the Exchange God in Christ may be had in every lawful Calling And then the Pigeon was an Emblem of fecundity in Marriage and the Turtle may be an Emblem of chast Widdow-hood for I think we find no bigamy in the Turtle but in these Sacrifices we find no Emblem of an unnatural or of a vow'd barrenness nothing that countenances a vowed Virginity to the dishonour or undervaluing of Marriage CHAP. XIII Verse 2. THis prefigured the holy Priesthood of our blessed Saviour who doth see and handle and touch regard and heal all our Spiritual spots as these Priests dealt here with this bodily Infection so that if we be unclean we cannot deceive him Away therefore with our Figg-leaves for they cannot cover us if I be a Swearer an unclean Liver a Drunkard an envious person or the like I am a Leper a spiritual Leper and Christ is Judge whom I cannot mock he will never say I am clean till indeed I be so and so without amendment of Life I must out of the Host out of the Church and number of his Chosen to dye for ever in my Impurity Verse 45. So careful was God to have unclean persons known and discern'd from others in those dayes And we may take occasion also to wish that with us also in these dayes all bold and presumptuous mis-livers being most unclean before God and all good Men were distinguished from them that hate their wickedness by some such open marks as these were to the end that others might avoid them and they themselves be stricken with some shame to amendment of Life and saving of their Souls Allegorically these things in the Leper shadowed the state and condition of all wicked men in this World As the rent Cloaths that they are vile and odious before God his bare head that in Christ their head they have no Portion but are deprived of him his Lips or Mouth covered that such graceless persons cannot open their Mouth before God in any Prayer to be heard his shutting out of the Camp that such are to be Excommunicate from the number of the Faithful and are deprived of the Heavenly Inheritance Verse 50. Before thou condemn thy Brother put thy hand into thine own bosom as Moses did and tell me if it be not leaprous with that sin which thou condemnest in thy Brother and therefore Cause the Priest should not give rash Judgement the Leaprous was shut up seven dayes We must not be hasty to condemn others nay youmay reason further with your self thus that if in a matter thus subject to the Eye as these Sores were yet God would have no haste but a stay for seven dayes before Judgement should be given that the Party was unclean O how more doth he abhor hast in pronouncing of the Hearts and Thoughts of our Friends and Neighbours which are not seen nor subject to an easie Censure A wise gatherer of Grapes gatheeth only the ripe and good Grapes and medleth not with the four and ill Grapes so a good Christian noteth mens Vertues and speaketh of them when a Fool will be medling with their imperfections CHAP. XIV Verse 2. THe Law of the Leper here was that he should be brought unto the Priest men come not willingly to this manifestation of themselves nor yet are they to be brought in chains by a necessity of an exact enumeration of all their sins but to be led with that sweetness with which the Church proceeds in appointing sick persons if they feel their Consciences troubled with any weighty matter to make a special confession and to receive absolution at the hands of the Priest and then to be remembred that every coming to the Communion is as serious a thing as our transmigration out of this World and that we should do as much here for the settling of our Conscience as upon our Death-bed Verse 3. That it is still the duty of all Faithful Ministers to go to the sick to see them and consider their estate towards God ministring comfort to them in due season whilst their hearing is good their understanding good and their memory good And I would God that they that are sick had more care to send for their Ministers in due time and the Ministers when they know it to go and with all care and diligence to labour with them while time serves Verse 6. By the two Sparrows sayes Theodoret the cleansed person was put in mind to offer unto God both Soul and Body a living Sacrifice The Sparrow slain might teach him the necessity of Mortification in the Body which indeed is an earthen vessel the killing of it over pure Water that nothing more worketh this Mortification than the pure Water of Gods Word contained in the Scriptures and that by the bloud of Christ we are truly cleansed and set at liberty as here the live Sparrow dipped in the bloud of the slain Sparrow is set free Verse 7. This sevenfold sprinkling might happily shadow an earnest and tontinued meditation of Gods Goodness to him that thus was comforted and not for a day or two and then no more Surely our thoughts of Mercy vouchsafed to us are ever too short and transitory and therefore seven sprinklings are little enough to teach us our duty herein God of his Mercy so sprinkle us over and over that we may ever remember his kind Goodness towards us a thousand wayes CHAP. XV. Verse 3. OUr Nature whether running or stopp'd is unclean We have uncleanness corruption in us though it doth not shew it self and this is Original Sin call'd here our uncleanness and by Saint Paul Rom. 7. Sinful sin so evil in its self that it could not have a worse Epithete given it than its own name call'd also by the same Apostle in the same Chapter The body of death a dead body or carcass to which we are tied as noisome every whit to our soul as a dead body to our senses and as burthensome as a withered arme or mortified limb which hangs on a man as a lump of lead Now some remnants of sin God hath left in us to clear to us his justifying Grace by Christs Righteousness And this also will make the Saints seem nothing in their own eyes even when they are fill'd brim full with Grace and Glory in another World Verse 12. So contagious a thing is sin that it defileth the very visible Heaven and Earth which therefore must be purged at the last day with a Deluge of Fire because they were not made clean by a Deluge of Water as here the earthen Pot which was but touch'd by an unclean person was broken and the wooden Vessel scour'd and rinsed in water How therefore ought we to fly from sin when even the touch of an unclean person defileth a man And if the Garment spotted with the flesh be so contagious how mortal must the life and conversation of such a man needs be to the Soul Verse 13. When you read thus often of Water
peaceably but youth commonly undertakes rashly and performs with passion The Sons of Iacob think of nothing but revenge and which is worst of all begin their cruelty with craft and hide their craft with Religion A smiling malice is most deadly and hatred doth most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled We cannot give our Sister to an uncircumcised man here was God in the mouth and Satan in the heart The bloodiest of all Projects have ever wont to be coloured with Religion because the worse any thing is the better shew it desires to make and contrarily the better colour is put upon any vice the more odious it is for as every simulation adds to an evil so the best adds most evil themselves had taken the Daughters and Sisters of uncircumcised men yea Iacob himself did so why might not then an uncircumcised man obtain their Sister Or if there be a difference of giving and taking it had been well if it had not been only pretended It had been an happy ravishment of Dinah that should have drawn a whole Country into the bosome of the Church but here was a Sacrament intended not to the good of the soul but to the murther of the body Verse 15. Simeon and Levi when they meditate their revenge for the Rape committed upon their Sister when they pretended Peace yet they required a little bloud they would have the Shechemites Circumcised but when they had opened a Vein they made them bleed to Death when they were under the soreness of Circumcision they slew them all Gods Justice required bloud likewise the bloud of his Son but that bloud is not spilt as was the bloud of these Shechemites but poured from that Head to our Hearts into the Veins and Wounds of our own Souls In the Circumcision and Passion of our Saviour there was Bloud shed but no Bloud lost Verse 23. It was an hard task for Hamor and Shechem not only to put the knife to their own fore-skins but to perswade a multitude to so painful a condition Now to bring this about as the Sons of Iacob dissembled with them so they dissemble with the people Shall not all their flocks and substance be ours Common profit is pretended when as only Shechems pleasure is meant No motive is so powerful to the vulgar sort as the name of Commodity the hope of this makes them prodigal of their skin and bloud not the love to the Sacrament nor the love to Shechem sinister respects draw more to the profession of Religion than Conscience if it were not for the Loaves and Fishes the train of Christ would be less But the Sacraments of God mis-received never prosper in the end These men are content to smart so they may gain Verse 25. Now that every one lies sore of his own Wound Simeon and Levi rush in armed and wound all the Males to death Cursed be their Wrath for it was fierce and their Rage for it was cruel Indeed filthiness should not have been wrought in Israel yet murther should not have been wrought by Israel If they had been fit Judges which were but bloudy Executioners how far doth the punishment exceed the fault To punish above the offence is no less injustice than to offend One offendeth and all feel the revenge yea all the innocent suffer that revenge which he that offended deserved not Shechem sinneth but Dinah tempted him She that was so light as to wander abroad alone only to gaze I fear was not over-difficult to yield and if having wrought her shame he had driven her home with disgrace to her Fathers Tent such tyrannous lust had justly called for bloud but now he craves and offers and would pay dear for but leave to give satisfaction to execute rigor upon a submiss offendor is more merciless than just or if the punishment had been both just and proportionable from another yet from them which had vowed Peace and Affinity it was shamefully unjust To disappoint the Trust of another and to neglect our own promise and fidelity for private purposes adds faithlessness unto our cruelty Verse 30. Who would have looked to have found this outrage in the Family of Iacob How did that good Patriarch when he saw Dinah come home blubber'd and