destruction therefore our only safety standeth in Prayer and begging Gods assistance Fourthly We have daily Temptations Bodily and Ghostly arising from the World the Flesh and the Devil and therefore saith our Saviour Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation Mat. 26. So then this Morning and Evening Sacrifice should direct us how and when to Worship God we must remember him in the Morning and Evening he must be the first and last in our thoughts we must begin the day and end it with him Verse 9. Every day in the Week ought to be the Christians Sabbath wherein he is to perform some duties or other of Religion but every Seventh Day should be a double Sabbath wholly taken up in the Service and Worship of God When our whole work must be to beravish'd in Spirit doing no Work but such as whereby we either bless God or look to receive a Blessing from him none but such as wherein we would the Lord should find us at his coming which Lactantius saith Will be on the Sabbath day And therefore the Jews call'd the Sabbath the Queen of dayes blessing the Lord at its coming in and going out that God might have both the first and the last Fruits of the day Verse 26. Here is handled the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks to give God thanks after the gathering of the Harvest For in as much as God hath not only set us in this World but supplies and feeds us in it so that we live by his bounty and liberality it was his will that the Jews should keep a yearly Feast to him to give him thanks that hereby they might acknowledg all the year after that they were sustain'd by his hand Secondly These first Fruits figured out Gods Church which is a people separated unto him from the rest of the World For as the first Fruits were separated from the rest of the heap unto God so is the state of the Church call'd and cull'd out of the World unto his service CHAP. XXIX Verse 1. THis Feast of Trumpets was to be a Feast of remembrance of Gods manifold mercies received in the Wilderness that thereby they might stir up themselves to be united to God and may serve to stir us up to return unto God Praise and Thanksgiving with joyfulness of heart for all his benefits according to that of Psalm 81. 1 2. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Iacob Take a Psalm and bring hither the timbrel blow up the Trumpet in the New-Moon so David having experience of Gods goodness towards him in many preservations composed the eighteenth Psalm as a testimony of his thankfulness for his deliverance from his Enemies And although this Feast is pass'd away and abolish'd by the coming of Christ yet this remaineth that we our selves should serve for Trumpets For as the Temple being destroyed we must be spiritual Temples unto God so the Trumpets being taken away every one of us must be spiritual Trumpets i. e. we should rouze up our selves from the World and the vanities thereof Our Ears are so possess'd with the sound of earthly things and our Eyes so dazled with the pleasures of the flesh that we are as deaf and blind men that can neither hear nor see what God saith unto us wherefore we must not look till there be a solemn holy-day to call us unto the Church there to keep a Feast of Trumpets but it must serve us all the dayes of our life as a spur to cause us to return to God Verse 7. The Jews were here to afflict their Souls with voluntary sorrow for their sins for the whole year and so dispose themselves to obtain pardon and reconciliation For whereas in their private Sacrifices they durst not confess their capital sins for fear of Death due to them by the Law God graciously provided and instituted this yearly Sacrifice of Atonement and afflicting their Souls for the sins of the whole people without particular acknowledgment of any After the same manner the Lords Supper is with us a day of Atonement or afflicting of our Souls for the Passover must be eaten with four hearbs And further we may observe from hence that this day of afflicting their Souls was to be immediately before the Feast of Tabernacles verse 12. they were to be kept in sorrow five dayes before they might keep their Feast of joy which Feast signified the spiritual joy and gladness of the Saints that are redeemed by Christ all their life long We must first look upon him whom we have pierc'd and weep for him before we can receive any comfort by him We must afflict our Souls for his Passion before we shall partake of the joy of his Resurrection Verse 12. This Feast was call'd the Feast of Tabernacles because during the dayes of this Feast they were to live in Tents and Tabernacles it being a memorial of Gods preserving them in the Wilderness where was no house for them to rest in and from hence we may learn that it is a duty belonging to all to remember the dayes of their troubles and afflictions from which God in great mercy hath delivered us We are ready to forget our former condition when God hath given us rest and therefore God would have his own people year by year to depart out of their Houses and dwell in Tents that thereby they should call to mind both where they were and where they had been that although they now were at rest and ease in the Land of Canaan yet they had not alwayes been so for God had carried them upon Eagles wings and preserved them after a miraculous manner in the Wilderness CHAP. XXX Verse 2. VVHen a man vows he vows unto the Lord and therefore if he breaks it he sins against the Lord. Who expects he should have kept touch with him and accordingly will punish such a vow-breaker for he hath not lyed unto men but unto God Acts 5. As God is true saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 1. 18. our word towards you was not yea and nay but yea and Amen For the Son of God c. Why what 's all this to the purpose may some say yes very much For it implies that what a Christian doth promise to men much more to God he is bound by the earnest penny of Gods Spirit to perform he dares no more alter and falsifie his word than the Spirit of God can lye And as he looks that Gods promises should be made good to him so he is careful to pay what he hath vowed to God seeing Gods Covenant is of mercy ours of obedience and if we expect that God should be all sufficient to us we must be altogether faithful to him Verse 8. The power and authority of the Husband over the Wife is very great for all be it the Wife be at liberty to vow in the Lord when her Husband is dead yet while he lives he hath power to disanul her vows The Husband is the head of the
a Rule to guide my Conscience by either in Civil or Ecclesiastical matters Verse 4. Gods Actions are general and particular general to all men particular to his Friends So must ours be As therefore by his general Action he suffereth the Sun to shine upon the bad as well as good so must we extend our Love which is the common Bond of Mankind as well to our Enemies as to our Friends by which common Love all hurting of the Bodies or Goods of our Enemies is forbid Again as God hath his special Action to his Friends and his Church namely sanctification so must Friendship which is our special Action reach its self to such only as are of the Houshold of Faith For although we must love with that general Love all Mankind Turks Pagans yet to such may we not be Friends and Familiars but must beware of inward and usual conversation with them that hate God and all his Graces This distinction tels you the meaning of Mat. 5. 44. Love your enemies Verse 5. Estne Deo cura de bobus is the Apostles Question Hath God care of Oxen other mens Oxen how much more of his own Sheep And therefore if thou see one of his Sheep one of thy fellow Christians strayed into sins of infirmity joyn him with thine own Soul in thy Prayers to God Relieve him if what he needs be spiritual with thy Prayers for him and relieve him if his wants be of another kind according to his Prayers to thee Why should not he that is made of the same bloud and redeem'd with the same bloud as thou art why should not he prevail with thee so far as to the obtaining of an Almes when some fellow-servant of thine hath had that interest in God as by his intercession and Prayers to advance thy Salvation wilt not thou save the life of another man that prayes to thee when perchance thy Soul hath been saved by another man that prayed for thee Verse 6. In the third verse God commanded That the poor man should not be spared for pitty Here now he enjoyneth That a poor man should not be wrong'd in respect of his poverty such equal steps would God have Judgement to walk in Verse 11. Blessed is the man that provideth for the poor the Lord shall deliver him in all his trouble Psalm 41. 1. This is proved in the Widdow of Zarepta who fed the Prophet and never suffered in the midst of that Famine 1 Kings 17. When I was hungry you fed me saith Christ Mat. 25. 35. Me I say in the poor with you to whom what you did you did it to me and so I take it and will blesse you for it both here and hereafter Verse 19. You must not seeth the kid c. to shew that we must not use that to the destruction of any Creature which was intended for his preservation CHAP. XXIV Verse 3. IT is better not to promise than not to keep promise the people of the Iews were signified by the Locusts which suddenly leap up and forthwith fall down to the earth again They did as it were leap up when in words they promised to do all things which the Lord had said but they fell to the earth again when in their deeds they denied the same Let us therefore alwayes weigh our weakness and accordingly frame our promises for as we see in this people we may purpose well that which we cannot so well perform Verse 12. It is not many weeks since Israel came out of Egypt in which space God had cherished their Faith by several Wonders yet now he thinks it time to give them Statutes from Heaven as well as Bread The Manna and Water from the Rock which was Christ in the Gospel were given before the Law the Sacraments of Grace before the legal Covenant The Grace of God preventeth our obedience therefore should we keep the Law of God because we have a Saviour O the Mercy of God which before we see what we are bound to do shews us our remedy if we do it not How can our Faith disanul the Law when it was before it It may help to fulfil that which shall be it cannot frustrate that which was not The Letter which God had written in our fleshly Tables were now as some that were carved in some Barks almost grown out he saw it time to write them in dead Tables whose hardness should not be capable of alteration He knew that the stone would be more faithful than our hearts Verse 14. Ministers whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are not to leave their charge without Deputies When Moses here ascended he left Aaron and Hur with the people that whosoever had any matter might come to them So watchful and faithful was Moses in his place that without just cause he is not absent and then he leaveth able Deputies Verse 16. Moses ascending was not admitted to God till after six dayes to teach all men patiently and reverently to tarry Gods leisure and gracious pleasure for any matter of his Will to be revealed to them not curiously searching but humbly waiting for the thing we seek being fit for us At the end of six dayes God called to Moses So will the Lord have a comfortable time for all those that wait for him they shall see and hear at last what he will say unto them But then they must come to God in the Cloud that is in the humanity of Christ whereof this Cloud was a Figure For without him there is no access to God and by him we come and that boldly Verse 17. God appears here like a consuming Fire in the eyes of the Children of Israel but to them whom he drew to him he appeared as a pleasant Saphire verse 10. Just so to carnal men and to such as are his called by his holy Spirit there is a great difference of him the one seeing with fear and trembling the other seeing feeling and tasting Joy and Comfort Verse 18. Moses was with God forty dayes and nights without any repast That God that sent the Quails to the Host of Israel and Manna from Heaven could have fed him with dainties if he had so pleas'd But there is no life to the life of Faith Man lives not by bread only The Vision of God did not only satiate but feast him What a blessed satiety shall there be when we shall see him as he is and he shall be all in all to us Since this very frail Mortality of Moses was sustained and comforted but with representations of his presence Here again I see Moses the Receiver of the Law Elias the Restorer of the Law Christ the Fulfiller of the Law all fasting forty dayes Abstinence prepares best for good Duties Full bellies are fitter for rest Hence solemn Prayer takes ever fasting to attend it and so much the rather speeds in Heaven when it is so accompanied It s good so to diet the body that the soul may be fatned CHAP. XXV
