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
writ and his anger will destroy part of the people that Gods anger may not consume them all Now let us imitate these great examples and that we may be angry and not sin let us only be angry for sin Verse 4. I see in Rachel the image of her Grand-mother Sarah both in her beauty of person in her actions in her success she also will needs suborn her handmaid to make her a Mother and at last beyond hope her self conceiveth It is a weak greediness in us to affect Gods blessings by unlawful means what a proof and praise had it been of her Faith if she had staied Gods leisure and would rather have endured her barrenness than her Husbands Polygamy Now she shews her self the Daughter of Laban the Father for covetousness the Daughters for emulation have drawn sin into Iacobs bed he offended in yielding but they more in solliciting him and therefore the fact is not imputed to Iacob but to them In those sins which Satan draws us into the blame is ours in those sins which we move each other unto the most fault and punishment lies upon the tempter Verse 6. Here Rachel makes use of Gods name to prophane it and under pretence of Religion would have God justifie her Maids and her own sin Many cry up that Cause to be Gods which he never will own and put his Name to those Writings which at the last day shall condemne them And indeed there hath of late years been no sin so common among Christians as to prostitue both Gods Name and his Cause and as that great Commander of the powers of darkness the Devil can transform himself into an Angel of light so there are no deeds of darkness so black and ugly which have not been like their Father the Devil mask'd and veil'd and clouded even with light its self I mean with those glorious heavenly Angel-like pretences of Religion and Conscience Insomuch that not only the most unchristian but the most inhumane practises the most unnatural savage barbarities of this last age of the World are now avowed to be the dictates and commands of God that God himself as in the text hath judged and allowed them Verse 18. Leah broke the bonds of Matrimony and yet expects a reward thus many times men flatter themselves in their sins and think that they are rewarded of God when they do ill As Micah having made houshold gods and entertained a Levite cryes Now I know that the Lord will be good unto me because I have a Levite to my Priest but he never thought he had an Idol to his God Thus Leah here rejoyced in that for which she should have repented and takes that for her hire which God for all she knew intended as her punishment And indeed her Son Issachar who was the hire here was none of the wisest and withal a slave and therefore in Iacobs Prophesie Gen. 49. compared to an Ass and one that for his ease would submit unto any burthens impositions taxes This was a simple low poor spirit and his posterity were for the general very unworthy and vile and yet this was the hire the reward the blessing that Leah rejoyced in as if God had approved of the sin by the success and fruitfulness of her handmaids Womb and this was her error of measuring and judging of things by the success as if God did not many times give Children and Honour and Riches in his wrath and were not many times angry with men though they outwardly prosper If this were not so the Turks and some Christians too at this day were in an happy condition who judge of the goodness of their cause only by the success and because they are not crossed that therefore they are blessed Verse 20. Children are a good dowry if they prove good and though they are alwayes an heritage that cometh of the Lord yet they are not alwayes the Lords heritage When our Children appear to be Gods heirs as well as ours then may we justly esteem them to be the best part of our estate and our greatest dowry Otherwise they will prove but sad blessings and such as we had better be without and yet all men desire them how much rather should we cover grace and those things which accompany salvation having got these we may safely and surely say God hath endued me with a good dowry Verse 27. Iacob rich in nothing but Wives and Children was now returning to his Fathers house accounting his Charge his Wealth But God meant him yet more good Laban sees that both his Family and his Flocks were well encreased by Iacobs service Not his love therefore but his gain makes him loth to part Even Labans covetousness is made by God the means to enrich Iacob and even his strait Master entreats him to that recompence which made his Nephew mighty and himself envious Verse 41. In the very shapes and colours of brute Creatures there is a divine hand which disposeth them to his own ends Small and unlikely means shall prevail where God intends an effect Little peel'd sticks of Hazel or Poplar laid in the troughs shall enrich Iacob with an encrease of spotted Cattel Labans Sons might have tryed the same means and failed God would have Laban know that he put a difference betwixt Iacob and him that as for fourteen years he had multiplyed Iacobs charge of Cattel to Laban so now for the last six years he would multiply Labans Flock to Iacob and if Laban had the more yet the better were Iacobs Even in these outward things Gods Children have many times sensible tastes of his favours above the wicked CHAP. XXXI Verse 13. VVHen God appeared here to Iacob upon his return from Laban he tells him I am the God of Bethel by which expression he no doubt intends to mind Iacob of the Promise not only made there by God to him but likewise by him to God for so it followeth Where thou vowedst a vow to me God is the God of pious resolutions as to approve of them when made so to look after them how they are made good and let me tell you to prophane that heart that is once consecrated to God to faulter in the execution of what is solemnly resolved in Gods service is a fetching the Sacrifice from the Altar and will certainly bring the coal of fire along with it Hadst thou never put in for the title of a Friend or votary with an O God my heart is ready to do thy will thou hadst not been perfidious though prophane but by breaking thy promise thou addest the guilt of unfaithfulness to that of disobedience and thy sin becomes beyond measure sinful Verse 18. I know not whether Laban were a worse Uncle or Father or Master he can like well Iacobs service not his wealth as the wicked have no peace with God so the godly have no peace with men for if they prosper not they are despised if they prosper they are envied This Uncle
