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
as the Prince and head of all mankind to be his residence and mansion which as it is described comprised many regions while his Children to be born had all the rest before them Whereas if there be any mystery at all to be observed in it it may seem to have been this That God would not leave Adam to abide in the wide world at large as his own master and Lord of all besides without any homage to be paid to himself his Maker and therefore that he would impale him without confinement within a certain glorious place wherein he would be worshipped in a more especial manner by him and his that were to constitute an holy Church in the state of innocency if he had held it Unto which intent God took Adam into a kind of implicit Covenant but not the same with that which some do take for the Covenant of Works with himself and to the ordinance of the Sabbath he annexed as a kind of Sacraments the Tree of knowledge for his caution and the Tree of Life for his comfort as a pledge of immortal felicity in case of his obedience But when Adam fell from this it gave occasion unto God to excommunicate and send him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the common ground from whence 〈◊〉 had been taken into that consecrated place Now although it be manifest by it self that our first Parents were created in perfection inasmuch as God blessed them as soon as he had done and said unto them be fruitful and multiply yet no Christian ever did presume to think that there was any offer of copulation between them in the Garden whether because they had no burning blood in them but were like to other tame creatures that retain their native innocence which have no desire but at certain seasons when men observe to joyn them Or whether it was so ordered according to the foreknowledge of God that no kind of inconvenience might ensue for if Adam had had but one Son born in innocency then all mankind could not have fallen together in Adam's person but the state of Men might have proved like to that of Angels whereof some left their first station while others held it Or if Eve had but conceived in her integrity that conception not having been shapen in iniquity could scarce have been said to have been born in sin or to have sinned in its Parents loins So that it might have been justly questioned how far such an issue might be lyable to or exempted from the consequents of sin in reference unto punishment for he saith Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the Father so also the soul of the Son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die But as soon as they were fallen and yet in mercy respited from sudden death they began to long for posterity both to supply their own mortality and also to obtain the blessed seed that had been promised to them for their recovery In the next place therefore we have to contemplate the greatest beauties and the most accomplisht souls that ever were as coming immediately out of the hands of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first Former of all mankind in them thrust forth to dig or till the ground that had been newly curs'd with barrenness But what shall they dig or cut withal He that made all living creatures made no tools Nay he hid the Iron within the earth so that without Iron it is not easie to come by it or if Adam find any in the stony mass above ground what should he do with it if the use of the forge was not known till Tubal-Cain was born above a hundred years after But it seems that Tubal was an improver rather than an inventer For the Text says only that he was the instructer of every Artiâ—icer as if there were Artificers before in brass and iron It makes no matter since we find that the Indians in America had Bows and Arrows and comely Tents having only ways to sharpen stones and fish-bones without the use of Iron before they learnt it hence And we will suppose our father Adam to have been much more handy and ingenious than those bruitish peoples and the better workman needs the feweâ— tools and helps for what could â—â—ve do who must be taken up for her part to make some thing or other of skins or wooll to be spun or wove or patcht for cloaths and clouâ—s against her lying-in Then she could have no other but her Husband instead of Midwife Nurse and Tender and before she could have any child to be officious to her what a deal must lie upon her hands And whereas she had this heavy sentence from the Lord I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children and thy desire shall be to thy Husband for more Judge what she might suffer by bearing and nursing Children in her time if she lived proportionably unto Adam nine hundred and thirty years and bare one year with another but three hundred of them To which misery this was also to be added she must needs bear the seed of the Serpent as well as her own and not know which was which till they should be grown when she should have more sorrow with one Cain than in bearing all the rest And thus we have surveyed some part of their outward punishment for sin CHAP. II. That our first Parents repented and believed That in token thereof they sacrificed and taught their Children so That Sacrifices were not of the light of Nature against Pelagius but of institution though not to be proved but by inference as the Lords Supper it self and Infant-Baptism and the Lords Day and single Marriages NOR can we doubt but that our first Parents seeing into what a state they had brought themselves did earnestly repent and embrace the promise of the blessed Seed and understand so much of the meaning of it as was for their use and comfort Neither could they live without fear thereafter of sinning again by the like disobedience For by occasion of their sin they came to see into the horrour of eternal death which remained as the utmost punishment thereof and which they could not understand so well before And this truth the Catholick Church hath ever held with so much zeal that it hath taxed Tatianus and the Encratitae of Heresie for holding to the contrary For say they if these were not saved of whom Christ was to be born Nihil quicquam eorum massae salvabitur Nothing of their mass can ever be saved And if they were to perish certainly the whole Church of God was once at a loss and failure which that it might not be God had no sooner excommunicated them out of his Temple of Paradise but he took them into the Church of Christ the State of Grace whereinto he called them by repentance and faith in his blessed
