The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

Harmony and Explanation.

Mark 1. vers. 22. He taught as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.

THE Scribes of whom there is so frequent mention in the Gospel, were the learned of the Nation, that taught the People, and expounded the Law, Therefore he that in Matth. 22. 35. is styled a Lawyer, in Matth. 12. 28. is called a Scribe. And Pharisees and Doctors, Luke 5. v. 17. are called Pharisees and Scribes, ver. 21.

And in this sense doth the Chaldee Paraphrast very often use the word Scribe, to translate that that in the Original is a Prophet, meaning a Teacher, as Esay 9. 5. The Scribe that teacheth lies, he is the taile, 1 Sam. 10. 10, 11. A company of Scribes met him, &c. And when they saw that he was praising God among the Scribes, &c. They said, Is Saul also among the Scribes, &c. In this sense our Saviour calleth some of his Ministers Scribes, Matth. 23. 34. that is, Teachers.

The distinction of the Scribes into several ranks, we shall observe within a few leaves: but take we them in what rank we will, or all of their ranks together, we shall find a vast difference betwixt the teaching of Christ, and the teaching of any or all these Scribes in these particulars.

1. The Scribes taught nothing but traditions; what this or that or the other Doctor or Sanhedrin in former time had taught and determined: what Hillel Shammai, Baba ben Bota, Rabban Simeon or Gamaliel, or others their great learned men, had asserted or de∣nied, and how they had stated this and the other question, and how they had concluded in this or that resolution: so that their whole teaching was but traditions of their Fa∣thers and learned predecessors, Gal. 1. 14. Mat. 15. 6. Hence are those Phrases and passa∣ges so common in their Talmuds 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a Tradition, and our Doctors have thus delivered 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wise men have thus determined, &c. that almost every line speaks such language. But our Saviour taught in the evidence and demon∣stration of a Prophet, the sound and powerful and self-grounded word of God: And in that he doth so constantly avouch his own Authority, Verily verily I say unto you, and But I say unto you, &c. he doth not only assert his divine and oracular authority of de∣livering the truth, but he also faceth that common manner of teaching of theirs, which was pinned upon the sleeve of other mens traditions: And when he biddeth call no man Father (that is, Teacher) upon Earth, he crosseth that vain Divinity that they taught which was but the Traditions of their Fathers, that is their Doctors.

2. All the teaching of the Scribes was especially about external, carnal, and trivial rites, ceremonies and demeanours: as appeareth infinitely in their Talmudical Pandect, which was but hay, straw, stubble, nothing in comparison of the sound doctrines of Salvati∣on. Hardly a word in all their Traditions that spake any thing, but bodily and carnal matter, as he that shall read their Talmuds from end to end will find but little discourse but tending to such a purpose: And we need not to go far for a patern of what kind of divinity it was that these great Doctors of the people taught, these places in the Gospel give copy enough, Matth. 15. 1, 2. & 23. 16, 18, 23, 25. John 18. 28. Acts 10. 28. Col. 2. 21. &c. But the tenor of Christs teaching was the spiritual and soul-saving doctrine, of Faith, Repentance, Renovation, Charity, Self-denial, and such heavenly things as these, which by how much the more they had been strangers in the pulpits of the Scribes, and never heard of before, by so much the more, did they now take the people, with affecting and admiration, being delivered in power, and piercing and pres∣sing upon the heart.

3. The teaching of the Scribes was litigious and in endless disputes, as Rom. 14. 1. 1 Tim. 6. 5. Their Doctors and Traditionaries, whom they took upon them to build upon, were of so many and so different minds, that they that followed them knew not what to follow: He that is never so little versed in the Talmuds, will easily see such experience in this matter, that he will find it readier to tell what those Doctors severally held, than to choose what to hold from them, if one would follow them. But our Saviour taught one only constant and undivided truth, plain, convincing and so agreeing with the Doctrine of the Old Testament, that it was the same, but only in a brighter and a clearer garnish. The people therefore, in this great difference of teaching between their own Doctors and Christ would easily perceive an alteration: and by how much the more our Saviours doctrine was more spiritual, and speaking to the concernment of the Soul, and by how much more it was delivered in the demonstration of a divine power, by so much the more it could not but convine the hearers of its own value and dignity, and work in them an astonishment at so high and so powerful truths.

