adumbrate and shadow forth the Covenant of Works But 2. We may consider Moses under an higher notion though in respect of the external Dispensation introduced by him he shadowed forth the Law yet in other respects if we consider him in his own Person he was a Type of Christ The Scripture is clear for this also Deut. 18.15 18. A Prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee of thy Brethren like unto me That this was spoken of Christ see Act. 3.22 Peter there applies it unto Christ he was like unto Moses There was a Similitude but yet there was not a Parity For Christ was far above Moses Heb. 3.3 For this man was counted worthy of more Glory than Moses inasmuch as he who builded the House hath more Glory than the House and again ver 5. Moses verily was faithful as a Servant but Christ as a Son over his own House v. 6. You may see it in these particulars 1. In regard of his Birth 2. In his personal Qualifications 3. In the whole course of his Life 4. In the close of it 1. Moses was a Type of Christ in regard of his Birth in that he was born but of mean Parents in the time of Israels Bondage in Egypt Exod. 2.1 persecuted in his Infancy by Pharaoh and wonderfully preserved Exod. 2.3 9. So Christ Isai 53.2 He shall grow up as a Root out of a dry ground When the House of David was brought very low and the Glory of it seemingly extinct they were of the poorest sort of people as appears by their Offering which was but a pair of Turtle Doves or two young Pigeons Luk. 2.24 when they taxed all the world that is when the Jews were under Bondage to the Romans Luk. 2.1 4. and you know Rome is spiritually called Egypt then and in this condition of Subjection to the Roman Power was Christ born And as soon as born he was persecuted by Herod Matth. 2. who sought his Death but wonderfully preserved and by means of his reputed Father as Moses by the Mother that adopted him both of them by wonderful Providences saved and delivered that they might be Saviours and Deliverers unto others 2. Moses was a Type of Christ in his personal Qualifications which were very eminent He was the most accomplish'd Person that ever was except Jesus Christ himself 1. In Learning and Knowledge Act. 7.22 He was learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians So Christ Isai 11.1 2 3. the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and of Knowledge rested upon him to make him of quick Understanding in the Fear of the Lord insomuch that he disputed with the Doctors at twelve years of age Luke 2.42 46 47. Those Doctors were as too many are now adays eaten up with mens Traditions and ignorant of the Scripture The Jews acknowledged and admired it Joh. 7.15 And the Jews marvelled saying how knoweth this man Learning having never learned and ver 46. the Officers answered never man spake like this man 2. Clear and extraordinary Vision and Sight of God Numb 12.6 7 8. Face to Face Mouth to Mouth God spake to Moses even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord did he behold expressions arguing unparallell'd Clearness in the Lords revealing himself and his Mind to Moses There was never the like vouchsafed to any other To others even Prophets the Lord made known himself in a Vision or spake to them in Dreams ver 6. but to Moses at another rate So Christ Joh. 1.18 no man hath seen God at any time but the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him 3. There was in Moses an admirable mixture of Meekness and Zeal eminent in meekness of Spirit and that seasoned and tempered with holy Zeal Numb 12.3 forty years he bare their manners in the Wilderness Acts 7.36 with 13.18 though murmuring and rebelling against God and himself with an invincible Patience So Christ Matth. 11. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart When his Disciples tempted him he would not fetch down Fire from Heaven against his Despisers and Opposers yet he was angry at the Defilement of the Temple and whipt them out And so was Moses at the Golden Calf Meekness without Zeal is nothing else but Lukewarmness and Cowardise Zeal without Meekness degenerates into sinful Passion We should be meek in our own Cause but zealous in the Cause of God 4. Faithfulness to his Trust this was eminent in Moses but more eminent in Christ Heb. 3.5 6. Moses was but faithful as a Servant in his Lords House But Christ as a Son in his own House He will not lose one Soul of all those that the Father hath committed to him Joh. 6.39 40. In his last Prayer he professeth Joh. 17.12 those that thou givest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of perdition not the least Believer can or shall miscarry If thou sayst How may I know whether I was committed to the trust and care of Jesus Christ by the Father The Answer is If thou dost commit thy self to him the Lord hath done it Thou couldst never trust thy self with him thou couldst not commit thy Soul to