hath enrich'd Pharaoh If Ioseph had not ruled Egypt and all the bordering Nations had perished The providence of so faithful an Officer hath both given the Egyptians their lives and the Money Cattle Bodies Lands of the Egyptians to Pharaoh Both have reason to be well pleased the Subjects owe to him their Lives the King his Subjects and his Dominions The Bounty of God made Ioseph give more than he received It is like the seven years of plenty were not confin'd to Egypt other Countries adjoyning were no less fruitful yet in the seven yeares of famine Egypt had Corn when they wanted See the difference betwixt a wise prudent frugality and a vain ignorant expence of the benefits of God The sparing hand is both full and beneficial whereas the lavish is not only empty but injurious CHAP. XLII Verse 2. GOod Iacob is pinched with the common famine No piety can exempt us from the evils of neighbourhood No man can tell by outward events which is the Patriarch and which the Canaanite Neither doth his profession lead him to the hope of a miraculous preservation It is a vain tempting of God to cast our selves upon an immediate provision with neglect of common meanes His ten Sons must now leave their Flocks and goe down into Egypt to be their Fathers Purveyors And now they goe to buy of him whom they had sold and bow their knees to him for his releif which had bowed to them before for his own life Vers. 9. It was no small joy to Ioseph to see this late accomplishment of his antient dreames to see the Suppliants I know not whether more brethren or enemies groveling before him in an unknown submission He that was hated of his Brethren for being his Fathers Spie now accuses his brethren for common Spies of the weakness of Egypt He could not without their suspition have come to a perfect intelligence of his Fathers estate and theirs if he had not objected to them that which was not It is more safe in cases of inquisition to fetch farre about and it is wisdom sometimes to conceal our knowledge that we may not prejudice truth Vers. 16. It now doth Ioseph good to seem merciless to his Brethren whom he had found wilfully cruel to hide his love from them which had shewed their hate to him and to think how much he favoured them and how little they knew it And as sporting himself with their present misery he pleasantly imitates all those actions reciprocally unto them which they in despite and earnest had done formerly to him he speaks roughly rejects their perswasions puts them in hold and one of them in bonds The mind must not alwayes be judged by the outward face of actions Gods countenance is oft-times severe and his hand heavy to them whom he best loves many a one under the habit of an Egyptian hath the heart of an Israelite And here that Ioseph might seem enough and indeed too much an Egyptian Ioseph swears heathenishly How little could his Brethren suspect that this oath could proceed from the Son of him that swore by the fear of his Father Isaac How oft have sinister respects drawn weak goodness to disguise its self even with sins Vers. 18. The onely best curbe to restrain from evil and spur to incite to good is the fear of God All honesty flowes from this holy fear And therefore it is a Probleme in Aristotle why men are credited more than other creatures the answer is Man only reverenceth God therefore you may trust him therefore you may commit your self to him He that truly feareth God is like unto Cato of whom it is said he never did well that he might appear to do so but because he could do no otherwise You need not fear me said Ioseph here to his Brethren for I fear God and so dare do ye no hurt Verse 21. As they formerly hardened their hearts against the pittiful complaint of their Brother Ioseph so they confess to be just that now their suit and petition was not heard And then in that they said one to another we have verily sinned we see the admirable effect of affliction which brings a man to the knowledge of his sin and so to repentance And further when they came to this repentance none of them transferres the sin from himself neither doth any of them discharge any of the rest of that sin they all take all they say one to another we all we are verily guilty and therefore is this distress come upon us upon us all National calamities are induced by general sins and where they fall we cannot so charge the Laity as to free the Clergy nor so charge the People as to free the Magistrate Let us therefore never say that it is aliena ambitio the immoderate ambition of a pretending Monarch that indangers us that it is aliena perfidia the falsehood of perfidious Neighbours that hath disappointed us that it is aliena fortuna the growth of others who have shot up under our shelter that doth overtop us they are peccata nostra our own pride our own wantonness our own drunkenness that makes God shut and close his hand toward us withdraw his former blessings from us and then strike us with that shut and clos'd and heavy hand and multiply calamities upon us Ver. 24. No Song could be so delightful unto Ioseph as to hear them in a late remorse condemn themselves before him of their old cruelty towards him who was now their unknown Witness and Judge They had heard Iosephs deprecation of their evil with tears and had not pittied him yet Ioseph doth but hear their mention of this evil which they had done against him and pitties them with tears He weeps for joy to see their repentance and to compare his safety and happiness with the cruelty which they intended and did and thought they had done Verse 28. Simeon is left in pawn in Fetters while the rest of Iacobs Sons return with their Corn with their paying nothing for their Provision but their labour that they might be as much troubled with the beneficence of that strange Egyptian Lord as before with his imperious suspition Their wealth was now more irksome to them than their need And they fear God means to punish them more in this superfluity of Money than in the want of Victuals What is this that God hath done to us It is a wise course to be jealous of our gain and more to fear than to desire abundance Verse 38. All temporal things are troublesome if they be good it is trouble to forgoe them and when we see that they must be parted with either we wish that they had not been so good or that we had never enjoyed them as some did of St. Augustine when he died If they be evil their presence is troublesome and still we wish either that they were good or that we were eased of them Good things are troublesome in the event and evil
buried in the high-way is no good mark and therefore bury not thy self thy labours thy affections upon the world Verse 22. However Infidels and Idolaters were destitute of the knowledge of the true God yet they accounted it a special duty to honour the Priests of their Groves and Altars and perswaded themselves that they should never receive any blessing at the hands of their Gods unlesse they honoured those that were esteemed as his Servants Thus Moses witnesseth that when Pharaoh during the Dearth and Famine that was in Egypt had received all the Money bought all the Cattle and purchased all the Land of the People to supply their necessity and save their lives yet he would not buy the Priests Land but sustained them for their Office sake And are Idolaters and Infidels thus bountiful in the maintaining of their Priests How then should this serve to reprove our dulness and backwardness in the true worship of the Eternal God How many are there that live in the bosome of the Church and profess the true Religion who yet to maintain a learned Minister that is able to save their souls repine and grutch to give sixpence a quarter What a shame is it for those whom the Lord hath blessed with abundance that they should spend all on their backs and bellies on Hawks or Hounds or Whores and nothing at all to the Glory of God the comfort of their fouls and help of their Brethren Verse 28. Just so many years as Iacob had nourished Ioseph in Canaan did Ioseph nourish Iacob in Egypt repaying his Fathers love to the utmost penny These were the