m

n

were then upon them: That it did not. exempt them from perfonal Faults and Failings, being Men of the like Paffions with us, and having this Treafure in Earthen Veffels; and therefore no wonder if St. Peter, fearful of offending the Jewish Converts, who were numerous at Antioch, ran into a fhameful Diffimulation, walking not uprightly, according to the Truth of the Gospel, for which St. Paul withflood him to the Face, because he was to be blam'd: That it did not exclude the ufe of humane Means for the Advancement of their Knowledge; which gives us the Reafon, why St. Paul advifes Timothy, a Man extraordinarily endued with the Gifts of the Spirit, and mark'd out by Prophecy, as one who should prove Eminent in the Work of the Ministry, to give Attendance to Reading, &c. and why St. Paul himself, who could boaft of Visions and Revelations beyond all the Apoftles, writes to the fame Timothy, to bring him his Book-Cafe (for

D 2

m

O

fo

*A&s xiv. 25. 1 2 Cor. iv. 7.. Gal. ii. 14. "Ver. 11: I am very fenfible that in our Tranflation we call it a Cloak, but it may as well be interpreted a Book-Cafe or Scriptore. Phavorinus is of Opinion that it fignifies a folded Vellum or Parchment, and therefore Dr. Hammond thinks it all one with the usußpagal mention'd afterwards, because the panisad's, but more especially feems to denote fomething mention'd before. Hammond in Locum.

35

Which

Difficul

fo the Word caλóms should be rendered) his Books, and his Parchments, or Common-place-book; because he wanted to make use of them, as never imagining, that the Abundance of his fpiritual Gifts fuperfeded all neceffity to Study: And, laftly, that it did not vacate the Neceffity of the Apoftles convening and confulting together in Matters of great Importance to the Church; for though the fingle Authority of any one, in fome Cafes, might be decifive, yet fince (as they themselves own) they did but I know in Part, and Prophecy in Part, who can doubt, but that, in Conjunction, they might communicate Light to each other, and what their whole College did determine, would come with greater Evidence of its being the Will of God, than what was deliver'd by one Apostle only? Not to fay, that this Synod at Jerufalem might be defign'd by the Spirit, 9 to be an Example and Precedent to the Church in future Ages, to determine Controverfies by the Authority of Councils.

But now,

tho' the Gift of Inspiration, folves all imparted to the Apoftles and Evange ties. lifts, was not permanent and habitual, but gradual only and occafional; did not fuperfede the common ways of

Speech,

1 Cor. xiii. 9. Jenkin's Reafon. Vol. 2.

Speech, nor the ufual Forms of Civility; did not exempt them from perfonal Faults and Failings; did not exclude them from the ordinary Means of acquiring Knowledge, nor vacate the Neceffity of their meeting together for the Decifion of Controverfies; yet this Effect it certainly had, that it fecur'd them, not only from all grofs Errors in Points of Doctrine, but from all Inconfiftences, and flips of Memory likewife, in Matters of an inferior Nature. And therefore may we obferve, that, tho' there really is a difference between St. Matthew and St. Luke, in the Genealogies, they give us of our bleffed Saviour, and, as one would think at firft Sight, a manifest Mistake on one Side or other; yet the Defign of the two Evangelifts, in their respective Deductions, is far from being the fame: that St. Matthew intends St. Malonly to fet down his Political or Royal thew and Pedegree, by which he had a Right to reconcithe Crown of the Jews; whereas St. Luke led. fhews his natural Defcent through the feveral Succeffions of thofe, from whom he took Flefb and Blood. And accordingly we find St. Matthew beginning his Reckoning only from Abraham, to whom $ the firft Promife of the Kingdom was made; but St. Luke runs his Line up D 3

South's Serm. Vol. 3. Gen. vii. 6.

to

St. Luke

to Adam, the firft Head and Fountain of humane Nature; which plainly fhews that the one deduc'd only his Title to the Crown, the other the natural Descent of his Humanity.

This, in a great Measure, may serve as a Key to unlock the chief Difficulties in our Saviour's Pedegree: But perhaps Interpreters might fave themselves fome Trouble by saying, that St. Matthew (concerning whom the main Difpute is) recites it, as he found it in the authentick Copies of the Jews; who doubtless had preferv'd some known and approv'd Genealogy of their Defcent from Abrabam, the Father of their Nation, in whom they fo much gloried, and from whose Loins they expected the promised Meffias And that, fince the Jews, who liv'd in the Time, when the Gofpels were publish'd (tho' exactly curious in Things of this Nature, and highly incens'd against Christ and Christianity) › never once attempted to invalidate the Account, which the Evangelifts give us, this feems to be a fufficient Proof, that these Genealogies, when firft they came abroad, were neither thought t erroneous nor inconfiftent, but agreeable to the publick Records, then in Ufe; and that, if any Difficulties now arife

Vid. Kidder's Demonft. upon the Subje&t.

arise in them, they are not to be attri buted to any real and intrinfick Cause, but accidentally to the Ignorance of Interpreters, for want of proper Helps, at this Distance of Time, to enable them to explain them.

plain'd.

We readily agree indeed, that, when Matt. i. St. Matthew tells us of our Bleffed Sa- 23, exviour, "He came and dwelt in a City called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was Spoken by the Prophets,

HE SHALL BE CALLED A NAZARENE, there is no fuch Paffage, as he Shall be called a Nazarene, to be met with in any of the Prophets that we know of; but when it is confider'd, that, to be called, (according to the Hebrew manner of Speaking,) is the fame thing as to be a Nazarene; the Prophe. fy (be it where it will) is properly anfwer'd, if the Senfe of the Thing be but fulfill'd, by our Saviour's becoming, what we are to understand by, a Na

zarene.

Now there are two ways, which Annotators obferve, of deriving this Appellation; the firft is from the Word Netzar, which fignifies a Branch: And hereupon St. Matthew might have the Prophet Isaiah in his Thoughts, where, without all Controverfy, he defcribes

D 4

Matt. ii. 23.