a beast to day none better to morrow none worse to day a God to morrow a Devil Christ and his Apostles found this measure as well as Moses in the Text ready to be stoned by those that even now when the Sea was divided honoured him as a God You can never give any people so many causes to stick unto as he did give this people to cleave unto him and yet they failed Verse 6. No evil in man can drive God from his Promise And therefore when the Devil shall suggest that thou art not worthy of Mercy that thou art so great a sinner God cannot spare thee therefore trouble him not hope not in him for there is no Mercy for such a one answer that thou dost not rely upon thine own merit that thou dost confess all that he saith of thy unworthiness to be most true but tell him withall that thou dost look at Gods Promise and consider his Truth and that thou dost find here and every where that no evil in man can make him evil by breaking his Promise and that therefore thou maist not despair Verse 8. As the Israelites could not travel to the earthly Canaan but they must fight with Amaleck in the way no more can we travel to our heavenly Canaan without fighting with Amaleck the World the Flesh and the Devil are fierce Amalekites and they must be fought with and overcome as Amaleck was or else we shall never see Canaan Poverty Sickness Crosses by Children Slanders with infinite more are Amalekites and they stop you in your way to Canaan so that without buckling with them you shall not passe Verse 9. We may observe in this the antiquity of Musters and a warrant for them All did not go here but some and those chosen out by a Muster and view taken by Ioshua We may take notice likewise how full of honour and credit it ever was in these cases to be chosen which if so then certainly men should not run away and hide themselves as soon as they hear of a Muster towards as heretofore they did Verse 11. If we receive not what we pray for at first asking we raint and cease praying streight not remembring how often we use a Medicine for the body before we can be whole Let us therefore amend this fault in our Prayer hereafter and never forget the force of true and godly Prayer While Moses held up his hands that is continued praying so long the Israelites whom he prayed for prevailed but when he gave over the Enemy prevailed Thus will it be in your case and my case and all others that be troubled Verse 12. This heaviness of Moses hands may teach us the weakness of all flesh in Christian exercises We cannot hold out and continue as we ought hut heaviness and dulness will steal upon us and seek to cool us and hinder us The help that Aaron and Hur performed unto him tels us the benefit of Christian Company in such holy exercises and the needful duty of praying for him that prayeth for us that God would be with his Spirit that is strengthen him and quicken him and aid him so to pray and continue his Prayers as the end may be to his Glory and our Comfort Verse 14 15. All this hath use to tell us how careful we must be in keeping a Register in our hearts of Gods Mercies and Favours towards us in our selves in our Friends in our Country in our Magistrates and Ministers or any way Examples in this kind are numerous as of Deborah Iudith Hester Anna Mary and that cleans'd Leper that return'd to give thanks the Israelites when they pass'd over the red Sea all these built Altars in their hearts for Gods Favours by being truly and fervently thankful CHAP. XVIII Verse 9. THe hearty joy that was in Iethro when he heard what God had done for Israel shews us the right affection of a Child of God when God is merciful to his Church or to any Member thereof He envieth not he grudgeth not much lesse speaketh ill but with a very loving joy he is glad and blesseth the name of the Lord for it Verse 10. After our deliverance from any affliction or danger there remains nothing on our part but to blesse God for that Deliverance Thus when the Israelites were safe on the shore and saw their dead Enemies come floating after them upon the billows they did not cry more loud before than now they sung Not their Faith but their Sense teacheth them now to magnifie that God after their deliverance whom they hardly trusted for their deliverance and thus Iethro here blesseth God for the deliverance of his People Even Nature taught the very Gentiles what both they and Gods own People ought to return for Mercies And indeed a whole Christians life is divided into praying and praifing if we begin with Petitions we commonly conclude with Thanksgivings Thus by an holy craft we insinuate into Gods Favour driving a trade betwixt Earth and Heaven receiving and returning importing one Commodity that of Mercies and transporting another that of Thansgiving Verse 19. In this excellent man Moses Iethro his inferior by far finds a just fault which tels us that no man is perfect in all things but may receive counsel even from a meaner person And let Moses Modesty in yeilding make our spirits humble in like occasions where God dwelleth it will be so and Pride is a sure sign of an ill Heart The Head scorns not the Foot and the very Foot is careful for the Head Verse 22. When the Lord said to Rulers Ye are Gods he means not that they should be like the Epicures idle God which sate in his Throne and let all inferior matters alone as too base for his eyes Nay rather the Lord would have Judges like himself who doth not only weigh Mountains and Hils in his Ballance but the very dust of the Earth and sands of the Sea and therefore he setteth down Judgement for small matters in this verse And as he saith in Deuteronomy Vengeance is mine so in the Proverbs he descendeth lower and layeth claim to the Ballance and telleth us that all the weights of the bag are the work of the Lord And who are weaker and lower than the Fatherless the Widdow and the Poor and yet all Judges have the Lords Letters commendatory in their behalf the tenor whereof is this Do right to the Poor and Fatherless CHAP. XIX Verse 7. GOD might have imposed upon them a Law per-force They were his Creatures and he could require nothing but Justice It had been but equal that they should be compelled to obey their Maker Yet that God which loves to do all things sweetly gives the Law of Justice in Mercy and will not imperiously command but craves our assent for that which it were rebellion not to do How gentle should be the proceeding of fellow-creatures who have an equality of being with an inequality of condition when their infinite
therefore how holy and piously doth Iacob speak here concerning his Children These saith he are the Children which God hath graciously given thy Servant Verse 9. The carnal minded man looks no further than this world and if he can get but his Chests and his Barns fill'd thinks he may say with Esau here I have enough Brother and that he may sing a Requiem to his Soul with that rich man in the Gospel Soul take thine ease thou hast Goods laid up for many years when God in the mean time is not thought upon without whom there can be no true fulness no sincere abundance Let us therefore accustome our selves to find out God in the Creature and in all our gettings in all our preferments in all our studies and then be we as covetous as we will as ambitious as we can we shall be sure to have enough for God will be abundantly sufficient to us for all God is treasure and God is honour enough Wouldst thou have all this World wouldst thou have all the next World too Plus est qui fecit Coelum Terram saith a Father he that made Heaven and Earth is more than all that and thou mayest have all in having him Verse 10. Wicked men cannot be so ill as they would That strong Wrestler against whom Iacob prevailed prevailed with Esau and turned his wounds into kisses An Host of Men came with Esau an Army of Angels met Iacob Esau threatned Iacob prayed His prayers and presence have melted the heart of Esau into love And now instead of the grim and stern countenance of an Executioner Iacob sees the face of Esau as the face of God Both men and Devils are stinted the stoutest heart cannot stand out against God He that can wrestle earnestly with God is secure from the harms of men Those minds which are exaspearated with violence and cannot be broken with fear yet are bowed with love when the wayes of a man please God he will make his enemies at peace with him Verse 11. If we want this Worlds good let us not be discouraged God oftentimes recompenseth the want of earthly blessings with great abundance of heavenly graces This Christ declareth in Rev. 2. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich He maketh them rich in Knowledge in Faith in Obedience and Joy in the holy Ghost He blesseth them with inward comfort and with peace of Conscience that passeth all understanding He giveth them patience in trouble meekness of spirit and an holy contentation to sustain the weight of their affliction and albeit they bear a gracious burthen yet he hath eased them of a greater the burthen of their sins which in Christ they feel to be lightned and remitted This the Apostle testifieth We are as dying and yet behold we live as having nothing and yet possessing all things This is that Iacob perswaded his own heart and told it to his Brother God hath shewed mercy unto me and therefore I have all things for so it is in the Original not I have enough as it is in our English Bibles but I have all Esau had much but Iacob had all because he had the God of all Verse 13. A Conscientious Minister should follow Iacobs example in this verse and so order their flocks as he did his They must have an eye to the weak ones of their Congregations and so to respect all as they over-drive none He must so Preach as his people are able to hear and not alwayes as he is able to Preach He must divide and chew and masticate his Matter and his Doctrines as Nurses do their Childrens meat and speak to the shallowest Capacities of his Hearers else he shall be a Barbarian to them and they to him And as in their instruction so likewise in their reproofs and correction they must have a care of the little Ones of the tender Lambs of Christ's flock and deal gently with them A Venice-glass must be otherwise handled than an Earthen-pitcher some must be rebuked sharply severely but of others we must have compassion making a difference Jude 22. CHAP. XXXIV Verse 1. CHristians should of all others be very shy of the occasions of evil and take heed of the Wine when 't is red in the glass and have an eye to their eye when they look on a Maid Dinah out of a gadding curiosity must needs visit the Daughters of the Land and while she goeth to see the Daughters the Son saw her visamque cupit and having seen her he took her having taken her he lay with her the report whereof coming to Iacobs Sons they were grieved being grieved they were wroth being wroth they meditate revenge meditating revenge they speak deceitfully having deceived they slew having slain they spoyle See how great a fire a little matter kindleth what great evils issue from small beginnings take heed then of these beginnings Verse 3. Shechem in this verse bewrays a good nature even in filthiness he loves Dinah after his sin and would needs Marry her whom he had defiled Commonly Lust ends in loathing Ammon abhors Tamar as much after the act as before he loved and beats her out of doors whom he was sick to bring in But Shechem would not let Dinah fare the worse for his sin And now he goes about to entertain her with honest love whom the rage of his Lust had dishonestly abused Her deflouring shall be no prejudice to her since her shame shall redound to none but him and he will hide her dishonour with the name of an Husband Those actions that are ill begun can hardly be salved up with late satisfactions whereas good entrances give strength to the proceedings and success to the end Verse 4. I find but one only Daughter of Iacob who must needs therefore be a great Darling to her Father and she so miscarries that she causes her Fathers grief to be more than his love As her Mother Leah so she hath a fault in her eyes which was curiosity She will needs see and be seen and whiles she doth vainly see she is seen lustfully It is not enough for us to look to our own thoughts except we beware of the provocations of others If we once wander out of the Lists that God hath set us in our Callings there is nothing but danger her virginity had been safe had she kept home or if Shechem had forced her in her Mothers Tent this loss of her virginity had been without her sin now she is not innocent that gave the occasion Her eyes were guilty of the temptation only to see is an insufficient warrant to draw us into places of spiritual hazard If Shechem had seen her busie at home his love had been free from outrage now the lightness of her presence gave encouragement to his inordinate desire Immodesty of behaviour makes way to lust and gives life unto wicked hopes Verse 14. The two old men Iacob and Hamor would have ended the matter