this Text have relation to St. Paul Paulum mihi etiam Genesis repromisit I had a Promise of Paul in Moses saith that Father then when Moses said Iacob blessed Benjamin thus Benjamin shall ravin as a wolfe c. that is at the beginning Paul shall scatter the Flock of Christ but at last he shall gather and reunite the Nations to his service As he had breath'd threatnings and slaughters against the Disciples of the Lord so he became os orbi sufficiens a mouth loud enough for all the world to hear And as he had drawn and suck'd the bloud of Christs mystical Body the Church so in that proportion that God enabled him to he recompenced that damage by effusion of his own bloud and then he bequeathed to all posterity his Epistles which are as St. Augustine cals them ubera ecclesiae the Paps the Breasts the Udders of the Church and which are as that cluster of Grapes of the Land of Canaan which was born by two For here every Couple every Pair may have their load Iew and Gentile Learned and Ignorant Man and Wife Master and Servant Father and Children Prince and People and thus was the spoil in the Text divided CHAP. L. Verse 2. BUrial and Christian Burial and solemn Burial are all Evidences and Testimonies of Gods Presence God forbid we should conclude or argue an absence of God from the want of solemn Burial or Christian Burial or any Burial But neither must we deny it to be an evidence of his Favour and Presence where he is pleased to afford these So God makes that the seal of all his Blessings to Abram that he should be buried in a good old age God established Iacob with that Promise Gen. 46. that his Son should have care of his Funerals And here Ioseph doth command his Servants the Physitians to embalme him when he was dead To the same purpose also of Christ it was promised that he should have a glorious Burial Isa. 11. and therefore Christ interprets well that profuse and prodigal piety of the Woman that poured out the Ointment upon him that she did it to bury him And so shall Ioseph of Arimathea be ever famous for his care in celebrating Christs Funerals If we were to send a Son or a Friend to take possession of any place in Court or forraign parts we would send him out in the best equipage Let us not grudge therefore to set down our Friends in the Anti-chamber of Heaven the Grave in as good a manner as without vain-gloriousness and wastfulness we may Verse 10. Solemn and appointed mournings are good expressions of our dearness to the departed Soul of our Friend and of his Worth and our value of him and it hath its praise in Nature in Manners and in publick Customes Let thy Friend therefore be Interr'd after the Manner of the Country and the Laws of the Place and the Dignity of the Person For so Iacob here was buried with great solemnity and publick mourning and Devout men carried Stephen to his Burial making great lamentation over him And indeed that man is esteemed to die miserably for whom no Friend no Relative sheds a tear or payes a solemn sigh I desire to die a dry Death but am not very desirous to have a dry Funeral Some Flowers sprinkled on my Grave would doe well and a soft showre to turn those Flowers into a springing memory or a fair rehearsal that I may not goe out of my doors as servants carry out the entrailes of Beasts Verse 12. Iacob on his Death-bed bound his Sons by oath to interre him in a prescript solemnity And indeed those solemn Rites which we strew on the Funerals of our deceased Friend are no effect of curtesie but debt And therefore those dispositions are little below barbarous which snarle at a moderate sorrow and decent interrment of the Dead He then that in a wayward Opinion shall disallow of either may well deserve the honour of Iehoiakims Funeral the burial of an Asse Had not our Saviour his clean Linnen his sweet Ointment his new Sepulchre Verse 13. This was a religious Providence the Patriarchs had in purchasing a possession place for their burial and Posterity kept it up a long time even to superstition thinking their bones never at rest till they were laid in the Sepulchre of their Fathers Which honourable way of Interrment in these tympanous and swelling times of ours were a good means to preserve our Names from rottenness if our Law-Suits and Pride and Riot have left so much of a devoured Inheritance as will serve the Dimensions of a dead Body Verse 15. The guilty Conscience can never think its self safe So many years experience of Iosephs Love could not secure his Brethren of remission Those that know they have deserved ill are wont to mis-interpret favours and think they cannot be beloved All that while his Goodness seem'd but conceal'd and sleeping Malice which they fear'd in their Fathers last sleep would awake and bewray its self in revenge Still therefore they plead the Name of their Father though dead not daring to use their own Good meanings