to Moses in six hundred and thirteene precepts David in the fifteenth Psalme bringeth them all within the compasse of eleven 1. To walke uprightly 2. To worke righteousnesse 3. To speake truth in the heart 4. Not to slander 5. Not to wrong a Neighbour 6. Not to entertaine or raise an ill report 7. To viâ—iâ—â—e a reprobate 8. To honour them that feare the Lord 9. That alterâ—th not his oath 10. Not to lend to usury 11. Not to take bribes against the innocent The Propbet Isaiah brings these to six in Chap. 33. 15. 1. To walke justly 2. To speake righteously 3. To refuse gaine of oppression 4. To shake hands from taking bribes 5. To stop the eares from hearing of blood 5. To shut the eyes from seeing of evill Micab reduceth all to three Chap. 6. 8. 1. To doe justly 2. To love mercy 3. To walke humbly with God Isaiah againe to two Chap. 56. 1. 1. Keepe judgement 2. Do justice Amâ—s to one Chap. 5. 4. Seeke me Habakkuk also brings all to one Chap. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live Thus the Jewes witnesse against themselves while they conclude that Faith is the summe of the Law and yet they stand altogether upon workes A testimony from Jewes exceedingly râ—markable SECT. XXVII Articles of a beleeving Iewes Creed collected out of Moses Law 1. I Beleeve that salvation is by Faith not by Workes When the Talmudick Jewes make such a confession as is mentioned instantly before wherein they reduce all the tenor and marrow of the Law under this one doctrine of living by Faith Hab. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live it is no wonder if the more ancient and more holy Jewes under the Law looked for salvation not by their owne merits and workes but onely by Faith This fundamentall point of Religion they might readily learne by these two things 1. From the impossibility of their keeping the Law which their consciences could not but convince them of by their disabilitiâ— to heare it and by their daily carriage 2. In that they saw the holiest of their men and the holiest of their services to receive sanctitie not from themselves but from another So they saw that the Priest who was or should bee at least the holiest man amongst them was sanctified by his garments and that the sacrifices were sanctified by the Altar From these premises they could not but conclude that no man nor his best service could be accepted as holy in it selfe but must be sanctified by another 2. I beleeve that there is no salvation without reconciliation with God and no reconciliation without satisfaction The first part of this Article is so plaine that nature might teach it and so might it the latter also and laying hereto Moses his lex talionis eye for eye tooth for tooth it made it doubtlesse 3. I beleeve that satisfaction shall once be made This they might see by their daily sacrifice aiming at a time when there should full satisfaction be made which these poore things could not doe No lesse did their Iubilee yeare intimate when men in debt and bondage were quitted The very time of the yeare when the Iubilee yeare began calling all Israel to thinke of a Jubilee from sinne and Satans bondage into which mankind fell at the same time of the yeare 4. I beleeve that satisfaction for sinne shall be made by a man This is answerable to reason that as a man sinned so a man should satisfie but Moses Law about redemption of land by a kinsman taught Israel to expect that one that should be akin in the flesh to mankind should redeeme for him morgaged heaven {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Hebrew is both a kinsman and a Redeemer 5. I beleeve that he shall be more then a man This they learned from the common service about the Tabernacle wherein the high Priest a man as fully hallowed and sanctified as man could be for his outward function yet did he offer and offer againe for the people and himselfe and yet they were uncleane still This read a Lecture to every ones apprehension that a meere man could not doe the deed of satisfaction but he must be more 6. I beleeve the redeemer must also be God as well as man The disabilitie of beasts to make satisfaction they saw by their dying in sacrifice one after another and yet mans conscience cleansed never the better The unabilitie of man we saw before The next then that is likely to doe this worke are Angels But them Israel saw in the Tabernacle curtaines spectators onely and not actors in the time and worke of reconciliation From hence they might gather that it must be God dwelling with man in one person as the cloud the glory of God never parted from the Arke 7. I beleeve that mans Redeemer shall die to make satisfaction This they saw from their continued bloody sacrifices and from the covenants made and all things purged by blood This the heedlesse man-slayer might take heed of and see that as by the death of the high Priest he was restored to liberty so should mankind be by the death of the highest Priest to the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God Their delivery from Egypt by the death of a Lambe taught them no lesse 8. I beleeve that he shall not die for his owne sinnes but for mans Every sacrifice read this lecture when the most harmelesse of beasts and birds were offered 9. I beleeve that he shall overcome death This Israel saw by necessary conclusion that if Christ should fall under death he did no more then men had done before His resurrection they saw in Aarons Rod Manna Scapegoate Sparrow c. 10. I beleeve to be saved by laying hold upon his merits Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them that their sinnes were to be imputed to another and the laying hold on the hornes of the Altar being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance taught them that anothers merits were to bee imputed to them yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar Exod. 21. 