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
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
was a Name of diminution as she was taken from the man for Isha is but a she-man and when in her worse state when she had sinn'd she was call'd Eva Mater viventium the Mother of all living she had a better name in her worst estate but this was not in respect of her sin saith that Father but in respect of her punishment now that she was become mortal by a sentence of death pronounced upon her and knew that she must dye and resolve to dust now saith he there was no danger in her of growing proud by any glorious title affliction had tamed her and rectified her now and thus doth God sometimes bit and bridle us by afflictions lest we be too proud Verse 24. See the unhappiness of man a little forbidden fruit from the hand of a frail Creature must dis-inherit us of eternal life and man must be thrust out of doors deprived of his everlasting habitation for two pretty toyes an Apple and a Woman Howsoever saith Chrysostome Death hung not on the Fruit but the Tempter lamentable felicity which at the height was but conditionary and then fatal CHAP. IV. Verse 5. VVHat was the occasion of this capital malice and mortal wrath in Cain Abels Sacrifice was accepted what was this to Cain Cains was rejected what could Abel remedy this O envy the corrosive of all ill minds and the root of all desperate actions the same cause that moved Satan to tempt the first man to destroy himself and his posterity the same moves the Second man to destroy the Third It should have been Cain's joy to see his Brother accepted it should have been his sorrow to see that himself had deserved a rejection his Brothers example should have excited and directed him could Abel have stayed Gods fire from descending or should he if he could reject Gods acceptation and displease his Maker to content a Brother was Cain ever the farther from a blessing because his Brother obtain'd mercy How proud and foolish is malice which grows thus mad for no other cause but because God or Abel is not less good It hath been an old and happy danger to be holy indifferent actions must be careful to avoid offence but I care not what Devil or what Cain be angry that I do good or receive it Verse 8. Now might Adam see the image of himself in Cain for after his own image begot he him Adam slue his posterity Cain his Brother We are too like one another in that we are unlike to God however one would have thought that these being Brethren and but two Brethren the beams of their affection should have been so much the hotter because they reflect mutually in a right line upon each other and yet behold here are but two Brothers in the world and one is the Butcher of the other Who can wonder at dissentions amongst thousands of Brethren thousands of Christians when he sees so deadly opposition between two and these the first roots of Brother-hood who can hope to live plausibly and securely among so many Cains when he sees one Cain the death of one Abel Verse 9. No sooner doth Abels blood speak to God than God speaks to Cain there is no wicked man to whom God speaks not if not to his ear yet to his heart what speech was this not an accusation yet such an enquiry as would infer an accusation God loves to have a sinner accuse himself and therefore hath he set his Deputy in the breast of man neither doth God love this more then nature abhors it Cain answers stubbornly the very name of Abel wounds him no less then his hand had wounded Abel Consciences that are without remorse are not without horror wickedness makes men desperate the murtherer is angry with God as of late for accepting his Brothers oblation so now for listning to his blood Verse 11. There is a holy league offensive and defensive betwixt God and his children God shall not only protect us from others but he shall fight for us against them our enemies are his enemies Nolite tangere Christos meos saith God of all holy people you were as good touch me as touch any of them Thus when Cain had trespass'd against God himself in this that he would bind God to an acceptation of his Sacrifice God comes no farther for that then to Why dost thou thus but in his murther committed upon his Brother who was a child of God God proceeds so much farther as to say Here now art thou cursed from the Earth When Ieroboam suffered idolatry God let him alone that concerned but God himself but when Ieroboam stretched forth his hand to lay hold on the Prophet his hand withered Verse 13. And what was the greatness of this punishment this From thy face shall I be hid It is not that God would not look graciously upon him but that God would not look at all upon him Infinitely desperate are the effects of Gods putting away a soul. And yet notwithstanding this there doth this comfort arise from the Text that an imputation of sin arising from our selves may be accompanied with error â—nd mistaking and we may impute that to our selves which God doth not impute For this word which some translate here Iniquity is oftentimes in Scripture used for punishment as well as for sin and so indifferently for both as that if we compare Translation with Translation and Exposition with Exposition it will be hard for us to say whether it can be said my iniquity is greater then can be pardoned or my punishment is greater then I can bear and therefore we must have a care how we mis-impute Gods anger to our selves arising out of his punishments his corrections and inflictions upon us that because we have crosses in the world we cannot believe that we stand well in the sight of God Verse 14. He that cares not for the act of his sin shall care for the smart of his punishment for see this miscreant which had neither grace to avoid his sin nor to confess it now that he is convinc'd of sin and curs'd for it how he howleth how he exclaimeth the damned are weary of their torments but in vain How great a madness is it to complain too late he that would not keep his Brother is cast out from the protection of God he that feared not to kill his Brother fears now that whosoever meets him will kill him the troubled conscience projecteth fearful things and sin makes even cruel men cowardly How bitter is the end of sin yea without end still Cain finds that he had kill'd himself more then his Brother We should never sin if our fore-sight were but as good as our sence the issue of sin would appear a thousand times more horrible then the act is pleasant Verse 15. Some think this mark was a horrible trembling and shaking of his whole body as the Septuagint translate who For thou shalt be a vagabond read Thou shalt
