such as a wise man suffers whose duty obligeth him to the service and sometimes undiscreet commands though in things lawful of a person of much less understanding unless we may rather think that the Holy Spirit by him guided his Parents in all those commands whereto it required his obedience § 124 And among such his mortifications this seems no small one that considering who he was the word and wisdom of God and by whom God formerly made the world he should have a law of silence for so long a time imposed upon him as to any function as yet of his ministry or discovery of his wisdom even when there was in his seeing the great follies of the world occasion shall I say or rather a great necessity thereof Nay in the Sabbaths when all frequented the Synagogues which were in every City and there the law and Prophets read to the people Act. 13.27 and among others his most devout Parents together with himself that after his forementioned dispute with the Doctors at Jerusalem and after he was now arrived to mans estate from 20 years old till 30 he should patiently stand there among the rest in the quality of a mean labourer and this the Law-giver himself in silence hear the expositions of it not alwaies free from errour by others which rendered his fellow-Citizens so astonisht when afterward he who had bin so long an Auditor with them now shewed himself a Doctor A stupendious Humility and Obedience this so long practised in so Soveraign a dignity and an hard lesson for those to imitate who have parts To our Lord therefore stooping by Obedience to such a condition seems principally to be applied that complaint of the Psalmist Psalm 38. Posui ori meo custodiam cum consisteret peccator adversum me Obmutui humiliatus sum silui a bonis sermonibus dolor meus renovatus est Concaluit cor meum intra me in meditatione mea exardescet ignis whilst he whom a fire of Zeal for his Fathers glory and for the salvation of mankind continually burnt and consumed See Jo. 2.17 Conversed among the ignorant and sinners without being permitted either to instruct the one or reprove the other whilst he who to use the expression of Elihu Job 32 was full of words and his belly as new Wine without vent and that breaketh new Vessels was so long to be dumb and as one that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs No discourses I say saving such as did not transcend the appearance of his exteriour condition and manner of Education and emploiment and such conversation as in a private life gave good example to his few acquaintance and friends remaining so many years even whilst repairing in the State of his man-hood to Jerusalem and the Temple and the great Assemblies of the Nation at the publick feasts as it were a Candle hid under a Bushel and not suffered to diffuse its light walking in this most difficult obedience for so many years to the good pleasure of his heavenly Father as also the same obedience practised the like silence whilst he suffered so many false accusations before his Passion § 125 And the Nazarens rude and uncivil entertainment of him when visiting them afterward and his Brethren and kindred their not believing on him shew well how much he had in his youth ecclipsed and made himself of no account among them at least those that were not more intimately acquainted Wherein he gave the world a great lesson and example of trampling under foot any vain honour and Reputation save that with God and the Citizens of Heaven But indeed had our Lord sooner manifested himself to Israel supposed even from his youth we may conjecture such effect thereof either that the glory of his wisdom and mighty works with the envy of the Great ones accompanying these would have hastened his Death and brought it so much sooner Or such his Excellencies and Dignity of his person in a long time of Conversation with them better known to the Nation would have daunted his enemies and prevented his Death and deprived the world of the precious Benefits thereof and we may say his Father was pleased that he should be so long concealed to us that he might dye for us § 126 In this time of our Lords living at Nazareth and before the 30th year of his age is supposed to have happened the death of S. Joseph there being no more mention made of him as of his Mother and our Lord's Brethren after our Lords publick appearance either at the Marriage in Cana or else-where It seeming good unto his heavenly Majesty that after his Manifestation though a Mother did yet no Father real or reputed should appear that God might be the more looked-on as his Father who also was professed by him to be so no other being in sight nor receiving any honour as such Therefore also is our Lord in St. Mark probably after Josephs decease himself called the Carpenter and the Son of Mary But when ever S. Josephs Death happened doubtless it was undergone with great Resignation and content and after our Lord 's having first made known his heavenly Father's good pleasure both to him and his Mother in which all three most affectionately acquiesced though Joseph by his Death in some sense was to leave and lose his most beloved Jesus Viz. as to the presence of his Humanity wherein his Saints by death do now enjoy him § 127 Now that after so profound an Annihilation and latitancy of our Lord in so mean a fortune and obscure place the time drew near of his manifestation to Israel being God at last descended upon earth to reveal to men the whole Will of his Father and all the Secrets of Heaven A great person and one sanctified from the womb and Quo non major inter natos mulierum as our Lord saith of him was sent some time before to proclaim to the world the near approach and appearance of this heavenly Prince for begetting a greater reverence in them to his person And also to prepare all men by a due Confession of and repentance and doing penance for their sins and correction and amendment of their evil lives which is called the levelling Hills and filling Valleys and making the high waies streight and lastly by their being purified by Baptism for a more worthy and Honourable reception of this great Lord whose Kingdom was not temporal but Spiritual that so nothing in his Subjects at his coming might disgust or displease him And lastly was sent after his making such a proclamation of him before hand to shew also and demonstrate with the finger his very person to them for removing all possible mistake or just excuse § 128 The miraculous Nativity of this Forerunner of Christ in the old age of his Parents foretold by the same Angel as was our Lords and his being full of the Holy Ghost from his very first Being his leaping and
presume from his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of sorrows Esai 53. and full of tears see Heb. 5.7 Luk. 19.41 Jo. 11.35 fell a weeping as other Infants do but this not for the paines which that tender age then feels from the straines and crushings of the parturition or sudden chilness of an open Air not yet for his cold harbour and Straw-bed which miseries he foreknew and voluntarily chose and with a smiling patience underwent but for mans sin the cause of all our and his misery now beginning his Intercessions for mans offences and offering these first tears for the expiation thereof Thus come amongst us poor and naked his pious Mother whom we may imagine free from Eves curse to have brought forth without pain him that she conceived without sin and so who was enabled presently to perform the office of a Nurse after that of a Mother took him up Luk. 2.7 and cast such poor cloths about him as her fortune and so long a journy afforded and instead of a Cradle laid her Babe down to rest in the Manger of the Stable being but a cold and hard pillow for him if cut out of the Rock and this Cradle at his birth not much unlike his grave at his Death § 29 After this low manner if I may be permitted to stay a little in Contemplation of this great wonder of our Lords Exinanition to teach haughty man humility Digress and to confound his pride was the Son of God pleased to enter into the world Thus was he born because thus born he would be who alone amongst all Infants foreknew and preelected both the place and manner of his birth Thus was he pleased to be brought into it amongst beasts as afterward to be carried out of it amongst theeves