was the common stock out of which the following days works were deduced having its Original from God alone without any concurring power or foregoing Matter as the word God created noteth Whatever is or existeth besides God must proceed from God who is the Original of all All Creatures were in God before the Creation as effects are in the cause as the Rose before the Summer when it is neither spread nor sprung is in the Root the Idaea of all was in his understanding and will Thus David saith Thine Eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy books all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Psal 139.15 16. God had all the Names and Number of every part of the Creation as it were writ down in his Common-place-book like a curious workman that works all by the book and by a Model set before him he draws first a rude Draught then polisheth and perfecteth all The Third Enquiry is What is the Form of the Creation Answ God having made this rude Mass or first Matter of nothing by his Almighty Creating power in process of time and by degrees this Tohu Vabohu or Material Mass without form and void hitherto the Lord gave every part a proper and particular Form and perfection both in the higher and lower world beautifying Heaven with two great Lights and bespangling it with a numberless number of Stars so it became a stately Star-chamber for glorious Angels and glorified Saints to dwell in though that stupendious Arch-work of Heaven be not born up by props and pillars yet falls not upon our heads to the earth and clothing the earth with grass garnishing it with Flowers and furnishing it with Fruits This is called Creation-Mediate because her Matter praeexisted as Plants and Animals were Created out of the earth and out of the waters Gen. 1.20 24 25. but the production of that Matter out of which they were Created is called Creation-Immediate as it was made of nothing simply yet inasmuch as this Matter was a subject that had no Hability in it self to produce any thing the earth a dead lump had no power of it self to produce Plants or living Creatures no more than the Rock in the Wilderness had power to produce Water Exod. 17.6 Hence Gods producing all sorts of Creatures out of the first Matter is call'd Creatio Mediata as Gods making the first Matter out of nothing is call'd Creatio Immediata These two are call'd the primary and secundary Creation The form of the Creation is twofold 1. That which is common to all Created things was the Existency of all things which Existed not before that God gave to them in one moment by his Almighty Word and All-working command yea a most perfect Existency all his Creatures were very good Dei dicere est efficere God spake the Word and it was done so that Creation was no Motion but a simple and bare Emanation which is when without any Repugnancy of the Patient or toilsome labour of the Agent the work doth freely flow from the action of the Working Cause as the shadow doth from the Body This wonderful work of the great World made by Gods Irresistible Word is the shadow and obscure Representation of his unsearchable Wisdom Power and Goodness 2. That which is proper and peculiar To each Creature both Coelestial and Terrestrial God gave a distinct and differing Form making the Stars above and all things below to differ in their kind one from another This Formation of all things in differing Species out of the first Matter without either Successive Motion preceding Mutation or gradual Alteration no Created Being could possibly effect but God the Father alone by his Eternal Word and Spirit made all out of the first Matter and gave to all their several Form which was not in the first Matter but was Created out of nothing perfection was the Form and Beauty of the World and of every Creature in the World All the works of God are perfect works Deut. 32.4 Nothing could have been made more perfect essentially though God could have made some things better than he made them accidentally as he could have made Worms to be Angels and he could have given more excellent endowments to every Creature respecting the parts of the world but in respect of the whole the World was perfect both in respect of Degrees and Parts Every days Work was good Gen. 1.4 10 18 21 25. in respect of the parts severally but when the whole is spoke of all together 't is said They were all very good v. 31. The Fourth Enquiry is What was the Final Cause or End of it Answ The End of the Creation is twofold 1. The Supreme End 2. The Subordinate The first is the Manifestation of Gods Glory the second is the Instruction and Comfort of Man Gods Master-piece 1. Of the first God who is the most pure Act as before may be considered under a twofold Act. 1. Internal 2. External 1. The Internal or inward Act was not onely his actual enjoying of himself and solacing himself in himself from all Eternity thus God was happy in himself and was an Heaven to himself and needed no Created thing to make him more happy he was God blessed for ever without and before the Creation but also his Decree which was one eternal voluntary constant Act of God absolutely determining the Infallible future Being of whatsoever is beside himself unto the praise of his own glory Eternity is an Everlasting Now. whatever God thinketh or willeth he always thought and willed and always doth and will both think and will there can no more be a new thought or a new purpose in God than there can be a new God Gods thinking or determining is God himself whatever is in God is God as before God decreed the Futurition of the Creatures freely not from any necessity of Nature but only from his meer good pleasure Psal 115.3 Isa 49.3 Dan. 4.25 Eph. 1.11 c. God had no need of the things decreed had he so pleased they had never been but continued for ever in their Nothing-state yet God might have been without them and happy without them though they had never been he being Eternal All-blessed All-glorious light life and love all in himself This Divine Decree gave not only a possibility that all Creatures may be but also a futurition or certainty that they all shall be they shall have an Existence an actual being in time according to Gods determination before time 2. The External or outward act of God is his Efficiency or working all that he decreed according to his Decree Gods Decree was the great design of future Action and Gods Efficiency is the execution of that design those two answer each other as the pattern and Tabernacle Exod. 25.40 and as the pattern and Temple 1 Chron. 28.12 As the actual framing of Davids Body answered the Idaea or Platform thereof
a matter of Merchandise obtained by money and favour yea and Murder too so that they had sometimes three in one year c. No wonder then if in this Confusion Paul did not know him c. But suppose Paul knew him and thought him unworthy of the reverence of a Ruler for his corrupting the whole order of the Church of God c. Yet his practice herein can in no wise palliate or patronize any refusal of reverence and obedience to the Civil Rulers though they be wicked yet their Dominion may not be despised Judev. 8. but must be obeyed and if we cannot with active then must we with passive obedience N.B. But this Ananias was not a Prince but a Priest and only a pretended High-Priest who under a Sacerdotal Title perverted the Doctrine of Truth And all that can be warranted by Paul's pattern here is That the Consciences of the Protestants are loosed from obeying the Pope who hath acted worse than this High-Priest in his Anti-Christian opposing of Christ and his Gospel upon which ground it is not only lawful but necessary to shake off his yoke The fifth Remark is That Serpentine subtilty doth well concur and may lawfully be made use of together with a Dove like innocency As Paul did here v. 6. c. when he perceived that the one part were Sadduces and the other Pharisees he cryed out I am a Pharisee c. N.B. Oecumenius doth indeed censure Paul hardly for this fact of sowing Dissention among the multitude who had Unanimously Conspired against him and Reckons it inter Navos pauli as a piece of his Humane frailty and that he told an untruth in saying that he was called in Question about the Resurrection of the dead whereas in truth his trouble was about the Ceremonies of the Law c. N.B. But all expositors excepting him only do justifie him which is more than barely to excuse him as doing nothing herein but what became a pious and prudent Apostle of Christâ— Yea Thomas Aquinas himself approveth of this fact as a very high point of Apostolical prudence and all the Fathers generally concur in this opinion N.B. Yea Gregory Moral 34. Cap. 3.4 Hyperbolically compares it unto the Dividing of the Red-Sea for the Israelites safe passage through it and to the Dividing of Tongues at the Tower of Babel to bring into Confusion that insolent work of the Babel builders and he produceth the example of holy David praying Destroy and divide their Tongues as at Babel's building confound their Councils Psal 55.9 10. N.B. In a word the State of Paul's case stands thus he began to open his own cause in his own defence but was interrupted so by Ananias himself who should have over-ruled all disturbances against the defendent yet became he the Master of that Mis-rule himself c. that Paul could not possibly hope for any attention and audience from the Rude Rabble In a sincere Narrative of his whole Apology when their unruly Ruler had so rudely stop'd his mouth with a rude stroke upon it at his very first introduction c. N.B. Now what could Paul do in this hard Case who was able enough to make a just defence of his Righteous Cause but matters being so tumultuously managed even by the Judges themselves that then there was no place for such an admission therefore doth he warrantably exercise his Godly Policy when he perceived that his Enemies both those that sat upon the Bench and those that stood about the Bar were not all of one piece but an hodgâ—podg patched up of Pâ—arisees and Sadduces he publickly professed himself by Education a Pharisee and of that persuasion in the point of the Resurrection c. hereby he did not only cast a bone of hot contention and contest between the Pharisees and the Sadduces who deny that Doctrine but also obliges the Pharisees so far as to that opinion to take Paul's part ver 7 8 yea even against Ananias the High-Priest himself N.B. Whom Gagneius proveth out of Eusebius to be a Sadducee and therefore he with the many Sadduces in the court and council were so incensed against the prisoner because he insisted so much upon the Resurrection It is the Confession of the Jerusalem-Gomorists in Joma Fol. 38. Col. 3. That the fault of their great ones under the second Temple was love of money and an baâ—red of one another for their very Council consisted of many other Factions beside this as the Hillelian and the Shammean party all which had a deadly Fend betwixt themselves and therefore for Paul the Apost to improve this their prejudice amongst themselves for his own better escape cannot probably be censured as any other but as an high point of pious prudence Nor ought any to make a mis-improvement of Paul's practice here as if it warranted us to dissemble for out own self-ends as some say for Paul spake not this to curry favour with the Pharisees or to Authorize all their vain Traditions c. but as Tertullian saith well he singles out this one point of the Resurrection to vindicate himself against their Accusation that he was against the Law because that was the chief mystery set forth in the Law wherein the Pharisees were most sound Beside there is vast difference betwixt consulting for a man's fafty with a loss to the truth and drawing professed Enemies to Christ from destroying the prisoner to a dissention among themselves that so dogs may worry Dogs so that the poor hunted Hare Paul may thereby escape It cannot certainly be any bad work to oppose the Devil that grand opposer of all good work and who keepeth the wicked together in unity purposely to oppress yea to suppress piety tho' otherwise they be of never such Heterogeneous principles and differing Factions as Herod and Pilate were at difference before yet the Devil could unite them for the Crucifying of Christ Lu. 23.12 I do wish that we could be so wise-hearted as Paul here was to make such an improvement of those differences that are realy among the Papists at this day among whom the Priests do disparage the Jesuits and the Jesuits the Priests the Priests again bespatter the Monks the Monks do the same to the Fryers and the Jesuits do it to them all to say nothing of that feud betwixt the Franciscans and Dominicans c. Sure I am they do notoriously improve the differences among us Protestants to their own Diabolical advantage and to our horrid disadvantage at this day As it was a work well-pleasing to God for Protestants to make peace one with another and to joyn in brotherly Amity and Unity together against the Common Enemy Matth. 5.9 c. So 't is no less acceptable to the Lord if we could by Sounding the Trumpet of the Gospel as Gideon's three hundred did Judges 7.22 and make those popish Midianites to fall forth of friend-ship among themselves so as to sheath their Swords in one another's bowels Assuredly
is Mans own Concupiscence always finds him dry Tinder 3. This Lust is the Mother of Sin and Death is the Merit of it at last 4. Sin gradually incroacheth upon the Soul 1. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Seed plot of sin by Satans over shadowing begets Thoughts 2. Thoughts irritate desires 3. Then arises an inward Titillation or Contemplative Delight 4. This produces Consent 5. Then comes Action 6. Action causes Custom 7. And Custom Necessity .. Lastly comes in Death which is but a modest word for Damnation the first and second Death being implied in it Thus sin never stands still at a stay but from Concupiscence or corrupt Nature is all along in Motion yea in quick Motion till it conclude in Death or Damnation if the Grace of God prevent is not Now follows the fourth Branch of the Distribution to wit the sad consequences upon the Sinners The Lord 1. Serves a Terrible Citation upon the Tempted before he came to the censure of the Tempter so 't is said those first sinners heard the Voice of the Lord c. Gen. 3.8 to wit either in a mighty Thunder which is call'd Gods Voice Psal 29. often as he spake to Pharaoh Exod. 9.28 or in an Horrible Whirl-wind as he spake to Job Job 38.1 or the Lord comming as a just Judge to judge them for their Sin might form such Articulate words in the Air as these yea have they served me thus Have they made a conspiracy with the Devil against me their Maker Indeed So some Interpret Leruach Haiom ad Spiritum seu ventum Diei Gods presence did Demonstrate it self either by a Thunder or by a Whirl-wind or by a dreadfuly angry Articulate Voice though we translate the words in the cool of the Day This struck such a terrour into both the Offenders that they both ran to hide themselves for fear of Gods Majesty their sinful Consciences sought to shun Gods presence with as much folly as faultiness for he that formed the eye shall he not see Psal 94 9. and 139.2 7. They ran with their fig-leaf Aprons into the Thickets there to hide themselves from an All-seeing God Oh how many do so to this day which Job saying If I cover my transgression as Adam then let this and that evil come upon me Job 31.33 c. durst not do neither ought we to do it Prov. 28.13 Besides suppose what is not to be supposed that they could have run from God yet this would not do unless they could run from themselves too for Haeret lateri lethalis Arundo the wounded Deer whither ever he runs carries with him the fatal Arrow sticking fast in his sides The Guilt of their Souls and the terror of their Consciences went along with them whither ever they went So would onely have been like the Angled and Entangled fish with the Hook of the Fisherman that may indeed swim away all the length of the line but the Hook in her mouth hales her back again So God summons in sinful man saying Adam where art thou v. 9. not as if God knew not where he was for he knoweth all things Joh. 21.17 but to proceed against him after a judiciary manner therefore is he brought from behind the Bush at the Voice of the Lord will he nill he he must appear and answer for himself which he did but untowardly in the words following v. 10. God would not condemn Adam before he heard him and therefore asks him three