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
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
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
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
whom the Serpent was to be sped at last In the mean while there are two further Points to be discreetly traversed 1. That Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and it is likely Eve somewhat near the matter whether more or less and begat other Sons not mentioned and Daughters whereof the name of never an one is at all recorded 2. That some penitent issue is not obscurely shewn to have issued from Cain himself For all the Sons of Adam not named we may take it for granted that they either abode in their Fathers Tents taking their Sisters to Wives who were next to be taken or went off with Cain to help him build and replenish his City being nevertheless of the Seed of the Woman or of the true Church so long as they retained the Worship the Rites the Rules and the Moral Laws that they carried off from their Fathers house And others of them cleaved unto Seth and holp to make up his Family because the Earth must needs be replenished and Children go off to further distance And thus we may conceive that the true Church was far from failing betwixt the death of Abel and the birth of Seth howsoever the necessity of livelyhood or civil accommodation might divide the Members of it But as Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years before he had Seth so Seth live a hundred and five years more before he had Enos In which long tract of time and encrease of Generations when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth and that Daughters were born unto them so that the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and took them Wives of all they liked then the true Worshippers were â—ain to gather unto one House or Tribe And how they might attain to any consistency there I refer you to the Letter of a learned Gentleman in the Postscript All that remains to be said here is this That when the House of Seth came to degenerate too God brought a Deluge on the World as it is commonly accounted 1656 years after the Creation CHAP. XII Why God preserved Cham and Japhet in the Ark as well as Sem. That though they followed the way of the old World yet they were encreased in dominion which was not the blessing promised more than Sem Nay that he himself was greater in temporal accessions by other Sons than by Eber. NOW one might think since God Almighty was so much offended with the sins of the old World as to say It repented him that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart that he would have taken such caution about the next succession that no generation like to that of Cain's should have survived the Deluge Yet as he preserved some of all kinds even of noxious Creatures in the Ark so he dealt by the intire Family of Noah He would not prejudge the Cases of Iaphet and Cham who were under the same protection discipline and common blessings with Sem till they came to be severed in their habitations and progenies Among the Sons of Noah saith Sir Walter Raleigh there were found strong effects of the former poyson For as the Children of Sem did inherit the Vertues of Seth Enoch and Noah so the Sons of Cham did possess the vices of Cain and of those wicked Giants of the first Age. As for Iaphet we read no hurt of him but it is rather recorded to his commendation that he joined with his Brother Shem to make some amends for the villany of Ham. who had exposed his Fathers nakedness However it is not obscurely implyed that Iaphet was either fallen or about to fall off to degenerate worship because this is added to his blessing for that act of silial Grace and Duty That God would at last enlarge or perswade Iaphet to dwell in the Tents of Sem who though chosen by God is for the most part concluded to have been the younger Brother Which Prophetick Promise to Iaphet as the like Curse to Ham were not to be accomplished in either of their persons but in their posterities some Ages after Wherefore for all the love and great savour that God shewed unto Noah he would not hinder the accursed race of enmity from spreading out of his Loins also to be two ways branched for the greater afflictions of Sem's choicest Descendents until the time appointed For as the Sons of Noah descended from Mount Ararat where the Ark rested whether it was Caucasus or Taurus Ham and his Sons seized on all that they were able to occupy from the parts of Mesopotamia to the ends of Africk which was the Road that a part of them took Of his Son Cush descended Nimrod the Founder of the ensuing Babylonian Greatness as also Ashur who gave the Name of Assyria that built Niniveh And of his Son Canaan descended the Sidonians Hittites Iebusites Ammonites Girgasites Hivites Arkites and other reprobate Hoards or Nations Of his Son Mizraim descended also Pathrusim the Father of the Philistines and Casluhim the original of some of the Bordering Arabians And such of his Race as aimed further Southwards peopled all Egypt and Ethiopia to the Lands end so far as their number or encrease could seize on Lands without resistance So that out of Ham proceeded the Princes and people which held the great Kingdoms as they grew of Babylon Syria and Egypt for many Descents together towards the future oppression of the Sons of Sem the blessings of Shem and Iaphet as my