the virtue of his blood i. e. of his obedience and righteousness so see what the same Apostle saith of his Exaltation Phil. II. 8 c. And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow c. And think here Christian what a stock of obedience and righteousness here is for thee to answer and satisfie for thy disobedience and unrighteousness if thou become a child of the Covenant as this blood was the blood of the Covenant It is said in Dan. IX 26. That Messiah should be cut off but not for himself This blood of the New Testament was not shed for himself but for many And here is enough for every soul that comes to him be they never so many Like the Widdows oyl in the Book of the Kings there is enough and enough again as long as any Vessel is brought to receive it And this may direct us toward the forming of the reliance of our Faith upon the blood of Christ the great work that a Christian hath to do for his Justification and Salvation Which will be the more cleared to us by considering how his blood is the blood of the Covenant Which is the next thing we should speak to had we time to do it A SERMON PREACHED UPON HEBREWS XIII 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle THERE is one that asks our Saviour Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life Mat. XIX 16. And another that asks his great Apostle What must I do to be saved Act. XVI 30. The questions mean one and the same thing but only proposed in different expressions And the answers tend to one and the same purpose though proposed in terms very different Our Saviour answers If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments The Apostle answers If thou wilt be saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The one proposeth Faith the other proposeth Good works not in such contrariety as the Apostle James speaks of Faith and Works Chap. III. but in such consonancy as that the one is subservient unto the other keeping of the Commandments towards the bringing on of Faith and Faith to the breeding and forwarding the keeping of the Commandments and both to obtain eternal life I will speak at present of the absolute necessity of Faith for the obtaining eternal life and therefore have I chosen these words which I have read to you which seem at first sight to be meer strangers to such a subject but when explained and rightly understood are very pertinent to such a matter I say rightly understood for there are many the Popish Expositors especially that understand them exceedingly wrong and as far from the Apostles meaning as likely can be By we have a Altar they understand the Altar in their Churches viz. the Table where they administer the Sacrament and thence they call the Sacrament The Sacrament of the Altar A title that hath been too common in England and which hath cost many a good man very dear The Lord grant the title be never known here any more But the title of the Altar is commonly known among us still and ask many why they call it an Altar they will be ready to produce this place of the Apostle We have an Altar As if the Apostle who had been crying down the service and sacrifices of the Altar all along this Epistle and shewed that they were but shadows and to vanish when the substance appeared should set them up again and build up anew what he had so earnestly set himself to destroy As if Gedeon that destroyed the Altar of Baal in the night should fall awork in the morning and build it up again But the Altar in the Apostles meaning here is Christ himself And as he had called him an High Priest and a Sacrifice along in the Epistle before so he calls him also the Altar here shewing that all those things did but represent him and that he was the substance and reality of those shadows He shews how he was the Great High Priest in the later end of the fourth and along the fifth Chapter He shews how he was the great Sacrifice in the ninth and tenth Chapters and how he was the great Altar he shews at this place We have an Altar And that he means Christ by the Altar is apparent by two things that follow to omit more that might be collected by the context The first is in the words immediately following For those beasts whose blood was brought by the High Priest into the holy place for sin their bodies were burnt without the Camp Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate His argumentation is this The great solemn Sacrifice for sin on the day of attonement was not burnt upon the Altar in the Temple but was burnt without the City so Christ was sacrificed without the gate so that whosoever will partake of that true Sacrifice for sin must go to the Altar there and not to the Altar within the Temple And in the next verse but one he shews yet more plainly that he means Christ by our Altar ver 13. Therefore by him let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God As on the Altar in the Temple they offered their Sacrifices and Thank-offerings so by him as on our Altar Let us offer our sacrifice of praise to God So that in the words you have an Affirmative assertion and a Negative The Affirmative That we have Christ for our Altar The Negative That they that serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat of this Altar The Affirmative comfortable to every true Christian the later seems comfortless for every true Jew The reason of the Negative assertion we may inquire more particularly into afterwards To the former to speak at present we take up this Observation from it That he that will offer any sacrifice acceptable to God must go to Christ as the true Altar on which to offer it No sacrifice among the Israelites could be accepted if it were not offered on the Temple-altar And it was Gods special command Thou shalt not offer thy sacrifice in any of thy Cities but shalt go to the Altar of the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse Nor can any sacrifice be acceptable to God of any Christian but what is offered to him upon the Altar of his appointment the Lord Christ where alone is attonement for sinners As Priesthood and Sacrifice were typical and signified to this purpose so also was the Altar of the same signification And whereas there were two Altars at the Temple one for Sacrifice the other for Incense they did both but represent Christ and his acting
too curious to inquire after but what the matter of his mediation is these two things make evident viz. his presenting his people to Gods acceptance and his presenting their services to the like acceptance For what acceptance can any soul under Heaven find upon his own account What can a man do toward his own justification before God Job VII 20. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee A very pertinent question A man is so little able to find acceptance with God of himself that he may rather stand amazed that ever sinful men do find acceptance The Apostle accounts it not an ordinary thing to comprehend with all Saints the bredth and length and depth and height of this mystery Ephes. III. 18. Before Christ a Mediator was set up imagin how Adam could deal with God to find acceptance with him after he was now become sinful Adam Nay it is not easie to conceive how he dealt with God even while innocent For certainly it was his duty to pray in his innocency thereby to shew his dependance on God but upon what interest to pray when he had no Mediator is something difficult to apprehend But after he was fallen and Christ not yet promised those three hours that he lay in darkness before the promise of Christ came to him How could he then pray to God and upon what account beg his pardon But I need not to use many words to shew the need of Christ a Mediator Secondly This that we have spoken concerning the Altar may give us some measure and scantling how to come to Christ and believe in him for acceptance viz. to relie upon him intirely for our acceptance with God as the Israelite cast himself intirely upon the Priests offering and the Altar sanctifying his gift that it might be acceptable If there may be any distinction made betwixt coming to Christ and believing in him which indeed may very well signifie the same thing let us observe it here and observe it upon the comparison before us about the Altar An Israelite comes and brings a sacrifice along with him to the Priest and Altar and prays him I pray Sir offer this to God for me for acceptance You must first observe the nature and quality of his sacrifice whether it be fit for the Priest to meddle with and for the Altar to receive upon it I remember a distinction the Jews have in their writings concerning a first-born child viz. that he may be fit for the inheritance but not fit for the Priest that is may have some blemish or defect that he may not be fit to be consecrate to God as the first-born ought to be yet may be fit enough to inherit his Fathers land A man may be fair and fit for this and that employment in earthly things and very useful in his place and station when in the mean while he may be little fit for Christs employment or receiving An Israelite brings a Dog Cat c. to the Priest and entreats him to offer that upon the Altar for him Was this a fit offering for the Altar Could the Altar with all its holiness sanctifie such a gift as that Antiochus the wretch when he offered Swines flesh upon the Altar it was to defile the Altar and not for the Altar to sanctifie the Sacrifice This shews what kind of person he must be that goes to Christ to desire him to present his person an acceptable sacrifice with God and that he may find favour with him He must bring him a clean sacrifice or no coming there In Isa. LXVI 3. where the Prophet speaking about abolishing the Jewish Sacrifice under the Gospel he saith He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb is as if he cut off a Dogs neck and he that offereth an oblation as if he offered Swines blood Think not that when offering of clean beasts is ceased offering of unclean will be accepted Men think to obtain acceptance and favour from God through Christ at an easie rate and with a little ado when there is more in it than they conceive They must first be such as are fit for Christ to own and to present to his Father a sacrifice fit to be offered to God upon his Altar and not a Dog or Swine The Apostle tells us how to come to this our Altar Heb. X. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water It is the custom in our University that when any one presents another to the Vice-Chancellor and University for the taking of any degree he undertakes to them that he is fit for such a degree Christ never presented any to his Father to graduate him in his acceptance and favour but such an one as was qualified and fit for that acceptance When I say fit I mean not out of merit but so qualified as God requires those to be qualified that he will accept A thing very well worth the deep consideration of us all that we be not deceived concerning believing in Christ as too many are deceived Who is he among us but he thinks at one time or other so to believe in Christ as shall serve his turn for salvation while in the mean while he walks in the clean contrary way to believing To believe in Christ is indeed to relye upon him for salvation but it is relying upon him on such conditions as Christ will admit of not at a mans own pleasure A man takes on him to get to Christ through him to find acceptance of God though his tongue be full of vanity hands of filthiness heart of evil life of profaneness yet through Jesus Christ our Lord he hopes to speed well enough It is true indeed that there is no other name under Heaven whereby acceptance with God is to be found but this man does no better than bring a Dog or a Swine to be offered on the Sacred Altar when he thinks that Christ will present such a filthy beast as he for a person to be accepted of God No Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes Cease to do evil learn to do well And then come to the Altar and you may hope for acceptance Those that Christ presents to his Father are such as of whom he is not ashamed Heb. II. 11. and XI 16. But would not Christ be ashamed to present a Dog or a Swine a filthy and ugly sacrifice to his Father a wretch that is all dirt and filth and pollution and wallows in it still and will not out of it He in the Law that must come nigh the Altar must wash himself in water and change his garments or he must not come to offer there The application is so easie that I need not to insist upon it And by this very thing we may observe two things I. That
and Wine in the Lords Supper and he moved that it might be expressed thus It is not only lawful but also sufficient And it was done so accordingly Concerning the Members of a Synod the Proposition was That Pastors and Teachers and other fitting persons are constituent Members of a Synod This our Author opposed and gave his Interpretation of the Brethren and the whole Church Act. XV. viz. that by Brethren was meant the uncircumcised Converts as vers 1 23. And that it was most likely the Churches of the uncircumcised would send their Ministers and not Laymen And that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was meant not the Church but the meeting of the Council There were many other matters debated in that Assembly in which our Author was greatly concerned and did not fail to argue very strenuously upon occasion against those opinions that were then in vogue I could give a particular account of what he said in the debates touching the admission of persons to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper of Private Baptism of the Learning required in those who were to be Ordained of the raising Doctrines from a Text of the use of learned Languages in Sermons c. But I forbear these things not being willing to exceed that short account of our Author which I only undertook at first In the later end of the year 1643. I find our Author was preferred to the Rectory of Much-Munden in the County of Hertford void by the Death of that excellent Person Samuel Ward D. D. the Lady Margaret Professor in the University of Cambridge In that Rectory he continued to the day of his Death He resided upon his Living as much as was consistent with his relation to Catharine-Hall in Cambridge of which he was Master many years before his Death He was uneasie when he was from his Living and would express a great desire to be at home with his Russet-Coats as he was wont to call his Country neighbours when he was absent from them His Labours in that place were very great and exemplary He was unwearied in his Studies which he followed early and late with indefatigable diligence he was a most constant and painful Preacher His Parsonage House was about a mile distant from his Parish Church whereunto he resorted every Lords-day read the Prayers and Preached Morning and Afternoon and did many times continue there all the day and returned not home till Night remaining in the Church not diverting to any other House to refresh himself until Evening Service was all finished He had for his Flock the care and compassions of a Father he lived among them in great peace and with great Hospitality There he continued without let or disturbance many years Indeed soon after the happy Restauration of his Majesty a Fellow of a College in Cambridge procured a grant of our Authors Living Of this he was soon advertised by his Neighbour and worthy Friend Sir Henry Caesar upon which by the favour of the late Archbishop Sheldon our Author was confirmed in his Rectory This great favour of the Archbishop our Author gratefully acknowledgeth in two Epistles Dedicatory to him prefixed to his Horae Hebraicae upon St. Mark and St. Luke And he would often mention the great favour he received from that worthy and very excellent Person Sir Henry Caesar whose Neighbourhood and encouragement was one of the greatest comforts of our Authors life He commenced Doctor in Divinity in the year 1652. His Latine Sermon was upon those words If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. XVI 22. When he was in the University he Preached frequently and to the great advantage of the Students there He always pressed an exemplary Life upon his Auditors and to very good purpose Preached up the necessity of humane Learning and exploded the Enthusiasm which had at that time gotten a great possession of the minds of unstable Men He Preached up the lawfulness of Forms of Prayer in those times when many Men were so extravagantly vain as to decry it And for Schism and Separation from an Established Church he was so great an Enemy to it that he did in those times urge the necessity of Communion with a Church which had corruption in it And whoever will be at the pains to consider what he hath to this purpose in his Horae Hebraicae upon St. Matthew Chap. VIII vers 4. and especially in his Sermon Preached at St. Michaels Church in Cornhill before his Country-men of the County of Stafford upon St. Joh. X. 22. which is Printed with the rest of his Works will be abundantly convinced of this When he Preached at Cambridge he did generally pitch upon some difficult Text of the Holy Scriptures which he explained to the great satisfaction of the learned Auditors In which I reckon he did very considerable service to the Publick In doing so he relieved the minds of honest and inquisitive Men who were at a stand and defended the Holy Scriptures from the contempt of those who were prophane Scoffers and were ready upon all occasions to lessen their Autority And indeed he was very happy this way I have heard a very Learned and Reverend Divine lately deceased Profess that he never heard our Author preach but he learned something which he did not know before He was of very singular use in the University in those times and his discourses were of that nature that they greatly gained upon the more Studious and inquisitive sort of Men. He laboured much in proving Infants Baptism against the Antipaedobaptists of those times This he did upon most substantial grounds and such as commended themselves to the lovers of Truth I doubt not but that he did confirm many by his way of proof who were wavering before I find among our Authors Papers a letter directed to him from a very Learned Divine William Outram D. D. who was then his Auditor in Cambridge In which he gives our Author all possible thanks for his choice and truly learned Observations as he justly calls them in relation to the Lords Prayer in which he asserted the lawfulness of Forms and is earnest with him to grant him his Notes of his Sermons on Baptism which says he I have most earnestly longed for ever since they were Preached and not without due cause For verily had I not heard them I should not to this day have been so well reconciled to Infants Baptism as I bless God I now am I desire therefore that you would be pleased to consider what real usefulness your notes may be of and how for my own part I am infinitely more perswaded by your way of probation than by some other ratiocinations of Men ordinarily used There are many persons now living that have great cause to bless God for our Author and will confess the eminent service which he did in that time In the year 1655. Our Author was chosen Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge which
7. c. 1 Sam. 4. 21. 1 Chron. 4. 29. and sometimes by the standers by at the birth as Gen. 38. 29. and 25. 25. Ruth 4. 18. but the Father at the Circumcision had still the casting voice whether the name should be so or no as appeareth by Jacobs changing Ben-oni into Benjamin Now Zacharie being dumb and the mother having given it no name at the birth the persons present undertake to call it by the name of the Father And now is he in circumcising that is the man appointed to be the first overthrow of Circumcision by bringing in Baptism instead of it R. Solomon from the Talmud in Sanhedrin expoundeth Jerem. 25. 10. I will take from them the sound of the milstones and the light of the candle to this sense The sound of the milstones signifieth the Feast at a Circumcision because they ground or bruised Spices for the healing of the sore and the light of the Candle signieth the Feast it self Thus do they confess a decay of Circumcision to be foretold by the Prophet and yet they stick not to deny most stiffly that Circumcision must ever decay Vers. 63. He wrote saying That is expressing or To this purpose as Exod. 18. 6. And Jethro said to Moses I Jethro come unto thee That is he signified so much by Letter as the serious viewing of the story will necessarily evince And so 2 King 5. 6. And he brought the Letter to the King of Israel saying not that Naaman that brought the Letter spake the words that follow but the Letter it self spake them John The Lord hath been gracious A name most fit for him that was to be the first Preacher of the Kingdom of grace and to point out him that was grace it self Rabbi Jochanan sayd what is the name of the Messias Some said Haninah Grace as it is said I will not give you Haninah that is the Messias who shall be called gracious Jer. 16. 13. Talmud bab in Pesach cap. 4. Vers. 64. And his mouth was opened Infidelity had closed his mouth and now faith or believing doth open it again And herein may this case of Zachary be fitly compared with the like of Moses Exod. 4. For he for distrust is in danger of his life as Zachary for the same fault is struk dumb but upon the circumcising of his child and recovery of his faith the danger is removed as Zacharies dumbness is at such a time and occasion as Psal. 116. 10. He believeth and therefore doth he speak And the tongue of the dumb doth sing Esa. 35. 6. And his tongue Our English hath added loosed for illustration as also hath the French and some say it is found in some Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But first no such word is expressed either in the Syrian Arabick Vulgar Latine Italian Erasmus or other Translators Nor secondly needeth there any such word to make a perfect sense but it may well help the simple and vulgar capacity what our English hath added Vers. 66. Laid them up in their hearts It could not but affect all that heard of this strange birth of the Baptist with wonder and amazement and singular observation both in regard that so many and great miracles were wrought in this time when miracles were so much abated and decayed as also in consideration that there was never birth before that had so many concomitants of wonder and miraculousness as the birth of this child Not of Isaac the glorious Patriach not of Moses the great Prophet nor of any other whatsoever that had been in former times And the hand of the Lord was with him Either the special favour and assistance of the Lord as Ezra 7. 6. and 8. 22 c. or the gift of Prophecy at capable years as 1 Sam. 3. 19. for so the hand of the Lord doth signifie Ezek. 1. 3. 37. 1. 40. 1. Psal. 80. 17. 1 Chron. 28. 19. Vers. 68. Redeemed Greek ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath made or wrought redemption In the very phrase implying a price paid for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth It is used again Chapter 2. 38. and by the LXX Psal. 111. 9. and 130. 7. and by Theodotion for satisfaction Prov. 6. 35. Vers. 69. An horn of Salvation Psal. 18. 1. 2 Sam. 22. 3. Vers. 70. Which have been since the World began Adams calling his wives name Eve or life in apprehension of the promise of the seed of the woman that should break the head of the Serpent Eves calling her Sons name Cain a purchase because she had obtained a man even the Lord or the Lord to become a man and her naming her other Son Seth or setled c. these were Prophecies that spake of Christ from the beginning of the world Vers. 71. That we should be saved from our enemies This hath sweet reference to the promise given at the beginning of the World from which time he had traced Prophecies in the verse preceding I will put enmity betwixt thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed He shall break thine head Gen. 3. 15. Where in the former words of the verse I will set enmity c. there is an expression who are our enemies namely the Serpent and his seed and in the latter he shall break thine head there is an intimation how we shall be saved namely by Christs breaking the head and power of Satan So that the former verse and this being laid together they arise unto this sense that all the Prophets from Adam and upward had their eye upon the promise in that garden and spake of salvation and delivered by Christ by his breaking the head and destroying the kingdom of the Devil Vers. 76. The Prophet of the Highest As Aaron to Moses Exod. 7. 1. Prophecy had been now very long decayed and but little thereof had been under the second Temple it is now reviving in an extraordinary manner and this child is to be the first of this race of Prophets that is in rising and to be the Harbinger of Christ himself Vers. 77. To give knowledge of salvation by remission c. The knowledge of salvation that the Law held forth at the first view was by legal righteousness and absolute performance of what was commanded but John who was to begin the Gospel brought in another Doctrine and gave the people knowledge of salvation by another way namely by the remission of sins as Rom. 4. 6 7. And this is the tenor of the Gospel Vers. 78. The day spring from an high Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the LXX to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The branch Esa. 4. 2. Jer. 23. 5. Zech. 3. 9. 6. 12. the name of Christ and so it may be understood of Christs personal coming and appearance amongst men as God is said to have visited Sarah Gen. 21. 1. that is not only in merciful dealing with her as to give her a child but also in personally
But read and read again the whole story Act. XIX and there is not a syllable of any wrong that Paul at that time endured in his person VERS XXXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fool. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would the Talmudists say Sot mad man g g g g g g Gloss. In Taanith fol. 1â— 1. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai answered the Baithuseans denying also the Resurrection of the dead and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fools whence did this happen to you c. VERS XLV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so it is written c. OF the former no doubt is made for it is written Gen. XI 7. But where is the latter Throughout the whole sacred book thence the Jews speak so many things and so great of the Spirit of Messias and of Messias quickning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit Job XIX 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth Job seems to me in this place in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last Adam Of the former Adam it was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return And I know saith Job that my Redeemer liveth and he shall arise from the dust another or a latter and I shall see the Lord made of the same flesh that I am of c. Intimating the Incarnation of the Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A quickning Spirit The Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters Gen. I. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Spirit of King Messias So the Jews speak very frequently And also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messias shall quicken those that dwell in the dust It cannot be past over without Observation by what authority Paul applies those words of Psal. XCII Thou Lord in the beginning hast founded the earth c. to the Messias Heb. I. 10. to prove his Deity and dignity But thou art deceived O Paul would a Hebrew say These words are to be applied to God the Father not to the Messias The Apostle hath what to reply from the very confession of the Jewish Nation You acknowledge that Spirit which was present at and president over the Creation was the Spirit of the Messias It ought not also be past by without observation that Adam receiving from him the promise of Christ and believing it named his wife Chava that is Life So the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Adam called his wives name Life Gen. III. 20. What Is she called life that brought in death But Adam perceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last Adam exhibited to him in the Promise to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A quickning Spirit and had brought in a better life of the Soul and at length should bring in a better of the body Hence is that Joh. I. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In him was life VERS XLVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second man is the Lord. GEn. IV. 1. Eve conceived and brought forth Cain and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have possessed or obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man the Lord that is That the Lord himself should become man For let me so turn it depending upon these reasons I. That this Interpretation is without any manner of wresting the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea it is according to its most proper signification and use II. That without doubt Eve had respect to the promise of Christ when she named her son as Adam had respect to the promise in the denomination of Eve VERS LV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O death where is thy c. HOs XIII 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seventy read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where is thy revenge O Death And thus speaks Aben Ezra There are some which invert the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will be as though it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where And very truly as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 10. Where is thy King Where the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not I will be thy King but Where is thy King So that the Greek Interpreters and the Apostle after them translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where properly and truly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Prophet is rendred by the Targumist and the Rabbins to signifie A Word but some as Kimchi acknowledges understand it to signifie The Plague and that upon good ground because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destruction is joyned with it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destruction and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Plague are joyned together Psal XCI Where see the Targum and R. Solomon and compare the Greek Interpreters with them CHAP. XVI VERS I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now concerning the Collection for the Saints UNLESS I am much deceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Jerusalem Writers denotes in the like sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Collection for the wise men They have this story a a a a a a Hoâ—aioth fol. 48. 1. R. Eliezer R. Josua and R. Akiba went up to Chelath of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Employed in the Collection for the wise Men. One Abba Judah was there who performed the Law with a good Eye Being now reduced to poverty when he saw the Rabbins he was dejected He went home with a sad countenance His wife said to him Why doth thy countenance languish He answered The Rabbins are come and I know not what to do She said to him You have one field left Go and sell half of it and give to them Which he did And when they were departed he went to plow in the half of his field and found a great treasure c. I produce this the more willingly that it may be observed that collections were made among the Jews in forrain Nations for the poor Rabbins dwelling in Judea in the same manner as they were made among Christians in forrain Nations for the poor Jews converted to Christianity in Judea VERS II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the first day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first of the Sabbath would the Talmudists say I. That day was every where celebrated for the Christian Sabbath and which is not to be past over without observing as far as appears from Scripture there is no where any dispute of that matter There was controversie concerning circumcision and other points of the Jewish Religion whether they were to be retained or not retained but no where as we read concerning the changing of the Sabbath There were indeed some Jews converted to the Gospel who as in some other things they retained a smatch of their old Judaism so they did in the observation of days Rom. XIV 5. Gal. IV. 10. but yet not rejecting or neglecting the
Pet. II. Their sins will not let them linger and slumber but continually cry in the ears of God for judgment The injuries they do to Law Gospel and Blood of Christ will not let them linger nor slumber but these are continually crying to God to avenge their cause And will not God avenge his cause What need I speak of his Soveraignty challenging that he dispose of all mens eternal being as he brought them into being here What should I speak of his Justice challenging that every one be rewarded according to his work And indeed what need I to insist much to prove that God is Judge of all and that he will bring all to judgment to any that call themselves Christians and have the Bible in their hand And so I have done with the first double Proposition in the Text viz. That God is Judge and Judge of all And now briefly to speak to the second duplicity viz. He stands before the door and before the door of all I know the Apostles expression means in general the Judge is near but if it should come to particularizing of this or the other or any person would he not say the same And will not any say the same that will acknowledge a Judge or Judgment Who can say who dares say the Judge stands not before my door I am sure a good man dares not say so for he accounts his God and Judge near unto him Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways Psal. CXXXIX 3. And if any wretched man dare say so let him take heed that he finds not his Judge a great deal nearer than he supposes nay the nearer for his putting him so far off The Scripture speaks of two kinds of people but indeed are but one and they seem to look two several ways whereas indeed they look but one and the same way viz. those that put the evil day far from them and those that desire the evil days coming You have mention of them both near together in one and the same Prophet Of the former Amos VI. 3. Wo to you that put the evil day far away And of the latter Amos V. 18. Wo to you that desire the day of the Lord. How they put away the evil day in their own foolish fancy and conceit is no hard thing to understand I wish that too common experience had not acquainted us with that too much and too many a time But how do such wicked wretches desire the day of the Lord The Prophet Esay tells you of some Chap. V. 19. That say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsil of the holy one of Israel draw near and come that we may know it And all this in scorn as making a puff at the Word of the Lord that tells of an evil day and a day of the Lord to come Here is talk of the Word of the Lord I pray you let us see it and telling of the Lords coming where is it Let him come that we may know it Directly these mockers 2 Pet. III. 2. That say in scorn where is the promise of his coming Now is the Judge ever the farther off for these mens putting him and his judgment far away Nay is he not the nearer In that place of Esay the wretches that spake so in scorn are said to draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart-ropes And if they draw these do they not draw judgment on too Judgment is the nearest when the sinner is securest and when men cry peace peace then sudden destruction cometh upon them 1 Thes. V. But First At whose door doth not the Judge stand harkening and taking notice of mens behaviour Rev. III. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock He knocks that if it may be he may be admitted but if he be not he stands not in vain but takes notice of what passes in the house that he may take account of it in his due time Jer. VIII 6. I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done Mal. III. 16. The Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was written before him The Judge writes what passes and in time will have a reckoning about it And so may the counsil of the Apostle here be very well construed Grudge not brethren one against another grumble not repine not one against another for the Judge is at the door and he takes notice of every thing that passeth and you must account for it It were an excellent lesson for every Christian to get the hundred and nine and thirtieth Psalm not only by heart but in his heart and to be convinced and have a feeling of what is there spoken concerning Gods nearness to every man in what place and posture soever he is I need no more proof for that we are speaking of than only that Psalm I would every heart would make the Use of the doctrine there taught and make Application by his practise Secondly Who can say otherwise then that the Judge is at the door and may break in any moment by death and judgment And this needs no other proof than only to remember the uncertainty of death and judgment Isaac was of this belief when he said I know not the day of my death Gen. XXVII 2. whereas he lived many a fair year after And remarkable is that of the Apostle that when he is speaking of the Judgment to come he states it as if it were to come even in his time whereas so many hundred of years above a thousand are passed since his time We shall not all die but we shall all be changed 1 Cor. XV. And 1 Thes. IV. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him into the clouds Why Blessed Apostle dost thou think the resurrection and general judgment shall come while thou art alive Do it or do it not I have learned always to think that the Judge always stands before the door And I would teach all generations and ages to believe the same that the Judge standeth c. And Thirdly who can keep him out when he is pleased to break in Elisha could shut the door against the Kings messenger that was sent to take away his life can any man do it against the great Judge when he comes to do it Are any doors judgment proof when the Lord will batter against them Rather list up your heads O ye gates and be lift up O ye everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in Prepare to meet thy God O Israel that when he comes thou mayest comfortably entertain him It may seem a very hard passage that of the Apostle 2 Pet. III. 12. Looking for and hasting to the day of God when the heavens being on fire shall
what to do with them stript of their ornaments so must the Soul be stript out of the Body loosed of all that that pinioned hampered or any ways strainted it And what think you of the Souls of Infants of Fools and Ideots then and there Can we think their Souls are Infants Fools and Ideots in the other world For Thirdly Though the Soul be of a vast capacity while in the body yet the acting of it even there is many and many a time hindred and curbed that it cannot reach to its acting in its full capacity which it could reach to even here if there were not some hindrance Take instead of more an instance or two of what may seem nearest to folly and ideotism and are not A man is drunk does his Soul then act according to the proper capacity that it were able to act in if he were sober There is a man learned and an hundred that have no learning at all Now the reason why those unlearned ones are not learned as well as he is not because their Souls were not of capacity to have received learning but because they had not the means of education in learning that he had So the acting of the Soul according to its capacity is often time hindred by the want of apt organs or instruments in the body Do you not see before your eyes by experience a man or woman moped their understanding clean spoyled by a sad stroke of the Palsy or Apoplexy that the person is not the same that he was before and yet his Soul is the very same but the right acting of it spoyled by the spoyling of the organs or instruments by which it should act The brain is so shattered by the stroke of a Convulsion that it cannot be so serviceable to the Soul as it hath been And so those Naturals and Ideots we are speaking of their Souls are like to other Souls spiritual substances as well as others immaterial and intellectual as well as others but there is some defect of the organ or instrument in the body something that the Intellect should use is failing or bruised Now not to wade farther into this question these two things are undeniable concerning all Souls in the world 1. That they are all of the workmanship of God and no Souls but come out of his hand Ezek. XVIII 4. Behold all Souls are mine XXXVIII Jer. 16. Zedekiah sware to Jeremiah As the Lord liveth who made us this Soul And he spake very true though Jeremiah was as good and he as bad yet God made both their Souls alike Jeremia's as well as Zedekiahs contra In that dispute about Praeexistence of Souls some hold Praeexistence and some not yet both hold that the Soul comes immediately from the hand of God And sure God sends no maimed Soul out of his hand 2. That all Souls have equally need of Gods support There is a double support of the Soul Either that God preserve and keep it in the body for the life of the body or preserve and keep it in grace for the good of the Soul This distinction the words of the Apostle mean 1 Tim. IV. 10. He is the Saviour of all men especially of them that believe He preserves the lives of all that live but especially he preserves the Souls of those that believe in him So that if the Question be Doth God preserve all alike Doth his providence set it self to keep all alike If not why should all be bound by this tax in the Text to pay for their preservation alike The Answer is easy though it may seem strang when given He doth and he doth not But I may facilitate it by this distinction First He preserves all alike that is all that are preserved have their preservation alike from him and alike owe their preservation to him So that none is able to say I owe my preservation to God less than thou doest Thou art much beholden to him for the preservation of thy life but I am not so much Thou hast had more need of his preservation than I have had Secondly He preserves not all alike viz. in this sence That he takes care of the preservation of the Souls of some in another manner than he doth of others He preserves the persons even of ungodly men and keeps their Souls in them but he preserveth the Souls of the godly in well being as well as their bodies in life Hence those frequent expressions He keepeth the Souls of his Saints The Lord careth for my soul. Commit the keeping of your souls to him 1 Pet. IV. ult And that one instead of more Psal. CXXI 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil yea he shall keep thy soul. He shall preserve thee from all evil to thy body but which is the preservation indeed he shall take care of the welfare of thy soul. I shall not need to insist to shew the great difference of these two kinds of preservation even all the wicked of the world are under the former Gods preservation of their lives but the children of God are under both the preservation of their bodies and souls also There is nothing that differenceth men in the sight of God but good or evil actions And the Judge of all the world that cannot but do right judgeth and rewardeth every one according to their works As the Apostle hints Rom II. 6 7 8. Who will render to all men according to their works and For there is no respect of porsons with God He respects not whether men be high or low rich or poor but deals with all according to their works Hence that in Eccles. IX beginning Outward accoutrements distinguish men in the world but not with God and poverty or riches high place or contempt are not signes of his favour or disfavour but he looks on men according to their doings Well by Gods thus equally valuing all we are taught that we should undervalue I none God hath set a stint that we should not be proud nor despise any For 1. What are we better then another Yes I have more estate than another I go braver such an one a poor pitiful fellow not to be compared with me I but he is Gods workmanship as well as thou Ye are twins so like that ye cannot be known assunder Yea God himself knows no difference betwixt you Hast thou an immortal soul so hath he Hath he a mortal body so hast thou Hast thou a soul that is made in the image of God so he Hath he a body that is but dust and ashes so hast thou What is added by the world as we say of wealth and honour and cloths are such things as will once be clean stript off and where is the difference then 2. And who hath made the difference as to their outward condition Answer the Apostles question What hast thou that thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why boastest thou thy self as if thou hadst
understanding immortal substance that is not extinguished by sin nor cannot be by any thing And so when God forbids Murther he doth it with this argument That he that kills a Man destroys one that carries the image of God And yet then the likeness of God in Man Holiness and Righteousness was utterly gone but the image of God in these essential constitutives in soul were still remaining in him Upon that saying of God Whoso sheddeth Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he Man if any Man question Is this meant of every Man in the world Can any doubt it Unless the Murther of some Men were allowed though of others forbidden Upon the very same argument we may urge the love of every man to every man because in the Image of God he created him And if thou canst find any man without the Image of God in his Soul then hate him and spare not But then it will further be Objected Then by this Argument I should love the Devil for he was created in the Image of Cod that is He is a spiritual intellectual immortal substance as well as any mans Soul I Answer He is so indeed but these two things make now the vast difference First He is in a sinful estate utterly irrecoverable And so we cannot say of any soul in the world The Apostle saith of the Angels that fell That God cast them down into Hell upon their Fall 2 Pet. II. They are damned already irrecoverably but you cannot say of any soul in the World absolutely that it cannot be saved Whether all Souls in the World be salvabiles in a savable condition we shall not dispute nor whence their salvability comes if it be so But certainly you and I nor no Man in the world can say of any Man that he cannot be saved True we may truly and justly say that if he continue and dye in such and such sins and wicked courses he cannot be saved But of his soul considered in its bare essence we cannot say so Nay we must pray for his Salvation This then is that that beautifies a Soul and makes it lovely and upon which we are to love every Man because he hath a soul capable of enjoying God and Salvation Shall I hate any Mans soul It may be united to God Hate any Mans body It may be a Temple of the Holy Ghost any Mans Person He may be an Inheritor of Eternal Glory Scorn not poor Joseph for all his rags and imprisonment he may come to sit upon a Throne Despise not poor Lazarus for all his Sores and Tatters he may be carried by Angels into Abraham ' s bosom Secondly Christ dyed for Souls he dyed not for Devils And this is no small demonstration of the Excellency and preciousness of a Soul viz. That the Son of God himself would dye for it It is therefore the Apostles Argument once and again Offend not him for whom Christ dyed Destroy not him for whom Christ dyed Rom. XIV 1 Cor. VIII Darest thou hate him for whom Christ dyed Darest thou wrong him for whom the Son of God would shed his blood A SERMON PREACHED upon GENESIS III. 20. And Adam called his Wives name Eve because she was the Mother of all living ADAMS story is all wonder Dust so raised to become so brave a Creature that Bravery so soon lost so soon repaired and so hughly repaired to a better condition That he is sensible of in the Text therefore he calls his Wives name Eve because Mother to all living He had named her quoad sexum as to her sex Chap. II. 23. Now he gives her another name of distinction Then she was called Woman because she was taken out of Man Now Eve because all living were to come out of her Adam shewed Wisdom in naming the Beasts here he shews that and more viz. Faith and sense of his better Estate She was rather the Mother of Death having done that that brought death into the world but he sensible of a better life to come in by her calls her Eve Life as the word signifies Lay this to that in Joh. I. 4. In him was life speaking of Christ and the life was the light of men Eve was the Mother of all living viz. of Christ and all that live by him So that hence I make this Observation That Adam and Eve believed and obtained life For the proof of this let us view their story I. God saith I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel vers 15. Satan had accompanied with them till this Promise came He keeps to them to chear them he perswaded them to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. But now she sets him at defyance She sees her error The Serpent saith she deceived me grows at enmity with him having now a surer comfort promised to rely upon II. God clothed them with skins vers 21. Which is an evidence that they sacrificed For they had no need of slaying Beasts for any other purpose Flesh they might not eat They were slain for sacrifice and their skins served for clothing Thus Body and Soul were provided for And in these Sacrifices they looked after Christ and saw him in figure The first death in the world was Christs dying in figure Noah knew clean and unclean Beasts and sacrificed This undoubtedly he had learned from the beginning III. Observe that Luk. I. 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began Hinting that from the very beginning of the world there were Prophets of the Messias Thus Adam was a Prophet of Christ and prophesied of him in the name of Eve signifying life And Eve prophesied of him in the name of Cain Gen. IV. 1. She conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord Or I have begotten a man the Lord as the words may be rendred And in the name Seth Gen. IV. 25. She bare a Son and called his name Seth For God saith she hath appointed me another seed IV. The promise of the Messiah was not given to a Castaway It was given to Abraham and David and others that were righteous men V. Religion began to be planted by Adam Cain and Abel brought Sacrifice to God Which shews that Religion had been planted before VI. Christ prevailed against the Serpent from the beginning and had a seed The Church began with Adam Else what confusion would there have been in the world VII The Sabbath was given from the beginning and Adam kept it VIII All Gods dealings with him were to forward Faith in him Such were his Cursing the ground his expelling him out of Eden his enjoyning him Sacrifice and the Sabbath IX Adam is ranked with holy ones Gen. V. These things laid together may be sufficient to prove that Adam and Eve believed
and Earth and in the same instant created the Angels with the Heavens Now these Angels that fell were not fallen doubtless before man was made For upon creating of Man who was the last of the Creation it is said Gen. I. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good and there was yet nothing bad or evil in the world no Angels fallen no sin at all But when those that fell saw the dignity and honour and happiness that God had placed man in a piece of clay a lump of earth dust of the ground and that he put all Creatures under his feet as it is Psal. VIII 5 6. yea and gave Angels charge to attend him as it is Psal. XCI 11 They maliced this happiness and honour and scorned this service and attendance and damned themselves meerly upon this spite at Man Would they therefore think you delay any time of tempting man to try whether they could shake him out of his happiness and honour and bring him into the same condemnation with themselves No the Devil never since slacked time and put off any opportunities of doing mischief much less would he then when he had mischieved himself with such a spleen Secondly I might speak of divers things As that if Adam had kept the Sabbath in innocency he had kept the Law that if he had continued any time without sin he had begot Cain without sin if Eve had been a little practised in obedience she had not so soon been shaken when she came to be tried that their speech sheweth that no fruit had been eaten before But that which is especially considerable is that the Redemption was to be shewed instantly upon the Creation Since Christ was to be set up Lord of all the Saviour of all that are saved and the second Adam repairer of the ruines of the first it was not only fit but indeed needful that he should be proclaimed King and Saviour even the first day of man I do not say it was needful that Adam should fall on his first day that Christ might be proclaimed on his first day and yet I say it was needful that Christ should be proclaimed that day viz. that he might be set up Lord of all men from the first day of man But especially that what stability or firmness there is in obedience and holiness it might be founded in Christ alone I could almost say it was needful that Adam should fall on the day of his Creation not in regard of any necessity God put upon him but in regard of the â—ickleness of created nature being left to it self When I say it was almost needful I mean almost inevitable but that he left intirely to himself and to his own strength should stand the temptation of an Angel a Creature so far above him by nature and so far wiser than he though he were full of wisdom And you see Satan did not so much tempt his strength as his wisdom and there he overturns him by a trick of subtility out-witting his wisdom However it was fit the Redeemer should be held forth even the first day of man as the heir of all things Heb. I. 2. as the root of all to be saved and the sure foundation of all holiness grace and eternal life And III. Do but observe what correspondence there is twixt the Fall and Redemption and the later will speak the former to have been on Adams first day Redemption was wrought on the sixth day as the Fall had been on the sixth day And when Christ had wrought that great work he rested the seventh day in his grave as God rested on the seventh day when he had wrought the great work of Creation To this purpose I might also apply the particular times of the one and the other About the third hour the hour afterwards of sacrifice and prayer it is very probable Adam was created And Mark tells you Chap. XV. 25. And it was the third hour when they crucified him that is when they delivered him up to Pilate to be crucified About the sixth hour or high noon Adam most probably fell as that being the time of eating And John tells you Chap. XIX 14. that about the sixth hour he was condemned and led away to be crucified And about the ninth hour or three a clock afternoon Christ was promised which Moses calls the cool of the day and about the ninth hour Christ cried out with a loud voice and gave up the Ghost Such Harmony may be found betwixt the day and hours of the one and of the other the later helping to prove and clear that Adam fell on the sixth day the day on which he was created and continued not in honour all night Ah! what a glassy brittle thing is poor humane nature when it is so shaken all to pieces from so great perfection that it holds not whole above three hours or thereabouts And that it held whole so long was because it had not yet met with a temptation And that Satan offered not a temptation all that while was because he would hold off till they came to their time of eating and their first meal proves their poyson But Ah! the glorious and divine power of the grace of the Lord Jesus that inables a poor sinful Soul to hold out against the shocks of all the temptation of Hell and to break through all and to get to glory Compare Adam shaken with the first temptation the Devil offers with Job not shaken with all that the Devil could do and to the praise of the glory of his grace as it is said Ephes. I. 6. we have cause to cry out all our lives and so do Saints in glory to eternity Great is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now read the words carrying this that hath been spoken in your minds In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it And on the sixth day Adam fell and Christ was promised and on the Seventh day God rested and blessed the Sabbath day c. And so the Chaldee Translater of the Psalms considers of the thing For upon Psalm XCII which is intituled for the Sabbath day he saith thus A Psalm or Song which Adam the first man sung concerning the Sabbath day And the same Chaldee Translater on Cant. I. yet more plainly When Adam saw that his sin was forgiven when the Sabbath came he sung a Psalm as it is said A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day And now looking on this first week of the world in this prospect viz. as sin come into the world and Christ promised before the seventh day came it will give us a clearer prospect of the Sabbath and of Gods resting viz. I. That God had created a new creation before he rested on the Sabbath For when Adam and mankind by his fall was shattered