Thus was the second Adam who might had he thought fit have bin created with the same preeminences as the first in a perfect and flourishing age pleased to oblige himself for his birth unto a woman and for his life unto the subjection and infirmities of youth and infancy and this place was the Paradise wherein he was put He not an Adam from the Earth hut the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 For the entertainment of whom when Salomon with all his wisdom and wealth had built his golden Temple yet was he ashamed that it was so mean and so unworthy to receive him Thus to expiate the former Adams Ero similis Altissimo Gen. 3.5 this Altissimus became similis Homini Like to man in every thing so far as to be conceiv'd and born of a Woman because his brethren were so That he might fulfil the Spouse's wish in the Canticles c. 8. v. 1. O that thou wert as my brother that sucked the brests of my Mother to please this his Spouse as her brother he was in every thing not leaving out nor skipping over that sleeping and unactive age in the womb and that loathsome and impotent condition of a new-born Infant of which see Ezec. 16.4 Tho he was not intended by his Father to be imployed in our affairs till 30 years of age yet Pudorem exordii nostri non recusavit saith S. Hilary sed naturae nostrae contumelias transcurrit He submitted himself to be imprisoned for so long a time in so dark and strait a cell as a womans womb Wherein some observe that he began his sufferings much earlier then the rest of the sons of men because supposed to have from his very first Conception from the Union of the human nature to his Divine person a perfect use of his intellectual faculties and sense of these his sufferings when as God in these first beginnings of our miserable life hath suspended in others the use of reason to hinder the sense of pain Now after that we once understand what a close imprisonment that of the womb is what evil would not we chuse rather then once more undergo it and what horrour had Nicodemus thereof when he thought our Saviour had prescribed it Jo. 3 Yet so fervent was our Saviours love unto mankind that he thought himself not sufficiently intimate and united unto him unless he took up his first lodging tho known to be so inconvenient even within his very bowels And as this he did at his coming into the world so again at his going out of it in the mysterious Eucharist he contrived a way how his Sacred body might enter again into us and he dwell again within us As soon also as freed from this first restraint he submitted himself to have his Hands and Feet whose omnipotent hands had formerly made the World taken and bound anew with swathbands which were at last when sufficiently grown for it to be bound with cords and fastned with nails Not to mention yet-another binding namely that of his Tongue to so long a time of silence no small misery to that feeble age which wants most help yet can ask none but a greater humiliation to the Son of the Almighty that this essential Word of God and Wisdom of his Father should empty it self into so long dumbness and silence being already an agnus ligatus se obmutescens non aperiens os suum Who also after he had the use of speech yet underwent so great a self-denial in this Kind that tho all his words flowed with wisdom Grace being poured into his lips Psal 47.2 and were all carefully laid up by his observing Mother yet it seemed good unto him that his Historians four of them should not mention one Word that came from this Word till he was 12 years old and that first word mentioned by them was a profession of his zealous obedience to the will of his Father Luk. 2.49 Again like to man he became so far as to be made under the same Laws with them Gal. 4.4 not only under the Moral but Ceremonial too which cost his infancy a bloody Circumcision not under God's but Cesar's Laws too the punctual obedience to which wherein it were strange if a woman so great with child might not have bin dispensed with had not God in his secret wisdom more exacted this submission of the child than the Mother cost him so many afflictions attending his Nativity Wherein he descended far below his servant the rigid Baptist who was born at home with great resort of congratulating neighbors And thus early began himself to give a pattern to his followers in leaving his house and his country and his Father in some sense out of whose bosome he came and the society of Angels into this place of Beasts Here look upon Him now at his very lowest and weakest And how well doth S. Pauls expression of his exinanition suit with it That he who was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no reputation in taking upon him the condition of such a forlorne Infant And that he that was so rich yet became to such a degree
them § 96 Meanwhile the Divine Justice and Vengeance upon bloody Herod slumbred not Our Lord is by many conjectured not to have remained fully two years in Egypt before the Angel brought Joseph tidings of his death Certum est saith Tirinus Chron. Sacr. c. 49. Dominum ibi non haesisse toto Biennio And Hanc communem esse sententiam antiquitus pro vulgari habitam c. And thus Eusebius Hist l. 1. c. 8. Statim post necatos infantes nulla ne minima quidem dilatione interposita divina ultio illum dum adhuc in vivis manebat exagitavit referring to the History of Josephus And Josephus tho he makes no mention of the slaughtered Infants no more than he doth of many other eminent occurrances of the Evangelical story as he being no friend to Christianity and mistaking Vespasian for the true Messias yet could not but observe the divine hand in Herods sickness and fall Supplicia saith he Antiq. Judai l. 17 c. 9. Deo commissi sceleris expetente tho he mistaking the scelus And again Dicebatur saith he ab his quibus inerat divinandi peritia divinitus has paenas ob impietatem ejus multa crudeliter gesta deposci And he thus describes his horrid disease Ibid. Ignis quippe lentus inerat non tantum conflagrationem in superficiem corporis agentem prodens quantum intrinsecus crescens operabatur incendium Aviditas quoque inexplebilis semper inerat cibi nec tamen satietas unquam rabidis incitatam faucibus valebat implere ingluviem Intestina internis ulceribus tabida putrescebant doloribus quoque coli saevissimis cruciabatur humor liquidus ac luridus erga pedes tumidos oberrabat Similis illi quoque circa pubem erat afflictio Sed verenda ipsa putredine corrupta scatebant vermibus spiritus quoque incredibilis erecta tentigo quae fuerat satis obscaena diritate foetoris anhelitus respiratione creberrima contractus quoque per cuncta membra subsistens vim noxiam operabatur quae omnem tolerantiae abstulerat firmitatem He relates also his attempt to have killed himself with a knife had not one observing it suddainly stopt his hand The sword also departed not from his own house See Joseph Antiq. l. 15. c. 9.16 c. 3.17 from c. 1. to 11. For after a former slaughter of his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus and of several of his wives some of them at least innocent upon jealousies and continual accusations of one another for preparing of poison and for other conspiracies against him He five daies before his death commanded the slaughter of his Son Antipater And Antipater Joseph Antiq. l. 17. c. 8. also having formerly accused two other sons of Herod Archelaus and Philip of like treason against their Father in making his will he also passed-by them and nominated a younger Son Herod Antipas heir of his Crown But after Antipater put to death changing his mind again he resumed Archelaus and so these two brethren Archelaus and Antipas after his death upon his varying wills contended for the Kingdom He had great misfortunes also in his kindred and Relations Herod's brother Pheroras was poisoned and his wife being accused of it made away herself His Father in law Simon the High-Priest was deposed from his Office And lastly Josephus observes concerning Herod's posterity Antiq. l. 18. That though it was very numerous yet within an hundred years there was none or very few remaining Vt innotescat saith he nihil prodesse vel exercitus aut vim Corporis vel alia quae videntur mortalibus appetenda sine pietate qua colitur Deus intra centum annorum spacium praeter paucos nam admodum