Paul's Epistles which he liked so well that were he now to chuse his Religion Heyl. Geog. pag. 714. he would before any other embrace Christianity But every one ought said He to dye in his own religion And the leaving of the faith wherein he was born was the only thing that he disliked in that Apostle Vers 28. Blessed them every one according c. These hard blessings to some of them especially hindered not the covenant Still they were Patriarchs and heirs of the Promises Afflictions how sharp soever shew us not to be cast-awayes If a man should be baited and used as a dog or a bear yet so long as he hath humane shape and a reasonable soul he will not believe he is either dog or bear Let not crosses cause us to take up hard thoughts of God or heavy thoughts of our selves as if out of his favour but account it a mercy rather that we may scape so and be judged here of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world Jacob is here said to have blessed all his sons He rather seemed to curse some of them And for his welbeloved Benjamin Parum auspicata honorifera videtur haec prophetia saith Pareus But because they were not rejected from being among Gods people as Ishmael and Esau were for less faults perhaps though they were to undergo great and sore afflictions they are said to be blessed yea and they shall be blessed as Isaac said to his whining son Esau Vers 29. I am to be gathered c. That is I am now going to heaven whereof being so well assured what wonder though he were so willing to dye I know that my Redeemer liveth saith Job I know whom I have trusted saith Paul Ipse viderit ubi anima mca man sura fit qui proea sic sollicitus suit ut vitam pro ea posuerit Luther Occidere potest ladere non potest And what shall become of my soul when I dye let him see to it who laid down his life for it said Luther Death may kill me but cannot hurt me said Another This assurance of heaven is as Mr. Larymer calls it the sweet-meats of the feast of a good conscience There are other dainty dishes in this feast but this is the banquet Vers 33. He gathered up his feet He quietly composed himself as it were to sleep in Jesus He had stretcht out himself before saith Musculus as well as he could for reverence to the Word of God which he delivered c. And was gathered to his people To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 In Jerusalem records were kept of the names of all the citizens Psal 48.3 So is it in Heaven where Jacob is now a denizon CHAP. L. Vers 1. And Joseph fell upon his fathers face AS willing to have wept him alive again if possible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famulor curo .i. remedia morbo adhibco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adrian Imp. Tritum est nullum medicum esse peritum nisi 30 homines Orco demiscrit Farewell Physick was Chaucers Motto Olim exponebatur aeger obvio cuilibet sanandus yet more moderate then his father had been in the supposed death of him by an evil beast devouring him But of mourning for the dead see Notes on Chap. 23.2 Vers 2. And Ioseph commanded his servants the Physitians Physitians it seems were formerly of no great esteem perhaps it was because through ignorance they many times officiously killed their patients We know who it was that cryed out upon his death-bed Many Physitians have killed the Emperour And it is grown to a Proverb No Physitian can be his crafts-master till he have been the death of thirty men The Egyptians to prevent this mischief appointed for every ordinary disease a several Physitian enjoyning them to study the cure of that only And till then the fashion was to lay the sick man at his door where every passenger was bound to enquire the nature of his disease that if either himself or any within his knowledg had recovered of the like Plutarch Herodot lib. 1. he might tell by what means or stay to make tryal of that skill he had upon the Patient Physick is without question the ordinance of God Exod. 15.26 Exod. 31.19 He stiles himself Jehovah Rophe the Lord the Physitian And a Physitian is more worth then many others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. saith the Heathen Poet. Use them we must when there is need Mar. 2.17 1 Tim. 4.4 but not idolize them as 2 Chron. 16.12 And the Physitians embalmed Israel According to the custome of that country Herodot Euterpe Plin. lib. 11. cap. 27.2 Chron. 16.14 21.16 concerning which he that will see more may read in Heredotus and Pliny This custome continued also in after-ages as well among Jews as Gentiles But the Devil turned it in time into most vain superstition both among the Greeks whom Lucian frequently jeers for it and among the Latines witness that of Ennius Tarquinii corpus bona foemina lavit unxit Ioseph embalmed his fathers corpse partly to honour him with this solemnity and partly to preserve him for so long a journey but principally to testifie his faith of the Resurrection and that incorruption he hoped for at the last day Some think the Apostle hath relation to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voce mediâ— in that 1 Cor. 15.29 and they read it thus Why do they then wash over the dead Confer Act 9 37. Vers 3. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy dayes Longer then Ioseph mourned they did it through ignorance and as men without hope for both which see 1 Thess 4.13 Ioseph could look thorow hâ—s own loss and see his fathers gain beyond it Besides Hieron ad Julian he could say as Hierome in like case Tulisti Domine patrem quem ipse de leras Non contristor quòd recepisti ago gratias quò dedisti Cic. de â—inib lib. 2. And if Epicures could comfort themselves in their greatest dejections ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione How much more could Ioseph now not only by calling to mind this last seventeen years enjoyment of his dear father beyond all hope and expectation but chiefly that happy change his father had made from darkness to light from death to life from sorrow to solace from a factious world to a heavenly habitation where he drinks of that torrent of pleasure without let or loathing Vers 4. Speak I pray you in the cars of Pharaoh He spake not to the King himself but set others a work Not because he was fallen out of favour Parcus for he had the happiness to be favourite to five Kings Orus Amasis Chebron Amenophes and Mephiris in the eleventh year of whose reign he dyed but because he was now a mourner and such were not wont to come before Kings Esth 4.2
written most wickedly and basely against marriage Three things we have here out of Moses to say for it against whatsoever opposite viz. Gods 1. Dixit 2. Duxit 3. Benedixit Gen. 1.28 God the Father ordained it God the Son honoured it with his first miracle God the Holy Ghost did the like by overshadowing the betrothed Virgin Papists and others that disgrace it appear herein more like Devils then Divines if S. Paul may be judge 1 Tim. 4.2 or Ignatius who saith Habet inbabitatorem Draconem Apostaâ—aâ— Ignat. Epist ad Philad If any call marriage a defilement he hath the Devil dwelling in him and speaking by him Verse 23. This is now bone of my bone c. This sentence saith Tertullian and after him Beda is the first Prophesie that was ever uttered in the world And it is uttered in a way of admiration which they that are taken with do commonly use a concise kinde of speech especially if overjoyed as Adam here was upon the first sight of the woman whom he no sooner saw but knew and thereupon cryed out as wondring at Gods goodness to himself This now is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Luther the night before he dyed was reasonably well and sate with his friends at table The matter of their discourse was whether they should know one another in heaven or no Luther held it affirmatively and this was one reason he gave Melch. Adam Adam as soon as he saw Eve knew what she was not by discourse but by divine revelation so shall we in the life to come All the Saints shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob having communion with them not only as godly men but as Abraham Isaac Jacob. And if with them why not with others S. Chrysostome saith we shal point them out and say Lo yonder is Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 's Paul there are the Prophets Apostles c. She shall be called Woman Or Manness of Man as Ishah of Ish He gave her her name from his own by taking away one numerall letter that stands for ten and adding another that stands for five to note her infirmity and duty of submitting to her husband whose very naming of her notes her subjection Vers 24. Therefore shall a man leave c. Whether these are the words of God Adam or Moses it is uncertain and not much material The husband is bound more to love his wife then his parents in regard of domestical communion Paraus ad locum adhâ—â—sion and cohabitation not in regard of honor obedience and recompence And they two shall be one flesh Two in one flesh not three or four as the Patriarks of old through ignorance or inobservance of that plain prohibition Levit. 18.18 It is possible they might mistake the word sister for one so by blood which was spoken of a sister by nation as those clauses to vex her and during her life do evince Vers 25. They were both naked and not ashamed Neither needed they Sin and shame as Papists say hops and heresie came in together Cloaths are the ensignes of our sin and covers of our shame To be proud of them is as great folly as for a begar to be proud of his rags or a thief of his halter As the prisoner looking on his irons thinketh on his theft so we looking on our garments should think on our sins CHAP. III. Verse 1. Now the Serpent was more subtil c. ANd so a more fit instrument of that old Serpent the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodotion Cui Paulus â— Cor. 11.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oppoâ—it quam mundus vocat Sillmess sheepishness Revel 12.9 Authoramentuâ— majoris infidelitatis Terâ—ul Isai 55.3 Plin. l. 8. c. 25. that deceiveth all the world Good natural parts abused prove rather as press-money to impiety as he phraseth it and their wisdom Culpae suasoria as Ambrose speaketh Wit unsanctified is a fit tool for the devil to work withal Neither is there a likelier Anvil in all the shop of Hell whereon to forge mischief then one that is learned and leud ingeniosê nequam Wittily wicked And he said That is the Devil in the Serpent as the Angel in Balaams Ass Satan istius primae fabulae Poetafuit serpens histrio By the ear he brought death into the world And God to cross him brings life in by the same door For it is Hear and your souls shall live The Dragon bites the Elephants ear and thence sucks his blood Because he knows that to be the onely place which he cannot reach with his trunk to defend So here that great red Dragon delt with miserable mankinde setting first upon the woman as the weaker vessel where the hedg is lowest there the beast leaps over and so climbing by Adams rib to his heart as by a ladder as I said before out of Saint Gregory Yea hath God said In the Chaldee Is it true that God hath said Vide simile Ruth 2.21 in Hebraeo 1 Sam. 14.30 A concise expression implying That this was not the first of their discourse Something had been said before It is not safe parling with the Devil Satan etsi semel videatur verax millies est mendax semper fallax Halter him up therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and stop his mouth soon as our Saviour did Or do as the French say in their Proverb When the Spaniard comes to parley of peace then double bolt the door The Hollanders are said to make no conditions with the Spaniard but such as are made at Sea and sealed with great Ordnance Spec. bel sacr Greenbam c. He shoots with Satan in his own bowe that thinks by parling with him to put him off Hath God said Ye shall not eat Here he began his assault upon our first-parents here upon Christ Matth. 4.3 with 3.17 and here he doth still upon us Endeavoring to elevate the truth and certainty of Gods Word and to weaken our Faith in his precepts promises and menaces And here if he take us out of our trenches if he can but wring this sword of the Spirit out of our hands he may do what he will with us Get but the Heretickes said that subtil Sophiâ—ter out of the paper-walls of the Scriptures Bristow his Motives into the open field of Fathers and Councils and ye shall soon do well enough with them Vers 3. Neither shall ye touch it This is of the womans own addition and of a good intention doubtlesse For afterwards when she had drunk in more of the Serpents deadly poyson Hausis virus peritura periturâ—s paritura Bern. from gazing upon the fruit she fell to gaping after it from touching to tasting He that would not feed on sins meat must beware of the broth keep thee far from an evill matter saith Moses Exod. 23.7 A good man dare not come near the train though he be far off the