to better purpose made use of it than this our laborious and learned Author I will only here as I have done in the particulars before add an instance or two out of many of our own observation and put an end to this short essay of the utility of oriental Learning In Matth. XII 36. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or idle word for every one of which our Saviour saith men shall give an account he doth not say shall be condemned or punished may perhaps be of the same importance with that which the Talmudists and Rabbins call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the talk of those who are idle at leisure have little to do such as is used among people in ordinary conversation when they meet together As what news How doth such a person Or the like Even this may be well or ill done prudently or foolishly and therefore even of this an account will be required See Maiem Comment in Pirk Av. cap. 1. That of our Saviours promise Matth. XVIII 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of them is well parallel'd and illustrated by the saying of R. Chaninah Pirk. Avo. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If but two together employ themselves in the Law the Shechinah or divine presence will be among them the like also T. B. Ber. 6. 1. That of St. Mark XIV 56. concerning the false witnesses against our Saviour that their witnesses agreed not together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be somewhat explained by the custom we read of in T. B. Sanh Misn. cap. 5. they used to put seven questions to every one of the witnesses apart namely in what Jubilee or space of forty nine years any thing was done in what year of that Jubilee What month What day of the month What day What hour What place If the words of the witnesses agreed not the Testimony was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an idle Testimony which was to no purpose if they did agree it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a firm and effectual Testimony And a somewhat more obscure saying of our Saviour to the Samaritan woman John IV. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life This may receive light from a like saying in in pir Avo. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Law gives him that studies in it a Kingdom Dominion Sagacity in judgment revelation of its secrets and becomes to him like a never ceasing fountain and mighty flowing river The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the refreshment of Spirit in the World to come of which R. Jacob in pir Av. cap. 4. pronounceth that one hours enjoyment is more worth than a whole life in this World is very like St. Peters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the times of refreshment which shall come from the presence of the Lord Acts III. 19. The Apostles advice Cor. I. 8. to abstain from things offer'd to Idols was in compliance with those Brethren who thought it unlawful from a Jewish Canon T. B. Avod zar Mis. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is lawful to eat of the flesh which is carrying into an Idols Temple but not of that which comes out because it is of the sacrifices of the dead i. e. to inanimate Idols or to dead persons That place of 1 Cor. XI 10. where St. Paul commands the women to cover their heads in praying because of the Angels would have given Criticks and Expositors no trouble if they had observed that the Apostle alluded to and allowed of the received opinion of the Jews concerning Angels being present and that with curiosity in some humane affairs of importance but especially in Religious matters We may learn thus much and smile into the bargain from what we read concerning R. Joshua and R. Jose the Priest in T. B. Chag 14. 2. 'T is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense As R. Joshua and R. Jose the Priest were walking together they said one to another let us discourse of the Mereavah or Chariot that is the Metaphysical part of their Cabbala or traditional mysterious Philosophy so called from the vision of Ezekiel where they think it was mystically taught R. Joshua began and it was upon the day of the Summer Solstice presently the Heavens were covered with clouds and there appeared a kind of a Bow in a cloud and the ministring Angels were crowding to hear as men use to do at the solemnities of the Bridegroom and Bride This story will not fail to bring to our minds that of St. Peter 1. I. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into which things the matters of the Gospel the Angels desire to look into Which makes me a little wonder at the opinion of our Author pag. 303. so well versed in those Books that by the Angels are meant the Devils making a bait of the beauty of the women to entangle the Eyes and Hearts of the men Perhaps he hath changed his opinion in his notes upon the Epistle to the Corinthians which I could never yet see He that reads in the Chaldee Paraph. commonly called Jonathan's on the Pentateuch Gen. XXXV 25 26. That the Angels used to meet together at certain times to praise God vocally and in the same Targ. as also in the Jerusalem how the Angel which wrestled with Jacob desired him that he would let him go because that very morning was his first course from the Creation with others to laud and praise God He that reads the long story of R. Chaninah and R. Kasma in the Medraschim Printed with Zohar fol. 46. pag. 2. col 2. concerning the Angels Aza and Azael 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who murmuring and rebelling against God and by him tumbled down from his holy place and then clothed with aiery vehicles playing pranks with women were bound with long Iron chains to the mountains of darkness I say he that reads these cannot but refer them to 1 Cor. XIII 1. The Tongues of Angels and 2 Pet. II. 4. The Angels that sinned and were cast down to Hell and delivered into chains of darkness and Jude vers 6. The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness I have put as many things together here as I could conveniently and could add much more But it is time to put an end to this part of our little dissertation and to draw to a conclusion of the whole In the beginning of our Preface I promised something concerning this very worthy and learned Author It is but a little I have to say of him but it is all that either my own knowledge or others no very forward information would amount to He was born in Staffordshire and educated in Christs College in Cambridge but in that Age
where he made an entrance into his Hebrew studies he resolves to come up to London to take the opportunity of the Divinity Library there thereby to furnish himself with a good stock of Reading and Learning proper to the holy Employment he had undertaken before he engaged himself further in it Here he lay for some years close and private and read over the Fathers and many other Books tending to the furthering his Divinity studies He preached then indeed but seldom or not at all his business now being something else But when some who had a mind to have themselves eased by his labour charged this upon him as a crime of idleness to clear himself of that imputation he published his first Book to let the World see he was not idle though he preached not He never cared to be accused of idleness and his own conscience cleared him of that as he tells us before that Book though he confessed that he was not so hasty as many be to intrude himself where there is no necessity But when he had taken the charge of Souls upon him in all the parts of the Ministerial Function he was very diligent A constant Preacher resorting to his Parish Church which stood a mile distant every Sunday Winter and Summer wet and dry unless abroad or hindred by sickness He failed not to visit the sick whensoever sent for compassionating their condition and administring wholsom counsils and comforts to them He was a great enemy to Schism and Faction and uncharitable separation from the Church and did use to press Communion both in his Sermons and ordinary discourses And it may not be amiss to mention the notable argument he used to manage in the behalf of holding Communion with the National Church which was our Lords Example This he often and convincingly urged in this case and particularly but some few months before his death in one of his ordinary Sermons he had these words Let me ask them meaning the neglecters of the Publick Worship do they think that our Saviour ever let Sabbath day pass in all his time while here but he was present at the Publick Service either in the Temple or in the Synagogue Look the Gospel through and see by the current of the story there whether ever he absented himself from the Publick Congregation on the Sabbath day Read that Luke IV. 16. To spare more He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read It was his custom to go to the Synagogue to the Publick Service and Congregation on the Sabbath day and he never failed of it And he stood up for to read in his own Town-Synagogue as owning himself a member of that Congregation For it is not recorded that he read in any Synagogue beside It was his Custom to go to the Publick Congregation on the Sabbath day it is these Mens custom not to come there He never absented himself from the Publick Meeting these Men account it Religion to absent themselves ever Is our Publick Service more corrupt than theirs was then If it be let them shew it If it be not let them give a reason why they go so directly contrary to our Saviours own practice Generally his Sermons were very plain as preached to a Country Auditory and practical recommending above all things piety and a good life and if he chanced to fall upon controversial points in the course of his Sermons he would strive in few words to pass over the controversie and while he was upon it to render it as useful and serviceable to pious ends as he could His Sermons always carried a sweet and easie strain with them a Rhetorick peculiar to himself notably raising attention and making a quick impression upon the Affections Insomuch as he seldom failed of a great Auditory having scarce one in his Parish that absented from his Ministery And another qualification he had of a good Clergy-man and that was his Charity which was free and large His House was a continual Hospital none went away thence unrelieved which was so well known that he had a more than common charge at his Door For such was his compassionate Spirit that all sorts of comers pretending need partook of his liberality and he would frequently bring poor people within Doors to his fire to warm them as well as feed and cloth them Besides he used in the Winter seasons to find work for the poor of his Parish as spinning c. Whereby at once industry and labour might be encouraged and poverty succored And his secret charities are supposed considerable For he had 300 l. per annum and no charge nor visible expence and yet spent all Take him in his more private Capacity he was a truly pious and devout Christian towards God This was his friend Dr. Castels character of him I know no Man under Heaven whose Voicinity would make my life more patiently tolerated than to be near one who hath in him so much of Heaven as you have On the Lords days abroad as well as at home he always forbore eating or drinking till the Evening Service were over that he might be the more intent upon his Devotions and Meditations in private and the freer from dulness and drowsiness in publick a thing so unbecoming the Worship of God Whensoever he returned home from a journy it was his manner to pass through his House to his retirements without saluting or speaking to any body unless they came in his way till he had performed his private Devotions For his food whatsoever it was he was always very thankful to God never complaining of any thing at his Table but ever expressing a thankfulness for what ever was set before him besides his usual blessing before and after meals He was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal Good Man which reconciled him a reverence wheresoever he came but for some particular Virtues he deserved Monstrari dicier Hic est To be taken notice of and admired I will instance only in his profound meekness and humility a Man so learned of such great abilities beyond most Men and yet so void of all conceit of himself so mean so little so nothing at all in his own Eyes that one would wonder to hear the expressions that he useth of himself In his Epistle to Christs College you have him in this strain Cum repeto quantum sine numero c. When I recollect what a number almost without number of learned eminent Men Christs College hath fostered and brought up I call my self Dunce and Blockhead to come from so learned a bosom and from among so learned a Society so unlearned so mean and obscure and still so to remain Oh! dull creature that I have been and am in and after so many and so great advantages and examples of Learning I rejoyce and triumph Dearest Nurse in the multitude of thy
time and story come in the three first Verses of the second Chapter and the story lyeth thus Dayes of the Creation VII GOD having thus created all things * * * Read ver 2. For on the seventh day God had ended his work otherwise there may be a doubt upon it whether God created not something on the seventh day This the lxx Saw and therefore they translate it different from the Original word And God ended his works on the sixth day in six days and man having thus fallen and heard of Christ and of death and eternal life and other like things on the sixth day the Lord ordaineth the seventh day for a Sabbath or holy rest and Adam spendeth it in holy duties and in meditation of holy things The mention of the institution of the Sabbath is laid in the beginning of the second Chapter though the very time and place of that story be not till after the end of the third 1. Because the holy Ghost would dispatch the whole story of the first week or seven days of the world together without interposition of any other particular story 2. Because he would shew that Adam should have kept the Sabbath though he had never sinned And therefore the mention of the Sabbath is before the mention of his sin CHAP. IV. THE exact times of the stories of the fourth Chapter are not to be determined and therefore they must be left to be taken up by conjecture in the times of the fifth as they are cast into the following table and so conjecturally also must we measure out the parallel and collateral times of the generations of Cain and Seth that are either named here or hereafter to the floud Cain and Abel born twins yet the one the seed of the Serpent and the other of the Woman In Cain was legible the poyson that Satan had breathed into fallen man and in Abel the breathing of grace into the elect and a figure of the death of Christ. God fireth Abels sacrifice from heaven but despiseth Cains yet readeth to him the first doctrine of repentance That if he did well he should certainly be accepted and though he did not well yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin-offering lieth at the door if he repented there was hope of pardon Thus as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam in the promise of Christ Chap. 3. 15. so doth he the first lecture of repentance to Cain under the doctrine of * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very commonly taken for a sin offering and the sacrifices were constantly brought to the Tabernacle door a sin-offering But Cain despiseth his own mercy is unmerciful to his brother and is denied mercy from the Lord. He beggeth for death that he might be shut out of that sad condition to which God hath doomed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now therefore let it be that any one that findeth me may kill me but this God denieth him and reserve th him to a longlife that he might reserve him to long misery Lamech a branch of this root bringeth into the world the abomination of Polygamie or of having more wives at once than one for which God smiteth him with horrour of conscience that he himself might be a witness against that sin that he had introduced and he censureth himself for a more deplorate and desperate wretch than Cain For that Cain had slain but one man and had only destroyed his body but he himself had destroyed both young and old by his cursed example which was now so currently followed and entertained in the world that ere long it was a special forwarder of its destruction that if Cain was to be avenged seven-fold Lamech deserved seventy and seven-fold In this stock of Cain also began Idolatry and worshipping the creature instead of the Creator blessed for ever and in a mournfull feeling of this dishonour done to God by it Seth calls his Son that was born to him in those times Enosh or sorrowfull because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then began profaness in calling upon the name of the Lord. Noah in 2 Pet. 2. 5. seemeth to be called the eighth in reference to these times namely the eighth in succession from Enosh in whose times the world began to be profane CHAP. V. THis fifth Chapter measureth the time and age of the world between the Creation and the Flood which was 1655. years compleat Being cast into a Table it will not only shew the currency but the concurrency of those times or how those Patriarchs whose times it measureth lived one with another The Reader will not need any rules for the explaining of the Table his own Arithmetick will soon shew him what use to make of it The first Age of the World From the Creation to the Flood This space is called Early in the morning Mat. 2. Hilar. in loc Ten Fathers before the Flood  Adam hath Cain and Abel and loseth them both Gen. 4. unhappy in his children the greatest earthly happiness that he may think of Heaven the more 130 130 Seth born in original sin Gen. 5. 2 3. a holy man and father of all men after the Flood Numb 24. 17. to shew all men born in that estate 235 235 105 Enosh born corruption in Religion by Idolatry begun Gen. 4. 25. Enosh therefore so named Sorrowful 325 325 195 90 Kainan born A mourner for the corruption of the times 395 395 265 160 70 Mahalaleel born A praiser of the Lord. 460 460 330 225 135 65 Jared born when there is still a descending from evil to worse 622 622 492 387 297 227 162 Enoch born and Dedicated to God the seventh from Adam Jude 14. 687 687 557 452 362 292 227 65 Methushelah born his very name foretold the Flood The lease of the world is only for his life 874 874 744 639 549 479 414 252 187 Lamech born A man smitten with grief for the present corruption and future punishment 930 930 800 695 605 535 470 308 243 56 Adam dieth having lived 1000. years within 70. Now 70 years a whole age Psal. 90. 10. 987  857 752 662 592 527 365 300 113 57 Enoch translated next after Adams death mortality taught in that immortality in this 1042 Enoch the seventh from Adam in the holy line of Seth prophecâ—ed against the wickedness that Lamech the seventh from Adam in the cursed line of Cain had brought in 912 807 717 647 582 Enoch lived as many years as there be days in a year via 365. and finished his course like a Sun on earth 355 168 112 55 Seth dieth 1056   821 731 661 596  369 182 126 69 14 Noah born a comforter 1140   905 815 745 680  453 266 210 153 98 84 Enosh dieth 1235    910 840 775  548 361 305 248 193 179 95 Kainan dieth 1290     895 830  603 416 360 303 248 234 150 55
and only salve it with making a statute for her yearly lamentation In some time of the Judges the High-priesthood is translated from the line of Eleazer to the line of Ithamar as appeareth in Eli in the beginning of the Book of Samuel Now in all the story of the Judges we find not any one thing so likely to be the cause of rooting out of that house from the Priest-hood as about this matter of Jephtah they not instructing him better but suffering such a butchery for a sacrifice Jephtah hath a new quarrel with the Ephraimites and slayeth 42000 of them discovering them by the mis-pronouncing of a letter he might have offered many words that had Sh double in them as Shemesh the Sun Shelosha three Shalsheleh a chain but the word proposed is Shiboleh because of the present occasion It signifieth a stream and the Ephraimites are put to call the stream that they desired to pass over by the right name and they could not name it CHAP. XII Vers. 8 9 10. World 2825 Iephtach 1 Iephtach 2 IBSAN judgeth seven years He was a man of Bethlehem and thereupon Iephtach 3 imagined by the Jews to be Boaz without any ground or reason for since Iephtach 4 Iephtach 5 Rahab the mother of Boaz was taken into the Congregation of Israel were 270 Iephtach 6 years and then guess whether Boaz be likely to be active now Ibsan is renowned Iephtach 7 for the number and equality of the number of his sons and daughters CHAP. XIII And CHAP. XII Vers. 11 12. World 2832 Elon 1 ELON judgeth ten years He was a Galilean of Zebulon In the tenth Elon 2 year of Ibsan the Philistims forty years of oppressing begin mentioned Elon 3 Chap. 13. verse 1. Samson is born about this year if not in it for when the Elon 4 Angel telleth of his conception the Philistims were lords over Israel see Elon 5 verse 5. The story of his birth is joyned to the story of his life that there Elon 6 might be no interruption in the story of the Judges before him and that the Elon 7 whole history of his life and birth might lie together but in Chronical Series Elon 8 it lieth about the beginning of the rule of Elon Elon 9 Elon 10 JESSE the father of DAVID born by this time if not before CHAP. XII Vers. 13 14 15. World 2842 Elon 1 ABDON judgeth eight years He is exceedingly renowned for his Elon 2 children having as many young Nobles and Gallants to his sons and Elon 3 granchildren as would make a whole Sanhedrin namely seventy and himself Elon 4 the Head He was an Ephraimite of Pirathon and so Josephs glory Elon 5 shineth again in Ephraim as it had done in Joshua before the time of the Elon 6 Judges and had done in Manasseh in the Judges times in Gedeon Jair Elon 7 and Jephtah Ephraims low estate in the matter of Abimelech and Shechem is Elon 8 now somewhat recovered in Abdon CHAP. XIV XV. XVI World 2850 Elon 1 SAMSON judgeth twenty years A man of Dan and so as Ephraim Elon 2 and Dan had bred the first Idolatry they yield the last Judges he Elon 3 was born supernaturally of a barren woman and becomes the first Nazarite Elon 4 we have upon record He killeth a lion without any weapons findeth honey Elon 5 in the carkass proposeth a parable to thirty Philistim gallants which Elon 6 in three days they cannot unriddle and on the seventh day saith the Text Elon 7 they said unto his wife Perswade thy husband Chap. 14. vers 15. That is Elon 8 on the Sabbath day their irreligiousness not minding that day and now Elon 9 finding the fittest opportunity of talking with his wife alone Samson being Elon 10 imployed about the Sabbath duties He pays them with their own Countrymens Elon 11 spoil Fires the Philistims corn with three hundred Foxes is destroying Elon 12 them all his life but destroys more at his death A type of Christ. Elon 13 It is observable that the Philistims are said to bear rule and oppress Israel Elon 14 all Samsons days Chap. 13. 1. The Lord delivered Israel into the hands of the Elon 15 Philistims forty year and Chap. 15. 20. And Samson judged Israel in the days Elon 16 of the Philistims twenty years This helpeth clearly to understand that the Elon 17 years of the oppressours are included in the years of the Judge and so Elon 18 endeth the Chronicle of the Book of Judges in the death of Samson though Elon 19 the posture of the Book it self do end in another story No Judge of all Elon 20 the twelve had fallen into the enemies hand and under their abuse but only Samson but he slayeth more at his death then while he was living The first Book of SAMUEL THIS Book containeth an History of 80 years viz. from the death of Samson who died by his own hand gloriously to the death of Saul who died by his own hand wretchedly This time was divided into two equal portions namely 40 years to Eli 1 Sam. 4. 18. and 40 years to Samuel and Saul Acts 13. 21. CHAP. I. II. III. World 2870 Eli 1 ELI judgeth 40 years He was of Ithamar For Eleazers line had lost the Eli 2 High Priest-hood in the times of the Judges It had been in that family Eli 3 seven generations viz. Eleazar Phineas Abishua Bukki Uzzi Zerahiah Meraioth Eli 4 Eli 5 1 Chron. 6. 4 5 6. and there it failed till the seventh generation after Eli 6 namely through the times of Amaziah Ahitub Zadok Ahimaaz Azaria Johanan Eli 7 and then comes Azariah and he executes this Office in the Temple Eli 8 that Solomon built 1 Chron. 6. 7 8 9 10. observe these six that failed of the Eli 9 high Priest-hood left out of the Genealogy Ezra 7. 3 4. Eli was the first of Eli 10 the other line that obtained it and it run through these descents Eli Phineas Eli 11 Ahitub Ahimelech Abiathar 1 Sam. 14. 3. 22. 20. 1 King 2. 26. SAMUEL Eli 12 Eli 13 the son of his mothers prayers tears and vows was born in * * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 1. 1. that is of one of the two Ramahs to wit that of the Zophites of the hill country of Ephraim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be construed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Sam. 18. 2. one of two and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be construed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 21. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 1. 39 5. Not the hill of Ephraim but the hill country Aramathea the Eli 14 twentieth from Levi of the off-spring of Korah who was swallowed up of Eli 15 the ground 1 Chron. 6. and Numb 26. 11. He had murmured at the Priesthood Eli 16 and Magistracy and now one of his line is raised up to repair both when Eli 17 they are decaied Samuel was a vowed Nazarite and dedicated at the
8 invaded by Pull King of Assyria Division 217 Menahem 9 now is Syria fading and Assyria Division 218 rising but he hireth Pull with 1000 Talents of silver to be on his side and to strengthen him in his Kingdom This sum he raiseth again by Tak of 60000 rich men at fifty shekels a man World 3248 Uzz. 48 Menahem 10 Menahem dieth Ephraim by Division 219 him is brought in a reliance and resting upon Assyria which they continue into their own undoing Hosea taxeth them for this again and again Hos. 5. 13. 7. 11. 8. 9. and foretelleth that therefore the Assyrian shall be their King Hos. 11. 5. and that they shall eat unclean things in the Land of Assyria Hos. 9. 3. UZZIAHS victories and Division 220 World 3249 Uzz. 49 magnificence in time Pekahiah 1 Division 221 World 3250 Uzz. 50 make him proud Pekahiah 2 Division 222 Uzz. 51 Pekah 1 Division 223 2 KINGS XV. Vers. 23 24 25 26 27. THIS year Israels Throne Division 220 World 3249 Uzz. 49 Pekahiah 1 is empty Pekahiah reigneth Division 221 World 3250 Uzz. 50 Pekahiah 2 two years and is slain by Division 222 Pekah the son of Remaliah Uzz. 51 Pekah 1 Pekah the Son of Remaliah Division 223 reigneth twenty years 2 CHRON. XXVI from vers 16. to the end of the Chapter And 2 KING XV. vers 5 6 7. World 3252 Uzz. 52 UZZIAH is this year struck with Leprosie and this year dieth The Holy Ghost hath given a close intimation that Uzziah's Leprosie befell him in the last year of his reign and not before 2 King 15. 50. where it is said that Hosea slew Pekah in the twentieth year of Jotham upon which arise these two scruples 1. How Jothams twentieth year can be spoken of when he reigned but sixteen 2 King 15. 33. this shall be looked after when we come thither And 2. how can Pekahs twentieth year be called the twentieth of Jotham when Pekah began to raign a year before him and so Pekahs twentieth is but Jothams nineteenth Answ. Why here is the hint that the Holy Ghost giveth of the time of Uzziahs being struck Leprous namely in the last year of his raign for here by this very expression is shewed that Jotham reigned in the last year of his fathers life and the Text plainly expresseth the occasion because the Lord smote the King with Leprosie so that he was a Leper unto the day of his death and Jotham the Kings son was over the House judging the people of the Land ESAY VI. IN the year that King Uzziah died Esay seeth the glory of Christ in the Temple John 12. 41. filling the Temple with smoak in sign of the burning of it and Angels called Seraphim that is Burning ones because of the firing of the Temple which was there foretold do proclaim the Trinity to be Holy Holy Holy yet had the Jews so unholily behaved themselves toward it that they are deemed to blindness and obduration till they be utterly destroyed 2 CHRON. XXVII all 2 KING XV. from ver 32. to the end World 3253 Iotham 1 Pekah 2 Division 224 JOTHAM reigneth and Iotham 2 Pekah 3 Division 225 doth uprightly and prospereth Iotham 3 Pekah 4 Division 226 buildeth the Gate between Iotham 4 Pekah 5 Division 227 the Kings house and the Iotham 5 Pekah 6 Division 228 Temple and buildeth many Iotham 6 Pekah 7 Division 229 forts in the Country subdueth Iotham 7 Pekah 8 Division 230 Ammon as his father had done Iotham 8 Pekah 9 Division 231 bringeth them under a great Iotham 9 Pekah 10 Division 232 Tribute and executeth some Iotham 10 Pekah 11 Division 233 more of Amos his Prophesie Iotham 11 Pekah 12 Division 234 against them He was Son to Iotham 12 Pekah 13 Division 235 JERUSASH the daughter Iotham 13 Pekah 14 Division 236 of Zadok the High Priest This Iotham 14 Pekah 15 Division 237 it may be made Uzziah the Iotham 15 Pekah 16 Division 238 more forward to assail the Priests Office because he had married the High Priests daughter but Jotham though so much of the Priests Seed yet did not attempt the like 2 KING XV. vers 28. 29. 1 CHRON. V. all World 3253 Iotham 1 Pekah 2 Division 224 PEKAH seemeth to have Iotham 2 Pekah 3 Division 225 been a Gileadite and Pekahiah Iotham 3 Pekah 4 Division 226 a Gadite Pekah with fifty Iotham 4 Pekah 5 Division 227 Gileadites slayeth him in the Iotham 5 Pekah 6 Division 228 Palace at Samaria and reigneth Iotham 6 Pekah 7 Division 229 wickedly after him He proveth Iotham 7 Pekah 8 Division 230 a very sore scourge to Judah Iotham 8 Pekah 9 Division 231 before he dieth In these Iotham 9 Pekah 10 Division 232 times even in the days of Jotham Iotham 10 Pekah 11 Division 233 there was an account taken Iotham 11 Pekah 12 Division 234 of the families of Reuben Iotham 12 Pekah 13 Division 235 Gad and half Manasseh the Iotham 13 Pekah 14 Division 236 inhabitants beyond Jordan Iotham 14 Pekah 15 Division 237 1 Chron. 5. 17. and so had Iotham 15 Pekah 16 Division 238 there been in the days of Jeroboam the second then at their restoring by Jeroboam out of the hands of Hamath and Syria and now at their arming against the Assyrian under whose hand they fall in the time of Pekah and are never again restored to Israel MICAH I. II. IN the reign of Jotham beginneth Micah to Prophesie and mourneth sadly for the ten Tribes Captivity which now drew near and for the misery of Jerusalem which was not far off He was a Prophet in the days of Jotham Ahaz and Hezechiah and it is more proper to conceive that the subject and matter of his whole Book was the tenor of his prophesying in every one of their times then it is easie to tell what Chapters of his Book were delivered in every one of those Kings time The conclusion of the third Chapter is allotted to the times of Hezekiah Jer. 26. 18. and there may the whole Chapter be laid and all the rest that follow it and there shall we take them in Micah was a Prophet of Mareshah in the Tribe of Judah bordering upon the Philistims Josh. 15. 44. 2 Chron. 14. 19. He beginneth his Prophesie with the very same words that Michaiah had concluded his to Ahab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King 22. 28. in a strange Syntax and construction Hearken ye people all of them his Prophesie is in some places very obscure and very terrible and in some very plain and comfortable He speaketh glorious things of Christ and his Kingdom and nameth the Town where he should be born and useth the very words of Esay who was now alive to express the conflux to the Kingdom of Christ under the Gospel and his power in it and the peace that should be under it 2 KING XVI ver 1 2 3 4. 2 CHRON. XXVIII ver 1 2 3 4. World 3268 Iotham 16 Ahaz 1 Pekah
if they scape that Army Why eat this year what groweth of it self and what may be found up and down on the Trees and the ground But what must they do the next year Which was a year of release and rest as every seventh year was and they might not till the ground Why Providebit Deus God will also then provide for them of what grows of it self again and then the third year sow and reap and return to your old peace and prosperity ESAY XXXVIII 2 KING XX. to ver 12. 2 CHRON. XXXII ver 24. HEZEKIAHS sickness of the Plague seemeth to have been in the very time while the Assyrian Army lay about Jerusalem for though the destruction of that Army by the Angel be related before the Story of his sickness yet that his sickness was while that Army was alive may be conjectured upon these two collections First It is past all doubt that his sickness was this very same year that the Assyrian Army was destroyed by the Angel for if he reigned nine and twenty years as 2 King 18. 2. and that stroke of the Angel upon that Army was in his fourteenth year as vers 13. of that Chapter and he lived fifteen years after his sickness as 2 King 20. 6. then it makes that matter past controverting Secondly The Lord in his sickness doth not only promise him recovery from his disease but also that he will deliver him and that City out of the hand of the King of Assyria which shews there was then danger to him and Jerusalem from that King And this may be conceived one cause that made Hezekiah to weep so bitterly when the message of death was denounced unto him because he was to leave Jerusalem and Judea under the pressure and danger of the Assyrian Tyrant and must not see the delivery of it Therefore though the whole story of Sennacherib be laid together as was fit yet can I not but in my thoughts insert this story of Hezekiahs sickness before the destruction of his Army as no doubt it came to pass before Sennacheribs death and yet is that storyed before it for the concluding of his History all at once To Hezekiah alone is it given to know the term of his life and the Sun in the Firmament knoweth not his going down that Hezekiah may know his 2 KING XX. from vers 12. to vers 20. ESAY XXXIX all 2 CHRON. XXXII vers 25 26. MErodach or Berodach-Baladan the King of Babel visiteth Hezekiah by his Embassadors to congratulate his recovery and to inquire after the miracle of the Sun turning back The Lord left Hezekiah to try what was in his heart and it shewed folly The Lord foretels by the Prophet the captivity into Babel which City and Kingdom is now small and under the power of the Assyrian before it rise to be the golden head For observe in 2 Chron. 33. 11. that Babel is in the hand of the King of Assyria The Captains of the host of the King of Assyria carried Manasseth unto Babel It might very well be that Eser-haddon who succeeded Sennacherib in the Assyrian Monarchy took offence at Merodach-Baladan for his intimacy and familiarity with Hezekiah and thereupon set upon Babel and took it out of his hands Babel had been tributary to the Crown of Assyria hitherto the Assyrian having built it for some of his servants that traded upon Euphrates in Ships and made it a fair City but now Eser-haddon subdued it and defaced it Esay 23. 13. 2 CHRON. XXXII from vers 27. to end 2 KINGS XX. vers 20 21. Division 267 Hezekiah 15 HEZEKIAH liveth these fifteen years in safety and prosperity Division 268 Hezekiah 16 having humbled himself before the Lord for his pride to the Embassadors Division 269 Hezekiah 17 of Babel The degrees of the Suns reversing and the fifteen Division 270 Hezekiah 18 years of Hezekiahs life prolonging may call to our minds the fifteen Division 271 Hezekiah 19 Psalms of degrees viz. from Psalm 120 and forward There were Hezekiahs Division 272 Hezekiah 20 songs that were sung to the stringed instruments in the House of Division 273 Hezekiah 21 the Lord Esay 38. 21. whether these were picked out by him for that Division 274 Hezekiah 22 purpose be it left to censure The Jews hold they were called Psalms Division 275 Hezekiah 23 of degrees because they were sung upon the fifteen stairs that rose into Division 276 Hezekiah 24 the Courts of the Temple Who so in reading those Psalms shall have Division 277 Hezekiah 25 his thoughts upon the danger of Jerusalem by Sennacherib and her delivery and the sickness of Hezekiah and his recovery shall find that they fit those occasions in many places very well But I assert nothing but leave it to examination Division 278 Hezekiah 26 1 CHRON. IV. from vers 34. to the end Division 279 Hezekiah 27 IN the time of Hezekiah some of the Simeonites subdue the Meunims Division 280 Hezekiah 28 and the Amalekites It is most likely it was not in the former fourteen years of Hezekiah when the Assyrian Army was all abroad and none durst peep out but in his last fifteen years when that Army was destroyed and gone World 3310 Division 281 Hezekiah 29 Hezekiah dieth ESAY XXIII ESAY XL XLI c. to the end of the Book THE prophesying of Esay is concluded by the Title of his Book in the times of Hezekiah though the Hebrews of old have held that he lived and died in the days of Manasseh and was sawn asunder by him The Epistle to the Hebrews may seem to speak to that Heb. 11. 37. therefore according to the Chronology of the title of the Book in the first verse of it these Chapters that are set after the Story of Hezekiahs fourteenth year or after the Story of the destruction of the Assyrians and Hezekiahs recovery are all to be allotted to the fifteen years of his prolonged life since there is no direction to lay all of them or any of them in any time else c. The three and twentieth Chapter also falleth under the same time even towards the latter end of Hezekiahs reign when the King of Assyria had now taken Babel This is apparent by ver 13. spoken of a little before for there the Lord threatneth Tyrus by the example of Babel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that City had been founded by the Assyrian * * * For Ships and for men of the Desert thereupon Babel is called The desert of the Sea Esay 21. 1. for his Ships and Ship-men to traffick upon Euphrates as Tyrus was built on the Sea for the like purpose but now the Assyrian had brought that to ruine and so should the case of Tyrus be by the Babilonians Nebuchad-nezzar destroyed Tyrus Ezek. 29. 18. Now the reason why this Chapter that fell so late in Hezekiahs time is yet laid in that place where it is is this because the Prophesies against those Countries
Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 39 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 40 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 41 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 42 Nebuchad-nezzar mad Captivity 43 Captivity 44 Nebuchad-nezzar restored to his wits and Kingdom again Captivity 45 2 KINGS XXV vers 27 28 29 30. JEREMY LII vers 31 32 33 34. World 3446 NEbuchad-nezzar dieth and Evil-merodach reigneth This is the thirty Captivity 46 seventh year of the Captivity of Jechoniah On the five and twentieth Captivity 47 day of the twelfth moneth Evil-merodach bringeth him out of Captivity 48 prison and on the seven and twentieth day he promoted him above all the Captivity 49 Kings of Babel and feedeth him all his life it may be Nebuchad-nezzars seven Captivity 50 years madness and misery had wrought some humility and gentleness upon Captivity 51 this his Son Jechoniah was now fifty five years old and had indured seven Captivity 52 and thirty years imprisonment and now the Lord releaseth him and he nameth Captivity 53 Salathiel as his next heir to Davids Throne and Principality for Jechoniah Captivity 54 had no heir of his own The time of the three Babylonian Kings that Captivity 55 took up the whole space of that Monarchy are easily to be collected by the Captivity 56 Scripture namely Nebuchad-nezzar to have reigned five and forty years current Captivity 57 Evil-merodach three and twenty current and Belshazzar three The Captivity 58 first is plain by this that the seven and thirtieth of Jechoniah is called Evilmerodachs Captivity 59 first The last will be made plain by and by and the apparency of Captivity 60 the second will result from both these Evil-merodach by the Septuagint in Captivity 61 Jer. 52. is called Ulamadachar but he is called far nearer to his own name by Captivity 62 them in 2 King 25. Josephus calleth him Abilamaridochus Antiq. lib. 10. cap. 12. Captivity 63 There is a general silence in Scripture of any thing done in his time besides Captivity 64 his inlarging of Jechoniah whereas there are very wondrous and remarkable Captivity 65 matters mentioned and recorded to have been done in Babylon in the time of Captivity 66 Nebuchad-nezzar his father and of Belshazzar his Son World 3468 Captivity 67 Belshazzar reigneth three years DANIEL VII IN this first of Belshazzar Daniel seeth the Vision of the four Kingdoms that troubled the World but especially the Church from the first rising of Nebuchad-nezzar till the coming of the everlasting Kingdom of Christ in the Gospel viz. Babylonian Mede-Persian Grecian and Syrogrecian All the time of the Kingdoms before the Babylonian is not medled withal because handled before along in the Bible and all the times of the Roman State after the coming of Christ is not medled withal neither but left to be treated of by a beloved Disciple as these are by a beloved Prophet viz. in the Revelation The dislocation of this Chapter will easily be spied by any eye that looketh but upon the two Chapters next before it for the fifth speaks of Belshazzars end of reign and this of his beginning and the sixth speaks of matters done in Darius his time which was after Belshazzars death and this of matters done in the first of Belshazzers reign but the reason of this dislocation is almost as conspicuous as the dislocation it self and that is because the Historical things of this Book are set by themselves first and the visionary or prophetical things afterward Captivity 68 Belshazzar 2 In this second of Belshazzar there is no particular occurrence mentioned DANIEL V. World 3470 Captivity 69 Belshazzar 3 BABYLONS Sins are now come to the full Belshazzar toppeth them up by abuse of the Vessels of the House of God at a drunken and Idolatrous Feast to the despite and scorn of him that owed them and to the grief of those that had concernment in them Hereupon that Divine hand that had written the two Tables for a Law to his people writeth the doom of Babel and Belshazzar upon the wall viz. the ruine of these his enemies This turneth the night of the Kings pleasure into fear unto him as Esay had Prophesied of him long ago Esay 21. 4. and Jeremy Jer. 50. 43. The Wise Men of Babylon are become fools and cannot read this writing though it were in their own Language Daniel readeth and interpreteth it and that both in an Hebrew and a Chaldee construction for the words were both Languages Mene Mene He hath numbred and finished Tekel in Chald. He hath weighed In Heb. Thou art too light Parsin in Heb. The Persians Paresin in Chald. Dividing and Daniel interprets it according to the extent of the words in both Tongues for both Hebrews and Chaldeans were concerned though differently in the issue of the matter Presently the enemy that lay about the Town began to storm and the Centinels and Watch-men in the Watch Towres give the Alarme Arise ye Princes and anoint the Shield see Esay 21. 5. And one Post runs to meet another to shew the King of Babylon that his City is taken at one end Jer. 51. 31. and that night is Belshazzar slain And Darius the Median took the Kingdom being sixty two years old and so it appears he was born in the year of Jehoiaâ—ims and Jehoiachins captivity and thus did the Lord provide that in that very year when the Babylonian was most busie to captive and destroy the captiver and destroyer of Babylon should be born The Reader will here observe in the Chronicle in the Margin that the third of Belshazzar proves but the sixty ninth year of the Captivity and not the seventy But if he do but withal observe that part of Jehoiakims third was properly the beginning of those seventy years he will also see that part of Belshazzars third was in the like reckoning some of the seventieth year and the rest of that year was taken up in Cyrus and Darius setling the Monarchy before the Decree for building Jerusalem come forth Cyrus the Persian was joyned with Darius the Median in the expedition against Babel and so in the rule of the Monarchy when they had obtained it and therefore the Prophet Esay describeth the enemies of Babel by a Chariot with a couple of Horse-men a Chariot of Asses and a Chariot of Camels Esay 21. 7. 9. and Daniel interprets the hand-writing on the wall that the Babylonian Monarchy should be divided betwixt the Median and the Persian But Darius only carrieth the name here because he was far the older man and because indeed he was Cyrus his Grand-father If we may conjecture any thing from the Heathen Writers They speak of Astyages the Median King who had one only Daughter called Mandane and she the Mother of Cyrus by Cambyses the King of Persia vid. Xenoph Herod Justin. Now this being the general consent of all the Writers of the best repute among the Heathen that there was no King of Media at that time but only Astyages Cyrus his Grand-father we may very well conclude that this
to trial as soon as they could and that his trial was reasonable early this year it appeareth by his own words in the second Epistle to Timothy where he speaketh of his Answer that he had been at and requireth Timothy to come to him before winter 2 Tim. 4. 16. 21. As he appealed to Nero himself so Nero himself heard his cause Phil. 1. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 16. and here it was possible Paul and Seneca might see each other at which time all that had owned him before withdrew themselves for fear and durst not stand by him or appear with him in this danger Tacitus mentioneth a case much like his which had been tried two years before namely of Pomponia Graecina a noble Lady of Rome concerning a strange Religion Superstitionis externae rea mariti judicio permissa Isque prisco instituto propinquis coram de capite famaque conjugis cognovit insontem nuntiavit This that he calleth externa superstitio cannot well be understood of any Religion but either Judaism or Christianity for any Heathen superstition did relish so well with them that it could hardly have brought her into danger If her peril of life then were because of Christianity as very well it might it was a terrible example that lay before the Christians there and if it were not then this trial of Paul being of a doubtful issue and consequent and full of danger it made poor Pauls friends to shrink aside in this his extremity and to be to seek when he had most need of them At my first answer saith he none stood with me but all forsook me In which words he doth not so much refer to what or how many more answers he was called to as the postscript of that Epistle seemeth to construe it as he doth intimate that even at the very first pinch and appearance of danger all that should have been his assistants started from him It may be Demas his imbracing of the present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. signifieth in this sense that he forsook Paul and shifted for himself and sculked to avoid the danger or if it be taken that he returned to his worldly impolyment again or that he returned to his Judaism again mean it what it will we shall see in the story of the next year that he returned to Paul and to his station again So that his failing was but as Peters denial of his Master repented of and recovered It was a hard case and a great trial with the Apostle when in so signal an incounter and so imminent danger of his life none of the Church that was at Rome not any of those that were of his own retinue durst own him or stand by him in his exigent but the Lord was with him and brought him off safe from the Lions mouth He being assured by this providence of God to him and for him in his great danger that he was reserved for the further benefit of the Church and propagating of the Gospel applieth himself to that work the best way he can considering his condition of imprisonment and whereas he cannot travel up and down to the Churches to preach to them as he had done he visiteth divers of them with his Epistles And first he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS and sendeth it by Crescens as may be conceived from 2 Tim. 4. 10. For though Demas and Crescens and Titus their departure from Paul be reckoned altogether in that verse yet the reason of their departure cannot be judged to have been alike for however Demas started upon some caâ—nal respect yet Crescens and Titus are not so branded nor will the eminent piety of the later suffer us to have any such opinion of him and the judging of him doth also help us to judge of Crescens who is joyned with him The postscript of this Epistle both in the Greek Syriack Arabick and divers other Translations doth generally date it from Rome Beza from Antioch Erasmus from Ephesus but all upon conjecture for there is no intimation in the Epistle it self of the time or place of its writing Beza upon these words in Chap. 1. ver 2. And all the brethren which are with me saith thus Puto sic totum Antiochenae Ecclesiae Presbyterium significari inde scriptam hanc Epistolam c. I think by this he meaneth the whole Presbytery of the Church of Antioch and that this Epistle was written from thence at that time that passed between Paul and Barnabas their return into Asia from their first journey forth and the coming of those troubles to Antioch Acts 14. 28. But that Apostacy in the Churches which the Apostle crieth out against in this Epistle and in others was not then begun and moreover it may well be questioned whether the Churches of Galatia were then planted And the former answer may likewise be given to the opinion that this Epistle was written from Ephesus namely that at the time of Pauls being at Ephesus the Apostacy which ere long did sorely and almost Epidemically infest the Churches was but then beginning And this is one reason why I suppose it written from Rome at this time that we are upon because that gangrene in the Eastern Churches was now come to ripeness as it appears by the second Epistle to Timothy which was written this same year See 2 Tim. 1. 15. False teachers had brought back the Galatians from the simplicity of the Gospel to their old Ceremonious performances again and to reliance upon the works of the Law for Justification which miscarriage the Apostle taketh sharply to task in this Epistle And first he vindicates his Apostleship as no whit inferiour to Peter and James and John the Ministers of the Circumcision and those that chiefly seemed to be pillars and he shews how those approved of him and it And then he most divinely states the nature of the Law at which was the great stumbling and especially speaks to that point that they most stood upon their living in it The Lord had laid a stone in Sion which the Jews could not step over but stumble at even to this day and that is that which is said in Levit. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11. and in otherplaces which the Apostle also toucheth in this Epistle Chap. 3. 12. from whence they concluded that no living no justification but by the works of the Law The Apostle in the third Chapter of this Epistle laies down two conclusions that determine the case and resolves all into faith The first is in ver 17. namely that the Law was not given to cross the Covenant of Grace but to be subservient to it The second in ver 10. that the Law did plainly shew of it self that no man could perform it but it left a man under the curse Observe that he saith not As many as fail of the works of the Law but As many as are of the works of the Law shewing that the Lawdid not only denounce a curse upon all
The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts There are two main things here intended First To shew the ruine of the Kingdom of Satan and secondly The nature of the Kingdom of Christ. The Scripture speaks much of Christs Kingdom and his conquering Satan and his Saints reigning with him that common place is briefly handled here That Kingdom was to be especially among the Gentiles they called in unto the Gospel Now among the Gentiles had been Satans Kingdom most setled and potent but here Christ binds him and casts him into the bottomless pit that he should deceive no more as a great cheater and seducer cast into prison and this done by the coming in of the Gospel among them Then as for Christs Kingdom I saw Thrones saith John and they sate upon them c. ver 4. here is Christ and his inthroned and reigning But how do they reign with him Here John faceth the foolish opinion of the Jews of their reigning with the Messias in an earthly pomp and shews that the matter is of a far different tenour that they that suffer with him shall reign with him they that stick to him witness for him dye for him these shall sit inthroned with him And he nameth beheading only of all kinds of deaths as being the most common used both by Jews and Romans alike as we have observed before at Acts 12. out of Sanhedr per. 7. halac 3. And the first witness for Christ John the Baptist died this death He saith that such live and reign with Christ the thousand years not as if they were all raised from the dead at the beginning of the 1000 years and so reign all together with him those years out as is the conceit of some as absolute Judaism as any is for matter of Opinion but that this must be expected to be the garb of Christs Kingdom all along suffering and standing out against sin and the mark of the Beast and the like whereas they held it to be a thousand years of earthly bravery and pompousness But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Not that they lived again when the thousand years were finished but it means that they lived not in this time which was the time of living when Satan was bound and truth and life came into the world The Gentiles before the Gospel came among them were dead in Scripture phrase very copiously Ephes. 2. 1 2. 4. 18. c. but that revived them Joh. 5. 25. This is the first resurrection in and to Christs Kingdom the second is spoken of at the twelfth verse of this Chapter that we are upon Paul useth the same expression to signifie the same thing namely a raising from darkness and sin by the power of the Gospel Rom. 11. 15. Now when this quickning came among the Gentiles Satan going down and Christs Kingdom advanced and the Gospel bringing in life and light as Joh. 1. 4. those that did not come and stick close to Christ and bear witness to him but closed with the mark of the Beast sin and sinful men these were dead still and lived not again till the thousand years were finished that is while they lasted though that were a time of receiving life Blessed therefore and holy are they that have part in this first resurrection for on them the second death hath no power ver 6. The second death is a phrase used by the Jews Onkelos renders Deut. 33. 6. thus Let Reuben live and not die the second death And Jonathan Isa. 65. 6. thus Behold it is written before me I will not grant them long life but I will pay them vengeance for their sins and deliver their carcases to the second death And ver 15. The Lord will slay them with the second death Observe in the Prophet that these verses speak of the ruine and rejection of the Jews now a cursed people and given up to the second death and in Chapter 66. vers 29 30 31. is told how the Lord would send and gather the Gentiles to be his people and would make them his Priests and Levites And then see how fitly this verse answers those In stead of these cursed people these are blessed and holy and might not see the second death and Christ makes them Priests to himself and his Father In this passage of John scorn is put again upon the Jews wild interpretâ—â—â—â—n of the resurrection in Ezekiel They take it litterally think some dead were really raised out of their graves came into the Land of Israel begat children and died a second time Nay they stick not to tell who these men were and who were their children Talm. Babyl in Sanhedr ubi supra After the thousand years are expired Satan is let loose again and falls to his old trade of the deceiving the Nations again ver 8. Zohar fol. 72. col 286. hath this saying It is a tradition that in the day when judgment is upon the world and the holy blessed God sits upon the Throne of judgment then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low he is found destroying the world and taking away souls When the Papacy began then Heathenism came over the world again and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever then Idolatry blindness deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles these had been beating down and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day and though his agent Rome bestird it self hard to hold up his Kingdom by the horrid persecutions it raised yet still the Gospel prevailed and laid all flat But when the Papacy came then he was loose again and his cheatings prevailed and the world became again no better then Heathen And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally and begin to count either from the beginning of the Gospel in the preaching of John or of Peter to Cornelius the first inlet to the Gentiles or of Paul and Barnabas their being sent among them the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery especially begin them from the fall of Jerusalem where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins and they will end upon the times of Pope Hildebrand when if the Devil were not let loose when was he He calls the enemies of the Church especially Antichrist Gog and Magog the title of the Syrogrecian Monarchy the great persecutor Ezek. 38. 39. Pliny mentions a place in Caelosyria that retained the name Magog lib. 5. cap. 23. So that John from old stories and copies of great troubles transcribeth new using known terms from Scripture and from the Jews language and notions that he might the better be understood So that this Chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the Gospel among the Gentiles to the end of the world under these two sums first the beating