Questions The first was as before where art thou to which Adam Answers not directly confessing his Sin but indirectly excusing his flight for three reasons all along hiding the true cause thereof Adam's first reason or shuffle was that he heard Gods Voice This he had heard before his fall and feared not but rejoic'd therein with greatest joy his second shift or shuffle was I was afraid as if he had not feared God before yes with a filial fear for his goodness Psal 31.19 Hos 3.5 as he was blessed for blessed are they that fear the Lord Psal 128.1 but now being a sinner he had turned it into a slavish fear of Gods wrath the joyful sound of God Psal 89.15 Mic. 2.7 was now become frightful to him his third excuse was I was naked Here also is now causa pro causâ for before sin they were both naked and were not ashamed Gen. 2.25 Pure nakedness was Gods Creature wherein he had appeared before in Gods presence without fear or shame thus he would have transferred his flight to God because he had made him naked and frighted him with his Thundering Voice but alas there was another pad in the straw which Adam studiously concealed to wit the Conscience of his Sin Hic murus Aheneus esto nil conscire sibi nulla pallescere culpâ The second Question God asks Adam was c. VVho told thee thou art naked And the Third Hast thou Eaten c. thereby to convince him of his sin and to make him confess it oh the wonderful condescension and kindness of God to man thus to dispute with him whom he might justly destroy Here still God's asking and arguing with man saying thy shameful nakedness could not come upon thee but by a Violation of my law because it is the punishment of Sin doth it not demonstrate that thou hast broke my precept and strip'd thy self of the Garment of Innocency Why dost thou not candidly confess the Truth Why dost thou not blame thy self but thy Mâ—â—â—â— for making thee Naked Thus the Lord most tenderly presseth hard upon him to convince his Conscience of his Sin when he might in the rigour of his Justice have confounded his person ipso facto according to the Divine Menace In the Day thou Eatost thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 Hereupon Adam puts in his Answer a sorry one Gen. 3.12 wherein He makes indeed a confession of his Eating but it was only a cold confession and accompanied with transferring the cause of his Eating from himself both to the Woman and to God too for he sophistically argued from that common maxim causa causae 〈◊〉 causa causati The Woman was the cause of my Eating and God was the cause of my having a Woman therefore my Eating is caused by thy self Thus as he had blamed God before for making him naked So now again for giving him the Woman implying thus much If God had not given me a Woman I had never sin'd against God whereas had Adam argued aright he would have discerned that the Woman much less God who forbad it was no essential cause of his Eating whereof that Maxim is meant but by accident onely And had Adam acted as an Husband ought to do in the like Temptation he could not have been caused by his Wife to Sin against God but he should as Job did his Wife have rebuked her for her Sin and for Tempting him to her transgression It was the duty of his place to reprove her for it
of it for 't is altogether improbable If not impossible That Cain who was a wicked one and of the wicked one 1 Joh. 3.12 Should be a Son of Paradice or be begot in the State of Innocency Adam might have hope of an offspring by Eve after their sin and their Doom for their sin because he had heard both the promise of the Womans Seed and the threatning of a dolorous birth Therefore in this hope he went in unto his Wife which the Holy Tongue all along expresseth by Jadang or knowing her upon this God gave Eve the Blessing of conception and then had she smarting experience both of the Sorrows of conceiving and of pain in bringing forth according to the Divine Doom passed upon her for her sin Gen. 3.16 Yet this pious Mother at the birth of Cain her first-born doth acknowledge Gods goodness for saving her from those Sorrows and Perils of birth and delivering her of a lovely Son such as the World had never seen before and therefore she would consecrate him to God as she had received him from God saying I have got a man from the Lord Gen. 4.1 Although in this the good Woman was greatly deceived by her Sons degenerating into the Devils off-spring As many good parents are and may be deceived in the hopes of their Children yet must they bless God for giving them Children which are blessings in themselves Psal 127.3 and 128.3 4. in opposition to the curse of barrenness Thus Eve acknowledged Gods goodness in giving her Seth Gen. 4.25 whom the Devil in Cain could not compass to kill as he did Abel in whom her expectation was not disappointed as it was in her first-born whom with the consent of her Husband unto whom she was put in Subjection Gen. 3.16 She called Cain which signifies possession herein therefore Eve did not usurp any authority that belong'd not to her but Adam willingly indulg'd her in this common right and gratify'd her in being so grateful to God for the blessing of fruitfulness her saying I have got a man from the Lord though Fallitur Augurio spes bona saepe suo Children are Certain Cares but Uncertain Comforts It is probable that Eve experiencing many molestations in the Education of her offspring and perceiving that Cain was not like a man of the Lord or like to be that man the Lord the Messiah promised call'd her second Son Abel which signifies first Vanity either 1. Because she then understood the Vanity of her own thoughts in mistaking Cain for the promised seed Or 2. Because she was now more sensible of the Vanity of Humane life unto which all were subject in their faln and mortal State Or 3. Because as some say she foresaw that Abel would be Murdered by Cain suddenly subtilly and sinfully so he would be a most memorable Monument of Humane Misery and Vanity Or 4 Our first parents repenting of their sinful fall resolved as others say to devote their first-born Son to the Worship of God which Law was ever after observed till the Tribe of Levi was brought in by Moses Law instead of the first-born Exod. 22.29 Numb 8.15 16 17 18. And their second Son to the Affairs of the World which compared to Gods Worship is but Vanity therefore they call'd his name Abel And the Hebrew word Habel signifies secondly Luctus lamentation because he was the first grand cause of his Parents long Lamentation when he came to be murdered by the hands of that bloody butcher his brother Cain who was so far from being the Angel of the Lord or the Lord and Messiah that he was rather the Messenger and first-born of the Devil though he was the first-born and so the High-priest of the Family yea a Devil incarnate thus to devour and destroy his own and only Brother Abel ☞ Hence those famous Remarks following may naturally be Inferr'd 1. Such was the unspeakable goodness of a most gracious God that notwithstanding the sin of man he would not abolish his own blessing promis'd upon Marriage but ratified it with the blessing of conception and Birth even in the State of sin for his own glory and the good of his Elect which should be brought into the world thereby 2. It was not the good pleasure of God to create out of the Earth a continued Succession of mankind as he had alone the first man but Marriage was Gods own Ordinance whereby the World must be propagated as by means Lawful Holy and Well pleasing to God who ordained it before the Fall So that all Reproachers of this Holy and Honourable Ordinance Heb. 13.4 are Reproachers of God himself the Ordainer of it such are the Romanists who impose that Doctrine of Devils in forbidding it to their Votaries 1 Tim. 4.1.3 In the mean time being insensible that Whoremongers and Adulterers God himself if man will not Judge 3. Parents are taught here to be truly thankful to God for those Children whom he graciously giveth them as Eve was here and as Jacob was after Gen. 33.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Childâ—en are Gods special gift as David taught Solomon Psal 127.3 and Title of the Psalm Psal 128. That nothing can begotten no child can be begotten without Gods blessing This was a fit Lâ—sson for Solomon who of a 1000 Wives and Concubines begot only one Son that we read of and he none of the wisest 4. Parents should consecrate those children to God which they have so graciously received from God they should nurture their souls as well as nourish their bodies which latter is done even by Brutes to their young Eph. 6.4 A Godly Education must make Children as Arrows Psal 127.4 Arrows are not Arrows by Growth but by Art Pious instructions pare off the knotty natures of Children and polish them for God Their natures are Refined and Reformed by Grace Thus Adam and Eve taught both their Sons to Sacrifice to the Lord. 5. Hence also is a clear evidence both of the Antiquity and Excellency of the Hebrew Tongue not only as no other language will admit of any such Interpretation of the word Cain as this I have got a man from the Lord But also as the three first names of men Adam Cain Abel holdeth out a most practical and profitable aphorism or Golden Sentence Adam signifying Earth Cain Possession and Abel Vanity all this being rightly spell'd and put together in Gods School affordeth us this Divine Maxim viz. Earthly possessions are but Vanity The sixth famous Remark is The marvellous and Absolute Power which the Principal Potter hath over his Clay in framing and forming of Earthen Vessels whether in the VVomb or in the World Gods Soveraignty is eminently observable in respect of Order as well as End As Gods End is wonderful in making up some Clay Vessels for honour and others for dishonour according to his own uncontrolable Counsel and Pleasure So Gods Order hath unsearchable wisdom in it here in framing and forming first not the
us all those Graces Rom. 8.32 Even all things pertaining to Life and Godliness Eph. 1.3 1 Tim. 4.8 2 Pet. 1.3 So that 't is Mercy that performs all to Abraham Mic. 7.20 And the Saints are exhorted to look for the Mercy in Christ unto Eternal Life Jud. v. 21. And are called the Heirs of the Grace of this Life Eternal 1 Pet. 3.7 Because Grace is the cause both of Gods promising it and of his performing it the performance hath in it as much free Grace as the promise seeing we all fall short of Gods Glory Rom. 3.23 and of our own Duty Luke 17.10 The best can never have worth enough with their best to merit Heaven or purchase happiness in way of Justice it must be given in a way of Mercy Mans grace cannot merit Gods Glory In a word every Article of this Covenant is free Grace the whole Gospel is the word of Gods Grace Act. 20.32 And the Grace of God Col. 1.6 Faith is the gift of Grace Eph. 2.8 Phil. 1.29 Remission is from the Riches of Grace Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Justification is freely from Grace Rom. 3.24 Yea and Salvation is given by Grace 2 Tim. 1.9 And all the way thereunto every Influence of Grace comes from Grace Joh. 15.5 Phil. 2.13 As doth Christ himself Joh. 3.16 Inference hence 1. Magnifie the Glory of the free Grace of God as blessed Paul often did Eph. 1.6 and 2.4 and 1 Tim. 1.13 14. c. Add nothing to it mix nothing with it this debases it and darkens the glory of Grace admire it with David 2 Sam. 7.18.21 Psal 115. 1. And Adore it with Abraham falling down to worship Gen. 17.2.3 Give Grace the Glory that gives you both Grace and Glory 2. Inference let not unworthiness discourage 't is only for such as see it and are sensible of it and a contrary state and temper of the Heart in self-admiration secludes such self-admirers He pays best for Heaven that sees he hath nothing to pay for it A thousand Worlds cannot purchase it yet is it freely given hang your hope upon the free grace of God not the free will of Man NB. When Despair Dejects apply absolute promises when security and presumption prevails apply conditional both in their seasons are very useful to Souls well applied The Second Excellency of the Covenant 'T is Firm as well as Free yea 't is Firm because 't is Free had this Second Covenant stood upon Mans Obedience as the first did it had not been a firm and sure Covenant for the Free VVill of Man even in the state of Innocency was but a slippery Foundation much more is it now in the Faln estate but it stands upon the Free Grace of God Rom. 4.16 and not upon any thing in us or to be done by us therefore hath it the more certainty The Covenant of Works was not firm because it was not free but depended upon the mutability of Mans VVill and therefore Mans VVill being changeable that Covenant was changeable also but the Covenant of Grace hath no such dependency on Mans mutable VVill seeing 't is grounded upon the immutable good VVill and Pleasure of an unchangeable God it must be Free and therefore is it Firm nothing can hinder Free Grace from its effectual operation of what and on whom it will though a Promise of VVages upon condition of Works may yet a Promise of Free Grace cannot be prevented besides 't is built upon the unchangeable Purpose of God for Paul puts Purpose and Grace together 2 Tim. 1.9 now this Divine Purpose is such a sure Foundation as cannot be shaken 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knoweth them that are his both in respect of the freeness of his Election and of the Firmness of his Affection howbeit this knowledge God hath of his is carried secret as a River under ground till he calls us and separates us from the rest of Sinners hence are we call'd the called according to his Purpose Rom. 8.28 and this purpose is call'd a Promise Tit. 1.2 not as if any Promise of Eternal Life could be made to us before the VVorld began in Person but 1. Because the Father did then Purpose it in himself and according to that his Purpose did also 2. Promise it to his Son for us and in our behalf in that Eternal Covenant between them and 3. According to that Eternal Purpose in himself and that Eternal Promise to Christ the Promise of Eternal Life is made in time to us in our own persons hereupon the Apostle grounds the firmness of the Covenant of Promise upon the stability of Gods Counsel or Purpose Heb. 6.17 so that unless Gods Counsel or Purpose change the Covenant or Promise is unchangeable but God is in one Mind and who can turn him Job 23.13 ever the same Heb. 13.8 and I am is his Name Exod. 3.14 NB. First Here then lyes our strongest consolation and the best Anchor hold for our Hope Heb. 6.18 The Covenant of Redemption before time was Promises conceal'd and the Covenant of reconciliation in time was purposes Revealed yea and in it we see also performances for the future so Ensured by Christ who keeps the Ensuring Office as if they were Acoomplishments at present and so two Eternities meet together in the Covenant that à parte ante before the World and that à parte post both during and after the World assuring happiness to all in the Covenant which must needs be unchangeable As 1. 'T was founded upon two unchangeable Bottoms Gods VVord and his Oath Heb. 6.17 18. 2. 'T was Contracted 'twixt two unchangeable persons the Father and the Son the Father promising so many Souls and Jews being too little Gentiles also cost the Son so much Blood every Drop was Covenanted for 3. 'T was made before an unchangeable VVitness the Spirit Joh. 5.32 36 37. Heb. 9.14 whereupon 't is call'd an Everlasting Covenant Isa 55.3 and Heb. 13.20 and 2 Sam. 23.5 Herein David placed all his Salvation as containing in it the sure Mercies of David or Christ Act. 13.34 't is not Yea and Nay but Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.19 20. not one word of it can fail Josh 21.45 and 23.14 1 Kin. 8.56 't is a sure word 2 Pet. 1.19 and 't is more easy for Mountains to move out of their places Isa 54.10 and for the course of Night and Day to cease Jer. 33.20 21. than for this firm Covenant to fail none ever took hold of it and could say There is a Lie in my hand as Isa 44.20 As God cannot Lie Tit. 1.5 so nor his Covenant Psal 89.33 34 35. 't is impossible Heb. 6.18 NB. secondly This Covenant is so firm sure and lasting that it is Perpetual and Everlasting it includes in it the two Eternities that à parte ante before the World began and that à parte post when the World shall have an end yet the Covenant shall last for ever being as in Moses phrase from Everlasting