his keeping if the Lord had not first intrusted thee with him in his eternal Counsel and Covenant of Redemption But thou hast done it and it is thy daily work therefore thou maist safely conclude with Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 he will keep the thing I have committed to him He will be faithful to God and faithful to thee he never failed any that trusted in him 3. Moses was a Type of Christ in the whole course of his Life And here many things come to be considered 1. His Work and Office 2. His Sufferings and Conflicts in the Discharge thereof 3. The Lords owning and bearing witness to him by Miracles and Signs and Wonders in all which there was a manifest Prefiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ 1. In his Work and Office He was in general a Mediator between God and the People a typical Mediator All the good that God was pleased to confer upon that People it was by his Ministry and Interposition between God and then Gal. 3.19 the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Deut. 5.5 I stood between the Lord and you at that time to shew you the Word of the Lord for ye were afraid by reason of the Fire and went not up into the Mount Exod 19.7 8. So Christ is the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 9.15 and for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament But he hath the preheminence above Moses Heb. 8.6 but now hath he obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant God was pleased to redeem his people Israel out of their Bondage in Egypt by Moses his Ministry God sent him and he left his
Death I would dye I think I could never choose to dye in a better cause than for bearing witness to this Truth That the Church of God ought not to be made a Den of Thieves and a Refuge and Receptacle for wicked Livers there must be no such Leaven in the House of God Now put all these together and put them into the affirmative and you see a fourfold Instruction in this Prohibition of Leaven It teacheth us 1. Soundness in the Faith of Christ 2. Holiness of life 3. Sincerity of heart 4. Purity of Church Communion 2. Honey was forbidden also it may seem strange that so sweet and so good a thing should be so severely interdicted How often is the Land of Canaan commended as a Land flowing with Milk and Honey But to eat too much of it is not good Prov. 25.16 27. It cloys and loads the Stomach and turns to choler and bitterness and if poured upon the Fire it swells and riseth up in Froth Three things we may learn out of this Prohibition of Honey 1. That God will be worshipped according to his own Institution and Command his Will is the Rule we must submit unto though we cannot well see the reason of it We must not follow any Invention of our own though to our carnal thoughts it seem as sweet as Honey though it seem never so decent never so orderly as that is the common pretense it is for decency and orders sake But what think you Friends is not Honey sweet and decent too But God requires it not therefore away with it from the Meat-Offerings of the Lord. 2. That holy temperature and equability of spirit that becometh Saints in all the conditions and vicissitudes they pass through we must take heed of Extremes There should be neither Leaven nor Honey neither too much sower nor too much sweet neither inordinate sorrow nor inordinate pleasures in the Meat-Offering of the Saints they should neither be dejected nor lifted up but in an even well composed frame and temper of Spirit 2 Cor. 12.7 10. neither leavened and sowred with discontent under worldly troubles nor surfeited with the sweatness and Honey of carnal pleasure and delight and contentment of the Creature 3. Some apply it unto Christ himself thus That there is in Christ our Meat-Offering no such sweetness which turns to loathing no such pleasure whereof a man can take too much there is no glutting no satiety no after sorrows no such delight as proves bitter in the latter end as much Honey doth But on the contrary the more any man tastes of the sweetness and comfort that is in him the more he shall long for it and say Lord evermore give us of this bread as Joh. 6.34 more of this bread more of this comfort this Communion with God He is not sweet at first and bitter afterwards but his Yoke seems heaviest at first but lighter afterward he speaks first of the Cross then of the Crown of Glory These four are all in this Chapter for the other two additional Enquiries we shall borrow Light out of other Scriptures further to illustrate this 5. The fifth Enquiry concerning the Meat-Offering is concerning the appurtenance of Drink-Offerings by divine Institution affixed and annexed to the Meat-Offering I reckon it as an appurtenance to the Meat-Offering for two Reasons 1. Because it is not mentioned as a distinct Species in that Enumeration of the Legal-Offerings which hath been so often quoted Lev. 7.37 