Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	serpent_n	sin_n	sting_n	4,692	5	12.2188	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46823	A help for the understanding of the Holy Scripture intended chiefly for the assistance and information of those that use constantly every day to reade some part of the Bible, and would gladly alwayes understand what they read if they had some man to help them : the first part : containing certain short notes of exposition upon the five books of Moses, to wit Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomie : wherein all such passages in the text are explained as were thought likely to be questioned by any reader of ordinary capacity ... / by Arthur Jackson ...	Jackson, Arthur, 1593?-1666.	1643 (1643)	Wing J67; ESTC R35433	692,552	595

taken prisoners in this battel for hereby he taught them at first how unable they were in themselves to conquer those nations that so they might learn to trust in God and not in themselves If one king thus prevailed over them how should they be able to destroy all the inhabitans of the land combining themselves together if the Lord should not assist them Vers 2. And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord c. That is the Israelites intending to renew the battel and again once more to set upon Arad and his army called upon God for help and vowed to devote unto him their enemies and all their cities that is utterly to destroy them If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand then I will utterly destroy their cities for when things were thus devoted the persons were killed the cities burnt and the goods confiscate to the Lord so that nothing was reserved for their own private use as is noted upon Levit. 27. 28. and this was a vow agreeable to Gods law Exod. 23. 32. Thou shalt make no covenant with them nor with their gods Vers 3. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites That is this army of Arad whom in a second battel after this vow they vanquished and destroyed And they utterly destroyed them and their cities and he called the name of that place Hormah But how could they being so farre off in the wildernesse destroy their cities lying within Canaan surely had Moses at this time entred Canaan in the pursuit of Arad he would not have fallen back again into the deserts It seemeth therefore that the accomplishment of this vow was performed long after to wit by the men of Judah and Simeon when they were come into the land of Canaan as is expressed Judg. 1. 17. And Judah went with Simeon his brother and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath and utterly destroyed it and the name of the citie was called Hormah so that this clause was here inserted either by Mosesprophetically or by some other holy man afterwards Vers 4. And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the red sea c. That is they went from Hor Eastward a way that led to the red sea which lay North and South the common rode from Gilead and Moab to Eziongaber c. and so crossing that way they passed on to Zalmonah and so turning then Northward to Punon as is expressed Numb 33. 41 42. and here it seems it was that the Israelites were punished with fiery serpents And the soul of the people was much discourag●d because of the way That is because they were led a great way about through a desert full of wants and difficulties and that the rather because now they began to think puffed up with their late victory that it had been easie for them to have forced a passage the nearest way Vers 5. And the people spake against God and against Moses c. And so tempted Christ 1. Cor. 10. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents Vers 6. And the Lord sent fiery ser●ents among the people c. So called because their venemous biting did cause a grievous burning in the bodies of the Israelites It may seem that they were a kind of serpents with wings that so flying amongst them did here and there seise upon them and bite them such as the prophet speaks of Esa 14. 29. Out of the serpents root shall come forth a cockatrice and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent The word in the originall is Seraphin that is Burners the very same name whereby the Angels are called Esa 6. 2. because of their burning zeal for Gods glory The wildernesse through which the Israelites now went did abound with many sorts of these serpents and therefore it is called that great and terrible wildernesse wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions Deut. 8. 15. onely God had hitherto kept them from hurting his people till now for their sinne he gave them power to bite and kill them and indeed the punishment was just according to their sinne for now God gave them just cause to complain of thirst and with the venemous biting of fiery serpents he punished their virulent tongues to whom that might well be applyed which the Psalmist speaks Psal 140. 3. They have sharpened their tongues as a serpent adders poison is under their lips Vers 8. Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole c. This was the way which the Lord prescribed for the curing of the Israelites that were bitten with fiery serpents namely that Moses should make a fiery serpent that is a figure or representation of those fiery serpents wherewith they were stung and that of brasse as we may see in the following verse the better to represent their fiery quality because brasse is of a fiery colour and therefore it is said of the Cherubims that Ezekiel saw in a vision Ezek. 1. 