Chapter VI
How God wisely ordered it that ihe Jews should call Christ a Nazarite,
though he was not really born in that city.
The next thing to be noticed is, that God having in these types foretold he should be a Nazarite ; and also in his wise disposement forelaid it, that an inhabitant of Nazareth, and a Nazarite devoted to be more eminently holy and a saviour, should by one and the same word be signified in vulgar use ; yet further stand and admire that wonderful providence of his, whereby he brought it about that the Jews themselves should upon occasion of this
city come unawares to give him this name, so to fulfil the prophecies which themselves read and understood not.
Let it be, 1, considered, that our Christ was not to take up the outward
legal and ceremonial profession of a Nazarite among the Jews, which his forerunner John Baptist and Samson did. No ; as he professed not him
self to be legally a priest, that is, after the order of Aaron, so nor to be a
Nazarite, having a vow upon him according to the tenor of their law, but came secretty and unknown to fulfil the substance and reality of both. Now how should this name then come vulgarly to be given him ? No other way but by his having had his known and constant abode from his infancy in that city Nazareth. Then, 2. Consider how contingent a thing that was to fall on t.* The seat of the seed and progeny of David by inheritance, and according to their
genealogy, was Bethlehem by Jerusalem, far removed from Nazareth in
Galilee. But Herod then reigning, who was jealous of all that might pre tend to be heirs of that crown he then wore, these the true heirs, Joseph and Mary, were forced to skulk and retire themselves to these remoter parts of Galilee, as the seat of their dwelling ; and hence it fell out that this his
conception fell out to be in Nazareth. Well but, 3. That his conception (so secret a matter) was at Nazareth, the Jews
ordinarily would not have known or considered ; nor was it (as it is not) the manner of men to give the name of one s country to the place he was * Qu. out ? Ed.
CHAP. VI. J OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 159
conceived. Yea, God ordered that so as, had not Matthew related it, the Jews nor we would never have heeded it ; for as soon as she had conceived, the angel having told her, to the end to confirm her faith, that her cousin
Elisabeth, who had been so long barren, had also conceived a son : Luke
i. 36, And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son
: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren ;
in her old age
it is said at ver. 39, 40, That Mary arose in those days, and went into
the hill-country with haste, into a city of Juda ; and entered into the house
of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And this they did to rejoice and
congratulate each the other. But this performed, Mary returned to Naza
reth, as intending to lie in there, but was just against the time of her
delivery hurried to Bethlehem, by reason of a decree that came forth from
Augustus the emperor, that all the world should be taxed, Luke ii. 1. And the law of that nation was, as ver. 3, All went to be taxed, every one
into his own city. Hence therefore it came to pass, as ver. 4, 5, That
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being
great with child. And this providence was to fulfil the prophecy of the
place of his birth at Bethlehem ; which yet not being their constant place of abode, and his coming thither but transient, it still cast a blind amongst the Jews, that though he was so born at Bethlehem ; they accounted him as a constant inhabitant of the other place Nazareth. For we read, ver. 39, that
* when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord,
they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
Well but, 4, there is yet a far greater contingency falls out, utterly to
prevent his being called a Nazarite from this city, though hitherto the city of his parents abode. For unless they had abode there, and he with them
the greater part of his life, the Jews had never come to have given him this name. Herod being disappointed by the wise men to bring him word of
the town where he was born, meant to make the most exact inquiry after
this child, that the power and sagacity of so subtle a king could make, to
find him out to destroy him. And, lo, no sooner was Joseph returned to
his city Nazareth, Mat. ii. 13, but an angel appeared to Joseph in a
dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee
into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word : for Herod will seek
the young child to destroy him. Which indeed further strengthens the
point in hand, and shews him to have been that true Nazarite, of whom
Joseph was the type, in this respect, that when 3
Toung he was driven into
Egypt, as Christ also was. And then again in his return, to fulfil another
prophecy spoken of by Hosea, Out of Egypt have I called my Son, Mat.
ii. 15. But when in Egypt Joseph s heart was weaned from Nazareth, which was a place of his abode but out of necessity and fear of Herod. And the angel having told him that
* they were dead which sought the
child s life, he came, as is evident by ver. 22, with a purpose to go into Judea ; but hearing that Archelaus, and not his brother Herodias, had obtained the rule thereof, and knowing him to be bloody as his father, it is
said, ver. 22, But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither. And then also
being over and above this fourth time warned (as it follows) by God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee, clean beyond his inten
tion and inclination. And upon this occasion, and this alone, it was that, as it follows,
* He came and dwelt in a city called^ Nazareth, and so from
160 OF CHEIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK IV.
that time made his constant abode there ; that by this means this might be fulfilled (we have all this while been treating of) which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarite.