Name of Christ The force and efficacy hereof dependeth not upon their Ministry or the intention of their Minds but upon the Mind and Will of God declared in his Word to which their pronounced Blessing carries a correspondency 'T is a piece of Blasphemy in the Popish Priests to exercise a power of pardoning Sins which no mere Man can do by his own Authority Mat. 9.3 6. hereby they do subvert the Souls of some Men The truth is this the Blessings Efficacy dependeth not on the intention of the less principal Blesser who is Man but on the more principal Blesser who is God The Benediction could not be conferr'd at Isaac's pleasure but by Gods pre-ordination this the poor Blind Father acknowledges that Divine Providence had over-rul'd him and telleth Esau that by Wisdom so some sense the word Mirmah which we read by subtilty Jacob had taken away his Blessing ver 35. The second Cause cannot hinder the Operation of the first Cause hereupon though Isaac's primary intention was erroneous he corrects it by a right secondary intention and ratifies that by Faith Heb. 11.20 Gen. 27.33 c. and 28.1 which before he had only related by fancy and though the mistakes of Persons do invalidate Humane Contracts as Marriage Donatives c. yet this holds not always true for Jacob's after-consent made Leah mistaken for Rachel his Lawful Wife however it cannot hold as to the Divine Covenant and Counsel which is not in Mans power to frustrate either by contrary intentions or indeavours Shall their unbelief make the Faith of God of no effect Rom. 3.3 nor doth unbelieving or not rightly intending indeavours of Men frustrate Decrees or Ordinances of God The eighth Inference is Spiritual Blessings must be sought and sued for in their proper Season Here Esau came too late for the Blessing which was bellowed before be lost the right Season which is a part of time above all other parts even the Shine and Lustre of time so could not obtain it no not with Tears Heb. 12.16 17. where 't is said 1. That he found no place of Repentance that is not in Isaac whom he could not with all his weeping and his Fathers Affection to him make to Repent and Repeal what he had done for when Isaac saw he had done unwilling Justice in Blessing he durst not Reverse the Blessing for he feared an exceeding great fear Gen. 27.33 2. Esau's weeping the Apostle intimates was but an Hypocritical Repentance they were Tears only of Discontent for while he wept he at the same time threatens his Brother therefore is he call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profane for he that hateth his brother it of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.10 12. Esau wept only for Revenge and in Hypocrisie who rued his Deed but did not repent of his Sin 3 Though vera seria poenitentia nunquam est sera true and sound Repentance is never too late for God saith when at any time a Sinner repenteth truly he shall live and not die Ezek. 18.21 27. yet Esau 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was reprobated or rejected both for his unsound and unseasonable Repentance be did not enter in while the door was open Math. 25.10 11. he sought not the Lord while he might be found Isaâ— 55.6 Ps 32.6 when God calls and Men refuse when they cry God hears not Prov. 1.25 28. He that will not when he may when he would he shall ha' nay Esau crys out of his Father's Store and of his Brother's Fraud but not a word of his own Prophaneness in selling his Birthright whoso prefers Swine before a Saviour with the Gadarens and their part in Paris before Paradice with the carnal Cardinal and earthly Pleasures before the City of Pearl with prophane Esau and with him seek the Blessing too late also shall be rejected tho they seek it with Tears 'T is too late to weep when Time is come already for the Judgments of God to fall on us and when Time is past also for the Amendment of our own lives The next grand Remark in Jacob's Life is this Vision of the Ladder before which some previous practicable and profitable Notes are to be diligently observed As 1. No sooner is Jacob Blest but he must be Banish'd Immediately after he had got the Blessing in his Fathers House Gen. 27. he must be gone into Banishment from it Gen. 28. Crux est Evangâ—lii Genius saith Luther Persecution is the bad Ghost which always Haunts Religion and Righteousness 'T was not now safe for Jacob to tarry any longer at Home because of the Bloody Threats of his Brother Esau Thus the Faithful find hard usage from the faithless for all Men have not Faith 2 Thes 3.2 3. for seeking after Spiritual Blessings therefore Christ hath given us Counter-cordials saying That Banishment c. can be no barr to Blessedness but is rather an Evidence of it when 't is for the Gospels and Righteousness sake Mat. 5.10 11 12. A good Cause and a good Conscience makes right Martyrs and gives them with that honour Phil. 1.29 an Exhibition of Heaven The second Remarkable Note is Though Jacob must be Banisht yet shall he be doubly Blest to Counter-comfort him Gen. 28.2 3 4. Must Jacob arise and go a long and tedious Journey yet before his departure Isaac will Bless him again for the further and fuller confirming of his Sons Faith about inheriting the Blessing not as if the first Blessing were insufficient either in respect of it self or in respect of the Blesser Isaac but that it might be more satisfactory to Jacob who was Blessed by him for he having got the Blessing from his Brother to himself by fraud might justly doubt of its Ratification his Faith therefore had need of a Fence against his fear and the doubling of the Blessing was the Cure of his doubting especially when his Father Blest him now wittingly and willingly whereas before he had only done it ignorantly This second Benediction Isaac gives to Jacob upon a Threefold account 1. To Support his Sons Soul with due Courage and Comfort against all those Cares Pains and Perils that must attend him both in his Solitary Travels and in his state and place of Banishment 2. That he might not be discourag'd at the leaving of his Fathers Land as if he had no Title to it therefore his Father Prays as well as Blesses that he might Inherit it 3. That he might not be offended at Esau's present state who while himself was driven abroad tarry'd at Home seem'd more Happy and more like to become the Heir therefore must he have his Fathers second Blessing to carry along with him in his Banishment and there to live upon it as the Earnest of his Inheritance in due time Hence the third Remark or Note ariseth That the faithful may and must wait with patience for the happy performance of Gods pretious Promises Whereas Jacob who had the Blessing and the Promise of God is forced from
brought forth their Young This was to testifie himself a Stranger having no stately Dwelling-place Hebr. 11.9 10 13. He was the Syrian ready to perish Deut. 26.5 professeth himself a Stranger at Succoth not far from Penuel Judg. 8.15 16 c. the place which Jacob's Sons came to as their first Stage out of Egypt Exod. 12.37 Upon which double occasion of Remembrance the Lord instituted the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles Levit. 23.34 42 43. which yet was not strictly observed no not in David and Solomon's the best of Times until Nehemiah Neh. 8.16 17. After this 't is said Jacob came from Succoth safe to Shechem Gen. 33.18 as the word Salem taken not properly but appellatively signifies to shew the prosperous passage God gave him hitherto according to his Promise Gen. 31.3 and 32.28 so long a Journey through so many Dangers and Difficulties this is Recorded as a Miracle of Mercy that no Evil did befall either himself or his numerous Family his Wives and Children or any part of his prodigious Flocks and Herds none casting their Young or dying by the way but all came safe and sound to Shechem in Canaan Hence the Hebrews have that opinion aforesaid that Jacob must therefore be heal'd of his halting before this c. but whereas there had been hitherto no Mischief or Miscarriage either in him or in his house Here and hence did arise Jacob's first fearful and sinful Cross-providence to wit the Ravishment of his only Daughter Dinah a Damosel not above Fifteen years old of a comely Countenance Born to him by Leah c. The Occasion of this Rape is thus related Gen. 34.1 2. This Virgin having been hitherto vertuously and religiously Educated under most strict observation of her Pious Parents and perhaps slily slipping and sliding at this time out of their sight out of a vain Curiosity went out to see the Canaanitish Daughters who then were coming forth from Shechem with Timbrels to solemnize a solemn Feast saith Josephus to celebrate a Marriage with Plays and Dances say the Hebrew Doctors that she might observe their Persons their Port and Postures their Habits and Behaviours and perhaps to pick up some Acquaintance with them and some Companions among them she being but solitary as Jacob's only Daughter so wanting as she thought some suitable company Moses God's Penman gives darkly this Intimation That Dinah's neeâ—less jetting abroad either by the Indulgence or Ignorance of her Mother to spy the Fashions and Novelties both became the occasion of evil to her self and the cause of Tears to the tender Eyes of her Mother Leah if indeed her Heart were as tender as her Eyes Dinah indeed went out from her Father's House or Tent pitch'd in the Field before Shechem only to see those of her own Sex strutting with stretch'd Necks and Mincing with their feet within the City but she was soon seen of the other Sex and being seen was Desired and being Desired was lust fully Abused by the young Prince of the Land Mars videt hanc visamque Cupit potiturque Cupitâ The Devil threw some Wild-fire-Balls through the windows of the Eyes into Shechem's Soul and set it all into a Combustion Satan made this Princely youngster's Eyes an effectual Burning-Glass to set his Heart on fire ut vidit periit As soon as he saw this strange and lovely Damosel be lusted after her Evil Concupiscence was begotten by his wanton Eye upon this beautiful Object and being once begot it groweth unrulily Headstrong and hasteth to the Evil Act. He taketh her by force picking her up among the Plays and by force Defileth her v. 2.5 Thus this first Folly came to be wrought in Israel v. 7. Inferences hence are various As 1. The most pious and faithful Families may have most fearful Mischiefs befall them as Jacob's had here and elsewhere and David's many afterwards The worst Miscarriages through Satan's Malice may happen in the best Families which may serve First To caution men from placing too much Confidence in pious Parents Educating their Children Grace is not Hereditary 't is not in the Parents power to infuse their own Holiness into the hearts of either their Sons or Daughters Secondly It may serve likewise to restrain men from pouring out too many rash Censures against Religious Parents because of the Faults of their Children The Second Inference Such foul Miscarriages fall not out in such Godly Families but usually there is some Sin or other therein which justly Vindicates God's Righteousness in permitting such severe Judgments to befall them This is manifest even in that None-such Job's Case whose Miscries that befell him were matchless and beyond a Parallel though his Piety was such also yet he crys out under them I have sinned c. Job 7.20 If he had none of those foul Eccentrick Enormities that his three Friends charg'd him with he denies not but at least he had involuntary and unavoidable Infirmities whereby he justified God both in his Soveraignty and in his own Sufferings but much more 't is manifest in David's Case who cry'd out also I have sinned when he heard what sad Consequences were like to be for his Sin in the matter of Uriah 2 Sam. 12.9 10 11 12 13. And 't is apparent too in Jacob's Case when this first Miscarriage in his House came upon him 't was now some Seven or Eight years since the Lord brought him back from Haran or Padan-Aram yet had he not all this time thought of paying that Vow which he made to God when he was going thither Gen. 28.20 c. 'T is no wonder if God overtook him now with this severe scourge to rouze and raise up his dull forgetful Head and neglectful Heart to pay his promis'd Vows The Third Inference is All needless Gaddings abroad are of dangerous Consequence to young People who are unfit to be wholly at their own finding especially the weaker Sex which may prove strong enough to provoke but over weak to resist a Temptation God hath Recorded this woful Example for the Admonition of others under the like Circumstances Altetius perditio tua fit cautio the harms caught by some must be a warning to others The word noteth here that Dinah's wanton gadding abroad and gazing upon others gave occasin to this warm Youngster to look and Lust after her Therefore the same word teacheth after and not without cause that the younger women be Keepers at home Tit. 2.5 and 1 Tim. 5.13 especially Virgins whose Names the three in Hebrew and the two in Greek are derived from House Hiding and Shadow as Beth Gnalam and Talal signifies and from Lock'd Treasure and the Apple of the Eye as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bear that sense to teach them they should refrain from idle Gadding and from Evil Company The Septuagint put in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here which Augustin renders Condiscere implying that Dinah did gadd to
again Still my Promise which though Sealed is not Dated shall in no wise be disannulled but shall in due time have its full Accomplishment God loves to go a way of his own sometimes he fetches a Compass as before and goeth about and about while he goeth about to fulfil his word Hereupon David declareth expresly how God sent a Famine as all publick calamities are of his sending for punishing the wicked and for proving the godly Psal 105.16 which was the chief cause and first occasion of Israel's going down into Egypt ver 23. Therein the Divine Decree began to work concerning Israel's Sojourning and Suffering hardship in Egypt by a wonderful Providence There was a sore Famine at the same time both in Canaan and in Egypt by Gods shutting up his Hand of Bounty and withholding his Blessing whereby their Staff they lean'd upon was broken this God concealeth from the Father though a Prophet before he sent it and therefore Jacob made no Provision before-hand though he then lived in the Glory of all Lands Ezek. 20.6 for Fatness and Fruitfulness insomuch that when his Father Isaac Sowed in that Land which he only Hired then for his use and that in a time of Famine too he had an hundred sold increase which is the very utmost that our Lord mentions Mat. 13.23 in the Parable of the Sower Gen. 26.12 yet his Son Jacob meets at this time with no such overflowing measures so his Stores were soon Exhausted when the starving Famine falls upon his Family But God revealeth this approaching Judgment to Jacob's Son Joseph a Prophet also seven years before it came hereupon he laid up Stores in abundance in Egypt Jacob the Father is Famish'd at Home while Josâ—ph the Son is Fed to the full Abroad The emptiness of Jacob's Barns drives him out of Canaan and the fulness of Joseph's Garners draws him down to Egypt Remark the second Oh that Christs fulness may incite and intice us as Merchants to the Indies c. full of Spices Pearls and precious Commodities as Bees to pleasant Meadows full of fragrant Flowers affording sweet Thyme to that laborious little Insect as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon full of Wisdom to satisfie her Soul in all her Abstruse Questions and as Jacob and all his Family to Joseph in Egypt where he had fulness of Corn for them all in that extream Famine which they the blessed Church smarted under as well as their Neighbours the Cursed Canaanites so had Abraham and his Family and so had Isaac and his Family done before Gen. 12.10 and 26.1 Saints have their share in common Calamities both the good Figs and the bad were carried Captive Jer. 24.1 3 5 8. The sharp Sickle cuts down the Corn and the Weeds both together at the Harvest so that fulness both of Abundance and of Redundance which it hath pleased the Father Col. 1.19 doth dwell in our Joseph in our Jesus should be a strong Charm and an irrestistible Invitation to draw us effectually to him seeing he is Anointed with the Oil of gladness not only above but also for his Fellows Heb. 1.9 then should we return as Jacob's Sons with Sacks full of Corn with Hearts full fraught with the Rich