sweetest dayes and freest from trouble that ever the good old Patriark saw God reserves his best to the last Mark the perfect man and behold the upright saith the Psalmist for be his beginning and middle never so troublesome the end of that man his after-end at least shall be peace A Goshen he shall have either here or in Heaven and a Peace both in this world and the next the peace of Conscience here and the peace that passeth all understanding hereafter CHAP. XLVIII Verse 1. IAcob have I loved said God and yet this Beloved of God was under many troubles and afflictions in his life and visited with sickness before his death And all this doth very well agree with the dispensations of Gods Providence For whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourgeth every Son whom he receives Afflictions are Christs Love-tokens When Ignatius came to the wild Beasts Now saith he I begin to be a Christian. Omnis Christianus crucianus every true Christian must take up his Crosse and follow his Saviour It is reported of an antient Doctor of the Church lying upon his sick bed and being asked how he did and how he felt himself he pointed to his Sores and Ulcers whereof he was full and said Hae sunt gemmae pretiosa ornamenta Dei These are Gods Gems and Jewels wherewith he decketh his best friends and to me they are more pretious than all the Gold and Silver in the world Verse 3. It is not enough to relate Gods Mercies to us in the lump and by whole-sale but we must instance in the particulars both to God and men upon every occasion setting them down one by one and cyphering them up as Davids word is Psal. 9. 1. I will praise thee O Lord and I will shew forth or sum up all thy marvellous works When Moses in Exodus met with his Father in Law he reckoned all the particular Mercies that God had done for Israel in Egypt and at the Red Sea he omitted none The truly thankful keep an Ephemerides a Calender and Catalogue of Gods gratious dealings with them and delight to their last to recount and sum them up We should be like Civit-boxes which still retain the scent when the Civit is taken out of them Verse 7. Iacob makes mention of Rachels burial to put Ioseph in mind that Rachel forsook her Fathers house to live in Canaan so to stir him up much more to leave Egypt which was not his Country as also that he might have a greater desire to the place of his Mothers Sepulcher Verse 14. Iacob feeling with his hands which was the Elder and bigger for the words are he caus'd his hands to understand on purpose laid his right hand on Ephraim in way of preheminence which sheweth that God bestoweth his Gifts without respect of persons as also it prefigureth the calling of the Gentiles instead of the Iews who were as the elder Brother 3. From this we may deduce an evident truth in experience that Gods dispensations towards the Righteous and the Wicked in this life are like Iacobs dealing here with Iosephs Sons crosse and strange For as he laid his right hand on the Younger and his left on the Elder so doth God oft-times for the present distribute with his left hand crosses to the good and with his right favours to the bad And not only in a literal sense as our Saviour speaks He maketh the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall upon the just and the unjust but in a metaphorical sense he causeth the Sun of Prosperity to shine upon the Unjust and the Rain of Adversity to fall upon the Just. Verse 15. When a Curse fals upon the Children the Father is cursed as in the Blessing of the Children tht Father is blessed Thus Ioseph brought his two Sons Manasseh and Ephraim to his aged Father Iacob that they might receive his Blessing who laying his hands upon their heads blessed Ioseph saith the Text and said God before whom c. and then it follows The Angel which redeem'd me from all evil blesse the Lads Now as Iacob in blessing the Children of Ioseph blessed Ioseph himself so Noah Gen. 9. in cursing the Children of Cham cursed Cham himself Valerius l. 1. hath observed concerning the Tyrant Dionysius that though he escaped free and untouched in person from the vengeance which his sacrilegious wickedness deserved yet his Sons were involved in so much misery that in them he being pasâ— feeling suffered and being dead paid dearly for his stolue dainties The light of Nature as well as Scripture tels us that evils falling on posterity are reckoned upon the Fathers score And thus as 't is with Curses so likewise with Blessings upon the same account and for the same reason though they are conferr'd upon the Children yet the Fathers memory is blessed and honoured by them Verse 17. It is dangerous to follow men blindfold how seeing soever those men are but it is safe and our duty to follow God blindfold how seeing soever we think our selves to be We must not be displeased as Ioseph was here with his Father Iacob When we see God laying his right hand upon Ephraim and his left upon Manasseh doing things crosse to our thoughts much lesse may we take upon us to direct the hand of God as Ioseph would Iacobs where we please The Lord
David being rail'd upon by Shimei said God had bid him curse and Iob being robbed by the Sabeans said God had taken away thus also concerning the Iseraelites bondage under the Egyptians the Psalmist saith he turned their heart to hate his people and deal subtilly with his servants Let us not therefore with the foolish dog bark at the stone but rather look at the hand acknowledging God in all Verse 8. God so orders and disposeth the actions of men as seems best for his glory as Ioseph spake here to his Brethren when he discovered himself to them in Egypt whether they had betraied and sold him now it was not you that sent me hither but God they sent him thither instrumentally enviously but it was God that sent him thither providentially and graciously it was his power and wisedome which ordered that dispensation sweetly else his Brethren had made foul work of it or they sent him thither to make him a slave that was their designe but God sent him thither to make him a Prince and Ruler to make him a Preserver of Egypt and of his own family too as he speaks at the end of this verse he hath made me a Father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a Ruler throughout all the land of Egypt Verse 11. Although the fift Commandement was not then writ in stone yet it was sufficiently engraved on the Table of Iosephs heart honour thy Father and thy Mother and surely one part of his honour is to provide for them in case of want which was Iosephs particular care in this text to nourish and cherish his father as a man nourisheth his little ones saith the Hebrew lovingly and tenderly This the Apostle commends to us 1 Tim. 5. 4. as a thing not only good before men but acceptable before God Epominondas rejoyc'd in nothing more then that he had lived to cheer up the hearts of his aged Parents by the reports of his victories Aristotle cap. 6. de mundo tells us that when from the hill Etna there run down a current of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts in the midst of those fearful flames the River of fire parted its self and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged Parents out of the jawes of death Verse 21. Ioseph is here as bountifull as his Brethren were formerly cruel They send him naked to strangers he sends them in new and rich liveries to their father they tooke a small sum of money for him he gives them great treasures they sent his torne coat to his father he sends variety of costly raiment to his father by them they sold him to be the load of Camels he sends them home with Chariots It must be a great favour that can appease the conscience of a great injury Now they return home rich and joyful making themselves happy to think how glad they should make their father with this newes Verse 26. Good old Iacob did never hope that Egypt should have afforded such provision as this Ioseph is yet alive this was not food but life to him The return of Benjamin was comfortable but that his dead son was yet alive after so many yeares lamentation was