for he that is watered with grace doth thirst for the same water of grace again and again but he saith whosoever shall drink of this water which I shall give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall never so thirst as to fail or perish by it but this water shall preserve him to eternal life Compare Esay 41. 17. Vers. 15. The woman saith Sir give me of this water c. The woman doth now fall from questioning as vers 11 12. to plain mocking and derision for this can be construed no other in her I know these words of hers are taken by divers to intimate her inclining to and imbracing this doctrine of Christ though she knew not well how to understand it and they shew say some Simplicitatem credendi her simplicity or sincerity of believing who so soon doubted not to ask for this so excellent water But be it considered 1. That as yet she took Christ but for an ordinary man until he hath told her of her secret villanies and then she takes him for a Prophet vers 19. And 2. that taking him for an ordinary man she talks with him as a Samaritan huswife would do with a common Jew between whom there was so deadly a scorn and fewd 3. The thing that Christ spake of of giving water after which the party that had it should never thirst were things so strange and would seem so ridiculous to any Samaritan nay to any flesh and blood that knew no more of him than as yet she did those words proceeding from so mean a man as he seemed to be that her words in reply thereunto Sir give me of this water c. can be no other but a jeer and scorn of what he had spoken And her calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sir doth no whit take off this construction since that was but a word of ordinary compellation or if she used it in a higher sense she used it but in the higher scorn Vers. 17. I have no husband The reason why Christ bids her call her husband may be supposed to be partly that he might check and stop her jeering by minding her of her own faults and chiefly that he might shew her that he was another kind of person then she judged of him by telling her of such things as she knew he could not tell her but divinely Now her denial that she had any husband is ascribed by some to her modesty to conceal her adultery by others to this because she knew not what Christ would do with her husband but till it can be shewed why a Samaritan quean should talk with any reverence or civility with an ordinary Jew for she took Christ for no other as yet especially when he spake to her of such unlikely things as he did it is the most proper and undisputable interpretation of her words I have no husband to take them for a scoffing and regardless answer to a question and to a person that she was careless whether she gave any any answer to or no. Vers. 18. He whom thou now hast is not thine husband It seemeth by the numerousness of her former husbands and by the same expression used concerning them and this thou hast had five and this that thou hast that she was a divorced woman and now lived in an adulterous marriage and it may be married to him who had adulterated her in her former husbands days But be it either thus or that she lived in adultery out of wedlock her conscience is convinced of the truth of the thing that Christ speaketh and withal she findeth that he had told her that which a meer stranger could not tell her but by the spirit of Prophecy and therefore she owns him for a Prophet Vers. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mount Conceiving him to be a Prophet she sodainly desireth to hear what he will determine upon that great dispute that was between the Jews and the Samaritans continually namely whether was the truer and righter place of worship Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim She called Jacob Our Father Jacob ver 12. for so the Samaritans would be a kin to the Jews when they thought good but the Fathers she speaks of here were as far from the Religion and Worship that Jacob used as Jacob was from the Religion of Hamor and Sichem Josephus tells one story that gives this woman but little cause to boast of her Fathers worshipping in that Mount and that is this That when Antiochus Epiphanes did so heavily oppress the Jews and persecute their Religion these Samaritans thinking that their Religion also looked somewhat like that of the Jews and that Antiochus might happily suspect that they and the Jews and both their Religions were something a kin and so they suffer as well as the other they fairly send to Antiochus and betime disclaim any such kindred And whereas indeed they could not deny but they had a Temple they besought him that it might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter and called by his name and so by the Kings command it was Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 7. Here was worshipping in that Mount with a witness and much to be bragd of but see the impudence of Hereticks when such a Temple shall compare with the Temple at Jerusalem Abraham Zaccuth saith This Temple of Gerizim was destroyed by Jochanan the son of Simeon the son of Mattathias and the Hereticks slain Juchas fol. 14. Vers. 21. Woman believe me The Hour cometh c. As she owned him for a Prophet so he challengeth to be believed of her as a Prophet and as a Prophet he foretels her of what was now ready to come to pass namely that Ceremonious Worship should cease and be no more confined to particular place or Nation That there should be no Sacrifice at Jerusalem no Image at Samaria no Ephod at Jerusalem no Teraphim at Samaria as Hos. 3. 4. but that those places and that manner of worship should fail and be abolished And so he answers her question in the first place to this purpose that it was needless for her or any other to trouble themselves about that dispute whether Jerusalem or Gerizim were the more eminent place of Worship for the time was just now in coming when neither the one nor the other should be the place of worship at all And then he determins the question indeed that Jerusalem had ever been and was at that present the right place of worship but Gerizim a Temple of error and usurpation and he proves his determination by this reason We know what we worship c. Vers. 23. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth In the term The true worshippers he looketh at the womans question and the two Nations controversie They tugged for it and she inquires about it whether of the people had the true worship amongst them why saith Christ ere long there shall be no worship at all either among the one or the other And
the time is now come that he that will be taken for a true worshipper must neither worship as the Jews do ceremoneously but in spirit nor as the Samaritans do erroneously but in truth Thus may we very well divide the two words Spirit and truth to serve these two purposes as thus to answer about the worship of either Nation the one whereof worshipped God altogether in external Rites and Ceremonies and the other worshipped they knew not what and they knew not how But generally the word Spirit and truth are taken by Expositors to signifie but one and the same thing and stand in opposition only to the carnal Rites and shadowy types in which their whole Worship in a manner did consist His using of the term Father for God is not so much in reference to the other persons in the Trinity or because the woman was acquainted with that mystery but because the Jews and it is like the Samaritans also used the word very commonly in their prayers and speeches as Our Father which art in Heaven do to us as thou hast promised by the Prophet And Let the prayers and requests of all the House of Israel be accepted before their Father which is in Heaven c. Maym. in Tephilloth Vers. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him c. Here ariseth a question upon the very first reading of the verse the words Spirit and truth being interpreted as is mentioned immediately before and that is why did God so punctually ordain and so long continue a Typical and Ceremonious Worship if those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth Answer That very worship was for this end and purpose that men should learn to worship God in spirit and truth For all these rites and types were but doctrines of the way of Salvation through Christ till Christ came and the very use of them was to this end that out of them men should spel this spiritual and true worship namely to worship God in Christ and to look after his benefits for their salvation which those rites doctrinally held unto them and which lesson the true worshippers or believers did attain unto Vers. 25. I know that Messiah cometh c. he will teach us all things The Samaritans had learned from the Jews to expect Messias and how the Jews expected this to be the time of his coming we have shewed before and it may be the woman speaketh this as meaning that she looked for Messias to come shortly which occasioned Christs answer I am he as taking at her words in that sense Thou sayest Messias will come shortly and resolve all things I tell thee Messias is come already and I am he Now her referring the resolution of this doubt to Messias his coming it sheweth she did not throughly digest and entertain Christs answer to her question although she took upon her to acknowledge him for a Prophet She had no mind the thing should be so as he had resolved and therefore she had no mind to believe it How Christ was expected as the great teacher we shall observe afterward Vers. 29. A man which hath told me all things that ever I did The Disciples having now bought all things that they would have for dinner for it was now dinner time return to the well to their Master and upon their return Christs discourse and the womans is broken off and she slips a way into the City and bids come see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did But Christ did not so for he told her only of one particular or two about her husbands but besides that the word All in Scripture is not always stretched to the utmost extent of its signification he had told her so much that she concludes that he that could tell her that could have told her also all things else such expressions as these in earnest and pathetical narrations are not strange Vers. 35. Say ye not there are yet four months c. The coherence and connexion of this verse with those before which is the first thing to be looked after in it lyeth thus The Disciples had been in the City and bought some meat and when they had set it ready they invite him to dine He answers No he hath other meat to feed upon than they are aware of and that was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work And what work was that Why the very work that he had been just now about preaching the Gospel and converting a soul and which work he knew was increasing upon him by the coming of the Samaritans to hear him whom either he now saw coming in flocks towards him or knew they would come In these words therefore he answers his Disciples to this purpose You would have me to eat but I have somewhat else to do which is meat to me which is to finish my Fathers work in preaching the Gospel for look you yonder whereas ye say it is four months to harvest see what a Gospel harvest is coming yonder what a multitude of people is yonder coming to hear me ready for the harvest therefore it is not a time to talk of eating of meat that perisheth but to fall to this harvest work which is my meat in doing the will of him that sent me The harvest of the Jews began at the Passover for on the second day of the Passover the Law injoyned them to bring a sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest and wave it before the Lord and from that day they counted seven weeks to Pentecost See Levit. 23. 10. 15. Four months therefore before the Passover which was the fourteenth day of the first month falls to be towards the latter end of our November or thereabout as is easily cast by any This therefore helps to set the clock of the time reasonable well both for the reckoning of what times are past and for the better fixing of the next Passover that is to come As 1. It shews about what time Johns imprisonment befel and how long he preached namely from Passover was twelvemonth to this November a year and a half and a month and some days above for it is like that Christ stayed not long in Judea after Johns imprisoning 2. It shews that Christ had spent some eight months in Judea from the Passover hitherto and had in this time converted abundance of people to his doctrine 3. It will help to clear that the feast of the Jews spoken of in the next Chapter is the next Passover that was to come as we shall observe when we come there In the former part of the words Say ye not There are four months and then cometh harvest He speaketh literally of their harvest of corn but in the latter the fields are already white to harvest he speaketh parabolically or spiritually of the multitudes of people both among Jews and Gentiles that were ready to be reaped and gathered
Judaism again to their old Mosaick rites which sometime had been right but now antiquated and to their traditional principles which had never been right but now least of all to have been embraced and to a deadly hatred and persecution of the Gospel that they once professed How the Apostles speak of and against this Apostasie in their Epistles I need not tell you he that runs may read it But he that stands still and reads presely will find that they find The Antichrist that then was in that Apostasie I say the Antichrist that then was For the Scripture gives a hint of a twofold Antichrist one in the Epistles and the other in this Book of the Revelation one that was in those times and the other that was to be afterwards one among the Jews that had embraced the Gospel and the other among the Gentiles which should embrace it And if you will let the unbelieving Jew to be one part of the Antichrist that then was the Apostatized Jew was much more Many Antichrists in those times as this our Apostle tells us 1 Joh. II. 18. but those were they especially of whom he speaks immediately after They went out from us but they were not of us And the like character do these Apostates carry in other places in the Epistles in terms equivalent Now therefore the nearest way to discover the Antichrist that was to be in after times among the Gentiles is by observing his likeness and similitude to the former viz. in apostatizing from the pure and sincere profession of the Gospel to Judaism or to Mosaick manner of worship and Judaick principles and Religion Which how the Church of Rome hath done it would require a long time to compare in all particulars but it will require a far longer time for her to clear her self from that just accusation How near doth she come to Judaism in the doctrine of Justification how near in the doctrine of opus operatum How near in the doctrine of expiation by bare Confession How near in the doctrine of the value of Traditions And one for all how near in turning all Religion into Ceremony Their present year of Jubilee is it not Mosaick And were you there at it and saw the manner of their devotions their formal Services and Ceremonious Worship would you not think you were in the old Jerusalem among the Scribes and Pharisees rather than in the the new where the true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth So that when we departed from the Church of Rome we did but the same thing that the Apostles Disciples and other holy converts of the Jewish Nation did they forsook Judaism to embrace the purity of the Gospel And so did we And in the way that they call Heresie we worship God If I have trespassed too much upon your patience by so prolix a discourse upon so unpleasing a subject I must crave your pardon We enquiring after the new Jerusalem where we might find it come to the place where your ways parted and one went right and the other wrong The wrong way is the broader pleasanter and more trodden and not a few that stand in it and cry This is the right way and no other It is good to give warning it is needful to take warning that we be not misled that the men and the way do not deceive us And having thus far observed where the new Jerusalem is not to be found let us now look where it is And first we must not expect to find it in any one particular place as you might have done the old Jerusalem but it is dispersed here and there abroad in the World It is the Catholick Church as we are taught in our Creed and it is not in one only but in this and that and the other Nation When the new Jerusalem is to be measured in Zach. II. an Angel bids O run after yonder young man that is to measure it and tell him that Jerusalem shall be inhabited as a City without walls for the multitude of men and cattel that shall be therein It is a City unlimited and therefore not to be bounded within this or that compass We may use this Paradox of it That it is a fluid and yet a fixed body nay fixed because fluid that is it is moving sometime into one place sometime into another and therefore it shall never fade or perish The Jews accused S. Stephen of Heresie and blasphemy because he said that the Church and Religion should not alway be pinned to that City and Temple but taken away In his answer he sheweth that the Church and Religion is a Pilgrim one while in one place another while in another in Mesopotamia in Charran in Canaan in Egypt And our own observation may tell us that when it failed in Egypt and Israel followed the Idols and manners of that Land as Ezek. XX. that then God found himself a Church in the family of Job and his three friends The saying of our Saviour may suffice for this The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a people that shall bring forth the fruits of it And this is that that makes it fixed or never failing because when it decayeth in one place it groweth in another And that promise of our Saviour will ever maintain it in life and being Upon this rock will I build my Church of the Gospel and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it as they have done against the Church of the Jews In Matth. XXIV when Christ foretels of the desolation of that City Church and Nation that their Sun and Moon and Stars Religion and Church and State should be darkned and fall and come to nothing and they should then see the Son of man whom they would never own coming in a thick cloud and storm of vengeance against them it might be questioned where then will God have a Church when that is gone He gives an answer That the Son of man should send his Angels or Ministers with the sound of a trumpet the trumpet of the Gospel and gather him a Church from all the corners under Heaven To which may not improperly be applied that Heb. XII 22. Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels God will never want his Church but if it be not in one place it will be in another Secondly There is an invisible Church as well as a visible Pauls Jerusalem which is above and out of sight as well as Ezekiels Jerusalem pitched here below There is commonly some invisible Church within the visible as Ezekiels wheel within a wheel But there is sometimes an invisible Church where there is none visible as those seven thousand men in the days of Elias when he could not discern one The Apostle speaking of the new Jerusalem that we are speaking of in that place of the Epistle to the Hebrews before alledged among other things saith Ye are not come to the Mount that might