plures erant cuncta Herodis origo consumpta est Super haec etiam ad humilitatem modestiam humanum genus adducitur cum illius familiae calamitates audierit Thus He. Besides such cruelties to his wives and children the same also overflowed toward all the Jewish Nobility For when some Jews upon a rumour of his Death had defaced some of his as they esteemed them prophane Ornaments of the Temple he so much gloried in He summoning all the Jewish Nobility upon pain of Death to the absent under shew of taking their advice for punishing such an insolency and then imprisoning all those who came Ordered that at the time of his own expiring they also should be by his Souldiers put to death the better he said to secure his Kingdom to his posterity and that he might make those mourn who otherwise would have rejoyced at his death But this was not executed nor did such an unheard-of cruelty survive in any after him § 97 So miserablely died this Anti-Messiah who how much wiser had he and how much happier bin he and his if he had humbly with the Magi submitted his Scepter to and going with them adored the new-born Saviour of the world One who came onely to give to mortals a heavenly Kingdom and not to disturb in the least any ones temporal Dominion And so also how much more happy as well as pious had the chief Priests and Scribes and the whole Jewish Nation bin had they accompanied him in such a Devout Procession and as they could readily tell Herod the place of his Birth so had taken notice also of the time Of which God his Father had given them such an eminent Signal and Testimony by the forraign message sent to them of the Magi and the Star But though their Relation wrought so far with them saith the Text as to trouble Herod and all Jerusalem with him yet not so as to make them sensible of this infinite Honour newly done them in their long expected Messias's coming It troubled them but reformed them not to pay him at least the same homage as did those strangers or to provide him so much as a lodging or a bed Therefore we read of the effect of Gods displeasure at this time not only falling upon Herod but on the Jews too For not only about the time of Herods decease died many other great persons and therefore it is said Mat. 2.20 They are dead who sought the childs life Viz. such as whom their having relation to Herod he marrying the daughter of an High Priest made zealous of his greatness And several also of the Sanedrim and Pharisees were slain by him for refusing to swear Allegiance to him and forty persons burnt alive for defacing the golden Eagle set up by Herod before the gate of the Temple But immediatly after Herods death happened many rebellions of the Jews seeking to regain their liberty before the settlement of Archelaus by Augustus and during our Lords quiet recess in Egypt which rebellions were suppressed with great slaughter of them § 98 For first in an Insurrection against Archelaus about three thousand Jews were slain at the celebration of their next Paschal feast after Herods decease And in a Rebellion revived again at the Feast of Pentecost the
active nature spirit and judgment to return to be imprisoned for several years in such an impotent body as to be swathed cradled mute and for all conveniences or necessities wholly disposed-of by another that knows not his mind § 107 3ly Such a perfection and if I may so say man-hood of our Lords Soul and intellect being supposed in his infancy and so much vacancy from any serious external employments as accompanies child-hood we may imagine but Lord to have passed those his first daies continually in praier which also infers silence and Recollection and in Intercessions to his Father for Man's salvation and the business he came for into the world Which also may be inferred from this That when at 30 years of age he had entred on his Office of preaching and that his day-time was taken up with other business and great throngs of people who for their spiritual and corporal necessities continually flocked to him yet He used then to rise on nights and retire into some solitary place and there spend part or sometimes the whole night in Praier See Mark 1.35 Luk. 5.16 6.12 Till then that our Lords growth was capable of corporal Labours we may justly account his time at Nazareth spent much-what like that of S. John Baptist or also his own 40 daies sojourning in the Desart and that all this while he became a fervent Mediator for us now by his taking our flesh become his Brethren and negociated our business so much more with God when hindred by his age for doing it yet with men And his Father who was alwaies well pleased in him accepted his service in this time of nonage and sequestration from human affairs as more immediatly devoted to himself And if mankind is supposed to receive much benefit from the Praiers and Devotions of those Holy Hermits who without any conversation with men apply themselves wholly to these like Moses in the Mount praying whilst their brethren are fighting here with Satan and a thousand temptations how much more strength and succour may we be thought to receive from those infinitely-meritorious intercessions of our Lord in that his silent infancy Whose outward deportment also in this time corresponding with his mind must needs beget great reverence towards him and the like Devotion and silence in the Blessed Virgin and S. Joseph that daily beheld it and the oeconomy of this little family much exceed that of the strictest Monasticks Both these persons being before our Lords Nativity highly enriched with the Graces of the Holy Spirit and also by so near access to his person receiving daily new influences and recruits thereof from him who was full of Grace and Truth as the beloved Evangelist describes him Jo. 1.14 16 and of whose fulness we all receive Grace after Grace and all for and from this fountain of Grace § 108 In such silence and Devotion and conversation with Heaven our Lord seems to have spent his time till now he had run out â—2 years of his Age when happened a very strange accident concerning him It was a law that all Males should appear at the place which the Lord should chuse for his Residence in his Sanctuary or Temple there three times in the year at the three solemn feasts and that then none should appear empty or without an offering i. e. offerings of thanksgiving as God had prospered them to honour the Lord with their substance and first fruits of their increase See Exod. 23.15 17. 34.20 Deut. 16.17 Prov. 3.9 But women and children were dispenced-with and the males are said to be obliged thereto only from twenty years old to sixty or fifty But at the great Pascal feast it was usual from ancient times for the women and their children as well as men to go thither as appears by 1 Sam. 1.3 4. And so S. Luke saith of the Holy Virgin and her husband S. Joseph that they went to Jerusalem every year at the Paschal feast and we may presume took with them the Holy child Jesus after able to travel so far whom considering who He was and on such account how dear to them it would have bin a great affliction to have left behind them and to have relinquisht the Lord himself as it were to go to his house And there missing our Lord when twelve years old and hoping to find him gone before with some of their kindred argues that not to have bin his first journey In which also they would have bin more solicitous of his not straying froth them and their seeking him also in the Temple seems to have proceeded from some observation made by them of his former inclinations and practices there at these Feasts § 109 Now then when Jesus had completed the sacred Number of the twelfth year of his age All Gods works being exactly measured with a certain number of time among which the numbers of 12 and of 7 are very frequent in Scripture going up with his Parents as usually to this Feast it was the Divine pleasure after the Eastern Magi their having already proclaimed the birth of Him at Jerusalem and the Doctors of the Jews also by Herod's assembling and consulting them being then forced to take notice of it now again after 10 years more passed to manifest his Son to Israel and to the most learned thereof and to shew as it were a ray and glympse of his celestial Original and his Divine wisdom and Graces in an age as yet