is a rich roial virtue best beseeming the best Princes Ver. 6. Where I will meet with thee To give oracles and answers of Mercie God still meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness Isa 64.5 Ver. 7. Shall burn thereon sweet incens Facium vespae favos The Heathens had the like custom Verbenásque adole pingues Virgil. mascula thura Ver. 8. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps To shew that our praiers must bee made according to the light and direction of God's Word lest wee ask wee know not what and worship wee know not how Ver. 10. An attonement upon the horns of it Pardon must bee sought for the defects found in praiers as Nehemiah craved mercie for his Reformations Ver. 12. That there bee no plague David in numbering the people neglected this dutie thence the plague Ver. 13. half a shekel Towards the making of the Tabernacle and as an amercing himself for his sin that subjected him to utter destruction Vers 15. Ver. 15. The rich shall not give more They are both of a price becaus in spirituals they are equal 2 Pet. 1.1 Ver. 16. That it may bee a memorial A perpetual poll-monie in token of homage and subjection to the Almightie Ver. 18. Between the Tabernacle and the Altar The laver and Altar situated in the same court signified the same as the water and blood issuing out of Christ's side viz. the necessarie concurrence of Justification and Sanctification in all that shall bee saved Ver. 19. For Aaron and his sons Here they were to wash before they praied for the people Heb. 10.22 Wee must first make our own peace with God before wee take upon us to intercede for others So did David Psalm 25.22 and Psalm 51.18 19. So wee are advised to do Lam. 3.39 40. Ver. 21. That they die not Com not to an untimelie end as they did Lev. 10.1 2. Ver. 26. And thou shalt annoïnt the Tabernacle So to consecrate the same to God's service and to set forth how joifully and gladly men should serv the Lord. Ver. 29. Whatsoever toucheth them So are all those annointed holie that by a lively faith touch the Lord Christ Ver. 30. Aaron and his sons Those onely that succeeded him in the office of High-priest Lev. 4.3 5 16. and 16.32 Ver. 32. Vpon man's flesh A Latine Postiller hence infer's in an hyperbolical sens that Priests are Angels not having humane flesh Ver. 33. Whosoever compoundeth anie thing like it Holie things must not bee profaned on pain of death No people so abuse Scripture to common and ordinarie use as the Jews do CHAP. XXXI Ver. 3. And I have filled him GOd gift's whomsoever hee call's to anie emploiment Ver. 4. To devise cunning works All skill in lawful callings whether manual or mental is of God Isa 28.26 Ver. 5. And in cutting of stones Moses might well doubt where hee should finde fit work-men among those brick-makers for Egypt Ver. 6. I have given with him Two is better then one four eies see more then two God usually therefore coupleth his agents See the Note on Mat. 10.2 3. Luke 10.1 Ver. 13. Verily my sabbaths yee shall keep q. d. Though this Sanctuarie-work is to bee don yet it shall bee no Sabbath's-daies work The good women in the Gospel forbare on the Sabbath to annoint the dead bodie of our Saviour resting according to the Commandement For it is a sign And withal an effectual means to conveigh holiness into the heart Ver. 14. For it is holie unto you Hence the Hebrews gather but falsly that onely Israël was charged with the Sabbath-daie and not the nations of the world But the Sabbath was kept before Israël was born Ver. 15. Whosoever doth anie work A certain Indian that had been taught by the English coming by and seeing one of the English profaning the Lord's daie by felling of a tree said to him New-England's first-fruits Do ye not know that this is the Lord's daie in Massaqusets one of the English Plantations much machet man that is verie wicked man why break you God's daie Ver. 18. Written with the finger of God Of the Decalogue above all other holie Writ God seem's to saie as Paul Philem. 19. Behold I have written it with mine own hand i. e. by mine own power and operation CHAP. XXXII Ver. 1. Vp Make us Gods A Aron might make a Calf but the people made it a God by adoring it Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus Martial Non facit ille Deos qui rogat iste facit Ver. 2. Break off your golden ear-rings Hereby hee hoped to break their design but all in vain for they were mad upon their Idols Jer. 59.38 Ver. 3. Brake off the golden ear-rings which they had got of the Egyptians Exod. 12.35 To make use of Heathen Autors for ostentation is to make a Calf of the treasure gotten out of Egypt Ver. 4. A molten Calf In imitation of the Egyptian Idol Apis a Pied-bullock A man may pass through Ethiopia unchanged but hee cannot dwel there and not bee discolored Ver. 5. A feast to Jehovah Whom these Idolaters pretended to worship in the golden Calf as did also Jehu 2 King 10.16 29. 2 Chron. 11.15 and as the Papists at this daie but with what face can som of their Rabbins excuse this people from Idolatrie Ver. 6. Rose up to plaie To dance about the Calf Now if they were so cheared and strengthned by those baneful bits those murthering morsels should not wee much more by God's spiritual provisions to dance as David did to do his work with all our might Ver. 7. For thy people which thou broughtest God will own them no longer they are now dis-covenanted The Saints by gross sins may lose their jus aptitudinale non jus haereditarium their fitness for God's Kingdom they may sin away all their comfortables Ver. 8. They have turned aside quickly Moses's back was but newly turned as it were I marvel that you are so soon removed c. Gal. 1.6 See the Note there When wee have spent all our winde on our people their hearts will bee still apt to bee carried away with every winde of doctrine Ver. 9. A stiff-necked people And so they are still to this verie daie Hierom complain's that in his time they thrice a daie cursed Christ in their Synagogue Hieron in Isa lib. 12. cap 49. tom 5. lib. 14 cap. 42. and closed up their praiers with Maledic Domine Nazaraeis They are thought to advise most of that mischief which the Turk put 's in execution against Christians They counterfeit Christianitie in Portugal even to the degree of Priesthood and think they may do it either for the avoiding of danger or increasing their substance There are verie few of them that turn Christians in good earnest Adeò in cordibus eorum radices fixit pertinacitas River Jesuita Vapul 322. So stubborn they are to this daie and stiff-necked their
necks are wholly possest with an iron sinew Ver. 10 Let mee alone God is fain to bespeak his own freedom As if Moses his devotion were stronger then God's indignation Great is the power of Praier able after a sort to transfuse a dead Palsie into the hand of Omnipotencie Ver. 11. Lord why doth thy wrath God offered Moses a great fortune Ver. 10. Hee tendering God's glorie refused and make 's request for the people It is the ingenuitie of Saints to studie God's ends more then their own and drown all self-respects in his glorie Ver. 12. Repent of this evil God 's repenting is mutatio rei non Dei effectâ—s non affectùs facti non consilii not a charge of his will but of his work Ver. 13. Remember Abraham Here Moses neither invocateth the Patriarchs nor allegeth their merits but mind's God of his promise to them and presseth the performance In the want of other Rhethorick let Christians in their praiers urge this with repetition Lord thou hast promised thou hast promised Put the promises into suit and you may have any thing God cannot denie himself Ver. 14. And the Lord repented See ver 12. Moses here had a hard pull but hee carried it Ver. 15. Written on both their sides See the like in other mystical books Ezek. 2.10 Rev. 5.1 Ver. 16. The work of God The greater was the peoples loss brought upon them by their sin Ver. 17. And when Ioshua who had waited in som part of the Mount the return of his Master Ver. 19. And Moses's anger waxed hot Meekness in this case had been no better then mopishness How blessedly blown up was Moses here Hee saw the Calf and the dancing One Calf about another It was a custom among Papists that men should run to the Image of St Vitus Joh. Manli loc com 187. and there they should dance all daie usque ad animae deliquium till they fainted and fell into a swoun Ver. 20. And hee took the Calf Wee may all wish still as Ferus did that wee had som Moses to take away the evils of our times Nam non unum tantùm vitulum sed multoshabemus Wee have not one but many such Calvs Ver. 21. What did this people unto thee The people sinned by precipitancie Aaron by popularitie Ver. 22. That they are set on mischief The whole world is so 1 Ioh. 2.16 and 5.19 Quomodo Plautus In fermento tota jacet uxor Ver. 23. Wee wot not what c. See the danger of non-residencie Ver. 24. There came out this Calf A verie poor excuse Somthing hee would have said if hee had known what Here hee hid his sin as Adam Iob 31.33 beeing too much his childe Ver. 25. Aaron bad made them naked As Aaron's ingraving instrument write's down his sin so the Confession of other more ingenious Jews proclaim 's the Israëlites saying that No punishment befalleth thee O Israël Mos Gerund in which there is not an ounce of this Calf Ver. 26. Let him com This word through haste and earnestness Moses omitteth The Chaldee and Greek versions supplie it Ver. 27. Slaie everâ—e man his brother Not all that they met with for so they might have slain the innocent but all that were chief in the transgression In the war against the Waldenses in France the Pope's great Armie took one populous Citie and put to the sword sixtie thousand among whom were manie of their own Catholicks For Arnoldus the Cistercian Abbat beeing the Pope's Legat in this great war commanded the souldiers saying Caedite eos novit enim Dominus qui sunt ejus Caesar Heisterbuchensis hist lib. 5. cap. 2â— Kill them one with another for the Lord knoweth who are his This was fine Popish Justice Ner. 28. About three thousand Chieftains and ring-leaders Ver. 29. Consecrate your selvs Regain that blessing which your father Levi lost Gen. 49.5 7. Ver. 30. And now I will go up unto the Lord As angrie as hee was hee could praie for them As when our children through their own fault have got som sickness for all our angrie speeches wee go to the Physician for them Ver. 31. Made them gods of gold Sin must not bee confessed in the lump onely and by whole sale but wee must instance the particulars Ver. 32. Blot mee I praie thee God never revealed his love to Moses more then when hee thus earnestly praied for God's people Joab never pleased David better then when hee made intercession for Absolom Ver. 33. Blot out Cut him out of the roll of the living Ver. 34. I will visit I will paie them home for the new and the old Ver. 35. They made See the Note on Vers 1. CHAP. XXXIII Ver. 1. Which thou hast brought SEE the Note on Chap. 32.7 Ver. 3. I will not go up sc By those visible signs of my gratious presence Hos 9.11 as heretofore Ver. 4. They mourned As good caus they had for wo bee unto thee when I depart from thee Ver. 5. And consume thee God 's threatnings are cordial but conditional Minatur Deus ut non puniat Furie is not in mee Isa 27.4 Hee punisheth not till there bee no other remedie 2 Chron. 36.16 as the bee stin'gs not till provoked Ver. 6. Stript themselvs As in a daie of restraint Ver. 7. Afar off from the camp In token of God's deep displeasure and departure from them Ver. 8. And looked after Moses To see what success what acceptaâ—â—â— as David looked up after his praier to see how it sped Psalm 5.3 Ver. 10. Rose up and worshipped Though obnoxious they would not despair of mercie See 1 Sam. 12.20 21 22. Ver. 12. See thou saiest unto mee See saith one how Moses here encroacheth upon God Mr. Buâ—r God had don much for him hee must have more Vers 13. Shew mee now thy waie c. This God grant's him Vers 14. This serv's not the turn hee must have more yet Vers 16. Well hee hath it Vers 17. Is hee said No hee must yet have more Vers 18. I beseech thee shew mee thy glorie It 's don Vers 19. Is hee satisfied yet No. Chap. 34.9 God must pardon the sin of his people too and take them and him for his inheritance This fruit of his favor hee must needs bee intreated to add to the rest c. Ver. 13. That I may know thee Moses knew more of God then anie man hee was but newly com down from the Mount and at the Tabernacle door God spake with Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend Vers 11. The more a man know's of God the more desirous hee is to know him Ver. 14. I will give thee rest Full content of minde in the sens of my presence and light of my countenance Ver. 15. If thy presence go not with mee What is it to have the air without light What was all Mordecai's honor to him when the King frowned upon him Ver. 16. So shall
Heaven and the Angels were of necessity say some to be created the first instant that they might have their perfection of matter and form together otherwise they should be corruptible For whatsoever is of a praeexistent matter is resolvable and subject to corruption But that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed hath no other change but by the same hand to return to nothing again But if this were the Heaven Quest what was the Earth here mentioned Not that we now tread upon for that was not made till the third day But the Matter of all Answ that was afterwards to be created being all things in power nothing in act Vers 2. And the earth was without form and voyd That is as yet it had neither essential nor accidental perfection The Lord afterward did form it into Light the Firmament the Water and the Earth So beginning above and building downwards in the new Creature he doth otherwise and in three days laying the parts of the World and in other three days adorning them The Rabbins tell us Alsted Lexic Theol. p. 111. that Tohu and Bohu do properly import Materia prima and privatio and others of Tohu derive Chaos whence the ancient Latines called the World Chohus and borrowed their word Inchoâ— c. And darkness was upon the face of the deep That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of Hell as Origen expounds it but of the deep waters see the like Luke 8.31 Which as a garment covered the earth and stood above the mountains Psal 104.6 This darkness God created not for it was but the want of Light And to say That God dwelt in darkness till he had created Light was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees as if God were not Light it self and the Father of lights 1 John 1.5 James 1. Or as if God had not ever been a Heaven to himself Ere ever he had formed the earth and the heavens Psal 92.2 What he did or how he imployed himself before the Creation is a Sea over which no ship hath sailed a Mine into which no spade hath delved an Abyss into which no bucket hath dived D. Preston of Gods Attributes p. 34. Our sight is too tender to behold this Sun A thousand yeers saith a great Divine are to God but as one day c. And who knoweth what the Lord hath done Indeed he made but one World to our knowledg but who knoweth what he did before and what he will do after Thus he As for Saint Augustine Prasul ad haec Lybicus Sabin Poâ—â— fabricabat Tartara dixit His quos scrutari â—â—lia mente juvat Excellently another Cuff his Differ of Ages p. 22. who wanted no wit As in the eliament of fire saith he there is a faculty of heating and inlightning whence proceedeth heat and light unto the external neer bodies And besides this faculty there is also in it a natural power to go upward which when it cometh into act is received into no other subject but the fire it self So that if fire could by abstractive imagination be conceived of as wanting those two transient operations yet could we not justly say it had no action forasmuch as it might move upward which is an immanent and inward action So and much more so though we grant that there was no external work of the Godhead until the making of the World yet can there be no necessary illation of idleness Seeing it might have as indeed it had actions immanent included in the circle of the Trinity This is an answer to such as ask what God did before he made the World Plotin Eunâ—â—d 3. lib. 2. c. 2. God saith Plotinus the Platonist not working at all but resting in himself doth and performeth very great things And the Spirit of God moved c. Or hovered over and hatched out the creature Ferebatur super aquas non pervagatione sed potestate non per spatium locorum ut Sol super terram sed per potentiam sublimitatis suae Eucberius Psal 145 9. as the Hen doth her chickens or as the Eagle fluttereth over her young to provoke them to flight Deut. 32.11 Or as by a like operation this same holy Spirit formed the childe Jesus in the Virgins womb in that wonderful over shadowing Luke 1.35 The Chaldee here hath it The Spirit breathed and David saith the same Psal 33.6 He became to that rude dead mass a quickning comforting Spirit He kept it together which else would have shattered And so he doth still or else all would soon fall asunder Heb. 1.3 Psal 104.29 were not his conserving Mercy still over or upon all his Works Verse 3. And God said Let there c. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness He spake the word and it was done 2 Cor. 4.6 Psal 33.9 148.5 Creation is no motion but a simple and bare emanation which is when without any repugnancy of the Patient or labor of the Agent the work or effect Dei Dicere eft Efficere doth voluntarily and freely arise from the action of the working cause as the shadow from the body So Gods irresistible power made this admirable Work of the world by his bare word as the shadow and obscure representation of his unsearchable wisdom and omnipotency And there was light This first light was not the Angels as Augustine would have it nor the Element of fire as Damascen nor the Sun which was not yet created nor a lightsome cloud or any such thing but the first day which God could make without means as Galvin well observeth This light was the first ornament of the visible World and so is still of the hidden man of the heart the new Creature Acts 26.18 The first thing in Saint Pauls commission there was to open mens eyes to turn them from darkness to light c. To dart such a saving light into the soul as might illighten both Organ and Object In which great work also Christs words are operative together with his commands in the mouths of his Ministers Know the Lord understand O ye bruitish among the people c. There goes forth a Power to heal as it did Luke 5 1â— Or as when he bade Lazarus ariâ—e he made him to arise So here the Word and the Spirit go together and then what wonder that the spirit of darkness falls from the heaven of mens hearts Ephes 5 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet 2 9. as lightning Luke 10.18 So as that they that eâ—st were darkness are now light in the Lord and do preach forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Verse 4. And God saw the light that it was good Praeviderat autèm â—â—sberellus so one rendereth it he saw this long before but he would have us to see it he commends the goodness of this work of his to us Good it is surely
