yet without as also for his adding daily to the Church the Elect coming into it this they impute not to Man's Ministry nor to Peter's powerful Preaching nor to the miraculous Tongues but to the Blessing and Power of God as 1 Cor. 3.7 8. and Isa 55.10 11. Note In a word the Rumour of this 120 speaking all Languages v. 5. made the multitude come tumultuously to them v. 6. All the dispersed Jews as well as Home-dwellers
saith the Poet Names and Natures do oft agree but it holds not true in these two Hananiah's in whom not great Grace as Acts 4.33 but very little was to be found The Old Testament Hananiah was only a pretended Prophet Preaching plaâ—â—ntia pleasing things to the Prince and People through flattery and for filthy lucre likely He limits their Deliverance from Babylon to come within two years when the Lord by Jeremy had told them their Captivity should continue seventy years Now because this graceless false Prophet made the Prince and the People to trust in a Lye therefore within two months of his Lying Prediction God smote him that he died Jer. 28.1 3.15 17. Note So dangerous a matter it is for Ministers to teach People contrary to the Revealed Will of God and presumptuously to limit the Holy One of Israel to our time Psal 78.41 Event hath confuted and confounded such Lying Prophets in our Day according to Deut. 18.22 And this New Testament Chananiah is found here to have little more Grace c. than he had as will appear after in describing his sin c. How many Ships are named the Happy Success and the Good Speed c. yet make unhappy Shipwrack at Sea The Second Remark relateth to his State and Quality he was not an ordinary or common Person or Professor but probably as 't is thought a Minister of the Gospel who had received extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and therefore mention is made of him next to Barnabas Acts 4.36 37. that Son of Consolation a good man and full of the Holy Ghost Acts 11.24 whereas alas this greatly gifted Minister was a bad man and full of the evil Devil for Satan is said to fill his heart top-full even from corner to corner Acts 5.3 As when the head is fill'd with the fumes of Strong-waters such a person is bold and daring c. So the Devil had so fill'd this man's heart with his Intoxicating Cup that he dare desperately venture to provoke God to his face Note This teacheth us 1. What are Gifts without Grace there the Handmaid wants the Mistress to manage her so miscarrieth And 2. The more light and love any Man or Minister is made partaker of his sin hath the more aggravation and is a falling Star c. The Third Remark is touching his Sin which was this he would ambitiously imitate blessed Barnabas in selling his Farm and devoting the whole price of the Possession by a solemn Vow to God and his Service but the Tempter by his Temptation meeting with and drawing forth this man's corruption perswades him to purloin and detain part of the vowed price for supplying his and his Wife's necessaries in their Old Age or in a time of Sickness or in some sad scattering Persecution that might arise after as indeed it did which they might lawfully enough have done keeping back part for such Ends as are aforesaid had they not vowed to give the whole to the use of the Church Thus there was a complication of many sins in this one as 1. Here was Ambition he would be thought as good as the best yea even as Barnabas himself c. 2. Hypocrisie pretending Holiness and Devotion to God but intending to serve his own ends c. 3. His Diffidence and Distrust in that God whom when he had made his Vow he seemed to dedicate himself and his whole substance unto and upon whom he professed to have his whole dependency for time to come And 4. Sacrilege in Robbing of God insomuch as he paid not down the whole that he had vowed to God contrary to the Law Mal 3.8 Lev. 27.10 and Deut. 23.21 22 23. The Fourth Remark relateth to his Punishment for the concurrence of these four sins in one No sooner had Peter told him of his belying God the Holy Ghost who had stirr'd up the first motion of selling his Possession but he had suffer'd Beelzebub the God of Flies or Master-Fly Satan soon to fly-blow and corrupt it c. but immediately he falls down and gave up the Ghost Acts 5.2 3 4 5. Note Thus as God graced the Jewish Church with some extraordinary Instances of his severe Judgments upon Sinners in the beginning of it such as were executed upon the Man that gathered Sticks on the Sabbath day Numb 15.35 and upon Nadab and Abihu for offering strange Fire Levit. 10.1 c. So did the Lord accordingly grace the beginnings of the Christian Church with the like Judgments upon Sinners that they might be set forth as Sea-marks for all who sail in the Sea of professing Christian-Religion to shun such sins and to learn that the great God with whom we have to do therein is greatly to be seared That we may be what we seem to be we must be to God what we seem to be to Men and we must be to God at all times what we seem to be to Men at any time That we worship God in spirit as opposed to Formality and in Truth as opposed to Hypocrisie John 4.24 God takes some Malefactors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very Theft or Act John 8.4 and hangs them up as it were in Gibbets that others warned thereby may hear fear and do no more any such wickedness Deut. 13.11 and 17.13 and 19.20 and 21.21 Alterius perditio tua fit cuntio seest thou another suffer Shipwrack then look well to thy own Tackling Note Christ had impowered his Apostles with this Commission Whosoever's sins ye remit or retain they are remitted or retained John 20.23 whereby they were invested with a power of Life and Death to inflict corporal Plagues upon the disgracers of the Gospel or to spare them as they were directed by the Holy Ghost which they now had received and whom Ananias and â—â—â—hira had here basely belied thinking their False-play could not be detected by that Divine Spirit as if he were not the Third Person in the Godhead which those that cursedly deny have cause to fear Ananias's Plagues Peter here being fully perswaded that his own sin of Lying against his Lord in denying him c. was assuredly pardoned doth dare thus signally to avenge a Lye against the Holy Ghost and thus doing in a 〈◊〉 Zeal for his Master whom he had denied Note This miraculous manner of punishing notorious Sinners in the Gospel-Church was accommodated only to those Primitive-Times wherein Magistrates were so far from defending the Church that they themselves were found the greatest offenders of it Therefore were those two Dissemblers extraordinarily erected by the extraordinary Apostles as lasting Pillars of Salt with Lot's Wife and everlasting Monuments to all Generations of the great God's just Indignation against the Despisers of the Spirit of Christ After the Husband's Death for his sin against the Holy Ghost followeth 2. The Story of his Wife wherein we have these Remarks likewise The first Remark is her Name was Sapphira which signifies specious or beautiful She might be so on
though he stayed among them but two days then verse 43. for he had forbid his Disciples to Preach in any City of Samaria which was no obliging Law to himself Matth. 10.5 because the fuller Calling of the Gentiles whereof this was only an Earnest was reserved to after times when the Partition Wall was broken down then did the Lord at his Ascension direct his Disciples to be Witnesses of him in the Cities of the Samaritans Acts 1.8 which was now done c. Thus have we dispatch'd the first particular to wit The Doctrine of this Deacon Philip in its Efficacy at this place and time Occasion will be offered to inlarge upon it in the sequel c. The second particular is Philip's Auditors after this Effect They were of two sorts 1. The False and Hypocritical who was Simon Magus verse 9. And 2. The True and Sound Auditor beside those Samaritan sound Believers and that was the Ethiopian Eunuch verse 27 28 c. First of the first and false One 1st Simon Magus is described 1. By his Countrey he was a Samaritan verse 9. It may easily be supposed that this Instrument of Satan must needs be a strong Impediment to the Success of Christ's Gospel in Samaria having such a strong Satanical Samaritan in the very Bowels of it 2. By his Condition or Occupation how he led his former life in exercising Magical Inchantments bewitching the whole City with his Sorceries insomuch that this Conjurer carried the Citizens generally out of themselves as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so that they were more his than their own driving them into an amazing Extasie and affrighting them as if he had been one of the Heathen Gods verse 9 10 11. Having by God's permission and by the Devil's power wrought wonders among the People this was a mighty disadvantage to the Entertainment of the Gospel had not Christ been stronger than this strong Man to disarm him c. Luke 11.21 22. He is described 3. By his Manners or Behaviour 1. While his Hypocrisie was covered he takes upon him to believe with an Historical Faith only and is baptized v. 12 13. 2. When it was discovered even by the Sorcerer himself by bidding Money wherewith to buy the Holy Ghost for which 3. He was reproved by Peter for a Rotten Professor c. The Remarks hereupon are these 1. A Rotten Heart may go far in Reformation yet be in the gall of bitterness c. 