respect of the Priest's Office and this Covering of the Altar with those Censers of polished splendid Brass was as a Looking-glass for all to behold that none might after as Korah presume to the Priesthood The second Consequent is The new notorious Rebellion of the whole People surviving those sad Judgments raised the very morning after which was pacified by a Plague begun but stopp'd by Moses sending Aaron in haste to stand betwixt the living and the dead with Incense a clear Type of Christ ver 41 to 50. Those Rebels after such a severe double Conviction so soon to murmure against Moses who had saved them by his prayer for them ver 22. for his killing the Lord's People seem to be acted and driven by the Devil into this prodigious contumacy Tho' the miraculous strangeness of both the Judgments did declare them to come from God yet Moses must be blamed for killing both ways even while the carkases of the late Rebels lay before their Eyes As the Devil had set the Sorcerers of Egypt against Moses Exod. 8. so he sets this People against him here to make their Rebellion as marvelous as were God's Judgments upon the Rebellious Some say such a furious Devil agitated the People that they offered to assault Moses and Aaron with violent hands whereupon they fled for their own safety as Vaiphenu in ver 43. is translated to the door of the Tabernacle Then Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God as out of an Engine appeareth to Relieve his Distressed Servants and threatned to consume the new and more formidable Rebels because more universal with a third deadly Plague which was in part executed ver 45.46 Moses was quick-sighted by his familiarity with God and early discerns Divine Wrath at its first setting forth He spies the Plague running on like fire in a Corn field he bids Aaron run to stop it by making an Atonement Aaron interposeth and therein exposeth himself to the Wrath of God for saving the People yet living God favourably accepts his Atonement Deut. 33.10 11. wherein he figured Christ who poured out his Soul an Offering for Sin and made Intercession for Transgressors Isa 53.12 Luke 22.34 The Hebrew Rabbins observe well how that Aaron made no Atonement for the dead for they cannot hope for any Portion Eccles 9.4 5 6 10 Psal 115.17 Isa 38.18 for after death cometh Judgment Heb. 9.27 therefore there was no estimation nor price of the dead who could not personally appear before the Priest for any Vow in Israel Levit. 27.8 as Maimonides in Erachin cap. 1 well observeth Aaron could not be so quick for staying the Plague but God was as quick in slaying the People fourteen thousand and seven hundred more died of this speedy Pestilence and tho' Incense was to be offered now only upon the Altar of Incense within the Tabernacle yet Aaron offers it betwixt the dead and the living without the Tabernacle in the open Wilderness and God accepts if as done upon an extraordinary occasion so by a Divine extraordinary Dispensation the Plague was stayed here by ver 47 48 49. All which not only sheweth how prevalent with God are the Prayers of his faithful and fervent Servants Jam. 5.16 1 John 5.14 c. but also fore-shewed the efficacy of Christ's Mediation whom the Father heareth always John 11.42 who is our Atonement 1 Joh. 2.2 our Paschal Lamb that stops the destroying Angel from touching us Exod. 12.23 Heb. 11.28 as also 2 Sam. 24.16 Thus the Smoke of Aaron's Incense figuring Christ's Intercession for us Psal 141.2 Rev. 8.4 stayed the Plague from the surviving Israelites for which Moses praised God at the Tent door ver 50. Lastly To prevent all such like Murmurings for the future Numb 17.5 10. God superadds a miraculous Approbation of Aaron's Priesthood by causing his Rod laid up in the Tent of the Testimony with the Rods of all the other Tribes to bud blossom and bear ripe Almonds all in one night's time ver 6 7 8 9. and Numb 20.9 Heb. 9.4 Here are three Miracles in one 1. That a dry Rod made of the Almond Tree should bring forth buds in a moment 2. That those buds should presently become blossoms and flowers 3. That these should immediately become ripe fruit and that all at once or at least in a little space Natura non facit saltum Nature makes no such leaps All this was supernatural to these ends 1. For a Testimony of God's calling Aaron to the Priesthood 2. For a Type of Christ the branch Isa 11.1 3. For a figure of the fruitfulness of a Gospel-Ministry And 4. For a lively representation of a glorious Resurrection N.B. This Kadesh Barnea where this Miracle was wrought was the more famous a Mansion of Isral there because they not only had their Station at this place many days Deut. 1.46 even a whole year as at Sinai as above for tho' they were commanded to remove their Tents the very next day of their murmuring upon the Return of the Spies and the ten reporting falsly of Canaan Numb 14 25. yet they obeyed not that Command but affaulted the Canaanites in the Mountains and were discomfited by them whereupon they returned to their Tents