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
said that every Shepherd was an abomination unto the Egyptians but also that the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that is an abomination to the Egyptians as if it were so to those more than to the Hebrews to eat with them I would gladly know then how they could hold any time together for I take it for granted that Iacob would rather starve than want an Altar at Rameses or some other part of Goshen it being the first thing he did to erect one and to purge his house from Idols in other places Or how the Egyptians could bear their Sacrifices better than their Trade or Diet I cannot doubt but that there were Egyptians in Goshen before a fertil Plat and a Frontier and some of these Shepherds and Hersmen too however scorned by the Citizens because Pharaoh had said unto Ioseph In the best of the Land make thy Father and Brethren to dwell in the Land of Goshen let them dwell and if thou knowest any man of activity amongst them then make them Rulers over my Cattel Which whether they consumed in Egypt or sold abroad as the Jews after did their Swine it matters not But this was enough to ground such a Commerce as was fit to hold the Israelites and Egyptians in the fairer terms especially since no man durst to mutter against the Kindred of Ioseph that came in with so high a hand of grace and favour and who himself had preserved alive the people of Egypt Neither is it to be doubted but that these Parts were at this time more populous than Canaan by reason of fertility and the multitude of the Sons of Ham that betook themselves this way as fast as they encreased from the Mountains of Armenia We must also suppose that the Egyptians and all other Nations offered Sacrifices as well as Israel for both Adam and Noah taught all their Sons alike to sacrifice And this perhaps might be a worser eye-sore to the Egyptians than any other the Israelites worshipping another God before their faces in another manner than they did since the Rites were changed wheresoever Idolatry came instead of the right Worship Now to this it may be said that two different Religions were always accounted more tolerable than the same divided For such would be sure to go far enough apart and not to interfere with one another Nay all Religions besidâ—s the true which had Satan for their Moderator agreed well enough with one another As in the Roman practice there are Churches dedicated by divers names in sundry Regions which have Reliques Miracles and Altars with indulgences annexed to them so that there is curiosity in pilgrimage and merit too more particularly the places that bear the superscription of the Blessed Virgin are the most celebrated and visited for their stateliest Churches are lightly hers and in Churhes hers the fairest Altars Where one prayeth before the Crucifix two before her Image where one voweth to Christ ten vow unto her and not so much to her self as to some peculiar Image which for some select Vertue or Grace together with greater power of operation of Miracles they chiefly serve as the glorious Lady of Loretto the devout Lady of Rome the miraculous Lady of Provenzano the Annunciata of Florence whose Churches are so stuffed with vowed Presents and Memories that they are fain to hang their Cloisters also and Church-yards with them Then as their vows are such are their pilgrimages c. In like manner the Heathens had always some sumptuous Temples or wondrous Stories to draw Strangers and devotion and to raise a name to the places where they lived If they would see a stately Structure compared with the Temple of Solomon by some Writers and a wonder by report What man is there that knoweth not how that the City of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great Goddess Diana and of the Image that fell down from Iupiter If they would be cured they must go to Aesculapius or Apollo chuse they whether or to any other God or Goddess that had a same whether in their own or in another Countrey for some particular aids or remedies If they would have counsel and success these were reserved chiefly unto Iupiter in great Cases and in those few places where Satan would vouchsafe to speak by his Oracles But it was observed that Venus had more Votaries than any other whether Men or Women would be married or obtain any other Love or be fruitful or be barren or agree after they had fallen out ad Sacellum Deae viri-place which is described in Valerius Maximus Wherefore though some Nations of the Heathens intituled themselves to particular Gods or Goddesses and so preferred them above others as their Protectors yet they never opposed or vilified the Gods of other Countries when they came into the places where they were adored although both at Rome and Athens they were fain sometimes to take caution against admitting too many Foreign Religions within their own Walls whereof I will alledge but two Instances for fear of an impertinent digression When Xenophon had returned safe with his Army out of the Locks and Bars of Persea and was now within the protection of the Grecians he consulted with a famous Soothsayer about his Affairs having always been a superstitious and industrious man why he should get nothing howsoever His Soothsayer advised him to sacrifice to Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Gentle who was adored in those Parts And after this service performed unto that Idol of a fine Title Xenophon struck into a small and short exploit and enriched himself more than by all his former Travels