Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 22

Commentary on the Gospels and Acts · Commentary 1 · Chapter 22

p. 513CHAP. XXII.

Verse 1. Spake … again]

THat by one … he might peg in another. He had but a … to be with men, and see how he bestirs him. … is more swift and violent toward the end of it. It was as … to Christ to seek mens salvation, as it is to the devil to … their …: who therefore doth his utmost, because he … that he hath but a short time, Rev. 12. 12. his malevolence is … to his ….

Verse …. … unto a … King]

God is a great King, and … his …, Mal. 1. 8. will be served of the p. 514best, and curseth that cosener, that doth …, verse 14. He scorneth to drink the devils …, to take his leavings.

Verse 3. They would not come]

They proved Recusants, and this rendered them unworthy of eternall life, Act. 13. 46. Gods Ministers sent to call them, must turn them over to him, with a Non …, and let him deal with them.

Verse 4. Behold, I have prepared my dinner]

Luke calleth it a supper. The Kingdom of heaven is compared to both, to shew that the Saints do both dine and sup with Christ; … at his table continually, as … did at `Davids, yea they have, as … had, a continuall … from the King every day, a certain, all the … of their lives.

My Oxen and my fatlings are killed]

Gr. Are sacrificed: butforeign. … it is translated to common use, because even Heathen. Princes began their … feasts with sacrifices (which was craving a blessing on their food in their way) and for that men should come to a feast as to a Sacrifice, Adeò ut gulae … appetitus, as Novarinus here noteth.

Verse 5. But they made light of it]

Gods rich offers are still sleighted and vilipended: and most men turn their … upon those blessed and bleeding imbracements of his, as if heaven were not worth … after;

—Paris ut vivat regnet que beatus

Horat. …. 2.Cogi posse negat—

One to his farm, another to … merohandise]

Licitis perimus …; More die by meat then poison. Worldlinesse is a great let to faith, though men cannot be charged with any great covetousnes. See that ye shift not off him that speaketh to you from heaven, Heb. 12. ….

Verse 6. Intreated them spitefully, and slew … ]

This is that sinne that brings ruine without remedy, 2 Chron. 36. 16. Josiahs humiliation could not expiate Manasseh's bloud-shed. Our Popish Prelates in lesse then four years sacrific'd the lives of eight hundred innocents to their idols here in Queen … daies. That precious bloud doth yet cry to heaven for vengeance against us. And it was a pious motion that one made in a Sermon to this…. …. present Parliament, That there might be a day of publike humiliation, purposely set apart, and solemnly kept thorowout the Kingdom, p. 515for the innocent bloud shed … in those Marian daies of most abhorred memory.

Verse 7. But when the King … thereof]

And Kings have long ears, this King of heaven especially, Cui … muta …. — Ut taceant homines, jumenta loquentur. In case of the abuse of Gods …, a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter, Eccles. 10. 20. John Baptist was beheaded in the prison, as if God had known nothing of the matter, said that Martyr. But when he maketh inquisition for blouds (which he oft doth with great secrecy and severity) he … such to purpos, Ps 9 12. as he did …, …, Charles the ninth of France, Felix of …, and sundry other bloudy ….Flac, ….

Sent forth his Armies]

The Roman spoilers, who were the rod in Gods hand, and revenged the quarrell of his Covenant: … they thought not so, Isa. 10. 7. As in … bloud by leeches, the Physitian seeks the health of his patient, the leech only the filling of his gorge: So when God turns the wicked upon his people, he hath excellent ends, howbeit they think not so, butIsa. 10. 7.Isa 10:7 to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

Verse 8. They which were bidden were not worthy]

Who were then? Such as came from the high waies and hedges, vers. 9. that is, such as sit and shew their sores to God, as the cripples and others do by the high-way-side to every passenger, to move pitty. Such sensible sinners shall walk with Christ in white, for they are worthy.

