very word Subah they would have returned in sackcloth and ashes And so likewise in the 80. Psalme Turn us again O Lâ—rd saith David and we shall be saved There goes no more to salvation but such a turning So that this returning of the Lord is an operative an effectual returning that turns our hearts and eyes and hands and feet to the waies of God and produceth in us repentance and obedience Verse 3. At what time soever man repents of his sins from the bottom of his heart at that very time God will repent of the judgment he intended against that man And thus here when Gods People should be carried away captive into any strange Land if then in their captivity they would turn unto God God would immediately turn unto them For the only reason why God doth not repent of the evil of punishment is because we do not repent of the evil of sinne the onely reason why God delayes to turn away his wrath is because we delay to turn unto him We cry How long Lord how long when wilt thou have mercy upon England and God calls How long O England how long when will you turn unto me with all your heart when will it once be Jer. 13. I appeal to your consciences that read this is it fit God should cease fighting against you by the sword before you cease fighting against him by your sins but if ye would turn unto God let me assure you the very same day that you turn God will turn You have Scripture for it Hag. 2. 18. nay let me tell you the very minute that you begin to repent God will repent Ier. 18. 7 8. At what instant I shall say to a nation c. as a personal repentance is a meanes to obtain a personal salvation so a national repentance is a meanes to obtain a national salvation at that very instance that thou turnest from thy sin God will turn from his anger and have compassion on thee Verse 10. The Decrees of God are not all of them absolute but many of them conditional If thou wilt hearken unto the Lord thy God and keep his Commandments saith the Text then the Lord will blesse thee and rejoyce over thee for good c. And though this condition be not alwaies exprest yet it is to be understood of course there are some Promises absolutely exprest in Scripture but yet made upon condition and so to be understood as some threatnings are made upon condition of impenitency so are some promises upon condition of obedience Yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Jonah 3. 4. the Threatning seems to be absolute and definite yet to be understood with this reserve unlesse Nineveh repent So for Promises though Gods decree concerning Elies house seemed to be most absolute I said indeed that thy house should walk before me for ever 1 Sam. 2. yet that God intends a condition is most plain because God adds the condition verse 30. of that Chapter so that you see whether God doth threaten a Judgement or promise a Mercy to his People all is upon Condition that is the steer the rudder that guides all Verse 12. Who shall go unto heaven for us Who but the Son of man which is in heaven Who but those that have in some measure the knowledge of God in Christ which is life eternall heaven before hand let there be therefore continual ascentions thither in our hearts let us lift up hearts and hands to God in heaven and He will shortly send his chariots for us as Ioseph did for his Father and convoy us thither In the mean space how should we every day take a turn or two with Christ upon mount Tabor get up to the top of Pisgath with Moses and take a prospect of heaven turn every solemnity into a schoole of Divinity say as one said when he heard a good consort of musick what musick may we think there is in heaven This this is the principal end and most profitable use of all the Creatures when they become ladders and wings to us to mount up to heaven CHAP. XXXI Verse 2. WE heard before the sin of Moses and Aaron speaking unadvisedly with their lips and striking the rock doubtfully with their hands and therefore the Lord doth here punish Moses and deny him enterance into the promised Land Thou shalt not go over Iordan from which we are taught that God chastiseth his own Children sinning against him thus when David had committed that grand complicated sin in the matter of Uriah by murther and adulterey though he were a man after Gods own heart yet the Lord raised evil against him out of his own house the sword of the enemy departed not from his house his own wives were defiled in the sight of the Sun Now God doth thus chastise his Children least they sinning with the men of this world should be condemned with them for as in punishing us he respects his own justice so also our own good and the great profit which thereby is brought unto us for if we should alwayes enjoy health and liberty peace and plenty we should kick against the Almighty and bitterly esteem the Rock of our Salvation Wherefore affliction is as the messengers of God to call us back from sin to wean us from this World and to kindle in us a desire of the World to come Gods afflictions are our remembrancers and his corrections our instructions And besides we must needs confess from hence that great is the wrath and anger of God for sin seeing he punisheth it so sharply and sincerely in his own children whom he hath engraven as a signet on the palm of his hand and whom he tenders as the apple of his own eye Verse 3. Whereas it is said here that Ioshua should go over before the people as the Lord had said we are taught that Magistrates have their calling and hold their places immediately from God for the good of the people Solomon was set in his throne by God himself not by the high Priest or the People and it is said of David that God chose him from the Sheepfold to feed his people Iacob and Israel his inheritance Psal. 18. The same likewise was spoke of Saul a wicked King the Lord hath annointed thee to be governour of his inheritance 1 Sam. 10. So then Kings hold of God in chief and not of men and upon this ground they are to give up their accounts to God only and not to man For as they are next and immediate unto God and inferiour to none but him so for all their actions they shall reckon with him and if you object that of 1 Pet. 2. 13. Where the People calleth it an ordinance of man I answer the Magistrate is so called not because men are the authors of it or may dissolve it but first because men do execute it and not God or the Angels secondly because it is ordained for the use benefit and profit of
