yee reap See Chap. 19.9 In these wee entertain Christum convivam Christ a guest saith Hierom. Ver. 24. Of blowing of trumpets This feast signified the spiritual joie and gladness of the Saints that are redeemed by Christ all their life long Isa 33.10 Ver. 27. Also on the tenth daie See the Note on Chap. 16.31 Thus they were kept in sorrow five daies before they might keep their feast of joie vers 34. Ver. 34. The feast of tabernacles It signified the Prophet Zacharie beeing interpreter Chap. 14.16 17 18 19. that the remembrance of our redemption by Christ should bee perpetuated with all spiritual gladness Ver. 42. Yee shall dwell in booths The siege of Jerusalem by the Romans lasted six moneths It began at the Passover and ended at this feast of Tabernacles Ità festum illud fuit finis istius politiae CHAP. XXIIII Ver. 2. Beaten for the light MInisters must beat their brains and bend their utmost indeavors to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guid their feet into the waie of peace as that burning and shining light the Baptist did Luk. 1.79 Ver. 3. From the evening unto the morning In the morning it went out 1 Sam. 3.3 Ver. 4. Vpon the pure candle-stick Pure becaus daily purified by the Priests so must our consciences bee from dead works by dailie repentance Ver. 5. Twelv Cakes See the Note on Mat. 12.4 Ver. 6. Six on a row One by another not one upon another as they are commonly painted Ver. 8. Everie Sabbath So must the bread of life bee everie Sabbath at least set before the Saints Ver. 10. Whose father was an Aegyptian His mother taught him to speak his father to blaspheme Strove together In the heat of contention what will not men saie or do qui non moderabitur irae Indictum velit esse dolor quod suaserit mens Ver. 11. Blasphemed the name c. Heb. bored it thorough gored it pierced it as did those Syrians Isa 36.6 Turk Hist 423. slain by the fall of the wall of Apâ—ek Rabshakeh that dead dog Julian the Apostate Chosroes the Persian the raging Turk at the siege of Seodra that foul-mouthed Papist that durst saie The God of the Protestants is wors then Pan god of clowns which can indure no cerimonies nor good manners at all To these add Paul Best Sheldon's Mark of the beast Ep. ded who hath lately published blasphemous verses against the Trinitie See the London Minister's Testimonial to the Truth of Jesus Christ Ver. 14. And let all that heard him The Jews at this daie abhor the blasphemies of Christians so openly and ordinarily darted up with hellish mouths against God The Turks punish their prisoners sorely when as Spec. Europ through impatience or desperateness they break out into them Ver. 16. And hee that blasphemeth Swearers and blasphemers toss God's name to fro with such impietie and prophaneness as if their speech could have no grace but in his disgrace as if Augustus Caesar were dealing with som god Neptune or the three sons trying their archerie at their father's heart Lonicer theat hist to see who can shoot nighest Shall bee surely put to death Though hee bee never so much provoked by others as this blasphemer was that shall no whit excuse him Ver. 17. And bee that killeth anie man Though in hot blood Scripture make's no difference between murder and manslaughter See the Note on Gen. 9.6 Ver. 19. As hee hath don God love's to retaliate it is his usual manner of proceeding in punishing CHAP. XXV Ver. 2. Then shall the Land keep a Sabbath BY their weeklie Sabbath they professed that themselvs belonged to God though Seneca jeer them for it as those that cast awaie the seventh part of their time by this seventh year Sabbath they professed That their Land belonged to God and that they were onely his hindes his tenants and tith-men Hence it is called the Lord's land Hos 9.3 and Immanuels Isa 8.8 Ver. 4. A Sabbath of rest unto the Land This and the Jubilee year shadowed our eternal rest Col. 2.16 17. Heb. 4.9 1. Everie seventh-daie they rested from their labors 2. Everie seventh year the ground rested Everie seventh seventh as som reckon it was the Jubilean Sabbath at which time all debts were remitted prisoners released morgages restored to the right inheritors The great and eternal Sabbath comprehend's all these How then should wee breath after it and even go forth to meet it as the Jews do their weeklie Sabbath begining it an hour sooner then the Law required and this they called their Sabbatulum or little Sabbath Ver. 6. Shall bee meat for you Thus God taught and inured them to depend upon his providence and to feed on faith as som read that text Psal 37.3 For though the owner of the field might gather even on that year for the maintenence of himself and familie yet hee was neither to sowe his field thereby to greaten his harvest nor to hedg his field or lock up his vineyard c. Ver. 9. In the daie of attonement Here began the Jubilee