cannot be more wrong'd than with suspition It greives Ioseph to see their fear and to find they had not forgotten their own sin and to hear them so passionately crave that which they had Verse 17. Forgive the trespass of the Servants of thy Fathers God What a conjuration of pardon was this What Wound could be either so deep or so festered as this Plaister could not cure They say not the Sons of thy Father for they knew Iacob was dead and they had degenerated but the Servants of thy Fathers God How much stronger are the bonds of Religion than of Nature If Ioseph had been rancorous this Deprecation had charm'd him but now it resolves him into tears Verse 19. They are not so ready to acknowledge their old offence as he to protest his Love and if he chide them for any thing it is for that they thought they needed to entreat since they might know it could not stand with the fellow-servant of their Fathers God to harbour maliciousness to purpose revenge Am not I under God And fully to secure them he turns their eyes from themselves to the Decree of God from the Action to the Event as one that would have them think there was no cause to repent of that which proved so successful And from hence we learn also that even late confession finds forgiveness Ioseph had long ago seen their sorrow never but now heard he their humble acknowledgement Mercy staies not for outward solemnities How much more shall that Infinite Goodness pardon our sins when he finds the truth of our repentance Verse 20. Be sin what it will be in the nature of it yet my sin shall conduce and co-operate for my good So Ioseph said here to his Brethren You thought evil against me but God meant it unto Good which was not only good to Ioseph
the Wise and Mighty as he did Balaams Asse to confute his Master Verse 20. Husbands see from hence the heart of a good man to have his Wife and Children with him Wives and Children see their duty to be followers willingly of their Husbands or Fathers calling even into any Country And when I look at Moses his Rod methinks I see little David marching chearfully with his Staffe and Scrip against huge Goliah Good Lord what Weapons were those against him then in mans eyes Or this Staffe now in Moses hand against Pharaoh But God is the same both here and then and for ever strong in weakness and able to match a Kings Scepter with a Stick or a Staffe or a Stone or a word in the hand or mouth of one sent and appointed by him Verse 22. Gods Church is to him as a Man-child to the Father yea as the First-born which commonly is loved most tenderly and in greatest honour Now think with your selves how you could endure to stand and look upon an abuse offered to your First-born and then think of Gods Love to his Church whose affection as much excelleth yours as God excelleth man Now as tender Fathers for the good of their Children suffer them to lie in prison and to be school'd many wayes by want and affliction and yet in the midst of all have an eye to them a love to them and a settled purpose to help them when a love may be known a love and a good a good So our God knows his times and turns and our wants perfectly fitting the one to the other most mercifully that both our corruption and his goodness may best appear to the greatest benefit unto us He may see us humbled and school'd and tamed but undone and cast away for ever he cannot endure it he will not suffer it Verse 24. I do not so much marvel that Iethro gave Moses his Daughter for he saw him valiant wise learned nobly bred as that Moses would take her a Stranger both in bloud and Religion The choice had like to have cost him dear in this verse His Wife stood in his way for Circumcision God stands in his way for Revenge Though he was now upon Gods Message yet might he not be forborn in this neglect No circumstance either of the dearness of the Sollicitor or of our own engagement can bear out a sin with God Those which are unequally yoaked may not ever look to draw one way True Love to the Person cannot long agree with dislike of the Religion He had need to be more than a Man that hath a Zipporah lying in his bosome and can have true zeal in his heart Learn further from hence all unquiet Women what your ignorance and your obstinacy bringeth your Husbands unto though they be as Moses holy and vertuous they cannot serve God aright for you they cannot do what God requireth but you break their hearts you cool their zeal you turn them out of the way and in the end you bring them to a fearful danger of Gods destroying them Verse 26. That which Zipporah should have esteemed as a signal Mercy to her Child she interprets as a Judgement and that very Covenant of God of which Circumcision was the seal which she should have received with the greatest return of thanks was entertained with disobedience both toward her Husband and her God Thus ignorant and unthankful people mis-interpret and repine at the Dispensations of Gods Providence and that which God designes for a Mercy and a Blessing to them they take it as a Judgement and a Curse It is good for me that I was afflicted faith David Yet how many are there in the World that think otherwise and would chuse rather to be out of the Covenant than be circumcised to perish hereafter than be afflicted here CHAP. V. Verse 1. PHaraoh raged before much more now that he received a Message of dismission the Monitions of God make ill men worse the Waves do not beat nor roar any where so much as at the Bank which restraines them Corruption when 't is checked grows mad with rage as the vapour in a Cloud would not make that fearful report if it met not with opposition A good heart yeilds at the stillest Voice of God but the most gracious Motions of God harden the