Vers. 23. And there was in their Synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, &c.

Here is the first place in the story of our Saviour, where we meet with mention of any possessed or seised on bodily by the Devil, and therefore it will be something needful to speak a little in general concerning this case, of which we have very frequent example in the process of the Evangelical story.

I. It cannot but be observed how common this sad condition, of being possessed by the Devil, was in the time of our Saviours ministery and thereabout, above all the times of the old Testament, and beyond any examples in any other Nation. See Mat. 4. 24. & 8. 28. & 9. 32. & 10. 8. & 12. 22. & 15. 22. & 17. 18. Mark 1. 39. & 3. 11. Luke 10. 17. Acts 10. 38. &c. Which whether it were, 1. In regard that the Spirit of Prophesie had been so long departed from them, as 1 Sam. 16. 14. Or 2. that the Lord would in justice confute by this dreadful experience, the cursed doctrine of the Saddu∣ces that was now rife among them, that there was no spirit, Acts 23. 8. Or, 3. that he did evidence his great displeasure against the sinfulness and erroneousness of those times, which was now grown extream by this visible delivery over of so many to the power of the father of sin and error. Or, 4. that he would by this doleful experience read to all men a Lecture what misery it is to be in the power and subjection of Satan, and so make them more intent to hearken after him, that was to break the head of the Serpent; or were it all these together. Certainly 5. it did highly redound to the honour of Christ, and to the magnifying of his divine power, and did mightily evidence that he was come the destroyer of the works of the Devil, when finding so very many that lay so visibly under his power, he inlarged them all, and brought them from under his force, and bound the strong one and he could not resist. And the same tendency to his glory had the like powerful working of his Apostles by derived vertue from himself, Mat. 10. 8. Luke 10. 17. Acts 8. 7. & 19. 12.

II. It is observable that we do not find that any were healed of this sad malady till Christ came and began the work. It is true indeed that David by the power of the Prophetick Spirit that was upon him, did calm the raging of Sauls evil Spirit when he grew turbulent, but neither did he nor any other at any time till now, cast either his or any other evil spirit out: You must give Josephus leave to tell his story of Solomons skill which he left behind him, of driving out the Devil out of the possessed by applying a certain root unto his nostrils, Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. pag. apud me 230. as well as the Apocrypha of Tobit hath had leave a long time to tell of the Devil smoked away with the broyling of a fish liver, Tob. 8. 3. but you may easily smell them both, what sent and sense they carry with them.

As it was reserved for Christ utterly to break and bruise the head of the Devil, so was it reserved to him, to shew this mastery first upon him, by casting him out where he had taken possession, and no man might nor could do it before him. I have observed in another place, that as the two first miracles wrought in the World, (which were turning a rod into a Serpent, and the Serpent into a Rod again; the hand into leprosie, and the leprosie into soundness again) did shew the great power of him in whose power they were wrought, and did refer to the present occasion, which Moses was then go∣ing about: so did they more singularly refer to the miracles of Christ: To whom as it belonged to cast the Devil the old Serpent out of the Soul, and to heal the leprosie of sin, so to him was it reserved to cast the Devil out of the body, and to cure the leprosie of the body, and none did it, none could do it till he came; Elisha would not so much as touch Naaman in concurrency to this truth.

III. Those whom the Devil thus seized on bodily, we may distinguish into two sorts or ranks, 1. Those whom he possessed so, as to wrack and torture them, or to infect them with some disease, as Mark 5. 5. Luke 9. 39. & 13. 16. Mat. 12. 22. And 2. those whom he dwelt in bodily, to make them by false miracles and predictions, instruments of his seduction and delusion, as Acts 16. 16. and as Sibylla Cumaea is described by the Poet:

Talia cui fanti non vultus, non color unus: Non comptae mansere comae, sed pectus anhelum, Et rabie fera corda tument: majorque videri, Nec mortale sonans afflata est numine quando Iam propriore Dei, &c.