'T is said here Then Simon himself believed also Acts 8.13 yet was in the bond of iniquity verse 23. N.B. He had only the Faith of Devils who believe their Doom shall be denounced against them to their Eternal Torment at the last day which belief makes them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frisk and tremble James 2.19 They give their bare Assent that there is a God to judge them so Simon did assent with his head but he believed not with his heart Acts 8.37 and Rom. 10.9 His Faith was only Historical believing it to be true that Christ indeed did many Miracles and was really Raised from the Dead c. He only took upon him to believe it was not given him of God whereas Faith is God's gift to us Ephes 2.8 and not to be taken up by us at our pleasure therefore was it not the Faith of God's Elect Titus 1.1 but a Tempory Faith only which serveth to breed Horrour as the Historical doth in Devils yet is but a meer flash in Hypocritical men and thereupon soon dwindles away Notwithstanding this Historical which was but Hypocritical Faith and his seeming Repentance professed verse 25. pray for me c. yet was he still in the State of sin and all his pretended Profession was as bitter to God's pallate as is the flesh of any creature corrupted with Gall to ours Deut. 29.18 32.32 He was yet fast bound like a Bondslave of Satan in the irrefragable Bonds of his own Hypocrisie Ambition and Avarice The second Remark is Hypocrites shall sooner or later be detected some men's sins go before hand to Judgment and some men's sins follow after no putrid Hypocrisie can be forever hid 1 Tim. 5.24 25. N.B. The great Judge of the World keeps his Petty-Sessions often in this life letting the Law pass upon some few reserving the rest till the great Assizes of the last Judgment Some men's sins are discovered and punish'd in this life before their persons appear at God's Tribunal In the discovery of Simon 's Hypocrisie there is the Occasion and the Manner thereof to be considered N.B. 1. The Occasion when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had imbraced the Gospel by Philip's Ministry they sent Peter and John those two Pillars of the Church Gal. 2.9 as their Embassadors to confirm Philip's Doctrine and to constitute a Church there by their Apostolical Authority yea and to confer upon some men not on all nor on the Women who were Believers also verse 12. those extraordinary Gifts of Teaching Healing c. Acts 2.38 which was done only by the Apostles and not by Philip's Prayer and Imposition of Hands Acts 8.14 to 18. N.B. They all that believed had received the Saving Grace of the Holy Ghost saving this unsound Simon but none of them the extraordinary Gifts c. which were given for confirming this New Tender Church of the Samaritans This was the Occasion N.B. 2. The Manner of Simon 's discovering his Hypocrisie was when he saw those Gifts were conferr'd by Imposition of Hands he offers a price to purchase this power Hereby this Notorious Hypocrite discovered himself having taken a Profession upon him and counterfeiting that he believed only for base ends to wit both that he should not be deserted by his own Disciples who now were won over to Philip's Doctrine and also that thereby he might procure a power of working Miracles when he saw the Apostles had done far beyond what he was able to do verse 18 19. N.B. The unsoundness of his Soul and baseness of his Spirit appeared in his having such low estimations of the high things of God as if they were purchaseable by perishing Metals and as if these things of God had been vendible here as after was said to be at Rome where Simon 's Statue stood with this Inscription Simoni Deo Sancto in Claudius Caesar's time and where 't is now become a Proverb Romae omnia Venalia All things at Rome are soluble and saleable so Mantuan their own Poet testifieth c. N.B. And 't were well if the Sin of Simony were not found in other places as well as in Rome betwixt covetous Patrons and a corrupt Clergy so Crucifying Christ afresh between two Thieves Benefices being bestowed saith he non ubi optime sed ubi quaestuosissime to him who will give the most for them not who best deserve them As if a man should bestow so much Provender on his Horse because he is to Ride upon him c. It was Judas's
applied to Cornelius's case N.B. Which sheweth the mistake of those that so Tye up Grace and Salvation to the receiving of the Sacrament of Baptism as if none could fear God or be accepted of him and saved by him unless they be baptized The fourth Remark is True Peace with God is only purchased and procured and according to be Preached only by and through Jesus Christ v. 36. N.B. So. 1. Christ himself Preached in his own person for all quarters of the World Matth. 8.11 12. that he would draw all men unto him without distinction of Jew or Gentile Poor or Rich c. John 12.32 2. This Peace is Preached to be had by Christ or only through him by the very Angels themselves Luke 2.14 And 3. By all the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel Ephes 2.13 14. Acts 4.12 And 't is all one whether they be Jews or Greeks bond or free male or female they are all one in him Gal. 3. v. 28. who is all and in all Col. 3.11 Insomuch as all other Peace not founded upon the Rock Christ is not pax sed stupor not a right but a false Peace no better than stupefaction The fifth Remark is The Lord of All was Anointed by his Father as the Jewish Kings Priests and Prophets usually were to all those three Offices hence was he called Messiah in the Old Testament and Christ in the New both which names do signifies Anointed Acts 10. v. 36 38. N.B. Hence may we comfortably conclude that seeing Christ is the Lord of the Church and Lord of the World as he is Lord of all he will not suffer his Church to be wronged by the World nor will he be hindered by Devils or wicked men though never so many never so mighty from carrying on his own cause and concerns of his own glory but will gather his Elect both Jews and Gentiles out of all the quarters of the World Rom. 3.30 and 10.12 c. He will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 The sixth Remark is This mighty Mediator who had God with him in the fulness of the Godhead Col. 2.9 induing his Manhood with all might and mercy never exerted his might but in Miracles of Mercy He went about doing good but never any hurt for God was with him verse 38. He could as easily destroy those that would not believe on him as he did save those that willingly believed though often provoked thereunto Nay so far was our Lord from ruining any that when his Apostles asked his leave but to permit them by fire from Heaven to destroy the sawcy Samaritans yet would he not Luke 9.54 Though afterward he impowered Peter to strike Ananias and Sophira with death and also Paul to strike Elymas the Sorcerer with Blindness Acts 5. and 13 chapter N.B. Yet all the Miracles Christ himself wrought were Miracles of Mercy not of Judgments Healing all but harming or hurting none yea the worst sort of evils even such as were oppressed with the Devil Acts 10.38 to shew that he came as a Saviour and not as a Destroyer which is the Devil 's double name both in Hebrew and Greek Rev. 9.11 and that his Errand was to destroy the works of that destroying Devil Heb. 2.14 and 1 John 3.8 and to cast him out of the Souls of Men who were spiritually possessed by him O happy calamity that carries Man to seek a Saviour The seventh Remark is Oh how costly to Christ it was to save us from the Curse of the Law and from the damning power of Sin and Hell He therefore died a cursed Death was slain by the Jews and hanged on a Tree Acts 10. verse 39. Gal. 3.13 Deut. 21.23 that the blessing of Abraham hitherto mostly confined to the fleshly seed of that Patriarch the Jews might now come upon the Gentiles also Gal. 3.8 14. N.B. Therefore the Jews for being Kill-Christs might the less murmure at their Rejection and at the Gentile's Reception at this time who had not so rejected Christ as the Jews had done The eighth Remark is The Resurrection of Christ is the Fort-Royal of the Christian Religion's comfort c. Hereupon the Apostle Peter here Acts 10. v. 40. had no sooner mentioned Christ's Death but immediately he Preach'd his Resurrection also lest those Gentile-Auditors should have stumbled at his Cross and be discouraged to believe in a Dead Christ for that he was Raised from the Dead was a most unquestionable Truth though the Gentiles faith he might hear some rude Rumours hereof by a confused Report and common fame in the general Acts 10. v. 37. The word I say you know yet now let me tell you more particularly that this Truth hath been by all manner of ways proved for Christ hath been both seen and heard yea and felt too 1 John 1.1 after his Resurrection and we are and drank with him verse 41. whereby he was declared to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 and by consequence a Conquerour of both Death and Hell for us c. And hereupon the Apostle Paul also puts a rather of comfort upon this Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection Rom. 8.34 c. The ninth Remark is God's Truth is never starved for want of Witnesses As the Apostles were Eye and Ear-witnesses of all that was done both by Christ and against him Acts c. 10. v. 39. before and at his Death as likewife after his Resurrection to whom he appeared alive and to above five hundred of the Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 those Apostles were therefore commanded to Preach Christ not only alive but that he would Judge the quick and dead Acts 10. v. 41 42. So the Prophets all testified the same Truth which was included in that first Prophecy of the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3. v. 15. and so downward from that time Jer. 31.34 Mich. 7.18 Luke 24.27 Acts 10. v. 43. Yea all the Ceremonies in the Sacrifices testified this Truth The tenth Remark is God giveth Testimony to the Word of his Grace where it is sincerely and ardently Preached and Heard Acts 14.3 Here the Holy Ghost accompanied the sincere Preaching and attentive ardent Hearing the Word and these Gentile Auditors being such had the visible signs of Fiery Tongues such as the Apostles had Acts 2.3 falling on them while Peter was speaking Acts 10.44 By which Miracle God declared that the price of Man's Redemption by Christ was paid for and belonged to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews and that the Spirit with the graces of Illumination Regeneration and the gift of Tongues c. thus coming down upon these Gentile-Converts before Baptism did plainly shew N. B. That the Righteousness of God is not attained by any external Ordinance without the internal operation of his Spirit which here came on Cornelius c. being neither circumcised nor baptized Acts 10.35 The eleventh Remark is They who have the Grace signified by Baptism ought to have the Seal of that Grace in being