Authour hath it taking less effect until the time appointed So that the first great Lords of the Earth were of this accursed Race that they might thresh in the Theshingfloors of Israel and bring their Fans in their hands whensoever the House of God was to be purged by the affliction of his people And to shew besides that God accounteth not as men do of Worldly Greatness he letteth it go to chuse unto the Heathen who thereupon do idolize the Fortunes of their Princes and set them up for Gods The first of which this Ham is counted to have been by the Name of Iupiter Hammon and the places where he was adored most do countenance that opinion And who was ever set up for an Idol but the worst of men From Iaphet also and his seven Sons the Medes Seythes Thracians Macedonians Grecians and the most part of Lesser Asia were replenished together with the Isles of the Gentiles by which name the ends of the habitable World were only known unto the Hebrews From whence came Alexander first and his Captains and after them the Romans to subdue and to waste Eber. Which events seem to have been more clearly revealed unto Balaam than unto any of the better Prophets even in the infancy of this people while they travelled in the Desart towards this Land of Promise And Ships shall come saith he from the Coasts of Chittim and shall
happened after the promise renewed the third time in these words Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward For all the Land that thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy Seed for ever And I will make thy Seed as the dust of the earth which cannot be numbred In which promise the temporal blessing is only pointed at and that Land in particular more amply than before Some considerable time seems to have passed between e're God appeared unto Abram again with these comfortable words Fear not Abram I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Abram is sensible that these words relate to the three former promises yet doubting lest he should be mistaken in the meaning of them he makes bold to complain unto God That for all his former promises he remained Childless still and no other Heir but Eliezer his Steward a Stranger of Damascus though born in his house appeared likely to inherit all his Substance Which moved God to compassionate his Case and to condescend to him in a fourth promise that he should have an Heir out of his own Loins And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness Yet after that presuming farther to ask a sign though God vouchsafed to condescend to his request yet he caused an horror of great darkness to fall upon him in his sleep in or after which he gave him to know that his posterity should serve unto the fourth Generation till the iniquity of the Amorites was full However when this heavy agony was over God was pleased to amplisie his temporal promise in extending the bounds of it from the River of Egypt unto the great River Euphrates In the mean time Sarai thinking these promises to be made to her Husband only and not unto her self finding how the Case stood with her gave her Egyptian Handmaid Hagar to him desiring at least to have some little part in the Land promised by her own Maid which She was not like to have by another This was the tenth year after the promise at the least but as soon as She conceived Sarai was iealous of her and by hard usage wrought her flight and so gave birth unto a great mystery or two before the Son of the Concubine could be produced What made Abram so continent hitherto and so constant to his barren Wife Sarai Did he think it unlawful to take a Concubine And if so why did he now He might have had it seems a nearer Heir than Eliezer before this and if he had gone this way for Concubines were accounted as Wives only different in their Rank and divers of their Sons did inherit among the Sons of Israel whereas Bastards only were excluded as in the Case of Iephthah It may be Abram understood about Concubinacy what our Saviour taught expresly that God having made Man Male and Female one and one from the beginning it was not so yet that it might have been permitted unto him as well as his Progenitors for the supply of Issue if it had not been to grieve his beloved Wife and Sister-in-Law Sarai But now She puts Hagar to him as if it were on purpose to restrain his choice of any other What shall He do Is He glad of the occasion for the further satisfying of his flesh Or doth he do it the better to please his Wife even as Adam pleased Eve and fell by it Or in sine is not he himself also touched with a little spice of unbelief in his obtemperance unto Sarai as well as she In my opinion howsoever some Expositors do seek to blanch it the faithful Abram was at this time imposed on by his Wife Sarai and not excusable of some infirmity in the Case Though he stedfastly believed the promise yet hitherto it had not been revealed to him that it should be by Sarai By whom should he therefore try but by her whom Sarai herself had recommended to him It happened therefore as a punishment unto Sarai's diffidence that her Handmaid Hagar having conceived and thereupon imagining that she and hers should go away with all at last began to despise her and to Abram himself that he should have such a Lout as Ishmael by a foul Egyptian Of whom yet as a Son by Nature he was so fond that when God renewed the promise the fifth time of the blessed Seed thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael enough to let him know that Ishmael was not the Seed intended yet he could not forbear to intercede for him after this manner O that Ishmael might live before thee As if Abram could e'en have been contented that Ishmael might have been the man But it may not fare better with Abram than with his Forefathers Adam and Noah before him for as Adam had Cain for his First-born and Noah one or other of the Aliens so must Abram too the election of Grace having seldome been observed to have followed primogeniture while all other priviledges were annexed to it And as Cain and Cham were born to persecute the true Church before it was yet in being or but yet in its under growth like the red Dragon in the Revelation that stood before the Woman that was ready to be delivered for to devour her Child as soon as it was born so it was to fare with Ishmael who first scoffed at the Feast of Isaac's weaning and was after planted in his own Issue upon the skirts of the Land of Canaan among the Canaanites to be ready to join as far as any of them with the enemies of the Race of Isaac So that God would have out of the same Loins of Abram both the Curse and the Blessing to have their appointed course according to his own purpose without respect unto the favour that he bore to Abram In fine the Apostle himself warns us of a further mystery Why Ishmael should come between the promise and the fulfilling of it and why he was to be born before Isaac the Heir of the promise Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law Do ye not hear the Law For it is written That Abraham had two Sons the one by a Bond-maid the other by a Free woman But he who was of the Bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the Free-woman was by promise Which things are an allegory for these are the two Covenants the one from the mount Sinai which gendreth unto bondage which is Agar for this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth unto Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her Children But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all c. So that the further mystery beyond this that Israel should first suffer under Egyptian bondage before they should be free was this That the Law which engendreth unto bondage must needs come first
of Moses And although Cunaeus doth collect in favour it may be of some opinion that the Church of old was still restrained unto one Family as from Adam to Seth and so to Noah and to Sem alone of his and to Abram alone of his and to Isaac alone of his line and that God despised all other Nations as prophane until the coming of Christ yet it seems to me that although many Families and Nations did not escape corruption yet some true Worshippers there were here and there without those houses and without that Nation But the first Church was the Metropolis only of all the rest Thirdly And now we may perceive the reason why Abram's Servants also must be circumcised to the solution of the Question with favour against Pererius That Circumcision was to be imposed since it was not free for Servants bought with Abram's money to obtain liberty upon the pretence that they would not be cirumcised Nor was ever Hyrcann's blamed in later times for compelling the Edomites when he had subdued them to be circumcised but commended rather The reason of their Circumcision besides the share which they had in the desire of all Nations was partly to propagate the knowledge of God if they went off and partly to constitute and fortifie the Body of the Church if they continued in the Tents of Abraham Such was the Church which it pleased God to form to himself from the beginning such the Materials of it And how many of these had true Grace in their hearts besides Abraham himself and his Wife Sarah and it may be his Steward Eliezer before Isaac was born I leave the Brethren that are most concerned to enquire But that part of this Question which relateth to the whole Church of the Old Testament with reference as a seal unto some Covenant that we may not be delayed in our progress here will fall in in a proper place in order CHAP. XVII Abraham's obedience so acceptable unto God that he maketh himself known to him in a more familiar way than ever before That Abraham knew nothing to the contrary why there might not be more righteous people in Sodom than his Brother Lot His various peregrinations are recounted and further Questions propounded to be enquired into SUCH hath been the acceptation of a liberal obedience in the hearts of generous Princes both of ancient and later times that they have not thought much to go out of their way and to come incogniti to visit one or other of their meaner Subjects whom they have known by such a Character In the like manner after Abraham had circumcised all his Males it pleased God not to defer as in former times but to make haste to come and see him incognito but in a more familiar manner than before to make the last promise or to confirm all the former to him to be surely made good to him within the set time mentioned before so that to keep reckoning we may account it to have been within a month or two after the last appearance To this was added the great favour of Almighty God for when did he ever do so by any other mortal man to commune with Abraham about the destruction of Sodom and to hearken to his intercession In which it appeareth that Abraham thought no other but that