this feast was founded in a fast They that sowe in tears shall reap in joie neither is there anie such comfort as theirs that have soundly soaked themselvs in godlie sorrow Ver. 10. And proclame libertie See this expounded by the Prophet Isaiah Cap. 61.1 2 with Luk. 4.21 A most joifull Jubilee indeed In the year of Christ 1617 the Pope proclamed a Jubilee for the peace of Italie and Austria The Protestants also of Germanie did the like in honor of God and for joie of the Reformation begun by Luther in Germanie a just hundred of years before Ver. 12. Out of the field See the Note on ver 6. Ver. 14. Yee shall not oppress But proceed by that golden rule What ever yee would that men should do to you even so do yee to them Ver. 17. But thou shalt fear thy God And so depart from this evil also Gen. 42.18 Joseph said to his brethren who feared hee would roul himself upon them This do and live for I fear God q. d. I dare do you no hurt though yee bee fallen into my danger So his grand-father Isaac seeing that hee had don unwilling justice durst not revers the blessing though hee had som minde to it for God had overawed him Gen. 27.33 And ought yee not to have walked in the fear of the Lord said good Nehemiah to those mercieless griping Usurers Cha. 5.9 Ver. 20. And if yee shall saie A clear answer to a carnal objection Usually God conceal's the objection in Scripture and meet 's it with an answer which is an act of grace Ver. 21. Command my blessing Now if God send his Mandamus who shall gainst and it Ver. 23. The Land is mine See Vers 2. Ver. 25. And if anie of his kin Christ is our near kinsman and so by propinquitie as a man
Paul's Epistles which he liked so well that were he now to chuse his Religion Heyl. Geog. pag. 714. he would before any other embrace Christianity But every one ought said He to dye in his own religion And the leaving of the faith wherein he was born was the only thing that he disliked in that Apostle Vers 28. Blessed them every one according c. These hard blessings to some of them especially hindered not the covenant Still they were Patriarchs and heirs of the Promises Afflictions how sharp soever shew us not to be cast-awayes If a man should be baited and used as a dog or a bear yet so long as he hath humane shape and a reasonable soul he will not believe he is either dog or bear Let not crosses cause us to take up hard thoughts of God or heavy thoughts of our selves as if out of his favour but account it a mercy rather that we may scape so and be judged here of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world Jacob is here said to have blessed all his sons He rather seemed to curse some of them And for his welbeloved Benjamin Parum auspicata honorifera videtur haec prophetia saith Pareus But because they were not rejected from being among Gods people as Ishmael and Esau were for less faults perhaps though they were to undergo great and sore afflictions they are said to be blessed yea and they shall be blessed as Isaac said to his whining son Esau Vers 29. I am to be gathered c. That is I am now going to heaven whereof being so well assured what wonder though he were so willing to dye I know that my Redeemer liveth saith Job I know whom I have trusted saith Paul Ipse viderit ubi anima mca man sura fit qui proea sic sollicitus suit ut vitam pro ea posuerit Luther Occidere potest ladere non potest And what shall become of my soul when I dye let him see to it who laid down his life for it said Luther Death may kill me but cannot hurt me said Another This assurance of heaven is as Mr. Larymer calls it the sweet-meats of the feast of a good conscience There are other dainty dishes in this feast but this is the banquet Vers 33. He gathered up his feet He quietly composed himself as it were to sleep in Jesus He had stretcht out himself before saith Musculus as well as he could for reverence to the Word of God which he delivered c. And was gathered to his people To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 In Jerusalem records were kept of the names of all the citizens Psal 48.3 So is it in Heaven where Jacob is now a denizon CHAP. L. Vers 1. And Joseph fell upon his fathers face AS willing to have wept him alive again if possible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famulor curo .i. remedia morbo adhibco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adrian Imp. Tritum est nullum medicum esse peritum nisi 30 homines Orco demiscrit Farewell Physick was Chaucers Motto Olim exponebatur aeger obvio cuilibet sanandus yet more moderate then his father had been in the supposed death of him by an evil beast devouring him But of mourning for the dead see Notes on Chap. 23.2 Vers 2. And Ioseph commanded his servants the Physitians Physitians it seems were formerly of no great esteem perhaps it was because through ignorance