The harmony of the foure evangelists among themselves, and with the Old Testament : the first part, from the beginning of the gospels to the baptisme of our saviour, with an explanation of the chiefest difficulties both in language and sense / by John Lightfoote ...

SS. His floore.

If these words and those that follow, bee applyed to the whole Church in all places, and at all times in generall, the application may bee very profitable and pertinent, as giving warning to all

men to bring forth the fruits of repentance, for feare of the judge∣ment to come, and so the end of this verse may bee of the same use with the end of the ninth to all men whatsoever; but that by the floore of Christ in this place is meant the Church of Israel, or the na∣tion of the Jews alone, may bee concluded upon these observations:

First, that the title given, His floore, is but the very Epithet of Isaiah, that hee giveth to Israel, Isa. 21. 10. Oh my threshing, and the corne of my floore: which though some Expositors both Jewish and Christian apply to Babel, yet let the Reader upon common reason, and serious examination bee the Judge.

Secondly, because the phrase of fanning of that Nation be∣tokeneth their finall desolation, Jer. 15. 7. I will fanne them with a fanne in the gates of the Land: and the Baptist seemeth in these ex∣pressions his fanne and his floore, to have reference to these two Pro∣phets.

Thirdly, because the words being thus appropriated to Israel, they have the more agreement with the verses preceding, which tell of the wrath to come upon that Nation, and of the axe already laid to the root of that tree.

Fourthly, the phrase of throughly purging, which the Greek word importeth, [and the same word is used both by Luke and Marke] denoteth a finall separation of the Wheate and chaffe, and an utter consumption of the wicked, and this being spoken onely to the Jews, and to those Gentiles that were mingled with them, they can∣not so fitly bee applyed to any thing as to that Nation, and their utter desolation; for God had often purged them before; but now their thorough purging is neere at hand, when Christ by the fa••ne of the Gospel shall have sifted and tryed them, and found them out, who was Wheate, and who was chaffe. And,

Fifthly, this Exposition is consented to, even by the Jews them∣selves, the more ancient of whom have held, that the comming of Christ should bee the finall desolation of their Nation. So doth their whole Sanhedrin confesse, Joh. 11. 48. This man doth many mi∣racles, and if wee let him alone, all men will beleeve on him, and the Ro∣mans shall come and take away both our place and Nation. And to the same tenour of confession is that collection of the Talmud cited ere while from the last verse of the tenth Chapter of Isaiah, and the first of the eleventh, where the fall of the forest and Lebanon, and

the comming of the branch out of the stemme of Jesse, are laid to∣gether. And to the same purpose doth the Chaldee Paraphrast ren∣der Isa. 66. 7. Before her paines came, shee was redeemed, and before the pangs of her birth, Messias her King was revealed. A Text from which Rabbi Samuel bar Nachaman in Bereshith Rabba concludeth that the destruction of the Temple, and the birth of the Messias should bee neere together.

And lastly, that this verse, as it was spoken onely, so also is to bee applyed onely to the Jews, may bee somewhat inferred from the Titles given to the parties spoken of, wheat and chaffe, which both grow from one roote, and come up upon the same stal k: re∣sembling fitly both the beleeving and unbeleeving Jews, or the god∣ly and wicked of them, both descended from the same nationall Originall. And to back this observation, it is observable, that where∣as our Saviour maketh his metaphor of Wheat and Tares, because hee would onely shew the difference betwixt the righteous and the wicked, the Baptist doth his of Wheat and chaffe, because he would not onely shew the same difference in condition, but also their agree∣ment and identity in Nation.