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
their Works quoted IV. Of Hebrew and Greek words explained V. Of Principal Matters or Things Alphabetically digested AN ELENCHUS OF The several Tracts and Discourses of the AUTHOR contained in the SECOND VOLUME Horae Hebraicae or Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon St. Matthew upon St. Mark upon St. Luke upon St. John upon The Acts of the Apostles upon Some Chapters of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans upon I Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians XLVI Sermons preached on several Occasions never before Published A short Tract upon the Fourth Article of the Creed never before Published There are also in this Second Volume At the Beginning THE Publishers Epistle Dedicatory and Preface A Map of the City of JERUSALEM drawn according to the AUTHOR'S Chorography Page 20. At the End A Chorographical Table or Description of the several places contained and described in the Two Volumes of Dr. Lightfoots Works by Mr. John Williams Five other Tables I. Of Scriptures illustrated explained or reconciled II. Of some places of Scripture differently read from the ordinary Translation III. Of Authors or their Works quoted IV. Of Hebrew and Greek words explained V. Of Principal Matters or Things Alphabetically digested THE PREFACE TO THE READER ALthough this very Learned Author's Epistles and Prefaces to many of the English pieces contained in this Volume may save me much the labour of a general Preface to them all Yet it may be convenient to add something concerning the use of this kind of Learning the Author himself and these English Tracts of his AS for the First the Reader must not expect a Treatise about it in a Preface to Anothers Book But only some brief suggestions for the direction and encouragement of the Studious that the Author might not seem to have employed so much time and tedious labour too fruitlesly in Writing nor my self somewhat of both in Reviewing Correcting and Publishing what is here presented to him There seems to me two chief Points of a more comprehensive Wisdom the one is justly to estimate and prize the several parts of Knowledge and that principally from their usefulness not so much from their Antiquity their being esteemed and cultivated perhaps by great Personages or the like slight and pedantique considerations any further than as they are signs or arguments of the former The other is to understand the inclinations capacity and ability of any person for one or more of them These two things are principally to be observed by those who apply themselves to any study and indeed to any imployment in making their choice Which is in it self of greatest use and importance and which a person can make most progress in what is best in it self and what he can best do If any thing be of no good use or advantage it is not to be undertaken at all if a man wants ability or capacity for it it is not to be attempted by him Although there be truly great difference between the several sorts of Science in respect of their value yet there is hardly any which hath not its use and oft-times much more than the ignorance or envy or fashion or humor of an Age will allow There are four things which our Author hath been very diligent and laborious in and where we may be considerably benefited by the Reading of these Tracts I. The Chronology of the Holy Scriptures II. Their Chorography III. Their Original Texts and various Versions IV. Talmudical and Rabbinical Authors First For Chronology it is nothing but the knowledge of the Relation and the existence of things one to another before with or after and particularly with the conversions and situations of the Sun and Moon i. e. years months weeks days as being the most constant and the most universally known Though the time of a things existence may be and frequently is characterized by the existence of other things likewise nor is it so casie to define what is the first measure of time But this is not so much to our purpose The uses of the knowledge both of the times of writings and of their matter or contents are very considerable and in short these among others First From thence we collect many other circumstances and consequently a more full and adequate knowledge of things such as place Authors qualities conditions persons to whom reasons why and twenty others Whence it frequently helps to the discovery of the true writing in an Author or of its meaning and sense and in prophane and fallible writings the truth or falshood of things themselves therein delivered Instances of the former are numerous in the Scriptures for as to the latter the truth of what is delivered therein we are secure As in pag. 80. of the ensâ—ing Volume according to our Author the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of the Kingdom of Asa 2 Chron. XVI 1. in the thirty sixt year of which Baasha King of Israel is said to come up against Judah is not his personal but his National Kingdom if I may so call it not his Reign but the Kingdom of Judah in opposition to that of the ten Tribes since their division This appears from the Chronology or computation of Baasha's reign who is said 1 Kings XV. 33. to begin it in the third of Asa and to continue it but twenty four years that is to the twenty seventh of Asa and this according to all the translations too Baasha therefore could not come up against Israel in the thirty sixt of Asa's reign being understood of his personal reign or Kingdom Wee 'l take leave to argue from the Chronology of the Scripture especially where all Copies and Translations agree notwithstanding the assertions and conjectures of the late famous Critick * Praf to Crit. Hist. of Old Testament That no exact Chronology what for no time can be stated upon the Authority of these Books till he lays surer foundation for his Opinion and more particularly explains it However this and other following instances are proofs and illustrations of what use Chronology may be although the integrity and truth of the present writing in the Hebrew Copies be only supposed not proved Thus also Omri's beginning to reign over Israel twelve years in the thirty first year of Asa King of Judah according to the Hebrew Text and all the Versions must have the sense which Chronology will there allow vid. Harmony of the Old Testament pag. 81. In p. 87. Ahaziah's being forty two years old when he began to reign 2 Chron. XXII 2. and Jehojachin eight years old 2 Chron. XXXVI 9. must be otherwise rendred than it usually is to make it consistent with Chronology supposing no error in the Hebrew Text. But both the Greek and Oriental Versions in the first place having the number twenty two or twenty instead of forty two and in the other place the Oriental Versions having eighteen instead of eight makes it probable that there is a mistake Grotius's confident assertion concerning the
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
4. 18. which was the token in every Epistle 2 Thes. 3. 17. for all the Epistle beside was written with another hand From Troas by several journeys he cometh to Miletum and thither he sends for the Elders of the Church of Fphesus which City was near at hand But who were these Not Timothy and Trophimus for they were in his company already and had been with him in his journey hither but these twelve men upon whom he had laid his hands and bestowed on them the Holy Ghost and so fitted them for the Ministry Acts 19. 6. and whomsoever besides Timothy had ordained into the Ministry whilst he was there Although the Ephesian and the rest of the Asian Churches were but in an ill case at this time in regard of false doctrines and much Apostacy that had corrupted and cankared them yet doth the Apostle foresee that the case will be worse and worse with them still and that grievous Wolves should yet break in upon them And this he concludeth not only from the boldness that he was assured false teachers would use and assume to themselves when he was gone but from those predictions of Christ that had foretold what sad Apostacy should occur and what false teachers should arise before the great day of Jerusalem came which was now coming on apace ACTS Chap. XXI Ver. 17. And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly c. PAUL is now got to Jerusalem And the first thing that we have to do about his story there is to calculate the time and consider what Year it was when he came thither and to prove if we can that it was the second Year of Nero according as we have superscribed that Year for this is of import as to the fixing of those Chronical Observations that we are to take up hereafter The common consent in all times hath fixed his coming to Jerusalem and apprehension there to this Year and yet amongst all that have so concluded upon it there is none that hath given any one clear proof or evidence at all for such an assertion Eusebius Ado Cassiodore Baronius Lorinus and divers others are of this mind yet whereupon they grounded their opinion is hard to find nay it is hard to find among many of them any that goeth about to shew any groundwork for it at all It would therefore save a great deal of labour to take their consent without any more ado and it might carry good credit with it to go along with so general a tenet upon the word of so many Learned men yet that we may not go altogether led blindfold by others let these thing towards the proof of it be taken into consideration And first let us draw a Chronicle of Nero's time NERO. I. II. III. IV. Poppaea becomes Nero's Paramour V. Nero slaies his mother Agrippina VI. VII VIII Poppaea becomes Nero's Wife Pallas dieth IX X. Albinus is Govern our of Judea XI Florus cometh in Governour instead of Albinus XII The first beginning of the Wars of the Jews XIII XIV Although these things affixed to the several Years of Nero may seem very Heterogeneal to the thing we have in hand yet we shall find them of good use when we have firstcleared their truth and certainty 1. That Poppaea became Nero's Minion in his 4th Year is apparent by Tacitus Annal. lib. 13. Sect. 12. where he placeth the beginning of their adulterous acquaintance A. U. C. 811. under the Consulship of Nero III. and Valerius Messala 2. That Nero slew his mother Agrippina in his fifth Year the same Tacitus also asserteth lib. 14. Sect. 1. placing that fact A. U. C. 812. under the Consulship of C. Vipsanius and Fonteius Capito 3. The marrying of Poppaea to Nero as his Wife he placeth in his eighth Year Annal. lib. 14. Sect. 9. viz. A. U. C. 815. under the Consulship of P. Marius and L. Asinius and in the same Year he placeth the death of Pallas 4. The beginning of the Wars of the Jews in Nero's 12th and the entrance of Gessius Florus into the Government the Year before is confirmed under this testimony of Josephus Antiq. lib. 20. cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of which how Baronius can bring the beginning of Florus his Government to be in the tenth of Nero as he doth I understand not for if the twelfth Year of Nero were Florus his second then the eleventh was his first And now let us take in some things more which we must apply to these times mentioned to help us in the inquest we are about 1. Josephus saith that when Portius Festus came into Felix room in the Government of Judea the chief of the Jews of Caesarea went to Rome to accuse Felix and he had been certainly punished for his unjust dealing with the Jews had not Nero been very favourable to him at the intreaty of his brother Pallas who was then very much in Caesars esteem Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 7. 2. The same Josephus also speaking of the Government of Festus in Juden he first mentioneth how he found the Country infested with rebels and robbers whom he overthrew then he relateth how King Agrippa built his palace so at Hierusalem as that it overtopt the Temple Courts which the Jews disliking built a counterwall to hinder the prospect that it should not view their service and actions in the Temple At this Agrippa and Festus took distast and Festus commanded that the wall should be pulled down but the Jews desired they might send Agents to Rome about this matter which they did And when Nero heard the case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He did not only pardon the thing done but he also consented to suffer the building so to stand vouchsafing this at the intreaty of his Wife Poppaea for she was devout c. Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8. Observe the last words At the intreaty of his Wife Poppaea 3. The same Josephus again relateth a journey of his own to Rome in these words When I was six and twenty years old I went to Rome upon this occasion When Felix was Governour of Judea he sent certain Prists my near acquaintance and very good men for a small cause to Rome to appear before Caesar. For whose deliverance I desiring to find some means went to Rome and there by the means of a certain Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I came to be known to Poppaea Caesars Wife Baronius doth revile Josephus here as if he had forgot his own age Videas in his saith he quae suae aetatis sunt suo ipsius testimonio convinci annoruni sex turpiter errantem And wherein Quia affirmat se agentem annum supra vigesimum sextum sub Faelice Judaea praeside Romam venisse But Josephus saith no such word He saith indeed that he went to Rome to labour the deliverance of some men that Felix had sent thither in the time of his Government but that Felix was in his Government when he
Christ did with the Beast and those that carried his mark he fought against them always and when he saw his time destroyed them here the Holy Ghost tells us what he did with the Devil that set them on You heard of Christ fighting with the Dragon Chap. 12. and the Dragon foiled and cast out sets to prosecute the Womans seed but what course takes he for that He resigns his Throne and Power and Authority to the Beast Rome and it must do and it did his business for him Chap. 13. 3. and how throughly it did its masters work is shewed all along from that place forward But what becomes of the old Dragon the master of mischief He sits by as it were and looks on while his game is played and hisses on his Deputy Rome first Imperial then Papal They at the last receive their due wages for their work Imperial and Papal go to perdition But what must become of the Dragon that set them on It would be very improper to tell so largely of the fearful vengeance and destruction upon the agents and to say nothing of the principal and chief mover That therefore is done here and this Chapter takes at Chap. 13. 3. and tells you what became of the old Dragon after the resigning of his Throne to the Beast namely that he sate not at his own quiet as if Michael had nothing to do with him or let him alone having so much to do with his instruments but that he curbed and destroyed both principal and agent and cast them both together into the bottomless pit The Devil had two ways of undoing men the Church by persecution the world by delusion of Oracles Idolatry false Miracles and the like His managing of the former by his Deputies the former Chapters have related and how they sped in his service and this comes to tell how he speeds about the other The great Angel Michael the Lord Christ who hath the key of the bottomless pit in his hand as Chap. 1. 18. chains him by the power of the Gospel that he should no more deceive the Nations for a thousand years Weigh the phrase Not deceive the Nations it is not not persecute but not deceive nor is it the Church but the Nations His persecuting of the Church hath been storied before and here is told how he is curbed for deceiving the Nations and indeed when he deputed Rome and let that loose for the former he was chained up as for the later It is easily construed how Satan deceived the Nations by Idols which are called a lie Isa. 44. 20. Rom. 1. 25. by his Oracles in which was no light Isa. 8. 20. and by magical miracles which were meer delusion Hence the world for the time of Heathenism is said to be in his Kingdom of darkness Act. 26. 18. Colos. 1. 13 c. Now the spreading of the Gospel through the world ruined all these before it and dissolved those cursed spels and charms of delusion and did as it were chain up Satan that he could no more Deceive the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heathen as he had done by these deceits so that the words speak the ending of Satans power in Heathenism and the bringing in of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth out of darkness and delusion The date of this his chaining up was a thousand years Now the Jews counted the days of the Messias a thousand years as we touched before The Babylon Talmud in Sanhedrin in the Chapter Helek doth shew their full opinion about the days of Messias and amongst other things they say thus as Aruch speaks their words in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a tradition of the house of Elijah that the righteous ones that the blessed God shall raise from the dead they shall no more return to their dust but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world he will give them wings as Eagles and they shall flee upon the waters The place in the Talmud is in Sanhedrin fol. 92. where the Text indeed hath not the word thousand but the marginal gloss hath it and shews how to understand the thousand years And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and intertainment And so speaks R. Eliezer in Midras Tillin fol. 4. col 2. The days of the Messias are a thousand Years As John all along this Book doth intimate new stories by remembring old ones and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to express them by but much allusion to customs language and opinion of the Jews that he might speak as it were closer to them and nearer their apprehensions so doth he here and forward This later end of his Book remembers the later end of the Book of Ezekiel There is a resurrection Ezek. 37. Gog and Magog Ezek. 38. 39. and a new Jerusalem Ezek. 40. and forward So here a resurrection ver 5. Gog and Magog ver 8. and a new Jerusalem Chap. 21. 22. There a resurrection not of bodies out of the grave but of Israel out of a low captived condition in Babel There a Gog and Magog the Syrogrecian persecutors Antiochus and his house and then the description of the new Jerusalem which as to the place and situation was a promise of their restoring to their own Land and to have Jerusalem built again as it was indeed in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah but by the glory and largeness of it as it is described more in compass then all the Land of Canaan they were taught to look further namely at the heavenly or spiritual Jerusalem the Church through all the World Now the Jews according to their allegorical vein applied these things to the days of Christ thus that first there should be a resurrection caused by Messias of righteous ones then he to conquer Gog and Magog and then there must come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brave World to come that they dreamed of Besides what they speak to this tenour in the Talmudick Treatise last cited there is this passage in Jerus Megillah fol. 73. col 1. They are applying particular parts of the great Hallel to particular times what the great Hallel was we shewed a little before And that part say they I love the Lord because he hath heard me refers to the days of Messias that part Tye the sacrifice with cords to the day of Gog and Magog And that Thou art my God and I will praise thee refers to the world to come Our Divine Apocalyptick follows Ezekiel with an Allegory too and in some of his expressions alludes to some of theirs not as approving them but as speaking the plainer to them by them Here is a resurrection too but not of bodies neither for not a word of mention of them but of souls The souls of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus lived and reigned ver 4. and yet this is called The first resurrection ver 5.