7. that they sparkled like the colour of burnished brasse and then set it upon a pole to the end that it might be seen from every quarter of the camp so that every man that was stung with the fiery serpents might look upon this brasen serpent and thereby might be healed Now this way of cure the Lord prescribed for two reasons first because this being no naturall way of cure did the better discover that it was of Gods mercy and secondly that it might be a type of Christ and our redemption by him John 3. 14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernesse even so must the sonne of man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternall life For first as the Israelites were bitten with fiery serpents and that biting was mortall and deadly so was all mankind in our parents mortally stung and bitten by Satan that old serpent Rev. 12. 9. so that their whole nature is envenomed with sinne as a deadly poison and as it were set on fire of hell as S. James speaks of the tongue in particular James ● 6 8. and that so that without some way of recovery they must needs perish everlastingly By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne Rom. 5. 12. and the sting of death is sinne saith the same Apostle 1. Cor. 15. 56. Secondly as the brazen serpent which Moses made for the cure of the Israelites had the outward form of those fiery serpents yet had not the poyson of those serpents in it so Christ came in the likenesse of sinnefull flesh Rom. 8. 3. and yet was without sinne Thirdly as the brazen serpent was lifted upon a pole that when any man was stung with the fiery serpents he might lift up his eyes and look upon it so Christ was lifted upon the crosse to the end he might save death-stung sinners or rather so was Christ lifted up and held forth

the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2. 14. whereby also all believers do become conquerours over those spirituall enemies of their souls And thou shalt bruise his heel This is meant 1. of the serpents lying in wait to sting and hurt mankind 2. of the devils assaulting Christ in his temptations a●flictions death and buriall and the faithfull in their temptations and troubles which to him and them is but as the bruising of the heel Vers 16. Vnto the woman he said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception That is thy painfull conceptions or the sorrows of thy conceptions faintnesse sick fits perill of abortion c. Thy desire shall be to thy husband That is thy desire shall be subject to thy husband upon his will and pleasure all thy desire must depend For in this sense the same phrase is used Gen. 4. 7. concerning Abels subjection to Cain as the firstborn It istrue by the law of creation the woman should have lived in subordination under her husband should have been governed by him for Adam was first formed then Eve 1. Tim. 2. 13. and 1. Co● 11. 9. Man was not created for the woman but the woman for the man but being here denounced as a chastisement for sinne it implyeth a further degree of subjection then that which should have been by the law of Nature and Creation as indeed by reason of the corruption of our nature it is made every where somewhat irksome and hard to be born but amongst some a very yoke of bondage Vers 18. And thou shalt eat the herb of the field And so neither the herbs or fruits of Paradise Vers 21. Vnto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skinnes c. This may be meant of the Lords doing this presently before they were turned out of Paradise by the ministry of angels or how else it pleased him to wit that by the skinnes of slain beasts he made them garments and so clothed them therewith or rather that the Lord taught Adam and Eve and gave them directions how they should of the skinnes of beasts make themselves garments for the covering of their nakednesse and to shelter their bodies from the injury of the weather for seeing there is no question to be made but that the Lord did immediately teach them the worship of offering sacrifices as signes and types of that reconciliation and atonement which was to be expected in the promised seed and therefore we reade in the following chapter of the Sacrifices that were offered by Cain and Abel it cannot be thought improbable that withall direction was given to make them coats of the skins of the beasts slain However by this kind of clothing chosen for them they were taught betimes not to have so much respect to delicacy as to usefulnesse in attiring themselves 2. in the spoils of those dead beasts to wear the remembrances of their own mortality yea of that brutish condition whereinto by their sinne they were fallen And to this that bitter taunt seems to have reference in the following verse Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil c. Vers 22. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life c. Some Expositours conceive that the fruit of the tree of life being eaten by man should have prevented all decay of naturall strength and have made him immortall or at least have kept him in perfect health and strength untill he was taken up from earth into heaven and that either by means of a created power and efficacy which to this end and purpose God had given to this fruit or by an extraordinary and supernaturall blessing which God had ordained should go along with the eating of this fruit and hence they say it was that when Adam and Eve had sinned God now resolved to turn them out of Paradise that they might not taste of the tree of life either in mercy to prevent their living for ever in misery or in judgement that the curse of Death which God had threatned as the reward of sinne might not be prevented by eating of this fruit But this conceit is justly rejected by the best Expositours It was no wayes possible that any created food should frustrate Gods decree that Death should be the wages of Sinne. Whatever effect might have followed upon the eating of this ●ruit had man continued in the state of Innocency yet when his body was dead because of sinne as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 10. it was not the eating of this fruit that could make his dead body to live for ever The true reason why the Lord cast Adam out of Paradise to prevent his eating of the tree of life was doubtlesse that having by his disobedience and sinne made himself liable to death he might not now meddle with this sacramentall seal of life and salvation which now because of sinne he had nothing to do with Onely as before the Lord had upbraided them for their vain affectation of being like unto him in that ironicall expression Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil meaning that by his sinne they were become most unlike him so in these words ironically he upbraids him after the same manner for that certainty of death he had brought upon himself determining to cast him out of the garden of Eden Lest saith the Lord he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever not because there was any danger of his living for ever but in derision of any such hope or expectation if happily he should entertain any such motion as formerly of gaining an increase of knowledge by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil Vers 24. And he placed at the East and of the garden c. Where was the entrance into Paradise there at the East end of the garden he placed Cherubims and a flaming sword that is Angels armed with a flaming sword for Moses useth this word that he might speak to the capacity of the Jews who had Cherubims figured in their temple to represent the angels CHAP IV. Vers 3. ANd in processe of time it came to passe c. Abel and Cain had been doub●lesse taught of God thus to worship him and therefore it is said Heb. 11. 4. that by faith to wit grounded on Gods word Abel offered sacrifice Vers 4. And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering This Cain perceived and therefore it was manifested by some outward signe either ordinary by giving good successe to Abel in all things and not to Cain or extraordinary as by sending fire from heaven to consume Abels sacrifice and not Cains as we see the like Levit. 9. 24. There came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the Altar the burnt offering

unto men in the preaching of the Gospel that so all poore sinners might look upon him as the onely authour of eternall salvation according to that of S. Paul to the Galatians Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you Gal. 3. 1. And fifthly as the Israelites that were mortally bitten by those fiery serpents were perfectly cured onely by looking on the brazen serpent whereof there could be no naturall reason so are sinners perfectly saved from that death whereto they were liable because of sinne onely by casting an eye of faith upon Christ whereof no reason can be given but the will of God and therefore is the preaching of this way of salvation called the foolishnesse of preaching 1. Cor. 1. 21. And indeed partly because it was such a notable type of the promised Messiah and partly that it might be a memoriall of this singular me●cy which God thereby had afforded them the Israelites carefully kept this brazen serpent unto the dayes of Hezekiah but then because the people burnt incense to it that good King brake it in pieces 2. Kings 18. 4. Vers 10. And the children of Israel set forward and pitched in Oboth They removed not from mount Hor to Oboth but as is before noted upon vers 14. from mount Hor they removed to Zalmonah and then to Punon and then to Oboth as we reade chap. 33. 41 42 43. whence we may most probably conclude that about Punon it was that the brazen serpent was made because it is said here that they set sorward from the place where that was done and then pitched in Oboth Vers 11. And they journ●yed from Oboth and pitched at Ije-abarim in the wildernesse which is before Moab c. And so were come from Edoms borders to Moabs with whom also they might not meddle Deut. 2. 9. And the Lord said unto me Distresse not the Moabites neither contend with them in battel Vers 12. From thence they removed and pitched in the valley of Zared Zared was the name both of the valley and river that ranne through that valley Deut. 2. 13. where was it seems Dibon-gad for chap. 33. 45. it is said that they departed from lim and pitched in Dibon-gad Vers 13. From thence they removed and pitched on the other side of Arnon c. From Dibon-gad they went to Almon-diblathaim thence to the mountains of Abarim Num. 33. 