wringing her hands Simeon and Levi sprinkled with bloud wish that Leah had been barren as long as Rachel Good Parents have grief enough though they sustain no blame for their Childrens sins What great evils arise from small beginnings The idle curiosity of Dinah hath bred all this mischeif Ravishment follows upon her wandring upon her ravishment murther upon the murther spoyl It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evil either done or suffered CHAP. XXXV Verse 1. HEre God pulls Iacob by the ear as it were and minds him of his Vow which he had well-nigh forgotten but God looked for performance and would not let him be quiet till he had made good what he had promised Most mens practice proclaims that having escaped the danger they would willingly deceive the Saint Deliverances commonly are but nine dayes wonder at most and it is ten to one that any Leper returns to give praise to God If any thing doth rouze up our hearts to thankful remembrance of former Mercies it must be the sense of some present misery as here Iacob was in a strait and fright his Sons had troubled him the Country was ready to rise upon him and rout him out and now God takes this opportunity for we are best when at worst and gently minds him of what was his duty and would be for his safety Verse 5. The Lord hath a Negative voice upon the motion of all Creatures We see an instance of this here when Iacob and his Family journied the terror of God was upon the Cities that were round about them and they did not pursue after the Sons of Iacob they had a mind to pursue and revenge the slaughter of the Shechemites but God said Pursue not and then they could not pursue they must stay at home Thus also when his People the Iewes were safe in Canaan he encourages them to come up freely to Worship at Ierusalem by this assurance No man shall desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God God can stop not only hands from spoyling but hearts from desiring Our appetite whether concupiscible or irrascible are under his command as well as our actions we should consider this to help our Faith in these times The Sword is in motion among us even as the Sun and the Sword seems to have received a charge to pass from the one end of the Land to the other yet a counter-mand from God will stop the Sword from going on If he speak to the Sword the Sword shall wound no more Verse 10. Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel That is not only or not so much Iacob as Israel Both
corruption were but in man and other Creatures were flesh as well as man but man is every creature because as Gregory saith Omnis creaturae differentia in homine all the properties and qualities of all other creatures how remote and distant how contrary soever in themselves yet they all meet in man In man if he be a flatterer you shall find the grovelling and crawling of the Snake and in man if he be ambitious you shall find the high flight and piercing of the Eagle in a voluptuous sensual man you shall find the earthliness of the Hogg and in a licentious man the intemperance and distemper of the Goat ever lustful and ever in a Feaver ever in sickness contracted by that sin and yet ever in a desire to proceed in that sin and thus man is every creature and all flesh Verse 14. That God might approve his mercies to the very wicked he gives them 120 years respite of repenting verse 3. and here in this verse he gives them a faithful Teacher It is an happy thing when he that teacheth others is righteous Noahs hand taught them as much as his tongue his business in building the Ark was a real Sermon to the world wherein at once were taught Mercy and Life to the Believer and to the Rebellious destruction Verse 18. Doubtless more hands went to this work of making the Ark than Noah and his Children and yet none were saved but they many a one wrought upon the Ark which yet was not saved in the Ark our outward works cannot save us without Faith we may help to save others and perish our selves what a wonder of mercy is this that we here see one poor Family call'd out of a world and as it were eight grains of Corn fann'd from a whole Barnful of Chaff one hypocrite was saved with the rest for Noahs sake not one righteous man was swept away for company for these few was the earth preserved still under the waters and all kind of Creatures upon the waters which else had been all destroyed Still the world stands for their sakes for whom it was preserved else fire should consume that which could not be cleansed by water CHAP. VII Verse 2. THe unclean Beasts God would have to live the clean to multiply and therefore he sends to Noah seven of the clean and of the unclean two he knew the one would annoy man with their multitude the other would enrich him those things are worthy of most respect which are of most use But why seven Surely that God that Created seven dayes in the Week and made one for himself did here preserve of seven clean Beasts one for himself for Sacrifice he gives us Six for One in earthly things that in spiritual we should be all for him Verse 9. This difference is strange I see the savagest of all Creatures Lions Tygers Bears by an instinct from God come to seek the Ark as we see Swine fore-seeing a storm run home crying for shelter men I see not Reason once debauch'd is worse than bruitishness God hath use even of these fierce and cruel Beasts and glory by them Even they being Created for man must live by him though to his punishment How gently do they offer and submit themselves to their Preserver renewing that obeysance to this Repairer of the World which they before sin yielded to him that first stored the World And thus these savage Creatures went in saith the rext to Noah not to prey but fawn upon him He that shut them into the Ark when they were entred shut their mouths also while they did enter The Lions fawn upon Noah and Daniel what heart cannot the Maker of them mollifie Verse 10. By this is shewen the Lords patience for Noah is warned seven dayes before of the Flouds coming that by his preparation and entrance others might be warned and whereas God might have destroyed the World at once it was encreasing forty dayes that the World seeing every day some perish might at length have turned to God And the same was Ninevehs case yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Our God is a gracious merciful and long-suffering God and never strikes but he gives warning that sinners may prevent the blow by Repentance and Contrition Before Nineveh shall be destroyed a Prophet must be sent to give notice of that destruction and to teach them a way how to avoid it and in case they should prove dull schollars here is forty dayes given to learn the lesson And as God dealt with this great City and with the whole World before the Deluge to fore-warn them of his judgements and their own ruine so deals he likewise with particular men to some he gives forty dayes to others forty months nay forty years to repent in even a whole life time is to some men but a continued warning of their final destruction and yet they like the old World never beleeve it till they feel it mock and jear at a Deluge until they are over-whelm'd with the Floud and perish in their own presumptuous imaginations So hard a thing it is to perswade sinners to beleeve that God is so just or his Judgements so infallible or their sins so destructive until the Floud come and a second Deluge a Deluge of Fire sweeps them away as that first of Waters did their unbeleeving fore-fathers Verse 11. It agrees with the nature of God who is goodness That as all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened and so came the Floud over all so there should be diluvium spiritus a flowing out of the holy Ghost upon all as he promises Effundam I will pour it out upon all and diluvium gentium that all Nations shall flow up unto him For this spirit spirat ubi vnlt breaths where it pleaseth him and though a natural Wind cannot blow East and West North and South together this spirit at once breaths upon the most contrary dispositions upon the presuming and upon the dispairing sinner and in an instant can denizon and naturalize that soul that was an Alien to the Covenant empale and in-lay that soul that was bred upon the Common among the Gentiles transform that soul which was a Goat into a Sheep unite that soul which was a lost Sheep to the Fold again shine upon that soul that sits in darkness and the shadow of death and so melt and pour out that soul that yet understands nothing of the divine nature nor of the Spirit of God that it shall become partaker of the divine nature and be the same Spirit with God Verse 16. Now that Noah and all his Guests are entred the Ark is shut and the windows of Heaven opened God first provides for Noah before the Wicked are destroyed of whom many no doubt when they saw the violence of the waves descending and ascending according to Noah's prediction came wading middle-deep unto the Ark and importunately craved that
