The wicked heart never fears God but thundring or raining fire from Heaven but the good can dread him in his very sun-shine his loving Deliverances and Blessings affect them with awfulness Moses was the true Son of Iacob who when he saw nothing but visions of Love and Mercy could say How dreadful is this place Verse 7. If we would have our greif seen and helped we must endeavour to become Gods People For then sighing and groaning in our several afflictions as these did we may be sure in due time to find our comfort as they found We may hence also learn that affliction doth not shew that the party is disliked of God as the Devil often suggests to men and women in trouble for God calleth these Israelites his People which yet were plunged in the depth of misery and affliction Verse 11. This should teach every one of us humility and to say with Moses Who am I Lord that thou should'st thus and thus think of me chuse me and take me to that place that I have no strength to manage and which thousands of my Brethren are fitter for than I am This also may put us in mind of the weighty calling of Ministers For is it such a matter to strive with Pharaoh for Bodies and temporal servitude and is it nothing to fight with the Devil for Souls and freedome from eternal slavery Verse 14. See a sweet comfort in all our fears even his Name I AM. Noting that as he hath been to penitent sinners so ever he will be without any change If I call upon him and depend upon him I AM is his Name and I may not doubt of him he is no Changeling but the same for ever Verse 16. When any new thing is to be published that concerneth any change in Church or Common-wealth we must acquaint the Magistrates Rulers and Governours with it to approve our Commission and matter unto them with all Modesty Humility Fear and Care of Order and Unity and then with their consents and assistance unto the People and Multitude This is a right course and this shall have a Blessing from the Author of it as here it had Then shall they obey thy voice verse 18. Verse 18. See again and still most carefully note it how God regardeth Government For now Pharaoh must be used as was fit for his place he being the King of that Land in which they were wicked Pharaoh I say must not be disorderly dealt with by such as live under his Government although Strangers and not his natural Subjects how much then by natural Subjects But he must be gone unto with all duty and acquainted with their desire with all reverence that neither themselves may be judged factious neither others by their examples moved to any disorder And therefore they must acquaint him with the Author of their desires not their own heads lusting after liberty or novelty but the Lord God Verse 21. All hearts are in the hands of God even as the Rivers of Water and that he turneth them hither and thither at his pleasure He can make them love hate they never so much Yea he can make them so love that fruits from thence shall flow to his People of their love Be they Jewels of Silver or Rayment they shall grant it and send it give it or lend it with so willing a mind as the party taking needeth to wish CHAP. IV. Verse 3. THe heart of man is like the Rod of Moses as long as he held it in his hand it remained a Rod but when he threw it to the ground it turn'd instantly into a Serpent nay a Dragon the Prince of Serpents as Philo the Iew saith so the heart of man as long as there is fast hold of it as long as Man is the Possessor God the Guardian it continues still an heart but if our boistrous unruly sins once throw it to the earth it changeth instantly to be a Serpent From whence all carnal and earthly-minded men may learn whose Consciences at the reading hereof tell them that their hearts are turn'd into Serpents and Vipers by their sins and are now crawling on the earth in their lustful designes to stretch forth a hand of sorrow a hand of true repentance to take them up again in what shape soever they appear For he that was exalted on the Crosse as the Serpent in the Wildernesse shall turn those Serpents into Hearts again their Gall and Poison into Innocence their Sting of Death into Issues of Immortal Life Verse 4. Sin is a Serpent and hath a deadly sting in the tayl of it even the sting of Death For the sting of death is sin saith St. Paul Now as a man would fly from a Serpent so let him fly from sin But if thou hast taken this Serpent into thy hand rest not till like Moses Serpent it be turned into a Rod again to scourge thy Soul till a true sense of thy sins and of Gods Wrath due unto thee for the same bring thee to a serious repentance and contrition to a spiritual loathing and abhorrency of those sins that so thou maist never cast thine eye back upon them but with a new and a particular detestation thou maist never enter into meditation of those sinful passages of thy former life but with shame and horror of soul and that every solemn review of those dayes of darkness and unregeneration may make the wounds of our remorse to bleed afresh Verse 7. When Moses pluck'd his hand out of his bosome it was leprous and again when he pluck'd it out it was white to shew that the actions of our hands receive their denomination from the bosome the heart according to that saying of the Father Tantum habent virtutis aut vitii actiones quantum habent voluntatis Verse 12. He that is singled out to any service of his God for the advantage of his Israel must not give back or waver but go boldly on If a willing obedience second his Command God promiseth to assist I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say was Gods Promise here to Moses and it was his Sons to the Apostles Mat. 10. 19. Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak As if he had said be not anxious about matter or manner of your Apology for your selves ye shall be supplied from on High both with Invention and Elocution you shall have your help from Heaven For it is not you that speak saith our Saviour in the next verse but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you who borroweth your mouth for the present to speak by It is he that forms your speeches for you dictates them to you filleth you with matter and furnisheth you with words Fear not therefore your rudeness to reply there is no mouth into which God cannot put words And how oft doth he chuse the Weak and Unlearned to confound
a Rule to guide my Conscience by either in Civil or Ecclesiastical matters Verse 4. Gods Actions are general and particular general to all men particular to his Friends So must ours be As therefore by his general Action he suffereth the Sun to shine upon the bad as well as good so must we extend our Love which is the common Bond of Mankind as well to our Enemies as to our Friends by which common Love all hurting of the Bodies or Goods of our Enemies is forbid Again as God hath his special Action to his Friends and his Church namely sanctification so must Friendship which is our special Action reach its self to such only as are of the Houshold of Faith For although we must love with that general Love all Mankind Turks Pagans yet to such may we not be Friends and Familiars but must beware of inward and usual conversation with them that hate God and all his Graces This distinction tels you the meaning of Mat. 5. 44. Love your enemies Verse 5. Estne Deo cura de bobus is the Apostles Question Hath God care of Oxen other mens Oxen how much more of his own Sheep And therefore if thou see one of his Sheep one of thy fellow Christians strayed into sins of infirmity joyn him with thine own Soul in thy Prayers to God Relieve him if what he needs be spiritual with thy Prayers for him and relieve him if his wants be of another kind according to his Prayers to thee Why should not he that is made of the same bloud and redeem'd with the same bloud as thou art why should not he prevail with thee so far as to the obtaining of an Almes when some fellow-servant of thine hath had that interest in God as by his intercession and Prayers to advance thy Salvation wilt not thou save the life of another man that prayes to thee when perchance thy Soul hath been saved by another man that prayed for thee Verse 6. In the third verse God commanded That the poor man should not be spared for pitty Here now he enjoyneth That a poor man should not be wrong'd in respect of his poverty such equal steps would God have Judgement to walk in Verse 11. Blessed is the man that provideth for the poor the Lord shall deliver him in all his trouble Psalm 41. 1. This is proved in the Widdow of Zarepta who fed the Prophet and never suffered in the midst of that Famine 1 Kings 17. When I was hungry you fed me saith Christ Mat. 25. 35. Me I say in the poor with you to whom what you did you did it to me and so I take it and will blesse you for it both here and hereafter Verse 19. You must not seeth the kid c. to shew that we must not use that to the destruction of any Creature which was intended for his preservation CHAP. XXIV Verse 3. IT is better not to promise than not to keep promise the people of the Iews were signified by the Locusts which suddenly leap up and forthwith fall down to the earth again They did as it were leap up when in words they promised to do all things which the Lord had said but they fell to the earth again when in their deeds they denied the same Let us therefore alwayes weigh our weakness and accordingly frame our promises for as we see in this people we may purpose well that which we cannot so well perform Verse 12. It is not many weeks since Israel came out of Egypt in which space God had cherished their Faith by several Wonders yet now he thinks it time to give them Statutes from Heaven as well as Bread The Manna and Water from the Rock which was Christ in the Gospel were given before the Law the Sacraments of Grace before the legal Covenant The Grace of God preventeth our obedience therefore should we keep the Law of God because we have a Saviour O the Mercy of God which before we see what we are bound to do shews us our remedy if we do it not How can our Faith disanul the Law when it was before it It may help to fulfil that which shall be it cannot frustrate that which was not The Letter which God had written in our fleshly Tables were now as some that were carved in some Barks almost grown out he saw it time to write them in dead Tables whose hardness should not be capable of alteration He knew that the stone would be more faithful than our hearts Verse 14. Ministers whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are not to leave their charge without Deputies When Moses here ascended he left Aaron and Hur with the people that whosoever had any matter might come to them So watchful and faithful was Moses in his place that without just cause he is not absent and then he leaveth able Deputies Verse 16. Moses ascending was not admitted to God till after six dayes to teach all men patiently and reverently to tarry Gods leisure and gracious pleasure for any matter of his Will to be revealed to them not curiously searching but humbly waiting for the thing we seek being fit for us At the end of six dayes God called to Moses So will the Lord have a comfortable time for all those that wait for him they shall see and hear at last what he will say unto them But then they must come to God in the Cloud that is in the humanity of Christ whereof this Cloud was a Figure For without him there is no access to God and by him we come and that boldly Verse 17. God appears here like a consuming Fire in the eyes of the Children of Israel but to them whom he drew to him he appeared as a pleasant Saphire verse 10. Just so to carnal men and to such as are his called by his holy Spirit there is a great difference of him the one seeing with fear and trembling the other seeing feeling and tasting Joy and Comfort Verse 18. Moses was with God forty dayes and nights without any repast That God that sent the Quails to the Host of Israel and Manna from Heaven could have fed him with dainties if he had so pleas'd But there is no life to the life of Faith Man lives not by bread only The Vision of God did not only satiate but feast him What a blessed satiety shall there be when we shall see him as he is and he shall be all in all to us Since this very frail Mortality of Moses was sustained and comforted but with representations of his presence Here again I see Moses the Receiver of the Law Elias the Restorer of the Law Christ the Fulfiller of the Law all fasting forty dayes Abstinence prepares best for good Duties Full bellies are fitter for rest Hence solemn Prayer takes ever fasting to attend it and so much the rather speeds in Heaven when it is so accompanied It s good so to diet the body that the soul may be fatned CHAP. XXV