temporary temporal and spiritual death Verse 9. Adultery is called here a great sin not only for the uncleanness and filthiness of it but because of the punishment that follows and sometimes overtakes whole Cities and Kingdoms for that sin in their Governors as it would have done here had not God with-held Abimelech from that sin verse 6. Now God keeps his Children from sinning either by instinct of his Spirit or the instruction of his Word or by the guiding and guard of Angels or by diseases as here Verse 11. Wheresoever is wickedness there can be no fear of God these two cannot lodge under one roof for the fear of God drives out evil Ecclus. 1. 26. As therefore Abraham here argues well from the Cause to the Effect because the fear of God is not in this place therefore they will kill me So David argues back from the Effect to the Cause they imagine wickedness on their Bed therefore the fear of God is not before them I would to God neither of these Arguments were demonstrative but our lives shew they are For if we feared the Lord durst we dally with his Name durst we tear it in pieces Surely we contemne his person whose Name we contemne The Iewes have a conceit that the sin of that Israelite which was stoned for Blasphemy was only this that he named that ineffable Name Iehovah Shall their fear keep them from once mentioning the dreadful Name of God and shall not our fear keep us from abusing it Durst we so boldly sin against God in the face if we feared him Durst we mock God with a formal flourish of that which our heart tells us we are not if we feared him Verse 14. Thus God comes as it were out of an Engine and helps his people at a pinch Abraham had brought himself into the bryars and could find no way out Many a heavie heart he had no doubt for his dear Wife who suffered by his default and she again for him God upon their Repentance provides graciously for them both She is kept undefiled he greatly enriched and now they are both secured and dismissed with rewards and priviledges Oh who would not serve such a God as turns our errors and evil counsels to our great good as the Athenians believed their Goddess Minerva did for them Verse 16. Abraham is said to be a veil of Sarahs eyes First That no man knowing her to be Abrahams Wife should look upon her to desire her Secondly It putteth Sarah in mind of her subjection to Abraham whereof the veil is a sign 1 Cor. 11. 10. Thirdly Abraham was her veil that is her just excuse that she did this for his cause being by him perswaded but the former Exposition is the better For the following words the meaning is that all this was that she might he reproved or in all this she reproved her self so that they seem to be the words rather of the Writer concerning Sarah than of Abimelech to Sarah Verse 18. Barrenness is a just punishment for an Incontinent life This may be seen in Solomon who of 300 Concubines and 700 Wives left but one Son Rehoboam and he not very wise to succeed him CHAP. XXI Verse 6. VVE must rejoyce in the least Mercy how greatly then in the greatest our joyes take their measure by our mercies When Sarah had a Son she said God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear me shall laugh with me Her mercy in receiving a Son was so great that it would serve a whole world to make merry with The man that had found his lost Sheep laid it on his shoulders rejoycing it was a pleasant burthen to him and when he came home he called together his Friends and Neighbors saying Rejoyce with me As some afflictions are so big that all our own sorrows are not large enough to weep and mourn over them so some blessings are so big that they call out more than our own affections to rejoyce over them Verse 9. It is not alwayes a disparagement to be laugh'd at the best may be laugh'd at the just upright man is so holiness is under disgrace among unholy men Saint Paul telling this story reports it as a great example of unholy scorn he that was born after the Flesh did persecute him that was born after the Spirit Ishmael persecuted Isaac Moses here tells us the manner how and the weapon wherewith Ishmael did not lift up his hand against Isaac as Cain did against Abel but his tongue he mocked him Those greatest differences in divine Heraldry of being born after the flesh and after the Spirit shew where the quarrel lay it was the spiritualness of Isaac which rendered him so obnoxious to his Carnal Brother Ishmael Isaac was born after the Spirit and doubtless he shewed some fruits of the Spirit which Ishmael did not relish and therefore mocked him And the Apostle gives the reason The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him 1 Cor. 2. 14. Verse 10. Sarah speaks angerly concerning Ishmael This son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heir with my son and might not God have said as roundly concerning us these bond-slaves of sin and Satan shall not be Heirs with my Son But such is the goodness of our gracious God he deals with us like the Father of the Prodigal Child the Son feared a sharp rebuke and the Father provided a dainty feast And thus God not only pardons our indignities but crowns us with mercies and loving kindness So that we may confess ingeniously with the Prodigal Child We are not worthy to be called thy Sons make us as one of thy hired servants vouchsafe us even the least measure of thy favour and it is more than we can deserve or expect Verse 12. Let us never be ashamed to follow the counsel of such as are discreet and godly Neither is it greatly material who they be that give us good counsel whether our superiors equals or inferiors For we must not weigh so much who is the counsellor as what is the counsel The child is somtimes made able to advise the Father the Servant may somtimes see more than his Master the Wife may sometimes give good counsel to her Husband and it is no dispraise or disparagement for them to hearken to their inferiors but they ought to receive it as a Message brought unto them from God yea if an enemy should perswade us to that which is good we ought to make this benefit and advantage of him as to hearken to our own profit Abraham accounted it no reproach or reproof unto him to obey the Counsel of his Wife when she perswaded him to cast out the Bond-woman and her Son and Abraham is commanded to listen unto it for God said unto him In all that Sarah shall say unto thee hear her voice Away then with the pride and pevishness of all those that take it as a discredit unto
buried in the high-way is no good mark and therefore bury not thy self thy labours thy affections upon the world Verse 22. However Infidels and Idolaters were destitute of the knowledge of the true God yet they accounted it a special duty to honour the Priests of their Groves and Altars and perswaded themselves that they should never receive any blessing at the hands of their Gods unlesse they honoured those that were esteemed as his Servants Thus Moses witnesseth that when Pharaoh during the Dearth and Famine that was in Egypt had received all the Money bought all the Cattle and purchased all the Land of the People to supply their necessity and save their lives yet he would not buy the Priests Land but sustained them for their Office sake And are Idolaters and Infidels thus bountiful in the maintaining of their Priests How then should this serve to reprove our dulness and backwardness in the true worship of the Eternal God How many are there that live in the bosome of the Church and profess the true Religion who yet to maintain a learned Minister that is able to save their souls repine and grutch to give sixpence a quarter What a shame is it for those whom the Lord hath blessed with abundance that they should spend all on their backs and bellies on Hawks or Hounds or Whores and nothing at all to the Glory of God the comfort of their fouls and help of their Brethren Verse 28. Just so many years as Iacob had nourished Ioseph in Canaan did Ioseph nourish Iacob in Egypt repaying his Fathers love to the utmost penny These were the sweetest dayes and freest from trouble that ever the good old Patriark saw God reserves his best to the last Mark the