were for sin or for the present pressure only I have not to say but God is so pitiful that he hears and helps our Affliction as he did Hagars in this Text. Verse 15. God presents to us the joyes of Heaven often to draw us and as often the torments of Hell to avert us And to this purpose Origen saith aright as Abraham had two Sons the one of a Bond-woman the other of a Free but yet both sons of Abraham So God is served by two fears and the latter fear the fear of future torment is not the perfect fear but yet even that fear is the servant and instrument of God too Who can so absolutely divest all sense saith Chrysostome but that when the whole City is in a combustion and commotion or when the Ship that he is in strikes desperately and irrecoverably upon a Rock he is otherwise affected towards God then than when every day in a quietness and calmness of holy affections he hears a Sermon Gehennae timor saith the same Father regni affert coronam even the fear of Hell gets us Heaven CHAP. XVII Verse 1. IT is Gods prescript to Abraham here Walk before me and be perfect and that is when as to allude to that known Expression Manus ad Clavum Oculus ad Coelum as our hand is upon the work so our eye must be upon God in every thing we do which is the ground of that uprightness called in the Scripture Dialect perfection Where you may note the difference between these three expressions of the holy Ghost to walk with God after God and before God We walk with God as a sweet companion after God as a commanding Lord before God as an observing Judge we walk with him as his Friends after him as his Servants before him as his Children lastly we walk with him by an humble familiarity after him in a regular conformity before him by a cordial integrity and this is according to Gods rule to Abraham Walk before me and be perfect Verse 3. When God talkes with us in his Word or we talk with God in our Prayers we cannot be too humble you see from this text that Abraham the Father of the faithful fell upon his face at a conference with God and shall we that are his sons not fall upon our knees Certainly were there never a Church standing in the world nor so much as one stone left for a Bethel wheresoever we came to Pray we should worship first looking up to our God and his infinitude with Glory be to thee O Lord then in the Publicans dejected posture reflecting upon the dust our original and our end with Lord be merciful unto me a sinner and indeed can we presume higher than the dust when we reverence before our Maker or do less than hide our own faces with shame appearing before the glorious light of that countenance which we cannot see and live and which we shall one day look upon with trembling if not now with shame Verse 5. There is no Faith where there is either means or hopes Difficulties and impossibilities are the true Objects of Belief hereupon God adds to Abrahams name that which he would fetch from his Loins and made his Name as ample as his Posterity never any man was a looser by beleeving Faith is ever recompenced with Glory Verse 7. God hath in great mercy and goodness promised to shew grace and favour not only to the faithful themselves but to their seed after them and as the mercy of God is great so the Faith of the godly is effectual for themselves and their Children God will be our God and the God of our seed after us If then we consider either the Promise of God to be merciful or the Faith of the godly to beleeve in both respects we may collect and gather this truth That the love of God to the faithful shall so abound that it shall come to their posterity like the pretious Oyntment poured on the head of Aaron that ran down upon his beard and flowed to the border of his garments or as the dew on Hermon and Sion which watered the valleys which were beneath them Now seeing that goodness hath the Promise of bringing a blessing upon the families where it is profess'd it is required of us to profess and beleeve the Gospel that so we may procure a blessing upon our selves and Children The neglect of which bringeth utter ruine to Father and Child So then godly Parents must have a care to bring-up their Children and Families in the true Faith and fear of the Lord which may be a means by the blessing of God to save thy son from death and to deliver his soul from destruction Verse 11. Circumcision is a seal of the Covenant betwixt God and us if we be in God and God in us if we be circumcised within if the fore-skin of our hearts be taken away then is the outward Circumcision a seal unto our Covenant with God otherwise it is a seal indeed but a seal without a Bond a seal without any stipulation betwixt God and us we are no whit priviledged by it no more than are the Turks who yet are circumcised which is the reason that the Jewes at this day have no benefit by this Covenant because they are uncircumcised in their hearts that vail that fore-skin is not taken away and that only is the circumcision which seals the Covenant betwixt God and us the Gospel-circumcision the putting off the old Adam by that circumcision of Christ which is the work of the Spirit wrought by the Word upon the Soul of a poor sinner whereby the corruption of his nature is mortified and himself received into an everlasting Covenant and Communion with God Verse 14. In the first Covenant that God made with his People as we see here That person that would not be circumcised that soul was cut off from the people of God and just so in the second Covenant that God made with his people the Covenant of the Gospel He that is not circumcised in heart and made new by regeneration he shall have no part with the Saints in heaven Joh. 3. 3. The wise man is not priviledged by his wisdom nor the strong man by his strength the King is not freed by his Crown and Dignity nor the Priest by the power of his Keyes For if any one enters himself in Covenant with God under the New Testament and hopes for benefit by that Covenant as Abraham and his Seed did undergo the outward Circumcision of the body so must he the inward Circcmcision of the heart No Circumcision no Son of Abraham no Son of Abraham no Son of God Verse 17. Abraham was old e're this Promise and hope of a Son was given and still the older the more uncapable Yet God makes him wait twenty five years for performance No time is long to Faith which had learned to defer hopes without fainting and irksomness Abraham heard this news
be loved Abimelech and Phicol desire to live peaceably and quietly with Isaac that there may be an Oath and a Covenant between them but yet these being Heathens could not love Isaac as a godly man should be loved they departed from him in peace saith this verse peace is one thing and love is another CHAP. XXVII Verse 2. AS Isaac said here that he knew not the day of his death so may we say both of the time and also of the place and manner of our death For death surprizeth some as Abel when he was walking in the field others as Uz when he was sitting at his door some with Iobs children at a Feast others with the Philistines sporting in a Theater Thus likewise may we say of the manner of our death there is a natural death when a man dies as a Lamp goes out because there is no more Oyl to feed it and there is a violent death when the soul is thrust out of doors and the Lamp of Life not burnt but blown out Iosia dies by the hurt of an Arrow a Prophet of God by the teeth of a Lyon Abimelech by the fall of a stone Boast not thy self therefore of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth if not an end of thy sins it may be an end of thy life if it bring not forth conversion it may bring forth confusion Verse 4. What hath careless Esau lost if having sold his Birth-right he may obtain the blessing Or what hath Iacob gain'd if his Brothers Venison may countervail his pottage Yet thus hath old Isaac decreed who was not now more blind in his eyes than in his affections God had forewarn'd him that the Elder should serve the Younger yet Isaac goeth about to bless Esau. The dearest of Gods Saints have been sometimes transported with natural Affections he saw himself prefer'd to Ismael though the Elder he saw his Father wilfully forgetting Nature at Gods command in binding him for Sacrifice he saw Esau leudly matcht with Heathens and yet he will remember nothing but Esau is my first-born but how gratious is God that when we would will not let us sin and so orders our actions that we do not what we would but what we ought Verse 8. That God which had ordain'd the Lordship for the younger will also contrive for him the blessing what he will have effected shall not want means the mother shall rather defeat the Son and beguile her Husband than the Father shall beguile the chosen Son of his Blessing What was Iacob to Rebecca more than Esau or what Mother doth not more affect the Elder But now God inclines the love of the Mother to the Younger against the custom of Nature because the Father loves the Elder against the promise The Affections of Parents are divided that the Promise might be fulfil'd Rebecca's craft shall answer Isaac's partiality Isaac would unjustly turn Esau into Iacob Rebecca doth as cunningly turn Iacob into Esau her desire was good her means was unlawful God doth oft-times effect his just will by our wickednesses yet neither thereby justifying our infirmities nor blemishing his own actions Verse 19. Here is nothing but counterfeiting a fained person fained name fained Venison a fained answer and yet behold a true blessing but to the man not to the means those were so unsound that Iacob himself doth more fear their curse than hope for their success but Rebecca presuming upon the Oracle of God and her Husbands simplicity dare be his surety for the danger his Counsellor for the carriage of the business his Cook for the Diet yea dresses both the meat and the man And now she wishes she could borrow Esau's tongue as well as his garments that she might securely deceive all the senses of him who had suffered himself to be more dangerously deceived by his affection But this is past her Remedy her Son must name himself Esau with the voice of Iacob It is hard if our tongue do not bewray what we are in spite of our habit This was enough to work Isaac to a suspition to an enquiry not to an incredulity he that is good of himself will hardly believe evill of another and will rather distrust his own senses than the fidelity of those he trusted all the senses are set to examine none sticketh at the Judgement but the ear to deceive that Iacob must second his dissimulation with three lies in one breath I am Esau As thou badst me My Venison Onesin entertain'd fetcheth in another and if it be forced to lodg alone either departeth or dieth I love Iacobs blessing but I hate his lie I would not do that wilfully which Iacob did weakly on condition of a blessing he that pardoned his infirmity would curse my obstinateness Verse 23. Good Isaac had first set his hands to try whether his ears inform'd him aright and then feeling the hands of him whose voice he suspected that honest heart could not think that the skin might more easily be counterfeited than the Lungs a smal satisfaction contents those whom guiltiness hath not made scrupulous Isaac believes and blesseth the Younger Son in the Garments of the Elder If our Heavenly Father smell upon our backs the savour of our Elder Brothers Robes we cannot depart from him unblessed Verse 27. As Isaac said of his Son here The smell of my Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed So the Lord of Heaven as he smelt a savour of rest from the Sacrifice of Noah should smell from us if we intend to be his Sons and Heirs of the Promise as Iacob was the savour of Medicinal Herbs of remorse and repentance and contrition and detestation of former sins and the savour of odoriferous and fragrant and Aromatical Herbs Works worthy of Repentance amendment of Life Edification of others and zeal to his Glory Verse 32. No sooner is Iacob gone away full of the joy of his blessing then Esau comes in full of the hope of the blessing and now blowing and sweating for his reward he finds nothing but a Repulse Lewd men when they think they have earned of God and come proudly to challenge favour receive no answer but Who art thou the hopes of the wicked fail them when they are at the highest whereas Gods children find these comforts in extremity which they durst not expect Verse 33. Both the Father and the Son wonder at each other the one with fear the other with grief Isaac trembled and Esau wept the one upon Conscience the other upon Envy Isaac's heart now told him that he should not have purposed the blessing where he did and that it was due unto him unto whom it was given and not purposed hence he durst not reverse that which he had done with Gods will besides his own for now he saw that he had done unwilling Justice God will find both time and means to reclaim his own to prevent their sins to manifest
