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.

THE CHRONICLE AND ORDER OF The Acts of the Apostles: THE EPISTLES, AND THE REVELATION. The Second Part. (Book 2)

[CHRIST. XXXIII] ACTS Chap. I.

FROM Galilee where Christ had last appeared to his Disciples, he remandeth them back to Jerusalem, and there cometh again to them. Where among other confe∣rence, they question him, Whether he would at that time restore the Kingdom to Israel? His summoning them again to that place, the Metropolis, it may be gave them occasion to move that question; they as yet, with the rest of the Nation conceiting the Messias a temporal Deliverer; and possibly not fully understanding what he meant by the promise of the Father. His answer; It is not for you to know the times and seasons, inti∣mates not that ever there should be such a restauration, but it smartly checketh their curio∣sity, as erroneous and needless; and sets them to look off earthly longings, to mind the busi∣ness they had to do, viz. to preach him through the world. He leadeth them out as far on mount Olivet, as where it began to be called Bethany, and there, about the place where he had begun his triumphant riding upon an Ass into Jerusalem, he now rides triumphantly into Heaven in a cloud.

The Disciples having seen his Ascension, and two Angels that told them of his com∣ing again in like manner as he went, return to Jerusalem, and there go up into an upper room, and their number is summed up an hundred and twenty. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 An upper room was ordinarily chosen by the Learned of the Jews for their meeting place to discuss and determine matters of Learning and Religion. Schab. per. 1. halac. 4. These are the articles that the Schools of Shammai and Hillel discussed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the chamber, or upper room of Chananiah ben Hezekiah, &c. Jerus. Pesachin. fol. 30. col. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The upper room of Beth Arum in Lydda, &c.

An hundred and twenty were not all the present professors in Jerusalem, but these spo∣ken of were they that were of Christs constant retinue, and companied with him all the time that he went in and out among them, ver. 21. and who being constant witnesses of his acti∣ons,

and auditors of his doctrine, were appointed by him for the Ministry. These are they that the story meaneth all along in these passages: Chap. 2. 1. They were all together. Chap. 4. 21. They went to their company. Chap. 6. 3. Look ye out among your selves. Chap. 8. They were all scattered abroad except the Apostles. Chap. 11. 19. They which were scatter∣ed abroad, preached, &c The Jews say, Ezras great Synagogue, was of a hundred and twenty men. Avoth R. Na••han ••er. 4. Juc••••••lin fol. 13. And their Canons allow not the setting up of a ••anhedrin o•• thr•••• and t••••nty Ju••••es, in any City, but where there were an hundred and twenty m••n fit some for one O••••ice and imployment, some for another. Talm. in Sanhedr. per. 1. and Maymony in his Treatise of the same name, per. 1.

The activity of Peter in the work of the Gospel, mentioned more along this story, then of any of the others, was not only injoyned, but also inlivened, by that saying of his Master, When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren: and he that had fallen so foul, as he had done, had need of all industry to evidence his recovery, and to get ground again.

The Phrase in ver. 25. Judas is gone to his own place, may properly be compared with the opinion of the Nation, about a traytour, He that betrayeth an Israelite, either body or goods, into the hands of the Heathen, hath no portion in the world to come, Maym. in chobel Umaz∣zik per. 8. And with the Gloss of Baal Turim upon these words in Num. 24. 25. Baalam went to his own place, They ••ean, saith he, that he went to Hell.

ACTS Chap. II.

THE expectation of the Nation grounded from Dan. 9. that the Messias should ap∣pear about this time, Luke 19. 11. had brought multitudes of Jews out of all Na∣tions to see the issue: And Pentecost having brought up also all the Country of Judea to celebrate that Feast; in this double conflux of people, the holy Ghost is given and com∣eth down upon the hundred and twenty Disciples, in the likeness of fiery tongues: At which very time of the year, and in fire, the Law had been given 1447 years ago. The Jerus. Gemarists in Taanith. fol. 65. col. 3. have a saying, That as Jerusalem was destroyed by fire, so should it be rebuilt by fire. And in Jom tobh fol. 61. col. 3. and Chagigah fol. 78. col. 1. they say that David died at the Feast of Pentecost. Both passages regardable at this place.

As the confusion of tongues at Babel had caused the casting off of the Gentiles, ▪by severing them from the participation of the true Religion [which was only professed and known in the Hebrew tongue] so was the gift of tongues, to be a needful means, to bring them in to Religion again; when every one may hear of the things of God in his own language. The Disciples were doubly indowed by this gift, as to the matter of lan∣guage; for they were hereby inabled to speak to every Nation in their own tongue: and not that only; but they were inabled to understand the Originals of Scripture, which they understood not before. Their birth and breeding had not allowed them so much learning as to understand any Bible that was then extant, either Hebrew or Greek, but here is the first operation of this gift of the Spirit upon them, that they are first made able to understand the Originals of Scripture, and then able to unlock them to any one in their own tongue. And here should they begin that take on them to expound the Scriptures by the Spirit, namely to unlock the difficulties of the Original languages, [for therein the mainest difficulty of the Scripture lodgeth] according as was the method of the Spirits o∣peration in the Apostles.

Pentecost was a time of rejoycing, and at all such festivities the Jews had ever good store of wine stirring: so that these men conclude that they had drunk too much and spake as men distract: which Peter confutes by telling them it was not yet the third hour of the day, or nine a clock. For upon their Sabbaths and holidaies they used not to eat or drink till their Synagogue service was done. Maym. in Schab. per. 30. which was not of a good while after nine a clock.

His alleadging of Joel, In the last daies I will pour out my Spirit, &c. teacheth us how to construe the phrase, The last daies, in exceeding many places both of the Old Testa∣ment and the New, as Isa. 2. 1. 1 Tim. 4. 1. and 2 Tim. 3. 1. 1 Pet. 4. 7. 1 Joh. 2. 19, &c. namely for the last daies of Jerusalem and the Jewish State. For to take his words in any other sense [as some do for the last daies of the world] is to make his allegation utterly impertinent and monstrous.

Three thousand converted, are Baptized In the Name of the Lord Jesus, ver. 38. which no whit disagreeth from the command, Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son, &c. Matth. 28. 19. For the form of Baptism in those first daies of the Gospel, of which the New Testament giveth the story, may be considered under a threefold condition. 1 John the Baptist baptized in the Name of Messias, or Christ that was then ready to come, but that Jesus of Nazareth was he, he himself knew not till he had run a good part

of his course, Joh. 1. 31. as was observed before. 2. The Disciples baptizing the Jews, baptized them in the Name of Jesus: upon this reason, because the great point of contro∣versie then in the Nation about Messias was, Whether Jesus of Nazareth were he or no. All the Nation acknowledged a Messias, but the most of them abominated that Jesus of Nazareth should be thought to be he: therefore those that by the preaching of the Gos∣pel came to acknowledge him to be Messias, were baptized into his Name, as the critical badge of their imbracing the true Messias. But 3. among the Gentiles where that que∣stion was not afoot, they baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And so that baptizing in the Name of Jesus, was for a season for the setling of the evidence of his being Messias, and when that was throughly established, then it was used no more, but Baptism was in the Name of the Father, and Son, &c. Of the same cognizance were those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, evidences of Jesus his being the Messias, and means of conveying the Gospel through the world, and when both these were well established then those gifts ceased for ever.

All that believed were together and had all things common, ver. 46. The Children of those that believed, must come under the title of Believers too, or they must famish. For this community of goods being for the relief of the poor, as we shall shew at the fourth Chap∣ter, the Children, Babes and Infants of believing Parents that were poor, must be taken in under this expression, All that believed, &c. or how did they for support? if the com∣munity of goods reacht them as well as their Parents, the title must reach them too: When a Master of a Family was baptized, his Children were they never so young were baptized with him, and hence the mention of baptizing whole housholds Act. 16. 15. 33. They that pleading against Infants Baptism, do cavill, that it may be, there were no Infants in those Families that are mentioned, bewray that they little understand the manner of ad∣ministring Baptism in its first use. For the stress of the business lies not in this, whether it can be proved that there were Infants in those Families, where it is recorded, that whole housholds were baptized, but the case is this, that in all Families whatsoever, were there never so many Infants, they were all baptized, when their Parents were baptized. Thus was the constant custom among the Jews for admission of Proselytes, and thence this Ca∣non, That a Woman proselited and baptized when she was great with child, her Child needed not then to be baptized when it was born. Maym. in Issure biah per. 13. For if he had been born before she was baptized, he must have been baptized with her. And the New Te∣stament gives so little evidence of the altering this custom, at those first baptizings under the Gospel, that it plainly on the contrary shews the continuance of it, when it speaketh of the Apostles baptizing whole households.

ACTS Chap. III, IV.

PEntecost Feast lasted eight daies, as well as their other Feasts, Passover, Tabernacles, and Dedication did. Jerus. in Moed Katon, and Chagigah at large. The occurrences of the very day of Pentecost it self, are related already: Now whether the healing of the Creeple, and the consequences upon that, contained in the third Chapter, befell upon the same day in the afternoon, or on the next day after, which was the day when all the males appeared before the Lord in the temple, or further in the Feast, is not certain, but that they were within the compass of the Feast, is more then probable, by the great mul∣titude that was converted at one Sermon.

Peter and John go into the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Talm. in Pesa∣chin. per. 5. The dayly sacrifice of the evening was killed at the eight hour and a half, and of∣fered at the ninth hour and an half. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. Twice a day, namely in the morning and about the ninth hour, they offered on the Altar. There, as they go in, at the East-gate, tha•• led into the Court of the Women, they find and heal a Creeple, which had been so from his birth. The Jews looked upon this miracle, as wrought by their own holiness, as appears by the Apostles answer to them, ver. 12. For such a conceit walked among the Nation, that extraordinary holiness might attain to miraculous workings. R. Phineas ben Jair saith, Industry bringeth to purity, Purity to cleanness, Cleanness to holiness, Holiness to humbleness, Humbleness to fear of sin, Fear of sin to partaking of the Holy Ghost. Jerus. Schab. fol. 3. col. 3.

Yet are they imprisoned that night, and the next morning convented before the Coun∣cil. Among others which are named of the Council, which were Priests, Alexander and John, mentioned ver. 6. seem to be Alexander Alabarcha, or his Son, and Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai, the latter, Vice-president at this time under Rabban Gamaliel.

They dismissed, come to their own company, and related what had occurred, and up∣on joynt prayer the place is shaken, and they are again filled with the Holy Ghost. Why? What could be added to them they having been so filled with the Holy Ghost before? In their prayer they petitioned these two things, That God would give them

boldness to speak his Word, and that Healings and Signs and Wonders might be done in the name of Jesus: And the power of both these falls now upon them: and especially, it may be conceived that Wonder of Wonders, upon the twelve, power to bestow the Holy Ghost.

The community of goods, with the mention of which the second and the fourth Chap∣ters conclude, may be considered under these two animadversions: 1. That although persecution as yet for the Gospel, had brought none to poverty, yet it is manifest that there were poor amongst them. And ••ome come to the more poverty for the Gospel sake too. For if they were poor before they received the Gospel, then the Synagague of which they were, provided for them: but now they were destitute of that provision, they having forsaken the Synagogue; or a the least the Synagogue them, because of their forsaking of their Judaism. For the Evangelical Church therefore, that was now begun, to provide for her poor, it had not only the Synagogue for an example, but would have had it for a reproach, if they had neglected so needful a duty, which that took care for so constantly and tenderly. 2. This having of all things common therefore, was not an extinction of propriety and of meum & tuum, as if one rich man should have as good interest in another rich mans estate as himself, but it was intended mainly for the relief of the poor: Not to bring any that had estates to voluntary poverty, not to level estates, but to relieve those which stood in need. Chap. 2. 45. & 4. 35. Distribution was made to every man as he had need: To them that preached the word for their maintenance, and to the poor for their relief.

ACTS Chap. V.

ANanias and Saphira set up as everlasting monuments to all generations of Gods just indignation against the despisers of the Spirit of Christ. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Spirit of Messias was in honourable mention and esteem in the Nation, in their common speech, though they would not know him when he was revealed. Now the sin of this couple was first covetousness, but especially presuming to play false, and yet thinking to go undiscovered of that Spirit which wrought so powerfully in the Apostles. That cur∣sed opinion that denies the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, runs parallel with this sin of Ananias and Saphira to a hair.

Peters warrant for this execution we may read in that passage, John 20. 22, 23. He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins ye remit they are remitted, and whose sins ye retain they are retained. How? To forgive sins absolutely? this belongs only to God. Was it to forgive them declaratively? This seem too low a construction, and too re∣strained: It seemeth therefore the most proper meaning of this donation, that he now indued them with power, to avenge what sins the Holy Ghost [now received] should direct them, to avenge, with bodily plagues, giving up to Satan, or with death: and again to remit such penalties as they should be directed to remit, and they should be remitted. The Holy Ghost whom they had received then with so peculiar a power, Ananias and Saphira do here plainly vilifie, and affront directly; therefore an execution of such power upon them was as proper and direct. But be it whether it will, that Peter took his warrant originally from thence, or had it instantly by some immediate revelation, as the judge∣ment was fearful, so his executing of it was remarkable, shewing at once his assurance of the pardon of his own lying against his Master, when he can and dare thus avenge a lye against the Holy Ghost: and also his just zeal and activity for the honour of his Master whom he had denied.

It is said in ver. 12. They were all in Solomons porch, which was the East cloister of the mount of the Temple, and in part of it did the Sanhedrin now sit, and the Apostles not afraid to act so near them: But at last they are apprehended and imprisoned, but mira∣culously inlarged, and preaching in the Temple again: and thereupon convented before the Council. Gamaliel, Pauls Master was now President, and continued in this dignity till within eighteen years of the destruction of the City. He pleadeth here for the Apostles, not out of any love to their persons or doctrine, for he lived and died a downright Pha∣risee: but partly because he saw the Sadduces at present the chief agents against them, and chiefly because the miracles they wrought were so plain and convincing, that he could move no less then what he did. And yet for all the fairness of this man at this time, yet did he afterward ordain and publish that prayer called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The prayer against Hereticks, meaning Christians; framed indeed by Samuel Katon, but approved and au∣thorized by this man, President of the Sanhedrin [then at Ja••••eh] and commanded to be used constantly in their Synagogues, in which they prayed against the Gospel and the professors of it. Taanith. fol. 65. 3. Maym. in Tephil. per. 2.

ACTS CHAP. VI, VII.

THE seven Deacons [as they are commonly called] chosen by occasion of the Hellenists murmuring against the Hebrews about neglect of their widows. The He∣brews were Jews the inhabitants of Judea, and the Hellenists those Jews that lived in other Countries dispersedly among the Greeks: Not only in Greece, but almost in all other Countries, which the conquests of Alexander, and the continuance of the Syro∣grecian Monarchy after him had filled with Greeks, as all Countries also were filled with Jews.

In all the Jews Synagogues there were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Parnasin, Deacons, or such as had care of the poor, whose work it was to gather alms for them from the Congregation, and to distribute it to them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 There were two that gathered alms for them and one more added to distribute it to them. Maym. in Sanhedr. per. 1. R. Chelbe in the name of R. Ba bar Zabda saith, They appoint not less then three Parnasin. For if judgment about pecuniary matters were judged by three, much more this matter which concerneth life is to be managed by three. Jerus. in Peah fol. 21. col. 1. That needful office is here translated into the Christian Church: and the seven are chosen to this work out of the number of the hundred and twenty that are mentioned, Chap. 1. 15. and that company only was the choosers of them, and not all the Believers in Jerusalem. The reason why the Hebrews neglected the widows of the Hellenists may be supposed, ei∣ther because they would stick to their old rule, mentioned once before, That a widow was to be maintained by her husbands children. Talm. in chetub. per. 11. Maym. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 per. 18. [compare 1 Tim. 5. 4.] or because the Hebrews of Judea had brought in more into the common stock for the poor, by sale of their Goods and Lands, then those that had come from forrain Countries had done, they not having Goods and Lands so ready to sell. All that had been brought in hitherto, had been put into the Apostles hands, and they had been burdened with the care and trouble of the disposal of it: but now they transfer that work and office to the seven, solemnly ordaining them by Imposition of hands into it, and here only, the Imposition of the Apostles hands confers not the Holy Ghost, for these men were full of the Holy Ghost before.

Stephen an eminent man among them, is quarrelled by certain of the Libertines, and the Hellenists Synagogue. Libertini 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 are exceeding frequently spoken of in the Jews Writings. And the Alexandrian Synagogue [one of the Hellenists] is mention∣ed in Jerus. in Megillah. fol. 73. col. 4. and Juchas. fol. 26. who tell, that R. Eliezer bar Zadoc took the Synagogue of the Alexandrians that was at Jerusalem, and imployed it to his own use.

When they are not able to overpower him by argument and disputation, they take a ready way to do it, by false accusation, and conventing him before the Sanhedrin: where being accused of vilifying Moses, and speaking of the destruction of that place, he is vin∣dicated, even miraculously, before he pleadeth his own cause, by his face shining like the face of Moses, and bearing an Angelical aspect and Majesty; for indeed he spake but what was spoken by the Angel Gabriel, Dan. 9. 26, 27.

In his Apology, he speaketh to the heads of his accusation, but somewhat abstrusely; yet so as to them to whom he spake to be well understood, his discourse being according to their own Rhetorick and Logick: To what was laid to his charge, for vilifying Moses, and saying, his customs should be changed, he rehearseth in brief the whole history of Moses, and shews he was Orthodox to him; but yet he driveth all to this, that as the times before Moses were still moving and growing on to settlement in Moses, so when Moses him∣self had setled all he had to do, yet he pointed them to a Prophet yet to come, to whom they should hearken as the ultimate Oracle, which was this Jesus that he preached to them. And whereas he was accused for speaking of the destruction of the Temple, he first shews, that fixedness to this or that place, is not so much to be stood upon, as appears by the flit∣ting condition of the Patriarchs [whose flittings he giveth the story of at large] and by the moving condition of the Tabernacle before the Temple was built: And when the Temple was built, it was not because God would confine himself to one place, for the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands, ver. 48. &c.

He inserteth two or three sharp and true accusations of them, whereas theirs of him had been but false and causeless. As, that their fathers had persecuted those tha•• foretold of Christ, as they did him for now preaching him, and they followed their fathers steps; nay went further, for they had murdered Christ, whereas their fathers had but mur∣dered his Prophets. And whereas they were so punctual, about the Ceremonious rites given by Moses, they neglected the moral Law, which was given by the disposition of Angels.

This cuts them to the heart, that they pass a rancourous and furious sentence of death upon him: but he hath a sight of the high bench of Heaven, God and Christ at his right hand, their judge and his: A most fit prospect for the first Martyr.

They cast him out of the City and stone him for blasphemy. For these were to be stoned. He that went in to his mother, or to his fathers wife, or to his daughter in Law, or to a male, or to a beast: and he that blasphemed, or that committed Idolatry, &c. And the place of stoning was out from the place of Judgment, [nay out of the City, as the Gemarists resolve it] be∣cause it is said, Bring him that cursed, out of the Camp. And A crier went before him, that was to die, proclaiming his fault. Sanhedr. per. 6. & 7.

When he was come within four cubits of the place of stoning, they stript him naked: only co∣vered his nakedness before. Ibid.

And being come to the very place, first the witnesses laid their hands upon him, Maym. in Avodah Zarah per. 2. and then stripping off their coats that they might be more expe∣dite for their present work, first one of them dasheth his loins violently against a stone that lay for that purpose: if that killed him not, then the other dasheth a great stone up∣on his heart, as he lay on his back: and if that dispatched him not, then all the people fell upon him with stones. Talm. ubi sup.

Steven in the midst of all this their fury, and his own anguish, gets on his knees and prays for them: and having so done he fell asleep. The Jews do ordinarily use the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to signifie Dying, which properly signifies sleeping, especially when they speak of a fair and comfortable death: which word Luke translates here. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 All that were stoned were also hanged up upon a tree. Talm. ubi sup. Whether Steven were so used is uncertain, but it is evident that he had a fair burial, and not the burial of a male∣factour.

[CHRIST. XXXIV] ACTS CHAP. VIII.

A Great persecution followeth the death of Steven: in which Saul was a chief agent, Scholar of Gamaliel [President of the Sanhedrin] and it may be the busier for that. In Talm. Bab. Sanhedr. fol. 43. col. 1. they say, Jesu had five Disciples, Mathai, Nakai, Netser, Boni and Thodah, and they are urging reasons there, why they should all be put to death, &c.

All the hundred and twenty Ministers mentioned, Chap. 1. 15. are scattered abroad [only the twelve stay at Jerusalem as in the furnace to comfort and cherish the Church there in so sad a time] and they preach all along as they go, and so Satan breaks his own head by his own design, for by persecution by which he had contrived to smother the Gospel, it spreads the more.

The first plantation of it mentioned, is in Samaria, and that according to Christs own direction, and foretelling, Act. 1. 8. Ye shall be witnesses to me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, &c. He had forbidden them before, Go not into the way of the Gen∣tiles, and into any City of the Samaritans do not enter, Matth. 10. 5. but now that partition wall that had been between, is to be broken down. Of all Nations and people under Hea∣ven the Samaritans were the most odious to the Jews, and a main reason was, because they were Jews Apostates. For though the first peopling of that place, after the Captivity of the ten Tribes, was by Heathens, 2 King. 17. yet upon the building of the Temple on mount Gerizim, such multitudes of Jews continually flocked thither, that generally Sa∣maritanism was but a mongrel Judaism. They called Jacob their father, expected Messias, had their Temple, Priesthood, Service, Pentatuch, &c. And to spare more, take but this one passage in Talm. Jerus. Pesachin fol. 27. 2. The Cuthaeans all the time that they celebrate their unleavened bread feast with Israel, they are to be believed concerning their putting away of leaven: If they do not keep their unleavened bread feast with Israel, they are not to be believed concerning their putting away of leaven. Rabban Gamaliel saith, All the Ordinances that the Cuthaeans use, they are more punctual in them then Israel is. It is an unhappy obscurity that the Hebrew Writers have put upon the word Cuthaeans, for though it most properly signifie Samaritans, yet have they so commonly given this name to Christians, as the most odious name they could invent to give them, that in the most places that you meet with it, you cannot tell whether they mean the one or the other. In the place cited, it seemeth indeed most likely that it means the Samaritans, because it speaks of their keeping the feast of un∣leavened bread, and using the Ordinances of Israel: unless it speak of those Jews that had received the Gospel and become Christians, and were fallen to their Judaism again, and joyned that with their Christianity, which very many did, as we shall have occasion to observe hereafter.

Simon Magus taketh upon him to believe and is baptized: The naming of him calls to mind the mention of one Simon a Magician that Josephus speaks of, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 5.

who was a means to intice Drusilla from her former husband to go and marry Felix the Governour of Judea, this might very well be that man. And it minds of a passage in Tal. Jerus. in Jebamoth fol. 13. col. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 I cannot but render it, The Simonians came to Rabbi, and said to him We pray thee give us a man to be our Expositor, Judge, Minister, Scribe, Traditionary, and to do for us all we need. I know what 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is in Tal. Bab. in Cholin. fol. 15. But certainly 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 means some people, but whence so named, there is no disputing here.

Philip baptized Samaria, and did great wonders among them, but could not bestow the Holy Ghost upon them: that power belonged only to the Apostles; therefore Peter and John are sent thither for that purpose. They laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost: Not upon all, for what needeth that? Or what reason was there for it? The gifts of the Holy Ghost that were received, were these miraculous ones, of Tongues, Prophesie, &c. Acts 10. 46. & 19. 6. Now of these there were but these two ends, 1. For the confirmation of the doctrine of the Gospel, such miraculous gifts attending it. And 2. for instruction of others: for Tongues were given indeed for a sign, 1 Cor. 14. 22. but not only for a sign, but for edification and instruction, as the Apostle also sheweth at large in the same Chapter. Now both these ends were attained, though they that received the Holy Ghost were not all, but only a few and set number: nay the later not conceivable of all, for if all were inabled miraculously to be Teachers, who were to be taught? The Imposition therefore of the Apostles hands, mentioned here and else∣where, and those passages, These signs shall follow those that believe, they shall cast out Devils, they shall speak with Tongues, &c. Mark 16. 17. Repent and be baptized every one of you, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, Act. 2. 38, &c. were not upon all that be∣lieved the Gospel, and were baptized: but upon some certain number, whom they were directed by the Holy Ghost to lay their hands upon, as those men that God had appointed and determined for Preachers and Ministers to the people, and who by the Imposition of the Apostles hands, receiving the Holy Ghost, were by those gifts inabled to understand the language and sense of Scripture, and to be instructers of the people, and to build them up.

Candaces Eunuch, having been at Jerusalem to worship, and returning back is converted by Philip. [Of Candace Queen of Meroe in Aethiopia, see Strabo lib. 17.] He met with him in the way that lead from Jerusalem to Gaza the desert. Of this place Strabo again lib. 16. speaketh thus, Then is the haven of the Gazaeans: above which, some seven furlongs, is the City, once glorious, but ruined by Alexander 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and it remaineth desert. Diodorus Siculus calls it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The old Gaza, lib. 19. for another was built at the haven by the Sea side, called sometimes Maiuma. Sozom. Eccles. hist. lib. 5. cap. 3. and afterward Con∣stantia, named so by Constantine after the name of his sister: as saith Euseb. de Vit. Con∣stant. lib. 4. cap. 28. or as Sozomen, of his son Constantius.

Whether this Eunuch were a Jew or a Proselyte is scarce worth inquiring: his devo∣tion is far more worth spending thoughts upon, which brought him so long a journey, and imployed him so well in his travail, as in reading the Scripture. He is baptized in the name of Jesus, ver. 37. and [as it may well be conceived] takes ship at Gaza, and is the first, that we find, that carried the profession of Jesus into Africk. The mention of which, may justly call our thoughts to consider of the Temple built in Egypt by Onias, and the vast numbers of Jews that were in that and the Countries thereabouts, and yet how little intimation there is, in the New Testament Story, by whom or how the Gospel was conveyed into those parts.

Philip is rapt by the Spirit from Gaza to Azotus, which were 270 furlongs, or 34 miles asunder, as Diodor. Sicul. ubi supra, measures.

ACTS CHAP. IX. from the beginning to Vers. 23.

THE conversion of Paul: A monument of mercy, 1 Tim. 1. 14, 16. A Pharisee, a persecutor, a murderer, yet become a Christian, a Preacher, an Apostle.

He consented to Stevens death: and after that he gets a Commission from the chief Priests, and makes desperate havock in Jerusalem, Act. 8. 2. & 22. 4. & 26. 10.

We find all along this Book, that the chief Priests are not only the busiest men in per∣secuting of the Gospel, but in many places it is related so, as if they were the only men and had intire power in their own hands, as a peculiar Court, to give Commissions, to judge, condemn and execute: as it hath been and is the opinion of some, that there was an Ecclesiastical Sanhedrin distinct from the Civil.

It is true indeed that there was in the Temple a Consistory only of Priests, which sat in the room called Parhedrin, and Liscath Buleute, The Chamber of the Council: but these sate not there, as Magistrates over the people, but only as a Consistory, to take care of the service and affairs of the Temple, that nothing should be wanting, nor nothing slacked

that was required about it, or that conduced to the promoting of the service of it, and their power extended not beyond that virge. Any other Concessus or Consistory of Priests alone, then this, I believe cannot be shewed in any records of that Nation, and this is far from the power and constitution of a Sanhedrin. The Talmud indeed in Chetuboth per. 1. Halac. 5. speaketh of a Beth din, or Consistory of the Priests which required four hundred zuzims in dower or joynture for a virgin: Which seemeth to assert this as a peculiar Court, invested with distinct power from the other. But the Gemarists, especially the Babylonian do make it plain, that no such thing can be inferred from this action: for they tell us that the Priests determined this business of four hundred zuzims dower to their own daugh∣ters, only for the honour of their Tribe and blood: So that this was not any act of judi∣cial power binding others, but an act of consent among themselves to keep up the credit of their Function and Families. But here is not time and place to discuss this point [a matter of no small Controversie] further then what may give illustration to the subject before us.

How to understand therefore this judicial activity of the chief Priests throughout this book, the Evangelist hath given us a rule betime in the story, Chap. 4. ver. 5. Where he shews that the whole Sanhedrin is to be understood, of which the Priests were a great, if not the greatest part, and were in this cause the busiest men. In case of necessity, there might be a Sanhedrin, though never a Priest or Levite was of it, for so is their own Ca∣non, namely if fit men of either rank were not to be found; but in common carriage, and experience they were the greatest and most potent number, as whose profession and Function bespake studiousness and pleaded honour. In all the New Testament we meet but with these men by name, of all the Sanhedrin. Annas, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, Gamaliel, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. And how many of these were not Priests? Gamaliel indeed was of the Tribe of Judah, and of the Progeny of David, being grandchild of Hillel. But as for all the rest, some of them were undoubtedly of the Priesthood, and the others more probably so too, then of any other Tribe: Of Annas and Caiaphas there is no question: And if John, Acts 4. 6. be the eminentest John that was then among them, it means Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai, who was now Vicepresident of the Council, and he was a Priest as Juchasin tells us. And if Nicodemus be the same with the eminentest Nicodemus of those times of whom Avoth R. Nathan per. 6. and Talm. bab. in Cetubboth fol. 66. make mention [as we have no cause to think otherwise] then was he by their plain description a Priest likewise. And so was Joseph of Arimathea, if his stile and title 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 be to be understood according to the common speech of the Nation, as there can be no reason why it should not be so understood. And as for Alexander, of whom is least evidence, it is not worth spending so much time upon as to discuss, since these already mentioned may be witness enough.

In all the busie stirring therefore of the Priests in this story of the Acts of Apostles, as Chap. 7. 1. & 23. 2. and about this Commission of Saul, we are not to take them as a di∣stinct and separate power from the Sanhedrin, but as a part of it, and such as whose Functi∣on and interest, as they thought, did most of all the other urge them to look to the pre∣vention of this growing evil of the Gospel, as they did, as heartily, as erroneously repute it: and therefore the story doth more especially pitch upon them as the most stirring men. And so Paul himself doth help to interpret Lukes relation. For whereas Chap. 9. 1, 2. it is said, Saul went to the high Priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, he who best could tell how this should be understood, explains it thus, Chap. 22. 5. Of the High Priest, and of all the estate of the Elders I received letters to the brethren, &c. The words of all the estate of the Elders determine the point we have in hand, and the other words to the brethren, call us to the consideration of another: and that is, how far the Sanhedrins de∣crees and injunctions had power and command over the Jews in forrain Lands. By produ∣cing the words of one of their Acts we shall better judge of this matter and understand the words to the brethren, both at once.

In Talm. Jerus. Sanhedr. fol. 18. col. 4. they say thus, For the three Countries they inter∣calated the year for Judea, and beyond Jordan and Galilee. For two of them together they did it, for one alone they did it not. There is a story of Rabban Gamaliel and the Elders, that they sate at the going up to the Temple, and Jochanan the Scribe sate before them: Rabban Gamaliel saith to him, Write. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 To our Brethren that dwell in the upper South Country 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And to our Brethren that dwell in the lower South Country, Peace be multiplied to you. We give you to understand that the time of setting forth your tithes is come, &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And to our Brethren of Galilee the upper, and Galilee the lower, Peace be multiplied unto you. We give you to understand that the time of setting forth your tithes is come, &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And to our Brethren of the captivity of Babel, of Media, of Greece, and the whole captivity of Israel, Peace be multiplied unto you: We give you to understand, that since the Lambs are yet little, and young Pigeons small, and the time of the first ripe ears is not yet come, that it seemeth good to me and to my fellows to add thirty days

unto this year. And the very same is related again in Maasar sheni fol. 56. col. 3. By which we see that when Luke saith, that Saul had the Sanhedrins letters to the brethren, he speaks but the very language that such letters used to speak in: and by this we see also, that their letters missive to their brethren in forrain Lands, were rather Decla∣rations then Commands: For it was not so much the awe of the Sanhedrins power reaching to those remote places, that kept the whole Nation to obedience of their de∣crees, as it was their innate and inured ambition to be held and kept a peculiar and di∣stinct and conform people, and their devotedness to their Law and Worship, the great Oracle of which they held the Sanhedrin to be, in all ages. Such letters may we con∣ceive were these to the Synagogues at Damascus, not imperious, but declarative and perswasive: which before Saul had delivered [who was now 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Apostolus Synhedrii magni] he is converted and designed for an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

He saw Christ, ver. 17. 1 Cor. 9. 1. though he saw him not: for as Israel at Sinai saw the Lord, not in any representation, but only his glory, so did he Christ in his glory, and a voice. And so they that travelled with him heard the voice, ver. 7. in its terrible sound, but they heard it not, Acts 22. 9. in its articulate utterance, so as to understand it, [the like to that in Joh. 12. 29.]

At three days end he receiveth his sight, and Baptism, and was filled with the Holy Ghost, ver. 17, 18. but how he received the last is somewhat obscure: whether before his Baptism or upon it, by immediate infusion as they did Chap. 10. 45. or by imposition of Ananias his hands; which if he did, as it was extraordinary for any besides an Apostle to confer the Holy Ghost, so could not Ananias do, or think of doing this, without an extraordinary warrant: Whether way it was, he is now so compleatly furnished with all accomplishments for his Ministry, that he confers not with flesh and blood, that is, not with any men, nor goes he up to Jerusalem, no not to confer with the Apostles, Gal. 1. 16, 17. but hath the full knowledge of the Gospel, and full assurance of his knowledge that it was right: And so he begins to preach in Damascus.

[CHRIST. XXXV] [CHRIST. XXXVI] These two years Paul spendeth in Damascus and Arabia, and Damascus again, Gal. 1. 17.

[CHRIST. XXXVII] ACTS CHAP. IX. from Vers. 23. to Vers. 32.

AFTER three years from his Conversion he cometh to Jerusalem, being driven from Damascus by a machination of the Jews, who had wrought with the Governour to apprehend him, but he is let over the wall in a basket, 2 Cor. 11. 32, 33.

He goeth up to Jerusalem to see Peter, Gal. 1. 18. but at his first coming thither, the Disciples are afraid of him, till Barnabas makes way for his intertainment, Act. 9. 27. His going to see Peter is to confer with the Minister of the Circumcision, himself being ap∣pointed Minister to the Uncircumcised: And how Barnabas who was to be his fellow should come to be acquainted with him before any of the rest we can hardly find out any other way to resolve, then by conceiving he had some intimation from God of his own Apostleship among the Gentiles, and Pauls with him.

He stayeth at Jerusalem but fifteen days and seeth none of the Apostles, but Peter and James the less, Gal. 1. 18, 19. He preacheth boldly there, and disputes so vehemently with the Hellenists that they go about to kill him, Act. 9. 29. But why him, rather then Peter, James, Barnabas, and others that were now at Jerusalem? We may answer, Because he himself was a Hellenist, one once of their own Colledge, and the more zealous he was now against them, the more incensed were they against him, for an Apostate, as they ac∣counted him: and now he that with them had contrived the death of Steven, is forced by them to fly for his own life.

[CHRIST. XXXVIII] [CHRIST. XXXIX] [CHRIST. XL] ACTS CHAP. IX. from Ver. 32. to the end. And CHAP. X. all. And CHAP. XI. to Vers. 19.

THE Stories succeeding to ver. 19. of Chap. 11. as they are of a doubtful date, be∣cause neither the Historian here, nor any other part of. Scripture hath fixed the determinate time of their occurring, so is not the limiting of them to their year or time so very needful; if only it be secured, that they follow in time to those preceding that we

have spoken to; and that we may be assured of their order, though we cannot be of their precise time. And this is easie to resolve upon, without much debate. The last verse of the former Section, informs us of a peace and rest come to all the Churches, and the be∣ginning of this brings in Peter [as in this calm] passing through all quarters preaching and confirming them. And that this could not be but after the times of the stories mentioned hitherto, appeareth by this, that though it is true indeed, that Peter was abroad in Sa∣maria upon the conversion of it, yet he was returned again to Jerusalem, Chap. 8. 25. and was there three years after, when Paul comes up thither.

This therefore is a new voyage, in which he doth three great things, healeth Aeneas of a Palsie at Lydda: raiseth Dorcas from the dead at Joppa; and openeth the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles in Caesarea.

Aeneas is a name that we find in the Jewish Writers. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 R. Samuel the son of R. Aeneas, is mentioned in Jerus. Jebamoth fol. 6. 2. And Lod or Lydda they speak exceeding frequently of, and produce remarkable stories and memorials of it. And indeed the quarters of Peters present walk, compared with the Hebrews records concern∣ing these places, may well claim some observation. For when he is at Joppa he is in the middle, as it were, of those places which in a little time after this [nay it may be at this very time] were two of their greatest and eminentest Schools.

At Jabneh on the one hand of Joppa did the great Sanhedrin sit long: both before the destruction of Jerusalem and after: for when it began to be unsetled and to flit up and down fourty years before the destruction of the City, its first removal from Jerusalem was hither: and here sat Gamaliel, Pauls Master, with his Sanhedrin a good space of time, and for ought can be said to the contrary, it might very well be there at this time when Peter was at Joppa.

Now as the Jews called that place Jabneh so the Gentiles called it Jamnia, and how near it was to Joppa you may guess from these words of Strabo, lib. 16. This place [speaking of Joppa] was so populous that out of the neighbour Town Jamnia, and other places thereabout, it was able to raise 40000 men.

At Lydda on the other hand of Joppa, were most famous Schools, and eminent men as well as at Jabneh. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. It was a Town that wanted little of the bigness of the City. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 5. It lay West of Jerusalem a days journey off, as the Talmud seats it and measures, in Maasar Sheni per. 5. hal. 2. It was in Judea: And thereupon four and twenty of the School of Rabbi came thither to intercalate the year, but an evil eye came in upon them, and they died all at one time. Jerus. Sanhedr. fol. 18. col. 3. For they might not intercalate the year but in Judea, Maym. in Kiddush Hodesh per. 4. but upon this mischance they removed that business into Galilee. Here it seems the Sanhedrin sat also sometimes, or at least they had a great Bench of their own, for there is mention of stoning ben Satda at Lydda on the eve of the Passover, Ibid. fol. 25. 4. To reckon the stories and eminent men belonging to this place were endless, at the least it is need∣less here.

But the mention and gender of Saron which is also named with Lydda, Act. 9. 35. may plead excuse if we alledge one or two Talmudick passages for the clearing of it, Jerus. in Sheviith fol. 38. 4. From Bethoron to Emmaus was hilly, from Emmaus to Lydda plain, and from Lydda to the Sea vale.

Idem in Sotah fol. 18. 4. R. Jochanan and R. Eliezer went from Jabneh to Lydda and met with R. Joshua in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Bekin.

Gittin per. 1. hal. 1. He that bringeth a bill of Divorce from a Heathen Country must be able to say, In my presence it was written and sealed in my presence: Rabban Gamaliel saith, Yea he that brings one from Rekam and Chagra. R. Eleazer saith, Yea he that brings one from Caphar Lodim to Lod. Rabbi Nissim upon the place saith thus: Caphar Lodim was out of the Land, near to Lod, which was within the Land, and it was so called because Lyddans were always found there.

Jerus. in Beracoth fol. 3. 1. They brought a chest full of bones from Caphar Tobi and set it openly at the entring in to Lod. Tudrus the Physician came, and all the Physicians with him, &c.

Besides observing, that Tobi is the name of a man [Rabban Gamaliels servant. Beracoth per. 2. hal. 7.] as Tabitha is the name of a woman in the story before us; the word Saron being of the masculine gender, it plainly tells us that it is not the name of a Town, but of the plain or flat where divers Towns stood, and among others it may be these mentioned.

ACTS CHAP. X. all the Chapter.

LIttle inferiour to these places for Learned men, was Caesarea upon the Sea, and beyond them for other eminencies. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Doctors of Caesarea are of exceeding frequent and exceeding renowned mention in both Talmuds: and by name R. Heshai the great; R. Achavah, R. Zeira, R. Ada, R. Prigori, R. Ulla, R. Tachalipha and several others. It was antiently called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Stratons tower, but sumptuously built and beautified by Herod the great, in honour of Caesar, it was called Caesarea. It was mixedly inhabited by Jews and Gentiles, and much of an equal number; and most com∣monly well fraught with Roman souldiers, because the Governours residence was ordina∣rily here.

Of some of these Bands was Cornelius a Captain: a man come to an admirable pitch of piety, and it is hard to imagine how he came by it: For that he was not so much as a Pro∣selyte, is apparent, in that they at Jerusalem cavil at Peter for going to him, as to a Hea∣then. And whether he were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A sojourning stranger as they called some, is not much material, since by their own judgment 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A sojourning stran∣ger was as a Gentile to all purposes, Jerus. Jebamoth fol. 8. col. 4. Whencesoever he learned faith in Christ, his full knowledge of Christ he learned from Peter: he having a warrant by vision to send for Peter, and he a warrant by vision to go to him.

