licking people I mean the nation of Usurers and their factours as Cormorants fall upon the poor borrower and with open mouth devour him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foenus a multiplici foetu ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the year 1235. Speed there were spred thorough England certain Romane Usurers called Caursini quasi capientes Vrsi devouring bears saith Matthew Paris These bite to purpose Others are more cunning and close in their conveyance like Serpents they can sting without hissing like our-dogs suck your blood only with licking and in the end kill you and cut your throats without biting For as much as all Vsury being forbidden by the law of God is a sin and detestable c. saith the statute 13. Elisab Chap. 8. And Verily so many as increase themselves by usury c. they have their goods of the ' Devils gift Homil. of the Church of England Vol. 2. Hom. 17. pag. 2. Aristotle by the dim light of nature Arist Eth. l. 4. cap. 1. saw the evil of it condemning in one page the Usurer and the Dicer And Agis General of the Athenians so hated Usury that he made a bonefire of all the Usurers bills and bonds Plut. in Solone in the market place and then said that he never saw a finer fire then that in all his life Vers 20. Vnto a stranger thou mayst And they do it to purpose at this day in forraign parts where they live straining up their Usury to eighteen in the hundred upon the Christian This is their chief trade and this is yeelded by some as a reason why the Iews do so stink quòd plerique omnes mensarii sint faeneratoriam exercentes et ita nullis exercitati laboribus i.e. Because most of them are usurers lead sedentary lives and use no bodily exercise It was the saying of a merry fellow that in Christendom there were neither schollers enough gentlemen enough nor Iewes enough Heyl. Geog. If the first so many would not be â—uralists If the second so many Pesants would not be reckoned among the Gentry If the third not so many Usurers Vers 21. Thou shalt not slack to pray Come off with it roundly and readily as those Zech. 5.9 that had wings and wind in their wings Habent aulae suum citò citè God loves a cheerefull giver Vers 22. It shall be no sin in thee i.e. No such great sin as Ioh. 9.41 lib. 2. de Monach cap. 16. Alphons de castro So Iob. 15.22 24. Jam. 4.17 See Eccles 5.5 Vovere nusquam est prâ—ceptum saith Bellarmine We are no where in Scripture commanded to vow And Fateor quod deus non praecipit sed tantùm consulit nobis ut aliquid illi voveamus saith another Popish writer I confess God no where commandeth but only counselleth us to make vows But what will they say to Psal 76.11 Vow and perform to the Lord your God bring presents c And are not the nine lepers condemned by Christ for their negligence and unthankfulness Luk. 17.17 18. Vers 24. When thou comest c. As a passenger Mat. 12.1 2. how much more as a labourer 1 Cor. 9.7 thou maist take what thou wilt for necessity but not for superfluity Vers 25. But thou shalt not move 〈◊〉 sickle Here God reserveth the right and property of the owner which no man might invade or infringe CHAP. XXIV Vers 1. BEcause he hath found some uncleanness He is displeased with some defect which he hath found either in her body or behaviour as our Henry the eight pretended at least to do in his Anne of Cleeve sister to William Duke of Cleeve whose other sister Frederike Duke of Saxony Luthers Patrone and protectour had espoused This Lady being sâ—nt into England against Fredericks liking and married to King Henry seemed nothing pleasing in his eye and was therefore sed quo jure soon after divorced This Steven Gardiner thought a fit subject for him to work upon Speeds hist fol. 1042. against the Lord Cromwell who had made the match and now opposed the divorce and was therefore put to death which he suffered right christianly and cheerfully Let him write her a bill of divorcement Heb. he shall write her a bill of divorcement God permitteth he commandeth not the Jews thus to do as they mistook the matter Math. 19.7 and were better informed by our Saviour vers 8. See the Notes there Vers 3. And if the latter husband haâ—â— her As many Nabals now-a-dayes do Job was not more weary of his boyls then they are of their bed-fellows cursing their wedding-day as much as he did his birth-day and thirsting after a divorte as he did after death Which because it cannot be had their lives prove like the sojourning of Israel in Marah where almost nothing could be heard but mourning conjuring and complaining Vers 4. After that she is defiled Or caused to be defiled to wit by her husband who put her away first he being her only lawful husband Marth 5.32 Vers 5. Shall chear up his wife For the better knitting of their affections which if well done at first will continue the more firm ever after as a broken bone well set or as two boards well glewed together will sooner break in a new place then there Vers 6. A mans life That is his livelihood A poor man in his house is like a â—â—ail in his shell crush that and you kill him See Luk. 8.43 Mark 12.44 all her life that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all her living Vers 7. And maketh merchandise of him What then shall be done to those seducers that creeping or shooting themselves into houses lend taptive silly women 2 Tim. 3.6 and simple men Rom. 16.18 take them prisoners and then make prize of them 2 Pet. 2.3 Of which sort of soul-merchants there are now adayes found not a few See Rev. 18.13 Vers 8 The Levites shall teach you Not the history only but the mystery too See the Notes on Levit. 13. Vers 9. Did unto Miriam When he spate in her face and spared her not though a Prophetess and a Conductress of Gods people to Canaan Mic. 6.4 God will not pass by the sins of his Saints if scandalous especially without a sensible check Vers 10. To fetch his pledg To see quà m sit curta supellex and to pick and chuse what pledg thou pleasest Vers 12. Thou shalt not sleep with his pledg As those cruel crafties did Amos 2.8 that sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shooes vers 6. Vers 13. May blesse thee Saying as St. Paul brings in the relieved poor Christian 2 Cor. 9.15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift God will surely bless thee for such a blessing And it shall be righteousnesse unto thee God will reckon it for a good work and graciously reward it he will turn pay-master to thee thy righteousness and thy riches too shall endure for ever Psal 11
away well mounted till overtaken by hue and cry he is apprehended sentenced and executed Your sin will find you out as a blood-hound et patientia Dei erga impios quò diuturnior Hioron in Jerem. eò minacior Morae dispendium foenoris duplo pensatur the longer God forbeareth the heavier he punisheth Vers 35. To me belongeth vengeance and recompence The Hebrew word for vengeance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies comfort also for God will be comforted in the execution of his wrath Ezek. 5.13 See the Note on Chap. 28.63 He shew such severity sometimes as if he had blotted that out of his title Exod. 34.6 and now took up that Emperours Motto Fiat justitia pereat mundus Their foot shall slide in due time They are set in slippery places Psal 73.18 they ever walk as upon a mine of gun powder ready to be blown up Nemo crimen gerit in Pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo Nemesis dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods wrath is such as none can avert or avoid Vers 36. And repent himself for his servants Thus God mingleth and allayeth the rigour of his justice with the vigour of his mercy Vers 37. And he shall say i. e. He shall upbraid them with the inability of their idols to do for them Vers 39. I even I am he I is emphatical and exclusive Vers 41. If I whet my glittering sword God first whets before he smites and first takes hold on judgement before his judgments take hold on men Est piger ad poenas ad proemia velox See the like Psal 7.12 God was but six dayes in making the whole world yet was he seven dayes in destroying that one city of Iericho as Chrysostome observeth Fury is not in me Esay 27.4 As a bee stings not till provoked so God punisheth not till there be no other remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 Vers 43. Rejoyce O ye Nations Give God the glory of his just severity which is no less commendable in a Judge then seasonable clemency Vers 47. For it is not a vain thing Gods favour is no empty favour it is not like the Winter-Sun that casts a goodly countenance when it shines but gives little comfort and heat CHAP. XXXIII Vers 1. BEfore his death The words of dying men are living oracles they should therefore be pious and ponderous Vers 2. Went a fiery law for them This fire wherein the law was given and shall be required is still in it and will never out hence are those terrours which it slasheth in every conscience that hath felt remorse of sin Every mans heart is a Sinai and resembles to him both heaven and hell The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law Vers 3. Yea he loved the people With a general love with a common Philanthropie But the love of God in Christ is that we must all labour after such a love as doth better for a man then restore him to sight or raise him when bowed down Psal 146.8 Are in thy hand And so in a safe hand Ioh. 10.29 And they sate down at thy feet As attentive and tractable Disciples See Act. 22.3 Luk. 10.39 2 King 2.5 Knowest thou not that the Lord will take thy master from thy head A phrase taken from their manner of sitting at the feet of their Teachers Vers 4. Moses commanded us a law These are the words of those Saints above-mentioned expressing their good affection to the law and to Moses by whose mediation they received it Even the inheritance For perpetual use to us and our posterity Indeed the law lyes not upon the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.9 nor urgeth them as it doth upon the wicked To those the law is as chains and shackles to those as girdles and garters which gird up their loyns and expedite their course the better It confines them to live in that element where they would live as if one should be confined to paradise where he would be though there were no such law Vers 5. And he was King in Jesharu◠An herrick King raigning by vertue and justice only not by force and violence One that said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I can do but This is fit for me to do When the heads of the people and the tribes Here was a government made up of King Lords and Commons The best of governments doubtless so that the boam be kept right betwixt Soveraignty and subjection The contention now again flagrant in England between Prince and people about command and obedience ceased not till the Magna Charta first obtained of King John after of his son Henry 3. though observed truly of neither was in the maturity of a judicial Prince Edward the first freely ratified after fourscore years Vers 6. Let Reuben live and not dye Let him have a nail and a name in Gods house notwithstanding the hainousness of his sin and the severity of Iacobs sentence Gen. 49.4 See the Note there Vers 7. And this is the blessing Simeon is not mentioned but implyed in Iudah's blessing in the midst of whose inheritance lay his portion Josh 19.1 Besides that tribe was exceedingly defiled with fornication spiritual and corporal and by that means much decayed and diminished Numb 26.14 Hear Lord the voyce of Judah Putting thy promises Gen. 8.9 10 11. into suit by his prayers and pressing thee for a performance Vers 8. Let thy Thummim and thy Vrim Sincerity of life and soundness of doctrine See the Note on Exod. 28.30 There is great cause That Ministers of all men should be much pray'd for Vers 9. Who said unto his father In that heroical fact Ezod 32.26 29. Not to be wryed or biassed by respect to carnal friends is a high and hard point of self-denial Mark was Barnabas his sisters son hence he stood so stiffe for him against Paul his faithfull fellow-traveller Act. 15.37 Colos 4.10 Moses to please Zipporah displeased God and it went hard with him Exod. 4.24 Eli was too indulgent to his wicked sons and so perhaps was Samuel too 1 Sam. 8.1 3. Vers 10. They shall teach Jacob Apt and able to teach must all Ministers be as Paul Act. 20. Praedicationis officium suscipit quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit saith Gregory Hee 's no Minister that 's no teacher Aidanus the first Bishop of Durham Anno Dom. 636. neglected no duty of a good Pastour travelling up and down the country even on foot Godw. Catalog to preach the Gospell giving whatsoever he could get unto the poor and by the example of his own vertues instructing as well as by word and doctrine Amongst the Greeks Tragedians and Comedians were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to labour in teaching the people What should Ministers then do They shall put incense before thee i.e. Pray for the people as well as preach to them So Act