Hillel Out of which as they relate there came thousands of Scholars but fourscore especially of most renown Hillel the old they are the words of the Talmud had fourscore Scholars Thirty of them were fit in whom the divine Majesty should rest as it did on Moses Thirty of them were worthy for whom the Sun should stand still as it did for Joshua and twenty were of a middle rank between The greatest of them all was Jonathan ben Uzziel that Paraphrased the Prophets in the Chaldee Tongue and the lowest of them was Johannan the son of Zaccai Such a Father had this our Simeon and so renowned but himself infinitely more renowned in the thing that is now in hand and in his having the Saviour of the world in his arms and heart Now this is the Genealogy of this man as it is Recorded by the Jews themselves Hillel begat Simeon who was first titled Rabban Rabban Simeon begat Rabban Gamaliel the Tutor of Paul Rabban Gamaliel begat Rabban Simeon the second Rabban Simeon the second begat Rabban Gamaliel the second Rabban Gamaliel begat Rabban Simeon the third Rabban Simeon the third begat Rabbi Juda the holy Rabbi Juda begat Rabban Gamaliel the third These six Rabbans were of the line of Hillel besides whom there was a seventh that bare the same title of another stock Rabban Johanan ben Zaccai But it may be justly questioned if Simeon were the man we suppose namely the Son of Hillel and the Father of Gamaliel and if he were so holy and devout a man and confessed Christ as this Evangelist relateth of him how came it to pass that his Son Gamaliel was so far contrary as appeareth by the education of Paul in Pharisaical righteousness and persecution of the Truth Answ. First It is no strange thing for holy Fathers to have wicked Children witness Eli David Josaphat and common experience Secondly It was thirty years from Simeons acknowledging of Christ to Gamaliels education of Paul or little less and so much time might wear out the notice of his Fathers action if he had taken any notice of it especially his Father dying shortly after he had made so glorious a confession §. Waiting for the consolation of Israel It is an Article of the Jewish Creed To believe the coming of the Messias and to wait and wait for his coming although he defer it which foolishly they do even to this day after sixteen hundred years expired since he came But Simeons expectation is neither so vain nor so uncertain For besides the general expectation of the whole Nation that the Messias should appear about that time Luke 19. 11. he had it by a special and assured revelation ver 26. The coming of Christ is called The consolation of Israel from Isa. 49. 13. 52. 9. 66. 13. Jer. 31. 13. Zech. 1. 17. and such like places which the Jews do not only apply to the coming of the Messias but also in their Talmud questioning what his name should be when as he came some conclude it to be Menahem The Comforter from Lam. 1. 16. In Sanhedr Ver. 26. That he should not see * * * * * * As Psal. 89. 48 and to see corruption Psal. 16. 10. death before he had seen the Lords Christ. This was the time when the Nation expected that Messias should appear Luke 19. 11. and began to look for redemption near at hand Luke 2. 38. The Angel Gabriel to Daniel and he to the people had so determinately pointed out the time Dan. 9. 26 27. that not only Jews of all Nations are gathered to Jerusalem against the expiring of that Prophesie Act. 2. but also all the East was possessed with an opinion of a Prince to rise about these times of supereminent honour glory and dominion Baron in Appar c. Sueton. Virgil c. Simeon having learned the time with the rest of the studious of the Nation out of the Scripture hath the certainty of it sealed up to him by the spirit of Prophesie which assured him that the time of so great expectation was so near at hand that he though he were old yet should not die till he had seen what he desired And thus Prophesie that was departed from Israel so long ago is returning and dawning to it again to be as the morning Star to tell that the Sun of righteousness would rise ere long Ver. 35. Yea a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also These words seem to be of the same tenor and intent with those of our Saviour to Peter Joh. 21. 18. and to tell Mary of her suffering martyrdom for Christ and the Gospel as those do of his For Simeon having in the preceding verse related how Christ both in his person and in the Gospel should be as a sign to be spoken against persecuted and opposed yea saith he and thou his Mother also for his and the Gospels sake shalt drink of the same cup and partake of the same lot for the sword of persecution shall go through thy life also for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth often signifie §. That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed This clause is linked to the latter end of the verse preceding and reacheth beyond the Parenthesis that lieth before it and in conjuncture with the clause before that it maketh this sense that Christs being set up for a sign to be spoken against or persecution for the Gospels sake should detect many mens tempers and affections which were not descried nor revealed before and discover what malignity or sincerity to him and to his cause is in their hearts as Matth. 13. 21. and as it is at this day Vers. 36. The daughter of Phanuel of the Tribe of Aser Hannah a Widdow indeed as 1 Tim. 5. 3 5. that is not by divorce but by the death of her husband and now of above an hundred years of age is chosen also and actuated by the Holy Ghost to give testimony of Christ as Simeon had done that out of the mouth of two such witnesses of either sex one the thing might be established and the party witnessed unto might be the more taken notice of Her Father Phanuel is named as either being a noted and well known man in those times or for the significancy of his name made good in her in that she now beholdeth the Lord face to face as Gen. 32. 30 31. And thus the New Testament doth by this Prophetess as the Old Testament doth by divers of the Prophets in naming her and her Father with her as Isa. 1. 1. Jer. 1. 1. Joel 1. 1. c. Phanuel her Father was a Galilean for in Galilee lay the Tribe of Aser and from thence cometh a Prophetess now to declare and publish the great Prophet that must once appear thence to the wonder of the Nation Ver. 37. Which departed not from the Temple Her constant continuance there might be either because she was a poor Widow and so
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉
12. 1 5. 10 11. Mar. 1. 21. from the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read 17. And there was delivered unto him the the Book of the Prophet Esaias and when he had c c c c c c Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is when he had unfolded the book for their books in those times were not bound as ours are now to open and turn over leaves but they were rould up as a Roul of paper And hence were their books called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exekiel 2. 9. Esay 8. 1. opened the Book he found the place where it was written 18. d d d d d d The Evangelist in this quotation from Esay doth follow the translation of the Septuagint verbatim but only in that clause To set at liberty them that are bruised The differences betwixt the Greek and the Hebrew text are not great they are only these 1. In the Hebrew it is The Spirit of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord Jehovah is upon me which the Greek hath uttered by the single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it commonly useth that word to translate both Adonai and Jehovah by 2. Whereas the Hebrew repeateth the word Jehovah again in the next clause because the Lord hath anointed me the Greek hath omitted it the sense being clear enough though it do leave it out 3. The Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to bind up it hath rendred to Heal bringing the word up to its full sense 4. The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the humble it hath rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the poor for it meaneth The poor in Spirit which is the same with Humble The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised 19. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20. And he closed the book and gave it again to the Minister and sate down and the eyes of all them that were in the Synagouge were fastened on him 21. And he began to say unto them This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears 22. And all bare him wintess and wondred at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth and they said Is not this Iosephs son 23. And he said unto them Ye will surely say to me this Proverb e e e e e e Physician heal thy self This Proverb the Jews commonly utter thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phycisian heal thine own lameness Tanchumah hath it in a legendary story of a Dialogue betwixt Adam and Lamechs wives They fell out with their Husband and would no more associate with him yet they would go to Adam to ask his counsel Adam adviseth them to hearken to their Husband They answer him with this Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physitian heal thine own lameness Thou partedst from thy mate an hundred and thirty years and dost thou teach us otherwise Tanch fol. 4. col 2. Physitian heal thy self whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum do here also in thine own Country 24. And he said Verily I said unto you No Prophet is accepted in his own Country 25. But I tell you of a truth Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias when the Heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land 26. But unto none of them was Elias sent save only unto Sarepta a city of Sidon unto a woman that was a widdow 27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elizeus the Prophet and none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian 28. And all they in the Synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath 29. And rose up and thrust him out of the City and led him unto the brow of the hill wheron their City was built that they might cast him down headlong 30. But he passing through the midst of them went his way St. MATTH CHAP. IV. Vers. 12. NOW when Iesus had heard that Iohn was cast into prison he departed into Galilee St. MARKE CHAP. I. Vers. 14. NOW after that Iohn was put into prison Iesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God Reason of the Order TO clear the subsequence of this Section to that preceding needeth no more ado but seriously to consider the progress of the story hither and to observe the progress of it from hence a step or two forward For although Luke hath laid it so close to the story of the temptation as if it did immediately follow and as if it were the first journey that Christ took into Galilee after yet is the parallel story in Matth. 4. 12. so plainly pointed out to have been after Christ heard that John was imprisoned that it leaves no more doubting of the method and of the time of this story Jesus indeed departed into Galilee presently after his temptation in the wilderness of which we have the story John 1. 43. and there he turned water into wine at Cana Joh. 2. 16. c. and abideth a while at Capernaum verse 11. and from thence goeth to the Passover at Hierusalem vers 13 c. and there and in Judea he stayeth till towards the latter end of our November as was observed before and all this while was John the Baptist preaching at liberty John 3. 23. but then Jesus heard of his imprisonment and foresaw his own danger if he should continue in Judea therefore he makes for Galilee and goeth through Samaria John 4. 1. c. comes up to Cana in Galilee and there healeth the Rulers Servant at distance vers 43 46. and now begins to be famous by these miracles and so begins to preach in their Synagogues So that the beginning of this Section may be supposed as an Epiphonema to the story foregoing the first word being changed from And to Thus. Thus Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and the like of Matthew Thus when Jesus heard that John was committed to prison he returned to Galilee Nor is it a strange thing in Scripture to lay stories so close together as Luke hath done these two when yet there was a long space of time and a large Catalogue of occurences came between as in this Evangelist Acts 9. 25 26. compared with Gal. 1. 17 18. Mat. 19. 1. compared with John 7. 10. to John 10. 40. and in other places And as the order of this Section is thus cleared and asserted by the current of the story hitherto so will it be the more confirmed by the continuance of it henceforward it being observed how Matthew Mark and Luke fall in together at the next Section in one and
in their punishment upon the rest of the People the Lord sent a Plague vers 35. Aaron had first felt the smart in this destruction had his action in this business been as voluntary as was theirs but what he did he did in fear of his life SECTION XXX That Moses fasted three Fasts of forty days apiece IT is a doubt of no small import Why seeing it pleased God to appoint the Feast of expiation the solemn Feast of Humiliation in that month of the year in which sin entred into the world why he also did not appoint it upon the same day in which sin entred viz. the sixth day of the month but on the tenth The reason of this is to be found out by observing Moses his Fasts in the mount and the conclusion of the last of them That he fasted thrice forty days is not frequently observed as it easily may be concluded from his own words The first Fast in Exod. 24. 18. And Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights At the end of these days they made the Golden Calf The Second Fast Exod. 32. 30 31. It came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the People Ye have sinned a great sin and now I will go up into the mount c. and Moses returned unto the Lord c. which he explaineth Deut. 9. 18. I fell down before the Lord as at the first forty days and forty nights c. The Third Fast when he goeth up with the new hewed Tables Exod. 34. 28. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights c. All which being reckoned together from the day after the giving of the ten Commandments or from the seventh day of the month Sivan it will be found that his last fast when he had obtained pardon for Israel and the Tables renewed ended on the tenth day of Tisri on which day he came down with the glad tydings of reconciliation in memorial of which that day was ever after observed for the Feast of expiation upon the tydings of this and of the making of the Tabernacle the People begin to dispose of their tents and to build them booths because it will be long ere the work be finished and they remove from Sinai for this the fiftenth day of the month is instituted for the Feast of Tabernacles ever after Hence forward is the Tabernacle begun and is half a year in making within a very little SECTION XXXI The form or Idea and representation of the Tabernacle THE Form and Fabrick of the Tabernacle is thrice rehearsed in the pattern in the making and in the setting up as if by this threefold cord of description the Holy Ghost would draw all to a serious observation Moses saw a glorious Tabernacle pitched in Mount Sinai to be the pattern of his as his was to be the pattern of a more glorious According to the exact form of this that he saw was he to make his This taught Moses and Israel that the making and service of their Tabernacle did only serve to the Pattern and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8. 5. Christ is the true Tabernacle by and in whom God dwelleth among men Joh. 2. 21. Heb. 9. 11. Now as there was a Tabernacle pitched before God in Sinai before there was one made in Israel so was Christs incarnation in the decree of God long before he was exhibited in the flesh Upon the making of Moses his Tabernacle this in the mount vanished as that of Moses was to do upon the coming of the true one Christ. The Tabernacle was Israels moveable Temple and so at every flitting might teach them to look for one that should not be moved It consisted of three parts the holiest the holy and the Court as our Churches do of the Chancel Church and Churchyard It was always pitched East and West whensoever it was set down as our Churches stand but with this difference that the chiefest place in the Tabernacle or holiest of all answering to our Chancels stood Westward and Israel worshipped with their faces Westward because they would not imitate the Heathen who worshipped towards the Sun-rising And in their services looked always towards us Gentiles in the West as expecting us to be joyned to their God with them SECTION XXXII The dimensions of the Tabernacle THE Tabernacle was thirty cubits long for twenty planks of a cubit and a half breadth apiece made one side or the length of it and it was ten cubits broad as shall appear hereafter But first observe these two things First That those which are translated boards were indeed planks of a good thickness even of nine inches thick apiece for it is said in the fastning of the sides of the Tabernacle that a barr of Shittim wood ran through the thickness of the boards as they stood edging one to another Now this barr was no small one for it was the chief strength of the side and therefore must have a large hole bored to run through and consequently it must be a thick plank that would bear such a hole and not an inch or two inch board Secondly The Cubit by which the Tabernacle is measured was but half a yard or the common cubit and not the Sanctuary or holy cubit which was a full yard For first it is said that every plank was a cubit and a half broad if this were a yard and an half do but imagine where planks of such a breadth should be had Secondly every plank was ten cubits long if this were ten yards imagine how they should be carryed Thirdly every two silver Bases were as long as a plank was broad now two talents would fall short of reaching to a yard and an half Lastly the Altar of burnt offering was three cubits high if this were three yards who could reach to serve at it These things considered you find that the cubit here spoken of is but half a yard and this will help well in measuring all the things to be spoken of after SECTION XXXIII The peoples contribution to the silver foundation and its form and posture MEasure out in your imagination an unequal square or a plot of ground of thirty cubits or fifteen yards long and often cubits or five yards broad such was the compass of the Tabernacle betwixt Wall and Wall The Foundation was of massy pieces of silver shewing the solidity and purity of the truth whereupon the Church is founded Of these massy pieces there were an hundred in all and in every piece was a talent of silver Every man in Israel from twenty years old and upward was to give half a Shekel towards these foundation pieces whereas for other things they were not bound to a set sum but to give what their hearts moved them This might teach them that to the fundamentals of their Religion they were all bound but to other things each one according to the gift given him Their manner of giving half a Shekel you find
