whereof is that Ministers bee no wine-blbbers or Alestakes 1 Tim. 3.3 Why should it bee said as of old They have erred becaus of wine and have gon out of the waie becaus of strong drink even the Priest and the Prophet Isa 28.7 Drunkenness is a crime in all but it 's a kinde of Sacrilege in Ministers And if other drunkards deserv double punishments for their misdemeanours as Aristotle judgeth first for their drunkenness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethic. lib. 3. c. 5 and then for the sin committed in and by their drunkenness what do drunken Priests Isa 56.12 Ver. 10. And that yee may put difference Drunkenness take's away the heart Hos 4.11 besot's and infatuate's rob's a man of himself and laie's a beast in his room Ver. 11. And that yee may teach The Priest's lips should both preserv knowledg and present it to the people even all the counsel of God Mal. 2.7 Acts 20.27 To give the knowledg of salvation by the remission of sins Luke 1.77 Ver. 12. Take the Meat-offering q. d. Think not that God hath cashiered you becaus hee hath corrected you neither refuse your meat out of a sullen sowrness but fall to your Meat-offering and take better heed another time Onely eat before the Lord. Deut. 12.18 Ver. 16. And behold it was burnt Passion for their dead friends had so transported the Priests that they knew not well what they did Wee use to saie Res est ingeniosa dolor but then it must not bee excessive as here and as 2 Sam. 18.33 Ver. 17. To bear the iniquitie This the sinner doth subjectively the Priest typically the Lord Christ really Ver. 19. Should it have been accepted God love's a cheerfull server Deut. 12.7 and 26.14 Mourners bread is polluted bread Hos 9.4 And Mal. 2.13 those unkinde husbands are blamed for caussing their wives when they should have been chearfull in God's service to cover the Lords altar with tears with weeping and with crying out so that hee regarded not the offering anie more This Aaron knew and allegeth for himself CHAP. XI Ver. 1. Vnto Moses and to Aaron MAgistrate and Minister must jointly see that God's laws bee duly executed Queen Elisabeth once in her progress visiting the Countie of Suffolk all the Justices of Peace in that Countie met her Majestie having everie one his Minister next to his bodie which the Queen took special notice of and thereupon uttered this speech that shee had often demanded of her Privie Councel why her Countie of Suffolk was better governed then anie other Countie and could never understand the reason thereof but now shee her self perceived the reason It must needs be so said shee where Moses and Aaron the Word and the Sword go together Ver. 2. These are the beasts which yee shall eat These and these onely 1. That yee may bee at mine appointment for your verie meat as who am chief Lord of all 2. That there may bee a difference betwlxt you and all other people 3. That yee may bee taught to studie puritie and know that the verie creatures are defiled by man's sin 4. That yee may have these things as a shadow of things to com Col. 2.16 17. Ver. 3. Whatsoever parteth the hoof and cheweth the cud To teach them to think upon God's commandments to do them Psal 103.18 cleansing themselvs from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 Ver. 4. The camel The foolish Jews when they saw Mahomet arising in such power D. Hall's Peace-maker were straight readie to crie him up for their Messiah But when they saw him eat of a Camel saith mine Autor they were as blank as when they saw the hoped issue of their late Jewish Virgin turn'd to a daughter Ver. 5. And the conie Which hath his name in Hebrew from hiding himself in holes A weak but a wise creature Pro. 30.26 And wisdom is better then strength Eccles 9.15 The Hare that trust 's to the swiftness of her legs is at length taken and torn in pieces When the Conie that fleets to the rocks doth easily avoid the dogs that pursue her See Isa 40.30 31. Ver. 6. Becaus hee cheweth the cud but divideth not Meditation must end in practice as lessons of musick must bee practised and a copie not read onely but written after Ver. 7. And the Swine Anima sui data pro sale nè carnes putrescant said Cleanthes The Swine hath his soul for salt onely so hath the drunkard Ver. 8. Of their flesh yee shall not eat Not above the quantitie of an Olive saie the Jew-Doctors who will need 's bee mending magnificat adding to the Law Ver. 9. Whatsoever hath fins and scales The fins of the fish are for steering of their motion the scales for smoothness of passage Serm. 1. in die 8. And. for safegard for ornament Those onely are clean in the sight of God Qui squamas loricam habent patientiae pinnulas hilaritatis saith Bernard Ver. 10. Of all that move in the waters And yet swim also in the aër Like to these is the temporarie believer for that seeming to mount up in spiritual joies yet hee withall swimmeth yea batheth himself in the waters of sensual delights Ver. 11. They shall bee even an abomination To teach us that nothing is lawfull no not for our common use unless it bee sanctified by the word of God and praier 1 Tim. 4.5 Acts 10.35 Ver. 13. The Eagle Which yet is counted and called the king of birds and delight 's in high flying That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination before God Lu. 16.15 Ver. 14. And the vulture and the kite That feed upon carrion and dead carcasses and are emblems of greedie gripers and oppressors Ver. 15. Everie raven Unnatural to his young whom God himself heareth and feedeth Psal 147.9 though they crie with a harsh note and crie to God by implication and though the raven bee an inauspicate bird and a sign both of man's punishment and God's curs Isa 34.11 Ver. 16. And the owl and the night-raven Night-birds that hate the light or flie against it as bats do are an abomination Deeds of darkness are out of date now in the daies of the Gospel especially Rom. 13.12 13. Ver. 17. And the cormorant An unsatisfiable bird that fitly resembleth the divel who daily devour's souls and yet enlargeth his desires as hell Ver. 18. And the Swan Whose white fethers but black skin under them might serv to set forth the hatefulness of hypocrisie Ver. 19. And the Stork Which build's high Psal 104.17 but feed's low on fishes frogs and snakes and so might bee the rather rejected as unfit for food And the lapwing Which is worthily made an hieroglyphick of infelicitie becaus it hath as a coronet upon the head and yet feed's upon the worst of excrements It is pittie that the Saints that are brought up in scarlet should embrace the dunghill Lam. 4.5 that anie one that is
Heaven and the Angels were of necessity say some to be created the first instant that they might have their perfection of matter and form together otherwise they should be corruptible For whatsoever is of a praeexistent matter is resolvable and subject to corruption But that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed hath no other change but by the same hand to return to nothing again But if this were the Heaven Quest what was the Earth here mentioned Not that we now tread upon for that was not made till the third day But the Matter of all Answ that was afterwards to be created being all things in power nothing in act Vers 2. And the earth was without form and voyd That is as yet it had neither essential nor accidental perfection The Lord afterward did form it into Light the Firmament the Water and the Earth So beginning above and building downwards in the new Creature he doth otherwise and in three days laying the parts of the World and in other three days adorning them The Rabbins tell us Alsted Lexic Theol. p. 111. that Tohu and Bohu do properly import Materia prima and privatio and others of Tohu derive Chaos whence the ancient Latines called the World Chohus and borrowed their word Inchoâ— c. And darkness was upon the face of the deep That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of Hell as Origen expounds it but of the deep waters see the like Luke 8.31 Which as a garment covered the earth and stood above the mountains Psal 104.6 This darkness God created not for it was but the want of Light And to say That God dwelt in darkness till he had created Light was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees as if God were not Light it self and the Father of lights 1 John 1.5 James 1. Or as if God had not ever been a Heaven to himself Ere ever he had formed the earth and the heavens Psal 92.2 What he did or how he imployed himself before the Creation is a Sea over which no ship hath sailed a Mine into which no spade hath delved an Abyss into which no bucket hath dived D. Preston of Gods Attributes p. 34. Our sight is too tender to behold this Sun A thousand yeers saith a great Divine are to God but as one day c. And who knoweth what the Lord hath done Indeed he made but one World to our knowledg but who knoweth what he did before and what he will do after Thus he As for Saint Augustine Prasul ad haec Lybicus Sabin Poâ—â— fabricabat Tartara dixit His quos scrutari â—â—lia mente juvat Excellently another Cuff his Differ of Ages p. 22. who wanted no wit As in the eliament of fire saith he there is a faculty of heating and inlightning whence proceedeth heat and light unto the external neer bodies And besides this faculty there is also in it a natural power to go upward which when it cometh into act is received into no other subject but the fire it self So that if fire could by abstractive imagination be conceived of as wanting those two transient operations yet could we not justly say it had no action forasmuch as it might move upward which is an immanent and inward action So and much more so though we grant that there was no external work of the Godhead until the making of the World yet can there be no necessary illation of idleness Seeing it might have as indeed it had actions immanent included in the circle of the Trinity This is an answer to such as ask what God did before he made the World Plotin Eunâ—â—d 3. lib. 2. c. 2. God saith Plotinus the Platonist not working at all but resting in himself doth and performeth very great things And the Spirit of God moved c. Or hovered over and hatched out the creature Ferebatur super aquas non pervagatione sed potestate non per spatium locorum ut Sol super terram sed per potentiam sublimitatis suae Eucberius Psal 145 9. as the Hen doth her chickens or as the Eagle fluttereth over her young to provoke them to flight Deut. 32.11 Or as by a like operation this same holy Spirit formed the childe Jesus in the Virgins womb in that wonderful over shadowing Luke 1.35 The Chaldee here hath it The Spirit breathed and David saith the same Psal 33.6 He became to that rude dead mass a quickning comforting Spirit He kept it together which else would have shattered And so he doth still or else all would soon fall asunder Heb. 1.3 Psal 104.29 were not his conserving Mercy still over or upon all his Works Verse 3. And God said Let there c. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness He spake the word and it was done 2 Cor. 4.6 Psal 33.9 148.5 Creation is no motion but a simple and bare emanation which is when without any repugnancy of the Patient or labor of the Agent the work or effect Dei Dicere eft Efficere doth voluntarily and freely arise from the action of the working cause as the shadow from the body So Gods irresistible power made this admirable Work of the world by his bare word as the shadow and obscure representation of his unsearchable wisdom and omnipotency And there was light This first light was not the Angels as Augustine would have it nor the Element of fire as Damascen nor the Sun which was not yet created nor a lightsome cloud or any such thing but the first day which God could make without means as Galvin well observeth This light was the first ornament of the visible World and so is still of the hidden man of the heart the new Creature Acts 26.18 The first thing in Saint Pauls commission there was to open mens eyes to turn them from darkness to light c. To dart such a saving light into the soul as might illighten both Organ and Object In which great work also Christs words are operative together with his commands in the mouths of his Ministers Know the Lord understand O ye bruitish among the people c. There goes forth a Power to heal as it did Luke 5 1â— Or as when he bade Lazarus ariâ—e he made him to arise So here the Word and the Spirit go together and then what wonder that the spirit of darkness falls from the heaven of mens hearts Ephes 5 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet 2 9. as lightning Luke 10.18 So as that they that eâ—st were darkness are now light in the Lord and do preach forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Verse 4. And God saw the light that it was good Praeviderat autèm â—â—sberellus so one rendereth it he saw this long before but he would have us to see it he commends the goodness of this work of his to us Good it is surely
rightly in every joynt Verse 19. To see what he would call them If he had been permitted to name himself it should have been probably Luke 3. ult the Sonne of God as he is called by St. Luke in regard of his creation But God to humble him calls him first Adam and after the fall Enosh that is frail sorry man a map of mortality a masse of misery Verse 20. Adam gave names A sign of his Soveraignty Num. 32.38 41. an argument also of his wisdome in giving them names according to their natures as Hebricians well know But for Adam there was not found c. God set all the creatures before him ere he gave him a wife 1. That seeing the sexes he might desire to have a help in his kinde and nature also Men should not marry till they finde in themselves the need of a wife Vt ei commendatius esset Dei donum Pet. Martyr 2. That seeing no other fit help he might the more prize her Verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep It may be thought that Adam observing that among all the creatures there was no meet match found for him prayed in this deep sleep or extasie Gen. 24.63 that such a help might be given unto him This is Peter Martyrs note upon the text Isaac went forth to pray when he had sent forth for a wife Prov. 19.14 A bad wise is but the image of a wife or as Lamâ—chs wives name was a shadow of a wife tsilla umbra ipsius Mr. Gatak and it was but reason For a prudent wife is from the Lord. And he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing saith the Wise-man A wife that is a good wife for every married woman is not a wife unlesse she be a help to her husband in the best things especially The Heathen well saith that every man when he marrieth brings either a good or an evill spirit into his house and so makes it either a heaven or a hell And it is a device of the Rabbines but the morall is good that in the names of Ish and Ishah is included Jah the name of God and that if you take out Jod and He whereof that name consists there remains nothing Esch Esch fire fire the fire of dissention and brawl which burneth and consumeth to the fire of hell It is not evill therefore to marry but it is good to be wary to marry in the Lord as the Apostle hath it He that marrieth in the Lord marrieth also with the Lord and he cannot be absent from his own marriage A good wife was one of the first reall and royall gifts bestowed upon Adam and God consults not with him to make him happy As he was ignorant while himself was made so shall he not know while a second-selfe is made out of him both that the comfort might be greater then was expected as also that he might nor upbraid his wife with any great dependence or obligation See Yates his Modell he neither willing the work nor suffering any pain to have it done The rib can challenge no more of her then the earth can of him And he tooke one of his ribs The woman was made of a bone saith a Reverend Writer and but one bone Ne esset ossea B. Kings Vitis Palatina lest she should be stiffe and stubborne The species of the bone is exprest to be a rib a bone that might be best spared because there are many of them a bone of the side not of the head the wife must not usurp authority over her husband nor yet of the foot she is not a slave but a fellow-helper A bone not of any anterior part she is not praelata preferred before the man neither yet of any hinder part she is not post-posita set behind the man A yokefellow standing on even ground with thee though drawing on the lest side Gatak but a bone of the side of the middle and indifferent part to shew that she is a companion and the wife of thy covenant Mal. 2.14 A bone she is from under the arm to put man in mind of protection and defence to the woman A bone not far from his heart to put him in mind of dilection and love to the woman A bone from the left side as many think likely where the heart is to teach that hearty love ought to be betwixt married couples Vxorem vir amato marito pareat uxor Conjugis illa suae cor caput ille sua Vers 22. And the rib which the Lord God had taken Matter in the beginning of time was taken from man to make a woman And matter in the fulness of time was taken from a woman to make a man even the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 And as out of the side of sleeping Adam Eve was formed so from the blood issuing out of the side and flesh of dying Christ came his Spouse the Church Ephes 5.26 Diabolus per costam tanquam per scalam ad cor Adami ascendit Mor. l. 3. c 5. Sic Phoroneus apud Bruson l. 7. c. 22. Requirit vir costam suam requirit soemina sedem suam Hinc Ruth 3.1.9 Annonâ— quaererem tibi requiem Aben-â—zra His chief care therein was to sanctifie and cleanse his Church and therefore he came by water and blood So should it be every husbands then would not the devil so oft break his head with his own rib or as Saint Gregory hath it Climbe so oft by hâ—s rib to his heart as by a ladder A good wife doth him good and not evil all her days But this is not every mans happiness Sylla faelix si non habuisset uxorem So Job and Moses quorum conjugium conjurgium There is in most a propension to the nuptial conjunction The man misseth his rib say the Rabbines the woman would be in her old place again under the mans arm or wing Then Naomi her mother in law said unto her My daughter shall I not seek rest for thee that it may be well with thee Ruth 3.1 Made he a woman Heb. builded That is created with special care art and fit proportion in the manner of a house A body hath God given the woman more capacious and roomthy both for the conceiving and containing of her young babe which dwells in her womb as in its house and hath all its houshold-stuffe as it were about it till time produce it into the light of life Adam was formed Eve builded her frame consists of rarer rooms of a more exact composition then his doth And if place be any priviledge we finde saith one hers built in Paradise when his was made out of it And brought her unto the man Marriage then is of divine institution The Saturnilian hereticks sinfully said that it was of the devill And the blemish will never be wiped off from some of the Ancients who to establish their own doll of I know not what Virginity have
Cavete ab hoc quem natura notavit is but a gold ring in a Swines snout as Solomon hath it or ornamentum in luto as another so it was in Alcibiades for a man and in Aurelia Orestilla for a woman yet surely where they meet they make a happy conjunction and draw all hearts to them as in Germanicus for a man in whom beauty and vertue strove for precedency and Artaxerxes Longimanus the son of Esther who is said to have been of all men the most beautifull and most bountifull So in Esther for a woman who obtained favour in the sight of all that looked upon her Esth 2.15 And Aspasia Milesia the wife of Cyrus who deserved to be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fair and Wise as Aelian relateth As on the other side in Vatinius deformity of body strove with dishonesty of minde adeo ut animus ejus dignissimo domicilio inclusus videretur saith Paterculus Vers 12. Therefore it shall come to passe c. Note here saith Pererius the raging affection of the Egyptians that made no conscience of murther to enjoy their lust 2. Their blindness that made less account of murther then adultery Note again saith Piscator that beauty exposeth a body to the danger of dishonesty and that as the Poet hath it Lis est cum formâ magna pudicitiae Let those therefore that have beauty look to their chastity and possesse their vessels in holiness and honour Thesaurum cum virgo tuum vas fictile servet Vt caveas quae sunt noxia tuta time Filthiness in a woman is most abominable therefore is a Whore called a strange woman Vers 13. Say I pray thee thou art my sister The truth was here not onely concealed but dissembled As the Moon hath her specks so the best have their blemishes A Sheep may slip into a slough as soon as a Swine and an Apple-tree may have a fit of barrenness as well as a Crab-tree Vers 14. The Egyptians beheld the woman Pleasure is blamed in Xenophon for this that she ever and anon looketh back upon her own shadow Decet haberâ— oculos continenter maâ—â—â— linguam and giveth her eyes leave to rove and range without restraint An honest man saith Plautus should have continent eyes hands and tongue Nihil enim interest quibus membris cinoedi sitis posterioribus an prioribus said Archelaus the Philosopher to a wanton yonker The eye that light of all the members is an ornament to the whole body And yet that lightsome part of the body draweth too too oft the whole soul into darkness Job 31.1 This Job knew and therefore made a Covenant to look to his looks â—â—th of looking came luâ—â—ing Charles the fifth when the City of Antwerp thought to gratifie him in a Mask Job Mauliâ— loc Com. p. 34â— Saepe claufit senestram nâ— inspicâ—râ—t formosiores â—â—â—miâ—â—â— c. De Carolo 5. Pâ—reuâ— hist pres medul pag. â—08 Matth. 5.28 29 with the sight of certain fair Maids brought in before him almost naked he would not once look at them The young Lord Harrington when he should meet with fair women in the streets or elsewhere would usually pull his hat over his eyes as knowing that of our Saviour He that looks upon a woman to lust after her c. whereupon immediately follows If thine eye offend thee c. Eckius was sharply rebuked at a feast by a modest matrone for his uncivill glances and carriages in these words as Melancthon relateth Es tu doctor Joh. Manlii loc com p. 32â— Non existimo te in honesta familia sed in lupanari educatum Thou a Doctour I do not believe thou wast bred any where else but in a brothel-house See the Notes on Chap. 6. Vers 2. Vers 15. The Princes also of Pharaoh c. Flattering Courtiers please Princes humours and serve their delights though to the procuring of their plagues as here and in young King Joash If a ruler hearken to lyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod l. 3. saith Solomon all his servants are wicked Prov. 29.12 Aulicisunt instar spâ—â—uli saith One. And Mirifica est sympâ—thia saith another inter magnates parasitâ—s Herâ—dorus writeth that when Cambyses demanded of his Courtiers and Counsellours whether it were not lawfull for him to marry his own sister whom he greatly desired they answered That they found no law to license such a match but another law they found that the King of Persia might do what he would And the woman was taken into Pharaohs house Not for any worse purpose then to get her good will to become his wife Vers 16. And he entreated Aâ—ram well for her sake To the end that he might sollicite his sister to yeeld consent or might not be a back-friend at least out of displeasure because they had taken away his sister from him to the Court. So K. Hen. 8. advanced all Anne Bullens kindred c. Vers 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh Plagued him with plagues saith the Hebrew tormented him with torments or set him on the rack saith the Greek And for this he might thank his Court-parasites who put him upon this rape Chrysostome thinketh that Sarah was abed with the King and that in the bed God by his plague so restrained him that she remained untoucht But we cannot gather by the text that he intended to commit adultery sed quòd levitate vaga libidine peccavit but offended onely in going after the sight of his eyes a and lust of his heart as Solomon hath it Vers 18. What is this that thou hast done unto me God had reproved Pharaoh according to that Psal 105.14 He suffered no man to doe them wrong but reproved Kings for them and now Pharaoh reproves Abraham It is a sad thing that Saints should do that for which they should justly fall under the reproofe of the wicked we should rather dazle their eyes and draw from their consciences at least a testimony of our innocency as David did from Sauls when he said Thou art more righteous then I my son David Whose oxe have I taken saith Samuel And which of you can condemne me of sin saith Christ Now the life of a Christian should be a Commentary upon Christs life 1 Pet. 2. Ye are a holy nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.9 a peculiar people that ye should preach forth his vertues and not hang his picture his image and graces in a dark hole but in a conspicuous place Bucer so lived that neither could his friends sufficiently praise him nor his foes justly blame him for any miscarriage Act Mon. And Bradford was had in so great reverence and admiration for his holiness that a multitude which never knew him but by fame Ibid. 1458. greatly lamented his death yea and a number also of Papists themselves wished heartily his life But to have Egyptians jear us and that for sin is threatned as a
of the worlds cut throat kindnesses consort not with Sodomites lest ye partake of their plagues Hamath lyes nigh to Damascus in place and fares the worse for its neighborhood Zach. 9.2 Lot loseth his goods and liberty 2 Chro. 18.31 19.2 Jehosaphat had well-nigh lost his life for loving those that hated God Vers 13. And there came one that had escaped A Sodomite likely but a servant to Gods good providence 2 Pet. 2.9 Eph. 4. Psal 126 4. for Lots rescue The Lord knoweth how to deliver his c. He that led captivity captive can turn our captivity as the streams in the South Vers 14. He armed his trained servants Or catechised such as he had painfully principled both in Religion and Military Discipline tractable and trusty ready prest for any such purpose It is recorded to the commendation of Queen Elisabeth that she provided for war even when she had most perfect peace with all men Camdens Elis fol. 164. Darts foreseen are dintless Vers 15. Smote them and pursued them Abram came upon them as they were secure sleepy and drunken as Josephus writeth So did David upon the Amalekites 1 Sam. 30.16 and Ahab the Syrians 1 King 20.16 The division of his company and taking benefit of the night wacheth the use of godly policies and stratagems Vers 16. And he brought back all the goods The five Kings were deprived of the whole victory because they spared not a man whom they should have spared One act of injustice oft loseth much that was justly gotten Beware saith a Reverend Writer hereupon of swallowing ill gotten wealth Mr. Whatelyes Archetypes it hath a poysonfull operation and like some evill simple in the stomack will bring up the good food together with the evill humours And also brought again his brother Lot Many a crooked nature would have thought of the old jar and let Lot taste of the fruits of his departure In a friends distress let former faults be forgotten and all possible helps afforded And the women also and the people The hope of this might haply move that officious messenger to address himself to the old Hebrew vers 13. little set by till now that they were in distress Generall Vere told the King of Denmarke Spec bellisacri 253. that Kings cared not for souldiers no more did the King of Sodome for Abraham and his Reformadoâ—s untill such time as the Crowns hang on the one side of their heads Vers 18. Melchizedek King of Salem Who this Melchisedek was is much controverted Some would have him to be the holy Ghost Others the Lord Christ in the habit of a King and Priest The Jerusalem Targum saith Hu Shem Rabba This was Shem the Great and of the same opinion are not a few of the Hebrew Doctours and others But what should Shem do in Canaan which Country fell not to him but to his brother Ham To this they answer That by the instinct of the Holy Ghost he left his own posterity now fallen away for most part to Idolatry and came to the land of Canaan a type of Heaven and the place from whence peace and salvation should be preached to all people If this were so it might very well be that Amraphel who was of Shems lineage Dr. Prideaux Lâ—â—t de Melchis p 95. and his fellow-souldiers moved with reverence of this their great Grand-father Shem might forbear to molest him at Salem or invade his territories when they wasted and smote all the neighbour-nations But then on the other side if Melchisedek were Shem why doth not Moses calf him so but change his name 2. Why did not Abram dwelling so near visit him all this while that was so near allyed to him and so highly respected by him as it was meet 3. Why did Melchisedek the Grand-father take tithes of his Nephew to whom he should rather have given gifts and legacies 2 Cor. 12.14 Most likely Melchisedek was a Canaanite of the Canaanites yet a most righteous King and Priest of the most High God and so a pledge and first-fruits of the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge and obedience of Jesus Christ of whom he was a lively type Heb. 7.2 Brought forth brend and wine This he did as a King as a Priest he blessed Abraham which latter therefore the Apostle pitcheth upon Heb. 7.1 as being to treat of Christs Priesthood The Papists think to finde footing here for their unbloody sacrifice in the Masse Melchisedee say they as a Priest offered bread and wine to God for he was a Priest of the living God So they render it Tert. de Praescrip advers haeret or rather wrest this text to make it speak what it never meant Caedem Scriptuarum faciunt ad materiam suam they murther the Scriptures to serve their own purposes saith Tertullian Where can they shew us in all the Book of God that the Hebrew word Hotsi here used signifieth to offer But any thing serves turn that hath but a shew of what they alleadge it for A Sorbonist finding it written at the end of St. Pauls Epistles Missa est Bee-hive of Rom. Church chap. 3. fol. 93. Nelancthon orat de encom eloquentiae Pref. to his book of the Sacraments c. brag'd he had found the Masse in his Bible So another reading Joh. 1.41 Invenimus Messiam made the same conclusion A third no whit wiser then the two former speaking of these words I now write upon Rex Salem panem vinum protulit fell into a large discourse of the nature of Salt Agreable whereunto Dr. Poynes writes that it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Protestants were a Malignant Church alleadging 2 Chron. 24.19 Mitâ—â—batque prophetas ut râ—vâ—rterentur ad Dominum quos â—rotestantes illi audire nolebant Vers 19. And he blessed him Lo here an instance of the communion of Saints Melchisedek doth all good offices to Abraham a beleever though a stranger not of curtesie onely and humanity but of charity and piety Vers 20. And he gave him tithe of all Not of the Sodomites goods which he restored wholly ver 23. but of the other lawfull spoyle he had taken from the foure conquered Kings in testimony of his thankfulness to God the giver of all victory Vers 21. And the King of Sodome said He that a few dayes since faced the heavens and cared not for foure Kings can now become suppliant to a forlorn forreigner Affliction will tame and take down the proudest spirits they buckle in adversity that bore their heads on high in prosperity In their moneth you may finde these wild-asses Give me the persons Abram did so Jer. 2.24 and yet they were no whit amended by their late captivity or former servitude from both which now they are freed by Abraham but still held captive by the Devill who owes them yet a further spite as we shall see Chapt. 19. Vers 22. I have lifted up my hand A swearing
