habetur Circumcisio ut non passim Vulgo ignobili sed solis Sacerdotibus aut Mystis credatur Nam apud Aegyptios qui in Superstitionibus vestris vetustissimi habentur eruditissimi à quibus propè omnes reliqui Ritum sacrorum Caeremoniarum mutuati sunt apud hos inquam nullus avt Geometriae studebat avt Astronomiae ...... nise Circumcisione susceptâ .... Hoc igitur apud Iudaeos turpe obscoenum judicatis quod apud vos ita honestum habetur ac magnum Now if any one ask How come the Egyptians who were fully peopled before Abraham's time and of the Off-spring of Cham to have any Circumcision at all among them Was Circumcision ancienter than He Some are of opinion that they might learn it in after-times from the Ishmaelites who when they traded into Egypt sold Ioseph there But that they rather learned it from the Israelites themselves while Ioseph was in much authority there relieth on the opinion of divers ancient Fathers and modern Interpreters and that with reason since Ioseph lived in Egypt about ninety three years in all and Israel came to him thither when he was but young viz. about thirty seven years of Age Time enough to bring the Egyptians to some odd conformity or other To go on with Philo a little further Another reason saith he is for the sake of better propagation for the circumcised Nations are said to be most populous But this agrees little with a passage of R. Moses Ben Marmon who hath carried away the reputation from all the modern Iews and who seems also to philosophize for plausibility as Philo had done before him for he says That in his judgment Circumcision was instituted unto this end that the lust of men should be thereby abated and that Member which is the Instrument thereof impaired which he taketh to be the principal reason If impaired never the better to propagate but if debilitated one would think as the Rabbi says the less prone to lust But this saith Lorinus is not much credited amongst us who hear that the circumcised Turks and Saracens are more inordinate in their lust than the generality of uncircumcised people Secondly To consider therefore this Question not as it is wire-drawn to avoid prejudice but as it is to be accommodated to the state and times of the Old Testament CHAP. XVI The true ends of Circumcision I. Civil to distinguish them from other Heathen people or corrupted Worshippers which was a Bridle to them as restraining them from mixt marriages and fornication and given as a mark to make them odious to the Gentiles and the Gentiles an abhorrency to them 2. Moral to put them in mind of purity of heart 3. Spiritual and Mystical in respect First Of Abraham Secondly Of his Seed and thirdly houshold 4. Of the whole Church Why Ishmael must be circumcised Arminius taxed why the Sons of Keturah were also to be circumcised and in fine all the Servants THE ends of Circumcision in reality seem to be partly Civil whereby the Jewish Nation should be severed from others partly Moral to teach them purity and partly Typical or Spiritual in respect to the holy Seed and the Mysteries thereafter to be revealed 1. For the first of these Maimonides himself striketh in with the right immediately after the words cited before But saith he there is also another reason viz. That all such as are of this Faith have one certain sign of conjunction against any that should thrust in amongst them For Circumcision is such a thing as no man will admit but for Religion sake And thus Circumcision is a Covenant S t Paul calls it a sign and seal of a Covenant which our Father Abraham made and so many as are circumcised enter into the same viz. to believe the Unity of God as God faith I will be a God unto thee and unto thy Seed after thee And this reason saith he is as firm and valid as the former and it may be more solid To which Iosephus was agreed before viz. That God commanded Abraham that his Posterity should be circumcised in their Privities by reason that he would not that Abraham's Posterity should be intermingled with other Nations To which purpose S t Chrysostom speaketh thus See saith he the wisdom of God For knowing what evil impressions the Hebrews were like to take he imposed the Sign of Circumcision as a Bridle on them lest they should mix themselves with other Nations that so the Seed of the Patriarch Abraham might remain unmixed and undefiled in them to the end that the promises of God might be accomplished in his Seed But how a Bridle Why when men began to multiply and Daughters were born unto them the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and they took them Wives of all which they chose Which brought in both Idolatry and all uncleanness and provoked God before to send a Deluge Now Circumcision was not only given them as a mark to warn them against the like wandring but to shame them if they did if they should but offer to uncover their nakedness unto any Stranger for it served both to make the Israelites a scorn to Foreigners and the uncircumcised a like abhorrency unto them that the due enmity betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent might be the better stated Among the Romans Iudaes Apella was a term of derision Neither may there seem to be any greater reason why Tacitus should write foeda superstitio upon the Jewish Religion than this since in their worship there was nothing like to the Rites of Bona Dea or Priapus to be observed And on the other hand it was the greatest reproach which the Iews thought they could cast upon other people to call them Uncircumcised We cannot give our Sister say the Sons of Iacob to one that is uncircumcised for that were a reproach unto us Let us go over unto the Garison of these uncircumcised Philistins said Ionathan Who is this uncircumcised Philistine said David And it may be for this reason S t Paul reckoneth the Maltese but as Barbarians while he counts it an honour to himself that he was a free-born Roman Nay whereas the Greeks and Romans looked upon other Nations as barbarous only out of scorn the Iews looked on all alike as barbarous with the more bitterness because they were not circumcised But of this we shall have somewhat to observed further when we come into the Wilderness 2. Circumcision was also ordained for a Moral End In which alone Philo doth acknowledge some part of the truth but in such an Heathenish manner that his similitude is not only filthy but as false and unworthy to be conceived to have ever entred into the purer thoughts of God but that the outward Circumcision taught the Israelites the circumcising of their hearts ears and lips the Phrase of the Scripture doth
revealed one part of this mystery to some others a little more to no one the whole Nay it is to be gathered from that place of S t. Peter quoted before that some of them had Commission to prophesie more than the meaning whereof was revealed even to themselves For he saith Of which salvation the Prophets that prophesied have enquired and searched diligently of the Grace that should come unto you and not unto themselves unto whom it was revealed at the last that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you Which things for all their Prophecies the Angels desired to pry into Let us first consider the things believed or to be believed betwixt them and us and secondly then demodo of the manner of their Faith and ours how far they agree or differ First If they and we do agree in the same Creed which is called the Apostles Creed then certainly we both agree in side credendâ in the Faith which is to be believed But why we should not be taken to agree in this since every Article of it may be articulately proved out of the Old Testament there can indeed be no other reason given than that which is insinuated viz. That though the substance be there yet it lyes scattered and was not revealed so much as in the matter all at once nor the end clearly understood by them to whom the matter it self was revealed Now if this Creed which is sufficient be but understood confusedly by many of ours and yet we take it to be ground enough for a saving faith to be built upon it as they know in part how much more may we extend our latitude of Charity to the Saints of the Old Testament who believed upon the matter as much as some of ours before it was propounded in such an order Let me say further That it was enough for them to know in the general that Christ should be born in the time appointed to redeem us without any circumstances to ground even a Fiducial Faith upon that alone But let us see how much they knew more We have proved that our Father Adam offered Sacrifices according unto revelation And if they came in use by revelation it is reasonable to imagine that the end also was some way or other revealed from the first viz. That Christ himself should be offered up unto God in the appointed time to do away that sin which Adam had contracted the punishment whereof deserved