the Priests from whom others should draw Example should themselves be obedient to Gods Word in all things and first hear then speak Obedience was ever acceptable to God Psal. 40. 6. next the Thumb is touched with Blood to teach that we must not only be Hearers but Doers of the Word joyning Works to Faith and a Holy Life to a sound Belief And the right Thumb not the left to signifie that our Works must be right commanded by God not invented by us To the like end was the right Toe sprinkled with Blood that they might so remember to walk worthy their vocation and usually by the Foot in Scripture is both Action and Affection noted My feet had almost slipt said David meaning both Action and Affection Verse 29. The same garments continued although the Priest by Mortality changed and so was signified that our High Priest not meer Man but God and Man is one and his Righteousness our blessed garment remaineth to Father Son and Sons Son to the Worlds end in them that fear him and by a true Faith believe in him CHAP. XXX Verse 1. THe Altar of Incense was of Wood covered with Gold figuring so Christ in both his Natures the Wood his Humanity the Gold his Divinity the Deity yielding Glory and Majesty to his Manhood as the Gold adorn'd and beautified the Shittim Wood. Verse 2. The square form of this Altar represents the firm stability of Christ who cannot be overthrown The Crown about it the regal Dignity of Christ and of all those that are ingrafted to him For we are Kings and Priesis in him and by him Verse 7. The sweet Incense notes all Duties and services which the People of God do to him by his appointment and that they smell sweet before him as the Incense and are accepted of him But particularly the Prayers of the faithful for so David Psal. 14. 2. expounded it The burning of this Incense upon the Altar which was a figure of Christ shadowed out that in Christ and for Christ only our Prayers are in force with God and therefore by him they ought to be offered unto God Verse 9. Prayers either made to others then to God in the name of Christ or for unlawful things are strange Incense and therefore not to be offered unto God No Saint nor Creature was shadowed by the Altar of Incense but Christ and therefore let them take heed that will pray to others and make others present their desires to God Verse 12. To number People in a Land is lawful and if you think of David why he was plagued for so doing surely it was not for that he numbred the People but because he did it in a pride and confidence in mans strength But here neither Pride nor Wealth nor other such eâ—ds were respected but obedience was aimed at and that they should profess themselves thus Gods People and themselves his Tributaries and so be ever strongly comforted in his protection Verse 15. This was a personal Tribute imposed to testifie obedience to God and therefore equally was paid to signifie that God is no respecter of persons but the poor are as dear to him doing his Will as the rich we are all the Lords the price of our redemption is one the precious bloud of that immaculate Lamb Jesus Christ. Verse 16. In worldly matters the rich may go before us but in matters belonging unto God his Worship and Service we ought to be as forward as the rich For you see here that the maintenance of the Ministery was not posted over to Princes and great men only but even private men also must joyn in this work For if he be born to inherit Heaven he must think himself born to maintain the means that lead us unto Heaven Our Sheep and Cattel we provide for because they labour for us and feed us what hearts then should we have to see them comfortably maintain'd that labour for us in a far higher sort and feed us with a much better food Verse 21. We must not meddle with holy things with unwashen hands that is with prophane Hearts Tongues and minds as they do that read the Scriptures not to guide their lives but to maintain table Discourses drawing the Scriptures to their Judgements and not framing their Judgements according to the Scriptures These washings again in the Law had a further reach being used in Faith even to the inward washing of the Spirit whereof they were true Sacraments to the Believers So David Wash me O Lord and I shall be clean that is inwardly inwardly O Lord by thy blessed Spirit from my sins Verse 23. This holy and most excellent Oil was a figure of the Holy Ghost without whom nothing is pure nothing sweet All things were annointed therewith Preist Ark Table Candlestick to teach that all the exercises of Religion are utterly unprofitable without the inward working of the Holy Ghost in our hearts CHAP. XXXI Verse 3. BY this is manifest that the skill of any Handi-craft is not in the power of men but comes by the Highest And by this we are taught to use all those Gifts well whereby we are enabled to discharge our particular Callings that they may serve for the Glory of God and the good of his Church and those that in their Callings use fraud and deceit or else live inordinately do most unthankfully abuse the Gifts of God and dishonour the Spirit of God the Author of their Gifts Verse 6. God here joyneth Aholiab with Bezaliel in the work of the Tabernacle that by this means it might be the more compleat If there should be any fault in Bezaliels work Aholiab might mend it and if there should chance to be any error in Aholiabs performance Bezaliel might correct it that so by the care and circumspection of these two able Workmen nothing might be omitted And as it was thus under the Law so was it under the Gospel the Work of Christs Church as well as Moses Tabernacle must be performed by pairs Therefore Christ sent out his Apostles to preach the Gospel by couples two and two together Two are better than one saith Solomon For first if they fall the one will lift up the other that which is stronger shoreth up the weaker One man may be an Angel to another in regard of comfort and assistance nay a God to another as Moses was to Aaron Secondly if two lie together then they have heat heat of Zeal and good Affection When Silas came Paul burnt in spirit Acts 18. warm he was before but now all of a light fire as it were The Enemy is readiest to assault when none is by to assist and much of our strength is lost in the losse of a faithful Friend CHAP. XXXII Verse 1. O The ingratitude of that giddy multitude a man would have thought they would have wept out theit eyes and sighed their hearts in sunder for such a man as Moses such an Instrument of God and Good to them such
of the Ministery that it should not be defrauded of the least thing allotted to it And therefore harden not your heart against God against Law against Right and Truth accustome not your hearts to cover your Neighbours due your hands to purloin it by fraud or take it by strength it is theft spiritual theft sacriledge your house receiveth stoln Goods and the Wrath of God may happily shake the foundation of it for such a sin and you in yours or you and yours be punished Verse 13. Here Leaven is admitted of which before was forbid Leaven therefore is taken in a good sense as well as in an ill Thus the Apostles are resembled to a little Leaven that leaveneth the whole lump they being sent out of God into the unleavened World by preaching to leaven it clean through And there is a Leaven of the new Nature accepted as there is a Leaven of the old Nature rejected For look how the Leaven maketh the Bread savory and strong and wholsome look also how it makes it rise and heave up which otherwise would be sad and heavy So doth Gods regenerate Spirit change us make us savory and all our Duties pleasing to God and we rise up our Hearts and Souls are heaved up in all love in thankfulness to him that in Mercy hath so look'd upon us Verse 15. A Ceremony us'd to signifie that publick Feasts should not be superfluously continued and kept long under the colour of Religion For God loveth not idle banquetting and prodigal spending although he allow graciously what is fit for the occasion Secondly this was done in wisdome by God least if the flesh should have smelt by longer keeping Religion might so have been vile in the eyes of fickle persons Verse 18. We may learn by this that the taking hold of Christ is not to be deferr'd and put off but speedily and quickly to be done whilst time serves and opportunity is offer'd For behold sayes Christ to day and to morrow I cast out Devils and the third day Luke 13. that is a short time I have yet to go on with my Ministery and then I shall be slain More particularly every Man and Woman may be said to have three dayes The first of Youth till Age come the second of Age till Death come and in these two dayes there is Mercy offered but the third day is after Death and then there is no help as here on the third day no Offering was accepted but the sin remained unpardoned and not forgiven Verse 30. The bringing of the Sacrifice with his own hands and not sending it by others taught Humility and Duty to God taught that every one must live by his own Faith and not by anothers Verse 34. The shaking of it to and fro four wayes East West North and South shadowed the spreading of that lifting up of Christ that is of Christs Death and Passion throughouâ— all the World by the preaching of the Gospel CHAP. VIII Verse 2. THe Lord precisely appointed Priests and would not leave it to every man to perform this Office to signifie that not any man butthe-man Christ Jesus could appease Gods Wrath satisfie his Justice and take away the sins of the World This could not be figured out better than by secluding all the Host of Israel from this Office and chusing but Aaron and his Sons as Types of Christ that so by such an Ordinance the Majesty Authority and Property of Christs Office might be resembled and shadowed Verse 5. Nothing but Gods Commandement doth Moses offer unto them For he well knew Gods Will only in his own House must be the Rule Our own heads were never the best heads to follow and for God he knoweth our mould too well to give that swinge unto us Verse 13. Aarons Sons were a figure of the Church which by Faith eateth also of the Sacrifice of Christ being made partakers of his Merits as well as the Priests Their Garments figured out the Graces and Gifts wherewith the Believers in Christ are adorned and beautified casting away the Works of Darkness and putting on daily more and more the Deeds of Light Rom. 13. 12. Verse 30. Upon Aarons Sons Moses did but sprinkle the annointing Oil which was said to be poured upon Aaron verse 12. So plainly shewing that in Christ the Spirit should be without measure and upon his Servants in measure we all receiving of his fulness according to his good Pleasure some more some lesse Verse 35. By this is signified that watch which all our life time is noted by the seven dayes we keep in avoiding sin and working righteousness as the Lord shall enable which indeed may be call'd the watch of the Lord being a holy Christian and happy watch The seventh day we shall be free fully sanctified and delivered from this vail of misery to keep an eternal Sabbath in Heaven to our endless comfort CHAP. IX Verse 7. IN that Aaron was here commanded to offer as well for himself as the People he was herein a figure of Christ not that Christ had any sins of his own but that ours were so laid upon him and he so made satisfaction to God for them as they had been his own Surely sayes the Prophet Isai. 53. 4. he hath born our infirmities c. that is we judg'd him evil as though he were punish'd for his own sins and not for ours Verse 22. Thus doth God blesse us in Christ in whom all the Nations of the World are blessed First with the Blessing of Reconciliation to himself reputing us now just for his Son Christ. Secondly with the Blessing of his Spirit whereby we walk in his Calling being guided thereby in the same Thirdly with the Blessing of Acceptance of all our Works though full of imperfection and weakness And last of all with this great Blessing that all adversity becometh a help to us to draw us to Heaven and Eternal Rest. Verse 24. That God which shew'd himself to Men in fire when he delivered his Law would have men present their Sacrifices to him in fire and this fire he would have his own that there might be a just circulation in this Creature as the Water sends up those vapours which it receives down again in Rain Hereupon it was that fire came down from God to the Altar that as the charge of the Sacrifice was delivered in fire so God might signifie the acceptation of it in the like fashion wherein it was commanded The Baalites might lay ready their Bullock upon the Wood but they might sooner fetch the blood out of their Bodies and destroy themselves than one flash out of Heaven to consume the Sacrifice CHAP. X. Verse 2. NAdab and Abibu were two of Aarons Eldest Sons which after their Father should have succeeded him in his place yet there is no Mercy with God to stay his Judgement when they will not be Ruled by his Word No Prerogative therefore shall save any Man from Wrath if he offend but