beleeved When thus the promise was repeated So needfull it is that the word should be often preached and the sweet promises of the Gospell beaten to the smell that Gods name being as an oyntment poured out The Virgins may love him beleeve in him Cant. 1.3 1 Pet. 1.8 and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And he counted it to him for righteousness This imputative righteousness the Papists scoffe at calling it putative or imaginary This the Jews also jear at to this day as their Fathers did of old Rom. 10.2 3. so do they For being asked whether they beleeve to be saved by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them they answer That every Fox must pay his own skin to the Fleaer But is not Christ called Jer. 23.6 in their law Jehovah our righteousness And how so but by means of that imputation so often hammered on by the Apostle Rom. 4. adding after all that what is said here of Abram is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleeve on him that raised up Jesus c. Rom. 4.24 If Adams sin be mine though I committed it not why should it seem so strange that the merit of Christs intire obedience should by the like means be mine though I wrought it not See Rom. 5.19 2 Cor. 5.19 If he hath wronged thee ought reckon that to me said Paul to Philemon Philem. 18. concerning Onesimus saith Christ to his Father concerning us And to stop the Papists mouth If another mans faith may benefit Infants at their Baptisme as Bellarmine affirmeth why should it seem so absurd that beleevers should be benefited by Christs righteousness imputed Vers 7. I am the Lord that brought thee Let the remembrance of what I have done for thee confirme thy confidence sith every former mercy is a pledge of a future God giveth after he hath given as the spring runneth after it hath run And as the eye is not weary of seeing nor the ear of hearing no more is God of doing good to his people Draw out thy loving kindness Psal 36.10 saith David as a continued series or chain where one linke draws on another to the utmost length Vers 8. Lord God whereby shall I know He desires assign not that he beleeved not before but that he might better beleeve How great is Gods love in giving us Sacraments and therein to make himself to us visible as well as audible Vers 9. Take me an heifer c. Here God commands him abusie sacrifice and then casts him into a terrible sleep the better to prepare him to receive the ensuing oracle and to teach him that he may not rashly rush upon divine mysteries Heathens could say Non loquendum de Deo absque lumine that is Pythagâ—raâ— without praemeditation and advised consideration Vers 10. Divided them in the midst In signum exitii foedifrago eventuri This was the federall rite both among Jews Jer. 34.18 19. and Gentiles as is to be seen in Virgil Aeneid l. 8. describing the covenant of Romulus and Tatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God also threatneth to cut the evill servant in twain that forgetteth the Covenant of his God Matth. 24. These dissected creatures are the oppressed Israelites the parts laid each against other signifie that God will make them up again though disâ—jected the fowls that came down upon them are the Egyptians Abrams huffing of them away is their deliverance by Moses after foure hundred years signified by those foure kindes of creatures as Luther interpreteth Vers 12. And when the Sun was going down Heb. when he was ready to enter to wit into his Bride chamber Psal 19 6. Vers 13. Know of a surety that thy seed Must first suffer before they can enter and so be conformed to Christ their Captain Heb. 5.9 who was perfected by sufferings and came not to the Crown but by the Crosse Dissicile est ut prasemibus bonis quis fruatur futuris ut hic ventrem illiâ— mentem resiciat ut de deliciâ—s ad delicias transeat ut in coelo in terra gloriosus appareat saith St. Hierome Erigito tibi scalam Acoâ—â—â— solus ascenâ—ito Constant Mag. Through many tribulations we must enter into heaven He that will goe any other way let him as the Emperour said to the Hâ—retick erect a ladder and go up alone Vers 14. Afterward they shall come out c. All the Saints abasements are but in order to their advancement As God brought forth his Israel with jewels and other wealth so the afflicted Church and tossed with tempest shall build her walls and lay her foundations with Sapphires and Agates Esa 54.11 12. See Esa 62.3.4 Vers 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers The spirits of just men made perfect all the court of Heaven shall meet thee and welcome thee into their society that brave Panegyris Heb. 12.22 23. In peace So Josiah did Bellum cui nos instamus pax est non bellum Zuingl apud Melch. Adam Prov. 16.31 though he dyed in battle according to the promise 2 Chron. 34.28 God made war to be peace to him In a good old age Heb. With a good hoar head which is a Crown when found in the way of righteousness Vers 16. The iniquity of the Amorites c. A metaphor from a large vessell filled by drops as elsewhere from an harvest ready for the sickle and from the vine ripe for the wine-press Pererius the Jesuit writing upon this text saith Perer. in loc If any marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of Catholikes there just execution of Cacolikes he should have said Answers because their sin is not yet full God grant it Jer. 28.6 Sed veniet tandem iniquitatis complementum saith he Ezek. 7.6 7 10 A true Prophet I fear me That terrible text rings in mine ears An end is come the end is come it watcheth for thee behold it is come it is come CHAP. XVI Vers 1. Now Sarai Abrams wife bare him no children GOd had foretold him of his childrens affliction and yet gave him no child but holds him still in suspense He knows how to commend his favours to us by withholding them Citò data citò vilescunt we account it scarce worth taking that is not twice worth asking A handmaid an Egyptian One of those maids belike that were given her in Egypt Gen. 12.16 Vers 2. The Lord hath restrained me She faults herself not her husband as many a crank dame would have done It may be that I may obtain children by her Heb. Be builded by her as God made the midwives houses that is gave them children for their mercy to the poor children Exod. 1.21 and as he promised to make David an house 2 Sam. 7.11 12 that is to give him seed to sit upon his Throne Saraies ayme
Samuel thought it had been God that called to him and not Eli he would not have slept but fallen on his face before the Lord as Abram here who was no novice but knew well that though God loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience yet he takes state upon him in his Ordinances and will be trembled at in his word and judgements Vers 4. As for me Ego ecce An abrupt speech to shew what haste God made to comfort and confirm Abram now fallen at his feet Thou shalt be a father of many nations The Israelites Ismaelites Edomites Keturites c. besides all Beleevers Gal. 3.28 29. Vers 5. Neither shall thy name any more c. This is reckoned for an high favour by those holy Levites Neh. 9.7 The Jews say that for honours sake God inserted one of the letters of his own incommunicable name Jehovah into the name of Abram now Abraham Sure it is that by stiling himselfe the God of Abraham he doth him more honour then if he had ingraven the word Abraham upon the firmament or in the clouds in letters of gold Vers 6. I will make thee exceeding fruitfull Heb. Foecundabo te valdè valdè And as oft as thou thinkest upon thy new name thou shalt remember my promise and rest assured of my performance See how God of his grace condescends unto us and accommodates us Vers 7. For an ever lasting Covenant Circumcision the outward sign of it was temporary and changeable into baptisme but the Covenant of grace thereby then and by baptisme now sealed up unto us is eternall being stablished and ratified by the death of the Testatour by the blood of the Arch-shepherd Heb. 13.20 Here it must be considered that there is a twofold Covenant 1. Single such as God makes with children when baptized viz. If ye will repent believe and walk with me ye shall be saved Now if they break the condition God is freed D. Preston of Gods Attrib he is not bound any further 2. Double such as God â—â—kes with his elect onely and that is to perform both parts sc If you will beleeve repent obey ye shall be saved And further I will give you a new heart so that you shall repent beleeve c. and be saved Thus God undertakes for both parts and so it becomes an everlasting Covenant such as hath the sure or unfailable mercies of David And here those that are thus in Double-Covenant with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are fitly compared to them that are gone in at a Church-door some are further in then others but yet all are in So though the weak in faith be not so forward yet they may be in though not so far in And to thy seed after thee See the Note on the next Verse Vers 8. All the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession And yet now for their inexpiable guilt in putting to death the Lord of life they are utterly dispossessed of that pleasant land In Jerusalem it self there are not to be found a hundred housholds of Jews Adriâ—â— the Emperour drove them utterly out of Jewry Breerewood and commanded them by proclamation not so much as to look toward it from any Tower or high-mountain Yea long before this the Lord for their wickedness counted them but usurpers Funceiuâ— and called them sojourners in that land Ezek. 20.38 and 11.15 If men forfeit their priviledges God may at his pleasure take the forfeiture and dis-priviledge them as he did Saul and Judas who by transgression fell from his office that he might go to his own place Act. 1.25 I will be their God This is a singular comfort for all beleeving parents Their greatest care is for their poor little ones what they shall do another day why cast them upon God their God as well as thine for is not he in Covenant with them too It would be a great stay of minde if God should say to us for our children as David said to Mephibosheth or to Barzillai for his son Chimham Chimham shall go with me and I will do to him that which shall seem good unto thee and whatsoever thou shalt require of me that I will do for thee Behold God saith all this and more to us 2 Sam. 19.38 when he saith I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee I remember a sweet passage of Mr. Saunders the Martyr in a Letter to his wise Act. Mon. 1364. Though we do shortly depart hence and leave our poor Infant to our seeming at all adventures yet shall he have our gracious God to be his God For so hath he said and he cannot lye I will be thy God and of thy seed Yea if you leave him in the Wilderness destiâ—uâ—e of all helps being called of God to do his will either to die for the confession of Christ or any work of obedience that God which heard the cry of the little poor Infant of Hagar and did succor it will do the like to the children of you or any other fearing him and trusting in him Vers 9. Thou shalt keep my Covenant This is the stipulation on Abrahams part by receiving the Sacrament of Circumcision to avouch God to be his God Deut. 26.17 Now to the making the Lord to be our God it is required that with highest estimations most vigorous affections and utmost endeavors we bestow our selves upon him Thus if we chuse God for our God Psal 73.25 We shall be assured that he hath chosen and avouched us for his people 1 John 4.19 Vers 10. Every man-childe amongst you Infants were circumcised to signifie that we had better be flayed and have our skin quite stripped off then to have it as a skin-bottle hanging in the smoke of filthy desires and blown full of unclean motions with the breath of Satan That wretched Renegado that betrayed the Rhodes was well served For his promised wife and portion were presented but the Turk told him that he would not have a Christian to be his son in law Spec. bol sac p. 157. but he must be a Mussle-man that is a beleeving Turk within and without And therefore he caused his baptized skin as he called it to be fleyed off and him to be cast in a bed strawed with Salt that he might get a new skin and so he should be his son-in-law But the wicked wretch ended his life with shame and torment Vers 11. It shall be a token of the Covenant It seals up nothing then to those that are not in Covenant Circumcision to such is but as a seal to a blank Unregenerate Israel was to God as Ethiopia Amos 9.7 Circumcision of it self avails nothing if the heart be uncircumcised The Apostle distinguisheth of Circumcision Colos 2.11 and tells us that the true Circumcision is made without hands and is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom.
them when he came to execution he confessed that he would many times have repented of that foul sin but could not Joh. Manlii lec com p. 322. so fast was he held in the devills bonds and that now he was willing to dye and accept of the chastisement of his iniquity Howbeit Ibid. 487. it is an opinion held and maintained by the Anabaptists that Adultery is not to be punished by men because the Scripture saith Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge Others would prove the same from those words of our Saviour Joh. 8.11 to the woman taken in adultery Neither do I condemne thee But they may as well say That inheritances are not to be divided betwixt brethren because Christ would not divide them when required thereto Luke 12.14 Vers 4. But Abimelech had not come near her Being hindred by sickness vers 17. Well might St. Ambrose call siekness Morbos virtutum officinas vocat Ambros Nuper me amici cujusdam languor admonuit opimos esse not dum inâ—irmi sumâ—â— Plin. Epist 26. l. 7. Manl. loc com p. 667. The shop of vertues When men are fastened to their beds and their bones made to rattle in their skin lust will be laid asleep and little leisure left for luxury This made King Alured pray God to send him alwayes some sickness whereby his body might be tamed and he the better disposed affectioned to God-ward If it be painfull to the vine to bleed 't is worse to wither Better be pruned to grow then cut up to burn Otho tertius Imperator dictus miraculum mundi amoribus periit How much happier he that sang Periissem nisi Periissem Lord wilt thou slay also a righteous Nation For he knew that whole Nations had smarted for the sins of their Rulers this sin of Adultery especially as we read of Shechem Troy c. How wore the Greeks plagued for the rape of Chrysis and the Lacedemonian Common wealth utterly overturned by Epaminendas in the battle of Leuctra for a rape committed upon the two daughters of Scedasus by a couple of Spartan Gentlemen traveling to Delphos This might make Abimelech afraid lest for his fault wrath should fall upon his people also Vers 5. Said he not unto me She is my sister c. Here Abraham and Sarah Rom. 4. 1 Pet. 3. though both famous he for his faith and she for not being afraid with any amazement 1 Pet. 3.6 yet here they shew some trepidation Sense saith One fights sore against faith when it is upon its own dunghill I mean in a sensible danger Natures retraction of it self from a visible fear M. Vines his Fast-Sermon Elias fulminator ad Jezabalis minas trepidat may cause the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point the state of the soul to intermit and faulter at such a time In the integrity of my heart Great is the boldness of a clear conscience be it but in some one particular as here in Abimelech a man that was magis extra vitia quà m cum virtutibus as Tacitus saith of Galba rather not evill then good one whose nature was not changed Tac. l. 1. c. 12. but chained up onely Civill men are but Wolves chained up tame Devils Swine in a fair meadow and yet these are the worlds honest men and as high a price set upon them as was once upon a cab of Doves-dung in the famine of Samaria But these Abimelechs these Catoes these civill Justiciaries they want sincerity in the first Table and integrity in the Second for they stand not upon the inward corruptions nor lesser breaches of the Law Abimelech for all his confidence here was to blame for his wandring rash lust And Cato that mirror of morality was a griping Usurer prostituted his wife and slew himself Hist lib. 2 And yet Paterculus will tell you that he was Homo virtuti simillimus per omnia virtute Diis quà m hominibus propior c. Vers 6. Yea I know that thou didst this c. God takes his excuse and yet chastiseth him to teach us saith Calvin Non prorsus vacare culpâ qui humane modo puri sunt He can finde flawes in that for which we may look for thanks This makes Nehemiah crave pardon of his zealous reformations and David cryâ—s out Enter not into judgement c. Sordet in conspectâ— judicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis saith Gregory Ye are they that justifie your selves before men saith Christ to the Pharisees but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God Luke 16.15 A thing which I see in the night may shine and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness But be not deceived or if ye be yet God is not mocked Sacco soluto apparuit argentum Ambroâ— When he comes to turn the bottome of the bag upwards as the Steward did Benjamins all our secret thefts will out all our collusions come to light His Law is a Law of fire Deut. 33.2 His tribunall of fire Ezek. 1.27 His pleading with sinners in flames of fire Esa 60.15 16. The triall of our works shall be by fire and God before whom is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Happy are they that are here purged by that Spirit of judgement and burning Esa 4.4 These shall stand in judgement yea dwell with everlasting burnings Esa 33.14 For I also with held thee Either by sickness as aforesaid or by a spirit of restraint a gift that God gives to men yea to the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Psal 68.18 in his Religion and worshippers which else the wicked would never suffer Thus God chained up Laban and made Saul to melt over David c. Now many take this poor counter that is I am not as some others are so bad as the worst and set it down for a thousand pound Our Saviour indeed is said to have looked upon the young Pharisee and to have loved him Mark 10.21 because he saw him to be a tame man free from foule crimes and fit to live in a Commonwealth But no otherwise then as we love pictures which are pretty things to look on and that 's all they are good for A better nature if rested in is but a beautifull abomination a smooth way to hell And yet say what we can this kinde of men grow crooked and aged with good opinions of themselves and can seldome or never be set straight again They will trust in Moses Job 5.45 and when they have sick fits and qualms of conscience lick themselves whole by their repentance and so rest in it Which made Austin say that Repentance damneth more then sin They seek not to be saved by the righteousness of faith neither see they any necessity of growing from faith to faith No they are set they are as good as ever they mean to be they that
binding of a bush or briar And to this both David seems to allude Psal 94.19 and the son of David in that famous Lammah Sabachtani of his Bastards Serm. on Gen. 22.1 Mark 15.24 And Abraham went and took the Ram c. How likely is it saith One that we will offer to God Isaac our joy which will not sacrifice the Ram that is mortifie our sinfull lusts and the desires of our flesh God tempteth us now saith Mr. Philpot Martyr as he did our Father Abraham commanding him to slay his son Isaac which by interpretation signifieth mirth and joy who by his obedience preserved Isaac unto life and offered a Ram in his stead Semblably we are to sacrifice to God our Isaac that is our joy and consolation which if we be ready to do our joy shall not perish but live and be increased although our Ram be sacrificed that is the pride and concupiscence of our flesh intangled through sin with the cares of this stinging world for the preservation and perfect augmentation of our mirth and joy Act. Mon. 1667. sealed up for us in Christ Thus he And as God provided another sacrifice saith a Third for Abraham that so he might save his Son which was a Ram tyed and intangled in thornes Itinerar Scripturae fol. 99. so God provided a sacrifice for the salvation of the world Christ that immaculate Lamb whose head being crowned with thorns and hanging on the Cross by his death opened unto us the door of life and made us capable of eternall happiness It is probable saith Bucholcerus that Abraham when he slew and sacrificed the Ram looked up to heaven with new eyes full of divine light and that being filled with the Spirit of God and carried beyond himself he thought of more things he felt more he seemed to see and hear more then was possible to be uttered Ipse Deus quodammodo expositurus declaraturus Abrahae actionis praesentis augustam significationem Bucholc in Chronâ— p. 187. manu eum ducturus ad introspicienda hujus sacrificii sui adyta promissionem de Christo repetit jurejurando confirmat Vers 14. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen God will be found of his in fit time and place To him belong the issues of death Psal 68.20 None can take us out of his hands He knows how to deliver his and when as Peter spake feelingly 2 Pet. 2.9 with Act. 12.11 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh To perpetuate the memory of Gods mercy not of his own obedience which yet was notable and not to be matched again If we honour God we shall have honour that 's a bargain of Gods own making 1 Sam. 2.31 Vers 16. By my self have I sworn God swears for the further confirmation of our faith For here he swore not more for Abrahams sake then ours as the Apostle shews Heb. 6.13 14 17 18. As when he spake with Jacob at Penuel there he spake with us Hos 12.4 and what he said to Joshua he said to all I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 And hast not with-held thy son thine onely son And yet what was this to that sic without a sicut that hyperbole that excess of love in God that moved him to send his Son to dye for our sins He loved Christ far better then Abraham could love Isaac and yet he gave him up freely which Abraham would never have done without a command and to dye as a malefactor and by the hands of barbarous and bloody enemies whereas Isaac was to dye as a holy sacrifice and by the hand of a tender father How much more cause have we to say Now I know the Lord loves me Psal 119.106 and to swear as David did to keep his righteous judgements Vers 18. Because thou hast obeyed This because is not so much causall as rationall Significat non causam meritoriam sed subalternam sine qua non Vers 19. Went together to Beersheba The Hebrews conceive because here 's no mention of Isaac's return that he was sent by his father to Shem or that he remained for certain years in Mount Moriah But this is uncertain Vers 20. It was told Abraham Good news out of a far Countrey God usually chears up his children after sharpest trialls brings them as once from Mâ—rah to Elim c. Vers 23. And Bethuel begat Rebeccah Rebeccah is born Sarah dyes Thus one generation passeth and another commeth Our children are the Danes that drive us out of the Countrey CHAP. XXIII Vers 1. And Sarah was an hundred c. IT is observed by Divines that God thought not fit to tell us of the length of the life of any woman in Scriptâ—â—e but Sarah to humble that sex that because they were first in bringing in death deserved not to have the continuance of their lives recorded by Gods Pen. Vers 2. And Sarah died The Jews would perswade us that the Devill represented to her the offering of Isaac whereat she took a conceit and dyed This is but a meer conceit of theirs for Abraham then dwelt at Bâ—orshebâ— now at Hebron And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah So she was the first that we read of mourned for at death and it is mentioned as an honour to her Solons Mors mâ—a ne careaâ— luchrymis is to be preferred before Hin◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justa defunctorum Testamentum Augusti praeleg it tanto simulato gemitu uâ— non medò â—â—x sed spiritâ— deficere◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio Eumse lâ—gere simulabanâ— quem necâ—veraâ—t Dio in Claud. Gen. 37.35 Jer. 31.15 Ennius his Nemo me decoret lachrymis It is one of the dues of the dead to be lamented at their funeralls and the want of it is threatned as a curse in many Scriptures It is a practise warranted by the best in all ages and mourn we may in death of friends so we mourn 1. In truth and not fainedly 2. In measure and not as men without hope For the first how grossely did Tiberius dissemble at the death of Augustus and at the funerall of Drusus Whereupon Tacitus makes this note Vana irrisâ— vero honesto fidem adimunt So when Julius Caesar wept over Pompey's head presented to him in Egypt they that saw it laughed in their sleeves and held them no better then Crocodiles tears So the mourning that Nero and his mother made over the Emperor Claudius whose death they had conspired and effected was deep dissimulation This is no less hatefull then to mourn heartily but yet immoderately is unlawfull Here Jacob forgat himself when so overgrown with grief for his Joseph and Rachel for the rest of their children that they would not be comforted So David for his Absolom Alexander the Great for his friend Hephestiâ—n when he not onely clipped his horse and mules hair Plutar. in vita â—â—lop but plucked down also