vengeance that had been so abundantly given but may the better judge wherein that vengeance did chiefly consist CHRIST LXVII NERO. XIII IN this thirteenth Year of Nero therefore Vespasian cometh General into Judea to undertake that War A second Nebuchadnezzar an instrument of the Lord raised up to execute his vengeance upon that Nation now the Nation of his curse and to destroy their City and Temple as the other had done And as several strange occurrences befel that destroyer recorded in the Book of Daniel so did divers strange things also befal this recorded by the Roman Historians with one consent As Nilus flowing a handful higher on that day that he came into Alexandria then ever it did in one day before A Vision that he had in the Temple of Serapis of his servant Basilides who was known to be at that instant fourscore miles off sick And especially his healing of a blind mans eyes by anointing them with his spittle and curing a lame mans hand by treading upon it with his foot To which may be added those that were accounted the presages of his reigning as a cypress tree in his ground clean rooted up by the winds over night grew strait up again and well in the morning An Ox came and laid him down at his feet and laid his neck under his feet at one time as he sat at meat and a dog came and brought him a dead mans hand at another Now not to dispute whether all these things were true or no nor by what power they were wrought certainly they set the man in the eyes of men as a man of rarity and as he was designed by God for a singular work so did these things make him to be a man looked upon as one of some singular omen and fortune His work in the Jewish Wars this year was more especially in Galilee where first coming to Ptolemais the men of Sipphoris the greatest City there come peaceably and yielding to him and they had done so indeed before to Cestius Gallus Josephus who afterward wrote the History of these Wars was now a great party in them having fortified many Cities and places in Galilee and being the chiefest that in those parts stood against the Romans First he finds them work at Jotepata which indures a very sharp siege and puts the Romans to very sharp service before it be taken At last after about fifty days siege Vespasian enters it July 1. There Josephus himself is taken and foretels Vespasian that he should be Emperour Joppa taken presently after and Tiberias yielded and Taricheae taken and 6500 slain there Gamala gained Octob. 23. and divers other places brought in this year either by storm or surrender which Josephus recordeth the story of de Bello lib. 3. through the whole Book and lib. 4. to the end of the ninth Chapter which he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus was all Galilee subdued CHRIST LXVIII NERO. XIV VESPASIAN therefore having subjected and setled Galilee he falls this year to work in Judea and indeed there the Jews fall to bitter work among themselves For all the unquiet spirits whom the War had prosecuted and hunted from other parts or whose turbulency desired to be in action were flocked hither so that Jerusalem and Judea were filled full of men and trouble and quickly full of famine blood and all manner of misery The doleful story Josephus gives at large as also what the Romans did among them this year de Bello lib. 4. whither the reader may have recourse This year Nero died by his own hand to escape publick and more shameful execution In him ended the Blood and Family of the Caesars And now that mystery of State was discovered That an Emperour could be made though not of that Blood and elsewhere then at Rome and the misery of the State accrewed by that discovery when the longest sword did make the Emperour and the trying which was the longest undid the Empire The souldiery in Spain proclaimed Galba to succeed him against whom riseth up Otho and cuts him off when he was now reigning but in his seventh month having only brought the Royalty into his family and himself to misery and ruine by it When he was slain a common souldier cut off his head and putting his finger into his mouth for he was bald and therefore he could not bear it by the hair he carried it to Otho who gave it to the scum and black guard of the Camp and they fixing it upon a pole carried it up and down in derision CHRIST LXIX OTHO OTHO was scarce set in the Throne when Vitellius riseth up against him and the determination of this competition was not so speedy and unsensible as was that betwixt Galba and Otho For Otho slew Galba without any noise and when himself had but three and twenty associates at this first conspiring against him But the present quarrel shook a good part of the Empire with sidings and preparations and came to a pitcht battel before it came to an end Otho's men lost the field and when tidings of his defeat came to him he resolved to strive no longer but to render up his Empire and life together and so slew himself He reigned if it may be called a reign but 95 days VESPASIAN VITELLIUS is now Lord of all who indeed is not Master of himself A man of that untemperance and luxury that few equalled him and divers that did follow him and his course died of surfets Divers men and Cities were undone by his riotous excesses and the souldiers became effeminate by his example In the time of his reign which ended before this year was out there were divers prodigies A Comet Two Suns at the same time one in the East another in the West The Moon twice eclipsed unnaturally In the Capitol the footsteps seen of many and great Daemones coming down from thence And Jupiters Temple opened of its own accord with horrid noise And let this be reckoned for a prodigy too Maricus a man of an ordinary extraction among the Boii raised a considerable number of men and proclaimed himself a God He was soon overthrown and thrown to the wild beasts whom when they rent not in pieces it heightned the peoples opinion in thoughts that he was a God indeed but Vitellius found another way to put him to death and so his Godship was spoiled There were divers petty mutinies of the Armies and destroying of Towns in Italy and other parts before Vespasian stird but when he stood up there were concussions that made all the Empire to shake as it had hardly ever done before He was then in the East about the Wars of the Jews as we have touched instantly before And there the Armies in Egypt Judea and Syria swear fealty to him in the month of July And in a short time all the Provinces even to Achaia did the like The Legions in Maesia Illyricum Pannonia fall to him and letters are sent into
at the last be brought into the Gospel as the Protestant party hath been yet that to the end numerous multitudes also shall continue in the Antichristian spirit of unbelief and opposition and blaspheming and both parts of Antichrist the Roman and this so to perish together Nor doth this opinion any whit cross any place of Scripture that is produced about the calling of the Jews but rather settle its sense and explain it That eminent place of the Apostle Rom. 11. carrieth such a limitation throughout and the very intent of his discourse speaketh to such a tenour all along For his drift in that Chapter is not to determine whether all the Jews should be once called but whether all the Jews were wholly cast off and this he states that there is a remnant ver 5. that the election hath obtained but the rest are blinded ver 7. and that blindness in part is happened to Israel c. v. 25. And this is the mystery that he there speaketh of and not as some would wrest it their universal conversion A mystery indeed that God should cast off his old Covenanted people and that they that had always had the light and only seen of all the Nations of the world should now sit in darkness and be blind and that the Gentiles by their blindness should come to see It is remarkable in this place and others of the Apostles Epistles that though the destruction of Jerusalem were the most signal time and evidence of Gods casting them off yet that they were indeed cast off long before as to spare more allegations may be observed in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians Ch. 2. ver 15 16. which was the first Epistle that the Apostle wrote Whence punctually to date their rejection whether from the death of Christ or from the first sending the Gospel among the Gentiles is not much material to inquire after here it is enough for our present purpose to observe that they are given for cast off so early in the dispersion of the Gospel So that the Apostle doth clearly include their conversion even at that first spreading of the Gospel as well as their conversion in future times He saith their casting off was the riches of the Gentiles and the reconciling of the world and their fulness should much more inrich the Gentiles and be as life from the dead By their fulness not meaning the whole number of their Nation but the full number of Gods Elect of them when they should be brought in The casting off of the Nation inriched the Gentiles in that they came in to be the Lords people in their stead but much more shall it be an inriching to them when the full number of them that belong to God shall come in also and be joyned to the Gentiles and help to make their body up This is apparently the drift of the Apostle in those words which that opinion is exceedingly wide of that holds that the calling of the Jews shall not be till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in It is true indeed that he saith that blindness in part is happened to Israel till that time v. 25. and so our Saviour saith that Jerusalem shall be troden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled Luke 21. 24. but this means her final desolation and the final blindness of that part that is blinded not that Jerusalem should be built again when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in which the Jews conceit nor that then the Jews should be unblindfolded and become a Gospel Church as the Gentiles had been for what a strange world doth such a supposal imagine And how often doth the Gospel gainsay any such distinctiveness and peculiarity As we need not to go far for instance that very place of the Apostle that is under our hands doth hold out all along that the Gentiles and the Jews that belong to the election of grace do make up but one Body And that very passage that is chiefly pleaded for their universal Call And so all Israel shall be saved means no other Therefore though it may be hoped that God hath multitudes of them yet to be brought in from under their Antichristian darkness and opposition of the Gospel yet that they shall be generally called and no Antichristian party left behind and that not till Antichrist of Rome be fallen and the fulness of the Gentiles be come in as some circumstantiate the thing needeth clearer evidence of Scripture to evince then yet hath been produced FINIS THE HARMONY OF THE Four Evangelists Among themselves and with the OLD TESTAMENT The First Part. FROM THE Beginning of the Gospels TO THE BAPTISM of our SAVIOUR WITH An Explanation of the Chiefest DIFFICULTIES both in LANGUAGE and SENSE By JOHN LIGHTFOOT D. D. LONDON Printed by W. R. for Robert Scott Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXII The Epistle to the READER Gentle Reader THE veil of the Sanctuary was supported by four pillars and wrought with great variety of works and colours So is the Story of the veil of Christs flesh by the four Evangelists and the Texture of it of like variety For one relateth what another hath omitted one more largely what another more brief one more plain what another less one before what another after one after one manner and another after another And so they bring their several pieces of Imbroidery differing in colours but not in substance various in workmanship but not in the ground-work to constitute and make up a perfect and sacred Tapestry and Furniture in the House of the Lord And carrying several faces in the manner of their writing and composal like those living Creatures in Ezekiel and the Revelation yet they sweetly and Harmoniously meet together in the one body and compacture of a perfect Story To sew these parcels together into one piece and so to dispose and place them in their proper order as the continuance and Chronical method of the History doth require is hic labor hoc opus a thing of no small pains and difficulty and yet a thing that with pains and industry may be brought to pass For in many passages and dislocations the Text hath shewed the proper place of such dislocated parcels and the proper way and manner to join them where they should be joined so plainly and in all places it hath hinted this so surely though sometimes more obscurely that serious study and mature deliberation may certainly fix and settle them Divers great and learned Pens have laboured in this work both Ancient and Modern both Romish and Protestant but hardly any if any at all in our own mother Tongue so fully and largely as a Work of this nature doth require this hath incited me though the unfittest of all others for a task of so much Learning Iudgment and Seriousness to attempt this work and if possibly my dimness might to give some light and facility to the History
b b b b b Hebron was inhablted by Aaronites but the fields and villages about with children of Juda Josh. 21. 11. These two are Elizabeths neighbours and cousins her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had c c c c c c Greek Had magnified mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Psal. 18. 50. the Hebr. and LXX and Psal. 126. 2. shewed great mercy upon her and they rejoyced with her 59. And it came to pass on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they called him Zacharias after the name of his Father 60. And his Mother answered and said Not so but he shall be called John 61. And they said unto her There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name 62. And they made signs to his Father how he would have him called 63. And he asked for d d d d d d Vulg. Pugillarem of which see Plin. lib. 13. cap. 11. ' Ev 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Batrachom a writing table and wrote saying His name is John and they marvailed all 64. And his mouth was e e e e e e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifieth both to open and to unloose and so the loosing of his tongue which is not expressed in the Greek totidem verbis is implied in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Hebraisme opened immediately and his tongue loosed and he spake and praised God 65. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them and all these sayings were noised abroad through out all the hill Country of Iudea 66. And all they that had heard them f f f f f f See Gen. 37. 11. Prov. 2. 1. 3. 1. 7. 1. laid them up in their hearts saying What manner of child shall this be g g g g g g Vulg. For the hand of the Lord was with him contrary to the Orig. Arab. and Syr. and the hand of the Lord was with him 67. And his Father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophecied saying 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 69. And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70. As he spake by the h h h h h h By the mouth that is by the mouths one number for another as tree for trees Gen. 3. 1. frog for frogs Exod. 9. 2. c. yet is the observation of Albertus magnus ingenuous and true All the Prophets spake of Christ uno ore things so agreable as if they had all spoken with one mouth mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the World began 71. i i i i i i In the orig it is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvation or deliverance and so in the Arab. and Vulg. Lat. now it may be read either in apposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vers 69. He hath raised up an horn of salvation namely salvation from our enemies or in subsequence to the verb he spake vers 70. He spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets of Salvation and this is the more genuine and proper Beza That we should be delivered from our enemies and from the hands of k k k k k k Two Phrases used to heighten the sense 2 Sam. 22. 18. 41. Psal. 44. 10. 68. 1. 89. 23. 106. 16. them that hate us 72. l l l l l l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josh. 2. 12. 2 Sam. 9. 1. c. The Syr. reads conjunctively And he hath shewed mercy and so doth the Arab. the other clause And he hath remembred To perform the mercy promised to our fore-fathers and to remember his holy Covenant 73. m m m m m m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Accusative case either in apposition to Cornu Salutis vers 69. as Tollet or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understood as Calvin or following the Verb Tâ— performe in vers 72. As the Syr. and an old English or that the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 governeth two cases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham 74. n n n n n n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This clause standeth in the Orig. and in all translations in the end of the vers preceding See Syr. Arab. Valg France Spain Dutch Deodate Vâ—tab Erasm. Beza c. That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve hiw without fear 75. In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life 76. And thou child shalt be called the Prophet of the most Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways 77. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins 78. Through ††††††Greek The Bowels of mercy the tender mercy of our God whereby the day spring from an high hath visited us 79. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace 80. And the child grew and waxed strong in Spirit and was in the desert till the day of his shewing unto Israel Reason of the Order THE order of this Section may be briefly contrived and illustrated thus Elizabeth when Mary cometh to her was about six months gone with child Luke 1. 26. 36. and about nine months when she departed from her vers 56. She coming to her own house is suspected by Joseph to have played the harlot and is in danger of a secret divorce while these things are thus passing betwixt them two at Nazaret the time of Elizabeths delivery is fully come Harmony and Eplanation Verse 59. They came to circumcise the Child IN Hebron and about the time of Easter was circumcision first ordained Gen. 17. And in the same place and at the same time of the year was John Baptist born and circumcised who was to bring in Baptism in stead of Circumcision as may be apparent by observing the time of the Angel Gabriels appearing and message to his father Zacharias in the preceding Kalendar and it shall be to the full explained and proved hereafter when we come to treat of the time of our Saviours birth § And they called his name Zacharias A thing hardly to be parallel'd again in all the Scripture that a child should be named by the name of his father an extraordinary action in an extraordinary case Because Abraham and Sarah had their new names given them at the giving of circumcision therefore did after-times reserve this custom to name their Children at their circumcising The name was sometime given to the child by the mother but that was ever at the birth and it was upon some weighty and special reason as Gen. 29. 32 33 34 35. and 30. 6
was both the expectation of the Jews and the fear of Herod that he would come with a conquering and victorious temporal Sword and restore them to a pompous Earthly State and expel him out of his Kingdom Now for the Evangelist to have directed in this quotation to look for Christ among the thousands of Juda had backed these Opinions for the term soundeth of War and it had been a direction where likelier to find an earthly Warrier then the Prince of Peace among the thousands or among the Militia And therefore he qualifieth the term to the best satisfaction of Herod and the People Among the Princes There is that saith it might be construed In Princes and not among them and the meaning to be this Thou Bethlehem art not the least in the Princes of Juda that is in breeding or bringing them forth but this relisheth more of wit then solidity and agreeth better with the Latin then with the Greek Original §. For out of thee shall come a Governor The Chaldee readeth it in the Prophet Out of thee shall come Messias and so is it expounded by Rabbi Solomon and David Kimchi And therefore that is most true which is inferred by Lyranus that those Catholicks that interpret it of Ezekiah do more judaize then the Jews themselves Some Jews indeed saith Theophylact do apply this to Zorobabel but as he answereth it is like that Zorobabel was born in Babel and not in Bethlehem And St. Matthew hath plainly taught both Jews and Gentiles to understand it in another sense But here again doth he differ from the Letter of the Prophet but cometh so near the sense that the difference is as no difference at all Vers. 7. Herod privily called the Wisemen Privily For had the Jews heard of his pretences they had so long been acquainted with his policy tyranny and ambition they could readily have descried his mischievousness and spoiled his bloody contrival by better information given to the wisemen §. Enquired diligently of them the time when the Star appeared Had they taken their journy instantly upon the Stars appearing Herod could easily have computed the time by the length of their journy but by this his enquiry it is apparent that they had told him of its appearance at some good space before which in ver 16. is plainly resolved to be two years by the Wisemens own acknowledgment and resolution Vers. 11. Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe The mysterious application of these presents as Myrrham homini uncto aurum c. be left to them that delight and content themselves in such things the plain and easie interpretation of the matter is that they tendred to Christ the chiefest and choicest commodities that their Country could afford which they carried in their treasures as the Text calleth it that is in and among those commodities that the men of those Nations used to carry with them when they travailed especially when they meant to present any one to whom they went as Gen. 24. 53. 1 King 10. 2. Vers. 15. Out of Egypt have I called my Son The two allegations produced here out of the Old Testament this and that out of Jeremy in Rama was a voice heard are of that fulness that they speak of two things a piece and may very fitly be applied unto them both and shew that the one did resemble or prefigure the other as this Text of Hosea aimeth both at the bringing of the Church of Israel in old time and of the head of that Church at this time out of Egypt Then a Joseph nourished his father now a Joseph doth so to his redeemer then was Egypt deadly to every male child that was born now is it a place of refuge and preservation to this child Ver. 18. In Ramah was there a voice heard c. Ramah stood not far from Bethlehem though they were in two Tribes and the cry that the poor Parents and children made in Bethlehem when this matchless butchery was in hand reach't to Ramah and was plainly heard thither Now observe the fulness of this Scripture as it is uttered by the Prophet and as it is applied by the Evangelist It was fulfilled in one kind in the time of Jeremy himself and then was the lamentation and weeping in Ramah it self for hither did Nebuzaradan bring his Prisoners after he had destroyed Jerusalem and there did he dispose of them to the Sword or to Captivity as seemed good unto himself Jer. 40. 1. And imagine what lamentation and crying was then in that City when so many were doomed there either to be slain in that place or to go to Babel never to see their own Land again Then was the cry in Ramah and it was heard no doubt to Bethlehem But now the Prophesie is fulfilled in another kind when Herod destroyeth so many Children in Bethlehem and in the Suburbs and Borders belonging to it And now the cry is in Bethlehem and it is heard to Ramah §. Rachel weeping for her children c. Rachels grave was betwixt Bethlehem and Ramah or at least not far distant from either of them Gen. 35. 16 20. 1 Sam. 10. 2. The Holy Ghost therefore doth elegantly set forth this lamentation by personating Rachel who died in the birth of her Ben-Oni the Son of her sorrow sorrowing for her Sons and Children that were thus massacred And this sheweth that the Text in the Prophet aimeth in the first place and intention at the matter of Nebuzaradan for in Bethlehem Rachel properly had no children at all that City being inhabited by the children of Judah which descended of Leah but in Ramah dwelt Rachels children that being a Town of Ephramites descended from Joseph Howsoever Rachel may be said to weep for the Babes of Bethlehem as her own children though they were not strictly and properly her seed in regard of the interest that she had in all the tribes of Israel as being wife unto their Father as Joseph is often called the Father of Christ being only husband to his mother And see such another phrase Gen. 37. 10. Shall I and thy mother come to bow down before thee Whereas Josephs mother was dead already Vers. 19. But when Herod was dead c. The end of Herod was not long after the massacre of these infants and his bloodiness which he had used all his life long and topped up in the murder of these innocents and in desire to have done as much to the Lord of life the Lord doth now bring upon his own head This matter with the children of Bethlehem we conceive to have been some three months more or less before his end in which space this was his behaviour as may be collected out of Josephus He had slain long before this his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus and now was he about to do as much by his Son Antipater a child too like the Father and one whom he left by will the Successor in his Kingdom Him suspected by him for
far from this kind slay my two sons that is slay two of my sons for Reuben had four sons at this time Gen. 46. 9. these stones be made bread 4. But he answered and said It is written man shall not live by bread alone but by h h h h h h In the Hebr. in Deut. 8. 3. from whence these words are quoted it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By every thing that cometh out of the mouth without any determinate naming of a word but the Chaldee and the Seventy have rendred it by every word that proceedeth or cometh forth and Matthew useth the very words of the Septuagint Luke gives the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than the very construction or translation of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Gods promise Psal. 89. 34. every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the i i i i i i The holy City was the common and ordinary name of Jerusalem as Esay 48. 2. 52. 1. Dan. 9. 27. Nehem. 11. 1. Matth. 27. 53. c. yea even when it was full of all abomination and corruption yea even when the story is relating that it is crucifying Christ as in the place last cited yet is it so called in regard of Gods presence and his worship which he had placed there Separists might do well to meditate a little upon this consideration The shekel of Israel had an inscription on the one side of it carrying this same title though not in the very same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem the holy The Turks own the place by the same name and title at this day and the Papist in the same notion and nature But when that worship and religion and presence of God in them which he himself had planted there was removed then was Jerusalem no more holy than other places nay more accursed for their other abominations and especially for crucifying the Lord of Life And the Lord buildeth up for himself a new holy City a new Jerusalem when the old one is destroyed namely a spiritual building a City not made with hands a Church under the Gospel when that under the Law had undone themselves Rev. 21. 2. c. holy City and setteth him on a k k k k k k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is understood variously but it seemeth to mean the battlements of the Temple wherewithal it was ledged round about as Deut. 22. 8. called there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hedge or inclosure as R. Sol. renders it the Chaldee expresseth it by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a case The Seventy by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Crown The Vulgar and Erasmus use Pinnaculum here as our English doth meaning some spire or broach that shot up from the roof Camerarius indifferently takes it for the top or highest part of the Temple be it pinnacle battlement spire fane or what else it would The Priests used to go to the top of the Temple Talm. in Taanith R. Sol. on Esay 22. 1. pinnacle of the Temple 6. And saith unto him If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down for it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up left at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone 7. Iesus saith unto him It is written again Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God 8. Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them 9. And saith unto him l l l l l l This helpeth to construe the phrase in Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is to be taken for the Realms and Kingdoms themselves which Satan shewed him rather than for the dominion and rule over those Realms For that expression which Matthew useth All the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them of which Satan saith All these things will I give thee Luke uttereth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship o o o o o o The two Evangelists expressions laid together may make this useful result and observation That if to worship before the Devil be to worship the Devil for whereas Matthew saith if thou worship me Luke expresseth it if thou worship before me sure to worship before an Image is to worship an Image whatsoever evasion Popery would make to the contrary or else let it shew a reason of the difference me 10. Then saith Iesus unto him Get thee hence Satan for it is written p p p p p p In the Hebrew in Deut. 6. 13. 10. 20. from whence this citation is taken it is 1. Thou shalt fear the Lord which the Evangelist renders thou shalt worship 2. The word only in the second clause is not extant But first our Saviour applies the Text close to the present occasion for the Devil had perswaded him to worship him and he retorts the Scripture so as to face the temptation most directly and since the fearing of God contains and includes all mans duty towards God be it what it will whether in affection or action and whether in worship or in holy conversation our Saviour doth reduce it to such a particular as was most pertinent and agreeable to the thing in hand And so parallels might be shewed in great variety where one place of Scripture citing another it doth not retain the very words of the portion cited but doth sometime change the expression to fit the occasion as Matth. 2. 23. translates Netzer a branch in Esay 11. 1. A man of Nazareth And that which is sorrows in Esay 53. 4. he hath rendred sickness Matth. 8. 17. because he is there discoursing of Christs healing diseases And divers more of this nature will the Reader take up by his own observation so that it is needless to insist upon examples Secondly Although the word only be not in the Hebrew Text yet is it in the Septuagint in the place first cited and it is most ordinary for the Evangelists to follow that copy And that translation hath warrantably added it seeing as Beza well observeth so much is included in the emphatical particle him and is also understood by comparing other places Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve 11. Then the Devil leaveth him and behold Angels came and ministred unto him St. MARK CHAP. I. AND immediately the Spirit a a a a a a Each Evangelist hath his peculiar expression and each expression its peculiar meaning though some Translators do not much mind their differences as the Syriack that useth the same word in Matthew and Luke and the Arabick the same in Matthew and Mark only either of them take it actively in the one and passively in the other 1. Luke saith
Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his Disciples believed on him 12. After this he went down to h h h h h h Josephus calleth this Town Cepharnome For in his relation of his own life he tells that he had a fall from his horse and got a bruise and was carried into the Town called Cepharnome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this proper name is compounded of two words Cephar and Naum Now that Cephar signifieth a village it is undoubted for the word occurreth several times in that sense in the Old Testament 1 Samuel 6. 18. 1 Chron. 27. 28. Nehemiah 6. 2. c. But whether the latter word Naum were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is some doubtfulness The Hebrew Map of Canaan writes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Town of Nahum or the Town of Consolation which name suited very well with it now when Christ had his habitation in it but it is commonly supposed that it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Town of Beauty because of the pleasant situation of it on the banks of Gennesaret and because of the beauty of the buildings of the Town it self Capernaum he and his mother and his brethren and his Disciples and they continued there not many days Christs first Passover after his Baptism 13. And the Iews Passover was at hand and Iesus went up to Ierusalem 14. And found in the Temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of mony sitting 15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords he drove them all out of the Temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers mony and overthrew the tables 16. And said unto them that sold doves Take these things hence make not my Fathers house an house of merchandize 17. And his Disciples remembred that it was written The zeal of thine House hath eaten me up 18. Then answered the Iews and said unto him What sign shewest thou unto us seeing that thou dost these things 19. Iesus answered and said unto them Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up 20. Then said the Iews Forty and six years i i i i i i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word may be construed two ways either was in building or hath been built And there may be some doubtfulness whether way to six the construction in regard of the doubtfulness of whether Temple the Jews speak here whether of that that was built by Zorobabel upon the return of the people of the Jews out of captivity or that that was built by Herod the great When we come to explain the verse it will appear how fairly the word may be construed and understood either the one way or the other and how fitly in these several constructions it may be applyed to these several Temples that have been mentioned And there if we can we will fix it to its proper meaning and to the Jews meaning and intention in these words was this Temple in building and wilt thou rear it up in three days 21. But he spake of the Temple of his body 22. When therefore he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them and they believed the Scripture and the word which Iesus had said 23. Now when he was in Ierusalem at the Passover in the Feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did 24. But Iesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men 25 And needed not that any should testifie of man for he knew what was in man Reason of the Order THERE need not any words nor much pains to confirm the order and connexion of this Chapter with that that went before nor the conjunction of these stories of this Chapter one to another For the words on the third day used in the very front of the Chapter do so plainly tye it to the preceding that there needeth no more to be said of it And the transition of the story from Cana to Capernaum and from Capernaum to the Passover at Jerusalem is so clear that he that runneth may read the connexion and none can make any doubt or scruple at all of it Only when it is said in vers 12. After this he went down to Capernaum it is to be understood with some stay made before in Galilee as shall be shewed at the explanation of the verse Harmony and Explanation Verse 1. NOT to be too curious in finding out reasons why Christ should work his first miracle at a marriage and why by transforming water into wine about which business some Expositors have been needlesly industrious these particulars cannot be passed over without observation they are so obvious and emergent out of the thing it self 1. That as marriage was the first institution that God ordained so at a marriage was the first miracle that our Saviour wrought 2. That as he had shewed himself miraculous but a little while ago in an extraordinary fast so doth he now by an extraordinary provision for a feast 3. That though he refused to turn stones into bread to satisfie his own hunger because it would have been for the satisfaction of Satan yet doth he not refuse to turn water into wine to make up the full festivity at a marriage because it would be for the shewing forth of his own glory 4. That as the first miracle that was wrought in the world by man was transformation Exod. 7. 9 20. so is the first miracle that was wrought by the Son of man and he worketh no more of the same nature 5. That as the first time you hear of John Baptist in his publick Ministery ye hear of his strict diet and that he cometh neither eating nor drinking so the first time ye hear of Christ towards his publick Ministry ye hear of him at a marriage feast and turning water into wine 6. If any will observe from his being at this marriage feast that he honoured marriage and allowed of moderate and sober feasting Or 7. if from this and his turning water into wine any will think of the marriage of Christ and his Church and of things changed into a better condition under the Gospel and of the Elements of the Gospel-Sacraments water and wine he hath liberty if he can find any profit in such observations But how Christs being present at this marriage should discharge marriage of the disorders wherein it was before by divorces re-marriages polygamies and so make Christian marriage a Sacrament as the Rhemists note upon this place is a thing so far fetcht that it is an argument only fit for Papists that have such an implicit faith as to believe any thing And if one should have questioned the Rhemists did not Christ by being present at this and other feasts discharge feasts also of their disorders of drunkenness excess and vanity and make Christian feasting a
birth of his mother to conduce to it For if Christ did use an undoubted word to signifie from above and Nicodemus did undoubtedly understand him to speak of being born from above yet certainly he could not understand it of being born from Heaven locally any more than when he saith that Christ was sent from God he understood that locally too which none will say he did And then if he did not understand this birth from above locally his answer though indeed improper in it self yet is as proper to that phrase of being born from above as to the other of being born again from above he cannot b b b b b b To see the Kingdom of God is to enter into it vers 5. or to partake of it as to see corruption Psal. 16. 10. to see Death Luke 2. 26. Joh. 8. 51. to see evil Psal. 90. 15. to see sorrow Rev. 18. 7. to see good Eccles. 6. 6. c. is to be in these estates or to partake of them See vers 36. To see life is to have life see the Kingdom of God 4. Nicodemus saith unto him How can a man be born c c c c c c Being old So is the Greek verbatim and being so rendred it leaveth the matter less scrupulous than being expressed when he is old for that might seem to restrain the new birth ever till a man be old The Syrian hath kept close to the sense given Can an old man be born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being old Can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born 5. Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 7. Marvel not that I said unto thee d d d d d d Except a man be born in ver 3. is here explained Ye must be born And so doth not only shew a command included in a doctrinal lesson but also that the words We and Ye are sometimes to be taken indefinitely though they seem only to speak of a fixed number And so in vers 2. We know that thou art a Teacher the word we must be so taken compare Matth. 5. 3 4 5. c. where it is said blessed are they with Luke 6. 20 21. where blessed are ye Ye must be born again 8. The e e e e e e The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used hath been understood by some for the holy Spirit which word indeed is used constantly for it in the Scripture and some of that opinion have strengthened themselves in it by this because a voluntary action is ascribed unto it It bloweth where it listeth which cannot be ascribed say they unto the wind The word indeed in the Greek is of various signification as is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew and as it doth very commonly and very properly signifie the eternal Spirit the Holy Ghost and the created Spirits Angels and the souls of men so doth it also the sensible Spirits the breath of our mouths and the wind of Heaven In this last sense which is the sense that we have in hand it is taken by the Septuagint Gen. 8. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord brought a wind over the Earth And 1 King 18. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a mighty strong wind c. but the Lord was not in the wind c. And so doth Aristotle confess that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. de Mund. And in that sense do Cyrill Chrysostome Theophylact his mouth and other of the Fathers take it here For 1. otherwise here would be no comparison which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So doth shew there is And to take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the holy Spirit in the beginning of the verse as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter end is to be taken in that sense would make a very harsh and rugged construction 2. It is very improper to say that Nicodemus now had heard the sound or voice of the Holy Ghost being as he was yet so far to seek in the things of Salvation And 3. whereas it is said the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bloweth where it listeth as if a voluntary action were ascribed to it it is but such another speech as when the Sun is said to know his going down Psal. 104. 19. Now there is as little knowledge in the Sun as there is voluntariness in the wind unless with the Jews we will hold the Sun Moon and Stars to be intellectual creatures and yet such an expression is used of it for elegancy and fulness of expression wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit 9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him How can these things be 10. Iesus answered and said unto him Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things 11. Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen and ye receive not our witness 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things 13. And no man hath ascended up into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth in him should no perish but have eternal life 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved 18. He that believeth on him is not condenined but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God 19. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil 20. For every one that g g g g g g By this he expresseth the Hebrew phrase so common in the Old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which is used generally of all the Kings of Israel and of too many of the Kings of Judah He did evil in the sight of the Lord. doth evil hateth light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved 21. But he that h h h h h h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gen. 24. 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be manifest
that they are wrought in God 22. ¶ After these things came Iesus and his Disciples into the i i i i i i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is into Judea country meaning in opposition to Judea City For the story next before of the conference with Nicodemus came to pass and was acted in Jerusalem and there had Christ kept the Passover and done divers miracles and stayed some time and after these things mentioned before saith the Evangelist Jesus leaveth the City and goeth into the Country leaveth the chief City of Judea and goeth into the Country of Judea for to this sense do the Evangelists words mean if they be taken up at large And therefore I see no reason why Beza should confine this place to the country that lay near Jerusalem translating it Judeae territorium and expounding it to that sense Nor do I see that it is any such great matter as he makes it to give a reason of this unusual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 country of Iudea and there he tarried with them and baptized 23. And Iohn also was baptizing k k k k k k Aenon The Syriack and Arab read it in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some would have to mean the Well of the Greeks as if in the times of the Grecian and Syro-Grecian Monarchies some Greeks had digged and laid up these waters we shall enquire after this place in the exposition of the verse in Aenon near to Salim because there was much f Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The voice thereof For even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things without life are said to yield a voice 1 Cor. 14. 7 8. As blood Gen. 4. 10. waters Psal. 93. 3. miracles Exod. 4. 8. thunder Rev. 19. 6. c. And whereas the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth indifferently signifie either an articulate voice or any other sound the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also used very commonly in the Scripture to the same signification and extent water there and they came and were baptized 24. For Iohn was not yet cast into prison 25. l Therefore there was a question of Iohns disciples with the Iews about purifying 26. And they came unto Iohn and said unto him Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Iordan to whom thou barest witness behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him 27. Iohn answered and said A man can receive nothing except it be given him from Heaven 28. Ye your selves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ but I am sent before him 29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoyceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice This my joy thorefore is fulfilled 30. He must increase but I must decrease 31. He that cometh from above is above all he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth he that cometh from above is above all 32. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony 33. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true 34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him 35. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Reason of the Order THE subsequence and jointing of this story of Nicodemus unto that which is recorded in the latter end of the second Chapter of Christs doing many miracles at Jerusalem at the Passover is so apparent out of Nicodemus his own words ver 2. and out of the words of the Evangelist ver 22. that it needeth no proof and evidence but only to point at these verses for the proving of it Yet that we may observe both the connexion of this Chapter with the former and also the times and juncture of this Chapter within it self let us view it a little at large and take our prospect from the three and twentieth verse of the second Chapter Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover on the Feast day many believed in his name when they saw the miracles that he did This feast day at the Passover may best be conceived to be the first day of the festival week or the day after the Passover was eaten for on that day was the appearance of the people in the Court of the Temple as the Law appointed that thrice every year they should appear before the Lord. For that appearing mentioned in the Law saith Rambam was that every one appear in the Court the first holy day of the festival and bring an offering In Hagg. per. 1. On that day therefore the concourse of the people being the greatest it is most proper to suppose that Christ began to shew himself in his miraculous power as he had done a day or two before in his Prophetick zeal in driving the market out of the Temple What miracles they were that he wrought is not mentioned it is most rational and most agreeable to his workings afterward to hold that it was healing of diseases and casting our Devils but whatsoever the miracles were for particular and distinctive quality the power shewed in them was so great that it made Nicodemus confess and others acknowledge that none could do such but a teacher come from God and it made the Galileans who were spectators now to receive him when he came amongst them afterward Joh. 4. 45. Such works had never been done in their sight till now and they had never had such miraculous spectacles at their appearances before and so he shewed them at once that it is not in vain to wait upon God in his appointments and that the great Prophet was come among them and yet on that very day come three years they put him to death Nicodemus undoubtedly was a spectator and witness of what was done and so the Syriack translator seemeth to conclude when he rendreth the beginning of this Chapter thus Now there was one of the Pharisees named Nicodemus there and so his own words seem to argue as spoken not upon hearsay but upon ocular witness we know thou art a teacher come from God for none can do such miracles c. He having seen those wondrous workings by day came to Jesus that night as may in most probability be conjectured and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very properly rendred in such a definite and determinate construction For there can be no doubt but he would come with the first conveniency he could being taken with those miracles and desiring to have some communication with Christ and not knowing how soon he might be getting out of Town However if he did not come that night yet doubtless he would delay as
with Christ near upon half a year seen his miracles heard his Doctrine and never been from him and therefore it is not imaginable but that they had learned exceeding much concerning Christ and the Gospel and it cannot be conceived but they would be uttering and publishing those things And so the whole verse may be understood in much facility to this sense I and these my Disciples that do and whosoever shall preach these things of the Kingdom of God speak things known and tried not as your Doctors do that teach you know not what and yet thou and the rest of thy judgment and opinion will not intertain and believe our Doctrine Christ and his Disciples had known and seen he al-knowing and they in experience the reality and truth of the New birth and divers other mysteries of the Kingdom of God but how is his taxation of the others unbelief proper upon this ground when they were as ignorant or knew as little that he and they had known and seen these things as they were ignorant of the things themselves Answ. 1. He speaks this in that style of opposition that was mentioned before Ye are believed though ye teach ye know not what and yet will not ye believe us that know and have seen what we teach 2. He seemeth to allude to that that was taken for a competent witness before any of the Judicatories for he is speaking to one that was a Judge in the highest Court and that was this that the witness saw and knew the fact Lev. 5. 1. And is a witness whether he hath seen or known of it if he spake upon certain knowledge or sight his witness was intertained but we speak what we know and testifie what we have seen but ye receive not our witness 3. Nicodemus had confessed Christs miracles to be most admirable and divine and therefore Christ might very well conclude that he would also give weight unto his words and acknowledge the truth of this that he spake though he knew not the certainty of it upon his own knowledge and experience Vers. 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not c. By earthly things divers understand diversly Some conceive Christs speech to look so far back as to his discourse with the people at Jerusalem at the Passover about building up of the Temple in three days and that his words do result to this sense It is no wonder that thou dost not believe this high mysterious doctrine of Regeneration when the Jews could not entertain that more facil and plain Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Messias on the third day Others retaining the same opinion that heavenly and earthly things do signifie the difference of more sublime and more facil doctrines do expound it thus If ye believe not these plain and first rudiments of the Doctrine of the Gospel namely about Regeneration how will you believe those high and sublime mysteries about the eternal generation of the Son the procession of the Holy Ghost c But the most received construction of these words is this If ye believe not when I speak to you in a plain and low style and explain things by earthly comparisons as Gal. 3. 15. How will you believe if I should teach the great things of salvation in their own abstract and simple notions lingua Angelorum as Grotius expresseth it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the common Rabbinick Maxime The Lord speaketh in the Scripture in such expressions as best suit with the capacity of the hearers that they may understand for the simple abstract Doctrines of Divinity are too hard for dull apprehensions Christ is discoursing with Nicodemus about the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Gospel state He first teacheth him about denying of his birth priviledge from Abraham and about the Doctrine of Baptism by which a man is brought into that visible Gospel-state And now saith Christ If you believe not when I tell you of the earthly things of the Kingdom of Heaven that is those things that are most visible and apparent to be understood how will you believe if I should speak of the high things of the Kingdom the incarnation righteousness by Faith peace and joy in the Holy Ghost c Vers. 13. And no man hath ascended up into Heaven c. To clear the conjuncture of these words with the preceding is of some difficulty and that hath caused variety of guesses upon it Some tie them not to the last words of all but to some that lie a great way off namely to Nicodemus first words to our Saviour in verse 2. Whereby he sheweth that he took Christ only for a Prophet Now these words of this verse satisfie him say they against that bare opinion when Christ telleth him that he is not as the Prophets were who indeed were sent of God but never were off the earth but lived continually upon it but he himself came down from Heaven c. Others that do tie them to the very last words preceding do give them in this sense and juncture How will you believe if I speak unto you heavenly things And yet if I should speak such things I deserve to be believed because I came down from Heaven and though none ever preached such things before me nor though I can produce no witnesses with me of what I speak yet am I to be believed because though no man had been in Heaven yet I have been there for I came thence c. Others conceive that they fall in with the last words thus that whereas in the former verse he had spoken of uttering heavenly things he comes on now and doth speak of some such things as namely of his two natures in this verse and of Salvation by his passion and Faith in him in the next Other conjectures at this matter might be alleadged which are severally made but they shall be spared and we will fall upon the words themselves and hearken after their meaning and connexion with the former by the observation of these three things 1. That in all the words of Christ following to the end of his speech viz. to vers 22. his main aim is apparently this namely to shew that he is set up as the object of Faith or he who is to be believed and to be believed in and by believing in whom everlasting life is to be obtained as this scope is most plain in verse 14 15 16. 18. 2. That by the phrase No man hath ascended his meaning is No man can ascend into Heaven as No man hath seen God at any time Joh. 1. 18. meaneth No man hath seen him or can see him 1 Tim. 6. 16. Who hath known the mind of the Lord Rom. 11. 34. meaneth his ways are unsearchable and his Judgments past finding out ver 33. and who can know them c. 3. That Ascending into Heaven is intended to the same purpose and sense with that in Deut. 30.
