Works
The Lord had foretold them copiously by the Prophets, that Messias should be the great Teacher and Lawgiver in the last days, and this had put them in expectation of a new Law and doctrine when he should come, Isaiah 2. 1, 2, 3. In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, &c. And many people shall say, Come and let us go up, &c. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, &c. This Teacher, saith David Kimchi, is the Messias. And wheresoever it is said in the last days, it meaneth the days of Messias. And so in Esa. 11. 4. With righteousness shall be judge the poor and reprove with equity: This the Chaldee Paraphrast expressly and nominatim understandeth of Messias: And so he doth that in Esa. 42. 1. &c. And so in Esa. 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, (or that preacheth the Gospel) which though the Apostle in Rom. 10. 15. apply generally to the Ministry of the Gospel, yet doth the Context in the Prophet, show that it is primarily and especially to be understood of Christ whom the Chaldee Paraphrast nameth Syllabically at verse. 13. Such another Prophesy of Christ being the great Teacher when he should come is that which is so much retched and abused towards the countenancing of Enthusiasm, Esa. 54. 13. And all thy children shall be taught of God, where the Prophet setting forth the glorious state of the Church in the days of the Messiah, (and so the Rabbins understand the place) he addeth this, as a singular and eminent privilege those times should have above the times that had gone before, and that was, that whereas they had been taught by Prophets and by men, in those times God himself in visible appearance conversing among men in human nature, should be their Teacher. From such prophesies as these whereof there is great store in the Old Testament, the expectation of the Nation was raised, to look that Messias when he came, should preach the glad tidings of deliverance, should give a new Law as Moses at Sinai had done the old, and should be the great Teacher and Instructor of the people. So the Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth the two and twentieth verse of the 2d. Chap. of the Lamentations; Thou wilt proclaim liberty to thy people the house of Israel by the hand of Messias, as thou didst by the hand of Moses and Aaron on the day of the Passover. And the Jerusalem Targum on Exod. 12. Moses came out of the midst of the wilderness, and King Messias out of the midst of Rome: The one spake in the head of a cloud, and the other spake in the head of a cloud: and the Word of the Lord speaking between them and they walking together. And the Targum on Cant. 8. 2. When King Messias shall be revealed to the Congregation of Israel, the Children of Israel shall say unto him, Come, be with us as a brother and we will go up to Jerusalem, and will suck in with thee the sense of the Law as a child sucketh his mothers breasts, &c. And I will take thee O King Messias, and will bring thee to the house of my Sanctuary, and thou shalt teach me to fear the Lord and to walk in his Law. King Messias shall say to them: I adjure you O house of Israel my people, &c. Stay here a little till the enemies of Jerusalem be destroyed, and after that the Lord will remember you with the mercies of the righteous, and it will be his good pleasure to deliver you.
To such promises of the Prophets and such expectation of the Nation, (examples of which might be given many more if it were needful) that Messias when he came should be as another Moses, not only a Deliverer but also a Lawgiver, and the great Prophet and Teacher, (after the great decay of Prophesy and instruction) it is that Christ looketh and hath reference when he calleth on them to believe the Gospel. As if he should have spoken thus at large: You expect according to the prediction of the Prophets that when Messias comes, he shall be another Teacher and Lawgiver to you as Moses, that he shall preach and proclaim to you deliverance and redemption, that he will instruct you in the ways of the Lord, and show you how to walk in his paths: Behold this doctrine that I shall now teach, is that great promise and expectation. I am he whom the Lord hath anointed, and sent to preach these glad tidings: believe ye therefore the Gospel which I preach: and as it hath been your great expectation when it would come, so let it be entertained and received now it is come among you.
And here is the reason why John the Baptist joined not this admonition, to believe the Gospel, to the other of repenting, because John was not to be the preacher of the Gospel in this sense, but he that was to publish it so, was then to come. Now though both these parts of Christ's doctrine, Repent and believe the Gospel, were levelled so directly and pertinently toward the Jews in reference to their opinions about these things, yet are the doctrines and duties of that perpetuity and necessity, that they reach both Jew and Gentile to the end of the world. And then the word Gospel, doth not only signify the good tidings of Salvation, nor only as published and preached by Messias, two high and eminent excellencies, but also as the clearest and last way of God for man's Salvation.
IV. And lastly, whereas he saith The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : it may be questioned whether he mean, it was now come, or near in coming: And indeed it was both. For the term, The Kingdom of Heaven, hath a latitude in its signification as was observed before, and according to that latitude, is the sense of that word also dilated: That meaneth the revealing of the Messias, and the state of Church affairs, and dilating of the Church under his revealing. Now the revealing of Christ was by degrees, as is the dawning of the morning growing to a perfect day. The first Epocha of his revealing was from the beginning of Johns baptizing, Matth. 11. 12, 13. Mark 1. 1, 2. Because then he began to be preached as near at hand, and some change in the Church Economy began by the introduction of Baptism: But from his own Baptism his revealings increased more and more, in the power of his preaching and infinite miracles, but most especially in his resurrection. So that when he saith The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, he meaneth the revealing of the Messias in such evidences and demonstrations, especially by his rising again from the dead, as Rom. 1. 4. that they that were not willfully blind, might have seen the Salvation of God to be then revealed. For conclusion of this discourse concerning the great doctrine of the Gospel, repentance and believing, take one Maxim of the Jews more, The day of expiation and sin offerings and trespass offerings do not expiate, but only for those that repent and believe their expiation. Maym. in Shegagah. per. 3.
Luke 5. verse. 1. As the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God.
There were two things that caught the people and made them thus importunate to hear him, and those were, the tenor of his doctrine, which proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven which they so much expected, and the authority of his person, whom they looked on as a Prophet at least, if not as Messias. When it is said, they pressed upon him to hear the Word of God, the expression The Word of God hath its singular Emphasis and those passages, They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and not as the Scribes, Mark 1. 22. Mark 7. 28, 29. do readily tell us in what sense the people take the Word of God, namely in a higher strain and signification, than the Doctrines and Preachings of their Pharisees and Scribes: for these look upon Christ as a Prophetick teacher, and from him they desire to hear the Word of God as from a Prophet: And if they took him not for the Messias, yet do they look upon him as one sent from God, and another kind of Teacher than all their Doctors. The long absence of Prophesy, and the present expectation of Messias did easily beget this opinion, when they also saw such demonstrations.
§. He stood by the Lake of Gennesareth.
Whereas Luke saith He stood by this Lake, the other Evangelists say he walked: which difference needeth to breed no scruple: for besides that men in their walking, sometimes do move and sometime stand still, the story of Luke taketh him as he was before he went into Peters ship, and the other Evangelists, as he was come out.
The Lake of Gennesareth, which sometimes in the Gospel is called the Sea of Galilee, and sometimes the Sea of Tiberias, is constantly called in the Old Testament, The Sea of Cinnereth, Numb. 34. 11. Josh. 12. 3. 1 King. 15. 20. Now after times had changed the name Cinereth, into Genesar: as divers other names and places had received the like alteration. And so the Chaldee Paraphrasts (who do commonly call places of such changed names by the names they carried in their times) do use the word Genesar or Ginosar in the Texts alleged: and so do the Jews also in their writings call this Sea by the same name. Josephus hath described it, in these words. The Lake Genesar is so called from the Country adjoining, and it is forty furlongs broad and an hundred long, the water sweet and most fit to drink▪ Pliny thus, Jordanes ubi prima convallium fuit occasio, in lacum se fundit, quem plures Genesaram vocant, &c. As soon as Jordan meets with a valley fit for that purpose, it dilates its self into a lake, which they commonly call Genesara, being 16 miles long, and 6 miles broad, environed with fair Towns, as on the East with Julias and Hippo: on the South with Tarichea, by which name some also call the lake: on the West with Tiberias, famous for hot baths, Lib. 5. c. 15. Strabo saith it had 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sweet canes growing by it. Lib. Geogr. 16.
About the reason of the name Genesar, Baal Aruch hath these passages. In the Gemara of the first Chapter of the Treatise of the Passover it is said, Why are none of the fruits of Genesar at Jerusalem? And in the fourth Chapter of Maaseroth it is said: The coast of Genesar is quit, though there be mills and Cocks there. Some interpret it of a place near Tiberias where are Gardens and Orchards. The Targum renders, The Sea of Cinnereth, The Sea of Ginosar: And in Jelammedenis our Rabbins say, why is it called Ginosar? Because of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gardens of the Princes. These were the Kings that had Gardens there. Rabbi Judah from Rabbi Simeon saith, why is it called Genosar? Because the portion of Naphtali was there, and it is said of Naphtali, A thousand Princes. And in Jelammedenu it is said again. The border of Naphtali was Ginosar. So that by the Jews Etymology, the name was taken from some royal Gardens that lay upon it, which may very well be, since Herod's palace was at Tiberias: and as from the royalty of that City, the Sea was called the Sea of Tiberias, so possibly from the Orchards and Gardens upon it, it might be called Genesar or the place of the Princely Gardens: We cannot but observe the propriety of the Greek utterance, in adding the syllable eth in the latter end of this word, as also in the word Nazareth, whereas in the Hebrew it is only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Netzer, both after the letter r, but we shall not be inquisitive about it.
Vers. 3. And he entered into one of the Ships which was Simon's.
Whether these two vessels that stood by the shore, whereof Simon's was one, were ship indeed in the proper Bulk and bigness, that we allot to ships now, let them dispute that have a mind to it: The Greek word may well be applied to a boat or barge, or some such a lesser vessel, more convenient for Fishermen, than a ship of unwieldy bulk and burden. The Talmud in the Treatise Zavim per. 3. doth distinguish betwixt a great and little Ship, thus. What is a great ship? Rabbi Judah saith, It is such a one as cannot be moved by one man. But not to trouble ourselves about the quantity of this Ship of, Peters, which belike was but a fisher Boat, let us rather look a little after the Master of it, Peter himself, and consider how he is now become a fisher, since he was a Disciple of Christ before: for ye have him coming to him and Christ naming him Cephas or Peter, Joh. 1. 42. Did not he follow him from that time? In the several places and occurrences where the Disciples of Jesus are mentioned, as Joh. 2. 2. 17. 22. & 3. 22. & 4. 8. &c. was not he one of the number? And then how come he and Andrew, who were then with him, now parted from him, and following fishing?
Answ. 1. We cannot hold otherwise than that Peter and Andrew followed Christ from their first meeting with him, and that they are to be reckoned in the number of his Disciples, in the places cited, as well as any other. For though it be said of Andrew and of his fellow that first fell in with him, that they abode with him that day, Joh. 1. 39. as if they left him again on the morrow, it is to be understood in reference to the place, rather than to the limitation of the time, namely that they stayed with him all night at his own house. 2. We cannot conceive that Peter and Andrew being now upon their Fishersmans employment, had left Christ without his permission and consent, but that he had dispensed with them, to retire to their own homes and business for a season. But when and whereupon that dispensation was, is still a question. I see not how we can conjecture the time and occasion more properly than thus: One cause of Johns imprisonment, was the multitude of his Disciples, for that gave Herod suspicion of innovation: Now when John was imprisoned Christ heard of it, and of the cause; and withal he heard that the Pharisees who were in all the power, did take notice, that he had more Disciples than John had: This makes him to slip aside for his safety out of Judea into Galilee. And when he comes into Herod's own jurisdiction, it was for his safety also to disperse his Disciples for a time to their own homes: for as yet he was not to begin to publish the Kingdom of Heaven, and himself the Messias, in the full and clearest demonstration, but a space was yet to pass, and then he begins to preach, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, &c. We may therefore conjecture, that upon his coming up into Galilee, his Disciples and he, by his own permission, did part for a while, lest Herod observing another man arising in Galilee, followed with many Disciples as John had been, should suddenly have laid hold upon him, and made him drink of Johns cup. But Jesus himself alone goeth about to divers Synagogues of Galilee, and is received: cometh home to his own City Nazareth, and is there refused, goeth down to his other home Capernaum, and there beginneth to show himself for the Messias, and calls his Disciples in again. Peter and Andrew therefore, and it may be, James and John, having been thus dismissed, what had they to do, but to fall to their old employment? For then to preach or to Baptize in the name of Christ had been against that privacy of Christ which was for his present safety, till he by preaching abroad alone himself, had gotten footing in the hearts of the people. And for them to live idly, was neither for their advantage nor for their piety, and so till Christ call them again to a new employment, they follow their old: But after this call that they are to have now, they never return to make this a trade again. Peters fishing in Joh. 21. was more for a trial than for a trade, and rather in expectation of a second miracle in evidence of Christ's favor to him upon his recovery from his fall, (as here he had a miracle at his call) than in following his old vocation as his business.
. And he taught the People out of the Ship.
The living waters of the doctrine of the Gospel that had begun to stream at the Temple, Joh. 2. 14. (even on the South of the Altar, Ezek. 47. 1. for on that side was the market of Cattle, where Christ first began to show his zeal) are now come into the Sea: and that Prophesy of Ezekiel accomplished almost to the very letter. The Rabbins say, whither did these waters go? Into the Sea of Tiberias, and into the Sea of Sodom and into the Ocean, R. Sol. and Kimch. in loc. ex Tosapht. in Succah. compare Psal. 29. 3.
Vers. 6. They enclosed a great multitude of Fishes.
1. Here those creatures come in in homage to the second Adam, that had never come in so, to the first: See Gen. 2. 19. Birds and Beasts had come to him to receive their names, but so did not the fish, though they were also in his subjection. 2. Compare the case of Jonah and Simon bar Jonah here together: the one caught of a fish when he refused to Preach when he was sent, and the other catching fish, being now to be sent to Preach, and by that very thing encouraged to it. 3. Christ by this miracle did not only figure out unto them, the employment upon which he was now to enter them, to be fishers of men, as he himself applies it, but he also shows, how he can provide for them if they follow him, and how he will follow their endeavors in the Ministry with success.
Vers. 8. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
What? Peter on his knees to beg Christ from him? Spirit and Bride say Come, Revel. 22. 17. and Peter desire that he should Depart? So say the wicked, Job 22. 17, 18. but with affections as far different from Peters, as both their words do seem parallel and alike. He speaketh from amazement and fear, and considerancy of the Circumstances of the present occurrence. He was amazed at the great miracle, ver. 9. He was afraid at the visible appearance of so great power being so near him: and he considered that the miracle was wrought for his sake, and therefore in all humbleness he disclaims himself as most unfit to be so near Christ either in place or favor. Not that he was weary of him, but that he acknowledgeth himself unworthy of him; parallel to the words of the Centurion, Matth. 8. 8. Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.
Vers. 10. James and John the sons of Zebedee.
Concerning these four first called Disciples, the two sons of Jonah, and the two sons of Zabdi or Zebedee (for the names are the same) we may observe these things:
1. That Peter is ever named first in the Catalogue of the twelve Apostles, and the reason is, because he was first called to be an Apostle. It is true indeed, that Andrew and another not named, were Disciples and followed Christ before Peter did, Joh. 1. 36. but they then followed uncalled, and they followed only as Disciples, but now Christ cometh to call them, and to call them for Apostles, and Peter is first dealt withal in this call; Andrew indeed was in the Ship and in the call with him, and he saith to him that he should be a fisher of men, as well as to Peter, but the interchange of Discourse that was betwixt Christ and Peter (which Luke relateth) doth sufficiently intimate unto us, that in order Peter had the first call of the two.
2. James or Jacob is commonly called James the great, in distinction from James the son of Alpheus, who is called the less, not for any dignity or superiority of Apostleship that the one had above the other, but either because this James was the elder, or because he was first called, or because of the singular privacy that Christ admitted him to with himself, as he also did Peter and John, of which anon.
3. John is called the Disciple whom Jesus loved, Joh. 13. 23. who leaned in his bosom, to whom he committed his mother, and to whom he imparted the Revelation of the State of the Church till his second coming, as he had done the State of his Church till his first coming to Daniel a man greatly beloved also. Dan. 10. 11. The reason of this title is variously guessed, if anything in himself might procure that title, I should as soon as anything conceive it to be because he was Christ's first Disciple, as Peter was the first called Apostle: For whereas there is mention of two of Johns Disciples who first followed Jesus, and Andrew named for one of them, there is none so like to be the other as John himself who wrote the story, Joh. 1. 37. &c. And this may appear probable, not only from his partnership with Andrew in his fishing trade (and so might they go together to Johns Baptism) but also because he concealeth the name of that Disciple (whereas he mentioneth the names of all the rest) as he useth to conceal his own name generally throughout all his Gospel.
4. The name Andrew is used in the Jerusalem Talmud in Midd. per. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Andrew the son of Chinna saith in the name of Rabbi Zacchaeus, &c. The Andrew that we have in hand, was a Disciple with the first, Yoke-fellow with John in first following Christ, a Disciple before Peter, and a called Disciple before James and John; and yet which may seem somewhat strange, he is ever set after all of them, and in some particulars we find all the three privileged above him. There is none that hath read the Gospel, but he may observe, how Christ did sometimes put a singular respect upon Peter and James and John, not only above the rest of the Apostles who were called after them, but even above Andrew who was both a Disciple and an Apostle with the first. As when he went to raise up Jairus daughter, he suffered no man to follow him but Peter and James and John, Mark 5. 37. when he went to his transfiguration, he taketh only Peter and James and John, Matth. 17. 1. and when he went to his agony, he taketh only with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, Matth. 26. 37. And thus to these three only a part from all the rest did he show himself in his greatest power, glory, and combat: the reason of which may be supposed to have been twofold.
1. Because he had designed these three in a more singular manner, for the ministry of the Circumcision, James in Judea, Peter to the dispersion in the East, and John in the West: The Apostle in Gal. 2. 9. nameth James and Cephas and John together, as pillars and agents in such a ministration: where the James indeed that he mentioneth, was not the same that we have in hand, for he was James the less, but he was one that came into that place and ministration instead of James the great, when he was dead. For why should Herod in Act. 12. lay hands upon James the brother of John, and destroy him first, rather and sooner than any other of the Apostles, but because there was appearance of singular and peculiar activity of James in that place, in the ministration among the circumcised.
