19. 48. 22. Sychar near to the parcel of ground that Iacob gave to his son Ioseph 6. Now Iacobs well was there Iesus therefore being wearied with his journy sate f f f f f f Sate thus that is in a weary posture or after the manner as tired men use to sit down De Dieu taketh it only for an elegancy in the Greek which might well be omitted and accordingly the Syriack hath omitted it and not owned it at all But see it Emphatical in other places also 1 Sam. 9. 13. Samuel is come this day to the City for the people have a sacrifice in the high place and when you are come into the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you shall So find him that is newly come to Town and going to a sacrifice 1 King 2. 7. Shew kindness to the sons of Barzilla c. for So they came to me that is they came kindly to me Act. 7. 8. he gave him the covenant of circumcision and so Abraham begat Isaac that is he begat him in circumcision c. thus on the well And it was about the sixth hour 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Iesus saith unto her Give me to drink 8. For his Disciples were gone away into the City to buy meat 9. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him How is it that thou being a Iew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria For the Iews have no dealing with the Samaritans 10. Iesus answered and said unto her If thou knowest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water 11. The woman saith unto him Sir thou hast nothing g g g g g g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Camerarius out of Plautus Latins this Situlam Beza out of Austin Hauritorium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew Esa. 40. 15. Numb 24. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Kimchi in Michol A vessel where withal they drew water the Septuagint in the former place cited renders it Cadus and in the latter they translate the metaphorical sense It seems they brought their buckets with them to draw with as well as their vessels to carry water in unless they made the same vessel serve for both uses by letting it down to draw with a cord to draw with and the well is deep from whence then hast thou that h h h h h h Springing or running water was called by the Hebrew living water Gen. 26. 19. Isaacs servants digged in the valley and found there a well of living water The Chaldee renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 springing water for the bubbling of the spring is like the lively beating of the heart or pulse And hence it was that this woman did so readily mistake our Saviours meaning He spake of the lively waters of grace that spring up in him that hath them to eternal life but she interpreted him according to the propriety of the language as if he had spoken only of waters out of a spring And so had Nicodemus misinterpreted another expression in the former Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or living waters were taken in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gathering of waters as Rambam evidenceth saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Any waters saith he are fit for the purifying of the Priests hands and feet whether living springing or running waters or waters gathered together In biath hammikdas◠per. 5. By waters gathered together he meaneth ponds or cisterns gathered of rain water or any waters that did not spring or run The Latinists also used the like expression to the Hebr. for springing or running water as in the Poet Donec me flumine vivo Abluero Virg. Aeneid 2. living water 12. Art thou greater than our Father Iacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattel 13. Iesus answered and said unto her Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life 15. The woman saith unto him Sir give me this water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw 16. Iesus saith unto her Go call thy husband and come hither 17. The woman answered and said I have no husband Iesus said unto her Thou hast well said I have no husband 18. For thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thine husband in that saidst thou truly 19. The woman saith unto him Sir I perceive that thou art a Prophet 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship 21. Iesus saith unto her woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Ierusalem worship the Father 22. Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Iews 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth 25. The woman saith unto him I know that Messias cometh * * * * * * These are the words of the Evangelist interpreting the word Messias to the reader and not the words of the woman interpreting it to Christ the Syriack translater hath omitted these words as not necessary to a Syrian reader which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things 26. Iesus saith unto her I that speak unto thee am he 27. And upon this came his Disciples and marvailed that he talked with i i i i i i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The various construction of the word either with the strength of the article or without hath caused various causes to be conceived of the Disciples wondring at his talking with her Some read it without the force of the Article thus they marvailed that he talked with a woman as unfit say some and uncapable of his serious and divine discourse but others ascribe their wonder to this that he was thus entred into discourse with a strange woman alone and no company near And they that so understand it are confirmed by this because they think it was no more to be wondred at that he should talk with a Samaritan woman than it was that they should go into a Samaritan City to buy provision for why might not he as well talk with a woman as they with the men or women of whom they bought meat if her being a Samaritan were all the matter But the case was not the same for the Jews might buy meat of them and sell meat to them with whom they might
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
to consider in the second place it is not at all to be doubted but he Baptized in the name of the Messias now ready to come and it may be gathered from his words and from his story As yet he knew not that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias which he confesseth himself John I. 31. yet he knew well enough that the Messias was coming therefore he Baptised those that came to him in his name instructing them in the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning faith in the Messias and repentance that they might be the readier to receive the Messias when he should manifest himself Consider well Malâ—c III. 1. Luke I. 17. John I. 7 31. c. The Apostles baptizing the Jews baptized them in the name of Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth had now been revealed for the Messias and that they did when it had been before commanded them by Christ baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost So you must understand that which is spoken Joh. III. 23. IV. 2. concerning the Disciples of Christ baptizing namely that they baptized in the Name of Jesus that thence it might be known that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias in the Name of whom suddenly to come John had baptized That of St. Peter is plain Act. II. 38. Be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ and that Act. VIII 16. They were baptized in the Name of Jesus But the Apostles baptized the Gentiles according to the precept of our Lord in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matth. XXVIII 19. For since it was very much controverted among the Jews about the true Messias and that unbelieving Nation denied stifly and without ceasing that Jesus of Nazareth was He under which virulent Spirit they labour even to this day it was not without cause yea nor without necessity that they baptized in the Name of Jesus that by that seal might be confirmed this most principal truth in the Gospel and that those that were baptized might profess it That Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messias But among the Gentiles the controversie was not concerning the true Messias but concerning the true God among them therefore it was needful that baptism should be conferred in the Name of the true God Father Son and Holy Spirit We suppose therefore that men women and children came to John's baptism according to the manner of the Nation in the reception of Proselytes Namely that they standing in Jordan were taught by John that they were baptized into the Name of the Messias that was now immediately to come and into the profession of the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Faith and Repentance that they plunged themselves into the River and so came out And that which is said of them that they were baptized by him confessing their sins is to be understood according to the tenor of the Baptists preaching not that they did this man by man or by some auricular confession made to John or by openly declaring some particular sins but when the Doctrine of John exhorted them to Repentance and to Faith in the Messias they renounced and disowned the Doctrine and Opinion of Justification by their works wherewith they had been before time leavened and acknowledged and confessed themselves sinners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Iordan John could not baptize in any part of Jordan so it were within the bounds of Judea which the Evangelists assert which had not been dried up and had afforded a passage to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt and were now entring into the promised land VERS VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees § Some few remarks concerning the Pharisees and Sadducees TO attempt a history of the Pharisees and Sadducees after so many very Learned Men who have treated of their original manners and institutions would be next to madness We will briefly touch at a few things and those perhaps less obvious I. That the Pharisees do not derive their name as some would have it from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to expound is sufficiently evinced by this that there were Women Pharisees as well as Men. c c c c c c Sâ—taâ— chap 3. hal 4. R. Joshua saith A religious man foolish a wicked man crafty A woman Pharisee And the dashing of the Pharisees against the stones destroy the World Those things are worth observing which are spoke by the Babylonian Gemarists on that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A woman