Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	affair_n	israel_n	12	3	6.8415	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67153	A practical commentary or exposition upon the Pentateuch viz. These five books of Moses Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Wherein the text of every chapter is practically expounded, according to the doctrine of the Catholick Church, in a way not usually trod by commentators; and wholly applyed to the life and salvation of Christians. By Ab. Wright; sometime fellow of St. John's Colledge in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3688; ESTC R221054	292,675	224

Law to their hands and before their eyes wherein as St. Ierome and Theodoret well interpret it God meant the meditations and practice of his Law but they like unto the foolish Patient which when the Physitian bids him take such a Prescript eats up the paper they rested in the fringe and not in the garment in the Ceremony not in the Law For if these Jews could but get a list of Parchment upon their left arm next their heart and another scroll to tye upon their fore-head and four corners of Fringe or if these be denied a red thread in their hand though they might say with Saul 1 Sam. 16. Blessed be thou of the Lord I have fulfilled the command of the Lord. CHAP. XVI Verse 1. I See the Levites not long since drawing their Swords for God and Moses against the rest of Israel and that Fact wins them both praise and blessing now they are the forwardest in the rebellion against Moses and Aaron men of their own Tribe There is no assurance of a man for one act whom one sin cannot fasten upon another may yea the same sin may find a repulse one while from the same hand which another time gives it entertainment and that yeildance looseth the thank of all the former resistance It is no praise to have done once well unless we continue We see here likewise that outward priviledges of Blood can avail nothing against a particular calling of God These Reubenites had the right of the natural primogeniture yet do they vainly challenge preheminence where God hath subjected them If all civil honour flow from the King how much more from the God of Kings his hand exalts the poor and casts down the mighty from their Throne the man that will be lifting up himself in the pride of his heart from under the foot of God is justly trodden in the dust Verse 2. There cannot be conceived an honour less worth emulation than this principality of Israel a people that could give nothing a people that had nothing but in hope a people whom their leader was fain to feed with Bread and Water which paid him no tribute but of ill words whose command was nothing but a burthen and yet this dignity had drawn together in a mutinous way 250 Captains of Israel What wonder is it that the Ten-Rulers prevail so much with the multitude to disswade them from Canaan when three Traytors prevailed thus with 250 Rulers famous in the Congregation and men of renown one man may kindle such a fire as all the World cannot quench One Plague-sore may infect a whole Kingdom the infection of evil is much worse than the act It is not like those Leaders of Israel could err without followers He is a mean man that draws not some Clients after him It hath been ever a dangerous policy of Sathan to assault the best he knew that the multitude as we say of Bees will follow their Master Verse 3. Moses and Aaron you take too much upon you was the cry of a Jew once and so it is still by many now a dayes who would manacle and confine them only to an Ecclesiastick power and divest them quite of any civil Authority though Moses had both according to St. Aug. in 98 Psal. and David also placeth Moses among the Priests Ps. 99. 6. Verse 5. Moses argues not for himself but appeals to God neither speaks for his own right but his Brother Aarons he knew that Gods immediate service was worthy to be more precious than his Government Good Magistrates are more tender over Gods honour than their own and more sensible of the wrongs offered to Religion than themselves And Moses took the best course to appeal to God It is safest to trust God with his own cause If Aaron had been set up by Israel Moses would have sheltred him under their Authority now that God did immediatly appoint him his patronage is sought whose the Election was We may easily faulter in the managing of Divine affairs and so our want of success cannot want sin God knows how to use how to bless his own means Verse 9. As there was a difference betwixt the people and Levites so betwixt the Levites and Priests The God of order loves to have our degrees kept Whiles the Levites would be looking up to the Priests Moses sends down their Eyes to the people The way not to repine at those above us is to look at those below us There is no better remedy for ambition than to cast up our former receits and so compare them with our deservings and confer our own Estate with Inferiors so shall we find cause to be thankful that we are above any rather than of envy that any