escapeth their Judgement from whose sins he escaped Even the good Angels are here made the Executioners of Gods Judgements There cannot be a better or more noble act than to do Justice upon obstinate Malefactors Verse 16. The Messengers do not only hasten Lot but pull him by a gracious violence out of that impure City they thirsted at once after the vengeance upon Sodom and Lots safety they knew God could not strike Sodom till Lot were gone out and that Lot could not be safe within those Walls We are all naturally in Sodom if God did not hale us out whiles we linger we should be condemned with the World If God meet with a very good field he pulls up the Weeds and lets the Corn grow if indifferent he lets the Corn and Weeds grow together if very ill he gathers the few ears of Corn and burns the weeds Verse 20. So say most men of their bosome sins Lord this sin is neer to flye unto it is but in my bosome and it is but a little one Lord perchance but a trip of the tongue or a wanton glance of the eye or a lustful thought of the heart O let me escape and abide in that sin in that Zoar and my soul shall live and he saies most truly that his Soul shall live For it is as impossible that such a one should live without his beloved sin as it is that he should live without his Soul Verse 21. O the large bounty of God which reacheth not to us only but to ours God saves Lot for Abrahams sake and Zoar for Lots sake if Sodom had not been too wicked it had escaped Were it not for Gods dear Children that are intermix'd with the World the world could not stand the wicked owe their lives unto those few good which they hate and persecute Verse 26. Lot at the 17 verse may not so much as look at the flame whether for the stay of his passage or the horror of the sight or tryal of his Faith or fear of commiseration Small Precepts from God are of importance obedience is as well tryed and disobedience as well punished in little as in much And therefore when Lots Wife did but turn back her head in this verse whether in curiosity or unbelief or love and compassion of the place she is turned into a Monument of disobedience ut praestarit fidelibus condimentum saith Saint Augustine that it might be a seasoning to faithful men and teach us not to look back not to fall off from that calling in which we are once entered And now what did it avail Lots Wife not to be turned into ashes in Sodom when she is turned into a Pillar of Salt in the plain He that saved a whole City cannot save his own Wife God cannot abide small sins in those whom he hath obliged If we displease him God can as well meet with us out of Sodom as in it Verse 35. Though Lot fled from company he could not flye from sin he who was not tainted with Uncleanness in Sodom is overtaken with Drunkenness and Incest in a Cave Rather than Satan shall want baits Lots own Daughters will prove Sodomites those which should have comforted betrayed him How little are some hearts moved with judgements The ashes of Sodom and the pillar of Salt were not yet out of their eye when they dare think of lying with their own Father They knew whilst Lot was sober he could not be unchaste Drunkenness is the way to all bestial affections and acts Wine knows no difference either of persons or sins By this we see likewise what a dangerous thing it is to give way to temptation Lot being once drunk is the more apt to fall into it again Verse 37. No doubt Lot was afterwards ashamed of his Incestuous seed and now wished he had come alone out of Sodom yet even this unnatural Bed was blessed with encrease and one of our Saviours worthy Ancestors sprung after from this line Gods Election is not tyed to our means neither are blessings or Curses ever traduced The chaste Bed of holy Parents hath often bred a Monstruous Generation and contrarily God hath sometimes raised an holy Seed from the Drunken Bed of Incest or Fornication Thus will God magnifie the freedom of his own choice and let us know that we are not born but made good CHAP. XX. Verse 3. THe truth was here not only concealed but dissembled as the Moon hath her specks so the best have their blemishes we are born men not Angels and as our composition is flesh and bloud so are we subject to the temptations that are apt to arise from those principles of our Nature A Sheep may slip into a ditch as well as a Swine only here 's the difference the one delights in the mud the other would fain get out of it the righteous may fall seven times a day as well as the wicked but then the righteous riseth as oft and repenteth of his sin whereas the wicked lies down and continues in it This was the second time Abraham had committed this sin and yet still continued the Father of the faithful Verse 5. God had reproved Abimelech on Abrahams behalf and now Abimelech reproves Abraham on Gods God told Abimelech that he had taken another mans Wife and Abimelech replyed That other man had told him a Lye It is a sad thing that Saints and Beleevers should do that for which they should justly fall under the reproof of Infidels we should rather dazle their eyes and draw from their Consciences at least a testimony of our innocency as David did from Sauls when he said Thou art more righteous than I my son David The life of a Christian should be a Commentary on Christs life Which of you can condemne me of evil said Christ to the Jewes and we that bear his Name should follow his steps and so carry our selves that we may not be condemned by the world For our profession as it is most eminent so most eyed and worst censured none therefore to keep within so strict lines as the Christian being one ever under monitors for behold saith the Apostle We are made a gazing stock to the world to Angels to men Verse 7. The reward of sin is death saith the Apostle but what kind of death a double death saith this text Morte morierie thou shalt die the death a death complicated in its self death wrap'd in death and what is so intricate so intangling as death Who ever got out of a winding-sheet It is death aggravated by its self death weighed down by death and what is so heavy as death Who ever threw off his Grave-stone It is multiplied by its self and what is so infinite as death Who ever told over the dayes of death Let several sinners then pass this consideration through their several sins that as Abimelech here so they must without Gods mercy upon every sin die the death and that a double death eternal and
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
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
offered Yet this is no imboldning to presume but a comfort when Repentance is true Verse 45. The wayes of Gods delivering penitent sinners are divers and to be observed that we err not For some upon their sorrow God not only receiveth to favour and mercy but also delivereth them out of their present affliction So did he Manasses the King 2 Chron. 33. whose sin upon his Repentance he not only forgave but released him out of captivity and brought him into his Kingdom again Others he receiveth into favour and forgiveth their sin but yet suffereth to fall by their outward affliction So did he to the penitent Thief upon the Cross he received him into Paradice but saved him not from the Temporal Death The due remembrance of this is a great comfort against the loss of Friends in Wars and Plagues and the like calamities when others escape and do well Let us therefore cleave fast unto God believe his Mercy fear his Justice So whatsoever happeneth unto us shall happen for our good one way or other CHAP. XXVII Verse 8. IT is in thy power to vow or not to vow but having vowed a thing lawful and possible it is not in thy power though never so poor to dispense with thy Vow Indulged thou maist be but not Exempted If thou hast vowed rashly that rashness must be repented of but the vow if lawful must be perform'd without delay or diminution to the utmost of our power 'T is true we are no where in Scripture expresly commanded to Vow but having