that they thereupon might the more confidently confirm the people And hereupon it is observable that while the Baptist was at liberty our Saviour contented himself with his testimony and preaching but when he was shut up then instantly chose he others Now if any doubt of the possibility of this and question how could John see and hear these things and the other company that was present not do so as well as he The answer may be readily given by example of Elishaes servant 2 King 6. 17. and the two men that went to Emmaus Luke 24. For the mountain was full of Horses and Chariots of fire and Elisha perceived them but his servant did not till his eyes were opened in a more special manner And Christ it is like was in the same shape and appearance upon the way when they knew him not that he was in the house when they did but till then their eyes were holden Yet if any one will suppose that the people saw the slashing of the opened Heaven and heard the noise of the voice that came from thence and took the one for lightning and the other for thunder as John 12. 29. we will not oppose it for now was the season of the year fit for lightning and thunder but that either they saw the Holy Ghost or distinguished the words of the voice any more then Pauls companions did Act. 9. 7. compared with Act. 22. 9. the reasons alledged do inforce to deny till better information Matth. 3. vers 16. And he saw the Spirit of God The Syntax and construction of Mark doth tye and fix these words He saw only to our Saviour as it did those before and both for the reason mentioned namely to shew the return and answer of his prayer But these words of Matthew are not so strict but that they may equally be applied unto John For first there may be observed a distinction in the verse and a kind of difference of speech betwixt what goeth before about the opening of the Heavens and this sight of the Holy Ghost For of that he speaketh thus And Jesus being baptized went straightway out of the water and lo the Heavens were opened unto him And then cometh he on with a distinct clause concerning the other And he saw the Spirit of God descending leaving it at the least in an indifferency whether to apply it to Christ or John But secondly it seemeth rather to be understood of John because he saith himself that this descending of the Holy Ghost was given to him for a sign and that he saw it and if it be not to be so taken here none of the three Evangelists have mentioned it in the story at all And thirdly the rather may it be taken of Johns seeing it because he saith He saw him descending and coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him Had it been said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon himself it must needs have been understood of Christ upon whom the Spirit came that he saw the Spirit coming upon himself but since it i◠upon him without any reciprocation it may be the better applied to John that he saw it It is true indeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth reciprocally himself as our Lexicons do give examples and as it is of force to be taken in Saint Mark in this place like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes doth not signifie reciprocally as in the LXX in Judg. 7. 24. But why should we take the word out of its commonest and properest sense unless there were necessity to do it which in Matthew there is not though in Mark there be Fourthly and lastly These words he saw being understood of John it maketh that the three Evangelists being laid together the relation ariseth out of them the more full and the story more plain For Luke telling that the Heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended Mark addeth that Jesus saw this and Matthew that John Matth. 3. ver 16. The Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters in the beginning of the old world and so doth it here of the new It is needless to instance how oft in Scripture the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of God as Gen. 41. 38. Exod. 31. 3. Numb 24. 2. and very many other places but it is most necessary to observe that wheresoever he is so called it is in the Hebrew the Spirit of Elohim in the plural number and sheweth his proceeding from more persons then one Contrary to the opinion of the Greek Church that holdeth that the Holy Ghost proceedeth not from the Father and the Son but from the Father only Luke 3. ver 22. The Holy Ghost As he is called the Spirit not so much in regard of his own nature as in regard of his manner of proceeding so also is he called Holy not so much in respect of his person for the Father and Son are Spirits and are holy as well as he but in regard of his Work and Office which is to sanctifie the Church of God And in this respect he is called by the Hebrews not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Spirit onely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruahh hakkodesh the Spirit of Holiness for this phrase the Holy Ghost is taken from the common speech of the Jews And so is he called by Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 4. and so doth the Syrian call him Rubba dekudsha in this place §. The Holy Ghost descended This descending of the Holy Ghost was first partly for the sake of John for this token had been given him when he first began to preach and baptize whereby to know Christ when he should come Joh. 1. 33. Secondly Partly for Christ that he might thus receive his Consecration and Institution for the Office that he was now to enter upon the Preaching of the Gospel This was as his anointing to instal him into his Function as Aaaron and his Sons were with material oyl to enter them into theirs as Isa. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore hath he anointed me he hath sent me to Preach the Gospel And Thirdly Partly for the business and matter that was now to go in hand namely Christ beginning to preach accordingly For First The Gospel is the Spiritual Kingdom and Scepter of Christ in and by which he was to rule all Nations for ever and therefore it was agreeable that the Spiritualness of that should be sealed and confirmed by the Holy Spirits shewing himself even in the beginning of it The carnal rites of Moses were now to vanish and his Corporal and Ceremonial observances to be changed into a Spiritual Worship and neither at Jerusalem nor at mount Gerizim nor elsewhere must there be any more adoration with fleshly and earthly Ceremoniousness but he that will worship God must worship him in Spirit as Joh. 4. 21. Therefore it is no wonder if
for he that is watered with grace doth thirst for the same water of grace again and again but he saith whosoever shall drink of this water which I shall give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall never so thirst as to fail or perish by it but this water shall preserve him to eternal life Compare Esay 41. 17. Vers. 15. The woman saith Sir give me of this water c. The woman doth now fall from questioning as vers 11 12. to plain mocking and derision for this can be construed no other in her I know these words of hers are taken by divers to intimate her inclining to and imbracing this doctrine of Christ though she knew not well how to understand it and they shew say some Simplicitatem credendi her simplicity or sincerity of believing who so soon doubted not to ask for this so excellent water But be it considered 1. That as yet she took Christ but for an ordinary man until he hath told her of her secret villanies and then she takes him for a Prophet vers 19. And 2. that taking him for an ordinary man she talks with him as a Samaritan huswife would do with a common Jew between whom there was so deadly a scorn and fewd 3. The thing that Christ spake of of giving water after which the party that had it should never thirst were things so strange and would seem so ridiculous to any Samaritan nay to any flesh and blood that knew no more of him than as yet she did those words proceeding from so mean a man as he seemed to be that her words in reply thereunto Sir give me of this water c. can be no other but a jeer and scorn of what he had spoken And her calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sir doth no whit take off this construction since that was but a word of ordinary compellation or if she used it in a higher sense she used it but in the higher scorn Vers. 17. I have no husband The reason why Christ bids her call her husband may be supposed to be partly that he might check and stop her jeering by minding her of her own faults and chiefly that he might shew her that he was another kind of person then she judged of him by telling her of such things as she knew he could not tell her but divinely Now her denial that she had any husband is ascribed by some to her modesty to conceal her adultery by others to this because she knew not what Christ would do with her husband but till it can be shewed why a Samaritan quean should talk with any reverence or civility with an ordinary Jew for she took Christ for no other as yet especially when he spake to her of such unlikely things as he did it is the most proper and undisputable interpretation of her words I have no husband to take them for a scoffing and regardless answer to a question and to a person that she was careless whether she gave any any answer to or no. Vers. 18. He whom thou now hast is not thine husband It seemeth by the numerousness of her former husbands and by the same expression used concerning them and this thou hast had five and this that thou hast that she was a divorced woman and now lived in an adulterous marriage and it may be married to him who had adulterated her in her former husbands days But be it either thus or that she lived in adultery out of wedlock her conscience is convinced of the truth of the thing that Christ speaketh and withal she findeth that he had told her that which a meer stranger could not tell her but by the spirit of Prophecy and therefore she owns him for a Prophet Vers. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mount Conceiving him to be a Prophet she sodainly desireth to hear what he will determine upon that great dispute that was between the Jews and the Samaritans continually namely whether was the truer and righter place of worship Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim She called Jacob Our Father Jacob ver 12. for so the Samaritans would be a kin to the Jews when they thought good but the Fathers she speaks of here were as far from the Religion and Worship that Jacob used as Jacob was from the Religion of Hamor and Sichem Josephus tells one story that gives this woman but little cause to boast of her Fathers worshipping in that Mount and that is this That when Antiochus Epiphanes did so heavily oppress the Jews and persecute their Religion these Samaritans thinking that their Religion also looked somewhat like that of the Jews and that Antiochus might happily suspect that they and the Jews and both their Religions were something a kin and so they suffer as well as the other they fairly send to Antiochus and betime disclaim any such kindred And whereas indeed they could not deny but they had a Temple they besought him that it might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter and called by his name and so by the Kings command it was Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 7. Here was worshipping in that Mount with a witness and much to be bragd of but see the impudence of Hereticks when such a Temple shall compare with the Temple at Jerusalem Abraham Zaccuth saith This Temple of Gerizim was destroyed by Jochanan the son of Simeon the son of Mattathias and the Hereticks slain Juchas fol. 14. Vers. 21. Woman believe me The Hour cometh c. As she owned him for a Prophet so he challengeth to be believed of her as a Prophet and as a Prophet he foretels her of what was now ready to come to pass namely that Ceremonious Worship should cease and be no more confined to particular place or Nation That there should be no Sacrifice at Jerusalem no Image at Samaria no Ephod at Jerusalem no Teraphim at Samaria as Hos. 3. 4. but that those places and that manner of worship should fail and be abolished And so he answers her question in the first place to this purpose that it was needless for her or any other to trouble themselves about that dispute whether Jerusalem or Gerizim were the more eminent place of Worship for the time was just now in coming when neither the one nor the other should be the place of worship at all And then he determins the question indeed that Jerusalem had ever been and was at that present the right place of worship but Gerizim a Temple of error and usurpation and he proves his determination by this reason We know what we worship c. Vers. 23. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth In the term The true worshippers he looketh at the womans question and the two Nations controversie They tugged for it and she inquires about it whether of the people had the true worship amongst them why saith Christ ere long there shall be no worship at all either among the one or the other And