Inhabitants of the world saith the Psalmist Both low and high rich and poor together Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissâ—r hiatu Horat. will some proud spirit say what so great matter is there delivered in this Psalm that so much attention is called for Is it not an ordinary argument such as we have heard of an hundred times viz. the happy and secure estate of the Saints though in trouble and the miserable and slippery condition of the wicked though they prosper in the world True saith the Holy Ghost this is the subject of this Psalme and this how common a theme soever is the great wisdome and the dark saying that I will here open unto you and that calls for your utmost attention Vers 33. Now therefore let Pharaoh c. This was good counsell and it proved best to the councellour The Iewes injuriously charge him with ambitious self-seeking So they did Noah as is above noted with hard-heartedness and in compassionateness to the old world These made the worst of things and so condemned the generation of Gods Children How much better had it been Eâ quemque ansâ prebendamus quâ commodè teneri queat Epictet Fran. de Sales c. 28. to have followed that golden rule of Epictetus Take every man by that handle whereby he may best be held as Virgill dealt by Ennius Cyprian by Tertullian Hierome by Origen August in by Tichonius If an action had an hundred several faces we should alwaies cast our sight upon the fairest and make the best of every thing What Ioseph did here he did doubtless by divine direction Vers 34. Let him appoint officers Bishops or overseers Pakid Episcopuâ— Such amongst the Romans were praefecti annoâ—ae The word signifyeth any such as have publike charge and office whether in Church or common-wealth But how many of our Episcopi are now become Aposcopi by-seers rather then over-seers as Espencaeus long since complained Our land groans for some Moses to take away the evil-Officers Nam non unum tantùm vitulum sed multos habemus as honest Ferus said of his times And as John Hus Multa quae illi or dinem dicunt omnium rerum in christianismo consufionem pariunt Bell. Hussiticum pag. q. of his Church-men Many things saith he which they call order breed confusion of all things throughout whole Christendome And take up the fifth part of the land For so much money as it is worth the Egyptians might well spare it and the King might as well buy it sith he should sell it again for very good profit Neither would Joseph advise nor Pharaoh be advised to take his Subjects goods by violence When Samuel tells the people that their King Bucholc whom they called for would take their fields and vineyards the best of them and give them to his servants c. loquitur non tam de jure quam de more he speaks not of the right of Kings as if all were theirs and no man had any thing of his own but of the manner and illimited power that some Kings take over their subjects goods as in Turkie Persia c. Let it be the voyce of a Nero whensoever he put any one in office Scis quid mihi opus sit Sueton. in Nerone hoc agamus nequis quicquam habeat Of a Seleucus to proclaim that the Kings pleasure is the only law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Appian as if it were not enough to be above men but above mankind as those Princes Would be saith our English Chronicler that would have their will to be law Melancthon tells us of a certain Prince in those parts Dan. hist of Engl. f. 144. Primò unâ—n dâ—â—â—â—em â—â—â—llebat minitans c. Manl. loc com 636. Eram aliquandò in die Natali in cujusdam concione c. Erant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quibus gratificabatur assentiebatur quorundam auribus c. Ibid. 479. that extorted money from his miserable subjects by knocking out their teeth First he knockt out one tooth threatning to do so by the rest unless they brought him in such a sum by such a time as he demanded The same Author elsewhere relates that he was at a Sermon on the birth-day of our Saviour The Preacher took his text out of Luk. 2.1 There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed And whereas the audience expected that the Preacher should have discoursed of Christs Nativity of the hypostatical union c. he spent his whole hour the weather being extream cold in this subject that Obedience must be yeelded to the higher powers that they must have as much money given them as they call for with a great deal of such like stuff little to the purpose but much to the pleasure of some Princes then and there present Such Court-Parasites many times do much mischief in a State as well by seducing good Princes qui essent alii si essent apudalios as by stickling against them when the world doth not favour them When Edward the second sirnamed Carnarvan was pursued by his Queen and son the Bishop of Hereford being to preach before her at Oxford and to deliver the cause of her proceeding took for his text My head aketh Dan. hist of Engl. fol. 216. my head aketh and concluded most undivinely that an aking and sick head of a Kingdom was of necessity to be taken off and no otherwise cured Vers 35. And let them gather all the food This text warranteth providence in laying up for a rainy day Solomon sends us to school to the pismire to learn this lesson Prov. 6.6 And it is well observed that our Saviour had a purse for common store for himself and those about him Neither was this a penny-pouch but a bag so big as needed a bearer God would have us to be good husbands and see that Condus be fortior promo our comings in more then our layings out Parents must lay up for their children 2 Cor. 12.14 yea leave inheritance to childrens children Prov 13.22 playing the good husbands abroad and at home Prov. 27.26 27. Vers 37. And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh The Devil no doubt by the Magicians and Politicians of those times did his utmost to hinder the Kings purpose of preferring Joseph as he did here for Cromwell that great Reformer whom King Henry the eight Act. Mon. 1070. of a Smiths son made Farl of Essex But these is neither counsel nor wisdom against the Lord Prov. 21.30 Vers 38. And Pharaoh said unto his servants He would resolve nothing without the advice of his Counsel Val. Max. lib. 9. cap. 5. He was not like the Persian Monarchs who gave their Peers no freedom nor liberty of advice Nor that wilful King James of Scotland that reigned in our Edward the fourth's time that would seldom ask counsel but never follow any so wedded he was
God will not alway serve men for a sinning-stock Crudelem medicumâ— intemperans ager facit Every thing that is in the earth shall dye A dismall doom and God is now absolute in his threatning because he will be resolute in his execution Oh tremble and sin not Psal 4. while others sin and tremble not Kisse the Son lest he be angry Who knoweth the power of his anger Surely according to our fear Psal 90.11 is his wrath It is a just presage and desert of ruine not to be warned God hath hang'd up the old world in gibbets as it were for our admonition Worthily are they made examples that will not take them Who pities the second Captaine consumed by fire with his company 2 King 1. sith he had a fair warning but would not beware by it Mal. 4.1 Behold the day of the Lord commeth that shall burne as an Oven This last day was foretold by Enoch before the deluge was by Noah Longer it is before it comes but shall be more terrible when it is come Vers 18. Thou and thy sons Yet Ham soon after degenerated for the present he concealed his wickedness from men from God he could not He beares with hypocrites in his visible Church for a season till the time of separation Augustiâ— Matth. 3.12 Zach. 14.21 In area nobiscum esse possunt in horreo non possunt He will throughly purge his floore The Canaanite shall not be in the land any longer nor the uncleane spirit Zach. 13.2 O faelicem illam dieculam Vers 20. Two of every sort shall come unto thee For they are all thy servants saith David they wait upon thy word Psal 119.91 This Noah might make good use of and did no doubt See how sequacious these poor creatures are to God their Centurion If he bid them come they come if go they go And shall not I obey God and follow his call be there never so many Lions in my way Vers 21. Take thou unto thee of all food God could have kept them alive without either food or arke But he will have us serve his providence in use of lawfull means and so to trust him as that we do not tempt him Vers 22. Thus did Noah according to all c. The wicked world could not slout him out of his faith Heb. 11.7 but that moved with fear he preacheth and buildeth and finisheth He preached without preaching saith Basil of Selucia every stroke upon the Arke being a reall Sermon as Nazianzen hath it to forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come which yet they did not No not the very Ship-wrights that made the Arke but were all buried together in one universall grave of waters CHAP. VII Vers 1. For thee have I seen righteous before me NOt onely before men as Pharisees Luke 16.15 and civill Justitiaries Rom. 2.29 but before me who see the inside and love truth in the hidden man of the heart Psal 51.6 1 Pet. 3.5 And here Noahs sincerity prevailed with God for his safety as did likewise Lots whom God hid in Zoar and Abrahams to whom God was a shield to save him from the deadly thrusts of destruction when he pursued the four Kings and foyled them because he walked before him and was upright Gen. 15.1 with Gen. 14.15 So true is that of Solomon Prov. 10.9 Prov. 14.26 Isai 26.3 He that walketh uprightly walketh safely as if he were in a tower of brass or town of war And again In the fear of the Lord is strong considence and his children have a place of refuge The old Rock is still ready to relieve them In this generation 2 Pet. 2.5 Called by Saint Peter a world of ungodly ones far worse no doubt then those in Henochs days The greater praise was it to Noah that by an holy Antiperistasis he kindled from their coldness and became nothing the worse but much the better as it is the nature of true goodness by their oppositions It was an invincible Faith whereby he both conquered the world and condemned it What else could have carried him over so many difficulties as he must needs encounter Well might the Apostle say Heb. 11.7 By faith he prepared an Ark. For if he had been led by sense he would have fled as far as Jonas did ere ever he had gone about it Vers 2. Of every clean beast thou shalt take by sevens Three pair for generation and a single one for sacrifice after the flood was past as Chap. 8.20 God must have a moyetâ— and good reason But that two onely of a sort of the unclean hurtful creatures were preserved note his fatherly providence To this day we see though sheep and birds be so killed up for mans use yet there are far more of them then of other unserviceable or cruel creatures Besides the weaker creatures go in herds together the stronger and savager go alone For if they should go in multitudes no man nor beast could stand before them This you shall finde set down to your hand Job 37. Psal 104. Ammianus Marcellinus writeth That in Chaldaea there are a huge number of Lyons which were like enough to devour up both men and beasts throughout the Countrey But withal he saith That by reason of the store of water and mud thereof there breed yeerly an innumerable company of gnats whose property is to flee into the eye of the Lyon as being a bright and orient thing Where biting and stinging the Lyon he teareth so fiercely with his claws that he puts out his own eyes And by that means many are drowned in the rivers Boâ—in in Theatro lib. 3. others starve for want of prey and many the more easily killed by the inhabitants Bodin telleth us That the Wolf never seeth his sire his dam nor his young For that the herd of Wolves sets upon and killeth that Wolf which by the smell they perceive to have coupled with the she-wolf which unless they did what a deal of mischief would be done by them every where among cattle Vers 4. For yet seven days c. God could have destroyed them by water or otherwise in a far shorter space But of his Free-grace he gives them yet seven days further and then rains upon the earth fourty days as not willing that any should eternally perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 The Hebrew Doctors as they are very injurious to Noah because we read not that he prayed for the old world but onely took care of himself and his own family censuring him therefore of self-love and hard-heartedness so they judg very uncharitably of those that perished in the flood sending them all to hell and wresting some Scriptures thereunto As that in this present verse God saith He will destroy them or blot them out That is R. Menachem in loc say they out of the land of the world to come the land of the living I deny not
simplicitatem columbinam August Vers 8. Also he sent forth a Dove A bird that being swift and simple â—â—ai 60.8 willingly flies back to his Windows through â—ove and faithfulness to his mate and young Besides he fleeth a long while together and very near the ground and so was fitter for this service Josephus saith That he came into the Ark with his feet and wings wet and dirty which could not but be good news to Noah Vers 9. Psal 38.10 My heart paâ—tâ—th 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Merchants run from Countrâ—y to Couanâ—y Buchâ—lâ— And the Dove found no rest No more doth mans soul Gods Turtle till it rest in God Domine saith Saint Augustine fecisti nos ad te ideoque cor nostrum inquietum est doneâ— requieverit in te Hic finis nostrae formationis saith another ut homo sit templum Dei Deus ara hominis How oft doth the good soul cry Oh that I had the wings of a Dove c. Or if that Oh will not set him at liberty she takes up that wo to express her misery Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshec c. Vers 11. In her mouth was an olive-leaf The olive never casteth her leaf and is greenest in the spring saith Pliny It might very well continue so under water during the flood It may also very well by an allegory set forth that Grace and Peace by Jesus Christ brought in the mouth of his Ministers in this Evening of the World Rom. 10.15 The Dove returned at first without her errand but sent again she brought better tidings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epictet The Man of God must not onely be apt to teach but patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves proving if at any time God will give them repentance All are not sent into the vineyard at the same hour of the day Holy Melancthon being himself newly converted thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the Gospel But after he had been a Preacher a while 't is said he complained That old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon And yet he wanted not afterwards the Seal of his Ministry For among many others converted by him was that sweet Saint George Prince of Anhalt whose house was Ecclesia Academia Curia Melch. Adam and whose heart was so upright with God his life so laudable amongst men that Melancthon once publikely defending the certainty of our future felicity by this Argument that godly men must be hereafter rewarded wicked men punished he named this pious Prince Scultet ex ore Bucholceri quâ— Melancthonis fuit auditor as an unquestionable example of such a man as might assuredly expect the promised Crown of Life eternal which God the righteous Judg will give to all his 2 Tim. 4.8 Vers 16. Go forth of the Ark Learn we of this holy Patriark to do all by Gods direction and not dare to attempt any thing without his warrant approving our selves to him in our comings in and goings out Psal 91. He hath charged his Angels with us so long as we keep the Kings high way Jere. 20.7 But if we go out of his precincts we go out of his protection Take counseâ— at his mouth and then we may safely say Lord if I be deceived thou hast deceived me This as at all times we have need to do so now especially when there is as 2 Chron. 