were ever Bishop of Jerusalem at all or no is very well worth taking into some consideration but that will be most proper to handle when we come to those places in the Acts of the Apostles where a singular mention of James hath given occasion of this opinion But as for his prototype of Miters the peoples woodden devotion to his chair and the rest of that legendary invention he is little acquainted with the officiousness of superstition that knoweth not out of what mint that cometh and he hath little to do that should go about to examine the truth of it but he hath the least of all to do that should believe it THE CHRISTIAN JEWISH AND ROMAN HISTORY OF The Year of CHRIST XXXIV And of the Emperor TIBERIUS XIX Being the Year of the WORLD 3961. Consuls Sergius Sulpitius Galba L. Cornelius Sulla By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII Sect. An account of the Chronologie ALthough the proper reckoning of every year of our Saviour be from September to September for at that time of the year he was born and so his three and thirtieth year should have been ended by us within 4 months or little more after the giving of the Holy Ghost yet because it will not be possible to date the times of things in any of the three stories that we have in hand from such a beginning and because both the Roman Historians do reckon the years of their City as also the Christian Histories the years of Christ from January to January I have chosen to follow that computation and manner of accounting or rather to speak properly indeed I have been inforced to follow it there being not only various and pregnant helps both from Romans and Christians to forward us in that manner of reckoning but there being also an utter impossibility to reckon or compute from any other beginning or calculation now as for those stories that we are to follow in the Acts of the Apostles the holy Ghost hath not been so punctual and exact to give us the times of the things as to give us things themselves The Chronicle chain of the times indeed is drawn up by the Scripture from the Creation to the death of our Saviour which was the fulness of time with all care and accurateness but from thence forward not so strictly or observantly exhibited and held forth nor indeed was it requisite that it should so be To annalize therefore the story of this book of the Acts as it cannot but prove a matter of great difficulty so will it prove but a matter of conjecture when we have done what we can and both these proceed from this ground and reason because the holy Ghost hath been very sparing if not utterly silent in giving account of the times in the new Testament from the death of Christ forward that great business in his death being accomplished and fufilled for which alone the succession of times was reckoned and recorded we shall therefore in the casting of passages and occurences into several years as we go along present them under their proper notion of conjecture yet shewing some ground work and reason of what we do and though it may be we may not always hit aright in fixing every thing to its proper year yet hope we to find here and there some such main pins as whereon to hang a sum of divers years joyned together and to settle them fast although we cannot so perfectly find a general nail whereby to fasten the occurrences of every several year by it self We may take an instance in the story at which we now are the choosing of the seven Deacons It is not possible positively to determine at what time this was done it may be it was before the three and thirtieth year of our Saviour was expired namely before September next after his Ascension it may be again it was not before September but betwixt it and January next following or it may be it was not before January but after it in this year that we are entring upon there is alike uncertainty in all these things if we should come to try the times of this particular thing by it self but when we shall come to examine and take up the time of Pauls conversion then will some steadiness of the time of this appear and the nail that fastneth that will so clench up all the stories betwixt that and the descension of the Holy Ghost or all the stories from the end of the second Chapter to the beginning of the ninth that they will not hang altogether loose but have some fixedness to their proper time Acts VI. Vers. 1. There was a murmuring of the Grecians IN the Greek it is Of the Helenists which word is also used Chap. 9. 29. and 11. 20. and is of no small controversie for the sense whether it mean Greeks that lived among the Jews or Jews that lived among the Greeks Whether Greeks that were converted to the Jewish Religion or Jews that used the Greek tongue but the latter seemeth to be the proper meaning of it upon these grounds 1. Because proselyted Greeks which some think Hellenistae means are expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 12. 20. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Ant. lib. 18. cap. 4. And not Hellenistae 2. Because the very form of the word Hellinista doth more properly import a Jew ingrafted into the Greeks than a Greek ingrafted into the Jews 3. Because whereas Judaeus and Hellen distinguish the two nations Jew and Greek all along in the Scripture Hebraeus and Hellenista must needs signifie something else here 4. Because if by Hellenistae had been meant the converted Greeks it had been most proper in contradiction to them to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. Because the story from the beginning of this book hither maketh the Church to consist most especially of Jews as Chap. 2. 5 22. and 3. 12. and though it mention proselytes among them yet seemeth it most improbable that their number shall be so great as to have seven Deacons chosen for them 6. Because Nicolas one of the seven is expresly called a Proselyte of Antioch which had been somewhat improper if all the business had only concerned Proselytes By these and some other reasons that might be produced it is most proper to apprehend and conceive that these Hellenists were Jews of the Grecian dispersion and plantations that lived among the Greeks and used their language and which may be called the western dispersion not only in regard of the situation of their dwellings but chiefly in difference from the Eastern captivities carried away by the Assyrians and Persians and also because they used Western tongues And to this sense it soundeth when it is said the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews namely that both they that murmured and they that were murmured against were Jews
at Ephesus 56 1 Nero. Paul at Ephesus 57 2 Paul writeth the second Epistle to Corinth And now may we in some scantling fix those Stories to their times which hung loosely before namely the choosing of the Deacons the death of Stephen conversion of Samaria and the Eunuch and conclude that they were about the beginning of the next year after Christs ascension PART II. The Roman Story § 1. Velleius Paterculus TIBERIUS keepeth himself still in the Countrey but not stil at Capreae * * * Dion sub his coss for this year he draweth near unto Rome and haunteth in some places about four miles off but cometh not at all unto the City This seemeth to be his first journey towards it that Suetonius speaketh of * * * In Liber cap. 17. when he came by water to the Gardens beside the Nanmachy or the Pool in Tiber where they used their sportting sea-fights and returned again but the cause not known The first thing mentioned of him under these Consuls both by Tacitus and Dion is his marrying forth the Daughter of Drusus which they name not and Julia and Drusilla the Daughters of Germanicus Drusilla to L. Cassius Julia to M. Vinicius This was a Son of that M. Vinicius to whom Paterculus dedicated his short and sweet Roman History And the nearness of the time would very nearly perswade that this was that very Vinicius himself but that Paterculus sheweth that his Vinicius was Consul when he wrote his book to him and that as himself and Dion agreeing with him sheweth An. V. C. 783. or the next year after our Saviours Baptism but this Vinicius Tiberius his Son in Law as Tacitus intimateth was only a Knight but a Consuls Son Howsoever in these times shone forth and flourished the excellent wit and matchless pen of that Historian an Author known to all learned men and admired by all that know him His Original was from the Campanians as himself witnesseth not very far from the beginning of his second book when he cometh to speak of the Italian war in the time of Sylla and Marius No pen is so fit to draw his pedegree and Character as his own and therefore take only his own words Neque ego verecundia domestici sanguinis gloriae dum verum refero subtraham c. Nor will I for modesty derogate any thing from the honour of mine own blood so that I speak no more than truth for much is to be attributed to the memory of Minatius Magius my great-Grandfathers Father a man of Asculum who being * * * Or grandchild Nephew to Decius Magius a renowned Prince of the Campanians and a most faithfull man was so trusty to the Romans in this war that with a Legion which he had banded Pompey took Herculaneum together with T. Didius when L. Sulla besieged and took in Consa Of whose vertues both others but especially and most plainly Q. Hortensius hath made relation in his Annals Whose Loyalty the people of Rome did fully requite by enfranchising both him and his and making two of his Sons Pretors His Grandfather was C. Velleius Master of the Engeneers to Cn. Pompey M. Brutus and Tyro a man saith he second to none in Canâ—pany whom I will not defraud of that Testimony which I would give to a stranger He at the departure of Nero Tiberius his Father out of Naples whose part he had taken for his singular friendship with him being now unweldy with age and bulk of body when he could not accompany him any longer he slew himself Of his Fathers and of his own rank and profession thus speaketh he joyntly At this time namely about the time that Augustus adopted Tiberius after I had been Field-Marshal I became a Souldier of Tiberius and being sent with him General of the Horse into Germany which Office my Father had born before for nine whole years together I was either a spectator or to my poor ability a forwarder of his most celestial designs being either a Commander or an Ambassadour And a little after In this war against the Hungarians and Dalmatians and other Nations revolted my meaness had the place of an eminent Officer For having ended my service with the Horse I was made Questor and being not yet a Senator I was equalled with the Senators And the Tribunes of the people being now designed I led a part of the. Army delivered to me by Augustus from the City to his Son And in my Questorship the lot of my Province being remitted I was sent Ambassadour from him to him again Partner in the like employments and honours he had a brother named Magius Celer Velleianus that likewise attended Tiberius in the Dalmatian war and was honoured by him in his Triumph and afterward were his Brother and he made Pretors When he wrote that abridgement of the Roman History which we now have extant he had a larger work of the same subject in hand of which he maketh mention in divers places which he calleth justum opus and justa volumina but so far hath time and fortune denyed us so promising and so promised a piece that this his abstract is come short home and miserably curtailed to our hands So do Epitomes too commonly devour the Original and pretending to ease the toil of reading larger Volumes they bring them into neglect and loss In the unhappiness of the loss of the other it was somewhat happy that so much of this is preserved as is a fragment of as excellent compacture as any is in the Roman tongue wherein sweetness and gravity eloquence and truth shortness and variety are so compacted and compounded together that it findeth few parallels either Roman or other § 2. Troubles in Rome about Usury This year there was a great disturbance in the City about Usury the too common and the too necessary evil of a Common-wealth This breed-bate had several times heretofore disturbed that State though strict and rigorous courses still were taken about it At the first the interest of mony lent was proportioned and limited only at the dispsal of the lender a measure always inconstant and often unconscionable Whereupon it was fixed at the last by the twelve Tables to an ounce in the pound which is proportionable in our English coin to a penny in the shilling Afterward by a Tribune Statute it was reduced to half an ounce and at last the trade was quite forbidden But such weeds are ever growing again though weeded out as clean as possible and so did this Partly through the covetousnes of the rich making way for their own pofit and partly through the necessities of the poor giving way to it for their own supply Gracchus now Pretor and he to whom the complaint was made at this time being much perplexed with the matter referreth it to the Senate as perplexed as himself He perplexed because of the multitude that were in danger by breach of the Law and they because they were in
life and fortunes and all lay in the hand of Tiberius and when he findeth him inclinable to use him kindly there is no losing that favour for want of paying such a sum Of Antonia the mother of Germanieus and the old friend and favourer of Bernice the mother of Agrippa he borroweth the money and getting out of the Emperors debt he getteth into his favour again Insomuch that he commendeth him to the converse acquaintance and attendance of Caius his Grandchild that was to succeed him §. 3. His Imprisonment Happy might now Agrippa think himself if he can but hold so For he hath obtained the inward friendship of Caius and with it retained the outward favour of Tiberius Antonia and Claudius a future Emperor and all favour him but he becomes an enemy to himself Whether it were in love or flattery to Caius or to himself and his own hopes he casteth himself into a present danger upon a future expectation For Caius and he being very intimate and private together whether more affectionately or undiscreetly he himself best felt he brake out into this dangerous wish That Tiberius might soon die and Gaius as soon come to rule in his stead These words were heard by Eutychus his servant and a while concealed but when Agrippa prosecuted him for stealing some of his cloaths which he had stoln indeed he then brake forth and revealed all for fleeing for his theft and caught and brought before Piso the Sheriff of the City and demanded the reason of his flight he answered that he had a great secret to impart to Caesar which concerned his life Piso therefore sent him bound to Tiberius who also kept him bound and unexamined a certain season Now began Agrippa to hasten and spur on his own misery and vexation Whether having forgotten the words that he had spoken or not remembring the presence of his servant at the speech or not suspecting that his tale to Caesar would be against himself or which was likeliest thinking to make his cause the better by his confidence he solliciteth his old friend Antonia to urge the Emperor for a tryal of his servant Tiberius declineth it though he suspected the matter not so much belike for Agrippa's sake as for Caius sake whom the familiarity that was betwixt them made him suspect to be accessary if any thing should prove otherwise than well But being still importuned by Antonia at last when he had uttered these words Let the gods witness O Antonia that what I shall do I do not of my own mind but by thy solicitation He commanded Eutychus to be brought forth who being examined confessed readily that such words were spoken by Agrippa to Caius himself being present adding others no less dangerous that were spoken about young Tiberius The Emperor as readily believed the matter and presently called out to Macro to bind him Macro not understanding that he meant Agrippa prepared to bind Eutychus more strictly for examination but Tiberius having walked about the place and coming to Agrippa it is this man saith he that I commanded to be bound And when Macro asked him again who Why saith he Agrippa Then did Agrippa begin to find how he had forwarded his own mishap but it was too late And then did he begin to pray him now whom he lately prayed against but that was too late also For Tiberius was not half so averse to have tried his servant as he is now to forgive the Master and he cannot be much blamed for he had wished his mischief and procured his own Well Agrippa is tied in bands and led away to prison as he was in his purple robes a garment very incompatible with chains unless of Gold Being exceeding thirsty with heat and sorrow as he went towards the prison he spied one Thaumastus a servant of Caius carrying a Tankard of water and he desired some to drink which when the servant freely and readily gave him If ever saith he I escape and get out of these bonds I will not fail to obtain thy freedom who hast not refused to minister to me in my misery and chains as well as thou didst in my prosperity and pomp And this his promise he afterward performed §. 4. The death of Thrasyllus the Mathematician This man Thrasyllus had indeared himself to Tiberius by his skill in Astrology long ago even while he lived in Rhodes before the death of Augustus but with the imminent hazard and peril of his own life For Tiberius being very much given to those Chaldean and curious arts and having got leasure and retiredness in Rhodes for the learning and practise of them he partly called and partly had offered to him those that professed to be skilful in that trade and mystery His way to try their skill was desperate and terrible but such an one as best befitted such as would take upon them to foresee things to come and it was this when he consulted of any business saith Tacitus he used the top of his house and the privacy of one only servant a man utterly unlearned and of a strong bulk of body when he had a mind to try any mans skill this Lubber was to go before him over craggy steep and dangerous Rocks that hung over the Sea and over which his house stood and as they returned again if there were any suspition that the Prognosticator had given an answer fraudulent or lying he flung him into the Sea lest he should reveal the secret that he had been questioned upon Thraysillus at his first coming being brought to this dangerous trial and having presaged Tiberius should be Emperor and having foretold other things to come he was asked by him whether he could calculate his own nativity which when he went about to do and had set a figure upon the sight and study upon it he was first in a muse and then in a fear and the more he viewed it the more he feared and at last cryed out that some strange and suddain danger was near and ready to seize upon him Then Tiberius imbracing him commended his skill secured him against the danger and retained him ever after for his intimate familiar This year as Dion doth place it befel this great Wizzards death and as it proved a forerunner of the Emperors With whom he did more good with one lie near his latter end than he had done with all his Astrological truths if he ever told any all his life long For assuring him by his skill that he should yet live ten years longer though in his heart he thought no such thing he caused him to be slack and remiss in putting divers men to death whose end he had hastned had he known the haste of his own and so they escaped §. 5. War betwixt Aretas and Herod There had been a long grudge betwixt Aretas the King of Arabia Petraea and Herod the Tetrarch and a field had been fought between them before this For Herod having put away his wife