Here the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to Peter so long ago, Matth. 16. do their work: opening the door of faith first to the Gentiles, which never was shut since, nor ever will be whilest there is a Church to be upon the Earth. Jonah at Joppa, and Simon bar Jona there, both sent to the Gentiles, compare together.

Upon Peters preaching, the Holy Ghost falls upon those Gentiles that were present, to the amazement of those of the Circumcision that had come with Peter: for they had not only not seen the like before, but had been trained up, while in their Judaism, under a maxime of a clean contrary tenour, which taught them That the Holy Ghost would dwell neither upon any Heathen, nor upon any Jew in a Heathen Country. Caesarea was [as the Jews reputed] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 between the borders: that is, a place disputable whether to ac∣count within the Land or without, or indeed both, Juchas fol. 74. And so were also other places upon this Western border of the Land, the great Sea shore: as Acon or Ptolemais, Jerus. challah fol. 60. col. 2. Ascalon, Idem Sheviith fol. 36. 3. and divers others, but all things computed, no fitter place in the Land could have been chosen for the beginning of this great work of bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one bound, then this: not only because this City was both Jew and Gentile, within the Land and without, but also, because here was the Roman Court the chief of the Gentiles, and the mentioning of Cornelius his being of the Italian Band, hinteth such an obser∣vation.

The Holy Ghost at this its first bestowing upon the Gentiles, is given in the like man∣ner as it was at its first bestowing upon the Jewish Nation, Act. 2. namely by immediate infusion: at all other times you find mention of it, you find mention of Imposition of hands used for it. But here it may be observed withal, that whereas the fruit of this gift of the Holy Ghost was, that they spake with Tongues, vers. 46. it confirmeth that which we spake at Chap. 2. viz. that the first fruit of this gift of Tongues was, that they that had it, were inabled to speak and understand the Originals of the Scripture: And here it appeareth more plainly then there: And more plainly still in those twelve at Ephesus, Acts 19. 6. And those that spake with Tongues in the Church of Corinth, 1 Cor. 14. For to what purpose was it for them to speak there with Tongues where they all understood the same Language? It was not to gibber and talk in strange Lan∣guage that men might admire but not understand, but it was for edification of others, yea and for edifying of himself that so spake, 1 Cor. 14. 4. He that speaketh a Tongue edifieth himself: How? What could he speak in any strange Language to his own edifica∣tion, which he might not as much edifie himself by, had he spoken it in his own native Tongue? But only that this is meant, his ability by the gift of Tongues, to understand and speak the Original language of the Scripture, was both for his own edification and the edification of others. Suppose one in the Church of Corinth could speak Persick, Arabick, Ethiopick, &c. and did chatter these Languages among them; he could not possibly speak any thing in those Tongues [though interpreted] that could edifie the people any more, then if he spake it in his mother Tongue: But if he spake and under∣stood and uttered the Original language of Scripture, that if interpreted, would edifie: and he could not speak in his mother Tongue, unless taken from thence, what he might speak thence.

Peter returning to Jerusalem is taken to task by some of the Circumcision for going in to the Gentiles and eating with them: a thing of unspeakable detestation to the Jews: Hence those allusions: Let him be to thee as a Heathen, Matth. 18. With such a one no not to eat, 1 Cor. 5. We find not any such quarrel at Peter and John for going down to Samaria, though the Samaritans were as odious to the Jewish Nation as people could be, but they were neither uncircumcised, nor Idolaters: both which, especially the latter, bred their detestation of the Heathen.

[CHRIST. XLI] ACTS CHAP. XI. from Vers. 19. to the end of the Chapter.

AS Caesarea the seat of the Roman Governour of Judea, first seeth the door of faith opened to the Gentiles, so Antioch the seat of the Roman Governour of Syria, first heareth the name Christian. These of the hundred and twenty Ministers [menti∣oned, Acts 1. 15.] that had fled upon the persecution raised against Steven, went preach∣ing up and down first as far as the bounds of Judea extended: then some of them step∣ped out, as far as into Phaenice, Cyprus and Syria, but all this while dealing with the Jews only. At last some of them at Antioch 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 spake to the Hellenists ver. 20. Here the word Hellenists is of doubtful interpretation: only this is doubtless in it, that it means not Jews, as the word doth, Acts 6. 1. for it is set in opposition to them, ver. 19. Doth it mean Proselytes then? That it cannot neither, for they were reputed as Jews to all purposes. Means it Heathens? Yes, that is undoubted it doth, both by the scope of the story here, and by the quarrel urging these believers at Antioch to be Cir∣cumcised, Chap. 15. But why then should they be called Hellenistae rather then Hellenes? Some conceive, because they were become 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Proselyte sojournours, meaning that they had forsaken their Idolatry: as Cornelius had done his, though he were not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Proselyte circumcised: But what if these were native Syrians by pedegree and lan∣guage, could they then for that be called Hellenists or Greeks? The word therefore must mean, that they were such as were Syrogrecians; Antioch it self indeed having been once the head of the Syrogrecian Empire: Hellenes or purely Greeks they could not be called [though it will not be denied they spake that Language] because they were not only no inhabitants of that Country, but not altogether of that blood: but such as were of a mixture of Syrian and Greek; the progeny of the old plantations and infranchisments of the Syrogrecian Monarchy. Whatsoever their title Hellenists includeth, they being un∣doubtedly Heathens, it sheweth that these Ministers preached to them, understood of the liberty given to preach to the Gentiles, and the passage betwixt Peter and Cornelius, or they durst not have been bold to have gone beyond the partition wall without their warrant: And the readiness of the Church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas to them, shews that they also were satisfied in this matter, and so this evidenceth that this story was after that about Cornelius.

Their sending Barnabas, and his fetching Saul to the same work with him, giveth some confirmation of that which was touched before, namely that it is very probable that Bar∣nabas knew of his own being designed for a Minister to the uncircumcision, and of Pauls being joyned with him in that work, a great while before they were sent away from An∣tioch upon it: They now spend a whole year in the Church there, and there the Name Christian is first taken up, and that in a Gentile Church. Antioch of old had been called Hamath, but now it bare the name of one that had been as bloody a persecutor of the Church and truth: as the Church of Israel had ever seen, Antiochus. The very name of the place may raise a meditation.

ACTS CHAP. XII, XIII.

HERE we meet with some scruple in Chronology, and about the precedency of the story in these two Chapters: for though the actions in Chap. 12. be laid first, and that very properly, that the story of Peter may be taken up together, and concluded before the story of Paul come in, which is to be followed to the end of the Book, yet there may be just question whether, the sending of Paul and Barnabas from Antiotch to preach among the Gentiles, which is handled in the beginning of Chap. 13. were not be∣fore some, if not all those things related in Chap. 12. And the question ariseth from these two scruples. 1. Because it is doubtful, in what year of Claudius the famine was, that is spoken of Chap. 12. 28. And 2. because it is obscure, how long Paul and Barnabas staid at Antioch after their return from Jerusalem, Chap. 12. 25. before they were sent away among the Gentiles. But about this we need not much to trouble our selves: since as to the understanding of the stories themselves, there can be little illustration taken from

their time: save only as to this, that the publick Fast in the Church of Antioch, may seem to have some relation to some of the said stories mentioned before, as coincident with them, or near to them, namely, either the famine through the world, Chap. 11. 28. or the persecution in the Church, Chap. 12. We shall not therefore offer to dislocate the order of the stories, from that wherein they lie, the Holy Ghost by the intertexture of them rather teaching us, that some of them were contemporary; then any way incoura∣ging us to invert their order. Only these things cannot pass unmentioned, toward the stating of their time and place, partly of coincidency, and partly of their succeeding one the other, and which may help us better to understand both.

• 1. That whereas Dion the Roman Historian lib. 60. hath placed a sore famine [at least at Rome] in the time of Claudius, in his second year: Josephus carries it, Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. as if the bitternes of it at Jerusalem, were in his fourth, which Euseb. in Chron. determines positively; both may be true; for, for famines to last several years to∣gether is no strange thing in History, Divine or Humane, nor in experience in our own age.
• 2. That Herod Agrippa's murdering of James, and imprisoning of Peter could not be before the third year of Claudius: for Josephus a witness impartial enough in this case, in∣forms us, that Claudius in his second Consulship, which was indeed the second year of his reign, made an Edict in behalf of the Jews, and sent it through the world, and after that sent Agrippa away into his own Kingdom: Now his Consulship beginning the first of Ja∣nuary, it was so next impossible that those things should be done at Rome, and Agrippa provide for his journey and travel it, and come to Jerusalem, and murder James and ap∣prehend Peter, and all before the Passover, (unless he hasted as it had been for a wager) that he that can believe Peter to have been imprisoned in Claudius his second year of Con∣sulship and reign, must exceedingly straiten the time of these occurrences, to make room for his belief.
• 3. In the third year of Claudius, therefore, are those stories in Chap. 12. to be reputed; only the last, about Herods death, in the beginning of his fourth, for a Passover in his fourth Herod lived not to see.
• 4. It may be observed that Luke hath placed the going up of Paul and Barnabas with the alms of the Church of Antioch to the poor of Judea, before the murder of James, Chap. 11. 30. but their return thence, not till after that, and Herods death, Chap. 12. 25. not that thereupon we are necessarily to think that they staid there so long, as while all those things in Chap. 12. were acting, but that by that relation the story of Paul and Bar∣nabas is begun again, and we may very well conceive, for all that postscript of Luke after the story of James his Martyrdom, Peters imprisonment, and Agrippa's death, their return to Antoich, and going from thence among the Gentiles, Chap. 13. to have been at that time while some of the things in Chap. 12. occurred.

We will therefore take the Chapters up in the order in which they lye, and only carry along with us in our thoughts, a supposal that some of the stories in either might con∣cur in time. And because we have found here some need to look after the Years of the Emperour, which we have not had before, and shall have much more, forward, especi∣ally when we come up to the times of Nero, it may not be amiss to affix their Years also, as they went along concurrent with the Years of our Saviour.

[CHRIST. XLII] [CLAUDIUS. II] The famine begun: the Church of Antioch send relief into Judea.

[CHRIST. XLIII] [CLAUDIUS. III] ACTS CHAP. XII. from the beginning to Ver. 20.

JAMES beheaded by Herod, for so doth the Jews Pandect help us to understand these words, He slew James with the sword. Talm. in Sanhedr. per. 7. hal. 3. They that were slain by the sword were beheaded, which also was the custom of the Kingdom; that is, of the Romans.

The ceremonious zeal of Agrippa in the Jewish way, bending it self against the Church, may be construed as a Jewish act, wicked, as upon the score of that Nations wickedness and guilt.

The underling condition in which they had lain all the time of Caius [he having no good affection to that people] being now got loose and aloft knows no bounds: and be∣ing somewhat countenanced by the Edict of Claudius, they cannot be content with their

own immunities, unless they seek also the suppression of the Christian Church. Though Claudius his Proclamation had this special clause and caveat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that they should not go about to infringe the liberty of other mens Religion. This unbounded incroaching of theirs did within a little time cause the Emperor, who had now made a Decree for them, to make another against them.

Peter designed by the murderer for the like butchery, escapes by miracle: and the Ty∣rant before that time twelve month, comes to a miraculous fearful end.

ACTS CHAP. XIII. from beginning to Vers. 14.

THE Divine Historian having hitherto followed the Story of the Church and Go∣spel as both of them were dilated among the Jews, and therein pitched more espe∣cially upon the Acts of Peter and John the singular Ministers of the Circumcision, more peculiarly Peters: he doth now turn his Pen, to follow the planting and progress of the Gospel among the Gentiles, and here he insisteth more especially upon the Story of Paul and Barnabas the singular Ministera of the uncircumcision, more peculiarly Pauls.

There were now in the Church of Antioch five men which were both Prophets and Teachers, or which did not only instruct the people and expound the Scriptures, but had also the Prophetick spirit and were partakers of Revelations: For though Prophets and Teachers were indeed of a distinct notion, 1 Cor. 12. 28. Ephes. 4. 11. and their abilities to teach were according of a distinct original, namely the former by revelation, and the lat∣ter by study, yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, [which phrase may not pass without observation] according to the state of the Church then being, they not only had prophetick Teachers, but there was a kind of necessity they should have such, till time and studdy had inabled others to be Teachers, which as yet they could not have attained unto, the Gospel having been so lately brought among them.

Among these five, the names of Barnabas and Saul are no strangers to the Reader, but the other three are more unknown.

• 1. Simeon who was called Niger: If the word Niger were Latin, it might then fairly be conjectured, that this was Simon of Cyrene, the Moorish complexion of his Country just∣ly giving him the title of Simeon the black; but since the Patrionymick, Cyrenean, is ap∣plied only in the singular number to the next man Lucius, and since the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was then used among the Jews in several significations, as may be seen in Aruch, we shall ra∣ther conceive this man a Cypriot from Chap. 11. 20. and as Barnabas also was, Chap. 4. 36. and his surname Niger whatsoever it signified, used to distinguish him from Simon Peter, and Simon the Cananite.
• 2. Lucius of Cyrene: Held by some and that not without some ground to be Luke the Evangelist: which it is like hath been the reason, why antiquity hath so generally held Luke to be an Antiochian: true, in regard of this his first appearing there under this name Lucius though originally a Cyrenian, and educated as it may be supposed in the Cyrenian Colledge or Synagogne in Jerusalem, Chap. 6. 9. and there first receiving the Gospel. In Rom. 16. 21. Paul salutes the Roman Church in the name of Lucius, whereas there was none then in Pauls retinue whose name sounded that way but only Luke: as we shall ob∣serve there.
• 3. Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. Juchasin fol. 19. mentioneth one Menahem who was once Vicepresident of the Sanhedrin under Hillel, but departed to the service of Herod the great, with fourscore other eminent men with him: of whom we gave some touch before: It may be this was his son, and was called Manaen or Mena∣hem after the father, and as the father was a great favourite of Herod the great the father, so this brought up at Court with Herod the Tetrarch the son.

As these holy men were at the publick ministration with fasting and prayer, the Holy Ghost gives them advertisement of the separating of Paul and Barnabas, for the Ministry among the Gentiles. A mission that might not be granted, but by such a divine war∣rant; considering how the Gentiles had always lain behind a partition wall to the Jews: For although Peter in the case of Cornelius had opened the door of the Gospel to the Hea∣then, yet was this a far greater breaking down of the partition wall, when the Gospel was to be brought into their own Lands and to their own doors: When God saith, Sepa∣rate them to the work whereunto I have called them, it further confirmeth that it was and had been known before that they should be Ministers of the uncircumcision.

The Romish glossaries would fain strain the Mass out of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and the Rhemists think they have done us a courtesie, that they have not translated it to that sense: whereas, besides that the word naturally signifieth any publick ministration, the Holy Ghost by the use of it seemeth to have a special aim, naimely to intimate to us, that this was a publick fast, as well as another publick ministration. Publick fasts were not

ordinary services, and they were not taken up but upon extraordinary occasions, and what the present occasion might be, had been a great deal better worth studying upon, then how to make the Greek word speak the Mass which it never meant.

How publick fastings and days of humiliation were used by the Jews, and upon what occasions, there is a special Treatise in the Talmud upon that subject, called Taanith, and the like in Maymony, that beareth witness: and it was no whit unsuitable to the Gospel, upon the like exigencies to use the like kind of service and devotion: And the present fa∣mine that was upon all Countries might very well minister occasion to this Church at An∣tioch at this present for such a work, for we cannot but suppose that the famine was now in being.

Whatsoever the occasion was, the Lord, in the midst of their humiliation, pointeth out Paul and Barnabas, for an imployment of his own, who were but a while ago returned from an imployment of the Churches: And so the other three Simeon, Lucius, and Me∣naen, understanding what the Lord meant, and having used another solemn day in fasting in prayer, lay their hands upon them and set them apart by Ordination. According as the ordaining of Elders among the Jews was by a Triumvirate, or by three Elders. Sanhedr. per. 1. halac. 3.

This is the second Imposition of hands since the Gospel began, which did not confer the Holy Ghost with it [for these two were full of the Holy Ghost before: and this is the first Ordination of Elders since the Gospel, that was used out of the Land of Israel. Which rite the Jewish Canons would confine only to that Land. Maym. Sanhedr. per. 4. Which circumstances well considered, with the imployment that these two were to go about, and this manner of their sending forth, no better reason I suppose can be given of this present action, then that the Lord hereby did set down a platform of ordaining Mi∣nisters in the Church of the Gentiles to future times.

Paul and Barnabas thus designed by the Lord and ordained and sent forth by this Tri∣umvirate and guided by the Holy Ghost, they first go to Seleucia: most likely Seleucia Pi∣eriae, of which Strabo saith, that it is the first City of Syria from Cilicia, Geogr. lib. 14. to which Pliny assenteth, when he measureth the breadth of Syria, from Seleucia Pieriae to Zeugma upon Euphrates, Nat. hist. lib. 5. cap. 12. The reason of their going thither may be judged to be, that they might take ship for Cyprus, whither they intended, for that this was a Port, ap∣peareth by what follows in Strabo, when he saith, That from Seleucia to Soli is about a thou∣sand furlongs sail: and so it is plain in Lukes Text when he saith, they departed unto Seleu∣cia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus: where let us now follow them.

Cyprus was a Country so exceeding full of Jews, that it comes in for one in that strange story that Dion Cassius relates in the life of Trajan. The Jews [saith he] that dwelt about Cyrene, choosing one Andrew for their Captain, slew the Greeks and Romans, and eat their flesh, and devoured their inwards, and besmeared themselves with their blood, and wore their skins. Many they sawed asunder from the head downward, others they cast to wild beasts: many they made to slay one another, so that there were two hundred and twenty thousand destroyed in this manner. There was the like slaughter made in Egypt and Cyprus, where there also perished two hundred and fourty thousand. From whence it is that a Jew may not since come into Cyprus: and if any by storms at Sea be driven in thither, they are slain. But the Jews were subdued by others, but especially by Lucius whom Trojan sent thither. This was the native Country of Barnabas, Act. 4. 36.

Although these two Apostles were sent to the Gentiles, yet was it so far from excluding their preaching to the Jews, that they constantly began with them first in all places where they came.

They begin at Salamis, the place next their landing, and there they preached in the Syna∣gogues of the Jews, having John Mark for their Minister.

From thence they travailed preaching up and down in the Iland, till they come to Pa∣phos which was at the very further part of it, toward the Southwest Angle. There they meet with a Magical Jew called Barjesus, and commonly titled Elymas, which is the same in sense with Magus: Such Jewish deceivers as this went up and down the Countries to oppose the Gospel, and to shew Magical tricks and wonders, for the stronger confirming of their opposition. Such were the vagabond Jews exorcists, Act. 19. 13. and of such our Saviour spake, Matth. 24. 24. and of some such we may give examples out of their own Talmudical Writers. And here we may take notice of a threefold practice of opposition that the Jews used in these times and forward against the Gospel and the spreading of it, besides open persecution unto blood.

1. Much about these times was made the prayer that hath been mentioned which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The prayer against Hereticks, which became by injunction one of their daily prayers. Maymony speaketh the matter and intent of it in his Treatise Tephillah, in these words: In the days of Rabban Gamaliel, Hereticks increased in Israel [by Here∣ticks he meaneth those that turned from Judaism to Christianity] and they troubled

Israel, and perswaded them to turn from their Religion. He seeing this to be a matter of ex∣ceeding great consequence, more then any thing else, stood up, he and his Sanhedrin, and ap∣pointed a prayer, in which there was a petition to God to destroy those Hereticks: and this he set among the common prayers, and appointed it to be in every mans mouth, and so their daily prayers became nineteen in number. Perek. 2. So that they daily prayed against Christians and Christianity.

2. The Jews had their emissaries every where abroad, that to the utmost in them cried down the Gospel, preached against it, went about to confute it, and blasphemed it and Christ that gave it: Of this there is testimony abundant in the New Testament: and in the Jews own Writings.

And 3. they were exceeding many of them skilled in Magick, and by that did many strange things, by such false miracles seeking to outface and vilifie the Divine miracles done by Christ and his Apostles: and striving to confirm their own doctrines which oppo∣sed the Gospel, by backing them with such strange and wondrous actings. Juchasin speaks of Abba Chelchia, and Chamin, and Chamina Ben Dusa, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 men skilled in miracles, fol. 20. And the Jerus. Talmud speaks of their inchantings, and magical tricks in Shabb. fol. 8. col. 2. & 3. Sanhedr. fol. 25. col. 4. nay even of their charming in the name of Jos••. Shabb. fol. 14. col. 4.

Paul miraculously strikes Elymas blind, and inlightens Sergius Paulus with the light of the Gospel. This was at Paphos where old superstition dreamed of the blind God Cupid. Doting Elymas grope for thy fellow. The first miracle wrought among the Gentiles is striking a perverse Jew blind, which thing may very well become an Allegory.

From Paphos they go to Perga in Pamphilia, and there John departs from them and returns to Jerusalem: but what was the occasion is hard to conjecture. Whether it were that he heard of Peters trouble and danger that he had been in at Jerusalem, and desired to see him, for that he had some special interest and familiarity with Peter, may be col∣lected from 1 Pet. 5. 14. and in that Peter was so well acquainted at his mothers house, Act. 12. 12, &c. Or whether in regard of this his relation to Peter the Minister of the Circumcision, he made it nice to go among the Gentiles into the thickest of which he saw they were coming every day more then other. For at Paphos where they had last been, was a Temple of Venus, and at Perga, where they now are, was a Temple of Diana. Strab. lib. 14. Pomp. Mela. lib. 1. cap. 14. Or whatsoever the matter was, his departure was so unwarrantable, that it made a breach betwixt him and Paul for the present, nay it occasioned a breach betwixt Paul and Barnabas afterward. And so we leave him in his journy to Jerusalem, whither when he came, he staied there till Paul and Barnabas came thither again.

[CHRIST. XLIV] [CLAUDIUS. IV] ACTS CHAP. XII. from Ver. 20. to Ver. 24.

HERODS death was in the beginning of this year, the fourth of Claudius or near unto it, according as Josephus helpeth us to compute, who testifieth that the third year of his reign was compleated a little before his death. Vid. Antiq. lib. 19. cap. 7. He left behind him a son of seventeen years old, in regard of whose minority, and there∣by unfitness to reign, Claudius sent Cuspius Fadus to Govern his Kingdom. His daughters were Berenice sixteen years old, married to Herod King of Chalcis her fathers brother: And Mariam ten years old, and Drusilla, six, who afterward married Felix.

[CHRIST. XLV] [CHRIST. XLVI] [CHRIST. XLVII] [CHRIST. XLVIII] [CHRIST. XLIX] [CLAUDIUS. V] [CLAUDIUS. VI] [CLAUDIUS. VII] [CLAUDIUS. VIII] [CLAUDIUS. IX] ACTS CHAP. XIII. from Ver. 14. to the end of the Chapter. And CHAP. XIV.

AT the fifteenth Chapter we have some fasmess of the time, viz. in what year the Council at Jerusalem, as it is commonly called, did occur; which certainty we have not of the times of the occurrences henceforward thitherto: so that since we can∣not determinately point any passage to its proper year, we must cast them in gross under

this gross sum of years, and distribute them to their proper seasons by the best conjecture we can.

From Perga in Pamphilia, Paul and Barnabas come to Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath day going into the Synagogue, are invited by the Rulers of the Synagogue, af∣ter the reading of the Law and Prophets to speak a word of exhortation to the people: But how could the Rulers know that they were men fit to teach? It may be answered▪ By former converse with them in the City, and it is very like that the Rulers themselves had drunk in some affection to the Gospel by converse with them, which made them so ready to urge them to preach: For it is not imaginable that this was the first time that they had seen them: not that they came to Town that very day, but that they had had some converse before.

Paul preacheth: and the Synagogue broke up, and the Jews gone out, the Gentiles desired that the same words might be preached to them in the week between, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: namely on the second and fifth days of the week following, which were Synagogue days, on which they met in the Synagogues as on the Sabbath day: And which days, their Traditions said, were appointed for that purpose by Ezra. Talm. in Bava Kamah. per 7. R. Sol. and Nissim in Chetubboth per. 1. in Alphes. Their preaching on those days had so wrought, that on the next Sabbath almost all the City was gathered together to hear the word: and many of the Gentiles receive it, but the Jews stirred up some female unbelieving proselytes against them, and some of the chief of the City, so that they drave them out of those coasts, and they shaking off the dust of their feet against them go to Iconium. This Ceremony injoyned them by their Master, Matth. 10. 14. was not so much for any great business put in the thing it self, as that even from a tenet of their own, they might shew how they were to be reputed of. It was their own Maxime, That the dust of a Heathen Country or City did defile or make a person unclean. Tosaphta ad Ke∣lim per. 1. hath this saying, In three things Syria was like unto any Heathen Land: The dust of it made a person unclean, as the dust of any other Heathen Country did, &c. So that their shaking off the dust of their feet against them, was to shew that they reputed them and their City as Heathenish.

ACTS CHAP. XIV.

AT Iconium they continue long, and with good effect, but at last they are in danger of stoning, and thereupon they slip away to Lystra and Derbe Cities of Lycaonia, and to the region that lieth round about: That region Strabo describeth lib. 12. where among other particulars he tels that Derbe lay coasting upon Isauria, and in his time was under the dominion of Amyntas. At Lystra or Derbe Paul converteth Lois and Eunice, and Ti∣mothy, and as some will tell you, here, or at Iconium he converteth Tecla. For healing a Creeple they are first accounted Gods, but presently by perswasion of some Jews, Paul is stoned, but being reputed dead, recovereth miraculously. From thence they go to Derbe, and return to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, and ordain Elders in those Churches. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ver. 24. is unproperly rendred here Per suffragia creantes Presbyteros: for so they could not do; there not being a man in all these Churches fit to be chosen a Mini∣ster, or qualified with abilities for that Function, unless the Apostles by Imposition of hands bestow the Holy Ghost upon them, which might inable them: For the Churches being but newly planted, and the people but lately converted, it would be hard to find any among them so thoroughly completed in the knowledge of the Gospel as to be a Mi∣nister: but by the Apostles hands they receive the Holy Ghost, and so are inabled. It is true indeed, the Greek word in the first sense denoteth suffrages, but that is not the only sense. And so doth the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the proper sense signifie laying on of hands, yet there was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ordination that was without it. Maym. in Sanhedr. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 How is ordination to be for perpetuity? Not that they lay their hands on the head of the Elder, but call him Rabbi, and say, Behold thou art ordained. &c.

[CHRIST. L] [CLAUDIUS. X] ACTS CHAP. XV.

WE are now come up to the Council at Hierusalem. The occasion of which was the busie stirring of some, who would have brought the yoke of Mosaick ob∣servances upon the neck of the converted Gentiles. Multitudes of the Jews that believed, yet were zealous of the Law, Act. 21. 20. and it was hard to get them off from those Rites, in which they had been ever trained up, and which had been as it were an inheri∣tance

to them from their fathers: This bred this disturbance at the present, and in time an Apostacy from the Gospel of exceeding many. Antiquity hath held that Cerinthus was the chief stickler in this business; but whosoever it was that kindled it, it was a spark enough to have fired all, had it not been timely prevented.

Paul and Barnabas who had chiefly to deal in the ministration to the Gentiles, are sent from Antioch to Jerusalem to consult the Apostles about this matter. This is the same journy and occasion that is spoken of Gal. 2. Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, &c. Not but that he was sent by the Church as Luke hath asserted here, vers. 2. but that the Church was directed by revelation to take this course for the setling of the question, namely to send up to the Apostles at Jerusalem. And hence we may fix the time of this business, if it be resolved from whence the beginning of these fourteen years is to be dated, namely whether he mean fourteen years after his first conversion, or fourteen after his former journy to Jerusalem, mentioned Gal. 1. 18. which he took three years after his conver∣sion. The later is the more undoubted, upon these two observations. 1. It were ex∣ceeding obscure, and is exceeding unagreeable to Scripture accounting, to reckon the later sum of fourteen years from the time of his conversion, and not from the number or time that went next before, which was his being at Jerusalem three years after he was con∣verted. 2. His scope in that his discourse is, not to shew barely what journies he took to Jerusalem after his conversion, but to shew how long he preached among the Gen∣tiles and abroad out of Judea time after time, and yet when he came to the Apostles to Jerusalem, they found no fault with him, nor with the course he took in his Ministry. After I was converted I went not to Jerusalem to consult the Apostles, but went into Arabia, and back again to Damascus, and so preached up and down, one utterly unknown by face to the Apostles; yet when after three years thus doing I came up to Peter the Mi∣nister of the Circumcision, he was so far from contrarying the course that I had gone, that he gave me fifteen days entertainment. And after that time I went through Syria and Cilicia, and abroad among the Gentiles, yet after fourteen years imployment in this kind, when I went up to Jerusalem again, I found fair respect with the Apostles and they gave me the right hand of fellowship. This drift of the Apostle being observed in that place, which cannot be denied, if his main purpose through the whole Epistle be obser∣ved, it evidently stateth the time of this journy to Jerusalem to be seventeen years after his conversion.

When Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem, they applied themselves * 1.1 singularly to Peter, James and John the Ministers of the Circumcision, and imparted to them the do∣ctrine, and manner of dealing that they had used among the Gentiles, Gal. 2. 2. And this they did that they might clear themselves of all false rumours, that might be laid to their charge [as if they crossed the doctrine and mind of the Apostles] and that they might have their judgment and concurrence along with them. With Paul there was Titus, who hitherto had been uncircumcised, all along in his attending and accompanying Paul: and even now at Jerusalem, though he were before the Apostles of the Circumcision, yet was he not forced to be circumcised there neither; because there were some false Brethren who lay upon the catch to observe and scandal the liberty of the Gospel that the Apostles used, and they were unwilling to give way to them in any such condescensi∣on, lest they should have wronged the Gospel. For though Paul allowed the Circumci∣sion of Timothy, and though even these Apostles perswaded Paul to use some of the Mo∣saick ceremonies, Act. 21. 24. for avoiding offence to the weak, and for the more winning of those that were well satisfied, yet would they not yield an inch in any such thing to these catchpoles that lay upon the lurch, to spy out something if it might have been whereby they might have disgraced the Gospel.

Well: the result of the Apostles conference is, that the three of the Circumcision, neither detracted from what the two of the uncircumcision had done already, nor added any more things to be done by them hereafter: But they agree that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Heathen, and they themselves to the Circumcision: desiring only that though they went among the Gentiles, yet they would remember the poor of the Cir∣cumcision, which they consented to, and all was well concluded betwixt them.

But they that urged for the imposition of Moses his yoke would not be so satisfied, but the matter must come to a publick canvass, and so the Elders also met together with those Apostles to consider of it.

Peter would have none of Moses burdens laid upon the Gentiles, because he himself had seen them to have been partakers of the Holy Ghost, in as free and full a measure, as they had been that had been most Mosaical. Paul and Barnabas affirmed that they had seen the like, and therefore what needed the Gentiles to be troubled with these observan∣ces, seeing they were so eminent in gifts of the Spirit as well as they of the Circumcision and what could these add to them. But James findeth out a temper betwixt those that

would have all these yokes imposed, and those that would have none, that so the Jews might have the less offence, and the Gentiles no burden neither. And that was, that the Gentiles might be required to restrain from eating things offered to Idols, and strangled, and blood, and fornication. The three first were now become things indifferent [how∣ever strictly they had been imposed by the Law before] Christ having by his death done down the partition wall, and laid these things aside as useless when there was to be no distinction of meats or Nations any more: yet because the Jews were so glewed to these things that the tearing of them away suddenly, would in a manner have fetched up skin and flesh and all, therefore the whole Council upon the motion of James think it fit that the Gentiles should thus far Judaize, till time and fuller acquaintance with the Gospel might make both Jews and Gentiles to lay these now needless niceties aside.

The Jews about these things had these Canons among many others.

Avodah Zarah. per. 2. These things of Idolatry are forbidden, and their prohibition mean∣eth the prohibition of their use. Wine and vinegar used in Idolatry which at first was wine, &c. And flesh that was brought in for Idolatry is permitted to be used [viz. before it was offered] but what is brought out is prohibited.

And bottles and cans used in Idolatry, and an Israelites wine put in them are prohibited to be used.

Maymon. in Avoda Zarah per. 7. A beast offered to an Idol is forbidden for any use: yea even his dung, bones, horns, hoofs, skin: yea though there were only a hole cut in the beast to take out the heart, and that alone offered. Divers other things used in Idolatry are menti∣oned and prohibited.

The observing of all which helpeth to clear the distinction of the words used in the Text, namely 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, for these properly were not one and the same thing, for every 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, bu•…•… contra, every 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. For divers things were used at an Idolatrous offering, which them∣selves were not offered, as knives, dishes and the like, which cannot be called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and yet by these traditions were prophane and unclean, and prohibited to be used.

About not eating of blood, they expounded the prohibition of the Law in that point, unto this purpose, He that eats blood to the quantity of an olive, if presumptuously, he is to be cut off, and if ignorantly, he is to bring a sin offering. Talm. in Cherithuth per. 1. & 5. Maym. in Maacaloth Asuroth per. 6.

By things strangled their Canons understood any thing that died of it self, or that was not killed as it ought to be. And he that eat to the quantity of an olive, of the flesh of any cattel that died of it self, or of any beast, or any fowl that died of it self, was to be whipt, as it is said, Ye shall eat no carcase: and whatsoever was not slain as was sitting, is reputed as if dy∣ing of it self. Talm. in Zevachin per. 7. Maym. ubi super per. 1. Therefore they had their rules about killing any beast that they were to eat, of which the Talmudick Treatise Cho∣lin discusseth at large.

Now as concerning fornication, it is controverted, first whether it mean bodily or spiri∣tual: and secondly, how it cometh to be ranked among things indifferent [as the other named were] it self being of no such indifferency, whethersoever is meant, the one or the other. The former certainly is not meant, for the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 reacheth that to the full, and more needed not to be spoken to that point: The later therefore is meant: but why named here with things indifferent? Not because it was indifferent as well as they: Nor because it was so very offensive to the Jews as were the other: for they made but little of fornication themselves, according to the common taking of the word fornication: but fornication here seemeth to translate their word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that meaneth with them marriages in degrees prohibited: which the Gentiles made no matter about: and so the Apostles would bring the convert Gentiles under obedience of the Law, Levit. 18.

Before we part from this Council, as it is commonly called, we may thus far take notice of the nature of it as to observe, that it was not a convention premediated, and solemnly summoned, but only occasional and emergent, and that it was only of those Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem, at the instant when the matter from Antioch was brought thither, and the other Apostles that were abroad were not fetched in, nor indeed needed any such thing: for the message from Antioch required not so much the number of voi∣ces, as the resolves of those Apostles that had especially to deal with the Circumcision: and whom the Antiochian Church doubted not to find ready at Jerusalem.

The matter being determined, Letters are dispatched, with the Decrees, unto the Churches by Paul and Barnabas, and Judas and Silas: they come to Antioch and there abide a while: and at last go their several ways, Judas to Jerusalem, and Paul, Barnabas and Silas away among the Gentiles.

It was the agreement between Paul and Barnabas on the one party, and Peter, Jame•• and John on the other, that those two should go among the Gentiles, and these three among the Circumcision, Gal. 2. 9. James abode at Jerusalem as the residentiary Apostle of

that Country, Gal. 2. 13. Act. 21. 18. and there at last he suffered Martyrdom. Peter and John went abroad among the Jews dispersed in forreign parts, so that at last you have Peter at Babylon in the East, and John at Patmos in the West, and by this we may guess how they parted their imployment between them.

When Paul and Barnabas are to set forth, they disagree about Marks going with them. Barnabas being his uncle, would have had his company, but Paul denied it, because of his departure from them before. Mark it seemeth was at Antioch at this time [and it may be a quaere whether Peter were not there also, Gal. 2. 11.] and when the contest twixt Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they part asunder, Barnabas taketh Mark and Paul Silas, and go their several ways, and it is questionable whether they ever saw one anothers faces any more. Only Paul and Mark were reconciled again and came into very near society, as we shall observe afterward.

[CHRIST. LI] [CLAUDIUS. XI] ACTS CHAP. XVI.

PAul and Silas having travelled through Syria and Silicia, come to Derbe and Lystra: there he Circumciseth Timothy, whom he intended to take along with him and to breed him for his successor in the Ministry after his death. Timothy was a young man of very choice education, parts and hopes, and some remarkable Prophesies and predictions had been given concerning him, what an instrument he should prove in the Gospel, which made Paul to fix upon him, as one designed for him from Heaven.

They set forth an•• travel Phrygia and Galatia, and when they would have gone into Asia and Bithynia the Spirit forbad them, because the Lord would hasten them into Mace∣donia unto a new work, and such a one as they had not medled withal till now, and that was to preach to a Roman plantation, for so the Text doth intimate that Philippi was, ver. 12. and ver. 21. and so saith Pliny, lib. 4. cap. 11. He had indeed been always in the Ro∣man dominions, but still among other Nations, as Jews, Greeks, Syrians and the like, but we read not that he was in any City of Romans till here. And his going to preach to that people is so remarkable, that the Text seemeth to have set two or three notable badges upon it. For that Nation lieth under so many sad brands in Scripture, and lay under so great an abominating by the Jews, that the Gospels entring among them, hath these three singular circumstances to advertise of it. 1. That the Spirit diverted Paul from Asia and Bithynia to hasten him thither. 2. That he was called thither by a special vision, the like invitation to which he had not in all his travels to any other place. 3. The Penman doth not joyn himself in the story till this very time. For hitherto having spoken in the third person, he and they, as He came to Derbe, ver. 1. They went through the Cities, vers. 4. &c. he cometh now to joyn himself, and to use the word We and Us. After he had seen the vision immediately we indeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us, vers. 10.

Yet was this City mixed also of abundance of Jews living among them, as that people was now dispersed and sowed in the most places of the Empire, from Rome it self Eastward, however it was on this side: On the Sabbath, by a river side where the women it seemed used their bathings for purification, and where was a Synagogue, they preach and convert Lydia a proselytess, and she is instantly baptized and her houshold before she go home, for ought can be found otherwise in the Text: from whence we may observe what believing gave admission to Baptism to whole housholds. In this Roman Colony it is observable that the Synagogue is called proseucha, and that it is out of the Town.

Paul casteth out a spirit of divination, and is thereupon beaten and imprisoned he and Silas, but inlarged by an earthquake, and the Jaylour is converted: and he and his fami∣ly instantly baptized. After a little while Paul and Silas depart, having laid the foundati∣on of a very eminent Church as it proved afterward: from which Paul in his Epistle thi∣ther, acknowledgeth as many tokens of love received, as from any Church that he had planted: and to which he made as many visits afterward. When he departeth he had or∣dained no Ministers there for ought can be gathered from the Text, and it may be, he did not, till his return thither again, which was the course he had used in other Churches, Acts 14▪ 23. He speaketh of divers fellow-labourers that he had there in the Gospel, both men and women, Phillip 4. 3. which cannot be understood of preaching, but that these be∣ing converted, they used their best indeavour to perswade others to imbrace the same Re∣ligion, &c.

ACTS CHAP. XVII.

PAUL and Silvanus, and Timothy come to Thessalonica, where they make many converts, but withal find very much opposition. In three weeks space, or very little more, they convert some Jews, many Proselytes, and not a few of the chief Gentiles: women of the City: which number, considered with the shortness of the time in which so many were brought in, and the bitterness they indured from the un∣believing, made their piety to be exceedingly renowned all abroad, 1 Thess. 1. 6, 7, 8.

Persecution driveth the Apostles to Beraea another Town of Macedonia, Plin. l. 4. c. 10. there they found persons better bred and better learned then that rabble mentioned ver. 5. that they had met withal at Thessalonica. The Jews called their learned men 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 filii nobilium: it may be Lukes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ver. 11. translates that: The rabble from Thessalonica brings the persecution hither also, so that Paul is glad to depart to Athens, but Silas and Timothy abide at Berea still.

At Athens there was a Synagogue of Jews and Proselytes, ver. 17. so that it is un∣doubted the Scholars of the University had heard from them the report of the true God; therefore Paul is not so much cried out upon, for telling them of the true God in oppo∣sition to the false, as for preaching of Jesus crucified, risen and glorified, which neither they nor even the Jews Synagogue there, had ever heard of before: for this he is con∣vented before their great Court of Areopagus, where his discourse converts one that Bench, Dionysius.

ACTS CHAP. XVIII.