The wicked heart never fears God but thundring or raining fire from Heaven but the good can dread him in his very sun-shine his loving Deliverances and Blessings affect them with awfulness Moses was the true Son of Iacob who when he saw nothing but visions of Love and Mercy could say How dreadful is this place Verse 7. If we would have our greif seen and helped we must endeavour to become Gods People For then sighing and groaning in our several afflictions as these did we may be sure in due time to find our comfort as they found We may hence also learn that affliction doth not shew that the party is disliked of God as the Devil often suggests to men and women in trouble for God calleth these Israelites his People which yet were plunged in the depth of misery and affliction Verse 11. This should teach every one of us humility and to say with Moses Who am I Lord that thou should'st thus and thus think of me chuse me and take me to that place that I have no strength to manage and which thousands of my Brethren are fitter for than I am This also may put us in mind of the weighty calling of Ministers For is it such a matter to strive with Pharaoh for Bodies and temporal servitude and is it nothing to fight with the Devil for Souls and freedome from eternal slavery Verse 14. See a sweet comfort in all our fears even his Name I AM. Noting that as he hath been to penitent sinners so ever he will be without any change If I call upon him and depend upon him I AM is his Name and I may not doubt of him he is no Changeling but the same for ever Verse 16. When any new thing is to be published that concerneth any change in Church or Common-wealth we must acquaint the Magistrates Rulers and Governours with it to approve our Commission and matter unto them with all Modesty Humility Fear and Care of Order and Unity and then with their consents and assistance unto the People and Multitude This is a right course and this shall have a Blessing from the Author of it as here it had Then shall they obey thy voice verse 18. Verse 18. See again and still most carefully note it how God regardeth Government For now Pharaoh must be used as was fit for his place he being the King of that Land in which they were wicked Pharaoh I say must not be disorderly dealt with by such as live under his Government although Strangers and not his natural Subjects how much then by natural Subjects But he must be gone unto with all duty and acquainted with their desire with all reverence that neither themselves may be judged factious neither others by their examples moved to any disorder And therefore they must acquaint him with the Author of their desires not their own heads lusting after liberty or novelty but the Lord God Verse 21. All hearts are in the hands of God even as the Rivers of Water and that he turneth them hither and thither at his pleasure He can make them love hate they never so much Yea he can make them so love that fruits from thence shall flow to his People of their love Be they Jewels of Silver or Rayment they shall grant it and send it give it or lend it with so willing a mind as the party taking needeth to wish CHAP. IV. Verse 3. THe heart of man is like the Rod of Moses as long as he held it in his hand it remained a Rod but when he threw it to the ground it turn'd instantly into a Serpent nay a Dragon the Prince of Serpents as Philo the Iew saith so the heart of man as long as there is fast hold of it as long as Man is the Possessor God the Guardian it continues still an heart but if our boistrous unruly sins once throw it to the earth it changeth instantly to be a Serpent From whence all carnal and earthly-minded men may learn whose Consciences at the reading hereof tell them that their hearts are turn'd into Serpents and Vipers by their sins and are now crawling on the earth in their lustful designes to stretch forth a hand of sorrow a hand of true repentance to take them up again in what shape soever they appear For he that was exalted on the Crosse as the Serpent in the Wildernesse shall turn those Serpents into Hearts again their Gall and Poison into Innocence their Sting of Death into Issues of Immortal Life Verse 4. Sin is a Serpent and hath a deadly sting in the tayl of it even the sting of Death For the sting of death is sin saith St. Paul Now as a man would fly from a Serpent so let him fly from sin But if thou hast taken this Serpent into thy hand rest not till like Moses Serpent it be turned into a Rod again to scourge thy Soul till a true sense of thy sins and of Gods Wrath due unto thee for the same bring thee to a serious repentance and contrition to a spiritual loathing and abhorrency of those sins that so thou maist never cast thine eye back upon them but with a new and a particular detestation thou maist never enter into meditation of those sinful passages of thy former life but with shame and horror of soul and that every solemn review of those dayes of darkness and unregeneration may make the wounds of our remorse to bleed afresh Verse 7. When Moses pluck'd his hand out of his bosome it was leprous and again when he pluck'd it out it was white to shew that the actions of our hands receive their denomination from the bosome the heart according to that saying of the Father Tantum habent virtutis aut vitii actiones quantum habent voluntatis Verse 12. He that is singled out to any service of his God for the advantage of his Israel must not give back or waver but go boldly on If a willing obedience second his Command God promiseth to assist I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say was Gods Promise here to Moses and it was his Sons to the Apostles Mat. 10. 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak As if he had said be not anxious about matter or manner of your Apology for your selves ye shall be supplied from on High both with Invention and Elocution you shall have your help from Heaven For it is not you that speak saith our Saviour in the next verse but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you who borroweth your mouth for the present to speak by It is he that forms your speeches for you dictates them to you filleth you with matter and furnisheth you with words Fear not therefore your rudeness to reply there is no mouth into which God cannot put words And how oft doth he chuse the Weak and Unlearned to confound
the Enemy madest to oppress me if he could Verse 13. Note here how the Law works without the Gospel even roughly and sharply and rigorously For do this do this and finish finish the work is still the voice whereby sin and the Devil rageth as here Pharaoh doth For sin c. Rom. 7. 8 9 then crieth the true Israelite O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death verse 24. Blessed therefore be the Lord for his sweet Gospel which helpeth all this rigour and giveth us comfort and deliverance in his Son Verse 16. While possible tasks were imposed there was some comfort their diligence might save their backs from stripes but to require tasks not feazible is tyrannical and doth only pick a quarrel to punish they could neither make straw nor find yet they must have it Do what may be is tolerable but do what cannot be is cruel Those that are above others in place must measure their commands not by their own wils but by the strength of their inferiors The task is not done the Task-masters are beaten the punishment lies where the charge is they must exact it of the people Pharaoh of them It is the misery of those that are trusted with Authority that their inferiors faults are beaten upon their backs Verse 21. See the condition and lot of faithful Ministers in this wretched world First the King and now their Brethren accuse them for doing their duty While all is well good is the Minister but when the crosse cometh he and his doctrine away with that and away with him as Ier. 44. 16 c. now mark their reason For then had we plenty c. this is the stay of the multitude and this is the line they measure all things by their prosperity in worldly matters and immunity from trouble and affliction any wayes CHAP. VI. Verse 5. MIserable man remembreth and heareth his Friends when they are in prosperity but if adversity come neither hearing nor seeing them but a proud scornful and bitter forgetting The Lord is not so but when we are at the worst then he remembreth us then he heareth our groans and sighs and pittying helpeth to our unspeakable comfort Verse 7. The end of all deliverance and of all Benefits received from God is that we should be his People and that he might rule in us and over us Wherefore see how careful we should be alwayes to answer this our calling and never to be found unmindful of such favours For if this plainer manifestation of his Goodness to the Iews were a just cause to stir them up to thankfulness how much more should his manifestation of himself to us in his own Son move us to an eternal care to please him And then more particularly that he should accept me for one of his people O what can I say for such a Love but beseech him ever to make me thankfull Verse 8. As long as our hearts hold this perswasion of God that he is the Lord so long we must rest assured that he can perform his Promise in mercy made to us be the difficulties never so many What then is thy Case Are thy sins numerous and great Remember he is the Lord and play not Cains part to say they cannot be forgiven Are thine Enemies bitterly bent against thee he is the Lord and therefore can stop and stay them at his pleasure Are their infirmities many he can heal them he is the Lord. Are thy Children untoward and unkind he can change them he is the Lord. Lastly whatever greives thee remember this that God is the Lord and shall ever be the Lord and shall ever be thy Lord to care for thy woes and relieve them Only believe Verse 9. It is often a penalty laid upon the contemners of Gods Grace that cleaving altogether to the external favours of this life they tast not comfort in any affliction whereas the Godly the more they are pressed down by God the more vehemently they sigh unto God and look to his Promises with Patience and Hope This also may teach Gods Ministers not to be cast down and discouraged if their words be not hearkened unto and regarded since so worthy a man as Moses found this measure The World will be the World crooked and perverse froward and unkind though we break our hearts for their good Verse 10. Before Moses was bid to go to the People and now to Pharaoh so is there never any time for men of place and publick function to be idle Now they must defend the oppressed and wrong'd now they must comfort now they must chide See here likewise the bottomless Mercies of the Lord who though he might justly have cast off this People that would not hearken to his Words and Messages yet he doth not but still continueth to have mercy on them according to that of Psalm 103. 