Sabbath Eve sounded with a trumpet six times upon the roof of an exceeding high house that thence all might have notice of the coming in of the Sabbath The first sound was that they should cease from their works in the fields The second that they should cease from theirs in the City The third that they should light the Sabbath Candle c. VERS XXXIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Think not that I am come to send peace c. ALthough these words may be understood truly of the differences between believers and unbelievers by reason of the Gospel which all Interpreters observe yet they do properly and primarily point out as it were with the singer those horrid slaughters and civil wars of the Jews among themselves which no Age ever saw nor Story heard p p p p p p Bab. Sanhedr fol. 99. 1. R. Eliâ—zâ—r saith The days of the Messias are forty years as it is said Forty years was I provoked by this generation And again q q q q q q fol. 97. 1. R. Judah saith In that generation when the Son of David shall come the Schools shall be Harlots Galilee shall be laid wast Gablan shall be destroyed and the Inhabitants of the Earth the Gloss is the Sanhedrin shall wander from City to City and shall not obtain pity the wisdom of the Scribes shall stink and they that fear to sin shall be despised and the faces of that generation shall be like the faces of Dogs and Truth shall fail c. Run over the History of these forty years from the death of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem as they are vulgarly computed and you will wonder to observe the Nation conspiring to its own destruction and rejoycing in the slaughters and spoils of one another beyond all Example and even to a Miracle This Phrâ—nsie certainly was sent upon them from Heaven And first They are deservedly become mad who trode the Wisdom of God as much as they could under their feet And secondly The blood of the Prophets and of Christ bringing the good tidings of Peace could not be Expiated by a less Vengeance Tell me O Jew whence is that Rage of your Nation towards the destruction oâ— one another and those Monsters of Madness beyond all Examples Does the Nation rave for nothing unto their own Ruine Acknowledge the Divine Vengeance in thy Madness more than that which befel thee from Men. He that reckons up the differences contentions and broyls of the Nation after the dissention betwixt the Pharisees and the Sadducees will meet with no less between the Scholars of Shammai and Hillel which encreased to that degree that at last it came to slaughter and blood r r r r r r Hieros in Schabb. fol. 3. 3. The Scholars of Shammai and Hillel came to the chamber of Chananiah ben Ezekiah ben Garon to visit him That was a woful day like the day wherein the golden Calf was made The Scholars of Shammai stood below and slew some of the Scholars of Hillel The tradition is that six of them went up and the rest stood there present with swords and spears It passed into a common Proverb That Elias the Tishbite himself could not decide the Controversies between the Scholars of Hillel and the Scholars of Shammai They dream they were determined by a voice from Heaven but certainly the quarels and bitternesses were not at all decided s s s s s s Hieros Beracoth fol. 3. 2. Before the Bath Kol in Jabneh weâ—t forth it was lawful equally to embrace either the Decrees of the School of Hillel or those of the School of Shammai At last the Bath Kol came forth and spake thus The words both of the one party and the other are the words of the living God but the certain decision of the matter is according to the Decrees of the School of Hillel And from thenceforth whosoever shall transgress the Decrees of the School of Hillel is guilty of death And thus the Controversie was decided but the hatreds and spites were not so ended t t t t t t See Trumoth fol. 43. 3. Succaâ— 53. 1. Jom Tobh fol. 60. 3. c. I observe in the Jerusalem Gemarists the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shamothi used for a Scholar of Shammai which I almost suspect from the affinity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shammatha which signifies Anathema to be a word framed by the Scholars of Hillel in hate ignominy and reproach of those of Shammai And when I read more than once of R. Tarphons being in danger by robbers because in some things he followed the Custom and Manner of the School of Shammai I cannot but suspect snares were dayly laid by one another and hostile Treacheries continually watching to do each other mischief u u u u u u Bab. Beracoth cap. 1. hal 3. R. Tarphon saith As I was travelling on the way I went aside to recite the Phylacteries according to the Rite of the School of Shammai I was in danger of thieves They say to him and deservedly too because thou hast transgressed the words of the School of Hillel This is wanting in the Jerusalem Mishnah x x x x x x Hieros Shevith fol. 35. 2. R. Tarphon went down to eat figs of his own according to the School of Shammai The enemies saw him and kick'd against him When he saw himself in danger By your life saith he carry word unto the house of Tarphon that Grave cloaths be made ready for him Thus as if they were struck with a Phrensie from Heaven the Doctors of the Nation rage one against another and from their very Schools and Chairs flow not so much Doctrines as Animosities â—arrings Slaughters and Butcheries To these may be added those fearful Outrages Spoils Murders Devastations of Robbers Cut-throats Zealots and amazing Cruelties beyond all Example And if these things do not savour of the Divine wrath and vengeance what ever did CHAP. XI VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art thou He that should come or do we look for another THE Reason of the Message of John to Christ is something obscure First That it was not because he knew not Christ is without all Controversie when he had been fully instructed from Heaven concerning his person when he was baptized and when he had been again and again most evidently attested before him in those words This is the Lamb of God c. Secondly Nor was that Message certainly that the Disciples of John might receive satisfaction about the person of Christ for indeed the Disciples were most unworthy of such a Master if they should not believe him without further Argument when he taught them concerning him Thirdly John therefore seems in this Matter to respect his own imprisonment and that his Question Art thou he which should come c. tends to that He had heard that Miracles of all sorts were done by
Shâ—moth rab Sect. 9. Ezekiah c. require a sign much more the wicked and ungodly Since there had been so many no less than four hundred years past from the time that the Holy Spirit had departed from that Nation and Prophecies had ceased in which space there had not appear'd any one person that pretended to the gift either of Prophesying or working miracles it is no wonder if they were suspicious of one that now claim'd the character and requir'd a sign of him VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this Temple I. CHrist sheweth them no sign that was meer sign Mat. XII 39. The turning of Moses his Rod into a Serpent and returning the Serpent into a Rod again the hand becoming leprous and restor'd to its proper temperament again these were meer signs those wonders which Moses afterward wrought in Egypt were not meer signs but miraculous judgments and those stupendous things which our Saviour wrought were not meer signs but beneficent miracles and whoever would not believe upon those infinite miracles which he wrought would much less have believ'd upon meer signs And indeed it was unbecoming our Blessed Lord so far to indulge to their obstinate incredulity to be shewing new signs still at every beck of theirs who would not believe upon those infinite numbers he put forth upon every proper occasion II. Mat. XII 39 40. when they had requir'd a sign Christ remits them to the sign of the Prophet Jonah and he points at the very same sense in these words Destroy this Temple c. That is my Resurrection from the dead will be a sign beyond all denial proving and affirming that what I do I act upon Divine authority and that I am he who is to come Rom. I. 4. further than this you must expect no other sign from me If you believe me not while I do such works at least believe me when I arise from the dead He acted here whiles he is purging the Temple under that notion as he was the authoriz'd Messiah Mal. III. 1 3. and expresly calls it his fathers house v. 16. Shew us therefore some sign say the Jews by which it may appear that thou art the Messiah the Son of God at least that thou art a Prophet I will shew you a sufficient sign saith Christ Destroy this Temple viz. of my body and I will raise it from the dead again a thing which was never yet done nor could be done by any of the Prophets VERS XX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forty and six years I. THAT this was spoken of the Temple as beautify'd and repair'd by Herod not as built by Zorobabel these reasons seem to sway with me I. That these things were done and discours'd betwixt Christ and the Jews in Herod's Temple II. That the account if meant of the Temple of Zorobabel will not fall in either with the years of the Kings of Persia or those seven weeks mention'd Dan. IX 26. in which Jerusalem was to be built even in troublous times For whoever reckons by the Kings of Persia he must necessarily attribute at least thirty years to Cyrus which they willingly do that are fond of this account which thirty years too if they do not reckon to him after the time that he had taken Babylon and subverted that Monarchy they prove nothing as to this computation at all a a a a a a Euseb. in Chronic. Cyrus destroy'd the Empire of the Medes and reign'd over Persia having overthrown Astyages the King of the Medes And from thence he reckons to Cyrus thirty years But by what authority he ascribes the Jews being set at liberty from their captivity to that very same year I cannot tell For Cyrus could not release the Jews from their captivity in Babylon before he had conquer'd Babylon for himself and this was a great while after he had subdu'd the Medes as appears from all that have treated upon the subversion of that Empire which how they agree with Xenophon I shall not enquire at this time content at present with this that it doth not appear amongst any Historians that have committed the acts of Cyrus to memory that they have given thirty or twenty no not ten years to him after he had taken Babylon Leunclavius in his Chronolog Xenoph. gives him but eight years and Xenophon himself seems to have given him but seven So that this account of forty and six years falls plainly to the ground as not being able to stand but with the whole thirty years of Cyrus included into the number Their opinion is more probable who make these forty and six years parallel with the seven weeks in Dan. IX 26. But the building of the Temple ceast for more years than wherein it was built and in truth if we compute the times wherein any work was done upon the Temple it was really built within the space of ten years II. This number of forty six years fits well enough with Herod's Temple for Josephus tells us that b b b b b b Antiq. lib. 15. cap. 14. Herod began the work in the eighteenth year of his reign nor does he contradict himself when c c c c c c De Bell. lib. â— cap. 16. he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the fifteenth year of his reign he repair'd the Temple because the fifteenth year of his reign alone after he had conquer'd Antigonus was the eighteenth year from the time wherein he had been declar'd King by the Romans Now Herod as the same Josephus relates d d d d d d Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 10. liv'd thirty seven years from the time that the Romans had declar'd him King and in his thirty fifth year Christ was born and he was now thirty years old when he had this discourse with the Jews So that between the eighteenth of Herod and the thirtieth of Christ exclusively there were just forty six years compleat III. The words of our Evangelist therefore may be thus render'd in English Forty and six years hath this Temple been in building and this Version seems warranted by Josephus e e e e e e Antiq. lib. 20 cap. 8. who beginning the History of G. Florus the Procurator of Judea about the 11th of Nero hath this passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From that time particularly our City began to languish all things growing worse and worse He tells us further that Albinus when he went off from his Government set open all the Goals and dismist the Prisoners and so filled the whole Province with Thieves and Robberies withal that King Agrippa permitted the Levite singing men to go about as they pleased in their Linnen Garments and at length concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And now was the Temple finished as may be observed wherefore the people seeing the workmen to the number of eighteen thousand were at a stand having nothing to do besought the King that he would repair the Porch upon the
and fury of the Romans I beg your pardon for that saith Caiphas you know nothing neither consider for be he the Messiah or be he not it is expedient nay it is necessary he should dye rather than the whole Nation should perish c. VERS LI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Prophesied IS Caiphas among the Prophets There had not been a Prophet among the Chief Priests the Priests the People for these four hundred years and more and does Caiphas now begin to Prophesie It is a very foreign fetch that some would make when they would ascribe this gift to the office he then bore as if by being made High-Priest he became a Prophet The opinion is not worth confuting The Evangelist himself renders the reason when he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being the High-Priest that same year Which words direct the Reader 's eye rather to the year than to the High-Priest I. That was the year of pouring out the Spirit of Prophesie and Revelations beyond whatever the world had yet seen or would see again And why may not some drops of this great effusion light upon a wicked man as sometimes the Childrens crums fall from the table to the Dog under it that a witness might be given to the great work of Redemption from the mouth of our Redeemer's greatest enemy There lies the emphasis of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same year for Caiphas had been High-Priest some years before and did continue so for some years after II. To say the truth by all just calculation the office of the High-Priest ceased this very year and the High-Priest Prophesies while his office expires What difference was there as to the execution of the Priestly Office between the High-Priest and the rest of the Priesthood none certainly only in these two things 1. Asking counsel by Urim and Thummim 2. In performing the service upon the day of Expiation As to the former that had been useless many ages before because the Spirit of Prophesie had so perfectly departed from them So that there remained now no other distinction only that on the day of expiation the High-Priest was to perform the Service which an ordinary Priest was not warranted to do The principal ceremony of that day was that he should enter into the Holy of Holies with blood When therefore our great High-Priest should enter with his own blood into the Holiest of all what could there be left for this High-Priest to do When at the death of our great High-Priest the Veil that hung between the Holy and the Holy of Holies was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Math. XXVII 51. there was clear demonstration that all those Rites and Services were abolished and that the Office of the High-Priest which was distinguished from the other Priests only by those usages was now determined and brought to its full period The Pontificate therefore drawing its last breath prophesies concerning the Redemption of mankind by the great High-Priest and Bishop of Souls that he should dye for the people c. That of the Apostle Acts XXIII 5. I wist not that it was the High-Priest may perhaps have some such meaning as this in it I knew not that there was any High-Priest at all because the Office had become needless for some time For grant indeed that St. Paul did not know the face of Ananias nor that Ananias was the High-Priest yet he must needs know him to have been a Magistrate because he had his seat amongst the Fathers of the Sanhedrin now those words which he quoted out of the Law Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People forbad all indecent speeches toward any Magistrate as well as the High-Priest The Apostle therefore knowing Ananias well enough both who he was and that he sate there under a falsely assumed title of the High-Priest does on purpose call him whited wall because he only bore the colour of the High-Priesthood whenas the thing and office it self was now abolished Caiaphas in this passage before us speaketh partly as Caiaphas and partly as a Prophet As Caiaphas he does by an impious and precipitate boldness contrive and promote the death of Christ and what he uttered as a Prophet the Evangelist tells us he did it not of himself he spoke what himself understood not the depth of The greatest work of the Messiah according to the expectation of the Jews was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reduction or gathering together the Captivities The High-Priest despairs that ever Jesus should he live could do this For all that he either did or taught seem'd to have a contrary tendency viz. to seduce the people from their Religion rather than recover them from their servile state of bondage So that he apprehended this one only remedy left that care might be taken so as by the death of this man the hazard of that Nations ruin might blow over If he be the Messiah which I almost think even Caiaphas himself did not much question since he can have no hope of redeeming the Nation let him die for it himself that it perish not upon his account Thus miserably are the great Masters of Wisdom deceiv'd in almost all their surmizes they expect the gathering together of the Children of God in one by the life of the Messiah which was to be accomplisht by his death They believe their Traditional Religion was the establishment of that Nation whereas it became its overthrow They think to secure themselves by the death of Christ when by that very death of his their expected security was chiefly shaken O blind and stupid madness VERS LV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To purifie themselves R. f f f f f f Rosh hashanah fol. 16. 