46 47. which it seems were in this place on the other side of Arnon For Arnon is the border of Moab between Moab and the Amorites Arnon was a river that did at this time divide the countrey of the Amorites from the land of the Moabites Indeed the countrey beyond Arnon towards Jordan had been in the possession of Moab but Sihon had taken it from them ver 16. so that now Arnon was the border between the Moabites and the Amorites which Moses notes to let us see how God by this means had provided this countrey for the Israelites who might not have meddled with it if it had been still in the Moabites possession but were now commanded to take it from the Amorites Deut. 2. 24. Rise ye up take your journey and passe over the river Arnon behold I have given into thy hand Sihon the Amorite King of Heshbon and his land c. and hence it was that the King of the Amorites and Moabites challenged this land in the dayes of Jephthah Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt from Arnon even unto Jabbok and unto Jordan now therefore restore thoselands again peaceably Vers 14. Wherefore it is said in the book of the warres of the Lord what he did in the red sea c. This place is diversly translated and therefore also diversly expounded by Interpreters According to our translation the meaning and drift of the words seems to be this There was a book extant in Moses time but now lost called the book of the warres of the Lord wherein it seems the victories which the Lord gave the Israelites over their enemies were more largely described which are here but briefly touched out of this book Moses cit●s these following words What he did in the red sea and in the brooks of Arnon and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar and lieth upon the border of Moab and that partly to prove what he had said before ver 13. that Arnon was at present the border between the land of Moab and the land of the Amorites though formerly the land beyond Arnon belonged also to the Moabites and partly also to give a touch that here at their entrance into the Amorites land the Lord wrought wonders for them not inferiour to his dealing with them when he drowned the Egyptians in the red sea Our Translatours have noted in the margin of our Bibles that this place cited out of that book of the warres of the Lord may be read thus Vaheb in Saphah and in the brooks of Arnon c. but if it be so read it is hard to conjecture what was meant thereby onely some Expositours hold that Vaheb was the name of that King of the Moabites mentioned vers 26. whom Sihon conquered and others that it was the name of a city in Saphah but the words cited being but an imperfect clause taken out of a book not now extant no wonder it is though the meaning of them cannot be found out sufficient it is for us that they plainly enough prove that for which Moses cites them namely that the river Arnon did divide the land of the Amorites and the land of Moab Vers 16. And from thence they went to Beer Neither this place called Beer nor those mentioned vers 18 19 20. to wit Mattanah Nahaliel and Bamoth are named Numb 33. and therefore it seems they were not severall stations but onely the names of such places as they passed by when they went forward from the mountains of Abarim which were about Arnon to the plains of Moab Numbers 33. 48. That is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses Gather the people together and I will give them water c. The meaning of these words is that at this place called thence Beer which signifieth a well the Lord did miraculously again supply them with water and that in the sight of all the people having appointed Moses to gather them together for this very purpose The manner how this was done is not expressed in the story but from the ensuing song we may probably inferre thus much to wit that the people being in some distresse for water in that wildernesse mentioned ver 13. through which they were now going God stayed not now till they murmured again but of his own accord did appoint Moses to gather the people together and to set the princes of the tribes to dig with their staves promising that a well should thereupon miraculously spring

signe annexed to the covenant of works sealing death and damnation to them in case of disobedience and so assuring them of the event that would follow if contrary to Gods command they should eat of it namely that they should to their cost experimentally know the difference between good and evil Vers 16. The Lord God commanded the man saying c. Besides the morall law the law of Nature written in Adams heart whereby he knew exactly all things wherein he was bound to obey his Creatour the Lord gave him also this positive and particular commandment concerning a thing of it self indifferent but by Gods command made unlawfull that the Lords absolute Dominion over him might be hereby made known and his disobedience might become the more manifest CHAP. III. NOw the serpent was more subtill then any beast of the field c. That it was the devil who in and by the serpent did seduce Eve is plain enough in other places of Scripture John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil he was a murderer from the beginning 2. Cor. 11. 3. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtiltie so your minds c. 1. John 3. 