prayers into the nostrils of God at whose right hand the Mediator was even then also to do the same Offices for his Church and people that he doth now as it is described in the Revelation that he stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it up with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand Say not therefore that the savour of Beasts being burnt could not be sweet of it self any more than that of the sinful prayers of men God smelleth not as men do but though under Moses's order other things were added unto Burnt-offerings that there might be no evil savour possibly in the Temple as to men yet all received another scent with a sweet perfume and odour as it passed through the ministration of the Angel the Mediator of either Testament before it came into the nostrils of his Father Secondly Lumine Prophetiae Whether it were by vision or any other way of Prophetical revelation Adam as a Prophet might have all this and more as no doubt he had from God for else how should the first Church of all have been informed or directed according unto God or godliness We may not therefore suppose Adam little the worse for his Fall as Socinus or as deprived of his natural endowments the Image of God but only of all the extraordinary improvements and comforts that he had before when he had ordinary communion with God So that it is still held in the Schools That Adam was absolutely the wisest of all mortal men not Solomon excepted whose wisdom was Government and that he did not after cease to know those Creatures which he had named in Paradise And as he was the first that received Grace so we may well think that he received it not in the least measure Wherefore since our Saviour doth assure us and yet it is not to be proved out of Moses that Abraham longed to see his day and that he saw it and was glad Most like it might be then when he was about to set his Knife to Isaac's throat and lo a Ram was provided ready for him to offer up instead of Isaac and the Angel from above staid his hand from such a sad issue of obedience and the Angel swore saying By my self have I sworn saith the Lord because thou hast done this thing In blessing I will bless thee And had not Abraham reason to be glad We may doubt no less of Adam at some one time or other when he received this Ordinance of Sacrifice to be continued in their Generations until Shiloh came 2. Then after this they must needs receive and obey this enlightning from above for if we think upon Adam's Case he must needs at first be thunder-struck with the terrible appearance of God calling him to judgment and passing sentence on him For if Moses said which is not to be proved in terminis out of his own Books neither I exceedingly fear and quâ—ke when he received the Law in the Mount how much more out first Parents when they hid themselves and made such weak and lamentable excuses being forced to appear for their transgression But what should they do at last Should they rest in despair and in dejection Or should they rather strive and endeavour to rise again Certainly to rise but if so must it not be by a right repentance And was that possible without hope Or such an hope without a ground of faith Or such a faith without a clear evidence to support it And if you say they might repent believe and pray and that that might be enough without Sacrifice I answer That there was never any faith without the Church never any Church without Ordinances whereby a right faith might be supplied and the Object of faith in some measure conveyed unto right Worshippers It is in vain to imagine that they should have some faith and no practice or any right practice without a certain faith before without which it is impossible to please God These therefore put together did constitute a true Church in the persons of Adam and Eve and the Head of the Church two or three till they bred more and a sure Religion unto them and theirs of the nature of which it is that if it be not imposed by another but excogitated only it is no Religion which signifies a bond or tye such an one as a man canâ—ot lay upon himself and if he do it bâ—nds not his God to accept it or reward it in the least or so much as to approve of it lest it be a thing incongruous or disagreeable unto himself We cannot therefore imagine any time at all betwixt the Fall and the introducing of some Religion by the benefit of which our first Parents might recover But the Soâ—inians must needs suppose it if the Offering of Sacrifices were indeed the first Religion which they deny not and yet that it hung in suspense till a certain space of excogitation they care not though it be till Cain and Abel were grown unto maturity In the mean while is not this true that they which live without a right Religion do live without God in the World and are in a kind of reprobate estate Which doleful apprehension about our first Parents I have shewed you before how much the Catholick Church abhorreth CHAP. X. The last shift of the Socinians discussed wherein is shewed That Sacrifices neither probably nor morally possibly could be invented by men so as to be approved by God And that they had been unnatural if they had not been ordained towards a mystery Socinus not so pious as Pelagius or Homer IN fine Whereas the Socinians do distinguish betwixt the Laws of Nature that were eternal and immutable and those which excogitating reason might ordain towards the setting up of some conspicuous and idoneous worship to be rendred unto God and affirm that Sacrifices had their original from the latter inasmuch as they were not contrary to the former granting that they were not necessarily implied in the former and say besides that what Abel Noah and Abraham might do in this kind might be indeed by some especial Divine way so that it was not common unto others but only proper to themselves or such excellent men as they they have given us the last hints of Argument to proceed and to conclude on somewhat in the close We have shewed before the vanity of their reasoning à possibili ad necessarium from a thing possible to the certainty of the thing or to the probability either For who ever thought that a thing not repugnant must needs be or be most likely at the least How many instances might be given to expose such a supposition to laughter But