2. Isaac saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man is bound to purifie himself for the Feast Now there were several measures of time for purifying He that was unclean by the touch of a dead body he requir'd a whole weeks time that he might be sprinkled with the water of Purification mixt with the ashes of the red heifer burnt the third and the seventh day which ceremony we may see and laugh at in Parah cap. 3. Other purifyings were speedilier perform'd amongst others shaving themselves and washing their garments were accounted necessary and within the Laws of purifying g g g g g g Moed-katon fol. 13. 1. These shave themselves within the Feast he who cometh from an heathen Country or from captivity or from prison Also he who hath been excommunicated but now absolv'd by the wise men These same also wash their garments within the Feast It is suppos'd that these were detain'd by some necessity of affairs that they could not wash and be shav'd before the Feast for these things were of right to be perform'd before lest any should by any means approach polluted unto the celebration of this Feast but if by some necessity they were hinder'd from doing it before
honour l l l l l l Hieros Jevamâ—th fol. 3. 1. Bab. Jevamâ—th fol. 16. 1. in a far different signification the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking its derivation from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to decline from VERS XII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deputy THIS is a word much in use amongst the Talmudists with a little variation only in the reading m m m m m m Hieros Beraceth fol. 9. 1. R. Chaninah and R. Joshua ben Levi passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Deputy of Caesarea He seeing them rose up to them His own people say unto him Doest thou rise up to these Jews He answered them and said I saw their faces as the faces of Angels See the Aruch upon the word VERS XIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They came to Perga in Pamphylia FROM Paphos in Cyprus whether old or new both being Maritim places situated on the Western shore of the Island they seemed to Sail into the mouth of the river Cestrus concerning which Strabo hath this passage n n n n n n Geograph lib. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then there is the river Cestrus which when one hath sailed sixty furlongs he comes to the City Perga near which is the Temple of Diana of Perga in an high place where every year there is a solemn convention Ptolomey also speaks of the river Cestrus and of the Cataract concerning which Strabo hath some mention But Mela o o o o o o Mela lib. 1. cap. 14. hath this passage Thence there are two strong rivers Oestros and Cataractes Oestros is easily navigable but Cataractes hath its name from the violence of its running amongst these is the City Perga c. One may justly suspect an error in the Writer here writing Oestros for Cestros and it is something strange that Olivarius hath taken no notice of it We may conjecture there was no Synagogue of Jews in Perga because there is no mention of it nor any memorable thing recorded as done by the Apostles here only that John whose Sirname was Mark did in this place depart from them for what reason is not known VERS XIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They came to Antioch in Pisidia STrabo reckons up thirteen Cities in Pisidia p p p p p p Strabo lib. 12 from Artemidorus amongst which he makes no mention of Antioch But Pliny q q q q q q Plin. lib. 5. cap. 27. tell us Insident vertici Pisidiae quondam Solymi appellati c. There are that inhabit the top of Pisidia who were once called Solymites their Colony is Casarea the same is Antioch And Ptolomey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The inland Cities in Pamphilia are Sileucia of Phrygia and Antioch of Pisidia Where the Interpreter most confusedly Civitates sunt in Provincia Mediterranea Phrygia quidem Pisidiae Seleucia Pisidiae Antiochia that is there are Cities in the midland Country Phrygia of Pisidia Seleucia of Pisidia Antioch and in the margin he sets Caesarea VERS XV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets BUT in what Language were the Law and the Prophets read in this Synagogue It is generally supposed that in the Synagogues of the Hellenists the Greek Bible was read But was that Tongue understood amongst the Pisidians Strabo at the end of his thirteenth Book tells us The Cibratian prefecture was reckoned amongst the greatest of Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cibyrates used four Languages the Pisidian the Solyman the Greek and Lydian Where we see the Pisidian Tongue is expresly distinguisht from the Greek If Moses and the Prophets therefore were read here in the Greek Tongue were they understood by those in Pisidia Yes you will say for the very name of the City Antioch speaks it to have been a Greek Colony Grant this but then suppose a Jewish Synagogue in some City of Pisidia that was purely Pisidian such as Selge Sagalessus Pernelissus c. or in some City of the Solymites or of the Lydians in what Language was the Law read there Doubtless in the same Tongue and the same manner that it was read in the Synagogue of the Hebrews i. e. in the Original Hebrew some Interpreter assisting and rendring it to them in their mother Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They sat down So it is exprest commonly of any one that teaches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sat down And if the Rulers of the Synagogue had no other knowledge of Barnabas and Saul they might gather they were Preachers from this that when they entred the Synagogue they sat down according to the custom of those that Taught or Preached VERS XVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And ye that fear God THAT is Proselytes r r r r r r Bemedv rab fol. 227. 2. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his ways Psal. CXXVIII 1. He doth not say Blessed is Israel or blessed are the Priests or blessed the Levites but blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are the Proselytes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that fear the Lord. According as it is said of Israel Blessed art thou O Israel so is it said of these blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. Now of what proselyte is it said that he is blessed It is said of the proselyte of justice Not as those Cuthites of whom it is said that they feared the Lord and yet worshiped their own Gods VERS XVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He suffered their manners THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to exclude the reading of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word we meet with in the Seventy Deut. I. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God did indeed bear with them full forty years and so you will say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not wide from the truth But the Apostle adding the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the time of forty years seems chiefly to respect that time which went between the fatal decree that they should not enter the land and the going in VERS XIX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seven Nations THE Rabbins very frequently when they mention the Canaanitish people give them this very term of the Seven Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VERS XX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About the space of four hundred and fity years AMongst the many things that are offerd upon this difficulty I would chuse this that in this number are reckoned the years of the Judges and the years of those Tyrants that opprest Israel computing them disjunctly and singly which at first sight any one would think ought to be so reckoned but that 1 Kings VI. 1. gives a check to a too large computation 1. The years of the Judges and Tyrants thus distinguisht answer the Sum exactly The Iudges Othniel XL. Eliud LXXX Deborah XL. Gideon
natural generation and that God would circumcise So was the Primitive institution of Baptism As it was used originally to admit Proselites so it is used in the Gospel to admit all Nations it was used then to denote washing from moral and legal pollution now under the Gospel to denote washing from natural and is of this everlasting use As washing in the Temple was a needful introduction into it so Christ ordained this that at our entrance into his Religion we might read our natural defilements and our cleansing from them Baptism is the Epitome of what comes to us from both Adams pollution from the first and purifying from the second These great doctrines are read in these primis elementis first elements the sum whereof is that if we intend to come into the Kingdom of Christ we must be purified 2. As it reads doctrines to us so it seals the truth of the promises It is a seal of the Covenant it is as a seal to a Deed. We put our seal two ways by believing and obeying God puts his three viz. by his oath Heb. VI. 17. by the blood of his Son and by the Sacraments These Sacraments are everlasting visible seals and hence appears the reason of their continuance Circumcision is a seal Rom. IV. 11. And he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the Faith How was it a seal of the righteousness of the Faith Not to seal Abrahams righteousness but Gods truth and therefore it is called his Covenant It seald that righteousness that is by Faith So baptism is a seal likewise in the nature of circumcision Observe how Circumcision and the Passover answer to Baptism and the Lords Supper Circumcision Passover Seals of the Righteousness by Faith Baptism Lords Supper Of the life by Faith Now this seal being imprinted upon all in their admission to the Church 't is as much as if God should have said you coming into the administration of the Covenant here is my mark that I will perform all I promise 3. There is an obligatory end of it to engage them that are baptized on their part As a Covenant is of mutual obligation and so are seals As by circumcision a Jew was made debtor to the Law Gal. V. 3. I testifie to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole Law So Baptism makes him that receives it debtor to the Gospel See the Text for this and vers 20. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you It brings into the bond of the Covenant a man now becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A son of the Covenant Now the equity of this obligation lies in two things First in Christs institution It is equal that he lay obligation on all that come to serve him And secondly in the equity of the things themselves that are required 4. There is a privilegial end of Baptism It brings into the number of the owned people It badged out some to escape the wrath to come Matth. III. 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduces come to his baptism he said unto them O generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come God makes a plain difference betwixt the Church and Pagans There are promises providences to this which belong not to them Now this rite gives admission into that Society It makes Disciples so the Text speaks by this they are admitted into the atrium of the Temple into the Court of the Church and stand no longer without among the strangers As the Sichemites by circumcision came into Jacobs family and came under his Promises and Providences Baptism brings the baptised person into the condition of Ruth puts us under the wings of the Almighty II. Ruth 12. Having spoken something to the Apostles Commission and Work and particularly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disciple all Nations baptizing them observed how Baptism introduces into the School of Christ and upon this considered the nature of Baptism viz. that it is Doctrinal Sigillative Obligatory Privilegial I shall now make some Application on that and then proceed to the Form prescribed to be used in Baptism In the Name of the Father and of the Son c. Look back then in your thoughts upon the ends named and Observe hence I. The durableness of the Sacraments because these ends are durable Things of Divine Institution are as durable as their ends Both Sacraments now a days are at indifference nay some assert them needless As God complained of old that men made his Law a common thing so he may now take up the same complaint of his Sacraments And the reason is because men know not the nature of them But they rose with the Gospel and they must live with it because of such affinity betwixt them They hold forth the same doctrines with the Gospel and they are seals of the same promises As Circumcision and the Passover dured that Oeconomy so these Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper must indure as long as the Oeconomy of the Gospel and unless there be no Gospel or a new Gospel they must continue 1 Cor. XI 25. This Cup is the New Testament in my blood The New Testament in Christs blood must last with the New Testament And observe God would not lay by Circumcision and the Passover without other rites were brought in in their stead and one in the place of the other Baptism in the place of Circumcision the Lords Supper in the place of the Passover Let Anabaptists cavil and contend against this assertion as much as they will it is yet most true Christ laid down those and took up these and so one takes beginning at the end of the other as the two Testaments do and both like Cherubs wings reach from one side of the House of God to the other and meet in the middle Joshua's pillars in the water of Jordan and at Gilgal where the children of Israel ate the Passover must indure because the ends wherefore they were set up were to indure IV V Chapters of Joshua And so must the two Sacraments these monuments indure also because their ends indure viz. To seal Gods truth and our homage Learn O ye Candidates for the Ministry the perpetuity of Sacraments they are not for a moment they are not arbitrary It is sad to see what authority men take over the Sacraments Some Congregations have had none these fourteen years and what think these men of the Sacraments What light businesses indeed are they if men may thus dispose of them I wish God avenge not the quarrel of the seals of the Covenant And as he punished the Jews for suffering his Temple to lie waste I Hag. 9. so we may fear his punishments may light upon us for suffering his Sacraments to lie waste II. Hence we infer the lawfulness of admitting Infants to Baptism Look back to the three things last spoken of concerning the Sacraments that they
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