we have a more sure word of prophesie Gods blessed booke assures us of a third heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 called elsewhere the heaven of heavens the Paradise of God the bosome of Abraham the Fathers house the City of the living God the Country of his pilgrims A body it is for bodies are in it but a subtile fine spirituall body next in purity to the substance of Angels and mens soules It is also say some solid as stone but cleare as chrystall Rev. 21.11 Job 37.18 A true firmament indeed not penetrable by any no not by Angells Yates his Modell spirits and bodies of just men made perfect but by a miracle God making way by his power where there is no naturall passage It opens to the very Angels Job 1.51 Gen. 28.12 who yet are able to penetrate all under it The other two heavens are to be passed through by the grossest bodies Verse 8. And the evening c. Here 's no mention of Gods approbation of this second dayes worke Not for that hell was then ceated or the reprobate Angels then ejected as the Jewes give in the reason of it but because this dayes worke was left unperfected till the next to the which therefore the blessing was reserved and is then redoubled God delights to doe his workes not all at once but by degrees that we may take time to contemplate them peece-meal and see him in every of them as in an opticke glasse Consider the lillies of the field saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6.18 Prov. 6.6 Goe to the Pismire thou sluggard saith Solomon Luther wisht Pontanus the Chancellour of Saxony to contemplate the Starchamber of Heaven that stupendious arch-worke born up by no props or pillars Proponit contemplandam pulcherrimam coeli concamerationem Nullis pilis columnis impositam c. Scultet Annal. 276. and yet not falling on our heads the thicke clouds also hanging often over us with great weight and yet vanishing againe when they have saluted us but with their threatning lookes And cannot God as easily uphold his sinking Saints and blow over any storme that hangs over their heads An Artificer takes it ill if when he hath finished some curious piece of work and sets it forth to be seen as Apelles was wont to do men slight it and take no notice of his handy-work And is there not a woe to such stupid persons as regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands A sino quispiam narrabat fabulam Esay 5.12 at ille movebat aures is a proverb among the Greeks Christ was by at the Creation and rejoyced Prov. 8.30 Angels also were by at the doing of a great deale and were rapt with admiration Job 38.4 5 6. Shall they shout for joy and we be silent Oh how should we vex at the vile dulnesse of our hearts are no more affected with these indelible ravishments Verse 9 10. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered c. The water they say is ten times greater then the earth as is the ayre ten times greater then the water and the fire then the ayre Sure it it is that the proper place of the water is to be above the earth Psal 104.6 Saylers tell us that as they draw nigh to shore when they enter into the haven they run as it were downe-hill The waters stood above the mountains till at Gods rebuke here they fled and hasted away at the voyce of his thunder Psal 104.6 7. to the place which he had founded for them This drew from Aristotle Lib. de mirabil in one place a testimony of Gods providence which elsewhere he denyes And David in that Psal 104. which one calleth his Physicks tells us that till this word of command Let the waters c. God had covered the earth with the deepe as with a garment For as the garment in the proper use of it is above the body so is the sea above the land And such a garment saith the divine Cosmographer would it have been to the earth but for Gods providence toward us as the shirt made for the murthâ—ring of Agamemnon Psal 104.6 9. where he had no issue out But thou hast set a bound saith the Psalmist that they may not passe over that they turn not againe to cover the earth God hath set the solid earth upon and above the liquid waters for our conveniâ—nâ—y so that men are said to goe downe not up to the sea in ships Psal 107.23 See his mercy herein as in a mirrour and believe that God whose work it is still to appoint us the bounds of our habitations will not faile to provide us an hospitium Act. 17.26 a place to reside in when cast out of all as he did David Psal 27.10 and Davids parents 1 Sam 22.4 and the Apostles 2 Cor 6.10 and the English exiles in Queen Maries dayes Sculâ—et Aâ—â—al and before them Luther who being asked where he thought to be safe answered Sub Coelo and yet before him those persecuted Waldenses Rev. 12.15 after whom the Romish Dragon cast out so much water as a flood but the earth swallowed it and God so provided that they could travell from Cullen in Germany to Millain in Italy Cade of the Church p. 180. and every night lodge with hosts of their own profession The waters of affliction are often gathered together against the godly but by Gods gracious appointment ever under the heaven where our conversation is Tareus in loc Philip. 3.20 though our commoration be a while upon earth and unto one place as the Text here hath it The dry-land will appeare and we shall come safe to shore be sure of it Esay 26.4 The Rock of eternity whereupon we are set is above all billows washt we may be as Paul was in the shipwrack drowned we cannot be 1 Pet. 1.5 because in the same bottome with Christ and kept by the power of God through faith to salvation Verse 11.12 Psal 104. Let the earth bring forth c. Grasse for the cattle and herb for the use of man and both these before either man or or beast were created He made meat before mouthes He fills for us two bottles of milke before we come into the world Herbes and other creatures we have still ad esum ad usum Our land flowes not with milke onely for necessity but with hone too for delight Nature amidst all is content with a little Grace with lesse Sing we merrily with him Hoc mihi pro certo Georg. Fabricius Chemnicensis quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 12. and the earth brought forth c. St. Austine thinks that thorns and thistles brambles and briars were before the Fall Aug de Gen. 〈…〉 cap. â— 8 though not in that abundance that now
2.20 21 22. Verse 29. Behold I have given you By this Behold God stirs up them and us to confidence thankfulness and obedience to so liberall a Lord so bountifull a Benefactor And surely as iron put into the fire seems to be nothing but fire so Adam thus beloved of God Psal 16.12 was turned into a lump of love and bethinks himselfe what to do by way of retribution All other creatures also willingly submitted to Gods ordinance and mans service well apaid of Gods provision that great house-keeper of the world that hath continually so many millions at bed and board This is intimated in that last clause And it was so An undoubted argument surely of Gods infinite goodness thus to have provided for so divers natures and appetites divers food remedies and armour Psal 104. for men especially filling their hearts with food and gladnesse Act. 14.17 Verse 31. Behold it was very good Or extream good pleasant and profitable a curious and glorious frame full of admirable variety and skill such as caused delight and complacency in God and commands contemplation and admiration from us like as a great garden stored with fruits and flowers calls our eyes on every side Wherefore else hath God given us a reasonable soule and a Sabbath day a countenance bent upward and as they say peculiar nerves in the eyes to pull them up toward the seat of their rest besides a nature carried with delight after playes pageants masks Bodin Theas Naturâ— strange shews and rare sights which oft are sinfull or vain or at best imperfect and unsatisfactory Surely those that regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands God shall destroy and not build them up Psal 28.4 which to prevent good is the counsel of the Prophet Amos that upon this very ground Prepare to meet thy God O Israel For loe he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind c. Amos 4.12 13. when he had made man he made an end of making any thing more because he meant to rest in man to delight in him to communicate himselfe unto him and to be enjoyed by him throughout all eternity And notwithstanding the fall he hath found a ransome Job 33.24 and creating us in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 he rejoyceth over his new workmanship with joy yea he rests in his love Roderit sanctii Hist Hisp p. 4. c. 5. â—xantiq Annalib and will seek no further Zeph. 3.17 But what a mouth of madness did Alfonso the Wise open when he said openly that if he had been of Gods counsell at the Creation some things should have been better made and marshalled Prodigious blasphemy CHAP. II. Verse 1. All the host of them HIs upper and nether forces his horse and foot as it were all creatures in heaven earth or under earth called Gods Host for their 1. number 2. order 3. obedience Kimchi These the Rabbines call magnleh cheloth and matteh cheloth the upper and lower troopes ready prest Verse 2. He rested That is He ceased to create which work he had done without either labour or lassitude Esa 4.28 He made all nutu non motu Verse 3. God blessed the seventh day i. e. made it an effectuall meanes of blessing to him that sanctifieth it as a rest from bodily labour and spirituall idleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist 3. ad Magnesiâ—s Spec Europâ— as Ignatius exhorteth And sanctified it i e. Consecrated and set it apart for holy use as they sanctified that is appointed Kedesh for a City of refuge Josh 20.7 Verse 4. Jehovah God Moses first calls God Jehovah here when the universall creation had its absolute being This is the proper name of God The Jewes pronounce it not we profane it which is to them a great stumbling block The first among the Christians that pronounced Jehovah was Petrus Galatinus But if ye would pronounce it according to the own letters it should be Jahuo of Jarmuth Jagnakâ—b Verse 5. The Lord God had not caused it to rain And none but he can give raine Jer. 14.22 the meanes of fruitfulnesse which yet he is not tyed to as here The Egyptians used in mockery to tell the Grecians that if God should forget to raine they might chance to starve for it Verse 6. But there went up a mist The mater of raine And hereby God tempered the morter whereof he would make man as he did the clay with spittle wherewith he cured the blinde Ioh. 9. Verse 7. Zuinglius Formed man of the dust not of the rocks of the earth but dust that is soon disperst to note our frailty vility and impurity Lutum enim conspurcat omnia sic caro But why should so glorious a soul called here Neshamah of affinity to Shamajim Heaven whence it came dwell in this corruptible and contemptible body Lomb lib. 2. dist 1. For answer besides Gods will and for order of the universe Lombard saith that by the conjunction of the soul with the body so far its inferiour man might learn and beleeve a possibility of the union of man with God in glory notwithstanding the vast distance of nature and excellence the infinitness of both in God the finiteness of both in man And breathed into his nostrils Quidam volunt metaphoram sumptam à vitrorum formatione The greatest man is but a little ayre and dust tempered together Nazian What is man saith One but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soul and soyle Breath and Body a pile of dust the one a puffe of wind the other no solidity in either And man became a living soul Dicaearchus doubted of the soul â—usc quaest whether there were such a thing in rerum natura He could not have doubted of it without it as man cannot prove logicke to be unnecessary but by logick Verse 8. And the Lord God planted Had planted to wit on the third day when he made trees for mans pleasure a garden or paradise in Eden whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the upper part of Chaldea whereabout Babel was founded It was destroyed by the Deluge the place indeed remained but not the pleasantness of the place cecidiâ— rosa mansit spina 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod l. 1. Plin. l. 6. c 16 Donec à spâ— ad speciem transtret And yet that Country is still very fruitfull returning if Herodotus and Pliny may be believed the seed beyond credulity He put the man whom he had formed And formed him not far from the garden say the Hebrewes to minde him that he was not here to set up his rest but to wait till his change should come Verse 9. Every tree c. The Hebrewes think that the world was created in September because the fruits were then ripe and ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The tree of life also A symbolicall tree by the eating of the fruit whereof Adam should have had Gaius his prosperity his