blow He dare not venture on the occasion lest his tinder should take fire Circa serpent is antrum poâ—ituâ— non eris diâ— illasus Isidor It is ill playing upon the hole of the Aspe or coming too near Hell-mouth For by so doing you may beseem to drop in Watch therefore and pray too that ye enter not into temptation saith our blessed Saviour and mark his reason The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak q. d. Though the Spirit purpose otherwise the flesh will faulter and be foyled Witness the woman here with her left ye die She held the precept in the utmost extent of it But that which she failed in was That she minced the matter and opposed not the commination to the temptation And see how the Devil works upon her weakness as he watcheth for our haltings and where to have us on the lip Vers 4. Ye shall not surely die He saith not Dying ye shall not dye or Surely ye shall not die This had been too plain a contradiction to that word of God that had threatned assured death But Ye shall not die in dying That is It is not certain ye shall die And this latter is more nice and ambiguous She seems to doubt of the certainty of what God had said He plainly and yet clearly impugnes it Whereas had Gods Word abidden in her she had overcome that wicked one 1 John 2.14 The word is compared to mustard seed which being mixt with vinegar is they say a soveraign medicine against Serpents Vers 5. For God doth know c. Picherellus in Cosmopaea Id quod cuns Deum non lateat sibi cavet It is remarkable that the devil here chargeth God with envy which is his own proper disease For ever since he himself fell from Heaven he cannot abide that any should come there but of pure spight hindereth them all that may be Here he envyed that God should be served by man and that man should be gifted and graced by God So that he paints out and points out himself in saying That God envyed man the gift of Wisdom There is nothing more usual with the wicked then to muse as they use and to suppose that evil to be in others that they â—inde to be in themselves Die in Calig Act. Mon. fol. 1441. Caligula that impure beast would not beleeve there was any chast person upon earth And I dare say said Bonner to Hawks the Martyr that Cranmer would recant if he might have his living So judging others by himself For Papists apply themselves said our Protomartyr Mr. Rogers to the present state yea if the state should change ten times in the yeer they would ever be ready at hand to change with it and so follow the cry and rather utterly forsake God and be of no Religion then that they would forgo lust or Living for God or Religion Then your eyes shall be opened There is an opening of the eyes of the minde to contemplation and joy There is also an opening of the eyes of the body to confusion and shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1 King 22.15 Cioesus Halyn pâ—â—â—â—â—s maâ—nam diâ—pâ—â—dâ—s â—pum vim Herod He promiseth them the former but intends the latter and so cheats them as he doth thousands now adays by the cogging of a Dye as Saint Paul hath it giving them an apple in exchange for paradise Thus of old he couzened Aâ—ab and Croesus with promises of victory which when it fell out otherwise he had a hole to creep out and save his credit by an equivocation Thus of latter time be gulled Pope Silvester the second assuring him that he shouâ—d never dye till he came to say Mass in Jerusalem He resolving never to come there made no reckoninâ— but to live a long time But it fâ—ll out somewhat otherwise For as he was saying Mass in a certain Church in Rome called Jerusalem fearing nothing â—uncâ—ius in Câ—ronol Intelligit â—e a diabolo amphibolâ— vocis circumventum auimadvertit sibi moriendum esse pensumque Sataâ—ae reddendum c. the Devill claymed his due and had it For he was there and then taken with a strong feaver and lying on his death bed he sent for all his Cardinais and declaring before them what a wretched bargain he had made with the devill selling his soul for the Popedome and deceivedâ—by him with promise of long â—â—lfe he bitterly bewayled his own folly and advised them to beware by his example And was not Leoline the second Prince of North-Wales as finely cheated For consulting with a Witch he was told that it was his destiny to ride through London with a crown on his head Hereupon he growing burdensome to the English borders was in a battle overthrown His head fixt upon a stake and adorned with a paper-crown was by a horseman triumphantly carried through London Heylins Geog. p. 493. and so the prophesie was fulfilled Anno Dom. 1282. And ye shall be as Gods The Serpents Grammar first taught saith Damianus Deum pluralitèr declinare eritis sicut Dii This the woman understood of the Trinity as appears vers 22. but the Devill might mean it of the Angels so our Chaldee Paraphrast translates it which had sinned and now had wofull experience of the good which they had lost and the evill wherein they lay Verse 6. And when the woman saw At this Cinque-port the devill entred How many thousand souls have dyed of the wound of the eye Ovid. and cryed out as Eve might here ut vidi ut perii If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the ear it cannot enter into our hearts Vitiis nobis in animum per oculos est via saith Quintilian Wherefore if thine eye offend thee pull it out In Barbary 't is death for any man to see one of the Xoriffes concubines and for them too if when they see a man though but through a casement they doe not suddenly screek out Quintil. declam She took of the fruit thereof Whatever it were whether an apple as Bernard Heyl. Geog. p. 196. Pâ—rrexit Pomum surripuit paradisum Bern. and others gather out of Cant. 2.3 or a fig as Theodorot or a pomegranate as Mahomet in his Alchoran or a peach malum persicum or Pomum Paradisi as the Syrians call a kinde of fruit common amongst them God created us of nothing and we offended him for a matter of nothing All the legions of the reprobate devills saith one entred into one beast and Yates his Medell by the Pitho and Suada of that viperous tongue crept into the bosome of â—â—ve as it were by all the Topick places in Logick figures in Rhetorick and other engines of guile and deceit till they had brought her into a fools paradise with the loss of the earthly and hazard of the heavenly And gave it also to her husband It is probable saith the same
wash't in Christ's blood should bedabble his robe in the stinking puddle of the world And the Bat Cast awaie either thy wings or thy teeth saith one to a neuter and loathing this Bat-like nature D. Hall epist to W. L. bee what thou art either a bird or a beast Ver. 20. All fowls that creep So all mongrels in religion that like the planet Mercurie can bee good in conjunction with good and bad with bad that have religionem Ephemeram Hilar. fidem menstruam Ver. 22. The Locust c. All creeping fowls that go upon all four might not bee eaten except Arbe Soleam Chargol and Chargab names to us unknown Ver. 24. Whosoever toucheth the carcass This and the like signified that all even the least sins are to bee purged through Christ and carefully cast away Ver. 28. Shall wash his clothes As having committed a greater sin then hee that to ucheth a carcass onely All sin defileth not alike Ver. 29. And the Tortois Which hath it's name in Hebrew of a Coach or Wagon The thick shell wherewith it is covered is said to bee so hard that a loaden Waggon may go over it and not break it And such is a hard heart that cannot repent or relent never so little Ver. 30. The Chamaeleon A verie fearfull creature and therefore easily turning himself into sundrie colours Carnal fear put 's men upon unwarrancable shifts See Zeph. 3.13 Ver. 31. Touch them when they bee dead There is no kinde of living creature that is defiled whiles it is alive or that defileth whiles it is alive save man onely saith Maimonie Ver. 36. Nevertheless a fountain Becaus it would cleans it self and work out the uncleanness So will Faith Ver. 37. It shall bee clean Becaus of necessitie Ver. 39. Of which yee may Confer Psalm 49.12 pecoribus morticinis Tremel Ver. 40. Shall wash his clothes To teach them to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh Jude 23. all provocations and instruments of sin Ver. 44. Yee shall bee holie for I am holie Great men look to bee served like themselvs so the great God Ver. 45. That bringeth you up This is often inculcated God's blessings are binders and everie new deliverance cal's for new obedience Ver. 47. To make a difference Ministers also in their discourses should put a difference and take out the pretious from the vile Jer. 15.19 as did Zuinglius who when hee inveighed most vehemently against sin would usually com in with this claus Probe vir haec nihil ad te This is not intended to thee thou godlie man CHAP. XII Ver. 2. If a woman have conceived seed OR yielded seed Amam Antibarbar 575. as Gen. 1.11 Vrgendum hoc adversùs Anabaptistas qui ut suos de humanae Christi naturae origine errores stabiliunt foeminas semen habere praefractè negant Then shee shall bee unclean This signified that corruption of man's nature wherein hee is conceived Augustin Psal 51.5 being condemned assoon as conceived Damnatus antequam natus and the remedie wee have in Christ Ver. 3. And in the eighth daie See the Note on Gen. 17.13 14. Ver. 4. Shee shall touch no hallowed thing Preparation must go before participation of holie ordinances Hag. 2.13 Ver. 5. But if shee bear a maid-childe To intimate it may bee the womans beeing first in the transgression 1 Tim. 2.14 Vers 6. And when the daies of her purifying The Virgin Marie also observed this Law Luke 2.21 not in conscience of anie particular sin which in the conception of our Saviour shee was free from nor in shew to satisfie the law much less upon hypocrisie but in conscience of her natural corruption which by this oblation according to the Law shee did confess holily and religiously before God and his Congregation as one well observeth Ver. 7. And make an attonement Whereby her faith was confirmed that by Christ her sin was remitted and the curs removed 1 Tim. 2.15 Ver. 8. And if shee bee not able As the blessed Virgin was not Luke 2.22 24. who now can despise anie one for want when the mother of our Lord was not rich enough to bring a Lamb for her purification Wee may bee as happie in russet as in tissue CHAP. XIII Ver. 1. And the Lord spake SEE the Note on Levit. 7.22 Ver. 2. Like the plague of leprosie Leprosie is both an effect and type of sin which is such a sickness of the soul as those are of the bodie which Physicians saie are Corruptio totius substantia universal diseases tending to the issues of death It drie's up and draw's out the verie vital blood and life of the soul Ver. 3. The plague in the skin of the flesh That is the white bright spot vers 2. Confer Exod. 4.6 Numb 12.10 Is turned white This might note such as have continued long and are aged in anie wickedness Bee deeper then the skin of his flesh Compare Numb 12.12 2 Kings 5.14 Such are they whose wickedness is not onely acted by their hands but seated in their hearts and sunk into their spirits like the spots of the leopard which no art can cure no water wash off becaus they are not in the skin but in the flesh and bones in the sinews and most inner parts Ingrained diseases are not easily stirred much less destroied Ver. 4. Shall shut him up For further trial of truth that daughter of time Wee may not precipitate a censure but bee slow to speak slow to wrath The leper must bee shut up from week to week till the thing were certain So till mens perversness bee made manifest 2 Tim. 3.9 wee must suspend our censures Manie are like candles whose tallow is mixt with brine no sooner lighted but they spit up and down the room Ver. 5. Spred not in the skin So if men mend by admonition and take up in time if they refuse not to bee reformed hate not to bee healed as Babylon Jer. 51.9 as Ephraïm Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Ephraïm then the iniquitie of Ephraïm was discovered or brake out as a leprosie in his fore-head See Ezekiel 24.13 Ver. 6. It is but a scab Such as may bee the spot of God's children Deut. 32.5 Sin make's wicked men the object of Gods hatred the Saints of his pitie as wee hate poison in a toad but wee pitie it in a man And hee shall wash his clothes The best cannot wash in innocencie hee must therefore wash in tears Isa 1.16 God also will set in and wash such with the blood of his son Ver. 7. But if the scab spread So if sin bee gaining and growing still upon the sinner even after admonition or is scattered and spread to the infecting of others it is a verie ill sign Ver. 9. Hee shall bee brought unto the Priest Who was to discern it by the law of leprosie Rom. 3.20 7.7 so must wee finde out our sins by the moral law Rom. 3. The works of the flesh
