the Devils excrement as the Tartarians eat the carrion carkases of horses camels asses cats dogs yea when they stink and are full of magots and hold them as dainty as we do venison Vers 5. The Hart and the roe-buck These were dainties fit for a King 1 King 4.23 Rice and mutton is the cheer wherewith the great Turk entertaineth forraign Ambassadours and that so plainly and sparingly dressed as if they would give check to our gourmandize and excess Vers 6. That parteth the hoof See the Note on Levit. 11.3 Vers 21. Thou shalt not seethe See the Note on Exod. 23.19 Vers 22. Thou shalt truly tithe He seems to mean that second tithe wherewith they were to feast before the Lord and not the tithe given to the Levites Num. 18.24 Vers 23. That thou mayst learn A man cannot converse with God but he shall learn something Semper a te doctior redeo said He to his friend Moses came from the Mount with his face shining Confer Eccles 81. Vers 29. That the Lord thy God c. Not getting but giving is the way to thrive in the world CHAP. XXV Vers 1. AT the end of every This Sabbatical year signified the year of grace the Kingdom of Christ wherein all Israelites indeed are discharged of their debts Matth. 6.12 See the Note there Vers 2. He shall not exact it For that seventh year at least because there was neither sowing nor reaping that year how then could the poor pay their debts We must all put on bowels of mercy forbearing one another and forgiving one another c. Col. 3.12 13. Vers 3. Of a forraigner To shew that none that are alienated from the life of God or a godly life have remission of sin by Christ He sanctifies all whom he justifies Compare Rom. 11.26 with Isai 59.20 Vers 4. Save when there shall be no poor Here as in sundry other places of the new Translation the margin is better then the text as giving a good reason of the former law To the end that there be no poor amongst you that is extream poor by your exactions Of a cruel creditour it is said Psal 10.9 that he lyeth in wait to catch the poor he doth catch the poor when he draws him into his net that is into bonds debts morgages as Chrysostome expounds it Vers 7. Thou shalt not harden thy heart But draw out thy soul to the hungry Esay 58. Many have iron-bowels and withered hands See my common-place of Almes Vers 8. Thou shalt surely lend him See the Note on Matth. 5.42 Vers 9. And he cry unto the Lord Who is the poor mans King as James the fifth of Scotland was tearmed for his charity Vers 10. Thine heart shall not be grieved See the Note on 2 Cor. 9.7 The Lord thy God shall blesse thee See Prov. 19.17 and Almes ubi supra Vers 11. For the poor See the Note on Matth. 26.11 Aged and impotent poor whose misery moves compassion without an Oratour called here our poor as well as our brethren Vers 12. In the seventh year Viz. Since he was sold unto thee Vers 16. Then thou shalt take an awle Vt si non horreret servitudinem horreret saltem ignominiam publicam If we can bear reproach for Christ it s an argument we mean to stick to him as this bored servant to his master CHAP. XVI Vers 1. ANd keep the Passeover Every man that seeth another striken and himself spared is still to keep a Passeover for himself Vers 3. Even the bread of affliction Or of poverty as who should say poor folks bread ill-leavened ill-prepared Vers 4. And theâ—e shall be See the Notes on Exod. 12. Vers 10. With a tribute of a free-will offering Over and besides the sacrifice appointed for the feast-day Numb 18.27 31. and the two loaves with their sacrifices commanded Levit. 23.17 20. so good-cheap is Gods service to us over what it was to them Vers 12. And thou shalt remember It is very good to look back and recognize our former worse condition Agathocles King of Sicily being a potters son would be served only in earthen vessels Willigis Archbishop of Ments a Wheel-wrights son hang'd wheels and the tools wherewith they were made round about his bed-chamber and had these words written upon the walls in very fair Characters Willigis Willigis recole unde veneris Remember whence thou camest Vers 13. Thou shalt observe See the Notes on Exod. 23.16 Vers 15. Thou shalt surely rejoyce See the Notes on Chap. 12.12 Vers 18. With just judgment Heb. with judgment of justice Vt fiat justitia ruat coelum Let heaven and earth be blended together rather then Magistrates be drawn to deal basely It is reported by a late traveller that in Zant over the place of judgment these two Latine verses are written on the wall in letters of gold Hic locus odit amat punit conservat honorat Nequitiam pacem crimina jura bonos Vers 19. Neither take a gift Rain is good and ground is good yet ex eorum conjunctione fit lutum by the mixture of those two is made dirt so giving is kind and taking is courteous yet the mixing of them makes the smooth pathes of justice foul and uneven Vers 20. That which is altogether just Heb. justice justice that is let pure justice without mud run down let all self-ish affections be strain'd out CHAP. XVII Vers 1. THou shalt not sacrifice See the Note on Levit. 22.20 Vers 2. That hath wrought wickednesse Idolatry is wickedness with a witness Such was the venome of the Israelitish Idolatry that the brazen Serpent stung worse then the fiery Oh that the Lord as he hath revealed that Wirked one so that he would at length consume him with the spirit of his mouth 2 Thess 2.8 and dung his Vineyard with the dead carcase of that wild boar of the forrest He can as easily blast an oak as trample a mushrome Fiat fiat Vers 4. And it be told thee See the Note on Chap 13.12 And enquired diligently Men must be swift to hear slow to speak that is to censure or pass sentence Amongst the Athenians an inditement of any crime was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence and conviction made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius passâ—th for a sacrilegious person a prophane wretch a bloody persecutour a blasphemer of God c. and was so condemned before he was heard by fourscore Bishops in that Pseudosynodus Saâ—dicensis Sunt quidem in Ecclesia Catholica plurimi mali sed ex haereâ—icis nullus est bonus saith Bellarmine There be many bad men Papists but not one good to be found among Protestants Reas 8. pag. 41. The Catholikes follow the Bible saith Hill in his quartern of Reasons but the Protestants force the bible to follow them yea their condemnation is so expresly set down in their own Bibles saith another Popeling and is so cleer to
2.20 21 22. Verse 29. Behold I have given you By this Behold God stirs up them and us to confidence thankfulness and obedience to so liberall a Lord so bountifull a Benefactor And surely as iron put into the fire seems to be nothing but fire so Adam thus beloved of God Psal 16.12 was turned into a lump of love and bethinks himselfe what to do by way of retribution All other creatures also willingly submitted to Gods ordinance and mans service well apaid of Gods provision that great house-keeper of the world that hath continually so many millions at bed and board This is intimated in that last clause And it was so An undoubted argument surely of Gods infinite goodness thus to have provided for so divers natures and appetites divers food remedies and armour Psal 104. for men especially filling their hearts with food and gladnesse Act. 14.17 Verse 31. Behold it was very good Or extream good pleasant and profitable a curious and glorious frame full of admirable variety and skill such as caused delight and complacency in God and commands contemplation and admiration from us like as a great garden stored with fruits and flowers calls our eyes on every side Wherefore else hath God given us a reasonable soule and a Sabbath day a countenance bent upward and as they say peculiar nerves in the eyes to pull them up toward the seat of their rest besides a nature carried with delight after playes pageants masks Bodin Theas Naturâ— strange shews and rare sights which oft are sinfull or vain or at best imperfect and unsatisfactory Surely those that regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands God shall destroy and not build them up Psal 28.4 which to prevent good is the counsel of the Prophet Amos that upon this very ground Prepare to meet thy God O Israel For loe he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind c. Amos 4.12 13. when he had made man he made an end of making any thing more because he meant to rest in man to delight in him to communicate himselfe unto him and to be enjoyed by him throughout all eternity And notwithstanding the fall he hath found a ransome Job 33.24 and creating us in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 he rejoyceth over his new workmanship with joy yea he rests in his love Roderit sanctii Hist Hisp p. 4. c. 5. â—xantiq Annalib and will seek no further Zeph. 3.17 But what a mouth of madness did Alfonso the Wise open when he said openly that if he had been of Gods counsell at the Creation some things should have been better made and marshalled Prodigious blasphemy CHAP. II. Verse 1. All the host of them HIs upper and nether forces his horse and foot as it were all creatures in heaven earth or under earth called Gods Host for their 1. number 2. order 3. obedience Kimchi These the Rabbines call magnleh cheloth and matteh cheloth the upper and lower troopes ready prest Verse 2. He rested That is He ceased to create which work he had done without either labour or lassitude Esa 4.28 He made all nutu non motu Verse 3. God blessed the seventh day i. e. made it an effectuall meanes of blessing to him that sanctifieth it as a rest from bodily labour and spirituall idleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist 3. ad Magnesiâ—s Spec Europâ— as Ignatius exhorteth And sanctified it i e. Consecrated and set it apart for holy use as they sanctified that is appointed Kedesh for a City of refuge Josh 20.7 Verse 4. Jehovah God Moses first calls God Jehovah here when the universall creation had its absolute being This is the proper name of God The Jewes pronounce it not we profane it which is to them a great stumbling block The first among the Christians that pronounced Jehovah was Petrus Galatinus But if ye would pronounce it according to the own letters it should be Jahuo of Jarmuth Jagnakâ—b Verse 5. The Lord God had not caused it to rain And none but he can give raine Jer. 14.22 the meanes of fruitfulnesse which yet he is not tyed to as here The Egyptians used in mockery to tell the Grecians that if God should forget to raine they might chance to starve for it Verse 6. But there went up a mist The mater of raine And hereby God tempered the morter whereof he would make man as he did the clay with spittle wherewith he cured the blinde Ioh. 9. Verse 7. Zuinglius Formed man of the dust not of the rocks of the earth but dust that is soon disperst to note our frailty vility and impurity Lutum enim conspurcat omnia sic caro But why should so glorious a soul called here Neshamah of affinity to Shamajim Heaven whence it came dwell in this corruptible and contemptible body Lomb lib. 2. dist 1. For answer besides Gods will and for order of the universe Lombard saith that by the conjunction of the soul with the body so far its inferiour man might learn and beleeve a possibility of the union of man with God in glory notwithstanding the vast distance of nature and excellence the infinitness of both in God the finiteness of both in man And breathed into his nostrils Quidam volunt metaphoram sumptam à vitrorum formatione The greatest man is but a little ayre and dust tempered together Nazian What is man saith One but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soul and soyle Breath and Body a pile of dust the one a puffe of wind the other no solidity in either And man became a living soul Dicaearchus doubted of the soul â—usc quaest whether there were such a thing in rerum natura He could not have doubted of it without it as man cannot prove logicke to be unnecessary but by logick Verse 8. And the Lord God planted Had planted to wit on the third day when he made trees for mans pleasure a garden or paradise in Eden whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the upper part of Chaldea whereabout Babel was founded It was destroyed by the Deluge the place indeed remained but not the pleasantness of the place cecidiâ— rosa mansit spina 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod l. 1. Plin. l. 6. c 16 Donec à spâ— ad speciem transtret And yet that Country is still very fruitfull returning if Herodotus and Pliny may be believed the seed beyond credulity He put the man whom he had formed And formed him not far from the garden say the Hebrewes to minde him that he was not here to set up his rest but to wait till his change should come Verse 9. Every tree c. The Hebrewes think that the world was created in September because the fruits were then ripe and ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The tree of life also A symbolicall tree by the eating of the fruit whereof Adam should have had Gaius his prosperity his
Cavete ab hoc quem natura notavit is but a gold ring in a Swines snout as Solomon hath it or ornamentum in luto as another so it was in Alcibiades for a man and in Aurelia Orestilla for a woman yet surely where they meet they make a happy conjunction and draw all hearts to them as in Germanicus for a man in whom beauty and vertue strove for precedency and Artaxerxes Longimanus the son of Esther who is said to have been of all men the most beautifull and most bountifull So in Esther for a woman who obtained favour in the sight of all that looked upon her Esth 2.15 And Aspasia Milesia the wife of Cyrus who deserved to be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fair and Wise as Aelian relateth As on the other side in Vatinius deformity of body strove with dishonesty of minde adeo ut animus ejus dignissimo domicilio inclusus videretur saith Paterculus Vers 12. Therefore it shall come to passe c. Note here saith Pererius the raging affection of the Egyptians that made no conscience of murther to enjoy their lust 2. Their blindness that made less account of murther then adultery Note again saith Piscator that beauty exposeth a body to the danger of dishonesty and that as the Poet hath it Lis est cum formâ magna pudicitiae Let those therefore that have beauty look to their chastity and possesse their vessels in holiness and honour Thesaurum cum virgo tuum vas fictile servet Vt caveas quae sunt noxia tuta time Filthiness in a woman is most abominable therefore is a Whore called a strange woman Vers 13. Say I pray thee thou art my sister The truth was here not onely concealed but dissembled As the Moon hath her specks so the best have their blemishes A Sheep may slip into a slough as soon as a Swine and an Apple-tree may have a fit of barrenness as well as a Crab-tree Vers 14. The Egyptians beheld the woman Pleasure is blamed in Xenophon for this that she ever and anon looketh back upon her own shadow Decet haberâ— oculos continenter maâ—â—â— linguam and giveth her eyes leave to rove and range without restraint An honest man saith Plautus should have continent eyes hands and tongue Nihil enim interest quibus membris cinoedi sitis posterioribus an prioribus said Archelaus the Philosopher to a wanton yonker The eye that light of all the members is an ornament to the whole body And yet that lightsome part of the body draweth too too oft the whole soul into darkness Job 31.1 This Job knew and therefore made a Covenant to look to his looks â—â—th of looking came luâ—â—ing Charles the fifth when the City of Antwerp thought to gratifie him in a Mask Job Mauliâ— loc Com. p. 34â— Saepe claufit senestram nâ— inspicâ—râ—t formosiores â—â—â—miâ—â—â— c. De Carolo 5. Pâ—reuâ— hist pres medul pag. â—08 Matth. 