of the Ministery that it should not be defrauded of the least thing allotted to it And therefore harden not your heart against God against Law against Right and Truth accustome not your hearts to cover your Neighbours due your hands to purloin it by fraud or take it by strength it is theft spiritual theft sacriledge your house receiveth stoln Goods and the Wrath of God may happily shake the foundation of it for such a sin and you in yours or you and yours be punished Verse 13. Here Leaven is admitted of which before was forbid Leaven therefore is taken in a good sense as well as in an ill Thus the Apostles are resembled to a little Leaven that leaveneth the whole lump they being sent out of God into the unleavened World by preaching to leaven it clean through And there is a Leaven of the new Nature accepted as there is a Leaven of the old Nature rejected For look how the Leaven maketh the Bread savory and strong and wholsome look also how it makes it rise and heave up which otherwise would be sad and heavy So doth Gods regenerate Spirit change us make us savory and all our Duties pleasing to God and we rise up our Hearts and Souls are heaved up in all love in thankfulness to him that in Mercy hath so look'd upon us Verse 15. A Ceremony us'd to signifie that publick Feasts should not be superfluously continued and kept long under the colour of Religion For God loveth not idle banquetting and prodigal spending although he allow graciously what is fit for the occasion Secondly this was done in wisdome by God least if the flesh should have smelt by longer keeping Religion might so have been vile in the eyes of fickle persons Verse 18. We may learn by this that the taking hold of Christ is not to be deferr'd and put off but speedily and quickly to be done whilst time serves and opportunity is offer'd For behold sayes Christ to day and to morrow I cast out Devils and the third day Luke 13. that is a short time I have yet to go on with my Ministery and then I shall be slain More particularly every Man and Woman may be said to have three dayes The first of Youth till Age come the second of Age till Death come and in these two dayes there is Mercy offered but the third day is after Death and then there is no help as here on the third day no Offering was accepted but the sin remained unpardoned and not forgiven Verse 30. The bringing of the Sacrifice with his own hands and not sending it by others taught Humility and Duty to God taught that every one must live by his own Faith and not by anothers Verse 34. The shaking of it to and fro four wayes East West North and South shadowed the spreading of that lifting up of Christ that is of Christs Death and Passion throughouâ— all the World by the preaching of the Gospel CHAP. VIII Verse 2. THe Lord precisely appointed Priests and would not leave it to every man to perform this Office to signifie that not any man butthe-man Christ Jesus could appease Gods Wrath satisfie his Justice and take away the sins of the World This could not be figured out better than by secluding all the Host of Israel from this Office and chusing but Aaron and his Sons as Types of Christ that so by such an Ordinance the Majesty Authority and Property of Christs Office might be resembled and shadowed Verse 5. Nothing but Gods Commandement doth Moses offer unto them For he well knew Gods Will only in his own House must be the Rule Our own heads were never the best heads to follow and for God he knoweth our mould too well to give that swinge unto us Verse 13. Aarons Sons were a figure of the Church which by Faith eateth also of the Sacrifice of Christ being made partakers of his Merits as well as the Priests Their Garments figured out the Graces and Gifts wherewith the Believers in Christ are adorned and beautified casting away the Works of Darkness and putting on daily more and more the Deeds of Light Rom. 13. 12. Verse 30. Upon Aarons Sons Moses did but sprinkle the annointing Oil which was said to be poured upon Aaron verse 12. So plainly shewing that in Christ the Spirit should be without measure and upon his Servants in measure we all receiving of his fulness according to his good Pleasure some more some lesse Verse 35. By this is signified that watch which all our life time is noted by the seven dayes we keep in avoiding sin and working righteousness as the Lord shall enable which indeed may be call'd the watch of the Lord being a holy Christian and happy watch The seventh day we shall be free fully sanctified and delivered from this vail of misery to keep an eternal Sabbath in Heaven to our endless comfort CHAP. IX Verse 7. IN that Aaron was here commanded to offer as well for himself as the People he was herein a figure of Christ not that Christ had any sins of his own but that ours were so laid upon him and he so made satisfaction to God for them as they had been his own Surely sayes the Prophet Isai. 53. 4. he hath born our infirmities c. that is we judg'd him evil as though he were punish'd for his own sins and not for ours Verse 22. Thus doth God blesse us in Christ in whom all the Nations of the World are blessed First with the Blessing of Reconciliation to himself reputing us now just for his Son Christ. Secondly with the Blessing of his Spirit whereby we walk in his Calling being guided thereby in the same Thirdly with the Blessing of Acceptance of all our Works though full of imperfection and weakness And last of all with this great Blessing that all adversity becometh a help to us to draw us to Heaven and Eternal Rest. Verse 24. That God which shew'd himself to Men in fire when he delivered his Law would have men present their Sacrifices to him in fire and this fire he would have his own that there might be a just circulation in this Creature as the Water sends up those vapours which it receives down again in Rain Hereupon it was that fire came down from God to the Altar that as the charge of the Sacrifice was delivered in fire so God might signifie the acceptation of it in the like fashion wherein it was commanded The Baalites might lay ready their Bullock upon the Wood but they might sooner fetch the blood out of their Bodies and destroy themselves than one flash out of Heaven to consume the Sacrifice CHAP. X. Verse 2. NAdab and Abibu were two of Aarons Eldest Sons which after their Father should have succeeded him in his place yet there is no Mercy with God to stay his Judgement when they will not be Ruled by his Word No Prerogative therefore shall save any Man from Wrath if he offend but
breach of Piety punishable with Death Let them also think of those Infernal Ravens and Vultures that shall torment them in Hell and continually feed upon their Souls Verse 10. Because Marriage was appointed a remedy against Fornication therefore the Law of God inflicted a sorer punishment upon him which did commit uncleanness after Marriage than upon him which was not Married because he sinned although he had the remedy of sin like a rich Thief which stealeth and hath no need So Deut. 22. 22. Verse 25. Ye shall make this difference between the clean and unclean Beast saith God First because ye may be at my appointment for your very meat as who am chief Lord of all Secondly that there may be a difference between you and all other People Thirdly that ye may be taught to study purity and know that the very Creatures are defiled by mans sin It is hard to deal in the World and not be defiled with the corruption that is in the World And therefore we are taught by this Law to abstain from the communion of unclean and wicked men in whom are found the malignities and evil properties of all other Creatures CHAP. XXI Verse 17. THis was done to preserve the Dignity of the Priests Calling in that infancy of the Church which otherwise might have come into contempt together with the holy things for the contemptible shew of the Priest Yet thus much we may learn by it further that if these infirmities of body which they could not help made them unfit then to be Priests may not now wilful impiety being a blot in Soul and Mind disable a man from being a Minister to God in his own Conscience although he have the outward calling of men Verse 18. Blind is he who wanting light from above is wholly drowned and overwhelmed with the darkness of this World Lame is he who seeing whither he should go yet is not able through weakness of understanding to get thither but fainteth and faileth stumbleth and trippeth in his going and cometh short of his right end By a flat nose may be noted a weakness in Judgement and Discretion because the nose discerneth good savours from ill as the mind should also do things fit and unfit In the Canticles 7. 4. among the praises of the Spouse it is said her nose is like a tower in Lebanon because by Judgement she discerneth afar off temptation and evils coming as out of a Tower Verse 20. The scab is a foulness arising of an itch and spreading broader and broader if it be not look'd into and thereby is set down the vice of Covetousness which first beginneth with an itching desire and afterward for want of looking to spreadeth to a great foul Vice deforming any man but most unseemly in a Priest who ought to be clean Lâ—â—â—ly by him that hath his stones broken are noted such as though they do not act yet have ever in their minds lewd and unclean thoughts whereby they are so desperately carried away as pure and clean and holy meditations can take no place Verse 22. Albeit blemished persons might not stand at the Altar yet were they allowed to eat the Sacrifices and to be in the Congregation shadowing unt ous that the Church although blemished nevertheless is admitted to the communion and participation of those things which Christ by his eternal Sacrifice hath obtain'd for us And although some one or other infirmity may justly disable thee for such a place either in Church or Common-wealth yet from a place with the Elect either here or for ever it shall not hinder thee No nor ten thousand blemishes if thou art grieved for them and fighting against them dost take hold of thy spotless Saviour as thy help and safety against them all CHAP. XXII Verse 6. NOne but those that were clean might eat of the holy Things nay those that did but enter into the Tabernacle being unclean were threatned with death by God Now what should this solemn preparation under the Type put us in mind of but the true and inward preparation required still of us in the Anti-type that is to teach us that we ought carefully to sanctifie prepare and purifie not our clothes and external parts but our hearts from all sin and impurity before we presume to approach into the presence of God either to eat of Christ our spiritual Passover or to hear and receive his most holy Word And certainly the neglect hereof is the very cause why that Sacrament which is to some the Bread of Life is to others the Bread of Condemnation and that Word of God which is to some the Saviour of Life unto Life is to others the Saviour of Death unto Death Verse 19. A good Work without the heart is but a glorious sin for not so much the things themselves as the affections of men are considered of God One may have a free mind in poverty and a sparing mind in riches so it is not the Work but the Mind Thus the Lord regards not so much the thing done as the heart and mind of him that did it If we build only on the Work we have no better evidence to shew for our salvation then the Devils and Reprobates Not the Work then but the Heart is that that will stand and go for currant to shew this the Lord would have a free-will Offering among all the rest of his Sacrifices hereby shewing that the heart must be joyn'd with obedience nay so much did the Lord regard the Heart that he would not admit of any Gift for the building of the Temple but what came from a free will CHAP. XXIII Verse 2. IN that they were called the Feasts of the Lord men are taught in them to seek and attend such things as belonged to God and not their own business pleasures and sports And in the fourth verse they are called holy Convocations think therefore in your Conscience whether gadding and rioting be holy exercises and meet for an holy Convocation To this end they are still call'd in the Christian Church Holy dayes to put us in mind of the right use of them Verse 3. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings Wherefore saith St. Augustine learn that no place priviledgeth thee to break Gods Law but as being a sinner whithersoever thou goest thou carriest the yoak of sin so being the servant of God in all places obey his Will Verse 5. O marvellous accordance betwixt the two Testaments in the very time of their delivery there is the same agreement which is in their substance The ancient Iews kept our Feasts and we still keep theirs The Feast of the Passover is the time of Christs Resurrection then did he passe from under the bondage of Death Christ is our Passover the spotless Lamb whereof not a bone must be broken And so likewise the very day wherein God came down in Fire and Thunder to deliver the Law even the same day came also the Holy Ghost