tydings too happy to be believed and was enough to endanger that life with excesse of joy which the knowledge thereof doubled Over excellent objects are dangerous in their sudden aprehensions One grain of that joy would have safely cheer'd him whereof a full measure overlayes his heart with too much sweetness There is no earthly pleasure where of we may not surfeit of the spirituall we can never have enough Verse 28. Iacobs eyes revive his mind which his eares had thus astonished When he saw the Chariots of his son be beleived Iosephs life and refreshed his own He had too much before so that he could not enjoy it now he saith I have enough Ioseph my son is yet alive they told him of his honour he speaks of his life life is better then honour To have heard that Ioseph lived a servant would have joyed him more then to hear that he died honourably The greater blessing obscures the less He is not worthy of honour that is not thankfull for life Yet Iosephs life did not content Iacob without his presence I will go down and see him ere I die the sight of the eye is better then to walke in desires good things pleasure us not in their being but in our enjoying Thus did Iacob rejoyce when he was to go out of the land of promise to a forraign Nation for Iosephs sake being glad that he should loose his country for his son What shall our joy be who must goe out of this forraign land of our pilgrimage to the home of our glorious inheritance to dwell with none but our own in that better and more lightsome Goshen free from all the incumbrances of this Egypt and full of all the riches and delights of God CHAP. XLVI Verse 2. GOd hath not used one means alone but diverse to speak unto the world either by Angels or by the cloud or between the Cherabims or by Urim or by Dreams or by Visions To this purpose there is a rule set down Num. 12. if there be a Prophet of the Lord among you I will be known to him by a Vision and will speak to him by a dream and to this rule we might add sundry examples out of Scripture as of Iacob here of Samuel of Daniel of Iohn all declaring that God used to declare many things by Visions to his Servants and to others when it pleased him that so by this means he might have the revelation of his will appear to be onely his and not of themselves For however it pleased the Lord to deal with his servants and what way soever he used to signifie his good pleasure in all these cases he imprinted in the mindes and hearts of them to whom he shewed himself certain notes and evident tokens whereby they might expresly and clearly know that it was his doing that so they should chalenge nothing to themselves but ascribe all unto him Verse 3. Cause of feare Iacob might see sufficient but God would not have him look downward on the rushing and roaring streams of misery that run so swiftly under him and his posterity but stedfastly fasten on his power and providence who was his God and the God of his father He loves to perfect his strength in our weakness as Eliah would have the Sacrifice covered with water that Gods power might the more appear in the fire from heaven Verse 4. God saies to Iacob here I will go down with thee into Egypt and I wil also surely bring thee up again God goes down with a good man into the grave and will surely bring him up again When the Angel promised to returne to Abram and Sarah for the assurance of the birth of Iaac acording to the time of life that is in such
The wicked heart never fears God but thundring or raining fire from Heaven but the good can dread him in his very sun-shine his loving Deliverances and Blessings affect them with awfulness Moses was the true Son of Iacob who when he saw nothing but visions of Love and Mercy could say How dreadful is this place Verse 7. If we would have our greif seen and helped we must endeavour to become Gods People For then sighing and groaning in our several afflictions as these did we may be sure in due time to find our comfort as they found We may hence also learn that affliction doth not shew that the party is disliked of God as the Devil often suggests to men and women in trouble for God calleth these Israelites his People which yet were plunged in the depth of misery and affliction Verse 11. This should teach every one of us humility and to say with Moses Who am I Lord that thou should'st thus and thus think of me chuse me and take me to that place that I have no strength to manage and which thousands of my Brethren are fitter for than I am This also may put us in mind of the weighty calling of Ministers For is it such a matter to strive with Pharaoh for Bodies and temporal servitude and is it nothing to fight with the Devil for Souls and freedome from eternal slavery Verse 14. See a sweet comfort in all our fears even his Name I AM. Noting that as he hath been to penitent sinners so ever he will be without any change If I call upon him and depend upon him I AM is his Name and I may not doubt of him he is no Changeling but the same for ever Verse 16. When any new thing is to be published that concerneth any change in Church or Common-wealth we must acquaint the Magistrates Rulers and Governours with it to approve our Commission and matter unto them with all Modesty Humility Fear and Care of Order and Unity and then with their consents and assistance unto the People and Multitude This is a right course and this shall have a Blessing from the Author of it as here it had Then shall they obey thy voice verse 18. Verse 18. See again and still most carefully note it how God regardeth Government For now Pharaoh must be used as was fit for his place he being the King of that Land in which they were wicked Pharaoh I say must not be disorderly dealt with by such as live under his Government although Strangers and not his natural Subjects how much then by natural Subjects But he must be gone unto with all duty and acquainted with their desire with all reverence that neither themselves may be judged factious neither others by their examples moved to any disorder And therefore they must acquaint him with the Author of their desires not their own heads lusting after liberty or novelty but the Lord God Verse 21. All hearts are in the hands of God even as the Rivers of Water and that he turneth them hither and thither at his pleasure He can make them love hate they never so much Yea he can make them so love that fruits from thence shall flow to his People of their love Be they Jewels of Silver or Rayment they shall grant it and send it give it or lend it with so willing a mind as the party taking needeth to wish CHAP. IV. Verse 3. THe heart of man is like the Rod of Moses as long as he held it in his hand it remained a Rod but when he threw it to the ground it turn'd instantly into a Serpent nay a Dragon the Prince of Serpents as Philo the Iew saith so the heart of man as long as there is fast hold of it as long as Man is the Possessor God the Guardian it continues still an heart but if our boistrous unruly sins once throw it to the earth it changeth instantly to be a Serpent From whence all carnal and earthly-minded men may learn whose Consciences at the reading hereof tell them that their hearts are turn'd into Serpents and Vipers by their sins and are now crawling on the earth in their lustful designes to stretch forth a hand of sorrow a hand of true repentance to take them up again in what shape soever they appear For he that was exalted on the Crosse as the Serpent in the Wildernesse shall turn those Serpents into Hearts again their Gall and Poison into Innocence their Sting of Death into Issues of Immortal Life Verse 4. Sin is a Serpent and hath a deadly sting in the tayl of it even the sting of Death For the sting of death is sin saith St. Paul Now as a man would fly from a Serpent so let him fly from sin But if thou hast taken this Serpent into thy hand rest not till like Moses Serpent it be turned into a Rod again to scourge thy Soul till a true sense of thy sins and of Gods Wrath due unto thee for the same bring thee to a serious repentance and contrition to a spiritual loathing and abhorrency of those sins that so thou maist never cast thine eye back upon them but with a new and a particular detestation thou maist never enter into meditation of those sinful passages of thy former life but with shame and horror of soul and that every solemn review of those dayes of darkness and unregeneration may make the wounds of our remorse to bleed afresh Verse 7. When Moses pluck'd his hand out of his bosome it was leprous and again when he pluck'd it out it was white to shew that the actions of our hands receive their denomination from the bosome the heart according to that saying of the Father Tantum habent virtutis aut vitii actiones quantum habent voluntatis Verse 12. He that is singled out to any service of his God for the advantage of his Israel must not give back or waver but go boldly on If a willing obedience second his Command God promiseth to assist I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say was Gods Promise here to Moses and it was his Sons to the Apostles Mat. 10. 