〈◊〉 a ciphering up of their names acts and accidents that we might know first who were Christs Progenitors secondly by whom the Church was continued thirdly how long the old World lasted viz. one thousand six hundred fifty and six yeers Whence some have grounded a conjecture that the yeer of Christ one thousand six hundred fifty and six will bring forth some strange alteration in the world Alsted Chron. p. 494. Others think the world will be then at an end and they ground upon this Chronâ—gramme MVnDI Conf Lagrat Io. In the likeness of God made he him This is much inculcated that it may be much observed and we much humbled that have parted with so fair a patrimony striving as much as may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 to recover it in Christ who being the express Image of his Fathers Person is both apt and able to renew that lost Image of God in us by his Merit and Spirit by his Value and Vertue Vers 2. Blunts Voyage p. 122. Male and female created he them The Jews at this day have base conceits of women as that they have not so divine a soul as men that they are of a lower creation made onely for the propagation and pleasure of man c. And therefore they suffer them not to enter the Synagogue but appoint them a gallery without Matth 22. Thus they err not knowing the Scriptures See the Notes on Chap. 2. v. 22. Vers 3. Adam lived one hundred and thirty yeers and begat This was a great tryal to his faith to wait so long for a better issue when the Cainites spred amain erected cities and perhaps meditated Monarchies After his own image Corruptus corruptum For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Job 14.4 John 3. saith Job That which is of the flesh is flesh saith our Saviour and we can say no better of it This is hard to perswade men to for each one is apt to think his own peny good silver And a dead woman will have four to carry her forth as the Proverb hath it The Pharisee bad enough though he be yet is very brag of his good estate to God-ward And Novatus cryes out Non habeo Domine quod mihi ignoscas How much better Saint Augustine Ego admisi Domine unde tu damnare potes me sed non amisisti unde tuâ—salvâ—re potes me One hath destroyed me but of thee is my help my safety here and salvation hereafter Lord I am Hell but thou art Heaven as that Martyr once said c. B. Hooper Psal 42. One depth calleth upon another the depth of my misery the depth of thy mercy Heaven denyes me earth grones under me Hell gapes for me Help Lord or thy servant perisheth Psal 51 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and purge me from my sin whether that imputed to me inherent in me or issuing from me V. 4. He begat sons and daughters Philo and Epiphanius give him twelve sons Beda thirty sons and as many daughters Vers 5. Nine hundred and thirty yeers Till the fifty sixt yeer of the Patriark Lamech In all which time he doubtless instructed his good nephews in all those great things which himself had learned from Gods mouth and proved in his own experience what that good and holy and acceptable Will of God was Moreover out of his mouth as out of a Fountain Rom. 12. â— flowed whatsoever profitable Doctrine Discipline Skill and Wisdom is in the world And he dyed This is not in vain so often iterated in this Chapter for there is in us by nature a secret conceit of immortality and we can hardly be beaten out of it That all must dye every man will yield but that he may live yet a day longer at least there is none but hopeth We can see death in other mens brows but not in our own bosomes It must make forcible entry and break in violently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 24.51 2 Cor. â— 4 God must cut men in twain and tear their souls from their bodies ere they will yield to die The best are too backward and would not be unclothed but clothed upon if they might have their will Moses himself prayes Psal 9â— 12 Lord teach us so to number our days that we may apply or as the Hebrew hath it that we may cause our hearts to come to wisdom Cause them to come whâ—ther they will or no for naturally they hang off and would not come to any such bargain How needful is it therefore to be told us that Adam died that Seth Enos and Câ—inan died c. That this may be as a hand-writing on the Wall to tell us That we must also dye and come to judgment Vers 9. Enos begat Cainan Enosh that is Sorry man begat Cainan i. e. A man of sorrows Thus the Fathers though long-lived were not unmindful of their mortality and misery Vers 20. Nine hundred sixty and two yeers Rabbi Levi citante Genebrardo Genebr Chron. long aevitatem patriarcharum opus providentiae non naturae appellat Their children also that they waited so long for were not more the issue of their bodies then of their faith Vers 23. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five yeers So many yeers onely lived Henoch as there be days in the yeer But what he wanted in the shortning of his time was made up in his son Methuselah the longest liver Besides that God took him to a better place transplanted him as it were out of the Kitchin-garden into his heavenly Paradise Cant 6.2 To gather Lillies i. e. To transplant his people into Heaven which was not more to his own benefit then to the comfort of the other Patriarks that survived him against the fear of death and the crosses of life Sith in Henoch what discouragement soever they had in Abels death they had an ocular demonstration that there is a reward for the righteous and that it is not altogether in vain to walk with God Vers 24. And Enoch walked with God And so condemned the World First Heb. 11. by his life secondly at his death By his life in that he kept a constant counter-motion to the corrupt courses of the times not onely not swimming down the stream with the wicked but denouncing Gods severe judgment against them even to the extream curse of Anathema Maranatha Jude 14. as Saint Jude tells us Secondly By his death he condemned them In that so strange a Testimony of Gods grace and glory in his wonderful translation did not affect and move them to amend their evil manners The Heathens had heard somewhat afar off concerning this Candidate of Immortality Alsted Chron. p. 85. as the Ancients call him and thence grounded their Apotheôses Eupolemon saith That their Atlas was Henoch as their Janus was Nâ—ah Gentes sunt Antâ—â—brislus â—um suis asseclis Paâ—aeus Jac. Revâ—i
whither they went Instar caeci oculos claufit vo cantemque Deum secuâ—us est Bucholcer But having God by the hand they knew they could not go amiss This was a blessed blinde obedience not to dispute but to dispatch to wink and put themselves into Gods hand to be led about at his pleasure to follow him without sciseitation CHAP. XII Verse 1. Now the Lord had said to Abraham BUt was not this to command him to do that which was against nature No but onely against corrupt nature which must be denyed and mortified or there is no Heaven to be had Father and friends must be hated that is not loved as Esau have I hated where they hang in our light or stand in our way to keep us from Christ Matth. 10.37 Get thee out of thy Countrey This is a hard saying to flesh and blood for Nescio qua natale solum c. But hard or not hard it must be done because God bids it and difficulty in such a case doth but whet on heroick spirits making them the more eager and resolute It pleased David well to be set to fetch a hundred foreskins of the Philistims Gods Kingdom must be taken by violence It is but a delicacy to dream of coming thither in a Feather-bed Too many with Joseph dream of their preferment but not of their imprisonment He that will be Christs Disciple here and coheire hereafter must deny himself that 's an indispensable duty Abraham was old-excellent at it And from thy kinred and fathers house Who set out fair with Abraham as did likewise Orphah with Ruth But setled in Haran which was also in Chaldea not far from Vr and would go no further after the old mans death There they had feathered their nests gathered substance and got souls that is servants vers 4. and therefore there they would set up their staff and afterwards turned again to Idolatry Gen. 31.30 53. Joshua 24.2 Many follow God as Sampson did his parents till be light upon a honycomb or as a dog doth his master till he meet with carrion and then turn him up Demas forsook God and embracing this present world became afterwards a Priest in an Idol-Temple as Dorotheus tells us Vnto a land that I will shew thee Yet told him not whither Dorotheus till he was upon the way but called him to his foot that is to follow him and his direction Isai 41.2 Magnus est animus qui se Deo tradidit saith Seneca Eundum quocunque Deus vocarit saith Another Etiamsi in ea loca migrandum esset Pigris ubi nulla lampas Arbor aestivâ recreatur aurâ Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque Jupiter urget Vers 2. And I will make of thee a great Nation Pareus in Rom. 11.25 See my true Treasure â— 297 Why then should the scornful Jews call us Nations or Gentiles in contempt yea Heathen-bastards Heathen-dogs as they do at this day Surely either themselves are of this great Goi or Nation here mentioned or else they have not Abraham to their father chuse them which I will bless thee As a father his children with all spiritual comforts and earthly contentments Eph. 1.3 Judg. 1. with the blessings of the right hand and of the left with the upper and nether springs as Caleb blessed his daughter Achsah He will give grace and glory and if that be not enough no good thing will he withhold c. Psal 84.11 Hence Moses cryes out Happy art thou O Israel Who is like unto thee c. Deut. 33.29 And make thy name great A great name then is a great blessing So David took it 2 Sam. 7.9 And it was no small comfort to him that whatever he did pleased the people Blessing and praise or good name is expressed by one and the same word in both Testaments Prov. 27.21 Onely as it is in the same Text it then proves a blessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is to a man as the fining pot for silver and furnace for gold when it melts us and makes us better when it works in us a care to walk worthy of the praise is given us to purge our selves from all filth that we may be as pure vessels meet for the Masters use fit to be set upon the celestial shelf as that Martyr phrased it Act. Mon. Since thou hast been precious in my sight thou hast been honorable Isai 43.4 Vertue is insteed of a thousand Escucheons And thou shalt be a blessing That is in a high degree blessed Vir bonus est commune bonum or a common blessing to all whereever thou comest who shall fare the better for thee Or a publike pattern of blessing so some Hebrews expound it Those that wish well to themselves or others shall pray God that Abrahams blessedness may befal them The contrary hereunto is now befaln his unhappy posterity for their obstinacy A curse they are become among the Gentiles In execrationibus dicunt Judaeus sim si fallo Sanct. as was foretold them Zach. 8.13 Sanctius upon that text tells us That all over Turkey they have taken it up for a curse I would I might die a Jew then And let me be a Jew if I deceive thee Vers 3. And I will bless them that bless thee Some there are that will curse those whom God blesseth but nothing so many as they that will rise up and call them blessed These are expressed here in the plural number those in the singular onely For who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good 1 Pet. 3.13 But say there be some Balaams that would curse Gods Israel or some Esaus that could wish them unblest again yet God will turn Balaams curse into a blessing Nehâ— 13.2 which is reckoned as a great favor and he will tell Esau if not in his ear yet in his conscience that Jacob is blest and he shall be blest If Isaac Gen. 27.33 drawn aside by natural affection would go about to reverse the blessing God will cause him to tremble very exceedingly and so over-aw him that he shall not be able to do it But see here as in a mirror the wonderful love of God to his children So dear they are unto him that he cannot but love all that love them and bless those that bless them They have a powerful speech in Spain He that wipes the childes nose kisseth the mothers cheek Surely as natural parents take the kindnesses and unkindnesses shewed to their children as done to themselves so doth God And in thee shall all families c. That is In thy seed as it is interpreted Acts 3.25 Gal. 3.9 16. Gen. 22.18 To wit In Christ that shall take flesh of thee as both Peter and Paul expound it Hence Christ is called the gift John 4.10 and the benefit 1 Tim. 6.2 by an excellency and the desire of all Nations Haggai 2.7 sent a purpose to
which he became his own deaths-man Appian scoffed at Circumcision Josephâ—â— and had an Ulcer at the same time and in the same place Surely God is the avenger of all such he calls it blasphemy in the second Table and shews his wrath from Heaven against it as that which proceeds from the very superfluity of malice as here in Ismael and tends to murther The Hebrew word here used signifies that he not onely mocked Isaac but also made others to mock him Vers 10. Cast out this bond-woman Who had been likely either an Author or Abbettor of her sons sin in ambitiously seeking the inheritance Out they must therefore together as all Hypocrites one day must be cast out of Gods Kingdom Heaven is an undefiled inheritance no dirty dog ever trampled on that Golden pavement There is no passing è coeno in coelum Heaven would be no Heaven to the unregenerate Beetles love dunghils better then oyntments and Swine love mud better then a garden Paris ut vivat Horat epist 2. regnetque beatus Cogi posse negat Vers 11. And the thing was very grievous c. See there 's grief sometimes betwixt the best couples as abovesaid Chap. 16.5 But why was it so grievous to cast out Ismael when in the next Chapter it seems no such grief to him to slay Isaac Surely for that here he hears onely his wives voyce there he well understood it to be the will of God Baldassar in epist ad Oecolamp Veniat veniat verbum Domini submittemâ—â— illi sexcenta si nobis essent colla said that Reverend Dutchman When Abraham came to know is was Gods will as well as Sarahs he soon yielded Vers 12. In all that Sarah hath said unto thee c. The wife then is to be harkned to when she speaks reason Sampsons mother had more faith then her husband And Priscilla is sometimes set before Aquila Pauls hearers at Philippi were onely women at first Acts 16.13 And Saint Peter tells Christian wives that they may win their husbands to Christ 1 Pet. 3.1 by their chaste conversation coupled with fear The Scripture is said to say what Sarah here saith Gal. 4.30 Vers 13. Because he is thy seed So bountiful a master is God so liberal a Lord that he blesseth his servants in their seed too We count it a great favor if an earthly lord give an old servant a countrey cottage with some small annuity for life but Gods love extends beyond life as Davids love to Jonathan preserves Mephibâ—sheth from the Gallows yea promoteth him to a princely allowance Act Mâ—â— â—ol 1481. and respect at court Your children shall finde and feel it double and treble said that Martyr whatsoever you do or suffer for the Lords sake V. 14. And Abraham rose up early He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision but set upon the execution of Gods will with expedition Voluntas Dei necessitas rei A godly man sayes Amen