2. Because Christ had designed these three for martyrdom, and for the eminentest witnesses of him of all the rest. He readeth Peters doom to that purpose, Joh. 21. 18, 19. and so he doth to James and John, Matth. 20. 23. The martyrdom of James is recorded Act. 12. 2. and when he was thus taken a way, James the less came in his stead, as special Minister and Apostle to the Jews or Circumcision within their own Land. And hence it is that he is named first of the three, Gal. 2. 9. and that he is named with such peculiarity, Act. 15. 13. & 12. 17. & 21. 18. &c.
Peter after a long stay at Jerusalem and thereabout, was gotten at the last to the Eastern Babylon, the old place of Idolatry and persecution, but now a Church, 1 Pet. 5. 13. Although there were many thousands of Jews that returned again out of the Captivity of Babylon, under the Proclamation of Cyrus, yet were there exceeding many also that staid behind and returned not; insomuch that they came to have their Universities in Babylonia, and their public Schools and teachers there as well as in Judea; and were in a kind of a Common-wealth there as well as in their own Country. Among these Peter is sent as a Minister, and among these it is like he sealed his Ministry with his blood, see 2 Pet. 1. 13, 14.
We read of Johns being in the Isle Patmos, but further Westward we find him not in all the Scripture; where he ended his life and sealed the Gospel with his blood, it is hard to determine: Histories have brought him to Rome, in which it may be they have not missed the mark very much, had not some of them told wild stories of him there. It may be as both James's the Ministers of the Circumcision in Judea, were martyred at Jerusalem, so Peter the Minister of the Eastern dispersion was martyred in the Eastern Babylon, and John the Minister of the Western, in Babylon in the West.
What became of Zebedee the father of these two eminent Apostles, when his sons were called away from him, the Scripture is silent; It saith, his sons left him in the Ship with the hired servants, and followed the call that Christ had given them. It is not to be thought that they slighted their father when they left him; but only they complied with that employment that he that called them would put them upon, which their father possibly by reason of his age was unable to do. Nor can we think that they left their father in his Judaism and unbelief, or that he so continued: certain it is, their mother Salome was a constant and zealous follower of Christ, Matth. 26. 56. and we have no reason to think of any less faith or piety in Zebedee himself, only whether he followed Christ, as his sons and wife did, or followed still his lawful calling and employment, it is not revealed in Scripture, nor is it much material to inquire after. The name Zabdi or Zebedee, is a name that is exceeding frequent in mention among the Talmudicks.
§. And the Kingdom of God is at hand, Repent ye and believe the Gospel.
Matth. 4. verse. 17. Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
1. Both Christ and John the Baptist use this same doctrine and argumentation, Matth. 3. 2. not only exhorting to repentance because of the necessity of the thing itself, but also persuading it from this reason, because The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. For 1. That was the people's great expectation, Luke 2. 25. 38. & 19. 11. Mark 15. 43. And 2. It was their own opinion that their Redemption by Messias must be upon their repentance: This point is disputed at large by the Gemarists in the Treatise Sanhedrin per. 10. and David Kimchi on Isaiah 59. 16. His words, for he allegeth the words of the other, are to this purpose. And he saw that there was no man, &c. Behold we find in the Law this saying, And thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt hearken to his voice: And he saith also: And the Lord thy God shall turn thy captivity and shall pity thee. And so he saith likewise: And from thence ye shall seek the Lord thy God, and thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Behold the gathering of their captivity shall be by the means of repentance. Now whereas Isaiah saith, And he saw that there was no man, therefore his own arm brought Salvation, &c. And so likewise, And I looked and there was none to help, &c. And he saith, I have seen his ways. And whereas Ezekiel saith, Not for your sakes do I this O house of Israel, &c. And again, I will bring you from among the people. And yet again, I will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against me, I will bring them out of the Country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel. And also in the Law he saith, I will remember for them the former Covenant, &c. It may seem that they come not forth upon their own goodness, but upon the mercy of God, and the goodness of their Fathers. And also by the words of our Rabbins of blessed memory we find, that they were intricated about this matter, whether they should come forth by means of repentance or no. For they say thus, Rabbi Jochanan saith, The son of David cometh not, but either in a generation all righteous, or a generation all wicked. In a generation all wicked as it is said, And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no Intercessor, and then it follows, Therefore his own arm brought Salvation: In a generation all righteous, as it is written, Thy people are all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever. They say moreover thus. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi saith, It is written, Behold one like the son of man came with the clouds of Heaven, And it is also written, Lowly and riding upon an Ass. Now how agrees this, If they be good he comes with the clouds of Heaven, If they be not good, then lowly and riding upon an Ass? Also in their words Rabbi Eliezer saith, If Israel repent, they are presently redeemed. Rabbi Joshua saith to him, And is it not somewhere said, Ye were sold for naught and ye shall not be redeemed with silver: but by repentance and good works? So that we see that they scrupled amongst themselves, whether the gathering of the captivity should be by the means of repentance or no. And the reason of this was because of the diversity of these Texts. But it is possible thus to reconcile them: That many of Israel shall repent after that they see some signs of redemption. And hereupon it is said, And he saw that there was no man: because they will not repent till they see the beginning of redemption.
In such a sense did the Jewish Nation hold repentance, an ingredient to the entertainment of the Kingdom of Heaven when it should appear, and so both our Savior and John the Baptist, in this argumentation, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, do but apply themselves to them even upon their own doctrines and conclusions: Now whereas we said, in the explanation of the story of Nicodemus, that they expected that the appearing of the Messias would take them as they were, and that without more ado they should be translated into a glorious condition, and happiness should drop into their mouths; it doth not cross it though it be said here, that they had thoughts of repentance as an ingredient to the entertainment of Messiah when he came, for exceeding many of them thought they needed no repentance, and for those that needed, they allotted such a kind of repentance, as we shall see by and by, as was far from any inward alteration of spirit or change of mind.
3. Nor doth this manner of arguing, Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, suit only with the Jews own maxim and opinion, and so might convince and win them the sooner, but it also agrees most properly with the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven itself. For 1. if by the term be understood the coming and appearing of the Messias (as that indeed is the first sense of it) what fitter entertainment of his appearing than repentance? For men, when he came to save them from their sins, Matth. 1. 18. to repent of their sins, and when he came as the true light, they to forsake their dark ways: And when the Lord by the appearance of Christ for man's redemption, did show as it were that he repented of evil against man, how fit was it for man to meet this great mercy by repenting of his own evil? And 2. If the term the Kingdom of Heaven be taken for the state of the Church and Religion under the appearance of Christ and the Gospel in comparison of what it was under the Ceremonious administrations in the Law, there could be no fitter entertainment of it than by repentance, namely by washing, purifying and sacrificing the heart, when there was no other washing, purifying or sacrificing in Religion to be had, and such external Ceremonies should be gone out of date. 3. And lastly, if by this phrase, be meant the Kingdom of Christ among the Gentiles, and their calling by the Gospel (as it also reacheth that sense) it was a proper kind of arguing used to the Jews to move them to repentance, by minding them of the calling of the Gentiles, whose calling in, they knew would be their own casting off, if they repented not.
II. A second thing worth our consideration in this our Savior's doctrine, is the word by which he calleth for repentance. What Syriac word he used speaking that language it is uncertain (the Syriac translater useth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Return or be converted ) but the word which the Holy Ghost hath left us in the Original Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is exceeding significant and pertinent to that doctrine and occasion. The word is frequently used in the Septuagint, concerning God, when he is said to repent or not repent, as 1 Sam. 15. 29. Jer. 3. 9. Amos 7. 3. 6. &c. but the use of it applied to man is not so frequent in them, as of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as Ezek. 18. 30. because that word doth most Grammatically and verbatim translate the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is the word most commonly used in the Hebrew, for Repenting, and yet do the Septuagint sometimes use 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for man's repentance, as Jer. 8. 6. &c.
The word doth first signify a reviewing or considering of a man's own self and condition, as Lam. 3. 40. and so Brucioli doth render it in the Italian, Ravedete vi, view yourselves, or take yourselves into consideration. Secondly, it betokeneth a growing wise, or coming to ones self again, as Luk. 15. 1. 7. and thereupon it is well rendered by our Protestant Divines, Resipicite, Be wise again, for so the word were to be construed in its strict propriety. And thirdly it signifieth a change of mind, from one temper to another.
Now the Holy Ghost by a word of this significancy, doth give the proper and true character of repentance, both against the misprisions that were taken up concerning it, by their traditions in those times, and those also that have been taken up since. The Jews did place much of repentance in a bare confession of the offense, and much of pardon, in the Scapegoats sending away, and in the service of the day of Expiation, and much in enduring the penalty inflicted by the Judges; And undoubted pardon at the day of death: We will take their mind in their own words. He that transgresseth against an affirmative command and returns presently, he stirs not till God pardon him, and of such it is said, Return O ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. He that offends against a negative command, repentance keeps him off from punishment, and the day of Expiation atones for him, and of such it is said, For today he will expiate: But he by whom the name of Heaven is blasphemed, repentance hath no power to shield him from punishment, nor the day of Expiation • o atone for him, nor chastisements by the Judges to acquit him. But repentance and the day of Expiation, do expiate a third part, and chastisements à third part, and death a third part. And of such it is said, If this iniquity be purged till you die, Behold we learn that death acquitteth. Talm. Jerus. in Sanhedr. fol. 27. Observe by the way, how directly our Savior faceth this opinion, when he saith the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall neither beforgiven in this life nor in the life to come, Matth. 12. 32. that is, no not by the expiation of death as they conceived. Now what a kind of repentance they mean, we may observe by such like passages as these. All the commandments of the Law, be they preceptive or prohibitive, if a man transgress against any of them, either erring or presuming, when he repents and turns from his sin he is bound to make confession: Whosoever brings a sin or trespass offering for his error, or presumption, his sin is not expiated by his offering, until he make a verbal confession: And whosoever is guilty of death or of whipping by the Sanhedrin, his sin is not expiated by his whipping or his death, unless he repent and make a confession: And because the Scapegoat is an atonement for all Israel, the High Priest maketh a confession for all Israel over him. The Scapegoat expiateth for all transgressions mentioned in the Law, be they great or little. Maym. in Teshubah per. 1.
This their wild doctrine about repentance and pardon being considered, in which they place so much of the one and the other in such things, as that the true affectedness of the heart for sin or in seeking of pardon, is but little spoken of or regarded, we may well observe, how singularly pertinent to the holding out of the true doctrine of repentance, this word is which is used by the Holy Ghost, which calleth for change of mind in the penitent, and an alteration of the inward temper, as wherein consisteth the proper nature and virtue of repentance: and not in any outward actions or applications, if the mind be not thus changed.
And thus as our Savior, urging the duty of repentance upon them from this reason, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, argueth to them from one of their own confessed opinions: so in this original word, by which repentance is called for, another opinion of theirs seemeth also to be looked upon but with gainsaying and confutation, because they placed so much of repentance, if not all repentance, in outward things. And so when the Ministry of the Gospel calleth for Repentance, and in such a word as betokeneth a change and alteration of the mind, it doth at once confute the double error that was amongst them, which was either about not needing of repentance but insisting upon legal righteousness: or if they were to repent, it was to be chiefly performed by confession, or offerings, or some outward action.
III. Thirdly, It is observable in this preaching of Christ, that to his admonition to repent, he also adjoineth the other, To believe the Gospel which John the Baptist (that we read of) had not done, Matth. 3. 2. And yet John preached the Gospel too: for his Ministry is called the beginning of it, Mark 1. 1, 2. and he preached that they should believe, Joh. 1. 7. But his doctrine did mainly aim at the declaring of him that was to preach the Gospel, that when he came to preach it, he might the more readily be believed. Joh. 1. 31. Act. 19. 4. Johns chiefest and most intended task and purpose was to point out Christ, and to bring the people to be acquainted with his person, and to take notice of him as the Messias the great Prophet, to whom it was reserved to publish the great things of the Gospel, that when he came openly to preach it (as now he doth) he might be the better entertained and hearkened after: And thus John makes ready a people prepared for the Lord, Luke 1. 17. And now that this great Preacher (for whom attention and regard was prepared by all the bent of Johns Ministry) is come to preach and publish the Gospel in its full clearness and manifestation, He calleth for repentance and belief of it, as Act. 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith or believing, in order of the work of grace, is before repentance, that being the first and mother grace of all others, yet is it here, and in other places named the latter, 1. Because, though faith be first wrought, yet repentance is first seen and evidenced both to the heart of him that hath it, and to the eyes of others. 2. Because a poor broken and penitent heart is the most proper receptacle of the Gospel, Isaiah 61. 1. Matth. 11. 5.
Now by the Gospel is not only here meant, the good and glad tidings of Salvation, as the word signifies in the original, and as it is taken in other places: but it is also held out here by our Savior with a singular emphasis and circumstance, namely as the new Law and Covenant which God had promised to give unto his people, and which they expected from the Messias. The Gospel, as it signifies the good tidings of Salvation and Salvation by Christ, was very abundantly held out in the Law and the Prophets: and if Christ proposed the word here but in that sense, he proposed his Ministry but like unto theirs: But as in the Synagogue of Nazareth, he had begun to assert himself the highly anointed one of the Lord, for the singular work of publishing the new Law, Luk. 4. 18. so now and forward he doth openly proclaim himself to be he whom the Lord had appointed and anointed for that end, and that his Ministry and doctrine was that Gospel or glad tidings, which God had promised to send by the Messias: And in this sense it is, that he calls upon them to believe the Gospel, not only in regard of the tenor, but also in regard of the dispenser and dispensation of it, he the great Prophet, and that according to the promises of God, and the expectation of the Nation.
The Lord had foretold them copiously by the Prophets, that Messias should be the great Teacher and Lawgiver in the last days, and this had put them in expectation of a new Law and doctrine when he should come, Isaiah 2. 1, 2, 3. In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, &c. And many people shall say, Come and let us go up, &c. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, &c. This Teacher, saith David Kimchi, is the Messias. And wheresoever it is said in the last days, it meaneth the days of Messias. And so in Esa. 11. 4. With righteousness shall be judge the poor and reprove with equity: This the Chaldee Paraphrast expressly and nominatim understandeth of Messias: And so he doth that in Esa. 42. 1. &c. And so in Esa. 52. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, (or that preacheth the Gospel) which though the Apostle in Rom. 10. 15. apply generally to the Ministry of the Gospel, yet doth the Context in the Prophet, show that it is primarily and especially to be understood of Christ whom the Chaldee Paraphrast nameth Syllabically at verse. 13. Such another Prophesy of Christ being the great Teacher when he should come is that which is so much retched and abused towards the countenancing of Enthusiasm, Esa. 54. 13. And all thy children shall be taught of God, where the Prophet setting forth the glorious state of the Church in the days of the Messiah, (and so the Rabbins understand the place) he addeth this, as a singular and eminent privilege those times should have above the times that had gone before, and that was, that whereas they had been taught by Prophets and by men, in those times God himself in visible appearance conversing among men in human nature, should be their Teacher. From such prophesies as these whereof there is great store in the Old Testament, the expectation of the Nation was raised, to look that Messias when he came, should preach the glad tidings of deliverance, should give a new Law as Moses at Sinai had done the old, and should be the great Teacher and Instructor of the people. So the Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth the two and twentieth verse of the 2d. Chap. of the Lamentations; Thou wilt proclaim liberty to thy people the house of Israel by the hand of Messias, as thou didst by the hand of Moses and Aaron on the day of the Passover. And the Jerusalem Targum on Exod. 12. Moses came out of the midst of the wilderness, and King Messias out of the midst of Rome: The one spake in the head of a cloud, and the other spake in the head of a cloud: and the Word of the Lord speaking between them and they walking together. And the Targum on Cant. 8. 2. When King Messias shall be revealed to the Congregation of Israel, the Children of Israel shall say unto him, Come, be with us as a brother and we will go up to Jerusalem, and will suck in with thee the sense of the Law as a child sucketh his mothers breasts, &c. And I will take thee O King Messias, and will bring thee to the house of my Sanctuary, and thou shalt teach me to fear the Lord and to walk in his Law. King Messias shall say to them: I adjure you O house of Israel my people, &c. Stay here a little till the enemies of Jerusalem be destroyed, and after that the Lord will remember you with the mercies of the righteous, and it will be his good pleasure to deliver you.
To such promises of the Prophets and such expectation of the Nation, (examples of which might be given many more if it were needful) that Messias when he came should be as another Moses, not only a Deliverer but also a Lawgiver, and the great Prophet and Teacher, (after the great decay of Prophesy and instruction) it is that Christ looketh and hath reference when he calleth on them to believe the Gospel. As if he should have spoken thus at large: You expect according to the prediction of the Prophets that when Messias comes, he shall be another Teacher and Lawgiver to you as Moses, that he shall preach and proclaim to you deliverance and redemption, that he will instruct you in the ways of the Lord, and show you how to walk in his paths: Behold this doctrine that I shall now teach, is that great promise and expectation. I am he whom the Lord hath anointed, and sent to preach these glad tidings: believe ye therefore the Gospel which I preach: and as it hath been your great expectation when it would come, so let it be entertained and received now it is come among you.
And here is the reason why John the Baptist joined not this admonition, to believe the Gospel, to the other of repenting, because John was not to be the preacher of the Gospel in this sense, but he that was to publish it so, was then to come. Now though both these parts of Christ's doctrine, Repent and believe the Gospel, were levelled so directly and pertinently toward the Jews in reference to their opinions about these things, yet are the doctrines and duties of that perpetuity and necessity, that they reach both Jew and Gentile to the end of the world. And then the word Gospel, doth not only signify the good tidings of Salvation, nor only as published and preached by Messias, two high and eminent excellencies, but also as the clearest and last way of God for man's Salvation.