is above us Verse 12. Moses hath chid the Sons of Levi for mutinying against Aaron and so much the more because they were of his own Tribe now he sends for the Reubenites which rose against himself they come not and their Message is worse than their absence Moses is accused of Injustice Cruelty Falsehood Treachery Usurpation and Egypt it self shall be commended rather than Moses want a reproach Innocency is no shelter from ill tongues Malice never regards how true an accusation is but how spiteful Verse 15. Now it was time for Moses to be angry they durst not have been thus bold if they had not seen his mildness Lenity is ill bestowed upon stubborn natures it is an injurious sencelesness not to feel the wounds of our reputation It well appears Moses is angry when he prayes against them He was displeased before but when he was most bitter against them he still prayed for them but now he bends his very prayers against them Look not to their Offering there can be no greater revenge than the imprecation of the righteous there can be no greater judgement than Gods rejection of their services With us men what more argues the dislike of the person than the turning back of his present What will God accept from us if not Prayers Verse 22. The same Tongue that prayed against the Conspirators prayes for the people as lewd men think to carry it with number Corah had so far prevail'd that he had drawn the multitude to his side God the avenger of Treasons would have consumed them at once Moses and Aaron pray for the Rebels although they were worthy of Death and nothing but Death could stop their mouths yet their merciful Leaders will not buy their own peace with the loss of such Enemies O rare and imitable mercy the people rise up against their Governors their Governors fall on their faces to God for the people so far are they from plotting revenge that they will not endure God shall revenge for them Verse 27. Moses had well hoped that when these Rebels should see all the Israelites run from them as from Monsters and should hear that direful Proclamation of Vengeance against them howsoever they did before set a face on their Conspiracy yet

a Rule to guide my Conscience by either in Civil or Ecclesiastical matters Verse 4. Gods Actions are general and particular general to all men particular to his Friends So must ours be As therefore by his general Action he suffereth the Sun to shine upon the bad as well as good so must we extend our Love which is the common Bond of Mankind as well to our Enemies as to our Friends by which common Love all hurting of the Bodies or Goods of our Enemies is forbid Again as God hath his special Action to his Friends and his Church namely sanctification so must Friendship which is our special Action reach its self to such only as are of the Houshold of Faith For although we must love with that general Love all Mankind Turks Pagans yet to such may we not be Friends and Familiars but must beware of inward and usual conversation with them that hate God and all his Graces This distinction tels you the meaning of Mat. 5. 44. Love your enemies Verse 5. Estne Deo cura de bobus is the Apostles Question Hath God care of Oxen other mens Oxen how much more of his own Sheep And therefore if thou see one of his Sheep one of thy fellow Christians strayed into sins of infirmity joyn him with thine own Soul in thy Prayers to God Relieve him if what he needs be spiritual with thy Prayers for him and relieve him if his wants be of another kind according to his Prayers to thee Why should not he that is made of the same bloud and redeem'd with the same bloud as thou art why should not he prevail with thee so far as to the obtaining of an Almes when some fellow-servant of thine hath had that interest in God as by his intercession and Prayers to advance thy Salvation wilt not thou save the life of another man that prayes to thee when perchance thy Soul hath been saved by another man that prayed for thee Verse 6. In the third verse God commanded That the poor man should not be spared for pitty Here now he enjoyneth That a poor man should not be wrong'd in respect of his poverty such equal steps would God have Judgement to walk in Verse 11. Blessed is the man that provideth for the poor the Lord shall deliver him in all his trouble Psalm 41. 1. This is proved in the Widdow of Zarepta who fed the Prophet and never suffered in the midst of that Famine 1 Kings 17. When I was hungry you fed me saith Christ Mat. 25. 