face of the waters till at last the highest hills were covered with waters the Ark floting upon the surface of them and not swallowed up by them In reference whereunto David prayes Psal 69.15 Let not the water-flood overflow me neither let the deep swallow me up The true Christian may be tossed on the waters of affliction yea dowced over head and ears and as a drowning man sink twice to the bottom yet shall up again if out of the deep he call upon God as Jonah did Then I said I am cast out of thy sight Jonas 2.4 there you may take him up for dead yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple there he revives and recovers comfort yea though Hell had swallowed up a servant of God into her bowels yet it must in despight of it render him up as the Whale did Jonas which if he had light upon the Mariners would have devoured and disgested twenty of them in less space Vers 19. And all the high hills So high some of them that their tops are above the clouds and winds And yet as high as they were they could not save those from the flood that fled to them Surely might they say in vain is salvation hoped for from the mountains Isaiah 3.23 Well for them if taught by their present distress and danger they could go on with the Church there and say Surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Happy storm that beats us into the Harbor Vers 21. And every man died Now these mockers behold that Ark with envy that er'st they beheld with scorn they wish themselves in the darkest corner of it that lately laughed at it and perhaps did what they could Verisâ—mile est non abstinuisse manus ab opere turbando Piscat to hinder the finishing of it Yea some likely to save them from drowning caught at and clang as fast to the outside of the Ark as Joab for the same cause did to the horns of the Altar But all in vain For Vers 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life died of all that was in the dry land This last clause exempteth fishes though the Jews would needs perswade us that these also died for that the waters of the flood were boyling hot But rain-water useth not to be hot we know and therefore we reject this conceit as a Jewish fable CHAP. VIII Vers 1. And God remembred Noah HE might begin to think that God had forgotten him having not heard from God for five months together Fuit in arca per annum integrum decem dies Piscator and not yet seeing how he could possibly escape He had been a whole year in the Arke and now was ready to groan out that dolefull Vsquequò Domine Hast thou forgotten to be mercifull c But forgetfulness befalls not the Almighty The Butler may forget Joseph and Joseph his fathers house Ahashuerosh may forget Mordecai and the delivered City Eccles 9.15 the poor man that by his wisdome preserved it The Sichemites may forget Gideon But God is not unfaithfull to forget your worke and labour of love saith the Apostle Heb. 6.10 And there is a book of remembrance written before him Mal. 3.16 saith the Prophet for them that feare the Lord. A metaphor from Kings that commonly keep a Callendar or Chronicle of such as have done them good service as Ahashuerosh and Tamerlain Esth 6.1 who had a catalogue of their names and good deserts which he daily perused oftentimes saying that day to be lost Turk hist p. 227. wherein he had not given them something God also is said to have such a book of remembrance Not that he hath so or needeth to have for all things both past and future are present with him he hath the Idaea of them within himself and every thought is before his eyes Psal 139.16 so that he cannot be forgetfull But he is said to remember his people so he is pleased to speak to our capacity when he sheweth his care of us and makes good his promise to us We also are said to be his remembrancers when we plead his promise Esa 62.6 and presse him to performance Not that we perswade him thereby to do us good but we perswade our own hearts to more faith love obedience c. whereby we become more capable of that good God made a wind So he worketh usually by means though he needeth them not But many times his works are as Luther speaketh in contrariis mediis As here he asswageth the waters by a wind which naturally lifteth up the waves thereof and inrageth them Psal 107.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jon. 1.4 God worketh by contraries saith Nazianzen that he may be the more admired Vers 2. And the raine from heaven was restrained These four keyes say the Rabbines God keeps under his own girdle 1. Of the Womb 2. Of the Grave 3. Of the Rain 4. Of the heart Revel 3. He openeth and no man shutteth he shutteth and no man openeth Vers 3. And the waters returned continually Or hastily Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In going and returning or heaving and shooving with all possible speed to return to their place at â—ods appointment See a like cheerfulness in Gods servants Zach 8.21 Isai 60.8 Psal 110.3 Vers 4. Mountains of Ararat On the tops of the Gordaean Mountains where Noahs Ark rested we finde many ruines The Preâ—â—bers travels by Job Cartwright p. 32. Joseph Antiq lib. 1. cap. 5. and huge foundations saith the Preacher in his travels of which no reason can be rendered but that which Josephus gives That they that escaped the flood were so astonished and amazed that they durst not descend into the Plains and Low Countries but kept on the tops of those Mountains and there builded Vers 5. The waters decreased Not all on the sudden but by little and little Isaâ— 28.16 for exercise of Noahs faith He that beleeveth maketh not haste God limiteth our sufferings for time maner and measure Joseph was a prisoner till the time came Smyrâ—â— was in tribulation for ten days Physick must have a time to work and Gold must lye some-while in the fire In the opportunity of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.6 saith Peter God will exalt you Prescribe not to him with those Bethulians in Judith but wait his leasure and let him do what is good in his own eyes He waits a fit season to shew us mercy Isai 30.18 and thinks as long of the time as we do Vers 7. And he sent forth a Raven Which when it is made tame though it delights in dead carcases whereof Noah knew the earth was now full yet doth not easily forget its station but returns thereto when nature is satisfied Which went forth to and fro Fluttered about the Ark but kept out of it Manet foris cum voce corvina qui non habet
outstrip them are too forward they that fall short of them are deeply censured Vers 7. Now therefore restore Let knowledge reforme what ignorance offended in The times of ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent Act. 17.30 As a Master when he sets up his servant a double light expects more work and better We have a priviledg not onely above the blinde Ethnicks but above the Church of the Old Testament The sea about the Altar was brazen 1 King 7.23 And what eyes could pierce thorough it Now our sea about the Throne is glassie Rom. 4.6 like to Chrystall clearly conveying the light and sight of God to our eyes God hath destroyed the face of the covering cast over all people Esa 25.7 And we all with opeâ— face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord must see to it that we be changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 If those good souls passed from strength to strength Psal 84.7 travelling many a weary step to see the face of God in Sion in the obscure glass of the Ceremonies vae torpori nostro wo to us if now that such a light is sprung up we walk not as children of that light To know heavenly things is to ascend into heaven Prov. 30.3 4. And to know our masters will is a great talent of all other there is a much in that Luke 12.48 But then not to do his will so known is to be beaten with many stripes None so deep in hell as your knowing men because they imprisoned the truth which is as a Prophet from God in unrighteousness Rom 1.18 they kept it in their heads as rain in the middle region Sapientes sapien ter descendunt in infernum Bern. not suffering it to warm their hearts or work upon their affections therefore came wrath upon them to the utmost None are oftner drowned then they that are most skilfull in swimming So none sooner miscarry then men of greatest parts For he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee The proper work of a Prophet Jer. 27.18 If they be Prophets let them intreat the Lord they shall be heard when others shall not as the fathers blessing is most effectuall as the child could not be raised till Elisha came himself nor the sick be healed till the Elders of the Church be called for Jam. 5.14 The Apostles divided their time betwixt praying and preaching Act. 6.4 So did the Priests of the Old Testament Deut. 33.10 They shall teach Jacob thy judgements they shall put incense before thee As with every sacrifice there was incense so should every Ministeriall duty be performed with prayer St. Paul begins his Epistles with prayer and proceeds and ends in like manner What is it that he would have every of his Epistles stamped with by his own hand but prayer for all his people 2 Thess 3.17 18. Thou shalt surely dye So dear to God are his Saints that he grievously punisheth even Kings for their sakes as Jehoram in his bowels with an incurable disease 2 Chron. 21.18 Non desunt qui ad phthiriasin referunt quo avâ—s quoque ipsius Herod mag periit Beza Annot in Act. 12. Oroâ—ius He protested siquam sui corporis partem Lutherianismo sciret insectam revulsurum illicè ne longiùs serperet Sleid. Comment l. 9. Act Mon. 1914. the two Herods by the lousie malady Maximinus the Emperor a cruell persecutor cast upon his bed of sickness by God was glad to crave the prayers of the Church as Eusebius relates it Valens being to subscribe an Order for the banishment of Basil was smitten with a sudden trembling of his hand that he could not Afterward he was burned to death by the Gothes whom he had corrupted by sending them Arrian teachers The putting out of that French Kings eyes which promised before with his eyes to see Anne du Bourg one of Gods true servants burned who seeth not to be the stroke of Gods own hand Then his son Francis not regarding his fathers stripe would needs yet proceed in the burning the same man And did not the same God give him such a blow on the ear as cost him his life As for Charles the ninth author of the French massacre though he were wittily warned by Beza to beware upon occasion of that new Star appearing in Cassiopeia Novem 1572. which he applied to that Star at Christs birth and to the infanticide then with Tu verò Camdens Elis sol 165. Herodes sanguinolente time yet because he repented not God gave him blood to drink as he was worthy for the fifth moneth after the vanishing of this Star Constans fama est illum Act. Mon. fol. 1949. dum è variis corporis partibus sanguis emanaret in lecto saepe volutatum inter terribilium blasphemiarum diras tantam sanguinis vim projecisse ut paucas post horas mortuus fuerit This Charles the ninth in the massacre of Paris beholding the bloody bodies of the butchered Protestants Spec. bel sac p. 248. and feeding his eye upon that wofull spectacle is said to have breathed out this bloody speech Quam bonus est odor hostis mortui Another great Queen seeing the ground covered with the naked carcasses of her Protestant Subjects said M. Newcomâ—n Fast Serm. 27. Like Hannibals O formosum spectaculum De Alexandra Josephus Act Mon. fol. 1 901. that it was the bravest peece of Tapestry that ever she beheld but it was not long that she beheld it Our Queen Mary though non naturâ sed Pontiâ—iciorum arte ferox Ipsa solùm nomen regium ferebat caterùm â—mnem regâ—i potestatem Pharisaei possidebant dyed of a Tympany or as some by her much sighing before her death supposed she dyed of thought and sorrow either for the loss of Callice or for the departure of King Phillip This King going from the Low-countries into Spain by Sea with resolution never to remove thence fell into a storm in which almost all the Fleet was wracked his houshold-stuffe of very great value lost and himself hardly escaped Hist of Coun. of Trent 417. He said he was delivered by the singular providence of God to root out Lutheranisme which he presently began to do protesting that he had rather have no Subjects then Lutheran Subjects Whether it was this Phillip or his successor I cannot certainly tell But Carolus Sexibaâ—â—â— tells a lamentable story of one of those two Phillips Hear him else Vlcerum magnitudinem multitudinem acorbitatem fatorem lecto tanquam durae crucâ— â—â—â—o integra affixionem ut in nullam prope commoveri partem possit acres continuosque annâ—r um sex podagrae dolores febrim 〈◊〉 cum dupâ—ici per anâ—os 〈…〉 intima Carot Sâ—ribâ—n Instit princip c. 20. adeoque ossiâ—â—â— medullas depascentem gravissimam 22. dierum dysenteriam quâ— nâ—c moram darâ—t nec detersionâ—m admitteret perpetua
he lighted upon a certain place Little thinking to have found heaven there Let this comfort travellers and friends that part with them Jacob never lay better Malâ— cubans suaviter dormâ—â— sâ—licitèr somâ—â—â—t then when he lay without doors nor yet slept sweeter then when he laid his head upon a stone He was a rich mans son and yet inured to take hard on Vers 12. Behold a ladder Scala est piorum in hoc mundo peregrinatio saith Pareus after Iunius But besides this interpretation our Saviour offereth us another Ioh 1.51 applying it to himself the true ladder of life per quem solùm in coelum ascendere possimus He that will go up any other way must as the Emperour once said erect a ladder and go up alone He touched heaven in respect of his Deity earth in respect of his humanity and joyned earth to heaven by reconciling Man to God Gregory speaks elegantly of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he joyned heaven and earth together as with a bridge being the onely true Pontifex or bridge-maker Heaven is now open and obvious to them that acknowledge him their sole Mediator and lay hold by the hand of faith on his merits as the rounds of this heavenly ladder These onely ascend that is their consciences are drawn out of the depths of despair and put into heaven as it were by pardon and peace with God rest sweetly in his bosom calling him Abba Father and have the holy angels ascending to report their necessities and descending as messengers of mercies We must also ascend saith S. Bernard by those two feet as it were Meditation and Prayer yea there must be continual ascensions in our hearts as that Martyr said M. Philpot. And as Iacob saw the Angels ascending and descending and none standing still so must we be active and abundant in Gods work as knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord Bern. and that non proficere est deficere not to go forward is to go backward Vers 13. I am the Lord God of Abraham c. What an honour is this to Abraham that God was not ashamed to be called His and his sons God! Eusebâ—â—s the Historian was called Eusebius Pamphili for the love that was betwixt him and the Martyr Pamphilus as S. Hierome testifieth Friend to Sir Philip Sidney is ingraven upon a Noble-mans Tomb in this Kingdom The old Lord Brook as one of his Titles Behold the goodness of God stooping so lowe as to stile himself The God of Abraham and Abraham again The friend of God Vers 14 15. And thy seed shall be as the dust Against his fourfold cross here 's a fourfold comfort as Pererius well observeth a plaister as broad as the sore and soveraign for it Against the loss of his friends I will be with thee 2. of his country I will give thee this lond 3. against his poverty Thou shalt spread abroad to the east west c. 4. his solâ—tariness and aloneness Angels shall attend thee and Thy seed shall be as the dust Num. 23.10 c. And who can count the dust of Iacob saith Balaam that Spelman of the devil as One calls him Whereunto we may adde that which surpasseth and comprehendeth all the rest In thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed Now whatsoever God spake here with Iacob he spake with us as well as with him saith Hosea Chap. 12.4 Vers 16. And I knew it not Viz. that God is graciously present in one place as well as in another Our ignorance and unbelief is freely to be confessed and acknowledged Thus David Psal 73.22 Agur Prov. 30.2 Pray for me In his Letter to Ridley Act. Mon. 1565. Seâ—m in 3 Sund. in Advent saith Father Latimer to his friend pray for me I say for I am sometimes so fearful that I would creep into a mouse-hole And in a certain Sermon I my self saith he have used in mine earnest matters to say Yea by S. Mary which indeed is naught Vers 17. How dreadful is this place The place of Gods publike Worship is a place of Angels and Archangels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom it is the Kingdom of God it is very heaven What wonder then though Iacob be afraid albeit he saw nothing but visions of love and mercy Psal 5.7 In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple saith David The very Turk when he comes into his Temple lays by all his State and hath none to attend him all the while Omninò oportet nos orationis tempore curiam intrare coelestem saith S. Bernard in qua Rex regum stellato sedet solio Bern. de divers 25. c. Quanta ergo cum reverentia quanto timore quantâ illuc humilitate accedere debet e palude suâ procedens repens vilis ranuncula Our addresses must be made unto God with the greatest reverence that is possible Vers 18. And set it up for a pillar The better to perpetuate the memory of that mercy he had there received and that it might be a witness against him if hereafter he failed of fulfilling his vow It is not amiss in making holy vows to take some friend to witness that in case we be not careful so to fulfil them may minde us and admonish us of our duty in that behalf Iacob that was here so free when the matter was fresh to promise God a Chappel at Bethel was afterwards backward enough and stood in need that God should pull him by the ear once and again with a Go up to Bethel and punish him for his delays in the rape of his daughter cruelty of his sons c. Gen. 35. Vers 20. And Iacob vowed a vow The first holy votary that ever we read of whence Iacob also is called The father of vows which out of this Text may be thus described A Vow is nothing else but a religious promise made to God in prayer and grounded upon the promise of God whereby we tie our selves by way of thankfulness to do something that is lawful and within our power with condition of obtaining some further favour at the hands of God Thus Iacob vows to God onely he is the sole object of Fear therefore also of Vows See them set together Psal 76.11 Next he prays when he vows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vow and a prayer are of neer and necessary affinity See Psal 61.6 Iudg 11.30 31. That was a blasphemous vow of Pope Iulius that said Act. Mon. he would have his will al despito di Dio. And not unlike of Solyman the Great Turk in a Speech to his Souldiers So help me great Mahomet Turk hist I vow in despite of Christ and Iohn in short time to set up mine Ensignes with the Moon in the middle of the Market-place in Rhodes Iacob as he vowed onely by the Fear of his father Isaac so he presented