12. 1 King 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender it is easie to see what that signified unto them Thus farâ—e each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine by earnest study finding these points under the vaile of Moses The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them From these groundworkes of Moses and the Prophets Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messias came the schooles of the Jewes to be so well versed in that point that their Scholars doe mention his very name Jesus the time of his birth in Tisri the space of his preaching three yeeres and a halfe the yeare of his death they yeare of Jubile and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors though they knew
women for they are lively c. These words of theirs proceeded from the same faith from whence had proceeded their work of charity the childrens preservation And so farre are they from being a lye that they are so glorious a confession of their faith in God that we finde not many that have gone beyond it And the things they spake of so farre from false that they were most admirably and miraculously true and really done They saw in very deede the immediate hand and helpe of God plainely and really shewed to the Hebrew women in their labour and that whereas other women naturally in that case are weake fainting and long in paine these were strong lively and soone delivered For as the strength of the promise shewed it selfe in the Males of Israel in that the more they were pressed under servitude afflicted the more were they able for generation vers. 2. Act. 7. 17. So did the strength of the promise shew it selfe upon the women in that they were delivered of their children with a supernaturall and extraordinary ease and quicknesse Therefore the Midwives boldly stand out to Pharaoh to the venture of a Martyrdome and plainely tell him that since they were not in travell as other women but lively and strong and had soone done it could bee nothing but the immediate hand of God with them which hand they are resolved they will not oppose for all his command lest they should be found to fight against God For this confession so resolutely and gloriously made before Pharaoh and for their fact answerable God made them houses because they feared him vers. 21. that is married them into the Congregation of Israel and built up Israelitish Families by them SECT. IV. Moses his birth supernaturall Exod. 2. 2. MOSES was borne when his mother by the course of nature was past child-bearing For if Levi begat Jochebed at an hundred yeeres old which is hardly to be conceived as Gen. 17. 17. yet is Jochebed within two of fourescore when she bare Moses But it was more then probable that she was borne long before Levi was an hundred unlesse we will have Levi to be above halfe a hundred yeares childlesse betwlxt the birth of Merari and Jochebed And thus the birth of Moses was one degree more miraculous then the miraculous and supernaturall birth of the other children of the Hebrew Women and so was his brother Aarons not much lesse wondrous Shee then having a goodly childe at so great an age saw the speciall hand of God in it and therefore labours his preservation against Pharaohs decree for by Faith she knew he would be preserved for some speciall instrument of Gods glory but the manner of his preservation she knew not yet SECT. V. Our Saviours allegation of Exod. 3. 6. in Luk. 20. 37. cleared MOSES in Midian under the retirednesse of a Pastorall life giveth himselfe unto contemplation of divine things in one of those raptures God himselfe appeareth visibly to him in deed and that in a flaming fire now he is about to performe the promise as he appreared to Abraham when he made it and it came to passe when the Sunne went downe and it was darke behold a smoaking furnace and a burning Lampe that passed betweene those peeces In the same day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. 17 18. The words which Christ here useth to Moses in the bush he urgeth againe to the Jewes whereby to evince the Resurrection Luk. 20. 37. And that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for he is not a God of the dead but of the living which words indeed doe inferre the resurrection as they lie in themselves but farre more clearely if they be laid to and compared with the Jewes owne doctrine and position Rabbi Simeon Ben Joâ—hai saith the holy blessed God nameth not his name on the righteous in their life but after their death as it is said to the Saints that are in the earth Psal. 16. 