8. For the devil sinneth from the beginning Rev. 12. 9. That old serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world But why then doth Moses speak no one word of the devil but onely mentions the serpent Surely for the same reason that before he had omitted the expresse mention both of the creation and fall of the angels because his purpose is to report the story according to the outward visible carriage of it herein accommodating himself to the rudenesse and capacity of that infant Church who had need of milk not of strong meat and of this serpent it is said that he was more subtill then any beast of the field to imply the reason why the devil made choice of this instrument rather then any other And he said unto the woman The serpent speechlesse in himself had his mouth opened by Satan who caused him to speak or spake in and by him as the Lord by an angel opened the mouth of Balaams asse Numb 22. 28. And the Lord opened the mouth of the asse and she said c. Why the woman was not astonished to heare a dumb creature speak is but a curious and causelesse question there is nothing said here to the contrary but that she might at first be afraid and yet afterwards be imboldned to talk with him Vers 5. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened c. That is God knows that upon the eating of this fruit ye shall obtain a further yea a divine degree of knowledge equall unto that of God himself the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and thus the serpent doth cunningly wrest to a wrong sense the name formerly given unto this tree but upon another ground Vers 7. And the eyes of them both were opened c. The eyes neither of body nor mind were opened by any virtue or e●ficacie of the fruit they had eaten for why then were not the womans eyes opened so soon as ever she had eaten before Adam was seduced no this was another kind of opening the eyes then that which the serpent promised to wit an enlightning of their consciences to see the enormity of their sinne and the misery whereto they had thereby brought themselves And they knew that they were naked Naked both in soul and body which were bereaved of the image of God deprived of his glory and subjected to inordinate lusts thereupon to shame according to that Exod. 32. 25. Aaron had made them naked to their shame amongst their enemies Questionlesse they saw and knew that they were naked before else why is it said chap. 2. 25. that they were not ashamed but now they saw it with shame which they did not before Vers 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day There needs no scruple be made either of the voice or walking of God if we conceive that he appeared in humane shape as afterwards usually unto Abraham And that this was in the cool of the day is added not onely to shew the time of the day and it may be meant either of morning or evening for in both cool winds are wont to arise but also to imply by what means the voice came to them to wit by the whisking of the wind And Adam and his wife hid themselves c. Being conscious of their sinne and therefore fearing the Majestie of God stricken with horrour and amazednesse they know not what to do but do what they can to hide themselves Vers 11. And he said Who told thee that thou wast naked As if he should have said Thou wert naked before without fear or shame and therefore whence comes it that thou art now ashamed surely because thou hast eaten of the forbidden fruit Vers 14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent c. Though Moses names onely the serpent for the reasons above mentioned yet both are here condemned the serpent as the instrument even as a father breaks the sword wherewith his child was slain and the devil as the chief authour and therefore is the judgement so exprest that whilst all is fitted to the serpent in a literall sense some particulars if not all do most fitly also though in a mysticall sense include the curse in●licted on the devil Vpon thy belly shalt thou go c. Either because he had extolled himself against man his creeping and feeding on the earth which before should not have been ignominious is accursed and made reprochfull now or which is more agreeable to the plain meaning of the words this going on his belly and feeding on dust was not the naturall gate and food of the serpent before but now he is adjudged thereto because of this fact Vers 15. And I will put enmitie between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed This is spoken 1. of the naturall Antipathy betwixt mankind and those detestable beasts the serpents 2. of the naturall enmitie betwixt mankind and the devil and his angels for though through Satans su●●iltie covertly insinuating himself under another person men do indeed cleave to him and serve him yet naturally all men do abhorre and slie the devil as an enemy 3. of that holy enmity betwixt Christ together with all true believers the members of Christ and the devil and his angels together with all the wicked as they are the seed of the serpent John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the devil c. It shall bruise thy head This is spoken 1. of mens destroying serpents 2. and especially of Christs destroying the kingdome and power of Satan For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself likewise took part of