there might be many righteous persons there whom God would not destroy with the wicked besides his Brother Lot Some are of opinion that Abram remained five years at Charran of the Chaldees or that part of it to which Mesopotamia may be reckoned after he had received the first promise And then upon the death of his Father Terah who as S t Chrysostom observes though an Idolater had a fatherly affection for his Children he came as far as Sichem in the land of Canaan in the seventy fifth year of his Age and there he received the second promise and built an Altar to the Lord for remembrance because the Lord had there appeared to him It is only said that he came unto the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Morch And that the Canaanite was then in the Land So that it seems not likely to me that he entered into the City at all whether it were a walled City as is most probable it being a great and ancient one or only a City of Streets as we find such accounted in the number before the Nations were replenished But he removed journeying southwards and about Luz or Bethel which was after called so by Iacob he built another Altar for constant worship and there he called on the name of the Lord. But the very next year as it may seem he was driven into Egypt by famine and the year after that returned again to the place where he had erected his second Altar and here he remained if conjecture fail not about a year or two when obeying the command of God he went about surveying the Land of promise and came the third year to the Plain of Mamre about Hebron which was after called so and there built another Altar to the Lord viz. as a place where he designed some residence if it should please God to permit him And hereabouts he continued eighteen years even till he had received the last promise and then he journeyed again toward the South Country and dwelt between Cadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar where he made a Covenant by mutual Oath with Abimelech a King of the Philistines at Beersheba And Abraham planted a Grove in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God And he sojourned in the Philistines Land many days But by the death of Sarah in Kiriath-arba which is Hebron in the Land of Canaan we may learn that though the Son of Promise was born among the Philistines yet Abraham returned at the last to Hebron where he had his place of worship among the Hittites And there he had his last blessing of encrease by Keturah according to the fulness of the promise of God to the rise of many Nations from him And there he left in his Tents Isaac and Iacob Heirs of the same promise with himself having lived a hundred and seventy five years whereof one hundred hereabout and leaving Isaac about seventy years of Age and his Son Iacob fifteen And his Sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him with Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah So that all the expeditions of Abraham were 1. from the remoter parts of Chaldea unto Charran from thence 2. unto Sichem from thence 3. to Bethel from thence 4. to Egypt from thence 5. back again to Bethel from thence 6. to the Plain of Mamre which is Hebron or Kiriath-arba from thence 7. to the Parts of Gerar and from thence 8. back again to Hebron of the Sons of Heth. That which remaineth to be enquired is first What use Abraham made of his Altars secondly How he governed his
more or less profusion being partly Eucharistical even their very Sin-Offerings according to the wealth or liberality of the Offerer as also because the thing signified was of more worth than the sign thereof Yet it shall not be amiss to consider the headship of Christ two ways viz. as to 1. Power and 2. Mediation whatsoever Offices may be comprized under these during the state of the Old Testament Of the first we read That Moses when he was come to years did by faith refuse to be called Pharaoh's daughters son esteeming the reproaches of CHRIST to whose Kingdom he belonged greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward viz. in the Kingdom of Christ. And of all the people of Israel it is said That by faith they passed under Christ's conduct through the Red Sea as by dry Land Which passage of theirs is more fully cleared in another place Moreover Breâ—hren I would not have you ignorant how that all our Fathers were under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea And were all baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea And did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was CHRIST But with many of them God was not well pleased Which things were our examples Let us not therefore lust as they did neither let us tempt CHRIST as some of them also tempted HIM and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer that is the Pestilence Was not therefore the Regiment of the Church of the Old Testament under God the Father Or if any delegation of Government was unto Christ under compromise as was mentioned before did he himself destroy who was said to be the Mediator likewise before of either Testament The Answer unto this will fall in better with the next consideration viz. of the Mediation or Mediatorship of Christ which may chance to clear more obscure Texts all together 2. Wherefore as Mediator our Blessed Lord under the state of the Old Testament at least seemed in one respect to have been but as a Moderator unto temporal punishments and in