Treasures of Grace and Truth John 1.16 Did they go as Austin saith three hundred Miles to get Food of Joseph for their Bodies and shall we think much to stir a few steps in this City say it be a few Miles in the Countrey to get Food for our Souls Oh how should poor empty Creatures press toward a full Christ for a seasonable and a satisfactory Supply Alas we are made all up of meer wants and he is all fulness to make up our wants We should press towards this precious prize Phil. 3.14 especially if a Famine of the Word fall upon us as is threatned Amos 8.11 12. which God may justly call for Psal 105.16 for our loathing of the Heavenly Manna and accounting light of it Numb 11.6 and 21.5 Mat. 22.5 Lightly come by is but lightly set by Citò parta vilescunt Alas 1. How have we like wanton Children play'd the wantons with wholesom Food we have wasted it instead of supplying our wants with it Many Stomachs have been so Nice and Squeasie that they have even nauseated the Bread of Life their Palates have been too dainty and delicate too critical and curious to find the Genuine flavour and savour of Angels Food plain Preaching hath been plainly puff'd at and disrelished 2. And like froward Children how have we quarrell'd about the Cup till we have almost spilt all the Wine 'T is but a Righteous thing with the most Righteous God who doth always right Gen. 18.25 to teach us more Wisdom than either to quarrel or be wanton He may take all away saying I will not feed you Zech. 11.9 that we may better know the worth of those Blessings by the want of them Thus hath He dealt with the seven Churches of Asia of old Thus with Bohemia the Palatinate and many other parts of Germany c. of late and thus with that large Region of Nubia in Africk which had as 't is thought professed the Christian Faith from the very time of the Apostles but now hath embraced Mahometism their Candlestick is removed Rev. 2.5 This brings in the third Remark 3. Oh that we â—â—y not be like the Murmurers in the Wilderness crying out our Soul loatheth this Light Bread Numb 21.5 or like those other people whose Sins of formality Indifferency and Supine Security were the great snuffs that dimm'd their Light and at last put it out As loathing of Meat and difficulty of Breathing are two sure signs of a Sick and shrewd Symptoms of a dying Body so are carelesness of Hearing and coldness of Praying both these Duties becoming irksome and if not disused yet done without delight certain Signs and Symptoms of a Sick and Dying Soul whether the Soul be consider'd as relating to Christians in particular or to the Church in General A disrelishing of Duty ushers in a disuse and discontinuance of it and the Father will not feed such froward and wanton Children That Vineyard which brings nothing but Wild and Sour Grapes Wild Notions a Sour Spirit against each other the Vine-Dresser will lay desolate Isa 5.1 2 5 6. it brings forth nothing but stinking stuff as the Hebrew word signifies that was nought and noisom Grapes of Sodom and Clusters of Gomorrah Deut. 32.32 33. their wicked Natures produce wicked Works behold here are nothing visible but works of the Flesh Instead of Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.19 22. therefore saith God I will lay it waste utterly ruine it and root it up and never save them for a sinning stock any longer thus Gods old house of the Jewish Church was left desolate Mat. 23.38 first by the Babylonians before Christ and then by the Romans after him by whom God taking away the Gospel from Jerusalem brought Desolation not only upon his
own House the Temple but upon their Dwelling Houses also Thus Gods later House of the Christian Church planted at Rome c. by the Apostles was laid Desolate also for when Religion did degenerate from its primitive power and purity was become Barren being all moss-be grown with Formality and made in time not only a matter of Form but of Scorn also about the Sixth Century the Saracens in the East and those Barbarous People the Goths and Vandals in the West broke in and bore down all before them Thus also we may well expect the removal of our Candlestick a Treading down of our Vineyard and utter Desolation The like Sins bring the like Judgments God may call for a Famine c. If we will not hear his Word we may hear his Rod Mic. 6.9 yea and feel his Sword too Elisha hath his Sword as well as Hazael and Jehu 1 King 19.17 though of another nature to wit his Threatnings and Imprecations all which were infallibly accomplished such as stand it out against the power of two Kings shall yet fall by the Hand and Power of Prayer and when ever our Elisha's unsheath and brandish their Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Eph. 6.17 't is a fair warning that the Sword of Jehu and of Hazael are at Hand see Hos 6.5 and Jer. 1.10 all these aforesaid are for our examples 1 Cor. 10.6 and for our Caution and Admonition v. 11. God Hangs up as it were some in Gibbets for publick patterns of Divine Justice Alterius perditio nostra fiat cautio The Torture of others should be a Terror to us Lege Historiam nè fias Historia worthily are they made Examples who will take none Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum To take warning effectually at the Destruction of Wicked Men for their wickedness is a right and the best washing of our feet in the Blood of the wicked Psal 52.6 with 58.10 the Righteous seeing the Ruine of the Irreligious are made themselves the more Religious thereby The Perdition of the one is for caution to the other and not to take warning is a sure presage as well as a just Merit and desert of utter Destruction which if we Repent not will be our Portion our Candlestick our God and his Gospel will make a removal from us and then wo unto us Hos 9.12 this may be as surely foreseen and foretold as if Letters had been sent from Heaven to such a purpose as were sent to the seven Churches of Asia The Fourth Remark is Though Jacob had a well grounded Faith and good cause to Hope well both of his Warrant for his Journey into Egypt of his welcom thither and of his welfare there yet some strong pang of fear did possess him in his passage from Hebron Had not his Faith been below his Fear and had not his Fear got above his Faith God had not said to him at Beersheba where he pray'd for a prosperous Journey those chearing up words Fear not to go down to Egypt Gen 46.1 2 3. Jacob might justly see sufficient cause of Fear upon sundry Accounts As 1. His Father had been forbid to go thither in the like occasion of Famine Gen. 26.2 2. The very Journey might seem too far for him now become so frail and feeble through old Age he might fear to die by the way 3. In going to Egypt he feared to seem a forsaker of the Land of Promise which was the Pledge of the Heavenly Canaan 4 He feared that coming into that Impious and Idolatrous Country his Righteous Soul would be vexed with their unrighteous Conversation as Lot had been i◠Sodom 2 Pet. 2.7 and with their Idolatry also for about this time began their worshipping of a Pide Bull or Cow named Apis from whence the Israelites learnt to worship a Calf Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 18. cap. 4. 5. He might justly fear likewise the Debauching of his Posterity by the Pleasures and Treasures of Egypt Hebr. 11.26 wherewith they being bewitched in that pleasant and plentiful Land might not only become Dissolute and Sensual in life but also lay aside all Thoughts of returning to Canaan 6. Jacob might lastly fear not only the corrupting of his Family both in Worship and Manners but also their Slavery in that Country which was foretold by God to Abraham Gen. 15.13 and so his going now thither seem'd to hasten that Misery upon them which would of it self come soon enough without his going down to fetch it These and the like might be the many Grounds of Jacob's Fears as on the one hand he admits not of that fond Stoical Apathy which is no better than a stupid blockishness so on the other hand his ordinary Faith might be run down by an extraordinary Fear through those carnal Reasonings of a wicked Heart that through Satan's Suggestions pored too much downward upon the rushing and roaring Streams which ran so swiftly under him and his until he was help'd to look upward at his God and the God of his Fathers who had hitherto kept touch with them in his Promise by the Almighty hand of his Power and Providence c. whatever Jacob's Fears were he took the right Method to get rid of them He prays down his Fears and prays up his Faith The very Heathens will not dare to take a Journey without first offering Sacrifice much less ought Christians whose Father Jacob did not dare to neglect it He consults with God as David did after saying Shew me the way I should choose that my Soul may dwell at ease Psal 25.12 13. and 32.8 and the Prayer-Hearing God gives him an Answer of Peace Gen. 41.16 and sweetly counter-comforts him against those his Fears aforementioned As 1. The same God who forbad his Father to go down bids him the Son not Fear to go down 2. As to all those Mischiefs of Soul and Body to thy self and to thine thou fearest may be met with in Egypt fear them not for I will go down with thee c. v. 3 4. thou shalt have me thy Antidote against all those Evils 3. Neither shalt thou die by the way c. but thy Son Joseph shall close up thy eyes when thou diest 4. Whereas thou art afraid that the Egyptian Servitude shall suppress thy Offspring I will there make of thee a great Nation c. This made him couragious Inference hence is First Oh happy and thrice happy are the Children of Jacob the close walking Christians who with their Father Jacob have God saying to them I will go with you both in all your Journeys by Land and in all your Voyages by Sea and not only so but also I will go down with you into your Graves and I will surely bring you back again from thence This is as good Security as can be to God's Servants both while they live and when they die For 1. While they live God is their good and their comfortable Companion
And as for the latter he prays that God would not shew any sign of accepting the Offering of those presumptuous Levites the two hundred and fifty that intruded into the Priest's Office which God did by sending fire from Heaven to consume the Oblation Then Moses committed the deciding of the Controversie to God himself So 2. The Divine Correction follows the Humane of Moses from ver 16 to 35. No sooner had those Intruders taken their Censers which they had ready provided upon their first Combination to thrust themselves into the Priest's Office and prepared to offer but presently the Glory of the Lord shining in the Cloud over the Sanctuary appeared unto Moses and Aaron standing on one side and these two hundred and fifty on the other side who most impudently stood stouting it out in defiance of God and making an open profession of their gross profaneness in the sight of the Sun ver 17 18 19. They declared their sin as Sodom Isa 3.9 there was no need of digging to find it out as a thing hid Jer. 2.34 for they set it as it were upon the cliff of the Rock Ezek. 24.7 The Rock of Ages now resolves to ruine them commands the credulous of the Congregation whom Korah had wheadled in to countenance his Conspiracy to withdraw from all familiarity with the Rebels ver 20 21 24 26. Moses denounces their Doom to be extraordinary ingageth the honour of his Office upon a Miracle to be wrought by God ver 29 30 c. for the utter Ruine of those presumptuous Rebels and that presently to be done as he had declared ver 5. in the very view of many hundred thousands of People who were all generally over-ready to comply with Korah's Conspiracy and to favour his Attempt he persuading them that God would favour it also His design being to introduce an equal popularity could not want many favourers among the common People yet those that would depart from the society of those sinners ver 24 26 27. were spared at Moses's Mediation for them praying The God of the spirits of all flesh as Zech. 12.1 Heb. 12.9 Job 12.10 Act. 17.25 El Elohei Haruchoth c. All this People have not sinned like Korah the principal Incendiary who hath inflamed so many into this hot Rebellion Thou Lord knows hearts Numb 27.16 that the People have not sinned out of malice but are only coaxed in by Korah 't is convenient for thy Glory to distinguish betwixt the greater and the lesser Sinners c. Thus Moses intercedes ver 22. and the Lord accepts of his Intercession for all those that would save themselves from that untoward Generation Act. 2.40 Rev. 18.4 In the next place follows the Execution of this Divine Correction The Conspirators all perish they and theirs Dathan Abiram and their Accomplices by the opening of the Earth under them ver 31 32 33. and Korah with his Company by fire from Heaven ver 35. This must needs be an undoubted evidence of God's concurrence with the Ministry of Moses and that he had not out of any private affection to his Brother Aaron preferr'd him to the Priesthood and therewithal it was an undoubted Assurance of the Divine Truth of Moses's Writings in the Pentateuch N.B. Moses here had no sooner spoke the word but God made it good by his deed dictum factum at once avouching Moses and Aaron's Authority and Integrity and avenging his own and their Cause in the just and miraculous punishment of the Rebels notorious Impiety Dathan Abiram c. stood impudently in their Tent-doors out-facing Moses and scorning the Judgment threatned ver 27. then they and their whole housholds went down into Sheol a great Grave of God's own making not into Hell as the Papists say for how could their Tents and Goods go down thither Yea their little Infants were not excepted who tho' not guilty of their Parents sin had sin enough in their Nature to deserve the shortning of their Lives and while God in Justice kill'd their Bodies he might in mercy save their Souls Yet their Parents were punished in their deaths in whose well led lives their memory might have flourished but Korah and his two hundred and fifty were kill'd by fire out of the shining Cloud as they sinn'd by fire as Levit. 10.1 2. Psal 106.18 but Kōrah's Children were not kill'd Numb 26.10 11. for either they consented not to their Father's Rebellion or they repented at the warning given by Moses Numb 16.5 their Genealogy is reckoned 1 Chron. 6.22 38. They were singers in the House of God ver 32. and of them came Samuel ver 33. Thus Children by Repentance cut off the Intail of a Curse from sinful Parents c. Lastly The Consequents of this Conspiracy and of God's Correction of the Conspirators which are twofold First A monument and lasting memorial of God's Judgments upon those presumptuous Sinners against their own Souls and of his Vindication of the Innocency of his most faithful Servants is appointed by the Lord that Israel might be warned there by and that none hereafter should dare to sin so presumptuously ver 37 38 39 40 Wherein 1. Eleazar is bid to take up the Censers of those sinners now slain and to scatter the fire out into an unclean place to shew that the Lord rejected their service as profane Aaron must not do this because he was one of the right Offerers ver 17. and must not be polluted by stepping among the dead but Eleazar as a confirmation of his succeeding him in the Priesthood must do it 2. Those Censers must not be converted to common use because they were consecrated not only as they had been offered up to the Lord as Vessels of the holy Ministry but more especially as now God sanctified them to be beaten out into broad Plates to make a covering for the Brazen Altar and so to be a lasting holy sign of this Rebellious sin c. 3. Hereby Israel must be minded that sin is the Soul's Poison as it was in those Sinners against their own Souls and such are all such as spend the span of this transitory Life after the ways of their own hearts and thereby perish for ever Alas how heartily do sinners feed upon this Poison as the Maid in Pliny did upon Spiders and the Turkish Gally-slaves upon Opium as Bread 4. This Monument and Memorial was to make Israel remember the Transgression of those Sinners God cannot abide to be forgotten and they are worthily made Examples that will not be warned to take them Alterius perditio tua fit cautio And Foelix quem facium aliena pericula cautum N.B. The second Captain deservedly perish'd by fire who took no warning by the so perishing of the first 2 King 1.10 11. as being more impudent and obstinate than the former the third was wiser ver 13. 5. Not only the Israelites in general but also all the Levites in particular save Aaron's Sons only are counted strangers in