action good without Faith no Faith without a word Happy is that man which in all things neglecting the counsels of flesh and bloud depends upon the Commission of his Maker Verse 20. No sooner is Noah come out of the Ark but he builds an Altar not an House to himself but an Altar to the Lord. Our Faith will ever teach us to prefer God to our selves delay'd thankfulness is not worthy acceptation of those few Creatures that are left God must have some they are all his yet his goodness will have man know that it was he for whose sake they were preserved It was a priviledge to those very bruit Creatures that they were saved from the Waters to be offered up in Fire unto God What a favour is it to men to be reserved from common destructions to be sacrific'd to their Maker and Redeemer Verse 21. God had accepted sacrifices before but no sacrifice is call'd Odor quietis it is not said that God smelt a favour of Rest in any sacrifice but that which Noah offered after he had been variously tossed and tumbled in the long hulling of the Ark upon the Waters and this was a sacrifice in which God himself might rest himself For God hath a Sabbath in the Sabbath of his Servants a Fulness in their Fulness a satisfaction when they are satisfied and is well pleased when they are so and therefore the Lord said That he will not Curse the Earth again speaking not generally of all kind of Cursing the Earth but only of this particular Curse by Waters And whereas 't is added for a Reason for the imagination of mans heart is evil it is not meant that God would spare the Earth and Beasts because man is subject to sin but the Promise is made specially for man that being he is by nature subdued to sin he is to be pitied and not for every offence according to his deserts to be judged for then the Lord should continually over-flow the world moreover where it is said Gen. 6. 6. That the Lord would destroy the World because the imaginations of their hearts were evil it may seem strange that the same cause should be here urged why he would not therefore this is here added to shew the original of this Mercy not to proceed from man but Gods own favour CHAP. IX Verse 1. THere is a lawful nay a necessary desire of being better and better and that not only in spiritual things for so every man is bound to be better and better better to day than yesterday and too morrow than to day but even in temporal things too there is a liberty given us nay there is a Law an Obligation laid upon us To endeavour by industry in a lawful Calling to mend and improve to enlarge our selves and spread even in worldly things And therefore when God delivers this Commandment the second time to Noah for the repairation of the World Encrease and Multiply which is not only in the multiplication of Children but in the enlargement of Possessions too he accompanies it with this Reason in the second vers The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all and all are delivered into your hands which Reason can have no relation to the multiplying of Children but to the enlarging of Possessions God planted Trees in Paradise in a good state at first at first with ripe fruits upon them but Gods purpose was That even those Trees though well then should grow greater God gives many men good Estates from their Parents at first yet Gods purpose is That they should encrease those Estates He that leaves no more than his Father left him if the fault be in himself shall hardly make a good account of his Stewardship to God for he hath but kept his Talent in a Napkin Verse 13. That little fire of Noah which he kindled in the former Chapter through the vertue of his Faith purged the World and ascended up into those heavens from which the Waters fell and caused a glorious Rain-bow to appear therein for his security And here behold a new and a second rest first God rested from making that World now he rests from destroying it even while we cease not to offend he ceases from a publick revenge His Word was enough yet withal he gives a sign which may speak the truth of his Promise to the very eyes of men Thus he doth still in his blessed Sacraments which are as real Words to the Soul The Rain-bow is the pledge of our safety which even really signifies the end of a shower And further the Rain-bow having two special Colours in it one Coeruleus exterior which is waterish is a sign the World shall not any more be drown'd the other Rubeus which may be a sign the World shall be consumed with Fire Thus all the signs of Gods institution are proper and significant Verse 21. Who would think after all the favours that God had shewn Noah to have found this Righteous man lying Drunken in his Tent Who would think that Wine should over-throw him that was preserved from the Waters That he who could not be tainted with the sinful examples of the former World should begin the example of a new sin of his own What are we men if we be left to our selves While God upholds us no tentation can move us when he leaves us no tentation is too weak to over-throw us Behold he of whom God in an unclean World had said Thee only have I found Righteous proves now unclean when the World was purged The Preacher of Righteousness unto the former age the King Priest and Prophet unto the World renewed is the first that renewes the sins of the World which he had reproved and which he saw condemned for sin Gods best Children have no fence for sins of infirmity which of the Saints have not once done that whereof they are ashamed Verse 22. Ungracious Cham saw his Fathers nakedness and laughed at it His Fathers shame should have been his and should have begot in him a secret horror and dejection How many graceless men make sport at the causes of their Humiliation Twice had Noah given him life yet neither the Name of Father and Preserver nor Age nor Vertue could shield him from the contempt of his own I fee that even Gods Ark may nourish Monsters some filthy Toads may lie under the stones of the Temple And further Cham was not content only to be a witness of this filthy sight he goes on to be a proclaimer of it Sin doth ill in the eye but worse in the tongue as all sin is a work of darkness so it should be buried in darkness The report of sin is oft-times as ill as the Commission for it can never be blazoned without uncharitableness seldom without infection Oh the unnatural and more than Chammish Impiety of those Sons which rejoyce to publish the nakedness of their spiritual Parents even to their enemies Verse 23. Behold here
peaceably but youth commonly undertakes rashly and performs with passion The Sons of Iacob think of nothing but revenge and which is worst of all begin their cruelty with craft and hide their craft with Religion A smiling malice is most deadly and hatred doth most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled We cannot give our Sister to an uncircumcised man here was God in the mouth and Satan in the heart The bloodiest of all Projects have ever wont to be coloured with Religion because the worse any thing is the better shew it desires to make and contrarily the better colour is put upon any vice the more odious it is for as every simulation adds to an evil so the best adds most evil themselves had taken the Daughters and Sisters of uncircumcised men yea Iacob himself did so why might not then an uncircumcised man obtain their Sister Or if there be a difference of giving and taking it had been well if it had not been only pretended It had been an happy ravishment of Dinah that should have drawn a whole Country into the bosome of the Church but here was a Sacrament intended not to the good of the soul but to the murther of the body Verse 15. Simeon and Levi when they meditate their revenge for the Rape committed upon their Sister when they pretended Peace yet they required a little bloud they would have the Shechemites Circumcised but when they had opened a Vein they made them bleed to Death when they were under the soreness of Circumcision they slew them all Gods Justice required bloud likewise the bloud of his Son but that bloud is not spilt as was the bloud of these Shechemites but poured from that Head to our Hearts into the Veins and Wounds of our own Souls In the Circumcision and Passion of our Saviour there was Bloud shed but no Bloud lost Verse 23. It was an hard task for Hamor and Shechem not only to put the knife to their own fore-skins but to perswade a multitude to so painful a condition Now to bring this about as the Sons of Iacob dissembled with them so they dissemble with the people Shall not all their flocks and substance be ours Common profit is pretended when as only Shechems pleasure is meant No motive is so powerful to the vulgar sort as the name of Commodity the hope of this makes them prodigal of their skin and bloud not the love to the Sacrament nor the love to Shechem sinister respects draw more to the profession of Religion than Conscience if it were not for the Loaves and Fishes the train of Christ would be less But the Sacraments of God mis-received never prosper in the end These men are content to smart so they may gain Verse 25. Now that every one lies sore of his own Wound Simeon and Levi rush in armed and wound all the Males to death Cursed be their Wrath for it was fierce and their Rage for it was cruel Indeed filthiness should not have been wrought in Israel yet murther should not have been wrought by Israel If they had been fit Judges which were but bloudy Executioners how far doth the punishment exceed the fault To punish above the offence is no less injustice than to offend One offendeth and all feel the revenge yea all the innocent suffer that revenge which he that offended deserved not Shechem sinneth but Dinah tempted him She that was so light as to