they many times officiously killed their patients We know who it was that cryed out upon his death-bed Many Physitians have killed the Emperour And it is grown to a Proverb No Physitian can be his crafts-master till he have been the death of thirty men The Egyptians to prevent this mischief appointed for every ordinary disease a several Physitian enjoyning them to study the cure of that only And till then the fashion was to lay the sick man at his door where every passenger was bound to enquire the nature of his disease that if either himself or any within his knowledg had recovered of the like Plutarch Herodot lib. 1. he might tell by what means or stay to make tryal of that skill he had upon the Patient Physick is without question the ordinance of God Exod. 15.26 Exod. 31.19 He stiles himself Jehovah Rophe the Lord the Physitian And a Physitian is more worth then many others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. saith the Heathen Poet. Use them we must when there is need Mar. 2.17 1 Tim. 4.4 but not idolize them as 2 Chron. 16.12 And the Physitians embalmed Israel According to the custome of that country Herodot Euterpe Plin. lib. 11. cap. 27.2 Chron. 16.14 21.16 concerning which he that will see more may read in Heredotus and Pliny This custome continued also in after-ages as well among Jews as Gentiles But the Devil turned it in time into most vain superstition both among the Greeks whom Lucian frequently jeers for it and among the Latines witness that of Ennius Tarquinii corpus bona foemina lavit unxit Ioseph embalmed his fathers corpse partly to honour him with this solemnity and partly to preserve him for so long a journey but principally to testifie his faith of the Resurrection and that incorruption he hoped for at the last day Some think the Apostle hath relation to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voce mediâ— in that 1 Cor. 15.29 and they read it thus Why do they then wash over the dead Confer Act 9 37. Vers 3. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy dayes Longer then Ioseph mourned they did it through ignorance and as men without hope for both which see 1 Thess 4.13 Ioseph could look thorow hâ—s own loss and see his fathers gain beyond it Besides Hieron ad Julian he could say as Hierome in like case Tulisti Domine patrem quem ipse de leras Non contristor quòd recepisti ago gratias quò dedisti Cic. de â—inib lib. 2. And if Epicures could comfort themselves in their greatest dejections ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione How much more could Ioseph now not only by calling to mind this last seventeen years enjoyment of his dear father beyond all hope and expectation but chiefly that happy change his father had made from darkness to light from death to life from sorrow to solace from a factious world to a heavenly habitation where he drinks of that torrent of pleasure without let or loathing Vers 4. Speak I pray you in the cars of Pharaoh He spake not to the King himself but set others a work Not because he was fallen out of favour Parcus for he had the happiness to be favourite to five Kings Orus Amasis Chebron Amenophes and Mephiris in the eleventh year of whose reign he dyed but because he was now a mourner and such were not wont to come before Kings Esth 4.2
horror Cicer. orst pro Ros Amer. For assuredly a body is not so tormented with stings or torne with stripes as a minde with remembrance of wicked actions Vers 13. My punishment is greater then I can bear Or Mine iniquity is greater then can be forgiven In either sense he sins exceedingly and worse perhaps then in slaying his brother whether he murmur against Gods justice or despair of his mercy Mine iniquity is greater c. Mentiris Cain saith a Father Cain did not say so because it was so But it was so because he said so Despair is Satans master-piece it carries men head-long to hell as the Devils did the herd of Swine into the deep Act. Mon fol. 1908. Gellus in dialog secundo Chimaericâ— witness Guarlacus Bomelius Latomus of Lovain Johannes de Canis our English Hubertus a covetous Oppressor who made this will I yield my goods to the King my body to the grave my soul to the devil Vers 14. From the face of the earth That is of this earth this countrey my Fathers family which in the next words he calls Gods face the place of his publike worship from the which Cain was here justly excommunicated And surely Saint Judes wo will light heavy upon all such as going in the way of Cain and not willing to hear of their wicked ways do wilfully absent themselves from the powerful preaching of the Word They that will not hear the Word shall hear the Rod Mic. 6.9 Yea a sword shall peirce thorow their souls as it did Cains here in whom was fulfiled that of Eliphaz Job 15.21 22. A dreadful sound was in his ears lest in his prosperity the destroyer