the time is now come that he that will be taken for a true worshipper must neither worship as the Jews do ceremoneously but in spirit nor as the Samaritans do erroneously but in truth Thus may we very well divide the two words Spirit and truth to serve these two purposes as thus to answer about the worship of either Nation the one whereof worshipped God altogether in external Rites and Ceremonies and the other worshipped they knew not what and they knew not how But generally the word Spirit and truth are taken by Expositors to signifie but one and the same thing and stand in opposition only to the carnal Rites and shadowy types in which their whole Worship in a manner did consist His using of the term Father for God is not so much in reference to the other persons in the Trinity or because the woman was acquainted with that mystery but because the Jews and it is like the Samaritans also used the word very commonly in their prayers and speeches as Our Father which art in Heaven do to us as thou hast promised by the Prophet And Let the prayers and requests of all the House of Israel be accepted before their Father which is in Heaven c. Maym. in Tephilloth Vers. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him c. Here ariseth a question upon the very first reading of the verse the words Spirit and truth being interpreted as is mentioned immediately before and that is why did God so punctually ordain and so long continue a Typical and Ceremonious Worship if those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth Answer That very worship was for this end and purpose that men should learn to worship God in spirit and truth For all these rites and types were but doctrines of the way of Salvation through Christ till Christ came and the very use of them was to this end that out of them men should spel this spiritual and true worship namely to worship God in Christ and to look after his benefits for their salvation which those rites doctrinally held unto them and which lesson the true worshippers or believers did attain unto Vers. 25. I know that Messiah cometh c. he will teach us all things The Samaritans had learned from the Jews to expect Messias and how the Jews expected this to be the time of his coming we have shewed before and it may be the woman speaketh this as meaning that she looked for Messias to come shortly which occasioned Christs answer I am he as taking at her words in that sense Thou sayest Messias will come shortly and resolve all things I tell thee Messias is come already and I am he Now her referring the resolution of this doubt to Messias his coming it sheweth she did not throughly digest and entertain Christs answer to her question although she took upon her to acknowledge him for a Prophet She had no mind the thing should be so as he had resolved and therefore she had no mind to believe it How Christ was expected as the great teacher we shall observe afterward Vers. 29. A man which hath told me all things that ever I did The Disciples having now bought all things that they would have for dinner for it was now dinner time return to the well to their Master and upon their return Christs discourse and the womans is broken off and she slips a way into the City and bids come see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did But Christ did not so for he told her only of one particular or two about her husbands but besides that the word All in Scripture is not always stretched to the utmost extent of its signification he had told her so much that she concludes that he that could tell her that could have told her also all things else such expressions as these in earnest and pathetical narrations are not strange Vers. 35. Say ye not there are yet four months c. The coherence and connexion of this verse with those before which is the first thing to be looked after in it lyeth thus The Disciples had been in the City and bought some meat and when they had set it ready they invite him to dine He answers No he hath other meat to feed upon than they are aware of and that was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work And what work was that Why the very work that he had been just now about preaching the Gospel and converting a soul and which work he knew was increasing upon him by the coming of the Samaritans to hear him whom either he now saw coming in flocks towards him or knew they would come In these words therefore he answers his Disciples to this purpose You would have me to eat but I have somewhat else to do which is meat to me which is to finish my Fathers work in preaching the Gospel for look you yonder whereas ye say it is four months to harvest see what a Gospel harvest is coming yonder what a multitude of people is yonder coming to hear me ready for the harvest therefore it is not a time to talk of eating of meat that perisheth but to fall to this harvest work which is my meat in doing the will of him that sent me The harvest of the Jews began at the Passover for on the second day of the Passover the Law injoyned them to bring a sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest and wave it before the Lord and from that day they counted seven weeks to Pentecost See Levit. 23. 10. 15. Four months therefore before the Passover which was the fourteenth day of the first month falls to be towards the latter end of our November or thereabout as is easily cast by any This therefore helps to set the clock of the time reasonable well both for the reckoning of what times are past and for the better fixing of the next Passover that is to come As 1. It shews about what time Johns imprisonment befel and how long he preached namely from Passover was twelvemonth to this November a year and a half and a month and some days above for it is like that Christ stayed not long in Judea after Johns imprisoning 2. It shews that Christ had spent some eight months in Judea from the Passover hitherto and had in this time converted abundance of people to his doctrine 3. It will help to clear that the feast of the Jews spoken of in the next Chapter is the next Passover that was to come as we shall observe when we come there In the former part of the words Say ye not There are four months and then cometh harvest He speaketh literally of their harvest of corn but in the latter the fields are already white to harvest he speaketh parabolically or spiritually of the multitudes of people both among Jews and Gentiles that were ready to be reaped and gathered
Judaism again to their old Mosaick rites which sometime had been right but now antiquated and to their traditional principles which had never been right but now least of all to have been embraced and to a deadly hatred and persecution of the Gospel that they once professed How the Apostles speak of and against this Apostasie in their Epistles I need not tell you he that runs may read it But he that stands still and reads presely will find that they find The Antichrist that then was in that Apostasie I say the Antichrist that then was For the Scripture gives a hint of a twofold Antichrist one in the Epistles and the other in this Book of the Revelation one that was in those times and the other that was to be afterwards one among the Jews that had embraced the Gospel and the other among the Gentiles which should embrace it And if you will let the unbelieving Jew to be one part of the Antichrist that then was the Apostatized Jew was much more Many Antichrists in those times as this our Apostle tells us 1 Joh. II. 18. but those were they especially of whom he speaks immediately after They went out from us but they were not of us And the like character do these Apostates carry in other places in the Epistles in terms equivalent Now therefore the nearest way to discover the Antichrist that was to be in after times among the Gentiles is by observing his likeness and similitude to the former viz. in apostatizing from the pure and sincere profession of the Gospel to Judaism or to Mosaick manner of worship and Judaick principles and Religion Which how the Church of Rome hath done it would require a long time to compare in all particulars but it will require a far longer time for her to clear her self from that just accusation How near doth she come to Judaism in the doctrine of Justification how near in the doctrine of opus operatum How near in the doctrine of expiation by bare Confession How near in the doctrine of the value of Traditions And one for all how near in turning all Religion into Ceremony Their present year of Jubilee is it not Mosaick And were you there at it and saw the manner of their devotions their formal Services and Ceremonious Worship would you not think you were in the old Jerusalem among the Scribes and Pharisees rather than in the the new where the true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth So that when we departed from the Church of Rome we did but the same thing that the Apostles Disciples and other holy converts of the Jewish Nation did they forsook Judaism to embrace the purity of the Gospel And so did we And in the way that they call Heresie we worship God If I have trespassed too much upon your patience by so prolix a discourse upon so unpleasing a subject I must crave your pardon We enquiring after the new Jerusalem where we might find it come to the place where your ways parted and one went right and the other wrong The wrong way is the broader pleasanter and more trodden and not a few that stand in it and cry This is the right way and no other It is good to give warning it is needful to take warning that we be not misled that the men and the way do not deceive us And having thus far observed where the new Jerusalem is not to be found let us now look where it is And first we must not expect to find it in any one particular place as you might have done the old Jerusalem but it is dispersed here and there abroad in the World It is the Catholick Church as we are taught in our Creed and it is not in one only but in this and that and the other Nation When the new Jerusalem is to be measured in Zach. II. an Angel bids O run after yonder young man that is to measure it and tell him that Jerusalem shall be inhabited as a City without walls for the multitude of men and cattel that shall be therein It is a City unlimited and therefore not to be bounded within this or that compass We may use this Paradox of it That it is a fluid and yet a fixed body nay fixed because fluid that is it is moving sometime into one place sometime into another and therefore it shall never fade or perish The Jews accused S. Stephen of Heresie and blasphemy because he said that the Church and Religion should not alway be pinned to that City and Temple but taken away In his answer he sheweth that the Church and Religion is a Pilgrim one while in one place another while in another in Mesopotamia in Charran in Canaan in Egypt And our own observation may tell us that when it failed in Egypt and Israel followed the Idols and manners of that Land as Ezek. XX. that then God found himself a Church in the family of Job and his three friends The saying of our Saviour may suffice for this The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a people that shall bring forth the fruits of it And this is that that makes it fixed or never failing because when it decayeth in one place it groweth in another And that promise of our Saviour will ever maintain it in life and being Upon this rock will I build my Church of the Gospel and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it as they have done against the Church of the Jews In Matth. XXIV when Christ foretels of the desolation of that City Church and Nation that their Sun and Moon and Stars Religion and Church and State should be darkned and fall and come to nothing and they should then see the Son of man whom they would never own coming in a thick cloud and storm of vengeance against them it might be questioned where then will God have a Church when that is gone He gives an answer That the Son of man should send his Angels or Ministers with the sound of a trumpet the trumpet of the Gospel and gather him a Church from all the corners under Heaven To which may not improperly be applied that Heb. XII 22. Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels God will never want his Church but if it be not in one place it will be in another Secondly There is an invisible Church as well as a visible Pauls Jerusalem which is above and out of sight as well as Ezekiels Jerusalem pitched here below There is commonly some invisible Church within the visible as Ezekiels wheel within a wheel But there is sometimes an invisible Church where there is none visible as those seven thousand men in the days of Elias when he could not discern one The Apostle speaking of the new Jerusalem that we are speaking of in that place of the Epistle to the Hebrews before alledged among other things saith Ye are not come to the Mount that might