And a little after,

Bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit Excussisse Deum, tanto magis ille fatiga•• Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo.

Now to be bodily possessed by the Devil, was the saddest earthly misery could be∣fal a man: and therefore giving up to Satan was the highest punishment could be inflicted, 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. For how doleful a thing must it needs be reputed, 1. When that body which should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost, should become the very local cage, and bodily habitation of Satan. 2. When the Members were acted and used by the Devil, as if he had been the very soul that did animate the body. 3. When mans greatest enemy should so apparently dwell within him, and have such power over him. And 4. When he either carried the Devil, or the Devil him, or indeed both, whithersoever he went? Yet were there degrees of this misery, and the latter kind mentioned was the worse and the more grievous of the two, though it seemed not al∣ways so in appearance: for in the former possessedness it was possible that the Devil might not have seisure on the soul though he had of the body, as Mark 9. 21. But in the lat∣ter he had possession of both.

IV. Of this latter sort was this man in the Text, namely, a man possessed with a Spi∣rit of divination, whom the Devil filled and acted, under the notion of an Enthusiast or Prophet to decieve the People. For 1. he is said by Mark to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, In an unclean Spirit, as the words do properly signifie, (whereas indeed the unclean spirit was in him) intimating that he was in the acting or a Prophetick rapture of the Devil, as true and holy Prophets indeed, in the actings and raptures of the Ghost, are to be in the Spirit, Rev. 1. 10. 2. Luke hath expressed it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, That he had the Spirit of the Devil: namely, in such a kind of sense, as on the contrary part, the Holy Prophets are said to have the Spirit of God, Dan. 4. 5, 6. &c. 3. Both the Evanglists do style the Spirit wherewith he was possessed, An unclean Spirit: which as in general it stands in direct opposition to the term, The Holy Spirit; so is it most properly and sin∣gularly applyed to the Spirit of error and false teaching, Zech. 13. 2. Rev. 16. 13, 14. And 4. the words that the Devil uttered by the mouth of the possessed man, tend directly and only to deceive and to withdraw from Christ, as is apparent in their construction.

Vers. 24. Let us alone: what have we to do with thee? &c.

It is all one as to the sense of the words insuing, be the first worn 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, taken either for an Adverb of grief and wonder, and a Greek expression of the Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or be it taken for a Verb, as the Syrian, Vulgar and our English take it, when they render it, Let alone: The scope of the mans words in the whole verse may be taken up in these observations.

1. That though indeed it were the Devil within the man that dictated the words to him, yet was it the man that uttered them, and the men of the Synagogue heard the man speaking. The Greek Syntax in the Text of the Evangelists, especially of St. Luke, maketh it plain.

2. When he useth the plural number, We and Us, (What have we to do with thee, art thou come to destroy us?) he speaketh of himself, and the rest of the men of the Sy∣nagogue with him: for that these words are not applicable to the Devils, which was but one in the possessed, needeth no more proof than what is in the verse it self, where when the Devil, or the man by instinct of the Devil speaketh of himself, he useth the singu∣lar number, I know thee.

3. When he proclaimeth Christ the holy one of God, (as he is styled, Psal. 16. 10. Dan. 9. 24. &c.) he neither doth it, as a voluntary confession of him, for that cannot be expected from the Devil; nor as a strained or forced confession, by the power of Christ, for Christ commands his silence, but it is such a confession and proclamation of Christ, as whereby he might make the men of the Synagogue afraid of him, and not daring to have to deal with him because of his dreadfulness. So high and dreadful things are spoken con∣cerning the coming of Christ in the Scripture, as Mal. 3. 2. and so terrible apprehen∣sions had the Jews, concerning the fatal destruction of some men to be made when Mes∣sias came, that the Devil by these taketh opportunity to affright the men of the Syna∣gogue, with the presence of Christ among them, as if he were but come among them to destroy them: And he would disswade them from the imbracing of Christ by the terrors of Christ.