wander abroad alone only to gaze I fear was not over-difficult to yield and if having wrought her shame he had driven her home with disgrace to her Fathers Tent such tyrannous lust had justly called for bloud but now he craves and offers and would pay dear for but leave to give satisfaction to execute rigor upon a submiss offendor is more merciless than just or if the punishment had been both just and proportionable from another yet from them which had vowed Peace and Affinity it was shamefully unjust To disappoint the Trust of another and to neglect our own promise and fidelity for private purposes adds faithlessness unto our cruelty Verse 30. Who would have looked to have found this outrage in the Family of Iacob How did that good Patriarch when he saw Dinah come home blubber'd and wringing her hands Simeon and Levi sprinkled with bloud wish that Leah had been barren as long as Rachel Good Parents have grief enough though they sustain no blame for their Childrens sins What great evils arise from small beginnings The idle curiosity of Dinah hath bred all this mischeif Ravishment follows upon her wandring upon her ravishment murther upon the murther spoyl It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evil either done or suffered CHAP. XXXV Verse 1. HEre God pulls Iacob by the ear as it were and minds him of his Vow which he had well-nigh forgotten but God looked for performance and would not let him be quiet till he had made good what he had promised Most mens practice proclaims that having escaped the danger they would willingly deceive the Saint Deliverances commonly are but nine dayes wonder at most and it is ten to one that any Leper returns to give praise to God If any thing doth rouze up our hearts to thankful remembrance of former Mercies it must be the sense of some present misery as here Iacob was in a strait and fright his Sons had troubled him the Country was ready to rise upon him and rout him out and now God takes this opportunity for we are best when at worst and gently minds him of what was his duty and would be for his safety Verse 5. The Lord hath a Negative voice upon the motion of all Creatures We see an instance of this here when Iacob and his Family journied the terror of God was upon the Cities that were round about them and they did not pursue after the Sons of Iacob they had a mind to pursue and revenge the slaughter of the Shechemites but God said Pursue not and then they could not pursue they must stay at home Thus also when his People the Iewes were safe in Canaan he encourages them to come up freely to Worship at Ierusalem by this assurance No man shall desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God God can stop not only hands from spoyling but hearts from desiring Our appetite whether concupiscible or irrascible are under his command as well as our actions we should consider this to help our Faith in these times The Sword is in motion among us even as the Sun and the Sword seems to have received a charge to pass from the one end of the Land to the other yet a counter-mand from God will stop the Sword from going on If he speak to the Sword the Sword shall wound no more Verse 10. Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel That is not only or not so much Iacob as Israel Both
The wicked heart never fears God but thundring or raining fire from Heaven but the good can dread him in his very sun-shine his loving Deliverances and Blessings affect them with awfulness Moses was the true Son of Iacob who when he saw nothing but visions of Love and Mercy could say How dreadful is this place Verse 7. If we would have our greif seen and helped we must endeavour to become Gods People For then sighing and groaning in our several afflictions as these did we may be sure in due time to find our comfort as they found We may hence also learn that affliction doth not shew that the party is disliked of God as the Devil often suggests to men and women in trouble for God calleth these Israelites his People which yet were plunged in the depth of misery and affliction Verse 11. This should teach every one of us humility and to say with Moses Who am I Lord that thou should'st thus and thus think of me chuse me and take me to that place that I have no strength to manage and which thousands of my Brethren are fitter for than I am This also may put us in mind of the weighty calling of Ministers For is it such a matter to strive with Pharaoh for Bodies and temporal servitude and is it nothing to fight with the Devil for Souls and freedome from eternal slavery Verse 14. See a sweet comfort in all our fears even his Name I AM. Noting that as he hath been to penitent sinners so ever he will be without any change If I call upon him and depend upon him I AM is his Name and I may not doubt of him he is no Changeling but the same for ever Verse 16. When any new thing is to be published that concerneth any change in Church or Common-wealth we must acquaint the Magistrates Rulers and Governours with it to approve our Commission and matter unto them with all Modesty Humility Fear and Care of Order and Unity and then with their consents and assistance unto the People and Multitude This is a right course and this shall have a Blessing from the Author of it as here it had Then shall they obey thy voice verse 18. Verse 18. See again and still most carefully note it how God regardeth Government For now Pharaoh must be used as was fit for his place he being the King of that Land in which they were wicked Pharaoh I say must not be disorderly dealt with by such as live under his Government although Strangers and not his natural Subjects how much then by natural Subjects But he must be gone unto with all duty and acquainted with their desire with all reverence that neither themselves may be judged factious neither others by their examples moved to any disorder And therefore they must acquaint him with the Author of their desires not their own heads lusting after liberty or novelty but the Lord God Verse 21. All hearts are in the hands of God even as the Rivers of Water and that he turneth them hither and thither at his pleasure He can make them love hate they never so much Yea he can make them so love that fruits from thence shall flow to his People of their love Be they Jewels of Silver or Rayment they shall grant it and send it give it or lend it with so willing a mind as the party taking needeth to wish CHAP. IV. Verse 3. THe heart of man is like the Rod of Moses as long as he held it in his hand it remained a Rod but when he threw it to the ground it turn'd instantly into a Serpent nay a Dragon the Prince of Serpents as Philo the Iew saith so the heart of man as long as there is fast hold of it as long as Man is the Possessor God the Guardian it continues still an heart but if our boistrous unruly sins once throw it to the earth it changeth instantly to be a Serpent From whence all carnal and earthly-minded men may learn whose Consciences at the reading hereof tell them that their hearts are turn'd into Serpents and Vipers by their sins and are now crawling on the earth in their lustful designes to stretch forth a hand of sorrow a hand of true repentance to take them up again in what shape soever they appear For he that was exalted on the Crosse as the Serpent in the Wildernesse shall turn those Serpents into Hearts again their Gall and Poison into Innocence their Sting of Death into Issues of Immortal Life Verse 4. Sin is a Serpent and hath a deadly sting in the tayl of it even the sting of Death For the sting of death is sin saith St. Paul Now as a man would fly from a Serpent so let him fly from sin But if thou hast taken this Serpent into thy hand rest not till like Moses Serpent it be turned into a Rod again to scourge thy Soul till a true sense of thy sins and of Gods Wrath due unto thee for the same bring thee to a serious repentance and contrition to a spiritual loathing and abhorrency of those sins that so thou maist never cast thine eye back upon them but with a new and a particular detestation thou maist never enter into meditation of those sinful passages of thy former life but with shame and horror of soul and that every solemn review of those dayes of darkness and unregeneration may make the wounds of our remorse to bleed afresh Verse 7. When Moses pluck'd his hand out of his bosome it was leprous and again when he pluck'd it out it was white to shew that the actions of our hands receive their denomination from the bosome the heart according to that saying of the Father Tantum habent virtutis aut vitii actiones quantum habent voluntatis Verse 12. He that is singled out to any service of his God for the advantage of his Israel must not give back or waver but go boldly on If a willing obedience second his Command God promiseth to assist I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say was Gods Promise here to Moses and it was his Sons to the Apostles Mat. 10. 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak As if he had said be not anxious about matter or manner of your Apology for your selves ye shall be supplied from on High both with Invention and Elocution you shall have your help from Heaven For it is not you that speak saith our Saviour in the next verse but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you who borroweth your mouth for the present to speak by It is he that forms your speeches for you dictates them to you filleth you with matter and furnisheth you with words Fear not therefore your rudeness to reply there is no mouth into which God cannot put words And how oft doth he chuse the Weak and Unlearned to confound
the Wise and Mighty as he did Balaams Asse to confute his Master Verse 20. Husbands see from hence the heart of a good man to have his Wife and Children with him Wives and Children see their duty to be followers willingly of their Husbands or Fathers calling even into any Country And when I look at Moses his Rod methinks I see little David marching chearfully with his Staffe and Scrip against huge Goliah Good Lord what Weapons were those against him then in mans eyes Or this Staffe now in Moses hand against Pharaoh But God is the same both here and then and for ever strong in weakness and able to match a Kings Scepter with a Stick or a Staffe or a Stone or a word in the hand or mouth of one sent and appointed by him Verse 22. Gods Church is to him as a Man-child to the Father yea as the First-born which commonly is loved most tenderly and in greatest honour Now think with your selves how you could endure to stand and look upon an abuse offered to your First-born and then think of Gods Love to his Church whose affection as much excelleth yours as God excelleth man Now as tender Fathers for the good of their Children suffer them to lie in prison and to be school'd many wayes by want and affliction and yet in the midst of all have an eye to them a love to them and a settled purpose to help them when a love may be known a love and a good a good So our God knows his times and turns and our wants perfectly fitting the one to the other most mercifully that both our corruption and his goodness may best appear to the greatest benefit unto us He may see us humbled and school'd and tamed but undone and cast away for ever he cannot endure it he will not suffer it Verse 24. I do not so much marvel that Iethro gave Moses