〈◊〉 of two repugnant significations because the Arabick sometimes translating it according to some of their Lexicographers is of that kind I know that the English to lett signifying to permit comes from the Dutch word Belaten not from letten but the word lett in English signifying to hinder is written with the same letters and answers to the Dutch letten in one sense whence one might infer that letten in the Dutch should have the same significations But I fear I shall almost tyre my Reader before I come to that I principally designed which was the benefit and advantages of Talmudical and Rabbinical Learning the chief talent of this learned and laborious Author This kind of study hath now flourished in these Western parts about the space of one Century and somewhat more But at present begins as it seems to be neglected and laid aside partly because it is thought that the best of it is already extracted and prepared to our hands by the hard and assiduous labours of many both Learned and Judicious Men in which may be much mistake partly because it requires much time and pains not attended with such secular Advantages as other Studies more easie and delightful Since its restauration it hath had somewhat the fortune of Chymistry and hath been by degrees inspected improved and used not only by men of whimsey memory or vanity but by the more Wise Judicious and Philosophical Many of both sorts have given us a large account and examples of the great usefulness of it perhaps besides some more instances of what they have observed I may suggest or more insist on one or two which they have not taken so much notice of First then The very knowledge of the opinions and customs of so considerable a part of mankind as the Jews now are and especially have been heretofore is valuable both for pleasure and use It is a very good piece of History and that of the best kind viz. of Humane Nature and that part of it which is the most different from us and commonly the least known to us And indeed the principal advantage which is to be made by the wiser sort of men of most writings is rather to see what men think and are than to be informed in the Natures or Truth of things they write of To observe what thoughts and passions have run through mens minds what opinions and manners they are of Particularly it is of good importance here to take notice of the strange ignorance the putid fables the impertinent trifling the ridiculous discourses and disputes the odd conceits the fantastical observations and explications the childish reasonings the groundless arrogance and self-conceit the superstitious temper of this people universally except Maimonides and one or two Modern more Philosophically given who yet had enough of it too The very Spirit of Hypocrisie Weakness Pride and Superstition which our Saviour and the Prophets those illustrious Preachers of inward and real Righteousness of a solid and intelligent Piety and Virtue reproved and inveighed against in their times runs still generally through their writings It appears yet by them how blindly or hypocritically they prize the smaller matters of their Religion and their own additional circumstances beyond the weightiâ—r and more important They make a great noise of their being Gods peculiar people in special Covenant with him of the Divinity of their Religion and the jus Divinum of all their little institutions and non-sensical mysteries especially of their Cabbala either from the groundless and whimsical interpretation of some command of their Law or from uncertain or false tradition when in the mean time they little mind the great end and design of what is true and useful in them They will dispense with Charity and Humanity it self to observe their own decisions while they think it lawful to compass the Death of an Israelite who wears Linsey-woolsey and unlawful to take up a Heathen out of the Sea ready to perish They talk as if God were so enamoured of their Ancestors and doted on their posterity that he made the World only for their sake and thought himself still so obliged to them for their honour they do to him by preferring and chusing him and his Laws and Religion before others that he must needs be their Protector and Saviour nor ever suffer one of those his dear people to perish or scarce come to any harm This is a disease in all Religions and but too ready to creep into the best of Religions Christianity it self Which hath so expresly discover'd and severely condemned it in the foolish Hypocrites of the Mosaical Religion to which it succeeds We may further also observe how much the Jews and other Oriental people are given to strange uncouth and strong imaginations especially about intellectual things like the Pythagorean's and Platonists who had their Learning and Notions from the East and the South which as it hath its use for invention and discovery sometimes of more than what ever enters into the thoughts of the dull generality of mankind so it is a great disadvantage of nature too stuffing the mind with a great many impertinencies follies and falshoods and that believed with great pertinacity unless it be managed by the supreme faculties of understanding reason and judgment After all this a man may meet with some opinions among them either by chance or Tradition and many Institutions Rites and Laws with the explication and application of them which may be good hints to Wiser Men. Though I have been generally inclinable to believe that the most of the considerable Doctrines among them about intellectual matters in Divinity and Philosophy As concerning the Nature and Attributes of God some things of the Messia the nature and orders of Angels of the Holy Spirit and Divine presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Resurrection of the dead the Immortality of Souls and their states after death of the first and second death of a kind of Purgatory of the day of judgment of original sin c. of some of which there is some account in the Theol. Jud. of Du Voisin I say I have been always prone to think that the Jews especially the Modern such as Ramban Rasi Saadia Kimchi Abarbanel c. have received them though insensibly and not known to themselves and with some mixture and interpolation of their own from Heathen and Christian Philosophers Fathers Schoolmen who first taught them and set them about in the World I have said the most not all and this I think I could make probable in many particulars if this were a place for it But this is enough for the first Advantage A second use of the Talmudical and Rabbinical Authors may be the confirmation of the History of our Saviour Jesus the true Messias That there were such persons as Jesus and his Disciples who lived in such a Country and in such an Age that he performed such actions and delivered such
of it was nineteen or twenty years ago to shew and to record the truth of those things which that wretched King Jehoiakim would not believe but burnt the Book in the fire And these are the subject of the other Copy that Baruch wrote when the first was burnt EZEKIEL XXXIII THIS twentieth year of Nebuchad-nezzar and of the first Captivity was the twelfth year of Ezekiels Captivity with Jeconiah And on the tenth month of this year and on the fifth day of that month Ezekiel hath intelligence that Jerusalem was fired vers 21. Temple and all It is almost a year and an half since the thing was done and yet intelligence comes but now The evening before these tidings came to him his mouth is opened again to Prophesie to his own people which he had not done since the day that Nebuchad-nezzar first laid siege to Jerusalem three years ago whereof one year and a half was taken up in that siege and one year and somewhat above an half since the City was taken Compare Chap. 24. vers 1. 26 27. In this space of time though Ezekiel were dumb to Israel yet was he not to other Nations for he Prophesieth many sad things against other Countries as is apparent by the Chapters taken up before EZEKIEL XXXII IN the same year viz. the twelfth of Ezekiels and Jechonias Captivity he hath a Prophesie against Egypt in the last month of the year on the first day of the month and another on the fifteenth day of the same month vers 27. Now the dislocation of this Chapter is easily seen for the three and thirtieth Chapter that followeth it is dated in the tenth month of this twelfth year and this in the twelfth month But the reason of this transposition is almost as easily seen namely because there are divers Prophesies against Egypt and other Countries before and this is also brought thither to them that it may lye with them EZEKIEL XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX Captivity 21 ALL these Chapters of Ezekiel fall not under any expressed or determinate Captivity 22 date the fortieth Chapter does under the date of the five and twentieth year of Jechoniahs captivity therefore we are to conceive at large of the time of these Chapters that they were delivered between the twelfth year of that Captivity by which the three and thirtieth Chapter is dated and the five and twentieth by which the fortieth JEREMY LII vers 30. World 3424 Captivity 23 IN the three and twentieth year of Nebuchad-nezzar or the three and twentieth of the first Captivity for these run parallel Nebuzaradan Captain of the Guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty five persons it may be this was in revenge of the base usage of Gedaliah and the Chaldeans that were with him And here is the last blow of the Jews given by the Babylonian and now is Judea and Jerusalem in full and compleat Captivity PSAL. CXXXVII AND here it may not be impertinent to take in the 137 Psalm which describeth the posture and sorrow and soorn of these captived ones as they sate in Babel 1 CHRON. II III IV V VI VII VIII IX Captivity 24 NOR may it be unproper in this place to read and view again these Captivity 25 Chapters of the first of Chronicles It is true indeed that they and Captivity 26 their Texts broken in pieces might be laid to be read in other places as was Captivity 27 said before as those Genealogies and Stories that are recited else-where in Captivity 28 Scripture to be laid with those places where they are mentioned and those Captivity 29 that are not mentioned again in Scripture to be laid with the Stories of such Captivity 30 times as the best evidence or probability will tell when they came to pass or Captivity 31 were in being Those Texts that tell of Plantations of Cities or Countries Captivity 32 to be laid in that place in the Book of Joshua that relateth the dividing of the Land as was done there Those that draw long Pedegrees to conclude in some famous man as the Pedegree of Korah to Samuel Chap. 6. these to be brought in at the Story of that famous man Thus might these Genealogies and Chapters be taken up But since Chap. 9. 1. telleth that these Genealogies were written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah that were captived and since divers places in these Chapters speak of the Captivity and of these latter times and since the reading of these Chapters after the Story of Jerusalems Captivity is as it were a short review of the planting and setling and growing of that Nation in that Country out of which the Story of the Captivity hath told the Reader they were now removed it may be very methodical and proper upon these considerations and very profitable to take in these Chapters and to read them here again EZEK XL XLI XLII XLIII XLIV XLV XLVI XLVII XLVIII World 3434 Captivity 33 THIS thirty third year of the first Captivity and of Nebuchad-nezzar Captivity 34 was the five and twentieth of the Captivity of Jechoniah and Ezekiel And now the Lord sheweth the Prophet a new Temple bigger then all the old Jerusalem and a new Jerusalem bigger then all the Land of Canaan by these very dimensions shewing that these things cannot literally but must spiritually be understood EZEKIEL XXIX from vers 17. to the end And XXX to vers 20. World 3436 Captivity 35 THIS seven and twentieth year of his Captivity Ezekiel hath another Prophesie against Egypt and this is the last we have of this Prophet and it is laid here though it should have been last in the Book that all the Prophesies against Egypt might come together Nebuchad-nezzar had lately taken Tyrus and it had cost him very dear and this year he taketh Egypt as the pay of his Souldiers for that service And now is Babylon intire Monarch of all the World and Nebuchad-nezzar become the golden head Egypt the only Kingdom that opposed him being subdued DANIEL II III IV. World 3437 Captivity 36 NEBUCHAD-NEZZAR now come to his height hath a dream of the four Monarchies of the tree cut down c. grows proud and will be worshipped for a God The three Princes of Judah live in the fire they were now at the least 40 years old and therefore improperly but commonly called the three children This year is called the second year of the Kingdom of Nebuchad-nezzar Dan. 2. 1. not of his first being King but of his intire Monarchy when Egypt the only potent Prince and Nation that stood against him was now subdued So the first year of Cyrus is to be understood Ezr. 1. 1. not the first year of his being King but the first year of his universal Monarchy as the very next verse explaineth it The Lord God hath given me all the Kingdoms of the Earth Some part of this year is Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 37 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 38
any intimation that Paul sent for him away as we have of his sending for Titus whom he left in Creete intendedly for a longer time but it is very probable that Paul designing to have sailed for Syria came near to him and there discovering the danger that was laid in his way by the Jews which might also have infolded Timothy he brought him away back again with him and so both returned into Macedonia and now winter is over they are setting for Asia again But when Paul and this his company are all going for Asia together why should they not set out together but these go before and tarry at Troas and Paul and some other of his company come after Nay they were all to meet at Troas as it appeareth ver 6. why might they not then have gone all together to Troas The reason of this was because Paul himself was to go by Corinth and not minding to stay there but very little because he hastned to Jerusalem he would not take his whole train thither but sends them away the next way they could go to Troas himself promising and resolving to be speedily with them there He had promised a long time to the Church of Corinth to come unto them and he had newly sent word in that Epistle that he had lately sent that now his coming would be speedy 2 Cor. 12. 14. Behold the third time I am ready to come to you and Chap. 13. 1. This is the third time that I am coming to you Not that he had been there twice before for since his first departing thence when he had staied there a long time together at his first planting of the Gospel in that place there is neither mention nor probability of his being there again but this was the third time that he was in coming having promised and intended a journey thither once before but was prevented 2 Cor. 1. 15 16 17. But now he not only promiseth by the Epistle that he will come but staketh the three Brethren that he had sent thither for witnesses and sureties of that promise 2 Cor. 13. 1 2. that in the mouth of those witnesses his promise might be established and assured Now the time is come that he makes good his promise and whilst the rest of his company go directly the next cut to Troas he himself and Luke and whom else he thought good to retain with him go about by Corinth And now to look a little further into the reason of their thus parting company and of Pauls short stay at Corinth when he came there we may take into thoughts besides how much he hastned to Jerusalem the jealousie that he had that he should not find all things at Corinth so comfortable to himself and so creditable to them before those that should come with him as he desired He hath many passages in the second Epistle that he wrote to them that glance that way For though as to the general there was Reformation wrought among them upon the receiving of his first Epistle and thereupon he speaketh very excellent things of them yet were there not a few that thought basely of him 2 Cor. 10. 1 2. and traduced him and his Doctrine Chap. 11. 12. and gave him cause to suspect that his boasting of that Church to the Churches of Macedonia might come off but indifferently if the Macedonians should come with him to see how all things were there 2 Cor. 9. 4. And therefore it was but the good policy of just fear grief and prudence to send them by another way and he had very just cause to stay but a while when he came there From Corinth in his short stay there he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS as hath been well supposed by some of the Ancients is asserted by the postscript and may be concluded from these Observations 1. That he saith that he is now going to Jerusalem to bring to the Saints that benevolence that they of Macedonia and Achaia had collected for them Rom. 15. 26. The word Achaia tels us that he now was sure of the Corinthian contribution which he was not sure of till he came there 2. That he commendeth to the Romans Phaebe a servant of the Church of Cenchraea Rom. 16. 1. which Cenchraea was a place belonging to Corinth as was observed before though at some few miles distance 3. That he calleth Erastus Chamberlain of the City Rom. 16. 23. of whom it is said Erastus abode at Corinth 2 Tim. 4. 4. That he calleth Gaius his host or the man with whom he lodged and the host of the whole Church or in whose house strangers had their intertainment Rom. 16. 23. who was a Corinthian 1 Cor. 1. 14. And hence it appeareth that Gaius of Derbe who was one of those that were gone before to Troas was one man and Gaius of Corinth was another It is true indeed that the greetings of some men were sent in this Epistle which were not with Paul at this present in Corinth as Timothies Rom. 16. 20. who was gone to Troas and Sosipaters who was gone thither also for he I suppose is the same with Sopater of Berea Acts 20. 4. and this might seem to infringe the truth of this opinion that holdeth that this Epistle was written from Corinth But when it is considered how lately Paul and these men parted and that it is past doubt that he would acquaint them before their parting of his intentions to send to Rome it is no difficulty to conceive how their salutations came inserted into that Epistle There are indeed some that confess that it was written from Corinth but not at this time but at another namely in that time when Paul travelled Greece of which journey there is mention Act. 20. in which time among other places they conceive he came to Corinth and there wrote this Epistle But 1. it may very well be questioned whether he were at Corinth in these three months travels or no. For whereas he had promised to call on them as he went to Jerusalem 1 Cor. 16. 7. which he intended when he travelled those three months but that he discovered that the Jews lay in wait for him he excuseth himself for not coming according to that promise 2 Cor. 1. 16 17. And if it were granted that he was at Corinth at that time yet 2. he could not write this Epistle at that time because when he wrote it he knew the contribution of the Corinthian Church was then ready Rom. 15. 26. which when he travelled Greece either indeed was not so or at least he knew not that it was as appeareth copiously in his second Epistle to that Church The Apostle in this most sublime Epistle clears fully and divinely the two great mysteries of the Gospel Righteousness by faith and the calling of the Gentiles And in the handling of these he handles the great points Original sin Election and casting off of the Jews He laies this position down concerning
henceforth must Vision and Prophesie and Inspiration cease for ever These had been used and imparted all along for the drawing up of the mind of God into writing as also the appearing of Angels had been used for the further and further still revealing of his will and when the full revelation of that was compleated their appearing and revelations to men must be no more So that this Revelation to John was the topping up and finishing of all revelations The Lord had promised that in the last days of Jerusalem he would pour down of his Spirit upon all flesh Act. 2. 17. And Christ promised to his Apostles that he would lead them into all truth John 16. 12 13. To look for therefore the giving of those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit beyond the fall of Jerusalem there is no warrant and there is no need since when the inspired penmen had written all that the Holy Ghost directed to write All truth was written It is not to be denied indeed that those that had these extraordinary gifts before the fall of Jerusalem if they lived after had them after for the promoting of these ends for which they were given but there is neither ground nor reason whereupon to believe that they were restored to the next generation or were or are to be imparted to any generation for ever For as it was in Israel at the first setling of their Church so was it in this case in the first setling of the Gospel The first fathers of the Sanhedrin in the wilderness were indued with Divine gifts such as we are speaking of Numb 11. 25. but when that generation was expired those that were to succeed in that Function and Imployment were such as were qualified for it by education study and parts acquired So was it with this first age of the Gospel and the ages succeeding At the first dispersing of the Gospel it was absolutely needful that the first planters should be furnished with such extraordinary gifts or else it was not possible it should be planted As this may appear by a plain instance Paul comes to a place where the Gospel had never come he stays a month or two and begets a Church and then he is to go his way and to leave them Who now in this Church is fit to be their Minister They being all alike but very children in the Gospel but Paul is directed by the Holy Ghost to lay his hands upon such and such of them and that bestows upon them the gift of Tongues and Prophesying and now they are able to be Ministers and to teach the Congregation But after that generation when the Gospel was setled in all the world and committed to writing and written to be read and studied then was studdy of the Scriptures the way to inable men to unfold the Scriptures and fit them to be Ministers to instruct others and Revelations and Inspirations neither needful nor safe to be looked after nor hopeful to be attained unto And this was the reason why Paul coming but newly out of Ephesus and Crete when he could have ordained and qualified Ministers with abilities by the imposition of his hands would not do it but left Timothy and Titus to Ordain though they could not bestow those gifts because he knew the way that the Lord had appointed Ministers thenceforward to be inabled for the Ministry not by extraordinary infusions of the Spirit but by serious study of the Scriptures not by a miraculous but by an ordinary Ordination And accordingly he gives Timothy himself counsel to study 1 Tim. 4. 13. though he were plentifully indued with these extraordinary indowments 1 Tim. 4. 14. And Paul himself had his Books for study or he had them to no purpose 2 Tim. 4. 13. And indeed it had been the way of God he hath instructed his people by a studious and learned Ministry ever since he gave a written word to instruct them in 1. Who were the standing Ministry of Israel all the time from the giving of the Law to the Captivity into Babel Not Prophets or those inspired men for they were but occasional Teachers and there were often long spaces of time wherein no Prophet appeared but the Priests and Levites that became Learned in the Law by study Deut. 33. 10. Hos. 46. Mal. 2. 7. And for this end as hath been touched they were disposed into forty eight Cities of their own as so many Universities where they studied the Law together and from thence were sent out into the several Synagogues to teach the people and had the Tithes paid them for their maintenance whilest they studied in the Universities and for their preaching in the Synagogues And it may be observed that even they that had the prophetick spirit did not only study the Scriptures themselves Josh. 1. 8. Dan. 9. 1. but sent the people for instruction to the Priests who were students and the standing Ministry Hag. 2. 11. Mal. 2. 7. 2. If you consider the times under the second Temple then it was utterly impossible that the people should be taught but by a studious and learned Ministry for the spirit of Prophesie was departed and the Scriptures were then in an unknown Tongue to all but Students And hence they had an interpreter in every Synagogue to render into the Vulgar what was read in the Law and the Prophets in the Original So that the Spirit of God inspired certain persons whom he pleased to be the revealers of his will till he had imparted and committed to writing what he thought fit to reveal under the Old Testament and when he had compleated that the Holy Ghost departed and such inspirations ceased And when the Gospel was to come in then the Spirit was restored again and bestowed upon several persons for the revealing further of the mind of God and compleating the work he had to do for the setling of the Gospel and penning of the New Testament and that being done these gifts and inspirations cease and may no more be expected then we may expect some other Gospel yet to come PARERGON Concerning the FALL of JERUSALEM AND The Condition of the JEWS in that Land after BEING come so near to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem as that it is but three years and an half and a little more from the time we have concluded with unto it and having so frequent occasion to mention that destruction and vengeance upon that Nation as we have had It may not be amiss to drive so for further as to take a view of such a spectacle not that we go about to write the History of their Wars and ruine which were but to transcribe Josephus who is in every mans hand but to take a brief account of the times thither and of the condition of the Nation in that Land afterward the History of which is not altogether so obvious as the other by both which we may not only see the performance of those threatnings of