FROM Athens, Paul cometh to Corinth. Urbs olim clara opibus, post clade notior, nunc Romana colonia, saith Pomp. Mela. lib. 2. cap. 3. A little view of the City may not be useless. It stood in the Isthmus, or that neck of Land that lay and gave passage betwixt Peloponesus and Attica: upon which Isthmus the Sea pointing in, on either hand made Corinth a famous and a wealthy Mart Town, by two Havens that it had at a reasonable distance from it on either side it, the one Jochaeum, at which they took shipping for Italy and those Western parts: and the other Cenchraea, at which they took shipping for Asia: Merchandise arriving at these Ports, from those several parts of the World, were brought to Corinth which lay much in the middle between them, and so this City became the great Exchange for those parts. It lay at the foot of a high promont called Acrocorinthus, or the Pike of Corinth. The compass of the City was some forty furlongs or five miles about, being strongly walled. In it was a Temple of Venus, so ample a foundation, that it had above a thousand Nuns [such Nuns as Venus had] to attend upon it. The City was sacked by L. Mummius the Roman General, as for some other offence that it had given to that state, so more especially for some abuse shewed to the Roman Embassadors there. But it was repaired again by the Romans and made a Colony. Vid. Strabo lib. 8. Plin. lib. 4. cap. 4.

Paul coming hither findeth Priscilla and Aquila lately come from Italy, because of Clau∣dius his Decree, which had expelled all the Jews from Rome▪ Of this Decree Suetonius speaketh, as he is generally understood, In Claudio cap. 25. Judaeos impulsore chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit. Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome, who continually tumul∣tuated because of Christ. In some copies it is written Christo, but so generally interpreted by Christians in the sense mentioned, that we shall not at all dispute it. The same quar∣rel was got to Rome with the Gospel, that did attend it in all parts of the world where it came among the Jews, they still opposing it and contesting against it, and so breeding tumultuousness.

The Apostle here, in a strange place, and out of monies, betaketh himself to work with his hands for his subsistence; as also he did in other places upon the same exigent. His work was to make Tents of skins such as the Souldiery used to lodge in when they were in the field: Hence the phrase, Esse sub pellibus. This Trade he learned before he set to his studies. It was the custom of the Jewish Nation to set their children to some trade, yea though they were to be students. What is commanded a father towards his son? To cir∣cumcise him, to redeem him, to teach him the Law, to teach him a Trade, and to take him a wife. R. Judah saith, He that teacheth not his son a trade, does as if he taught him to be a thief. Rabban Gamaliel saith, He that hath a trade in his hand to what is he like? He is like to a Vineyard that is fenced. Tosapht. in Kiddushin per. 1. So some of the great wise men of Israel had been cutters of wood. Maym. in Talm. Torah. per. 1. And not to instance in any others, as might be done in divers, [Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai that was at this instant Vice-president of the Sanhedrin, was a Merchant 4 years, and then he fell to study

the Law. Juchasin fol. 21.] Paul had power and warrant to challenge maintenance for preaching, as he intimateth many times over in his Epistles, but there was not yet any Church at Corinth to maintain him, and when there was, he would take nothing of the Gentiles for the greater honour and promotion of the Gospel. See 1 Cor. 9. 6, 11, 12.

He frequenteth the Synagogue every Sabbath, and there reasoneth and perswadeth di∣vers both Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, he was pressed in spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, they having brought him tidings of the great proficiency and piety of Macodonian Churches, namely the Phi∣lippian and Thessalonian. See Act. 17. 14. 1 Thess. 1. 8. & 3. 6. upon whose example he was the more earnest to bring the Jews of Corinth on; but they oppose and blaspheme: whereupon he and Silas and Timothy set to work to build up the Gentiles there. The con∣verts in this place were Crispus and Gaius, and the houshold of Stephanas, 1 Cor. 1. 14, &c. and Epenetus, Rom. 16. 5. He is called the first fruits of Achaia, and so is the houshold of Stephanas, 1 Cor. 16. 15. converted at his first coming thither. He now sets upon a new task having the Lords incouragement by a vision by night, and so he stayeth at Corinth a year and an half.

In the time of this his abode there, he writeth THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS, which was the first Epistle that he wrote.

The poscript affixed to that Epistle doth date it from Athens [as it seemeth] because of that passage in Chap. 3. 1. We thought it good to be left at Athens alone: whereas 1. There was a Church in Achaia when Paul wrote this Epistle, Chap. 1. 7. now there was none there while Paul was at Athens, for from thence he went to Achaia, and began to plant the Church at Corinth. 2. Timothy and Silas were joynt Writers with the Apostle of this Epistle, Chap. 1. 1. now if they were with him at Athens whilst he abode there, which it may be they were, at the least one of them, 1 Thess. 3. 1. yet was not the Epistle then writ∣ten, for it is questionable whether Silas was there, and Timothy went a messenger thither, and returned again before this was written, Chap. 3. 6. The time of its writing therefore was when Timothy and Silas with him returned from Macedonia and came to Paul at Co∣rinth, Act. 18. 5. and Timothy who had been sent thither purposely, gives a comfortable ac∣count of their faith and constancy. So that this Epistle was written from Corinth, some∣what within the beginning of the first year of Pauls abode there.

In it, among other things, he characterizeth the condition of the unbelieving Jews, Chap. 2. 15, 16. for the Thessalonian Church from its first planting had been exceedingly mo∣lested with them.

He saith, The wrath is come upon them to the utmost: which whether it mean passively, that the wrath of God lay so heavy upon them, or actively, that in their vexation and anger against the Gentiles, that was come upon them, that was foretold for a plague to them, Deut. 32. 21. it sheweth that that Nation was now become unrecoverable: and so he looks upon it as the Antichrist in the next Epistle, as we shall observe there.

Paul abiding still at Corinth, a tumult is raised against him, and he is brought before the tribunal of Gallio the Proconsul, who refusing to judge in matters of that nature, [because the Jews themselves had power to judge such matters in their own Synagogue] the people become their own carvers, and beat Sosthenes even before the Tribunal. This Gallio was brother of Seneca the famous Court Philosopher, Nero's Tutor: and of him Seneca giveth this high Encomion in the Preface to his fourth Book of natural Questions. I used to tell thee [saith he to his friend Lucius] that my brother Gallio, whom no man loves not a little if he can love no more, is not acquainted with other vices, but this of flattery he hates. Thou hast tried him on all hands. Thou hast begun to praise his disposition—He would go away. Thou hast begun to praise his frugality, He would presently cut thee off at the first words: Thou hast begun to admire his affability and unaffected sweetness—For there is no mortal man so dear to any, as he to all—And here also he withstood thy flatteries, insomuch that thou criedst out, that thou hadst found a man impregnable, against those snares that every one takes into his bosom. And again in Epist. 104. Gallio, saith he, when he was in Achaia and began to have a fever, he presently took ship, crying out, that it was not the disease of his body but of the place. To him he Dedicates his Treatise de Beata Vita. See more of this Gallio, Tacit. Annal. 15. Sect. 11.

From Corinth in the time of his present abode there [but whether before this tumult before Gallio or after, is not much material] Paul writeth

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS▪ whilest he and Sylvanus and Timotheus were there together, Chap. 1. 1. as they had been at the writing of the first.

The exceeding much trouble and persecution that this Church had suffered from the unbelieving Jews from its first planting, Act. 17. 5, &c. 1 Thess. 1. 6. & 2. 14. & 2 Thess. 1. 4. gave the Apostle just occasion whilest he was present with them to discourse with them, and to inform them, concerning the condition and carriage and end of that Nation: that they might be setled and resolved to bear all whatsoever they should suffer from that ac∣cursed people and generation: and here he taketh up the same discourse again for their further establishment.

Besides outward molestation and affliction of their bodies, there were false teachers that troubled their minds, and especially with these two puzzles. 1. To make them to doubt what became of them that died in the faith and profession of Jesus: for whereas the Apostle handles the matter of the resurrection in the former Epistle, Chap. 4. 14. I cannot suppose that he doth it to them as to men of the Sadducee opinion, denying the resurrection, or as to men that had never heard of the resurrection before, for all the Jews, set the Sadduces aside, did assuredly believe it: but because that the opposers of the Gospel had buzzed to them their lost condition after death, for their revolting from the Jewish Religion, and becoming Apostates [as they reputed it] to the Gospel. The tenth Chapter of the Treatise Sanhedrin that names certain sorts of people that must not inherit the world to come, gives us good cause to suppose that this was no small terror that those envious opposers would perplex the minds of those withal, who had forsaken the Jewish Religion, and betaken themselves to the profession of Christ. The Talmudick place cited speaketh thus, All Israel hath a share in the world to come, as it is said, Thy people shall all of them be righteous: But these have no share in the world to come, He that saith, The resurrection is not taught in the Law, and that the Law is not from God, and Epi∣curus. Now by Epicurus they mean not luxurious ones, as the word Epicure is common∣ly used by us, but as the Gemara explains it there 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 One that despiseth their Doctors: and elsewhere they yoke it with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Apostates. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Apostates and Epicures. Rosh hashanah per. 1. and so they brought all that started from the vain doctrine of their traditionaries under this title, and under that terror of having no share in the world to come. 2. They went about to perplex the mind of these con∣verts with urging how near the day of the Lord was. The Scripture, and the Apostle had spoken of the day of the Lords coming, when he should come to take vengeance of the Jewish Nation for their wickedness and unbelief: and these would terrific this Church with inculcating the nearness of it, pretending for this, partly revelation, and partly the words or writing of the Apostle. The aim in this terror was to amaze the new believers and to puzzle them about what to hold, and what to do in that sad time, which they pretended was ready to fall upon their heads. The Apostle resolves that there was some good space of time to be before, for there was to be a falling away, and the man of sin to be revealed.

The phrase The man of sin and child of perdition, is plainly taken from that place, Isa. 11. 4. With the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked one: and the Apostle makes it clear that he referreth to that place, by using the very words of the Prophet, at ver. 8. Whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth. The Jews put an Emphasis upon that word in the Prophet, The wicked one, as it appeareth by the Chaldee Paraphrast, who hath uttered it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He shall destroy the wicked Roman: And so the Apostle puts an Emphasis upon it, and translates it the Man of sin: And in that Christ is introduced in the Prophet, as having a special quarrel and vengeance against him, he is called the son of perdition, or he that is so certainly and remarkably to be destroyed. It is true, this meaneth the Roman, as the Chaldee, and our Protestant Divines by the warrant of John in the Revelation do interpret it: but in the first place and sense it meaneth the Jewish Na∣tion, which proved Antichrist, as well as Rome ever did, and as far as Rome ever did, and before Rome ever did, and as long and longer then Rome hath yet done. As Jews and Rome joyned in the murder of Christ, so are they joyned in this character of Antichrist, but the Jews to be understood first: See ver. 7. the mystery of iniquity was already working when the Apostle wrote this Epistle, which cannot possibly be understood but of the Jewish Nation, and so it is explained again and again, 1 John 2. 18. & 4. 3. & 2 Joh. v. 7, &c.

The several characters that the Apostle gives of the Man of sin, agree most throughly to that generation and Nation, and so the Scripture plainly applies them to it.

• 1. There was a falling away in that Nation of multitudes that had imbraced the Gos∣pel. See Matth. 24. 12. Christ foretelling it, and Paul from thence, 1 Tim. 4. 1. by the later times that he there speaks of, meaning the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish

• state, as the phrase is used in that sense abundantly. Such apostacy may be observed hin∣ted in the Epistle to the Galatians, to the Hebrews, Colossians, Rev. 2. 4. 2 Tim. 1. 15, and to spare more, observe the conclusion of that Parable, Matth. 12. 43, 44, 45. So shall it be with this wicked generation. The Devil once cast out of it by the Gospel, but returned by their Apostacy.
• 2. How this Nation was the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the great opposer of the Gospel, needeth no instance to any that hath read the New Testament. And he that reads the Jewish Re∣cords, shall find evidence enough of it, of which we have given some brief account at Acts Chap. 13.
• 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Which exalts himself against every thing that is called God or worshipped: were it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Against God, it were most true, to the very letter, their Scribes in the Temple of God it self, sitting and setting up their traditions above the commands of God, Matth. 15. 6. But how they exalted themselves against every thing called God, or the Magistracy and those that were set over them, we may observe in such passages as these, 2 Pet. 2. 10. They despise government, &c. Jude v. 8. They despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities, &c. and in their own stories to endless examples.
• 4. As for the fourth mark mentioned, vers. 9. namely his coming after the working of Sa∣tan with all Magical power and delusion, our Saviour had foretold it of that generation, Matth. 24. 24. compared with vers. 34. of that Chapter: and it is abundantly asserted by Scripture, by Josephus, and other of their own Writers, as we have given some examples before.

Now what the Apostle meaneth when he speaketh of one that letted [vers. 6. And now ye know what withholdeth, and ver. 7. He who now letteth will let] is of some obscurity; we may without offence give this conjecture. As the term The day of the Lord, is taken in Scripture especially in this double sense, for his day of judging the Jewish Nation, and for his day of judging all the world; so are we to understand a falling away, and a Man of sin of the Jewish Nation before the former, and a falling away and Antichrist, betwixt the former and the later. This last is readily concluded upon, to be the Papacy, and he that letted, to mean the Imperial power: but what was he that letted in the former, that the Antichrist among the Jews was not revealed sooner? I should divide this stake betwixt Claudius the Emperor [who by his decree against the Jews in Rome, Act. 18. 2. give a check by the appearance of his displeasure, to all the Jews elsewhere that they durst not tyrannize against the Gospel whilest he lived as they had done.] And Paul himself who by his uncessant travelling in the Gospel, and combatting by the truth every where against the Jews, did keep down very much their delusions and Apostacy whilest he was at liberty and abroad, but when he was once laid up, then all went to ruine, as see Act. 20. 29. 2 Tim. 1. 15, &c.

Paul when he departs from Corinth, leaves a Church fairly planted there, but how soon and how miserably it grew degenerate, we shall meet with cause to observe before it be long. He cometh to Ephesus, and striving to get up to one of the Feasts at Jerusalem, he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there. Thither, ere long, cometh Apollos, an excellent Scripture∣man, but one that knew only the baptism of John, but they instruct him better. Not that these Tent-makers turned Preachers, but that having had so much converse with Paul, they were able in private conference to inform him better then yet he knew, from what they had learned from Paul.

ACTS CHAP. XIX. from Vers. 1. to Vers. 19.

OThers at Ephesus there were, that were no further gone in Christianity neither, then the knowledge of the Baptism of John: Paul asks them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost? They answer, We have not yet so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost be: In which words they refer to a common and a true tenet of the Nation, which was, that after the death of Ezra, Haggai, Zachary and Malachy, the Holy Ghost departed from Israel and went up: Juchas. fol. 15. and they profess they had never yet heard of his restoring. And it is very probable, that they had never heard of Jesus; whom when Paul had preached to them, they imbrace; and the Text saith, they were then baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Not that they were rebaptized, but that now coming to the knowledge of the proper end of Johns baptism, namely to believe in Jesus as ver. 4. they own their baptism to such an end and construction. For 1. What need had they to be rebaptized, when in that first baptism they had taken, they had come in to the profession of the Gospel and of Christ, as far as the doctrine that had brought them in could teach them? It was the change of their profession from Judaism to Evangelism, that required their being bap∣tized, and not the degrees of their growth in the knowledge of the Gospel, into the pro∣fession of which they had been baptized already. How many baptisms must the Apostles

have undergone, if every signal degree of their coming on to the perfect knowledge of the mystery of Christ, might have required, nay might have admitted a new baptizing? 2. If these men were rebaptized, then must the same be concluded of all that had recei∣ved the baptism of John, when they came to the knowledge of Jesus: which as it is in∣credible, because there is not the least tittle of mention of such a thing, so is it unimagi∣nable in the case of those of the Apostles that were baptized by John; for who should baptize them again in the name of Jesus, since Jesus himself baptized none? Joh. 4. 3. 3. These men had taken on them the baptism of repentance, and the profession of Christ, in the baptism of John, that they had received: therefore unless we will suppose a baptism of faith, different from the baptism of repentance, and a baptism in the name of Jesus dif∣ferent from the baptism in the name of Christ, it will be hard to find a reason, why these men should undergo a new baptizing.

And if it should be granted [which is against reason to grant,] that these men were re∣ally rebaptized, yet were not this a warrantable ground for rebaptization now, in regard of these main differences betwixt the case then and now. 1. That great controversie then on foot, about, Whether Jesus were the true Messias or no, which caused their rebaptizati∣on, if they were rebaptized. 2. The visible conferring of the Holy Ghost upon them, up∣on their baptism if they were rebaptized: as being a main induction of such a thing, if such a thing were, that the name of Jesus might be so apparently glorified, upon their being baptized in the name of Jesus: which indeed was equally glorified, when they re∣ceived those gifts upon their acknowledging of Jesus, and owning their baptism that they had of old been baptized with, as a badge of that acknowledgment, though not baptized again.

[CHRIST. LIII] [CHRIST. LIV] [CLAUDIUS. XIII] [CLAUDIUS. XIV] ACTS CHAP. XIX. from Ver. 9. to Ver. 21.

THE Apostle hath a long time to stay at Ephesus: in which he first begins for the space of a quarter of a year to dispute in the Synagogue: and then when divers were hardened and believed not, he separated the Disciples, and disputed daily in the School of Tyrannus: Hitherto what converts there were to the Gospel, they resorted still to the publick service in the Synagogue, where Paul reasoned daily for the truth of the Gospel: but finding dangerous opposition, he gets away the Disciples from thence, and in the School of one Tyrannus they are a particular Congregation.

In these great Towns where there were many Jews, both in Judea and elsewhere, they had a Synagogue and a Divinity-School: This Divinity-School they called Beth Midrash, and thither they used to go every Sabbath day, after they had been at the Synagogue: whereupon they had this for a common proverb, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: From the Sy∣nagogue to the Divinity-School. In the Synagogue they had prayers and reading of the Law, and plain Sermons of Doctrine, exhortation and comfort: In the Divinity-School were discussed and taught, dogmatical and controversial points concerning the difficulties of the Law, and other high matters. And hence it may be those different titles and ad∣ministrations of Pastor and Teacher, Ephes. 4. 11. and He that teacheth, and he that exhorteth, Rom. 12. 7, 8. took their pattern: if Pastor mean one of the Ministerial function.

In the time of this stay of Paul at Ephesus, He fought with beasts there after the manner of men, 1 Cor. 15. 32. which seemeth to be understood, of a proper 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or fighting with wild beasts in the Theater, as was the barbarous and bestial custom of the Romans and those times. For 1. Observe in the hubbub of Demetrius, Pauls companions are ha∣led presently into the Theater, ver. 29. as if there the people had that that would take a course with them. 2. Observe that the Asiarchae or Theater-Officers are Pauls friends, as having knowledge and acquaintance of him and with him before. 3. Demetrius his up∣roar which was the greatest danger that Luke hath mentioned of him, was not till after he had written his Epistle to Corinth, in which, he speaks of fighting with beasts, and therefore that could not be meant. 4. The phrase 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth seem clearly to distin∣guish it from any combate in a borrowed sense. 5. The trouble that befel him in Asia, by which he was pressed above measure, and even despaired of life, 2 Cor. 1. 8, 9. cannot be understood so well of the tumult of Demetrius, for we read not of any hand laid upon Paul in it, as of some other danger nearer dearth.

In the latter year of these two above written, which was part of Pauls last year at Ephe∣sus, on the 13th day of October of that year, Claudius the Emperor dieth, and Nero suc∣ceedeth him: a wretch whose memory is not worth looking after, unless it be for detesta∣tion:

yet must we in our further progress of viewing the actions of Paul, and ranking his Epistles, be beholden to the Chronical observation of his years.

Paul himself saith to the Elders of Ephosus, By the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one▪ Acts 20. 31. And yet Luke in this Chapter specifieth only two years and a quar∣ter, ver. 8. 10. The comparing of which two sums together, doth help us to measure the time of his abode there mentioned from ver. 20. and forward. Namely that he spent three months in disputing in the Jews Synagogue: and two years in the School of Tyrannus: and three quarters of a year after, in going up and down Asia. The expiration of his three years was about Pentecost in the first year of Nero.

[CHRIST. LV] [NERO. I] ACTS CHAP. XIX. Vers. 21, 22.

After these things were ended, Paul purposed in spirit when he had passed thorow Macedonia and Achaia to go to Ierusalem, saying, When I have been there, I must also see Rome.

22. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministred to him, Timotheus and Erastus, but he himself staid in Asia for a season.

PAuls thoughts of going to Rome, do argue the death of Claudius, who had banished all the Jews from thence, Acts 18. 2. and that by the coming in of Nero, a new Em∣peror, that Decree was extinct, and freedom of access to Rome opened to them again: For it can be little conceived that Paul should think of going thither, when he could neither find any of his Nation there, nor he himself come thither without certain hazzard of his life: as the case would have been if Claudius and his Decree were yet alive. It is therefore agreeable to all reason, that the death of Claudius, and the succession of Nero was now divulged, and Paul thereupon knowing that it was now lawful again for a Jew to go to Rome, intendeth to take a farewel journy and visit to Macedonia, Achaiah and Jerusalem, and then to go and preach there.

Claudius died the 13th day of October, as was said before, and Nero instantly succeeded him. A Prince of so much clemency and mansuetude in the beginning of his reign, that Titus the Emperour afterward used to say, that the best Princes exceeded not the first five years of Nero in goodness. And Seneca, if he flatter not the Prince, or his own tu∣torage of him, gives him this among many other Encomiums of him, Lib. de Clementia, which he dedicates to him: Potes hoc Caesar praedicare audacter, omnium quae in fidem tute∣lam{que} tuam venerunt, nihil per te, neque vi, neque clam, reipublicae ereptum. Rarissimam lau∣dem, & nulli adhuc principum concessam concupisti, innocentiam: Nemo unus homo uni homini tam charus unquam fuit quam tu populo Romano, magnum longum{que} ejus bonum.

It must be some space of time before Claudius death could come to be reported at Ephe∣sus: it is like, the new year after the Roman account, might be stept in. Whensoever it was that Paul heard the news, and that a door of access to Rome was opened for the Jews again, he sets down his determination to stay at Ephesus till Pentecost, and then to set for Macedon, and back to Jerusalem, and then to Rome. Upon this resolution he sendeth Ti∣mothy and Erastus into Macedon before him: appointeth them to call at Corinth in the way, and intends himself to stay at Ephesus till they should come thither again to him, 1 Cor. 16. 10, 11.

Between Vers. 22. and Vers. 23. of this XIX CHAP. of the ACTS, falleth in the time of Pauls writing THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

He being now at Ephesus, and having set down the time of his removing thence, name∣ly at Pentecost coming, 1 Cor. 16. 8. He had now been at Ephesus well towards three years, and had met with many difficulties; yet had so prevailed by the power of the Gospel, that not only all along hitherto many people were continually converted, but even now alate, many conjurers, and such as used magical Arts, devoted themselves to the Gospel and their books to the fire, and became the renewed monuments of the power and prevalen∣cy of the divine truth. This was that great and effectual door opened to him, of which he speaketh, 1 Cor. 16. 9. and which occasioned his stay at Ephesus still, when he had sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia, Acts 19. 21. In the time of which stay there, Ste∣phanas, and Fortunatus and Achaicus, come from Corinth, 1 Cor. 16. 17. with Letters from the Church to Paul, 1 Cor. 7. 1. and he upon their return, returns his answer in this Epi∣stle sent by Titus and another, 2 Cor. 12. 18. Some Postscripts have named Timothy for the the bearer, antedating his journy to Corinth, which was not in his going to Macedon, but

in his return back, and when this Epistle had already given them notice of his coming that way, 1 Cor. 16. 10.

Apollos when Paul wrote this Epistle was with him at Ephesus, and was desired by Paul to have gone along with the brethren to Corinth, but he would not, 1 Cor. 16. 11. it may be because he would not countenance a faction there by his presence, which was begun un∣der his name. The Church was exceedingly broken into divisions, which produced very doleful effects among them. These several enormities raged in that Church, though so lately and so nobly planted, and all originally derived from this first mischief of faction and schisme.

1. A member of the Church had married his fathers wife, yea as it seemeth 2 Cor. 7. 12. his father yet living▪ which crime by their own Law and Canons deserved death: For he that went in to his fathers wife was doubly liable to be stoned, both because she was his fathers wife, and because she was another mans wife, whether he lay with her in his fathers life time, or after his death. Talm. in Sanhed. per. 7. & Maym, in Issure biah. per. 1 & 2. And yet they in the height of the contestings they had among themselves, did not only, not take away such a wretch from among them, nor mourn for the miscarriage, but he had got a party that bolstered him up and abetted him: and so while they should have mourned they were puffed up. His own party in triumph that they could bear him out against the ad∣verse, and the other in rejoycing that in the contrary faction there was befallen such a scandal. Or both as taking this Libertinism as a new liberty of the Gospel. The Apo∣stle adviseth his giving up to Satan, by a power of miracles which was then in being. So likewise did he give up Hymeneus and Alexander, 1 Tim. 1. 20. The derivation of this power we conceived at Act. 5. [in the case of Ananias and Saphira] to be from that pas∣sage of Christ to the Disciples, John 20. 22. He breathed on them and said, whose sins ye retain they are retained, &c. and so were the Apostles indued with a miraculous power of a contrary effect or operation. They could heal diseases and bestow the Holy Ghost, and they could inflict death or diseases, and give up to Satan. Now though it may be questioned, whether any in the Church of Corinth had this power, yet when Pauls spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ went along in the action, as Chap. 5. 4. there can be no doubt of the effect.

2. Their animosities were so great, that they not only instigated them to common suits at Law, but to suits before the tribunals of the Heathen, which as it was contrary to the peace and honour of the doctrine of the Gospel, so was it even contrary to their Judaick traditions: which required their subjection and appeals, only to men▪ of their own blood, or of their own Religion. The Apostle to rectifie this misdemeanour, first calls them to remember, that the Saints should judge the world, and this he mentioneth as a thing known to them, Chap. 6. 2. and it was known to them from Dan. 7. 18, 27. And the Kingdom and Dominion, and the greatness of the Kingdom shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High. How miserably this is misconstrued by too many of a fifth Mo∣narchy, when Saints shall only Rule, is to be read in too many miseries that have fol∣lowed that opinion. The Apostles meaning is no more but this, Do you not know that there shall be a Christian Magistracy? Or that Christians shall be Rulers and Judges in the world, and therefore why should you be so fearful or careless to judge in your own matters? Observe in what sense he had taken the word Saints in the former verse, name∣ly for Christians in the largest sense, as set in opposition to the Heathen. And he speaks in the tenour of Daniel from whence his words are taken, that though the world and Church had been ruled and judged and domineered over, by the four Monarchies which were Heathen, yet under the Kingdom of Christ under the Gospel, they should be ruled and judged by Christian Kings, Magistrates and Rulers. Secondly, He minds them, Know ye not that we shall judge Angels? ver. 3. Observe that he says not as before, Know ye not that the Saints shall judge Angels? But we. By Angels it is uncontrovertedly granted that he meaneth evil Angels the Devils: Now the Saints, that is all Christians that pro∣fessed the Gospel were not to judge Devils, but we, saith he, that is the Apostles and Preachers of the Gospel; who by the power of their Ministry ruined his Oracles, Idols, delusions and worship, &c. Therefore he argueth, since there is to be a Gospel Magi∣stracy to rule and judge the World, and a Gospel Ministry that should judge and de∣stroy the Devils, they should not account themselves so utterly uncapable of judging in things of their civil converse, as upon every controversie to go to the Bench of the Hea∣thens to the great dishonour of the Gospel. And withal adviseth them, to set them to judge who were less esteemed in the Church, ver. 4. Not that he denieth subjection to the Heathen Magistrate which now was over them, or incourageth them to the usurpation of his power: but that he asserteth the profession of the Gospel, capable of judging in such things, and by improving of that capacity, as far as fell within their line, he would have them provide for their own peace, and the Gospels credit. We observed before, that though the Jews were under the Roman power, yet they permitted them to live in

their own Religion, and by their own Laws to maintain their Religion: and it may not be impertinent to take up and inlarge that matter a little here. As the Jews under the Roman subjection had their great Sanhedrin, and their less of three and twenty Judges, as appears both in Scripture, and in their Records, so were not these bare names, or ci∣vil bodies without a soul, but they were inlivened by their juridical, executive power, in which they were instated of old: So that though they were at the disposal of the Roman Power, and Religion, and Laws, and all went to wrack when the Emperour was of∣fended at them, as it was in the time of Culigula, yet for the most part, from the time of the Romans power first coming over them, to the time of their own last Rebellion, which was their ruine, the authority of their Sanhedrins and Judicatories was preserved in a good measure intire, and they had administration of justice of their own Magistracy, as they injoyed their own Religion. And this both within the Land and without, yea even after Jerusalem was destroyed, as we shall shew in its due place. And as it was thus in the free actings of their Sanhedrins, so also was it in the actings of their Synagogues, both in matters of Religion and of civil interest: For in every Synagogue as there were Rulers of the Synagogue in reference to matters of Religion and Divine worship, so were there Rulers or Magistrates in reference to Civil affairs, which judged in such matters. Every Synagogue had Beth din shel sheloshah, a Consistory or Judicatory, or what you will call it, of three Rulers or Magistrates, to whom belonged to judge between party and party in matters of money, stealth, damage, restitution, penalties, and divers other things which are mentioned and handled in both Talmuds in the Treatise Sanhedrin per. 1. Who had not power indeed of capital punishments, but they had of corporal, namely of scourging to fourty stripes save one. Hence it is that Christ foretels his Disciples, In the Synagogues you shall be beaten, Mark 13. 9. and hence had Paul his five scourgings, 2 Cor. 11. 24. So that in every Synagogue there were Elders that ruled in Civil affairs, and El∣ders that laboured in the Word and Doctrine. And all things well considered, it may not be so monstrous, as it seems to some, to say it might very well be so in those times in Christian Congregations. For since, as it might be shewed, that Christ and his Apostles in platforming of the model of Christian Churches in those times, did keep very close to the platform of the Synagogues: and since the Romans in those times made no difference betwixt Jews in Judaism, and Jews that were turned Christians, nor betwixt those Religi∣ons: for as yet there was no persecution raised against Christianity, why might not Chri∣stian Congregations have and exercise that double Function of Ministry and Magistracy in them as well as the Jewish Synagogues? And if that much controverted place, 1 Tim. 5. 17. should be interpreted according to such a sense, it were neither irrational, nor im∣probable. Nor to interpret Paul speaking to such a tenour here. Only his appointing of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the less esteemed in the Church to be appointed for that work is of some scruple: what if it allude to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A Committee of private men? Of which there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Doctors. See Maymon. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 fol. 253. col. 1.

3. It was the old Jewish garb, when they went to pray, to hide head and face, with a vail, to betoken their ashamedness and confusion of face wherewithal they appeared be∣fore God: And hence is the conjunction of these two words so common in their Writings 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He vailed himself and prayed. And this for a current rule, The wise men and their schollars may not pray, unless they be vailed. Maymon. in Tephillah per. 5. To which let us add that of Sueton. in Vitell. cap. 2. Lucius Vitellius, saith he, had an excel∣lent faculty in flattering: he first set afoot the worshipping of Caius Caesar for a God: when re∣turning out of Syria, he durst not go to him but with his head vailed, and then turning himself about, he fell prostrate.

Again it was the custom of the Jewish women, to go vailed, or their faces covered, whensoever they went into publick. A woman, saith Maymony, may not go into publick 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 if she have not a vail on. In 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 per. 24. And this the Talmudists call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Jewish Law: and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The garb of modesty. Chetubboth per. 7. and Alphes. ibid. Where they say that that those women transgress the Jewish Law that go forth unvailed, or that spin in the streets, or that talk with every man.

Now in this Church of Corinth, the men retained the Jewish custom that they prayed vailed, or with their head and face covered, but the women transgressed their Jewish Law, for they went unvailed and bare faced into the publick Congregation, and their reason was, as it seemeth by the Apostles discourse, because they, in regard of their beau∣ty and comly feature, needed less to be ashamed before God in his worship then the men. The Apostle reproves both, and argues that if the man pray vailed, who is the Image and glory of God, then much more should the woman, who is but the glory of the man. But he cries down the mans praying vailed, as dishonouring his head; and ex∣horts that the woman have power on her head, because of the Angels, cap. 11. 10. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which we observed instantly before, out of Maymony signified a womans vail, doth

also signifie power or dominion: and accordingly the Apostle speaketh, Let the Woman have power on her head: But what means he by, Because of the Angels? I should answer, Because of the Devils: for these he had called Angels also, a few Chapters before, viz. Chap. 6. 3. And his words may be construed to this sense, that Women should not expose their faces openly in the Congregation, lest the Devil make a bait of their beauty, and thereby intangle the eyes and hearts of the men, who should be then better imployed, then gazing and longing after beauty. There are, that by Angels understood the Mini∣sters, and interpret it, that Women should be vailed lest the Ministers eyes should be in∣tangled by their faces: which exposition if it be admitted, it may speak for the admission of that also which we give, which provides for the eyes of the whole congregation as well as of the Ministers.

4. In the same eleventh Chapter he also blameth their disorder in receiving the Sacra∣ment of the Lords Supper in the height of their heats and contestations. Wherein they did not only not discern the Lords body, a Symbole and tye of communion, but they even transgressed that rule now Christians, which those of them that were Jews would not have done in their Judaism. It was then a Canon current, and binding amongst them, that none should eat and drink in their Synagogues, and none should sleep, Jerus. in Megilla fol. 74. col. 1. Maym. in Tephillah per. 11. and Gloss. in Maym. in Shabb. 30. But now as they ate and drank the Bread and the Cup in the Sacrament, in their Churches, and that warrantably, so did they also presume unwarrantably to eat their own common Sup∣pers there, and that only in defiance one of another, the rich to outface the poor, and one party another with their good commons; some banketing and feasting to the full, whilst others sat hungry by and looked on. [See how 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ver. 21. signifies in the LXX, Gen. 43. 34. Cant. 5. 1.] Thus did they eat and drink judgement to themselves in the Sacrament, whilst they would receive the symbole of communion and yet shew such signs and evidences of disunion at the very instant: And the Lord accordingly overtook some of them with evident judgements, weakness, sickness and death, avenging at once upon them the indignity done to his Sacrament, and the indignity done to their brethren. Much like surfeting Nabals case and end.

5. And as the people were thus irregular in this part of worship in their publick assem∣blies, so were their Ministers faulty in others, namely about the managing of spiritual gifts there. The pretence to the Spirit [where indeed it was not] hath alwaies been the great usherer in of all errour and delusion: And to this the very unbelieving Jews pretended, and often backed their pretences with magical impostures: and of this the Apostle speaks, Chap. 12. 3. No man speaking by the Spirit of God, as these men took on them to do, can call Jesus accursed, as they called him. And on the other hand, some that had spiritual gifts indeed, failed in the using of them to the edification of the Church, but put them forth sometimes for their own vain glory: and such was their miscarriage which he taxeth, Chap. 14. They that from that Chapter would ground a preaching by the Spirit now, sure do little observe what they do to build upon an example which the Apostle reproveth: and they infer from a place much mistaken.

There were indeed the extraordinary gifts of tongues and prophecying in the Church of Corinth, but who had them, and what had they in having them, and how used they them? 1. It was not every or indeed any private member of the Congregation that had them, but the Ministers only, and by these very gifts and imposition of the Apostles hands by which these gifts were conferred, they were inducted into the Ministry and inabled to it. The learned Reader will observe the difference that in ver. 16. is made betwixt him that spake with the tongues, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A private man, that sat by. 2. It was not to gabble with any tongue that is called speaking with a tongue [for to what edification possible could it be for any Minister in Corinth to speak Persick, Coptick, Gallick or any other strange language in that Congregation where all of them understood one and the same language?] but it was to understand and speak the Originals of Scriptures, as was touched before, and to be able to unfold them, and so to prophesie or preach to the people. Observe these passages in the Chapter: He that speaketh with a strange tongue edifieth him∣self, ver. 4. And, I would you all spake with tongues: Now how could a man edifie him∣self by speaking in some strange remote language, when he might speak or understand the very same thing in his own mother tongue? And what were they better, if they all so spake, unless it were, that thereby they were the fitter to look into all humane learning? But he or all of them that were able to understand and speak the original language of Scrip∣ture, might thereby edifie themselves, and therein speak and understand what they could not in their mother tongue. 3. It appears by the Apostles discourse that these men used these gifts irregularly, confusedly and for their own vain glory, which he rebukes and rectifies.

6. There were also in or crept into this Church, those that were either down right Sadduces in denying the Resurrection, or that though with the Pharisees they acknow∣ledged

it, yet denied it of those that had forsaken their Judaism, and so would exclude all Christians from it: Upon this the fifteenth Chapter discourseth so fully and divinely that nothing can be more.

Those that this Church sent to visit Paul at Ephesus, brought with them a Letter from the Church, in the which they desired to be resolved about some doubts: as

• 1. About marriage, and a single life; what they should do in that case, since their Ju∣daick Laws had alwaies laid marriage upon them as a binding command. This they reckon the first command of the 613. Vid. marg. ad tripl. Targ. ad Gen. 1. And this their Canons did so strictly bind on as a duty, that they say that he that lives to such an age and marries not, transgresseth a preceptive Law. Maym. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 per. 1. In this case the Apostle saith, Praeceptum non habeo; that he accounted it no such command, but every one was left to his liberty: according as he could contain, or not contain. And in his stating this case, how he speaks the language of his Nation, and how far he comes towards their opinions, or goes from them, the learned may observe, by comparing the beginning of this Chapter, with Maymony in his Treatise 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 especially fol. [apud me] 251. & 248. & 249.
• 2. About cohabitation of man and wife, when the one party was a Believer or a Chri∣stian, and the other party an unbeliever or an Heathen. And here he concludes that the children, if either parent were a Christian, were holy, ver. 14. that is, Christians, and not to be reputed as Heathen Children. It is the very phrase that his Nation used about the Children of Proselytes, that were born after they were proselyted; they were said to be born 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in holiness, that is within the Religion, not in Heathe∣nism.
• 3. About eating things sacrificed to Idols, and communicating in such things; a dan∣gerous stumbling block of old, and particularly forbidden by the Council at Jerusalem: Of this he speaketh at large, and from the nature of Idol-sacrifices, and from the Nature of the Sacraments he sheweth how far they should be separate from such communion with Idolatry. He speaketh of all Israels being baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and Sea, and so separate from all Egyptian and other Idolatry and Prophaneness; and our baptism speaks the like separation. The Jews say Moses was sanctified by the Cloud, Jerus. in Joma fol. 28. col. 2. and Paul speaks here the same of all Israel, Chap. 10. 2.
• 4. About Ministers maintenance under the Gospel, Chap. 9. which he confirmeth, and sheweth that Peter and the rest of the Apostles and their Wives and Families were so main∣tained, Chap. 9. 5, &c.

He concludes the Epistle with a sad execration upon Whosoever loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ, let such a one be Anathema, Maran Atha, Chap. 16. 22. that is, let him be accursed or destroyed: Our Lord cometh. In which that he in the first aim and intention meaneth the unbelieving Jews, may be observed upon these four considerations. 1. Because the Jews of all men under Heaven were and are the greatest haters of Christ. Pagans indeed do not love the Lord Jesus, because they know him not, but again because they know him not they hate him not. The Turks love not Christ as Christians love him, but again they hate not Christ as the Jews hate him. The word Jesus here carries the Emphasis to level this execration at them: they pretended to love Messias or a Christ, but openly profess hatred of Jesus. 2. Because the Apostle here useth such Dialect, as that he speaketh in the very Jews language in the words Maran Atha. He had spoken in Greek all along the Epistle, and Greek all along his Epistles, and that here alone he should use a Syriack phrase and not translate it, it doth evidently shew, that his speech referreth more especially to the Jewish Nation. So Jeremy in Chap. 10. v. 11. threatning and cur∣sing the Chaldean Idolatry, doth in the Chaldean language; one clause of which he useth not throughout his Prophesie beside. 3. The Jews of all men did chiefly or only call Jesus anathema, as Chap. 12. 3. and as they are not ashamed openly to confess in their Talmud; therefore against them of all men first and chiefly is this Anathema aimed 4. This is agreeable to what the Scripture speaks copiously in other places: as Isa. 65. 15. You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen, &c. Malac. 4. 6. Lest I come and smite the Land with a curse, &c. The most pious and charitable Apostle could wish himself to be Anathema for that Nation, on condition that they might believe and be saved, Rom. 9. 3. but since they will not believe, and do refuse salvation, and hate the Saviour, he forgets consanguinity for the love of Christ, and dooming and devoting all whomsoever, that loved not the Lord Jesus Christ to destruction, he intends them in the first place who were his chief haters.