speak of these properties indifferently without restriction of them to the one nature or the other 4. That when it doth so speak of them it doth it not in abstracto as ascribing the properties of the Godhead to the manhood or of the manhood to the Godhead but in concreto and in reference to the whole person as ascribing the properties of the one nature not to the other but to him that carried the other nature and under the title that related to that nature As it is never said that the glorious Godhead was crucified for that is nothing short of blasphemy and that were to ascribe to the Divine Nature a property or infirmity of the Humane which it is utterly uncapable of but it is said that the Lord of Glory was crucified applying the property of the manhood not to the Godhead but to the person that was God and under that title that refers to the Godhead as meaning that he that was the Lord of Glory was crucified So it were meer blasphemous to say that the Godhead with its own blood did purchase the Church but it is divinely said that God with his own blood did purchase it Act. 20. 28. To have and to shed it blood was proper only to the manhood and not to the Godhead and yet it is ascribed not to the Godhead in the abstract but personally and in concreto to him that was God And according to this sense is this place in hand to be understood The Son of man which is in Heaven He saith not the manhood which is in Heaven for that was not there till Christ ascended bodily but he meaneth that he that was man or the Son of man was also in Heaven whilest he was talking with Nicodemus upon earth Vers. 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness c. In the former verse Christ sheweth that he is to be believed because none could fetch the heavenly Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven from Heaven but himself In this verse and forward he sheweth that he is to be believed in and that not only the believing him was to be the ground of knowledge but that believing in him is the only way of Salvation And this Doctrine he illustrates by that type of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness where the very looking upon the Serpent lifted up was healing to any that were stung nay as the Rabbins upon that story will have it to any that was wounded or hurt by any beast whatsoever The story is in Numb 21. and the occurrence was in the last year of their travail in the wilderness and the biting of the fiery Serpents was the last visible means that God used for the cutting off of the remnant of that Generation upon which he had passed a decree and sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest For we have no more related of them till they be passed over the river Zared but only that they removed to Oboth to lie Abarim and so over that River Numb 21. 10 11 12. And by that time all the Generation of the men of War were consumed as the Lord had sworn Deut. 2. 14. And this miracle wrought in the matter of the Brazen Serpent was the last miracle that was done in the hand of Moses whilest he lived And so his first and last miracle was about serpents compare Exod. 4. 3. That Christ when he speaketh here of his lifting up intendeth his being lift up upon his cross is apparent not only out of Joh. 8. 28. and Joh. 12. 32 33. where the same expression is used clearly to that sense but also out of this very comparison that he doth propose from the Brazen Serpent for he saith as that was lift up so must he be lift up now that was lift up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which R. Sol. interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon a pole or upon a post and so is Christs lifting up here to be understood upon his Cross. It is the general observation of the Jews upon that story 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were plagued by Serpents because they had done the actions of the old Serpent in using an evil tongue against God and Moses and Manna R. Tanch and Baal Turim c. Let the Serpent come saith God who was cursed for an evil tongue and be avenged on them for their evil Tongue R. Solomon How ever there was such a parallel betwixt their present sin and the old sin of the Serpent certainly there is a most sweet Harmony and parallel between the manner of their cure and the fruit of Christ crucified The Brazen Serpent was lifted up so was Christ that was the likeness of a cursed creature so Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh was made a curse for us that by Faith in him we might be cured of the wounds given us of the spiritual Serpent as these by looking upon that were healed of the venemous bitings of those corporal ones what a Doctrine of Faith was in that story and occurrence The Talmud in Rosh hashanah applies it thus What Could that Serpent kill or recover But at what time Israel looked upward and humbled their hearts before their Father which is in Heaven they were healed but if not they were brought low Per. 3. Vers. 15. That whosoever believeth in him c. This is a new and strange doctrine to Nicodemus to hear of obtaining everlasting life by believing in another whereas he had been taught all his life to expect it by the works of the Law and by performances of his own But for this Christ giveth him so plain a demonstration and argument from that story and effect of looking upon the Brazen Serpent that he cannot find wherewithal to gainsay it And so is the other part of Christs Doctrine somewhat new to Nicodemus also to hear tell of whosoever believing should obtain Salvation and that God did so love the world that he gives his only Son c. For he had dreamed with the rest of the Nation of Salvation only belonging to the Jews and of the Messias only coming to the Jews and as for the rest of the world that it was utterly unregarded and neglected of God and the people of the Nations but dogs and swine Vers. 16. For God so loved the World Some Expositors are of a mind that these are the words of the Evangelist and not a continuation of the Speech of our Saviour which is not much material whether they be apprehended for the words of the one or of the other but they appear rather to be a continuation of our Saviours speech their connexion with the words before it so close and their sense so near and making up the sense of the former The verse calls for a hearty meditation upon it rather than for a verbal explication of it for as there is no difficulty in the words but their sense is easily understood so is there abundance of
some apprehend it but that we find not the Evangelist speaking of the Sabbath but in the proper sense By Sabbath therefore in these words is to be understood the Sabbatism of the day as well as the very day it self and on the same day was the Sabbath 10. The Iews therefore said unto him that was cured It is the Sabbath day it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed 11. He answered them He that made me whole the same said unto me Take up thy bed and walk 12. Then asked they him What man is that which said unto thee Take up thy bed and walk 13. And he that was healed wist not who it was for Iesus f f f f f f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word by some Expositors is made of a questionable derivation whether from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter is the more undoubted both as better suiting with the sense of the place and having also its parallel in the Old Testament as 2 King 23. 16. And as Josiah turned himself he saw the graves c. The Septuaginâ— have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So Jesus when he had done his cure upon the man turned himself away and was gone Having picked out this long diseased man to do his work upon and not minding in his wisdom to heal any more nor to be observed by the multitude more than he must needs What brought the concourse together in this place is somewhat hard to find Jerusalem was now full of people it being the Passover and whether these cloisters were full of the poorer sort that had come up to the feast and could not find better accomodation of lodging for themselves who can tell whether they were not built for such a purpose or whether the multitude had followed Jesus thither or gathered thither upon the report of the maâ—s recovering be it left to those to think upon that desire to be resolved of it had conveyed himself away a multitude being in that place 14. Afterward Iesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee 15. The man departed and told the g g g g g g The Jews that is the Sanhedrin or the Rulers for so it is very common with the Evangelists especially with this to mean by that expression as Chap. 1. 19. The Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem Chap. 7. 1. The Jews sought to kill him Chap. 9. 22. The Jews had agreed to put out of the Synagogue c. Chap. 18. 12. The Officers of the Jews took Jesus vers 14. Now Caiaphas was he that gave Counsel to the Jews c. So that Christ is here convented before the Sanhedrin although the Evangelist hath not expressed so much totidem verbis and is put to answer for his life about the violation of the Sabbath which they laid to his charge upon what he had done and commanded to the man that he had recovered Iews that it was Iesus which had made him whole 16. And therefore did the Iews persecute Iesus and sought to slay him because he had done those things on the Sabbath day 17. But Iesus answered them My Father worketh hitherto and I work 18. Therefore the Iews sought the more to kill him not only because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God 19. Then answered Iesus and said unto them Verily verily I say unto you The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doth those also doth the Son likewise 20. 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 marvail 21. For as the Father raised up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will 22. For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son 23. That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life 25. Verily verily I say unto you 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 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also h h h h h h Some divide this seven and twentieth verse and joyn the latter part of it because he is the Son of man to the verse following and read it in this sense and juncture Because he is the Son of man Marvail not at this that is Marvail not at this that I speak although ye see me to be a man c. And thus readeth the Syriack and Chrysostome and some that follow him And Chrysostome the rather upon this ground because Paulus Samosatenus abused the verse pointed as we have it to the denial of the Godhead of Christ making this argument upon it If authority to execute judgment was given to Christ because he was the son of man then had he not this power of himself as God To which Chrysostome gave this answer If the Father gave authority of judging unto the Son upon this ground and reason because he was man then by the same reason all men should have the same authority for they are men likewise And so it appeareth that he was strained to point the verse as he did joyning that clause Because he is the Son of man to the verse following that he might avoid the dint of the Hereticks argument which had been more fairely fenced against and without straining the Text had the term The Son of man been cautelously interpreted and the dispensations of the Father to the Son as he was the Messias observed As for the pointing that we follow joyning the clause Because he is the Son of man to the words preceding and not to those that follow it is plainly cleared and asserted by the very sense and construction of the place it self And with all it hath this consent and concurrence of antiquity Augustinus eam distinctionem sequitur quam ille Chrysost. Samosateno tribuit they are the words of Beza ut plane appareat Latinam Ecclesiam semper ita legisse Consentiunt veteres omnes Graeci codices quos vidimus Cyrillus quoque non aliter distinguit To which I may add Nec aliter distinguit Arabs for the Arabick pointeth also as we do because he is the son of man 28. Marvail not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are
doth hereby more clearly open that mystery of God in Christ than if he had spoken only of believing himself or only of believing the Father 2. There are some that conceive that he speaketh of believing him that sent him rather than of believing him himself that by this humble reference of all to God he might make his speech more accceptable to the hearers 3. Compare this passage with Exod. 20. 19. and Deut. 18. 16 17 18. His expression of passing from death to life seemeth to refer either to the doom upon Adams not hearkening to the voice of God thou shalt die the death or to the codition under which every man is left by the Law namely under a curse from which hearkning to the voice of the Gospel is deliverance Or it may be it is spoken in some parallel to the case of the man healed for he by hearkening to the Word of Christ received health of body so whosoever heareth his Word obtains life of the Soul And thus doth Christ still make good the word that he had spoken to the man for a dispensation with the Sabbath and argueth that he might do such a thing because he was to give the Law and Word of the New Testament as the Father had done of the Old and sheweth that though violation of the Sabbath deserved and had been punished with death yet obedience to his Word and Command was discharge and a passing from death to life Vers. 25. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God c. 1. These words are most generally understood as aiming at those dead that Christ raised by his voyce or word to life again as saying to Jairus daughter Talitha Kumi to the widdows son of Naim Young man arise and to Lazarus Lazarus come forth And being taken in such a relation the connexion of them to the words going immediately before lyeth thus Christ had spoken there of his spiritual reviving whosoever should believe his Word and here he either produceth a proof and evidence of what he had there spoken or else alledgeth it as another wonder and virtue of his power that by his voyce he would raise those that were bodily deceased And he ascribeth this reviving to the hearing of his voyce partly because he had ascribed the spiritual reviving to the hearing of his Word and partly to distinguish his rasing of those dead from the raising of those that were revived under the Old Testament for they were not raised by a word but by other applications 1 King 17. 21. 2 King 4. 34. 13. 21. 2. It was the opinion of the Jews that there should be a resurrection in the days of Messias The Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth Hos. 6. 2. thus He will revive us in the days of consolation Luke 2. 25. which are to come in the day of the Resurrection of the dead And Hos. 14. 8. thus They shall be gathered out of their captivity they shall sit under the shadow of their Messias and the dead shall revive and good shall be multiplyed on the Earth And Esay 49. 9. I give thee for a Covenant to the people to raise the righteous that lye in the dust And Kimchi on Esay 26. 19. The Holy blessed God will raise the dead at the time of deliverance And in Jer. 23. 20. In that he saith Ye shall consider it and not They shall consider it it intimateth the Resurrection of the dead in the days of the Messias And on Ezek. 37. It may be God shewed Ezekiel the vision of the dead bones reviving to signifie to him that he would raise the dead of Israel at the time of deliverance that they also might see the deliverance Ab. Ezr. in Dan. 12. 2. The righteous that dyed in the captivity shall revive when the Redeemer cometh c. And this was so far the opinion of the Nation that they understood the term The World to come of the state of glory and yet of the days of Messias as shall be shewed when we meet with that phrase Now there was a Resurrection in the days of the Messias accordingly not only of those three that have been named but also of divers Saints whose graves were opened and bodies arose Mat. 27. 52. And if the words that we have in hand be applyed to the raising of dead in a bodily sense they may most properly be pointed to that Resurrection which was so parellel to the expectation of the Jews and Christ asscribing such a matter to himself doth prove himself to be the Messias even they and their own opinion being Judges 3. But the raising of the dead is taken in Scripture also in a borrowed sense namely for the reviving and quickning of those that were dead in trespasses and sins c. as Ephes. 2. 1. And that sense doth seem more agreeable to this place because our Saviour in the verse before doth apparently speak of such spiritual reviving The calling in of the Gentiles to the Gospel is called a Resurrection in divers places of the Scripture as Esa. 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my Body they shall rise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out her dead What dead these are that were to rise with Christs body from the dead is not so much intimated in that passage of the Evangelist The bodies of divers Saints arose Matth. 27. 52. as in that saying of our Saviour There shall no sign be given them but the sign of Jonah the Prophet By which he doth not only signifie his own death and Resurrection but he doth also gall the Jews with an intimation of the calling of the Gentiles upon his Resurrection as the Ninivites were called upon Jonahs Resurrection out of the grave of the Whales belly And that dew of his that should inliven men as the dew doth herbs is the dew of the Doctrine of the Gospel as Deut. 32. 2. And so likewise Hos. 6. 2. speaketh to the very same tenor of Christs raising the dead in a spiritual sense upon his own Resurrection which was on the third day And so is the Resurrection in Ezek. 37. plainly expounded in that very chapter to be in a spiritual sense and so the Apostle construes it Rom. 11. 15. Amd the calling of the Gentiles is styled the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 5. c. That Christ meaneth the dead and the raising of the dead in this sense in this place might be argued upon these observations 1. Because throughout his speech hitherto and some steps further the scope of his discourse is namely to prove his all powerful rule and disposal of the affairs under the Gospel equal to what the Father had under the Law of which the calling of the Gentiles was one of the most eminent and remarkable 2. Because as was said before his very last words preceding were of passing
couples for breed and the odd one for Adams sacrifice upon his fall but of unclean only one couple for the propagation of the kind Vers. 26. Man created by the Trinity about the third hour of the day or nine of the clock in the morning CHAP. II. The three first verses that treat of the institution of the Sabbath are according to their proper Order of time to be taken in at the end of the third chapter Vers. 4. c. On the morning of the sixth day a mist that had gone up from the Earth fell down upon it again in rain or dew and watered the Earth with which watering the trees and plants budded to maturity in a trice this dew being as a natural cause thereof yet the effect being withal exceeding supernatural because â—o speedy Vers. 7. Of the dust of the Earth thus watered God created the body of man and to this the Psalmist alludeth The dew of thy youth Psal. 110. 3. And into that Earth so prepared he breatheth the Spirit of Life and Grace Ephes. 4. 24. Vers. 10. Eden watered by a river that overflowed it once a year after the manner of Nilus and Jordan Chap. 13. 10. To Adam thus created and made Lord of the creature the Lord himself bringeth the creatures to receive their names which he giveth to them agreeable to their natures and that at the first sight shewing at once his dominion over them and his wisdom among them all he seeth no fit match for himself but by seeing every one of them mated and that they came before him by pairs he is brought to be sensible of his own want of a fellow which thereupon God provideth for him out of his own body of a rib which part of him might best be spared And thus the Creation endeth in the making of the woman CHAP. III. The woman thinking it had been a good Angel that spake in the trunk of the Serpent she entreth communication with the Devil who perceiving her both to add and to diminish to and from the Commandment that was given them groweth the more impudent to tempt and seduceth her by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as 1 John 2. 16. And she perswadeth her husband and so they both are fallen on the very same day that they are created Gen. 9. 1 2 3. Psal. 49. 12. Christ is promised before the man and the woman are censured and they are questioned also before they be sentenced but so was not Satan for God had mercy in store for them but none for him The curse is not upon man himself but upon the Earth to teach him to set his affections on things above and not on the cursed ground and not to look for an earthly Kingdom of Christ on this Earth which the Lord hath cursed Adam apprehendeth and layeth hold upon the promise by Faith and in evidence of this his faith he calleth his wives name Eve or Life because she was to be the mother of Christ according to the flesh by whom life should come and of all believers that by faith should live in him for an outward sign and seal of this his Faith and for a further and more lively expression of the same God teacheth him the rite of sacrifice to lay Christ dying before his eyes in a visible figure And with the skins of the sacrificed beasts God teacheth him and his wife to cloath their bodies And thus the first thing that dieth in the world is Christ in a figure At the end of this third chapter imagine the three first verses of Chap. 2. concerning the Sabbath to be observed to come in and suppose the texture of the story to lye thus Adam thus fallen censured recovered instructed and expelled Eden on the sixth day the next day following he by Gods appointment keepeth for a Sabbath or an holy rest and spendeth it only in divine duties Now the reason why it standeth in the place where it doth Chap. 2. Is partly because Moses would lay the seven days or the first week of the world altogether without interposition and partly because he would shew by setting it before Adams fall that had he persisted in innocency yet must he have observed a Sabbath The seventh day or Sabbath is not bounded in the Text with the same limits that the other days are for it is not said of it as it was of them The Evening and the Morning were the seventh day because a time should come when it should have a new beginning and end and though to the Jews it was from Even to Even yet from the beginning it was not so expressed CHAP. IV. Cain and Abel twins of one birth and first was born he that was natural and after he that was spiritual The faith of Abel appeared in the very materials of his sacrifice it being of slain beasts and so a representation of the death of Christ for this it is fired from Heaven and Cain's is not though his dry ears of Corn were materials far more combustible Cain and Abel were both their own Priests for it cannot be proved that Sacrifices were ever offered but upon emergent occasions till the Law fixed it for a common service and he that had such an occasion had liberty to be his own Priest even under the Law as it appeareth by Gedeon Manoah c. and then much more was that liberty before The word Sin in vers 7. seemeth rather to signifie an offering or attonment for sin than punishment For first God cometh not to deject Cain lower than he was but to raise him from his dejection as it appeareth both by his deigning to give him an Oracle from Heaven and also by the words wherewith he beginneth Secondly If the words Sin lieth at the door intend suddain Judgment ready to devour him what dependance can the words following have with these If thou do not well thou shalt certainly be punished and thy brothers desire shall be subject to thee for this were to threaten poor Abel more or at least as much as Cain Thirdly The Original word Chateath as it signifies Sin so also doth it the sacrifice for sin as Hos. 4. 8. 2 Cor. 5. 21. And all along Leviticus and it was the custom according to which Moses speaketh as best known to lay the Sacrifice at the Sanctuary door Vers. 14. Cain sensible of his punishment though he was not of his sin beggeth of God that he might die to ease him of it Therefore let any one that findeth me kill me but this God denyeth to him reserving him to a lingring punishment and Cain being assured of long life giveth himself to all sensuality to sweeten it as much as he can and this is the way of Cain Jud. vers 11. Vers. 23. Lamech in horrour of Conscience for his Polygamy which now began to be examplary to the general corruption of the world acknowledgeth his sin seventy times greater than
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
your King and the frame or disposal of your Images in one compact piece the stars of your Gods which you have made to your selves shewing that when they would worship all the host of heaven in Images and representations that they made a fabrick and compacture in one bulk or in one room representing in several fashions and forms in it the several planets and constellations of Heaven and this he calleth Chijun Tsalmekem the ordering or disposing of your Images See 2 King 23. 4 5. V. Now for the word Remphan in which lieth the most obscurity of all many conjectures are given upon it The Seventie hath rendred Chijun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mistaking one piece of a letter as it is conceived by Buxtorfius and reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza conceiveth it was purposely done for that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Giant is to be understood Hercules and yet he scrupleth whether it should not be rather read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as aiming at the God of the Syrians 2 King 5. 18. But not to insist upon producing such variety of conjectures upon this matter which are to be seen in several authors it seemeth to me 1. that Stephen doth something follow the Seventy in this word as well as he doth in the rest of the Text and for the new Testament to follow them differently from the Hebrew Text is no wonder and needeth nothing to be said upon it 2. That Stephen doth add a letter to the word or doth a little change it from those very Syllables that the Septuagint use that he might give the sense of the Prophet the more clearly and speak out the matter he hath in hand the more plainly And the word Remphan seemeth to be compounded either of an Hebrew and a Greek word or of two Hebrew words together and to mean either the high shiner of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the high representation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latter the more probable For as the Prophet in the word Chijun expressed the Fabrick of the host of heaven which the Idolatrous people had wrought and represented in one piece so would Stephen speak to the very same sense and therefore forsaketh the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he found in the Septuagint and taketh up or formeth it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the high face or high representation or that whole piece that represented the whole heaven which he calleth their God because in that they adored all the Stars and hosts of Heaven at once and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but one number put for another one star for many VI. I will carry you away beyond Babylon Both in the Hebrew of Amos and in the Greek of the Septuagint it is Beyond Damascus which Stephen seemeth purposely to have changed into beyond Babylon because that as he had treated in the beginning of the Chapter of Abrahams coming out of those parts into that land he would now shew e contra how they for their Idolatry should be carried out of that land into those parts again Acts VIII Vers. 1. And there was a great persecution c. §. 1. Persecution THE spite and cruelty of the adversary was not quenched by the blood of Stephen but rather inflamed Stephens confuting and confounding the great Scholars of the Synagogue of the Libertines Cyrenians Alexandrians and Cilicians had bred in them so hateful a disdain of being put to a nonplus and his cutting words at his death to all the people Acts 7. 51 52 53. had galled them so sore And especially his denouncing of ruine to Moses ceremonoies and to the Temple as they charged him with it had so exasperated their blind zeal that it is not sufficient as they think to have Stephen put to death only but it is not fit that others should live who were of the same heresie and blasphemy with him for so they construed it Hence ariseth a bitter persecution to destroy the Church at Jerusalem because it held an opinion that Jerusalem and the rites there should be destroyed In this Tragedy was Saul a chief actor sparing neither place from search Sex from apprehension nor the apprehended from torture or imprisonment Such a Testimony doth Luke give of him Acts 8. 3. and such a confession doth he make of himself Act. 22. 4. and 26. 11. By which the Epistle of Lucianus concerning the finding out of the body of Stephen may again be challenged for forgery when it maketh Gamaliel a most zealous convert and professor of the Gospel and that at this time insomuch that he took care for the burial of Stephen and received Nicodemus when the Jews had cast him out which will prove incredible in regard of his scholar Saul For who can believe either that the scholar should be so great a persecutor when the master was so great a professor or that if it were so Gamaliel of all other should scape with his life when his scholar of all other could not but know where to find him out and how to follow him close or who can imagine that Paul when he was answering for his life for being a Christian should plead his education under Gamaliel if he were as notorious a Christian as â—e This had been to bring his master into danger and not himself out and to mar another mans cause not mending his own Vers. 1. And they were all scattered abroad except the Apostles § 2. Dispersion upon the persecution Out of the darkness of persecution the Lord bringeth forth the light and the propagation of the Gospel Providing at once for the safety of some by their flight and for the calling home of many more by their dispersion At that time saith Luke there was a great persecution against the Church that was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the Regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles Where as the preservation of the Apostles in the very centre of the Tyrant is admirable so the scattering of the other into their several places is considerable For that they travailed into Judea and Samaria Damascus Phoenicia Cyprus and Syria the Text is plain in this and in other places but since it mentioneth none of their journeys any further what is said of them more is but groundless conjectures or rather ridiculous Fables For though it were granted that they scattered through other Countries of the Heathen yet to bring them as far as France and England as some do is almost as far from reason as these places are distant from Jerusalem unless some other cause can be alledged of this their flight than to avoid the danger Yes it may be said they took so long a journey to preach the Gospel but 1. the Text
is exceedingly delighted with and given to the cruelty of the Sword-plays in which he swept away a world of Servants and Freemen that had been accusers of their Masters in the time of Caius And which was most ridiculous he caused the statue of Augustus to be removed out of the place because it should not behold such bloody work being inhumanely himself delighted in that butchery which he thought too barbarous for a brazen statue to look upon These bloody spectacles brought him to an habit of cruelty which was augmented and hardened in him by the damnable counsels of his Empress Messalina a woman wicked above parallel or expression and by the spurrings on of other sycophants C. Appius Silanus is put to death because he refused to incestuate Messalina when she desired him for he had married her mother but because Claudius must not hear of this beastly cause of her displeasure Narcissus a freeman of the Emperor accused him for this that in a dream he had seen Appius slay the Emperor Upon his death the people began to expect no more goodness from Claudius at all but gave him up for a Tyrant like the two that had gone before him whereupon Annius Vincianus and Futius Camillus Scribonianus and others conspired against him but being deserted of their souldiers in the enterprize they are glad to end their lives by their own hands that they might escape the executioners Messalina and Narcissus and others of their faction using the stupid folly of the Emperor to the compassing of their own wills involve in false accusations and in miserable deaths an infinite multitude of men and women honorable and inferior of all qualities and conditions according as the spleen of any of them moved or was provoked Among them that thus perished Arria the wife of Caecinna is upon record for her Roman valour for when her husband trembled and was afraid to slay himself she took the sword out of his hand and fell upon it and gave it him again reeking with her blood with these words Behold boy how I feel no pain And now saith my Author were matters come to such a pass that nothing was reputed a greater vertue than to die valiantly and like a Roman To such a cruelty had custom and evil counsel brought him that of himself was of a reasonable gentle nature but wanted constancy and discretion to manage it THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE Jewish and the Roman Of the Year of CHRIST XLIV And of the Emperor CLAUDIUS III. Being the Year of the WORLD 3971. And of the City of ROME 796. Consuls Claudius Caesar III. L. Uitellius ACTS CHAP. XII Vers. 2. And he killed Iames. §. 1. The Martyrdom of James the great WE are now come to the time of Great James his death For Agrippa coming the last year into Judea as we saw from Josephus and it not being probable that he should do this exploit before Easter as the circumstances told us we may justly take this year for its proper time and place Now about that time saith St. Luke Herod the King the Syriack addeth who is called Agrippa stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Jews and he killed James the brother of John with the sword The first words About that time relate to what went before in the preceding Chapter vers 28. and meaneth in the days of Claudius Caesar. Now what should be the incentive of the spleen of Agrippa against the Church is not specified it may well be supposed it proceeded from that his Ceremoniousness and strict observance of Mosaick Rites which is mentioned by Josephus Concerning the Martyrdom of James under this his spleen we will content our selves with the words of the Text He killed James the brother of John with the sword accounting all other additional circumstances which may be found in officious Authors to be nothing else but gilded legends and fond inventions As that mentioned by Eusebius out of Cleniens his Hypotyposeon concerning his accuser that seeing his constancy to the death confessed the faith and was martyred with him That by Epiphanius that he lived and died a Virgin and that by * * * Tom. 2. Iulii 25. Surius who is the bell-weather for old winter tales that telleth That his body after his martyrdom was shipped by Ctesiphon and his fellow-Bishops for Spain that the Ship in six days was directed thither without Pilot or Compass but only by the influence of the Corps that it carried That at the landing the body was taken up into the air and carried near the place of its burial twelve miles off That Ctesiphon and his fellows werâ— led to it by an Angel And more such trash that it is but labour lost either to read or mention §. 2. The Apostles Creed The Creed was made upon this occasion saith a a a De Institut Cleric l. 2. c. 56. extat in Auctario ad Biblioth Patrum â—ol 620 Rabanus Maâ—…s as our Ancestors have delivered unto us The Disciples after the Ascension of our Saviour being inflamed with the Holy Ghost c. And being charged by the Lord to go to all Nations for the preaching of the Gospel when they are to part one from another they first make a common platform among themselves for their future preaching Lest being severed in place divers and different things should be preached to those that were invited to the faith of Christ. Being therefore together in one place and filled with the Holy Ghost they compose a short platform for their preaching conferring together what they thought And this they appoint to be given to them that believe and to be called Symbolum c. Thus he and very many others with him conceiving that the Apostles supplied not only the matter of the Doctrine contained in the Creed but the very form and words also For Peter said say they I believe in God the Father Almighty John The maker of Heaven and Earth James And I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Andrew Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Philip Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried Thomas He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead Bartholomew He ascended into Heaven sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty Matthew From thence shall he come to judge both the quick and the dead James the son of Alpheus I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church Simon Zelotes The communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins Judas the brother of James The resurrection of the flesh Matthias The life everlasting Amen Thus the hundred and fifteenth Sermon de Tempore that goeth under the name of b b b Tom. 10. col 849. Austen but apparent that it is not his by this that here is reckoned the descent into Hell which in his book c c c Tom. 3. p. 143. de Fide Symbolo is quite omitted Now were this
tell particularly of the Wonders done in Egypt and of the manner of their deliverance and of Gods various goodness towards them and as the Talmud briefly relates it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He began with their disgrace and ended with their glory and expounded from that Text A Syrian ready to perish was my Father even through out to the end of the Section which as the Glossaries give the sense meaneth thus that he began his discourse with the Idolatry of Terah and their fathers beyond the flood and he led on the story to their bondage in Egypt and the wonders done for their deliverance and the Lords giving them his Law and making them his People and particularly he took up that Text in Deut. 26. 5 6 c. and enlarged himself upon it and the more the more commendably Then are the Dishes that were taken away from before him set before him again and then he saith 15 15 15 Ibid. This is the Passover which we eat because that the Lord passed over the houses of our Fathers in Egypt And holding up the bitter herbs in his hand he saith These are the bitter herbs that we eat in remembrance that the Egyptians made the lives of our fathers bitter in Egypt And holding up the unleavened bread likewise in his hand he saith This is the unleavened bread which we eat because the dough of our fathers had not time to be leavened before the Lord revealed himself and redeemed them out of hand Therefore are we bound to give thanks to praise to laud to glorifie to extol to honour to praise to magnifie him that hath done for our fathers and for us all these wonders who hath brought us from bondage to freedom from sorrow to rejoycing from mourning to a good day from darkness to a great light from affliction to redemption therefore must we say before him Hallelujah praise ye the Lord praise ye servants of the Lord praise the name of the Lord c. And so he said over the hundred and thirteenth and the hundred and fourteenth Psalms and concludeth with this prayer Blessed be thou O Lord our God King everlasting who hath redeemed us and redeemed our Fathers out of Egypt and brought us to this night to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs And then he and all the company with him drank off the second cup of Wine VII 16 16 16 Maym. ubi supr And now he washeth his hands again using the same ejaculation or short prayer that he had done at washing before And then taking the two cakes of unleavened bread he breaketh one of them in two and layeth the broken upon the whole and giveth thanks to God who bringeth bread out of the earth Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first giving thanks and then breaking as was the order of our Saviour Mat. 26. 26. Mark 14. 22. Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 24. for that action of Christ was farther in the supper than we are yet come but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he first brake and then gave thanks and the Jews do make a business of the method For he might not give thanks by their Tradition either over both or either of the Cakes whilest they were whole but over it when it was broken And they give this reason because it was the bread of poverty and affliction and the poor have not whole Cakes to give thanks over but are glad to do it over bits and pieces Hence the phrase and practice of breaking of bread seemeth to have its original I shall 〈…〉 follow the Dispute that is taken up by the Hebrew Writers about the number of these Cakes whether they were two or three for some assert the one number and some the other and I believe both the Opinions are true applied to different and several times for before the fall of the Temple or in those times to which our discourse pointeth 17 17 17 Vi. Maym. ubi supr there were but two used as may be collected by the best records of those times but in after times they used three 18 18 18 Vid. Buxt Lex Talm. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either in reference to the threefold division of the Nation into Priests Levites and People 19 19 19 Gâ—oss in Maym. in loc citat or parallel to the three cakes that a delivered captive was to offer for his deliverance for Israel was delivered out of slavery at a Passover It is more of import to look a little after that which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aphicomen about which one would think they had two positions one contrary to another The Mishueh of the Talmud hath this Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 20 20 20 Pesach per. 10. halac 8. they dismiss not the company after the Passoever with an Aphicomen And yet this is a current saying amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 21 21 21 Gloss. in Maym. ubi supr He breaketh one of the cakes in two pieces and leaveth one half for the Aphicomen Now the seeming difference of these two positions is reconciled by referring them to several times as the number of the cakes was before The word Aphicomen in their sense doth mean the last dishes they used at meals namely of Nuts Apples or Sweet-meats wherewithall they closed up their meals when they saw good but such a closure they might not make at the Passover supper and the reason was because they would eat some of the Paschal Lamb last and close up the meal with that as the chiefest dish Last of all saith Maymony he eateth of the flesh of the Paschal at the least the quantity of an Olive and he is to taste no other meat after it at all But now he eateth to the quantity of an Olive of unleavened bread and tasteth nothing at all after that that is while the Temple stood and they had a Paschal Lamb to eat that was ever the last meat they ate but in after times when they used no Lamb they closed the meal with unleavened bread in stead of it and after that might eat nothing And so the same Author relateth again when he saith It is from the words of the Scribes that they ate nothing after the unleavened-bread nor cracknels nor nuts or the like but if he eat unleavened bread and eat other meats after or fruits he must return and eat unleavened bread last to the quantity of an Olive and so he concludes Now when they ate unleavened bread for a closure of all in this manner the cake that was broken in two that we are speaking of was half of it after the breaking of it given to some one in the company to reserve for the Aphicomen or for the last bit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he laid it under his Napkin but the other half and if that were not enough the other cake also and if they reserved not an Aphicomen the
for a Pearl of the Sea is not unfit for Zebulon a dweller by the Sea Gen. 49. 13. Pearl in Act. 22. the name of a Town I think I may safely suppose that the Town took the name from the Man the Sea from the Town and the Pearl from the Sea Cittim got into the Isle Cyprus near his brother Tarshish from him that Island in old time was called Cethin as Ant. di Guenara nameth it in Relox de los princip And the Men of Cyprus acknowledged Cythnon quendam one Cythnus or Cittim for their Predecessor as saith Herodotus lib. 7 That Island set out Colonies further to replenish the Western World who bare the memory and name of their Father Cittim with them all along as they went Macedon or Macetia is called Cittim 1 Mac. 1. 1. At last they arrived in Italy which is called Cittim Num. 24. 24. and so rendered by the Chaldees Thus Javans posterity grew great in Greece and Italy and at last sent us men over into these Isles of the Gentiles CHAP. VI. Of Iewish Learning THE Jews chief Studies are about the Scriptures or about the Hebrew Tongue but some have dealt in other matters Their Tongue is their chief Learning which is indeed the ground of all sacred knowledge In it some are most ignorant and some again as accurate They value it so highly that the mistaking of a Letter in it say they destroys the world He that in this verse En kadosh caihovah readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth for Caph makes it there is no holiness in Jehovah and destroyeth the world He that will may see most copious work of this nicety in Tauch on Gen. 1. How nimble Textualists and Grammarians for the Tongue the Rabbins are their Comments can witness But as in Chaucer the greatest Clarks are not the wisest men so among them these that are so great Textualists are not best at the Text. In humane Arts some of them have practised Kimchi and Levita for Grammar Rabbi Simeon for Logick and others in other things as Buxdorsius in his collection of Jewish Authors will fully satisfie CHAP. VII Of the Talmud WHO so nameth the Talmud nameth all Judaism and who so nameth Mishneh and Gemara he nameth all the Talmud And so saith Levita Hattalmudh nehhlak c. The Talmud is divided into two parts the one part is called Mishneh and the other part is called Gemara and these two together are called the Talmud This is the Jews Councel of Trent the foundation and ground work of their Religion For they believe the Scripture as the Talmud believes for they hold them of equal authority Rabbi Tanchum the son of Hamlai saith let a man always part his life into three parts A third part for the Scriptures a third part for Mishneh and a third part for Gemara Two for one two parts for the Talmud for one for the Scriptures So highly do they Papist-like prize the vain Traditions of Men. This great Library of the Jews is much alike such another Work upon the Old Testament as Thomas Aquinas his Catena aurea is upon the New For this is the sum of all their Doctors conceits and descants upon the Law as his is a Collection of all the Fathers Explications and Comments upon the Gospel For matter it is much like Origens Books of old ubi bene nemo melius c. and where they write well none better and where ill none worse The word Talmud is the same in Hebrew that * * * Elias Lâ—u in Tisbi Doctrine is in Latine and Doctrinal in our usual speech It is say the Jews a Commentary upon the written Law of God And both the Law and this say they God gave to Moses the Law by day and by writing and this by night and by word of mouth The Law was kept by writing still this still by Tradition Hence comes the distinction so frequent in Rabbins of Torah she baccathubh and Torah she begnal peh the Law in writing and the Law that comes by word of mouth * * * Pirk. Abhoth Per. 1. Moses say they received the Law from Sinai this Traditional Law I think they mean and delivered it to Joshuah Joshuah to the Elders the Elders to the Prophete and the Prophets to the men of the great Synagogue And thus like fame in Virgil crevit eundo like a snow-ball it grew bigger with going Thus do they father their fooleries upon Moses and Elders and Prophets who good men never thought of such fancies as the Romanists for their Traditions can find Books of Clemens Dionysius and others who never dreamed of such matters Against this their Traditional our Saviour makes part of his Sermon in the mount Matth. 5. But he touched the Jews freehold when he touched their Talmud for greater Treasure in their conceits they had none like Cleopatra in Plutarch making much of the Viper that destroyed them CHAP. VIII Talmudisme TO omit the time when it was written and the distinction of Jerusalem and Babilon Talmud the chief end of them both as they think is to explain the Old Testament The Titles of the Books shew their intents Pesachin about the Passover Sanhedrin about the high Courts Beracoth about thanksgiving Sometime they Comment sometime they Allude sometime Controvert sometime Fable For this Book contains their Common Law and Civil and commonly some things above all Law and Civility To instance in one or two that by Hercules foot ye may guess his body Judges 9. 13. It is said by the Vine shall I leave my Wine which cheareth God and Man How doth Wine chear God Rabbi Akibhah saith because men give God thanks for it There also they question or controvert whether a man should give thanks or say grace for his meat and drink before he taste it And otherwhere whether a man may bless God for the sweet smell of Incense which he smells offered to Idols Whether a man may light a candle at another candle that burns in a candlestick that hath Images on it Whether a man at his Devotions if a Serpent come and bite him by the heel may turn and stoop to shake her off or no Which question Rabbi Tanchum answers very profoundly that they must not so much as shake the foot to get a Serpent off and gives a huge strong reason For saith he such a one was praying and a Serpent comes and catcheth him by the heel He holds on his Devotion and stirs not and presently the Snake falls away stark dead and the man not hurt Legenda aurea hath not the Art of this coining beyond them For their allusions take a piece out of the book Mincha which I have transcribed and translated into our own Tongue full of true Talmudisme Our Rabbins teach Israel is beloved because God hath favoured them with the Commandment of Philacteries upon their heads and upon their arms fringes upon their garments and marks upon their doors And concerning them
common in all their Authors When they cite any of the Doctors of their Schools they commonly use these words Amern rabbothenu Zicceronam libhracah in four letters thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus say our Doctors of blessed memory But when they speak of holy men in the Old Testament they usually take this Phrase Gnalau hashalom on him is peace in brief thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus when they mention Moses Solomon David or others this is the memorial they give them The Arabians have the like use in their Abbreviation of Gnalaihi alsalemo on whom is peace The words in Hebrew want a verb and so may be construed two ways On him is peace or on him be peace The learned Master Broughton hath rendered it the former way and his judgement herein shall be my Law To take it the latter way seems to relish of Popish superstition of praying for the dead which though the Jews did not directly do yet in manner they appear to do no less in one part of their Common Prayer Book called Mazkir neshamoth the remembrancer of Souls which being not very long I thought not amiss to Translate out of their Tongue into our own that the Reader may see their Jewish Popery or Popish Judaism and may bless the Creator who hath not shut us up in the same darkness CHAP. XL. Mazkir neshamoth or the Remembrancer of souls in the Iews Liturgy Printed at Venice THE Lord remember the soul or spirit of Abba Mr. N. the son of N. who is gone into his world wherefore I vow to give Alms for him that for this his soul may be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which be in the garden of Eden Amen The Lord remember the soul of Mrs. N. the Daughter of N. who is gone to her World Therefore I vow c. as in the other before Amen The Lord remember the soul of my father and my mother of my grandfathers and grandmothers of my uncles and aunts brethren and sisters of my cosens and consenesses whether of my fathers side or mothers side who are gone into their world Wherefore I vow c. Amen The Lord remember the soul of N. the son of N. and the souls of all my cosens and cosenesses whether on my fathers or mothers side who were put to death or slain or stabd or burnt or drowned or hanged for the sanctifying of the Name of God Therefore I will give Alms for the memory of their souls and for this let their souls be bound up in the bundle of life with the soul of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah and Rebecca Rachel and Leah and with the rest of the righteous men and righteous women which are in the garden of Eden Amen Then the Priest pronounceth a blessing upon the man that is thus charitable as it followeth there in these words He that blessed our father Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses and Aaron David and Salomon he bless Rabbi N. the son of N. because he hath vowed Alms for the souls whom he hath mentioned for the honour of God and for the honour of the Law and for the honour of the day for this the Lord keep him and deliver him from all affliction and trouble and from every plague and sickness and write him and seal him for a happy life in the day of Judgment and send a blessing and prosper him in every work of his hands and all Israel his brethren and let us say Amen Thus courteous Reader hast thou seen a Popish Jew interceding for the dead have but the like patience a while and thou shalt see how they are Popish almost entirely in claiming the merits of the dead to intercede for them for thus tendeth a prayer which they use in the book called Sepher Min hagim shel col Hammedinoth c. which I have also here turned into English Do for thy praises sake Do for their sakes that loved thee that now dwell in dust For Abraham Isaac and Jacobs sake Do for Moses and Aarons sake Do for David and Salomons sake Do for Jerusalem thy holy Cities sake Do for Sion the habitation of thy glories sake Do for the desolation of thy Temples sake Do for the treading down of thine Altars sake Do for their sakes who were slain for thy holy Name Do for their sakes who have been massacred for thy sake Do for their sakes who have gone to fire or water for the hallowing of thy Name Do for sucking childrens sakes who have not sinned Do for weaned childrens sakes who have not offended Do for infants sakes who are of the house of our Doctors Do for thine own sake if not for ours Do for thine own sake and save us Tell me gentle reader 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. whether doth the Jew Romanize or the Roman Judaize in his devotions This interceding by others is a shrewd sign they have both rejected the right Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus The prophane Heathen might have read both Jew and Papist a lecture in his Contemno minutos istos Deos modo Jovem propitium habeam which I think a Christian may well English let go all Diminutive Divinities so that I may have the great Jesus Christ to propitiate for me CHAP. XLI Of the Latine Translation of Matth. 6. 1. ALms in Rabbin Hebrew are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsedhakah righteousness which word the Syrian Translator useth Matth. 6. 1. Act. 10. 2. and in other places From this custom of speech the Roman vulgar Translateth Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis One English old manuscript Testament is in Lichfield Library which hath it thus after the Latine Takith hede that you do not your rightwisnes before men to be seyne of hem ellis ye shullen have no mede at your fadir that is in hevenes Other English Translation I never saw any to this sense nor any Greek copy It seems the Papist will rather Judaize for his own advantage than follow the true Greek The Septuagint in some places of the Old Testament have turned Tsedhakah Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almsdeeds or little or to no sense As the Papists have in this place of the New Testament turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almsdeeds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness to as little purpose In the Hebrew indeed one word is used for both Tsedhakah for Almsdeeds which properly signifies Righteousness upon what ground I know not unless it be to shew that S◠Chrysostom hath such ◠touch Alms must be given of rightly gotten good or else they are no righteousness or they are called Zadkatha in Syrian Hu ger zadek le mehwo they are called righteousness because it is right they should be given and given rightly The Fathers of the Councel of Trent speak much of the merit of Alms whom one may
