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.

CHAP. XIII.

VERS. III.

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On the Mount of Olives over against the Temple.

THE a 1.1 East gate of the Court of the Gentiles, had the Metropolis Shushan painted on it. And through this gate the High Priest went out to burn the red Cow. And, b 1.2 All the Walls of that Court were high, except the East Wall; because the Priest, when he burnt the red Cow, stood upon the top of Mount Olivet, and took his aim, and looked upon the gate of the Temple, in that time when he sprinkled the blood. And, c 1.3 The Priest stood with his face turned Westward, kills the Cow with his right hand, and receives the blood with the lest, but sprinkleth it with his right, and that seven times, directly towards the holy of Holies.

It is true indeed, from any Tract of Olivet, the Temple might be well seen: but the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 over against, if it doth not direct to this very place, yet some place certainly in the same line: and it cannot but recal to our mind that action of the High Priest.

VERS. VII.

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Be not troubled.

THINK here, how the Traditions of the Scribes affrighted the Nation with the Report of Gog and Magog, immediately to go before the coming of Messiah.

d 1.4 R. Eliezer ben Abina saith, When you see Kingdoms disturbing one another, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Then expect the footsteps of the Messiah. And know that this is true from hence, that so it was in the days of Abraham; for Kingdoms disturbed one another, and then came redem∣ption to Abraham. And elsewhere e 1.5, So they came against Abraham, and so they shall come with Gog and Magog. And again, f 1.6 The Rabbins deliver. In the first year of that week (of years) that the Son of David is to come, shall that be fulfilled, I will rain upon one City, but I will not rain upon another (Amos IV.) The second year, The Arrows of famine shall be sent forth. The third, The famine shall be grievous, and men and women and chil∣dren, holy men, and men of good works, shall dye. And there shall be a forgetfulness of the Law among those that learn it. The fourth year, Fulness, and not fulness. The fifth year, Great fulness, for they shall eat, and drink and rejoyce, and the Law shall return to its Scholars. The sixth year, Voices. (The Gloss is, A fame shall be spread, that the Son of David comes, or, they shall sound with the trumpet) The seventh year, Wars, and in the go∣ing out of that seventh year, the Son of David shall come.

VERS. VIII.

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These are the beginnings of sorrows.

ES••i. LXVI. 7, 8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; &c. Before she travailed she brought forth, before the labour of pains came, she was delivered, and brought forth a male. Who hath heard such a thing? &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Does the earth bring forth in one day, or is a Nation also brought forth at once? For Sion was in travail and brought forth her sons.

The Prophet here says two things.

• ...

  I. That Christ should be born before the destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews them∣selves collect and acknowledge this out of this Prophesie. g 1.7 It is in the Great Genesis, a very antient book, thus R. Samuel bar Nahaman said, Whence prove you, that in the day when the des••ruction of the Temple was, Messias was born? He answered, From this that is said in the last Chapter of Esaiah, Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her bringing forth shall come, she brought forth a male child. In the same hour that the destruction of the Temple was, Israel cryed out, as though she were bringing forth. And Jonathan in the Ch••ldee translation said, Before her trouble came, she was saved, and before pains of child∣birth came upon her, Messiah was revealed. (In the Chaldee it is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A King shall manifest himself.)

• ...

  In like manner in the same Book: R. Samuel bar Nahaman said; It happened that Elias went by the way in the day, wherein the Destruction of the Temple was, and he heard a cer∣tain voice crying out and saying, The holy Temple is destroyed. Which when he heard, he imagined, how he could destroy the World; but travailing forward, he saw men plowing and sowing; to whom he said, God is angry with the World, and will destroy his house, and lead his children Captives to the Gentiles, and do you labour for temporal Victuals? And another voice was heard saying, Let them work, for the Saviour of Israel is born. And Elias said, where is he? And the voice said, In Bethlehem of Judah, &c. These words this Author speaks, and these words they speak.

• ...

  II. As it is not without good reason gathered, that Christ shall be born before the destruction of the City, from that clause, Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her bringing forth came (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the pangs of travail) she brought forth a male child: so also from that clause 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. Is a Nation brought forth at once, for Sion travailed and brought forth her children; is gathered as well, that the Gentiles were to be gathered and called to the faith, before that destruction; which our Saviour most plainly teacheth, ver. 10. But the Gospel must first be preached among all Nations. For how the Gentiles which should believe are called the Children of Sion, and the Children of the Church of Israel, every where in the Prophets, there is no need to shew, for every one knows it.