Verse 9 Goe ye therefore to the high-waies]

Those sinners of the Gentiles, Gal 2. 15. who wandered in their own waies, Act. 14. 16. and were, till now, without God in the world, Ephes. 4. 18. These are those other husbandmen, to whom the housholder would let out his vineyard, chap. 21. 41, 43. which truth to illustrate this parable is purposely uttered, and principally as it may seem intended.

Verse 10. Both bad and good, &c.]

Such a mixture there ever hath been, and will be here in the Church. Doeg sets his foot as far within the Sanctnary, as David. There are sacrificing …, Isa. 1. 10. sinners in Sion, Isa. 33. 14. We cannot avoid the company of those from whom we shall be sure to carry guilt or grief.

Verse 11. And when the King came in to see]

He is in the assemblies p. 516of his Saints to observe their carriage, and to adde measure unto them in blessing, as they do to him in preparation: he goes down into his garden to see whether the vinc flourish, and the pomgranats bud, Cant. 6. 11. he … in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks, &c. Now therefore we are all here presentRevel. 1.Rev 1 before God, said …, Act. 10. 33.

Which had not … a wedding garment]

i. …. Christ apprehended by faith, … expressed in his vertues by holy life. Justificationforeign. and sanctification are the righteousnesses of the Saints, wherewith arraied, they are beautifull even to admiration: as withoutRevel. 19. 8.Rev 19:8 the which, Satan stood at the right hand of … the high Priest, because (as some will have it) his accusation was as true as vehement, so that Satan had the upper hand of him, tell such time as Christ bad, … the … garments from him; Zech. 3. 1.Zech 3:1there he pardoned his sin in heaven: and unto him he said, Behold, I have … iniquity to passe from …, and I will clothe … with change of …, There he pardoned it, in his own conscience also.

Verse 12. …, how camest? &c.]

Not wretch, …, …. Hard reproofs administred in soft language break the bones. See the Notes above on …. 20. 13.

Not … a …]

Is it fit to come to such a feast in thy worst? in the leathern coats, in the tottered rags and menstruous clouts of wretched old Adam?

And he was …]

He was muzzled or haltered up, that is,foreign Occlusum est illi os … & freno ac … animal …, ratione …. … in …. he held his peace, as though he had a bridle or a halter in his mouth. This is the import of the Greek word here used. He was foreign, self-condemned, Tit. 3. 11. and could not foreign, chat … God, Rom. 9. 20. as he used to do: he was gagg'd, … it were.

Verse 13. … him hand and foot]

He that comes in to Christs table without a wedding garment on his back, shall not go out without fetters on his feet. Neither shall it help him, that he hath eat and drunk in Christs presence. For his meat is sawced, and his drink spiced with that bitter wrath of God, Job …. …. He shall be taken as here, from the table to the tormenter. Lookforeign Plut. to it therefore, and come not hand over head. The very Heathens saw, and could say, That God was not to be served slightly or slubberingly, but with all possible preparation …; hand.

p. 517Verse 14. For many are called, &c.]

With … outward calling: but outward priviledges profit not, where the hidden man of the heart is not right, where the power and practice of … is wanting. Many a ship hath been called Safe guard, and …, which yet hath split upon the rocks, or fallen into the … of pirates.

Verse 15. Then went the … ]

They …, as one saith, … & repuncti, minimè … ad resipiscentiam compuncti. They were stung with the former parables, and grew more enraged. It is a … perswasion for any godly man to think, by any discretion … to still and escape the clamours and hates of wicked …: Christ himself could not do it.

How they … intangle him in his talk]

As beasts are in theforeign. … toil, or birds in the … net. Every man hunteth…. Piscator. …. à feris quibus …. tur … & …. Par. …. and Mon, sol. 1803. Ibid. 1116. his brother with a net, was an old complaint, Mica. 7. 2. And, They … a man an … for a …, and lay a … for … that … in the gate, &c. Isa. 29. 21. Doctour … rule to know an … was, They will say, The Lord, and, We praise God, and, The living God. So, The Lord, and not to say, … Lord, is called by Steven Gardiner, Symbolum …, the heretikes badge. But God will take these wisards in their own craft, 1 Cor. 3. 19. he will catch them in their own ….foreign, … & quasi …. Aret. he will over-shoot them in their own bow, he will take … handfull of them, so that they shall not make escape, as the word there signifies.