Pharisee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rabbins teach A praying Maid A gadding Widdow And a Boy whose months are not fulfilled these corrupt the World But R. Jochanan saith We learn the shunning of sin from a Maid and the receiving of a reward from a Widdow The shunning of sin from a Maid for R. Jochanan heard a certain Maid prostrate on her face thus praying Eternal Lord thou hast created Paradice thou hast created Hell also thou hast created the Righteous and thou hast created the Wicked Let it be thy good pleasure that I be not a Scandal to men The receiving of a reward from a Widow for there was a certain Widow who when there were Synagogues nearer every where she always sorted to the School of R. Jochanan to pray to whom R. Jochanan said O my daughter are there not Synagogues at hand round about you But she answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will there not be a reward for my steps or for my journy hither for the Tradition saith These destroy the World as Joanna the daughter of Retib 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Gloss is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Maid given to prayer or a Maid of many prayers By another it is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Maid given to fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Losing her Virginity by fasting A gadding Widow they call her who always goes about from place to place to visit her neighbours they are the words of the Gloss. And these corrupt the World because they are no other but bands and sorceresses and yet they pretend sanctity Joanna the daughter of Retib the Gloss also being witness was a certain sorceress Widdow who when the time of any child birth drew near shut up the womb of the child bearing woman with Magic arts that she could not be delivered And when the poor woman had endured long and great torments she would say I will go and pray for you perhaps my prayers will be heard when she was gone she would dissolve the enchantments and presently the infant would be born On a certain day as a hired man wrought in her house she being gone to a womans labour he heard the charms tinkling in a pan and taking off the cover the charms presently come out and strait the infant is born and hence it was known
it self viz. a blessing from the Spirit of Messias which is the Spirit of God Let us observe these things gradually or in order I. That whereas the Jews expected Messias in his Personal and pompous presence he resolves them that his Presence is by his Spirit and his Victory by his Spirit See that John XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient that I go away from you for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you He speaks there in reference to the Jews opinion that called Messias Menahem Comforter and looked for earthly comforts from him No saith he It is expedient for me to go away and my Spirit shall supply comforts unto you To that purpose is that Joh. XX. 17. Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Greg. Nyssen for Adveniat regnum tuum speaks of Lukes having it Adveniat Spiritus sanctus tuus insted of Thy Kingdom come let thy Holy Spirit come The thing is true though the authority questionable II. For the justifying and evidencing this that his Presence is by his Spirit and so his Rule he sent his Spirit in powerful Demonstrations as you read in the Acts of the Apostles that by the sight of his Spirit men might come to own him Observe that passage Joh. XIV 12. Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father You my Disciples shall do greater things than I do why so For the magnifying of the Spirit Hence that in Mark III. 28 29. He that should speak against the Son should be pardoned but not he that should speak against the Holy Ghost He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness Because the Son appeared in meanness and his personal presence was not to be insisted on but the Holy Ghost came in all powerful and convincing Demonstration Hence Ananias and Sapphyra were so severely punisht because their sin was against the Holy Ghost Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost V. Act. 3. III. The Spirit did by these demonstrations of power assert the Deity and authority of Christ and his own as sent by him and to be his Spirit See Joh. XVI 8 9 10. And when he the Spirit is come he will reprove the World of sin and of righteousness and of judgment Of sin because they believe not on me Of righteousness because I go to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgment because the Prince of this World is judged And by that very thing is shewed Christs Rule and Work in his Church by his Spirit IV. That as the Spirit by these Demonstrations was to assert Jesus so the Apostles at that time baptized only in the Name of Jesus And accordingly the gift of the Spirit was given at Baptism See Act. XIX 2. He said unto them have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed Signifying that the receiving of the Holy Ghost followed upon Baptism As the Spirit of God that is the Holy Ghost rested on Christ at his Baptism so the Spirit of Christ that is the Holy Ghost rested on His at their Baptism Not on all Why Because he was come for that end to inable the Disciples to teach and preach and to assert Jesus V. When the Doctrine of Jesus and the Spirit were thus manifested then it was ripe to baptize in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Each Person had demonstratively approved his Godhead The Father under the Old Testament Hence is the tenor of Christs speech John V. 19 20. The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doth these also doth the Son likewise For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth and he will shew him greater works than these that ye may marvel The Son hath demonstrated his Godhead by his conversation among us Joh. I. 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father And by his Resurrection Rom. I. 4. Declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead And lastly by pouring down of his Spirit when he was ascended The Holy Ghost demonstrated his Godhead by his powerful actings VI. Turn your minds back to Babel Gen. XI there the Heathen lost the knowledge of the true God Rom. I. 21. c. Because when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imagination and their foolish heart was darkned And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man c. Thence forward consider what was done in that peculiar people whom God had chosen for revealing the true God Father Son and Holy Ghost And when all those revealings were full than it was ripe to bring that manifestation of God among the Heathen Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. It is as much as if Christ should have said to his Apostles The Heathens have lost the knowledge of the true God now bring that knowledge among them again and baptize them in the Name of the true God Father Son and Holy Ghost As Baptism was in the Name of Jesus among the Jews where the question was about the true Messias so among the Gentiles where the question was about the true God Baptism was in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Lay Rom. I. 25. to this Text. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator The casting off the Gentiles was because they worshipped the Creature What was their Recovery in the Text Was it to bring the worship of the Creature among them again as the Arian and Socinian gloss No but to bring the knowledge and worship of the Creator among them of the true God and that was Father Son and Holy Ghost I shall not go about to confute those cursed opinions the Lord rebuke them I shall only observe these things upon them First That as they blaspheme the greatest so the plainest truths in the Bible I cannot but wonder at the denial of the Godhead of Christ and though the God-head of the Holy Ghost is not in so plain terms yet it is in as plain Evidences as can be Secondly That they go clean cross to the stream of Scripture The main purpose of that is to extol Christ and the Holy Ghost the main purpose of these to abase them Thirdly Grant them what they would have they set themselves further from Heaven and Hope when the Redeemer and Sanctifier are but Creatures Fourthly Observe here the Spirit of old Antichrist and how it hath descended First The Jews began and
four speak the same story of Christs miraculous feeding many thousands in a Desert Mark and Matthew do plainly link this story to the preceding as is conspicuous to the eye of whosoever shall view in them the last verse of the foregoing Section and the first of this Johns Disciples with the tidings of their Masters death and Jesus Disciples from their Preaching abroad came in to Jesus much about the same time and it may be Johns Disciples clave to him and depart no more from him Upon the tidings Jesus withdraws into a desart place over the Sea of Galilee Joh. 6. 1. not over to the other side beyond Jordan but he coasted by Sea from one place to another on the same shore namely from Capernaum to the Desart of Bethsaida for it is said the people followed him afoot and came up to him and when his Disciples return by Sea again they are said to go over to Bethsaida Mark 6. 45. and from thence over to Capernaum John 6. 17. coasting still upon the same side John in this story hath mention of the Passover neer at hand vers 4. because he only of all the four hath undertaken to give account of all the Passovers betwixt Christs Baptism and his death for the better reckoning The third PASSOVER since Christs Baptism of the time of his publick Ministry It may be the coming on of the Passover had brought all the Apostles in to attend their Master thither They fall in at Capernaum his own City whether it is like he had appointed them to come in at such a time When Christ intends to feed the multitude he propounds to Philip among all the Disciples Where shall we buy bread for this was in the Desert of Bethsaida which was Philips City John 1. 44. SECTION XLVIII JOHN Chap. VI. from Ver. 22. to the end of the Chapter Jesus teacheth in Capernaum Synagogue concerning eating his flesh c. THe first words in the Section The day following asserts the order Divers of those that had been feed by Christ miraculously in the Desert of Bethsaida remained upon that ground all night expecting Jesus to come again among them who was departed away from them but as they saw not with his Disciples therefore they the next morning follow him to Capernaum and there find him It was Synagogue day there namely either the second or fifth day of the week and in the Synagogue Christ speaketh of eating his flesh and drinking his blood which seemeth a Doctrine so monstrous to many that divers that had followed him do now depart from him What would these people have They had been fed miraculously yesterday and yet to day they say to him What sign shewest thou that we may see and believe ver 30. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert c. ver 31. They looked for a continued miraculous feeding as Moses fed Israel with Manna in the wilderness and to that the words of Christ refer ver 26. Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye ate of the loaves It is said When they had seen the miracle that Jesus did they said This is of a truth the Prophet that should come into the world and they went about to make him King ver 14 15. They thought they saw in this miracle the sign of the Messias they looked for who should feed his people miraculously as Moses had done and therefore when they now require a sign to be still shewed in that nature Christ tells them they must expect no other food to be provided for them by him then his own flesh and blood which sounds so coldly in some of their ears that they will follow him no more SECTION XLIX JOHN Chap. VII Ver. 1. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walke in Jury because the Jews sought to kill him BEtween the time of this Section and that preceding we are to imagine the Passover to have passed of which there is mention John 6 4. So that after this passage in Capernaum Synagogue Christ goeth up to the Passover at Jerusalem and there the Jews that is the Sanhedrin sought to kill him At the passover the last year they convented him before them to answer for his violation of the Sabbath in healing the man at Bethesda John 5. and he plainly affirms and proves himself to be the Messias and he comes off with safety but after what manner is not expressed But now the increase of his Disciples the spreading of his frame and Doctrine by the preaching of the twelve and it may be the example of the murdering of the Baptist had so stirred them up to seek his life that he perceiving it gets away from Jerusalem into Galilee and will not yet come into Judea again SECTION L. MARK Chap. VII all the Chapter And Chap. VIII from begin to Ver. 22. MATTH Chap. XV. all the Chap. And Ch. XVI from the begin to V. 13. Scribes and Pharisees impious traditions The Woman of Canaans Daughter healed A man Dumb and Deaf healed Four thousand fed miraculously Pharisees require a sign c. Leaven of Pharisees c. THese two Evangelists joyn this portion to the end of Sect. 47. Now what we have laid between in Sect. 48. 49. is of so plain subsequence and order that no more needeth to be said of this or them Certain Scribes and Pharisees that were sent purposely from Jerusalem as may be conjectured because the Sanhedrin there sought to destroy Jesus seeking to intrap and oppose him and to make a party against him quarrel his Disciples for not washing before meat Their preciseness about this matter may bee seen in Talmudick Treatise Jadaim and in Maymony in his Tract Mikvaoth and occursorily almost in every place in the Jewish Writers where they have occasion to speak of their meales and of their manner of eating 1. Washing of the hands or dipping of them is if the institution of the Scribes they are the words of Maymony in Mikvaoth per. 11. 2. Hillel and Shammai decreed about washing the hands But R. Jose the son of R. Ben saith The tradition about it had come to their hands but they had forgot it These therefore decreed but according to the mind of those that had gon before them Talm. Jerus in Schabb. fol. 3. col 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eating of their common meat in cleanness is very much spoken of in their Writings and most highly extolled Insomuch that the Gloss upon Chagigah per. 2. doth determine a man of Religion by this that He eats his common meals in cleanness and the Gemarists in the place of the Jerusalem Talmud last cited have this saying Whosoever hath his dwelling in the Land of Israel and eats his common meals in cleanness and speaks the Holy tongue and saies over his Phylacteries morning and evening that man may be consident that he shall obtain the life of the world to come And again in
Challah fol. 58. col 3. R. Jesi in the name of R. Shabeai and R. Cajashin the name of Simeon Ben Lachish say thus A man should walk four miles to the washing of his hands It is a tradition that washing before meat is arbitrary but after meat it is duty Only that at his washing before he saies over some prayer but after not R. Jacob bar R. Isaac hereupon retorted Dost thou say he washeth and saith over a prayer and yet dost thou say that washing is arbritrary It is said he should go four miles to the washing of his hands and yet dost thou say it is arbitrary How they prized this and other traditions of the Elders above the word of God and so by and for them made that of no weight may be read too numerously in them in such like blasphemous passages as these The words of the Scribes are more lovely then the words of the Law and more weighty then the words of the Prophets And He that saith there are no Phylacteries and in so saying transgresseth against the words of the Law he is not guilty but he that saith there is five Phylacteries and in so saying addeth to the words of the Scribes he is guilty Jerus Beracoth fol. 3. col 2. The written Law is narrow but the traditional is longer then the earth and broader then the sea Tanchum fol. 4. col 4. Our Saviour damning these cursed Traditions doth instance only in that unnatural tenet of theirs that extinguisheth all filial assistance to needy Parents as if a son said to his father or mother It is Corban c. Their Canons set down the duty of a son to his father as to give him meat and drink if he stood in need and to cloath him to wash his hands feet and face and if he need to lead him in and out Tosapht in Kiddushin per 1. And yet with this superinduced Tradition they destroyed all such duty About the word Corban in the sense in which it is used here the Talmudick Treatises Nedarim and Nazir and the Tosaphtoth upon them are good explications where it is often used His resolving the case about meats not defiling the man overthrew a great part of Pharisaism for this washing before meat was meerly out of their Traditions and it was a great part of their sanctimony Moses indeed had forbidden divers things as unclean to be touched and by the touching of which the person was legally defiled but that with this reference that he was unclean as to Gods service or to the Congregation but this pretended uncleanness of theirs for which they appointed washing before meat had respect simply neither to the one nor the other Christ to a Heathen woman that begged the dispossessing of her daughter calls the Heathens Dogs and she readily understands his meaning as that being a common title that the Jews put upon them Midr. Till fol. 6. col 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nations of the world are compared to Dogs No sign given to the Pharisees when they demand one but the sign of Jonah the Prophet whereby Christ doth not only intimate his own burial and resurrection but he chiefly intendeth to hint the calling of the Gentiles after his resurrection as the Ninivites were after Jonahs which was a thing the Jews could not endure to hear of SECTION LI. MARK Chap. VIII Ver. 22 23 24 25 26. A blind man restored to sight at Bethsaida MARKS authority warrants the connexion here especially it being considered that in the preceding Section Christ and his Disciples are crossing over the Sea and here they are arrived at Bethsaida A journey by sea thither they had when Jesus fed the the five thousand in Sect 47. and now being come up to that place where that miracle was wrought it was a strange construction the Disciples made of the words of their master Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees when they thought he blamed them for not bringing bread the very place where they were might have confuted their misprision Christ openeth the eyes of a blind man but will not do it in Bethsaida but leads the man out of the Town nor will he suffer him to go into the Town when he is cured nor to tell it there He had a good while ago as hath been said denounced wo against Bethsaida Matth. 11. 21. and for her perverseness he will no more strive with her for her good He had gathered out of her those that belonged to himself SECTION LII MATTH Chap. XVI from Ver. 13 to the end of the Chapter MARK Chap. VIII from Ver. 27. to the end of the Chapter And Chap. IX Ver. 1. LUKE Chap. IX frrom Ver. 18. to V. 28. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heavengiven to Peter c MATTHEW and Mark establish the order Upon Peters confession that Jesus was The Christ the Son of the living God 1. He promiseth to build his Church upon the Rock of that Truth and the Rock confessed in it from Isa. 28. 16. Psal. 118. 22 c. 2. He promiseth the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter only of all the Apostles meaning thereby that he should be the man that should first unlock the door of faith and of the Gospel unto the Gentiles which was accomplished in Act. 10. And 3. he giveth him power of binding and loosing and this power the other Disciples had common with him Matth. 18. 18. Binding and loosing in the language and stile most familiarly known to the Jewish Nation and it can little be doubted that Christ speaketh according to common and most familiar sense of the language did refer more properly to things then to persons Therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Matth. 18. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To bind and to loose in their vulgar speech meant to prohibit and to permit or to teach what is prohibited or permitted what lawful what unlawful as may appear by these instances a few produced whereas thousands might be alledged out of their writings Talm. in Pesachim per. 4. halac 5. Our wise men say that in Judah they did work on the Passover eve till noon but in Galilee not at all And as for the night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The School of Schammai bound it that is forbad to work on it or taught that it was unlawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the School of Hillel loosed it till sun rising or taught that it was lawful to work till sun-rise Jerus in Shabb. fol. 6. col 1. They are speaking about washing in the Bathes of Tiberias on the Sabbath and they determine how far this was lawful in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bound washing to them but they loosed sweating meaning they taught that it was lawful to go into the Bath to sweat but not to bathe for pleasure Ibid. fol. 4. col 1. They
