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SECTION LXVII.

THe message from Mary and Martha, about their sick brother, inviteth Christ from beyond Jordan into Judea again. He stays two days after he had received the message in the same place where the messenger found him, and in the story of this Section he is set forward. And being now upon his last journey to Jerusalem he foretelleth to his Disciples what should become of him there: They followed him with fear and amazement before, foreseeing that he went upon his own danger, and yet when he had spoken the thing out to them at the full they understood him not.

SECTION LXVIII.

THe order is plain of itself: and yet the connection is somewhat strange: for in the last words before, Christ had foretold of his death, yet the Sons of Zebedee here desire to sit on his right hand and left in his Kingdom. Galatius resolves it thus, Discipuli in error aliquando fuerunt, credentes Christum illico, post resurrectionem terreni regni sceptro potiturum: unde & quidam eorum, super caeteros primatum ambientes, &c. The Disciples sometimes were mistaken, conceiving that Christ presently after his resurrection should obtain the scepter of an earthly Kingdom, whereupon some of them ambitious of priority above the rest, desired to sit on his right hand and left, &c. lib. 4. cap. 1. It is true indeed that the Jewish Nation, and the Disciples with them erred in judging about Messias his Kingdom, Act. 1. but they erred as far also about Messias his Resurrection, till experience had informed them better. Therefore it cannot well be imagined, that the Wife and Sons of Zebedee thought of Christ's Resurrection in this their request, but conceived of his temporal Kingdom according to the notions of the rest of the Nation about it: What therefore our Savior had spoken instantly before of his being scourged, crucified, killed, and Rising again, they understood in some figurative sense or other; but the Evangelists plainly tell us, they understood it not in the sense that he spake it. It may be his naming these two The sons of thunder, gave them some blind encouragement to such a request. Christ foretells his own death and their suffering Martyrdom under the title of Baptism, in which sense the Apostle also useth the word 1 Cor. 15. 29. The Jewish baptizings or dippings in their purifications, was a very sharp piece of Religion, when in frost and snow and wind and weather they must over head and ears in cold water, from which the phrase was used to signify death and the bitterest sufferings. The Jerusalem Gemarists do tell us, that the Women of Galilee grew barren, by reason of the cold in their purifyings. R. Aha in the name of Tanchum bar R. Chaia saith, In the days of R. Joshua ben Levi, they sought to abolish this dipping, because of the women of Galilee which were made barren by reason of the cold. R. Joshua ben Levi saith, Do ye seek to abolish a thing that fenceth Israel from transgression? &c. Beracoth fol. 6. col. 3.

SECTION LXIX.

CHRIST in his journey from beyond Jordan to Bethany for the raising of Lazarus, passeth through Jericho: and he healeth one blind man as he entereth into Jericho, of which Luke speaketh, and another as he goeth out, of which the other two. Matthew indeed speaketh of two healed as he came out of Jericho; comprehending it may be, the story of him that was healed on the other side of the Town, and this together in one story, for briefness sake: Or if there were two healed on this side of the Town, Mark only mentions one, because he rather aimeth at showing of the manner or kind of the miracle, then at the number: as we have observed the like before, at Sect. 39.

SECTION LXX.

THe order lies plain in ver. 1. Christ was passed through Jericho before he met with Zacchaeus, &c. Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai, hath made the name Zaccai or Zacchaeus renowned in Jewish writings: his Father Zaccai might very well be now alive, and for any difference of the times might well enough be the Zacchaeus before us, but that some other circumstances do contradict it. Whosoever this man was, it is observable, that though his name Zacchaeus speak him a Jew, yet Christ reputes him not a Child of Abraham till he believe, ver. 19.

Ver. 11. They thought that the Kingdom of Heaven should immediately appear. Observe this: this they had learned from Dan. 9. where the time is so punctually determined, that they that looked for the consolation of Israel could not but observe it, and they that observed, could not but see it now accomplished.

SECTION LXXI.

NOw is Christ come up to Bethany. Whether 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mentioned by Talm. Bab. Pasachin fol. 53. facie 1. [where they speak of the figs of Bethhene, and the dates of Tubni ] be the same with this Bethany, we shall not dispute here: Both a Town, and some space of ground about it was called by this name Bethany.

As he had stayed in the place where he was when he heard of Lazarus sickness, purposely that he might die before he came to him, that God might be the more glorified by his raising, ver. 15. so did he make sure to stay long enough after he was dead before he came, that the glory might be the more. He had been four days dead, ver. 39. Compare with this these sayings of the Jews. Maym. in Gerushin. per. ult. If one look upon a dead man within three days after his death he may know him, but after three days his visage is changed.

Jerus. in Moed Katon fol. 82. col. 2. Three days the Soul flies about the body as if thinking to return to it: but after it sees the visage of the countenance changed, it leaves it and gets it gone.

Upon the miracle wrought, the Jews seek to kill Jesus and Lazarus both: whereupon Jesus goeth to a City called Ephraim, ver. 54. Talm. Bab. in Menachoth fol. 85. fac. 1. Juchne and Mamre [ Jannes and Jambres ] said to Moses, Dost thou bring straw to Ephraim? Gloss. Ibi. Juchne and Mamre were the chief Sorcerers of Egypt: they when Moses began to do miracles thought he had done them by magic: they said, Dost thou bring straw to Ephraim? Ephraim was a place that exceedingly aboundeth with corn, and darest thou bring Corn thither? meaning, Dost thou bring Sorceries into Egypt that abounds so with Sorceries?

Aruch in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Ephraim was a City in the Land of Israel where there was abundance of Corn. Where is the chiefest provision for Offerings? The chiefest for fine Flower are Micmash and Zanoah, and next to them Ephraim in the Vale.

THe connection of this story to the preceding Chapter, is plainly made by the Evangelist himself: Compare ver. 55. of Chap. 11. and ver. 1. of this.

Though there were a Proclamation out against Jesus for his life, Chap. 11. 57. yet cometh he for Jerusalem, and Lazarus at Bethany is not afraid to entertain him. He may well venture his life for him who had received it from him. It was their Sabbath day at night when he had this Supper, a time that they used to have extraordinary cheer. Mary who had anointed his feet before, Luke 7. 38. doth the like again.

There is a groundless and a strange opinion of some, that the Supper in Matth. 26. 6, 7. and Mark 14. 3. was the same with the Supper in John 12. An imagination, that I cannot enough admire at, seeing there are so many things plainly to gainsay it: but the discussion of it shall be deferred till we come to those Chapters. Only one particular here may not be omitted without observation, and which will make something at present toward the confutation of that opinion, and that is our Savior's answer in the vindication of Mary's act, Let her alone, against the day of my burial hath she kept this: or rather, She hath kept it: Not that he meaneth that this anointing of his feet, was her anointing him against his burial, but that she had kept some of this ointment yet for that purpose hereafter. Judas repined at the expense of the ointment that she used for the anointing of his feet, and pleaded that it had been better bestowed upon charitable uses for the poor: Why? saith Christ, she hath kept it yet and not spent all, that she may bestow it upon a charitable use, the anointing of my body to its burial. For 1. neither the text doth any whit assert that she spent the whole pound that she brought, nor indeed in reason was so great a quantity needful. 2. It was not so proper to apply it to his burial now, when 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 as he was to ride in triumph to Jerusalem tomorrow, as it was two days before the Passover [when the other Supper and anointing was] which was the very night when Judas compacted for his betraying. 3. Then Christ saith she poured it upon his body, Matt, 26. 12. which cannot be of the same sense with pouring it upon his feet only. She therefore six days before the Passover anointed his feet, which was an ordinary use among the Jews to have their feet anointed, and the Talmudists give some rules about it in Talm. Jerus. Sanhedr. fol. 21. col. 1. and this she doth in dear love and affection to him: But two days before the Passover, she doth not so much anoint his head, as pour the Ointment upon his head that it might run all over his body, and this she did towards his burial, not only in his construction, but in her own intention: she being the first we read of that believed his death, as she was the first that saw him after his resurrection. Her faith and fact he foresaw, and therefore saith now at the anointing of his feet, that she yet kept it for the anointing of his body, which when she did, he extols the fact with this encomion, that wheresoever the Gospel should be preached, that action of her, the example of the first faith in his death, should be published in memorial of her. Thus did this Mary, [who as hath been shown was Mary Magdalene ] anoint Christ three several times, his feet at her first conversion, and his feet again at this time, six days before the Passover, and his head and body two days before the Passover, even that night that Judas first went about to make his bargain for betraying him.

SECTION LXXII.

JOHN maketh the connection plain, when he saith, On the next day, &c. And showeth that as Christ went up at this time, in the evidence and accomplishment of that Prophesy, Zech. 9. 9. so he also went up in the equity and answering of that Type, of taking up the Paschal Lamb on the tenth day, Exod. 12. 3. for this was on that very day: and the Lamb of God doth now go in, as giving up himself for the great Paschal.

John telleth us that he lay at Bethany the night before this, and yet the other Evangelists have related it, that when he came to Bethpage and Bethany, he sent two of his Disciples for the Ass, &c. The Jews Chorography will here help us out: They tell us

• 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Two thousand cubits was the Suburbs of a City. Maym. in Schabh. per. 27.
• 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Two thousand cubits were the bounds of a Sabbath, or a Sabbath days journey. Talm. in Sotah per. 5.
• 3. Bethpage was of this nature: it was not a Town upon mount Olivet as it hath been very generally supposed, and accordingly placed in the most Maps, but it was some buildings and that space of ground that lay from Jerusalem wall forward towards mount Olivet, and up mount Olivet to the extent of two thousand cubits from the wall, or thereabout; and hereupon it was reputed by the Jews of the same qualification with Jerusalem, as a part of it, in divers respects.

Talm. Bab. Pesachin fol. 63. fac. 2. He that slays a Thanksgiving Sacrifice within, while the bread belonging to it is without the wall, the bread is not holy. What means without the wall? R. Jochanan saith, Without the wall of Bethpage. The Gloss there • aith, Bethpage was an outer place of Jerusalem. And the same Gloss useth the very same words again upon the same Tract, fol. 91. fac. 1. And again in the same Treatise fol. 95. fac. 2. the Mishna saith thus, The two loaves and the shewbread are allowable in the Temple Court, and they are allowable in Bethpage. Nay the Gloss in Sanhedr. fol. 14. fac. 1. saith, Bethpage was a place which was accounted as Jerusalem for all things. So that the place so called, began from Jerusalem and went onwards to and upon mount Olivet, for the space of a Sabbath days journey or thereabout, and then began the coast that was called Bethany. And hence it is that Luke saith that Christ when he ascended into Heaven, led forth his Disciples as far as Bethany, Luke 24. 50. which elsewhere he showeth was the space of a Sabbath days journey, Acts. 1. 12. which cannot be understood of the Town Bethany, for that was fifteen furlongs, or very near two Sabbath days journey from Jerusalem, but that he led them over that space of ground which was called Bethpage, to that part of Olivet where it began to be called Bethany, and at that place it was where Christ began his triumphant riding into the City at this time.

