other or would choose any other place for his worship then Jerusalem he will certainly effect and therefore for the better assurance thereof repeats it for my Name shall be great that which by you a handfull of men is now despised shall be great among the Heathen by all acknowledged as such These words were when spoken spoken of what should after be but by Christs coming into the World were made good so appears it by what he saith in his discourse with the Samaritan Woman who thought of no other pâ—aâ—e where men ought â—o worship God but either the Mountain of the Samaritans mount Garizim or Jerusalem Joh. IV. 21 c. Woman beleive me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father And the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth The consideration of which words will give us the true import of these and compared together they illustrate one the other for his saying that God did no longer confine his worship i. e. the outward performance thereof by such rites and ceremonies as were ordained to Jerusalem or any other single place what is that but the verifying of what is here said that his Name should be great among the Nations from the rising of the Sun even to the going down of the same and what he â—aâ—th that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth not only there but every where sheweth that as his Name should be great and magnified among them by their acknowledging him as Father so what is to be meant by that incense and pure offering which they should offer unto his Name viz. not such as are literally signified by those words and were then to be ordered according to the prescription of the Law but such worship as though expressed by the names of those carnal things under the Law then in continual use and known to all yet is indeed spiritual joining the Soul with the external performances agreeable to the nature of God who is a spirit of which those ordinances of worship under the Law were types and shadows And indeed the change of the place necessarily imports a change of the worship or things offered for expression of it for the incense and other offerings by the Law prescribed were not to be offered any where else but in the Temple at Jerusalem after that was there settled for the place of his worship Deut. XII 13 14 26. Those therefore that he will have in every place to be offered to him are manifestly of another nature though called by those names which then included generally all the external worship of God under the Old Testament while the Jews were Gods peculiar People they now figuratively understood denote the whole spiritual worship of God under the New Testament since the calling of the Gentiles and People of all Nations unto Gods Church the Kingdom of Christ. The incense therefore of the Gentiles converted to Christ and by the Gospell instructed in the true knowledge of God and taught to celebrate his great name and their pure offering are devout prayers Rev. V. 8 holy praises thanksgivings and alms-deeds and works of charity Heb. XIII 15 16. their whole selves Rom. XII 1 Divers of the ancient Christian Fathers look on the words as an express and undoubted Prophecy of the Christians solemn worship of God in the Eucharist or Sacrament of the Lords Supper called the Christian Sacrifice to which how they are appliable is shewed at large by the learned M r Mede in his discourse on these words where he gives to note that under the name of the Christian Sacrifice by the ancient Church was understood not the mere Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but the whole sacred action or solemn Service of the Church assembled whereof this sacred mystery was a prime and principal part and therefore defines it to be An oblation of thanksgiving and praier to God the Father through Jesus Christ and his Sacrifice commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine wherewith God had been first agnized viz. by them sanctified by being offered and set before him as a present to acknowledge him the Lord and giver of all This whole Service duly performed is as at large he there shews deservedly stiled incense and a pure offering both in respect that it is purely or spiritually offered and in respect of the purity of the conscience and affection of the offerers throughly perswaded of the greatness of God and in respect of Christ whom it signifies and represents who is a Sacrifice without all spot and blemish and by this being offered to his Name in every place he saith the time should come when it should be great magnified and acknowledged as great among and by all Nations though the Jews did now profane it as he makes the connexion by rendring that though which our Translation renders but. But the sense will be much alike in reading but viz. to this purpose the time shall come when from the rising of the Sun c. my Name shall be great among the Gentiles who yet have not true knowledge of me but will when I shall see due time to reveal it to them readily embrace it Mean while it ought to have been so among you and duly magnified by you to whom I have from of old revealed it and given you ordinances and waies of worship by observing of which you should have magnified it but you on the contrary have by despising those ordinances and perverting those waies of worship profaned it When these words were spoken and thence forward as all along before since the giving of the Law till the time of this diffusing the knowledge of God and his Name and this alteration and reformation of his worship here spoken of the Jews had for their direction the Law of Moses and ought duly to have attended to it as they are warned Chap. IV. 4 but they did in all things go so contrary to it as that neither they nor any service they did were acceptable to God So notoriously so obstinately peccant were they both Priest and People that he sees it not sufficient to have once reproved them by reckoning up to them their faults but again repeats them that so they may be sensible how greatly they have offended him how displeasing it is to him that they should continue to do such things having been warned of them and that it is worse then what the Gentiles when he shall call them will do 12 ¶ But ye have profaned it in that ye say The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible But ye have profaned it viz. my Name so verse 6. they are said to despise