may well be supposed that Joash might threaten with Punishments from God as well as from himself telling them in Defence of his Son That God had appear'd to his Son and had commanded him to do all that he had done and that it was their Worshiping of Baal for which God had punished them by Midian's Tyranny seven years and that if they persisted therein still God will punish us seven times more c. It is usual in Scripture to give only some short hints of those things that were more largely discoursed But his Third Argument is From the Office of Baal himself by an Ironical Concession saying If Baal be a God let him plead for himself as the God of Israel hath done often times when any Indignity or Injury hath been done to him as when Nadab and Abihu offer'd strange fire Levit. 10.1 2. and in the case of Corah and his Accomplices Numb 16.31 35 c. The sense of his saying thus was this If Baal have such a Divine Power as you imagine then is he able to maintain his own Honour to right himself and to revenge the Wrongs offered to him so needs none of you to plead his Cause but if he be only an idle Idol and Image then is he not worthy to be Worship'd and defended by you who is unable to defend either you or himself such as dare any farther to plead for so silly a God as could not protect himself deserveth to die for their own Folly and Impiety The Tenth and last Remark in this Chapter is Gideon's undertaking to deliver Israel from the Tyranny of Midian from ver 33. to the end No sooner had Joash thus prudently stop'd the rapid Torrent of the Rabble's Fury with those Three forcible Arguments afore-mentioned but he Knights as it were his Son with an honourable Title calling him Jerub Baal that is let Baal plead against him that hath broke down his Altar this Name of Honour was given to Gideon by his Father as a Memorial of his Sons Noble Exploit and to Stigmatize Baal with this black brand of Infamy a fair caution for those foul Successors that would needs Worship Baal in after Ages Gideon's undertaking Israel's Deliverance is described First By the occasion of it the Midianites and their Confederates made a new Invasion as far as Jezreel ver 33. where the Kings of Israel afterward had a Royal Palace 1 Kings 21.1 and not far from Ophrah where Gideon dwelt therefore well might he fear their sudden coming upon him to surprize him but this proved the unhappiest time to the Enemy now to invade Israel when Gideon had begun a Reformation in the Land ver 25. c. N.B. He began at the right end first to abolish false Worship and then to set up the true Worship seeing there can be no Concord betwixt Christ and Belial betwixt the Temple of God and the Temple of Idols 2 Cor. 6.15 16. and if we will serve God the Service of Baal must first be rejected 1 Kings 18.21 Gideon's suppression of that Superstition and Idolatry which caused God to give Israel up to Midian's Tyranny and his begun Reformation of the true Religion must needs make him more couragious and consident of Victory for hereby a door of hope was opened in order thereunto A good Cause a good Call and a good Conscience could not but breed a good Courage in him all these are needful in Civil Sacred yea and in Military Undertakings more especially because they carry their Lives in their Hands and by these they die in peace though they die in War as many good Men do The Second part of the Description is by the efficient Cause namely the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and cloathed him as the word signifies with extraordinary Wisdom Zeal and Magnanimity ver 34. this was a rich addition to that Courage he had from the goodness of his Cause Call and Conscience and hereby the Qualifications of a Judge of Israel did so shine forth that even the Men of Abiezer those of his Father's Houshold ver 27. who were so corrupted with the Idolatry of the times and so zealous then for Baal that he feared to acquaint them with his design of destroying Baal's Altar yet now they are so convinced that God had called Gideon to this great Work both of Vindicating God's Glory and his Countries Liberty that they are the first Voluntiers that will follow him as the person whom God had not only protected in that dangerous attempt of destroying Baal but had also pick'd him out of all the Tribes and pitched upon him by whose hands the Lord would work Israel's Deliverance from Midian Thirdly This Expedition is described by its Instruments whereof Gideon's own Family were a part Joash is call'd an Abiezrite ver 11. the first Soldiers that offered themselves willingly to be as Instruments in God's Hand for this undertaking were the Abiezrites when Gideon an Abiezrite also blew his Trumpet and when he sent Messengers to the other Tribes ver 35. they freely Muster and march up to meet him even the Tribe of Asher it self which was justly blamed by Deborah for their backwardness to fight against Sisera Judg. 5.17 God never starves his Work for want of Instruments but always stirs up those that he will employ therein and where Men are not at hand an Oxe's-Goad in Shamgar's Hand or the Jaw-bone of an Ass in Samson's Hand shall be enough The Fourth part of the Description is the Motive that bore up the Spirit of Gideon in this great Enterprize namely the confirmation of his Faith by a double Sign of the Dew and the Fleece of Wooll ver 36. to the end These Signs he beg'd of God not out of Infidelity but in all Humility not only for the corroborating of his own Courage and Confidence but also for the Encouragement of his Army now gathered together at their Rendezvous in Ophrah that they might more faithfully follow him in this Heroick and Hazardous Attempt we do not read that the Lord answered his Prayer by any words spoke to him but by Deeds he did in this double Sign which was by a wet and by a dry Fleece A proper Representation of Israel which was wet with the Dew of Divine Doctrine when all the World besides was dry and now dry when all the World besides was wet namely with the Dew of Peace answerable to the Prophet's Vision wherein he saw all the Earth sitting still and at rest but Jerusalem only under grievous Indignation Zech. 1 11 12 13. We must suppose their Floors then were not under a cover as ours are now but placed in the open Air as this floor was upon which the Fleece was laid so that nothing interposed to receive the falling Dew N.B. This Fleece was Israel which properly belonged to the great Shepherd of the Sheep Psal 23.1 the God of Israel but now alas how was Israel fleeced and sheared of their Corn and Cattel by the
Lightning and hot Thunderbolts just when they were ready to fall on upon a Fasting and a Praying People N. B. At the Prayer of Samuel God doth this to shew plùs precando quam praeliando c. more good may be done by Divine Prayer than by Humane Power Vnarmed Israel had no more to do here than to pursue v. 11. and to take up the Weapons that the Philistines in their fright had thrown away and so slay them with their own Swords Nor was this all God did for Israel but Josephus saith The Earth trembled and open'd and so devoured many of them Israel pursued them to Bethcar which signifies the House of the Lamb the place of this Victory was so call'd from the Lamb which Samuel Sacrificed to procure the performance of his Mother Hannah's Prediction chap. 2.10 and Samuel set up a Stone as a Trophee of this Victory calling it Ebenezer a Stone of help v. 12. this place did the more deserve a double Monument because it was the very place where Israel had been formerly so fatally beaten and the Ark of God taken c. chap 4.1 call'd so there by way of Anticipation and where now Israel recovers their lost Liberties for this Victory was so formidable and fatal to the Philistines that they durst no more rally their scattered Troops nor recruit their Vanquish'd Army to make any new Incursions in Samuel's Day v. 13. And the Cities formerly lost were restored by those Crest-faln Philistines unto Israel yea and not only they but the very Amorites the most Valiant of all the Canaanites come and truckle to and made Peace with Israel v. 14. The Fourth Remark concerneth the second part of this Chapter namely the Acts of Samuel in the time of Peace after this Time of War was accomplished He judged Israel all the Days of his Life v. 15. that is thirty eight years alone and though Saul was an Ordinary King in his two last Years yet Samuel was the extraordinary Judge which Office from God Saul could not take from him and Samuel being a mixt person a Prophet as well as Judge exercised his Office in the former Years of Saul as chap. 11.7 and 15.32 33. and their times are joyn'd together Acts 13.20 21. He is commended here First For his Prudence towards the Republick in going his Yearly Circuits for the Peoples ease and conveniency administring Justice publickly at three places Bethel Gilgal and Mizpeh v. 16. and privately at his own House in Ramah this Good Man was ever in Action for the publick good And Secondly For his Piety toward Religion in building an Altar for extraordinary Sacrifices v. 17. when probably both Tabernacle and Altar were destroy'd at Shilo He had no word from the Lord as a Prophet to remove the Ark out of the private House at Kiriath Jearim that was not done till David's Day yet might he have a word for building this Altar that his Sacrifices might be joyned with his Prayers for direction in all Emergencies c. 1 Sam. CHAP. VIII CHapter the Eighth contains the change of Israels Aristocracy into a Monarchy in its Causes and Occasions c. The First Remark is the moving Cause and Occasion why Israel desired this change which was 1. Samuel's Superannuation they conceived that his Old Age had disenabled him for his High Duty yet was it not really so for he performed signal and singular service in his Office long after and even in Saul's Reign was strong enough to hew Agag in pieces Chap. 15. But the 2. Cause was more real Namely the Degeneration of his Sons Joel and Abiah whom in his declining Days he made his substitutes being not able to do the whole Duty by himself And no doubt but this good man had given his Sons the best Breeding and was not without great hopes of their good behaviour in the execution of their Offices Yea and 't is not at all improbable but they demeaned themselves demurely enough at the first and managed their matters in a due Decorum until they came to be intoxicated with their new Dignities which proved over strong Wine for their weak Brain Prov. 1.32 but more especially till they came to be Debauched by Bribes v. 1 2 3. N. B. 'T is too severe a censure to imagine that Samuel so good a man could set up his Sons as his Deputies out of any such fond Indulgency as himself had reproved in Eli and denounced Gods dreadful judgments against him for so doing Gideon durst not do so in his Day Judg. 8.23 This was Samuel's Sin For God called the Judges not Man c. He might not make his Sons Judges yet it may not be doubted but that both his own Example and his Sons Education â—gave the good Father a very hopeful prospect that his Sons were well qualified for the highest employments though it proved otherwise c. However this may be truly said as Samuel succeeded Eli in his place so he did in his Cross though not in his Sin The Second Remark is The weak Arguments the Elders use to cause Samuel's Compliance with them in Desiring a King v. 4 5. They Urge First Thou art Old They might have been Answered 't is true he was in his Old Age but not come yet to his Doteage for he could do and did his Office for many years after so deserved not to be deposed by them now Secondly Thy Sons walk not in thy ways It may be this was the first time that the faults of the Sons were complained of to their Father possibly N. B. These Sons might have been reclaimed by Samuel's Gravity and Authority upon the first or Second sharp Admonition And suppose they had proved proof against reproof and so had become unreclaimable Might not better Vicegerents to the Supream Judge been put in their places No necessity there was still to alter the Government Thirdly Now make us a King to Judge us But what assurance could they give that their King would be of a better behaviour than Samuels Sons had been of Might it not have been retorted upon them how some of them long since set up that Bastard Abimelech to be their King and how little Comfort came to them out of that Cursed Bramble Fourthly We will be like other Nations But there was not the like reason for God had separated Israel from all other Nations as a peculiar Nation to himself and had received them into his own special Charge and Government Therefore Josephus the Jew doth well call this Government of Israel under Judges of Gods own chusing and not of the Peoples rather a Thoocracy Governed by God than an Aristocracy Governed by Primates and Principals of the People The Third Remark is Samuel 's resentment of this resolute motion for an absolute Monarchy 'T is said But the thing displeased Samuel v. 6. And why so Because it was an high affront and an hainous Indignity done to his Person by their attempting to shake of his
than Words and sear of punishment he knew would prevail most with the Mobile especially with those whose Wealth lay mostly in Cattel N. B. Nor doth he threaten to hew themselves in pieces lest he should seem to begin his Reign with too much Rigour but prudently lays the Penalty upon their Goods and not upon their Persons the more to sweeten his Government to them nor would all Saul's Minaces in words have avail'd with the Male-Contents especially had not the Fear of God fallen upon them also 't was this made them come forth with one consent to the number of Three Hundred and Thirty Thousand Men v. 8. Saul dispatcheth the Messengers with glad Tidings to Jabesh v. 9. who next Morning wilily sent word to Nahash They would come forth according to Covenant v. 3.10 this made the Ammonites secure N. B. 