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak As if he had said be not anxious about matter or manner of your Apology for your selves ye shall be supplied from on High both with Invention and Elocution you shall have your help from Heaven For it is not you that speak saith our Saviour in the next verse but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you who borroweth your mouth for the present to speak by It is he that forms your speeches for you dictates them to you filleth you with matter and furnisheth you with words Fear not therefore your rudeness to reply there is no mouth into which God cannot put words And how oft doth he chuse the Weak and Unlearned to confound
and his Courtiers And thus by one means or other the Lord will evermore deliver his Truth from false surmises his faithful Ministers from false imputations and write the wickedness of carnal men upon their faces to their own confusion Verse 15. See the corruption of our Nature if God work not No sooner is the Rod off but wretched man fals to his old sins again When we are sick or distressed any way we pretend Repentance we pray we cry we vow But forasmuch as all riseth from Fear and not from Love it vanisheth as soon as the Fear is past and the Devil returns with seven worse than himself making our end more odious than ever our beginning was Verse 17. It had been as easie for the Lord to have turned the dust into Lions and Bears and Wolves but that rather he chose to confound pride by weakness and a rebelling humour by so base a Creature Then secondly let us consider that if God can make so vile a Creature too strong for a Kingdome what resistance can I a single man make against Gods wrath if I pull it upon me by my sins His wrath can arme all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth against me and yet the least of them is far above my power as you see here Verse 18. The Devil is powerful when God will suffer him but when God will restrain him what can he do Add this to the story of Iob to the story of the Heard of Swine in the Gospel and from such places let us take comfort against our spiritual Enemy for we see his weakness and the brideling hand of God at all times upon him Verse 19. The wicked who for a time make shew as if God were on their side in Gods good time shall be forced to acknowledge the contrary to his Glory and the great Comfort of his Church and Children For what did these Magicians in effect say but that this which was now done passeth our Skill and albeit the Creature be vile and base yet is the Power of God such over us and our Art that we cannot do the like but give him the Victory and acknowledge our selves sinful weak and wicked men Verse 23. Whensoever we are free from any calamity which happeneth to others it is not by our own Policy but by that gracious separation which the Lord makes How may we run into particulars Others sickly we healthy others in prison we at liberty others in blindness we in light others slandered we not touch'd others cross'd in their Children and Friends we comforted O blessed God what a separation is this How ought we to be thankful to thee for it Verse 28. Worldly minded men will be content to tolerate Religion so it might still be joyned with their profit But if it be contrary to that O how bitter then how hard to endure it For these Iews wholly to depart from Egypt was not for Pharaohs profit for from their labours he had great gain and therefore by no means may they go out of his Land to sacrifice to their God but in the Land he is content to endure it so he may be freed from those Plagues that were upon him Or if needs must be that they must go out of the Land yet not far in any case CHAP. IX Verse 14. GOD punisheth sinners first with one Rod then with another and if these single chastisements will not serve then will he go to many Plagues heaping Wrath upon Wrath and Plague upon Plague yea he will lay even all his Plagues upon us at once as he here speaks to our utter confusion as also it is Deut. 28. 15. Secondly God cals them here his Plagues so that neither fortune nor chance ruleth Rods and Crosses laid upon us but these still are Gods laid on and taken off at his pleasure Ib. Upon the heart that is inwardly and deeply to smite us in armes hands legs is greivous unto us but when sorrow is laid upon the heart it stingeth indeed and most bitterly as Prov. 17. 22. 15. 13. Now the best way to prevent this doleful sorrow of heart laid on by an angry God is to take our sins to heart betimes Verse 23. Whether we be hindered or furthered by weather let us cast up our eyes to Heaven for it is the Lord still that ruleth these things and by his Will they come and go Nature is his Servant and the Devil his Rod neither of them working but as he appoints Verse 24. Fire was mingled with Hail to teach that Gods Judgements shall not be single but even one upon the neck of another until we be either humbled or destroyed Who would think it possible that any Soul should be secure in the midst of such variety of Judgements To what a height of obduration will sin lead a man and of all sins incredulity Amongst all these Stormes Pharaoh sleepeth till the voice of Gods mighty Thunders and Hail mixed with Fire rouz'd him up a little Verse 28. Pharaoh here as one betwixt sleeping and waking starts up a little and sayes God is righteous and I am wicked Moses pray for us and presently layes down his head again God hath no sooner done thundering than he hath done fearing All this while you never find him careful to prevent any one evil but desirous still to shift it off when he seeks it never holds constant to any good motion never prayes for himself but carelesly wils Moses and Aaron to pray for him never yields God his whole Demands but higleth and dodgeth like some hard Chapman that would get a release with the cheapest Wheresoever meer Nature is she is still inconstant in all her purposes sensible of present evil and improvident of future good CHAP. X. Verse 2. AS this teacheth us the end of Gods Works and Wonders so the Duty and Office of all Christian Parents and Governours even to teach their Children and charge carefully and zealously by them and in them to know the Lord as also Deut. 6. 6. thus is God himself the Author of that catechising and instructing of Youth which is so much neglected in our daies Verse 3. The drift of all Crosses and Afflictions in this life is to bring down the swelling pride of our sinful hearts that yeilding God what is due to him we again may from him reap mercy and forgiveness to our endless comfort Never forget this saying to King Iosiah 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thine heart was tender c. Verse 7. So old is the Accusation which to this day remains among wicked persons ascribing unto Religion and the Professors thereof whatsoever evil happeneth among men be it Death Sickness Wars Famine Thus Ahab tels Elias that it was he that troubled Israel by whom indeed all Israel had a Blessing if they had known it But to prove the contrary read Gen. 18. 32. Houses and whole Kingdomes have been saved but for one righteous man dwelling therein as Ioseph Daniel and the like