should come upon him He beleeved not that he should return out of darkness and he is waited for of the sword Every one that findes me Petron. shall slay me Quà m male est extra legem viventibus quicquid meruerunt semper expectant Fat Swine cry hideously if but touched or medled with as knowing they ow their life to them that will take it Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent that he protested to the Senate that he suffered death daily Tacitus Whereupon Tacitus makes this good note Tandèm facinora flagitia in supplicium vertuntur As every body hath its shadow appertaining to it so hath every sin its punishment And although they escape the lash of the Law yet vengeance will not suffer them to live Acts 28.4 as the Barbariâ—â—â— rashly censured Saint Paul to live quietly at least Richard the third after the murther of his two innocent Nephews had fearful dreams and visions insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark and catching his sword which alway naked Daniels Chron. continued by Trussel 249. stuck by his side he would go distractedly about the chamber every where seeking to finde out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet Polydor Virgil thus writes of his dream that night before Bosworth-field where he was slain that he thought that all the devils in hell pulled and haled him in most hideous and ugly shapes and concludes of it at last I do not think it was so much his dream as his evil conscience that bred those terrors It is as proper for sin to raise fears in the soul as for rotten flesh and wood to breed worms That worm that never dyes is bred here in the froth of filthy lusts and slagitious courses and lyes gnawing and grubbing upon mens inwards many times in the ruffe of all their jollity This makes Saul call for aminstrell Belshazzar for his carrousing cups Cain for his workmen to build him a City others for other of the Devills anodynes to put by the pangs of their wounded spirits and throbbing consciences Thuan. lib. 57. Charles the ninth after the massacre of France could never endure to be awakened in the night without musick or some like diversion he became as terrible to himself as formerly he had been to others But above all I pity the loss of their souls who serve themselves as the Jesuite in Lancashire followed by one that found his glove with a desire to restore it him M. Wards Sermons But pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience he leaps over a hedge plunges into a Marle-pit behinde it unseen and unthought of wherein he was drowned Vers 15. The Lord set a mark c. Some say it was the letter Tau others some letter of Jehovah probably it was the perpetuall trembling of his hands Totum Cedreni opus est stabulum quisquiliarum c. Scalig. and whole body the very sight whereof made people pity him till at length he was slain say some by his nephew Lamech Cedrenus tells us if we may believe him that Cain took his death by the fall of a house in the year of the world 931. the next year after the death of his father Adam But however he dyed sure it is he had but an ill life of it He was marked ' Ne semel morte defungerctur sed ut atatem totam moriendo exigeret Philo. saith Philo but to his misery he might not be killed by any that he might every day be dying having a hell in his conscience and standing in fear of every man he met with He that would not harken to God so sweetly inciting and enticing him to doe well Lactan. Instit vers 7. hath now Pavor and Pallor for his gods as Lactantius reporteth of Tullius Hostilius who had prophanely derided the devotions of his predecessour Numa as here Cain had done his brother Abels Vers 16. And Cain went out from the presence c. But whiter could he goe from Gods Spirit or whither could he flye from his presence Psal 139.7 â—bi est Deus quid dixi miser sed ubi non est Bern. Act. 17. Coloss 1.17 From the presence of his power he could not for Entèr praesenter Deus hic ubique potentè God is not very far from any one of us saith St. Paul Not so far surely as the bark is from the tree for all things consist in him so that a wicked man cannot wag hand or foot without his privity But it was the presence of his grace and use of his Ordinances that this wretch fled from as did likewise Jonas in that as wise as he so going out of the grace of God into the warm sun as we say Jon. 1.3 God fetcht Jonas home again by weeping cross Jon. 2.8 and made him feelingly acknowledge for it had like to have cost him a choaking that they that observe lying vanities as he had done forsake their owne mercies But Cain seated himself in the land of Nod and there fell to building and planting in contempt as it is thought of the divine doom denounced against him Sigon or rather to drown the noise of his conscience as the old Italians were wont to do the noise of the heavens