vow'd we are expresly commanded to keep that Vow That of David Vow and perform to the Lord is not a pure precept saith one but like that other Be angry and sin not where Anger is not commanded but limited so neither are we simply commanded to Vow but having voluntarily vowed we may not defer to pay it to our power be we never so poor Delaies are taken for Denials Excuses for Refusals And therefore every upright conscientious votary as he looks that Gods promises should be made good to him so he is careful to make good what he hath Vowed to God and this because 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 28. From this and other Texts which shew what large provision was made for Gods Priests under the Law we may note that if such a plentiful maintenance were allowed by God to his Ministers of the First Table then certainly as great a portion at the least doth belong to the Ministers of the Second Table For it is certain that as we under the Gospel are more bound unto the Lord in all Duties of Thankfulness since the Messias exhibited than they under the Law to whom he was only promised and as in the same respect the Ministry of the Gospel far excels the Priesthood of the Law so the portion which is due from us to God and from him to his Ministers ought to be answerable at least little inferior Verse 33. There can no one instance be given out of the Word of God either that Gods people payed or that God accepted for the Tenth some other thing money or money worth less in value than the Tenth and when our Saviour speaking of the Pharisees which Tith'd their Mint Annis Cummin said This they ought not to have left undone he signifies not obscurely that the manner of Tithing in Kind and without Diminution even for those smaller things much more for the greater was in use untill his time and was a manner of Tithing just and lawful And how precise God was in this point we may not obscurely gather by this that he prohibited any man so much as to change the Tith a good for a bad or a bad for a good without a penal augmentation of it A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED NUMBERS CHAP. I. Verse 1. SInai was a place where were many Bushes and Briars here they received the Law both Moral and Ceremonial which like Briars and Brambles prick'd and pierc'd the Consciences of Evil doers and by this means drove them to Christ who was clouded and shadowed forth under the Ceremonies of that Law for the Ceremonial Law was Christ under a Type And this Law was given four hundred and thirty years after the Promise made to Abraham not to disanull the Promise but to advance it Gal. 3. 17. and that guilt being discovered and every mouth stopped we might pass from Mount Sinai to Mount Syon from the Law to the Gospel and might acknowledg the riches of Free Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ. Verse 5. As this Book of Moses beareth the Title of Numbers so a great part of it is spent in numbring of the People to assure us that God hath numbred those that are his he keepeth the taile of them and none are hidden from him none escape his knowledge and sight From whence we learn that the Lord knoweth perfectly who they are that are his both what their numbers and what their Names are Are we then in trouble and persecution are we accounted silly Men obscure base and unregarded do we live as contemptible persons to the men of this World let not this trouble or grieve us dismay or discomfort us but rather let us lift up our heads assuring our selves that although men turn themselves from us yet God looketh upon us and though they seek to root out our Names from the Earth yet he will know us and call us by our Names Verse 19. It is required of all Gods Servants to perform obedience to Gods commands when ever God speaks unto us we must hear and obey his voice Noah received a Commandement from God to build the Ark many hindrances might have staid him and sundry inconveniences might have stopt him and infinite dangers might have terrified him from that enterprize as the greatness of the Ark the labour of the building the Taunts of the Wicked and an hundred of such like troubles might stand in his way yet Noah over-looked them all By Faith Noah being wrrn'd of God moved with reverence prepared the Ark Heb. 11. 7. which shews that whensoever God hath a mouth to open and a Tongue to speak we must have an Ear to hear and a Heart to obey whatsoever is enjoyn'd us Verse 46. This may seem very strange unto us that so small an handful of seventy Souls should multiply so greatly in the space of 216 years but herein we are to consider the truth of God joyn'd with his power who because he is true of his Word and able of his power perform'd that to his people which he promised long before to their Fathers God had promised to Iacob that he would make him a great Nation Gen. 46. and here it was performed All the promises of God are Yea and Amen and shall in our time be accomplished to his Children CHAP. II. Verse 1.
here so they were from the beginning but here is noted a continuance of this Ordinance when it is said That he sanctified the first-born to himself what time he smote every first-born in Egypt Now the first-born are said to be Gods by a singular right by right of Redemption because he Redeemed them he saved them he delivered them from the house of bondage and he that is saved is not his own but his that saved him And so the first-born here were Types first of Christ who was the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8. 29. To whom therefore we must give the honour of his first Birth-right all our sheaves must veil and bow to his sheaf Secondly of Christians Those first-born whose Names are written in Heaven Heb. 12. 23. who are dear to God as his first-born CHAP. IX Verse 3. THe Paschal Lamb was taken up the Tenth day but not Sacrificed until the fourteenth that they might so kill the Passover as first to sanctifie themselves and prepare their Brethren For which cause also it was a received Tradition among the Jews that during those four dayes the Lamb was tyed to their Bed-posts to put them in mind of what they were to do and then in the Evening they eat it which signified that Christ came and was offered up in the Evening of the World in the last dayes saith the Apostle God sent his Son Heb. 1. 2. In the last hour 1 Ioh. 5. when all lay buried in darkness in the Even-tide of our sin and death Verse 6. It appears that these good men that were shut out from this part of Gods service by reason they were defiled by touching a dead body were much grieved and troubled in mind that they were bar'd from the Passover and therefore make earnest complaint to Moses for the separation desiring to be eased and relieved by him From whence we are taught that it is a great cause of sorrow and grief to Gods dear Children when they are by any just occasion or the hand of God upon them with-held and kept back from the parts and exercises of his Worship This was the ground of Davids complaint in the Psalms where he maketh the condition of the Sparrow and Swallow to be better than his which might come nearer to the Altar of God than he But on the other side Carnal and Worldly men lament bitterly for earthly losses and troubles but never trouble themselves for the loss of spiritual things Nay they are vex'd and tormented as if they were upon the rack that they are constrain'd to come so oft to the Word to the Sacrament to the House of Prayer they cry with them in Amos When will the Sabbath be done Amos 8. 