where they mourned as they had good cause many days and there were permitted to linger and loiter a long time wherein those occurrences afore-mentioned fell out For at their first Station here they received those Laws which are Recorded Numb 15. as also that they stoned him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day ibidem Here it was likewise that Korah and his Complices for aspiring to the Priesthood of Aaron being of Levis Tribe and Dathan and Abiram c. for aspiring to the Principality of Moses being of Reuben the first-born all perished and that 14700 died of the Plague Numb 16. and that Aaron's Rod budded c. Numb 17. that divers Services for the Priests are appointed to save the People from perishing as they complained ver 12 13. Numb 18 and 19. After which Moses mentioneth no more occurrences from this beginning of their third year or the last six months of the second year after their Redemption from Egypt until the first day of their fortieth year Numb 20. where Israel is come after thirty seven or thirty eight years wandring in the Wilderness to this unhappy place Kadesh-Barnea again where they had received their doom of the Divine Decree that their Carcases should fall in the Wilderness and not enter into the Land of Promise accordingly that sad Decree was executed during their many Marches and Stations from this Kadesh towards the Red Sea Deut. 1.40 and back again to this Kadesh some seven or eight and thirty years after All those Wandrings during this tedious Time are barely mentioned by Moses Numb 33. from ver 18 to 36. having no remarkable occurrencies The first Remark concerning those intercurrent years 37 or 38. is That when Moses saw the old Generation fall so fast in this
Men that had followed Baal-peor in those two Sister Sins ver 9. compared with Deut. 4.3 and whereas the Apostle mentioneth but three thousand destroyed 1 Cor. 10.8 this is thus reconciled The Apostle speaks only of the three and twenty thousand People that did fall by a Divine Hand in the Plague the other thousand of Princes were hang'd by Humane Hands ver 4 5. the latter for giving an evil Example and the former for taking it 'T is a Poor Plea for People to excuse their Sins by alledging the example of their Superiours If they dare Sin together on Earth they shall also burn together in Hell Thus are we brought to the second General Part namely the removing of this stumbling-block or Impediment partly by the hanging up of the guilty Princes by the Hands of Men and partly by the cutting off of the guilty People in the Plague by the hand of God but more especially by this Heroick Act of Phinehas in executing Impartial Justice upon a Prince of Israel and a Princess of Midian which affords these Remarks The First is God himself puts this peculiar Honour of staying the Plague when he was about to destroy the whole Camp upon this Fact of Phinehas saying He hath turned my Wrath away ver 10 11. because He was acted with the same Zeal for God's Glory and Israel's good as God himself is acted with for them and feared not to loose his Life in God's Cause by putting to Death a Prince and a Princess in the very flagrancy of their Lust at one blow There is such an Accent and such an Emphasis put by the Lord upon this Act as the Jewish Rabbies observe that here they begin the forty first Section or Lecture of the Law or as Vatablus saith the seventh Section of the Book which they call Phinehas Moreover it teacheth us That Zeal of Justice in the Cause of God is an hopeful means to remove God's Wrath from and to procure his Mercy to Man Psal 106.30 Thus David also made an Atonement by doing Justice on Saul's House 2 Sam. 21.3 c. The Second Remark is As Phinehas was the wise Man that pacified the Wrath of the King of Kings Prov. 16.14 So God rewarded him Eth berithi shalom with the Covenant of Peace ver 12 13. Thus God gave to Levi his Covenant of Life and Peace for the fear wherewith he feared me c. Mal. 2.5 Exod. 32.26 27 28. Deut. 33.8 9 10 11. The Priesthood wherewith God rewarded Phinehas was God's Covenant of Peace for two Reasons so called 1. Because the Priests if clean seemed more than the People in the Peace Familiarity and friendship of God oft discoursing with him c. so call'd God's Neighbours Levit. 10.3 2. Because the Priesthood rightly administred by Prayers and Sacrifices was a Cause of continuing Amity betwixt God and the People therefore for Phinehas's Holy Hatred against Sin and his inflamed Love to God and Godliness an Everlasting Priesthood was settled upon him namely till Christ's coming to whom that legal Priesthood was to give Place Heb. 7.11 c. The Third Remark is Phinehas by Vertue of this Promise of the Priesthood lived himself to a great old Age even as some say to three hundred Years as appeareth by Judg. 20.28 where He then is found alive for his Zeal at this Time He lived so long that some of the Hebrew Rabbies are of Opinion He died not at all but is still alive whom they suppose to be the Elias that is to come before the coming of Christ but this Notion is Confuted by others of their Rabbies and by the mention of his Seed succeeding him in Sacred Scripture However though few after the Flood did near attain to any such Age yet must Phinehas be very old in that Time of Israel's warring with Benjamin who then stood before the Ark and probably was as zealous in that Case as he was here in this of a not much differing Nature about Uncleanness The Fourth Remark is Phinehas's Priesthood is call'd Everlasting not in his Person but in his Posterity whose Sons were successively High Priests till the Captivity of Babylon 1 Chron. 