5.28 29 with the sight of certain fair Maids brought in before him almost naked he would not once look at them The young Lord Harrington when he should meet with fair women in the streets or elsewhere would usually pull his hat over his eyes as knowing that of our Saviour He that looks upon a woman to lust after her c. whereupon immediately follows If thine eye offend thee c. Eckius was sharply rebuked at a feast by a modest matrone for his uncivill glances and carriages in these words as Melancthon relateth Es tu doctor Joh. Manlii loc com p. 32â— Non existimo te in honesta familia sed in lupanari educatum Thou a Doctour I do not believe thou wast bred any where else but in a brothel-house See the Notes on Chap. 6. Vers 2. Vers 15. The Princes also of Pharaoh c. Flattering Courtiers please Princes humours and serve their delights though to the procuring of their plagues as here and in young King Joash If a ruler hearken to lyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod l. 3. saith Solomon all his servants are wicked Prov. 29.12 Aulicisunt instar spâ—â—uli saith One. And Mirifica est sympâ—thia saith another inter magnates parasitâ—s Herâ—dorus writeth that when Cambyses demanded of his Courtiers and Counsellours whether it were not lawfull for him to marry his own sister whom he greatly desired they answered That they found no law to license such a match but another law they found that the King of Persia might do what he would And the woman was taken into Pharaohs house Not for any worse purpose then to get her good will to become his wife Vers 16. And he entreated Aâ—ram well for her sake To the end that he might sollicite his sister to yeeld consent or might not be a back-friend at least out of displeasure because they had taken away his sister from him to the Court. So K. Hen. 8. advanced all Anne Bullens kindred c. Vers 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh Plagued him with plagues saith the Hebrew tormented him with torments or set him on the rack saith the Greek And for this he might thank his Court-parasites who put him upon this rape Chrysostome thinketh that Sarah was abed with the King and that in the bed God by his plague so restrained him that she remained untoucht But we cannot gather by the text that he intended to commit adultery sed quòd levitate vaga libidine peccavit but offended onely in going after the sight of his eyes a and lust of his heart as Solomon hath it Vers 18. What is this that thou hast done unto me God had reproved Pharaoh according to that Psal 105.14 He suffered no man to doe them wrong but reproved Kings for them and now Pharaoh reproves Abraham It is a sad thing that Saints should do that for which they should justly fall under the reproofe of the wicked 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 then I my son David Whose oxe have I taken saith Samuel And which of you can condemne me of sin saith Christ Now the life of a Christian should be a Commentary upon Christs life 1 Pet. 2. Ye are a holy nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.9 a peculiar people that ye should preach forth his vertues and not hang his picture his image and graces in a dark hole but in a conspicuous place Bucer so lived that neither could his friends sufficiently praise him nor his foes justly blame him for any miscarriage Act Mon. And Bradford was had in so great reverence and admiration for his holiness that a multitude which never knew him but by fame Ibid. 1458. greatly lamented his death yea and a number also of Papists themselves wished heartily his life But to have Egyptians jear us and that for sin is threatned as a
ipsius naturae ut parentes matrimonia liberis procurent Children are a chief part of their parents goods therefore to be disposed of by them in marriage When Satan had commission to afflict Job in his goods he fell upon his children Yet in the Church of Rome Parents consent is not much regarded Vers 22. God is with thee in all that thou doest Natural conscience cannot chuse but stoop to the Image of God stamped upon the Natures and Works of the godly When they see in them that which is above ordinary they are afraid of the name of God called upon by them Deut. 28.9 10. Their hearts even ake and quake within them Vers 23. Swear unto me here by God c. This visit we see was more of fear then of love there can be no hearty love indeed but between true Christians Kings then have their cares Crowns their crosses Thistles in their arms and Thorns in their sides This made one cry out of his Diadem O vilis pannus c And Canutus set his Crown upon the Crucifix Frederick the Elector of Saxony is said to have been born with the signe of a Cross upon his back Sâ—â—â—et Aunal and the next night after that Rodulphus Rufus was crowned Emperor of Germany An. Dom. 1273. over the Temple where the Crown was set upon his head a golden Cross was seen to shine like a Star to the admiration of all that beheld it These were the same Emperors Verses concerning his Crown Imperiaâ— Nobilâ—s es fatcor rutilisque onera a lapillis Don. Paâ—e hist proâ—an medulla 7 23. 728. Innunieris curis sed comitata venis Quod benè si nossent omnes expendere nemo Nemo foret qui te tollere vellet humo Vers 24. I will swear Abraham quickly consents to so reasonable a request from so honorable a person The wisdom from above is easie to be intreated The churl Nabal holds it a goodly thing Jam. 3.17 Matth. 6. to hold off It is but maners to reciprocate very Publicans can finde in their hearts to do good to those that have been good to them Vers 25. And Abraham reproved Abimelech Inferiors may reprove their superiors so they do it wisely and modestly Vers 26. I wot not who hath done this thing A fault it might be in Abraham not to complain to the King For many a good Prince is even bought and sold by his Officers and Councellors as it was said of Aurelian the Emperor who might know nothing but as they informed him As of another German Prince it was said Esset alius si esset apud alios Bucholc V. 27. Abraham took sheep and oxen In token of true and hearty reconciliation Reconciliatioâ—es saith Menander Menander sunt lupina amicitiae Let it be so among heathens But we have not so learned Christ Vers 31. They sware both of them Or they were sworn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew is passive To shew that an oath is not rashly to be undertaken but by a kinde of necessity imposed It comes of a root that signifies to satisfie because he to whom we swear must therewith be contented An oath is an end of strife Heb. 7. saith the Apostle The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hedg which a man may not break Vers 32. A Covenant Foedâ—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sic fidus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 33. Abraham planted a grove That he might have a private place for prayer and meditation And thus he improved and employed that late place he had made with Abimeleâ—h Oh that God would once more try us and trust us with the blessing of peace How should we now prize it and praise him for it Bona à tergo formosissima Vers 34. Many days Twenty five yeers at least for so old was Isaac when he went to be sacrificed Some Halcyons God vouchsafes to his afflicted and tossed with tempest Isai 54 1â— Some rest and repose to his poor Pilgrims Laus Deo CHAP. XXII Vers 1. God did tempt Abraham TEmptation is twofold 1. Probationis 2. Perditionis The former is of God the latter of the devill God is said to tempt when he puts us upon the triall of our faith and obedience that he may do us good in the latter end Deut. 8.26 Satan ever seeks to do us hurt He when he comes to tempt comes with his sieve as to Peter Christ with his fan Matth. 3.12 Now a Fan casteth out the worst and keepeth in the best a Sieve keepeth in the worst D. Playfere and casteth out the best Right so Christ and histrials purgeth out corruption and increaseth grace contrarily the Devill if there be any ill thing in us confirmeth it if faith or any good thing in us he weakneth it Now the temptations of Satan are either 1. Of seducement Jam. 1.15 â—r 2. of buffetting and grievance 2 Cor. 12.7 In seducement we are pressed with some lesser or darling corruption whereto our appetites by nature are most propense And here Satan hath his machinations 2 Cor. 2.11 methods Eph. 6.11 depths Rev. 2.24 darts Eph. 6.16 fiery darts pointed and poysoned with the venome of Serpents which set the heart on fire from one lust to another In buffettings we are dogg'd with foulest lusts of Atheisme self-murther c. such as Nature startleth at and abhorreth and these if we resist and be meerly passive are onely our crosses Satans sins For before a temptation can be a sin it must have somewhat of coveting in it And trialls are onely taps to give vent to corruption Vers 2. Take now thy son thine onely son Isaac c. This was the last of Abrahams ten trialls and the forest All our troubles to this are but as the slivers and chips of that cross upon which this good Patriarch was crucified Origen hence perswades parents to bear patiently the loss of their children Laetus offer filium Deo esto sacerdos animae filii tui c. Abraham was not onely to kill his onely son which yet was more then to have tome out his own heart with his own hands but to cut him in peeces to lay him orderly on the Altar after the manner of a sacrifice and to burn him to ashes himself making and tending the fire and putting him in piece after piece when any was out A hard and heavy task especially since it directly crossed the promise that in Isaac all nations of the earth should be blessed and seemed to involve the utter ruine of all mankinde Here Reason was at a stand It was faith onely that could extricate the perplexed Patriarch by giving him to know that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Heb. 11.19 Hoc Abrahamum fecit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was it that kept him from tripping Get thee into the Land of Moriah Both Abrahams great temptations began with one
Patrone And such for most part are court commendations There you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one said of old delayes and changes good store every man seeking and serving his own aims and ends but little minding the good of others further then subservient to their own Vers 10. Pharaoh was wroth with his servants c. It is wisdome in a man to confess his faults before the Prince whom he hath offended and to commend his clemency in pardoning them Orat. pro. M. Marcello Q. Ligario c. As Tully did Caesars as Mephibosheth did Davids c. The Lord Cobham the L. Gray Sir Griffin Markham being condemned for treason about the beginning of King James Anno 1603 B. Carletons thankefull remembrance of Gods mercies pag. 181. and brought forth to execution as they were upon the scaffold the Sheriffe notified the Kings pardon his Majesties warrant for the stay of the execution at which unexpected clemency besides the great shouts of the people the condemned wished that they might sacrifice their lives to redeem their fault and to repurchase so mercifull a Princes love Vers 11. Each man according to the interpretation That is no vain dreame but significant and deserving an interpreter Vers 12. And he interpreted to us our dreams And well you requited him but better late then never Paerstat sero quam nunquam though a ready dispatch doubleth the benefit howbeit God had an over-ruling hand in it for Iosephs greatest good he turneth the worlds ingratitude to the salvation of his servants Vers 13. As he interpreted to us so it was Semblably as Christ foretold the two theeves with whom he suffered so it fell out the one went to Heaven the other to Hell And so it shall fare with all men at last day according to Isai 3.10.11 Vers 14. And they brought him hastily Heb. They made him run who haply knew not what this haste and hâ—rry meant but was betwixt hope and fear till he came to the King It is God that bringeth low and lifteth up that raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dunghill to set him among Princes c. 1 Sam. 2.7 8. In the year of Grace 1622. The Turkish Janizaries who have learned that damnable art of making and unmaking their King at pleasure drew Mustapha whom they had formerly deposed out of prison and when he begged for his life they assured him of the Empire and carrying him forth upon their shoulders Mustapha subita illâ— mutatione qua ex carcere ad summam diguitatem potentiam evectus erat ita commetus fuit ut animi deliquium pateretur c. Parei Medul pag. 1165. Dan. hist of Engl. p. 48. cryed with a loud voyce This is Mustapha Sultan of the Turks God save Mustapha c. with which sudden change the man was so affected that he fell into a swoon for joy and they had much adoe to keep life in him Our Henry fourth was crowned the very same day that the year before he had been banished the Realm And changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh And should not we get on our best when we are to come before God Should we accost him in the nasty tattered rags of the old Adam and not spruse up our selves with the best of our preparation Vers 15. I have dreamed a dream and there is none c. So men send not for the Minister till given up by the Physitian Then they cry out with him in the Gospel Mark 9.22 Sir if thou canst do any thing help us c. Whereunto what can we reply but as that king of Israel did to the woman that cryed to him for help 2 King 6.27 in the famine of Samaria If the Lord help theâ— not whence shall I help thee out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press Did not I forewarn you saying touch not the unclean thing c. and ye would not hear Gen. 42.22 with 2 Cor. 6.17 Amor ingenii â—eminem unquam diviâ—â—â— secit Petron. Nescio quâ—modo bonae mentis soror est paupertas Ib. Therefore is this thing come upon you And I have heard say c. Pharaoh despiseth not wisdome how meanly soever habited Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste Paupertas est philosophia vernacula saith he in Apuleius And Eumolpus in Petronius being asked why he went so poorly apparrelled answered the study of wisdome never made any man wealthy And afterward he addeth however it comes to pass poverty is the sister of piety and vertue is forsaken of fortunne Nudus opum sed cui coelum terraeque paterent saith Silius of Archimedes that great Mathematician And Aelian observes Aelian l. 2. Lactantius quasi quidam fluvius Tulliaâ—ae eloquentiae Hieror that the best of the Greeks Aristides Phocion Pelopidas Epaminondas Socrates were very poor men Lactantius that Christian Cicero as Hierome calleth him was so needy that he wanted necessaries All that Calvin left behinde him books and all came scarce to three hundred French crowns as Bozâ— his colleague witnesseth Vers 16. It is not in me God shall give Pharaoh c. This is the voyce of all that have true worth in them they are humble upon the knowledg of their perfections they vilifie and nullifie themselves before God and men like true balme that put into water sinks to the bottome or like a vessel cast into the Sea which the more it fills the deeper it sinks And this is the bottome and bosome of humility and very next degree to exaltation as here Vers 25. The dream of Pharaoh is one One in signification but diverse in respect of vision Why it was doubled see ver 32. Repetitions in Scripture are not tautologies but serve to set forth to us the necessity excellency or difficulty of the thing so re-inforced To write to the Philippians the same things to S. Paul it is not grievous and for them it is safe Phil. 3.1 Seneca Nunquà m satis dicitur quod nunquà m satis discitur Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros Iuven Away then with those nice Novellists that can abide to hear nothing but what is new-minted Ministers meet with many that are slow of heart and dull of hearing these must have precept upon precept line upon line c. Many also of brawny breasts and horny-heart strings that as ducklings stoop and dive at any little stone thrown by a man at them yet shrink not at the heavens great thunder c. Here a Minister must beat and inculcate turn himself into all fashions of spirit and speech to win and work upon his hearers He must so long pursue and stand upon one and the same point saith Austin till Aug. de doct Christ in Psal 10. Psal 49.1.2 by the gesture and countenance of his Auditors he perceives they understand and assent to it Hear this all ye people give ear all ye