sigh and tremble certainly whatever it was it was a signe of Gods wrath that others seeing this might fear to commit the like and that he might have the greater punishment in prolonging so wicked and miserable a life Verse 16. It appears by this that Cain stood excommunicate For otherwise how could Cain go out from God who was every where so that this presence of the Lord signifies a peculiar place dedicated to God as the Ark the Temple were usually call'd in Scripture The face of the Lord Psalm 43. Exod. 23. So Ionas fled from the presence of the Lord i. e. from the place where the Lord had spoken to him This then should strike a terror into Christians and cause them to live in the fear of God and in an awful respect of his Ministers who have the power delegated to them from God to drive obstinate sinners from his presence and are as that Angel with a flaming Sword to keep them out of Paradice and deprive them of the joyes and blessedness of the life to come Verse 20. If the author the inventor of any thing useful for this life be called the Father of that invention by the Holy Ghost himself as here Iabal was the Father of such as dwelt in Tents and Tabal his Brother the Father of Musick how absolutely is God our Father who invented us made us found us out in the depth and darknesse of nothing at all he is Father and Father of Lights of all kinds of Lights He is Lux lucisica as Saint Augustine expresses it the Light from which all the Lights which we have of Nature or Grace or Glory have their emanation CHAP. V. Verse 1. THe Soul of man as it came from God so it is like God as he so it is one immaterial immortal understanding Spirit distinguish'd into three powers which all make up one spirit So thou the wise Creator of all things wouldest have some things to resemble their Creator the other creatures are all body man is body and spirit the Angels are all spirit not without a spiritual composition thou art alone after thine own manner Simple Glorious Infinite No creature can be like thee in thy proper being because it is a creature How should our finite weak compounded nature give any perfect resemblance of thine yet of all visible creatures thou vouchsafest man the nearest correspondence to thee not so much in the natural Faculties as in those divine Graces wherewith thou beautifiest his soul how then should our Souls rise up to thee and fix themselves in their thoughts upon thee how should they long to return back to the Fountain of their Being and author of their being glorious that so we may redeem what we have lost recover in thee what we have lost in our selves Verse 3. Adam begetting a Son in his own likeness is not to be understood in the shape and image of his body but hereby is signified that original corruption which is descended unto Adams posterity by natural propagation which is express'd in the birth of Seth because it might appear that even the Righteous Seed by nature are subject to this depravation Verse 22. In that Enoch first walk'd with God on earth before he walk'd with him in Heaven is shewed that we must first seek Gods glory on earth before we can be admitted into his Everlasting glory Verse 24. If you will sit at the right hand of God hereafter you must walk with God here so Abraham so Enoch walked with God and God took him God knows God takes not every man that dies God saies to the rich secure man This night they shall fetch away thy soul but he does not tell him who that therefore you may be no strangers to God then see him now and remember that his last Judgement is express'd in that word Nescio vos I know you not not to be known by God is damnation and God knows no man hereafter with whom he was not acquainted here Verse 29. Forasmuch as Lamech said of his Son Noah This same shall comfort us concerning our work c. it appeareth that the faithful then look'd for a Comforter that should deâ—iver them from the Curse for of this Comforter Noah was a figure Heb. 11. 7. and the Ark was a type of Baptism 1 Pet. 3. 21. Verse 32. Sem is here first named though Iaphet was first born as being first in dignity though not in birth because from him and not from Iaphet our blessed Saviour descended in a direct line Now any relation to Christ enableth either place or person For let the person be never so mean if God please to claim an interest in him a poor Fisherman upon his Embassie is more honourable then the Embassador of the greatest Monarch in the world and so likewise for any place in the world be it never so mean and contemptible yet if God please to send his Ministers to preach the Gospel and the power thereof in such places they become glorious to the whole world Thus it was not the great circumference and populousness of Nineveh but the preaching of Ionah there that made it known to after-ages nor was it the City but the Temple of Ierusalem and the presence of Christ in that Temple that made it the glory of the whole earth It is the Christian Religion only whose Fame shall last for ever that is able to make both Men and Towns as famous and as eternal as it self CHAP. VI. Verse 2. THe world was grown so foul with sin that God saw it was time to wash it with a floud if there had not been so deep a deluge of sin there had been none of the waters from whence then was this superfluity of iniquity whence but from the unequal yoak with Infidels these marriages did not beget men so much as wickedness from hence religious Husbands both lost their piety and gained a rebellious and godlesse generation Thus that which was the first occasion of sin was the occasion of the increase of sin a Woman seduced Adam Women betray the Sons of God the beauty of the Apple betrayed the Woman the beauty of these Women betrayed this holy Seed Eve saw and lusted so did they this also was a forbidden Fruit they lusted tasted sinned dyed the most sins begin at the eyes by them commonly Satan creeps into the heart that Soul can never be at safety that hath not covenanted with his eyes Verse 3. It is meant that God would no longer strive with them in reproving and admonishing them which they regarded not but if they amended not in short time within the set space he would certainly destroy them and therefore it was supposed that the Ark was a building 120 years to the end they might repent enough to justifie Gods mercy in forbearing and his Justice in executing his Judgements upon sinners Verse 12. Man is every Creature as 't is said here all flesh hath corrupted his ways upon the earth though this
reconciled with thy Brother and then offer thy Gift Otherwise Dissention and ill-will will over-shadow the Altar and keep the grace of God from descending The fountain of Love will not be laded at with uncharitable hands Iacob will be reconciled to his Brother before he builds an Altar and Abraham must be at peace with Lot before God gives him a visit Verse 15. Ever is not alwayes used for Eternity Aristotle defines Aeternum to be Periodus durationis cujusque rei lib. 1. de Coelo It is diversely used in Scripture First for the continuance of the world as the Rain-bow was a sign of Gods everlasting Covenant that is so long as the world continueth Secondly It signifies the whole time of mans life I will sing of thy mercies for ever Psal. 89. 1. Thirdly That is called Eternal whose time is not prefix'd with man though it be with God as Circumcision is call'd an everlasting Covenant because it was not to be altered by man But here some take these words not leterally but upon Condition That the Land of Canaan should so long be their inheritance as they obeyed God according to Deut. 4. 25. As if the Lord should say saith Cajetan Quam diu erit semen tuum as long as they shall be thy Seed I will give them this Land therefore when they began to degenerate from Abraham God was no longer tyed to his Promise CHAP. XIV Verse 2. TO gather Armies and to muster men to Battel is no new sign but an old and ancient device among the sons of men Thus here we have mention of two Armies the one raised by Chedor-laomer and his Confederates the other by the Kings of Sodom Gommorrah these rebelling the other punishing their rebellion Now seeing the misery of Wars hath such an ancient stamp upon it not lately bred but the Child of former times say not the old dayes are better than these grow not wanton and weary of things present to loath the blessings we enjoy as the manner of many is We complain that we are fallen into evil times we praise the dayes that are past and consider not that in this we murmur against God who hath made all things good and governeth all things well The present state of things are grievous because present troubles are felt and former discommodities are forgotten long ago Verse 12. Let us have no fellowship with evil men or evil actions unless we will partake with them in the punishment It is our Christian discretion to forsake their company lest we be taken in the net and snared in their wayes Many have sustain'd much danger and endured much affliction by conversing with evil men Lot was never more grieved nor less secured than when he was even in the very midst of Sodom He made choice to dwell there as the place where he might soonest enrich himself but he quickly repented him of his choice He was taken prisoner by forreign Enemies and was in greatest danger by violence at his own home To communicate with the wicked is all one as if a man should throw himself into the company of Theeves The servants of God which are endued with those heavenly gifts divine graces which are the greatest treasure have a great charge about them It concerns them therefore to take heed that by evil company they be not robb'd and deprived of them We should beware of the company and conditions of men if we count our selves happy in the league of the wicked we are utterly lost and are walking in the road-way that leads to death Verse 15. In regard that War it's self is lawful it follows that the stratagems of War are not unlawful It is not against the Word of God to use subtilty and policy to lay snares and baits to entrap and circumvent the Enemy In all actions of War and Peace we must deal wisely and warily When we live in peace and quietness it is required of us to walk not only in a lawful but in a wise course but much more in War where the Enemy is watchful the snares are subtile and the danger greater This appears evidently both because God commanded it and the godly practise it God commanded it to Ioshua in the taking of Ai Iosh. 8. 2. and it was practised here by Abraham True it is we are to keep promises to all even to our enemies We must not promise to save them and then destroy them Notwithstanding we are not bound to make known to them whatever we speak or do but are to conceal our intents to the end the victory may be obtain'd Verse 16. All things that are taken in a lawful War are not lawful plunder The Philistines when they got the victory over the Israelites and had the spoyl of the field yet there was an Ark amongst that spoyl which they had nothing to do with and they had better have let it alone than have medled with it that did belong to the God of Israel more than to his People and therefore when they took away that they took Gods Judgements and Vengeance along with it and they did return it with far greater joy and triumph than they took it away Touch not mine anointed saith God and do my Prophets no harm they are Gods and man hath nothing to do with them And therefore when the five Kings in this Chapter had taken away Lot one whom God would not have touch'd they not only lost him but all the rest of their spoil all the Goods were brought back again for that good mans sake If those Kings had not made Lot their prisoner the rest of the spoil might have been lawful prize So pretious in Gods eyes are his Saints Verse 19. It is a just observation of Philo that God only by a propriety is stiled the possessor of heaven and earth by Melchisedec in this speech of his to Abraham We are only Tenants and that at the Will of the Lord at the most we have but jus ad rem non dominium in rem a right to these earthly things not a Lordship over them we have only a right of favour from their proprietary and Lord in heaven and that liable to account Let me then charge the Rich-man that he be not high-minded and proud of that which is none of his That which Law and Case-Divinity speaks of life that man is not Dominus vitae suae sed custos is as true of Wealth Nature can tell him from Seneca that he is not Dominus but Colonus not the Lord but the Farmer Verse 23. Solomon in his Proverbs tells us that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it intimating that they which grow rich and not by Gods blessing but by such means as God hath accursed the Lord doth add such a deal of sorrow and care and vexation with it that they were as good or better be without it Such riches were those that Abraham rejected at the King of Sodoms
were for sin or for the present pressure only I have not to say but God is so pitiful that he hears and helps our Affliction as he did Hagars in this Text. Verse 15. God presents to us the joyes of Heaven often to draw us and as often the torments of Hell to avert us And to this purpose Origen saith aright as Abraham had two Sons the one of a Bond-woman the other of a Free but yet both sons of Abraham So God is served by two fears and the latter fear the fear of future torment is not the perfect fear but yet even that fear is the servant and instrument of God too Who can so absolutely divest all sense saith Chrysostome but that when the whole City is in a combustion and commotion or when the Ship that he is in strikes desperately and irrecoverably upon a Rock he is otherwise affected towards God then than when every day in a quietness and calmness of holy affections he hears a Sermon Gehennae timor saith the same Father regni affert coronam even the fear of Hell gets us Heaven CHAP. XVII Verse 1. IT is Gods prescript to Abraham here Walk before me and be perfect and that is when as to allude to that known Expression Manus ad Clavum Oculus ad Coelum as our hand is upon the work so our eye must be upon God in every thing we do which is the ground of that uprightness called in the Scripture Dialect perfection Where you may note the difference between these three expressions of the holy Ghost to walk with God after God and before God We walk with God as a sweet companion after God as a commanding Lord before God as an observing Judge we walk with him as his Friends after him as his Servants before him as his Children lastly we walk with him by an humble familiarity after him in a regular conformity before him by a cordial integrity and this is according to Gods rule to Abraham Walk before me and be perfect Verse 3. When God talkes with us in his Word or we talk with God in our Prayers we cannot be too humble you see from this text that Abraham the Father of the faithful fell upon his face at a conference with God and shall we that are his sons not fall upon our knees Certainly were there never a Church standing in the world nor so much as one stone left for a Bethel wheresoever we came to Pray we should worship first looking up to our God and his infinitude