13. Verse 20. It is a wonder that Amram the Father of Moses would think of the Marriage-bed in so troublesome a time when he knew he should beget Children either to slavery or slaughter Yet even now in the heat of this bondage he marries Iochebed The drowning of his Sons was not so great an evil as his own burning the thraldome of his Daughters not so great an evil as the subjection unto sinful desires He therefore uses Gods remedy for his sin and refers the sequel of his danger to God How necessary is this imitation for those that have not the power of containing Perhaps we would have thought it better to live childless but Amram and Iochebed durst not incurre the danger of a sin to avoid the danger of a mischeif Verse 30. Behold I am of uncircumcised lips None in all Egypt was comparably fit for this Message Which of the Israelites had been brought up a Courtier a Schollar Learned Wise Valiant Experienc'd The more fit any man is for whatsoever Vocation the lesse he thinks himself forwardness argues insufficiency Once before Moses had taken upon him and laid about him hoping then they would have known that by his hand God had meant to deliver Israel but now when it comes to the point he cries I am of uncircumcised lips Gods best Servants are not ever in an equal disposition to good Duties It is our frailty that those Services which we are forward to aloof off we shrink at neer at hand How many of us can bid defiance to Death and suggest answers to absent temptations which when they come to us we fly off and change our note and instead of action pretend excuses CHAP. VII Verse 1. GOD hath made one man able to do the Offices of God to another in procuring his Regeneration here and advancing his Salvation hereafter Neither hath God determined that power of assisting others in the character of the Priesthood only but he hath also made the Prince and the secular Magistrate a God that is able to do the Offices and the Works of God not
Verse 8 9. Observe Sathans Malice here against Gods Church and Service if they cannot wholly destroy it hurt it and hinder it then in part as farre as they can they will do it Secondly By the answer of Moses note on the other side that we must not yield an inch to these plots and fetches of the wicked but zealously must stand to the full observance of all Gods Will according to his Commandement and not according to the fancies either of others or of our selves Where the Lord dispenseth not we must not dispense where all are bound to depart out of Egypt we must not capitulate for some to go and some to stay Families should think upon this where the Husband goes to Church but not the Wife the Father but not the Son the Servant but not the Master Moses would not do thus here but knowing all to be bound requireth all Verse 23. This was most wonderful The houses of the Egpptians and Israelites joyning as it should seem one close to another as ours in these dayes do For else why was that sign given to the destroying Angel Exod. 12. 23. If all the Israelites had dwelt by themselves and had not been mingled with the Egyptians How able then is our God may we think who can thus make a separation betwixt his Children and the wicked when he executed wrath though they be in one Field in one House in one Bed together yet he can chuse the one and refuse the other Fear we not then in the time of Plague or War or other publick Calamity left we should perish with the wicked hand over head but remember this place and say in your heart with comfort O Lord I know thou canst make a separation in this calamity as thou didst in that calamity betwixt the Israelites and Egyptians therefore I beseech thee save me from this Sword of thine and let the light of thy Mercy shine about my dwelling as thy cheerful light did about the Israelites CHAP. XI Verse 1. THis ever was and ever will be Gods course first by gentle means to entreat then in the end by Power and Judgement to compel when the former course will not serve In the old World when the People would not be reformed the Lord said His Spirit should no longer strive with man meaning in lenity and gentleness as until then it had done but now he would bring upon them one Plague more as here upon Egypt and this was the Floud Gen. 6. 17. When Sodom and Gomorah would not be warned by any wayes of Mercy used by a gracious God unto them many years then that one Plague more of Fire and Brimstone came from Heaven Thus also the Lord deals with us First he entreats us by his Word the mildest way that can be Then if this will not serve the Lord comes nearer and layeth upon us his easier crosses and then greater Our Friends grow unkind our Servants unfaithful our Children undutiful our Estate wastes and our Health is chang'd to Sickness And if all these work not upon us then the Lord goes to his Quiver and takes out a strong Arrow to shoot at us as the sweating Sickness the devouring Plague which shall sweep the Land clean from such rebelling Spirits Verse 3. As the wicked stand in awe of God often and outwardly profess affection to him yet do not subject themselves to his Will so are his Servants honoured also of men with an inward conceit of them that they are honest men when yet their Doctrine will not be yielded unto Thus doth God inwardly imprint their own damnation in their hearts Verse 5. No Honours or Riches no Friends or Strength no Pomp or Port in this World may defend from God but he will smite all Degrees and therefore let all Degrees profit by it CHAP. XII Verse 4. CHrist is not divided into divers Houses and Families Kingdoms and Countries but he doth unite and gather divers Houses and Nations to make one Church even as here many did eat one Lamb. We may not divide the Lamb but we must gather our selves to the Lamb and that is the true Church where People are so gathered Verse 6. This keeping of it from the tenth to the fourteenth day served to prepare their hearts to the right eating of it being a remembrance before their eyes those four dayes before and also to prefigure unto us with what meditation and preparation we ought to come to the eating of the true Pass-over in the blessed Sacrament whereof this same was but a shadow Secondly the fourteenrh day this Lamb was offered because then the Moon being at full and rising in her full light when the Sun was set thereby might be shadowed that the Church usually signified by the Moon riseth with light in great fulness after the setting of the Sun the Death of Christ. Verse 7. This shews the effect and vertue of Christ his bloud the true Paschal Lamb ever to save from the destroying Angel as many as shall be sprinkled with it that is should make particular application of it to themselves For it is not the bloud without sprinkling will help Christ died for all sufficiently but not effectually because all take not hold of and apply Christs death to their souls Verse 32. Pharaoh desires to be blessed of those men who but even now were odious in his eyes The same God can also pull down the hearts of the proudest and make them as glad of a Ministers Prayers as they have maliciously opposed themselves against him Verse 34. Egypt was never so stubborn in denying passage to Israel as now importunate to entreat it Pharaoh did not more force them to stay before then now to depart whom lately they would not permit now they hire to go The Israelites are equally glad of this hast Who would not be ready to go yea to fly out of the house of bondage They have what they wished there was no staying for a second invitation The losse of an opportunity is many times irrecoverable The love of their liberty made the burthen of their Dough light Who knew whether the variable mind of Pharaoh might return to a denial and after all his stubbornness repent of his obedience It is foolish to hazard where there is certainty of good offers and uncertainty of continuance Verse 36. The Egyptians rich Jewels of Silver and Gold were not too dear for the Israelites whom they hated how much rather had they need to send them away wealthy then to have them stay to be their Executors Their love to themselves obtain'd the inriching of their Enemies and now they are glad to pay them well for their old work and their present journey Gods People had stayed like Slaves they go away like Conquerors with the spoil of those that hated them arm'd for security and wealthy for maintenance Verse 37. A most wonderful encrease from seventy Souls which were all that came into Egypt and most effectually it shews us