IV. And lastly, whereas he saith The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : it may be questioned whether he mean, it was now come, or near in coming: And indeed it was both. For the term, The Kingdom of Heaven, hath a latitude in its signification as was observed before, and according to that latitude, is the sense of that word also dilated: That meaneth the revealing of the Messias, and the state of Church affairs, and dilating of the Church under his revealing. Now the revealing of Christ was by degrees, as is the dawning of the morning growing to a perfect day. The first Epocha of his revealing was from the beginning of Johns baptizing, Matth. 11. 12, 13. Mark 1. 1, 2. Because then he began to be preached as near at hand, and some change in the Church Economy began by the introduction of Baptism: But from his own Baptism his revealings increased more and more, in the power of his preaching and infinite miracles, but most especially in his resurrection. So that when he saith The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, he meaneth the revealing of the Messias in such evidences and demonstrations, especially by his rising again from the dead, as Rom. 1. 4. that they that were not willfully blind, might have seen the Salvation of God to be then revealed. For conclusion of this discourse concerning the great doctrine of the Gospel, repentance and believing, take one Maxim of the Jews more, The day of expiation and sin offerings and trespass offerings do not expiate, but only for those that repent and believe their expiation. Maym. in Shegagah. per. 3.
Luke 5. verse. 1. As the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God.
There were two things that caught the people and made them thus importunate to hear him, and those were, the tenor of his doctrine, which proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven which they so much expected, and the authority of his person, whom they looked on as a Prophet at least, if not as Messias. When it is said, they pressed upon him to hear the Word of God, the expression The Word of God hath its singular Emphasis and those passages, They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and not as the Scribes, Mark 1. 22. Mark 7. 28, 29. do readily tell us in what sense the people take the Word of God, namely in a higher strain and signification, than the Doctrines and Preachings of their Pharisees and Scribes: for these look upon Christ as a Prophetick teacher, and from him they desire to hear the Word of God as from a Prophet: And if they took him not for the Messias, yet do they look upon him as one sent from God, and another kind of Teacher than all their Doctors. The long absence of Prophesy, and the present expectation of Messias did easily beget this opinion, when they also saw such demonstrations.
§. He stood by the Lake of Gennesareth.
Whereas Luke saith He stood by this Lake, the other Evangelists say he walked: which difference needeth to breed no scruple: for besides that men in their walking, sometimes do move and sometime stand still, the story of Luke taketh him as he was before he went into Peters ship, and the other Evangelists, as he was come out.
The Lake of Gennesareth, which sometimes in the Gospel is called the Sea of Galilee, and sometimes the Sea of Tiberias, is constantly called in the Old Testament, The Sea of Cinnereth, Numb. 34. 11. Josh. 12. 3. 1 King. 15. 20. Now after times had changed the name Cinereth, into Genesar: as divers other names and places had received the like alteration. And so the Chaldee Paraphrasts (who do commonly call places of such changed names by the names they carried in their times) do use the word Genesar or Ginosar in the Texts alleged: and so do the Jews also in their writings call this Sea by the same name. Josephus hath described it, in these words. The Lake Genesar is so called from the Country adjoining, and it is forty furlongs broad and an hundred long, the water sweet and most fit to drink▪ Pliny thus, Jordanes ubi prima convallium fuit occasio, in lacum se fundit, quem plures Genesaram vocant, &c. As soon as Jordan meets with a valley fit for that purpose, it dilates its self into a lake, which they commonly call Genesara, being 16 miles long, and 6 miles broad, environed with fair Towns, as on the East with Julias and Hippo: on the South with Tarichea, by which name some also call the lake: on the West with Tiberias, famous for hot baths, Lib. 5. c. 15. Strabo saith it had 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sweet canes growing by it. Lib. Geogr. 16.
About the reason of the name Genesar, Baal Aruch hath these passages. In the Gemara of the first Chapter of the Treatise of the Passover it is said, Why are none of the fruits of Genesar at Jerusalem? And in the fourth Chapter of Maaseroth it is said: The coast of Genesar is quit, though there be mills and Cocks there. Some interpret it of a place near Tiberias where are Gardens and Orchards. The Targum renders, The Sea of Cinnereth, The Sea of Ginosar: And in Jelammedenis our Rabbins say, why is it called Ginosar? Because of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gardens of the Princes. These were the Kings that had Gardens there. Rabbi Judah from Rabbi Simeon saith, why is it called Genosar? Because the portion of Naphtali was there, and it is said of Naphtali, A thousand Princes. And in Jelammedenu it is said again. The border of Naphtali was Ginosar. So that by the Jews Etymology, the name was taken from some royal Gardens that lay upon it, which may very well be, since Herod's palace was at Tiberias: and as from the royalty of that City, the Sea was called the Sea of Tiberias, so possibly from the Orchards and Gardens upon it, it might be called Genesar or the place of the Princely Gardens: We cannot but observe the propriety of the Greek utterance, in adding the syllable eth in the latter end of this word, as also in the word Nazareth, whereas in the Hebrew it is only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Netzer, both after the letter r, but we shall not be inquisitive about it.
Vers. 3. And he entered into one of the Ships which was Simon's.
Whether these two vessels that stood by the shore, whereof Simon's was one, were ship indeed in the proper Bulk and bigness, that we allot to ships now, let them dispute that have a mind to it: The Greek word may well be applied to a boat or barge, or some such a lesser vessel, more convenient for Fishermen, than a ship of unwieldy bulk and burden. The Talmud in the Treatise Zavim per. 3. doth distinguish betwixt a great and little Ship, thus. What is a great ship? Rabbi Judah saith, It is such a one as cannot be moved by one man. But not to trouble ourselves about the quantity of this Ship of, Peters, which belike was but a fisher Boat, let us rather look a little after the Master of it, Peter himself, and consider how he is now become a fisher, since he was a Disciple of Christ before: for ye have him coming to him and Christ naming him Cephas or Peter, Joh. 1. 42. Did not he follow him from that time? In the several places and occurrences where the Disciples of Jesus are mentioned, as Joh. 2. 2. 17. 22. & 3. 22. & 4. 8. &c. was not he one of the number? And then how come he and Andrew, who were then with him, now parted from him, and following fishing?
Answ. 1. We cannot hold otherwise than that Peter and Andrew followed Christ from their first meeting with him, and that they are to be reckoned in the number of his Disciples, in the places cited, as well as any other. For though it be said of Andrew and of his fellow that first fell in with him, that they abode with him that day, Joh. 1. 39. as if they left him again on the morrow, it is to be understood in reference to the place, rather than to the limitation of the time, namely that they stayed with him all night at his own house. 2. We cannot conceive that Peter and Andrew being now upon their Fishersmans employment, had left Christ without his permission and consent, but that he had dispensed with them, to retire to their own homes and business for a season. But when and whereupon that dispensation was, is still a question. I see not how we can conjecture the time and occasion more properly than thus: One cause of Johns imprisonment, was the multitude of his Disciples, for that gave Herod suspicion of innovation: Now when John was imprisoned Christ heard of it, and of the cause; and withal he heard that the Pharisees who were in all the power, did take notice, that he had more Disciples than John had: This makes him to slip aside for his safety out of Judea into Galilee. And when he comes into Herod's own jurisdiction, it was for his safety also to disperse his Disciples for a time to their own homes: for as yet he was not to begin to publish the Kingdom of Heaven, and himself the Messias, in the full and clearest demonstration, but a space was yet to pass, and then he begins to preach, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, &c. We may therefore conjecture, that upon his coming up into Galilee, his Disciples and he, by his own permission, did part for a while, lest Herod observing another man arising in Galilee, followed with many Disciples as John had been, should suddenly have laid hold upon him, and made him drink of Johns cup. But Jesus himself alone goeth about to divers Synagogues of Galilee, and is received: cometh home to his own City Nazareth, and is there refused, goeth down to his other home Capernaum, and there beginneth to show himself for the Messias, and calls his Disciples in again. Peter and Andrew therefore, and it may be, James and John, having been thus dismissed, what had they to do, but to fall to their old employment? For then to preach or to Baptize in the name of Christ had been against that privacy of Christ which was for his present safety, till he by preaching abroad alone himself, had gotten footing in the hearts of the people. And for them to live idly, was neither for their advantage nor for their piety, and so till Christ call them again to a new employment, they follow their old: But after this call that they are to have now, they never return to make this a trade again. Peters fishing in Joh. 21. was more for a trial than for a trade, and rather in expectation of a second miracle in evidence of Christ's favor to him upon his recovery from his fall, (as here he had a miracle at his call) than in following his old vocation as his business.
. And he taught the People out of the Ship.
The living waters of the doctrine of the Gospel that had begun to stream at the Temple, Joh. 2. 14. (even on the South of the Altar, Ezek. 47. 1. for on that side was the market of Cattle, where Christ first began to show his zeal) are now come into the Sea: and that Prophesy of Ezekiel accomplished almost to the very letter. The Rabbins say, whither did these waters go? Into the Sea of Tiberias, and into the Sea of Sodom and into the Ocean, R. Sol. and Kimch. in loc. ex Tosapht. in Succah. compare Psal. 29. 3.
Vers. 6. They enclosed a great multitude of Fishes.
1. Here those creatures come in in homage to the second Adam, that had never come in so, to the first: See Gen. 2. 19. Birds and Beasts had come to him to receive their names, but so did not the fish, though they were also in his subjection. 2. Compare the case of Jonah and Simon bar Jonah here together: the one caught of a fish when he refused to Preach when he was sent, and the other catching fish, being now to be sent to Preach, and by that very thing encouraged to it. 3. Christ by this miracle did not only figure out unto them, the employment upon which he was now to enter them, to be fishers of men, as he himself applies it, but he also shows, how he can provide for them if they follow him, and how he will follow their endeavors in the Ministry with success.
Vers. 8. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
What? Peter on his knees to beg Christ from him? Spirit and Bride say Come, Revel. 22. 17. and Peter desire that he should Depart? So say the wicked, Job 22. 17, 18. but with affections as far different from Peters, as both their words do seem parallel and alike. He speaketh from amazement and fear, and considerancy of the Circumstances of the present occurrence. He was amazed at the great miracle, ver. 9. He was afraid at the visible appearance of so great power being so near him: and he considered that the miracle was wrought for his sake, and therefore in all humbleness he disclaims himself as most unfit to be so near Christ either in place or favor. Not that he was weary of him, but that he acknowledgeth himself unworthy of him; parallel to the words of the Centurion, Matth. 8. 8. Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.
Vers. 10. James and John the sons of Zebedee.
Concerning these four first called Disciples, the two sons of Jonah, and the two sons of Zabdi or Zebedee (for the names are the same) we may observe these things:
1. That Peter is ever named first in the Catalogue of the twelve Apostles, and the reason is, because he was first called to be an Apostle. It is true indeed, that Andrew and another not named, were Disciples and followed Christ before Peter did, Joh. 1. 36. but they then followed uncalled, and they followed only as Disciples, but now Christ cometh to call them, and to call them for Apostles, and Peter is first dealt withal in this call; Andrew indeed was in the Ship and in the call with him, and he saith to him that he should be a fisher of men, as well as to Peter, but the interchange of Discourse that was betwixt Christ and Peter (which Luke relateth) doth sufficiently intimate unto us, that in order Peter had the first call of the two.
2. James or Jacob is commonly called James the great, in distinction from James the son of Alpheus, who is called the less, not for any dignity or superiority of Apostleship that the one had above the other, but either because this James was the elder, or because he was first called, or because of the singular privacy that Christ admitted him to with himself, as he also did Peter and John, of which anon.
3. John is called the Disciple whom Jesus loved, Joh. 13. 23. who leaned in his bosom, to whom he committed his mother, and to whom he imparted the Revelation of the State of the Church till his second coming, as he had done the State of his Church till his first coming to Daniel a man greatly beloved also. Dan. 10. 11. The reason of this title is variously guessed, if anything in himself might procure that title, I should as soon as anything conceive it to be because he was Christ's first Disciple, as Peter was the first called Apostle: For whereas there is mention of two of Johns Disciples who first followed Jesus, and Andrew named for one of them, there is none so like to be the other as John himself who wrote the story, Joh. 1. 37. &c. And this may appear probable, not only from his partnership with Andrew in his fishing trade (and so might they go together to Johns Baptism) but also because he concealeth the name of that Disciple (whereas he mentioneth the names of all the rest) as he useth to conceal his own name generally throughout all his Gospel.
4. The name Andrew is used in the Jerusalem Talmud in Midd. per. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Andrew the son of Chinna saith in the name of Rabbi Zacchaeus, &c. The Andrew that we have in hand, was a Disciple with the first, Yoke-fellow with John in first following Christ, a Disciple before Peter, and a called Disciple before James and John; and yet which may seem somewhat strange, he is ever set after all of them, and in some particulars we find all the three privileged above him. There is none that hath read the Gospel, but he may observe, how Christ did sometimes put a singular respect upon Peter and James and John, not only above the rest of the Apostles who were called after them, but even above Andrew who was both a Disciple and an Apostle with the first. As when he went to raise up Jairus daughter, he suffered no man to follow him but Peter and James and John, Mark 5. 37. when he went to his transfiguration, he taketh only Peter and James and John, Matth. 17. 1. and when he went to his agony, he taketh only with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, Matth. 26. 37. And thus to these three only a part from all the rest did he show himself in his greatest power, glory, and combat: the reason of which may be supposed to have been twofold.
1. Because he had designed these three in a more singular manner, for the ministry of the Circumcision, James in Judea, Peter to the dispersion in the East, and John in the West: The Apostle in Gal. 2. 9. nameth James and Cephas and John together, as pillars and agents in such a ministration: where the James indeed that he mentioneth, was not the same that we have in hand, for he was James the less, but he was one that came into that place and ministration instead of James the great, when he was dead. For why should Herod in Act. 12. lay hands upon James the brother of John, and destroy him first, rather and sooner than any other of the Apostles, but because there was appearance of singular and peculiar activity of James in that place, in the ministration among the circumcised.
2. Because Christ had designed these three for martyrdom, and for the eminentest witnesses of him of all the rest. He readeth Peters doom to that purpose, Joh. 21. 18, 19. and so he doth to James and John, Matth. 20. 23. The martyrdom of James is recorded Act. 12. 2. and when he was thus taken a way, James the less came in his stead, as special Minister and Apostle to the Jews or Circumcision within their own Land. And hence it is that he is named first of the three, Gal. 2. 9. and that he is named with such peculiarity, Act. 15. 13. & 12. 17. & 21. 18. &c.
Peter after a long stay at Jerusalem and thereabout, was gotten at the last to the Eastern Babylon, the old place of Idolatry and persecution, but now a Church, 1 Pet. 5. 13. Although there were many thousands of Jews that returned again out of the Captivity of Babylon, under the Proclamation of Cyrus, yet were there exceeding many also that staid behind and returned not; insomuch that they came to have their Universities in Babylonia, and their public Schools and teachers there as well as in Judea; and were in a kind of a Common-wealth there as well as in their own Country. Among these Peter is sent as a Minister, and among these it is like he sealed his Ministry with his blood, see 2 Pet. 1. 13, 14.
We read of Johns being in the Isle Patmos, but further Westward we find him not in all the Scripture; where he ended his life and sealed the Gospel with his blood, it is hard to determine: Histories have brought him to Rome, in which it may be they have not missed the mark very much, had not some of them told wild stories of him there. It may be as both James's the Ministers of the Circumcision in Judea, were martyred at Jerusalem, so Peter the Minister of the Eastern dispersion was martyred in the Eastern Babylon, and John the Minister of the Western, in Babylon in the West.
What became of Zebedee the father of these two eminent Apostles, when his sons were called away from him, the Scripture is silent; It saith, his sons left him in the Ship with the hired servants, and followed the call that Christ had given them. It is not to be thought that they slighted their father when they left him; but only they complied with that employment that he that called them would put them upon, which their father possibly by reason of his age was unable to do. Nor can we think that they left their father in his Judaism and unbelief, or that he so continued: certain it is, their mother Salome was a constant and zealous follower of Christ, Matth. 26. 56. and we have no reason to think of any less faith or piety in Zebedee himself, only whether he followed Christ, as his sons and wife did, or followed still his lawful calling and employment, it is not revealed in Scripture, nor is it much material to inquire after. The name Zabdi or Zebedee, is a name that is exceeding frequent in mention among the Talmudicks.
SECTION XX.
St. MATTH. Chap. VIII. Vers. 14.
St. MARK Chap. 1. Vers. 21.
St. LUKE Chap. IV. Vers. 31.
Reason of the Order.
THE juncture of the two stories contained in this Section, is so clear from the transition of Mark and Luke from the one story to the other, that nothing needeth to be said more of that: and the subsequence of the former story of the two, to that that is contained in the former Section, namely about the calling of the Disciples is apparently enough proved, by the entrance of Mark into this story, when he saith, They, that is, Christ and his new called Disciples (as his method shows it is to be understood) entered into Capernaum, &c. which thing we had occasion to observe also, in the proof of the order of the former Section. All the difficulty therefore about the order of this is about Matthews placing the story of the healing of Peters Mother in law: He hath laid it after the Sermon in the Mount, after the healing of the Leper, and after the healing of the Centurions Servant, whereas it is evident enough by the other Evangelists, that it was before any of these whichsoever was first. But the reason of his order may be observed to be this. In chap. 4. 25. he had said that Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness: Here are two heads, that the Evangelist hath before him to insist upon, and to give the relation of, and these are the Doctrine of Christ and his miracles. He first beginneth with his doctrine, and so layeth down the Sermon in the Mount: and having done with that Doctrinal relation, he beginneth with the story of his miracles. And first he telleth of the healing of the Leper, which was the first miracle he wrought in his perambulation of Galilee: then he relateth the healing of the Centurions Servant, which was the first miracle he wrought after his Sermon in the Mount: and being in mention of Capernaum, where the Centurions Servant was healed, he also speaketh of other miracles done in the same Town, though not at the same time, and that was the healing of Peters mother in Law: and others that were brought to him, of several diseases: And this manner of Method, or flitting of stories, from their proper time and place, into other times and places of his Gospel, upon such like reasons and occasions, as this, we shall find to be no strange thing with Matthew, as we go along, but exceeding usual and very common.