was of God Chap. 31.10 It was also a plain bargain between them and Laban was handled in his kinde Besides the means Jacob used was not fraudulent but natural not depending on mans skill but Gods blessing and all to recover out of the wretches hands that which was but due to him for his hard service and for his wives dowry Vers 34. Behold I would it might be He was glad to have him on the hip for a bad bargain but is fairly deceived himself God will see to his servants that they shall not lose all though the world think it neither sin nor pity to defraud them of their due Vers 36. And he set three days journey Hoping so to disappoint Jacob of having any thing and to make his own party good with him For naturally the cattel would bring forth others like themselves and so Jacobs part should be little enough Sed hic fallitur sordidus impostor saith Pareus Laban was utterly out in his count and cross'd in his designe Vers 38. And he set the rods which he had pilled This was done partly by the force of the phantasie which is much affected with objects of the sight or some other cogitation in the time of conception partly and chiefly by the blessing of God For he that shall now try the same conclusion shall finde himself frustrated Vers 43. And the man increased exceedingly So shall all those do if it be for their eternal good that depend upon God for success and blessing upon their hard and honest labours As for others that will needs care and carve for themselves being troubled about many things but neglecting that One thing necessary the Lord either gives the souls of such over to fuster shipwrack or else strips them of all their lading and tacklings breaking their estates all to pieces and making them glad to go to heaven upon a broken plank CHAP. XXXI Vers 1. And he heard the Words of Labans sons THese were chips of the old block as they say as like the father as if spit out of his mouth Avarice made them think as Sejaâ—us did Tacitus Quicquid non acquiritur damnum all lost that fell beside their own lips As a ship may be over-laden with gold and silver even unto sinking and yet have compass and sides enough to hold ten times more so covetous men though they have enough to sink them yet have they never enough to satisfie them Hath he gotten all this glory That is all this wealth which easily gets glory and goes therefore joyned with it Prov. 3.16 8.18 This regina pecunia doth all Eccles 10.19 and hath all here belowe saith Solomon Money beareth the mastery and is the Monarch of this world None so admired or so soon admitted as he that is well moneyed The Chaldee word for money 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prepare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in Emyl Manl. loc.com P. 441. signifies to do some great work It was commonly said in Greece that not Philip but his money took their Cities And a certain Grecian coming to Rome where the honour of a Lord was offered unto him answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alliâ— had a Cardinals that there bestowed upon him by the Pope but because his hat had so thin lining he wanted wealth I mean to support his state he was commonly called The starveling Cardinal and no body cared for him Vers 2. And Jacob behelà the countenance of Laban He said little for shame but thought the more and could not so conceal his discontent but that it appeared in his lowring looks That which he had parted with in his riches was as it were raked out of his belly Job 20.11 he had as lief have parted with his very heart-blood And this was plain to Jacob by his countenance which had been friendly smoothe and smiling but now was cloudy sad spiteful The young men were hot and could not hold or hide what was in their heart but blurted it out and spake their mindes freely This old fox held his tongue but could not keep his countenance En quà m difficile est animum non prodere vultu Vers 3. Return to the land of thy fathers Labans frowns were a grief to Jacob the Lord calls upon him therefore to look homeward Let the worlds affronts and the change of mens countenances drive us to him who changeth not and minde us of heaven where is a perpetual serenity and sweetness Vers 4. And Jacob sent and called Rachel c. He consults with his wives so should we in matters of weight of remove especially They are our companions the wives of our covenant Mal. 2.14 not our vassals or foot-stools and must therefore be both of our court and counsel Vers 5. I see your fathers countenance c. Merces mundi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar Orat. pro Planc This is the worlds wages All Jacob's good service is now forgotten Do an unthankful person nineteen kindnesses unless you adde the twentieth all 's lost Perraro grati homines reperiuntur saith Cicero Nemo benesicium in Calendarium scribit saith Seneca And the Poet Ausonius not unfitly Sunt homines humeris quos siquis gest at ad urbem Ausoniam domiti quae caput orbis erat Nec tamen ad portam placide deponat eosdem Gratia praeteriti nulla laboris erit Vers 6. With all my power I have served The word translated power signifieth that natural moisture of the body that maketh it lively and lusty vigorous and valorous to do service So it is used Gen. 49.3 Psal 22.15 Now if Jacob served Laban with all his might should not we the Lord a far better Master Baruch repaired earnestly Nebem 3.20 Caleb fulfilled after God Num. 14.24 Nehemiah traded every talent with which divine providence had trusted him He worketh warreth watcheth 2 Sam. 6.14 commandeth encourageth threatneth punisheth c. David danced with all his might and did all the wills of God to his dying day painfully serving out his time to the last Happie is he that can say in a spiritual sense as it was said of Moses that after long profession of Religion he remits not of his zeal his sight is not waxed dim nor his natural heat or force abated that he is not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Vers 7. Changed my wages ten times And ever for the worse The matter mended with poor Jacob as sowre ale doth in summer Laban the churl the richer he grew by him the harder he was to him like children with mouthes full and hands full who will yet rather spoil all then part with any It is the love not the lack of money that makes men churls Vers 9. Thus God hath taken away c. He is the true Proprietary and gives and takes away these outward things at pleasure Psal 75.6 as Hannah â—â—th
burn a great-bellied woman which the very Heathens condemned as a cruelty in Claudius Howbeit there are that take these to be his words not as a Judge in the cause but as an accuser Bring her forth sc into the gates before the Judges and let her be burnt if found guilty according to the custom of the country We read not of any that were by Gods Law to be burnt with fire but the high-priests daughter onely for adultery Levit. 29.1 Hence the Hebrews say that this Tamar was Melchizedek the high-priests daughter But it is more likely she was a Canaanitish proselyte Let us beware of that sin for which so peculiar a plague was appointed and by very Heathens executed See Jer. 29.22 23. Vers 25. By the man whose these are c. Ut taceant hemines jumenta loqucâ—tur Juven So his secret sin comes to light All will out at length though never so studiously concealed Matth. 10.26 Eccles 10.20 That which hath wings shall tell the matter It was a quill a piece of a wing that discovered the powder plot Discern I pray thee whose are these So when we come to God though he seem never so angry and ill set against us can we but present unto him our selves his own our prayer Mediatour arguments all his and then say as she here to Judah Whose are these he cannot deny himself Vers 26. She hath been more righteous then I A free confession joyned with confusion of his sin for he knew her no more This was to confess and forsake sin as Solomon hath it Prov. 28.13 Not like that of Saul I have sinned yet honour me before the people or that of those in the wilderness We have sinned we will go up they might as well have said We have sinned we will sin Deut. 1.41 The worser sort of Papists will say When we have sinned Sands his Relation of West Relig. sect 8. we must confess and when we have confessed we must sin again that we may also confess again and make work for new Indulgences and Jubilees making account of confessing as drunkards do of vomiting But true confession goes along with hatred care apologie Vers 27. Behold twins were in her womb Betokening two peoples pertaining to Christ The Jews first put forth their hand as it were willing to be justified by their works and to regenerate themselves For this they were bound with a Scarlet thred condemned by the Law wherefore pulling back their hand they fell from God Then came forth Perez the breach-maker that is the violent and valiant Gentiles who took the first-birth-right and kingdom by force who when they are fully born then shall the Jews come forth again Rom. 11.11 25 26. And that this is not far off hear what a worthy Divine yet living saith Mr. Case his Gods wait to be grac. pag. 58. Dan. 1â— 11 we have a prophecie of the final restauration of the Jews and the time is expressed which is One thousand two hundred ninety yeers after the ceasing of the daily sacrifice and the setting up of the abomination of desolation which is conceived to be in Julian's time who did assay to re-build the Temple of the Jews which was an abomination to God who therefore destroyed it by fire out of the earth tearing up the very foundation thereof to the nethermost stone This was Anno Dom. 360 to which if you adde 1290 years it will pitch this calculation upon the year 1650. Before this Babylon must down c. CHAP. XXXIX Vers 1. And Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh's SEe here a sweet providence that Ioseph should fall into such hands Potiphar was Provost-Martial keeper of the Kings prisoners And what could Ioseph have wished better then this that sith he must be a prisoner he should be put into that prison where he might by interpreting the Butlers dream come to so great preferment Chrysostome in his 19. Hom. on the Ephesians saith we must not once doubt of the Divine providence though we presently perceive not the causes and reasons of many passages And this he sweetly sets forth by apt by similitudes drawn from the works of Carpenters Painters bees ants spiders swallows c. Surely as a man by a chain made up of divers links some of gold others of silver See M. Renold on Psal 110.5 some of brass iron or tin may be drawn out of a pit so the Lord by the concurrence of several subordinate things which have no manner of dependance or natural co-incidency among themselves hath oftentimes wrought and brought about the deliverance and exaltation of his children that it might appear to be the work of his own hand Vers 2. And the Lord was with Ioseph and he c. The Lord also is with you while ye be with him 2 Chron. 15.3 and so long you may promise your selves prosperity that of Gaius howsoever that your souls shall prosper and for most part also your outward estates If it fall out otherwise it is because God will have godliness admired for it self If ungodly men prsper it is that case may slay them Prov. 1.32 and that they may perish for ever Psal 37.20 Moritur Zacharias Papa rebus pro Ecclesiae salute Apostolicae sedis dignitate non tam piè quam prosperè gestis saith Sigonius Sigonius This was little to his commendation that he was not so pious as he was prosperous Vers 3. And his Master saw Though he knew not God yet he acknowledged that God was the giver of prosperity and that piety pleaseth him This ran into his senses but wrought not kindly upon his heart Vers 4. And Joseph found grace in his sight This also was of God who fashioneth mens opinions and therefore Paul though he went to carry alms and such are commonly welcome yet prayes that his service may be accepted of the Saints Rom. 15.31 And he served him As his Page or Chamberlain afterwards he became his Steward He that is faithful in a little shall be master of more Vers 5. The Lord blessed the Egyptian There 's nothing lost by any love men shew to the Saints God is not unfaithful to forget it nor unmindful to reward it Vers 6. And he knew not ought he had c. Some expound this of Joseph that he took nothing for all his pains but the meat he eat did not feather his own nest as many in his place would have done nor embezel his masters goods committed to his trust But without doubt the other is the better sense Potiphar took what was provided for him and cared for no more This is few mens happinesse for usually the master is the greatest servant in the house And Joseph was a goodly person But nothing so goodly on the out-side as on the in-side Pulchâ—ior in luce cordis quam facile corporis His brethren had stript him of his coat but could not dis-robe him of his graces Still he retained his
rogum iofiluero quam ullum peccatum in deum commisero Pintus in Dan. Jam. 1. ult Psal 119.1 I will rather leape into a bone-fire saith another of the Fathers then wilfully commit wickedness against God Of the Mouse of Armenia they write that she will rather dye then be defiled with any filth Insomuch as if her hole be besmeared with dirt she will rather chuse to be taken then to be polluted Such are or ought to be the servants of God unspotted of the world undefiled in the way Vers 13. And it came to pass c. Incontinency is a breeder It never goes alone as some say the asp doth not but hath many vices Impudency subtilty treacherous cruelty c. that come of it and accompany it crying out and calling to one another as they once did 2 King 3.23 Now Moab to the spoil Vers 14. See he hath brought in an Hebrew So she cals him by way of contempt as they called our Saviour Nazarene and his followers Galileans The Arrians called the true Christians Ambrosians Athanasians Homousians c. And at this day S. Humph. Lynde D. Fulk Rhem. Test on act 11 sect 4. the most honourable name of Christian is in Italy and at Rome a name of reproach and usually abused to signifie a fool or a dolt Vers 15. And it came to pass c. How many innocents in all ages have perished by false accusation Here this vermine accuseth her husband of foolishness her servant of filthiness which she first affirmeth secondly confirmeth Rev. 12. by producing his garment left in her hands That accuser of the brethren set her on as he did the malicious heathens to traduce and denigrate those pure primitive Christians purer then snow whiter then milke ruddier then rubies their polishing was of Sapphire Lam. Tertullian 4.7 as so many murderers man-eaters adulterers Church-robbers traytors c. Which last Lipsius calls Vnicum crimen corum Arch. Vssier de christ Eccles success statu page 236. qui crimine vacabant So the Waldenses were spitefully accused of Manichisme and Catharisme and thereupon a Croisado was published against them as common enemies So a little afore the Massacre of Paris it was given out by the French Papists that the Protestants in their conventicles plotted treason acted villany c. And after the Massacre there was a coyn stamped Camd. Elisab fol. 163. Qui son chiâ—n vult tuer la rage luy met sus A French proverb in the fore-part whereof together with the Kings picture was this inscription Virtus in rebelles and on the other side Pietas excitavit justitiam Those that kill a dog make the world believe he was mad first So the enemies of the Church first ever traduced her to the world and then persecuted her first pulled off her vaile and then wounded her Cant. 5.6 Vers 17. And she spake unto him c. Here the adulteress hunteth for the precious life Prov. 6.26 Her lust as Amnons turneth into extream hatred This is just the custome of a Curtisan Aut te ardentèr amat aut te capitaliter odit Mantuan Heathens tell us the like of their Hippolytus that when Phaedra his step-mother could not win him to her will this way she acensed him to his father Theseus as if he had attempted her chastity whereupon he was forced to fly his country Likewise of Bellerophon a young Prince with whose beauty Sthenobaea Queen of Argives being taken sollicited him to lye with her which when he refused she accused him to her husband Ovid. Metam that he would have ravished her This he believing sent him with letters to Iobates King of Lycia to make him away Iobates put him upon many desperate services Homer Iliad l. 6. to have dispatcht him But finding him a valiant and victorious man he afterward bestowed his daughter on him with part of his Kingdom Which when Sthenobaea heard of she hang'd her self for wo. So perhaps did this huswife in the text when she saw Ioseph so highly advanced by Pharaoh The death howsoever was too good for her Vers 19. His wrath was kindled Heb. exarsit