no way capable of acquiring these by studies or Human Art if so be they would now by comparing the Messias his Nativity and considering the transcendent knowledg that made them all astonished appearing in this child discern this Divine person and yeild him a due obedience and Adoration Which appearance also was made when Archelaus Herod's Son that Ruled in Judea and that might be dreaded as heir of his Fathers malice also to the new Messias was before this supposing our Lords stay in Egypt not above two years and Herod's reign according to Josephus De Bell. Judaic lib. 2. cap. 6. only nine ejected out of his Government by Augustus and banished to Vienna in France and a Roman President substituted in his place After therefore the Feast was now ended and the multitudes returning homeward Our Lord in obedience to the will of his Father in Heaven on a suddain with-drew himself from his Parents here on earth without giving them any notice of his purpose which made known to them might to their human reason have seemed somewhat extravagant and perilous and so have received some obstruction from their great solicitude for his safety Wherein He hath also shewed to us how little any Relations of Kindred many times great lets of Piety are to be regarded when any way hindring our service of God Of which disengagement from Kindred he also gave us examples afterward upon several occasions He therefore immediatly returned to the Temple carried hither with the same zeal and fervour of the Holy
rejoicing at the presence of our Lord when he also yet in his Mothers womb and their acquaintance only before they were born after his infancy his leaving his Fathers house and retiring into the Desart and solitude his rigid dyet raiment and habitation in some grot there his non-conversation with men and so neither corrupted with their manners nor distracted at all with human affairs and the Holy Spirit supplying to him all that knowledg of men's persons that was necessary to his high employments the many resemblances he had to Elias and also to our Lord in his doctrine and in his Heroical Virtues and especially in his stupendious humility and sufferings these things I say have bin partly described before § 4. c. in the Relation of the Baptists Nativity where the inquisitive Reader may review them § 129 To this great person therefore as yet in the Desart being about 30 years of age the appointed age under the law Numb 4.3 23. for the Priests and Levits to enter upon the exercise of their functions and half a year elder than our Lord as who was to be his forerunner and to appear abroad sooner came the word of the Lord that he should now leave his solicitude and enter upon the Office for which he had bin thus prepared and which emploiment doubtless he had much expected and longed for Upon which John came forth not immediatly to Jerusalem or into the Cities of Judea this honour being left for our Lord himself and the Kingdom of Heaven being to approach still nearer by certain degrees but into the out-skirts of the Desart of Judea and from thence removing to Bethabara where also our Lord sojourned for some time a little before his Passion Jo. 10.40 beyond Jordan near to the great Road from the East for passing over the River into Judea by which way the Israelites when they came out of Egypt walking through Jordan a type of Baptism as also their passing through the red Sea entred into the Holy Land and by which way they were afterwards carried away Captives from it to Babylon where also Elias the type of John after passing this Jordan was taken up in a fiery Chariot Here then John in his Spirit began to appear again and to proclaim as it were at a distance and afar off the speedy coming of the Jew's Messiah and of his Kingdom and to fulfil the Vox clamantis in deserto spoken of in the Prophets Some conjecture also the beginning of Johns thus proclaiming our Lord to have bin in September or the feasts of Trompets which was the beginning of the Civil year of the Jews Lev. 23.24.25.9 and this same year also to have bin a year of Jubile which well agrees with Esay 61.2 Vt praedicarem annum placabilem Domini and in which year of Jubile also was a greater concourse of people from all Forraign parts but the various computations of the age of the world renders this thing very uncertain § 130 Now then the Baptist began for a due preparing of the Nation for the reception of so great and Holy a Prince to exhort the people to a Confession and repentance of their sins and the receiving Baptism to that effect which he had orders from him that sent him to confer on all such as were penitent and to a speedy reformation of their lives for that now shortly all flesh should see the salvation of God and for that this Lord would come with his Fann in his hand and would throughly purge his floore gathering the Wheat into his Garner but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire and because that now the Axe should be laid to the root of the Trees and such as brought not forth good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire Which things delivered with such an authority and gravity put his Auditors into a great consternation and fright and suddainly alarmed the whole Nation and especially the Hierosolymites being at no great distance from the place of his preaching and much frequenting him Whose wonder also was encreased by his appearance in such a desolate place and not coming into their Cities And his strange Habit of hair-cloth and being tyed with a leather-Girdle like Eliah and several of the ancient Prophets Esay 20 2◠2 King 1.8 Zech. 13.4 and his strange abstinence not eating any bread nor drinking Wine nor needing at all any human supplies for his food one part of his diet being a kind of Locust or Grashopper to be found every where upon the grass and which it seems was a Fare sometimes of the poorer sort in a case of necessity eaten by them either raw or boyl'd or also salted and dried mentioned in Levit. 11.22 and allowed there for a clean food and another part when these Locusts not to be had wild honey such as the wood-bees wrought in the hollow parts of Trees plentiful in this Country See 1 Sam. 14.26 and his abstinence such as the Pharisees concluded supernatural and so effected by his being possessed with a Devil his lodging also the hard ground in some Cave or Grot By which things this Preacher of Penance appeared also the greatest Example thereof that as yet the world ever saw These things I say still advanced their great esteem and admiration of him and gave greater weight and credit to his words the Pharisees ostentation of fasting being quite eclypsed by it § 131 To this also may be added his discovering the secrets of their hearts that came to him and discerning their several sins and delinquencies Mat. 3.7 tho having no knowledg of or conversation with them The Counsels and advices he gave them high and sublime and like unto those of our Lord. As among others that given to the people for the larger extent of their charity that he that had two Coats should impart to them that had none and so also should do for Bread and Meat These his Counsels rightly also fitted to every ones condition whilst for the amendment of their manners each one desired to learn from him the several Duties of their calling the things belonging to which he knew not by experience but the Holy Spirit His admitting contrary to the Pharisees all persons with an equal mansuetude and affability and not keeping more distance from those esteemed greater Sinners Publicans or Soldiers this reprehending the greatest with all freedom and without fear before all the people and receiving the humble though great offenders without expostulation or reproach All these wrought in the people an Opinion of the Baptist that he was some eminent Prophet or also the Messias though himself sufficiently disclaimed it § 132 Upon this fame To this new burning and shining Light as our Lord stiles him a great conflux was made after some time out of the whole Nation not only out of the nearer parts of Judea but also of Galilee From which Countrey among others we find Peter and Andrew his brother intermitting their fishing and