Which he imputed unto that direction And of Pompey the Great Plutarch tells us that he enriched and adorned the Temples of the Gods in the Eastern Parts with his Spoils and Iosephus that he not only abstained from spoiling the Temple at Ierusalem when he had taken it by Storm through the reverence he had of God but also caused such as had the charge of the Temple to purge the same and to offer Sacrifices unto God the next day according to the Law whereof we shall have more to say hereafter in its proper place where we shall observe that according unto Solomon's prayer Alexander and divers other Princes also were admitted to offer their own Sacrifies or Oblations there But the Question of toleration returneth still for a fuller Answer It seems that they enjoyed it no longer than Ioseph's life for the first message that Moses brings to Pharaoh complains of this oppression and demands redress of it Let us go three days journey into the Wilderness that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God lest he fall upon us with pestilence and with the sword for having thus long deferred it out of fear And when Pharaoh after dreadful judgments would have yielded that they should sacrifice in the Land Moses replyed
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
respect to the house of Jacob wherein all were chosen whereas in the house of Abraham and Isaac there was but one received as Heir of the promise Reasons to be given for their rejection and so might have been in Jacob's house too whose errours are recorded NOW concerning the Unity of the Church this hath been taken for a general Rule That the Church is as large as the Election and the Election so determined within its Bounds or spaces that extra Ecclesiaâ—â— non est salus without the Church there is no salvation Which occasioning a distinction betwixt the Church visible and invisible it hath made the wide World the Subject of some mens charity as much as any Church visible the rather because some men think there may be an inward Call by the Spirit where there in so outward Call of the Church visible And so for Election Whereas S t Paul gives us ground for two distinctions uncontroulable viz. 1. Of a general Election both of Jew and Gentile unto the state of Grace by believing of the Gospel answering to the Election of the Jews alone from the times of the Law unto special Covenant and priviledge 2. Of a certain Election of persons not so large as the other unto eternal life according to the foreknowledge of God This hath occasioned the Schoolmen and the modern Polemical Divines by scanning of the terms and sisting what might be drawn from them to come in with a distinction between like a kind of superfoâ—tation of particular Election absolute or conditional for of the general Election of some people more than others unto special means they dare not question over boldly or enter farther into this Secret of Providence than Travellers dare into that Stove of S t Germans in Italy the mouth wherof I have been in only some presume to say that there are sufficient means granted unto all which modern distinction of the Popish Schoolmen and our Common-place-men hath raised much stir and heats both in the Roman and Reformed Churches For if theâ—e be an absolute positive Election of a â—ew the Question is not so much Whether it be without respect of persons as without respect of sin If there be a particular Election of persons conditionally only then Whether Election hangeth in suspense or being from eternity proceedeth according to God's foreknowledge vel saltem per scientiam mediam with a respect to his own Decree according to works foreseen of merits condign or congruous as the Schoolmen speak or according to faith or Evangelical obedience at the least foreseen and foreknown which pleaseth some of ours well enough though they have much difficulty and difference in the explaining of their meanings In the mean while perhaps there cannot be much more proved from S t Paul than that Election beareth no respect to the Works of the Law by which neither Jew nor Gentile can be justified but that both must be brought to cry Grace Grace unto the Gospel But the Bounds of my Discourse confine themselves naturally within the general Election of Grace whereby it pleased God to chuse some particular persons to be the Body Constitutive of his Church to the exclusion of â—â—hers that might seem to have stood as fair as they If it be asked Why Abel was accepted and Cain not it is ready to be answered That Abel offered a better Sacrifice and that from a better mind wherein God himself is our Warrant for he said unto him Why art thou wroth and why is thy countonance fallen If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lyeth at the door If it be asked again Why was Sem chosen rather than Ham and Iaphet A reason may be given against Ham but there is no manifest reason against Iaphet but the Oeconomy or Providence of God secundum beneplacitum Whoever presseth further may engage himself beyond recovery unless he do content himself in this that there was a time to be when it pleased God that the fulness of the Gentiles should come in So a reason may be given against Ishmael He was not only the Son of the Bondwoman that misbehaved her self towards her Mistress but a malicious Scorner of the true Heir the Son of the Free-woman and a Wild-man but of the Sons of Keturah what have we to say more than of Iaphet save only that of Midian one of them came Iethro and the Kenites friends and partakers of the house of