baptized Peter's Question was without Question Can any man forbid Water c Acts 10.47 He argueth from the thing signified to the sign and his Question in effect is a vehement Assertion and a most cogent Argument as it is improved by him afterwards Acts 11.17 importing that such as God hath granted Inward Baptism unto no Man no Minister must deny the Outward N. B. As he that hath a right to and a propriety in an Inheritance cannot without manifest injury and injustice be denied the Writings and Seals thereunto appertaining Because these Gentiles had the Grace signified and promised in Baptism and so had got the Inward part therefore to deny them the Outward part could not but be a very injurious Act Hereupon they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Acts 10.48 which was not a differing practice from Christ's precept In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 for under that title the Lord is meant not only Christ the Anointed but also the Father who Anointed him and the Spirit by whom he was Anointed So the same phrase Acts 2.38 and 19.2 5. Rom. 6.3 and Gal. 3.27 is understood N. B. Thus also the Sacrament of Baptism seals up Adoption in Infants born of believing Parents and pronounced holy 1 Cor. 7.14 having thereby the Inward Grace they have a right to the Outward Sign as it doth Seal up Faith in those of Riper years c. The twelfth Remark is The Call and Conversion of the Gentiles became a dreadful stumbling-block to the Jews yea to the Believers as well as Unbelievers We read how They of the Circumcision who believed were astonished c. Acts 10.45 Those were the six Brethren who accompanied Peter from Joppa to Caesarea Acts 11.12 N. B. Peter acted prudently in taking so many men of the Jews with him to bear a full Testimony by so many mouths concerning the Grace of God given to the Gentiles foreseeing what an offence it would prove to the Jews But these six Companions of Peter were only amazed at this and well they might beholding the Holy Ghost bestowed upon the Gentiles this first time in the like manner as it was at its bestowing upon the Jewish Nation Acts 2.4 namely by immediate Infusion Whereas at all other times where any mention is made of giving the Gifts of the Spirit we find a mention also of Imposition of Hands used in order to obtain that extraordinary grace this made those six men astonished not yet understanding the mystery of the Call of the Gentiles but thinking that Christ and his Grace had only been promised to the Jews But the very Apostles and Brethren in Judaea only hearing of these things but not seeing them were down-right offended at Peter when he returned the second time to Jerusalem and plainly quarrelled with him for going to the Gentiles and eating with them Acts 11.1 2 3 c. Now comes in that great Point to be disputed Whether Peter did well in admitting the Gentiles into Gospel-Communion without Circumcision This is justified by two Topicks The first is the Argument pressed in Peter's Apology to those who took him to Task for his Baptizing Cornelius c. And the second is drawn from the commendable and successful Edification of the Gentile-Church at Antioch As to the first it consists of two parts the Offence of the one party and the Defence of the other First The Offence was too captiously taken but not really given so it was Scandalum acceptum not datum This conversing with the Gentiles or Heathens was look'd upon as a piacular and detestable crime among the Jews as not only contrary to the Tradition of their Elders and Precepts of their wise men but also to those Scripture allusions Let him be to thee as on Heathen Matth. 18.17 and not to keep company or to eat with Idolaters 1 Cor. 5.10 11. therefore the Apostles Brethren and Jews of the Circumcision charge Peter home for violation of their Law N. B. We may well wonder here that those Believers who had not only one God to their Father but also one Church to their Mother yea were born of the same Spirit and were fed by the same Milk of the Word of God should yet quarrel upon this occasion because the Gentiles were not only informed of the Truth but also reformed from their Errours yea and plainly transformed into the same Image of the Word which they had through grace now received as if the Jews designed to make a Monopoly of a whole Jesus to themselves from the Gentiles We may wonder the more at this contention N. B. Because we find no such quarrel at Peter and John for their going down to Samaria though the Samaritans were odious enough to the Jewish Nation c. This only may be said to qualifie that Journey beside their Commission from Christ Acts 1.8 because the Samaritans were neither uncircumcised nor Idolaters both which they knew the Heathens or Gentiles were and therefore more detestable to them N. B. There was indeed a partition-wall betwixt Jew and Gentile of God's own erecting that the former might not have any familiar converse especially in Marriages with the latter and the â—abbi's made this wall larger than God had made it making it unlawful to eat with or enter into the house of a Gentile hence arose this Objection of theirs against Peter's practice Acts 11.3 Whereas the Law of God forbad not all commerce with the Gentiles much less that whereby they might be gained to God but that only which might corrupt the Jews and withdraw them from God And Peter himself who is now cavilled at professeth his conscientious observation of that Law of God Acts 10.28 to Cornelius c. and to God himself verse 14. Yea and of the very Traditions of the Elders also over and above the Law of God John 4.9 and 18.28 c. till God convinced him by a Vision Acts 10.15 c. First These Believing Jews who contended with Peter here were all zealous of the Law Acts 21.20 21. in Paul's case there as now in Peter's here and still were so weak as to be too much addicted to Jewish Ceremonies insomuch that they thought Circumcision simply necessary to Salvation Acts 15.1 5. and would have the Believing Gentiles also circumcised until they were better instructed as there by the Decrees of the Church Acts 15.29 So here by the Relation of Peter as here followeth for their farther and fuller satisfaction Nor did those Zealots of the Legal Rites object against Peter saying Why hast thou Baptized the Gentiles or why didst thou Preach to them For this would have been an injurious affront to Christ and contrary to his express command Mat. 28 19 Acts 1.8 c. Secondly The Defence Peter maketh to their offence objected from ver 4. to v. 18. Acts 11. wherein Peter not pretending any preheminence over the Church as his pretended Successors do at this day willingly submitteth himself and
and Barnabas sent to the Gentiles THIS Divine Historian Luke the Recorder of the Acts of the Apostles having hitherto carried on the History of the Church and Gospel as both had their Reception among the Jews wherein he more peculiarly pitcheth upon the Acts of Peter and John those two special Ministers of the Circumcision more especially Peter's Now he turns his Pen to follow the planting and progress of the Gospel among the Gentiles which History he begins with the Acts especially of Paul and Barnabas who were the two singular Ministers of the Uncircumcision and more peculiarly Paul's to the very end of that Book N.B. It is not improbable that Barnabas knew before-hand as he was full of the Holy Ghost of his being designed for a Minister of the Vncircumcision and of Paul's being joyned with him in that work long before these two were sent away from Antioch upon it as Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to confirm that first Gentile Church there so his seeking out Saul as before to assist him in the same work giveth some confirmation hereof c. N.B. The solemn Mission of Saul and Barnabas to their Ministry among the Gentiles is fully related Acts 13.1 c. After they had carried the Benevolence of the Church of Antioch to that of Judaea they returned to Antioch again Acts 12.25 where they spend some considerable time at the end of which this new Gentile-Church observing a solemn Fast for the sad Famine that then was sore upon the Countrey And while in Praying and Preaching at their Publick Ministration as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies for which the Greek Scholiast reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Preaching which is the highest Office and Honour of a Gospel-Minister N.B. Though some Protestants make it only a Reading the Liturgy as the Papists translate it as they sacrificed to countenance their abominable Idol of the Mass which that Greek word can never mean the Holy Ghost gave them their Mission and Commission by the Ministry of this Church at Antioch upon this extraordinary day of Humiliation to fetch in the Gentiles who had long lain behind the Partition-wall to the Jews This could not be done without a Divine Warrant for tho' Peter in the case of Cornelius had opened a door for the Gospel to the Gentiles that was only a single gap or breach made in the Wall yet now the whole Partition-wall was to be thrown down and the Gospel was to be brought into all Gentile-Countreys and that heavenly Manna was to be Rained down at their Tent-doors when the Lord said Separate those two men to the work whereunto I have called them V. 2. which confirms that Saul and Barnabas knew their work before-hand N.B. In Paul's first Peregrination or Travel among the Gentiles as their great Apostle in conjunction with Barnabas three famous Circumstances are principally observable The first is his Egress The second is his Progress The third his Regress N.B. In his Egress from Antioch we are to consider the moving cause thereof namely his Solemn Call to undertake this Apostleship of the Gentiles in which Call are mentioned 1. The Ministers who set him apart for that Office with his Collegue Barnabas Simon Lucius and Menaen Acts 13.1 2. The Author God the Holy Ghost pointing out those two men to an Imployment of his own who were lately returned from an Imployment of the Church's verse 2. And 3. The Manner how those three above-named who were Prophets as well as Preachers understanding the Lord's mind and appointing another solemn day of Fasting and Prayer laid their hands upon Saul and Barnabas so set them apart by Ordination v. 3. This is N.B. The second Ordination or Imposition of Hands since the Gospel began which did not confer the Holy Ghost with it for these two were full of the Holy Ghost before And this was the first Ordination of Elders since the Gospel that was practised out of the Land of Judaea among the Gentiles The Remarks from the first part to wit the Egress are these First God granted to this new Gospel-Church at Antioch the extraordinary help of Prophets indued with a Spirit of Prophecy which had ceased from the days of Malachy to Christ's Time This Divine Grant of such as were partakers of Revelations was according to the present state of this new Church as necessary to its well-being until Time and Study had inabled others to be Teachers there which as yet none could attain to in its Infancy Where God denies Means he supplies Means The second Remark from the Egress is The Lord is so free an Agent in scattering his Grace that he poureth it out upon some persons even in the worst of places N.B. As appeareth in the case of this Manaen who was puer Collectaneus one that had sucked of the same Milk with Herod-Antipas the same that Beheaded the Baptist and set at nought our precious Saviour yet this Foster-Brother of Herod Manaen and brought up at Court with Herod did notwithstanding all contemn the profits pleasures and honours of the Court and imbraced the Gospel of Christ so much contemned by both the King and his Courtiers v. 2. N.B. In all Ages God hath had some to fear him and to love his good ways even in the worst of Families and Royal Courts he had his Moses in proud Pharaoh's Family his Obadiah in impious Ahab's Hall 1 Kings 18.3 13. Some good Souls in Herod's House Luke 8.2 as this Manaen also and some Believers even in the Houshold of Nero that Monster of Mankind Phil. 4.22 This Man Manaen made Moses's choice Heb. 11.25 26. The third Remark is A solemn seeking of God before any great Enterprize is a good preparation for entrance into it N.B. Our Saviour himself would not enter upon his Ministry till he had fasted forty days c. Matth. 4.2.17 If we make God our Alpha he will be our Omega therein also and will be with us in the Beginning in the Middle and in the Ending thereof too as he was with these two Saul and Barnabas in their Ministry among the Gentiles N.B. In such serious and secret Addresses at the Entrance unto God we make our humble Acknowledgment that all safety and success in our weighty Undertakings must come from God N.B. The Church's Approbation of what was done in setting Saul and Barnabas apart and their praying for God's blessing upon their Labours is said to be a sending of them forth by the Holy Ghost verse 3 4. whereby the like Apostolical Authority with all the other Apostle's Infallibility of Spirit and a Plenipotentiary Commission to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the Dispersed Gentiles were put upon them N.B. The Imposition of Hands did betoken their Separating and Consecrating to the work as the Priests under the Law did separate and consecrate the Beast for Sacrifice by laying their hands thereon And the reason of those present Actions in this first Ordination among