3. When are they Saints when they are laid in the earth For all the dayes that they live the holy blessed God joyneth not his name to them And why because the holy blessed God trusteth them not that evill affections will not make them to erre but when they be dead the holy blessed God nameth his name upon them But behold we find that he nameth his name on Isaack the righteous whilst he liveth for so he saith to Iacob I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac Rabbi Barachiah and our Doctors our Doctors say He saw his dust as it was gathered upon the Altar and Rabbi Barachiah saith since he was blind of his eyes he is reputed as dead because he was shut up in the midst of the house Rabbi Tanch in Gen. 28. Rabbi Menahem in Exod. 3. SECT. VI The power of Miracles Habbak 3. 2. Acts 19. 2. explained THe gift of Prophecie or Foretelling things to come had beene in the Church since the fall of Adam and now are Miracles added because of unbeliefe For observe that when Moses saith Behold they will not beleeve the Lord immediatly answer What is that in thine hand This double facultie being given here to Moses the first Prophet of the Church of Israel it also descended to a succession of Prophets in that Congregation from time to time But with this excellent gift it was also given Moses himselfe to know and so likewise them that did succeed that they had this double power not from themselves but from another Moses his stammering tongue taught himselfe and them so much for Prophecie and his leprous hand taught so much for Miracles This succession of Prophets began from Samuel and ended in the death of Christ Acts 3. 24. Not that there were not Prophets betwixt Moses and Samuel but because they were not expressed by name as also because vision in that space of time was exceeding rare 1 Sam. 3. 1. Now from the beginning of the rule of Samuel to the beginning of the captivitie in Babel were foure hundred and ninetie yeares and from the end of that captivitie to the end of Christs life upon earth were foure hundred and ninetie yeares more The seventie yeares of captivitie betweene which were the seventh part of either of these two Numbers that lay on either side are called by Habbakkuk The middest of yeares namely from the beginning of Prophecie in Samuel to the sealing of Prophecy in the death of Christ Revive thy worke in the midst of the yeares in the midst of the yeares make knowne Then was it justly to be feared that the spirit of Prophecy would quite have ceased from Israel when they were captived among the Heathen This made the Prophet to pray so earnestly that God would preserve alive or revive his worke of Miracles in the middest of yeares and in those
times of captivitie that he would make knowne things to come by that gift of Prophecy And he was heard in what he prayed for and his supplication tooke effect in the most propheticke and powerfull Spirit of Daniel The Jewes had an old maxime that after the death of Zacharie Malachi and those last Prophets the Spirit of God departed from Israel and went up So that from thence forward prediction of future things and working of miracles were rarities among them To this aimed the answer of those holy ones Acts 19. 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any holy Ghost Not 〈◊〉 they doubted of such a person in the Trinitie but that whereas they had learned in their Schooles that the holy Ghost departed away after the death of Malachi they had never yet heard whether he was restored againe in his gifts of Prophecie and Miracles till now or no SECT. VII The two first Miracles Exod. 4. 1. THe turning of Moses rod into a Serpent did utterly disclaime any power of the Devill in these wonders which he was to worke which power onely the Magicians wrought by For as a Serpent was the fittest Embleme of the Devill as Gen. 3. and Revel. 12. 9. So was it a signe that Moses did not these Miracles by the power of the Devill but had a power over and beyond him when he can thus deale with the Serpent at his pleasure as to make his rod a Serpent and the Serpent a rod as hee seeth good Yet is it worth the observing that he is commanded to take it by the taile vers. 9. for to meddle with the Serpents head belonged not to Moses but to Christ that spake to him out of the bush as Gen. 3. 15. His rod at Sinai is said to be turned into Nabash a common and ordinary Snake or Serpent but when hee casts it downe before Pharaâ—h it becommeth Tannin Chap. 7. 10. a Serpent of the greatest dimensions belike a Crocodile which beast the Egyptians adored and to whose jawes they had exposed the poore Hebrew Infants in the River 2. His leprous hand disclaimed also any power of Moses his owne in these wonders which he wrought for it was not possible that so great things should bee done by that impure and uncleane hand but by a greater 3. Both of these Miracles which were the first that were done by any Prophet in the world did more specially referre to the Miracles of that great Prophet that should come into the world by whose power these Miracles were done by Moses at this time For as it belonged to him onely to cast out the power of the Devill out of the soule and to heale the soule of the leprosie of sin so was it reserved for him first to cast out the Devill out of the body and to heale the leprosie of the body For though the Prophets from Moses to Christ had the gift of doing Miracles and performed wonders many of them in an high degree yet could never any of them or any other cast out a Devill or heale a Leper till the great Prophet came Elisha indeed directed Naaman how he should be healed but he neither touched him nor came out to him at all that he might shew that it was not his power but such cures were reserved for Christ to come SECT. VIII Moses in danger of death because of distrust Exod. 4. 