his Daughter for he saw him valiant wise learned nobly bred as that Moses would take her a Stranger both in bloud and Religion The choice had like to have cost him dear in this verse His Wife stood in his way for Circumcision God stands in his way for Revenge Though he was now upon Gods Message yet might he not be forborn in this neglect No circumstance either of the dearness of the Sollicitor or of our own engagement can bear out a sin with God Those which are unequally yoaked may not ever look to draw one way True Love to the Person cannot long agree with dislike of the Religion He had need to be more than a Man that hath a Zipporah lying in his bosome and can have true zeal in his heart Learn further from hence all unquiet Women what your ignorance and your obstinacy bringeth your Husbands unto though they be as Moses holy and vertuous they cannot serve God aright for you they cannot do what God requireth but you break their hearts you cool their zeal you turn them out of the way and in the end you bring them to a fearful danger of Gods destroying them Verse 26. That which Zipporah should have esteemed as a signal Mercy to her Child she interprets as a Judgement and that very Covenant of God of which Circumcision was the seal which she should have received with the greatest return of thanks was entertained with disobedience both toward her Husband and her God Thus ignorant and unthankful people mis-interpret and repine at the Dispensations of Gods Providence and that which God designes for a Mercy and a Blessing to them they take it as a Judgement and a Curse It is good for me that I was afflicted faith David Yet how many are there in the World that think otherwise and would chuse rather to be out of the Covenant than be circumcised to perish hereafter than be afflicted here CHAP. V. Verse 1. PHaraoh raged before much more now that he received a Message of dismission the Monitions of God make ill men worse the Waves do not beat nor roar any where so much as at the Bank which restraines them Corruption when 't is checked grows mad with rage as the vapour in a Cloud would not make that fearful report if it met not with opposition A good heart yeilds at the stillest Voice of God but the most gracious Motions of God harden the wicked Many would not be so desperately setled in their sins if the World had not controul'd them How mild a Message was this to Pharaoh and yet how galling God commands him that which he feared He took pleasure in the present servitude of Israel God cals for a release If the Suit had been for mitigation of labour for preservation of their Children it might have carried some hope and have found some favour But now God requires that which he knows will as much discontent Pharaoh as Pharaohs cruelty could discontent the Israelites How contrary are Gods Precepts to mans mind And indeed as they love to crosse him in their practise so he loves to crosse them in his Commands before and their Punishments after Verse 4. Moses talks of Sacrifice Pharaoh talks of Work Any thing seems due Work to a carnal mind saving Gods Service nothing superfluous but religious Duties Christ tels us there is but one thing necessary Nature tels us there is nothing but that needless Moses speaks of Devotion Pharaoh of Idleness It hath been an old use as to cast fair colours upon our own vitious actions so to cast evil aspersions upon the good actions of others The same Devil that spoke in Pharaoh speaks still in our Scoffers and cals Religion Hypocrisie conscionable Care Singularity Every Vice hath a title and every Vertue a disgrace Verse 8. Wicked men have no eyes often to see the true causes of a thing but most apt and ready to devise a false Let a man or woman be grieved extraordinarily with the burthen of their sins and with groans and sighs travail under the bitterness of it What say the Wicked Oh it is Melancholy and the body must be purged Festus imagineth Paul mad when he speaketh the words of Truth and Soberness Act. 26. 24. And that much learning made him mad when Learning is Wisdome and maketh wise Yea Heli himself mistaketh Anna a vertuous Woman and deemeth her to be drunk when ravished in her holy feeling she was crying to God in fervent Prayer 1 Sam. 2. Verse 11. The nearer that God draweth to his Church and Children to do them good the more the Devil rageth in and by his Members against them Remember that example in Mar. 9. 26. How the foul Spirit being commanded to depart rent and tare the party more and worse than ever before We cannot leave any sin wherein we have continued but by and by we shall be discouraged sometimes with threats sometimes with shew of perils and losses that may ensue But stand and shrink not and say in your heart now now is my God at hand for now I see and feel
the Enemy madest to oppress me if he could Verse 13. Note here how the Law works without the Gospel even roughly and sharply and rigorously For do this do this and finish finish the work is still the voice whereby sin and the Devil rageth as here Pharaoh doth For sin c. Rom. 7. 8 9 then crieth the true Israelite O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death verse 24. Blessed therefore be the Lord for his sweet Gospel which helpeth all this rigour and giveth us comfort and deliverance in his Son Verse 16. While possible tasks were imposed there was some comfort their diligence might save their backs from stripes but to require tasks not feazible is tyrannical and doth only pick a quarrel to punish they could neither make straw nor find yet they must have it Do what may be is tolerable but do what cannot be is cruel Those that are above others in place must measure their commands not by their own wils but by the strength of their inferiors The task is not done the Task-masters are beaten the punishment lies where the charge is they must exact it of the people Pharaoh of them It is the misery of those that are trusted with Authority that their inferiors faults are beaten upon their backs Verse 21. See the condition and lot of faithful Ministers in this wretched world First the King and now their Brethren accuse them for doing their duty While all is well good is the Minister but when the crosse cometh he and his doctrine away with that and away with him as Ier. 44. 16 c. now mark their reason For then had we plenty c. this is the stay of the multitude and this is the line they measure all things by their prosperity in worldly matters and immunity from trouble and affliction any wayes CHAP. VI. Verse 5. MIserable man remembreth and heareth his Friends when they are in prosperity but if adversity come neither hearing nor seeing them but a proud scornful and bitter forgetting The Lord is not so but when we are at the worst then he remembreth us then he heareth our groans and sighs and pittying helpeth to our unspeakable comfort Verse 7. The end of all deliverance and of all Benefits received from God is that we should be his People and that he might rule in us and over us Wherefore see how careful we should be alwayes to answer this our calling and never to be found unmindful of such favours For if this plainer manifestation of his Goodness to the Iews were a just cause to stir them up to thankfulness how much more should his manifestation of himself to us in his own Son move us to an eternal care to please him And then more particularly that he should accept me for one of his people O what can I say for such a Love but beseech him ever to make me thankfull Verse 8. As long as our hearts hold this perswasion of God that he is the Lord so long we must rest assured that he can perform his Promise in mercy made to us be the difficulties never so many What then is thy Case Are thy sins numerous and great Remember he is the Lord and play not Cains part to say they cannot be forgiven Are thine Enemies bitterly bent against thee he is the Lord and therefore can stop and stay them at his pleasure Are their infirmities many he can heal them he is the Lord. Are thy Children untoward and unkind he can change them he is the Lord. Lastly whatever greives thee remember this that God is the Lord and shall ever be the Lord and shall ever be thy Lord to care for thy woes and relieve them Only believe Verse 9. It is often a penalty laid upon the contemners of Gods Grace that cleaving altogether to the external favours of this life they tast not comfort in any affliction whereas the Godly the more they are pressed down by God the more vehemently they sigh unto God and look to his Promises with Patience and Hope This also may teach Gods Ministers not to be cast down and discouraged if their words be not hearkened unto and regarded since so worthy a man as Moses found this measure The World will be the World crooked and perverse froward and unkind though we break our hearts for their good Verse 10. Before Moses was bid to go to the People and now to Pharaoh so is there never any time for men of place and publick function to be idle Now they must defend the oppressed and wrong'd now they must comfort now they must chide See here likewise the bottomless Mercies of the Lord who though he might justly have cast off this People that would not hearken to his Words and Messages yet he doth not but still continueth to have mercy on them according to that of Psalm 103. 13. Verse 20. It is a wonder that Amram the Father of Moses would think of the Marriage-bed in so troublesome a time when he knew he should beget Children either to slavery or slaughter Yet even now in the heat of this bondage he marries Iochebed The drowning of his Sons was not so great an evil as his own burning the thraldome of his Daughters not so great an evil as the subjection unto sinful desires He therefore uses Gods remedy for his sin and refers the sequel of his danger to God How necessary is this imitation for those that have not the power of containing Perhaps we would have thought it better to live childless but Amram and Iochebed durst not incurre the danger of a sin to avoid the danger of a mischeif Verse 30. Behold I am of uncircumcised lips None in all Egypt was comparably fit for this Message Which of the Israelites had been brought up a Courtier a Schollar Learned Wise Valiant Experienc'd The more fit any man is for whatsoever Vocation the lesse he thinks himself forwardness argues insufficiency Once before Moses had taken upon him and laid about him hoping then they would have known that by his hand God had meant to deliver Israel but now when it comes to the point he cries I am of uncircumcised lips Gods best Servants are not ever in an equal disposition to good Duties It is our frailty that those Services which we are forward to aloof off we shrink at neer at hand How many of us can bid defiance to Death and suggest answers to absent temptations which when they come to us we fly off and change our note and instead of action pretend excuses CHAP. VII Verse 1. GOD hath made one man able to do the Offices of God to another in procuring his Regeneration here and advancing his Salvation hereafter Neither hath God determined that power of assisting others in the character of the Priesthood only but he hath also made the Prince and the secular Magistrate a God that is able to do the Offices and the Works of God not