The Jews had such dreadful opinions as these about Christs coming. In Sanhedr. per. Helek. fol. 97.

In the Generation when the son of David cometh (say they) scholars of the wise shall be rare, and as for the rest of the people, their eyes shall fail for sorrow and grief, and great afflictions, and sore decrees shall be so renewed, that before the first is ended, the second shall come.

In the week of years (Dan. 9. 24.) when the son of David shall come: The first year,

that shall be fufilled, I rained upon one City and rained not upon another, (Amos 4.) The second year the arrows of famine shall fly abroad: The third year the famine shall be so great that men, women and children, yea good and godly men shall die, and the Law shall be for∣gotten by its Disciples: On the fourth year a kind of plenty, yet not plenty indeed: On the fifth year great plenty, and they shall eat and drink and rejoyce, and the Law shall be re∣stored to its scholars: On the sixth, voices or thunders: On the seventh, war, and in the end of the seventh the son of David cometh.

When the son of Dovid cometh, the Assembling places shall become slews, and Galilee shall be destroyed (note this for our present purpose) and Gablan shall be desolate, and the men of the border of Israel shall go from City to City, and the wisdom of the Scribes shall be abo∣minated, and religious persons shall be scorned, and the faces of that generation shall be as dogs, (compare Philip 3. 2. Rev. 22. 15.) and truth shall be gone, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.

When the son of David cometh, young men shall revile the ancient, and the ancient, shall rise up before the young: and the daughter shall rise up against her mother, and the daugh∣ter in law against her mother in law, and the faces of that generation shall be as the faces of dogs, and the son shall not be ashamed at (the reproof of) his Father. And Rabbi Isaac saith, the Son of David cometh not till all the Kingdom be turned to the opinion of the Sad∣duces. Thus the Talmud in the place cited: To which take this addition out of Massecheth derech arets zuta, When the son of David cometh Galilee shall be destroyed, and the men of Galilee shall go from City to City and shall not be pitied, Perek. 6.

From which dreadful conceptions about Christs coming, espcially and singularly ter∣rible to the Galileans, the Devil might very aptly frame his temptation and suggestion in a Galilean Synagogue when Christ was in it, to proclaim that Christ was there, and that so they were in danger to be destroyed.

Vers. 26. And when the unclean Spirit had torn him.

Not by making any gashes in his flesh, or any disjoynting or dismembring of his body, for Luke saith, he hurt him not, but he wrung him with convulsions, cast him into the midst of the floor, made a horrid cry and so came out. And by that it was evident to all that were present, that the man was really possessed, but the strong one armed was cast out by a stronger power: And this maketh them not only to wonder at the thing done, but also to take special notice of the Doctrine which Christ had taught, as which was attested by so great a miracle: And upon this his fame spreads throughout all Galilee: For howsoever the other miracles that he had done, of turning water into wine, healing diseases, &c. were high and eminent and to be admired things, yet the casting out of Devils was so singular, and incomparable, and till now unheard of and unseen a work, that it is no wonder if this do erect the people into a high repute and expectation con∣cerning him; and do exceedingly dilate his fame. Observe how our Saviour himself ar∣gues that the Kingdom of God was come among them from this kind of miracle, Mat. 12. 28. and the wretched Pharisees had no way to evade the argument, but by a Devilish blasphemy, that Christ by one Devil cast out another.

Vers. 29. When they were come out of the Synagogue, &c.

Whether Christ went voluntarily into Peters house or were invited, and if invited, whether it were to meat, or to cure his mother in Law or both, it needeth not to stay us in the disquisition, nor is there any difficulty in this story that needeth unfolding: the chiefest scruple is, how Peter comes to be an Inhabitant of Capernaum, whereas he is said to be of Bethsaida, John 1. 44. whether it were for conveniency of his fishing Trade that he took an house there, or whether it were by the marriage of his wife, that he came to have interest and residence there, let them determine that will be curious about it.