no way moved upon the prospect and glory of this City or advance also of his own soon meekly returned him a second answer out of the Scriptures out of the Law too as the former and out of the same book of it prohibiting such a fact upon any such Motive or promsie the text being corrupted by the Devil as to the true sence and due circumstances thereof telling him that it was written that we may not tempt the Lord our God The Text is found in Deut. 6.16 and the instance there made is not to tempt him as in Massah where the Israelites suffering some thirst had not the patience of expecting the time wherein God thought fit to relieve them but irreverently and ungratefully expostulated with and importuned Moses for a Miracle in their supply for drink after they had but now seen that Miracle for supplying them bread in the former Chapter So patient and resigned our Lord remained still in the place and posture as Satan had set and held him in for he who was permitted to place him there had not the power to cast him down thence so to try what would be the issue of it till he confounded thought of changing the Scene again and like Balak of trying his experiments upon him in another place and in a contrary manner § 158 Having therefore now attacked our meek Lord in two of the three ordinary and most effective sorts of temptations as S. John reckons them Concupiscentia carnis as to eating which meat was rendred more alluring by extreme hungar and Superbia vitae some vain glory or Honour when so mounted on the top of a Pinnacle of one of the stateliest buildings of the world by there shewing himself supported and born up by Angels in the Air he now thought of assaulting him with the third Concupiscentia Oculorum and wealth and Coveteousness that that Temptation might not be omitted toward our Lord with which we are most frequently over-thrown and by which wealth and honour once admitted he could at least sooner work his ruine these instruments of his temptation being also great tempters § 159 Now laying aside therefore the glorious suggestions to our Lord of his being the Son of God as in the two former Satan begins now to treat him not as God's but as the Carpenter's Son and to take more upon him and magnifie himself instead of our Lord and to see if he could trample upon our Lords humility in whom he could not beget any pride So taking him from the Pinacle and from the prospect of Jerusalem he transported him to yet a greater and statelier height the top of a very high Mountain as if to a place where himself was Prince and Lord of all and there makes a Scheme and representation unto him of the great and spacious Kingdomes of the Earth and of all the Glory and beauty as it were set forth and spread before him in a large Map and shewed too all at once as it were in a moment saith S. Luke as all lying at his his feet the more to surprize him Then tells him that all these are his and to whomsoever he pleaseth he can give them and the prosperity and flourishing of the wicked for a time in this world seem'd to make good his words that therefore if he would but bow his knee and give him the honour due to such a Patron and Benefactor All should be our Lords and he presently possessed of them Whence our Lord might see that for all the high titles that might be given him he had been in the world but poorly treated hitherto in being advanced no higher than a Carpenter § 161 It is likely that Satan set forth this last Temptation with many more words and shewed the many honours he had formerly bestowed upon his true Servants Hoping also that the sight and view of such worldly Pompe might much work upon such a Novice and one so meanly educated As our first Parents that fell were taken with the gloss and beauty of the forbidden fruit Gen. 3.6 and as the Israelites brought out of the Desart into the land of Canaan were by the plenty thereof Deut. 32.15 drawn away from God Incrassatus impinguatus dilatatus dereliquit Deum Factorem suum But very imprudent and no less silly was such a proposal of his to our Lord and full of Pride and lies Whenas indeed himself was a miserable Bankrupt and prisoner tied up in chains not able to help a poor witch for all her not only worship of but Contracts and giving her Soul to him to a single farthing nor to take his lodging in a filthy Swine without an extraordinary leave and permission and when as most contrary he to whom he spake was the very person to whom all these things were given by the Father and who was the true Lord and heir of all And therefore Satan in this third assault saith nothing of his Son-ship and having all things in heaven earth and under earth to adore and submit to him as such will they nill they even Satan himself And this perhaps was one way how Satan hoped his Temptation might fasten upon our Lord if he could thus at least provoke him unseasonably at this time to the challenging of these things to himself and so some little stain of ostentation and vain glory might possibly run along and mingle with it § 162 But our meek Lord replies no such thing to him takes no notice of his shameful lies nor the cheat of his deluding appearances but after he had shewed the highest detestation of his endeavouring to rob his Father of his due worship and of taking this to himself in those words spoken to him Get thee hence Satan as if his last impudent and blasphemous proposal had clearly discovered to him who he was he with the same spirit of meekness as before answers him a third time out of the Scripture and the Law that we are commanded to worship the Lord our God and him only to serve and in what ever condition we are placed of poverty and want may do no prohibited thing to make our selves rich great or Honourable Which it indeed we would yet by this way we cannot make our selves so And the Devil so oft as he saith this doth but lye to us Thus our Lord stoutly repelled the last temptation also the lust of the eyes the surprisal of which must be greater too in so barren a Desart And so this being the uttermost bait he had with which to have caught our Lord and not able to disobey our Lords words Get thee hence Satan by the power of which words our Lord at last manifested that which he was not pleased to shew at Satans request Viz. that he was the Son of God this evil Angel departed And now after the temptation as usually follows a Consolation as also before the great Honour done our Lord at his Baptism was streight pursued with a great humiliation and for the
to which the Pharisees also were not wanting to give their assistance in representing John the Author of a new Sect and acting without and against authority which though this crafty man knew to be envy in them yet he made use of this colour to cover the true Cause of this imprisonment and therefore this reason thereof is given by Josephus Antiq Judaici l. 18. c. 12. Veritus saith he cum ad audiendum cum quamplurima multitudo concurreret ne forte doctrinae ejus persuasione populi a suo regno discederent c. and our Lord also intimates the Pharisees and Governours of the Jews to have had a hand in this restraint Mat. 17.12 where he saith that they knew him not but did to him whatever they listed as they should afterward do to himself Thus cast in prison Herodias not appeased or secured herewith next solicits Herod also for the speedy taking away his life but both the fear of the people esteeming John a Prophet and his own reverence of him as yet with-held him from it For which cause also in prison he laying the blame thereof upon his wife indulged him so much liberty as to have some converse with his friends and his Disciples there to come to and attend upon him and so neither here as also afterward S. Paul was he an useless servant to our Lord. § 195 Leaving the Baptist now a Prisoner and an end put to his publick preaching after that our Lord was sufficiently manifested to the people of Israel and begun to be assisted in his work by other new Disciples let us return to our Lord. He had now continued preaching and baptizing in Judea after the Paschal Feast for about some eight Months for when removing hence he came into Samaria it is said Jo. 4.35 that it wanted but foure months to the next harvest and so to the next Pasch which Feast was celebrated at the beginning of the harvest at which time was offered a sheaf of the first fruits of their Corn Lev. 23.10 Deut. 16.9 as at Pentecost the first loaf