24. THE fault of Moses that brought him into this danger was not the uncircumcision of his Sonne as it is commonly held for that had beene dispensable withall in him as it was with thousands afterwards of the Israelites in the Wildernesse but his fault was grievous diffidence and distrust For this is that that makes him so much so off and so earnestly to decline so glorious and honourable a message as the Lord would send him on and this was that that brought him into this danger of death when he was even going on this message Observe therefore his evasions and how they sound exceeding hollow and empty of beliefe First Who am I that I should goe to Pharaoh cap. 3. 11. This the Lord answereth I will bee with thee and this my appearing to thee may bee an undoubted token to thâ—e that I have sent thee vers. 12. Secondly But who shall I say hath sent me for forty yeares agoe they refused me saying Who made thee a Prince and a Ruler over us cap. 4. 1. This scruple the Lord removeth by giving him the power of miracles Thirdly But I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to me for though I may worke miracles upon others yet is not this wrought upon my selfe that I speake any whit better then I did before This receiveth this answer I will be with thy mouth vers. 10. 11. 12. Fourthly But I pray thee send by that hand that thou wilt send or stretch out vers. 13. for thou saydest to me I will stretch out mine hand and smite Aegypt c. Chap. 3. 20. Now therefore I pray thee stretch out this hand of thine for the hand of man is not able to performe it At this the Lords anger was kindled against him and that deservedly For in this he denyed the mystery of the redemption which was to be wrought by a man the God-head going alâ—ng with him Now it is time for Moses to set for Aegypt when he seeth God angry at his excusing he doth so but he taketh his diffidence along with him in that he taketh his wife and children with him One would thinke that had beene a speciall piece of charity but it being looked into will prove a speciall piece of distrust For when God appeareth to him at the very first he giveth him assurance of the peoples delivery and that they should come in their journeyes to that very place When thou hast brought the people forth out of Aegypt ye shall serve God upon this mountaine Chap. 3. 12. Now if Moses had believed certainely this promise and that undoubtedly he and the people should come thither he would never have taken wife and children with him to trouble them and himselfe in so long a journey and in so earnest a businesse but would have left them still with Jethro till he and Israel should march up to them But this he feared that this his journey would be to no effect that Israel would accept of none therfore should obtaine no delivery that this message would produce nothing unlesse danger to himselfe and that while he spake of delivering others he might incurre bondage himselfe so that if he left wife and children behind him it was odds he should never see them againe And therefore to make sure worke he will take them with him and for this his distrust the Lord meets him and seekes to kill him Nor was this distrust and diffidence little or small in him but if the circumstances be considered it will appeare to be very great and his want of faith exceeding
him not when he came amongst them SECT. XXVIII The Covenant made with Israel They not sworne by it to the ten Commandements Exod. 24. VVHen Israel cannot indure to heare the ten Commandements given it was ready to conclude that they could much lesse keepe them Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides namely Ceremoniall and Judiciall to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten Commandements sworne and entered into Covenant and these made them a Ceremoniall and singular people About which these things are observable 1. That they entred into Covenant to a written Law Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord c. Against tradions 2. That here was a booke written forty dayes before the writing of the two tables Against them that hold that the first letters that were seene in the world were the writing of God in those Tables And we have seene before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses viz. the 88. and 89. Psalmes And of equall antiquity with them or not much lesse was the penning of the booke of Iob most probably written by Elibu one of the Speakers in it as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15 16 17. and some other probabilitie 3. That this first Covenant was made with water and blood and figurative language For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant this my body are to bee understood in such another sense 4. That the ten Commandements were not written in the book of that Covenant but onely those 57. precepts mentioned before For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts because the people could not receive the ten for could they have received and observed those as they ought they must never have had any parcell of a Law more as if Adam had kept the Morall Law he had never needed to have heard of the promise and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should we had never needed the Gospell Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands because they could not receive the ten that hee would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant 2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to sweare to the performance of a Law which they could not indure so much as to heare 3. The ten Commandements needed not to be read by Moses to the people seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before 4. Had they beene written and laid up in this booke what necessitie had there beene of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone 5. Had Moses read the ten Commandements in the beginning of his booke why should he repeate some of them againe at the latter end as Exod. 23. 12. Let such ruminate upon this which hold and maintaine that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth Commandement is only the Jewish Sabbath and consequently Ceremouiall And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other consider whether they have not lost ground in granting that the fourth Commandement instituted the Jewish Sabbath For First The Jewes were not sworne to the Decalogue at all and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there but onely to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his booke and to the Sabbath as it was there Exod. 23. 12. Secondly The end of the Ceremoniall Sabbath of the Jewes was in remembrance of their delivery out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. but the morall Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of Gods resting from the workes of the Creation Exod. 20. 10. 11. SECT. XXIX The punishment of Israel for the golden Calse Exod. 32. ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses as Moses can be without meate The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai out of which they had so lately received the Law and yet so suddainely doe they breake the greatest Commandement of that Law to extremity of Aegyptian Jewels they make an Aegyptian Idol because thinking Moses had beene lost they intended to returne for Aegypt Grievous was the sinne for which they must looke for grievous punishment which lighted upon them in divers kinds First the Cloud of Glory their divine conductor departeth from the campe which was now become prophane and uncleane Secondly the Tables Moses breaketh before their face as shewing them most unworthy of the Covenant Thirdly The building of the Tabernacle the evidence that God would dwell among them is adjourned and put off for now they had made themselves unworthy Fourthly for this sinne God gave them up to worship all the host of heaven Act. 7. 42. Fifthly Moses bruiseth the Calâ—e to Powder and straweth it upon the waters and maketh the People drinke Here spirituall fornication commeth under the same tryall that carnall did Num. 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus drâ—nke made their belly to swell and to give a visible signe and token of their guilt then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled which thing they did with that zeale and sincerity that they spared neither Father nor Brother of their owne if they found him guilty In this slaughter there fell about three thousand these were ring-leaders and chiefe agents in this abomination and therefore made thus exemplary in their punishment upon the rest of the People the Lord sent a Plague vers. 35. Aâ—ron had first felt the smart in this destruction had his action in this businesse beene as voluntary as was theirs but what hee did hee did in feare of his life SECT. XXX That Moses fasted three Fasts of forty dayes apeece IT is a doubt of no small import Why seeing it pleased God to appoint the Feast of expiation the solemne Feast of Humiliation in that moneth of the yeare in which sinne entred into the World why he also did not appoint it upon the same day in which sinne entred viz. the sixth day of the moneth but on the tenth The reason of this is to be found out by observing Moses his Fasts in the mount and the conclusion of the last of them That he fasted thrice forty dayes is not so frequently observed as it easily may be concluded from his owne words The first Fast in Exod. 24. 18. And Moses was in the mountaine forty dayes and forty nights At the end of these dayes they made the golden Calfe The second Fast Exod. 32. 30 31. It came to passe on the morrow that Moses said unto the People Ye have sinned a great sinâ—e and now I will goe up into the mount c. and Moses returned unto the Lord c. which he explaineth Deut. 9. 18. I fell downâ— before the Lord as at the first forty dayes and forty nights c. The third Fast when he goeth