Psal 120.6 is the Philosophers counsel Video Taceo I see and say nothing was Queen Elizabeths Motto and I am for peace was Davids or as the Hebrew hath it I am peace He heard the slander of many fear was on every side Psal 31.13 but he as a deaf man heard not and as a dumb man so he opened not his mouth Psal 38.13 Facile est in me dicere cum non sim responsurus said One once to another that revil'd at him Thou shalt fight without an adversary for I will hear and bear and say nothing The best answer to words of scorn and petulancy saith learned Hooker is Isaac's apologie to his brother Ishmael patience and silence no apologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man would not be bound to such a slavery as to answer every calumny Qui nescit ferre calumnias convitia injurias nescit vivere saith Chytraeus He that cannot patiently bear reproaches and injuries may make up his pack and get him out of the world for here 's no being for him Vitus Theodorus sent to advise with Melancthon what he should do when Osiander preacht against him Melch. Adam Melancthon per Deum obtestatur ut taceret se it a gereret quasi non audiret Melancthon besought him for Gods sake to say nothing in that case but to carry himself so as if he heard not Vitus writes back that this was very hard yet he would obey It is hard to swallow down Physical Pills but better swallow them whole then chaw them between the teeth Vers 15. Naphish and Kedamah Twelve in all Princes of their Tribes as was promised Gen. 17.20 See saith One here B. Babington what God can do for a poor boy sent out with a bottle of water on his back God setâ—eth the solitary in families Psal 68.6 he raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dung hill to set them among Princes c. 1 Sam 2.8 Vers 16. These are their names by their towns which they called after their own names as Cain did that first built City Fnoch after his sons name that he might be stiled Lord Enoch of Enoch So the many Alexandria's Caesarea's Augusta's c. See Psal 49.11 Vers 17. And he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered Sc. to the Congregation-house of all living as the grave is called Job 30.23 and for ought we know to the Congregation-house of the first-born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as heaven is called Heb. 12.23 Abraham prayed that Ishmael might live in Gods sight Ishmael joyned with his brother Isaac in burying their father Abraham vers 9. of this Chapter Here he hath his whole life-time recorded the like whereof cannot be shewed of any reprobate and at his death he is said gently to give up the ghost or yeeld up the spirit as Abraham also did vers 8. and to be gathered to his people as he These are probable arguments that however he lived yet he died in the faith of his father Abraham He runs far we say that never turns Nunquam serò si seriâ— Vers 18. And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur A large tract and territory but nothing so large as his posterity the Saracens called more rightly Hagarens Psal 83.6 proved to be whose Name and Empire notwithstanding is now swallowed up in the greatness of the Turkish Empire Turk hist which laboureth with nothing more then with the weightiness of it self And he died Or dwelt as some read it Compare Chap. 16 12. Vers 19. And these are the generations That is the affairs and occurrences Vers 20. And Isaac was fourty yeers old He was not over-hasty to marry in the heat of his youth but by hard labour ardent prayers and pious meditations kept under his body and brought it into subjection as Saint Paul likewise did 1 Cor. 9.27 We are not debters to the flesh Rom. 8.12 we owe it nothing but stripes nothing but the blue eye that the Apostle gave it Vers 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife He did it constantly and instantly as the word signifies he multiplied prayer which as those arrows of deliverance 2 Kings 13.19 must be often iterated ere the mercy can be obtained And the Lord was intreated of him though it were long first even full twenty yeers God knows how to commend his mercies to us and therefore holds us long in suspence Citò data vilescunt Manna lightly come by was as lightly set by Vers 22. Jitbrotsatsu And the children struggled together Heb. They ran at tilt as it were and justled one against another even to bruising and hurting Esau that he might lose no time began to set against Jacob before he was born If it be sò why am I thus A passionate abrupt speech q. d. Better no children then so troubled with them See Chap. 27.46 compare Chap. 3.16 I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception This she should have born more patiently but she presently bethought her of the best course for she went to enquire of the Lord she got into a corner and prayed and was answered She prayed down her passions as a man sleeps out his drunkenness and sets to work lustily and so got the ensuing oracle Vers 2â— And the Lord said unto her Either by an Angel or a Prophet or some divine answer in her own heart Two nations are in thy womb So what can a man see in the Shulamite in every sanctified soul but as it were the company of two armies Cant. 6.13 Every good man is a divided man every new man two men Vers 24. And when her days to be delivered Which fell out fifteen yeers before Abrahams death to his great comfort no doubt God doth for his his best at last There were twins in her womb See Cant. 4.2 with Isai 66.8 Vers 25. And the first came ont red Red and rough cruel and crafty as that red old dragon Rev. 12.3 who inhabited in him and both acted and agitated him Eph. 2.2 ab ascensore suâ— daemone perurgebatur saith Bernard And so are those Romish Edomites Esauites Jesuites c. And they called his name Esau Factus perfectus pilis a bearded man one that had every thing more like a man then a babe a manly childe Vers 26. And after that came his brother out God could have brought Jacob out first for it is he that takes us out of the womb Psal 22.9 but he suffereth Esau for a time to enjoy the first birth-right till his own time came to set things to rights God waits to be gracious for he is a God of judgement Isai 30.18 And his hand took hold on Jacobs heel As if he would have turned up his heels and got to the goal before him And his name was called Jacob Calcanearius an heel-catcher or supplanter as he afterwards proved to Esau who hit him also in teeth with it
smarting for it And Isaac went to Abimelech As Abraham had done before to Pharaoh Gen. 12.10 The trials of Gods servants in several ages are much alike we suffer the same things that our betters have done afore us which both Paul and Peter press as a lenitive to our miseries and a motive to patience 1 Cor. 10.13 1 Pet. 5.9 The same fable is acted over again in the world as of old the persons onely changed That which hath been is now and that which is to be hath already been and there is no new thing under the sun Eccles 13 5. and 1.9 10. saith Solomon Vers 2. And the Lord appeared unto him God knows our souls and our souls him best in adversity See Zech. 13.9 This famine was to the Canaanites in the nature of a curse to Isaac of a cure Hinc distinctio illa poenâ— in conferentem nocentem sive in suffocantem promoventem item in poenam vindictae poenam cautelae sive in condemnant em corrigentem Vers 3. Sojourn in this land Though it lay under the common lash that he might see Gods power in providing for him amidst greatest straights and difficulties Alex. Ales. p. 3. q. 5. m. 1. Poena duplicem habet ordinationem unam ad culpam quae praecedit alteram ad gloriam Dei quam praecedit Vers 5. Because that Abraham His obedience was universal to all the wills of God and is here alleadged not as the meritorious cause but as an antecedent of the blessing Our good works do truely please God in Christ and move him after a sort Rolloc de Vocatione p. 25. to do us good yet not as merits but as certain effects of Christs merits alone and such as testifie of his merit Vers 7. She is my sister How apt are children to imitate their fathers infirmities 1 Pet. 1.18 which yet is no excuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezek. 18 14. but an aggravation Dan. 5.22 23. The Orator therefore was far wide that said Me ex ea opinione Tull. de natur. Deor. quam a Majoribus accepi de cultu deorum immortalium nullius unquam oratio aut docti aut indocti movebit Isaac's fault here was greater then Abrahams because he was not warned by domestical examples Seest thou another make shipwrack of a good conscience look well to thy tacklings Sin is worse after warning For he feared to say c. Fear and infidelity is found in the most faithful Corruption in the best will have some flurts some out-bursts As therefore Luther intreats his Readers if they finde in his writings any thing that smelleth of the old cask of Popery to remember he was once a poor Monk So when we see the Saints humanum aliquid pati to play some mad pranks we must consider they were but lately cured of a spiritual phrensie Because she was fair to look upon Beauty therefore is not much to be desired or the want of it to be bewailed Sabiua cum aliquando se non satis bona forma in speculo cerneret mori priusquam senescerct optavis Dio. because it creates so many dangers to them that have it and their dearest husbands The British virgins deformed themselves that the Danes might not deflower them Vers 8. Sporting with Rebeccah his wife Or laughing and rejoycing according to that of Solomon Prov. 5.18 19. Rejoyce with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving hinde and pleasant roe c. The Hinde and Roe are the females of the Hart and Roe-buck Now of the Hart and Roe-buck it is noted saith a grave Divine that of all other beasts D. Gouge they are most enamoured as I may so speak with their mates and even mad again with heat and desire after them Which being taken in a good sense doth set forth the lawful vehement affection that an Isaac may bear to his Rebeccah which may be such as that others may think he even doats on her And so much is imported in that which follows Let her brests satisfie thee at all times and earn thou always in her love Not but that a man may be out in this lawful errour too and exceed in love to his wife as he in Seneca did who when ever he went abroad wore his wives fillet on his bosom for a favour would never willingly be without her company nor drink but when she drank to him with many the like fooleries in quae improvida vis affectus erumpebat saith he The beginning of this love was honest but the nimiety was not without deformity Est modus in rebus Vers 9. Lest I die for her See the Notes upon Gen. 20.11 12 c. Vers 10. Brought guiltiness upon us Or a shameful crime subjecting us to condign punishment This is more then many pseudo-Christians will yeeld who hold adultery a light sin if any at all a trick of youth being of the same minde with that old dotard in Terence Non est mihi crede flagitium adolescentem belluari potare scortari fores effringere It is nothing for a young man to be found potting piping drinking drabbing swearing whoring c. And this poisonful position passed it seems for currant at Corinthus whence the Apostle Paul so strives to stock up by the roots that wretched opinion by many arguments 1 Cor. 6. And Chap. 10.8 in stead of the cloke of heat of youth he puts upon fornication a bloody cloke bathed in the blood of three and twenty thousand Vers 11. He that toucheth this man c. So sweetly doth God many times turn even our sins to our safety here and to our salvation hereafter What is not God able to do for his Vers 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land In ground hired for his use and managed by himself for it was anciently a great commendation Veteres siquem virum bonum colonum appellassent amplissime lauâ—asse exstimabant Cic. saith Cicero to be a good husbandman M. Curius after three triumphs returned to the plow and held it no disgrace neither ever was there more plenty at Rome than then saith Pliny Quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere Aratore triumphali This good husband in the text sowing in that barren land and in a time of famine too hath an hundred-fold increase which is the utmost that our Saviour mentioneth Matth. 13.23 in the parable of the sower And in reference hereunto Matth. 19.29 he elsewhere assureth such as part with all for his sake and the Gospels they shall receive an hundred-fold here and eternal life hereafter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her lib. 1. Plin. l. 6. c. 26. That which Herodotus and Pliny report of Babylon is beyond belief That the land thereabouts returns two hundred-fold increase But grant it were true yet he that is a good husband for his soul sowes in a better ground and shall have a better return For Gal. 6.8 9. he that
Gregory Here Isaac doth unwilling and unwitting justice Vers Arist lib. de mirab auscult 27. As the smell of a field Compare Cant. 2.13 4.12 13 14. Aristotle writes of a parcel of ground in Sicily that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields and leazes thereabouts that no hound can hunt there the scent is so confounded with the sweet smell of those flowers Labour we so to resent heavenly sweetnesses so to savour the things above that we may have no minde to hunt after earthly vanities c. Alexanders body is said to be of such an exact constitution that it gave a sweet scent where it went Christ the true carcase smells so sweet to all heavenly eagles Matth. 24. Joh. 12. that being now lifted up he draws them after him Vers Esau likewise hath the like but not with a God give thee 28. God give thee of the dew For that country was dry and thirsty They had rain say some but twice a yeer the former in seed-time and the later rain in May. The blessings here bestowed are plenty victory domestical preeminency and outward prosperity But beyond all these some better thing was provided and promised Erant enim speculum pignus coelestium The Church of Rome borrows her mark from the market-plenty or cheapness c. she vaunts of her temporal felicity and makes a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholikes have had Immò vix unquam fuerunt Haeretici superiores quando justo praelio dimicatum est Bell. tom 2. lib. 4. cap. ult saith Bellarmine Upon one of the Easter-holydays saith George Marsh Martyr Master Sherburn and Master More sent for me perswading me much to leave mine opinions saying All the bringers up and favourers of that Religion had ill luck Act. and Mon. fol. 1421. and were either put to death or in prison and in danger of life Again the favourers of the Religion now used had wondrous good luck and prosperity in all things These wizards these disputers of this world as the Apostle calls them 1 Cor. 1.20 either knew not Ecclesia baeres Crucis or believed not that the Church is the heir of the Cross as an Ancient speaketh that Opposition is as Calvin wrote â—o the French King Evangelii genius the bad genius that dogs the Gospel Veritas odium parit Ter. that Truth breeds hatred as the fair Nymphs did the ill-favoured Fawns and Satyrs and seldom goes without a scratcht face Some Halcyons the Church hath here as in Constantines time Repugnante contra temetipsam tua foelicitate saith Salvian in his first book to the Catholike Church but grace she shall be sure of here with persecution and glory hereafter without interruption As for outward things aut aderunt sanè aut non oberunt either she shall have them or be as well without them God shall be her Cornu-copia her All-sufficient her shield Sine Deo omâ—is copia est egestas and exceeding great reward Vers 29. Let thy mothers sons bow down to thee That is thy brethren which are therefore denominated from the mother quòd certior est a matre progenies quà m a patre Castalio in Annotat ad locum saith an Interpreter But this blessing is pronounced in an higher stile then ordinary therefore sentences are doubled and that kinde of speech is here used which with us is either Poetical or not far from it Vers 30. Esau his brother came in All-too-late Detained he was by the devil say the Hebrews who not seldom makes a fool of hunters and leads them about A sweet providence of God there was in it certainly that he should come in as soon as Isaac had done and Jacob was gone and no sooner Like as there was in that which Master Fox reports of Luther that on a time Act. Mon. fol. 793. as he was sitting in a certain place upon his stool a great stone there was in the vault over his head which being staid miraculously so long as he was sitting as soon as he was up immediately fell upon the place where he sate able to have crushed him in pieces A Warrant once came down under Seal for the execution of the Lady Elizabeth Steven Gardiner was the engineer and thought he had been sure of his prey But God pulled the morsel out of his mouth Englands Elizabeth by Heywood for one Master Bridges mistrusting false play presently made haste to the Queen who renounced and reversed it Another time while Sir Henry Benning field her Keeper was at Court one Basset a Gentleman and a great favourite of Steven Gardiners came with twenty men well appointed to Woodstock to have murthered her But by Gods great providence Sir Henry had left so strict a charge behinde him that no living soul might have access unto the Princess upon what occasion soever till his return that they could not be admitted whereby their bloody enterprise was utterly disappointed The Lord knoweth how to deliver his Psal 34. he keepeth all their bones not one of them is broken Vers 31. And he also had made savoury meat Esau's works here are better then Jacobs Election is not of works but of grace Rom. 9.11 Quis te discernit saith the Apostle Cor. 4.7 Greevinchovius the Arminian sawcily answers Ego meipsum discerno And surely had the cause of our election been either by our faith or good works foreseen as the Papists and Arminians would have it Saint Paul might have spared his question or soon received a ready answer Vers 33. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly The fear of God reined him in that he durst not reverse the blessing though haply he had a minde to it nay he stablished it to Jacob here and more advisedly in the next Chapter Noli peccare nam Deus videt Angeli astant diabolus accusabit conscientia testabitur infernus cruciabit A reverend and religious man had this written before his eyes in his Study saith M. Gataker Vers 34. He cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry Not for his sin Non dolet de peccato venditionis sed de damno perditionis Par. Hos 7.14 in selling the birth-right but for his loss in missing the blessing though having sold the birth-right he had no right to the blessing This is the guise of the ungodly He cries Perii not Peccavi If he howl upon his bed it is for corn and oil as a dog tied up howls for his dinner It never troubles him that a good God is offended which to an honest heart is the prime cause of greatest sorrow Vers 35. Thy brother came with subtilty Junius observes that Isaac here to please his son committeth some over-sight in transferring the fault upon Jacob. He might have seen how God chastised his seeking to cross the Oracle in the sin of Rebeccah and Jacob who beguiled him But our mindes are as ill-set as our eyes
larks while they gaze in a glass are taken in a day-net See the Notes on Chap. 6.2 and 26.7 Vers 3. And his soul clave unto Dinah He kickt her not out of doors as Amnâ—n did Tamar far sweeter to him in the ambition then in the fruition but to make amends as they call it by Marriage he seeks to go by the old Rule in that case Et dotet ducat Howbeit Marriage Gods ordinance is not to be entred into thorow the devils portal Vers 4. Get me this damosel to wife This is praise-worthy in Shechem as bad as he was that he correcteth his base-born love or lust rather by seeking to make her his wife not without consent of parents on both sides which in the Church of Rome is oft-times not regarded Children are a principal part of their parents possessions as Job's children were accounted by Satan yea a piece of themselves Matth. 15.22 Have mercy upon me that is upon my daughter Fit it is therefore that they should by the parents be disposed of in Marriage Vers 5. And Jacob heard To his very great grief and regret For she was his onely daughter a damosel of not above fifteen yeers of age The Hebrews say she was afterwards given to Job in marriage But that 's not likely for she is reckoned among those that went down to Egypt Gen. 46. And Jacob held his peace He felt Gods hand upon his back he therefore lays his own hand upon his mouth And herein he did better in ruling his own spirit then his sons did Prov. 16.32 Lam. 3.28 Levit. 10.3 Psal 39.10 that took the City vers 27. He sitteth alone and is silent saith the Prophet of the afflicted person So was Aaron so was David so was the Lord Christ as a sheep dumb before the shearer The Romanes placed the image of their goddess Angeronia upon the altar of Volupia with her mouth shut and sealed up Macrob. lib. 1. in Som. Scip. to signifie saith Macrobius that they that bridle their grief and say nothing shall by their patience soon attain to greatest pleasure Acts 19.35 16. Patience in the soul as the Town-clerk at Ephesus sends away mutinous thoughts as he did the many-headed multitude it quiets the boiling spirit as Christ becalmed the raging sea with Peace and be still it makes a David dumb a dumb shew but a very good one it says Cedamus leve fit quod benè fertur onus Vers 6. And Hamor the father of Shechem Unruly youth put their aged parents many times to much travel and trouble as Samson Shechem Paris c. Green wood is ever shrinking and warping whereas the well-seasoned holds a constant firmness Vers 7. The men were grieved Heb. exarserit cis nasus and very wroth A pair of unruly passions when combined especially they ride one upon the back of another as kine do in a strait passage and will make an Alexander kill his best friends such as he would afterwards have revived with the best and warmest blood in his own heart qui non moderabitur irae Infectum velit esse dolor quod suaserit mens Horat. Because he had wrought folly in Israel That is in the Church where fornication should not be once named much less committed Eph. 5.3 Sin is odious any-where most of all among Saints A thistle is unseemly in a garden filthiness in a vestal baseness in a Prince And yet by the malice of Satan there are many times more scandals in the Church then elsewhere such incest at Corinth as not among Heathens such folly in Jacob's family as not at Shechem or Seir. Sodom thy sister hath not done she nor her daughters as thou hast done thou and thy daughters Ezek. 16.48 This is lamentable Vers 8. And Hamor communed with them A fond father seeks to satisfie the lust of a loose son whom he should severely have punished Such parents are peremptores potius quà m parentes faith Bernard like apes that kill their young with culling them They shew their love as little as if by clapping their hands on their childrens mouthes to keep the cold winde from them they should strangle them to death A fair hand here maketh a foul wound when correction would be a kinde of cure Severitas tamen non sit tetra sed tetrica saith Sidonius For Sidonius lib. 4. Ep. 9. as a cur by tying waxeth fiercer and as new wine breaketh weak vessels so too much severity overthroweth and quite spilleth a tender minde Vers 9. And make ye marriages with us The world thinks we may do as they and what need we be so scrupulous and strait-laced But Saints must walk accurately by line and by rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as unwise but as wise having their feet where other mens heads are for the way of the wise is on high saith Solomon he goes a higher way to work then others he may not buckle and stoop to their base courses Singular things are conferred upon him singular things are expected from him An Israelite dare not yoke himself with any Sichemish heifer that bears not the yoke of Jesus Christ Those that stood with the Lamb had not defiled themselves with women c. Rev. 14.14 Nec aliunde noscibiles saith Tertullian of those Primitive Christians quà m de emendatione vitierum pristinorum Tertull. ad Scapulam They were distinguished from all others by their holy behaviour Vers 10. And ye shall dwell with us c. Thus the world tempts the Saints by offer of profits pleasures and preferments Sed surdo cantilenam For they answer the world as here We cannot do this thing vers 14. or as the children of Israel bespake the king of Edom Let us pass I pray thee thorow thy country We will not pass thorow the fields of profit or vineyards of pleasure c. we will go by the kings high-way chalked unto us in the holy Scriptures we will not turn to the right hand or to the left for any allurement or affrightment of thine until we have passed thy borders Num. 20.17 Vers 11 12 Ask me never so much dowry Heb. Multiply ye upon me vehemently Gen. 38.18 Unbridled affection spares for no cost so it may be satisfied Judah parted with his signet bracelets and staff to the harlot Herod that old fornicator bids the dancing damosel ask what she will Demosth to the half of his kingdom One there was that would not buy repentance so dear as the harlot demanded But those miscreants in Micah will give any thing for a dispensation to live in sin they offer thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil Micah 6.7 yea the sons of their body for the sins of their souls Vers 13. deceitfully and said Because he had c. Therefore they thought they had reason to do as they did Satan doth so bemist men many times that they think they
a Patriarch and afterwards upon his repentance not a little honoured Exod 28.21 29. Rev. 21.12 God is not off and on with his elect their frowardness interrupts not the course of his goodness Vers 24. And Isaac gave up the ghost Twelve yeers after Joseph was sold and fourty yeers after he first became blinde Three special friends Jacob buries in this Chapter Crosses come thick be patient CHAP. XXXVI Vers 1. This is Edom. THe name and note of his profaneness A stigmatical Belialist It were a happiness to the wicked if they might be forgotten Eccles 8.10 Vers 4. Eliphaz Job's friend say some a good man but much mistaken in Job whom he so sharply censures Vers 6. From the face of his brother Jacob Or before the coming of his brother Jacob by a special providence of God to make room for the right heir It is he that determineth the bounds of our habitations Acts 17.26 It was he that espied out this land for his peculiar people and that kept the room empty all the time of the Babylonish Captivity till the return of the Natives though it were a pleasant country left destitute of inhabitants and surrounded with many warlike Nations Piscator renders this text propter Jacobum and expounds it Because he knew that the land of Canaan should be Jacob's according to Gods promise made to him in his fathers blessing of him But I doubt whether Esau would yeeld to him for any such reason Vers 7. For their riches were more c. And besides mount Seir was fitter for a hunter A good ease it was to Iacob who had little joy in his neighbourhood God will not take the ungodly by the hand Job 8.20 no more will his people When they are forced to be in ill company they cry Oh that I had the wings of a dove that I might flee away Or if that Oh will not set them at liberty they take up that Wo to express their misery Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshec c. It was once the prayer of a good Gentlewoman when she came to die being in much trouble of conscience Moses his choice by M. Bur. pag. 330. O Lord let me not go to hell where the wicked are for Lord thou knowest I never loved their company here Vers 11. And the sons of Eliphaz See here the fulfilling of Gods predictions and promises even to an Esan will he be wanting to his obedient people Vers 20. These are the sons of Seir Esau was by marriage allied to this Seir for he married his neece Aholibamah vers 2. yet the children of Esau chased away the Horims of Seir and dwelt in their stead in mount Seir Deut. 2.12 Wicked men are void of natural affection in their pursuit of profit or preferment Abimelech Absalom Athaliah for instance and that Amida Turk hist fol. 745 747.642 son of Muleasses King of Tunes who rose up against his father and possessing himself of his Kingdom slew his Captains polluted his wives took the Castle of Tunes and after all put out his fathers and brethrens eyes like as Muleasses himself before had dealt with his own brethren Vers 24. That found the mules By coupling divers kindes together contrary to Levit. 19.19 Neither did the world till then want any perfect kinde of creature for the mule and the ass differ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 B. Babington Fuit olim psittacus Romae aureis centum comparatus c. C. Rhodig l 2. c. 32. Maiolus in Canic colloq 23. Sphinx Philos pag. 785. Plin. lib. 7. cap. 12. but onely in degree The Greeks call mules half-asses See here saith one the busie curiosity of some mens natures given to news and strange inventions So he that taught a Parrot in Rome to repeat the Creed every Article in order and by it self distinctly Another that painted the whole story of our Saviour's passion both for persons and things upon the nails of his own fingers Had not he little to do that learned to write a fair hand with his feet Heidfeld saith he saw it with wonderment And he as little that enclosed Homer's Iliads written in a nut which Cicero tell us he saw with his eyes These were toilsome toys quae nec ignoranti nocent nec scientent juvant as Seneca saith of Sophistry Hard they are to come by but of no use or worth like an olive or date-stone hard to crack the one or cleave the other but nothing or nothing worth ought when crackt or cloven within either This same foolish wittiness Alexander wittily scoffed when he gave a fellow onely a bushel of pease for his pains of throwing every time a pease upon a needles point standing a pretty way off Vers 31. Before there raigned any king c. Sicut herba tectorum praecocem habet vigorem sed citius arescit Exoriuntur impii sed exuruntur They are set up on high but on slippery places Psal 73.18 advanced as Haman but to be brought down again with a vengeance This observation the Hebrews make upon this text Whiles Edom raigneth and flourisheth Israel groaneth under the servitude of Egypt â—omp and prosperity then is no sure note of the true Church Vers 40. Duke Timnah duke Alvah We had a Duke d'Alva lately in the Netherlands Governour there for the Spaniard Grimston hist of Netherlands infamous for his inhumanity For he rosted some to death starved others and that even after quarter saying though he promised to give them their lives he did not promise to finde them meat This was a right Romish Edomite The Hebrews think the Romanes came of the Idumeans Sure I am if they be not of the natural descent they are of the spiritual or unnatural and so like as by the one we may see the face favour and affection of the other Vers 43. These be the dukes of Edom As the Principality of Edom began with Dukes and rose to Kings so it returneth to Dukes again after the death of Hadad in Moses his time 1 Chro. 1.51 It is likely saith an Interpreter that upon the unkinde dealing of that Hadad in denying to let Israel pass thorow his land the Lord removed the dignity of Kings from that Common-wealth and let it be ruled by Dukes again whereof eleven are here by name rehearsed So sensible is God and so severe in punishing the least unkindness done to his people Julius Pflugius complaining to the Emperour by whom he had been employed of great wrong done him by the Duke of Saxony received this answer Have a little patience Tua causâ— erit mea causa So saith God to his abused He reproveth yea deposeth even Kings for their sakes and accounts that the whole world is not worthy of them nay not worth one of them how mean soever in regard of outwards as Chrysostome expounds that Heb. 11.38 CHAP. XXXVII Vers 1. In the land of his fathers sojournings THe Dukes of Edom had habitations in the land of