tot priorum hominum donariis intervertendis Sculter Annal. pag. 332. saith the Annalist and came all to fearful ends Two of them fell out and challenging the field One killed the other and was hang'd for it A third drowned himself in a Well The fourth from great riches fell to extreme beggery and was hunger-starved The last one Doctor Alan being Archbishop of Dublin was there cruelly murthered by his enemies Now if Divine Justice so severely and exemplarily pursued and punished these that converted those abused goods of the Church to better uses without question though they looked not at that but at the satisfying of their own greedy lusts What will be the end of such Sacrilegious persons as enrich themselves with that which should be their Ministers maintenance Sacrum sacrove commendatum qui clepserit rapseritque Ex duod tab Neand. Chron. parricida esto said the Romane law It is not only sacriledg but parricide to rob the Church Vers 25. Let us find grace That is do us the favour to intercede for us to Pharaoh that we may be his perpetual farmers and hold of him It seems that Pharaoh was no proper name but common to the Kings of Egypt as Caesar to the Emperours of Rome a title of honour as His Majesty amongst us Otherwise these poor people had been over-bold with his name Vers 27. Grew and multiplyed exceedingly Here that promise Chap. 46.3 began to be accomplished God dyes not in any mans debt Vers 28. Iacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years So long he had nourished Ioseph and so long Ioseph nourished him paying his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the utmost penny These were the sweetest dayes that ever Iacob saw God reserved his best to the last Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for be his beginning and his middle never so troublesome the end of that man is peace Psal 37.47 A Goshen he shall have either here or in heaven Vers 29. Bury me not I pray thee in Egypt This he requested partly to testifie his faith concerning the promised land heaven and the resurrection partly to confirm his family in the same faith and that they might not be glewed to the pleasures of Egypt but wait for their return to Canaan And partly also to declare his love to his ancestours together with the felicity he took in the communion of Saints Vers 30. Bury me in their burying-place That he might keep possession at least by his dead body of the promised land There they would be buried not pompously but reverently that they might rise again with Christ Some of the Fathers think that these Patriarches were those that rose corporally with him Matth. 27.57 Vers 31. And Israel bowed himself In way of thankfulness to God framing himself to the lowliest gesture he was able rearing himself up upon his pillow leaning also upon his third leg his staffe Heb. 11.21 In effoeta senecta fides non effoeta CHAP. XLVIII Vers 1. Behold thy father is sick ANd yet 't was Iacob have I loved So Behold he whom thou lovest is sick Joh. 11.3 Si amatur quomodò infirmatur saith a Father Very well may we say The best before they come to the very gates of death pass oft thorough a very strait long heavy lane of sickness and this in mercy that they may learn more of God and depart with more ease out of the world Such as must have a member cut off willingly yeeld to have it bound though it be painful because when it is mortified and deaded with strait binding they shall the better endure the cutting of it off So here when the body is weakned and wasted with much sickness that it cannot so bustle we dye more easily Happy is he saith a Reverend Writer that after due preparation D. Hall Contemp is passed thorow the gates of death ere he be aware happy is he that by the holy use of long sickness is taught to see the gates of death afar off and addresseth for a resolute passage The one dyes like Henoch and Eliah the other like Iacob and Elisha both blessedly Vers 2. And Israel strengthened himself Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat saith Seneca sure it is that the sight of a dear friend reviveth the sick One man for comfort and counsel may be an Angel to another nay as God himself Such was Nathan to David B. Ridley to King Edward the sixth and that poor Priest to Edward the third who when all the Kings friends and favourites forsook him in his last agony leaving his chamber quite empty called upon him to remember his Saviour Dan. hist of Engl. 255. and to ask mercy for his sins This none before him would do every one putting him still in hope of life though they knew death was upon him But now stirred up by the voyce of this Priest he shew'd all signs of contrition and at his last breath expresses the name of Jesu Vers 3. God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz The truly thankful keep calenders and catalogues of Gods gracious dealings with them and delight to their last to recount and reckon them up not in the lump only and by whole-sale as it were but by particular enumeration upon every good occasion setting them forth one by one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here and Ciphering them up as Davids word is Psal 9.1 we should be like civet-boxes which still retain the scent when the civit is taken out of them See Psal 145 1 2. Exod. 18.8 Vers 5. As Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine God hath in like part 2 Cor. 6.18 adopted us for his dear children saying I will be a father unto them and they shall be my sons and my daughters saith the Lord Almighty This S. Iohn calls a royalty or prerogative Joh. 1.12 such as he elsewhere stands amazed at 1 Ioh. 3.1 And well he may for all Gods children are first-born and so higher then all the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.27 They in the fulnesse of their sufficiency are in straits Job 20.22 Whereas the Saints in the fulness of their straits are in an All-sufficiency Vers 6. After the name of their brethren That is of Ephraim and Manasseh as if they were not their brethren but their sons Thus Iacob transfers the birth-right from Reuben to Ioseph 1 Chro. 5.1 2. Vers 7. And I buried her there He could not carry her to the cave of Machpelah and he would not bury her at Bethlehem among Infidels This he tells Ioseph to teach him and the rest not to set up their rest any where but in the land of Canaan Vers 8. Who are these Here Jacob seeing Ioseph's two sons and now first understanding who they were breaks off his speech to Ioseph till the two last verses of the chapter and falls a blessing his sons Titus 3.1 teaching us to be ready to every good word and work laying hold of every hint
meerly for a name Pharos a watch-tower in Egypt being one of the seven was built by Ptolomie Philadelph all of white marble the chief Architect was Sostratus of Gnidos who engraved on the work this inscription Sostratus of Gnidos son of Dexiphanes to the Gods protectours for the safeguard of Saylors Heyliâ—s Geog. 750. This Inscription he covered with plaister and thereon engraved the name and title of the King the founder that that soon wasted and washed away his own that was written in marble might be eternized to posterity This Tower saith Wickam is a known story B. God wines Catalogue And Phidias the famous carver so cunningly enchased his own countenance into Minerva's sheild at Athens That it could not be defaced but the sheild it self must be disfigured Heyl. Geog. pag. 140. The Hague in Holland hath two thousand housholds in it The inhabitants will not wall it as desiring to have it counted rather the principle Village of Europe then a lesser City And Sextus Marius being once offended with his Neighbor invited him to be his guest for two days together The first of those two days he pulled down his Neighbors Farm-house the next he set it up again far bigger Dio in Tiberio and better then before And all this for a name that his Neighbors might see and say What good or hurt he could do them at his pleasure Vers 5. And the Lord came down Non motu locali sed actu judiciali To see the City c. that so his sentence grounded not upon hear-say or uncertain information might be above all cavillation or exception A fair president for Judges Caiaphas first sentenced our Saviour and then asked the Assessors what they thought of it The chief captain first commanded Paul to be scourged and then examined Acts 22. This was proposterous God though he knew all before yet is said to come down to see Let his actions be our instructions No man must be rashly pronounced a Leper And the Judges must make diligent inquisition Deut. 19.18 as flints they must carry fire but not easily express it Potiphar was too hasty with Joseph and David with Mephibosheth Aeneas Sylvius tells us of some places Aene. Sylvius Europ cap. 20. where theeves taken but upon suspition are presently trussed up and three days after they sit in judgment upon the party executed If they finde him guilty they let him hang till he fall As if not they take down the body and bury it honorably at the publike charge This is not God-like nor a point of wisdom for Nervus est sapientiae non temerè credere Which the children of men builded Nimrod chiefly with his fellow Chamites But that some of Shems and Japhâ—ts posterity had a hand in it is more then probable by their common punishment the confusion of tongues Heber and his had nothing to do with them and therefore retained the Hebrew tongue called thenceforth the Jews Language Isai 36.11 Until they were carried captive to Babylon where grew a mixture amongst them of Hebrew and Chaldee Whence came up the Syriâ—â—k tongue common in our Saviours time as appears by many Syriack words in the Gospels Vers 6. Behold the people is one c. This benefit they abused to their pride and ambition which they should have used to the help of humane society and common intercourse They built and God bare with them for a time that he might make fools of them in the end And this he doth daily Vers 7. Go to let us go down Go to say they Go to saith he Let us build to Heaven say they Let us go down and see it saith he Let us make us a name say they Let us confound their Language that they may not so much as know their own names saith he Lest we be scattered say they Let us scatter them abroad the world saith he Thus God words it with them and confutes their folly from point to point Thus he sets himself in battle-ray against the proud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 4.7 as Saint James hath it and overthrows them in plain field He delt more severely with David for numbring the people then for the matter of Vriah He turned Nebuchadnezzar a grazing among beasts for pruning and priding himself upon this Babel Is not this great Babel that I have built Why no Nimrod built it and Ninus and Semiramis Nebuchadnezzar onely beautified it or at utmost inlarged it But pride detracts from God and man and is therefore justly hated and scorned of both And there confound their Language When men began once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were compelled by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bring me quoth one a trowel quickly quick One brings him up a hammer hew this brick Another bids Dubartas and then they cleave a tree Make fast this rope and then they let it flee One calls for plank another morter lacks They bring the first a stone the last an ax Neither is there any better understanding and agreement among the Babel-builders at this day Babylon enim altera nempe propinquior atque recentior adhuc stat citò itidem casura si essetis viri said Petrarch long since witness their many sects and deadly dissensions among themselves De rem utriusque fort dial 118. of which read the Peace of Rome Rhemes against Rome and divers other English Treatises to the same purpose Bellarmine teacheth That the bread in the Sacrament is not turned into Christs body productivè but adductivè And this saith he Cade of the Church 247. is the opinion of the Church of Rome This Suarez denyes and saith It is not the Churches opinion Thus these great master-builders are confounded in their Language and understand not their own Mother The greatest Clarks amongst them cannot yet determine how the Saints know our hearts and prayers Whether by hearing or seeing or presence every where or by Gods relating or revealing mens prayers and needs unto them Mâ—â—tons Appeal lib. 2. cap. 12. sect 5. All which ways some of them hold as possible or probable and others deny and confute them as untrue Vers 8. So the Lord scattered them abroad Which was the evil they â—eared and by this enterprize sought to prevent But there is neither counsel power nor policy against the Lord. The fear of the wiâ—ked shall come upon him Prov. 10.24 As it befel those wretched Jews Iohn 11.48 The Romans shall come c. and come they did accordingly Pilate for fear of losing his Office delivered up Christ and was by Caius kickt off the bench Vers 9. The Lord did there confound the Language A sore cross and hinderance of interchange of commodities between Nation and Nation This great labor also hath God laid hereby upon the sons of men that a great part of our best time is spent about the shell in learning of Language before we can come at the kernel of true wisdom
grievous misery Hos 7.16 Vers 19. Why saidst thou she is my sister He might have answered because I was afraid His fear it was that put him upon this exploit So it did David when he changed his behaviour and Peter when he denied his Master c. Men should rather dye then lye Firmus Episc Togastensis Nec prodam nec mentiar said that good Bishop in St. Augustine And that was a brave woman in St. Hierome that being on the rack resolved and answered the tormentour Non ideo negare volo ne peream sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peccem The Chamaeleon saith Pliny is the most fearfull of all creatures and doth therefore turn into all colours to save it self So will timorous persons See Zeph. 3.13 Let us fortifie our hearts against this cowardly passion Vers 20. And Pharaoh commanded Thus God comes as it were out of an Engine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and helps his people at a pinch Abraham had brought himself into the briars and could finde no way out Many a heavy heart he had no doubt for his dear wife who suffered by his default and she again for him God upon their repentance provides graciously for them both She is kept undefiled he greatly enriched for her sake and now they are both secured and dismissed with the Kings safe conduct Oh who would not serve such a God as turns our errours and evill counsells to our great good as the Athenians dreamt their goddesse Minerva did for them CHAP. XIII Vers 1. And Abram went up out of Egypt THere must be likewise daily ascensions in our hearts out of the Egypt of this world to the heavenly Canaan where Christ our altar is The Church is compared to pillars of smoke ascending Cant. 3.6 Black she is as smoke in regard of infirmities yet hath a principle to carry her upwards Who is this that ascends out of this Egypt below with pillars of smoke elationibus fumi that is with her affections thoughts desires upward heavenward Our Edward the first had a mighty desire to go to the holy land Act. Mon. and because he was hindred he gave his son a charge upon his death-bed to carry his heart thither and prepared 32000. pound to that purpose The children of faithfull Abram though their bodies be on earth yet they take much pains and are at great charge to get up their hearts to heaven Matth. 