only to the people but to the Priest himself to sustain him yea and to countenance and favour and protect him too in the execution and exercise of his Priestly Office As we see in the first plantation of those two great Cedars the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power which that they might alwayes agree as Brethren God planted at first in those two Brethren Moses and Aaron there though Moses were the Temporal and Aaron the Spiritual Magistrate yet God sayes here to Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and not only to Pharaoh but Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet for as he sayes Exod 4. Thou shalt be to him instead of God So useful so necessary is man to man as that the Priest who is of God incorporated in God subsist also by Man Verse 3. Concerning this hardning of Pharaoh some understand it by permission i. e. God suffered him to be hardened as we say in the Lords Prayer Lead us not into temptation i. e. suffer us not to be lead Greg. Moral 31. cap. 12. saith Non duritiem contulit sed exigentibus ejus meritis nulla infu sa timoris sensibilitate mollivit he did not impose hardness but his merits so deserving he softned him not by any infused sense of fear This should ever work in us care and zeal to crave at Gods hands fleshy hearts which may tremble at his Judgements and tast his Mercy saying with Samuel Speak on Lord thy Servant heareth and with David O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart Verse 10. Pharaoh was now from a staffe of protection and sustentation to Gods People turn'd to a Serpent that stung them to death God shews himself in this real Emblem doing that suddenly before him which Sathan had wrought in him by leisure And now when he crawles and hisses threatning peril to Israel he shews him how in an instant he can turn him into a senseless stick and make him if not useful yet fearless The same God which wrought this gave Sathan leave to imitate it in the next verse The first Plague that God meant to inflict upon Pharaoh was delusion God can be content the Devil should win himself credit where he means to judge and holds the honour of a Miracle well lost to harden an Enemy Verse 12. Here we may see the end of Falsehood and Error at the last Truth shall devour it in Gods good time for great is truth and prevaileth Truth may be oppressed for a time God so pleasing either to punish or try his People but finally suppress'd it shall not be God being stronger than all his Enemies Moses than all Enchanters shall disperse all dusky Clouds bringing his glorious Truth out to bear sway again at his good pleasure Verse 17. This Plague God brought upon them for the Children which were drown'd and the River thus turned into bloud complained to God for that slaughter We may further note an encrease of terror in this Miracle above the former of the Serpents to signifie that where milder means will not serve God both can and will add sharper and heavier He encreaseth his crosses from Goods to Body from Body to Mind from our Selves to our Children and still maketh us abound with more want in greater and sharper measure that we may repent and return if not in the end he can destroy us with misery that never shall have an end Verse 20. First God begins his Judgements with Waters As the River Nilus was to Egypt instead of Heaven to moisten and fatten the Earth so their confidence was more in it than in Heaven Men are sure to be punish'd most and soonest in that which they make a corrival with God This change also of the Waters into bloud was an image of their future destruction They were afterward overwhelmed in the Red Sea and now before-hand they see the River red with bloud CHAP. VIII Verse 3. VVHat an Army is here against such a Prince God could have made use of Men or Angels But here he will confound the pride of such a conceited King by an Host of Frogs rather than by either of the other The Lord by contemptible and base things will cast down our high looks if we swell against him and of this he would have all high minds at this day to make use unto humility before they find it too late Verse 7. Gods Adversaries seek often to impugne the Truth by the self same means whereby he doth teach it As if Scripture be alledged Sathan will do the like Mat. 4. If the true Prophets use a Sign then will Zedekiah make him hornes too and say When went the Spirit from me to thee 1 Kings 22. 11. all which God doth suffer to draw us to true and sound knowledge without which we cannot stand but shall be shaken to and fro with doubts and fears most unfit for Believers Col. 1. 23. Verse 8. Let this Comfort Gods Ministers in the midst of all contempts that God is able to force the wicked to the acknowledgement of him and them In their extremities they shall acknowledge our Callings justifie our Love and wish our Prayers Thus many who at other times regard not Ministers either going to Sea or to Battel or being fick or vexed at home will send and seek for the Prayers of Gods Ministers And what is this but a sign of Gods omnipotent hand over all Pharaohs whatsoever and that he can revenge our contempts and give our truth and careful walking in our places a due regard and reverence when he will with them and in them But here it may be demanded Why did Pharaoh call now for Moses and Aaron rather than in the former Plague Why because this Plague touched him nearer than the former When the Rivers were Bloud he might have Wine to drink and so not feel the smart of that Plague Whence we see that howbeit other mens harmes should affect us yet unless the Lord touch our selves we are dull and dead without sense Which certainly makes God reach us a blow many times when otherwise he would spare us did we make but use of other mens miseries Verse 10. Wicked men do not only deferre their Duties from day to day but put over others also that offer good things unto them As for instance if a Preacher tender his service this Sunday he is told the next will be farre more fit and if he come the next Sunday then is either the Master from home the Gentlewoman sick the Weather too hot or cold or some such thing that be Moses never so ready yet Pharaoh is not ready but to morrow to morrow is still the Song till the Lord strike and all morrows end in their eternal torment Verse 14. The Lord could have taken the Frogs quite away but this was done to shew the truth of the Miracle that they were Frogs indeed and no Inchantments thereby to meet with the unbelief of the King
and his Courtiers And thus by one means or other the Lord will evermore deliver his Truth from false surmises his faithful Ministers from false imputations and write the wickedness of carnal men upon their faces to their own confusion Verse 15. See the corruption of our Nature if God work not No sooner is the Rod off but wretched man fals to his old sins again When we are sick or distressed any way we pretend Repentance we pray we cry we vow But forasmuch as all riseth from Fear and not from Love it vanisheth as soon as the Fear is past and the Devil returns with seven worse than himself making our end more odious than ever our beginning was Verse 17. It had been as easie for the Lord to have turned the dust into Lions and Bears and Wolves but that rather he chose to confound pride by weakness and a rebelling humour by so base a Creature Then secondly let us consider that if God can make so vile a Creature too strong for a Kingdome what resistance can I a single man make against Gods wrath if I pull it upon me by my sins His wrath can arme all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth against me and yet the least of them is far above my power as you see here Verse 18. The Devil is powerful when God will suffer him but when God will restrain him what can he do Add this to the story of Iob to the story of the Heard of Swine in the Gospel and from such places let us take comfort against our spiritual Enemy for we see his weakness and the brideling hand of God at all times upon him Verse 19. The wicked who for a time make shew as if God were on their side in Gods good time shall be forced to acknowledge the contrary to his Glory and the great Comfort of his Church and Children For what did these Magicians in effect say but that this which was now done passeth our Skill and albeit the Creature be vile and base yet is the Power of God such over us and our Art that we cannot do the like but give him the Victory and acknowledge our selves sinful weak and wicked men Verse 23. Whensoever we are free from any calamity which happeneth to others it is not by our own Policy but by that gracious separation which the Lord makes How may we run into particulars Others sickly we healthy others in prison we at liberty others in blindness we in light others slandered we not touch'd others cross'd in their Children and Friends we comforted O blessed God what a separation is this How ought we to be thankful to thee for it Verse 28. Worldly minded men will be content to tolerate Religion so it might still be joyned with their profit But if it be contrary to that O how bitter then how hard to endure it For these Iews wholly to depart from Egypt was not for Pharaohs profit for from their labours he had great gain and therefore by no means may they go out of his Land to sacrifice to their God but in the Land he is content to endure it so he may be freed from those Plagues that were upon him Or if needs must be that they must go out of the Land yet not far in any case CHAP. IX Verse 14. GOD punisheth sinners first with one Rod then with another and if these single chastisements will not serve then will he go to many Plagues heaping Wrath upon Wrath and Plague upon Plague yea he will lay even all his Plagues upon us at once as he here speaks to our utter confusion as also it is Deut. 28. 15. Secondly God cals them here his Plagues so that neither fortune nor chance ruleth Rods and Crosses laid upon us but these still are Gods laid on and taken off at his pleasure Ib. Upon the heart that is inwardly and deeply to smite us in armes hands legs is greivous unto us but when sorrow is laid upon the heart it stingeth indeed and most bitterly as Prov. 17. 22. 15. 13. Now the best way to prevent this doleful sorrow of heart laid on by an angry God is to take our sins to heart betimes Verse 23. Whether we be hindered or furthered by weather let us cast up our eyes to Heaven for it is the Lord still that ruleth these things and by his Will they come and go Nature is his Servant and the Devil his Rod neither of them working but as he appoints Verse 24. Fire was mingled with Hail to teach that Gods Judgements shall not be single but even one upon the neck of another until we be either humbled or destroyed Who would think it possible that any Soul should be secure in the midst of such variety of Judgements To what a height of obduration will sin lead a man and of all sins incredulity Amongst all these Stormes Pharaoh sleepeth till the voice of Gods mighty Thunders and Hail mixed with Fire rouz'd him up a little Verse 28. Pharaoh here as one betwixt sleeping and waking starts up a little and sayes God is righteous and I am wicked Moses pray for us and presently layes down his head again God hath no sooner done thundering than he hath done fearing All this while you never find him careful to prevent any one evil but desirous still to shift it off when he seeks it never holds constant to any good motion never prayes for himself but carelesly wils Moses and Aaron to pray for him never yields God his whole Demands but higleth and dodgeth like some hard Chapman that would get a release with the cheapest Wheresoever meer Nature is she is still inconstant in all her purposes sensible of present evil and improvident of future good CHAP. X. Verse 2. AS this teacheth us the end of Gods Works and Wonders so the Duty and Office of all Christian Parents and Governours even to teach their Children and charge carefully and zealously by them and in them to know the Lord as also Deut. 6. 6. thus is God himself the Author of that catechising and instructing of Youth which is so much neglected in our daies Verse 3. The drift of all Crosses and Afflictions in this life is to bring down the swelling pride of our sinful hearts that yeilding God what is due to him we again may from him reap mercy and forgiveness to our endless comfort Never forget this saying to King Iosiah 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thine heart was tender c. Verse 7. So old is the Accusation which to this day remains among wicked persons ascribing unto Religion and the Professors thereof whatsoever evil happeneth among men be it Death Sickness Wars Famine Thus Ahab tels Elias that it was he that troubled Israel by whom indeed all Israel had a Blessing if they had known it But to prove the contrary read Gen. 18. 32. Houses and whole Kingdomes have been saved but for one righteous man dwelling therein as Ioseph Daniel and the like