It is observable that he is entertained with the solemnity of the Feast of Tabernacles: for carrying of Palm branches and crying Hosanna was never used but only at that Feast, but now translated to this occasion: which may help somewhat to the explaining of Zech. 14. 16.

Count from hence the days to the Passover, as the Evangelists have reckoned them, and you will find that this was the first day of the week [the Lord's day afterward] and this day seven night he rose from the dead.

In the midst of his triumph he weepeth over the City, though he knew that within five days she would be his death.

SECTION LXXIII.

THe order is plain in the Text of John, and needeth no illustration.

Christ was thrice attested from Heaven, according to his threefold Office, King Priest and Prophet. At his Baptism, for the great High priest, when he was anointed and entered into his Ministry. At his Transfiguration for the great Prophet to whom all must hear. And now for the great King, when he had newly fulfilled this Prophecy, Rejoice O Zion, behold thy King cometh, &c.

The Bath Kol or heavenly voice that the Jews commonly speak of, is in the most, if not all the instances that they give of it, but a fiction of their own brain, to bring their Doctors and their Doctrines into credit.

SECTION LXXIV.

THe order is clear in Mark ver. 11. 12.

Christ after his riding into Jerusalem, having spent all the day there goeth at even to lodge at Bethany: and in the morning going for Jerusalem again and hugring seeth a Fig tree, and finding no Figs on it curseth it, and yet the Evangelist telleth that the time of Figs was not yet.

Why then should Christ look for Figs, when he knew the time of the year was not yet for them?

Answ. He looked not for any Figs that he thought could be grown ripe and fit to eat, that spring, it beign now at the furthest but about our April, but he looked for those that grew the last summer, and had hung on the trees all winter, It is true indeed that some trees had shot forth their fruit by Passover time, for so Maymony tells us in Kiddush Hhodesh per. 4. but neither to ripeness; nor was the Fig tree any of them. For to those words of our Savior, Matth. 23. 32. When the Fig tree putteth forth her leaves ye know Summer is nigh, lay these of Jerus. in Sheviith fol. 35. col. 4. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel saith, From the putting forth of the Fig tree leaf to the green Figs appearing are fifty days: and from the first appearing of the Fig to the fall of the blossom fifty days, and from thence to the ripe Figs fifty days more: five months in all.

There were several kinds of Fig trees in that Land, as the Jews tell us in the Treatises Demai and Sheviith, where they have special occasion to treat of that matter, [besides those Fig trees that were in their Orchards and Vineyards.] As 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which they say were Figs of the Wilderness. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which were baser Figs likewise. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Fig trees that brought their fruit to ripeness but once in two years. And 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which they say grew in the fields and bare white Figs. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from three years to three years. The Gemarists dispute, What? Do they bear their fruit every year, or only once in three years? They bear their fruit every year, but it is not ripe till three years end. How doth a man know its time, or what year it is with it? R. Jonah saith, by binding a list about it. It is a tradition of Samuel, that he hung some pendants upon it. The meaning of the matter is this: There was a Fig tree growing in the fields of this nature, that the Figs that it shot forth one summer, it was two summers more before they came to ripeness, so that they hung upon the tree [unless hands or wind hindered] three summers and two winters before their maturity: Now because the strange nature of this tree, different •• omothers, caused that the seventh year, or year of release could not so easily be remembered and observed concerning it as concerning other trees, therefore they tied some cords or lists about it, or • ung something upon it, that might give notice, and keep in remembrance what year it was with it, and whether the fruit, if any, were of the first, second or third years growth. So likewise the figtrees mentioned before, called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 were two summers in ripening their fruit. So that of such a tree as one of these Christ might well look for figs of the last years growth, old figs under new leaves, if so be the leaves were new. Yet could not this properly be called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [as there are that would change the reading of the original, and instead of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for the time of figs was not yet, would have it read (but I question whether with the consent of any one copy in the world) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , For where he was, was the time of figs. ] For that phrase, The time of figs, meaneth the common time that generally figs were ripe, which was ordinary and commonly known, and which was not of well near five months after Passover time.

Christ cometh to the Temple and casteth out buyers and sellers as he had done three years before: this was four days before the Passover. At Even he goeth and lodgeth in Bethany.

In the morning he cometh again to Jerusalem. This was three days before the Passover. As they came, the Disciples observe the fig tree withered, whereupon he saith, Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and • ast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but believe • that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. In which words he neither warranteth nor encourageth any to look for a faith that should remove mountains; but 1. He speaketh Hyperbolically for the magnifying of the power and excellency of faith, as Mark 9. 23. Hyperboles, with which the Scripture abounds, are not to be taken according to the letter, but the thing intended is to be taken at the higher pitch. As to instance but in one example, and that about this very mountain that Christ pointed at, Zech. 14. 4. which meaneth not lit • rally Olivets cleaving indeed or removing, but great concussions to the people, and open way made for the enemy. 2. Christ in this expression speaks the Jews own language, and by the very phrase that they ordinarily used to magnify their own abilities by, he magnifieth faith. When they would speak of the high parts and qualities of their great ones, they used to say, He is a remover of mountains, Tal. Bab. Beracoth. fol. 64. fac. 1. Sinai and the Remover of mountains, whether of them sent first, &c. Now Rabh Joseph was Sinai, and Rabbah was The remover of mountains. Why so named? The Gloss upon the place resolves us thus▪ They called Rabh Joseph Sinai, because he was most expert in deep explications. And they called Rabbah bar Nachmani A remover of mountains, because he was most acutely learned, &c. The same Talmud also in Erubbin fol. 29. saith thus. Rabba saith, Behold I am like ben Azzai in the streets of Tiberias. The Gloss thereupon saith thus, Ben Azzai taught profoundly in the streets of Tiberias, and there was no man in his days that was a remover of mountains like him. By removing of mountains meaning how able men they were, and how they could overcome the greatest difficulties in Divinity. Which common phrase Christ useth to face that wretched boasting of theirs of their own parts and worth, and to set up faith in its proper dignity, as that that is only able for all things.

SECTION LXXV.

THe continuation of the order is apparent.

Christ cometh again from Bethany into the Temple, and there being questioned by what authority he did what he did, he stops their mouth by proposing a question again, What they thought of Johns authority by which he made that great change in Religion that he did, and intraps them in such a dilemma as they are not able to get out of.

He proposeth the Parable of the Vineyard and Husbandmen, and by it showeth the privileges, and yet the perverseness of the Jewish Nation, and their destruction, from Isa. 5. &c. See R. Tanohum. fol. 54. col. 4.

SECTION LXXVI.

THE order is plain of itself. The Parable setteth forth the Jews despising of the means of grace and evil usage of those that were sent unto them, ver. 5, 6. and for this, their destruction and ruin of their City, and the calling of the Gentiles, &c.

SECTION LXXVII.

THE Evangelists are so clear in their order, both here and a good way forward, that there can be no scrupling in it.

The question proposed, Whether it were lawful to give tribute to Caesar, proceeded from that old maxim among them, upon mistake of Deut. 17. 15. that they ought not to be subject to any power or potentate, which was not of their own blood or Religion: the holding to which maxim, cost them the ruin of their City and Nation.

His answer from the Image of Caesar upon their coin, was according to their own concessions. The Jerusalem Talmud doth personate David and Abigail talking thus. Abigail said, What evil have I done or my Children, or my Cattle? David saith to her, Because thy Husband vilified the Kingdom of David, She saith, Art thou a King then? He saith to her, Did not Samuel anoint me King? She saith to him. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Coin of our Lord Saul is yet current: In Sanhedr. fol, 20. col. 2. Maym. in Gezelah per. 5. A King that cuts down the trees of any owner, and makes a bridge of them, it is lawful to go over it, &c. How is this to be understood? Of a King whose Coin is current in these Countries, for the men of the Country do thereby evidence, that they acknowledge him for their Lord and themselves his servants: But if his coin be not current, then he is a robber, &c.

The topick from whence he argueth the Resurrection against the Sadducees, is also acknowledged by the Writers of that Nation: Tanchum. fol. 13. col. 3. The holy blessed God doth not join his Name to the Saints while they are alive, but when they are dead: as it is said, To the Saints which are in the earth, &c. But behold we find that he joins his Name to Isaac [meaning, he calls himself the God of Isaac ] while he was alive, &c. Jerus. in Beracoth fol. 5. col. 4. Whence is there proof that the righteous are called living when they are dead, &c.

He poseth the Pharisees in their very Catechism: they used it as a common name for the Messias to call him the Son of David, and yet when they are put to it to observe that David calls him Lord, they are so far nonplust, that they have not only not what to answer, for the present, but this silenceth them from future disputes. Now therefore he falls upon them with their deserved character and doom, and as in Matth. 5. he had pronounced beatitudes, so here in Matth. 23. he denounceth woes, and curseth these men from Isa. 65. 15, &c.

This Chapter as it is a speech to and of the Scribes and Pharisees, and treateth of their doctrines and demeanors; so from their own Pandects and Authors may it be explained from point to point: those speaking out their doctrines and practices to the full.

Their sitting in Moses chair, ver. 1. meaneth them as Magistrates, to whom Christ enjoineth all lawful obedience. Vid. Sanhedr. per. 1. halac. 6.

Their heavy burdens, ver. 4. translates their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of which they speak so much and so highly.

Their Tephillin are called Phylacteries, ver. 5. which meaneth not only Observatives, because they were memorials of their duty and devotions [being four portions of the Law written in two pa • chments, and the one worn upon their forehead and the other upon their left arm] but Preservatives, as being reputed by them a fence against evil spirits, Jerus. Beracoth fol. 2. A man hath need to say over his Phylacteries every evening in his house, to fright awe • y evil spirits.

They loved to be called Rabbi Rabbi, ver. 7. R. Akibah said to Eliezer, Rabbi Rabbi, Jerus. Moed. Katon fol. 81. 1. And yet they had this rule against it, Love the work, but hate the Rabbiship, Maym. in Talm. Torah. per. 3.

Call no one Father, ver. 9. in that sense as they owned their Doctors by the title 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 relying upon the authority of human doctrines.

Their permitting and practicing to swear by the Temple, ver. 16. came into a common custom, Juchas. fol. 50. col. 1. Baba ben Bota swear by the Temple, and so did Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel, and this was a custom in Israel.

Their tithing mint, annise and cummin, ver. 23. explained in the Talmudic treatises Demai, whited Sepulchers, ver. 27. Shekalim per. 1. halac. 1. In the month Adar they whited the Sepulchers. And the reason is given by the Gemarists, that people hereby might have the better discovery of them, the better to avoid defilement by them: which well observed, sets on Christ's invective against these wretches the more. Gemar. utriusq: Talm. in loc. & Jerus. in Maasar. Sheni. fol. 55. 3.