burn a great-bellied woman which the very Heathens condemned as a cruelty in Claudius Howbeit there are that take these to be his words not as a Judge in the cause but as an accuser Bring her forth sc into the gates before the Judges and let her be burnt if found guilty according to the custom of the country We read not of any that were by Gods Law to be burnt with fire but the high-priests daughter onely for adultery Levit. 29.1 Hence the Hebrews say that this Tamar was Melchizedek the high-priests daughter But it is more likely she was a Canaanitish proselyte Let us beware of that sin for which so peculiar a plague was appointed and by very Heathens executed See Jer. 29.22 23. Vers 25. By the man whose these are c. Ut taceant hemines jumenta loqucâ—tur Juven So his secret sin comes to light All will out at length though never so studiously concealed Matth. 10.26 Eccles 10.20 That which hath wings shall tell the matter It was a quill a piece of a wing that discovered the powder plot Discern I pray thee whose are these So when we come to God though he seem never so angry and ill set against us can we but present unto him our selves his own our prayer Mediatour arguments all his and then say as she here to Judah Whose are these he cannot deny himself Vers 26. She hath been more righteous then I A free confession joyned with confusion of his sin for he knew her no more This was to confess and forsake sin as Solomon hath it Prov. 28.13 Not like that of Saul I have sinned yet honour me before the people or that of those in the wilderness We have sinned we will go up they might as well have said We have sinned we will sin Deut. 1.41 The worser sort of Papists will say When we have sinned Sands his Relation of West Relig. sect 8. we must confess and when we have confessed we must sin again that we may also confess again and make work for new Indulgences and Jubilees making account of confessing as drunkards do of vomiting But true confession goes along with hatred care apologie Vers 27. Behold twins were in her womb Betokening two peoples pertaining to Christ The Jews first put forth their hand as it were willing to be justified by their works and to regenerate themselves For this they were bound with a Scarlet thred condemned by the Law wherefore pulling back their hand they fell from God Then came forth Perez the breach-maker that is the violent and valiant Gentiles who took the first-birth-right and kingdom by force who when they are fully born then shall the Jews come forth again Rom. 11.11 25 26. And that this is not far off hear what a worthy Divine yet living saith Mr. Case his Gods wait to be grac. pag. 58. Dan. 1â— 11 we have a prophecie of the final restauration of the Jews and the time is expressed which is One thousand two hundred ninety yeers after the ceasing of the daily sacrifice and the setting up of the abomination of desolation which is conceived to be in Julian's time who did assay to re-build the Temple of the Jews which was an abomination to God who therefore destroyed it by fire out of the earth tearing up the very foundation thereof to the nethermost stone This was Anno Dom. 360 to which if you adde 1290 years it will pitch this calculation upon the year 1650. Before this Babylon must down c. CHAP. XXXIX Vers 1. And Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh's SEe here a sweet providence that Ioseph should fall into such hands Potiphar was Provost-Martial keeper of the Kings prisoners And what could Ioseph have wished better then this that sith he must be a prisoner he should be put into that prison where he might by interpreting the Butlers dream come to so great preferment Chrysostome in his 19. Hom. on the Ephesians saith we must not once doubt of the Divine providence though we presently perceive not the causes and reasons of many passages And this he sweetly sets forth by apt by similitudes drawn from the works of Carpenters Painters bees ants spiders swallows c. Surely as a man by a chain made up of divers links some of gold others of silver See M. Renold on Psal 110.5 some of brass iron or tin may be drawn out of a pit so the Lord by the concurrence of several subordinate things which have no manner of dependance or natural co-incidency among themselves hath oftentimes wrought and brought about the deliverance and exaltation of his children that it might appear to be the work of his own hand Vers 2. And the Lord was with Ioseph and he c. The Lord also is with you while ye be with him 2 Chron. 15.3 and so long you may promise your selves prosperity that of Gaius howsoever that your souls shall prosper and for most part also your outward estates If it fall out otherwise it is because God will have godliness admired for it self If ungodly men prsper it is that case may slay them Prov. 1.32 and that they may perish for ever Psal 37.20 Moritur Zacharias Papa rebus pro Ecclesiae salute Apostolicae sedis dignitate non tam piè quam prosperè gestis saith Sigonius Sigonius This was little to his commendation that he was not so pious as he was prosperous Vers 3. And his Master saw Though he knew not God yet he acknowledged that God was the giver of prosperity and that piety pleaseth him This ran into his senses but wrought not kindly upon his heart Vers 4. And Joseph found grace in his sight This also was of God who fashioneth mens opinions and therefore Paul though he went to carry alms and such are commonly welcome yet prayes that his service may be accepted of the Saints Rom. 15.31 And he served him As his Page or Chamberlain afterwards he became his Steward He that is faithful in a little shall be master of more Vers 5. The Lord blessed the Egyptian There 's nothing lost by any love men shew to the Saints God is not unfaithful to forget it nor unmindful to reward it Vers 6. And he knew not ought he had c. Some expound this of Joseph that he took nothing for all his pains but the meat he eat did not feather his own nest as many in his place would have done nor embezel his masters goods committed to his trust But without doubt the other is the better sense Potiphar took what was provided for him and cared for no more This is few mens happinesse for usually the master is the greatest servant in the house And Joseph was a goodly person But nothing so goodly on the out-side as on the in-side Pulchâ—ior in luce cordis quam facile corporis His brethren had stript him of his coat but could not dis-robe him of his graces Still he retained his
But this had been to kill a fly as one said upon a mans forehead with a great beetle Some think they attempted the chastity of Pharaoh's daughters Such a thing as this made Augustus so angry against Ovid. But most likely it was for some conspiracy such as was that of Bigthan and Teresh Esth 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd. The present government is for most part alwayes grievous to some discontented great Ones especially who know not when they are well but are ready to drive a good Prince out of the world and then would dig him up again if they could as the swain said of Dionisius Dionisium refodio But what said Alphonsus that renowned King to this in a speech to the Popes Embassadour He professed that he did not so much wonder at his Courtiers ingratitude to him who had raised sundry of them from mean to great estates as at his own to God whom by every sin we seek to depose nay to murther for Peccatum est Deicidium Rom. 1.30 with 1 Joh. 3.15 Vers 2. And Pharaoh was wroth c. That had been enough to have broke their hearts as a frown from Augustus did Cornelius Gallus and another from Queen Elizabeth Camd. Elizab. fol. 406. did Lord Chancellour Hatton Vt mala nulla feram nisi nudam Caesaris iram Nuda parùm nobis Caesaris ira mali est saith Ovid. And again Omne trahit secum Caesaris ira malum Vers 3. And he put them in ward c. See the slippery estate of Courtiers to day in favour to morrow in disgrace as Haman Sejanus whom the same Senatours conducted to the prison who had accompanied him to the Senate They which sacrificed unto him as to their god which kneeled down to adore him now scoffed at him seeing him drag'd from the Temple to the goale from supream honour Tacit. to extream ignominy His greatest friends were most passionate against him c. they would not once look at him as men look not after Sun-dials longer then the Sun shines upon them The place where Joseph was bound Here was a wheel within a wheel Ezek. 1. a sweet providence that these obnoxious Officers should be sent to Joseph's prison Vers 4. And the Captain of the guard c. This was Potiphar probably who by this time saw his own error and Joseph's innocency yet kept him still in prison perhaps to save his wives honesty Truth is the daughter of Time it will not alwayes lye hid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caseus in Ethic. Splendet cum obscuratur vincit cum opprimitur Hinc ut pacis templum in media urbc extruxerunt olim Romani ita Veritatis statuam in suis urbibus olim coluerunt Aegyptii Vers 5. And they dreamed c. Of dreams natural and supernatural see the Notes on Chap. 20. vers 3. Vers 6. And behold they were sad Or angry and yet knew not how to help themselves But carnal men disgest their passions as horses do their choler by chewing on the bit Pope Boniface being clapt up prisoner by Cardinal Columnus tore his own flesh with his own teeth Revius and dyed raving Bajazet the great Turk could not be pacified in three dayes after he was taken by Tamberlane Turk hist fol. 220. but as a desperate man still sought after death and called for it Vivere noluit morinesciit as it is said of that Bishop of Salisbury Roger Bishop of Salisbury prisoner in King Steven's dayes Vers 7. And he asked Pharaoh's officers c. Vincula qui sonsit didicit succurrere vinctis Josephs tender heart soon earned toward them upon the sight of their sadness and unasked he offers himself to them as our Saviour did to the widow of Naim and to those two doubting Disciples Luk. 24.17 S. Cyprians compassion is remarkable Cum singulis pectus meum copulo maeroris funeris pondera luctuosa participo cum plangentibus plango cum deflentibus defleo c. I weep with those that weep and am like-affected as if like-afflicted Vers 8. And there is no Interpreter The superstitious Egyptians did curiously observe their dreams and commonly repaired to the sooth-sayers for an interpretation Gen. 41.8 Joseph calleth these Idolaters from their superstitious vanities to the living God as Esay did those of his time Chap. 8.19 20. and Daniel those of his Chap. 2.28 5.18 He had consulted with God by prayer and with the Scripture which revealed sufficient direction to him Ezek. 31.1 to 12. and so soon dispatched the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzars dream Dan. 4.10 So Joseph here he suffered troubles as an evil doer even unto bonds 2 Tim. 2.9 but the Word of God is not bound Vers 9. Behold a vine was before me God of his infinite grace and wisdome gives men such signs as excellently answer and agree to the thing thereby signified Those two Sacraments of the New Testament for instance which the Greek Fathers in the Apostles sense Heb. 9.24 call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signs and symbols of better things signified and sealed up thereby to the Believer The Lord saith Venerable Beza knowing well the vanity of our natures prone to idolatry hath appointed us two Sacraments only and those consisting also of most simple signs and rites For signs he gave us water bread and wine The rites are no more then to sprinkle eat drink Nempe nemiscri mortales in istorum mysteriorum usu in rebus terrâ—strthus haereant obstupâ—scant Bez. Confess things of most common use and a very little of these too that men may not too much dote on the elements or external acts in the Sacrament but be wholly raised up to the mystery and by faith mount up to Christ thereby set forth and exhibited and fetching him down as it were that we may feed on him Hence the outward sign is no further used then may serve to mind us of the inward grace The Minister also stirrs up the people to look higher then to what they see with Sursùm corda Sacerdos parat fratrum mentes dicendo Sursum cerda Cyprian Lift up your hearts A thing in use among the Primitive Christians Vers 12. The three branches are three days That is they signifie three days So Chap. 41.26 The seven kine are seven years So this is my body that is this signifyeth my body saith Zuinglius after Augustine and Ambrose Or Hun. de Sacram cap. 14. Hâ—m â—â—ad 3. Victimas quibus soe era sancieba tur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. soe â—era voâ—â—t Vngil sallere dextram dixiâ—â—â— i.e. fidem jusjurandum quod datis dextris concipitur this is the sign and figure of my body saith Calvin after Augustine and Tertullian whatsoever Bellarmine and Hunnius prate to the contrary It is an ordinary Metonimy whereby the name of a thing signified is given to the sign for the analogy that is betwixt
a comfort to friends Cyprian epist that death it self is called but a departure This the heathen persecutours knew and therefore banished the Christian Confessours far asunder One man may be by his counsell an Angell to another Ezra 10.3 As Bradford was to D. Taylour in prison communion with such 1 Sam. 25. is the being bound up in the bundle of life which was the blessing of Abigail upon David St. Iohn trusted to come unto the Elect Lady 2 Ioh. 12. and speak face to face that their joy might be full When one desired to see Alexanders treasure he bid one of his servants shew him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Liban Progyn Chria 1. Ioh 15.14 not his wealth but his friends What an honour is that that Christ should say to us ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you And should say to his Father Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me Ioh. 17.24 1 Tim. 5.4 A thenis capitale suit parentibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non persolvere Melancth Not. in Hesiod Plin. I 10. c. 23. Propriam matrem crudeliter deverat currucam silicat Melancth Mures genitores fuos alunt infigal pietate Sphinx Philos p. 230. Macrob. lib. 1. Satur. cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ariston de Mundo cap. 6. be with me were I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me what could Ioseph say more for his father and brethren Vers 11. And there will I nourish thee To requite parents is good and acceptable before God At Athens it was death not to be kinde to parents and cherish them The Stork nourisheth her old sire and damme with admirable piety saith Pliny and is therefore called by the Hebrews Chasidah or Mercifull and by the Latines Pietati-cultrix The cuckooe on the other side is worthily hated for that she cruelly devoureth her own damme the hedge-sparrow saith Melancthon Mice are said to nonrish their old ones that cannot shift for themselves insigni pietate Cornelius among the Romans got the name of Scipio by his kindness to his blind father to whom he was the staff of his old age as Macrobius relateth And Aristotle tels a strange story how that when from the hill Aetna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts in the midst of those fearfull stames Gods speciall care of the godly shined most brightly For the river of fire parted it self and made a kinde of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents and pluck them out of the jawes of death Our Saviour much distasted and detested that damnable doctrine of the Pharisees teaching children to starve their parents Matth. 15. under pretence of devotion And what would he have said to the Popish Pharisees that say that a Monk may not leave his cloister to relievo his father but rather let him dye for hunger in the streets Christ upon his Cross though as full of sorrow as heart could cold commâ—â—ded his mother to be kept by the Disciple whom he loved with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 19.27 Agreeable whereunto was that speech of the Samians I give thee this woman for a mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when to the richer of the Citizens the Mothers of those who dyed in the wars were given to be maintained by them Vers 13. And you shall tell my father So the Lord Christ bad Mary Magdalen tell his Disciples and Peter because he was most dejected for denying his Master and in his dumps he must know with the first I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Vers 14. And he fell upon his brother c. Gods people are not senseless Stoicks or flinty Nabals but have natural affections in them as others yea above others that have banished good nature and can weep as little as witches The enemy hath stopt the Wells and staid the water-courses as Holophernes what should hinder him now from taking the town Vers 16. It pleased Pharaoh well and his servants And therefore his servants because Pharaoh For Aulici sunt instar speculi saith Pareus Courtiers are their Princes looking-glasses If he laugh so do they where he loves they love in pretence at least Cic. de Divinatione lib. 2. for all 's but counterfeit And here Potest Augur Augurem videre non ridere saith Cato in Tully The Senate gave publike thanks to the gods for all that Nero did even when he had killed his mother though they never so much abhor'd it When he sang at any time though it were never so ill for he had a small harsh voyce his Courtiers would sooth him up with Quam pulcher Caesar Apollo Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio in Norone c. And because he hated the Senate notwithstanding all their flatteries Vatinius was greatly in favour with him for saying Odi te Caesar quòd Senator es Parasiti principum sputa instar canum lingunt Vers 17. And Pharaoh said unto Ioseph Pharaoh is good to Jacob and his house for Ioseph's sake so is God to us and ours for Jesus sake As any man was intimate with Sejanus so he found favour with Tiberius Ut quisque Sâ—jano lâ—timus it a ad Caesaris amicitiam valiâ—usâ— contra quibus inseâ—sus esset metu ac sordidus conflictabantur Tacit. Matth. 11. As if any were at odds with him they lived in continual danger and durance saith Tacitus so here O miserabilis humana conditio sine Christo vanum omne quod vivimus saith S. Hierome Epitaph Nep. tom 1. p. 25. O the misery of those that be without Christ in the world Vers 8. Come unto me and I will give you c. So saith Christ Come unto me and ye shall find rest to your souls health to your bones all the blessings of this life and a better Say you meet with some trouble by the way as haply Iacob had foul weather erc he came down to Egypt Non sunt condignae passiones ad praeteritam culpam quae remittitur ad praesentis consolationis gratiam quae immittitur ad futuram gloriam quae promittitur saith Bernard sweetly What is a drop of vineger put into an Occan of wine No country hath more venemous creatures then Egypt none more Antidotes So godliness saith One hath many troubles and as many helps against trouble Vers 19. Take you wagons out of the land of Egypt Christ also will send his wagons for us his Cherubims and clouds to fetch us up to him to heaven at the last day 1 Thess 4.15 as they did Moses and Elias Matth. 17. This David foresaw and therefore envied not the pomp and state of those men of Gods hand that are whirled here up and down in wagons and chariots c. Psal 17.14 15. Vers 20. Also regard not your stuff The same saith God to
Mark 3.4 Intimating that not to save when we may is to destroy The Egyptians therefore put Joseph to it Money they had none but must have answered if now it had been required of them as those Inhabitants of Andros did Themistoâ—les Ingens telum Necessitas He being sent by the Athenians for tribute money told them that he came on that errand accompanied with two goddesses Eloquence to perswade and Violence to inforce them Whereunto the Andraeans made this answer that they had on their side also two goddesses as strong Piutarch necessity they had it not and impossibility whereby they could not part with that which they possest not Vers 17. And Ioseph gave them bread in exchange An ancient and yet usuall way of trafick with Savages and Barbarians especially as in Virginia c. Where they usually change as Glaucus did with Diomedes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer II. lib. 6 Vers 18. We will not hide it from my Lord Confess we our pittifull indigence also to God and he will furnish us with food and feed Say with learned Pomeran Eltamsi non sum dignus nihi lominus tamen sum indigens Vers 19. Buy us and our land for bread It was their own desire therefore no injury Nay it was charity in Ioseph in remitting their services and taking only their ands yea liberallity in reserving the fifth part only to the King when husbandmen usually till for halfe the encrease And this the Egyptians thankfully acknowledg Vers 25. Vers 20. So the land became Pharaoh's Regi acquisivit imperium despoticum This the Egyptians would never have yielded unto but that stark hunger drove the wolfe out of the wood as the proverb is Philo Iudaeus reports of an heathenish people who in their warrs used only this expression to put spirit into their souldiers Dan. hist of Engl. Estote viri libertas agitur The contention was hot in this land between Prince and people for fourscore years together about liberty and property and ceased not till the great Charter made to keep the beame right bet wixt soveraignty and subjection was in the maturity of a judiciall Prince Edward the first freely ratified Vers 21. And as for the people he removed them So to alter the property of their land and to settle it upon Pharaoh who with his own money had bought it See his prudence and policy for his Lord and Master So Daniel though sick did the Kings business with all his might These were as the Philosopher saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 few such now a dayes Great need we have all to fly to Christ who dwels with prudence Prov. 8.12 as Agur did when he found his own foolishness It was he that made Aholiab wise-hearted Vers 22. Only the land of the Priests bought he not Ministers maintenance we see is of the law of nature Jezabel provided for her Priests 1 Cor. 9.13 Micah for his Levite Doe ye not know saith that great Apostle that they which Minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple â— and they which waite at the altar are partakers with the altar Where by holy things Saint Ambrose understands the law of the Gentiles by the Altar the law of the Iewes Before them both Melchizedec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tithed Abraham by the same right whereby he blessed him Heb. 7.6 As after them the Apostle rightly inferrs Even so hath the Lord ordained 1 Cor. 9.14 that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell But where hath the Lord ordained it Mat. 10.10 The labourer is worthy of his meate saith Mathew of his hire saith Luke of both no doubt as the labourers in harvest who have better fare provided then ordinary and larger wages See Nehemiah's zeal for Church-maintenance Chap. 13.10 14. He knew well that a scant offering makes a cold Altar and that ad tenuitatem beneficiorum necessariò sequitur ignorantia sacerdotum Panormitan Heyl. Geog. pag. 504. as in Ireland where in former time some of the Bishops had no more revenue then the pasture of two milch-kine c. In the whole Province of Connaught the stipend of the incumbent is not above forty shillings in some places but sixteen shillings Melancthon complains of his Germany that the Ministers for most part were ready to say with him in Plautus Ego non servio Manl. loc coâ— 472. libenter herus meus me non habet libenter tamen utitur me ut lippis oculis Such use Micah made of his Levite more fit to have made a Gibeonite to cleave wood then to divide the word and yet he maintained him and doubted not thereupon to promise himself Gods blessing He is a niggard to himself that scants his beneficence to a Prophet whose very cold water shall not go unrewarded Many rich Mat. 10. refuse to give any thing to the Ministers maintenance because they cannot be tithed Perstringit tenaces Parâ—us But be not deceived God is not mocked saith the Apostle in this very case Gal 6.6 7. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all his goods Such tribes as had more cityes in their inheritance were to part with more to the Priests such as had less with fewer Num. 35.8 The equity of which proportion is still in force The Iewes at this day though not in their own country nor have a Leviticall Priesthood yet those who will be reputed religious among them do distribute in lieu of tithes the tenth of their encrease unto the poor being perswaded that God doth bless their encrease the more Godw. Heb. Antiq. 277. according to that proverb of theirs tithe and be rich But how is both the word and the world now altered amongst us All 's thought by the most to be well saved that is kept from the Minister whom to deceive is held neither sin nor pitty Fisco potius apud multos consulitur quam Christo ac tonsioni potius gregis Episc Winton quam attentioni as one complaineth Covetous Patrons Virgill care not to sauce their meate with the blood of souls whiles by them Et succus pecori lac et subducitur agnis Besides they bestow their Benefices non ubi optimè sed ubi quaestuosissime being herein worse then these Egyptians shall I say nay then the traytour Iudas He sold the head they the members he the shepherd they the sheep he but the body they the souls like that Romish strumpet Rev. 18.13 of whom they have learnt it But let them look to it lest they rue their wages of wickedness with Iudas In the mean while let them give us a just commentary upon that Prov. 20.25 and tell us M. Harris who hath authority to take that from a Church shall I say nay from God that hath been once given him We can tell them a sad story of five servants of Cardinal Wolsey's employed by him in