stile of the continuance of the house of Omri into which Family his Father had married and was become so prophane as to worship their Idols The Son of the two and forty years was Ahaziah when he began to reign That is of the last of the two and forty of the house of Omri in which it fell and Ahaziah with it Ver. 11. Josias begat Jechonias So readeth the Syrian Arabrick and the most and best Greek Copies And so the Evangelist himself requireth that it be read to make fourteen generations from David to the Captivity into Babel And so readeth D. Kimchi on 1 Chron. 3. 15. Josias indeed begat Joachim and Joachim begat Jechonias but he that was neither fit to be lamented nor to be buried like one of the Kings of Judah Jerem. 22. 18 19. was much more unfit to come into the Line of the Kings of Judah that leadeth to Christ. Ver. 12. Jechonias begat Salathiel Jechonias was Father to Salathiel as Baasha was to Ahab 1 King 20. 34. not by generation but by predecession For Jechonias in very deed was childless Jer. 22. 30. and the natural Father of Salathiel was Neri Luke 3. 27. yet he is said to beget him because he declared and owned him for his next heir and Successor As God is said to beget Christ on the day of his Resurrection Psal. 2. 7. Act. 13. 33. that is declared him thereby to be his Son Rom. 1. 4. The Scripture affecteth to speak short in relating of Stories that are well known before as to spare more you may find an example far harsher than this in 1 Chron. 1. 36. where Timna the Concubine of Eliphaz is named as Eliphaz his Son And in 1 Chron. 3. 16. Zedechia the Uncle of Jechoniah is called his Son because he succeeded him in the Roialty The Jews in their Talmud give this rule for a fundamental point That there is no King to be for Irael but of the house of David and of the seed of Solomon only And he that separateth against this Family denyeth the Name of the blessed God and the words of his Prophets that are spoken in truth Sanhedr Perek 10. R. Samuel in Ner. Mitsvah fol. 153. With which opinion although Matthew seem to comply at the first appearance in that he deriveth our Saviour from Solomon because of the Hebrews for whom he wrote which looked for him from thence yet the carnal sense of it which aimeth only at the earthly Kingdom of the Messias and at the exact descent from Solomon he closely confuteth to the eyes of the intelligent Reader by these two things First in that he bringeth the Line along to Jechonias in whom the seed of Solomon and the regal dignity also with it failed Secondly in that he deriveth the interest of Christ in that dignity if it were any only by Joseph which according to the flesh had no relation at all to him save the marriage of his Mother The Jews to disgrace the Gospel of S. Luke do hold that Jechonias was the natural Father of Salathiel and that upon his repentance in Babel God gave him Children as Assir and Salathiel D. Kimchi on 1 Chron. 3. But God had sworn Jer. 22. 28. and he will not repent Psal. 110. 4. that he should die childless to the Throne and his repentance could no more repeal this Oath of God then the prayer of Moses did the decree of his not entring into the Land And Salathiel begat Zerobabel Salathiel begat Pedaiah and Pedaiah begat Zorobabel 1 Chron. 3. 18. 19. But because when the masculine Line of Solomons house failed in Jechonias the dignity turning over to the Line of Nathan first setled upon Salathiel but first shewed it self eminent in Zorobabel therefore constantly when mention is made of Zorobabel he is not called the Son of Pedaiah a man of no action but obscure but the Son of Salathiel in whom the honour of that Family began For Jechonias was a signet plucked off Jer. 22. 24. and Zorobabel was set on again in his stead Hag. 2. 23. Ver. 13. And Zorobabel begat Abiud Among the children of Zorobabel mentioneth 1 Chron. 3. 19 20. there is no memorial either of Abiud his Son named here or of Rhesa his Son named by St. Luke But as in Scripture it is ordinary for one man to have several names so is it to be understood of these The eldest Son then of Zorobabel to whom the honour lately faln upon that house was to descend was called Mesullam Either in memorial of Solomon the glory of whose house was transferred to him and so he also calleth a daughter of his Shelomith the name by which the wife of Solomon is called Cant. 6. 13. as being but the feminine of Shelomoh Or from the significancy of the word which importeth requited For whereas Jeconias was also called Shallum that is finished because the race and line of Solomon did end in him when a recompence of the failing of that is made by the succession of Salathiel in its stead well might Zorobabel in whom it first shewed call his Son Meshullam or requited Or from their peaceable building and inhabiting Jerusalem after their return from Babel The Son Meshullam was called also Abiud in remembrance of his Fathers glory And his second brother Hannaniah was also called Rhesa that is The chief or principal because of Christs descending from him These things we have now but by conjecture but that we may take the bolder because the Text in the place alledged in the Chronicles hath set these two Sons of Zorobabel apart and distinct from the rest of their brethren as if for some special thing more remarkable then they But there is no doubt but the Evangelists in naming them by these names had warranty from known and common Records to justifie them in it Ver. 17. Fourteen generations In every one of these several fourteens they were under a several and distinct manner of Government and the end of each fourteen produced some alteration in their state In the first they were under Prophets in the second under Kings and in the third under Hasmonean Priests The first fourteen brought their state to glory in the Kingdom of David The second to misery in the Captivity of Babylon and the third to glory again in the Kingdom of Christ. The first begins with Abraham that recived the promise and ends in David that received it again with greater clearness The second begins with the building of the Temple and ends in the destruction of it The third begins with their peeping out of misery in Babel and ends in the accomplished delivery by Christ. The second that terminateth in the peoples captiving into Babel fixeth not no Jehoiakim in whom the captivity began nor in Zedekiah in whom it was consummate but in Jechonias who was in the middle space between And from the same date doth Ezekiel count and reckon the captivity through all his book as Chap. 8. 1. 20. 1.
fidelity than barely what will keep the Translatours out of danger Thirdly Therefore they strive as much as they can to conceal the Truth and Treasure of the Scripture from the Heathen and as much as they dare to delude them Their chief means for this is to use an unpricked Bible in which the words written without vowels might be bended divers ways and into divers senses and different from the meaning of the Original and yet if the Translation were questioned they might prick or vowel the word so as to agree to their Translation How they have dealt in this kind there is none that ever laid the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint together but hath observed Fourthly Their differences from the Original which were innumerable were partly of ignorance they themselves not being able to read the Text alway true in a Copy unvowelled But this ignorance was also voluntary in them they not caring to mistake so that they might do it with their own security Their general care was that since of necessity they must Translate the Bible as little of it might be imparted and revealed by the Translation as was possible Their particular and special heed was also that those places of the Text which Translated Literally or according to the true meaning might prove dangerous any ways to the Nation of the Jews or bring them into distaste with the potent King for whom they Translated should be so tempered and qualified that no hazzard might arise nor any such matter might be seen Fifthly It was a common speech among the Jews and rang ordinarily in their Schools and Pulpits That the seventy Souls of Jacobs family that went down into Egypt were equivalent or answerabe in worth to all the seventy Nations of the World This was a dangerous doctrine for the Jews if it should come to be known as it could not choose but be especially when their puissant enemies should find the numbers agreeable of seventy Souls Gen. 46. and seventy Nations Gen. 10. To prevent any such danger the Translators thought it a sure way to spoil the just number in both places and so they did reckon seventy five Souls and seventy two Nations both which accounts are followed by Saint Luke Act. 7. and in this place Sixthly The several persons reckoned Gen. 10. Every one of which was the Father and original of a several Nation be just seventy The Translatours to spoil the sum which might prove perilous have added two more and both of the same name Cainan the one the immediate son of Sem the other his Grandchild or the son of Arphaxad For ver 22. of that Chapter they read thus The sons of Sem were Elam and Ashur and Arphaxad and Lud and Aram and Cainan and vers 24. thus Arphaxad begat Cainan and Cainan begat Sala In which additions these two things are very observable First The place where they have thrust in these two men Namely so close to Sem as could not possibly be closer unless they would have had him to have had two sons of the same name Cainan Secondly The name it self that they have thus chosen twice over namely Cainan which signifieth mourning or lamenting So Enosh called his son Gen. 5. 9. Because of the lamentable corruption of Religion in those times And it is without doubt the Translatours in the iterated choice of this word or heavy and doleful name intended to shew some inward sorrow the cause of which may be best imagined by laying the name and the place of it together The blessing of Noah upon Japhet God shall inlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem Gen. 2. 27. The Jews themselves of old understood to aim at the Greek Tongue viz. that God should use that as a means for the admission of the Heathen to the secrets and mysteries of the Jews Religion This was their vexation at all times to hear or to think of the Gentiles being called as appears by Jonah Chap. 4. 1. by the Nazarites Luke 4. 28. and by them of Jerusalem Act. 22. 21 22. For Moses had plainly told them that their calling in should be the others casting off Deut. 32. 21. Therefore it could not but be a most vehement sorrow and main vexation to these Translators that they perforce and so sore against their wills must be made the instruments by translating the Bible into Greek to let Japhet or the Heathen into the tents of Sem. This sorrow as their Nation expressed by a mournful Fast so did they themselves among other things by a lamenting and sorrowing name Cainan twice over put in so close to Sem as if they called on him to mourn with them because his tents were now unlocking for the entrance of the Gentiles Seventhly God using the Septuagint as the Key for admission of the Heathen and as an Harbinger to the New Testament left it not there but therein used it also in allegations from the Old yet oftentimes differing from the letter of the same but never without special reason Eighthly Saint Luke as he followed the Doctor of the Gentiles Saint Paul so he wrote his Gospel for the Gentiles therefore whereas Matthew writing his for the Jews deriveth the Genealogy but from Abraham the first Father of the Jews This Evangelist writing for the Gentiles fetcheth the Line from Adam the common Father of all both Jews and Gentiles This is the aim and scope of this Genealogy and the reason why it is set at Christs Baptism First To shew that there was no distinction of persons in the promise given to Adam for all Nations were then equally in his loins for this the holy line runs down to him Secondly That therefore all Nations have equal interest in the Messias and that in the Preaching of the Gospel which Christ began from his Baptism there should be no difference of people made as there was before This being the intent of the Pedegrees placing here as the very placing of it doth inevitably evince it is not only warrantable but also admirably divine that Luke taketh in Cainan from the Seventy For first writing for Heathens he must follow the heathens Bible in his quotations Secondly In Genealogies he was to be a Coppier not a Corrector Thirdly and chiefly In following this insertion of the Seventy he imbraceth not their error but divinely draweth us to look at their intent When Jude mentioneth Michaels striving with Satan about the body of Moses he approveth not the story as true which he knew to be but a Talmudick Parable but from the Jews own Authors he useth this as an argument against them and for their instruction So though Luke from the Seventy the Bible of the Heathen have alledged Cainan the son of Arphaxad he alledgeth it not as the truth more than the Hebrew but from the Septuagints own authority or from the matter which they inserted in distaste of the calling of the Heathen he maketh comfortable use and instruction to the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this speech of the Baptist must needs have a distinct and different sense because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between them doth shew that the one is made the reason of the other He was before me in place and preheminence because he was before me in time and being Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seemeth to refer to the time past and which hath occasioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by some to be understood concerning priority of time is to be construed in such a construction as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Matth. 21. 42. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 4. 11. words not of the present tense and yet necessarily to be rendred in the present time I become the head of the corner Ver. 16. And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace I. These are the words of the Evangelist and not of the Baptist and so they are held to be by Cyrill Chrysostom Chemnitius and some others though there be that hold that they are the Baptists words and some that think no matter whether's words they be taken to be either the one or the other They appear to be spoken by the Evangelist 1. By their agreement with his words in ver 14. for there he speaketh of Christs being full of grace and truth and here of their enjoying of his fulness 2. By the agreement of the next following verse which no question proceeded from the same speaker with the 14 verse also 3. By the agreement of vers 18. which as doubtless proceeded from the same speaker likewise with the same words of the same Evangelist 1 Joh. 4. 12. 4. Those that the Baptist was speaking to in the verse preceding were as yet altogether ignorant of Christ and unacquainted with his appearing and therefore it was most improper for John to say of himself and of them together All we have received when they had yet received little or nothing at all 5. The very sense of the words will demonstrate them to be the speech of the Evangelist and not of the Baptist as will appear in taking them up II. The verse consisteth of two several and distinct clauses and the word and in the middle of it though it be a conjunctive particle yet plainly forceth this distinction for though it is not to be denied that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very frequent in Scripture that is the word and very oft bringing on a latter clause which speaketh but the very same thing though in plainer terms with the former and in explanation of it yet is this here unlikely to be such a one though held by divers so to be for I suppose it will be very hard to match or parallel this verse in all the Scripture with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of such a tenour The verse therefore being thus two distinct and several clauses it is inevitably and necessarily to be construed in such a kind of syntax and construction Of his fulness we have received somewhat and we have also received grace for grace And this was well observed by Austine long ago He saith not saith he of his fulness we have received grace for grace but of his fulness we have all received and grace for grace so that he would have us to understand that we have received somewhat of his fulness and grace over and above III. Although it be most true that all the Saints of God have received all their graces of the fulness of Christ for so Chrysostom and Cyrill understand and interpret the word â—e and though it be as true that the holy Patriarchs and Prophets that were before John received all their gifts and endowments from the same fulness for so some others interpret that word we as if John should mean them and joyn himself with them when he saith We have all received yet it seemeth that the meaning and intention of the Evangelist in this place is neither the one nor the other but that by the word we in this place he understandeth himself only and his fellow Disciples For 1. he had used the word in that sense vers 14. he dwelt among us and we saw his glory where the words us and we do necessarily signifie the Apostles or Disciples only as was shewed there and how can the same word we be taken in this verse which is but two verses off any way so properly as in the same sense as it was there 2. The Evangelist is in this place shewing how Christ was declared and published by his Ministers as well as he shewed himself in his own person And as John the Baptist was the first so we the Apostles and Disciples were next appointed to be Preachers and proclaimers of him as we shall see by the scope of these verses that lye together by and by IV. Now that the Apostles received exceeding much from or of Christs fulness there needeth no proving to those that have read the Gospel They received of that exceeding much favour exceeding much sanctification exceeding much knowledge exceeding much miraculous power exceeding much of the Spirit and over and beside all this they received grace for grace V. This latter clause hath almost as many several interpretations given of it as there be words in the whole verse I shall not spare to present the Reader with the variety because I will not deny him his choice Austine in the place lately alledged paraphraseth it thus We received of his fulness first grace and then again we received grace for grace What grace received we first Faith walking in faith we walk in grace What meaneth grace for grace By faith we * * * * * * Promeremur obtain God justification and life eternal Phâ—l 3. 6. Rom. 1. 17. 2 Cor. 3. 11. Rom. 8. 4 c. Chrysostome in Homil. 14. on John gives it thus Grace for grace which for which The New for the Old for as there is a righteousness and a righteousness a faith and a faith adoption and adoption a glory and a glory a law and a law a worship and a worship a covenant and a covenant a sanctifying and a sanctifying a baptism and a baptism sacrifice and sacrifice temple and temple circumcision and circumcision so is there a grace and a grace but they as types these as the truth And much in the same tract goeth Cyrill lib. 2. on John cap. 21. comparing the Evangelical grace given by Christ with the legal grace under Moses and of the same judgment is Beza Tolet on this place glosseth it thus Grace is given to us because of the grace that is in Christ and we are made acceptable to God because of him or as Camerarius that embraceth the same sense doth express it We have received the favour towards us because of the favour of God towards the Son Maldonat saith Grace for grace is that some have received one