be in these dayes who grieve at an hour spent in the Church but never of dayes and years spent in sin Secondly observe that when we are once delivered out of spiritual Egypt then doth the Devil muster up his Chariots and Horse-men He cannot abide to loose his Servants so his we were and he hath lost us and his we must be again if by all his strength he can possibly gain us A Land that floweth with Milk and Honey may not be inherited without resistance Out of Egypt we may be delivered but from following persecutions we shall not be quite freed Think of that Devil in the Gospel who when he must needs depart and loose his possession did rend and tear the poor party most miserably Mar. 9. 26. Verse 13. In all spiritual Conflicts say thus with your self O my soul fear not though Sathan thrust sore at thee and seek thy destruction but look unto him that is mightier than all Hell believe his Promises believe his Word and the Egyptians whom thou hast seen to day thou shalt never see again that is those frights and those fears Enemies to thy peace thou shalt never be troubled with them any more but God shall so drown them in the red Sea of Christs bloud that they shall never hurt thee The Lord shall fight for thee O my Soul therefore stand still and wait upon him Verse 14. A Silence before a not praying hath not alwayes a fault in it because we are often ignorant of our own necessities and ignorant of the dangers that hang over us but a silence after a benefit evidently received a dumb ingratitude is inexcusable Thus when Moses sayes here to his People The Lord shall fight for you c. Moses means you shall not need to speak the Lord will do it for his own glory you may be silent There it was a future thing but the Lord hath fought many battels for us he hath fought for our Church against Schisms and Heresie for our Land against Invasion for every soul against Presumption or else against Desperation Dominus pugnavit nos filemus Verse 15. See the force of Prayer though it be but in groans of your heart it even crieth in Gods ears it pierceth the Heavens and pulleth down comfort See likewise the duty of all faithful Servants of God to go forward as here is said to the Israelites notwithstanding Seas before us Hils about us and whatsoever it may be that is against us leaving all to the Lord who knoweth his own purpose and will manifest the same in his good time Forward forward saith God here Speak to the Children of Israel that they go forward But why did Moses cry thus in his heart to God when it was revealed to him what should be the end of the Egyptians Because neither Promises nor Revelations hinder Gods Children from using ordinary means but do rather stirre them up more and more to beg and crave the performance and effect of them Verse 22. If you look at the Waters on either side you may see the condition of Gods Children in this World beset on the right side with a Floud of Prosperity and beset on the left side with a floud of Adversity And yet through a true Faith walking through both and hurt by neither they arrive on the other side safely when by either of these many others are destroyed pray then for this Faith CHAP. XV. Verse 1. T Is a good form of giving thanks when every particular person out of his own feeling sayes I I good Lord do yield unto thy Majesty my bounden thanks for my self and for my Brethren for my self and for thy whole Church and so every one feeling and every one thanking the Lord is praised of all as his Mercy and goodness reach to all Thus David Psal. 118. 28. I I again in my own person and with my own heart and with my own tongue So here I will sing when they were many thousands Verse 5. They sank as a stone that is without all recovery and help For a stone swimmeth not out being cast in but goeth to the bottom and there abideth Fearful and very fearful was their destruction to the terror of all those that shall persecute the Church of God and his People Verse 6. Not our Vertue not our Merits not our Armies or men of Might Gods Servants do never rob him and cloath themselves but with Moses here they give all to God where indeed it is due and say with David Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the praise Verse 7. In that they are said to have risen against God when they rose but against his People observe the Union between God and his Church even such as who so toucheth the one toucheth the other For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Zach. 2. 8. And Saul Saul why persecutest thou me me in my members and by my members Verse 9. The same ambition and covetousness that made Pharaoh wear out so many Judgements will not leave him till it hath wrought out his full destruction All Gods Vengeances have their end the final perdition of his Enemies which they cannot rest till they have attained Pharaoh therefore and his Egyptians will needs go fetch their Bane instead of their Victory They bragg'd of their Conquest before-hand and gave Israel either for Spoil or Bondage But the Sea will shew them that it regards the Rod of Moses not the Scepter of Pharaoh and therefore in the next verse as glad to have got the Enemies of God at such an advantage shuts her mouth upon them Extraordinary favours to wicked men are the fore-runners to their ruine Verse 19. As the Act of the Egyptians for drowning the Israelitish Children was cruel Chap. 1. so is their own issue and punishment but just here The People must drown their Males there themselves are drown'd here they died by the same means by which they caused the poor Israelitish Infants to die That Law of Retaliation which God will not allow to us because we are fellow-creatures he justly practiseth on us God would have us read our sins in our judgements that we might both repent of our sins and give Glory to his Justice Verse 20. In common Duties due to God none must sit out The deliverance concern'd both Sexes and therefore both Sexes were to thank God for it Man and Wife must joyn and agree together to honour him that saveth them Ioseph will go up to Ierusalem according to the Law and Mary his Wife will go with him No division no difference betwixt them in Gods matters If the one owe a Duty the other thinks she doth so too and with one heart according to one rule they both worship God and so come home Verse 24. A fitter course it had been for a People so taught with passed Favours to have assured themselves of future helps in Gods good time and with Patience and Faith to
have expected the same Remember said our Saviour how many baskets full of broken meat were taken up and never to fear any want where such a powerful God is To remember what God hath done for me and to make it an argument both of my Prayer and Hope with David Psal. 4. 1. and with Iob chap. 13. 15. Verse 25. Such vertue was in the Wood given to it by God first that he might manifest by this means his Love and Goodness to us much more when he maketh all his Creatures serve to our Health and Good and so to stir us up to true thankfulness unto him for it Secondly that he might teach us thus not to abuse those his Creatures which with so excellent Vertues and Qualities are created for us to do us good Thirdly that we might learn by this means not to contemn second causes and means by abusing through presumption the holy Doctrine of Gods Providence For When God himself is pleased to use these Instruments who are we that we should reject them Verse 27. Thus cometh Comfort after Sorrow and Plenty after Scarcity And surely the Tryals of the Church or of any particular Member therein shall have a joyful end and though they be never so many yet the Lord delivereth out of them all who would not trust then in such a God and tarry his time that never faileth CHAP. XVI Verse 1. THe time is named the fifteenth day to let us know that their ingratitude was so much the more detestable by how much the remembrance of so great and wonderful a deliverance from their Enemies was more fresh in memory being so late Therefore let us think in the morning of our safety by Gods Mercy all the night and at night of our safety all the day which unlesse I be thankful for I must needs be a great Offender seeing it is not possible to plead forgetfulness in such fresh and new things Verse 3. The Gospel is welcome to many at the first and they greatly rejoyce in it but when either trouble groweth for it or they are restrained by it from their accustomed sins of Swearing Drunkenness Sensuality Covetousness and such like then they wish they had never been troubled with such preaching and all Gods Mercy is returned to him with great unthankfulness as here it was of these murmuring Israelites And thus likewise in Matches and Marriages O what impiety is in many many times cursing the parties and almost cursing God that gave them such a Match when yet at the beginning all was well and every body pleased Secondly this murmuring of the Israelites may shew us what is the course of too many in the world even to prefer the Flesh-pots of Egypt before the Land of Canaan and bellies full of Bread before a blessed Deliverance out of cruel bondage that is Earth before Heaven and the Joyes of this World before those of the next Such were those in Ier. 44. 