15.5 〈◊〉 peace to him that goeth out nor to him that cometh in but great vexation upon all countries Nation being destroyed of Nation and City of City c. Vers 19. Every beast after their kinde Heb. after their families That is not confusedly and pell-mell as we say but distinctly and in order The Lyon with the Lyoness c. every male with his female the clean by themselves and the unclean by themselves And as these latter came to the Ark unclean and unclean they departed so do millions now-adays to the Ordinances A Preacher hath as much joy to see them there as John Baptist had to see the Pharisees thronging to his Baptism when he cryed out Matth. 3. O generation of vipers who sent for you who hath forewarned you c Vers 20. And Noah builded an altar to the Lord. This was his first care and so it was Abrahams where-ever he came It must be also ours after great deliverances especially Gods mercies are binders Beneficium postâ—lat officium He is content we have the comfort of his blessings so he may have the praise of them This Pepper-corn is all the rent he looks for O cover we Gods Altar with the calves of our lips Heb. 13.15 Psal 69.31 giving thanks to his name This will please him better then an ox that hath horns and hoofs Onely let it be done the first thing that we do after the receipt of a benefit which else will soon wax stale and putrifie as fish No part of the thank offering might be kept unspent to the third day Hezekiah wrote his song the third day after his recovery Noah was no sooner out of the Ark but he offered on his new-built Altar as well for testification of his thankfulness as for confirmation of his Faith in that Lamb of God slain and sacrificed from the beginning of the world 2 Cor. 5.19 God was now also in Christ reconciling this new world to himself Vers 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor Heb. a savor of rest Minimo capiâ—ur thuris honorâ— Deu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 1. Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle followeth saying That Christ gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a small of sweet savor Ephes 5.2 All our sacrifices are accepted for this of Christ which otherwise would be turned off with who required these things at your hands The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord yea though he should bring thousands of rams Micah 6.7 and ten thousand rivers of oyâ— with those miscreants in Micah that by their munificence would fain have purcreants chased a dispensation to sin whereas Noah with his Oxe Ram Propter animalia multa vel grandia non placuit Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He-goat Turtle and young Pigeon laid in for him by God himself for this same purpose is highly accepted in that beloved One as Christ is called Eph. 1.6 The Lord said in his heart All his promises are heart-sprung the issue of a most faithfull and righteous will void of any the least insincerity and falshood whatsoever he speaks he speaks from his heart we may write upon 't The Eternity of Israel cannot lye 1 Sam. 15.29 I will not again curse the ground c for the imagination of mans heart As who should say Man doth but his kind now in committing evill before me He hath by his fall brought upon himself a miserable
to express the terror of the day vainly say That the Angels in Heaven amazed with that hideous noyse for that time forgot the heavenly Hymnes wherewith they always glorifie God In conclusion Lazarus was slain and Amurath had the victory but a very bloody one and such as he had no great joy of For he lost abundance of his Turks as did likewise Adrian the Emperor of his Romans when he fought against the Jews and had the better but with such a loss of his own men that when he wrote of his victory to the Senate Dio in Adriano he forbore to use that common exordium that the Emperors in like ease were wont to use Si vos liberique vestri valeatis bene est Ego quidem exercitus valemus There was no such thing beleeve it nor but seldom is there But as the Dragon sucks out the blood of the Elephant Plin. and the waight of the falling Elephant oppresseth the Dragon and both usually perish together so doth it many times fall out with those that undertake war These four Kings beat the five but ere they gat home became a prey to Abraham and his confederates The Low-Countrey-men are said to grow rich Heyl. Geog. pag. 253. whereas all other Nations grow poor with war But they may thank a good Queen under â—od Queen Elisabeth I mean who first undertook their protection against the Spaniard Anâ—o 1585. Camdens Elisab For the which act of hers all Princes admired her fortitude and the King of Sweden said That she had now taken the Diadem from her head and set it upon the doubtful chance of War Dulia sanè est Martis alea neâ— rarò utrique parti noxia saith Bucholcerus And I cannot but as the case stands with us Bucholc Chroâ— p. 583. especially at this present by reason of these unnatural uncivil Wars stirred up amongst us go on and give my vote with him Ideo pons aureus ut vulgato proverbio dicitur hosti fugienti extruendus est magno precio precibus patientia ac prudentia alma pax redimenda ne infoelicitatis portas pacis tempore clausas Dulce bellum inexpertis infaustum bellum aperiat War is sweet they say to them that never made tryal of it But I cannot sufficiently wonder at Pyrrhus King of Epirus Nulli ma orem ex imperio quà m Pyrrho ex bello voluptatem fuisse Tit. 1.12 of whom Justin witnesseth That he took as much pleasure in War as others do in Supream Government He might have learned better of his own Prophets so Saint Paul calleth their Poets Homer the Prince of them ever brings in Mars as most hated of Jupiter above any other god as born for a common mischeif and being right of his mother Juno's disposition which was fierce vast contumacious and malignant We that are Christians as we cannot but with the Prophet Isaiah count and call War a singular evil So we must acknowledg with him Mâ—lum per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut bâ—llum quia minimâ— bâ—llâ—m per autiphrasin that it is an evil of Gods own creating Isaiah Chap. 45. vers 7. I make peacâ— and create evil that is War I is emphatical and exclusive as who should say I and I alone Whence-soever the Sword comes it is bathed in Heaven Isaiah Chapter 34. verse 5. God is pleased for this to stile himself A man of war Exodus 15.3 The Chaldee expresseth it thus The Lord and Victor of wars Gen. 17.1 Eundem victâ—rem vastatorem esse oportet Genesis 17.1 God elsewhere calleth himself El Shaddai Aben-Ezra interpreteth Shaddai a Conqueror And indeed the Hebrew word Shadad signifieth to dissipate and destroy both which he must needs do that becomes a Conqueror Gods seems to glory much in his workings about warlike affairs Hence Psalm 24.8 Who is the King of glory Psal 24.8 The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle He is in Scripture said to send the Sword Ezekiel 14.17 To muster the men Isaiah 13.4 To order the Ammunition Jeremiah 50.25 To bring up both van and rear Isaiah 52.12 To give wisdom valor and victory Psalm 144.1 Ezekiel 30.24 Ecclesiastes 9.11 The whole battle is his 1 Samuel 17.47 And he oft thereby revengeth the quarrel of his Covenant Levit. 26. So he hath done already upon the Jews and Germans so he is now doing alass upon Ireland and England And here I cannot but insert that which I finde observed by a prime Preacher of our Kingdom The late battle at Edge-hill was fought in a place called The Vale of the Red Horse as if God had said I have now sent you the Red Horse to avenge the quarrel of the White Revel 6.2 4. The blood spilt at Edge-hill the same day of the moneth in which the Rebellion brake out in Ireland the yeer before October 23. Yea and upon the self-same day if our Intelligence be true in which that bloody battle was fought neer Leipsick in Germany This Conjuncture is a sad Presage That England is to drink deep in Germany's and Irelands Cup. Father if it be thy will let this Cup pass from us A Cup of trembling it is surely to my self among many others such as maketh my Pen almost to fall out of my fingers whiles I write these things and affecteth me no otherwise when I consider of the many fearful convulsions of our Kingdom tending doubtless to a deadly consumption then the siege of Rome did Saint Jerome For hearing that that City was besieged Hieron Conn in Ezekiel Prâ—oem at such time as he was writing a Commentary upon Ezekiel and that many of his godly acquaintance there were slain he was so astonished at the news That for many nights and days he could think of nothing When I think of what should move the Lord to make this breach upon us and notwithstanding that he hath been so earnestly besought yet for all this his anger is not turned away Haec sâ—riâ—si cordâ—citâ—s do oâ—s August 21. 1643. but his hand is stretched out still that of Cajetan comes before me who then Commenting upon Matthew when the French Souldiers having broken into Rome offered all maner of abuse and violence to the Clergy inserts this passage into his Nâ—â—â—s on Matth. 5.13 Te are the salt of the earth as my former Author alleadgeth and rendereth him We the Prelates of Rome Mr. Arrowsmith ubâ— suprà â—p do now finde the truth of this by woful experience being become a scorn and a prey not to Infidels but Christians by the most righteous judgment of God because we who by our places should have been the Salt of the Earth had lost our savor and were good for little else but looking after the rites and revenues of the Church Evanuimuâ— aâ— ad nibilum utiles nisi ad externâ—â— caeremonias externaque bona c. Heyl. Geog. Hence it is that together with
of the worlds cut throat kindnesses consort not with Sodomites lest ye partake of their plagues Hamath lyes nigh to Damascus in place and fares the worse for its neighborhood Zach. 9.2 Lot loseth his goods and liberty 2 Chro. 18.31 19.2 Jehosaphat had well-nigh lost his life for loving those that hated God Vers 13. And there came one that had escaped A Sodomite likely but a servant to Gods good providence 2 Pet. 2.9 Eph. 4. Psal 126 4. for Lots rescue The Lord knoweth how to deliver his c. He that led captivity captive can turn our captivity as the streams in the South Vers 14. He armed his trained servants Or catechised such as he had painfully principled both in Religion and Military Discipline tractable and trusty ready prest for any such purpose It is recorded to the commendation of Queen Elisabeth that she provided for war even when she had most perfect peace with all men Camdens Elis fol. 164. Darts foreseen are dintless Vers 15. Smote them and pursued them Abram came upon them as they were secure sleepy and drunken as Josephus writeth So did David upon the Amalekites 1 Sam. 30.16 and Ahab the Syrians 1 King 20.16 The division of his company and taking benefit of the night wacheth the use of godly policies and stratagems Vers 16. And he brought back all the goods The five Kings were deprived of the whole victory because they spared not a man whom they should have spared One act of injustice oft loseth much that was justly gotten Beware saith a Reverend Writer hereupon of swallowing ill gotten wealth Mr. Whatelyes Archetypes it hath a poysonfull operation and like some evill simple in the stomack will bring up the good food together with the evill humours And also brought again his brother Lot Many a crooked nature would have thought of the old jar and let Lot taste of the fruits of his departure In a friends distress let former faults be forgotten and all possible helps afforded And the women also and the people The hope of this might haply move that officious messenger to address himself to the old Hebrew vers 13. little set by till now that they were in distress Generall Vere told the King of Denmarke Spec bellisacri 253. that Kings cared not for souldiers no more did the King of Sodome for Abraham and his Reformadoâ—s untill such time as the Crowns hang on the one side of their heads Vers 18. Melchizedek King of Salem Who this Melchisedek was is much controverted Some would have him to be the holy Ghost Others the Lord Christ in the habit of a King and Priest The Jerusalem Targum saith Hu Shem Rabba This was Shem the Great and of the same opinion are not a few of the Hebrew Doctours and others But what should Shem do in Canaan which Country fell not to him but to his brother Ham To this they answer That by the instinct of the Holy Ghost he left his own posterity now fallen away for most part to Idolatry and came to the land of Canaan a type of Heaven and the place from whence peace and salvation should be preached to all people If this were so it might very well be that Amraphel who was of Shems lineage Dr. Prideaux Lâ—â—t de Melchis p 95. and his fellow-souldiers moved with reverence of this their great Grand-father Shem might forbear to molest him at Salem or invade his territories when they wasted and smote all the neighbour-nations But then on the other side if Melchisedek were Shem why doth not Moses calf him so but change his name 2. Why did not Abram dwelling so near visit him all this while that was so near allyed to him and so highly respected by him as it was meet 3. Why did Melchisedek the Grand-father take tithes of his Nephew to whom he should rather have given gifts and legacies 2 Cor. 12.14 Most likely Melchisedek was a Canaanite of the Canaanites yet a most righteous King and Priest of the most High God and so a pledge and first-fruits of the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge and obedience of Jesus Christ of whom he was a lively type Heb. 7.2 Brought forth brend and wine This he did as a King as a Priest he blessed Abraham which latter therefore the Apostle pitcheth upon Heb. 7.1 as being to treat of Christs Priesthood The Papists think to finde footing here for their unbloody sacrifice in the Masse Melchisedee say they as a Priest offered bread and wine to God for he was a Priest of the living God So they render it Tert. de Praescrip advers haeret or rather wrest this text to make it speak what it never meant Caedem Scriptuarum faciunt ad materiam suam they murther the Scriptures to serve their own purposes saith Tertullian Where can they shew us in all the Book of God that the Hebrew word Hotsi here used signifieth to offer But any thing serves turn that hath but a shew of what they alleadge it for A Sorbonist finding it written at the end of St. Pauls Epistles Missa est Bee-hive of Rom. Church chap. 3. fol. 93. Nelancthon orat de encom eloquentiae Pref. to his book of the Sacraments c. brag'd he had found the Masse in his Bible So another reading Joh. 1.41 Invenimus Messiam made the same conclusion A third no whit wiser then the two former speaking of these words I now write upon Rex Salem panem vinum protulit fell into a large discourse of the nature of Salt Agreable whereunto Dr. Poynes writes that it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Protestants were a Malignant Church alleadging 2 Chron. 