Israel What wonder though Esau was permitted to seek his Fortunes in Mount Seir he having matched with the Daughters of Heth and Ishmael to the grief of his Parents and so without their liking and being otherwise prophane not only as a common Hunt but as an Hunter like to Nimrod so far as God permitted But what have we to say at last that all the Sons of Iacob his Concubines and all should be taken in and never an one rejected Did ever Ishmael or Esau play such pranks as some of these Reuben the eldest went in to Bilhah the Concubine which Rachel and not his Mother Leah had given unto Iacob and lay with her and defiled his Fathers bed Simeon and Levi fell upon the Shechemites not only cruelly but perfidiously after they had made them Proselytes Iudah the next preferred above all went down from his Brethren who had little converse beyond their commerce with the people of the Land and turned in to a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah And Iudah saw there a Daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah and he took her and went in unto her And she bare him Er Onan and Shelah Er married Tamar and was wicked following his Mothers kind and the Lord slew him and Onan after him And then Iudah dissembled about giving the third Son Shelah unto Tamar lest he should perish too So Iudah himself fell into Tamars Gin and was disgraced by her at the present but got more honour from her incestuous Issue at the last than from his own marriage with the Canaanite For the Sons of the Concubines Dan Naphtali Gad and Asher Ioseph was wont to bring their ill report unto his Father for which they envied him And for Issachar and Zebulun they were also in the Conspiracy against the life of Ioseph Only Reuben's pity was commended though he was agreed with the rest to conceal it with fraud from Iacob in that he would have saved Ioseph altogether which might be a reason why Ioseph bound Simeon the second when he let Reuben the first go free and Iudah so far as that he would rather fell him for a Slave than slay him Thus the Scripture concealeth not their vices Only Ioseph the Son of Rachel is extolled and his Brother Benjamin blameless CHAP. XL. The Sons of Jacob compared in their vertues and vices The latter aggravated and excused Why Pharez born of incest should be so great in Judah and inherit the promise at
produced afterwards such admirable Spirits so far as I can discover But if the Masters were indifferently such as I have described what think you were the Men If it had so seemed good to God he could have set them all alike without blemish But he would rather take in all now than leave out one And so must we leaving them in the good Land of Goshen all the life of Ioseph and some time after for the Text saith that Ioseph dyed and all his Brethren and all that Generation before a new King Iosephus saith of another Race arose up over Egypt which knew not Ioseph And that the people were so encreased that Goshen could no more contain them but that the Land of Egypt was filled with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS A LETTER In ANSWER to a QUESTION Propounded by the Authour viz. CONCERNING The multiplying of the Children of Israel in Egypt SIR SINCE You were pleas'd to request my poor assistance in the solution of the following Question to shew my readiness to serve You I set my self about it I confess at first I expected nothing but dry Arithmetical matter to work upon but upon farther consideration I found the Subject You had given me of a more extensive nature than so fit to be replenish'd with other more useful considerations and capable of a more noble improvement than I am able to bestow upon it yet such as that is here You have it Your Question is this How from seventy Males only in no longer space than two hundred and ten years as your Chronologer reckons wherein the Israelites sojourned in Egypt there could be produc'd at their first numbring in the Wilderness no less than six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty from twenty years old and upwards besides the Tribe of Levi which amounted to two and twenty thousand Males from a Month old and upwards and how the probability of this may be demonstrated so as to stop the mouths of such as Porphyry and Celsus without refuge to a vast multitude of Twins or a miraculous continuance of the power of generation in that people more than any other of which we have no mention in prophane Writers To this I doubt not but to return such an Answer as shall satisfie any reasonable man and your self in particular and having done that I think I shall have done all that You expected from me towards the silencing such as are of Celsus's and Porphyry's Creed in this matter if such as they may properly be said to have any Creed whose Faith revers'd consists in disbelieving Nor is this the only good effect of such undertakings if duly perform'd For although Christians believing the holy Scriptures to be from God who cannot lye do generally take God Almighty's word for the truth of those things that are there revealed without a strict scrutiny and examination of the things themselves yet if after assent given to the holy Scriptures as the word of God those amongst them who are qualified with abilities especially such as Your Self who serve at the Altar and whose lips preserve knowledge do search and dive into the particular Circumstances of any thing there related of an unusual and surprizing nature such as this seems to be at first view and when upon such search the thing