perfect man and behold the upright saith the Psalmist for be his beginning and middle never so troublesome the end of that man his after-end at least shall be peace A Goshen he shall have either here or in Heaven and a Peace both in this world and the next the peace of Conscience here and the peace that passeth all understanding hereafter CHAP. XLVIII Verse 1. IAcob have I loved said God and yet this Beloved of God was under many troubles and afflictions in his life and visited with sickness before his death And all this doth very well agree with the dispensations of Gods Providence For whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourgeth every Son whom he receives Afflictions are Christs Love-tokens When Ignatius came to the wild Beasts Now saith he I begin to be a Christian. Omnis Christianus crucianus every true Christian must take up his Crosse and follow his Saviour It is reported of an antient Doctor of the Church lying upon his sick bed and being asked how he did and how he felt himself he pointed to his Sores and Ulcers whereof he was full and said Hae sunt gemmae pretiosa ornamenta Dei These are Gods Gems and Jewels wherewith he decketh his best friends and to me they are more pretious than all the Gold and Silver in the world Verse 3. It is not enough to relate Gods Mercies to us in the lump and by whole-sale but we must instance in the particulars both to God and men upon every occasion setting them down one by one and cyphering them up as Davids word is Psal. 9. 1. I will praise thee O Lord and I will shew forth or sum up all thy marvellous works When Moses in Exodus met with his Father in Law he reckoned all the particular Mercies that God had done for Israel in Egypt and at the Red Sea he omitted none The truly thankful keep an Ephemerides a Calender and Catalogue of Gods gratious dealings with them and delight to their last to recount and sum them up We should be like Civit-boxes which still retain the scent when the Civit is taken out of them Verse 7. Iacob makes mention of Rachels burial to put Ioseph in mind that Rachel forsook her Fathers house to live in Canaan so to stir him up much more to leave Egypt which was not his Country as also that he might have a greater desire to the place of his Mothers Sepulcher Verse 14. Iacob feeling with his hands which was the Elder and bigger for the words are he caus'd his hands to understand on purpose laid his right hand on Ephraim in way of preheminence which sheweth that God bestoweth his Gifts without respect of persons as also it prefigureth the calling of the Gentiles instead of the Iews who were as the elder Brother 3. From this we may deduce an evident truth in experience that Gods dispensations towards the Righteous and the Wicked in this life are like Iacobs dealing here with Iosephs Sons crosse and strange For as he laid his right hand on the Younger and his left on the Elder so doth God oft-times for the present distribute with his left hand crosses to the good and with his right favours to the bad And not only in a literal sense as our Saviour speaks He maketh the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall upon the just and the unjust but in a metaphorical sense he causeth the Sun of Prosperity to shine upon the Unjust and the Rain of Adversity to fall upon the Just. Verse 15. When a Curse fals upon the Children the Father is cursed as in the Blessing of the Children tht Father is blessed Thus Ioseph brought his two Sons Manasseh and Ephraim to his aged Father Iacob that they might receive his Blessing who laying his hands upon their heads blessed Ioseph saith the Text and said God before whom c. and then it follows The Angel which redeem'd me from all evil blesse the Lads Now as Iacob in blessing the Children of Ioseph blessed Ioseph himself so Noah Gen. 9. in cursing the Children of Cham cursed Cham himself Valerius l. 1. hath observed concerning the Tyrant Dionysius that though he escaped free and untouched in person from the vengeance which his sacrilegious wickedness deserved yet his Sons were involved in so much misery that in them he being pasâ— feeling suffered and being dead paid dearly for his stolue dainties The light of Nature as well as Scripture tels us that evils falling on posterity are reckoned upon the Fathers score And thus as 't is with Curses so likewise with Blessings upon the same account and for the same reason though they are conferr'd upon the Children yet the Fathers memory is blessed and honoured by them Verse 17. It is dangerous to follow men blindfold how seeing soever those men are but it is safe and our duty to follow God blindfold how seeing soever we think our selves to be We must not be displeased as Ioseph was here with his Father Iacob When we see God laying his right hand upon Ephraim and his left upon Manasseh doing things crosse to our thoughts much lesse may we take upon us to direct the hand of God as Ioseph would Iacobs where we please The Lord
knows as Iacob answered Ioseph what he doth and it becomes us to acquiess in what he doth though we know it not And though God turn Kingdomes upside down though he send great afflictions upon his own People and make them a reproach unto the Heathen though he give them up unto the power of the Adversary and make all their enemies to rejoyce yet no man may say unto God Why doe you thus his Works are unsearchable It is beyond the line of the Creature to put any question a Why or a Wherefore about thr Work of the Creator Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the Clay Verse 21. This good Patriarch that had before wrestled with an Angel did not now fear to wrestle with Death and therefore speaks of it without the least fear or consternation of spirit It was no more betwixt Iacob and Death but Behold I die He knew he was to change his Place indeed but not his Company Death was to him but the day-break of eternal brightness it was but as that Martyr said winking a little and he was in Heaven immediately Why then should this sad toil of Mortality dishearten us why should we be so foolish as to fear that which is the Port which we ought one day to desire never to refuse And therefore some have welcom'd Death some met it in the way some baffied it in persecution sickness torments knowing it to bethe end of a temporal Misery and the beginning of an everlasting Joy CHAP. XLIX Verse 6. GOdly men are not at all pleased with the way of the wicked how much soever they thrive in it Iob had said much of the Greatness Riches and Glory of the Wicked but saith he However the counsel of the wicked is farre from me Chap. 21. the wayes of the godly and wicked differ as much as their ends their counsels are as distant as their conclusions will be Every good man saith of the counsel and ways of the wicked how prosperous soever as Iacob said of his Sons Simeon and Levi O my soul come not thou into their secret Let me be far from their secret far from their Cabinet Counsel and close Committees O my soul come not thou into their secret Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly The further we keep from their counsel the nearer we are to blessedness Verse 7. Many times Man though forbidden curses then it is his Sin and he is Satans Minister for evil against his Brother Yet in some cases to curse is