Church of God That Jerusalem for that fact should be a curse a hissing and an everlasting desolation and that Rome that was as guilty every whit should be a blessing a renown and the prime Church of all Churches Let a Papist solidly unriddle me this and he says something And to speak to what he pleads we may first answer with that common saying Ubi lex II. non distinguit c. what the Word of God doth not distinguish we are not to make any distinction about but of any differences of qualities twixt Rome Heathen and Papal the Word of God doth not distinguish unless it shew the Papal to be the worse of the two In this Chapter indeed it distinguishes of the change of state and government from Imperial to Pontifical but for mischievousness and abomination there is no such distinction Rome Heathen in the beginning of the Chapter is a Beast like a Leopard with feet like a Bear and a mouth like a Lion And Rome Papal at vers 11. a beast like a Lamb but it speaks like a Dragon and exerciseth all the power of the former Beast and is not behind it a whit in wickedness and cruelty A Lamb in shew but a Dragon a Devil in speech and the very former beast in demeanor the former beast had the mouth of a Lion this of a Dragon the former bad this worse And look but at several places that speak of this City and you find they speak of it without any such distinction of quality but that Rome all along is her self i. e. stark naught till her latter end and till she perish The first time you meet with any hint of Rome in Scripture is Numb XXIV 24. And I. ships shall come from the coast of Chittim and shall afflict Asshur and shall afflict Eber and he also shall perish for ever Where by Chittim that Rome and Italy are meant it is the consent both of Jews and Christians both of Protestants and Papists and the very intent and story of the passage doth so enforce it to be taken And the words shew how Ships and Souldiers from Rome should afflict and conquer Assyria who had been once the great afflicter and that they should afflict and conquer Heber or the Hebrews the afflicted people yea afflict Christ the chief child of Heber for Rome as I said put him to death All which History sheweth to be most true And he also that is Chittim Rome or Italy shall perish for ever The word also parallels her perdition with Amaleck of which there is mention vers 20. Amaleck was the first of the Nations that is he was the first of the Nations that fought against Israel Exod. XVII and that Nation shall perish for ever So Chittim or Rome is the last of the Nations that shall afflict Heber and the Israel of God and he also shall perish for ever Now do you find any such distinction here as that Rome Papal should be holy blessed and the most excellent Church in the World when the conclusion the period of Chittim is that he shall perish for ever And the last time that there is discourse in Scripture of Rome it makes this distinction II. indeed of the state and government of it that Rome Heathen is the Beast and Papal is the false Prophet but it leaves both under the same condemnation and perishing for ever Revel XIX 20. And the Beast was taken and the false Prophet And both these were taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone Antichrist in Scripture is charactered under the character of Apostasie or falling away III. from the Truth 2 Thes. II. 3 4. There must be a falling away first and then the Man of sin shall be revealed And Rev. IX 1. I saw a star fall from Heaven unto the Earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun and the Air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit And there came out of the smoke Locusts upon the Earth c. He that lets Hell loose and opens the bottomless pit and le ts out smoke that darkneth all the World and le ts out Locusts that devour all before them He is a Star a Churchman an Angel a Minister of the Church as Chap. I. 20. The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches but a Star fallen from Heaven a Minister apostatized and revolted from the Truth or else he would not rightly resemble his father the Devil who abode not in the truth but fell from it and became an enemy Now let any one judge whether Rome Heathen or Papal be this apostatized wretch and whether of them hath departed from the truth Rome Heathen never embraced the truth and so could never fall from it Rome Papal hath done it with a witness And lastly That much mistaken place in Revel XX. speaks to this very tenour we are IV. upon First The old Dragon which is the Devil and Satan is bound by Christ a thousand years that he should no more deceive the Nations vers 3. The old Serpent had deceived the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heathen for above two thousand years with Idolatry false miracles false oracles and with all blindness of superstition Now Christ sending the Gospel by his Apostles and Ministers among the Heathen or Gentiles bound the Devil and imprisoned him curbed his power and delusion that he should not deceive the World in manner as he had done but the World now becomes Christian and Heathenism is done away and this is there called the first Resurrection viz. the Resurrection of the dead Heathen as Ephes. II. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins And Joh. V. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Well thus the Devil is bound a thousand years during which time the Gospel runs through the World and prevails and makes it Christian. At vers 7. the Devil is let loose again and by Popery he makes the World as blind deluded heathenish as it had been in the worst times under Heathenism And it were no hard thing out of History to shew that Rome Papal did equal nay exceed Rome Heathen in all blindness wickedness cruelty uncleanness and in all manner of abomination But an hour a day a week would not serve the turn to describe that full Parallel The Text gives a full summary of all though in few words when it tells us that the Dragon the Devil gave his power seat and authority to Rome and it hath and doth and will act in that spirit while it is Rome and can any thing but mischief be expected from such a spirit This days memorial is evidence enough instead of more A Plot and Design of
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
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
we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of judgment and firy indignation which shall devour the adversary Which is spoken peculiarly of Apostasie or else it were a passage too terrible for all flesh Hannibals father took him at nine years of age to an Altar and there swore him never to have confederacy and friendship with Rome If all the World had alway been under such a tye it had been happy for it I hope our Religion our Hearts our God will keep us from entring into league and society with that City that had so deep a hand in the murther of our dear Saviour and in the blood of his dear Saints III. Lastly Let us strive to adorn our Religion with a sutable conversation to beautifie our Church with the beauty of Holiness We desire to be owned for Citizens of the new Jerusalem and whereas our Religion may give us some title to it it is holiness of conversation that must naturalize and enfranchise us The new Jerusalem doth chalenge a new conversation and doth not a new London new Hearts and Lives The City so stately and sumptuously built up if such top stones be laid on we may comfortably and joyfully cry Grace grace Peace peace unto it A SERMON Preached upon EXODUS XXX 15. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an attonement for your Souls IT is our Duty to love all men and a reason of it is our likeness to all men they have Souls like ours their Souls have all the image of God as well as ours and capable of the fruition of God and eternal glory as well as ours Which Parity whether it be not fairly intimated in the words of the Text judge you when God for attonement for Souls sets a value to all people alike the Rich and Poor to meet in one and the same sum and not one to pay more or less than another but all alike The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel This may seem to be something an unequal rating and the rich to be set too low and the poor too high But to give a clear account of this matter let us consider I. Of the sum that was to be given Half a shekel II. The end for which it was given To be a ransom or attonement for souls And then III. The parity that is to be in this payment None to exceed above nor none to abate beneath another but all to pay alike I. The sum is half a shekel Now their shekel was of the value of our half crown and the half shekel was half as much And as our half crown is either in one piece or hath five six pences to make it up in value So they had their shekel either in one piece or four pieces to make it up Those four pieces in the Greek language were called Drachmes in the Hebrew Zuzees in Latine Pennies And so the Greek renders the half shekel here two Drachmes And the two Pennies that the good Samaritane gave Luke X. 35. is the very same sum viz. half a shekel the Roman penny being seven pence half penny and two of them making half a shekel or fifteen pence And that sum of two pence that the good Samaritane lays down is very properly mentioned in that case For as here the half shekel which was in value two pence is to be given for attonement of Souls so there the two pence which was in value half a shekel is given for recovery of life Two things concerning this half shekel here mentioned are observable in the New Testament First That the mony changers Tables that our Saviour overthrew in the Temple were the Tables of the Collectors and Receivers of this half shekel And why then should he overthrow their Tables when the mony they received was of Gods appointment It was indeed but the wretched Receivers made a base trade of getting gain by changing their mony And for giving them single mony for their whole shekel or half crown piece they must be paid some profit This is that that made our Saviour kick down their Tables and not any crosness against the sum which was of Gods own appointment Secondly In that story Matth. XVII 24. It is this half shekel mony that they come to demand which Christ rather than he will not pay will fetch it by miracle out of a fishes mouth Now II. What was the end or reason of this gift or payment It was for the ransom of a Soul for the attonement of a Soul Where by Soul is not strictly meant that inward part of man properly so called but his life and person for so the word Soul signifies also in Scripture very often As instead of more for the first signification viz. Soul for Life take that of David Let them be cut off that seek after my Soul For the last Soul for Person that in Exod. I. 5. All the Souls that came out of the Loins of Jacob were seventy Souls The meaning is that this parcel of mony was yearly to be paid as a payment or tribute to God for the preservation of their lives and persons And that may be observed by these two things First This was an extraordinary oblation and not the like commanded in the whole Law i. e. any offering of mony Lambs and Goats and Bullocks were commanded to be offered but as for the offering of mony there was this payment only Now the Sacrifices of Lambs and Bullocks were more properly for the attonement of their Souls viz. for the pardon of their sins and the withholding or removing of judgment But this peculiar and extraordinary one of mony was for the peculiar and extraordinary end viz. for the ransom or preservation of their life and person Secondly This you may find hinted in vers 12. When thou numbrest the people they shall give every one a ransom for their Souls lest there be a plague among them This must be a ransom for their lives to keep the plague or any other deadly occurrence away that might take away their lives or destroy their persons III. The parity or equality in the payment of this sum The rich no more and the poor no less The reason of which when we come to weigh let us be sure to do it in Gods own ballances or we may easily be mistaken What the rich pay no more than the poor and the poor as much as the rich A Gallant would scorn to be so ranked with the poor to pay no more than he and the poor would grudge to be rated with the rich to pay as much as he But he that ordained the payment saw very good reason for what he did and would that they rest in his ordaining and learn somewhat from such appointing The rich shall not give
as mere strangers For Moses to converse with God face to face when alive and when dead there is an end of all his communion How comfortless would he have gone to Mount Nebo to dye had he believed as the Papists do that he must go to Limbo and never enjoy God for so many hundred years till Christ should come to fetch him out When he appeared in Glory Luke IX 31. Think ye that he came out of Limbo in that glory And when Abraham is proposed in that parable before Christs death Luke XVI 22 23. Think ye that he is proposed as being in Limbo or in Heaven 4. It is absurd to think that Holy ones that served God all day and should at night receive their wages should be denied it God forbids to detain wages and he not to pay his workmen of a thousand two thousand years after they have done their work Abel a faithful servant of God died for him and his truth and when he comes to expect his reward in Heaven No Abel thou must to Limbo where there is no glimpse of Heaven nor comfort from God for this three thousand five hundred years David in Psal. XXIII saito He will dwell in the house of God for ever In the Temple here and then in Heaven hereafter No will a Papist say David thou must dwell a thousand years in Limbo before thou comest to Heaven A hard Master that rewards his servants no better that serve him here and when they should come to enjoy the fruit of all their labour then God puts them away far from him and they enjoy not what they laboured for Such Doctrine is that of the Romanists and such absurdities they make people believe to build up their Purgatory for their profit Nor are they only thus Absurd but as Irreligious in this Doctrine 1. That they will make men believe that there was not divine and spiritual power in Christ for salvation without his bodily power and personal presence they limit the Spirit and the operation of Christ to his presence They give that to Christs presence that God never meant They account the Virgin Mary so incomparably holy and happy above all others because she carried Christ in her womb and arms as though it were that and not Faith and Grace that made her so holy and happy Superstition is standing upon a thing over and above leaping over that which is the proper duty and reality of holiness and resting upon something besides it So concerning Christ superstition hath taught men to take up something in opinion and practise over and besides what is needful about the worship and love of Christ. To worship the Cross because Christ suffered on it To put holiness in those places where he once was as the Manger the Sepulchre c. Of this nature and rank is placing so much in the bodily presence of Christ and overlooking the efficacy and work of his Spirit Transubstantiation is of this form and this that we are speaking of the like viz. That the Patriarchs could not be saved by the divine power and Spirit of Christ but he must come first in Person before to bring them to Heaven 2. They make Grace not sufficient to save but something else must be added viz. Purgatory sire to purge out those sins that Grace did not or could not purge out It is said 2 Cor. XII 9. My grace is sufficient for thee They will say Not Purgatory fire must help out to sufficiency They will tell you It is rare for any to dye so spotless as instantly to go to Heaven but he must have some scouring elsewhere before And indeed this may deserve our consideration not to make us think of any Purgatory hereafter but to affect us with what we have to do here It is undoubted that to dye in any sin is damnable Ye shall dye in your sins is as much as when ye dye ye shall be damned because ye shall dye in sin See Joh. VIII 21. Ye shall dye in your sins whether I go ye cannot come He that dyes in his sins in any of his sins must never come where Christ is Imagine a man had got off all his sins but one and that stuck to him dying that would damn him as well as all Suppose it this I cannot will not forgive such an one that hath done me this wrong that spot of malice will keep him out of Heaven as well as if he were dawbed all over with all sins whatsoever Nay to come to a lower rate Be it but a little love of the World an unwillingness to part with the pleasures and profits of it is it possible that man should go to Heaven that had rather be here Nay yet lower Be it some particular sin that he hath chanced to forget and not repent of can he with that go to Heaven Hitherto Papists and we agree that there is no going to Heaven with any spot of sin upon the Soul but here we differ They say A man may go out of this World with many spots of sin upon him yet at last go to Heaven these being purged out in Purgatory We say with the Scripture That after death there is no Redemption that this is the acceptable time and day of Salvation that if a sinners Sun set in a cloud it will be dark with him for ever that if he dye in any sin his condition is damnable and no help afterwards Esa. XXII 14. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye And then it shall never be purged And the Reasons of this are First Because any one sin loved unrepented of damneth as well as many by the rule of S. James Chap. II. 10 11. For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill Now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a Transgressor of the Law Secondly Because the other World is a World of Eternity and in Eternity there is no change He that goes sinful into that can never be changed Thirdly Because it is impiety to make any thing sharer with the Blood and Grace of Christ in mans Salvation It is said We are saved by his Blood and by his Grace There needs no Purgatory sire unless these were weak and insufficient Object But is it possible any one should dye without some sin sticking to him Original sin sticks It may be a man has forgot some actual sin to repent of it it may be there is some impatience upon him his heart may fly out into passion never without infirmities Answer I. Let me question Durst any dye with any sin sticking on him Thou bearest malice darest thou dye so Thou art proud covetous darest thou dye so Who is so little taught the Doctrine of Salvation as to put himself to such a venture At least who is not convinced of the danger