5. and with those other When shall we depart out of Syon it is time we be gone Verse 11. The Israelite here were to eat the Passover with unleavened Bread with soundness in point of Faith and sincerity in point of practice to watch carefully against corruption in Life and Doctrine which should teach us to be punctual in our preparation to and participation of the Christian Passover to abstain and purge our selves from the leaven of malice and wickedness for a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump one spoonful of Vinegar will soon tart a great deal of sweet Milk but a great deal of Milk will not so soon sweeten one spoonful of Vinegar The Israelites likewise were to eat the Passover here with bitter herbs to teach that looking upon Christ whom they have pierc'd men should be in bitterness and feel what an evil and bitter thing sin is being ready to suffer hardship with Christ though he should feed us to the full with bitter herbs and make us drunk with Wormwood so that at last we be rewarded with the Milk and Honey of an Eternal Canaan Verse 17. This Cloud was their guide and conduct in all their wayes when it moved they moved and when it stood still they rested which should teach thee in all thy wayes to acknowledg and look up to God and he shall direct thy paths As God carefully chose out the Israelites way in the Wilderness not the shortest but yet the safest for them so will God do for all those that make him their guide The Athenians had a conceit that their Goddess Minerva turn'd all their evil Counsels into good unto them and the Romans thought that their Visibilia another Heathenish Deity set them again in the right way when at any time they were out All this and more than this is undoubtedly done by the true God for all that commit their wayes unto him for direction and success Lo this is our God saith the Psalmist for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death Ps. 48. 14. CHAP. X. Verse 2. SEeing these silver Trumpets served for the Camp and the Congregation to assemble and remove and that the power of making them is committed to Moses who hath the sole prerogative to call and dissolve Assemblies about publick affairs we learn that it belongs to Kings and Princes as their proper Right to gather together and to dismiss such as are gathered together Every one hath not authority to draw multitudes together we must have lawful and orderly Assemblies In Egypt without Pharaoh no man might lift up his hand or foot Gen. 41. Secondly it reproves those that being summoned by the sound of these Trumpets i. e. call'd together by a lawful Magistrate refuse to come this was the sin of Corah and his Complices And we know their fearful punishment for that sin In the natural body the beginning of all motion is from the Head and so it ought to be in the Body Politick Thirdly This reproves those that assemble before they are call'd Corah and his Confederates would not assemble when they were call'd these assemble before they be call'd the other were too slow and dull these are too quick and nimble-headed So then all must keep their places and standings they must come when they are call'd and they must be call'd before they come Verse 10. As the Priests here were to sound their silver Trumpets at their solemn Feasts for a monument of spiritual gladness before the Lord so must Ministers of the Gospel publish the glad-tidings of the Gospel Speak to the heart of Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplish'd her sin is pardoned Isai. 40. 2. Make the people hear the joyful sound that they may walk in the sence of Gods presence and in the light of his countenance which is joy of the Holy Ghost and upon this account it was that this and other Musical Instruments used in Gods service as part of the Jewish Pedagogy were types of that spiritual joy which we Christians should express in holy duties no less than if we heard the most exquisite Musick There should be continual Musick habitual joy in Gods Children who are the Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore it was that the
God gave me to my self and God gave himself to me God the Father gave his Son to me God the Son gave himself to me and God the Holy Ghost gave his Seal to assure that gift to me and shall I not be content God the Son received all things from the Father for me that in him and through him and with him I might receive all things from the Father and why should I not content my self with him without whom all things are as nothing Verse 31. The end of the gifts and oblations under the Law was not that God had reserved these things for his own spending but for the use and sustentation of his selected Servants that so being alwayes to have Ministers of his own he might have also of his own Goods to feed and maintain them This I take to be clear from Gods own words in this Chapter for having set his mark upon divers things calling them My Gifts and my Offerings he adds These have I given to the Sons of Levi for the service they do me in the Tabernacle verse 21. And it is your wages which I give you for your service in this verse which words plainly shew that God would that such as attend him should receive their maintenance as his pay and not as mans Whereupon he saith not to the people you shall give them your offerings for the service they do you But I have given them my Offerings for the service they do me as if he should say these things are mine not yours to me you shall pay them that as mine not as yours they may receive them and so I may pay them with my own hands and of my own Goods and not they to serve at others cost CHAP. XIX Verse 2. This red Heifer was the type of Christ crucified who as a Father saith was Candidus sanctitate rubicundus passione white and ruddy white in his Innocency and red in his Passion And this Heifer must be without spot and blemish our Saviour was free from all sin the spot of Original and the blemish of Actual Sin It must be a Heifer likewise on which never came yoke Christ never bore the yoke either of sin or slavery he offered up himself he was a willing Sacrifice he was not fore'd and drawn to it It is true there was a necessity of our Saviours Death but it was a necessity of immutability because God had so decreed it Acts 2. 