man and yet so good and so St. Gregory saith his Country is purposely named that the goodness of the man may be the more illustrated His times may be picked by the genealogy of himself and his friends that come to see him And God in the first and second Chapter saith that there was not a man on earth like him for goodness which is a sign that Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Joseph were not alive nor Moses but in the times 'twixt Joseph and Moses Israel corrupt themselves with Egyptian Idols and in Israel the likeliest place to find a good man in is not one to be found like Job Thus when Israel idolizes and the Church begins to fail in Jacob God hath one in Arabia that hath a little Church in his house It is not amiss for every one for his more watchfulness to mark that Satan knows Job as soon as ever God speaks of him When the Angels appear before God Satan the Devil is among them So When the Disciples are with Christ Judas a Devil is among them Pharoah in Egypt is afflicted by God His afflictions harden him against God Job in Arabia is afflicted by the Devil His afflictions harden him against the Devil Jobs Children feasting overwhelmed by an house The Philistins sporting overwhelmed by an house Judg. 16. Job is afflicted as the souldiers 2 King 1. by fire As the Ziklagites 1 Sam. 30. by Captivity As the Egyptians with loss of Children Exod. 12. And as the Egyptians with boils Exod. 9. And which was not his least cross like Adam with an ill counselling wife Job hath three with him when he is changed by affliction So Christ hath three with him when he is changed in transfiguration which three as they were by Christ when Moses and Elias Law and Prophesie told him in the mount of his departing which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Luke 9. 31. So these three were with him when he began to accomplish these things Matth. 26. 37. CHAP. LV. Egyptians Deities ex Athenae Deipn Lib. 7. ANaxandrides in his book of Cities turning his speech to the Egyptians saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus does one Heathen Idolater deride another because he worships as the other thinks the more ridiculous Deities The very Heathen could deride and scoff at their vain gods Dionysius was most notorious this way and knavish in this kind was the Painter who when he should have drawn the picture of such a goddess for a Grecian City to worship he drew the portraiture of his own sweet-heart and so made her to be adored And indeed what man could have held laughing to have seen as my Poet saith here an Egyptian on his maribones adoring a Dog or praying to an Ox or especially to see him mourning and howling over a sick Cat fearing lest his scratching God should die CHAP. LVI Of the Law broken by Adam THE Law was Adams lease when God made him tenent of Eden The conditions of which bond when he kept not he forfeited himself and all us God read a lecture of the Law to him before he fell to be * * * The Jews in their writings use this phrase frequently for the Law as in Pirke Ahhoth a hedge to him to keep him in Paradise but when Adam would not keep within compass this Law is now become as the flaming sword at Eden gate to keep him and his posterity out Adam heard as much in the garden as Israel did at Sinai but only in fewer words and without thunder The Law came more gently to him before his fall but after his fall comes the thunder with it Adam at one clap breaks both the Tables and all the Commandments 1. He chose him another god when he followed the Devil 2. He idolized and deified his own belly as the Apostles phrase is his belly he made his god 3. He took the name of God in vain when he believed him not 4. He kept not the rest and estate wherein God had set him 5. He dishonoured his Father which was in Heaven therefore his days were not long in that land which the Lord his god had given him 6. He massacred himself and all his posterity 7. From Eve he was Virgin but in eyes and mind he committed spiritual fornication 8. He stole that like Achan which God had set aside not to be medled with and this his stealth is that which troubles all Israel the whole world 9. He bare witness against God when he believed the witness of the Devil above him 10. He coveted an ill covetousness like Amnon which cost him his life and all his progeny What a nest of evils here were committed at one blow The pride of heart and desire of more knowledge like Hamans ambition overthrew us This sin was hatched in Heaven by the wicked Angels but thrown out with them and never will come in there again Hence is this sin so lofty because it affects its first nest It is not for nothing that Blessed are the poor in spirit are the first words in Christs Sermon Matth. 5. 3. but because the proud in spirit were the first sinners CHAP. LVII Of the Law given at Sinai WHEN Israel is got from the hard service of Egypt God binds them apprentise to a new Master himself Their Indentures he draws upon Mount Sinai a place where Moses before had kept a flock of sheep now he keeps a troop of men In the Delivery of the Law there if you will stand with Israel in your place you may consider many passages CHAP. LVIII Why the Law was published then and not before AT Sinai was delivered no new thing the Law in some kind was known before Sacrifice was used by Adam in the garden when the body of the beasts went for an offering for his soul and the skins for a covering for his body Cain and Abel learn this part of worship from their father The division of clean and unclean beasts is known to Noah when they come to him for their lives as they had done to Adam for their names Abraham when God made a * * * So says the Geneva Bible in marg but Rab. Solomon long before saith thus It is the custom of those that make covenants to divide beasts into two parts and pass between the parts as Jer. 24. 18. And God passes between these in this smoking furnace and fire brand for making covenants in like kinds Homer speaks near this covenant with him Genesis 15. Divides and divides not his beasts and fowls just as God commands Lev. 1. 6. 17. and so of the rest Fathers could teach their Children these things as they themselves had learned them of their Fathers But when men began to multiply and multitude to be more wicked than would they not be so easily bridled by a Law whose author they knew no more of but their Fathers And when men lived but a short time in comparison of the first men and so could not
either side bare no burden but their own weight On the top of either row was set a golden dish with a handful of Frankincense which when the Bread was taken away was burnt as Incense to the Lord Lev. XXIV 7. and the bread went to Aaron and his sons or to the Priests as their portions to be eaten What these Loaves did represent and signifie is variously guessed the number of twelve in two rows seem to refer to the Twelve Tribes whose names were so divided into six and six in the two Stones on the High Priests shoulders And as Bread is the chief subsistence and staff of our mortal life so the offering of these might denote an acknowledgment of the people of their receiving of all their subsistence from the Lord to whom they presented these as their Tribute and these aswell as the Lamps standing before the Lord might shew that their Spiritual and Temporal support were both before him But our pursuit is to look after the things themselves leaving the allegorizing of them unto others for in such things men are most commonly more ready to give satisfaction to themselves than to take it from others for as much as the things themselves may be bended and swayed to various application SECT VI. The Altar of Incense THE Candlestick stood on the one side of the House and the Table on the other and this Altar in the middle not just betwixt them but somewhat higher in the House toward the most Holy place than they were These three Ornaments and furnitures of the Holy place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a were set in a a a Maym. in Beth habhec per. 3. third part of the House that is whereas the House meaning the Holy place was forty cubits long when you had gone up six and twenty cubits and two third parts of a cubit into the room there stood the Table and Candlestick and somewhat further higher towards the Veil stood this Altar b b b Exod. XXX 1 2. Maym. ubi sup It was a cubit square and two cubits high had four Horns at the four corners of it and a Crown about the brim or edge of it which the Jews say denoted the Crown of the Priest-hood It stood not so nigh the Veil of the most Holy place but that one might go about it and so how the Priest did on the day of Expiation and besprinkled the Horns of it with Blood we observe elsewhere On this Altar commonly called the golden Altar Incense was offered Morning and Evening every day a Figure if you apply the action to Christ of his Mediation and if to man a resemblance of the duty of Prayer The twelve cakes which resembled the sustenance and sustentation of the Twelve Tribes which was ever before the Lord were renewed only once every week but the Lamps drest and the Incense offered twice every day for we have more need of the light of Gods Word and of Prayer than of our dayly food And if we will apply all the three to Christ The Kingly Office of Christ provided Bread for his People his Prophetick Office provided the light of his Word and his Priestly Office the Incense of Mediation CHAP. XV. The most Holy place SECT I. The Partition space 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Holy and the most Holy place were divided asunder by a threefold partition namely by a cubit space and by two Veils on either side of that space The partition space which a a a Mid. per. 4. was a cubit broad and no more by the Jews is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which b b b Aruch â—in voce Rabbi Nathan confesseth to be a Greek word and he saith it signifieth within or without as meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was doubtful to them whether it were within or without and thus it is interpreted c c c Talm. Ierus per. 5. in the Jerusalem Talmud d d d Beth habbec per. 4. Maymony helps us to their meaning thus In the Temple there was a Wall which parted between the Holy and most Holy place a cubit thick But when they builded the second Temple they doubted whether the thickness of that Wall belonged to the measure of the Holy place or to the measure of the most Holy place Therefore they made the most Holy place twenty cubits long compleat and they made the Holy place forty cubits long compleat And they left a space betwixt the Holy and most Holy place of a cubit breadth and in the second Temple they built not a Wall there but they made two veils one at the end of the most Holy place Eastward and the other at the end of the Holy place Westward and between them there was a cubits breadth according to the thickness of the Wall that had been in the first Temple But in the first Temple there was but one Veil The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore is well conceived by the Learned e e e Const. Lemper in Mid. p. 164. Lempereur to be the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a disease in the Eye distempering the sight and hindering it and so were the Eyes of the understanding of the builders of the second Temple at a stand about this place whether it should belong to the Holy or most Holy place and thereupon they called the place it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wall that Solomon built for the parting of the Holy and most Holy place being a cubit thick in stead of which this space was left had these things regardable and considerable in it and not easie to be understood First For the entring of the Oracle he made doors of Olive-Tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King VI. 31. These later words are very difficult of construction and if we go to Glossaries for the explication of them they will give us variety of senses but little facility of understanding The Chaldee renders it only Their posts with its lintel were orderly set taking the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ranked in order and giving but very little light unto the obscure place David Kimchi and Rabbi Solomon seem to understand it that the posts of the doors were not four square but five square if we may use such a word or wrought into five ribs as their own words are But Levi Gershom hath a far fetch for it for he thinks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth the fifth Gate that was in the Temple as you went forward the Temple door the fourth the Porch door the third the door of the inner Court the second and of the outer Court the first To me the words seem to bear this construction The post which was the door cheeks was at the fifth cubit meaning from either Wall of the House come inward five cubits and there was the door cheek and so the House being twenty cubits broad the door hereby is
some upon the horns of it some below some above to make sure that either of these should keep its right place and not transgress they set this line to be a bound between them The materials and manner of working up this renowned pile let the Reader take in the Talmuds and in Maymonides his own words and expressions p p p Maym. ubi supr Talm in Zevach. sol 54. When they built the Altar say they they built it solid like a Pillar and they made no hollow in it but one brought whole great stones and little for an iron tool might not be used upon them and he brought Mortar and Pitch and Lead and mixt all and poured all into the great base that he had laid according to his measure and so he built on upwards and he put in the midst of the buliding a piece of Wood or of Stone at the South-East horn according to the measure of the Foundation and so he put in the midst of every one of the horns till he had finished the building then he took away those pieces that were in the midst of the building and so the South-East horn was left without a Foundation and the rest of the horns were left hollow These q q q Midd. per. 3. stones that made the Altar and the rise to it are recorded to have been gotten in the Valley of Bethbaccerem a place mentioned in Neh. III. 14. and Jer. VI. 1. and the same Record tells us That twice a year the Altar was whited namely at the Passover and at the Feast of Tabernacles and the Temple whited once a year namely at the Passover Rabbi saith on the Eve of every Sabbath they rubbed the Altar with a Map because of the blood they might not Plaster it with an iron Trowel lest that touching should defile it for iron was made to shorten Mans days and the Altar was made for the prolonging Mans life and it is not fit that that which would shorten should be lifted up upon that that would lengthen Thus was the fashion and proportion of the Altar the Lords Table Mal. I. 7. the holiness of it was such that it sanctified the gift Matth. XXIII 19. that is whatsoever came upon it being fit to be offered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Altar sanctified whatsoever was fit for it It is a Talmudick Maxim in the Treatise Zevachin the very beginning of the ninth Chapter And at the seventh Halacah of the same Chapter they say That as the Altar sanctified what was fit for it so also did the rise of the Altar and there they discourse at large with what things if they were once brought to the top of the Altar might come down and what might not which we shall not insist upon Before we part from the Altar we have yet one thing more to take into observation about it and that is the base and wretched affront that ungodly Ahaz put upon it in not only setting up another Altar by it but also in removing the Lords Altar out of its place and out of its honourable imployment to give place to his The story is 2 King XVI He sends the pattern of an Idolatrous Altar from Damascus and Uriah the Priest maketh one according to that pattern and when the King came home and saw the Altar he offered upon it his Burnt-offering Meat-offering Drink-offering c. And he brought also the brazen Altar which was before the Lord from the fore-front of the House from between the Altar and the House of the Lord and put it on the North side of the Altar vers 14. Rabbi Solomon expounding this place conceiveth that by the Altar of the Lord is not meant the Altar properly and indeed but some appurtenances that related and belonged to the Service of the Altar and this conclusion he produceth from two or three traditional Premises his words are these This Altar that he removed cannot be the brazen Altar that Moses made for that was laid up and it cannot be the Altar of stone which Solomon made which indeed is called the brazen Altar in the Book of Chronicles for that could not be removed from place to place but by pulling down and behold we have a Tradition that the fire that came down from Heaven in the days of Solomon went not off the Altar till Manasseh came and caused it to go off for he pulled the Altar down So that I cannot interpret the Altar here but of the Lavers and Bases of brass which served for the Altar and stood beside it them Ahaz removed c. You need not marvail if he go alone in his opinion when you look upon it and how it is strained and especially from this pinch because though the Altar of Solomon is called brazen yet he holds it to have been of Stone and overlaid were it of Brass or were it of Stone Ahaz his modesty was not so much but that he would pull it down to serve his turn as well as remove it It appeareth by the Text alledged that Uriahs modesty was a little more than Ahaz had for he had set his Altar behind the Altar of the Lord betwixt it and the East-gate so that the Lords Altar was betwixt that new-found one and the Temple it seemeth the space at the entring in from the East-gate was more open in the times of the first Temple than it was in the second But when Ahaz comes he removes Solomons Altar towards the North and brings up his own and sets it in the place of it and so does as it were supplant the Lord of his possession and usurp upon it putting the Lords Altar out of use as well as out of its place and giving his own the greatness because it was the greater in the imployment for all the Sacrifices that were to be offered both ordinary and extraordinary both of the King and People while the Altar of the Lord must stand by as a cypher only with this dignity which was less than none at all The brazen Altar shall be for me to seek to when I think good As for the departure of the Divine fire from off the Altar which had come down in the days of Solomon of which our Rabbin speaketh it is not unworthy some of the Readers thoughts For the Temple was so oft prophaned yea and sometimes shut up before the Captivity into Babel as 2 Chron. XXIV 7. XXVIII 24. c. that it is hardly to be imagined but that the fire which had been continued from the descent of that Divine fire was at some of these times or other extinguished And then Quaere how Hezekiah and Josiah in their Reformation did for fire again upon the Altar CHAP. XXXV The Contents of the Court betwixt the Altar and the North-side of it and betwixt the Altar and the South-side THE most ordinary and universal slaughter of the Sacrifices was on the North-side of the Altar and so is it declared at large
Throne and about it and before it the most Translations In the midst of the Throne and about the Throne which how to make a smooth Exposition of is hard to find The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth to be understood which expressed the sentence would run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is between the Throne and the incompassing that was about it of twenty four seats and Elders on them there were four living Creatures Thus then was the place of the living Creatures next the Throne and that being the place of the Levites next the Sanctuary it sheweth that these Cherubins or Creatures did represent the Ministers and the Wheels and twenty four Elders did represent the Congregation And this will yet appear the clearer by observing that the living Creatures were the first agents and movers continually in any expedition or imploiment as the Ministers were in the Publick Service In Ezek. I. and X. the Wheels moved or stood according as the living Creatures did first And in the Apocalypse the living Creatures first praise and worship and then the Elders Chap. V. 14. The four living Creatures said Amen and the twenty four Elders fell down and worshipped c. Chap. IV. 9 10. When the living Creatures give Glory and Honour c. the twenty four Elders fell down c. 2. And now to come to the consideration of their figure and resemblance and first to begin with their four Faces the Jews acknowledge that these four Faces were severally pictured in the four Standards of the squadrons of Israels Camp as they pitched in the quadrangular form that hath already been spoken of There were figures saith * * * Aben Ezra in Numb XXII Aben Ezra in every Standard and Standard And our Ancients do say that in the Standard of Reuben there was the picture of a Man and in the Standard of Judah the picture of a Lion in the Standard of Ephraim the picture of a Bullock and in the Standard of Dan the picture of an Eagle so that they were like the Cherubins which Ezekiel saw With which assertion Ramban also agreeth and Targum Jonathan doth not much dissent and this opinion was entertained as an ancient Tradition of the Nation upon what ground and upon what references of these Pictures to the Tribe and Standard to which they belonged it is not much material to insist upon to debate here Upon the observation that these representations were severally in the Standards of Israels Camp some have concluded that therefore the four living Creatures which bare these representations did signifie the Congregation or People and not the Levites or Ministers which is unproper to conceive because such a construction allotteth all the four figures to every Standard whereas all the four Standards did but make up and carry these four figures amongst them all But it is not improper to allot all these four figures to every one of the squadrons of the Levites for every one of them nay every particular one of the Priests and Levites had interest in and relation to the whole Congregation as being Ministers in their behalf And as Aaron carried all the Tribes upon his Shoulders and Breast so are the Ministers in these Emblems of the living Creatures decyphered as carrying the Faces of all the Standards of the whole Congregation because of their reference to the whole Congregation they serving at the Temple for it What allegorical Interpretations are made of these four Faces I shall not trouble the Reader to produce every one may find one such application of them or other as his conception upon them shall lead him to it As for the rest of the Proportion of these living Creatures they are especially remarkable for their Wings and Feet for the rest of their Bodies was like the Body of a Man Two of their Wings were always erect over their Heads covering their Faces from under which they spied as it were at their way they were to go and at the Glory they attended on which pertinently denoteth the reverential respect that the Ministers of the Lord have to his Glory and to the Mysteries of his Counsel compare 1 Pet. I. 12. With two other Wings they covered their secrets in sign of humble sensibleness of their own deformity and with two they flew in signification of ready activity and attendance for and upon the Lords Service their Feet were in fashion like to the Feet of a Bullock and in colour like to burnished Brass according to which later character the Feet of our Saviour are described Rev. I. 15. His Feet like unto fine Brass as if they burned in a furnace Every one will be ready to frame an allegorical application of these circumstances according to his own conception It may be some if they take those living Creatures to represent the Ministers as I suppose they do will when they read of their Feet like to the Feet of Bullocks apprehend that it is because they trod out the Corn of the Word for the People and as that was also done with a Wheel so there are Wheels here in the like manner It may be they will think they are described thus footed for the fitter setting them forth as the drawers of this Divine Charret It may be they will suppose the beauty and shining brightness of their Feet may signifie the holiness of their ways shining in sanctity and burning in zeal It may be they may think of the Priests Feet red for cold as they stood upon the bare Stones in their Service and they seeming unsensible of it as are the Feet of Bullocks and such variety of apprehensions will be ready to be taken up upon these things that a Man may speak his own thoughts and opinion in this matter but not readily bring another to be of his mind The likeness of these living Creatures all over their Bodies was as burning coals of fire and like the appearance of Lamps Ezek. I. vers 13. for the faithful Ministers of the Lord are as a flame of fire as Psal. CIV 4. shining in Life and Doctrine like Lamps and Lights John V. 35. Matth. V. 14 15 16. and by the Word of the Lord even devouring the disobedient as Jer. V. 14. I will make my words in thy Mouth fire and this People wood and it shall devour them The fire that was in the midst of these Creatures which went up and down among them and out of which proceeded Thundrings and Lightnings Ezek. I. 14. Rev. IV. 5. may draw our thoughts to the Altar and fire there and to observe the Priests standing on the four sides of it in their attendance on it and so Esay saith one of the Seraphins took a fiery coal from the Altar and touched his Lips with it Esa. VI. 6 7. as these living Creatures stood on the four sides of a Quadrangle of fire which was in the midst of them or rather it so plainly denoteth the Word of God among his Ministers
An upper and an inward garment to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answer c c c c c c Bab. Bava Mezia fol. 782. If any give a poor man a penny to buy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inward garment let him not buy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coat nor an upper garment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d d d d d d Nidarim fol. 33. 1. He lends him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An inner garment and a Coat VERS XLI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile c. TO him that had some corporeal wrong done him were these five mulcts to be paid according to the reason and quality of the wrong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e e e e e e Bava Kama in the place above A mulct for maiming if so be the party were maimed a mulct for pain caused by the blow or wound given a mulct for the cure of the wound or blow a mulct for the reproach brought upon him and a mulct for ceasing when being wounded or beaten he kept his bed and could not follow his business To the first the first words of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That ye resist not evil seem to relate Do not so resist or rise up against an injurious person as to require the law of retaliation against him The second and fourth the words following seem to respect viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever smiteth thee so that it cause pain and shame and those words also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him that will take away thy coat To the last do these words under our hand refer and to the second certainly if some intolerable kind of service be propounded which the famous Beza asserts The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very usual among the Talmudists whereby they denote accompanying him that goes somewhere out of honour and respect reaches not the sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but is too soft and low for it It is reckoned for a duty to accompany a dead corps to the grave and a Rabbine departing somewhere Hence is that story f f f f f f Hieros Schabb. 8. 3. Germani the Servant of R. Judah Nasi willing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to conduct R. Illa going away met a mad dog c. The footsteps of this civility we meet with among the Christians Tit. III. 13. John Ep. III. ver 6. Marks they were of respect love and reverence but that which was required by the Jewish Masters out of arrogance and a supercilious authority was to be done to a Rabbine as a Rabbine But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to compel to go a mile sounds harsher and speaks not so much an impulse of duty as a compulsion of violence and the Talmudists retain that very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angaria and do shew by examples not a few what it means g g g g g g Bab. Joma fol. 35. 2 It is reported of R. Eliazar ben Harsum that his Father bequeathed him a thousand Cities on the dry land and a thousand Ships on the Sea but yet he every day carrying along with him a bottle of meal upon his shoulder travayled from City to City and from Country to Country to learn the Law On a certain day his Servants met him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 angariate compel him He saith to them I beseech you dismiss me that I may go and learn the Law They say to him by the life of R. Eliazar ben Harsum we will not dismiss you c. Where the Gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angariah is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the service of the Governor of the City and he was here to serve himself for he was Lord of the City But they knew him not but thought him to belong to one of those his Cities for it was incumbent on them to attend on their Master Again h h h h h h Nedarim fol. 32. 1. R. Elizer saith Why was Abraham our father punished and why were his sons afflicted in Egypt two hundred and ten years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he angariavit compelled the disciples of the Wise men to go with him as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He armed his Catechumens or his trained or instructed Gen. XIV 14. The same almost is said of King Asa. i i i i i i Sotah fol. 10. 1. Rabba asked why was Asa punished with the Gou◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he compelled the Disciples of the Wise men to go along with him as it is said And Asa gathered together all Judah none excepted c. 1 King XV. 22. We meet with mention also of Angariating cattle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k k k k k k â—ava Mâ—zia cap. 6. hal 3. An Ass is hired for a hilly journey but he that hireth him travayls in the Valley although both be of the like distance that is ten miles if the Ass dyes he who hireth him is guilty c. But if the Ass were angariated the Hirer saith to the Owner Behold Take your beast to your self c. The Gloss is If he were angariated that is if they take him for some work of the King c. You see then whither the exhortation of our Saviour tends 1. To patience under an open injury and for which there is no pretence vers 39. 2. Under an injury for which some right and equity in law is pretended ver 40. 3. Under an injury compulsion or violence patronized by the authority of a King or of those that are above us VERS XLIV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt hate thine enemy HERE those poysonous Canons might be produced whereby they are trained up in eternal hatred against the Gentiles and against Israelites themselves who do not in every respect walk with them in the same traditions and rites Let this one example be instead of very many which are to be met with every where l l l l l l Maimon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 4. The Heretical Israelites that is they of Israel that worship Idols or who transgress to provoke God also Epicurean Israelites that is Israelites who deny the Law and the Prophets are by precept to be sâ—ain if any can sâ—ay them and that openly but if not openly you may compass their death secretly and by subtilty And a little after O! ye extreme charity of the Jews towards the Gentiles But as to the Gentiles with whom we have no war and likewise to the shepherds of smaller cattel and others of that sort they do not so plot their death but it is forbidden them to deliver them from death if they are in danger of it For instance A Jew sees one of them fallen into the Sea let him by no means lift him out thence for it is written Thou shalt not rise up against the
not hearken to my words which I shall put into his mouth c. 3. How the Heavenly voice went out of the Cloud that overshadowed them when at his Baptism no such Cloud appeared Here that is worthy observing which some Jews note and reason dictates namely That the Cloud of Glory the Conductor of Israel departed at the death of Moses for while he lived that Cloud was the peoples guide in the Wilderness but when he was dead the Ark of the Covenant led them Therefore as that Cloud departed at the death of Moses that Great Prophet so such a Cloud was now present at the Sealing of the Greatest Prophet 4. Christ here shines with such a brightness nay with a greater than Moses and Elias now glorified and this both for the honour of his Person and for the honour of his Doctrine both which surpassed by infinite degrees the Persons and the Doctrines of both of them When you recollect the face of Christ transfigured shining with so great luster when he talked with Moses and Elias acknowledg the Brightness of the Gospel above the cloudy obscurity of the Law and of the Prophets VERS IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us make here three Tabernacles c. THE Transfiguration of Christ was by night Compare Luk. IX 37. The form of his face and garments is changed while he prays and Moses and Elias came and discourse with him concerning his death it is uncertain how long while as yet the Disciples that were present were over-charged with sleep When they awaked O what a Spectacle had they being afraid they observe and contemplate they discover the Prophets whom now departing Peter would detain and being loth that so noble a Scene should be dispersed made this Proposition Let us make here three Tabernacles c. Whence he should know them to be Prophets it is in vain to seek because it is no where to be found but being known he was loth they should depart thence being ravished with the sweetness of such society however astonished at the terrour of the Glory and hence those words which when he spake he is said by Luke Not to know what he said and by Mark Not to know what he should say which are rather to be understood of the misapplication of his words than of the sense of the words He knew well enough that he said these words and he knew as well for what reason he said them but yet he knew not what he said that is he was much mistaken when he spake these words while he believed that Christ Moses and Elias would abide and dwell there together in Earthly Tabernacles VERS V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. While he yet spake behold a cloud c. MOses and Elias now turning their backs and going out of the Scene Peter speaks his words and as he speaks them when the Prophets were now gone Behold a Cloud c. they had foretold Christ of his death such is the cry of the Law and of the Prophets that Christ should suffer Luk. XXIV 44. He Preaches his Deity to his Disciples and the Heavenly voice seals him for the true Messias See 2 Pet. I. 16 17. VERS X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why therefore say the Scribes that Elias must first come I. IT would be an infinite task to produce all the passages out of the Jewish Writings which one might concerning the expected coming of Elias We will mention a few things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in passing which sufficiently speak out that vain expectation and the ends also of his expected coming 1. Let David Kimchi first be heard upon those words of Malachi Behold I send you Elias the Prophet God saith he shall restore the soul of Elias which ascended of old into Heaven into a created body like to his former body for his first body returned to Earth when he went up to Heaven each Element to its own Element But when God shall bring him to life in the body he shall send him to Israel before the day of Judgment which is the Great and Terrible day of the Lord and he shall admonish both the fathers and the children together to turn to God and they that turn shall be delivered from the day of Judgment c. Consider whether the Eye of the Disciples looks in the Question under our hands Christ had commanded in the verse before Tell the Vision of the Transfiguration to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead But now although they understood not what the Resurrection from the dead meant which Mark intimates yet they roundly retort Why therefore say the Scribes that Elias shall first come That is before there be a Resurrection and a day of Judgment for as yet they were altogether ignorant that Christ should rise They believed with the whole Nation that there should be a Resurrection at the coming of the Messias 2. Let Aben Ezra be heard in the second place We find saith he that Elias lived in the days of Ahaziah the son of Ahab we find also that Joram the son of Ahab and Jehoshaphat enquired of Elisha the Prophet and there it is written This is Elisha the son of Shaphat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who poured water upon the hands of Elijah And this is a sign that Elias was first gone up into Heaven in a whirlwind because it is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who poureth water but Who poured Moreover Elisha departed not from Elijah from the time that he first waited upon him until Elias went up And yet we find that after the death of Jehoshaphat in the days of Ahasiah his son It was written And a letter came to him from Elijah the Prophet And this proves that he then writ and sent it for if it had been written before his Ascension it would be said A letter was found or brought to him which Elias had left behind him And it is without controversie that he was seen in the days of our Holy Wise Men. God of his Mercy hasten his Prophesie and the times of his coming So he upon Mal. IV. 3. The Talmudists do suppose Elias keeping the Sabbath in Mount Carmel a a a a a a Hieros Pesach fol. 30. 2. Let not the Truma saith one of which it is doubted whither it be clean or unclean be burnt lest Elias keeping the Sabbath in Mount Carmel come and testifie of it on the Sabbath that it is clean 4. The Talmudical books abound with these and the like trifles b b b b b b Maimon in Gizelah c. 13. If a man finds any thing that is lost he is bound to declare it by a publick outcry but if the owners come not to ask for it let him lay it up by him until Elias shall come And c c c c c c Bava Mezia cap. 1. Hal. ult c. If any find a Bill of Contract between his Country men and knows
〈◊〉 The Emperour commanded them to dig up the whole City and the Temple And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thus those that digged it up laid all level that it should never be inhabited to be a witness to such as should come thither VERS III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the World WHAT the Apostles intended by these words is more clearly conceived by considering the opinion of that people concerning the times of the Messias We will pick out this in a few words from Bab. Sanhedr d d d d d d Fol. 92. The Tradition of the School of Elias The righteous whom the Holy Blessed God will raise up from the dead shall not return again to their dust as it is said Whosoever shall be left in Sion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy every one being written in the book of life As the Holy God liveth for ever so they also shall live for ever But if it be objected what shall the righteous do in those years in which the Holy God will renew his world as it is said The Lord only shall be exalted in that day The answer is That God will give them wings like an Eagle and they shall swim or float upon the face of the waters Where the Gloss saith thus The righteous whom the Lord shall raise from the dead in the days of the Messiah when they are restored to life shall not again return to their dust neither in the daies of the Messiah nor in the following age but their flesh shall remain upon them till they return and live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To eternity And in those years when God shall renew his world or age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This world shall be wasted for a thousand years where then shall those righteous men be in those years when they shall not be buried in the earth To this you may also lay that very common phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The worlds to come whereby is signified the days of the Messiah of which we spoke a little at the thirty second verse of the twelfth Chapter e e e e e e Gloss in Bab. 〈…〉 fol. 9. 2. If he shall obtain the favour to see the world to come that is the exaltation of Israel namely in the days of the Messiah f f f f f f â—anâ—â—um fol. 〈…〉 The Holy blessed God saith to Israel In this world you are afraid of trasgressions but in the world to come when there shall be no evil affection you shall be concerned only for the good which is laid up for you as it is said After this the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their King c. g g g g g g Hos. III 5. which clearly relate to the times of the Messiah Again h h h h h h Tanchum fol. 77. 3. Saith the Holy Blessed God to Israel In this world because my messengers sent to spy out the land were flesh and blood I decreed that they should not enter into the land but in the world to come I suddenly send to you my messenger and he shall prepare the way before my face i i i i i i Mal. III. â— See here the Doctrine of the Jews concerning the coming of the Messiah 1. That at that time there shall be a Resurrection of the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Messias shall raise up those that sleep in the dust k k k k k k Midr. Tillin fol. 42. 1. 2. Then shall follow the desolation of this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This World shall be wasted a thousand years Not that they imagined that a Chaos or confusion of all things should last the thousand years but that this World should end and a new one be introduced in that thousand years 3. After which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternity should succeed From hence we easily understand the meaning of this question of the Disciples 1. They know and own the present Messiah and yet they ask what shall be the signs of his coming 2. But they do not ask the signs of his coming as we believe of it at the last day to judge both the quick and the dead But 3. When he will come in the evidence and demonstration of the Messiah raising up the dead and ending this World and introducing a new as they had been taught in their Schools concerning his coming VERS VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nation shall rise against Nation BEsides the seditions of the Jews made horridly bloody with their mutual slaughter and other storms of War in the Roman Empire from strangers the commotions of Otho and Vitellius are particularly memorable and those of Vitellius and Vespasian whereby not only the whole Empire was shaken and Totius orbis mutatione fortuna Imperii translit they are the words of Tacitus the fortune of the Empire changed with the change of the whole World but in Rome it self being made the scene of battel and the prey of the Soldiers and the Capitol it self being reduced to ashes Such throws the Empire suffered now bringing forth Vespasian to the Throne the scourge and vengeance of God upon the Jews VERS IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted TO this relate those words of Peter l l l l l l 1 Pet. IV. 17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God that is the time foretold by our Saviour is now at hand in which we are to be delivered up to persecution c. These words denote that persecution which the Jews now near their ruine stirred up almost every where against the professors of the Gospel They had indeed oppressed them hitherto on all sides as far as they could with slanders rapines whippings stripes c. which these and such like places testifie 1 Thes. II. 14 15. Heb. X. 33 c. But there was something that put a rub in their way that as yet they could not proceed to the utmost cuelty m m m m m m 2 Thes. II. 6. And now ye know what withholdeth which I suppose is to be understood of Claudius enraged at and curbing in the Jews n n n n n n Act. XVIII 2 Who being taken out of the way and Nero after his first five years suffering all things to be turned topside turvy the Jews now breathing their last and Satan therefore breathing his last effects in them because their time was short they broke out into slaughter beyond measure and into a most bloody persecution which I wonder is not set in the front of the ten persecutions by Ecclesiastical writers This is called by Peter who himself also at last suffered in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o o o o o o 1 Pet.
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Coat e e e e e e Epiphan lib. 1. cap. 15. Speaking of the Scribes Moreover they wore garments distinguisht by the Phylacteries which were certain borders of purple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They used long robes or a certain sort of garment which we may call Dalmaticks or Kolobia which were wove in with large borders of purple That he means the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talith the thing it self declares for those borders of purple were no other than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Zuzith certain skirts hung and sewed on to the Talith 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Woolen shirt the inward garment Whence the Gloss. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaluk was the shirt upon his skin Hence that boast of R. Jose f f f f f f Schabb. fol. 118. 2. That the roof of his house had not throughout his whole life seen what was within that shirt of his II. And now the question returns viz. whether by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the place before us should be meant those two kinds of garments the Talith and the Chaluk that is that they should take but one of them or those two kinds doubled that is that they should take but one of each Whether our Saviour bound them to take but one of those garments or whether he forbad them taking two of each I conceive he might bind them to take but one of those garments for although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be applied to some particular garment yet when it is not so joyned it may signifie only clothing in general When our Lord commands them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to put on two coats g g g g g g Mark VI. 9. The foregoing words may best explain what he means by it for when he cuts them short of other parts of garments and necessaries such as a scrip a staff and sandals we may reasonably suppose he would cut them short of one of the ordinary garments either the Talith or the Chaluk This may seem something severe that he should send them out in the Winter time half naked But 1. This well enough became that Providence which he was determined in a more peculiar manner to exert toward them as may be gathered from Luke XXII 35. and to the charge of which he would commit them Of such a kind and nature was his Providence in preserving them as was shewn toward the Israelites in the Wilderness which suffered not their garments to wax old which kept their bodies from decay and diseases and their feet unhurt by all their travel 2. It suited well enough with the mean and low estate of that Kingdom of Heaven and the Messiah which the Apostles were to Preach up and propagate so that from the view of the first publishers the Jews might learn to frame a right judgment concerning both the Messiah and his Kingdom viz. they might learn to believe in the Messiah when they should observe him capable so wondrously to protect his messengers though surrounded with such numberless inconveniences of life and might further be taught not to expect a pompous Kingdom when they see the propagators of it of so mean a degree and quality The words of the Baptist h h h h h h Lukt III. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath two coats let him impart c. may be also understood in this sence that he that hath both the Talith and the Chaluk may give to him that is naked and hath neither either the one or the other VERS VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That one of the old Prophets was risen again SO is the expression again Vers. 19. in which sense the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Prophet must be taken John I. 21 25. that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the old Prophets that is risen again Although they lookt for no other Prophet excepting Elias only before the appearing of the Messiah yet doth it seem that they had an opinion that some of the antient Prophets should rise again and that the time was now at hand wherein they should so do and that because they made such frequent mention of it in their common talk that some one of the old Prophets were risen again VERS XXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moses and Elias THE Jews have a fiction that Moses shall come with Elias when Elias himself comes i i i i i i Deâ—harin rabba fol. 293. 4. The Holy Blessed God said to Moses As thou hast given thy life for Israel in this world so in the ages to come when I shall bring Elias the Prophet amongst them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you two shall come together But the rise and foundation of this opinion is very ridiculous indeed having its first ground from Nahum I. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Moses when an infant was thrown into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. II. And Elias went up into Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Kings II. This it is for such as these to allegorize the Holy Scriptures They also feign that Moses was raised up at the same time with Samuel by the Witch of Endor k k k k k k Vajicra rabba fol. 195. 3. Samuel thought that day had been the day of judgment and therefore he raised Moses along with himself l l l l l l Pesikta fol. 93. 1. Moses did not dye for the just dye not but went up into the highest to minister before God VERS XXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They spake of his decease THE French and the Italian Translation do render this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too loosely The French Dissoyent sur le issue the Italian Dicevane il successo suo And I wish the English have not done it too narrowly They spake of his decease It were better they spake of his departure For the ascent of Christ into Heaven was as well his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his death nay I may say more if at least in the word Exodus there be any allusion to the Israelites going out of Egppt. For that was in victory and triumph as also the ascent of Christ into Heaven was There is no question but they did indeed discourse with him about his death and the manner of it viz. his crucifixion whereas Moses and Elias themselves did depart without any pain or anguish but I should think however that there is more contained in that word and that the expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the time of his receiving up Vers. 51. hath some reference to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his departure We meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Version Prov. XXX 12. There is a generation accounteth it self righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but yet hath not washed its going out obscurely enough indeed and beside the Text.
