Thomas Goodwin

“ These places of Refuge, appointed by God, differed from those of Hercules, and Romulus, and other Heathens; because God allowed safety only to those, who were guiltless in respect of their intention: but the others were common Sanctuaries, as well for the guilty as the guiltless. If any man did fortuitously or by chance kill another man, in such a case liberty was granted unto the offender to fly; at first, unto the Altar for refuge, as is implied by that text of Scripture, If any man come presumptuously unto his Neighbour, to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine Altar, Exod. ”

“ If any shall here object, that I seem to make the blessed Sacrament of our Lords Body and Blood, a Jewish Ceremony; I answer, no: For as a kind of initiatory purification by water, was used before by the Jews of old, and no Proselite was admitted into the Church of the Jews, without this purification: yet it was no more a Sacrament to them, than Circumcision was to Turks and Saracens. Thus, neither was breaking the bread Sacramental to the Jew, but then it became a Sacrament, when Christ said of it; This [93] is my body. ”

“ Whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. And it is very remarkable, that when Moses his child was uncircumcised, the Lord sought to kill Moses: which as it intimated the punishment of this fault to be a bodily death so it clearly evinceth, that not the child till he cometh to years of discretion, but the parents were liable to punishment. ”

“ As if the Apostle did wound those superstitious Corinthians with their own quills, and prove the Resurrection of the dead from their own erroneous practice, telling them in effect, that their superstitious custome of baptizing the living for the dead, were vain and bootless, if there were no resurrection, and therefore the Apostle useth an emphatical distinction of the persons, in the next immediate verse, saying, why are we also in jeopardy every hour? ”

“ The Sun and Moon, which are the greater lights in the Heaven, I take to have been the chiefest Idols worshipped by the Heathen people. Notwithstanding, their blind devotion deified also the other Planets, and that numberless number of lesser lights, called in Scripture, Militia Cœli, The Host of Heaven, whose several natures, properties and influences, are not distinctly known. In like manner there is an Host of Idols mentioned in Holy Writ, of whom little or nothing is spoken to the purpose by Authors, more than their very names. ”

“ When the Israelites came out of Ægypt, Moses was commanded to build a Tabernacle for the place of Gods publick worship. Afterward, when they were settled in the promised Land, then Solomon was commanded to build a Temple.
These two shadowed the difference between the Jews Synagogue, and the Christian Church. The Tabernacle was moveable, and but for a time: The Temple fixed, and permanent: the state of the Jews vanishing, to continue in their generations; the state of Christians durable, to continue unto the worlds end. ”

“ I will judge thee after the manner of them that are Harlots, saith the Lord, Ezek. 16. 38. And in the fortieth verse the judgment is named, They shall stone thee with stones: likewise the Scribes and Pharisees said unto Christ, Moses in the Law commanded us, that such should be stoned, John 8.
Before we treat in particular of these four punishments it may be questioned, Whether the Jews had any power to judge of life and death, at that time when they crucified our blessed Saviour? The Jews said to Pilate, Is it not lawful for us to put any man to death; Joh. 18. ”

“ Gather unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel, whom thou knowest that they are the Elders of the people, the Governours over them, and bring them unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and let them stand there with thee. From the latter words of this Text, it is observed, that there were seventy besides Moses; and therefore after his decease they alwaies chose one chief Judge in his room, not reckoning him among the seventy; they called him Nasi, the Prince or chief over the seventy. ”

“ If my present labour shall give such light to some obscure passages, that thereby Gods people shall be drawn on with the greater delight, to the exercising themselves in reading of Holy Writ, it shall not repent me of my tedious travels in these Rites and Customes, of Generations long since past; which whosoever undertaketh, shall find the way long and thorny, the path over-grown and hardly disernable; the Guides few to direct, and those speaking in strange Languages; and many apt to discourage him, because themselves are either lazy, and will not, or lame and cannot walk the same way. ”