to Gods Amen go it never so much against the hair with him He puts his Fiat his Placet to Gods and saith as Acts 21.14 The will of the Lord be done which was Vox verè Christianorum as One saith Vers 15. And the water was spent in the bottle All creature-comforts will fade and fail us as the brook Cherith dryed up whiles the Prophet was drinking of it as those pools about Jerusalem that might be dryed up with the tramplings of horse and horsemen 2 King 19.24 But they that drink of Christs water shall never thirst For it shall be in them as the widows oyl or Aarons oyntment a well springing up to eternal life Joh. 4.14 She cast the childe c. Whom till then she had led in her hand faint and ready to dye for thirst who erst lived at the full in his fathers house but could not be contented God loves to let us see the worth of his favors by the want of them Carendo pâ—tiùs quà m fruendâ— To chasten mens insolency with indigency as he did the prodigal in the Gospel Vers 16. Let me not see the death of the childe This Babington saith an Interpreter was but poor love Give me a friend that will not leave in the instant of death Gen. 46.4 She lift up her voyce and wept As Hinds by calving so we by weeping cast out our sorrows Job 39.3 Expletur lathrymis egeriturque dolor Vers 17. And God heard the voyce of the lad Weeping hath a voyce Psal 6.8 And as Musick upon the Waters sounds farther and more harmoniously then upon the Land so Prayers joyn'd with Tears These if they proceed from Faith are showres quenching the devils cannon-shot a second Baptism of the soul wherein it is rinsed anew nay perfectly cured As the tears of Vines cure the Leprosie as the lame were healed in the troubled waters Whether Hagars and Ismaels tears were for sin Lachrymas angustiae exprimit crux Lachrymas poenitentiae peccatum or for the present pressure onely I have not to say But God is so pitiful that he hears and helps our affliction as he had done Hagars once afore Gen. 16.11 And as our Saviour raised the young man of Nains though none sought to him meerly because he was the onely son of his mother a widow the stay of her life and staff of her old age See a sweet place 2 King 14.26 27. Vers 18. For I will make him a great nation A Nation by himself as he had promised to Abraham This had not come to pass had not she missed of her way to Egypt and wandred in this wilderness God by his providence ordereth our disorders to his own glory Gregor Divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur Humana sapienâ—ia dum reluctatur comprehenditur Vers 19. God opened her eyes c. The well was there before but she saw it not till her eye were opened So till God irradiate both the Organ and the Object we neither see nor suck those brests of consolation Isai 66.11 We turn the back and not the palm of the hand to the staffe of the promises Vers 20 And God was with the lad c. The fountain of Hagar saith a Divine lying between Bared and Kadesh-barnea was afterward called the well of the living God and seemeth myâ—â—ically to represent Baptism the laver of regeneration For the Church like Hagar with her son Ismael travelling through the wilderness of this world is pressed with a multitude of sins and miseries c. Wherefore they joyning together in Prayer crave to be refreshed with the water of life For Hagar signifieth a Pilgrim Itinerar script fol. 95. Ishmael a man whom the Lord heareth who travelling together with her Mother the Church in this World fighteth against the enemies thereof and shooteth the Arrows of Faith against all infernal and cruel beasts and lusts Thus he Vers 21. And his mother took him a wife Adeò est juris non gentium sed
acquainted with Gods counsell saith Luther wherein he rested Yet he was bound 1. For that the rite of sacrifices so required â—ee 2 King 10.12 2. Lest any involuntary motion by pangs of death should be procured Whence divers of the Martyrs as Ridley Rawlins c. desired to be bound fast to the stake lest the flesh should play its part Râ—â—â—ins when the Smith cast a chain about him at the stake I pray you good friend said he Knock in the chain fast for it may be Act. Mon. â—ol 1415. that the flesh would strive mightily But God of thy great mercy give me strength and patience to abide the extremity Nâ—ture at death will have a bout with the best whether he dye as Elisâ—a slowly or as Eliah suddenly Vers 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand c. What Painter in the world can possibly express the affection of Abraham when thus he bound his son and bent his sword Surely that Painter that set forth the sacrificing of Iphigenia Aspiâ—â— vulius ecce meos utiâ—amque â—culos in pectora po es Inserâ—re Sol Phetonti apud Ovid 1 Cor. 3. would here also have drawn Abraham as he did Agamemnon with his face veyled as not able to delineate his unconceivable grief But a man in Christ is more then a man and can do that that other men cannot reach unto It was a matter of blame to the carnall Corinthians that they walked as men And our Saviour looks for some singular thing to be done by those that pretend to him Matth. 6.47 Abraham had denyed himself in his beloved Isaac and therefore went an end with his work hard though it were Another that hath not done so shall finde a heavy business of it an unsupportable burden Sozomen tells of a certain Merchant whose two sons being taken captives Sozom l. c. 14. and adjudged to dye he offered himself to dye for them and withall promised to give the Souldiers all the gold he had They pitying the poor mans calamity admitted of his request for one of his sons which he would but let them both scape they could not because such a number must be put to death The miserable man therefore looking at and lamenting both his sons could not finde in his heart to make choice of either as overcome with an equall love to them both but stood doubting and deliberating till they were both slain At the siege of Buda in Hungary there was among the German Captains a Noble-man called Erkius Raschachius whose son a valiant young Gentleman being got out of the Army without his fathers knowledge bore himself so gallantly in fight against the enemy in the sight of his father and the Army that he was highly commended of all men and especially of his father that knew him not at all Yet before he could clear himself he was compassed in with the Enemy and valiantly fighting slain Raschachius exceedingly moved with the death of so brave a man ignorant how near he touched himself turning about to the other Captains said This noble Gentleman whatsoever he be is worthy of eternall commendation and to be most honourably buried by the whole Army As the rest of the Captains were with like compassion approving his speech the dead body of the unfortunate son rescued was presented to the most miserable father which caused all them that were there present Tuâ—kish hist to shed tears But such a sudden and inward grief surprized the aged father and struck so to his heart that after he had stood a while speechless with his eyes set in his head he suddenly fell down dead Anno Dom. 1541. Heb. 11. And took the knife to slay his son The Apostle saith He did offer him up a slain sacrifice God took it in as good part as if indeed he had done it because he would have done it Every man is so good before God are he truely desires to be Bernard In vitae libro scribuntur omnes qui quod possunt faciunt etsi quod debent non possunt saith one Father And another Augustin Basil Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est Ambulas siamas Non enim passibus and Deum sed affectibus currimus Tantùm velis Deus tibi praeoccurret saith a Third Vers 11. And said Abraham Abraham Twice for hastesake yet not at all till the very instant When the knife was up the Lord came God delights to bring his people to the Mount yea to the very brow of the hill till their feet slip and then delivers them He reserves his holy hand for a dead lift Onely be sure you look to your calling for it was otherwise with Jepthta Judg. 11. whom St. Augustin calls facinorosum improbum a lewd and naughty man in his questions upon the Old Testament What then would he have said to Thomas the Anabaptist Stumpf. l. 5. who beheaded his brother Leonard in the sight of his parents at Sangall in France Anno 1526. pretending the example of Abraham As did likewise those odious Idolaters of old that offered their children in sacrifice to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom which was so called because the poor child put into the arms of the red-hot image was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nohem that is roaring or because the Priests comforting the parents said Condimeâ—tum crit tibi Jalkut â—n Jerem. Jeheunâ—h Lach. It shall be profitable or pleasant to thee as Kimchi hath it So because Abraham planted a grove to serve God in Gen. 21.33 the Devil Gods Ape set the blind Heathens a work to plant a thicket near the altar of their god ' Priapus whereinto his worshippers stepped when the sacrifice was ended and there like bruit beasts promiscuously satisfied their lusts thereby as they conceived best pleasing their God which was the true cause as it seems that the true God commanded that no Groves should be planted near the place of his worship and if any were they should be cut down Vers 12. Lay not thine hand upon the Lad As he was about to do having armed his pious hand not onely with the knife but with faith that works by love as had likewise David when going against the Giant he slyes upon him Bucholcer perinde ac si fundae suae tunicis non lapillum sed Deum ipsum induisset aâ— implicuisset Now I know that thou fearest me With a fear of love Hos 3.5 Fulgentius And here that of Fulgentius is true and taketh place Deum siquis parùm metuit valdè contemnit hujus qui non memorat beneficentiam auget injuriam God knew Abrahams fear before but now he made experience of it Nunc expertus sum saith Junius Nune omnibus declarasti saith Chrysost Vers 13. Behold behind him a Ram Belike the Angell called behinde him which when he turned to listen to he spied the Ram caught in a thicket Heb. Sabâ—ech which signifies the perplexity winding or
mouth of the King Sorex suo perit indicio Hunc tibi pugionem mittit Senatus dixit ille detexit facinus fatuus non imple vit So here See the like 1 Sam. 19.2 Acts 9.24 23.16 And she sent and called Jacob Why did she not call both her sons together and make them friends by causing the younger to resigne up his blessing to the elder Because she preferred heaven before earth and eternity before any the worlds amity or felicity whatsoever The devil would fain compound with us when he cannot conquer us as Pharaoh would let some go not all or if all yet not far Religiosum oport et esse sed non religentem He cannot abide this strictne's c. But we must be resolute for God and heaven It 's better flee with Jacob yea die a thousand deaths then with the loss of Gods blessing to accord with Esau Vers 43. Flee thou to Laban Flee then we may when in danger of life so it be with the wings of a dove not with the pinnions of a dragon God must be trusted not tempted Means must be neither trusted nor neglected Vers 44. Tarry with him a few days Heb. unos dies Sed facti sunt viginti anni She reckoned upon a few days but it proved to be twenty whole yeers and she never saw Jacob again as the Hebrew Doctors gather Thus Man purposeth God disposeth Some think she sent Deborah her nurse to fetch him home who died in the return Gen. 35.8 Vers 45. And he forget c. Whiles wrongs are remembred they are not remitted He forgives not that forgets not When an inconsiderate fellow had stricken Cato in the Bath Sen. de ira lib. 1. and afterwards cried him mercy he replied I remember not that thou didst strike me Our Henry the sixth is said to have been of that happie memory that he never forgat any thing but injuries Esau was none such He was of that sort whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soon angry but not soon pleased His anger was like coles of juniper Psal 120.4 which burn extremely last long a whole twelve-moneth about as some write and though they seem extinct revive again Flamma redardescit quae modò nulla fuit Ovid. Vers 46. I am weary of my life c. A wise woman saith an Interpreter not willing to grieve her husband she conceals from him Esau's malicious hatred of Jacob and pretends another cause of sending him away to take him a fit wife Let women learn not to exasperate their husbands with quick words or froward deeds but study their quiet Livia wife to Augustus being asked how she could so absolutely rule her husband Dâ—o in Aug. answered By not prying into his actions and dissembling his affections c. XXVIII Vers 1. Isaac called Jacob and blessed him HE doth not rate him or rail at him Anger must have an end The Prodigals father met him and kist him when one would have thought he should rather have kickt him kill'd him Pro peccato magno Terent. paululum supplicii satis est patri Vers 2. Arise go to Padan-aram Jacob was no sooner blest but banisht so our Saviour was no sooner out of the water of Baptism and had heard This is my beloved Son c. but he was presently in the fire of temptation and heard If thou be the Son c. When Hezekiah had set all in good order 2 Chron. 