these two dates sometimes from his resurrection and sometimes from the destruction of Jerusalem from his resurrection whereby he was declared mightily to be the Son of God Rom. 1. 4. as Luke 22. 18. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the Kingdom of God be come meaning not till after his resurrection for then he eat and drank with them Act. 1. 4. Luke 24. 43 44. And from the destruction of Jerusalem Luke 21. 31 32. Matth. 16. 28. because then he triumphed over those that had despised his rule and he transferred his Kingdom to another people Matth. 21. 40 41 43. 2. It signifieth the changed administration of the way and things of Salvation from the Ceremonial and carnal rites which were appointed before to a worship of God in spirit and truth Not but that that spiritual service was inwrapped under those formalities if they could have found it out but that now the change was so apparent and so great that those outsides of Ceremonies were to be laid aside and the internal substance only to be looked after In this sense the Kingdom of Heaven is dated from the beginning of John Baptists Ministery when this change did first begin Luke 16. 16. and that time called the beginning of the Gospel Mark 1. 1. this change is called the regeneration Matth. 19. 28. And new Heavens and new Earth Esay 65. 16. 3. It signifieth the planting of the Gospel and of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ among the Gentiles Matth. 8. 11 12. 21. 43. 4. It signifieth the work of the Gospel grace wrought in the heart or the vertue and vigour of this spiritual Kingdom of Christ there Matth. 6. 33. 13. 46. 15. 3 c. 5. And sometimes it signifies the state of glory Luke 18. 18 24 25. And now to return to that enquiry that we were about concerning the connexion of our Saviours words to the words of Nicodemus and concerning the meaning of the words themselves we shall observe only these three particulars 1. That Nicodemus in his words in the verse before doth own some appearance and glimpse of the Kingdom of God or coming of the Messias in the wondrous miracles that Christ had wrought We shall not much dispute whether when he saith that Christ was a Teacher come from God he means that he was the Messias or that he was Elias his forerunner or that he was some Prophet that was as the dawning to the days of Messias certainly his argument from Christs miracles doth speak him as thinking those days near at hand and the Kingdom of God now beginning to appear Such arguments we find elsewhere producing such a conclusion and by the observing of them we may the better judge of this Nathaniel concludes Christ the King of Israel because he had wonderfully told him of some secret passage of his under a Fig-tree John 1. 49. And the woman of Samaria because he had told her of her secret villany resolves that he must needs be the Messias Joh. 4. 29. So when he had filled the people with five loaves and two fishes they make this undoubted conclusion Of a truth this is the Prophet and they would have crowned him for Messias John 6. 14 15. And our Saviour himself makes this an undeniable argument I by the Spirit of God do cast out Devils ergo No doubt the Kingdom of God is come among you Luke 11. 20. for such wonders cannot be expected but in the days of Messias Such like arguments are those John 7. 31. 9. 16. 11. 47 48. 15. 24. The blasphemous Jews of those times found these so evincing and undeniable evidences toward such a conclusion that they could find no other way to evade the dint of them but by that cursed tergiversation as sensless as it was impious That Christ wrought these wonders by the power of the Devil Luke 11. 15. John 10. 20. And as the blasphemous Jews in times succeeding have sought to evade them by this assertion that when Messias should come he would do no miracles Talm. in Sanhedr per. 10. Maym. in Melachim per. 11 12. 2. But this was Nicodemus his argumentation upon the miracles that he saw done that undoubtedly this could be nothing but a token of the days of the Messias or Kingdom of God now approached and so our Saviour easily reads his meaning and so the alledged like arguments shew that even any of the learned or observing ones of the Nation would readily have construed his words though he spake not so much in those very syllables and therefore it is needless to say that Christ knew it was in his thoughts to enquire about the Kingdom of Heaven it was legible enough in these very words that he acknowledged an undeniable evidence of the Kingdom of Heaven now demonstrated in those wondrous miracles that Christ wrought which reasoning may be heightned by these two circumstances in that miracles had been so long ceased and should now so break forth and that in the times when miracles were wrought none were wrought such as these 3. The connexion therefore of our Saviours words to his upon these considerations is of no difficulty or harshness at all but as direct and proper as was possible For as Nicodemus by these miracles could not but conclude upon the times of the Messias that they were now come so by his Judaical and Pharisaical principles he conceived that those glorious times that they expected under Messias should take the people as they were and they without any inward change of mind or heart at all should be translated into an outward changed condition of happiness and earthly glory as much as they could desire or imagine No saith Christ there is more required of and in him that desires to see and partake of the happiness of that Kingdom and those days he must also suffer a changedness in himself and in his principles and be cast into a new mold and be as if he were born anew And thus may we make out the connexion of this speech of Christ to that of Nicodemus and now there remains to examine the meaning of the speech it self It is not much material as to sense of the thing it self whether to read it Except a man be born again or Except a man be born from above either of the expressions will very well carry the sense our Saviour intendeth in it but to take it in the latter translation from above doth more properly and pertinently speak out the thing that is aimed at It was the great confidence and boasting of the Jews that they were born and descended of the seed of Abraham and upon this score and priviledge they relied so much that they accounted that very thing to estate them exceedingly in a happy condition as to the favour of God and welfare of their spiritual estate It were endless to shew out of Jewish Authors how great matters they speak of accrewing to them 〈◊〉
not altogether groundless That since God had made those waters of so high a resemblance as to betoken so high a Kingdom and since that that resemblance held out by God himself had brought those waters into so high an esteem and observation with the people It pleased him against the coming and appearing of that promised King and Kingdom to honour and indue those waters with such soveraign and healing virtue as the story we are upon speaketh of that as they had hitherto represented his Kingdom so their healing virtue given them against his appearing did represent his healing power as Mal. 4. 2. And not only that but also gave occasion to the people to think that the glory of Davids Kingdom was near at hand when such unwonted and wondrous excellency did now appear in those waters that did signifie it So when the time of the promise to Israel in Egypt drew nigh God bestowed a miraculous and supernatural course of nature if we may so call it for the Generation and Birth of their children Act. 7. 17. V. I shall not strive to conclude any under this opinion with me I shall only conclude with two things which are remarkable about the waters of Siloam from which Fountain I do suppose the waters of Bethesda to have their flowing 1. The first is that as this collection of Siloam waters in Bethesda was honoured with this miraculous virtue of healing of all diseases so that in Joh. 9. Christ honoured the other pool that was filled from Siloam with the miraculous cure of eyes born blind 2. Secondly Let it be observed how strangely and one would wonder to what purpose the Holy Ghost doth construe the Hebrew word Siloam into a Greek expression Joh. 9. 7. Go wash in the Pool of Siloam which is by interpretation sent Who sent Let the Reader but examine whether he can find any to whom the construction may so properly be applied as to Christ sent of God whom that Fountain or waters signified §. Having five Porches We observed before that these Porches are to be understood for Cloister walks five in number according to the quinque lateral or five-angle form of the pool and place for so it is more proper to hold concerning the number rather than to look after allusions and allegories about it which give but little satisfaction as to the historical matter whether these Cloisters were built before the healing virtue of the water first appeared for the conveniency of those that had occasion to come to the waters or after the appearing of that miraculous excellency for the accommodation of them that stayed there for healing it is not much worth the labour to inquire and there is but little hope to find it out It is more generally thought that they were built upon the latter occasion and so we leave them The general silence of the Jews about the race and wondrous virtue of this pool is something strange who in the abundant praises and privileges and particulars of Jerusalem which they give yet speak not one syllable that I have ever found towards the story of Bethesda though it might have been a story of so remarkable recognisance which makes me the rather to believe that this healing virtue of it was and was taken for a presage of the near approach of the Messias as we have spoken because they to weaken the truth of his coming have subtilly been silent in such a matter I may not utterly omit to say something about the opinions of others concerning the soveraign efficacy of these waters the two that are the most current and that carry the fairest probability and colour with them are these 1. That in this pool the Sacrifices were washed and God would honour the rite of Sacrifice with such a miraculous work in the place where they were washed and fitted for the Altar which if the thing were true were not impertinent in the application but the truth I question For if they mean that the beasts that were to be sacrificed were washed here whilst they were alive as some and those not a few will have it it is neither to be proved by the Scripture nor dreamed of by any Jews that write upon that subject that any sacrificed beast was to be washed till he was slain But if they mean that the inwards of the slain Sacrifice was washed here as the inwards indeed were the only things except the legs that were to be washed Lev. 1. 9. it is easie to be proved by Scripture that the inwards were washed at the Temple and never brought out thence and the Talmudists shew us a room at the Temple for this very purpose called The washing room which we have spoken of in its place where they had their first scouring and marble Tables in the Court where they had a second 2. Another opinion is that God by this wondrous virtue of Bethesda waters would antedate as it were honour to the waters of Baptism which was now to come in But might not the Pharisees as well misconstrue the matter and say it sealed the honour of their washings which were of use already and so long before as well as of Baptism that was now coming in I am not ignorant of the conception of Tremellius in this matter in his marginal notes to Nehem. 3. but when I consider what kind of man Eliashib was to whom that opinion refers so much I can see but little satisfaction in that conjecture especially considering how dead the appearing of Angels or miracles had been from the times of Eliashib till near the appearing of Christ in humane flesh Vers. 4. For an Angel went down at a certain season c. It is but a kind of labour lost to stand to debate whether this season were fixed to all the three festivals or to Passover time alone or to Pentecost alone or to some other determinate time of the year for these opinions are severally asserted it is most probable the time was uncertain and the waiters there could not guess when the Angel would come but stood in continual expectation and attendance for his coming Whether he appeared in visible shape is also questionable but though he were not to be seen which is the more probable yet did he give so visible and apparent evidence of his being there by troubling the water either causing it to boyl or tumble in waves or some such thing that the parties present did perceive well enough when he was come The Lord would use an Angel in this imployment and the Angel must use the troubling of the water for the healing effect not only because it is Gods ordinary way of providence to use the ministration of Angels in such things nor altogether because the meer troubling of the water did produce such an efficacy but because the people might the more visibly observe the restoring of sensible ministration of Angels and of works miraculous which had been either a very meer stranger or if at
Grecian studies of Philosophy but with more vainglory than solidity He not contented to have been a personal accuser of the Jews to Caius in that their Embassie wrote also bitterly against them in his Egyptian History to disgrace them to posterity Of which Josephus that wrote two books in answer of him giveth this censure That some things that he had written were like to what others had written before other things very cold some calumnious and some very unlearned And the end and death of this blackmouthed railer he describeth thus To me it seemeth that he was justly punished for his blasphemies even against his own Country laws for he was circumcised of necessity having an ulcer about his privities and being nothing helped by the cutting or circumcising but putrifying with miserable pains he died Contr. Apion lib. 2. §. 8. Philo the Jew Philo was a Jew by Nation and Alexandrian by birth by line of the kindred of the Priests and by family the brother of Alexander Alabarcha His education was in learning and that mixed according to his original and residence of the Jews and of the Greeks his proof was according to his education versed in the learning of both the Nations and not inferior to the most learned in either From this mixture of his knowledge proceeded the quaintness of his stile and writing explaining Divinity by Philosophy or rather forcing Philosopy out of Divinity that he spoiled the one and did not much mend the other Hence his Allegories which did not only obscure the clear Text but also much soil the Theology of succeeding times His language is sweet smooth and easie and Athens it self is not more elegant and Athenian For attaining to the Greek in Alexandria partly naturally that being a Grecian City and partly by study as not native Grecians used to do he by a mixture of these two together came to the very Apex and perfection of the language in copiousness of words and in choice His stile is always fluent and indeed often to superfluity dilating his expressions sometimes so copious that he is rather prodigal of words than liberal and sheweth what he could say if the cause required b◠saying so much when there is little or no cause at all And to give him his character for this in short He is more a Philosopher than a Scripture man in heart and more a Rhetorician than a Philosopher in tongue His manner of writing is more ingenious than solid and seemeth rather to draw the subject whereon he writeth whither his fancy pleaseth than to follow it whither the nature and inclination of it doth incline Hence his allegorizing of whatsoever cometh to his hand and his peremptory confidence in whatsoever he doth allegorize insomuch that sometimes he perswadeth himself that he speaketh mysteries as pag 89. and sometimes he checketh the Scripture if it speak not as he would have it as pag. 100. How too many of the Fathers in the Primitive Church followed him in this his vein it is too well known to the loss of too much time both in their writing and in our reading Whether it were because he was the first that wrote upon the Bible or rather because he was the first that wrote in this strain whose writings came unto their hands that brought him into credit with Christian Writers he was so far followed by too many that while they would explain Scripture they did but intricate it and hazarded to lose the truth of the story under the cloud of the Allegory The Jews have a strain of writing upon the Scripture that flieth in a higher region than the writings of Christians as is apparent to him that shall read their Authors Now Philo being a Jew and naturally affecting like them to soar in a high place and being by his education in the Grecian wisdom more Philosophical than the Jews usually were and by inclination much affected with that learning he soareth the Jewish pitch with his Grecian wings and attaineth to a place in which none had flown in before unless the Therapeutae of whom hereafter writing in a strain that none had used before and which too many or at least many too much used after of his many strange and mysterious matters that he findeth out in his vein of allegorizing let the Reader taste but some As see what he saith of the invisible Word of God pag. 5. and pag. 24. 169. 152. How he is a Pythagorean for numbers pag. 8. and pag. 15 16 31. where he is even bewitched with the number Seven and pag. 32 33. as the Therapeutae were 695. from whom he seemeth to have sucked in his Divinity Pag. 9. He accounteth the Stars to presage future things whom in pag. 12. he almost calleth intelligible Creatures pag. 168. and immortal Spirits pag. 222. Pag. 12. He seemeth to think that God had some Coadjutors in mans Creation Pag. 15. God honored the seventh day and called it holy for it is festival not to one people or region only but to all which is worthy to be called the festivity of the people and the nativity of the world Pag. 43. He distinguished betwixt Adam formed and made earthly and heavenly Pag. 57. He teacheth strange Doctrine which followeth more copiously p. 61. about two natures created in man good and bad Pag. 68. Observe his temperance when his list Pag. 86. He believeth that his soul had sometime her raptures and taught him strange profound and unknown speculations as there she doth concerning the Trinity and in pag. 89. He thinketh he talketh mysteries Pag. 94. Faith the most acceptable Sacrifice an unexpected confession from a Jew Pag. 100. He checketh Joseph the Patriarch for impropriety of speech and he will teach him how to speak Pag. 102. Speaking of the death of Moses he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He is not gathered or added fainting or failing as men had done before for he admitted not either of addition or defection but he is translated or passeth away by the Authority of that efficient word by which the universe was made Pag. 122. He is again very unmannerly and uncivil with Joseph and so is he again in pag. 152. he had rather lose his friend than his jest and censure so great a Patriarch than miss his Allegory That Aaron used imposition of hands upon Moses pag. 126. Pag. 127. That Abel slain yet liveth as Heb. 11. Pag. 152. God like a Shepherd and King governeth all things in the world by right and equity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Setting over them his upright word which is his first begotten Son who taketh the care of this sacred herd like the Deputy of some great King Pag. 161. He sheweth his learning is the great Encyclica Pag. 168. He calleth Angels Genii and Heroes according to the Greeks and holdeth that they were created in the air but in the superiour part of it near the Sky and fly up and down there pag. 221 222. Pag.