“ Secondly, The Samaritanes allowed no commerce with the Jews, John 4. 9. yea, the mutual hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews was so great, that it was not lawful for the Jews to eat or drink with the Samaritans. How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria, Joh. 4. 9. Nay, whereas liberty was granted unto all Nations of the earth to become Proselites to the Jewes, so did the Jews hate the Samaritanes, that they would not suffer a Samaritan to be a Prosylite. ”

“ And all the Provincial Governours in these several Societies, had one chief [21] Master residing at Rome, unto whom the other subordinate Governours gave up their accounts. These Publicans were hated in all Provinces, because of their exactions; but chiefly in the Commonwealth of the Jews, because though it were chiefly maintained by the Galileans, yet it was generally inclined unto by the Jews, That tribute ought not to be payed by them: this hatred is confirmed by that Rabbinical proverb, [22] Take not a Wife out of that family wherein there is a Publican, for such are all Publicans. ”

“ He that whispereth over a wound, or readeth a verse out of the Bible, likewise he that readeth over an Infant, that it may not be frighted, or that layeth the book of the Law, or the Phylacteries upon a child that it may sleep, such are not only among Inchanters, or Charmers, but of those that generally deny the law of God, because they make the word of the Scripture medicine for the body, whereas they are not, but medicine for the soul. ”

“ As those forementioned Idolatrous names were nothing else but so many depravations of the name Jehovah: so the Original of many other ensuing kinds of Idolatry proceeded at first from a misconstruction of Scripture. They have learned by Tradition, that the Sun, Moon, and Stars, had a kind of Lordship and rule over day and night, times and seasons: Hence the superstitious ignorance of those people Deified those lights of Heaven, and worshipped them as gods. ”

“ Hence Jupiter was called by the Phœnicians, Baal-samen, which name is derived from the Hebrew, and soundeth as much as Jupiter Olympicus, the Lord of Heaven. For Baal signifieth Lord, and Shamaim, Heaven. And what is this Lord of Heaven in the theology of the Heathens, other than the Sun? who may as well be stiled the King of Heaven, as the Moon the Queen. Yea, Sanchoniatho, as Eusebius in the forequoted place relates him, taketh all these three for one, namely, the Sun, Jupiter, and Baal-samen. ”

“ This kind of Idolatry may seem to have had its original among the Heathens from an unwarrantable imitation of Moses’s Tabernacle, which was nothing else but a portable Temple [414] to be carried from place to place, as need required. For it cannot be denied, but that many superstitions were derived unto the Heathens from the true worship of God, which he himself had prescribed unto his people. Thus, as God had his Tabernacle, Priests, Altars, and Sacrifices, so the devil had his Tabernacles, Priests, Altars and Sacrifices. ”

“ Yea, although Gods law enjoyned honour, and relief toward parents; yet if they had bound themselves by this oath Corban, that they would not help or relieve their parents, they taught they were discharged. Whence, saith their Talmud, [724] Every one ought to honour his father and mother, except he hath vowed the contrary. And it is evident [725] that the Jews did often by solemn vows and oaths bind themselves, that they would never do good to such, or such a man. ”

“ In the centre or middle of all was the Tabernacle it self, with its Courts, this they termed the Camp of the Divine Majesty. Next round about, pitcht the Priests and Levites, to whom the charge of the Tabernacle belonged, (and therefore the nearest adjoyning place of habitation might be the convenientest for them) this was called the camp of Levi. In the utter parts, round about Levi, the twelve Tribes pitcht their Tents; this they termed the Camp of Israel. The first Camp resembled a great Cathedral Church, with its Church-yard. ”

“ That many have no better acquaintance with Christ and his Apostles, is, because they are such strangers with Moses and Aaron: Were Customes antiquated thorowly known, many difficulties in Scripture would appear Elegancies; and the places which now (through obscurity) dishearten the Reader, would then become sweet invitements to an unwearied assiduity in perusing those sacred Oracles. ”

“ Wherefore all the Hebrew Doctors, both ancient and modern, do teach with one joynt consent, that the Commandment of sprinkling the door-posts with blood, of having on their shooes, of girding their loyns, of taking staves in their hands, and eating the Lamb in hast ”