notion of companion and wife of Covenant agrees to either 15 And did not he make one yet had he the residue of the spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth And did not he make one yet had he the residue Marg. Or excellency of the spirit and wherefore one c. This verse is confessedly difficult It appears so by the several different Expositions that are given of it We shall in the first place take notice of that which seems most agreeable to our Translation in the Text. And did not he i. e. that one God who created all vers 10. make one i. e. one man and one woman made out of the rib of that one man one only pair so that that one man had only one wife though he had the residue of the spirit being the Father of spirits and so could have at his pleasure created more spirits or souls and infused them into more women so that that one man might have had more wives if God had so pleased But now he gave him only one and made only one couple and that for this end that they might in chast wedlock and sincere love and undivided affection propagate a godly seed or holy seed to God whose example therefore ye ought to look on as a perpetual Law set to you and therefore in imitation of that first man take heed you also every one to your spirit that spirit by God infused into you that ye impart and communicate it only to one and that with sincere affection and let none of you deal treacherously against the wife of his youth by despising or relinquishing her or taking any other strange wife with her This seems an easy and very probable Interpretation and the rendring is agreeable to the words without force or violence to any of them or to the construction And it will be confirmed by our Savior's way of arguing against divorce and consequently Polygamy Matt. XIX 4 5 6. Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female c. by which is well expounded this expression here did not he make one that is one couple which by that relation as he there adds became one flesh and are no more two but one flesh one man as Gen. I. 27 they both together are called and therefore should be of one mind and one spirit also the unity of which they ought faithfully to preserve without dealing treacherously one with the other to the making a division betwixt them or by taking in strangers to corrupt that holy Seed by God required and introduce a spurious unsanctified generation like that by such means brought in Gen. VI. 2 c. But though this seem a plain and good Exposition yet because far different ones are by others given it will be convenient to take notice of some of them at least lest we should be thought to take this because others were not considered In the next place therefore we may take notice of that reading which the ancient Latin Translation gives Nonne unus fecit residuam spiritûs ejus est c. which according to the Doway English Version of it is did not 〈◊〉 make and the residue of the spirit is his or as it may sound and it is the residue of his spirit They that follow this reading wherein one is the nominative case differ in their Expositions for if it be asked what did one make â—ome understand one man and one woman Adam and Eve which was the residue of his spirit of whose spirit whether of the spirit of God or the man this Jerom shews to have been a doubt betwixt Interpreters even in his time If of God then they expound it that God having residue of the same spirit i. e. like in kind and of the same nature to that which he had infused into the man infused it into the woman taken out of him that so they might be of one mind and joined in mutual affection And to the like purpose they that expound it the remainder of the spirit of Adam viz. that into the woman was inspired the like spirit as into him Others by that which he made understand Eve into which he inspired the remainder of the spirit i. e. the like spirit or of the same kind that he had inspired into Adam and then proceed in like manner as the other as to the scope of the words and then he adds what doth one seek but thee Seed of God i. e. for what end did God do so so join them into whom he breath'd the like spirit but for the propagation of a godly seed of men that might serve him which by your taking strange heathenish wives will not be preserved but necessarily adulterated For caution in which kind he infers keep ye then or therefore your spirit i. e. say some of them your wives which are the remainder of your spirit as it were making one soul with you and wrong them not or your affection which from that relation ought to be in you towards them or as others more generally your souls and spirits from committing any such sin by taking strange wives to the wrong of your lawful wives which from your youth you have had or as you love your own soul and spirit take heed of doing so Thus they who follow that rendring A learned man who