nasus ejus Good cause he had if all had been true that his wife told him Prov. 6.34 35. It is well known how the rape of Lucrece was punished upon the Tarquines Valentinian the Emperour defiled the wife of his subject Maximus Maximus afterwards slew Valentinian Eudoniam Valeutiniani uxorem vi compressam turpiâ—â—â—â—uptiis sibi copulas succeeded him in the Empire ravished his wife and forced her to marry him She to be revenged sent for Gensericus who seized upon all Italy c. But Potiphar was too light of belief and should have examined the matter ere he had condemned the man Credulity is a note of folly Prov. 14.15 Vers 20. And Iosephs Master took him It was a providence that he had not presently slain him upon that false accusation The Devil is first a liar and then a murtherer But he is limited by God Joh. 3. Ioseph is imprisoned in the round tower where they hurt his feet with fetters Psal 105.18 the iron entred into his soul He meanwhile either pleads not or is not heard Doubtless he denyed the fact but durst not accuse the offender His innocency might afterwards appear and thereupon the chief Keeper shew him favour ver 21. But his Master should have been better advised If he lived till Ioseph was advanced he had as good cause to fear his power as ever Ioseph's brethren did Cardinal Woolsey was first Schoolmaster of Magdalen School in Oxford after that beneficed by Marquess Dorset whose children he had there taught Where he had not long been but one Sir Iames Paulet upon some displeasure Negotiations of Card. Wols pag. 2. set him by the heels which affront was afterwards neither forgotten nor forgiven For when the School-master became Lord Chancellour of England he sent for him and after a sharp reproof imprisoned him A good president for men in authority which work their own wiles without wit not to punish out of humour c. Discite justitiam moniti c. Despise not any mans meanness we know not his destiny Vers 21. But the Lord was with Ioseph A prison keeps not God from his witness the Apostles and Martyrs whose prisons by Gods presence became palaces the fiery furnace a gallery of pleasure the stocks a musick-school Act. 16.25 Bradford Act. Mon. sol 1489. after he was put in prison had better health then before and found great favour with his Keeper who suffered him to go whither he would upon his promise to return by such an hour Ibid. 1457. to his prison again CHAP. XL. Vers 1. Had offended their Lord the King of Egypt VVHat their offence was is not expressed The Hebrews say Pharaoh found a flye in his cup and a little gravel in his bread and therefore imprisoned these two great Officers
dream of that libertie wee yet enjoie would bee as precious to us as a drop of cold water would have been to the rich man in hell when hee was so grievously tormented in those flames Vers 15. To the Hebrew Midwives In Egypt and Greece the midwives of old had their schools and som of them were great writers I know not whether the Priests were then so officious to them as manie are now among the Papists who saie they therefore studie Albertus Magnus de secretis mulierum that they may advise the Midwives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. but I doubt it is for a wors purpose to gratifie and greaten those abominable lusts wherewith they are scalded Vers 16. Then yee shall kill him No greater argument of an ill caus then a bloodie persecution George Tankerfield the Martyr was in King Edward's daies a verie papist Act Man fol. 1535. till the time Queen Marie came in And then perceiving the great crueltie used on the Popes side was brought into a misdoubt of their doing and began as hee said in his heart to abhor them Vers 17. And did not as the King c Wherein they did no more though out of a better principle then Nature it self dictateth Antigona saith thus in Sophocles Magis obtemper andum est Dijs apud quos diutiùs manendum erit quà m hominibus quibuscum admodum breui tempore vivendum est See the Note on Act. 4.19 Wee must rather obeie God then men Vers 18. Why have yee don this thing They might well have answered as shee did in Euripides Obediemus Atridis bonesta mandantibus Sin verò inhonesta mandabunt non Obediemus If you command things honest wee will obeie you not els Or as that brave woman upon the rack Non ideo negare volo nè peream sed ideo mentiri nolo Hieronym nè peccem Vers 19. For they are livelie By that voice of the Lord which maketh the hindes to calv Psal 29. Ladie Faith was their midwife And shee hath delivered the graves of their dead Heb. 11.35 how much more wombes of their quick Children Vers 20. dealt well with the midwives God is a liberal paiemaster and his retributions are more then bountiful Bee yee therefore stedfast and unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord sith yee know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. vlt. Greg. Moral And the people multiplied Sic divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur humana sapientia dum reluctatur comprehenditur as Gregory hath it Prov. 19.21 There are manie devices in the heart of a man but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Among the Romanes the more children anie man had the more hee was freed from publick burdens And of Adrian the Emperor it is storied that when those that had manie Children were accused of anie crime Dio in Adriano hee mitigated their punishment according to the number of their Children But these poor Israëlites were otherwise used Vers 21. Becaus the midwives feared God There is no necessitie of granting that the midwives told the King a lie see ver 19. But if they did St. Austin saith well Non remunerata fuit ijs fallacia sed benevolentia benignitas mentis non iniquitas mentienâ—is Their lie was not rewarded but their kind-heartedness That hee made them houses i. e. hee gave them posteritie Thus hee builded David an hous 2 Sam. 7. And thus Rachel and Leah are said to have built the hous of Israël Ruth 4.11 The parents are as it were the soundation of the hous the children as so manie livelie stones in the building Hence the Hebrews call a Son Ben of Banah to build quòd sit aedificium struciura parentum quoad generationem educationem Ver. 22. And Pharaoh charged Imperio non tam duro quà m diro This was a most bloodie edict therefore when God came to make inquisition for blood hee gave them blood again to drink for they were worthie Tertullian The like hee did to Nero qui orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit to Julian Valens Valerian Attilas Girzerichus Charls the ninth of France and manie other bloodie Persecutors See the note on Rev. 16.6 CHAP. II. Ver. 1. And took to wife HIs own Aunt Exod. 6.20 Num. 26.59 The Law against Incest Levit. 18.12 was not yet given nor the state of Israël settled But what excuse can there bee for that abominable Incest of the Hous of Austria by Papal dispensation Spec. Europ King Philip of Spain was Uncle to himself Cousin-german to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And what shal wee say of our Modern Sectaries whose practising of Incest is now avowed publickly in Print they shame not to affirm that those marriages are most lawful that are betwixt persons nearest in blood brother and sister father and daughter See Mr Bayly his disswasion part 2. and Mr Edwards Gangr par 3. mother and son uncle and neece The prohibition of degrees in Leviticus is to bee understood say they of Fornication not of Marriage Tamar did not doubt to bee her brother Amnon's wife but detested the act of Fornication c. Lo here Little Nonsuch p. 5.6.7 what noon-day devils do now in this unhappie open-tide walk with open face amongst us Ver. 2. A goodly child Fair to God Act. 7.20 See the note there Art thou fair bee not like an Egyptian temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where som beast is worshipped Art thou foul let thy Soul bee like a rich pearl in a rude shell Ver. 3. And shee laid it in the flags This shee did by the force of her Faith Heb. 11. Casting the childe upon God and under hope believing against hope Ver. 4. And his Sister by a singular instinct of the holy Spirit as appear's by the event The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal 37.23 Hee keepeth the feet of his Saints 1 Sam. 2.9 Ver. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh shee was brought hither at this time by a special providence to do that which shee little dreamt of So when Heidelberg was taken by the Imperialists the copie of Vrsinus's Catechism enlarged by Pareus was among many other papers carried away by a plundering Souldier but happily dropt in the streets and found the next daie by a young Student who knowing his master's hand restored it to his son Philip Pareus Vita David Paâ—eâ— per Philippum filium who afterwards published that golden book to the great Glorie of God who had so graciously preserved it Ver. 6. One of the Hebrews so called of Heber see the Note on Gen. 13.14 Ver. 9. And I will give thee thy wages The nurs expect's not her paie from the childe but from the parents Ministers in case their people prove unkinde or unthankful must look up Ver. 10. Shee called his name Moses Hee was also by the Egyptians
retein the number of ten words so loth are Hereticks to have their assâ—â— cars seon they divide the last which yet is called the Commandement not the Commandements Rom. 7.7 Vasques not able to answer our Argument saith That the second Commandement belonged to the Jews onely Ver. 2. Which have brought thee God's blessings are binders and everie deliverance a tie to obedience Ver. 3. Thou shalt have This Thou reacheth everie man Xenophon saith of Cyrus that when hee gave anie thing in command hee never said Let som one do this but Do thou this Hoc tu facias Xenophon Cyropaed No other Gods before mee But know and serv mee alone with a perfect heart and with a willing minde 1 Chron. 28.9 Hoc primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur saith Luther In this first Commandement the keeping of all the other nine is commanded Ver. 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee i. e. For religious use for civil they may bee made Mat. 22.20 Howbeit the Turks will not indure anie Image no not upon their coins becaus of this second Commandement The Papists by their sacrilegeous practices have taken away this Commandement out of their vulgar Catechism This is a great stumbling-block to the Jews and a let to their conversion for ever since their return from Babylon they do infinitely abhor Idolatrie And for their coming to Christian Sermons they saie That as long as they shall see the Preacher direct his speech and praier to that little wooden Crucifix that stand's on the Pulpit by him Specul Europ to call it his Lord and Saviour to kneel to it to embrace it to kiss it to weep upon it as is the fashion of Italie this is preaching sufficient for them and perswade's them more with the verie sight of it to hate Christian Religion then anie reason that the world can allege to love it Ver. 5. Thou shalt not bow down Images came first from Babylon For Ninus having made an Image of his father Belus all that came to see it were pardoned for their former offenses whence in time that Image came to bee worshipped through the instigation of the Divel who is saith Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that rejoiceth in Images Am a jealous God Bee the gods of the Heathens good-fellows saith one the true God is a jealous God and will not share his glorie with another nor bee served by anie but in his own waie They that wit-wanton it with God may look to speed wors then that Citizen in K. Edward the Fourth's daies did who was executed in Cheapside as a traitor Speed's Chron for saying hee would make his son heir of the crown though hee onely meant his own hous having a crown for the sign Visiting the iniquitie This second Commandement is the first with punishment becaus men do commonly punish such as worship God in spirit and truth As therefore one fire so one fear should drive out another the fear of God the fear of men Ver. 6. Vnto thousands Of succeeding generations Personal goodness is profitable to posteritie And this promiss though made to all yet is more specially annexed to this second Commandement to teach saith one that parents should chiefly labor to plant pietie in their families as they would have God's blessing intailed upon their issue Ver. 7. The Name of the Lord That holie and reverend Name Psal 111.9 that Nomen Majestativum as Tertullian calleth it dreadful among the Heathen Mal. 1.14 The verie Turks at this daie chastise the Christians that live amongst them for their oaths and blasphemies darted up against God and Christ The Jews also are much offended thereat and it should bee no small grief to us to hear it When one of Darius his Eunuchs saw Alexander the Great setting his feet upon a low table that had been highly esteemed by his master hee wept Diod. Sic. lib. 17. Beeing asked the reason by Alexander hee said It was to see the thing that his master so highly esteemed to bee now contemned and made his foot-stool Ver. 8. Remember the Sabbath daie Hee saith not The seventh daie from the Creätion but the daie of religious rest such as is now our Christian Sabbath called a Sabbath-daie by our Saviour Mat. 24.20 who is Lord of this Sabbath called therefore the Lord's-daie Rev. 1. 1 Cor. 10. as one of our Sacraments is called the Lord's Supper and the table of the Lord becaus instituted by him Pope Sylvester presumed to alter the Christian Sabbath Hospin de fest Christ decreeing that Thursdaie should bee kept through the whole year becaus on that daie Christ asscended and on that instituted the blessed Sacrament of his bodie and bloud And generally Papists press the sanctification of the Sabbath as a mere humane institution in religious worship an ordinance of the Church and do in their celebration more solemnly observ the Festivals of the Saints then the Lord's Sabbaths making it as Bacchus's Orgies c. that according to what their practice is it may more fitly bee styled Dies daemoniacus quà m Dominicus The divel's-daie then God's To sanctifie it Let everie one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually saith Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist 3.2d Magnesian rejoicing in the meditation of Christ's Law more then in the rest of our bodies The ox and ass must rest wee must consecrate a rest â—s God on the seventh daie rested not from his works of preservation John 5.17 Ver. 9. Six daies shalt thou labor God hath reserved but one daie in seven as hee reserved the Tree of knowledg of Good and Evil. Gen. 2. yet wretched men must needs clip the Lord's coin In manie places God's Sabbaths are made the voider and dunghil for all refuse businesses The Sabbath of the Lord the sanctified day of his rest saith one is shamelesly troubled and disquieted B. King on Jon. Lect. 7. The world is now grown perfectly profane saith another and can plaie on the Lord's-daie without book Ver. 10. But the seventh daie Or a seventh daie Not onely Hebrews but also Greeks and Barbarians did rest from work on the seventh daie witness Josephus Clemens Alexand. and Eusehius That which they tell us of the river Sabbatius it's resting and not running on that daie I look upon as fabulous Thou shalt not do anie work Onely works of Pietie of Charitie and of Necessitie may bee don on the Sabbath daie Hee that but gathered sticks was paid home with stones The first blow given the Germane Churches was upon the Sabbath daie Dike of Cons pag. 276. which they carelesly observed Prague was lost upon that daie Thou and thy son c. Everie mother's childe The baser sort of people in Swethland do alwaies break the Sabbath David's desire by R. Abbot saying That it 's for Gentlemen to keep that daie Thy man-servant There is an old law of the Saxon King Ina If a villain work on Sundaie