Verse 16. With the … ]

i. e. Such as were of … religion, as the Melchites, a kinde of mongrel-Christians in theNicephorus. …: so called of Melech, as one would say, Of the Kings …, because they followed the decrees and examples of the …. Some thinke these … were the same with the Publicans, or toll-takers (so Origen and Cyril) whom the Pharisees took with them to our Saviour, as if the one … tribute, the other refused to pay, and both came to our Saviour, as to an impartiall Judge, to end the quarrell, and decide the controversie.

Master, we know that thou art true, &c.]

Here's a fair glove, drawn upon a foul hand. Burning lips and a wicked heart … like a potsheard covered with silver drosse, Prov. 26. 23: There are those that will smile in your face, and at same time cut your throat. Squier, sent out of Spain to poison Q. Elizabeth, … p. 518the pummell of the Queens saddle with poison covertly, and as it…. 1598. were, doing something …, praying with a loud voice, God: save the Queen, &c.

That thou art true, and teachest the way of God]

These all are high commendations and necessary qualifications of a teacher and instructer of others. These Cony-catchers tell the truth of Christ (for he was all this that they say of him and more) and yet they tell a lie, because they thought him not so, but spoke against their consciences. They thought, belike, to have tickled and taken our Saviour with their flatteries (as every winde will blow up a bubble,) and so to have had what they would of him: But Christ was not for their turn. He was inadulabilis, unflatterable, and might better say then Politian did, Assentatiunculis quorundam, ant etiam obtrectationibus non magis attollor Ang. Polit. epist. l. 3. ep. 24.… deprimor, quàm umbra mei corporis. I am no more lifted up, nor cast down with mens … or slanders, then with the shadow of mine own body. For I think not my self … longer … shorter at morning, or at noon, because my shadow is so, &c.

Verse 17. Is it lawfull?]

They make it a case of conscience. … sanctity is double iniquity. Covetousnesse goes cloaked or coloured, 1. Thess. 2. 5. So doth malice … times: but God will wash off it's varnish with rivers of brimstone.

To give tribute]

foreign, a kinde of coyn proper to this purpose.Sands his Surv. The Jews paid then to the …, as now they do to the Pope, and other Princes of Italy, a yearly … for the very heads they wear. And yet how they brave it to our Saviour, and say, Joh. 8. 33. We were never in bondage to any man. And there is notAlst. Chronol p. 432. a more vain-glorious people this day under heaven, then the Jews, saith Alsted.

Verse 18. Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?]

Hypocrites pretend Nathaneel in the skin of a Nicodemus, saith one, of a … rather, who made fair weather for a while, … at length forsook Paul, and became an idolatrous Priest at Thessalonica, if Dorotheus may be believed. Jesus perceived these mens …, and detected it. So dealt Peter by … Magus. whom Philip took for a very honest man, and baptised him. All will out at length; Quod sis esse velis, … ….malis.

p. 519Verse 19. They brought unto him a peny]

Monachi pecunias attingere pro piaculo ducunt. No Cappucine among the Papists may take or touch silver. This mettall is as very … to these, as the wedge of gold to Achan; at the … whereof he starts back, as Moses from the Serpent. Yet he carries a boy with him thatD. Halls epist. …. 1, ep. 5. takes and carries it, and never complains of either mettall or measure.

Verse 20. Whose is this image, &c.]

Not that he knew not whose it was, but that he might refell them by their own answers, judge them out of their own mouth; and that the people (into whose hatred they thought by … captious question to draw him) might see that this was not more his, then the Pharisees own sentence.

Verse 21. Render therefore unto Casar]

Not Give, but Render: As who should say, Ye give him but what belongs to him; ye doe him but right, ye helpe him but to his own, and that which he … justly require of you, In … patrocinij & …, in lieu of his care toward you.