with Glory be to thee O Lord then in the Publicans dejected posture reflecting upon the dust our original and our end with Lord be merciful unto me a sinner and indeed can we presume higher than the dust when we reverence before our Maker or do less than hide our own faces with shame appearing before the glorious light of that countenance which we cannot see and live and which we shall one day look upon with trembling if not now with shame Verse 5. There is no Faith where there is either means or hopes Difficulties and impossibilities are the true Objects of Belief hereupon God adds to Abrahams name that which he would fetch from his Loins and made his Name as ample as his Posterity never any man was a looser by beleeving Faith is ever recompenced with Glory Verse 7. God hath in great mercy and goodness promised to shew grace and favour not only to the faithful themselves but to their seed after them and as the mercy of God is great so the Faith of the godly is effectual for themselves and their Children God will be our God and the God of our seed after us If then we consider either the Promise of God to be merciful or the Faith of the godly to beleeve in both respects we may collect and gather this truth That the love of God to the faithful shall so abound that it shall come to their posterity like the pretious Oyntment poured on the head of Aaron that ran down upon his beard and flowed to the border of his garments or as the dew on Hermon and Sion which watered the valleys which were beneath them Now seeing that goodness hath the Promise of bringing a blessing upon the families where it is profess'd it is required of us to profess and beleeve the Gospel that so we may procure a blessing upon our selves and Children The neglect of which bringeth utter ruine to Father and Child So then godly Parents must have a care to bring-up their Children and Families in the true Faith and fear of the Lord which may be a means by the blessing of God to save thy son from death and to deliver his soul from destruction Verse 11. Circumcision is a seal of the Covenant betwixt God and us if we be in God and God in us if we be circumcised within if the fore-skin of our hearts be taken away then is the outward Circumcision a seal unto our Covenant with God otherwise it is a seal indeed but a seal without a Bond a seal without any stipulation betwixt God and us we are no whit priviledged by it no more than are the Turks who yet are circumcised which is the reason that the Jewes at this day have no benefit by this Covenant because they are uncircumcised in their hearts that vail that fore-skin is not taken away and that only is the circumcision which seals the Covenant betwixt God and us the Gospel-circumcision the putting off the old Adam by that circumcision of Christ which is the work of the Spirit wrought by the Word upon the Soul of a poor sinner whereby the corruption of his nature is mortified and himself received into an everlasting Covenant and Communion with God Verse 14. In the first Covenant that God made with his People as we see here That person that would not be circumcised that soul was cut off from the people of God and just so in the second Covenant that God made with his people the Covenant of the Gospel He that is not circumcised in heart and made new by regeneration he shall have no part with the Saints in heaven Joh. 3. 3. The wise man is not priviledged by his wisdom nor the strong man by his strength the King is not freed by his Crown and Dignity nor the Priest by the power of his Keyes For if any one enters himself in Covenant with God under the New Testament and hopes for benefit by that Covenant as Abraham and his Seed did undergo the outward Circumcision of the body so must he the inward Circcmcision of the heart No Circumcision no Son of Abraham no Son of Abraham no Son of God Verse 17. Abraham was old e're this Promise and hope of a Son was given and still the older the more uncapable Yet God makes him wait twenty five years for performance No time is long to Faith which had learned to defer hopes without fainting and irksomness Abraham heard this news
Let there be no prophane person among us as was Esau saith the Apostle Heb. 12. And that there may not let not men take pleasure in pleasure spend too much time in it It was not simply a sin in Esau to go a hunting but yet the more he used the more prophane he grew by it and came at length to contemne his birthright God allows men to stoop to lawful delights and recreations for their bodies sake as the Eagle to the prey or as Gideons Souldiers to soop their handful not swill their belly full An honest heart is where his calling is such a one when he is elsewhere is like a fish in the air whereunto if it leap for Recreation or Necessity yet it soon returns to his own Element Verse 34. Esau may be as great a glutton in his Pottage as those greedy Dogs Isa. 56. 12. Thus the Poor may sin as much in their throat as the Rich for men have talem dentem qualem mentem such an appetite as they have affection there is Epicurisme in course fare as well as dainties An Esau's luxury is in his mind more than his taste CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. IF the Canaanites had amended by the former Famine this latter had been prevented For God takes no delight in the misery and affliction of his Creatures He first tries gentle means and if those will do no good rigid and severe courses must be used first he chastiseth us with Rods and then with Scorpions if a single Famine will not humble us that Famine shall be doubled till we are brought low and continued upon us so long as we continue in our sins So that if we be destroyed our destruction is from our selves and if God doth multiply his Judgements upon us it is because that we do multiply our sins if man be not weary of sinning what reason is there that God should be weary of punishing Verse 7. So long as we carry flesh and blood about us we shall be subject to such passions as arise from that flesh and blood Moses had his anger Abraham and Isaac their fear But now these passions must be kept within their bounds or else they run out into sin As here Isaac's fear was too predominant it made him as it had done his Father Abraham call his Wife his Sister and in that to lie which sin was greater in him than in his Father because he was not warn'd by his Fathers example Now the child of God should rather die than lie Nec prodam nec mentiar said that good Bishop in St. Augustine and that was a brave Woman in St. Ierome that being on the Rack resolved and answered the tormentor I had rather tell the truth and perish than lie and live The Chamelion is the most fearful of all Creatures and doth therefore change into all colours to save it self so will timerous persons Let us therefore fortifie our hearts against this passion that we may not fall into the sins of the passion Verse 13. Isaac waxed rich because the Lord blessed him verse 12. it is Gods blessing that maketh rich Godliness hath the promises of both lives now the Promises are the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes. 3. 9. who is the heir of all and hath godly men his co-heirs entailing upon them riches and honour life and length of daies the blessings of both hands and if at any time God doth deny gain to godliness it is that it may be admired for itsself as having a self-sufficiency and a hid treasure of its own Agrain of Grace is worth all the gold of Ophir and a remnant of Faith of more value than the richest Ward-Robes Thus a Righteous man is the richest man in the World true piety hath true plenty and whereas the Wicked in the fulness of their sufficiency are in straits the Godly in the fulness of their straits are in all sufficiency Verse 18. Origen extends this power far though not very confidently perchance saith he in every one of our souls there is this well of the Water of Life and this power to have power to open it whether our souls be intended by Origen of us as we are men or of us as we are Christians I pronounce not but divide it in all us as we are natural men there is this Well of Water of Life Abraham digg'd it at first the Father of the Faithful our Heavenly Abraham infused it unto us at first in Adam of whom as we have the image of God though defaced so we have this Well of Water though stopt up but then the Philistins having stopt this Well Satan by sin having barr'd it up the power of opening it again is not in the natural man but Isaac diggs it again Isaac who is Filius laetitiae the Son of joy our Isaac our Jesus he opens this Well of Life again to all that receive him according to his Ordinance in his Church he hath given this power of keeping open in themselves this Well of Life these means of Salvation Verse 22. When Isaac's servants had digged a first and a second Well the Heardsmen of Gerar contended about it saying the Water is ours then his Servants digg'd a third Well and for that they strove not therefore he call'd the name of it Rehoboth i. e. room for now saith he the Lord hath made room for us Thus we may say of all our comforts and mercies Rehoboth that is room but of all our afflictions that they are straits Verse 30. In a Feast there are two things extraordinary provision and extraordinary company both are lawful God hath given us the Creature not only for necessity but for delight and it is a clear argument that such use of the Creatures in feasting is lawful because God hath made more Creatures serving for the delight of man than he hath made for the necessity of man If God had meant that men should do nothing but maintain their lives and serve their own necessity so as they might go on in their places and callings one half of the Creatures might have been spared but God made nothing in vain therefore he is willing we should use the creatures for moderate delight Thus Abraham made a great Feast at the weaning of Isaac and Isaac here makes a Feast for Abimelech and Phicol the chief Captain of his Army and the like examples we have in divers other places And our Saviour Christ himself was at a Feast in Cana of Galilee where when Wine fail'd he supplied it by miracles Verse 31. Men may do much and go far in the love of Gods people and yet not love them as they ought to be loved they may hold an outward correspondency with them in outward peace and neighbourhood they may live quietly by them and with them be free from quarrels suits contentions vexations and oppositions against them and in these respects may keep fair quarter with them and yet for all this not love them as Gods people are to
The wicked heart never fears God but thundring or raining fire from Heaven but the good can dread him in his very sun-shine his loving Deliverances and Blessings affect them with awfulness Moses was the true Son of Iacob who when he saw nothing but visions of Love and Mercy could say How dreadful is this place Verse 7. If we would have our greif seen and helped we must endeavour to become Gods People For then sighing and groaning in our several afflictions as these did we may be sure in due time to find our comfort as they found We may hence also learn that affliction doth not shew that the party is disliked of God as the Devil often suggests to men and women in trouble for God calleth these Israelites his People which yet were plunged in the depth of misery and affliction Verse 11. This should teach every one of us humility and to say with Moses Who am I Lord that thou should'st thus and thus think of me chuse me and take me to that place that I have no strength to manage and which thousands of my Brethren are fitter for than I am This also may put us in mind of the weighty calling of Ministers For is it such a matter to strive with Pharaoh for Bodies and temporal servitude and is it nothing to fight with the Devil for Souls and freedome from eternal slavery Verse 14. See a sweet comfort in all our fears even his Name I AM. Noting that as he hath been to penitent sinners so ever he will be without any change If I call upon him and depend upon him I AM is his Name and I may not doubt of him he is no Changeling but the same for ever Verse 16. When any new thing is to be published that concerneth any change in Church or Common-wealth we must acquaint the Magistrates Rulers and Governours with it to approve our Commission and matter unto them with all Modesty Humility Fear and Care of Order and Unity and then with their consents and assistance unto the People and Multitude This is a right course and this shall have a Blessing from the Author of it as here it had Then shall they obey thy voice verse 18. Verse 18. See again and still most carefully note it how God regardeth Government For now Pharaoh must be used as was fit for his place he being the King of that Land in which they were wicked Pharaoh I say must not be disorderly dealt with by such as live under his Government although Strangers and not his natural Subjects how much then by natural Subjects But he must be gone unto with all duty and acquainted with their desire with all reverence that neither themselves may be judged factious neither others by their examples moved to any disorder And therefore they must acquaint him with the Author of their desires not their own heads lusting after liberty or novelty but the Lord God Verse 21. All hearts are in the hands of God even as the Rivers of Water and that he turneth them hither and thither at his pleasure He can make them love hate they never so much Yea he can make them so love that fruits from thence shall flow to his People of their love Be they Jewels of Silver or Rayment they shall grant it and send it give it or lend it with so willing a mind as the party taking needeth to wish