death and fire as the act of Oblation required true repentance and contrition with compassion on the innocent that was to dye in the sread of the nocent And was not Abraham taught as much as this do you think when God commanded him to offer up his only Son Isaac and in sparing Isaac provided Abraham of another Sacrifice But when we come to the Book of the Psalms and the Prophets both the death and resurrection and ascension and sending of the Holy Ghost are all described to the life so that the Object of Faith was but only more comfortably enlarged than before and left under less obscurity as the Day-Star and the dawning drew the nearer Nor was all the Scripture of the Old Testament of no profit in its own time which was given by inspiration of God for their instruction in righteousness though many things happened unto them as Types unto us and are also written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come Upon all which S t Augustine is here producible with a clear Verdict Before the Coming of Christ faith he there were righteous men so believing in him to come as we believe in him come The times are varied not the Faith We believe that our Lord was born of a Virgin suffered rose again and ascended They that all this should be thereafter c. Secondly But because neither they nor we could be saved by believing any Articles only howsoever clear let us next consider de modo or de fide quâ by what manner of faith they might believe in Christ as well as we unto justification by him To this we have also an Answer in the general from the same Father Whosoever saith he from the beginning have believed in him however understood whensoever it was or wheresoever they were without doubt they were saved by Him But this Answer will not serve the turn since the late distinction of the School-men about explicit and implicit faith so that we must endeavour to give a clearer and more particular Reply to the thing in Question The Distinction it self seemeth to have been first coined by Aquinas in his Comments on the Master of the Senteces who called this explicit Faith Fidem distinctam in aperto and the other Fideâ—â— velatam in mysterio such a distinct Faith by revelation as Abraham and Moses had and such a veiled Faith in the mystery as they received from them in the after-times to whom no more was revealed but that they must believe as Abraham and Moses had done before having no distinct knowledge of all the Articles of the Faith that were delivered to them But Aquinas's explicit Faith is described to be Quâ quid creditur secundùm se in particulari the believing of a thing by it self and in particular and his implicit to be Quà quid creditur in alio tanquâ—m in universali the believing of a thing that is contained in another as in the general Which at last was wrested to this sense Velut si quis ex animo profiteatur se credere quicquid credit Ecclesia as if any one should profess that he believeth from his heart what the Church believeth which we take to be no faith at all but only a blind obedience But of the Believers of the Old Testament we say first that they had a certain explicite Faith in Christ in some measure every one of them according to the Word of Grace that was any way revealed or transmitted to them And then that there was implicitly more contained in that which they received which was indeed veiled in a mystery than they could possibly conceive Whether they received it in Doctrine or in the Promises or more especially in any of the Types and Figures of the Law But an implicit Faith in their own Church they had not neither could they be saved by the faith of their Progenitors like little Infants as Cunâ—us is apt to think that some of them might be but every one by his own faith and that a Fiducial Faith too wherein I follow Cunaeus for the rest But to avoid that Question of the Schoolmen or to refer my Reader to them How much or how little it was necessary for the ordinary people before the coming of Christ to believe concerning him as also to make way for my more direct proceeding I cannot but take that passage of S t Bernard in my way If
the Prophets faith he and choicest of them did not all know all alike but some more some less how much more might the simpler sort without any detriment unto their salvation be ignorant of the time and manner while they held fast the things promised with a certain faith and hope Yet I cannot but wonder how the Fathers and Schoolmen could all beat about so much as they have done in this suit and not withal bethink themselves that this faith of the Believers of Israel at least was not wholly towards a Mediator to come but was also in him as having him with them in every time even as they had ever since they had the name of Israel For I have shewed how he wrestled with Israel in particular and was with them all in the Red Sea and the Desart To proceed therefore a little further and you shall know what manner of explicit and siducial faith they had and how far it was implicit or veiled take which term you like the better and how agreeable unto that Faith which we conceive to be saving now CHAP. XXVI That the Israelites were not saved by a blind obedience or any mere implicit faith only but by a fiducial trust in the mercies of God as they were exhibited in the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy-seat erected over it That the Cherubims erected at either end represented the same Church of one piece of either Testament looking towards Christ who really dwelt by his Divine presence betwixt them and so shewed himself their King and Prophet The Argument of the next Chapter propounded WE are never nearer to a bright Morning than when we pass through an early foggy Mist. When we are told that the Israelites for their parts might be saved by a mere obedience without any explicit Faith at all in Christ tanquam per opera operata as they speak abusively to the very terms or else by the faith of their Forefathers as if it could be imputed unto them to justification as Christ's righteousness is to us Or in fine by believing that God who could do wonders would redeem them and all Mankind one way or other in the general they knew not how we are left in a maze But when we come to this result viz. That as the Patriarchs before the Law worshipped God in Christ at many Altars so after the giving of the Law the Children of Israel worshipped him in his holy Tabernacle at one only Altar as having Christ there in the midst of them sitting on the Mercy-Seat as his Throne and dwelling betwixt the Cherubims who was the Keeper of their Covenant and that their trust in the mercies of God shadowed there by the wings of the Cherubims according to all his promises was their â—iducial faith in God through Christ Iesus I say when we come to this result methinks we have found a certain Clue to bring us out of all perplexity and to shew us that the Saints of the Old Testament had at least enough to stay their Stomachs till the Word it self should be made flesh and come to dwell among them in a larger place In this posture we therefore find the Mediator of both Testaments as exercising all his Offices under the first for protection direction and doing away of sin in such an extraordinary way as all the other expedients of the Ceremonial Law could not come near The Ark it self contained the Law of the ten words which when the people had accepted saying All that the Lord hath spoken we will do it became a Covenant of Works to that people and to no other though a Rule and Obligation unto all Mankind that should come to know it And when God had commanded that this should be laid up before him in the Ark and placed in the Holy of Holies the Ark came to be called the Ark of the Covenant or of Testimony However he that gave the Law knowing their proneness to â—â—ansgress was graciously pleased to command that it should be covered with the Mercy-Seat remembring his elder Covenant of Grace made with Abraham Isâ—aâ— and Iacob in whom not only one people but all the nations of the earth should be blessed And for Supporters to the Mercy-Seat as a Royal Throne he caused two Cherubims of Gold beaten out of one Piece to be set at either end of it which spreading out their wings on high covered the Mercy-Seat therewith and having their faces one towards another looked both towards the Mercy-Seat Now in that the Cherubims were both of one Piece looking both towards this Mercy-Seat which was also made of pure Gold that we might know the worth of mercy they served aptly to set forth the posture of the Saints of both Testaments which in their faces look towards one another and both towards Christ and in the spreading of their wings they reach the two sides of the World while they touch in the middle and so do sweetly join to one another as D r Lightfoot speaks But betwixt these was the strength and glory of Israel the most