Gods Command and our Duty and then we are Gods Ministers for wrath against the Wicked Thus when the Patriarch Iacob was upon his death-bed and bed of blessing yet he pronounced a Curse upon the rage and anger of his two Sons here Simeon and Levi. Now in all lawful cursings we must observe these two Rules First to aim the Curse at the destruction of the Sin not the Sinner Secondly where the Sinner appears incorrigible yet to desire the clearing up of Gods Justice in punishing not the punishment its self To curse any thing or person passionately is infirmity to curse any thing or person maliciously is grosse impiety Verse 8. What difference the Holy Ghost is pleased to put here betwixt sinners when yet the sins of those men were in a manner equal Reubeus Incest in the fourth verse was punished with a Curse and the like sin of Iudahs is pardoned and in a sort prospereth If this sin had not cost Iudah many a sigh he had no more escaped his Fathers Curse then Reuben did I see the difference not of sins but men Remission goes not by the measure of the sin but the quality of the sinner yea rather the Mercy of the Forgiver Blessed is the man not that sins not but to whom the Lord imputes not his sin Verse 10. This Hebrew word Shilo is derived from Shalah which signifies security and safety So that Christ is Shilo that is he in whom all persons may securely trust You may sit down in safety in Christ and rest your souls for ever he is Shilohs our Lord Protector our Saviour And the Hebrews use the same word to signifie the fleshly Mantle in which the Infant is wrapped in the Mothers belly because the Infant lieth there quietly and securely it is out of fear and hath no thought of any danger but lieth securely out of harmes way Verse 18. Gods Children upon the discovery of his glory and that happiness of the next Life are fill'd with longing desires after God and those Enjoyments Lord I have waited for thy salvation said Iacob he speaks this upon his death-bed as that he had been looking for all his life as if that were the account of all his actions in the World and the Story of his whole Life I have longed for thy salvation said David All desires are summ'd up in longing There is a strong desire in the Saints to see and injoy God in his Ordinances Now if there be so great and so longing a desire to see the Lord through these Mediums and in these Glasses how much more to see him immediately face to face How would that desire swallow up all our desires in glory And indeed we could not abide in Glory with any other desire but that The Saints are described in their present state by this Periphrasis such as love the appearing of Christ as if they loved nothing else What then will Christ be to them when he shall appear They who love Christ whom they have not seen how will they love Christ when they see him Verse 23. God sometimes seems an Enemy to his faithful Servants For one to be before God as a Butt continually shot at what other interpretation can sence make of it but this that God looks upon him as an Enemy Iacob said of Ioseph here The Archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him Ioseph was the common Mark of his Brethrens Envy But in this case as it is said of Ioseph when his Brethren came to him he made himself strange to them Ioseph was of a meek and loving disposition and therefore like a Player upon a Stage he only acted the part of a rigid Master or Governour thus many times the Lord takes upon him the posture of an Enemy and forces a frown upon a poor Creature whom he loves and delights in with all his heart he makes him as his Mark to shoot at whom he layes next to his heart Besides observe from hence further that God takes the most eminent and choisest of his Servants for the choisest and most eminent afflictions Thus Ioseph was made the White here that the Archers shot at Ioseph was the most eminent for Grace and Goodness of all his Brethren he was the most remarkable man for Grace and Holiness therefore he must be the Mark. Verse 27. Tertullian will have
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
be in these dayes who grieve at an hour spent in the Church but never of dayes and years spent in sin Secondly observe that when we are once delivered out of spiritual Egypt then doth the Devil muster up his Chariots and Horse-men He cannot abide to loose his Servants so his we were and he hath lost us and his we must be again if by all his strength he can possibly gain us A Land that floweth with Milk and Honey may not be inherited without resistance Out of Egypt we may be delivered but from following persecutions we shall not be quite freed Think of that Devil in the Gospel who when he must needs depart and loose his possession did rend and tear the poor party most miserably Mar. 9. 26. Verse 13. In all spiritual Conflicts say thus with your self O my soul fear not though Sathan thrust sore at thee and seek thy destruction but look unto him that is mightier than all Hell believe his Promises believe his Word and the Egyptians whom thou hast seen to day thou shalt never see again that is those frights and those fears Enemies to thy peace thou shalt never be troubled with them any more but God shall so drown them in the red Sea of Christs bloud that they shall never hurt thee The Lord shall fight for thee O my Soul therefore stand still and wait upon him Verse 14. A Silence before a not praying hath not alwayes a fault in it because we are often ignorant of our own necessities and ignorant of the dangers that hang over us but a silence after a benefit evidently received a dumb ingratitude is inexcusable Thus when Moses sayes here to his People The Lord shall fight for you c. Moses means you shall not need to speak the Lord will do it for his own glory you may be silent There it was a future thing but the Lord hath fought many battels for us he hath fought for our Church against Schisms and Heresie for our Land against Invasion for every soul against Presumption or else against Desperation Dominus pugnavit nos filemus Verse 15. See the force of Prayer though it be but in groans of your heart it even crieth in Gods ears it pierceth the Heavens and pulleth down comfort See likewise the duty of all faithful Servants of God to go forward as here is said to the Israelites notwithstanding Seas before us Hils about us and whatsoever it may be that is against us leaving all to the Lord who knoweth his own purpose and will manifest the same in his good time Forward forward saith God here Speak to the Children of Israel that they go forward But why did Moses cry thus in his heart to God when it was revealed to him what should be the end of the Egyptians Because neither Promises nor Revelations hinder Gods Children from using ordinary means but do rather stirre them up more and more to beg and crave the performance and effect of them Verse 22. If you look at the Waters on either side you may see the condition of Gods Children in this World beset on the right side with a Floud of Prosperity and beset on the left side with a floud of Adversity And yet through a true Faith walking through both and hurt by neither they arrive on the other side safely when by either of these many others are destroyed pray then for this Faith CHAP. XV. Verse 1. T Is a good form of giving thanks when every particular person out of his own feeling sayes I I good Lord do yield unto thy Majesty my bounden thanks for my self and for my Brethren for my self and for thy whole Church and so every one feeling and every one thanking the Lord is praised of all as his Mercy and goodness reach to all Thus David Psal. 118. 