14.28 Cant 7 4. Hence they are called Eagles for their high-soaring and are said to have noses like the tower of Lebanon for their singular sagacity in resenting and smelling after Christ the true all quickning carcasse Vers 2. And Abraham was very rich All rich men therefore are not rejected of God though it be hard for such to hit on heaven Poor Lazarus â—lyes in the bosome of rich Abraham there Riches neither further nor hinder in themselves but as they are used As a cypher by it self is nothing but a figure being set before it it encreaseth the summe Wealth if well used is an ornament an incouragement to duty and an instrument of much good All the danger lyes in loving these things Have them we may and use them too as a traveller doth his staffe to help him the sooner to his journeys end but when we passe away our hearts to them they become a mischief and as the word here rendred rich signifies in the originall a burden Let not therefore the bramble be King let not earthly things bear rule over thy affections fire will rise out of them that will consume thy Cedars Judg 9.15 emasculate all the powers of thy soul as they did Solomons whose wealth did him more hurt then his wisdome good How many have we now adayes that when poor could pray read c who grown rich resemble the Moon which grown full gets furthest oft from the Sun never suffers eclipse but then and that by earths interposition Socrates divitiâ—s comparabat tunicis talaribus Quis generum meum ad gladium alligavit Cic. Dio in Augusto Herodot Let rich men therefore take heed how they handle their thorns let them gird up the loyns of their mindes lest their long garments hinder them in the way to heaven Let them see to it that they be not tyed to their abundance as little Lentulus was said to have been to his long sword that they be not held prisoners in those golden fetters as the Kings of Armenia was by Anthony and so sent by him for a present to Cleopatra lest at length they send their Mammon of unrighteousness as Craesus did his fetters for a present to the Devill who had deluded him with false hopes of victory Vers 3. And he went on his journeys Many a weary step and rested not till he came to his old altar at Bethel Lo here a patern of great piety and singular zeal in Father Abram Egypt with all her plenty and pleasure had not stoln away his heart so as not to hold his own in the promised Land Neither had he so laden himself with thick clay but that he went from strength to strength as those good souls did Psal 84.7 he took long strides perexit per profectiones suas as it is here He went journey after journey till he appeared before God at his altar there to sanctifie that good he had got in Egypt and to give God thanks for it yea to consecrate all to him the bestower of it Oh let us shew our selves children of Abraham indeed by walking in these steps of our father Abraham Rom. 4.12 Otherwise our outward profession and priviledges will profit us no more then it did Dives in hell Luk. 16. that he could call Abraham Father Vers 4. Vnto the place of the altar c. There he had found God to his comfort and there he looks now to finde him so again It will be some help to us for the strengthning of our faith in prayer to holâ— our selves to the same place to have a set Orâ—â—ory Vers 5. And Lot also which went with Abram So he lost not all by leaving friends and means to go with Abram They that fide with the Saints shall thrive with the Saints God had promised to bless Abram and he did it for it is the blessing of God that maketh rich God had promised again to bless them that blessed Abram or wished well to him and did him any favour or furtherance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pecudes posteà synecdochicoÌ„s opes significant Let Lot speak now whether this were not made good to him in those flocks and herds of his that is in all kinde of riches and tents that is servants dwelling in tents Jer. 49.29 1 Chron. 4.41 Vers 6. And the land was not able to bear them This was sowre sawce to their sweet meat lest they should surfet of their abundance All earthly comfortâ— are dissweetned with crosses and there are pins in all the worlds
beleeved When thus the promise was repeated So needfull it is that the word should be often preached and the sweet promises of the Gospell beaten to the smell that Gods name being as an oyntment poured out The Virgins may love him beleeve in him Cant. 1.3 1 Pet. 1.8 and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And he counted it to him for righteousness This imputative righteousness the Papists scoffe at calling it putative or imaginary This the Jews also jear at to this day as their Fathers did of old Rom. 10.2 3. so do they For being asked whether they beleeve to be saved by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them they answer That every Fox must pay his own skin to the Fleaer But is not Christ called Jer. 23.6 in their law Jehovah our righteousness And how so but by means of that imputation so often hammered on by the Apostle Rom. 4. adding after all that what is said here of Abram is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleeve on him that raised up Jesus c. Rom. 4.24 If Adams sin be mine though I committed it not why should it seem so strange that the merit of Christs intire obedience should by the like means be mine though I wrought it not See Rom. 5.19 2 Cor. 5.19 If he hath wronged thee ought reckon that to me said Paul to Philemon Philem. 18. concerning Onesimus saith Christ to his Father concerning us And to stop the Papists mouth If another mans faith may benefit Infants at their Baptisme as Bellarmine affirmeth why should it seem so absurd that beleevers should be benefited by Christs righteousness imputed Vers 7. I am the Lord that brought thee Let the remembrance of what I have done for thee confirme thy confidence sith every former mercy is a pledge of a future God giveth after he hath given as the spring runneth after it hath run And as the eye is not weary of seeing nor the ear of hearing no more is God of doing good to his people Draw out thy loving kindness Psal 36.10 saith David as a continued series or chain where one linke draws on another to the utmost length Vers 8. Lord God whereby shall I know He desires assign not that he beleeved not before but that he might better beleeve How great is Gods love in giving us Sacraments and therein to make himself to us visible as well as audible Vers 9. Take me an heifer c. Here God commands him abusie sacrifice and then casts him into a terrible sleep the better to prepare him to receive the ensuing oracle and to teach him that he may not rashly rush upon divine mysteries Heathens could say Non loquendum de Deo absque lumine that is Pythagâ—raâ— without praemeditation and advised consideration Vers 10. Divided them in the midst In signum exitii foedifrago eventuri This was the federall rite both among Jews Jer. 34.18 19. and Gentiles as is to be seen in Virgil Aeneid l. 8. describing the covenant of Romulus and Tatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God also threatneth to cut the evill servant in twain that forgetteth the Covenant of his God Matth. 24. These dissected creatures are the oppressed Israelites the parts laid each against other signifie that God will make them up again though disâ—jected the fowls that came down upon them are the Egyptians Abrams huffing of them away is their deliverance by Moses after foure hundred years signified by those foure kindes of creatures as Luther interpreteth Vers 12. And when the Sun was going down Heb. when he was ready to enter to wit into his Bride chamber Psal 19 6. Vers 13. Know of a surety that thy seed Must first suffer before they can enter and so be conformed to Christ their Captain Heb. 5.9 who was perfected by sufferings and came not to the Crown but by the Crosse Dissicile est ut prasemibus bonis quis fruatur futuris ut hic ventrem illiâ— mentem resiciat ut de deliciâ—s ad delicias transeat ut in coelo in terra gloriosus appareat saith St. Hierome Erigito tibi scalam Acoâ—â—â— solus ascenâ—ito Constant Mag. Through many tribulations we must enter into heaven He that will goe any other way let him as the Emperour said to the Hâ—retick erect a ladder and go up alone Vers 14. Afterward they shall come out c. All the Saints abasements are but in order to their advancement As God brought forth his Israel with jewels and other wealth so the afflicted Church and tossed with tempest shall build her walls and lay her foundations with Sapphires and Agates Esa 54.11 12. See Esa 62.3.4 Vers 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers The spirits of just men made perfect all the court of Heaven shall meet thee and welcome thee into their society that brave Panegyris Heb. 12.22 23. In peace So Josiah did Bellum cui nos instamus pax est non bellum Zuingl apud Melch. Adam Prov. 16.31 though he dyed in battle according to the promise 2 Chron. 34.28 God made war to be peace to him In a good old age Heb. With a good hoar head which is a Crown when found in the way of righteousness Vers 16. The iniquity of the Amorites c. A metaphor from a large vessell filled by drops as elsewhere from an harvest ready for the sickle and from the vine ripe for the wine-press Pererius the Jesuit writing upon this text saith Perer. in loc If any marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of Catholikes there just execution of Cacolikes he should have said Answers because their sin is not yet full God grant it Jer. 28.6 Sed veniet tandem iniquitatis complementum saith he Ezek. 7.6 7 10 A true Prophet I fear me That terrible text rings in mine ears An end is come the end is come it watcheth for thee behold it is come it is come CHAP. XVI Vers 1. Now Sarai Abrams wife bare him no children GOd had foretold him of his childrens affliction and yet gave him no child but holds him still in suspense He knows how to commend his favours to us by withholding them Citò data citò vilescunt we account it scarce worth taking that is not twice worth asking A handmaid an Egyptian One of those maids belike that were given her in Egypt Gen. 12.16 Vers 2. The Lord hath restrained me She faults herself not her husband as many a crank dame would have done It may be that I may obtain children by her Heb. Be builded by her as God made the midwives houses that is gave them children for their mercy to the poor children Exod. 1.21 and as he promised to make David an house 2 Sam. 7.11 12 that is to give him seed to sit upon his Throne Saraies ayme
Digitus because they put that finger to their mouth as at this day the Roman Dames do when they saluted any Charles the fifth is renowned for his courtesie when he passed by John Frederick the Elector of Saxony he ever put off his hat and bowed to him though he were his prisoner and had been taken by him in battle Parei Hist prosan Medul 90â— And when he had in his power Melancthon Poâ—eran and other Divines of the Reformed Religion he courteously dismissed them As hee 's the best Christian that 's most humble Peachams Compl. Gentle so is he the truest Gentleman that 's most courteous Your haughty upstarts the French call Gentle villains Vers 8. If it be your minde that I should bury my dead Alexander the Great lay unburied thirty dayes together His conquests above ground purchased him no title for habitation under ground So Pompey the Great Nudus pascit aves jacet en qui possidet orbem Ciaudiau Exiguae telluâ— is iâ—ops Vt cui modò ad victoriam terra defuerat dâ—esset ad sepulturam saith Paterculus So Wil. the Conquerors corps lay unburied for three dayes Daniels Chron. fol. 50. his interment being hindered by one that claymed the ground to be his Abraham therefore doth well to make sure of a place of Sepulture for him and his and this at Hebrâ—n which signifieth society or conjunction for theâ—e lay those reverend couples Abraham and Sara Isaac and Rebecca Jacob and Leah c. These dyed upon the promised Land and being there buried kept possession as it were for their posterity as those that are dead in Christ do of heaven Veieres sepulchrum mortuorum domicilium credebant portum corporis appellabant Turnâ—b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Saints that survive them Sepulchrâ—s are symbols of the communion of Saints and of the Resurrection of the dead Hence the Hebrews call Church-yards Beth-chajim the â—ouse of the living Job also calls the grave the Congregation house of all living Job 30.23 As the Apostle after him calleth Heaven the Congregation-house of the first-born Heb. 12.23 The Hebrews call it guâ—lam hammà liachim the world of Angels and the Author to the Hebrews saith that the Saints are come by Christ to an inâ—umerable company of Angels Heb. 12. When godly moâ— dye they are said to be gathered to their people They do no more then repatriasse as Bernard hath it they are not put out of service but removed onely out of one room into another out of the out houses into the Presence-chamber D Presâ—â—â— They change their place but not their company as that good Doctor said upon his death-bed they are gathered by Christs hand as Lillies Cant. 6.2 and transplanted into the Paradise of God And this Plotinus the Philosopher had a notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Epist 139. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when breathing his last he said That in me that is Divine I resign up to the first Divine that iâ— to God As for the body it is but the case the cabinet the suit the slough the sheath of the soul as Daniel calleth it Scaligeri quodrâ—liquum est was Julius Scaligers Epitaph It returns to its originall dust and is sown as seed in the ground till the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.35 Vers 9. For a possession of a burying-place It is remarkable that the first purchase of possession mentioned in Scripture was a place to bury in not to build in The Jews also had their Sepulchrâ—â— hâ—wn out long before their deaths to minde them of their mortality Joseph of Arimathea had his tomb in his garden to season his delights with the meditation of his end The Egyptians had a deaths-head carried about the table at their feasts The Emperors of Constantinople had a Mason came to them on their Coronation day with choice of Tomb-stones and these Verses in his mouth Eligâ— ab his saxis ex quo invictissime Caesar Ipse tibi tumulum me fabricare velis Our first parents saith One made them garments of Fig-leaves D. Plays But God misliking that gave them garments of Skins So in the Gospell he cursed the Fig-tree which did bear onely leaves to cover our sin but commended the Baptist who did wear Skins to discover our mortality Vers 11. The field give I thee c. A brave speech of a bountifull spirit to a stranger especially and in that respect beyond that of Araunah the noble Jebusite to David his liege Lord All these things did Araunah as a King give to the King 2 Sam. 24.23 Indeed to give is a Kingly employment making men like to the Father of lights from whom comes every good gift and perfect giving Kings are stiled Benefactors Jam. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodoâ— Sic. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicur and of the ancient Kings of Egypt it is recorded and was rehearsed amongst other of their prayses that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing to distribute ready to communicate which are the Apostles two words 1 Tim. 6.18 Gyrus took more delight in giving then possessing as his Souldiers could say of him in Xenophon It is not onely better but sweeter to do good then to receive good said Epicurus It is a more blessed thing saith our Saviour Titus would say when he had done none good he had lost a day molestiâ—s erat Severo Imperatori nihil peti quam dare Our Generall Norrice like that Bishop of Lincoln never thought he had that thing which he did not give Few such now adayes Vers 13. I will give thee money Full money as he had said vers 7. or as much money as it is worth Such is the care of the conscientious that they had rather lose of their own then usurp of anothers And that he gives a just price for the field was an act of great wisdome for hereby he provided that his posterity might not hereafter be put beside it Vers 16. In the audience of the sons of Heth Whom he takes to witness and so provideth for his security and quietness afterwards as did also Jeremy in the purchase of his Uncles field Wisdome and circumspection is to be used in Contracts and Covenants Currant with the Merchant It may well be said of Money-hoarders they have no Quick-silver no currant money Vers 19. And Abraham buried Sarah his wife The last office of love to bring the deceased Saints honourably to their long home to lay them in their last bed Eccles 12.5 Esa 57.2 Iob. 14.14 to put them into the grave as into a haven and harbor where they may rest from their labours till their change shall come This is to deal kindly with the dead Ruth 1.8 To shew mercy to them 2 Sam. 2.5 especially when the mourners go about the streets Eccles 12.5 when there is a great mourning made over them as for Steven Act. 8.2 and a great burning for them as for Asa 2