And unto God the things that are Gods.]

The Greek article isforeign. twice repeated, when he speaks of God more then when of …; to shew, saith one, that our speciall care should be to give God his due. For if Caesar will take to himself Gods part, by … that which is sinfull, to pay him such a tribute, … tributum Caesaris, sed servitium diaboli, saith Chrysostom, It is not a paying of tribute to Caesar, but a doing service to the devil. … non & animam nostram Dei imaginem soli …, …. Ens. Pandulf … l. 5. …. Neapol.saith one. Let God only have our soul, sith it bears his …. That was a witlesse and wicked speech of him, that said, … he had two souls in one body, the one for God, if he pleased, the otherUt eligeret ex … tribus unū, vel …, vel …, vel perpetuum …. &c. Hist. Gall for any one else that would. But that was a gallant … of the Prince of Condee, who being taken prisoner by Charles the ninth of France, and put to his choice whether he would go to Masse, or be put to death, or suffer perpetuall imprisonment? The former, said he, by Gods grace I will never do. … for the two later, let the King do with me what he …, I hope, will turn all to the best.

Verse 22. They marvelled and left him, and … their way.]

Demitto auriculas ut … ment … a …. Horat.With a flea in their ear, as we say. Confounded they were that they were so disappointed. Christ shaped them such an answer, p. 520as they could neither dislike nor digest. The … mans eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in …, …. 2. 14. Ad … properat, citò qui judicat. He that precipitates a …, shall soon see cause to repent him. How oft doth an open mouth prove a mans purgatory? We had great need therefore … a pair of balances betwixt our lips, left we be entangled in our talk. For,

Sis licet in partes …,

Nemo tamen …, nemo cavere potest.

Verse 23. The same day came to him the Sadduces]

… possunt …, … tamen caudae in face eadem …. Heretikes may differ as much from one another, as they all … from the truth. Both Pharisees and Sadduces can conspire against Christ, though they cannot consent among themselves. These Sadduces were a brutish sect and sort of Jews, that held many … opinions. Some of them are set down, Act 23. 8. DiversLib. 18. … cap. 2. & de Bel Iud l. 2. c. 7. other more grosse may be … of in …, who also … us, that they were but … of them, yet of the chief among the people. And no wonder: for even at this day Atheists … Epicures are rife; and among the great ones especially, who … think or … wish at least, there would be no resurrection, &c.

Verse 24. …, Moses said]

They pretend Scripture: so did the devil, Mat. 4. So do heretikes all; Sed sensum afferunt, …, but they fetch not the meaning from the Scripture, but … a sense (even that of their own devising) on the Scripture: Cadem … faciunt ad materiam …, saith …, They taw the text, as Shoemakers do their over-leathers, saith Polydor Virgil, that they may bring them to serve their …: They lay the dead childe of their own corrupt glosses in the bosom of holy Scripture, and then cry out, It is hers, and not ….

If a man die, having no children]

This Law these Sadduces…. … to approve, when indeed they … it, as the mother of much … confusion, if there ever be a resurrection. So deals the devil and his Janizaries (… I should say) at this day, by both Scriptures and Fathers, whom they … or …, further then they serve their turn, to confirm their ….

… up seed …]

Our children are a principall part p. 521of our selves, even the seed; as though now there were nothing left in us, but the chaff.

Verse 25. When he had married a wife, deceased.]

Thus they that will marry shall have trouble, I, and that in the flesh, wherein they haply promised themselves most comfort and contentment. How many are there that seek an happinesse here: and, when to enjoy it might seem an happinesse indeed, they die, and … all their thoughts perish. … we have in Alexander the great, Iulius Caesar, Tamberlain, who making great preparation for the Conquest of the Turkish Empire, died of an ague in… hist s. 236 the middest of his great hope, and greatest power. The like might be shewed of many learned men, that died, when they might have been most usefull, as Keckerman, Perkins, Preston, Pemble, young Drusius, &c. All our learning is soon refuted with one black Theta, which understanding us not, … us unrespectively without distinction, and putteth at once a period to our writing and to our being.