doth not farther follow it yet if the words be so rendred did not one make thinks this would be the meaning That the one viz. God with whom is the excellency of the spirit yea so great abundance of it that there is still remainder of it with him did make that which is in the end of the foregoing verse said That the wife should be a companion to the man and in covenant joined with him And what in that doth he look after he seeks a Seed of God a divine or godly Seed of which he may be called the Author and Father Therefore take heed to your spirit that you offend not against him with whom is abundance of the spirit and who by that abundance most wisely ordered Matrimony by dealing treacherously with or against your lawful wives This Exposition he sets down but doth not acquiesce in it but gives another which he more approves of which is thus And not one i. e. none doth this to whom there are any remainders of spirit and how should any one do it seeking a Seed of God take heed therefore to your spirit that none deal treacherously c. that the sense may be Thou dealest treacherously against thy wife who is thy companion and joined with thee in covenant None doth this who hath any thing at all of the spirit of God remaining in him and how should any do it who seeks a Seed of God If therefore ye seek
that take heed to your spirit that it deal not treacherously c. Another sense he also mentions viz. For he made not one alone and abundance of the spirit is with him and why or to what purpose should he have made one seeking a Seed of God Take heed therefore c. the sense is God would that the woman should be a companion to the man and his confederate for he made not only man not a male alone but a woman also and that most wisely inasmuch as he hath the remainder of the spirit and to what purpose should he do it whereas he sought a Seed of God which could not be born without wedlock Therefore take heed c. But this he saith pleaseth him not so well as that before it inasmuch as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shear signifies not excellency abundance as it notes excellency but remainder only Having seen this variety of Expositions besides what we shall after see among Christian Interpreters if we shall look into the Jews we shall find yet more they almost all differing one from another The Chalde Paraphrast the ancientest among them thus paraphraseth the words Was not Abraham one alone from whom was created or procreated the World or a World It may be supposed he respects the blessings promised to Abraham that from him should be a multitude of Nations and in his Seed all the Families of the Earth should be blessed Gen. XII 3 and XVII 4 c. and XXII 17 or that by the World he understands the People of Israel God's peculiar in the World Gen. XXXII 8 9. and what did that one seek but that there might remain to him an off-spring from before God or in the sight of God Take heed therefore to your selves and deal not falsely with the wife of thy youth R Salomo Jarchi though after him many ages yet the eldest Commentator gives an Exposition to this purpose according to his own words and as by Abarbinel explained Did not God make one i. e. one pair Adam and Eve and not one man with two women and the residue of the spirit was to him or was his i. e to or in Adam the first man the rest of the spirits of men were in him from him they all proceeded And if so why doth one who is in marriage seek to find occasions against his wife which is coupled to him and which is the Seed of God why doth he prosecute her so as to despise her This is his chief or only Exposition according to what is in the printed Copies and what is reported from him by Abarbinel But in a Manuscript Copy there is before this put another Exposition different from it viz. to this sense Did not the holy God prepare a help for Adam or man and joyn to him his wife at the beginning and the remainder of the spirit was to him or his spirit remained unto him but now another spirit is come upon him to hate her and he hath chosen to him the daughter of a strange God and why one he seeketh or what doth that one seek a daughter of Israel which is the Seed of holiness This I must desire the Reader to examine by some other manuscript Copy if he meet with any and for that end I have put the Hebrew words as they are in that Copy which I had use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another Exposition he likewise mentions out of the ancient Rabbins in which the words are made as it were a Dialogue betwixt the People and the Prophet as if those that had married strange wives coming together to the Prophet said did not Abraham do so who took to him Hagar with his wife and he answered But the residue of the spirit or excellency of spirit was with him his meaning was not as yours he set not his eies upon her he had another meaning They said to him and what did that one seek what was his meaning he saith to them That he might have a Seed of God Another also in the manuscript Copy to this purpose as if the People did object Did not one make us did not he that created Israel create the Nations also why doth he make it unlawful for us to joyn in marriage with them are not also all the rest of the spirits his the Prophet did answer And what doth that one require a Seed of God Take heed therefore unto your spirit and let not thy spirit deal falsely with the wife of thy youth The last but one of these is plainly the same with what David Kimchi gives as his Fathers opinion without mentioning either R. Salomo or any other from whom he took it only a little more explained viz. That the first