24.19 Mitâ—â—batque prophetas ut râ—vâ—rterentur ad Dominum quos â—rotestantes illi audire nolebant Vers 19. And he blessed him Lo here an instance of the communion of Saints Melchisedek doth all good offices to Abraham a beleever though a stranger not of curtesie onely and humanity but of charity and piety Vers 20. And he gave him tithe of all Not of the Sodomites goods which he restored wholly ver 23. but of the other lawfull spoyle he had taken from the foure conquered Kings in testimony of his thankfulness to God the giver of all victory Vers 21. And the King of Sodome said He that a few dayes since faced the heavens and cared not for foure Kings can now become suppliant to a forlorn forreigner Affliction will tame and take down the proudest spirits they buckle in adversity that bore their heads on high in prosperity In their moneth you may finde these wild-asses Give me the persons Abram did so Jer. 2.24 and yet they were no whit amended by their late captivity or former servitude from both which now they are freed by Abraham but still held captive by the Devill who owes them yet a further spite as we shall see Chapt. 19. Vers 22. I have lifted up my hand A swearing
stomaâ—hifastidia nullo poâ—u sitim medicandam capitis oculorum insanos dolores ingentom puris ex ulcaribus redundantiâ—â— quae binas indieâ— scutellat divite padere impleret Inter her malignissimi oder is gravitat 〈◊〉 quae omâ—â—em illi souâ—â—um ademerat hac inquam Rex potentissimus longo tempore perpessus est So true is that of an Ancient Potentes potâ—utèr torquebuntur Be wise now therefore Psal 2.10 O ye Kings Kiss the son lest he be angry He can soon break men with his iron Mace and dash them in peeces as a potters vessell Ingentla heresicia ingentia slagitia ingentia supplicia as the Centurists have it Christ shall raign when Kings and Kesars shall lye in the dust Rev. 19.16 expounded His name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and this name is written upon his Vesture that all creatures may see his power and upon his Thigh to shew the eternity of his Monarchy in his children and posterity This everlasting Father shall have an endless government Esa 6.6,7 He shall see his seed the fruit of his thigh he shall prolong his dayeâ— and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands Esa 53.10 I shut up this Discourse with the story of Ladislaus King of Bohemiae and Hungary who most unjustly had caused Ladislaut son to Hunniadeâ— to be beheaded and together with many other Popish Princes had conspired to root out the true Christians in Bobemia which should have been put in execution at the time of hiâ— maâ—riage immediately before in the midst of his great preparationâ— he sell sick Buâ—â—â—â—â—ruâ— and within thirty six hours dyed of a postilent sore in his groâ—â— Paul 〈◊〉 Like as Attilaâ— that King of Hunnes and scourge of Christendome had dyed before being suffocated in his own blood at such time as he celebrated his wedding having distempered his body with excess in wine and venery adeò ut proverbio deeo dictam fit eum per eandem partem animam profudisse Jacob. Revius per quam acceperaâ— He went out of the world the same way that he came into it and sent his soul as a harbinger to the devill to provide room for his body Vers 8. Therefore Abimelech rose early c. He made hastâ— and delayed not to keep Gods Commandments Psal 119.60 This is check to out dulness whom so many exhortations and menaces of Gods month move not to amend Some are semper victur as Seneca saith they defer so long till the Draw bridge be taken up till the gale of Grace be blown over till the Bridegroom go by and so are shut out with the foolish Virgins for their lingring and futhring Nolâ—te vero tempus in â—â—gis terâ—â—e vel Crus ut ille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vox crat Archiae illius Thcbanâ—rum praefecti Seria rejectis in hilari compotatione literis indiciis hodie 〈…〉 proteliere At the next puâ—â—e of breath thou mayst blow away thy life or by not discerning thy time thou mayst lose thy soul as Saul did his Kingdome Opportunities are headlong And culled all his servants Nature taught Infidels to take â—â—re of their own famillies Socrates is said to have called Philosophy down from heaven to earth that is Wâ—lâ—â—â— in Tiliani 〈◊〉 Philosoph to have directed men to be good at home and setting aside other studies chiefly to minde Aedibus in propriis quae prava aut recta gerantur Cato said that he could pardon all mens faults 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio in vita Suetou in Aug. c. 65. save onely the faults of his own family And Augustus when he went about to restrain garish attire and looseness of life in others was scared and upbraided at Rome with the excesses and enormities of his own houshold He had three untoward children whom he was wonâ— to tearm tres vomicas triâ— carcinomara So many mattery impostumes ulcerous sores His wife Livia was thought to be too familiar with her friend and Physitian Endemus Pliny calls him her Paramour Tacitus saith he was specie artis frequens secretis All this might be without his fault but not without his reproach The malicious Pharisees could object it to our Saviour Thy Disciples wash not thy Disciples fast not c. As if he were much to blame for suffering such things And surely he is not a compleat Christian walks not in a perfect way Psal 101.2 that is not good at home that is not relatively good The fifth Commandement is called by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mixt Commandement and made a part of the first Table It is therefore set betwixt both Tables of the Law saith Another because all we get from God or men we bring it home to our houses as Abimelech here relates his divine dream to his servants the place of well-employing it And the men were sore afraid This fear freed them for according to mens fear Bradford of Repent so is Gods displeasure Psal 90. Cavebis si pavebis Rom. 11.21 But they that tremble not in hearing shall be crushed to peeces in feeling said that Martyr This was a sign that the Israelites feared God when they beleeved God and his servant Moses Exod. 4.31 The best way of prevention is to tremble at Gods judgements whiles they hang in the threatnings But frequentissimum initium calamitatis securitas saith Paterculus Sola igitur securit as est nunquam esse securum sed semper pavidum trementem R. Grostbead Coloss 3.23 saith another Should servants fear their masters because they have power over the flesh and not we fear God c Vers 9. ' What hast thou done unto us c. Some warmth must be in a reproof but it must not be scalding hot Words of reviling and disgrace Aegros quâ—s potus fortis non curavit ad salutempristiâ—am aquatepâ—us revâ—eavit Greg. they scald as it were but words that tend to stir up the conscience to a due consideration of the fault as here they be duely warm and tend to make the physick work more kindly How could Abraham resist this sweet and sovereign reprehension How could he but be much ashamed that he should give occasion to it No oratory is so powerfull with good natures as that of mildness Remember to reprove with modesty and moderation Vers 11. Surely the fear of God c. The onely best curb to restrain from evill and spur to incite to good All honesty flows from this holy fear It is a problem in Aristotle why men are credited more then other creatures The answer is On 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man onely reverenceth God therefore you may trust him therefore you may commit your self to him Sed quia alitèr facere non potuit Velleius He that truely feareth God is like unto Cato of whom it is said He never did well that he might appear to do so but because he could do no otherwise You need not
that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Romans in Plutarch said of Pâ—mpey is repentance that fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother Swear not in heat and choller as David did when he was going against Nabal but soon after blessed Abigail for better counsell Swear not in jest lest ye go to hell in earnest Jam. 5.12 Swear not petty oaths those civilified complements and interjections of common talk Faith and Troth c. Thou must not swear by thy hairs thou canst not make one of them white or black much less by Faith and Troth that is more worth then hairs Remember that large rowl ten yards long and five yards broad full of curses against the swearer Zach. 5.2 And it reâ—â—s upon his house where he thinks himself most secure When we are called to take a lawfull oath we must be reverently affected as this good servant in the text according to the excellency of the duty and greatness of the person whom we attest and invocate The ancient form of taking and imposing an oath was Give glory to God Josh 7.19 Joh. 9.24 And he that took the oath was said to confess to God Esa 45.23 with Rom. 14.11 Therefore also St. Paul in swearing useth a word of attention and saith Behold I speak it before God Gal. 1.20 Lewis the French King was taken prisoner by Meletisaka the Sultan and conditions of peace being concluded between them for more assurance thereof the Sultan offered to swear that if he failed in performance of any thing to renounce his Mahomet Turk Hist requiring likewise of the King to swear if he failed in any thing that he had promised to deny his Christ to be God which profane oath the King detesting and wishing rather to dye then to give the same the Sultan wondring at his constancy took his word without any oath at all and so published the League As o'tother side King Iohn of England being overlaid in his Barons Wars when he sent Embassadors to the Monarch of Morocco for aid Heyl. Geog. p. 714. offering to swear fealty unto him and to receive the law of Mahomet he grew into such dislike of our King that ever after he abhorred the mention of him Vers 6. That thou bring not my son thither again Where yet he had never been but in his fathers loyns He would not his son should part with the promised Land for any out ward accommodations Let us fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 4.1 lest a promise being left us of entring into Gods rest any of us should seem to come short to fall back or be lâ—ft behinde Take we all heed lest for our lingering and hankering after the flesh-pots of Egypt God carry us back again into Egypt which was the last greatest curse threatned against the people of Israel and is the greatest misery can come upon this Nation Deut. 28.68 Vers 7. He shall send his Angel There are myriads of Angels and all sent out for the solace and safe conduct of the Saints Dan. 7. Heb. 1.14 Oh the dignity and safety of a childe of God! Thou shalt take a wife He argues from what God hath done for him to what he will doe Every former favour is a pledge of a future Thou hast thou wilt is a Scripture demonstration See Psal 86.1 2 3 4 Six Thou-hasts whereupon he infers and inforceth his Turn us O God of our salvation c. Vers 8. Onely bring not my son thither again This second time he layes charge on his servant not to do it Better no wife then displease God then violate conscience He purchaseth his pleasure at too dear a rate that payes his honesâ—y to get it He hath lesse of the ballast and more of the sayl makes more haste then good speed that thus speeds himself Vers 9. And the servant put his hand c That and the lifting up of the hand to heaven Gen. 14.22 was the ceremony of old as now it is laying the hand upon the book Let it be what it will if not wicked we need not struple it Henry the Third of England undertaking the croysade in taking his oath laid his right hand on his breast according to the manner of a Priest Daniels Chron. saith the History and after on the book and kissed it as a Lay-man The Moors when they swear to be faithfull to any Turk Hist fol. 747. they put their sword to their own throats At the siege of Norwich by Ket and his complices in Edward the sixths time the Earle of Warwick Generall for the King Life of Edw. 6. by Sir Jo. Heywood p. 75. drew his sword and caused others to do the like and according to a Souldery custome in cases of extremity by enterchange of a kiss by every of them upon the swords of others they bound themselves as by an oath to maintain the place Vers 10. Took ten Camels Creatures that are famous for their swiftness strength hardiness for they will travell they say three dayes together without water which in those hot Countries is in many places hard to come by Sir Francis Drake in his Travels tells us of certain Sheep in America as big as a Cow World encomp p. 55. and supplying the room of Horses for burden or travell The Mule they say must have the bag hang by his mouth so must some the pipe or the pot at their elbows Vers 11. And he made his Camels kneel down Or rest themselves Prov. 12.10 Rom. 8.22 as the Greek interprets it A good man is mercifull to his beast but the poor creature groaneth and travelleth in pain under our abuses Vers 12. And he said O Lord God Begin we all our enterprizes with prayer God may give good success without but it will be nothing so sweet See therefore that Hoc primum repetas opuâ— Hor. Ep. 6. hoc postremus omittas Vers 13. And the daughters c. So did Rachel and those in Deborahs Song that rehearsed the Acts of the Lord at the places of drawing water Judg 5.11 and Jethro's daughters though he were Prince of Midian Oh the simplicity and plainness of those times They that plead Rebecca's ornaments for their garish attire would be loath to take her office be at the pains that she was Vers 14. Drink and I will give thy Camels c. This argued a good nature a kinde courteous disposition which therefore it may be he singled out as a token of a meet wife as a thing especially to be looked at in a wife Good dispositions sanctified become more usefull because more amiable and so more graceful to the Gospel and powerful with others As if not yet sanctified yet there is more hopes they may be For where a good nature is the Soul is a plain smooth board whereon a Painter may more easily draw a Picture and a harsh crabbed nature is as a board full of knots and rugged whereon