by his Lord's command hee shall bee free Sr. H Spelman in Concil Ver. 11. For in six daies God took six daies to make the world in to the end that wee might bee in a muse when wee think of it and think on his works in that order that hee made them And rested the seventh daie Not as tired out for hee made all without either tool or toil his Fiat onely did the deed but to give us example as John 13.15 Wherefore the Lord blessed c. How God esteemeth the strict observation of the Sabbath daie may appear by the exact deliverie of it For hee hath fenced it about like Mount Sinai with marks and bounds that profaneness might not approach it 1. By his watch-word Remember 2. By his bountie Six daies c. 3. By his sovereigntie It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God 4. By the latitude Thou and thy son c. 5. By his own example And rested the seventh daie 6. By his benediction as here Hee blessed it and ordained it to bee a means of much blessing to those that observ it Add hereunto that God hath placed this Command in the midst of the Decalogue betwixt the two tables as much conducing to the keeping of both It stand's like the sensus communis between the inward and outward senses Boâ—in Theat Naturae beeing serviceable to both And hallowed it Diem septimam opifex ut mundi natalem sibi sacravit Ver. 12. Honor thy father c. Philo well observeth that this fifth Commandement which therefore hee maketh a branch of the first Table and so divide's the Tables equally is a mixt Commandement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and differ's somwhat from the rest of those in the second Table They consider man as our neighbor in nature like us this as God's Deputie by him set over us and in his name and by his autoritie performing offices about us That thy daies may bee long A good childe lengthneth his father's daies therefore God promiseth to lengthen his Ill children as they bring their parents graie hairs with sorrow to the grave so they are manie times cut off in the midst of their daies as Abimelech was God rendring upon him the evil that hee did to his father Judg. 13.5 Besides the pnnishment they have in their posteritie to whom they have been peremptores potiùs quà m parentes Bern. One complained that never father had so undutiful a childe as hee had yes said his son with less grace then truth my grandfather had Ver. 13. Thou shalt not kill A crying sin Gen. 4. For the which God make's inquisition Psalm 9.12 and strangely bring 's it to light It was a saying of King James that if God did leav him to kill a man hee would think God did not love him Ver. 14. Thou shalt not commit adulterie Adulterie onely is named because bestialitie Sodomie and other uncleannesses though more hainous yet they do not directly fight against the puritie of posteritie and humane societie which the Law mainly respect's Ver. 15. Thou shalt not steal i.e. Not rob or wrong another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. either by force or fraud 1 Thes 4.6 See the Note there Basil chargeth the Divel as a thief of the truth in that hee had decked his crows with her feathers And it was of the Divel surely that Shee had learned her answer who beeing charged by her mistress for stealing her linnens Light for smoke p. 85. and other things which shee found in her trunk said that shee stole them not and when shee was asked how came they to bee laid and locked up there Did not you do this No said shee it was not I but sin that dwelleth in mee Ver. 16. Thou shalt not bear Neither bear it nor hear it rais nor receiv wrong reports of another Deut. 19.16 Make a lie nor love it when it is made Rev. 22.15 The truth must bee spoken and that in love Doeg had a fals tongue though hee spoke nothing but truth against David Psal 120.3 Ver. 17. Thou shalt not covet See the Note on Rom. 7.7 and on Heb. 13.5 Thy neighbor's hous House is here first set as that which hold's and harbor's all the rest To these ten words written by God himself in the daie of the Assemblie Divines have reduced those other Laws Moral Judicial and Cerimonial written by Moses 34.27 28. Deut. 10.4 And herein Alstedius that excellent Methodist hath in his Harmonia Musica as in all those brief but pithie Notes upon the Pentateuch don the Church of Christ singular good service whom therefore for a Preface to that which follow 's in the opening of this and the three next Books and for the use of mine English Reader I have abbridged translated and the same here inserted SECT I. Of reducing all the Moral Laws to the Decalogue TO the first Commandement belong laws that concern Faith Hope and Love to God First Faith as that there is but one God and three Persons Jehovah Elohim that hee will send them a Prophet greater then Meses Deut. 18. that hee is to bee honored with our confidence patience and inward worship Next Hope of Favor Grace and Glorie Thirdly Love to God with the whole heart filial fear humble praier holie vows constant care to avoid idolizing the creature seeking to the Divel tempting of God listening to Seducers c. To the second Commandement belong laws made against gross Idolatrie will-worship c. and for right worship To the third pertein laws for Praier Thanksgiving Oaths Lots Blasphemies worthie walking c. To the fourth all laws of sanctifying the Sabbath To the fifth of honoring and reverencing Parents Princes Elders c. and of punishing rebellious children To the sixth may bee reduced all laws concerning Murther Revenge Rancor Smiting Fighting cursing the Deaf laying a block before the blinde c. To the seventh all that is said against Fornication Adulterie Sodomie Incest wearing the Apparel of the other Sex To the eighth Laws against Robberie Rapine Usurie Sacrilege deteining Wages or Pledges removing Land-marks accepting of Persons taking of Gifts fals Weights c. To the ninth belong laws against Back-biting Tale-bearing Fals-witnessing judging not admonishing c. To the tenth no laws are referred becaus it is wholly spiritual and hath no visible violations SECT II. Of reducing Judicial Laws to the Decalogue TO the first Commandement It was death 1. to denie obedience to the Priest who was a type of Christ 2. To perswade Apostacie from the true God 3. To seek to witches and wizzards It was likewise unlawful to make a covenant with the Canaanites whom God had cursed to make mixtures of divers kindes of creatures c. whereby they are taught sinceritie in Religion and conversation To the second Commandement God commanded to abolish Images Pictures Idolatrous temples Altars Groves c. and forbad them upon pain of death to bow to Sun Moon or anie other strange
the Covenant the Seals Ministers c. But alas are not these blessings amongst us as the Ark was amongst the Philistims rather as prisoners then as privileges rather in testimonium ruinam quà m in salutem Rather for our ruine then reformation Ver. 28. Fortie daies and fortie nights Moses Elias and Christ those three great Fathers met glorious in Mount Tahor Abstinence merit 's not but prepare's the best for good duties Hee wrote That is Weems Exer. God wrote as som will have it Ver. 29. The skin of his face shone God hereby assuring the people that hee had inwardly inlightned him for their better instruction Ver. 30. And they were afraid This was another manner of Brightness and Majestie then that which sate in the eies of Augustus and of Tamerlan whose eies so shone as that a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing of his own and manie in talking with them and often beholding of them became dumb which caussed them oft-times with a comlie modestie to abstein from looking too earnestly upon such as spake unto them Turk histâ— fol. 236. or discoursed with them Ver. 33. Hee put a veil on his face And had more glorie by his veil then by his face How far are those spirits from this Christian modestie which care onely to bee seen and wish onely to dazle others eies with admiration not caring for unknown riches This veil signified the Laws obscuritie and our infidelitie Ver. 34. But when Moses went in Hypocrites on the contrarie shew their best to men their worst to God God see 's both their veil and their face and I know not whether hee hate's more their veil of dissimulation or face of wickedness CHAP. XXXV Ver. 1. And said unto them These c. HEE often go's over the same things as the knife doth the whetstone Good things must bee repeted sicut in acuendo 'T is Moses his own metaphor Deut. 6.7 Ver. Six daies shall work bee don This dutie is so oft inculcated to shew the necessitie excellencie difficultie of well doing it Ver. Yee shall kindle no fire sc For the furtherance of the work of the Tabernacle or at least that is not of absolute necessitie It might also signifie that in the kingdom of heaven wee shall bee set free from all the fire and scorching heat of affliction Ver. 22. And brought bracelets Glad they had anie thing of price to dedicate to God and to seal up their thankfulness for this re-admittance into his love and favor See the Note on Matth. 9.10 Nazianzen put this price upon his Athenian learning wherein hee was verie famous that hee had somthing of value to part with for Christ Ver. 32. And to devise curious works This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts Lib. 23. who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Isa 28.29 Plinie make's mention of som famous Painters whose rare pieces were Oppidorum opibus venditae Sold for so manie Towns-wealth A certain artificer set a watch-clock upon a ring that Charls the Fifth wore upon his finger Sphinx philos pag. 90. King Ferdinand sent to Solyman the Turk for a present a wonderful globe of silver of most rare and curious device daily expressing the hourly passing of the Time the motions of the Planets Turk Hist fol. 713. the change and full of the Moon lively exepressing the wonderful conversions of the Celestial frame To which I may well add that admirable invention of Printing a special blessing of God to mankinde CHAP. XXXVI XXXVII c. Ver. 2. And Moses called Bezaleel GOd qualified them Mâ—ses called them Ministers also must have an outward calling too See Acts 13.1 2 3. Heb. 5.4 and bee sent ere they preach Rom. 10.15 And whereas 1 Cor. 14.31 It is said Yee may all prophecie the meaning is All yee that are Prophets may But are all Prophets 1 Cor. 12.29 Ver. 7. And too much Thus in outward ordinances of service and for the making of a worldlie sanctuarie Heb. 9.1 they could do and over-do So John 6.28 They said unto him What shall wee do that wee may work the works of God Men would fain have heaven as a purchase I would swim through a sea of brimstone said one that I might com to heaven at last But what said our Saviour to those questionists John 6 This is the work of God that yee believ on him whom hee hath sent And what said Luther Walk in the Heaven of the Promiss but in the Earth of the Law that in respect of Believing this of Working Manie poor souls can think of nothing but working themselvs to life Do wee must all righteousness but rest in none but Christ's Ver. 8. And everie wise-hearted man Let no man look upon this and the following Chapter as an idle repetition nor saie as one said once Did wee not know that all Scripture was divinely inspired wee should bee readie to saâ—e Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus But know that here is see forth a Table Index or Inventorie of what Moses and the workmen did in obedience to God's command for everie particular about the Sanctuarie This Inventorie was taken by Ithamar at the commandement of Moses Et sic in archivum Ecclesiae relatum and so laid up in the charter-hous of the Church for the use of posteritie See the Notes on Exod. 26. and consider that saying of an antient Prosper Epist ad Augustin Necessarium utile est etiam quae scripta sunt scribere nè leve existimetur quod non frequenter arguitur CHAP. XL. Ver. 36. The Children of Israël went THe Jews conceiv that this Cloud that led Israël through the wilderness levelled mountains raised vallies and laid all aflat that it burnt up bushes and smoothed rocks and made all plain c. See Luke 3.5 Isa 4.5 A COMMENTARIE OR EXPOSITION UPON THE Third BOOK of Moses called LEVITICVS CHAP. I. Vers 1 And the Lord called A Continuation of the former Historie from the rearing of the Tabernacle to the numbering of the people beeing the historie of one moneth onely Ver. 2. Bring an offering Whereby they were led to Christ as the Apostle sheweth in that excellent Epistle to the Hebrews which is a just Commentarie upon this Book Ver 3. Burnt sacrifice A whole-burnt-offâ—ring Heb 10.6 purporting whole Chriâ—â— uffering for us Isa 53 12 and our sacrificing our whole selvs to him â—s a reasonable service Rom. 12.1 Ver. 4. And hee shall put his hand As acknowledging his own guilt and transferring the same upon Christ resting upon him with full assurance of faith handfasting us unto him Ver. 5. And bee shall kill the bullock The Priest shall kill it for it was death for anie man to offer his own sacrifice so it is still for anie to com to God otherwise then in and by Christ Ver. 6. And hee shall flaie the burnt-offering To shew the grievousness of our Saviour's sufferings the
mindedness c. purported by these bodilie imperfections Ver. 22. Hee shall eat the bread So might not the unclean Priests Levit. 22.3 Our involuntarie weaknesses shall not debar us from benefit by Christ CHAP. XXII Ver. 2. That they separate THough Priests yet they may not hold themselvs privileged above others to commit sin but are the rather obliged to dutie Why should anie Chrysostom have caus to saie Non arbitror inter sacerdotes multos esse qui salvi fiant I do not think that manie of our Ministers can bee saved 't is well if anie Or anie Campian to exclaim Ministris eorum nihil vilius Ver. 6. Vnless hee wash his flesh with water Whereby hee was led to the laver of Christ's blood which is opposed to legal washings Heb. 9.9 Run wee to that open fountain Zach. 13.1 and bee everie daie washing and cleansing our selvs therein from all filthiness of flesh and spirit Everie Jew had his water-pots for dailie purification John 2.6 Wee have a far better Bath Ver. 7. Becaus it is his food Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est and must bee preserved by food Ver. 9. And die therefore It is no dallying with God Either do it wee must or die for it Ver. 10. There shall no stranger The equitie of all this was that Ministers should have a comfortable subsistence for them and theirs and that the things that are appointed to that purpose should not bee converted to other uses 1 Cor. 9.13 It is certainly a sad complaint that Luther make's Nisi superesset spolium Aegypti quod rapuimus Papae Luther in Gen. 47. omnibus Ministris verbi fame pereundum esset c. Were it not for such spoils of Aegypt as wee have won from the Pope God's Ministers might starve and perish And if ever it com to that that they must bee mainteined by the people's benevolence a miserable maintenance they are like to have of it That little that wee have now diripitur à Magistratu is got from us by the great Ones who rob our Churches and Schools as if they meant to make an end of us with hard hunger Thus hee See Hag. 2.14 All the water in Jordan and the Cerimonies in Leviticus cannot cleans a man so long as the polluted thing remain's in his hand Ver. 16. Or suffer them From my other men's sins Good Lord deliver mee said One Have wee not enough of our own to answer for See 1 Tim. 5.22 wich the Note That cannot bee wholsom meat that is sauced with the blood of souls and spiced with the wrath of God Ver. 20. It shall not bee acceptable Nay it shall bee abominable Mal. 1.7 God require's the best of the best fine flour without bran Levit. 2.1 c. and curseth that cousener that having a sound or a fat male in his flock bringeth to him a corrupt carrion or a lean starvling for Sacrifice Vers 14. Ver. 23. That maiest thou offer Though it have som kinde of defect yet in free-will offerings it might pass This was to signifie that our imperfect obedience after that wee are once in Christ is accepted by Christ who is without all blame and blemish Ver. 24. Neither shall you make anie offering No not a free-will offering Religion love's to lie clean God will take up with a poor but it must bee a pure sacrifice Ver. 25. Their corruption is in them As not having their hearts purified by faith and therefore not in case to pleas God Ver. 27. It shall bee seven daies As not beeing man's meat till then but legally impure and in their blood as were likewise infants Ver. 28. Yee shall not kill it and her young Becaus it bear's a shew of crueltie and of adding affliction to the afflicted See Gen 32.11 Hos 10.14 Ver. 29. Offer it at your own will God strain 's upon no man Virtus nolentium nullaest Ver. 30. On the same daie See the Note on Chap. 7.15 Ver. 31. I am the Lord Your rightfull Lord and my reward is with mee to give unto everie man according to his works Ver. 32. My holie name Holie and therefore reverend Psal 111.9 Holiness hath honor CHAP. XXIII Ver. 1. And the Lord spake SEE the Note on chap. 7.22 Ver. 2. To bee holie convocations Not bare rests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. de legib as Plato said that the Gods pittying men's labor appointed their festivals to bee a remission of their labor See the Notes on Exod. 20.8 9 10 11. Ver. 3. Yee shall do no work therein Save onely works of pietie charitie and necessitie These are allowed by our Saviour Mark 2.29 and 3.4 and 3.27 The Jews superstitiously hold that it is not lawfull for a blinde man to lean upon a staff on a Sabbath-daie as the lame may That if a Flea bite a man on that daie hee may take it but not kill it that if a thorn prick him in the foot on that daie hee may not pull it out That a Tailor may not carrie a needle much less a sword that a man may not spet or bee taken out of a jakes Ranulph lib. 7 c. 37. as that Jew of Tewksburie who said Sabbata sancto colo de stercore surgere nolo Whereunto the Earl of Glocester replied Sabbata nostra quidem Solomon celebrabis ibidem Sir reverence of the Sabbath keep 's mee here And you Sir reverence shall our Sabbath there In all your dwellings Where you are to sanctifie this rest and to repair to your Synagogues Act. 15.21 Ver. 5. In the fourteenth daie See the Notes on Exodus 12.18 Ver. 11. And hee shall wave the sheaf This signified that they and theirs were accepted of God through Christ On the morrow after the Sabbath Here the Lord's daie was prefigured saith one therefore prescribed and instituted of God This shake-daie-sheaf was a pregnant type of Christ's rising again the first-fruits from the dead It was fulfilled in Christ's resurrection the daie after the Sabbath And becaus this Sabbath bath was chiefly meant of the Passover which was an high Sabbath it was a double Sabbath wherein Christ rested in the grave The verie next morning was Christ waved before the Lord when in the earth-quake hee rose from the dead the first fruits of them that sleep and there-hence entered the everlasting gates as a King of glorie Psal 24.7 which Psalm is in the Greek called A Psalm of David of the first daie of the week Ver. 15. Seven Sabbaths That is seven weeks The Sabbath is queen of all the daies of the week and therefore carrie's the name of the whole week Ver. 17. Out of your habitations That is out of the new corn growing of the same land which God gave them to inherit not â—orrein The first fruits viz. of their wheat-harvest as the shake-sheaf vers 10. was of their barlie-harvest Thus were they to express their thankfulness to God for those pretious fruits of the earth Jam. 5.7 Ver. 22. And when