CHAP. IV. Verse 3. THe heart of man is like the Rod of Moses as long as he held it in his hand it remained a Rod but when he threw it to the ground it turn'd instantly into a Serpent nay a Dragon the Prince of Serpents as Philo the Iew saith so the heart of man as long as there is fast hold of it as long as Man is the Possessor God the Guardian it continues still an heart but if our boistrous unruly sins once throw it to the earth it changeth instantly to be a Serpent From whence all carnal and earthly-minded men may learn whose Consciences at the reading hereof tell them that their hearts are turn'd into Serpents and Vipers by their sins and are now crawling on the earth in their lustful designes to stretch forth a hand of sorrow a hand of true repentance to take them up again in what shape soever they appear For he that was exalted on the Crosse as the Serpent in the Wildernesse shall turn those Serpents into Hearts again their Gall and Poison into Innocence their Sting of Death into Issues of Immortal Life Verse 4. Sin is a Serpent and hath a deadly sting in the tayl of it even the sting of Death For the sting of death is sin saith St. Paul Now as a man would fly from a Serpent so let him fly from sin But if thou hast taken this Serpent into thy hand rest not till like Moses Serpent it be turned into a Rod again to scourge thy Soul till a true sense of thy sins and of Gods Wrath due unto thee for the same bring thee to a serious repentance and contrition to a spiritual loathing and abhorrency of those sins that so thou maist never cast thine eye back upon them but with a new and a particular detestation thou maist never enter into meditation of those sinful passages of thy former life but with shame and horror of soul and that every solemn review of those dayes of darkness and unregeneration may make the wounds of our remorse to bleed afresh Verse 7. When Moses pluck'd his hand out of his bosome it was leprous and again when he pluck'd it out it was white to shew that the actions of our hands receive their denomination from the bosome the heart according to that saying of the Father Tantum habent virtutis aut vitii actiones quantum habent voluntatis Verse 12. He that is singled out to any service of his God for the advantage of his Israel must not give back or waver but go boldly on If a willing obedience second his Command God promiseth to assist I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say was Gods Promise here to Moses and it was his Sons to the Apostles Mat. 10. 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak As if he had said be not anxious about matter or manner of your Apology for your selves ye shall be supplied from on High both with Invention and Elocution you shall have your help from Heaven For it is not you that speak saith our Saviour in the next verse but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you who borroweth your mouth for the present to speak by It is he that forms your speeches for you dictates them to you filleth you with matter and furnisheth you with words Fear not therefore your rudeness to reply there is no mouth into which God cannot put words And how oft doth he chuse the Weak and Unlearned to confound
the Wise and Mighty as he did Balaams Asse to confute his Master Verse 20. Husbands see from hence the heart of a good man to have his Wife and Children with him Wives and Children see their duty to be followers willingly of their Husbands or Fathers calling even into any Country And when I look at Moses his Rod methinks I see little David marching chearfully with his Staffe and Scrip against huge Goliah Good Lord what Weapons were those against him then in mans eyes Or this Staffe now in Moses hand against Pharaoh But God is the same both here and then and for ever strong in weakness and able to match a Kings Scepter with a Stick or a Staffe or a Stone or a word in the hand or mouth of one sent and appointed by him Verse 22. Gods Church is to him as a Man-child to the Father yea as the First-born which commonly is loved most tenderly and in greatest honour Now think with your selves how you could endure to stand and look upon an abuse offered to your First-born and then think of Gods Love to his Church whose affection as much excelleth yours as God excelleth man Now as tender Fathers for the good of their Children suffer them to lie in prison and to be school'd many wayes by want and affliction and yet in the midst of all have an eye to them a love to them and a settled purpose to help them when a love may be known a love and a good a good So our God knows his times and turns and our wants perfectly fitting the one to the other most mercifully that both our corruption and his goodness may best appear to the greatest benefit unto us He may see us humbled and school'd and tamed but undone and cast away for ever he cannot endure it he will not suffer it Verse 24. I do not so much marvel that Iethro gave Moses his Daughter for he saw him valiant wise learned nobly bred as that Moses would take her a Stranger both in bloud and Religion The choice had like to have cost him dear in this verse His Wife stood in his way for Circumcision God stands in his way for Revenge Though he was now upon Gods Message yet might he not be forborn in this neglect No circumstance either of the dearness of the Sollicitor or of our own engagement can bear out a sin with God Those which are unequally yoaked may not ever look to draw one way True Love to the Person cannot long agree with dislike of the Religion He had need to be more than a Man that hath a Zipporah lying in his bosome and can have true zeal in his heart Learn further from hence all unquiet Women what your ignorance and your obstinacy bringeth your Husbands unto though they be as Moses holy and vertuous they cannot serve God aright for you they cannot do what God requireth but you break their hearts you cool their zeal you turn them out of the way and in the end you bring them to a fearful danger of Gods destroying them Verse 26. That which Zipporah should have esteemed as a signal Mercy to her Child she interprets as a Judgement and that very Covenant of God of which Circumcision was the seal which she should have received with the greatest return of thanks was entertained with disobedience both toward her Husband and her God Thus ignorant and unthankful people mis-interpret and repine at the Dispensations of Gods Providence and that which God designes for a Mercy and a Blessing to them they take it as a Judgement and a Curse It is good for me that I was afflicted faith David Yet how many are there in the World that think otherwise and would chuse rather to be out of the Covenant than be circumcised to perish hereafter than be afflicted here CHAP. V. Verse 1. PHaraoh raged before much more now that he received a Message of dismission the Monitions of God make ill men worse the Waves do not beat nor roar any where so much as at the Bank which restraines them Corruption when 't is checked grows mad with rage as the vapour in a Cloud would not make that fearful report if it met not with opposition A good heart yeilds at the stillest Voice of God but the most gracious Motions of God harden the wicked Many would not be so desperately setled in their sins if the World had not controul'd them How mild a Message was this to Pharaoh and yet how galling God commands him that which he feared He took pleasure in the present servitude of Israel God cals for a release If the Suit had been for mitigation of labour for preservation of their Children it might have carried some hope and have found some favour But now God requires that which he knows will as much discontent Pharaoh as Pharaohs cruelty could discontent the Israelites How contrary are Gods Precepts to mans mind And indeed as they love to crosse him in their practise so he loves to crosse them in his Commands before and their Punishments after Verse 4. Moses talks of Sacrifice Pharaoh talks of Work Any thing seems due Work to a carnal mind saving Gods Service nothing superfluous but religious Duties Christ tels us there is but one thing necessary Nature tels us there is nothing but that needless Moses speaks of Devotion Pharaoh of Idleness It hath been an old use as to cast fair colours upon our own vitious actions so to cast evil aspersions upon the good actions of others The same Devil that spoke in Pharaoh speaks still in our Scoffers and cals Religion Hypocrisie conscionable Care Singularity Every Vice hath a title and every Vertue a disgrace Verse 8. Wicked men have no eyes often to see the true causes of a thing but most apt and ready to devise a false Let a man or woman be grieved extraordinarily with the burthen of their sins and with groans and sighs travail under the bitterness of it What say the Wicked Oh it is Melancholy and the body must be purged Festus imagineth Paul mad when he speaketh the words of Truth and Soberness Act. 26. 24. And that much learning made him mad when Learning is Wisdome and maketh wise Yea Heli himself mistaketh Anna a vertuous Woman and deemeth her to be drunk when ravished in her holy feeling she was crying to God in fervent Prayer 1 Sam. 2. Verse 11. The nearer that God draweth to his Church and Children to do them good the more the Devil rageth in and by his Members against them Remember that example in Mar. 9. 26. How the foul Spirit being commanded to depart rent and tare the party more and worse than ever before We cannot leave any sin wherein we have continued but by and by we shall be discouraged sometimes with threats sometimes with shew of perils and losses that may ensue But stand and shrink not and say in your heart now now is my God at hand for now I see and feel
ear was a sign of obedience and figuratively admonished that Servants must not be deaf but quick and ready and willing to hear what is commanded them And spiritually that if we be the Lords Servants he boreth by his holy Grace our Ear that is he maketh us have Ears to hear his holy Word not to cast it behind our Backs and stop our Eares against it but with Care and Zeal and Love we hearken to it as Men and Women whose Eares he hath opened and bored Verse 14. Although the worst men will make use of Gods Altar for their advantage and many will cling fast to it in their extremity who in their welfare regarded it not yet the Altar of God must be no Sanctuary for presumptuous Murtherers And indeed what have bloody hands to do with the holy innocent Altar of God Miserable Murtherers what help can ye expect from that sacred Pile Those Horns that were sprinkled by the bloud of Beasts abhorre to be touch'd by the bloud of Men Gods Altar is for the expiation of sin by bloud not for the protection of the sin of bloud And this was Ioabs Case 1 Kings 2. who fled to the Horns of the Altar and told Benaiah that he would die there but young Solomon was so well acquainted with this Law of God that he sticks not at the killing of Ioab even there For he knew Ioabs Murthers had not been more presumptuous then guiltful and therefore he sends Benaiah to take away the Offender both from God and Men from the Altar and the World Verse 15. God doth not say he that killeth Father or Mother shall be killed for it but he that smiteth so that not so much as a blow is to be given to Parents upon pain of death no not with the tongue may we smite them so great is the honour of Parents before God and so sharp a Judge is God against all abusers of them Verse 17. He that curseth Father or Mother shall surely die saith Moses here and he that is but stubborn towards them shall die saith the same Prophet Deut. 21. 18. The dutiful love of Children to Parents is so rooted in Nature that Demosthenes saith That it is against the impressions and against the Law of Nature for any Child ever to love that man that hath done execution upon his Father though by way of Justice And this natural Obligation is not condition'd with the limitations of a good or a bad Father Natura te non bono patri sed patri conciliavit saith that little great Philosopher Epictetus Nature hath not bound thee to thy Father as he is a good Father but meerly as he is a Father Verse 24. The Light of Reason and Nature given us of God teacheth that what measure we mete it is just we should receive even the like again Neither did Christ repeal this Mat. 5. but only condemn'd the abuse of this Law according to private affections and for the nourishing of private revenge by private CHAP. XXII Verse 9. THe Cause shall be brought before the Iudges saith our English Translation but in the Hebrew it is before the Gods For Magistrates in the Scripture are call'd Gods First by Analogie saith Theodoret as resembling God by having the power of Life and Death Secondly by Participation saith Saint Austin for as Stars participate their light from the Sun so do Rulers their Authority from the Supream Majesty Thirdly by Deputation from God whose Vicegerent they are and to whom they must be accountable for their evil administration Magistrates then being in the place of God and entrusted with his Power must have a care that they represent not God to the World as a corrupt crooked and unrighteous Judge As they are invested with his Name let them indeavour to express his Nature to be both just and merciful Verse 11. In all Oaths God is the chief Witness as in all Judicatures he is the chief Judge and therefore it is call'd here the Oath of the Lord first because God is call'd in as the chief Witness and Avenger Have a care therefore what thou swearest for thou art in the presence of thy Creator who can strike thee both dumb and dead He that made thy Mouth made it for his Glory and if thou turnest that Glory into a Lie know that God will be sure to avenge his own Oath and his own Glory Secondly it is called the Oath of God in this Text because it is taken in his presence For God is Present and President by a particular Providence as Lord Paramount and chief Magistrate higher than the Highest And therefore the Aethiopian Judges do ever leave the chief Seat of Judicature empty as being Gods Place where he standeth or sitteth himself to behold the Actions and Affections of the Court and to passe a Censure as well upon the Judge as the Prisoner or Witness Verse 16. Every Marriage before it be knit should be contracted as it is here and in Deut. 22. 