'T is lawful to deceive by Stratagems such Enemies as it is lawful to slay with the Sword The Second Particular of the Specimen is the Concomitants of it As First The time when Saul Assaulted the secure Besiegers it was in the Morning Watch before they were looked for by either side for Jabesh expected them not till the Sun were hot v. 9. and Ammon was lull'd asleep with expectation of the Besieged coming forth to them the next Day to have their one Eye put out which indeed blinded the Besiegers of both their Eyes with the sleep of Security Secondly The manner how Saul Assaulted them namely by a Stratagem of dividing his Army into three Battalions to make Onset upon all sides at once that so he might strike the whole Camp with the greater terrour and prevent the escape of any And Thirdly The Event the utter Discomfiture of the Ammonites all these three are in ver 11. N. B. Though they had few Swords left in Israel chap. 13.19 22. yet they Conquer here c. The Third Particular is the Consequents which be two First The Zeal of the People to Vindicate the Dignity of their New King against such as the Belialists that had despised him They said to Samuel Whoever rejecteth Saul as King shall die v. 12. N. B. It seems Samuel was present with them in this Expedition and 't is a wonder how his Old Age cold endure the Marching of all the Day and all the Night before And 't is a Wonder likewise N. B. How Saul could raise such an Army as Josephus saith but falsly as a bragg of his Jews to the Romans consisting of Seven Hundred Thousand but the Scripture saith Three Hundred and Thirty Thousand that he should not only raise them but also rally and Muster them into Companies and Regiments yea and March them over Jordan to Jabesh and Conquer the Enemy all in one Day and Night N. B. Surely Saul might say as to his wonderful Celerity what the great Caesar said after him Veni Vidi Vici I no sooner came but I overcame The Second Consequence is Saul's Prudence and Modesty yea Piety v. 13. the People had been so prudent as not to speak their aforesaid words to Saul lest they should have provok'd him to Revenge in his own proper cause but they spake to Samuel as to their Judge whose place it appertained more unto than for Saul to right himself Now Saul both prudently and modestly prevents Samuel's Answer to the People with a God forbid That any Man should die this Day wherein the Lord hath wrought such a glorious Victory The Glory of this Deliverance shall not be stained with the Blood of any of my Subjects and by thus openly declaring his Clemency in the beginning of his Reign he did much ingratiate himself into their Affections to his own Establishment N. B. 1. Humane Laws may be dispensed with upon Emergency but not the Divine Law c. N. B. 2. Many good Vertues were found in Saul before the Evil Spirit entered into him c. To which two Consequents may be added a Third not here mentioned namely Jabesh Gilead's thankfulness to Saul for his so seasonable saving of their Right Eyes c. The Memory of a good turn must never wax old N. B. Those Men of Jabesh-Gilead were truly grateful such as are rare to be found These Men remembred this kindness of Saul to them many Years after for when the Philistines had beaten his Army and abused his Dead Body by hanging it up in the Sun against a Wall till it putrified and became full of Vermin they Arm themselves and went all Night to rescue his Dead Body from the Philistines as he had marched all Night to Rescue them from the Ammonites Burnt it and Buried his Bones fasting Seven Days 1 Sam. 31.9 10 11 12 13. The second and last part of this Chapter is the Oath of Fidelity that Israel universally Swears to the new King v. 14 15. where Note N. B. First Samuel's Sublime Wisdom in making no motion nor mention of this Covenant of the Kingdom at Saul's first Election while the People were generally disaffected towards him because of his mean Extract Rustick Life c. but now when Saul had given them such eminent Proofs of his Valour and Vertue and when God had honoured him with so glorious a Victory which had made the People place their Affections upon him both eagerly and unanimously then doth Samuel strike while the Iron was hot and set in with this fit Season N. B. Secondly Samuel calls a General Assembly from Jabesh to Gilgal which was in their way home to most of them but more especially because it was a place famous for many publick Conventions there kept and particularly for the Covenant renewed by Joshua between God and the People when God rolled away Reproach from Israel in their Circumcision therefore was the place call'd Gilgal which signifies Rolling c. Josh 5.8 N. B. Thirdly Here 't is said The People made Saul King whereas it was the Lord's immediate Act to Constitute him King Chap. 8 9. and 10.1 and the People only accepted of that Election the Lord had made for them recognizing the first Act by a renewed Universal Consent All now personally Swearing Allegiance to him to prevent any future Factions and Insurrections c. N. B. Fourthly The Ceremonies of Saul's Inauguration before the Lord and his Prophet Samuel some suppose to be these 1. They set the King upon his Throne 2. They Crowned him 3. They Anointed him 4. They put the Book of the Law into his Hand 5. They took an Oath of him to observe it 6. They Offered Sacrifices of all sorts upon the Altar that was at Gilgal partly praising God for present Mercy both in the Victory over Ammon and in their Settlement under Saul from sad Distractions and partly praying to God for his future favour c. 7. Shutting all up with sundry Signs of publick Joy 1 Samuel CHAP. XII CHapter the Twelfth sheweth how Old Samuel Abdicates himself from the Office and Magistracy of Judge in that Publick Convention held
glittering glory as the Mobile were at Herod's Grandeur when Cloathed with a Cloak of Silver Act. 12.21 22. 'T is a wonder good David could be silent when he saw how his Son's Pride thus Budded Ezek. 7.10 He should have endeavoured to Cross it and to Crush it in the Bud but alas He was too much blinded with the fondness of his Fatherly Affections and God's Holy hand was in it to bring upon David those Evils out of his own House which he had threatned chap. 12.11 for his Sins The Third Remark is The means whereby Absalom stole away the Hearts of the People from their Right Owner his own Father v. 2 3 4 5 6. All the means he used were all farther Additions to his most Princely Pomp c. Herein Mark 1. That he might be the more popular he Riseth early he Seats himself in the place of Judicature to hear the Peoples Causes to put a slur upon all the King's Judges as if sluggards and careless and none like him for self-denyal and diligence Mark 2. He smoothed the Plaintiffs up with plausible words telling them that their Causes were good right or wrong and Condemned those Judges that had formerly heard the Case and given Verdict against them This pleased the Plaintiffs Mark 3. He Reflects upon his Old Father as one Super-Annuated and past publick Employ so minded not to promote the publick good but sets up such Judges as are bribed and will not do the People Justice N. B. This was a most sordid slandring of his good Father of whom the Holy Scripture giveth a better Character that David Executed Justice and Judgment among all the People chap. 8.15 Mark 4. He wishes that the People would make him Judge seeing the King would not having only brought him into favour at Court and then would he work wonders in pleasing all People N. B. 'T was a great over-sight surely that such an Arrogant Ungrateful Lying Hypocrite was called no sooner to the Bench. Mark 5. When the Vulgar sort came to do him Obeysance Bowing to this Molten Calf made up of Golden-Earings He with a Counterfeit Courtesie took them and kissed them tho' they were Scoundrels and Skullions of lowest Degree So sordid was his Spirit and nothing Royal in it not a dram of David in him and here if ever true Partus Sequitur Ventrem The Birth follows the Belly for assuredly while he was thus Ambitiously Aspiring after a Kingdom he could thus crouch to any Inferiour fellow were his Cause good or bad He had more of his Mother a Pagan Geshurite than of his Father a Godly-Israâ—lite c. Mark 6. Thus he courted the People and collogued with them till he had stolen away all their Hearts And this Thief acted so Slily and Secretly that neither the People nor David himself did discern or discover it The Second part of this Chapter is The Concomitants of Absalom's Conspiracy ver 7 8 9 10 11 12. Upon which Remarks are First The time when this Conspiracy began to be put into Action after its long hatching in secret c. 'T is told us It came to pass after forty years ver 7. About the Computation of this time I find various Opinions N. B. The First is Wherein Arbang Hebr. four is Read for Arbagnim Hebr. forty Thus the Syriack the Arabick and Josephus the Jew Reads it But this is generally exploded notwithstanding the probability that Absalom's conspiracy might require four years time to raise his Rebellion in against his Father because it is of dangerous consequence to allow of any Corruption in the Hebrew Text. The Second Opinion is That these Forty years must begin their computation at the time that Israel asked a King then was an observable alteration of the Government of Israel and so as fit to be made an Epocha or account of time as both the Greeks and Romans did from the like grounds and now the Lord as it were Intimated unto Israel Ye have been mad for a King now shall ye have so many Kings that ye shall not know which of them to follow and many of you shall perish in following the Usurper c. All which and the manner of a King Samuel foretold them of they saw fulfilled in Absalom But this Account from Saul's first year makes it more than forty years The Third Opinion Reckons these Forty Years from the beginning of David's Reign in Hebron who Reigned in all Forty Years in the last of which Absalom raised his Rebellion having catched hold of a Praediction saith Rabbi Levi that David should Reign no longer and lest Solomon should succeed he sets up for the Succession himself in David's last Year N. B. But as Reckoning from the First Year of Saul's Reign makes the time more than forty years so this reckoning from David's first year of Reigning makes it less than forty for the Rebellion of Sheba followed this of Absalom and the three years Famine beside that fell out in the days of David for the Sin of Saul c. Mention is likewise made of David's Wars with the Philistines wherein David was personally present and in danger which could not be in the last year of David's Reign when he was decrepit and kept his Bed but now when David fled from Absalom he was able to walk on foot c. The Fourth Opinion is Therefore the most probable to reckon this forty years from David's first anointing by Samuel which gave him a just Title And though that was then secretly done yet was it known to all after so might be a fit period of time to reckon this forty years from The Second Remark is The Place where Absalom began his Rebellion namely Hebron where he pretended he would pay his Vow he had made at Geshur in Syria v. 7 8. thus he makes Religion a Cloak for his Rebellion pretending like a crafty Hypocrite to pay his Peace-Offerings of Thanksgiving to the Lord for returning him from his Banishment among Pagan Idolaters and restoring him into the King's presence and favour where he might also be present in the pure Worship of the true God Yet resolvedly intending to ruine David in his being as well as in his well-being and lest his Father should suspect him he goes not away without his leave well knowing that his Pious Father would not hinder but further his Devotion and would rejoyce at his Son 's retaining his Religious Desires after the true God having been so long conversant among the Syrian Courtiers where he saw nothing but Idolatry and Debauchery The Third Remark is David's ready grant to his Son 's Religious Petition v. 9. 'T is a wonder so Wise a Man and so Sagacious a King as an Angel of God Chap. 14.17 yea and sometimes so over suspicious as in the case of Mephibosheth afterwards yet no distrust will his heart harbour concerning Absalom upon whom he doted N. B. One would think David might have said to his Son Is not Sion as proper
in his Presence whom afterwards He so sought for to no purpose in all Countreys Chap. 18.10 't is probable this prophane King look'd upon God's Prophet as some Idle Addle-Headed Fellow and so below his Grandeur to regard his Person or Words but slights him N B. Miracles God will not multiply without Cause Elijah's Feet save him Though God could have asswaged Ahab's Phrenzy yet he directs Elijah to use ordinary means of escaping for an example to others Jer. 36.26 Joh. 8.59 Mark 2. God takes Care for his daily Food there commanding the Hagnorebim Heb. to be Caterers for him ver 6. Objection the first Now because Ravens are ravenous Fowls rather snatching Meat from others than bringing it to others by their rapacious Nature therefore some learned Men looking upon it as altogether improbable for such morose Creatures to be the Purveyors read the Hebrew Word Hagnorebim Merchants as Ezek. 27.27 or Arabians as 2 Chron. 21.16 Neh. 4.7 where the like Word is used or the Inhabitants of the City Arabah nigh Bethsan Josh 15.6 52. and 18.18 c. Answer the first The Situation of this hiding Place beside Jordan spoils those Notions nor could Elijah have been hid from Ahab had the adjacent Inhabitants known of his hiding-place Beside had God design'd any of Mankind to provide for this Prophet there was Hospitable Obadiah who kept a private Table in two several Caves for an hundred Prophets of God Chap. 18.4 and there were seven thousand faithful Israelites who in despight of the Devil had never bowed their Knees to Baal doubtless any of these saith Dr. Hall would have had a Trencher ready for Elijah and have thought himself bound to have defrauded his own Belly to supply so noble a Prophet Answer the second God commands the Ravens to do this Office of Love for Elijah rather than any of the Race of Mankind to shew the absolute Soveraignty and Dominion of the Creator over all his Creatures And this was a pregnant proof hereof that whereas Ravens are noted above all other Fowls for their greedy Nature in monopolizing all provision to themselves and for their malignant unnaturalness to their own young scarce sparing any of their prey for them as may be collected out of Job 38.41 and Psal 147.9 yet even those Ravens must forsake their own Nature and forget their own Hunger when their Maker bids them do so Thus the great God is said to command both Inanimate senseless Creatures as Job 38.11 12. Psal 78.23 Isa 5.6 and 45.12 yea and Animate brute Creatures As Amos 9.3 Jonah 2.10 c. The same great God that provideth Meat for the Fowls of the Air Matth. 6 26. can make the Fowls of the Air provide Meat for his Prophet as here and for all his Servants that depend upon him rather than they should be disappointed in their dependency of Trust in him N.B. Were not our Faith wanting to God his Care would not be wanting to us Matth. 6.32 1 Pet. 5.7 A second Objection is The Ravens are an unclean Creature Levit. 11.13 15. as well as Birds of Prey so were very improbable Instruments Answer 1. Though Ravens be unclean Creatures signs both of Man's Punishment and of God's Curse Isa 34.11 and vulgarly ominous to behold hateful almost to all insomuch as in some Countreys there is a Reward appointed for those that can kill them yet are they God's Creatures which God despiseth not but provides Food for them Job 38.41 and for their Young when neglected by their Dams Psal 147.9 and which Christ commands us to consider Luk. 12.24 where out Saviour fetcheth not an example from Eagles Hawks Nightingales c. but from Ravens Answer 2. Though the Flesh of Ravens were unclean for Food yet that Levitical Law doth not tell us that they defiled and made unclean whatever they touched unless they were Dead Beside saith Piscator here was a special Command of God who is a free Agent and may use for his Service what even the worst of his Creatures when He pleaseth as he doth the best of them to serve his Servants Hos 2.22 23. and that Ceremonial Law was over ruled by the Law of Necessity and by the Lawgiver's Dispensation Answer 3. Peter Martyr observeth That the Ravens did more especially owe the Lord this piece of Service because of the Benefit which they singularly above all other Fowls do enjoy by his singular Providence when they are young as above and cry to God not Directly but by Implication only yet being forsaken by the old ones and left bare and unfeather'd the Rabbin's say God feeds them by sending Flies into their Mouths as they gape in crying and by Worms bred in the Nest out of their Excrements which creep into their Mouths as Aristotle saith in Histor. Animal Till they be able to fly abroad and take Meat where they can meet with it Nor will a little satisfie the Appetites of those crying Rooks by Reason of the vehemency of that natural Heat in them N B. If there be such a Magnum Providentiae symbolum So marvelous an Indication of Divine Care attending those contemptible Creatures even while helpless and shiftless yea crying with an Hoarse and Harsh Voice whence they are call'd Gnorebim in Hebrew so unapt to move Pity How much more Compassion hath God for his faithful Servants Mat. 6.26 and for his Dear Children Psal 103.13 that cry to him continually Luk. 18.7 How did God feed Israel miraculously with Manna in the Wilderness and here Elijah by Ravenâ— which was the effect of his Prayer of Faith and so is reputed his second Miracle Oh what will not God do for our faithful Prayers c. Mark 3. Elijah's Meat was Bread and Flesh and his drink was Adam's Ale the Water of the Brook had he been preserved without any Food as after he was in his forty days Fast Omnipotency might have done it N. B. God supplies means when he denies means as he did in the Case of those three Grand Fasters for forty Days and Nights namely Moses this Elias and the blessed Messias all these were miraculously preserved without Meat and 't is nigh as miraculous to find Elijah here preserved when God provided Meat for him by such Mouths as those of Ravens He might have been preserved by Bread only and Water if so his fare had been no worse than his two fifty Fellows in the two Caves of Obadiah Chap. 18.4 13. N.B. But behold God is more bountiful to this Chief Prophet than his Servant Obadiah could be to those of an Inferiour Rank The Ravens must bring him Flesh also and that not raw Gen. 9.4 but Rost or Sod The first Enquiry How came the Ravens to this Rost or Sod Flesh Answer 1. The Rabbins tell us the Ravens did Pillage it out of King Ahab's Kitchin c. Answer 2. This Flesh was prepared by some of those seven thousand upright Israelites Chap. 19.8 whom God made privy to the Secret c.