pregnant and proper resemblance of our Saviour in whom God dwelleth among men Nor was it a mere resemblance but it was truly so For Hezekiah in his distress prayed before the Lord and said O Lord God of Israel which dwellest between the Cherubims bow down thine ear and hear open thine eyes and see and save us that all the Earth may know that thou art the Lord God even thou alone This Ark the Priests were therefore ordered to carry forth to Battel while the Tabernacle stood and it was the Palladium of Israel they were either victorious or invincible while they had it with them for the King of Glory went along with it And Who was that King of Glory The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battel The Lord of Hosts is the King of Glory So that when the Philistines had once taken this Ark though they could not hold it long the Wife of Phinehas fell in travail and dyed having first named her Son Ichabod because said she the glory is departed from Israel since the Ark of God is taken In fine when it pleased God to deliver them up to the Assyrians for their incorrigible Idolatry which was not a breach of the Covenant in part but in the whole he suffered this Ark Mercy-Seat and all to be burned with the Temple To this the same Ark was their Oracle and gave name to the whole Room the Holy of Holies to be called the Oracle For there I will meet with thee said God and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat from between the two Cherubims which are upon the Ark of the testimony of all things which I will give in commandment unto the Children of Israel And thus it was of frequent use so long as the first Temple did continue But that which is most to the purpose to understand the Object and the
Which to me prophanum quoddam sonat audax seems to be too bold a sense to agree with that expression of our Apostle Now consider how great this man was unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils Which words are surely imcompatible unto the best of the race of Canaan But the circumstances agree well that this Melchisedeck should be the great Patriarch Sem the high Progenitor of Abram from whom in a direct Line Abram was of the ninth Generation for Sem begat Arphaxad and He Salah and He Eber and He Peleg and He Reâ— and He Serug and He Nahor and He Terah and Terah Abraham And Sem lived in all six hundred years whereof a hundred and fifty in Abraham's life time so that very venerable must his presence needs be to Abraham who was so much a Puisâ—é among the Great Great Grand-Children of Sem. Now if any wonder how this Sem should come to dwell and have a Kingdom among the Canaanites it is to be remembred what Noah had said when he cursed Canaan Blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his Servant So that for a time Shem might have an habitation amongst them and he built the City of Salem as it is conceived amongst them all other Nations becoming soon a confused medly of people besides the Israelites whom God preserved intire to himself And so it may be this branch of Sem after his death that dwelt at Salem might come to be incorporated with the other Nations that were afterwards to be destroyed for their idolatry But the blessing went away with his Son Arphaxad only of all his Sons mentioned before whither he went and followed only his Posterity according to election till the time of promise was compleat and the iniquity of the Canaanites full that the Sons of Sem by Eber alone might have it all at last Only this we may observe That for a long time after Adam and after Noah the Church of God was in divers Families and in divers Kindreds But as in the old World the Children of men came to be distinguished from the Sons of God by the House of Seth and his Son Enos when men began to call upon the name of the Lord in Assemblies apart from the other So after the Flood the like happened to the House of Sem the whole House of Sem till out of this it pleased God to make a more particular election of the Seed of Abraham for his peculiar people to be his visible Church on Earth to which all Nations owed reverence and obedience as they hoped to share in the blessings of his holy Covenant not to dispute here whether the whole Election or the whole Covenant of Grace as to the inward part was not larger than the Covenant of Promise entailed only unto Abraham and his Seed with the outward priviledges annexed to it But before the Call of God to Abraham he disdained not to be called the Lord God of Shem yet after that it was said to Abraham in appropriated terms with addition above Sem for his posterity I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed after thee By which new way of entailment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God common and as common appertaining unto all was saith Chrysostome made his by peculiar interest and appropriation since when it is delivered declared and averred by God himself for him and his Seed I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob this is my name for ever this is my memorial from generation to generation And so he continued known and distinguished in the World of old until the incarnation the God of Israel above other people Let us therefore next consider how it pleased God to form them CHAP. XIV That God's Command to Abram might not seem too hard it pleased him to mollifie it with an ample Promise only general at the first Which he delayed about twenty eight years to exercise the faith of Abram and repeated with some variety to the sixth time after long intervals Abram running divers hazards between Abram is terrified by seeking of a sign and why Sarai thinking the promise not to be to her weakly giveth Hagar to her Husband yet divers mysteries in the coming of Ishmael betwixt the promise and the Son of promise IF Chaldaea had not been grosly idolatrous saith Bishop Hall Abraham had not left it But how could he chuse since God had called him from thence even out of Mesopotamia which is invironed with the two great Rivers of Euphrates and Tigris about which Tracts the Garden of Eden is thought to have been situated But whither must he go to a place he knew not to men that know not him The Text says no more at the first word but only unto a Land that I will shew thee Wherefore that this Command of God might seem the less hard or strange to Abram he thought it not too much condescension to his chosen Vessel to mollifie it with a rich and gracious promise both temporal and spiritual I will make of thee saith he a great Nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed In which promise it is contained 1. That God would make of his Seed a great Nation 2. That that Nation should be a blessing in that it should become his only true Church 3. That God would bless the friends and blast the enemies thereof 4. That at last all the faithful throughout all the Families of the World to the World's end should become the Children of Abraham through faith in the blessed Seed promised who was to be made of God the Heir of all things visible and invisible by which faith they should be after blessed as Abraham himself was before Now to exercise this faith of Abraham and to make him a pattern to all posterity it pleased God to delay this promise for the space of twenty eight years till there was little hope in Abraham and none at all in Sarai of obtaining any Issue and yet still to continue this promise after divers tedious intervals to a sixth repetition with some seeming variation in the terms He no sooner had received the first general promise mentioned above but God drove him out of Canaan into Egypt by famine as was touched before where he was in fear of being killed for Sarai's sake Then he soon finds himself after his return engaged in a War to rescue Lot leading forth three hundred and eighteen of trained Servants born in his own house besides some Auxiliaries of the Amorites his Confederates under the Conduct of Aner Eshcol and Mamre in whose Plain at that time Abram sojourned when the tidings were brought unto him which