Psal 120.6 is the Philosophers counsel Video Taceo I see and say nothing was Queen Elizabeths Motto and I am for peace was Davids or as the Hebrew hath it I am peace He heard the slander of many fear was on every side Psal 31.13 but he as a deaf man heard not and as a dumb man so he opened not his mouth Psal 38.13 Facile est in me dicere cum non sim responsurus said One once to another that revil'd at him Thou shalt fight without an adversary for I will hear and bear and say nothing The best answer to words of scorn and petulancy saith learned Hooker is Isaac's apologie to his brother Ishmael patience and silence no apologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man would not be bound to such a slavery as to answer every calumny Qui nescit ferre calumnias convitia injurias nescit vivere saith Chytraeus He that cannot patiently bear reproaches and injuries may make up his pack and get him out of the world for here 's no being for him Vitus Theodorus sent to advise with Melancthon what he should do when Osiander preacht against him Melch. Adam Melancthon per Deum obtestatur ut taceret se it a gereret quasi non audiret Melancthon besought him for Gods sake to say nothing in that case but to carry himself so as if he heard not Vitus writes back that this was very hard yet he would obey It is hard to swallow down Physical Pills but better swallow them whole then chaw them between the teeth Vers 15. Naphish and Kedamah Twelve in all Princes of their Tribes as was promised Gen. 17.20 See saith One here B. Babington what God can do for a poor boy sent out with a bottle of water on his back God setâ—eth the solitary in families Psal 68.6 he raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dung hill to set them among Princes c. 1 Sam 2.8 Vers 16. These are their names by their towns which they called after their own names as Cain did that first built City Fnoch after his sons name that he might be stiled Lord Enoch of Enoch So the many Alexandria's Caesarea's Augusta's c. See Psal 49.11 Vers 17. And he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered Sc. to the Congregation-house of all living as the grave is called Job 30.23 and for ought we know to the Congregation-house of the first-born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as heaven is called Heb. 12.23 Abraham prayed that Ishmael might live in Gods sight Ishmael joyned with his brother Isaac in burying their father Abraham vers 9. of this Chapter Here he hath his whole life-time recorded the like whereof cannot be shewed of any reprobate and at his death he is said gently to give up the ghost or yeeld up the spirit as Abraham also did vers 8. and to be gathered to his people as he These are probable arguments that however he lived yet he died in the faith of his father Abraham He runs far we say that never turns Nunquam serò si seriâ— Vers 18. And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur A large tract and territory but nothing so large as his posterity the Saracens called more rightly Hagarens Psal 83.6 proved to be whose Name and Empire notwithstanding is now swallowed up in the greatness of the Turkish Empire Turk hist which laboureth with nothing more then with the weightiness of it self And he died Or dwelt as some read it Compare Chap. 16 12. Vers 19. And these are the generations That is the affairs and occurrences Vers 20. And Isaac was fourty yeers old He was not over-hasty to marry in the heat of his youth but by hard labour ardent prayers and pious meditations kept under his body and brought it into subjection as Saint Paul likewise did 1 Cor. 9.27 We are not debters to the flesh Rom. 8.12 we owe it nothing but stripes nothing but the blue eye that the Apostle gave it Vers 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife He did it constantly and instantly as the word signifies he multiplied prayer which as those arrows of deliverance 2 Kings 13.19 must be often iterated ere the mercy can be obtained And the Lord was intreated of him though it were long first even full twenty yeers God knows how to commend his mercies to us and therefore holds us long in suspence Citò data vilescunt Manna lightly come by was as lightly set by Vers 22. Jitbrotsatsu And the children struggled together Heb. They ran at tilt as it were and justled one against another even to bruising and hurting Esau that he might lose no time began to set against Jacob before he was born If it be sò why am I thus A passionate abrupt speech q. d. Better no children then so troubled with them See Chap. 27.46 compare Chap. 3.16 I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception This she should have born more patiently but she presently bethought her of the best course for she went to enquire of the Lord she got into a corner and prayed and was answered She prayed down her passions as a man sleeps out his drunkenness and sets to work lustily and so got the ensuing oracle Vers 2â— And the Lord said unto her Either by an Angel or a Prophet or some divine answer in her own heart Two nations are in thy womb So what can a man see in the Shulamite in every sanctified soul but as it were the company of two armies Cant. 6.13 Every good man is a divided man every new man two men Vers 24. And when her days to be delivered Which fell out fifteen yeers before Abrahams death to his great comfort no doubt God doth for his his best at last There were twins in her womb See Cant. 4.2 with Isai 66.8 Vers 25. And the first came ont red Red and rough cruel and crafty as that red old dragon Rev. 12.3 who inhabited in him and both acted and agitated him Eph. 2.2 ab ascensore suâ— daemone perurgebatur saith Bernard And so are those Romish Edomites Esauites Jesuites c. And they called his name Esau Factus perfectus pilis a bearded man one that had every thing more like a man then a babe a manly childe Vers 26. And after that came his brother out God could have brought Jacob out first for it is he that takes us out of the womb Psal 22.9 but he suffereth Esau for a time to enjoy the first birth-right till his own time came to set things to rights God waits to be gracious for he is a God of judgement Isai 30.18 And his hand took hold on Jacobs heel As if he would have turned up his heels and got to the goal before him And his name was called Jacob Calcanearius an heel-catcher or supplanter as he afterwards proved to Esau who hit him also in teeth with it
a Patriarch and afterwards upon his repentance not a little honoured Exod 28.21 29. Rev. 21.12 God is not off and on with his elect their frowardness interrupts not the course of his goodness Vers 24. And Isaac gave up the ghost Twelve yeers after Joseph was sold and fourty yeers after he first became blinde Three special friends Jacob buries in this Chapter Crosses come thick be patient CHAP. XXXVI Vers 1. This is Edom. THe name and note of his profaneness A stigmatical Belialist It were a happiness to the wicked if they might be forgotten Eccles 8.10 Vers 4. Eliphaz Job's friend say some a good man but much mistaken in Job whom he so sharply censures Vers 6. From the face of his brother Jacob Or before the coming of his brother Jacob by a special providence of God to make room for the right heir It is he that determineth the bounds of our habitations Acts 17.26 It was he that espied out this land for his peculiar people and that kept the room empty all the time of the Babylonish Captivity till the return of the Natives though it were a pleasant country left destitute of inhabitants and surrounded with many warlike Nations Piscator renders this text propter Jacobum and expounds it Because he knew that the land of Canaan should be Jacob's according to Gods promise made to him in his fathers blessing of him But I doubt whether Esau would yeeld to him for any such reason Vers 7. For their riches were more c. And besides mount Seir was fitter for a hunter A good ease it was to Iacob who had little joy in his neighbourhood God will not take the ungodly by the hand Job 8.20 no more will his people When they are forced to be in ill company they cry Oh that I had the wings of a dove that I might flee away Or if that Oh will not set them at liberty they take up that Wo to express their misery Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshec c. It was once the prayer of a good Gentlewoman when she came to die being in much trouble of conscience Moses his choice by M. Bur. pag. 330. O Lord let me not go to hell where the wicked are for Lord thou knowest I never loved their company here Vers 11. And the sons of Eliphaz See here the fulfilling of Gods predictions and promises even to an Esan will he be wanting to his obedient people Vers 20. These are the sons of Seir Esau was by marriage allied to this Seir for he married his neece Aholibamah vers 2. yet the children of Esau chased away the Horims of Seir and dwelt in their stead in mount Seir Deut. 2.12 Wicked men are void of natural affection in their pursuit of profit or preferment Abimelech Absalom Athaliah for instance and that Amida Turk hist fol. 745 747.642 son of Muleasses King of Tunes who rose up against his father and possessing himself of his Kingdom slew his Captains polluted his wives took the Castle of Tunes and after all put out his fathers and brethrens eyes like as Muleasses himself before had dealt with his own brethren Vers 24. That found the mules By coupling divers kindes together contrary to Levit. 19.19 Neither did the world till then want any perfect kinde of creature for the mule and the ass differ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 B. Babington Fuit olim psittacus Romae aureis centum comparatus c. C. Rhodig l 2. c. 32. Maiolus in Canic colloq 23. Sphinx Philos pag. 785. Plin. lib. 7. cap. 12. but onely in degree The Greeks call mules half-asses See here saith one the busie curiosity of some mens natures given to news and strange inventions So he that taught a Parrot in Rome to repeat the Creed every Article in order and by it self distinctly Another that painted the whole story of our Saviour's passion both for persons and things upon the nails of his own fingers Had not he little to do that learned to write a fair hand with his feet Heidfeld saith he saw it with wonderment And he as little that enclosed Homer's Iliads written in a nut which Cicero tell us he saw with his eyes These were toilsome toys quae nec ignoranti nocent nec scientent juvant as Seneca saith of Sophistry Hard they are to come by but of no use or worth like an olive or date-stone hard to crack the one or cleave the other but nothing or nothing worth ought when crackt or cloven within either This same foolish wittiness Alexander wittily scoffed when he gave a fellow onely a bushel of pease for his pains of throwing every time a pease upon a needles point standing a pretty way off Vers 31. Before there raigned any king c. Sicut herba tectorum praecocem habet vigorem sed citius arescit Exoriuntur impii sed exuruntur They are set up on high but on slippery places Psal 73.18 advanced as Haman but to be brought down again with a vengeance This observation the Hebrews make upon this text Whiles Edom raigneth and flourisheth Israel groaneth under the servitude of Egypt â—omp and prosperity then is no sure note of the true Church Vers 40. Duke Timnah duke Alvah We had a Duke d'Alva lately in the Netherlands Governour there for the Spaniard Grimston hist of Netherlands infamous for his inhumanity For he rosted some to death starved others and that even after quarter saying though he promised to give them their lives he did not promise to finde them meat This was a right Romish Edomite The Hebrews think the Romanes came of the Idumeans Sure I am if they be not of the natural descent they are of the spiritual or unnatural and so like as by the one we may see the face favour and affection of the other Vers 43. These be the dukes of Edom As the Principality of Edom began with Dukes and rose to Kings so it returneth to Dukes again after the death of Hadad in Moses his time 1 Chro. 1.51 It is likely saith an Interpreter that upon the unkinde dealing of that Hadad in denying to let Israel pass thorow his land the Lord removed the dignity of Kings from that Common-wealth and let it be ruled by Dukes again whereof eleven are here by name rehearsed So sensible is God and so severe in punishing the least unkindness done to his people Julius Pflugius complaining to the Emperour by whom he had been employed of great wrong done him by the Duke of Saxony received this answer Have a little patience Tua causâ— erit mea causa So saith God to his abused He reproveth yea deposeth even Kings for their sakes and accounts that the whole world is not worthy of them nay not worth one of them how mean soever in regard of outwards as Chrysostome expounds that Heb. 11.38 CHAP. XXXVII Vers 1. In the land of his fathers sojournings THe Dukes of Edom had habitations in the land of