Their decking of Sepulchers in honor of those that lay in them, ver. 29. handled in Jerus. in Moed Katon fol. 80. col. 3. & 4.

He concludeth his speech with the intimation of what shame and guilt lay upon them for the blood of the former Prophets slain by their Fathers, filled up by their own wickedness in persecuting those that he did or should send to them. He calleth them Serpents from Gen. 3. 15. and teacheth us to look upon them as the seed of the Serpent in an eminent degree, if any degree of that nature may be called eminent. He dooms all the Prophets blood to be required of that generation, because they by their transcendent abuse of those whom God sent, even of Messias himself, did justify and exceed all the evil their Fathers had done against the Prophets: Yea all the blood shed before the blood of Zacharias, and his, though they held that to have been satisfied for, by the destruction, slaughter and captivity by the Babylonians, Jerus. in Taanith fol. 69. col. 2. He changeth the name of his Father, and so doth Targ. in Lament. cap. 2. ver. 20. And concludes with a sad denunciation of destruction, and that they should no more see him till they should say, blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: which very words he had uttered also a great while before this, Luke 13. 34, 35. and the multitude had said, Blessed be he that cometh, &c. when he rode into Jerusalem upon an Ass. But the same words now uttered by him, are of somewhat doubtful interpretation, whether they mean, their no more seeing of him till the night and time of the Passover, [for at the Paschal meal every company rehearsed this saying, Blessed be he that cometh, &c. in their great Hallel as they called it] or that they should no more see him at all, because they had not learned to entertain him, as coming from God. See Joh. 5. 43.

SECTION LXXVIII.

THE Jews before their prayers in the Temple, or their Synagogues, used to give something by way of alms of offering, that Charity and piety might go together. Maym. in Mattanath Anijim. per. 6. Now in the Court of the Women at the Temple [as we have observed elsewhere in the description of that place] there were several chests, which the Jews call Shoperoth, into which the people put the money they offered, some to buy one thing for the service of the Temple, some another, &c.

SECTION LXXIX.

THe Talmud tells us that there was a place upon mount Olivet, just in the face of the Temple, where the Priest slew and burnt the red Cow into the ashes of purification and as he sprinkled the blood, he looked directly upon the Temple door. Middoth per. 1. &c. This was the last Sermon that Christ made upon mount Olivet, and he makes it as he sits upon that mount, just facing the Temple, Matth. 24. 3. And that text that he had taken in tears but two or three days ago, weeping over the City and foretelling the destruction of it, Luke 19. 44. he now preacheth upon at large, declaring the misery and foreshowing the forerunners of that destruction.

The aim of his speech, or, to what time and purpose it refers, may be discerned by the question of the Disciples, to which it is an answer. When shall these things be, viz. that one stone of the Temple shall not be left upon another? Mark 13. 4. Luke 21. 7. and so it relates plainly to the destruction of the Temple and City. But Matthew hath added; And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? from whence it is conceived by some, that the speech doth aim at the end of the world, and Christ's last coming unto judgment. It is true indeed that the close of his speech in Matth. 25. doth speak plainly of the last judgment, and that many of those terrible things mentioned, Matth. 24. may very well typify the terrors of the last day, but the prime and proper scope of the speech in that 24th. Chapter, is to set forth the destruction of Jerusalem, and the rejection and misery of the Jewish nation; as may be observed by these particulars.

• 1. Because in Matth. 24. 15, 16. He points directly to time and place, when and where these things shall be, viz. when the Temple shall be profaned, then these things come, &c.
• 2. Especially consider ver. 34. Verily I say unto you; this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. This generation, not meaning Generatio Evangelica, as some do harshly interpret it, but as it means in Matth. 23. 36. Luke 11. 31, 32. and abundance of other places in the New Testament, the generation then in being.
• 3. The destruction of Jerusalem, is phrased in Scripture as the destruction of the whole world, Jer. 4. 23. Isa. 65. 17. and Christ coming to her in judgment, as his coming to the last judgment, Matth. 17. 28. John 21. 22. Math. 19. 28. Rev. 1. 7, &c.

Therefore those dreadful things spoken of in ver. 29, 30, 31. are but borrowed expressions to set forth the terrors of that judgment the more. Ver. 29. The Sun shall be darkened, &c. shows the decay of all glory, excellency and prosperity in that Nation, and the coming in of all sadness, misery and confusion: as Isa. 13. 10. Joel. 2. 10. Ver. 30. Then shall they see the sign of the Son of man, &c. Not any visible appearance of Christ, or of the cross in the clouds [as some have imagined,] but whereas the Jews would not own Christ before for the Son of man, or for the Messias, then by the vengeance that he should execute upon them, they and all the world should see an evident sign, that he was so. This therefore is called his coming, and his coming in his kingdom, Matth. 17. 28. because this did first declare his power, glory and victory on that nation that had despised him. Ver. 31. He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, &c. that is; his Ministers with the Trumpet of the Gospel, to fetch in his elect from among the Gentiles when the Jews were now destroyed and cast off. And the false Christ's, and false Prophets that should arise, ver. 5. 24. arose in that Nation in those last days of it, as is abundantly evident both in the New Testament, and in Josephus: And those wars and rumors of wars, and Nation rising against Nation, &c. ver. 6, 7. were accomplished not only in the horrid civil wars among the Jews, but also in the great concussions in Roman Empire, in the wars betwixt Otho and Vitellius, and betwixt Vitellius and Vespasian, [of which the Roman Historians, especially Tacitus is very large] the like to which, there had not been before, even to the sacking of Rome itself, and the burning of the Capitol.

SECTION LXXX.

THe proof of the proper order here will require some dispute, not so much in regard of any obscurity or difficulty of the order itself, but in regard of needless and groundless difficulties that are put upon it. There are two strange opinions we meet with here: The one is, that holdeth that this supper mentioned by Matthew and Mark, was the same supper which is mentioned in John 12. which was six days before the Passover. And the other is, that holdeth, that this supper in John 13. was the Supper on the Passover night: so that for the showing and asserting of the order as we have laid it, these three things are to be done.

First, It is to be proved, that the supper in John 12. and the supper in Matth. 26. and Mark 14. were not one and the same supper, but two suppers at some days distance. Secondly, That the supper in John 13. was not on the Passover night, but before the Passover night. And thirdly, That the supper in John 13. was the same supper with that in Matth. 26. 6. and Mark 14. 3. two days before the Passover.

First, That the supper in John 12. and the supper in Matth. 26. and Mark 14. were two different suppers [to which something hath been said before,] appears by these observations. 1. The supper in John 12. was in the house of Lazarus [unless we will unwarrantably strain the construction of the story,] but the supper in Matth. 26. and Mark 14. was in the house of Simon the Leper. 2. At the supper in John 12. Christ's feet were anointed, but his head was anointed at the supper in Matth. 26 and Mark 14. 3. The supper in John 12. was six days before the Passover, but the supper in Matth. 26. and Mark 14. was but two days before: For observe Mark 14. 1. After two days was the feast of the Passover: and then ver. 3. And Jesus being at Bethany, &c. Here they that hold the opinion that we are confuting, will not acknowledge the order of the Evangelists direct, but say there is a dislocation, so that though two days be mentioned before, yet the story following was six days before the Passover. But the method of Matthew and Mark hath been so direct hither through the story of Christ's actions, since his last coming to Jerusalem, that no reason possible can be given why they should invert the order here. They had punctually mentioned his actions, five, four, three days before the Passover, and now they come to speak of two days before, and under that account bring in this supper, and what sense or reason can there be to surmise that it was six days before? They had shown you Christ five days before the Passover, at Bethany, John 12. 1, 12. Mark 11. 1, 11. And four days before the Passover, at Bethany, Mark 11. 12, 15, 19, 20. And three days before the Passover, at Bethany, Mark 11. 20, 27. and 13. 3. And then they come and speak of two days before the Passover, and they speak also of Christ's being at Bethany, and yet would the opinion under confutation apply the reckoning of the two days only to point at the high-Priests assembling: and Christ's being at Bethany, to be jumped backward over all the story before, even to beyond Matth. 21. Mark 11. An opinion that by its improbability is confutation enough to itself.

A second thing to be cleared is, that the supper in John 13. was not on the Passover night but before: which may be evidenced by these arguments instead of more. 1. Because John saith expressly ver. 1. that it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , before the festival of the Passover, for so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 constantly signifies, not the meal of the Paschal, as some would construe it here, but the whole festival. 2. The Disciples when Jesus said to Judas, What thou doest, do quickly, though he spake about buying something against the feast, ver. 29. by which it appears that the feast was not yet come.

Thirdly, Luke showeth, that the entering of Satan into Judas [which was at the supper, John 13.] was before the Passover day came: for observe his order, Luke 22. 3. Then entered Satan into Judas, and he went and communed with the chief Priests, &c. and then ver. 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread: Upon all which considerations, it is apparent, that this supper in John 13. at which Satan entered into Judas [whereupon he went and compacted for his Masters betraying] was not on the Passover night, but some space before the Passover day came. There is indeed a passage in John 13. 38. which may seem to bring that supper to the Passover night, which is, when Christ saith at the supper to Peter, The Cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice, which seemeth to carry it, as if this supper were on that very night when Peter denied him. For answer to which, let it be observed: 1. That Peter denied Christ but once before the Cock crew. Mark 14. 68, 69, 70. and it will teach us to expound the words of Christ, John 13. 38. and Matth. 26. 24. not as meaning that he should deny him three times over before any Cock crew, but that he should deny him thrice in the time of Cocks crowing, which time was a fourth part of the night, Mark 13. 34. And that it meaneth in such a sense is yet more apparent by Mark 14. 30. where he utters it, The Cock shall not crow twice. 2. Let it be observed, that in John 13. 38. it is only said, The Cock shall not crow, but in Matth. 26. Mark 14. when the speech refers to the very night when his denial was, it is said, This night, before the Cock crow; And, This day, even this night before the Cock crow, &c. And so it is understood that Christ useth that speech to Peter twice over, and in it he doth twice refute his presuming upon his own strength which Peter twice shown: First at the supper in John 13. which was two days before the Passover, and there the emphasis of the speech lieth especially in the word Thrice; as if he had said to him, Art thou so confident of thy strength and standing for me? I tell thee the time will be, when thou shalt deny me thrice in the time of Cocks crowing. The second was at the Passover supper, and then Christ puts the emphasis upon the word This night: Art thou so confident? I tell thee this night thou shalt deny me, &c.