Gen. 27. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepè suis And Isaac was threescore yeers old He lived twice threescore yeers after this being an hundred and eighty when he died Gen. 35.28 five yeers longer he lived then his father Abraham Gen. 27.5 being bison for the last fourty Gen. 27. Vers 27. And the boys grew Nature Art Grace all proceed from less perfect to more perfect Grow in grace saith Peter grow unto a perfect man saith Paul even unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ saith Paul Eph. 4.13 And Esau was a cunning hunter Like Nimrod and Ishmael whom he chose to imitate rather then Abraham and those holy Patriarchs that had lived before him A plain man Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without welt or gard guile or gall Gregory hereby notes the diverse dispositions of worldly and godly men Vers 28. And Isaac loved Esau c. Here as likewise in Manoah's wife more grace appears in the woman then in the man whose blinde and misplaced love for carnal ends commends and illustrates the divine adoption Vers 29. And Jacob sod pottage Pottage of lentiles which was a kinde of pulse much like to Vetches or small Pease so frugal and sparing was the diet of those precious Patriarchs to the shame of our Luxury Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quicquid avium volitat quicquid piscium natat quicquid ferarum discurrit nostris sepelitur ventribus We devour the wealth of earth air and sea Esau came from the field and he was faint Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas Of carnal pleasures a man may break his neck sooner then his fast Nor is it want of variety in them but inward weakness or the curse of unsatisfyingness that lies upon them The creature is now as the husk without the grain the shell without the kernel full of nothing but emptiness and so may faint us but not fill us Vers 30. Feed me I pray thee with that red red He doubleth it Geminatio indicat vehementiam appetitus Pareus and could not for haste and hunger tell what to call it to shew his greediness And saith Feed me or let me swallow at once as Camels are fed by casting gobbets into their mouth He thought he should never have enough Our proverb is As hungry as a hunter but this hunter hath no ho with him and is therefore branded for a profane sensualist Edom. The word used for a glutton Jer. 15.19 Deut. 21.20 is used for a vile person or a losel Jer. 15.19 Vers 31. Sell me this day thy birth-right Which he knew by the instruction of his mother to be his by Gods appointment and therefore takes this opportunity to get it A well-chosen season is the greatest advantage of any action Vers 32. What profit shall this birth-right c. Pluris faciâ— pulticulam bonam quam titulum inanem Sensualists look onely at the present pleasure and sell their souls for it Earthly things are present and pleasant therefore we so cleave to them striving like the toad who shall fall asleep with most earth in his paws Vers 33. Swear to me With fickle men make all firm and fast Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo Horat. And he sold his birth right to Jacob And with it heaven also as the Jerusalemy Paraphrast addeth whereof the birth-right was a type and pledge So his sin was in unthankfulness for such a dignity in limiting it to this life in selling it so light cheap but especially in his profane parting with a spiritual blessing for a temporal Such a foolish bargain makes every impenitent person in the sale of his soul for a thing of nought which Christ who onely went to the price of a soul saith is more worth then a world Let there be no fornicator as every worlding is Jam. 4.4 or profane person amongst us as Esau Heb. 12.16 And that there may not let not men take pleasure in pleasure spend too much time in it shoot their affections over-far into it It is no wisdom to go as far as we may It was not simply a sin in Esau to go a hunting but yet the more he used it the more profane he grew by it and came at length to contemn his birth-right Adrian the Emperour was a great hunter brake his leg in hunting called a city that he built in Mysia by the name of Adrians huntings Dio in vita Adeò venandi rabie percâ—â—us ut 7 continuis anâ—is nec urbis nec ruris tecto fit u us but how little care he took for his poor soul that Animula vagula blandula of his abundantly testifieth The maddest hunter that ever I read of was Mithridates who was so set upon it that he came not into any house either of city or country for seven yeers together To lawful delights and recreations God allows men to stoop for their bodies sake as the eagle to the prey or as Gideons souldiers to soop their handful not to swill their belly-full An honest mans heart is where his calling is such a one when he is elsewhere is like a fish in the air whereunto if it leap for recreation or necessity yet it soon returns to his own clement Vers 23. He did eat and drink and rose up c. Hac congerie Piscator impoenitentia Esaui describitur Away he went without shewing the least remorse or regret for what he had done Lysimachus soon repented him for parting with his Crown O dii quam brevis voluptatis gratia ex rege me feci servum for a draught of cold water in his extreme thirst Wine is a prohibited ware among Turks which makes some drink with scruple others with danger The baser sort when taken drunk are often bastinadoed on the bare feet And I have seen some saith mine Author after a fit of drunkenness Blounts voyage pag. 105. lie a whole night crying and praying to Mahomet for intercession that I could not sleep neer them so strong is conscience even where the foundation is but imaginary to the shame of many profligate professors cauterized Christians XXVI Vers 1. Besides the first famine NEw sins bring new plagues Flagitium flagellum ut acus filum Where iniquity breaks fast calamity will be sure to dine to sup where it dines and to lodge where it sups If the Canaâ—nites had amended by the former famine this later had been prevented for God afflicts not willingly nor grieves the children of men Lam. 3.35 Polybius wonders why Man should be held the wisest of creatures when to him he seemeth the foolishest For other things saith he where they have smarted once will beware for the future The Fox will not rashly return to the snare the Wolf to the pitfal the dog to the cudgel c. Solus homo ab avo ad aevum peccut ferè in iisdem in iisdem plectitur Onely Man is neither weary of sinning nor wary of
mouth of the King Sorex suo perit indicio Hunc tibi pugionem mittit Senatus dixit ille detexit facinus fatuus non imple vit So here See the like 1 Sam. 19.2 Acts 9.24 23.16 And she sent and called Jacob Why did she not call both her sons together and make them friends by causing the younger to resigne up his blessing to the elder Because she preferred heaven before earth and eternity before any the worlds amity or felicity whatsoever The devil would fain compound with us when he cannot conquer us as Pharaoh would let some go not all or if all yet not far Religiosum oport et esse sed non religentem He cannot abide this strictne's c. But we must be resolute for God and heaven It 's better flee with Jacob yea die a thousand deaths then with the loss of Gods blessing to accord with Esau Vers 43. Flee thou to Laban Flee then we may when in danger of life so it be with the wings of a dove not with the pinnions of a dragon God must be trusted not tempted Means must be neither trusted nor neglected Vers 44. Tarry with him a few days Heb. unos dies Sed facti sunt viginti anni She reckoned upon a few days but it proved to be twenty whole yeers and she never saw Jacob again as the Hebrew Doctors gather Thus Man purposeth God disposeth Some think she sent Deborah her nurse to fetch him home who died in the return Gen. 35.8 Vers 45. And he forget c. Whiles wrongs are remembred they are not remitted He forgives not that forgets not When an inconsiderate fellow had stricken Cato in the Bath Sen. de ira lib. 1. and afterwards cried him mercy he replied I remember not that thou didst strike me Our Henry the sixth is said to have been of that happie memory that he never forgat any thing but injuries Esau was none such He was of that sort whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soon angry but not soon pleased His anger was like coles of juniper Psal 120.4 which burn extremely last long a whole twelve-moneth about as some write and though they seem extinct revive again Flamma redardescit quae modò nulla fuit Ovid. Vers 46. I am weary of my life c. A wise woman saith an Interpreter not willing to grieve her husband she conceals from him Esau's malicious hatred of Jacob and pretends another cause of sending him away to take him a fit wife Let women learn not to exasperate their husbands with quick words or froward deeds but study their quiet Livia wife to Augustus being asked how she could so absolutely rule her husband Dâ—o in Aug. answered By not prying into his actions and dissembling his affections c. XXVIII Vers 1. Isaac called Jacob and blessed him HE doth not rate him or rail at him Anger must have an end The Prodigals father met him and kist him when one would have thought he should rather have kickt him kill'd him Pro peccato magno Terent. paululum supplicii satis est patri Vers 2. Arise go to Padan-aram Jacob was no sooner blest but banisht so our Saviour was no sooner out of the water of Baptism and had heard This is my beloved Son c. but he was presently in the fire of temptation and heard If thou be the Son c. When Hezekiah had set all in good order 2 Chron. 31. then up came Sennacherib with an army Chap. 32.1 God will put his people to it and often after sweetest feelings Vers 3. And God Almighty bless thee Here Isaac stablisheth the blessing to Jacob lest haply he should think that the blessing so got would be of no force to him God passeth by the evil of our actions and blesseth the good Vers 4. And give thee the blessing of Abraham Here he is made heir of the blessing as are also all true Christians 1 Pet. 3.9 Caesar when he was sad said to himself Cogita te esse Caesarem so think thou art an heir of heaven and be sad if thou canst Vers 5. Isaac sent away Jacob with his staff onely Gen. 32.10 and to serve for a wife Hos 12.12 It was otherwise when a wife was provided for Isaac But Jacob went as privately as he could probably that his brother Esau might not know of his journey and wait him a shrewd turn by the way Hos 12.12 he sled into Syria Theodoret saith it was that the divine providence might be the better declared toward him no better attended or accommodated Vers 6. When Esau saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But he was ever too late and therefore that he did was to little purpose An over-late sight is good neither in piety nor policy They will finde it so that are semper victuri and never can finde time to begin Seneca till they are shut out of heaven for their trifling How many have we known taken away in their offers and essays before they had prepared their hearts to cleave to God! Vers 7. And was gone to Padan-aram Which was distant from Beer-sheba almost five hundred miles This was the father of the brood of travellers and his affliction is our instruction Rom. 14.4 1 Cor. 10.11 Vers 8. pleased not his father Whether himself or they pleased God or not was no part of his care God is not in all the wicked mans thoughts That he strives for is to be well esteemed of by others to have the good will and good word of his neighbours and friends such especially as he hopes for benefit by Thus Julian counterfeited zeal till he had got the Empire afterwards of Julian he became Idolian as Nazianzen saith he was commonly called because he set open again the Idols temples which had been shut up by Constantine and restored them to the Heathens Vers 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael Stulta haec fuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hypocrisis saith Pareus rightly Apes will be imitating men Spiders have their webs and Wasps their honey-combs Hypocrites will needs do something that they may seem to be some-body but for want of an inward principle they do nothing well they amend one errour with another as Esau here and as Herod prevents perjury by murther Thus while they shun the sands they rush upon the rocks Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim and while they keep off the shallows they fall into the whirl-pool Sed nemo it a perplexus tenetur inter du vitia quin exitus pateat absque tertio saith an Ancient Vers 10. And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba A long journey but nothing so long as Christ took from heaven to earth to serve for a wife his Church who yet is more coy then Rachel and can hardly be spoken withal though he stand clapping and calling Open to me my sister my spouse Stupenda dignatio saith One a wonderful condescending Vers 11. And
have reason to be mad and that there is some sense in sinning whenas indeed our onely wisdom is to keep God's Laws Deut. 4.6 All which are founded upon so good reason that had God never made them yet it had been best for us to have practised them Vers 14. That Were a reproach unto us And yet the world reproached them with nothing more then with their Circumcision as it is to be seen in Horace Juvenal Tacitus Appion scoffs at it and is answered by Iosephus But as he were a fool that would be moâ—kt out of his inheritance so he much more that would be moâ—ked out of his Religion Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor saith David because the Lord is hâ—â—refuge because he runs to God by prayer But to shew how little he regarded their reproaches he falls presently a praying O that the salvation of Israel c. Psal 14.6 7. So Nazareth was a reproach cast upon Christ and he glories in it Acts 22.8 I am Jesus of Nazareth Whom thou persecutest He saith not I am the Son of God heir of all things King of the Church c. but I am Jesus of Nazareth If this be to be vile said David I Will be yet more vile Vers 15. That every male of you be circumcised Lo herein was their deceit How often is Religion pretended made a stale and stalking-horse to worldly and wicked aims and respects A horrible profanation as when Naâ—oth was put to death at a fast Henry the seventh Emperour poisoned in the Sacramental bread by a Monk He pretends to worship Christ intends to worry him c. From such stand off saith S. Paul or 1 Tim. 6.5 Rom. 16 17 18 if ye come neer them set a mark upon them Foenum habet in cornu Vers 16. Then will we give our daughters Whether Jacob were present at this whole conference it is not certain It is probable that he was not For surely he would either have disswaded them from thus doing or if he had consented he would have said something more to the Shechemites for their better assurance It is a Maxime in Machiavel Fidem tamdiu servandam esse quamdiu expediat But Jacob had not known this depth of the devil his sons better could skill of it They seem to be somewhat akin to those Thracians of whom it was anciently said Eos foedera nescire that they knew no covenants or the Turks at this day whose Covenants grounded upon the Law of Nations be they with never so strong capitulations concluded Turk hist or solemnity of oath confirmed have with them no longer force then standeth with their own profit serving indeed but as snares to entangle other Princes in There is no faith say they to be kept with dogs that is Ibid. 755. with Christians And this perhaps they have learned of those pseudo Christians the Papists who dealt so perfidiously with them at the great Battel of Varna Where Amurath the Great Turk seeing the great slaughter of his men against the oath given him by King Ladislaus dispensed with by the Pope's Legat and beholding the picture of the Crucifix in the displayed Ensignes of the voluntary Christians he pluckt the Writing out of his bosom wherein the late League was comprised and holding it up in his hand with his eyes cast up to