vengeance Well might K. James say that if God did leave him to kill a man he would think God did not love him David Gods darling falling into that crimson sin carried the bruise of that fall with him to his grave Woe to those Italians Sands his Relation of West Relig. Sect. 13. that blaspheme oftner then swear and murther more then revile or slander Vers 23. They stript Joseph out of his coat For 1. It was an eye-sore to them 2. Therewith they would colour their cruelty And this whiles they were doing Ioseph used many intreaties for himself but they would not hear him Gen. 42.21 Reuben also pleaded hard for the child but all to no purpose Gen. 42.22 their tender mercies were cruelties Vers 24. They cast him into a pit Where they meant he should pine and perish with hunger which is a more cruel death Druso adcò alimenta subducta ut tomentum a culcitra tentaverit mandere Tacit. then to dye by the sword Lam. 4.5 Thus dyed Drusus by the command of Tiberius meat being denyed him he had eaten the stuffings of his bed I have heard of a certain Bishop saith Melancthon who having cast ten men into a dungeon for their religion sake kept them there so long without all manner of meat that they devoured one another Joh. Manl. loc com 124. Vers 25. And they sate down to eat To weep for their wickedness they should have sate down rather But the Devill had drawn a hard hoof over their hearts that either they felt no remorse of what they had done for present or else they sought to ease themselves of it by eating and merry-making They drank wine in bowles but no man was sorry for the affliction of Joseph Nay perhaps Amos 6.8 they had so tyred themselves with making away their brother that they were even spent again and stood in need of some refreshing The good providence of God was in it howsoever that they should there sit down till the Merchants came by from Gilead which was a Mart for Merchants Ier. 8.22 22.6 All things co-operate for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 Vers 26. What profit is it c. Cui bono said that old Judge in Rome Cic. orat pro C. Rabir. This is a song that most men will listen to As the Jassians in Strabo delighted with the musick of an excellent Harper ran all away when once they heard the Market-bell ring save a deaf old man that could take little delight in the Harpers ditties But it were to be wisht that whenever we are tempted to sin we would ask our selves this question What profit is it c. Vers 27. For he is our brother and our flesh This consideration should be as the Angels call to Abraham to stay our hand from striking another 1. That he is our brother in respect of God for have we not all one father hath not one God created us Mal. 3.10 Next that he is our flesh in regard of our first parents Act. 17.26 Esay 58.7 Vers 28. For twenty peeces of silver A goodly price not all out the price of a slave Exod. 21.32 Here they sold the just one for silver Pirke R. Eliez ch 38. and the poor for a pair of shooes Amos 2.6 The Hebrews tell us that of these twenty shekels every of the ten brethren had two to buy shooes for their feet And they brought Ioseph into Egypt Little knowing what a price they had in their hand even the Jewel of the world and him that should one day be Lord of Egypt The Saints for their worth are called Princes in all lands Many righteous are many Kings Compare Matth. 13.17 with Luk. 10.24 Psal 45. Kings in righteousness though somewhat obscure ones as Melchizedek Heb. 7. They are called the world Joh. 3.16 every creature Mark 16.16 all things Col. 1.20 Gods portion Deut. 32.9 the dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12.7 a royal Diadem in the hand of Iehovah Esay 62.3 This the cock on the dunghill the Midianitish muck-worms take no notice of They could see no comliness in Christ though the fairest of ten thousand nothing more then a despicable man Joh. 6. How can this man give us his flesh to eat God had hid him in whom all the treasures of worth and wisdom were hid under the Carpenters son Colos 2. This pearl was covered with a shell-fish so are all Gods precious people for most part abjects in the worlds eye their glory is within their life is hid they are great heirs but as yet in their non-age Kings but in a strange country heads destinated to the diadem but this the world knows not 1 Ioh. 3.1 Let it suffice us that God and all that can spiritually discern know it and so shall others as Ioseph's brethren did him in his bravery For when Christ our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Vers 30. The child is not and I c In an old Manuscript I met with these words thus pathetically rendred Heu quid agam periit puer ille puer puer ille Reuben was the eldest and therefore thought he should be most blamed Besides he had not forgot how highly his father had been lately offended with him for his detestable incest Vers 32. Know now whether it be thy sons coat One Philip Bishop of Beau-vieu in France in the time of our Richard the first being a martial man and much annoying our borders was by King Richard in a skirmish happily taken and put in prison The Bishop hereupon complained to the Pope who wrote in the behalf of his son as an Ecclesiasticall person c. The King sent to the Pope the armour he was taken in with these words engraven thereon Know whether this be thy sons coat or not Heyl. Geog. pag. 108. Which the Pope viewing sware it was rather the coat of a son of Mars then a son of the Church and so bad the King use his pleasure Vers 33. It is my sons coat c. The Lord may well say as much of hypocrites Their outward from of godliness is the garb of my sons and daughters but some evil spirit hath devoured them who use it only in hypocrisie They are fair professors but foul sinners And when the filthy sinner goes damâ—ed to hell what shall become of the zealous professor As the Churl said to the Bishop of Cullen praying in the Church like a Bishop but as he was a Duke going guarded like a tyrant Whither thinkest thou the Bishop shall go when the Duke shall be damned Vers 34. Mourned for his son many dayes Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus Few live to be old for one evil beast or another that devours them As for one apple that hangs till it falls many are endgel'd down or gathered off the tree We should learn to bury children and friends whiles yet alive by acting their death to our selves aforehand
Patrone And such for most part are court commendations There you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one said of old delayes and changes good store every man seeking and serving his own aims and ends but little minding the good of others further then subservient to their own Vers 10. Pharaoh was wroth with his servants c. It is wisdome in a man to confess his faults before the Prince whom he hath offended and to commend his clemency in pardoning them Orat. pro. M. Marcello Q. Ligario c. As Tully did Caesars as Mephibosheth did Davids c. The Lord Cobham the L. Gray Sir Griffin Markham being condemned for treason about the beginning of King James Anno 1603 B. Carletons thankefull remembrance of Gods mercies pag. 181. and brought forth to execution as they were upon the scaffold the Sheriffe notified the Kings pardon his Majesties warrant for the stay of the execution at which unexpected clemency besides the great shouts of the people the condemned wished that they might sacrifice their lives to redeem their fault and to repurchase so mercifull a Princes love Vers 11. Each man according to the interpretation That is no vain dreame but significant and deserving an interpreter Vers 12. And he interpreted to us our dreams And well you requited him but better late then never Paerstat sero quam nunquam though a ready dispatch doubleth the benefit howbeit God had an over-ruling hand in it for Iosephs greatest good he turneth the worlds ingratitude to the salvation of his servants Vers 13. As he interpreted to us so it was Semblably as Christ foretold the two theeves with whom he suffered so it fell out the one went to Heaven the other to Hell And so it shall fare with all men at last day according to Isai 3.10.11 Vers 14. And they brought him hastily Heb. They made him run who haply knew not what this haste and hâ—rry meant but was betwixt hope and fear till he came to the King It is God that bringeth low and lifteth up that raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dunghill to set him among Princes c. 1 Sam. 2.7 8. In the year of Grace 1622. The Turkish Janizaries who have learned that damnable art of making and unmaking their King at pleasure drew Mustapha whom they had formerly deposed out of prison and when he begged for his life they assured him of the Empire and carrying him forth upon their shoulders Mustapha subita illâ— mutatione qua ex carcere ad summam diguitatem potentiam evectus erat ita commetus fuit ut animi deliquium pateretur c. Parei Medul pag. 1165. Dan. hist of Engl. p. 48. cryed with a loud voyce This is Mustapha Sultan of the Turks God save Mustapha c. with which sudden change the man was so affected that he fell into a swoon for joy and they had much adoe to keep life in him Our Henry fourth was crowned the very same day that the year before he had been banished the Realm And changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh And should not we get on our best when we are to come before God Should we accost him in the nasty tattered rags of the old Adam and not spruse up our selves with the best of our preparation Vers 15. I have dreamed a dream and there is none c. So men send not for the Minister till given up by the Physitian Then they cry out with him in the Gospel Mark 9.22 Sir if thou canst do any thing help us c. Whereunto what can we reply but as that king of Israel did to the woman that cryed to him for help 2 King 6.27 in the famine of Samaria If the Lord help theâ— not whence shall I help thee out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press Did not I forewarn you saying touch not the unclean thing c. and ye would not hear Gen. 42.22 with 2 Cor. 6.17 Amor ingenii â—eminem unquam diviâ—â—â— secit Petron. Nescio quâ—modo bonae mentis soror est paupertas Ib. Therefore is this thing come upon you And I have heard say c. Pharaoh despiseth not wisdome how meanly soever habited Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste Paupertas est philosophia vernacula saith he in Apuleius And Eumolpus in Petronius being asked why he went so poorly apparrelled answered the study of wisdome never made any man wealthy And afterward he addeth however it comes to pass poverty is the sister of piety and vertue is forsaken of fortunne Nudus opum sed cui coelum terraeque paterent saith Silius of Archimedes that great Mathematician And Aelian observes Aelian l. 2. Lactantius quasi quidam fluvius Tulliaâ—ae eloquentiae Hieror that the best of the Greeks Aristides Phocion Pelopidas Epaminondas Socrates were very poor men Lactantius that Christian Cicero as Hierome calleth him was so needy that he wanted necessaries All that Calvin left behinde him books and all came scarce to three hundred French crowns as Bozâ— his colleague witnesseth Vers 16. It is not in me God shall give Pharaoh c. This is the voyce of all that have true worth in them they are humble upon the knowledg of their perfections they vilifie and nullifie themselves before God and men like true balme that put into water sinks to the bottome or like a vessel cast into the Sea which the more it fills the deeper it sinks And this is the bottome and bosome of humility and very next degree to exaltation as here Vers 25. The dream of Pharaoh is one One in signification but diverse in respect of vision Why it was doubled see ver 32. Repetitions in Scripture are not tautologies but serve to set forth to us the necessity excellency or difficulty of the thing so re-inforced To write to the Philippians the same things to S. Paul it is not grievous and for them it is safe Phil. 3.1 Seneca Nunquà m satis dicitur quod nunquà m satis discitur Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros Iuven Away then with those nice Novellists that can abide to hear nothing but what is new-minted Ministers meet with many that are slow of heart and dull of hearing these must have precept upon precept line upon line c. Many also of brawny breasts and horny-heart strings that as ducklings stoop and dive at any little stone thrown by a man at them yet shrink not at the heavens great thunder c. Here a Minister must beat and inculcate turn himself into all fashions of spirit and speech to win and work upon his hearers He must so long pursue and stand upon one and the same point saith Austin till Aug. de doct Christ in Psal 10. Psal 49.1.2 by the gesture and countenance of his Auditors he perceives they understand and assent to it Hear this all ye people give ear all ye