cleave not to the Element or Creature of Water but remember Saint Iohn 1 Iohn 5. 6. tels you that Jesus Christ came by Water and Bloud and it is he only that washeth away our spots and saveth us from our sins and by the offering of the Turtles it was plainly figured that not in themselves but in some others they must be made clean from all their impurities CHAP. XVI Verse 2. IN that Aaron was forbidden at all times to enter into the Holiest of Holies we may learn that even Ministers as well as other men are not rashly to enter into all the things of God but to stand in reverence of some Mysteries either dealing not at all or very advisedly and sparingly with them as their nature requires Verse 3. When we appear before God we must come with a Sin-offering that is come with an humble acknowledgement as this Sin-offering figured that thou art a sinner confessing it to God with a greived heart and bring Jesus Christ in thy soul with thee offering him by thy true Faith to God his Father as a sure safety for all sinners against deserved wrath and punishment Verse 4. We must be cloth'd with Christs Righteousness as with this holy linnen Coat if we ever find acceptance with God For to that end Aaron did change his Garment to shew that he sustained another person who was holy he himself being but a man subject to imperfection and sin Now if Aaron might not enter but in such sort how much lesse might the People appear at any time before God but in Christ and by Christ shadowed in all these Sacrifices Verse 21. When confession was made over the Head of the Scape-goat what diversity of words were used as all iniquities all trespasses all sins Why so many words but to teach that confession of sins must not be light and formal only but earnest vehement hearty and zealous And indeed never can a Child of God satisfie himself herein but still wisheth he could more bewail his sins and more earnestly expresse with words what his Soul feeleth in this behalf saying as I heard a dying woman once say O Sir I am sorry and sorry that I can be no more sorry Verse 31. God would name his Sabbath according to the nature of it and Sabbath is rest It is a rest of two kinds our rest and Gods rest Our rest is the cessation from labour on those dayes Gods rest is our sanctifying of the day For so in the religious sacrifice of Noah Gen. 8. when he was come out of the Ark God is said to have smelt odorem quietis the savour of rest Upon those dayes we rest from serving the World and God rests in our serving of him CHAP. XVII Verse 4. THe Reasons of the severity of this Law were first because it served for the preservation of the Ministry which God had ordained and that every Man should not be his own Priest Secondly Because thus they were taught that all Worship of God ought to be guided and directed by his Word and Commandement and not by the private wills of Men. And if you say that Samuel offered in Mizpeh 1 Sam. 7. and Elias in Mount Carmel 1 King 18. and so neither brought the Sacrifice to the door of the Tabernacle you must answer your self thus that all this in these Men was extraordinary and we may not follow extraordinary matters without some such personal and special Vocation as no doubt they had for we do not live by Examples but by Laws Verse 6. The burning and broiling of Beasts and the sprinkling of their Blood upon the Altar could of themselves yield no sweet savour but thereto was added Wine Oyl and Incense by Gods appointment our Prayers as from us would never please but as Indited by the Spirit and presented by Christ they are highly accepted in Heaven Christ is the Incense the perfume of all our Sacrifices and therefore if ever we intend that our Sacrifice either of Praise or Prayers should carry a sweet savour along with it it must be offered up in and by Christ for he is Gods Benjamin the Son of his Love in whom alone God is well pleased Upon which account it is that the Catholick Church doth evermore conclude her Prayers with this Expression Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Verse 10. The Lord by this Law would teach Men to abstain from Murther and Blood-shed the Blood of Man being Vehiculum animae vitalis for the Vital Spirits which yield unto Man through his whole Body heat motion and action are begotten of Blood by the power of the Heart and therefore Mans life and the life of every other Creature is said to be in the Blood according to that of the Poet Purpuream vomit ille animam Secondly Because the Lord had ordained Blood to be used in the Atonement made for Sins as a plain figure of the Blood of Christ the only able Sacrifice to purge and wash away our Sins and Offences therefore he would have Blood regarded as an holy thing and not used by Man as other Meats might be CHAP. XVIII Verse 2. THis Expression I am the Lord your God is often repeated to draw attention and beget Authority For consider first it is thy Lord thy Master that speaks he whose House is the World and all the Creatures his Servants shall we not then listen when this our great Master shall speak Secondly it is thy God that speaks the Eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth he who hath made all preserves all and can as easily destroy all again he who is the All-seeing God that looks upon thee in thy privare Closet in thy bolted Chamber under thy drawn Curtains that sees all thy secret villanies and stoln Embraces all thy wicked Plots and Contrivings and shall we not then hear and fear him What running and striving would there be who should come first if a King or some great Lord should call O let not the Lord of Lords and King of Kings call so oft and thou sleight and neglect it but rather say with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth speak Lord to my Ears that they may hear speak to my Memory that it may retain speak to my Heart and Affections that they may be obedient speak to my Life and Conversation that it may be answerable to thy Word then shall thy servant hear aright and not before Verse 18. If any Man think of some Marriages of holy Men in Scripture contrary to these Rules let him remember that we now live by Laws and not by Examples What God then either approved or tolerated let us neither rashly condemn nor unadvisedly follow but obediently tarry within the Precincts of the Law of Nature And again in these Cases let it ever be remembred as good reason it should not only what is lawful but what also is convenient and fit to be done For many things are lawful which are no way yet expedient but most unfit in
corruption were but in man and other Creatures were flesh as well as man but man is every creature because as Gregory saith Omnis creaturae differentia in homine all the properties and qualities of all other creatures how remote and distant how contrary soever in themselves yet they all meet in man In man if he be a flatterer you shall find the grovelling and crawling of the Snake and in man if he be ambitious you shall find the high flight and piercing of the Eagle in a voluptuous sensual man you shall find the earthliness of the Hogg and in a licentious man the intemperance and distemper of the Goat ever lustful and ever in a Feaver ever in sickness contracted by that sin and yet ever in a desire to proceed in that sin and thus man is every creature and all flesh Verse 14. That God might approve his mercies to the very wicked he gives them 120 years respite of repenting verse 3. and here in this verse he gives them a faithful Teacher It is an happy thing when he that teacheth others is righteous Noahs hand taught them as much as his tongue his business in building the Ark was a real Sermon to the world wherein at once were taught Mercy and Life to the Believer and to the Rebellious destruction Verse 18. Doubtless more hands went to this work of making the Ark than Noah and his Children and yet none were saved but they many a one wrought upon the Ark which yet was not saved in the Ark our outward works cannot save us without Faith we may help to save others and perish our selves what a wonder of mercy is this that we here see one poor Family call'd out of a world and as it were eight grains of Corn fann'd from a whole Barnful of Chaff one hypocrite was saved with the rest for Noahs sake not one righteous man was swept away for company for these few was the earth preserved still under the waters and all kind of Creatures upon the waters which else had been all destroyed Still the world stands for their sakes for whom it was preserved else fire should consume that which could not be cleansed by water CHAP. VII Verse 2. THe unclean Beasts God would have to live the clean to multiply and therefore he sends to Noah seven of the clean and of the unclean two he knew the one would annoy man with their multitude the other would enrich him those things are worthy of most respect which are of most use But why seven Surely that God that Created seven dayes in the Week and made one for himself did here preserve of seven clean Beasts one for himself for Sacrifice he gives us Six for One in earthly things that in spiritual we should be all for him Verse 9. This difference is strange I see the savagest of all Creatures Lions Tygers Bears by an instinct from God come to seek the Ark as we see Swine fore-seeing a storm run home crying for shelter men I see not Reason once debauch'd is worse than bruitishness God hath use even of these fierce and cruel Beasts and glory by them Even they being Created for man must live by him though to his punishment How gently do they offer and submit themselves to their Preserver renewing that obeysance to this Repairer of the World which they before sin yielded to him that first stored the World And thus these savage Creatures went in saith the rext to Noah not to prey but fawn upon him He that shut them into the Ark when they were entred shut their mouths also while they did enter The Lions fawn upon Noah and Daniel what heart cannot the Maker of them mollifie Verse 10. By this is shewen the Lords patience for Noah is warned seven dayes before of the Flouds coming that by his preparation and entrance others might be warned and whereas God might have destroyed the World at once it was encreasing forty dayes that the World seeing every day some perish might at length have turned to God And the same was Ninevehs case yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Our God is a gracious merciful and long-suffering God and never strikes but he gives warning that sinners may prevent the blow by Repentance and Contrition Before Nineveh shall be destroyed a Prophet must be sent to give notice of that destruction and to teach