There is that conceiveth Capernaum to have been a Town of a distinct condition from all the rest of Galilee, as being out of Herods jurisdiction, which the rest of Galilee was under: and he supposeth that Christs departing out of Nazareth into Capernaum, Mat. 4. was for this end, that he might get out of Herods jurisdiction, into the immediate juris∣diction of the Romans, Sam. Petit. var. lect. lib. 2. cap. 1. But this conjecture is without ground, as might be shewed even out of that Text, Matth. 4. which he layeth as his ground for it, being compared with Luke 4. About Peters wife, see 1 Cor. 9. 5. and whether his mother in Law being recovered of her disease, followed Christ afterward, as she ministred to him at the present, examine from Luke 8. 5. 6. When Peter and Andrew had left their fishing by which they maintained the family, there was no way but for the women to go along with them.

Vers. 32. And at Even when the Sun did set.

From hence is a plain demonstration, at what time the Jews began and ended their Sab∣bath, namely, from Sun-setting to Sun-setting, or from Even to Even. They held it a thing unsutable for the day, for Christ to heal while the Sabbath lasted, Mark 3. 2. Luke 14. 1. yet now when the Sun is set they come without scruple with all their diseased.

It was commanded them from Even to Even to celebrate their Sabbath, Lev. 23. 32. which injunction, although it seem only affixed to the solemn day of expiation, and so is re∣strained only to that by some Christian writers, yet do the records of the Jews make it apparent, that they practised accordingly in all their Sabbaths: Siphri a very ancient ex∣position, maketh this gloss upon that place. On the ninth day of the seventh month, he be∣gins, and fasts whilest it is yet day, for so they add from the common to the holy time. And behold in all the Sabbatizing th••••e Sabbatizest, thou must add likewise: But Abarbinel far plainer: From Even to Even shall be your Sabbath: that is, Every Sabbatizing that you have: whether it be the Creation Sabbath or the set festivals, or Feast of Trumpets, or Ex∣piation: they were from Even to Even, according to the course of the Creation, as it is said, The Evening and the Morning were the first day, &c. And these and the such like Tal∣mudick Traditions as these following of which many more might be produced, do shew their opinion and practice in this point, more clearly still: In the treatise Sabbath per. 1. they have these passages, They rost not Flesh, an Onion, or an Egg, but so as that they may be roasted, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilest it is yet day, viz. on the Eve of the Sabbath.

They set not any thing in the Oven 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 towards night: nor a Cake upon the Coales, but so as that the upper side may be crusted 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilest it is yet day. The School of Shammai saith, they give not skins to the Currier, nor vessels to a washer, but so that they may be dispatched 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilest it is yet day; But in all these thing the Schools allowed the doing of them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 before Sun-setting: namely, as the gloss upon the place explains it, if the things were set or delivered for these ends before Sun-setting, it was current: as if Bread or Cakes were set in the oven or on the coals, before Sun-set, it was no violation of the Sabbath, though they stood baking when the Sabbath was come in: And so skins or vessels, if they were delivered before Sun-set, to the Skinner or Washer, it was not Sabbath breach if they lay soking in the tanpit or water on the Sabbath. And so Piske Sabbath explains it also, though by another example, It is lawful (saith it) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 near night, to put water to gummes & copperas, to make ink, to put flax into an Oven to dry, to lay a net, or set a trap for a wild beast or vermine; It is lawful to do these things near night, though the efficacy of the things, (as the ink soaking, the flax drying, and the net catching) be on the Sabbath when it is come in.