28. I I again in my own person and with my own heart and with my own tongue So here I will sing when they were many thousands Verse 5. They sank as a stone that is without all recovery and help For a stone swimmeth not out being cast in but goeth to the bottom and there abideth Fearful and very fearful was their destruction to the terror of all those that shall persecute the Church of God and his People Verse 6. Not our Vertue not our Merits not our Armies or men of Might Gods Servants do never rob him and cloath themselves but with Moses here they give all to God where indeed it is due and say with David Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the praise Verse 7. In that they are said to have risen against God when they rose but against his People observe the Union between God and his Church even such as who so toucheth the one toucheth the other For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Zach. 2. 8. And Saul Saul why persecutest thou me me in my members and by my members Verse 9. The same ambition and covetousness that made Pharaoh wear out so many Judgements will not leave him till it hath wrought out his full destruction All Gods Vengeances have their end the final perdition of his Enemies which they cannot rest till they have attained Pharaoh therefore and his Egyptians will needs go fetch their Bane instead of their Victory They bragg'd of their Conquest before-hand and gave Israel either for Spoil or Bondage But the Sea will shew them that it regards the Rod of Moses not the Scepter of Pharaoh and therefore in the next verse as glad to have got the Enemies of God at such an advantage shuts her mouth upon them Extraordinary favours to wicked men are the fore-runners to their ruine Verse 19. As the Act of the Egyptians for drowning the Israelitish Children was cruel Chap. 1. so is their own issue and punishment but just here The People must drown their Males there themselves are drown'd here they died by the same means by which they caused the poor Israelitish Infants to die That Law of Retaliation which God will not allow to us because we are fellow-creatures he justly practiseth on us God would have us read our sins in our judgements that we might both repent of our sins and give Glory to his Justice Verse 20. In common Duties due to God none must sit out The deliverance concern'd both Sexes and therefore both Sexes were to thank God for it Man and Wife must joyn and agree together to honour him that saveth them Ioseph will go up to Ierusalem according to the Law and Mary his Wife will go with him No division no difference betwixt them in Gods matters If the one owe a Duty the other thinks she doth so too and with one heart according to one rule they both worship God and so come home Verse 24. A fitter course it had been for a People so taught with passed Favours to have assured themselves of future helps in Gods good time and with Patience and Faith to
the Priests from whom others should draw Example should themselves be obedient to Gods Word in all things and first hear then speak Obedience was ever acceptable to God Psal. 40. 6. next the Thumb is touched with Blood to teach that we must not only be Hearers but Doers of the Word joyning Works to Faith and a Holy Life to a sound Belief And the right Thumb not the left to signifie that our Works must be right commanded by God not invented by us To the like end was the right Toe sprinkled with Blood that they might so remember to walk worthy their vocation and usually by the Foot in Scripture is both Action and Affection noted My feet had almost slipt said David meaning both Action and Affection Verse 29. The same garments continued although the Priest by Mortality changed and so was signified that our High Priest not meer Man but God and Man is one and his Righteousness our blessed garment remaineth to Father Son and Sons Son to the Worlds end in them that fear him and by a true Faith believe in him CHAP. XXX Verse 1. THe Altar of Incense was of Wood covered with Gold figuring so Christ in both his Natures the Wood his Humanity the Gold his Divinity the Deity yielding Glory and Majesty to his Manhood as the Gold adorn'd and beautified the Shittim Wood. Verse 2. The square form of this Altar represents the firm stability of Christ who cannot be overthrown The Crown about it the regal Dignity of Christ and of all those that are ingrafted to him For we are Kings and Priesis in him and by him Verse 7. The sweet Incense notes all Duties and services which the People of God do to him by his appointment and that they smell sweet before him as the Incense and are accepted of him But particularly the Prayers of the faithful for so David Psal. 14. 2. expounded it The burning of this Incense upon the Altar which was a figure of Christ shadowed out that in Christ and for Christ only our Prayers are in force with God and therefore by him they ought to be offered unto God Verse 9. Prayers either made to others then to God in the name of Christ or for unlawful things are strange Incense and therefore not to be offered unto God No Saint nor Creature was shadowed by the Altar of Incense but Christ and therefore let them take heed that will pray to others and make others present their desires to God Verse 12. To number People in a Land is lawful and if you think of David why he was plagued for so doing surely it was not for that he numbred the People but because he did it in a pride and confidence in mans strength But here neither Pride nor Wealth nor other such eâ—ds were respected but obedience was aimed at and that they should profess themselves thus Gods People and themselves his Tributaries and so be ever strongly comforted in his protection Verse 15. This was a personal Tribute imposed to testifie obedience to God and therefore equally was paid to signifie that God is no respecter of persons but the poor are as dear to him doing his Will as the rich we are all the Lords the price of our redemption is one the precious bloud of that immaculate Lamb Jesus Christ. Verse 16. In worldly matters the rich may go before us but in matters belonging unto God his Worship and Service we ought to be as forward as the rich For you see here that the maintenance of the Ministery was not posted over to Princes and great men only but even private men also must joyn in this work For if he be born to inherit Heaven he must think himself born to maintain the means that lead us unto Heaven Our Sheep and Cattel we provide for because they labour for us and feed us what hearts then should we have to see them comfortably maintain'd that labour for us in a far higher sort and feed us with a much better food Verse 21. We must not meddle with holy things with unwashen hands that is with prophane Hearts Tongues and minds as they do that read the Scriptures not to guide their lives but to maintain table Discourses drawing the Scriptures to their Judgements and not framing their Judgements according