wicked Many would not be so desperately setled in their sins if the World had not controul'd them How mild a Message was this to Pharaoh and yet how galling God commands him that which he feared He took pleasure in the present servitude of Israel God cals for a release If the Suit had been for mitigation of labour for preservation of their Children it might have carried some hope and have found some favour But now God requires that which he knows will as much discontent Pharaoh as Pharaohs cruelty could discontent the Israelites How contrary are Gods Precepts to mans mind And indeed as they love to crosse him in their practise so he loves to crosse them in his Commands before and their Punishments after Verse 4. Moses talks of Sacrifice Pharaoh talks of Work Any thing seems due Work to a carnal mind saving Gods Service nothing superfluous but religious Duties Christ tels us there is but one thing necessary Nature tels us there is nothing but that needless Moses speaks of Devotion Pharaoh of Idleness It hath been an old use as to cast fair colours upon our own vitious actions so to cast evil aspersions upon the good actions of others The same Devil that spoke in Pharaoh speaks still in our Scoffers and cals Religion Hypocrisie conscionable Care Singularity Every Vice hath a title and every Vertue a disgrace Verse 8. Wicked men have no eyes often to see the true causes of a thing but most apt and ready to devise a false Let a man or woman be grieved extraordinarily with the burthen of their sins and with groans and sighs travail under the bitterness of it What say the Wicked Oh it is Melancholy and the body must be purged Festus imagineth Paul mad when he speaketh the words of Truth and Soberness Act. 26. 24. And that much learning made him mad when Learning is Wisdome and maketh wise Yea Heli himself mistaketh Anna a vertuous Woman and deemeth her to be drunk when ravished in her holy feeling she was crying to God in fervent Prayer 1 Sam. 2. Verse 11. The nearer that God draweth to his Church and Children to do them good the more the Devil rageth in and by his Members against them Remember that example in Mar. 9. 26. How the foul Spirit being commanded to depart rent and tare the party more and worse than ever before We cannot leave any sin wherein we have continued but by and by we shall be discouraged sometimes with threats sometimes with shew of perils and losses that may ensue But stand and shrink not and say in your heart now now is my God at hand for now I see and feel
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
regard of some Circumstances Verse 21. Every notorious sin committed by any of Gods people is a prophanation of his Name that is it causeth the Name of God to be prophaned and blasphemed by others to stink among the ungodly Those that make a profession of Religion prophane Gods Name no way so much as by consulting and shaming their profession by a scandalous Conversation such as becomes not the Gospel of Christ. Good men count sin to be the greatest smart in sin as being more sensible of the wound they therein give the glory of God than of any personal punishment Verse 25. From this Verse to the end of the Chapter may be seen the penalty of breaking these Laws of a pure God as in the beginning you see the profit of keeping them Learn then that not forraign Foes only may bring a Land to Desolation and Destruction but much sooner and soarer these home-bred Impurities which if a godly Magistrate Master or Father keep down they procure the safety of the Land or house more than if they resisted Violence with Arms. To vomit out her Inhabitants and to spew out her people are terms of great vehemency with God and therefore most great should Mans fear be lest he should provoke him to such vengeance CHAP. XIX Verse 9. A Worthy Law to teach us both what care the Lord hath of the Poor and what care we must have But when God commanded something to be left in the Field for them his meaning was not that they should have nothing out of the Barn but the Lord willed here precisely somewhat to be left in the Field because he knew our Corruption which more hardly parteth with a thing already housed and brought in then when it is yet abroad in the Field And therefore to meet with this hardness and to provide the better for them he commandeth a care in the Field before it come in and yet expecteth the other too as need requires Verse 11. The Law against Stealing hath an Explanation here added Neither deal falsely nor lye one to another as if he should have said mistake not the matter of Stealing neither judge better of your selves than there is cause but know it ever for a truth that although you break no Houses nor rob upon the way yet if you deal falsely one with the other in buying and selling or any way and lye one to another by affirming it cost so or so or by denying any thing committed to your credit and custody assure your self you are a Thief and guilty of the Eight Commandement Verse 14. It was ever esteemed a barbarous Cruelty to insult over a mans Imperfections By the Deaf are also meant men and Women absent who though they could hear being present yet being not there they are Deaf and hear not Such should not be Cursed that is Evil spoken of because they are not present to hear and answer By the Blind also are meant such as are ignorant and unskilful in any thing as an ignorant Buyer Learner Trader before whose Eyes you may not lay a stumbling-block deceiving them either by false Doctrine bad Life Craft Cunning or the like For as pittiful or more is the blindness of Mind as the blindness of Body and therefore any ways to abuse the one or the other by stumbling blocks is hateful and damnable Verse 