dream of that libertie wee yet enjoie would bee as precious to us as a drop of cold water would have been to the rich man in hell when hee was so grievously tormented in those flames Vers 15. To the Hebrew Midwives In Egypt and Greece the midwives of old had their schools and som of them were great writers I know not whether the Priests were then so officious to them as manie are now among the Papists who saie they therefore studie Albertus Magnus de secretis mulierum that they may advise the Midwives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. but I doubt it is for a wors purpose to gratifie and greaten those abominable lusts wherewith they are scalded Vers 16. Then yee shall kill him No greater argument of an ill caus then a bloodie persecution George Tankerfield the Martyr was in King Edward's daies a verie papist Act Man fol. 1535. till the time Queen Marie came in And then perceiving the great crueltie used on the Popes side was brought into a misdoubt of their doing and began as hee said in his heart to abhor them Vers 17. And did not as the King c Wherein they did no more though out of a better principle then Nature it self dictateth Antigona saith thus in Sophocles Magis obtemper andum est Dijs apud quos diutiùs manendum erit quà m hominibus quibuscum admodum breui tempore vivendum est See the Note on Act. 4.19 Wee must rather obeie God then men Vers 18. Why have yee don this thing They might well have answered as shee did in Euripides Obediemus Atridis bonesta mandantibus Sin verò inhonesta mandabunt non Obediemus If you command things honest wee will obeie you not els Or as that brave woman upon the rack Non ideo negare volo nè peream sed ideo mentiri nolo Hieronym nè peccem Vers 19. For they are livelie By that voice of the Lord which maketh the hindes to calv Psal 29. Ladie Faith was their midwife And shee hath delivered the graves of their dead Heb. 11.35 how much more wombes of their quick Children Vers 20. dealt well with the midwives God is a liberal paiemaster and his retributions are more then bountiful Bee yee therefore stedfast and unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord sith yee know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. vlt. Greg. Moral And the people multiplied Sic divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur humana sapientia dum reluctatur comprehenditur as Gregory hath it Prov. 19.21 There are manie devices in the heart of a man but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Among the Romanes the more children anie man had the more hee was freed from publick burdens And of Adrian the Emperor it is storied that when those that had manie Children were accused of anie crime Dio in Adriano hee mitigated their punishment according to the number of their Children But these poor Israëlites were otherwise used Vers 21. Becaus the midwives feared God There is no necessitie of granting that the midwives told the King a lie see ver 19. But if they did St. Austin saith well Non remunerata fuit ijs fallacia sed benevolentia benignitas mentis non iniquitas mentienâ—is Their lie was not rewarded but their kind-heartedness That hee made them houses i. e. hee gave them posteritie Thus hee builded David an hous 2 Sam. 7. And thus Rachel and Leah are said to have built the hous of Israël Ruth 4.11 The parents are as it were the soundation of the hous the children as so manie livelie stones in the building Hence the Hebrews call a Son Ben of Banah to build quòd sit aedificium struciura parentum quoad generationem educationem Ver. 22. And Pharaoh charged Imperio non tam duro quà m diro This was a most bloodie edict therefore when God came to make inquisition for blood hee gave them blood again to drink for they were worthie Tertullian The like hee did to Nero qui orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit to Julian Valens Valerian Attilas Girzerichus Charls the ninth of France and manie other bloodie Persecutors See the note on Rev. 16.6 CHAP. II. Ver. 1. And took to wife HIs own Aunt Exod. 6.20 Num. 26.59 The Law against Incest Levit. 18.12 was not yet given nor the state of Israël settled But what excuse can there bee for that abominable Incest of the Hous of Austria by Papal dispensation Spec. Europ King Philip of Spain was Uncle to himself Cousin-german to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And what shal wee say of our Modern Sectaries whose practising of Incest is now avowed publickly in Print they shame not to affirm that those marriages are most lawful that are betwixt persons nearest in blood brother and sister father and daughter See Mr Bayly his disswasion part 2. and Mr Edwards Gangr par 3. mother and son uncle and neece The prohibition of degrees in Leviticus is to bee understood say they of Fornication not of Marriage Tamar did not doubt to bee her brother Amnon's wife but detested the act of Fornication c. Lo here Little Nonsuch p. 5.6.7 what noon-day devils do now in this unhappie open-tide walk with open face amongst us Ver. 2. A goodly child Fair to God Act. 7.20 See the note there Art thou fair bee not like an Egyptian temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where som beast is worshipped Art thou foul let thy Soul bee like a rich pearl in a rude shell Ver. 3. And shee laid it in the flags This shee did by the force of her Faith Heb. 11. Casting the childe upon God and under hope believing against hope Ver. 4. And his Sister by a singular instinct of the holy Spirit as appear's by the event The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal 37.23 Hee keepeth the feet of his Saints 1 Sam. 2.9 Ver. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh shee was brought hither at this time by a special providence to do that which shee little dreamt of So when Heidelberg was taken by the Imperialists the copie of Vrsinus's Catechism enlarged by Pareus was among many other papers carried away by a plundering Souldier but happily dropt in the streets and found the next daie by a young Student who knowing his master's hand restored it to his son Philip Pareus Vita David Paâ—eâ— per Philippum filium who afterwards published that golden book to the great Glorie of God who had so graciously preserved it Ver. 6. One of the Hebrews so called of Heber see the Note on Gen. 13.14 Ver. 9. And I will give thee thy wages The nurs expect's not her paie from the childe but from the parents Ministers in case their people prove unkinde or unthankful must look up Ver. 10. Shee called his name Moses Hee was also by the Egyptians
administration of the Lords Supper Doth hee not seal again and again c Was leprous as snow Let us but laie our hand upon our hearts thrust them into our bosoms to rifle there and wee shall bee sure to take them out leprous all of a tetter Vers 7. As his other flesh To shew him that God by small means could bring about great matters and that in a moment See Isai 66.7 8. Which yet was ill applied by Card. Pool to this revolting nation in Q. Maries daies Vers 8. The voice of the first sign God's signes have a voice and words Psal 105.27 They speak not onely to our eies but ears as those manie prodigies did before the last desolation of Jerusalem as that terrible tempest at Rome Anno. 1516. The same year that Luther began to stir that so struck the Church where Pope Leo was creäting his Cardinals Balcus Centur 8. that it removed the Childe Jesus out of the lap of his Mother and the Keies out of St. Peter's hand So the two Suns seen in London at the comming in of King Phillip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feb. 15.1553 The new star in Cassiopeia Anno 1572. The prodigious Comet Anno. 1618 c. Vers 9. Shall becom blood In the year 874 at Brixia in Italie Funce Chronol it rained blood for three daies and three nights Anno. 1505. There appeared in Germanie upon the garments of men and women Act. and Mon. fol. 769. divers prints and tokens of the nails of the spunge of the spear of the Lords coat and of bloodie crosses Maximilian the Emperor had and shewed the same to Francis Mirandula who thereupon wrote his Staurestichon and therein thus Non ignota cano Caesar monstravit ipsi Vidimus innumeros prompsit Germania testes Ibid. 1853. In the third yeer of Q. Marie William Pikes beeing at libertie after imprisonment and going into his garden took with him a Bible where sitting and reading there soddainly fell down upon his Book four drops of fresh blood and hee knew not from whence it came Whereat hee beeing sore astonished and wiping out one of the drops with his finger called his wife and said in the virtue of God wife what meaneth this Will the Lord have four sacrifices I see well enough the Lord will have blood his will bee don and give mee grace to abide the trial c. Vers 10. I am not eloquent Heb. A man of words a master of speech as Paul was Act. 14.12 Hee had not that first second and third of an Orator Elocution or Pronunciation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet God made chois of him rather then of eloquent Aaron to praie Exod. 17. Not gifts but graces prevail in praier Slow of speech Of a letsom deliverie word-bound Vers 11. Who hath made man's mouth There is no mouth into which God cannot put fit words Balaam's Ass was enabled by God to convince his Master Whereas by a man never so full and fluent hee cannot bring forth his conceptions without the obstetrication of God's assistance Prov. 16.1 Vers 12. I will bee with thy mouth See the Note on Matth. 10.19 Vers 13. By the hand of him whom thou wilt Or shouldest send By that excellent Speaker the Messiah cujus dicere est facere Thus when God had answered all Mose's objections hee forwardly denie's to go notwithstanding and bid's him send by his son as one that was better fitted for the service That which made Moses so unwilling was whatever hee pretended the fear of his life which rub when God had once removed hee went on end vers 19 20. Vers 14. And the anger of the Lord And no wonder Patientia laesa fit furor Where God commandeth there to ask a reason is presumption but to oppose reason is a kind of Rebellion I know that hee can speak well The gift of utterance is an high favor a piece of a Christian's riches 1 Cor. 1.5 See the Note there Aaron as Tully saith of Aristotle had aureum flumen orationis a golden gift of speech Ver. 15. Will teach you See the note on ver 11.12 Ver. 16. And hee shal bee thy spokesman God hath made mee ill-favored in this world and without grace in the sight of men said Tindal to Frith speechless and rude Act. and Moâ—um p. 988. dull and slow-witted your part shal be to supplie that which lacketh in mee remembring that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men In stead of God To dictate unto him my minde and counsel Such a God to every Christian is his sanctified Conscience Ver. 17. Wherewith thou shalt do signs God of his free-will joining his operation thereunto as likewise hee doth to the outward signs in the two Sacraments and hence their energie which els would bee none Ver. 18. Whether they bee yet alive which if they bee though in a low condition both they and I shall see caus to bee thankful Lam. 3.39 Eccles 9.4 Ver. 19. For all the men are dead Here the Lord laie's his finger upon the sore This was that pad in the straw the thing that made Moses hang off as hee did however hee pretended the people's incredulitie his own inabilitie and this and that neither did hee altogether dissemble but self-love need 's not bee taught to tell her tale Ver. 20. Vpon an Ass This may argue his povertie as Zach. 9. ver 9. Especially if hee had but one Ass for the whole Familie Ver. 21. But I will harden his heart with a judiciarie penal hardness And thus God is in this book eight times said to have hardned Pharaoh's heart thrice it is said that hee hardened his own heart and five times his heart is said to have been hardned viz. by the devil through the just judgment of God Ver. 22. Even my first-born And so higher then the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 Ver. 23. Let my Songo God commanding Pharaoh to let go his people and yet hardning his heart that hee would not let them go is not contrarie to himself For by so commanding him hee requireth his obedience and by so hardning him hee punisheth his disobedience Ver. 24. And sought to kill him to do justice upon him according to Gen. 17.14 and as upon one that was an unmeet man to take care of the Church having no better ordered his own hous 1 Tim. 3.5 God passeth not by the sins of his best children without a sensible check if scandalous especially and committed against conscience Hee hath much ado to forbear killing us in such cases Hee is even readie to have a blow at us and crie's like a travelling woman who bite's in her pain while shee can to bee delivered of his judgments Isa 42.14 Ver. 25. Surely a bloodie husband A peevish wife whose frowardness is either tollenda or toleranda cured or carried patiently nè conjugium fiat
Hos 6.4 and reject mee as thou hast don heretofore but when thou hast so don thou must bee beholden to mee for my praiers or thou art like to lie under the plague for ought that thy wisards can do to reliev and releas thee In the river onely For a Memento Horat. that thou flinch not nor forget thy promise Quo teneam vultus c. Ver. 10. To morrow Cras vox corvina To daie if yee will hear his voice Now is the daie of grace c. procrastination is perilous Annibal when hee could have taken Rome would not when hee would could not Plutarch So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said that fool Let serious matters alone till to morrow but hee was slain that night Nemo tam divos habuit faventes Crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri Ver. 12. And Moses cried unto the Lord Not for Pharaoh's conversion for hee knew hee was past cure but for his dâ—liverance from the present plague that the power of God might bee the more manifested and the tyrants conscience the more convinced Ver. 13. According to the word Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit Moses might do what hee would with God as One said of Luther Ver. 14. And the land stank As once this land also did by those unclean frogs that came out of the Pope's mouth Revel 16.13 But England is now no more a babe said K. Henrie 8th Act and Mon. fol. 990. in his protestation against the Pope there is no man here but now hee know's that they do foolishly that give gold for lead c. Surely except God take awaie our right wits not onely the Pope's autoritie shall bee driven out for ever but his name also shall shortly bee forgotten in England c. Thus hee and much more to like purpose God hath promised to take awaie the unclean spirit out of the land Zach. 13.2 Fiat Fiat Surely the societie of ungodly men whether Papists or Atheists is unsavourie and tedious like the slime and filth that is congealed when frogs and toads and other vermine join together Ver. 15. But when Pharaoh saw c. Heb A breathing or respiration so fulfilling that of the Prophet Esai 26 10. In like sort William Rufus beeing dangerously sick at Glocester in the 6th year of his raign vowed upon his recoverie to see all vacancies in the Church furnished which hee did Daniel's hist fol. 58. Sciaputo il Morbo fâ—audato 〈◊〉 Saâ—o but with so great a do as shewed that having escaped the danger hâ—e would gladly have deceived the Saint like the man in Erasmus his Naufragium who in a storm promised the Virgin a picture of wax as big as S â— Christopher but when hee came to shore would not give a tallow candle Thus in the sweating-sickness ministers were sent for and large promises made of amendment but no sooner were they recovered but they returned to their old courses as Mr. Bradford complaineth Whence Plinie in one of his Epistles to one who desired rules from him how to order his life aright I will saith hee give you one rule that shall bee in stead of a thousand ut tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi That wee go on to bee such when well as wee promised to bee when sick Men roar when upon the rack but once got off they think they may do as they list Vers 16. Stretch out thy rod Here 's no warning given which shew's great wrath Impenitencie make's God wearie of repenting Jer. 15.6 Absolute in his threatnings if anie resolute in his executions as Deut. 29 19.20 Vers 17. All the dust of the land became lice Or gnats Quid ciniphe vilius saith Philo what so base and vile a creature as a lows a gnat and yet by this poor vermin God so plagued all Egypt that fainting under it they were forced to crie out This is the verie finger of God Vers 18. But they could not Though they endevourd it as did the Juggler of Antwerp who beeing required by the English Merchants there to plaie his feats and shew his cunning after much sweating and toil Acts Mon. fol. 985. when hee saw that nothing could go forward but that all his inchantments were void hee was compelled openly to confess that there was som man there at supper which disturbed and letted all his doings This was Mr. Tindal the Martyr who hearing of this juggler had desired certain of the Merchants that hee might bee present to see him plaie c. Vers 19. This is the finger of God An act of Omnipotencie as Luke 11.20 Psal 8.3 The heavens are the work of God's fingers Deus disponit membra pulicis culicis saith Augustin And hee hearkened not to them Neither to Moses nor to his own Magicians beeing a kin to the Catadupes that dwell at the fall of his river Nilus and are deaf Ver. 20. Rise up early in the morning Sanctificat sanat ditat quoque surgere mané Early rising is good for health wealth and Godliness David prevented the dawning of the morning c. Psal 119.147 Christ rose up a great while before daie Mark 1.35 See the note there Vers 21. Shall bee full of swarms of flies Of all the ten plagues this was the most troublesom for that they never suffered men to rest so worldly cares nocâ—e ac die non dabunt requiem as those Tyrants Jer. 16. Vers 22. And I will sever Heb Marvelously separate by setting upon them my signum salutare Ezek. 9. so that the worst that are shall return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked Mal. 3.18 See Exod. 33.16 Docuit Aristoteles Providentiam Dei ad coeâ—um Lunae usque protendi non ultra In the midst of the earth Not in heaven onely whereunto Aristotle and other Atheists would confine his Providence Lysippus made Alexander's picture with this posie Iuppiter asserui terram mihi tu assere coelum Vers 23. And I will put a division Heb. a redemption so Luke 1.68 Aristotle reporteth that when from the hill Aetna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts in the midst of those fearful flames 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist de Mundo cap. 6. the river of fire parted it self and made a kinde of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents This extorted from him an acknowledgment of God's good providence for the godlie here on earth Vers 24. A grievous swarm of flies i.e. Numerous and pernicious yet not so bad as those manie noisom thoughts that swarm daily in men's hearts There is that Leviathan there are also creeping things innumerable And these manie times marr and flie-blow our praiers so as that they stink in the nostrils of God Vers 25. Sacrifice to your God in the land Persecutors when they cannot conquer would compound Vers 26. Will they not stone us Superstition is
heaven Thus the Rabbines moralize it Ver. 27. And it came to pass See the Note on ver 20. Som unrulie beasts masterless monsters will bee breaking over the hedg but the Law will hamper them Ver. 28. How long refuse yee The rulers are shent for the peoples unruliness To keep my commandments For in breaking that one of the Sabbath they had broken all the whole Law is but one copulative See Jam. 2.10 Ver. 29. Hath given you the Sabbath And a great gift it was Nehe. 9.14 Were it not for the weekly sabbath wee should all run wilde Abide yee everie man in his place Sabbath coming from Shabath to ceas or rest hath som affinitie with Jashabh to sit still and with Shabath to worship and give prais to shew that this rest must be sanctified for els it is but Asinorum sabbatum as One saith the Sabbath of the Ox and Ass for these also must rest Ver. 30. So the people rested According to their custom though probably intermitted for a season in Egypt dureing their hard servitude D. prideaux Sed rationem reddat qui potest saith a learned Doctor quare ante legem promulgatam in die septimo cessavit Manna nisi quia ad exemplum Domini ab ipsius mundi primordio invaluisset sabbati observatio This ceasing of Manna on the seventh day shew's that the Sabbath was kept from the begining Ver. 31. And the taste of it It had not all manner of good tastes according to everie man's appetite as Wisd 16.20 21. It is said but as Num. 11.8 Els why should the people lust and murmur as there they did ver 4 5. Ver. 32. Fill an omer Monuments and memorials of God's great mercies are to bee set up lest as it fare's with children Eaten bread bee soon forgotten Strabo Geog. Ver. 33. Take a pot A golden pot Heb. 9.4 Strabo writeth that the Metapontini after a plentiful harvest which had much enriched them dedicated to Apollo at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an harvest of gold Ver. 34. To bee kept For the use of succeeding ages in the most holie places so Christ glorified in his humanitie abide's for ever Heb 7. Ver. 35. Vntill they came So till wee com to heaven shall wee have need of Ordinances Ver. 36. Of an Ephah Or of a bushel a plentiful allowance see the Note on Ioh. 2.7 CHAP. XVII Ver. 1. After their journies i. e. AFter they had firs t been at Dophcah and at Alush Num. 33.12 13 14. There was no water Bread they had from heaven but wanted water Our condition here is a condition of singular indigencie wee are ever wanting somwhat or other Ver. 2. The people did chide with Moses As they did before for bread And as thirst is the more eager appetite so they are more eager and earnest for water then they were for bread Wherefore do yee tempt the Lord viz Whether hee bee amongst you and bee able by miracle to reliev you Ver. 3. Murmured against Moses Magistrates have manie times a wearie life with the mutinous multitude Seneca observeth of Egypt it proved true of this people newly com out of Egypt that it was loquax ingeniosa in contumeliam proefectorum provincia in qua qui vitaverit culpam non effugit infamiam That it was 〈◊〉 province apt to prate against their Governors and to cast a slur upon them though never so well deserving Ver. 4. Readie to stone mee Well might hee ask with our Saviour For which of my good works do yee stone mee John 10.32 But the bellie hath no cars Ver. 5. Take with thee of the Elders As witnesses of this great work of God which the people for their unbelief might not behold God put 's up their rebellion and sat isâ—â—e's their thirst but yet intimates his just displeasure by denying them this privilege of seeing the rock smitten Ver. 6. Vpon the rock If God had not stood upon the rock in vain had Moses struck it Means must bee used but God onely depended upon for success It is hee alone that set's the rock abroach Thou shalt smite the rock Here in a type of Christ stricken smitten of God and afflicted Isa 53.4 1 Cor. 10.4 And there shall com water out of it Not sire that had not been so miraculous but water This cleaving the hard rock Psalm 78.15 This turning of the slint into a fountain Psalm 114.8 was a work of Omnipotencie and is therefore much celebrated Deut. 8.15 Psalm 105.41 Nehem. 9 15. Dioscorides tell 's us of the stone Galactites quèd suceum emittat lacieum that it yield's a kinde of moisture like milk which if it bee true is verie strange That the peoâ—le may dâ—ink And so bee cooled and comforted in their weariness and wandrings Ho everie one that thirsteth c. Isa 55.1 Ver. 7. Is the Lord amongst us As if that could not bee and they athirst But hee is most present when hee afflict's Hee know's our souls in adversitie Ver. 8. Then came Amalek Not having the fear of God before his eles Deut. 25.18 but carried on by the antient enmitie for Amalek was Esau's grandchilde Ver. 9. I will stand on the top Where the people might see him with that Ensign in his hand and bee incouraged Xerxes used to pitch his tent on high and stand looking on his armie when in fight for their incouragement Ver. 10. Aaron and Hur This Hur saith Josephus was husband to Miriäm and Moses his Deputie Exod. 24.14 Went up to the top of a hill To praie together Psalm 76.2.3 In the Congregation where the Saints are praying there the arrow shield and spear are broken 2 Sam. 18.3 From thence shalt thou help us said the people to David that is thy praiers shall prevail with God for our assistance Non tam praeliando quà m precando The King of Sweden assoon as hee set foot in Germanie fell down to praier and hee proved verie victorious Ver. 11. When Moses held up his hands The push of Moses's praiers did more then the pikes of all Israël besides Moses orat vincit Bucholcer Chronol cessat vincitur saith one Great is the power of praiers Henricus Anceps the Emperor of Germanie slew and put to flight a huge armie of the Hungarians his souldiers all crying out with a loud voice Idem ibid. Kyrie eleison Kyrie eleison i e. Lord have mercie upon us Lord have mercie upon us This was don before the citie of Mersburg Ver. 12. But Moses's hands were heavie It is a prais proper to God that his hand is stretched out still As for men even the best though the spirit in them bee willing yet the flesh is weak and will not suffer anie long intention And Aaron and Hur staid up his hands Neither did they onely rais up their hands but their mindes with his There are that here observ that upon the fourtieth daie after their coming out of Egypt
over-joyed with the plain dealings of his friends and counsellors as of Mecoenas Ver. 25. And Moses chose Not without the peoples consent Deut. 1.13 14. Ver. 27. Into his own land An honest man's heart is where his calling is such a one when hee is abroad is like a fish in the air whereinto if it leap for recreation or necessitie yet it soon return's to his own element CHAP. XIX Ver. 1. Into the wilderness of Sinai A Place where were manie bushes and briars Here they received â—he Law which like briars and brambles pricketh and pierceth the consciences of evil livers And this sell out 430. years after the Promise made to Abraham not to disanul the Promise Gal. 3.17 but to advance it and that guilt beeing discovered and everie mouth stopped Rom. 3.19 wee might acknowledg the riches of free Grace and Mercie Ver. 2. For they were departed See the Note on Chap. 18.5 Ver. 3. And Moses went up See the note on Chap. 3.6 Ver. 4. On Eagles wings The Eagle beat 's her young ones out of their sluggish nest that they may learn to flie there was somwhat to do to bring Israël out of Egypt Munster in Schol. in Deut. 32.11 ex R. Solomon The Eagle carrie's her young upon her wings and not between her talons as other birds do openly safely speedily So did God his Israël beeing choice and charie of them all the waie securing them also from their enemies who could do them as little hurt as anie can do the Eagle's young which cannot bee shot but through the bodie of the old one Som by Eagles here understand Moses and Aaron who are so called saie they propter acumen intelligentiae altitudinem vitae for the sharpness of their understanding and the loftiness of their lives See the Note on Deut. 32.11 Ver. 5. If yee will obeie my voice indeed As I am good to you indeed and not in pretens or profession onely Nathanaël was an Israëlite indeed John 1.47 And Caleb fulfilled after God or fully followed him so did not Solomon 1 King 11.6 Ver. 6. A kingdom of Priests A holie state such as shall bee all satiated with fatness Jer 31.14 See the Notes on 1 Pet. 2.9 Rev. 1.6 Ver. 7. Laid before their faces Or plainly proposed the minde of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so did Paul Acts 17.3 So must Ministers Ver. 8. All that the Lord hath spoken Sed quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor biaâ—u How easily over-ween wee our own abilities Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest Words are good cheap Ver. 9. And believ thee Without suspicion of an imposture such as was that of Mahomet Ver. 10. Sanctifie them to daie and to morrow Men must com before God with the best preparation they can get Hee will bee sanctified in all them that draw nigh unto him This the blinde Heathens saw and therefore said Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship not God by the by but with all possible preparation Hence they had their coena pura before their solemn sacrifices Bucholcer Numa nihil rerum sacrarum cives voluit neglectim agere Hinc solenne illud Hoc agite The Ministers likewise in the Primitive Church prepared the people's mindes by saying Sursum corda Lift up your hearts Cyprian de Oratione Chrysost Basil and the Deacons used to call upon the people in these words Oremus attendamus Let us praie let us attend Ver. 11. Against the third daie That is three daies hence on the daie of Pentecost Ver. 12. That yee go not up into the Mount God love's at once familiaritie and fear saith a learned Divine familiaritie with him in our conversation D. Hall and fear of him in his commands Hee love's to bee acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience yet hee take 's state upon him in his ordinances and will bee trembled at in his Word and Judgments Ver. 13. They shall com up to the Mount i. e. To the bottom of the Mount to the foot thereof Vers 17. See the Note on Heb. 12.20 Ver. 14. And washed their clothes In token of washing their hearts and cleansing themselvs from all filthiness of flesh and spirit The Gentiles also washed Plaut in Alul. Act. 3. scen 6. Tertul. cap. 11. de Orat. that they might go to sacrifice and the Primitive Christians before Praier Ver. 15. Bee readie against the third daie If the word of a Command exspected such readiness what shall the word of Promiss c. Com not at your wives For the Legal uncleanness that was in it Lev. 15.18 1 Sam. 21.4 figuring the filth of original sin Ver. 16. There were thunders and lightnings The Law was delivered in this terrible manner partly to procure reverence to the Doctrine of it and partly to set forth the Nature and Office of it which is to terrifie and thunder-strike offenders Ver. 17. To meet with God Who came with ten thousands of his Saints as Moses that climbed up that hill Deut. 33.2 and alone saw it saie's And if hee thus gave the Law how shall hee require it at the last daie Ver. 18. The Lord descended upon it in fire This fire wherein the Law was given is still in it and will never out Deut. 33.2 Ver. 19. Moses spake Yet not without horror Heb. 12.21 Ver. 20. And Moses went up As a Mediator between God and his people Gal. 3.19 with Acts 7.38 A Mediator Moses was not of Redemption as Christ that Mediator of the new Covenant and suretie of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 and 9.15 but of receiving the Law and delivering it to the people for which end here hee went up Ver. 21. And manie of them perish As the men of Bethshemesh did for prying into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6.19 Arcana Dei sunt Arca Dei Calvin God's secrets are his Ark. Eorum quae scire nec datur nec fas est docta est ignorantia scientiae appetentia insaniae species Not to know what is not fit to know is a learned ignorance to desire to know in that case is a kinde of madness Hee that curiously searcheth into God's Majestie shall bee oppressed of his glorie Ver. 22. And let the Priests The first-born of the familie which before the Levitical Law had the Priest-hood Sanctifie themselvs With a singular care above that of the rest of the people Much is required of Ministers Ver. 23. The people cannot com up i. e. Siquid ego aut capio aut sapio they cannot that which I know not teach thou mee Ver. 24. Away get thee down Abundans cautela non nocet It is fit that men should know and keep their distance Thou and Aaron with thee These onely who were types of Christ's Princely and Priestly office might com up unto the Lord. CHAP. XX. Ver. 1. God spake all c. ALL the Ten are of divine autoritie Papists disanulling the second that yet they may