are the words of the People to the Prophet Did not Abraham our Father who was one do so as we do who let alone his wife and married Hagar his Maid although there was in him excellency of spirit and he was a Prophet then the Prophet's answer in the next words What did that one seek a Seed of God as if he should say When he married Hagar he did it not but to seek a Seed of God because he had no Seed by Sarah his wife and withall he did not deal falsely with his wife because by her good will and her command he did it But do you take heed to your spirit and let not any of you deal treacherously with the wife of his youth to leave her and marry the daughter of a strange God That which he gives as his own interpretation is Abraham who was one and the Father to all that come after him in his Faith did not so as ye do for he followed not his lust neither married any that was lawful to him no not Sarah no not of his own flesh or kindred but that he might leave a Seed of God as he commanded to leave Seed saying Increase and multiply Gen. I. 28 And by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shear he saies is understood excellency not as in other Expositions residue of the spirit To this opinion of making Abraham the One here spoken of several Christians also incline and amongst them Grotius who yet in the expounding the other words differs from them by the words which they take to signify excellency of spirit he taking to be signified that they the Israelites were the residue of his spirit i. e. all drew and derived their spirit from his and then what is rendered Take heed to your spirit understands restrain or refrain your Anger The changings of persons and numbers here in the Hebrew as Take ye heed to your spirits in the plural number and second person then the wife of thy youth in the singular then let him not deal treacherously in the third person without expressing who is meant whereas it might seem more agreeable to what precedes to say do not ye or thou which some supply by putting in any let
not any or let none deal c. others making the preceding word spirit the nominative case that is and let not your spirit deal treacherously c. are waies of change so usual in the Dialect of the Scripture that none that looks into the Original thereof can raise any scruples or difficulties from it Abarbinel having considered and recited Kimchi's Exposition as likewise shewed how the opinion of those who understand that One of Adam is as he supposes to be managed most agreeably to the scope of the words viz. that the first words be taken as an objection to the Prophet that reproved them for their taking strange wives We are all the children of the first man Adam children of one Father and then none can be accounted a strange woman which is that which is said did not one i. e. the holy God at first create one man alone and the residue of the spirit was with him i. e. the rest of the spirits came forth of his loins viz. of that first Adam who was one and then that the other words be the Prophets answer to this purpose Will you make your condition to be equal or like that of the first man Adam when he was alone in the World for he did not seek ought but a Seed of God children that should serve God not following after his concupiscence as ye do and therefore it is meet that ye Take heed to your spirits c. which Exposition how clear it is I will not examine yet seeing that neither Adam nor Abraham are mentioned in the Text thinks the words are capable of another more simple Exposition which he thus gives And not one hath done it viz. not one only among you hath committed this evil So that you may say shall one man sin and wilt thou be wrath with all the Congregation as Num. XVI 22 One man alone among you hath not done this so as that to the rest their spirit is with them i. e. they keep entire their soul and spirit which shall return unto God who gave it And if it were but one alone among you I would ask him what he did seek by this marriage whether he did seek that the children which were born unto him should be a Seed of God this is not possible as long as their mother is the daughter of a strange God And seeing the matter is so that ye have all transgressed not one only of you and seeing that he that so transgresseth in this knows of a truth that his Seed will not be the Seed of God it concerns you that ye take heed to your spirit for there is nothing more precious to a man then his soul and that you keep your spirit that it break not forth after its lusts and then it will not or let it not viz. that spirit deal treacherously with the wife of thy youth Because c. This is a literal Interpretation of his words and this his opinion a learned Christian embraceth but a modern Jew who cites it having considered it prefers another of his own wherein he takes by the One to be meant Israel whom God chose to be to himself One peculiar People among all Nations a People that should dwell alone and not be reckoned among the Nations as Balaam speaks of them Num. XXIII 9 and were therefore to preserve themselves a holy People and to keep their Genealogy and offspring entire not mingled with other Nations nor making marriages with them whereby the holy Seed the Seed of God might be mingled with the daughter of a strange God So that the Prophets reproof here will run thus Did not God make Israel one Nation in the Earth and to him was excellency of spirit i. e. did not God give to Israel that one Nation an excellent spirit above all Nations and what is it that that one seeks or should seek It is a Seed of God a Seed that God hath blessed to take or in taking