them a way how to avoid it and in case they should prove dull schollars here is forty dayes given to learn the lesson And as God dealt with this great City and with the whole World before the Deluge to fore-warn them of his judgements and their own ruine so deals he likewise with particular men to some he gives forty dayes to others forty months nay forty years to repent in even a whole life time is to some men but a continued warning of their final destruction and yet they like the old World never beleeve it till they feel it mock and jear at a Deluge until they are over-whelm'd with the Floud and perish in their own presumptuous imaginations So hard a thing it is to perswade sinners to beleeve that God is so just or his Judgements so infallible or their sins so destructive until the Floud come and a second Deluge a Deluge of Fire sweeps them away as that first of Waters did their unbeleeving fore-fathers Verse 11. It agrees with the nature of God who is goodness That as all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened and so came the Floud over all so there should be diluvium spiritus a flowing out of the holy Ghost upon all as he promises Effundam I will pour it out upon all and diluvium gentium that all Nations shall flow up unto him For this spirit spirat ubi vnlt breaths where it pleaseth him and though a natural Wind cannot blow East and West North and South together this spirit at once breaths upon the most contrary dispositions upon the presuming and upon the dispairing sinner and in an instant can denizon and naturalize that soul that was an Alien to the Covenant empale and in-lay that soul that was bred upon the Common among the Gentiles transform that soul which was a Goat into a Sheep unite that soul which was a lost Sheep to the Fold again shine upon that soul that sits in darkness and the shadow of death and so melt and pour out that soul that yet understands nothing of the divine nature nor of the Spirit of God that it shall become partaker of the divine nature and be the same Spirit with God Verse 16. Now that Noah and all his Guests are entred the Ark is shut and the windows of Heaven opened God first provides for Noah before the Wicked are destroyed of whom many no doubt when they saw the violence of the waves descending and ascending according to Noah's prediction came wading middle-deep unto the Ark and importunately craved that
were for sin or for the present pressure only I have not to say but God is so pitiful that he hears and helps our Affliction as he did Hagars in this Text. Verse 15. God presents to us the joyes of Heaven often to draw us and as often the torments of Hell to avert us And to this purpose Origen saith aright as Abraham had two Sons the one of a Bond-woman the other of a Free but yet both sons of Abraham So God is served by two fears and the latter fear the fear of future torment is not the perfect fear but yet even that fear is the servant and instrument of God too Who can so absolutely divest all sense saith Chrysostome but that when the whole City is in a combustion and commotion or when the Ship that he is in strikes desperately and irrecoverably upon a Rock he is otherwise affected towards God then than when every day in a quietness and calmness of holy affections he hears a Sermon Gehennae timor saith the same Father regni affert coronam even the fear of Hell gets us Heaven CHAP. XVII Verse 1. IT is Gods prescript to Abraham here Walk before me and be perfect and that is when as to allude to that known Expression Manus ad Clavum Oculus ad Coelum as our hand is upon the work so our eye must be upon God in every thing we do which is the ground of that uprightness called in the Scripture Dialect perfection Where you may note the difference between these three expressions of the holy Ghost to walk with God after God and before God We walk with God as a sweet companion after God as a commanding Lord before God as an observing Judge we walk with him as his Friends after him as his Servants before him as his Children lastly we walk with him by an humble familiarity after him in a regular conformity before him by a cordial integrity and this is according to Gods rule to Abraham Walk before me and be perfect Verse 3. When God talkes with us in his Word or we talk with God in our Prayers we cannot be too humble you see from this text that Abraham the Father of the faithful fell upon his face at a conference with God and shall we that are his sons not fall upon our knees Certainly were there never a Church standing in the world nor so much as one stone left for a Bethel wheresoever we came to Pray we should worship first looking up to our God and his infinitude with Glory be to thee O Lord then in the Publicans dejected posture reflecting upon the dust our original and our end with Lord be merciful unto me a sinner and indeed can we presume higher than the dust when we reverence before our Maker or do less than hide our own faces with shame appearing before the glorious light of that countenance which we cannot see and live and which we shall one day look upon with trembling if not now with shame Verse 5. There is no Faith where there is either means or hopes Difficulties and impossibilities are the true Objects of Belief hereupon God adds to Abrahams name that which he would fetch from his Loins and made his Name as ample as his Posterity never any man was a looser by beleeving Faith is ever recompenced with Glory Verse 7. God hath in great mercy and goodness promised to shew grace and favour not only to the faithful themselves but to their seed after them and as the mercy of God is great so the Faith of the godly is effectual for themselves and their Children God will be our God and the God of our seed after us If then we consider either the Promise of God to be merciful or the Faith of the godly to beleeve in both respects we may collect and gather this truth That the love of God to the faithful shall so abound that it shall come to their posterity like the pretious Oyntment poured on the head of Aaron that ran down upon his beard and flowed to the border of his garments or as the dew on Hermon and Sion which watered the valleys which were beneath them Now seeing that goodness hath the Promise of bringing a blessing upon the families where it is profess'd it is required of us to profess and beleeve the Gospel that so we may procure a blessing upon our selves and Children The neglect of which bringeth utter ruine to Father and Child So then godly Parents must have a care to bring-up their Children and Families in the true Faith and fear of the Lord which may be a means by the blessing of God to save thy son from death and to deliver his soul from destruction Verse 11. Circumcision is a seal of the Covenant betwixt God and us if we be in God and God in us if we be circumcised within if the fore-skin of our hearts be taken away then is the outward Circumcision a seal unto our Covenant with God otherwise it is a seal indeed but a seal without a Bond a seal without any stipulation betwixt God and us we are no whit priviledged by it no more than are the Turks who yet are circumcised which is the reason that the Jewes at this day have no benefit by this Covenant because they are uncircumcised in their hearts that vail that fore-skin is not taken away and that only is the circumcision which seals the Covenant betwixt God and us the Gospel-circumcision the putting off the old Adam by that circumcision of Christ which is the work of the Spirit wrought by the Word upon the Soul of a poor sinner whereby the corruption of his nature is mortified and himself received into an everlasting Covenant and Communion with God Verse 14. In the first Covenant that God made with his People as we see here That person that would not be circumcised that soul was cut off from the people of God and just so in the second Covenant that God made with his people the Covenant of the Gospel He that is not circumcised in heart and made new by regeneration he shall have no part with the Saints in heaven Joh. 3. 3. The wise man is not priviledged by his wisdom nor the strong man by his strength the King is not freed by his Crown and Dignity nor the Priest by the power of his Keyes For if any one enters himself in Covenant with God under the New Testament and hopes for benefit by that Covenant as Abraham and his Seed did undergo the outward Circumcision of the body so must he the inward Circcmcision of the heart No Circumcision no Son of Abraham no Son of Abraham no Son of God Verse 17. Abraham was old e're this Promise and hope of a Son was given and still the older the more uncapable Yet God makes him wait twenty five years for performance No time is long to Faith which had learned to defer hopes without fainting and irksomness Abraham heard this news
be loved Abimelech and Phicol desire to live peaceably and quietly with Isaac that there may be an Oath and a Covenant between them but yet these being Heathens could not love Isaac as a godly man should be loved they departed from him in peace saith this verse peace is one thing and love is another CHAP. XXVII Verse 2. AS Isaac said here that he knew not the day of his death so may we say both of the time and also of the place and manner of our death For death surprizeth some as Abel when he was walking in the field others as Uz when he was sitting at his door some with Iobs children at a Feast others with the Philistines sporting in a Theater Thus likewise may we say of the manner of our death there is a natural death when a man dies as a Lamp goes out because there is no more Oyl to feed it and there is a violent death when the soul is thrust out of doors and the Lamp of Life not burnt but blown out Iosia dies by the hurt of an Arrow a Prophet of God by the teeth of a Lyon Abimelech by the fall of a stone Boast not thy self therefore of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth if not an end of thy sins it may be an end of thy life if it bring not forth conversion it may bring forth confusion Verse 4. What hath careless Esau lost if having sold his Birth-right he may obtain the blessing Or what hath Iacob gain'd if his Brothers Venison may countervail his pottage Yet thus hath old Isaac decreed who was not now more blind in his eyes than in his affections God had forewarn'd him that the Elder should serve the Younger yet Isaac goeth about to bless Esau. The dearest of Gods Saints have been sometimes transported with natural Affections he saw himself prefer'd to Ismael though the Elder he saw his Father wilfully forgetting Nature at Gods command in binding him for Sacrifice he saw Esau leudly matcht with Heathens and yet he will remember nothing but Esau is my first-born but how gratious is God that when we would will not let us sin and so orders our actions that we do not what we would but what we ought Verse 8. That God which had ordain'd the Lordship for the younger will also contrive for him the blessing what he will have effected shall not want means the mother shall rather defeat the Son and beguile her Husband than the Father shall beguile the chosen Son of his Blessing What was Iacob to Rebecca more than Esau or what Mother doth not more affect the Elder But now God inclines the love of the Mother to the Younger against the custom of Nature because the Father loves the Elder against the promise The Affections of Parents are divided that the Promise might be fulfil'd Rebecca's craft shall answer Isaac's partiality Isaac would unjustly turn Esau into Iacob Rebecca doth as cunningly turn Iacob into Esau her desire was good her means was unlawful God doth oft-times effect his just will by our wickednesses yet neither thereby justifying our infirmities nor blemishing his own actions Verse 19. Here is nothing but counterfeiting a fained person fained name fained Venison a fained answer and yet behold a true blessing but to the man not to the means those were so unsound that Iacob himself doth more fear their curse than hope for their success but Rebecca presuming upon the Oracle of God and her Husbands simplicity dare be his surety for the danger his Counsellor