15. Though a New Opinion may seem a poor Opinion able to do little harm though it may seem a pious and profitable Opinion and of good use yet if it stand in Judgement and pretend to be an Article of Faith thou shalt not spare it thou shalt not countenance this Opinion upon any Collateral Respects but bring it to the only tryal of Doctrines the Scriptures And as for Opinions so likewise for Sins thou shalt not pitty the Poor in Judgement when thou callest thy self to Judgement and thy Conscience to an Examination thou shalt not pitty any sin because it pretends to be a poor sin either poor so as it cannot much endanger thee not much incumber thee or poor so as that it threatens thee with Poverty with Disability to support thy State or maintain thy Family if thou entertain it not Many times I have seen a Suitor that comes in Forma pauperis more trouble a Court and more importune a Judge than greater Causes or greater Persons and so may such Sins as come in Forma pauperis either way Verse 18. Because we are apt to say upon Injuries received I will not avenge but sure I will remember them forgive I may but never forget therefore it is said here neither shalt thou be mindful of a wrong against the Children of thy people Remembring then you see is condemned as well as Avenging and therefore it concerns us both to forgive and forget or else the Lord will forget us out of his Book of Life Verse 19. With divers Seeds they sow their Ground which follow divers Doctrines in Religion And Linnen-Woolen Garments are forbidden either because the Gentiles used them to whom God would not have his People like or to note how hateful to God a phantastical head is carried about with new Toyes and Fashions He that is a Papist here and a Protestant there he that taketh part with both sides in a Quarrel or Plea of Law is a Lindsy-woolsy Christian. Verse 23. This restrained covetousness in the Jews and taught them how God hateth scraping all to a Mans self for his time and caring nothing for posterity Secondly it shews how little worth the Fruits of Youth usually are either to the Church or Common-wealth till years have bred strength of Judgement and made them both see and do what is profitable CHAP. XX. Verse 5. LEt us have a care how we kindle Gods wrath against us either by our own Sins or by winking at and suffering in others what we are able to amend for the Lord hath here vowed to set his Face against such persons to cut them off and their Families also with them although the Magistrate wink and will not see what the Lord hath commanded him to see and punish Yea the Lord himself will be reveng'd both of Doer and Sufferer be he Father Husband Master Magistrate or whosoever bound by place and Office to look to such things and to reform them Verse 9. That giveth them but an ill word or look for Saepe vultu laditur pietas The Eye that mocketh at his Father saith the Wise-man Prov. 30. or despiseth to obey his Mother that looketh upon her with disdain as an old withered Fool as the Hebrew reads The Ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall cat it God takes notice of the offending Member and appoints a punishment for it Now they are Cursed with a witness whom the Holy Ghost thus Curseth in such Emphatical manner in such Exquisite terms Let wicked Children therefore look to it and know that a proud and paltry look cast upon a Parent is a
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
do with little means and but once to teach us what he can do without means Once shall the Prophet say Man lives by Bread and but once Man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Verse 5. As a loving Father never beateth his Child but for a Fault so neither doth God chasten us without a Cause our sins are the Cause which furnish Gods whip But then withall this will comfort those Children of God that are afflicted is any Child of God either impoverish'd with Losses or visited with Sickness or struck with Sores or oppressed with heavy burthens or grieved with Death of Friends or affrighted with terrors of Conscience let him lay this Text to his Heart and it will either cure his Malady or at least make it sufferable yea and comfortable unto him For in his greatest extremity let him thus think with himself it is God that smites me can I resist his power must I not obey his Will Again God chastens me as a Father he inflicts with grief moderateth with Love guideth with Fatherly providence what he ordereth me to suffer Shall I refuse Nurture and shew my self a Bastard and no Son had I rather he should leave me to my self to follow my own courses according to the bent of my corrupt Nature with a purpose to deprive me of his Glory and dis-inherit me of his Kingdom He Disciplineth all his Children am I better than the rest and all this he doth in love and shall I take that ill that is sent to me in love but you will say Doth God take pleasure in the afflictions of his Children No Castigat quos amat non tamen amat castigare he chasteneth whom he loves yet he loves not to chasten but this he doth to purge our Corruptions and improve our Graces Verse 14. Not the meer possession and use of Riches offends but the affectation the fault hangs not upon Riches but upon that which Idols them the Heart And therefore Moses gave here a strong Caveat to the Israelites that when their Flocks and Heards increased their silver and their gold was multiplyed they should be ware lest their Hearts were lifted up and so they should forget God Those sublunary Creatures raise not distraction in us so we make them not our Centre if we rest not in them if we can look through them to the giver and therefore there is no doubt but we may entertain Riches not only as a Servant