Deut. 23.18 The price of a dog that is of a buggerer saith Juâ—ius and Deodatus on that Text. And Am I a dog saith Abuer that is 2 Sam. 3.8 so given as dogs be to lust Vers 7. Do not so wickedly They were the first that fell into this foul sin and were therefore worthily hanged up in gibbets by God for a terror to others and besides they suffer the vengeance of eternal fire Iude 7. The Pope pretends to be Christs Vicar and presumes to assume the title of Holiness But how far he is from expressing God to the World appears by his if not commiting yet conniving at this detestable sin of Sodomy To speak no more of that debauched villain Johannes a Casa that Printed a Poem in commendation of this wickedness Act. Mon. 417. Caesar Bâ—rgis buggerd a grave Bishop by force Ignat. concl 58. Heyl. Geog. pag 2â—3 being at the same time Dean of the Popes Chamber and Bishop of Beneventum One Petro Alvegi Faruesis committed an unspeakable violence on the person of Cosmus Chaerius Bishop of Fanum and then poysoned him For which execrable action he received no other chastisement of his father Pope Paul the third then Haec vitia me non commonstratore didicit He never learned these tricks of his father But whom did the Cardinal of Saint Lucia learn it of Jâ—cob Revius de vis Pontif. To whom and his whole family Pope Sixtus quartus permited by license the free use of this filâ—hiness for the three hotter moâ—eths of the year June July and August with that Apostilla of his Fiat ut petitur Lupanar etiam utriusque veneris Romae 〈◊〉 Ibid. p. 119. saith Agrippa In the time of Pope Nicolas the second when Priests marriage was termed the heresie of the Nicolaitans Invaâ—â—â—s â—â—â—â—â—mentèr Sodomiticum scelâ—â— saith mine Author Sodomy was held no sin as at this day it is not among the Turks Blounts Veyage p. 79. In 〈◊〉 and those parts Whoredom and Sodomy those Spanish verâ—uâ—s are common without reproof The Popes pardons being more rife there then in any part of Europe for these filthinesses whereout he sucketh no small advantage Notwithstanding the Indians abhor this most loathsom living The World encompassed by Sir Fr. Drake p. 58. shewing themselves in respect of the Spaniards as the Scythians did in respect of the Grecians whom they so far excelled in life and behavior as they were short of them in learning and knowledg God hath delivered up these Pagans as he did those Pagans Rom. 1. to reprobate sense to vile affections to dishonor their own bodies between themselves for that they have worshipped and served the creature more then the Creator Vers 24 25 26. Hence it is that Rome is called Sodom in the Revelation Revel 11.8 Vers 8. Behold now I have two daughters This was an inconsiderate motion such as the best mindes easily yield when once troubled It was proper to the Lord Christ to be subject to natural passions and perturbations yet without sin as a Chrystal Glass full of clear water remains still pure howsoever it be shaken The Hebrews think That for this sinful offering to prostitute his daughters he was given up by God to commit incest with his daughters Vers 9. Stand back c. They set up the bristles at Lots admonition a sure fore-runner of destruction as in Elies sons Vers 10. But the men Thus Lot is rescued at a dead lift that 's Gods opportunity who knows how c. 2 Peter 2. vers 9. Vers 11. With blindness Subite scotomate saith Junius With blindness both of body and minde saith Aben-Ezra Such as tormented their eyes as if they had been pricked with thorns as the Hebrew word signifies And yet they continue groping for the door as if they were ambitious of destruction which now was at next door by Dous quem destruit dementat So Pharaoh when under that palpable three days darkness rageth against God and threatneth Moses with death Though doomsday should be to morrow next wicked men must and will serve their lusts Vale lumen amicum said Theotimus in St. Ambrose who chose rather to lose his sight then his sin Vers 12. Hast thou here any c. It is something for safety to be Lots Kinsman So the Kenites in Sauls time receive life from Jethro's dust many ages after his death 1 Sam. 15.6 and favor from his hospitality Vers 13. For we will destroy this place Even the good Angels are Gods executioners And the first execution they did in the world that we read of was upon these filthy Sodomites So will it be likely at the last day And Saint Peter seems to say as much 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord reserves the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness Mark that chiefly Vers 14. But he seemed as one that mocked Sed fuit habitus tanquam joâ—abundus Graceless hearts jear when they should fear and are senceless and secure as if they were out of the reach of Gods rod and needed not to fear his wrath Ridetur cum suo Jehoua sed risus impiorum est