heaven said Behold thou crucified Christ this is the League thy Christians in thy Name made with me Ibid. 297. which they have without cause violated Now if thou be a God as they say thou art and as we dream revenge the wrong now done to thy Name and me and shew thy power upon thy perjurious people who in their deeds deny thee their God And it fell out accordingly For God hates foul and faithless dealing Zech. 5.4 Rom. 1.31 Heu miser etsi quis primò perjuriacelat Sera tamen tacitis paena venit pedibus Tibull Perjurii poena divina exitium humana dedecus This was one of the Laws of the twelve Tables in Rome Vers 17. But if ye will not hearken How often have men found treason in trust and murther under shew of marriage as 1 Sam. 18.17 25. Dan. 11.17 and in the Massacre of Paris Vers 18. And their words See the force of love and hope of profit Vers 19. And the young man deferred not c. Heb. Neque distulit puer The lad deferred not He is called a lad or a childe that is a fool because he was carried not by right reason but blinde affection walking in the ways of his heart and sight of his eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles 11.9 And vers 10. the word used to signifie youth signifieth darkness to note that youth is the dark age hot and headlong indeliberate and slippery such as had need to cleanse their ways by cleaving to the Word saith David Psal 119.9 where the word for cleansing properly signifies the cleansing of glass which as it is slick and slippery so though it be very clean yet it will gather filth even in the sun beams and of it self which noteth the great corruption of this age Vers 20. And Hamor and Shechem c. These great men easily perswaded and prevailed with the people to have what they would Great need have we to pray for good Governours When Crispus believed who was the chief Ruler of the Synagogue many Corinthians believed also Acts 18.8 Paul was loath to lose the Deputy because his conversion would draw on many others As on the contrary Jeroboam caused Israel to sin and generally as the Kings were good or evil so were the people in which as in a beast the whole body follows the head Vers 21. These men are peaceable c. Nothing more ordinary with Polititians then to cover private ends and respects with pretence of publike good As Jeroboam told the people it was too much trouble for them to go up to Jerusalem to worship they should take a shorter cut to Dan and Bethel So Jehu in all his reformations had a hawks eye to a kingdom his main end was to settle the Crown upon his own head The Turkish Janizaries Parei Hist profan Medul 1176. desirous to be rid of their Sultan Osman pretended and perswaded the people that he was Jaour that is an Infidel and that he endeavoured to betray the Turkish Empire to Christian dogs May 18. 1622. Vers 23. Shall not their cattel c. Profit perswades mightily with the multitude They all look to their own way Isai 56.11 every one for his gain from his quarter Who Will shew us any good is Vox populi And who begs not attention or inoculates not his faithful endeavour into his friends Creed and Belief with a tale of utile Vers 24. And every male was circumcised Many have lost their blood and suffered so much trouble for their lusts as had it been for Religion they had been
Vers 35. And all his sons c. Oh faces hatcht with impudence Oh hearts hewen out of a rock Could they cause his wo and then comfort him Miserable comforters were they all such as the Usurer is to the young Novice or the Crocodile that weeps over the dead body that it is devouring These were the evill beasts that devoured Ioseph * Nullae infestae hominibus bestiae ut sunt sibi fâ—â—ales plerique Christiâ—â—ti Am. Marcell l. 2. c. 2. A sad thing that a Heathen should see cause to say so Heb. 11.34 But he refused to be comforted Wherein he shewed his fatherly love but not his son-like subjection to Gods good providence without the which no evil beast could have set tooth in Joseph whom he was sure also to receive safe and whole again at the Resurrection which was a great comfort to those afflicted Iews Dan. 12.2 and those mangled Martyrs His father also wept for him Iacobs father Isaac saith Iunius which might very well be for he lived twelve years after this and likely loved Ioseph best for his great towardlinesse Vers 36. And the Midianites Little knew Ioseph what God was in doing Have patience till he have brought both ends together CHAP. XXXVIII Vers 1. And it came to passe at that time BEfore the rape of Dinah the sale of Ioseph and soon after their return from Mesopotamia Iudah went down from his brethren A green youth of 13. or 14. years of age left his company where he might have had better counsel There is a special tye to perseverance in the Communion of Saints They that forsake the assembling of themselves together are in a fair way for Apostacy Heb. 10.25 To a certain Adullamite There is a double danger of evil company 1. Infection of sin at least defection from grace 2. Infliction of punishment Rev. 18.4 Vers 2. And Iudah saw there c. He saw took went in all in haste Patre inconsulto forte etiam invito His father neither willing nor witting Hence for a punishment was so little mercy shewed to his sons These hasty headlong matches seldom succeed well It is not amiss to marry but good to be wary Young men are blamed of folly for following the sight of their eyes and lust of their hearts Eccles 11. Sed Leo cassibus irretitus dicet Si praescivissem Vers 3. Bruson lib. 4. cap. 9. And she conceived c. St. Hierome tells us of a certain drunken nurse that was got with child by her nursling a boy of ten years old This he relateth as monstrous and takes God to witness that he knew it to be so Vers 6. And Iudah took a wife for Er When he was but 14. Musculus years of age as appears by the Chronicle seven years after the selling of Ioseph And here it is well observed that though Iudah took a wife without his fathers consent yet he will not have Er to do so Vers 7. Wicked in the sight of the Lord A Sodomite In Heb. vi etâ—y esse aâ—lusio seu inver o neminis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. Er erat vigil perversuâ— say the Hebrews but this is hard to say As an evil doer he was soon cut off Psal 37.9 God would not have such to be his Son Christs progenitor Too wicked he was to live you may know him to be the son of a Canaanitess Partus sequitur ventrem Vers 8. And Iudah said unto Onaâ— At fourteen years of age likewise For from the birth of Iudah to their going down to Egypt were but 43. years And yet before that Perez had Hezron and Hamul being married about the fourteenth year of his age which was doubtless too soon Childhood is counted and called the flower of age 1 Cor. 7.36 And so long the Apostle would have marriage forborn Whilest the flower of the plant sprouteth the seed is green unfit to be sown Either it comes not up or soon withereth Over early marriages is one cause of our over-short lives Venery is deaths best harbinger saith One. Vers 9. When â—e went in unto his brothers wife God for the respect he bears to his own Institution of marriage is pleased to bear with cover and not impute many frailties follies vanities wickednesses that are found betwixt man and wife Howbeit Intemperans in conjugio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suae adulter est Aug. In uxorem alienam â—mnis amâ—â— turpis est in suam vero 〈◊〉 imius Hieron Seneca there is required of such an holy care and conscience to preserve between themselves by a conjugal chastity the marriage bed undefiled taking heed of an intemperate or intempestive use of it which by Divines both Ancient and Modern is deemed no better then plain adultery before God Qui cum uxore sua quasi cum aliena concumbit adulter est saith that Heathen Onans sin here was self polâ—ution aggravated much by his envy that moved him to it expressed in these words lest he should give seed to has decea sed brother And the more sinful was this sin of his Hebraei inquiunt perinde ut homicidam reum esse qui temere semen prosurdit Mercer in loc in spilling his seed because it should have served for the propagation of the Messiah Therefore the Lord slew him As also because he was not warned by his brothers punishment Vers 10. Wherefore he slew him God oft punisheth the abuse of the marriage-bed either with untimely death It was well said of One that Venus provideth not for those that are already born Cuffes Differ of Ages 106. but for those that shall be born or else with no children mis-shapen children ideots or prodigiously-wicked children c. Cavete Let this consideration be as the Angel standing with a drawn sword over Balaam's shoulders Vers 11. Lest peradventure he die also c. Judah lays the fault all on her whereas it was in his sons Sarah on the other side blamed her self onely for barrenness Gen. 16.2 Judge not that ye be not judged but if we judge our selves we shall not be judged In judging of the cause of our crosses we are oft as far out as she was that laid the death of her childe to the presence of the good Prophet Vers 12. The daughter of Shuah c. This was just in God upon Judah for his fraudulent dealing with Tamar whom he neither married to his son Shelah nor suffered to be married to another Sin is oft punished in kinde Vers 13. To shear his sheep And so to put by his sorrow as Jonathan did his anger by going into the field to shoot At sheep-shearings they had feasts 1 Sam. 25.8 11. Vers 14. Covered her with a vail As they that do evil shun the light She was going about a deed of darkness For she saw that She was grown She ran into this foul sin partly for revenge and partly for issue But this excuseth
administration of the Lords Supper Doth hee not seal again and again c Was leprous as snow Let us but laie our hand upon our hearts thrust them into our bosoms to rifle there and wee shall bee sure to take them out leprous all of a tetter Vers 7. As his other flesh To shew him that God by small means could bring about great matters and that in a moment See Isai 66.7 8. Which yet was ill applied by Card. Pool to this revolting nation in Q. Maries daies Vers 8. The voice of the first sign God's signes have a voice and words Psal 105.27 They speak not onely to our eies but ears as those manie prodigies did before the last desolation of Jerusalem as that terrible tempest at Rome Anno. 1516. The same year that Luther began to stir that so struck the Church where Pope Leo was creäting his Cardinals Balcus Centur 8. that it removed the Childe Jesus out of the lap of his Mother and the Keies out of St. Peter's hand So the two Suns seen in London at the comming in of King Phillip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feb. 15.1553 The new star in Cassiopeia Anno 1572. The prodigious Comet Anno. 1618 c. Vers 9. Shall becom blood In the year 874 at Brixia in Italie Funce Chronol it rained blood for three daies and three nights Anno. 1505. There appeared in Germanie upon the garments of men and women Act. and Mon. fol. 769. divers prints and tokens of the nails of the spunge of the spear of the Lords coat and of bloodie crosses Maximilian the Emperor had and shewed the same to Francis Mirandula who thereupon wrote his Staurestichon and therein thus Non ignota cano Caesar monstravit ipsi Vidimus innumeros prompsit Germania testes Ibid. 1853. In the third yeer of Q. Marie William Pikes beeing at libertie after imprisonment and going into his garden took with him a Bible where sitting and reading there soddainly fell down upon his Book four drops of fresh blood and hee knew not from whence it came Whereat hee beeing sore astonished and wiping out one of the drops with his finger called his wife and said in the virtue of God wife what meaneth this Will the Lord have four sacrifices I see well enough the Lord will have blood his will bee don and give mee grace to abide the trial c. Vers 10. I am not eloquent Heb. A man of words a master of speech as Paul was Act. 14.12 Hee had not that first second and third of an Orator Elocution or Pronunciation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet God made chois of him rather then of eloquent Aaron to praie Exod. 17. Not gifts but graces prevail in praier Slow of speech Of a letsom deliverie word-bound Vers 11. Who hath made man's mouth There is no mouth into which God cannot put fit words Balaam's Ass was enabled by God to convince his Master Whereas by a man never so full and fluent hee cannot bring forth his conceptions without the obstetrication of God's assistance Prov. 16.1 Vers 12. I will bee with thy mouth See the Note on Matth. 10.19 Vers 13. By the hand of him whom thou wilt Or shouldest send By that excellent Speaker the Messiah cujus dicere est facere Thus when God had answered all Mose's objections hee forwardly denie's to go notwithstanding and bid's him send by his son as one that was better fitted for the service That which made Moses so unwilling was whatever hee pretended the fear of his life which rub when God had once removed hee went on end vers 19 20. Vers 14. And the anger of the Lord And no wonder Patientia laesa fit furor Where God commandeth there to ask a reason is presumption but to oppose reason is a kind of Rebellion I know that hee can speak well The gift of utterance is an high favor a piece of a Christian's riches 1 Cor. 1.5 See the Note there Aaron as Tully saith of Aristotle had aureum flumen orationis a golden gift of speech Ver. 15. Will teach you See the note on ver 11.12 Ver. 16. And hee shal bee thy spokesman God hath made mee ill-favored in this world and without grace in the sight of men said Tindal to Frith speechless and rude Act. and Moâ—um p. 988. dull and slow-witted your part shal be to supplie that which lacketh in mee remembring that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men In stead of God To dictate unto him my minde and counsel Such a God to every Christian is his sanctified Conscience Ver. 17. Wherewith thou shalt do signs God of his free-will joining his operation thereunto as likewise hee doth to the outward signs in the two Sacraments and hence their energie which els would bee none Ver. 18. Whether they bee yet alive which if they bee though in a low condition both they and I shall see caus to bee thankful Lam. 3.39 Eccles 9.4 Ver. 19. For all the men are dead Here the Lord laie's his finger upon the sore This was that pad in the straw the thing that made Moses hang off as hee did however hee pretended the people's incredulitie his own inabilitie and this and that neither did hee altogether dissemble but self-love need 's not bee taught to tell her tale Ver. 20. Vpon an Ass This may argue his povertie as Zach. 9. ver 9. Especially if hee had but one Ass for the whole Familie Ver. 21. But I will harden his heart with a judiciarie penal hardness And thus God is in this book eight times said to have hardned Pharaoh's heart thrice it is said that hee hardened his own heart and five times his heart is said to have been hardned viz. by the devil through the just judgment of God Ver. 22. Even my first-born And so higher then the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 Ver. 23. Let my Songo God commanding Pharaoh to let go his people and yet hardning his heart that hee would not let them go is not contrarie to himself For by so commanding him hee requireth his obedience and by so hardning him hee punisheth his disobedience Ver. 24. And sought to kill him to do justice upon him according to Gen. 17.14 and as upon one that was an unmeet man to take care of the Church having no better ordered his own hous 1 Tim. 3.5 God passeth not by the sins of his best children without a sensible check if scandalous especially and committed against conscience Hee hath much ado to forbear killing us in such cases Hee is even readie to have a blow at us and crie's like a travelling woman who bite's in her pain while shee can to bee delivered of his judgments Isa 42.14 Ver. 25. Surely a bloodie husband A peevish wife whose frowardness is either tollenda or toleranda cured or carried patiently nè conjugium fiat