another an Intercessor not only that all punishment should be remitted both temporal and spiritual but also that all Grace and Favour necessary unto that estate should be afforded Neither will I be curious to divide these Parts of his Office of Mediator more than of the other but I shall shew what I find in reference unto any part at all relating unto this Head or remaining Headship of Christ as it may happen to conduce unto the first purpose First The Apostle tells us That the Law it self was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator And that When Moses had spoken every Precept to all the people according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hysâ—op and sprinkled both the Book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you Whereupon neither the â—irst Testament was dedicated without bloud for almost all things were by the Law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no remission As the Apostle would therefore have the Corinthians know that by the ministry of Moses all the Israelites were baptized into Christ by the Type of the Cloud over their heads and the Sea round about their bodies and did in effect and virtue partake of the like Sacraments by which they ate and drank of the fulness of Christ the Rock that followed them when they left the other behind and so had the like priviledges as the Corinthians had Yet as God was displeased with many of them to their destruction so he might with these too He taketh not the Government from God the Father while he sheweth who had the conduct from the beginning hitherto Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa But if the Son be despised now as heretofore God the Father may extend his justice where the Mediator is wickedly set aside by men for whose redemption he had satisfied But whether it was ever committed unto Christ to destroy his own enemies in any other than a spiritual way before his coming or since his exaltation is beyond the Question But S t Paul would have his Galatians and the Hebrews know not only that Christ is the Mediator of a new and better Covenant than that which Moses made in the behalf of the people but also that Christ himself in the person of Moses was indeed the Mediator of that too or else that it had been the worser for them CHAP. XXIV It was necessary by reason of the Curse annexed to the first Covenant that it should be delivered in the hands of a Mediator who could be no other than Christ himself God caused the Covenant of Works to be shut in a Chest under the Mercy-seat and why The benefit of Christ's mediation otherwise The Vnity of the Spirit in both Testaments THE thing that troubled S t Paul and the Churches of his Plantation more than any other was this Certain men which came down from Iudaea taught the Brethren saying Except ye be circumcised according unto Moses ye cannot be saved Against whom S t Paul disputeth in most of his Epistles and having shewed the Churches that this Doctrine made them Debtors to the whole Law as to keep the Iewish Sabbaths New-moons and other Fasts and Feasts as also to their vows and purifyings to their abstinence from all unclean meats and from all such Companies as ate so and from all uncircumcised persons whatsoever though Believers in Christ In sine to repair to Ierusalem to sacrifice as the Head-City and Mother-Church as oft as the Law of Moses required he takes the Question it self soundly to task to discover the danger and the ill consequents of it Amongst his other Arguments these are strong and pressing 1. That the free promise was made to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the Law was given by Moses so that Abraham being justified by faith without the Law the Law could not render the promise void to any that believed as Abraham had done before 2. But that the Law so far as it contained Types and Figures of things to come was it self abolished by Christ in whom they were all accomplished 3. And as for the Moral Law That none was ever justified by that or ever could be neither was it given for that end but only added because of transgressions or deliveâ—â—d in a terrible manner to that backsliding 〈◊〉 corrupting people as a Bridle till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made 4. In fine Because the whole Law had this dreadful Codicil annexed to it Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
family of the Tabanites And the rest are numbred in gross only to be in all thirty two thousand and six hundred Families But the Patriarchs themselves were put to harder shift for Wives even unto trespass because they could not take their Sisters or go any more to their Unkles houses to be matched as Isaac and Iacob had done before It remaineth therefore that these Hinds Husbandmen or Stewards such as Eliezer was to Abraham were far from being Supernumeraries or Aliens from the Covenant or Church of God and that they never went out of it after once they were called or brought in and joined to it by the sign of Circumcision Only this may be doubted viz. That these people taken out of Chaldea Syria Arabia or any other parts and joined only by Circumcision some of them no doubt by compulsion lest others should be cut off for them might not prove so good Members as could be wished but they retained still a smack and had an hankering after their old Idolatry Which sin continued uncontroulably amongst all one seducing another till the captivity