whereof this Hagar and her Son Ishmael were a Type or Allegory Which do answer saith the Apostle to the unbelieving Ierusalem that now is or still remaineth fixed to the Law of Mount Sinai the Law of the old Covenant or Testament But Sarah and her Son Isaac the Son of the promise do answer unto that Ierusalem which is from above viz. the Church of the Gentiles called by wonders from Heaven with the descending of the Holy Ghost Which Church is free both from all the burthen of the Law and from all its defects as having that joy in the Holy Ghost which by the Law it could not possibly have attained to Unto which Church it is further promised that the desolate which was should have more Children than she which hath the Law for an Husband But what saith the Scripture Cast out the Bond-woman and her Son for they cannot live together by reason of the Spirit of persecution that is in one against the other much less can they inherit together that lay claim by titles so opposite to one another as the Law and Works the Gospel and its Grace CHAP. XV. At the fifth renewal of the promise God augmented the names of Abram and Sarai And required a Covenant from Abraham and his Seed the effect of which was That he would be their God and they should be his people Why God required such a sign as Circumcision to be the token of the Covenant Wherein the Glosses of Philo and Maimonides are detected How Circumcision came to be in use in Egypt and who of them received it The right state propounded as it was to be accommodated to the times of the Old Testament NOW when it pleased God to renew his promise at the fifth course when Abram was ninety nine years old and Sarai past Child-bearing according unto Nature he added an ◠of augmentation in the midst of Abram's name and in the end of Sarai's that the one should thereafter be called Abraham and the other Sarah the reasons whereof to refer the rest unto the Cabbalists are given in the Text. And so the promise it self is exhibited in ampler terms than before and Sarah expresly shewed to be in her own Person the Woman that should conceive this Seed and the set time viz. at that set time in the next year after God had done talking with Abraham and went up from him But Abraham is now given to understand that according unto this Grace he must enter into a Covenant with God for himself and for his Seed after him wherein God would also condescend to be one Party of the Covenant with him which in effect was this That God would be the God of him and his Seed and that he should be their only God In token of which Covenant as a recognizance or acknowledgment of it God required of Abraham that he and his Seed every male at eight days old should be circumcised in the foreskin of the flesh and all that were born in his house or bought with money of any stranger which was not of his seed under penalty of being cut off from his people whosoever should break the Covenant in remaining uncircumcised after this So Abraham began with Ishmael or with himself it is uncertain whether but to me it seems that it was with himself So that Abraham's heart being formed by faith before God would also now have all of the same profession to be signed with the same Sign whereby his visible Church and people should be distinguished from others and Sacramentally sanctified unto himself Which mystery is therefore next to be enquired into with the greater diligence It appeareth by it self what circumcision is The only thing to be admired is Why it should please God to make an holy Ordinance of so obscene a thing as Circumcision saltem in adultis at the least in grown men that were to be made Proselytes whom one would think the pain should not more keep off than the shame of the thing in the eyes of common men And to what ends especially he did require it Which may draw in all the Question here so far as it doth relate unto the times of the Old Testament for of the remainder if God permit there is more to be said hereafter And because this is no Polemical Discourse in its first intention I shall endeavour to be the briefer in the stating of it This Question therefore may be considered First As it hath been blanched or coloured to make it more plausible unto the Philosophical apprehensions of the learneder sort of Heathens Secondly As it was accommodated to the state of the Old Testament from Abraham until Moses Ioshua David and the times of the Maccabees Thirdly As it was a Type a Figure a Mystery or a Sacrament referring unto Christ and the state of his Church to come under the ministration of the New Testament Which are all worthy to be weighed by themselves First I find that Philo a Iewish Philosopher of Alexandria imitating Plato descended from one Class or other of the Chief Priests and sent as an Ambassador from the Jews of that place unto the Emperour Cains about seven years after the death of Christ endeavouring as his manner is to apologize for Iudaism that it might seem the more gentile among the Gentiles among other reasons why Circumcision was introduced by their Ancestors and transmitted to their Posterity speaketh thus The Circumcision of our Ancestors is derided but it is had in no small honour among other Nations especially the Egyptians who excel no less in sapience than in populacy of men And Herodotus informs us That divers other Nations as the Ethiopians Phoenicians and Inhabitants of Colchos c. derived this Custom from the Egyptians Philo goes on and says That one cause of it is For that Circumcision is a good prevention of a foul Disease called the Carbuncle Whether he mean the same that was since known in these Parts by the Neapolitan Disease let the learned judge and enquire whether this Disease was known in those times and Countries when Philo wrote or not and whether this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were a preventive remedy against that Disease Another reason he says was That the whole Body might become the purer so that the Egyptian Priests did add rasure to it over all their Bodies that they might come the purer to their Offices Now as for this Herodotus indeed says That the Egyptians circumcised themselves for cleanliness making more account of that than to be decorous But on whatsoever trust Herodotus took this it could not escape the search of the learned Father Origen that this pretended cleanliness was for some reputed sanctity amongst the Egyptians and that they did not admit their Vulgar unto Circumcision but their Priests only or their Soothsayers and Students of their Hieroglyphicks and their sacred Sciences as they reputed them Apud vos inquit O Gentiles it a magni
often teach us 3. But as for that intention of this Ordinance which was Spiritual Typical and Mystical there is much matter of disputation involved in it according to the several Branches or Divisions of the Subject as it had respect first to Abraham's Person secondly His whole Seed and thirdly Family and fourthly the whole Church of Israel to which Proselytes were thereafter to be joined Under some of which Heads it will fall in to be considered how Circumcision was a Sign and of what How a Seal and of what Covenant and whether it might be imposed As to Abraham's Person in particular one of the ancientest of the Fathers hath left us this to observe viz. That whereas Abraham was old and unapt for Generation God had appointed him this suffering in the flesh that being the more debilitated in that part his faith might become the stronger in God when he should find his strength repaired above Nature A thing to be the more regarded because God had said to Abraham when he talked with him My Covenant will I establish with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year And lo that very day Abraham circumcised himself and so must needs be unfit for Sarah's Company till he was cured of it But this in fine was most pertinent to Abraham in particular Whereas at the making of the promise once before Abram had said Lord God whereby shall I know He hath now a Sign or a Token given him in his own Flesh whereby he might rest the more assured thereafter that Christ should be born of his Seed according to the Flesh out of his Loins and of the Womb of Sarah and no other Secondly Then if we look upon Circumcision with respect unto his Seed as an Ordinance for ever to be begun with Ishmael his Reprobate Issue before the Son of Promise was any otherwise conceived But in the faith of Abraham we shall find some further matter worthy to detain us in the way even though we were in haste before This is indeed one of the true reasons assigned by the Fathers and the School-men why Circumcision was given unto Abraham as to his Person viz. To be a Sign to him of that faith whereby he believed and was to believe that Christ should be born of his Seed But had this been all it had sufficed that Abrahams alone bad been circumcised in his own Person whereas if it had been so there could no Covenant have ensued comprehending all his Seed and all his houshold together with himself The Questions that arise for the clearing of this Point are three Firth Since Isaac who was to be born was declared to be the Son of the promise and Ishmael not why must Ishmael be circumcised into this Faith and be comprehended in this Covenant and that before Isaac was born Secondly Why the Sons of Keturah afterwards Thirdly Why the Servants born in the house or bought with money who were all Aliens from the Seed of Abraham For the fifth of these Must he that was an Enemy by Nature in that he must lose the inheritance that he stood so fair for before and an Enemy by God's appointment be circumcised into a Covenant of thankfulness and obedience for Isaac who was to be his Supplanter as much