by Persecution among them God would not permit evil to be unless he knew how to extract some good out of that evil He causeth the Sun when it forsaketh one part of the habitable World to shine upon another N.B. The Apostles coming to Lystra and Preaching here Paul observed a Poor Cripple extraordinary Attentive to the word he perceived thereby through his prophetick Spirit that he had faith to be healed tho' he was born lame and never had walked verse 8 9. tho' his Defect in nature was incurable by Art like the lame Man whom Peter healed Acts 3.2 c. yet had he Faith for his Cure which Unbelief would have hindered Matth. 13.58 Mark 6.5 To this Cripple Paul spake with a loud voice that all the People there present might hear and observe saying Stand upright on thy feet and he leaped and walked verse 10. N.B. For together with Paul's word there went forth a power the power of the Lord was present to heal him as Luke 5.17 the like was done by Peter Acts 3.6 8. and is promised to be done by God's holy Ordinances Ps 146.8 The Lord giveth Sight to the blind he raiseth up the Crooked he loveth the Righteous God loved this Lame Man so he restored him to the use of his Limbs so that he leaped for joy to shew that he was perfectly Cured for all the works of God as was this miraculous Cure are perfect Deut. 32.4 The sight of this miracle put the blind People to pay their Rent to the wrong Land-Lord for tho' Paul had Preached Christ unto them and had confirmed his Doctrine with such a singular miracle which by the light of their own natural Reason they might know that none but a Divine Power could have wrought it N.B. Yet such was the blind Superstition of those poor Pagans that they would needs ascribe the honour of it to their Dunghil-Deityes so forcible is an evil custom and a vain Conversation Received by Tradition from fore-fathers Jer. 10.3 1 Pet. 1.18 Those Pagan-Lycaonians had heard out of the Fables of their Poets that Jupiter and Mercury came down to visit Lycaon their Progenitour of old and that for the affront be offered them they transformed him into a Wolf Hereupon they used to offer Sacrifice to those two Pagan Gods by their Images which they had erected for appeasing them and now the People supposed that they had themselves come down in two humane shapes to work miracles among them N.B. So blind are the principles of Corrupt Reason in fallen Mankind compared unto the clearest Light of the Gospel which was now preached to them Hereupon both the common People adorn the Apostles who were but the Instruments of the miracle with both Divine honours ver 11. and with Names of their Gods verse 12. calling Barnabas Jupiter their chief God as the Heathens took him and Paul Mercurius whom they look'd upon as both the Messenger and the Interpreter of their seigned Gods which caused their applying of his name to Paul who was the Master of Speech as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies speaking much more to the People than Barnabas did who mostly stood silent yet in his Gravity might beckon upon Paul to speak as his Herauld as Jupiter did to Mercury N.B. Nor was this all but their Priest of Jupiter who should have had more wit brought Oxen trimmed with Garlands of Flowers according to their Heathenish Custom unto the gates of the house where the Apostles Lodged their Temple standing without the Town therefore brought they their Sacrifice to the supposed Gods themselves c. and there would have done Sacrifice to them ver 13. because they took Jupiter for the King of Kings and the principal Patron of the City This had been done if the Apostles had not run in among them and shewed the greatest detestation of such abominations telling them that they were but Men of like passions with themselves which plainly differenceth Man from the Divine Nature and therefore no such thing could be done without notorious Sacriledge and themselves be made Idols verse 14 15. Both which were such abominable Acts that the Apostles rent their Cloathes which was a sign of their greatest abhorrency of such detestable Actions and this gaue Paul a new occasion and opportunity to preach again to those Idolatrous Lystrians saying Sirs why do ye these things to such poor Mortals as we are who have need of Food and Raiment we are liable to diseases and death as well as you are so may we by no means either as Men or as Apostles allow of any such Idolatry to us whose Office is to extirpate all kind of Superstition much less to permit or countenance it N.B. Then he obviates two main objections which those Heathen Idolaters might make against the Gospel The first is drawn from the Antiquity of their Idolatry and the second from the Vniversality of it Answering both of them with Affirming that the Reason why so many and for so long a time had worshipped Idols which was a way of fallen Man 's own chusing and never of Gods Commanding was from the just Judgment of God upon them Psa 81.12 Rom. 1.24 28. and here verse 16. and then again in verse 17. He prevents a cavil that they could not plead Invincible Ignorance for their excuse for tho' they and their Ancestors had not the Book of Scripture yet had they the Book of Nature to instruct them that God only who createth all things and preserveth them by his providence in giving Rain Fruits Corn c. is only to be worshipped c. Yet all these Convincing Arguments of the Apostles were little enough to restrain those obstinate Idolaters from committing Idolatry So hard a matter it is to rectify such Rude mistakes in Religion which time custom and popular patterns had so rooted and firmly rivered in their carnal hearts verse 18. N.B. Now the Devil being put to his last shifts began to stir up his Instruments to use violence those were certain Jews that came from Antioch and Iconium who perswaded the People to stone Paul verse 19. Oh what a strange change is in the Mobile here that the same persons who had made a God of the Apostle and would need◠have Sacrificed to him as such a God would now in the twinkling of an eye as it were be for stoning him as a Devil Incarnate or the worst sort of Mankind Thus the Vulgar dealt with our Lord himself crying to him Hosanna one day and Crucify him the next day And behold here the restless malice of Satan against God's Ministers first Tempting them to become Idols of the People and to rob God of his Glory due to him alone and to accept of Divine worship wherein the Devil designed to destroy the Blessed Apostles Souls Now when this design failed him He exciteth the Jews and they the People to destroy their bodies by stoning them Oh what a slippery thing is all wordly honour N.B. Here they
undertake to bring up in the knowledge of Christ were admitted to that ordinance also If the Law allowed of this Gen. 17. ver 12 13. much more doth the Gospel so which inlargeth the priveledges of Believers in all things and narrows them in nothing we have been in 1600. years possession and prescription of Baptizing the Infants of Believing Parents therefore we may more rationally require the Antipaedobapists to prove by any express place of Scripture that Children were not baptized by the Apostles when they baptized whole housholds and Nations according to their Commission Mat. 28.19 but it ought not to be proved by us we may better require their proof that there were no Children in Lydia's the Goaler's houshold or other the like Families by some express place of Scripture than they ask ours Especially considering how the phrase they and all theirs included the little Children Numb 16.27 33. and why not he and all his Acts 16.33 yea and Lydia and her house were baptized Acts 16.15 which the Syriack reads She and her Children c a non dicto ad non factum non valet Consequentia because 't is never said so we may not say it was never done so we are not told of any one Woman that ever received the Lord's Supper yet none doubts but many women did receive it c. The sixth Remark is Know'n faithfulness is the best ground of Union and Communion both Civil and Sacred If ye have judged me faithful saith Lydia come into my house v. 15. not unless ye Judge me so Upon no other account doth she desire it for Hypocrites are the botches of all Societies Here was no long time for Tryal of her faithfulness but all this was done and she baptized for ought appearing to the contrary while they were together at this private meeting from whence it may be observed what kind of believing gave admission to Baptism unto believers and to their housholds in that day Indeed she did demonstrate it in this that she constrained them with all Amicable violence to her House as the Disciples did Christ Luke 24.29 The Remarks upon the latter Action of Paul at Philippi namely his casting out a Spirit of Divination do follow And first This Damosel was undoubtedly possessed with the Devil by whose Inspiration she foretold future things to those that asked her N.B. This Pythonick Spirit was so call'd from Pythius an Epithet of Apollo who was wont to give answers to them that inquired at his Diabolical Oracles in Delphos c. Pytho comes from the Hebrew word Pathan which signifies a Serpent for the Hebrews had their Divinations in old time from Serpents and Pythius Apollo whom the Hebrews call Ob and Abaddon Rev. 9.11 and Deut. 18.11 and 1 Sam. 28.7 was first worshipped in Greece under the form of that Serpent which deceived our first Parents N.B. The Septuagint bible calls such as were possessed with this Divining Devil as the Witch of Endor that deceived Saul c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Devil spake out of their bellys for which cause also the Hebrews call them Oboth or Bottles because the Bellys of those