to his own opinion saith the Historian that he could not endure any mans advice how good soever that he fancied not Dan. hist of England contin by Trussel 107. Pharaoh heard what his servants could say to it who all at length consented when the ill-affected saw it was no boot to dissent Can we find such a man as this Hence some collect that Joseph preached many more things to the King of God his power providence goodness c. then are here recorded and was therefore so admired Psal 105.22 and advarced to the office of teaching his Senatours wisdom To bind his Princes to his soul and make wise his Elders as the Original hath it Vers 39. Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this Pharaoh at first took him for no other then a cunning sooth-sayer and conjecturer of dreams Now he finds better worth in him a spirit of wisdom and discretion He seeth him to be a man spiritually rational and rationally spiritual one that seemed to see the insides of Nature and Grace and the world and heaven by those perfect anatomies he had made of them all Briefly such a heart so well headed nor such a head better hearted he had never met with Wherefore he resolves to set him at the stern of the State there being not any thing that makes a man so good a Patriot as true Religion which admits not of that distinction between a good man and a good Citizen Vers 40. Thou shalt be over my house c. Pharaoh prefers him because he found good parts in him They that bestow places of charge in Church or Common-wealth upon undeserving persons for by-respects shall have Pharaoh to rise up in judgment against them The life of King Edward the sixth by Sir Jo. Heywood pag. 6. In King Edward the sixth's minority Dignity waited upon desert saith the Historian which caused it again to be waited upon by respect Order also was taken that no man should have any benefice from the King but first he should preach before him Ibid. 115. Tamberlane-never bestowed his preferments upon such as ambitiously sought them as deeming them in so doing unworthy thereof but upon such as whose modesty or desert Turk hist fol. 227. he thought worthy of those his great favours Vers 41. See I have set thee over all c. So Antoninus the Emperour made Pertinax a mean man Pertinax obres praeclarè gestas emsul est factuâ— enjus causa multi indignati sunt c. Dio. Idem in vita Pertinacis but well qualified Consul which many murmured at But he was afterwards made Emperour and finding the publike treasure wofully wasted by his predecessor Commodus he restored it by his good husbandry which many Magnifico'es laughed at caeteri quibus virtus luxuriâ potior erat laudabamus saith the Historian Vers 42. And Pharaoh took off his ring Pliny therefore is out that thinks the use of rings came not up before the Trojan War How happy had he been bellâ—â—o librorum that was so great a book-devourer had he light upon the Bible He was in-sighted in all the secrets of Nature as appears by his works Nihil unquam legit quin excerperet nec in Bibliotheca tantum sed in lectica sed equitanâ— quoque vel scribebat vel scribendum aliquod dictabat Textor Officina which is non minùs varium quam ipsa rerum natura saith Erasmus He never read any thing but he excerped it neither in his library only but in his couch and whiles he was on horseback he either wrote or dictated somewhat to be written When he saw his Nephew walk out some houres without studying he said to him Poteras has horas non perdere He lived in the dayes of Vespasian and was a great dealer under him What pity it was that neither by Jews nor Christians he came to the knowledg of the Scriptures where he might have met with many Antiquities as this of the use of the ring an ornament of honour not elsewhere to be read of But God had hid these things from the wise and prudent because it so seemed good in his sight Matth. 11.25 26. And put a gold chain about his neck Behold saith a learned Interpreter one hour hath changed his fetters into a chain of gold his rags into robes D. Hall his stocks into a chariot his jayl into a palace Potiphar's captive to his Masters Lord the noise of his chains into Abrech God commonly exalts his people to the contrary good to that evil he had cast them into as Joseph here of a slave to be a Ruler Christ judged to be Judge of all So Caius so soon as he came to the Empire the first thing he did was to prefer Agrippa who had suffered imprisonment for wishing him Emperour he made him King of Judaea this was that Herod that was eaten with worms Act. 12 and gave him a chain of gold as heavy as the chain of iron that was upon him in prison Vers 43. Bow the knee Or tender Father because he was young in years but old in wildom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Macarius was called Not the ancient are wise but the wise ancient Vers 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am Pharaoh Of a root that signifieth to make bare because say some he was to be bared that is sifted and manifested by Joseph without thee shall no man lift up his hand And yet the Egyptians in Seneca's time however were a proud peremptory people Aâ—gyptus loquâ—x ingeniosà in contumeliam praefectorum provincia in qua qui vitaveriâ— culpam â—on effagit in samiam Seneca Salvator mundi Hier. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioseph apt to cast contempt and contumely upon their Governours were they never so upright and unblameable Joseph had said without me God shall answer Pharaoh And now he heareth without thee shall no man c. Vers 45. Zaphnath Paâ—neach That is saith Idiprome the Saviour of the world An high stile so the Greeks when Flaminius who had freed them from bondage came amongst them called him Saviour Saviour with such a courage that the birds that flew over their heads amazed at the noise fell to the ground Hunniades Plutarch having overthrown Mesites the Turks Generall at his return into the camp a wonderful number of the poor captives came and falling at his feet and kissing them gave God thanks for their deliverance by him Some called him Father some the Defender of his country the souldiers their invincible General The captives their Saviour the women their protectour the young men and children their tender father He again with tears standing in his eyes cunceously embraced them rejoycing at the publike good Turâ— hist fol. 269. and himself giving most hearty thanks unto God commanded the like to be done in all the Churches of that province The daughter of Potipherah Prince of On Called Aven Ezek. 30 1â— that is
business Such S. Paul would have all Christians to be Tit. 3.8 14. Let them that have believed in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer saith He be careful to maintain good works or profess honest trades for necessary uses and that therein they be their crafts-masters and excell others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was Cicero's posie from his youth as himself witnesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. And Plutarch tells us that all his strife and drift was all his life long to leave others behind him and to be the best at any thing he ever undertook This should be every mans endeavour in his place and station as that which is good before God and profitable unto men as the Apostle there subjoyneth Solomon also assures us that such shall stand before Kings and not live long in a low place Prov. 22.29 Vers 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh That is he prayed God to bless him both at meeting and parting To salute is comely but see that ye be hearty not frothy prayerful not complementall We are heirs of blessing and must therefore be free of it 1 Pet. 3.9 Vers 8. And Pharaoh said unto Iacob This King took not pleasure as those Persian Kings did in a wild retiredness or stern austerity but in a mild affableness and heart-attracting courtesie He shews not himself strange or Stoicall but sweet and sociable So Atticus seemed in his carriage communis infimis Cor. Nepos Spartan Dio. par principibus Adrian the Emperour would most courteously confer with the meanest Vespasian was wont not only to salute the chief Senatours but even private persons inviting them many times to his table himself again going to their houses especially if he found them learned and vertuous Pharaoh might find Iacob both these and so make very good use of him as his faithful Counsellour Princes had learned men ever with them called Monitours or Remembrancers as Dio had his Plato Scipio his Polybius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriarchae praeâ—ipue professionis medicae studiâ—si fuerunt ut Abraham Isaac Jacob unde regibus grati quos postea in doctrina Christiana simul institucruâ—t Meclancth c. Abimelech made much of Abraham and afterwards of Isaac some think it was for their skill in Physick and Astronomy Why might not Pharaoh find and favour the same worth in Iacob and learn the same wisdom from him that his Senatours by his appointment did of his son Ioseph Vers 9. The dayes of the years of my pilgrimage All Saints here are Sojourners all good people pilgrims and strangers 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 11.13 14. Far they are from home meet with hard measure as Israel did in Egypt as those three worthies in Babylon Dan. 3. Their manners are of another manner hence the world owns them not Ioh. 15.19 But God both owns Isa 63.13 Psal 32.8 Isa 40.11 and honours them he knows â—heir whole way Psal 1.6 Leades them in his hand guides them with his eye bears them in his bosome when wayes are rough and rugged provides mansions for them Joh. 14.3 where they shall rest in their beds Isa 57.2 Matth. 8.11 Gen. 25.8 Jer. 50.4 5. Psal 84.7 Ruth 2.10 Gal. 4. Psal 119.63 Neh. 2.3 1 Pet. 2.11 Philip. 3.21 feast with Abraham Isaac and Iacob walk arme in arme with Angels Zach. 3.7 Be gathered to their people Heb. 12.23 to their God to their Christ c. Provided that in the mean while they set their faces towards Sion enquiring the way that they walk therein from strength to strength that they take in good part any kindness as Ruth did that they put up any unkindness as Paul did that they make much of any company send home by any hand abstain from fleshly lusts and have their conversation in Heaven eating drinking and sleeping eternall life so wishing to be at home yet waiting the Fathers call sighing out when moved to be merry as the French King did when prisoner here in England in the days of King Edward the third how can we sing songs in a strange land Vers 11. In the land of Rameses That is in the whole territory where Ramases was afterwards built Exod. 1.11 Vers 12. And Joseph nourished his Father For which end he was sent before by God and for whose sake so many thousands were preserved that else would have perished What fools then are they that hunt out the Saints their only safeguard and hate them to whom they owe all the good they have This is with the foolish deere to eate up the leaves that hid them from the hunter Vers 13. The famine was very sore Of this famine mention is made by Justin lib. 1. and Orosius lib. 1. cap. 8. So that the land of Egypt fainted Furebat See Prov. 26.18 saith Junius The Egyptians in the fifth year of the famine began to rage if they could have told at what and were well-nigh mad So Mark 3.21 Our Saviours friends went out to lay hold of him for they said he is besides himself Or as some render it he will faint for vers 20. The multitude came so together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Gen. 45.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. that they could not so much as eate bread These Egyptians whether they fainted or fretted it was for want of bread Joseph had foretold them of this seven years famine but saturity and security had so besotted them that they feared nothing till they felt it Fulness bred forgetfulness and now they are ready to let fly at others because pinched with that penury Prov. 19.3 that they might have prevented The Wickedness of a man perverts his way and his heart fret a against the Lord. See it in that furious King 2 King 6.33 Vers 14. And Ioseph gathered up all the money There is something then besides grace that is better then money though Misers will as easily part with their blood as with their good Chaldaei nummum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Sanguinem appellant Constantinople was lost through the Citizens covetousness the like is reported of Heydelberg Worthy they were in this name to have been served as the great Chaliph of Babylon was by the great Cham of Tartary He was set in the middest of those infinite treasures which he and his predecessours had most covetously amassed and bidden to eate of that gold silver Turk hist fol. 113. and precious stones what he pleased and make no spare In which order the covetous Caytiffe kept for certain dayes miserably dyed for hunger Money is a baser thing then food and raiment 1 Tim. 6.8 these if we have let us be content Vers 15. Why should we dye in thy presence When it is in thy power to save us alive in this our extreame indigency Qui non cum potest juvat occidit saith the Proverb And is it lawfull on the Sabbath to do good or to do evill to save or to destroy a life
time about cap and surpliss They could never agree till they met in prison and then misery bred unity then they could heartily bewaile their former dissentions about matters of no more moment Epist 36. ad Reg. Elizabeth Peter Martyr commends it to the care of Queen Elizabeth that Church-governours indeavour not to carry the Gospell into England upon the cart of needless ceremonies By his advice among others in King Edward the sixths dayâ—s some people contending for one image some for another the King took down all those Balâ—ams-blocks And the very self-same day and hour wherein the reformation enjoyned by Parliment was pat in execution at London by burning of idolatrous images the English put to slight their enemies Act. Mon. 〈◊〉 in Muscleborough field is Mr. Fox hath well observed We had Images and other like popâ—sh paltrement pressing in upon us again and amain not long since till God stirred up the spirit of our religious Nehemi ths to step between and stop the torrent whom therefore God I doubt not will crown with conquest over all their and his Churches enemies Vers 20. And he set Ephraim before God many times sets the yonger before the elder makes the last to be first and the first last to shew the freedom of his grace and that he seeth not as man seeth 1 Sam. 16 7. The maids were first purified and perfumed before Ahashuerosh chose one But Christ first loves and then parifies his Church Eph. 5.25 26. and loves because he loves Deut. 7.7 8. And hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom. 9.18 Vers 21. Behold I dye This was a speech of faith uttered without the least fear consternation or dismayment As it was no more betwixt God and Moses but goe up and dye so betwixt God and Iacob but behold I dye Death he knew to him should neither be totall but of the body only nor perpetuall of the body but for a season only See both these set forth by the Apostle Rom. 8.10 11. Vers 22. I have given thee one portion Ioseph had the double portion as Iudah the dignity from Reuben who had forfeited both by his incest And here it appeareth that the right of the first-born to a double portion was in force and in use before that law Deut. 21.17 as was also the Sabbath circumcision and the raising up seed to a deceased brother With my sword and with my bow That is with the warlike weapons of my sons Simeon and Levi whose victory he ascribeth to himself not as it was wickedly got by his sons for so he disavows and detests it Chap. 49. but as by a miracle from heaven the Canaanites were held in from revenging that slaughter and made to fear his force and valour The Chaldee Paraphrast expounds it metaphorically I took it with my sword and my bow hoc est oratione deprecatione mea saith He by my prayer and supplication Prayers indeed are bombardae instrumenta bellic a Christianorum saith Luther a Christians best Arms and Ammunition The Jesuites pretend and protest that they have no other weapons or wayes to work but preces lachrymas Whereas it is too well