your selves from them stave them off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word signifies 2 Thess 3.6 and we charge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to do so ut scias quà m aegrè divellimur saith One. Vers 26. Lest ye be consumed See vers 24. and the Note on Revel 18.4 Hamath fares the worse for lying so neer Damascus Zech. 9.2 St. John sprang out of the Bath where he found Cerinthus the heretick Vers 27. Came out and stood As out-facing Moses and scorning the judgment threatned Deus quem destruit dementat Hardened sinners make no more of Gods dreadful threatnings then Behemoth doth of iron weapons which he esteemeth as strawes Vers 28. Hereby ye shall know Thus he engageth the truth and honour of his office upon a miracle But now he that expects a miracle is himself a miracle saith Augustine Let Papists brag of their lying wonders 2 Thess 2.9 We dislike not altogether that observation of Gretser the Jesuite Tam sterilis deserta est Lutherana Calviniana secta ut diabolus ne dignetur quidem per eam aliquid fallacium umbratilium prodigiorum aggredi saltem frequenter palam So dull and dry is the Lutheran and Calvinian Sect that the devil daynes not to work any or not many miracles amongst them as he doth among the Catholikes Vers 29. The common death of all men Ne quisquam sua morâ—e defunctus est said Suetonius of Caesar's murtherers So may we say of our powder-plotters your sin will finde you out Vers 30. Quick unto the pit Not into hell as the Papists conclude from this text for how could their houses and goods go down to hell vers 32 and who would not hope that some of them were innocent some penitent The punishment they suffered in being buried alive was very miserable and so accounted by the Heathens who served their vestall virgins in this sort that had been defloured Vers 31. As he bad made an end of speaking Dictum factum So it is still Joh. 20.23 Vengeance is every whit as ready in Gods hands as in his Ministers mouthes 2 Cor. 10.6 Vers 32. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up So it did a great part of Antioch by a horrible earthquake Anno 527. for their horrible heresies and blasphemies there broached by the Bishops and defended by the people So lately Pleurs in Italy Vers 33. And they perished from among So the powder-plotters here and before them the Northern rebels That rebellion saith One like the bubbles which children blow up into the ayr was no sooner blown up then blown out and fell into the eyes of those which with blasts of ambition and superstition held it up Vers 34. Lest the earth swallow us up also Let the destruction of others be a terrour to us that we may wash our feet in the blood of the wicked Psal 52.6 But he that is swallowed up with earth as Kâ—rah his ears stopped his heart stuffed with earth shall have earth enough when he dyes but of heaven little enough Vers 35. And there came out a fire By fire they sinned and by a fire they suffer Per quod quis peccat per idem punitur ipse Vers 37. For they are hallowed And therefore may not be turned to any other use Vers 38. These sinners against their own souls So are all such as spend the span of this transitory life after the wayes of their own hearts and thereby perish for ever Sin is the souls poyson yet how heartily do men feed upon it as Tartarians do upon dead horses as the maid in Pliny did upon Spiders as the Turkish gally-slaves do upon Opiuns an ounce whereof they will eat at once as if it were bread Vers 40. To be a memorial God cannot abide to be forgotten and they are worthily made examples that will not take them as that second Captain 2 King 1. Vers 41. But on the morrow That after conviction they should so soon again rebell and run away with the bit in their mouthes was prodigious contumacy Vers 42. And behold the cloud Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God as out of an Engine appears for his distressed servants Vers 46. For there is wrath Moses is quick-sighted and spies it at first setting out By how much more faithful and familiar men are with God so much earlier do they discern his wrath Vers 47. The plague Which ran as a fire in a corn-field Vers 48. And he stood between A cleer type of Christ CHAP. XVII Vers 2. TAke of every one of them a râ—d Or staffe the ensign of their honour Num. 21.18 and of their civil authority Psal 110.2 Jer. 48.16 17. a sufficient witnesse against them that the Priesthood belonged not to them Vzziah smarted for invading it George Prince of Anhalt was a singular example Mâ—lâ—h Adam qui primus unus ex omni Principum Germanorum numerâ— subdiâ—â—s suos ipse viva voce scriptis editis de via salutis erudiret who was the first and the only German Prince that both by preaching and writing taught his Subjects Vers 5. And I will make to cease But then he must do more then work miracles For such is the habitual hardness of mens hearts as neither Minister nor misery nor miracle nor mercy can possibly mollifie Nothing can do it but an extraordinary touch from the hand of heaven Vers 8. And bloomed blossomes 1. For a testimony of Aarons calling from God to the honour of the Priesthood 2. For a type of Christ the branch growing out of the stem of Jesse Esai 11.1 3. For a figure of the Ministery of the Gospel which although to profane persons it seem a dry barren and vanishing voyce yet it bloometh and flourisheth in the hearts of Gods Elect. And surely fruitfulness is the best argument of our election and that we are called of God For not only all the plants of his setting but the very boughes cut off from the body of them will flourish 4. For a lively representation of a glorious resurrection At the French massacre Aug. 25.1572 in the Church-yard of St. Innocent at Paris a certain bush suddenly bloomed about the middle time of that bloody day at an unusual time of the year The Papists boasted Epitome hist Gallicae p. 149. that God by that miracle shewed his good liking of that massacre they had made But the Protestants took it for a confirmation of their religion and a testimony of their innocency CHAP. XVIII Vers 1. SHall bear the iniquity i.e. the punishment of whatsoever iniquity is done in the Sanctuary Sin and punishment come under one name as being tyed together with chains of adamant where the one dines the other will sup where the one is in the saddle the other will be upon the crupper Nemo crimen gerit in pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo Sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgments to it
the Lady Jane Gray whose excellent beauty adorn'd with all variety of vertues as a clear sky with stars as a Princely Diadem with jewels gave her the stile of Eruditionis pietatis modestiae delicium and Queen Elizabeth in whom besides her sex there was nothing woman-like or weak as if what Philosophy saith the souls of those noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies which consist of a frame of rarer rooms of a more exact composition then mans doth and if place be any priviledg we find theirs built in Paradise when mans was made out of it Besides in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female but all are one souls having no sexes and whosoever are Christs are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise Gal. 3.28 29. Vers 11. A statute of judgment A standing law a standard for all cases of like kinde in that policy at least for we cannot consent to Carolostadius who contended in foro jus ex Mose dicendum esse that all other national and municipal laws were to be abolished and that all courts were now to pass sentence according to Moses's laws Hic non intellexit vim naturam Christianae libertatis This man knew not the extent of Christian liberty saith Melancthon Vers 12. See the land It was somewhat to see but oh how fain would he have entred the Land and could not we shall have in heaven not only vision but fruition we have it already in Capite-tenure in Christ our head and husband who will not be long without us it being part of his heaven that we shall be where he is Ioh. 17.24 and enjoy God which is heaven it self whence in Scripture God is called Heaven I have sinned against heaven Malim praesente Deo esse in inferno quam abseute Deo in Coelo Luth. in Gen. 30. And I had rather be in Hell and have God present then in Heaven and God absent saith Luther Vers 13. Gathered to thy people To that great Panegyris the general Assembly and Church of the first-born in heaven Heb. 12.23 to that glorious Amphitheatre where the Saints shall see and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Chrysostome hath it Look yonder is Peter and that is Paul c. we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob have communion with them not only as godly men but as Abraham Isaac and Jacob Vers 14. For ye rebelled Sin may rebel in the Saints but not raign neither is it they that rebel but sin that dwelleth in them dwelleth but not domineereth Vers 16. The God of the spirits of all flesh Thou Lord that knowest the hearts of all men Act. 1.24 See the Note there Artificers know well the nature and properties of their own work Deus intimior nobis intimo nostro CHAP. XXVIII Vers 2. MY offering He is owner of all and of his own we give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said that great Emperour And my bread Called their bread for their souls that is the bread for their natural sustenance common bread when not rightly offered So Ier. 7.21 God in scorn calls their sacrifice flesh ordinary flesh such as is sold in the shambles So at the Lords Supper impenitent communicants receive no more then the bare elements panem Domini Aug. but not panem Dominum In their due season Which for 38. years they had intermitted Get a settlement or Sabbath of spirit or else God shall be but ill if at all served Vers 3. This is the offering See the Note on Exod. 29.38 39. Vers 9. And on the Sabbath day Every day should be a Sabbath to the Saints in regard of ceasing to do evil learning to do well but on the seventh-day-Sabbath our devotion should be doubled ' Debet totus dies festivus a Christiano expendi in operibus sanctis said Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln In decalog praecep 30. long since The whole Sabbath should be spent in Gods service Psal 92. titled a Psalm for the Sabbath mentions morning and evening performances vers 2. Variety of duties may very well take up the whole day with delight Besides God gives us fix whole dayes Now to sell by one measure and buy by another is the way to a curse Vers 11. And in the beginning of your moneths Thus they had their daily weekly monethly yearly addresses unto God that they might ever be in communion with him and conformity unto him by this continual intercourse On the new-Moons they rested Amos 8.5 feasted 1 Sam. 20.5 heard the Word c. 2 King 4.29 Vers 17 18 19 c. See the Notes on Exod. 12.18 and on Levit. 23.7 c. CHAP. XXIX Vers 1. ANd in the seventh moneth This Sabbath-moneth as it were had as many feasts in it as were celebrated in all the year besides So that as the Sabbath is the Queen of dayes so was this of moneths It is a day of blowing See the Note on Levit. 23.24 Vers 7. And ye shall have See Levit. 16.19 with the Notes Vers 12. And on the fifteenth See Levit. 23.34 35 c. with the Notes There the feasts were prescribed and here the sacrifices belonging to them are described Vers 17. And on the second day ye shall offer twelve c. In every of these seven-dayes-sacrifices one bullock is abated Hereby the Holy Ghost might teach them their duty to grow in grace and increase in sanctification that their sins decreasing the number of their sacrifices whereby atonement was made for their sins should also decrease daily Or it might signifie a diminishing and wearing away of the legal offerings c. as One well observeth Hac caeremoniâ significabat Deus gratiam suam de die in diem crescere it a nempe ut minuatur vetus homo novus augeatur c. saith Alsted till the very ruines of Satans castles be as most of our old Castles are almost brought to ruine Vers 18. After the manner That is in manner and form aforesaid The Manner is that that makes or marrs the action as a good suite may be marred in the making so a good duty there may be malum opus in bona materia Jehu's zeal was rewarded as an act of justice quoad substantiam operis and punished as an act of policy quoad modum agendi for the perverse end Yea David for failing in a ceremony only though with an honest heart suffered a breach instead of a blessing 1 Chron. 15.17 Idolaters also went on in their own manner Amos 8.14 as their idol-Priests prescribed The manner of Beersheba liveth that is the form of rites of the worshipping in Beersheba as the Chaldee paraphraseth CHAP. XXX Vers 1. ANd Moses spake unto the heads Because they were in place of judicature and had power either to bind◠men to their vowes or set them at liberty Vers 2. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord God is the proper object of a vow Psal 76.11 Papists vow
both natural and civil honesty Neither shall a man put on That is say Stage-Players and those that plead for them a man shall not wear womens apparel ordinarily and daily so as women use to do But the word is Put on and so they do The same word is used of Davids putting on Sauls armour which yet he put off again presently So full saith One hereupon are our hearts of distinctions and shifts odia restringere ampliare favores to restrain hatreds as they call them that is the Commandements that make against them Vers 7. And that thou mayst prolong c. They were commanded to spare the damme because she represented the parents in bringing up of her young ones and if their dayes should be for that prolonged much more for this The Hebrews reckon this commandement for the least of all in Moses law and yet such a promise is annexed thereunto Vers 9. And the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled Heb. be sanctified per antiphrasin as Auri sacra fames and Anthony's fire is ignis sacer So a whore is called in Hebrew Kedesha of Kadash i. e. Holiness Deut. 23.17 by a contrary meaning as most unholy and unchaste Vers 10. Thou shalt not plough These laws were made to set forth how God abhorreth all mixtures in religion and how carefully men should keep their minds from being corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 Vers 12. Wherewith thou coverest thy self Ne in motu â—liquid indecerum appareat Lust and malice are sharp-sighted 2 Sam. 11.2 2 Sam. 6.20 Vers 14. I found her not a maid Silvester Petra-sancta Jesuita calumniatur puellas plerunque corruptas nuptui dari in Reformato Evangelio Jesuita Vapulans pag. 146. Quod de Evangelio Romano ait Rivettus noster potiùs dici posset postquà m puellae dementarunt a vobis seducta sub vestibus cordulis nodosis spurcis vestris manibus fuerunt ligatae Papists falsly affirm that few maids amongst us come clear to marriage cujus contrarium verum est Vers 15. Then shall the father of the damosel Whose house hereby was dishonested and by whom his daughters honour was to be defended especially since childrens miscarriages reflect upon the parents and the daughters sin is the fathers shame Vers 16. And he hateth her Which is a monster in nature Ephes 5.28 29 Vers 17. These are the tokens Which in those countries seldome or never failed Vers 19. He hath brought up an evil name Which is a kind of murther Ezek. 22.9 God shall clear the innocency of his slandered servants Psal 37.6 Isai 54.17 As the eclipsed Moon by keeping her motion wades out of the shadow and recovers her splendour so shall it be with such Vers 20. And the tokens Nor any natural impediment can be proved as the Hebrews explain it Vers 22. With a woman married Adultery was punished with death because society and the purity of posterity could not otherwise continue amongst men Vers 24. Humbled his neighbours wife So called because betrothed quià nuptias facit consensus non concubitus as the Lawyers determine it Vers 25. And the man force her and lie with her It was a speech of Charles 5. Emperour If that impure fellow Farnesins who being the Popes General had forced many fair Ladies were here present I would kill him with mine own hand Nec vocem iracundiorem unquam ex Carolo auditam ferunt Parei hist prof medulla Never was he heard to speak so angerly The Lacedaemonian Common wealth was utterly ruined by a rape committed on the two daughters of Scedasus at Leuctra Vers 29. She shall be his wife Howbeit he must be humbled before the Lord for entring into his ordinance thorough the Devils portal CHAP. XXIII Vers 1. OR hath his privy member cut off As it is a barbarous custome at this day among the Turks to deprive divers Christian children of their privities supplying the uses of nature with a silver quill Turk hist This was first brought in amongst them by Selymus the second out of jealousie lest his Eunuches were not so chaste as they should have been in keeping their Ladies beds Such are usually effeminate and unfit to bear office _____ Shall not enter into the Congregation i. e. Shall not go in and out before the people as a publike Officer Sith such should be drained from the dregges and sifted from the brannes of the vulgar they should be eminent and eximious persons higher then the rest as Saul by head and shoulders Vers 2. A bastard shall not enter Utpote qui naâ—i sunt ex prostibulo plaâ—è iucerto patre sed certissima infamia 1 Sam. 20.30 Lest the reproach of his birth render him contemptible or lesse courageous lest some son of Belial set upon him as Saul did upon his son Jonathan and say Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman so of the base and beastly woman doe not I know that thou hast done this to the confusion of thy mothers nakednesse The mutinous Janizaries called their Emperour Bajazet the second drunkard beast rascal bastard Bengi that is Batchelour Turk hist or Scholler and told him moreover that they would teach him to use his great place and calling with more sobriety and discretion The English slighted and scorned their William the Conquerour because a bastard In spite also to whom and disgrace to his mother Arlet they called all whores Harlets The Jews at this day amongst other opprobrious words wherewith they spitefully load us they call all Christians Mamzer Goi that is Heathen bastards Our Saviour upon better grounds called them long since a bastardly brood Matth. 