31. then up came Sennacherib with an army Chap. 32.1 God will put his people to it and often after sweetest feelings Vers 3. And God Almighty bless thee Here Isaac stablisheth the blessing to Jacob lest haply he should think that the blessing so got would be of no force to him God passeth by the evil of our actions and blesseth the good Vers 4. And give thee the blessing of Abraham Here he is made heir of the blessing as are also all true Christians 1 Pet. 3.9 Caesar when he was sad said to himself Cogita te esse Caesarem so think thou art an heir of heaven and be sad if thou canst Vers 5. Isaac sent away Jacob with his staff onely Gen. 32.10 and to serve for a wife Hos 12.12 It was otherwise when a wife was provided for Isaac But Jacob went as privately as he could probably that his brother Esau might not know of his journey and wait him a shrewd turn by the way Hos 12.12 he sled into Syria Theodoret saith it was that the divine providence might be the better declared toward him no better attended or accommodated Vers 6. When Esau saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But he was ever too late and therefore that he did was to little purpose An over-late sight is good neither in piety nor policy They will finde it so that are semper victuri and never can finde time to begin Seneca till they are shut out of heaven for their trifling How many have we known taken away in their offers and essays before they had prepared their hearts to cleave to God! Vers 7. And was gone to Padan-aram Which was distant from Beer-sheba almost five hundred miles This was the father of the brood of travellers and his affliction is our instruction Rom. 14.4 1 Cor. 10.11 Vers 8. pleased not his father Whether himself or they pleased God or not was no part of his care God is not in all the wicked mans thoughts That he strives for is to be well esteemed of by others to have the good will and good word of his neighbours and friends such especially as he hopes for benefit by Thus Julian counterfeited zeal till he had got the Empire afterwards of Julian he became Idolian as Nazianzen saith he was commonly called because he set open again the Idols temples which had been shut up by Constantine and restored them to the Heathens Vers 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael Stulta haec fuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hypocrisis saith Pareus rightly Apes will be imitating men Spiders have their webs and Wasps their honey-combs Hypocrites will needs do something that they may seem to be some-body but for want of an inward principle they do nothing well they amend one errour with another as Esau here and as Herod prevents perjury by murther Thus while they shun the sands they rush upon the rocks Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim and while they keep off the shallows they fall into the whirl-pool Sed nemo it a perplexus tenetur inter du vitia quin exitus pateat absque tertio saith an Ancient Vers 10. And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba A long journey but nothing so long as Christ took from heaven to earth to serve for a wife his Church who yet is more coy then Rachel and can hardly be spoken withal though he stand clapping and calling Open to me my sister my spouse Stupenda dignatio saith One a wonderful condescending Vers 11. And
and being to swear to a Syrian swears here by the Fear of his father Isaac Where note that he riseth up no higher then his father whereas Laban the Idolater pretends Antiquity appeals to the Gods of Abraham of Nahor and of their father Terah who served strange gods Josh 24.2 Papists boast much of Antiquity as once the Gileonites did of old shooes and mouldy bread A Gentleman being importuned by a Popish Questionist to tell where our Religion was before Luther answered That our Religion was always in the Bible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. where your Religion never was Mine Antiquity is Jesus Christ saith Ignatius and we with him Vers 54. Called his brethren to eat bread And so overcame evil with good which is the noblest of all victories God cannot but love in us this imitation of his mercy and that love is never fruitless Vers 55. Laban rose up Laban leaves him Esau meets him and both with a kiss When a mans ways please the Lord c. CHAP. XXXII Vers 1. Angels of God met him SEnsibly and visibly as servants meet their masters as the guard their Prince Oh the dignity and safety of the Saints who are in five respects say some above the Angels 1. Our nature is more highly advanced in Christ 2. The righteousness whereby we come to glory is more excellent then theirs which though perfect in its kinde is but the righteousness of meer creatures such as God may finde fault with Job 4.18 such as may need mercy therefore the Cherubims are said to stand upon the Mercy-seat and to be made of the matter thereof 3. The sonship of the Saints is founded in a higher right then theirs viz. in the Sonship of the second Person in Trinity 4. They are members of Christ and so in neerer union then any creature 5. They are the Spouse the Bride Angels onely servants of the Bridegroom and ministring spirits sent out as here to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation They meet us still as they did Jacob they minister many blessings to us yet will not be seen to receive any thank of us they stand at our right hands Luke 1.11 as ready to relieve us as the devils to mischief us Zech. 3.1 If Satan for terrour shew himself like the great Leviathan or for fraud like a crooked and piercing serpent or for violence and fury like the dragon in the seas yet the Lord will smite him by his Angels as with his great and sore and strong sword Isai 27.1 Angels are in heaven as in their watch-tower whence they are called watch-men Dan. 4.10 to keep the world the Saints especially their chief charge in whose behalf they stand ever before the face of God waiting and wishing to be sent upon any designe or expedition Matth. 18.10 for the service and safety of the Saints They are like Master◠or Tutors to whom the great King of heaven commits his children these they bear in their bosoms as the nurse doth her babe or as the servants of the house do their young Master glad to do them any good office ready to secure them from that roaring Lion that rangeth up and down seeking to devour them The Philosopher told his friends when they came into his little and lowe cottage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gods are here with me The true Christian may say though he dwell never so meanly God and his holy Angels are ever with him c. Vers 2. This is Gods host So called for their number order obedience strength c. God hath a compleat hest of horse and foot Angels and heavenly bodies are his horse as it were horses and chariots of fire 2 Kings 6.17 yea both horse and foot for there are whole legions of them Matth. 26.53 Now a Legion is judged to be six thousand foot and seven hundred horse Daniel tells us there be millions of Angels Dan. 7.10 yea an innumerable company saith the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 12.22 The Greek Poet could say There were thirty thousands of them here upon earth keepers of mortal men and observers of their works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Some think they are meant in the Parable by the ninety and nine sheep as if they were ninety and nine times as many as mankind in number All these how many soever pitch camp round about the godly Psal 38.8 make a lane for them as they did here for Jacob at Mahanajim which signifies a double camp fight in battel-ray against their enemies Dan. 10.20 and convey them at death as they did Lazarus thorow their enemies country the air Luke 16. into Abrahams bosom So that all Gods children may call death as Jacob did this place Mahanaim because there th◠Angels meet them And as the palsie-man in the Gospel was let down with his bed thorow the tyling before Jesus Luke 5.18 so is every good soul taken up in a heavenly couch or coach rather thorow the roof of his house and carried into Christs presence by the blessed Angels Vers 3. And Jacob sent messengers Means he knew was to be used by him though well assured of safeguard God must be trusted not tempted means must be used but not trusted Jacob was as one that fled from a Lion Amos 5.19 and a Bear met him Laban as a Lion had some shamefac'dness saith a Rabbi Esau as a Bear had none Pirkei R. Eliez c. 37◠Jacob therefore prays and sends and submits and presents him and all to pacifie him He that meets with a Bear will not strive with him for the wall but be glad to scape by him Vers 4. to my lord Esau Thy servant Jacob c. This was not baseness of spirit much less a renouncing of his birth-right and blessing but a necessary submission for a time such as was that of David to Saul till the prophecie of his superiority should be fulfilled 1 Sam. 24.7 9. That was baseness in the Samaritanes that in writing to Antiochus Epiphanes that great king of Syria because he tormented the Jews to excuse themselves that they were no Jews they stiled him Josephus Antiochus the mighty God the Scripture stiles him a vile person Dan. 11.21 So was that also in Teridates king of the Parthians who with bended knee and hands held up worshipped Nero and thus bespake that monster of mankinde To thee I come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio in vita Neronis as to my god and thee I adore as I do the sun what thou decreest of me I will be and do for thou art to me both Fate and Fortune c. And what shall we think of those superstitious Silicians who when they were excommunicated by Pope Martin the fourth laid themselves prostrate at his feet and cried O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world grant us thy peace The Venetians also being excommunicated by Pope Clemens the fifth Jac. Rev. de vitis
the Gospel to England that he would have no nay at Gods hands He many times continued kneeling and knocking so long together Ibid. that he was not able to rise without help His knees were grown hard like camels knees as Eusebius reports of James the Lords brother 2 Cor. 12. Paul prayed thrice that is often till he had his desire Nay Paulus Aemylius the Roman General being to fight against Perses King of Macedony when as he had sacrificed to his god Hercules and it proved not to his minde Sabellicus he slew twenty several sacrifices one after another and would not give over till in the one and twentieth he had descried certain arguments of Victory Surely his superstition shames our indevotion his importunity our faint-heartedness and shortness of spirit Surely as painfulness of speaking shews a sick body so doth irksomness of praying a sick soul Vers 27. What is thy name As if the Angel should say Thou art such a fellow as I never met withal Titles of honour are not worthy of thee Kneel thou down Jacob rise up Israel Thou art a conqueror Bucholc if ever any were Factus teipso fortior Creatore tuo superior O quà m hic honos noâ— est omnium Vers 28. No more Jacob but Israel That is Not onely or not so much Jacob as Israel Both these names he had given him of striving and strugling All Gods Israel are wrestlers by calling Eph. 6 Nuâ—quam bella boâ—â—s â—unquam discrimina desunt 12. and as good souldiers of Jesus Christ must suffer hardship Nothing is to be seen in the Shulamite but as the appearance of two armies maintaining civil broils within her The spirit would always get the better of the flesh were it upon equal terms but when the flesh shall get the hill as it were of temptation and shall have the winde to drive the smoke upon the eyes of the combatant and so to blinde him upon such a disadvantage he is overcome For it is not flesh and blood onely that we wrestle against whether we take the Apostles meaning for the weakness of our nature or the corruption of it but against principalities against powers c. against many mighty malicious adversaâ—ies spiritual wickednesses in high places that are above us and hang over our necks Wherefore we have more then need to take unto us the whole armour of God and to strengthen our selves with every piece of it whether those of defence as the girdle of truth Eph. 6.14 the brest-plate of righteousness the shooes of peace and patience the shield of faith the helmet of hope or those of offence as the sword of the spirit and the darts of prayer At no place must we lie open for our enemy is a serpent If he can but bite the heel he will transfuse his venom to the heart and head Gods Spirit in us sets up a standard Isai 59.19 The Apostle sounds the alarm Arm arm Eph. 6. The holy Scripture is our Armory Cant. 4.4 like Solomons tower where hang a thousand shields and all the weapons of strong men God himself is the' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that both ordaineth and ordereth our temptations with his own hand as he dealt with Jacob. And the Lord Christ stands over us Acts 7. as he did once over Steven with a crown upon his head and another in his hand with this inscription Vincenti dabo To him that overcometh Revel 2. will I give c. Fight but with his arms and with his armour and we are sure to overcome before we fight for he hath made all our foes our footstool and hath caused us to triumph 2 Cor. 2.14 Let therefore the assaults of our already-vanquished enemies not weaken but waken us let their faint oppositions and spruntings before death encourage us or rather enrage us to do them to death we are sure to be more then conquerours D. Ussier de Britan. Ecclâ—sâ— primord p. 332. and to have Victoriam Halleluiaticam as the Britains fighting for their Religion had once against the Saxons and Picts in this kingdom Vers 29. And he blessed him there That was a better thing to Jacob then to answer his curious request of knowing the Angels name So when the disciples asked our Saviour Acts 1.6 Wilt then at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel It is not for you to know the times saith he but ye shall receive the holy Ghost that 's better for you c. vers 8. God sometimes doth not onely grant a mans prayer but fulfil his counsel Psal 20.4 This if he do not because we sometimes ask we know not what yet some better thing we shall be sure of Zech. 10.6 I will strengthen the house of Judah and they shall be as if I had not cast them off and I will hear them Vers 30. I have seen God face to face Christ would not tell Jacob his name to lift up his minde above what he saw of him and to insinuate that his name was Wonderful his essence incomprehensible Judg. 13.17 18 And whereas Iacob said here he had seen God face to face he means onely praesens praesentem as Moses spake with God mouth to mouth Num. 12.8 He saw not Gods Majesty and Essence Isai 8.17 1 Tim. 6.16 for he is a God that hides himself and dwells in the light unapproachable But he saw him more apparently and manifestly then ever he had done before We can see but his back parts and live we need see no more that we may live God that fills all saith Nazianzen though he lighten the minde yet flies before the beams thereof still leaving it as it is able in sight to follow him draws it by degrees to higher things but ever interposeth between it and his incomparable Essence as many vails as were over the tabernacle Some created shape some glimpse of glory Jacob saw whereby God was pleased for present to testifie his more immediate presence but not himself Vers 31. He halted upon his thigh Yet had the blessing So Gods people are promised an hundred fold here with persecution that 's tied as a tag to the profession of Christianity No heaven can be had without tribulation Christ our Captain had a bloody victory of it Gal. 6. 