The words Maran-atha are held by some to be of the form of the highest excommu∣nication; Sic signatur, say they, species extremi Anathematis, ac si diceretur, Male∣dictus esto ad adventum & in adventu Domini: And withall that Maran atha is the same in sense with Shammatha: but this utterly without the warrant of any Jewish antiquity [whose language it is] at all. I believe it is impossible to shew Maran atha for a form

of Excommunication or execration in any of their Writings, nay very hard if not next impossible to shew the words Maran atha in their Writings at all in any sense.

The phrase in the Apostle refers first to Christs coming in vengeance against Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation, as the execration is first to be pitched upon them: Maran atha, Our Lord cometh. Many and dreadful things are spoken of this his coming in the Scripture, of which we have spoken in several places as we have come along. So that in this sen∣tence he doth both justly doom this unbelieving and wretched Nation to their deserved curse, and doth withall in this phrase intimate that the doomed curse was near approaching, in the Lords coming in vengeance against them. Now though we construe the words in such an application to the Jews, it is not exclusively, but that their sense reacheth also to every one that loveth not the Lord Jesus of what Nation soever, and the Lord will come in time to make him an Anathema.

There is some obscurity in a passage in Chap. 5. 9. both of Sense and History: I wrote unto you in an Epistle not to company with Fornicators: 10. Yet not altogether with the For∣nicators of this world, &c. Where first we have to inquire what it is that the Apostle doth here forbid them, and then, when it was that he wrote this Epistle that he speaketh of. There are two things that are here prohibited; one, when he wrote that which he speaketh of, namely, that they should not company with Fornicators; and the other now when he writes this Epistle, viz. that they should not eat with such: the latter he had permitted till now, though he prohibited the former, which let them well observe that understand by eating the receiving of the Sacrament.

Besides what communion was among the Jews in sacris, there was a twofold compa∣nying or communicating among them in civil things; the one more common, the other more neer and peculiar: Their more common was, eating together at the same common table: For even such eating they accounted of, as of a communion, under a rule: and hence no eating with Gentiles for any Jew, Act. 11. 3. nor with Publicans and sinners for any that were of the stricter sort of Religions: therefore Christ is cavilled at for it so oft in the Gospel. The other was that communion or associating, which they called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the former of which comprehended their near joyning in partnership, deputations and the like, of the which the triple Talmudick. Tract Bava, and Maymonies of Shittuphin and Silluchin, do treat at large. The later comprehended their combi∣ning in joynt interest and association, in the use of any common Court or Cloister where many dwelt together: of which the Treatise Erubhin is a large discourse and ob∣scure enough. Now the Apostle in the former prohibition 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, seems to for∣bid this nearer communion: that if any that is called a brother or a Christian, be a Fornica∣tor, &c. they should not associate with him in any such conjunction as partnership, depu∣tation, imployment, cohabitation or common interest, &c. But upon the hearing of this horrid fact and example of the incestuous person, he heightens his prohibition, and now forbids, that they should not use so much as that common society with them, as to eat with them at common tables: which was to set them at the utmost distance, even at the same that the Jews did the very Heathens, for with them they might not eat.

Now how to understand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is of some difficulty. Some conceive it means an Epistle, which was sent before this, and which was lost. Which is an exposi∣tion somewhat hard to digest. Certainly it is gentler and more warrantable, yea even by the rules of Grammer to render 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to such a sense as this, I wrote, or had written, or was writing in this Epistle that you should not company with Fornicators, &c. but now hearing and weighing this high offence of the incestuous person, and the danger of such an example, I sharpen my style, and now forbid not only your near associating with such, but even the common fellowship of eating together at common tables, which was as much as that which is spoken, Matth. 18. 17. Let him be to thee as an heathen man.

ACTS Chap. XIX. from Ver. 23. to the end of the Chapter.

PAUL had determined to stay at Ephesus till Pentecost, because of a great and effectu∣al door that was opened to him, and he was earnest to imbrace that opportunity, 1 Cor. 16. 9. but before his determined time of departure thence came, and as it seemeth not long before, Demetrius, with the rest of the Silversmiths raise a tumult against him as the great impairer of their profit, by crying down the worship of Diana and other Idols. These men used to make silver temples of Diana, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or little models, as it seemeth, made after that Temple fashion: which they that came to Ephesus to wor∣ship, bought, either to consecrate to the Goddess, and to leave there in her Temple, or rather to take away with them home in memorial of that Goddess. Tully in Verre•••• speaks of Aedes Minervae posita in fano Apollinis. And Dion Cassius lib. 36. of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. A little Temple of Juno set upon a Table looking toward the East, did of it self turn towards the North. And in lib. 40. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.] The Eagle [saith he, meaning the Roman ensign] was a little Tem∣ple, and in it was set a golden Eagle: such a one pitched in every one of the Roman Legions, and it never stir'd out of the winter quarters, till the whole camp did remove: this Eagle fixed on the top of a spear one man carried: the lower end of the spear being sharp that it might be stuck into the ground. So that it seems the Roman Eagles were not flying Colours like ours, but a golden Eagle meddal wise inclosed in a little fabrick like a Temple: of such a kind were these silver Temples of Diana, namely a little silver shrine made after the fashion of the Temple and the Goddess in it.

The great Temple was reputed one of the seven wondrous fabricks of the world: It was hundreds of years in building at the charge of all Asia, before it came to its last excel∣lency and perfection. And as hither had been the conflux of the cost of all Asia toward the building of it, so when it was built, hither was the conflux of all Asia's superstition. And as from hence it may be gathered how great a work it was to plant the Gospel in this center of Idolatry, so doth Demetrius readily observe, how great a detriment is like to ac∣crew to him and his fellows by the Gospels destroying that Idolatry, as daily it did. Here∣upon they raise a tumult against Paul, which is not only promoted by the Idolatrous Hea∣then, but by the Jews also, though upon another score. In the hubbub there is mention of Alexander, whom they drew out of the multitude the Jews putting him forward. And he heckned with the hand and would have made his defence unto the People, but when they knew he was a Jew they would not hear him, ver. 33, 34. And Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy, who was at Ephesus when he wrote to him, saith, Alexander the Copper-smith did me much evil, 2 Tim. 4. 14. I think there is little question to be made but that Alexander mentioned in both places is one and the same man: especially if we consider that he that Paul speaks of was of Demetrius his Profession a Copper-smith. Now whereas Luke saith the Jews put him forward, and he would fain have made a speech in his defence to the peo∣ple: it is easie to guess what the subject of this speech would have been: Namely that whereas the Heathens every where looked upon the Jews as the great opposers and ene∣mies of their Idolatry, and the Jews and Alexander were very apprehensive, that the eyes of the Ephesians was on that Nation as the enemy of their Diana, and so they feared the tumult might have fallen upon them, they put forward Alexander to make their Apology, who if he had had liberty to have spoken would have laid load upon Paul and his compa∣ny, and have excused the Jews: but thus it pleased God to provide for the Apostles safety, that the tumultuous people would not hear what Alexander would have said: which would have laid all the blame on Paul.

ACTS CHAP. XX.

• Ver. 1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the Disciples, and imbraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.
• 2. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece.
• 3. And abode there three months: and when the Iews laid wait for him as he was about to sayl into Syria, he purposed to return thorow Macedonia.

IT was his resolution to have staied at Ephesus till Pentecost, had he had no disquieture or disturbance there, 1 Cor. 16. 8. Now though it be not certain how long it was before the time that he had fixed for his departure, that the tumult there did pack him away: yet this is apparent, that when he came thence, he had the whole summer before him, and in that summer he travelled these journeys, and thus was his progress.

• 1. From Ephesus he setteth for Macedonia, ver. 1 & 1 Cor. 16. 5. from whence though he had been driven some five years ago by persecution, Act. 16. as he is now from Ephesus, yet had he received so many evidences of the Macedonians faith towards God, and pledges of their tenderness and love towards himself, Philip. 4. 15, 16. that he is not only resolved to venture himself again amongst them, but he holds himself ingaged to revisit them, and to bestow his pains again among them for their further proficiency in the Gospel. At his departure from Ephesus he leaveth Timothy there behind him, though in a dangerous place and time, yet necessity by reason of false teachers that were ready to break out, so requi∣ring it, 1 Tim. 1. 3, 4.
• 2. By the way as he goes he makes some stay at Troas: where though he had fair suc∣cess in his Ministry, yet not finding Titus whom he expected to have met withall from Co∣rinth, he makes not long stay there, but sets away again speedily for Macedonia, 2 Cor. 2. 12, 13.
• 3. It was in his thoughts whilst he was at Ephesus, to have touched at Corinth, in this his journey, and to have made some stay there, 2 Cor. 1. 15, 16. but thus missing of Titus at Troas, and neither from him, nor yet from any other receiving intelligence how his

• Epistle that he had written thither took with them, he thought it best to go by, and not to call there at this time, because he doubted he should have a heavy and comfortless meeting with them, 2 Cor. 2. 1, 2.
• 4. Being come into Macedonia he finds some troubles there: fightings without, ei∣ther from false brethren, or from open enemies: and fears and unquietness within lest all should continue at Corinth, as he had herd of it: but at the last Titus cometh and refresheth him with the desired and welcome tidings that all was well there, and that his Epistle had had that happy issue and effect among them that he longed for, 2 Cor. 7. 5, 6.
• 5. Whilst he staieth in Macedonia and those parts, he preacheth especially in those places where he had been before, namely Thessalonica and Philippi; and now was the time also that he dispersed the Gospel as far as to Illyricum, of which he speaketh in Rom. 15. 19.
• 6. At this time whilst he was imployed in these Macedonian climates, he writeth, as may be concluded upon these observations, THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY;
  • 1. It is apparent from 1 Tim. 1. 3. & 3. 15. that that Epistle was written after Pauls setting out from Ephesus for Macedonia, and yet when he was in some thoughts of re∣turning shortly for Ephesus again.
  • 2. Now it cannot be conceived to have been written when he was going towards Ma∣cedonia, for then was he but newly parted from Timothy, and it is not likely he would so write to him when he was but newly come from him.
  • 3. Nor can it be conceived to be written when he was coming back again from Mace∣donia into Greece, for then he was going to Ephesus in his own determination, and might have been his own messenger, aud had needed no Epistle sending at all. And besides he intimates in Chap. 3. 16. that it might be, he might stay a little long before he came to him: Therefore it cannot but be concluded that this Epistle was written whilst he was in Mace∣donia or the parts there abouts, at this time that we are upon.

It is something strange that there should be so various and roving conjectures about the time and place of the writing of this Epistle where there is so plain a demonstration thereof in the Epistle it self, if studiously compared with these times and voyages of Paul that are before us. The Arabick dateth it from Athens: supposing it, belike, at the time of his perambulation of Greece, of which there is mention in ver. 3. of this Chapter: the Syriack from Laodicea: some Greek copies add from Laodicea Pacatiana: which mistake belike grew, because there is mention of an Epistle from Laodicea, Colos. 4. 16. of which we shall speak and shew the mistake when we come to the time of that Epistle. The Rhemists suppose this Epistle to Timothy was written at Pauls first imprisonment in Rome; when he was dismissed and set at liberty, but how erroniously, will appear when we come to observe the time of the second Epistle.

Paul had bestowed much pains and a long time with the Church of Ephesus being pre∣sent with it: and he takes much care of it now he is gone thence: partly because of the eminency of the place, and partly because of the sickleness of some, who were ready to warp from the sound truth and doctrine received, to heresie and foolish opinions. For the keeping down of these therefore that they should not overgrow the Church, he leaveth Timothy there, when himself departeth; choosing him for that imployment above all other his followers, because [as was said before] some prophetick predictions had sealed him for a singular and extraordinary instrument in the Gospel, 1 Tim. 2. 14.

He had two works to do in that City: first to prevent rising Errors and Heterodoxies, and secondly to direct and order the Orthodox aright in Worship and discipline: not as any Diocesan Bishop [for he staied but a while there, and what he did, he did but by the Apostles direction,] but as one that Paul had found sound, bold, blameless, painfull and, faithful.

Among the Jewish Churches that received the Gospel, there grew in time a very epi∣demical and dangerous Apostacy, either totally from the Doctrine of the Gospel, or par∣tially from the purity of it, as we have frequent occasion to observe upon several passages that we meet withal as we go along: and this backsliding from the Doctrine and Profes∣sion of Christ once received, was the topping up of the iniquity of that Nation, and was a forerunner and a hastner of their destruction and casting off.

The first principles whereby their false teachers did prison them towards this recidiva∣tion, were, puzzling them with idle fables, intricate genealogies, and especially nice cu∣riosities, and needless obligations of the Law: Their fables that were likeliest to serve their turn for this purpose [as near as one may guess upon view of the whole heap in their Talmudic•• Records] may be supposed to have been those strange legends that they

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related of the wondrous sanctity, devotion and facts of some of their Pharisaical and le∣gal righteous ones, and the wondrous gallantry and golden daies that they conceited in a carnal construction of the times of Messias.

Their endless genealogies which the Apostle speaketh of Tit. 3. 9. and mentioneth to∣gether with these fables, 1 Tim. 1. 4. were not any of the genealogies of Scripture, holy and divine, but their long and intricate pedigrees that they stood upon, to prove themselves Jews, Levites, Priests and the like, thereby to interest themselves in claim to all those brave things that they perswaded themselves belonged to a Jew as a Jew, upon that very account: And to these we may add the long genealogy and pedigree of their traditions which they derived by a long line of succession through the hands of I know not how many Doctors: of which the Talmudick Treatise Avoth, is as a Herald. And if we will con∣strue the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Juchasin, Genealogies, in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Aserah Juchasin Ten linages, that they speak of that came out of Babel at the return of the captivity, I am sure we may find endless questions wherewithal they puzzeled mens minds about them; as Vid. Talm. in Kiddushin per. 4. Alphes. ibid, &c.

And as for their making their baits of the Law for the catching and withdrawing of simple souls either totally from the acknowledging, or at least from the simplicety of the Gospel, it is very obvious in the Epistles of Paul and the other Epistles how they wrought, and how they prevailed: the witchery of old customs and long use, and the gawdiness of a Ceremonious Religion, helping them to speed in their designs, and forwarding their deceivings.

Such canker began to break out in the Church of Ephesus: whose creeping and infe∣cting, it is the first and great work of Timothy to prevent, and to fill the ears of his hear∣ers with sound doctrine and admonitions, which might keep such deceit and infection out. And answerably it must be his care to settle the Church in such a salubrious consti∣tution of Worship, Ministry and Government, as that it should not be ready to sway and incline to such dangerous seductions. Hereupon doth the Apostle lay a divine Directory before him, concerning their manner of praying, choosing and ordaining of Ministers, approving Deacons, admitting widows, and regulating the people, that nothing could be wanting to the healthfull temper of that Church if they receive and imbrace these appli∣cations: In the most of which prescriptions he useth exceeding much of their Synagogue language, that he may be the better understood, and reflecteth upon divers of their own Laws and customs, that what he prescribeth may imprint upon them with the more con∣viction. He calleth the Minister Episcopus, from the common and known title The Chazan or Overseer in the Synagogue: Aruch in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. He prescribeth rules and qualifications for his choice, in most things suitable to their own cautions in choosing of an Elder: Maym. in Sanhedr. per. 4. He speaketh of Elders ruling only, and Elders ruling and labouring in the Word and Doctrine: meaning in this distinction, that same that he had spoken of in Chap. 3. Bishops and Deacons. Both these in the common language then best known, were called Elders, and both owned as Rulers. Yea the very title that they usually termed Dea∣cons by [Parnasin] was the common word that was used to signifie a Ruler. The Jerusalem Talmud in Peah. fol. 21. 1. speaking of the three Parnasin or Deacons that were inevery Syna∣gogue, hath these two passages, which may be some illustration to two passagesin this Epistle. They appoint not less then three Pernasin in the Congregation: for if matters of money were judged by three, matters of life much more require three to manage them. Observe that the Deacons Of∣fice was accounted as an Office that concerned life, namely in taking care for the subsistance of the poor. According to this may that in Chap. 3. 12. be understood. For they that have used the Office of a Deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree. A good degree towards being intrusted with souls, when they have been faithful in discharge of their trust concerning the life of the body. The other passage is this, R. Haggai whensoever he ap∣pointed Parnasin [Deacons] he urged the Law upon the People, saying, All rule that is gi∣ven, is given from the Law, &c. And here you may likewise observe, that Deaconship is called Rule.

We observe before, that it were not so monstrous as it might seem, if by Elders that ruled only we should understand a Civil Magistracy or Bench in every Congregation, as there was in every Synagogue; but since the Apostle nameth only Bishops and Deacons, his interpretation here is best taken from and within himself; and to understand the El∣ders that ruled only of the Deacons, which were called both Elders and Rulers, as well as the Ministers: and in the Jews Synagogues were professed Scholars: The Talmudick place now cited tells us that R. Eliezer one of their greatest Rabbing was a Parnas, or Deacon in a Synagogue. The Episcopi or Ministers are titled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that laboured in the Word and Doctrine: which most properly is to be understood di∣stinctly thus, which laboured in the Word, and which laboured in teaching: and the former to denote their laboriousness in study to inable them to teach, and the latter their laboriousness in teaching. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is but the common phrase of the Jews turn∣ed

into Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [See the Syriack here] by which they mean a great student in the Law. Among multitudes of instances that might be alledged, I shall produce but this one out of Jeruslin Maasar sheni fol. 56. col. 2. R. Jonah paid his Tithes to R. Acha bar Ulla, not because he was a Priest 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but because he laboured in the Law, that is, was a great student and an able teacher. They that suppose that the tithes under the Law were paid only at the temple, and to maintain the Priests in the ceremonious worship there, and upon this conceit look upon them only as Levitical, are far deceived: for as some were indeed paid at the Temple upon such an account, so others and that the Greatest part, were paid to the Priests and Levites in their 48 Univer∣sities, Josh. 21. to maintain them whilst they were studying there, to inable them for the Ministry, and to teach the people, for which they were designed, Deut. 33. 10. Mal. 2. 7. and when they were dispersed through the Land, into the several Synagogues to be Mini∣sters in them, tithes were also paid for their maintenance there.

He speaketh of provision to be made for poor Widdows, even much according to the Jews own rules, that they went by in their Synagogues, which herein were good. The Talmudick Treatise Jevamoth speaketh of this matter at large, and see Maym in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 per. 18. & 20. The Widdows he allows to be taken in, to be maintained of the publick stock, he would have not to be Widdows by divorce, nor Widdows young; but of 60 years of age, and of grave and holy qualifications: Not that these were to vow the vow of continency [as see what a miserable ado the Rhemists make upon the place] but that they must bee such as were likely to bring no more charge then themselves upon the Church, nor bring any shame or reproach by the lightness of their lives to it, and might be serviceable in their places, to attend upon strangers, to wash their feet, &c. But as for younger Widows, their age and those times were dangerous, when the Nicolaitan doctrine without [which taught communicating with things of Idolatry and Fornication, and mixing and marriage indifferently with heathen] meeting with the heat of youth within, might make such to wax wanton against Christ, and deny the faith and marry with heathens: or at least to bring charge upon the Church if they continued in it.

He injoyns prayers to be made for all sorts of men, whereas the Jewish custom was, to curse the Heathen, and to pray for none but themselves and their own Nation. He cals the Church the pillar and ground of truth, Chap. 3. 15. the very title by which the great Sanhedrin was ordinarily stiled. Vid. Maym. in Mamrin. per. 1. the observing of which may be of good use for the explanation of it here.

After some stay in Macedonia, and preaching up and down in those parts, Paul turns back again, and goes for Greece, Act. 20. 2. and by the way visiteth Creet and there lea∣veth Titus, Tit. 1. 5. thinking that he should presently after a little stay in Greece, have set towards Jerusalem, and that Titus should have staied there till further time: For if what hath been spoken lately concerning Titus be considered, how Paul sent him with his first Epistle to the Corinthians, and that after their parting at Ephesus upon that occasion, they never met till Titus cometh up to him, when he was come from Ephesus to Macedonia, 2 Cor. 7. 5, 6. it will readily resolve, that in that first journey to Macedonia he left him not in Cree••, for Titus and he were not yet met again since their parting at Ephesus. And that he left him not there at his second coming up to Macedonia [namely after his travel∣ling in Greece, and when he was prevented of his intended journey into Syria, Act. 20. 2, 3.] it is apparent also by this, that instantly upon his returning from Greece and from his pre∣vented journey, he sendeth for Titus to come to him upon warning, Tit. 3. 12. which two particulars joyntly observed do make it plain that he left Titus in Creet when he came back from Macedonia in his journey into Greece, and when he intended after his perambu∣lation of Greece to have gone for Syria, but the lying in wait of some Jews for his life, tur∣ned him again to Macedonia.

In his return thither, or upon his coming there, he writeth THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.

It is not much material to controvert whether he sent this Epistle in the way as he went towards Macedonia, or when he was come up into Macedonia; it is enough to know, that it was in the scantling of time, either in his journey thither, or instantly upon his coming there. The postscript hath dated it from Nicopolis, because of his words in Chap. 3. 12. Come unto me to Nicopolis, for there I have determined to winter: from which words, as the affixer of the postscript hath gathered some ground to date it thence, so others have gathe∣red better ground, to hold that it was not dated thence, because he saith not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Here, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 There I have determined to winter: as if he were not yet come thither.

Who first planted the Gospel in Creete may be an endless inquiry: certain it is that some Cretans were present at the first pouring forth of the Holy Ghost in the gift of tongues, Acts 2. 8. but whether they imbraced the Gospel and returned with it into their own

Country, is an inquiry as endless: Whether Barnabas ever preached there we may question also, but when we have done all we can never resolve. It is more then probable that Paul was there himself, from that expression I left thee in Creete, but his stay there when he left Titus could not be long, as is easily cleared from the time of his journeys lately menti∣oned.

Whether he had been there some time before, or whether he had sent the Gospel thither by some of his Ministers, or however it came there, there wanted something to the constituting of the Church, which he leaveth Titus to accomplish: And his work is just the same that he left Timothy at Ephesus for, as is easily seen by laying together the two Epistles, viz. to stop the mouth of the Heterodox, and to direct and advise the Orthodox in Doctrine and Dis∣cipline, and to ordain Elders and Ministers in the Churches.

This matter of ordaining Elders hath made the postscripts of the Epistles to these two men to intitle them Bishops, the one of Ephesus, and the other of Creet, who how little they stayed or setled in either of these places, he readeth but dimly that seeth not.

The Apostle in this Epistle urgeth him to dispatch the business that lay before him, that upon notice from him, he might be ready to come up to him to Nicopolis: a City that bare the name and badge of the Victory that Augustus obtained against Anthony. Dion. Cass. pag. 426. & 443.

Titus according to his appointment came to him, and when winter began to draw over, and Paul began now to think of journying ere it were very long, he sends him upon an imployment to another place: which because it was when winter was going off, we must place it in another year.

[CHRIST. LVI] [NERO. II] A New year being now entred, and Paul intending for Syria as soon as the spring was a little up, he sendeth Titus before hand to Corinth, to hasten their collections for the Saints in Judea, that they might be ready against Paul should come thither. And with Titus he sendeth two other brethren, and by them all he sendeth THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

The proof that it was written and sent at this time and in this manner, is plain by these places and passages in it: Chap. 9. 2, 3, 4. I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia: Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain; lest haply they of Macedonia come with me, &c. Chap. 12. 14. Behold the third time I am coming to you. Chap. 13. 1. This is the third time I am coming to you. And Chap. 8. 16. But thanks be unto God who put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. 17. Being more forward of his own accord he went unto you. 18. And with him we have sent the brother whose praise is in the Gospel. 22. And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have often times proved diligent in many things, &c.

Who these two nameless persons should be, will require some inquiry. The later I suppose was Erastus, both because his diligence had been approved before, Acts 19. 22, &c. and also because it is said Erastus abode at Corinth, 2 Tim. 4. yet he not named among Pauls retinue when he set out for Asia, Act. 20. 4. because he was gone to Corinth before.

As for the other brother whose praise is said to be in the Gospel, that very phrase and ex∣pression hath caused many to conceive, that it was Luke, and that the words mean, Who is famous in all the Churches for the Gospel he hath written: whereas [besides that groundless strictness that is put upon the words, limiting them to the writing of a Gospel, which ac∣cording to that most usual manner of speech, are rather to be understood of his renowning in preaching the Gospel] it is apparent by the words of Luke himself, that he went not ei∣ther before Paul to Corinth, as this brother spoken of did, nor did he go before Paul to Troas as the rest that are named by him did, but he went in Pauls company: for observe his speech, These tarried for us at Troas: And we sailed away from Philippi, &c. The words Us and We do plainly associate the penman himself with Paul at his setting out, and shew that he was none of those that were sent before.

Others therefore do guess that this brother that went along with Titus, was Silas, be∣cause it is said, Who also was chosen by the Churches to travel with us, &c. Which very thing which they use for an argument to prove it Silas, proves against it, for Silas was not cho∣sen by the Churches to go with Paul, any more than Timothy or Titus were; but he was chosen by Paul alone, as they also were. See Act. 15. 40.

That clause then, Who was also chosen of the Churches to travel with us, doth deal the matter betwixt Barnabas and Mark, for none other can be named, to whom the words can be so properly applied as to one of them: and of the two, most properly to Mark; and he I doubt not, is the man that is here intended: For 1. the words with us, joyn Paul and Barnabas together in their travel, and the third man who was chosen to travel with them was none but Mark. For 2. he was chosen by the Church at Jerusalem for that purpose, Acts 12. 25. and by the Church at Antioch, Acts 13. 5. as these words he was chosen by the Churches do well explain those verses. 3. It is true indeed that Paul had taken distast at Mark, and so bitter, that Barnabas and he had parted upon it, Act. 15. 39. yet in his second Epistle to Timothy he desires Timothy to bring Mark to him, for that he is profitable to him for the Ministry, 2 Tim. 4. by which it appears that he was not only re∣conciled to him, but also that he had made use of him and found him useful: When it was that they knit into amity and imployment again, is not discoverable, but that they had done so, the passage newly alledged, doth make past denial; and if his imployment of Mark were not now, or before, he can no more imploy him, before he himself become a priso∣ner. When we come to the time and order of the second Epistle to Timothy, we shall have occasion to speak to this matter again, and shall find something there to help the confirmati∣on of this assertion, nay to raise it higher then yet it hath spoken, namely, that Mark was not only sent by Paul to Corinth at this time, but also that he was at Corinth when Paul sent for him to come to him to Rome. And thus if these words, Whose praise is in the Gos∣pel, were to be understood of one that had written a Gospel, here is a subject to apply them to in that sense, for this Mark wrote a Gospel as well as Luke.

The Apostle in this second Epistle to Corinth, doth first excuse his not coming to them ac∣cording as he had promised in his first Epistle, 1 Cor. 16. 5. clearing himself from all light∣ness in making, and from all unfaithfulness in breaking that promise, and pitching the main reason upon themselves and their present condition: because he had not yet intelligence when he went first into Macedonia, of any reformation among them of those enormities that he had reproved in his first Epistle, therefore he was unwilling to come to them in heavi∣ness, and with a scourge. This his failing to come according to his promise, had opened the mouths of divers in his disgrace, and false teachers took any other occasion to vilifie him, which he copiously satisfies and vindicates himself all along the Epistle.

His exceeding zealous plainness with them, and dealing so home and throughly against their misdemeanours as he did, was one advantage that false teachers and his ill willers took to open their mouth against him, and to withdraw hearts from him: and withal and mainly, because he was so urgent against the works of the Law as to Justification, and those rites which the Jews, even the most that were converted to the Gospel, too much doted on. About the former, their taunt and scorn against him was, His Letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and speech contemptible, Chap. 10. 10. A poor contemptible fellow [say they] to be so sharp and supercilious in his Letters; this is more then he durst speak if he were here! &c. But let such know, saies he, that what I am by Letters in absence, I will be by words and in deed in presence. Concerning both this and the latter named, they passed Festus his censure upon him, as Acts 26. 24. that he was besides himself. This he mentions and answers, Chap. 5. 13. Whether we are besides our selves it is for God, or whether we be sober it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constrain∣eth us, because we thus judge: that if one died for all, then were all dead, &c. Since Christ died for all, that is, for Jews and Gentiles both, he could not but conclude that all were dead, the Jew as well as the Gentile; therefore he could not but so urgently call upon the Jew to look off his own righteousness, and the works of the Law, and to look for Justifi∣cation by faith in Christ. Another scandalous opinion and reproach they also took up of him, That he walked after the flesh [a strange slander of Paul] Chap. 10. 2. but this was but an appendix to that before: because he was not Pharisaically precise about their trivial rites of the Law [which too many of them mixed with the Gospel,] but cried them down, therefore they cried him up for carnal. His answer to this is, that his Ministry may wit∣ness the contrary for him, ver. 3, 4, 5. the end of which and the abundant effect of which was to beat down such carnal affections and actions as were such indeed: His expression of the weapons of his warfare being strong to pull down strong holds, expounds that Num. 24. 17. of Christs smiting the corners of Moab, and destroying all the Sons of Seth. And he gives this for a second answer, that if they would be but obedient; they should see how his Apostolick power was ready to avenge disobedience.

Since he hath such back friends and open enemies in this Church, it is no wonder if he write so doubtingly of them how he should find them: and that he staied no longer with them when he came to them, as his stay was very little. His former Epistle, as it is ap∣parent by several passages in this, had wrought them into a reasonable good temper: but mischief now was crept on them again, at least there were some that were tampering to bring it on. In regard therefore of that vilifying that these false teachers; enemies of

him and God did set him at, and sought to make him odious and contemptible in the eyes of the Church, he is put to it to make his vindication, and that, as the matter required with much largness and earnestness. He therefore copiously discourseth, what God had done by him, what he had suffered for God, and what he had done for the Churches; in any of which things let any of these that reviled him, come near him if they could. In relating the passages of his life, he mentioneth many things, of which there is no men∣tion in his story in the Acts of the Apostles: and frequently in his discourse, he speaketh of his folly in boasting, as Chap. 11. 1. Bear with me a little in my folly, and see ver. 16, 17. because indeed mans boasting of himself is folly, and they would be ready to censure his so, therefore he styles his by that title, though it were not folly in him, but a needfull and an holy vindication of himself and of his Ministry.

After he had sent away this Epistle, by Titus, Erastus and Mark, if our conjecture fail not, and had given notice to the Corinthians of his speedy coming to them, and warning to get their Collections ready against he came, he provideth for his journey into Syria, which he had intended so long: partly to visit the Churches in these parts, and partly to bring up the Collections that he had got for the poor of Judea: which he had promised to the three Ministers of the Circumcision. Peter, James and John that he would be carefull of, Gal. 2. 10.

[CHRIST. LVI] [NERO. II] ACTS Chap. XX.

• Ver. 4. And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea: and of Thessalonians, Aristar∣chus and Secundus: and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus: and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
• 5. These going before tarried for us at Troas.
• 6. And we set from Philippi, after the daies of unleavened bread.

THE story, as hath been said, hath brought us to another year, the beginning of which, that is, from the entrance of January and forward, even till Easter, Paul spent in Macedonia, still wintring there, viz. in Nicopolis, Philippi, &c. and after Easter he sets for Jerusalem, ver. 6. Therefore we have superscribed it, The second of Nero, and of Christ the 56th.

When we come to speak of the Epistle to the Romans, which we shall meet with in our way very shortly, we shall say something of the names of these men [for many of them will meet us there:] only we cannot meet Timotheus here without some notice taken of him, and some quaere how he came here. The last year Paul left him at Ephesus when himself came thence, and being come thence into Macedonia he sends him an Epistle with his earnest desire in it, that he would stay there still upon that needful imployment upon which he was left, 1 Tim. 1. how then is Timothy now got to him into Macedonia, so that he is with him at his setting away from Philippi? We have not indeed any intimation that Paul sent for him away, as we have of his sending for Titus whom he left in Creete, in∣tendedly for a longer time: but it is very probable that Paul designing to have sailed for Syria, came near to him: and there discovering the danger that was laid in his way by the Jews, which might also have infolded Timothy, he brought him away back again with him, and so both returned into Macedonia, and now winter is over, they are setting for Asia again.

But when Paul and this his company are all going for Asia together, why should they not set out together, but these go before and tarry at Troas, and Paul and some other of his company come after? Nay they were all to meet at Troas as it appeareth, ver. 6. why might they not then have gone all together to Troas?

The reason of this was, because Paul himself was to go by Corinth: and not minding to stay there but very little, because he hastned to Jerusalem, he would not take his whole train thither, but sends them away the next way they could go to Troas, himself promising and resolving to be speedily with them there. He had promised a long time to the Church of Corinth to come unto them, and he had newly sent word in that Epistle that he had lately sent, that now his coming would be speedy, 2 Cor. 12. 14. Behold the third time I am ready to come to you: and Chap. 13. 1. This is the third time that I am coming to you: Not that he had been there twice before, for since his first departing thence [when he had staied there a long time together, at his first planting of the Gospel in that place] there is neither mention nor probability of his being there again, but this was the third time that he was in coming, having promised and intended a journey thither once before, but was

prevented, 2 Cor. 1. 15, 16, 17. But now he not only promiseth by the Epistle that he will come, but staketh the three Brethren that he had sent thither, for witnesses and sureties of that promise, 2 Cor. 13. 1, 2. that in the mouth of those witnesses his promise might be esta∣blished and assured.

Now the time is come that he makes good his promise, and whilst the rest of his company go directly the next cut to Troas, he himself and Luke, and whom else he thought good to retain with him, go about by Corinth.

And now to look a little further into the reason of their thus parting company, and of Pauls short stay at Corinth when he came there, we may take into thoughts [besides how much he hastned to Jerusalem] the jealousie that he had that he should not find all things at Corinth so comfortable to himself, and so creditable to them, before those that should come with him, as he desired. He hath many passages in the second Epistle that he wrote to them, that glance that way: For though as to the general there was Reformation wrought among them upon the receiving of his first Epistle, and thereupon he speaketh very excel∣lent things of them, yet were there not a few that thought basely of him, 2 Cor. 10. 1, 2. and traduced him and his Doctrine, Chap. 11. & 12. and gave him cause to suspect that his boasting of that Church to the Churches of Macedonia might come off but indifferently, if the Macedonians should come with him to see how all things were there, 2 Cor. 9. 4. And therefore it was but the good policy of just fear, grief, and prudence to send them by another way, and he had very just cause to stay but a while when he came there.

From Corinth in his short stay there, he writeth THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, as hath been well supposed by some of the Ancients, is asserted by the postscript, and may be concluded from these Observations.

• 1. That he saith, that he is now going to Jerusalem to bring to the Saints that benevo∣lence that they of Macedonia and Achaia had collected for them, Rom. 15. 26. The word Achaia tels us that he now was sure of the Corinthian contribution, which he was not sure of, till he came there.
• 2. That he commendeth to the Romans, Phaebe a servant of the Church of Cenchraea, Rom. 16. 1. which Cenchraea was a place belonging to Corinth, as was observed before, though at some few miles distance.
• 3. That he calleth Erastus, Chamberlain of the City, Rom. 16. 23. of whom it is said Erastus abode at Corinth. 2 Tim. 4.
• 4. That he calleth Gaius his host, or the man with whom he lodged, and the host of the whole Church, or in whose house strangers had their intertainment, Rom. 16. 23. who was a Co∣rinthian, 1 Cor. 1. 14. And hence it appeareth that Gaius of Derbe, who was one of those that were gone before to Troas, was one man, and Gaius of Corinth was another.

It is true indeed that the greetings of some men were sent in this Epistle which were not with Paul at this present in Corinth: as Timothies, Rom. 16. 20. who was gone to Troas: and Sosipaters, who was gone thither also [for he I suppose is the same with Sopater of Be∣rea, Acts 20. 4.] and this might seem to infringe the truth of this opinion that holdeth that this Epistle was written from Corinth: But when it is considered how lately Paul and these men parted, and that it is past doubt that he would acquaint them before their parting of his intentions to send to Rome, it is no difficulty to conceive how their salutations came inserted into that Epistle.

There are indeed some that confess that it was written from Corinth, but not at this time but at another, namely in that time when Paul travelled Greece, of which journey there is mention Act. 20. in which time, among other places, they conceive he came to Corinth and there wrote this Epistle. But 1. it may very well be questioned whether he were at Co∣rinth in these three months travels or no. For whereas he had promised to call on them as he went to Jerusalem, 1 Cor. 16. 7. [which he intended when he travelled those three months, but that he discovered that the Jews lay in wait for him] he excuseth himself for not com∣ing according to that promise, 2 Cor. 1. 16, 17. And if it were granted that he was at Co∣rinth at that time, yet 2. he could not write this Epistle at that time, because when he wrote it, he knew the contribution of the Corinthian Church was then ready, Rom. 15. 26. which when he travelled Greece, either indeed was not so, or at least he knew not that it was, as appeareth copiously in his second Epistle to that Church.

The Apostle in this most sublime Epistle, clears fully and divinely, the two great my∣steries of the Gospel, Righteousness by faith, and the calling of the Gentiles. And in the handling of these he handles the great points Original sin, Election, and casting off of the Jews. He laies this position down concerning the first, Chap. 1. 17. That in the Gospel is re∣vealed the Righteousness of God [justifying, as in the Law was revealed his righteousness or justice condemning] and that from faith [of immediate innixion upon God as was

Adams before his fall, and as was that which the Jews owned in God] to faith, in the righteousness of another: namely Christ. This way of justification he proveth first by shewing how far all men both by nature and action are from possibility of being justified of or by themselves, which he cleareth by the horrid sinfulness of the Heathen, Chap. 1. [a large proof of which might be read at Rome at that very instant:] and little less sinfulness of the Jews though they had the Law, Chap. 2. & 3. and therefore concludeth, Chap. 3. 30. that God justifieth the circumcision by faith [and not by works, as they stood upon it] and the uncircumcision through faith [for all their works that had been so abominable, and that seemed so contrary to justification.] In Chap. 4. he taketh up the example of Abraham, whom the Jews reputed most highly justified by his works, for they had this saying of him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Abraham performed all the Law every whit: but he pro∣veth that he found nothing by his own works, but by believing he found all. In Chap. 5. he proves the imputation of Christs righteousness for Justification, by the parallel of the imputation of Adams sin for condemnation: Not at all intending to assert that as many as were condemned by Adam, were freed from that condemnation by the death of Christ, but purposely and only to prove the one imputation by the other.

It was a strange doctrine in the ears of a Jew to hear of being justified by the righte∣ousness of another, therefore he proves it by the like, mens being condemned for and by the unrighteousness of another. Two close couched passages clear what he aimeth at: The first is in ver. 12. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the World, &c. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 As, properly requireth a So to follow it, as you may observe it doth, in ver. 15. 18, 19. but here there is no such thing expressed, therefore it is so to be under∣stood; and the Apostles words to be construed to this sense. Wherefore it is, or the case is here as it was in Adam, as by one man sin entred into the World, &c. there imputation, so here. The second is ver. 18. in the Original verbatim thus. As by the transgression of one, upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one, upon all men to justification of life. What, upon all men? Our Translation hath added some words to clear the sense, but the shortness of the Apostles style doth better clear his intent: namely to intimate imputation: as speaking to this purpose, As by the transgression of one there was that that redounded to all to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one there is that that redoundeth to all to justification of life: And to clear that he meaneth not that all that were condemned by Adams Fall were redeemed by Christ, he at once sheweth the descent of Original sin, and the descent of it for all the death and righteousness of Christ, Quae tamen profuerunt antequam fuerunt. Ver. 13. For till the Law sin was in the World: but sin is not imputed where there is no Law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses. By what Law was sin sin and did death reign, when the Law was not yet given? Namely by that Law that was given to Adam, and he brake, the guilt of which violation descends to all.

Having to the end of the fifth Chapter stated and proved Justification by faith, in Chap, 6, & 7, & 8. he speaks of the state of persons justified, which though they be not without sin, yet their state compared with Adams, even whilst he was sinless, it is far better then his: He invested in a created, finite, changeable humane righteousness; they in the righ∣teousness of God uncreate, infinite, unchangeable. He having the principles of his ho∣liness and righteousness in his own nature, they theirs conveyed from Christ: He having neither Christ nor the Spirit, but left to himself and his natural purity; they having both. See Chap. 8. 1, 2, 9, 10, &c.