to shew that they had the man sure whom he so much desired to be secured and to take his grave advice what further to do with him He was brought bound to him and so bound he sends him to Caiaphas His Arraignment before the Sanhedrin At Caiaphas his house was the Sanhedrin now assembled Whether we take this for his lodgings in the Temple or his house in the City it is not much material Peter follows thither and by another Disciple that was acquainted there he is helped into the Hall and sits with the Servants by the fire The Chief-Priest and Elders were busie to find out Witnesses that might accuse him and though many false Witnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Talmudick language come in yet all will not do for it was not possible to touch him of any offence He all this while standing silent Isa. 37. 7. Caiaphas adjures him to tell whether he were the Christ or no he confesseth it and withal tells them that the time should come that they should find the truth of this by experience when he should shew his power and vengeance in his judgment against them and their City coming in clouds c. This confession and words they account blasphemy and that they might have the surer impression of so construing them Caiaphas rent his garments and by that action would as it were force them to agree with him that it was so when his garments had paid so dear for the confirming of it Their custom and reason of renting their clothes upon the hearing of blasphemy is handled in Jerus in Sanhedr fol. 25. col 1. 2. and in Maym. in Avrdah Zarah per. 2. where those two Canons being observed Every one that hears Gods Name blasphemed is bound to rent his garments And the Judges hearing blasphemy must stand upon their feet and must rent their clothes and may not sew them up again It will cause us to observe something in it that the Highpriest only rent his clothes and not the rest of the Bench with him Which though they did not yet they vote with him that it was blasphemy and therefore he was guilty of death which had it been executed must have been by stoning Sanhedr per. 7. halac 4. And now they begin to spit on him to buâ—â—et him and abuse him Peters denial Here Peter first denies him for being challenged as he sate by the fire by the damsel porter for one of his company he denies it and shrinks away into the porch and then the first Cock crew Luke saith that the maid came to him as he sate by the fire Matthew and Mark that he was now beneath in the Palace and without in the Palace meaning beneath or without from that place or room where the Bench sate Betwixt this first denial and the second there was but a little while Luke 22. 55. In the space between the Highpriest is questioning Jesus of his Disciples and Doctrine and because he answers Ask them that have heard me c. an officious Officer smites him as if he had not answered with reverence enough Peter this while was in the porch where he was when the Cock crew after his first denial and there another maid sees him and brings him to the company that stood by the fire and challenges him for one of his Disciples and now he denies with an oath And about an hour after Luke 22. 59. which space of time the Bench took up in examining Christ about his Disciples and Doctrine a kinsman of Malchus challengeth him and tells the company he saw him with Jesus in the Garden and he pleading the contrary is discovered to all the company to be a Galilean by his Dialect but he denies with execrations and presently the second Cock crew And Jesus looking back upon him he remembers what he had done and goes out and weeps bitterly And so presently after the second Cock the Bench riseth and leaveth Jesus in the hands of their Officers by whom he is taunted stricken and shamefully used His being delivered up to the Roman power In the morning the Sanhedrin met formally in their own Council chamber and again question Jesus brought there before them and they resolved to put him to death Whether he were the Messias or no he giveth the same answer as before that though they would not believe him if he told them he was which was the truth yet the time was coming when they should find it true They question him again Art thou the Son of God which he not denying they judge him a blasphemer again and deserving to die and so deliver him up to the secular power It is observable in both these questionings of him upon this point both in the night and now in the morning how convertible terms the Son of God and the Son of man are made In the night they question him Art thou the Son of God He answers Ye shall see the Son of man c. Mat. 26. 63 64. And now in the morning again he saith Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and they reply Art thou then the Son of God Luke 22. 69 70. Iudas his Recantation and Ruine Judas unquiet in mind for what he had done in betraying attends the trials and waits the issue and when he now saw that he was condemned by the Bench to be delivered up to the Heathen power he steps in and offers his money again and confesseth he had betrayed innocent blood and this probably as Christ stood by Having received a surly answer again from them he flings down his money in the Temple where they sat Gazith or Hhanoth it is not seasonable to question here and departing is snatched by the devil who was bodily in him into the air and there strangled and flung down headlong to the earth and all his bowels burst out With the thirty pieces of silver his wages of iniquity the Priests consult to buy the Potters field And here a quotation of Matthew hath troubled Expositors so far that divers have denied the purity of the Text. His words are these Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet And they took the thirty pieces of silver c. Matth. 27. 9. Whereas those words are not to be found in Jeremy at all but in Zechary they are found Zech. 11. 13. Now Matthew speaks according to an ordinary manner of speaking used among the Jews and by them would easily and without cavil be understood though he cited a text of Zechary under the name of Jeremy For the illustration of which matter we must first produce a record of their own The Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra fol. 14. facie 2. is discoursing concerning the order in which the Books of the Old Testament were ordered and ranked of old And first they shew that there was this general division of it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law the Prophets and the Hagiographa By
grace some another De Dieu taketh it one grace because of another the latter because of the former the first grace is the cause of the second and the second of a third and so on Some take for one grace upon another or graces multiplied Others for grace in us agreeable to the grace in Christ the like in kind though not in degree And for conclusion there is that supposeth that grace for grace meaneth only grace freely bestowed and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth only interpret the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gratis All which interpretations are Indeed true in regard of the matter contained in them yet whether they are pregnant expositions of this place the scope of the place and the intention of the Evangelist in it may give occasion to doubt and scruple For the Evangelist is apparently hitherto and here speaking of manifold declarations that were of Christ or of the several ways and means by which he was revealed as hath been observed and therefore it is the surest way to interpret these words suitable to that scope and intention And accordingly I cannot but apprehend and render these words so as that the word grace in the first place should signifie the grace of Apostleship and grace in the latter place mean grace in the hearts of the hearers and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for should denote the final cause which construction being taken up in this paraphrase will more easily be understood And of his fulness all we his Disciples have received exceeding full and eminent gifts and withal we have received the grace of Apostleship for the doctrine of the free grace of God and for the propagating of grace in the hearts of others And as the scope of the Evangelist draweth the verse unto such a sense so doth the force and vertue of the language justifie it For first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometime in Scripture applied to such a construction as we put upon it in the first part of the clause as Rom. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have received grace the very word used here and Apostleship which Beza well glosseth Gratiam Apostolatum id est gratiam Apostolatus that is the grace of Apostleship Beneficium eximiae plane liberalitatis quod alibi vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 6. And in the same sense the Apostle speaking 1 Cor. 15. 9. I am the least of the Apostles which am not worthy to be called an Apostle he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace on me was not in vain c. Secondly The Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sometimes and very properly denote the end and intention of a thing and hath regard to the final cause as 1 Cor. 11. 15. Hair is given to a woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it may be a covering Heb. 12. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because of the joy that lay before him Matth. 20. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A redemption in behalf of many c. And so among prophane Authors it is not seldom used in the sense of Gratia or for the sake as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cujus gratia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non nullius gratia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hujus doctrinae gratia c. And so may it very fitly be interpreted in this place we received grace because of or for the sake of grace or in behalf of grace that is that it may be advanced in the thoughts and propagated and wrought in the hearts of others Ver. 17. For the Law was given by Moses c. He had in the verses preceding treated concerning the declaration of Christ before his coming and after it both in the Law and under the Gospel And in the three last verses before he had handled this latter head viz. how he was declared in the Gospel after his coming 1. In his own person and converse vers 14. The Word became flesh and dwelt in us full of grace and truth and we saw his glory c. 2. In the Ministery of John the Baptist ver 15. John bare witness of him and cried saying c. 3. In the Ministery of the Apostles ver 16. Of his fulness we have all received c. And now he cometh to weigh the tenor of the Law and of the Gospel in both which Christ was thus declared and to compare them together and the two persons that were the chief Ministers in the exhibition of them Christ and Moses the two persons in regard of their Ministery of the doctrine of salvation and the two things in regard of their tenor clearness and exhibition of that doctrine The word For in the beginning of the verse joyneth this verse and that that went before together and it pieceth either to the whole verse to make up this sense We received the grace of Apostleship for the preaching of the Gospel as Moses did the Law or rather to the last word grace to the result of this sense we received Apostleship for the propagation and advancement of grace whereas Moses gave the Law for the advancement of works for so the opposition that is in this verse doth hold it out as may be observed §. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. These two words grace and truth stand here in Antithesis or opposition to the moral and ceremonial Law which was given by Moses For though Christ was the giver of the Law as well as of the Gospel and though the giving of the Law was a work of grace and the doctrine of the Law a work of truth yet if the tenor of the Law and the Gospel be compared together they will be found to differ mainly in these particulars though there be a grace and truth to be found in either of them First The Law indeed held out the doctrine of Salvation and taught of good things to come but it was so darkly and obscurely and in such vailed types and shadows that it was rather groped after than seen and therefore those things are called darkness at the fifth verse of this Chapter and the Jews that lived under them yea and gained salvation from the knowledge of them yet are said to be not perfect without us Heb. 11. 40. that is imperfect in the knowledge of the doctrine of Salvation till the Gospel brought us Gentiles in But the Gospel revealed Christ and the way of salvation so clearly and in so evident and plain a manner that all those types shadows predictions and representations received their equity accomplishment and fulfilling and it shewed apparently what was the substance and intention of them so that what the Law held out in figures the Gospel did in truth Secondly Although the Law were in the spirit and marrow of it a Doctrine of Faith yet in the letter and outward administration of it it was
but a messenger of Death 2 Cor. 3. 7. challenging exact performance which no man could yield and denouncing a curse upon him that performed it not and so concluded all men under sin and a curse but the Gospel cometh and preacheth to another tune and to a more comfortable tenor promising remission to the penitent though they had not performed what the Law required and assuring salvation to the believer though he had no works nor righteousness of his own to own and thus it speaketh grace and pardon whereas the other did a curse and condemnation And therefore is it divinely thus opposed by the Evangelist betwixt the Law and the Gospel in these two particulars according to the two parts of the Law Moral and Ceremonial and according to the two main Doctrines of the Gospel Repentance and Believing For the Moral called for obedience and challenged them under condemnation that obeyed it not but grace and pardon came by Christ and was offered in the Gospel to those that should repent for their not obeying The Ceremonial Law preached Christ under obscure representations and difficult to grope him through but the truth of what those obscurities involved and what those representations figured came by Christ and the Gospel holds it out and calls for faith in him that hath accomplished them And thus is grace and truth said to come by Jesus Christ and these to be the tenor of the Gospel in opposition to the Law not as grace opposeth ungraciousness but as it opposeth condemning nor as truth opposeth falshood but as it opposeth shadows Vers. 18. No man hath seen God at any time This is spoken from Exod. 33. about Moses his desiring to see the Lord. The oregoing verse made a difference between Moses and Christ which this verse pursueth Moses desired to see God but could not see him Exod. 33. 20. for no man hath seen God or can see him and live but Christ hath been in his bosom hath seen him and revealed him Moses beggeth to know the way of God and God promiseth him the company of his presence vers 13 14. He beggeth again to see his glory and God answereth him that he will shew him his goodness vers 18 19. and more of God he saw not and so much of God hath none seen besides him but only the begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father The story of Moses is divinely alluded to in this place for as concerning the presence of God the Evangelist saith he dwelt among us As concerning his glory he saith that they beheld it and as concerning his goodness he concludeth he was full of grace and truth vers 14. And though no man hath seen God at any time yet Christ imaged him forth among his Disciples with a glory agreeing to the only begotten Son of God and he hath declared him plainly in the doctrine of the Gospel a doctrine full of grace and truth §. He hath declared him It is apparent by this clause that the Evangelists main intention hereabout is to speak of the doctrine and declaration of God Christ and the Gospel and the publication of all unto the world He speaks of Johns publishing of this ver 15. and of Johns publishing of this again v. 19. and of Moses publishing of this in his kind ver 17. and of Christs doing it in his kind ver 18. and therefore certainly it cannot but be unconsonant to the scope of the place and to the purpose of the Penman to interpret the 16 verse clean to another tune about receiving grace of remission and sanctification and this is that that hath mainly induced me to interpret it as I have done because I see it plainly that the Evangelist applies himself in the whole context to treat concerning the witnesses and the publication and declaration of Christ and the Gospel Vers. 19. The Iews sent Priests and Levites The Baptism and Ministery of John was of so strange a tenor as was observed before viz. that whereas the Law preached for works he should call for repentance and whereas Baptism had been used hitherto for admission of heathens to the Religion of the Jews he should now use it to admit the Jews to a new Religion it is no wonder if that Court who were to take notice and cognizance of matters of this nature were very inquisitive and scrutinous after the business to know Johns authority and his intention It is rather to be wondred at that they had let him alone all this while and never had him in examination yet John had now followed this course and calling about eight months together and six of these eight had he spent in Judea in their own country and yet for ought we read they had never quarrelled with him till this very time now what the cause of their long-forbearing should be is hardly worthy the inquiring after only this we cannot but acknowledge a chief reason of it namely God so dispensing and disposing that his Ministery might run interrupted or without any let till Christ should begin to shew himself in his Ministery which the very next day after this dispute he did And so the Gospel might have no stop in this beginning of it but while Christ preached not John should preach without trouble and when John began to be troubled Christ should then be ready to preach The scrutiny and judging of a Prophet belonged only to the Sanhedrin or great Council at Jerusalem and so is the Talmudick tradition in the Treatise Sanhedrin Perek 1. They judge not a Tribe nor a false Prophet nor the High Priest but in the judicatory of Seventy and one and to this law and practise of theirs those words of Christ relate in Luke 13. 33. It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem because a Prophet could not be judged upon life and death in any place but there This Court and Councel sent these messengers to John to make enquiry after him and after his authority and so is the word the Jews to be understood in this verse for the representative body of the Jews in the great Judicatory And they send Priests and Levites to examine him as men of the greatest knowledge and learning in the Law and men of the likeliest abilities to try him and to dispute and discourse with him according to that in Mal. 2. 7. The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his mouth Vers. 20. But confessed I am not the Christ. We do not perceive by the Text that this question whether he were the Christ or no was proposed to him at all yet he giveth satisfaction to this first partly because the time of Christs appearing was now generally thought by the Nation to be at hand Luke 2. 26 38. 19. 11. 24. 31. Joh. 4. 25. c. and partly because the eminency of John had made the people look upon him with some questioning whether he were not the Christ Luke