Harmony and Explanation.
Mark 1. verse. 22. He taught as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.
THE Scribes of whom there is so frequent mention in the Gospel, were the learned of the Nation, that taught the People, and expounded the Law, Therefore he that in Matth. 22. 35. is styled a Lawyer, in Matth. 12. 28. is called a Scribe. And Pharisees and Doctors, Luke 5. v. 17. are called Pharisees and Scribes, ver. 21.
And in this sense doth the Chaldee Paraphrast very often use the word Scribe, to translate that that in the Original is a Prophet, meaning a Teacher, as Isaiah 9. 5. The Scribe that teacheth lies, he is the tail, 1 Sam. 10. 10, 11. A company of Scribes met him, &c. And when they saw that he was praising God among the Scribes, &c. They said, Is Saul also among the Scribes, &c. In this sense our Savior calleth some of his Ministers Scribes, Matth. 23. 34. that is, Teachers.
The distinction of the Scribes into several ranks, we shall observe within a few leaves: but take we them in what rank we will, or all of their ranks together, we shall find a vast difference betwixt the teaching of Christ, and the teaching of any or all these Scribes in these particulars.
1. The Scribes taught nothing but traditions; what this or that or the other Doctor or Sanhedrin in former time had taught and determined: what Hillel Shammai, Baba ben Bota, Rabban Simeon or Gamaliel, or others their great learned men, had asserted or denied, and how they had stated this and the other question, and how they had concluded in this or that resolution: so that their whole teaching was but traditions of their Fathers and learned predecessors, Gal. 1. 14. Mat. 15. 6. Hence are those Phrases and passages so common in their Talmuds 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a Tradition, and our Doctors have thus delivered 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wise men have thus determined, &c. that almost every line speaks such language. But our Savior taught in the evidence and demonstration of a Prophet, the sound and powerful and self-grounded word of God: And in that he doth so constantly avouch his own Authority, Verily verily I say unto you, and But I say unto you, &c. he doth not only assert his divine and oracular authority of delivering the truth, but he also faceth that common manner of teaching of theirs, which was pinned upon the sleeve of other men's traditions: And when he biddeth call no man Father (that is, Teacher) upon Earth, he crosseth that vain Divinity that they taught which was but the Traditions of their Fathers, that is their Doctors.
2. All the teaching of the Scribes was especially about external, carnal, and trivial rites, ceremonies and demeanors: as appeareth infinitely in their Talmudical Pandect, which was but hay, straw, stubble, nothing in comparison of the sound doctrines of Salvation. Hardly a word in all their Traditions that spake anything, but bodily and carnal matter, as he that shall read their Talmuds from end to end will find but little discourse but tending to such a purpose: And we need not to go far for a pattern of what kind of divinity it was that these great Doctors of the people taught, these places in the Gospel give copy enough, Matth. 15. 1, 2. & 23. 16, 18, 23, 25. John 18. 28. Acts 10. 28. Col. 2. 21. &c. But the tenor of Christ's teaching was the spiritual and soul-saving doctrine, of Faith, Repentance, Renovation, Charity, Self-denial, and such heavenly things as these, which by how much the more they had been strangers in the pulpits of the Scribes, and never heard of before, by so much the more, did they now take the people, with affecting and admiration, being delivered in power, and piercing and pressing upon the heart.
3. The teaching of the Scribes was litigious and in endless disputes, as Rom. 14. 1. 1 Tim. 6. 5. Their Doctors and Traditionaries, whom they took upon them to build upon, were of so many and so different minds, that they that followed them knew not what to follow: He that is never so little versed in the Talmuds, will easily see such experience in this matter, that he will find it readier to tell what those Doctors severally held, than to choose what to hold from them, if one would follow them. But our Savior taught one only constant and undivided truth, plain, convincing and so agreeing with the Doctrine of the Old Testament, that it was the same, but only in a brighter and a clearer garnish. The people therefore, in this great difference of teaching between their own Doctors and Christ would easily perceive an alteration: and by how much the more our Savior's doctrine was more spiritual, and speaking to the concernment of the Soul, and by how much more it was delivered in the demonstration of a divine power, by so much the more it could not but convine the hearers of its own value and dignity, and work in them an astonishment at so high and so powerful truths.
Vers. 23. And there was in their Synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, &c.
Here is the first place in the story of our Savior, where we meet with mention of any possessed or seised on bodily by the Devil, and therefore it will be something needful to speak a little in general concerning this case, of which we have very frequent example in the process of the Evangelical story.
I. It cannot but be observed how common this sad condition, of being possessed by the Devil, was in the time of our Savior's ministry and thereabout, above all the times of the Old Testament, and beyond any examples in any other Nation. See Mat. 4. 24. & 8. 28. & 9. 32. & 10. 8. & 12. 22. & 15. 22. & 17. 18. Mark 1. 39. & 3. 11. Luke 10. 17. Acts 10. 38. &c. Which whether it were, 1. In regard that the Spirit of Prophesy had been so long departed from them, as 1 Sam. 16. 14. Or 2. that the Lord would in justice confute by this dreadful experience, the cursed doctrine of the Sadducees that was now rife among them, that there was no spirit, Acts 23. 8. Or, 3. that he did evidence his great displeasure against the sinfulness and erroneousness of those times, which was now grown extreme by this visible delivery over of so many to the power of the father of sin and error. Or, 4. that he would by this doleful experience read to all men a Lecture what misery it is to be in the power and subjection of Satan, and so make them more intent to hearken after him, that was to break the head of the Serpent; or were it all these together. Certainly 5. it did highly redound to the honor of Christ, and to the magnifying of his divine power, and did mightily evidence that he was come the destroyer of the works of the Devil, when finding so very many that lay so visibly under his power, he enlarged them all, and brought them from under his force, and bound the strong one and he could not resist. And the same tendency to his glory had the like powerful working of his Apostles by derived virtue from himself, Mat. 10. 8. Luke 10. 17. Acts 8. 7. & 19. 12.
II. It is observable that we do not find that any were healed of this sad malady till Christ came and began the work. It is true indeed that David by the power of the Prophetick Spirit that was upon him, did calm the raging of Saul's evil Spirit when he grew turbulent, but neither did he nor any other at any time till now, cast either his or any other evil spirit out: You must give Josephus leave to tell his story of Solomon's skill which he left behind him, of driving out the Devil out of the possessed by applying a certain root unto his nostrils, Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. pag. apud me 230. as well as the Apocrypha of Tobit hath had leave a long time to tell of the Devil smoked away with the broiling of a fish liver, Tob. 8. 3. but you may easily smell them both, what sent and sense they carry with them.
As it was reserved for Christ utterly to break and bruise the head of the Devil, so was it reserved to him, to show this mastery first upon him, by casting him out where he had taken possession, and no man might nor could do it before him. I have observed in another place, that as the two first miracles wrought in the World, (which were turning a rod into a Serpent, and the Serpent into a Rod again; the hand into leprosy, and the leprosy into soundness again) did show the great power of him in whose power they were wrought, and did refer to the present occasion, which Moses was then going about: so did they more singularly refer to the miracles of Christ: To whom as it belonged to cast the Devil the old Serpent out of the Soul, and to heal the leprosy of sin, so to him was it reserved to cast the Devil out of the body, and to cure the leprosy of the body, and none did it, none could do it till he came; Elisha would not so much as touch Naaman in concurrency to this truth.
III. Those whom the Devil thus seized on bodily, we may distinguish into two sorts or ranks, 1. Those whom he possessed so, as to wrack and torture them, or to infect them with some disease, as Mark 5. 5. Luke 9. 39. & 13. 16. Mat. 12. 22. And 2. those whom he dwelt in bodily, to make them by false miracles and predictions, instruments of his seduction and delusion, as Acts 16. 16. and as Sibylla Cumaea is described by the Poet:
And a little after,
Now to be bodily possessed by the Devil, was the saddest earthly misery could befall a man: and therefore giving up to Satan was the highest punishment could be inflicted, 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. For how doleful a thing must it needs be reputed, 1. When that body which should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost, should become the very local cage, and bodily habitation of Satan. 2. When the Members were acted and used by the Devil, as if he had been the very soul that did animate the body. 3. When man's greatest enemy should so apparently dwell within him, and have such power over him. And 4. When he either carried the Devil, or the Devil him, or indeed both, whithersoever he went? Yet were there degrees of this misery, and the latter kind mentioned was the worse and the more grievous of the two, though it seemed not always so in appearance: for in the former possessedness it was possible that the Devil might not have seisure on the soul though he had of the body, as Mark 9. 21. But in the latter he had possession of both.
IV. Of this latter sort was this man in the Text, namely, a man possessed with a Spirit of divination, whom the Devil filled and acted, under the notion of an Enthusiast or Prophet to decieve the People. For 1. he is said by Mark to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In an unclean Spirit, as the words do properly signify, (whereas indeed the unclean spirit was in him) intimating that he was in the acting or a Prophetick rapture of the Devil, as true and holy Prophets indeed, in the actings and raptures of the Ghost, are to be in the Spirit, Rev. 1. 10. 2. Luke hath expressed it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , That he had the Spirit of the Devil: namely, in such a kind of sense, as on the contrary part, the Holy Prophets are said to have the Spirit of God, Dan. 4. 5, 6. &c. 3. Both the Evanglists do style the Spirit wherewith he was possessed, An unclean Spirit: which as in general it stands in direct opposition to the term, The Holy Spirit; so is it most properly and singularly applied to the Spirit of error and false teaching, Zech. 13. 2. Rev. 16. 13, 14. And 4. the words that the Devil uttered by the mouth of the possessed man, tend directly and only to deceive and to withdraw from Christ, as is apparent in their construction.
Vers. 24. Let us alone: what have we to do with thee? &c.
It is all one as to the sense of the words ensuing, be the first worn 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , taken either for an Adverb of grief and wonder, and a Greek expression of the Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or be it taken for a Verb, as the Syrian, Vulgar and our English take it, when they render it, Let alone: The scope of the man's words in the whole verse may be taken up in these observations.
1. That though indeed it were the Devil within the man that dictated the words to him, yet was it the man that uttered them, and the men of the Synagogue heard the man speaking. The Greek Syntax in the Text of the Evangelists, especially of St. Luke, maketh it plain.
2. When he useth the plural number, We and Us, (What have we to do with thee, art thou come to destroy us?) he speaketh of himself, and the rest of the men of the Synagogue with him: for that these words are not applicable to the Devils, which was but one in the possessed, needeth no more proof than what is in the verse itself, where when the Devil, or the man by instinct of the Devil speaketh of himself, he useth the singular number, I know thee.
3. When he proclaimeth Christ the holy one of God, (as he is styled, Psal. 16. 10. Dan. 9. 24. &c.) he neither doth it, as a voluntary confession of him, for that cannot be expected from the Devil; nor as a strained or forced confession, by the power of Christ, for Christ commands his silence, but it is such a confession and proclamation of Christ, as whereby he might make the men of the Synagogue afraid of him, and not daring to have to deal with him because of his dreadfulness. So high and dreadful things are spoken concerning the coming of Christ in the Scripture, as Mal. 3. 2. and so terrible apprehensions had the Jews, concerning the fatal destruction of some men to be made when Messias came, that the Devil by these taketh opportunity to affright the men of the Synagogue, with the presence of Christ among them, as if he were but come among them to destroy them: And he would dissuade them from the embracing of Christ by the terrors of Christ.
The Jews had such dreadful opinions as these about Christ's coming. In Sanhedr. per. Helek. fol. 97.
In the Generation when the son of David cometh (say they) scholars of the wise shall be rare, and as for the rest of the people, their eyes shall fail for sorrow and grief, and great afflictions, and sore decrees shall be so renewed, that before the first is ended, the second shall come.
In the week of years (Dan. 9. 24.) when the son of David shall come: The first year, that shall be fufilled, I rained upon one City and rained not upon another, (Amos 4.) The second year the arrows of famine shall fly abroad: The third year the famine shall be so great that men, women and children, yea good and godly men shall die, and the Law shall be forgotten by its Disciples: On the fourth year a kind of plenty, yet not plenty indeed: On the fifth year great plenty, and they shall eat and drink and rejoice, and the Law shall be restored to its scholars: On the sixth, voices or thunders: On the seventh, war, and in the end of the seventh the son of David cometh.
When the son of Dovid cometh, the Assembling places shall become slews, and Galilee shall be destroyed (note this for our present purpose) and Gablan shall be desolate, and the men of the border of Israel shall go from City to City, and the wisdom of the Scribes shall be abominated, and religious persons shall be scorned, and the faces of that generation shall be as dogs, (compare Philip 3. 2. Rev. 22. 15.) and truth shall be gone, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.
When the son of David cometh, young men shall revile the ancient, and the ancient, shall rise up before the young: and the daughter shall rise up against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law, and the faces of that generation shall be as the faces of dogs, and the son shall not be ashamed at (the reproof of) his Father. And Rabbi Isaac saith, the Son of David cometh not till all the Kingdom be turned to the opinion of the Sadducees. Thus the Talmud in the place cited: To which take this addition out of Massecheth derech arets zuta, When the son of David cometh Galilee shall be destroyed, and the men of Galilee shall go from City to City and shall not be pitied, Perek. 6.
From which dreadful conceptions about Christ's coming, espcially and singularly terrible to the Galileans, the Devil might very aptly frame his temptation and suggestion in a Galilean Synagogue when Christ was in it, to proclaim that Christ was there, and that so they were in danger to be destroyed.
Vers. 26. And when the unclean Spirit had torn him.
Not by making any gashes in his flesh, or any disjointing or dismembering of his body, for Luke saith, he hurt him not, but he wrung him with convulsions, cast him into the midst of the floor, made a horrid cry and so came out. And by that it was evident to all that were present, that the man was really possessed, but the strong one armed was cast out by a stronger power: And this maketh them not only to wonder at the thing done, but also to take special notice of the Doctrine which Christ had taught, as which was attested by so great a miracle: And upon this his fame spreads throughout all Galilee: For howsoever the other miracles that he had done, of turning water into wine, healing diseases, &c. were high and eminent and to be admired things, yet the casting out of Devils was so singular, and incomparable, and till now unheard of and unseen a work, that it is no wonder if this do erect the people into a high repute and expectation concerning him; and do exceedingly dilate his fame. Observe how our Savior himself argues that the Kingdom of God was come among them from this kind of miracle, Mat. 12. 28. and the wretched Pharisees had no way to evade the argument, but by a Devilish blasphemy, that Christ by one Devil cast out another.
Vers. 29. When they were come out of the Synagogue, &c.
Whether Christ went voluntarily into Peters house or were invited, and if invited, whether it were to meat, or to cure his mother in Law or both, it needeth not to stay us in the disquisition, nor is there any difficulty in this story that needeth unfolding: the chiefest scruple is, how Peter comes to be an Inhabitant of Capernaum, whereas he is said to be of Bethsaida, John 1. 44. whether it were for conveniency of his fishing Trade that he took an house there, or whether it were by the marriage of his wife, that he came to have interest and residence there, let them determine that will be curious about it.
There is that conceiveth Capernaum to have been a Town of a distinct condition from all the rest of Galilee, as being out of Herod's jurisdiction, which the rest of Galilee was under: and he supposeth that Christ's departing out of Nazareth into Capernaum, Mat. 4. was for this end, that he might get out of Herod's jurisdiction, into the immediate jurisdiction of the Romans, Sam. Petit. var. lect. lib. 2. cap. 1. But this conjecture is without ground, as might be shown even out of that Text, Matth. 4. which he layeth as his ground for it, being compared with Luke 4. About Peters wife, see 1 Cor. 9. 5. and whether his mother in Law being recovered of her disease, followed Christ afterward, as she ministered to him at the present, examine from Luke 8. 5. 6. When Peter and Andrew had left their fishing by which they maintained the family, there was no way but for the women to go along with them.
Vers. 32. And at Even when the Sun did set.
From hence is a plain demonstration, at what time the Jews began and ended their Sabbath, namely, from Sun-setting to Sun-setting, or from Even to Even. They held it a thing unsuitable for the day, for Christ to heal while the Sabbath lasted, Mark 3. 2. Luke 14. 1. yet now when the Sun is set they come without scruple with all their diseased.
It was commanded them from Even to Even to celebrate their Sabbath, Lev. 23. 32. which injunction, although it seem only affixed to the solemn day of expiation, and so is restrained only to that by some Christian writers, yet do the records of the Jews make it apparent, that they practiced accordingly in all their Sabbaths: Siphri a very ancient exposition, maketh this gloss upon that place. On the ninth day of the seventh month, he begins, and fasts whilst it is yet day, for so they add from the common to the holy time. And behold in all the Sabbatizing th •• e Sabbatizest, thou must add likewise: But Abarbinel far plainer: From Even to Even shall be your Sabbath: that is, Every Sabbatizing that you have: whether it be the Creation Sabbath or the set festivals, or Feast of Trumpets, or Expiation: they were from Even to Even, according to the course of the Creation, as it is said, The Evening and the Morning were the first day, &c. And these and the such like Talmudic Traditions as these following of which many more might be produced, do show their opinion and practice in this point, more clearly still: In the treatise Sabbath per. 1. they have these passages, They roast not Flesh, an Onion, or an Egg, but so as that they may be roasted, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilst it is yet day, viz. on the Eve of the Sabbath.