1 Cor. 12. Joh. Manl. loc com 127. Paul bare in his body the marks or scars of the Lord Jesus and glories in these infirmities as he calls them These are Gods gems and precious ornaments said Munster to his friends pointing them to his sores and ulcers wherewith God decketh his children that he may draw them to himself This he said a little before his death At death saith Piscator God wrestles with his people laying hold on their consciences by the menaces of the Law They again resist this assault by laying hold upon God by the faith of the Gospel well assured that Christ hath freed them from the curse
us take our journey The Hebrews note that Esau speaks in few Iacob more fully because it is the guise of proud stately persons to speak briefly and hardly to bring forth half their words The poor speaketh supplications saith Solomon Prov. 18.23 but the rich answer roughly Vers 13. If men should over-drive A pattern of a good Pastor ever to have an eye to the weak ones and so to regard all in his flock as he over-drive not any Zech. 4.10 Rom. 14.1 Who hath despised the day of small things Weak ones are to be received but not to doubtful disputations Novices are not to be put upon the austerities of Religion Matth. 9.15 Christ preached as they were able to hear Mark 4.33 Peter was specially charged to look to the lambs Ioh. 21.15 Christ bears them in his bosom and gently leads those that are with young Isai 40.11 Vers 14. Vntil I come to my lord to Seir Which yet he never meant say some it was but an officious lye saith Tostatus Others think that he did go to Seir though it be not recorded It is like he purposed to go but was otherwise warned by God as the wisemen were Matth. 2. or necessarily hindered as Saint Paul was in many of his intended journeys Vers 15. Let me finde grace That is Condescend unto me and leave none Vers 16. On his way unto Seir Whither God had sent him aforehand to plant out of Jacobs way He was grown rich desired liberty and saw that his wives were offensive to the old couple therefore he removed his dwelling to mount Seir and left better room for Jacob who perhaps had intelligence thereof from his mother by Deborah and so was the rather willing to return Vers 17. built him an house and made boothes So did his posterity at their going out of Egypt Exod. 12.37 and for a perpetual memorial thereof Tuguria a tegeâ—do dicta were appointed to keep a yeerly feast of boothes or tabernacles Lev. 23.34 made of green boughs of trees in praise of God who had now vouchsafed them better houses And here one would wonder M. Th. Goodw. saith a Divine that all along during the raign of David and Solomon who gave a pattern of and built the Temple and all those succeeding reformers there should something be omitted about this feast of tabernacles till their return from Babylon Yet so it was Neb. 8.16 17. This feast was kept as 't is thought by Solomon 2 Chron. 7.8 and by these same Jews Ezra 3.4 yet not in this manner Neh. 8.14 Now they had learned by sad experience to keep it aright in dwelling in boothes by having been lately strangers out of their own land to signifie which and profess themselves strangers as this Syrian ready to perish Deut. 26.5 their father was now at Succoth was the intent of that feast and that rite of it dwelling in boothes This is intimated vers 17. They did read also out of the law c. vers 19. which till then they had not done Vers 18. Came to Shalem Or came safe and sound to Shechem as the Chaldee interprets it Vers 19. Sic pecunia a pecude For an hundred pieces of money Heb. lambs as we call Angels Jacobusses because stampt with the image of a lamb So Josh 24.32 Job 42.11 Vers 20. And he erected there aâ— altar 1. As a memorial of the promises and a symbol of Gods presence 2. As an external profession of his piety 3. That he might set up God in his family and season all his worldly affairs with a rellish of Religion CHAP. XXXIV Vers 1. Went out to see the daughters of the land VVHo went abroad at this time with timbrels to play say the Hebrews kept a solemn feast saith Iosephus Hence Dinah's desire to see them But what saith S. Bernard Si tu otiosè spectas otiosè non spectaris tu curiosè spectas sed curiosiùs spectarâ—s Dinah's wanton gadding and gazing on others gave occasion to the adulterer to look and lust after her See the fruit of her needless jetting abroad to see fashions and novelties The name of a virgin in the Original tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shadow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a virgin and the apple of the eye Mars viâ—et banc visamquâ— cupit potiturque cupita Ovid. Jer. 9.6 Bond. in Horat. is derived from the house hiding shadow lockt treasure apple of the eye to teach them to refrain ill company and idle gadding Young women are taught to be keepers at home Tit. 2.2 As when they come abroad among men they must be if not vailed as at Venice yet clothed and in their right mindes as that Demoniack Luk. 8.35 And this not onely in winter that they take no cold but in the summer that others take no heat from them which may rather burn them then warm them as Shechem here did Vers 2. saw her he took her and lay with her Vt vidit periit By those windows of the eyes and ears sin and death often enter thorow them the devil throws balls of wild-fire into the soul and sets all into a combustion Visus colloquium contactus osculum concubitus do too oft one succeed another See to the Cinque-ports if ye would keep out the enemy Shut up the five windows if ye would have the house the heart full of light saith the Arabian proverb Joseph's mistress cast her eyes upon him but when she laid hands on him she was the more inflamed and set agog as it were The viewing touching or familiar talking with a woman either without necessary occasion or then Time well spent by M. Ezek. Culverwel â— pag. 53. without prayer for holy affection is dangerous saith a grave Divine Thou maist not look intently upon what thou maist not love Democritus the Philosopher pulled out his eyes that he might not look upon forbidden beauties This was no part of his wisdom But it shall be ours by mortification to pluck the wanton eye out of old Adam and to set it sober into the new man to get that oculum irretortum that well-ordered eye that Job had Chap. 31.1 that Joseph had that Gregory Nazianzen had who could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tutor his eyes that Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany had who would shut the casements Saepé clausit â—enestram â—e inspiceret formosiores soeminas c. Parci hist profan p. 908. when at any time he saw fair women afar off or heard that such were to pass by his window It is not safe to pry into the beauty of a fair woman Circe may inchant us the Cockatrice slay us with her sight Let her not take thee with her eye-brows saith Solomon as
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to consume For this sin killeth the silly one Job 5.2 if it kill no other Envie and murder go coupled Rom. 1. Gal. 5. An hectick it is to it self however the same that rust is to iron blasting to corn or a moth to the cloth it breeds in It drinketh the most part of its own venom gnaws on its own heart is consumed in its own fire as Nadab and Abihâ— were and like the snake in the fable licks off its own tongue as envying teeth to the file in the forge Serram aâ—imae Socrates called it The Saw of the soul David compares it to fire in billets of Juniper which burns vehemently and continues they say more years then one Simul peccat plectitur expedita justitia saith Petrarch Other sins have some pleasure this hath none but torment It is a very hell-above-ground and paves a way to the unpardonable sin as in Saul and the Pharisees Vers 13. And he said unto him Here am I. Children obey your parents quorum divina est dignitas saith Chrysostom Our parents are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Another and Philo for this maketh the fifth Commandement a part of the first table for this is right Ephes 6.1 Blind Nature saw it to be so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Rhetor For it is not fit saith the Philosopher to cross the gods a mans own father and his Tutor or Teacher Vers 14. Well with thy brethren and well with the flocks His first care is for the welfare of his children Many a Laban is more sollicitous of his flock then of his family Macrob. It was better being Herods swine then his son said Augustus Hawks and Hounds are better tended and tutoured in some great houses then children Or if they be taught manners and handsome behaviour that 's all that 's cared for But piety must be principally planted where Gods blessing upon posterity is expected the promise whereof is therefore specially annexed to the second Commandment Vers 15. What seekest thou This was not the Angel Gabriel as the Hebrews will have it but some courteous passenger that thus offereth himself to wandring Joseph and sets him in his way again At Athens Dion Lambin in Corn. Nep. there were publike curses appointed against such as shewed not those their errour that were out of the way See the like Deut. 27.18 Brethren saith St. James Jam. 5.19 20. if any of you do erre from the truth and one convert him Let him know that he saves a soul from death yea he pulls him out of the fire of hell saith St. Jude for they that erre from Gods Commandments Jude 23. Ex igne geheâ—nali Pareus are cursed Psal 11.21 Vers 16. I seek my brethren He staid not at Shâ—ch em whither his father sent him but missing of them there he seeks further till he found them This is true obedience whether to God or man when we look not so much to the letter of the law as to the mind of the Law-maker Apices juris non sunt jus Vers 17. He found them in Dothan That is in defection So found our Saviour his lost sheep in utter defection both of doctrine and manners some four or fewer that looked for the consolation of Israel Vers 18. They conspired against him So did the husbandmen against Christ Luk. 20.14 This is tâ—e heir say they c. The word is by one rendred They craftily conspired The Greek hath it malignantly craft and cruelty go usually together in the Churches adversaries The Devil lends them his seven heads to plot and his ten horns to push poor Joseph that dreads no danger Vers 19. Behold this dreamer This Captain-dreamer or this Architect of dreams A lewd scoffe and withal a cruel calumny Envy so it may gall or kill cares not how true or false it be that it alledgeth it usually aggravates the matter beyond truth to do mischief as here Their hearts were so big-swollen with spite and spleen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they could not call him by his name but this dreamer So the Pharisees called our Saviour this fellow And the Jews sought him at the feast Joh. 7.11 and said Where is He they could not find in their hearts to say Where is Jesus as Saul asked not for David but for the son of Jesse by way of contempt Christ tells his Disciples that men shall in hatred of them cast out their names for evil Sic apud Latinos dicebautur capitis dimiâ—utiouem pati qui ex albo a censoribus expungebantâ—r for his sake Luk. 6.22 Their persons should be proscribed and their names expunged as unworthy to breathe on the common aâ—r That like as we give names to new-born-babes so when we cannot afford to mention a mans name it shews we wish him out of the world Nomine Christianorum deleto qui Remp. exercebant So those bloody tyrants of the primitive times sounded the triumph before-hand and engraved the victory they never got upon Pillars of Marble Vbicunque invenitur nomen Calvini deleatur saith the Index expurgatorius After Stephen Brune the Martyrs death his adversaries commanded it to be cryed Act. Mon. fol. 820. that none should make any more mention of him under pain of heresie So in Queen Maries dayes one Tooly hanged for fellony for defying the Pope was after his death suspended and excommunicated and strict charge given that no man should eat or drink with him or if any met him by the way he should not bid him good morrow Ibidem 1439. or call him by his name It was not for nothing surely that our Saviour in token of hearty reconciliation requires men to salute their enemies and to call them friendly by their names Matth. 5.47 Vers 20. And we will say So they consult to cover their murder with a lie One sin admitted makes way for another He that hath fallen down one round of Hells ladder knowes not where he shall stop till he break his neck at the bottome Vers 21. And he delivered him out of their bands Josephus relates his Arguments whereby he prevailed with them As 1. That God would surely see them 2. Their father would extreamly grieve at it 3. That Ioseph was but a child and their brother 4. That they would bring upon themselves the guilt of innocent blood c. It was happy they hearkned to him God would have it so And he will ever have one Reuben or another to deliver his It is not in vain for some one to stand for God and his people against many adversaries When the Pharisees had destined our Saviour to death Ioh. 7. Nicodemus though he had none in the Counsel to second him spoke in his behalf ver 51. and for that time frustrated their bloody intention See the like Ier. 26.24 Vers 22. Shed no blood Every drop of it hath a tongue to cry for