would do him no more wrong than you would do his brother Matthew when you should say that he was a Publican 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscariot It may be ennquired whether this name was given him while he was alive or not till after his death If while he was alive one may not improperly derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Skortja which is written also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i i i i i i Bab. Nedarim fol 55. 2. Iskortja Where while the discourse is of a man vowing that he would not use this or that garment we are taught these things He that tyes himself by a vow of not using garments may use sackcloth vailing cloth hair cloth c. but he may not use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which words the Gloss writes thus These are garments some of leather and some of a certain kind of clothing The Gemara asketh What is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iskortja Bar bar Channah answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Tanners garment The Gloss is A leathern Apron that Tanners put on over their cloths So that Judas Iscariot may perhaps signifie as much as Judas with the Apron But now in such Aprons they had purses sown in which they were wont to carry their mony as you may see in Aruch in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we shall also observe presently And hence it may be Judas had that title of the purse bearer as he was called Judas with the apron Or what if he used the art of a Tanner before he was chose into Discipleship Certainly we read of one Simon a Tanner Act. IX 43. and that this Judas was the son of Simon Joh. XIII 26. But if he were not branded with this title till after his death I should suppose it derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscara Which word what it signifies let the Gemarists speak k k k k k k Bab. Berac fol. 8. 1. Nine hundred and three kinds of death were created in the World as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the issues of death Psal. LXVIII 20. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Issues arithmetically ariseth to that number Among all those kinds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscara is the roughest death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the easiest Where the Gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iscara in the mother Tongue is Strangulament By Learned Men for the most part it is rendred Angina The Quinsie The Gemara sets out the roughness of it by this simile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l l l l l l Schabb. fol. 33. 1. The Iscara is like to branches of thorns in a fleece of Wool which if a man shake violently behind it is impossible but the wool will be pulled off by them It is thus defined in the Gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Iscara begins in the bowels and ends in the throat See the Gemara there When Judas therefore perished by a most miserable strangling being strangled by the Devil which we observe in its place no wonder if this infamous death be branded upon his Name to be commonly stiled Judas Iscariot or that Judas that perished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by strangling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who also betrayed him Let that of Maimonides be observed m m m m m m In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 8. It is forbidden to betray an Israelite into the hands of the Heathen either as to his person or as to his goods c. And whosoever shall so betray an Israelite shall have no part in the world to come Peter spake agreeably to the opinion of the Nation when he said concerning Judas He went unto his place Act. I. 25. And so doth Baal Turim concerning Balaam Balaam went to his place Numb XXIV 25. that is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went down to Hell VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not OUR Saviour would have the Jews priviledges reserved to them until they alienated and lost them by their own perversness and siâ—s Nor does he grant the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles or Samaritans before it was offered to the Jewish Nation The Samaritans vaunted themselves sons of the Patriach Jacob Joh. IV. 12. which indeed was not altogether distant from the truth they embraced also the law of Moses and being taught thence expected the Messias as well as the Jews nevertheless Christ acknowledges them for his sheep no more than the Heathen themselves I. Very many among them were sprung indeed of the seed of Jacob though now become Renegades and Apostates from the Jewish Faith and Nation and hating them more than if they were Heathens and more than they would do Heathens Which also among other things may perhaps be observed in their very language For read the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch and if I mistake not you will observe that the Samaritans when by reason of the neerness of the places and the alliance of the Nations they could not but use of the language of the Jews yet used such a variation and change of the Dialect as if they scorned to speak the same words that they did and make the same language not the same II. In like manner they received the Mosaic law but for the most part in so different a writing of the words that they seem plainly to have propounded this to themselves that retaining indeed the law of Moses they would hold it under as much difference from the Mosaic Text of the Jews as ever they could so that they kept something to the sense n n n n n n Hieros Sotah fol. 21. 3. Bab. Sotah fol. 33. 2. R. Eliezer ben R. Simeon said I said to the Scribes of the Samaritans Ye have falsified your Law without any manner of profit accruing to you thereby For ye have writ in your Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Near the Oaken Groves of Morâ—h which is Sichem c. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added Let the Samaritan text at Deut. XI 30. be looked upon III. However they pretended to study the religion of Moses yet in truth there was little or no difference between them and Idolaters when they knew not what they worshipped which our Saviour objects against them Joh. IV. 22. and had not only revolted as Apostates from the true religion of Moses but set themselves against it with the greatest hatred Hence the Jewish Nation held them for Heathens or for a people more execrable than the Heathens themselves A certain Rabbin thus reproaches their idolatry o o o o o o Hieros Avodah Zarah fol. 44. 4. R. Ismael ben R. Josi went to Neapolis that is Sâ—chem the Samaritans came to him to whom he spake thus I see that you adore not this Mountain but the Idols which are under it for it is written Jacob hid the strange Gods under the
Fathers of the Sanhedrin and Rulers of the people and so in reviling him he transgressed that precept Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people as well as if he had reviled the High Priest II. It is very little to the credit of the Apostle to think that when he said God shall smite thee thou whited wall c. That he uttered it rashly and unadvisedly or carried away in an heat of passion and indignation or that he did not know whom he thus threatned or what degree and office he held But he spoke it soberly and as became an Apostle by the Authority and guidance of the Holy Ghost Nor did he nor had he any need to retract those words or make apology for his rashness but they are of the very same tenor with the rest that he uttered III. If this Ananias was that Sagan of the Priests that perished in the destruction of Jerusalem as hath been already said I would conceive his death was foretold prophetically by the Apostle rather than that he rashly poured out words that he afterwards retracted Let me therefore paraphrase upon the words before us I know it is not lawful to speak evil of the Ruler of the people nor would I have said these things to him which I have if I had owned such an one but I did not own him so for he is not worthy the name of an High Priest IV. The President of the Sanhedrin at this time was Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel his Father Gamaliel having been dead about two or three years before Paul knew Simeon and Simeon very well knew him having been fellow Disciples and both sate together at the feet of Gamaliel nor indeed could he be ignorant of any of the Rulers of the people if they were of any age because he had been so long educated and conversed in Jerusalem So that it is very improbable he should not know either Ananias the High Priest if he were now present or Ananias the Sagan or indeed any of the Fathers of the Sanhedrin if they had any years upon their backs Indeed not a few years had passed since he had left Jerusalem But seeing formerly he had spent so many years there and had been of that Degree and Order that he was an Officer of the Sanhedrin and had a Patent from them he could not have so slippery and treacherous a memory but that upon his return he could readily know and distinguish their faces and persons And whereas it is said in the Verse immediately following That Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees c. If it should be asked whence he came to distinguish so well concerning their persons it may be answered That if he had no other ways to know them he might understand that by his former knowledge of them He had known them from the time that he himself had been a Pharisee and conversed among them See Chap. XXII 5. V. Forasmuch therefore as he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wist not I do not see how it can argue so much an ignorance of his person with whom he might have had some former transactions in obtaining that accursed commission against the followers of Christ but that it must relate to his affection rather than his understanding So that the sense is I knew not that there was any High Priest at all or I do not acknowledge this person for such an one It was safer to inveigh against the person than the office But if he had said concerning the very office I do not know that there is any High Priest at all I question not but he had uttered his mind being well assured that that High Priesthood was now antiquated by the death of our great High Priest Jesus For let us lay down this Problem Although the Apostle as to other things had owned the service of the Temple for he was purified in it Yet as to the High Priesthood he did not own the peculiar ministry of that doth it not carry truth with it seeing God by an irrefragrable token viz. the rending of the Veil of the Temple from the top to the bottom had shewn the end and abolishing of that office But suppose the words of the Apostle relate to the person and not the office and that they were spoken in reference to the man himself I do not own him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 High Priest that he is not worthy of that title Perhaps St. Paul knew of old how wicked a person he had been or from his present injustice or rash severity had reason enough to make such a reply To know instead of to own and acknowledge is not unusual in Scripture stile that is a sad and dreadful instance enough I know you not depart from me ye workers of iniquity And in the Jewish Writings when R. Judah being angry with Bar Kaphrah only said to him I know thee not he went away as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one rebuked and took 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rebuke to himself The story is this z z z z z z Moed Katon sol 16. 