cross of our Saviour in the title are three Tongues Hebrew Greek and Latine Greek the foundation of the other two some few additions In the Greek Master Broughton hath given learned rules and examples of the kinds of it viz. Septuagint Talmudick Attick and Apostolick The Hebrew or Syrian for so that word Hebrew in the title of the cross must be understood is easily found out even in Translations Latine there is some in the Gospels but not much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Census for tribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ward or watch Matth. 28. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiculator Mark 6. 27. which word is used by Targum Jeruselamy in Gen. 37. of Potiphar that he was Rabh Sapulachtaria Princeps spiculatorum And some other words of the Latine Tongue which Language in our Saviours time the conquest of the Romans had scattered in Jerusalem and in the parts adjoyning and so may one find some Latine in the Syrian Testament and abundance of Greek CHAP. XXXIII Of the Chaldee and Syrian Tongues THE Chaldee and Syrian Tongue was once all one as appeareth in Gen. 31. 47. Ezra 4. 7. Dan. 2. 4. In Character indeed they differed they of Babilon using one kind of letter they of Syria another This was that that nonplust the Babilonian wizards about the writing of the wall so that they could not read it though it were in their own Language because it was not in their own letter In after-times the very Languages themselves began to vary as the Chaldee in Daniel and Onkelos and Jeruselamy and Jonathan and the Syrian in the Testament do witness The Paraphrasts do much differ between themselves for purity of speech and all far short of the Bible Chaldee They are very full of Greek words and so the Syrian a relick of Alexanders conquests some think they find some Greek in Daniel Montanus himself renders Osphaiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all along Four kind of Characters is the Chaldee to be had in or if you will the Chaldee in two and the Syrian in two Our Bible and Paraphrasts and Rabbins Chaldee is in the Hebrew letter and the other kind of letter is the Samaritan The Syrian hath either a set letter such as we have the New Testament imprinted in or their running hand such as the Maronites use in their writing for speed there is no great difference betwixt them as you may see by their Alphabet CHAP. XXXV Of the Arabian Language THIS is the most copious of the Hebrew Dialects and a Tongue that may brag with the most of Tongues from fluency and continuance of familiarity This Tongue is frequent in Scripture especially in Job a man of that Country How other parts of the Bible use it I think may be judged by the nearness of Judea and Arabia and of the two Languages In this one thing it differs from its fellow-Dialects and its Mother Tongue that it varieth terminations in declining of Nowns as the Greek and Latine do and that it receiveth dual numbers in forming Verbs as doth the Greek Of the largeness of the Alphabet and difference from other Alphabets and quiddits of the Tongue or indeed any thing of the Tongue I cannot say which I have not received of the most Industrious and thrice Learned both in this and other the noble Tongues Master William Bedwell whom I cannot name without a great deal of thankfulness and honour To whom I will rather be a Scholar than take on me to teach others This Tongue was Mahomads Alcoran written in and is still read in the same Idiome under pain of death not to mistake a letter which is as easily done in this Tongue as in any CHAP. XXXVI Of the Latine Tongue THIS is the first Idiom of our Grammar Schools A Tongue next the sacred Tongues most necessary for Scholars of the best profession Whether Latine were a Babel Language I will not controvert pro contra Sure I dare say that what Latine we read now was not at Babel if we may believe Polybius who saith that the Latine Tongue that was used in Junius Brutus time was not understood in the time of the first Punick War but only by great Scholars So much in few years it had degenerated The old Poets compared with smooth Ovid and Tully shew much alteration This spacious Tongue once almost as big as any and as large as a great part of the World is now bounded in Schools and Studies The Deluge of the North the treasury of Men overwhelmed the Romane Empire scattered the Men and spoiled the Latine Goths Vandals Lombards and the rest of the brood of those frozen Climates have beaten the Latine Tongue out of its own fashion into the French Spanish and Italian But some sparks of their hammering are flown into other Languages of the West So that most Countries hereabout may own Rome for a second Babel for their speech confused CHAP. XXXVII The Language of Britain near a thousand years ago Ex Beda lib. 1. de Hist. Angl. Cap. 1. BRitania in praesenti juxta numerum librorum c. Britain in my time saith Bede doth search and confess one and the same knowledge of the High Truth and true sublimity in five Tongues according to the five Books wherein the Law of God was written namely in the English Britain Scotish Pict and Latine Tongues And in the nineteenth Chapter of the same Book he saith that when Austen the Monk came from Gregory the great to Preach the Gospel in England he brought with him Interpreters out of France to speak to the English That Language it seems was then usual in England but whether the French that France speaks now is a question William the Conqueror took great care and pains to have brought in his Tongue with his Conquest but could not prevail CHAP. XXXVIII Ionathan the Chaldee Paraphrast his conceit of Levies chosing to the Priesthood translated out of his Paraph. on Gen. 32. 24. AND Iacob was left alone beyond the foord and an Angel in the likeness of a man strove with him and said Didst thou not promise to give Tithe of all that thou hadst and behold thou hast * * * He had but eleven sons as yet but the Hebrew Comment upon the Chaldee Text helps out at this dead list and saith that Rahel was great with child of Benjamin and so he is counted before he is born twelve sons and one daughter and thou hast not tithed them Out of hand he sets apart the four first born to their four mothers for saith the margin they were holy because of their primogeniture and then were eight left He begins again to count from Simeon and ended in Levi for the tenth or tithe Michael answereth and saith Lord of the World this is thy lot c. thus the Chaldee On whose words if they were worth Commenting on I could say more CHAP. XXXIX Of the Iews abbreviature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THIS short writing is
upon those words of Isaiah as the words of God speaking to Isaiah not of Isaiah relating a matter of fact historically which indeed they conjectur every truly and exactly according to the printing of the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the conjunction Vau being pointed with Ceva it is a certain token that the Verb is to be rendred in the future Tense not in the Preter which also the interlineary version hath well observed rendring it thus Et testificari faciam mihi testes fideles And I will make faithful witnesses testifie to me For if it had been to be construed in the Preter tense it should have been pointed by Camets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et testificari seci And I caused to witness Which being well observed as I confess it hath not been by me heretofore the difficulty under our hand is resolved as I imagine very clearly and I suppose that Zachariah the Son of Jebarechia in Isaiah is the very same with our Zachariah the Son of Jehoiadah and that the sense of Esay comes to this In that and the foregoing Chapter there is a discourse of the future destruction of Damascus Samaria and Judea q q q q q q See Cap. VII 8 17 18 c. Chap. VIII 4 7 8 c. For a confirmation of the truth of this prophesie God makes use of a double testimony First he commands the Prophet Isaiah to write over and over again in a great volumn from the beginning to the end Le maher shalal hash baz that is To hasten the spoil he hastned the prey and this volumn should be an undoubted Testimony to them that God would certainly bring on and hasten the forementioned spoyling and destruction And moreover saith God I will raise up to my self two faithful Martyrs or Witnesses who shall testifie and seal the same thing with their words and with their blood namely Uriah the Priest who shall hereafter be crowned with Martyrdom for this very thing Jer. XXVI 20. 23. and Zachariah the Son of Barachia or Jehoiada who is lately already crowned He the first Martyr under the first Temple this the last Hear thou Jew who taxest Matthew in this place your own Authors assert that Uriah the Priest is to be understood by that Uriah who was killed by Jehoiachim and that truly We also assert that Zechariah the Son of Jehoiadah is to be understood by Zachariah the Son of Jebarachiah and that Matthew and Christ do not at all innovate in this name of Barachias but did only pronounce the same things concerning the Father of the Martyr Zacharias which God himself had pronounced before them by the Prophet Esay It may be objected But since our Saviour took examples from the old Testament why did he not rather say From the blood of Abel to the blood of Uriah the Priest that is from the beginning of the world to the end of the first Temple I answer 1. The killing of Zacharias was more horrible as he was more high in dignity and as the place wherein he was killed was more holy 2. The consent of the whole people was more universal to his death 3. He was a more proper and apparent type of Christ. 4. The requiring of vengeance is mentioned only concerning Abel and Zachariah r r r r r r Gen. IV. 10. Behold the voice of thy brothers blood cryeth out to me And s s s s s s 2 Chron. XXIV 22. Let the Lord look upon it and require it 5. In this the death of Christ agrees exactly with the death of Zachariah that although the City and Nation of the Jews did not perish till about forty years after the death of Christ yet they gave themselves their deaths wound in wounding Christ. So it was also in the case of Zachariah Hierusalem and the people of the Jews stood indeed many years after the death of Zachariah but from that time began to sink and draw towards ruine Consult the story narrowly and you will plainly find that all the affairs of the Jews began to decline and grow worse and worse from that time when blood touched blood t t t t t t Hos. IV. 2. the blood of the sacrificer mingled with the blood of the sacrifice and when the people became contentions and rebellious against the Priest u u u u u u Id. vers 4. VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ierusalem that killest the Prophets R. Solomon on those words * * * * * * Es. I. 21. But now Murtherers They have killed saith he Uriah they have killed Zechariah Also on these words x x x x x x Jer. II. 31. Your sword hath devoured your Prophets Ye have slain saith he Zachariah and Isaiah y y y y y y Bab. Jevam. fol. 49. â— Simeon ben Azzai said I have found a book of Genealogies at Jerusalem in which it was written Manasseth slew Isaiah c. CHAP. XXIV VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To shew him the buildings of the Temple z z z z z z Bab. Bava Bathra fol. 4. 1. Succah fol. 51. 2. HE that never saw the Temple of Herod never saw a fine building What was it built of Rabba saith of white and green marble But some say of white green and spotted marble He made the laver to sink and to rise that is the walls were built winding in and out or indented after the manner of waves being thus sitted to receive the plaister which he intended to lay on but the Rabbins said to him O let it continue for it is very beutiful to behold for it is like the waves of the Sea and Bava ben Buta made it so c. See there the story of Bava ben Buta and Herod consulting about the rebuilding of the Temple VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There shall not be left one stone upon another THE Talmudic Chronicles bear witness also to this saying Taanith c. 5. On the ninth day of the month Ab the City of Jerusalem was plowed up which Maimonides delivereth more at large a a a a a a Taanith cap. 4. hal 6. On that ninth day of the month Ab fatal for vengeance the wicked Turnus Rufus of the children of Edom plowed up the Temple and the places about it that that saying might be fulfilled Sion shall be plowed as a field This Turnus Rufus of great fame and infamy among the Jewish writers without doubt is the same with Terentius Rufus of whom Josephus speaks b b b b b b De â—ell llb. 7. cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terentius Rufus was left General of the army by Titus with commission as 't is probable and as the Jews suppose to destroy the City and Temple Concerning which matter thus again Josephus in the place before quoted c c c c c c Cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
amongst them yet were they not exactly Eleven then for Thomas was absent Joh. XX. 24. 2. When the Eleven are mentioned we must not suppose it exactly meant of the number of Apostles then present but the present number of the Apostles VERS XXXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They supposed they had seen a Spirit WHereas the Jews distinguished between Angels and Spirits and Daemons Spirits are defined by R. Hoshaiah l l l l l l Beresh rabb◠fol. 34. 2. to be such to whom souls are created but they have not a body made for those souls But it is a question whether they included all spirits or souls under this notion when it is more than probable that apparitions of Ghosts or deceased persons who once had a body were reckoned by them under the same title Nor do I apprehend the Disciples had any other imagination at this time than that this was not Christ indeed in his own person as newly raised from the dead but a Spectrum only in his shape himself being still dead And when the Pharisees speak concerning Paul Acts XXIII 9. That if an Angel or a Spirit hath spoken to him I would easily believe they might mean it of the Apparition of some Prophet or some other departed just person than of any soul that had never yet any body created to it I the rather incline thus to think because it is so evident that it were needless to prove how deeply impressed that Nation was with an opinion of the Apparitions of departed Ghosts VERS XLIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms IT is a known division of the Old Testament into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law the Prophets and the Holy Writings by abbrevation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I. The Books of the Law and their order need not be insisted upon called commonly by us the Pentateuch but by some of the Rabbins the Heptateuch and by some Christians the Octateuch m m m m m m Schabb. fol. 116. 1. R. Samuel bar Nachman saith R. Jonathan saith Wisdom hath hewn out her seven Pillars Prov. IX 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the seven Books of the Law The Book of Numbers compleats the seven Books of the Law But are there not but five Books only Ben Kaphra saith the Book of Numbers is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three Books From the beginning of the Book to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it came to pass when the Ark set forward Chap. X. 35. is a Book by it self That verse and the following is a Book by it self And from thence to the end of the Book is a Book by it self The reason why they accounted this period Chap. X. 35. 36. to be one Book by it self was partly because it does not seem put there in its proper place partly because in the beginning of it it hath the letter Nun inverted thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so after the end of it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in both places is set for a boundary and limit to distinguish that period from the rest of the Book Whatever therefore goes before from the beginning of the Book to that period is reckoned by them for one Book and whatever follows it for another Book and the period it self for a third Eulogius speaking concerning Dosthes or Dositheus a famous seducer of the Samaritans hath this passage n n n n n n Apud Phot. Cod. ccxxx 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He adulterated the Octateuch of Moses with spurious writings and all kind of corrupt falsifyings There is mention also of a Book with this title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o Cod. xxxvi The Christians Book An Exposition upon the Octateuch Whether this was the Octateuch of Moses it is neither certain nor much worth our enquiry for Photius judgeth him a corrupt Author besides that it may be shewn by and by that there was a twofold Octateuch besides that of Moses Now if any man should ask how it come to pass that Eulogius and that probably from the common notion of the thing should divide the Books of Moses into an Octateuch I had rather any one else rather than my self should resolve him in it But if any consent that he owned the Heptateuch we have already mentioned we should be ready to reckon the last Chapter of Deuteronomy for the eighth part Aben Ezra will smile here who in that his obscure and disguised denial of the Books of the Pentateuch as if they were not writ by the pen of Moses he instances in that Chapter in the first place as far as I can guess as a testimony against it You have his words in his Commentary upon the Book of Deuteronomy a little from the beginning p p p p p p Cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if you understand the mystery of the twelve c. i. e. of the twelve Verses of the last Chapter of the Book for so his own Country-men expound him thou wilt know the truth i. e. that Moses did not write the whole Pentateuch an argument neither worth answering nor becoming so great a Philosopher For as it is a ridiculous thing to suppose that Chapter that treats of the death and burial of Moses should be written by himself so would it not be much less ridiculous to affix that Chapter to any other volume than the Pentateuch But these things are not the proper subject for our present handling II. There also was an Octatuech of the Prophets too q q q q q q Bava bathra fol. 14. 2. All the Books of the Prophets are eight Josuah Judges Samuel Kings Jeremy Ezekiel Isaiah and the twelve For the Historical Books also were read in their Synagogues under the notion of the Prophets as well as the Prophets themselves whose names are set down You will see the title prefixt to them in the Hebrew Bibles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former Prophets as well as to the others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter Prophets The Doctors give us the reason why they dispose the Prophets in that order that Jeremiah is named first Ezekiel next and Isaiah last which I have quoted in Notes upon Matth. XXVII 9. and let not the Reader think it irksome to repeat it here r r r r r r Bava bathra ubi supr Whereas the Book of Kings ends in destruction and the whole Book of Jeremy treats about destruction whereas Ezekiel begins with destruction and ends in consolation and whereas Isaiah is all in consolation they joyned destruction with destruction and consolation with consolation III. The third division of the Bible is intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Writings And here also is found an Octateuch by some body as it seems though I know not where to