Sardonius Par. Lot here is counted but a Lob of his own sons in law Wonder not if we meet with the same measure Vers 15. Left thou be consumed So Revel 18.4 Come out of her that ye receive not of her plagues Musculiruiâ—is imminâ—ntibus pramigrant aranei cum telis primicadunt saith Pliny Plin. lib 8. cap 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag Swine live home afore a storm Vers 16. And while he lingred Or distracted himself with much business which David did not Psal 119 60. The Lord being merciful unto him What is he then to us in delivering us from the â—â—â—th to come 1 Thes 1.10 Acts 2.40 Why save we not our selves from this unto ward generation Why see we not his mercy to us in our losses and crosses His hand laying hold on us when he takes away that that may hinder us from Heaven Vers 17. Look not behinde thee As loth to depart Non minùs difficultèr à deliciis Sudemorum abstrabimur quà m canis ab uncto coriâ— Vers 18. Oâ— not so my Lord But who shall prescribe to the Almighty Or limit the holy One of Israel Are we wiser then he Have we a trick beyâ—nd him He lets us sometimes have our way but to our wo at last Vers 19. Behold now thy servant c. We can receive and commend Gods favors but be backward enough to obey him Vers 20. Is it not a little one Let no man use this plea for his sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. lib. 1. Even the Philosopher tells us That the smallest errors prove many times most dangerous It is as much treason to coyn pence as bigger peeces Vers 21. I will not overthrow this City Zoar of all the five Cities was
For which caus also it was a received tradition among the the Jewes that during those four daies the Lamb was tied to their bed posts Ver. 4. Shall make your count seil of Communicants that the whole may bee eaten up and everie one have enough Spiritual blessings may bee divided in solidum one may have as much as another and all alike The Gentiles also are called to fruition and feeding on the Lamb. Ver. 5. Without blemish Christ that immaculate Lamb of God was hereby typified 1 Pet. 1.19 See the Note there From the sheep or from the goats A lamb to shew Christ's innocencie meekness patience profitableness Or a kid to shew that hee was a sinner 1. By Imputation for God made our sins to meet upon him Isa 53.6 2. By Reputation for hee made his grave with the wicked ver 9. Ver. 6. Vntil the fourteenth daie See the note on ver 3. In the evening Christ came in the evening of the world Heb. 1.2 in the last hour 1 Job 5. when all laie buried in darkness in the even-tide of our sin and death Ver. 7. And strike it on the two side-posts Not on the threshold Wee may not tread under foot the Son of God or count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing Heb. 10.29 but get our hearts sprinkled therewith by the hysop-bunch of Faith from an evil conscience that wee may serv the living God Heb. 9.14 Ver. 8. In that night By candle-light so must wee feed upon Christ lumine supernaturali Isa 53. by his knowledg doth God's righteous servant justifie manie Rost with fire Not raw wee may not grosly conceiv of Christ nor rashly receiv him Not boiled bur rost to shew that Christ was rosted in the fire of his father's wrath sicut tostis cibariis non adhibentur alia ut in â—lixis fieri consuevit it à solum Christum debemus apprehendere fide Alsted saith an Interpreter And unleavened bread See the Note on 1. Cor. 5.7 8. And with bitter herbs To teach that looking upon Christ whom they have pierced men must bee in bitterness Zach. 12.10 and feel what an evil and bitter thing sin is Jer. 2.19 beeing readie to suffer hardship with Christ though hee should feed us to the full with bitter herbs and make us drunk with wormwood Lam. 3.15 Ver. 9. His head with his legs To let us see our need of whole Christ and our most perfect comunion with Him Ver. 10. And yee shall let nothing of it remain Wee may not presume to sin in hope of pardon Christ will not stand us for a sinning-stock Ver. 11. With your loins girt As prest and intent to the service so wee should bee at all times but especially when to depart out of the Fâ—ypt of this life and to take heaven by force Then if ever wee should hoc agere gird up the loins of our minds c. 1 Pet. 1. And yee shâ—ll â—at it in hast As not doubting of deliverance and waiting a call out of life It is the Lord's passover A sacramental expression like that of our Savior This is my bodie Mat. 26.26 see the Note there The sacraments of the old Testament were both saeraments and types but those of the New are sacraments onely Ver. 12. And will smite all the first-born This crosseth not that in Ezek. 18. The son shall not bear the iniquitie of his father for God never punisheth the innocent becaus all are guiltie before Him These Egyptians had slain Israël God's first-born And it is the