a wife of the daughters of Israel who are the Seed of God children of the living God and not the daughter of a strange God Therefore take heed to your spirit lest there be made a breach in that high degree and excellency which God hath imparted to you in making you one holy People separate from all other People And this Exposition he confirms by looking back to the 10 th and 11 th verses Have we not all one Father c. which he will have to import That God our God is one and he is our Father who created us to be to him a peculiar People one People of one God and if we take strange wives of the Nations of the Earth we shall deal treacherously every one against his brother and profane the holy Covenant of our Fathers our Seed which is the holiness of the Lord which he loveth There are yet other Expositions ancienter then some of the forementioned which yet because the Author from whom I take them is not yet printed as the others are and in some consideration to the Expositions themselves I put in the last place He tells us that the meaning of the words is said by more perhaps because he names no particular though the words in which he gives it are expresly Aben Ezra's to be That there is not any among you but hath done this that the construction of the words with a supply of what is to be understood may run thus There is not one of you that hath done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cedat according to the Law and his spirit or whose spirit remains to him so as that it hath not been mingled with the daughter of a strange God This Exposition though he approve not of yet it may be observable in regard that it agrees with the usual reading of the LXX or Greek Version which hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being read without an Interrogation though it is usually read with one would sound And he hath not done that which is good and there is remainder of his spirit where by he seeing it is to be asked who is meant by it it will be the readiest and plainest way to understand any one that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath not done may be meant the same as by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is not that doth i. e. not one that doth good Rom. III. 12 and so then there is not any one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Echad one that hath done good and there is a remainder of his spirit or reading the last words only with an Interrogation and is there any remainder of his spirit i. e. so as that there is a remainder of his spirit or his spirit is entire This being allowed it will be all one with that Jewish Exposition mentioned the one's supply of Cedat according to the Law well answering to the others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good and if so all that I shall at present say is That then this
approved of such things or persons which he had formerly declared his dislike unto This while with them we look on as the import of the word here we cannot but wonder at the impudence and folly of that railing Jew Lipman who saith that Christians go contrary to the meaning of what is here said in affirming that God who before had not flesh and blood was changed to be flesh and blood or as another Copy hath it who was before only the Father and the Holy Spirit was afterward changed to be the Son In which objection of his is only much malice and impertinency inasmuch as by nothing that the Christians say nor by any consequence that can be drawn from what they say can it be concluded that they affirm any change or alteration in God or the Godhead with whom they profess to be no variableness neither shadow of changing either in his nature or any of his attributes all things remaining in him the eternal Trinity one God in three Persons as they were from eternity nor by Christs taking the Manhood into God was there any change of God into Man nor confusion of substance or alteration of person Again inasmuch as that he might pick a cavil against Christians he takes the word which here denotes Gods immutability in his Will Word Decree and purpose which with the Jews the Christians absolutely affirm as if it imported here immutability of nature or substance though that be most true also so that it is a cavil sought not offered to him either by the word as here used nor any thing by the Christians affirmed He had no occasion to say this but he having said it it was convenient to take some notice of it lest others of his Sect might applaud him in it and think to be true what he feigneth But of the concurrence of the other Jews in rendring the latter Verb in the same notion that our Translators do who render it are not consumed we take more notice because some learned Christians take it in another signification and would have it rendred And ye sons of Jacob do not desist or leave off to do evil so in Munster and the Tigurin Translations more lately And the Septuaginâ— of old seems so to have taken the word to signify reading this word with the two first of the following verse And ye sons of Jacob have not râ—câ—ded from the unjust dealings or wickedness of your Fathers as likewise the printed Arabick Version following that and the Syriack also And from the word in that notion rendred would flow a very convenient sense taking the whole verse as a confirmation of what is before said and that they certainly must expect that judgement denounced to come in its appointed time inasmuch as the Lord is unchangeable in his purpose of punishing incorrigible unrepenting sinners and they would not leave off their evil courses nor repent them of their sins nor desist