They set not anything in the Oven 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 towards night: nor a Cake upon the Coals, but so as that the upper side may be crusted 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilst it is yet day. The School of Shammai saith, they give not skins to the Currier, nor vessels to a washer, but so that they may be dispatched 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilst it is yet day; But in all these thing the Schools allowed the doing of them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 before Sun-setting: namely, as the gloss upon the place explains it, if the things were set or delivered for these ends before Sun-setting, it was current: as if Bread or Cakes were set in the oven or on the coals, before Sun-set, it was no violation of the Sabbath, though they stood baking when the Sabbath was come in: And so skins or vessels, if they were delivered before Sun-set, to the Skinner or Washer, it was not Sabbath breach if they lay soking in the tanpit or water on the Sabbath. And so Piske Sabbath explains it also, though by another example, It is lawful (saith it) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 near night, to put water to gums & copperas, to make ink, to put flax into an Oven to dry, to lay a net, or set a trap for a wild beast or vermin; It is lawful to do these things near night, though the efficacy of the things, (as the ink soaking, the flax drying, and the net catching) be on the Sabbath when it is come in.
Maymony in his tractate of the Sabbath per. 5. is yet plainer: On the Eve of the Sabbath they light up a candle: and he that lights it, must▪ do it whilst it is yet day before the Sun go down: From the Sun-setting till the appearing of three middling Stars, that space is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Between the Suns: and it is doubtful whither that space belong to the day or to the night: And therefore they light not up the candle in that time: And he that doth any work in that space, on the Eve of the Sabbath or at the going out of the Sabbath ignorantly, he is bound to bring a sin offering. And these Stars are not great Stars such as are seen by day, nor little Stars which are not seen but by night, but middling Stars between both: and when three such middling Stars can be seen it is night undoubtedly. Compare Nehem▪ 13. 19.
Vers. 34. And he suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him.
Christ healed all diseases with his touch, for Luke saith, he Laid his hands on everyone of them and • ealed them: but he cast out Devils with his Word, for so saith Matthew, He cast out the Spirits with his Word, and he prohibited them to speak a word, because they knew him: The expression in the Greek doth carry it indifferently: To speak because they knew him, or To speak that they knew him, and it is indifferent whether way it is translated, for the sense is the same: but the question is why Christ would not permit them to speak upon this reason. Some say, because they should not utter him before the time: Others because it was not fit the Devil should preach Christ: to which I cannot but add, what was spoken of before, namely that the people should not be terrified by the presence of Christ among them, as the Devil if he might have had liberty would have set it forth.
Matth. Chap. 8. Vers. 17. Which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, Himself took our infirmities, &c.
However the latter Jews would elude the Prophecy of that Chapter out of which this quotation is taken, viz. Isaiah 53. and would take it off from being applied to Christ, yet the ancient learned of the Nation in old time did so apply it, as may be perceived by the gloss of the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place, and by a remarkable passage in the Talmud: The Chaldee renders it thus: verse 4. Surely he shall pray for our sins, and our iniquities shall be pardoned for his sake, &c. Verse 5. He shall build the House of the Sanctuary, which was profaned, because of our sins, and given up for our transgressions, and by his doctrine, peace shall be multiplied upon us: and if we hearken to his words, our sins shall be pardoned to us. Verse 6. It pleaseth the Lord for his sake to pardon all our sins. Verse 8. He shall bring up our captivity from affliction and punishment, and the wonders that shall be done to us in his days who shall tell, &c. The Talmud likewise in the Treatise Sanhedrin hath this observable passage: What is the name of the Messias? &c. Some said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Leprous: according to that, Surely he hath born our Sicknesses, &c. And Messias sitteth in the gate of the City (Rome, as the Venetian Edition hath it) And by what token may he be known? He sitteth among the diseased poor, &c. Per. cheleck. fol. 98.
Now in this allegation and application of the Evangelist out of the Prophet there seemeth to be some hardness and impertinency upon these considerations: First because, the Prophet speaketh of Christ's taking human sicknesses upon himself, but the Evangelist applies it of taking away diseases from others. 2. He applieth that to bodily diseases, which the Prophet seemeth to understand of the diseass of the soul. And so Peter doth interpret it, 1 Pet. 2. 24. The Prophet speaketh of the time of Christ's Passion and what he then suffered of misery in himself: but the Evangelists apply it to the time of his actions, and what he then did for benefit to others.
Answer. It is true indeed that this application will appear so harsh, if all the Emphasis and stress of Esays speech, be laid upon the word Our, as it is most generally laid there: For it is commonly interpreted to this sense: He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but the sicknesses and sorrows that he bare were ours, and not properly his own, for he bare them for our sakes: Which construction is a most true, but not a full rendering of the Prophets meaning: for he intendeth also a further matter, which the Evangelist in his allegation doth apparently look upon, and that is this, viz. The concernment of Christ in our sicknesses and sorrows, and his power in reference unto them or concerning them: The Prophet when he saith, he bare our sicknesses, &c. meaneth not only, that what he bare was for our sakes, but that it concerned him and belonged to him to bear them, and he was able to bear them, and to deal with th •• . And this sense the Evangelist followeth in his quotation: when having recorded that Christ healed all the diseased that were brought unto him, he produceth this place of Isaiah, and saith, that in him was fulfilled that prediction concerning the Messias, which telleth that he was to deal and was able to deal with our infirmities and sicknesses: for so far do the words of the Prophet reach, and the application of the Evangelist so taken, is smooth and facile: And howsoever the Text of the Prophet do refer and intend more singularly to the time of Christ's passion, in regard of our sorrows and sicknesses being then chiefly upon him, yet is the sense given, applicable also to all his time, as that he had always to deal with our sicknesses and sorrows.
Now in that Peter applieth the Prophets Text to the diseases of the soul, when he utters it, He bare our sins, which is also the Translation of the Septuagint: he speaketh it in the highest and most proper sense, as regarding that diseasedness of which our Savior did especially come a healer, and which is the cause of all other diseases and sorrows whatsoever: and so he includes that which was the chiefest, but excludes not these. And as our Savior pronouncing forgiveness of sins to a Palsick man, whose story is ere long to follow, doth thereby heal also the sickness of the body, so the Apostle under term of bearing our sins, comprehended also the bearing our sicknesses: and his emphatical expression is worth observing, when he saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Who himself bare them: that is, himself, of his own willingness would take them upon him, and himself of his own power was able to undergo them.
Mark Chap. 1. Vers. 35. And in the morning rising up a great while before day, &c.
Although the Jews did precisely begin their natural day from Sunsetting, as hath been even now observed, yet did they also make the midnight a distinctive period, to part between day and day so, as to determine, rem diei, in diem suum.
Talmud in Beracoth. per. 1. From what time do they say over their Phylacteries at even? From the time that the Priests go in, to eat their portion of the Sacrifices, till the end of the first watch. R. Eliezer saith, But the wise men said, until Midnight.
Ibid. in Pesachin. per. 10. The Passover, after midnight defiles the hands.
Joma per. 1. & Maym. in Tamid. in per. 2. The cleansing of the Burnt-offering Altar on the day of expiation began from midnight.
Talm. in Zevachin. per. 5. Trespas offerings might be eaten till midnight.
Ibid. Lesser holy Offerings may be eaten till midnight.
Ibid. The Passover is not eaten but in the night, and it is not eaten but till midnight.
The meaning of which Passages is, that whereas these things were to be done today and might not be put off till tomorrow: if they were done any time before midnight, it was reputed and current as done today, as their Phylacteries were to be said over every day at Even: if they were said over before midnight it served turn for the day before: And the parts of the Offerings, that were to be eaten on the same day that the offering was offered, (and might not be kept till the morrow) if they were eaten any time before midnight of that day it did serve the turn. The burnt Offering Altar was to be cleansed every day, now on the day of expiation it began to be cleansed from the midnight before, and that was taken as on the expiation day.
These things have I produced the rather because of the passage in the Text before us, which calls it in the Morning, and yet saith it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , much of the night yet remaining: for as they reckoned up till midnight for the day that was past, so they reckoned from midnight for the morning to the day following. Were I to discuss the question about the beginning and ending of our Christian Sabbath, I should think this matter worth consideration to that purpose: And something parallel to this are those Texts, Exod. 12. 22. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning: Yet Vers. 29 At midnight the Lord smote the first-born, &c. Vers. 33. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the People that they might send them out. Deut. 16. 1. God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
Now this Morning on which the Text before us, tells us that Christ rose so very early and went out to pray, was on the morrow after the Sabbath, the day on which the Christian Sabbath was fixed, ere long, which may not be unobserved since so special a matter is mentioned of that day. The reason why he went into a solitary place to pray was, because the company so increased upon him because of the miracles that he wrought, that in the Town he could not be retired: When day light came, both his Disciples and the people, are abroad inquiring after him, and when they had found him, they would have detained him in those parts among them, but he will not be confined there but perambulates Galilee.
Reason of the Order.
THE juncture of the two stories contained in this Section, is so clear from the transition of Mark and Luke from the one story to the other, that nothing needeth to be said more of that: and the subsequence of the former story of the two, to that that is contained in the former Section, namely about the calling of the Disciples is apparently enough proved, by the entrance of Mark into this story, when he saith, They, that is, Christ and his new called Disciples (as his method shows it is to be understood) entered into Capernaum, &c. which thing we had occasion to observe also, in the proof of the order of the former Section. All the difficulty therefore about the order of this is about Matthews placing the story of the healing of Peters Mother in law: He hath laid it after the Sermon in the Mount, after the healing of the Leper, and after the healing of the Centurions Servant, whereas it is evident enough by the other Evangelists, that it was before any of these whichsoever was first. But the reason of his order may be observed to be this. In chap. 4. 25. he had said that Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness: Here are two heads, that the Evangelist hath before him to insist upon, and to give the relation of, and these are the Doctrine of Christ and his miracles. He first beginneth with his doctrine, and so layeth down the Sermon in the Mount: and having done with that Doctrinal relation, he beginneth with the story of his miracles. And first he telleth of the healing of the Leper, which was the first miracle he wrought in his perambulation of Galilee: then he relateth the healing of the Centurions Servant, which was the first miracle he wrought after his Sermon in the Mount: and being in mention of Capernaum, where the Centurions Servant was healed, he also speaketh of other miracles done in the same Town, though not at the same time, and that was the healing of Peters mother in Law: and others that were brought to him, of several diseases: And this manner of Method, or flitting of stories, from their proper time and place, into other times and places of his Gospel, upon such like reasons and occasions, as this, we shall find to be no strange thing with Matthew, as we go along, but exceeding usual and very common.
Harmony and Explanation.
Mark 1. verse. 22. He taught as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.
THE Scribes of whom there is so frequent mention in the Gospel, were the learned of the Nation, that taught the People, and expounded the Law, Therefore he that in Matth. 22. 35. is styled a Lawyer, in Matth. 12. 28. is called a Scribe. And Pharisees and Doctors, Luke 5. v. 17. are called Pharisees and Scribes, ver. 21.
And in this sense doth the Chaldee Paraphrast very often use the word Scribe, to translate that that in the Original is a Prophet, meaning a Teacher, as Isaiah 9. 5. The Scribe that teacheth lies, he is the tail, 1 Sam. 10. 10, 11. A company of Scribes met him, &c. And when they saw that he was praising God among the Scribes, &c. They said, Is Saul also among the Scribes, &c. In this sense our Savior calleth some of his Ministers Scribes, Matth. 23. 34. that is, Teachers.
The distinction of the Scribes into several ranks, we shall observe within a few leaves: but take we them in what rank we will, or all of their ranks together, we shall find a vast difference betwixt the teaching of Christ, and the teaching of any or all these Scribes in these particulars.
1. The Scribes taught nothing but traditions; what this or that or the other Doctor or Sanhedrin in former time had taught and determined: what Hillel Shammai, Baba ben Bota, Rabban Simeon or Gamaliel, or others their great learned men, had asserted or denied, and how they had stated this and the other question, and how they had concluded in this or that resolution: so that their whole teaching was but traditions of their Fathers and learned predecessors, Gal. 1. 14. Mat. 15. 6. Hence are those Phrases and passages so common in their Talmuds 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 It is a Tradition, and our Doctors have thus delivered 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wise men have thus determined, &c. that almost every line speaks such language. But our Savior taught in the evidence and demonstration of a Prophet, the sound and powerful and self-grounded word of God: And in that he doth so constantly avouch his own Authority, Verily verily I say unto you, and But I say unto you, &c. he doth not only assert his divine and oracular authority of delivering the truth, but he also faceth that common manner of teaching of theirs, which was pinned upon the sleeve of other men's traditions: And when he biddeth call no man Father (that is, Teacher) upon Earth, he crosseth that vain Divinity that they taught which was but the Traditions of their Fathers, that is their Doctors.
2. All the teaching of the Scribes was especially about external, carnal, and trivial rites, ceremonies and demeanors: as appeareth infinitely in their Talmudical Pandect, which was but hay, straw, stubble, nothing in comparison of the sound doctrines of Salvation. Hardly a word in all their Traditions that spake anything, but bodily and carnal matter, as he that shall read their Talmuds from end to end will find but little discourse but tending to such a purpose: And we need not to go far for a pattern of what kind of divinity it was that these great Doctors of the people taught, these places in the Gospel give copy enough, Matth. 15. 1, 2. & 23. 16, 18, 23, 25. John 18. 28. Acts 10. 28. Col. 2. 21. &c. But the tenor of Christ's teaching was the spiritual and soul-saving doctrine, of Faith, Repentance, Renovation, Charity, Self-denial, and such heavenly things as these, which by how much the more they had been strangers in the pulpits of the Scribes, and never heard of before, by so much the more, did they now take the people, with affecting and admiration, being delivered in power, and piercing and pressing upon the heart.
3. The teaching of the Scribes was litigious and in endless disputes, as Rom. 14. 1. 1 Tim. 6. 5. Their Doctors and Traditionaries, whom they took upon them to build upon, were of so many and so different minds, that they that followed them knew not what to follow: He that is never so little versed in the Talmuds, will easily see such experience in this matter, that he will find it readier to tell what those Doctors severally held, than to choose what to hold from them, if one would follow them. But our Savior taught one only constant and undivided truth, plain, convincing and so agreeing with the Doctrine of the Old Testament, that it was the same, but only in a brighter and a clearer garnish. The people therefore, in this great difference of teaching between their own Doctors and Christ would easily perceive an alteration: and by how much the more our Savior's doctrine was more spiritual, and speaking to the concernment of the Soul, and by how much more it was delivered in the demonstration of a divine power, by so much the more it could not but convine the hearers of its own value and dignity, and work in them an astonishment at so high and so powerful truths.
Vers. 23. And there was in their Synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, &c.
Here is the first place in the story of our Savior, where we meet with mention of any possessed or seised on bodily by the Devil, and therefore it will be something needful to speak a little in general concerning this case, of which we have very frequent example in the process of the Evangelical story.
I. It cannot but be observed how common this sad condition, of being possessed by the Devil, was in the time of our Savior's ministry and thereabout, above all the times of the Old Testament, and beyond any examples in any other Nation. See Mat. 4. 24. & 8. 28. & 9. 32. & 10. 8. & 12. 22. & 15. 22. & 17. 18. Mark 1. 39. & 3. 11. Luke 10. 17. Acts 10. 38. &c. Which whether it were, 1. In regard that the Spirit of Prophesy had been so long departed from them, as 1 Sam. 16. 14. Or 2. that the Lord would in justice confute by this dreadful experience, the cursed doctrine of the Sadducees that was now rife among them, that there was no spirit, Acts 23. 8. Or, 3. that he did evidence his great displeasure against the sinfulness and erroneousness of those times, which was now grown extreme by this visible delivery over of so many to the power of the father of sin and error. Or, 4. that he would by this doleful experience read to all men a Lecture what misery it is to be in the power and subjection of Satan, and so make them more intent to hearken after him, that was to break the head of the Serpent; or were it all these together. Certainly 5. it did highly redound to the honor of Christ, and to the magnifying of his divine power, and did mightily evidence that he was come the destroyer of the works of the Devil, when finding so very many that lay so visibly under his power, he enlarged them all, and brought them from under his force, and bound the strong one and he could not resist. And the same tendency to his glory had the like powerful working of his Apostles by derived virtue from himself, Mat. 10. 8. Luke 10. 17. Acts 8. 7. & 19. 12.
II. It is observable that we do not find that any were healed of this sad malady till Christ came and began the work. It is true indeed that David by the power of the Prophetick Spirit that was upon him, did calm the raging of Saul's evil Spirit when he grew turbulent, but neither did he nor any other at any time till now, cast either his or any other evil spirit out: You must give Josephus leave to tell his story of Solomon's skill which he left behind him, of driving out the Devil out of the possessed by applying a certain root unto his nostrils, Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 2. pag. apud me 230. as well as the Apocrypha of Tobit hath had leave a long time to tell of the Devil smoked away with the broiling of a fish liver, Tob. 8. 3. but you may easily smell them both, what sent and sense they carry with them.
As it was reserved for Christ utterly to break and bruise the head of the Devil, so was it reserved to him, to show this mastery first upon him, by casting him out where he had taken possession, and no man might nor could do it before him. I have observed in another place, that as the two first miracles wrought in the World, (which were turning a rod into a Serpent, and the Serpent into a Rod again; the hand into leprosy, and the leprosy into soundness again) did show the great power of him in whose power they were wrought, and did refer to the present occasion, which Moses was then going about: so did they more singularly refer to the miracles of Christ: To whom as it belonged to cast the Devil the old Serpent out of the Soul, and to heal the leprosy of sin, so to him was it reserved to cast the Devil out of the body, and to cure the leprosy of the body, and none did it, none could do it till he came; Elisha would not so much as touch Naaman in concurrency to this truth.