in Bava Rama fol. 10. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the masters of the Agada or Expositions because they are Dorshanin or profound searchers of the Scriptures are honour'd of all men for they draw away the hearts of their auditors Nor does that sound very differently as to the thing it self b b b b b b Gloss. in Schaâ—b fol. 115 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Sabbath-day they discuss'd discussions i. e. in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * * * * * * Ioh. 5. 39. searching the Scriptures to the masters of families who had been employ'd in their occasions all the week and whiles they were expounding they taught them the articles about things forbidden and things permitted them c. To these kind of mystick and allegorical expositions of Scripture if at least it be proper to call them expositions they were so strangely bewitcht that they valu'd nothing more than a skill tickling or rubbing the itching ears of their auditors with such trifles Hence that passage c c c c c c Hierosol Chagigah fol. â—5 4. R. Joshua said to R. Johanan ben Bruchah and to R. Eliezar the blind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What new thing have you met with to day in Beth Midras They answered and said we are all thy disciples and drink wholly at thy waters To whom he It is impossible but you should meet with something novel every day in Beth Midras II. As to the Oral Law there was also a twofold way of explaining it as they had for the written Law I. The former way we have intimated to us in these words d d d d d d Megillah fol. 26. 2. The book of the Law when it grows old they lay up with one of the disciples of the wise men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even although he teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the traditions The passage seems very obscure but it is thus explain'd by the Gloss Albeit it doth not any way help the disciples of the wise men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Talmud Gemara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in Misnaioth Bariathoth that is he that would only read the body of the Traditional Law and render the literal sense of it and not he that would dispute scholastically and comment upon it For II. There were Doctors that would enquire more deeply into the Traditions would give some accounts such as they were of them would discuss difficulties solve doubts c. a Specimen of which is the Talmudick Gemara throughout Lastly Amongst the Learned and Doctors of that Nation there were the Agadici who would expound the written Law in a more profound way than ordinary even to what was cabbalistical These were more rare and as it should seem not so acceptable amongst the people Whether these are concern'd in what follows let the Reader judg e e e e e e Hierosol Schâ—â—b fol. 1â— 3. â— Midras Tillen fol. 20. 4. R. Joshua ben Levi saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so and so let it happen to me if in all my life I ever saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the book Agada above once and then I found an hundred seventy and sive Sections of the Law where it is written The Lord hath said hath spoken hath commanded They are according to the number of the years of our father Abraham as it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to receive gifts for men c. An hundred forty and seven Psalms which are in the book of Psalms mark the number they are according to the number of the years of our father Jacob. As it is written thou art holy and inhabitest the praises of Israel an hundred twenty and three turns wherein Israel answereth Hallelujah to him that repeats the Hallel are according to the number of the years of Aaron c. And as a Coronis let me add that passage in Sanhedr * * * * * * Fol. 101. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they be masters of the Textual reading they shall be conversant in the Law the Prophets and the Hagiographa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if they be masters of the Mishneh they shall be conversant in Mishneh Halacoth and Haggadoth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if they be masters of the Talmud they shall be conversant in the Traditions of the Passover in the Passover in the traditions of Pentecost in Pentecost in the traditions of the feast of Tabernacles in the feast of Tabernacles These all whom we have mention'd were Scribes and Doctors and expounders of the Law but which of these may properly and peculiarly challenge to themselves the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawyers whether all or any particular classis of them The latter is most probable but then what classis will you choose or will you distinguish betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lawyer and the teacher of the Law I had rather the Reader would frame his own judgment here And yet that I might not dismiss this question wholly untoucht and at the same time not weary the Reader with too long a digression I have refer'd what is to be alledged in this matter to my notes upon Chapt. XI 45. VERS XXVI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How readest thou AN expression very common in the Schools 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what readest thou when any person brought a Text of Scripture for the proof of any thing f f f f f f Schabb. fol. 33 2. The Rabbins have a Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the disease of the Squinancy came into the world upon the account of tithes the Gloss hath it for eating of fruits that had not been tithed R Eliezar ben R. Jose saith it was for an evil tongue Rabba saith and it is the saying also of R. Joshua ben Levi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what readest thou The King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by himself shall glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped b b b b b b Psal. LXIII 11. And a little after upon another subject R. Simeon ben Gezirah saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what or how readest thou If thou know not O thou fairest among Women go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock Cant. I. 8. We will not be very curious in enquiring whether our Saviour used the very same form of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or any other In this only he departs from their common use of speech in that he calls to another to alledge some Text of Scripture whereas it was usual in the Schools that he that spoke that would alledge some place himself VERS XXVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And with thy whole mind IN this answer of the man there are
1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Calf and the young Bullock which they kill in the name of the Passover Or for the Passover Whence we may observe The Calf is the Passover as well as the Lamb. 2. The Elders of the Sanhedrin prepare and oblige themselves to eat the Chagigah the Passover on that day because the next day was the Sabbath and the Chagihah must not make void the Sabbath y y y y y y Pesachin ubi supr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chagigah doth not set aside the Sabbath Hence that we quoted before that the Chagigah was not to be brought upon the Sabbath day as also not in case of uncleanness because however the Chagigah and defilement might set aside the Passover yet it might not the Sabbath VERS XXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not lawful for us to put any man to death DOTH Pilate jest or deride them when he bids them take him and judge him according to their own Law It cannot be denied but that all capital judgment or sentence upon life had been taken from the Jews for above forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem as they oftentimes themselves confess But how came this to pass It is commonly received that the Romans at this time the Jews Lords and Masters had taken from all their Courts a power and capacity of judging the capital matters We have spoken largely upon this subject in our Notes upon Matth. XXVI 3. Let us superadd a few things here z z z z z z Avodah Zarah fol. 8. 2. Rabh Cahna saith when R. Ismael bar Jose lay sick they sent to him saying pray Sir tell us two or three things which thou didst once tell us in the name of thy Father He saith to them an hundred and fourscore years before the destruction of the Temple the wicked Kingdom the Roman Empire reigned over Israel fourscore years before the destruction of the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they the Fathers of the Sanhedrin determined about the uncleanness of the Heathen Land and about Glass Vessels Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the Sanhedrin removed and sate in the Taberne What is the meaning of this Tradition Rabh Isaac bar Abdimi saith they did not judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgments of Mulcts The Gloss is Those are the judgments about sining any that offered violence that entice a maid and the price of a Servant When therefore they did not sit in the room Gazith they did not judge about these things and so those judgments about mulcts or sines ceased Here we have one part of their judiciary power lost not taken away from them by the Romans but falling of it self as it were out of the hands of the Sanhedrin Nor did the Romans indeed take away their power of judging in capital matters but they by their own oscitancy supine and unreasonable lenity lost it themselves For so the Gemara goes on Rabh Nachman bar Isaac saith Let him not say that they did not judge judgments of Mulcts for they did not judge capital judgments neither And whence comes this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they saw that so many Murders and Homicides multiplied upon them that they could not well judge and call them to account they said it is better for us that we remove from place to place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For how can we otherwise sitting here and not punishing them not contract a guilt upon our selves They thought themselves obliged to punish Murderers whiles they sate in the room Gazith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the place it self engaged them to it They are the words of the Gemarists Upon which the Gloss. The room Gazith was half of it within and half of it without the Holy place The reason of which was that it was requisite that the Council should sit near the Divine Majesty Hence it is that they say whoever constitutes an unfit Judge is as if he planted a Grove by the Altar of the Lord as it is written Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee and it follows presently after thou shalt not plant thee a Grove near the Altar of the Lord thy God Deut. XVI 18 21. They removed therefore from Gazith and sate in the Taberne Now though the Taberne were upon the mountain of the Temple yet they did not sit so near the Divine Majesty there as they did when they sate in the room Gazith Let us now in order put the whole matter together I. The Sanhedrin were most stupidly and unreasonably remiss in their punishment of capital offendors going upon this reason especially that they accounted it so horrible a thing to sentence an Israelite to death Forsooth he is of the seed of Abraham of the blood and stock of Israel and you must have a care how you touch such an one a a a a a a â—ava Meziah sol 83. 2. R. Eliezer b. R. Simeon had laid hold on some Thieves R. Joshua b. Korchah sent to him saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou Vinegar the Son of good Wine i. e. O thou wicked Son of a good Father How long wilt thou deliver the people of God to the slaughter He answered and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I root the Thornes out of the Vineyard to whom the other Let the Lord of the Vineyard come and root them out himself It is worth noting that the very thieves of Israel are the people of God and O they must not be touched by any means but referred to the judgment of God himself b b b b b b Ibid. fol. 64. 1. When R. Ismael b. R. Jose was constituted a Magistrate by the King there happened some such thing to him for Elias himself rebuked him saying how long wilt thou deliver over the people of God to slaughter Hence that which we alledged elsewhere c c c c c c Maccoth fol. 7. 1. The Sanhedrin that happens to sentence any one to death within the space of seven years is called a destroyer R. Eleazar ben Azariah saith it is so if they should but condemn one within seventy years II. It is obvious to any one how this foolish remissness and letting loose the reins of judgment would soon encrease the numbers of Robbers Murderers and all kind of wickedness and indeed they did so abundantly multiply that the Sanhedrin neither could nor durst as it ought call the Criminals to account The Laws slept whiles wickedness was in the height of its Revels and punitive justice was so out of countenance that as to uncertain murders they made no search and certain ones they framed no judgment against d d d d d d Sotah fol. 47. 1. Since the time that Homicides multiplied the beheading the Heifer ceased And in the place before quoted in Avodah e e e e e e Fol. 8. 2. When they saw the numbers of Murderers so greatly encrease that
lookt toward one another but when they did not then they turn'd their faces toward the walls Thus Onkelos comments upon this place of the Chronicles I hardly think he Targumizeth on the Book for the Targum at least that is in our hands renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Cherubins are made of lilly-work VERS XVII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Touch me not for I am not yet ascended c. THESE words relate to what he had spoken formerly about sending the Comforter and that he would not leave them comfortless c. And this probably Mary Magdalen's mind was intent upon when she fell at his feet and would have embraced them But he I must first ascend to my Father before I can bestow those things upon you which I have promised do not therefore touch me and detain me upon any expectation of that kind but wait for my Ascension rather and go and tell the same things to my Brethren for their encouragement VERS XXIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted HE had formerly given them a power of binding and loosing and therefore probably bestows something more upon them now than what he had conferr'd before For I. It would seem a little incongruous for our Saviour to use an action so new and unwonted such as was his breathing upon them to vest them only with that power which he had before given them II. The power of binding and loosing was concern'd only in the articles and decisions of the Law this power which he now gives them reacht to the sins of mankind That power concern'd the Doctrines this the persons of men Now that we may understand the words that are before us let us a little consider what is said Luk. XXIV 46. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Which words we may suppose he spoke before he utter'd what is in this verse And so might there not upon the occasion of those words arise some such scruple as this in the Apostles breasts Is it so indeed must remission of sins be Preached to those in Jerusalem who have stain'd themselves with the blood of the Messiah himself Yes saith he For whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them To this those words of his upon the Cross have some reference Luk. XXIII 34. Father forgive them c. And indeed upon what foundation with what confidence could the Apostles have preacht remission of sins to such wretched men who had so wickedly so cruelly murder'd their own Lord the Lord of life unless authoriz'd to it by a peculiar commission granted to them from their Lord himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whose soever ye retain they are retained Besides the negative included in these words that is If you do not remit them they shall not be remitted there is something superadded that is positive That is I. There is granted to them a power of smiting the rebellious with present death or some bodily stroke II. A power of delivering them over to Satan Whence had St. Peter that power of striking Ananias and Sapphira with so fatal a bolt whence St. Paul that of striking Elymas blind whence of delivering over Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan if not from this very commission given them by Christ Christ himself never exercis'd this power himself it was not one person whom he stroke either with death or any afflictive disease some indeed he raised when they had been dead and infinite numbers of the sick and diseased whom he cured He snatcht several from the power of the Devils he deliver'd none to them That the Apostles therefore might be capable of performing things of so high a nature it was necessary they should be backt and encourag'd by a peculiar authority which if we find not in this clause Whose soever sins ye retain they are retained where should we look for it And therefore when he endows his Apostles with a power which he never thought fit to exercise in his own person no wonder if he does it by a singular and unusual action and that was breathing upon them ver 22. But we must know that whereas amongst other mighty powers conferr'd we reckon that as one viz. delivering over unto Satan we are far from meaning nothing else by it but Excommunication What the Jews themselves meant by that kind of phrase let us see by one instance d d d d d d Succah fol. 53. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those two men of Cush that stood before Solomon Elihoreph and Ahijah the Scribes Sons of Shausha On a certain day Solomon saw the Angel of Death weeping he said why weepest thou He answer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because these two Cushites entreat me that they may continue here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon deliver'd them over to the Devil who brought them to the borders of Luz and when they were come to the borders of Luz they dy'd Gloss. He calls them Cushites Ironically because they were very beautiful They entreat me that they might continue here For the time of their death was now come But the Angel of death could not take their souls away because it had been decreed that they should not die but at the Gates of Luz Solomon therefore deliver'd them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Devils for he reign'd over the Devils as it is written And Solomon sat upon the Throne of the Lord for he reigned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over those things that are above and those things that are below Josephus also makes mention of the power that Solomon had over Devils e e e e e e Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God taught him an art against Demons The belief of either of these stories is at the liberty of the Reader Only from the former we may make this observation that a power of delivering over to Satan was even in the Jews opinion divine and miraculous We acknowledg this to have been in the Apostles and in the Apostles only and I know no where if not in the words we are now treating of from whence otherwise the original of this power and authority can be deriv'd III. It seems further that at this very time was granted to the Apostles a commission to confer the Holy Spirit on those whom they found qualify'd and that in these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost i. e. Receive ye it to distribute it to others For although it cannot be deny'd but that they receiv'd the Holy Ghost for other reasons also and to other ends of which we have already discours'd yet is not this great end to be excluded which seem'd the highest and noblest endowment of all viz. that Christ breathing upon them inspir'd them with the Holy
and Revelation in the knowledge of him And God gives this Spirit but in what sence Not to foresee things to come not to understand the Grammatical construction of Scripture without study not to preach by the Spirit but the Apostle explains himself vers 18. The eyes of their understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints So that the Revelation given to the Saints is this that God reveals the experience of those things that we have learned before in the Theory from Scripture a saving feeling of the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance Here let me speak three things 1. To feel the experience of Grace is not by new Light that was never known before but by application of what was known before As the Queen of Sheba first heard of the Fame of Solomon then found by experience Compare we our knowledge of Spiritual things to a Banquet to your Feast this day A man before Grace sees the banquet God hath provided for his people hath by the word learned the nature and definition of Faith Repentance Holiness Love of God and Love to God but as yet he does but see the banquet when Grace comes then he sees and tastes these things in experience and sence in his own Soul He had a light before from the Word now it is brought so near his heart that he feels warmness he feels life and sence and operation of these things is as it were changed into these things as in II Cor. III. 18. We with open face beholding as in a glâ—ss the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory Now this is noâ— the Spirit of Revelation in that sence that these take it in but t is so called because it is by a light and operation above natural light and operation As common grace is called grace because 't is above the ordinary working of nature so this is called revelation because above the work of common light 2. How do men come to assurance of pardon and salvation Not by the Spirit of revelation in their sence not by any immediate whispers from Heaven but another way As in Rom. XV. 4. Through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we have hope In Scripture is your comfort and in your own conscience and in them is your assurance A Saint makes this holy Syllogism Scripture Major He that repents believes loves God hath the pardon of his sins Conscience Minor Lord I believe Lord I love thee Saint from both makes the Conclusion Therefore I am assured of the pardon of my sins and my Salvation Thus Christ would bring S. Peter to assurance of his Estate after his denial by this trial Lovest thou me Not by any revelation that Christ loved him but it was assurance enough if he loved Christ. And here by the way let me speak one word for trial whether we have the Spirit of Sanctification that we be not deceived in the rest Never believe you have the Spirit of Sanctification unless your heart be changed to love God Among many signs this is the most sensible and undoubted I say unless the heart be changed and changed to love God Change of heart is the mother habit of all Graces God speaks enough in Ezek. XXXVI 26. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you In that question about perseverance and loss of grace as in the case of David Peter c. we say That the Act may be suspended and lost for the present but the Habit not Now by habit we mean not the particular seed of this or that Grace but the change of the Heart the materia prima of all Graces That is never unchanged back again the stone is taken away The heart indeed may freez into ice as Davids and Peters but never turn into stone again I say further To love God A man may feel some kind of change of heart in common grace Common grace is Gods ordinary way for working Saving grace his keys Illumination stirring of Conscience fear of Hell some kind of Grief Now though these go not so far as to come to saving grace yet saving grace comes not but by the inlet of these And here many are deceived if they have some such stirrings within them if startled pricked have some sorrow for sin though all from the Spirit of bondage yet think they have repentance godly sorrow enough And here were an insuperable difficulty of discerning a mans estate whether yet under common grace only but that this resolves it If I Love God Peters startling of Conscience grief tears were good signs but never sure signs had not this seasoned all Lord I Love thee So that a mans assurance of his happy estate is not by any Spirit of Revelation but of Sanctification not from Inspiration but from the work and testimony of a good Conscience the Spirit of God in grace bearing witness to our Spirits 3. I may add A Saint in Heaven finds nothing but what he knew before in little what he tasted before in little but then is filled As he hath heard so now he seeth in the City of God hath heard of the Beatifical Vision of partaking of God of Eternity now he enjoys it not by any new Revelation of the Spirit but by blessed experience So that the dearest Saint of God hath no further promise of Revelation then in this sence III. There is no promise in Scripture whereupon the Spirit of Revelation is to be expected after the fall of Jerusalem It is a delusion by which the men we speak of deceive themselves and others when they think and assert that what promises are made of Revelation or of great light are to be applied to these times How have these places been as it were worn thread-bare by them for this purpose Esay LIV. 13. All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and Jer. XXXI 33 34. And this is the Covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts c. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me c. and others as if they had been directly aimed for these very times and as if directly for England whereas I say again there is no promise upon which the Spirit of Revelation is to be expected after the fall of Jerusalem This assertion is more important and proveable than seems at first sight I limit Prophesie to expire at the fall of Jerusalem Whosoever saith not so will not know where to limit it and what that age was wherein it was extinguished And if no limit than how great is the danger we are in who live in these times when so many of contrary minds pretend to Prophesie and then
again before thine enemies So that it was the Justice of God that encouraged them to this war and it had two parts to act First To punish Israel for that Idolatry against which they stirred not and now stirred so in the cause of a Strumpet And then secondly To punish Gibeah and Benjamin for the abominable fact about that Strumpet the one for acting and the other for abetting it and not delivering the offenders to deserved punishment So that had they inquired why they fell so many in the war when God himself had set them to it this answer might easily have been given without asking at an Oracle and no question but Phinehas or what other holy men were in the army did sadly observe it But before we pass further the observation how God encourages them to this war and yet foils them in it minds me of two cases that are something parallel but only in this excepted that they had not a precedent and dormant cause why God should so check when he had commanded and encouraged but only a present and emergent The one is Jacob commanded and encouraged by God to go from Haran to his own Country and God promised to be with him and yet Christ the Angel of the Covenant meets him by the way wrestles with him seeks to kill him and he escapes so narrowly that he lamed him all his life The emergent reason was because Jacob upon news of Esau's coming with four hundred armed men was sorely shaken in his faith foiled with distrust and sends him a great multitude of cattel before he had tithed them as his Vow was to do Hence God that had commanded him doth so check him but he wept and made supplication recovers his faith and scapes with life though not with all his limbs The other is Moses commanded and encouraged by God to go for Egypt to deliver the people and the power of miracles put into his hand And yet Exod. IV. 24. It came to pass by the way in the Inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him The emergent cause was Moses distrust likewise He had long declined the Employment as doubting and pleading his own insufficiency for it and though God had given him this token that he should bring the people to worship God at that mountain yet durst not Moses venture to leave his wife behind him lest he should not come to see her any more but takes her with him though now in childbed and her child not yet eight days old to be circumcised And for this distrust God that had commanded him yet doth check him with so great a danger But he recovers his faith scapes with life sends back his wife and goes on his journey But these failings with these good men were suddain and emergent This fault of Israel had been sometime dormant and they dormant under it but now God awakens them with the alarm of a grievous slaughter that if ever they will inquire about their condition and business it is time for them to inquire now But how do they do it II. And that is a second thing to be inquired after The Ark and Phinehas are here mentioned because their inquiry was by Phinehas and his inquiry at the Ark. And was it possible that Phinehas should be then alive He was one of the persons that came out of Egypt Exod. VI. 23. And it was three hundred and fifty years at least since they came out of Egypt to the death of Sampson which you see is set before this story in the XVI Chap. let Phinehas be supposed to have been in the swaddles when they came out yet must he be at the least three hundred and fifty years old if he were alive at the death of Sampson which is far above the date that the ages of men went at at that time Before the Flood indeed the Patriarchs lived almost to a thousand years But at the Flood mans age was halved so that none that was born after lived up full to five hundred At the Confusion of Babel it was halved again so that none born after that lived up no not to two hundred and fifty as is easie to observe by computing the Ages in Gen. XI Nay the Ages of men stood not at that measure neither but at the murmuring in the Wilderness Numb XIV they were shortned again and the common stint of mans life brought to seventy or eighty years or thereabouts as Moses tells us in the XC Psalm Which Psalm was penned by him upon that very occasion So that it is not so much as to be imagined that Phinehas attained to three hundred and fifty years of age which he did and more if the time of this story were according to the order of placing it in this book But as it is very usual in Scripture to dislocate stories out of their proper time and place and that upon most divine reason so it is done here and indeed more signally than in any other place whatsoever This story of the war at Gibeah and that before of the Idolatry set up in Dan and that before that of the Idolatry set up by Micah in Mount Ephraim being set in the latter end of the Book which indeed for their proper time should have place near the beginning And that First Because in Chap. II. 7. it is said that Idolatry broke out among them assoon as the first generation that had seen the wonders in the Wilderness was dead and gone Now that Idolatry of the Danites with the Idol of Micah was the first publick breaking out And thereupon Dan is omitted to be named among the sealed of the twelve Tribes Revel VII Secondly It is said that this occurrence at Gibeah was when no King i. e. no Judge in Israel was yet risen It is repeated three times over Chap. XVIII 1. Chap. XIX 1. and Chap. XXI 27. to point out that these stories occurred before any Judge was Thirdly The wickedness at Gibeah is reckoned for the first notorious piece of villany in the Land Hos. X. 9. O Israel thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah Fourthly and lastly That passage in Judg. V. 8. speaks clearly of this matter They chose new Gods then was war in the gates was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel They chose new Gods refers to the Idolatry in Dan. Then was war in the gates to this Civil war in Gibeah in their own gates Was shield or spear seen among forty thousand To the forty thousand that fell in this war as if neither shield nor spear had been among them I shall not trouble you with large discourses to shew why these stories are displaced and laid in this place whereas they occurred so soon in the story of this book I shall only commend this to your Conception Sampson their last Judge after whose death their seat declined was of Dan and their first publick Idolatry was in Dan. Sampsons life was sold for
of spirit Why to east down thy thirty pieces of Silver which thou hadst got so notoriously and bought so duly Oh! Conviction of mine own Conscience which bears me down and lies heavier on my Soul than a thousand thousand milstones They shall say to the Rocks fall on us and to the Hills cover us And those weights seem lighter than the burden of Conscience that lies upon them Here is Conviction of Conscience overpowering ad ultimum quod sic as far as possible in that kind and as far as possible in this World a man so throughly convinced of his lost undone damnable condition that his Conviction is his Hell already and he cannot suffer or feel more of Hell till he come there But Secondly There is a Conviction of Conscience overpowering to the utmost effect of Conviction that is smoother like Jacob and not such a rough thing as this Esau a child of the freewoman and of the promise and not of this spirit of horror and bondage and that is when a man is so convinced in Conscience concerning his duty that he cannot but with all earnestness set to it and keep to it As in Jer. XX. 9. The word of the Lord was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones that I was weary of forbearing and could not stay This I shall illustrate to you by looking into a case or state of Conscience referring something to the Conviction spoken of last before and also to this we are speaking of now Many a dear child of God walks in darkness and sees no light from the time of his new birth to his grave he walks in brokenness of Heart and dejection of Spirit and never sees good day His example may be instance enough for all others in Psal. LXXXVIII 15 16 17. I am afflicted and ready to die even from my youth up I suffer thy terrors I am distracted Thy fierce wrath goeth over me and thy terrors have cut me off They came round about me daily like waters they compassed me about together Now what is that that bears such a Soul up that it does not sink under despondency and despair It is a wonder that such a one can live and what is it that he lives upon Upon the strong and overpowering Conviction and sence of his duty Every child of God that is born to God by the new birth is in Rebecca's case with a Jacob and Esau struggling in her but the younger overcoms the elder He hath a twofold overpowering of Conscience in him namely concerning his lost condition and concerning his duty and the latter overcoms the former He hath those pangs and anguishes of Conscience through the sight of his sins and sence of Gods displeasure that it brings him to the very brink of Hell and of the gulph of dispair but he hath withal so strong an impression of his duty that that keeps him from sinking or falling in A travailer towards Heaven walks upon two legs Hope and Sence of his duty Now many and many a time his hope like Jacobs thigh is sinnew-shrunk and lame and hath no strength at all in it yet he makes shift to bear upon his other leg the sence of his duty that Jacob-like at last he limps out to his journies end The hope of a good Soul may be in the dark that he cannot see the glimmering of the least spark of it but the sence of his duty is always in his sâ—ght that he cannot but look on it and walk after it The case of Jonah in the Whales belly Jon. II. 4. I said I am â—â—t off from the light Why Jonah then thy case is desperate and there is no hope But I will yet look toward thy holy Temple That is my duty and I must not give out from it That good man in Psal. LXXXVIII thou seest thou hast waited and prayed and laboured for comfort all thy time and no comfort comes there is no hope strive no longer I but it is my duty to wait and pray and labour and I must hold to that and not give out Job dost thou not see thy hopeless case dost thou still hold thine integrity blessing God and dying Ah! thou speakest like a fool saith he though God kill me yet will I trust in him I will wait on him this is my duty and I must do it Oh! This is worth your laying to heart If ever your case come to despond in hopes and comforts yet to â—ear up with this Though I cannot see it is the Will of God to shew me comfort yet I am sure it is his Will that I should hold out in doing my duty I long for assurance of pardon of my sins and cannot find it I pray and wait and labour for grace and hope and comfort and cannot feel it My heart is as sad as ever as dull as slippery as incumbred as ever yet come what will I must not leave my hold I must pray and wait and labour still it is my Duty Thus hath many a sad Soul been born up under despondencies that have seen no light hope nor comfort that it hath been a wonder how they have holden up yet have lived upon a hidden manna as in Revel II. 17. have been born up upon this crutch the overpowering Conviction of their Conscience concerning their Duty IV. Fourthly Every Conscience in the World must at one time or other come to such ultimate Conviction in the one kind or other either to confusion and horror or to conversion and setting to his duty Cain if thou do well shalt thou not be accepted but if thou do not well sin lies at the door Gen. IV. 7. The word in the Original â—â—â—â—â—fies sin but more commonly a sin-offering and that laid at the door And that I take to be the meaning of the place and this to be the first doctrine of Repentance in the Bible Though thou do not well yet there is a sin-offering to make thy peace repent and thou shalt be pardoned but if thou do not repent sin and vengeance lies at the door ready to seize upon thee Sinner if thou improvest trying Conviction as thou oughtest to do thou mayest come to the kindly overpowering Conviction to set thee to thy duty for thy everlasting comfort but if not expect overpowering Conviction at one time or other to thy eternal horror And to this sence could I easily be induced to believe those borrowed expressions of Daniel mean Dan. XII 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth Joh. V. 28 29 shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt A resurrection of dead Consciences as well as dead bodies Conscience of it self is one of the sleepiest things in the World if God would let it sleep but he will suffer no Conscience to sleep for ever But up sluggard Jonah why sleepest thou either call upon thy God or betake thy self to thy duty or into the
of the Nation it self It is observable concerning that unhappy Nation that before their Captivity into Babylon they were all for Idolatry but after their return out of Captivity they abhorred Idolatry but were all for Traditions they changed naught for naught or rather naught for worse For indeed their Traditions one may justly say were more destructive than their Idolatry Their Traditions wrought them and brought them to murder the Lord of life and glory which their Idolatry would hardly ever have brought them to And the very principles of their Traditions were such that they had not been right Scholars in that School they had not been faithful to their principles if they had not destroied him So directly contrary to the tenor of the Gospel and to the quality and appearance of Christ were those cursed Traditions that if they sought not withal might and main to destroy them and root them out the beast did not work according to the nature of the beast but clean contrary to it It is very generally conceived that God rejected that Nation for the murther of the Lord of life And that was a very just cause and reason why they were rejected But if I should say God rejected the bulk and mass of that Nation long before the death of Christ for those cursed Traditions I believe I should not speak it without good proof and warrant And it is observable that John Baptist calls them a generation of Vipers which in plain English is The seed of the Serpent at his first preaching among them And it is observable that which we are upon that wickedness and villanies were grown so abounding and so predominant that they were past the Magistrates correcting before ever our Saviour comes to be arraigned And it is no wonder they were grown so abounding and predominant when their very Principles led them to make crimes of those that were but trifles and no crimes of those that were crimes indeed to omit the great things of the Law whereby they might have beaten down cruelty dishonesty and debauchery and to make all their business only about toys only for the promoting of formality and hypocrisie and seeming goodness And thus you see wickedness uncorrected till it grow incorrigible an unhappy Magistracy asleep till it wake like Sampson with the locks of his strength cut and overpowred by the Philistins and a miserable Nation bleeding to death and weltering in its own blood because the Physitian would not let blood when he should have done in due time and in the right vein And now do I need to say any thing by way of Application As the Apostle concerning Abel He being dead yet speaketh so I of Judea she is here dying and do you not hear her speak nay as he of old Loquere ut te videam Do you not see her speak The very looking on her may read a Lecture As the Lacedaemonians read a silent Lecture against drunkenness to their children only by shewing them their slaves Swine-drunk So t is a silent Lecture against neglecting of the execution of Justice and Judgment and against partiality in executing of Judgment and Justice only to look upon her and her undone condition It is well known to you all that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow that is done unto me And who wrought it to thee O unhappy Nation Oh! I was wounded in this house of my friends Folly and fondness partiality and foolish tenderness sloth and sleepiness have been my undoing Discite justitiam moniti Take warning by my fate all Nations and Countries and set your selves to execute Judgment and do Justice lest wickedness grow that there be no curbing and so vengeance follow that there be no healing The Grandees of that Nation though so careless as to practise this will tell you that all the six hundred and thirteen precepts contained in the Law of Moses are couched and included within those two in Esay LVI 1. Keep judgment and do justice And indeed how much and how great things are included in those two keeping or observing Judgment in causes Controversal and doing just in causes Criminal The Greek Poet will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in Justice is comprehended all Vertues and the Scripture will tell you that under the name of righteousness is comprehended all piety by the use of the name a righteous man for one after Gods own heart I might speak how much piety is comprehended in doing Justice and how much charity how much service to God how much benefit to the Country But need I to illustrate these things that are so plain It is something strange and not to be passed by without observation that in the New Testament in several places the second Table is cited and taken for the whole Law without mention of the first Table at all In Matth. XIX 16. when a man comes and asks what he should do to have eternal life Christ bids him keep the Commandments When he demands which He refers him only to the second Table Thou shalt do no murder Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Honour thy Father and thy Mother And Thou shall love thy neighbour as thy self You have the like reference to the second Table Rom. XIII 8. Ow nothing to any man but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law And there going to reckon up the Commandments of the Law he mentions only those of the second Table And you may observe the Apostle S. James using the same style Jam 11. 8. If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well What then is the younger sister fairer than the Elder the second Table more lovely than the fiâ—â—â— that Jacob mâ—â—t serve his â—pprenticeship for Rachel the younger rather than for Iâ—â—ah the eldeâ— As Micah VI 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requires of thee to do justly and love mercy For these two are the Urim and Thummim of the second Table the very life of true Christian piety and of a true Christians acting And the Lord thus directs men to the duties of the second Table as the touchstone of Piety whereby to try whether we love God by our love to our neighbour whether he will do God right by doing right to his neighbour If time would permit I mâ—ght speak I. How great a duty Justice is of the second Table II. How great a charity to a place or Country III. How great a tye upon all not Judges and Magistrates only but Juries Witnesses all in their places to promote it IV. How great a misery and undoing of a Nation to have the current of it stopped A SERMON PREACHED AT ELY ASSISE Septemb. 12. 1671. JAMES V. 9. Behold the Iudge standeth before the door THE great Court of Judicature
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
long it so continued is not easily determined but that it did not always so continue is as easily proved The Apostle gives us cause to suspect that some corruptions were crept in there even in his own time when in his Epistle to them Rom. XVI 17. he speaks of divisions and scandals as it seems among them contrary to the Doctrin they had learned And in his Epistle to the Philippians written from Rome he intimates that some preached the Gospel as it seems there not purely but of strife and contention Phil. I. 14 15. However though we cannot punctually determine the time and degrees by which the Church of Rome did degenerate yet that it is degenerate from the purity of that first Church there and from the purity of the Gospel primitively professed there is written so plainly that the dimmest eye may read it if a man will not shut or put it out How is the faithful City become an Harlot righteousness once lodged there but now murtherers is the sad question and complaint of the Prophet Esay concerning Jerusalem in his first Chapter How and by what degrees it came to be an Harlot and to what an high degree of harlotry it was come the former was not easie to determine and the latter not easie to express yet that it was so was but too plain And the very like may be said in this case and of this City The City once faithful is become an harlot but how and by what degrees and to what a degree let her look to that at her peril It is not so very material to determine of the time and degrees of her degeneration as to consider how grosly she is degenerate If we should go about to particularize in every thing concerning faith and manners wherein that Church hath forsaken the right way and is gon astray we had need to take up the longest day in summer to speak out that matter rather than to confine our selves to a piece of an hour and it would require our examining even their whole doctrine and practice We we will touch but two instead of two hundred First The Apostle Chap. I. 8. saith the Faith of the primitive Church at Rome was renownedly spoken of through the world Now do you think it was such an implicit faith as the Church of Rome teacheth now That it sufficeth if a man believe as the Church believes though he know not what either the Church or himself believeth Do we think that the first Founders of the Church in that City be it Peter as they will have it or Paul as he had some concurrence to it or those that I have mentioned do we think I say that they ever broached such a doctrine there It is enough if you believe with an implicite faith or as the Church belives The right way of believing in Christ the Apostle laid down most divinely in such expressions as these Let every one be assured in his own mind I know whom I have believed Have Faith in God and if thou hast Faith have it to thy self c. importing a knowledge and certainty of what is believed and not that faith should grope in the dark and believe it cannot tell what but only as others believe The right way that the Primitive Church of Rome was in was the way of knowledg and understanding that they knew and understood the things of salvation and were acquainted with the things of God and the way of eternal life Can he that reads the divine Epistle to the Romans think otherwise Or that hears the Apostles commendation of them think otherwise Now hath not that Church forsaken the right way that teacheth That Ignorance is the mother of devotion and practiseth accordingly to keep the people in ignorance Was Paul of that mind think you when he writ his Epistle to the Romans He might have very well saved that labour of instituting them in those many high and excellent poynts that he doth in that Epistle if he had been of the mind the now-Church of Rome is that the way to build people up in devotion is to keep them in ignorance His counsel is Be not Children in understanding but theirs By all means to make them in understanding children And when as our Saviour tells that blind guides lead blind people into the ditch these teach that blindness is that that will lead to Heaven Have not these forsaken the right way to Heaven that choose the ways of darkness to lead thither Secondly Certainly that Church hath forsaken the right way that goes clean contrary to the right way If the right way is to search the Scriptures as Joh. V. 39. then they have forsaken the right way for their way is to keep men from searching them If the right way is to use a known tongue in publick worship as 1 Cor. XIV their way is to use a tongue not understood If the right way is to administer the Cup in the Sacrament their way is to forbid its administration The right way is Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve certainly they have forsaken the right way that worship Angels and Saints departed that worship Crucisixes and Images that worship and adore a piece of bread Thirdly In a word for it were endless to reckon all their aberrations Is there any wrong way in the world if blowing up of Parliaments be not out of the right one If this be the right way then Pharaoh was in the right way when he plotted the drowning of the Infants of Israel Jezabel was in the right way when she murthred the Prophets of the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar was in the right way when he threw the three young Nobles of Judah into the fiery furnace Either this is not the right way or the best of the Saints of God were in the wrong for they ever walked in a way clean contrary to this kind of dealing They were many of them slain for the truth you shall never find so much as one of them that slew any for the truth Do you think that Peter the founder of their Church as they pretend would ever have consented with them had he been alive to the blowing up of a Parliament And do they find any direction or encouragement to such a thing in any of his writings Though he was once so fiery as to draw his sword and cut off the High Priests Servant's ear yet I believe he would never have been perswaded to have been a Faux a Garnet or a Catesby in such a design as this His Master had cooled his courage for swording it again with that Cooler He that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword And these men might have learned that lesson if they had been either his or Christs Disciples When the two Sons of Zebedee James and John misconstruing the meaning of their name Boanerges would have fired a village of the Samaritans our Saviour checks them with You know
more and the poor shall not give less And now let us look over these three things again and consider what may be learned from them I will transpose a little these particulars and speak of the second first viz. I. The end and purpose for which this sum was given to wit as an acknowledgment and an owning that their lives and persons were in the hand of God and that to him they looked for their Preservation And therefore it was that they paid this sum for the ransom of their lives So that as the payment of this mony was a Duty so it was a Doctrine teaching them to own their depending upon God for their lives and beings So that hence we learn That every man is to own his dependance upon God for his life and being The Jews were taught it by their being bound to pay a yearly tribute to God for the preservation of their life and being and we taught it from their example And I speak to this subject the more willingly because the thing and the time do concur so fair together so that the subject we speak of is not only useful and necessary but seasonable and agreeable both to their time and ours Concerning their payment of this Pol-mony or dependance mony their own writers tell us that the Collectors of this Tax began upon the Collection of it the last month of their year and so went on gathering in the beginning of the new year That we are come to the last month nay the last week of our year doth very justly give us occasion to remember our preservation the year that is now gone over our heads and all the years of our life hitherto and to consider of that merciful and good Providence that hath preserved us all along those years And this and hardly a more seasonable discourse can we take up at this time than such an one as shall remind us and if it may be warm us with a feeling of our Dependence upon God for our preservation Need I to divide the Theme before us and prove apart That our Dependence is upon God for our preservation And That we are to be sensible of this Dependence We can hardly find a place in Scripture that proves the one but it proves both together and none there is hardly but if they acknowledge the truth of the thing that mens dependence is upon God for their preservation but they acknowledge also their sense of it and that they so own their preservation I might instance multitudes of places but do I need when there is not a holy man through all the Bible that speaks of his own preservation but he owns it to have been from God and shews himself to have been sensible of it Job X. 12. Thou hast given me life and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit Lam. III. 22. It is the Lords mercies that we are not consumed And Act. XXVI 22. Having obtained help of God c. There is not a person in Scripture that takes notice of the preserving of his life and person but he always turns it that way to own God the Author of it unless it be such a fool as he that bids Soul take thine ease c. or as he Is not this great Babylon that I have built c. or they that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and buy and sell and get gain and never mention God or his providence in the bargain I hope I need not prove that all our lives persons and the preservation of both are in the hand of God and at his disposal but I may sum up all in this challenge and appeal Dare any defie Gods Providence and Preservation and take upon you your own preservation and to maintain your life and person of your selves But let not such a thing be once mentioned among Christians but the great business is that Christians would become rightly sensible of their dependence upon God I cannot omit one thing in this Law about paying this half shekel viz. vers 14. that every one that was twenty years old and upward was to pay it And why then And why not before Not but that they that were under twenty years old were under the same preservation and had reason to acknowledge the same preservation but at twenty years of age they were come to that age as should be the age of discretion and that men should now consider under what tuition they lived and that then it was time to own it though folly and vanity of youth had not suffered them to do so before And twenty years of age was the time when they were in their prime and strength and flush and when it was the likeliest time to think of their own strength and vigor and that they stood upon their own subsistence Then and forward it was most seasonable to admonish them upon what it was that they subsisted and who it was that preserved them The acknowledgement that it is God that doth preserve our life and being may be of the Tongue only and nothing but words or bare conviction of the truth of the thing and but little more than words neither But a feeling acknowledgment of Gods preservation is such a thing as speaks it self by some evident demonstration It is the Apostles saying That saving faith worketh by Love we may say the like of Historical Faith if it work at all it worketh by some evidence or demonstration of action And such evidences or demonstrations in this case are various I. Such a person who owns and feelingly believes his dependence upon God for his preservation is careful to commit himself to Gods protection and his preserving providence the best he can We read of persons being under the wings of the Almighty and putting themselves under his wings and they are there because they put themselves there Psal. XCI 4. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust How comes he there He puts himself there by committing himself to Gods providence as he ought to do As Ruth did II. Chap 12. Psal. XXXVI 6 7. Thou savest man and beast How excellent is thy loving kindness O God therefore shall the sons of men put their trust under the shaddow of thy wings There is a general providence that preserves man and beast but a peculiar protection for them that put themselves under the shaddow of his wings Can we say that man is under Gods protection that never put himself under Gods protection Can we say God keeps that that was never committed to him Such an one as a Worldling an Epicure that minds not God nor his duty of committing himself to him Yes you will say for this man lives and is preserved as well as the best he is kept out of danger as well as the holiest he is in health wealth and a thriving condition as well as another man and therefore sure God keeps him as well as another
shouldest value or think of him and the Son of man that thou shouldest make account of him Man is like to vanity his days are like to a shadow that departeth away Psal. CXLIV 3 4. And yet upon such an one God setteth his eye upon such an one he setteth some value He was to offer God half a shekel for his Soul God lays not this Tax to rate men according to their worth for that was nothing nor to lay any heavy burthen upon them for the tax was small but it was to instruct them That God requires some tribute of men for their preservation Men must not think to live on free cost and that God maintains their lives for nothing but rather let them know that he looks for some pay and tribute from them The Apostle tells us that what was written aforetime was written for our learning and so what was written for them is written for us too Only the punctual rate and payment of half a shekel lies not upon us as it did upon them but what is intimated by the payment of this rate is intimated to us as well as it was to them The intimation was that they Men owe God a debt and payment for the preservation of their lives and he expects it from them This payment of half ashekel mony ceased when the Jews ceased to be a Nation but the equity and intimation that it read and carried with it ceased not but takes hold upon us as it did on them The Ceremonial appointments of the Jewish Nation did not only prescribe the external action but also enjoyned the signified Duty too They were enjoyned to offer sacrifice The outward action was killing a beast and offering him upon the Altar for an attonement for their sins The thing siynified was the sacrificing of Christ the great oblation for the sins of men The Duty intimated was that they should look to the death of Christ and by that believe to obtain the forgiveness of their sin and not barely by their sacrifice So that they were bound both to the moral Duty to believe in the death of Christ for the attonement of sin and they were to offer sacrifice too thereby to signifie his death in which they believed And the like might be said of the other ceremonious burthens that were laid upon them But we will only take instance in that before us They were enjoyned to offer this half shekel yearly to God for the preservation of their lives The thing signified was that their lives depended upon God and to him they must look for their preservation The moral Duty intimated and required was That they were bound to pay atribute of obedience to God for his preserving them For it was not mony that God looked after but to obey is better than sacrifice The ceremonial part of their work was laid down long ago but the moral Duty that it signified lays still upon all of us and all men in the World By the way let me tell you this out of the Roman Histories that when Vespasian had conquered and destroyed Jerusalem he commanded that the Jews should pay this half shekel that they used to pay to God for their lives to his Idol Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome A sad thing to pay that that was to be paid to God their Preserver to the Devil the Destroyer For his God Jupiter Capitolinus was no better than a Devil And I wish in the parallel it be not too true with too many that they pay what they owe to God for their lives and preservations to the Devil Well the first thing taught in the payment was That we should learn and observe that God doth not preserve and take care of mens lives for nought but that he expects some tribute and payment for it And truly that he may in all reason in the World if we will but compare his case and mens together Every shepherd every shepherds boy must be paid for keeping another mans flock and must the great shepherd have no pay for keeping and leading Israel like a flock Nay Satan himself sees it all the reason in the World though he speak it with a venomous intent that if God have hedged Job round about as he had done and taken such care of him that he pay him with fear and careful walking before him Doth Job fear God for naught Hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side I. Chap. 9 10. Therefore it is no wonder if he fear thee it is all the reason in the World he should There is no care in the world taken of one person by another but it is repayed with some fair repayment or other Even the care of Parents to their Children which you will say nature it self binds them to yet they expect to be paid with their obedience That challenge of God is but most just Mal. I. 6. A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Maste where is my fear It is the very title and profession of God that he is the Preserver Keeper Saviour of men and no pay to him from men for all this Job VII 20. O thou preserver of men The word signifies Observer too As God looks to men so he looks after men to see what they do and how they demean themselves to him that looks to them So Samuel hints to Saul and Nathan to David I have done thus and thus to you kept you dignified promoted prospered you and is this the requital you make to me Need I to tell you that God is called the Watch man of Israel that never slumbereth nor sleepeth but continually takes care of them But the Apostle 1 Tim. IV. 10. goes further and tells you that he is not only the Preserver of Israel but even of all men We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men specially of those that believe Some from the word Saviour would conclude universal grace and redemption but the word means as in the Book of Judges a Preserver or Deliverer and so God is to all especially those that believe Though he preserve not unbelievers in the very same manner and degree that he doth believers yet he preserveth them and looks for requital from them for their preservation Now that in all equity some payment is due to God in this case let us a little consider of these things First The preciousnes of life that very thing may argue that it is not a small debt we owe to him that preserves it It hath the proper name of precious Prov. VI. 26. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adultress will hunt for the precious life And do you not think that Solomon speaks very true when he calls life precious and do you not think that even the father of lies speaks