as Jacob after was of Esau We must take all together The whole promise made to Abram at the very first amounted unto thus much I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed And again it is said not only that Abram should become a great and mighty Nation but that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him And that he should command his Children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord that the Lord might bring upon Abraham that which he had spoken of him Ishmael had been hitherto brought up in his Fathers house to the twelfth year of his Age and taught to sacrifice which he understood no more than Circumcision but he must submit to both He was so far from being excluded from the state of Grace or the hope of Glory that he was a principal Member of the visible Church before the Son of promise was conceived Neither was he circumcised into the blessings of Isaac's house in particular but of his Father Abraham's the Father of the Nations to descend by promise from Ishmael and of all the faithful and into him that was the utmost Object of all faith the desire of all nations which whoseover should bless he should be blessed It was not sufficient therefore that only the very promised Seed should be circumcised for Isaac himself did not afterwards know whether his Son Efau or his Son Jacob should be the man till he was as blind with Age as he was with fondness of his elder Son I am not of the mind of Arminius that Ishmael or Esau though Types of rejection from the temporal promise annexed unto Isaac were not also examples of a real reprobation But if the priviledges of Nature or of the outward pale of the Church had been of any regard in the Point of Election the elder surely had not been rejected Yet it cannot be said but that the house of Abraham was enough to season both the Mother and the Son with some piety as appears by divers passages of Hagar and by Ishmael's returning after he had been turned out of doors to assist Isaac in the Burial of his Father However as he had been a Scoffer in his own Person so he continued to be a Persecutor in his Posterity which instead of the blessing inherited the curse which was opposed to it viz. I will curse him that curseth thee We read of no good man of his descent at all so far as I remember Secondly But for the Sons of Keturah I know not whether any Persecutors descended from them or no unless the Midianites out of some of which however the Subjects of Iethro and the Kenites befriended Israel and became Partakers of his Blessing So that their Circumcision served to carry the true worship of God abroad into remoter Parts when Abraham gave them gifts and sent them father off from Isaac Of the Race of Edom or as bad we are sure enough that Iob descended and his zealous friends And that our Lord himself according to the flesh drew a vein of his bloud from humble Ruth a Moabitish Woman whose Nation was abominable for its insectuous Original The chaste Bed of holy Parents hath sometimes bred a monstrous Generation and contrarily God hath raised sometimes an holy Seed from the drunken Bed of incest or fornication But as Bertram does observe the knowledge of God by such means came to be propagated far in other parts even in the times
hundred pieces of money And he erected there an Altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel that is God the God of Israel So that his Purchase seems to have been partly to prevent exceptions in that he had pitched his Tent upon part of Hamar's Patrimony and partly that he might erect his Altar of Worship in the most convenient place where-ever the other Tents were pitched for the benefit of the Drove The Purchase it self as the price was but small a parcel of a Field But why Must not he as well as his Grandfather Abraham leave it all behind him at the next remove CHAP. XXI Why the Patriarchs made it their first Work to erect Altars whereever they came What their outward form of Worship was Of the restraints and incommodities of the Patriarchs as living in Tents frugality of Diet paâ—city of entertainments want of Fields Gardens Vineyards whereby being hindred from sowing for themselves they were ost distressed through Famine if there was any scarcity abroad HItherto we have seen somewhat of the best of the Patriarchs state as viz that they had Gold and Silver and Stock and a great Retinue together with some favour in the places where they most conversed As for their outward form of Religion there being no retiring places in Tents for the exercise of devotion Isaac being fain to go forth into the Field to meditate they made it their first work to erect Altars whereever they came which were their places of resort to pray and pay their Vows and receive instructions and directions from God whether Oracularly or by the mouth of the Priest who was the Father of the Family as it is said of Rebekkah that when the Twins struggled in her She went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her Two Nations are in thy Womb which was said unto her while Abraham was yet alive Here they offered their Sin-offerings for expiation and their propitiatory Sacrifices or Peace offerings for reconcilement and for further blessings To these their Eucharistical Oblations of thanksgivings by First-fruits and Tenths and Spoils which Abraham thought meet to make Melchizedech as a greater Priest than himself Partaker of since the less is blessed by the greater because he had a certain knowledge of this before the Law As also As also that though every Father of a Family was Priest in his own Tents yet when he came to a greater Father in such a Tribe or Kindred as were true Worshippers that the younger was to serve the elder and to pay such a reverence to him as if he reserved none unto himself Let us next consider before we leave them some of their restraints and incommodities under which it pleased God to discipline and train them up unto a growing Church We have a kind of Emblem of it in the Case of the Rechabites whose Father Ionadab commanded them saying Ye shall drink no Wine you nor Your Wives nor your Sons nor your Daughters for ever Neither shall ye build house nor plant Vineyard nor have a Field nor any Seed But all your days ye shall dwell in Tents that ye may live many days in the Land where ye be Strangers Only for fear of the Army of the Chaldeans say they we dwell at Ierusalem for a time even as Abraham might do in Gerar or in Hebron whose example that devout man seemed to recommend unto his Children and their Posterity for ever and so to become more extraordinary Votaries than any of the Nazarites For Wine indeed it was not forbidden to the Patriarchs but they could not have it of their own since they could not be so well setled as Noah who began to be an Husbandman and planted a Vineyard and he drank the Wine and was drunken belike as unaccustomed to it too Even as it happened unto Lot whose Daughters got the Wine no doubt from the inhabitants of the Land But since the Patriarchs had no such intimacy with their wicked Neighbours we read of no other Beverage that they had but Milk and Water And such were their frugal entertainments with Cakes made ready upon the hearth and a little Butter Veal or Kid fetched as occasion served from the Flock And that we may likewise think might much conduce to their encrease of Wealth since they made much ado about the approach of any Visitant that came for kindness only as a rare thing As for the Fields which Abraham and Iacob purchased we have noted before that the one was for no other use but a Burying-place and the other for his Booth and his Altar even as men at a Fair pay for the Ground they break or occupy for the time For S t Stephen telleth us That God gave them no inheritance in the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as to set their foot upon but a promise only unto Abraham's posterity And S t Paul that Abraham by faith only sojourned in the Land of promise as in a strange Countrey And in opposition unto houses that he dwelt in Tabernacles which are no more comparable unto Houses than the Ship-Cabins to the Chambers of a Palace with Isaac and Iacob the Heirs with him of the same promise though for Isaac it seems that he was not lodged under the same Roof with Abraham but was enlarged enough in Family to have a Tent of his own when he went forth to meet Rebekkah and having met her he brought her into his Mother Sarah's Tent or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mutual joy and Rebekkah's better welcome Having therefore no Lands what should they do with Seed This might be the Cause why they were so oft distressed by Famine if there were a little Drought because the Husbandmen of Canaan seem to have been but few and might easily be brought to have little enough for their own necessities And by these occasions happened the chiefest of the troubles of Abraham's life that have been touched before Which things considered and weighed I cannot but wonder at some mens accessions so near unto that Socinian fancy as if the Fathers of the Old Testament did but only live according unto temporal promises as they were in part from time to time fulfilled to them So apt are men sometimes to dote upon Antiquity as if nothing in the latter Ages could either happen or be done like what was then and at other times to look upon the same as meer dotage even as young men when they hearken to old mens Tales think that they themselves are able to do much more and better Or as others pretend that the modern Ages must needs be far more knowing because they stand upon their Shoulders while they are but growing up unto their Elbows at least more pious by revelation and experience whereas more knowledge is lost than can possibly be repaired and more piety than the declining Age of the World is likely to restore CHAP. XXII Adam and Eve earnestly looked