Friends to procure good benefactions for the same use from others But he died soon after the Work was begun So that the good Progress that is since made in that chargable Work is owing in the first place to the indefatigable pains of the Reverend and very Worthy John Eachard D. D. present Master and those very many generous persons in London and elsewhere whose love of Learning and favour to him have excited them freely to contribute thereunto But to return to Dr. Lightfoot Who besides the former contribution had before been a Benefactor to his College by redeeming a piece of Land to it And therefore is always mentioned at the Commemoration of the Benefactors It was not his want of affection to his College that made him reside not much there but partly because he thought himself most bound to be chiefly among his Flock of whose Souls he had the care and partly because in the Country was most retirement a thing that for the sake of his Studies he greatly affected to the last Which were not ingrateful to his old Age but rather an ease and a pleasure to it Studendo solor senectutem was a saying of his to a Learned Man XII His Patrons and Friends HIS great Learning and excellent Qualities reconciled him Friends and admirers among those of his own Rank and Degree and made him a favourite to Men of Eminency and Honour Besides those I have already mentioned he was dear to and highly valued by his Grace the most Reverend Father in God Gilbert late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury through whose mediation his Parsonage of Great Munden and his Mastership of Katharine Hall were confirmed to him by the King Which he acknowledged in two Epistles before two of his Hebrew and Talmudick Exercitations The Right Honorable Sir Orlando Bridgman sometime Lord Keeper of the Great Seal a Learned and Good Man took a pleasure in his Learning and when he was Judge and went the Circuits he always desired and frequently procured Dr. Lightfoot to preach at the Assises at Hertford whom for his Learned and unusual Notions he delighted to hear He was one of his great Encouragers to proceed in his Hebrew and Talmudical Explanations of the New Testament Consilio auxilio Patrocinio Munificentia by his Counsil aid Patronage and Bounty as he speaks himself in his Epistle Dedicatory before the Horae upon S. John The Right Honorable and Right Learned Sir William Morice Kt. one of the Principal Secretaries of State deserves to be mentioned in the next place who unasked unsought to was very serviceable to our Author in procuring the Kings favour and his Letters Patents for him The sense of which for none so sensible of kindnesses made him think himself obliged to put his Name before one of his Books He was also endeared to two Personages of Hertfordshire of great Honour and Integrity viz. Sir Tho. Brograve Baronet and Sir Henry Cesar Knight The former of these was doubly related to the Doctor viz. in affinity and in the course of his Studies being Learned in the Jewish literature As appears by a design he and the Doctor had of going to Dr. Castels Library to peruse some Books of his of that nature To which Dr. Castel in a Letter gives them free leave telling them That his Cabbalistic and Rabbinic Books were most of them at Higham Gobyon where his Study doors should stand wide open to give Sir Thomas and him entrance every Book they found there most truly at the service of them both to take and use at their pleasure The entercourse between Sir Thomas and the Doctor was very frequent both by Letters and Visits the distance not being so great only two miles but that they might walk the one to the other on foot which they often did out of that great endearedness that was between them and for conferring together in the things of their Studies A Friend of mine has heard the Doctor tell more than once how upon occasion of some discourse between them about such a Subject Sir Thomas departed from him and presently penned a Discourse about the University of Athens and brought it to him which the Doctor after lent out to some one that had desired it but could not call to mind to whom so that that Learned piece was stifled and irrecoverably gone And I have great cause to suspect that this which happened to the Writing of the Doctors friend happened also otherwhiles to himself In whose hands soever any of his Books or Writings lie concealed to say no worse of them they deserved not the Friendship of so worthy a Man His friendship to Sir Henry Cesar appeared in the several Visits he gave him in his sickness the small Pox which I think was mortal to him Though he was very fearful for his own Family yet his singular love and respect to Sir Henry made him not to prefer that consideration to his service in such a time Whose early death he very much lamented But his first and antient Friend Chaplain and Patron as he used to call him and that in many just regards we must not we cannot forget for he never forgat him to his dying day and scarcely ever spake of him but with a transport of affection I mean Sir Rowland Cotton of Shropshire Who gave him the Presentation of Ashley in Staffordshire and was the great instrument of putting him upon the study of the Rabbins and being himself very Learned in them was his Tutor as well as his Patron With much care tenderness and condescension did he guide and lead on my Studies as he publickly declares in an Epistle to Mr. William Cotton his Nephew and his Heir in the same way that he himself had been trained by that choice and incomparable Oracle of Learning Mr. Hugh Broughton And in the same Epistle He professeth he always esteemed it one of the choisest advantages that ever accrued to him that it was his hap and happiness at his first setting out into the Study of Scriptures and Divinity to be settled in his House and to come under his Tutorage and Instruction Undoubtedly Sir Rowland had perceived a good Spirit and an excellent genius in young Mr. Lightfoot and that he wanted nothing but counsil and direction and some body to recommend a good method of study to him to make him a great Scholar and this made that worthy Person undertake him himself as foreseeing what he would afterwards prove in case his Studies were well regulated at first This kindness he ever remembred which let him speak for himself He meaning Sir Rowland laid such doubled and redoubled obligations upon me by the tender affection respect and favour that he shewed towards me as have left so indelible an impression upon my heart of Honour to his dear Name and observance to his House of Bellaport that length of time may not were it out nor distance of place ever cause me to forget it As a Commentary upon which words
punishments but they had of corporal namely of scourging to fourty stripes save one Hence it is that Christ foretels his Disciples In the Synagogues you shall be beaten Mark 13. 9. and hence had Paul his five scourgings 2 Cor. 11. 24. So that in every Synagogue there were Elders that ruled in Civil affairs and Elders that laboured in the Word and Doctrine And all things well considered it may not be so monstrous as it seems to some to say it might very well be so in those times in Christian Congregations For since as it might be shewed that Christ and his Apostles in platforming of the model of Christian Churches in those times did keep very close to the platform of the Synagogues and since the Romans in those times made no difference betwixt Jews in Judaism and Jews that were turned Christians nor betwixt those Religions for as yet there was no persecution raised against Christianity why might not Christian Congregations have and exercise that double Function of Ministry and Magistracy in them as well as the Jewish Synagogues And if that much controverted place 1 Tim. 5. 17. should be interpreted according to such a sense it were neither irrational nor improbable Nor to interpret Paul speaking to such a tenour here Only his appointing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the less esteemed in the Church to be appointed for that work is of some scruple what if it allude to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Committee of private men Of which there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Doctors See Maymon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 253. col 1. 3. It was the old Jewish garb when they went to pray to hide head and face with a vail to betoken their ashamedness and confusion of face wherewithal they appeared before God And hence is the conjunction of these two words so common in their Writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He vailed himself and prayed And this for a current rule The wise men and their schollars may not pray unless they be vailed Maymon in Tephillah per. 5. To which let us add that of Sueton. in Vitell. cap. 2. Lucius Vitellius saith he had an excellent faculty in flattering he first set afoot the worshipping of Caius Caesar for a God when returning out of Syria he durst not go to him but with his head vailed and then turning himself about he fell prostrate Again it was the custom of the Jewish women to go vailed or their faces covered whensoever they went into publick A woman saith Maymony may not go into publick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if she have not a vail on In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per. 24. And this the Talmudists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jewish Law and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The garb of modesty Chetubboth per. 7. and Alphes ibid. Where they say that that those women transgress the Jewish Law that go forth unvailed or that spin in the streets or that talk with every man Now in this Church of Corinth the men retained the Jewish custom that they prayed vailed or with their head and face covered but the women transgressed their Jewish Law for they went unvailed and bare faced into the publick Congregation and their reason was as it seemeth by the Apostles discourse because they in regard of their beauty and comly feature needed less to be ashamed before God in his worship then the men The Apostle reproves both and argues that if the man pray vailed who is the Image and glory of God then much more should the woman who is but the glory of the man But he cries down the mans praying vailed as dishonouring his head and exhorts that the woman have power on her head because of the Angels cap. 11. 10. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we observed instantly before out of Maymony signified a womans vail doth also signifie power or dominion and accordingly the Apostle speaketh Let the Woman have power on her head But what means he by Because of the Angels I should answer Because of the Devils for these he had called Angels also a few Chapters before viz. Chap. 6. 