but a Friend but by no means as a Lord. There is vertue in the true use of them if there be a qualification in our desires CHAP. IX Verse 10. THere was never so precious a Monument as the Tables written with Gods own hand If we see but the stone which Iacobs head rested on or on which the foot of Christ did once tread we look upon it with more than ordinary respect with what eye should we have beheld this Stone which was hewed and written with the finger of God Any Manuscript scroll written by the hand of a famous Man is layed up amongst our Jewels what place then should we have given to the hand-writing of the Almighty That which God hath Dictated to his Servants the Prophets challengeth just Honour from us How doth that deserve Veneration which his own hand wrote immediatly Prophesies and Evangelical Discourses he hath written by others never did he write any thing himself but these Tables of the Law neither did he ever speak any thing audibly to all man-kind but it the Hand the Stone the Law were all his By how much more precious this Record was by so much was the faolt greater of defacing it Verse 12. God sends down Moses to remedy this sin he could as easily have prevented as redressed it He knew Moses came up what Israel would do ere he came down like as he knew the Two Tables would be broken ere he gave them God most wisely permits and ordains sin to his own ends without our excuse And though he could easily by his own hands remedy evils yet he will do it by means both ordinary and subordinate It is not for us to look for any immediate redress from God when we have a Moses by whom it may be wrought since God himself expects this from Man why should Man expect it from God Verse 14. Now might Moses have found a time to have been even with Israel for all their unthankfulness and mutinous Insurrections Let me alone I will consume them and make thee a mighty Nation Moses should not need to solicite God for Revenge God solicites him in a sort for leave to revenge who would look for such a word from God to Man Let me alone as yet Moses had said nothing before he opens his mouth God prevents his importunity as fore-seeing that holy violence which the requests of Moses would offer to him Moses stood trembling before the Mâ—â—esty of his Maker and yet hears him say Let me alone The mercy of our God hath as it were obliged his power to the Faith of Men the servent Prayers of the faithful hold the hands of the Almighty As I find it said afterwards of Christ that he could do no miracles there because of their unblief so now I hear God as if he could not do execution upon Israel because of Moses Faith say Let me alone that I may consume them Verse 17. I see here that forty dayes talk with God cannot bereave a man of passionate infirmity he that was the meekest upon Earth in a sudden indignation abandons that which in cold Blood he would have held faster than his Life He forgets the Law written when he saw it broken his zeal for God hath transported him from himself and his duty to the charge of God He more hates the golden Calf wherein he saw engraven the Idolatry of Israel than he honour'd the Tables of Stone wherein God had engraven his Commandements and more longed to deface the Idol than he cared to preserve the Tables Yet that God which so sharply reveng'd the breach of one Law upon the Israelites checks not Moses for breaking both the Tables of the Law The Law of God is spiritual the eternal breach of one Law is so hainous that in comparison of it God scarce counts the breaking of the outward Tables a breach of the Law The goodness of God winks at the errors of honest zeal and so loveth the strength of good affections that it passeth over their infirmities Verse 19. God had promised Moses to make him a great Nation Verse 14. but this satisfies not Moses unless Israel may be so too and therefore he prayes for them here that the Lord would not destroy them The more a man can leave himself behind him and aspire to a care of community the more spiritual he is nothing makes a man so good a Patriot as Religion But oh the sweet disposition of Moses fit for him that should be
sometimes on the Land Monsters bred of unlawful conjunctions which should not see the Sun Now if the Image of this vice be so horrid odious in Nature what shal we judge of the vice its self in Religion I am sure that God can away with any sort of sinners better than these for these he threatneth to spew out of his mouth Rev. 3. 16. as we therefore tender the Salvation of Body and Soul let us take heed of this plowing with an Ox and an Ass in the Text of this Laodicean temper in Religion if we ever look to be saved by our Religion we must save and preserve it entire and unmixt for God is a jealous God and will not give any part of his glory to another Verse 12. Upon these Fringes was some parcel of the Law written that so looking upon them they might be put in mind of Gods Commandements which should teach us that all sorts both young and old of what condition soever are enjoyn'd to know the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the will of God reveal'd in them and this because ignorance is the ground of error The natural man perceiveth not the things that be of God so then being of our selves blind and wanting the light of the Word we must needs go astray hence it is that Christ saith to the Sadduces Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. and then again the want of Knowledg is the cause of sundry fearful judgements Spiritual and Temporal inward and outward for as Ignorance is the cause of sin so it is the cause of judgement the reward of sin If we care not to know God but neglect the meanes of Knowledge no marvel if we be