towards the promised Seed Enoch lived an heavenly life and Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob much in private devotions The Saints of the Old Testament lived not by temporal promises nor rested in them But they lived and were saved by faith in Christ Proved out of both Testaments and one Objection answered WE may perceive by what hath been hinted before what manner of life our Father Adam lived after his transgression viz. praying and sacrificing in earnest expectation of the Seed promised in whom all Sacrifices were to cease And poor Eve to make amends travelled continually with the desire of obtaining it as She hoped in her own person Wherefore when She brought forth her first-born She said I have gotten a man from the Lord. And when She came again in process of time with Seth She said For God hath appointed me another Seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew So that the first promise being to the Seed of the Woman it is conceived to be some reason why they were allowed usually to name their own Children And when Seth had Enosh it is further said That then men began to call upon the name of the Lord that is the Sons of God began to sever themselves from the Sons of men or the Race of Cain and to worship apart from them And Enoch also the seventh from Adam of whom it is said that he walked with God and was not for God took him shewed by his prophecy what manner of Spirit he was of Behold saith he the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Behold his faith in the Point of the Resurrection and Judgment his foresight of the Flood and his great zeal against all sin especially those of the times wherein he lived Behold what Record is left of his exactness his heavenly mindedness his holy contemplations and indesinent Communion and familiarity in walking with God who had endued him with the Spirit of Prophecy and sanctity to such a measure that wanting nothing else but Vision God translated him from Earth to Heaven in the middle of his days That he should not see death for before his translation he had this testimony That he pleased God When it is therefore said of Noah That he was a just man and perfect and one that walked with God and that he endured long as a Preacher of righteousness the contradictions of Sinners while the Ark was in preparing which was about a hundred and twenty years by account we may guess whether he was not also like to Enoch And whether the holy speculations of these experienced Long-livers were dry or more unlearned than the shorter-lived and shorter-sighted casts of the Ages following may be well conjectured by the Book of Iob who lived hundreds and died full of days Now for all the Saints in general of the Old Testament let us see what their inward piety was from Abraham the Father of the faithful till the coming of Christ that I may clear this Point Vnam esse omnium fidem that there was but one faith of all Believers the same with ours faith in Christ which was the strength of all their lives and hopes and not any carnal blessings whatsoever Which I think worthy in this place as if it were once for all to state and prove and answer such Objections as may be made against it As for Abraham's private Devotions they appear in his Visions Expostulations and Intercessions with Almighty God Isaac's in his meditation and prayer recorded Iacob's in his vows and wrestlings whereby he did prevail with God and obtain the name of Israel For the state of the Question moved it needs no further explication when it shall be remembred that it speaketh not of faith under any common Notion by which it might be diversly divided but of faith taken properly and strictly for faith in Christ of which it is asserted that such a faith was in all Believers from the beginning more especially from the promise made to Abraham that in his Seed all the Nations should be blessed And according unto true method the next Proceeding must be to prove it by Authority and Reason First In the Old Testament not to cite all places but to point out to the diligent Reader how to find more Iob is express when he saith I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me In which words it is plainly manifest that Iob understood that the Seed promised was to be the Redeemer that he should come in the Flesh and after that to Judgment at the Day of the Resurrection when he should glorifie them that had believed in him All these even as we believe now In the Prophecy of Isaiah we read this Thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham Secondly In the New Testament our Saviour testifieth thus much more of Abraham in particular Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad First He might see it by the Scriptures which were extant before him for as I hinted before it is not safe to think that God had left his Church for above two thousand years without Record only to favour unwarrantable Tradition which in such times might have been erroneous or in others corrupted or too weak without any Monuments to have kept so many important Genealogies as have been collected and digested by Moses as the Spirit of God directed him and therefore thought fit to save no more but his Books unto Posterity and so to have transmitted them by memory alone Nor may it be convenient to imagine that God by revelation only discovered unto Moses all that had passed before as if he had left himself in the Ages before without witness Secondly He might know it by the Sacrifices which he was to offer for the doing away of sin which he knew to be the life of the lower Creatures instead of man till the Redeemer should come and this he might know in a more especial manner by the Precept dispensed with which he had received to offer up his only Son Thirdly He might know it by Vision and Revelation since when God had admitted Abraham himself as a Type of Christ to be a Mediator for sinful Sodom he had said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty Nation and all the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him and since he will instruct his Children after him that the Lord may bring upon
more or less profusion being partly Eucharistical even their very Sin-Offerings according to the wealth or liberality of the Offerer as also because the thing signified was of more worth than the sign thereof Yet it shall not be amiss to consider the headship of Christ two ways viz. as to 1. Power and 2. Mediation whatsoever Offices may be comprized under these during the state of the Old Testament Of the first we read That Moses when he was come to years did by faith refuse to be called Pharaoh's daughters son esteeming the reproaches of CHRIST to whose Kingdom he belonged greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward viz. in the Kingdom of Christ. And of all the people of Israel it is said That by faith they passed under Christ's conduct through the Red Sea as by dry Land Which passage of theirs is more fully cleared in another place Moreover Breâ—hren I would not have you ignorant how that all our Fathers were under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea And were all baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea And did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was CHRIST But with many of them God was not well pleased Which things were our examples Let us not therefore lust as they did neither let us tempt CHRIST as some of them also tempted HIM and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer that is the Pestilence Was not therefore the Regiment of the Church of the Old Testament under God the Father Or if any delegation of Government was unto Christ under compromise as was mentioned before did he himself destroy who was said to be the Mediator likewise before of either Testament The Answer unto this will fall in better with the next consideration viz. of the Mediation