3. And his words may be construed to this sense that Women should not expose their faces openly in the Congregation lest the Devil make a bait of their beauty and thereby intangle the eyes and hearts of the men who should be then better imployed then gazing and longing after beauty There are that by Angels understood the Ministers and interpret it that Women should be vailed lest the Ministers eyes should be intangled by their faces which exposition if it be admitted it may speak for the admission of that also which we give which provides for the eyes of the whole congregation as well as of the Ministers 4. In the same eleventh Chapter he also blameth their disorder in receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the height of their heats and contestations Wherein they did not only not discern the Lords body a Symbole and tye of communion but they even transgressed that rule now Christians which those of them that were Jews would not have done in their Judaism It was then a Canon current and binding amongst them that none should eat and drink in their Synagogues and none should sleep Jerus in Megilla fol. 74. col 1. Maym. in Tephillah per. 11. and Gloss. in Maym. in Shabb. 30. But now as they ate and drank the Bread and the Cup in the Sacrament in their Churches and that warrantably so did they also presume unwarrantably to eat their own common Suppers there and that only in defiance one of another the rich to outface the poor and one party another with their good commons some banketing and feasting to the full whilst others sat hungry by and looked on See how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 21. signifies in the LXX Gen. 43. 34. Cant. 5. 1. Thus did they eat and drink judgement to themselves in the Sacrament whilst they would receive the symbole of communion and yet shew such signs and evidences of disunion at the very instant And the Lord accordingly overtook some of them with evident judgements weakness sickness and death avenging at once upon them the indignity done to his Sacrament and the indignity done to their brethren Much like surfeting Nabals case and end 5. And as the people were thus irregular in this part of worship in their publick assemblies so were their Ministers faulty in others namely about the managing of spiritual gifts there The pretence to the Spirit where indeed it was not hath alwaies been the great usherer in of all errour and delusion And to this the very unbelieving Jews pretended and often backed their pretences with magical impostures and of this the Apostle speaks Chap. 12. 3. No man speaking by the Spirit of God as these men took on them to do can call Jesus accursed as they called him And on the other hand some that had spiritual gifts indeed failed in
Heaven fol. 66. So that in these mens Dictionary The phrase of The Kingdom of Heaven did signifie mainly the height zeal and strictness of their devotions joined with punctual Ceremoniousness and Phylactery rites Zohar shall be our Lexicon for conclusion What is the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven saith he But as they put a yoke upon an Ox at first to produce by him benefit to the world and if he take not the yoke upon him he is unserviceable so also it behoveth a man to take upon him the yoke at first and afterward to serve with it in every thing that is needful and if he take not the yoke upon him he cannot be serviceable As it is said Serve the Lord in fear what meaneth in fear Why what is written The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom And this is the Kingdom of Heaven Zohar in Levit. fol. 53. But in the language of the Jews in the Gospel and in some of their writers elsewhere also The Kingdom of Heaven signifieth the days of the Messias and the glorious times and their Religion and condition that they expected would be then When he should restore the Kingdom of the house of David to its old glory and build the Temple and bring home all the dispersed of Israel and Israel should be at rest from the Kingdom of wickedness to study the Law and the Commandments without disquieture Maym. in Melachim per. 11. and in Teshubah per. 9. See these places and passages expounding plainly the phrase of the days of Messias both in the construction of the Jews and also of Christ and the Gospel it self John Baptist preached saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3. 2. So did Christ Matth. 4. 17. and so he bad his Disciples to do Matth. 10. 17. by which was meant no other thing but the time was near when the Son of man should be revealed for so our Saviour himself doth interpret it Matth. 16. 23. Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets were till John but from that time forward the Kingdom of God was preached which John himself expounded thus That Christ should be manifest to Israel therefore came I baptizing with water Joh. 1. 31. Luke 17. 20 21. The Pharisees asked him when the Kingdom of God should come And Jesus answered the Kingdom of God is among you Which in the next verse after is uttered by The days of the Son of man Luke 9. 27. There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God which Matthew utters till they see the Son of man come in his Kingdom Mark 16. 28. Matth. 21. 31. Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you and the next verse gives this reason because they believed not John from whom the Kingdom of God began to be preached and by whom the Messiah was pointed out Matth. 21. 43. The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you And the reason is given in the verse before because they refused the corner stone when he was among them to which the gloss is agreeable that R. Solomon maketh on Jer. 13. 17. My soul shall weep in secret for your pride that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven which shall be given to Idols or to the Idolatrous Heathen And of the days and revealing of the Messias which the Nation so much looked after are those passages to be understood Luke 23. 52. Joseph of Arimathea waited for the Kingdom of God and Luke 19. 11. They thought that the Kingdom of God should shortly appear Sutable to which the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets those words Say to the Cities of Judah Behold your God Esay 40. 9. Say to the Cities of Judah The Kingdom of your God is revealed and Esay 53. 11. They shall see the Kingdom of their Messias Now although our Saviour and the Evangelists and Apostles did use the Phrase The Kingdom of God or of Heaven for the days and affairs under the Messias as well as the Jews yet in the exposition of the things of those days they do as far differ as may be For 1. The Jews looked upon the appearance and days of the Messias as things of incomparable earthly pomp royalty and gorgeousness therefore they called it the Kingdom because they expected the restoring of the earthly glory of Davids throne Act. 1. 6. Luke 24. 21. Mark 20. 20. and The Kingdom of Heavon because they imagined they should be acquitted from under the power of an earthly Kingdom For their wise men held that there should be no difference betwixt this world and the days of Messias but only the oppression of the Kingdoms Talm. in Sanhed per. 10. Maym. in Teshubah per. 9. But Christ professeth that his coming is not with observation Luke 17. 20. that his Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. That the Kingdom of Heaven is of the poor Luke 6. 20. and to be received as by little children Mark 10. 15. c. 2. They fancied a change in matters of Religion in the time of the Messiah but all for the greater and higher pomp of Ceremonies and formal worship that the solemn Festivals Sacrifices Sprinklings observations of carnal rites should be in a higher force and esteem than ever yet that their study and practise of the Law according to such a carnal manner should be incomparable both for zeal and diligence And that there should be a punctual exactness in all formalities about meats and drinks converse and worship But the Gospel tells that no coming into the Kingdom of Heaven unless their righteousness exceed this Pharisaical righteousness Matth. 5. 20. That the worship of God was to be in the spirit Joh. 4. 23 24. And that the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. 3. They conceited that the happiness of the days of the Messias shall be appropriated only to them of that Nation and that the Heathens should have no share nor interest in that felicity But the Gospel tells that there should come from East and West and North and South and sit down in the Kingdom of God Luke 13. 29. And that that Kingdom should be taken from them who took themselves only to be the children of the Kingdom and should be given to another Nation Mark 21. 43. 8. 11 12. The meaning therefore of this expression The Kingdom of God or Heaven which is so exceeding frequent in the New Testament in the Gospel acceptation is to this extent 1. It signifieth the revealing or appearing of Christ as is apparent by the places cited before not so much his first appearing in humane flesh or when he was born as his revealing coming and appearing in the demonstration of his power and of his being the Son of God And in reference to this matter the Kingdom of Heaven or of God is dated by
these two dates sometimes from his resurrection and sometimes from the destruction of Jerusalem from his resurrection whereby he was declared mightily to be the Son of God Rom. 1. 4. as Luke 22. 18. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the Kingdom of God be come meaning not till after his resurrection for then he eat and drank with them Act. 1. 4. Luke 24. 43 44. And from the destruction of Jerusalem Luke 21. 31 32. Matth. 16. 28. because then he triumphed over those that had despised his rule and he transferred his Kingdom to another people Matth. 21. 40 41 43. 2. It signifieth the changed administration of the way and things of Salvation from the Ceremonial and carnal rites which were appointed before to a worship of God in spirit and truth Not but that that spiritual service was inwrapped under those formalities if they could have found it out but that now the change was so apparent and so great that those outsides of Ceremonies were to be laid aside and the internal substance only to be looked after In this sense the Kingdom of Heaven is dated from the beginning of John Baptists Ministery when this change did first begin Luke 16. 16. and that time called the beginning of the Gospel Mark 1. 1. this change is called the regeneration Matth. 19. 28. And new Heavens and new Earth Esay 65. 16. 3. It signifieth the planting of the Gospel and of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ among the Gentiles Matth. 8. 11 12. 21. 43. 4. It signifieth the work of the Gospel grace wrought in the heart or the vertue and vigour of this spiritual Kingdom of Christ there Matth. 6. 33. 13. 46. 15. 3 c. 5. And sometimes it signifies the state of glory Luke 18. 18 24 25. And now to return to that enquiry that we were about concerning the connexion of our Saviours words to the words of Nicodemus and concerning the meaning of the words themselves we shall observe only these three particulars 1. That Nicodemus in his words in the verse before doth own some appearance and glimpse of the Kingdom of God or coming of the Messias in the wondrous miracles that Christ had wrought We shall not much dispute whether when he saith that Christ was a Teacher come from God he means that he was the Messias or that he was Elias his forerunner or that he was some Prophet that was as the dawning to the days of Messias certainly his argument from Christs miracles doth speak him as thinking those days near at hand and the Kingdom of God now beginning to appear Such arguments we find elsewhere producing such a conclusion and by the observing of them we may the better judge of this Nathaniel concludes Christ the King of Israel because he had wonderfully told him of some secret passage of his under a Fig-tree John 1. 49. And the woman of Samaria because he had told her of her secret villany resolves that he must needs be the Messias Joh. 4. 