true when he said Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life What will any man take for his life to pass it away What jewels what rubies what riches will buy his life from him No he accounts it too precious to part with his life for mony or monies worth And this doth enhance the preciousness of life that it is not only so excellent a being in it self but without it all things are nothing to him that hath lost it Bring a dead man bags of gold and heaps of silver fill his coffin up with pearls and jewels strew his grave with diamonds and rubies there is no hearing no minding no affecting when his jewel that was more worth then all these his life is gone Now who is the Preserver of this dear jewel while we carry it about us Is it we our selves The Psalmist tells us that It is he that made us and not we our selves Psal. C. And reason may tell us that it is he that preserves us and not we our selves For can we any more preserve our lives of our selves than we can give life to our selves When a desperate danger is ready to swallow us up if God withdraw his preserving providence can man bring his life out of danger In Scripture Phrase for a man to put his life in his own hand Judg. XII 3. is to venture it to danger where there is no safety but in the hands of God it is secure while he will take charge of it Feeling is that passage of Daniel to Belshazzar Dan. V. 23. The God in whose hand is thy breath Canst thou take it into thine own hand and there hold it The Jews tell a story of the Angel of death sent to take away the soul of Moses but Moses withstood him and he could not do it but when God saw his time to take it no withstanding The Angel of death in their meaning is the Devil and the Apostle speaks to their opinion Heb. II. 14. That through death he might destroy him that â—ad the power of death that is the Devil Now wherein lies the reason why Satan takes not away our lives when he pleaseth Is it in our selves Would not he think you carry away all men bodily to his den if it were in his power And is it our power that doth restrain him Think of those poor possessed ones in the Gospel whom the Devil hurried so up and down at his pleasure Is it our own power that doth restrain him that he useth not us so When we read or hear such stories have we not cause if we had hearts to look up at a higher power than our own that we are not as they were in his power And was it his courtesie that he spared their lives when God had given him liberty to use their bodies as he did Or was it not that God restrained him you may guess it by Jobs case betwixt whose life and Satans malice against him God had put this bar Only take not away his life But when God himself comes by death resolvedly to take away any mans life whose power is it in to hinder When he is resolved to tear body and soul assunder who shall say what dost thou When he will preserve life no longer who can make it out and preserve it himself The Lord giveth life and the Lord taketh it away in his hand only is the disposal of our life and being Secondly God shews himselves tender of our lives doth not only preserve them but shews that he is tender of them and willing to preserve them God is the fountain of being and giver of life and it is agreeable to his nature to maintain the being of men and their lives but it is not so agreeable to him to destroy them it is said of him that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. III. And he saith of himself that he hath no pleasure in the death of the sinner Ezek. XVIII And no wonder for it is somewhat besides his nature q. d. for it is his nature to give being and not to destroy it Now that God is tender of the lives of men and preservs them willingly and tenderly you have it evidenced in the mouth of three or four witnesses that the truth of it may be established 1. He is tender of the lives of very birds and beasts and therefore forbids all cruelty towards them Balaam for cruelty towards his poor Ass is reproved both by the Angel and the Ass her self And how does God forbid to kill a beast and her young on the same day to take a bird and her young at the same time but if he take the young to let the dam go forbids to seeth a kid in his dams milk and in a word it is a token the Holy Ghost gives of a good man that he is merciful to his very beast 2. Is it not an evidence that God is tender of mens lives when he hath made so severe a Law against murther or taking them away And what strange discoveries hath he made of murthers and murtherers that he that hath taken away a mans life may not go unpunished So tender is God of the life of man that as man hedgeth in a choice tree or plant that he is tender of so hath God mans life with such a siry law as well as he doth also with his providence 3. Doth not God tender the life of man when he would have all men to spin out their lives to life eternal and shewed them a way how to do it if they would but take his way God had rather thy life should reach Heaven and Eternity there than to drop into Hell in the end and be drowned in eternal death And this is one thing amongst others that doth highly enhance the preciousness of mans life that it may be translated to Eternity 4. And Lastly If you yet need any evidence and demonstration of Gods tenderness to mens lives and willingness to preserve them and unwillingness to destroy them look upon your selves as you are alive here this day And whence is it that you are so Can you give any other proper reason than this because God is tender of your lives and is not willing to destroy them Hath he not power enough to have cut them off and destroyed them long ago And have we not given him cause enough to have destroyed them over and over Whence is it then that we are all here this day God hath spared our lives preserved our lives tenderly preserved them or our souls had long ago dwelt in silence And are we not in debt to God for this care and tendering of us Is there nothing to be paid him not one half shekel for all our preservation Doth not all the reason in the world dictate that when we live by him we should live as he would have us that when he spares and preserves our lives we should lead and
ways of glorifying himself and is not tyed to this or that way by any necessity But the reason of the difference lyeth First In his own Will as the Apostle resolves it He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth But Secondly As in reference to the persons raised he raiseth what souls he raiseth by virtue of his Covenant of grace but he raiseth not all the bodies he raiseth by the same virtue It is said concerning Christ himself that God brought him from the dead by the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Heb. XIII 20. So doth he by the blood and virtue of the same Covenant bring from the dead every soul that he brings from the dead but he doth not so every body that he brings from the dead Now the tenor of the Covenant is Hearken to my voice and live Es. LV. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live And to the very same tenor are those word of our Saviour mentioned before 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 What kind of language is this The Dead shall hear All the Dead shall hear and yet only they that hear shall live What needed more to have been said than that the Dead shall hear his voice and live But his meaning is all the dead Heathen shall have the Gospel and hear the word of it brought among them and they that hear it that is obey it and follow it shall live Let me repeat that which I alledged from Esay LV. 3. and add what follows there Hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David Now that by sure mercies of David is meant the resurrection of Christ the Apostle teacheth us in Act. XIII 34. And as concerning that he raised him from the dead now no more to return to corruption he said on this wise I will give you the sure mercies of David The resurrection of Christ therefore are the sure mercies of Christ. For that by David is meant Christ it were easy to shew and it is so confessed by the Jews themselves in their expositions of that place It was the sure mercy that God gave to Christ himself of which he so rejoyceth Psal. XVI 9. My heart is glad my glory rejoyceth and my flesh also shall rest in hope Because thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell c. And it is the sure mercy of Christ that God gave to the members of Christ that he raised him from the dead and imparts to them the benefit of his Resurrection And this is called there an Everlasting Covenant that he makes with them That as he gave Christ a resurrection so he will give them a resurrection The first and the latter rain the first and the latter resurrection First to raise their Souls by the virtue of his Covenant from the death of sin in his good time and to raise their bodies by virtue of the same Covenant at the last day Of which last our Saviour speaks three times over Joh. VI. ver 39. This is my Fathers will which hath sent me that of all that he hath given I should lose none but raise him up at the last day ver 40. And this is the Will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him should have eternal life and I will raise him up the last day And ver 44. None can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day Will Christ raise up all persons in the world at the last day upon these terms Ye see No but only those that comply with his Covenant to come to him see him believe in him His power and justice will raise all others the virtue of his Covenant will raise these Now I suppose you easily see how to distinguish twixt the Tenor of his Covenant and the Virtue of his Covenant The Tenor of his Covenant is Hear and obey my voice and live The Virtue of his Covenant is his unfailing truth power goodness that will give life to them that hear his voice and obey him Thus you see one reason of the difference why he raiseth but some souls here from the death of sin but will raise all bodies from the death of the grave Thirdly Another reason of difference may be given for that at the last day he will raise all the persons in the world from their graves that he may glorifie himself but he raiseth only some few from their sins that they may glorify him And there is a great deal of difference twixt Gods glorifying himself upon men as he did upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians and bringing men heartily and laboriously to glorifie him and to live to his glory But Secondly a main difference in these two resurrections the soul from sin and the body from the grave is that the first resurrection is with the desire of him that is raised the latter will be in despite of thousands that will have no mind of it God will bring thee to jugement Eccles. XI 9. is a cutting saying but all the World shall never be able to take the edge of it off But let wicked men struggle and strive and tug never so hard against the resurrection God will bring them to it and no resisting But the first resurrection or the raising a soul from the death of sin how sweet how welcome how comfortable is it to every one to whom it comes Thy people will be willing in the day of thy power and help forward their own rising as much as they can and the Spirit and Bride say come and the soul and heart say Come Lord Jesus come quickly and let me see this resurrection And thus have we seen some circumstances in which the first and second resurrection differ and are at distance let us now consider wherein they agree and shake hands one with another Observe that the Scripture speaks in some places of the Resurrection as if it were to be no Resurrection but of just and holy ones only as you may take notice in 1 Cor. XV. and 1 Thes. IV. That there shall be a Resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just the Scripture assures us over and over again but it more especially calls that a Resurrection that is a Resurrection indeed and and not a raising to be cast down again Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more as the Apostle tells us Death hath no more dominion over him And the Scripture doth more especially call that a Resurrection that is written after his Copy for a man to rise from the dead to die no more That man is but little helped which we read of in the Prophet that in the way met a Lyon and flying
I have said Thou and Ziba divide the land AND I think it is said very nobly and as became a David A Prince of prudence and clemency A Prince of faithfulness and justice though I cannot tell who thinks so of these words but my self I believe there are but few that have either commented upon these words or that do read them but they have some hard thoughts of David as if he dealt but somewhat hardly with poor Mephibosheth I am sensible what disadvantage I go upon if I go about to plead for him though I speak for the King for it is much that a firstborn gloss or exposition upon a difficult place of Scripture doth gain by being firstborn And the commonly and old received opinion upon these words hath so got prepossession in the hearts of most by privilege of its birthright that a younger interpretation will hardly find entertainment because it is a younger brother The Jews do commonly speak their minds upon these words in this manner I have said Thou and Ziba divide the land At the same instant divine providence said Then let Rehoboam and Jeroboam divide the Kingdom Accounting this action of David so horrid unjust a thing as that it deserved and brought that â—ore judgment of renting ten Tribes from Davids Kingdom Christian expositors are no more favourable to him in their construction but lay the very same accusation to his charge of harshness rashness and injustice in this case for giving away half Mephibosheths innocent Mephibosheths land to his lying servant Come let us reason together with him and with our selves a little I. And is thy kindness O David to thy old dear friend Jonathan the man of thy love and the man of thy Covenant to use his son so very hardly yea though he had given thee some just offence Thou once professedst with tears Thy love to me O Jonathan was wonderful passing the love of women And now this unkindness of thine O David were as wonderful passing the unkindness of an enemy II. Is David become so weak in Wisdom and Judgment as to be so baffled and befoold by a cheating fellow and never to discover him or is he become so easie and soft as to sit down with such a gull put upon him and he never go about to ungul himself T is true indeed he was surprized with the lie when he was fleeing for his life chafed with anxiety and vexation but can we think David of so sleepy a conscience as so rashly to undo a poor man by giving away all his land upon a bare information and never to take second thoughts whether he had done the man wrong or no And how easie was it for him before he here met with Mephibosheth to have informed himself of Mephibosheths behaviour and of his innocency It is said in vers 17. that a thousand men of Benjamin met him at Jordan when he was returning and is it likely that he would not inquire of them about him or that they could not or would not inform him of his demeanor who was now the chief man of their Tribe Had they so lost the love and remembrance of their old Master Saul and his good son Jonathan as to see his son so undone by a cheat and none of them to testifie his integrity III. His very beard and cloaths might bear witness for him if no body else would and these might give Ziba the lie and satisfie David that the poor man was falsely accused for he had neither trimmed his heard nor washed his cloaths since the Kings going away until his return again but had utterly neglected and been careless of himself as shewing really that he was really afflicted for the Kings affliction And would not David think you believe such clear and evident testimonies as these IV. It is said 1 King XV. 5. That David did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded all the days of his life but only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite Truly it might very well have been added And in the matter of the wronged Mephibosheth if he did so condemn him to the forfeiture of his land upon a false accusation V. And lastly Can David be so ready as he was to pardon Shimei who cursed him to his face and be so hard to be reconciled to Mephibosheth who was only accused behind his back And the Holy Ghost hath seemeth to hint this very thing and observation to us For who observeth not the dislocation of this story we are upon That it is laid out of its proper place and that it is placed before its proper time In the story immediately next before this you have David at Jordan there speaking with Shimei at vers 23. And in the story immediately next after this you have David still at Jordan there taking his leave of Barzillai vers 31. And yet in this story between you have David met with Mephibosheth at Jerusalem vers 25. This is not done at random and by any oversight as if the Holy Ghost had forgot himself as we poor fumbling creatures are many time lost in our tale but the sacred Spirit hath purposely thus methodized the story with such a dislocation for our more narrow observation and clearer instruction In the story before you have Shimei and Ziba meeting David at Jordan a very proper couple and fitly yoked together like to like The one of them had cursed the King to his face and the other had cosened him to his face the one had abused him with rough railing and the other had abused him with a smooth lie What past between David and Shimei the story tells you but not a word of what passed twixt David and Ziba That is comprehended in this story of what passed twixt David and Mephibosheth because Ziba's business was Mephibosheths concernment The story tells that Shimei fell down before David and confest his fault and begged pardon and if Ziba did not so too he was a fool as well as he had been a knave before for he might well conclude that his knavery either was already or else would be discovered Well whether he did or No The Holy Ghost as soon as he hath related how Shimei had obtained his pardon comes and relates this conference twixt David and Mephibosheth as prompting us to think that if David were so readily reconciled to Shimei who had been guilty of so great a crime he would not be unreconcilable to Mephibosheth who indeed was guilty of none And if he had not given this hint by this strange placing of this story our own reason might suggest such an argument to us That certainly if he so easily was friends with Shimei whose villany he himself was an eye and ear witness of he cannot be so unexorable to Mephibosheth his dear Jonathans son against whom he had only the accusation of a false tale That if he would not hearken to Abishai
other standers by reviled him with If he be Christ let him come down from the Cross And let God deliver him if he will have him And so it doth magnifie Divine grace the more if it checkt him in his very reviling and made that tongue that reproached Christ in the very next instant to confess and adore him So Saul was happily checked even while he was breathing rage and revenge against the Church and he brought to be a most special member and minister in it The cause of this mans Conversion we must all ascribe to Gods infinite grace and goodness But the means that that grace and goodness used for his conversion I cannot but ascribe to these two things a Doctrine and a Miracle as in those times Doctrines and Miracles went very commonly together I. I cannot but suppose that the darkness that then began to be over all the Land wrought something with this man to bring him to some consideration with himself of the present case which he had not before His fellow Thief it seems was not moved with it at all but I cannot but believe that This was so deeply affected with it that it proved a means of his Conversion They both of them knew very well that Jesus suffered meerly because he professed himself to be the Christ. That is plain by their saying to him If thou be the Christ save thy self and us And now this man seeing so strange an occurence as had been not seen or heard of at any mans Execution before begins to be convinced that he was the Christ indeed for whom such a wondrous miracle was wrought and manifested And then II. It may very probably be conceived that he remembred those passages of the Prophet Esay describing his Passion and suffering Chap. LIII and particularly that vers 12. He was numbred with the transgressors A clause which the Jewish Expositors wrest some one way some another because they cannot abide to hear of Messias sufferings But which we may very well think that as Divine grace brought his Soul to the acknowledgment of Christ so it brought also that prediction of Christs sufferings and with such company to his remembrance as a means to work him to that acknowledgment For how might he argue This Jesus after all the great miracles that he hath done agreeable to the working of Messiah hath asserted and maintained that he is Messiah to the very death this strange and wondrous darkness that is begun over all the Land cannot but bear witness to such a thing And when it is so plainly prophesied by the Prophet Esay that he should suffer and be numbred with such Malefactors as I and my fellow are I am past all doubting that this Jesus is the promised Messiah Therefore He said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom A great faith that can see the Sun under so thick a Cloud that can discover a Christ a Saviour under such a poor scorned despised crucified Jesus and call him Lord. A great Faith that when he sees Jesus struggling for his own life and no deliverer come to him yet sees reason to cast himself upon him for his Eternal state and Everlasting condition and pray to him Lord remember me A great Faith that could see Christs Kingdom through his cross and grave and death and where there was so little sign of a Kingdom and pray to be remembred in that Kingdom I doubt the Apostles reached not to such a Faith in all particulars They acknowledged Jesus indeed to be Christ while he lived but when he is dead they are at it We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel Luk. XXIV 21. But now they could not tell what to make of it But this man when he is dying doth so stoutly own him They looked for a Kingdom that Christ should have indeed but they little looked that Christ should suffer and so enter into his kingdom as it is intimated in the same Chapter vers 26. But this man looks for it through and after his sufferings That it is no wonder if he sped at the hands of Christ when he brings so strong a Faith with him and that when he pours out his Prayer Lord remember me c. in such strength of believing it is no wonder if he hear from him in whom he so believes Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And could such a Faith be without a parallel and sutable measure of Repentance Our Saviour very well saw that it was not And the Evangelist gives some intimation that it was not For he tells that he confessed his own fault which is one sign of his Repentance We are here justly and receive the due reward of our doings And that he reproveth his fellow and would fain have reduced him which is another Fearest thou not God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And that he pleadeth for the innocency of Christ which is a third This man hath done nothing amiss And in what words and meditations he spent the three or four hours more that he hung alive upon the Cross it is easie to conjecture though the Evangelist hath spoken nothing of it The great sum and tenor of the Gospel is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And as Christ himself did seal the truth of the Gospel with his own death so was he pleased that that main truth of the Gospel should be proved and confirmed by this noble and notable example even whilst he was dying And accordingly it hath pleased the Spirit of God to give a demonstration of this mans believing in the Lord Jesus Christ more copiously and apparently than of his repantence though he hath given very fair demonstration of that also That as all posterity was to read that great Doctrine of Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation so they might have this illustrious and lively Commentary of the truth and proof of it in this mans believing and in his Salvation And now having seen this great monument of Faith and Repentance and Pardon What say we to it As the Evangelists tell us that they that had seen the passages at Christs death returned from the Cross striking upon their breasts and no doubt very full of cogitations So what are the thoughts of our hearts upon this passage which was not the least remarkable among them A great matter that the light of the Suu should be so darkned and not a small that such a dark soul should be so enlightned A great matter that the Earth should quake the Rocks rent and the Vail of the Temple be torn from top to bottom and not a small matter that such a stupid soul should be moved that such a strong heart should be dissolved broken and brought to softness The spactators then present considered of those things Our present work is to consider of these and what do we think of them I
Spirit had glossed upon the words of the whole Sanhedrin in vers 47 48. What do we For this man doth many miracles If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation If they grant he did so many miracles why were they afraid that men should believe on him Why did they not believe on him themselves And afraid the Romans should destroy their City and Nation if he were believed in Whereas their destruction was because they did not believe in him Truly Caiaphas said but truly of them though he aimed it at another sense Ye know nothing neither do ye consider No nor thou O Caiaphas neither For had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of life had they considered they had not brought that guilt upon themselves and the City that they did But in what sense he makes them so senseless is somewhat obscure Ye know not neither consider that it is expedient for us that one man should dye for the people and that the whole Nation perish not That they knew as well as himself that any States-man any reasonable man might know well enough that it was better to put to death a ring-leader of mischief as they took Christ to be than that a whole Nation perish That old Maxim in Politicks and reason Pereat unus potius quam unitas would easily be observed by less States-men than they And the one that they would have to dye they all agreed in but herein Caiaphas resolution seems to have out-vied theirs namely that whereas they were afraid to take Christ off for fear of the multitude he blusters through that doubt and scruple and would have it resolved that he must dye and be taken away So that in those words of his you may observe him speaking as a Caiaphas and as a Prophet As a wretched Caiaphas counselling the Sanhedrin not to fear or boggle at the business but resolve on it for it is expedient he should dye And as a Prophet or one inspired signifying that it was necessary Christ should dye for the preservation of that Nation that it should not perish namely those that believed in him and so for the preserving of all in other Nations that should also believe The former he spake and meant with all his heart to stir up the Bench to destroy Christ for all the danger of the multitude But this later he spake indeed but meant it not neither understood what he spake and therefore the Text tells us This he spake not of himself but being High Priest c. There had not been a High Priest a Prophet among the Nation for above four hundred years before and must Caiaphas now become a Prophet Nay the Jews tell us and they tell us truly that there had not been any Prophet at all in the Nation of so long a time and it is wonder God should now inspire such a wretch as Caiaphas They tell us that upon the death of Haggai Zechariah and Malachi those last Prophets the spirit of Prophesie left Israel departed and was no more In which they spoke just as Caiaphas does here very truly and very maliciously very maliciously because they would exclude the Apostles and Disciples of Christ from having the Prophetick spirit but withal very truly as to the space between the death of those last Prophets and the appearing of Christ and his Apostles There was not a man endued with the spirit of Prophesie in all that space of time nay not a man that did pretend to the spirit of Prophesie in all that time It is observable that about the coming of Christ many arose pretending themselves to be Christ or to be Prophets but ye find not that any from the death of Malachi had done so before And the reason was because the Prophet Daniel had so exactly pointed out the time of Christs coming that the Nation knew the time and expected it and when it came such Deluders then start up with such pretences because they knew there would be then a brave change of times But till that came they lay still convinced that the Spirit was departed and should not be restored till Messias coming What I speak there is clear proof for in the New Testament That they knew when Messias should appear is plain by these words Luke XIX 11. He added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought the Kingdom of God should immediately appear And by that concourse of all the Nation out of all Nations to Jerusalem Act. II. 5. being instructed by Daniel in his ninth Chapter of the compleat time of Messias sealing Vision and Prophesie and bringing in everlasting righteousness which he had pointed out to the very hour And that they were convinced of the departure of the Holy Ghost not to be restored till the coming of Messias appears plainly by the answer of those Jews at Ephesus Act. XIX 2. Paul said unto them have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed And they said unto him We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Not that they doubted at all of the being of the Holy Ghost but that they had learned with the whole Nation that the Holy Ghost was departed upon the death of those Prophets and they had never yet heard that he was restored The Jews say again that from that time there was no Urim and Thummim with the High Priest under the second Temple And there is confirmation for it in Nehem. VII 65. And the Tirshatha said unto them that they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a Priest with Urim and Thummim And the reason of its ceasing was because Prophesie was ceased For the Oracle by Urim as I once shewed you was given by the Priest being inspired and prophesying Now after all the long ceasing of Phrophesying in the Nation and of Prophesying among the Priest-hood for a Caiaphas to stand up a Prophesier seems something strange and what shall we say to it The Rhemists will resolve you the scruple with a wet finger if you will but believe them Will you give me leave to give you their Gloss upon the place Marvel not say they that Christ preserveth his truth in the Church as well by the unworthy as the worthy Prelates thereof the gift of the Holy Ghost following their order and office as we see here in Caiaphas and not their merits and person And they conclude How may we then be assured that Christ will not leave Peters seat though the persons that â—ecupy the same were as ill as the blasphemous and malicious mouths of Hereticks do affirm The assertion false and the inference ridiculous The assertion that Caiaphas prophesied by virtue of the order of his Priesthood being most false For none of that order had prophesied of four hundred years before And the Inference ridiculous And it
called Gods as Alexander Caligula Sejanus It is said of Antichrist 2 Thess. II. 4. That he opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Are not thousands as proud in heart as the Devil himself as much as they can be and delight in it 2. In hatred and cruelty One would not believe that Man could be so cruel to Man but that we have the experience of it and this truth in the Text tells us the reason of it because they are of the Wicked one Men are more cruel than Beasts Beasts have been tamed but Man cannot Jam. III. 7. Every kind of Beasts and of Birds and of Serpents and things in the Sea is tamed and hath been tamed by mankind But only mankind it self is untameable Such an Example was He that wished That all Rome had but one head that he might cut it off at once Nay he in the story of China went further who actually slew six hundred thousand innocent persons 3. Do not some hate the ways of God as the Devil doth I hate Michaiah saith Ahab There were some that spake evil of the Christians only because they ran not into the same excess of riot with themselves 4. And so we may say of Lying There are Children of falshood among us To conclude all with some Uses from this Discourse I. The consideration of this may draw tears to think of the corruption of our nature so far degenerate from its excellency and end II. It may make us moum to consider what we carry within us if God leave us III. Not to think so little of Pride Envy Lying as most do For these sins are the nearest resemblances of the Devil IV. How great a work is Renovation For men to be made partakers of the Devine Nature 2 Pet. I. 4. who had so much before pertaken of the Devils V. We had need to pray that God would keep us from such mischief A SERMON PREACHED upon GENESIS IV. 15. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain Lest any finding him should kill him WE have seen Cain's sin here we see his strange reward Cain slew his Brother God will not have Cain slain How is this agreeable to that Chap. IX 6. Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed How strange this Providence Abel might have done good if he had lived Cain not yet behold this contrary Providence Abel dyes and Cain lives What would Cain wish more than this to live and be secure What would some give for such a Patent If he live What Murthers more may he commit What a discouragement may he be to Righteousness How may the eye of humane reason stand amazed at this providence We may take up that of Jeremiah Chap. XII 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper And the words of Habbakkuk Chap. I. 3 4. Why dost thou shew me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance For spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention Therefore the Law is slacked and judgment doth never go forth for the wicked doth compass about the righteousness therefore wrong judgment proceedeth And Shall not the Judg of all the world do right Yet what Righteousness seems in this We may satisfie our selves concerning this by these considerations I. Abel was happier dying than Cain living Balaam was a parallel of Cain justfying this Numb XXIII 10. Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his II. The Righteousness of Gods providences is not to be judged of only according to outward appearance Gods judgments are a great deep and the footsteps of them are not known III. The greatest seeming earthly prosperity may be the greatest punishment In the words we observe this That God reserved Cain to long life But how he managed it is scrupulous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he set a mark upon him Rab. Solomon saith it was a letter in his forehead Some say it was a Horn some a trembling that all might know him for a fratricide for a wretch that murthered his Brother But this one would think rather was the way to get him killed For how could all that met him know Gods mind by this mark whatever it was namely That God would not have him killed Therefore Aben Ezra understands it that God gave him a sign till he believed it viz. That God would preserve his life And so it may best be construed That God set him a sign lest c. In the fourteenth Verse Cain says Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me It is questioned here whether Cain begs death or declines it If he begs it God denies him if he declines it he hath his desire with a Curse Hence we gather this Doctrine That Gods letting men go on uninterrupted in their sins is the greatest punishment they can have here Doubtless Cain was loaden with punishment Suppose a Council were called what to do with Cain You would say Cut him off Gods wisdom and justice saith Let him live Long life and prosperity in it self a blessing but here a prison a curse a poison that kills with delight Consider Cain's temper and then consider him banished from the Church and from the memorials of his duty that Gods constant service would give him turned loose to his lusts and the councils of his own heart the longer he lives in this condition t is not the better but the worse for him See vers 24. Cain was avenged sevenfold It was a sore judgment when God said My Spirit shall not always strive with Man Gen. VI. 3. I will trouble them no more Hos. IV. 14. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredom It is a great question Whether is worse to be cut off in sin or to be not interrupted in it A hard choise as David's was when he said I am in a great strait For the clearing of this observe these two things I. That sometimes the long-suffering of God to the wicked is not the goodness of God to them See 1 Pet. III. 20. Which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water Compared with Gen. VI. 3. My spirit shall not always strive with Man God spared the Canaanites that their measure might be full Fulfil ye the measure of your Fathers saith Christ to the Jews Matth. XXIII 32. And Psal LXXIII 4. There are no bands in their death but their
strength is firm But vers 19. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors So God tells Pharaoh I have preserved thee alive that I might make my power known in thee II. Sometimes Gods forbearance to cut off the wicked is for their punishment not only when he strikes them with horror as he did Lamech but when they prosper Let Ephraim alone was Ephraim's punishment The Uses of this Discourse might be these 1. To Examine while we live and prosper whether it be for our punishment 2. To be jealous of an untroubled condition 3. This may teach with more patience and chearfulness to bear the Cross. For as Gods suffering men to succeed and prosper is sometimes a judgment a token of his displeasure so afflictions and troubles may be signs of his care and good will 4. Not to envy the prosperity of the wicked 5. To labour so to live as to be able to give a comfortable account of long life and age A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 5. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me THE first Commandment with threatning as Paul saith the first of the second Table was the first with promise Ephes. VI. And the threatning is most properly affixed to the Command against Idolatry Because God hath a special enmity and quarrel against Idolatry as one of the greatest derogations to his honour that can be in the World Observe in the Prophets the great complaint against the people is for Idolatry and unrighteousness The former the great injury done to God the later to Men the former the height of Impiety the later of Uncharitableness When man is bound to love his neighbour as himself to shew him mercy to be helpful to him and useful to him in all ways of charity how high an iniquity is it to defraud undermine oppress and deal injuriously with him And when bound to worship God alone as the great dreadful and glorious Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things in them how abominable a wickedness is it to give this honour to a piece of wood a stock or stone of our own framing How God detests this he hath uttered abundantly in Scripture partly by proclaiming Idols to be abominable to him Deut. VII 25. and XXVII 15. And by giving them names of the greatest abomination Vanities 1 King XVI 26. Jer. XIV 22. Lyes Esa. XLIV 20. Jer. X. 14. And so is that to be understood Rev. XXII 15. Without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Jonah putteth both the names together Jonah II. 8. They that observe lying vanities Nay the very name of abomination it self is given them 1 King XI 7. Nay the very name of Devils is given them Deut. XXXII 17. 1 Cor. X. 20. And as thus in his word he hath shewed his detestation against Idols and Idolatry so hath he also in his providence by those fearful judgments that he hath shewed against them that have been Idolatrous Witness Jeroboam and his house Ahab and his rooted out and devoured by this deadly canker themselves and their posterity undone according to the threatning here Visiting the sins of the Fathers upon the children It were a wonder and thing of amazement that the Church of Rome should ever be so zealous for Images were it not that there is something more behind the curtains than is seen They distinguish betwixt an Image and an Idol and say They worship not the Image but before it only for a memorandum But to omit the vanity of such a distinction which hath been abundantly confuted by our Divines where is their care of that rule of the Apostle To avoid all appearance of evil Certainly if there be not the appearance of Idolatry in worshipping before an Image what call you the appearance of Idolatry The Heathen persecutors of old thought their turn served if they could bring Christians to cast a little incense into the fire before an Idol Here the Christians might have pleaded it was not in worship to Idols but to please their Masters but they saw in it so much appearance of Idolatry that they gave up their lives rather than to consent to such an appearance of evil But that that is behind the curtains with the Papists is covetousness and gain of mony And if it were not that I make no question but they would be fâ—r cooler in pleading for their Images than they are It is upon very good reason that the Apostle calls Covetousness Idolatry for it is not only making mony our God but it is the very Father and Mother of Idolatry This is it that hath made these men so bold with adoring of Images so bold as to take away this Commandment against Idolatry out of the Ten though a Command so needful so dreadful and that hath so terrible a threatning with it For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God A Command that one might wonder at but that you can never enough wonder at the wickedness of mens hearts First One would wonder that ever such a Command should need Thou shalt not worship a stock or stone nor make that thy God which thine own hands have made Reason and light of nature and common sense one would think should so cry this down to men that have their wits about them that there might not any such Command from God be needful You may see how the Spirit of God does stand as it were wondring at the sottishness of those that make and worship Idols in Esa. Chap. XL. and three or four Chapters forward And did you see a Heathen or do you see a Papist worshipping and bowing down to the stock of a tree as he calls it there whether have you more cause to mourn to see God so dishonoured or to think what a stock and stupid thing sinful man is become to pray to or trust in a piece of wood or stone Secondly One might wonder that such a Law given should be so broken A Law so easie to keep and in so sensless a thing to break it Of all sins what easier to avoid than falling down to the stock of a tree And yet how were men infatuated with it as the Heathen and Israel were continually Who would have thought that Israel having seen the wonders in Egypt and the glory of God at Sinai should ever especially so suddenly have worshipped a golden Calf and said These are thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt What monstruous madness and senslesness is there in this Idolatry That 1. Whereas God made man for man to think that he can make a God 2. Man that can see and hear and speak and stir to think that his help should lye in that that can neither see nor hear nor speak nor
them was the greater matter whether of them the greater work Was not the Resurrection Not indeed in regard of the Power that effected both but in regard of the effect or concernment of man 1. By his Resurrection he had destroyed him and that that had destroyed the Creation viz. Sin and Satan and did set up a better world a world of Grace and Eternal Life 2. Had it not been better that Man as he now was sinful had never been created than Christ not to have risen again to save and give him life As it was said of Judas It were better if he had never been born so it were better for sinful men if they had never been born than that Christ should not have been born from the dead to restore and revive them Observe that the Resurrection of the Heathen from their dead condition took its rise and beginning from the Resurrection of Christ as Christ himself closely compares it from the example of Jonahs rising out of the Whales belly and converting Nineveh To that purpose is that prophesie Esai XXVI 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in dust The dead Heathen that had lain so long in the grave of sin and ignorance when Christs body rose had life put into them from that time and they rose to the life of grace For by his Resurrection he had conquered him that had kept them so long under death and bondage Now was it not most proper for the Church of the called Heathen to have a Sabbath that should commemorate the cause time and original of this great benefit accruing to them A SERMON PREACHED upon EXODUS XX. 12. Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee THIS is the First Commandment of the Second Table and it is the first with promise Eph. VI. 2. Why it is the first of the second Table the reason is easie because when the second Table teaches our duty towards our Neighbour it is proper to begin with the Neighbour nearest to us such is our Father and Mother and with the Neighbour to whom we owe most peculiar Duty as we do to those that are comprehended under this title of Father and Mother But why this is called the First Commandment with promise is not so easie to resolve The difficulties are in these two things I. Because that seems to be a promise in the Second Commandment Shewing mercy unto thousands c. II. And if it be to be understood the first of the Second Table that hath a promise annexed unto it that is harsh also because there is no other promise in the Second Table and the First Commandment with promise argues some other Commandments with promise to follow after Now to these difficulties I Answer First That in the Second Commandment is rather a description of God than a direct Promise A jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children c. and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me As much Gall is mingled there as Honey as dreadful threatnings as comfort and therefore not to be looked on as a clear promise but as an argument and motive to Obedience taken from both mercy and judgment Secondly It is true there is never a promise more in the Second Table that comes after this but there are abundance of promises after in the rest of the Law And so may this be understood it is the First Commandment with promise in the whole Law from the Law given at Sinai to all the Law that Moses gave them afterwards And the first promise in the Law given to Israel is the promise of long life That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that here especially are four things to be spoken to I. The nature of the promise that it is a temporal promise concerning this life II. The matter of the promise Length of life in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee III. The suitableness of the Promise to the Command Honour thy Father and Mother that thy days may be long c. IV. The extent of the Promise to all that keep the Commandment Which four heads will lead us to the consideration of several Questions The first leads us to this Observation That the Promises given to Israel in the Law are I. most generally and most apparently promises temporal or of things concerning this life First look upon this Promise which is first in the Law and whereas it may be construed two ways yet both ways it speaks at first voice or appearance an earthly promise There may be an Emphasis put either upon Thy days shall be long or upon Thy days long in the land Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long that thou mayst have long life Or Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. That thou mayst have long possession of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and mayst not be cast out of it as the Canaanites were before thee Now take it either way what speaks it else but a temporal promise and that that refers to this life and to our subsistence in this world And so look upon those promises that are in Levit. XXVI and Deut. XXVIII and you find them all referring to temporal and bodily things And hereupon it may be observed that you hardly find mention of any spiritual promises especially not of eternal in all Moses Law No mention of Eternal Life joys of Heaven Salvation or Everlasting glory none but of things of this life Hence it was that the Sadducees denyed the Resurrection and the world to come because they only owned the five Books of Moses and in all his Books they found not mention of any such thing And therefore when our Saviour is to answer a Cavil of theirs against the Resurrection Mark XII 18 c. observe what he saith vers 26. Have you not read in the Book of Moses c. For he must prove the thing out of Moses to them or they would take it for no proof And observe also how he proves it by an obscure collection or deduction viz. because God says I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Therefore they lived though they were dead Which he would never have done had there been plain and evident proof of it And which if there had been they could never have denyed it And that which we are speaking to that the promises of the Law are of temporal things is also asserted by that Heb. VIII 6. He is the Mediator of a better Covenant established upon better promises If the promises of the Law had been Heavenly promises there could not have been better promises Had they been of Grace and Glory there could not have been better promises but those of the Law were
of this world and earthly things Now what shall we say to this that God should give no better promises to his people How could an Israelite but look after earthly things when he had no promise but of earthly things How could he look after Heaven when he had no promise of Heaven When much of his Religion might very easily become a temptation The enjoyning them so much Ceremonious Worship might indeed it did prove a temptation to them to turn all Religion into Ceremony Their Laws that enjoyned them to separate from the Heathen and to have no Communion with them might easily become a temptation to them and so it did of prizing themselves and despising others Their promises which seemed only to relate to earthly things might and indeed did become a temptation to them to mind earthly things and either not to be acquainted with or to neglect things spiritual and heavenly What then shall we say to these things Truly the first thing we may say to them may be to say nothing but to stand in silence and admiration and beget such a meditation in us as he had that stood weeping over a Toad to think how much nobler a creature than that God had made him and yet he had not been thankful The Apostle Paul tells us Heb. XI 40. God had provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect And the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. I. 4. That there are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the Divine Nature And now look upon their allowances and ours their promises and ours and meditate what God had done to us in comparison of them and what we have done towards God in reference to these things The promises that God made to them in the Law of Corn and Cattel of Land and Money health and long life if you look upon them reflexively one way comparing them with sinful mens deserts and they are great promises in comparison of what any man can deserve but look upon them reflexively another way and compare them with what God hath promised in the Gospel and they are but small and little to them They were as the lesser light the Moon that ruled the Night and darkness of that mysterious and dark Oeconomy of the Law but these as the greater light the Sun to rule in the bright and glorious light of the Gospel Compare what is said here in the Command and Promise and what is added Deut. V. 16. That thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee with such passages as these Eph. I. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Heavenly places the word is ambiguous shall I say or large to signifie either Heavenly places and Heavenly things as you may observe in the Text and Margin Now whereas the Jews blessing was in an earthly place the Land which the Lord their God gave them he hath blessed us in heavenly places Whereas it should be well with them in all outward earthly things he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly things Their Promises did capacitate them to be partakers of the Creature and of things below but 2 Pet. I. 4. There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises whereby we are capacitated to be partakers of the Divine Nature You see the difference Now Christian where hath been thy gratitude thy improvement Thou art partaker of a better Covenant better promises better things where hath been thy better Obedience See what improvement the Apostle or God by his mouth requires of us upon this account â— Cor. VII 1. Having therefore these promises Dearly beloved Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God I leave every one to examine himself what clensing what perfecting of holiness they have made because of the Promises I come to consider why God gave Israel such Promises of earthly things as he did And first we are to consider That God hath given the promise of spiritual and heavenly things to the Church long before these temporal promises were given to Israel Christ Grace Eternal Life enjoyment of God were promised from the first day of Adam and so that promise went all along with the Church before the Law and continued also under the Law As the Apostle saith Gal. III. 17. The Law could not make that promise of no effect Observe the Apostles manner of Argumentation there Ye that stand upon justification by Works ye plead that the Law saith He that doth these things shall live Most true but his life must not be by the Works of the Law but by the grace of the promise which was before the Law and the Law coming after could not disannul it And how God made spiritual and heavenly promises before the Law these and other places do abundantly testifie Luk. I. 70 71 c. As he spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets which have been since the world began c. Tit. I. 2. In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began And that one for all Joh. I. 4. In Christ was Life In him came the promise of Life and Grace even from the beginning and that Life was the Light that holy men looked and walked after and that Light shone in the darkness of the types of the Law and in the darkness of the obscurity of the Prophesies and the darkness comprehended it not So that Israel when these temporal promises were given them had also before them the promises of Grace promises of things spiritual and heavenly and they were to look through these that were temporal at those that were spiritual and eternal Here is given a promise of long life upon earth in the Land which the Lord their God gave them But they had before them even from of old the promises of Eternal life to those that obeyed the Commandments of God and they were to look at and after this through the other And so the holy men among them did That in Levit. XVIII 5. Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments which if a man do he shall live in them Which is oft repeated else where doth it mean only This Life The Apostle often shews it aimeth higher viz. at Spiritual and Eternal life And so the Jews themselves did generally understand it though they failed in seeking that life that it aimed at As it is Rom. X. 3. They being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God And when that Man enquired Matth. XIX 16. What good thing shall I do that I may have Eternal Life and Christ bad him Keep the Commadments
year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God the God of Israel What objections might be made against that ordinance as that while they were absent from home their Lands might be invaded by their Enemies c. But he answers all in the next Verse For I will cast out the Nations before thee and enlarge thy borders neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year And so might they except at the costliness of the Sacrifices but his promise satisfied all Thou shalt be blessed in the fruit of thy body and land in the herds of thy Cattel and flocks of thy Sheep And so had God laid in stock in these promises for the Gospel Church when it should come in which required so much self-denial and forsaking House and Lands and which foretold of Persecution God had satisfied his people before that he would take care for their support that none for Obedience to his Commandments should be a loser And thus much of the first thing propounded viz. The Nature of the promise That it is Temporal We come now in the second place to consider the suitableness of the promise to the II. Command And what affinity then and agreement hath this promise with the Duty injoyned in the Command One would think it were more suitable to have said Honour thy Father and Mother that thou mayest be honoured of thy Children Honour thy Magistrate and thy Superiors that thou mayst also come to the like honour And such an agreement hath that saying of God 1 Sam. II. 30. Them that honour me I will honour And why therefore is it said Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land I Answer First There is this harmonious reason Thy Father and thy Mother under God gave thee being and if thou honour them thy being and well being shall be prolonged If thou desire long life honour them that under God gave thee life I remember here the Gloss of some Jewish Expositors upon these words of Eve Gen. IV. 1. When Cain was born she said I have gotten a man from the Lord. The Hebrew word that is rendred From in greatest propriety when it signifies any thing as sometimes it does not is With and so they render it I have gotten a Man with the Lord. Which they construe to this sense In the production of Adam God only had an Agency and Adam none and in my production out of Adam God only had an Agency and Adam none but in the production of this my Son I have been an Agent with God and I have gotten a Son with the Lord. But be it the one way or other though I should construe it a third way viz. I have gotten a Man even the Lord Or I have obtained the Lord to become Man as looking to the promise that Christ should be her seed It is very well known how much Parents contribute to the production and life of their Children And therefore it is but a just claim and a claim very suitable to that matter Honour thy Father and thy Mother that gave thee life that the life they gave thee may be prolonged But Secondly This promise is affixed to very many Commandments in the Law As 1. In General Deut. V. 33. Ye shall walk in the ways which the Lord your God hath Commanded you that ye may live and it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your days in the Land which ye shall possess And so Deut. VI. 2. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his Statutes and Commandments which I command thee thou and thy Son and thy Sons Son all the days of thy life and that thy days may be prolonged And so Chap. XI 8 9. c. And 2. As thus in general it is promised to the Obedience of all the Commandments so it is affixed to some special Commandments Deut. XXII 6 7. about the Dam and her young If a birds nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree or in the ground c. Thou shalt in any wise let the dam go and take the young to thee that it may be well with thee and that thou mayst prolong thy days Deut. XXV 15 Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight a perfect and just measure shalt thou have that thy days may be prolonged in the Land c. Now the reason of this affixing is because life is so desireable by all men and God useth arguments to perswade which are most feeling and come nearest and warmest to the heart And as that is a melting perswasive Rom. XII 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God so this is as melting an one in regard of mens tenderness to themselves I beseech you by the mercy to be shewed to your own selves And thus we have brought our selves down to the third particular to be discoursed III. and that is the matter of the promise length of life But is long life such a Blessing is it so desirable What say we to that passage Job XIV 1. Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble If of few days where is the long life that is here promised If full of trouble where is that desirableness of long life so as to account it such a Blessing If we well consider what the Scripture speaks of the shortness and misery of humane life it may seem to set us at a stand to think that God should so often promise long life when there is no such thing but as Psal. XXXIX 5. Behold thou hast made my days as an hand breath And that he should promise it as a blessing when as Psal. XC 10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow If we live to the utmost Nature can hold out it is but labour and sorrow To speak to these scruples and to reconcile the shortness of Man's life and the miseries of the longest life to the promise in the Text we are to consider life not comparatively but simply For 1. The longest life compared with the Eternity of God is nothing So David compares it Psal. XCV 5. Mine age before thee is nothing That is compared to thine Everlastingness and Eternity is a thing of nothing at all Though of the longest date that ever life was yet to thy years that fail not it is less than nothing So when the Prophet saith Esai XL. 15. Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance This is not to be understood simply for all Nations are a vast bulk and mass in themselves but compared with God they are but as a drop but as a smallest grain of dust And so the Psalmist comparing the lasting of Heaven and
Earth with the everlastingness of God makes them as of no lastingness at all Psal. CII 26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end 2. The longest life compared with the Saints in Glory is as nothing 2 Cor. V. 1. This Tabernacle always dissolving what is it to an Eternal building in the Heaven Here we have none abiding City saith the Apostle but he saith again 1 Thess. IV. 17. that we shall be ever with the Lord. Here our life is but a vapour Jam. IV. as a Sleep Psal. XC as nothing but there we shall live as long as the Lord himself shall live 3. The longest life compared with the long lives that some have lived to wit the Patriarchs before the flood is but of very few days and but as an inch to an ell And so Jacob compares his life Gen. XLVII 9. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been That is few and full of misery have they been Jacob was of a very fair age an hundred and thirty years old and so old a Man as it is likely Pharaoh had never seen so aged and venerable a head and therefore you find him asking him but that one question How old art thou And yet in Jacob's computation his age was but short in comparison of his Fathers that had gone before him his hundred and thirty compared with Adam's nine hundred and thirty or Methuselah's nine hundred sixty nine So that we are not to judge of long life so comparatively but simply and to measure it by the common stint of Nature that God hath set Which Moses holds out to us Psal. XC 10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years c. And so length of life is to be understood that that reacheth up to that stint and limit of nature So that though seventy or eighty years be but a short time in comparison of the Eternity of God and of Heaven and in comparison of the ages heretofore yet it is a long life because it reacheth up to the utmost on Natures allowance And it is a long time if we consider humane frailty that a poor piece of clay a Man as brittle as glass as unstable as water as fading and fleeting as a blast or shaddow a poor thing that carries death in its principle and walks in danger of death every moment should come up to seventy or eighty years and the pitcher and glass not broken It is a long time for that which is frailty it self to hold so from breaking So that though comparatively to come up to the full stint of Nature be but a short life yet simply considered it is a long time for so brittle a thing to hold out A long time for an ungodly Man to be provoking of God all along and a long time for a godly man to be from home in this sinful world and not got to Heaven But if long life be so frequent in the mouth of God as a promise of a blessing How was it that God shortned mens lives when they were at a fair length I have formerly observed to you that lives were shortned at the Flood and brought from a thousand years almost to about five hundred or not so much Shortned again at the building of Babel and cut from about five hundred to two hundred or little more And when God gives the Ten Commandments at Sinai and this promise in this Commandment he was to shorten lives again which he did within a year and an half or thereabout after he had given this promise at Sinai Now if long life were such a promise such a blessing why did he not suffer lives to stand at their first stint or at that length that those lived before the flood Let us a little consider the length of those first lives and then the shortning of them Some ascribe the length of them to natural causes as that then their bodies were more big strong and vigourous than men are now and that the Elements were then more pure and uncorrupted than they became after and that their diet was more moderate wholesome and nourishing Which if it were so though some question may be made of it yet certainly there was something more concurrent to the prolongation of their lives to that long extent than merely natural causes Their Diet indeed was changed after the flood from eating herbs and fruits of the ground to a liberty to eat flesh and to that referr the words of Lamech upon the naming of his Son Noah Gen. V. 29. And he called his Name Noah saying this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed That is he shall be a comfort to the world in that liberty to eat flesh that shall be granted to him which will be a great ease from the toil and tugging used before to get all the provision they used by toyling in the ground But were the Elements changed after the flood as well as their Diet was changed First We might ascribe the length of their lives something to the promise of life through Christ that was given to Adam And the nearer they were to the giving of the promise the more might we conceive they received bodily vigor from the promise for temporal life as well as spiritual life and vigor of soul to life eternal What was that that made Israel to multiply and to be so fruitful in Egypt even when they were overtoiled and worn out with labour St. Stephen tells you Act. VII 17. that is was the strength of the promise When the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt This it was and not the strength of nature that made the men though over spent with hard toil and labour yet to be vigorous for generation And this was it that made the Hebrew Woman so lively and quick in time of travail and delivery incomparably beyond the Woman of Egypt as the Midwives do relate of them to Pharaoh Exod. I. 19. For that was not a lye of the Midwives as divers Expositors will tell you it was but it was a true relation of them observing the wonderful hand of God in such a strange matter But Secondly We are to consider that in that minority of the world God spared men to very long lives for propagation sake and the peopling of the world And this methinks is hinted in that constant expression Gen. V. and XI and begat Sons and Daughters It might be some Question whether the holy and prophane before the flood and after had their lives lengthned alike Seth the Son of Adam a holy Man lived nine hundred and twelve