is a rich roial virtue best beseeming the best Princes Ver. 6. Where I will meet with thee To give oracles and answers of Mercie God still meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness Isa 64.5 Ver. 7. Shall burn thereon sweet incens Facium vespae favos The Heathens had the like custom Verbenásque adole pingues Virgil. mascula thura Ver. 8. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps To shew that our praiers must bee made according to the light and direction of God's Word lest wee ask wee know not what and worship wee know not how Ver. 10. An attonement upon the horns of it Pardon must bee sought for the defects found in praiers as Nehemiah craved mercie for his Reformations Ver. 12. That there bee no plague David in numbering the people neglected this dutie thence the plague Ver. 13. half a shekel Towards the making of the Tabernacle and as an amercing himself for his sin that subjected him to utter destruction Vers 15. Ver. 15. The rich shall not give more They are both of a price becaus in spirituals they are equal 2 Pet. 1.1 Ver. 16. That it may bee a memorial A perpetual poll-monie in token of homage and subjection to the Almightie Ver. 18. Between the Tabernacle and the Altar The laver and Altar situated in the same court signified the same as the water and blood issuing out of Christ's side viz. the necessarie concurrence of Justification and Sanctification in all that shall bee saved Ver. 19. For Aaron and his sons Here they were to wash before they praied for the people Heb. 10.22 Wee must first make our own peace with God before wee take upon us to intercede for others So did David Psalm 25.22 and Psalm 51.18 19. So wee are advised to do Lam. 3.39 40. Ver. 21. That they die not Com not to an untimelie end as they did Lev. 10.1 2. Ver. 26. And thou shalt annoïnt the Tabernacle So to consecrate the same to God's service and to set forth how joifully and gladly men should serv the Lord. Ver. 29. Whatsoever toucheth them So are all those annointed holie that by a lively faith touch the Lord Christ Ver. 30. Aaron and his sons Those onely that succeeded him in the office of High-priest Lev. 4.3 5 16. and 16.32 Ver. 32. Vpon man's flesh A Latine Postiller hence infer's in an hyperbolical sens that Priests are Angels not having humane flesh Ver. 33. Whosoever compoundeth anie thing like it Holie things must not bee profaned on pain of death No people so abuse Scripture to common and ordinarie use as the Jews do CHAP. XXXI Ver. 3. And I have filled him GOd gift's whomsoever hee call's to anie emploiment Ver. 4. To devise cunning works All skill in lawful callings whether manual or mental is of God Isa 28.26 Ver. 5. And in cutting of stones Moses might well doubt where hee should finde fit work-men among those brick-makers for Egypt Ver. 6. I have given with him Two is better then one four eies see more then two God usually therefore coupleth his agents See the Note on Mat. 10.2 3. Luke 10.1 Ver. 13. Verily my sabbaths yee shall keep q. d. Though this Sanctuarie-work is to bee don yet it shall bee no Sabbath's-daies work The good women in the Gospel forbare on the Sabbath to annoint the dead bodie of our Saviour resting according to the Commandement For it is a sign And withal an effectual means to conveigh holiness into the heart Ver. 14. For it is holie unto you Hence the Hebrews gather but falsly that onely Israël was charged with the Sabbath-daie and not the nations of the world But the Sabbath was kept before Israël was born Ver. 15. Whosoever doth anie work A certain Indian that had been taught by the English coming by and seeing one of the English profaning the Lord's daie by felling of a tree said to him New-England's first-fruits Do ye not know that this is the Lord's daie in Massaqusets one of the English Plantations much machet man that is verie wicked man why break you God's daie Ver. 18. Written with the finger of God Of the Decalogue above all other holie Writ God seem's to saie as Paul Philem. 19. Behold I have written it with mine own hand i. e. by mine own power and operation CHAP. XXXII Ver. 1. Vp Make us Gods A Aron might make a Calf but the people made it a God by adoring it Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus Martial Non facit ille Deos qui rogat iste facit Ver. 2. Break off your golden ear-rings Hereby hee hoped to break their design but all in vain for they were mad upon their Idols Jer. 59.38 Ver. 3. Brake off the golden ear-rings which they had got of the Egyptians Exod. 12.35 To make use of Heathen Autors for ostentation is to make a Calf of the treasure gotten out of Egypt Ver. 4. A molten Calf In imitation of the Egyptian Idol Apis a Pied-bullock A man may pass through Ethiopia unchanged but hee cannot dwel there and not bee discolored Ver. 5. A feast to Jehovah Whom these Idolaters pretended to worship in the golden Calf as did also Jehu 2 King 10.16 29. 2 Chron. 11.15 and as the Papists at this daie but with what face can som of their Rabbins excuse this people from Idolatrie Ver. 6. Rose up to plaie To dance about the Calf Now if they were so cheared and strengthned by those baneful bits those murthering morsels should not wee much more by God's spiritual provisions to dance as David did to do his work with all our might Ver. 7. For thy people which thou broughtest God will own them no longer they are now dis-covenanted The Saints by gross sins may lose their jus aptitudinale non jus haereditarium their fitness for God's Kingdom they may sin away all their comfortables Ver. 8. They have turned aside quickly Moses's back was but newly turned as it were I marvel that you are so soon removed c. Gal. 1.6 See the Note there When wee have spent all our winde on our people their hearts will bee still apt to bee carried away with every winde of doctrine Ver. 9. A stiff-necked people And so they are still to this verie daie Hierom complain's that in his time they thrice a daie cursed Christ in their Synagogue Hieron in Isa lib. 12. cap 49. tom 5. lib. 14 cap. 42. and closed up their praiers with Maledic Domine Nazaraeis They are thought to advise most of that mischief which the Turk put 's in execution against Christians They counterfeit Christianitie in Portugal even to the degree of Priesthood and think they may do it either for the avoiding of danger or increasing their substance There are verie few of them that turn Christians in good earnest Adeò in cordibus eorum radices fixit pertinacitas River Jesuita Vapul 322. So stubborn they are to this daie and stiff-necked their
necks are wholly possest with an iron sinew Ver. 10 Let mee alone God is fain to bespeak his own freedom As if Moses his devotion were stronger then God's indignation Great is the power of Praier able after a sort to transfuse a dead Palsie into the hand of Omnipotencie Ver. 11. Lord why doth thy wrath God offered Moses a great fortune Ver. 10. Hee tendering God's glorie refused and make 's request for the people It is the ingenuitie of Saints to studie God's ends more then their own and drown all self-respects in his glorie Ver. 12. Repent of this evil God 's repenting is mutatio rei non Dei effectâ—s non affectùs facti non consilii not a charge of his will but of his work Ver. 13. Remember Abraham Here Moses neither invocateth the Patriarchs nor allegeth their merits but mind's God of his promise to them and presseth the performance In the want of other Rhethorick let Christians in their praiers urge this with repetition Lord thou hast promised thou hast promised Put the promises into suit and you may have any thing God cannot denie himself Ver. 14. And the Lord repented See ver 12. Moses here had a hard pull but hee carried it Ver. 15. Written on both their sides See the like in other mystical books Ezek. 2.10 Rev. 5.1 Ver. 16. The work of God The greater was the peoples loss brought upon them by their sin Ver. 17. And when Ioshua who had waited in som part of the Mount the return of his Master Ver. 19. And Moses's anger waxed hot Meekness in this case had been no better then mopishness How blessedly blown up was Moses here Hee saw the Calf and the dancing One Calf about another It was a custom among Papists that men should run to the Image of St Vitus Joh. Manli loc com 187. and there they should dance all daie usque ad animae deliquium till they fainted and fell into a swoun Ver. 20. And hee took the Calf Wee may all wish still as Ferus did that wee had som Moses to take away the evils of our times Nam non unum tantùm vitulum sed multoshabemus Wee have not one but many such Calvs Ver. 21. What did this people unto thee The people sinned by precipitancie Aaron by popularitie Ver. 22. That they are set on mischief The whole world is so 1 Ioh. 2.16 and 5.19 Quomodo Plautus In fermento tota jacet uxor Ver. 23. Wee wot not what c. See the danger of non-residencie Ver. 24. There came out this Calf A verie poor excuse Somthing hee would have said if hee had known what Here hee hid his sin as Adam Iob 31.33 beeing too much his childe Ver. 25. Aaron bad made them naked As Aaron's ingraving instrument write's down his sin so the Confession of other more ingenious Jews proclaim 's the Israëlites saying that No punishment befalleth thee O Israël Mos Gerund in which there is not an ounce of this Calf Ver. 26. Let him com This word through haste and earnestness Moses omitteth The Chaldee and Greek versions supplie it Ver. 27. Slaie everâ—e man his brother Not all that they met with for so they might have slain the innocent but all that were chief in the transgression In the war against the Waldenses in France the Pope's great Armie took one populous Citie and put to the sword sixtie thousand among whom were manie of their own Catholicks For Arnoldus the Cistercian Abbat beeing the Pope's Legat in this great war commanded the souldiers saying Caedite eos novit enim Dominus qui sunt ejus Caesar Heisterbuchensis hist lib. 5. cap. 2â— Kill them one with another for the Lord knoweth who are his This was fine Popish Justice Ner. 28. About three thousand Chieftains and ring-leaders Ver. 29. Consecrate your selvs Regain that blessing which your father Levi lost Gen. 49.5 7. Ver. 30. And now I will go up unto the Lord As angrie as hee was hee could praie for them As when our children through their own fault have got som sickness for all our angrie speeches wee go to the Physician for them Ver. 31. Made them gods of gold Sin must not bee confessed in the lump onely and by whole sale but wee must instance the particulars Ver. 32. Blot mee I praie thee God never revealed his love to Moses more then when hee thus earnestly praied for God's people Joab never pleased David better then when hee made intercession for Absolom Ver. 33. Blot out Cut him out of the roll of the living Ver. 34. I will visit I will paie them home for the new and the old Ver. 35. They made See the Note on Vers 1. CHAP. XXXIII Ver. 1. Which thou hast brought SEE the Note on Chap. 32.7 Ver. 3. I will not go up sc By those visible signs of my gratious presence Hos 9.11 as heretofore Ver. 4. They mourned As good caus they had for wo bee unto thee when I depart from thee Ver. 5. And consume thee God 's threatnings are cordial but conditional Minatur Deus ut non puniat Furie is not in mee Isa 27.4 Hee punisheth not till there bee no other remedie 2 Chron. 36.16 as the bee stin'gs not till provoked Ver. 6. Stript themselvs As in a daie of restraint Ver. 7. Afar off from the camp In token of God's deep displeasure and departure from them Ver. 8. And looked after Moses To see what success what acceptaâ—â—â— as David looked up after his praier to see how it sped Psalm 5.3 Ver. 10. Rose up and worshipped Though obnoxious they would not despair of mercie See 1 Sam. 12.20 21 22. Ver. 12. See thou saiest unto mee See saith one how Moses here encroacheth upon God Mr. Buâ—r God had don much for him hee must have more Vers 13. Shew mee now thy waie c. This God grant's him Vers 14. This serv's not the turn hee must have more yet Vers 16. Well hee hath it Vers 17. Is hee said No hee must yet have more Vers 18. I beseech thee shew mee thy glorie It 's don Vers 19. Is hee satisfied yet No. Chap. 34.9 God must pardon the sin of his people too and take them and him for his inheritance This fruit of his favor hee must needs bee intreated to add to the rest c. Ver. 13. That I may know thee Moses knew more of God then anie man hee was but newly com down from the Mount and at the Tabernacle door God spake with Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend Vers 11. The more a man know's of God the more desirous hee is to know him Ver. 14. I will give thee rest Full content of minde in the sens of my presence and light of my countenance Ver. 15. If thy presence go not with mee What is it to have the air without light What was all Mordecai's honor to him when the King frowned upon him Ver. 16. So shall
man troubled in minde told him that their religion afforded more comfort to the conscience then ours and that becaus it had and exercised a power to pardon sin M. Ley his patteâ—n of pietie p. 145. which our Ministers neither did nor durst assume to themselvs CHAP. VII Ver. 1. Of the trespass-offering Heb. A Sham Piaculum quo peccatum expiabatur How it differed from the sin-offering is hard to determine Ver. 2. In the place See the Note on Chap. 1.11 Ver. 3. That covereth the inwards My son give mee thy heart See Psal 51.6 Jer. 4 14. Ver. 4. And the two kidneys See the Note on Lev. 3.4 Ver. 7. As the sin-offering is They were distinct then See vers 1. Ver. 8. The Priest shall have to himself It is a sign of gasping devotion when men are so streight-handed to their Ministers who should have part of all Gal. 6.6 Ver 9. And all the meat-offering Which seem's to bee so called partly becaus it went as meat unto the Priest the laborer is surely worthie of his meat Mat. 10.10 but principally as leading to Christ whose flesh is meat indeed John 6. Ver. 10. Have one as much as another In their father's hous was bread enough Put mee I praie thee into one of the Priests offices that I may cat a piece of bread 1 Sam. 2.36 This the Tirshata would not suffer those turn-coats to do Ezra 2.63 But how hard put tooâ—t was that poor Priest that answer'd young Pareüs Vita Parei per Philipp filtum primo oper tomâ— praefixa asking him an alms according to the custom of those times Nos pauperi fratres nos nihil habemus an piscimus an caro an panis an misericordia babemus Ver. 11. Sacrifice of peace-offering Or Paie-offering See Psal 116.14 I will paie or I will perfect Fitly for a vow till paid is an imperfect thing Ver. 12. Vnlevened cakes There must bee sinceritie in all our services for els God will not once look at them Ver. 13. Levened bread Lo levened bread will pass in a peace-offering God for Christs sake reject's not the services of his Saints though tainted with corruption August Peccata nobis non nocent si non placent Wine is not thrown awaie for the dregs nor gold for the dirt that cleav's unto it Ver. 14. For an heav-offering So called becaus it was heaved and lifted up before the Lord in token that they received all from him and did acknowledg all to be due to him Ver. 15. Eaten the same daie Thanks must bee returned whiles mercies are fresh lest as fish they putrefie with keeping Eaten bread is soon forgotten Hezekiah wrote his song the third daie after his recoverie Jehosuphat gave thanks first upon the ground where hee had the victorie calling it Berachah and three daies after again at Jerusalem 2 Chron. 20. See David's Now Now Now I will paie my vows Psalm 116.14 15. Ver. 17. On the third daie Foreshadowing the resurrection of Christ on the third daie whereby all legal Cerimonies were abolishâ—d and had no use in the Church but by accident as hee who buildeth a vault letteth the centrels stand till hee put in the keiâ—-stone and then pulleth them awaie Ver. 18. It shall bee an abomination Kept beyond the time and so uneatable unsacrificeable prophane stinking Ver. 19. Shall not bee eaten Becaus not fit to represent Christ Ver. 20. Having his uncleanness upon him To the unclean all things are unclean c. Tit. 1.15 See the Note Ver. 21. Cut off from his people Confer 1 Cor. 11.27 28 29. Ver. 22. And the Lord spaâ—e unto Moses This is ost repeted to draw attention and get autoritie See 1 Thes 2.13 Ver. 23. No manner fat See the Note on Levit 3.12 Ver. 24. Vsed in anie other use Though not in Sacrifice Mudwals may bee made up of any refuse matter not so the wals of a Church or Palace Ver. 25. Shall bee cut off i. e. Shall bee liable to God's judgments Ver. 26. Yee shall eat no manner of blood This signified 1. That wee should learn to honor holie things and not to make a mock of them by employing them to common use 2. That wee should bee most careful not to shed man's blood for the satisfying of our lust See Levit. 17.11 12. with Gen. 9.4 5. and Deut. 12.13 Ver. 29. Vnto the Lord Not kill it in the Camp though there they might eat it Ver. 30. His own hands Teaching them that they must live by their own faith Hab. 2.5 May bee waved Or Shaken to and fro which signified the shaking of our lips in giving thanks to God Hos 14.2 Heb. 13.15 16. which yet must bee fetcht lower then the lips even from the bottom of the heart the deeper the sweeter The voice that is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet as that which com's from the depth of the brest Ver. 31 32. The brest shall bee Aarons and the right shoulder To note that men must give their brests and shoulders affections and actions even their whole selvs first to the Lord and then to us Ministers by the will of God as those famous Macedonians did 2 Cor. 8.5 that so they may bee sani in doctrina sancti in vita sound in doctrine and holie in life Ver. 34. For the wave brest and the right shoulder This might further signifie saith one that Christ Jesus heaved up for us both brest and shoulder that is wisdom and strength to all his elect Priesthood whose portion hee is 1 Cor. 1 30. Or it might note saith another that Ministers should both take care figured by the brest and pains signified by the shoulder And therefore the high-priest did to that end wear the names of the Tribes upon his shoulders and upon his brest Ver. 35. This is the portion of the anointing That is of the anointed Priests and that becaus they were anointed to the office Here Origen according to his manner turn's all into allegories and mysteries and tel's us of a three-fold sens of Scripture 1. Literal 2. Moral 3. Mystical comparing them to the gridiron frying-pan and oven used in dressing the meat-offering Allegorias spumam scriprurae vocat Luth. in Gen. 3. p. 67. vers 9. of this Chapter But this itch of all allegorizing dark and difficult texts hath no small danger in it And I may doubt of Origen as one doth of Hierom Vtrùm plus boni peritiâ lingâ—arum quâ excelluit an mali suis allegoriis in quibus dominatus fuit Ecclesiae Dei attulerit Amama Antâ—batb whether hee did more hurt or good to the Church CHAP. VIII Ver. 1. And the Lord spake SEE the Note on Lev. 7.22 And for the rest of the Chapter read the Notes on Exod. 28. 29. 30. Ver. 3. And gather thou all the congregation Ministers are to bee ordeined in the publick Assemblie Acts 14.22 that the people may shew their approbation profess their purpose of
enemy Vers 4. A man of every tribe These were men of renowne Vers 16. To do worthily in Ephrata is the way to be famous in Bethlebem Ruth 4.11 It is said of a great States-man in Queen Elizabeths dayes Camdens Elisab that he was in the number of those few that both lived and dyed with glory Vers 16. Princes of the tribes Thesâ— were those officers over them in Egypt saith an Hebrew Dectour that had been beaten for them Exad 5.14 Now they are raised to great preferment Sic per augusta ad angustum per spinas ad rosas per motum ad quietem per crucemâ—ad caelum contendimus Vers 17. Which are expressed by their names And they are all excellent good names and very significant hereby is testified to posterity that they forgat not the Name of their God when they were in the iron furnace but could say as Psal 44.17 All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons c. Vers 19. So he numbred them See the note on Exod. 30.12 At every generall muster they paid poll-money See ib. vers 16. Such a taxation was first granted in this kingdome to Edward the third Danicls hist but in the next raign proved of ill consequence the exactours receiving from the people no less summes of curses then of coyn whereupon also followed the first and greatest popular insurrection that ever was seen in this kingdome Vers 47. Were not numbred Because by speciall priviledg enempted from secular and military employments that they may wholly devote themselves to the service of the Sanctuary Peter in like sort must put up his sword and Timothy not intangle himself with the affaires of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a souldier of another nature 2 Tim. 2.4 But Timotheâ—s Herulus that warlike Bishop of Alexandria Theophilus Alexandriae Episcopus primus inter Christiani nominis episcopos arma tractavit Socrat. Anno Dom. 467 was a gallant fellow in his generation And some of Peters pretended successours were viri biliosi et bellicosi cast the keyes into Tiber and took up Saints Pauls sword and the Imperiall habit So have divers of their dear sons done as Philip Bishop of Beau-viâ—â— in France who being taken in battell by Richard the first in a skirmish had his armour he was taken in sent to the Pope with these words engraven thereon Vide utruâ— filii tui tunica sit vel non See whether this be thy sons coat or not Vers 53. Shall pitch round about As the living creatures the Ministers are between the 24 elders the congregation of the faithfull and the throne Rev. 4. CHAP. II. Vers 1. ANd the Lord spake He being the Lord of these Hoasts of Israel Exod. 12.41 gives order for the marshalling of them in such good array and allcomely equipage as made them as a city that is compact together both beautifull as the Moon and terrible as an army with banners Psal 122.3 Cant. 6.10 This Balaam beheld with admiration Num. 24.5 6. Vers 2. Far off about the Tabernacle About it The Emperours tent is among his Souldiers Xerxes pitched his tent not only among but above his souldiers that he might look on them when in fight for their encouragement So the Lord who as he is round about his people Psal 125.2 so they are round about the Lord Psal 76.12 A people neer unto him Psal 148.14 Yet not so neer but they must know and keep their just distance as here they pitched far off about the Tabernacle a mile off as is gathered from Iosh 3.4 God though he loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience yet he takes State upon him in his ordinances and will be trembled at in our addresses to his Majesty Vers 3. And on the East-side Judah encamped foremost It was fit the Lion should leade the way Better an army of Harts with a Lion to lead them on c. This order in their march shewed the principality that should continue in this tribe till Shiloh came Judah herein also was a type of Christ who is the Captain of the Lords Hoasts Iosh 5.14 and of our salvation Heb. 2.10 and goeth before his heavenly armies Rev. 12.7 Vers 10. And on the South-side The order proceedâ—th from East to South and so to the West and North according to the course of the Sun and climates of the world saith one I may add according to the course and progress of the Gospell which went out of Iudea lying East into Greece which lyeth South And from thence passed to the Western parts the Latine Church and so to us of the North. And because Vespera nunc venit nobiscum Christe maneto Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam CHAP. III. OF Aaron and Moses Of Aaron by nature of Moses by education and instruction See 1 Cor. 4.15 Gal. 4.19 with the Notes there So the Jesuites call themselves Padres and require of their Novices blinde obedience which is more then ever Moses did Vers 3. Which were anointed And so should have walked as became Gods anointed leaving a sweet smell behind them every where but they went out in a stench they fell as if they had not been anoynted with oyle 2 Sam. 1 21. Vers 4. And Nadab and Abihu Such a cross had David in his two eldest Amnon and Absalon See the Notes on Levit. 10.1 2. Vers 9. They are wholly given unto him Heb. they are given they are given So the Ministers of the Gospell are called gifts Eph. 4.8 11. honouraries such as Christ bestowed upon his Church at the day of his Coronation and solemne inauguration into his throne at his wonderfull Ascention Vers 10. And the stranger Though a Levite yet if not of Aarons seed Num. 18.3 Heb. 5.4 Let this be thought upon by our over-bold intruders into the work of the Ministery Vers 13. Because all the first-born So they were from the beginning but here is noted a continuance of this ordinance when it is said that he sanctified the first-born to himself what time he smote every first-born in Egypt Now the first born are said to be Gods by a singular right Exod. 13.2 and so they were types 1. Of Christ Rom. 8.29 to whom therefore we must give the honour of his first-birth-right all our sheaves must veyle and bow to his sheafe 2. Of Christians those first-born whose names are written in Heaven Heb. 12.23 who are dear to God as his first born Exod. 4.22 and so higher then the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 for they are Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 to serve him day and night in his temple Rev. 7.15 CHAP. IIII. Vers 2. OF the sons of Kohath Kohath was not Levies first born but Gershom and yet he hath the preheminence and chiefe charge as of the Arke Table Candlestick Altars c. Num. 3.31 Vers 3.