by Death we then shall behold the glory of that Trinity and never till then Verse 37. As in the outward Vail of the Tabernacle there were Sockets of Brass as you read in this Verse and in the inward of Silver so God doth adorn for the most part that which is within A Man may seem to be as hard as brass with the outward custom of Sin yet he may sound with the Confession of Sin like Silver within and therefore we must have a care how we pass our Censures upon our Brethren and that we be not like those wild-fire Tongues that do Condemn when they consider the outward Fact and no more not the Circumstances of the Fact which may lesson it not the Intention which might be well propounded though a Fault in the Action it self nor the Cause nor the Evil Company nor that it was done after a vehement Tentation or done by reason of some Violence offered or such a Circumstance as doth excuse a Tanto though not a Toto CHAP. XXVII Verse 3. AS here were divers Instruments belonging to the Altar and the Tabernacle and all for Use and Employment so doth the Church of Christ consist of divers Members and those Members are endowed with several gifts and graces but all for the Edification of the Church For wherefore hath this Christian quickness of Wit that depth of Judgement this heat of Zeal that power of Elocution this man Skil that Experience this Authority that Strength but that all should be laid together for the raising of the common stock and put forth for publick advantage As therefore no true Christian is his own man so he freely laies out himself according to the measure of his several Gifts and Graces for the universal benefit of all his fellow-members How rich therefore is every Christian Soul that is not only furnished with its own Graces but hath a special Interest in all the excellent Gifts of all the most eminent Servants of God through the whole World Surely that Man cannot be poor while there is any special Wealth in the Church of God upon Earth Verse 7. The Staves on which the Ark was to be carried were to be ever ready in the Rings of the Ark upon all occasions of remove We have here no continuing City saith the Apostle we have no place of Residence no fixt Habitation in this Life and therefore we must be ever prepared to take up these Tabernacles of our Bodies and be gone We have but a short time to live and even that short time is uncertain and never continues in one stay but flies away like a shadow and is cut down as a flower He then that would dye well must alwayes look for Death every day knocking at the gates of the Grave and then the gates of the Grave shall never prevail upon him to do him mischief This also will help to confine our hopes and cut short our designs and fit our endeavours to the small portion of our shorter Life And as we must not trouble our Enquiry so neither must we Intricate our Labour with what we shall never Enjoy we must not dispose of Ten Years to come when we are not Lords of to morrow nor discompose our present duty by long and future designs such which by casting our Labours to Events at distance make us less to remember our Death standing at the door But rather let us make use of this instant for this instant will never return again and yet it may be this instant will secure the fortune of a whole Eternity Verse 20. When God received lights into his Tabernacle he received none of Tallow the Ox hath Horns he received none of Wax the Bee hath a Sting but he received only lamps of Oyl And though from many Fruits and Berries they pressed Oyl yet God admitted no Oyl into the service of the Church but only of the Olive the Olive the Emblem of Peace CHAP. XXVIII Verse 3. THis shews that Mechanical Arts and Trades are not found out by Men without the direction of Gods Spirit Many men do condemn Gold-smiths Jewellers or Lace-Weavers Perfumers and such like as though they served only for Vanity and Excess when indeed they be the works of God I mean their several Skils and Fruits of his Spirit as here we see If any man abuse them it is the fault of man not of the skil and what may not be abused Verse 15. Matter not clothed in handsomness of words is but dusted Treasure and like some Gardens where there is fatnessof Earth no Flower The Brest-plate of Judgement which Aaron wore was made with Imbroidered Works and in the Ephod there were as well diversities of colours as of Riches Blew Silk and Purple and Scarlet and fine Linnen That then of Epiphanius is worthy both to be remembred and imitated whose works were read of the simple for the words of the Learned for the matter Verse 21. This may remember a good Minister how dear unto him his Flock and People should be even graven as it were in his breast and eveâ— in his mind to profit them by all the means he may that they may be saved It notes also the love of Christ to his Church and every member of it who beareth us not only in his Arms as a Nurse or on his Shoulder as a strong Man but upon his Heart and in his Heart as a most kind God Isai. 49. Can a mother forget c. CHAP. XXIX Verse 6. IT was not without some mystery that in the Robes of Aaron there was a Crown set upon the Mitre moralizing a possible conjunction at least of Minister and Magistrate in one person The Crown and the Mitre were together then but yet the Crown was upon the Mitre there is a power above the Priest the Regal power not above the function of the Priest but above the person of the Priest Verse 12. This shadowed that the Preaching of the Gospel concerning the Blood and Passion of Christ should be publish'd and sounded through the four corners of the World even over the whole Earth and the rest of the Blood thou shalt pour at the foot of the Altar noting how the Blood of Christ though in its self sufficient for all yet becometh not helpful to all but is unprofitably poured out for many as this here was at the foot of the Altar through their own unbelief treading under feet that most precious Blood Verse 13. That so men might learn to give unto God their best service and Duty most thankfully ever confessing that all fatness that is all Comfort Prosperity and Joy cometh from him as from the Fountain and is due to him as his own from all men But now the very worst is thought good enough for God our worst Corn our worst Calf our worst Lamb and too often neither good nor bad is this to burn the Fat upon the Altar of the Lord. Verse 20. By the Ear was noted obedience to signifie that
breach of Piety punishable with Death Let them also think of those Infernal Ravens and Vultures that shall torment them in Hell and continually feed upon their Souls Verse 10. Because Marriage was appointed a remedy against Fornication therefore the Law of God inflicted a sorer punishment upon him which did commit uncleanness after Marriage than upon him which was not Married because he sinned although he had the remedy of sin like a rich Thief which stealeth and hath no need So Deut. 22. 22. Verse 25. Ye shall make this difference between the clean and unclean Beast saith God First because ye may be at my appointment for your very meat as who am chief Lord of all Secondly that there may be a difference between you and all other People Thirdly that ye may be taught to study purity and know that the very Creatures are defiled by mans sin It is hard to deal in the World and not be defiled with the corruption that is in the World And therefore we are taught by this Law to abstain from the communion of unclean and wicked men in whom are found the malignities and evil properties of all other Creatures CHAP. XXI Verse 17. THis was done to preserve the Dignity of the Priests Calling in that infancy of the Church which otherwise might have come into contempt together with the holy things for the contemptible shew of the Priest Yet thus much we may learn by it further that if these infirmities of body which they could not help made them unfit then to be Priests may not now wilful impiety being a blot in Soul and Mind disable a man from being a Minister to God in his own Conscience although he have the outward calling of men Verse 18. Blind is he who wanting light from above is wholly drowned and overwhelmed with the darkness of this World Lame is he who seeing whither he should go yet is not able through weakness of understanding to get thither but fainteth and faileth stumbleth and trippeth in his going and cometh short of his right end By a flat nose may be noted a weakness in Judgement and Discretion because the nose discerneth good savours from ill as the mind should also do things fit and unfit In the Canticles 7. 4. among the praises of the Spouse it is said her nose is like a tower in Lebanon because by Judgement she discerneth afar off temptation and evils coming as out of a Tower Verse 20. The scab is a foulness arising of an itch and spreading broader and broader if it be not look'd into and thereby is set down the vice of Covetousness which first beginneth with an itching desire and afterward for want of looking to spreadeth to a great foul Vice deforming any man but most unseemly in a Priest who ought to be clean Lâ—â—â—ly by him that hath his stones broken are noted such as though they do not act yet have ever in their minds lewd and unclean thoughts whereby they are so desperately carried away as pure and clean and holy meditations can take no place Verse 22. Albeit blemished persons might not stand at the Altar yet were they allowed to eat the Sacrifices and to be in the Congregation shadowing unt ous that the Church although blemished nevertheless is admitted to the communion and participation of those things which Christ by his eternal Sacrifice hath obtain'd for us And although some one or other infirmity may justly disable thee for such a place either in Church or Common-wealth yet from a place with the Elect either here or for ever it shall not hinder thee No nor ten thousand blemishes if thou art grieved for them and fighting against them dost take hold of thy spotless Saviour as thy help and safety against them all CHAP. XXII Verse 6. NOne but those that were clean might eat of the holy Things nay those that did but enter into the Tabernacle being unclean were threatned with death by God Now what should this solemn preparation under the Type put us in mind of but the true and inward preparation required still of us in the Anti-type that is to teach us that we ought carefully to sanctifie prepare and purifie not our clothes and external parts but our hearts from all sin and impurity before we presume to approach into the presence of God either to eat of Christ our spiritual Passover or to hear and receive his most holy Word And certainly the neglect hereof is the very cause why that Sacrament which is to some the Bread of Life is to others the Bread of Condemnation and that Word of God which is to some the Saviour of Life unto Life is to others the Saviour of Death unto Death Verse 19. A good Work without the heart is but a glorious sin for not so much the things themselves as the affections of men are considered of God One may have a free mind in poverty and a sparing mind in riches so it is not the Work but the Mind Thus the Lord regards not so much the thing done as the heart and mind of him that did it If we build only on the Work we have no better evidence to shew for our salvation then the Devils and Reprobates Not the Work then but the Heart is that that will stand and go for currant to shew this the Lord would have a free-will Offering among all the rest of his Sacrifices hereby shewing that the heart must be joyn'd with obedience nay so much did the Lord regard the Heart that he would not admit of any Gift for the building of the Temple but what came from a free will CHAP. XXIII Verse 2. IN that they were called the Feasts of the Lord men are taught in them to seek and attend such things as belonged to God and not their own business pleasures and sports And in the fourth verse they are called holy Convocations think therefore in your Conscience whether gadding and rioting be holy exercises and meet for an holy Convocation To this end they are still call'd in the Christian Church Holy dayes to put us in mind of the right use of them Verse 3. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings Wherefore saith St. Augustine learn that no place priviledgeth thee to break Gods Law but as being a sinner whithersoever thou goest thou carriest the yoak of sin so being the servant of God in all places obey his Will Verse 5. O marvellous accordance betwixt the two Testaments in the very time of their delivery there is the same agreement which is in their substance The ancient Iews kept our Feasts and we still keep theirs The Feast of the Passover is the time of Christs Resurrection then did he passe from under the bondage of Death Christ is our Passover the spotless Lamb whereof not a bone must be broken And so likewise the very day wherein God came down in Fire and Thunder to deliver the Law even the same day came also the Holy Ghost