29. So when he had filled the people with five loaves and two fishes they make this undoubted conclusion Of a truth this is the Prophet and they would have crowned him for Messias John 6. 14 15. And our Saviour himself makes this an undeniable argument I by the Spirit of God do cast out Devils ergo No doubt the Kingdom of God is come among you Luke 11. 20. for such wonders cannot be expected but in the days of Messias Such like arguments are those John 7. 31. 9. 16. 11. 47 48. 15. 24. The blasphemous Jews of those times found these so evincing and undeniable evidences toward such a conclusion that they could find no other way to evade the dint of them but by that cursed tergiversation as sensless as it was impious That Christ wrought these wonders by the power of the Devil Luke 11. 15. John 10. 20. And as the blasphemous Jews in times succeeding have sought to evade them by this assertion that when Messias should come he would do no miracles Talm. in Sanhedr per. 10. Maym. in Melachim per. 11 12. 2. But this was Nicodemus his argumentation upon the miracles that he saw done that undoubtedly this could be nothing but a token of the days of the Messias or Kingdom of God now approached and so our Saviour easily reads his meaning and so the alledged like arguments shew that even any of the learned or observing ones of the Nation would readily have construed his words though he spake not so much in those very syllables and therefore it is needless to say that Christ knew it was in his thoughts to enquire about the Kingdom of Heaven it was legible enough in these very words that he acknowledged an undeniable evidence of the Kingdom of Heaven now demonstrated in those wondrous miracles that Christ wrought which reasoning may be heightned by these two circumstances in that miracles had been so long ceased and should now so break forth and that in the times when miracles were wrought none were wrought such as these 3. The connexion therefore of our Saviours words to his upon these considerations is of no difficulty or harshness at all but as direct and proper as was possible For as Nicodemus by these miracles could not but conclude upon the times of the Messias that they were now come so by his Judaical and Pharisaical principles he conceived that those glorious times that they expected under Messias should take the people as they were and they without any inward change of mind or heart at all should be translated into an outward changed condition of happiness and earthly glory as much as they could desire or imagine No saith Christ there is more required of and in him that desires to see and partake of the happiness of that Kingdom and those days he must also suffer a changedness in himself and in his principles and be cast into a new mold and be as if he were born anew And thus may we make out the connexion of this speech of Christ to that of Nicodemus and now there remains to examine the meaning of the speech it self It is not much material as to sense of the thing it self whether to read it Except a man be born again or Except a man be born from above either of the expressions will very well carry the sense our Saviour intendeth in it but to take it in the latter translation from above doth more properly and pertinently speak out the thing that is aimed at It was the great confidence and boasting of the Jews that they were born and descended of the seed of Abraham and upon this score and priviledge they relied so much that they accounted that very thing to estate them exceedingly in a happy condition as to the favour of God and welfare of their spiritual estate It were endless to shew out of Jewish Authors how great matters they speak of accrewing to them 〈◊〉
Covenant made with Israel to which they were sworn was Ceremonial and Judicial containing fifty seven Precepts they were not sworn to the Ten Commandments 714 715 Covenant of Grace This was made with Adam did belong to Jew and Gentile both before the Law and also after it 376 Covetousness the strange consequences of it in a Prince 850 851 Council of the Chief Priests were of the seed of Aaron of the Scribes were of the Tribe of Levi and of the Elders were of the People who were mear Laymen 439 440 Courage of the Jews and their Resolution admirable 773 Court of the people what 721 722 Courts there were two Courts of Judges consisting of twenty three in the Temple besides the Sanhedrim p. 447 Courts of the Temple described with their use p 549 to 551. 1088. * Court of Women described not called by that name in Scripture p. 1090. * Court of the Priests 2025 to 2029. * Cow red Cow how the Priest was to prepare himself in order to the burning her 2024. * Coyns Jewish the value of several of them 1096. * Creation three usual Observations from it p. 691. Creation of Man was performed about nine a Clock in the Morning p. 692. This shews a God The time and manner of the Creation with the divine improvement of the Doctrine of it 1020 1021 Creation new the divers steps of it 1021 1022 Creatures such creatures came in homage to the Second Adam as did not come to the First 634 Creed of the believing Jews contained in ten Articles drawn out of the Law of Moses with a Comment 712 to 714. The Apostles Creed was not made by the Apostles 884. Cruelty of the Jews most barbarous and unparalleld they murdered at one time of Greeks and Romans four hundred and sixty thousand men eat their flesh devoured their intrals daubed themselves with their blood p. 289 366. And after this multitudes of thousands of Jews were destroyed viz. above four hundred thousand Adrian walled a Vineyard sixteen miles about with dead bodies a Man's height The Brains of three hundred Children were found upon one stone p. 368. Cruelty great 796 to 799 802 Cruelty moves pity 333 334 Cubit there was one of five and another of six hands breadth 1051. * Cup of Blessing what 964 965 Curious and Chaldean Arts what 820 Custom in a way of Religion often carry's it against Truth Page 1007 Cutting off meaning by the Divine Hand there was thirty six sorts of it how distinguished from Death by the Hand of Heaven p. 900 902. For what it was to be done a great penalty 929 930 933 972 Cyrus was joyned with Darius in Conquest and Government p. 134 135. He was a greater Prince than Darius 137 D. DAniel his Seventy weeks what p. 136. His Prophesie was read to Alexander the Great Page 2065. * Darius and Cyrus were joyned in Conquest and Government p. 134 135. Darius his History as referring to the Scripture p. 2064 2065. * Darius and Astyages the same 135 Darkness at high noon when Christ was crucified what 268 David a glorious Type of Christ. 71 Day of the week First Second Third c. is a Phrase purely Judaical p. 270. The Day begun from Sun-setting among the Jews yet they made Midnight a distinctive Period so as that which was done before Midnight was looked upon as done the Day before p. 643 644. The first Natural Day was thirty six hours long to that part of the world where Eden stood 691 Days last Days often put for the days foregoing the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish State not the World 276 Deacons such as had charge of the poor were of common use in all the Jews Synagogues and thence translated into the Christian Church p. 279. How the seven Deacons came to be chosen p. 279. Their several Qualifications p. 308. This Office was to provide for and take care of the poor c. 778 Dead Minstrels used to play in a mournful tone over the dead p. 232. The Jews used to wash the Bodies of their dead 841 Death of the Patriarchs c. usually mentioned in Scripture by Anticipation p. 15. Death sometimes called Baptism 250 Death second a phrase used by the Jewish Writers p. 354. Death miserable 797 Deaths Judicial the manner of them amongst the Jews 2006 2007. * Dedication The Feast thereof 98 979 Deities of the Egyptians what 1027 Demas his embracing the present World may denote his returning to his worldly Employment c. for we find him the next year with Paul again 322 323 326 Denial of Christ by Peter was foretold by Christ at two distinct times 249 Desks the Desks of the Levites described p. 2025 to 2029. * Devils whence their original p. 2. The Devil hath several ways of undoing Men the Church by persecution the World by delusion of Oracles Idolatry False Miracles c. p. 353. Three of his Names p. 496. The Devil hurrying Christ about in the time of his Temptations affords some material and profitable Considerations 506 Devout Man a Title for the first Professors of the Gospel 871 Diana's Temple what 305 306 Dionisius the Areopagite one of the Bench at Athens converted by Paul 295 Dipping in Baptism not always practised in the beginning of the Gospel 584 585 Disciples why they could not cast out one evil Spirit 339 340. The Seventy Disciples sent forth by Christ to go and Preach to those places where he himself was to come because he intended now fully to reveal himself to be the Messias p. 242. Christ received young Infants as Disciples declaring them to be such and blessed them p. 248. Disciples called Children p. 759. When or where first called Christians p. 871. A Title given to the first Professors of the Gospel Page 871 Discipling was not of Persons already taught but such as entred themselves that they might be taught 272 Dissembler his Character in Tyberius p. 768. In Cain 828 829 Divinity of the Jews when Christ came into the World was only to instruct in Carnal Rites and heighten their Spirits to Carnal performances c. but they knew nothing of Regeneration or the work of Grace 574 575 Division the Jews were generally divided among themselves yet all oppose Christianity to the utmost even when they themselves were in their greatest Afflictions p. 371. Division Faction and Schism produced sad effects in the Church of Corinth some of them mentioned 301 to 304 Doctors one of the Titles the Jews gave their Learned Men and Scribes also any that were ordained were so called c. 566 638 653 654 Doing by another is the same as if one do it by himself for it is ordinary in Scripture to ascribe that as done by a Man himself that is done by another at his appointment 581 Door through which none was to pass what p. 1079. * The Great Door was ever opened before the morning Sacrifice was killed 1079. * Doors of the Holy Place described 1078
had any ill design when they thus mangled this famous clause but surely there is at least some ground of suspition that they hardly referr the words to the right object R. Solomon assuredly doth not For so it ought to be said saith he to those that bring their first-fruits and go up to the Feasts 1. To come is oftentimes the same with them as to teach g g g g g g Joh. V. â—â— If any one shall come in his own name him ye will receive i. e. If any one shall teach And so it is frequently in the Jerusalem Talmud concerning this or the other Rabbin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he came and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he cometh Which if it be not to be understood of such an one teaching I confess I am am at a loss what it should mean else 2. Those Doctors did not come and teach in the name of the Lord but either in their own name or in the name of the traditions of some Father Hence nothing more familiar with them than R. N. in the name of R. N. saith as every leaf I may say almost every line of their writings witness If therefore by cutting short this clause they would be appropriating to themselves the blessing of the people whom they had taught to say Blessed be he that cometh letting that slip or omitting what follows in the name of the Lord they do indeed like themselves cunningly lying at catch and hunting after â—ame and vain-glory Let the Reader judge whether Christ might not look this way in these words However I shall not scruple to determine that they shall never see the Messiah as to any advantage to themselves till they have renounced the Doctrines of coming in their own name or in the name of the Traditions of their Fathers embracing his Doctrine who is come in the name of the Lord. Which whether they shall ever do or no let him determine who can determine whether that Nation shall ever be converted CHAP. XIV VERS 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To eat bread on the Sabbath day THE Jews tables were generally better spread on that day than on any others and that as they themselves reckoned upon the account of Religion and Piety I have spoken to this elsewhere take here a demonstration a a a a a a Schabb. fol. 119. 