28. which stay between the Contract and the Marriage was the time of longing for their Affection to settle in because the deferring of what we love doth kindle the desire which if it came easily and speedily unto us we set lesse by it Therefore we read that Ioseph and Mary were contracted before married In the Contract Christ was conceived in the Marriage born that he might honour both Estates Verse 29. Thou shalt offer to me saith God the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors as our Translation hath it The word in the original is Lacrimarum and of thy tears The first tears must be offered to God for sin The second and third may be to Nature and Civility and such secular Offices But it is St. Chrysostomes Exclamation will any wash in foul Water for sore Eyes Will any man embalm the Carcass of the World which he treads under foot with those tears which should embalm his Soul Did Ioseph of Arimathea bestow any of the Perfumes though he brought a superfluous quantity for one body upon the body of either of the Theives CHAP. XXIII Verse 1. IF to give the hearing be in some sort to put to the hand surely to have itching ears to hear evil Reports of our Christian Brethren with delight and contentment to believe them is to put to the hand much more Yet what so common in our Mouths as I am not the Author I am not the first Raiser I heard it I have my Author God that made this Law against receiving knoweth that hearing goeth before receiving and if not receive then not hear not believe not report to others Verse 2. If this may not be done in civil Matters much lesse may it be done in Religion and matters of Faith The words are plain Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil therefore a multitude may erre and do evil Neither decline after many to overthrow truth therefore a multitude may overthrow truth And how then can it be
a Deliverer so famous a Governour so dear to God so familiar with God and so graced and honoured by God And yet how contemptuously they speak of him when they say this Moses this Moses And therefore by this example let all wise Ministers never rely upon the multitude but upon the Author of their Calling joy in their obedience to him rest upon his gracious acceptance and leave the world to be a World full of unthankfulness to all degrees of well Deservers Verse 3. Aaron demanded their golden Ear-rings thinking they would not have given them For in the East Countries such Ear-rings were Ornaments and the pleasures of Women But he was deceived so pleasing to our corruption is Idolatry and Superstition that we spare no cost to set that forward And indeed their Idol was their Jewel Verse 6. Those Sacrifices were such as God had appointed but now diverted from their use and therefore nothing lesse than pleasing unto God Which shews that although we use the same words in our Prayers and do the same things that the Scripture appointeth if they differ from right as these Sacrifices did here we pull down Gods Wrath upon us instead of his Blessing Verse 7. The Lord cals them Moses People whereas they were the Lords People and by his mighty Arm delivered not by Moses his strength Thus doth the Lord ascribe to his Ministers what his Power worketh by them that so they may be encouraged in their pains and the People know to love them hearing God himself say that they be their People Verse 8. Note the word and also the manner if the Lord keep us not in his true obedience and send us good Guides To fall away from God is fearful but quickly to be turned aside is an amplification of the fault and maketh it greater Verse 10. This shews the incomprehensible loving kindness of God towards such as truly fear and serve him making them in his Goodness so powerful with him that they are to him as it were bands to tie him and avail against him that he cannot execute his anger against Offendors unless they will suffer him and as it were stand out of the way Thus in Gen. 18. 19. when Sodom was to be destroyed said God for so many and so many I will not do it Thus also Ezek. 22. 30. I sought for a man c. as if God had said might I have found but one to stand in the gap against my wrath even for that one I would have shewn Mercy Let this therefore comfort you that if for other mens sins a true Moses be such a stop to God that he will not punish them think then what force have your own sighs and groans for your own sins before him Can he strike you holding up your hands for Mercy and looking upon him with warry eyes humbled in the dust before him and for his dearest Sons sake in whom he is well pleas'd begging pardon Verse 11. Who knows what Judgements godly Governors turn away by their earnest Prayers to God for their People Which should work in us all Love and Obedience and Duty to them and make us day and night pray for the continuance of them Verse 21. In matters concerning Gods Glory we must rebuke our nearest Allies no place for Affection The Lord hath placed the Commandements in the Decalogue and the Petitions in the Lords Prayer which concern his Honour before those which concern our selves to teach us that we ought to prefer his Glory before all worldly things yea even life it self if it come in question Mar. 10. 37. Thus did Moses also ver 32. prefer Gods Glory which would appear in saving of his People before his own salvation which is far more than this temporal life Verse 31. Moses doubleth in this Chapter the foulness of their fault calling it a great Sin and a greivous sin so teaching us not to extenuate faults before God if you sue for Mercy but to set them out in their true colours that Mercy may the more appear Verse 34. Magistrates and Ministers may not desist from their Duties for the Peoples frowardness but indevouring to the uttermost to reform them they must go on though they perish and even in their so perishing they shall be a sweet Savour to the Lord. Verse 35. Very greivous is the sin of Idolatry that not for Moses his so earnest Prayer may be freed wholly from all further punishment though in part the Lord yieldeth as he did ver 14. CHAP. XXXIII Verse 8. A Sound and upright heart with God will ever in the end procure honour however for a time contempt may be shewed for God will honour them that honour him it is his Word and it shall never fail Would God then men would be moved to seek honour this way by the Favour of God and not of men For God can make men rise up to you that have formerly little regarded you as here he did to Moses the People now that he was in favour with God reverenc'd him whom before they spake very lightly of saying This Moses we know not what is become of him Verse 13. Moses desires of God that he would shew him his Wayes his Dealings his Proceedings with Men that which he cals after his Glory how he glorifies himself upon Man God promiseth in the next verse that he will shew him all his Goodness God hath no way towards Man but Goodness God glorifies himself in nothing upon Man but in his own Goodness And therefore when God comes to the performance of this Promise in the next Chapter he shews him his Way and his Glory and his Goodness in shewing him that he is a merciful God a gracious God a long suffering God And as the Hebrew Doctors note there are thirteen Attributes specified in that place and of all these thirteen there is but one that tastes of Judgement that he will punish the sins of the Fathers upon the Children all the other twelve are meerly Mercy Such a proportion hath his Mercy above his Justice Verse 18. When God had promised Moses in this Chapter to send an Angel to shew the People their way Moses said to God See thou sayest lead this people forth but thou hast not shewed me whom thou wilt send with me God had told him of an Angel but that satisfied not Moses he must have something shew'd to him he must see his Guide and therefore said Moses wilt thou be pleas'd to shew me thy Glory Shall we see any thing Now they did see that Pillar in which God was and that Presence that Pillar shewed the way To us the Church is that Pillar in that God shews us our way For strength it is a Pillar and a Pillar for firmness and fixation But yet the Church is neither an equal Pillar alwayes fire but sometimes Cloud too The Church is more or lesse visible sometimes glorious sometimes eclips'd neither is it so fix'd a Pillar as that it may
cleave not to the Element or Creature of Water but remember Saint Iohn 1 Iohn 5. 6. tels you that Jesus Christ came by Water and Bloud and it is he only that washeth away our spots and saveth us from our sins and by the offering of the Turtles it was plainly figured that not in themselves but in some others they must be made clean from all their impurities CHAP. XVI Verse 2. IN that Aaron was forbidden at all times to enter into the Holiest of Holies we may learn that even Ministers as well as other men are not rashly to enter into all the things of God but to stand in reverence of some Mysteries either dealing not at all or very advisedly and sparingly with them as their nature requires Verse 3. When we appear before God we must come with a Sin-offering that is come with an humble acknowledgement as this Sin-offering figured that thou art a sinner confessing it to God with a greived heart and bring Jesus Christ in thy soul with thee offering him by thy true Faith to God his Father as a sure safety for all sinners against deserved wrath and punishment Verse 4. We must be cloth'd with Christs Righteousness as with this holy linnen Coat if we ever find acceptance with God For to that end Aaron did change his Garment to shew that he sustained another person who was holy he himself being but a man subject to imperfection and sin Now if Aaron might not enter but in such sort how much lesse might the People appear at any time before God but in Christ and by Christ shadowed in all these Sacrifices Verse 21. When confession was made over the Head of the Scape-goat what diversity of words were used as all iniquities all trespasses all sins Why so many words but to teach that confession of sins must not be light and formal only but earnest vehement hearty and zealous And indeed never can a Child of God satisfie himself herein but still wisheth he could more bewail his sins and more earnestly expresse with words what his Soul feeleth in this behalf saying as I heard a dying woman once say O Sir I am sorry and sorry that I can be no more sorry Verse 31. God would name his Sabbath according to the nature of it and Sabbath is rest It is a rest of two kinds our rest and Gods rest Our rest is the cessation from labour on those dayes Gods rest is our sanctifying of the day For so in the religious sacrifice of Noah Gen. 8. when he was come out of the Ark God is said to have smelt odorem quietis the savour of rest Upon those dayes we rest from serving the World and God rests in our serving of him CHAP. XVII Verse 4. THe Reasons of the severity of this Law were first because it served for the preservation of the Ministry which God had ordained and that every Man should not be his own Priest Secondly Because thus they were taught that all Worship of God ought to be guided and directed by his Word and Commandement and not by the private wills of Men. And if you say that Samuel offered in Mizpeh 1 Sam. 7. and Elias in Mount Carmel 1 King 18. and so neither brought the Sacrifice to the door of the Tabernacle you must answer your self thus that all this in these Men was extraordinary and we may not follow extraordinary matters without some such personal and special Vocation as no doubt they had for we do not live by Examples but by Laws Verse 6. The burning and broiling of Beasts and the sprinkling of their Blood upon the Altar could of themselves yield no sweet savour but thereto was added Wine Oyl and Incense by Gods appointment our Prayers as from us would never please but as Indited by the Spirit and presented by Christ they are highly accepted in Heaven Christ is the Incense the perfume of all our Sacrifices and therefore if ever we intend that our Sacrifice either of Praise or Prayers should carry a sweet savour along with it it must be offered up in and by Christ for he is Gods Benjamin the Son of his Love in whom alone God is well pleased Upon which account it is that the Catholick Church doth evermore conclude her Prayers with this Expression Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Verse 10. The Lord by this Law would teach Men to abstain from Murther and Blood-shed the Blood of Man being Vehiculum animae vitalis for the Vital Spirits which yield unto Man through his whole Body heat motion and action are begotten of Blood by the power of the Heart and therefore Mans life and the life of every other Creature is said to be in the Blood according to that of the Poet Purpuream vomit ille animam Secondly Because the Lord had ordained Blood to be used in the Atonement made for Sins as a plain figure of the Blood of Christ the only able Sacrifice to purge and wash away our Sins and Offences therefore he would have Blood regarded as an holy thing and not used by Man as other Meats might be CHAP. XVIII Verse 2. THis Expression I am the Lord your God is often repeated to draw attention and beget Authority For consider first it is thy Lord thy Master that speaks he whose House is the World and all the Creatures his Servants shall we not then listen when this our great Master shall speak Secondly it is thy God that speaks the Eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth he who hath made all preserves all and can as easily destroy all again he who is the All-seeing God that looks upon thee in thy privare Closet in thy bolted Chamber under thy drawn Curtains that sees all thy secret villanies and stoln Embraces all thy wicked Plots and Contrivings and shall we not then hear and fear him What running and striving would there be who should come first if a King or some great Lord should call O let not the Lord of Lords and King of Kings call so oft and thou sleight and neglect it but rather say with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth speak Lord to my Ears that they may hear speak to my Memory that it may retain speak to my Heart and Affections that they may be obedient speak to my Life and Conversation that it may be answerable to thy Word then shall thy servant hear aright and not before Verse 18. If any Man think of some Marriages of holy Men in Scripture contrary to these Rules let him remember that we now live by Laws and not by Examples What God then either approved or tolerated let us neither rashly condemn nor unadvisedly follow but obediently tarry within the Precincts of the Law of Nature And again in these Cases let it ever be remembred as good reason it should not only what is lawful but what also is convenient and fit to be done For many things are lawful which are no way yet expedient but most unfit in
