shall thy seed be called that is the children to be borne of Isaac shall be accounted thy seed and posterity namely that thy posterity for whom I have ordained my blessing and the possession of that land and therefore Isaacs children only shall be called the posterity of Abraham In this perplexity then and contrariety between the promise and the command what issue could Abraham find for his faith To doubt of Gods promises and of their performance he thought it impiety and therefore he obeyed Gods command for the offering up of Isaac But then considering that this sacrifice would in the eye of nature overthrow all his hope therefore he builds a new and high faith upon the ground of his former faith namely 19. Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the daed This way onely the passage was open for Abraham to beleeve that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead This point he did beleeve though he had no president or example for it For he would rather ascend up to the highest pitch of faith then relapse or retire in any degree and would rather cumulate a high faith with a higher then make the least doubt of Gods promises Accounting is in the Greeke reasoning after he had reasoned within himselfe casting up all the wayes possible how to salve up Gods command with Gods promise at last hee determined and concluded a possibility this way And which way was that that though he should slay Isaac and offer him up to God as a burnt-offering yet God was able to raise him up even from the dead This was the summe of his account and the conclusion of his reasoning that God was Almighty and able to doe not only all other things that are easily done but even to raise from the dead which is an act so difficult and so remote from humane reason that man might account it an act altogether impossible That God was able He reasoned and concluded of Gods power only because he had no reason to doubt of his will seeing he had received the promises of God wherein God had sufficiently declared his will The only doubt therefore rested upon Gods power which doubt he solves by his faith From whence also he received him in a figure Abraham did not only beleeve that God was both able and willing to raise Isaac from the dead but in a manner saw him raised from the dead and in a manner received him againe from God as raised from death In a figure In the Greeke it is in a parable or in a similitude In a figure is opposed to the proprietie and truth of the thing For truely and properly Isaac was not raised nor received from the dead because hee was not dead but in a figure and in a manner hee was both raised and received For Abraham accounted his Isaac for dead and therefore seeing now hee remained alive and beyond all hope was rescued from the stroke which his father had aimed at his throat it was in a manner all one to Abraham and all one to Isaac as if Isaac had beene dead and raised againe from the dead For hence wee use to say of those that are delivered from some extreme danger wherein they were given for dead that they are as it were revived and recovered from the grave Holy David many times makes such expressions of himselfe and Paul when God had delivered him from an extreme danger wherein hee wholly despaired of life saith We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver 2. Cor. 1.9,10 20. By faith Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau concerning things to come Now the Author mentions the peculiar faith of Isaac with an example of it in blessing Jacob and Esau concerning things to come He prayed to God for blessings to come upon them that should have their event after many ages to come For this blessing of Isaac was no ordinary or vulgar Benediction as that of Parents commonly is who when they blesse their children expresse only the wishes and desires of their mind but whether the blessing will succeed according to their wishes and desires they are no way certaine although such blessings of theirs may proceed from some faith but Isaac so blessed his sonnes and so prevailed with God for the things for which he prayed as if in a manner he had simply foretold them nothing doubting of their event but certainely perswaded that God would doe no otherwise then as hee had wished and prayed For when he perceived his errour in the person of his sonnes yet he said I have blessed him yea and he shall be blessed Gen. 27.33 In which words he plainly signified that the blessing he had given was so confirmed that hee could not recall it But the Authour names Jacob first though Esau was the first-born because Iacob had the first and the best blessing albeit hee obtained it by a wile God so disposing the matter For before either of them were born God using his owne freedome in bestowing his blessings upon whom he will had appointed to preferre Jacob before Esau the yonger before the elder Therefore God suffered not Isaac to bestow the best blessing upon Esau that neither the decree of God nor the blessing of Isaac might faile especially seeing Esau had already voluntarily and freely sold away his birth-right which as the Scripture saith he despised We say he sold it voluntarily and freely because he was not driven to that sale by any destiny or decree of God For Esau might have kept the honour and benefit of his birth-right and yet as God had decreed his posteritie might have become yonger or subject to have served the posteritie of Jacob. 21. By faith Iacob when he was a dying blessed both the sonnes of Ioseph Now he mentions the particular faith of Jacob which appeared in this blessing of the sonnes of Joseph And he addeth the circumstance of time that Iacob did this when he was a dying that hence it might appeare how hee persisted in the faith to his last breath and how constantly hee beleeved the promises of God whereby God had setled his blessing and the possession of the land of Canaan upon his posterity The History hereof is in Genesis 48. But wee may wonder why the Author mentions onely the sonnes of Joseph seeing with the very same faith Jacob gave blessings to all his children was it because he shewed a particular faith in beleeving that Ephraim though the younger should be afterward preferred before Manasses the elder and therefore crossing his hands otherwise then Joseph expected and had placed his sons laid his right hand upon Ephraim who stood at his left hand and his left hand upon Manasses who stood at his right Or was it because he beleeved that these sons of Joseph should be
