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A56629
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A commentary upon the Fifth book of Moses, called Deuteronomy by ... Symon, Lord Bishop of Ely.
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing P771; ESTC R2107
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417,285
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704
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nor the likeness of any thing c. The Second Principle That God's Nature is invisible is contained in this Second Commandment Being the Ground of this Prohibition to make any Image of him Which the best of the Heathen forbad also for this very reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because it is impossible to conceive God otherwise but by the Mind alone as Plutarch reports the sence of Numa among the Romans And we find the same as plainly said by Antisthenes among the Greeks in Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not seen by the Eyes nor is like to any thing and therefore none can learn any thing of him by an Image Nor could the Vulgar I am apt to think have been kept so long and so generally as they were to the worship of them if it had not been by bold Fictions that some of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faln down from Heaven and that all of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Things and full of a Divine Communication as Jamblichus speaks And to make them more reverenced while some of them were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conspicuous to all the People others were kept secret in the inmost part of their Temple as having hidden in them a Symbolical Presence of God as Proclus speaks upon Timaeus Which Ezek Spanhemius justly thinks was done in imitation of what Moses saith concerning God's Presence upon the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies Observationes in Callimachum p. 586 c. See upon these three Verses my Annotations on XX Exod. 4 5 6. Verse 11 Ver. 11. Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain c. This contains the Third Principle before-mentioned that God takes Notice of all things even of our Thoughts and governs all our Affairs For it is the Foundation of an Oath that God knows our very Hearts and is Witness to our Meaning as well as our Words and will if we swear falsly punish us for it Which is an acknowledgment also both of the Justice and the Power of God See upon XX Exod. 7. Ver. 12. Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it They were to keep it in Memory that they might sanctifie it as it is XX Exod. 8. see there And it was sanctified Verse 12 or set apart for special Ends and Purposes that they might give to the blessed God the seventh part of the Week as Abarbinel speaks upon these Words and might learn the Divine Law together with the Kabalah or Traditional Exposition of the Words and mark well the Niceties of it For which he quotes a Saying out of the Gemara of the Hierusalem Talmud Sabbaths and Feasts were not given but to learn the Law upon them Which is the reason he saith of another Speech of theirs in their Midrasch or Allegorical Exposition upon Exodus That the Sabbath weigheth against all the Commandments Because it was a principal means to make them known and observed There is not much said indeed in express Words concerning this End of the Rest of the Sabbath But common Reason told the Jews it could not be intended meerly as a Day of Ease from Labour but for the solemn Service of God and Instruction in their Duty to him As the LORD thy God commanded thee At Marah say the Jews commonly where he gave them a Statute and an Ordinance See XV Exod. 25. But one of them saith better At Marah it was designed and at Sinai it was commanded But they do not look back far enough for the Original of this Commandment For there being two Things in this Day the Rest of it and the Religion the Rest of it was in Remembrance of their Deliverance out of Egypt and the Overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea which compleated their Deliverance immediately after which they kept their first Sabbatical Rest The Religion was in Remembrance of the Creation of the World and so this Day had been observed from the beginning by the Patriarchs tho' we find no mention made of their Resting And that may possibly be the meaning of these Words As the LORD thy God commanded thee That is immediately after he had finished the Creation of the World Verse 13 Ver. 13. Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work See upon XX Exod. 9. Verse 14 Ver. 14. But the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God in it thou shalt not do any Work c. The reason why they might not do any Work on this Day is given in the XX Exod. 11. which is wholly omitted here because Moses had another Reason to add for the Inforcement of this Precept And refers them in the foregoing Words v. 12. As the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to what he had said in the Book of Genesis and Exodus where he had set down the Reason which God himself gave with his own Mouth for the Religious Observation of this Day because in Six Days the LORD made Heaven and Earth c. So that this Commandment was designed to establish the Fourth Principle I mentioned that God is the Maker of all Things To preserve the Memory and Sence of which as the Author of the Answer Ad Orthodoxos observes LXIX this Rest was instituted to be observed with a more than ordinary Sanctity It being of such great moment that the first Sabbath-breaker was punished with Death because the voluntary Violation of it contained in it a Denial that the World was created by God That thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant may rest as well as thou Mercy towards Men as well as Piety towards God was a Reason for the observation of this Sabbatical Rest Ver. 15. And remember that thou wast a Servant in Verse 15 the Land of Egypt and that the LORD thy God brought thee from thence c. therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day This is a new Ground for the observation of the Sabbath because God had given them rest from their hard Labour in Egypt Which obliged them to keep that Seventh Day which God appointed at the giving of Manna being the Day on which he overthrew Pharaoh in the Red Sea as the Memory of the Creation of the World obliged them to keep one Day in seven So our Mr. Mede hath explained it See my Annotations on XIV Exod. 30. And Maimonides hath something to the same purpose in his More Nevochim P. II. Cap. XXXI See upon XX Exod. 11. Ver. 16. Honour thy Father and thy Mother as the Verse 16 LORD thy God hath commanded thee In the Twentieth of Exodus v. 12. See there To which I shall here add That the Laws of Solon made those Children infamous who did not afford Sustenance to their Parents and provide them an Habitation And by the ancient Law of Athens he that reproached his Parents was disinherited if he struck them his Hand was cut off if he left them unburied he lost their Estate and was banished his