from them But others and they the major part viz. all that follow the vulgar Latin and diverse others also of modern Interpreters prefer with the forementioned Jewish Writers the other notion of being consumed as more usual to the Verb in the Conjugation or form here used according to which our Translators render are not consumed but then in giving the meaning and connexion of the whole verse there is among those who embrace this signification of this word some difference Some taking it as speaking of the time past or present make the coherence with what goes before and the meaning to this purpose as may be collected out of them put together that doubtless it shall be so as he said he will come in judgement to those sinners For he the Lord who hath determined and pronounced that he will not leave impenitent sinners unpunished doth not change his will and purpose But how then is it that the Sons of Jacob whose Fathers and themselves have been great and obstinate sinners have not long since been or are not yet consumed It is from the same unchangeableness in God who as he is just so is likewise merciful and long suffering not willing the death of sinners but rather that they should come to repentance and therefore determined as to execute justice so not to be hasty in executing it but to give space for repentance that so the necessity and equity of his judgements executed on such as would not lay hold on his mercy by repentance while they had time allowed for it may appear and besides that he might shew how just he was in keeping promise and his Covenant made with their Forefathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in so long sparing for their sakes their rebellious posterity who would make no end of sinning So that it was not through any change in him that they have not yet been consumed but shall now be severely punished but from his mercy and their obstinacy opposing and rejecting it So that they cannot but say if they will rightly consider the matter it is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not Great is thy faithfulness Lam. III. 22 23. This however they differ in expressions seems to be the scope that the most of Expositors will have these words to aim at There are that read them by way of interrogation or admiration For I the Lord change not and are not ye O Sons of Jacob consumed how wonderful a thing is it that the Lord being immutable in his judgement against refractory sinners they should not yet be consumed how hath mercy prevailed against judgement This falls in with what hath been already said and requires the same answer There may be proposed another way thus Expect certainly the execution of the judgement spoken of and that I will in due time call to an account sinners for I the Lord change not Of which that you may not doubt you have from a contrary effect and evidence of my immutability a proof for therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed though the wicked have hitherto domineer'd and wickedness reigned yet you true Sons of Jacob that fear me as Jacob did have been preserv'd by virtue of my promise and mercy they have not been able to root you out But as we saw before that by a learned Jew it is noted that this Verb is to be rendred rather in the signification of the future and with respect to what was to come not to what was past or present so it is by some of good judgement and learning among Christians also taken that the words may be rendred Therefore or and ye Sons of Jacob shall not be consumed as part of the Prophecy of what should be to the godly when the Lord should come to execute his Judgement spoken of on the wicked and for making out the meaning to this purpose they understand by the Sons of Jacob the godly amongst the Jews they who being of the Faith of Jacob
Jews have a proverbial speech which may serve something to illustrate this expression The Sun ariseth the infirmity decreaseth that is As the Sun riseth so infirmities decrease Much more of this Sun might it be said that he did at his arising to those that feared the Lord bring healing with him in his wings to them in that day of distress worse then the darkest night the shadow of death it self which without his arising to them would necessarily have swallowed up them too in destruction and could not but by the apprehension of it make them as even sick at heart according to what he said c. III. 2 who may abide the day of his coming So terrible should it be that all mens hearts should fail for fear in contemplation of those things that should come on them yet even then in regard of his solitary effects that his coming should have toward them that feared his Name he bid them when these things these terrible things should begin to come to pass to look up and lift up their heads for that their redemption then drew nigh their deliverance from the persecutions by the unbeleiving Jews which they had endured and from the dangers which threatned them as except by his extraordinary Providence inevitable and his making that which was for the destruction of his enemies occasion of comfort and prosperity to them may well be termed healing But we may not confine it only to the rescue of their persons and preservation of their bodies nor the outward joy that they should find from that but look on the inward spiritual comfort and the healing of their broken hearts and fainting spirits in preserving them from failing by fear and despair as a greater part of it and therefore not unfitly doth Grotius interpret this arising of the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings of the Collation of the holy Spirit