Office as about these times that matter was ordinary So Josephus recorded that Valerius Gratus first made Ismael High Priest in stead of Ananus then deposeth him and maketh Eleazar Ananus his Son him again he deposeth and maketh Simon Fitz Kamithus and in his room again he setteth Joseph surnamed Caiaphas which Caiaphas was also removed by Vitellius and Jonathan Fitz Ananus placed in his stead And these men thus turned out of Office are called as they suppose both here and elsewhere the chief Priests But their opinion is far more warrantable and agreeable to truth that by the chief Priests understand the several heads of the families or the chief of the four and twenty courses into which David had divided and ordered the Priests 1 Chron. 24. which are therefore called chief Priests not so much for Primacy or Superiority that they had in their Ecclesiastical function above the rest of the Clergy as 1. because they were heads of their houses And 2. because they were of the great Councel and made a third part of the seventy Elders §. And Scribes of the people He calleth them Scribes of the people to distinguish them from the Secretaries or Clerks of particular men as Baruch was the Scribe of Jeremy and Seraiah the Scribe or Secretary of David 2 Sam. 8. 17. But these of whom mention is here and so very frequently in the Gospel elsewhere were not such private or peculiar Clerks but they were the publick Scribes or Clerks of the people and this their Office or function consisted in two particulars First They were the men that took upon them to copy the Bible for those that desired to have a copy For so great and various is the accuracy and exactness of the Scripture Text in the mystical and profound significances of Letters Vowels and Accents that it was not fit that every one should offer to transcribe the Original or that every vulgar pen should copy things of so sublime speculation Therefore there was a peculiar and special order of learned men among the Jews whose Office it was to take care of the preservation of the purity of the Text in all Bibles that should be copied out that no corrupion or error should creep into the Original of the Sacred Writ and these were called the Scribes of the people or their Scriveners or Writers of the copy of the Bible And hence is it that there is so frequent mention in the Rabbins of Tikkun Sopherim The correction or direction of the Scribes or their peculiar and special disposing of the Text which the Massoreth at the beginning of the book of Numbers observeth to have been in eighteen places which are reckoned there These Scribes may be conceived to have been either Priests or Levites or both the men of that Tribe being the chiefest Students in the Scriptures and being bound by their calling to be able to instruct the people in the same Deut. 33. 10. Mal. 2. 7. They had eight and forty Universities as it were belonging to that Tribe for the education of the Clergy in the knowledge of the Law and the Prophets Josh. 21. and from among the learned of those Students were some set apart for this Office which required profound Learning and skill namely to be the Copiers of the Bible when any copy was to be taken or at least to take care that all copies that should be transcribed should be pure and without corruption Secondly These also were the publick and common preachers of the people being more constant Pulpit men then any other of the Clergy taking on them not only to be the preservers and providers for the purity of the Text but also the most constant and common explainers and expounders of it in Sermons Therefore it is said of our Saviour that he taught as one that had authority and not as the Scribes Mat. 7. 29. where the Scribes are rather mentioned then any other order because they were the greatest and most ordinary Preachers And our Saviour himself in Mark 12. 25. How say the Scribes that Christ is the Son of David Instancing in the Scribes only whereas the Pharisees Sadduces and even all the Nation of the Jews held the same opinion because the Scribes were the men that were oftest in the Pulpit and preached more then any other and so this Doctrine was heard more from them then others And thus was Ezra a ready Scribe in the Law of Moses Ezr. 7. 6. both for the copying and preserving pure the Text of the Scripture and also for the expounding of it by his Sermons And such a one is the Scribe that our Saviour speaketh of that is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven that bringeth out of his treasure instructions out of the New Testament and old Mat. 13. 52. The Chaldee Paraphrast on Jer. 6. 13. 8. 10. and in other places in stead of The Prophet readeth the Scribe taking as it seemeth the Prophet in the same sense that Paul doth Prophecying 1 Thes. 5. 20. 1 Cor. 14. 5. c. for the Preacher and making the Text speak in the same tenor that it doth here the Priests and the Scribes In the Story of our Saviours arraignment and elswhere in the New Testament there is mention of the chief Priests and Scribes and Elders Mat. 26. 3. Mark 15. 1. importing that the Great Councel consisted of these three sorts of men The chief Priests of the seed of Aaron the Scribes of the Tribe of Levi and the elders of the people meer lay men These were all deeply and extraordinarily versed and learned in the Law but the practise of this their learning had some difference as the civil common and canon 1. The Elders judged the people and matters of debate and controversie but instructed not the people by way of preaching or ministery The chief Priests judged and instructed but it was more by resolving questions and doubts that were proposed to them as our Saviour asked them questions Luke 2. 46. Hag. 2. 11. Mal. 2. 7. then by common preaching Homilies or Sermons The Scribes were they that were the Preachers or Lecturers and taught the people from the pulpit as well as determined upon doubts and debates And to this triple division of the great and Seraphical Doctors of the Jews St. Paul seemeth to allude in 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the wise Where is the Scribe where is the questionist or disputer of this world By the first meaning the Elders of the people and by the last the chief Priests §. He demanded of them where Christ should be born The High Priests were rightly consulted say the Rhemists in question of their Law and Religion for whom should Herod ask but those that were most likely to give him an answer But the latter end of their note carrieth a snare with it to intrap the simple And be they never so ill say they they are often forced to say the truth by priviledge of their function They think
they have an undeniable groundwork for this their Doctrine from the prophecying of Caiaphas Joh. 11. 51. as their notes plead there ascribing that his prophecying to his Priesthood and order whereas the Text ascribeth it to the year and season This he spake not of himself but being High Priest that year he prophesied where the emphasis lieth not in the words being High Priest but in the words that year which was the year of sending down of the gifts of the Spirit in a measure and manner never known before or after Vers. 6. And thou Bethlehem in the land of Iuda c. There is no small difference in this quotation of the Scribes or of the Evangelist or indeed of both from the letter of the Text of the Prophet from whom they cite it nor doth this difference rise by the Evangelists following the translation of the LXX as oft there doth for it differeth much from the letter of the LXX also but it is upon some special reason Which disagreement that we may reconcile and the reason of which that we may see the better we will take up the verse verbatim and the differences as they come to hand one by one First then whereas Saint Matthew readeth Thou Bethlehem in the land of Juda the Hebrew hath it only Thou Bethlehem Ephrata without any mention of the land of Juda at all and so the Chaldee and so the LXX but only with the addition of one word Thou Bethlehem the house of Ephrata art the least c. Answ. First There are that give this general answer to all the differences in this quotation that the Scribes and the Evangelist tye not themselves to the very words of the Prophet but only think it enough to render his sense And this answer might be very well entertained and give good satisfaction especially since that in allegations from the Old Testament it is usual with the New so to do but that the difference between the Text and the quotation is so great that it is not only diverse but even contrary Some therefore Secondly Conceive that the Scribes could alledge the Text no better without the book and that the Evangelist hath set it down in their own words for the just shame of those great Doctors that were no better versed in the Scripture then to alledge a place in words so very far different from the Text. But he that hath been any whit versed in the writings of the Jews will find their Rabbins or Doctors to be too nimble textualists to miss in a Text of so great use and import especially if he shall but consider to what an height of learning they were now come by the tutorage and pains of the two great Doctors of the Chair Shammai and Hillel who had filled all the Nation with learned men the like had not been before Thirdly Whereas some talk of a Syriack Edition which the Jews used at that time more then the Hebrew and which had this Text of Micah as the Evangelist hath cited it and that he cited it according to that Edition which was most in use here are two things presumed upon which it is impossible ever to make good For who ever read in any Jew of a Syrian Edition of the Prophets besides the Chaldee Paraphrast Who we are sure readeth not thus or what Christian ever saw such an Edition that he could tell that it did so read For this particular therefore in hand it is to be answered that the Scribes or the Evangelists or both did thus differently quote the Prophet neither through forgetfulness nor through the misleading of an erroneous Edition but purposely and upon a rational intent For first though Ephratah had been the surname of Bethlehem in ancient time as Gen. 35. 19. Ruth 4. 11. and in the times of the Prophet Micah yet it is no wonder if that title of it were now out of use and especially out of the knowledge of this irreligious King For the seventy years captivity and the alterations of the State did alter the face of the Country and might easily blot out of use and remembrance such an additional title of a Town as this Secondly This surname of the Town was taken up in memorial of a woman as appeareth 1 Chron. 2. 19. and when the discourse concerning Christ and where he should be born was in hand and agitation it was more pregnant to bring his birth-place to have reference to Juda from whom Herod though he were ignorant in other particulars concerning his birth knew he should descend then to a woman and a title which it is like that he had never heard of before So that this that in the Scribes might at the first seem to be a mis-allegation of the Prophet through some mistake being precisely looked upon with respect had to the times when the Prophesie was given and when it is now cited and to the several persons to whom it will shew to be so quoted upon very sound wisdom and profound reason these words in the land of Juda being used by them for necessary illustration in stead of the word Ephrata not as proposing it for the purer Text of the Prophet but as more sutable by way of Exposition for the capacity and apprehension of Herod In Micahs time the name Ephratah was common but in after times it may be it was disused Howsoever Micah prophesied to the Jews to whom this title Ephratah was familiar and it is like had the Scribes spoken to Jews too they would have retained that title but to Herod who was not so punctually acquainted with it it was not proper to bring a phrase that he could not understand or that was uncouth to him therefore they explain it by one that was familiar both to him and the whole Nation Bethlehem in the Land of Juda. §. Art not the least This clause is far further from Micahs Text then the other for whereas here is a very strong and Emphatical negation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Prophet there is none at all either in the Hebrew in the LXX or in the Chaldee Paraphrast And indeed the Text and the quotation are one clean contrary to another in Micah Though thou be little but in Matthew Thou art not the least Towards the reconciling of which difference it will be necessary in the first place to take a serious survey of the Prophets Text and then upon the true interpretation of it to lay this allegation to it and to see how they do agree The words in the Hebrew whereupon the main doubt riseth are but these two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English rendreth Though thou be little The Septuagint Thou art the least to be among the thousands but using a differing word to signifie the least from that used here Some books saith Nobilius and the other Scholiast upon the LXX read Art not the least as Hierome Tertullian and Cyprian but this their reading I suspect rather to be taken
c c c Ioh. 20. 1. while it was yet dark Mary Magdalen and the other Mary d d d Ioh. 19. 25. the wife of Cleopas and e e e Luke 24. 10. Mark 15. 48. mother of James and Joses and f f f Mark 16. Salome g g g Compare Matth. 27. 56. Mark 15. 40. the mother of Zebedees children and h h h Luke 24. 10 Joanna the wife of Chusa Herods Steward and other women that were with them set out to see the Sepulchre and brought the Spices with them that they had prepared i i i Luke 8. 3. And as they went they k k k Mark 16. 3 said Who shall roul the Stone away for â—â— But when they came to the Sepulchre l l l Mark 16. 2. the Sun being by this time risen they found the stone rolled away For there had been m m m Matth. 28. 2 a great earthquake and the Angel of the Lord had descended from Heaven and rouled back the stone from the door and sate upon it as the Women came unto the Sepulchre they saw this n n n Mark 16. 5 Angel like a young man sitting on the right hand of the entry in in a long white robe and they were sore troubled o o o Matth. 28. 5 Mark 16. 6. But he said unto them Fear ye not I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here for he is risen come see the place where they laid him And p p p Luke 24. 3. they entred into the Cave and found not the Body in the Sepulchre but there they see q q q Ioh. 12. 12. two Angels more in shining garments the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body had lain r r r Luke 24. 5. who spake to them Why seek ye the dead among the living s s s Ibid. 9. Mark 16. 8. The Women having seen this go in hast and tell the Disciples t t t Joh. 20. 2 3 4 c. Whereupon Peter and John run to the Sepulchre and see the linnen cloaths but see not the Angels u u u Ibid. 10. 11. c. When they were gone home again Mary Magdalen who had again followed them to the Sepulchre standing at the door seeth the Angels again within and turning her self she seeth Jesus without whom at first she took for the Gardiner So that the first apparition of our Saviour being risen was to her alone Joh. 20. vers 1. Apparition 11. to 19. The same day he appeareth to the two men that went to Emmaus Luke 24. 13. the 2. Apparition one of them was Cleopas vers 18. the Father of James and Joses and the husband of the other Mary Compare John 19. 25. and Matth. 15. 40. and the other was Simon Peter Luke 24. 34. 1 Cor. 15. 5. That night he appeareth to the twelve as the Apostle calls them 1 Cor. 15. 5. or to the 3. Apparition eleven and them that were with them Luke 24. 36 39. John 20. 19 20. and sheweth them his hands and feet and eateth a piece of broiled fish and an honey-comb with them Luke 24. 43. Eight days after he appeareth to the Disciples and convinceth Thomas Joh. 20. 26. 4. Apparition At the Sea of Tiberias he appeareth again to seven of his Disciples and fore-telleth 5. Apparition Peter of his suffering for the Gospel Joh. 21. This John calleth his third appearing vers 24. namely which he had made to any number of his Disciples together and which John himself had mentioned On a mountain in Galilee he sheweth himself to the eleven Matth. 28. 16. and to five 6. Apparition hundred brethren at once 1 Cor. 15. 6. for so it may be supposed seeing Galilee and this mountain was the place of rendevouz that he had appointed not only from the time of his resurrection Matth. 28. 7. but even before his passion Matth. 26. 32. and to this convention seemeth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the next verse to have reference of which in its proper place The Apostle mentioneth another appearance of his to James 1 Cor. 15. 7. But neither 7. Apparition do any of the Evangelists tell when or where it was nor make they mention of any such thing nor doth Paul determine which James it was Lastly He appeared to all the Apostles 1 Cor. 15. 7. being gathered to Jerusalem by 8. Apparition his appointment Acts 1. 4. and thence he led them forth to Bethany and was taken up Luke 24. 50. §. By many infallible Proofs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By many Signs say the Syrian and Arabick Arguments saith the Vulgar Latine But the word includeth Signs of undoubted truth and arguments of undoubted demonstration and accordingly hath our English well expressed it By infallible proofs These were very many exhibited and shewed by Christ which evidenced his resurrection and they may be reduced to these three purposes First To shew that he was truly alive again as his eating walking conferring and conversing with his Disciples Secondly To shew that he had a true and real body as offering himself to be handled as Luke 24. 39. Thirdly To shew that it was the same body that suffered when he sheweth the scars in his hands feet and sides as Joh. 20. 20 27. Every apparition that are reckoned before and are mentioned by the Evangelists had one or more of these demonstrations and yet were there certain appearances and divers such proofs which are not recorded Joh. 20. 30. §. Being seen of them forty days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theophylact not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that Christ was not continually conversing with his Disciples but he came among them at certain times Yet do the Syrian and Arabick translate it in Forty days Forty years after this a year for a day as Numb 14. 33 34. was Jerusalem destroyed and the Nation of the Jews rooted out because they would not believe in Christ who had so mightily declared himself to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead and who had so plainly declared his Resurrection from the dead by so many appearings and infallible proofs for forty days And that the sin might be fully legible in the Judgment they were besieged and closed up in Jerusalem at a Passover as at a Passover they had slain and crucified the Lord of life Now that this remarkable work of the Lords Justice upon this Nation in suiting their judgment thus parallel to their sin and unbelief in regard of these years and this time of the year may be the more conspicuous to the mind of the Reader for the present it will not be much amiss to lay down the times of the Roman Emperors from this time thitherto for even by their times and stories this time and truth may be measured and