23. not of Co action He dyed willingly therefore when he gave up the Ghost he cryed with a loud voice which shews his life was not then spent he might have kept it longer if he would Lastly this Heifer was to be brought by the people at the common charge because for the common good All the Congregation must get them a bloody Saviour Verse 5. The burning of the Heifer with the Garbage and Dung could yeild no sweet savour but thereto was added Cedar-wood and Hysop by Gods appointment and then there was a savour of rest in it Our Prayers as from us would never please hut as indited by the Spirit and presented by Christ they are highly accepted in Heaven Nay our sins were so odious to God that even Christ himself when burnt up with the fire of his Fathers wrath had no savour in him in respect of our sins but by the everlasting Spirit whereby he offered up himself without spot to God he was a full Sacrifice of sweet smelling Incense to purge offences for the Spirit of God gave both value and vertue to his Death both to satisfie and to sanctifie Verse 9. The gathering of the ashes is the applying of the merits of Christ and laying hold on the mysteries of his Kingdom The laying up of the ashes imports that the Christian accounts Christ merits his chief Treasure The clean place is the clean heart without the Camp notes that the Gentiles were strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel These ashes kept for the Congregation shew the fulness of Christs merits for all his people When he saith It is to make a water of separation it notes that our Sins separate betwixt us and our God but now in Christ Iesus we who sometimes were far off are made nigh in his blood Eph. 2. 13. CHAP. XX. Verse 1. ALl Israel murmured when they wanted Bread and Flesh and yet all Israel departed into the desart of Zin at Gods command The very worst men will obey God in something none but the good in all He is rarely desperate that makes an universal opposition to God It is an unsound praise that is given a man for one good action It may be safely said of the very Devils themselves that they do something well they know and believe and tremble If we follow God and murmur it is all one as if we had stayed behind Verse 2. Those begin to distrust Gods providence in this verse in their necessity that in the former were ready to follow his guidance in their welfare It is an harder matter to endure in extream want than to obey an hard Commandment Sufferings are greater tryals than actions And God will have his throughly tryed he puts them to both and if we cannot endure both to follow him into the Wilderness of Zin and then to thirst in Rephidim we are not sound Israelites God set them on purpose to this dry place he could as well have conducted them to another Elim to convenient waterings or he that gives the waters of all their Channels could as well have derived them to meet Israel but God doth purposely carry them to thirst It is not of necessity that we fare ill but of choice It is all one with God to give us health as sickness aboundance as poverty the treasure of his riches hath more store than his Creature can be capable of we should not complain if it were not good for us to want Verse 3. I looked to hear when they would have entreated Moses to pray for them but instead of intreating they contend and instead of Prayers chide and murmur If they had gone to God without Moses I should have prais'd their Faith but now they go to Moses without God I hate this stubborn Faithlesness to seek to the second means with neglect of the first is the Fruit of a false Faith But why do these mutiners say O that we had dyed as our Brethren did before the Lord and before whom do ye dye O ye fond Israelites if you must perish by thirst God carried you forth God restrain'd his creatures from you God is still present with you and yet you say while you are to dye for want of Water in the presence of God O that we had dyed before the Lord. These Israelites loved their lives well enough I heard how they screek'd while they were in danger of the Egyptians and yet now they say O that we had dyed Although life be naturally sweet yet a little discontentment makes us weary It is a base
Irreligion and Impiety make Men reproachful of what account and estimation soever they be be they never so Rich Noble and Renouned in the World how famous and excellent in the World Countries and Cities be yet this is certain that Sin maketh all Persons and Places infamous and dishonourable let London apply this to her self as it appears afterwards in this Chapter verse 61. We see this further in many Examples Cain is noted and marked of God for his execrable parricide unto all posterity Iudas that betrayed his Master is called the Son of Perdition Iohn 17. and is as it were burnt in the shoulder with the letter R and mark'd out for a Reprobate and left upon Record to be a Devil Iohn 6. 70. that all which hear of it might fear and learn to hate his sins Verse 10. Corah kindled the fire the two hundred and fifty Captains brought sticks to it all Israel warm'd themselves by it only the Incendiaries perish God and Moses knew to distinguish betwixt the Head of a Faction and the train though neither be faultless yet two hundred and fifty Ringleaders are plagued the other forgiven Gods vengeance when it is at the hottest makes differences of Men. We may collect from this Verse likewise that all the Elements are at Gods service For we find here two sorts of Traytors the Earth swallowed up the one the Fire the other and as before in this Book Nadab and Abihu brought fit persons but unfit fire to God so these Levites bring the right fire but unwarranted persons before him Fire from God consumes both It is a dangerous thing to usurp sacred Functions The Ministery will not grace the Man the Man may disgrace the Ministery and shall be signally punish'd for it as Corah and his fellow-Rebels were here who were made a signe saith the Text. Death is the just Heir of the least sin but some evill Doers God doth not put to Death but also hangs them up in Gibbets as it were for publick notice and admonition Those that are famous in their sin shall be famous in their punishment Verse 14. This Tribe of Simeon is of a smaller number in respect of the other Tribes and the reason is to be taken out of the last History recorded in the former Chapter where we find that one of the Princes of the Tribe of Simeon being accompanied with many others of that Tribe committed a most shameful act among his Brethren and brought in a Midianitish Harlot into the Host in the sight of Moses Whereby it came to pass that the greatest number of that Tribe perished with him in that grievous Plague for it was reason that they which did partake with him in the sin should communicate together in the punishment Which may teach us that it is a very hard thing to avoid and break off our society with Wicked Men and reproveth all such as enter into league with such persons they even offer their hands and feet to be bound as it were with chains and they become afterwards as Prisoners and Vassals to them Verse 33. Zelophahad the Son of Heber had no Sons but all Daughters saith this Text and yet these Daughters had a share with the rest of Gods people in the Land of Promise as we may read in the next Chapter And therefore let the French defend their Salike Law as they can there is very good reason that Women should not lose the right of Inheritance For Women are the second edition of the Epitome of the whole World witness Artemisia Blandina Zenobia in whom besides their Sex there was nothing Woman-like or weak as if what Philosophy speaks the Souls of those Noble Creatures had followed the temperament of their Bodies which consists of rarer rooms of a more exact Composition than Mans doth and if place be any priviledg we find theirs built in Paradice when Mans was made out of it besides in Iesus Christ there is neither Male nor Female but all are one Souls have no Sexes and whosoever are Christs are heirs to the Promise Verse 54. God provideth sufficiently for all his People every Man hath his portion assign'd him of God upon the Earth It is his will and pleasure that all should have their measure of earthly things not some to have all and some nothing at all but all to have some part and that part to be enough God would have no Beggar in his Israel when the Lord sent down Manna and fed his people with Angels food all the Host from the highest to the lowest had enough They that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack Exod. 16. Now if God be thus careful to feed our bodies it is much more reason that we should seek at his hands the nourishment of our Souls This is the voice of Faith the other the voice of Nature Nature will tell us when we want provision for the body but 't is the Office of Faith to tell us when we want food for the Soul Therefore saith Christ First seek the Kingdom Mat. 6. 