III. Those whom the Devil thus seized on bodily, we may distinguish into two sorts or ranks, 1. Those whom he possessed so, as to wrack and torture them, or to infect them with some disease, as Mark 5. 5. Luke 9. 39. & 13. 16. Mat. 12. 22. And 2. those whom he dwelt in bodily, to make them by false miracles and predictions, instruments of his seduction and delusion, as Acts 16. 16. and as Sibylla Cumaea is described by the Poet:
And a little after,
Now to be bodily possessed by the Devil, was the saddest earthly misery could befall a man: and therefore giving up to Satan was the highest punishment could be inflicted, 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. For how doleful a thing must it needs be reputed, 1. When that body which should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost, should become the very local cage, and bodily habitation of Satan. 2. When the Members were acted and used by the Devil, as if he had been the very soul that did animate the body. 3. When man's greatest enemy should so apparently dwell within him, and have such power over him. And 4. When he either carried the Devil, or the Devil him, or indeed both, whithersoever he went? Yet were there degrees of this misery, and the latter kind mentioned was the worse and the more grievous of the two, though it seemed not always so in appearance: for in the former possessedness it was possible that the Devil might not have seisure on the soul though he had of the body, as Mark 9. 21. But in the latter he had possession of both.
IV. Of this latter sort was this man in the Text, namely, a man possessed with a Spirit of divination, whom the Devil filled and acted, under the notion of an Enthusiast or Prophet to decieve the People. For 1. he is said by Mark to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , In an unclean Spirit, as the words do properly signify, (whereas indeed the unclean spirit was in him) intimating that he was in the acting or a Prophetick rapture of the Devil, as true and holy Prophets indeed, in the actings and raptures of the Ghost, are to be in the Spirit, Rev. 1. 10. 2. Luke hath expressed it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , That he had the Spirit of the Devil: namely, in such a kind of sense, as on the contrary part, the Holy Prophets are said to have the Spirit of God, Dan. 4. 5, 6. &c. 3. Both the Evanglists do style the Spirit wherewith he was possessed, An unclean Spirit: which as in general it stands in direct opposition to the term, The Holy Spirit; so is it most properly and singularly applied to the Spirit of error and false teaching, Zech. 13. 2. Rev. 16. 13, 14. And 4. the words that the Devil uttered by the mouth of the possessed man, tend directly and only to deceive and to withdraw from Christ, as is apparent in their construction.
Vers. 24. Let us alone: what have we to do with thee? &c.
It is all one as to the sense of the words ensuing, be the first worn 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , taken either for an Adverb of grief and wonder, and a Greek expression of the Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or be it taken for a Verb, as the Syrian, Vulgar and our English take it, when they render it, Let alone: The scope of the man's words in the whole verse may be taken up in these observations.
1. That though indeed it were the Devil within the man that dictated the words to him, yet was it the man that uttered them, and the men of the Synagogue heard the man speaking. The Greek Syntax in the Text of the Evangelists, especially of St. Luke, maketh it plain.
2. When he useth the plural number, We and Us, (What have we to do with thee, art thou come to destroy us?) he speaketh of himself, and the rest of the men of the Synagogue with him: for that these words are not applicable to the Devils, which was but one in the possessed, needeth no more proof than what is in the verse itself, where when the Devil, or the man by instinct of the Devil speaketh of himself, he useth the singular number, I know thee.
3. When he proclaimeth Christ the holy one of God, (as he is styled, Psal. 16. 10. Dan. 9. 24. &c.) he neither doth it, as a voluntary confession of him, for that cannot be expected from the Devil; nor as a strained or forced confession, by the power of Christ, for Christ commands his silence, but it is such a confession and proclamation of Christ, as whereby he might make the men of the Synagogue afraid of him, and not daring to have to deal with him because of his dreadfulness. So high and dreadful things are spoken concerning the coming of Christ in the Scripture, as Mal. 3. 2. and so terrible apprehensions had the Jews, concerning the fatal destruction of some men to be made when Messias came, that the Devil by these taketh opportunity to affright the men of the Synagogue, with the presence of Christ among them, as if he were but come among them to destroy them: And he would dissuade them from the embracing of Christ by the terrors of Christ.
The Jews had such dreadful opinions as these about Christ's coming. In Sanhedr. per. Helek. fol. 97.
In the Generation when the son of David cometh (say they) scholars of the wise shall be rare, and as for the rest of the people, their eyes shall fail for sorrow and grief, and great afflictions, and sore decrees shall be so renewed, that before the first is ended, the second shall come.
In the week of years (Dan. 9. 24.) when the son of David shall come: The first year, that shall be fufilled, I rained upon one City and rained not upon another, (Amos 4.) The second year the arrows of famine shall fly abroad: The third year the famine shall be so great that men, women and children, yea good and godly men shall die, and the Law shall be forgotten by its Disciples: On the fourth year a kind of plenty, yet not plenty indeed: On the fifth year great plenty, and they shall eat and drink and rejoice, and the Law shall be restored to its scholars: On the sixth, voices or thunders: On the seventh, war, and in the end of the seventh the son of David cometh.
When the son of Dovid cometh, the Assembling places shall become slews, and Galilee shall be destroyed (note this for our present purpose) and Gablan shall be desolate, and the men of the border of Israel shall go from City to City, and the wisdom of the Scribes shall be abominated, and religious persons shall be scorned, and the faces of that generation shall be as dogs, (compare Philip 3. 2. Rev. 22. 15.) and truth shall be gone, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.
When the son of David cometh, young men shall revile the ancient, and the ancient, shall rise up before the young: and the daughter shall rise up against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law, and the faces of that generation shall be as the faces of dogs, and the son shall not be ashamed at (the reproof of) his Father. And Rabbi Isaac saith, the Son of David cometh not till all the Kingdom be turned to the opinion of the Sadducees. Thus the Talmud in the place cited: To which take this addition out of Massecheth derech arets zuta, When the son of David cometh Galilee shall be destroyed, and the men of Galilee shall go from City to City and shall not be pitied, Perek. 6.
From which dreadful conceptions about Christ's coming, espcially and singularly terrible to the Galileans, the Devil might very aptly frame his temptation and suggestion in a Galilean Synagogue when Christ was in it, to proclaim that Christ was there, and that so they were in danger to be destroyed.
Vers. 26. And when the unclean Spirit had torn him.
Not by making any gashes in his flesh, or any disjointing or dismembering of his body, for Luke saith, he hurt him not, but he wrung him with convulsions, cast him into the midst of the floor, made a horrid cry and so came out. And by that it was evident to all that were present, that the man was really possessed, but the strong one armed was cast out by a stronger power: And this maketh them not only to wonder at the thing done, but also to take special notice of the Doctrine which Christ had taught, as which was attested by so great a miracle: And upon this his fame spreads throughout all Galilee: For howsoever the other miracles that he had done, of turning water into wine, healing diseases, &c. were high and eminent and to be admired things, yet the casting out of Devils was so singular, and incomparable, and till now unheard of and unseen a work, that it is no wonder if this do erect the people into a high repute and expectation concerning him; and do exceedingly dilate his fame. Observe how our Savior himself argues that the Kingdom of God was come among them from this kind of miracle, Mat. 12. 28. and the wretched Pharisees had no way to evade the argument, but by a Devilish blasphemy, that Christ by one Devil cast out another.
Vers. 29. When they were come out of the Synagogue, &c.
Whether Christ went voluntarily into Peters house or were invited, and if invited, whether it were to meat, or to cure his mother in Law or both, it needeth not to stay us in the disquisition, nor is there any difficulty in this story that needeth unfolding: the chiefest scruple is, how Peter comes to be an Inhabitant of Capernaum, whereas he is said to be of Bethsaida, John 1. 44. whether it were for conveniency of his fishing Trade that he took an house there, or whether it were by the marriage of his wife, that he came to have interest and residence there, let them determine that will be curious about it.
There is that conceiveth Capernaum to have been a Town of a distinct condition from all the rest of Galilee, as being out of Herod's jurisdiction, which the rest of Galilee was under: and he supposeth that Christ's departing out of Nazareth into Capernaum, Mat. 4. was for this end, that he might get out of Herod's jurisdiction, into the immediate jurisdiction of the Romans, Sam. Petit. var. lect. lib. 2. cap. 1. But this conjecture is without ground, as might be shown even out of that Text, Matth. 4. which he layeth as his ground for it, being compared with Luke 4. About Peters wife, see 1 Cor. 9. 5. and whether his mother in Law being recovered of her disease, followed Christ afterward, as she ministered to him at the present, examine from Luke 8. 5. 6. When Peter and Andrew had left their fishing by which they maintained the family, there was no way but for the women to go along with them.
Vers. 32. And at Even when the Sun did set.
From hence is a plain demonstration, at what time the Jews began and ended their Sabbath, namely, from Sun-setting to Sun-setting, or from Even to Even. They held it a thing unsuitable for the day, for Christ to heal while the Sabbath lasted, Mark 3. 2. Luke 14. 1. yet now when the Sun is set they come without scruple with all their diseased.
It was commanded them from Even to Even to celebrate their Sabbath, Lev. 23. 32. which injunction, although it seem only affixed to the solemn day of expiation, and so is restrained only to that by some Christian writers, yet do the records of the Jews make it apparent, that they practiced accordingly in all their Sabbaths: Siphri a very ancient exposition, maketh this gloss upon that place. On the ninth day of the seventh month, he begins, and fasts whilst it is yet day, for so they add from the common to the holy time. And behold in all the Sabbatizing th •• e Sabbatizest, thou must add likewise: But Abarbinel far plainer: From Even to Even shall be your Sabbath: that is, Every Sabbatizing that you have: whether it be the Creation Sabbath or the set festivals, or Feast of Trumpets, or Expiation: they were from Even to Even, according to the course of the Creation, as it is said, The Evening and the Morning were the first day, &c. And these and the such like Talmudic Traditions as these following of which many more might be produced, do show their opinion and practice in this point, more clearly still: In the treatise Sabbath per. 1. they have these passages, They roast not Flesh, an Onion, or an Egg, but so as that they may be roasted, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilst it is yet day, viz. on the Eve of the Sabbath.
They set not anything in the Oven 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 towards night: nor a Cake upon the Coals, but so as that the upper side may be crusted 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilst it is yet day. The School of Shammai saith, they give not skins to the Currier, nor vessels to a washer, but so that they may be dispatched 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whilst it is yet day; But in all these thing the Schools allowed the doing of them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 before Sun-setting: namely, as the gloss upon the place explains it, if the things were set or delivered for these ends before Sun-setting, it was current: as if Bread or Cakes were set in the oven or on the coals, before Sun-set, it was no violation of the Sabbath, though they stood baking when the Sabbath was come in: And so skins or vessels, if they were delivered before Sun-set, to the Skinner or Washer, it was not Sabbath breach if they lay soking in the tanpit or water on the Sabbath. And so Piske Sabbath explains it also, though by another example, It is lawful (saith it) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 near night, to put water to gums & copperas, to make ink, to put flax into an Oven to dry, to lay a net, or set a trap for a wild beast or vermin; It is lawful to do these things near night, though the efficacy of the things, (as the ink soaking, the flax drying, and the net catching) be on the Sabbath when it is come in.
Maymony in his tractate of the Sabbath per. 5. is yet plainer: On the Eve of the Sabbath they light up a candle: and he that lights it, must▪ do it whilst it is yet day before the Sun go down: From the Sun-setting till the appearing of three middling Stars, that space is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Between the Suns: and it is doubtful whither that space belong to the day or to the night: And therefore they light not up the candle in that time: And he that doth any work in that space, on the Eve of the Sabbath or at the going out of the Sabbath ignorantly, he is bound to bring a sin offering. And these Stars are not great Stars such as are seen by day, nor little Stars which are not seen but by night, but middling Stars between both: and when three such middling Stars can be seen it is night undoubtedly. Compare Nehem▪ 13. 19.
Vers. 34. And he suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him.
Christ healed all diseases with his touch, for Luke saith, he Laid his hands on everyone of them and • ealed them: but he cast out Devils with his Word, for so saith Matthew, He cast out the Spirits with his Word, and he prohibited them to speak a word, because they knew him: The expression in the Greek doth carry it indifferently: To speak because they knew him, or To speak that they knew him, and it is indifferent whether way it is translated, for the sense is the same: but the question is why Christ would not permit them to speak upon this reason. Some say, because they should not utter him before the time: Others because it was not fit the Devil should preach Christ: to which I cannot but add, what was spoken of before, namely that the people should not be terrified by the presence of Christ among them, as the Devil if he might have had liberty would have set it forth.
Matth. Chap. 8. Vers. 17. Which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, Himself took our infirmities, &c.
However the latter Jews would elude the Prophecy of that Chapter out of which this quotation is taken, viz. Isaiah 53. and would take it off from being applied to Christ, yet the ancient learned of the Nation in old time did so apply it, as may be perceived by the gloss of the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place, and by a remarkable passage in the Talmud: The Chaldee renders it thus: verse 4. Surely he shall pray for our sins, and our iniquities shall be pardoned for his sake, &c. Verse 5. He shall build the House of the Sanctuary, which was profaned, because of our sins, and given up for our transgressions, and by his doctrine, peace shall be multiplied upon us: and if we hearken to his words, our sins shall be pardoned to us. Verse 6. It pleaseth the Lord for his sake to pardon all our sins. Verse 8. He shall bring up our captivity from affliction and punishment, and the wonders that shall be done to us in his days who shall tell, &c. The Talmud likewise in the Treatise Sanhedrin hath this observable passage: What is the name of the Messias? &c. Some said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Leprous: according to that, Surely he hath born our Sicknesses, &c. And Messias sitteth in the gate of the City (Rome, as the Venetian Edition hath it) And by what token may he be known? He sitteth among the diseased poor, &c. Per. cheleck. fol. 98.
Now in this allegation and application of the Evangelist out of the Prophet there seemeth to be some hardness and impertinency upon these considerations: First because, the Prophet speaketh of Christ's taking human sicknesses upon himself, but the Evangelist applies it of taking away diseases from others. 2. He applieth that to bodily diseases, which the Prophet seemeth to understand of the diseass of the soul. And so Peter doth interpret it, 1 Pet. 2. 24. The Prophet speaketh of the time of Christ's Passion and what he then suffered of misery in himself: but the Evangelists apply it to the time of his actions, and what he then did for benefit to others.
Answer. It is true indeed that this application will appear so harsh, if all the Emphasis and stress of Esays speech, be laid upon the word Our, as it is most generally laid there: For it is commonly interpreted to this sense: He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but the sicknesses and sorrows that he bare were ours, and not properly his own, for he bare them for our sakes: Which construction is a most true, but not a full rendering of the Prophets meaning: for he intendeth also a further matter, which the Evangelist in his allegation doth apparently look upon, and that is this, viz. The concernment of Christ in our sicknesses and sorrows, and his power in reference unto them or concerning them: The Prophet when he saith, he bare our sicknesses, &c. meaneth not only, that what he bare was for our sakes, but that it concerned him and belonged to him to bear them, and he was able to bear them, and to deal with th •• . And this sense the Evangelist followeth in his quotation: when having recorded that Christ healed all the diseased that were brought unto him, he produceth this place of Isaiah, and saith, that in him was fulfilled that prediction concerning the Messias, which telleth that he was to deal and was able to deal with our infirmities and sicknesses: for so far do the words of the Prophet reach, and the application of the Evangelist so taken, is smooth and facile: And howsoever the Text of the Prophet do refer and intend more singularly to the time of Christ's passion, in regard of our sorrows and sicknesses being then chiefly upon him, yet is the sense given, applicable also to all his time, as that he had always to deal with our sicknesses and sorrows.
Now in that Peter applieth the Prophets Text to the diseases of the soul, when he utters it, He bare our sins, which is also the Translation of the Septuagint: he speaketh it in the highest and most proper sense, as regarding that diseasedness of which our Savior did especially come a healer, and which is the cause of all other diseases and sorrows whatsoever: and so he includes that which was the chiefest, but excludes not these. And as our Savior pronouncing forgiveness of sins to a Palsick man, whose story is ere long to follow, doth thereby heal also the sickness of the body, so the Apostle under term of bearing our sins, comprehended also the bearing our sicknesses: and his emphatical expression is worth observing, when he saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Who himself bare them: that is, himself, of his own willingness would take them upon him, and himself of his own power was able to undergo them.
Mark Chap. 1. Vers. 35. And in the morning rising up a great while before day, &c.
Although the Jews did precisely begin their natural day from Sunsetting, as hath been even now observed, yet did they also make the midnight a distinctive period, to part between day and day so, as to determine, rem diei, in diem suum.
Talmud in Beracoth. per. 1. From what time do they say over their Phylacteries at even? From the time that the Priests go in, to eat their portion of the Sacrifices, till the end of the first watch. R. Eliezer saith, But the wise men said, until Midnight.
Ibid. in Pesachin. per. 10. The Passover, after midnight defiles the hands.
Joma per. 1. & Maym. in Tamid. in per. 2. The cleansing of the Burnt-offering Altar on the day of expiation began from midnight.
Talm. in Zevachin. per. 5. Trespas offerings might be eaten till midnight.
Ibid. Lesser holy Offerings may be eaten till midnight.
Ibid. The Passover is not eaten but in the night, and it is not eaten but till midnight.
The meaning of which Passages is, that whereas these things were to be done today and might not be put off till tomorrow: if they were done any time before midnight, it was reputed and current as done today, as their Phylacteries were to be said over every day at Even: if they were said over before midnight it served turn for the day before: And the parts of the Offerings, that were to be eaten on the same day that the offering was offered, (and might not be kept till the morrow) if they were eaten any time before midnight of that day it did serve the turn. The burnt Offering Altar was to be cleansed every day, now on the day of expiation it began to be cleansed from the midnight before, and that was taken as on the expiation day.
These things have I produced the rather because of the passage in the Text before us, which calls it in the Morning, and yet saith it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , much of the night yet remaining: for as they reckoned up till midnight for the day that was past, so they reckoned from midnight for the morning to the day following. Were I to discuss the question about the beginning and ending of our Christian Sabbath, I should think this matter worth consideration to that purpose: And something parallel to this are those Texts, Exod. 12. 22. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning: Yet Vers. 29 At midnight the Lord smote the first-born, &c. Vers. 33. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the People that they might send them out. Deut. 16. 1. God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
Now this Morning on which the Text before us, tells us that Christ rose so very early and went out to pray, was on the morrow after the Sabbath, the day on which the Christian Sabbath was fixed, ere long, which may not be unobserved since so special a matter is mentioned of that day. The reason why he went into a solitary place to pray was, because the company so increased upon him because of the miracles that he wrought, that in the Town he could not be retired: When day light came, both his Disciples and the people, are abroad inquiring after him, and when they had found him, they would have detained him in those parts among them, but he will not be confined there but perambulates Galilee.