At the nineteenth verse of Chap. 8. he begins upon the second mystery that he hath to treat upon, the calling of the Gentiles, whom he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The whole Creation, or Every Creature: by which title they also are called, Mark 16. 15. Colos. 1. 23. and he shews how they were subject to vanity of Idolatry and the delusions of the devil, but must in time be delivered from this bondage, for which deliverance they now groaned: and not they only, but they of the Jews also, which had received the first-fruits of the Spirit, long∣ed for their coming in, waiting for the adoption that is, the redemption of their whole body: for the Church of the Jews was but the child-like body, and accordingly their Or∣dinances were according to child-like age of the Church: but the stature of the fulness of Christs mystical Body, was in the bringing in of the Gentiles. Being to handle this great point of the Calling of the Gentiles and Rejection of the jews, he begins at the bottom, at the great doctrine of Predestination, which he handles from ver. 29. of Chap. 8. to Chap. 9. 24. and then he falls upon the other. That Israel stumbled at Messias and fell, seeking indeed after righteousness, but not his, but their own; and that they are cast away, but not all; A remnant to be saved, that belonged to the Election of Grace: As it was in the time when the World was Heathen, some of them that belonged to the Election, came in and were proselyted to the worship of the true God; so some of these, while all the rest of their Nation lie in unbelief. And in this unbelief must they lie till the fulness of the Gen∣tiles be come in, and then all Gods Israel is compleated.

The most that he salutes in the last Chapter, appear to have been of the Jewish Nation and the most of them [though now at Rome] yet some time to have been of Pauls com∣pany and acquaintance in some other place. The expulsion of the Jews out of Rome by Claudius Decree, might very well bring many of them into his converse, as well as it did Priscilla and Aquila whom he names first among them. Epenetus was one of his own con∣verts of Achaia; Mary had bestowed much labour on him, yet he hitherto had never been near Rome. He that would dispute the point of the first planter of the Gospel at Rome, might do well to make the first muster of his thoughts here: And whereas the Apostle speaks of the faith of the Roman Church as spoken of throughout the World, Chap. 1. ver. 8. it is very questionable whether he look to the times before the Decree of Claudius, or those since Claudius death, when all the scattered were returned again, and many of those that had come out unbelieving Jews had returned Christians thither; as I believe the case was of Aquila and Priscilla: and some converted in other places had now taken up their residence there, as Epenetus, Andronicus, and Junia, &c.

Those whose salutations he sendeth thither, may be the better judged of, who they were, by observing who were of his retinue at this time, which are named, Act. 20. 4. as 1. Timo∣thy, 2. Lucius, who seemeth to be Luke, called now by a Latine name, in an Epistle to the Latines. He was with Paul at Corinth at the sending away of the Epistle: for having mentioned the others that were gone to Troas, these saith he staied for us, joyning him∣self in Pauls company now going to Corinth. 3. Jason seemeth to be he that is called Se∣cundus, Acts 20. 4. the one his Hebrew name, and the other the same in Latine, for Se∣cundus is said to be a Thessalonian, and so was Jason, Acts 17. 7. 4. Sosipater here in all probability, he that is called Sopater of Berea there. 5. Tertius that wrote out the Epistle, it may be was Silas: an Hebrician will see a fair likelihood of the one name in the other, it being written in Hebrew letters 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: and the Hebrew names to the Romans are rendred in the Roman Idiome. 6. Gaius, the same in Greek with the ordinary Latine name Caius: it appears that he was a Corinthian, 1 Cor. 1. 13. and in that Paul here calls him, Mine host, and the Host of the whole Church: to the understanding of which, the observing of a custom of the Jews may give some illustration. Maymony in his Treatise concerning the Sabbath, speaking about that rite that they used of hallowing the Sabbath with a set form of words at his coming in, per. 30. hath this saying: This hallowing of the Sabbath may not be used, but only in the place where they eat: as for example, he may not use the hallowing words in one house, and eat in another. Why then do they use the hallowing word in the Syna∣gogue; Because of travellers that do eat and drink there. Where the Gloss upon the place comments thus, It is evident that they did not eat in their Synagogues at all, as it is apparent in the eleventh Chapter of Maymonies Treatise of Prayer, but in a house near the Synagogue: ••nd there they sat at the hearing of the hallowing of the Sabbath, &c. It may be observed from hence, that strangers and travellers were intertained in a place near the Synagogue [com∣pare Acts 18. 7.] which was a publick Xenodochion or receptacle of strangers, at the charge of the Congregation: which laudable custom is almost apparent was transplanted into the Christian Churches in those times: as compare such passages as those, Heb. 13. 2. Acts 15. 4. And possibly those Agapae or feasts of Charity spoken of in the Epistles of the Apostles, are to be understood of these loving and charitable entertainment of strangers. Jude ver. 12. These are spots in your feasts of Charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. False teachers travelling abroad undiscovered, and being intertained in these publick receptacles for strangers, and at the publick charge, would find there a fit oppor∣tunity for themselves to vent their errors and deceptions. In this sense may Gaius very properly be understood the Host of the whole Church, as being the officer or chief overseer im∣ployed by the Corinthian Church for these intertainments: In which also it was almost in∣evitable but some Women should have their imployment: according to which custom we may best understand such places as these, Phaebe a servant of the Church at Cenchrea, she hath been a succourer of many. Ver. 6. Mary bestowed much labour on us. And see 1 Tim. 5. 9, 10, &c. He speaketh also of other Women of whom he giveth this testimony, that they la∣boured much in the Lord, as Tryphena and Tryphosa and Persis, ver. 12. which may either be understood in the like sense: or if not so, of their great pains some other way for the honour and promotion of the Gospel, and benefit of the Saints and themselves: as by visiting and relieving the poor and sick, taking pains in following the Ministers of the Gospel, and venturing themselves with them: hiding and cherishing them in times of dan∣ger, and so venturing themselves for them: and so he saith Priscilla and Aquila for his life laid down their own necks, &c. He salutes three of his own kinsmen Andronicus and Ju∣nia and Herodion: the two first were converted before him, and were of note among the Apostles: either being of the number of the 70 Disciples, or eminent converts and close followers of Christ, or of the Apostles in those firsttimes. He calls them his fellow priso∣ners: but if he had called them his prisoners, it had been easier to have told when and how. For they were in Christ, whilst he was a persecutor: but when they were impriso∣ned

with him, after his conversion, is hard to find out. Among all that he salutes so kindly, where is Peter? If he were now at Rome how was he forgotten?

ACTS Chap. XX. Ver. 6.

And we came to them to Troas in five daies: Where we abode seven daies. And so to Ver. 17. of Chap. XXI.

FRom Philippi after Easter, he setteth away for Corinth, where he staied so little, that he came to Troas within five daies after the company was come thither which had gone before: for so are the five daies to be understood: not that Paul in five daies went from Philippi to Corinth and Troas, but that his company which was set out with him, but set directly for Troas, had staied but five daies at Troas, before he came up to them.

There he celebrates the Lords day and the Lords Supper, and preacheth and discourseth all night [a thing not altogether strange in the Jewish customs, Jerus. Sota fol. 16. 4. R. Mair was teaching profoundly all the night of the Sabbath in the Synagogue of Chamath] So that Euty∣chus sleeps and falls and is taken up dead, but recovered by miracle. The change and be∣ginning and end of the Christian Sabbath may be observed here.

When he goes now from thence, it is most likely it was the time when he left his Cloak, Books and Parchments with Carpus, 2 Tim. 4. 13. His Cloak: for he was now going among his own Nation in Judea: and there he was to wear his Jewish habit, and he left his Roman garb here, till he should come into those Roman quarters again. It may be, the Parchments were the Originals of those Epistles that he had already written: for that he sent tran∣scripts, and reserved the Original copies, may be collected from these passages, I Tertius who wrote out this Epistle, Rom. 16. 22. The salutation of me Paul with my own hand, 1 Cor. 16. 21. Col. 4. 18. which was the token in every Epistle, 2 Thes. 3. 17. for all the Epistle beside was written with another hand.

From Troas by several journeys he cometh to Miletum: and thither he sends for the El∣ders of the Church of Fphesus, which City was near at hand: But who were these? Not Timothy and Trophimus, for they were in his company already, and had been with him in his journey hither, but these twelve men upon whom he had laid his hands, and bestowed on them the Holy Ghost, and so fitted them for the Ministry, Acts 19. 6. and whomsoever besides Timothy had ordained into the Ministry whilst he was there.

Although the Ephesian and the rest of the Asian Churches, were but in an ill case at this time in regard of false doctrines and much Apostacy that had corrupted and cankared them, yet doth the Apostle foresee that the case will be worse and worse with them still, and that grievous Wolves should yet break in upon them: And this he concludeth, not only from the boldness that he was assured false teachers would use and assume to themselves when he was gone, but from those predictions of Christ that had foretold what sad Apostacy should occur, and what false teachers should arise before the great day of Jerusalem came, which was now coming on apace.

ACTS Chap. XXI. Ver. 17.

And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly, &c.

PAUL is now got to Jerusalem: And the first thing that we have to do about his story there, is to calculate the time and consider what Year it was when he came thither: and to prove if we can, that it was the second Year of Nero, according as we have superscribed that Year: for this is of import, as to the fixing of those Chronical Ob∣servations that we are to take up hereafter.

The common consent in all times, hath fixed his coming to Jerusalem and apprehension there to this Year, and yet amongst all that have so concluded upon it, there is none that hath given any one clear proof or evidence at all for such an assertion. Eusebius, Ado, Cassiodore, Baronius, Lorinus, and divers others are of this mind, yet whereupon they grounded their opinion is hard to find, nay it is hard to find among many of them, any that goeth about to shew any groundwork for it at all. It would therefore save a great deal of labour to take their consent without any more ado, and it might carry good credit with it, to go along with so general a tenet upon the word of so many Learned men: yet that we may not go altogether led blindfold by others, let these thing towards the proof of it be taken into consideration. And first let us draw a Chronicle of Nero's time.

NERO.

• I.
• II.
• III.
• IV. Poppaea becomes Nero's Paramour.
• V. Nero slaies his mother Agrippina.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII. Poppaea becomes Nero's Wife. Pallas dieth.
• IX.
• X. Albinus is Govern our of Judea.
• XI. Florus cometh in Governour instead of Albinus.
• XII. The first beginning of the Wars of the Jews.
• XIII.
• XIV.

Although these things affixed to the several Years of Nero, may seem very Heterogeneal to the thing we have in hand, yet we shall find them of good use when we have firstcleared their truth and certainty.

• 1. That Poppaea became Nero's Minion in his 4th. Year is apparent by Tacitus Annal. lib. 13. Sect. 12. where he placeth the beginning of their adulterous acquaintance A. U. C. 811. under the Consulship of Nero III. and Valerius Messala.
• 2. That Nero slew his mother Agrippina in his fifth Year, the same Tacitus also asserteth, lib. 14. Sect. 1. placing that fact A. U. C. 812. under the Consulship of C. Vipsanius, and Fon∣teius Capito.
• 3. The marrying of Poppaea to Nero, as his Wife, he placeth in his eighth Year. Annal. lib. 14. Sect. 9. viz. A. U. C. 815. under the Consulship of P. Marius, and L. Asinius: and in the same Year he placeth the death of Pallas.
• 4. The beginning of the Wars of the Jews in Nero's 12th. and the entrance of Gessius Florus into the Government, the Year before, is confirmed under this testimony of Josephus, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. ult. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Out of which how Baronius can bring the beginning of Florus his Go∣vernment to be in the tenth of Nero, as he doth, I understand not: for if the twelfth Year of Nero were Florus his second, then the eleventh was his first.

And now let us take in some things more, which we must apply to these times mentioned, to help us in the inquest we are about.

• 1. Josephus saith, that when Portius Festus came into Felix room in the Government of Ju∣dea, the chief of the Jews of Caesarea went to Rome to accuse Felix; and he had been certainly punished for his unjust dealing with the Jews, had not Nero been very favourable to him, at the intreaty of his brother Pallas, who was then very much in Caesars esteem. Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 7.
• 2. The same Josephus also speaking of the Government of Festus in Juden, he first men∣tioneth how he found the Country infested with rebels and robbers whom he overthrew: then he relateth how King Agrippa built his palace so at Hierusalem, as that it overtopt the Temple Courts: which the Jews disliking built a counterwall to hinder the prospect, that it should not view their service and actions in the Temple. At this Agrippa and Festus took distast, and Festus commanded that the wall should be pulled down: but the Jews desired they might send Agents to Rome about this matter, which they did. And when Nero heard the case, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. He did not only pardon the thing done: but he also consented to suffer the building so to stand: vouchsafing this at the intreaty of his Wife Pop∣paea, for she was devout, &c. Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8. Observe the last words, At the intreaty of his Wife Poppaea.
• 3. The same Josephus again relateth a journey of his own to Rome in these words: When I was six and twenty years old I went to Rome upon this occasion. When Felix was Gover∣nour of Judea, he sent certain Prists my near acquaintance, and very good men for a small cause to Rome to appear before Caesar. For whose deliverance I desiring to find some means went to Rome, and there by the means of a certain Jew, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. I came to be known to Poppaea Caesars Wife.

Baronius doth revile Josephus here as if he had forgot his own age: Videas in his [saith he] quae suae aetatis sunt, suo ipsius testimonio convinci, annoruni sex turpiter errantem. And wherein? Quia affirmat se agentem annum supra vigesimum sextum sub Faelice Judaea praeside Romam venisse. But Josephus saith no such word. He saith indeed that he went to Rome to labour the deliverance of some men that Felix had sent thither in the time of his Go∣vernment, but that Felix was in his Government when he went thither he saith not at all.

And now to take up what we have to observe upon these things that have been spoken.

• 1. It is true indeed, as Tacitus witnesseth, that Pallas the brother of Felix, who had been Claudius his great favorite, and so Nero's also in Claudius time, did wane and decrease somewhat in his favour in a very short time after his entrance into his reign: but he was not utterly laid flat, and out at all, till after Poppaea came into favour and amorousness, who forwarded the death of Agrippina, and the bringing down of those that were of her party as Pallas was. Therefore the power of Pallas with the Emperour seemeth to be expired in Nero's fifth year, in which Agrippina was slain. And by this account we cannot extend Felix his escape for his brother Pallas his sake, beyond Nero's fourth Year. For conside∣ring Poppaeas prevalency with the Emperour, when once she became his Paramour, and considering her detestation of Agrippina and her faction of which Pallas was the chief, we cannot cast Felix his discharge for Pallas his sake, beyond Nero's fourth.
• 2. Paul lay two years prisoner at Caesarea under Felix: Acts 24. 27. After two years Por∣tius Festus came into Felix room. Many are the conjectures about these two years. Ba∣ronius saith, it was Expleto biennio Neronis. Magister Historiae Scholasticae, saith it was Bi∣ennium ab accusatione Felicis a Judaeis. A Lapide cares not to think that Biennium hoc incho∣andum a praefectura Felicis in Judaea, nam ante illud praefuerat Trachonitidi Batanaeae & Gau∣lonitidi, &c. But it is most proper to hold, that these two years mean the time of Pauls being a prisoner under Felix from the time of his apprehension under Lysias the chief Captain, till Felix his going out of his Government: and so it is held by Beda, Beza, Sal∣meron, Onuphrius and others. And this is so proper and suitable to the intent and discourse of Luke, that it needeth no illustration or proof of it: and it is most agreeable to the Scrip∣tures manner of accounting in all other places.

These two things then being thus concluded on, it will follow that Pauls apprehension was in Nero's second, and Felix went out of Office in Nero's fourth, before Poppaea was yet got into her potency. And the accounting of Pauls two years imprisonment under Felix to be thus. At Pentecost in Nero's second he is apprehended, and at Pentecost in Nero's third he had been a year prisoner: and at Pentecost in Nero's fourth his two years are up: and that spring it was that Felix went out of Office, and went to Rome to make his answer, and Pallas his brother not yet utterly out of favour makes his peace. And now let us draw up the Chronology of Nero's time to the full, according to these evidences, and as referreth to our occasion.

[CHRIST. 55] [NERO. 1] Paul at Ephesus: Goeth to Macedonia, Creete, Greece, to Macedonia again, and wintreth in Nicopolis.

[CHRIST. 56] [NERO. 2] Paul at Macedonia till Easter: then goeth up to Jerusalem, and is ap∣prehended at Pentecost, and from that time till the year go out, is a prisoner.

[CHRIST. 57] [NERO. 3] Paul a prisoner all this year under Felix.

[CHRIST. 58] [NERO. 4] Felix removed. Festus cometh in: Paul shipped towards Rome, but wintreth by the way.

Poppaea in Nero's eye, and becomes his Minion.

[CHRIST. 59] [NERO. 5] Festus Governour of Judea. Paul after wintering in his journey, com∣eth to Rome, and this is the first year of his imprisonment there. Nero killeth his Mother Agrippina.

[CHRIST. 60] [NERO. 6] Festus Governour of Judea. Pauls second years imprisonment at Rome.

[CHRIST. 61] [NERO. 7] Festus Governour of Judea.

[CHRIST. 62] [NERO. 8] Festus Governour of Judea. Nero marrieth Poppaea.

[CHRIST. 63] [NERO. 9] Festus Governour: It may be Albinus came in sometime this year: and then was James the less slain this year.

[CHRIST. 64] [NERO. 10] Albinus Governour of Judea.

[CHRIST. 65] [NERO. 11] Florus Governour of Judea.

[CHRIST. 66] [NERO. 12] [CHRIST. 67] [NERO. 13] Florus Governour of Judea. The Wars begin.

[CHRIST. 68] [NERO. 14] Nero dieth, having reigned 13. years and 8. months.

ACTS Chap. XXI. from Ver 17. to the end of the Chapter.

PAUL cometh to Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost, when the City was now full of conconflux to that festival. He resorteth instantly to James the residentiary Apostle of the Circumcision, for holding correspondency sake; and there he shews him the man∣ner and fruit of his Ministry among the Gentiles. Which both by James and the Elders that were with him is well approved of, as to the thing it self: but they certifie him of what complaints they heard from the Jews against him, for crying down the rites of Moses, especially Circumcision, That thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gen∣tiles to forsake Moses, saying, that they ought not to circumcise their Children, ver. 21.▪ Now because thousands of the Jews which believed were yet zealous of the Law, this gave much offence. But did Paul teach thus or not? No doubt he did, and it behoved him so to do: nor does, nor can James except against the Doctrine: for though it is true that he and Paul and the other Apostles permitted compliance with some of the Jewish rites for peace sake for a while, as there is an example in this very place, yea Paul himself cir∣cumcised Timothy upon that reason; yet the use of Circumcision, as these that stood upon it, used it, was utterly inconsistent with the Gospel. Hear this Apostles Doctrine, Behold I Paul say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole Law, Gal. 5. 2. A converted Jew would have his Son circumcised: Paul asks him a reason; what can he answer, but it looks after some justification by it? as their own Authors speak their thoughts: He that is circumcised is perfect. And, He that is circumcised shall not go to Ge∣hinnom. And, I said unto thee, in thy blood live, Ezek. 16. 6. This is the blood of Circum∣cision, &c. Tanchum. in Gen. 17. & 18, &c.

They looked indeed upon Circumcision as an admission into the Covenant: and there∣upon the Father of the Child at his Circumcision constantly used these words, Blessed be thou O Lord our God who hast sanctified us by his Commandments, and commanded us to bring the Child into the Covenant of our Father Abraham. And they that stood by said, As thou hast brought him into the Covenant, so bring him into the Law and into the Bridechamber. Jerus. in Beracoth. fol. 13. col. 1. But withall they looked upon this Covenant as a Co∣venant of works, for, as we observed before, they reputed Abraham himself so justified. Good cause therefore had Paul to stand out against the convert Jews Circumcising their Children, as whereby the Doctrine of Justification by faith was utterly enervated and made of no effect. And here by the way let us conceive we heard Paul and one of these parents disputing upon this point. Circumcise not thy Child, saith Paul, for if thou dost thou laiest an obligation upon him to observe the whole Law: and this may note to us that the Sacrament carried an obligation with it, and obliged an Infant, though he knew not what Law or Obligation ment: Baptism is for Obligation as well as this, and a Child ca∣pable of the Obligation though he understood not what it means. I, but saies the Parent, I will not look upon it, as in way to Justification, I will only use it for the Childs admis∣sion into the Covenant of grace. If Infants Baptism were not now in use for such a pur∣pose, let one that denies it, tell me, what Paul had to answer.

James urgeth not Paul at all to any publick recantation of his Doctrine, but adviseth him, by purifying himself and Judaizing a little in the Temple, to give some publick te∣stimony for their satisfaction, that he was not such an enemy to Moses as he was reported: which he agreeth to. For the Temple rites might have better plea, while the Temple stood, then Circumcision, which was none of them. On the second or third day of his Purification, some Asian Jews raise a tumult against him. It is not so properly rendred, And when the seven daies were almost ended, ver. 27. as rather, And as the seven daies were to have been accomplished, the computing of these twelve daies mentioned Chap. 24, 11. in∣force that they should be so interpreted.

They found him in the second Court of the Temple the Court of the Women, whither no Heathen came [though they might come into the outer Court, called the mountain of the House] and thither they supposed and pretended that he had brought a Gentile, Tro∣phimus an Ephesian: For which he is fallen upon with that they called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The rebels beating stripes without number, the people falling pell mell upon him. Which was the way [as the Jews records inform us] that the Priests were dealt withal, that came into the next court above this, when any of them was deprehended there in their uncleanness: they never stood upon it, to bring him to judicial trial, but his fellows fell upon him, with the fagot sticks of the Altar, or what came to hand, and mawled him with blows without measure even unto death: And so had Paul been served now had not the Roman Commander come and been his rescue. Yet did he suppose him an offender, and questions him whether he were not that Egyptian that not long before that time had made an insurrection. Josephus giveth this story, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 6. thus. At

that time there cometh one to Jerusalem out of Egypt, pretending himself to be a Prophet: and he counselled the common people, that they should go with him to Mount Olivet, and that there he would shew them how at his command the walls of Jerusalem would fall: But Felix under∣standing this, sent some horse and foot against them, and slew 400 of them [our text here saies 4000.] and took two hundred prisoners.

ACTS Chap. XXII.

PAUL Apologizeth to the people: telleth his Education, Conservation and Con∣version: and relating how by a Divine Vision he was appointed to go to the Gen∣tiles, they begin a new commotion, which the chief captain again pacifieth; but yet thinks Paul some notable villain, or else that there would never have been so terrible cries against him: He would now have scourged him, but that he understood he was a Roman: there∣fore he turns to another course, and the next day brings him before the Sanhedrin. The sit∣ting of that Bench was little at Jerusalem now: For as we have observed, they were un∣nested from Jerusalem divers years ago, and their most constant residence at present was at Jabneh: only they were now come up to the Festival.

ACTS Chap. XXIII. & XXIV. to Ver. 27.

RAbban Simeon the Son of Rabban Gamaliel, Pauls Master, was President of the great Council at this time, for Gamaliel was dead some two or three years ago. Of him the Jews have this saying in Sotah per. 9. From the time that old Rabban Gamaliel died, the honour of the Law ceased; for till then they read and learned the Law standing, but after his death sitting. Onkelos the Targumist of the Law burnt a great quantity of frankincense for him at his Obsequies. Juchasin fol. 53. Whether Rabban Simeon the President were present at this Session or no, Ananias the High-priest is as busie as if he had been chief Pre∣sident himself: But Paul cares for him as little, as he busied himself much. He calls him whited wall, or arrant painted Hypocrite: And when he was checked for reviling Gods Highpriest, I know not brethren, saith he, that he is Highpriest: for if I took him for such a one, I would not so have spoken to him, since it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of my People. It is not possible that Paul should not know who and what Ananias was: but it is very indifferent, whether we understand this, as not owning this man for a lawful Highpriest, or not owning any lawful Highpriesthood now at all. The man base and usurp∣ing; and the Function of the Highpriesthood disanulled by the great Highpriest who had accomplished all that it typified, and the place of the Highpriesthood being become a com∣mon Merchandise, obtained by money and favour and dispatching one another.

By a holy policy he divides the Council, and professing himself by education a Pharisee, and of that belief in the point of the Resurrection, he not only sets Pharisees and Sadduces to a hot contestation between themselves, but he makes the Pharisees, so far as to that opi∣nion, to take his part: It had been possible to have set the Hillelian and Shammaean party together by the ears, by a bone handsomly cast between them, for the Council had these factions in it, and their feud was as deadly; but Paul could own no article of their divisi∣ons, that was worth his owning, they were so trivial and below his cognisance. It is the confession of the Jerusalem Gemarists in Joma fol. 38. col. 3. That the fault of their great ones under the second Temple was love of money, and hatred one of another.

Paul in the hubbub is rescued again by the Souldiery, and that night by revelation is war∣ranted to appeal to Caesar, by being informed he must go to Rome. A Conspiracy of a pack of cut-throats to murder him, is prevented, and he is sent to Caesarea to Felix, where he lies prisoner two years. By such packing and combining of murderers, it may easily be con∣jectured what temper the Nation was now in. Josephus his charecter of it at these times is, That the affairs of the Jews grew every day worse and worse, and that the Country was full of theeves and Sorcerers, but Felix was daily picking them up to penalty after their desert; the greater thief, the less; for his character yields him no better. Tacitus saies enough of him, when he speaks but this, Antonius Felix, per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit: Histor. lib. 5. cap. 2. Upon which Josephus will give you a large com∣ment of his intolerable covetousness, polling, cruelty, sacriledge, murdering, and all man∣ner of wickedness. His injuriousness to Paul in the story before us, and the very naming of his wife Drusilla may be brand enough upon him: for her, by inticements and magical tricks, he allured to himself from her Husband and married her. And him he kept prisoner two years wrongfully because he would not bribe him. In his pleading before him, he makes him tremble, but it is but a qualm and away.

[CHRIST. LVII] [NERO. III] PAUL is a prisoner this year at Caesarea under Felix. A great City of Jews and Greeks mixtly: the place where the first spark of Jews Wars kindled afterward. A famous University of Jews in time, if so be it was not so at this time.

[CHRIST. LVIII] [NERO. IV] ACTS Chap. XXIV. Ver. 27.

PAUL still a prisoner at Cesarea under Felix for the first part of this year: Then cometh Festus into the Government, and Felix packeth to Rome to answer for his misdemeanours.

ACTS Chap. XXV. & XXVI.

PAUL answereth for himself, first before Festus alone: then before Agrippa and his Sister Bernice: this Agrippa was his Son whose death is related Acts 12. he by the favour of Claudius the Emperour succeeded his brother in Law-Uncle Herod [for such relations did that Incestuous family find out] in the Kingdom of Chalcis. For Bernice his Sister had married Herod King of Chalcis her Uncle and his, who was now dead, and this Agrippa succeeded him in his Kingdom, being also King of Judea. Of this Agrippa, as it is most probable, there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Writers: as particularly this, that King Agrippa reading the Law in the latter end of the year of release, as it was injoyned, and coming to those words, Deut. 17. 15. Thou shalt not set astranger King over thee which is not of thy brethren, the tears ran down his cheeks [for he was not of the seed of Israel] which the Congregation observing, cried out. Be of good comfort O King Agrippa, thou art our brother. He was of their Religion though not of their blood, and well versed in all the Laws and Customs as Paul speaks, Chap. 26. 3.

Berenice his Sister, now a Widdow, lived with him, and that in more familiarity then was for their credit: afterwards she fell into the like familiarity with Titus the Son of Vespasian, when he came up to the Jews Wars. There is mention in Jerus▪in Taanith. fol. 66. col. 1. and again in Megillah fol. 70. col. 3. of the Scribes or learned Jews of Chalcis, against whom the people rose and tumultuated. [In the one place it is written 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the other 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] It may be they were of this Agrippa's planting there.

As Paul pleads for himself, Festus takes him to be beside himself: but Agrippa better ac∣quainted with those kind of things that he spake of, was much moved: and concludes that had he not appealed to Caesar, he might have been quit. What he did in this appeal was not a small thing, and it is very questionable whether ever Jew had appealed from their own Sanhedrin, to the Heathen Tribunal before. But for this he had a Divine Warrant.

ACTS Chap. XXVII.

PAUL shipped for Rome: and Luke with him, and Aristarchus a Thessalonian. Paul calls him his fellow-prisoner, Coloss. 4. 10. whether now or not till he came to Rome is a question: Trophimus an Ephesian is▪ also now with him, Acts 21. 29. whom he leaves sick at Miletum, as he passeth by those coasts of Asia, Acts 27. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 20. and there likewise he leaves Timothy. Who else of those that went with him to Jerusalem, Acts 20. 4. were now with him, is uncertain. It was now far in the year, and Winter entring, for the feast of expiation was over, so that they met with a tempestuous journey, and at last suffer ship∣wrack and swim for their lives, and do all escape. The Reader by the time of the writing of the second Epistle to the Corinthians, which he hath passed, will easily, see that what he speaks there, A day and a night have I been in the deep, 2 Cor. 11. 25. cannot be understood of his shipwrack now, but refers to some time a good while ago.

[CHRIST. LIX] [NERO. V] ACTS CHAP. XXVIII. from the beginning to Ver. 30.

PAUL and his company are the three winter months in Malta: where he doth some miracles. And when winter was now drawing over, they put to sea again, in an Alexandrian bottom, whose badge was Castor and Pollux: or the Picture of two young men on white horses, with either of them a javelin in his hand, and by him half an egge and a star: whom Heathenish folly and superstition conceited to have been twins begot∣ten by Jupiter, and Deities favourable to those that sailed on the sea. And this seemeth to have been the reason why Luke doth mention this circumstance, because he would inti∣mate the mens superstition, as expecting better sailing under this badge then they had had.

From Melita they sail to Syracuse in Sicilie, and there abide three daies. Form thence to Rhegium in Italy, and from thence to Puteoli: there they find Christians and stay with them seven daies: and then set away for Rome. At Appii Forum about Fifty miles from the City, some of the Roman Christians hearing of their coming, come to meet them: and at the Tres Tabernae, Thirty three from the City, they met with more: and so they injoy the society of one another some space together as they travel along, which was no small refreshing to Paul, who had desired so much and so long to see them.

SECTION XXVIII.

• Ver. 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his hired house, and received all that came to him.
• 31. Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Ie∣sus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

JULIUS the Centurion that had brought him and the rest of the Prisoners from Judea, had been his friend and favourer, from their first setting out, Chap. 27. 3. and so continued, even to the time of his setling in Rome: obtaining him this liberty, that he might take lodgings of his own, and there he was kept under a restraintless restraint: After three daies he sends for the Chief of the Jews, and laies open his case before them, and upon a day appointed he asserteth and expoundeth the truth and doctrine of the Gos∣pel, whereupon some believe, but others do the rather become his enemies.

His accusers that were come from Judea to lay in his charge against him [for we can hardly suppose otherwise, but that some such were come] would be urgent to get their business dispatched that they might be returning to their own homes again; and so would bring him 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. Superstiti∣onis 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 propaga∣ting of the Gospel, applieth himself to that work the best way he can, considering his con∣dition 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 ca••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 gene∣rally date it from Rome: Beza from Antioch: Erasmus from Ephesus, but all upon con∣jecture: 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 re∣turn 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 Epide∣mically infest the Churches, was but then beginning. And this is one reason why I sup∣pose it written from Rome, at this time that we are upon, because that gangrene in the Ea∣stern 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 Ju∣stification: 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 that performed it not, but plainly demon∣strated that none could perform it, and so left all under a curse: and these words, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, &c. conclude both. So that the Law was not given for justification, but to be subservient to the Covenant of Justification: not to cross the Covenant but to serve it, not purposely to leave under the curse, but to shew the curse, and to drive men to get from under it. So that men might live in it, but not by it. It was the way in which men were to go to seek for Justification, but it was not the cause or means whereby they were justified. See Gal. 3. 5. The Jews made the Moral Law cross to the Covenant of Grace, whilst they sought to be justified by works▪ and they made the Ceremonial

Law cross the Moral, whilest they resolved all duty into Ceremony: and so the Law which in it self was holy and pure and good, they turned to death unto themselves by their abuse. They might have lived in the Moral Law [had they used it aright,] though not by it: for the more a man sets himself to the exact performance of it, the more he sees he cannot perform it, and therefore he is driven the more to Christ: But they resolved all into Ce∣remonious performance, and so lost sincerity toward the Moral, and hereupon the Ceremo∣nial Law good in it self, became to them Statutes not good, and Judgments wherein they could not live, Exek. 20. 25.

From Rome also, and reasonable early in this year, Paul wrote THE EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY; and in it urgeth Timothy to come to him before Winter.

Timothy was now at Ephesus when this Epistle was directed to him, as may be observed out of the Epistle it self by these collections.

• 1. In that he willeth him to salute the houshold of Onesiphorus, Chap. 4. 19. who was an Ephesian, Chap. 1. 16, 18.
• 2. In that he biddeth him take Troas in his way as he comes to him, Chap. 4. 13. which had been the way that Paul himself had gone from Ephesus, 2 Cor. 2. 22. and to Ephesus again, Acts 20. 5.
• 3. In that he warneth him of Alexander, Chap. 4. 14. who was an Ephesian, 1 Tim. 1. 20. Act. 19. 33.

There is one passage in this Epistle, which hath caused some to doubt about the time of its writing [for about the place there is no doubt] and that is, what he saith, Chap. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand: which would make one think, that he was now ready to be martyred, and taken away, and it hath made some believe that this was the last Epistle that ever he wrote: but when we compare his own words again in ver. 17, 18. and Phil. 1. 25. and Philem. ver. 22. it maketh it past contro∣versie that he speaketh not of his sudden Martyrdoom, but that he is to be understood in some other sense. But what is that? Baronius giveth this gloss, The words of Paul concerning his speedy death, seem not possibly otherwise to be understood, then that God had revealed it to him, that he should suffer death under Nero. For that time might very well seem near which was to be fulfilled under the same Prince. I, but Nero for his age might have reigned 50 or 60 years after the Apostles writing of this Epistle, and so the last words of this gloss, are but a very poor salving: And indeed the resolution of the difficulty lieth open and con∣spicuous in the text it self. Paul looked upon Timothy as the prime and choice man that was to succeed him in the work of the Gospel, when he himself should be dead and gone: as being a young man, not only of singular qualifications for that work, but of whom there had been special Prophesies and predictions to such a purpose, 1 Tim. 1. 18. as was observed before. He exhorts him therefore in this place, to improve all his pains and parts to the utmost, to do the work of an Evangelist, and to make proof of his Mini∣stry to the full, for that he himself could not last long, being now grown old and worn with travel, and besides all this, in bonds at present, and so in continual danger: there∣fore must Timothy be ••itting himself daily to take his work up when he was gone.

With Timothy he desires that Mark may come along with him to Rome, whom we obser∣ved to be at Corinth at Pauls last coming thither: and one clause in this Epistle seemeth also to speak to that matter: Chap. 4. 20. Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus I left at Miletum sick. Erastus abode at Corinth; Why? that Timothy knew without any infor∣mation, for he was with Paul all along that journey when Erastus went to Corinth and staied there. And Trophimus I left at Miletum sick: Why? Timothy could not but know that too, without Pauls telling him so from Rome, Miletum and Ephesus were so very near together, nay it is more than probable that Timothy was left at Miletum too when Trophimus was left there. But when was he left? Not when Paul went towards Jerusalem, and sent for the Elders of Ephesus to Miletum, Acts 20. for Trophimus went, and was with him at Jerusalem, Acts 21. 19. But it was when Paul returned from Jerusalem in bonds to Rome, as hath been said, though it be not particularly mentioned that he touched there. Some would have the word Miletum to be read Mileta, among whom is Beza, who is ever one of the forwardest to tax the Text for corrupt, when he cannot clear it. Po••ius conjicio legendum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [saith he] quod vocabulum facile fuit in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 depravare. Luke saith plainly, that at Pauls coming away from Judea in his voyage to Rome, it was their resolution to sail by the coasts of Asia, Act 27. 2. which had been a far fairer ground to have concluded upon, that Paul was at Miletum in that voyage, since that was a part of those Asian coasts, then to change Miletum into Melita upon no ground at all. And certainly the very scope of the Apostle in that passage will not admit of that change: for he is not telling Timothy of Erastus his abode at Corinth, or of Trophimus his sick stay

at Miletum, as things unknown to him, but as things very well known, yet mentioned to him as making to the Apostles present purpose: He had sent for Timothy and Mark to come away to him to Rome, and to forward them to that journey, he doth these two things. 1. He sheweth how all his company was scattered from him, ver. 9. 10. and therefore he had need of them in that destitution. 2. He telleth how supply might be made in their places though they came away, for though Mark should come from Corinth, yet Erastus might be a supply, for Erastus abode there. And Timothy come away from Ephesus, yet Trophimus is there ready to supply his place, for Trophimus I left at Miletum sick.

By Tychicus who was the bearer of this Epistle to Timothy, Chap. 4. 12. Paul also send∣eth THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS; for it is apparent that he was in bonds when he sent that Epistle, Chap. 3. 1. and that he sent it by Tychicus, Chap. 6. 21. That ye may know mine affairs and how I do, Tychicus a be∣loved brother, and faithful Minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose.

In this Epistle he addresseth himself more especially to the convert Gentiles of the Ephe∣sian Church, to establish and settle them in the truth, against that warping and wavering that was now too common: and he setteth himself to unfold the mystery of the Gospel in its full luster, and discovery in a more special manner, and that especially in the two first Chapters, as he himself professeth in the third. By revelation God made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, ver. 3, 4.

He speaketh much of the mystery of the Gentiles calling, and calleth the Jews and Gen∣tiles knit in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sone of God, A perfect man, and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, Chap. 4. 13. In Chap. 5. 26, 27. speak∣ing of Christs washing the Church, that he might present it to himself without spot or wrinckle, &c. he seemeth to allude to the Jews exceeding great curiousness in their wash∣ings for purification. Maym. in Mikvaoth. per. 1. There must be nothing to interpose be∣tween the person that is washed and the water: for if there be any thing interposing betwixt him and the water, as if any clay or dough stick to his flesh, he is unclean as he was, and his washing profits him nothing. And a little after: If there be upon the flesh of a man or upon a vessel, any of those things that may interpose, as dough, pitch or the like, though it be no more then a grain of musterdseed, and he take it to thought, his washing profits him nothing.

What he saith in ver. 29. So ought Men to love their Wives even as their own bodies, is agreed to even by the Jews doctrine. Our Doctors teach, He that loves his Wife as his own body, and he that honours her more than his own body, and he that maketh his Sons to walk in a right way, &c. of such a one the Scripture saith, Thou shalt know that peace shall be in thy Ta∣bernacle, &c. Alphes. in Gittin per. ult.

[CHRIST. LX] [NERO. VI] WE are now come to the second year of Pauls imprisonment: in which he had the changeable and different occurrences, of loving visits and salutes from some Churches abroad, and cross dealing from some ill-willed at home: some sadness of heart by the sickness of Epaphroditus near unto death, but comfort and reviving again by his re∣covery. The Church of Philippi had sent him to visit Paul in their name, and to bring him some tokens of their love for his support and maintenance in his imprisonment: and the good man fell sick in Rome very like to die: upon his recovery and return home again, Paul sendeth by him THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS, written in his name, and in the name of Timothy, who according to his appointment was now come to him. He sheweth in this Epistle, that as there were some which preached the Gospel of sincerity, so were there other that preached of envy and contention, and so added affliction to his bonds: He was yet in bonds, but in some good hopes of delive∣rance, as he sheweth in Chap. 2. 24. for he saith he hoped ere long to send Timothy to them, and himself to come with him: but we shall observe ere long, that when Paul hath got his liberty, Timothy is got into prison, and so his journey for the present stopt.

He saluteth no Church in the platform of Bishops and Deacons, but only this: not but that there were Bishops and Deacons in other Churches as well as here, but it may be, he

doth it here the rather, because of the Contribution that the Bishops and Deacon: had gathered for him and sent to him: or because he would shew the platform of Office and Order in this Church of Philippi, which was purely Gentile, agreeable to that of the be∣lieving Jews Churches.

He giveth warning to beware of the heretical and unbelieving Jews, whom he cals dogs and the concision: and now the name they used to give to the Gentiles [Dogs] is light upon themselves. The very Talmudists speak as evil of that generation in which Messias should come as the Scripture doth, 2 Tim. 3. 1, &c. and among other things they say thus: When the Son of David cometh, the Synagogues shall become stews: Galilee shall be destroyed: Gablah shall be desolate [the Samaritan Version of the Pentateuch doth con∣stantly render Seir, Gabla] and the men of the border of Israel shall go from City to City, and the wisdom of the Scribes shall be abominated, and Religious persons shall be scorned: And the faces of that generation shall be as dogs. Talm. bab. in Sanhedr. fol. 97. He calls them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The concision: The word signifies such superstitious and vain and impious cuttings in the flesh as Heathens used: as 2 King. 18. 28, &c. No more doth he make of their Circumcision: the Greek word is used by the LXX. Levit. 21. 5.

He speaketh of one in Philippi whom he calleth his true yokefellow: alluding it may be either to the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by which the Jews did ordinarily express great professors of Re∣ligion: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a most ordinary phrase in the Jerusalem Talmud: Or the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 yokes or couples whereby they expressed the President and Vicepresident of the Sanhedrin, those famous couples Shemaiah and Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai, &c. Of whom it is that he speaketh, is undeterminable. Barnabas or Silas might best bare the title. Whosoever it was, it seemeth it was some worthy person who was at this time in that Church, whom he intreats to compose some differences that were then afoot; and to be helpful in some occasions and cases that he knew needful. It is not to be doubted but Epa∣phroditus, had acquainted him particularly with the state of the Church, and he applies his exhortations accordingly.