The Drink-Offering is there omited as being included and understood in the Meat-Offering 2. Because it was never offered alone under the Law but always in conjunction with the slain Sacrifices to compleat the Meat-Offering belonging to them It is true before the Law we read of Drink-Offerings alone Jacob Gen. 35.14 he set up a Pillar in Bethel and he poured a Drink Offering thereon and he poured Oyl thereon But after that Regulation and Reformation of the Offerings by Moses we never read of any Drink Offering alone but only in Conjunction with Meat Offerings and Slaughter-Offerings As Numb 15.5 And the fourth part of a Hin of Wine for a Drink-Offering shalt thou prepare with the Burnt-Offering or Sacrifice for one Lamb. And vers 7. For a Ram thou shalt offer for a Drink-Offering the third part of a Hin And again vers 11. For a Bullock And Numb 28.7 The Drink Offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an Hin for one Lamb c. Lev. 23.18 They shall be for a Burnt Offering unto the Lord with their Meat-Offerings and their Drink Offerings And in Hezekia's time when he purged the House of God it is said 2 Chron. 29.35 The Burnt-Offerings were in abundance with the fat of the Peace-Offerings and the Drink-Offerings for eve By rurnt Offering I shall speak to three things upon the Drink-Offering 1. The matter of it 2. The Rite and manner of Oblation 3. The Mystery of it 1. First then for the matter of it it was Wine Numb 15.5 Wine for a Drink-Offering shalt thou prepare Called Shekar in Numb 28.7 from whence the Greek Sikera that is a strong inebriating Wine our Translators here render it strong Wine Hence Hos 9.4 They shall not offer Wine-Offerings to the Lord. Hence Judg. 9.13 in Jothams Parable the Vine saith should I live my Wine which cheereth God and man How doth Wine cheer God It cannot be said to cheer God otherwise than in Offerings and Sacrifices The Heathen fell into an horrible Corruption as to this for that they mingled Blood in their idolatrous and superstitious rage in Drink Offerings whereto the Psalmist alludes Psal 16.4 and declares how he abominates such a practise Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten or give Gifts to another God their Drink-Offerings of Blood will I not offer It is not unlike the Health Drinkers of our times of whom you may have heard of some who in their raging profanness have mingled their own Blood with Wine and so have drunk it in Healths to the Devil and to the confusion of Sion and Sions King 2. The Rite and manner of Oblation was by pouring of it forth before the Lord Numb 28.7 In the holy place shalt thou cause strong Wine to be poured out unto the Lord for a Drink Offering that is upon the Altar say some but not upon the Fire or as others beside the Altar for it is likely the Wine of the Drink-Offering was to be poured forth where the blood of the slaughtered Sacrifices was poured forth but that was at the bottom of the Altar as you have formerly heard upon Cap. 1. with Cap. 8.15 Hence it hath its name in Hebrew Nesek libamen a sacred effusion or a pouring out from the Verb Nasak fudit effudit They were not to drink it that might have been an occasion of intemperance and drunkenness there being dayly and continual Drink-Offerings nay there was no piece of legal worship wherein they were commanded to drink Wine But there is an
sin and that the sins and errors of an anointed Priest are of the worst and greatest guilt This is here taught and held forth both by the Matter of the Sin-Offering and by the Rites belonging to it As to the Matter the Priest must have as great a Sacrifice for a Sin Offering as the whole body of the people collectively considered A young Bullock is the Sin-Offering for the Priest and it is no more but a young Bullock for the whole Congregation And there is a difference as to the Rites for the several sorts of sinners for the Sin-Offering for the Priest and for the body of the people was to be sprinkled before the Vail and upon the Altar of Incense But that for the Ruler and for private persons were not sprinkled before the Vail nor upon the Incense Altar but only upon the Altar of Burnt-Offering vers 25 30 34. For the sins of the Priest and of the whole Congregation as being more hainous required a more solemn manner of atonement so our Annotators on Lev. 4.25 It was an error of the Stoick Philosophers of old that peccata sunt aequalia all sins are equal It is true sin is a privation but there are degrees in Privations there be total and partial privations As in the Twilight and dim sightedness every sin deviates and swerves from the rule of Righteousness But there are degrees of rectitude and curvity some crooked lines depart further off from the strait line and some come nearer to it so it is in sins The sins of a Minister do receive peculiar aggravations and are greater in many respects then the sins of other men For them