35. Me I say in the poor with you to whom what you did you did it to me and so I take it and will blesse you for it both here and hereafter Verse 19. You must not seeth the kid c. to shew that we must not use that to the destruction of any Creature which was intended for his preservation CHAP. XXIV Verse 3. IT is better not to promise than not to keep promise the people of the Iews were signified by the Locusts which suddenly leap up and forthwith fall down to the earth again They did as it were leap up when in words they promised to do all things which the Lord had said but they fell to the earth again when in their deeds they denied the same Let us therefore alwayes weigh our weakness and accordingly frame our promises for as we see in this people we may purpose well that which we cannot so well perform Verse 12. It is not many weeks since Israel came out of Egypt in which space God had cherished their Faith by several Wonders yet now he thinks it time to give them Statutes from Heaven as well as Bread The Manna and Water from the Rock which was Christ in the Gospel were given before the Law the Sacraments of Grace before the legal Covenant The Grace of God preventeth our obedience therefore should we keep the Law of God because we have a Saviour O the Mercy of God which before we see what we are bound to do shews us our remedy if we do it not How can our Faith disanul the Law when it was before it It may help to fulfil that which shall be it cannot frustrate that which was not The Letter which God had written in our fleshly Tables were now as some that were carved in some Barks almost grown out he saw it time to write them in dead Tables whose hardness should not be capable of alteration He knew that the stone would be more faithful than our hearts Verse 14. Ministers whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are not to leave their charge without Deputies When Moses here ascended he left Aaron and Hur with the people that whosoever had any matter might come to them So watchful and faithful was Moses in his place that without just cause he is not absent and then he leaveth able Deputies Verse 16. Moses ascending was not admitted to God till after six dayes to teach all men patiently and reverently to tarry Gods leisure and gracious pleasure for any matter of his Will to be revealed to them not curiously searching but humbly waiting for the thing we seek being fit for us At the end of six dayes God called to Moses So will the Lord have a comfortable time for all those that wait for him they shall see and hear at last what he will say unto them But then they must come to God in the Cloud that is in the humanity of Christ whereof this Cloud was a Figure For without him there is no access to God and by him we come and that boldly Verse 17. God appears here like a consuming Fire in the eyes of the Children of Israel but to them whom he drew to him he appeared as a pleasant Saphire verse 10. Just so to carnal men and to such as are his called by his holy Spirit there is a great difference of him the one seeing with fear and trembling the other seeing feeling and tasting Joy and Comfort Verse 18. Moses was with God forty dayes and nights without any repast That God that sent the Quails to the Host of Israel and Manna from Heaven could have fed him with dainties if he had so pleas'd But there is no life to the life of Faith Man lives not by bread only The Vision of God did not only satiate but feast him What a blessed satiety shall there be when we shall see him as he is and he shall be all in all to us Since this very frail Mortality of Moses was sustained and comforted but with representations of his presence Here again I see Moses the Receiver of the Law Elias the Restorer of the Law Christ the Fulfiller of the Law all fasting forty dayes Abstinence prepares best for good Duties Full bellies are fitter for rest Hence solemn Prayer takes ever fasting to attend it and so much the rather speeds in Heaven when it is so accompanied It s good so to diet the body that the soul may be fatned CHAP. XXV

cowardliness as soon as ever we are call'd from the Garrison to the Field to think of running away Then is our fortitude worthy of praise when we can endure to be miserable Verse 4. Why brought ye us up hither say the Israelites when they should have said God hath led us hither this should have been a contentment able to quench any thirst If Moses out of ignorance had misguided us or we changeably fallen upon these dry desarts though this were no remedy of our grief yet it might be some ground of our complaint But now the Counsel of so wise and Merciful a God hath drawn us into this want and shall he not as easily find the way out It is the Lord let him do what he will there can be no more forcible motive to patience than the acknowledgment of a Divine hand that strikes us Verse 6. It was no Expostulating with an unreasonable multitude Moses and Aaron run straight to him that was able at once to quench their thirst and their fury they went from the Congregation to the door of the Tabernacle It is the best way to trust God with his own Causes when men will be intermedling with his affairs they undo themselves in vain We shall find difficulties in all great enterprises if we be sure we have begun them from God we may securely cast all events upon his providence which knows how to dispose and how to end them Verse 11. Out of a stone Water cannot be drawn but by miracles though it be twice striken as Moses here stroke the Rock twice yet the water came by the miraculous power of God and not by Moses