SECTION XXI.
S. MATTHEW. CHAP. IV. Vers. 23.
Reason of the Order.
THE first verse of this Section, laid to the last verse of the preceding, makes the connection and order undeniable and evident; There Christ being urged by the men of Capernaum to abide with them, will not be confined in his Ministry to that place, for he was sent to preach the Gospel in other Cities also, and so he went about all Galilee, teaching and preaching and healing all diseases: of which and of the fruit of which, this Section giveth account; as that his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought him all sick people, and great multitudes followed him.
Harmony and Explanation.
Vers. 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, &c.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Joseph. in vita sua: Apud me pag. 642.
There were two hundred and four Cities and Towns in Galilee: Into all and everyone of which, we cannot so properly hold that Jesus entered and preached, as that he chose to go into the most eminent and most convenient for his work, namely where he might preach unto the most people. And this is a second perambulation of Galilee that he made, and a far fuller than the first, mentioned Luke 4. 15. Then he had walked more alonely and without the company of his Disciples, but they are now constantly and ever with him: Then did he few or no miracles, but only preached, but now he doth exceeding many, and healeth all diseased that come unto him.
The diseases he healed are reduced to three kinds. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Diseases, as Blindness, Witheredness, Lameness, Fevers, Dropsies, &c. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Languishings, as Consumptions, Wastes, Fluxes, and such other, as carried not so much pain with them, as certain decaying of the body, and wasting away. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Tortures, or Wrackings, as Aches, Gouts, Convulsions, and such other maladies as were attended with grievous pain and tortures: And particularly three grievous maladies are named, Palsies, Lunacy, and possessedness by the Devil, the first of which expresseth the greatest debility of body, the second of mind, and the third the greatest misery of both that can be named: and they were all maladies naturally as incurable as any whatsoever.
His Doctrine is comprised under these two heads, Teaching and Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom: the former denoteth the more general tenor of his doctrine, as his explanation of the Law, Admonition, Exhortation and Reproof: and the latter betokeneth his proving that the long and much looked for Kingdom of Messias was now come, and his preaching the doctrines that particularly concerned that Kingdom.
Vers. 24. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick.
We shall the better understand what is meant by all Syria, if we look upon the next following verse, where mention is made of places out of which such multitudes followed Christ, as were drawn unto him by the fame that went of him, and especially if we observe that Region which was called Decapolis: which Pliny describeth thus, Jungitur ei (Judaeae) latere Syriae Decapolitana regio a numero oppidorum, in quo non omnes eandem observant. Plurimi tamen Damascum, & Opoton riguas amne Chrysorrhoa. Fertilem Philadelphiam, Raphanam, omnia in Arabiam recedentia. Scythopolin antea Nisam a Libero patre, sepulta ibi matre, Scythis deductis. Gadara Hieromiace praefluente & jam dictum Hippon Dion, Pellam aquis divitem, Galasam, Canatham. Intercursant cinguntque has urbes tetrarchiae regionum instar singulae, & in regna contribuuntur, Trachonitis, Paneas in qua Cesarea, cum supra dicto fonte Abila, Arca, Ampeloessa, lib. 5. cap. 18.
The Region of Decapolis joineth to Judea on the side of Syria: it was so called from the number of the (ten) Cities in it, about which all do not hold alike: But the most hold for Damascus, and Opotos, both watered by the River Chrysorrhoas: Fruitful Philadelphia, and Raphana, all lying towards Arabia. Schythopolis, so called from Scythians brought thither by Bacchus, where he buried his mother, but of old called Nisa. Gadara, by which Hieromiax runs, and so by that which is now called Hippon Dion, Pella bravely watered, Galasa, Canatha. Among and about these Cities there lie Tetrarchies everyone like whole Countries, and they are divided into Kingdoms, Trachonitis, Paneas, in which is Cesarea (Philippi) with the fountain Abila, Area, Ampeloessa, &c.
By all Syria therefore is meant all the Country of the Jews in its full extent both within and without Jordan, for as that was within the Jurisdiction of the Roman Governor of Syria, so was it ordinarily called by that name: and not only that, but all this large Region of Decapolis, which did expatiate far into Syria properly so called, and into some part of Arabia: So that here is a concourse of Heathens to Christ, as well as of Jews, even out of those Countries which had been the constant and bitter enemies of Israel: and this is the first coming in (and it is a remarkable one too) of abundance of Gentiles to our Savior: compare Zech. 9. 1, 2. upon which the Rabbins give this Gloss. Rabbi Benaja saith, Hadrach is Messu • s: Rabbi Josi the son of Durmaskith (or of a woman of Damascus) saith to him, How long wilt thou pervert the Scriptures to us? I call Heaven and Earth to witness, that I am of Damascus, and there is a place there which is called Hadrach. He saith to him, But I argue thus: And Damascus shall be his rest, for Jerusalem shall reach unto Damascus, as it is said, And his rest: now his rest is at Jerusalem, as it is said, This is my rest forever. He saith to him, But I argue thus: The City shall be built upon her heap. He saith to him, That meaneth that she shall not be moved out of her place. He saith to him, I argue further thus: And she shall be broad and of large compass exceedingly, for Jerusalem shall be exceeding broad, and enlarged on every side, as this fig-tree which is narrow below and broad above, and the gates of Jerusalem shall reach even to Damascus: and so it is said, Thy nose is as the Tower of Lebanon which looketh towards Damascus. For the eyes of man shall be towards the Lord, that is, The eyes of every man shall be towards the Lord, and not towards their Idols and Images: therefore the Land of Hadrach and Damascus and the rest of the places near to the Land of Israel, shall be as Tyre and Sidon, and Hamath, and the Cities of the Philistines, comprehended among the Cities of Judah, and they shall be of the faith of Israel, D. Chimch. & R. Sol. in loc.
The fame of Christ divulged in Syria, bringeth in many from thence to be healed of their diseases, and they also become Converts and follow him: so was the case about Elisha and Naaman. 2 King. 5. Now though Christ professeth to a Syrian woman that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, yet he refuseth not the lost sheep of the Gentiles when they seek to him: And though he seemeth to deny her request because she was a Heathen, yet that was rather to kindle her Faith, than to repel her Petition.
Reason of the Order.
THE first verse of this Section, laid to the last verse of the preceding, makes the connection and order undeniable and evident; There Christ being urged by the men of Capernaum to abide with them, will not be confined in his Ministry to that place, for he was sent to preach the Gospel in other Cities also, and so he went about all Galilee, teaching and preaching and healing all diseases: of which and of the fruit of which, this Section giveth account; as that his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought him all sick people, and great multitudes followed him.
Harmony and Explanation.
Vers. 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, &c.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Joseph. in vita sua: Apud me pag. 642.
There were two hundred and four Cities and Towns in Galilee: Into all and everyone of which, we cannot so properly hold that Jesus entered and preached, as that he chose to go into the most eminent and most convenient for his work, namely where he might preach unto the most people. And this is a second perambulation of Galilee that he made, and a far fuller than the first, mentioned Luke 4. 15. Then he had walked more alonely and without the company of his Disciples, but they are now constantly and ever with him: Then did he few or no miracles, but only preached, but now he doth exceeding many, and healeth all diseased that come unto him.
The diseases he healed are reduced to three kinds. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Diseases, as Blindness, Witheredness, Lameness, Fevers, Dropsies, &c. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Languishings, as Consumptions, Wastes, Fluxes, and such other, as carried not so much pain with them, as certain decaying of the body, and wasting away. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Tortures, or Wrackings, as Aches, Gouts, Convulsions, and such other maladies as were attended with grievous pain and tortures: And particularly three grievous maladies are named, Palsies, Lunacy, and possessedness by the Devil, the first of which expresseth the greatest debility of body, the second of mind, and the third the greatest misery of both that can be named: and they were all maladies naturally as incurable as any whatsoever.
His Doctrine is comprised under these two heads, Teaching and Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom: the former denoteth the more general tenor of his doctrine, as his explanation of the Law, Admonition, Exhortation and Reproof: and the latter betokeneth his proving that the long and much looked for Kingdom of Messias was now come, and his preaching the doctrines that particularly concerned that Kingdom.
Vers. 24. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick.
We shall the better understand what is meant by all Syria, if we look upon the next following verse, where mention is made of places out of which such multitudes followed Christ, as were drawn unto him by the fame that went of him, and especially if we observe that Region which was called Decapolis: which Pliny describeth thus, Jungitur ei (Judaeae) latere Syriae Decapolitana regio a numero oppidorum, in quo non omnes eandem observant. Plurimi tamen Damascum, & Opoton riguas amne Chrysorrhoa. Fertilem Philadelphiam, Raphanam, omnia in Arabiam recedentia. Scythopolin antea Nisam a Libero patre, sepulta ibi matre, Scythis deductis. Gadara Hieromiace praefluente & jam dictum Hippon Dion, Pellam aquis divitem, Galasam, Canatham. Intercursant cinguntque has urbes tetrarchiae regionum instar singulae, & in regna contribuuntur, Trachonitis, Paneas in qua Cesarea, cum supra dicto fonte Abila, Arca, Ampeloessa, lib. 5. cap. 18.
The Region of Decapolis joineth to Judea on the side of Syria: it was so called from the number of the (ten) Cities in it, about which all do not hold alike: But the most hold for Damascus, and Opotos, both watered by the River Chrysorrhoas: Fruitful Philadelphia, and Raphana, all lying towards Arabia. Schythopolis, so called from Scythians brought thither by Bacchus, where he buried his mother, but of old called Nisa. Gadara, by which Hieromiax runs, and so by that which is now called Hippon Dion, Pella bravely watered, Galasa, Canatha. Among and about these Cities there lie Tetrarchies everyone like whole Countries, and they are divided into Kingdoms, Trachonitis, Paneas, in which is Cesarea (Philippi) with the fountain Abila, Area, Ampeloessa, &c.
By all Syria therefore is meant all the Country of the Jews in its full extent both within and without Jordan, for as that was within the Jurisdiction of the Roman Governor of Syria, so was it ordinarily called by that name: and not only that, but all this large Region of Decapolis, which did expatiate far into Syria properly so called, and into some part of Arabia: So that here is a concourse of Heathens to Christ, as well as of Jews, even out of those Countries which had been the constant and bitter enemies of Israel: and this is the first coming in (and it is a remarkable one too) of abundance of Gentiles to our Savior: compare Zech. 9. 1, 2. upon which the Rabbins give this Gloss. Rabbi Benaja saith, Hadrach is Messu • s: Rabbi Josi the son of Durmaskith (or of a woman of Damascus) saith to him, How long wilt thou pervert the Scriptures to us? I call Heaven and Earth to witness, that I am of Damascus, and there is a place there which is called Hadrach. He saith to him, But I argue thus: And Damascus shall be his rest, for Jerusalem shall reach unto Damascus, as it is said, And his rest: now his rest is at Jerusalem, as it is said, This is my rest forever. He saith to him, But I argue thus: The City shall be built upon her heap. He saith to him, That meaneth that she shall not be moved out of her place. He saith to him, I argue further thus: And she shall be broad and of large compass exceedingly, for Jerusalem shall be exceeding broad, and enlarged on every side, as this fig-tree which is narrow below and broad above, and the gates of Jerusalem shall reach even to Damascus: and so it is said, Thy nose is as the Tower of Lebanon which looketh towards Damascus. For the eyes of man shall be towards the Lord, that is, The eyes of every man shall be towards the Lord, and not towards their Idols and Images: therefore the Land of Hadrach and Damascus and the rest of the places near to the Land of Israel, shall be as Tyre and Sidon, and Hamath, and the Cities of the Philistines, comprehended among the Cities of Judah, and they shall be of the faith of Israel, D. Chimch. & R. Sol. in loc.
The fame of Christ divulged in Syria, bringeth in many from thence to be healed of their diseases, and they also become Converts and follow him: so was the case about Elisha and Naaman. 2 King. 5. Now though Christ professeth to a Syrian woman that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, yet he refuseth not the lost sheep of the Gentiles when they seek to him: And though he seemeth to deny her request because she was a Heathen, yet that was rather to kindle her Faith, than to repel her Petition.
SECTION XXII.
St. MARK Chap. I. Vers. 40.
St. LUKE Chap. V. Vers. 12.
St. MATTH. Chap. VIII. Vers. 2.
Reason of the Order.
MARK and LUKE (especially the former,) are sureties for the continuance of this method and series, as it will be apparent to him that looketh into their Text. Only this difficulty lieth in the order of Luke, that he hath laid the calling of the Disciples after the perambulation of Galilee mentioned last, which (as hath been proved and seen) was some space before: For he concludeth his fourth Chapter with these words, And he preached in the Synagogues of Galilce: and he beginneth the fifth with the calling of Peter, and Andrew, James, and John. In which his aim may be conceived to have been not so much to show the time of these Disciples calling, as to show with what Disciples he walked through Galilee, when he thus preached thorough it: and intending to show you the men, he also showeth the manner of their call.
But Matthews misplacing of this story about the Leper, doth breed some scruple, and hath caused some to conjecture, that the Leper that he speaks of, is not the same with him which is mentioned by the other two: And they are confirmed in this conjecture the rather, because Matthew seemeth to have brought his Leper to Christ, as he came from the Sermon in the Mount, whereas he in the other Evangelists cometh to him before his Sermon there: for his Text runneth thus, When he was come down from the Mountain, great multitudes followed him, And behold there came a Leper, &c. where the word Behold, seemeth to confine and limit the Lepers coming, to Christ's descending from the Mountain where he had preached.
But 1. the posture of the Leper in all the three Evangelists is in a manner the same, which argues that all the three do speak of one and the same man; Matthew saith he worshipped Christ, Mark that he kneeled down to him, and Luke that he fell on his face before him: which in the different terms, intend not either a different man or gesture, but altogether do describe his humble demeanour to our Savior to the lowest abasement.
2. The words of the Leper are also the same in all the three, If thou wilt thou canst make me clean.
And 3. So are the words of Christ to him, both for the curing of him, I will, Be thou clean, and also for prohibiting him to publish what was done, and enjoining him to show himself unto the Priest: by which it is made even undeniable that all the three do speak of the very same Leper.
And as for the word Behold, which is used by Matthew, it pointeth at the thing and not at the time: and we may observe the like use of the words in Matth. 9. 2. where he that will but solidly weigh the time of the stories of the first and second verses, will easily perceive that that word Behold, is not so precise a pointer out of the stories time: as shall be shown also in the next Section.
Now the reason why Matthew hath laid this story after the Sermon in the Mount, is to be fetched from the fourth Chapter: where he first having related how Christ began to preach, and how he called his Disciples, he there recordeth how he went about all Galilee preaching the Gospel and healing diseases: and then according to the method in which he had mentioned Christ's actions in his perambulation of Galilee, that he first preached, and then healed, he first gives account of the doctrine that he taught, in Chap. 5. & 6. & 7. and then beginneth to mention the miracles that he wrought: whereof this about the Leper he nameth first, as indeed it was the first in that perambulation, that is specified by any of the Evangelists.
Harmony and Explanation.
Luke 5. verse. 12. When he was in a certain City, behold a man full of Leprosy, &c.
THE Talmudists do distinguish between a great City, a walled Town and a Village: In the Treatise Megillah (or about reading the book of Esther at the feast of Purim ) they have this saying, If the fourteenth day of Adar, prove to light on the second day of the week, Villages and great Cities read that book on that day, but walled Towns on the day after. Perek. 1.
Now what they mean by great Cities, they explain themselves, in the same Chapter afterward, namely, that was called a great City in which there were ten men to be the Elders of a Synagogue: every place that afforded not so many, was a Village: Into such Cities and even into the Synagogue of such a City a Leper might come: but under these conditions and limitations. Doth he come into the Synagogue, they make him a place apart, ten hand high and four cubits broad, and he comes in first and goes out last: Nagaim per. 13. But into Cities encompassed with walls, a Leper might not come, Maym. in Biath Mikdash per. 3.
Now such a City was this that is mentioned by the Evangelist: For the Gospel owneth only the distinction of Cities and Villages, under the latter name of Villages comprehending all Towns unwalled, were they big enough to have Synagogues in them, or were they not: and so it is said in Luke 8. 1. that Christ preached in every City and Village: by Villages understanding those places which had Synagogues in them.
So that it may move a question, how this Leper was admitted into the City, since such were prohibited access unto such places: some conceive he broke through all rules and bounds of modesty and order, and would not be kept out from coming to seek his recovery of Christ, who he knew was there: others imagine that Christ went out of the City to him; and such like answers are found out, which are needless to seek further after, since Luke himself hath shown the man's warrant to come in there, and hath given us an answer to the question, and that is in relating that he was full of Leprosy: and so hath resolved that he was clean and might come in. I know the Phrase is construed generally as if it signified only in opposition to a little Leprosy in the head or the beard only, or the like: but Leprosy was not regarded by a magis and minus, since the least was as unclean as the greatest, and did as entirely separate from society; save only it was not so very noisesome to the party himself. But the Evangelists expression when he saith, He was full of Leprosy, is only to that sense that these words of Moses are, Lev. 13. 12, 13. If the Leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the Leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the Plague, from his head even to his foot wheresoever the Priest looketh: then the Priest shall consider, and behold if the Leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the Plague, it is all turned white, he is clean.
This man therefore was full of Leprosy, that is, Leprous all over, had been under the censure of the Priest, and pronounced clean, and so was restored again to the society of men, and might come into any of their Cities; but the disease was not yet cured. I have observed elsewhere, that the Priests could not make a Leper whole, they could only pronounce him clean; and that sentence did nothing at all restore him to his health, but only restore him to the Congregation.