destruction therefore our only safety standeth in Prayer and begging Gods assistance Fourthly We have daily Temptations Bodily and Ghostly arising from the World the Flesh and the Devil and therefore saith our Saviour Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation Mat. 26. So then this Morning and Evening Sacrifice should direct us how and when to Worship God we must remember him in the Morning and Evening he must be the first and last in our thoughts we must begin the day and end it with him Verse 9. Every day in the Week ought to be the Christians Sabbath wherein he is to perform some duties or other of Religion but every Seventh Day should be a double Sabbath wholly taken up in the Service and Worship of God When our whole work must be to beravish'd in Spirit doing no Work but such as whereby we either bless God or look to receive a Blessing from him none but such as wherein we would the Lord should find us at his coming which Lactantius saith Will be on the Sabbath day And therefore the Jews call'd the Sabbath the Queen of dayes blessing the Lord at its coming in and going out that God might have both the first and the last Fruits of the day Verse 26. Here is handled the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks to give God thanks after the gathering of the Harvest For in as much as God hath not only set us in this World but supplies and feeds us in it so that we live by his bounty and liberality it was his will that the Jews should keep a yearly Feast to him to give him thanks that hereby they might acknowledg all the year after that they were sustain'd by his hand Secondly These first Fruits figured out Gods Church which is a people separated unto him from the rest of the World For as the first Fruits were separated from the rest of the heap unto God so is the state of the Church call'd and cull'd out of the World unto his service CHAP. XXIX Verse 1. THis Feast of Trumpets was to be a Feast of remembrance of Gods manifold mercies received in the Wilderness that thereby they might stir up themselves to be united to God and may serve to stir us up to return unto God Praise and Thanksgiving with joyfulness of heart for all his benefits according to that of Psalm 81. 1 2. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Iacob Take a Psalm and bring hither the timbrel blow up the Trumpet in the New-Moon so David having experience of Gods goodness towards him in many preservations composed the eighteenth Psalm as a testimony of his thankfulness for his deliverance from his Enemies And although this Feast is pass'd away and abolish'd by the coming of Christ yet this remaineth that we our selves should serve for Trumpets For as the Temple being destroyed we must be spiritual Temples unto God so the Trumpets being taken away every one of us must be spiritual Trumpets i. e. we should rouze up our selves from the World and the vanities thereof Our Ears are so possess'd with the sound of earthly things and our Eyes so dazled with the pleasures of the flesh that we are as deaf and blind men that can neither hear nor see what God saith unto us wherefore we must not look till there be a solemn holy-day to call us unto the Church there to keep a Feast of Trumpets but it must serve us all the dayes of our life as a spur to cause us to return to God Verse 7. The Jews were here to afflict their Souls with voluntary sorrow for their sins for the whole year and so dispose themselves to obtain pardon and reconciliation For whereas in their private Sacrifices they durst not confess their capital sins for fear of Death due to them by the Law God graciously provided and instituted this yearly Sacrifice of Atonement and afflicting their Souls for the sins of the whole people without particular acknowledgment of any After the same manner the Lords Supper is with us a day of Atonement or afflicting of our Souls for the Passover must be eaten with four hearbs And further we may observe from hence that this day of afflicting their Souls was to be immediately before the Feast of Tabernacles verse 12. they were to be kept in sorrow five dayes before they might keep their Feast of joy which Feast signified the spiritual joy and gladness of the Saints that are redeemed by Christ all their life long We must first look upon him whom we have pierc'd and weep for him before we can receive any comfort by him We must afflict our Souls for his Passion before we shall partake of the joy of his Resurrection Verse 12. This Feast was call'd the Feast of Tabernacles because during the dayes of this Feast they were to live in Tents and Tabernacles it being a memorial of Gods preserving them in the Wilderness where was no house for them to rest in and from hence we may learn that it is a duty belonging to all to remember the dayes of their troubles and afflictions from which God in great mercy hath delivered us We are ready to forget our former condition when God hath given us rest and therefore God would have his own people year by year to depart out of their Houses and dwell in Tents that thereby they should call to mind both where they were and where they had been that although they now were at rest and ease in the Land of Canaan yet they had not alwayes been so for God had carried them upon Eagles wings and preserved them after a miraculous manner in the Wilderness CHAP. XXX Verse 2. VVHen a man vows he vows unto the Lord and therefore if he breaks it he sins against the Lord. Who expects he should have kept touch with him and accordingly will punish such a vow-breaker for he hath not lyed unto men but unto God Acts 5. As God is true saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 1. 18. our word towards you was not yea and nay but yea and Amen For the Son of God c. Why what 's all this to the purpose may some say yes very much For it implies that what a Christian doth promise to men much more to God he is bound by the earnest penny of Gods Spirit to perform he dares no more alter and falsifie his word than the Spirit of God can lye And as he looks that Gods promises should be made good to him so he is careful to pay what he hath vowed to God seeing Gods Covenant is of mercy ours of obedience and if we expect that God should be all sufficient to us we must be altogether faithful to him Verse 8. The power and authority of the Husband over the Wife is very great for all be it the Wife be at liberty to vow in the Lord when her Husband is dead yet while he lives he hath power to disanul her vows The Husband is the head of the
oblation It was a great blessing of God to overcome the Enemy and obtain the Victory but thus to overcome and to have such a Victory required an extraordinary Thanksgiving As men ought to return thanks to God for all his blessings so they ought for extraordinary Blessings to return extraordinary Thanks As in extraordinary visitations it is our duty to use extraordinary humiliation so when God shews us extraordinary mercy we must be thankful accordingly Hezekiah return'd great thanks for his great Deliverance Isai. 38. We must therefore consider what blessings we have received from God that so we may render what thankfulness we owe him else his Blessings will be turn'd into Curses and his Mercies into Judgements CHAP. XXXII Verse 5. THis was an unseasonable demand of these Men at this time but Covetousness had blinded their eyes that they could not see what was fit for them to ask and therefore were afterwards the first of the Children of Israel that were carried away Captive 1 Chron. 5. 