Verse 8 9. Observe Sathans Malice here against Gods Church and Service if they cannot wholly destroy it hurt it and hinder it then in part as farre as they can they will do it Secondly By the answer of Moses note on the other side that we must not yield an inch to these plots and fetches of the wicked but zealously must stand to the full observance of all Gods Will according to his Commandement and not according to the fancies either of others or of our selves Where the Lord dispenseth not we must not dispense where all are bound to depart out of Egypt we must not capitulate for some to go and some to stay Families should think upon this where the Husband goes to Church but not the Wife the Father but not the Son the Servant but not the Master Moses would not do thus here but knowing all to be bound requireth all Verse 23. This was most wonderful The houses of the Egpptians and Israelites joyning as it should seem one close to another as ours in these dayes do For else why was that sign given to the destroying Angel Exod. 12. 23. If all the Israelites had dwelt by themselves and had not been mingled with the Egyptians How able then is our God may we think who can thus make a separation betwixt his Children and the wicked when he executed wrath though they be in one Field in one House in one Bed together yet he can chuse the one and refuse the other Fear we not then in the time of Plague or War or other publick Calamity left we should perish with the wicked hand over head but remember this place and say in your heart with comfort O Lord I know thou canst make a separation in this calamity as thou didst in that calamity betwixt the Israelites and Egyptians therefore I beseech thee save me from this Sword of thine and let the light of thy Mercy shine about my dwelling as thy cheerful light did about the Israelites CHAP. XI Verse 1. THis ever was and ever will be Gods course first by gentle means to entreat then in the end by Power and Judgement to compel when the former course will not serve In the old World when the People would not be reformed the Lord said His Spirit should no longer strive with man meaning in lenity and gentleness as until then it had done but now he would bring upon them one Plague more as here upon Egypt and this was the Floud Gen. 6. 17. When Sodom and Gomorah would not be warned by any wayes of Mercy used by a gracious God unto them many years then that one Plague more of Fire and Brimstone came from Heaven Thus also the Lord deals with us First he entreats us by his Word the mildest way that can be Then if this will not serve the Lord comes nearer and layeth upon us his easier crosses and then greater Our Friends grow unkind our Servants unfaithful our Children undutiful our Estate wastes and our Health is chang'd to Sickness And if all these work not upon us then the Lord goes to his Quiver and takes out a strong Arrow to shoot at us as the sweating Sickness the devouring Plague which shall sweep the Land clean from such rebelling Spirits Verse 3. As the wicked stand in awe of God often and outwardly profess affection to him yet do not subject themselves to his Will so are his Servants honoured also of men with an inward conceit of them that they are honest men when yet their Doctrine will not be yielded unto Thus doth God inwardly imprint their own damnation in their hearts Verse 5. No Honours or Riches no Friends or Strength no Pomp or Port in this World may defend from God but he will smite all Degrees and therefore let all Degrees profit by it CHAP. XII Verse 4. CHrist is not divided into divers Houses and Families Kingdoms and Countries but he doth unite and gather divers Houses and Nations to make one Church even as here many did eat one Lamb. We may not divide the Lamb but we must gather our selves to the Lamb and that is the true Church where People are so gathered Verse 6. This keeping of it from the tenth to the fourteenth day served to prepare their hearts to the right eating of it being a remembrance before their eyes those four dayes before and also to prefigure unto us with what meditation and preparation we ought to come to the eating of the true Pass-over in the blessed Sacrament whereof this same was but a shadow Secondly the fourteenrh day this Lamb was offered because then the Moon being at full and rising in her full light when the Sun was set thereby might be shadowed that the Church usually signified by the Moon riseth with light in great fulness after the setting of the Sun the Death of Christ. Verse 7. This shews the effect and vertue of Christ his bloud the true Paschal Lamb ever to save from the destroying Angel as many as shall be sprinkled with it that is should make particular application of it to themselves For it is not the bloud without sprinkling will help Christ died for all sufficiently but not effectually because all take not hold of and apply Christs death to their souls Verse 32. Pharaoh desires to be blessed of those men who but even now were odious in his eyes The same God can also pull down the hearts of the proudest and make them as glad of a Ministers Prayers as they have maliciously opposed themselves against him Verse 34. Egypt was never so stubborn in denying passage to Israel as now importunate to entreat it Pharaoh did not more force them to stay before then now to depart whom lately they would not permit now they hire to go The Israelites are equally glad of this hast Who would not be ready to go yea to fly out of the house of bondage They have what they wished there was no staying for a second invitation The losse of an opportunity is many times irrecoverable The love of their liberty made the burthen of their Dough light Who knew whether the variable mind of Pharaoh might return to a denial and after all his stubbornness repent of his obedience It is foolish to hazard where there is certainty of good offers and uncertainty of continuance Verse 36. The Egyptians rich Jewels of Silver and Gold were not too dear for the Israelites whom they hated how much rather had they need to send them away wealthy then to have them stay to be their Executors Their love to themselves obtain'd the inriching of their Enemies and now they are glad to pay them well for their old work and their present journey Gods People had stayed like Slaves they go away like Conquerors with the spoil of those that hated them arm'd for security and wealthy for maintenance Verse 37. A most wonderful encrease from seventy Souls which were all that came into Egypt and most effectually it shews us
a Deliverer so famous a Governour so dear to God so familiar with God and so graced and honoured by God And yet how contemptuously they speak of him when they say this Moses this Moses And therefore by this example let all wise Ministers never rely upon the multitude but upon the Author of their Calling joy in their obedience to him rest upon his gracious acceptance and leave the world to be a World full of unthankfulness to all degrees of well Deservers Verse 3. Aaron demanded their golden Ear-rings thinking they would not have given them For in the East Countries such Ear-rings were Ornaments and the pleasures of Women But he was deceived so pleasing to our corruption is Idolatry and Superstition that we spare no cost to set that forward And indeed their Idol was their Jewel Verse 6. Those Sacrifices were such as God had appointed but now diverted from their use and therefore nothing lesse than pleasing unto God Which shews that although we use the same words in our Prayers and do the same things that the Scripture appointeth if they differ from right as these Sacrifices did here we pull down Gods Wrath upon us instead of his Blessing Verse 7. The Lord cals them Moses People whereas they were the Lords People and by his mighty Arm delivered not by Moses his strength Thus doth the Lord ascribe to his Ministers what his Power worketh by them that so they may be encouraged in their pains and the People know to love them hearing God himself say that they be their People Verse 8. Note the word and also the manner if the Lord keep us not in his true obedience and send us good Guides To fall away from God is fearful but quickly to be turned aside is an amplification of the fault and maketh it greater Verse 10. This shews the incomprehensible loving kindness of God towards such as truly fear and serve him making them in his Goodness so powerful with him that they are to him as it were bands to tie him and avail against him that he cannot execute his anger against Offendors unless they will suffer him and as it were stand out of the way Thus in Gen. 18. 19. when Sodom was to be destroyed said God for so many and so many I will not do it Thus also Ezek. 22. 30. I sought for a man c. as if God had said might I have found but one to stand in the gap against my wrath even for that one I would have shewn Mercy Let this therefore comfort you that if for other mens sins a true Moses be such a stop to God that he will not punish them think then what force have your own sighs and groans for your own sins before him Can he strike you holding up your hands for Mercy and looking upon him with warry eyes humbled in the dust before him and for his dearest Sons sake in whom he is well pleas'd begging pardon Verse 11. Who knows what Judgements godly Governors turn away by their earnest Prayers to God for their People Which should work in us all Love and Obedience and Duty to them and make us day and night pray for the continuance of them Verse 21. In matters concerning Gods Glory we must rebuke our nearest Allies no place for Affection The Lord hath placed the Commandements in the Decalogue and the Petitions in the Lords Prayer which concern his Honour before those which concern our selves to teach us that we ought to prefer his Glory before all worldly things yea even life it self if it come in question Mar. 10. 