33. Verse 59. Amram here took to Wife Iochebeb which was his own Aunt as is clear from Exod. 6. 20. the Law against Incest was not then given nor the state of Israel then setled and therefore it was no sin in him for where there is no Law there can be no sin But what shall we say to our modern Sectaries whose practising of Incest is now avowed publickly in print they shame not to affirm that those Marriages are most lawful that are betwixt persons iu blood The prohibition of degrees in Leviticus are to be understood say they of Fornication not of Marriage I see here what noon-day Devils do now in this unhappy Age walk with open face amongst us Verse 61. Because Nadab and Abihu were the Sons of Aaron this made God the more to stomack and the rather to revenge this Impiety God had both pardoned and graced their Father he had honoured them of the thousands of Israel culling them out for his Altar and now as their Fathers set up a false God so they bring false fire unto the true God If the Sons of Infidels live Godlesly they do but their kind their punishment shall be though just yet less but if the Children of Religious Parents after all Christian nurture shall shame their Education God takes it more hainously and revenges it more sharply The more bonds of duty the more plagues of neglect Again if from the Agents we look to the act it self set aside the Original descent and what difference was there betwixt these fires both look'd alike heated alike ascended alike consumed alike both were fed with the same material Wood both vanish'd into smoak there was no difference but the Commandement of God If God had enjoyn'd ordinary fire they had sinn'd to look for Celestial now he commanded only the fire which he sent they sinned in sending up Incense in that fire which he commanded not
It is a dangerous thing in the service of God to decline from his own institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his own Worship just to require what he hath prescribed powerful to revenge that which he hath not required CHAP. XXVII Verse 13. AFter many painful and perilous enterprizes now is Moses drawing to his rest he hath brought his Israelites from Egypt through the Sea and Wilderness within the sight of their Promised Land and now himself must take possession of that Land whereof Canaan was but a Type When we have done that we come for it is time for us to be gone This Earth is made only for Action not for Fruition the services of Gods Children should be ill rewarded if they must stay here alwayes Let no man think much that those are fetch'd away that are faithful to God they should not change if it were not to their preferment It is our folly that we would have good men live for ever and account it a hard measure that they were He that lends them to the World owes them a better turn than this Earth can pay them It were injurious to wish that goodness should hinder any man from Glory Verse 14. But what is this I hear displeasure mix'd with love and that to so faithful a servant as Moses he must but see the Land of Promise he shall not tread upon it because he once long ago sinn'd in distrnsting Death though it were to him an entrance into glory yet shall be also a chastisement of his Infidelity How many gracious services had Moses done to his Master yet for one act of Distrust he must be gathered to his Fathers All our obediences cannot bear out one sin against God how vainly shall we hope to make amends to God for our former Trespasses by our better behaviour when Moses hath this sin laid in his dish after so many and worthy testimonies of his fidelity when we have forgotten our sins yet God remembers them and although not in anger yet calls for our Arrerages Alass what shall become of them with which God hath ten thousand greater quarrels that amongst many millions of sins have scattered some few acts of formal services If Moses must dye the first death for one fault how shall they escape the second for sinning alwayes Even where God loves he will not wink at sin and if he do not punish yet he will chastise how much less can it stand with that eternal Justice to let wilful sinners escape Judgement Verse 16. Moses that was so tender over the welfare of Israel in his life would not slacken his care in Death He takes no thought for himself for he knew how gainful an exchange he must make all his care was for his charge Some envious natures desire to be missed when they must go and wish that the weakness or want of a Successor may be the foil of their memory and honour Moses is in a contrary disposition it sufficeth him not to find contentment in his own happiness unless he may have an assurance that Israel shall prosper after him Carnal minds are all for themselves and make use of Government only for their own advantage but good hearts look ever to the future good of the Church above their own against their own Verse 18. Moses did well to shew his good Affection to his people but in his silence God would have provided for his own he that call'd him from the sheep of Iethro will not want a Governor for his chosen to succeed him God hath fitted him whom he will chose Who can be more meet than he whose Name whose Experience whose Graces might supply yea revive Moses to the people He that searched the Land before was fittest to guide Israel into it he that was indued with the Spirit of God was the fittest Deputy for God but O the unsearcheable Counsel of the Almighty aged Caleb and all the Princes of Israel are pass'd over and Ioshua the servant of Moses is chosen to succeed his Master The eye of God is not blinded either with Gifts or with Blood or with Beauty or with strength but as in his Eternal Election so in his temporary he will have mercy on whom he will And well doth Ioshua succeed Moses the very acts of God of old were allegories where the Law ends there the Saviour begins we may see the Land of Promise in the Law only Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament can bring us into it So was he a Servant of the Law that he supplies all the defects of Law to us he hath taken possession of the Promised Land for us he shall carry us from this Wilderness to our rest Verse 22. I do not hear Moses repine at Gods choice and grudg that this Scepter of his is not hereditary but he willingly laies hands upon his Servant to consecrate hm for his Successor Ioshua was a good man yet he had some sparks of Envy for when Eldad and Medad Prophesied he stomack'd it he that would not abide two of the