1. Rabba bar Rabh Honna went to the house of Rabba bar Rabh Nachman He set before him three measures of rich cake to whom he how did you know of my coming the other answered is there any thing more valuable to us than the Sabbath The Gloss is we do by no means preferr thee before the Sabbath We got these things ready in honour of the Sabbath not knowing any thing of thy coming Rabh Abba bought flesh of thirteen Butchers for thirteen staters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and paid them at the very hinge of the door The Gloss tells us That he bought of thirteen Butchers that he might be sure to taste the best and before they could come that should bring the flesh he had gotten his money ready for them and paid them at the very gate that he might hasten dinner and all this in honour of the Sabbath day R. Abhu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sate upon an Ivory throne and yet blew the fire That was toward the cooking of his dinner in honour of the Sabbath It ought not to be passed by without observation that Christ was at such a dinner and that in the house of a Pharisee who doubtless was observant enough of all Ceremonies of this kind VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is lawful to heal on the Sabbath day A Jew will be ready to cavil against the truth of the Evangelists upon the occasion of this and such like questions they report from our Saviour What need had he will such an one say to ask this question when he could not but know that in danger of life it was permitted them to do any thing toward the preservation of it Nay where there was no imminent danger they were allowed to apply Medicines Plasters c. especially which I must not omit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to apply leven even in the time of Passover to a Gumretha b b b b b b Hieros Schabb. fol. 14. 4. Avodah Zarab fol. 40. 4. some very burning distemper This is all true indeed and this no doubt our Saviour understood well enough but withal he could not but observe with how ill an eye they lookt at him and would not allow that in him which was lawful in another man He was always accused for healing on the Sabbath day which whiles he did it with a word speaking he could not violate so much as even their own Canons permitted him And wherefore then should they accuse him In mere hatred to his person and actions There are two little stories we meet with in places quoted before which perhaps may serve in some measure to illustrate this matter The Grandchild of R. Joshua ben Levi had some disease in his throat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There came one and mumbled to him in the name of Jesus the Son of Pandira and he was restored Here we see the vertue and operation of Jesus not so utterly exploded but they did allow of it When R. Eliezer ben Damah had been bitten with a Serpent and Jacobus Capharsamensis came in the name of Jesus the Son of Pandirah to heal him R. Ismael forbad it And so the sick man died VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which of you shall have an Ass or an Ox fallen into a pit c. IT being an undoubted maxim That they must deal mercifully with an Israelite's goods The Doctors in many things dispensed with the Sabbath for the preservation of a Beast c c c c c c Schab cap. 18. hal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do not play the midwives with a Beast that is bringing forth its young on a Feast-day but they help it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How do they help it They bear up the young one that it doth not fall upon the ground They bring wine and spirit it into the nostrils they rub the paunch of the damme so that it will suckle its young d d d d d d Bezah fol. 46. 1. A firstling if it fall into a ditch on a Feast-day or the Sabbath let the Mumcheh look into it and if there be any blemish in it let him take it out and kill it if not let him not kill it He draws it out however that it might not be lost And so they deal with other Beasts only the Mumcheh or he that is to try them for their blemishes is not made use of VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sit thou not down in the highest room THEY were ambitious of the highest room in honour of their wisdom e e
Apostle was propounded and when the choice was made too And therefore why the ALL in this place ought not to have reference to this very number also who can alledg any reason Perhaps you will say this reason may be given why it should not namely that all those that were here assembled were endu'd with the gift of Tongues and who will say that all the hundred and twenty were so gifted I do my self believe it and that for these reasons I. All the rest were likely to publish the Gospel in foreign Countries as well as the Apostles and therefore was it necessary that they also should be endow'd with foreign Tongues II. The Apostles themselves imparted the same gift by the imposition of hands to those whom they Ordained the Ministers of particular Churches It would seem unreasonable therefore that those extraordinary persons that had been all along in company with Christ and his Apostles and were to be the great Preachers of the Gospel in several parts of the world should not be enricht with the same gift III. It is said of the seven Deacons that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of the Holy Ghost even before they were chosen to that office which doth so very well agree with what is said in this part of the story ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were all filled with the Holy Ghost that we can hardly find out a more likely time or place wherein these Deacons had been thus replenisht than when the Apostles themselves were so that is upon the coming down of the Holy Ghost IV. The dignity and prerogative of the Apostles above the rest of the Disciples did not so much consist in this gift of Tongues being appropriated to themselves but in this amongst other things that they were capable of conferring this gift upon others which the rest could not do Philip the Deacon doubtless did himself speak with Tongues but he could not confer this gift to the Samaritans that they also should speak with Tongues as he did this was reserv'd to Peter and to John the Apostles V. The Holy Ghost as to the gift of Tongues fell upon all that heard Peter's discourse in the house of Cornelius Chap. X. 44. it may seem the less strange therefore if it should fall on these also at this time and in this place VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A sound as of a rushing mighty wind THE sound of a mighty wind but without wind so also Tongues like as of fire but without fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fitly and emphatically enough added here but I question whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was so properly put by the Greek Interpreters in Gen. I. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of God was carry'd upon the face of the waters and yet the Paraphrast and Samaritan Copy is much wider still from the meaning and intention of Moses when they render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he breath'd upon the waters I conceive they might in those words the Spirit of God mov'd upon the face of the waters have an eye to those waters that cover'd the earth whereas Moses plainly distinguisheth between the Abyss that is the waters that cover'd the earth upon the face of which deep the darkness was and those waters which the Spirit of God mov'd upon that is the waters which were above the firmament ver 6 7. And by the moving or incubation of the Spirit upon these waters I would rather understand the motion of the Heavens the Spirit of God turning them about and by that motion cherishing the things below as the bird doth by sitting upon its young than of any blowing or breathing of the Spirit or the wind upon them or that the Spirit was carry'd upon the waters as a wind is upon the Sea or upon the Land VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cloven Tongues like as of fire THE confusion of Languages was the casting off of the Gentiles and the confusion of Religion for after once all other Nations excepting that of the Jewish came to be deprived of the use and knowledg of the Hebrew Tongue in which Language alone the things of true Religion and all Divine truth were known taught and deliver'd it was unavoidable but that they must needs be depriv'd of the knowledg of God and Religion Hence that very darkness that fell upon the Gentile world by that confusion of Tongues continued upon them to this very time But now behold the remedy and that wound that had been inflicted by the confusion is now heal'd by the gift of Tongues that Veil that was spread over all Nations at Babel was taken away at mount Zion Isai. XXVII 7. We meet with a form of prayer in the Jewish writings which was used on the solemn fast of the ninth month Ab of which this is one clause m m m m m m Hieros Taanith fol. 65. 3. Have mercy O God upon the City that mourneth that is troden down and desolate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thou didst lay it wast by fire and by fire wilt build it up again If the Jews expect and desire their Jerusalem should be rebuilt by fire let them direct their eyes toward these fiery Tongues and acknowledg both that the building commenc'd from that time and the manner also how only it is to be restor'd VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These men are full of new wine RAbba saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man is bound to make himself so mellow on the Feast of Purim that he shall not be able to distinguish between cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordecai Rabbah and R. Zeira feasted together on the Feast of Purim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were sweeten'd or made very mellow The Gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were sweeten'd i. e. they were got drunk So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but what they were wont to express in their common Dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are sweeten'd that is are drunk But may we not rather judg those drunk who by saying the Apostles were full of new wine imputed that sudden skill of theirs in so many Languages to wine and intemperance The Rabbins indeed mention a Demon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cordicus who possesseth those that are drunk with new wine n n n n n n Gittin cap. 7. But is he so great a Master of Art and wit that he can furnish them with Tongues too These scoffers seem to be of the very dregs and scum of the people who knowing no other Language but their own Mother-tongue and not understanding what the Apostles said while they were speaking in foreign languages thought they said nothing but meer babble and gibberish VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is but the third hour of the day THAT is with us nine a Clock in the morning before which time especially on the Sabbath and other