16 17 18. who measured Religion by plenty and scarcity judging that best which brought most profit and that worst wherein there was any want Verse 4. God is not tied to ordinary Means nor our maintenance to the Fruits of the Earth The Ravens shall both find Meat and bring Meat to Eliah if God command and a little Oil shall continue running till many Vessels are full if he so please Iacob was provided for in that extream Famine Gen. 47. 11. and Gold was brought to Mary and Ioseph from far when they little thought on it Mat. 2. 11. Lift up your thoughts therefore above the course of Nature when you think upon God and although you have neither Bread nor Money nor the whole Land any Corn yet past Hope take hold on Hope and leave God to himself Verse 8. Murmuring against Gods Ministers is murmuring against God They have not cast thee away but me away 1 Sam. 8. 7. And he that despiseth you despiseth me said Christ Luke 10. 16. Verse 16. As God doth something for his part towards our maintenance so likewise must we do something on our parts He will give Manna but we must go out and gather it He will provide Meat and Money and Cloth and whatever is good for us but we must labour in some honest Vocation and so come by these things Corn he will give to the Husband-man but conditionally that he plow and sow Idleness he will not endure Verse 18. God doth here restrain the covetous who are never satisfied and withall comfort his own Children who have not such heaps For what hath the greatest Raker that lives among us but a subsistance and hath not the poorest man as much God will make my little stretch out to an Omer that is to enough and his much shall be no more doe what he can Verse 21. We must take time while time serves We have a Morning and we have an Evening our able Youth and good Health is our Morning our Age and sick estate is our Evening Spend not the first vainly and you shall not want in the last Work in the Morning and we shall eat the fruit of our labours when the Evening of Age and Sickness comes Gods Blessings are not at our election to have them when we will but when we seek and he bids then we shall find His Manna is ready if we come in time but if we linger till we list he hath his Sun to melt it away and it is gone Verse 24. It corrupted not No more shall any Goods you get and gather with the Will and good liking and Commandement of God that is truly and lawfully and with a good Conscience but the Lord shall bless that basket and that store to you whilst you live and to yours when you are gone CHAP. XVII Verse 2. LEt us in all our wants set our Faces the right way and look to Heaven not to Earth to God not to Man And let us not follow these Israelites who when they wanted Water did not cry unto God but fly upon Moses with an unfitting speech as though Moses were God to create Fountains and Springs Thus did Rachel come upon her Husband Gen. 30. 1. and so alwayes doth corrupt man possessed with impatiency take a wrong course leave God and run to man and speak according to his rage without due consideration of mans ability and power Only therefore to God we must go in our wants For there is the Treasury and bottomless Store-house of all Comforts Ask there seek there knock there and you have a Promise Mat. 7. 7. but run to the Creature and you have none Verse 4. Rely not upon the multitude nor hunt after the peoples applause Do not the Scriptures shew us how reverently the Pharisees sent unto Iohn Mat. 11. 18. and yet after affirm'd him to have a Devil whereupon said our Saviour he was c. Ioh. 5. 35. thus all credit is but for a season with worldly men with the common People To day a man to morrow
It is a dangerous thing in the service of God to decline from his own institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his own Worship just to require what he hath prescribed powerful to revenge that which he hath not required CHAP. XXVII Verse 13. AFter many painful and perilous enterprizes now is Moses drawing to his rest he hath brought his Israelites from Egypt through the Sea and Wilderness within the sight of their Promised Land and now himself must take possession of that Land whereof Canaan was but a Type When we have done that we come for it is time for us to be gone This Earth is made only for Action not for Fruition the services of Gods Children should be ill rewarded if they must stay here alwayes Let no man think much that those are fetch'd away that are faithful to God they should not change if it were not to their preferment It is our folly that we would have good men live for ever and account it a hard measure that they were He that lends them to the World owes them a better turn than this Earth can pay them It were injurious to wish that goodness should hinder any man from Glory Verse 14. But what is this I hear displeasure mix'd with love and that to so faithful a servant as Moses he must but see the Land of Promise he shall not tread upon it because he once long ago sinn'd in distrnsting Death though it were to him an entrance into glory yet shall be also a chastisement of his Infidelity How many gracious services had Moses done to his Master yet for one act of Distrust he must be gathered to his Fathers All our obediences cannot bear out one sin against God how vainly shall we hope to make amends to God for our former Trespasses by our better behaviour when Moses hath this sin laid in his dish after so many and worthy testimonies of his fidelity when we have forgotten our sins yet God remembers them and although not in anger yet calls for our Arrerages Alass what shall become of them with which God hath ten thousand greater quarrels that amongst many millions of sins have scattered some few acts of formal services If Moses must dye the first death for one fault how shall they escape the second for sinning alwayes Even where God loves he will not wink at sin and if he do not punish yet he will chastise how much less can it stand with that eternal Justice to let wilful sinners escape Judgement Verse 16. Moses that was so tender over the welfare of Israel in his life would not slacken his care in Death He takes no thought for himself for he knew how gainful an exchange he must make all his care was for his charge Some envious natures desire to be missed when they must go and wish that the weakness or want of a Successor may be the foil of their memory and honour Moses is in a contrary disposition it sufficeth him not to find contentment in his own happiness unless he may have an assurance that Israel shall prosper after him Carnal minds are all for themselves and make use of Government only for their own advantage but good hearts look ever to the future good of the Church above their own against their own Verse 18. Moses did well to shew his good Affection to his people but in his silence God would have provided for his own he that call'd him from the sheep of Iethro will not want a