down upon the Disciples in fiery Tongues for the propagation of the Gospel The promulgation of the Law makes way for the Law of the Gospel No man receives the Holy Ghost but he that hath felt the terrors of Sinai Verse 10. This being but one single sheaf that God demanded it might strike their hearts with a pious sense of his Goodness that giveth so much and taketh so little that giveth without measure and taketh by measure yea by a very small measure So let it still profit us to this day for even now also we receive much and give little would we give that little thankfully and chearfully what a comfort would God take in it Though he need none of our Goods only seeking to exercise our obedience and love Verse 11. This shaking of the sheaf before the Lord taught them to acknowledge that the blessing of new Corn every year cometh neither from the fertility of the ground nor the labour and industry of man but from the Lord. Verse 14. This Feast having its time assigned they could not enter upon their Harvest before it was full ready which by this time it would be unless they would either reap before they offered this first sheaf or offer it before the day appointed And so you see it had an use to restrain ill Husbands and to make them more careful that old Corn might be kept till new came A gracious God that will so care for sinful Man Verse 24. Some think that this Feast was instituted for a remembrance of the pardoning of that grievous Idolatry committed by erecting and worshipping the Golden Calf others that they might learn holy Assemblies to be appointed by the voice of God and if they then when they heard these Trumpets blow might think God called for them to the meeting why should not we now having our Bells for their Trumpets think God calleth for us to the Assemblies of the Faithful when we hear them ring in our Ears Surely I know a feeling heart doth and therefore cannot be quiet without going And upon this account this Feast might be a figure shewing how Christ by the preaching of the Gospel as by a loud Trumpet should be spread over the World and our Salvation by him In regard whereof the Prophets bids the Ministers lift up their voices like Trumpets Isai. 58. 1. Verse 34. The use of this Feast was to remember the Jews of their Estate when they had no Houses but lived in Tents or Tabernacles and Booths as also to preach unto them the Doctrine afterward delivered by the Apostle That here we have no abiding City but should reckon of our Honses as of Tabernacles for a time And might we not heretofore remember upon our Feasts our state past under cruelty bondage our wars and Dissentions in this Land the fall of our Friends and the change of many Houses our Imposions and Taxes and in a word very many Miseries and Calamities laying them to those then present times wherein we enjoyed Truth and Liberty of Conscience without either death or danger what a change was this to a Man that knoweth and feeleth the blessing Let us therefore do what we ought to do and what the Jews did thank God most heartily for the change and beseech him to restore us such times that in peace we may live in peace dye and in peace that never endeth live with him for ever Verse 37. These Feasts you may see were in remembrance for the most part of some benefits and mercies of God and therefore plainly teach us what a due duty from us to God it is to remember carefully and thankfully his loving favours shewed to us at any time upon any occasion Thus the stones were commanded to be set up by Ioshua 4. 6 7. for a sign to the Jews that when their Children should ask their Fathers c. CHAP. XXIV Verse 2. IN these times of Shadows and Figures those Lights signified that while they were thus used the true Light was not yet come by which all true Believers should be delivered from the darkness of Death And further this Light was a figure also of true Doctrine which ever must shine in the Church of God The Oyl Olive which they are commanded to bring must be pure likewise to shew that that Doctrine must have no mixture of Mans devices but be pure Verse 10. Though the Father of this Offender was a stranger an Egyptian yet God would not spare him how much less then his own people I mean Christians by Father and Mother Baptized in his Faith brought up in his fear hearers of his Word and Professors of it Secondly Though this Man committed this fault in his anger yet God spared him not how then do we excuse our Offences by our Anger saying it was in my wrath I said so or did so Verse 11. This Blaspheming was Cursing the other by the Name of God such as our fearful and Damnable Phrases are Gods Curse light on thee the Plague of God take thee which kind of Speaking is not only a breach of the Second Table concerning the love to our Neighbour but a breach also of the First Table by taking Gods most Holy Name in vain and then to use God in your Revenge and to make him a party or an Executioner of your Rage wishing that he may Curse and Plague where you will he being all Mercy all Goodness all Justice O what an encrease of your sin is this Verse 12. This grievous Offender is not winked at by them that heard him neither yet punished by them that had no Authority out of a colour of Zeal but he is orderly and by a right Zeal carried to Moses the Magistrate and his offence opened there Moses again although such a man yet will do nothing hastily in Judgement and especially touching Life but he will be advised by God and in the mean time committeth him to Ward Verse 14. By this Ceremony of putting their hands upon his Head the Lord made the Witnesses careful what they said for it taught them that if they bare false Witness then were they guilty of the Blood of him so shed but if they spake truly then as he that offered a Sacrifice by laying his Hand upon the head of it did cast his sins upon the Beast so they by that Ceremony laid his Blood upon his own head and they remained clear and blameless yea the whole Congregation by such Execution of Justice is cleansed So that when Phineas had slain the wicked Person it is said he turned the wrath of God from the Land Numb 25. and the killing of the wicked is called Victima Dei the sacrifice of God Isai. 34. Ier. 46. Verse 16. When the Lord will have the whole Congregation to stone him he maketh tryal of the zeal of all and teacheth all to concur with the Magistrate in love and liking of Justice and in furthering of it so far as belongeth to every mans place Whereas
here 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 by right of Redemption because he Redeemed them he saved them he delivered them from the house of bondage and he that is saved is not his own but his that saved him And so the first-born here were Types first of Christ who was the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8. 29. To whom therefore we must give the honour of his first Birth-right all our sheaves must veil and bow to his sheaf Secondly of Christians Those first-born whose Names are written in Heaven Heb. 12. 23. who are dear to God as his first-born CHAP. IX Verse 3. THe Paschal Lamb was taken up the Tenth day but not Sacrificed until the fourteenth that they might so kill the Passover as first to sanctifie themselves and prepare their Brethren For which cause also it was a received Tradition among the Jews that during those four dayes the Lamb was tyed to their Bed-posts to put them in mind of what they were to do and then in the Evening they eat it which signified that Christ came and was offered up in the Evening of the World in the last dayes saith the Apostle God sent his Son Heb. 1. 2. In the last hour 1 Ioh. 5. when all lay buried in darkness in the Even-tide of our sin and death Verse 6. It appears that these good men that were shut out from this part of Gods service by reason they were defiled by touching a dead body were much grieved and troubled in mind that they were bar'd from the Passover and therefore make earnest complaint to Moses for the separation desiring to be eased and relieved by him From whence we are taught that it is a great cause of sorrow and grief to Gods dear Children when they are by any just occasion or the hand of God upon them with-held and kept back from the parts and exercises of his Worship This was the ground of Davids complaint in the Psalms where he maketh the condition of the Sparrow and Swallow to be better than his which might come nearer to the Altar of God than he But on the other side Carnal and Worldly men lament bitterly for earthly losses and troubles but never trouble themselves for the loss of spiritual things Nay they are vex'd and tormented as if they were upon the rack that they are constrain'd to come so oft to the Word to the Sacrament to the House of Prayer they cry with them in Amos When will the Sabbath be done Amos 8. 5. and with those other When shall we depart out of Syon it is time we be gone Verse 11. The Israelite here were to eat the Passover with unleavened Bread with soundness in point of Faith and sincerity in point of practice to watch carefully against corruption in Life and Doctrine which should teach us to be punctual in our preparation to and participation of the Christian Passover to abstain and purge our selves from the leaven of malice and wickedness for a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump one spoonful of Vinegar will soon tart a great deal of sweet Milk but a great deal of Milk will not so soon sweeten one spoonful of Vinegar The Israelites likewise were to eat the Passover here with bitter herbs to teach that looking upon Christ whom they have pierc'd men should be in bitterness and feel what an evil and bitter thing sin is being ready to suffer hardship with Christ though he should feed us to the full with bitter herbs and make us drunk with Wormwood so that at last we be rewarded with the Milk and Honey of an Eternal Canaan Verse 17. This Cloud was their guide and conduct in all their wayes when it moved they moved and when it stood still they rested which should teach thee in all thy wayes to acknowledg and look up to God and he shall direct thy paths As God carefully chose out the Israelites way in the Wilderness not the shortest but yet the safest for them so will God do for all those that make him their guide The Athenians had a conceit that their Goddess Minerva turn'd all their evil Counsels into good unto them and the Romans thought that their Visibilia another Heathenish Deity set them again in the right way when at any time they were out All this and more than this is undoubtedly done by the true God for all that commit their wayes unto him for direction and success Lo this is our God saith the Psalmist for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death Ps. 48. 14. CHAP. X. Verse 2. SEeing these silver Trumpets served for the Camp and the Congregation to assemble and remove and that the power of making them is committed to Moses who hath the sole prerogative to call and dissolve Assemblies about publick affairs we learn that it belongs to Kings and Princes as their proper Right to gather together and to dismiss such as are gathered together Every one hath not authority to draw multitudes together we must have lawful and orderly Assemblies In Egypt without Pharaoh no man might lift up his hand or foot Gen. 41. Secondly it reproves those that being summoned by the sound of these Trumpets i. e. call'd together by a lawful Magistrate refuse to come this was the sin of Corah and his Complices And we know their fearful punishment for that sin In the natural body the beginning of all motion is from the Head and so it ought to be in the Body Politick Thirdly This reproves those that assemble before they are call'd Corah and his Confederates would not assemble when they were call'd these assemble before they be call'd the other were too slow and dull these are too quick and nimble-headed So then all must keep their places and standings they must come when they are call'd and they must be call'd before they come Verse 10. As the Priests here were to sound their silver Trumpets at their solemn Feasts for a monument of spiritual gladness before the Lord so must Ministers of the Gospel publish the glad-tidings of the Gospel Speak to the heart of Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplish'd her sin is pardoned Isai. 40. 2. Make the people hear the joyful sound that they may walk in the sence of Gods presence and in the light of his countenance which is joy of the Holy Ghost and upon this account it was that this and other Musical Instruments used in Gods service as part of the Jewish Pedagogy were types of that spiritual joy which we Christians should express in holy duties no less than if we heard the most exquisite Musick There should be continual Musick habitual joy in Gods Children who are the Temple of the Holy Ghost Therefore it was that the