observation of Theodoret that when God smote Pharaoh's first-born hee drew blood of the arm for the cure of the head which becaus it mended not thereupon came also to confusion and upon all the Gods of Egypt As hee did here upon the Popish Idols in the begining of the Reformation by detecting their vanitie and laying their honor in the dust Ver. 13. I will pass over you Or over-skip you So hee dealeth oft by his who should therefore keep a passover for our safetie Ver. 14. By an Ordinance for ever Till Christ our passover should bee sacrificed for us and then the Christian passover was to succed Ver. 15. Yee shall put away leaven All unsoundness in point of Faith and insinceritie in point of Practice See the Note on 1 Cor. 5.7 Ver. 16. An boliâ— convocation This same word in the Hebrew signifieth the holie Scriptures Nehem. 8 9. to teach us saith one that the Scriptures ought to be read in the Congregation and holie Assemblies Ver. 17. In this self-same daie Heb. In the bodie or strength of this daie so the mid-daie is called Art thou delivered helped write up the time and place Ver. 18. Vntil the ane and twentieth daiâ— As Austin said of the feast of Pentecost might these of the Passover may wee of the Powder plot Gaudet produci haec solemnitas It were well iâ— this holie-daie were a double-daie Ver. 19. No leaven found See the Note on ver 15. Shal bee cut off For a smal fault as it may seem to som but the less the matter the greater is the contempt in denying to do it Keep therefore God's commandement as the sight of thine eie Look to those minntula Legiâ— that yee may live Ver. 20. Yee shal eat nothing leavened Watch carefully against corruption in life and doctrine bee punctual in your preparation to and participation of the Christian passover Ver. 21. All the elders of Israël The masters of Families who in this Familie-service were to kill and eat and set before the rest of the houshold as priests at home and to shew them the meaning of that mysterie Ver. 22. A bunch of hysop An herb of a purging propertie See 1 Cor. 6.11 The blood that is in the bason The remembrance of Christ's bloodie passion must bee kept fresh in our hearts Strike the lintel Profess Christ crucified Tâ—m recent milâ—i nunc Christus ac si hac borâ â—â—dissâ—t sanguinem Luth. honor him by a holie conversation minde him in your out-goings and in comings None of you shal go out Bee not of those that withdraw to perdition but of them that believ to the salvation of the soul Heb. 10.39 Mingle no more with the Egyptians Ver. 23. Will not suffer the destroier Angels delight to bee executioners of God's judgments and Saviors of his people Ver. 24. For ever See the Note on ver 15. Ver. 25. Yee shal keep this service yet with som variation of circumstance Ver. 26. When your children Children are to bee carefully catechised and informed Eph. 6.4 See the note there Luther scorned not to profess himself discipulum Catechismi a Catechism Scholar Ver. 27. Bowed the head In token of submission to the command and thank fulness for such a salvation Ver. 28. Went away and did c. They that will not timously obeie God's sweet precepts shal one daie have no other command to obeie but that bitter Ite maledicti Go
Vers 12. It shall be at the salt-Sea That is the Lake of Sodome called also Asphaltites and the dead Sea Josephus saith that an ox having all his legs bound will not sink into the water of this sea it is so thick Vers 17. Eleazar the Priest Pointing to the high Priest of the new Covenant by whom we have entrance into the promised inheritance whither he is gone before to prepare a place for us and hath told us that in his Fathers house are many mansions room enough CHAP. XXXV Vers 2. SVburbs These were for pasture pleasure and other Country-Commodities not for tillage for the Levites were to have no such employment Num. 18.20 24. Vers 6. That he may flee thither All sins then are not equal as the Stoicks held neither are all to be alike punished as by Draco's laws they were in a manner Those laws were said to be written not with black but with blood because they punished every peccadillo almost with death as idleness stealing of pot-herbs c. Aristotle gives them this small commendation that they are not worth remembrance but only for their great severity Vers 7. Shall be fourty and eight cities Thus the Levites were dispersed throughout the land for instruction of the people so ought Ministers of the Gospel who are fiâ—ly called the salt of the earth that being sprinkled up and down may keep the rest as flesh from rotting and putrisying Vers 8. From them that have many ye shall give By the equity of this proportion the richer are bound to give more to the Ministers maintenance then the poorer Let this be noted by those that refuse to give any thing to their Ministers because they have not those things