Women who were thus made Use of by the Devil were swelled up as big as Bottles such an one was this Damosel The second Remark is The Devil in this Damosel indeavours to distract those Disciples of Christ as they went to prayer verse 16. that is as they went towards the place where their publick prayers were usually made this Spirit of Satan met them sometimes in the face and followed them at other times behind their backs crying after them and this the Devil did many days verse 16.17 18. N.B. And tho' he did only testifie the truth in his out-cries yet was it done for Divelish ends either 1. To draw men on to believe him in other things counterfeiting himself an Angel of Light 2 Cor. 11.14 or a Divine Spirit who praised the True Servants of the Lord and spake the truth at this time 2. To puff up Paul with Pride by his flattering him with those loud and frequent Acclamations whereby he would have tickled him into the sin of vain glory 3. Or at the least to make his own peace with Paul who he foresaw would cast him forth Thus is Satan willing to compound with those whom he is not able to conquer Bernard saith well Satan et si semel videatur verax millies est mendax et semper fallax If Satan speak truth but once he will lye often for it and is always deceitful in speaking true or false When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own John 8.44 but here he spake the truth as he did Mark 1.25 not to honour but to blacken Christ that he might both discompose the Apostles and make their Auditors jealous of the truth of that which so impure a spirit professed Laudari ab illaudato non est lans saith Seneca Good words from an evil mouth are not praise but dispraise An evil Spirit or evil man dissembling to be good is then worst of all c. simulata pietas est Duplex iniquitas Dissembl'd piety is double iniquity Some there be among men not unlike this evil Spirit who will sometime do good in appearance but it is that they may the better do mischief in Reality as Phil. 1.18 with 15.16 17. yet all is over-ruled for the Gospels furtherance v. 12. The third Remark is As our Lord had refused the Testimony of the Devil concerning himself not accepting of good words from so bad a mouth but muzzl'd it up Mark 1.25 and suffered not the Devils to speak verse 34. So Paul was grieved here verse 18. Eeither 1. For the Damsel's sake who could not but suffer much by being possessed with this evil spirit Or 2. For the sake of those who were seduced by the Devil in the Damsel c. Or 3. He was grieved mostly to hear the Father of Lyes speak so much and so oft one and the same thing to their great disturbance though it was matter of truth because every thing this grand Lyar speaketh is rendred suspicious even from the Speaker himself And as it is an usual and customary punishment put upon common Lyars among men that they are not believed no not when they speak the truth so Paul well knew that the Devil never speaks truth but with a devilish design to deceive others by that truth which he speaketh Therefore did Paul not only Reject the Testimony of this Lying Spirit that he might openly declare him to be the Father of Lyes and that he might Interdict all Saints from holding any kind of Commerce with the Devil but also did Eject him out of this Deluded Damsel saying I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her verse 18. and he came out the same hour So far was Paul from taking any Joy in such a Testimony of truth from that Lying Spirit that it
grieved him so much as no Allay could be had of his great grief without Dispossessing the Devil which he effected in the Name and by the Authority of his Lord our Saviour who had impowered his Apostles to cast out Devils in the Name of Christ Mark 16.17 These words Paul uttered 〈◊〉 the motion of the Holy Spirit upon him who informed him of the dangerous effects of Satan's increasing rage as he felt after and also assured him of power from on high to cast out this daring devil according to Christ's promise This latter Action of Paul at Philippi did soon involve him into a state of Passion and suffering for when the Damsel's Masters saw their gain was gone out with the Devil out of the Damsel as if both had gone forth together according to the sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in verse 19.2 They presently raise up an hot persecution against Paul c This introduceth the second general concern of Paul and his Associates at this City namely their passion and suffering wherein those parts fall under a several consideration as followeth 1. Their danger And 2ly Their deliverance In their danger are considerable 1. Their Accusers both who they were before whom and of what they did accuse them verse 19.20 21. And 2 The usage of the accused tho' they were innocent yet without convicting them of any crime they are both beaten with many stripes and cast into close prison and the Jaylor is commanded to keep them in the straitest custody verse 22.23 So that he thrust them into the inner prison and made Paul and Silas's feet fast in the Stocks verse 24. But 2. Their deliverance is described with Graphical and Beautiful Ornaments The principal parts whereof are two First Their freedom from the Jayl And secondly the Conversion of the Jayler and both these are beautified with many adorning circumstances First their freedom from the Jayl is set off in comely colours as it is demonstrated to be both by a Divine hand and by humane helps subordinate thereunto First In the Divine assistance we find it Illustrated both by the time when it was done to wit at midnight as Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God verse 25. and by the means and manner whereby namely by an Earthquake c. verse 26. And secondly In the humane help over-ruled by the Divine hand we have this account that it was done by a decree of the City-Magistrates delivered to Paul by their Sergeants verse 35. and pressed upon them by the startled Jaylor verse 36. but was both refused and renounced by the prisoners because of the notorious injury done to them verse 37. This refusal of their dismission clandestinely doth also startle the Magistrates that they had been so injurious to free men of Rome which was looked upon as a great crime insomuch that they came in person to the prison and being conscious to themselves that they had done what they could not justifie verse 38. They prayed the Prisoners to Pardon them and desired them to depart c. verse 39. The second part namely The Conversion of the Jaylor is marvelously amplified by Antecedents Concomitants and Consequences thereof 1st The Antecedents was the Jaylers intention to murther himself verse 27. but prevented by Paul verse 28. 2ly The Concomitants were 1. His Repentance testified by his fear and trembling wherein he acknowledged his sin and begged pardon of the prisoners v. 30. And 2. His Faith in believing the Gospel ver 31.32 And 3. The Consequents were the kindly Fruits of his New Obedience verse 33 34. The Remarks from those famous passages do follow First From their danger there The first Remark is Where gain is gone there is frequently laid the foundation of Persecution as here and in Acts 19.24 25. The gain of making Silver Shrines for Diana's Temple stirred up Demetrius c. to make an hideous uproar against the Apostles who cryed down that abominable worship but more of that after when we come to that place N. B. 'T is probable this Divining Damsel was a Servant or Slave to many Masters who had all a share less or more in the considerable profit of her advantagious Art for each person that was over curiously inquisitive to have their fortunes told them according to their blind Heathenish Superstition came to this Damsel with the Reward of Divination in their hand as they did to Baloam Numb 22.7 Now when the Divining Devil whereby things to come were foretold was cast out of the Damsel their Gainful Trade was spoiled and then the dispossessed Devil was willing to be entertained and to take possession of the hearts of the disappointed Masters whose godliness was only their gain their gain and their godliness were gone both away together They counted all Fish that came to their net so at last they caught the Devil and all The Devil of discontent filled their hearts from corner to corner and inraged them a gainst the Apostles who had dispossessed their Gainful Devil whom they apprehended and hurryedaway to the Civil Magistrates of the City and there accuse them as is the frequent lot of all faithful preachers to be a sort of Trouble Towns and such as could not be tolerated verse 19 20 21. N.B. Thus the Devil in those couetous Caitiffs had nothing so much ingenuity as that Devil in the Damsel who applauded those Apostles for being the Servants of the most high God verse 17. but now the tune is turned and the truth of the Gospel Satan would be no longer a flattering Devil must now be declaimed against as intolerably troublesome because it destroyed his Kingdom N B. This was the Old Calumny in Ahab against Elijah 1 Kings 18.17 c. nor did those outraigious persecutors pass by that old and ordinary wile of the Devil in all ages in setting up the Placits and Precepts of men in opposition against the Instistitutions and appointments of the great God Christ's Apostles are here proceeded against as Innouators in Religion and as Jews whose names are odious to the world especially to the Romans in this place The second Remark is Generality and Unanimity alone cannot sufficiently Authorize Opinions or practices as the Romanists do assert Here was the profane powers and the rude Rabble concurring together to persecute the Apostles of Christ N.B. The Multitude and the Magistrates joyn issue tear of their Clothes not only to disgrace them the more but also stripps them in order to stripe them upon their naked bodies and when they had striped them abundantly to the satisfaction of their outrage they cast them into prison and as if the inner prison had not been strong enough to secure them they made not only their feet fast in the Stocks but their necks also in the Pillory as the word here signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they put a Wooden ruff about their necks Acts 16. v. 22 23 24. now all this Unity and Unanimity in
