The Period of the Persian Monarchy, Chapter 11 – Chapter 12
CHAP. XI.
Chap. 8.1. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water-gate: and they spake unto Ezra the Scribe, to bring the Booke of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.HEre we see how forward the people were: they called upon Ezra; and Ezra thought it not much to be stirred up by the people to doe his duty. The winde of Gods spirit bloweth where it lifteth, and sometimes beginneth with the common people. The duty that they pressed Ezra unto, was a plaine Text, Deut. 33.10, 11. where God commanded in the feast of Tabernacles, that the Law should be read unto the people. Where the people have Scripture for it, they must say to Archippus, Doe thy dutie.
Ver. 8. So they read in the Booke in the Law of God distinctly, and gat… t…e sense, … caused them to understand the reading.The people were too many to be taught by one: and therefore they made sundry companies and congregations, and had many Doctors of the Law to teach them. Therefore it is said: [They read] in the Book. And having read, they gave the sense, and made the people to understand thereading. The meaning is, That by sNehem. 8.8.comparing places of the word of God, they did clearly expound to them the meaning.foreign i. e. …a…ant intelligenciam per ipsam Scripturam, They g…ve, the sense by the Scripture it selfe. foreign … testimoniis, by co…fe…ring of places. Aug. lib. q. 83. quaest. 69. tom. 4. Bretewood in his Enquiries, Chap. 9. Reading & expounding, or preaching, have used of old to goe together. So in the case of Philip and the Eunuch. And Act. 13.15. After the lecture of the Law & Prophets, the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them, saying: Men & brethren, if yee have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. We see more Scriptures were read than were presently expounded: yet when reading of the word was, there used to be expounding of some portion. Tis a poore conceit to say, That before the Captivity there was nothing but bare reading; but after, when the people had lost much of their Language and did hardly understand the Tongue, that then literall expounding came in by learned men that had the skill of the Tongue:As Schoolemasters doe, when they construe lessons to their boyes in Grammar Schooles. As though [giving of the sense] had bin nothing but a grammaticall interpretation of the word. Preaching is ancienter than so. Noah was a Preacher of righteousnesse: And Acts 15.21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him; seing he is read in the Synagogue every Sabbath day. Moses of old, (i. e.) from the first time,Vid. Syrum Paraphrastem. from the very beginning foreign. ab aetatibus antiquis. A phrase never used of the Ages, onelyonly since the Captivity. And that it is sayd, Moses, and not Moses and the Prophets, as Acts 13.15. it seemes to me to note the times of Moses Law before the Prophets were.
The word translated Reading, is uVid. Pagnin. Ion. 3.4.foreign which doth properly signifie an Assembly, or Convocation: and here the Scripture is named by that name, to shew us, That the holy Scripture ought to be read in the Congregation and Assembly.2. Chron. 17.9. Iehosaphat sent Levites and Priests, who taught in Iudah, and had the Booke of the Law of the Lord with them, and went about throughout all the Cities of Iudah, and taught the people. This teaching was our preaching, not only construing the words to the people; for in those dayes the cōmo… people had not lost any of the languag…, but vnderstood the Hebrew perfectly. Take it then for a truth, That before and after the Captivity, the Church of the Iewes had their Teachers who did expound and preach unto them the meaning of the Scriptures: And Ezra with the rest here are sayd to interpret, not the words, but the meaning. They gave the sense, that is, not the literall sense of the Hebrew words, which the Iewes understood full well, but the spirituall sense. I cannot beleeve that the Iewes in Captivity lost the use of their native Tongue; and I thinke it not credible, that the Iewes in the space of seventy years should so forget their native Tongue, they being a people so scrupulous as they were, to hauehave no more commerce with strangers than needs must. And lastly Haggai, Zachary and Malachy, who lived and wrote after the Captivity, did speake and write to the people in the pure Hebrew Language: Which they would not have done, but that the people understood the Language. The Hebrewes were in Egypt 220. in Chaldea but 70. In Egypt they were held to greater bondage lDaniel stiles the Chaldaean Monarchie Golden, by reason of the kinde and free usage the people of God found in their captivity there.than in Babylon; yet they brought with them the purity of the Language out of Egypt. What? kept it 220. yeares in Egypt and not 70. yeares in Babel?Daniel indeed hath a tincture of Chaldee writing in the Captivity, and hee being in Chaldaea.
CHAP. XII.
That is,Cap. 9.8. And foundest his heart, (i. e. Abrahams) faithfull before thee, and madest a Covenant with him. hee gave him a faithfull heart first, and then finds his heart faithfull, not by nature, but by grace; and makes a Covenant with him: So *Epist. 107.Augustine▪ Pravenit hominis voluntatem, nec eam cujusquam invenit in corde, sed facit. God doth at first, not find, but make our wills and hearts good. So Aquinas, yAquin. 1.2. q. 114. art. 5. ad. 2. Non …men ita quòd priùs dig…i fuerint, sed quia ipse per grat iam eos facit dignos: qui stolus pote facere mundum de immundo conceptum semine.God is sayd to give grace to the worthy: not that they are worthy before hee gives them grace; but because he by grace maketh them worthy: who onelyonly can cleanse that which is uncleane.
Hee then doth abuse plaine places of Scripture,Vers. 20. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them. who doth hold, that the spirit teacheth not, but stirs up motions to learne. It doth both. It followes not to inferre: that if wee say, the Spirit teacheth, we must grant Anabaptisticall Revelations. Did wee say, that the Spirit did teach by rote, without the booke, that were to joyne with the Anabaptists: but to hold that the Spirit teacheth by the word, is to speake with the Scripture, Ephes. 1.17. The Spirit is called the Spirit of Revelation in the knowledge of him. 1. Cor. 2.13. Which things also wee speake, not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth; but which the holy Ghost teacheth. That men pretend the Spirit, is no Argument against the teaching of the Spirit: for men doe as much pretend the Church, and doe father their fancies on the Church. As for inward teaching without the word wee leave that to the Anabaptists, and to the Papist, who doth affixe and appropriate an infallible teaching to the private spirit of the Pope ▪ Which spirit, the Papist in the Pope, and the Anabaptist in his Enthusiast, make the Standard of all truth, and superior to the word. But to say that the Spirit teacheth in and by the word, by zvid. Doughty, of Divine mysteries: p. 24. Inspirations (saith hee) examined by the touch of sacred writ, may be a rule: but I meane not new revelations, respectu doctrinae revelatae, but new, enlightning both the Organ, and Object.enlightening us, and casting a cleering light on the word also, is that which here we reade in Nehemiah, and hath gone for good and sound doctrine, till of late it hath beene otherwise taught without ground.