to the Scriptures These washings again in the Law had a further reach being used in Faith even to the inward washing of the Spirit whereof they were true Sacraments to the Believers So David Wash me O Lord and I shall be clean that is inwardly inwardly O Lord by thy blessed Spirit from my sins Verse 23. This holy and most excellent Oil was a figure of the Holy Ghost without whom nothing is pure nothing sweet All things were annointed therewith Preist Ark Table Candlestick to teach that all the exercises of Religion are utterly unprofitable without the inward working of the Holy Ghost in our hearts CHAP. XXXI Verse 3. BY this is manifest that the skill of any Handi-craft is not in the power of men but comes by the Highest And by this we are taught to use all those Gifts well whereby we are enabled to discharge our particular Callings that they may serve for the Glory of God and the good of his Church and those that in their Callings use fraud and deceit or else live inordinately do most unthankfully abuse the Gifts of God and dishonour the Spirit of God the Author of their Gifts Verse 6. God here joyneth Aholiab with Bezaliel in the work of the Tabernacle that by this means it might be the more compleat If there should be any fault in Bezaliels work Aholiab might mend it and if there should chance to be any error in Aholiabs performance Bezaliel might correct it that so by the care and circumspection of these two able Workmen nothing might be omitted And as it was thus under the Law so was it under the Gospel the Work of Christs Church as well as Moses Tabernacle must be performed by pairs Therefore Christ sent out his Apostles to preach the Gospel by couples two and two together Two are better than one saith Solomon For first if they fall the one will lift up the other that which is stronger shoreth up the weaker One man may be an Angel to another in regard of comfort and assistance nay a God to another as Moses was to Aaron Secondly if two lie together then they have heat heat of Zeal and good Affection When Silas came Paul burnt in spirit Acts 18. warm he was before but now all of a light fire as it were The Enemy is readiest to assault when none is by to assist and much of our strength is lost in the losse of a faithful Friend CHAP. XXXII Verse 1. O The ingratitude of that giddy multitude a man would have thought they would have wept out theit eyes and sighed their hearts in sunder for such a man as Moses such an Instrument of God and Good to them such
Gods Wrath for our Impurity Secondly it taught the Church that after Christs Example they ought to be free from both these to wit false Doctrine and ill manners not Teaching if they be Teachers any corrupt Matter nor believing and holding if they be no Teachers any absurd Untruths Verse 13. Salt was required in the Sacrifice to figure out Christ who indeed is the true Salt that seasoneth us and all our Works or else neither we nor they please God Sin hath made us unsavory to God and till this Salt be sprinkled over us we have no access to him nor savour with him And further by Salt here we may understand Mortification and holy discretion or sincerity of Doctrine and Discipline whereby the Saints are seasoned and preserved from the putrefaction of Sin and Error and being preserved themselves they preserve others For as Salt keepeth Flesh from putrifying so do the Saints of the World and are therefore sprinkled up and down here one and there one to keep the rest from stinking CHAP. III. Verse 3. THE Fat that was upon the Inwards was offered and yet the Inwards themselves in particular the Heart was not offered For the Heart Brain were never Offered in Sacrifice because they are the Fountains and secret Arks wherein lurks all Iniquity And yet though the Heart be not given yet hearty Thanks must be given to God such as cometh not from the Roof of the Mouth but the Root of the Heart the most inward part and bottom of our Souls Verse 4. Some have judg'd the pleasures of the Flesh to be here shadowed which of a true Child of God are to be kill'd and slain as Sacrifices were and mortified Others looking at the phrase of Scripture which usually noteth by the word Fat the best things have thought that herein was figured how Men ought to offer unto God ever of their best as Numb 18. 12. Psal. 81. 16. but now in the Tithes and Duties do you give the best do you offer the Fat He that lives licentiously all his Youth and intends to offer unto God his Old Age when for debility of Body he can do no more harm doth he offer unto God the Fat or the Lean the Best or the Worst Lastly because this Fat that was to be offered was an Inward thing and not an Outward others have thought that thereby was figured how careful we must ever be to offer unto God our Inwards without which no External Duty can or will please God The Lord saith David Loveth truth in the inward parts and his Sacrifice is a troubled spirit a broken and a contrite heart within not a pale face a down look many outward sighs that are heard of men Verse 17. The Lords prohibition of Fat did teach them to use a modest moderate and fitting Diet Blood also was forbidden them that so they might learn to take heed of cruelty and to shew mercy and loving-kindness in all their Actions and Behaviours Gods People must neither be Carnal nor Cruel but their Souls must shew mercy as their Heavenly Father is merciful and their Delight must be not inluxurious and high-feeding Dishes but in the Marrow and Fatness and Sweetness of Gods Ordinances CHAP. IV. Verse 3. WHen you read that the High Priest had need sometimes to offer for his Negligences and Ignorances you see how plainly it was taught to that People that the High Priest was not the true High Priest which should make perfect satisfaction unto God but another was to be expected even Christ Jesus Verse 6. By this sevenfold sprinkling the grievousness of sin is noted according to that in Genesis he that slayeth Cain shall be punished seven-fold that is grievously Wherefore this seven times sprinkling of the Blood shews that every sin with God deserveth seven punishments that is sharp and great punishment if God should deal with us in Justice and not in Mercy Verse 7. The Blood was put on the Horns of the Altar of sweet Incense to signifie that no Prayer can peirce unto God but in and by the Blood of Christ. Verse 12. The whole Bullock was to be burnt being a sin-offering to teach men to burn all their sins and not to divide them as we do when we say I will amend my Drunkenness but I cannot leave my Swearing but we must all our sins and willingly keep none lest but one being wilfully still delighted in burn us wholly in Hell for ever When Moses with the Israelites was to depart out of Egypt and Pharaoh would have had them leave their Cattle behind them saving what they intended to Sacrifice answer was made they would not leave one hoof of a Beast behind Exod. 10. 