of the Tribes And after their return when Hyrcanus forced the Edomites to be circumcised he prepared a way for Herod to come and to subvert their whole Estate But however it was for that God himself foresaw these inconveniences and yet he would not prevent them as some of the Separation think they are able to do in their Societies by so often drilling of them that at last they lose their first matter order and consistency CHAP. XXXVI That the simplicity of the Scripture contrary to the Romances of the Heathen Writers maketh little state of great Secular matters relating to the Church Shewed by instances of Abraham and Jacob yet Joseph as a Statesman in Egypt observed Ceremonies in the reception and introduction of his Father and Brethren That the Israelites built not in Egypt but by constraint WE may see in part by this how little state the simplicity of the Scripture maketh of great matters in things Secular that are incident unto God's Elect who are also as humble in themselves as Servants in all Conditions For after Abraham had obtained a famous Victory over four Kings that had immediately before been themselves victorious over five we find him sitting at his Tent-door in the heat of the day and he espied three men and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the Tent-door and bowed himself toward the ground and said My Lord if now I have found favour in thy sight pass not away I pray thee from thy Servant Let a little water I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest your selves under the Tree And I will fetch a morsel of bread And Abraham hastened into the Tent unto Sarah and said Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal knead it and make Cakes upon the hearth as if poor Sarah had never a Maid to help her And Abraham stood by them under the Tree while they did eat And after they had eaten Abraham went with them to bring them on the way And when he was to bury Sarah and to sue for a Sepulchre he bowed himself to the people of the Land even to the Children of Heth who complemented him saying Hear us my Lord Thou art a mighty Prince amongst us In the choice of our Sepulchers bury thou thy dead And when he sent Eliezer the eldest Servant of his house who ruled over all that he had he set him forth indeed in some Equipage with Jewels and other Presents that he might obtain Rebekkah the Daughter of Bathuel the Son of Nahor the Brother of Abraham for his Son Isaac But Rebekkah who was to be presented with Jewels and had ten Camels to bring the errand to her is brought forth with a Pitcher on her shoulder as ready to make the Camels drink as the Stranger wondring at the fine things and straining no courtesie about accepting of them but as coming and forward as a simple Country-Lass and her Brother Laban no less officious Yet this Rebekkah it was that over-reached the Old Man Isaac and her elder Son Esau. As for Iacob himself though he went forth with his Fathers Blessing and not by meer flight on his way to Laban his Mothers Brother yet we read neither of Ass nor Camel nor Camerade nor any Servant given to attend him in his journey which was for a Wife too of one of Laban's Daughters and it was a long step further I trow than into Egypt His adventures are thus described first He lighted on a certain place and tarried there all night because the Sun was set and he took the Stones of that place and put them for his pillow and lay down in that place to sleep And by his vision there it appears no otherwise but that he was alone save only that it is said He took the stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up for a Pillar and poured Oil upon the top of it Which it is not like that he should carry about him with other necessaries unless you should imagine him to have been a kind of Walking-Tavern in a Wilderness However that we may be assured that Iacob was not overmuch accommodated let us hear his own devout acknowledgment unto God I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant for with my Staff I passed over this Iordan and now I am become two Bands With a Staff saith Bishop Hall goes he over Iordan doubtful and alone not like the Son of Isaac and is fain to lye sub dio when an Angel appeared to comfort him And when Laban heard of his Sisters Son he might expect a like Equipage as fetch'd Rebekkah but now as he comes so he uses him He fled from a cruel Brother to a cruel Unkle And as his Mother had cunningly by deceiving Isaac substituted him for Elder so now Laban as cunningly deceiveth him by giving him the Elder instead of the Younger whom he loved Wonder not therefore that the Equipage of the Sons of Iacob and of their whole descent into Egypt is described without any pomp at all for so I could lead you forward to Gideon's Threshing-floor and to David's Flocks and shew you how great thing were always veiled and good men lowly But these also were both of the principal Families of Israel as may be observed hereafter In the mean while considering that Ioseph was a great Courtier and a Politician and that we have observed his cunning in getting the fairest and fertilest Tract of the Land of Egypt for his Father and his Brethren on colour of their being Shepherds In the next place let us note some of his Ceremonies howsoever whereby he wrought the ingratiating of his own Kindred with Pharaoh and his Egyptians When his Brethren came first into his presence he knowing them but they