the Lord of Hosts given them to embolden their followers ver 17. Mark 2. Benhadad's Scouts espied them first coming out of the City they tell their King he commands in his Cups take them Alive ver 18. he saith not fight them for he thought saith Grotius they needed not strike one stroke the notion of his drunken Noddle was that he had Victory in his own hands Besides suppose they had come forth to treat for Peace the Law of Nations was broke saith P. Martyr in laying violent hands upon Embassadors This drunken confident fool thought to win the Field by a word Mark 3. The Noon-day Security of the Syrians in the midst of their surfeiting and drunkenness exposed them to destruction insomuch that those seven thousand two hundred thirty two of Israelites slew at the least so many of those Syrians that were sent to apprehend them Every one slew his man ver 18 19. Mark 4. This first Success of Israel against the Syrians daunted the whole Host especially the Lord of Hosts striking them with a Panick fear they all under consternation forsook the Field and fled in dreadful confusion yea boasting Benhadad and his Kings saith Dr Hall were more beholden to their Horses than to their Gods or to themselves for safety ver 20. Mark 5. Then the King of Israel went out ver 21. which expression causeth Vatablus to think that Ahab went forth in the last place and not till he saw the Syrians put to flight However he Rallied what Troops he had and made a farther pursuit of the Victory slaying those that were attempting to escape by Horses and Chariots many of which being amazed with that cowardly passion of fear wherewith the Lord had smitten them made themselves a prey to the pursuers and so came to pass the great Slaughter v. 21. The third part of this first Battle is the Consequents of it ver 22. Mark 1. The same Prophet that had foretold Ahab of the former Victory whom some suppose to be Micaiab or one of those hid by Obadiah cometh again and foretells him by a Divine Revelation of the purposes of those conquered Syrians concerning a second Re-encounter at the year's return Here P. Martyr admires the free Mercy of God thus to warn a wicked King again Mark 2. We hear nothing of Ahab's publick Thanksgiving for his great Victory or any Reformation of his life This Prophet bids him prepare for another Brush and strengthen thy self and mind thy hits Here was fair Caution for Ahab to Repent of his Idolatry and to be reconciled unto God What means might more strengthen him than his so doing Mark 3. An Enemy once foil'd saith Peter Martyr ought not to be contemned he may Recruit as here and make another on set So our spiritual Adversaries alway hate us though once quell'd depart only for a season Luke 4.13 prepare therefore for renewed Rallyings and new Attempts c. Ahab's Second War with Benhadad wherein are remarkable also Antecedents Concomitants and consequents First the Antecedents afford the first Remarks as First The Syrians Consultation about renewing the War for recovering their lost Reputation as well as Riches Arms and Lives in their former foul Defeat ver 23. wherein they consult first about the Place of their former fight as altogether inconvenient saying Israel's Gods are Gods of the Hills c. Indeed the Idolatry of Israel at this time had given those blind Pagans too much cause to imagin that Israel's Gods were no better than the Syrian Idols N B. Paganism had taught all gentile Nations that there were some Gods of the Woods some of the Rivers others of the Valleys and others of the Mountains and they fancied those to be the Gods of Israel because 1. it was a Mountainous Country Deut 12.2 2. Solomon's Temple stood upon Mount Sion 3. Samaria where they had their late Defeat was built upon an Hill c. 4. Israel generally chused High Places for the Worship of their Gods Therefore will the Syrians chuse the plain Champain Country wherein to fight the second Battle and this would be grateful to the Syrian Gods which were Gods of the Valleys Not a word all this time do they tell Benhadad of his Drunkenness and of their own Cowardice which were the true Causes of their late Miscarriage They only tell the King a Tale of their Tutelar Gods which had they been Gods indeed Benhadad had notoriously disoblig'd by his so emphatically Swearing by them that he would turn Samaria into a dust-heap yet so dastardly running away without so much as one handful of its dust either in his own or in any of his Souldiers Hands N. B. Sure I am either he grosly shirk'd his Gods or his Gods did shirk him The truth is because the Syrian Army abounded with Horsemen a Champain Country was more commodious for them Remark the Second They consult about the Persons as well as Place who should be chief Commanders ver 24 25. They liked not that their Kings should go again as Captains looking upon them as of too soft an Education and unexperienced in Military Matters better at tossing a Pot than a Pike and fitter as one saith to be Knights of Venus than of Bellona In their steads they must have expert Captains of his own Subjects that would be truly valorous for their own Advancement and better obey the General 's Commands than Kings will do c. Remark the Third Benhadad the King complies and concurs with the Counsel of those his Counsellors ver 26. An Army is prepared number for number like the first and they went to fight against Israel in Aphek night to which was the great Plain of Galiâ—ce and one of the Cities which Benhadad's Father had taken from Israel ver 34. whither the Syrians might retreat in case they were worsted Then the former Army of Israel the Seven thousand and the two hundred and thirty two Nobles in two distinct Bodies Incamped upon the hilly Ground adjacent where they might the better secure themselves ver 27. and those look'd like to two little Flocks of Kids little for their number and Kids for their wanting Warlike Provisions compared with the better furniâ—h'd Syrians who filled the Country Yet because this few weak and heartless Flock of Kids seem'd to be more than indeed they were upon high ground and because the Syrians had no encouragement from their Gods of the Valleys as they esteemed them to assault this feeble Flock of Israel while they kept upon the Hills this might be the reason why they faced one another for seven days ver 29. Remark the Fourth The God of Israel out of his compassion to Israel under so vast a disadvantage of inequality as well as such notorious unworthiness through Idolatry sends the same Man of God again to comfort their bad King ver 28. saying Because the Syrians have so undervalued the true Jehovah as if he were not the Vniversal Lord of all Places Persons and Things
sundry places aforementioned are to be reduced and others will be co-incident as relating to Time here Those Relations forementioned in the order of place do fall in as to order of time under the first of those four Passovers As that Miracle of turning Water into Wine at Cana Christ's Preaching in Nazareth's Synagogue in danger of his Life His being at Capernaum c. His calling Peter and Andrew c. to be Fishers of men His casting out a Devil in the Synagogue there His healing Peter's Wives Mother and many more Diseased c. as are above related distinctly So likewise under this first Passover after Christ's Baptism falleth out first Christ's going up from Galilee to Jerusalem at that Passover where he in the Face of all the People acted in the Evidence of the great Prophet and purgeth his own Temple as was Prophesied of him Mal. 3.1 3. John 2.12 14. c which Story hath these Remarks 1. We must know that in the Temple were offered Innumerable Sacrifices by the Jews who flock'd thither from all parts such as came from far could not bring Sacrifices with them the Priests provided for them and sold to them and such as wanted Money they lent it them with exaction contrary to Moses Law which forbids Usury from Brethren c. The Talmudists tell us it was then grown to a custom to set up Tables in the Temple and Money-Changers sitting at them to change their bigger Money into lesser whole shekels into an half shekel which the poorest Israelite waâ— appointed to pay or to take pledges sometimes their very Coats on their Backs c. forcing all to that payment There also they might buy all sorts of Sacrifices which the covetous Priests oft received and sold them then again to others Now the Lord Christ seeing this couzenage and contumacy The Zeal of God's House as ever so now more especially did Eat Him up and in the Ardency of his Spirit he call'd those Priests a pack of Thieves No better are all such who under colour of Religion hunt after filthy lucre Then Christ marrs their Markets and drives them all out of the Temple with procul O procul este profani Get ye gone Oh Profligate Priests who while ye profess The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.11 Ye do notoriously profane it Who hath required these things at your hands Isa 1.12 This Gate of the Lord none but the Righteous should enter Psal 118.20 and such only as keep the Truth Isa 26.2 Are Angels of Darkness cast out of Heaven and will ye make this my Holy House a Den of Devils N.B. Notewell Thus Reformation was Christ's chief care then when Religion was corrupted and it will be so to the end of the World The 3d Remark is When Christ comes into his Temple Mal. 3.1.3 He finds in his Temple Money-Merchants c. such Sacrilegious Simonists both of the Clergy and Laity so called making a sale of sacred things which the very Heathens abhorred as the Roman twelve Tables c. and others long since complained N.B. Note well That Church-Benefices were bestowed Non Vbi optimè sed ebi quaestuosissimè non dantur dignioribus c. Not to those that best deserved them but to those that would give the best price and most money for them This is as if a man should bestow so much Bread on his Ass because he is to Ride upon him Some Beneficed Parsons may Preach before their Patrons upon Numb 22.30 Am not I thine Ass upon which thou hast rode ever since I was thine Christ is angry at this in a Reformed Church The 4th Remark is Christ made a scourge for those Money-Merchants c. John 2.14 15. A Whip made of Cords propably of such cords as were scattered by the Drovers that came thither to sell cattel there with this Whip He scoures the Temple of a great Multitude of Sturdy Fellows that lived upon that Temple-Market he having neither Arms himself nor Armed Men to Assist him in this cleansing work Yet he accomplishes it without opposition though there were then a Garrison of Soldiers in Antony's Tower belonging to the Temple on purpose to quell Tumults therein at such times N.B. Note well In this Act Christ put forth doubtless a Beam of his Deity whiles he but one single Man and at that time but contemptible in himself and the Scribes and Pharisees all the while looking on and raging against him for hindring their gainful-Trade like another Samson lays Heaps upon Heaps yet without blood-shed with the Jaw-bone of an Ass with the stripes of a Whip Surely some sparkling Rayes issued out of Christ's Eyes and a dazling splendour and uncontroulable Majesty of his Divine Nature was seen seated and shining in his Countenance that so great a multitude with so many hungry Bellies that have no ears could be cast out nolens volens out of the Temple Jerom extolleth this Miracle above restoring sight to the blind use of Legs to the Lame and Life to dead Lazarus c. And that Antient Father addeth Quotidiè Jesus Ingreditur patris Templum ejicit omnes tam Episcopos quam lâ—â—cos Vendentes pâ—riter ac ementes c. Christ will daily cast out all those Money Merchants both Ministers and others c. The 5th Remark is While Christ's zeal was thus accompanied with revenge as 2 Cor. 7.11 yet doth he not as one transported with passion serve all those Prophaners of his Temple with the same sauce for the Dovesellers had only words from him while all the other had blows 'T is said expresly That Christ only said to the Dove sellers Take these things hence c. John 2 16. The cause of Christ's tenderness toward these above the rest is canvased some say it was because he was minded of the Dove that lighted upon him when the Holy Ghost descended in that form so carried with a Dove-like meekness towards them Others say That these Dove-sellers probably were not so refractory more tractable and as not so gross so nor such obstinate offenders However those Dove-sellers were grown more audacious afterward when Christ came the second time to purge his Temple for then they had got Chairs an argument of dignity to sit in Mat. 21.12 The 6th Remark is Reformation of Religion cannot be expected to be all done at once especially after such an horrible Apostacy under Antichrist until Christ come the second time Here matters were not much amended notwithstanding Christ's first attempt in the entrance into his Ministry John 2.14 So that he comes again to the same work Mat. 21.12 Mark 11.15 at the end of his Ministry Idols and Evils are not easily or at once done way The second passage that falls out under this first Passoever after Christ's Baptism was their asking him a Sign to which he answered Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in three days c. John 2.18 19 20. Mark here First Those
which he Illustrates by a Parable of the Barren Figtree v. 7 c. Then Christ healed the crooked Woman after 18. years Misery on the Sabâ—ath at which his Adversaries Cavilled but he vindicates his Act by their own practice in inferior Cases Luke 13.11 to 17. of Leaven and Mustard-seed v 18 19 20.21 For which Christ teacheth the Nature of the word of God in its Operation according as the Receiver is c. Then Luke brings Christ to Jerusalem ver 22. to this Dedication Feast in which what he did is before Related and now what after it c. Secondly Luke with John supplies the other two Evangelists Omissions with more passages of Christs Life after the Feast This Evangelist having brought Christ through many Cities and Villages to this Foast at Jerusalem Luke 13. and gives a touch of some Stories during the Bedication Fedst as 1. of one that came to Christ while he stayed in Jerusalem and asked him Are sew to beâ—saved c. as thy Doctrine imports ver 23. wherein this Questionist was more curious in his Criticisms than he was studions of his own Salvation it concerns us more to know what fort than how many shall be Saved and indeed the former gives light to the latton as Christ Answer ver 24. Imports for all would come to Heaven but few like and love the Namon way thither Heaven hath many seckors but few finders for few seek it in the right way at the right time and by the right door Christ is the way door and all in all c. 2. Luke tells how some lying Pharisees provoked at the impairing of their Reputation among the People by the growth of the Gospel whispers to him of his danger from Herod who was now at Jerusalem and being Tetrach of Galilee had likely belped forward the Slaughter of the Galileans aforesaid c. as if they had been Christs Well-wishers c. whereas it was only to be quit of him This was done the same day with the Captious questions c. Luke 13.31 and Christ bid them tell that Fox that he would live as long as himself listed without Herods Leave and though his last Passoever and Passion did draw nigh yet had he some time wherein to walk and work before it came so he departed from Jerusalem crying out still on the same day O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. Thou shalt no more see me till my last coming hither to dye here ver 34 35. and those very words here mentioned Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord were about three Months after this implyed in this Phrase to Day to Morrow and the third Day the Acclamations of the People Matth. 21 9 c. Jerusalem was then as Rome is now the Saints-Slaughter-House therefore doth he leaveit here till his Hour came and the farther from it the safer he went beyond Jordan as before His Actions after this are Recorded again by all the four Evangelists some relating one thing and some another and by supplying each other the History is compleated 1. Luke gives an account of his healing the Dropsy-Man on the Sabbath Day Luke 14.2 c. The Preface when Christ had heal'd a Man of the Dropsie ver 4 then he endeavoured to heal his Deriders of their Spiritual Dropsie of Pride and Avarice from ver 7. to 11. Teaching them Humility and to Feast the Poor ver 12. to 17. in both which Parables Christ taught those Moral Duties 1. The Law of Christ doth not Indulge Rudeness or Incivility in us to any Person our Lord was Civil to Pharisees so as to eat Meat with them as here ver 1. and Luke 7.36 though he hated their Principles yet he hated not their Persons 2. The Disciples of Christ must so mind their Conversation as not to prejudice their Reputation in doing any thing they may be ashamed of afterward c. 3. 'T is the Command of God that Honour be given to whom Honour doth belong Rom. 13.7 Godliness and good Manners may consist together 4. Christ Reproves not the common Kindness and Courtesie of one Friend feasting another but the Error of the Pharisees in resting there without pitty to the poor c. 5. Friendly Feastings ought not to Exclude Charity to poor Saints which is a giving to Christ himself Matth. 25.35 and 't is a lending to the Lord who will Return it again with Advantage Prov. 19.17 6. If such Charitable ones meet not with a Recompence on Earth they shall be sure to have a Rich Reward in Heaven ver 14. Luke 14. N. B. Note well Then follows the Parable of the Great Supper occasioned by one at the Table who expected a Reward for his Charity in his supposed Temporal Kingdom of Christ whereas our Lord saith my Kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 and Rom. 14.17 though the poor can not requite us yet God can and will for all good shall be Rewarded c. Christ in this Parable sheweth how Worldly-minded Men who Contemn the Word of God shall be shut out of Heaven from ver 16. to ver 25. Mens cleaving so close to Sensual and Earthly things do cause them to neglect the things that are Spiritual and Heavenly c. This Parable is spoke to in Chapter the thirtyeth namely three Days before Christs last passover All I shall add here is this only That this Parable of the Supper doth plainly hold forth the Rejection of the Jews and the Reception of the Gentiles The Jews were first invited by John Baptist by Christ himself and by his Apostles to the Lambs Marriage-Supper Rev. 19.9 but they make Excuses even in lawful Matters according to that saying in licitis perimus omnes we oft make bad use of good things to our own undoing They excused themselves out of Heaven then the Gentiles as so many Rusticks living in Lanes c. are invited yea such as lived in High-ways and under Hedges must be compelled to come in the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth make it necessary so 't is used Mat. 14.22 and Luke 24.29 and Gal. 2.14 not any Club-law 't is not spoke here to Magistrates but to Ministers only Mans Will cannot admit of any Compulsive Violence but it must necessarily follow the Dictates of the understanding N. B. Note well When our Lord saw great Multitudes following him ver 25. he observed that he had many Followers but few Touchers like that Woman with the bloody Issue 12 years who said If I may but Touch the Hem of his Garment I shall be Cured Matth. 9.20 21. Then Christ turned and said unto them to this purpose 1. That they must love nothing better than Christ ver 26. he must have our plus and our prius our first and our best love and most deserving it for his doing most and his suffering most for our Salvation 2. He cautions them concerning the Cross ver 27. the Doctrine whereof was that if the Cross or