Verse 26. And third unto the seventh]

Happy it was, if seeing their brethren … so fast, themselves were warned to number their own daies, and provide for deaths coming. But this is not easily done; for we naturally dream of an immortality, Psal. 49. 11. and it is death to us to think of death, though we see so many daily die before us. It fareth with us for the most part, as with fatting Cattle. The Butcher comes to day, and fetcheth away one, to morrow and fetcheth away another, &c. The rest that are left behinde do neither mifse their fellows, nor dread their own destiny. So here, this is brutish stupidity, shake it off.

Verse 27. And last of all the woman, &c.]

It is … credible that one woman should out-live seven husbands. But grant she did, yet impartiall death, that had so oft-times cut … her head, … her heart at last. Death as an archer aiming at us, misseth us …, and hitteth haply some beyond us, some short of us, some on either hand of us; now our …, now our inferiours, now our equals, till at length we also are wounded; and the longer deaths hand is exercised, the more skilfull it grows. … Alsted Chronol.de Temporibus, who is said to have lived in France above 300. years, died at length: So did the old, old, the very old man, Anno 1635.

Verse 29. Ye do erre, not knowing]

Ignorance is a breeder. p. 522All sins are seminally … ignorance. S. Paul thanks it for all hisArist …. l. 3 Chem. …. …. …. …. 2. …, 1 Tim. 1. 13. Aristole makes it the mother of all the … in the world. All heresies, saith Chemnitius are known to have proceeded, Velex … velex … dialectica, velex AEtij foreign, from …, sophistry, or ignorance.

Nor the power of God]

Who can as easily raise the dead, as he did at first create them. This the … with all their learning, understood not: and therefore counted all that S. Paul could say toforeign. it bibble babble, because he preached Jesus, and Anastasis, or the resurrection, which they took to be some strange goddesse, Act. 17. 18, 19. They saw not how there could possibly be a regresse from a privation to an habit. Neither can any of us see it, … God by his spirit of revelation, give us to know what is the exceeding greatnes of his power, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in raising Christ, and us by him, Eph. 1. 19, 20. where it is easie to observe a six-fold gradation in the originall, and all to set forth the power of God, in Christs and our resurrection.

Verse 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry]

Therefore our condition then shall be better then that of Adams in paradise, where he had need of a meet help, Chenegdo, such another as himself, a second-self. S. Luke adds the reason, why men shall not marry in the resurrection, viz. They can die no more; and therefore need not marry for propogation of their kinde, and immortalizing of their name. Mahomet, as he professed that himself had a speciall licence given him by God to know what women he would, and to put them away when he would: so he promised to all his votaries and adherents the like carnallD. … on of Gods Attrib. Blounts voiage, p. 67. pleasures at the resurrection. Sensualists cast God and the things of God into a dishonourable mould: they rise not above their spring.

But are as the Angels of God]

Are, that is certainly shall be;foreign. yea, in their head Christ they are so already. For God hath even here raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ …, Ephes. 2. 6. And at the resurrection, the just shall shine as the Sun in heaven, nay, as the Son of God himself, with whom they shall appear in glory, as his Spouse, Uxor Phil. 3. ult.Phil 3fulget radiis mariti, is a maxime in law. Their vile bodies shall be conformed to his most glorious body, the standard in beauty, p. 523brightnesse, agility, immortality, &c. and other like unspeakable Angelicall qualities and perfections. Their … shall be … from all evil, fraught with all fulnesse both of grace and of glory.

Verse 31. Have ye not read]

In Moses, whose writings only they received, … the rest. And the superstitious Jews at this day are said in … to read two lessons, one out of the law, which is read by some chief person, another out of the Prophets, which is read by some boy or mean companion. For, savouring somewhat of these old Sadduces, they will in no sort do honour, neither attribute … that authority to any … of the Bible that they do to their …, which they do usually carry about their Synagogue… his surv. at the end of the service in procession, with many ornaments of Crowns and Scepters; the children kissing it, as it passeth by them.