to saints Relation of West relig sect 4. both themselves as to Francis Austin Dominick c. and other things as pilgrimages oblations c. Our Lady as they call her of Loretto hath her Churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memories as they are fain to hang their cloysters and church-yards with them This is sacriledg yea it is idolatry To hind his soul with a bond Which none ought to do but such as 1. Are free or have the consent of their governours 2. Such as have knowledg and judgment to discerne of a vow or oath Eccles 5.3 5. 3. Are conscientious as Iacob Hannah c. Not such votaries as Herod Mat. 14.7 those Assassines Act. 23.14 those Idolaters Ier. 44.27 He shall not break his word If he do he will make a great breach in his conscience and crack his comfort exceedingly better not vow then not pay Eccles 5.4 It is a sin as bad or worse then perjury and God takes it heavily at mens hands Ier. 34.10 11. Vers 4. And her father shall hold his peace Qui tacet consentire videtur a rule in civill law silence is a kinde of consent Then all her vows shall stand Provided that she vow 1. Such things as are lawfull and warrantable by the word for to vow to doe evill is an utter abomination as Act. 23.14 Deut. 23.18 2. Such things as are possible and in her power either naturally or by the assistance of Gods grace promised to her Such is not the popish vowing of virginity sith omnes non capiant hoc all men cannot contain Their vowes of continency breed all manner of incontinency in their Clergy Vers 5. But if her father disallow her Those that vow Monasticall obedience renounce all duty to their parents and service to their country Parents are our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a heathen said our houshold gods as it were and have power to disannull or ratifie the vowes of their children but the â—apists are true heires to the Pharisees who taught not to honour father or mother Mat. 15.6 and so do make the Commandement of God of none effect by their tradition Full well have they done it Mark 7.9 But what cannot they do The Pope saith Cardinall Bellarmine Lib. 4. de Pontif Rom. potest de injustitia facere justitiam ex nihilo aliquid ex virtute vitium he can make righteousness of unrighteousness Sleidan Com. something of nothing vice of vertue And it seems so indeed by his practice For when the Cardinals meet to chuse a Pope they make a vow whosoever is chosen he shall sweare to such articles as they make And Sleidan saith the Pope is no sooner chosen but he breaks them all and checks their insolencies as if they went about to limit his power to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth Vers 6. And if she had at all an husband Hannah's vow 1 Sam. 1.11 was made either by the consent of her husband or else by peculiar instinct from God Vers 13. To afflict her soul This is one instance of what she may vow She may curbe wanton flesh from the use of things lawfull in themselves but hurtfull to her and that by a vow as did the Rechabites Ier. 35.8 9.10 which the devill seeing will despaire for vows are as exorcismes to allay our rebellious spirits and as cords to hamper our treacherous hearts when they would slip the collar and detrect the yoak In short a man may lawfully vow a thing that is either a part of Gods worship as to fast once a moneth before the Sacrament to pray so many times a day c. or a furtherance thereof as to found a lecture build a colledge school almes-house give so much weekly to the poor c. CHAP. XXXI Vers 2. Avenge the children of Israel This is called the vengeance of Iehovah vers 3. The righteous Iudg will not fail to avenge our unrighteous vexations if we commit our selves to him in well-doing 1 Pet. 4.19 Vers 3. Arme some of your selves unto the war Lactantius being according to his name a mild and milken man abhorred bloodshed thought it not lawfull for a just man to be a warriour Instit lib. 6. cap. 20. whose justice was his warfare But this was his errour Patres legendi sunt cum venia God bids here Arme your selves c. Indeed it is utterly unlawfull for men wilfully to thrust themselves into unnecessary warrs and it is reported in the life of Saint Angustine that he would never pray for such But when God sounds the alarme as here Cursed is he that doth this work of the Lord negligently Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood Ier. 48.10 Vers 5. Twelve thousand This was no great army but they were Deo armati with whom there is no restraint to save by many or by few 1 Sam. 14.6 How wondrously did God work by that handfull of Hussites in Bohemia when all Germany was up in armes against them by the Popes instigation And may it not be said of that small remnant that now fighteth the Lords battels in Ireland The Lord hath done great things for them whereof we are glad Have they not been helped with a little help indeed the more is our shame Dan. 11.34 that send them no more Vers 6. Them and Phinehas Not without Joshua the Generall though not here mentioned the mighty conquerour of all Israels enemies that rose up and resisted them famours is he for his faithfulness and fortitude in cognoscendis rebus bellicis perspicax in agendo solers noverat optimè insidias facere proelium committere victoria uti Dio in Domitiano c. as Dio saith of Decebalus king of the Daci in Domitians dayes i.e. Well-skilled in war-like businesses and diligent in dispatching them He knew well how to lay an ambush worst an enemy use a victory c. Vers 8. And Zur The father of Cozbi that noble harlot Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto Sâ—des prima et vita ima is but golden rubbish eminent infamy noble dishonour Balaam also the son of Beor See the Note on Chap. 24.25 O that God would cause the false â—rophets and the unclean spirit for whom they act and by whom they are acted to pass out of our land according to his promise Zeph. 13.2 Vers 9. Took all the women The Iewes are a nation Blunt voyage to this day noted for effeminate and yet they hold that women are of a lower creation made for the propagation and pleasure of man Diruendi sunt etiam ipsi cinoni arum 〈◊〉 ne redeant said Zisca Lavat in Deuter and therefore they suffer them not to enter their Synagogues but appoint them a gallery without Vers 10. And they burnt all their ciâ—yes For the same reason perhaps that our Henry the eight demolished so many Monasteries saying Câ—rvorum nidos esse penitus disturbandos ne
iterum ad cohabitandum convolent that the crows-nests were to be utterly destroyed Sander Schism Arglie lib. 1. See Iudg. 6.1 lest they should make further use of them again another time Or rather lest sloth or covetousness shouid draw any of the Israelites to hide themselves in these nests and neglect the promised land Vers 13. Went forth to meet them As Melchisedee went forth to meet Abraham returning with victory Gen. 14. as Archb. Hubert met our Richard the first returning from the holy land as they called it both of them first falling to the earth rose again Speed hist fol. 540. ran into each others armes comforting themselves with mutuall imbraces and weeping with joy Vers 14. And Moses was wroth For all the joy he could not but be zealous for the Lord of Hosts when he saw the train Zeal is the creame of all the affections Vers 15. Have ye saved all the women alive By whom ye have so lately sinned and so lately suffered Keep thee far from an evill matter Exod. 23.7 Circa serpentis antrum positus non eris diu illaesus saith Isidor We should take heed how we play about the hole of the asp or neer the den of the cockatrice Isai 11.8 Sin and temptation come both under our name in the Lords prayer To pray lead us not into temptation and yet to run upon the occasion of sin is to thrust a finger into the fire and then pray not be burnt These Israelites should have said to those Midianitish huswives as those in Esay did to their Idols Get you hence Avaunt they should have here been as cautelous as they were in other cases For being forbidden to make Covenants with the Gentiles they also abstained from drinking with them because that was a ceremony used in striking of covenants and so it might have drawn them on thereunto Our dallying with the occasions of sin doth usually tempt the devill to tempt us Vers 18. That have not known a man As far as they could conjecture by their age But the way of a man with a maid is one of Solomons secrets Prov. 30.19 Of Rebecca it is noted that she went for a maid and she was so Gen. 24.16 But Quartilla the strumpet in Petronius Petron. Satyr was not ashamed to say junonem meam iratam habeam si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse That she could not remember that ever she was a maid And what a base slander was that Rivetti Iesuita vap ulans cast upon our religion by an impudent Iesuite Sylvester petrasancta Puellas plerunque corruptas nuptui dari in reformato Evangelio that few maids amongst us come cleare to marriage Vers 19. Whosoever hath killed any person War though never so just is the slaughter-house of mankind and the hell of this world Homer brings in Mars the god of battle as most hated of Jupiter bellum per antiphrasin quia minimè bellum For every battle of the Warriour is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood Isai 9.5 What a strange man then was Pyrrhus King of the Epirotes of whom Justin reports that he took more pleasure in fighting then in reigning And what a hard heart had Hannibal who when he saw a pit full of mans blood which he had spilt cryed out O formosum spectaculum O brave sight So O rem regiam said Valesus i.e. O Kingly act when he had slain three hundred persons And what a strange hell-hag was that Queen who when she saw some of her Protestant Subjects lying dead and stripped upon the earth cryed out The goodliest tapestry that ever she beheld God that he might teach his people not to have feet swift to shed blood tells them here of a ceremonial uncleanness contracted by killing though an enemy devoted by him to destruction Vers 23. And all that abideth not the fire We must deal with every man saith One from this text according to his temper indulge them what lawfully you may Quod tamen accipiendum est cum grano salis Vers 49. And there lacketh not one man of us A wonderful work of God a whole Nation cut off with no loss at all This was the Lords own doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Surely if the Grecians so thankfully acknowledged to their Jupiter that overthrow they gave to the Persians by Themistocles and called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Deliverer how much more might these Israelites celebrate the unparallel'd goodness of their gracious God in this so unbloody a victory Vers 53. For the men of war had taken spoil And kept what they caught to themselves The Turks when they had taken Constantinople wondered at the wealth thereof which the Citizens would not be drawn to part with for their own preservation and were so enriched therewith that it is a proverb amongst them at this day if any grow suddenly rich to say Turk hist 347. He hath been at the sacking of Constantinople CHAP. XXXII Vers 1. A Place for cattle Fat and fit for the purpose like those pastures in Ireland so fertile and abounding with sweet grass that the people are forced to drive their cattle to some other more barren grounds at some time of the day lest they should surfeit See Mic. 7.14 Ier. 50.19 Vers 5. Let this land be given unto thy servants An unsavory and unseasonable motion this might seem at first and did even to Moses himself as appears in the next verse And surely it is probable that they were too much set upon that portion of earth as Lot was upon the Plain of Sodome Gen. 13.10 and was therefore soon after carried captive by the four Kings as these in the text are noted to be the first that were carried captives out of their land 1 Chron. 5.25 26. Strong affections cause strong afflictions when God seeth people set upon it to have this or that have it they may but with an after-clap that shall disweeten it How was David crossed in his Absolom Absolom in his Kingdom Amnon in his Tamar c. 1 Sam. 1.5 He loved her and the Lord made her barren Vers 11. They have not See the Note on Chap. 14.24 Vers 14. An increase of sinful men A race of rebels neither good egge nor bird sin runs in a blood many times ye seed of serpents ye generation of vipers ye fill up the measure of your fathers sins Dio in vita Neron Matth. 23.32 Domitius the father of Nero foretold the wickedness of his son for it cannot be said he that of me and my wife Agrippina any good man should be born When One complained that never father had so undutiful a child yes said his son with less grace then truth My grandfather had Vers 16. We will build sheep-folds This was their intent at first though Moses mistook them There may be gross mistakes and thereupon grievous unkindnesses betwixt dearest friends Cyrill and John Bishop of Antioch objected heresie one
abominated Hos 9.4 yea accursed Deut. 28.47 None might come to the court of Persia in mourning weeds Esth 4.2 For any unclean use Or common profane use Common and unclean is one and the same in sundry languages to teach us that it is hard to deal in common businesses and not defile our selves and that those that come to holy things with common affections and carriages profane them Nor given ought thereof for the dead To bury them or buy provision for the funerall feast Ier. 16.7 Ezek. 24.7 Hos 9.4 Ye have done according c. It is a witty expression of Luther By mens boasting of what they have done sayes he Haec ego feci haec ego feci they become nothing else but Faeces dregs But so did not these See the note on vers 13. Vers 17. Thou hast avouched This we do when with highest estimation most vigorous affections and utmost indeavours we bestow our selves upon God giving up our names and hearts to the profession of truth And this our chusing God for our God Psal 73 25. is a sign he first chose us 1 Ioh. 4.19 Mary answers not Rabboni till Christ said Mary to her It is he that brings us into the bonds of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 He first cryes out who is on my side Who and then gives us to answer as Esay 44.6 One sayes I am the Lords another calls himself by the name of Jacob another subscribes c. Vers 19. And to make thee high Assyria is the work of Gods hand but Israel is his inheritance Isa 19.25 43.3 CHAP. XXVII Vers 2. ANd plaister them with plaister That they might have it in white and black Vers 4. In mount Ebal Where the curse was denounced vers 13. to signifie that those that sought salvation in the law must needs be left under the curse The law is a yoke of bondage as Hierom calls it and they who look for righteousness from thence are like oxen who toyle and draw and when they have done their labour are fatted for slaughter Vers 5. Thou shalt build an altar For burnt offerings c. Vers 6.7 God teacheth them thereby that righteousness impossible to the law was to be sought in Christ figured by that altar and those sacrifices Thus the morall law drove the Iewes to the ceremoniall which was their Gospell as it doth now drive us to Christ who is indeed the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 Vers 8. All the words of this law very plainly Therefore it could not be all Deuteronomy much less all Moses books as some have thought for what stones could suffiee for such a work Unless they could write as close but how then could it be very plainly as he did who set forth the whole history of our Saviours passion very lively In canicular colloq both things and acts and persons on the nailes of his own hands as Maiolus reporteth Vers 15. Cursed be he c. The blessings are not mentioned by Moses that we might learn to look for them by the Messiah only Act. 3.26 Vers 16. That setteth light That vilipendeth undervalueth not only that curseth as Exod. 21.17 Vers 24. That smiteth Either with violent hand or virulent tongue Ier. 28.18 Vers 26. Cursed Aut faciendum an t patiendum Men must either have the direction of the law or the correction CHAP. XXVIII Vers 1. IF thou shalt hearken diligently Heb. If hearkening thou shalt hearken If when Gods speaks once thou shalt hear it twice as David did Psal 62.11 by a blessed rebound of meditation and practice Will set thee on high Thou shalt ride upon the high places of the earth Isai 58.14 There thou shalt have thy commoration but in heaven thy conversation Philip. 