Thus having shown that that supper in John 13. was not on the Passover night, but before; a third thing is to show, that it was two days before the Passover, and the same with that supper mentioned by Matthew and Mark in Bethany: And for the proof of this we need go no further then this observation: That both the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, do begin the treason of Judas from that supper in Bethany, Matth. 26. 13, 14. Mark 14. 9, 10. for as soon as they have related the story of that supper, they presently tell, Then one of the twelve called Judas went to the chief Priests, &c. Now it is apparent that he began the acting of his treason from the time of Satan's entering into him with the sop which was at that supper John 13. and so it concludeth that to be the same supper with that in Matth. 26. 6.

The texture of the story then lieth thus: Six days before the Passover Christ suppeth and lodgeth in Bethany: five days before the Passover he rideth in triumph to Jerusalem, and at even cometh and lodgeth in Bethany again, four days before the Passover he goeth to Jerusalem again, and at night cometh to Bethany again to lodge. The third day before the Passover he goeth again into the City; and at even cometh to Bethany again: And that night he suppeth in the house of Simon the Leper, it being now two days to the Passover; As he sits at supper, Mary the sister of Lazarus, called also Mary Magdalene, anoints his head, &c. And he before the table was taken away, ariseth from the table and washeth the Disciples feet, and after sits down and gives Judas the sop.

SECTION LXXXI.

THe continuation of the story in John cleereth the connection. He dipped the sop and gave it to Judas, And after the sop Satan entered into him. This was at a supper in Bethany two days before the Passover, as hath been shown: From thence, though it were night, Judas trudgeth to Jerusalem, acted entirely by Satan, and agreeth with the Sanhedrin for his Masters betraying. They had met purposely to contrive the apprehension and death of Christ, but had resolved, that it must not be at the feast for fear of tumult: but Judas coming in, undertakes to deliver him up, though at the feast, yet quietly enough in the absence of the people: And they bargain to give him thirty pieces of silver; the price of a servant, Exod. 31. 22. Maym. in Nizkei Mamon per. 11. The price of servants whether great or little, whether males or female, is thirty Selas of good silver; be he a servant worth a hundred pound, or be he a servant but worth a penny. Now the same Author in Shekalim per. 1. rateth Sela at 384 barley corns weight in silver.

SECTION LXXXII.

THe first words, Therefore when he was gone out, continue the story: When Judas was gone out about his cursed work, and the hour was now come when Christ's Passion was beginning, [for we may justly take his being sold, for a part of his sufferings] he giveth his Disciples divers lessons, some of admonition, some of instruction, some of comfort. For the better judging of the time of this speech [besides the connection which joins it to Judas his going forth upon the devils entering into him with the sop] these two things are observable. 1. That the last words of the 14th. Chapter are, Arise, let us go hence, by which it is plain, that the speech contained in this present Section, and the speech in Joh. 15, & 16, and 17. were spoken at two several times and in two several places, That, at the Passover supper, for John tells, Chap. 18. 1. that when Jesus had finished that speech, he went over the brook Kidron: but this, before, and in another place, because upon the ending of it it is plain Jesus removed to another place, by his saying, Arise let us go hence. 2. That Christ saith, Yet a little time I am with you, Chap. 13. ver. 33. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, Chap. 14. v. 19. Hereafter I shall not talk much with you, ver. 30. which intimate some space of time yet to come, and not so sudden a parting, as the space was betwixt his rising from his last supper, and his apprehension. This speech therefore was spoken at Bethany after Judas his going out: and the Section contains the sum of Christ's discourse with his Disciples, while he stayed there, which was the night that Judas received the sop, and the next day and night, and till towards the evening of the day after: And the last words, Arise, let us go hence, intimate his removal from Bethany to Jerusalem on the Passover day. Judas either that night that he had received the sop, or the next day, layeth the plot with the high-Priests for the delivering up of his Master at the feast, and having so done, he returneth to his Master to Bethany again. And the next day which was the Passover day, Christ sendeth Peter and John from thence to prepare the Passover for him, and when he saw time, he calls, Arise, let us go hence, and so he setteth for Jerusalem with the rest of the Disciples and Judas in the company.

SECTION LXXXIII.

PETER and John who were sent to prepare the Passover, had this work to do. They were to get a room fitting; to that their Master directs them by a sign. They were to get a Lamb, and to bring him into the Temple, and there to have him killed and his blood sprinkled, under the name of a Paschal for thirteen persons. For no Lamb could be eaten for a Paschal, whose blood was not sprinkled at the Altar, and that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the name of a Paschal, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by count for such a number of persons as had agreed to be at the eating of him. Talm. in Pesachin. per. 5. [as Christ died but for a certain number.] Which shows [had not the Evangelists done it otherwise] that Christ ate his Passover on the same day that the Jews did theirs [which some, upon misunderstanding of Joh. 18. 28. have denied] nay that it was not possible otherwise, for how impossible was it to get the Priests to kill a Paschal for any, upon a wrong day?

Having got the Lamb thus slain at the Temple, they were to bring him home to the house where he was to be eaten, to get him roasted, and to get bread and wine ready, and what other provision was usual and requisite for that meal.

At Even Jesus cometh and sitteth down with the twelve: and as he ate, he gave intimation of the Traitour, who was now at the table and eating with him. Which might seem to make this story the same with that in John 13. 21, 22. and so might argue, that this and that were but one and the same Supper. But herein is an apparent difference in the stories. 1. At the Supper in John 13. Christ giveth only a private signification of the Traitour by a token given secretly to John, but here he points him out openly. 2. There he gives him a sop, here he only speaks of dipping with him in the dish. Only there is some diversity in the Evangelists, in relating this story: Matthew and Mark have laid this taxation and discovery of the Traytour before the administration of the Lord's Supper, but Luke after.

And there is the like variety in their relating the time of these words of Christ, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, &c. for Luke hath brought them in as spoken before the Sacrament, but the other two after. In both which, first the main intent of the relation is to be looked after, and then may we better state the time. The intent in the former, is to show Judas at the Table, and at the Table all the time both of the Paschal and the Lord's Supper, those symbols of love and communion, yet he such a wretch as to communicate in both, and yet a Traitour. The two, Matthew and Mark would show that he was at the Table, and so the mention of that they bring in upon Christ's first sitting down and beginning to eat: and Luke makes the story full, and shows that he was at the Table all the time, both at Passover and Sacrament, and the words of Christ upon the delivering of the Cup, But behold the hand of him that betrays me, &c. cannot possibly be mitigated from such a construction. As to the later, the meaning of Christ in the words, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, &c. is, that the Kingdom of God was now so near, that this was the last meat and drink, or the last meal that he was to have, before that came. By the Kingdom of God, meaning his resurrection and forward, when God by him had conquered death, Satan and Hell. And whereas he saith, Till I drink it new with you in the Kingdom of God, he did so, eating and drinking with them after his resurrection. This therefore being the aim of his speech, it was seasonable to say so, any time of the meal, This is the last meal I must eat with you till I be risen again from the dead. and hereupon the Evangelists have left the time of his uttering of it at that indifferency, that they have done. And indeed these two passages had such reference one to another, that the one might bring on the other, and both of them might very well be spoken by Christ twice: The observing of the direct order of Christ's actions at this meal, which the Evangelists have related, will help to clear this matter.

When he was set down with them, he first saith, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for this is the last I must eat with you before the Kingdom of God be come. And thereupon he taketh the first cup of wine that was to be drunk at that meal, and drinks of it and gives it them, and bids, Divide it among yourselves, for I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine, &c. meaning, this is the last time I shall eat and drink with you, &c. And this speech properly brought in the other, One of you shall betray me: as paraphrased, speaking thus, I shall no more eat with you, for there is one now at the Table with me, hath compassed my death. Hereupon they question who it should be, &c. After this passage they eat the Paschal Lamb after its rite, and after it, he ordaineth the Lord's Supper: bread to be his Body henceforward, in the same sense that the Paschal Lamb had been his Body hitherto, and the Cup to be the New Testament in his Blood now under the Gospel, as the blood of Bullocks had been the Old Testament in his Blood, Exod. 24. And after the administering of the Cup, he tells them again, that that was the last that he must drink, for the hand of him that betrayed him was at the Table.

SECTION LXXXIV.

LUKE himself is a clear warrant of the order. And withal, the joint consideration of the story before will help to confirm it. The question among themselves about the Traitour, helpeth to draw on this other question about priority: an unseasonable and a very unreasonable quarrel: To which their Master giveth closely this twofold answer, besides proposing his own example of humility. 1. That let not them stand upon priority, for he would equally honor them in his Kingdom, &c. 2. That this was not a time to stand upon such business as seeking to be preferred one before another, for this was a time of sifting, and a time when all the care they could take for their safety should be little enough: therefore they had now something else to do then to look after precedency.

SECTION LXXXV.

JOHN in Chap. 18. 1. informs us that when Jesus had spoken the words contained in these Chapters, he went over the brook Kidron: by which it appeareth that they were spoken at his last Supper instantly before he rose and went to the garden where he was apprehended. At their Passover Suppers they used large discourses seasonable and agreeable to the occasion: and especially in commemorating what God had done for that people. Whatsoever Christ had spoken upon that subject, is not recorded, but this which was more needful for the Disciples present condition, were agreeable to the great occasion now at hand, and most beneficial for the Church in time to come.

SECTION LXXXVI.

THrre is no difficulty in the connection of the beginning of this Section to the preceding, but only this, that the rest of the Evangelists make mention of Christ's singing of an hymn, as the last thing he did, before his setting out for the mount of Olives; but John maketh his speech and prayer to be last, and speaketh not of his singing a hymn at all. Which indeed is neither contrariety nor diversity of story, but only variety of relation for the holding out of the story more complete. The three former Evangelists have recorded how Christ did celebrate the Passover and ordain the Sacrament at the end of it, and therefore they properly speak of his singing an hymn, for that was ever an inseparable piece of service at the Passover Supper, and constantly used at the conclusion of that meal: But John had made no mention of the Passover Supper or Sacrament at all, and therefore it was not only not needful, but also not proper, that he should mention the singing of any hymn at all: But he relateth the last speech and prayer of Christ, which the other had omitted. And whether this speech recorded by him, or the hymn mentioned by them, were last done by Christ, is not much material to the order of the story. I suppose the speech was later. The hymn that they sung was Ps. 115. & 116. & 117. & 118. which was the later part of the great Hallel as they called it, which was constantly sung at the Passover and their other great Solemnities, and with this later part was this Solemnity concluded.

His Prayer in the Garden.

CHRIST rising from Supper, goeth forth of the City over the brook Kidron to the mount of Olives. [Compare David's case and journey, 2 Sam. 15. 23.] Judas when they rose from the Table, slips away into the City, and there hath his cut-throats laid ready by the chief Priests, for the cursed design that they had compacted about. As Christ goeth along he telleth the eleven that were with him, of their trouble that night by his apprehension, and their scattering from him: but he would be in Galilee before them, and there they should meet again. And so he directeth them which way to betake themselves after the Feast, and what to do when their Master should be taken from them by death. He foretelleth Peter again of his denial of him that night: which Peter now armed with a sword cannot hear of, but promiseth great matters.