Such was the case of this man, the Priest had done for him as much as he could, he had pronounced him clean, but the poor wretch was as Leprous as ever, even scurvy all over, and like enough so to have continued: only the malady was so fully broken out, that the venom was wrought out, and his breath not infectious, and so he was restored to the converse of men again. His case thus stated, and his character of Full of Leprosy thus understood, it exceedingly cleareth the passages of his story afterward: As when he saith, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean; he meaneth, If thou wilt meddle with this disease which is the Priests peculiar to look unto, thou canst make me clean, for the Priest could only so pronounce me.
And when it is said, Jesus was moved with compassion towards him, it referreth to his visible sad case, who was Scurfie and Scabbed, a woeful creature all over, and who had had as much done to him as man could do, and yet was in this case still.
And when he chargeth him to tell no man, but go and show thyself to the Priest, he doth it because he would put no disgrace upon the Priesthood, but though he had meddled with something of their concernment, and had taken where they had left and done what they could not do, yet would he not vilify that order and ordinance, but reserve the honor due unto them; and maintain the judging of Leprosy unto them still, according to the institution that had assigned it to them. And this was one reason why he enjoined him silence, because he would not prejudice but maintain the honor of the Priesthood. And so his own words do construe it, when he bids him go show himself unto the the Priest: So also Luke 17. 14. And offer the gift which Moses commanded, this the man had done before, at the pronouncing of him clean, but must do it now again when he is made clean, that there may no derogation accrue to the Priesthood, and the Law about Leprosy, but both of them might have their due honor both from the man and from Christ himself: and this is meant also by the words, for a testimony unto them.
Mark 1. verse. 45. But he went out, and began to publish, &c.
He owned Christ for the Messias, as appeareth both by his words, and by his Gesture. He had seen the tokens of the Messias in him, when he so instantly removed his Leprosy with his word: He had received a most strict charge, to conceal the matter, and get him to the Priest with his offering: but for all this he begins to publish: Mark hath used two special words, to express the charge given him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He gave him a threatring c • arge, and suddenly pack • him away: Christ was so serious in his charge, because he would avoid the suspicion of slighting or undermining the Priesthood about their office which concerned Lepers, and would withal avoid the danger, which might accrue unto him upon such a suspicion: Now whether the man did not rightly apprehend the depth and strictness of this charge that was laid upon him, or if he did so apprehend it, was transported with blind zeal so as he would publish this great work, though he that had wrought it had commanded him silence: or whether his boundless joy for his happy cure did make him forget himself; certainly he is not excusable, who having received so great a benefit, from such a hand as he himself owned to be divine, yet was so careless to observe that command that he had received also with his healing. It was a rare cure that had been, to heal a Leper, (see 2 King. 5. 7.) and Christ had not healed any till this very time: therefore when this was published abroad, it would not only gather people under other diseases to Christ for their recovery (for they would conclude he could heal any when he could heal this) but it would cause Lepers to break into the City where he was, which was contrary to their Law and custom, and so would breed troubles and confusion, so that Jesus could no more openly enter into the City.
Luke 5. verse. 16. And he withdrew himself into the Wilderness and prayed.
When Christ is amongst men, he is doing them good, and when he is from amongst them, he is conversing with God: And otherwise he could not do, in regard of the holiness of his nature, love to man, and his Union with God. It was but a harsh time of the year for him to betake himself to seek retiredness in the desert, the winter being not yet over, but the zeal of the Lord's glory did so eat him up, that in company he preferred that before his safety, and in solitude he preferred that before accommodations: What was the matter and subject of his prayers particularly were boldness to go to define: It is undoubted, the general tenor of them was, for the advancement of God's glory and gathering of his Church, and prospering the work of himself for that end, as he showeth the subject of all his prayers, John 17. and it is like the present conflux and great concourse of people unto him was looked upon by him in his prayers as a singular occasion offered, in tendency to those purposes.
Reason of the Order.
MARK and LUKE (especially the former,) are sureties for the continuance of this method and series, as it will be apparent to him that looketh into their Text. Only this difficulty lieth in the order of Luke, that he hath laid the calling of the Disciples after the perambulation of Galilee mentioned last, which (as hath been proved and seen) was some space before: For he concludeth his fourth Chapter with these words, And he preached in the Synagogues of Galilce: and he beginneth the fifth with the calling of Peter, and Andrew, James, and John. In which his aim may be conceived to have been not so much to show the time of these Disciples calling, as to show with what Disciples he walked through Galilee, when he thus preached thorough it: and intending to show you the men, he also showeth the manner of their call.
But Matthews misplacing of this story about the Leper, doth breed some scruple, and hath caused some to conjecture, that the Leper that he speaks of, is not the same with him which is mentioned by the other two: And they are confirmed in this conjecture the rather, because Matthew seemeth to have brought his Leper to Christ, as he came from the Sermon in the Mount, whereas he in the other Evangelists cometh to him before his Sermon there: for his Text runneth thus, When he was come down from the Mountain, great multitudes followed him, And behold there came a Leper, &c. where the word Behold, seemeth to confine and limit the Lepers coming, to Christ's descending from the Mountain where he had preached.
But 1. the posture of the Leper in all the three Evangelists is in a manner the same, which argues that all the three do speak of one and the same man; Matthew saith he worshipped Christ, Mark that he kneeled down to him, and Luke that he fell on his face before him: which in the different terms, intend not either a different man or gesture, but altogether do describe his humble demeanour to our Savior to the lowest abasement.
2. The words of the Leper are also the same in all the three, If thou wilt thou canst make me clean.
And 3. So are the words of Christ to him, both for the curing of him, I will, Be thou clean, and also for prohibiting him to publish what was done, and enjoining him to show himself unto the Priest: by which it is made even undeniable that all the three do speak of the very same Leper.
And as for the word Behold, which is used by Matthew, it pointeth at the thing and not at the time: and we may observe the like use of the words in Matth. 9. 2. where he that will but solidly weigh the time of the stories of the first and second verses, will easily perceive that that word Behold, is not so precise a pointer out of the stories time: as shall be shown also in the next Section.
Now the reason why Matthew hath laid this story after the Sermon in the Mount, is to be fetched from the fourth Chapter: where he first having related how Christ began to preach, and how he called his Disciples, he there recordeth how he went about all Galilee preaching the Gospel and healing diseases: and then according to the method in which he had mentioned Christ's actions in his perambulation of Galilee, that he first preached, and then healed, he first gives account of the doctrine that he taught, in Chap. 5. & 6. & 7. and then beginneth to mention the miracles that he wrought: whereof this about the Leper he nameth first, as indeed it was the first in that perambulation, that is specified by any of the Evangelists.
Harmony and Explanation.
Luke 5. verse. 12. When he was in a certain City, behold a man full of Leprosy, &c.
THE Talmudists do distinguish between a great City, a walled Town and a Village: In the Treatise Megillah (or about reading the book of Esther at the feast of Purim ) they have this saying, If the fourteenth day of Adar, prove to light on the second day of the week, Villages and great Cities read that book on that day, but walled Towns on the day after. Perek. 1.
Now what they mean by great Cities, they explain themselves, in the same Chapter afterward, namely, that was called a great City in which there were ten men to be the Elders of a Synagogue: every place that afforded not so many, was a Village: Into such Cities and even into the Synagogue of such a City a Leper might come: but under these conditions and limitations. Doth he come into the Synagogue, they make him a place apart, ten hand high and four cubits broad, and he comes in first and goes out last: Nagaim per. 13. But into Cities encompassed with walls, a Leper might not come, Maym. in Biath Mikdash per. 3.
Now such a City was this that is mentioned by the Evangelist: For the Gospel owneth only the distinction of Cities and Villages, under the latter name of Villages comprehending all Towns unwalled, were they big enough to have Synagogues in them, or were they not: and so it is said in Luke 8. 1. that Christ preached in every City and Village: by Villages understanding those places which had Synagogues in them.
So that it may move a question, how this Leper was admitted into the City, since such were prohibited access unto such places: some conceive he broke through all rules and bounds of modesty and order, and would not be kept out from coming to seek his recovery of Christ, who he knew was there: others imagine that Christ went out of the City to him; and such like answers are found out, which are needless to seek further after, since Luke himself hath shown the man's warrant to come in there, and hath given us an answer to the question, and that is in relating that he was full of Leprosy: and so hath resolved that he was clean and might come in. I know the Phrase is construed generally as if it signified only in opposition to a little Leprosy in the head or the beard only, or the like: but Leprosy was not regarded by a magis and minus, since the least was as unclean as the greatest, and did as entirely separate from society; save only it was not so very noisesome to the party himself. But the Evangelists expression when he saith, He was full of Leprosy, is only to that sense that these words of Moses are, Lev. 13. 12, 13. If the Leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the Leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the Plague, from his head even to his foot wheresoever the Priest looketh: then the Priest shall consider, and behold if the Leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the Plague, it is all turned white, he is clean.
This man therefore was full of Leprosy, that is, Leprous all over, had been under the censure of the Priest, and pronounced clean, and so was restored again to the society of men, and might come into any of their Cities; but the disease was not yet cured. I have observed elsewhere, that the Priests could not make a Leper whole, they could only pronounce him clean; and that sentence did nothing at all restore him to his health, but only restore him to the Congregation.
Such was the case of this man, the Priest had done for him as much as he could, he had pronounced him clean, but the poor wretch was as Leprous as ever, even scurvy all over, and like enough so to have continued: only the malady was so fully broken out, that the venom was wrought out, and his breath not infectious, and so he was restored to the converse of men again. His case thus stated, and his character of Full of Leprosy thus understood, it exceedingly cleareth the passages of his story afterward: As when he saith, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean; he meaneth, If thou wilt meddle with this disease which is the Priests peculiar to look unto, thou canst make me clean, for the Priest could only so pronounce me.
And when it is said, Jesus was moved with compassion towards him, it referreth to his visible sad case, who was Scurfie and Scabbed, a woeful creature all over, and who had had as much done to him as man could do, and yet was in this case still.
And when he chargeth him to tell no man, but go and show thyself to the Priest, he doth it because he would put no disgrace upon the Priesthood, but though he had meddled with something of their concernment, and had taken where they had left and done what they could not do, yet would he not vilify that order and ordinance, but reserve the honor due unto them; and maintain the judging of Leprosy unto them still, according to the institution that had assigned it to them. And this was one reason why he enjoined him silence, because he would not prejudice but maintain the honor of the Priesthood. And so his own words do construe it, when he bids him go show himself unto the the Priest: So also Luke 17. 14. And offer the gift which Moses commanded, this the man had done before, at the pronouncing of him clean, but must do it now again when he is made clean, that there may no derogation accrue to the Priesthood, and the Law about Leprosy, but both of them might have their due honor both from the man and from Christ himself: and this is meant also by the words, for a testimony unto them.
Mark 1. verse. 45. But he went out, and began to publish, &c.
He owned Christ for the Messias, as appeareth both by his words, and by his Gesture. He had seen the tokens of the Messias in him, when he so instantly removed his Leprosy with his word: He had received a most strict charge, to conceal the matter, and get him to the Priest with his offering: but for all this he begins to publish: Mark hath used two special words, to express the charge given him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He gave him a threatring c • arge, and suddenly pack • him away: Christ was so serious in his charge, because he would avoid the suspicion of slighting or undermining the Priesthood about their office which concerned Lepers, and would withal avoid the danger, which might accrue unto him upon such a suspicion: Now whether the man did not rightly apprehend the depth and strictness of this charge that was laid upon him, or if he did so apprehend it, was transported with blind zeal so as he would publish this great work, though he that had wrought it had commanded him silence: or whether his boundless joy for his happy cure did make him forget himself; certainly he is not excusable, who having received so great a benefit, from such a hand as he himself owned to be divine, yet was so careless to observe that command that he had received also with his healing. It was a rare cure that had been, to heal a Leper, (see 2 King. 5. 7.) and Christ had not healed any till this very time: therefore when this was published abroad, it would not only gather people under other diseases to Christ for their recovery (for they would conclude he could heal any when he could heal this) but it would cause Lepers to break into the City where he was, which was contrary to their Law and custom, and so would breed troubles and confusion, so that Jesus could no more openly enter into the City.
Luke 5. verse. 16. And he withdrew himself into the Wilderness and prayed.
When Christ is amongst men, he is doing them good, and when he is from amongst them, he is conversing with God: And otherwise he could not do, in regard of the holiness of his nature, love to man, and his Union with God. It was but a harsh time of the year for him to betake himself to seek retiredness in the desert, the winter being not yet over, but the zeal of the Lord's glory did so eat him up, that in company he preferred that before his safety, and in solitude he preferred that before accommodations: What was the matter and subject of his prayers particularly were boldness to go to define: It is undoubted, the general tenor of them was, for the advancement of God's glory and gathering of his Church, and prospering the work of himself for that end, as he showeth the subject of all his prayers, John 17. and it is like the present conflux and great concourse of people unto him was looked upon by him in his prayers as a singular occasion offered, in tendency to those purposes.
SECTION XXIII.
St. MARK Chap. II.
St. LUKE Chap. V. Vers 17.
St. MATTH. Chap. IX. Vers. 2.
Reason of the Order.
THERE were no scruple at all about the series of this story, Mark and Luke have laid it so clear, were it not that Matthew hath brought it in a place so far different from them, that one would think in him, that this cure of the Palsy man was not till Christ's return out of the Country of the Gadarenes, for he relateth it thus. And, he entered into a ship, and passed over and came into his own City. And behold they brought to him a man sick of the Palsy, &c. As if the bringing of the sick of the Palsy were not till that time of his return, and that it was immediately upon it. But 1. the method of the other two Evangelists, who are far more punctual for order than he is, especially Mark, must state and rank the series of his story. For it may be easily observed by any that considerately will view the true progress of history in the three laid together, that Matthew setteth himself to give relation of the stories themselves, but is not so very precise in fixing them to their proper time. But Mark and Luke who wrote after him, have reduced those stories of his into the due order and method of time in which they were acted and came to pass: and so do, as it were, set his clock, and tell the time when his stories did occur. 2. We observed at the last Section, upon these words of Matthew, When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold there came a Leper, &c. that the word Behold doth not tie the two verses together in the same time, but that it singularly and only pointeth at that story to which it is prefixed, concerning the Leper, without looking back to the time of the story in the verse before: Such another behold is this, wherewith the same Evangelist beginneth this story in hand: Not that it tieth the bringing of the Palsick man, to the time of Christ's return out of the land of the Gadarenes, of which there is mention in the verse before, but it pointeth to the story, before which it is set, looking forward to that, and not backward, to the story in the verse before at all. 3. Now the reason why Matthew hath laid this story so far off, may readily be observed by looking into his Text in this ninth Chapter: He joineth this story about the Palsick man, and that about Levies or his own calling, and a third about his feast, and a fourth about Jairus coming to Christ, all together: But these were not all of the same time, only the two first were of the same time, and the two latter were also concurrent in time but a great while after. Yet he being minded to dispatch the story of his own call and of his Feast both together, as also the other two Evangelists do, he hath pitched all the stories upon the time of his Feast; His Feast indeed was presently upon Christ's return from among the Gadarenes, and Jairus his coming to him was at the time of that Feast, and so those are laid there in their proper time and order: Now though his Call was a long while before his Feast, yet to dispatch all that story of himself at once, he hath laid his Call also at the same place, and with it hath likewise joined the story of the Palsick man which was immediately before his Call. Why we have parted the story of his Call and his Feast which all the three Evangelists, that speak of them, have laid together, and why we have referred them to several times, we shall give the reason of it in the order of the next following Section.
Harmony and Explanation.
Luke 5. verse. 17. As he was teaching there were Pharisees and Doctors of the Law sitting, &c.
OUR Savior having walked and preached through Galilee for a good space, doth now near Passover time, betake himself to Capernaum to his own home again, that he might provide there for his journey to Jerusalem to the Feast: To Capernaum there had followed him, besides others that fell to him, in his Galilean perambulation, Pharisees, Scribes and Doctors of the Law, for all the three are mentioned by the three Evangelists in the relation of this story, and it will not be amiss, nor much besides our business to look a little distinctly what kind of men the Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law were, seeing there is so frequent mention of them in the Gospel.
§. 1. The distinction and division of the Jewish Nation.
For the proceeding in which inquiry, it may not be impertinent, in the first place, to look upon the division of the whole Nation of the Jews as it is held out very ordinarily and commonly in their own writers. And that was into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ The Scholars or Disciples of the wise, and The people of the land: or the learned sort of people, and unlearned: or those that were men of breeding, and that were not. Examples of this dichotomy might be produced by hundreds out of the Jewish Authors, I shall only offer these few.
Massecheth derech arets Zuta per. 4. The Scholars of the wise are comely in a society, but the people of the land are not comely in a society.
Juchasin fol. 22. Rabbi Akiba said, when I was of the people of the land, I said, Oh for a Scholar of the wise, how would I kiss him, &c.
Maym. in Talm. Torah. per. 4. Is there a matter of controversy between a Scholar of the wise and one of the People of the land? They adhere to the Scholar.
Idem. The Scholars of the wise might not eat in an Inn, nor in the streets, nor with the people of the land.
Idem. in Tephil. per. 12. A Priest of the people of the land readeth in the Synagogue before a great wise man an Israelite.
Id. in Talm. torah. per. 3. A bastard, if a Scholar of the Wise, is of more value than an High Priest of the People of the land. Where by a Priest and High Priest of the People of the land, he meaneth such as indeed was a true Priest or High Priest, but such a one as was unlearned. For, They called everyone that knew not the doctrine of the Law, The folk of the land, Elias Lev. in Tishb.
§. 2. The division and distinction of the learned of the Nation.
Thus was the first and general division of the Nation into learned and unlearned, men bred up in the study of Law, and men that were not: and to this division doth that speech of the