25. After the same manner it befel Lot who looking after the goodness of the Plains of Sodom more than the goodness of the People preferr'd that place in his choice and was carried away Prisoner for it Gen. 14. Thus God will not pass by the sins of his dearest Children without a sensible check These Reubenites and Gadites for affecting the first choice had soon enough of it Strong affections bring strong afflictions as hard knots require hard wedges Earthly things court us that they may cut our throats these Hosts welcome us to our Inne with smiling countenance that they may dispatch us in our Beds Beware therefore of the Worlds cut-throat kindness Verse 18. Reuben and Gad were the first that had an Inheritance signed them yet they must enjoy it last so it falls out oft in the Heavenly Canaan the first in title are last in possession They had their lot assign'd them beyond Iordan which though it were then in peace must be purchas'd with their War that must be done for their Brethren which needed not be done for themselves they must yet still fight and fight foremost that as they had the first Patrimony they might endure the first encounter I do not hear them say this is our share let us sit down and enjoy it quietly fight who will for the rest but when they knew their own Portion they leave Wives and Children to take possession and march arm'd before their Brethren till they have conquered all Canaan Whether should we more commend their Courage or their Charity others were moved to fight with hope they only with love they could not win more they might lose themselves yet they will fight both for that they had something and that their Brethren might have Thankfulness and Love can do more with Gods Children than desire to merit or necessity no Israelite can if he might choose abide to sit still beyond Iordan when all his Brethren are in the field Verse 23. When God is searching it is high time for us to search our selves It is sad when God is searching for our sins if we are not searching for them too and it is more sad if when God comes to search for our sins we be found hiding our sins These are searching times God is searching let us search too else we may be sure as Moses tells the people of Israel here Our sins will find us out They who endeavour not to find their sins shall be found by their sins our Iniquity will enquire after us if we enquire not after it But what if Iniquity enquire after us What if Iniquity enquire after us it will find us and if Iniquity find us Trouble will find us yea if Iniquity find us alone without Christ Hell and Death will find us If Iniquity find any man he hath reason enough to say unto it what Ahab said to Eliah without reason Hast thou found me O mine enemy the best of men have reason to look out what evill is in them when God brings evil upon them or wraps them up in common evils They who have no wickedness in them to cast them under Condemnation yet have sin enough in them to make them smart under Correction CHAP. XXXIII Verse 8. THis is that place where the Israelites after three dayes journey found the bitter Waters The long deferring of a good though tedious yet makes it the better when it comes Well did the Israelites hope that the Waters which were so long in finding would be precious when they were found Yet behold they are cross'd not only in their desires but their hopes for after three dayes travel the first Fountains they find are bitter Waters If these Wels had not run pure Gall they could not have so much complained Long thirst will make bitter Waters sweet yet such were these springs that the Israelites did not so much like their moisture as abhor their relish I see the first handsel that God gives his People in their Voyage to the Land of Promise is thirst and bitterness Satan gives us pleasant entrances into his wayes and reserves the bitterness to the end God invites us to our worst at first and sweetens our conclusion with pleasure O my Saviour thou didst drink a more bitter Cup from the hands of thy Father than that which thou refused'st of the Jews or than that which I can drink from thee Verse 9. God taught his People by actions as well as words This entrance shewed them their whole Journey wherein they should taste of much bitterness but at last through the mercy of God sweetned with much more comfort and for one Fountain of bitter Water they should have no less than twelve of sweet Or did it not represent the Israelites rather in their Journey in the Fountains of whose Hearts were the bitter Waters of manifold corruptions yet their unsavory Souls are sweetned by the more abundant Graces of Gods Spirit O blessed Saviour that Fountain of Water and Blood which issued from thy side that is the application of thy Sufferings is enough to sweeten a whole Sea of bitterness I care not how unpleasant a portion I find in this Wilderness if the power and benefit of thy precious Death may season it to my Soul Verse 14. Bread they had from Heaven but wanted Water Our condition here in this World is a condition of singular indigency we are ever wanting somewhat or other Verse 42. Among the several stations which the Israelites made through the Wilderness one was Punon or Phinon which as one of the antient Fathers observes signifieth silence or sparingness of Speech upon which he maketh this useful Application Let us be careful to take up our station here sometimes while we are travailing through the Wilderness of this World It may he our wisdom to pitch in silence The hand is well imployed while we stop the mouth with it from broaching and maintaining that which is evill or from opposing that which is good
many other examples alledg'd to teach us that it is lawful to gather an Hoast to put on Armour to guird our selves with the Sword and to joyn in Battel with our Enemies Those then that are call'd to be Souldiers must learn from hence not to be feeble and faint-hearted but to be bold as in the work of the Lord. True Religion doth not weaken the hearts of Men and make them Cowards For first it teacheth and informeth the Conscience that the cause of the War is good just and warrantable by the Word of God without which knowledge in the heart how ugly how foul how cruel a thing is the effusion and shedding of Blood Secondly as true Religion establisheth the Conscience touching the lawfulness of War so it teacheth them to commit themselves and their lives into the hands of God as to a faithful keeper and to be perswaded if they Conquer they conquer to the Lord if they be wounded and fall they fall and dye unto the Lord. CHAP. XXI Verse 6. THe Jews were much used to outward Washings and vainly imagined that those were sufficient to cleanse them throughout And here the washing of their hands over the Heifer was as much as to say the guilt of innocent Blood doth no more stick to my Conscience than the filth now washed off doth to my fingers But what Pharisaical washing is this to purifie the hands and pollute the heart O Ierusalem Ierusalem wash thy heart from wickedness saith the Prophet Ier. 4. And cleanse your hands you sinners was the Apostles Exhortation Iames 4. but withall Purifie your he arts ye double-minded and this for many reasons For First God and Nature ever begin at the heart it is the first thing that lives and the last that dyes and therefore it is the first the Devil gives assault to and the last that he gives over Secondly Were there never a Devil the heart hath an ill Spirit of its own to trouble it and had we neither hands eyes nor feet our hearts would find the way to Hell and therefore there is great reason we should look to purge and cleanse that for if this Spring this Fountain be clean the streams that flow from it will be so too Verse 12. Secular Learning is not so Heathenish but it may be made Christian as this Captive in the Text was not such an Infidel but she might become a Convert and part of the Israel of God Aristotle and Plato and Seneca are not of such a Reprobate sence as to stand wholly excommunicate in the Christian Church For Aristotles Metaphysicks may help to convince an Atheist of a God and his Demonstrations prove Shiloes advent to a Jew And therefore though it is true the Scripture was ever the Levites predominant Element yet if you will make him a perfect mixt body the Arts also are to be necessary Ingredients And upon this account when Adrian the sixth in his Tract De vera Philosophia cries down humane Learning with a noise of Fathers yet he concludes Utilem esse scientiam Gentilium dummodo in usum Christianum convertatur that to shave and pare the captive Woman and then Espouse her was ever held lawful Matrimony Verse 13. The Wicked Mans Wine is best at first the good Mans at last the Devil deals by the one as Iael by Sifera speaks them fair at first till he hath lull'd them a sleep in security and then he involves them in misery But God doth by his Children as the Hebrew was to do by the captive Woman in this Text which he had a desire to Marry at first he appointeth us a time of Mourning but afterwards he vouchsafes us the fruition of himself in glory The freshest Rivers of Carnal Pleasure shall end in a salt Sea of despairing Tears whereas the wettest Seed-time of a pious Life shall end in the Sun-shining Harvest of a peaceful Death In a word the Transgressor how pleasant soever his beginnings be his last end shall be dolorous but the upright how troublesome soever his Life be his death shall be joyous For the end of that man is peace Psalm 37. CHAP. XXII Verse 1. IF thou must not suffer thy Brothers Ox or his Ass to go astray much less maist thou suffer his Soul but thou must endeavour in all Christian wisdom and meekness to reduce it from the dangerous precipeces both of sin and error Thou must pull thy Brother out of Hell as the Angel pull'd Lot out of Sodom as ye would save a drowning man though ye pull'd off some of his hair to save him Neither must we of the Gospel be merciful only to our Brother but also to our Enemy This is an hard task you will say but hard or not hard it must be done be it never so contrary to our foul nature We must seal up our love to our Enemies by all good expressions which are to be referr'd to these three heads First We must bless them speak kindly to them and of them they must have our good word Secondly We must do good to them i. e. be ready to help and relieve them upon all occasions Thirdly We must pray for them that God would pardon their sins and turn their hearts This was our Saviours precept to love our Enemies and the same also was his practice He melted over Ierusalem the slaughter-house of himself and his Saints and was grieved at the hardness of their hearts Next for Words he prayed Father forgive them and for deeds he not only not call'd fire from Heaven or Legions of Angels against them but did them all good for Bodies and Souls for he heal'd Malchus ear wash'd Iudas his feet like that good Samaritan he was at pains and cost with them Now if we would be Christs Disciples we must follow his example do good not to our Brethren only but also to our very Enemies Verse 10. This and the following Verses forbid all mixture and Toleration in Religion we must keep our selves to one God and serve him and none with him If Baal be God follow him saith Eliah 1 King 18. and if the Lord be God follow him how long will ye hault between two Opinions It is a foul-imperfection to hault yet more shameful long to hault most of all between two wayes and miss them both To be inconstant in Civil matters which are in their own Nature inconstant is weakness But in Religion which is alwaies constant and one and the same to be unsetled is the greatest folly in the World for he that is not assured of one Religion is sure to be saved by none And there fore it is very strange to me that in this glorious light of the Gospel now among us which we so much boast of we should see so many Bats flying which a Man cannot tell what to make of whether Birds or Mice These are Plantanimals like the wonderful sheep in Muscovy Epicens they are Amphibia animalia Creatures that sometimes live in the Waters