or Mediatorship of Christ which may chance to clear more obscure Texts all together 2. Wherefore as Mediator our Blessed Lord under the state of the Old Testament at least seemed in one respect to have been but as a Moderator unto temporal punishments and in another an Intercessor not only that all punishment should be remitted both temporal and spiritual but also that all Grace and Favour necessary unto that estate should be afforded Neither will I be curious to divide these Parts of his Office of Mediator more than of the other but I shall shew what I find in reference unto any part at all relating unto this Head or remaining Headship of Christ as it may happen to conduce unto the first purpose First The Apostle tells us That the Law it self was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator And that When Moses had spoken every Precept to all the people according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hysâ—op and sprinkled both the Book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you Whereupon neither the â—irst Testament was dedicated without bloud for almost all things were by the Law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no remission As the Apostle would therefore have the Corinthians know that by the ministry of Moses all the Israelites were baptized into Christ by the Type of the Cloud over their heads and the Sea round about their bodies and did in effect and virtue partake of the like Sacraments by which they ate and drank of the fulness of Christ the Rock that followed them when they left the other behind and so had the like priviledges as the Corinthians had Yet as God was displeased with many of them to their destruction so he might with these too He taketh not the Government from God the Father while he sheweth who had the conduct from the beginning hitherto Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa But if the Son be despised now as heretofore God the Father may extend his justice where the Mediator is wickedly set aside by men for whose redemption he had satisfied But whether it was ever committed unto Christ to destroy his own enemies in any other than a spiritual way before his coming or since his exaltation is beyond the Question But S t Paul would have his Galatians and the Hebrews know not only that Christ is the Mediator of a new and better Covenant than that which Moses made in the behalf of the people but also that Christ himself in the person of Moses was indeed the Mediator of that too or else that it had been the worser for them CHAP. XXIV It was necessary by reason of the Curse annexed to the first Covenant that it should be delivered in the hands of a Mediator who could be no other than Christ himself God caused the Covenant of Works to be shut in a Chest under the Mercy-seat and why The benefit of Christ's mediation otherwise The Vnity of the Spirit in both Testaments THE thing that troubled S t Paul and the Churches of his Plantation more than any other was this Certain men which came down from Iudaea taught the Brethren saying Except ye be circumcised according unto Moses ye cannot be saved Against whom S t Paul disputeth in most of his Epistles and having shewed the Churches that this Doctrine made them Debtors to the whole Law as to keep the Iewish Sabbaths New-moons and other Fasts and Feasts as also to their vows and purifyings to their abstinence from all unclean meats and from all such Companies as ate so and from all uncircumcised persons whatsoever though Believers in Christ In sine to repair to Ierusalem to sacrifice as the Head-City and Mother-Church as oft as the Law of Moses required he takes the Question it self soundly to task to discover the danger and the ill consequents of it Amongst his other Arguments these are strong and pressing 1. That the free promise was made to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the Law was given by Moses so that Abraham being justified by faith without the Law the Law could not render the promise void to any that believed as Abraham had done before 2. But that the Law so far as it contained Types and Figures of things to come was it self abolished by Christ in whom they were all accomplished 3. And as for the Moral Law That none was ever justified by that or ever could be neither was it given for that end but only added because of transgressions or deliveâ—â—d in a terrible manner to that backsliding 〈◊〉 corrupting people as a Bridle till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made 4. In fine Because the whole Law had this dreadful Codicil annexed to it Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
way Or what might they have to divide amongst them when they came home Certainly so little that there would have been no end of going or coming whereas by virtue of what they brought they were able to subsist it seems a good while e're Iacob could be prevailed with to venture Benjamin though Simeon lay at stake till their return And for the way it was never to be passed without a lusty Caravan for fear of the Ishmaelites of whose Progenitor it was said That he should be a wild man and that his hand should be against every man and every mans hand against him and the Arabians who wanted Cornespecially And now the Answer is the easier to the second viz. That in the search they went not so much by Pole as by Companies the Heads of which were the Leaders and the Purse-bearers for all the rest of their Retinue And in Benjamin's own Sack as it was designed the prize was found To the third we answer That if there were any Servants at all there might be Asses enough so that the Masters needed not to foot it back or to return home with so slender provision as is imagined And if there were no Servants Ioseph gave his Brothers not a little trouble when he gave them Waggons also without any one man mentioned to assist them It may seem rather by Iudah's fear about the losing of the Asses that they were not a few than that his Father was poor and for Iacob's Present let it be compared with other Presents of the same time nay with Abigail's a long time after when one would think that she should have stretched to pacifie the wrath of David That the seventy are recounted only to keep the Genealogy of the Headâ— of Israel Wherein the Servants had no share CHAP. XXXV The last Objection answered by shewing That the circumcised Servants were part of Jacob's household that could not be parted withal without loss scandal and prejudice to the Church of God as being 1. Children of the faith of Abraham 2. Graffed into his Seed by intermarriages 3. Distinct in Genealogy 4. Yet possibly some snare unto the Israelites by retaining a smack of their old Idolatry NOW I cannot be unsensible how loth some will be to admit many rude Herdsmen who were still apt to be at debate with their Neighbours into the number of Abraham's Seed the only Church of God lest it should be prophaned by them and prove an interruption to the promise yet I must needs shew them that these were no Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel but were really constitutive members of that growing Body 1. I think it will not be questioned but that these were part of Iacob's house or houshold who dwelt in the Tents of Iacob and then it is expresly said that Israel took his journey with all that he had And Ioseph said unto his Brethren and unto his Fathers house distinct from them I will go up and say unto Pharaoh My Brethren and my Fathers house which were in the Land of Canaan are come unto me And the men are Shepherds for their trade hath been to feed Cattel and they have brought their Flocks and their Herds more than twelve men could manage and all that they have that ye may dwell in the Land of Goshen which was a fertile Tract about the mouth of the Nile or the tongue of the Red Sea nearest unto Canaan and neglected by the Egyptians For every Shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians Out of superstition say some because they worshipped some fort of Beasts and say others out of niceness because they more affected Towns and Trades And Ioseph placed his Father and his Brethren in the best of the Land in the Land of Rameses as Pharaoh had commanded And he nourished them and all his Fathers houshold with bread according to their Families Which shews that some of the Servants also were of some account and had their own Families enough to people the rest of Goshen So that Ioseph wisely kept them at a distance from the sight of Pharaoh for fear of State-jealousie 2. As these could not be left behind without loss so neither wâ—s it lawful for Iacob or his Sons to turn them off or abandon them For their Circumcision was an indelible Character so that it would have been a reproach to Israel to have exposed any of his unto the Heathen or to have cast them into temptation of revolting to Idolatry after once they