Governor for his chosen to succeed him God hath fitted him whom he will chose Who can be more meet than he whose Name whose Experience whose Graces might supply yea revive Moses to the people He that searched the Land before was fittest to guide Israel into it he that was indued with the Spirit of God was the fittest Deputy for God but O the unsearcheable Counsel of the Almighty aged Caleb and all the Princes of Israel are pass'd over and Ioshua the servant of Moses is chosen to succeed his Master The eye of God is not blinded either with Gifts or with Blood or with Beauty or with strength but as in his Eternal Election so in his temporary he will have mercy on whom he will And well doth Ioshua succeed Moses the very acts of God of old were allegories where the Law ends there the Saviour begins we may see the Land of Promise in the Law only Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament can bring us into it So was he a Servant of the Law that he supplies all the defects of Law to us he hath taken possession of the Promised Land for us he shall carry us from this Wilderness to our rest Verse 22. I do not hear Moses repine at Gods choice and grudg that this Scepter of his is not hereditary but he willingly laies hands upon his Servant to consecrate hm for his Successor Ioshua was a good man yet he had some sparks of Envy for when Eldad and Medad Prophesied he stomack'd it he that would not abide two of the Elders of Israel to Prophesie how would he have allowed his Servant to sit in his Throne What an example of meekness besides all the rest doth he here see in this last act of his Master who without all murmuring assigns his Chair of State to his Page It is all one to a gracious heart whom God will please to advance Emulation and Discontentment are the affections of Carnal minds Humility goes ever with Regeneration which teaches a man to think what ever honour be put upon others I have more than I am worthy of CHAP. XXVIII Verse 3. ALl Sacrifices under the Law did as it were lead us by the hand to Christ and point him out with the finger who is the end of the Law Rom. 10. he is both the Altar and the Sacrifice he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world as therefore these Lambs were offered in the morning and evening so was Christ from the beginning of the World unto the end thereof he is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World Rev. 13. and as this daily Offering was twice perform'd so we have daily need of Reconciliation that his Blood should be continually applied unto us by Faith and as we daily sin against him so we must have daily recourse unto him for remission of sins Again this daily Sacrifice imports the daily Sacrifice of Prayer which we ought to offer to God as our daily service due unto him and this for many Reasons First we have many sins We provoke God every day and therefore are taught in the Lords Prayer daily to pray for Forgiveness Secondly We have daily wants and therefore it is our duty daily to bewail them and daily to crave the supply of them both temporal and spiritual blessings for Body and Soul Thirdly We have daily dangers Every Creature if God give us over is able to work our
It is the duty of all Inferiors to Reverence their Superiors in gesture in word and in deed because Superiors bear the Image of God and are to their inferiors in Gods place as Moses was to Aaron when God said Exod. 4. Thou shalt be unto him instead of God And therefore we see the place of subjection is not an unlawful Calling and that Christianity doth not abolish Magistracy and Civil Authority but rather ratifie and establish it Verse 6. Marriage is not to be inforc'd upon any either by the Magistrate or Parents Gen. 24. 57. 1 Cor. 7. 39. For this were to exeercise Tyranny over our Children For as Children are to have the consent of their careful Parents and not to dare to bestow themselves without their advice so likewise Parents ought to have the consent of their Children and not bestow them upon others against their wills for that were to lay an evill foundation and to fill the House with jars and dissentions and their Children with misery who will begg with better will where they like than live without love in abundance Verse 8. Every Daughter shall be a Wife unto one of the Family which teacheth us that however the marrying of many Wives was practised among the Patriarks and people of God yet this is the Law of Nature that one man should have one Wife and not Wives But the main point we learn from hence is That the Inheritance of the Children of Israel must remain and continue in one and the same Tribe Now if it be the Ordinance of God that every man keep his proper Inheritance then certainly distinction of Inheritance is agreeable to his Word We are taught likewise from this Text that Parents should provide for their Daughters as well as Sons and not to leave them to the wide World especially in these our dayes wherein more enquiry is made after what they have than what they are and what Goods are without them than what good qualities are within Nature teacheth that if any Member be weak it is chiefly to be strengthened the Woman is the weaker and therefore needeth to be supported Verse 10. These Daughters of Zelophehad obey the Judgement of Moses and marry in their Tribe teaching us at this day to rest in the determination of the Magistrate and not to run from Court to Court only in malice and a contentious spirit till we have enrich'd others and beggar'd our selves There may be sometimes an use of Appeal or going about again upon better light but let not reasons be pretended when they are not to satisfie our malice or revenge For God seeth and he being the God of peace will ever shew his dislike of Quarrelling and Contention A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. Verse 22. I Cannot but wonder at the Counsel of God If the Israelites had gone to Canaan without enquiry their confidence had possessed it now they send to espy the Land sixty thousand of them never lived to see it and yet I see God in Numbers 13. enjoyning them to send but enjoyning it upon their instance Some things God allows in Judgement their importunity and distrust extorted from God this occasion of their overthrow That which the Lord moves unto prospers but that which we move him to first seldom succeedeth What needed they doubt of the goodness of that Land which God told them did flow with Milk and Honey what needed they doubt of obtaining that which God promised to give When we will send forth our senses to be our Scouts in matter of Faith and rather dare trust men than God we are worthy to be deceived Verse 27. Now was Moses in danger of losing all the cost and care that ever he bestowed upon Israel his people are already gone back to Egypt in their hearts and their bodies are returning O ye rebellious Hebrews where shall God have you at last Did ever Moses promise to bring you to a fruitful Land without Inhabitants to give you a rich Country without resistance are not the Graves of Canaan as good as those of Egypt What can ye but dye at the hands of the Anakims can ye hope for less from the Egyptians is there less hope from the Enemies that shall be when you go under strong and expert Leaders than from the Enemies that were when ye shall return masterless feeble minds when they meet with Crosses they lookt not for repent of their good beginnings and wish any difficulty rather than that they find How many have pull'd back their foot from the narrow way for the troubles of a good Profession Verse 28. It had been happy for Israel if Caleb's Counsel had been as effectual as good but how easily have these Rulers discouraged a faint-hearted people Instead of lifting up their Ensigns and marching towards Canaan they set them down and murmur I fear if there had been ten Calebs to perswade and but two faint Spies to discourage them those two Cowards would have prevailed against those ten Solicitors how much more now ten oppose and but two incourage An easie Rhetorick draws us to the worse part yea it is hard not to run down the Hill The