accounted as his and be adopted into the number of the twelve Patriarchs to give name and be heads to two of the Tribes And worshipped Here is mentioned another argument or proofe of Jacobs faith in that he worshipped God after that he had bound Joseph to carry his body after his death into the land of Canaan as we reade it Gen 47. For by this worshipping he declared that he wholly confided in God who had promised that land to his posterity and would in due time give them the possession of it Vpon the top of his staffe The vulgar Latin renders this perversly that he worshipped the top of his staffe As if Jacob had worshipped the Scepter of his son Joseph that is Joseph himselfe by reason of the high office and power that Joseph had in Egypt Which interpretation neither agrees to the words of the text in leaving out the particle upon nor to the scope of the Author For what makes this to the declaration of Jacobs faith nay the thing it selfe scemes no way probable The end is the extreme part of a thing but if one end of a thing be the highest and the other the lowest the highest end is the top Which sence must be here understood as partly appeares by the thing it selfe and partly by the Hebrew word Gen. 47. In the Hebrew for top we reade head which by a metaphor signifies the top because the head is the end and highest part of man and consequently of any thing else And for staffe we now reade in the Hebrew bed which fell out because the word Mittah there extant pricked with other vowels signifies a staffe for in the Hebrew Matteh is a staffe and Mittch a bed The Septuagint whom our Author followes reade it Matteh and so translated it staffe otherwise then we now reade it in the Hebrew text Both these readings have a commodious sence For if wee give way to the authority of the Septuagint the sence will be that Jacob when by reason of his age and weakenesse he could not lift up him self by his owne strength stayed and raised himselfe by the top of his staffe the common ayde of old men that he might worship God by bowing his body before him But if we follow the Hebrew text as it is now extant the sence will be That Jacob because he could not raise his body out of his bed therefore he bowed his head forward upon his beds head and so worshipped God For among the people of God it hath beene alwayes the manner of worshipping God by bowing the body or at least the head unto him 22. By faith Ioseph when he dyed made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandement concerning his bones Now he mentions the particular faith of Joseph who when he was dying mentioned the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt and to testifie his beliefe and assurance thereof gave commandement concerning his bones that when they departed out of Egypt toward the promised land they should carry his bones with them He gives commandement concerning his bones and not concerning his body because he knew for certaine either by the spirit of Prophesie or else by the Oracle of God as Abraham his great grandfather did that the Israelites should not very soone after his death depart out of Egypt to take possession of the land of Canaan which God had promised but betweene his death and their departure there would passe such a distance of time that nothing of his body would remaine besides his bones Which thing doth greatly commend the faith of Joseph because though he saw the performance of Gods promises deferred for a long time yet to come yet he neither despised them nor doubted any thing of their verity 23. By faith Moses when he was borne was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper childe The Author being about to bring an example of the faith of Moses doth begin it with the mention of his parents faith which appeared in their hiding of Moses when he was new borne For hence it is manifest that they confided in God that by his helpe the childe should be preserved And their motive to this faith was because they saw the childe was comely or proper that is such a one in whose countenance there appeared an extraordinary and excellent towardnesse and whose very aspect seemed to presage and promise some great matter In the seventh chapter of the Acts ver 20. it is said that he was exceeding faire to God which some Translations render by God that is his beauty came from God or God in a singular manner had made him very faire and beautifull When therefore his parents saw him so they imagined that God would not have it be in vaine that an Infant should be borne of so beautifull and comely countenance And therefore they doubted not but he should be preserved by the singular providence of God so as they also provided as much as lay in their power And the event was answerable to their faith And they were not afraid of the Kings commandement King Pharoah by an Edict had commanded the Egyptians to kill the male children borne of the Israelites after that the Midwives who feared God had refused to execute the like command This command of the King the parents of Moses feared not because they feared not but trusted upon God and his providence that the child which they had hidden should not be discovered and produced to be slaine by the Kings command 24. By faith Moses when he was come to yeares Here he begins to treat of Moses his owne faith and to mention the effects of it whereof the first is that when he was come to yeares he refused to be called the son of Pharoahs daughter Which fact of Moses he further illustrates and amplifies in the following verses In the Greek for come to yeares it is when Moses was become great Which greatnesse may be understood of that dignity which Moses attained in Egypt where he was bred up in the quality of the sonne of Pharoahs daughter For he was learned in all the wisdome of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds as we reade it Acts 7.22 But this greatnesse seemes rather to be referred to the stature of Moses and consequently to his age of mans estate partly because Moses come to yeares is here opposed to Moses when he was borne and pâ—…ly because the Scripture relating the same fact of Moses saith that when he was growne up he went out unto his brethren Exod. 2.11 Or as Stephen 〈…〉 When he was full forty yeares old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel Acts 7.23 This fact of Moses in refusing to be called the son of the Kings daughter was a hardy attempt not onely to despise and reject so great a dignity such riches and pleasures but also thereby freely to cast himselfe into that