Elders of Israel to Prophesie how would he have allowed his Servant to sit in his Throne What an example of meekness besides all the rest doth he here see in this last act of his Master who without all murmuring assigns his Chair of State to his Page It is all one to a gracious heart whom God will please to advance Emulation and Discontentment are the affections of Carnal minds Humility goes ever with Regeneration which teaches a man to think what ever honour be put upon others I have more than I am worthy of CHAP. XXVIII Verse 3. ALl Sacrifices under the Law did as it were lead us by the hand to Christ and point him out with the finger who is the end of the Law Rom. 10. he is both the Altar and the Sacrifice he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world as therefore these Lambs were offered in the morning and evening so was Christ from the beginning of the World unto the end thereof he is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World Rev. 13. and as this daily Offering was twice perform'd so we have daily need of Reconciliation that his Blood should be continually applied unto us by Faith and as we daily sin against him so we must have daily recourse unto him for remission of sins Again this daily Sacrifice imports the daily Sacrifice of Prayer which we ought to offer to God as our daily service due unto him and this for many Reasons First we have many sins We provoke God every day and therefore are taught in the Lords Prayer daily to pray for Forgiveness Secondly We have daily wants and therefore it is our duty daily to bewail them and daily to crave the supply of them both temporal and spiritual blessings for Body and Soul Thirdly We have daily dangers Every Creature if God give us over is able to work our
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
it speak that which it never thought causing it to go two miles where it would go but one knawing and tawing it to their own purposes as the shooe-maker wretches the upper Leather with his teeth Tertullian calls Marcian the Heretick Mus Ponticus from his arroding and knawing the Scripture to make it serviceable to his Errors And too many of these kind of Mice have we at this day in this Nation who wrest Texts of Conscience into Factions Texts of Obedience into Rebellion ravishing Scripture to force out Doctrines for their own ends and then emptying their rancor by turning them to uses Verse 8. By Statutes here we may understand the Moral Law by judgements the Judicial which was fitted to the temper and disposition of the Jews like as Solon being ask'd whether he had given the best Laws to the Athenians answered the best that they could suffer And certain it is that Moses spake here as ever most Divinely and like himself or rather beyond himself the end of a thing being better if better may be than the beginning of it as good Wine is best at last and as the Sun shines most aimiably when it is going down This Book of the Law it was that the King was to write out with his own hand Deut. 17. 18. that it might serve as his Manual This was that happy Book that good Iosiah lighting upon after it had long lain hid in the Temple melted into tears at the menaces thereof and obtain'd of God to dye in peace though he were slain in War This only Book was that pretiously purling Current out of which the Lord Jesus our Champion chose all those three smooth stones wherein he prostrated the Goliah of Hell in that sharp encounter Mat. 4. Verse 11. God would have Israel see that they had not to do with some impotent Commander that is fain to publish his Laws without noise in dead Paper which can more easily enjoyn than punish to descry than execute and therefore before he gives them a Law he shews them that he can command Heaven Earth Fire Aire in revenge of the breach of that Law that they could not but think it deadly to displease such a Law-giver or violate such dreadful Statutes that they might see all the Elements examples of that obedience which they should yeild unto their Maker Now this fire wherein the Law was given is still in it and will never out Hence are those terrors which it flashes in every Conscience that hath felt remorse of sin Every Mans heart is a Sinah and resembles to him both a Heaven and Hell The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of sin is the Law Verse 12. That they might see he could find out their closest sins he delivers his Law in the light of fire that they might see what is due to their sins they see fire above to represent the fire that should be below them that they might know he could waken their security the thunder and lowder voice of God speaks to their hearts That they might see what their Hearts should do the Earth-quakes under them O Royal Law and mighty Law-giver How could they think of having any other God that had such proofs of this How could they think of making any resemblance of Him whom they saw could not be seen and whom they saw in not being seen infinite How could they think of disobeying his Deputies whom they saw so able to revenge How could they think of killing when they were half dead with the fear of him that could kill both Body and Soul How could they think of the flames of Lust that saw such fires of vengeance We Men that so fear the breach of Humane Laws for some small mulcts of Forfeiture how should we fear thee O Lord that canst cast Body and Soul into Hell Verse 24. If the Law as we read before was given in Thunder and Lightning how shall it be requir'd if such were the Proclamation of Gods Statutes what shall the Sessions be O God how powerful art thou to inflict vengeance upon sinners who didst thus forbid Sin and if thou wert so terrible a Law-giver what a Judge shalt thou appear what shall become of the breakers of so fiery a Law O where shall those appear that are guilty of the transgressions of that Law whose very delivery was little less than Death If our God should exact his Law but in the same rigour wherein he gave it sin could not quit the cost but now the fire wherein it was delivered was but terrifying the fire wherein it shall be required is consuming Happy are those that are from under the terrors of the Law which was given in Fire and in Fire shall be required Verse 29. It is a kind of denying the Infiniteness of God to serve him by pieces and raggs God is not infinite to me if I think a discontinued service will serve him It is a kind of denying the unity of God to joyn other Gods pleasure or profit with him he is not one God to me if I joyn other Associates and Assistants to him It is a kind of diffidence in Christ as if I were not sure that he would stand in the favour of God stil as though I were afraid that there might rise a new Favorite in Heaven to whom it might concern me to apply my self if I make the ballance so even as to serve God and Mammon if I make a complemental visit of God at his House upon Sunday and then plot with the other Faction the World the Flesh and the Devil all the Week after CHAP. V. Verse 1. IT is not enough for us to Learn the Law but we must keep it and do it we must lay it up in our hearts as well as in our heads and practice it also in our lives and Conversations For not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2. 13. Too too many in this Rotten Age wherein we live are Speakers not Workers as if Ostende re fidem St. Iames his Shew thy Faith by thy Works were Ostendere to stretch the Jaws to shew our Faith by strong Protestations But this must not be a work of the mouth but hand If a Man question thee of Faith spare thy Lips and let thy Life make answer If words might be credited if a bare profession of the Gospel might be believed no Man would want Faith every one would cry with the blind Man in the Gospel Lord I believe what Mouth would not make one Lye for its Master Unless I see said Thomas of Christs rising so unless I see and feel thy Faith I will not believe If we are good Trees by our Fruit men shall know us Mat. 7. By our Fruit not by our blossoms of good purposes or our leaves of good profession but by the Fruit of our actions Verse 9. Parents are hence admonish'd to take heed of sinning against God lest they be found unmerciful unnatural and