37. Thus did Moses also ver 32. prefer Gods Glory which would appear in saving of his People before his own salvation which is far more than this temporal life Verse 31. Moses doubleth in this Chapter the foulness of their fault calling it a great Sin and a greivous sin so teaching us not to extenuate faults before God if you sue for Mercy but to set them out in their true colours that Mercy may the more appear Verse 34. Magistrates and Ministers may not desist from their Duties for the Peoples frowardness but indevouring to the uttermost to reform them they must go on though they perish and even in their so perishing they shall be a sweet Savour to the Lord. Verse 35. Very greivous is the sin of Idolatry that not for Moses his so earnest Prayer may be freed wholly from all further punishment though in part the Lord yieldeth as he did ver 14. CHAP. XXXIII Verse 8. A Sound and upright heart with God will ever in the end procure honour however for a time contempt may be shewed for God will honour them that honour him it is his Word and it shall never fail Would God then men would be moved to seek honour this way by the Favour of God and not of men For God can make men rise up to you that have formerly little regarded you as here he did to Moses the People now that he was in favour with God reverenc'd him whom before they spake very lightly of saying This Moses we know not what is become of him Verse 13. Moses desires of God that he would shew him his Wayes his Dealings his Proceedings with Men that which he cals after his Glory how he glorifies himself upon Man God promiseth in the next verse that he will shew him all his Goodness God hath no way towards Man but Goodness God glorifies himself in nothing upon Man but in his own Goodness And therefore when God comes to the performance of this Promise in the next Chapter he shews him his Way and his Glory and his Goodness in shewing him that he is a merciful God a gracious God a long suffering God And as the Hebrew Doctors note there are thirteen Attributes specified in that place and of all these thirteen there is but one that tastes of Judgement that he will punish the sins of the Fathers upon the Children all the other twelve are meerly Mercy Such a proportion hath his Mercy above his Justice Verse 18. When God had promised Moses in this Chapter to send an Angel to shew the People their way Moses said to God See thou sayest lead this people forth but thou hast not shewed me whom thou wilt send with me God had told him of an Angel but that satisfied not Moses he must have something shew'd to him he must see his Guide and therefore said Moses wilt thou be pleas'd to shew me thy Glory Shall we see any thing Now they did see that Pillar in which God was and that Presence that Pillar shewed the way To us the Church is that Pillar in that God shews us our way For strength it is a Pillar and a Pillar for firmness and fixation But yet the Church is neither an equal Pillar alwayes fire but sometimes Cloud too The Church is more or lesse visible sometimes glorious sometimes eclips'd neither is it so fix'd a Pillar as that it may
scent and savour of their Actions as the sound of their Words CHAP. XL. Verse 13. MOses that is appointed here to annoint and consecrate others was never annointed and consecrated himself that so we might learn not to value external Sacraments or Signs by the Dignity of the Minister but by the Ordinance of God Again that the invisible Grace is of force without the visible sign when God will have it so as in Moses here but then withal we must know that this was an extraordinary Command of God to Moses who was then Gods Vicegerent or Vicar-general and therefore what he did God did And certainly God who is the Author of all order may prescribe the form and manner of it Verse 16. Observe how often from this to the two and thirtieth verse is repeated as the Lord commanded Moses and see how sweet commanded Obedience is Were it as acceptable to God to be served with inventions never would these repetitions be made Beware therefore of these wayes and in very reason conclude that if you expect from your Servant your Commands to be fulfill'd according to your will much more may God expect the same obedience from you Verse 32. Those that dispense Gods Ordinances that wait upon his Altar must come with clean hands and a pure heart Holiness becomes every man well but best of all publick persons and that not only for example of good but liberty of controlling ill The Snuffers of the Sanctuary made to purge others must be of pure Gold themselves and the Priest that is to purifie and cleanse the Congregation must be first washed himself But now suppose the Priest be unclean be vicious and who can say he is not so must â—he People notwithstanding seek the Law at his mouth follow his Doctrine Yes certainly For what if the Sacrificer be unclean is the Offering so Scripture is Scripture though the Devil speak it Verse 34. That thus he might grace that outward place now appointed for holy Assemblies to serve him and so to the Worlds end teach how great account all People ought to make of their Churches and Church-meetings Verse 36. The Children of Israels Journey to Canaan was thorow the Wilderness of Arabia Their Guides were a Pillar of Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night The manner of their Journey was this When the Pillar moved they moved when the Pillar stood still they stood still By all which a further matter namely the regiment of Christ over his Church is signified Every one of us is as Passengers and Travellers to an heavenly Canaan and in this Journey we are to passe through the desart Wilderness of this World Our Guide is Christ himself figured by the Pillar of Fire and Cloud because by his Word and Spirit he sheweth us how far we may go in every Action and where we must stand and he goes before us as our Guide to life everlasting A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE THIRD BOOK OF MOSES CALLED LEVITICUS CHAP. I. Verse 4. THE party bringing the Sacrifice did by this sign of laying on his hand c. acknowledge that he himself deserved to die but by the Mercy of God he was spared and his desert laid upon the Beast Secondly that it is not enough to believe that Christ was to die for sin but he must lay his hand upon Christ i. e. lay upon him all his iniquities by the hand of his Faith apply Christ to himself and believe that he died for his sins my sins your sins being the only Propitiation for sin Thirdly this laying on the hand shewed that men bringing Sacrifices to God should rather sacrifice their exorbitant affections than those Beasts Verse 5. The reason why God tyed them to a place and not suffered them to sacrifice where they pleased was that by this means they might be kept from using any unlawful manner in their Sacrifices which they might have done if in every place at their pleasure they might have Sacrificed The same reason is now for our set publick places of Gods Worship where the people are to perform their Duties to God after one manner not allowed at their will every one to have a several place lest private places should breed private Fancies Errors and Heresies in the Church Verse 6. This was to teach the Party that offered the Sacrifice to offer up himself to the Lord flayed and without skin that is without all counterfeit and hypocritical shews without all earthly vain and proud Confidence in himself or any Works or Worth whatsoever in him but naked and bare to present himself to his God with a single and faithful heart boasting of no Desert but humbly craving Mercy and Pardon for Christs sake the true Sacrifice Verse 17. This was a great comfort to the poorer sort of Offerers for thus are they assured that although they were not of ability to Offer unto him Oxen and Sheep yet were they as dear to him as those that could so do and their Sacrifice of Pigeons or Turtles yeelded as sweet a savour And thus gracious will God ever be even two Mites of a poor Widdow shall be accepted and a little Spice or Goats-hair or what my power is to bring unto him shall be received For it is not the Gift but the Heart of the Giver that God looks upon and respects and thus the poor Widdows Mite could weigh but little very little with God but the Heart weigh'd heavy and so her Heart being put to her Mite gave it weight above the greater but far more heartless largesses of the Pharisees CHAP. II. Verse 6. THis Offering thus parted and sprinkled with Oyl signified the Graces of Gods Spirit where with Christ was fully annointed within and without above his fellows For they were only singly annointed either as Kings or as Priests or as Prophets but Christ was a thrice Sacred annointed Person a Prophet to teach us by his Word a Priest to purge us by his Blood a King to guide us by his Spirit And this three-fold Office of our Saviour was really represented by the Oyl wherewith he was annointed For first Oyl is said in the Psalms to make a chearful countenance and thus doth Christ as a Prophet make not only a cheerful Countenance but a cheerful Heart and Soul by Preaching the glad Tydings of Salvation Secondly Oyl doth supple and cure Wounds and so doth Christ as a Priest the Wounds of our Souls and Consciences with that precious Ointment of his Blood Thirdly Oyl will still be the uppermost of all Liquors so likewise Christ as a King is above Men and Angels hath the Soveraignty over all the Creation Verse 11. By this Rule of having no Leaven they were taught the purity of Christs Doctrine and the Holiness of his Life his Doctrine so pure that it maketh others pure Iohn 15. 3. and his Life so pure that not only his false Accusers could fasten no fault upon him but by his Innocency he appeased