service pleasing to God so they bee made and used freely as exercises of Pietie and as helps thereunto The same may bee said of things devoted 16. Novals were the fruits of trees which for the three first years beeing accounted as uncircumcised were in the fourth year offered up to the Lord to teach us that all our food is uncircumcised unto us by reason of sin but is circumcised by Faith in Christ beeing received with Praying and Thanksgiving 17. The holie Perfume figured the grace of the Holy Ghost wherewith the services of the Saints are sanctified 17. The holie water of Attonement was a figure of that blessed fountain of Christâ—s blood ever running for the washing away of the filth of sin 19. The burning of the Sacrifices signified Christ burnt in the fire of his Father's wrath for our sins but the burning of the garbage and excrements shadowed out the crucifying of the old man Lastly those things that were not to bee burnt noted the victorie of Christ and of our faith 20. The two Trumpets of silver were used by the Priest for causses Ecclesiastical and Civil As to the former they blew to call an Assemblie and to rejoice spiritually and this they did without an alarm As to the later they sounded to go forward or to go forth to battle and this was don with an alarm By all which was signified the glorious instancie and efficacie of God's faithful Ministers in reproving of sin in preaching the glad tiding of salvation and in stirring men up to the spiritual warfare SECT VI. Of Holie Persons HOlie Persons are considered either in general or more particular That which is to bee taken notice of in the general is that God would not approve of anie work but what was don by a sacred person To teach us that good works pleas not God unless the man that doth them bee first justified More particularly Holie Persons were either those that served at the Altar or other holie Ones Those that served at the Altar were the High-priest the rest of the Priests and the Levites Those other holie Ones were the Nazarites and clean persons â—et us view them severally 1. The office of the Priest was to offer Sacrifice and to praie for the people hereby was signified the Merit and Intercession of Jesus Christ 2. The Consecration of the Priests and their freedom from all bodily blemish signified the holiness of Christ both habitual and actual 3. The holie Garments and their stately braverie signified the beautie and braverie of Christ and his Church Psalm 45. 4. The Annointing of the High-priest signified the annointing and appointing of Christ to his office of Mediator 5. The holie Abstinence of the Priests signified the actual holiness of Christ 6. The High-priest was a lively type of Jesus Christ as the Apostle excellently set's forth in his Epistle to the Hebrews The other Priests represented our dignitie in Christ and our dutie toward him 1 Pet. 2. Apoc. 1.5 6. The High-priest shadowed out both the Person and the Office of Christ His Person as hee was a man like unto other men and yet superior to them in Office and Ornaments which Ornaments did thus represent the three-fold Office of Christ The bells and pomegranates hanging at the hem of his garment signified the Prophetical Office of Christ The Plate of Gold whereupon was engraven HOLINES TO THE LORD signified his Priestlie Office The Bonnet Mytre upon the High-priest's head typified his Kinglie Office Other ornaments common to the High-priest with the rest of the Priests signified partly the gifts of Grace and partly the Christian Armor which the Apostle describeth Ephes 6. as consisting in the girdle of truth the brest-plate of righteousness c. 7. Those twelv pretious stones in the Breast-plate were a type of the old and new Church that consisting of twelv Tribes and this collected by twelv Apostles Those two pretious stones in the shoulder-piece figured likewise those two Churches as they have the two Testaments Those two pretious stones in the Breast-plate of Judgment the Vrim and Thummim were a type of Christ who is our onely Light and Perfection 8. There was but One High-priest there is but One Mediator betwixt God and man the Man Christ Jesus 9. The Priests onely did partake of the Sacrifices so Christians onely have communion with Christ 10. Aaron bore the Names of the Children of Israel before the Lord So doth Christ his Church and all the members thereof for whom hee continually appear's in heaven 11. The binding of woven work strengthened the robe that it might not rent This signified the righteousness and strength of Christ for the salvation of his people and subversion of his enemies 12. When Aaron entered into the holie Places his bells gave a sound Hereby was signified Christ's Intercession for us the Spirits making request in us and the dutie and propertie of all faithful Pastors 13. The High-priest might not marrie anie but a virgin from among his own people This figured that the Church was to bee presented unto Christ as a pure virgin 14. The High-priest was forbidden to lament or to rent his garments So Christ after his Resurrection obteined Glorie and Joie without anie mixture of grief or ignominie 15. The Priests and Levites that served at the Tabernacle figured the Ecclesiastical Hierarchie as it admit's of divers Orders and Degrees 16. The Nazarite's Vow was to separate himself unto the Lord by a special holiness Hereby was signified the puritie of Christ and withal his countrie of Nazareth by an allusion of name 17. Those that were Legally unclean either by meats or carcasses of men or leprosie were first separated and then cleansed In like sort all our sins of what size soever do separate us from God and som of them from his Church also beeing all expiated in and by Christ alone 17. The uncleanness of childe-bearing-women set forth the filth of natural corruption 19. The casting of Lepers out of the Camp was a figure of Excommunication 20. The hous and all the goods of Lepers were unclean and therefore either burned or destroied To teach us to abolish all instruments of Idolatrie 21. Lepers after they were cleansed shewed themselvs to the Priest who was to pronounce them clean This was a type of Church-Absolution 22. The Leper beeing cleansed was to offer two little Birds whereof the one was killed the other was let go free Hereby was figured the death of Christ and the power of his Godhead in his Resurrection and Asscension 23. Unclean meats were a part of the Jewish Pedagogie and signified that there is a mixture of clean and unclean persons in the Church It further figured that distinction of Jews from Gentiles which distinction is now taken away by Christ Acts 10. And hitherto Alstedius Now let us proceed and go on where wee left in explaining the Text. Ver. 18. They removed c. viz. From the hill-foot where they stood and trembled Deut. 4.11
When hee goeth in before the Lord sc to consult with God who answered the Priest by voice Num. 7.89 Ver. 31. The robe of the ephod Which signified the roial robe of Christ's righteousness reaching down to the feet large enough to cover all our imperfections Ver. 32. That it bee not rent To shew that there should bee no rents or schisms in the Church 1 Cor. 1.10 13.1 Tim. 1.3 Ver. 34. A golden bell and a pomegranate Shadowing out 1. The Prophetical office of Christ here and his perpetual intercession in heaven 2. The dutie of Ministers which is Vivere concionibus concionari moribus to live sermons to bee fruitful as well as painful teachers Not like him of whom it was said that when hee was out of the pulpit it was pitie hee should ever go into it and when hee was in the pulpit it was pitie hee should ever com out of it Ver. 35. And his sound shall bee heard Necesse erat ut Pontifex totus vocalis ingrederetur sanctuarium nè fortè non audito sonitu morte lueret silentium A dumb dog is a childe of death Isa 56.10 Ministers must bee both able and apt to teach upon all occasions Ver. 36. Holiness to the Lord Hence it was not lawful for the High-priest saie the Jews to put off his bonnet to whomsoever hee met were hee never so great a man lest the Name and Glorie of God whose person hee susteined should seem to submit to anie man Ver. 37. Vpon the mitre Which had an holie crown with it Chap. 29.6 signifying the Deïtie and Dignitie of Christ Ver. 38. The iniquitie of the holie things Get the people's pardon This Christ did indeed for all his 1 John 2.1 2. Ver. 39. Embroider the coat Rev. 1.13 Christ is clothed with such a robe as King and Counsellor of his Church Ver. 40. Coats Linnen garments for innocencie 2. Girdles for constancie and stabilitie 3. Bonnets for safetie from the rage of Satan and his instruments 4. Breeches for comlie reverence in God's service CHAP. XXVI Ver. 1. Take one young bullock ALL sorts of Sacrifices Sin-offerings Burnt-offerings Peace-offerings were to bee offered for the Priests becaus of the special holiness and honor of their calling Ver. 2. And unleavened bread See 1 Cor. 5.7 8. with the Notes there Ver. 4. Wash them with water A type of Christ's Baptism Matth. 3. Ver. 6. The holie crown See the Note on Chap. 28.37 Ver. 7. The annointing oil Typing out that abundance of the holie Spirit powred upon Christ Isa 61.1 and upon Christians 1 John 2.27 Psalm 133.2 Ver. 8. Coats c. See the Note on Chap. 28.40 Ver. 9. Consecrate Heb. Fill their hands se with sacrifices they were not to fill their own hands as Jeroboam's Priests did 1 King 13.31 See Heb. 5.5 Ver. 10. Shall put their hands As transferring the guilt of their sins upon Christ Isa 53.6 Ver. 11. By the door Pointing to Christ the door into heaven Heb. 10.20 Ver. 12. The blood of the bullock For without blood there was no remission of sin Beside the bottom of the Altar To signifie the plenteous Redemption wrought by Christ Ver. 13. All the fat that covereth God must have the verie best of the best sith Christ offered himself and the best parts hee had Ver. 14. Without the camp See the Note on Heb. 13.12 and on Heb. 7.27 28. Ver. 15. Thou shalt also take After the Sin-offering other offerings till sin bee expiated no service is accepted Ver. 16. Sprinkle it See 1 Pet. 1.2 Ver. 17. Wash the inwards of him This signified that intire holiness that through sanctification 1 Thes 5.23 Ver. 18. The whole ram Rom. 1.1 with the Note Ver. 19. Put their hands Both their hands between the horns of the ram Ver. 20. Vpon the tip of the right ear To set forth the holie obedience required of them in all their senses actions and motions Iohn 13.5 6 9. Ver. 21. Of the blood and of the annointing oil Signifying Christ's Merit and Spirit Ver. 22. A ram of the consecration A Thank-offering to God for advancing Aaron to the Priest-hood See the like in S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.12 Ver. 23. Vnleavened bread See 1 Cor. 5 7 8. with the Notes there Ver. 24. And shalt wave them As acknowledging God's Omnipresence and that manie should com from East West North and South to partake of the Merits Benefits of Christ our true sacrifice Ver. 25. It is an offering made by fire Christ in like sort having offered himself for a Burnt-offering for a sweet savor before the Lord asscended up into heaven and gave gifts unto men Ver. 26. It shall bee thy part Becaus hee did for this time extraordinarily execute the Priest's office Ver. 27. The breast of the Wave-offering and shoulder To teach the Priests to serv the Lord with all their hearts and with all their strength Ver. 28. A Heav-offering Signifying the heaving of Christ upon the Cross and the heaving up of our hearts to God for so great benefits Ver. 29. Shall bee his sons after him His garments remained for ever so doth the robe of Christ's righteousness Isa 61.10 Ver. 30. And that son There were garments but for one there is but one Mediator the Man Christ Jesus Ver. 31. And thou shalt take the ram i. e. The remnant of him Ver. 33. And they shall eat those things Applie Christ's death by faith to their own souls John 6.51 Ver. 34. Thou shalt burn the remainder The Thank-offering was not to bee kept till the morrow to teach us to bee prompt and present in praising God and applying Christ Ver. 35. Seven daies To teach the Priest's to consecrate their whole lives to God's service Ver. 36. Cleans the Altar Which as well as the creatures may bee defiled by man's sin Lev. 16.16 Ver. 37. Whatsoever toucheth the Altar See Matth. 23.19 with the Note there Ver. 38. Daie by daie continually When this dailie sacrifice was intermitted as in the daies of Antiochus that little Anti-Christ they counted it an abomination of desolation Ver. 39. Thou shalt offer in the morning These two lambs were types of the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world with a commemoration of whose benefits the daie was begun and ended Wherefore also from David's daies and forwards they sang the 22 Psalm at the Morning Sacrifice and the 136 Psalm at the Evening Ver. 45. And I will dwell See the Note on 2 Cor. 6.16 CHAP. XXX Ver. I. An Altar to burn incens in SHadowing Christ as perfuming and presenting the Praiers of Saints Rev. 8.3 and 5.8 and obteining answer thereto from the four horns of the golden Altar Rev. 9.13 Ver. 2. A cubit shall bee the length That in Ezekiel Chap. 41.22 is much larger as setting forth the service of God under the Gospel Ver. 3. Overlaie it with pure gold Shadowing Christ's Deïtie yielding glorie to his humanitie A crown of gold round about To shew that Devotion