26. and so deal you with your Sins leave not one hoof of Sin behind no one sin no part of a Sin that is by wittingly willingly and boldly continuing in it otherwise free from Sin in this Life we cannot be Verse 13. A multitude of Offenders excuseth no offence but if even the whole Congregation should sin through Ignorance yet a Sin-Offering must be offered by them all and their number yeeldeth no excuse Secondly In this phrase hid from the Eyes you may see the state of many a Man and Woman doing evill The matter is hid from their Eyes in Gods anger and all-be-it they lye at the Pits brink of Damnation and Destruction yet they see it not feel it not are not troubled with it because indeed they never sit and take an account of themselves and their Works The godly do this at last and therefore in the next Verse there is a time of Knowing to them as there was of hiding Verse 17. The Priest here used a seven-fold sprinkling of Blood upon the Altar and we observe a seven-fold shedding of Blood in Christ in his Circumcision in his Agony in his fulfilling of the Prophesie Isai. 50. 6. I gave my cheeks to them that pluck'd off the hair and in his Scourging in his Crowning and in his Nailing and lastly in the piercing of his side these seven Channels hath the Blood of thy Saviour found Pour out the Blood of thy Soul Sacrifice thy stubborn and Rebellious Will seven times too seven times that is every day of the week and seven times every day for so often a Just man falleth and then how low must that Man lye at last if he fall so often and never rise upon any fall and therefore raise thy self as often and as soon as thou fallest Verse 27. In all Sacrifices where Blood was to be offered the Fat was to be offered too If thou wilt Sacrifice the Blood of thy Soul Sacrifice the Fat too If thou give over thy purpose of continuing in sin give over the memory of it and give over all that thou possessest unjustly and hast corruptly got by that sin else thou keepest the Fat from God though thou give him the Blood CHAP. V. Verse 2. WE are not ever clean when we see not any
now a dayes we have such Factious and corrupt humors in us out of which issue out such dislikes and bad censures of Magistrates as grieve them hinder Justice and provoke God to that which will smart if he be not the more merciful Verse 22. This restrained that pride which otherwise might have been in the Jews and shews the common care of God for all men as well as for the Jews This indifferency is a blessed vertue to be learn'd from our God For surely we are altogether partial if God guide us not Thus if other Mens Children Servants or Friends hurt ours fire and sword for them but if ours hurt them no such matter all must be boulstered out or bought out or born out and Justice may not be done Again among our own one Child must be Crucified and another not touch'd one made a Saint another a Devil CHAP. XXV Verse 7. THis resting of the Land every seventh year put them in remembrance of that sin which cast out all out of Paradice and brought men to labour and the Earth to need it Whereas if we had stood the Earth should have yeilded of its self Fruits and Profits as in some sort they might see by the seventh year Again it shadowed out the true Sabbath and rest in Heaven where shall be no labour and yet no lack but all comforts and joyes imaginable Verse 9. Upon which blowing it had the Name of Iubilee Iubilaeus a Iobel quod significat buccinam This year was an excellent figure of that true Iubilee and freedom which was confer'd upon us by Christ. For this Jewish Jubilee was proclaimed by Trumpet so is the Christian freedom by the Trumpet of Preaching the Gospel In that Jubilee no debts were demanded and such things as grew of themselves were common so in the Christian Jubilee is freedom proclaim'd by Christ Sathan hath no power to demand what by sin we ow him either Soul or Body and all the graces of God which grow of themselves i. e. are freely bestowed upon us are common in Christ to all there being with him no respect of persons but all accepted that fear him and work righteousness Of this freedom speaks Isai. 61. 1. Thirdly in that Jubilee of the Jews there was a returning to their Lands which were alienated from them so by this Christian Jubilee we return to our old Paradice again from whence we were cast out by sin even that Paradice of Heaven from which we shall never be removed any more Verse 21. In this verse the Lord meets with an objection of some men that might happily say what shall we eat the seventh year and answers I will send my blessing upon you in the sixt year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years Let this verse then strengthen your Faith against all objections of Flesh and Blood made from natural reasons For if God be able even then when the earth is weakest having been worn out with continual tillage five years together to make the sixt year bring forth a triple blessing what unseasonable weather what barrenness of Land what any thing shall make a man despair of Gods providence for things needful Again can God be thus strong when the Land is weak why then cannot he be or why will he not be strong in my weakness in your weakness and in every mans weakness that trusts and leans upon him For when we are weakest then is he strongest and his power is best seen in our weakness Away then fear and diffidence I will trust in him drawing an Argument with David from my weakness to move him to strengthen me Heal me O Lord for I am weak Psalm 6. 2. My weakness shall drive me to thee not from thee and I will tarry thy good leisure Lord strengthen me Lord comfort me in all Temptations and afflictions Verse 43. Let us take notice from this custome of the Jews concerning Servants that although Moses his Law in these particulars hath his end for form yet the equity still bindeth in these things and the estate of servants under the Gospel brought and bought out of spiritual Egypt and bondage of sin by Christ may not be worse than it was under the Law when you see they might not be cruelly ruled and dealt with To this end the Apostles Exhortation tendeth Eph. 6. 9. CHAP. XXVI Verse 5. CAlamities that last long are light and if they be heavy they are short both wayes there is some intimation of some ease But God suffers not this impenitent sinner to enjoy that ease God will lay enough upon his Body to kill another in a week and yet he shall pant many years under it As the way of his Blessing is here Your vintage shall reach to your threshing and your threshing to your sowing so in an Impenitent sinner his Fever shall reach to a Frenzy and his Frenzy to a Consumption his Consumption to a Penury and his Penury to a wearing and tyring out of all that are about him and all the sins of his Youth shall meet in the anguish of his body Verse 12. Behold what need we care whether we go while we carry the God of Heaven with us he is with us as our Companion as our Guide as our Guest No impotency of Person no cross of Estate no distance of Place no opposition of Men no gates of Hell can separate him from us he hath said it I will not leave nor forsake thee shall we think he cannot fare ill that hath mony in his purse and shall we think he can miscarry that hath God in his heart How shall not all comfort all happiness accompany that God whose presence is the cause of all blessedness He shall counsel us in our Doubts direct us in our Resolutions dispose of us in our Estates prosper us in our Lives and in our Deaths Crown us Verse 16. God does not begin with a Morte moriendum some body must dye and therefore I will make some body to kill but God came with a Morte morieris yet thou art alive and maist live but if thou wilt rebel thou must dye So here God did not call up Fevers and Pestilence and Consumptions and Fire and Famine and War and then make Man that he might throw him into their mouths but when man threw down himself God let him fall into their mouths Had I never sinn'd in wantonness I should never have had Consumption nor Fever if I had not sinn'd in riot nor Death if I had not transgress'd against the Lord of Life Verse 44. Some are of an opinion that these words were fulfill'd in the Captivity and Deliverance out of Babylon But the Jews perswade themselves that this promise of regard when they should be in the Land of their Enemies is not yet accomplish'd But whether so or not we may very well apply this promise to a true penitent sinner who shall ever be respected upon his Conversion albeit he neglected the time of Grace