for the carriage of the business his Cook for the Diet yea dresses both the meat and the man And now she wishes she could borrow Esau's tongue as well as his garments that she might securely deceive all the senses of him who had suffered himself to be more dangerously deceived by his affection But this is past her Remedy her Son must name himself Esau with the voice of Iacob It is hard if our tongue do not bewray what we are in spite of our habit This was enough to work Isaac to a suspition to an enquiry not to an incredulity he that is good of himself will hardly believe evill of another and will rather distrust his own senses than the fidelity of those he trusted all the senses are set to examine none sticketh at the Judgement but the ear to deceive that Iacob must second his dissimulation with three lies in one breath I am Esau As thou badst me My Venison Onesin entertain'd fetcheth in another and if it be forced to lodg alone either departeth or dieth I love Iacobs blessing but I hate his lie I would not do that wilfully which Iacob did weakly on condition of a blessing he that pardoned his infirmity would curse my obstinateness Verse 23. Good Isaac had first set his hands to try whether his ears inform'd him aright and then feeling the hands of him whose voice he suspected that honest heart could not think that the skin might more easily be counterfeited than the Lungs a smal satisfaction contents those whom guiltiness hath not made scrupulous Isaac believes and blesseth the Younger Son in the Garments of the Elder If our Heavenly Father smell upon our backs the savour of our Elder Brothers Robes we cannot depart from him unblessed Verse 27. As Isaac said of his Son here The smell of my Son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed So the Lord of Heaven as he smelt a savour of rest from the Sacrifice of Noah should smell from us if we intend to be his Sons and Heirs of the Promise as Iacob was the savour of Medicinal Herbs of remorse and repentance and contrition and detestation of former sins and the savour of odoriferous and fragrant and Aromatical Herbs Works worthy of Repentance amendment of Life Edification of others and zeal to his Glory Verse 32. No sooner is Iacob gone away full of the joy of his blessing then Esau comes in full of the hope of the blessing and now blowing and sweating for his reward he finds nothing but a Repulse Lewd men when they think they have earned of God and come proudly to challenge favour receive no answer but Who art thou the hopes of the wicked fail them when they are at the highest whereas Gods children find these comforts in extremity which they durst not expect Verse 33. Both the Father and the Son wonder at each other the one with fear the other with grief Isaac trembled and Esau wept the one upon Conscience the other upon Envy Isaac's heart now told him that he should not have purposed the blessing where he did and that it was due unto him unto whom it was given and not purposed hence he durst not reverse that which he had done with Gods will besides his own for now he saw that he had done unwilling Justice God will find both time and means to reclaim his own to prevent their sins to manifest
time as by nature a Woman may have a child God will return to us in the grave acording to the time of life that is in such time as he by his gracious decree hath fixed for the Resurrection And in the mean time no more than the God-head departed from the dead body of our Saviour in the grave doth his power and his presence depart from our dead bodies in that darkness Verse 6. Iacob being not willing to be a burthen unto Pharaoh more then needs must brings down all his Estate into Egypt Though the Famine forced the Patriarch to be beholding to Pharaoh for bread yet he would not be Engaged to him for meat And therefore tooke his Cattle along with him and although he could not bring down his house into Goshen yet he carried his goods It is an happiness so to live with others as not to be beholding but rather helpful than burthensome When the Prophet desired a cake of the widdow in the dayes of famine he rewarded her with a barrel of meal which outlasted that famine and rather then he will be a burthen to the poor Woman a miracle shall releive her Verse 27. Well may the Rabbins say that these seventy souls were as much as the seventy Nations of the world when Moses tels us Deut. 10. 22. that whereas their fathers went down into Egypt with seventy souls now Iehovah had made them as the Stars of heaven for multitude and this too by miraculous wayes and means As for instance when this Israel of God was shackel'd perchance for their forefathers selling Ioseph to be a slave with the Irons of Egypt where their burthens were turned into bondage and their bondage into bloud their souls also being ever on the rack of continuall fear and suspence lest their bodies might be thrown into the same brickhils they had built and become the fire to harden their own handiwork Yet here how did God tie up Pharaohs hands with plagues turning their poisons into cordials and their enemies malice to their greatest improvement in that he made them grow under their burthen and propagate through that inhumane distruction of the Male fruit of their body So able is God to raise his Church from a small number to an infinite from seventy persons to the Stars of heaven or the sand on the Sea-shore for multitude Verse 29. The height of all earthly contentment appear'd in the meeting of these two whom their mutual losse had more endear'd to each other The intermission of comforts hath this advantage that it sweetens our delight more in the return then was abated in the forbearance God doth oft-times hide away our Ioseph for a time that we may be more joyous and thankfull in his recovery This was the sincerest pleasure that ever Iacob had which therefore God reserved for his age And if the meeting of earthly friends be so unspekably comfortable how happy shall we be in sight of the glorious face of God our heavenly Father of that our blessed Redeemer whom we sold to death by our sins and which now after that noble triumph hath all power given him in Heaven and Earth CHAP. XLVII Verse 3. IT is fit that every one that lives in a Common-wealth should labour in that Common-wealth and bring some benefit some honey to the common hive unlesse he will be cast out as a drone Pharaoh would hardly have suffered even Iosephs own Brethren to have lived idly under his jurisdiction and therefore his first question here was What is your Occupation At Athens every man gave an yearly account to the Magistrate by what Trade or course of life he maintained himself which if he could not doe he was banished Take ye the evil and unprofitable servant said our Saviour and cast him into utter darkness away with such a fellow from off the earth which he hath burthened for he is no more missed when gone then the parings of ones nailes Those therefore that have a talent a trade to live on must improve that talent must follow that trade whereby the world may be the better and not think to come hither meerly as Rats and Mice only to devour victuals and to run squeaking up and down These are Ciphers or rather Excrements in humane Society In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread was the old Sanction Even Paradise that was Mans Store-house was also his working house They bury themselves alive that as body-lice live on other mens sweat and labours and it is a sin to relieve them Verse 4. These plain dealing men did not desire to live at Court though their Brother was the chief Favourite but in Goshen which as it was next to the Land of Canaan so was it most fit for their Cattle These honest religious Patriarks chose rather a poor Shepheards life in Gods service then to ruffle it as Courtiers out of the Church So did Moses afterwards and David Psal. 84. 10. and the poor Prophet that died so deep in debt and good Micaiah and those that wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins Heb. 11. who happily might have ruffled in silks and velvets if they would have strain'd their Consciences Origen was contented to be a poor Catechist at Alexandria every day in fear of death when he might have been with his fellow Pupil Photinus in great authority and favour if not a Christian. God takes it kindly when men will goe after him in the Wildernefs in a Land not sown Ier. 2. 2. that is chuse him and his wayes in affliction and with self-denial Verse 6. Those that are ingenious and industrious in their calling shall be preferred and had in esteem by great men How much more then doth it concern Christians to improve their Talent that they may be accepted and preferr'd by God That Servant in Saint Luke that had improved his pound to ten pounds was made Lord over ten Cities and he that had encreased it but to five pounds had authority but over five Cities As every one had traded so he was rewarded and had a different degree both of Grace and Glory Let all men therefore according to their several abilities improve what they have to Gods Glory and the good of others and then they may be sure they shall improve it for themselves and their own both good and glory Verse 9. Mans life is but a sojourning it is but a Pilgrimage said Iacob here and but the dayes of his pilgrimage neither every one of them quickly at an end and all of them quickly reckoned Thus also did the rest of the Patriarchs count themselves but as Strangers and Pilgrims in the earth and thereby declared that they sought a Country Heb. 12. 14. Here we have no continuing City first no City no such large Being and then no continuing at all it is but a sojourning Here we are but viatores Passengers Wayfaring men this life is but the high-way and thou canst not build thy hopes here nay to be
only to the people but to the Priest himself to sustain him yea and to countenance and favour and protect him too in the execution and exercise of his Priestly Office As we see in the first plantation of those two great Cedars the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power which that they might alwayes agree as Brethren God planted at first in those two Brethren Moses and Aaron there though Moses were the Temporal and Aaron the Spiritual Magistrate yet God sayes here to Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh and not only to Pharaoh but Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet for as he sayes Exod 4. Thou shalt be to him instead of God So useful so necessary is man to man as that the Priest who is of God incorporated in God subsist also by Man Verse 3. Concerning this hardning of Pharaoh some understand it by permission i. e. God suffered him to be hardened as we say in the Lords Prayer Lead us not into temptation i. e. suffer us not to be lead Greg. Moral 31. cap. 12. saith Non duritiem contulit sed exigentibus ejus meritis nulla infu sa timoris sensibilitate mollivit he did not impose hardness but his merits so deserving he softned him not by any infused sense of fear This should ever work in us care and zeal to crave at Gods hands fleshy hearts which may tremble at his Judgements and tast his Mercy saying with Samuel Speak on Lord thy Servant heareth and with David O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart Verse 10. Pharaoh was now from a staffe of protection and sustentation to Gods People turn'd to a Serpent that stung them to death God shews himself in this real Emblem doing that suddenly before him which Sathan had wrought in him by leisure And now when he crawles and hisses threatning peril to Israel he shews him how in an instant he can turn him into a senseless stick and make him if not useful yet fearless The same God which wrought this gave Sathan leave to imitate it in the next verse The first Plague that God meant to inflict upon Pharaoh was delusion God can be content the Devil should win himself credit where he means to judge and holds the honour of a Miracle well lost to harden an Enemy Verse 12. Here we may see the end of Falsehood and Error at the last Truth shall devour it in Gods good time for great is truth and prevaileth