He cometh to Gethsemany, A place of Oil Presses, at the foot of Olivet, into a Garden. The Talmudists speak of the Gardens here, and tell how the Gardiners used to fatten their grounds with the scouring of the sink that carried the blood and filth of the Temple Court into that valley. Leaving eight Disciples behind, he taketh Peter and James and John with him, and imparteth to them the fears and sorrows that now seized upon him, and leaving them also about a stones cast behind, charging them to watch and pray: He prays thrice for the removal of this Cup if possible, &c. and in an Agony he sweats drops like blood. [Remember Adams fall in a Garden, and the first doom, In the sweat of thy brows, &c.] Now was the power of darkness, Luke 22. 23. all the power of hell being let loose against Christ, as it was never against person upon Earth before or since and that from the pitching of this field of old, Gen 3. 15. Thou shalt bruise his heel. So that it was not so much for any pangs of Hell that Christ felt within him, as for the assaults of Hell, that he saw enlarged against him, that he was so full of sorrow and anguish. His desiring the removal of the Cup was purae humanitatis, but his submitting to the will of God purae sanctitatis: As when a gangrened member is to be cut off, pura natura • elucts against it, but right reason yields to it. He prayed thrice, and after every time came to his three Disciples, and still found them sleeping.

His apprehension.

He had scarce awakened them at the third time, when the Traytour and his Assasines are upon him to apprehend him. At their first approach Judas according to the sign given, that his fellow-villains might know Jesus from the rest, steppeth to him and kisseth him. And thereupon the rest draw up near him. Jesus steppeth forward to meet them, and asketh, Whom seek ye? They say, Jesus of Nazareth: he saith, I am he: and thereupon they went backward and fell to the ground: And his thus confounding them with a word, shown, that none could take his life from him, unless he laid it down of himself. While they lie on the ground, and he hath them thus under him, he indents for the dismission of his Disciples, and having agreed for their safety and discharge, he yields himself. So up they got, and lay hold upon him: and Peter to show some of his promised stoutness cuts off Malchus ear, but Christ heals the wound. With this wretched crew that apprehended him, there were some of their Masters that set them on, Luke 22. 52. To all together he telleth, that it was plain it was now their hour the and power of darkness, for that they had him so oft among them in the Temple, that they were never able to lay hands on him till now: Upon these words the Disciples think it time to shift for themselves: And one flees away naked.

His appearance before Annas.

Besides the ill account that these men could give of this nights Passover [no sooner eaten, but their hands in blood] and besides the horrid offense they committed against the Lord and against his Christ in this fact that they were upon, they doubly transgressed against their own Canons: namely in arraigning and condemning a person upon a holiday, for such a day was now come in: and arraigning and judging a person by night, both which are directly forbidden by their Law. Tal. in Jom. tobh per. 5. halac. 2.

They first bring Christ to Annas, And why? For he was neither chief Magistrate, but Gamaliel; nor the High priest, but Caiaphas: He was indeed Sagan, and Father in Law to Caiaphas, but by neither of these relations had he Judicial power as a single man. But as the Chief Priests had a special hand in this business, and Annas was chief among them by his place and relation to Caiaphas, and so had had no doubt a singular stroke in contriving this business that was now transacting, so upon his apprehension he is first brought thither, to show that they had the man sure whom he so much desired to be secured, and to take his grave advice what further to do with him. He was brought bound to him, and so bound he sends him to Caiaphas.

His Arraignment before the Sanhedrin.

At Caiaphas his house was the Sanhedrin now assembled: Whether we take this for his lodgings in the Temple, or his house in the City it is not much material. Peter follows thither, and by another Disciple that was acquainted there, he is helped into the Hall, and sits with the Servants by the fire. The Chief-Priest and Elders were busy to find out Witnesses that might accuse him, and though many false Witnesses [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Talmudic language] come in, yet all will not do: for it was not possible to touch him of any offense. He all this while standing silent ( Isa. 37. 7.) Caiaphas adjures him to tell whether he were the Christ or no, he confesseth it, and withal tells them that the time should come that they should find the truth of this by experience, when he should show his power and vengeance in his judgment against them, and their City, coming in clouds, &c. This confession and words they account blasphemy: and that they might have the surer impression of so construing them, Caiaphas rent his garments, and by that action would, as it were, force them to agree with him that it was so, when his garments had paid so dear, for the confirming of it. Their custom and reason of renting their clothes upon the hearing of blasphemy, is handled in Jerus. in Sanhedr. fol. 25. col. 1. & 2. and in Maym. in Avrdah Zarah. per. 2. where those two Canons being observed, Everyone that hears God's Name blasphemed, is bound to rent his garments: And the Judges hearing blasphemy must stand upon their feet, and must rent their clothes and may not sew them up again. It will cause us to observe something in it, that the High priest only rent his clothes, and not the rest of the Bench with him. Which though they did not, yet they vote with him, that it was blasphemy, and therefore he was guilty of death: which had it been executed, must have been by stoning. Sanhedr. per. 7. halac. 4. And now they begin to spit on him, to bu •• et him and abuse him.

Peters denial.

Here Peter first denies him: for being challenged as he sat by the fire, by the damsel porter, for one of his company, he denies it, and shrinks away into the porch, and then the first Cock crew. Luke saith that the maid came to him as he sat by the fire: Matthew and Mark▪ that he was now beneath in the Palace, and without in the Palace, meaning, beneath or without from that place or room where the Bench sat. Betwixt this first denial and the second, there was but a little while, Luke 22. 55. In the space between, the High priest is questioning Jesus of his Disciples and Doctrine, and because he answers, Ask them that have heard me, &c. an officious Officer smites him, as if he had not answered with reverence enough. Peter this while was in the porch, where he was when the Cock crew after his first denial: and there another maid sees him and brings him to the company that stood by the fire, and challenges him for one of his Disciples, and now he denies with an oath. And about an hour after, Luke 22. 59. [which space of time the Bench took up in examining Christ about his Disciples and Doctrine] a kinsman of Malchus challengeth him, and tells the company he saw him with Jesus in the Garden, and he pleading the contrary, is discovered to all the company to be a Galilean by his Dialect, but he denies with execrations: and presently the second Cock crew: And Jesus looking back upon him, he remembers what he had done and goes out and weeps bitterly. And so presently after the second Cock the Bench riseth and leaveth Jesus in the hands of their Officers, by whom he is taunted, stricken and shamefully used.

His being delivered up to the Roman power.

In the morning the Sanhedrin met formally in their own Council chamber, and again question Jesus [brought there before them, and they resolved to put him to death] Whether he were the Messias or no? he giveth the same answer as before, that though they would not believe him if he told them he was, which was the truth, yet the time was coming when they should find it true: They question him again, Art thou the Son of God? which he not denying, they judge him a blasphemer again and deserving to die, and so deliver him up to the secular power. It is observable in both these questionings of him upon this point, both in the night, and now in the morning, how convertible terms the Son of God, and the Son of man are made. In the night they question him, Art thou the Son of God? He answers, Ye shall see the Son of man, &c. Mat. 26. 63, 64. And now in the morning again he saith, Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power: and they reply, Art thou then the Son of God? Luke 22. 69, 70.

Judas his Recantation and Ruin.

Judas unquiet in mind for what he had done in betraying, attends the trials, and waits the issue: and when he now saw that he was condemned by the Bench to be delivered up to the Heathen power, he steps in, and offers his money again, and confesseth he had betrayed innocent blood, and this probably as Christ stood by. Having received a surly answer again from them, he flings down his money in the Temple where they sat [ Gazith or Hhanoth, it is not seasonable to question here] and departing, is snatched by the devil who was bodily in him, into the air, and there strangled, and flung down headlong to the earth, and all his bowels burst out, With the thirty pieces of silver, his wages of iniquity, the Priests consult to buy the Potters field. And here a quotation of Matthew hath troubled Expositors so far, that divers have denied the purity of the Text. His words are these, Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, &c. Matth. 27. 9. Whereas those words are not to be found in Jeremy at all, but in Zechariah they are found, Zech. 11. 13.

Now Matthew speaks according to an ordinary manner of speaking used among the Jews, and by them would easily and without cavil be understood, though he cited a text of Zechariah under the name of Jeremy: For the illustration of which matter we must first produce a record of their own. The Babylon Talmud in Bava Bathra, fol. 14. facie 2. is discoursing concerning the order in which the Books of the Old Testament were ordered and ranked of old. And first they show that there was this general division of it, into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. By the last meaning The Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Job, Ruth, Esther, &c. Then do they tell, that the Books were particularly thus ranked: The five Books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings: and then the Prophets, among whom Jeremy was set first, and then Ezekiel, and after him Isaiah, and then the twelve. But they object, was not Isaiah long before Jeremy and Ezekiel in time? Why should he then be set after them in order? And they give this answer, The last Book of Kings ends with destruction, and Jeremy is all destruction. Ezekiel begins with destruction and ends with comfort, and Isaiah is all comfort. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Therefore they joined destruction and destruction together, and comfort and comfort together. And thus in their Bibles of old Jeremy came next after the Book of Kings, and stood first in the volume of the Prophets. So that Matthews alleging of a Text of Zacharias, under the name of Jeremy, doth but allege a Text out of the volume of the Prophets, under his name that stood first in that volume: And such a manner of speech is that of Christ, Luke 24. 44. All things must be fulfilled which are written of me in the Law, and the Prophets and the Psalms: in which he follows the general division that we have mentioned, only he calleth the whole third part, or Hagiographa, by the title the Psalms, because the Book of Psalms stood first of all the Books of that part. In that saying Matth. 16. 14. Others say Jeremy, or one of the Prophets, there is the same reason why Jeremy alone is named by name, viz. because his name stood first in the volume of the Prophets, and so came first in their way when they were speaking of the Prophets.

CHRIST'S Arraignment before Pilate.

The chiest Priests and Elders bring Jesus to Pilate, but would not go into his House [the House of a Heathen] lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. John 18. 28. Why? They had eaten the Passover over night, at the same time that Jesus ate his [and well they had spent the night after it.] But this day that was now come in, was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 their day of presenting themselves in the Temple, and offering their Sacrifices and peace offerings, of which they were to keep a solemn feasting, and this John calls the Passover: In which sense Passover Bullocks are spoken of, Deut. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 30. 24. and 35. 8, 9. The School of Shammai saith, their appearing was with two pieces of silver, and their chagigah with a Meah of silver. But the School of Hillel saith, their appearing was with a Meah of silver, and their chagigah with two pieces of silver. Their burnt offerings at this solemnity were taken from among common cattle, but their peace offerings from their tithes. He that keepeth not the chagigah on the first day of the feast, must keep it all the feast, &c. Chagigah per. 1.