afflict Ashur and shall afflict Eber and he also shall perish for ever Nor did no other but the holy Line run through Sem himself For from his Son Elam the Elamites or Persians did derive their name from Arphaxad the chaldeans sprung and some say from his Son Ashur and not Nimrod's the Assyrians as from his Son Aram the Aramites or Syrians and from his Son Lud the Lydians what people soever they were became known according to the names of their Progenitors CHAP. XIII The knowledge of God dispersed in other Families besides Sem's but corruption in his also occasioned the Call of Abram Why Lot came with him and why he was driven into Egypt and brought back so soon Piety in Canaan while Sem lived there Nor was the whole election at first restrained to the House of Abraham NOW as Adam taught his Children as he himself had been taught by God how to sacrifice and keep the Sabbath with certain Rites of Worship and Laws of life so Noah also taught his Children all alike the same true Worship that had been delivered from Adam who dyed not much above an hundred years before the birth of Noah since he lived nine hundred and thirty years and Noah was born in An. Mundi 1056. together with the true meaning of the Covenant after the Flood betokened by a Rainbow And because Noah lived three hundred and fifty years more and the dispersion happened not in his life the knowledge of God must needs be far and wide dispersed in the Tents of Cham and Iaphet as well as in those of Sem before the Rout at Babel and they that went off in that confusion of languages could not chuse however but carry off some rudiments or other of their first breeding But when true Religion came to be corrupted in Sem's Family too as well as in the rest in the eighth Generation about five hundred and two years after the Deluge in the person of Terah who became an Idolater as the Scriptures do expresly testifie however Bishop Montague comes to have a better opinion of him Then it pleased God to call forth his elect Vessel Abram from his Fathers house to go into a Land that he would shew him where his Seed should in time to come be planted alone by themselves in the middle of the Earth and become a peculiar people unto God And Abram brought his Brother Haran's Son Lot with him by God's permission because he was a righteous man and yet neither he nor his were to be comprized in the same Covenant with Abraham and his Seed Iosephus says That Abram brought him along with him with intent to make him his Heir because as yet he had no Issue But the same Providence that brought them forth together within a while did sever them that Moab and Ammon that should hate the Seed of Abraham as much as Lot and Abram loved one another might arise out of Lot's incest and be ready planted in the Land of Canaan to be Thorns in the sides of Israel As for Abram himself God had no sooner shewed him the Land of promise but he forced him and Lot from thence by famine into Egypt to try whether he would not stagger after such a promise seeing such a defeat immediately upon it as also to make him a Type of the Seed promised who was to be driven into Egypt as soon as he was born as also to begin the sufferings of Christ in his Body the Church For it was from this time to be accounted that the four hundred years should be accomplished in him and his Seed of which he had received this threatning after such a promise of Grace for some shew of lesser faith than he had exprest before Know of a surety that thy Seed shall be a Stranger in a Land that is not theirs as Egypt and the parts about for in Egypt it self they remained but two hundred and ten years and shall serve them four hundred years But while Abram sojourned here he found more piety than he expected as he after did in the same Case at Gerar of the Philistines However Pharaoh's mistaken kindness unto Sarah occasioned the dismission of Abram and Lot with all their substance into Canaan as it is thought the very next year where their substance being greatly encreased they were fain to part their Companies also being great Abram was put to shew his power in falling upon four victorious Kings for the rescue of his Nephew Lot who had been taken captive by them for it is said that Abram was very rich in Cattel in Silver and in Gold And for his great Retinue when he treated with the Sons of Heth for a Burying-place for Sarah they said unto him Hear us my Lord thou art a mighty Prince amongst us in the choice of our Sepulchres bury thou thy dead As if there had been yet some civility among these Hitties of the Race of Cham somewhat of kin to piety But when Abram returned with victory over the Kings which he had pursued then Melchizedeck King of Salem came forth to meet him and he brought forth bread and wine because he was the Priest of the most high God And he blessed him and said Blessed be Abram of the most high God Possessor of Heaven and Earth And Abram gave him tythes of all his spoils as the Apostle doth expound it Heb. 7.4 So that here we are pointed to observe another Church without the House of Abram which hath an High Priest whereas Abram himself had no greater Title than that of a Prophet nor any greater Right to handle Divine Mysteries than any other Father of a Family which derived Priesthood down from Adam so that Abram paid Tythes unto him Not to enter into the whole Dispute about Melchisedeck Saint Paul preferring ancient things before the latter sets the Covenant of Grace before the Law four hundred and thirty years and thereby proves the excellency of it above the latter And to shew that our Lord Christ was of a Royal Priesthood far above the Tribe of Levi he proveth that Levi himself paid both tithes and homage to him by Abraham in his Antitype Melchisedeck while Levi was in the loins of his Progenitor Abraham as Priest of the most high God and King of righteousness and King of peace by augmentation of his titles King and Priest from ancient times agreeing in the same person till God appropriated the Tribe of Levi for the better preservation of purity after many of the Heads of Families were found so prone unto degeneracy whatever proper name he might have besides The generality agree that he was a mortal man immortal only as a Type of Christ and some think as à Lapide quotes the Authors that he was one of the Roytelets of Canaan who by God's Providence was preserved to be both a faithful man and a good King amongst them
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