Maymony in his tractate of the Sabbath per. 5. is yet plainer: On the Eve of the Sab∣bath they light up a candle: and he that lights it, must▪ do it whilest it is yet day before the Sun go down: From the Sun-setting till the appearing of three middling Stars, that space is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Between the Suns: and it is doubtful whither that space belong to the day or to the night: And therefore they light not up the candle in that time: And he that doth any work in that space, on the Eve of the Sabbath or at the going out of the Sabbath igno∣rantly, he is bound to bring a sin offering. And these Stars are not great Stars such as are seen by day, nor little Stars which are not seen but by night, but midling Stars between both: and when three such midling Stars can be seen it is night undoubtedly. Compare Nehem▪ 13. 19.

Vers. 34. And he suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him.

Christ healed all diseases with his touch, for Luke saith, he Laid his hands on every one of them and ••ealed them: but he cast out Devils with his Word, for so saith Matthew, He cast out the Spirits with his Word, and he prohibited them to speak a word, because they knew him: The expression in the Greek doth carry it indifferently: To speak because they knew him, or To speak that they knew him, and it is indifferent whether way it is translated, for the sense is the same: but the question is why Christ would not permit them to speak upon this reason. Some say, because they should not utter him before the time: Others because it was not fit the Devil should preach Christ: to which I cannot but add, what was spoken of before, namely that the people should not be terrified by the presence of Christ among them, as the Devil if he might have had liberty would have set it forth.

Matth. Chap. 8. Vers. 17. Which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet, Himself took our infirmities, &c.

However the latter Jews would elude the Prophecy of that Chapter out of which this quotation is taken, viz. Esay 53. and would take it off from being applyed to Christ,

yet the ancient learned of the Nation in old time did so apply it, as may be perceived by the gloss of the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place, and by a remarkable passage in the Talmud: The Chaldee renders it thus: verse 4. Surely he shall pray for our sins, and our iniquities shall be pardoned for his sake, &c. Verse 5. He shall build the House of the Sanctuary, which was prophaned, because of our sins, and given up for our transgressions, and by his doctrine, peace shall be multiplyed upon us: and if we hearken to his words, our sins shall be pardoned to us. Verse 6. It pleaseth the Lord for his sake to pardon all our sins. Verse 8. He shall bring up our captivity from affliction and punishment, and the wonders that shall be done to us in his days who shall tell, &c. The Talmud likewise in the Treatise Sanhedrin hath this observable passage: What is the name of the Messias? &c. Some said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Leprous: according to that, Surely he hath born our Sicknesses, &c. And Messias sitteth in the gate of the City (Rome, as the Venetian Edition hath it) And by what token may he be known? He sitteth among the diseased poor, &c. Per. cheleck. fol. 98.

Now in this allegation and application of the Evangelist out of the Prophet there seemeth to be some hardness and impertinency upon these considerations: First because, the Prophet speaketh of Christs taking humane sicknesses upon himself, but the Evan∣gelist applys it of taking away diseases from others. 2. He applyeth that to bodily di∣seases, which the Prophet seemeth to understand of the diseass of the soul. And so Pe∣ter doth interpret it, 1 Pet. 2. 24. The Prophet speaketh of the time of Christs Passion and what he then suffered of misery in himself: but the Evangelists applie it to the time of his actions, and what he then did for benefit to others.

Answer. It is true indeed that this application will appear so harsh, if all the Em∣phasis and stress of Esays speech, be laid upon the word Our, as it is most generally laid there: For it is commonly interpreted to this sense: He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but the sicknesses and sorrows that he bare were ours, and not proper∣ly his own, for he bare them for our sakes: Which construction is a most true, but not a full rendring of the Prophets meaning: for he intendeth also a further matter, which the Evangelist in his allegation doth apparently look upon, and that is this, viz. The con∣cernment of Christ in our sicknesses and sorrows, and his power in reference unto them or concerning them: The Prophet when he saith, he bare our sicknesses, &c. meaneth not only, that what he bare was for our sakes, but that it concerned him and belonged to him to bear them, and he was able to bear them, and to deal with th••••. And this sense the Evangelist followeth in his quotation: when having recorded that Christ healed all the diseased that were brought unto him, he produceth this place of Esay, and saith, that in him was fulfilled that prediction concerning the Messias, which telleth that he was to deal and was able to deal with our infirmities and sicknesses: for so far do the words of the Prophet reach, and the application of the Evangelist so taken, is smooth and facil: And howsoever the Text of the Prophet do refer and intend more singularly to the time of Christs passion, in regard of our sorrows and sicknesses being then chiefly upon him, yet is the sense given, applicable also to all his time, as that he had always to deal with our sicknesses and sorrows.