Curses Deut. XI 29. XXVII 12 13. Josh. VIII 33. but mark the impudence of the Samaritans who in their Text Deut. XXVII 4. instead of Ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on mount Ebal they have put Ye shall set up these stones c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on mount Gerizim Compare with this falsification of theirs that in Sotah R. Eliezer ben Jose saith I have Fol. 33. â— said to you O Samaritans Ye have falsified your Law for ye say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the plain of Moreh which is Sichem Deut. XI 30. they add Sichem of their own we our selves indeed confess that the plain of Moreh is Sichem c. Seeing he blames the Samaritans for falsifying their Text in so little a matter wherein the truth is not injur'd namely in adding Shechem why did he not object to them that greater fault of suborning Gerizim for mount Ebal The truth is this very thing giveth me reason enough to suspect that this bold and wicked interpolation of the word Gerizim for Ebal hath stolen into the Samaritan Text since the time that this Rabbin wrote The thing is not unworthy our considering SECT IV. Why it is written Sychar and not Sychem IF Sychem and Sychar be one and the same City why should not the name be the same I. This may happen from the common Dialect wherein it is very usual to change the letters So Reuben in the Syriack Version is Rubil and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rubelus in Josephus by what Etymology let him tell and explain it if you can Speaking of Leah bringing forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. cap. 19. Reuben he thus expresseth himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And having brought forth a male-child and obtaining favour from her husband by it she call'd his name Rubel because it happened to her according to the mercy of God for this his name signifies Perhaps he might at that time think of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports the encrease of God It would be endless to reckon up such variations of letters in proper names but as to the letter R which is our business at present take these few instances Nebuchad-nezzar is elswhere Nebuchad-rezzar Belial is Beliar Shepham by the Greek Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sephamar Numb XXXIV 11. so Sychem Sychar and this so much the rather because the letters R and M have obtain'd I know not what kind of relation and affinity one with another So Dammesek and Darmesek in the Holy Scriptures and the Sarmatians are the Samatians in Dionysius Afer c. Or secondly it might happen that the Jews by way of scoff and opprobrium might vulgarly call Sychem Sychar either that they might stigmatize the Samaritans as drunkards Isa. XXVIII 1. Wo to the drunkards of Ephraim Or as the word might be variously writ and pronounc'd might give them some or other disgraceful mark as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies prevaricating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mercenary or hireling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sepulchre So Aruch in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sochere i. e. sepulchres He quotes a place where the words are not as they are by him Soâ—â—b fol. 67. 1. cited nor is he consistent with himself in the Interpretation But Munster hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sepulchre If it be thus perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sychem might be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sychar because there the twelve Patriarchs were bury'd and under that notion the Samaritans might glory in that name SECT V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ain socar in the Talmud MAY we not venture to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the well of Sychar we meet with both the Bava Kama fol. 82. 2. place and name in Bava Kama There was a time when the sheaf of the first-fruits was brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Gaggoth Zeriphin and the two loaves those which were to be offer'd by the High Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the valley of the well of Sychar So give me leave to render it Gloss The sheaf was wont to be fetcht from places in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem but now the fruits having been destroy'd by war they were fain to fetch it afar off Take if you will the whole story It is a Tradition among the Rabbins that when the Hasmonean family mutually besieged one another Aristobulus without and Hyrcanus within every day they that were besieged within let down their money by the wall in a little Box which those that were without receiv'd and sent them back their daily Sacrifice It came to pass that there was an old man amongst them skill'd in the wisdom of the Greeks that told them so long as they within perform their Worship you will never be able to subdue them Upon this the next day they let down their money and the besiegers sent them back an Hog when the Hog had got half up the wall fixing his feet upon it the land of Israel shook four hundred leagues round about from that time they said Cursed be he that breedeth Swine Cursed be he that teacheth his Son the wisdom of the Greeks from that time the sheaf of the first-fruits was fetcht from Gaggoth Zeriphin and the two loaves from the valley Ein Sychar This story is told with another annext in Menachoth When the time came about Menach fol. 64. 2. that the sheaf should be brought no body knew from whence to fetch it they made enquiry therefore by a publick cryer there came a certain dumb man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and stretcht forth one hand toward a roof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other hand toward a cottage Mordecai saith to them Is there any place that is call'd Gaggoth Zeriphin or Zeriphin Gaggoth They sent and found there was When they would have offer'd the two loaves but knew not where to get them they made enquiry again by a publick cryer the same dumb man comes again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he puts one hand to his eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and another hand to the hole of the door-post where they put in the bolt Quoth Mordecai to them Is there such a place as Ein Sychar or Sychar Ein they enquir'd and found there was But what had Mordecai to do with the times of the Hasmoneans one of the Glossators upon this place makes this objection and the answer is that whoever were skill'd either in signs or languages had this name given them from Mordecai who in the days of Ahashuerus was so skill'd And now let the Reader give us his judgment as to name and place whether it doth not seem to have some relation with our Well of Sychar It may be disputed on either side I shall only say these things Menachoth as before It is commanded that the sheaf be brought from some neighbouring place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if it
because I would have every one to look well about lest the case be his own and not I but every mans own Conscience to judge whether he be guilty of wilful sinning or no. What thinks the Conscience of a false witness of a forsworn deponent that knowingly and resolvedly takes a false oath perverse justice and seeks the injury of his neighbour doth not this man know his sins wilfully What thinks the common swearer the common prophaner of the Lords day the unclean person the riotous and wanton the deceiver oppresser scoffer of the power of godliness does he not know or think that he sins wilfully If they will not know it nor think so but be more wilful still in wilful shutting their eyes against conviction let me leave that saying of the Lord himself written as it were upon these walls for a witness against them shall I say or as a doom upon them which you have Esa. XXVI 11. They will not see but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people yea and the fire of Gods enemies shall devour them The Apostle Ecchoes the last words in that passage we cited expectation of fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries I might shew the deadliness of such wilful sinning especially by two Observations I. That it is a most deadly symptom when the actus primus voluntatis when the will is so desperately poisoned at the bottom The acting of any sin is deadly enough of it self but when it is committed by the full bent of the first act of the will it is as poisoning the bullet to make it the more deadly which was killing enough of it self before Chistian how readest thou Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind and withal thy heart But wilful sinner how actest thou To oppose the counsel and command of the Lord with all the heart and mind and soul. To love and follow and commit wickedness with all the heart and mind and soul. If this be not a deadly wound under the fifth rib a mortal Plague at the bottom of the Will what can you call the Plague of the Heart II. Such sinning doth not only proceed from such a deadly principle but it adds more deadliness to that principle Every wilful sinning doth add more hardness and more wilfulness of sinning to the Heart still A hard Heart doth harden by sinning and the more the sin is wilful the more the Heart gathers hardness The Jews fein this the creeping on of the tempter to Eve that the Serpent asked the Woman why not eat of this Tree She answered Because God hath said Ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye dye First he drew nigh to it and said Thou seest I am nigh it and yet do not dye then she toucht it and then eat of it So do wilful sinnings draw on one another and from one the Heart is imboldned to another If such sinners would but find time with an impartial candle of self examination to look into their own Hearts they would find the too sad experience of this truth written there in black letters indeed But because few such will read their own Hearts let me leave that verse of the Apostle with them to read and to see what construction they can make of it to save their own stake If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries A SERMON PREACHED AT HERTFORD Assise March 27. 1669. ACT. XVII 31. Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead OCcasional meditations are Samsons hony gathered out of a dead carcase Heavenly thoughts taken up from Earthly occurrences the Sun and Heaven seen in looking downward into the Water from the Earthly objects that man meets with here below the Heart raising meditation upon them to some Heavenly purpose The true Philosophers stone indeed that turns what a man meets withal into some golden meditation And this divine Elizir our Saviour used very much From the occasion of the Samaritan Womans fetching water he raiseth his discourse and her thoughts to consider of the water of his Grace Joh. IV. And upon the occasion of the peoples following him for loaves he would raise their minds to think of the meat that perished not but indureth to Eternal Life Joh. VI. And in all his parables which were so exceeding frequent with him wherein he was still teaching some Spiritual and Heavenly things by some Earthly resemblance whatsoever the particular intent of every several parable was yet this intimation went in general with them all That there was to be an improvement of the observation of Earthly things and occurrences to Heavenly thoughts and meditations As he in the story that looked toward the Earth and pointed toward the Earth and yet cried O Câ—lum Methinks such a noble and remarkable occasion as we now meet withal should not be let pass without some elevated meditation And when we see our Assises Judges Trials Sentencings methinks a sursum corda may do very well in thoughts taken of the great and dreadful Judgment As Esa. XXXIII 17 18. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty Thy heart shall meditate terrors A right occasional meditation The right of an Earthly King in his royalty may justly move and stir up the heart to meditate the terrors of the King of glory The sight of a Judge in his authority and honour and the sight of the day and of the passages of an Assise may very properly and should indeed stir up the heart to meditate the terrors of that great day which the Lord hath appointed wherein he will judge the World in righteousness by the man which he hath ordained of which c. Such a reflection caused me to choose these words to discourse upon at this time at the Assise of our County to stir up the remembrance of the greatest Assise of all the World a meditation that can never be but useful and more especially at such a time as this that gives some specimen and Idea in little of the thing and does as it were in landskip lay the thing before us The Apostle in this place is discoursing to the University men of Athens It is said vers 21. That the Athenians spent their time in nothing but to tell or hear some new thing And here was strange business for them to purpose Strange news to them to hear such a Sermon against their Idolatry to hear speak concerning the Resurrection of the dead and an universal Judgment of all the World and all the World to be judged by a man that God had ordained Such riddles to flesh and blood and
are Seals Obligations and Privileges And upon every one of these children are capable of the Sacrament of Baptism First Why is it not lawful to imprint a Seal of Gods truth upon babes Memorials of Gods truth and faithfulness have been imprinted upon liveless and insensible things Thus the Bow in the cloud was set for a token of a Covenant between God and the Earth IX Gen. 13. And Joshua wrote Gods Law on the stones of the Altar VIII Josh. 32. It was imprinted on children by Gods appointment in circumcision why not now Why do we seclude children from that honour now Why uncapable now Mistake not in thinking that Sacraments seal his righteousness or interest in God that receives them no they seal Gods truth whosoever receive them Simon Magus received baptism and Judas the Lords Supper they were seals of Gods truth though not to their profit Peter Paul received them for advantage How As Seals Yes but not sealing their righteousness but as seals of Gods truth and so they confirmed their faith T is ignorance and a blind cavil to assert the Sacraments seals of his righteousness that partakes of them and therefore that Infants are not to be baptized Secondly Infants are capable of an Obligation A man may bind his heir though an infant So infants were bound by circumcision Why not now Nay see Deut. XXIX 11 15. You stand this day all of you before the Lord your Captains of your Tribes your Elders and your Officers with all the men of Israel your little ones c. That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath c. Neither with you only do I make this Covenant and this oath But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God and also with him that is not here with us this day Where you see that those that were unborn and distant when Moses made this Covenant were bound to this Covenant and children are no further off than these For the equity of the obligation lies not in the parties understanding the thing but in aequitate rei in the equity of the thing it self How come all men liable to Adams sin Aequitas imputationis the equity of imputing it to them makes them liable as they are in Adams loins and Covenant How do men become bound to perform their duty Not because able but ex aequitate rei because it is so equal and fit that they should So children at baptism may come under obligation not because they are able to perform their duty to know it but the equity of the thing lays it on They have this natural bond upon them as Creatures to Homage God if the Sacramental bond be added they are bound as Christians to Homage Christ. Why should this be so monstrous since they are as much capable to know one as the other I may add they are part of their Parents and therefore to be brought under the same Bond. So I would answer an Anabaptist I baptize my child because I am baptized my self A strange reason will he say Let him give me the reason of those two passages Gen. XVII 14. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant And Exod. XX. 5. I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children Alas what hath the poor child done Why doth God visit the iniquity of the Father upon the child He is part of his Parent and in the punishment of the child the Parent is punished Here then is the reason why Parents ought to bring their children to Baptism because they themselves are not whole under this bond and introduction if part of them viz. their children be out of it This is the reason of baptizing whole families Act. XVI 15. 33. c. Where you may see how they were first discipled by Baptism in a minute after hearing of Christ and also how the whole Family was baptized with the Parent It is childish to say it may be there were no children in those families and shews their ignorance that plead it For if never so many children they must be baptized For so was the Custom of the Jewish Nation in their use of Baptism when a Proselyte came in his children were baptized with him and all this upon this ground that all that were related to the Parent might come into Covenant But were succeeding generations of Proselytes children baptized I answer No but only the first generation was baptized Why then are we baptized after the conversion of our Nation I answer They had the Sacrament of admission Circumcision for true Israelites and that continued from generation to generation and Baptism being of the same nature and use requires the same continued practise Thirdly Baptism is for privilegial ends And a child is capable of privilege A child in the cradle may be made a King Children were capable of Circumcision that was a Privilege to be admitted into the Jewish Church why are they not capable of the like privilege now Talm. Bab. in Jeramoth Cap. 4. disputes this case and so resolves That one may be privileged though he know it not As one at a distance may be chosen Fellow of a College Why is not a child capable of receiving a badge of the privilege of being under the Covenant with his Parents Object But these Privileges come by birth of Christian Parents Answ. No not any privilege further than Baptism Birthright intitles to that and that admits to the rest of the privileges He that was uncircumcised was cut off though of circumcised parentage Gen. XVII 14. This argument the Apostle handles 1 Cor. VII 14. So that children are not only capable of Baptism as a Privilege but bound to Baptism as an Introduction to privileges and cut off without it as it was in circumcision We conclude with that remarkable passage Matth. XIX 14. But Jesus said suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Who brought these children Not unbelievers such to be sure would not they must therefore have been such as believed on him But what did believers bring them for Not to heal for if it were for that end why should the Disciples hinder them rebuking those that brought them vers 13. Christs answer to the Disciples shews that they brought them as children of Disciples and that Christ would own them as his Disciples which he by his words concerning them professeth them capable to be And the Disciples rebuked those that brought them not that they were ignorant that children were introduced into the Gospel bond and profession with their Parents but they thought this too much that they should desire so particular admission by Christ. It is observable that Baptism in the first times was the badge of Preservation from destruction See