great City or populous place Of Abraham's purchase of a Field and Jacob's of a parcel of one Now whereas we read that Abraham and after him Isaac and Iacob pitched their Tent in the singular number it may seem that this is not to be restrained more than needs but to be extended so as the circumstances do direct us The enquiring into which will lead us to consider and perceive what manner of temporal or spiritual lives they enjoyed in their respective pilgrimages God having so provided for the honour of his Church that he would not therewithal afford them all kind of temporal enlargements or accommodations nor leave them long in any uncomfortable state Saint Paul tells us that by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange Countrey dwelling in Tabernacles in the Plural Number with Isaac and Iacob the Heirs with him of the same promise By which we may collect that the Tents were many and Abraham's only like a Praetorium to the rest Out of which Abraham drew three hundred and eighteen men to pursue the Seizers on his Nephew Lot who was permitted to be taken that Abraham might redeem Lot and Melchizedech might thereupon bless Abram which were all said to have been born in his own house Certes if all in one Tent and you cannot imagine that they all lodged continually under the Cope of Heaven it must have been a very large one but if it had been so he would not have entertained three Angels whom he took to be but Strangers under a Tree without the doors As for his power over all these it was absolutely Despotical as the Princes round about him He taught them the Laws that they were to obey and he might punish as he thought sit without account to any other Prince any more than the Prince to him whosoever he was Which is sufficiently declared by Bertram in the same Chapter cited more than once before And if we think sit in the next place to consider what extent of Grounds these Sojourners might occupy and by what Right since they were but Strangers in the places where their Dwellings or their Changes were it may dart a little further light unto us It cannot be doubted but Abraham and his Herdsmen with their several Tenâ—s and Families took up much Ground because that Lot and He were forced to part since the Land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together because that both their substance was exceeding great which was in Flocks of Sheep and Goats and in Herds of other Cattel as Bullocks Horses Camels Asses Mules and such other Breed as those Countries did afford Now although it be said that the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the Land yet Abram said unto Lot Is not the whole Land before thee If thou wilt take the left hand then I will go to the right And Lot beheld the Plain of Iordan that it was well watered and he dwelt in the Cities of the Plain and pitched his Tent towards Sodom But Abram dwelt in the Land of Canaan Nor could Isaac and Iacob afterwards when the Stock was much encreased and the Families it is likely more but occupy Land accordingly The Question is Quo jure by what Right these Strangers took up so much Ground in a Strange Countrey and escaped wars about Plats wherein they sate down and in all probability entrenched themselves for the better security and about the Tracts round about them which they filled with their Herds and Flocks We must remember to set us right here that from the Flood to the promise made to Abram there is but about four hundred and twenty two years reckoned which is too little to imagine all places to be replenish'd in so that while the Inhabitants that were lived in walled Towns for safety and studied Arts and Sciences to which the Canaanites and Phoenicians ever were addicted and were employed in the cultivating of the nearer Fields and planting of their Vineyards the coming of these Strangers with their Stocks and pitching about them like a standing Fair or moveable City brought both Trade and plenty to them while the waste Grounds might be left at large without prejudice unto any Native of the Country which brought also encrease of Gold and Silver to the Patriarchs As for Abraham himself he kept at a distance from all the idolatrous Cities and entred not at all into them without some great occasion as Famine and Distress once or twice and to treat with the men of Kiriah-arba for a Burying-place for Sarah but Lot being indiscreetly mingled amongst the men of Sodom happened once to be taken captive amongst them by the four Kings and after hardly escaped from being destroyed with them And if it ever fell to their conveniency to pitch nearer to any City or better peopled place so that there might be any danger of interfering with them Then they either made some Purchase or some Confederacy or Compromise with the Princes or people there to preserve an inviolable peace amongst them And when Abraham was about Gerar he did all at once For when Abimelech and his Chief Captain Phichol observed that Abraham grew great they thought it good policy to take caution of him by a solemn League made by Oath That he should not thereafter deal falsly by Abimelech or his Son or Son's Son but according to the kindness that he had found in the Land wherein he had so long sojourned And Abraham sware and both of them made a Covenant At the making whereof Abraham did reprove or gently contend with Abimelech about a Well of water which Abimelech's Servants had violently taken away from his though Abraham himself had digged it And he made a Present to Abimelech that he might enjoy the better Right to it But of the Land about there was no Question made between them However when Abraham planted a Grove about the Well and set up an Altar there sojourning many days in the Land of the Philistines no doubt he became a Purchaser at least of some Tenant-right or other for the time both the Grove and the Well being to rest to him and his as their propriety And when Abraham bought the Field and Cave of Machpelah it may seem that he intended to make no other use of it but for a Burying-place though it cost him four hundred Shekels of Silver of currant Money with the Merchant which amounts to about an hundred Dollars as Iunius doth account which before Navigation came to an height was no inconsiderable Summ but as others it might amount to two hundred and fifty Crowns Once more and no more that I can find When Iacob came to Shalem a City of Shechem which is in the Land of Canaan when he came from Padan Aram and pitched his Tent before the City he bought a parcel of a Field where he had spread his Tent of Hamar Shechem's Father for a