out its own Eyes and chuse to be blind and live in darkness when it hath Eyes and light A doleful thing that men should be killed because they will not be fools Think of the hundreds that have gone to the fire and faggot because they could not believe Transubstantion because they could not believe that which is contrary to Reason Religion and the trial of the Sences therefore they must be put to a most cruel death Poor England because she will not be Popish must be no more because she will not lose her wits she must lose her life Poor Abel must be murthered because he will not be such a wretch hypocrite and vilain as Cain This is all the quarrel they had against us because we would not be of such a Religion as they are of and had no mind to build our Salvation upon straw and stubble Think of this and of the constant practise of Rome to seek to destroy those that will not be of her mind and Religion then guess who is the Gog and Magog in the Text that takes up persecution and fighting against those that will not be deceived by Satan as they themselves are The design of this day engageth us to hate Popery that must be maintained and propagated with blood and force I shall not dispute which is the true Religion the Protestant or the Popish Only set Jacob and Esau before you whether of the two is more lovely Popery is rough and rugged witness the Inquisition the Massacre the Marian days and the fift of November Think of these and hate Popery Let me enlarge my self a little upon this subject what a great cheat Satan puts on men when he deceives them to become enemies to true Religion There was hardly ever any persecutor of the truth in the World but he would confess this truth so that I might need no other proof of it but the confession of such enemies Paul when he murthered the members of Christ without mercy or measure he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat the Devil puts upon men when he sets them to be enemies to persecute the true Religion but this Sect of Nazarens that I persecute they are Hereticks Apostates and t is a good deed to persecute them for they are fallen from the Religion of their Fathers Bonner that Butcher of Hell that so bloodily murthered so many of the Saints of God in Queen Maries time he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat of the Devil to set men upon persecuting true Religion but these Lollards these Protestants are desperate Hereticks horrid Apostates that have fallen away from holy Mother Church of Rome and it is fit such men should not live And none that hates and persecutes another for Religion but he will be ready to say in the like kind this being one arrand and very general cheat of Satan to make all men though of the falsest worst and most damnable Religion or profession of Religion to believe theirs is the best The greatest Dispute in the World is which is the true Religion and as the Apostles upon Christs speaking of one betraying him every one asked Is it I So will every Religion in the World upon this Question Which is the true Religion answer It is I. The Jew saith His the Turk His the Papist His the Protestant His one Protestant his manner of worship and profession is best another His and a third His. Like the two Hostesses before Solomon about the living and dead child one saith the dead Religion is thine and the living mine and another nay my Religion is the living but thine the dead How is it possible to determine this controversie about which there hath been so much quarreling and so many many vast Volumes written And if we do not determine which is true Religion we can make nothing of the Doctrine before us which speaks of Sataus cheating men to be enemies to it It would speak high to undertake to determine when dispute is betwixt so Learned Men. But let me give you these two marks of it which also may help to give some caution against being enemy to it I. That is the true Religion and true Religiousness that the Devil hates most That is the King of Israel that the Captains of the Syrians bend themselves most to fight against 1 Kings XXII Need I to tell you how the Devil in the Revelations is continually fighting against the true Saints of God and their Religion It hath been his quarrel ever since God set the enmity between the Womans seed and him Gen. III. 15. Now certainly it may be a very pregnant mark of discerning what a mans Religion and Religiousness is by computing whether the Devil have reason to hate it or no. In the great question twixt Papists and us whether is the true Religion Bring them to the touchstone hath the Devil any cause to hate worshiping of Images to hate the casting away the Scripture and taking up the wretched Traditions of Men to hate their nurseling of the people in Ignorance and the blind leading the blind into the ditch to hate the Popes pride and arrogance against God and Christ and Kings and Princes the Clergies domineering over the Consciences of Men to keep them blind and so as they may make a prey of them In a word hath the Devil any reason to hate that Religion that is nothing but paint and show and outside and no life of Religion at all in it These things make for him and are on his side and bring him Souls to Hell heaps upon heaps and he hath no reason to be an enemy to these Hath the Devil reason to hate or hinder the Religion and Devotion of him that is huge devout in the Church in all ceremonial and formal appearance and they would take him for a Saint or an Angel but out of the Church he is loose covetous malicious cruel prophane and no better than a Devil Such mens Religion will never do the Devil any disadvantage or be any diminishment to his Kingdom But that Religion that gives God his due in holy and spiritual Worship in holy and spiritual walking that devotion that serves God in Spirit and Truth that Ministry that in care and constancy and conscientiousness is always striving to bring Souls to God and to bring them beyond the form to the power of godliness and to deliver them from the power of darkness to the Kingdom of Gods dear son Let any man of reason and understanding guess whether Satan do not cannot choose but hate such a Religion Devotion Ministry So that as Solomon judged this live child is that Womans because her bowels earn towards it so may we very well judge that to be the true and best Religion and Religiousness that the Devils bowels earn against that he cannot but hate and be enemy to II. That is the best and truest Religion and Religiousness that sheweth forth
Apostles and Disciples and should pick out a man that we all know was no Apostle that no one knows whether he were a Disciple or no. But II. It is agreeable to all reason to conceive that as the man to whom God vouchsafed the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt his own times and the fall of Jerusalem was Daniel a man greatly beloved so that the John to whom Christ would vouchsafe the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the World was John the Disciple greatly beloved III. Of that Disciple Christ had intimated that he would that he should tarry till â—e came Joh. XXI 22. that is till he should come in vengeance against the Jewish Nation and their City to destroy them for that his coming both in that place and in divers other places in the New Testament doth mean in that sense it were very easie to make evident should we take that subject to insist upon Now as our Saviour vouchsafed to preserve him alive to see the Fall and destruction of that City so also did he vouchsafe to him the sight of a new Jerusalem instead of the old when that was ruined laid in ashes and come to nothing He saw it in Vision we see it in the Text and upon that let us six our Eyes and Discourse for we need not speak more of him that saw it In the verse before he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth and in this verse a new Jerusalem I. Something parallel to which is that in Esa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth And in the verse next following Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing The expressions intimate the great change of affairs that should be in the World under the Gospel from what had been before A new Heaven or a change of Church and Religion from a Jewish to a Gentile Church and from Mosaick to Evangelical Religion A new Earth or a change in the World as to the management or rule of it from Heathenism to Christianity and from the rule of the four Heathen Monarchies Dan. VII to the Saints or Christians to iudge the World 1 Cor. VI. 2. or being Rulers or Magistrates in it And the new Jerusalem is the emblem and Epitome of all these things under this change as the old Jerusalem had been before the change came There is none but knoweth that Jerusalem in Scripture language is very commonly taken for the whole Church then being as well as it is taken particularly and literally for the City it self then standing That City was the Church in little because there were eminently in it all those things that do make and constitute a true Church viz. the administration of the Word and divine Ordinances the Assemblies of the Saints the Worship of the true God by his own appointment and the presence of God himself in the midst of all And can any doubt but that the new Jerusalem meaneth in the like sense and upon the like reason The Church of God under the Gospel this inriched with all those excellencis and privileges that that was yea and much more There was the Doctrine of Salvation but wrapped up in Types and Figures and dark Prophesies but here unfolded to the view of every Eye and Moses vail taken off his face There Ordinances of divine Worship but mingled with multitudes of carnal rites here pure adoration in Spirit and Truth There an assembly only of one People and Nation here a general assembly compacted of all Nations There God present in a cloud upon the Ark here God present in the communication of his Spirit Therefore it is the less wonder that it is called the holy City because of these things II. which is the second circumstance considerable in the words I saw the new Jerusalem The holy City It is observable that the second old Jerusalem for so let me call the Jerusalem that was built and inhabited after the return out of Captivity was called the holy City when goodness and holiness were clean banished out of the City and become a stranger there When the Temple had lost its choisest ornaments and endowments that contributed so much to the holiness of the place and City The Ark the cloud of Glory upon it the Oracle by Urim and Thummim the fire from Heaven upon the Altar these were all gone and Prophesie was utterly ceased from the City and Nation yet even then it is called the holy City in this her nakedness Nay when the Temple was become a Den of Thieves and Jerusalem no better if not worse when she had persecuted the Prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her when she had turned all Religion upside down and out of doors and worshiped God only according to inventions of men yet even then and when she is in that case she is termed the holy City Matth. IV. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple Nay when that holy Evangelist had given the story of her crucifying the Holy of Holies the Lord of life and glory even then he calls her the holy City Chap. XXVII 53. The bodies of many Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said then and so might others say of her for it might seem very incongruous to call the holy City when she was a City so very unholy She was indeed simply and absolutely in her self most unholy and yet comparatively The holy City because there was not a place under Heaven besides which God had chosen to place his Name there and there he had and that was it that gave her that name and title And while she kept the peculiarity of the thing she kept the name but at last forfeited both and then God finds out another City where to place his Name A new Jerusalem A holy City a holier City her younger sister fairer than she Holy under the same notion with the other because God hath placed his Name only III. there Holier than she because he hath placed it there in a more heavenly and spiritual manner than in her as was touched before And Holier still because she shall never lose her holiness as the other did as we shall touch hereafter And she cannot but be holy as I said before when she comes down from Heaven and is sent thence by God And this is the third thing remarkable in the Text I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven The Apostle S. Paul calls her Jerusalem which is above Gal. IV. 26. Our Apostle sees her coming down from above and the Prophet Ezekiel in his fortieth Chapter and forward seeth her pitched here below when she is