Truth may be oppressed for a time God so pleasing either to punish or try his People but finally suppress'd it shall not be God being stronger than all his Enemies Moses than all Enchanters shall disperse all dusky Clouds bringing his glorious Truth out to bear sway again at his good pleasure Verse 17. This Plague God brought upon them for the Children which were drown'd and the River thus turned into bloud complained to God for that slaughter We may further note an encrease of terror in this Miracle above the former of the Serpents to signifie that where milder means will not serve God both can and will add sharper and heavier He encreaseth his crosses from Goods to Body from Body to Mind from our Selves to our Children and still maketh us abound with more want in greater and sharper measure that we may repent and return if not in the end he can destroy us with misery that never shall have an end Verse 20. First God begins his Judgements with Waters As the River Nilus was to Egypt instead of Heaven to moisten and fatten the Earth so their confidence was more in it than in Heaven Men are sure to be punish'd most and soonest in that which they make a corrival with God This change also of the Waters into bloud was an image of their future destruction They were afterward overwhelmed in the Red Sea and now before-hand they see the River red with bloud CHAP. VIII Verse 3. VVHat an Army is here against such a Prince God could have made use of Men or Angels But here he will confound the pride of such a conceited King by an Host of Frogs rather than by either of the other The Lord by contemptible and base things will cast down our high looks if we swell against him and of this he would have all high minds at this day to make use unto humility before they find it too late Verse 7. Gods Adversaries seek often to impugne the Truth by the self same means whereby he doth teach it As if Scripture be alledged Sathan will do the like Mat. 4. If the true Prophets use a Sign then will Zedekiah make him hornes too and say When went the Spirit from me to thee 1 Kings 22. 11. all which God doth suffer to draw us to true and sound knowledge without which we cannot stand but shall be shaken to and fro with doubts and fears most unfit for Believers Col. 1. 23. Verse 8. Let this Comfort Gods Ministers in the midst of all contempts that God is able to force the wicked to the acknowledgement of him and them In their extremities they shall acknowledge our Callings justifie our Love and wish our Prayers Thus many who at other times regard not Ministers either going to Sea or to Battel or being fick or vexed at home will send and seek for the Prayers of Gods Ministers And what is this but a sign of Gods omnipotent hand over all Pharaohs whatsoever and that he can revenge our contempts and give our truth and careful walking in our places a due regard and reverence when he will with them and in them But here it may be demanded Why did Pharaoh call now for Moses and Aaron rather than in the former Plague Why because this Plague touched him nearer than the former When the Rivers were Bloud he might have Wine to drink and so not feel the smart of that Plague Whence we see that howbeit other mens harmes should affect us yet unless the Lord touch our selves we are dull and dead without sense Which certainly makes God reach us a blow many times when otherwise he would spare us did we make but use of other mens miseries Verse 10. Wicked men do not only deferre their Duties from day to day but put over others also that offer good things unto them As for instance if a Preacher tender his service this Sunday he is told the next will be farre more fit and if he come the next Sunday then is either the Master from home the Gentlewoman sick the Weather too hot or cold or some such thing that be Moses never so ready yet Pharaoh is not ready but to morrow to morrow is still the Song till the Lord strike and all morrows end in their eternal torment Verse 14. The Lord could have taken the Frogs quite away but this was done to shew the truth of the Miracle that they were Frogs indeed and no Inchantments thereby to meet with the unbelief of the King
Wife as Christ is the head of his Church Eph. 5. to rule to defend it to provide for it therefore as the Church is in subjection to Christ so ought the Wife to be to her Husband And therefore it is the duty of all Wives to acknowledg their duty and to yeild without striving subjection to their Husbands It is also the duty of Husbands seeing Authority is committed unto them over their Wives to love them tenderly even as Christ loved his Church Eph. 5. It is his duty likewise to dwell with his Wife 1 Pet. 3. 7. and why to dwell together but that the Husband should yeild to his Wife these four things First Good Example Secondly Instruction Thirdly Maintenance And lastly Imployment in her Calling for his good and his Families Verse 9. It is in our own power to vow or not to vow but when we have vowed it is not in our power to break it Vovere nusquam est praeceptum saith Bellarm. l. z. de Mona for as for that of the Psalm 76. 11. Vow and perform to the Lord your God is not Purum praeceptum saith Mr. Cartwright a pure Precept but like that in the New-Testament Be angry and sin not where anger is not-commanded but limited So neither are we simply commanded to vow but having voluntarily vowed we must not break it nor yet may we defer to pay it Delaies are taken for Denials Excuses for Refusals We must therefore come off with our vows roundly and readily as those Zech. 5. 9. that had wings and wind in their wings Are not the nine Lepers condemned by Christ for their negligence and unthankfulness Luke 17. God loves a chearful giver CHAP. XXXI verse 2. VVE must first do our work and then God will pay us our wages first fight our good fight against the World the Flesh and the Devil which is to avenge our selves of the Midianites in the Text and then God will give us the Crown of Glory Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites saith the Lord here and afterwards Thou shalt be gathered to thy people to that great Panegyris the General Assembly and Church of the first-born in Heaven to that glorious Amphitheatre where the Saints shall see and say Look yonder is Peter and that is Paul we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob have communion with them not only as godly men but as Abraham Isaac and Iacob Verse 8. Balaam pretended an hast homeward but he lingred so long that he left his bones in Midian How justly did he perish by the Sword of Israel whose tongue had insensibly slain so many thousands of them As it is usually said of the Devil that he goes away in a stench so may it truly be said of this Prophet of his according to the fashion of all Hypocrites his words were good his actions abominable he would not Curse but he would advise and his Counsel is worse than a Curse for his Curse had hurt none but himself his Counsels cost the blood of four and twenty thousand Israelites He that had heard God speak by Balaam would not look for the Devil in the same mouth and if God himself had not witnessed against him who could believe that the same tongue that uttered so Divine Prophesies should utter so vilanous and cursed advice Hypocrisie gains this of men that it may do evil unsuspected but now he that heard what he spake in Balaac's ear hath berayed and Condemned his Counsel and himself Verse 15. The Women were they that had caused Israel to sin and therefore it was dangerous to save them left they might entice Israel to sin the second time If we would avoid the sin we must have a care to fly the Temptation If we would not commit the act of Uncleanness we must not keep company with unclean persons we must stand a loof and keep at a distance from all occasions of sin And therefore to pray Lead us not into temptation and yet to run upon the occasion of sin is to thrust our finger into the fire and then pray that it may not be burnt a good man dare not come neer the train though he be far off the blow he will not dare to play near the hole of the Asp lest he slip into it He will not dally with the Devil knowing full well that sin is very infinuative and that the old Serpent if he once get in his head will quickly wind in his whole body Verse 16. This policy was fetch'd from the bottom of Hell It is not for lack of desire that I saith Balaam to Balaac Curse not Israel thou dost not more wish their destruction than I do thy Wealth and Honour but so long as they hold firm with God there is no Sorcery against Iacob withdraw God from them and they shall fall alone and Curse themselves draw them into sin and thou shalt withdraw God from them There is no sin more plausible than Wantonness one Fornication shall draw in another and both shall fetch the anger of God after them Send your fairest Women into their Tents their sight shall draw them to Lust their Lust to Folly their Folly to Idolatry and now God shall curse them for thee unask'd Where Balaam spake well there was never any Prophet spake more Divinely where he spake ill there was never any Devil spake more desperately ill Counsel seldom succeedeth not Gods seed falls often out of the way and roots not but the Tares never likely miss Verse 31. It is worth the observation to consider that before the death of Anron Moses and Aaron are joyned together so after his Death Moses and Eleazer the Magistrate and the Minister as the hand and eye are in the body Then doth the Church and Common-Wealth flourish when these two go hand in hand and on the other side they go to wrack when they are separated and draw several wayes Verse 35. The greatness of the Victory that God gave his people here appears by the distribution of the people and reservation of the Women that had not known Man which escaped the edg of the Sword Learn hereby first that the Iniquity of a People or Nation makes the Lord to destroy them and lay them waste sometimes by the Sword of the Enemy as in this place and sometimes by other Judgements Secondly that the eyes of Gods providence are upon all men and all their wayes in that he destroies multitudes and Nations as well as single persons Which may serve to reprove those that magnifie themselves against God thinking to prevail and escape for their multitudes sake Thirdly This admonisheth every Country City and Nation if they would enjoy their Lands and Goods in peace they must seek to be at peace with God and if they would not have destruction come upon them from God let them not draw it upon themselves by their sins Verse 49. There lacketh not one man of us say they here therefore we have brought an