of the Ministery that it should not be defrauded of the least thing allotted to it And therefore harden not your heart against God against Law against Right and Truth accustome not your hearts to cover your Neighbours due your hands to purloin it by fraud or take it by strength it is theft spiritual theft sacriledge your house receiveth stoln Goods and the Wrath of God may happily shake the foundation of it for such a sin and you in yours or you and yours be punished Verse 13. Here Leaven is admitted of which before was forbid Leaven therefore is taken in a good sense as well as in an ill Thus the Apostles are resembled to a little Leaven that leaveneth the whole lump they being sent out of God into the unleavened World by preaching to leaven it clean through And there is a Leaven of the new Nature accepted as there is a Leaven of the old Nature rejected For look how the Leaven maketh the Bread savory and strong and wholsome look also how it makes it rise and heave up which otherwise would be sad and heavy So doth Gods regenerate Spirit change us make us savory and all our Duties pleasing to God and we rise up our Hearts and Souls are heaved up in all love in thankfulness to him that in Mercy hath so look'd upon us Verse 15. A Ceremony us'd to signifie that publick Feasts should not be superfluously continued and kept long under the colour of Religion For God loveth not idle banquetting and prodigal spending although he allow graciously what is fit for the occasion Secondly this was done in wisdome by God least if the flesh should have smelt by longer keeping Religion might so have been vile in the eyes of fickle persons Verse 18. We may learn by this that the taking hold of Christ is not to be deferr'd and put off but speedily and quickly to be done whilst time serves and opportunity is offer'd For behold sayes Christ to day and to morrow I cast out Devils and the third day Luke 13. that is a short time I have yet to go on with my Ministery and then I shall be slain More particularly every Man and Woman may be said to have three dayes The first of Youth till Age come the second of Age till Death come and in these two dayes there is Mercy offered but the third day is after Death and then there is no help as here on the third day no Offering was accepted but the sin remained unpardoned and not forgiven Verse 30. The bringing of the Sacrifice with his own hands and not sending it by others taught Humility and Duty to God taught that every one must live by his own Faith and not by anothers Verse 34. The shaking of it to and fro four wayes East West North and South shadowed the spreading of that lifting up of Christ that is of Christs Death and Passion throughouâ— all the World by the preaching of the Gospel CHAP. VIII Verse 2. THe Lord precisely appointed Priests and would not leave it to every man to perform this Office to signifie that not any man butthe-man Christ Jesus could appease Gods Wrath satisfie his Justice and take away the sins of the World This could not be figured out better than by secluding all the Host of Israel from this Office and chusing but Aaron and his Sons as Types of Christ that so by such an Ordinance the Majesty Authority and Property of Christs Office might be resembled and shadowed Verse 5. Nothing but Gods Commandement doth Moses offer unto them For he well knew Gods Will only in his own House must be the Rule Our own heads were never the best heads to follow and for God he knoweth our mould too well to give that swinge unto us Verse 13. Aarons Sons were a figure of the Church which by Faith eateth also of the Sacrifice of Christ being made partakers of his Merits as well as the Priests Their Garments figured out the Graces and Gifts wherewith the Believers in Christ are adorned and beautified casting away the Works of Darkness and putting on daily more and more the Deeds of Light Rom. 13. 12. Verse 30. Upon Aarons Sons Moses did but sprinkle the annointing Oil which was said to be poured upon Aaron verse 12. So plainly shewing that in Christ the Spirit should be without measure and upon his Servants in measure we all receiving of his fulness according to his good Pleasure some more some lesse Verse 35. By this is signified that watch which all our life time is noted by the seven dayes we keep in avoiding sin and working righteousness as the Lord shall enable which indeed may be call'd the watch of the Lord being a holy Christian and happy watch The seventh day we shall be free fully sanctified and delivered from this vail of misery to keep an eternal Sabbath in Heaven to our endless comfort CHAP. IX Verse 7. IN that Aaron was here commanded to offer as well for himself as the People he was herein a figure of Christ not that Christ had any sins of his own but that ours were so laid upon him and he so made satisfaction to God for them as they had been his own Surely sayes the Prophet Isai. 53. 4. he hath born our infirmities c. that is we judg'd him evil as though he were punish'd for his own sins and not for ours Verse 22. Thus doth God blesse us in Christ in whom all the Nations of the World are blessed First with the Blessing of Reconciliation to himself reputing us now just for his Son Christ. Secondly with the Blessing of his Spirit whereby we walk in his Calling being guided thereby in the same Thirdly with the Blessing of Acceptance of all our Works though full of imperfection and weakness And last of all with this great Blessing that all adversity becometh a help to us to draw us to Heaven and Eternal Rest. Verse 24. That God which shew'd himself to Men in fire when he delivered his Law would have men present their Sacrifices to him in fire and this fire he would have his own that there might be a just circulation in this Creature as the Water sends up those vapours which it receives down again in Rain Hereupon it was that fire came down from God to the Altar that as the charge of the Sacrifice was delivered in fire so God might signifie the acceptation of it in the like fashion wherein it was commanded The Baalites might lay ready their Bullock upon the Wood but they might sooner fetch the blood out of their Bodies and destroy themselves than one flash out of Heaven to consume the Sacrifice CHAP. X. Verse 2. NAdab and Abibu were two of Aarons Eldest Sons which after their Father should have succeeded him in his place yet there is no Mercy with God to stay his Judgement when they will not be Ruled by his Word No Prerogative therefore shall save any Man from Wrath if he offend but
men it is ordained for men Verse 10. In this seventh year it was not lawful to require debts but some differance of opinions men have touching this some say their debt was clean lost others say no but for that year deferred and forborn after demanded lawfully and paid willingly which is more likely for as much as those pollitick lâ—ws of God were not ordained of God to overthrow justice but to preserve it and direct it in a commendable and fit manner among men now it is justice to let every man have his own and there was good reason wherefore that debt should be forborn this seventh year because that year there was notillage to make money of a right and true application of this may every feelling heart make in these Cities and Towns where it shall please God to lay his sore visitation of plague or any other infection thereby stopping the trade whereby every man was enabled to get for his maintenance and the discharge of such that were due from him to others God forbid but that mercy should be found towards their brethren in those that look for mercy at Gods hand when men cannot receive money they cannot pay and no dishonest meaning making the stop but only the Lords hand staying trade who will be rigorous in such a case when the earth rested and there was no tillage to raise money by you see the mercy of Gods law here and is it not all one when trade ceaseth let your bowels then shew whose children you are if the Image and superscription of God be upon you surely you will shew mercy and give some set time to your Creditors that mean truly read what God saith Isaiah 58. 3. c. and remember he is the same God still Verse 19. God by Moses made the Children of Israel a Song because as he said howsoever they did by the Law they would never forget that Song and that Song should be his witnesse against them Therefore would God have us institute solemn memorials of his great deliverances that if when those dales come about we do not glorifie him that might aggravate our condemnation CHAP. XXXII Verse 11. THE words spoken here of God himself are thus applicable to his Ministers first the Eagle stirreth up her nest the Preacher stirs and moves and agitates the holy assertions of the Congregation that they slumber not in a sencelessenesse of that that is said and then as 't is added here she flutters over her young the Preacher makes a holy noise in the conscience of the Congregation and when he hath awakened them by stirring the nest he casts some claps of thunder some intimidations in denouncing the judgements of God and he flings open the gates of heaven that they may hear and look up and see a man sent by God with power to infuse his fear upon them so she fluttereth over her young but then as it followeth there she spreadeth abroad her wings she overshaddowes them she enwraps them she armes them with her wings so that no other terror no other fluttering but that which comes from her can come upon them The Preacher doth so infuse the fear of God into his Auditory that first they shall fear nothing but God and then they shall fear God but so as he is God and God is mercy God is love And the Minister shall so spread his wings over his people as to defend them from all inordinate fear from all diffidence and distrust in the mercy of God which is farther exprest in the next clause She taketh them and beareth them upon her wings When the Minister hath performed all the former acts of his calling then he sets them upon the top of his best wings and shewes them heaven and God in heaven raining down his bloud into their emptinesse and his balm into their wounds and preparing their seat where he stands solliciting their cause at the right hand of his Father Verse 35. In this we have a first and a second lesson First that since revenge is in Gods hands it will certainly fall upon the malefactor God doth not mistake his marke and then since revenge is in his hands no man must take revenge out of his hands or make himself his own Magistrate or revenge his own quarrel And as we we that are Christians have our author Moses here that tels us this the natural man hath his secular author Theocritus that tels him as much reperit Deus nocentes God alwaies findes out the guilty man In which the natural man hath also a first and second lesson too first that since God findes out the Malefactor he never scapes And then since God doth find him at last God sought him all the while though God strike late yet he pursued him long before many a man feels the sting in his conscience long before he feels the blow in his body That God finds and therefore seeks that God overtakes and therefore pursues that God overthrows and therefore resists the wicked is a naturall conclusion as well as a divine Verse 40. Where was God now when he lifted up his hands to heaven here here upon earth with us in his Church for our assurance and our establishment making that protestation denoted in his lifting up his hands to heaven that he lived for ever and that therefore we need fear nothing Verse 50. How familiarly doth Moses hear of his end it is no more betwixt God and Moses but Go up and die If he had invited him to a meal it could not have been in a more sociable compellation no otherwise then he said to his other Prophet Up and eat It is neither harsh nor news to Gods children to hear or think of their departure to them death hath lost his horror through acquaintance they have so oft thought and resolved of the necessity and of the issue of their dessolution that they cannot hold it either strange or unwelcome He that hath had such entire conversation with God cannot fear to go to him Those that know him not or know he will not know them no marvail if they tremble Verse 51. It might have been just with God to have reserved the cause to himself and in the generallity to have told Moses that his sin must shorten his journey but it is more mercy then justice that his Children shall know why they smart that God may at once both justifie himself and humble them for their particular offences Those to whom he meanes vengeance have not the sight of their sins till they be past repentance Complaine not that God upbraids thee with thy old sins whosoever thou art but know it is an argument of love whereas concealment is a fearful sign of a secret dislike from God CHAP. XXXIII Verse 2. THough it be not a difficult matter to impose upon the sence and judgement of men with whom tin may pass for silver it is not so with the judge and searcher of the heart he soon