had been joined to the Church by the sign and seal of the righteousness of faith even of the same faith with Abraham in whose Seed all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed and these in particular as the first-fruits of the Gentiles Children of the faith of Abraham and Heirs of the better part of the promise and not excluded from their lots in the other part neither as we trust to shew hereafter Neither was there need to put off these for any misdemeanour since every Head of an house had power of life and death and other punishments and that without appeal to the Supreme as is manifest in the Case of Iudah and Tamar when it was told Iudah that she was with Child of whoredom saith he Bring her forth and let her be burnt And though specious things are said about the ancient use of Excommunication in the Church yet it seems to me that hitherto and long after there was no cutting off from the people but by death wherefore an Angel met Moses with a drawn Sword and sought to have slain him for his neglect of circumcising of his Child 3. Nor let any one admire at this that follows They became the Children of Abraham by a kind of adoption or insition into the Stock of Abraham by marrying of the Daughters of Israel and so in course of time they became one Kindred with them For who should they give them to besides We cannot give our Sister to one that is uncircumcised said the Sons of Iacob for that were a reproach unto us But if ye will be as we be then will we give our Daughters unto you and take your Daughters unto us and we will dwell with you and we will become one people Trouble not your self about disparagement for they were bene nati well-born who were born in the same house emancipate also tanquam liberi aut liberti by Circumcision and they lived all upon one Stock so that there could not be any want amongst them But the truth is the dignity of Degree and Pedegree went to the prime Descendents male from the Loins of the twelve Patriarchs of Israel which may seem to be the true reason why we find in the Genealogies such an account as this viz. These are the Sons of Ephraim for instance of one after their families of Shuthelah the family of the Shuthalhites of Bacher the family of the Bachrites of Taban the
not him they bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the Earth knowing what kind of reverence the proud Egyptians did expect Then Ioseph remembred the dreams which he had dreamed of them and like a crafty Statesman to get what he could out of them and to make them fit for what he presently apprehended he spake roughly to them and dealt as hardly keeping them three days in ward and speaking to them by an Interpreter nay he took Simeon from them as a Pledge and bound him before their eyes and sent them away the first time in fear But the next time as soon as Ioseph spied Benjamin in their Company he said to the Ruler of his house Bring these men into my house and slay and make ready a place that will trouble them to answer who would perswade us as if the Egyptians then did eat no living Creature for these men shall dine with me at noon Then he brought Simeon forth unto them who no doubt looked never the worse for his detainment And they made ready the Present against Ioseph came in and made many low obeysances but he spake very kindly to them Then that Ioseph might reserve Dignity to himself in the sight of the Egyptians he caused himself to be served at a Table of State and that there might be no interfering he caused his Brethren knowing their scruples about eating of unclean meats or with uncircumcised men to be served at another Table by themselves And knowing also the superstition of the Egyptians who looked upon the Hebrews as prophane to them as the Egyptians could be unto the Hebrews if they did not also scorn them as Shepherds he caused them to eat in the same presence apart so that all admired and there was no exception but they drank and were merry as Ioseph had ordered the matter and no doubt obtained favour with such Egyptian Courtiers as there were then admitted at the entertainment Now when Iacob drew near unto Goshen he thought it a fit Ceremony for his part to send Iudah before as his Harbinger to prepare for his reception by his Son Ioseph in the state wherein he then was And Ioseph hastened in his Chariot to meet him as a Prince and to do honour to his aged Father And so instructed all his Company how to behave themselves before Pharaoh But since policy did require that Pharaoh should not see all civility and gratitude seemed to prompt Ioseph that he should present at least the chief of Pharaoh's beneficiaries before his face and he thought it enough to present but five of them to do or to receive that honour It is like the most personable and fashionable of his Brethren that were the Sons of Rachel and Leah rather than of the Concubines who we are not to doubt made their reverence unto Pharaoh as the Master of the Egyptian Ceremonies should direct them But as for his venerable Father he brought him in after them which was ever esteemed the more honour and set him before Pharaoh And Iacob blessed Pharaoh after his own way whether as a Prince and Priest of the most High God or as a congratulation only of his favours And so when he went out after short communication by Interpreters he blessed him again And Pharaoh accepted of their addresses and seems to have been pleased and satisfied with them Thus was the way made for Israel and his Children to be planted in Rameses which I take to be a fenced place with a Territory situate upon the jaws of the seven-mouth'd Nile and for his Hinds and Herdsmen to pitch where they liked in the Province of Goshen So the former of these needed Tents no longer for when Ioseph sent for them he had said from Pharaoh's mouth Come unto me and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt Regard not your stuff for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours 'T is true the place might be called Rameses by anticipation as that which was called Luz was after called Bethel by Iacob's nomination but that there was an habitable Town or City before Iacob came thither I doubt not both because of Ioseph's recommendation of his father to a good place and because of the situation of it as a necessary Fortress against Out-livers of another Nation However some are of opinion that the Israelites themselves might build that City as the English did Calais while they were in Egypt before the Task-masters set them to work to fortifie it more as a Treasure-City and a Bridle to themselves from escaping as well as to keep out others against common sence for throughout their prosperity they were instructed that the Land of Canaan was their inheritance expecting daily as good a Call to return out of Egypt as ever they had to come thither Said not God unto Iacob at his first descent I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring thee up again And said not Ioseph on his death-bed unto his Brethren I dye and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this Land unto the Land which he sware unto Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ye shall carry up my bones from hence Which he did by faith as S t Paul witnesseth bearing up the like in his Brethren and Posterity In this estate the Children of Israel lived in prosperity the remaining seventeen years of Iacob's life and about fifty four more of Ioseph's through the Reign of more Kings than one as Historians tell us Even as it happened after unto Daniel for the sake of the same people when they were a second time to be redeemed from their bondage As large a time of felicity as God doth usually grant to his Church at once that their hearts should neither fail nor wax gross But before any change arrive we will leave them in their best condition in a foreign Countrey only eying in the close what their spiritual state was as the only remaining visible or at least conspicuous Church of God under Heaven CHAP. XXXVII Thâ— Israelites had toleration in Egypt as to offer Sacrifices during Ioseph's life Afterwards denied them That contrary Religions are sooner tolerated than diversities of the same That there was but one Religion in Satan's Kingdom how many Gods soever the Heathen worshipped Jews at this day tolerated much at the like rate that they were before THERE are three Questions emergent here if I may dare to handle the Argument that I have in hand viz. first Toleration secondly Division and thirdly The Unity of the Church The first from the indulgence of Egypt during Ioseph's life The second from the piety of Ioseph's house while separated from his Brethren And the third from the adoption of the whole house of Iacob whereas but one of Abraham or Isaac's Sons were comprehended in the blessing even of the Sons of Bilhah and Zilpah in opposition unto Hagar and Keturah It is not only