Spoken unto you by God It is God that speaketh in the holy Scriptures: It is the expresse minde of God that is there set forth unto us. See my True treasure, p. 10 &c.

Verse 32. God is not the God of the dead]

That is, in the Sadduces sense, utterly dead and extinct for ever, but in S. Pauls sense, Rom. 14. 9. He is the God of the dead. For the dead bodies also of the faithfull, whiles they lie rotting in the grave, and resolved into dust, are united to Christ; by means whereof a substance is preserved, sinne only is … with it's concomitant infirmities. But the rotting of the body is but to refine it: it is but as the rotting of corn under the earth, 1 Cor. 15. 36. that it may … more glorious. Once, death to the Saints is neither totall, but of the body only; nor yet perpetuall, but for a time only. See both these together, Rom. 8. 10, 11. Further, from this verse we may learn, That there is a two fold knowledge to be gotten from holy Scriptures. 1. Expresse, I am the God of Abraham, &c. 2 By due deduction and firm inference, God is the God of the living.

Verse 33. They were astonished at his doctrine]

This was well: But S. Luke adds, that which was more strange. 1. That certain of the Scribes said, Master, … hast well said: No … hadLuk. 20 39, 40.Luke 20:39Luke 20:40 ever so much ingenuity. 2. That the Sadduces were thenceforth …, and … no more. … her … dare, quam turpitèr pugnare. Those Romish frogs the Jesuites will never have done, though neverAristoph. in Ranis. so much set down, but be still up with their hatefull Brekekekex. …-coax.

p. 524Verse 34. But when the Pharisees]

Nunquam bella bonis, nunquam certamina de sunt. Truth never wants an adversary. Christ had many conflicts all his life long, but most and sharpest at last cast. At death, Satan will muster up all his forces against a Christian: that last encounter is like to be the sharpest; as Israel in the wildernesse met with much hardship, but when they entered the Land, all the Kings of Canaan combined against them.

Verse 35. Then one of them which was a Lawyer]

Pareus gatherethAd liberandum igitur se …, partes disputan…i adversus cum … i uponi a …. out of Mark, chap. 12. 28. that this Lawyer was one of them, that had applauded Christ for his conquest over the Sadduces in the last conflict, Luk. 20. 39. and that, for a penance he was enjoyned by his fellow-Pharisees, to undertake this following disputation with Christ.

Tempting him and saying]

Saint Peter saith, They found no guile in his mouth, which implies that they sought it, 1 Pet. 2. 23. There are that hear us meerly to catch, cavill and quarrell.

Verse 36. Which is the great Commandment]

The Rabbins reckoned up 613. Commandments of the Law: and distinguished them into the greater, and the lesser. These later they thought might be neglected or violated with little or no guilt. The Romish Pharisees have also their veniall sins, their peccadillo's, as we know; but the Scripture makes all sin mortall and destructory. A little strange fire might seem a small matter, yet it was such a sin, as made all Israel guilty, as appears by the sacrifices offered for that sin. Levit. 16.

Verse 37. Thou shalt love the Lord]

God must be loved and honoured by us, foreign, saith one, truly, that there be no halting, and totally that there be no halving: he will not divide with the devil, as the Circassians are said to divide their whole life between rapine and religion. Gods service must be the totum hominis: Eccles. 12. 13. and the bonum hominis, Mic. 6. 8. We shouldBrcer. Enq. love him infinitely: which, because we cannot, we must love him unfeignedly: but how far short we come of loving him with all our heart, soul, strength, &c. (which yet the Papists affirm feisable) appears by our lives, which, do what we can, are fuller of sinnes, then the firmament is of starres, or the furnace of sparks.

Verse 38. This is the first and great Commandment]

In respect p. 525of order, quantity and dignity. The second table is fulfilled in the first, and Luther is bold to say, Primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur, In the first Commandment is commanded the keeping of all the rest. We rightly love our very selves no further then we love God: And for others, we are bound to love our friends in him, our foes for him.