3.20 being an high and holy people Deut. 26.19 high in worth and humble in heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian as one saith of Athanasius Vers 2. And overtake thee Unexpectedly befall thee Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee Psal 23.6 as the evening Sun-beames follow the passenger as the rock-water followed the Israelites in the wilderness and overtook them at their stations 1 Cor. 10.4 O continue or draw out to the length thy loving kindness unto them that know thee Psal 36.11 There will be a continued Series a connexion between them to all such Vers 3. Blessed shalt thou be What blessedness is See the Note on Mat. 5.3 Vers 4. The fruit of thy body Which is thy chief possession Dulcis acerbitas amarissima voluptas Tertull. but without my blessing will be bitter sweets Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of such as are as the arrowes of a strong man Psal 128 4. the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed and made smooth by grace Arrowes be not arrowes by growth but by art what can better preserve Iacob from confusion or his face from waxing pale then when he shall see his children the work of Gods hands framed and fitted by the word in regeneration and the duties of new obedience This will make him to sanctifie God even to sanctifie the Holy One and with singular incouragement from the God of Israel Isai 29.22 23. Vers 7. The Lord shall cause thine enemies Mr. Fox observes that in King Edward the sixth's time the English put to flight their enemies in Muscleborough field the self-same day and hour wherein the reformation enjoyned by Parliament Act. Mon◠was put in execution at London by burning of Idolatrous images Such a dependance hath our success upon our obedience And flee before thee seven wayes In the fore-mentioned fight many so strained themselves in their race that they fell down breathless and dead whereby they seemed in running from their deaths to run through it 2000 lying all day as dead got away in the night The Irish were so galled or scared with the English ordnance Life of Edw. 6 by Sr. Io. H. that they had neither good hearts to go forward nor good liking to stand still nor good assurance to run away saith the Historian Vers 8. The Lord shall command the blessing Now if he send his Mandamus who shall withstand it Vers 10. And they shall be afraid of thee Naturall conscience cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly When they see in them that which is above the ordinary nature of men or their expectation they are afraid of the Name of God whereby they are called their very hearts ake and quake within them as is to be seen in Nebuchadnezzar Darius Herod Dioclesian who was so amazed at the singular piety and invincible patience of the primitive Christians that he laid down the Empire in a humour Bucholcer quod christi nomen se deleturum uti cupiverat desperasset because that when he sought to root out religion he saw he could do no good on 't Vers 12. And
tot priorum hominum donariis intervertendis Sculter Annal. pag. 332. saith the Annalist and came all to fearful ends Two of them fell out and challenging the field One killed the other and was hang'd for it A third drowned himself in a Well The fourth from great riches fell to extreme beggery and was hunger-starved The last one Doctor Alan being Archbishop of Dublin was there cruelly murthered by his enemies Now if Divine Justice so severely and exemplarily pursued and punished these that converted those abused goods of the Church to better uses without question though they looked not at that but at the satisfying of their own greedy lusts What will be the end of such Sacrilegious persons as enrich themselves with that which should be their Ministers maintenance Sacrum sacrove commendatum qui clepserit rapseritque Ex duod tab Neand. Chron. parricida esto said the Romane law It is not only sacriledg but parricide to rob the Church Vers 25. Let us find grace That is do us the favour to intercede for us to Pharaoh that we may be his perpetual farmers and hold of him It seems that Pharaoh was no proper name but common to the Kings of Egypt as Caesar to the Emperours of Rome a title of honour as His Majesty amongst us Otherwise these poor people had been over-bold with his name Vers 27. Grew and multiplyed exceedingly Here that promise Chap. 46.3 began to be accomplished God dyes not in any mans debt Vers 28. Iacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years So long he had nourished Ioseph and so long Ioseph nourished him paying his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the utmost penny These were the sweetest dayes that ever Iacob saw God reserved his best to the last Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for be his beginning and his middle never so troublesome the end of that man is peace Psal 37.47 A Goshen he shall have either here or in heaven Vers 29. Bury me not I pray thee in Egypt This he requested partly to testifie his faith concerning the promised land heaven and the resurrection partly to confirm his family in the same faith and that they might not be glewed to the pleasures of Egypt but wait for their return to Canaan And partly also to declare his love to his ancestours together with the felicity he took in the communion of Saints Vers 30. Bury me in their burying-place That he might keep possession at least by his dead body of the promised land There they would be buried not pompously but reverently that they might rise again with Christ Some of the Fathers think that these Patriarches were those that rose corporally with him Matth. 27.57 Vers 31. And Israel bowed himself In way of thankfulness to God framing himself to the lowliest gesture he was able rearing himself up upon his pillow leaning also upon his third leg his staffe Heb. 11.21 In effoeta senecta fides non effoeta CHAP. XLVIII Vers 1. Behold thy father is sick ANd yet 't was Iacob have I loved So Behold he whom thou lovest is sick Joh. 11.3 Si amatur quomodò infirmatur saith a Father Very well may we say The best before they come to the very gates of death pass oft thorough a very strait long heavy lane of sickness and this in mercy that they may learn more of God and depart with more ease out of the world Such as must have a member cut off willingly yeeld to have it bound though it be painful because when it is mortified and deaded with strait binding they shall the better endure the cutting of it off So here when the body is weakned and wasted with much sickness that it cannot so bustle we dye more easily Happy is he saith a Reverend Writer that after due preparation D. Hall Contemp is passed thorow the gates of death ere he be aware happy is he that by the holy use of long sickness is taught to see the gates of death afar off and addresseth for a resolute passage The one dyes like Henoch and Eliah the other like Iacob and Elisha both blessedly Vers 2. And Israel strengthened himself Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat saith Seneca sure it is that the sight of a dear friend reviveth the sick One man for comfort and counsel may be an Angel to another nay as God himself Such was Nathan to David B. Ridley to King Edward the sixth and that poor Priest to Edward the third who when all the Kings friends and favourites forsook him in his last agony leaving his chamber quite empty called upon him to remember his Saviour Dan. hist of Engl. 255. and to ask mercy for his sins This none before him would do every one putting him still in hope of life though they knew death was upon him But now stirred up by the voyce of this Priest he shew'd all signs of contrition and at his last breath expresses the name of Jesu Vers 3. God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz The truly thankful keep calenders and catalogues of Gods gracious dealings with them and delight to their last to recount and reckon them up not in the lump only and by whole-sale as it were but by particular enumeration upon every good occasion setting them forth one by one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here and Ciphering them up as Davids word is Psal 9.1 we should be like civet-boxes which still retain the scent when the civit is taken out of them See Psal 145 1 2. Exod. 18.8 Vers 5. As Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine God hath in like part 2 Cor. 6.18 adopted us for his dear children saying I will be a father unto them and they shall be my sons and my daughters saith the Lord Almighty This S. Iohn calls a royalty or prerogative Joh. 1.12 such as he elsewhere stands amazed at 1 Ioh. 3.1 And well he may for all Gods children are first-born and so higher then all the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.27 They in the fulnesse of their sufficiency are in straits Job 20.22 Whereas the Saints in the fulness of their straits are in an All-sufficiency Vers 6. After the name of their brethren That is of Ephraim and Manasseh as if they were not their brethren but their sons Thus Iacob transfers the birth-right from Reuben to Ioseph 1 Chro. 5.1 2. Vers 7. And I buried her there He could not carry her to the cave of Machpelah and he would not bury her at Bethlehem among Infidels This he tells Ioseph to teach him and the rest not to set up their rest any where but in the land of Canaan Vers 8. Who are these Here Jacob seeing Ioseph's two sons and now first understanding who they were breaks off his speech to Ioseph till the two last verses of the chapter and falls a blessing his sons Titus 3.1 teaching us to be ready to every good word and work laying hold of every hint
that God puts into our hands accounting it a mercy that we may have opportunity Vers 9. They are my sons whom God c. The Lord Christ in like sort presents us to his heavenly Father with Here am I and the children whom thou hast given me Whereunto the Father replyes as Iacob here Bring them now unto me and I will bless them Vers 11. I had not thought to see thy face God delights to out-bid the hopes of his people and to be better to them then their deserts then their desires yea then their faith Esay 64.2 3 12 14. As it is storied of a certain Fmperour that he delighted in no undertaking somuch as in those that his Counsellors and Captains held impossible And he seldom miscarried So God Exod. 15.11 Vers 12. from between his knees That is from between his fathers knees that he might place them right to receive the blessing presenting them again according to their age This he did for the best but God only wise had otherwise ordered it We many times think we do well when it proves much otherwise Lean not therefore to thine own understanding saith the Wise man Prov. 3.5 but make out to him that dwells with prudence Prov. 8.12 Vers 14. Guiding his hands wittingly Cognoscebat palpando manibus suis saith Iunius Intelligere fecit manus saith Parleus An emphaticall Metaphor As if he should say Iacob with his eyes could not distinguish them but his hands shall therefore Bartol lib. 1. de ver oblig do the office of his eyes Bartolus writes of Doctour Gabriel Nele that by the only motion of the lips without any utterance he understood all men perceived and read in every mans countenance what was their conceit But that is far more credible Hier. in Catalogo vitor illushium and no less admirable that Hicrome reports of Didymus of Alexandria that though he had been blind of a child little yet hew as excellently skilled in all the liberall arts and had written commentaries upon the Psalmes and Gospels being at this time saith he eighty three years of age Vers 15. God before whom my fathers walked This is the highest praise that can be given to ancestours this is the crown of all commendation to have walked with God as a man walketh with his friend This is better then a thousand escucheons The God which fed me all my life long As a shepherd tends and feeds his sheep Psal 23.1 80.1 Iacob looks beyond all second causes and sees at once at Bethel God on the top of the ladder Gen. 28. Vers 16. The Angell which redeemed me Christ the Angell of the Covenant the Mediatour of the new Testament the Redeemer the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world For we were not redeemed with silver and gold but with the blood of Christ as of a Lamb undefiled 1 Pet. 1.19 Paul by that freedome Act. 22.28 escaped whipping we by this the pain of eternall torment And let my name be named on them Lest any should think it to be some prejudice to them that they were born in Egypt and of an Egyptian mother he adopts them for his own Vers 17. And when Ioseph saw that c. So great a Prophet and diviner as Ioseph was in this was out in his judgment He seeth not that mans dignity is not by works or nature but grace and election Rom. 9.7 8 11 12. Vers 18. Not so my father c. Here are a couple of Holy Prophets differing in their judgments yet not about the substance of the blessing but the circumstance of it wonder not though such things still fall out it in the true Church and the Doctours be eft-soons divided in points less materiall and that touch not the foundation Luther interprets those words of Christ this is my body Synechdochiaelly Calvin Metonimically Hence the Jesuites straight cry out the Spirit of God dissents not from it self but these interpretations dissent one from another See the peace of Rome therefore they are not of the Spirit Now it were easie to stop their foul mouths by telling them of their own far worse differences But is it not a dolefull thing that we should with those birds agnoscere in nostris vulneribus nostras pennas Brother goe to law with brother and that before infidels This is the divels malice to sow tares c. Christ came to destroy his works yet never were so many possest as about that time Vers 19. And his father refused and said Here are father and son devided in matter of ceremony as Bishop Babington observeth This hath been an ancient quarrell from the very cradle of the Christian Church The Iewish converts stood hard for a mixture of Christ and Moses their rites they called the rudiments of the world Coloss 2.8 Because they held them as needfull as the four elements of the world or as the first letters of the book to school Gods people Soon after what a coyle was there among the Primitive Christians even unto blows and blood-sheed Queritur Aug. suo tempere Ecclesiam quam miserecordia dei esse liberam vosuit c. Pareus in Mat. 15.2 about the time of keeping Easter and other like trifles and niceties Saint Augustine complains that in his time the Church which the mercy of God would have to be at liberty was wofully opprest with many burthens and bondages this way so that the condition of the Iewes was in this respect more tolerable for that they were held under by legall injunctions and not by humane presumptions What would this Father have said to the following times under the rise and raign of Antichrist wherein the formality of Gods worship had utterly eaten up the reality of it as Pharaohs lean kine did the fatter and gotten out the very heart and life of it as the ivy dealeth by the oake it grows on Our Heroicall reformers Luther Zuinglins c. pruned and pared off these luxuriancies for the most part which caused Iohn Hunt a Roman Catholike in his humble Appeale to King Iames thus to blaspheme The God of the Protestants is the most uncivile D. Sheldons Maâ—k of the Beast op ded Scultet Annal. and ill-mannered God of all those who have born the name of gods upon the earth yea worse then Pan god of the clowns which can endure no ceremonies nor good manners at all But yet what a grievous stirr was there about these indifferents Alsted Chron. pag. 559. between Luther and Carolostadius at Wittenberg between the Doctours of Magdeburg and Leipswick Anno Dom. 1549. and between Calvin and his Auditours of Geneva about wafer-cakes at the communion insomuch as he was compelled to depart the city till he had yeelded they should be used though he never liked them Bâ—za in vita but could have wished it otherwise Who knows not what jarrs and heart-burnings were here between Ridley and Hooper two godly Bishops in King Edward the sixths