whom thereby she draweth about her not so among Men. God and the Saints loath what the Wicked love and delight in as the Panther doth in mans excrements CHAP. XXIV Verse 9. THat is commanded her to be shut up seven dayes and it was fit for all parts Miriam should continue some while Leaprous There is no policy in a sudden removal of just punishment If the judgement had been at once inflicted and removed there had been no example of terror to others unless the Rain so fall that it lie and soak into the Earth it profits nothing If the judgements of God should be only as Passengers and not So journers at least they would be no whit regarded Verse 15. The hireling hath earnest thoughts upon his Reward his Reward is in his Eye which is the reason here given why his Wages should not be with-held poor Man he hath been working all day and he hath had his heart upon his Wages the hopes of that gave him some relief and ease in going through his hard task and service therefore thou shalt not keep it from him But is not this a Sin in the Servant to set his heart upon his Wages is not the charge given Psalm 62. If riches encrease set not thine heart upon them there is a great difference between these two Texts For this word here notes the lifting up of the Soul so we read in the Margin of our Bibles but in the Psalm where he speaks of the Covetous rich Man the word imports the setting down or setling of his heart upon it A poor Man hath but a little and his Wages it may be is above him his Wages possibly is more than he is worth therefore he lifteth up his mind to it as a thing he reacheth upward for but a Rich man who hath abundance let 's his heart down he croucheth and broodeth upon the Creature A godly poor man looks up to his Reward and fetches his Bread from Heaven a covetous Rich man looks down to his Reward and takes his Bread from the Earth A godly man is above all earthly things and yet he lifts up his mind to receive them a meer natural Man is below earthly things and yet he descends that he may receive them The things which both receive are the same but the conveyance and the derivation differ alwayes as much as Heaven and Earth sometimes as much as Heaven and Hell Verse 16. If it be here demanded how it may stand with Gods justice and this Text to punish the Son for the Father I answer That outward temporal evils are in the nature sometimes of a Curse sometimes of a Cure and accordingly God deals For sometimes he punisheth a bad Father in a bad Son and then it is not a cross only but a Curse to both so God punish'd Pharaoh in his first-born Sometimes he punisheth a good Father in a good Son and then it is though a cross yet a cure to both so punish'd he David in his young Child Sometimes he punisheth a good Father in a bad Son as he did David in Absolom and then 't is a cure to the Father but a curse to the Son sometimes he punisheth a bad Father in a good Son thus he punish'd Ieroboam in his Son and then it is a curse to the Father but a cure to the Son CHAP. XXV Verse 17. IN the Israelites passage out of Egypt God would not lead them the nearest way by the Philistines Land lest they should repent at the sight of War now they both see and feel it God knows how to make the fittest choice of the times of evill and with-holds that one while which he sends another not without a just reason why he sends and with-holds it And though to us they come ever as we think unseasonably and at some times more unfitly than others yet he that sends them knows their opportunities Who would not have thought a worse time could not have been pick'd for Israels War than now in the feebleness of their Troops when they were weary thirsty unweaponed yet now must the Amalekites do that which before the Philistines might not do we are not worthy not able to choose for our selves Verse 18. How cowardly and how craftily was the skirmish of Amalek they do not bid them battle in terms of War but without noise or warning come stealing upon the hindmost and fall upon the weak and scattered Remnants of Israel There is no looking for favour at the hands of malice the worst that either force or frand can do must be expected of an Adversary but much more of our spiritual Enemy by how much his hatred is deeper Behold this Amalek lies in ambush to hinder our passage into our Land of Promise and subtilly takes all advantages of our weaknesses We cannot be wise or safe if we stay behind our Colours and strengthen not those parts where is most opposition Verse 19. God holds it no derogation from his Mercy to bear a Quarrel long where he hates he whose anger to the vessels of Wrath is everlasting even in temporal judgement revengeth late the sins of his own Children are no sooner done and repented of then forgotten but the malicious sins of his Enemies stick fast in an infinite displeasure it is not in the power of Time to raze out any of the Arrerages of God we may lay up wrath for our Posterity happy is that Child therefore whose Progenitors are in Heaven he is left an inheritor of Blessing together with Estate whereas wicked Ancestors loose the thank of a rich Patrimony by the Curse that attends it He that thinks because punishment is deferr'd that God hath forgiven or forgot his offence is unacquainted with Justice and knows not that Times makes no difference in Eternity CHAP. XXVI Verse 13. VVHat was given here to the Poor the Fatherless and Widdow was given according to Gods command because he had enjoyn'd it should be so which instructs us that the work of Alms-deeds is not a Free-will Offering left to our selves to be done or undone as we think fit but it is our duty and we are bound to do it if able And this is further proved from 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge the rich that they be rich in good Works It is the Rich mans charge precept and duty It is not left to their free choice to do good if they please but it is laid upon them as their charge and duty they must do good Works and woe be to them if they do not And the reason of this is because God hath not made them Owners but Servants and Servants not of their own Goods but the Givers not Treâ—surers but Stewards and Almoners Which should exhort men to go on and glory in this Office of Stewardship especially when they shall consider that the praise of a Steward is more to lay out well than to have received much knowing that well done faithful servant Mat. 25. is a thousand times
a sweeter note than Soul take thine ease Luke 12. Verse 15. God that bids us to give one another good measure and running over doth look not to be pinched and scantled at our hands as if we counted all too much that he or his are to receive How he liketh such dealings his Law will teach us wherein oftentimes he requireth that his Offerings be of the best without blemish Add to this the solemn protestation which God required here at every Mans hands what time he made his account When thou hast made an end of Tything saith God Verse 12. then thou shalt say I have not eat thereof in my mourning for any necessity whatsoever nor suffered ought to perish by putting it to any prophane usage or carelesly testing it to be spoil'd but have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God and done after all that thou in this case hast commanded me Look down therefore from thy holy habitation even from Heaven and bless me God will have him know he must look no otherwise to be blessed of God and made to prosper in all that he had but according as God knowing the secrets of all hearts did know that he had dealt truly and justly with God and his Ministers in this point Verse 18. Seeing God may be in the mouths of many where he is not in the heart we learn from hence to joyn to our outward profession true Sanctification and inward holiness of Conversation True Profession bringeth with it true Godliness For all such as have this honour given unto them to be the People of God and his precious inheritance must be an holy people Thou hast set up the Lord this day to be thy God and the Lord hath set thee up this day to be a precious people unto him Let us therefore not content our selves to have God in our mouths but labour to be sincere and first of all to look to our hearts he that looketh to have good Fruit of his Trees looketh to the Roots he that would have clear Waters in the Channels looketh to the Fountains so if we cleanse our wayes in Gods sight this is the right order to be observed to begin first to cleanse the heart CHAP. XXVII Verse 15. THe People here were commanded to say Amen to every branch of the Curse because though it be the lowest way of obedience to obey in regard we believe the truth and certainty of the Curse yet it is an high act of obedience to believe it for Satan is as busie against our Faith in the threatnings as he is against our Faith in Promises This unbelief opens the way to the committing of sin and sweetens sin while we are committing it and therefore the Holy Ghost would have us in the first place to say Amen to the Curse that so we might not say Amen to the Sin Verse 17. How hainous a thing this is appears by the Curse annex'd to it by the Holy Ghost O therefore beware of this Caninus appetitus this Dogg-like greediness to swallow up all we can if Dives is Tormented Quia cupide servavit sua What shall be his portion Qui avide rapit aliena if those Fists which too closely keep their own shall be cut off what shall become of those hands that are opened to grasp other mens Estates we see all Creatures know and keep their bounds fishes the Water Beasts the Earth Birds the Ayre let men learn of them but especially let them remember that if it be a sin with an Anathema to remove our Neighbours what is it to alienate the Churches bounds O take heed of a sacrilegious surfeit a disease so perilous that envy its self cannot wish a worse to an Enemy 〈◊〉 iâ— Lord Burleigh gave advice to his Son that he should build no great House upon any Impropriation well knowing it would be built upon a sandy foundation surely for the spoils of the Church private Families yea the whole Nation mourns Verse 24. Those that are cursed in this Verse are such as go about and make baâ—e between Man and Man those Incendiaries that carry Tales that whisper against their Brethren and smite in secret buzzing into mens ears false and scandalous reports to engender strife These are an accursed Generation of people the mouth of God curseth them and his Soul abhors them Prov. 6. Besides as they stand accursed of God men must curse them too as you see here God gives all his people leave to Curse such a one Cursed be he that smites his Neighbour in secret that backbites him and speaks evil of him in a corner slily so to work him out of the good opinions of others and all the people shall say Amen Lo this is the wretched state and condition of all such as breed bate and dissentions between party and party Heaven and Earth concur in a Curse against them CHAP. XXVIII Verse 2. THough strangers may have some portion of Temporal blessings yet the right of Inheritance belongs to the Sons of God Riches and Honours delights and pleasures life and length of dayes Seed and Posterity are entail'd on such as are truly believing and fear the Lord and however the ungodly may lay some claim unto them and that by some kind of right from God as a sustainer of his Creatures yet can he not enjoy them with any great comfort as wanting the best title through the want of Christ. Verse 6. Between these two are contained all the labours and undertakings of this people by their going forth is meant the beginning of their labours and by their coming in is meant the end and conclusion of their labours so that beginning and ending when they set their hands to a business and when they took their hands from a business they should be blessed that is they should have a through blessing upon all their labours Thus doth God bless his people in their goings out and coming in at their birth and at their death and through all the actions and traverses of their lives Verse 15. The same blessings and Curses are repeated here that are recorded Lev. 26. and this most effectually to move any heart that hath grace Wherefore it is requisite that as God repeats the same again so we should read and meditate of it again and again that it may powerfully perswade us to be wise and take time while time serves to turn unto the Lord while his arm is stretched out to receive us This Verse also and indeed the whole Chapter may assure us that sin will have plagues first or last and therefore when they happen complain of sin and not of God remembring that there is no reason at all that we should grieve that God that will not hear us when we our selves will not hear God Or why sigh we that God will not look down to the Earth when we our selves will not look up to Heaven We can despise his precepts and yet we think much that he should despise our