1. When bar Kaphrah came to visit him he said unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Bar Kaphrah I never knew thee He understood what he meant Therefore he took the rebuke unto himself for the space of thirty days VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sadducees say there is no Resurrection WHAT therefore is the Religion of a Sadducee He Prays he Fasts he offers Sacrifice he observes the Law and yet doth not expect a Resurrection or life Eternal To what end is this Religion It is that he may obtain Temporal good things observing only the promise of them made in the Law and he seeks for nothing beyond the meer letter That the Sadducees took their denomination from one Sadoc a Disciple of Antigonus Socheus is commonly received and that not without reason In the mean time it may not be amiss to enquire whether Sadoc did himself deny the resurrection and whether he rejected all the Books of the Holy Scripture excepting the five Books of Moses which the Sadducees in some measure did I. The Jewish writers do relate his story with so much variety that as some represent him we might think he denies the resurrection and future rewards but as others that he did not For so say some a a a a a a Yuchasin fol. 15. 2. Sadoc and Baithus were the heads of the Hereticks for they erred concerning the words of their Master c. b b b b b b Ramban in Avoth cap. 1. Sadoc and Baithus hearing this passage from their Master be ye not as Servants that serve their Master for hire and reward sake c. they said among themselves our Master teaches us that there is neither reward nor punishment c. Therefore they departed from the rule and forsook the Law c. Others say otherwise c c c c c c
condemnation The ceremonial Law was given by Moses a ministration of types and shadows but truth came by Jesus Christ substantiating and resolving all III. Look into the Gospel it self It is the greatest and most Divine truth that can be given And as the Devil when he brought in the Heathen Religion brought in the greatest lie that could be imposed upon men So when God brought in the Gospel he brought in the greatest Truth that could be received by men And should I exceed my bounds if I said The greatest Truth that could be revealed by God For what could God reveal to mortal men more than he hath done in it himself his Son his Spirit his Grace his Salvation More than what is revealed in the Gospel shall never be revealed to men on this side Heaven And is not Heaven it self revealed very plainly in it And yet there are men in the Text and men in the World that make it their work to resist this Truth This light to lighten Gentiles they would put out This glory of the people Israel they would corrupt and this great and Divine Oracle of God they would silence and stop its mouth Very fitly resembled in the Emblem where the candle being lighted and set up the Devil the Turk the Pope and a company of Hereticks and Persecutors set with all their earnestness and indeavour to blow it out More than an Emblem of such an indeavour was the great plot and design of this day from the stroke of which we are here met to render our acknowledgment and thanksgiving An indeavour to have blown up and blown out the Truth of God and the purity and power of the Gospel out of this nation for ever In the words before us you plainly see two things an Act and the Agents resisting of the Truth and the men that resisted it But do you not also observe one out of sight or behind the vail viz. the providence of God looking on and permitting such a thing to be done A mystery of iniquity in the cursed acting of the persons and a mystery of providence and dispensing in suffering them so to act I. Concerning the persons and their acting The Truth might take up the complaint and expostulation of David It was not an open enemy that did me this evil for then I should have born it neither was it an open adversary that magnified himself against me for then peradventure I might have hid my self from him but it was thou my companion and familiar which took counsel with me together and we walked to the House of God as friends He that eateth at my table hath lift up his heel against me These men and the Truth or Gospel had been old acquaintance they had conversed and been familiar together they had taken counsel together and gone to Church too as friends but now they become her enemies because she is Truth They had approved the Gospel been initiated into it profest it and it may be some of them had preached it but now they become its enemy because she is Truth They had once received the knowledge of the Truth but now they wilfully sin against it Heb. X. 26. They had once known the way of Righteousness but now were utterly turned away from it 2 Pet. II. 21. They had once run well as Gal. III. but now they run clear counter to what they had done and seek to destroy the Gospel which they had once professed and resist the Truth with as much nay more fervency and earnestness than ever they owned it It was Pauls honour and comfort that He now preached the Gospel which he once destroyed Gal. I. 22. but it was these wretches dread and condemnation that they destroyed the Gospel which they once preached That general Apostasie or revolting from Truth that was then in the Church brought forth twins of a clear contrary complexion as different as Jacob and Esau if I may use Jacobs name with such persons when both of them are of the manners and conditions of Esau and you could hardly tell which of them was the worse For some Apostatized to pure Judaisme some to meer or worse than Heathenism some to dote upon the rites of Moses and to look to be justified by the works of the Law and to betake themselves to a Pharisaical austerity hoping thereby to be justified Others revolted to all loosness of life and Atheism abusing the liberty of the Gospel to libertinism and turning the grace of God into wantonness and accounting all things lawful that might content the flesh and please a carnal mind Now the Apostles give intimation of both these and sadly complain and invey against them I need not to particularize he that runs may read it more especially in the Epistle to the Galatians concerning the former and in 2 Pet. II. and Jude concerning the latter I might speak how these wretches did resist the Gospel or what instruments or machinations they used for the opposing of it As 1. Venting damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Devils as our two Apostles tell us 1 Tim. III. 1. 2 Pet. II. 2. Using the trade of Jannes and Jambres conjuration and sorcery and lying miracles as our Law had foretold Matth. XXIV 24. That they should shew signs and wonders to deceive the very elect if it were possible And the Apostle tells it was so as our Saviour had foretold 2 Thes. II. 9. That the coming of this mystery of iniquity was according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders 3. They used the trade that the Roman Emperors afterward used of bitter sharp and cruel persecution Of which you have several memorials in the Epistles ravening Wolves breaking into the Church in sheeps clothing and making sad havock of the flock all before them This was the judgment that begun at the house of God 1 Pet. IV. 17. The hour of temptation that came upon all the Earth Rev. III. 10. I might by the way observe How far a man may fall from the true profession of the Gospel viz. so far as to become the worst of men and the Gospels most bitter enemy And that the bitterest enemies of the Gospel have ever been some that have pretended to the Gospel Persecution never did that mischief in the Church that Heresie hath done And the sorest wounds that the Gospel ever received were like his in Zach. in the house of her friends but this I shall not insist on You see Jannes and Jambres have here met with their match but is there any match to be found for these men that have matched them Yes look at Rome and you find them there As many Protestants and Papists by the last days do indeed understand the last days of the World So many Protestant Divines do attribute all the characters of those wretched men to the Papacy And indeed they are so like that it is no wonder if they be not clearly discerned asunder Though the Papacy would
other standers by reviled him with If he be Christ let him come down from the Cross And let God deliver him if he will have him And so it doth magnifie Divine grace the more if it checkt him in his very reviling and made that tongue that reproached Christ in the very next instant to confess and adore him So Saul was happily checked even while he was breathing rage and revenge against the Church and he brought to be a most special member and minister in it The cause of this mans Conversion we must all ascribe to Gods infinite grace and goodness But the means that that grace and goodness used for his conversion I cannot but ascribe to these two things a Doctrine and a Miracle as in those times Doctrines and Miracles went very commonly together I. I cannot but suppose that the darkness that then began to be over all the Land wrought something with this man to bring him to some consideration with himself of the present case which he had not before His fellow Thief it seems was not moved with it at all but I cannot but believe that This was so deeply affected with it that it proved a means of his Conversion They both of them knew very well that Jesus suffered meerly because he professed himself to be the Christ. That is plain by their saying to him If thou be the Christ save thy self and us And now this man seeing so strange an occurence as had been not seen or heard of at any mans Execution before begins to be convinced that he was the Christ indeed for whom such a wondrous miracle was wrought and manifested And then II. It may very probably be conceived that he remembred those passages of the Prophet Esay describing his Passion and suffering Chap. LIII and particularly that vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressors A clause which the Jewish Expositors wrest some one way some another because they cannot abide to hear of Messias sufferings But which we may very well think that as Divine grace brought his Soul to the acknowledgment of Christ so it brought also that prediction of Christs sufferings and with such company to his remembrance as a means to work him to that acknowledgment For how might he argue This Jesus after all the great miracles that he hath done agreeable to the