punish'd Verse 19. God will not suffer his Children to be evill-spoken of unjustly but will both clear them from the scandal and punish it God will so Oyl their good Name that infamy shall not stick on it Dirt will stick upon a Mud-wall but not upon Marble and therefore say thou be aspers'd and denigrated by the Calumnies and contumelies of black Tongues and thou lye under them for a time as the Earth doth under the darkness of the Night yet as the morning suddenly arrising driveth away that darkness so God shall clear up thy wronged innocency and as the Moon wadeth out of a cloud so shalt thou get out of all thy troubles in this kind or any other It shall be with thee as it was once with Cato whom Seneca calls the lively Picture of Vertue who was two and thirty times openly accused in Court and as many times cleared and absolved CHAP. XXIII Verse 7. THe relation of Flesh and Blood should be a strong tye among Christians and all Men indeed but we find the quite contrary For the difference of Brethren are of all others most irreconcileable whether they be Brethren by Race or Grace And for the first of these see it exemplified in Cain and Abel Esau and Jacob for thus it is written in nature that those that loved most dearly if once the Devil cast his Club between them they hate most deadly and as for Brethren by Profession and that of the true Religion too you shall meet with many divisions and those prosecuted with a great deal of bitterness No War breaks out sooner or lasts longer than that among Divines or about the Sacrament a Sacrament of Love a Communion and yet the occasion by accident of much dissention Great care therefore must be taken that Brethren break not Friendship or if they do that they unite and peece again as soon as possible for remember saith the Text he is thy Brother and therefore to be born with though unkind and injurious Verse 9. Seeing War is a lawful Ordinance of God it teacheth us to use it lawfully and to behave our selves uprightly when we go unto it So soon as War is proclaimed and the Trumpet sounded all Laws for the most part keep silence and equity is buried there is no mean or measure observed every Man thinks he may do what he list Hence it is that the Lord giveth these Precepts to his People When thou goest out with an host against thine Enemies c. Where Moses teacheth that we must not bear our selves in War as if all things were lawful nor give our selves a lawless liberty to be carried head-long into all Wickedness when we are come into the Field and there stand against the Enemy we must not think we have a pardon purchased to fall into all outrage and villany For whose are the Battels that we fight who is it that giveth the Victory If we look for any blessing from God we must have the more care to serve him faithfully and depend upon him religiously Prophane and ungodly men must not be listed in his Army The Lord will be the greatest Enemy unto such and they have more cause to stand in fear of him than of all their Enemies besides Verse 14. Seeing God is ever in his Church it is our duty to behave our selves in all our actions as in his presence It behooveth us to set him alwayes before us and to know how that he continually walks among us If the Child were alwayes in the sight of his Father the servant of his Master the Subject of his Prince they would not have an unseemly gesture a disordered action how much more doth it stand us upon to look to all our wayes that we offend not before the Majesty of God in whose presence we stand When the Minister Prayes and Preacheth when the people attend and hearken we must know that God looks upon us This is that use which Moses sets down here in giving directions to the people that they should have a place without the hoast c. the truth of which Ceremony leads us as it did them to a further matter and teacheth us that we must be an holy people to God in soul and body and to take heed of defiling our selves with sin we must all of us learn to purge our selves from such foul and filthy Corruptions if we will have God to rule and be resident among us Verse 18. Some understand this Text literally and Grammatically according to that expression of the Prophet Isa. 66. 3. He that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Doggs neck Others take it metaphorically of impudently shameless sinners that blush not to commit Uncleanness in the sight of the Sun these shall never enter into Gods House the Kingdom of Heaven The Irish ayr will sooner brook a Toad or Snake to live there than Heaven will brook a sinner It was not permitted to a Dogg to enter into the Acropolis which was the chief Tower or Temple at Athens for his heat in Venery and ill savour saith Plutarch Goats likewise saith Varro come not there unless for Sacrifice once a year upon the same account no filthy Doggs or nasty Goats shall ever enter into Heavens Tower The Panther smells well among Beasts