cum alienis loqui et quidem solam cum solo saith Munster and yet are not jealous But the Italians are so jealous that how many husbands so many jaylours And the Turks as far exceed the Italians herein Blunts voyage into Levant as the Italians do us Therefore their women go muffled all but the eyes nor are they suffered to go to Church or so much as look out at their own windows In Barbary 't is death for any â—an to see one of the Xeriffes concubines and for them too if when they see a man though but through a casement they do not suddenly screek out Vers 15. Barly-meal Barly not wheat She hath done the act of a beast and her oblation is the meat of a beast as Sal. Jarchi here noteth Vers 16. Set her before the Lord Whose the judgment was that if guilty she might be scared from submitting her self to this triall sith God knows all our thefts Vers 17. Holy-water i.e. Water taken out of the holy laver Annal. ad annum 44. no warrant for popish lustrall water and sprinkling of Sepulchres for the ground whereof Cardinall Baronius fairly referrs us to Iuvenals sixth Satyre Vers 18. Vncover the Womans head Because she stood now upon her justification and thereupon laid aside for present this sign of subjection to the man 1 Cor. 11.7 _____ The offering of memoriall Brought by her husband vers 15. who was now sick of one of those three diseases that they say are hardly cured jealousy frenzy and heresie Vers 21. Thy thigh to rot and belly to swell God takes notice of the offending member as he did in those blasphemers who gnawed their tongues Revâ—l 9. Absoloms hair Jeroboams hand the adulterers loyns Prov. 5.11 Zimri and Cozli thrust through the belly Num. 25.8 Charles the 2. King of Navarr Ioane Queen of Naples c. Suffered as they sinned Vers 22. Amen Amen Twice to shew the fervency of her zeal the innocency of her cause the uprightness of her conscience and the pâ—rity of her heart Vers 23. Shall write these curses in a book To shew that the word written should cause the water thus to work according to the cleanness or uncleanness of the party See 2 Cor. 2.16 with the note there CHAP. VI. Vers 1. ANd the Lord spake Est Venus in vinis therefore after the law for the privy harlot here is a law given for abstinence from wine and strong drink which some have called lac Veneris Rev. 17.4 The whore commâ—th forth with a cup as with a fit instrument Vers 2. To vow a vow A voluntary vow a religious promise made in prayer hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prayer To separate themselves unto the Lord As mirrours of singular sobriety and sanctimony Lam. 4.7 especially required in such as are separated unto the Gospell of God Rom. 1.1 and as types of Christ that great Votary true Nazarite holy harmless undefiled and seperate from sins Heb. 7.26 that holy thing Mat. 1.20 that holy of holies or most holy Dan. 9.24 Vers 3. He shall separate himself from wine Lest he should drink and forget the law Prov 31.5 which he was to study diligently but loaden bellies make leaden wits intemperance takes away the heart Hos 4.11 overchargeth it Luk. 21.34 Moist grapes or dryed Dryed as raisins currants or grapes of Corinth whence they come and are called Vers 4. From the kernels even to the husk Nothing that that might occasion or tempt him to break his vow All shadows and shewes of evill must be shunned quicquid fuerit male coloratum as Bernard hath it whatsoever looks but ill-favoured 1 Thess 5.22 Iude 23. He that would not eate the meat must not meddle with the broth He that would not toll the bell must not tuggle with the rope He that would shun the blow must keep aloof from the train Vers 5. There shall no rasor In opposition to Heathens Votaries who nourished their hayr to offer to their gods The popish Priests also cut and shave their hayr that they may still look neate and effeminate which God allowed not in his Nazarites Amos 2.11 Vers 6. At no dead body Christ was never defiled by any person dead in sin nor by any dead work no more must we Vers 7. He shall not make himself unclean In all changes he must be unchangeable so was Christ so must we Vers 9. And if any man dye A figure of the involuntary and unavoidable infirmity of the Saints which must be bewailed as direct fruits of the flesh and for which there is through Christ a pardon of course Vers 12. And he shall consecrate He shall begin the world a new so must we after some foul fall especially repent and do thy first works Revel 2.5 as the Shulamite did Cant. 5.2 c. Vers 14. And he shall offer his offering Though he had fulfilled his vow in the best manner yet he must come with his sin-offering c. leading him to Christ for pardon of failings in the manner and with his thank-offering for what he had been enabled to do before he could be released of his Nazarite-ship Vers 18. And put it in the fire To teach us that the Lord so loveth his children that he esteemeth the least hair of their head as a precious gift Vers 19. The sodden shoulder i.e. The left shoulder for the right was due unto him raw Lev. 7.32 This taught the Nazarite speciall thankfulness dignity requires duty Vers 20. The Nazarite may drink wine The Popish Votaries will needs fetch colour and approbation for their superstitious vowes from this order of Nazarites But the abolishing of this ordinance is declared Act. 21.25 and they are so far from the abstinence of Nazarites that they eate of the best and drink of the sweetest the most generous wine in Lovain and Paris is known by the name of vinum theologicum the Divines those Sâ—rbonists do so whiffe it off Vers 21. Besides that that his hand i.e. Beside his voluntary devotion according to his ability This he may do but that he must do be he poor or rich Vers 23. Ye shall bless the children of Israel Praying for them with hands first stretched out to Heaven Levit. 9.22 and then laid upon the people so putting the blessing of God upon them So Christ did upon his Apostles which was his last action upon earth Luk. 24.50 And so must all Pastours do that would do good on it pray down a blessing on their people Vers 24. The Lord bless thee Here some observe the mystery of the holy Trinity See it explained 2 Cor. 13.14 CHAP. VII Veas 2. The Princes of Israel offered So they did at the making of the Tabernacle and at the building of the Temple Exod. 35.27 1 Chron. 29.6 7 8. which was but to give God of his own as David acknowledgeth with all thankfulness Vers 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of thine own we offer unto thee said
of holy things as in Popery at this day Vers 17. And when the cloud This visible sign they had of Gods presence for their motion or station by night or by day through all their pilgrimage In all thy wayes acknowledge God and he shall direct thy pathes Prov. 3.6 When thou sittest in darkness the Lord shall give thee light Mic. 7.8 Vers 19. Kept the charge of the Lord Or his watch viz. to be ready at any hour to remove so must we alwaies watch and be in readiness as not knowing whether at Even or at midnight or cock-crowing or in the dawning Christ will come Mar. 13.35 Vers 23. At the Commandement of the Lord This signified that the Saints are to rest or go on at the voyce of Christ Joh. 10.3 4. and that whatsoever they do in word or deed to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Colos 3.17 to seek and finde all their perfection and defence in him alone CHAP. X. Vers 2. TWo trumpets of silver Signifying the voyce of the Law and Gospel in the mouthes of Gods Ministers Esai 58.1 Ad ravim usque vocem intendit nec vinci se à strepitu ullo passu◠est Melch. Adam 114. who must lift up the voyce like a trumpet with fervour zeal and courage 1. To gather the people and assemble the Elders Ioel 2.16 2. To put them upon their marchings and motions towards the heavenly Canaan and here to blow an alarm sic clames ut Stentora vincere possis as that famous Farellus did when the Fryers to drown his voyce in the Pulpit rang their greatest Bells but he out-noysed them 3. To get them upon their battlements and there-hence to blow an alarm likewise upon the approach of spiritual enemies Suetonius eâ libertate scripfit Imperatorum vitas qua ipsi vixerunt taking the same liberty to cry down sin that men take to commit it and to descry the Devils stratagems that are so destructive to mens souls They must cast away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvius which sounded a retreat when they should have sounded an alarm they must faithfully shew Gods people their transgressions and the house of Iacob their sins Esay 58.1 yea all their transgressions in all their sins Levit. 16.21 Lastly as the Priests were to sound the silver trumpets at their solemn feasts for a monument of spiritual gladness before the Lord Psal 81.4 so must Ministers of the Gospel publish the glad tydings of the Gospel Speak to the heart of Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished her sin is pardoned Esay 40.2 make the people hear the joyful sound that they may walk in the sense of Gods presence and in the light of his countenance yea rejoyce in his Name all the day-long Psal 89.15 16. Vers 7. But when the congregation Cenalis Bishop of Auranches was hard driven when to prove the church of Rome a true church he makes no mention at all of Ministers or ordinances but alledgeth that the Catholikes had bells to assemble them together whereas the Lutherans met by the clap of harquebuzes and pistolets And so he goes on to triumph in a long Antithesis The bells saith he do sound the harquebuzes crack The bells give a sweet and melodious tune but the harquebuzes a foul and terrible noise Bells open heaven the other hell Act. and Mon. fol. 838. Bells chase away clouds and thunder the other gender clouds and counterfeit thunder c. O the profound arguments of these doting Doctours But you shall not sound an alarm Or a broken sound but a continued equall sound as fittest for their quiet assembling to the service of God and hearing of the law The sound of Gods word must not be broken or quavering Pompall Tertullian calleth it but downright and simple Non oratorum filii sumus sed piscatorum Nazianz. ad Libanium nec verborum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed Spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1 Cor. 2.1 4. Vers 8. Shall blow with the trumpets A trumpeter as one observeth winds his trumpet with his mouth and holds it up with his hand so should a Minister both preach and practise vivere concionibus concionari moribus Vers 9. Ye shall be remembred before the Lord Who will arise as it were awakened by this sound of the trumpet See 2 Chron. 13.12 with Isa 51.9 That is by the prayer of faith such as were the prayers of the Ministers of Angrogne in France wherewith their enemies cryed out they were so bewitched that they could not fight It was the custome of these poor persecuted Protestants Act. Mon. fol. 883. so soon as they saw the enemy approach to cry all together for aid and succour to the Lord and when the combate was ended constantly to give him thanks for the good success he had sent them So at the siege of Mountabone the people of God using daily humiliation as their service would permit did sing a psalme after it immediately before their sallying forth with this practice the enemy comming acquainted ever upon the singing of the Psalme after which they expected a sally they would so quake and tremble saying they come they come as though the wrath of God had been breaking out upon them Vers 10. For a memoriall Or a sacred sign to minde and assure them that God will hear their suits and accept of their services thus performed with joy of faith Vers 12. Out of the wilderness of Sinai Where they had dwelt long enough Deut. 1.6 7 8. It being a place of bondage by reason of the law there given Gal 4.24 25. The law is a yoke of bondage as Jerome calls it and they who look for righteousness from thence are like oxen who toyl and draw and when they have done their labour are fatted for slaughter Vers 25. The rereward of all the Camp Called the gathering Host Iosh 6.9 Because to their charge was committed the care of gathering together the lame faint and feeble and to look that nothing was lost or left behinde And to this David seems to allude Psal 27.10 Confer Isai 58.8 52.12 Vers 29. And Moses said Or Moses had said viz. Exod 18.1 2. For the Lord hath spoken good And Gods promises he knew to be good sure-hold Seneca Vers 30. To mine own land Patriam quisque amat non quia pulchram sed quia suam Ovid. Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos du◠it et immemores non sinit esse sui Vers 31. Instead of eyes To descry unto us the commodities and discommodities of the country which is well known to thee Herein thou maiest be of singular use unto us though we have God going visibly before us Gaudentius Casaubon The Iewes had a kinde of officers at their feasts called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eyes of the feast praefecti morum Vers 33. Three dayes journey Three dayes together without
much magnified Moses to them but for their envy We cannot devise to pleasure Gods servants so much as by despiting them Quisquis volens detrahit famae meae nolens addit mercedi meae saith Augustine He that willingly detracteth from mine honour doth though against his will adde to my reward Vers 8. And the similitude See the Note on Exod. 33.20 Vers 9. And he departed Yea wo also to them when I depart from them Hos 9.12 then all evills come in as by a sluce the final absence of God is hell it self Vers 10. Miriam became leprous How scaped Aaron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 3. ad Coloss for the dignity of the Priesthoost he was spared saith Chrysostom Rather he met God by repentance and so disarmed his indignation and redeemed his own sorrow CHAP. XIII Vers 1. ANd the Lord spake Yeelding to the peoples importunity and winking at their infidelity for he had before spyed out the land for them Ezek. 20.6 and searched it out Deut. 1.33 but that satisfied them not seeing was with them believing See Deut. 1.22 Vers 2. Every one a ruler amongst them That might be as Vriah and Zachariah Isai 8.2 Faithfull witnesses for lying lips become not a Prince Prov. 17.7 Vers 3. By the commandement of the Lord That is by his permission See the Note on vers 1. Gods command was that they should forthwith without any further search go up and possesse the land Deut. 1.21 Now wicked men are esteemed unjust because they act against Gods command though according to his decree like as believers are esteemed just not because they obey Gods decree but his command Vers 6. Caleb A hearty man according to his name as Bishop Hooper Martyr was called hearty Hooper and as one of our Richards was called Coeur Delion Vers 16. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua His name was now changed from save us O God to God shall save us Under the law which brings us as it were into a wilderness we may desire wish and pray that there were a Saviour but under the Gospell we are sure of salvation and that our Iehoshuah hath bound himself to fulfill all righteousness for us Vers 17. Go up into the mountain This was the great mountain of Seir which incloseth Palestine on that side Vers 22. Was built seven years before Zoan And so was one of the ancientest cityes of the world seeing it did contend with the Ancientest and chiefest city of Egypt Isai 19.11 Hebron signifies an association there lay buried those three reverend couples Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Rebecca Jacob and Leah Gen. 39.41 Here David began his raign over Israel 2 Sam. 2.1 and hither came Mary to visit Elizabeth Luk. 1.39 Vers 23. And they bare it between two Christum utrique portamus ut botrum Israelitae tum illi qui adventum Christi antecesserunt tum nos c. So Christ is born between the believers of both Testaments Vers 27. In vita Camilli And this is the fruit of it Plutarch tells of the Gaules that after they had once a taste of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy they enquired in what country such sweet wine was And after they had understood where such grapes grew they would never be at rest till they had got that country Sextus Rufus writing of Cyprus saith Cyprus famosa divitiis paupertatem populi Rom ut occuparetur solicitavit Cyprus by her wealth tempted the Romans to sieze it into their hands The pearles usually cast out with the floud In vita Caesar and gathered with the ebbe drew Caesars affection for the conquest of Britain as Suetonius saith God hath given us here a grape of the heavenly Canaan to edge our desires Vers 28. Nevertheless the people be strong Thus many amongst us wish very well to Heaven speak glorious things of it and could gladly go to it but there is a lyon in the way they complain with these Male-contents of the strength of the Anakims and the impossibility of the conquest It is a hard thing doubtless to watch continually against a Spirituall enemy to keep up the banks against the sea of lusts and passions to bear daily crosses without stooping to carry the cup of prosperity without spilling to climb the hill of good duties without fainting to go against the croud without sweating to bear the reproach of Christ without buckling c. But hard though it be should we be discouraged The sweetness of the honey makes the beares break in upon the hives contemning the stings The Merchant refuseth no adventure for hope of gain the hunter shrinketh at no weather for love of game the souldier declineth no danger for desire of spoil The sweetness of Gods face though to be seen only in the dark glass of the ceremonies cheared up those good souls in their hard and tedious travell to Zion Psal 84.6 c. CHAP. XIIII Vers 3. VVere it not better for us to return into Egypt How could that be better It is our wisest way to crush the very first insurrections of unruly passions do not great stormes rise out of little gusts to smoother the smoke thereof which else will fume up into the head and gather into so thick a cloud as we shall soon lose the sight of our selves and what is best to be done Vers 4. Let us make a Captain Thus they proceed from bad to worse Passions like heavy bodies down steep hills once in motion move themselves and know no ground but the bottome Whether this people did make them such a Captain for such a purpose is uncertain but howsoever their very intention of doing it is charged upon them as if they had done it Neh. 9.16 17. Vers 9. They are bread for us q.d. We shall make but a breakfast of them So that valiant Prince of Orange told his souldiers at the battell of Newport when they had the sea on the one side and the Spaniards on the other that they must either eate up those Spaniards or drink up that sea Vers 10. But all the congregation bad stone them This is merces mundi this is the fruit of Ochloeratie that rule of rascality as one calls it Vers 11. Ere they believe me Vnbeliefe is the root of rebellion and Apostacy Heb. 3.12 Vers 12. And I will make of thee a greater nation Here God offered Moses a private fortune which he prudently refuseth because God should be a loser by it And surely saith a Divine as God was displeased with Balaam for going though he bad him go so the Lord would not have taken it so kindly of Moses if he had taken him upon the offer he made in a time of his heate against his people Vers 13. Then the Egyptiuns shall hear it And they will soon make comedyes out of the Churches tragedies Vers 14. And they will tell it The proverb is Oculus fama non patiuntur jocos A mans eye and
And this is that great offence Psal 19.11 The same reproacheth the Lord As if he wanted either wisdome to observe or power to punish such as take themselves to be out of the reach of his rod See Ezek. 20.27 Vers 31. That gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day This he did with an high hand as vers 30 in contempt of God and his Law Mr. Abbots his sermons The baser sort of people in Swethland do alwaies break the sabbath saying that 't is only for gentlemen to keep that day How much better that poor Indian in new-England who comming by and seeing one of the English profaning of the Lords day by felling of a tree said unto him New-Engl first-fruites pag. 4. do you not know that this is the Lords day Much machet man i.e. Very wicked man what break you Gods day The best and wealthieft of the Iewes to prevent servile work on the Sabbath day with their own hands chop the hearbs sweep the house Buxtorf Synagog cleave wood kindle fire c. on the day before Vers 38. That they may make them fringes See the Note on Mat. 23.5 Aribband of blue This sky-colourd ribband band taught them that though their commoration was on earth their conversation should be in Heaven Philip. 3.20 CHAP. XVI Vers 1. THe son of Izhar And so couzen german to Moses and Aaron for Izhar was brother to Amram their father Exod. 6.18 Sons of Reuben Who being next neighbours to Korah in the Camp were the sooner corrupted by him Vvaque corrupta livorem ducit ab â—â—a Juven Vers 2. Princes of the Assembly A very dangerous conspiracy For as in a beast the body followes the head so in that bellua multorum capitum the multitude Great men are the looking-glasses of the Country according to which most men dress themselves their sins do as seldom go unattended as their persons Height of place ever adds two wings to sin Example and Scandal whereby it soares higher and flyes much further Vers 3. Against Moses and against Aaron They were against both Magistracy and Ministery as our late Levellers and would have brought in Anarchy that every man might offer his own sacrificâ—â— and do that which is good in his own eyes Regnum Cyclopicum Vers 4. He fell upon his face As a suppliant to them not to proceed in their rebellion or rather to God not to proceed against them for their sin Vers 5. And he spake unto Korah By the instinct of the Spirit who had given into his heart a present answer to his prayer and furnished him with this answer Vers 7. Ye take too much upon you He retorts that upon them that they had falsly charged upon him and Aaâ—on So doth Elias upon Ahab 1 King 18.17.18 So do we worthily upon Popery the charge of novelty When a Papist tauntingly demanded of a Protestant Where was your Religion before Luther he was answered In the Bible where yours never was Vers 8. ye sons of Levi He took these to task apart as hoping haply to withdraw them from their purpose and to hide pride from them Job 33.17 but they proved uncounsellable incorrigible Vers 9. Seemeth it but a small thing Whiles these ambitious Levites would be looking up to the Priests Moses sends down their eyes to the people The way not to repine at those above us is to look at those below us Vers 10. And seek ye the Priesthood also Ambition is restless and unsatisfiable for like the Crocodile it grows as long as it lives Vers 11. And what is Aaron q. d. Is it not God whom ye wound through Aaron's sides Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9. Vers 12. We will not come up Sturdy rebels ripe for destruction See Prov. 29.1 with the Note there One perhaps had knockt off and is therefore no more mentioned Satius est recurrere quam male currere as that Emperour said Better stop or step back then run on to utter ruine Vers 13. That floweth with milk and honey So they falsly and maliciously speak of the land of Egypt in derision of the land of Canaan whereunto that praise properly belonged Those that were born in hell know no other heaven Altogether a Prince over us So their quarrel was against Moses his principality though they pretended the Priesthood only at first If the Ministery once be taken away let the Magistâ—ate see to himself hee 's next Vers 14. We will not come up Sc. to the place of judgment so they add rebellion to sin and justifie their treasonful practices as did Ravilliac Faux Saunders others Vers 15. And Moses was very wroth Or very sore grieved He might have said as One once did Felix essem si non imperitassem Happy had I been if I had never been in place of authority Egypt is said by Seneca to have been loquax ingeniosa in contumeliam praefectorum provincia in qua qui vitaverit culpam non effugit infamiam a Province apt to find fault with and to speak hardly of their Rulers though never so innocent These rebels had haply learned those Egyptian manners by living so long amongst them I have not taken one asse from them Moses was not of them that follow the administration of justice as a trade only with an unquenchable and unconscionable desire of gain This is but robbery with authority and justifies the common resemblance of the Courts of justice to the Bush whereto while the sheep flyes for defence in weather he is sure to lose part of his fleece Vers 16. Thy company Or thy congregation thy faction or Church-Malignant as Psal 26.5 Act. 19.32 40. Vers 17. And take every man his censer Which they had ready provided when first they combined to thrust themselves into the Priests office Vers 18. And stood in the door Such an impudency had sin oaded in their faces that they stood stouting it out before the Lord and made open profession of their wickedness there was no need to dig to find it out Jer. 2.34 for they set it as it were upon the cliff of the rock Ezek. 24.7 Vers 19. All the Congregation Not his own company onely for the whole multitude was too ready to favour his attempt as he perswaded them God also would his design being to introduce an equal popularity an ochlocratie that Rule of rascality as One calleth it Vers 21. Separate your selves Good men are taken away from the evill to come When God pulls away the pillars what will become of the building Lot was no sooner taken out of Sodome but Sodome was taken out of the world Vers 22. The God of the Spirits The Former and Father of Spirits Zech. 12.1 Heb. 12.9 that giveth to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath Act. 17.25 in whose hand is the soul of all living and the spirit of all flesh Job 12.10 Vers 24. Get you up from about Save your selves from this untoward generation Act. 2.40 force