Verse 39. And the second is like unto it]

For it hath, 1. The same author. God spake all these words. 2. The same tye. 3. The same sanction and punishment of the violation. 4. It requires the same kinde of love and service: for the love of our neighbour is the service of God.

Love thy neighbour as thy self]

Now, thou lovest thy self truly, really, fervently, freely, constantly, hiding thine own defects and deformities as much as may be. Thou wouldst have others rejoyce with thee and condole with thee, as occasion serves. Go thou now, and do likewise to others. Howbeit our Saviour strains us up a peg higher, Ioh. 13. 34. His new commandment of the Gospel is, that we love one another, not only as we love our selves, but as he loved us. This forme hath something in it that is more expresse (in which respect partly it is called a new commandment,) and for the incomparable sufficiency of the president is matchlesse, and more full of incitation to fire affection.

Verse 40. Hang all the Law and Prophets]

Yea and the Gospel too: for love is both the complement of the Law, and the supplement of the Gospel, Rom. 13. 10. Ioh. 13. 34. It is the filling foreign.up of the Law (as the word signifieth,) for that it clotheth the duties of the Law with the glory of a due manner, and seateth them upon their due subjects, with unwearied labours of constant well-doing. The Prophets also hang upon the same nail of loveforeign. with the Law, so some frame the Metaphor here used: As some others rather think, that our Saviour, in this expression alludeth to the Jewish Phylacteries, Heb. Totaphoth, which were scroules of parchment, having the Commandments written in them, which the Pharisees ware about their heads and arms, to minde them of obedience to the Law.

Verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered]

i.e. Before the former meeting was dissolved. We should watch for, and catch at all opportunities of working upon the worst. D^r Taylour preached every time he could get his people together, holy-day or else.

p. 526Verse 42. What think ye of Christ?]

Christus utram que paginam impleret. All our … should be, with those wise-men, … of Bethlehem, who is wrapped up, as it were, in the swathing-bands of both the ….

Whose son is he?]

They were curious in genealogies. A shame therefore it was for them, to be ignorant of Christs … and ….

They say unto him, the son of David]

Herein they said …, but not all: for they conceived no … of Christ, then as of a … man. Our Saviour therefore takes a text, out of Psal. 110. and … them of his …. … must be well versed in … mystery of Christ, and neglect nothing … to be … by us.

Verse 43. How then doth David in spirit]

The spirit … Davia … a sort, and by his mouth … what he would publish to the Church, concerning the Godhead of Christ. Holy … spake of old as they … acted by the holy Ghost, as theyforeign were forcibly moved, or born away, and as it were, carried out…. …. …. of themselves by the holy Ghost.

Verse 44. The Lord said unto my Lord]

God the Father to God the Sonne, these two differ no otherwise, then that the one is the Father, and not the Sonne, the other is the Son and not the Father.

Sit thou on my right hand]

As my fellow and coaequal, Zach. 13. 7. Philip. 2. 6. And as Christ is at the right hand of his Father, so is the Church at the right hand of Christ, Psalm 45. 9. which is a place both of greatest dignity and safety.

Verse 45. Lord, how is he his Sonne?]

This is that great mystery of Godlinesse, which Angels intently look into, as the … did of old into the Mercy-seat. That Christ should1 …. 1. 12. be Davids Lord and Davids son, God and man in one person, this … that wonder of wonders: well might his name be …, Isa. 9 6.

Verse 46. And no man was able to answer]

Though they were subtile sophisters, and mighty in the Scriptures, yet they had nothing to oppose. Magna est veritas, & valebit. Great is the truth, and shall prevail.

Neither durst any man, &c.]

How easily can God button up the mouths of our …, yea and plead for us in their p. 527consciences, as he did for Mr Bradford and many more of the Martyrs, whom as they could not outreason, so neither could they but conceive well of the Martyrs innocency, triumphing in their persecutours consciences.