Holy Ghost Because 1. They were nominated and elected by a special ad immediate Instinct of the Spirit as Acts 1.24 and 13.2 c. 2. They were ordained by the Apostles who were filled with the Spirit whereby they were inabled to that work Acts 14.23 And also 3. Whosoever is set apart to that Office of over-seeing the Church according to the Rule of God's word is truly made an overseer by the Holy Ghost God concurring in owning and blessing his own Institutions and those are charged by the Apostle here to take heed unto themselves in the first place for he that is not mindful of his own Salvation can never be careful aright of the Salvation of others and then to all the flock committed to their charge inforcing this duty upon them by declaring how dear and costly the Church was to Christ and therefore should be dear and precious in their pains and care to them N.B. But alas saith Espenoaeus how many are Aposcopi rather than Episcopi by-seers rather than right over-seers How can Christ take it well at the hands of careless Ministers that they should be so negligent over those Souls which cost him his precious blood whom he pluck'd out of the Paw of the Roaring Lion bears in his Bosom c. Isa 40.11 The sixth Remark is Heretical Teachers as well as bloody persecutors are no better than Ravenous and Grievous Wolves for so both are branded with that beastly Name Verse 29. N.B. Still the Metaphor is caryed into an Allegory wherein true believers and Disciples of Christ are called Sheep or Lambs their Pastors Shepherds or over-seers and their Adversaries whether in Heresy or Persecution are stiled Wolves Nothing more plain than that cruel persecutors are Wolves call'd so by Christ Matth. 10. v. 16 17. whose Malice inclines them to destroy God's people as strongly as the Rapacious nature of the ravening Wolf doth that greedy Creature to worry a Flock of Sheep This all Martyrologists do make manifest in all ages of the Church N.B. But there be other Wolves so called even false Teachers by Christ himself also Matth. 7.15 Such as come among Christ's Flock in Sheeps cloathing The Devil usually begins with violence Force and Cruelty circulating the world like a Wolf or Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 If this succeed not to take well then he betakes himself to his Wiles of fraud and crafty Counsels Herein he puts off his Wolfs Frock and makes his next Encounter in Sheeps cloathing yet retaining his Wolfish and worrying nature this is another dangerous Rock which the less careful and the over credulous may easily split against therefore Christ cryeth beware least while we are striving to Shun a Shelf we fall not on the other hand into a whirl-pool N.B. The old Church was sadly pester'd with false Prophets Deut. 13.13 Jer. 23. v. 16. Ezek. 34 c. And so is the New Matth. 24.4 Rom. 16.17 Ephes 5.6 Col. 2.8 1 John 4.1 This was Peter's prophecy that such shall bring in damnable Heresies privately c. 2 Pet. 2.1 and Paul predicteth the like here verse 29 30. a speaking preverse things c. while they pervert the Scripture in defence of their own devices These are as pernicious to the Soul as persecutors are to the body and wolves to the Sheep therefore the worst and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Paul useth for drawing Disciples not to Christ but to themselves c. signifies to tear them limb from limb as the Wolf doth with the seized Sheep c. but our Lord hath promised to punish those that push with the Horn and foul with feet Ezek. 34.19 so we need not fear c. Mic. 5.5 The last Remark here is Paul's Pathetical Valediction wherein First He Commends those Elders to God who alone was able to keep them in that approaching hour of Temptation and to the Gospel of Grace which the God of all Grace appointeth as a means to six them upon the Rock that they might not be removed by that future Tempest but be preserved for Glory verse 32. Secondly He gives his own example verse 33. and the command of Christ v. 34 35. for their Imitation to avoid covetousness which is the Root of all evil 1 â—im Chap. 6. verse 10. Especially in praelates John 12.6 and Matth. 26.15 as Moses did Numb 16.15 and Samuel 1 Sam. 12.3 5. and himself who Laboured with his hands for his own Liveli-hood Acts 18.3 and 1 Cor. 4.12 and 1 Thess 2. verse 9. and 2 Thess 3.8 where he gives this Account N.B. That he did not propose this his practice as a precept or precedent Law or Rule to all Ministers for he had not power to deprive them of what God had given them Levit. 27.32 Matth. 10.10 Luke 11.42 Prov. 3.9 10. Mal. 3.9 10. Tithes were paid by Abraham to Melchisedeck long before the Levitical Lawâ— So that there must be a moral equity in this Reciprocal duty both before the Law under the Law and after the Law under the Gospel And tho' Paul did thus in a juncture and case of necessity because of their present poverty had they been able more shame would it have been to them to let him Labour and because false teachers were watching all advantages against him yet doth he himself often assert his own priviledge 1 Corinth 9.14 Gal. 6.6 and Christ's words he urgeth might be collected out of Luke 6.38 and 16.9 c. yea the very Terms might be spoken by Christ for all he spake is not writ John 20.30 Thirdly He kneel'd down and prayed with them all verse 36. Here was a right Gospel manner of taking a final farewell Whereas the common custom of Carnal men is to bid Adieu one to another by drinking of Healths which Turpissima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or most filthy Healting Round and cursed Custom had its first original from some Sordid Court Parasites who would lick up the very Slaver of their Princes There is no parting now without such Circular potting yea the whole Cup up and off as well as round Those primo-primi-Christians did not so here but parted with prayer in a kneeling posture worshipping God both with their bodies and spirits 1 Cor. 6.20 Fourthly And here with tears with their prayers Verse 37 38. testifying hereby how they looked upon the loss of such a painful and faithful Pastor or Apostle a very great publick loss not only to themselves but also to all Asia And this was the cutting yea killing word that he told them by a prophetick Spirit that they should see his face no more Oh! How loth were they to part with Paul who had so indeared himself to them by his holiness humility and usefulness insomuch as they enjoy him as long and as far as they could accompaning him to the ship and when gone off to Sea gave their longest look after him Thus are we pull'd one from another in sad parting 's 〈◊〉 but we meet in
Heaven with joy not to part any more c CHAP. XXI Paul 's going to Jerusalem NOW come we to Paul's Passage from Miletum unto Jerusalem Acts 21. where those places through which he passed thither are mentioned As 1. To Coos and the next day to Rhodes two Islands in the Mediterranean Sea verse 1. 2. Then to Phenicia bordering upon Palestine yet in the Country of Syria whose chief City was Tyre and there he landed with his Company and stayed seven days verse 2 3 4. where he was foretold what should befal him at Jerusalem and from whence after he had spent one Lord's day with the Disciples of that City and after prayer at parting with those that Accompany'd him out of the City He 3. Passed on to Ptolemais a City and Sea-Town of Phenicia where he abode with the Brethren but one day verse 5 6 7. Then 4. From whence he passed to Cesarea a City in Palestine mentioned Acts 10.1 and 18.22 where he lodged with Philip the Evangelist and tarry'd there many days till he was told again of the fate that should befall him in Jerusalem yet all cannot diswade him from his Journey thither verse 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. 5. From Cesarea he passeth on to Jerusalem which was his Terminus ad quem the place to which as Miletum was his Terminus a quo the place from whence he went In his return from the last mentioned Peregrination through many parts both of Europe and Asia now is Paul got to the end of his Journey namely to Jerusalem verse 15. His Host that lodged him when Lodging could not but be very scarce at Pentecost seeing all the Males in Judea were Summoned thither Mnason an old Disciple verse 16. Then follows his acceptance in general with the whole Church v. 17. and in special with James and the Elders verse 18.19 to whom he gives a full Narrative of what God had wrought by him among the Gentiles for which they glorified God verse 20. N.B. Yet because the believing Jews who being wonderful many by the blessing upon the Gospel were still zealous for the Rites of Moses not understanding their freedom from them by the Messias throughly c. Those Elders persuade Paul to take off that prejudicate opinion which the Vbelieving Jews out of Asia had instilled into the minds of these Believing Jews at Jerusalem against him verse 21 22 23 24. This Paul doing at their persuasion verse 26. A Tumult ariseth by the instigation of the Vnbelieving Jews of Asia verse 27. Paul is Apprehended Accused and in Danger of his life verse 28 29 30. but rescued by the chief Captain verse 31 32. yet he bound him to make his defence ver 33. to v. 40. N.B. From those Resolves of Paul's passage by several Stages and Journeys to Jerusalem do flow those few following Remarks The first is Dearest Friends and Relations not only those in the Flesh but more especially those related in the Spirit have a most sad sorrowful and a most involuntary parting one from another as here Acts 21. v. 1. N.B. Luke useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that we were pulled from them The same word he had used Acts 20.30 for Heretical Teachers drawing away Disciples that is tearing them Limb meal as the Greek word signifies by a violent avulsion and destraction of one Limb from another as Wolves do with the worried Lamb they devour compelling them by their forcible persuations to Imbrace such distorted Doctrines as produce at length sad and dolorous Convulsions of Conscience while they thrust their Proselytes out of God's way Deut. 13.5.6 13. and as Jereboam did drive Jsrael from following the Lord 2 Kin. 17.21 N.B. Thus were those dear and Spiritual Relations pull'd in pieces here at their parting with Paul it was as if the head had been driven off from the body whose face they must see no more with great difficulty and reluctancy And thus we part with our dying as well as departing Friends who dye in the Lord and fall asleep in Jesus Yet this consideration may comfort us we do but bid such dear Friends good night for we must hope to see them again in the morning of the Resurrection as these did Paul c. here The second Remark is As Paul passed with a straight course towards the old Jerusalem verse 1. so would to God we could do so towards the New-Jerusalem which cometh down from Heaven Gal. 4.25 26. Heb. 12.22 Rev. 3.12 and 21.2 10. N.B. We are commanded to make straight our paths Hebr. 12.12 13. our ways may not be Hubby and Rough no more than crooked ways least our weak and Lame Legs stumble upon some Stumbling stone whereby we may be turned out of God's way which leads directly to this Jerusalem Such as turn aside to crooked paths shall be led forth with the workers of iniquity Psal 125.5 All by-ways from holiness are but high-ways to Hell We should not leap over the hedge of any Commandment for escaping any piece of foul way least the Old Serpent bite us Eccles. 