“ There are Etymologists that derive Hercules his name from the Hebrew ‎‏האיר כל‏‎, Heircol, illuminavit omnia: the Greek [151] Etymology, [420] holds correspondency with the Hebrew and both signifie that universal light which floweth from the Sun as water from a fountain. Add hereunto, that Porphyry [421] interpreteth Hercules his twelve labours, so often mentioned by the Poets, to be nothing else but the twelve signs of the Zodiack, thorow which the Sun passeth yearly. But some may question, whether the name of Hercules was ever known to the Jews? ”

“ Though all other houses of Idolatry were in Jerusalem, yet Moloch was without Jerusalem, in a place apart. How was he made? He was an Image of brass; he had seven Chappels, and he was placed before them, having the face of a Bullock, and hands spread abroad, like a man that openeth his hands to receive somewhat from another: and they set it on fire within, for it was hollow: and every man severally entred, according to his offering. After what manner? Whosoever offered a Fowl went into the first Chappel; he that offered a Sheep, into the second; a Lamb, into the third ”

“ The Hebrews commonly call the one ‎‏נשים‏‎ Naschim; Primary-wives, married with nuptial ceremonies and rites requisite. Some derive the word from ‎‏נשה‏‎ Nischa, Oblitus fuit, quasi Obliviosæ dictæ, because for the most part, womens memory is not so strong as mens: but they think not amiss, who say that women are so called from oblivion, or forgetfulness, because the Fathers family is forgotten, and in a manner extinct in their daughters when they are married. ”

“ The latter Jews have been strangely conceited concerning the place of burials, and are perswaded that if an Israelite be buried in any strange country, out of the promised Land, he shall not be partaker so much as of Resurrection, except the Lord vouchsafe to make him hollow passages, under the earth, thorow which his body by a continual volutation and rolling, may be brought into the land of Canaan. ”

“ The ground hereof is taken from the charge of Jacob unto his son Joseph, that he should not bury him in the land of Egypt, but in Canaan. For which charge they assign three reasons. [709] First, because he foresaw by the spirit of Prophecy, that the dust of that land should afterward be turned into lice. Secondly, because those who died out of the holy Land should not rise again without a painful rolling and tumbling of their bodies thorow those hollow passages. Thirdly, that the Egyptians might not idolatrously worship him. ”

“ The History of the Molten Calf is at large set down, Exod. 32., where we read, that by reason of Moses his long absence, the people desired of Aaron, gods to be made; whereupon Aaron made for them the molten Calf. The reason why they worshipped God rather in the similitude of a Calf, than of any other Creature, is generally by Expositors conceived to be from the corruptions learned among the Egyptians, who worshipped their Idol Apis, [448] otherwise called Serapis, [449] in a living Oxe, and otherwise in an Image made in the form and similitude of an Oxe, with a bushel on his head. ”

“ First, Reschagnim, ἀσεβεῖς, Wicked and ungodly men. Secondly, Tsadikim, δίκαιοι, Just and righteous men. Thirdly, Chasidim, who are sometimes translated ὅσιοι, Holy men, and that for the most part: [89] but sometimes also ἀγαθοὶ, Goodmen: These of all others were best reputed, and beloved of the people. The Apostle shewing the great love of Christ, dying for us, amplifieth it by allusion unto this distinction of the people: Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, Rom. ”

“ First, the strange Nations, transplanted by Salmanesar into Samaria, when Israel was carried away captive into Assyria, worshipped every one the God of their own Countries, 2 King. 17. Secondly, when they saw they were devoured by Lyons, because they feared not the Lord, the King of Assyria sent one of the Priests which was taken captive, to instruct them in the true worship of God: which manner of worship though they received, yet they would not lay aside their former Idolatry, but made a mixture of Religions, worshipping the living God, and their own dumb Idols. ”

“ This prayer being ended, then all the Guests which sate at the Table, with a soft and low voice, said unto themselves in this manner, Fear the Lord all ye his holy ones, because there is no penury to those that fear him: The young Lyons do want and suffer hunger, but those that seek the Lord want no good thing. ”