that if they would not hearken and keep his Precepts the Heavens were forbidden to give them Rain and the Earth to bring forth Fruit. The Gloss also of the Hierusalem Targum is not amiss that Moses being shortly to die calls the Heavens and the Earth which endure through all Ages to be Witnesses against them when he was gone But the following observation is too curious That Isaiah when he prophecied i. e. being far remote from the Heavens and near to the Earth calls upon the Heavens to hear and the Earth to give ear or attend whereas Moses quite contrary approaching now very near to the Heavens calls upon them to attend or give ear and being in Spirit remote from the Earth bids it hear Ver. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew Or Let my doctrine drop c. For this seems to be a Prayer that his words which were sent from Heaven to them might sink into their hearts and soften them as the drops of Rain and the dew do the Earth and produce such Fruits of Obedience as might make them happy As the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass The aforesaid Targum thus paraphrases this whole Verse Let the Doctrine of my Law be as sweet upon the Children of Israel as the Rain and the word of my mouth be received by them as the delectable Dew Let it be as gentle showers refreshing the Grass and as the drops of the latter Rain descending and watering the blades of Corn in the Month of March Verse 3 Ver. 3. Because I will publish the Name of the LORD For my Song shall be concerning the LORD of Heaven and Earth whose glorious Perfections I will proclaim which make him the sole Object of your Worship Ascribe ye greatness unto our God Acknowledge therefore the Infinite Power of our God and his Soveraign Dominion over all and give Honour and Service to none besides him These three first Verses seem to be the Preface to the Song and now follows the Song it self Which Josephus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Poem in Hexameter Verse Lib. IV. Antiq. Cap. VIII Verse 4 Ver. 4. He is the Rock Always indures and never changes so that in him we may find at all times a sure Refuge His work is perfect Whatsoever he undertakes he perfects and compleats it For all his ways are judgment He doth nothing without the greatest reason and according to the Rules of the exactest Justice A God of truth Who is faithful to his Promises And without iniquity And never deceives or wrongs any Man Just and right is he Nor will he punish any Man without a cause or more than he deserves Maimonides takes the first words of this Verse He is the Rock to signifie the first Principle and the efficient Cause of all things without himself For so the word Rock is used when God bids the Children of Israel Look to the Rock out of which they were hewn LI Isa 1. that is to Abraham their Father from whom they were descended And so he thinks it signifies v. 18. of this Chapter Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful i. e. of God the Author of their being And again v. 30. their Rock i. e. the LORD sold them See More Nevochim P.I. Chap. XVI And then by the next words His way is perfect he thinks is meant that as he is the Creator of all things so there is no defect or superfluity in his Works For he takes these words to be the same with those I Gen. 31. God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good See there P. II. Cap. XXVIII and P. III. Cap. XXV And as his Works of Creation are most perfect so are his Works of Providence for he governs the World with the greatest Judgment and Justice So he seems to understand the next words P. III. Cap. XVII all his ways are judgment We are ignorant of the Methods and Reasons of his Judgments yet no injustice or iniquity is to be ascribed to him But all the Evil and all the Good that befals any Man or the whole Church proceeds from the just and equal Judgment of God And more largely Cap. XLIX Our narrow minds cannot apprehend either the Perfection of his Works or the Equity of his Judgments for we apprehend his admirable Works only by parts whether we look upon the Bodies of Animals or the Celestial Spheres and in like manner we apprehend but a little of his Judgments For that of which we are ignorant in both is far more than that which we know of either I conclude this with the words of the Author of Sepher Cosri Part III. Sect. XI He that believes this that all God's Works are perfect and his Ways Judgment will always lead a sweet and pleasant Life All Afflictions will be made light to him nay he will rejoyce that his Iniquities are hereby alleviated and that he shall one day be rewarded for his Patience which he teaches Men by his example and thereby justifies the Judgments of God With respect to which I suppose the Jews now begin the Prayer which they make at the burial of their dead with this Verse of Moses his Song Which Prayer they call Tzidduck haddin i. e. just judgment as Leo Modena observes in his History of the present Jews Part V. Chap. VIII Verse 5 Ver. 5. They have corrupted themselves c. I know not how to justifie this Translation nor that in the Margin He hath corrupted himself Maimonides translates them better making these words a Question and the next words an Answer to them in this manner Did he i. e. God the Rock before spoken of do him any hurt For the Hebrew word Shecheth with lamed after it signifies to hurt or destroy XXXII Numb 15. 1 Sam. XXIII 10. as Joh. Cocceius observes in his Vltima Mosis Sect. 701. And so the meaning is Is God to blame for the Evils that befal him i. e. Israel Unto which the Answer follows in the next words which we thus translate Their spot is not the spot of his Children In the Hebrew the first word of this Sentence is lo i. e. not or no. Which the accent Tipcha as they call it under it shows is not to be joyned with the words that follow banau Mumam but taken by it self being a denial of the foregoing Question And these words are thus to be translated No. His Children are their blot i. e. all the Evil that befals them is the fruit of their Childrens wickedness And so these words are in effect the same with those of Solomon XIX Prov. The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the LORD He complains of God when the fault is in himself See More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XII Onkelos translates it thus They corrupted to themselves not to him Children that served Idols i. e. as Paulus Fagius