do with little means and but once to teach us what he can do without means Once shall the Prophet say Man lives by Bread and but once Man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Verse 5. As a loving Father never beateth his Child but for a Fault so neither doth God chasten us without a Cause our sins are the Cause which furnish Gods whip But then withall this will comfort those Children of God that are afflicted is any Child of God either impoverish'd with Losses or visited with Sickness or struck with Sores or oppressed with heavy burthens or grieved with Death of Friends or affrighted with terrors of Conscience let him lay this Text to his Heart and it will either cure his Malady or at least make it sufferable yea and comfortable unto him For in his greatest extremity let him thus think with himself it is God that smites me can I resist his power must I not obey his Will Again God chastens me as a Father he inflicts with grief moderateth with Love guideth with Fatherly providence what he ordereth me to suffer Shall I refuse Nurture and shew my self a Bastard and no Son had I rather he should leave me to my self to follow my own courses according to the bent of my corrupt Nature with a purpose to deprive me of his Glory and dis-inherit me of his Kingdom He Disciplineth all his Children am I better than the rest and all this he doth in love and shall I take that ill that is sent to me in love but you will say Doth God take pleasure in the afflictions of his Children No Castigat quos amat non tamen amat castigare he chasteneth whom he loves yet he loves not to chasten but this he doth to purge our Corruptions and improve our Graces Verse 14. Not the meer possession and use of Riches offends but the affectation the fault hangs not upon Riches but upon that which Idols them the Heart And therefore Moses gave here a strong Caveat to the Israelites that when their Flocks and Heards increased their silver and their gold was multiplyed they should be ware lest their Hearts were lifted up and so they should forget God Those sublunary Creatures raise not distraction in us so we make them not our Centre if we rest not in them if we can look through them to the giver and therefore there is no doubt but we may entertain Riches not only as a Servant but a Friend but by no means as a Lord. There is vertue in the true use of them if there be a qualification in our desires CHAP. IX Verse 10. THere was never so precious a Monument as the Tables written with Gods own hand If we see but the stone which Iacobs head rested on or on which the foot of Christ did once tread we look upon it with more than ordinary respect with what eye should we have beheld this Stone which was hewed and written with the finger of God Any Manuscript scroll written by the hand of a famous Man is layed up amongst our Jewels what place then should we have given to the hand-writing of the Almighty That which God hath Dictated to his Servants the Prophets challengeth just Honour from us How doth that deserve Veneration which his own hand wrote immediatly Prophesies and Evangelical Discourses he hath written by others never did he write any thing himself but these Tables of the Law neither did he ever speak any thing audibly to all man-kind but it the Hand the Stone the Law were all his By how much more precious this Record was by so much was the faolt greater of defacing it Verse 12. God sends down Moses to remedy this sin he could as easily have prevented as redressed it He knew Moses came up what Israel would do ere he came down like as he knew the Two Tables would be broken ere he gave them God most wisely permits and ordains sin to his own ends without our excuse And though he could easily by his own hands remedy evils yet he will do it by means both ordinary and subordinate It is not for us to look for any immediate redress from God when we have a Moses by whom it may be wrought since God himself expects this from Man why should Man expect it from God Verse 14. Now might Moses have found a time to have been even with Israel for all their unthankfulness and mutinous Insurrections Let me alone I will consume them and make thee a mighty Nation Moses should not need to solicite God for Revenge God solicites him in a sort for leave to revenge who would look for such a word from God to Man Let me alone as yet Moses had said nothing before he opens his mouth God prevents his importunity as fore-seeing that holy violence which the requests of Moses would offer to him Moses stood trembling before the Mâ—â—esty of his Maker and yet hears him say Let me alone The mercy of our God hath as it were obliged his power to the Faith of Men the servent Prayers of the faithful hold the hands of the Almighty As I find it said afterwards of Christ that he could do no miracles there because of their unblief so now I hear God as if he could not do execution upon Israel because of Moses Faith say Let me alone that I may consume them Verse 17. I see here that forty dayes talk with God cannot bereave a man of passionate infirmity he that was the meekest upon Earth in a sudden indignation abandons that which in cold Blood he would have held faster than his Life He forgets the Law written when he saw it broken his zeal for God hath transported him from himself and his duty to the charge of God He more hates the golden Calf wherein he saw engraven the Idolatry of Israel than he honour'd the Tables of Stone wherein God had engraven his Commandements and more longed to deface the Idol than he cared to preserve the Tables Yet that God which so sharply reveng'd the breach of one Law upon the Israelites checks not Moses for breaking both the Tables of the Law The Law of God is spiritual the eternal breach of one Law is so hainous that in comparison of it God scarce counts the breaking of the outward Tables a breach of the Law The goodness of God winks at the errors of honest zeal and so loveth the strength of good affections that it passeth over their infirmities Verse 19. God had promised Moses to make him a great Nation Verse 14. but this satisfies not Moses unless Israel may be so too and therefore he prayes for them here that the Lord would not destroy them The more a man can leave himself behind him and aspire to a care of community the more spiritual he is nothing makes a man so good a Patriot as Religion But oh the sweet disposition of Moses fit for him that should be