As the Church of Philippi had sent Epaphroditus to visit him, so did the Church of Co∣lossi send Epaphras one of their Ministers to do the like, Colos. 1. 7, 8. whereupon, by Ty∣chicus, who had been the last year at Ephesus to fetch Timothy, and returned with him to Rome, Col. 4. 7. and by Onesimus a Colossian, Col. 4. 9. Paul and Timothy send THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. The naming of Mark now with him, Chap. 4. 10. doth state the time of writing this Epistle, and fixeth it to this year; or else it would be easier for Tychicus his travel, to have supposed that he brought it the last year when he came to Timothy to Ephesus, and Colosse was not far off: but the observing of Marks being now at Rome, puts the matter out of doubt. And whereas it might be thought more likely, that Epaphras that came with the visit from the Church, should bring this return of Paul back again, it appeareth by Chap. 4. 12. that he staied still with Paul and was fellow-prisoner now with him, Philem. ver. 23.

The Colossians had never seen Pauls face, no more had the Laodiceans; for no less can be gathered from his own words, Chap. 2. 1. yet had he been a means by some of his agents to plant these Churches, or at least to afford them plentiful watering. The Apostles had su∣bordinate Ministers under them that they imployed to this purpose. I know not how the word Helps, 1 Cor. 12. 28. can be better understood.

The Laodiceans had sent him an Epistle [as the Corinthians had also done, 1 Cor. 7. 1.] and this is that Epistle that he speaketh of, Chap. 4. 16. See that ye reade likewise the Epistle from Laodicea. Not that he had written any Epistle from thence which is now lost, as is conceived by some, for he was never there, but it meaneth that Epistle which the Laodiceans had sent to him: Not that he would have it read, as of equal Divine authority with his own, but as a good copy and example to the Colossians. If any be not satisfied with this construction, we shall offer another when we come to the Epistles of John, rather then conceive, that any Epistle of Paul is lost, that was once read in the Churches.

Among those whose salutations he sends, he nameth Demas: who the last year was departed from him, and imbraced, as he thought, the present world. 2 Tim. 4. 10. but now is come in a good man again. The sparks of grace once kindled, can never be quenched, yea though not discernable to the eye of a Paul: which however raked up under the ashes by vehement temptation or corruption, yet covered with an everlasting decree, of everlasting love, are unextinguishable. The Act of grace, it is true, may be in a swone, and seem dead to the eyes of a Paul himself, whilst yet there is the habit in life: I mean that gracious changedness, which by regeneration is wrought in the soul, the stony heart tur∣ned into flesh, which though it may congeal into ice again, yet can never again congeal

into the stone it was. Fides qua apprehendens, its hand may slip, but ••ides qua apprehensa, his hand cannot slip that hath laid hold upon it.

By these same bearers Tychicus and Onesimus, by whom he sends the Epistle to the Co∣lossians, he also sends THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. For he was a Colossian, as appeareth by this that Paul calls Onesimus his servant one of the Colossians, Col. 4. 9. and Archippus which was Minister at Colosse, Col. 4. 17. seemeth to have been Philemons son, or at least to have sojourned in his house, Philem. ver. 2. In this Epistle he sendeth salutations from the persons he did in the Epistle to the Colossians. Epa∣phras, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas: only there is this difference about two of them, that here he calls Epaphras his fellow-prisoner, which there he did not, and there Aristarchus his fellow-prisoner which here he doth not: This doing of the Apostle need∣eth to breed no scruple, but it may rather justly be inquired how these men came prisoners. Aristarchus set out with Paul from Jerusalem, and he only is named of all his company, Act. 27. 2. either because he was a prisoner then as Paul was, or because the rest with Paul were his attendants and Ministers constantly with him, and therefore needed not to be named. Or if Aristarchus were not committed to prison till now, the consideration of Epaphras his case will include his: Epaphras came from Colosse but very lately, Col. 1. 7, 8. and how, and for what, is he now got into prison? For answer to this we may properly take in something out of the Roman story. Suetonius in the Life of Nero speaking of those times of his that carried some moderation, in which he was not broke out to his ex∣tream wickedness: and mentioning some things that he did and enacted that looked somewhat like a Reformation, he saith thus: Multa sub eo & animadversa severe, & coer∣cita, nec minus instituta: Adhibitus sumptibus modus: Publicae caenae ad sportulas redactae: Interdictum ne quid in popinis cocti, praeter legumina, aut olera veniret, cum antea nullum non opsonii genus proponeretur. Afflicti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novae & maleficae. This last particular is it that we have to deal with; The Chri∣stians were put to punishment, a sort of men of a new Religion, &c. Suet. in Nerone cap. 16.

Tacitus in the Life of the same Tyrant telleth of a dreadful fire that befel in Rome in the tenth year of his reign, [of which we shall speak when we come there] which common report buzzed and rumored up and down that he had kindled. Abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos, & quaesitissimis paenis affecit, quos per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos appellat. Nero to stop that report, brought in as guilty those who were called Christians, and tortured them with exquisite torments. The author of that name was Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate. Repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio, rursus erumpebat, non modo per Judaeam, originem ejus mali, sed per urbem etiam; quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt, celebranturque. Igitur primo correpti qui fateban∣tur, &c. For the Englishing of this, the words repressa in praesens will breed some dispute; as doubtful, whether they mean that the Christian Religion was suppressed by Nero at that time when he inflicted those tortures upon them, pretending them guilty for firing the City, which was in his tenth year, but it brake out again after, for all that suppressi∣on; or that they mean, that that Religion had been suppressed in former time, but now by that tenth year of Nero was broken out again, and he falls upon it anew. The words you may wind to whether construction you will, construing them either, That dangerous superstition suppressed for the present broke out again: or That dangerous superstition ha∣ving been suppressed for a time, was broke out again; or, that had been suppressed till the pre∣sent: Now though there be this dubiousness in that phrase, yet the observation of these things may state it, that there was some such suppression of Christianity before that open persecution that broke out in his tenth year. 1. Because Sueton speaks of his afflicting the Christians, as done in his way of Reformation of Religion, and that in his good times when he was not grown a monster, and not by way of crimination of them, or for the salving of his own credit as he did in his tenth year. 2. There is mention of Pomponia Graecina tried for her life, about the beginning of Nero's reign, for matter of Religion as we mentioned before. 3. This imprisonment of Epaphras, and it may be of Aristarchus, at this time, and certainly of Timothy presently after, may also confirm it▪ for what should these men be imprisoned for but for Religion? It is very probable there∣fore that Nero had by some Act or Edict suppressed Christianity, not only at Rome, but also in Judaea, as it seemeth by that clause in Tacitus, Rursus erumpebat non modo per Ju∣daeam, &c. and if so, that might be a forwarder of that defection that was so general in the Churches of the Jews that had received the Gospel; they falling to Moses again, or joyning the adhesion to the Law with the profession of the Gospel: for thus h••∣ding their Christianity, they might retain their liberty of their Christianity such as it

was, the Religion of the Jews not being at all suppressed by him: However, if there were such a suppression at Rome, as it is very like there was, Pauls deliverance from the Lions mouth, was the more remarkable, since he was to answer not only to his accusers about his profession, but before a judge that was prejudiced against it so deeply.

But since we have heard of no stirring at Rome of all this time to such a tune, nor any mention of any imprisoning but only of Paul, how comes the matter to wax so hot now, since Nero's heat against any Christianity seemeth to have been some years, or at least a good while ago? Here we cannot but remember that passage in the Epistle to the Philippians so lately written: Philip. 1. 15, 16. Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one preach Christ of contention not sincerity, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. By which it may be conjectured, that some enemies of Pauls and his companies, taking opportunity of Nero's declaration against Christianity did bussle and make ado in preaching the Gospel, aiming at nothing more then this, that hereby the ringleaders in the Gospel Paul and his company [as no doubt they were noted so to be] might be the more narrowly looked after: and this might well be some occasion of the imprisonment of Epaphras and Timothy at this time, and of Aristarchus, if so be he were not a prisoner before.

[CHRIST. LXI] [NERO. VII] THIS year is Timothy a prisoner, and Paul himself at liberty, for his two years im∣prisonment expired the later end of the last year or the beginning of this. You have intimation of this, Heb. 13. 23. where he saith, Know ye, that our brother Timothy is set at liberty: with whom if he come shortly I will see you: For I cannot interpret the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 otherwise then in reference to restraint; and then we may out of this passage observe that Timothy had been a prisoner, and that the Hebrews had known of his imprisonment, but now he was at liberty, and Paul too, ready to come away with him when he should come. He had written to the Philippians that he hoped shortly to send Timothy to them, Philip. 2. 19. and to Philemon to provide a lodging for him, for he ho∣ped ere long to come into those parts, Philem. ver. 22. By which we may conclude, that upon his inlargement he intended not to have staid long at Rome, or that Timothy at the least should not have been long from them, but that his imprisonment, as it proved, hin∣dred them both. Therefore we may not cast his commitment beyond this year; but how long he lay under restraint we cannot tell, only we may conceive him at liberty the next, for in that year we suppose the writing of the Epistle to the Hebrews which speaks of his inlargement.

In our thoughts about Nero's suppressing Christianity, and these mens bonds there∣about, we may also look with admiration at the wondrous workings of God: observe, that even at these times there was Christianity in Nero's houshold, Phil. 4. 22.

This year some occurrences befalling in this our own Country of England, though they are besides the argument that we are upon, yet may they not unfitly be taken into men∣tion for Countries sake. Suetonius Paulinus was now General for the Romans here. He assails to take the Isle of Man, Incolis validam & receptaculum perfugarum, saith Tacitus: Strong in the inhabitants and a refuge for fugitives. He bringing on his men near the shore, finds an Army guarding and ready to forbid his landing. Among the men, there were wo∣men running up and down; In modum furiarum, veste ferali, crinibus dejectis faces praefere∣bant. Like furies in a dreery garb, with their hair about their ears, and they carried torches. The Roman souldiers for a while stood amazed at such a sight, but at last falling on they enter and destroy them, and possess and Garrison the Island. Excisi{que} luci saevis superstitionibus sacri; Nam cruore captivo adolere aras, & fibris hominum consulere Deo fas habebant. And they cut down the groves that were devoted to bloody superstition: For they used to sacrifice cap∣tives at their Altars, and to look into their inwards by way of auguration.

It is a remarkable and true saying of Pliny concerning Italy or Rome, That it was a Country Quae sparsa congregaret imperia, ritusque molliret, & tot populorum discordes feras∣que linguas sermonis commercio contraheret ad colloquia, & humanitatem homini daret. Nat. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which in short is this, that it civilized the world, and taught barbarous Nations humanity. A strange assertion, if we consider the barbarous bloodiness and su∣perstitions of the Romans themselves; yet if we look upon the thing it self, it is very true, they being a people of Learning, Discipline and Education, and planting these wheresoever they got footing. And this was one means in the Lords providence, whose ways are past finding out, to harrow the worlds ruggedness, and to fit it the better for the sowing of the Gospel. In what temper our Land of Brittain was, as to civility, before

they came in, may be guessed by this garb of the Isle of Man, so near relating to it, if we had no more evidence.

Whilest Suetonius was thus busied here, he hears of a revolt and rebellion in Brittain, caused partly by the cruel exaction of Decimus Catus the Governour, who revived some impositions that Claudius the Emperour had remitted, partly by the grinding usury and exactions of Seneca, who having put them, even unwilling, to take vast sums of money of his, to most unsufferable usury, he now called it and the use in, with all extremity and mercilesness: And partly by an unhappy obsequiousness of Prasuiagus King of the Iceni, or at least by an unhappy abusing of his obsequiousness: For he dying, and leaving Nero and his own two daughters his heirs by Will, the Roman Centurions as in claim to Nero's Legacy; ransack and catch all they can, and pull his Kingdom all to pieces, and abuse his wife and two daughters barbarously and inhumanely: and spare not either his friends, kindred or Nobles. This stirs all to commotion, which is eagerly prosecuted by Bondicea or Bunduica the widow of the King deceased, in so much that they destroy the Colony at Camalodunum, the Roman Garrison and associates at London, and the like at Verulam: in all to the number of 70000 persons: Suetonius at last comes in, and fights them, they being near upon 230000 in arms under Bunduica, he routeth them, slays about 80000 of them: Bunduica for vexation poisons her self: and the Roman destroies with sire and sword all the Towns before him that were of the adverse party, or adhered to it: Divers prodigies are mentioned by the Historians, that relate these bloody occur∣rences as presages of it: as the Sea bloody, strange voices and howlings heard, sights seen in the Thames, of houses under water, a Colony overturned, &c.

[CHRIST. LXII] [NERO. VIII] PAVL in the Epistle to the Colossians, Chap. 4. 10. intimateth that Mark, who was then with him at Rome, was likely ere long to come to them into the East, and he willeth them to receive him as from him, though there had once been disagreement be∣twixt Mark and him. Whether Timothy's imprisonment delayed Mark's journey, may be some question: for Paul having sent for them two to come to him together, 2 Tim. 4. 11. it is like he could ill part with the one, when the other was made useless to him by re∣straint: and so we have some cause to suppose, that while Timothy was in prison, Mark remained with Paul. However, whensoever it was that he went for the East, we have this reason to think that Paul wrote and sent by him THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS: And that he having delivered it where Paul had appointed him, went away to Peter to Babylon in Chaldaea, because Peter there, mentioneth Mark now with him, 1 Pet. 3. 15. And this Epistle, 2 Pet. 3. 15.

It is observable that these two great Apostles Peter and Paul the several Ministers of the Circumcision and Uncircumcision, had their interchanged agents: Sylvanus or Silas, Pauls Minister, resident with Peter, and imployed by him to carry his first Epistle: 1 Pet. 5. 12. And Mark, Peters Minister, resident with Paul, 2 Tim. 4. 11. Col. 4. 10. and, very probably, imployed by him to carry this Epistle to the Hebrews. And thus in the interchanged agen∣cies of their Ministers, the parties with whom they had to deal, might own the joynt agreement of both the Apostles.

Although we dare not punctually assert either the bearer of this Epistle, or the exact time of its writing, yet that it was written and sent about these times that we are upon, may be observed by these two boundaries that shut it up within some reasonable compass of the time hereabout. First, A parte ante, or that it could not be written much sooner then this, may be concluded by this, that Timothy had gone through his imprisonment and was now inlarged before its writing, Heb. 13. 23. And secondly, A parte post, or that it could not be written much after this time, may be observed from that passage Chap. 12. 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood. For presently after this bloody times came on.

That it was written by Paul, hath not only the concurrent consent of all Copies and Translations, but even this proof for it, That none can be named A prisoner, Chap. 10. 34. and in Italy, Chap. 13. 24. and in so near converse with Timothy, Chap. 13. 25. [as the Au∣thor of this Epistle was] so likely as Paul.

His not affixing his name to this, as he had done to his other Epistles, doth no more deny it to be his, then the first Epistle of Johns is denied to be Johns upon the same

account: especially considering that the name of the Apostle of the uncircumcision, would not sound so well before an Epistle to the Circumcised: and yet the more still, be∣cause he sent it by Mark [for so we cannot but suppose] who was a Minister of the Mi∣nister of the Circumcision, and who could easily inform them of the Writer.

Unto what part of the Jewish Nation he sendeth the Epistle under the indorsement To the Hebrews, and why that indorsement To the Hebrews rather then To the Jews, may be a useful and a needful Quaere. It cannot be imagined but that he sendeth it to be delive∣red at a certain place within some reasonable compass, because it was impossible for the bearer, whosoever he was, to deliver it to all the Jews dispersion, and because in Chap. 13. 23. he saith that when Timothy came, he would come with him, and see them. There∣fore the title The Hebrews must determine the place, since there is nothing else to deter∣mine it. A double reason may be given why he so stileth them rather then Jews; name∣ly, either because the name Jew was now beginning to become odious; or rather be∣cause he would point out the Jews that dwelt in Judea, or the Land of Israel. And this sense doth the Holy Ghost put upon the title the Hebrews, Act. 6. 1. where it is said, There was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews: By The Hellenists meaning the Jews that dwelt in forreign Countries among the Greeks, and by The Hebrews those that dwelt in Judea. And so it is most proper to understand the inscription of this Epistle, namely that Paul directs, and sends it to the believing Jews of Judea: a people that had been much ingaged to him for his care of their poor, getting collections for them all along his travels, and Mark [whom we suppose the bearer of this Epistle] had come in to his at∣tendance, and to the attendance of his Uncle Barnabas, when they had been in Judea to bring almes unto those Churches, Act. 11. & 12.

It is not to be doubted indeed that he intendeth the discourse and matter of this Epistle to the Jews throughout all their dispersion [and therefore Peter writing to the Jews of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Asia, applies it as written to them, 2 Pet. 3. 15.] yet doth he indorse it, and send it chiefly to The Hebrews or the Jews of Judea, the principal seat of the Circumcision, as the properest center whither to di∣rect it, and from whence it might best diffuse in time to the whole circumference of their dispersion.

He hath to deal in it mainly with those things that the Jewish writers commonly call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Ordinances affixed to the Land, or such Ceremonious part of their Religion, as while it stood, was confined to the Land, as Temple, Sacrifice, Priest∣hood, &c. Therefore it was most proper to direct his speech in its first bent, to those that dwelt in the Land, and were most near to those things, and who in those Apostati∣zing times that then were, had the nearest occasion and temptation to draw them back from the purity of the Gospel to those rites again.

Unto that doubtfulness that some have taken up about the Original Tongue of this Epistle, as thinking it very improper that he should write in the Greek Tongue to the Hebrews, especially to the Hebrews in Judea, we need no better satisfaction then what the Hebrews themselves, yea the Hebrews of Judea may give to us, I mean the Jerusalem Ge∣marists, from several passages that they have about the Greek language.

In Megillah, fol. 71. col. 2. they say thus, There is a tradition from ben Kaphra, God shall inlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem: For they shall speak the language of Japhet in the tents of Sem. The Babylon Gemara on the same Treatise fol. 9. col. 2. re∣solves us, what Tongue of Japhet is meant; for having spoken all along before, of the ex∣cellency and dignity of the Greek Tongue it concludes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The very beauty of Japhet shall be in the tents of Sem.

Our men first named, say further thus: Rabbi Jonathan of Beth Gubrin saith, There are four Languages brave for the world to use, and they are these: The Vulgar, the Roman, the Syrian, and the Hebrew, and some also add the Assyrian: Now the question is, What Tongue he means by the Vulgar? Reason will name the Greek as soon as any; and Midras Tillin, makes it plain that this is meant; for fol. 25. col. 4. speaking of this very passage [but al∣ledging it in somewhat different terms] he nameth the Greek which is not here named. Observe then that the Hebrews call the Greek the Vulgar Tongue.

They proceed, ibid. col. 3. It is a tradition. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel saith, In books they permitted not, that they should write, but only in Greek. They searched, and found, that the Law cannot be interpreted compleatly but only in the Greek. One once expounded to them, in the Syriack, out of the Greek. R. Jeremiah in the name of R. Chaijah ben Basaith, Aquila the proselyte interpreted the Law, before R. Eliezer and before R. Joshua. And they ex∣tolled him and said, Thou art fairer then the children of men.

And the same Talmud in Sotah fol. 21. col. 2. hath this record. Rabbi Levi went to Cae∣sarea, and heard them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 rehearsing their Phylacteries Hellenistice, or, in the Greek Tongue. A passage very well worth observing: For if in Caesarea were as learned Schools as any were in the Nation; And if their Phylacteries [pickt sentences

out of the Law] might above all things have challenged their rehearsal in the Hebrew Tongue, as their own writers shew, yet they say them over in Greek, Paul might very well write to the Hebrews in Judea in the Greek Tongue, when that Tongue was in so common a use even in an University of Judea it self.

To these testimonies for the Greek Tongue, might be added, that which is spoken in the Treatise Shekalin, per. 3. halac. 2. Upon the three Treasure Chests of the Temple were written Aleph, Beth, Gimel. But Rabbi Ismael saith, It was written upon them in Greek, Alpha, Beta, Gamma: They that hold that this Epistle, and the Gospel of Matthew were written in Hebrew, should consider how that Tongue was now a stranger to all but Scho∣lars, and how God in his providence had dispersed and planted the Greek Tongue throughout all the world, by the conquest of Alexander, and the Grecian Monarchy; and had brought the Old Testament into Greek by the Septuagint.

As this Apostle in all his Epistles useth exceeding much of the Jews Dialect, Language, Learning, allusion and reference to their opinions, traditions and customs; so doth he more singularly in this, and he doth moreover in a more peculiar manner apply himself, to their manner of argumentation and discourse. For his intent is, if he can, to argue them into establishment, against that grievous Apostacy that was now afoot: so many re∣volting from the purity of the Gospel, either to a total betaking themselves to Moses again, or at least mixing the Ceremonious rites of the Law with the profession of the Gospel. Comparing his style here, with the style of discourse and arguing in the Tal∣muds, Zohar and Rabboth, and such like older writings of the Jews, you might easily tell with whom he is dealing though the Epistle were not inscribed in syllables, To the He∣brews: and the very stile of it may argue a Scholar of Gamaliel, but now better taught and better improving his learning then that Master could teach him.

He first begins to prove the Messiah to be God, and Jesus to be he: about the former of which, the Jews mistook, and about the latter they blasphemed. In proving the for∣mer, he among other places of Scripture, produceth that of Psal. 102. 25. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, &c. To which a Jew would be ready to answer, I but this is to be understood of God the Father; and how could this ob∣jection be answered? Tes, even by their own concessions, upon which he argueth in this place. For they understood that in Gen. 1. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, of the Spirit of Christ, and so do they interpret it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 This is the Spirit of Messias: as their mind is spoken in that point by Zohar, Berishith Rabba, and divers others. If the Spirit of Christ then, was the great agent in the Creation, by their own grant, they could not but grant this allegation to be proper.

He sheweth Christ therefore greater then Angels, as in other regards, so into whose hands was put the world to come, Chap. 2. 5. and here the phrase is used in the Jews dialect, for the Kingdom of Messias, as we mentioned before.

He proveth him a greater Lawgiver then Moses, a greater Priest then Aaron, and a greater King and Priest then Melchisedek: He sheweth all the Levitical Oeconomy but a shadow, and Christ the substance, and the old Covenant to be abolished, by the coming in of a better: By the old or first Covenant meaning the Covenant of peculiarity, or the administration of the Covenant of Grace so, as whereby Israel was made a peculiar and distinct people. This Covenant of peculiarity they brake as soon almost as they had ob∣tained it, by making the golden Calf, and thereupon follows the breaking of the two Tables in sign of it: for though the Law written in the two Tables was Moral, and so concerned all the world, yet their writing in Tables of stone for Israel, and committing them to their keeping, referreth to their peculiarity. To his handling of the fabrick and utensils of the Tabernacle and contents of the Ark, Chap. 9. Talm. Jerus. in Shekalim. fol. 49. col. 3, 4. and Sotah fol. 22. col. 3. may be usefully applied, for illustration. He hinteth the Apostasie now afoot, which was no small induction to him of the writing of this Epistle, and sheweth the desperate danger of it, Chap. 6. 4, 5, &c. and Chap. 10. 26, 27, &c. In which his touching of it, we may see how far some had gone in the Gospel, and yet so miserably far fallen from it, as that some of them had had the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, and yet now sinned willingly and wilfully against it. In describing their guilt, one of his passages that he useth, is but harshly applied by some, Chap. 10. 29. [Hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant where∣with he was sanctified an unholy thing:] when they say that this horrid Apostate wretch, that treads Christ under foot, was once sanctified by the blood of Christ: whereas the words mean, Christs being sanctified by the blood of the Covenant, according to the same sense that Christ is said to be brought again from the dead, by the blood of the Co∣venant, in this same Epistle, Chap. 13. 20. And the Apostle doth set forth the horrid im∣piety of accounting the blood of the Covenant a common thing, by this, because even the Son of God himself was sanctified by it or set apart as Mediator: And so should I un∣derstand the words, He hath trodden under-foot that Son of God, and counted the blood

of the Covenant by which he the Son of God was sanctified, an unholy thing. He magnifieth faith, against those works that they stood upon and sought to be justified by, and sheweth that this was the all in all with all the holy men both before the Law and under it. When he gives them caution, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, &c. Chap. 12. 16. he doth not only speak according to the common tenet of the Nation, that Esau was a fornicator, as see Targ. Jerus. in Gen. 25. but he seemeth to have his eye upon the Nicolaitan doctrine that was now rise, that taught fornication: to which he seemeth also to refer, in those words, Chap. 13. 4. Marriage is honoura∣ble, &c.

And now henceforward you have no more story of this Apostle: what became of him after the writing of this Epistle it is impossible to find out, by any light that the Scrip∣ture holdeth out in this matter. The two last verses but one of this Epistle, trace him as far forward as we can any way else see him, and that is but a little way neither. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom if he come shortly I will see you. By which words these things may be conjectured. 1. That after his inlargement out of bonds, he left Rome, and preached in Italy. He mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans, his de∣sire and intent to go preach in Spain, Rom. 15. 24. but that was so long ago, that he had now found some just cause [so much time intervening] to steer his course another way. For 2. It appears that when he wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, he intended very short∣ly to set for Judea, if so be he sent the Epistle to the Jews of Judea as hath been shewed most probable he did. So that trace him in his intentions and hopes, and you find him purposing to go to Philippi, Phil. 2. 23, 24. Nay yet further, to Colosse, Philem. ver. 22. Nay yet further into Judea. It is like that the Apostacy and wavering that he heard of in the Eastern Churches, shewed him more need to hasten thither then to go westward. 3. He waited a little to see whether Timothy now inlarged would come to him in that place of Italy where he now was: which if he did, he intended to bring him along with him: but whether they met and travelled together, or what further became of either of them, we shall not go about to trace, lest seeking after them we lose our selves.

[CHRIST. LXIII] [NERO. IX] IT hath been observed before, how probable it is that Albinus came into the Govern∣ment of Judea in Festus room, in this ninth year of Nero. And if so, then was James the Apostle who was called James the less martyred this year; Josephus gives the story of this, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8.

Caesar, saith he, understanding the death of Festus, sendeth Albinus governour into Iudea. And the King [Agrippa] put Ioseph from the High∣priesthood, and conferred it upon Ananus the son of Ananus. Now this Ananus junior was ex∣treme bold and daring, and he was of the sect of the Saduces, which in judging are most cruel of any of the Iews. Ananus therefore being such a one, and thinking he had got a sit opportu∣nity, because Festus was dead and Albinus was not yet come; he gets together a Council, and bringing before it Iames the brother of Iesus, who was called Christ, and some others, as transgressors, he delivered them up to be stoned: But those in the City that were more mode∣rate, and best skilled in the Laws, took this ill, and sent to the King privately, beseeching him to charge Ananus that he should do so no more. And some of them met Albinus as he came from Alexandria, and shewed him how it was not lawful for Ananus to call a Council without his consent. Whereupon he writeth a threatning Letter to Ananus. And King Agrippa for this fact put him from the Highpriesthood when he had held it but three months, and placed Iesus the son of Damneas in his room.

THE EPISTLE OF JAMES.

Although therefore, the certain time of his writing this Epistle cannot be discovered, yet since he died in the year that we are upon, we may, not unproperly, look upon it as written not very long before his death. And that the rather, because by an expression or two he intimates the vengeance of Jerusalem drawing very near. Chap. 5. 8, 9. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh; and, Behold the Judge standeth before the door. He be∣ing the Apostle residentiary of the Circumcision in Judea, could not but of all others be chiefly in the eyes of those that maliced the Gospel there, and the Ministers of it. So it could not but be in his eye, to observe those tokens growing on apace that his Master had spoken of, as the forerunners and forewarners of that destruction coming: False Prophets, Iniquity abounding, Love waxing cold, betraying and undoing one another, that he could not but very surely conclude, that the Judge and judgment was not far from the door.

Among other things that our Saviour foretelleth should precede that destruction, this was one. Matth. 24. 14. This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all Nations, and then shall the end come. And so did the Gospel reach all the twelve Tribes, as well as other Nations, even the ten Tribes, as well as the other two. Therefore James a Minister of the Circumcision, doth properly direct this Epistle to all the twelve Tribes scattered abroad.

The whole Nation was at this time, some at the very height of unbelief and cross∣ness against the Gospel, and others at the very depth of suffering for it: therefore he comforts the one, Chap. 1. and denounceth their just doom against the other, Chap. 4. & 5. He striveth to beat down four things especially, which were not only unbecoming the Christian profession, but even enemies against it. The first was, estimating men according to their gorgeous outside, and so the poor preachers and professors of the Gospel were contemned. Secondly, Their having many Masters or Teachers, whereby errors and schisms were easily scattered and planted among them, and much mischief done by un∣bridled tongues. Thirdly, Their reliance upon their historical faith, they thinking that enough, and neglecting to bring forth the fruits of a faith saving and lively. And lastly, Their common and vain oaths, to which the Jewish Nation, and that by the lenity, and toleration of their own Canons, was exceeding loose.

In the close of the Epistle, he speaketh of the Elders anointing the sick with oyl, Chap. 5. 14. which may receive some explication from these things observed in their own writings.

1. That anointing with oyl was an ordinary medicinal application to the sick. Talm. Jerus. in Beracoth. fol. 3. col. 1. R. Simeon the son of Eleazar permitted R. Meir to mingle wine and oyl, and to anoint the sick on the Sabbath. And he was once sick, and we sought to do so to him, but he suffered us not.

Id. in Maasar Sheni. fol. 53. col. 3. A tradition. Anointing on the Sabbath is permitted. If his head ake, or if a scall come upon it, he anoints with oyl.

Talm. Bab. in Joma fol. 77. 2. If he be sick, or scall be upon his head, he anoints according to his manner, &c.

Now if we take the Apostles counsel as referring to this medicinal practice, we may construe it, that he would have this Physical administration to be improved to the best advantage, namely that whereas Anointing with oyl was ordinarily used to the sick, by way of Physick, he adviseth that they should send for the Elders of the Church to do it; not that the anointing was any more in their hand then in anothers, as to the thing it self, for it was still but a Physical application, but that they with the applying of this corporal Physick, might also pray with and for the patient, and apply the spiritual Physick of good admonition and comforts to him. Which is much the same, as if in our Nation, where this physical anointing is not so in use, a sick person should send for the Mini∣ster at taking of any Physick, that he might pray with him and counsel and comfort him: Or

2. It was very common among the Jews to use charming and anointing together, of persons that were sick of certain maladies: of this the Jerus. Talm. speaketh in Schab. fol. 14. col. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A man that one charmeth, he putteth oyl upon his head and charmeth. And a little after, is related what they charmed for, as for an evil eye, serpents, scorpions, &c. And in col. 4. is mentioned how one charm∣ed over a sick person in the name of Jesu Pandira. Now this being a common wretched custom to anoint some that were sick and to use charming with the anointing, this Apostle [seeing anointing was an ordinary and good Physick, and the good use of it not to be extinguisht for that abuse] directs them better, namely to get the Elders or Ministers of the Church to come to the sick, and to add to the medicinal anointing of him, their god∣ly and fervent prayers for him, far more available and comfortable then all charming and inchanting, as well as far more warrantable and Christian.

[CHRIST. XLIV] [NERO. X] THIS year [C. Lecanius and M. Licinius being Consuls] befel that sore fire in Rome, [of which some touch was given before] the sorest that ever had befallen the City, and which made such desolation, That whereas the City was divided into fourteen great Wards [they are the words of Tacitus] only four of the fourteen stood sound: For three were clean burnt down to the ground: and as for the other seven they were all tattered and half consumed, and but a few reliques of houses remained.

It was commonly thought and talked, that Nero himself had the chief hand in kindling and carrying on of this mischief; instigated thereunto either by his own inhumane and

barbarous temper, which delighted in nothing more, then in destroying; or by a tick∣ling humour he had, to build the City a new, that it might bear his name. He to stop the mouth of the clamor, and to salve his credit, brought the Christians that were in the City, to examination and execution, as if they had been the only, and the all, in the breeding of this mishap. Igitur primo correpti qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum, haut perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis, convicti sunt, &c. Therefore they were first laid hold on, that confessed themselves Christians: and then by their discovery a vast mul∣titude was convicted, not so much for real guilt of kindling that fire, as because of the general hate of men against them. And moreover there were scorns added to their deaths, for they were cast, wrapped in beasts skins to be devoured of dogs, or they were crucified, or burnt, and served for lights by night, when the day was gone. Whereupon they were pitied seeing that they were thus destroyed, not for the publick benefit, but only for one mans cruelty. Thus Tacitus.

What havock may we think this doleful persecution made? As among other Christi∣ans at Rome, so particularly among those eminent ones, that Paul in his Epistle thither, saluteth by name, Rom. 16. of whom many, no doubt, were alive till now, and now dispatched. He himself, and Timothy and Luke, with other of his retinue, may well be supposed to have been got away before this storm came, because in several places of his Epistles written a good while ago, as we have observed, he speaketh of his setting away with what speed possible and convenient. How escaped Peter if he now sate Bishop at Rome, as Rome asserteth?

Whether this persecution were circumscribed within the bounds of Rome or Italy, or whether it was carried by the command of the Tyrant through all other Countries [as Vid. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 2. c. 24. Oros. lib. 7. &c.] we need not to be much solicitous to go about to decide: certainly, though it were not inforced by any Edict or command, yet such a copy would be taken for a warrant, especially by those that without either command or copy, had been forward enough to do mischief to the professors of the Go∣spel already, and had taken, nay had made any occasion to undo, or destroy them. The Jews at this mastery were the busiest men of any, and that mystery of iniquity was ever working, but could not strike their full stroke, because something hindred, 2 Thess. 2. 6, 7. If he that hindred were Claudius, who by his expulsion of the Jews out of Rome, shewed a frown upon the whole Nation, and suffered them not to rage as they would have done, he was taken away about ten years ago; and they felt their chain much slackned at the coming in of Nero: who in his best years, though he broke not out to destroy all before him, as he did afterward, yet was he destructive enough to Christianity, as we have ob∣served, and loose and careless of the administration of affairs, and regarded not how things went, so that he might have his ease, luxury and pleasure, which his Tutors Seneca and Burrhus made but unworthy advantage of. But now that he himsef hath given so vi∣sible, bloody and cursed an example, the Jews that stood barking at their chain-end all this while, finding themselves so far let loose as such an example might loose them, which was too far, would fall on without mercy. They had been mischievous enough always against the professors of the Gospel, but from hence forward they exceeded, and the more they grew toward their desolation, the more did the Devil make them bestir them∣selves, knowing the shortness of his time there.

This tenth of Nero there was a blazing star, horrid lightnings and thunders, and divers monstrous births.

[CHRIST. LXV] [NERO. XI] THIS year [the eleventh of Nero, Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus, being Con∣suls] very many eminent and gallant men of Rome were cut off by the Tyrant, as the last year he had cut off many eminent and worthy Christians. The Christians he de∣stroyed, by a plot laid against them by himself; the Romans for a plot laid by them against him. The names of those that perished, now best known among us, were Seneca the Philosopher, Nero's Tutor, and his nephew the Poet Lucan. Both of them very renowned for their Writings, but both of them very ignominious for a several miscarriage. Seneca for unparalleled covetousness, usury and oppression mentioned before: and Lucan for betraying his own mother. Let him bear Tacitus his brand: Lucanus, Quinctianus, & Se∣necio diu abnuere. Post, promissa impunitate corrupti, quo tarditatem excusarent, Lucanus Atil∣lam matrem suam, [observe that] Quinctianus Glicium Gallum, Senecio Annium Pol∣lionem amicorum praecipuos nominavere. Lucan, Quinctianus & Senecio, were long be∣fore they would confess any thing: But at last, being corrupted by the promise of impunity, that they might make amends for their slowness, Lucan accused his mother Atilla, &c. Here∣upon

Atilla was wracked one day; and would confess nothing: and the next day being carried to the wrack again [for she was so disjoynted that she could not go] she made a shift as she sate in the cart to strangle her self: choosing so to dye rather then either to endure the wrack again, or to impeach any. An indeleble blot to her son Lucan for ever. Nor did his base shift serve his turn, for he suffered death too, by having his veins cut and so bleeding to death; which was the end of his Uncle Seneca also.

The Wars of the Jews are now drawing on apace [for they began the next year] and the horrid Civil Wars of the Romans are not far off. So that here we may properly take notice of that prediction ready now to take place. Matth. 24. 7, 8, 9. Nation shall rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, &c. All these are the beginnings of sor∣rows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and then shall they kill you: which Luke hath expressed, But before all these, shall they lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, Luk. 21. 12. which seemeth to carry some difference, as if the one Evangelist shewed, that the persecution of the Disciples to death, should be before these troubles; and the other, as if they should not be till these troubles were begun: But they may be well re∣conciled by observing that in the words that Christ is there speaking in both Evangelists, there is the intertexture of two stories, namely what miseries should befal the Jewish Na∣tion before their ruine, and what miseries should befal the Disciples in the middest of those miseries: and so the word Then in Matthew, and Before in Luke, are but as a tran∣sition from the one history to the other: and yet they are not unsignificant neither, as to the pointing out of the time, the one speaking the beginning of that persecution fore∣told, and the other the continuance.

A fitter period of time whence to begin the punctual taking place of that prediction, we can hardly point out, then this very year that we are upon, a center between two cri∣tical years: the year before beginning the persecution of Christians at Rome, and the year following beginning the Wars of the Jews in Judea.

Although therefore we cannot positively assert the very time of the writing of THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER: yet observing the Chronical hint of some passages in it, this year may as fairly lay claim thereunto, as any other year that can be asserted. For, to omit that clause Chap. 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand [referring to the desolating of the Jewish Com∣monwealth and Nation] the mention of the fiery trial, ver. 12. and the time now come when Judgment must begin at the house of God, ver. 17. is but as a comment and accom∣plishment of that prediction before alledged, Then shall they deliver up to be afflicted, &c. It is true indeed, that the Church had never wanted persecution since the Gospel arose, and some for its sake had suffered death, as Steven and some at the time, the two Jameses; and some at the time of both their deaths; but in the Countries out of Judea, where the stroke of their Sanhedrin could not reach so well, nor light so heavy, there was tu∣multuousness indeed enough, and beating and bitterness against it, but rare effusion of blood, till the cursed example set last year by the Tyrant at Rome, and now forward in the confusions of the Jewish Nation; when a madness was come upon them among them∣selves, and a desperate fury against all that would not be as they were. And that not only in Judea the seat of the War, but even through the whole world as far as they durst, and were able to stir. Those words of Dion are very remarkable when speaking of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, he saith, That the Jews that were in forraign Countries, not only within the Roman Empire, but also without, did send help to their brethren in Ju∣dea, lib. 66.

When Cyrus gave leave to the Jews after the seventy years captivity to return to their own Country, multitudes of them found themselves so pleasingly seated, and by continu∣ance of time rooted in Babylonia, that they would not remove their habitation, but fixed there. There, in time they grew to so great a Nation, and distinct a people, that they had 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A Prince of the Captivity of their own blood over them, and three fa∣mous Universities, Nehardea, Pombeditha and Soria, which yielded very many eminent Scholars in the Judaick learning.

In the division of the imployment of the three Ministers of the Circumcision, Peter, James and John, Peter's lot fell here, and from Babylon it self the very Center of those parts he sends this Epistle. He directs it to the dispersed Jews in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, in which parts the Apostacy from the faith had been exceeding prevalent, and accordingly the trouble of those that stuck to the faith, the most bitter. And in his inscribing it to the Elect, he seemeth to have his eye upon those words of his Master about this Apostasie, Matth. 24. 24. They shall deceive, if it were pos∣sible, the very Elect.

Among the many divine lessons that he reads to them, he teaches them and us who is the Rock upon which the Church is built, Chap. 2. 4, &c. and how accordingly to understand super hanc Petram, Matt. 16. He exhorts them with all earnestness to yield obedience to superior powers, Chap. 2. 13, 14. and that the rather because of that spirit of the Zelotae, that walking among the Nation in all parts, urged them not to submit to any Heathen power.