offered Yet this is no imboldning to presume but a comfort when Repentance is true Verse 45. The wayes of Gods delivering penitent sinners are divers and to be observed that we err not For some upon their sorrow God not only receiveth to favour and mercy but also delivereth them out of their present affliction So did he Manasses the King 2 Chron. 33. whose sin upon his Repentance he not only forgave but released him out of captivity and brought him into his Kingdom again Others he receiveth into favour and forgiveth their sin but yet suffereth to fall by their outward affliction So did he to the penitent Thief upon the Cross he received him into Paradice but saved him not from the Temporal Death The due remembrance of this is a great comfort against the loss of Friends in Wars and Plagues and the like calamities when others escape and do well Let us therefore cleave fast unto God believe his Mercy fear his Justice So whatsoever happeneth unto us shall happen for our good one way or other CHAP. XXVII Verse 8. IT is in thy power to vow or not to vow but having vowed a thing lawful and possible it is not in thy power though never so poor to dispense with thy Vow Indulged thou maist be but not Exempted If thou hast vowed rashly that rashness must be repented of but the vow if lawful must be perform'd without delay or diminution to the utmost of our power 'T is true we are no where in Scripture expresly commanded to Vow but having vow'd we are expresly commanded to keep that Vow That of David Vow and perform to the Lord is not a pure precept saith one but like that other Be angry and sin not where Anger is not commanded but limited so neither are we simply commanded to Vow but having voluntarily vowed we may not defer to pay it to our power be we never so poor Delaies are taken for Denials Excuses for Refusals And therefore every upright conscientious votary as he looks that Gods promises should be made good to him so he is careful to make good what he hath Vowed to God and this because 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 28. From this and other Texts which shew what large provision was made for Gods Priests under the Law we may note that if such a plentiful maintenance were allowed by God to his Ministers of the First Table then certainly as great a portion at the least doth belong to the Ministers of the Second Table For it is certain that as we under the Gospel are more bound unto the Lord in all Duties of Thankfulness since the Messias exhibited than they under the Law to whom he was only promised and as in the same respect the Ministry of the Gospel far excels the Priesthood of the Law so the portion which is due from us to God and from him to his Ministers ought to be answerable at least little inferior Verse 33. There can no one instance be given out of the Word of God either that Gods people payed or that God accepted for the Tenth some other thing money or money worth less in value than the Tenth and when our Saviour speaking of the Pharisees which Tith'd their Mint Annis Cummin said This they ought not to have left undone he signifies not obscurely that the manner of Tithing in Kind and without Diminution even for those smaller things much more for the greater was in use untill his time and was a manner of Tithing just and lawful And how precise God was in this point we may not obscurely gather by this that he prohibited any man so much as to change the Tith a good for a bad or a bad for a good without a penal augmentation of it A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED NUMBERS CHAP. I. Verse 1. SInai was a place where were many Bushes and Briars here they received the Law both Moral and Ceremonial which like Briars and Brambles prick'd and pierc'd the Consciences of Evil doers and by this means drove them to Christ who was clouded and shadowed forth under the Ceremonies of that Law for the Ceremonial Law was Christ under a Type And this Law was given four hundred and thirty years after the Promise made to Abraham not to disanull the Promise but to advance it Gal. 3. 17. and that guilt being discovered and every mouth stopped we might pass from Mount Sinai to Mount Syon from the Law to the Gospel and might acknowledg the riches of Free Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ. Verse 5. As this Book of Moses beareth the Title of Numbers so a great part of it is spent in numbring of the People to assure us that God hath numbred those that are his he keepeth the taile of them and none are hidden from him none escape his knowledge and sight From whence we learn that the Lord knoweth perfectly who they are that are his both what their numbers and what their Names are Are we then in trouble and persecution are we accounted silly Men obscure base and unregarded do we live as contemptible persons to the men of this World let not this trouble or grieve us dismay or discomfort us but rather let us lift up our heads assuring our selves that although men turn themselves from us yet God looketh upon us and though they seek to root out our Names from the Earth yet he will know us and call us by our Names Verse 19. It is required of all Gods Servants to perform obedience to Gods commands when ever God speaks unto us we must hear and obey his voice Noah received a Commandement from God to build the Ark many hindrances might have staid him and sundry inconveniences might have stopt him and infinite dangers might have terrified him from that enterprize as the greatness of the Ark the labour of the building the Taunts of the Wicked and an hundred of such like troubles might stand in his way yet Noah over-looked them all By Faith Noah being wrrn'd of God moved with reverence prepared the Ark Heb. 11. 7. which shews that whensoever God hath a mouth to open and a Tongue to speak we must have an Ear to hear and a Heart to obey whatsoever is enjoyn'd us Verse 46. This may seem very strange unto us that so small an handful of seventy Souls should multiply so greatly in the space of 216 years but herein we are to consider the truth of God joyn'd with his power who because he is true of his Word and able of his power perform'd that to his people which he promised long before to their Fathers God had promised to Iacob that he would make him a great Nation Gen. 46. and here it was performed All the promises of God are Yea and Amen and shall in our time be accomplished to his Children CHAP. II. Verse 1.