Pilate conceives him brought to him as a common malefactor, and therefore he bids them take him back and Judge him by their own Bench and Law: and in these words he meant really and according as the truth was, that it was in their power to judge and execute him, and needed not to trouble him with him. And when they answer, We may not put any man to death, Joh. 18. 31. They speak truly also, and as the thing was indeed, but the words of Pilate and theirs were not ad idem: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a tradition that forty years before the Temple was destroyed capital Judgments were taken away from them. Jerus. in Sanhedr. fol. 18. col. 1. But how? Not by the Romans, for they permitted them the use of their Religion, Laws, Magistracy, capital and penal executions and judgments in almost all cases, as freely as ever they had: and that both in their Sanhedrins within the Land, and in their Synagogues without, as far as the power of the Synagogues could reach at any time: as might be proved abundantly, if it were to be insisted on here.

The words then of these men to Pilate are true indeed, That they could put no man to death, but this was not, as if the Romans had deprived the Sanhedrin of its power, but because thieves, murderers and malefactors of their own Nation were grown so numerous, strong and heady, that they had overpowered the Sanhedrins power, that it could not, it durst not execute capital penalties upon offenders as it should have done. And this their own Writings witness. Juchasin fol. 21. The Sanhedrin flitted forty years before the destruction of the Temple, namely from that time that the Temple doors opened of their own accord, and Rabban, Jochanan ben Zaccai rebuked them and said, O Temple, Temple, Zechariah of old pr • phecied of thee saying, Open thy doors O Lebanon that the fire may enter, &c. And also because • that murderers increased, and they were unwilling to judge Capital matters, they flitted from place to place, even to Jabneh, &c. which also is asserted in Schabb. fol. 51. Avodah Zarah fol. 8.

When they perceive that Pilate no more received the impression of their accusation of him as a malefactor like others, they then accuse him of Treason, as forbidding to pay Tribute to Caesar, and as saying that he himself was a King: and this they thought would do the business. Pilate hereupon takes him into his Judgment Hall [for hitherto the Jews conference and his had been at his gate] and questions him upon this point, and Jesus plainly confesseth that he was a King, but his Kingdom not of this world [and therefore he needed not from him to fear any prejudice from the Roman power] and so well satisfies Pilate, that he brings him out to the gate again, where the Jews stood, and professeth that he found no fault in him at all. Then the Jews lay in fresh accusations against him, to which he answereth not a word.

Brought before Herod.

Pilate by a word that dropt from them, understanding that he was of Galilee, Herod's Jurisdiction, sent him to Herod, who was now at Jerusalem: partly because he would be content to have shut his hands of him, and partly because he would court Herod, towards the reconciling of old heart-burnings between them. And now Jesus sees the monster that had murdered his forerunner. Herod was glad to see him, and had desired it a long time, and now hoped to have got some miracles from him, but he got not so much as one word: though he questioned him much, and the Jews who followed him thither did vehemently accuse him. The old Fox had sought and threatened his death before, Luke 13. 31, 32. and yet now hath him in his hands, and lets him go [only abused and mocked and gorgeously arrayed] and so sends him back to Pilate, that so he might court him again, more then for any content he had that he should escape his hands. See Acts 4. 27.

Before Pilate again.

Pilate at his gate again talks with the Jews, and motions the release of the Prisoner, and whether him or Barabbas: and leaves it to their thoughts and goeth to his Judgment seat again. By this time is his Lady stirring, and understanding what business was in hand, she sends to him about her dream. He goes to the gate again, inquires what is their vote about the Prisoners release: they are all for Barabbas. He puts it to the vote again, and they are the same still: he urgeth a third time, and pleadeth the innocence of Jesus, but they still urge for his crucifying. Then calls he for water, and washeth his hands, but instantly imbrues them in his blood.

By this time it was the third hour of the day, or about nine a clock, the time of the beginning of the morning Sacrifice. Hence Mark begins to count, Mark 15. 25. namely, from the time that Pilate delivered him up. He is whipped by Pilate, led into the Praetorium by the soldiers, Crowned with thorns [remember the Earths first curse, Gen. 3. 18.] arrayed in scarlet,, and a reed put into his hand for a Scepter, and in this garb Pilate brings him forth to the gate to them again, and publisheth again that he found no fault in him. They urge that he ought to die because he said he was the Son of God. This startles Pilate, and in he takes him again and re-examines him, but he would give him no answer, but only, Thou couldst have no power over me, unless it was given thee from above, &c. Hereupon he goes out to the gate again, and urgeth for his release more then ever. They answer, Then he is no friend of Caesar, and this knocks the business dead. In therefore he goes again and brings out Jesus and sits down upon another Tribunal in public, and Jesus standing before him in his scarlet Robes and thorny Crown, he tells the Jews, Here is your King: Our King? say they, A way with him, crucify him. What? saith he, Shall I crucify your King? They answer, We have no King but Caesar. Compare Zech. 11. 6. where their destruction is threatened to be by their King Caesar: as it was by Vespatian.

Then he delivers him up to be crucified: and it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour, Joh. 19. 14. John seemeth the rather to have added this circumstance, not only to state the time [which indeed was of weighty concernment] but also to brand these Jews impiety, and neglect of their Religion for the satisfying of their malice. This day was a very high day, of their appearance in Temple and their Chagigah [as we touched before] and in the morning they durst not to go into Pilate's Palace for fear of defiling, and lest they should be prevented of these great devotions, and yet the day is thus far spent, and nothing done but only they have purchased the shedding of so innocent blood.

But John in this passage lays two visible scruples before us: Quest. 1. How is it possible to reconcile him and Mark together, when Mark saith, It was the third hour and they crucified him, Mark 15. 25. whereas he tells us, It was the sixth hour when Pilate delivered him up? Answ. 1. If we cast up in our thoughts how many things were done this day before his nailing to his Cross, it cannot be imaginable that they were all done before the third hour of the day. The Sanhedrin meet, sit in Counsel, examine the prisoner and vote him guilty; Bring him to Pilate's Palace, there have manifold canvases with Pilate pro and contra about him; Bring him to Herod, where he is questioned about many things; his garments changed and gorgeous Robes put upon him, and sent back to Pilate again. Then a fresh canvass about him or Barabbas to be released, and Pilate puts them to a three-times deliberation upon it. Then overcome with their importunity, washeth his hands, scourgeth him, and delivers him up to them to be abused. The Soldiers lead him into the Hall, make a Crown of Thorns, divest and vest him anew, and make sport with him at pleasure. Pilate again brings him forth, and anew seeks and labors his release: brings him in again and enters a new serious examination of him, hearing mention of his being the Son of God: Goes out again and labors all he can for his deliverance, but being taxed that then he could not be Caesars friend, he goes to the bench and formally passeth sentence upon him, writes the title of his Cross, the Jews in the mean while abusing him. Then he is lead forth out of the City bearing his Cross, and brought to the place of execution, which was a good way off, stripped, hath wine mingled with myrrh given him to drink, which he refuseth, is nailed to the Cross, his garments parted, and then Mark brings this in, And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. Now this great multitude of various passages can hardly be conceived possible to have been gone through by the third hour of the day or nine of the clock in the morning, no not though the Jews had bent themselves to dispatch before that time, which was far from their thoughts. 2. Mark therefore in that calculation of the time, takes his date from the first time that Pilate gave him up to their abusings: and his Phrase may be taken of so comprehensive an intimation, as to speak both the time of his first giving up, at the third hour of the day, and the time of his nailing to his Cross, the third hour from that. And much after the same manner of account that our Savior's six hours sufferings, from Pilate's first giving him up, to his dying, are reckoned: So the 430 years of sojournying of the Children of Israel in Egypt, Exod. 12. are computed, namely, the one half before they came into Egypt, and the other half after. Quest. 2. But it may justly move a second quaere. How Christ could be on his Cross and darkness begun from the sixth hour, as the other Evangelists record it, when John saith that it was but about the sixth hour when Pilate delivered him up? Which words of John as they raise the scruple, so they may give the answer: For it might very properly be said, and that according to the usual speech of the Nation, that it was about the sixth hour, when the sixth hour was but now beginning, and by the time that it was completed all that might be dispatched, that passed betwixt his sentencing and his being raised upon the Cross.

Crucified.

Sentence of death was passed upon him as he stood in his scarlet Robes and thorny Crown: and when the Jews have now their desire, they mock him, suddenly strip him, and put on his own clothes: Then taking him away to the place of Execution, they lay his Cross upon him [such engines of death doubtless lay always ready about the Judgment Hall] and so as Isaac in the figure, he first bare the wood, that afterward must bear him, Gen. 22. 6, 9. The place of execution was without the City, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Talmudists do determine in Talm. Bab. Sanhedr. fol. 42. 2. [See how the Apostle applies this to his suffering for the Gentiles, Heb. 13. 12.]

By the time he was come out of the City gates, they observe that he is overburdened with his Cross, and thereupon they force Simon a Cyrenian [some noted Disciple belike] to bear the end of it after him.

They come to the place of Execution commonly called Golgatha [not the place of graves, but] the place of sculs: where though indeed there were some burial of the executed, yet was it in such a manner that the place deserved this name rather then the other: for they buried not an executed person in the grave of his Fathers, but there were two places of burial for such: one for them that were slain with the sword and strangled, and the other for them that were burnt and stoned: and when the flesh was wasted, the bones were gathered and buried in the graves of their Fathers: Talm. ubi sup. fol. 46. 1. The proper writing and pronunciation of the word had been Golgolta, but use had now brought it to be uttered Golgotha, which very pronunciation the Samaritan Version useth in Num. 1.

They first strip him, and then offer him intoxicating wine, which when he tasted he refused to drink. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 When any person was brought forth to be put to death, they gave him to drink some frankincence in a Cup of Wine, that it might stupefy him: as it is said, Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts. And there is a tradition, that the Gentlewomen of Jerusalem afforded this of their good will, &c. Tal. Bab. ibid. fol. 43. 1. And let it not be impertinent to add that which immediately follows in the same page: A crier went before him that was to be executed, which proclaimed, N. the Son of N. is going to execution because he hath committed such a fact, and N. and N. are witnesses against him if there be any that can clear him, let them speak. And instantly after: There is a tradition that they hanged Jesus on the eve of the Passover, and a Crier went before him forty days, Such a one goes to be put to death, because he hath bewitched, deceived, and perverted Israel: if any one can say anything for his clearing, let him come and speak: but they found no clearing of him, therefore they hanged him upon the eve of the Passover, &c.

He is nailed to his Cross hands and feet, and so the Jews themselves confess Abel [his figure] to have been wounded by Cain, Tanch. fol. 3. col. 4 and Isaac to have been bound on the Altar: Idem fol. 12. col. 2. And with him are crucified two malefactors, [compare Joseph betwixt two offenders, Gen.▪ 40.] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Josephus his construction, will help us to understand the sense of the word here. Four soldiers part his garments and cast lots for his coat and sit down to watch him.