6.4 to 16. and at the return out of Captivity Ezra the great Priest and Scribe was of his Line Ezra 7.1 to 6. and so it continued in that Line until or very near the approach of our Evangelical High Priest as Christ is called Heb. 5.6 who was of the Order of Melchizedeck So this Word Everlasting doth not denote a Duration of time without end or a perpetuity without Interruption for as both the Law and its Priesthood expired when Christ who was prefigured by them and the end of them was exhibited So that long continuance of Time imported in the Word Everlasting forementioned both in his Person who lived long and in his Posterity who succeded long wanted not its Interruption for the Covenant was Conditional wherein some of Phinehas's Sons failing the Priesthood passed over from Eleazar's Line to that of Ithamar's in Eli his Grand-child though it be not express'd how Eli came to the Priesthood but from Him it descended to Abiathar 1 Sam. 14.3 and 22.20 and 1 King 2.26 yet seems it to be by God's appointment 1 Sam. 2.30 Exod. 28.43 and 29.9 and both Eleazar and Ithamar as they both had the Promise so they both executed the Office of the Priesthood Numb 3.4 1 Chron. 23.2 and likewise their Sons after them in David's Time ver 3. till Abiathar of Ithamar's Line who for the Sin of Eli and of his Sons beside the eighty five Priests of Ithamar's Posterity slain by Saul 1 Sam. 22.18 and for his siding with Adonijah was according to God's Prediction cast out of the High-Priest's Office and Zadok of Eleazar's descent was put in his Place by Solomon 1 King 2.27 and in David's Time but one half of the Line of Ithamar were found to that of Eleazar 1 Chron. 24.4 Thus this Promise of a perpetual Priesthood to Phinehas here abode in that Family seven Generations 1 Chron. 6.4 5 6. and there it failed till the seventh Generation after Those six Amaziah Ahitub Zadok Ahimaaz Azariah and Johanan mentioned there 1 Chron. 6.7 8 9 10. brings in Azariah executing that Office but the forenamed six are left out in the Genealogy Ezra 7.3 4. because the Priesthood failed in them but by the force of this Covenant it brake out again and recovered it self from Ithamar's Line Phinehas's Posterity repenting and the Priesthood returning to those Penitents it remained some say to Herod's Time This Promise and that in Jer. 33.17 18 21 22. were accomplish'd in Christ Heb. 3.1 and 5.1 to 5. and 8.1 2 3 c. and Luk. 1.32 33. who was the end of the Law Rom. 10.4 The Fifth Remark is The Matter of Zimri and Cozbi contains in it a Mystery For 1. Zimri Hebrew signifies Cutting off as a superfluous Branch is cut off from the Vine as he was from the Vine of
God Luke 3.38 to shew that he was the Womans Seed which as God promis'd to Adam should break the Serpent's Head Gen. 3.15 not only for saving the Jews that descended from Abraham according to Matthew's Genealogy but also for saving the Gentiles that descended from Adam according to Luke's Genealogy and therefore Luke relates how Christ did break the Power of Satan by the word of Truth who had corrupted Adam and in him all Mankind by his words of falshood immediately after he had shewed Christ's Descent from Adam Luke 3.38 he shews Luke 4.1 how the Tempter is Master'd by Christ in three Temptations Remark the Third This First Line after the Captivity of fourteen Generations for which there is no Record elsewhere in the Canonical Scripture 't is taken for granted saith Dr. Lightfoot that both Matthew and Luke took from some Records then extant among the Nations and were look'd upon as Authentick as appeareth by the Septuagint Bible which was commonly currant in the time of the Evangelists and which certainly Luke doth generally follow in his Quotations out of the Old Testament and the Septuagint hath this Genealogy just as Luke here hath it As the Jews were ever in their worst of Times very careful to keep their Books of all their Genealogies Ezra 2.62 c. so more especially they could not but be most careful of keeping the Records of the Royal Line of the Family of David because they had raised Expectations 0536 of the Messiah from it for the Jews generally received these two Remarkable Maxims 1. That there was to be no King for Israel but of the House of David whose Son their Messiah must be by Descent And 2. That the Family of a Mother is not called a Family Hereupon hath Matthew most pertinently brought Christ's Pedigree