fatness and sweetness of God's ordinances CHAP. IIII. Ver. 2. Shall sin through ignorance OR infirmitie beeing suddenly surprised preoccupated Gal. 6.1 See the Note there and on Heb 5.2 Ver. 3. A young bullock The same sacrifice that should bee offered for the sin of the whole people Vers 14. To note the hainousness of the Priest's sin above others The sins of Teachers are the Teachers of sins Ver. 4. Shall laie his hand Confessing his sin Lev. 5.5 and professing his faith in Christ the true sin-offering 2 Cor. 5.21 Ver. 5. Shall take of the bullocks blood See Heb. 5.2 3. and 7.26 27 28. with the Notes there Ver. 6. Seven times before the Lord Becaus in this case there was need of much and great purgation Ver. 7. Vpon the borns of the Altar To signifie saith one that the preaching of the Gospel concerning the blood of Christ should bee published and proclaimed to the four corners of the earth To shew saith another that by faith in the bloud of Christ our praiers are acceptable unto God and our infirmities pardoned and purged Ver. 8. All the fat Becaus among other things it signified hard-heartedness and insensibleness of sin and danger Psal 119.70 Dionysius the Heracleot felt not needles thrust into his fat bellie saith the historie Ver. 9. With the kidnies See Chap 3.4 Ver. 11. And the skin c. See the Note on Chap. 1.9 Ver. 12. Shall hee carrie forth Heb. 13.11 12. See the Notes Ver. 13. And of the whole congregation Particular congregations then may err for a season though not finally fundamentally if they bee the congregation of Saints Psal 89.5 and not of Hypocrites Job 15.34 the Church malignant And they have don somwhat Either by transgression or disobedience Hel. 2.2 on â—â—ion or commission Ver. 14. When the sin is known Sin may sleep a long time like a sleeping dâ—bt not called for of manie years but Nullum tempus occurrit Regi God may send out a summons for sleepers and punish our by-gon or secret sins Ver. 15. And the Elders These as the representative congregation took upon them the guilt of their common errors as those did 2 Chron. 29 23. Ver. 16. And the Priest that is annointed i. e. The High-priest a type of Christ who was annointed not with material oil as they but with the Spirit that oil of gladness both above and for his fellow-brethren Psal 45. Heb. 1. See 1 John 2.27 and 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Howbeit his oil shine's brightest and swim's a-loft above all others Ver. 17. Seven times A number of perfection to note the most absolute sufficiencie of Christ's death to purge and reconcile us to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that hee is able to save such to the uttermost that com unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Ver. 18. Vpon the borns See the Note on Vers 7. At the bottom of the Altar To set forth the plentie and sufficiencie of Grace and Merit in Christ's death for manie more then are actually saved by it Ver. 19. And hee shall take all his fat Christ offered himself and the best parts 〈◊〉 had suffering in soul and bodie Ver. 20. As hee did with the bullock For even ignorance and infirmities are deadlie sins direct fruits of the flesh John 3.6 and such as for which Christ laid down his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even for the not-knowings of the people Heb. 9.7 Ver 21. Without the camp Pointing to Christ who carried our sins out of God's light See Heb. 13.12 with the Note Ver. 22. When a ruler hath sinned Great men's sins do more hurt 1. By imitation for Vita principis censura est imò Cynosura according to these glasses most men dress themselvs 2. imputation for plectuntur Achivi the poor people paie for it as they did for David's whether ignorance or infirmitie in omitting that dutie enjoined Exod. 30.12 13 14 15. thence the plague 2 Sam. 24. Ver. 23. Com to his knowledg As David's did 2 Sam. 24. who saw such volumes of infirmities and so manie Errata's in all that hee did that hee once cried out Who knoweth the errors of his life Oh cleans mee from secret sins Psal 19.12 This hee knew was the import of all these Levitical cleansings Ver. 24. Laie his hand See the Note on Vers 4. Ver. 25. At the bottom See Vers 18. Ver. 26. All his fat See Vers 19. The fat was burnt saith one becaus among other things it signified duricordium hard-heartedness Psal 119.70 Ver. 27. And if a soul sin As there is none that liveth and sinneth not 2 King 8.46 Triste mortalitatis privilegium est licere aliquando peccare Ephor Augusta nimis res est nulli mortalium concessa nuspiam errare Amana Ver. 28. Com to his knowledg By the check of his own conscience awakened by the word or rod of God Ver. 29. And slaie the Sin-offering That is the Priest shall for no man might offer his own sacrifice upon pain of death as is afore noted Ver. 31. For a sweet savor See the Note on Chap. 1. vers 9. The death of Christ is ever in the fight of his heaven he father and hence it was that those typical sacrifices and all our performances are â—â—ill accepted CHAP. V. Ver. 1. Hee shall bear his iniquitie i. e. HEe shall suffer for his sinfull silence becaus hee could but would not help the truth in necessitiâ— but stand as it hee were gag'd by Satan possest with a dumb divel Ver. 2. And if it bee hidden from him Debt is debt whether a man know of it or not Ver. 3 Then hee shall bee guiltie Guiltie hee was before ver 2. but now hee shall see him â—o and bee readie to saie as Prov 5 14. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and the assemblie By the law is the knowledg of sin Rom 3.20 Ver. 4. And it bee hid fâ—om him As is usual with your common swearers who will swear that they swear not If men had such distemper of bodie as their excrements came from them when they knew not of it it would trouble them but they swear and let go much filth and it is hid from them To do evil As David did to slaie Nabal 1 Sam. 25.22 Or to do good As the same David did to do good to Mephibosheth and yet hee was not â—o good as his oath Ver. 5. Hee shall confess Homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit Man confesseth and God pardoneth In the courts of men it is the safest plea to saie Non feci quoth Quintilian I am not guiltie not so here but ego feci miserere I did it have mercie upon mee Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei Ver. 6. For his sin which hee hath sinned Bending his thoughts upon that particular sin it is charged upon Iâ—raël Ezek. 16.22 that they remembred not that they laie in their blood Ver. 7. Two turtle Doves See the Note on
cannot put words and how oft doth he chuse the weak to confound the wise _____ And she said unto Balaam The Angel some think did speak in the Asse as the Devil had done to Eve in the garden Vers 29. I would there were a sword Pity but a mad-man should have a sword how much fitter for him were that rod that Solomon speaks of Prov. 26.3 Vrs 32. Because thy way is perverse Thou art resolved to curse howsoever and not to lose so fair a preferment which he must needs buy at a dear rate that payes his honesty for it Better a great deal lye in the dust then rise by such ill principles I shall shut up with that excellent prayer of Zuinglius Deum Opt. Max. precor ut vias nostras dirigat ac sicubi simus Bileami in morem veritati pertinaciter oblucâ—atâ—ri aâ—gelum suum opponat Zuing. epist lib. tertio qui machae 〈◊〉 suoe minis 〈◊〉 asinum insciâ—amâ—t audaciam dico nostram sic ad maâ—criam assligat ut fraclum pedem hoc est impurum illicitumque carnis sensum auferamus ne ultra blasphememus nomen Domini Dei nostri CHAP. XXIII Vers 1. BVild me here seven altars Here in Baals high-places Chap. 22.41 A sinfull mixture such as was that of those Mongrels 2 King 17.28 29. and their naturall Nephews the Samaritans Ioh. 4. Ambodexters in their religion which being grosser at first was afterward refined by Manasseh a Iew-Priest such another as Balaam that in Alexanders time made a defection to them and brought many Iewes with him Of Constantinus Copronymus it is said how truly I know not that he was neither Iew Heathen nor Christian sed colluviem quandam impietatis but a hodg-podg of wickedness And of Redwald King of the East-Saxons the first that was baptized Camden reports that he had in the same Church one Altar for Christian Religion and another for sacrificing to devills And a loafe of the same leaven was that resolute Rufus that painted God on the one side of his shield and the devill on the other with this desperate inscription In â—trumque paratus Ready for either catch as catch may Vers 2. And Balak did Ready to conform to any religion so he might obtain his purposes So did Henry the fourth of France but it was his ruine whiles he sought the love of all parties aequè malo ac bono reconciliabilis as one saith of him he lost all Whiles he stood to the true religion he was Bonus Orbi as one wittily anagrammatized his name Borbonius but when he fell from it Orbus boni And surely he was not like to stand long to the truth who at his best had told Beza Pelagose non ita commissurus esset quin quando liberct pedem referre posset that he would launch no further into the sea then he might be sure to return safe to the haven some countenance he would shew to religion but yet so as he would be sure to save himself God abhors these luke-warme Neuter-passives that are inter coelum terramque penduli that halt between two that commit Idolatry between the porch and the altar with those five and twenty miscreants Ezek. 8.16 Vers 4. I have prepared seven Altars He boasts of his devotions and so thinks to demerit Gods favour So those hypocrites in Esay Chap. 58.3 Non sic deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret we have not so served the gods as that the enemy should have the better of us said the Emperour Antoninus the Philosopher Vers 5. And the Lord put a word in Balaams mouth The words thus put into his mouth do but pass from him they are not polluted by him because they are not his as the Trunk through which a man speaks is not more eloquent for the speech uttered through it Balaam did not eate Gods word as Ieremy did Chap. 15.16 nor believe what he had spoken as David and after him Saint Paul did Psal 116.10 2 Cor. 4.13 No more did Plato Seneca and other Heathens in their divine sentences Vers 7. And he took up his parable Or pithy and powerfull speech uttered in numerous and sententious tearms and taken among the Heathen for prophecyes or oracles poëmata pro vaticiniis c. Poets were taken for Prophets Tit. 1.2 and Poems for prophecyes Hence their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein opening a book of Homer Hesiod c. they took upon them by the first verse they lighted upon to divine Tragedians also for their pâ—rables or Master-sentences were highly esteemed of old insomuch as after the discomfit of the Athenians in Sicily they were releeved who could repeat somewhat of Euripides Out of Aram Aram Naharim or Mesopotamia so called because it is scituate betwixt those two rivers of paradise Tigris and Euphrates This was Abrahams country where whiles he was it it he served strange gods Iosh 24.2 Vers 8. How shall I curse He had a good minde to it but did not because he durst not God stood over him with a whip as it were the Angell with a sword in his hand could not be forgotten by him Virtus nolentium nulla est Vers 9. From the top of the rocks I see him And have no power to hurt him She heard me without daunting I departed not without terrour Camb. Elis when I opened the conspiracy against her life howbeit cloathed with the best art I could said Parry the traytour concerning Queen Elizabeth Achilles was said to be Styge armatus but Israel was deo armatus and therefore extra jaâ—tum Lo the people shall dwell alone That they might have no medling with the heathen God would not have them lye neer the sea-coasts for the Philistims lay between them and the sea leâ—t they should by commerce wax prouder as Tyrus did Ezek 27.28 and learn forrein fashions See Esther 3.8 Hence Iudaeâ— though part of the continent is called an Island Isai 20.6 Vers 10. Let me dye the death But he was so far from living the life of the righteous that he gave pestilent counsell against the lives of Gods Israel and though here in a fit of companction Chap. 31.8 he seem a friend yet he was afterward slain by the sword of Israel whose happiness he admireth and desires to share in Bern. Carnales non curant quaerere quem tamen desiderant invenire cupieuses consequi sed non et sequi Carnall men care not to seek that which they would gladly finde c. some faint desires and short-winded wishes may be sometimes found in them but the mischief is they would break Gods chain sunder happiness from holiness salvation from sanctisication the end from the meanes they would dance with the devill all day and then sup with Christ at night live all their lives-long in Dalilah's lap and then go to Abrahams bosome when they dye The Papists have a saying that a man would desire to live in Italy a place of great pleasure but to