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him And if it be asked further Why what could he see in this day that should make him glad more than the Iews that descended from him who expected nothing more than temporal greatness at the Messiah's coming which seems to be the literal meaning of the promise Let us hear how our profound Bishop Andrews descanteth on it Why should Abraham saith he so desire to see this day two thousand years and more after his own were at an end How was he concerned in it Yes Christ's birth he needed and he had good by it Will ye hear it from his own mouth Thus he setteth down his Case Ecce ego pulvis cinis Lo I am but dust and ashes Dust refers us to Dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return But why Ashes He was not made of these This sure refers to somewhat else Ashes we know come of fire Without it they are not made So that besides death to resolve him into dust he saw a fire to turn him into ashes He saw it in his Vision when the Sun was down and it was Night and a great fear or horrour fell upon him he saw Clibanum fumantem a fiery Furnace Blame him not if after such a Night he desired to see such a Day and was glad when he beheld it Besides it is a vulgar errour which represents the Iews of the ancient times whatsoever the modern think as looking for no other than a King when their Messiah should come for they looked for such a Saviour as should be withal the greatest Prophet that they had ever had Wherefore Iudas Maccabaeus when he had pulled down the Altar that the Heathen had desiled he laid up the Stones by advice until there should come a Prophet to shew what should be done with them And was not this the Question put to Iohn the Baptist Art thou that Prophet or do we expect another And the Woman of Samaria spoke no doubt the sense of Israel when she said I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things But however the Iews were mistaken in their day our Saviour himself after his resurrection beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto his Disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself And the like method did the Apostles use towards all men when they had received the Holy Ghost This especially they studied to clear That they brought in no new faith by Christ. But we believe saith S t Peter that through the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved even as they viz. the Fathers which had born the Yoke of the Law before till they were weary signifying that they were also saved by the same Grace of Christ and not by the Law before it was revealed by the Gospel in a clearer manner We having the same spirit of faith saith Saint Paul by which the Psalmist spoke in the place he citeth And if it be necessary to insist on more Texts they will be apt some of them to fall in with the Reasons which I shall set in order CHAP. XXIII The Church of the Old and New Testament but one Christ made known in all his Offices before his incarnation That he was King and Captain of his people 1 Cor. 10. illustrated That Christ was Mediator also of the first Covenant delivered by Moses THEY amount in effect to these First One Church Secondly One Head and Thirdly The same Operations of the Spirit before and since Which do all prove the unity or sameness of that saving faith which was common unto them and us For the first of these Quis unquam negavit Who ever denied or doubted but that the Saints of the Old Testament made up the same Body of the Catholick Church to which we hope to be joined The general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and the Spirits of just men made perfect Or who ever questioned but that those were saved by some faith or other equivalent unto ours Wherefore Iesus also took with him Peter Iames and Iohn to be transfigured before them when there appeared also Moses and Elias talking with him that his Apostles might be joined to his Prophets by himself the Mediator not only betwixt God and man but of either Testament For there is but one Body and one Spirit and one Lord and one faith and one hope and one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all as S t Paul expresseth it Ephes. 4.4 5 6. For the second Ex sponsione factâ ab antiquo as the Master of the Sentences speaketh by a certain compromise betwixt the Father and the Son our Blessed Lord and Saviour exercised all his Offices of King Priest and Prophet and was so obeyed and believed in according to the measure of revelation before he was incarnate and tanquam in praeludiis as the Fathers took the Phrase from one another he made himself manifest in sundry manners before he came in Person He appeared and communed with many but with Iacob only he vouchsafed to wrestle hand to hand and to name him Israel because he had prevailed with God And Iacob called the place Peniel for I have seen God saith he face to face and my life is saved To exemplify the appearances of Christ in these his Offices apart and severally through divers passages or places of the Old Testament may seem superfluous since they are to be found exerted there in act more than once and sometimes all at once In our Systems of Divinity they serve for better method or clearer illustration of some particular Points or Questions If he guided their Kings they expected another kind of Kingdom if he inspired their Prophets they expected another kind of Prophet when the time should come if they repaired to their Priests according to the Law they knew that they needed another Advocate or Intercessor in many Cases neither were they satisfied with any of their Sacrifices For thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean Create in me a clean heart and Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness that my tongue may sing aloud of thy righteousness c. Neither was this the Notion of so choice a Spirit as David's only but it passed into the Vulgar Doctrine of the Scribes for one of them replyed upon our Lord in these terms Well master thou hast said the truth for there is one God and to love him with all the heart is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices To whom our Lord again Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God Not as if Sacrifices the Ordinances and Sacraments of God could be neglected without which there was no remission of sin but because in Sacrifices there might be