men it is ordained for men Verse 10. In this seventh year it was not lawful to require debts but some differance of opinions men have touching this some say their debt was clean lost others say no but for that year deferred and forborn after demanded lawfully and paid willingly which is more likely for as much as those pollitick lâ—ws of God were not ordained of God to overthrow justice but to preserve it and direct it in a commendable and fit manner among men now it is justice to let every man have his own and there was good reason wherefore that debt should be forborn this seventh year because that year there was notillage to make money of a right and true application of this may every feelling heart make in these Cities and Towns where it shall please God to lay his sore visitation of plague or any other infection thereby stopping the trade whereby every man was enabled to get for his maintenance and the discharge of such that were due from him to others God forbid but that mercy should be found towards their brethren in those that look for mercy at Gods hand when men cannot receive money they cannot pay and no dishonest meaning making the stop but only the Lords hand staying trade who will be rigorous in such a case when the earth rested and there was no tillage to raise money by you see the mercy of Gods law here and is it not all one when trade ceaseth let your bowels then shew whose children you are if the Image and superscription of God be upon you surely you will shew mercy and give some set time to your Creditors that mean truly read what God saith Isaiah 58. 3. c. and remember he is the same God still Verse 19. God by Moses made the Children of Israel a Song because as he said howsoever they did by the Law they would never forget that Song and that Song should be his witnesse against them Therefore would God have us institute solemn memorials of his great deliverances that if when those dales come about we do not glorifie him that might aggravate our condemnation CHAP. XXXII Verse 11. THE words spoken here of God himself are thus applicable to his Ministers first the Eagle stirreth up her nest the Preacher stirs and moves and agitates the holy assertions of the Congregation that they slumber not in a sencelessenesse of that that is said and then as 't is added here she flutters over her young the Preacher makes a holy noise in the conscience of the Congregation and when he hath awakened them by stirring the nest he casts some claps of thunder some intimidations in denouncing the judgements of God and he flings open the gates of heaven that they may hear and look up and see a man sent by God with power to infuse his fear upon them so she fluttereth over her young but then as it followeth there she spreadeth abroad her wings she overshaddowes them she enwraps them she armes them with her wings so that no other terror no other fluttering but that which comes from her can come upon them The Preacher doth so infuse the fear of God into his Auditory that first they shall fear nothing but God and then they shall fear God but so as he is God and God is mercy God is love And the Minister shall so spread his wings over his people as to defend them from all inordinate fear from all diffidence and distrust in the mercy of God which is farther exprest in the next clause She taketh them and beareth them upon her wings When the Minister hath performed all the former acts of his calling then he sets them upon the top of his best wings and shewes them heaven and God in heaven raining down his bloud into their emptinesse and his balm into their wounds and preparing their seat where he stands solliciting their cause at the right hand of his Father Verse 35. In this we have a first and a second lesson First that since revenge is in Gods hands it will certainly fall upon the malefactor God doth not mistake his marke and then since revenge is in his hands no man must take revenge out of his hands or make himself his own Magistrate or revenge his own quarrel And as we we that are Christians have our author Moses here that tels us this the natural man hath his secular author Theocritus that tels him as much reperit Deus nocentes God alwaies findes out the guilty man In which the natural man hath also a first and second lesson too first that since God findes out the Malefactor he never scapes And then since God doth find him at last God sought him all the while though God strike late yet he pursued him long before many a man feels the sting in his conscience long before he feels the blow in his body That God finds and therefore seeks that God overtakes and therefore pursues that God overthrows and therefore resists the wicked is a naturall conclusion as well as a divine Verse 40. Where was God now when he lifted up his hands to heaven here here upon earth with us in his Church for our assurance and our establishment making that protestation denoted in his lifting up his hands to heaven that he lived for ever and that therefore we need fear nothing Verse 50. How familiarly doth Moses hear of his end it is no more betwixt God and Moses but Go up and die If he had invited him to a meal it could not have been in a more sociable compellation no otherwise then he said to his other Prophet Up and eat It is neither harsh nor news to Gods children to hear or think of their departure to them death hath lost his horror through acquaintance they have so oft thought and resolved of the necessity and of the issue of their dessolution that they cannot hold it either strange or unwelcome He that hath had such entire conversation with God cannot fear to go to him Those that know him not or know he will not know them no marvail if they tremble Verse 51. It might have been just with God to have reserved the cause to himself and in the generallity to have told Moses that his sin must shorten his journey but it is more mercy then justice that his Children shall know why they smart that God may at once both justifie himself and humble them for their particular offences Those to whom he meanes vengeance have not the sight of their sins till they be past repentance Complaine not that God upbraids thee with thy old sins whosoever thou art but know it is an argument of love whereas concealment is a fearful sign of a secret dislike from God CHAP. XXXIII Verse 2. THough it be not a difficult matter to impose upon the sence and judgement of men with whom tin may pass for silver it is not so with the judge and searcher of the heart he soon