12.39 And their own Prophet Esay did the same thing long before Chap. 57. vers 3 4 and that for their prophane scoffing at the truth and the Professours thereof Yet who so forward as they to say We are not born of fornication no bastards Joh. 8.41 Vers 3. For ever i. e. This law is perpetual and indispensable so highly displeasing are many meer omissions of duty Omission of diet breeds diseases brings death so here Vers 4. Because they met you not As God takes notice of the least courtesie shewed to his people even to a cup of cold water to requite it so he doth of the least discourtesie even to a frown or a frump Gen. 4.6 See the Note there to revenge it _____ And because they bired c. See the Note on Num. 22.3 6. Vers 5. Nevertheless the Lord c. q.d. No thank to the wicked Moabites that Balaam blasted thee not as neither to Balaam whose tongue was meerly over-ruled by the Almighty and made to bless those whom he would gladly have cursed And thus still the Lord orders the worlds disorders turning dross into gold by a stupendious Alchymy and directing mens evill actions to a good end Hence it is that they fulfill though they intend no such thing but the satisfying of their own lusts Esay 10.5
abominated Hos 9.4 yea accursed Deut. 28.47 None might come to the court of Persia in mourning weeds Esth 4.2 For any unclean use Or common profane use Common and unclean is one and the same in sundry languages to teach us that it is hard to deal in common businesses and not defile our selves and that those that come to holy things with common affections and carriages profane them Nor given ought thereof for the dead To bury them or buy provision for the funerall feast Ier. 16.7 Ezek. 24.7 Hos 9.4 Ye have done according c. It is a witty expression of Luther By mens boasting of what they have done sayes he Haec ego feci haec ego feci they become nothing else but Faeces dregs But so did not these See the note on vers 13. Vers 17. Thou hast avouched This we do when with highest estimation most vigorous affections and utmost indeavours we bestow our selves upon God giving up our names and hearts to the profession of truth And this our chusing God for our God Psal 73 25. is a sign he first chose us 1 Ioh. 4.19 Mary answers not Rabboni till Christ said Mary to her It is he that brings us into the bonds of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 He first cryes out who is on my side Who and then gives us to answer as Esay 44.6 One sayes I am the Lords another calls himself by the name of Jacob another subscribes c. Vers 19. And to make thee high Assyria is the work of Gods hand but Israel is his inheritance Isa 19.25 43.3 CHAP. XXVII Vers 2. ANd plaister them with plaister That they might have it in white and black Vers 4. In mount Ebal Where the curse was denounced vers 13. to signifie that those that sought salvation in the law must needs be left under the curse The law is a yoke of bondage as Hierom calls it and they who look for righteousness from thence are like oxen who toyle and draw and when they have done their labour are fatted for slaughter Vers 5. Thou shalt build an altar For burnt offerings c. Vers 6.7 God teacheth them thereby that righteousness impossible to the law was to be sought in Christ figured by that altar and those sacrifices Thus the morall law drove the Iewes to the ceremoniall which was their Gospell as it doth now drive us to Christ who is indeed the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 Vers 8. All the words of this law very plainly Therefore it could not be all Deuteronomy much less all Moses books as some have thought for what stones could suffiee for such a work Unless they could write as close but how then could it be very plainly as he did who set forth the whole history of our Saviours passion very lively In canicular colloq both things and acts and persons on the nailes of his own hands as Maiolus reporteth Vers 15. Cursed be he c. The blessings are not mentioned by Moses that we might learn to look for them by the Messiah only Act. 3.26 Vers 16. That setteth light That vilipendeth undervalueth not only that curseth as Exod. 21.17 Vers 24. That smiteth Either with violent hand or virulent tongue Ier. 28.18 Vers 26. Cursed Aut faciendum an t patiendum Men must either have the direction of the law or the correction CHAP. XXVIII Vers 1. IF thou shalt hearken diligently Heb. If hearkening thou shalt hearken If when Gods speaks once thou shalt hear it twice as David did Psal 62.11 by a blessed rebound of meditation and practice Will set thee on high Thou shalt ride upon the high places of the earth Isai 58.14 There thou shalt have thy commoration but in heaven thy conversation Philip. 3.20 being an high and holy people Deut. 26.19 high in worth and humble in heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian as one saith of Athanasius Vers 2. And overtake thee Unexpectedly befall thee Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee Psal 23.6 as the evening Sun-beames follow the passenger as the rock-water followed the Israelites in the wilderness and overtook them at their stations 1 Cor. 10.4 O continue or draw out to the length thy loving kindness unto them that know thee Psal 36.11 There will be a continued Series a connexion between them to all such Vers 3. Blessed shalt thou be What blessedness is See the Note on Mat. 5.3 Vers 4. The fruit of thy body Which is thy chief possession Dulcis acerbitas amarissima voluptas Tertull. but without my blessing will be bitter sweets Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of such as are as the arrowes of a strong man Psal 128 4. the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed and made smooth by grace Arrowes be not arrowes by growth but by art what can better preserve Iacob from confusion or his face from waxing pale then when he shall see his children the work of Gods hands framed and fitted by the word in regeneration and the duties of new obedience This will make him to sanctifie God even to sanctifie the Holy One and with singular incouragement from the God of Israel Isai 29.22 23. Vers 7. The Lord shall cause thine enemies Mr. Fox observes that in King Edward the sixth's time the English put to flight their enemies in Muscleborough field the self-same day and hour wherein the reformation enjoyned by Parliament Act. Mon◠was put in execution at London by burning of Idolatrous images Such a dependance hath our success upon our obedience And flee before thee seven wayes In the fore-mentioned fight many so strained themselves in their race that they fell down breathless and dead whereby they seemed in running from their deaths to run through it 2000 lying all day as dead got away in the night The Irish were so galled or scared with the English ordnance Life of Edw. 6 by Sr. Io. H. that they had neither good hearts to go forward nor good liking to stand still nor good assurance to run away saith the Historian Vers 8. The Lord shall command the blessing Now if he send his Mandamus who shall withstand it Vers 10. And they shall be afraid of thee Naturall conscience cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly When they see in them that which is above the ordinary nature of men or their expectation they are afraid of the Name of God whereby they are called their very hearts ake and quake within them as is to be seen in Nebuchadnezzar Darius Herod Dioclesian who was so amazed at the singular piety and invincible patience of the primitive Christians that he laid down the Empire in a humour Bucholcer quod christi nomen se deleturum uti cupiverat desperasset because that when he sought to root out religion he saw he could do no good on 't Vers 12. And
would distinguish themselves from Brownists Are they not all or most of them borrowed out of Mr. H. Jacobs books who was but of yesterday The Antinomians usually call upon their hearers to mark it may be they shall hear some new truth that they never heard before when the thing is either false or if true no more then ordinarily is taught by others Vers 18. And hast forgotten God that formed thee Or that brought thee forth Here God is compared to a mother as in the former clause to a father So Jam. 1.18 Of his own will begat he us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He brought us forth and did the office of a mother to us which doth notably set forth his love and the work of his grace Vers 19. Of his sons and of his daughters Titular at least wherefore their sin was the greater What Thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my son Brutus This cut Caesar to the heart Vers 20. I will see what their end shall be This is spoken after the manner of men as likewise that vers 27. In whom is no faith i. e. fidelity as Matth. 23.23 there 's no trusting them or taking their words Vers 21. And I will move them to jealousie Thus God delights to retaliate and proportion jealousie to jealousie provocation to provocation So frowardness to frowardness Psal 18.26 contrariety to contrariety Levit. 28.18 21 c. With a foolish nation With the conversion of the Gentiles Rom. 10.19 which the good Jews could not easily yeeld to at first Act. 11.2 3. And the rest could never endure to hear of it See 1 Thess 2.15 16. At this day they solemnly curse the Christians thrice a day in their Synagogues with a Maledic Domine Nazarais They have a saying in their Tulmud Optimus qui inter gentes est dignus cui caput conteretur tanquam serpenti The best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head broke as the Serpent had Yea they think they may kill any Idolaters Therefore Tacitus saith of them There was misericordia in promptu apud suos sed contra omnes alios hostile odium mercy enough toward their own but against all others they bare a deadly hatred Vers 22. For a fire See the Note on Chap. 10.4 Vers 23. I will spend mine arrowes Which yet cannot be all spent up as he feared of his Jupiter Si quoties peccent homines c. Vers 24. Burnt with hunger Which makes mens visages blacker then a coal Lam. 4.8 with burning heat i. e. With the burning carbuncle or plague-sore See Haba◠3.5 Vers 25. And terrour within Warring times are terrible times By the civil dissentions here in King Iohn's time all the Kingdom became like a general shambles or place of infernal terrours and tortures War saith One is a misery which all words how wide soever want compass to express It is saith Another the slaughter-house of mankind and the hell of this present world See the Note on Gen. 14 2. Vers 27. Were it not that I feared See vers 20. Lest their adversaries This is that likely that moves the Lord hitherto to spare England God hath dealt with us not according to his ordinary rule but according to his prerogative England if it may be so spoke with reverence is a paradox to the Bible Pererius the Jesuite commenting upon Gen. 15.16 If any marvel saith He why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruel persecution just execution he should have said of Catholikes there I answer Because their sin is not yet full Sed veniet tandem iniquitatis complementum c. We hope better though we deserve the worst that can be But somewhat God will do for his own great Name and lest the enemy exalt himself Psal 140.8 and say Our hand is high the Lord hath not done this Vers 28. For they are a nation See the Note on Chap. 4.6 It was Chrysippus that offered that strict and tetrical division to the world Aut mentem aut restim comparandum Vers 29. Oh that this people were wise Sapiens est cui res sapiunt prout sunt saith Bernard That they would consider their latter end This is a high point of heavenly wisdome Moses himself desires to learn it Psal 90.12 David also would fain be taught it Psal 39.4 Solomon sets a Better upon it Eccles 7.2 Ierusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end therefore also she came down wonderfully Lam. 1.9 The kite by the turning of his tail directs and winds about all his body Consideratio fini◠tanquam caudae ad vitam optimè regendam confert Mr. Ward 's Sermons saith Berchorius I meet with a story of one that gave a prodigal a ring with a deaths-head with this condition that she should one hour daily for seven dayes together look and think upon it which bred a strange alteration in his life like that of Thesposius in Plutarch or that more remarkable of Waldus the rich Merchant of Lions c. Vers 30. How should one chase a thousand i.e. Howshould one of the enemies chase a thousand Israelites who had a promise of better things Levit. 26.8 but that having first sold themselves for nought Isai 52.3 they were now sold by God who would own them no longer Psal 31.7 8. Vers 31. For their Rock is not as our Rock We may well say who is a God like unto thee Mic. 7.18 Contemno minutulos istos deos modo jovem Jehovam mihi propitiumc habeam I care not for those dunghill-Deities so I may hav◠the true God to favour me Even our enemies Exod. 14.25 Num. 23.8 12. 1 Sam. 4.8 Vers 32. For their vine is of the vine Vitis non vinifera sed venenifera The vine is the wicked nature the grapes are the evill works So Isai 59.5 They hatch cockatrice egges and weave the spiders web vanity or villany is their whole trade he that eateth of their egges dyeth c. Look how the bird that sitteth on the serpents egges by breaking and hatching them brings forth a perilous brood to her own destruction so do those that are yet in the state of Nature being the heires of Original and the fathers of Actual sins which when they are finished bring forth death Jam. 1.15 Vers 33. Their wine i. e. Their works yea their best works prove pernitious to them not their own table only but Gods Table becomes a snare to the unprepared communicant he sucks there the poyson of aspes c. Iob 20 16. he eats his bane and drinks his poyson as Henry 7. Emperour was poysoned in the Sacramental bread by a Monk Pope Victor 2. by his Sub-deacon in his challice and one of our Bishops of York by poison put into the wine at the Eucharist Vers 34. Is not this laid up in store To wit for just punishment though for a while I forbear them The wicked man is like a thief which having stollen a horse rides