faction of evill is so much stronger in our nature than that of good that every least motion prevails for the one scarce any suit for the other Verse 34. That God which was invisibly present whiles those Israelites sinn'd when they have sinn'd shews himself glorious and full of power They did not believe before that he was able to bring them into that good Land of Canaan now they shall believe but never enter They might have seen God before that they should not sin now they cannot choose but see him in the height of their sin unusually terrible that they may with shame and horror confess him able to defend able to revenge The help of God useth to shew its self in extremity he that can prevent evils conceals his ayde till dangers be ripe and then he is fearful as before he seem'd connivent Verse 37. What a weary life did Moses lead in these continual successions of Conspiracies What did he gain by his troublesome Government but danger and despight Who but he would not have wish'd himself rather with the sheep of Iethro than with these Wolves of Israel but as he durst not quit his Shepheards crook without the calling of God so now he dare not his Scepter except he be dismiss'd of him that call'd him no troubles no oppositions can drive him from his place we are too weak if we suffer men to chase us from that station where God hath set us But what was this noted sin here that deserved Gods anger Israel murmured for water God bids Moses take the Rod in his hand and speak to the Rock to give Water Moses instead of speaking and striking the Rock with his voice strikes it with his Rod here was his sin an over-reaching of his Commission a fearfulness and
whom thereby she draweth about her not so among Men. God and the Saints loath what the Wicked love and delight in as the Panther doth in mans excrements CHAP. XXIV Verse 9. THat is commanded her to be shut up seven dayes and it was fit for all parts Miriam should continue some while Leaprous There is no policy in a sudden removal of just punishment If the judgement had been at once inflicted and removed there had been no example of terror to others unless the Rain so fall that it lie and soak into the Earth it profits nothing If the judgements of God should be only as Passengers and not So journers at least they would be no whit regarded Verse 15. The hireling hath earnest thoughts upon his Reward his Reward is in his Eye which is the reason here given why his Wages should not be with-held poor Man he hath been working all day and he hath had his heart upon his Wages the hopes of that gave him some relief and ease in going through his hard task and service therefore thou shalt not keep it from him But is not this a Sin in the Servant to set his heart upon his Wages is not the charge given Psalm 62. If riches encrease set not thine heart upon them there is a great difference between these two Texts For this word here notes the lifting up of the Soul so we read in the Margin of our Bibles but in the Psalm where he speaks of the Covetous rich Man the word imports the setting down or setling of his heart upon it A poor Man hath but a little and his Wages it may be is above him his Wages possibly is more than he is worth therefore he lifteth up his mind to it as a thing he reacheth upward for but a Rich man who hath abundance let 's his heart down he croucheth and broodeth upon the Creature A godly poor man looks up to his Reward and fetches his Bread from Heaven a covetous Rich man looks down to his Reward and takes his Bread from the Earth A godly man is above all earthly things and yet he lifts up his mind to receive them a meer natural Man is below earthly things and yet he descends that he may receive them The things which both receive are the same but the conveyance and the derivation differ alwayes as much as Heaven and Earth sometimes as much as Heaven and Hell Verse 16. If it be here demanded how it may stand with Gods justice and this Text to punish the Son for the Father I answer That outward temporal evils are in the nature sometimes of a Curse sometimes of a Cure and accordingly God deals For sometimes he punisheth a bad Father in a bad Son and then it is not a cross only but a Curse to both so God punish'd Pharaoh in his first-born Sometimes he punisheth a good Father in a good Son and then it is though a cross yet a cure to both so punish'd he David in his young Child Sometimes he punisheth a good Father in a bad Son as he did David in Absolom and then 't is a cure to the Father but a curse to the Son sometimes he punisheth a bad Father in a good Son thus he punish'd Ieroboam in his Son and then it is a curse to the Father but a cure to the Son CHAP. XXV Verse 17. IN the Israelites passage out of Egypt God would not lead them the nearest way by the Philistines Land lest they should repent at the sight of War now they both see and feel it God knows how to make the fittest choice of the times of evill and with-holds that one while which he sends another not without a just reason why he sends and with-holds it And though to us they come ever as we think unseasonably and at some times more unfitly than others yet he that sends them knows their opportunities Who would not have thought a worse time could not have been pick'd for Israels War than now in the feebleness of their Troops when they were weary thirsty unweaponed yet now must the Amalekites do that which before the Philistines might not do we are not worthy not able to choose for our selves Verse 18. How cowardly and how craftily was the skirmish of Amalek they do not bid them battle in terms of War but without noise or warning come stealing upon the hindmost and fall upon the weak and scattered Remnants of Israel There is no looking for favour at the hands of malice the worst that either force or frand can do must be expected of an Adversary but much more of our spiritual Enemy by how much his hatred is deeper Behold this Amalek lies in ambush to hinder our passage into our Land of Promise and subtilly takes all advantages of our weaknesses We cannot be wise or safe if we stay behind our Colours and strengthen not those parts where is most opposition Verse 19. God holds it no derogation from his Mercy to bear a Quarrel long where he hates he whose anger to the vessels of Wrath is everlasting even in temporal judgement revengeth late the sins of his own Children are no sooner done and repented of then forgotten but the malicious sins of his Enemies stick fast in an infinite displeasure it is not in the power of Time to raze out any of the Arrerages of God we may lay up wrath for our Posterity happy is that Child therefore whose Progenitors are in Heaven he is left an inheritor of Blessing together with Estate whereas wicked Ancestors loose the thank of a rich Patrimony by the Curse that attends it He that thinks because punishment is deferr'd that God hath forgiven or forgot his offence is unacquainted with Justice and knows not that Times makes no difference in Eternity CHAP. XXVI Verse 13. VVHat was given here to the Poor the Fatherless and Widdow was given according to Gods command because he had enjoyn'd it should be so which instructs us that the work of Alms-deeds is not a Free-will Offering left to our selves to be done or undone as we think fit but it is our duty and we are bound to do it if able And this is further proved from 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge the rich that they be rich in good Works It is the Rich mans charge precept and duty It is not left to their free choice to do good if they please but it is laid upon them as their charge and duty they must do good Works and woe be to them if they do not And the reason of this is because God hath not made them Owners but Servants and Servants not of their own Goods but the Givers not Treâ—surers but Stewards and Almoners Which should exhort men to go on and glory in this Office of Stewardship especially when they shall consider that the praise of a Steward is more to lay out well than to have received much knowing that well done faithful servant Mat. 25. is a thousand times