which Christ should send to his to shine in their hearts and bring perfect health to their minds that spirit of comfort the only true comforter In regard of both these viz. both his rescuing and delivering those that feared his Name and protecting and delivering them from their outward fears and dangers and persecutions and his inward illumination and comforting of them by his good Spirit shewing himself in all waies a Sun and shield to them was this Prophecy that he should arise to them with healing in his wings evidently and abundantly made good to them in that day And certainly in all respects doth that title of the Sun of righteousness agree to Christ the fountain of true heavenly light who enlightneth every man coming into the World Joh. I. 9 and whom God hath set forth to declare his righteousness Rom. III. 25 26. and the Author of all true comfort who giveth to his such joy as shall swallow up all worldly sorrow Joh. XVI 20 such joy as no man can take from them v. 22. and never leaveth his comfortless Joh. XIV 18 but sendeth to them from the Father the comforter the Spirit of truth Joh. XV. 26 to abide with them for ever and to dwell in them and to be in them Joh. XIV 16 17. and in the same regard likewise may he be said to arise or come with healing in his wings to them as in all other waies also diffusing health in all kinds When he was here on Earth great multitudes from all parts flocked to him to be healed of their diseases and they that were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed And the whole multitude sought to touch him for â—here went vertue out of him and healed them all Luke VI. 17 18 19. And the woman w ch had been twelve years diseased with an issue of blood did not doubt but to find the effects of that vertue who therefore coming behind him touched the hemme of his garment for she said within her self If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole Mat. IX 20 21. and she did accordingly find it for straight-way she was healed of that plague And Jesus perceived though he saw not the woman that vertue had gone out of him and she before all acknowledged it Mar. V. 28 29 30. c. and Luk. VIII 44 c. on which passage in Mat. IX Grotius notes that it may well be looked on as having reference to at least good correspondence with this place The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bicnapheiha rendred in his wings being capable of being rendred in fimbriis in the hemmes or borders of his garment as he observes it to be elsewhere rendred and it may be not unworthy of consideration But withall that healing vertue in him shewed it self not more in the healing bodily distempers then the worse maladies of the Soul as appears in his words when he cured some bodily diseases in saying not Be well or healed arise and walk but thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. IX 2 5. that they might know that he had power to forgive sins v. 6. and was no less a Physitian of sick distressed souls then of diseased bodies In all regards then as we said doth the title of the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings well agree to Christ our Saviour and all things that those words can give us to expect from him that is so described have been and are by him abundantly made good â—o have those that faithfully believe in him and rely on him alwaies found and shall find But as to this present place the words seem limited to those benefits of outward preservation and inward comfort which those that feared the Lord were in that day of discrimination which the Lord saith he would make to expect according to his promise here made and did accordingly find with what more he adds in the following words for expressing his goodness to them But before we proceed to them we may here take notice of a strange conceit of the Jews which they here bring for explication of what is here said concerning that day that shall burn as an oven and devour the wicked and that Sun of righteousness which shall arise to them that fear the Name of the Lord and how the discrimination shall be made between them The Sun they tell us is now inclosed in a case or sheath besides that God out of a Pool before him deads his force with water that so he may not burn up the World but at the day of Judgement he shall be unsheathed and so coming forth in his full strength shall as he now doth in melting some things and hardning others shew contrary effects according to the difference of the subjects that he hath to work on and so burn up the wicked as stubble but heal the godly of all those bodily defects and imperfections with which they shall then arise This is the 〈◊〉 of what they say as improved to its best meaning by Abarbinel But what tolerable meaning it may have
and so likewise to have that notion in the title of Antiochus Epiphanes who he thinks was not called so much illustrious as terrible But this neither makes much for or against our purpose in giving the meaning To the day spoken of may well agree either of those Epithetes it was terrible and dreadfull and therefore notable and perhaps there was anciently that communication of significations between those roots in the Hebrew as to justify both 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the earth with a curse And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers c. As in the former verse we had him whom God in mercy would send to them for preventing their utter destruction described by his title of Eliah the Prophet and by the time of his coming before the coming of the great and dreadfull day of the Lord so in this we have him described