10.8 N.B. But we should do as those Kine of the Philistines did which tho' they had Calves at home yet held straight on their way with the Ark of God to Bethshemesh that house of the Sun as that name signifies 1 Sam. 6.12 Oh that we could do so toward Heaven that house of the Sun of Righteousnes Tho' we have divers objects in our way to divert us Solomon directs us to keep a direct course saying Let thine eyes look right on Pro. 4.25 oculum irretortum in metam Get your eyes fixt upon the right Mark and Object without wandring from it This requires a Patriarch's eye well skill'd in Moses's Opticks Heb. 11.27 we ought not intently to look upon that which we may not lawfully love He that would not hear the bell must not meddle with the Rope c. ponder the paths of thy feet verse 26. namely by the weights of the word and turn not to the right hand c. verse 27. Keep the Kings high way Do as those Mariners with Paul here kept a straight course having their eye on the Star and their hand on the Stern c. The third Remark is The Spirit of Prophecy doth not reveal all things to those upon whom it cometh Thus was it here some of those Disciples at Tyre told Paul through the Spirit that he should not go to Jerusalem verse 4. foretelling by the Spirit of prophecy of his sufferings in that City as Agabus the Prophet did after at Cesarea v. 10 and 11. which afterwards did truly come to pass It seems those prophetick Disciples did but know in part N.B. This same Apostle saith we know in part and we prophecy in part 1 Cor. 13.9 that is we our selves have but a short and imperfect communication of matters from the Spirit of Prophecy we can therefore communicate but an imperfect degree of knowledge to others we know but imperfectly
because we are taught or at least learn but imperfectly Thus those good men being ignorant of that special command Paul had to go this Journey to Jerusalem Acts 19.21 and 20.22 c. they did according to what they knew out of mere Commiseration and true Charity diswade Paul from that Journey But it may be Objected N.B. These good men knowing that the Spirit by which they spake of Paul 's sufferings at that City was infallible and could not Err or be mistaken How come they to diswade him from going to Jerusalem N.B. This Objection hath a double Answer First It was with him as it had been with Elisha in another case saying The Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me 2 Kin. 4.17 He knew not all things at all times So here the Lord and his Spirit had not told these prophecying Disciples far short of that Eminent Prophet who had a double portion of the Spirit of Elija upon him whereby he wrought a double number to his Master's miracles How Paul went bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem but thinking it to be his own Voluntary choice and understanding by Divine Revelation how much this Enterprize would indanger him they out of their own private Spirit of compassion and humane affection toward him but not from any special command of the Spirit of God desired him not to venture himself thither The 2d Answer is Those men might probably think also that this prediction of Paul's sufferings there was only conditional in case he ventured to Jerusalem in like manner David was told that the men of Keilah would deliver him up to Saul 1 Sam. 23. v. 11 12. to wit in case he had been so fool-hardy as to betrust himself among and with them Thus it is apparent that the Spirit of truth never crosseth or contradicteth himself in any of his Revelations The fourth Remark is Believers come under a double denomination here They are called Disciples verse 4 and Brethren verse 7. N.B. This Reason may be rendred for it Believers in Ptolemais were gathered to-together into Church-Order and had Church-Meetings so are call'd Brethren but not so at Tyre where they lived under no Church-power c. So are call'd Disciples only NB. Where the number of Believers are dispersed and not yet Collected into Church Fellowish with Order and Officers there they are called Disciples or Schollars of Christ only as Beza observeth but when they joyn themselves into Church-Union and Communion then are they honoured with that highest Title of brethren as both in verse 7. and 17. Then the Staff of Bands and the Staff of Beauty Zech. 11. verse 7. are both together Where the bands of the Communion of Saints are found there is far more beauty of holiness than where Christians live in a scattered condition one from another The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or being of Christianity may be there in the former where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or well-being of it cannot be found as in the latter N.B. The Flowers of the Garden may be indeed flowers yea and Fragrant flowers too in themselves while they grow in the several beds or pots at distance one from another but they become much more fragrant and odoriferous when they are gathered together and bound up in a Nose-gay and so presented according to this Apostle's own phrase 2 Cor. 11.2 as an incorrupted Virgin to Christ that the smell of her Graces may refresh his eye and ravish his heart Cant. 4.9 10. The fifth Remark is Those Primitive-Gospel-times God most highly honoured with the powrings out of his spirit upon all Flesh N.B. For under the Law God gave out of his spirit but in lesser measures and comparatively by drops only But under the Gospel and the first fruits thereof our blessed Messiah powred out his spirit not here a little and there a little as before but now more largly and plentifully as it were whole pales full at once yea even to an overflow were the fillings of the Spirit at that time they were filled therewith over and over again Acts 2.4 and 4 31. And this was done upon all sorts of Mortals as well on Gentiles as Jews N.B. Contrary to their proud conceit that God gave himself to no people out of the Land of Israel yea and that without distinction of Sex or Rank as he had promised that Sons and Daughters yea Servants and Hand-maids should have the Spirit and Prophecy Joel 2.28 and in part fulfilled Acts 2.17 18. N.B. More particularly upon the Female Sex as upon Anna the Prophetess Luke 2.36 and upon those four Daughters of Philip here Acts 21.8 9. whereby God shewed the inlargement of his loving-kindness which he reserved for the first Gospel-times Here both the Father and his four Daughters are honourably Recorded in their high Advancement For 1. The Father was but a Deacon Acts 6.5 who preaching so successfully at Samaria Acts 8 and discharging his Deacon-ship so well that he purchased to himself this higher degree according to the Apostle's own Rule 1 Tim. 3.13 of being an Evangelist which was an Office placed next to Apostles and above Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 and who were not confined to any place and people as the ordinary Officers are but to preach the Gospel every where as Timothy was exhorted to do 2 Tim. Ch. 4. v. 5. N.B. This Philip was honoured to be the Apostle's Host at Cesarea Acts 21.8 2 His four Daughters are Recorded to be Virgins to wit by their Fathers and their own voluntary consent as 1 Corinth 7.37 not as the Popish Votary-Nuns it is not said that they continued in that state but that they were also prophetesses in foretelling things to come not publick preachers contrary to 1 Corinth 14.34 and 1 Tim. 2.12 c. The sixth Remark is The Sufferings of the Saints and Servants of God are not fortuitous as comming by chance or casualty nor are they only from the power of persecutors but they are all fore known ordained and ordered by the most wise God N.B. Thus was it with Paul in his persecutions they Sprang not out of the Dust Job 5 6. but were determined by a Divine decree as his Lords and Masters were Acts 2.23 and 4.28 against whom Pilate could not have prevailed unless power had been given him from above John 19.11 Thus all the sufferings of Christ's Servants are the matter of God's prescience council and providence as well as purpose from all eternity Eph. 3.11 As Paul's sufferings were fore-ordained by God so they were foretold both by and from God N.B. Thus the Lord said at Paul's first Call and Conversion I will shew him how greatly he must suffer for my name's sake Acts 9.16 even as great things as ever he himself caused others to suffer both by the malice of the Jews his own Country-men and by the fury of Gentiles Whereof we have a Catalogue from himself 2 Cor. 11. verse 23. and this was made known
malice had so blinded the Jews that as they had got Christ condemned when the Judge himself had declared him Innocent Luke 23.4 so they would have served his servant the Apostle Paul here for which attempt this Pagan Judge Festus reproves them and the light even of nature condemnes them Indeed such hath ever been the Devils malice against the servants of Christ that in all Ages he pusheth on Impious Judges into those precipitant practices of condemning them without any fâ—r Tryal or fully hearing their defences well knowing the power of truth that should it be suffered to be throughly scann'd he is very jealous his Kingdom would fall Nichodemus saith John 7.51 Our Law is otherwise Deut. 1.17 and 17.8 c. and 19.15 The ninth Remark is Pagans and Prophane persons have low vile and undervaluing thoughts and apprehensions of the most high and Holy things of God Here this Heathen Governor Festus calls the Religion and Worship which was of God's own institution most prophanely no better than by that contemptible name of Superstition verse 19. as if it had been Super statutum above the Statute and how slightly doth he also speak of our dear Redeemer only stiling him one Jesus Alas those Dunghil Cocks know not the price of that precious pearl neither the Master nor the Servant and therefore do they vilify them in their vain imaginations and with their opprobrious Expressions as is done here The tenth Remark is Truth and Innocency shine forth more splendidly by the more opposition that is raised against them from v. 20. to the end Festus is offended to find the Church imbroyl'd with Questions would to God it were not so now c. he consults with Agrippa what to do Agrippa desires to hear Paul as Herod did to hear the Baptist Mark 6.20 and to see Christ Luke 23.8 Hereupon Festus proclaims Paul's innoceny and therein his own injustice in not acquitting the innocent Long delayed justice oft proveth more heavy than speedy injustice Festus pretends he knew not by what rule or Judges Paul's case could be decided but intends to force his return to the Sanhedrim in favour of the Jews v. 9. had he not been over ruled by Paul's appeal to Caesar which Festus durst not deny Thus the providence of God wrought all matters for Paul's Justification and for the Jews Just reproof the Judge here had no Crime to inform Caesar of against Paul c. CHAP. XXVI Paul before King Agrippa THIS Chapter brings Paul to his third Tryal before King Agrippa in order to send him from Caesarea to Caesar at Rome which Festus durst not do without mentioning the prisoner's Crimes in his Mittimus whereas he had as yet found no fault in him Therefore must Paul be Try'd a third time to try what particulars could be proved against him before King Agrippa for Caesar's satisfaction We have an account Acts 25.23.24 c. how the Court was call'd for this third Tryal to which Agrippa and Berenice came with great pomp to whom Festus gives a publick Narrative of all Transactions past and begs the King's Council about the appeal and now Paul hath leave to make his Apology Acts 26.1 which may be resolved thus It consists of three parts 1. A Prologue 2. A plain and powerful plea. And 3. An Epilogue 1. Paul's Prologue verse 2 3. Is his acknowledging it a priviledge that he might plead for himself before King Agrippa whose birth and breeding had been among the Jews and therefore he could not but be accquainted with the Law and the Prophets by which Paul desired to have his case determined whereof the King was the most competent Judge 2. His Plain Plea consists of many Heads 1. From the Innocency of his Youth which he asserts from the Jews Testimony ver 4. and from his own Education ver 5. 