of bread after Harvest gotten in between these two feasts In this time our Lord converting to the Gospel and faith in him as the Saviour of the world and so baptizing by his Disciples such multitudes of people far beyond the actings of John and this so near to Jerusalem had already alarm'd the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews and more and more incensed their wrath against him who could not rest from devising some way for his death or restraint especially after they had bin so succesful against the Baptist and we find afterward in Jo. 7.1 the reason more plainly given of our Lords residing no more in Judea but in Galilee because the Jews i. e these chief Governours and Leaders of them sought already to kill him By which we see also that our Lord for most of his time after he appeared once went in great danger of his life for in flying from the Pharisees in Judea in Galilee also there was an Herod Therefore Our Lord saith S. John Jo. 4.1 knowing the Pharisees had heard of his making and baptizing more disciples than John Matt. 4.12 and having heard also the severity used toward the Baptist purposed to leave Judea and return into Galilee so to decline for the present the evil designs of the Pharisees a gainst him and also to carry the light or the Gospel into those remoter places where it had not yet appeared and where John was interrupted in his Ministery For though Herod lived in the same quarters yet was he by the Divine providence so diverted by other affairs and especially the new dissentions between him and Aretas and his mind also so much afflicted with the unjust imprisonment of John as that he had little inclination to persecute any more Prophets and when at last after his murthering of John our Lords same from every side sounded in his ears his guilt presently imagined him John reviv'd and so rendred him less inquisitive after matters that would little redound to his Honour § 196 Our Lord thus removing with his Disciples out of Judea into Galilee came in his way hither to a City of Samaria situate in Mount Ephraim called Sychar but the same with the Ancient Schechem or Sychem of which see Gen. 33.18 c. the place where Jacob returning into Palestine from Laban purchased a field of the Children of Hamor Father to Sechem that afterward defloured Dinah and there first erected an Altar probably on Mount Garizim or Ebal since Altars used to be erected on the most eminent places and nearest to Heaven being two tops of the same Hill near one another where also viz. on Mount Ebal God commanded the Israelites that soon after their entrance into Canaan they should erect an Altar See Deut. 27 4. c. and Josh 8.30 c. and also should set up some great Stones on which plaistered over should be written the law and also on these two tops of the Hill one o're against another that there should be solemnly pronounced by the Levites the Benedictions and Curses the people saying Amen Which twelve Curses are there set down the matter of Benedictions being supposed to be the observing the Contrary to these Maledictions of which see more in Deut. 28. Hereabouts also and perhaps in the same place Abraham at his first entrance into Canaan upon Gods appearing to him in that place built an Altar see Gen. 12.6 7. At this place also Joshua assembled Israel before his Death and made a Covenant with them before the Lord c. See Josh 24.1 26. And this Hill Garizim was so near to this City that Jotham is said from the top or side of it to have spoken to the Sychemites Judg. 9.7 and the Samaritan woman calls it this Hill Jo. 4.20 as a place very near to her This City also was the first place as it were for a preludium taken possession of by armes by the seed of Abraham the Sons of Jacob in revenge for dishonouring their Sister Of which see what Jacob saith Gen. 48.22 Afterward being destroyed by Abimeleck Judg. 9.45 it was reedifyed by Jeroboam and made his regal seat Antiq. l. 11. cap. 7.8 and so it was saith Josephus in Sanballats time a Gentile Governour of Samaria under Darius Whose daughter being married to Manasses a Son of the High Priest and he for it ejected out of the Priesthood Sanballet calling him into Samaria by Alexander the Great 's leave who had then conquered those Provinces built a Temple for the worship of the God of Israel on Mount Garizim in emulation of that of Jerusalem in the rebullding of which the Samaritans before had offered their concurrence but was rejected Ezra 4.2 3. wherein Manasses his son-in-Son-in-law should officiate This was done some three hundred years before our Lords Incarnation which occasioned a Schism between the Samaritans and the Jews like to that former of Jeroboam Part
of these Samaritans being Israelites and many Jews also when obnoxious to the Laws or for some other secular advantages removing thither out of Judea After which times also another Anti-Temple about one hundred and fifty years before our Lords coming was erected in Egypt for the Jews flying together with Onias a Son of the High Priest when as persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes which Temple perished as also the other near the time of the destruction of that in Jerusalem and both these forraign Temples seem preludiums of Gods worship shortly to be made common to the whole world This is premised for the better understanding of what follows § 197 Near to this City Sychem and this Mount was a Well digged by Jacob and then made use of by the City And here our Lord travelling on foot and wearied with his mornings journey it being now about noon and the heat of the day sat down on the side of the Well to rest himself it as a place of resort likely having some Trees and shade about it whilst the Disciples went into the Town to buy some meat for his and their dinner For the Jews had no commerce or conversation with the Samaritans when absolute necessity did not require it as this of travellers buying victuals of them so as to ear and drink and lodg with them being accounted by them Schismaticks and unclean which caused also the same enmity against and separation of the Samaritans at least some of them from the Jews see Luk. 9.53 the other Samaritans seem herein more remiss see vers 56. Whilst our Lord was here left alone a Samaritan woman came thither out of the City to draw water This happened also to be a woman that had had already five husbands either all already deceased or she by divorce separated from them for in latter times women also used to procure divorces from their husbands and that now lived incontinently with one not married to her § 198 Our Lord thirsty with his journey and desiring to entertain some further spiritual discourse with her concerning the salvation of this poor wretch requested of her some water to drink upon which she somewhat wondring asked him why he as appearing by his habit and perhaps his speech a Jew would receive water from her and out of her vessel being a Samaritan and one also it seems that for all the impurity of her life was a Zelot of the Samaritan Religion and way of Gods worship and of their separation from the Jews Here-upon our Lord moved with compassion took occasion to preach the new Gospel and to reveil himself to her and turning the mention of water with a Metaphor and to enter without force or abruption into pious discourse as usually and as we find he doth by and by concerning meat and again concerning harvest told her that he was a person from whom she might expect a greater curtesy and that if she had well known the Gift of God and who he was she would have begged water of him rather the true water quenching all thirst and in the receiving of it a Well continually abounding i. e springing up in all spiritual Graces to everlasting life conferred by it Our Lord here speaking as formerly in his discourse with Nicodemus of the Gift of the Holy Spirit which he came to bestow upon the world and which his Death procured of the Father which being conferred in our regeneration by the water of baptism cures all hunger and thirst after earthly things and fully satisfies and beatifies the Soul Consider Jo. 7.38 39. 