to be covetous and greedy after the world for them to be of an unbrotherly imposing spirit that is ambitious and contentious it is worse then in other men and that especially in two respects which are both hinted in the Text. 1. Because of their anointing or separation unto Office whereby they stand nearer to God than others do being to minister to him in his holy things 2. Because their sins and errors have usually a very pernicious influence upon the people either to seduce or scandalize them Many will be ready to follow their pernicious ways Hence some read and understand the words vers 3. If he sin to cause the people to err or to bring publick Judgments upon them Hence many are so apt to plead such a Minister thinks it lawful and such a one does it and why may not I See 1. Sam. 2.17 24. how the sins of Ministers do scandalize the people causing them to transgress some of them in like manner and others to abhor and despise the Ordinances of the Lord and this makes Ministers sins great before the Lord. But people should consider that an anointed Priest may sin and err and their Errors oftentimes do much hurt This is a second Instruction 3. The whole Church may err vers 13. This is another Assertion of the Papists That their Church cannot err a strange and wonderful Assertion Did not the whole Church err when they crucified Christ And they did err fundamentally yet the Jews were then the only true Church and people of God in the world Therefore it is very unsafe to pin your Faith upon the Churches Sleeve or upon the Ministers Sleeve either for both Church and Minister may err It is not safe to be led meerly by multitude or by example Exod. 23.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a Cause to decline after many to wrest Judgment Yea a true Church may in time err so farr and degenerate so deeply as that they may cease to be a Church As the Church of the Jews for Instance The Lord hath said unto the house of Israel as he threatned by the Prophet Hosea Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi I will not have mercy on you and you are not my people Hos 1.6 9. And Cap. 2.2 Plead with your Mother plead for she is not my Wife neither am I her Husband The Church of the two Tribes also are now in the same condition with the other ten Zech. 11.10 And I took my Staff even Beauty and cut it asunder that I might break my Covenant which I had made with all the people The meaning is that he would discovenant and unchurch them but yet he will at last restore them But would you see an Instance of a Church which God hath rejected and unchurched and which shall never be restored any more Behold the Church of Rome it was once a true Church and the Pastor thereof a true Minister when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romanes sixteen hundred years ago but now so far declined from their first estate and from the primitive and Scripture Pattern That the Church of Rome is become the Whore of Babylon and the Bishop of Rome the Head of that Church is Antichrist See Rev. 13. They are set forth under the notion of two wild and venemous Beasts the first Beast in that Chapter which hath ten Horns c. is the Church of Rome the second Beast with two Horns is the Pope of Rome the first is Babylon and the second Antichrist The truth is they have erred so farr that except the Church of the Jews when they crucified Jesus Christ I think there was never any Church that erred so much as this Church that pretends they cannot err 4. Instruction That the Elders and publick persons act and are to act for the people For the Elders are to lay their hands upon the peoples Offering Vers 15. That is as their Agents and Representatives The people are not to think themselves meerly passive in what their Elders and Rulers do no believe it you are more concerned then so Their act involves the people which gives a just account of Gods sending publick Calamities upon the people for the sins of their Rulers for what the Parliament do the people do The method of Providence is often thus First the people they sin and provoke God to anger then he leaves their Rulers to sin for their sakes and then comes Wrath. For while there is a Phinehas a Josiah they stand in the gap and stave off publick Judgments it may be all their days but when they are gone or if they sin too this opens a gap for publick Judgments to break in upon the people See 2 Sam. 24.1 And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say go number Israel and Judah Observe the method first God is angry with Israel for their sins then he moved David their King to sin and then comes the Plague People are very apt when things go amiss and the publick affairs do not prosper they are very apt to be discontent with their Rulers and Magistrates and to say that it is their fault But if they do amiss you should consider why God leaves them to it it is often for the sins