  In this sense is the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, pangs, or sorrows, in this place to be understood, and it agrees not only with the sense of the Prophet alledged, but with a most common phrase and opinion in the Nation concerning 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Sorrows of the Messiah, that is concerning the calamities which they expected would happen at the coming of the Messiah.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 h 1.8 Ulla saith, the Messias shall come, but I shall not see him, so also saith Rabba, Messias shall come, but I shall not see him. That is, he shall not be to be seen. Abai saith to Rabba, Why? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Because of the sor∣rows of the Messias. It is a Tradition. His Disciples asked R. Eleazar, What may a man do to be delivered from the sorrows of Messias? Let him be conversant in the Law, and in the works of mercy. The Gloss is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That is the terrors and the sorrows, which shall be in his days. i 1.9 He that feasts thrice on the Sabbath day, shall be delivered from three mi∣series, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 From the sorrows of Messiah, from the judgment of Hell, and from the War of Gog and Magog. Where the Gloss is this, From the sorrows of Messias. For in that age wherein the Son of David shall come, there will be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 an accusation of the Scholars of the Wise men. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 denotes such pains as women in child birth endure.

VERS. XXXII.

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But of that day and hour knoweth no man.

OF what day and hour? That the discourse is of the day of the destruction of Je∣rusalem, is so evident, both by the Disciples question, and by the whole thread of Christs discourse, that it is a wonder, any should understand these words of the day and hour of the last judgment.

Two things are demanded of our Saviour, ver. 4. The one is, When shall these things be, that one stone shall not be left upon another? And the second is, What shall be the sign of this consummation? To the latter he answereth throughout the whole Chap∣ter hitherto. To the former in the present words. He had said indeed in the verse before, Heaven and Earth shall pass away, &c. not for resolution to the question pro∣pounded, (for there was no enquiry at all concerning the dissolution of Heaven and Earth,) but for confirmation of the truth of thing, which he had related. As though he had said, ye ask when such an overthrow of the Temple shall happen; when it shall be, and what shall be the signs of it. I answer, These and those, and the other signs shall go before it; and these my words of the thing it self, to come to pass, and of the signs going before, are firmer than Heaven and Earth it self. But whereas ye enquire of the precise time, that is not to be enquired after, For of that day and hour knoweth no man.

We cannot but remember here, that even among the Beholders of the destruction of the Temple, there is a difference concerning the Day of the destruction; that that day and hour was so little known before the event, that even after the event they who saw the flames disagreed among themselves concerning the Day. Josephus, an eye witness, saw the burning of the Temple, and he ascribed it to the Tenth day of the month A••, or Lou••. For thus he, l 1.10 The Temple perished the tenth day of the month Lous, (or August)

a day fatal to the Temple, as having been on that day consumed in flames by the King of Ba∣bylon. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai saw the same conflagration, and he together with the whole Jewish Nation, ascribes it to the ninth day of that month, not the tenth; yet so that he saith, If I had not lived in that age, I had not judged it, but to have hap∣pened on the tenth day. For as the Gloss upon Maimonides m 1.11 writes, It was the evening, when they set fire to it, and the Temple burnt until sun-set the tenth day. In the Jerusa∣lem Talmud therefore Rabbi, and R. Josua ben Levi fasted the ninth and tenth days. See also the Tract Bab. Taanith n 1.12

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Neither the Angels.

For o 1.13 the day of Vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed com••th, Esai. LXIII. 4. What means? The day of Vengeance is in my haert? R. Jochanan saith, I have revealed it to my heart, to my members I have not revealed it. R. Simeon ben Lachish saith, I have revealed it to my heart, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but to the ministring Angels I have not revealed it. And Jalkut on that place thus: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 My heart reveals it not to my mouth, to whom should my mouth reveal it?

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Nor the Son.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that is, Neither the Angels, nor the Messias. For in that sense the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Son, is to be taken in this place, and elsewhere, very often. As in that passage, Joh. V. 19. The Son, that is, The Messias, can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. ver. 20. The Father loveth the Messias, &c. ver. 26. He hath given to the Messias to have life in himself, &c. And that the word Son, is to be rendred in this sense, appears from verse 27. He hath given him authority also to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Observe that, Because he is the Son of man.