For, lastly, upon this occasion, this city being now his continued seat of
his education and life till he was thirty years old, the Jews who inquired, and were curious and diligent enough, and did know from whence he came,
they out of scorn and malice did give him this title, Jesus, Jesus the
Nazarite, or of Nazareth. And this they gave him in contempt, as being
in their account a base and unworthy place, so barren, as it was a proverb among them, Can any good come out of Nazareth ? And the devil, he
stirred them up to it, himself (say some) first giving him that title, Mark
i. 24 ; howsoever he with the first seconds it ; and he did it on purpose to
divert the thoughts of the Jews from inquiring after his birth at Bethlehem,
they all cried it up to have been at Nazareth. Then it was generally given out thus by the people, Mark x. 47, Luke xviii. 37 ; and as his fame grew,
this name spread also. And that it was out of scorn appears also by this,
that as Tertullian saith, unto his time they called the Christians Nazarites,
as also Galileans. But lo, what Satan and the Jews designed out of the
greatest malice, God made use of the malice of man to attribute to him one
of the greatest characters of his being the Messiah, which was to be a Naza
rite, and holy unto God by a vow from his conception, which had been
wrought also in that city. Thus also he ordered Caiaphas, out of malice,
to say, One man must die for the people, to hold forth a just acknowledg ment, that Christ by his death should be the saviour of that people, and of
all the elect of God in the world. He ordered Pilate to say, and not recall
* King of the Jews, which he did in scorn ; but God thereby
it, that he was
proclaimed him his king to all the world in these three general languages, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
Some object against this interpretation given, that it is nowhere written he should be called a Nazarite; nay, nor were Joseph and Samson so
called.
The answer is, that these two phrases in Scripture are all one, to be, and
* to be called. So when it is said, He shall be called the Son of the Most High ; that is, He shall be the Son of the Most High.
< He shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. And so it was true both of Sam
son and Joseph, that they were Nazarites, and are expressly said to be
separated ; and it is more true of Christ, that he was such.
Again it is objected, that Matthew says by the prophets ; whereas
Moses, that wrote Joseph s story and the law, is distinguished from the
prophets ; nor was he that wrote the story of Sampson, in Judges, a pro phet
: and therefore this allusion cannot be to these. The answer is easy. 1. That although in stricter sense only they are termed prophets that
wrote those books of prophecy, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the small prophets, hence you read of Moses, the law, and the prophets, as distinguished ; yet
again, in other scriptures, the title of prophet is given to all the sacred
writers of the Old Testament. 2 Pet. i. 19, the whole is termed a word
of prophecy. And ver. 20, 21, it is styled prophecy of the scripture, as inspired by the Holy Ghost ; so as all scripture, inspired immediately by the Holy Ghost, is termed prophecy
: so Heb. i. 1, God spake in old
time by the prophets, and then cites the books of Samuel and Chronicles ;
ver. 5, I will be to him a Father, &c. ; Acts iii. 24. Samuel, who
wrote a story, is termed a prophet ; and all the writers of Scripture from
CHAP. VII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 161
his time are termed prophets ; and, ver. 21, all are called holy prophets, which have been since the world began.
2. And as to this particular, the thing in hand, it is evident that both Jacob and Moses, whilst they spake this of Joseph the type of Christ, were then a-prophesying as truly as any of the prophets. Jacob professeth so
to do in the beginning of his speech, Gen. xlix. 1, That I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. And as evident it is that Moses, in
that his repetition of Joseph s being separated from his brethren, Deut.
xxxiii. 16, did then also by the spirit of prophecy bless and foretell what should befall him. And then for that other, of Samson, it is delivered as a plain prophecy, even before his conception, how he should be a Nazarite, who was therein a type of Christ. And this, though uttered by an angel, is recorded by a sacred writer, that records it as a prophecy aforehand
given. And thus much of Christ s being vowed and consecrated from his
conception.