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
promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect In fine we shall find somewhat that is implicit in the best faith of any of ours and if we shall consider how short that faith may be which others of ours may have unto salvation tâ—o and so compare it with theirs we shall think the less strange of any thing that has been said of theirs before Do we not all believe the Gospel not knowing how much may be contained in it Do we not engage ourselves in Baptism to obey not knowing what shall be required of us Like Abraham who when he was called obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went Are we not in frequent doubts and fears both about the promises that we embrace as we are able and about our practice to be ordered so that at last we may obtain them Was it a weak faith in that Martyr that went drooping to the Stake not so much for fear of death as for the pressure of desertion that then lay upon him And yet he durst not recant to save all as they might think both Soul and Body too But the Spirit of Glory came upon him in an instant to bear him up above all In fine when we shall consider how many of ours that have some faith of adherence as we otherwise distinguish and in the judgment of Charity do stand fair towards salvation in the end are ignorant of the mystery of Christ whom they profess not knowing how to apply themselves to the mercies of God through him alone nor the Vertue of his merits or benefit of his intercession for them in a word nor thâ— power of his death and resurrection in any comfortable measure to their own souls what need we wonder much though it be said That as many which were first shall be last and many of the last first so the Saints of the Old Testament shall be found in comparison with us at the latter Day For better were those of them who knew how to apply the mercies of God in Christ not knowing the name of Christ than such of ours as have heard the sound of the Gospel and do not understand so much of the meaning of it as they before CHAP. XXXI Wherein the Saints of the Old Testament could not attain to so much as hath been since revealed That the generality of them were blinded most 1. by God's Providence who would have ' Christ to come in the worst times that he might be crucified and so obtain his Kingdom And that the Disciples themselves should be held in like obscurity with other misled Disciples of the Scribes lest they should indisâ—râ—etly offer to hinder the ministry of Christ. 2. By Satan's malice to work the destruction of the Jewish Church and people chieâ—ly by the perverseness of the Pharisees Different apprehensions concerning Jewish Learning The close of this Argument BUT here the Objectors may close again and say Is there then no priviledge or no advantage by the Gospel or by the explicit faith of Christ exhibited in the New Testament more than there was before Has S t Paul magnified his own ministry and this ministration all in vain God forbid But it is not within my verge in this place though I have stretched to bring in this Question to shew the difference betwixt the two Testaments but only in discovering the state of the first to manifest that they had the faith of Christ amongst them But for a better relish in the Close I will adde a passage or two of the Fathers whose Authority may go further than any Comments of my own Saint Augustine thus Although the Prophets conceived much pleasure when in the Spirit they foresaw the things to come concerning Christ yet they would if it could have been have lived in the same times with us and to have seen those things fulfilled which they prophesied by the Spirit And S t Bernard upon those words of our Saviour Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see these things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear these things which ye hear and have not heard them descanteth thus Why would they see and hear To wit that they might perceive more clearly and largely that which they scarcely discerned but slenderly and obscurely before For what need had there been to see with their fleshly eyes and to hear with their outward ears if they had been inwardly and perfectly instructed as much before as they could ever learn thereafter There remains nothing to be cleared more but what is shadowed by the Veil of Moses in the latter end of the last Objection For if the Veil of Ceremonies was but thin and the Prophecies so clear why were all the Jews so ignorant especially the Disciples of our Lord himself about any true or proper thing relating to Messias when he came It hath been hinted before that they generally knew how he was to be both the Son of God and the Son of David to be born at Bethlehem and to be the greatest Prophet and King that they ever had Now it is a further Question among the Schoolmen to whom I may refer you whether Moses knew more of the Messias to come than Abraham and David more than both and so onwards of all the Prophets home unto Iohn the Baptist even as his coming was the nearer But I confess my opinion carries me to think That the Prophets ceasing after Malachi and the Pharisees arising to repute under the first beginnings of the Maccabees which will be noted in its place and not long after combining with the Scribes to the corruption of the true Religion that this mystery was on purpose veiled more than before by the Providence of God and malice of the Instruments of Satan I. By God's Providence who would have the Restorer to appear in the worst of times Could the Son of man then any more than at his second Coming find faith upon the Earth If they had known him generally durst the rest of them have crucified the Lord of life and glory Wherefore when S t Peter preached to their conviction that they might not be driven to despair but to repentance of such a sin he is permitted thus to insinuate with them And now Brethren I wot that through ignorance ye did it as also did your Rulers And had not Christ suffered and so entred into Glory how could he have obtained the Kingdom promised of his Father So that left the Disciples themselves that had been trained under the Paedagogy of the Scribes and Pharisees should become impertinent Hinderers of their Masters ways if they had known to what they tended the spiritual mysteries of Christ were sparingly delivered to them before he suffered and fully after he was risen Once when our Saviour had said