• I. It is one thing to understand the Son of God barely and abstractly for the second person in the Holy Trinity; another to understand him for the Messias, or that second person incarnate. To say that the second Person in the Trinity knows not something, is blasphemous; to say so of the Messias, is not so, who nevertheless was the same with the second Person in the Trinity. For although the second Person, abstractly considered according to his mere Diety, was co-equal with the Father, co-omnipotent, co-om∣niscient, co-eternal with him, &c. Yet Messias, who was God-man, considered as Messias, was a servant and a messenger of the Father, and received commands and au∣thority from the Father. And those expressions, The Son can do nothing of himself, &c. will not in the least serve the Arians turn; if you take them in this sense, which you must necessarily do; Messias can do nothing of himself, because he is a Servant and a Deputy.
• II. We must distinguish between the execellencies, and perfections of Christ, which flowed from the Hypostatical union of the two natures, and those which flowed from the donation and anoynting of the Holy Spirit. From the Hypostatical Union of the Na∣tures flowed the infinite dignity of his Person, his impeccability, his infinite self-suffici∣ency to perform the Law, and to satisfie the divine justice. From the anoynting of the Spirit flowed, his Power of miracles, his fore-knowledg of things to come, and all kind of knowledg of Evangelic Mysteries. Those rendred him a fit and perfect Re∣deemer; these a fit and perfect Minister of the Gospel.

Now therefore the fore-knowledg of things to come, of which the discourse here is, is to be numbred among those things, which flowed from the anoynting of the Holy Spirit, and from immediate revelation; not from the Hypostatic Union of the Natures. So that those things which were revealed by Christ to his Church, he had them from the revelation of the Spirit, not from that Union. Nor is it any derogation or detracti∣on from the Dignity of his Person, that he saith, he knew not that day and hour of the destruction of Jerusalem: yea it excellently agrees with his Office and Deputation, who being the Fathers Servant, Messenger, and Minister, followed the orders of the Father, and obeyed him in all things. The Son knoweth not, that is, It is not revealed to him from the Father, to reveal to the Church. Revel. I. 1. The Revelation of Je∣sus Christ, which God gave to him.

We omit enquiring concerning the Knowledge of Christ, being now raised from death: whether, and how far, it exceeded his knowledg while yet he conversed on earth. It is without doubt, that being now raised from the dead, he merited all kind of Re∣velation (See Revel. V. 9. And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, &c.) and that he conversing on earth before his death, acted with the vigor of the Holy Spirit, and of that unspeaka∣ble holiness which flowed from the Union of the Humane Nature with the Divine, the

Divine Nature in the mean time suspending its infinite activity of Omnipotence. So that Christ might work miracles, and know things to come, in the same manner as the Prophets also did, namely, by the Holy Ghost, but in a larger measure; and might overcome the Devil not so much by the Omnipotence of the Divine Nature, as by the infinite holiness of his Person, and of his obedience. So that if you either look upon him, as the Minister and Servant of God; or if you look upon the constitution, as I may so call it, and condition of his Person, These words of his, Of that day and hour knoweth not the Son also, carry nothing of incongruity along with them: yea, do excellently speak out his substitution, as a Servant, and the constitution of his Person, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 God-man.

The reason, why the Divine Wisdom would have the time of the destruction of Je∣rusalem so concealed, is well known to it self; but by men, since the time of it was un∣searchable, the reason certainly is not easie to be searched. We may conjecture, that the time was hid, partly lest the Godly might be terrified with the sound of it, as 2 Thes. II. 2. partly, that the Ungodly, and those that would be secure, might be taken in the snares of their own security, as Mat. XXIV. 38. But let secret things belong to God.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Middoth, cap. 1. hal. 3.
• b 1.2

  Cap. 2. hal. 4.
• c 1.3

  Parah. cap. 3 hal. 9.
• d 1.4

  Beresh. Rabb. §. 41.
• e 1.5

  Bab. Sanhedr. fol. 95. 2.
• f 1.6

  Ibid. fol. 97. 1
• g 1.7

  Hieron. a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 side, lib. 1. contra Iu∣d••os, cap. 2.
• h 1.8

  Sanhedr. fol. 98. 2.
• i 1.9

  Sh••a••. fol. 118. 1.
• l 1.10

  De Bell. lib. 6. cap. 26.
• m 1.11

  In Taanith, cap. 5.
• n 1.12

  Fol. 29. 1.
• o 1.13

  Bab. Sanhedr. fol. 99. 1.