Over his head was his cause written, in the expression of which the variety of the Evangelists shows their style, and how where one speaks short another enlargeth, and what need of taking all together to make up the full story. Mark hath it, The King of the Jews. Luke, This is the King of the Jews. Matthew, This is Jesus the King of the Jews. John, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews: Where the main thing regarded is, that he was condemned for taking on him to be King of the Jews as they pretended, which was also pretended to be Treason against Caesar: and to this point all the Evangelists speak alike, and their variety is only in wording this for the readers understanding: and he that spake shortest spake enough to express the matter of his accusation: and the rest that speak larger are but a comment upon the same thing. The three tongues in which this was written, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, are thus spoken of in Midras Tillin fol. 25. col. 4. R. Jochanan saith, There are three tongues. The Latin tongue for war, The Greek tongue for speech, and the Hebrew for prayer.

All sorts of people had followed him to the execution: Some openly wept for him and bewailed him, which was not a thing usual in such cases. In the Talmudic Tract last cited fol. 46. 2. there is this strange doctrine, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 They bewailed not him that went to be executed, but only mourned inwardly for him. And what think you was the reason? The Gloss tells you thus, They bewailed him not, because his disgrace might be his expiation: meaning, that whereas they accounted, that the more shame and punishment a condemned person suffered, the more these tended to his expiation, they therefore would not openly bewail him, for that would have been some honor to him, and so would have abated of his expiation; but none lamenting for him, it was the greater disgrace, and the greater the disgrace the better was his sin [as they thought] expiated, and atoned for. This strange custom and opinion, doth set forth this public bewailing of Christ the more remarkably.

Others, when he was now raised upon his Cross reviled him, among whom were the chief Priests, Scribes, and Elders: who had so little to do, or rather their malice so much as to attend the execution. They were at first in some hesitancy whether he would not deliver himself by miracle: but when they saw he did not, then they triumph and insult at no measure. Nay, the thieves that were crucified with him spared him not, for so Matthew and Mark tell us, but at last one of them becomes a convert and receives assurance of being that day with him in Paradise. [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a phrase very usual with them.] Compare the case of Josephs fellow prisoners, Gen. 40. the one desiring him to remember him and escaping, and the other not.

It may be, the darkness now begun, in an extraordinary and dreadful manner, was some means of working upon this thief for his conviction that Jesus was the Messias: For instantly upon his raising upon his Cross, it was now the sixth hour or high Noon complete, and the darkness began, and continued till three a clock afternoon: the very space of time of the day that Adam lay in darkness without the promise, from the time of his fall till God came and revealed Christ to him.

By the Cross stood the Mother of Jesus now a Widow, and as it seemeth, destitute of maintenance, therefore he commendeth her to the care and charge of his beloved Disciple John. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A widow was to be maintained out of the estate of her husbands heirs until she received her dowry. Maym. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 per. 18. But the poverty of Joseph and Mary afforded neither heritage, nor dower, nor had they any Children but Jesus who was now dying. If those that are called the brethren of Jesus were the sons of Joseph by another wife, as some have thought them, they had been fittest to have been charged with the maintenance of the widow.

About the ninth hour Jesus crieth out, Eli, Eli lama sabachthani, that is, My God, my God, why hast thou left me? Not forsaken him, as to the feeling of any spiritual desertion, but why left to such hands and to such cruel usage? Some said hereupon he called Elias: but was this said in mockery? or indeed did they think his words Eli, Eli meant Elias? Two things might make them really think so: the unusualness of the word Eli or Elohi in their Syriac tongue, the word Mari being it by which they commonly expressed the sense of that. And 2. the common opinion and legends that they had of Elias his coming to comfort and resolve men in distress and perplexity, of which their Talmuds give not a few examples.

Complaining of thirst he had vinegar given him, which having tasted, and feeling the pangs of death come upon him, he saith, It is finished, and giving up a great cry, and committing his Spirit to God, he dieth [at the time of the evening sacrifice.] At which instant there was an Earthquake which rent the rocks: and the veil of the Temple was then also rent in the middle: The Priest that offered Incense that evening sacrifice time, could bring an amazed testimony of this, when he came forth. The renting of the rocks light in such a place as where were the graves of many Saints hewn out, which now were opened [and shown the conquest over the grave] and at another Earthquake at which Christ's grave was opened on the morning of his resurrection, the mouldred bodies of these graves revived, and after his rising they came out of the graves also and came into the holy City. Observe that Matthew calls Jerusalem The holy City, when it hath now murdered Christ, chap. 27. 53. How great a matter must it be that must unchurch a Nation?

The Centurion and the company present, at the sight of what strange things had occurred, return much affected and full of thoughts about what was done: As the evening grew on, the Jews desire and obtain that the legs of them might be broken so to hasten their end, that they might not hang on the Cross all night. This dispatcheth the penitent thief [howsoever it did the other] as we may conclude from the words of Christ that told him of being that day in Paradise: But Christ being dead already they brake no bone of him, but one with a Spear pierceth him, and out of his side cometh water and blood distinct and discernible the one from the other.

At Even Joseph of Aramathaea [ Samuel's Town, 1 Sam. 1. 1.] a Priest or a Levite, one of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Council-chamber of the Temple, begs the body of Jesus, which otherwise should have been buried in the common graves of Malefactors, and intombs it in his own Tomb, Nicodemus joining with him, and the Women observing where he was laid, go and prepare spices for his further imbalming when the Sabbath was over: all showing their love to him, but in this very action showing their little expecting his Resurrection.

SECTION LXXXVII.

AS for the subsequence of this Section to the preceding, there can be no scruple, but it requires some heedfulness, to lay the story in it, in its proper currency, because of some seeming diversities in the four in their relating the story of it.

The Lord of life was under death about 36 hours: and so long was that day wherein the Sun stood still in the time of Joshua: as Kimchi saith, it is the acknowledgment of the Jews: on Josh. 10.

Christ himself calleth this space three days and three nights, Matth. 12. 40. whereas it was but two nights and one whole day, and two small parts of two more. And yet herein he speaketh warrantably even by the known and allowed Dialect of the Nation. Both the Talmuds in the Treatise Shabba per. 9. do dispute about the three days that Israel separated from their Wives before the giving of the Law, Exod. 19. 15. and among other things they have these passages: R. Akibah made the day a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and the night a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And so did R. Ishmael. But this is a tradition, R. Eliezer ben Azariah saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A day and a night make a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and a part of a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is accounted as the whole. Observe these last words to the purpose that we are upon: Three natural days by this rule were three 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and any part of any of these, was accounted as the whole of it.

The Evangelists seem to differ somewhat in the mention of the time of the Womens coming to the sepulcher. John saith Mary Magdalene came while it was yet dark. Matthew, when it began to dawn: whereas Mark saith, she and the other women came thither at Sunrising: All which together speak the story to the full to this tenor. That at the dawning, and while it was yet dark, the Women as soon as they could see [at the least Mary Magdalene ] set out to go to the Sepulcher: and that was at the very instant of Christ's rising, when there was a great Earthquake and an Angel came and rolled away the Stone. Mary Magdalene came from Bethany, from her brother Lazarus his house [if she came from her own home] and the other Women were at their several lodgings, and to get them all together [for they were to go about this work all together] would spend some time: so that though Mary were so early stirring, yet before they were all got together to the Scpulchre it was Sunrising. These Women little knew of the watch that was set over the grave, and the sealing of the stone [which was done on the morning of the Sabbath] for all their care is how to get the stone rolled away. When they come there, they find that done already [and the Watch was fled] and the Angel that had rolled it away sitting on it on the right hand of the entering in, and when they were entered in they saw another Angel, which both told them of his being risen. And thus Matthew and Mark that mention but one Angel, are to be reconciled to Luke who speaketh of two.

The Women return and tell the Disciples what they had seen, but their words seemed to them as idle tales: yea, Mary herself yet believed not that he was risen: It is worth studying upon the faith of the Disciples: it was a saving faith in Christ, and yet they believed not that he should die till he was dead, nor believed that he should rise again, no not when he was now risen.

Peter and John run to the Sepulcher, and Mary Magdalene follows them: They see the body gone and the clothes lying there [and John proves the first that believes his resurrection] and they return home, but Mary stays there weeping still: And looking in, she sees two Angels, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body had lain [like the two Cherubims at either end of the Ark:] And looking behind her she seeth Jesus, and thought it had been the Gardener, but presently knew him, and comes away to bring the Disciples word. Here Matthew speaks short: for he mentioneth but one journey of the Women to the grave and back, and saith that as they came back Jesus met them. Whereas Mary had two journeys, and it was she alone that met him, and that in her second return. As she returned now the Watchmen are come into the City, and bribed to deny that he was risen, and so the Chief Priests and Elders give money to hire the Nation into unbelief.

SECTION LXXXVIII.

THE same day in the afternoon two of them went to Emmaus a Town sixty furlongs, or seven miles and a half from Jerusalem. Josephus placeth it at the very same distance De Bello lib. 7. cap. 27. calling it there Ammaus, and relating how Vespasian after the destruction of Jerusalem, gave it for the habitation of some of the Roman souldierry left there. But in Antiq. lib. 17. cap. 12. he calls it Emmaus, and relates how it was fired by Varus, &c. It lay in the way towards some part of Galilee, and it may be these two men were now returning home thither, and intended to lodge at Emmaus the first night: but now they stop their journey and return thence the same night to Jerusalem. The two were Peter, and Alpheus the Father of three Apostles, who also was called Cleopas. See ver. 18. & 34. of this appearance to Peter, Paul speaks, 1 Cor. 15. 5.

And that Alpheus and Cleopas were but one and the same person, may not only be conjectured from the nearness of the sound, and from their being written in Hebrew with the same letters, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but it is made plain in John 19. 25. Where she is called Mary the Wife of Cleopas, who in the other Evangelists is clearly evidenced to be Mary the Wife of Alpheus. the mother of James and Joses, &c. Mat. 27. 56. Mar. 15. 40.

SECTION LXXXIX.

THE connection is plain in John and Luke: for the former saith, The same day at evening being the first day of the week, &c. And the other, that as they were speaking of his appearing to the two at Emmaus, he came in among them. The first day of the week is an ordinary Judaic phrase 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and so they reckon the days forward 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The second day of the week. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The third day of the week, &c. They that are now so very punctual to have the days so named and no otherwise, mistake that for a phrase purely Evangelical, which indeed is a phrase purely Judaical.

As they sat at Supper Jesus cometh in among them: shows them his hands and side: eateth with them: openeth the Scriptures and their understandings: breatheth upon them, and saith, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, &c. Whosoever sins ye remit, &c. This was to interest them in a power and privilege peculiar and distinct from any they had received yet, and distinct from that they were to receive on Pentecost day, viz. this invested them in power of life and death, to inflict death, or corporal plagues miraculously upon the enemies or disgracers of the Gospel, or to spare them as they should be directed by the Holy Ghost, which they here received. The death of Ananias and Sapphira was a fruit of this power, as is observed at that story.