6.35 Esai 44.3 § 199 The woman saying she should be glad to receive such water Our Lord the more to encrease her faith in him bad her to call her husband as if it were meet that he also with his wife should share thereof thus taking occasion to discover to her his knowledg of all her former life and condition and for the present of her living in secret concubinage She hereby discerning him to be a Prophet and perhaps to divert him from speaking more of her husband presently begun to consult him concerning Religion who in the present division were in the right the Samaritans or the Jews and where God was more acceptably worshipped in Mount Garizim where the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob and afterward Joshua by Gods appointment and their fore-fathers that came out of Egypt built an Altar and offered Sacrifices as hath bin said or at Jerusalem a place of a latter consecration and sanctity the Samaritans also rejecting any testimonies produced out of the Prophets against them and see the vehement contest and dispute of the Samaritans and Jews that had bin before this in Alexandria before Ptolemeus Philometer made Judge in a cause Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 4. § 200 Our Lord after he had first told her that the Samaritans not Jews for the time past were peccant and schismatical herein and the right way of salvation to be among the Jews and so also the Salvation through the Gospel first to be communicated to them proceeds to instruct her concerning the times of the Gospel now at hand wherein all such former Divisions and factions concerning the place of worship should be taken away that God was a Spirit not addicted or confined to Place nor taken with corporeal things and external Ceremonies but only as these were types and prefigurations of spiritual things to come and of his real service by and through Christ but that he expected those now who should worship him in what place soever in spirit and in truth intimating here the abrogation from henceforth of the former legal worship and Ceremonies which was accordingly established by the Apostles Act. 15. a thing that at this time the Samaritans would more willingly hear of than the Jews And he speaks also here to her of worshipping not God in general but the Father the true worshippers will worship the Father For that all worship of God now was to be through Christ his Son and by such as were also made his Sons through Christ Worshipping God also in Spirit seems to be the worship of him in and by the Holy Spirit given through Christ according to those expressions of our Lord to Nicodemus before Jo. 3.6 that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and Mat. 22.43 David in Spirit called him Lord. And of S. Paul whom I serve in the Spirit Rom. 1.9 and Rom. 8.14 those who are led by the Spirit and vers 9. Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit § 201 The woman upon our Lords saying the Hour cometh c. replyed that she believed when the Messias should come he would declare all Gods pleasure concerning his worship and remove all the present differences Our Lord told her that himself was the Messias She hearing this and much transported with his former discourse whose words were with authority and setting hearts on fire and bidden also by him to call her husband carelesly leaving
to every tittle that the Body of heaven and earth was after a certain time to vanish and pass away but no so one letter of Gods word Again that for the moral commandements and precepts of the Law much less came he to give any relaxation to mens former obedience thereto but to exact the observance of them to the least iota having procured for them from his Father the Holy Spirit for enabling them also to such observance and that he who did not endeavour to keep those that were slighted and accounted the least of these Commandements some of which he mentions below vers 22 28 34 39. not being angry not lusting in our heart not swearing at all c. not rendring evil for evil c. as well as those thought greater could not reach Heaven or eternal happiness In prosecution of which our Lord began to expound to them the true meaning and just extent of several of these Laws corrupted by the former glosses of the Pharisees and human Tradition That the precept of not killing or committing murder extended not only to not taking away our Neighbours life but to any reproaching or vilifying them by words as calling him silly or a fool which said without cause and in malice toward him incurreth not the sentence of a Civil Judg to some corporal punishment or also death in these lesser Courts in the several Cities or that greater at Jerusalem but even of damnation to hell-fire again extendeth also to any anger or disaffection against him in our heart Therefore that before they brought any Sacrifice offering or gift or made any addresses to God concerning themselves or implored his pardon of their faults or any his favours to them they should call to remembrance if there were any displeasure or disgust between them and their neighbour and should presently procure a reconciliation with him especially if such neighbour have any just quarrel against them on the former account that thus they might wisely prevent their neighbours complaints to God the Supreme Judg of all Whose exact justice upon such wrong done would certainly cast them into prison and before any releasment require of them the uttermost farthing if they were not diligent thus before hand and whist they have opportunity in this life to make their composition and peace with him § 266 Our Lord having said this in exposition of the Commandment proceeds to the second of committing Adultery the most natural impetuous and troublesome of our passions being these two Anger and Lust the one from an excess of hate towards another the other of Love After the bridling of the one he now prescribes that of the other and to this purpose tells them that this precept also of not committing adultery extended not only to not actually lying with our neighbors wife but not to much as looking on her or any other woman not our own wife with any lustful thoughts for that all such persons were guilty of committing adultery already with such persons in their heart And therefore that it even our right eye or right hand should be the instrument or tempter to offend God in such a manner it were better if we could procure no other remedy of committing such sin without doing this even to pluck out this though our right eye or cut off our right hand than to sin against God and so have not this eye or hand only lost but our whole Body cast for such offence into eternal flames Intimating at least our cutting-off the observed occasions of sin even though these seem as precious and dear unto us as our eye or right hand That also in marriage they were religiously to observe such an Holy Contract and patiently bear this great Yoke when not well and discreetly engaged without expecting any relief or indulgement of a separation or divorce afterward contrary to the great liberty they had taken herein except in the case of Fornication And in such case also that the parties might not upon this presently clap up new marriages better suting with their new affections and amours but were to live continently and single for God gives ability in such a separation Things which said by our Lord elsewhere the Disciples so check d at Mat. 19.10 that they concluded it was better to forbear marriage if having so streit obligations upon it § 267 From this he proceeds to some liberties and indulgments they practised contrary to the intention of the Divine Law in their conversation with their neighbour especially in a custome of oaths and other aggravating asseverations mostly coming from an evil root in their discourses and treatings which is contrary to the simplicity and moderation that ought to be in their words and reverence towards God and his creatures in relation to him that ought to be observed in their Oath In which matter he instructs them that the precept concerning an oath Lev. 19.12 and Deut. 6.13 Viz. that they should not forswear themselves and should perform unto the Lord their Oaths did not allow them a liberty to swearing also whenever they spake a truth swearing either by God himself or by any of his Creatures Or secure them that swearing also by some of Gods creatures at least such as by some Consecration had not a more special relation to him as the Sacrifice