by his office viz. that he should turn the hearts of the father◠to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers to which are added the good effects which should be produced by his performance of that office viz. the preventing of Gods coming and smiting the Earth with a curse These words are referred to by the Angel Luke I. 16 17. with a farther explication of them and applyed to John the Baptist thus and many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the Lord their God and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a People prepared for the Lord. That these words are there referred to is manifest and the person spoken of so expresly declared to be John the Baptist called therefore Eliah because he should come in the spirit and power of Elias that there can be no reason why that should be doubted or disputed of among Christians or Elias in person or any other by that name called should be expected by vertue of them as before we have said As concerning the meaning of the words by which his office is expressed whatever they think concerning the person it will be indifferent to all to enquire They must have the same meaning whosoever they are applyed to whether by Jews or Christians For the meaning of them therefore we may look what they do or ought to agree in comparing them one with another To which enquiry it will be convenient to premise an observation concerning that word or preposition which in our Translation is rendred to and is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al viz. that it is as Grammarians observe and examples convince of divers uses and significations It signifies most usually above over on but not only so but withall to with for by near against in and other like of which examples accurre in the Hebrew Text. And according to the words with which it is joyned and the thing spoken of is the signification thereof to be discerned and distinguished Again concerning the appellations and titles of fathers and children that they are not only attributed to those that are so by nature but to others also who for other respects or relation one to another have those names given them as older people that of fathers younger that of children and so learned men or teachers are looked on as common fathers in respect to their disciples or such as learn of them or are instructed by them and the like This concerning the nature of those words being observed will help us to judge of such Expositions as are given of the whole sentence The signification of the forementioned preposition which our Translators choose to give it in this place is to or unto which it often manifestly hath elsewhere as Joshua II. 8 she came up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alehem to them and I Sam. II. 11 went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his house with many other places And it is likewise embraced by most of Interpreters but then accordingly as they apply it to fathers and children and their different understanding of what is meant by them do they differ in giving the meaning They that understand them of such as should be them together in present being whether natural fathers and children or others who might be called by that title as ours seem to do take his office so as here described to consist in taking away such discords and differences as should be betwixt them and settling peace and love and charity among them so as that their hearts should be propense and kindly affectioned one to another and they should be of one heart and one soul among themselves as it is said of the believers Act. IV. 32 and with one consent hearken to God and receive the truth preached to them So that this disposition and behaviour which it is here said it should be the work of the promised Elijah to work in their hearts may seem as a learned Jew observes contrary to that which in the Prophet Micah is described as being found among them in his time Chap. VII 6 the son dishonoureth the Father or that which on their not hearkning to him our Saviour saith should be in after times the father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father Luke XII 53 Such dissensions among them in those times here spoken of are observed to have been caused and fomented by the several Sects that were among them as of Sadduces and Pharisees and the like which had such ill influence as to banish those due respects which ought to have been betwixt parents and children superiors and inferiors or whosoever under the title of father and son may be comprehended and that love and charity which should have been betwixt all orders and degrees of men whose hearts Eliah i. e. John Baptist coming in the spirit and power of Eliah should be sent to reduce if possible to better order to mutual agreement among themselves and joynt obedience to God This seems to have been the ancientest understanding of the words among the Jewish Doctors who summe up the meaning of them in other words saying That he should be sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lehashvoth hammachloketh to compose dissention or reconcile differences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leasoth shalom binehem to make peace between them that they might all agree in the profession of one Religion and thus seem the Greek Interpreters to have understood them who instead of the second member of the sentence and the heart of the children to their fathers put for the meaning of it and the heart of a man or every one to his neighbour Against this Exposition I know not what may be excepted yet do others taking the forementioned preposition