working of Messiah hath asserted and maintained that he is Messiah to the very death this strange and wondrous darkness that is begun over all the Land cannot but bear witness to such a thing And when it is so plainly prophesied by the Prophet Esay that he should suffer and be numbred with such Malefactors as I and my fellow are I am past all doubting that this Jesus is the promised Messiah Therefore He said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom A great faith that can see the Sun under so thick a Cloud that can discover a Christ a Saviour under such a poor scorned despised crucified Jesus and call him Lord. A great Faith that when he sees Jesus struggling for his own life and no deliverer come to him yet sees reason to cast himself upon him for his Eternal state and Everlasting condition and pray to him Lord remember me A great Faith that could see Christs Kingdom through his cross and grave and death and where there was so little sign of a Kingdom and pray to be remembred in that Kingdom I doubt the Apostles reached not to such a Faith in all particulars They acknowledged Jesus indeed to be Christ while he lived but when he is dead they are at it We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Luk. XXIV 21. But now they could not tell what to make of it But this man when he is dying doth so stoutly own him They looked for a Kingdom that Christ should have indeed but they little looked that Christ should suffer and so enter into his kingdom as it is intimated in the same Chapter vers 26. But this man looks for it through and after his sufferings That it is no wonder if he sped at the hands of Christ when he brings so strong a Faith with him and that when he pours out his Prayer Lord remember me c. in such strength of believing it is no wonder if he hear from him in whom he so believes Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And could such a Faith be without a parallel and sutable measure of Repentance Our Saviour very well saw that it was not And the Evangelist gives some intimation that it was not For he tells that he confessed his own fault which is one sign of his Repentance We are here justly and receive the due reward of our doings And that he reproveth his fellow and would fain have reduced him which is another Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And that he pleadeth for the innocency of Christ which is a third This man hath done nothing amiss And in what words and meditations he spent the three or four hours more that he hung alive upon the Cross it is easie to conjecture though the Evangelist hath spoken nothing of it The great sum and tenor of the Gospel is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And as Christ himself did seal the truth of the Gospel with his own death so was he pleased that that main truth of the Gospel should be proved and confirmed by this noble and notable example even whilst he was dying And accordingly it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give a demonstration of this mans believing in the Lord Jesus Christ more copiously and apparently than of his repantence though he hath given very fair demonstration of that also That as all posterity was to read that great Doctrine of Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation so they might have this illustrious and lively Commentary of the truth and proof of it in this mans believing and in his Salvation And now having seen this great monument of Faith and Repentance and Pardon What say we to it As the Evangelists tell us that they that had seen the passages at Christs death returned from the Cross striking upon their breasts and no doubt very full of cogitations So what are the thoughts of our hearts upon this passage which was not the least remarkable among them A great matter that the light of the Suu should be so darkned and not a small that such a dark soul should be so enlightned A great matter that the Earth should quake the Rocks rent and the Vail of the Temple be torn from top to bottom and not a small matter that such a stupid soul should be moved that such a strong heart should be dissolved broken and brought to softness The spactators then present considered of those things Our present work is to consider of these and what do we think of them I
shall come mockers walking after their own lusts the very same men that our Apostle speaks of here But which are these last days A threefold conception is taken up concerning the thing 1. That by the last days is meant all the time of the Gospel from its first coming into the World to the Worlds end But that is too wide a compass to be a mark of such an occurrence as the Apostle speaks of here 2. By the last days some understand the last days of the World and so will apply the things and men spoken of here to these times wherein we live and hereabout and so to the Worlds end but this construction will hardly agree to what the Apostle aimeth at here when he bids Timothy Turn away from such men nor agree with other places of Scripture that speak of the same men Therefore 3. The proper meaning of the expression in the common use of the Phrase in Scripture is The last days of Jerusalem and of the Jewish state when both of them drew near their end and desolation And for confirming of this among numerous evidences that I might produce I shall give you but two places of Scripture and the reason of the expression Act. II. 17. The Apostle Peter citing those words of the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh c. He plainly and positively asserteth that the Prophesie was fulfilled at that time when now it was but forty years to their destruction The Apostle John 1 Epistle chap. II. 18. plainly tells Little children It is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh so there are now many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time And the reason of the expression Because the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish state is charactered in Scripture as the destruction of the whole World which might be evidenced by abundance of instances Therefore the last days of that City and State are named as the last days of that World Now who these were of whom in those last days of Jerusalem the Apostle speaketh may be some question viz. whether unbelieving Jews or some that had professed the Gospel but had revolted from it and had corrupted it by their false doctrine and evil lives I doubt not he means the latter which might be cleared out of several other places in Scripture and even out of this place also when the Apostle saith they had a form of godliness and that concerning the faith or doctrine of the Gospel they were reprobate The mystery of iniquity he calls it 2 Thes. II. i. e. iniquity under a mask or visor of Religion for the opposition of the unbelieving Jew against the Gospel was barefaced iniquity Iniquity above board and that had no mask or mystery in it But these under the mask of the profession of the Gospel opposed the purity and resisted the truth of it And of such Apostates the Epistles of all the Apostles are full of complainings as instances might be produced which would take up the whole time now allotted I shall alledge but these two places Act. XX. 29 30. For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them And 1 Joh. II. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us And to the same tenor tends that parable Matth. XII ad â—in So that you have here the wickedest men of the wickedest generation that ever was upon the earth For so was that generation wherein they lived and they the very dregs of that generation that generation resisting Christ and the Gospel with open face these under a mask of Religion and the Gospel that generation proclaimed open enmity against the truth these practising it under pretence of friendship Those came against Christ with swords and staves these saluted Christ with a Hail Master but betrayed him They pretended to the Gospel as Herod pretended to worship Christ when he was new born but intended to murther him And herein they outvied Jannes and Jambres their samplar as commonly in writing after a wicked Copy the Transcript exceeds the Original For Jannes and Jambres had never owned the Truth as they had done for these had owned it bet now resist it I need not I suppose either to trouble my self or you by insisting to prove that the Apostle by the truth here does mean the Gospel And do I need to clear why the Gospel is called by that title of the truth If any desire that let me briefly propose these things to him I. First look upon the heathens Theology and Religion and that were but a mere lie Those poor wretches as Esa. XLIV 20. Fed on ashes and a deceived heart turned them aside that they could not say there is a lie in my right hand though there was nothing but a lie there The Devil foisting the greatest lie upon the World that all the anvils of Hell could forge viz. to perswade men to worship Devils for God 1 Cor. X. 20. The thing which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrificed to Devils and not to God That I may well remember to you that passage about the mad Emperor Caligula that would needs be a God and for that purpose had dressed himself in accoutrements possible to make him seem such a one A sober man that saw all being asked what he thought of him why saith he I think he is magnum delirium A great piece of foolery Stand and look on the Divinity of the Heathen as it is charactered by the Poets and all is but a great fable Mark the Religion of the Heathen as it was prescribed by their Augurs Pontiffs Philosophers and it is nothing but a great lie That the Gospel that was to uncharm those delusions to release those poor creatures from those cheats and impostures is most deservedly called The truth II. Look upon the Religion of the Jews that was all but types and shadows Moses face vailed Israel in the cloud all Divinity and Religion under mysteries and figures The Tabernacle was filled with a cloud as soon as it was set Exod. XL. ad finem and all the Ordinances given out of it cloudy and shadows Hereupon the Gospel is called the Truth because it unridled those mysterious Hieroglyphicks unvailed the face of Moses and shewed the substance and body which those vails and shadows did infold Thereupon it is that the Evangelist makes that most pertinent opposition Joh. I. 17. The Law was given by Moses The moral Law was given by Moses the ministration of condemnation as the Apostle calls it 2 Cor. III. but grace came by Jesus Christ against