the Gold of the Temple c. signifyed nothing and had no guilt in it according to their false Glosses thinking reverence in using Oaths was only confined to the name of God and to his name not as to swearing but only false-swearing by it But that Mat. 23.16 excepting where necessity and matters of great consequence required it in which case we find Gods greatest Saints for advancing truth to have used it Heb. 6.16 And an end of all strifes among men faith the Apostle is an Oath their ordinary communication and discourse and dealing with their Neighbour was to be without any swearing at all either by God himself whose name they were at no time to take in vain Or by any of his Creatures over the least of which even an hair they had no power to make it white or black and all which they ought to reverence for the relation they have to him who at the first made them and alwaies replenishes and dwelleth in them But that their ordinary communication should be plain and simple and without endeavouring with any such attestations or artifice to add weight to their words Yea Yea Nay Nay as our Lords Amen Amen their assertion only being reiterated where less credited for that what was more than this came of Evil i. e. some irreverence toward God in himself or in his Creatures and again of evil either others having more jealousy of the truth of our words than they ought which in them is malice or from our own desiring to add more weight to our words than the matter requires which in us is a faulty ambition See this Lesson of our Lord repeated
miraculously fed the Multitudes Mat. 15.29 and which was more convenient for the assembling of his Converts of which see what is said before § 251. P. 1. And such a place our Lord seems to have chosen for the greater Eminency Solitude and Privacy thereof free from Buildings High-waies or Passengers he purposing no general manifestation of himself to the Jews or to the World but only to some chosen Witnesses that some contradiction might add the more virtue to the Christian Faith Here then were assembled with many others the eleven Apostles with the Mother of our Lord and doubtless the other Galilean women who carried the first message both from the Angel and afterwards from our Lord himself to the Apostles of his meeting them in this place To whom our Lord first shewed himself at some distance from them upon which they presently fell down and adored him Mat. 28.17 but some of them saith the Evangelist unless he intimates here the doubt not that was then but had bin formerly viz. not of the Eleven but of the company had some doubt whether it was he i. e. at the first yet which by his nearer approach and discourse with them was presently after removed Our Lord then approaching told them that the time of his Exinanition being now finished all Power the exercise of which was suspended before see Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 was given to him by his Father in Heaven and in Earth and upon this he renewed his charge unto his Apostles that they should go forth in his name and by his authority and proclaim him Lord of all and deliver his Laws and Commandements taught to them not only to the Jews but all other Nations that they should baptize Believers in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost declaring to them that such as believed and were baptized should be saved but the unbelieving damned then further promising them That he though corporally departing yet in his Grace and Holy Spirit would remain with and assist them and their Successors to the end of the world that he also gave them Authority over all the Power of the Enemy of mankind and in his name to do all sorts of wonderful works repeating here again what he had formerly said to them in his first Apparition at Jerusalem which see before Sect. 127. P. 11. Lastly commanding them to bid an Adieu to their country and return to Jerusalem in which place they were first to begin their work Where they should also after a few daies re-enjoy his presence and take their last leave of him his so often-foretold Ascension into Heaven to his Celestial Father being now at hand and necessary as for his own Glory so for the further promoting with him the business of their's and the world's salvation § 141 After this publick manifestation of our Lords Resurrection made not only to the Apostles but to the general Body of his former Converts and Believers most dwelling in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.7 afterward our Lord appeared singly to St. James i. e. our Lord's Brother shortly after made Bishop of Jerusalem perhaps out of a singular honour to him or also for negotiating something with him relating to his office whose constant residence was to be at Jerusalem and who was a Person of special Eminency among the Apostles as appears Gal. 1.19 2.9 and Acts 15.13 19. But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle perhaps may not signify afterward in that Text as denoting a Posteriority of time to the appearance in Galilee But only besides as it is used by him 1 Cor. 12.28 and the apparition to James be rather in some part of the day of his Resurrection see St. Jerome de viris Illust in Jacobo between whom as being a Domestick in the same family and our Lord passed a more intimate familiarity and from his appearance to James we may also much more presume of his frequent particular apparitions to the Blessed Virgin his Mother though none mentioned § 142 Forty daies was the time predesigned of our Lord's stay upon Earth for the manifestation of his Resurrection and for the preparing of his Apostles for their future employment of propagating the Gospel and advancing the Kingdom of Christ in mens hearts over all the world A number frequently observed in Scripture for the accomplishing of any great work made up of six the number of the daies God spent in creating the world seven times multiplied as the number of 7. is a number of perfection and rest after the finishing such a work answering to the 7th day the Sabbath only in 42. the last two are usually cut off to make it a round number So Gen. 7.4 in the flood the rain descended for forty daies and after the abating of it Noah stayed forty daies and opened the window of the Ark Gen. 8.6 For thrice forty years God had patience with the old world before he destroyed it with the flood Ten times forty years the children of Israel were to sojourn in Egypt Forty two Generations were to pass between the coming of the Messias and the promise made to Abraham thereof of which forty two generations two sevens were to run out before the Kingdom of David and two sevens again in this Kingdom before the captivity and two sevens till the coming of Christ See Mat. 1.17 Acts 7.23 Moses when forty years old visited his Brethren and would have undertaken their protection and ibid. vers 30. after forty years more was sent by God to them for this purpose Again forty daies he stayed in the Mount for receiving the Law and for this time was continued his fast as also that of Elias and of our Lord. During forty daies were the persons deputed to view the land of Canaan Numb 13.25 and during forty years were the children of Israel appointed to do penance and bear their Iniquity for the Evil account given of it and murmuring concerning it Numb 14.33 34. Forty daies were allowed to the Ninevites for a time of Repentance before their City was to be destroyed Forty daies after the womans bearing of a Male child and twice forty daies after a Female were to be accomplished before their coming into or presenting their Son in the Sanctuary In the Judges we find whether rest or troubles given to the land of Israel ordinarily for the space of forty years The Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 4.5 6. is appointed to do penance by lying on his side for forty daies for so many years of God's patient suffering the iniquities of Judah and for so many years again God forbare the wickedness of the Jewish Nation after their crucifying our Lord and persecuting Christianity until the destruction of Jerusalem And forty two Months i. e seven sixes of Months is the time prescribed for the duration of Antichrist and the last great affliction of Gods Church This to shew that all Gods works are pondered before hand and contrived in