appears upon rational grounds not only possible but very likely to be effected This not only puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men but highly confirms Believers themselves in their most holy faith and encourages them on other occasions to acquiesce and rely intirely on the truth of God's word when their limited finite faculties cannot fathom the reasons either of the thing or Command revealed Without any farther Preface therefore Give me leave Sir to affirm That in the matter before us there is no need of flying to an extraordinary multiplication by Twins I say Extraordinary for there is no reason to exclude it in the ordinary course of nature because we see it frequently happen amongst our selves and I believe 〈◊〉 might be more frequent among the Israelites even from natural causes such as the simplicity of their Diet above ours and the more fertile pregnancy of that Climate where Nature is more perfect and better digested by the nearer approach of the Sun who quickneth all things and is reputed by Philosophers to have a peculiar influence in the work of generation insomuch that it passes for an uncontrouled Maxim amongst them and a kind of Postulatum that Sol homo generant hominem And as little need is there of a miraculous power of Generation unless we will multiply miracles unnecessarily by styling every eminent Blessing by that Title which is sent in performance of a promise then indeed the great encrease of this people would pass for a miracle of the first rank For never was any promise oftener reiterated than this as if the Benediction vied in proportion and analogy to the nature of the Blessing it self which consisted in number Had the Israelitish Women been all old Sarahs nay had they been young Rachels or Rebeccahs and their Husbands confin'd to them nothing less than a miracle could have done it But as it is it holds no higher denomination than that of a very great Blessing which I look upon as a medium betwixt the ordinary course of Nature and a Miracle and much nearer of kin to the former than the latter because there is nothing in it either praeter or contra Naturam The several promises of encrease before mentioned being the foundation whereon I shall build my Superstructure it will not be amiss to take a transient view of some of them and the wording of them where we shall find a most remarkable exuberancy good measure press'd down and running over such as these Gen. 13.16 I will make thy seed says God to Abraham as the dust of the earth so that if a man can number of dust of the earth then shall thy seed also be numbred Gen. 15.5 And God brought Abraham forth abroad and said Look now towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them So shall thy seed be Gen. 22.16 17. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord That in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea-shore And although we may think that this promise was partly made good in Ishmael and Abraham's other Sons and also in Esau from all which great Nations were descended yet that is a mistake for although they did seem materially to make good these promises of encrease yet formally they did not quatenus a promise but they were thrown in by God ex abundanti and on the account of other bye promises such as that to Hagar Gen. 17.10 11. and were mere Anomala's in respect of the main Promise Gen. 21.12 For in Isaac shall thy seed be called To whom
Whether they were but seventy Males in all to wave the Question whether they were so many for some are of opinion that some of Iacob's Sons Sons are reckoned by anticipation and might for all that be born in Egypt after they were planted in the Land of Goshen Let us hear what may be said on either side And first that they were but seventy precisely or thereabouts as S t Stephen reckoneth For First It is safe to keep to the Letter of the Scripture in Historical Passages especially and not to wire-draw it or extend it more than needs for fear of wresting or of worser consequences that may be drawn from more remote constructions than from the very words Now of Iacob and his Sons it is expresly said First That Iacob sent his ten Sons and no more into Egypt to buy Corn by which it may seem that he had no such number to spare as hath been suggested Or that his Sons were but as the rest by the errand that they went on Secondly When Ioseph returned their monies it was to every man in the mouth of his Sack and being searched upon their second return when they had Benjamin with them the search began from the eldest to the youngest and could proceed no further because it seems they were no more Thirdly Their dealing was for little since so few Asses could carry what they came for and their Sacks not so full but that they could contain Provender besides proving nothing else but that these being laden the poor Ass-Riders must go on foot home Fourthly By Iacob's mean Present and Iudah's fear of losing the Asses when they were taken it seems they were but poor and so when Ioseph returned an answerable Present with Waggons to his Father to bring him into Egypt Fifthly Besides that there maybe no doubt of the number it is carefully recorded how many came with Iacob and were there before viz. seventy souls And so Iosephus Jewish Antiquary doth account and no more Sixthly In fine it would be a strange extravagancy to put so many Supernumeraries of we know not what Aliens unto this account which must needs reckon them to Israel and the Seed of Abraham and so to the only Church of God or else give some