the Lady Jane Gray whose excellent beauty adorn'd with all variety of vertues as a clear sky with stars as a Princely Diadem with jewels gave her the stile of Eruditionis pietatis modestiae delicium and Queen Elizabeth in whom besides her sex there was nothing woman-like or weak as if what Philosophy saith the souls of those noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies which consist of a frame of rarer rooms of a more exact composition then mans doth and if place be any priviledg we find theirs built in Paradise when mans was made out of it Besides in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female but all are one souls having no sexes and whosoever are Christs are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise Gal. 3.28 29. Vers 11. A statute of judgment A standing law a standard for all cases of like kinde in that policy at least for we cannot consent to Carolostadius who contended in foro jus ex Mose dicendum esse that all other national and municipal laws were to be abolished and that all courts were now to pass sentence according to Moses's laws Hic non intellexit vim naturam Christianae libertatis This man knew not the extent of Christian liberty saith Melancthon Vers 12. See the land It was somewhat to see but oh how fain would he have entred the Land and could not we shall have in heaven not only vision but fruition we have it already in Capite-tenure in Christ our head and husband who will not be long without us it being part of his heaven that we shall be where he is Ioh. 17.24 and enjoy God which is heaven it self whence in Scripture God is called Heaven I have sinned against heaven Malim praesente Deo esse in inferno quam abseute Deo in Coelo Luth. in Gen. 30. And I had rather be in Hell and have God present then in Heaven and God absent saith Luther Vers 13. Gathered to thy people To that great Panegyris the general Assembly and Church of the first-born in heaven Heb. 12.23 to that glorious Amphitheatre where the Saints shall see and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Chrysostome hath it Look yonder is Peter and that is Paul c. we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob have communion with them not only as godly men but as Abraham Isaac and Jacob Vers 14. For ye rebelled Sin may rebel in the Saints but not raign neither is it they that rebel but sin that dwelleth in them dwelleth but not domineereth Vers 16. The God of the spirits of all flesh Thou Lord that knowest the hearts of all men Act. 1.24 See the Note there Artificers know well the nature and properties of their own work Deus intimior nobis intimo nostro CHAP. XXVIII Vers 2. MY offering He is owner of all and of his own we give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said that great Emperour And my bread Called their bread for their souls that is the bread for their natural sustenance common bread when not rightly offered So Ier. 7.21 God in scorn calls their sacrifice flesh ordinary flesh such as is sold in the shambles So at the Lords Supper impenitent communicants receive no more then the bare elements panem Domini Aug. but not panem Dominum In their due season Which for 38. years they had intermitted Get a settlement or Sabbath of spirit or else God shall be but ill if at all served Vers 3. This is the offering See the Note on Exod. 29.38 39. Vers 9. And on the Sabbath day Every day should be a Sabbath to the Saints in regard of ceasing to do evil learning to do well but on the seventh-day-Sabbath our devotion should be doubled ' Debet totus dies festivus a Christiano expendi in operibus sanctis said Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln In decalog praecep 30. long since The whole Sabbath should be spent in Gods service Psal 92. titled a Psalm for the Sabbath mentions morning and evening performances vers 2. Variety of duties may very well take up the whole day with delight Besides God gives us fix whole dayes Now to sell by one measure and buy by another is the way to a curse Vers 11. And in the beginning of your moneths Thus they had their daily weekly monethly yearly addresses unto God that they might ever be in communion with him and conformity unto him by this continual intercourse On the new-Moons they rested Amos 8.5 feasted 1 Sam. 20.5 heard the Word c. 2 King 4.29 Vers 17 18 19 c. See the Notes on Exod. 12.18 and on Levit. 23.7 c. CHAP. XXIX Vers 1. ANd in the seventh moneth This Sabbath-moneth as it were had as many feasts in it as were celebrated in all the year besides So that as the Sabbath is the Queen of dayes so was this of moneths It is a day of blowing See the Note on Levit. 23.24 Vers 7. And ye shall have See Levit. 16.19 with the Notes Vers 12. And on the fifteenth See Levit. 23.34 35 c. with the Notes There the feasts were prescribed and here the sacrifices belonging to them are described Vers 17. And on the second day ye shall offer twelve c. In every of these seven-dayes-sacrifices one bullock is abated Hereby the Holy Ghost might teach them their duty to grow in grace and increase in sanctification that their sins decreasing the number of their sacrifices whereby atonement was made for their sins should also decrease daily Or it might signifie a diminishing and wearing away of the legal offerings c. as One well observeth Hac caeremoniâ significabat Deus gratiam suam de die in diem crescere it a nempe ut minuatur vetus homo novus augeatur c. saith Alsted till the very ruines of Satans castles be as most of our old Castles are almost brought to ruine Vers 18. After the manner That is in manner and form aforesaid The Manner is that that makes or marrs the action as a good suite may be marred in the making so a good duty there may be malum opus in bona materia Jehu's zeal was rewarded as an act of justice quoad substantiam operis and punished as an act of policy quoad modum agendi for the perverse end Yea David for failing in a ceremony only though with an honest heart suffered a breach instead of a blessing 1 Chron. 15.17 Idolaters also went on in their own manner Amos 8.14 as their idol-Priests prescribed The manner of Beersheba liveth that is the form of rites of the worshipping in Beersheba as the Chaldee paraphraseth CHAP. XXX Vers 1. ANd Moses spake unto the heads Because they were in place of judicature and had power either to bind◠men to their vowes or set them at liberty Vers 2. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord God is the proper object of a vow Psal 76.11 Papists vow
the furnace Dan. 3.25 was a miracle so it is that men so favoured love not God Vers 2. And which have not seen Segniùs irritant animos demissa per aures Horat. Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus He speaks unto them as to eye-witnesses and those that have such evidence and self-experience are usually more affected then those that have things by hear-say only Mine eye affects my heart Lam 3.51 Vers 4. Hath destroyed them unto this day i. e. Hath so destroyed and dismaid them that to this day we hear no more of them As the Romanes so quailed and quelled King Aitalus that he made a law that none of his successours should make war with that State for ever Vers 5. And what he did unto you A Diary should be diligently kept of what God does for us Psal 102.18 for the help of our slippery memories and the firing up of our dull hearts to a contention in godliness Vers 9. And that ye may prolong See the Note on Chap. 4.40 Vers 10. And wateredst it with thy foot Fetching and carrying water called therefore the water of their feet as our life is called the life of our hands Esay 57.10 because maintained with the labour of our hands Vers 11. And drinketh water of the rain of heaven God crowning the year with his goodness and his pathes dropping fatness Psal â—5 10 11 12. In the Hebrew it is thy chariot-wheel-tracks for the clouds are Gods chariots Psal 104.3 in which water is bound Job 26.8 How they are upheld and why they fall here and now we know not and wonder The Egyptians used in a prophane mockery to tell other nations that if God should forget to rain they might chance to starve for it they thought the rain was of God but not their river Nilus See Ezek. 29.3 9. Isai 19.5 6. Vers 12. Which the Lord thy God careth for Deus sic curat universa quasi singula sic singula quasi sola Aug. From the beginning of the year How easie were it for God to starve us all by denying us a harvest or two Vers 13. And it shall come to passe This passage of Scripture following the Jews read daily in their families as Maimonides reporteth Vers 14. That I will give you the rain Rain God gives to all by a providence Act. 14.17 Job 38.26 but to his Israel by vertue of a promise whereby the might live not as by bread only but as by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God Vers 16. That your heart be not deceived Having first deceived it self for the heart is deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 c. and may say to many as the heart of Apollonius the Tyrant seemed to say to him who dreamed one night that he was fleaed by the Scythians and boyled in a Caldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. It is I that have drawn thee to all this Those in hell cry so Vers 17. And he shut up the heaven The keys of heaven of the heart of the womb and of the grave God keeps and carries under his own girdle as we may say Vers 18. In your heart Yea upon your heart Esay 47.7 57.11 so as they may sink thereinto Luk. 9.44 as the best balm cast into water sinks to the bottom Vers 19. Teach them your children See the Note on Chap. 6.7 Vers 21. As the dayes of heaven i. e. As long as the world standeth Hence haply we may conceive hope of the repentance of the Jews and their re-establishment in this promised land Vers 26. A blessing and a curse With the way to either that if ye miscarry ye may have none to blame but your selves For oft it falls out that whereas the foolishness of man perverteth his way his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19.3 Vers 29. Put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim That is pronounce it there See Josh 8.33 Hence the Samaritans built their Temple on this mount as a blessed place and there worshiped they knew not what Joh. 4.20 22. calling themselves Those that belong to the blessed Mount CHAP. XII Vers 1. THese are the Statutes Here Moses begins to comment upon the second Commandement of the law See the Note on Chap. 6.1 Vers 2. Ye shall vtterly destroy This clause of this law is judiciall peculiar onely to the Jewes saith a grave Interpreter as being cheifly intended to prevent their worshipping God in any other place then that one that he had appointed to which we in the dayes of the Gospell are not tied See Vers 5 6. It was a temporary Ordinance saith another and a part of Moses politie now abrogate Vers 3 And you shall hew downe As was here done notably in King Edward the sixths dayes notwithstanding the withstandings of the rude rabble Life of Edw. 6. by Sir Joh. Heyw. which more regarded commotioners then Commissioners and were more guided by rage then by right c. So that as one Master Body a Commissioner was pulling down images in Cornwall he was suddenly stabbed into the body by a Priest with a knife Vers 4. Ye shall not do so As wicked Ahaz did 2 Chron. 27.24 by the advice and help of Vriah that turn-coat 2 King 16. who had once passed for a faithful witness Isai 7.2 but afterwards proved a factour for the Devil Vers 5. And thither shalt thou come In token of an holy communion with God Vers 6 Heave-offerings of your hand For none might appear empty-handed before the Lord. Vers 7. And there ye shall eat before the Lord Loe this ye shall have of Gods hand as a recompence of all your charge and pains ye shall feast before him with joy This made those good souls go bodily on from strength to strength though they took many a weary step yet their comfort was that they should every one of them in Zion appear before the Lord Psal 84.7 This was the sweet-meats of that feast other dainty dishes there might be but this was the banquet Vers 9. For ye are not as yet come to the rest No more are any of us indeed till we come to that rest which remaineth for the people of God Heb. 4.3 8 9 10. The Ark was transportative till setled in Solomons temple so till we come to heaven are we in continual unrest Vers 10. So that ye dwell in safety Having peace both external and internl of country and of conscience Regionis Religionis Vers 12. And ye shall rejoyce No one duty is more pressed in both the Testaments then this of rejoycing in the Lord alwaies but specially in his immediate services And the contrary is complained of Mal. 2.13 and sorely threatned Deut. 28.47 Vers 14. But in the place This taught them unity and uniformity in divine worship as also that there was but one only way to obtain pardon of their sin
in upon the land Vers 19. Put it in their mouths That out of their own mouthes I may judg them things made up in meeter are better remembred Before the knowledg of letters and writing among the ancients it was a custome to sing their laws lest they might forget them used in the days of Aristotle by the Agathyrsi a people neer to the Scythians Vers 21. For I know their imagination As a man that knows what rootes he hath in his garden thought here be not a flower appeares yet he can say when the spring comes this and this will come up because he knows the garden and knows what roots are there So the Lord knows our thoughts afarr off because he knows the principles that are within and knows what they will do when occasion serves he is privy to that root that beareth gall and wormwood Chap. 29.18 Vers 26. In the side of the Ark That it might be heard and regarded as the very law of God though penned by Moses And indeed the Iewes at this day shew exceeding great respect to the law No man may touch it but with the right hand and without a kiss of reverence Schicard nor carry it behinde him but lay it next to his heart in his travell If it but fall to the ground they institute a fast for it Weemse c. The very Turks have so high an esteem of Moses that if they finde any peece of his writings be it but a torn paper lying on the ground Pareus prol in Genes they presently take it up and kiss it That it may be there for a witness Hence haply the Ark was called the Ark of the testimony the law might be called the doomes day book such a book there is in our common-law so called saith Mathew Paris because it spares no man Vers 29. To provoke him to anger Which is the greatest folly that can be for are we stronger then he can we imagine to make our party good with him Surely as Vlysses his companions told him when he would needs provoke Polydamus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 May not we much more say so to them that will needs provoke the Lord It is good for men to meddle with their matches and not contend with him that is mightier then they CHAP. XXXII V. 1. GIve eare O ye heavens q. d. Such is this peoples stupidity and obstinacy that I may as soon gain audience of these inanimate creatures as of them See Isai 1.2 Iosh 24.27 Ier. 22.29 We may cry till we are hoarse speake till we spit forth our lungs and to no more purpose then Bede did when he preached to an heape of stones Holy Melanchthon being himself newly converted thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the Gospell But after he had been a Preacher a while 't is said he complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melanchthon Vers 2. My doctrine Heb. My taking or winning doctrine according to that Prov◠1.30 He that winneth Heb. taketh souls as fowlers do birds is wise Shall drop as the rain Drop not dash and as the rain not as the storme or as the spout as they call it at sea Evangelizatum non maledictum missus es said Oecolampadius to Facellus an excellent but an over earnest Preacher And such a one say some was Mr. Perkins in his younger time able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down and their haires to stand upright The word Damne he would pronounce with such an emphasis as left a dolefull Eccho in his auditours eares a good while after True it is that Preachers should take the same liberty to cry down sins that men take to commit them Peccata tantâ severitate arguebat saith one of Chrysostom acsi ipse etiam per injuriam laesus esset But yet moderation must be used and instruction drop-meale distilled that it may soak and sink and so soften the heart that all grace may abound c. Such sweet drops were Mr. Bradford Mr. Dod. Dr. Sibbes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 3. Ascribe ye greatness i.e. Tremble at his word and take it to heart See 1 Thess 2.13 Vers 4. He is the Rock A firme and everlasting refuge a rock of Ages Isai 26.4 One age passeth away and another and a third c. but the rock remaines The name of the Lord is a strong tower Prov. 18.10 munition of rocks Isai 33.16 Rocks so deep no pioner can undermine them so thick no Cannon can pierce them so high no ladder can scale them Vers 5. Their spot is not the spot Saints also have their spots but not ingraven not Leopards spots that are not in the skin only but the flesh and bones in the sinewes and the most inner parts and so cannot be cured by any art or washed away with any water It is of incogitancy that the Saints fall put them in minde and they mend all It is of passion and passions last not long They are preoccupated taken at unawares c. Gal. 6.1 They have ever God for their chief end and will not forgoe him upon any termes Only they erre in the way as thinking they may fulfill such a lust and keep God too but there is no way of wickedness found in them Though shaken yet they are rooted as trees and though they wag up and down yet they remove not as a ship at anchour Sin stings the wicked as the fiery serpents did the Israelites the sins of the saints are but like the viper on Pauls hand that hurt him not Sin makes wicked men the object of God hatred the Saints of his pity as we hate poison in a toade but we pity it in a man in the one it is their nature in the other their disease Vers 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord Good turns aggravate unkindnesses and our guilt is increased by our obligations Solomons idolatry was far worse then that of his wives he had been better bred and God had appeared to him twice It is the ingratitude that makes the godly mans sin so hainous which otherwise would be far less then other mens sith his temptations are stronger and his resistance greater Hebricians observe that in Halaihovah there is in the text one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater then ordinary to shew that the wonder was the greater that they should so evill requite such a Lord. Father Redeemer Maker and Governour by being so corrupt perverse crooked foolish and unwise five opposed to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used for the number of five Vers 8. He set the bounds of the people Of the seventy nations reckoned Gen. 10. and the seventy souls of Israel Gen. 46.27 Deut. 10.22 The Iewes have a saying that those seventy souls were as much as all the seventy nations of the world as being the Lords portion for whom he espyed out the land of Canaan which is the glory of all lands Ezek. 20.6 Vers 9. For the
underneath are the everlasting armes A Saint cannot fall so far as to fall beneath the supporting armes of God Cant. 2.6 his hand is reserved for a dead lift Vers 28. Israel then shall dwell c. See the Note on Num. 23.9 The fountain of Jacob Or as some read it The eye of Jacob. The same word signifies both an eye and a fountain He that with Mary Magdalen can make his eye a fountain to wash Christs feet in shall be sure to have that fountain of Christs blood opened to wash his soul in Zech. 13.1 Vers 29. Happy art thou O Israel Or Oh the happinesses of thee O Israel the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heaped up happiness Who is like unto thee The Saints are the worlds Paragons yea such as the world is not worthy of Heb. 11. that is saith Chrysostome Take all the men of the world they are not worth one of the people of God though never so mean in regard of outwards Shall be found liers Shall feign to be friends for fear and shall yeeld a forced obedience See Psal 18.45 CHAP. XXXIV Vers 1. ANd Moses went up With as good a will to die as ever he did to dine for it was but as that Martyr said winking a little he was in heaven immediately Vers 2. Vnto the utmost sea The Mediterranean Vers 3. The City of palm-trees So called even by Heathen-Authours also Vers 4. I have caused thee to see it By an extraordinary power for in an ordinary way Moses could never have taken so large a prospect at once Faith puts a mans head into heaven and gives him a view of far better things neither vision only but fruition also which Moses had not Vers 5. So Moses the servant of the Lord dyed It was no more betwixt God and Moses but Go up and dye he changed indeed his place but not his company death was to him but the day-break of eternal brightnesse Vers 6. And he â—uried him Either the Lord or Michael Jude 9. There lyes the body of Moses as in a chamber of rest or bed of down Isa 57.2 His very duâ— being precious for Christ is not perfect without it Ephes 1 2â— But no man knoweth of his sepulchre Though the Devil made much adoe about it Iude. 9. as desirous thereby to set up himself in the hearts of the living Vers 7. Nor his natural force abated Hierome reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gena maxilla Nor his teeth loosed And the use of Manna might be some reason it being an exquisitely pure kind of food of an aereal and not very corruptible substance Vers 8. And the children of Israel wept And were ready to wish likely as the Romanes did of Augustus that either he had never been born or never dyed Vers 9. And Ioshua the son of Nun Sic uno avulso non deficit alter Aureus The Duke of Florence gave for his Ensign Pintus in Dan. 4. a great Tree with many spreading boughes one of them being cut off with this above-said Poesie As one is broke off another riseth up in the room Vers 10. And there arose not This testimony and indeed this whole Chapter is thought to have been added by Joshua or Eleazar being Divinely inspired for the compleating of the history famous throughout the world approved and expounded by all the holy Prophets and Apostles who out of this fountain or rather Occan of Divinity as Theodoret calleth Moses Theodoretus Mosem appellat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have watered their several gardens yea in pressing moral duties what do they else but explain the Pentetench What do they but unfold and draw out that Arras which was folded together before Soli Deo Gloria FINIS