2. From the state of the Controversy about an Article of the Faith the Doctrine of the Resurrection wherein he reflected upon his Adversaries as unsound in the Faith for their denying that very principal of Religion ver 6 7 8. 3. From his former Pharisaism and Persecution of Saints which he once thought was his duty and God's Service verse 9 10 11. 4. From his extraordinary call by Christ to become a Convert Relating the Circumstances of time place witnesses and works v. 12 13 14 to 19. and how it was not from any Levity of his own mind but a Divine Compulsion carried him out of his old Conversation v. 19 20. 5. From the injuriousness of the Jews to him merely for yielding Obedience to this Heavenly Vision ver 21. 6. From his Experience of God's protection from all his persecutors and therefore could not but in gratitude to God who had hitherto preserved him serve him with his best in the work of the Gospel v. 22. And 7. From the harmony of his Doctrine with Moses and the Prophets c. ver 22 23. 3 The Epilogue occasioned by Festus's Rash Censure of him for a mad-man v. 24. wherein he appeales 1. To the Sobriety of his own Speech having more weight than the words of mad-men And 2. To the Judgment of Agrippa verse 25 26. The upsho of all was that those very Heathen Judges do again acquit Paul of all Crimes in their opinions v. 31. To the great Condemnation of the malicious Jews The Remarks that may be raised from these Resolves Are First As the providence of God procured Paul a liberty to speak for himself So the promised Spirit of God gave him ability of Speech both were wonderful So that an Adversary was not found able to withstand the power by which he spake while he thus freely published the Gospel of Christ and made not only his own case but also the Christian Religion publickly known c. King Agrippa gave Paul a power to make his Apology verse 1. tho' he sat not as Judge but as one highly honoured by Festus And the Apostle spake here through the supplies of the Spirit of Christ Phil 1.19 so Artificially so effectually with such evidence and demonstration in his own Vindication that he plainly Captivated the Consciences of the whole Court so far as to stop their mouths from contradicting him and almost persuaded the King to turn Christian The second Remark is It is a kind of happiness to have a fair hearing of our case and cause in the Courts of men Thus Paul expressed it here v. 2 3. which was no sordid adulation but a plain confession of the truth for he could not but own it as his great advantage to make his Just Apology before Agrippa who could not by his birth and breeding be altogether ignorant of those points in controversy about the Messiah the Resurrection and the giving of the Holy Ghost and however he must be a far more competent Judge of such matters than that Pagan Judge Festus could be who was an absolute stranger to the Scriptures N.B. This Paul calls an happiness hoping that as
resting on their own Revelations of a pretended Spirit The Prophets and Apostles making but one Foundation he that stands besides the one must stand besides the other also because both be but one and we must Build upon both or we can Build upon neither It may be said that Antinâ—mians truely so called deal with the Prophets as Papists do with the Protestants who condemn that in Calvin c. which they commend in Augustine c. so these seem to receive truth from an Apostle yet dare reject the same truth from a Prophet what is this but to regard Names more than Things in them both which indeed 〈◊〉 no better than to disregard the Writings of both the Old and the New The ninth Argument If the Doctrine of the Law and of the Prophets must abide for ever then none may presume to despise them c. but the foregoing is true therefore the following is so This is plainly proved Mat. 5.17 18. all the Scriptures of the Old Testament are comprehended under these two Names the Law and the Prophets Mat. 7.12 the Prophets being all the Interpreters of Moses Law and certainly none can abrogate that Law but Christ who is our Law-giver Isa 33.22 yet Christ saith expresly he came not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dissolve or loose the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accomplish it and so to establish it in the hand of a Mediator better and greater than Moses Gal. 3.19 as that Heaven and Earth should sooner pass away than one Jot or one Tittle should pass from the Law This was a needful Doctrine in Christs Time because the Pharisees would then have made void some part of the Law with their Traditions Mat. 15.3 4. Mark 7.13 Mat. 23.4 How much more needful is this Doctrine in our own Time when Antinomians now would make all the whole Law voâ—d and not obligatory to any Believer The Blessed Apostle Paul who was a pure Gospel Preacher and a most strenuous asserter of Free-Grace saw in his Day an Emergent Necessity of affirming this great Truth saying We establish the Law Rom. 3.31 which yet some men cry down calling Repentance a Legal Grace Humiliation a back-door to Heaven and grieving that they have grieved so much for their sins c. undoubtedly the Moral Law is in the hand of a Mediator as an Everlasting Rule of Righteousness to the end of the World yea and the Ceremonial Law is rightly called an Ordinance of Eternity Exod. 12.14 as it stands firm for ever in the things those Ceremonies did signifie let us not then think to build some New fine yet false Golden Bridge to Heaven Promising Pardon and Paradise to Sinners as Sinners and freeing Men from Doubting while in the Bonds of Iniquity This is a fair easy step and like the finding out of the new North VVest passage to the Indies which hath brought shipwrack upon all its undertakers The Law must be our School-Master to bring unto Christ Gal. 3.24 't is to us what Paul's Sister 's Son was to him Act. 23.16 17 18. to shew us our Danger and to send us to the chief Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 who came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law The tenth Argument 'T was the practice of Christ and all his Apostles to make use of the Scriptures of the Old Testament This is obvious in all parts of the New Testament to every ones eye and observation Neither can we stop the Mouth of any gain-saying Jew but by Testimonies drawn from the Old Testament as Paul did Act. 9.12 c. which the Jews do acknowledge and not from the New which he acknowledgeth not for principles must be granted by both parties contra negantes principia non est disputandum Besides it might further be urged that many great Truths taken for granted by all sober Minds have yet no grounds of a Divine story but what is drawn out of the Old Testament as that it is lawful for Magistrates to punish Sabbath-breakers that it is unlawful for a Man to Marry his Sister c. or that the People may upon Emergency ordain without Officers according to Numb 8.10 These and many other Truths have no other proof but from the Old Testament all which do declare that it 's Divine Authority continueth still under the New and that rules may be drawn from it in all matters which are not Ceremonial or Judicial but of a Moral and Common and so of a continuing equity Whatever is unrepeal'd stands still in full force and vertue 't is a sufficient proof in such cases though out of the Old Testament to justifie many practices under the New they are both useful for Rules and therefore Christ calls him a good Scribe or Teacher of the Church who brings forth the precious treasure of Truth out of the treasury of both the Old and New Testament Mat. 13.52 ☞ It follows hence We must take heed of all Novel Notions which hold no Harmony with the Antient Truths We should contend for the Doctrine of Faith which was once that is of old delivered to the Saints Jude ver 8. 'T is one of the Sins of our Times and that none of the least Sins to despise Antient Truths The Lord complains how the False Prophets had led his people from the Antient paths Jer. 18.13 14 15 16. which he calleth a leaving the Snow of Lebanon whereby the thirsty Traveller used oft to be cooled and comforted and therefore in no wise to be left This Sin God calls not only a forsaking but also a forgetting of God and of all things in the World God cannot abide to be forgotten this he calls a very horrible thing and filthiness in a Virgin which is most abominable in as much as they had forsaken the Antient paths Heb. paths of Antiquity or of Eternity such paths as were chalked out by the Law of Moses and walked in by the Patriarchs and Prophets God tells them plainly their Sin was no less than a Land-desolating Sin Should not we then shun untrodden paths as dangerous and beware of new Lights that never bring new Hearts and avoid such new Notions as rather indulge than mortifie old Corruptions We should have an holy Jealousie or a Jealous Eye upon that which is Novelty No Man saith Christ having drunk old Wine straightway desireth new for he saith the old is better Luke 5.39 importing that the Rule of Gods Word is Antient and Eternal but the Dreams and Dotages of the Pharisees were New Upstart Mushroom Earth-sprung yea Hell-sprung Opinions and the Old Heaven-born Institutions of God must needs be far better than whatever Novel Inventions of Men obtruded on the Church either by Jewish or Popish Pharisees God therefore calls us to enquire after the old way which is the only way to give right Rest to our Souls Jer. 6.16 and even in Gospel times the Apostle John commends to us that which was from the beginning 1 John 2.7 and