proved and in the progress of the discourse to come the particulars both for year and time may be cleared more fully Now the times of the Roman Emperors that came between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem are thus reckoned by the Roman Historians themselves Tiberius began to reign about August the 18. He reigned 22 years 7 months and 7 days Dion And died in the 23 of his reign Suet. He died March 26. Dion Or the 17 of the Calends of April Sueton. Caius Caligula began March 27. Reigned 3 years 9 months 28 days Dion Or 3 years 10 months 8 days Sueton. Died January 23 or the 9 of the Calends of February Suet. Claudius began January 24. Reigned 13 years 8 months 20 days Dion He died in the 14 year of his reign Suet. Died October 13. Dion Or the 3 of the Ides of Octob. Suet. Nero began Octob. 14. Reigned 13 years 8 months Dion Galba reigned 9 months 13 days Dion Died in his 7 month saith Suet. Otho reigned 90 days Dion 95 days Suet. Vitellius reigned 1 year wanting 10 days Dion Vespasian reigned 10 years wanting six days Dion In his second year Jerusalem is destroyed by his son Titus Joseph de Bello Judaic lib. 7. cap. 18. And now if we cast up the times from the 18 of Tiberius to the second of Vespasian and compare and parallel them with the years of our Saviour we shall find them running together in this manner Christ Tiberius Christ Claudius 33 18 54 13 34 19 55 14 35 20 56 1 Nero. 36 21 57 2 37 22 58 3 38 1 Caius begins in March 27. 59 4 39 2 60 5 40 3 61 6 41 4 62 7 42 1 Claudius begins Ianuary 24. 63 8 43 2 64 9 44 3 65 10 45 4 66 11 46 5 67 12 47 6 68 13 48 7 69 14 49 8 70 1 Galba and Otho 50 9 71 1 Vitellius 51 10 72 1 Vespasian 52 11 73 2 Ierusalem destroyed 53 12   Vers. 4. And being assembled together with them There is no small difference among Interpreters about rendring this clause out of the Original Some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others leave the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out as thinking the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient some render it Eating with them as the Syrian Arabick Oecumenius Chrysostome Vulgar Latine Deodate and our English in the Margin the Rhemists and those that follow the Vulgar which Valla thinketh was mistaken and read convescens in stead of conversans Others Assembling them or being assembled with them as Beza Camerarius Deodate and our English in the Text the Tigurine Spanish French Erasmus and others Epiphanius as he is cited by Camerarius readeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Valla as he is cited by Erasmus saith it is so written in some Greek Copies For the setling therefore of the right construction of this place First It is the concurrent agreement of all men this last excepted to read the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word indeed the thing it self will not bear for though Christ conversed and was much among his Disciples after his Resurrection yet do we not read that he ever lodged with them which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly import Secondly In the difference about the translation whether to render it eating or being assembled with them the current of Greek Authors in the use of the word do vote for the latter sense and not at all for the former as Beza and Camerarius do prove at large and more proofs might be given were it needful Now this phrase seemeth to refer to Christs meeting his Disciples on the mountain of Galilee which he himself had appointed for a meeting place Matth. 28. 16. And the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may not be wanting For in other of his appearings it was accidental and unexpected when he came among them but upon this mount he was assembled together with them upon appointment And here it is like were the five hundred Brethren mentioned by Paul and spoken of before for where was it so likely so many should have the sight of Christ at once as in that place where he had promised that he would meet them and had appointed to assemble with them §. Commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem Not that they were at Jerusalem when they received this command but that he commandeth them now to Jerusalem and there to contine Till they were come into Galilee they had no warrant to stay at Jerusalem at all but command to the contrary for he commanded them away from thence into Galilee Matth. 28. 7. 16. because he would appear to all those at once that had been most constant Auditors of him for there had been his greatest converse and being there assembled together with them according to his promise and his appointment he then chargeth them to return to Jerusalem and not to depart from thence till the promise of the Father be come Christ confineth them to Jerusalem for the receiving of the Holy Ghost 1. Because of the Prophesie Esay 2. 3. Out of Zion shall go forth the Law c. 2. Because there would be the greatest company to be spectators of that great work and to be wrought upon by it as is proved by the sequel 3. Because that this great work of Christs power was fittest to be shewed there where had been his great humiliation and that those that would not be convinced by the resurrection might be convinced by this miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost Vers. 6. They asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel This was and is the great delusion of that Nation unto this day and not a few Christians do side with them in it supposing that at the Jews conversion they shall be brought home to Canaan there inhabit with Christ visibly among them Jerusalem built again and their peace and prosperity so great as never the like and so constant as never interrupted To this tune spake the petition of Salome the wife of Zebedee and James and John her two sons Matth. 20. 20. and the speech of Cleopas Luke 24. 21. And how common this Doctrine is among the Jewish Authors it is needless for it might be endless to recite it is evidence enough in that we see it the common and general quaere of all the Disciples met together Christ since his Resurrection had spoken to them of the things that concerned the Kingdom of God and they find belike that he had passed a great Article of their belief unspoken of about restoring the Kingdom of Israel Our Saviour answers their curiosity with a check as he had done Poter Joh. 21. 22. and diverts their thoughts to the more needful consideration of the calling that he would set them about as in the next verse and sheweth that the Kingdom of
beginning of the Valley of Hinnom which after some space bending it self Westward ran out along the South side of the City There is no need to repeat those very many things which are related of this place in the Old Testament they are historical The mention of it in the New is only mystical and metaphorical and is transferred to denote the place of the damned Under the second Temple when those things were vanished which had set an eternal mark of infamy upon this place to wit Idolatry and the howlings of Infants roasted to Moloch yet so much of the filthiness and of the abominable name remained that even now it did as much bear to the life the representation of Héll as it had done before It was the common sink of the whole City whither all filth and all kind of nastiness met It was probably the common burying place of the City if so be they did now bury within so small a distance from the City They shall bury in Tophet until there be no more any place Jer. VII 32. And there was there also a continual sire whereby bones and other filthy things were consumed lest they might offend or infect the City There is a tradition according to the School of Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai b b b b b b Bab. Erubhin fol. 19. 1. There are two Paealm trees in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom between which a smoak arises and this is that we learn The Palms of the Mountain are fit for Iron And this is the door of Gehenna Some of the Rabbins apply that of Esaiah hither Chap. LXVI vers the last They shall go out and see the dead carcasses of the men that rebel against me for their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched Those Gentiles saith Kimchi upon the place who come to worship from month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath shall go out without Jerusalem into the Valley of Jehosaphat and shall see the carkasses of Gog and Magog c. And a little after The just shall go out without Jerusalem into the Valley of Hinnom and shall see those that rebel c. What is to be resolved concerning the Valley of Jehosaphat he himself doubts and leaves undetermined c c c c c c Kimchi upon Joel 3. For either Jehosaphat saith he here erected some building or did some work or it is called the Valley of Jehosaphat because of judgment So also Jarchi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jehosaphat means all one with the Judgment of the Lord. CHAP. XL. Mount Olivet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mount of Olives 2 Sam. XV. 30. Zech. XIV 4. In the Rabbines commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mount of Oyle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a a a a a Joseph Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mount called the Mount of Olives lying over against the City is distant five furlongs But Luke saith Act. 1. 12. Then they returned from the Mount called Olivet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is near Jerusalem a Sabbath days journey But now a Sabbath days journey contained eight furlongs or a whole mile Neither yet for all this doth Luke fight against Josephus For this last measures the space to the first foundation of Olivet the other to that place of Olivet where our Saviour ascended The first foot of the Mount was distant five furlongs from the City but Christ being about to ascend went up the Mountain three furlongs further The Mount had its name from the Olive trees however other trees grew in it and that because the number of these perhaps was greater and the fruit better Among other trees two Cedars are mentioned or rather two monsters of Cedars b b b b b b Hieros Taanith fol. 69. 1. Two Cedars they say were in the Mount of Olivet under one of which were four shops where all things needful for purisications were sold out of the other they fetched every month forty Sea 's certain measures of Pigeons whence all the women to be purified were supplied It is a dream like that story that beneath this mountain all the dead are to be raised c c c c c c Targum upon Cant. 8. 1. When the dead shall live again say they Mount Olivet is to be rent in two and all the dead of Israel shall come out thence yea those righteous persons who died in captivity shall be rolled under the Earth and shall come forth under the Mount of Olivet There was a place in the Mount directly opposite against the East-gate of the Temple d d d d d d See Middoth cap. 1. hal 3. to which the Priest that was to burn the red Cow went along a foot-bridge laid upon arches as it was said before And e e e e e e Parah cap. 3. hal 9. when he sprinkled his blood there he directly levelled his eyes at the Holy of Holies Those signal flames also accustomed to be waved up and down on the top of this Mount in token of the New Moon now stated are worthy of mention The custom and manner is thus described f f f f f f Rosh Hashannah cap. 2. hal 2. 3. c. Formerly they held up flames but when the Cutheans spoiled this it was decreed that they should send Messengers The Gloss is this They held up the flames presently after the time of the New Moon was stated and there was no need to send messengers to those that were a far off in captivity to give them notice of the time for those slames gave notice and the Cutheans sometime held up flames in an undue time and so deceived Israel The Text goes forward How did they hold up the flames They took long staves of Cedar and Canes and Fat wood and the course part of the Flax and bound these together with a thred And one going up to the Mount put fire to it and shakes the flame up and down this way and that way until he sees another doing so in a second Mountain and another so in a third Mountain But whence did they lift up these flames first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Mount of Olivet to Sartaba From Sartaba to Gryphena From Gryphena to Hauran From Hauran to Beth Baltin And he who held up the flame in Beth Baltin departed not thence but waved his flame up and down this way and that way until he saw the whole captivity abounding in flames 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gemarists enquire What From Beth Baltin means This is Biram What the Captivity means Rabh Joseph saith This is Pombeditha What means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As it were a burning pit of fire There is a tradition that every one taking a torch in his hand goes up upon his house c. The Jews believe the Messias shall converse very much in this mountain which is agreeable to truth and reason
For when they think his primary seat shall be at Jerusalem they cannot but believe some such thing of that Mount g g g g g g Mâ—dras â—â—â—â—â—â— R. Janna saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divine Majesty stood three years and an half in Mount Olivet and preached saying Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near And now let us from this mountain look back upon the City Imagine your self sitting in that place where the Priest stood while he burnt the red Cow directly over against the East gate of the Temple Between the Mount and the City you might see a Valley running between compassing Sion on the right hand and Jerusalem on the left the gate of Waters against you leading to the Temple on the left hand Ophla and the Horse-gate From thence as we have said was the beginning of the Valley of Hinnom which at length bowed towards the South side of the City In that place near the Wall was the Fullers field which whether it was so called from Wood framed together where Fullers dried their cloth or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a Fullers monument of which h h h h h h De bello lib. 5. cap. 13. Josephus writes we do not dispute From the Horse-gate Westward runs out the Valley Kidron in which is a Brook whence the Valley takes its name embracing Sion also on the North and spreading abroad it self in a more spacious breadth i i i i i i Succah cap. 4 hal 5. Below the City there was a place we do not dare to mark it out which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Motza hither they came down in the feast of Tabernacles and cropped off thence long boughs of Willow it may be from the banks of the brook Kidron and going away placed them near the sides of the Altar bended after that manner that their heads might bow over the top of the Altar c. It is no mervail if there were a multitude of gardens without the City when there were none within Among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k k k k Maasaroth cap. 2. hal 5. A Garden of Jerusalem is famed wherein Figs grew which were sold for three or four assarii each and yet neither the Truma nor the Tenth was ever taken of them Josephus hath these words l l l l l l De bello lib. cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The gardening was all compassed about from the Wall with trenches and every thing was divided with crooked gardens and many walls CHAP. XLI Bethany 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth-hene BEthany seems to be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Talmudists Of which they write thus a a a a a a Bab. Pesachin fol. 53. 1. They treat in the place noted in the margin concerning eating of fruits the seventh year and concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beor b b b b b b Cap. 1. of which we have spoke before They enquire how long one may eat of these or the other fruits And they state the business thus They eat Olives say they until the last ceases in Tekoa R. Eleazar saith Until the last ceases in Gush Chalab in the Tribe of Asher They eat dry figs until green figs cease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Beth-hene R. Judah saith The green figs of Beth-hene are not mentioned unless in respect of the Tenths as the Tradition is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The figs of Beth-hene and the dates of Tubni are bound to be tithed The Gloss is this They are not mentined in the Schools among fruits unless in respect of tithing These words are recited in Erubhin c c c c c c Erubhin fol. 28. 2. where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth-hene is writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth jone and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tubni is writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tubina Beth-hene certainly seems to be the same altogether with our Bethany and the Name to be drawn from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athene which signifies the Dates of Palm trees not come to ripeness as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also signifies Green-figs that is such figs as are not yet ripe And now take a Prospect a little of Mount Olivet Here you may see Olive-trees and in that place is Geth-semani The place of oyl-presses There you may see Palm-trees growing and that place is called Bethany 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The place of Dates And we may observe in the Gospel-history how those that met Christ as he was going forward from Bethany had branches of Palm-trees ready at hand There you may see Fig-trees growing and that place was called Beth-phage The place of Green-figs Therefore some part of Olivet was called Bethany from the Palm-trees there was a Town also called of the same Name over against it The Town was fifteen furlongs distant from Jerusalem And the Coast of that name went on till it reached the distance of a Sabbath days journy only from the City CHAP. XLII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scopo IN that manner as Mount Olivet laid over against the City on the East the Valley of Kidron running between so on the North behind a Valley somewhat broader stretched out from Sion North-ward the land swelled into a Hill at the place which from thence was called Zophim because thence there was a Prospect on all sides but especially towards the City Concerning it Josephus thus a a a a a a Joseph de Bello lib. 5. cap. 8. Cesar when he had received a legion by night from Ammaus the day after moving his Tents thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He entred into Scopo so called Where the City appeared and the greatness of the Temple shining out as that plain Tract of land touching upon the North coast of the City is truly called Scopus The Viewer Hence those Canons and Cautions b b b b b b Hieros Beracoth fol. 13. 2. He that pisseth let him turn his face to the North he that easeth nature to the South R. Josi ben R. Bon saith The Tradition is From Zophim and within That is if this be done by any one from Zophim inwards when he is now within the prospect of the City when he pisseth let him turn his face to the North that he do not expose his modest parts before the Temple when he easeth nature let him turn his face to the South that he expose not his buttocks before it c c c c c c Bab. Beracoth fol. 49. 2. If any one being gone out of Jerusalem shall remember that holy flesh is in his hand if he be now gone beyond Zophim let him burn it in the place where he is For it is polluted by being carried out of the Walls of Jerusalem But if he be not beyond Zophim let