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
out its own Eyes and chuse to be blind and live in darkness when it hath Eyes and light A doleful thing that men should be killed because they will not be fools Think of the hundreds that have gone to the fire and faggot because they could not believe Transubstantion because they could not believe that which is contrary to Reason Religion and the trial of the Sences therefore they must be put to a most cruel death Poor England because she will not be Popish must be no more because she will not lose her wits she must lose her life Poor Abel must be murthered because he will not be such a wretch hypocrite and vilain as Cain This is all the quarrel they had against us because we would not be of such a Religion as they are of and had no mind to build our Salvation upon straw and stubble Think of this and of the constant practise of Rome to seek to destroy those that will not be of her mind and Religion then guess who is the Gog and Magog in the Text that takes up persecution and fighting against those that will not be deceived by Satan as they themselves are The design of this day engageth us to hate Popery that must be maintained and propagated with blood and force I shall not dispute which is the true Religion the Protestant or the Popish Only set Jacob and Esau before you whether of the two is more lovely Popery is rough and rugged witness the Inquisition the Massacre the Marian days and the fift of November Think of these and hate Popery Let me enlarge my self a little upon this subject what a great cheat Satan puts on men when he deceives them to become enemies to true Religion There was hardly ever any persecutor of the truth in the World but he would confess this truth so that I might need no other proof of it but the confession of such enemies Paul when he murthered the members of Christ without mercy or measure he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat the Devil puts upon men when he sets them to be enemies to persecute the true Religion but this Sect of Nazarens that I persecute they are Hereticks Apostates and t is a good deed to persecute them for they are fallen from the Religion of their Fathers Bonner that Butcher of Hell that so bloodily murthered so many of the Saints of God in Queen Maries time he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat of the Devil to set men upon persecuting true Religion but these Lollards these Protestants are desperate Hereticks horrid Apostates that have fallen away from holy Mother Church of Rome and it is fit such men should not live And none that hates and persecutes another for Religion but he will be ready to say in the like kind this being one arrand and very general cheat of Satan to make all men though of the falsest worst and most damnable Religion or profession of Religion to believe theirs is the best The greatest Dispute in the World is which is the true Religion and as the Apostles upon Christs speaking of one betraying him every one asked Is it I So will every Religion in the World upon this Question Which is the true Religion answer It is I. The Jew saith His the Turk His the Papist His the Protestant His one Protestant his manner of worship and profession is best another His and a third His. Like the two Hostesses before Solomon about the living and dead child one saith the dead Religion is thine and the living mine and another nay my Religion is the living but thine the dead How is it possible to determine this controversie about which there hath been so much quarreling and so many many vast Volumes written And if we do not determine which is true Religion we can make nothing of the Doctrine before us which speaks of Sataus cheating men to be enemies to it It would speak high to undertake to determine when dispute is betwixt so Learned Men. But let me give you these two marks of it which also may help to give some caution against being enemy to it I. That is the true Religion and true Religiousness that the Devil hates most That is the King of Israel that the Captains of the Syrians bend themselves most to fight against 1 Kings XXII Need I to tell you how the Devil in the Revelations is continually fighting against the true Saints of God and their Religion It hath been his quarrel ever since God set the enmity between the Womans seed and him Gen. III. 15. Now certainly it may be a very pregnant mark of discerning what a mans Religion and Religiousness is by computing whether the Devil have reason to hate it or no. In the great question twixt Papists and us whether is the true Religion Bring them to the touchstone hath the Devil any cause to hate worshiping of Images to hate the casting away the Scripture and taking up the wretched Traditions of Men to hate their nurseling of the people in Ignorance and the blind leading the blind into the ditch to hate the Popes pride and arrogance against God and Christ and Kings and Princes the Clergies domineering over the Consciences of Men to keep them blind and so as they may make a prey of them In a word hath the Devil any reason to hate that Religion that is nothing but paint and show and outside and no life of Religion at all in it These things make for him and are on his side and bring him Souls to Hell heaps upon heaps and he hath no reason to be an enemy to these Hath the Devil reason to hate or hinder the Religion and Devotion of him that is huge devout in the Church in all ceremonial and formal appearance and they would take him for a Saint or an Angel but out of the Church he is loose covetous malicious cruel prophane and no better than a Devil Such mens Religion will never do the Devil any disadvantage or be any diminishment to his Kingdom But that Religion that gives God his due in holy and spiritual Worship in holy and spiritual walking that devotion that serves God in Spirit and Truth that Ministry that in care and constancy and conscientiousness is always striving to bring Souls to God and to bring them beyond the form to the power of godliness and to deliver them from the power of darkness to the Kingdom of Gods dear son Let any man of reason and understanding guess whether Satan do not cannot choose but hate such a Religion Devotion Ministry So that as Solomon judged this live child is that Womans because her bowels earn towards it so may we very well judge that to be the true and best Religion and Religiousness that the Devils bowels earn against that he cannot but hate and be enemy to II. That is the best and truest Religion and Religiousness that sheweth forth
not what spirit you are of His meaning was that they understood not what spirit the Disciples of Christ should be of not so fiery but meek charitable and forgiving Did these men think you ever consult Christ and his oracle when they went about to fire Parliament and State and Kingdom Would Christ think you ever have given such counsel and would he have owned such a spirit for the spirit of a true Chistian Certainly they are gone astray from his right way that breath nothing but fire and sword and blood and slaughter I have heard it more then once and again from the Sheriffs that took all the Powder Traitors and brought them up to London that every night when they came to their lodging by the way they had their musick and dancing a good part of the night One would think it strange that men in their case should be so merry And was it think you because God had prevented their shedding so much innocent blood as Divid once rejoyced for such a prevention by the Counsel of Abigail No it was because they were to suffer for such an undertaking accounting they should dye as Martyrs in such a cause Let them dance and make themselves merry with such a fancy I am sure we have cause to rejoyce and to leap for joy because their design was prevented For where had England been had their design taken effect It may make us even to tremble to think where England had been had their design taken effect Blessed be the God of our mercies that hath given us cause only to think of it and that we did not feel it that only shewed us the pit and did not shut us up in it The great Memorandum to Israel was I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of Egypt out of the house of bondage To England it may be I am the Lord thy God which kept thee out of Egypt and from the house of spiritual bondage And our keeping from falling into that servitude was little less if not as much as their delivery out of it A SERMON PREACHED AT ELY Novemb. V. MDCLXXIII 2 TIM III. 8. As Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth IF any one be of that curiosity as to desire to see the picture of incarnate Devils let him look here for the Apostle is charactering such from the beginning of the Chapter hitherto A generation of men as black as Hell and of that linage and kinred An ungodly breed of worthies that like the Devil himself sinned as deeply as they could against God as irrecoverably as they could against themselves and as destructively as they could to others That whereas the Lycaonians said concerning Paul and Barnabas The Gods were come down to them in the likeness of men Paul and Barnabas might very well say concerning these That fiends were come up among men in the same likeness of men From such turn away is the Apostles counsel at the fifth verse of this Chapter which words compare but with those words of another Apostle Resist the Devil and he will flee from you and guess what kind of creatures these were A man may make the Devil flee from him but there is no putting of these to flight but you must flee from them Impudent untractable ones that will by no means be moulded to Religion Reason or Humanity that will never be convinced answered satisfied that there is no way to deal with them but not to deal with them no way to deal with them but to flee from them Their manners the Apostle begins to describe as vers 2. That they were lovers of themselves lovers of money proud boasters blasphâ—mers desobedient c. so he goes on to the 5th verse There he describes their Religion That they had a form of godliness as a Devil in shape of an Angel of light but that they denied the power of it resisted the truth of it and that not in an ordinary manner and degree but as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses So that in the words you have mention of a cursed Copy and a cursed Company that wrote after it The Copy Jannes and Jambres withstanding Moses and the cursed Company that wrote after it those also resist the truth The former obscure who they were and the latter obscurer I. Of Jannes and Jambres you have no more mention by name in all the Scripture For Moses himself nameth no such men though the Apostle say They were the men that did resist him And the Apostle gives no other signification of them but only that they resisted Moses Who then were they and whence had the Apostle their names From the common received opinion and agreement of the Jewish Nation that currently asserted that the Magicians of Egypt was called by these names So their own Authors tell us in their Babylonian Talmud in the Treatise Menacoth Aruncha Talmudical Lexicon in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Chaldee Paraph. of Jonathan upon Exod. I. to omit more So that the Apostle takes up these two names neither by revelation as certainly asserting that the Sorcerers of Egypt were of these names but as he found the names commonly received by the Jewish Nation so he useth them Such a passage is that of the Apostle Jude about Michael contending with the Devil about the body of Moses which he neither speaketh by inspiration nor by way of certain assertion but only citing a common opinion and conceit of the Nation he takes an argument from their own Authors and concessions The observation of such a thing as this is useful upon general places of the New Testament which is more worth discoursing upon â—â— it suited with the time and pâ—ace Thus have we intâ—lligencâ— who Jannes and Jambres werâ— the Sorcerers or Magicians of Egypt that withstood Moseâ— helped to haâ—â—en Pharâ—â—h â—eceived the people with lying wonders affronted the real miracles of God and opposed the deliverance of Israel Wretches that one would think they should never find their matches and yet the Apostle hath found mates for them For where was there ever copy of villany set but some or other was found that hath written after it Even the crucifying of the Lord of glory when it cannot be done literally because he is not here again to be crucified yet there are but too many that in our sense crucifie the Lord of â—lâ—ry Heb. VI. 6. And if he had been again upon Earth do you not think he would have been crucified again before this II. Who these are whom the Apostle compares with Jannes and Jambres is harder to find than to find who Jannes and Jambres were For the mark whereby the Apostle would discover them seems rather to cloud than to clear their discovery viz. the circumstance of the time wherein they lived which he calls the last days vers 1. This know that in the last days shall perilous times come So 2 Pet. III. 3. In the last days
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
be taken for a Jacob yet she must give leave to standers by to take her for Esau when her hands and neck and other parts be as rough as his Set her and this mystery of iniquity we have been speaking of together and can you know them asunder Though I am not perswaded the Apostle speaks of Rome in 2 Thes. II. but of these first Apostate Christians yet comes not Rome an inch behind what is charactered there I. Both of them Apostatized from the truth she as well as those in the Text before us It s very true Rome had once been a famous Church whose Faith was renowned through the whole World as the Apostle intimates once and again in his Epistle thither But as the Historian Quaeres Samnium You may seek for Samnium where Samnium was and not find it so may you seek for such a Church there where once such a Church was and be far enough from finding it Corruptio optimi The corruption of that best Church that then was is become the worst corruption And if you would find either truth or a right Church there you do but look for the living among the dead They brag of their incorruption and that their Doctrine and Worship hath descended pure all along and that that Church hath not been tainted from its first foundation by Peter and Paul So the Jews of old cried The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord when they had made it a den of thieves You can hardly perswade me but some taint was got into that Church in the time of Peter I do not say for I am assured he never was there but even before Paul came there and while he was there and sure he must be of a large faith that can believe she hath kept pure so many hundred years together above a thousand When I read that Rom. XVI 17. I beseech you brethren mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine ye have learned and avoid them For they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly I cannot but strongly suspect that there were some such wretched ones as these we have been speaking of then tampering in the Church of Rome and it was well if she received no taint from them hardly any Church in the World but did And when I read that Philip I. 16. Some preach Christ of envy and contention not purely thinking to add affliction to my bonds I cannot but suspect that that was in Rome it self where the Apostle then lay prisoner And that then the quarrel I am of Paul I am of Cephas or Peter was set afoot in the Church of Rome as it was in the Church of Corinth How ever I believe that that Star that fell from Heaven to whom was given the key of the bottomless Pit and he opened the Pit and let out horrid smoke and so horrid Locust Rev. IX beginning is most truly understood by our Protestant Divines of the Bishop of Rome or the Papacy For a Star in the Revelation-language is a Doctor or Minister of the Church and falling from Heaven is falling from the Truth and the true Church II. As the Apostasie of the men in the Text and in the Apostles description in this Chapter and elsewhere was into the two contraries strictness in outward ceremony and looseness of life and conversation he that knows not the like in the Papacy is little acquainted with their story As great strictness injoyned in the one and as great loosness permitted in the other in that Church as that the Jews themselves were not more strict in the one nor the Heathens themselves more loose in the other Like Solomons Temple windows if it were fit to compare so noble a thing with so base narrow without and broad within strict in outward formality loose in inward conversation III. As these in the Text resist the Truth so that the Papacy doth none that is a child or disciple of the Truth but he knows with grief and can they of the Papacy but know it themselves How many witnesses of this matter have been in every corner of the World especiall in those where the truth or purity of the Gospel hath appeared Were you to name the greatest contrariety to the truth of the Gospel that you could name could you name any thing so directly contrary as Popery The smoke out of the bottomless pit that is as contrary to the purity of the light as what can be most contrary I should but do what is done again and again in large and numerous volumes if I should go about to prove and evidence this to you viz. That the Papacy is the great resister of the Truth and Gospel and the great contrariety to the purity of the Gospel There are two things that speak it out though all Protestants hold their peace And those are 1. Their corruption of the Scriptures and the Fathers As the messengers for Micaiah would have corrupted him to speak as the false Prophets did so do these by the Scriptures and Fathers to make them speak according to their own mind Their Index expurgatorius shews that they are void of all shame in this point as well as void of all conscience And crueller then the Gileadites that slew so many for saying Sibboleth these make those say Sibboleth whether they will or no that they may destroy the Truth that they once spoke out 2. The bitter and bloody persecution that the Church of Rome hath ever used against the true profession of the Gospel is a testimony written in blood how incomparable a resister of the Truth the Papacy is And had Christ been at Rome any time for those many and many years he had tasted of their kindness that way It is compounded of such principles that the Truth and it cannot live together but it cannot but seek to destroy the Truth The very temper of the Devil himself who not only strives to destroy the Gospel but cannot do it with all his endeavour Aut tu illum aut ille vi He must either destroy it or it will destroy him What resistance the Papacy practiseth against the Truth by persecution I suppose it needless to speak of unto any that hath heard of the bloody days of Queen Mary the Massacre in France and the Powder Treason in England that you need go no further for instance And blessed be the Lord for that we have these testimonies only to our ears and have not seen Popish resistance of the Truth by persecution with our eyes The Lord grant that England never see it Thus have we briefly taken some view of the mystery of iniquity hinted in the Text and verse whence it is taken Men of corrupt minds reprobated concerning the faith resisting the truth as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses Now how large a discourse might we take up of the mysterious dispensation of God in permitting his most sacred Truth to be so affronted and resisted His