our Dear Jesus the one was Damned and the other Saved to shew that God will have Mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9.15 18. The 3d Note of observation is The Repentance and Faith of this Dying Malefactor the truth of the former and the strength and greatness of the latter may be in this manner plainly demonstrated First That he was truly Penitent is made Apparent thus 1st By his rebuking the Raillery of his Fellow-Thief saying Dost thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same Condemnation Luke 23.40 This speech clearly discovers that this Malefactor had the Fear of God upon his Heart which the other Thief wanted for which this Penitent reproved him intimating hereby that the Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom Psal 111.10 Prov. 9.10 't is not only the Beginning but 't is also the Middle and the Ending of Wisdom A Man never begins to be Wise till he begin to fear God which is the best Wisdom and without which Rein to restrain and retain them within compass all Impenitent ones run riotously into all Extravagancies and Exorbitant Courses Thus Abraham told Abimelech Surely the Fear of God is not in this place therefore they will not stick at committing any Sin Gen. 20.11 Whereas Joseph tells his Brethren I dare not wrong you because I fear God Gen. 42.18 The same saith Nehemiah to the People Nehem. 5.15 but because the Cursed Amalekites feared not God they met Israel with Fire and Sword when they should have met them with Bread and Water Deut. 25.17 18 19. Exod. 17.8 and the Apostle saith Where the Fear of God is not before Mens Eyes Rom. 3.18 there the Throat is an open Sepulchre belching out stinking blasphemies as this Impenitent Thief did against Christ and breathing forth the Poison of Asps and bitter Cursings ver 13 14. and their Feet are swist to shed blood c. ver 15 16. Thus was it the fear of God that caused Job to commiserate those that were in misery and perishing Job 31.19 20. which because this Penitent Thief saw his Fellow-Thief did not therefore he reproved him in love to his Soul that was now almost ready to depart out of his Body by Death and just upon going to be judged by the Great God so he most seasonably exhorted him that he should not die in his Sin c. The 2d Demonstration of the Truth of this Thief 's Repentance is by his Ingenuous Confession and from his free and full acknowledgment of his own wickedness Assuredly the sense of his own sin lay with much weight upon his Spirit otherwise he would never have so taken shame to himself and so publickly before so many People as then were present have owned his own just condemnation saying just as the Church of God saith I will bear the Indignation of God because I have sinned against him Mic. 7.9 This was his hour of God's finding him when he had wearied himself all along in his ways of Wickedness Jer. 2.24 This was the time of God's love to his Soul when he had been wallowing all his life long in the polluted blood of his own Iniquity Ezek 16.8 even then was God's Promise to his Church made good to him there remembring his own Wicked Ways and Diabolical doings while he hanged in the midst of his misery and loathing himself for them Ezek. 20.43 44. even then on the Cross did he thus know the Lord c. Judging himself as receiving but his just reward his sinning he was sensible was the cause of his suffering Luke 23.41 that he might not be judged of God nor condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.31 32 The 3d Demonstration of his true Penitency is taken from his Apology for and Vindication of the Innocency of our Saviour saying This Man though a Fellow-Sufferer with us hath done nothing Amiss Luke 23.41 who can but wonder that this poor wretch and miserable dying Malefactor should thus boldly and publickly proclaim the unjust condemnation of Jesus and speak thus confidently and conscientiously for Christ when all the Chief-Priests and so many of the People were Impudently making their Mocks at him as above and so blasphemously speaking against him N. B. Note well Some say that the other Thief Mocked Christ designedly to please the Priests that they for this meritorious fact might Interceed with Pilate for saving his Life and for taking him down from the Cross before he was dead minding himself and his own Body his bodily good only But so was it not with this good Thief he was more concerned for the Glory of Christ's Innocency which he vindicated than he was for his own bodily deliverance not much unlike Moses that Man of God and the Meekest Man upon Earth who was a Lamb in his own cause and concerns when himself was Affronted he carried meekly not speaking one Angry Word Numb 12.1 2 3 c. but was no less than a Lion in God's cause Exod. 32.19 where this meekest of Men was transported into such an high pang of Passion as to break all the Ten Commandments in one Act He was hotly Angry and brake the two Tables in pieces c. When he saw God's Glory so notoriously dishonoured by the Peoples Calf-Worship and their Gross Idolatry Thus this Thief bad not one word to say for his own Justification Yet will justifie Just Jesus to the last breath in his Body c. The Second Branch of this third Note of Observation is To demonstrate the strength and greatness of his Faith together with the Truth of his Repentance this is done thus The 1st farther Demonstration hereof is by this Penitent Thief 's Prayer for Mercy upon his Soul Luke 23.42 Lord Remember me c. This must be the Prayer of Faith and Repentance The other Thief was all for his Body and nothing for his Soul 'T is thought by some N. B. Note well That another reason of his Railing so against Christ was because he who had saved so many other Bodies from Diseases and Death yet would not save his sinful Body from the Tortures of the Cross oh how oft is God murmured at by a Wicked World because he doth not gratifie their Bodies with such and such Accommodations but this Good Thief prays not Lord Remember my Body that is let these Spikes and Nails that fasten my Body to the Cross be drawn out that I may be delivered from Death not a Word of that Nature no now is he under such a neglect of his Body here as if he cared not what became of it so his Soul might but be saved Would to God it were our care when we die to do so c. The 2d Demonstration hereof is By not only his praying being now dispossessed of the Dumb Devil for now behold he prayed as Acts 9.11 but also by his praying so humbly asking only Remembrance Lord remember me for as he was sensible of his so great sins this great
the Word but not the Oister-shell or Earthen-Vessel that bears or brings it Acts 13.48 Therefore Peter took him up from his excess of worshiping N.B. But so do not the pretended Successors of Peter the Pope's who hold forth their Toes to be kissed and permit their Parasites to worship them as Gods Peter would not suffer this Centurion who was but one of Caesar's under-servants to worship him but the proud Pope can compel even Caesar himself to fall prostrate before him and little enough to gain his favourable Aspect N.B. This Gesture of Adoration though it was excessively tender'd by Cornelius yet was it refused with Rebuke by Peter which was the first part of his Entertainment at the door of the Centurion's house N.B. The second part thereof was his handing of Peter into his house and acknowledging God's goodness in bringing such a welcome Guest to him for 't is said He talked with him as they two went hand in hand into the house N.B. And the third part thereof was an Auditory was prepared all ready and desirous to hear him Preach the Gospel to them not only Cornelius himself who had sent the Messengers did wait for him verse 24. Acts 10. but also Peter found many others who were come together verse 27. And this Account we have of the posture of all this Auditory that not only Cornelius was like an hungry Soul who immediately without delay sends for his food so soon as he knew where it was to be found but also they do all uanimously by the mouth of the Master of the house not only bid Peter welcome but also give him thanks for his pains in coming to them yea they farther profess to set themselves in a present reverential posture as having God himself overlooking them and whom they desired to be a witness of their readiness to obey what God required of them by Peter's mouth verse 33. which teacheth us 1. That the People should wait for the Pastor verse 24 27. And we are all here present verse 33. Thus the People waited for Zecharias Luke 1.21 They should speedily go up Zech. 8.21 2. That such as hear the Word should hear it as from God's mouth as well as Man 's we are present before God The want of setting our selves as in God's sight is the cause why we so much want God in the Ordinances c. After these two Circumstances comes in the Substance or Specification of Cornelius's Conversion the Manner and Form together with the Means thereof which are principally twofold 1. By Words 2. By Deeds 1. The Words whereby he was converted were the pregnant and powerful Sermon which Peter Preached to him in his house wherein these parts are observable 1. The Preface preparing for Right Instruction drawn from the person of the Auditors Acts 10. v. 34 35. 2. The Proposition Preached upon namely that great Mystery of the Gospel the Word of Reconciliation betwixt God and Man not only betwixt God and the Jews but also betwixt God and the Gentiles verse 36. 3. The Paraphrase upon his Proposition illustrated both by the first Minister of the Gospel who began to Preach it to wit John the Baptist verse 37. and by the Principal Master and Author of the Gospel to wit the Lord Jesus whom Peter commendeth from his double Office of King and Priest verse 38. and this commendation is 4. Farther confirmed by a double Testimony 1. That of the Apostles concerning the Innocent Life Christ led upon Earth his holy Death he suffered at the last verse 39. his glorious Resurrection verse 40 41. And lastly His last Return with Power and great Glory to judge the World verse 42. Then 2. By the Testimony of the Prophets Acts 10.43 All these parts are contained in the Copy or Example of Peter's Sermon Then follow the Effects and Consequences of it which are three First The Effusion of the Holy Ghost verse 44. Secondly The Amazement of the Spectators verse 45. Lastly The Gift of Tongues verse 46. Thus far Cornelius's Conversion was wrought by means of Words now comes the manifestation of the Truth of it by Deeds 2. The Reality of this new Gentile-Convert was evidenced by Deeds done in the Sacramental Sign of Gospel-Baptism relating to both the Person Baptizing who was Peter who first propounds that great Question Whether it were lawful to Baptize Cornelius and his Family and Friends seeing they were all Gentiles To which himself then gives an Affirmative Answer arguing à majori namely from the thing signified which is the greater to the Sign it self which is the lesser Acts 10. v. 47. And then to the Parties Baptized who all accepted of Gospel Baptism and requested Peter the Administrator thereof to tarry with them certain days verse 48. to be farther instructed confirmed and comforted that they might grow in Grace c. This large Scheme affordeth us many memorable Remarks As First That there is an exact Harmony betwixt the Old and New Testament touching the extent of the word of Reconciliation the old Prophets did not confine it to the Jews but extended it to the Gentiles also Psal 72.7 8. and Isa 49.6 and 57.19 where it is said that God created peace to them that are afar off as the Gentiles were as well as to them that are near to wit the Jews A Praelibamen or fore-tast hereof were the Examples of Melchizedeck Job and Naaman who no way belonged to the Jews shewing that the Word of Life was not limited unto them only The second Remark is That God is no Respecter of persons that is he doth not make the external condition of a person as of what Nation Family Name or Quality he be of the Rule of his Respect or Acceptance He doth not accept of one because he is a Jew nor disrespect another because he is a Gentile God regardeth not the outward Estate as Countrey Sex Wealth Wisdom c. which neither help nor hurt Man neither please nor displease God but only as they are in a good or bad Man as a Cipher set by it self signifies nothing but having a numerical figure fixed before it then it increaseth the sum This Truth God had taught the Jews themselves in the Old Testament Deut. 10.17 that he respected not persons which is more confirmed in the New Rom. 2.11 1 Pet. 1.17 and here Acts 10.34 The third Remark is He that is truly religious toward God and truly righteous toward Man of whatever Nation or Condition he be of Jew Gentile Poor or Rich c. is accepted of God Yea the very Romans or Italians such as the Jews thought most hardly of because they were dealt most hardly with by them being in bondage under them at that time might find acceptance with God if they feared God and wrought righteousness as Cornelius did Acts 10.35 who was an Italian not circumcised in the flesh yet circumcised in the spirit Rom. 2.29 no nor as yet baptized yet accepted for these words must be
Tumult against him Those carnal men whose gain was their God which they adored and their Godliness too soon took fire at this spark and speech began tumultuously to defend their wicked Trade Covetousness as it self is Idolatry Col. 3.5 so it upholds Idolatry as here under a pretence of piety where there is Utility Men think there is piety The Papists are sound in those points that touch not upon their profit as in the Doctrine of the Trinity c. The eleventh Remark is 'T is the Lot and Portion of Gospel-Preachers and professors to be loaded with Accusations by the Adversaries thereof set on by the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 as here in order to get them condemned and executed for their Supposed Sacriledge and Blasphemy N.B. No better tendency had Demetrius's Invective Oration to his Fellow-artificers verse 26 27 28 c. To those he urgeth many Arguments As 1st That of Profit which Paul's preaching against our Gods made with hands hath already greatly damnified Our Patent and Monopoly for the Manufacture of making Silver Medals will soon be insignificant Our Trade will quickly be under disgrace and die This was the Achilles or most Cogent and Pungent of all his arguments hath not Paul's preaching Intrenched upon their profit in all probability he would not have been so much concerned as to have stirred out of Doors against it N.B. Thus Erasmus wittily told the Elector of Saxony that the principal Reasons why Luther was so much set against by the Romanists was Because he meddled with the Pope's Tripple Crown and the Monks fat Panches 2dly He added to his Argument of profit a pretence of piety Not only are we like to lose our Trade and Liveli-hood but our Religion also our Goddess Diana will be despised our Temple its worship will be lessened yea levelled by their light of the gospel this is madea great aggravation by those Idolatrous worshippers how much more by those who worship God in spirit truth seeing they have a more sure word for their foundation 3dly He inforces another leading motive from the Universality and common consent of worshippers as well as pretended Antiquity hereby he easily heated the Rabble's blood and heaved them into an hideous outrage as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 28. signifies so that never Examining the truth of the case cause they put it to popularity and to a Tumultuous uproar and outcrys crying for two hours together N.B. which was more painful than to hear a Sermon so long yet most hearers think that too long to hear verse 28 and 34. great is Diana of the Ephesians to shew their abhorrency of Paul's preaching down their Grand Idol which they were resolved to perpetuate in her splendour and glory against the Gospel and in this Hurly-burly and confusion of the whole City wherein the greater part as in all popular Tumults knew not wherefore they were come together ver 32. and 't is well if it be better among the multitude of common hearers in Publick Church-assemblies Gaius and Aristarchus the two companions of Paul were caught hold of and carry'd in an Hurry to their great Theatre where their plays were seen their Orations heard and their Malefactors tryed and punished for which end these two Fellow-Travellers of Paul were Hurryed vers◠29. The twelfth Remark is Divine providence can never be enough adored seeing God works Deliverances for his Servants in danger one way or other sometimes by their Friends and sometimes by their Foes made to become Friends as here from v. 29. to the 41. N.B. To say nothing of the deliverance of Gaius and Aristarchus out of that Eminent Danger they were involved into when caught hold of by the Rude rabble and pushing headlong into the Theatre to which they all rushed with one accord Verse 29. because the Scripture speaks nothing expresly how these two were delivered out of their violent and murdering hands yet is this therein necessary implyed because the Scripture doth mention how after this uproar Gaius and Aristarchus did accompany Paul into Asia Acts 20.4 again mention is made of Gaius as Paul's Host and the host of the whole Church Col. 4.10 and of Aristarchus twice after this once as Paul's Fellow-Passenger at Sea and Shipwrack Acts 27.27 and again as Paul's Fellow-prisoner Rom. 16.23 N.B. So that 't is manifest these two Good Ministers who are supposed to be the Messengers of the Churches mentioned 2 Cor. 8.18 19 23. were not now torn in pieces by the outragious rabble of those Insolent Idolaters in this Tumult N.B. But Paul's deliverance out of the most Imminent Danger is expresly Illustrated by the Holy Ghost in three Eminent Circumstances The first is when Paul would have entered in among this rude Rabble not only the Disciples suffered him not for the life of him from whom they had received the Faith was more dear to them than their own a blessed pattern for good people to preserve their Pastors verse 30. but also some of the chief of Asia supposed to be Heathen Priests who usually were Masters of those plays and shows in honour of their Idol-Gods or Princes of the Country do add to the Disciples intreaties their requests sent to him not to adventure himself among such an inraged Rabble such an head-strong ungovernable company that bellua multorum Capitum the beast with many heads or mad multitude verse 31. Whether these chief men who sent this saving Message to Paul were Princes or Priests it matters not However it was a mighty work of God's Providence in over-ruling those Heathens hearts and inclining them to countenance and favour persecuted Paul though these men were bad enough especially if as Beza saith they were such Idolatrous Priests as composed Stage-plays for their deified Diana yet the Father of Spirits made them shew some good affections towards Paul if not towards the Christian Religion The same God who made many Legal Priests obedient to the Faith Acts 6 7. might make these Idolatrous Priests thus far obedient also Christ can either find or make Friends to his Gospel and Ministers even among the worst of their Foes N.B. The second Circumstance was that of Alexander verse 33 34. whom some suppose to be the same man of whom Paul complains in his 2 Tim. 4.14 15 16. That he did him much wrong upon these three Grounds 1. That Paul wrote this Epistle to Timothy who was then at Ephesus c. 2. That same Alexander was of Demetrius's calling a Copper-Smith for they made Copper-Shrines of Diana and her Temple for the poor to buy as well as Silver ones for the Richer sort 3. This Alexander was an Ephesian N.B. But others Judge him to be another of that name yet a Disciple of Paul's at the first for which the mad Mobile caught him and carried him to the Theatre c. However all agree that he was a Jew because the Jews pushed him forward to make a Vindication of their