not so affect us if it were not with the danger of our own Secure minds never startle till God come home to their sences Verse 4. The Midianites joyn with the Moabites in Consultation in Action against Israel one would have thought they should have look'd for favour from Moses for Iethro's sake who was both a Prince in their Country and Father in Law to Moses and either now or not long before was with Israel in the Wilderness Neither is it unlike but that Moses having found forty years harbour among them would have been what he might inclineable to favourable treaties with them but now they are so fast link'd to Moab that they will either sink or swim together Intireness with wicked consorts is one of the strongest Chains of Hell and binds us to a participation both of sin and punishment an easie occasion will knit wicked hearts together in conspiracy against the Church of God Verse 6. Their Errand is Divelish Come curse Israel that which Sathan could not do by the Sword of Og and Seon he will now try to effect by the Tongue of Balaam If either strength or policy would prevail against Gods Church it could not stand And why should not we be as industrious to promote the glory of God and bend both our hands and heads to the causes of the Almighty When all helps fail Moab the Magician is sent for it is the sign of a desperate Cause to make Sathan either our Counsellor or Refuge Verse 9. I should wonder to hear God speak with a false Prophet if I did not know it hath been no rare thing with him as with men to bestow words where he will not bestow favour Not the sound of the voice of God but the matter which he speaks argues love he may speak to an Enemy he speaks peace to none but his own It is a vain bragg God hath spoken to me so may he do to Reprobates or Devils but what said he Did he say to my Soul I am thy Salvation hath he indented with me that he will be my God and I shall be his I cannot hear this voice and not live God heard all the Consultation and Message of these Moabites these Messengers could not have moved their Foot or their Tongue but in him and yet he which asked Adam where he was asks Balaam What men are these I have ever seen that God loves to take occasion of proceeding with us from our selves rather than from his own immediate prescience Hence it is that we lay open our Wants and confess our sins to him that knows both better than our own hearts because he will deal with us from our own mouths Verse 12. The reward of the divination had easily commanded the Journey and Curse of the Covetous Prophet if God had not stayed him How oft are Wicked men Curs'd by a Divine hand even in those sins which their Hearts stand to It is no thank to lewd men that their Wickedness is not prosperous Whence it is that the World is not over-run with Evil but from this that Men cannot be so ill as they would Verse 15. Where Wickedness meets with power it thinks to command all the World and takes great scorn of any repulse So little is Balack discouraged for one refusal that he sends so much the stronger Message more Princes and more Honourable O that we could be so importuuate for our good as Wicked Men are for the compassing of their designs a Denial doth but whet the desires of vehement Suitors Why are we faint in Spiritual things when we are not denied but delayed Verse 22. We that see only the outside of Balaam may wonder why he that permitted him to go afterward opposeth his going but God that saw his Heart perceived what corrupt affections carried him he saw that his covetous desires and wicked hopes grew the stronger the nearer he came to his end an Angel is therefore sent to with-hold the hasty Sorcerer Our inward disposition is the life of our actions according to that doth the God of Spirits judge us whiles men censure according to our external motions To go at all when God had commanded to stay was presumptuous but to go with a desire to Curse made the act doubly sinful and fetcht an Angel to resist it It is one of the worthy employments of good Angels to make secret opposition to evill designs many a wicked act have they hindred without the knowledg of the Agent It is all one with the Almignty to work by Spirits and Men it is therefore our glory to be thus set on Work to stop the course of evill either by disswasion or violence is an Angelical service Verse 28. That no man may marvel to see Balaam have visions from God and utter Prophecies from him his very Ass hath his Eyes opened to see the Angel which his Master could not and his mouth opened to speak more reasonably than his Master There is no Beast deserves so much wonder as this of Balaam whose common sence is advanc'd above the Reason of his Rider so as for the time the Prophet is brutish and the Beast Prophetical who can but stand amaz'd at the Eye at the Mouth of this silly Creature for so dull a sight it was much to see a bodily object that were not too apparent but to see that Spirit which his Rider discern'd not was far beyond Nature To hear a Voice to come from that Mouth which was used only to bray it was strange and uncouth but to hear a Beast whose Nature is noted for incapacity to out-reason his Master a professed Prophet is in the very height of Miracles Yet no heart can stick at these that considers the dispensation of the Almighty in both Our Eye could no more see a Beast than a Beast can see an Angel if he had not given this power to it and if his power can make the very Stones to speak how much more a Creature of sense we may wonder we cannot distrust when we compare the act with the Author which can as easily Create a Voice without a Body as a Body without a Voice There is no Mouth into which God cannot put words and how oft doth he chose the weak and unwise to confound the Learned and Mighty Verse 32. I hear the Angel of God taking notice of the cruelty of Balaam to his Beast his first words to the unmerciful Prophet are in expostulating the wrong We little think it but God shall call us to an account for the cruel unmerciful usage of his poor mute Creatures He hath made us Lords not Tyrants Owners not Tormentors he that hath given us leave to kill them for our use hath not given us power to abuse them at our pleasure they are so our Drudges as that they are our Fellows by Creation It was a signe the Magician would easily strike Israel with a Curse when he wish'd for a Sword to strike his harmless Beast It is
many other examples alledg'd to teach us that it is lawful to gather an Hoast to put on Armour to guird our selves with the Sword and to joyn in Battel with our Enemies Those then that are call'd to be Souldiers must learn from hence not to be feeble and faint-hearted but to be bold as in the work of the Lord. True Religion doth not weaken the hearts of Men and make them Cowards For first it teacheth and informeth the Conscience that the cause of the War is good just and warrantable by the Word of God without which knowledge in the heart how ugly how foul how cruel a thing is the effusion and shedding of Blood Secondly as true Religion establisheth the Conscience touching the lawfulness of War so it teacheth them to commit themselves and their lives into the hands of God as to a faithful keeper and to be perswaded if they Conquer they conquer to the Lord if they be wounded and fall they fall and dye unto the Lord. CHAP. XXI Verse 6. THe Jews were much used to outward Washings and vainly imagined that those were sufficient to cleanse them throughout And here the washing of their hands over the Heifer was as much as to say the guilt of innocent Blood doth no more stick to my Conscience than the filth now washed off doth to my fingers But what Pharisaical washing is this to purifie the hands and pollute the heart O Ierusalem Ierusalem wash thy heart from wickedness saith the Prophet Ier. 4. And cleanse your hands you sinners was the Apostles Exhortation Iames 4. but withall Purifie your he arts ye double-minded and this for many reasons For First God and Nature ever begin at the heart it is the first thing that lives and the last that dyes and therefore it is the first the Devil gives assault to and the last that he gives over Secondly Were there never a Devil the heart hath an ill Spirit of its own to trouble it and had we neither hands eyes nor feet our hearts would find the way to Hell and therefore there is great reason we should look to purge and cleanse that for if this Spring this Fountain be clean the streams that flow from it will be so too Verse 12. Secular Learning is not so Heathenish but it may be made Christian as this Captive in the Text was not such an Infidel but she might become a Convert and part of the Israel of God Aristotle and Plato and Seneca are not of such a Reprobate sence as to stand wholly excommunicate in the Christian Church For Aristotles Metaphysicks may help to convince an Atheist of a God and his Demonstrations prove Shiloes advent to a Jew And therefore though it is true the Scripture was ever the Levites predominant Element yet if you will make him a perfect mixt body the Arts also are to be necessary Ingredients And upon this account when Adrian the sixth in his Tract De vera Philosophia cries down humane Learning with a noise of Fathers yet he concludes Utilem esse scientiam Gentilium dummodo in usum Christianum convertatur that to shave and pare the captive Woman and then Espouse her was ever held lawful Matrimony Verse 13. The Wicked Mans Wine is best at first the good Mans at last the Devil deals by the one as Iael by Sifera speaks them fair at first till he hath lull'd them a sleep in security and then he involves them in misery But God doth by his Children as the Hebrew was to do by the captive Woman in this Text which he had a desire to Marry at first he appointeth us a time of Mourning but afterwards he vouchsafes us the fruition of himself in glory The freshest Rivers of Carnal Pleasure shall end in a salt Sea of despairing Tears whereas the wettest Seed-time of a pious Life shall end in the Sun-shining Harvest of a peaceful Death In a word the Transgressor how pleasant soever his beginnings be his last end shall be dolorous but the upright how troublesome soever his Life be his death shall be joyous For the end of that man is peace Psalm 37. CHAP. XXII Verse 1. IF thou must not suffer thy Brothers Ox or his Ass to go astray much less maist thou suffer his Soul but thou must endeavour in all Christian wisdom and meekness to reduce it from the dangerous precipeces both of sin and error Thou must pull thy Brother out of Hell as the Angel pull'd Lot out of Sodom as ye would save a drowning man though ye pull'd off some of his hair to save him Neither must we of the Gospel be merciful only to our Brother but also to our Enemy This is an hard task you will say but hard or not hard it must be done be it never so contrary to our foul nature We must seal up our love to our Enemies by all good expressions which are to be referr'd to these three heads First We must bless them speak kindly to them and of them they must have our good word Secondly We must do good to them i. e. be ready to help and relieve them upon all occasions Thirdly We must pray for them that God would pardon their sins and turn their hearts This was our Saviours precept to love our Enemies and the same also was his practice He melted over Ierusalem the slaughter-house of himself and his Saints and was grieved at the hardness of their hearts Next for Words he prayed Father forgive them and for deeds he not only not call'd fire from Heaven or Legions of Angels against them but did them all good for Bodies and Souls for he heal'd Malchus ear wash'd Iudas his feet like that good Samaritan he was at pains and cost with them Now if we would be Christs Disciples we must follow his example do good not to our Brethren only but also to our very Enemies Verse 10. This and the following Verses forbid all mixture and Toleration in Religion we must keep our selves to one God and serve him and none with him If Baal be God follow him saith Eliah 1 King 18. and if the Lord be God follow him how long will ye hault between two Opinions It is a foul-imperfection to hault yet more shameful long to hault most of all between two wayes and miss them both To be inconstant in Civil matters which are in their own Nature inconstant is weakness But in Religion which is alwaies constant and one and the same to be unsetled is the greatest folly in the World for he that is not assured of one Religion is sure to be saved by none And there fore it is very strange to me that in this glorious light of the Gospel now among us which we so much boast of we should see so many Bats flying which a Man cannot tell what to make of whether Birds or Mice These are Plantanimals like the wonderful sheep in Muscovy Epicens they are Amphibia animalia Creatures that sometimes live in the Waters