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
So shall we sacrifice to the Lord our God the abomination of the Egyptians and will they not stone us When the same people were in Babylon where Sacrifices ceased with the Temple so that they were the less to be observed they were sometimes overlooked and sometimes not even as they are at this day in Turky and Christendom whereas the Turkish Mussulman hates the Persian Mahometan even more than either Jew or Christian. and the Papists would extirpate Protestants if they were able and inferiour Sects howsoever plausibly they speak when they are low would even do the like by one another Only our Mother Church of England is of no Sect at all CHAP. XXXVIII How Joseph might live in Pharaoh's house And be free from Egyptian superstition What private Religion he might have What godly people near him What Vnion he had with the Church Catholick or his Fathers house That he lived by faith like Daniel in Babylon yet the want of Ordinances such a trouble to him as to David 1. IF any one admire how Ioseph could live so many years first in Potiphar's and then in Pharaoh's house so as to escape the Egyptian idolatry or Superstitions they may observe that he was noted in both places to have a Diviner Spirit in him than the Magicians and so to have been left the more to himself in Egypt as Daniel after was in Babylon till a particular charge was brought against him concerning his Religion Nay Ioseph's being as Pharaoh and a Father unto Pharaoh after he came to Court exempted him from any jurisdiction or inspection whatsoever for who durst say unto Pharaoh What dost thou 2. If it be further questioned What private Religion Ioseph could have unto himself or what exercise or practice of it in the house of Pharaoh Could he have any private Altar Or if he had any one to serve at that Altar or to worship at it besides himself Or could he have any Closets adorned with the Reliques of Noah Sem Eber Abraham c or any other holy things or what did he do I answer First He did as his Father Iacob had done before in the idolatrous house of Laban where I cannot think that he either had or needed any Altar or any other circumstances of devotion In his way to whose house notwithstanding he set up the stone that he used as a pillow for a pillar and poured Oil upon the top of it and called the name of the place Bethel that is the house of God vowing that it should be so to him if God should restore him safe to his Father's house and that he would offer the tenth unto him of all that God should give him as if he would make that Stone an Altar and that place such a place of worship as Gilgal and Shiloh after were But this Pillar you see was erected pro futuro only Secondly Yet I doubt not but Ioseph might have erected an Altar of testimony or thanksgiving or for Peace-offerings at the least as others did upon special occasions before and after the Law even till the building of the Temple if such occasion were But we read not of it peradventure God would not suffer his own name to be prophaned by setting up an abomination to the Egyptians before their faces nor Ioseph's service to be prejudiced thereby For although the Father of a Family was the ordinary Priest of his own house yet any man apart as Iacob might erect an Altar and offer his thanksgivings thereupon using such as he had about him like so many Levites all sanctified by the Sacrifice if the occasions of the Altar and the Sacrifice were right Thirdly If Ioseph had any outward part of Devotion to accomplish it may be he might have found some of his Retainers not unmeet to be assisting to him For in his handling of his Brethren while they took him for an Egyptian he said unto them the third day This do and live for I fear God As if he would have them think no other but that there was some piety in Egypt as well as amongst them whom he knew And when they made Apology unto the Steward of Ioseph's house about their money the Steward said unto them Peace be to you fear not your God the God of your Father hath given you treasure in your Sacks I had your money As if this Steward could speak the language of Israel and was not unacquainted with the God of Iacob Fourthly It may seem that Ioseph worshipped God with the like respect to his Fathers house and the Sacrifices offered there and with the like respect unto the Land of promise as Daniel did in Babylon when he opened his Window towards the Temple and prayed for the restitution that was promised in the mean while they were both abridged of the outward Ordinances and lived by their faith in the promises of God We have spoken enough of Daniel before S t Paul is as clear for Ioseph when he saith By faith Ioseph when he was a dying made mention of the departing of the Children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones reckoning him among the rest who through faith obtained a good report not having yet received the promise Fifthly Nay by the History it is manifest that as Moses by faith when he was come to years refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt so it had fared with Ioseph before All the pleasures of that Heathen Court and all the submissions of that Heathen People infused no other satisfaction into his spirit but that he must be contented that he might be Protector of Israel to abide without as an Alien from his Fathers house and to be deprived of the holy Ordinances of God For when he was about to dye he said unto his Brethren I dye and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this Land of bondage where I have been detained and afflicted with you in expectation of the promise made unto our Fathers unto the Land which he sware to Abraham to Isaac and to Iacob God will surely visit you and he took an Oath of them about carrying his bones from thence Nor was David in his worst Quarters when he said Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar For although good men may be saved without the Ordinances where God himself debarrs them yet they cannot live comfortably without them Which they may do well to consider who if they have but a reasonable excuse for it had as lief be planted in the utmost Indies as in the midst of Churches So we see what union Ioseph held in his separation both with the Church Catholick of all Believers and also with the house of Iacob in particular CHAP. XXXIX Of the Vnity of the Church in respect to Election in the general perplexities noted more especially in