Apostles and Disciples and should pick out a man that we all know was no Apostle that no one knows whether he were a Disciple or no. But II. It is agreeable to all reason to conceive that as the man to whom God vouchsafed the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt his own times and the fall of Jerusalem was Daniel a man greatly beloved so that the John to whom Christ would vouchsafe the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the World was John the Disciple greatly beloved III. Of that Disciple Christ had intimated that he would that he should tarry till â—e came Joh. XXI 22. that is till he should come in vengeance against the Jewish Nation and their City to destroy them for that his coming both in that place and in divers other places in the New Testament doth mean in that sense it were very easie to make evident should we take that subject to insist upon Now as our Saviour vouchsafed to preserve him alive to see the Fall and destruction of that City so also did he vouchsafe to him the sight of a new Jerusalem instead of the old when that was ruined laid in ashes and come to nothing He saw it in Vision we see it in the Text and upon that let us six our Eyes and Discourse for we need not speak more of him that saw it In the verse before he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth and in this verse a new Jerusalem I. Something parallel to which is that in Esa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth And in the verse next following Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing The expressions intimate the great change of affairs that should be in the World under the Gospel from what had been before A new Heaven or a change of Church and Religion from a Jewish to a Gentile Church and from Mosaick to Evangelical Religion A new Earth or a change in the World as to the management or rule of it from Heathenism to Christianity and from the rule of the four Heathen Monarchies Dan. VII to the Saints or Christians to iudge the World 1 Cor. VI. 2. or being Rulers or Magistrates in it And the new Jerusalem is the emblem and Epitome of all these things under this change as the old Jerusalem had been before the change came There is none but knoweth that Jerusalem in Scripture language is very commonly taken for the whole Church then being as well as it is taken particularly and literally for the City it self then standing That City was the Church in little because there were eminently in it all those things that do make and constitute a true Church viz. the administration of the Word and divine Ordinances the Assemblies of the Saints the Worship of the true God by his own appointment and the presence of God himself in the midst of all And can any doubt but that the new Jerusalem meaneth in the like sense and upon the like reason The Church of God under the Gospel this inriched with all those excellencis and privileges that that was yea and much more There was the Doctrine of Salvation but wrapped up in Types and Figures and dark Prophesies but here unfolded to the view of every Eye and Moses vail taken off his face There Ordinances of divine Worship but mingled with multitudes of carnal rites here pure adoration in Spirit and Truth There an assembly only of one People and Nation here a general assembly compacted of all Nations There God present in a cloud upon the Ark here God present in the communication of his Spirit Therefore it is the less wonder that it is called the holy City because of these things II. which is the second circumstance considerable in the words I saw the new Jerusalem The holy City It is observable that the second old Jerusalem for so let me call the Jerusalem that was built and inhabited after the return out of Captivity was called the holy City when goodness and holiness were clean banished out of the City and become a stranger there When the Temple had lost its choisest ornaments and endowments that contributed so much to the holiness of the place and City The Ark the cloud of Glory upon it the Oracle by Urim and Thummim the fire from Heaven upon the Altar these were all gone and Prophesie was utterly ceased from the City and Nation yet even then it is called the holy City in this her nakedness Nay when the Temple was become a Den of Thieves and Jerusalem no better if not worse when she had persecuted the Prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her when she had turned all Religion upside down and out of doors and worshiped God only according to inventions of men yet even then and when she is in that case she is termed the holy City Matth. IV. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple Nay when that holy Evangelist had given the story of her crucifying the Holy of Holies the Lord of life and glory even then he calls her the holy City Chap. XXVII 53. The bodies of many Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said then and so might others say of her for it might seem very incongruous to call the holy City when she was a City so very unholy She was indeed simply and absolutely in her self most unholy and yet comparatively The holy City because there was not a place under Heaven besides which God had chosen to place his Name there and there he had and that was it that gave her that name and title And while she kept the peculiarity of the thing she kept the name but at last forfeited both and then God finds out another City where to place his Name A new Jerusalem A holy City a holier City her younger sister fairer than she Holy under the same notion with the other because God hath placed his Name only III. there Holier than she because he hath placed it there in a more heavenly and spiritual manner than in her as was touched before And Holier still because she shall never lose her holiness as the other did as we shall touch hereafter And she cannot but be holy as I said before when she comes down from Heaven and is sent thence by God And this is the third thing remarkable in the Text I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven The Apostle S. Paul calls her Jerusalem which is above Gal. IV. 26. Our Apostle sees her coming down from above and the Prophet Ezekiel in his fortieth Chapter and forward seeth her pitched here below when she is
hard thing to make a fair probability of the truth of it So that as he was rapt into Heaven to attain to his revelations so he is wrapt as it were into an altitude and sublimity of these two things above other men when he prefers Gods glory in saving his Nation before his own salvation and the Souls of his Nation before his own Soul And this abounding superabounding Zeal and Charity is that that moves him to make such a Wish and his Conscience and the Holy Ghost warrant it I speak the truth in Christ I lye not My Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I could wish my self accursed c. But to return then to the former Question Must an ordinary Christian write after this copy and come up to such a pitch of Charity and Zeal I might answer the occasion is extraordinary the person extraordinary the measure of Charity and Zeal extraordinary And therefore it cannot serve for an ordinary Rule Again I might briefly answer as we sometimes answer Children For pardon me if I take up that homely and familiar comparison It is ordinary with Children when they have meat in their hand to be greedy and think they have not enough but they cry for more But we commonly still them with bidding them first eat up that they have and then they shall have more God hath put thy task into thy hand Christian viz. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Ply take out digest that task and then it may be seasonable to ask What must I do more Here the love of the Apostle to others is more than to himself God requires of thee to love thy Neighbour as thy self Go and do that and never trouble thy self to question what thou hast more to do toward thy Neighbour till thou hast done that Keep but pace with the Apostle as he paceth like a Christian this is the task God requires of us He requires not that we keep pace with him as he paceth like an Apostle We poor Children cannot expect to keep even pace with so great a Father of the Church as this Apostle was It is our work to follow his steps though Non passibus oequis though not with even pace yet as well as we can But to consider of this case more particularly and distinctly Concerning our Duty or what we are to do we are to consider What is possible what is lawful and what is required For that may be lawful which is not possible and that may be lawful which is not required For example it were very lawful for a man to be as wise as Solomon if he could attain to it but that is impossible So it is very lawful for a man to speak with the tongue of Men and of Angels if he could do it but it is not possible to be done So on the other hand It is very lawful for a man to spend all his life in study and reading of Books but this is not required of all because they have other just and lawful callings to follow So it is very lawful for a Man as Timothy to drink nothing but water but it is not required since God hath afforded other wholesome Drinks and every creature of God is good being received with thanksgiving So as to our Duty or what we are to do we are to determine what is lawful by what is required I speak of our Christian Duty for as to our Christian Liberty that is not to be determined by what is required but by what is warranted Now as to the thing before us I. It is impossible we should reach to that height of Grace that this great Apostle attained to We cannot look that our poor spark of Grace if it be any should shine so bright as this glorious star of the first magnitude nor that we poor worms creeping altogether upon the Earth should soar to that pitch that he did that was rapt into the third Heaven And therefore not being in the same capacity with him in Grace we cannot think we are in the capacity of making the same wish with him which came merely from the abounding Grace of Zeal and Charity that was in him II. Then which we must especially look after is it required from us that we should wish such a wish to our selves to be accursed from Christ for any mans salvation Is it either our Christian Duty and we bound to do it or is it with in our Christian Liberty and we licenced to it I check my self for that I go about to discuss such a case as this when there is a great deal more need to bewail the sad want of common Duty that the Apostle passed through to come to that pitch he did Which when any man hath passed through then if he have warrant as the Apostle had let him wish as he did The pitch that he came to was to love his Neighbour above himself when he could wish so much evil to himself for their good But the way that he went up thither was by loving his Neighbour as himself And this is the way that we are to set into and to keep in and to write after him in this though we cannot nor are required to do in the other There are then three steps or degrees of the Apostles Charity First He hated no man in the world Secondly He loved his Neighbour as himself Thirdly He loved him above himself Now it is without all doubt in the two former of these we are all absolutely bound to follow him I. to hate no man in the world to be enemy to none That Gloss that the Jews made upon the Command Matth. V. 43. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy was a Gloss from Hell and not from Heaven from Satan and not from God And how our Saviour confutes it and how he teaches what a Christian is to do in that case you may see there Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you As he of old said He knew not what to morrow meant because he looked upon every present day as his last So a true Christian knows not what enmity or hatred to any Man means because he looks upon every Man as his Brother And it was a most noble commendation that one gives of another Our Friend Sturmius hated no Man but only Vice Wickedness Heresie and the Devil A true Christian hates no Man upon his own quarrel David professeth to God Do not I hate them that hate thee Yes I hate them with a perfect hatred But it was upon no quarel of his own but because they hated God Nor was it their Persons he hated but their Qualities So this Apostle would have those that loved not the Lord Jesus to be accursed 1 Cor. XVI 22. It was not because they loved not him or he them but because they loved not Christ. There is nothing in the world more common than the hate of
2 3. The great Angel is Christ the old Serpent is the Devil there Christ binds and imprisoneth him and that with the great chain of the Gospel Observe the passage He shut him up in the bottomless pit What In Hell for ever That he should never go abroad again Yea you have him loose again vers 7. and he hath been always going about as in 1 Pet. V. but he tyes him up that he should not deceive the Nations vers 3. and when he is loosed again vers 8. it is his being loose to deceive the Nations Observe by the way the phrase He shuts him up that is restrains him from deceiving and seducing people It is Hell and Prison to the Devil not to be doing mischief So the Psalmist speaks of the wicked children of the Devil They sleep not rest not if they do not evil It is a torment to them if they may not be sinning Well how doth Christ bind Satan that he do not deceive By sending the Gospel to undeceive them So that this is the Victory of Christ against the Devil The very telling of his Death and Merits is that that overcomes the Devil the very Word of his Death and Resurrection is that that overthrows the Devil and his power So is 1 Cor. VI. 3. to be taken Know ye not that we shall judge Angels Now needed Christs soul to go to Hell to tell the Devil these tidings and to triumph there He felt the building of his Kingdom fall about his ears every moment He needed no such message to go and tell him he had conquered him This is the Triumph of Christ over the Devil by the virtue and power of his death and not by any Vocal or actual Declaration of it by his Soul now separate from his Body IV. As to Christs Soul triumphing over the damned needed there any such thing Or could his Soul do any such thing Think you Christs Soul doth or could rejoyce in the damnation of the damned There is joy in Heaven when a sinner is saved Is there joy too when he is damned That tender expression of God As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner doth it give us any room to think that he can rejovce in their damnation That tender Soul of Christ that but six or eight days before wept for the destruction of Jerusalem with O! that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace Can we think that that Soul could go to Hell to triumph and insult over poor damned Souls He had cause to triumph and rejoyce over the conquered Devils but had he the like cause or heart to triumph over damned Souls What was the reason of his triumphing over the Devils Because he had subdued themselves only He mastered them while alive in casting them out and commanding them at his pleasure He cast them into Hell by his Divine Power as soon as they had sinned but his triumph over them by his Death and Resurrection was for his peoples sake We cannot say Christ hath any pleasure in the damnation of the very Devils but he had pleasure in the Conquest of Devils because he had delivered his people from them Ah! most Divine Soul of Christ so infinitely full of charity that gave it self a Sacrifice for sin that men might not be damned can that rejoyce and insult over poor Souls damnation Look but upon Christs tenderness and earnestness for Souls here that they come not to damnation and then guess how little delight he taketh in it when they are damned Let us apply these two passages to this Ezek. XVIII 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye And vers 31. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth In the Hebrew it is in the strictest propriety In the death of him that is dead I have not pleasure that he dye and no pleasure in his death when he is dead What is there more plain in Scripture and in all Gods actings than this That God would not have men damned if they would embrace Salvation What speak these expressions 1 Tim. II. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Pet. III. 9. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Certainly whatsoever else this is plain enough that God had rather men should be saved than damned How is this written in Scripture as in letters of gold that he that runs may read it How was it written in letters of Christs own blood that was shed that men might not be damned but that whosoever believeth might have eternal life And how is this written in Gods patience beseechings in his affording means of Salvation I need not to instance in particulars Well men will not be saved but choose death before life Doth Christ delight rejoyce to damn them when they must come to it Think ye he pronounceth Go ye cursed with as much delight as Come ye blessed That he insults triumphs over poor damned wretches in their damnation Read his heart in such passages as these Gen. VI. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart What Because he had made them No but because he having made them must now destroy them Lam. III. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men So he doth not damn willingly nor destroy the children of men And once for all Esa. XLII 14. I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will cry and destroy but it is grievous to God as pangs of a travailing woman Thus much as hath been spoken may shew how unlikely and indeed how unchristian a thing it is to conceive that Christs Soul went purposely into Hell to triumph and insult over the miserable and damned And so you see that this Article cannot mean his Souls descending into the place of torment to triumph over the Devils and damned so that we must yet look for another sense of it III. A third interpretation then is this That it means the Torments he suffered in Soul III. upon his Cross. Some word it That he suffered the extream wrath of God some the very torments of Hell some that he was for the time in the state of the damned I reluct to speak these things but this Gloss some make upon this Article and while they go about to magnifie the Love of Christ in suffering such things for men they so much abase and vilifie his Person in making it lyable to such a condition The sense of the Article we must refuse unless we should speak and think of Christ that which doth not befit him The dearly beloved of the Soul of God to lye under the heaviest wrath of God The Lord of Heaven and Earth to