other clear account what became of them at the last Secondly Notwithstanding which Objections we must hold That Israel descended into Egypt with more than seventy person by these two Arguments which will be proved by answering the Objections only 1. Because he descended with all his houshold 2. Because he neither could nor ought to part with his circumcised Servants and their Wives and Children CHAP. XXXIV Certain Corollary Rules preliminary to the answering of the first Objection That Jacob sent his Sons to Joseph as a foreign Prince for a favour but not unaccompanied considering 1. Their concern 2. What weight of money they might take with them in so many Bundles if only to lade ten Asses 3. What the length and hazard of the way The four next Objections briefly answered TO the first good Rule these others may be joined as succedaneous Corollaries First That the sense of the Scripture is its own authority more than the Critical position of the words warranted by several Quotations in the New Testament out of the Old Secondly That necessary consequence is all one with the Text it self neither was a good Inference ever sleighted Thirdly That in such Historical Passages of Scriptures as do veil or are invelop'd with a mystery we are in a manner directed to a further indagation by S t Paul where he tells us what else we should have hardly found that one of Abraham's Sons by a Bond-maid and another by a free Woman did by an Allegory exhibit to us the difference of state betwixt Mount Sinai and the New Ierusalem or betwixt the Law and Grace Bondage and Liberty Fourthly That by comparing Passages one Scripture doth best expound another After which Preliminaries I address my self to answer the first Objection thus First It is still to be remembered that it is above two hundred and ten years since Abram armed three hundred and eighteen trained Servants born in his own house to pursue the Kings that had taken Lot Prisoner And if seventy Persons only in two hundred and ten years or thereabouts might become such an incredible number as the possibility hath been demonstrated what may we think of three hundred and eighteen more in the same Family Partakers of the like Blessings so far as their encrease was the encrease of Abraham's wealth and strenght But not to be entangled with too many difficulties to think modesty Iacob could scarce have less than a thousand souls within his Tents Secondly But why then did he send his ten Sons only with their ten Asses to buy Corn for them all Could they bring enough Or did they only bring for Iacob's own Tent and leave the rest to live on Roots or Nuts and Almonds with which it seems by the Present that the Land abounded You must remember Ioseph's Dreams that their sheaves should do obeysance to his sheaf and the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars also and then you must consider his present state and the condition of all the Nations thereabouts Ioseph was advanced to be chief Minister of State under Pharaoh and according to his own advice he was appointed to take up the fifth part of the Land of Egypt for seven years together of plenty against seven other to ensue of certain famine according to the interpretation of Pharaoh's Dream And when the famine came in all parts Iacob heard that there was Corn in Egypt for Ioseph had gathered Corn as the sand of the Sea very much until he left numbring for it was without number but not to be had save only from the hands of Pharaoh or his chief Minister and therefore you may know he sent his ten Sons and not his Servants to do their obeysance for Corn But not without Attendance as we may easily collect from divers circumstances as 1. From the Concern that they had 2. From the money that they carried with them 3. From the hazard of the Journey and the length thereof As for their Concern they had every man his own Family and did not always eat in Iacob's presence Nor could they live on Nuts or Almonds any more than the Egyptians on their Fruits who were forced to sell their Lands and their Persons too to Pharaoh that they might have Bread For their money every of the ten carried a Bundle in his Bag Think you that a Bundle of Silver as money went then was but enough to buy one Asses burthen Weigh the Bundle and the burthen and consider For their Journey it could be little less than two hundred miles directly from Hebron unto Caire If they brought but each man an Ass-Load what might they spend by the
not him they bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the Earth knowing what kind of reverence the proud Egyptians did expect Then Ioseph remembred the dreams which he had dreamed of them and like a crafty Statesman to get what he could out of them and to make them fit for what he presently apprehended he spake roughly to them and dealt as hardly keeping them three days in ward and speaking to them by an Interpreter nay he took Simeon from them as a Pledge and bound him before their eyes and sent them away the first time in fear But the next time as soon as Ioseph spied Benjamin in their Company he said to the Ruler of his house Bring these men into my house and slay and make ready a place that will trouble them to answer who would perswade us as if the Egyptians then did eat no living Creature for these men shall dine with me at noon Then he brought Simeon forth unto them who no doubt looked never the worse for his detainment And they made ready the Present against Ioseph came in and made many low obeysances but he spake very kindly to them Then that Ioseph