He magnifieth Baptism as a badge and pledge of preservation of those that had received it, and stuck to it, from that vengeance that was coming upon that wicked Nation, Chap. 3. 21. It is something a strange recoyling that he makes, leaping back from mention of the death of Christ, ver. 18. over all the story of the Old Testament, and lighteth on the ge∣neration that was swept away by the flood: and sheweth how Christs spirit preached unto them. Why? had not the same Spirit preached in all the times between? Why are not those times named then as well as these? Because the Apostle doth purposely intend to compare that old world then destroyed, with the destruction of the Jewish Nation shortly coming: and to shew that as Noah and his family were then saved by water, ver. 20. so, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, they that had received Baptism were the Antitype to that, and Baptism was a pledge and means of their deliverance now, they sticking closely to it. And this very thing John Baptist taught in that question, Who hath forwarned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore when he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. An asking of a good Con∣science towards or after God, he makes not this its definition, as if none but those so quali∣fied were to be baptized, but he characters its difference from Circumcision, which put away the filth of the flesh in one sense; and Legal and Pharisaical washings which did it in another. His whole comparison runs to this tenour: The old world was disobedient to the spirit of Christ preaching in the mouth of Noah, and therefore they perished. The Jews [whose state the Scripture also calleth an old world] were disobedient to Christ preaching by his Spirit in the mouth of his Apostles, and even visibly and audibly in his own person, therefore, they must needs perish: But Noah and his family that harkeneth after God [whilst others said to the Lord Depart from us, Job 22. 16, 17.] were preserved by water: Even so doth Baptism now preserve us, the Antitype of that figure. For Baptism was not barely a washing of the body from filth, as the common Legal washings were, but it was an owning and asking after God, conscienciously, out from a perverse and wicked gene∣ration: and therefore not to be started or revolted from. This then being one end of Baptism, and that end taught to them that assumed it, viz. to badge and mark to safety from the approaching vengeance, it may very well raise an argument for Infants Baptism [whereas this text is commonly produced against it:] for if these parents that came in to be baptized, sought hereby to flee from the wrath to come, they would be carefull to bring their children under the same badge of security.

When he judgeth 〈◊〉〈◊〉 that perished in the waters of Noah to be now in prison, ver. 19. he knew he had the consent of his Nation in it: for thus they say in Sanhedr. per. 10. halac. 3. The generation of the flood have no portion in the world to come: neither shall they stand up in Judgment; for it is said, My spirit shall no more judge with man, Gen. 6. 3. Peter teacheth us that the Spirit that strove with the old world, was the Spirit of Messias.

He sends this Epistle by Sylvanus, Pauls old attendant, but now with Peter: He stiles him, A faithful brother to you, as I suppose: not as doubting but assured. He was to bring this Epistle to the Circumcision, who himself had been a Minister of the un∣circumcision: therefore this attestation is the more needful and material, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, I repute him a faithful brother to you of the Circumcision, and do you also so re∣pute him.

His naming of Mark with him, calls our thoughts back to what hath been menti∣oned of Mark heretofore: his being with Paul at Rome, and his coming from him into the East. To suppose two Marks, one with Peter and another with Paul, is to breed con∣fusion where there needeth not, and to conceive that for which the Scripture hath not only no ground, but is plain enough to the contrary: It is easily seen how John Mark came into familiarity both with Paul and Peter, and other Mark we can find none in the New Testament, unless of our own invention: His being in these later times with Peter and Paul, may turn our thoughts to consider how his Uncle Barnabas and he parted, since Paul and Barnabas parted about him. He it was that wrote the Gospel, it may be being with Peter, as Luke did the like being with Paul. In his Gospel he is most exact of all the four in observing the proper time and series of the stories recorded.

[CHRIST. LXVI] [NERO. XII] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Wars of the Jews began in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, in the month of May. Joseph. de Bell. lib. 2 cap. 25.

If we take a view of the Nation, as it was at the present, and as it had been for thirty or forty years backward, we shall find that besides the ordinary and common wickedness that was among them, they had these four additions of iniquity monstrous and unparalleled, and in which they did, as it were, exceed themselves. 1. In regard that the appearance of the Messias was expected to be about the time that Christ appeared indeed, very many taking advantage of the time and of that expectation, took upon them, some to be Christ, others to be Prophets attending, and relating to his coming, Matth. 24. 24. Upon which Josephus and other Writers of that Nation will give us a very full commentary of experien∣ces. 2. There were multitudes of the Zelotae, and of the sect of Judas the Galilean, which would not yield any homage or subjection to be due to the Roman power which was now over them: and neither would they now themselves, nor would they suffer others, as far as they could hinder, to submit unto them. 3. The unbelieving Jews were generally sworn enemies and prosecutors of those that believed. And 4. which we have observed before, multitudes of those that had believed and imbraced the Gospell fell away, and became either seduced or the greatest seducers, and brought in horrid heresies and polluti∣tions. So that in these various and malignant distempers of men, there had been continual confusions, tumults, firings, murderings and plunderings among them for many years, and they had been the unquietest and most tumultuous Nation that had been under Heaven, and they had often provoked the Roman power against themselves, yet till this year had they never so visibly and professedly taken up Arms and open War against that power.

The first spark kindled in Caesarea upon the sea, about an inchroachment that a Gentile there made upon the way that went to the Jews Synagogue; and from thence it grew into a flame so fast through the whole Country [Florus the Governour helping it on] that by the sixteenth of May, his Souldiers by his Commission have plundred Jerusalem, slain 3600. persons: and even Berenice sister to King Agrippa escaped very narrowly with her life.

The Jews and Romans have divers skirmishes: Massada Castle taken and the Roman Ga∣rison put to the sword. The Temple and several parts of the Cities made Garisons for se∣veral parties, and suffer much by fire and battery. Twenty thousand Jewsslain in Caesarea on a Sabbath: whereupon all the Nation rise about to avenge this slaughter, and in Syria, Phaenicea, Samaria, Peraea and all round about, destroy Towns, Cities and persons all be∣fore them. Cestius the Governour of Syria rises with his forces, and destroys the Jews again, and their Towns all before him, and on the thirtieth of October enters Jerusalem and fires a good part of the City.

Yet do the Jews give him a brush upon his march away, and cut off above 4000 of his men: with which success they are so fleshed, that they resolve to fight it out, and accord∣ingly platform themselves into the model and posture of a long War: and the Country is only full of Fire, Sword, War and destruction.

The abomination of desolation had now begun to stand in the holy place, Matth. 24. 15. when the Temple is made a Garrison, and filled with slaughter; Antonia, the Castle of the Temple, besieged, taken, and the Roman Garrison put to the sword. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Tabernae, or part of the buildings at the East wall of the mountain of the House [the place where the Sanhedrin had once sitten,] fired and burnt down. Jerus. in Peah. fol. 16. col. 3. And in a word, the Temple from this time forwards, never but a Garrison, and full of slaughter and confusion till it be raked up in ashes.

Now it was time for those that were in Judea, who believed Christs prediction, to get into the Mountains, and to shift for themselves, for now begins the tribulation beyond parallel, such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever must again, Matth. 24. 21. It is commonly asserted that the Christians fled to Pella a City beyond Jordan: Eu∣seb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which how to reconcile with Josephus, who saith Pella was one of the Cities that the Jews destroyed in avengement of the slaughter of the 20000 in Caesarea, De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 33. let the Learned find.

About these times therefore we may well conceive to have been the writing of

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. And that the rather from what he speaks in Chap. 1. ver. 14. I know that I must shortly put off this tabernacle, as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. In which words, his thoughts reflect upon what Christ had spoken to John and him about their ends, John 21. where he not only gave intimation to Peter that he should be Martyred, ver. 18. but that he should be so, before his coming in Judgment against Jerusalem, which John must live to see, but he must not, ver. 22. He therefore in Babylon, understanding how affairs went in Judea and with the Jewish Nation all thereabout, and reading therein, from the words of his Master, Matth. 24. that the desolation was drawing on apace, concludes that his time was not long: and therefore improves the time he hath remaining the best he can, not only in teaching those amongst whom he was, but by writing this Epistle instructeth those that were remote and at distance from him; in which he doth more especially give them cau∣tion against false teachers: and characters the terrour of the judgment coming, and ex∣horts to vigilancy and holiness.

The first character that he gives of the false teachers is, that they bring in damnable He∣resies, denying the Lord that bought them, Chap. 2. 1. which he speaketh from Deut. 32. from whence also he useth other expressions, ver. 6. Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? not meaning that these wretches were redeemed by Christ, yet became such wretches, as some would interpret it; but by buying is meant his buying out of Egypt this people for a peculiar people: which these wretches boasted and stood upon, yet by their introducing and practising the prophane principles they did, of fornication and communicating with Idols, they denied the true God which bought that people for his peculiar. He calls them spots, ver. 13. from Deut. 32. 5. and parallels them with the old world, Sodom, Balaam, nay the very fallen Angels.

He sets forth the destruction of that cursed Nation and their City in those terms that Christ had done, Matt. 24. and that the Scripture doth elsewhere, Deut. 32. 22, 23. 24. Jer. 4. 23. namely as the destruction of the whole world, The heavens passing away, the elements melting, and the earth burnt up, &c. And accordingly he speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, from Isa. 65. 17. a new state of the Church under the Gospel among the Gentiles, when this old world of the Jews state should be dissolved.

He citeth Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews, and giveth an honourable testimony to that, and to the rest of his Epistles: but acknowledgeth that in some places they are hard to be un∣derstood, and were misconstrued by some unlearned and unstable ones to their own ruine; yet neither doth he, nor Paul who was yet alive, and well knew of this wresting of his Epistles, clear or amend those difficulties, but let them alone as they were: for the holy Ghost hath so penned Scripture as to set men to study.

And here is the last that we hear in Scripture of this great Apostle Peter. His Martyr∣dom he apprehends to be near, and it was to be before Jerusalem was destroyed, which was not now full four years to come. We may well conceive him to have been put to death by the Jews in Babylonia where he now was: a madness having come upon that Nation in all parts: and a singular raging against the Gospel, the devil bestirring himself in them, now he knew their time was so short.

THE EPISTLE OF JUDE.

As the second Epistle of Peter and this of Jude are very near akin, in style, matter and subject, so it is fairly conjecturable in them that they were not far removed in time, speak∣ing both of wicked ones and wickedness at the same height and ripeness. They are one to another as the Prophesie of Obadiah, and Jerem. 49. 14, &c. speaking the same thing, using the same manner of arguing, and oftentimes almost the same words. It may be Jude stands up in his brother James his charge among the Circumcision of Judea, and directs his Epistle to all those that were sanctified and preserved in those Apostatizing times, as his brother had done to all the twelve Tribes in general.

In citing the story of Michael the Archangel contending with the devil about the body of Moses, ver. 9. he doth but the same that Paul doth in naming Jannes and Jambres, namely alledge a story which was current and owned among the Nation, though there were no such thing in Scripture; and so he argueth with them from their own Authors and conces∣sions. It is harsh to strain Zech. 3. 1, 2. to speak such a story; when neither the name Michael is mentioned, nor any thing like the body of Moses or akin to it. But among the Talmudicks there seems to be something like the relicks of such a matter, viz. of Michael and the Angel of death disputing or discoursing about fetching away the soul of Moses.

His alledging the Prophesie of Enoch, is an arguing of the very like nature, as citing and referring to some known and common tradition that they had among them to this pur∣pose. [The Book Sepher Jesher an Hebrew Writer speaketh of Enoch after such a tenour.] And in both these he useth their own testimonies against themselves: as if he should thus have spoken at large: These men speak evil of dignities, whereas they have and own a story for current, that even Michael the Archangel did not speak evil of the devil, when he was striving with him about the body of Moses, &c. And whereas they shew and own a Prophesie of Enoch, of God coming in Judgment, &c. why these are the very men to whom such a matter is to be applied, &c. It is no strange thing in the New Testament, for Christ and the Apostles to deal and argue with the Jews upon their own concessions.

THE THREE EPISTLES OF JOHN.

Among all the Apostolick Epistles there is none about whose time of writing we are so far to seek as we are about these. And it is neither satisfactory to remove their place, nor is it satisfactory to take their time according to their place; or to conceive them to be written after the Epistles of Peter, because they are placed after them. Any conjecture that is to be had of them may best be taken from the third Epistle.

Gaius, to whom that Epistle is directed, by that encomiastick character that John giveth of him, seemeth to be Gaius the Corinthian, the host of the whole Church, Rom. 16. 23. for since he is commended for entertainment and charity both to the Church and strangers, par∣ticularly to those who had preached among the Gentiles, taking nothing of them, we know not where to find any other Gaius to whom to affix this character but only this, and we have no reason to look after any other. And upon this probability we may observe these other.

I. That that third Epistle was written when those that preached to the Gentiles and took nothing of them, were still abroad upon that imployment, for he urgeth him to bring them forward on their journey, ver. 6. Now under that expression, of taking nothing of the Gentiles, we can understand none but Paul and Barnabas and those that were of their several companies, for the Scripture hath named none other. And if it refer to Paul and his company [for we find not that Barnabas had any thing to do with Gaius] then we must conclude that it was written a good while before this time that we are upon: unless we will suppose Paul after his freedom from imprisonment at Rome, was got travelling and preaching in those parts again. But I should rather suppose that John sent this third Epistle to Gaius to Corinth, by Timothy from Ephesus, who was setting away thence for Rome, upon Pauls sending for him to come to him thither, 2 Tim. 4. 9, 11, 21. In which journey as we have shewed before, he was to call at Corinth, and to take Mark along with him, who was there. And of them may Johns advice to Gaius be well understood, Whom if thou bring forward on their journey thou shalt do well: For for his sake they went out taking nothing of the Gentiles; Mark with Barnabas, and Timothy with Paul.

II. Before John wrote this Epistle to Gaius, he had written another Epistle, to some Church, it may be that of Corinth, of which Gaius was. I wrote, saith he, unto the Church, but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence, receiveth us not. This must needs be un∣derstood of The first Epistle of John: unless we will conceive, unwarrantably [that I may say no worse,] that any of Johns writings are lost.

III. Upon and with the forementioned supposal that John sent his Epistle to Gaius by Timothy from Ephesus; we cannot but also suppose that John spent some time in the Asian Churches, to which afterward from Patmos he writes his Epistles: And if any one be not sa∣tisfied with that interpretation that was given before, about the Epistle from Laodicea, Colos. 4. 16. let him rather understand it of The first Epistle of John as written by him from Lao∣dicea, then think it was an Epistle written by Paul from Laodicea, and that that Epistle is lost: In both his later Epistles he intimateth his hopes and purpose shortly to come to them: from which we may construe that his intention was to travel from Asia the less where he now was, and from whence he wrote all his three Epistles westward into Greece, and in this journey you have him got into Patmos, Rev. 1. from whence he writes back to Asia again.

In all his Epistles he exhorteth to love, and constancy in the truth, a lesson most need∣ful in those divided and Apostatizing times. He giveth notice of many Antichrists now abroad, and these he sheweth to have been such as had once professed the truth, but were apostatized from it: They went out from us, but they were not of us, &c. And this Apostacy he calleth The sin unto death. To such he adviseth they should not so much as say God speed: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in their vulgar language. Jerus. Taamith fol. 64. col. 2. The Rab∣bins saw a holy man of Caphar Immi, and went to him and said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 God speed, But he an∣swered them nothing. Id. in Sheviith fol. 35. 2. & 36. 1. R. Chinna bar Papa & R. Samuel

bar Nachman, went by a man that was plowing on the seventh year [the year of release,] R. Samuel saith to him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 God speed. R. Chinna saith, Our master did not teach us thus: for it is forbidden to say God speed, to one that is plowing on the seventh year.

John stileth himself an Elder, and so doth Peter, 1 Pet. 5. 1. not as laying aside their Apostolical power, but as dealing with those to whom they write in a Ministerial way: and by this very title that they assume to themselves, they closely intimate that thencefor∣ward the extraordinary Function and gifts Apostolick must not be expected, but the Mi∣nisterial, in the ordinary way of Elders or Ministers, as the title had been long and vulgarly known. And yet when he speaks of Diotrephes and his abusiveness, he then threatens to shew his Apostolick power, and himself A Son of thunder against him.

THE REVELATION OF JOHN.

AS it will be easily admitted to place this Book last of all the New Testament, because it stands so in all Bibles, so on the other hand it will be cavilled at, that I have brought in the writing of it so soon, as before the fall of Jerusalem, since it hath been of old and commonly held, that it was penned in the reign of Domitian, far after these times that we are upon: But the reasons by which I have been induced thereunto, will appear out of some passages in the Book it self as we go through it.

As God revealed to Daniel the man greatly beloved, the state of his people, and the Mo∣narchies that afflicted them, from his own time, till the coming of Christ; so doth Christ to John the beloved Disciple, the state of the Church, and story in brief of her chief afflicters, from thence to the end of the world. So that where Daniel ends the Revelation begins, and John hath nothing to do with any of the four Monarchies that he speaketh of, but deals with a fifth [the Roman] that rose as it were out of the ashes of those four, and swallowed them all up.

The composure of the Book is much like Daniels in this, that it repeats one story over and over again, in varied and inlarged expressions: and exceeding like Ezekiel's in method and things spoken. The style is very Prophetical, as to the things spoken; and very Hebraizing, as to the speaking of them. Exceeding much of the old Prophets language, and matter adduced to intimate new stories: and exceeding much of the Jews language, and allusion to their customs and opinions, thereby to speak the things more familiarly to be understood. And as Ezekiel wrote concerning the ruine of Jerusalem, when the ruining of it was now begun, so I suppose doth John of the final destruction of it, when the Wars and miseries were now begun, which bred its destructions.

REVEL. Chap. I, II, III.

THE three first Chapters refer to that present time when John wrote: and they contain the story of his obtaining this Revelation, and of the condition of the seven Churches of Asia at that time: declared in the Epistles directed to them.

John travelling in the Ministry of the Gospel up and down from Asia Westward, com∣eth into the Isle Patmos, in the Icarian Sea [Vid. Strab. lib. 10.] an Island about thirty miles compass [Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12.] and there on the Lords day he hath these visions, and an Angel interprets to him all he saw.

He seeth Christ clothed like a Priest, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ver. 13. [See the LXX in Exod. 28. 4.] and girded over the paps, as the Priests used to be, with the curious girdle. His appearance full of Majesty and gloriousness, described in the terms of Daniel, Chap. 7. 9. & 10. 5, 6. Amongst other his Divine titles he is called Alpha and Omega, terms ordinarily used by the Jews [only uttered in their Hebrew Tongue] to signifie the beginning and the end, or the first and the last. Midr. Tillin. fol. 47. 2. Abraham and Sarah performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau. Marg. tripl. targ. in Deut. 18. 13. He that walks in integrity is as if he performed all the Law from Aleph to Tau.

He directs Epistles to be sent to the seven Churches of Asia: who are golden Candle∣sticks though very full of corruptions [it is not a small thing that unchurches a Church] and inscribed to the Angels of the Churches: This phrase translates 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sheliahh Tsibbur, the title of the Minister in every Synagogue, who took care for the publick reading and expounding of the Law and Prophets: And these Epistles are sent accor∣dingly to the Ministers of the several Churches, that they might be read openly in their Congregations.

There are seven several Epistles to the several Churches, dictated immediately and sent by Christ, and another general one from John to them all, in which he shews the warrant and way of writing those seven.

He terms the Holy Ghost, the seven Spirits, according to the Jews common speech, who from Isa. 11. 2. speak much of the seven Spirits of Messias: and speaking of Christs com∣ing with clouds, Chap. 1. 7. from Dan. 7. 13. and from the words of Christ himself, Matth. 24. 30. He at once teacheth that he takes at Daniel, and speaks of Christs coming and reigning, when the four Monarchies were destroyed, and especially referreth to the first most visible evidence of his power and dominion, in coming to destroy his enemies the Jewish Nation, and their City. And here is one reason that induceth me to suppose this Book written, before that City was destroyed.

Coming to read the present condition of these Asian Churches in the Epistles written to them, we may pertinently think of that saying of Paul, 2 Tim. 1. 15. This thou know∣est that all they that are in Asia are turned from me: A great Apostacy: of which there is too much evidence in these Churches, as also mention of some sad fruits of it, and means and instruments inducing to it. As 1. unbelieving Jews which the Holy Ghost all along calls A Synagogue of Satan: with these the Church of Smyrna was pestered, and more especially Pergamus, where their mischievousness is stiled the very throne or seat of Satan: and where they had murdered Antipas a faithful Martyr already. 2. False Apostles and seducers: some that pretended Apostolick power and commission, and it may be colour∣ed their pretences with Magical wonders, that they might act more Apostle like. These the Church of Ephesus was troubled with, but had discovered their delusions and found them liars. 3. Other seducers that, it may be, came not in the demonstration of such devilish power, but answered that by their horrid devilish doctrines, the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, which taught to eat things sacrificed to Idols, and to commit fornication. In Thyatire a woman seducer, cried up this doctrine, a whore and witch, a Jezabel: where∣fore she and her children, that is, her Disciples, are threatned to be destroyed by the plague: the vengeance upon the fornicators with Baal Peor.

REVEL CHAP. IV, V.

NOW cometh a second vision. That before was of things then being, see Chap. 1. 19. but this and forward of things to come, Chap. 4. 1. A door open in Heaven, and the voice of a trumpet talking with John out of it.

The scene of Johns visions said to be in Heaven, is according to the scheme of the Temple and the Divine glory there. And hence you have mention of the Altar, Candlesticks, Sea of Glass [the brazen laver made of the Womens looking Glasses] the Ark of the Cove∣nant, and the like. And as at the opening of the Temple doors, a Trumpet sounded, so is the allusion here. The door in Heaven opened, and a Trumpet calls John to come in and see what there. And immediately he was in the Spirit, ver. 2. Why? Was he not in the Spirit before? Chap. 1. 10. and was he not in the Spirit, in seeing the door in Hea∣ven opened? &c. But we may observe a double degree in rapture: as inspired men may be considered under a double notion: viz. Those that were inspired with Pro∣phesie or to be Prophets and to preach, and those that were inspired to be Penmen of Di∣vine Writ, which was higher. John hath both inspirations or revelations to both ends,

both in the Vision before, and this: then he was in the Spirit and saw the vision, and was in the Spirit and inspired to pen what he saw, and what to be sent to the Churches. And in the first verse of this Chapter he is in the Spirit or hath a revelation, and in ver. 2. he is in the Spirit, he is inspired so as to take impression and remembrance of these things to write them also.

He seeth Christ inthroned in the middle of his Church, in the same Prophetick and vi∣sionary Embleme that Ezekiel had seen, Ezek. 1. & 10. and this is a commentary and ful∣filling of that scene that Daniel speaketh of, Dan. 7. 9, 10, 22. In Ezekiel, the Lord, when Jerusalem was now to be destroyed, and the glory of the Lord that used to be there, and the people were to flit into another Land, appeareth so inthroned, as sitting in Judgment and flitting away by degrees to another place: as compare Ezek. 1. & 10. well together. So Christ here; when the destruction of Jerusalem was now near at hand, and his glory and presence to remove from that Nation, now given up to unbelief and obdu∣ration, to reside among the Gentiles, he is seated upon his throne as Judge and King with glorious attendance, to judge that Nation for their sins and unbelief, and stating the af∣fairs of his Church whither his glory was now removing.

The scheme is platformed according to the model of Israels Camp. 1. The Tabernacle was in the middle there, so is the throne here. 2. There the four squadrons of the Camp of Levi next the Tabernacle, so here the four living creatures. 3. Then the whole Camp of Israel, so here twenty four Elders Representatives of the whole Church, built from twelve Tribes and twelve Apostles.

In the hand of him that sate on the Throne was a Book sealed which no creature could open. This justly calls us back to Dan. 12. ver. 4. Where words are shut up and a Book sealed unto the time of the end: and now that that is near drawing on, the Book is here opened.

REVEL. CHAP. VI.

THE opening of the six Seals in this Chapter, speaks the ruine and rejection of the Jewish Nation, and the desolation of their City; which is now very near at hand.

The first Seal opened, ver. 2. shews Christ setting forth in Battel array and avengement against them, as Psal. 45. 4, 5. And this the New Testament speaketh very much and very highly of, one while calling it his coming in clouds, another while his coming in his King∣dom, and sometime his coming in Power and great Glory, and the like. Because his plague∣ing and destroying of the Nation that crucisied him, that so much opposed and wrought mischief against the Gospel, was the first evidence that he gave in sight of all the world of his being Christ: for till then, he and his Gospel had been in humility, as I may say, as to the eyes of men, he persecuted whilest he was on Earth, and they perse∣cuted after him, and no course taken with them that so used both, but now he awakes, shews himself, and makes himself known by the Judgement that he exe∣cuteth.

The three next Seals opening, shew the means by which he did destroy, namely those three sad plagues that had been threatned so oft and so sore by the Prophets, Sword, Fa∣mine and Pestilence. For

The second Seal opened sends out one upon a red Horse to take Peace from the Earth, and that men should destroy one another; he carried a great Sword, ver. 4.

The third Seals opening speaks of Famine, when Corn for scarcity should be weighed like spicery in a pair of ballances, ver. 5, 6.

The fourth Seal sends out one on a pale Horse whose name was Death [the Chaldee very often expresseth the Plague or Pestilence by that word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: and so it is to be taken Revel. 2. 22.] and Hell or Hades comes after him, ver. 8.

The opening of the fifth Seal reveals a main cause of the vengeance, namely the blood of the Saints which had been shed, crying, and which was to be required of that genera∣tion, Matth. 23. 35, 36. These souls are said to cry from under the Altar, either in al∣lusion to the blood of creatures sacrificed, poured at the foot of the Altar, or according to the Jews tenet, That all just souls departed are under the Throne of Glory. Answer to their cry is given, that the number of their Brethren that were to be slain was not yet fulfilled, and they must rest till that should be, and then avengement in their be∣half should come. This speaks sutable to that which we observed lately, that now times were begun of bitter persecution, an hour of temptation, Rev. 2. 10. & 3. 10. the Jews and Devil raging, till the Lord should something cool that fury by the ruine of that people.

The opening of the sixth Seal, ver. 12, 13. shews the destruction it self in those bor∣rowed terms that the Scripture useth to express it by, namely as if it were the destruction of the whole world: as Matth. 24. 29, 30. The Sun darkned, the Stars falling, the Hea∣ven departing and the Earth dissolved, and that conclusion ver. 16. They shall say to the rocks fall on us, &c. doth not only warrant, but even inforce us to understand and con∣strue these things in the sense that we do: for Christ applies these very words to the very same thing, Luke 23. 30. And here is another, and, to me, a very satisfactory reason, why to place the shewing of these visions to John, and his writing of this Book before the desolation of Jerusalem.

REVEL. CHAP. VII.

IN the end of the former Chapter was contained the intimation of the desolation of Jerusalem, and in the beginning of this, the ceasing of Prophesie, under the simili∣tude of the four winds restrained from blowing upon the Earth. Compare Cant. 4. 16. Ezek. 37. 9. only a remnant of Israel are sealed unto salvation, and not to perish by that restraint, and with them innumerable Gentiles. Ezekiel helpeth here to confirm the ex∣plication that we have given of the Chapter before: for he hath the very like passage, upon the first destruction of the City, Ezek. 9. & 10. 11. Compare the marking in the foreheads here, with Exod. 28. 38. Dan not mentioned among the Tribes in this place: Idolatry first began in that Tribe, Judg. 18. 1 King. 12.

REVEL. CHAP. VIII.

THE opening of the seventh Seal lands us upon a new scene: as a new world began when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews cast off. The six Seals in the two for∣mer Chapters, have shewed their ruine, and the appearing of the Church of the Gen∣tiles, and now the seven Trumpets under the seventh Seal give us a prospect in general of the times thence forward to the end of all things. I say in general, for from the be∣ginning of the twelfth Chapter and forward to the end of the nineteenth they are handled more particularly.

Silence in Heaven for a while, and seven Angels with seven Trumpets may call our thoughts to Joshua 6. 4, 10. and intimate that the Prophetick story is now entred upon a new Canaan, or a new stage of the Church, as that business at Jericho was at Israels first entring on the old: Or it may very properly be looked upon as referring and alluding to the carriage of things at the Temple, since this Book doth represent things so much accor∣ding to the scheme and scene of the Temple all along.

And in this very place there is mention of the Altar and Incense and Trumpets, which were all Temple appurtenances. It was therefore the custom at the Temple that when the Priest went in to the Holy place, the people drew downward from the Porch of the Temple, and there was a silence whilest he was there, [yea though the people were then praying] incomparably beyond what there was at other times of the service, for the Priests were blowing with Trumpets or the Levites singing: The allusion then here is plain. When the sacrifice was laid on the Altar, a Priest took coals from the Altar, went in to the Holy place, and offered incense upon the Golden Altar that stood before the vail, that was before the Ark, and this being done, the Trumpets sounded over the sa∣crifice. Here then is first intimation of Christs being offered upon the Altar; then his going into the Holy place as Mediator for his people: and then the Trumpets sounding and declaring his disposals in the world. His taking fire off the Altar and casting it upon the Earth, ver. 5. is a thing not used at the Temple, but spoken from Ezek. 10. 2. which betokeneth the sending of judgment, which the Trumpets speak out.

These seven Trumpets, and the seven Vials in Chap. 16. in many things run very parallel, how far they Synchronize, will be best considered when we come there.

The first Trumpet sounding, brings hail and fire and blood upon the Earth, and de∣stroys grass and trees a third part of them. Fire and hail was the plague of Egypt, Exod. 9. 23. but fire and blood, with hail, is a new plague. By these seemeth to be intimated what plagues should be brought upon the world, by fire, sword, dreadful tempest, un∣natural seasons and the like.

The second Trumpet sounds, and a great burning mountain is cast into the Sea, and the third part of it becomes blood. The Sea in the Prophetick language, doth signifie multi∣tudes of people: as Jerem. 51. 36. 42. And Babylon that was Monarch was a burning mountain in the same Chapter, ver. 35. So that the Imperial power seemeth to be the mountain here; which made bloody and mischievous work, not only by the persecution of Christians, but even among their own people. As Nero at present, Vitellius instantly after, Domitian, Commodus, and indeed generally all of them either bloodily destroy

their own people, or at least for their covetousness, ambition, revenge or humour, bring disquietness, oppression, misery, Wars and Blood, upon all the World, in one place or other.

The third Trumpet, brings the Star Wormwood upon the Rivers and Fountains of wa∣ters, which seemeth to denote the grievous Heresies that should be in the Church, which should corrupt and imbitter the pure springs of the Scripture and fountains of Truth. A Star in the language of this Book is a Church-man, Chap. 1. 20. [Ben Cochab was such a Wormwood Star among the Jews, called most properly Ben cozba the lier.] And the phrase, A Star falling from Heaven, alludes to Isa. 14. 12. How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lu∣cifer! &c.

The fourth Trumpet shews the darkning of the Sun and Moon and Stars for a third part.

By which seems to be understood the wane and decay, both in the glory of the Church, by superstition, and of the Empire, by its divisions within, and enemies from without, and this before the rising of the Papacy, which appears under the next Trumpet: and these things were great advantages to its rising. The darkning of the heavenly luminaries in the Prophets language signifieth the eclipsing of the glory and prosperity of a Kingdom or People, Isa. 13. 9, 10. Joel 2. 10. How it was with the Church and Empire in these re∣spects, before that time that the Papacy appeared, he is a stranger to History, both Ec∣clesiastical and Civil, that remembreth not upon this very hint.

The three Trumpets coming are the Trumpets of Wo, wo, wo: though these things past were very woful; but those much more that are to come.

REVEL. CHAP. IX.

A Description of the Papacy under the fifth Trumpet. Another Star falling from Heaven, and that a notable one indeed, the He that hath the Key of the bottomless pit committed to him. A vast difference from the Keys given Peter, The Keys of the King∣dom of Heaven: The setting of these in their just distance and opposition will illustrate the matter before us. When the world is to come out of darkness and Heathenism to the knowledge of the Gospel, Christ gives Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, to open the door and let light come in among them: for he first preached to the Gentiles, Act. 10. & 15. 7. The World under the Papacy returns, as it were, to Heathenism again [and not undeservedly for its contempt of the Gospel and unproficiency under it] which is very fitly described by Hell opened, by the Keys of the bottomless pit, and darkness coming and clouding all. The Claviger or Turnkey is The child of perdition, Abaddon and Apollyon, a destroyer and one that is surely and sorely to be destroyed. Chittim [Italy or Rome] af∣flicting and perishing for ever, Num. 24. 24. Antichrist of the second edition, much aug∣mented and inlarged. The Jews the first, as we observed at the second Epistle to the Thes∣salontans, and this the second, Antichrist at his full stature. It is true indeed that Rome Heathen is one part of him, but observe how little a part reputed in comparison of Rome Papish, the Star fallen from Heaven. So that though that did woful things, yet you see the first wo is fixed here.

The way of his bringing wo upon the Earth, is by filling the World with smoke and darkness of ignorance and humane traditions and inventions: and out of this smoke come his locusts, of his votary orders. The locusts described much like those in Joel 1. for their terror and destroying: only their having the faces of men speaks them men-caterpillers: and their Nazarite-like hair long as the hair of women, speaks them votaries; or such as take on them vowed Religion. Their trading is not with grass or the green things of the Earth as other Locusts do, but with Men, and they are Locusts in name, but Scorpions in action, wounding with the sting of their tails [the teacher of lies is the tail, Isa. 9. 15.] but not killing: leaving men indeed in a Religion and a profession of Christ, but no bet∣ter then a venomed and dying one. The time of their tormenting is five months, the time of Locusts ravening ordinarily, from the spring well shot forth, to harvest.

This is the first wo.

These Locusts stings, mind me of a story or two in the Roman History: which let me mention here, though I cannot apply them hither. Dion, in his story of the life of Do∣mitian saith thus, About that time divers began to prick many whom they pleased, with poysoned needles, whereof many died, hardly feeling what was done to them. And this was practised not only at Rome, but almost through all the world.

And again in the life of Commodus. About that time, saith he, there was so great a mor∣tality, that oft times there died two thousand in Rome in one day. And many, not only in the City, but also through the whole Roman Empire, were killed by mischievous men, who poyson∣ing needles pricked others with them: as also it had been in Domitians time, and so innume∣rable people died by this means. But there was no greater plague then Commodus himself, &c.

The sounding of the sixth Trumpet begins another wo. Four Angels loosed, which were bound in Euphrates, and come with a terrible Army, and horses breathing fire and smoke and brimstone, and having stings in their tails, &c. The Turks and Mahumetans coming as a plague upon the Eastern part of the World, as the Papacy on the Western. These hurt with their tails [false doctrine] as well as the other did in the former Trum∣pet: but these have also heads in their tails which the other had not, for these hold out another Head and Saviour, Mahomet.

REVEL. CHAP. X.

A Little Book in the hand of Christ, speaketh the restoring of Religion, and Truth, after all the darkness and confusions mentioned before. The words in ver. 6, 7. do help to state the intent of this Vision. He sware by him that liveth for ever, that there should be delay of time no longer, but in the days of the seventh Trumpet the mystery of God should be fulfilled. The mystery of God is his gathering in of his Elect, more especially of the Gentiles, Rom. 16. 25, 26. Ephes. 3. 5, 6. and hitherto there had been great hinde∣rance by Rome Heathen, by Heresies, Papacy, Turcism, but at last Christ swears, that there should be no more delay: the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 must be taken so here: and not uncon∣sonant to the signification of the word, and very consonant to the context, and to the place from whence this verse is taken: That is Dan. 12. 7. where the Angel is brought in swearing, as here, that the trouble of Antiochus and his persecution and hindrance should be so long, and there should be no delay further, but there should be a restoring. That place laid to this, and Antiochus looked upon as a figure of Antichrist, the construction of this place is easie. Only the great Angel would have the speech of the seven thunders, which refer to these times, to be concealed. The Prophesie in general intimates the resto∣ring of the Gospel in these later times, which is handled in the next Chapter, but very generally, and very briefly. Johns eating of the little Book, as Ezek. 2. 8. and the words to him, Thou must Prophesie again before many People and Nations and Tongues and Kings, do not so much infer Johns going abroad after this to preach to many Nations himself, as it doth the progress of the truth that he preached, through Nations and People, which had been supprest so long: aiming at these times when the Gospel last broke out from under Popery. The passage is parallel to the last words in the Book of Daniel, Go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in the lot, at the end of days. Not that Daniel should live till the end of those miseries by Antiochus, but that his doctrine, and the truth should stand up and be restored in those times. The phrase is such another as when Christ telleth his Disciples that they should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel, which is not meant of their personal sitting to judge, but that their doctrine should judge and condemn that unbelieving Nation.

REVEL. CHAP. XI.

THE Vision of this Chapter is in order to the accomplishing of the mystery of God, which was spoken of Chap. 10. 7. As Ezekiels measuring of a new Temple, shewed the restoring of Religion and of the Lords people, and foretold of the new Jerusalem and calling of the Gentiles: To the same purpose is the measuring of the Temple here. The Church was under the mystical Babylon, Chap. 9. as the Jews were under the Eastern, when Ezekiel wrote those things; now as that description of the measures of the Temple, was a prediction and pledge of their coming forth, so this speaketh to the same tenor. John is commanded to leave the Court which is without the Temple, forth, and not to measure it, Because it was given to the Gentiles, and they should tread the holy City fourty and two moneths. Not in an hostile way, but as the flock of the Lord tread his Courts, there wor∣shipping him: as see the phrase, Isa. 1. 12. Psal. 122. 2. and the meaning seemeth to be this; Measure not the Court of the Gentiles, for their multitudes that come to attend upon the Lord shall be boundless and numberless.

The two and forty moneths: and a thousand two hundred and sixty days, ver. 3. and Chap. 12. 6. and a time and times and half a time, Chap. 12. 14. are but borrowed phrases from Daniel: who so expresseth the 3 years and an half of Antiochus his persecution, and treading down Religion, Dan. 7. 25. & 12. 7, 11. and they mean times of trouble, and are used to ex∣press that, but not any fixed time. The Jews themselves have learned to make the same construction of it, when they say Adrianus besieged Bitter three years and an half, Jerus. Taanith fol. 68. col. 4. And this also [that comfort might stand up against misery] was the time of our Saviours Ministry, when he restored decaied and ruined Religion, in so happy a manner, Dan. 9. 27. And this the Jews also have observed in that saying we have mentioned before, The divine glory shall stand upon mount Olivet three years and an half, and shall preach, &c. So that according to this interpretation of the numbers,

the things they are applied unto are facil. The Gentiles shall tread the Lords Courts fourty two months, and the two Witnesses shall Prophesie a thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth: Meaning that the Gentiles shall worship God and attend upon him in a Gospel Ministry [and for that, allusion is made to the space of time that Christ administred the Gospel] but this ministring and attending shall not be without persecution and trouble [and for intimation of that, allusion is made to the bitter times of Antiochus.]

Two witnesses, is a phrase taken from the Law. [In the mouth of two or of three witnesses every word shall stand] and it means all that should bear witness to the truth in the times spoken of. But more especially the Ministry, which is charactered by the picture of Moses and Elias, the two great Reformers in their several times: the former, the first Minister of the Jews, the later of the Gentiles. These are two Olive trees [See Zech. 4. 3. Rom. 11. 17, 24.] and two Candlesticks [See Chap. 1. 20.] gracious in themselves, and having light, and holding it out to others. They must finish and accomplish their work that they had to do, and then be overcome by Antichrist and slain.

Their case is clearly paralleled with Christ their Masters; by comparing it with which, it is best understood: He preached three years and six months in trouble and sorrow, so they in sackcloth: He having finished his Ministry was slain, so they. He revived and ascended, so they likewise. Now this that especially states the case, and the counting of the progress of proceedings intended here, is this: That as Christ laid the foundation of the Gospel, and when he having finished his Ministry was slain, risen and ascended, the Gospel was not extinct with him, but increased more and more by the Ministry that fol∣lowed after: So seems this that alludes thereunto to be understood: As, that the two Witnesses should mean the first Ministry, and bearing witness to the truth at the first breaking of it out of Popery, which was followed with horrid persecutions and multi∣tudes of Martyrdoms: but these first Witnesses having so done their Testimony, and vast numbers of them having sealed it with their blood, and being gone to Heaven, yet the Gospel increased and shook down a part of Rome even at these first beginnings.

Their dead bodies must be cast in the streets of the great City where our Lord was crucified. The term The great City resolves that Rome is meant, if there were no other evidence: which see explained, Chap. 17. 18. And by her power and sentence our Lord was crucisi∣ed, and for a quarrel of hers, being accused and condemned by Pilate as a Traytor to the Roman power, for saying he was a King. This is the rather mentioned, now there is speech of Romes last bloodiness against Christs Witnesses: that it might be shewed that it persevered the same, to his, that it had been to him, and that to the last, and that these Witnesses drunk but of the same cup that their Master had drunk before them.