second stroke Though God strike twice thrice man will not weep Though inward terrors strike his Conscience and outward diseases strike his body and calamities and ruine strike his Estate yet he will not confess by one tear that these are Judgements of God but natural accidents or if Judgements that they proceed not from his sin but from some decree in God or from some purpose in God to glorifie himself by thus afflicting and that if he had been better he should have fared never the better for Gods purpose must stand CHAP. XXI Verse 4. IT was their way that makes them repine they were fain to go round about Idumea the Journy was long and troublesome They had sent intreaties to Edom for License of passage the next way reasonably submisly it was churlishly denied them Esau lives still in his posterity Iacob in Israel the Combate which they began in Rebecca's room is not yet ended So long as there is a World there will be opposition to the chosen of God they may come at their peril the way had been nearer but bloody they dare not go it and yet complain of length If they were afraid to purchase their resting-place with War how much less would they their passage What should God do with impatient Men they will not go the nearest way and yet complain to go about He that will pass to the promised Land must neither stand upon length of way nor difficulty Every way hath his Inconveniences the nearest hath more danger the farthest hath more pain either or both must be overcome if ever we will enter the rest of God Verse 5. Aaron and Miriam were now past the danger of their mutinies for want of another match they joyn God with Moses in their murmurings though they had not formerly mention'd him yet they could not fever him from Moses in their Insurrection for in the causes of his own Servants he challenges even when he is not challenged What will become of thee O Isral when thou makest thy Maker thine enemy Impatience is Cousin to Frenzy this causes men not to care upon whom they run so they may breath out some Revenge How oft have we heard men that have been displeased by others tear the Name of their Maker in pieces he that will Judge and can confound is fetch'd into the Quarrel without Cause But if to strive with a mighty man be unwise and unsafe what shall it be to strive with the mighty God And what was the ground of this murmuring Our Soul loat heth this light bread This Heavenly Bread was unspeakably delicious it tasted like waters of Honey and yet even this Angels food is cuntemn'd He that is full despiseth an Honey-comb How sweet and delicate is the Gospel not only the Fathers of the Old-Testament but the Angels desired to look into the glorious mysteries of it and yet we are cloyed This supernatural Food is too light the bread-corn of our humane reason and profound discourse would better content us Verse 6. These men when the Spies had told them news of the Gyants of Canaan a little before had wish'd Would God we had dyed in the Wilderness Now God hath heard their Prayers what with the Plague what with the Serpents many thousands of them dyed The ill wishes of our impatience are many times heard As those good things are not granted which we pray for without care so those evils which we pray for and would not have are oft granted The ears of God are not only open to the Prayers of Faith but to imprications of Infidelity It is dangerous wishing evill to our selves or ours it is just with God to take us at our word and to effect that which our Lips speak against our Heart Verse 7. Now the people are glad to seek to Moses unbidden Even heretofore they have been wont to be sued to and intreated for without their own intreaty now their misery makes them importunate There needs no Solicitor where there is sence of smart It were pitty men should want affliction since it sends them to their Prayers and Confessions All the perswasions of Moses could not do that which the Serpents have done for him O God thou seest how necessary it is we should be stung sometimes else we should run wild and never come to a sound humiliation we should never seek thee if thy hand did not find us out Verse 8. The Israelites being stung with Serpents erected a Serpent in the Wilderness Serpens momordit Serpens curavit the Philistines being plagued with Emeroids offered Emeroides unto the Ark. They that gave their Jewels to the making of a Calf did afterwards bestow them on the Lords Tabernacle And Mary Magdalen who was wont to send forth alluring beams into the eyes of her Paramours now the same Eyes send forth a deluge of Tears CHAP. XXII Verse 1. MOab and Midian had been all this while standers by and lookers on If they had not seen the pattern of their own ruine in their Neighbours it had nevet troubled them to see the Kings of the Amorites and Bashan to fall before Israel Had not the Israelites Camp'd in the Plains of Moab their Victories had been no Eye-sore to Balack Wicked men never care to observe Gods Judgements till themselves be touch'd the fire of a Neighbours House would