Thomas was not present at this time, and yet Mark saith, He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat: and so Luke 24. 33. Peter and Cleopas found the eleven gathered together, &c. Nay 1 Cor. 15. 5. He was seen of the twelve: The title of the whole Chorus being used, though all were not present.

SECTION XC.

JOHN saith this was After eight days, which [reckoning the days current] was that day sevennight, or the first day of the week again: a second establishment of that day for the Christian Sabbath. Thomas upon seeing, believes, but blessed are they that have not seen yet have believed. See 1 Pet. 1. 8.

Tanchum. fol. 8. col. 1. R. Simeon ben Lachish saith, A Proselyte is more lovely in the sight of God then all that company that stood at mount Sinai: Why? Because they if they had not seen the thunders and lightnings and fire, and the mountains trembling, and the sound of the Trumpet, they would not have received the Law: but a proselyte though he see none of these things, yet he comes and gives up himself to God, and takes upon him the Kingdom of Heaven.

SECTION XCI.

CHRIST before his death had told them of his meeting with them in Galilee after his resurrection: and when he was risen, he appoints them to a mountain there. They are now come up into the Country, and while they wait the time of his appointment, Peter and six other of the Apostles go a fishing: not as their trade now, for they never had been all of them fishers before, but either for a present supply of provision for themselves, or for present employment till their Master should dispose of them. He had at first revealed himself to three of these seven [nay four, if Andrew were here] by a miraculous draught of fishes, and so he doth to them all now: and who can tell whether they had not some thoughts of that, and some expectation of the like appearing now, which did the rather urge them to this work?

At sea he helpeth them to a marvelous draught of 153 great fishes [so many thousands were the proselytes that wrought for the Temple, only 600 over, 2 Chron. 2. 17.] and at land he had provided them a dinner against they came ashore, and dines with them. And this, saith John, was the third time that he shown himself to his Disciples: which asserts the order of this Section, and showeth that this was before his appearing to the whole number at the mountain where he had appointed them: The two times that he had appeared to them before this, this Evangelist giveth account of before, namely one time when Thomas was not present, and another time when he was.

After dinner he putteth Peter to a threefold confession, answerable to his threefold denial, and foretelleth his Martyrdom, but telleth that John should live till he should come: meaning in that sense, as his coming and coming in glory is oft used in the Gospel, namely his coming to take vengeance of the unbelieving Jewish Nation: Peter should be Martyred by them, but John should live to see them receive their deserts.

SECTION XCII.

HIs appointing them into Galilee to such a mount [it is like to that mount near Capernaum where he had chosen the Apostles and made his Sermon, Matth. 5.] was not barely to appear to the eleven, for that had he done before, and that could he have done at Jerusalem, but it was an intended meeting, not only with the eleven, but with the whole multitude of his Galilean and other Disciples, and therefore he published this appointment so oft, before and after his Resurrection: and we cannot so properly understand his being seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of which the Apostle speaketh, 1 Cor. 15. 6. of any other time and place as of this: He had appointed the place, and the concourse argueth that he had appointed the time too, or at least this concourse waited at the place till his time should come. And here may we conceive that he kept the Lord's day or the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath with this multitude of his Disciples; revealing himself clearly to them, and preaching to them of the things that concerned the Kingdom of God.

Particularly he gives command and commission to go and Disciple all Nations: For whereas hitherto he had confined them to preach only to Israel, now must they preach to every creature, Mark 16. 15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [See Colos. 1. 23.] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is the Jews ordinary language, that is, to all men. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Solomon in his Proverbs makes known Theory and Practice to the creatures, Kafvenaki in Prov. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He causeth the Holy Ghost to dwell upon the Creatures, Midr. Til. in Psal. 135. Nimrod made Idols 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and caused the creatures to err, Tanch. fol. 8. 4. The Lord requires that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the creatures should pray before him, Id. fol. 16. 4. In which and an hundred other instances that might be given, the word Creatures signifieth only Men: and their charge and commission to preach the Gospel to every creature, means to all men, the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

Warrant then and charge is given for the fetching of them in [the great Mystery, Ephes. 3. 4, 6.] who had lain subject to vanity of Idolatry, and under the bondage of all manner of corruption ever since their casting off at Babel 2203 years ago. They had been taught of the devil, his oracles and delusions, &c. but now they must all be taught of God, Isa. 54. 13. by the preaching of the Gospel. They had in some few numbers in this space been taught by Israel to know the Lord and proselyted into their Religion, but now such proselyting should not need, for all must come to the knowledge of God, Heb. 8. 11. the Gospel carrying the knowledge of him, and it being carried through all Nations. Those of them that had come into the Church of Israel and the true Religion, had been inducted and sealed into it, by being baptized. Talm. in Jebam. per. 4. &c. And so that proselyte Sacrament [as I may so call it] must be carried and continued among all Nations, as a badge of homage and subjection to Christ, to whom all power is given in Heaven and earth; and of the profession of the true God, The Father Son and Holy Ghost, against all false God's and false worship. Infants born of Christian Parents are to bear this badge, though when they undertake it, they understand not what they do, because none in Christian Families should continue without the note of homage to Christ's sovereignty, and this distinctive mark against Hethenism that worshippeth false God's, as no male among Israel after eight days old must be without the badge of Circumcision.

Discipling was not of persons already taught, but to that end that they should be taught, and if the Disciples understood this word in Christ's command after any other sense, it was different from the sense of the word, which the Nation had ever used and only used: For in their Schools a person was made 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Scholar or Disciple, when he gave in himself to such a Master to be taught and trained up by him: and in the Discipling of Proselytes to the Jews Religion, it was of the very like tenor. That sense therefore that many put upon these words, viz. that none are to be baptized but those that are thoroughly taught, is such a one as the Apostles and all the Jewish Nation had never known or heard of before.

That wretched and horrid opinion that denieth the Godhead of Christ, and the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, little observeth, or at least will not see why the administration of Baptism among the Gentiles must be in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, whereas among the Jews it was only in the Name of Jesus, Act. 2. 38. namely for this reason, that as by that among the Jews, Jesus was to be professed for the true Messias against all other, so by this among the Gentiles who had worshipped false God's, The Father, Son and holy Ghost should be professed the only true God. And it would be but a wild, as well as an irreligious Paraphrase that that opinion would make of this passage, Go preach the Gospel to every Creature, and Baptize them in the Name of the Son a Creature, and the holy Ghost a Creature.

He promiseth the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost to them that should believe: [not to all, but to some for the confirmation of the Doctrine:] and chargeth the Disciples to return to Jerusalem and there to stay till he should pour down the holy Ghost upon them, to enable them for this Ministry among all Nations to which he had designed them. Mark and Luke do briefly add the story of his ascension, because they will dispatch his whole story, but that is related more amply, Act. 1.

A seventh appearing: To James.

After the appearing to above five hundred Brethren at once, which we suppose and not without ground to have been that last mentioned, the Apostle relateth that he was seen of James, 1 Cor. 15. 7. and then of all the Apostles: which doth plainly rank this appearance to James between that to the five hundred Brethren on the mountain in Galilee, and his coming to all the Apostles when they were come again to Jerusalem. Which James this was, Paul is silent of, as all the Evangelists are, of any such particular appearance. It is most like he means James the less, of whom he speaks oft elsewhere, and so doth the story of the Acts of the Apostles as one of the specialer note in the time of Paul's preaching among the Gentiles. We read oft in the Gospels, of Peter and James and John three Disciples of singular eminency in regard of the privacy that Christ vouchsafed to them at some special times, more then to the other Apostles, and in that he badged them with a peculiar mark of changing their names, and did not so by any of the other. But that James was the Son of Zebedee, Now when he was Martyred, Act. 12. you find that James the Son of Alpheus called James the less, came to be ranked in the like dignity with Peter and John, and was Minister of the Circumcision, in special manner with them, Gal. 2. 9. they to the Jews scattered abroad, and he residentiary in Judea. See Act. 15. 13. & 21. 18. Gal. 2. 13. If we question how he of all the rest of the Apostles came in, to make up that triumvirate when the other James was gone, we cannot tell where so pregnantly to give an answer as from hence; in that Christ vouchafed thus particularly to appear to him, which was not only an argument, but might carry the virtue of a command, to bring him into that rank, Office and Employment, when the other James had run his course.

[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 conference, 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, intimates not that ever there should be such a restauration, but it smartly checketh their curiosity, as erroneous and needless; and sets them to look off earthly longings, to mind the business 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 coming 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 〉 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 the chamber, or upper room of Chananiah ben Hezekiah, &c. Jerus. Pesachin. fol. 30. col. 2. 〈 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 spoken of were they that were of Christ's 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 actions, 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 yourselves. Chap. 8. They were all scattered abroad except the Apostles. Chap. 11. 19. They which were scattered 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 employment, 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 enjoined, 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 traitor, 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 Umazzik per. 8. And with the Gloss of Baal Turim upon these words in Num. 24. 25. Balaam 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 appear about this time, Luke 19. 11. had brought multitudes of Jews out of all Nations 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 cometh 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 everyone may hear of the things of God in his own language. The Disciples were doubly endowed by this gift, as to the matter of language; for they were hereby enabled to speak to every Nation in their own tongue: and not that only; but they were enabled 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 operation in the Apostles.

Pentecost was a time of rejoicing, 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 alleging of Joel, In the last days I will pour out my Spirit, &c. teacheth us how to construe the phrase, The last days, in exceeding many places both of the Old Testament 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 days of Jerusalem and the Jewish State. For to take his words in any other sense [as some do for the last days 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 days 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 controversy 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 Gospel came to acknowledge him to be Messias, were baptized into his Name, as the critical badge of their embracing the true Messias. But 3. among the Gentiles where that question 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 settling of the evidence of his being Messias, and when that was thoroughly 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 forever.

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 show at the fourth Chapter, 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 community of goods reached 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 households Act. 16. 15. 33. They that pleading against Infants Baptism, do cavil, that it may be, there were no Infants in those Families that are mentioned, bewray that they little understand the manner of administering 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 households 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 Canon, 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 Testament gives so little evidence of the altering this custom, at those first baptizings under the Gospel, that it plainly on the contrary shows the continuance of it, when it speaketh of the Apostles baptizing whole households.

ACTS Chap. III, IV.

PEntecost Feast lasted eight days, 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 itself, 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 multitude that was converted at one Sermon.

Peter and John go into the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Talm. in Pesachin. per. 5. The daily sacrifice of the evening was killed at the eight hour and a half, and offered at the ninth hour and an half. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 8. 〈 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 Council. Among others which are named of the Council, which were Priests, Alexander and