the tithes whereof the law requires for this purpose See Gal 6.6 with the Note there Vers 15. Shall be a refuge Christ is our Asylum to whom running for refuge when pursued by the guilt of an evill conscience we are safe None can take us out of his hands If we be in Christ the Rock temptations and oppositions as waves dash upon us but break themselves Vers 16. So that he dye Though he had no intent to kill yet because he should have look't better to 't he is a murtherer he smote him purposely and presumptuously and the man dyes of it King James was wont to say that if God did leave him to kill a man though besides his intention he should think God did not love him Vers 18. The murderer shall surely be put to death This is jus gentium The Turks justice in this case will rather cut off two innocent men then let one offender escape Cartwr travels The Persians punish theft and man-slaughter so severely that in an age a man shall hardly hear either of the one or the other A severity fit for Italy where they blaspheme oftner then swear Spec. Europ Purchas and murther more then revile or slander like the dogs of Congo which they say bite but bark not And no less fit for France where Les ombres des defunde fieurs de Villemor within ten years 6000 gentlemen have been slain as it appears by the Kings pardons Byron Lord high-Marshal of France and Governour of Burgundy slew a certain Judge for putting to death a malefactor whom he had commanded to be spared Epitome hist Gall. pag. 275. For this he sued for a pardon and had it but not long after he turned traytor to his Prince that had pardoned him and was justly executed Vers 21. He shall surely be put to death And yet the Papists allow wilful murtherers also to take sanctuary who should as Joab was be taken from the altar to the slaughter Their hatred to Protestants is so deadly that they hold us unworthy to live on Gods ground fit for nothing but fire and fagot yea they send us to hell without bail or main-prize as worse then Turks or Jews They tell the people that Geneva is a professed Sanctuary of all roguery that in England the people are grown barbarous and eat young children that they are as black as Devils c. Vers 23. Or with any stone As at the funeral solemnities of Q. Anne a scholar was slain by the fall of a letter of stone thrust down from the battlements of the Earl of Northamptons house by one that was a spectatour Vers 25. Vnto the death of the high Priest Because he was amongst men the chief god on earth and so the offence did most directly strike against him Or rather because the high Priest was a type of Christ and so this release was a shadow of our freedom and redemption by the death of Christ CHAP. XXXVI Vers 1. ANd spake before Moses Who was their common Oracle to enquire of in all doubtful cases Like as at Rome C. Scipio Nasica whom the Senate by way of honor called Optimus had a house in the high-street assigned him at the publike charge quò faciliùs consuli posset that any man might go to him for counsel And surely as the Romane General never miscarried so long as he followed the advice of Polybius his historian so neither did or could this people do amiss if ruled by Moses who was the mouth of God vers 5. Vers 6. To whom they think best See Gen. 24.57 58. with the Note there Vers 7. Shall keep himself to the inheritance This was an excellent law to cut off quarrels strifes and law-suites and to frustrates those qui latrocinia intra moenia exercent as Columella said of the Lawyers of his time Vers 11. For Mahlah Tirzah and Hoglah c. The names of these virgins as one Interpreter elsewhere observeth seem to be not without mystery M. Ainsworth For Zelophehad by interpretation signifieth the shadow of fear or of dread his first daughter Machlah Infirmity the second Noah Wandering the third Hoglah Turning about for joy or Dancing the fourth Milcah a Queen the fifth Tirzah Well pleasing or Acceptable By these names we may observe the degrees of our reviving by grace in Christ for we all are born as of the shadow of fear being brought forth in sin and for fear of death were all our life-time subject to bondage Heb 2.15 This begetteth infirmity or sickness grief of heart for our estate After which Wandering abroad for help and comfort we finde it in Christ by whom our sorrow is turned into joy He communicates to us of his royalty making us Kings and Priests unto God his Father and we shall be presented unto him glorious and without blemish Ephes 5.27 So the Church is beautiful as Tirzâ—h Cant. 6.3 Deo soli Gloria A COMMENTARY or EXPOSITION UPON The Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. Vers 1. These be the words which Moses spake ANd surely he spake thick if he spake as some cast it up this whole Book in less then ten dayes space Certain it is that he spake here as ever most divinely and like