it seems as having a design upon his Friend so called hold him unto Shuah's Daughter with whom Iudah was taken in his vagary Which friendship howsoever continued till after her death good men being seldome forward to shake off even their Back-friends So that Hirah being with him to comfort him was as ready to help him at another turn even as lewd Suburbers delight to draw in Country-men into the Stews and to wait for him like a Pander and conceal his prank while he suffered him rather than himself to go aside unto a seeming Harlot and when Iudah came back to carry a Kid for him unto the Woman to redeem Iudah's pledges because he was ashamed to send by any but a Stranger So that Iudah seems to have continued still under the same or like temptations as long as he retaineth this acquaintance And it is by his temptations that we must endeavour to excuse him whereof this Heathen Hirah was the first Then we must consider that it was but simple fornication upon surprize and without design that Iudah suffered himself to be drawn in by whereas his marriage was a setled resolution And that God suffered him to be thus betrayed punishing one sin by another and the consequences of it for his injustice in denying his third Son Shelah unto Tamar which he was bound to do by a known Law amongst them Or for his distrust in God lest he should take away Shelah for doing his Duty as he had done the other two for wickedness Add to this the subtilty of Tamar who was a Free-woman of Israel by her marriage unto Er the eldest Son of Iudah whatsoever she was before that knew where the soft place was in Iudah's Head and meant to be meet with him inasmuch as she had been of a long time wronged and saw no other likelihood of redress but this for the Law as we may learn more clearly by the reviving of it was this viz. If Brethren dwell together and one of them dye and have no Child the Wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a Stranger her Husband 's Brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to Wife and perform the duty of an Husband's Brother unto her And it shall be that the first-born which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his Brother which is dead that his name be not put out of Israel The Law then obliging Tamar to live within under a Widow's guise and not to marry without but expect she had indeed Onan given to her but he hating to raise up Seed unto his Brother more than to lye with a taking Woman spilt his Seed upon the ground thinking it may be after that to go into fruitless dalliance And the thing displeased the Lord so that he slew him also after his Brother Er. The reason of Onan's sin is to be understood viz. Because he would have the eldest Brother's Right extinct and be eldest himself whereas if he had begotten a Son on Tamar even that Son should have carried the birth-right from him And when Tamar had remained still a shady Widow in hope of Shelah and she saw that he was grown and not given to her she began not only to despair of an Husband but of an interest in the house of Iudah which ought not to be denyed her It was the least of her intention therefore to play the Harlot whatever Iudah meant for being sped by him she put on her Widows Garments again and betook herself to her former place So that she may seem no more to blame than an honest Woman that puts her self into an Harlots place and so defrauds her own Husband Ay but the Law was That the Brother and not the Father-in-Law should raise up Seed unto the first Husband How then can Tamar be excused for tempting and lying with the Father We must not take Tamar for a scrupulous Casuist though she meant not to be an Harlot but contained ever after as it is most likely Iudah did of whose refraining there in mention but of his marrying again we read not but for an interested wronged Person that sought to right herself the best she could For if she conceived she should be wrapped up in the inheritance of her Issue which Iudah could not abandon or if not yet Iudah could not wrong her any further But take the Case as it will bear For a Brother to lye with his Brothers Wife or Widow in any other Case than this is incest And it is no more incest in the Father-in-Law so far as touching of bloud is intended for the Father-in-Law has no more blood in his Son's Wife that never conceived than in the Brother There is only the reverence of Descent that is more And the reason of another Descent viz. of inheritance being the reason of the Law that allows the dispensation it is the less wonder that Tamar should lay aside the respect of reverence only to a Father that would hold her still under greater wrong unless she laid this Veil aside and put another on which is all that I have to say for her But as for Iudah as his soul hated incest so neither was he guilty of it in the least as he was beguiled And though his two Sons Pharez and Zarah were misbegotten by mistake on Tamar yet they were not base-born but came by due Right into their Father Er's Lot as much as if Shelah had begotten them who ought to have endeavoured it So that Iudah by God's permission did but supply his Son's place as a punishment for his with-holding him And when God had pardoned all this to Iudah neither his Father nor his Brethren eyed him the worse but God himself prospered him the more For whereas his Brethren had all more Children than he when they came to be numbred at their going out of Egypt Iudah had seventy four thousand and six hundred males from twenty years and upwards whereas no other Tribe could come within ten thousand of His. If all this doth not satisfie let us hear the pious Bishop a little further I find not many of Iacob's Sons more faulty than Iudah who yet is singled out from all the rest to be the Royal Progenitor of Christ and to be honoured with the dignity of the birth-right that God's Election might not be of merit Else however he had sped alone Thamar had not been joined in this Line Even Iudah marries a Canaanite It is no marvel though his Seed prosper not Yet that good Children may not be too much discouraged with their unlawful propagation the Fathers of the promised Seed are raised from an incestuous Bed And as I may add in Christ's Genealogy we have Rahab the Harlot Ruth the Moabitess and Bathsheba to chuse the adulterous Wife of David But as the Apostle speaks he put no difference betwixt us and them purifying their hearts by faith Such was the state of the first visible Church which