through the House of David and Solomon and ended it in Joseph a Male whom the Jews look'd upon as the Father of Jesus Mar. 6.3 c. to shew him the Son God promis'd to David as Luke shews him the Seed of the Woman God promis'd to Adam Remark the Fourth Tho' we meet with some stronge Stories both in Josephus and in the Maccabees Books concerning some of those first fourteen Generations after Zerubbabel of David's Line the Truth whereof is doubted by some Learned Men Yet so far as such Successors are expresly named by the Holy Evangelists it must be believed they were so because the whole word of God is infallibly true John 17.17 2 Tim. 3.16 and not one jor or tittle thereof in matter of Substance hath passed away or ever shall until all be fulfilled Matth. 5.18 Luke 16.17 And tho' those two Genealogies of Matthew and Luke seem hard to be Reconciled yet the Apostle hath caution'd us against giving too much heed to endless Genealogies which administer Questions rather than Godly edifying in the Faith 1 Tim. 1.4 and Tit. 3.9 And seeing many Men in Scripture had two Names as Esau was call'd Edom Gen. 25.30 and 36.1 8. Jethro call'd Raguel Gideon Jerubbaal Vzziah Azariah c. so Simon call'd Peter John 1.42 Joses Barsabas and Justus Acts 1.23 c. Some do suppose that those Men of this first Dynasty had two Names one of those Evangelists reciteth one and the other another of these Names and so might well accord in their Record of the same Person Remark the Fifth Tho' all those Pagan Kings of that time were inveterate Adversaries to the Jewish Church and kept the Jews in grievous Subjection more especially to suppress as much as might be the Posterity of David's Family and at least to hold them in a low Condition because it was a certain and received Truth among that People that Messiah the Prince Dan. 9.26 should shortly come out of that Family therefore those Persons named by the Evangelists might mostly be private Persons as Joseph and Mary were when Christ came into the World Wherefore Dr. Prideaux doth well make it one of his Inquiries Whether those fourteen Chieftains whom Dan. Paraeus calls Dukes or Captains all of the Line of David had any Authority of Magistrates among their Countrymen This is the more doubtful because they all lived in those Calamitous Times of the Jewish Church after the Captivity Remark the Sixth 'T is therefore not improbable but some of theâ—â— might be only private Persons and not be betrusted by their Oppressors with any publick Authority yet by the consent of their own People they might be Law-givers to them as Principal Men amongst them and this is the more probable because the Patriarch Jacob Prophesy'd that the Scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shilo come Gen. 49.10 N.B. However this Genealogy Recorded by two Evangelists and both by Divine Inspiration may well serve to shew forth the shining Truth of God's Promise compleatly Accomplish'd in the Incarnation of Christ and is likewise no less a Demonstration of God's special Providence over his Church to preserve her in the worst of Times therein declaring in what Line to wit the Line of David the Church was preserved the Evangelists Recorded it that we may believe it and ever live John 20.31 The Second Dynasty or Government over the Jews according to Paraeus Prideaux Alsted c. was that of the Asmoneites or Maccabees Men extraordinarily raised up by God to Defend the True Religion These were call'd Asmonei from the first of that Rank Mattathias Asmoneus and Maccabees from the four first Hebrew Letters in that Sentence Lord who is like unto thee c. which Initial Letters put together make up the word Maccabee c. Exod. 15.11 And Judas Maccabeus the Second of this sort of Governors carry'd these four Capital Letters M. C. B. J. in his Standard the whole words ruâ—ning thus Mi Chimka Beelohim Jehovah Who among the Gods is like unto thee Jehovah N. B. I shall in this Discourse still stick so close to the Scripture of Truth as the nature of the Subject will admit leaving the large Stories of those Maccabees to the various Ecclesiastical Writers upon them as the Apocrypha Josephus Paraeus Prideaux Clark c. Remark the First Mattathias Asmoneus the Father of those Maccabean Governors was but of the Order of the Priesthood and so of the Posterity of Levi and not of Jâ—dah which seems to sound some prejudice to God's Promise and to Jacob's Prophecy That the Scepter shall not depart from Judah c. Gen. 49.10 But it must be consider'd that 1. The Tribe of Levi and of Benjamin were now in the failure and falling away of the Ten Tribes Incorporated into this of Judah from whence the whole Country was called Judea and the whole People of whatever Tribe they were generally now were called Jews 2ly Notwithstanding the many Vicissitudes that attended the Jews after their Return from Babylon wherein they had various Governors some Constituted by the Kings of Persia as well as of Babylon during the Seventy Years Captivity and some chosen their Captain-Generals