years Do we think Cain the Son of Adam that wicked wretch had such a long life Enos the Son of Seth the Grand-child of Adam in that holy line lived nine hundred and five years Think we Enoch the Son of Cain and Grand-child of Adam in that wicked line lived so long So after the flood Heber lived four hundred sixty four years Do we think that Canaan or Cush or Mizraim or any of that cursed line lived half so long a life There is some reason of this question because we see in other examples that vigor and strength of nature in some of the holy line because of the virtue of the promise which you cannot conceive to have been in any Heathen However if those in the wicked line before the flood and after did not live to that age that those in the holy line did yet it is doubtless they lived far beyond the age of men afterwards for the propagating and peopling of the world Ishmael if he were one prophane as he is commonly reputed to be yet he lived an hundred thirty seven years Gen. XXV 17. But Thirdly A chief reason of the long life of the holy Patriarchs that may be given is this That they might propagate Religion in their generations God gives testimony of Abraham that he hid so Gen. XVIII 19. And it was the care and work of the other holy ones to do the like Noah is said to be a Preacher of Righteousness and Henoch a Prophet And they and the rest were as a living Bible to instruct their Childred and posterity in the knowledge fear and service of God There was then no Scripture written but the knowledge of God and of the ways of God was conveyed from generation to generation by word of mouth of those holy men And therefore God carried them on to so very great an age that they might be props and pillars of Religion in their Families to the sound and sure establishment of it Now it pleased God by degrees to cut short the length of such lives but it was still in displeasure He shortned mans life after the flood because of the sinfulness of men in their long lives before the flood He shortned them again at the building of Babel for the sins of those wicked men that went about to build it And again in the Wilderness where he brought in the stint of seventy or eighty years because of the peoples murmuring and despising the pleasant Land Upon which Moses then present makes the ninetieth Psalm See vers 7 8 9. We are consumed in thine anger c. And all our days pass away in thy wrath We spend our years as a tale And why Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance So that by shortning lives in judgment or in way of judgment he shewed that that we are upon that prolonging of life is a mercy or blessing But this with including the proper end of this promise and of Gods prolonging life viz. That man may more serve and glorifie God in his generation and do more good to his generation and lay up the more stock for eternal life for himself Long life to many an one proves a curse and it would have been better they had never lived never been born Cain's life and preservation granted him by God proved but a sad curse to him and that indeed not so much upon the account that God prolongs his life as upon the account of his own abuse of Gods prolongation Observe that Gen. IV. 15. And the Lord said unto Cain Therefore whosoever sâ—ayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold And the Lord set a mark upon Cain leâ—t any finding him should kill him Cain in vers 14. reads in his own Conscience the Law of justice which afterwards was given by the mouth of God Gen. IX 6. Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed That made him say Any one that meets me will kill me God secures him against this and gives him a token that none should kill him Some think he set some visible mark or brand upon him to signifie to all that he was Cain but if God did not tell every man in the world that he should not kill Cain as well as he told Cain that he should not be killed this was the likeliest way to have him murthered when all that met him knew that he was the murtherer Therefore I should rather render it and so the Original doth very properly if not most properly bear it He sets or gave him a sign that any finding him should not slay him Cain take this for a sign that none shall kill thee that I denounce sevenfold vengeance to him that doth it Now this securing him against being killed and Gods prolonging and preserving his life was it in favour or punishment Compare the rest of the dealing and words of God to him and it will seem and appear the later viz. that God kept him alive to anguish of conscience and the longer misery here But how does Cain use this his prolonged time As much as he can to delude the intent of God he Marries builds Cities sets himself to have and reap content in this world and his portion here And this is the way of Cain Jud. vers 11. Had it not been better for him when all was done that he had never lived so long never been born So is it with the wicked of an hundred years old Esai LXV 20. The sinner of an hundred years old is cursed And so it is with thousands that spending their time in vanity and folly their life and age be it never so long proves but a sad curse to them and hath but heaped the more guilt upon them But where is the fault Not but that long life in it self is a blessing but that man by abusing it hath turned it to a curse There is no earthly blessing but by mans abuse may become a curse That is terrible in Mal. II. 2. I will ever send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings But that is because men make such things a curse to themselves Haman's honour an earthly blessing in its self because a curse to him but it was through his own fault Jeroboam's promotion an earthly blessing became a curse to him and his whole Family but it was through his own abuse of it And so may I say of any earthly comfort And so is long life to many through their mispending and abusing it This I have spoken to take off an Objection against long life's being a blessing There is undoubtedly a blessing in long life otherwise God would never have so frequently as he doth held it out as a Promise And that we may view the blessing the better we first consider upon those things that may be said against it that afterwards we may the better view the blessing it self Oâ—e Objection then is That long life to many
proves in the end to be but a curse as I have shewed before and they have the longer score to answer for the greater heaps of sin to be arraigned upon the sadder account of so much time mispent But for Answer to this as I said before There is no temporal thing which in it self is a blessing but wicked men by abuse of it make it a curse They make their Table a snare their wealth a trap their long life a curse And it is no wonder if they do so by these things for they make Divine Ordinances which in themselves are a savour of life to become to them the savour of death nay Christ himself to become a stumbling block and their ruine Now the goodness or blessing in things is not to be judged of by such mens using but by what they are in their own nature As thousands in Hell curse the time that ever they lived so thousands in Heaven bless God for ever that ever they lived here so long Long life to the one party was balm the other made it poison There is another Objection That long life to many proves but long misery therefore is not such a promise and blessing Such are the miseries of this life even to them that spend their time the best that Solomon tells us Eccles. VII 1. That the day of death is better than the day of birth And Chap. IV. 2 3. I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive Yea better is he than both that hath not yet been which hath not seen the evil which is done under the Sun And how many of the Saints of God that have spent their lives as well as ever men did as ever men could spend their lives yet because of the miseries of life have desired that their lives might be cut off and that they might live no longer How oft is this Job's mournful tune over and over Chap. VI. 8 9. O that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me and that he would loose his hand and cut me off And Chap. VII 15 16. My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than my life I loath it I would not live always And so alomst in every one of his speeches And the same tune is Elias at 1 King XIX 4. It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am no better than my Fathers And Jeremy sings the same doleful ditty when he curseth the day of his birth Chap. XX. 14. How is long life then a blessing when the sorrows of it make men so weary of it I Answer This were true indeed if the blessing of long life consisted only in enjoying earthly prosperity and then the Children of God were of all men most miserable For they have the least earthly prosperity But the blessing of long life consists in things of another nature For those holy mens desiring because of their afflictions here to have their lives cut off 1. We neither wronged them nor Religion should we say it was an humane frailty and failing in them But 2. It was not so much for that they undervalued the prolonging of their lives and the blessing in having life prolonged as that they placed not their blessedness in living here but were assured and longed after a better life Not one of them was unwilling to live but because he was very well prepared to dye therefore he wished for death rather And now that we may come to consider wherein the blessing of long life consisteth let us a little take up some places and passages of Scripture and some arguments in reason that declare and proclaim it as of it self to be a blessing 1. Prov. III. 16. Solomon urging men to espouse and marry Wisdom tells what Portion and Dower they shall have that get her Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honour Observe that he accounts length of days a right hand Dower and riches and honour but a left hand one And indeed what are riches and honour if a man have not length of days to enjoy And the same Solomon commending old age saith Prov. XVI 31. It is a Crown of glory or a glorious Crown if the long life that brought it up thither have been spent as it should I might heap up many such passages but these suffice II. Consider that it is threatned for a curse and punishment that the bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days Psal. LV. 23. That the men of Eli's House should dye in their prime 1 Sam. II. 31. But I will name but one for all how oft threatned such and such shall be cut off I need not to cite places the Books of the Law are full of such expressions shall be cut off from his people from the congregation c. Which some understand of Excommunication but it means cutting off by the hand of God by some untimely or fatal death or shortning of life It is threatned as a curse that his days shall not be prolonged but cut off III. Ye have holy men in Scripture praying for prolonging of their lives and that upon this warrant that God promised long life as a blessing Psal. XXI 4. He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him even length of days for ever and ever And Psal. XXXIX ult O spare me that I may recover strength And Psal. CII 24. I said O my God take me not away in the midst of my days And so in the case of Ezekiah how bitterly did he take the tidings of the cutting off of his days Whether it were that it went sadly with him to dye of the Plague or that he saw not Jerusalem delivered from Sennacherib yet certainly it cost some tears to think he was to be taken away even in his prime and his life prolonged no further IV. To this may be added that God promised it for a peculiar blessing Thou shalt come to thy grave in a good old age Job V. 26. And how feeling a promise is that Zech. VIII 4. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts There shall yet old Men and old Women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staff in his hand for every age Methinks I see the streets full of such venerable heads and gravity every one crowned with gray hairs and old age a crown of blessing But what need I arguments to prove this What one thing is there in the world that hath more votes and voices than this For who is there that desires not to live long and see many days And skin for skin and all that he hath will he give for his life that it may be prolonged And who but will be contented to part with any earthly blessing so his life may be preserved Now wherein it is that long life is a blessing is best observed
by considering what is the proper end and aim of mens living Friend wherefore camest thou hither Why did God bring thee into the world and why dost thou live A question very pertinent and very considerable For the greatest number of Men and Women in the world go out of the world before they know or consider why they came in Much like Ahimaaz 2 Sam. XVIII 29. That entreats Joab to let him run to David and runs hard and when he comes to David to his journeyes end all that he can relate is When Joab sent thy Servant I saw a great tumult but I cannot tell what it was God brings men into the world to run their race they see a great bustle in the world and they keep a great stir themselves and when they come to their journeyes end they cannot give account what the business was for which they came into the world What do you think he thought he came into the world for that when he dyed commanded this to be written on his Tomb-stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I have eaten much and drunken much and done much mischief in my time and now here I lye Who among thousands in his life or indeed in his thoughts owns the proper end of living The Apostle tells us what it is Act. XVII 26 27. God hath made all Nations of men c. That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him c. And the same Apostle 2 Cor. V. 15. They which live should not live to themselves but to him by whom they live The Schools do very truly tell us that God created reasonable creatures Men and Angels that they might serve God and partake of God which unreasonable creatures cannot do So that here is the proper answer to the question Why do we live And the proper end of our living to serve God by whom we live and to get interest in him and participation of him to live to God here that we may live with him and enjoy him hereafter And by this are we to judge of the blessing of a long life and not by any earthly thing or occurrence in our lives Long life is not therefore a blessing to any because he lives long in peace and prosperity because he gets much wealth much credit experience wisdom in so long a time but because he hath got much interest in God and done much service to God That of Solomon must be understood prudently and we must be sure to take his right meaning in it Eccles. III. 4. Better than either living or dead is he that hath not yet been Is this absolutely true No but only relatively viz. relating to earthly miseries For the missing of these he scapes best that never was and never saw the evil done under the Sun But as to the thing it self absolutely considered that paradox that is sometimes maintained in dispute in the Schools is true in some kind and degree Praestat esse miserum quam non esse It is better to be miserable than not to be at all He that never was nor never shall be he that never lived nor never shall live shall never praise God never see the works of God never enjoy God and that is worse than induring the miseries that Men meet withal upon Earth This is the proper end of life and the blessing of life viz. to praise serve enjoy God And by this we must state the blessing of a long life viz. as allowing more time and space to accomplish and perfect those ends And upon the aim at these ends it is that the Saints of God have begged of God for long life Psal. XXXIX ult That I may recover strength and be fitter for my duty and thy work and fitter for thee when thou callest Psal. LXXI 18. Now also when I am old forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come Esai XXXVIII 19. The living the living he shall praise Thee as I do this day This was the end and blessing of prolonging Ezekiah's life that he was still alive to praise God And this is the work of those whose lives are preserved and prolonged To prove the blessing of prolonging life let me first appeal to any here Man or Woman art thou prepared to dye if God should call at this very instant If God send a messenger to bid thee set thy house in order for thou shalt die couldst thou take it better than Ezekiah did Dost thou not desire that God would spare and yet give some more respite some longer time some more space added to thy life And why Thou darest not say that I may enjoy the world take my pleasure gather wealth live in earthly delights yet longer Why then O! that I may be better fitted for Heaven that I may have more repentance a better composure of heart a better stock good works and provision for Eternity This by thy confession is the blessing and a choice blessing of a long life that a man may do God the more service serve his generation the more stock himself the more fully with grace for glory Herein then properly is the blessing of prolonged life that men have time to do for God and their Souls to lay up good store for Heaven and Eternity to stock up the comforts of a good Conscience and store of grace which in old age makes them fresh and flourishing and does as it were revive them and make them young again And now Brethren let my Exhortation be to you that are aged and gone far in years to consider seriously with your selves whether your prolonged time hath been made a blessing to you by your improvement or not Let me be a Monitor this day to all gray heads here to remember their age God hath prolonged your time some to fifty sixty seventy years some to more What blessing hath this prolonging been to you And to youth that desire long life my Exhortation to them is to set in a good course betime that God may delight to prolong their life and that the lengthning of their life may be a Blessing A DISCOURSE UPON THE FOURTH ARTICLE OF THE Apostolic Creed He descended into Hell THE ground of this Article of the Creed is in Act. II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell The reason of its insertion we shall see afterwards An Article obscure and that hath bred many disputes and the rendring of it so in English some offences For it seemeth harsh that Christs soul descended into Hell which in our English Language speaketh most plainly and usually The place of the damned a place very improper to look for the soul of Christ in when departed out of his body He and his betrayer Judas to meet in the same place He that had by death purchased Heaven for others himself after death to descend into Hell Not an Article in our Christian Faith hath more
need of Explication to bring it to common reason or Analogy of Faith The course I shall take in Explication of it shall first be to clear it from that meaning that is improper and offensive and that carries not probability with it and then to unfold the proper and genuine meaning of it I. The general interpretation of it in the Church of Rome is That his Soul really and I. locally descended into the place of torment but upon some other errand namely as they themselves express it That Christ in his Soul went to Hell to deliver the Patriarchs and all just men there holden in bondage till his death So the Rhemists on Act. II. 27. To this they apply Eph. IV. 9. Now he that ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the Earth Where the same Rhemists He meaneth specially of his descending into Hell Likewise they apply to the same sense 1 Pet. III. 19. By which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in prison And there they go further and say that Christ also preached in Hell and delivered some thence that had been there since the days of Noah Some that were good men but had not believed Noah his word about the flood but when they saw it come believed and were sorry for their error and indeed died by the flood corporally but in the state of salvation and being chastised in the next life for their unbelief were delivered by Christs descending thither Do you not see plainly whither all this ado tends Namely To prove their Purgatory and to maintain the profit they get by it The Doctrine of which business is this That some dying not so bad as to be damned yet not so absolutely good yet as to go to Heaven are sent to Purgatory and there their sins scoured away by fire and torment yet some after an hundred some after two hundred years c. go to Heaven but that the Pope by his power and the Priests by their singing Masses and Dirges can bring them out sooner than otherwise their time should be And hence so vast revenues have been bestowed upon their Monasteries Chappels and Chanteries upon this reason that the Priests there should say Masses and use Dirges and Prayers for the Souls of the Founders to deliver them out of Purgatory And thus they make this Article of Christs descent a matter rather of Profit than of Faith of Mony rather than of Edification And were not profit or worldly advantage in the Wind there would never be such strugling with them to maintain points against reason and religion as there is Some Protestants hold Local descent but under another notion viz. That Christ went to triumph over the Devils and damned To which opinion viz. The Local ascent to speak in gross and to these particular reasons of it First Let us take up the two places last alledged for the first I shall take up afterwards Ephes. IV. 9. Now that he ascended what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the Earth Where it is first observable that they conclude Hell to be under the Earth or within it which is a fancy of the Heathen Poets and others that concluded both the place of torment and of happiness to be down in the Earth These men have learned from Scripture that the place of the blessed is above in Heaven and so they refuse that part of the Heathens opinion but retain the other that Hell is under ground Upon what ground who can shew It is neither agreeable to reason nor at all to Scripture Not to reason to imagine a place under ground to be a place for Souls and Spirits which are so far from an earthly substance Not to Scripture which tells us Ephes. II. 2. That the Devil is the Prince of the Air and not dwelling under ground That tells us Rev. XIV 10. That the damned are tormented before the Angels and before the Throne of the Lamb not in the bottom of the Earth or under ground And time will be when there will be no Earth at all and where will Hell be found then May we never know where the place of Hell is but certainly it is a most sensless and irrational thing to hold it to be within this Earth And to take up the words of the Apostle he speaks of Christs ascending and descending And whence did Christ ascend to Heaven Not from Hell but from off the Earth Act. I. And what then means his descending but from Heaven to Earth And whereas he saith To the lower parts of the Earth he compares Earth to Heaven not Earth with it self As if he should say He descended from Heaven to these lower parts of the Earth to dwell among men as the Scripture doth generally expound his descending from Heaven in such a sense 1 Pet. III. 19. By which he went and preached to the Spirits in prison It is plain here S. Peter speaks of Christs preaching by his Spirit in the mouth and Ministry of Noah As I have somewhere explained it These Texts thus spoken to whereby they would prove Christ descended into Hell to preach to and deliver Souls now let us take their opinion in pieces and consider them several And first comes to be observed how improbable ridiculous and irreligious an opinion it is to conceive that the Patriarchs were in Limbo Dato uno absurdo multa sequuntur Yield one absurdity and many more follow So grant this and these rough and rugged absurdities follow 1. That it was almost four thousand years before any Soul went to Heaven Christ died Anno Mundi MMMDCCCCLX but forty short of four thousand and is it not absurd to think Heaven empty all that while At the Creation the Earth the Air the Waters were filled with Inhabitants and Heaven to be a Tenement that stood empty Sure God was a very hard Landlord that would take in no Tenant of so long a time 2. It is as absurd a thing to think a Thief should be the first that went to Heaven For by this Opinion the good Thief did so The house to stand long empty and a Thief that repents but at the last gasp taken in first and Abraham Isaac and Jacob not yet entertained nor admitted there Publicans and Harlots shall enter in before you Yes before you Scribes and Pharisees that shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven against your selves But for Abraham and Moses and the other antient Prophets and good men that sought after Heaven all their time to be shut out and a Thief and a Robber let in before them this is hardly hansom to conceive 3. It is an absurd thing that Abraham while he lived should be a friend of God converse with God entertain God at his Table and when he is dead he is become a meer stranger to God thrust into a hole where there is no sight of God no communion with him but God and Abraham now are
2 3. The great Angel is Christ the old Serpent is the Devil there Christ binds and imprisoneth him and that with the great chain of the Gospel Observe the passage He shut him up in the bottomless pit What In Hell for ever That he should never go abroad again Yea you have him loose again vers 7. and he hath been always going about as in 1 Pet. V. but he tyes him up that he should not deceive the Nations vers 3. and when he is loosed again vers 8. it is his being loose to deceive the Nations Observe by the way the phrase He shuts him up that is restrains him from deceiving and seducing people It is Hell and Prison to the Devil not to be doing mischief So the Psalmist speaks of the wicked children of the Devil They sleep not rest not if they do not evil It is a torment to them if they may not be sinning Well how doth Christ bind Satan that he do not deceive By sending the Gospel to undeceive them So that this is the Victory of Christ against the Devil The very telling of his Death and Merits is that that overcomes the Devil the very Word of his Death and Resurrection is that that overthrows the Devil and his power So is 1 Cor. VI. 3. to be taken Know ye not that we shall judge Angels Now needed Christs soul to go to Hell to tell the Devil these tidings and to triumph there He felt the building of his Kingdom fall about his ears every moment He needed no such message to go and tell him he had conquered him This is the Triumph of Christ over the Devil by the virtue and power of his death and not by any Vocal or actual Declaration of it by his Soul now separate from his Body IV. As to Christs Soul triumphing over the damned needed there any such thing Or could his Soul do any such thing Think you Christs Soul doth or could rejoyce in the damnation of the damned There is joy in Heaven when a sinner is saved Is there joy too when he is damned That tender expression of God As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner doth it give us any room to think that he can rejovce in their damnation That tender Soul of Christ that but six or eight days before wept for the destruction of Jerusalem with O! that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace Can we think that that Soul could go to Hell to triumph and insult over poor damned Souls He had cause to triumph and rejoyce over the conquered Devils but had he the like cause or heart to triumph over damned Souls What was the reason of his triumphing over the Devils Because he had subdued themselves only He mastered them while alive in casting them out and commanding them at his pleasure He cast them into Hell by his Divine Power as soon as they had sinned but his triumph over them by his Death and Resurrection was for his peoples sake We cannot say Christ hath any pleasure in the damnation of the very Devils but he had pleasure in the Conquest of Devils because he had delivered his people from them Ah! most Divine Soul of Christ so infinitely full of charity that gave it self a Sacrifice for sin that men might not be damned can that rejoyce and insult over poor Souls damnation Look but upon Christs tenderness and earnestness for Souls here that they come not to damnation and then guess how little delight he taketh in it when they are damned Let us apply these two passages to this Ezek. XVIII 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye And vers 31. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth In the Hebrew it is in the strictest propriety In the death of him that is dead I have not pleasure that he dye and no pleasure in his death when he is dead What is there more plain in Scripture and in all Gods actings than this That God would not have men damned if they would embrace Salvation What speak these expressions 1 Tim. II. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Pet. III. 9. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Certainly whatsoever else this is plain enough that God had rather men should be saved than damned How is this written in Scripture as in letters of gold that he that runs may read it How was it written in letters of Christs own blood that was shed that men might not be damned but that whosoever believeth might have eternal life And how is this written in Gods patience beseechings in his affording means of Salvation I need not to instance in particulars Well men will not be saved but choose death before life Doth Christ delight rejoyce to damn them when they must come to it Think ye he pronounceth Go ye cursed with as much delight as Come ye blessed That he insults triumphs over poor damned wretches in their damnation Read his heart in such passages as these Gen. VI. 6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart What Because he had made them No but because he having made them must now destroy them Lam. III. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men So he doth not damn willingly nor destroy the children of men And once for all Esa. XLII 14. I have long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my self now will I cry like a travailing woman I will destroy and devour at once I will cry and destroy but it is grievous to God as pangs of a travailing woman Thus much as hath been spoken may shew how unlikely and indeed how unchristian a thing it is to conceive that Christs Soul went purposely into Hell to triumph and insult over the miserable and damned And so you see that this Article cannot mean his Souls descending into the place of torment to triumph over the Devils and damned so that we must yet look for another sense of it III. A third interpretation then is this That it means the Torments he suffered in Soul III. upon his Cross. Some word it That he suffered the extream wrath of God some the very torments of Hell some that he was for the time in the state of the damned I reluct to speak these things but this Gloss some make upon this Article and while they go about to magnifie the Love of Christ in suffering such things for men they so much abase and vilifie his Person in making it lyable to such a condition The sense of the Article we must refuse unless we should speak and think of Christ that which doth not befit him The dearly beloved of the Soul of God to lye under the heaviest wrath of God The Lord of Heaven and Earth to
seeing it is most holy and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the Congregation to make attonement for them before the Lord. Let me ask those that hold this Opinion two or three questions Was Christ so much as punished by God Much less then was he overwhelmed by the wrath of God damned by God Was a Lamb punished that was sacrificed He was afflicted but not punisht for punishment argues a crime or fault preceding Lam. III. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Were the sad sufferings of Christ laid on him as punishments Certainly not for his own sins no nor for ours neither He suffered for our sins bare our sins but his sufferings were not punishments for our sins For observe two things First Christ merited by suffering Is it good sense to say he merited by being punished Strange sense to say he merited Salvation for his by being punisht for their sins but most divine to say by suffering for the redeeming of them He suffered as a Sacrifice to attone not as a sinner to be punished Secondly Did Christ dye upon any debt to the Law Much less upon any debt that he owed to Gods wrath Did the Law lay any thing to Christs charge did the Law condemn him And then can we dream of the wrath of God charging him and damning him It is true that it is said Gal. III. 13. Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree But doth this mean accursed of God Was the good Thief accursed of God when he hung upon the cross The meaning is that he appeared so to the view of men So that as it is impossible that Christ should lye under the wrath of God for any fault of his own so it is not imaginable that he did for ours V. It is impossible that Christ should suffer the torments of Hell or be in the case of the damned A Priest could not fall under the Plague of Leprosie and yet is the high Priest under a damned condition Certainly if his Body could not see corruption his Soul could not feel damnation If his Body were not under that which the Bodies of the best Saints fall under certainly his Soul could not be under that which damned Souls fall under I might clear this by considering especially three things which are the chief torments of Hell 1. Separation from God without any glimpse of his favour 2. Horror and Hell in the Conscience because of guilt 3. Utter despair Now need I to shew that it was not possible that any of these should seize upon Christ And these things be spoken to shew first what is not the meaning of this Article Now to come to the sense of the Article And for a beginning I may say as Moses does Numb XI 29. Would all the Congregation were Prophets So would all the Congregation were Grecians for then this would be easie The Creed was written in Greek and in the interpretation of this Article we are not tyed to the strictness of the English word but we must fly for refuge to the sense of the Greek word And if any of the opinions mentioned before should urge It is Hell therefore must be so understood as he said once To the Law and to the Testimony so I would answer To the original Greek and to the propriety of the phrase there In Isa. XXIX 10. The Lord hath poured out upon you the Spirit of Slumber In the Greek and in Rom. XI 8. it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compunction clean contrary to the Prophets meaning What shall we do here Not stick to the strict propriety of the Greek Translation but have refuge to the word in the original Hebrew and construe the Greek word by that So in our English Translation Hell seems to speak that that is neither warrantable by Scripture nor reason therefore we must not stick to the strict propriety of the word but to the Greek In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went down to Hades Which I shall explain to you by and by I. The Article refers to the passage of Christs Soul after his death I say of his Soul For what was done to his Body is specified in the Articles before Crucified dead and buried But what became of his Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended into Hell Now this Article is left out of divers Confessions of Faith in the Fathers and out of divers Creeds Vice plurium instead of more observe the Nicene Creed Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate He suffered and was buried And the third day he rose again Which shews it was added occasionally and for some illustration Councils and Fathers commonly inserted some Articles into Confessions to face some Heresie then appearing And this Article was inserted to outface some error about Christs person The Heresies and mistakes about Christs person were numerous and among others this was one that he had not a real humane Body but Airy and again that though he had a real Body yet he had not a humane Soul but that the Divine Nature supplied the place of his Soul These Articles that concern his death outface both these He had a real Body for he was really Crucified dead and buried And a real Soul for when dead he went to Hades Or whether it had been enough to have said He died and was buried but of him such addition was not needless because of misconstruction II. The Heathens owned another World and the immortality of the Soul though they had no Bible to tell them it yet they believed that there was another World after this Socrates discoursed of this before his death which Cleombrotus reading cast himself from a Tower that he might become immortal A strange affectedness with this point and a strong perswasion It is a wonder the Sadducees that had the Scriptures should deny this and Christians that hear so much of it be affected so little Tully shews arguments whereby they gathered that men lived in another World one of which was from the apparitions of some dead men In which thing while the Devil went about to cosin them to think them dead men which indeed was his own appearing yet he cosined himself too while he taught them by it to believe a life after death How they came thorowly to be grounded in this point I shall not insist upon to examine but they did believe that there was another World after this when the dead lived again III. This place and state they called Hades that is a place obscure and invisible The Phrase is infinitely frequent Achilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sent him before to Hades Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the going to Hades Leonidas to his Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To sup in Hades that is in another World Shall I give you
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what and how translated 1159 1160 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the dead 790 Φ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently denotes sinful corruption 708 709 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lights the Jewish Feast of Dedication so called and why 1039 Ω 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beautiful whence derived and what Gate of the Temple was signified by it Page 649 THE Fourth TABLE or Alphabetical Index is of Things or Principal Matters contained in the Second Volume A. ABEL what Page 367 Abilene what 366 367 Abraham's Bosome a Jewish Phrase for an hap py state p. 455 456. The ridiculous Notion the Rhemists have upon it p. 455. Son of Abraham by Faith and Nature what p. 467. Abraham's Seed the being of it much gloried in by the Jews p. 566. Several things of Abraham's History p. 665. What he bought in the Land of Canaan 669 670 Absolom was a Nazarite and for that reason wore long hair 774 Acceptance with God and coming to him is only through Christ. 1261 1262 Achzib it and Chezib changed into Ecdippa the Name of a place 61 Acon is a City of Galilee where there was a Bath of Venus 60 Actings of God extraordinary are not mens ordinary Rule 1276 Adam the City was in Perea this was the Centural Place where the waters parted when Israel entred Jordan 82 Adam although at first holy yet had not the Spirit of Revelation p. 1046. He had not the Spirit of Sanctification nor of Prophesie p. 1150. Before his fall he is compared with a Believer sanctified p. 1152 1153. The fall of Adam and the fall of Angels compared together p. 1285. His Story is all wonder p. 1303. Adam and Eve believed and obtained Life p. 1303. A view of their Story in nine Particulars p. 1303 1304. The means of their believing and their condition under believing p. 1304. Adam fell on the sixth Day of the Creation viz. on the Day he was created p. 1323. The proof of this p. 1323 1324. He was created about nine a Clock in the Morning fell about Noon Christ was promised about three a Clock in the Afternoon p. 1324. A new Creation or Redemption was performed on the day that Adam was created p. 1325. Adam's first Sermon to his family the matter of it supposed p. 1327. Adam not created mortal against the Socinians 1353 Adoption or Sonship as referring to God how understood by the Jews 521 533 Adulteress how punished 563 Adultery the only case in which Christ permitted a Bill of divorce p. 148. The Divine Laws concerning it p. 218. How does the Law of Death for Adultery and that of Divorce consiâ—t together p. 218. Adultery practised probably in the Temple Court of the Jews in our Saviours time p. 1080. The story of the Adulterous Woman recorded John the 8. left out of some of the Ancient Greek Testaments and the first Printed Syriack and also some Latine Translations and the reason of this omission p. 1079 1080. Adultery is so common among the Jews that the custom of trying the Adulterous Woman by bitter water mentioned Numb 5. was omitted the pretended reason for this omission 1080 1111 Affairs and Times of Men how God knows and dates them 1250 c. Affliction of the people of God the duration of it is determined by the Lord. 1248 to 1251 Agapae or Love Feast they were appendages to the Lords Supper also they were when strangers were entertained in each Church at the cost of the Church Page 774 to 776 Age of Man the several abatements of it as to length at what time these abatements were made 1066 Aleph and Ain The mystical Jewish Doctors did not distinguish them 79 Alms why taken for Righteousness p. 153 c. The ordinary Alms of the Jews is divided into three parts what they put into the Alms Dish for the Poor of the World What into the Chest for the Poor of the City only What they lest in the field ungathered Whether a Trumpet was sounded when they did their Alms p. 154. 155. Alms given to the Poor of what nature they were to be 467 Almon and Alemoth the same 42 Altar the Rings and the Laver thereof described p. 33 34. What it was to leave a gift before the Altar p. 143. When or at what time the Ashes were swept off it p. 618. The several Offices belonging to it p. 765. The zeal of the Officers to serve at it p. 765. The custom of fetching water at the Fountain Siloam and pouring it on the Altar what it signified p. 1039. Altar put for the Communion Table but in a wrong sence p. 1259. Altar put for Christ how 1259 1260 Amana or Amanah a Mountain and a River 62 Amen verily why so much used by Christ p. 137. Why used double and single p. 533. All used Amen after Prayer or Thanksgiving p. 786. But not in the Temple for there they used another Clause instead of it p. 1139. Orphan Amen was when he that answered Amen knew not what he answered to 786 Amulets Charms Mutterings Exorcisms what 243 Anabaptists refuted 1125 1127 1128 1133 Ananias the madness of his sin his degree supposed to be higher than the Vulgar p. 655 656. Two of the Name one famous 698 Anathema sounds all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem it s taken in a threefold sence p. 795. To be Anathema from Christ what 1295 1296 Angels Doemons and Spirits distinguished among the Jews p. 483. Angels for Prophets and Ministers p. 674. Angels sometimes put on the shape of Men. p. 683 684. Angels foolishly denyed by the Sadducees p. 702 1282 c. The Jews called evil Angels Destroyers or Angels of Death and good Angels Ministring Angels p. 767 Angels put for Devils p. 754. Angels put for Devils Ministers and Messengers p. 773. Angels sight for the Church of God p. 1163. The Devil is called the Angel of Death by the Jews p. 1209. Christ is called the Angel by Stephen the Proto-Martyr upon the account of his delivering the Law on Mount Sinai this proves him to be God against the Arian and Socinian p. 1229. Angel and Angels for Christ Prophets and Ministers p. 1229. Why in some cases they are ranked with Christ and God p. 1268. Angels can will nothing but as God willeth 1268. The Fall of Angels and the Fall of Adam compared together p. 1285. Angels in probability were created the first Day with the Heavens p. 1323 1324. They fell not before Man was created 1324 Anger or wrath of God this Christ did not undergo but only the Justice of God in his sufferings 1348 1349 1350 Anointing of Bodies and Heads among the Jews had a threefold reason used for superstition little differing from a magical Design p. 161 162. The Anointing mentioned in the Epistle of James was for health but opposed to the Magical Anointing of the Jews p. 162. Anointing with precious Ointment when and wherefore used p. 352. Anointing
50. The City where situate 514 515 Epistle to the Romans when and where it was writ by Saint Paul 1051 Equality of Men how all Men are equal in Gods esteem 1210 1211 Eremite or Hermite denotes a Country Man more properly than one that lives in a Desart p. 113. John the Baptist in all probability was no Eremite 387 388 Error and Ignorance do arise because Men will not know and embrace the Truth 1286 1287 Espousal an espousal of a Woman was performed by Mony or Writing or lying with 101 Espoused no Woman was married before Espoused 100 Esseans who they were p. 7. Where they inhabited p. 499 They owned the Immortality of the Soul but at the same time might deny the Resurrection of the Body p. 702. Their Religion was not the National Religion of the Jews but a Sect and an Excrescence from it 1036 Etam the Fountain what and of what use the streams 510 Eucharist when it was instituted p. 258 259. The Bread p. 259. The Wine p. 260. Judas was present at the Eucharist p. 261. Receiving the Eucharist unworthily two dreadful things against it 779 Eve her Temptation the Tradition of the Jews concerning it p. 1099. Adam and Eve believed and obtained life 1303 Evening what 198 Europe in probability is derived from Choreph which signifies Winter or cold 517 Excommunication and Reproof what they were with the difference between them p. 747 c. What the causes of Excommunication and how many sorts there were p. 747 748. The Jewish method of proceeding against the Excommunicated with the reason thereof p. 749. Whether the Jewish Excommunication was esteemed a delivery up to Satan 749 Extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are in Scripture comprized under Tongues and Prophesies 1157 Extraordinary actings of God are not Mens ordinary Rule 1276 Ezra Traditions as to their first conception are referred to the time of Ezra p. 124. In his days also was laid the foundations of Pharisaism and Sadducism p. 12. In his days some denyed the Resurrection 126 F. FAITH put for an holy boldness confidence and magnanimity Page 781 Faith great in the Thief on the Cross. 1273 1274 Faith in Christ all the holy Men that lived before Christ were saved by believing in him proved Page 1089 Fall of Angels and Adam compared together 1285 Family of the Mother not to be called a Family 99 Farthings what sort of Mony 350 Fasted the Jews fasted on the second and fifth days in the Week whether imitated by Christians 685 Fasts of the Jews what they were both in publick and in private p. 463. Fasts of the Pharisees strange stories related of them 171 Father a Father was always obliged among the Jews to teach his Son some honest Art or Trade p. 343. Father and Mother why to be honoured 1335 Fearers of the Lord used for Proselytes every one of them are blessed 689 Feast of Tabernacles the Joy and Songs thereof p. 223. The preparations for it and the parts of it p. 554 555. With the great Joy that attended it p. 555 556. The nicity of the Jews referring to the Feast of Tabernacles p. 556 557. How and wherefore the Eighth day of this Feast was computed great by the Jews p. 559 560. The strange Rites and Customs therein used 1039 Feast of weeks what 357 Feast Governour of the Feast understood of one whose place was to be Chaplain there 528 Feast of Dedication why called by the name of Lights p. 576 577. It is mentioned but once in all the Scripture and that by bare naming of it in Joh. 10. 22. p. 1033. The original Institution of it collected out of the Talmud Mainâ—onides Josephus and the first Book of Maccabees p. 1035. The strange custom of lighting up Candles therein used 1039 Feast of Purim was opposed by some of the Jews 578 Feasts Jewish The Jewish Feasts were vexed with innumerable scruples about what and how to eat and not to eat 769 Feasts of Charity what they were 1045 Festivals John is the most punctual in giving an account of the Festivals that intercurred between Christ's entrance into his publick Ministry and the time of his Death p. 1033. The Festivals of the Passover Pentecost and of Tabernacles were appointed by God for Communion as well as for Religion 1038 Fifth Monarchy is not the Kingdom of Christ but was the Kingdom of the Devil 1166 Figs and Fig-Trees there were some wild and some cultivated Figs were ripe at differing seasons and therefore Christ might expect some of a former year though as to that year the time was not come 225 to 228 Fire put for the Law of God and for Indignation 744 First born when and wherefore presented to the Lord and when redeemed 392 First Fruit sheaf when and how reaped p. 38. When to be offered p. 184. The Pomp of those that offered the First Fruits was very great 306 307 Flesh and Blood is used as opposing Men to God 204 c. Flux various Medicines for a Woman labouring under it 341 342 Fondness the Jews are fond and highly conceited of their own Nation a notable Example of this Fondness p. 1112. It hindred the execution of Malefactors 1113 Fool how came Fool to be a more greivous word than Raka 142 Forbearance in sin is the greatest punishment 1310 1311 Forms of Prayer were prescribed under the Old and New Testament p. 1137. Forms of Prayer defended and objections answered p. 1137. An account of the Jewish Forms from the Talmud and other Writers 1139 Foster Father taken for a natural Father 395 Fountain Etam the Fountain what and of what use its streams 510 France and Spain what places the Jews understood for them Page 368 Fraud Pious Fraud was one cause of the falsities of Ecclesiastical History 1143 Friendship and Conversation more inward which a Jew was not to have with an Heathen what 751 Fruits the First Fruit sheaf where and how reaped p. 38 618 619. When to be offered p. 184. The Pomp of those that offered it was very great 306 307 Furnication why or how put among things indifferent p. 696. There were two sorts of Furnication of this nature 696 G. GAD Javan in the Temple what Page 302 Gadara two places of the Name it was at first Gazara or Gezar p. 69. It was a City of Decapolis of Heathen jurisdiction 315 Gadarens whether Jews or Heathens p. 168. This Region was included within that of the Gergasens 340 Galileans had some customs different from those of Judea as in writing the Donation of the Marriage Dowry in working or not working on the Passover Eves also concerning the Trumah and the Curses of the Priests c. 77 78 Galilee was the upper nether and the valley p. 56 57. Bethshan the beginning of Galilee a most fruitful pleasant place p. 57. Caphar Hananiah the middle of Galilee p. 58. The disposition of Tribes in it p. 58 59. The West Coast of Galilee p. 59 60. Whether the Transjordanian Country was ever
Christs coming into Galilee or from his conference with Nathaneel and this difficulty hath the rather risen because this is another Chapter for certainly if this verse had been in the Chapter before they that date this third day from Christs coming into Galilee would more readily have inclined to another date namely from the testimony of John And truly for all it is a new Chapter yet I see not why it should not be linked to that chain of time that is in the Chapter before Now there it is said John stood and two of his Disciples and he testified of Jesus and they followed him And the day following Jesus would go into Galilee and meeteth with Philip and Nathaneel and the third day there was a marriage what doubt can there be of those three days thus linked together especially it being considered that the Holy Ghost doth here date the time of Christs first acting and moving in the Ministery of the Gospel and will shew how soon he wrought miracles after he began the third there was a marriage in b b b b b b The Syr. readeth In Catna of Galilee and so doth it again Chap. 4. 6. 21. 2. And so doth the Hebrew Map of Canaan mention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catna in Galilee for into this name it seems it was grown in after times and the Syrian calleth it by the name it bare in his time as we find it common with the Chaldee Paraphrast to do by names of places in the Old Testament as he calleth Kadesh-barnea constantly Reham he calleth Argob Trachona or Trachonitis Deut. 3. 4. and so might be instanced in exceeding many Cana of Galilee and the mother of Iesus was there 2. And both Iesus was called and his Disciples to the c c c c c c Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the marriage Feast for a Feast ever attended a marriage see Gen 29. 22. Judg. 14. 10. marriage 3. And when d d d d d d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some by the tense would collect that the wine was but now failing and was not utterly spent and upon this collection would interpret those words mine hour is not yet come to this sense that Christ would not work the miracle till the wine was clean gone but neither is the tense of so strict a signification nor are those words of such a meaning as might be shewed at large for the former and shall be touched upon for the latter by and by see those instances about the tense Matth. 26. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which to spare more do clearly intimate the action past as Christ brake not the bread nor gave the cup while he was blessing and giving thanks but after c. they wanted wine the mother of Iesus saith unto him They have no wine 4. Iesus saith unto her Woman what have I to do with thee mine hour is not yet come 5. His mother saith unto the servants Whatsoever he saith unto you do it 6. And there were set there e e e e e e Hydriae The same word is used by this same Evangelist Chap. 4. 28. And the very notation of the word in this place conduceth to the heightning of the miracle and the confirming of the truth of it For these Vessels were Hydriae water-vessels destined and used only for holding of water and therefore no bottom or dregs of wine could be conceived in them as by which some colour or taste might be given to the water to resemble wine The vessels which women used to fetch water in from the wells were also called Hydriae as is apparent by the place lately alledged Joh. 4. 28. these in Hebrew were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 24. 14. c. which the three Targums express by three several words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but those vessels were either earthen or wooden or of leather or some such light and portable matter but these here spoken of were of stone because they were not to be carryed from place to place but stood constantly in their dining rooms or thereabouts to have water ready for them to wash against they came to meat six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Iews containing two or three f f f f f f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The LXX render three Hebrew words by this 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Kings 18. 32. where it is said Elias made a trench that would contain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two measures of seed the Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 2 Chron 4. 5. Solomons brasen Sea held 3000 baths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hag. 2. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where either they take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a measure which indeed signifieth a winepress or else they express the measure which the Hebrew hath understood What this measure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contained shall be examined in the explanation of the verse firkins apiece 7. Iesus saith unto them Fill the water-pots with water and they filled them up to the brim 8. And he saith unto them Draw out now and bear unto g g g g g g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are three words couched and compacted in this one and every one of the three refers and draws us to look upon three several things of the customs and fashions of those times 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bed because it was their manner of old to sit upon beds as they sate at meat Esther 7. 8. The King returned to the place at the banquet of wine and Haman was fallen upon the bed where Esther was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in Sympos He rested on the bed on which he had supped which was near to mine 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it intimateth three beds for that was the common number that they had in their dining-rooms and from whence that room was commonly called by the Latins Triclinium or the room with three beds But of these things they speak at large that write of the Jewish and the Roman antiquities whither the Reader is referred And 3. as for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governor of the Feast who he was shall be seen anon the Governour of the Feast And they bare it 9. When the Ruler of the Feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence it was but the servants which drew the water knew the Governour of the Feast called the Bridegroome 10. And saith unto him Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunke then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine untill now 11. This beginning of miracles did Iesus in
and obtained life Let us now in the next place view the means of their believing II. A New Covenant was made with them They were under two Covenants in one day As Noah saw two Worlds so Adam saw an old Creation and a new As it was said of him Idem dies vidit Consulem exulem The same day saw him Consul and a banished man So the same day saw Adam under two vastly different conditions according to the tenor of the two Covenants The form of either Covenant was not exprest plainly but resulting The Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works both somewhat obscure to him But I. The enjoyment of God was necessarily intimated in both not the enjoyment of the Creature Adam was made a reasonable Soul for this purpose II. Obedience was the way This is a Duty to God and this is the way of the enjoyment of him when we conform to God III. He saw he had now lost obedience and the power of obedience He had lost God and the power of the enjoyment of him IV. God held out one that should recover him And he 1. A root of a seed as Adam was 2. Of an infinite Righteousness and Obedience beyond Adam 3. One that should by Obedience destroy the works of the Devil for his own seed V. Adam saw no way of recovery but by trusting in him God must be satisfied he could not do it obeyed he could not obey Therefore he had no way but to cast himself on Christs obedience VI. The Covenant only held out Christ to be trusted and believed on Obedience was required even by the Law of Nature and creatureship Faith was therefore enforced because they could not perfectly obey VII The Promise given in the curse of Satan that God would put enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent and that the Womans seed should bruise the Serpents head this had that effect upon them that they set themselves to defy Satan and cleave to the seed promised VIII That Mercy that created them in an instant so perfect recovered them in an instant Let us now in the third place view their condition under believing III. I. They were now representative no more as they were of mankind before the Fall They were stated in another representative Christ. Now they acted for themselves and he for them Hence their Faith was not imputed to posterity though their sin was II. They were built on another foundation than they were before Then it was on Nature Self-holiness Freedom of Will sandy foundations because changeable Now on a Rock Grace and the Righteousness of Christ. III. Now they have the Spirit of God working in them With Christ God gave his Spirit whereas before they had only natural abilities IV. Now they were under a Promise before not That Christ should break the head of the Serpent contained the promise of all good things V. They were under such Evangelical revealings that they wanted nothing needful for Salvation The Improvement of this discourse shall be in two or three Uses I. This magnifies Gods Grace to them and mankind How great is this Grace which will appear if you consider these things 1. There was as much done to provoke God for ever as was possible Compute the sin of Adam with all its circumstances 2. Here was greater Mercy than to the Angels that fell 3. Nay than to the Angels that fell not 4. Grace restored man to a better condition than he was in before We may admire all this and resolve all into Grace What comfort then is here to poor sinners Look on an Example that of St. Paul who was the chief of sinners yet Grace was exceeding abundant towards him 1 Tim. I. 14 15. He was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious Here were sins like scarlet yet forgiven You that are under the pangs of conscience consider this Grace Thou canst not sin so hainously as Adam did if thou addest not wilfulness and impenitency nor fall so high nor damn posterity as he did and yet he obtained pardon Take one Example more There were some pardoned that Crucified the second Adam II. See the wretchedness of the sin of Devils that is beyond pardon Their unpardonableness in what lay it In these two things 1. They sinned of pride and malice Adam and Eve of ignorance and weakness Take heed of sinning proudly and presumptuously 2. They were in the state of Eternity therefore their change to evil was unchangable Man carried the plea of weakness in his nature they not III. There is the same Grace Christ Promise Covenant from the beginning A SERMON PREACHED upon 1 JOHN III. 12. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his Brother and wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous THESE words refer to vers 11. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another and indeed to the tenor of all John's Epistles every where exhorting to love and not to be as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his Brother He had given two marks of one not born of God vers 10. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother They are both here in Cain Who was so far from love and righteousness that he hated his Brother and slew him Wicked mens sins are set down that we may avoid them as Rocks 1 Cor. X. 6. These things were our Examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted But Cain's sin reads more It is the first story after the Fall And it shews I. The enmity 'twixt the seeds II. What poison Satan bad breathed into mans nature The Holy Ghost in that story bids us look on him Thou art the Man This is Man fallen Of Seth it is said Gen. V. 3. that he was begot in Adam's image here it needs not be said it is so plain In the words we have a description of the Father and the eldest son viz. the Devil and Cain I. The Devil described by a most proper denomination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wicked one II. Cain by his extraction and action He was of the wicked one and slew his Brother We will first clear these and then make some observations from them I. The denomination of the Devil That wicked one So he is stiled Matth. XII 45. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other Spirits more wicked than himself Eph. VI. 16. Taking the shield of Faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the siery darts of the wicked So some understand that petition in the Lords Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deliver us from Evil that is the Evil one Nay Ephes. VI. 12. the Devil is called Wickedness in the Abstract We wrestle c. against spiritual wickedness in high places First He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