Now in that Peter applyeth the Prophets Text to the diseases of the soul, when he utters it, He bare our sins, which is also the Translation of the Septuagint: he speaketh it in the highest and most proper sense, as regarding that diseasedness of which our Sa∣viour did especially come a healer, and which is the cause of all other diseases and sor∣rows whatsoever: and so he includes that which was the chiefest, but excludes not these. And as our Saviour pronouncing forgiveness of sins to a Palsick man, whose story is ere long to follow, doth thereby heal also the sickness of the body, so the Apostle under term of bearing our sins, comprehended also the bearing our sicknesses: and his empha∣tical expression is worth observing, when he saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Who himself bare them: that is, himself, of his own willingness would take them upon him, and himself of his own power was able to undergo them.

Mark Chap. 1. Vers. 35. And in the morning rising up a great while before day, &c.

Although the Jews did precisely begin their natural day from Sunsetting, as hath been even now observed, yet did they also make the midnight a distinctive period, to part between day and day so, as to determine, rem diei, in diem suum.

Talmud in Beracoth. per. 1. From what time do they say over their Phylacteries at even? From the time that the Priests go in, to eat their portion of the Sacrifices, till the end of the first watch. R. Eliezer saith, But the wise men said, untill Midnight.

Ibid. in Pesachin. per. 10. The Passover, after midnight defiles the hands.

Joma per. 1. & Maym. in Tamid. in per. 2. The cleansing of the Burnt-offering Altar on the day of expiation began from midnight.

Talm. in Zevachin. per. 5. Trespas offerings might be eaten till midnight.

Ibid. Lesser holy Offerings may be eaten till midnight.

Ibid. The Passover is not eaten but in the night, and it is not eaten but till midnight.

The meaning of which Passages is, that whereas these things were to be done to day and might not be put off till to morrow: if they were done any time before midnight, it was reputed and current as done to day, as their Phylacteries were to be said over every day at Even: if they were said over before midnight it served turn for the day be∣fore: And the parts of the Offerings, that were to be eaten on the same day that the offering was offered, (and might not be kept till the morrow) if they were eaten any time before midnight of that day it did serve the turn. The burnt Offering Altar was to be cleansed every day, now on the day of expiation it began to be cleansed from the midnight before, and that was taken as on the expiation day.

These things have I produced the rather because of the passage in the Text before us, which calls it in the Morning, and yet saith it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, much of the night yet remaining: for as they reckoned up till midnight for the day that was past, so they rec∣koned from midnight for the morning to the day following. Were I to discuss the questi∣on about the beginning and ending of our Christian Sabbath, I should think this matter worth consideration to that purpose: And something parallel to this are those Texts, Exod. 12. 22. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning: Yet Vers. 29 At midnight the Lord smote the first-born, &c. Vers. 33. And the Aegyptians were urgent upon the People that they might send them out. Deut. 16. 1. God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.

Now this Morning on which the Text before us, tells us that Christ rose so very ear∣ly and went out to pray, was on the morrow after the Sabbath, the day on which the Christian Sabbath was fixed, ere long, which may not be unobserved since so special a matter is mentioned of that day. The reason why he went into a solitary place to pray was, because the company so increased upon him because of the miracles that he wrought, that in the Town he could not be retired: When day light came, both his Disciples and the people, are abroad inquiring after him, and when they had found him, they would have detained him in those parts among them, but he will not be confined there but per∣ambulates Galilee.