She is called spiritually [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Jews speak] Sodom and Egypt: Sodom for filthiness: and Egypt for Idolatry and mercilesness. Never did place under Heaven wallow in fleshly filthiness, and particularly in the Sodomitick bestiality, as Rome did about those times that John wrote: and how little it hath been mended under the Pa∣pacy there are Records plain enough that speak to her shame. He that reads Mar••ial and Juvenal [to name no more] may stand and wonder that men should become such beasts: and it had been better that those Books had been for ever smothered in obscu∣rity then that they should have come to light, were it not only for this, that they and others of the like stamp, do give that place her due character, and help us the better to understand her description. It is observable what Paul saith, Rom. ••1. 21, 22, 23, 24. that because the Heathen had brutish conceptions concerning God, abasing him, he gave them over to brutish abasing their own bodies by bestiality, or indeed by what was above bestial. And so he shews plainly, that Gods giving up men to such filthiness, especially Sodomy, was a direct plague for their Idolatrous conceptions of God, and their Idolatry. And to this purpose it may be observed that when the Holy Ghost hath given the story of the worlds becoming Heathenish at Babel for and by Idolatry, Gen. 11. he is not long be∣fore he brings in mention of this sin among the Heathen, and fearful vengeance upon it, Gen. 19. Apply this matter to the case of Rome and it may be of good information.

The casting their dead bodies in the streets, speaks the higher spite and detestation against them: and in this particular they are described different from their Master. And as they had prophesied three years and an half, so they lay unburied three days and an half: till there was no apparent possibility of their recovery. But they revive and go to Hea∣ven: and a tenth part of the City falls by an Earthquake, and seven thousand perish: but the rest of that part of the City that fell, who perished not, gave glory to God. Nine parts of the City left standing still: whose ruine is working still from henceforward, by the Gospel that these Witnesses had set on foot: which brings in the Kingdoms to be∣come the Kingdoms of Christ, &c.

REVEL CHAP. XII.

AS Daniel, Chap. 2. giveth a general view of the times, from his own days, to the coming of Christ, in the mention of the four Monarchies [in the four parts of Nebuchadnezzers Visionary Image] which should run their date and decay, and come to nothing, before his coming: and then in Chap. 7. handles the very same thing again in ano∣ther kind of scheme, and something plainer: And then in Chap. 8. & 10. & 11. & 12. doth explain at large, and more particularly, some of the most material things that he had touched in those generals: So doth our Apocalyptick here, and forward. He hath hi∣therto given a general survey of the times from his own days to the end: and now he goes over some of the chief heads again with explanation.

And first he begins with the birth of Christ, and the Christian Church: and the machi∣nation of the Devil to destroy both. The Church of the Jews bringeth forth her chief child, and the Devil seeketh to destroy him. He is pictured 1. A great red Dragon. Old Pharaoh who sought to devour new born Israel is much of the like character, Isa. 27. 7. Psal 74. 13, &c. 2. With seven heads: So many had the persecuting Monarchies, Dan. 7. the Lion one, the Bear one, the Leopard four, and the fourth beast one. 3. And ten horns, Parallel to the Syrogrecian persecutors, Dan. 7. 7, &c. 4. With his tail he drew and cast down the third part of the Stars: As the Tyrant Antiochus had done, Dan. 8. 10. So that by these allusive descriptions, phrases of old stories fetched to express new, is shewed the acting of the Devil now, by his mischievous and tyrannical instruments, with as much bitterness and bloody-mindedness as he had done in those. The womans fleeing into the Wilderness, alludes to Israels getting away into the Wilderness from the Dragon Pharaoh, Exod. 14. &c. And her nourishing there a thousand two hundred and sixty days, speaks Christs preservation of that Church in the bitterest danger and days, like the days of An∣tiochus. This Vision aims at the great opposition and oppression the Church and Gospel underwent from the first rising of it, to the ruine of Jerusalem: and their preservation in all that extremity.

The battel betwixt Michael and the Dragon, is of the same aim and time with the for∣mer; but it speaks thus much further, that the Church is not only preserved, but the Dragon conquered and cast to the Earth. Heaven all along in this Book is the Church, the Earth therefore may be properly understood of the World, and here more especially of that part of worldly ones, the unbelieving Jews; and that the rather, because the Gentiles here are called the Wilderness, as they be also in several other places in Scripture. The Devil therefore is cast out of the Church by the power of Michael, the Lord Christ, that he cannot nestle there, and he goes into the rest of the Nation that did not believe: much like the tenor of that parable, Matth. 12. 43, 44, 45. The Woman hath Eagles wings [alluding to Exod. 19. 4.] and gets into the Wilderness, the persecuted Church and Gospel gets among the Gentiles: The Devil casts venom as a flood after the Woman-Church, and the Earth swallows it up: the unbelieving Jews do as it were drink up all the poyson of the Devil, and together with raging against the Church they grow inraged one against another, and against the Romans, till they become their own destroyers. And in∣deed though it were a most bitter time with the Church while she was among the combu∣stions that that Nation had within it self, yet their raging one against another the more it increased in their particular quarrels, the more it avenged her quarrel, and turned their edge from off her, upon themselves. The Devil seeing this, betakes himself to fight against the Womans seed, the Church of the Gentiles: and the Treatise of that begins in the next Chapter.

REVEL. CHAP. XIII.

WHEN Rome hath slain Christ, and destroyed Jerusalem, Satan gives up his Power and Throne to it; and that deservedly, as to one most like to be his chief and most able agent to act his fury. She is described here, a Beast bearing the shape of all the four bloody Monarchies, Dan. 7. in power and cruelty matching, nay incomparably exceeding them all. There is but little reason to take Rome for the fourth Monarchy in Daniel; and the so taking it, bringeth much disjointing and confusion, into the inter∣preting of that Book and this, and into the stating of affairs and times spoken of in them. The Jews like such a gloss well, as whereby they do conclude, that the Messias is not yet come, because the fourth Monarchy the Romane, say they, is not yet utterly destroy∣ed. And truly I see not how they can conclude less, upon such a concession. For it is plain in Daniel, that the four Kingdoms there spoken of, must come to nothing before the first appearing of Messias; and that the Romane is not, is most plain, since this Book makes Rome Heathen and Papal but as one.

The Holy Ghost by Daniel shews the four Monarchies, the afflicters of the Church of the Jews till Messias his first coming, The Babylonian, The Mede-Persian, The Grecian, and The Syrogrecian: and John now takes at him, and shews a fifth Monar∣chy the afflicter of the Church of Jews and Gentiles till his second coming. Daniel indeed gives a hint of the Romane, but he clearly distinguisheth him from the other four, when he calls him the Prince that was to come, Dan. 9. 26. beyond and after those four that he had spoken of before. Him John describes here, as carrying the character of all those four. A Beast with ten horns, such a one had been the Syrogre∣cian, Dan. 7. 7 like a Leopard, as the Grecian was, vers. 6. his feet as a Bears, such the Persian, vers. 5. his mouth like a Lion, such the Babylonian, vers. 4. This therefore could not be any of those, when it was all: and by this description of it by cha∣racters of them all, it shews the vast power and incomparable cruelty and oppression of it equalling them all: nay it infinitely went beyond them put all together, in ex∣tent of Dominions, Power, Continuance and Cruelty, both to the Church and to the World: Balaam long before Rome was in being doth set it out for the great afflicter, Numb. 24. 24. Ships shall come from the coasts of Chittim, and shall afflict Assur, and shall afflict Eber: That Chittim means Italy or Rome, is granted even by some Roma∣nists themselves, it is asserted by the Jews, and confirmed by other places of Scripture, and even proved by the very sense and truth of that place. It afflicts both the affli∣cted and the afflicter Eber and Assur: and that hath been the garb of it since its first being. How may this be read in her own stories? In her bloody Conquests over all the world: in the titles of honour [but which speak oppression] Britannicus, Ger∣manicus, Africanus, and the like? And to take up all in Epitome, and that you may con∣jecture ex ungue Leonem, what whole Rome hath done in all her time for slaughter, op∣pression and destroying; take but the brief of one of her Commanders Pompey the Great; of whom Pliny speaks to this purpose, Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 26. He recovered Si∣cily, subdued Africk: subjected eight hundred and seventy six Towns about the Alpes and coasts of Spain: routed and slew 2183000 men. Sunk and took eight hundred and forty six Ships: took in one thousand five hundred and thirty eight fortified places; and triumphed from his Conquest of Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, Judea, Al∣bania, Iberia, Creet and Basterna. What hath Rome done by all her agents in all her time? And she is this year 1654, two thousand four hundred and eight years old.

She is described here, with seven heads and ten horns, as the Dragon, whose depu∣ted she is, is pictured Chap. 12. 3. the horns crowned with power, and the heads with blasphemies.

One of his heads had been wounded to death, but his deadly wound was healed: This seemeth to mean her Monarchical or Kingly power, which was extinguisht with the Tarquins, but revived in the Caesars: and hereby is given intimation from whence to account the beginning of this fifth Monarchy: namely from Romes beginning again to be Monarchical: and we may well take a hint of this from Luke 2. where at the birth of Christ all the world is taxed by Caesar Augustus. Not that Monarchical Government is therefore the worse because thus abused by Rome Heathen, no more then Religion is the worse for being abused by Rome Papal.

Another Beast ariseth, like this for power and cruelty, but far beyond him in couse∣nage and delusion. Rome Heathen dealt always openly and in down right terms of bloodiness: professedly setting it self to destroy Religion: But Rome Papal is a mystery of iniquity: it goes to work by deceiving, and carrying fair pretences: therefore it is said that it spake as a Dragon, but had horns like a Lamb. It revives the Tyranny of Rome Heathen and Imperial, and none must thrive before it that will not bear its badge: either some mark, or its name, or the number of its name: which number was the num∣ber of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty six. In Hebrew numerals, Sethur the name of a man in Numb. 13. 13. comes just to this number: and which being inter∣preted signifies Hidden or Mystery: the very inscription of Rome it self, Chap. 17. 5. In Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 fits it, which is the old name of the Roman. And in Gencalogical Arithmetick the number of Adonikams family suits with it, Ezra 5. 13. which mans name signifies, A Lord rising up.

REVEL. CHAP. XIV.

THE warring 'twixt Michael and his Angels, and the Dragon and his Angels, and the Dragons making war with seed of the Woman, Chap. 12. receiveth illustration in the thirteenth Chapter, and in the beginning of this. For in Chap. 13. he resigns his Power and Throne to the Beast Rome, and makes him chief leader in his Wars; and his Angels are men that receive his mark. Here the Lamb upon mount Zion is Michael, and his Angels and followers are marked with his Fathers Name in their foreheads as Chap. 7.

And now as in the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh Chapters the relation is concerning those things that should be against the Church, from henceforth the Prophesie is more especially of things that make for the Church, and against her enemies. As 1. The preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, ver. 6, 7. 2. The proclaiming of the ruin of the mystical Babylon: proclaimed even from its first rising up a persecutor: as Isaiah did Prophesie against the Eastern; even before its tyrannical being. 3. The Ministry of the Word giving caution, against joyning with the Beast and his Image, and the danger and damnation that should follow upon joyning with him, and the torments described, ver. 9, 10, 11. Here the patience of the Saints tried, ver. 12. and John by a voice from Heaven commanded to write them blessed that die in the Lord from thenceforth, ver. 13. at once shewing the bitterness of the persecution caused by the Beast, that even death should be desirable to deliver the Saints from the trouble; and incouraging to stand out against the Beast and his Image even to the death.

These bitter dealings against the Church, ripen the sins of the world ready for cutting down: and thereupon Christ is described coming as against Egypt, Isa. 19. 1. riding upon a cloud, and with a sickle in his hand to reap the Earth. As Joel 3. 13. betokening his ven∣geance against his enemies: So the Earth is reaped Harvest and Vintage and all: This is a general intimation of Gods judgment and vengeance, which is more particularly handled in the pouring out of the Vials, Chap. 16.

It is observable that the word for reaping of the Earth comes out from the Temple; yea though Christ have the sickle in his hand, yet an Angel out of the Temple calls to him to reap: and another Angel comes out of the Temple with a sickle, and a third out of the Temple calls to him to reap: As this may be understood to Doctrinal information, that the cries and urgencies of the Church to Christ stir him up to avenge them on their ene∣mies, Luke 18. 7. so the expressions may be explained by allusive application. The put∣ting in of the first sickle, to reap the first corn in Judea, was by the word and warrant of the Priests and Rulers sitting in the Temple, and they that were to reap, when they were come to the corn, put not in the sickle, till the word was given, Reap. The manner and managing of this business, viz. the reaping of the first sheaf is recorded and related by the Talmud: Menachoth per. 10. and in Tosaphta. ibid. These three men, say they, that were appointed by the Sanhedrin to reap, went out into the valley of Kidron, with a great company following them on the first day of the Passover week when now it grew towards evening, with three sickles and three baskets. One when they came to the place said to them, On this Sabbath, on this Sabbath, on this Sabbath, In this basket, in this basket, in this basket, With this sickle, with this sickle, with this sickle, Reap: to whom the three answer, Well, well, well, I will reap. The other says, Reap then. Then they reap, &c. Thus phrases taken from known customs, do speak the plainer.

And so is the expression taken from common speech and opinion, when it is said in ver. 30. The wine-press was troden without the City, and blood came out of the wine-press even to the horse bridles. Here is treading a wine-press of blood, as Christ treadeth in Edom, Isa. 63. 1, 3. [Edom is the common name by which the Hebrew Writers call the Romans.] The wine-press was without the City: alluding to the wine and oyl presses which were without Jerusalem at the foot of mount Olivet. Blood came up to the horse bridles: An hyperbole by which they expressed great slaughter and effusion of blood. So Talm. Jerus. in Taanith fol. 69. col. 1. describing the woful slaughter that Hadrian made of the Jews at the destructi∣on of the City Bitter saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The horses waded in blood up to the nostrils, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Of that space and extent doth R. Menahem. on gen. fol. 60. reckon the largeness of the Land of Israel.

REVEL CHAP. XV.

WHAT was spoken in general, in the conclusion of the preceding Chapter, con∣cerning the treading of the Wine press of Gods wrath, is here more particularly prosecuted in the story of the seven Vials. At the beginning of which John again calls us to reflect upon the scheme of the Temple in Heaven: which all along speaks according to the platform of the Temple at Hierusalem. Here is a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire, and Harpers harping by it, &c. singing the song of Moses: which as it calls to mind Moses and the peoples singing upon the read Sea shore upon their delivery from Egypt, Exod. 15. so doth it plainly allude to the musick at the Temple, by the laver or Sea, and which standing near the Altar was as a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire.

Moses and Israel sing after the destruction of Egypt; for their deliverance was by her destruction, but those here that have got victory over the Beast, sing before he is destroy∣ed, for they are delivered from him and prevail against him though he stand in his strength, and his destruction be not yet come. The Gospel grew, and Sanguis Martyrum was semen Ecclesiae, do Satan and Antichrist what they can.

After this song The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in Heaven was opened, ver. 5. All the whole building upon Mount Moriah was called the Temple, the Courts and Cloi∣sters and Chambers, &c. but the very house it self, The Holy and Holy of Holies was only and properly The Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony: And the song mentioned before, ver. 2. is represented as being in the Court, near the Altar and laver, but now the very House it self is opened: Parallel to what is spoken Chap. 11. 19. The Temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his Temple, the Ark of his Covenant: The Lord in pouring out vengeance upon Antichrist, will manifest his judgments, as ver. 4. and open his Counsels and Covenant: for while the enemy raged, and raved, and destroyed those that would not worship him, and when even all the world in a manner did worship him, the Lords judgme••ts were hid, and his Covenant with his people, as it were out of sight, or as if no such thing had been, but when this vengeance shall come, then all will be plain.

The seven Angels that pour out the seven Vials are charactered in the garb of Priests, coming out of the Temple, in white linen, and girded over the breasts, as the Priests were. One of the living creatures gives the Vials into their hands: the very same sense and carriage with that Ezek. 10. 7.

REVEL. CHAP. XVI.

WERE the Stage where the things of this Book were to be acted, and the time of their acting of as little compass as was that of the things of Daniel, one might with more probability allot the several things mentioned, to their several times, as the things in him may be done: But since the scene here is as large as all the World where the Gospel was to come, and the time as long as time shall be; [1600 years past already, and how much behind none knoweth] to undertake to apply every thing in this Book to its particular time, place and occasion, is to run a hazardous undertaking. In some places indeed the things are so plain, that they speak themselves, but in many so obscure that he that will venture to bring them to particular application, doth it more upon his own ven∣ture, then upon any good textual warrant: And amongst those obscurities, these Vials are not the least. Take them in a general interpretation [as I believe they are intended] and their meaning is easie to be understood, but to come to allot them severally to this or that time or place, is but to do that, that when ye have done all you can, will come to no surer bottom to rest upon, then your own conceit and supposal.

The matter of them is expressed as to the most part, by allusion to the plagues of Egypt, as boils, blood, darkness, and so it clears the thing intended, namely in general to shew how the mystical Egypt, Chap. 11. 8. after all her oppression and persecution of the Israel of God, should at last come to receive her just reward, as old Egypt had done: and that God would follow her with plagues till he had destroyed her. They are somewhat like the plagues of the seven Trumpets, some of which, as we observed, did in general speak the state of the World till the rising of Antichrist: and these Vials may be understood as the general description of his plagues and ruine. We observed in Chap. 6. and that upon good Scripture ground, that the six Seals did all but speak one effect, namely the destructi∣on of the Jewish Nation, but brought to pass by several judgments; and the like inter∣pretation may be made here.

The first Vial brings a noisom Boyl upon the worshippers of the Beast: this was the sixth plague of Egypt, but here the first: for that plague in Egypt came home to Jannes and Jambers the Magicians, that they could not stand before Moses, Exod. 9. 11. And that

both this and all the rest might be shewed to reach home, even to the veriest deceivers and ringleaders of mischief in Antichristian Egypt, this is justly set in the first rank.

The second and third here, refer to the one plague of Blood in Egypt, and these ex∣ceed that: For there all the Rivers and Ponds were indeed turned into Blood, but the Egyptians digged for Water about the River to drink, Exod. 7. 24. and found it and it was not turned into Blood: The question and answer of Aben Ezra is pertinent. It is said, there was blood throughout all the Land of Egypt: And the Magicians did so with their in∣chantments. Now how could the Magicians turn water into blood, when there was no water left, but all was blood? And he answers, Aaron only turned the waters that were above ground into blood, not those that were under ground: but here Sea and Rivers and Fountains, and all are become Blood: still to shew how throughly the plagues should come home.

At these plagues there is mention of the Angel of the waters, ver. 5. which, since all the Angels here are charactered in the garb of Priests, as hath been said, may also be under∣stood as alluding to that Priest whose office it was to have care of the Waters, and to look that there should be Water enough and fitting for the people to drink, that came up to the three Festivals: Among the offices of the Priests at the Temple this was one. Maym. in Kele Mikdash per. 7. and Nicodemus whom the Talmud speaks of was of this office, Aboth R. Nathan per. 6.

The fourth Vial poured into the Sun brings scorching heat; this seems to allude to Joshua's or Deborah's day, when the Stars from Heaven fought: the Sun standing still so long did not only give light to Israel, but probably heat and faintness to the Canaanites, and Psal. 121. 6. seems to refer thither, The Sun shall not smite thee by day.

As in the fourth they are plagued by the Sun, so in the fifth, by want of it. The seat of the Beast darkned as Pharaohs Throne and Kingdom was: and this darkness bringing horror and pains; as Egypts did through dreadful apparitions in the dark.

The drying up of Euphrates for the Kings of the East, under the sixth Vial, seems to speak much to the tenor of the sixth Trumpet, the loosing of the four Angels which were bound at Euphrates. Those we conceived the Turks to plague Christendom; these we may conceive enemies to plague Antichrist. The allusion in the former seems to be to the four Kings from beyond Euphrates, that came to scourge Canaan, Gen. 14. this to the drain∣ing of Euphrates for Cyrus and Darius to take Babylon. For having to treat here of a Ba∣bylon, as ver. 19. the scene is best represented, as being laid at the old Babylon. Now the Historians that mention the taking of Babylon by Cyrus, tell us it was by draining the great stream of Euphrates, by cutting it into many little channels.

The Egyptian plague of Frogs is here translated into another tenour, and that more dangerous; three unclean Spirits like Frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon, Beast, and false Prophet: Spirits of Devils working miracles, &c. This is named betwixt the sixth and seventh Vial [though the acting of the delusions by miracles were all the time of the Beast and false Prophet] because of the judgment now coming: for though all deluders and deluded received their judgments in their several ages, yet being here speak∣ing of the last judgments of Antichrist, they are all summed together. He is here called the false Prophet, as being the great deluder of all. The fruit of all these delusions is to set men to fight against God: whose end is set forth by allusion to the Army of Jabin King of Canaan, Judg. 5. 19. broken at the waters of Megiddo. The word Armageddon signifies a mountain of men cut in pieces. Here that solemn caution is inserted, Behold I come as a thief: Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments: The Priest that walked the round of the Temple guards by night, had torches born before him, and if he found any asleep upon the guard he burnt his clothes with the torches, Middoth per. 1. halac. 2.

The seventh Vial concludes the Beasts destruction. The great City is said to be divi∣ded into three parts: either as Jerusalem was, Ezek. 5. 11, 12. a third part to pestilence, a third part to the sword, and a third part to dispersion, and destruction in it: or because there is mention of an Earthquake, this speaks its ruining in general, as Zech. 14. 4, 5. A tenth part of it fell before, Chap. 11. 13. and now the nine parts remaining fall in a tri∣partite ruine.

REVEL. CHAP. XVII.

MYSTICAL Babylon pictured with the colours of the old Babylon, Rome so cal∣led, as being the mother of Idolatry, as Babel was the beginning of Heathenism, and the mother of persecution: Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, so did Rome, and made ha∣vock of the Church continually.

She is resembled to a woman deckt with gold, &c. as Isa. 14. 4. sitting upon a seven∣headed and ten-horned Beast; as Chap. 13. 1. Which Beast was and is not and yet is, it shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and shall go to perdition. Rome under the Papacy was not the same Rome it had been, and yet it was: Not Rome Heathen and Imperial as it had been before, and yet for all evil, Idolatry, persecution, &c. the same Rome to all purposes. It is plainly described as sitting upon seven hills, upon which there is hardly a Roman Poet or Historian, but makes a clear comment. The seven heads denoted also seven Kings or kinds of Govern∣ment that had passed in that City: Five are fallen, vers. 10. Kings, Consuls, Tribunes, Dictators, Triumvirs: and one then was when John wrote, namely Emperors: And one not yet come, Christian Emperors, which continued but a short space before the Beast came which was and is not. He is the eight and he of the seven: They that hold Rome to be the fourth Monarchy in Daniel, cannot but also hold from this place, that that Mo∣narchy is not yet extinct. The ten horns upon the Beast in Dan. 7. 24. are ten Kings ari∣sing and succeeding one another in the same Kingdom: but here at ver. 12. they are ten several Kingdoms, all subject to the Beasts both Imperial and Papal, but at last shall rise up against the mystical Whore and destroy her. It is like there must yet be conversion of some Kingdoms from the Papacy, before it fall.

REVEL. CHAP. XVIII. XIX. to Vers. 11.

AN Elegy and a Triumph upon the fall of Babylon: The former Chap. 18. almost verbatim from Isa. 13. & 14. & 21. & 34. & Jer. 51. & Ezek. 27. The later al∣so, Chap. 19. the phrase taken from the Old Testament almost every word. The trium∣phant Song begins with Halleluja several times over. The word is first used at the later end of Psal. 104. where destruction of the wicked being first prayed for, Let the sinners be consumed out of the Earth, and let the wicked be no more, he concludes with, Bless thou the Lord O my soul. Hallelujah.

The observation of the peoples saying over the great Hallel at the Temple [or their great Song of praise] doth illustrate this. The Hallel consisted of several Psalms, viz. from the one hundred and thirteenth to the end of the one hundred and eighteenth, and at very many passages in that Song, as the Priests said the verses of the Psalms, all the people still answered Hallelujah: Only here is one thing of some difference from their course there, for here is Amen Hallelujah, ver. 4. whereas It is a tradition That they an∣swered not Amen in the Temple at all: What said they then? Blessed be the Name of the glory of his Kingdom for ever and ever. Jerus. in Beracoth fol. 13. col. 3. But the promises of God which are Yea and Amen, being now performed, this is justly inserted; as Christ for the same cause in this Book is called Amen, Chap. 3. 14.

The marriage of the Lamb is now come, and his Wife is ready, ver. 7. the Church now compleated.

REVEL. CHAP. XIX. from Ver. 11. to the end of the Chapter.

HERE begins a new Vision, as it appeareth by the first words, And I saw Heaven opened: and here John begins upon his whole subject again, to sum up in brief what he had been upon before. Observe what is said in vers. 19. I saw the Beast, and the Kings of the Earth, and their Armies gathered together to make war against him that sate on the Horse, and against his Army: and observe withal, that there is the story of the destruction of the Beast before Chap. 18. and of the marriage, and marriage Supper of the Lamb before, Chap. 19. 7, 8, 9. therefore the things mentioned here cannot be thought to occur after those: this therefore is a brief rehearsal of what he had spoken from the twelfth Chapter hither, about the battel of Michael and his Angels with the Dragon and his Angels.

REVEL. CHAP. XX.

THE preceding Section spake what Christ did with the Beast and those that car∣ried his mark: he fought against them always, and when he saw his time, de∣stroyed them: here the Holy Ghost tells us what he did with the Devil that set them on: You heard of Christ fighting with the Dragon, Chap. 12. and the Dragon foiled and cast out, sets to prosecute the Womans seed: but what course takes he for that? He resigns his Throne, and Power, and Authority, to the Beast Rome, and it must do, and it did his business for him, Chap. 13. 3. and how throughly it did its masters work, is shewed all along from that place forward. But what becomes of the old Dragon the master of mischief? He sits by, as it were, and looks on while his game is played, and hisses on his Deputy Rome, first Imperial, then Papal. They at the last receive their due wages for their work, Imperial and Papal go to perdition. But what must become of the Dragon that set them on? It would be very improper to tell so largely of the fearful ven∣geance and destruction upon the agents, and to say nothing of the principal and chief mover. That therefore is done here, and this Chapter takes at Chap. 13. 3. and tells you what became of the old Dragon after the resigning of his Throne to the Beast: namely that he sate not at his own quiet as if Michael had nothing to do with him, or let him alone, having so much to do with his instruments, but that he curbed and destroyed both principal and agent, and cast them both together into the bottomless pit.

The Devil had two ways of undoing men; the Church by persecution, the world by delusion of Oracles, Idolatry, false Miracles, and the like. His managing of the former by his Deputies the former Chapters have related, and how they sped in his service: and this comes to tell how he speeds about the other. The great Angel Michael, the Lord Christ, who hath the key of the bottomless pit in his hand, as Chap. 1. 18. chains him by the power of the Gospel, that he should no more deceive the Nations for a thousand years: Weigh the phrase, Not deceive the Nations: it is not not persecute, but not deceive; nor is it the Church, but the Nations. His persecuting of the Church hath been storied before: and here is told how he is curbed for deceiving the Nations, and indeed when he depu∣ted Rome, and let that loose for the former, he was chained up as for the later. It is easily construed how Satan deceived the Nations, by Idols which are called a lie, Isa. 44. 20. Rom. 1. 25. by his Oracles in which was no light, Isa. 8. 20. and by magical miracles, which were meer delusion. Hence the world for the time of Heathenism, is said to be in his Kingdom of darkness, Act. 26. 18. Colos. 1. 13, &c. Now the spreading of the Gospel through the world ruined all these before it, and dissolved those cursed spels and charms of delusion, and did as it were chain up Satan that he could no more Deceive the Nations 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Heathen as he had done, by these deceits: so that the words speak the ending of Satans power in Heathenism, and the bringing in of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth, out of darkness and delusion.

The date of this his chaining up was a thousand years: Now the Jews counted the days of the Messias, a thousand years, as we touched before. The Babylon Talmud in Sanhedrin in the Chapter. Helek doth shew their full opinion about the days of Messias, and amongst other things they say thus: as Aruch speaks their words in voce 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a tradition of the house of Elijah, that the righteous ones that the blessed God shall raise from the dead, they shall no more return to their dust, but those thousand years that the holy blessed God is to renew the world, he will give them wings as Eagles, and they shall flee upon the waters. The place in the Talmud is in Sanhedrin fol. 92. where the Text indeed hath not the word thousand, but the marginal gloss hath it, and shews how to understand the thousand years. And Aruch speaks it as a thing of undeniable knowledge and intertainment. And so speaks R. Eliezer in Midras Tillin fol. 4. col. 2. The days of the Messias are a thousand Years.

As John all along this Book doth intimate new stories by remembring old ones, and useth not only the Old Testament phrase to express them by, but much allusion to customs, lan∣guage and opinion of the Jews, that he might speak, as it were, closer to them and nearer their apprehensions, so doth he here and forward. This later end of his Book remembers the later end of the Book of Ezekiel. There is a resurrection Ezek. 37. Gog and Magog, Ezek. 38. & 39. and a new Jerusalem, Ezek. 40. and forward. So here a resurrection, ver. 5. Gog and Magog, ver. 8. and a new Jerusalem, Chap. 21. & 22.

There a resurrection, not of bodies out of the grave, but of Israel out of a low cap∣tived condition in Babel. There a Gog and Magog, the Syrogrecian persecutors, Antio∣chus and his house: and then the description of the new Jerusalem, which as to the place and situation was a promise of their restoring to their own Land, and to have Jerusa∣lem built again, as it was indeed in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah: but by the glory and largeness of it [as it is described, more in compass then all the Land of Canaan,]

they were taught to look further, namely at the heavenly or spiritual Jerusalem, the Church through all the World.

Now the Jews according to their allegorical vein, applied these things to the days of Christ thus: that first there should be a resurrection caused by Messias of righteous ones▪ then he to conquer Gog and Magog, and then there must come 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The brave World to come that they dreamed of: Besides what they speak to this tenour in the Tal∣mudick Treatise last cited, there is this passage in Jerus. Megillah fol. 73. col. 1. They are applying particular parts of the great Hallel to particular times [what the great Hallel was, we shewed a little before.] And that part, say they, I love the Lord because he hath heard me, refers to the days of Messias: that part, Tye the sacrifice with cords: to the day of Gog and Magog. And that, Thou art my God and I will praise thee: refers to the world to come.

Our Divine Apocalyptick follows Ezekiel with an Allegory too, and in some of his expressions alludes to some of theirs, not as approving them, but as speaking the plainer to them by them: Here is a resurrection too, but not of bodies neither, for not a word of mention of them, but of souls. The souls of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, lived and reigned, ver. 4. and yet this is called The first resurrection, ver. 5.

The meaning of the whole let us take up in parts. There are two main things here in∣tended. 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 con∣quering 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 bra∣very 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 Gen∣tiles, 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 interpret••••••••n of the re∣surrection 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 up∣on 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 sto∣ries 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 down of Idolatry and Heathenism in the Earth till the World was become Christian, and then the Papacy arising doth Heathenize it again. The destruction of which is set down, vers. 9. by fire from Heaven, in allusion to Sodom, or 2 King. 1. 10, 12. and it is set close to the end of the World: the Devil and the Beast [Rome imperial] and the false Prophet [Rome Papal] are cast into fire and brimstone, vers. 10. where John speaks so, as to shew his method, which we have spoken of. The Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brim∣stone, where the Beast and the false Prophet are: He had given the story of the beast and false Prophet, the Devils agents, and what became of them, Chap. 19. vers. 20. And now the story of the Devil himself: for it was not possible to handle these two stories but apart: and now he brings the confusion of all the three together, and the confusion of all with them that bare their mark, and whose names were not written in the Book of life.

REVEL. CHAP. XXI.

THE Jerusalem from above described. The phrase is used by Paul, Gal. 4. 26. and it is used often by the Jews: Zohar fol. 120. col. 478. Rabbi Aba saith, Luz is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Jerusalem which is above, which the holy blessed God gives for a possession, where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land: but to an impure Land no bles∣sings to be at all. Compare Revel. 21. 27, & 22. 15. Midras. Till. in Psal. 122. Jeru∣salem is built as a City that is compact together. R. Jochanan saith, The holy blessed God said, I will not go into Jerusalem that is above, until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below, &c.

Ezekiels Jerusalem, as we observed, was of a double signification, namely as promi∣sing the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity, and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church under the Gospel, and that most especially: At that John taketh at here, and that is the Jerusalem that he describeth. And from Isa. 65. 17, 18. joy∣neth the creating new Heavens and a new Earth; and so stateth the time of buil∣ding this new Jerusalem, namely at the coming in of the Gospel, when all things are made new, 2 Cor. 5. 17. A new People, new Ordinances, new Oeconomy, and the old World of Israel dissolved. Though the description of this new City be placed

last in the Book, yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things men∣tioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles. When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst the•••• as he had done in the midst of Israel, Levit. 26. 11, 12. That Ta∣bernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book: And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow, death nor pain, vers. 4. which if taken litterally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven [of which the glory of this Jerusalem may indeed be a figure] but here, as the other things are, it is to be taken mystically or spiritually, to mean the taking away the curse of the Law, and the sting of death and sin, &c. No condemnation to be to those that are in Christ Jesus.

The passages in describing the City are all in the Prophets phrase, Ezekiel and Isaiah: as compare these, The Bride the Lambs wife, vers. 9. Sing O barren [Hea∣then] that didst not bear, &c. Thy Maker is thine Husband, thy Redeemer, &c. Isa. 54. 1, 5.

Vers. 10. He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. Compare Ezek. 40. 2.

That great City holy Jerusalem, &c. This refers to great dimensions of Ezekiels Je∣rusalem; as also to the squareness, the three gates of a side, &c. The glory of it de∣scribed from thence, and from Isa. 58. 8. & 60. 2, 3. & 54. 11, 12, &c. The wall of it twelve thousand furlongs square, or fifteen hundred miles upon every quarter, East, West, North and South three thousand miles about: and fifteen hundred miles high. Wall of salvation, Isa 26. 1. & 60. 14.

The foundations of the walls garnished with twelve precious stones [see Isa. 54. 11.] as the stones in the Ephod or holy Breastplate: three upon every side, as these were three and three in a row: The first foundation stone here is the Jaspar, the stone of Benjamin, for Pauls sake the great agent about this building of the Church of the Gentiles: The Jerus. Talmud. in Peah, fol. 15. col. 3. saith expresly that the Jaspar was Benjamins stone, for it saith, Benjamins Jaspar was once lost [out of the Ephod] and they said Who is there that hath another as good as it? Some said, Damah the son of Nethina hath one, &c.

And I saw no Temple therein, &c. vers. 22. here this Jerusalem differs from Eze∣kiels: that had a Temple, this none: and it is observable there, that the platform of the Temple is much of the measures and fashion that the second Temple was of, but the City of a compass larger then all the Land: which helpeth to clear what was said before of the double significancy of those things, they promised them an earthly Temple, which was built by Zerobabel, but foretold a heavenly Jerusalem which is described here.

REVEL CHAP. XXII.

FROM Ezekiel Chap. 47. and from several passages of Scripture besides, John doth still magnifie the glory, happiness and holiness of the new Jerusalem: Lively waters of clear Doctrine teaching Christ and life by him flowing through it continually, Ezek. 7. 1, 9. Cant. 4. 15. The Tree of Life lost to Adam, and Para∣dise shut up against him, to keep him from it, here restored. Then a curse, here There shall be curse no more, vers. 3. See Zech. 14. 11. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Anathe∣ma non erit amplius, &c. He concludeth, These sayings are faithful and true, so he had said before at the marriage of the Lamb, Chap. 19. 9. and again at his begin∣ning of the story of the new Jerusalem, Chap. 21. 5. referring to the several Pro∣phesies that had been of these things, and now all those sayings and Prophesies were come home in truth and faithfulness. He is commanded not to seal his Book, as Daniel was, Dan. 12. 4. because the time of these things was instantly beginning, and Christs coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and cast∣ing them off, and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door, with∣in three and an half or thereabout to come, if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year. There are two years more of Nero, and one of con∣fusion in the Roman Empire in the Wars of Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian, and the next year after Jerusalem falls.

And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the New Testament, as by the consent of all it was, then may we say, Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing, and from henceforth must

Vision and Prophesie and Inspiration cease for ever. These had been used and im∣parted all along for the drawing up of the mind of God into writing, as also the appearing of Angels had been used, for the further and further still revealing of his will, and when the full revelation of that was compleated, their appearing, and revelations to men must be no more. So that this Revelation to John was the topping up and finishing of all revelations. The Lord had promised that in the last days [of Jerusalem] he would pour down of his Spirit upon all flesh, Act. 2. 17. And Christ promised to his Apostles, that he would lead them into all truth, John 16. 12, 13. To look for therefore the giving of those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit be∣yond the fall of Jerusalem there is no warrant; and there is no need, since when the inspired penmen had written all that the Holy Ghost directed to write, All truth was written.

It is not to be denied indeed, that those that had these extraordinary gifts before the fall of Jerusalem, if they lived after, had them after, for the promoting of these ends for which they were given, but there is neither ground nor reason whereupon to believe, that they were restored to the next generation, or were or are to be im∣parted to any generation for ever. For as it was in Israel at the first setling of their Church, so was it in this case in the first setling of the Gospel. The first fathers of the Sanhedrin in the wilderness, were indued with Divine gifts, such as we are speak∣ing of, Numb. 11. 25. but when that generation was expired, those that were to suc∣ceed in that Function and Imployment, were such as were qualified for it by educa∣tion, study and parts acquired. So was it with this first age of the Gospel and the ages succeeding. At the first dispersing of the Gospel, it was absolutely needful that the first planters should be furnished with such extraordinary gifts, or else it was not possi∣ble it should be planted. As this may appear by a plain instance. Paul comes to a place where the Gospel had never come, he stays a month or two and begets a Church, and then he is to go his way and to leave them: Who now in this Church is fit to be their Minister? They being all alike but very children in the Gospel: but Paul is direct∣ed by the Holy Ghost to lay his hands upon such and such of them, and that bestows upon them the gift of Tongues and Prophesying, and now they are able to be Mini∣sters and to teach the Congregation. But after that generation, when the Gospel was setled in all the world, and committed to writing, and written to be read and studied: then was studdy of the Scriptures the way to inable men to unfold the Scriptures and fit them to be Ministers to instruct others: and Revelations and Inspirations neither needful nor safe to be looked after, nor hopeful to be attained unto. And this was the reason why Paul coming but newly out of Ephesus and Crete, when he could have ordained and qualified Ministers with abilities by the imposition of his hands, would not do it, but left Timothy and Titus to Ordain, though they could not bestow those gifts: because he knew the way that the Lord had appointed Mini∣sters thenceforward to be inabled for the Ministry, not by extraordinary infusions of the Spirit, but by serious study of the Scriptures, not by a miraculous, but by an ordinary Ordination. And accordingly he gives Timothy himself counsel to study, 1 Tim. 4. 13. though he were plentifully indued with these extraordinary indowments, 1 Tim. 4. 14. And Paul himself had his Books for study, or he had them to no pur∣pose, 2 Tim. 4. 13.

And indeed it had been the way of God, he hath instructed his people by a studious and learned Ministry, ever since he gave a written word to instruct them in. 1. Who were the standing Ministry of Israel all the time from the giving of the Law to the Captivity into Babel? Not Prophets, or those inspired men [for they were but occasional Teachers, and there were often long spaces of time where∣in no Prophet appeared] but the Priests and Levites that became Learned in the Law by study, Deut. 33. 10. Hos. 46. Mal. 2. 7. And for this end as hath been touch∣ed, they were disposed into forty eight Cities of their own, as so many Universi∣ties, where they studied the Law together, and from thence were sent out into the several Synagogues to teach the people: and had the Tithes paid them for their main∣tenance whilest they studied in the Universities, and for their preaching in the Sy∣nagogues. And it may be observed that even they that had the prophetick spirit did not only study the Scriptures themselves, Josh. 1. 8. Dan. 9. 1. but sent the people for instruction to the Priests who were students and the standing Ministry, Hag. 2. 11. Mal. 2. 7. 2. If you consider the times under the second Temple, then it was utterly impossible that the people should be taught but by a studious and learned Ministry; for the spirit of Prophesie was departed, and the Scriptures were then in an un∣known Tongue, to all but Students. And hence they had an interpreter in every Synagogue to render into the Vulgar, what was read in the Law and the Prophets in

the Original. So that the Spirit of God inspired certain persons whom he pleased to be the revealers of his will till he had imparted and committed to writing what he thought fit to reveal under the Old Testament, and when he had compleated that, the Holy Ghost departed, and such inspirations ceased. And when the Gospel was to come in, then the Spirit was restored again, and bestowed upon several persons for the revealing further of the mind of God, and compleating the work he had to do, for the setling of the Gospel, and penning of the New Testament, and that being done, these gifts and inspirations cease, and may no more be expected then we may expect some other Gospel yet to come.

Notes

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