might reserve Dignity to himself in the sight of the Egyptians he caused himself to be served at a Table of State and that there might be no interfering he caused his Brethren knowing their scruples about eating of unclean meats or with uncircumcised men to be served at another Table by themselves And knowing also the superstition of the Egyptians who looked upon the Hebrews as prophane to them as the Egyptians could be unto the Hebrews if they did not also scorn them as Shepherds he caused them to eat in the same presence apart so that all admired and there was no exception but they drank and were merry as Ioseph had ordered the matter and no doubt obtained favour with such Egyptian Courtiers as there were then admitted at the entertainment Now when Iacob drew near unto Goshen he thought it a fit Ceremony for his part to send Iudah before as his Harbinger to prepare for his reception by his Son Ioseph in the state wherein he then was And Ioseph hastened in his Chariot to meet him as a Prince and to do honour to his aged Father And so instructed all his Company how to behave themselves before Pharaoh But since policy did require that Pharaoh should not see all civility and gratitude seemed to prompt Ioseph that he should present at least the chief of Pharaoh's beneficiaries before his face and he thought it enough to present but five of them to do or to receive that honour It is like the most personable and fashionable of his Brethren that were the Sons of Rachel and Leah rather than of the Concubines who we are not to doubt made their reverence unto Pharaoh as the Master of the Egyptian Ceremonies should direct them But as for his venerable Father he brought him in after them which was ever esteemed the more honour and set him before Pharaoh And Iacob blessed Pharaoh after his own way whether as a Prince and Priest of the most High God or as a congratulation only of his favours And so when he went out after short communication by Interpreters he blessed him again And Pharaoh accepted of their addresses and seems to have been pleased and satisfied with them Thus was the way made for Israel and his Children to be planted in Rameses which I take to be a fenced place with a Territory situate upon the jaws of the seven-mouth'd Nile and for his Hinds and Herdsmen to pitch where they liked in the Province of Goshen So the former of these needed Tents no longer for when Ioseph sent for them he had said from Pharaoh's mouth Come unto me and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt Regard not your stuff for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours 'T is true the place might be called Rameses by anticipation as that which was called Luz was after called Bethel by Iacob's nomination but that there was an habitable Town or City before Iacob came thither I doubt not both because of Ioseph's recommendation of his father to a good place and because of the situation of it as a necessary Fortress against Out-livers of another Nation However some are of opinion that the Israelites themselves might build that City as the English did Calais while they were in Egypt before the Task-masters set them to work to fortifie it more as a Treasure-City and a Bridle to themselves from escaping as well as to keep out others against common sence for throughout their prosperity they were instructed that the Land of Canaan was their inheritance expecting daily as good a Call to return out of Egypt as ever they had to come thither Said not God unto Iacob at his first descent I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring thee up again And said not Ioseph on his death-bed unto his Brethren I dye and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this Land unto the Land which he sware unto Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ye shall carry up my bones from hence Which he did by faith as S t Paul witnesseth bearing up the like in his Brethren and Posterity In this estate the Children of Israel lived in prosperity the remaining seventeen years of Iacob's life and about fifty four more of Ioseph's through the Reign of more Kings than one as Historians tell us Even as it happened after unto Daniel for the sake of the same people when they were a second time to be redeemed from their bondage As large a time of felicity as God doth usually grant to his Church at once that their hearts should neither fail nor wax gross But before any change arrive we will leave them in their best condition in a foreign Countrey only eying in the close what their spiritual state was as the only remaining visible or at least conspicuous Church of God under Heaven CHAP. XXXVII Thâ— Israelites had toleration in Egypt as to offer Sacrifices during Ioseph's life Afterwards denied them That contrary Religions are sooner tolerated than diversities of the same That there was but one Religion in Satan's Kingdom how many Gods soever the Heathen worshipped Jews at this day tolerated much at the like rate that they were before THERE are three Questions emergent here if I may dare to handle the Argument that I have in hand viz. first Toleration secondly Division and thirdly The Unity of the Church The first from the indulgence of Egypt during Ioseph's life The second from the piety of Ioseph's house while separated from his Brethren And the third from the adoption of the whole house of Iacob whereas but one of Abraham or Isaac's Sons were comprehended in the blessing even of the Sons of Bilhah and Zilpah in opposition unto Hagar and Keturah It is not only