very word Subah they would have returned in sackcloth and ashes And so likewise in the 80. Psalme Turn us again O Lâ—rd saith David and we shall be saved There goes no more to salvation but such a turning So that this returning of the Lord is an operative an effectual returning that turns our hearts and eyes and hands and feet to the waies of God and produceth in us repentance and obedience Verse 3. At what time soever man repents of his sins from the bottom of his heart at that very time God will repent of the judgment he intended against that man And thus here when Gods People should be carried away captive into any strange Land if then in their captivity they would turn unto God God would immediately turn unto them For the only reason why God doth not repent of the evil of punishment is because we do not repent of the evil of sinne the onely reason why God delayes to turn away his wrath is because we delay to turn unto him We cry How long Lord how long when wilt thou have mercy upon England and God calls How long O England how long when will you turn unto me with all your heart when will it once be Jer. 13. I appeal to your consciences that read this is it fit God should cease fighting against you by the sword before you cease fighting against him by your sins but if ye would turn unto God let me assure you the very same day that you turn God will turn You have Scripture for it Hag. 2. 18. nay let me tell you the very minute that you begin to repent God will repent Ier. 18. 7 8. At what instant I shall say to a nation c. as a personal repentance is a meanes to obtain a personal salvation so a national repentance is a meanes to obtain a national salvation at that very instance that thou turnest from thy sin God will turn from his anger and have compassion on thee Verse 10. The Decrees of God are not all of them absolute but many of them conditional If thou wilt hearken unto the Lord thy God and keep his Commandments saith the Text then the Lord will blesse thee and rejoyce over thee for good c. And though this condition be not alwaies exprest yet it is to be understood of course there are some Promises absolutely exprest in Scripture but yet made upon condition and so to be understood as some threatnings are made upon condition of impenitency so are some promises upon condition of obedience Yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Jonah 3. 4. the Threatning seems to be absolute and definite yet to be understood with this reserve unlesse Nineveh repent So for Promises though Gods decree concerning Elies house seemed to be most absolute I said indeed that thy house should walk before me for ever 1 Sam. 2. yet that God intends a condition is most plain because God adds the condition verse 30. of that Chapter so that you see whether God doth threaten a Judgement or promise a Mercy to his People all is upon Condition that is the steer the rudder that guides all Verse 12. Who shall go unto heaven for us Who but the Son of man which is in heaven Who but those that have in some measure the knowledge of God in Christ which is life eternall heaven before hand let there be therefore continual ascentions thither in our hearts let us lift up hearts and hands to God in heaven and He will shortly send his chariots for us as Ioseph did for his Father and convoy us thither In the mean space how should we every day take a turn or two with Christ upon mount Tabor get up to the top of Pisgath with Moses and take a prospect of heaven turn every solemnity into a schoole of Divinity say as one said when he heard a good consort of musick what musick may we think there is in heaven This this is the principal end and most profitable use of all the Creatures when they become ladders and wings to us to mount up to heaven CHAP. XXXI Verse 2. WE heard before the sin of Moses and Aaron speaking unadvisedly with their lips and striking the rock doubtfully with their hands and therefore the Lord doth here punish Moses and deny him enterance into the promised Land Thou shalt not go over Iordan from which we are taught that God chastiseth his own Children sinning against him thus when David had committed that grand complicated sin in the matter of Uriah by murther and adulterey though he were a man after Gods own heart yet the Lord raised evil against him out of his own house the sword of the enemy departed not from his house his own wives were defiled in the sight of the Sun Now God doth thus chastise his Children least they sinning with the men of this world should be condemned with them for as in punishing us he respects his own justice so also our own good and the great profit which thereby is brought unto us for if we should alwayes enjoy health and liberty peace and plenty we should kick against the Almighty and bitterly esteem the Rock of our Salvation Wherefore affliction is as the messengers of God to call us back from sin to wean us from this World and to kindle in us a desire of the World to come Gods afflictions are our remembrancers and his corrections our instructions And besides we must needs confess from hence that great is the wrath and anger of God for sin seeing he punisheth it so sharply and sincerely in his own children whom he hath engraven as a signet on the palm of his hand and whom he tenders as the apple of his own eye Verse 3. Whereas it is said here that Ioshua should go over before the people as the Lord had said we are taught that Magistrates have their calling and hold their places immediately from God for the good of the people Solomon was set in his throne by God himself not by the high Priest or the People and it is said of David that God chose him from the Sheepfold to feed his people Iacob and Israel his inheritance Psal. 18. The same likewise was spoke of Saul a wicked King the Lord hath annointed thee to be governour of his inheritance 1 Sam. 10. So then Kings hold of God in chief and not of men and upon this ground they are to give up their accounts to God only and not to man For as they are next and immediate unto God and inferiour to none but him so for all their actions they shall reckon with him and if you object that of 1 Pet. 2. 13. Where the People calleth it an ordinance of man I answer the Magistrate is so called not because men are the authors of it or may dissolve it but first because men do execute it and not God or the Angels secondly because it is ordained for the use benefit and profit of
not worth thanks Nay this very upbraiding Israelite shall save Moses his life For if this mans tongue had not cast him in the teeth with bloud he had been surprized by Pharaoh ere he could have known the fact was known Now he grows jealous flies and escapes no Friend is so commodious in some cases as an Adversary Verse 15. God hath alwayes one place of refuge or other for his Servants to fly unto If Iudea be dangerous for the Child Iesus in Egypt he shall find safety and again if Egypt threaten death to Moses Midian shall preserve him and improve him likewise For God by forty years exile fitted Moses for further light and advancement Much he had learnt in Egypt but more in Midian There is no doubt but he had good School-masters in Pharaohs Court but his own affliction was his best Moses had never been so illuminate a Doctor nor so excellent a Ruler afterwards if he had not been first humbled here Verse 17. Moses when he may not in Egypt he will be doing Justice in Midian In Egypt he delivers the oppressed Israelite in Midian the wrong'd Daughters of Iethro A good Man will be doing good wheresoever he is his Trade is a compound of Charity and Justice But who would have thought in this present condition as Moses was so cast down with his own complaints that he would have had any feeling of others yet how hot is he upon Justice No adversity can make a good Man neglect good Duties he sees in the oppression of the Shepherds the image of that other he left behind him in Egypt The Maids Daughters of so great a Peer draw water for their Flocks the inhumane Shepherds drive them away rudeness hath not respect either to Sex or condition If we lived not under Laws this were our case Might would be the measure of Justice we should not so much as injoy our own water Verse 22. It seems by this Text that Moses his affection was not so tyed to Midian that he could forget Egypt He was a Stranger in Midian What was he else in Egypt Surely either Egypt was not his Home or a miserable one and yet in reference to it he cals his Son Gershom a Stranger there Much better were it to be a Stranger there than a Dweller in Egypt How hardly can we forget the place of our abode or education although never so homely And if he thought of his Egyptian Home where was nothing but bondage and tyranny how should we think of that Home of ours above where is nothing but rest and blessedness Verse 23. This is a Comfort to the Godly as likewise it should be a Warning to all Oppressors of Gods Children they shall die and be packing and shall not continue to deal cruelly with Gods Inheritance The rod of the ungodly lighteth upon the Faithful but the Lord hath said it shall not rest and dwell upon them But however it was but just with God to let them sigh by reason of their bondage Such sobs of sorrow were but due to them that rejected and would not see what God offered them of ease A singular Warning to beware the rejection of Gods Mercy when it is offered for such a refusal hath ever a sure punishment attending upon it Forty years agoe God offered them deliverance by Moses which when they refused they were plagued with forty years more of slavery But yet at length when they sighed God heard that very sorrowful breathing Sweet Father so it is ever with thee just to correct but gracious to give over not ever offended but in due time intreated pittiful loving and of endless mercy CHAP. III. Verse 1. THat great men may not be ashamed of honest Vocations the greatest that ever were have been content to take up with mean Trades The same Moses that in the former Chapter was a Courtier is in this verse a Shepherd The contempt of honest Callings in those which are well born argues Pride without Wit How constantly did Moses stick to his Hook and yet a man of great Spirit of excellent Learning of curious Education and if God had not called him off he had so ended his dayes In the mean time how had he learn'd to subdue all ambitious desires and to rest content with his obscurity so he might have the freedome of his thoughts and full opportunity of holy Meditations he willingly leaves the World to others and envies not his proudest Acquaintance of the Court of Pharaoh He that hath true worth in himself and familiarity with God finds more pleasure in the Desarts of Midian than others can do in the Palaces of Kings Verse 2. This manner of appearing may occasion us to remember how God useth to apply himself to the purpose and intent of his appearing Isai. 6. 1. He is said to appear like a Judge because as then the judgement of Ifrael drew near At the Baptisme of Christ it pleased the Holy Ghost to appear like a Dove because that form might shew the innocency and mild nature of our Saviour And now here like a Bush burning but not consumed that it might declare the present state of his People in Egypt and the condition of his Church unto the Worlds end Verse 5. In this appearance God meant to call Moses to come yet when he is come inhibits him Come not hither We must come to God but we must not come too near him When we mediate of the great Mysteries of his Word we come to him we come too near him when we search into his Counsels The Sun and the Fire say of themselves come not too near how much more the Light which none can attain unto We have all our limits set us and very good reason for it For the Waves of the Sea had not more need of bounds than mans presumption Moses must not come close to the Bush at all and where he may stand he may not stand with his shooes on This Command was significant What are the shooes but worldly and carnal affections If these be not cast off when we come to the holy Place we make our selves unholy How much lesse should we dare to come with resolutions of sin This is not only to come with shooes on but with shooes bemired with wicked filthiness the touch whereof prophanes the Pavement of God and makes our presence odious Verse 6. God could not describe himself by a more sweet Name than this I am the God of thy Father and of Abraham c. yet Moses hides his face for fear If he had said I am the Glorious God that made Heaven and Earth that dwels in Light inaccessible whom Angels cannot behold here had been just cause of terror But why was Moses so frighted with a familiar compellation God is no lesse awful to his own in his very Mercies Great is thy Mercies that thou maist be fear'd For to them no lesse Majesty shines in the Favours of God than in his Judgements and Justice