been blessed and honoured withal clean departed and gone away And hence it was that the Samaritans durst compare with the Jews for the better Religion and mount Gerizim at Sechem compares with Jerusalem as the truer and purer place of worship For the honour and ornaments of Jerusalem were gone her Prophets and the Spirit of Prophesy It is observable what is said in the last clause of the Text The Pharisees confess both III. Why He had spoken of three things that the Sadducees denyed The Resurrection Angel Spirit And therefore it seems more proper to have said The Pharisees confess all when he speaks of three than to say they confess both when he speaks of three But he makes these two later but as one and so distinguishes the things into two parts the Resurrection was one thing the Sadducees denied and Angels and Spirits was another one thing And so by the addition of the word Spirit he intimates that the Sadducee denyed all Angelical and Spiritual Substance And so Expositors observe upon this That he thought that even God himself is not a Spiritual but a Corporeal or bodily substance That the Good or Evil Angels that are mentioned mean nothing but good and evil motions of mens minds And that the Soul of man is not a Spirit but a Crasis or mixture of some certain humors and temperaments And that by the Spirit of God is meant only his Mind and by the Spirit of man his breath Strange and mad Divinity and Philosophy And a strangeworld that this man conceives A world that hath neither Angel in it nor Devil and only a Corporeal God in it Souls that are bodily in the midst of the body and that must dye as well as the body when the body dies And a world that must comprehend all that ever must be And that there is to be no world to come nor any other world but this Men of gross and thick and muddy minds that either could not believe but what they saw or could not but believe that what they saw not was like to what they saw That could not believe that there were Angels or Spirits because they saw them not and could not but believe that God and Souls were like to bodily thing that they saw Their sad and fatal case and blindness may justly give us warning and advise what clear minds we ought to get to judge of divine things and rightly to apprehend of things that are above sense or seeing The greatest things of our concernment are out of sight viz. God our Souls Guilt Grace Hell Heaven and Eternity to omit to speak of Angels and Devils We are not to look to the things that are seen but to the things that are not seen as the Apostle gives us intimation 2 Cor. IV. ult and in divers other places Now what are we to do in this case Not believe them because we do not see them This is Thomas his faith or infidelity rather not to believe that Christ is risen unless we see in his hands the print of the nayls Or shall we cavil with God for that he hath not made these things visible and not laid them conspicuous to our eyes as he hath done bodily things God would be loved served feared Why doth he not shew himself visibly to us that we might see him and so love and serve and fear him He would have us to avoid sin and guilt if he had made these things visible as a dangerous pit or gulph or precipice is visible we should then avoyd them But now we must avoid a thing we see not We are bidden to resist the Devil Why we cannot see him and we would not see him And we are bidden to take care of our Souls They are things invisible and we cannot see what they are and how they are Yes God hath given us an eye to see those things an invisible eye to see things invisible So it is said of Moses that he saw him that was invisible For the discerning of any thing there are three things requisite an Eye to see and Light to see by and a just or competent distance that the thing to be seen be not too far for then it is not to be seen God hath provided for us all these things for our seeing and knowing the things which it concerns us to know though they be invisible if we be not wanting to our selves How much is comprehended in those words of God which he uses when he is about to create man Let us make man after our own image And God made man after his own image Now you must refer this Image or Similitude more especially to the Soul for the Body can little be said to be the Image of God who is not a Body But in how many things doth the Soul resemble him God is Invisible And so is the Soul God is Spirit And so is the Soul God is Immortal And so is the Soul But more especially doth the Soul resemble God in the faculty and constitution of the mind God being a pure Intellect or Mind and all-knowing and the mind of man representing him in its great capacity of knowledge and understanding That the Soul represents God in being Invisible Spiritual Immortal as He is we may call it a passive representation of God pictured upon the constitution of the Soul But the Souls representing God in knowing understanding discerning of things we may very properly call an active representation of him laying forth in action as he also acteth The Serpent in tempting Eve concludes that the proper and most compleat resemblance of God is in Knowledge Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil And he guessed not amiss as relating to that representation of God that is in the Essence of the Soul For observe that of the Apostle Col. III. 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him And the only specimen or evidence and declaration that Adam gave of the perfection of his nature while he stood in innocency was the demonstration of his wisdom or knowledge in that he could and did name all creatures according to their nature God brought all creatures to him to see what he would name them and he had the knowledge upon the very first sight of them to understand their nature and he named them according to their nature Knowledge and Understanding was natural and essential to Adam as he was a man a reasonable creature Therfore by his fall he did not lose that Faculty though he abated of the measure of it For it was essential to his Soul to be an understanding Soul and it could not be a Soul without it Let us compare the Angels that fell and Adam falling together They were both created holy and righteous alike For I make no question but Adam was created every whit as holy as those Angels were created And they were both created of great knowledge
he shewed what was meant by that Levit. XVIII 5. viz. That by keeping the Commandments not only life here but Eternal life hereafter is obtained And so it is further cleared by his words in Luk. X. 28. This do and thou shalt life So that this here was not barely a temporal promise but had wrapped up in it a further promise of Life Eternal And so had the other temporal promises that were given them And so some of the Jews interpret that Levit. XXVI 11 12. And I will set my Tabernacle amongst you and my Soul shall not abhor you And I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my people not only of God being among his people here but of his being in the midst of them and they about him in Heaven And so you find the word Heaven in Scripture sometimes to signifie the Church here as well as it signifies the state and place of glory hereafter Now if you ask why God since he meant spiritual things and eternal under these temporal promises did not speak out but used such promises as might prove occasions of missing of those promises through misimprovement And so we find that this very thing proved the ruine of the Jewish Nation they being moved hereby to look at temporal things and to neglect eternal They looked and still look for a temporal Kingdom of Christ pompous and resplendent with worldly Iustre And this stands as it were a Wood or a Fog betwixt them and the discerning of his spiritual Kingdom that they cannot will not see it This makes them look for their Canaan again and to be planted and â—ettled there anew With which opinion too many Christians do concurr and look for some such glorious thing among the Jews even this year sixty six Why I say did not God speak out spiritual and eternal things but only obscurely hinted them in such temporal promises as these I Answer Because God would use the most feeling perswasions to them Men are not so sensible of things spiritual as they be of bodily have not the feeling of things that concern Life Eternal as they have of this Life To have said Honour thy Father and Mother that thou mayst inherit eternal life had been a fair argument but it is not so feeling to flesh and blood No Man but is very desirous of long life here and it is but one of a City and two of a Tribe that more desires Life Eternal The Gadarens are more sensible of their Swine than Christ and not one in many but a promise of earthly prosperity or bodily welfare comes nearer his heart than a promise of everlasting and heavenly glory health of body than of soul showers of rain than of grace bags of mony than all the treasures of Christ. Therefore God gave such promises as might be most feeling and perswasive those that were most like to take As the Apostle I being crafty caught you with guile as the Jews describe it As one that gives his Child Nuts and Plums to bring him on to learn so God gave to them those things that he was sure would most please them The Church of the Jews was a Child under age Gal. IV. 1 2 3. and God deals with them as with Children giving Ordinances and promises according to its childhood feeds them with milk and not with strong meat because they were not so able to bear it It is commonly said they were not able to bear spiritual dispensations in their abstract simplicity and therefore God gave them such carnal Ordinances according as they were able to bear them It is true they were carnal enough about the worship of God but was it not because they had such carnal Ordinances from the first The use of these made them dote on them Are there not thousands among Christians as carnal about Gods service as they That dote as much upon Ceremony and outward formality in Gods worship as ever they did And that because they have been brought up in such Ceremonious way or cannot come up to worship in spirit And might not the Jews have been as capable of the same spiritual manner of Religion as the Gentiles were if God had set it up among them when he first took them for the Church Wherein then did the Childhood of the Church consist First That it was yet but small of stature in comparison of that full body and growth the Church of God was to come to See that Eph. IV. 12 13. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. What is the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ It is the mystical body of Christ in its full proportion viz. Jew and Gentile joyned together How small a Babe was the Church of the Jews in comparison with what the Church was when the Gentiles of all Nations were become the Church Secondly That Church was a Child in knowledge in comparison of the Church under the Gospel Hence that promise Esai LXV 20. There shall be no more thence an Infant of days The Gospel should bring in such light and means of knowledge that none should be a Child or infant in knowledge if they had a mind to learn 'T is true they were so childish because God afforded no clearer means of knowledge And it is as true that in some sort it was needful the means of knowledge should be but as it was viz. that God by those means might make way to the knowledge and embracing of spiritual things under the Gospel when it came Consider their carnal ordinances and temporal promises God in the Gospel was to bring in a spiritual Worship and Religion A better way to make way for the embracing of that could not be used than by shewing before the unprofitableness the uneffectualness of their carnal worship This the Apostle speaks to at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. IX 9. That gifts and offerings could not make him that did the service perfect That sprinkling the blood of Goats and Bulls could not purge the Conscience The experience of this was the way to make men harken after the Sacrifice of Christ that would do the work that blood of Christ that could purge to the utmost And the like might be instanced in other parts of that carnal service So God gave them especially promises of temporal things that he might teach them that they should not be losers by his service Their service was chargeable in gifts and offerings and in going up to Jerusalem c. Therefore it was needful that God should ply them with promises of temporal good that they should lose nothing by his service if they were faithful to it Observe that Exod. XXXIV 23. Thrice in the