known that they are the greatest Incendiaries and boutefeau's of Christendome and their faction a most agile sharp sword whose blade is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of every Common-wealth but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain CHAP. XLIX Vers 1. Gather your selves together THis is Jacobs swan-like song his last bequeath Sic ubi fata vâ—cant uâ—is abjectus in herbis Ad vada Maeandri conciuit albus olor Ovid. Epist his farewell to the world and it is a most heavenly one The wine of Gods Spirit is usually strongest and best at last in the hearts of his people his Motions quickest when natural motions are slowest most sensible when the body begins to be senseless most lively when holy men are adying Look how the Sun shines most amiably toward the descent and Rivers the nearer they draw to the sea the sooner they are met by the tide so is it with the Saints when nigh to death when grace is changing into glory they deliver themselves usually to the standers by most sweetly So besides Jacob did Moses Joshuah Paul and He in whose one example is a globe of precepts Our Lord Jesus Christ in that last heavenly Sermon and Prayer of his Ioh. 14.15.16.17 Whereunto let me add that faithful Martyr John Diazius who was cruelly butchered by his own brother Alphonsus Diazius and that meerly for his religion See the Notes on Chap. 4. ver 8. I remember saith Senarclaeus his friend and bed-fellow who wrote the history of his death when he and I were at Newburg the very night before he was murthered he prayed before he went to bed more ardently then ordinary and for a longer time together After which he spent a good part of the night in discoursing of the great works of God and exhorting me to the practice of true piety Ego verò illius oratione sic incoudebar ut cum eum â—issâ—â— entem audirem â—piritus ancti verba me audire exâ—stimarem Ibid. Quest Answ And truly I felt my self so inflamed and quickned by his words that when I heard him discoursing methoughts I heard the Spirit of God speaking unto me This and much more Senarclaeus writes to Bucer who at that time had employed Diazâ—us to over-look the right printing of a book of his that was then in the Press That I may tell you that which shall befall you But how knew Moses this last speech of Jacob being born so long after Partly by Revelation and partly also by Tradition For the words of dying men are living Oracles and their last speeches are long remembred And the accomplishment of all these Prophecies in their due time as the following Scriptures shew adds much to the authority of Moses's writings and confirms them to be faithful and true as He saith Joh. 21.24 Vers 2. Hear ye sons of Jcaob and hearken Draw up the ears of your souls to the ears of your bodies that one sound may pierce both at once Let him â—hat hath an ear to hear hear not only with that outward gristle that grows upon his head but with his utmost intention of mind attention of body and retention of memory and of pracâ—câ— also He that hears the Word of God must hear as if he did for so he doth hear for life and death he must as Jacob bids his sons hear and hearken Vers 3. Virgil. My might and beginning of my strength Nate meae vires The word here used signifieth the straining of the body forcibly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to effect a thing much desired such as was that of S. Paul Phil. 3.13 and that of Eliah 1 King 18.42 when he prayed and prayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.17 as St. Iames hath it that is with utmost intention of affection
their evil courses Ezek. 23.8 20.5 7 8. Ios 24.14 It is written as a heavie curs of God Levit. 26.17 If yee still trespass against mee I will set Princes over you that shall hate you Mischeivous odious Princes odious to God malignant to the people Vers 20. And they met Moses How readie are wee to mistake the grounds of our afflictions and to cast them upon fals causes 1 King 17.18 The Sareptan told the Prophet that hee had killed her son Vers 21. The Lord look upon you Thus wee have seen dogs in a chafe bark at their best friends Vers 22. And Moses returned unto the Lord Hee turned aside as it were to speak with a friend and to disburthen himself into God's bosom This is the Saints privilege See the Note on Matâ—h 11.25 Vers 23. Neither hast thou delivered Here Moses himself was too short-spirited Hee considered not belike that God's promises do manie times bear a long date neither is it fit to set him a time or to awaken him whom our soul loveth untill hee pleas Do but wait saith the Lord. Habac. 2.3 You shall bee delivered you shall bee delivered you shall bee delivered you shall you shall So much that text in effect soundeth and assureth CHAP VI. Vers 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses PArdoning the faults of his praier God grant's him a gracious answer so hee dealt with David Psal 31.22 For I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eies Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication when I cried unto thee Vers 2. Scalig. de Subtiâ—t I am Jehovah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaliger's word that do Peress Gregorie's word that have beeing of my self give beeing to all things elf and in special to my promises to perform with my hand whâ—t I have spoken with my mouth 1 King 8.15 onely God exspect's that men put his promises in suit by their prayers as here and burthen him with them as that Martyr said Vers 3. By the name of God Almightie See the Note on Gen. 17.1 The sens is this saith Cameron Quantum illis sufficiebat tantum indulsit Camer de Eccles non indulsit quod erat summum Hee gave them enough but not the main But by my name Jehovah That is by the import of this his name the full performance of his promises God was known to the Patriarchs by this name Jehovah quoad esse Dei but not quoad esse rei Vers 4. To give them the land of Canaan And a better thing with it the Kingdom of Heaven Heb. 11.10.16 Vers 5. I have heard the groanings Hee heareth the young ravens that crie unto him but by implication onely Psal 147.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with a hoars voice unfit to move pitie whence also they have their name in the Hebrew how much more his own covenanters Vers 6. And I will bring you out A great deliverance but nothing to that which Christ hath wrought for us from the tyrannie of sin and terror of hell Vers 7. And I will bee to you a God This is the top of anie man's happineâ—s to have God for his God What can such a man want Psalm 23.1 As hee in Plutarch said of the Egyptians that though they had no musick nor vines amongst them Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they had Gods Vers 8. And I will bring you See vers 4. Vers 9. But they hearkned not The ear which taste's words as the mouth doth meat was so filled with choller that they could relish no comfort It is ill sowing in a storm giving physick in a feaver-fit The easiest medicines or waters are troublesom to sore cies So here Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Vers 11. Go in speak unto Pharaoh Whether hee will hear or whether hee will forbear Ezek. 2.5 Speak when God bid's us though it may seem to little purpose Wee have lost manie a wors labor The man of God must bee patient tolerant to all yea to those that oppose proving if at anie time God will give them repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vers 12. Of uncircumcised lips Or of an heavie speech word bound Thick-lipped A thin lip is a sign of eloquence Job 12.20 Pitho sits in such lips Vers 13. And the Lord spake unto Moses Notwithstanding his former tergiversation and the peoples peevishness Mens wickedness cannot interrupt the cours of God's goodness Vers 14. These bee the heads This is a digression to shew the descent of Moses and Aaron Digressions in divine discourses are not alwaies and absolutely unlawful God's Spirit somtimes draws aside the doctrine to satisfie som soul which the Preacher know's not and sparingly used it quickeneth attention Vers 15. The son of a Canaanitess whom it was not lawful for him to marrie but hee was a head long and head-strong bold and fierce fellow Gen. 34.25 and 49.7 bound by Joseph Gen. 42.24 As one that had been most forward to sell him to the Midianitish Merchants Simeon also is left out in Moses his blessing Deut. 33. Vers 16. Of the sons of Levi Upon this family hee insist's and therefore hasten's to it Speak ever to the purpose Vers 20. Jochebed his father's sister See Chap. 2.1 Vers 21. Thuc. hist â—ib 124. Korah That ringleader of Rebels Num. 16.1 Vers 23. Elishaba Or Elisabeth a prince's sister Num. 2.3 Our English Elisabeth was by a French Dutchess said to bee the most glorious and most happie woman that ever swayed Scepter Vers 30. Of uncircumcised See the Note on vers 12. CHAP. VII Ver. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses IN answer to his last exception which yet hee had answered before chap. 4. ver 16. God bear 's with our infirmities A God to Pharaoh Armed with mine autoritie a Vice-God Shall bee thy Prophet i. e. Thy spokesman and interpreter Vers 2. Thou shalt speak Gods word must bee spoken however it bee taken Vers 3. And I will harden See the Note on chap. 4.21 The Dutch have a proverb Quem Deus excaecaturus est huic primum oculos claudit When God will blinde a man hee first closeth up his eies Vers 4. And Pharaoh shall not hearken This judgment God layeth upon manie of our hearers at this daie of whom after much paines taking wee may well complain as the herdsman did in the Poet. Heu mihi quà m pingui macer est mibi â—â—urus in aruo Vers 5. And the Egyptians shall know To their cost when the Lord's hand that is lifted up in threatning shal fall down in punishing Lord saith the Prophet when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see c. Isai 26.11 God will unseal their heavie eies with scorching plagues and rous them with horror enough Vers 6. Did as the Lord commanded them Mallem obediâ—e quà m miracula facere faith Luther Their obedience yielded them more comfort
say It was a merry world before there was so much preaching and teaching In terris manducant quod apud inferos digerant Aug. And ye shall eat Flesh with a vengeance which ye shall eat on earth but disgest in hell Vers 20. But even a whole moneth Deus saepè dat iratus quod negat propitius Patientia Dei quo diuturnior eò minacior Poena venit gravior quò magis sera venit Gods forbearance is no quittance fatted beasts are but fitted for the slaughter wicked men are killed with kindnesses Ease slayeth the foolish Prov. 1.32 Vers 21. Six hundred thousand foot-men In the conquest of Canaan there is no mention of horsemen The adversaries both Egyptians and Canaanites had horses and chariots not so this people of Israel See Psal 33.17 Vers 22. Or shall all the fish of the Sea Moses forgat belike the fowls of the ayr but God sent them such a drift of quailes as Moses dream't not of he fed them with meat of Kings bread of Angels Vers 23. And the Lord said unto Moses God bears with Moses here which afterwards he did not Num. 20.12 because then he shewed his distrust before the people God will not pass by the scandalous practices of his own people without a sensible check Vers 24. And set them round about the Tabernacle That the fear of the Lord might be upon them c. 2 Chron. 19.6 7. and that they might carry themselves worthy of God who had set them in place of Judicature To the company of the Areopagites Judges in Athens none were admitted but wise wealthy and noble men famous for good life and innocency Nay men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose behaviour was intolerable after they were chosen into the Colledg of the Areopagites abhorring and blushing at their former disposition changed their natures and embraced vertue Vers 25. Took of the spirit See the Note on vers 17. They prophesied Nec praedicendo nec praedicando but by uttering grave and wise sentences Apophthegmes or counsels as Moses did concerning the publike affairs of Israel by politicall and prudential speaking of things appertaining to government Vers 26. But there remained two of the men Being stayed by some lawful occasion as 1 Sam. 20.26 Jer. 36.5 or haply out of sense of their own insufficiency as 1 Sam. 10.22 Howsoever hereby it appeared to all the people that these seventy Seniours were set apart by God for the service Vers 27. And there ran a young man Three manner of persons said Mr. Latimer can make no credible information 1. Adversaries and enemies 2. Ignorant persons and without judgment 3. Whisperers and blowers in mens ears that will utter in hugger-mugger more then they dare avow openly Vers 18. My Lord Moses forbid Thus the spirit that is in us lusteth to envy Jam. 4.5 Nero omnium erat aemulus qui quoquo modo animum vulgi moverint Nero envyed every man that excelled Vers 29. That all the Lords people This is not meant of a salvificall teaching others but a political discoursing unto others See the Note on ver 25. Vers 32. And they spread them They fed without fear Jude 12. though foretold they should pay dear for these murthering morsels ver 20. that which they eat being saweed and that which they drank being spiced with the bitter wrath of God Job 20.23 Vers 34. They buried the people Who by a hasty testament bequeathed this new name to the place they lay buried in CHAP. XII Vers 1. ANd Miriam and Aaron spake She is set first because chief in the transgression Her discontent might arise from this that being a Prophetess she was not one of those seventy that were chosen to be helps in government Chap. 11. According to her name Miriam would be exalted Ambition rides without reins Because of the Ethiopian woman Zipporah the Midianitesse see Habac. 3.7 to whom he had been married many years before but they were resolved to pick a hole in Moses's coat An ungodly man diggeth up evil Prov. 16.27 but for Moses to be thus used by his own brother and sister was some triall of his patience To be derided by Egyptians is threatned as a misery Hos 7.16 but to be reproached by professors is very grievous Zedekiah feared more to be mocked by the Jews then by the Chaldees Jer. 38.19 For he had married an Ethiopian That was an old fault if any and should have been buried in oblivion Luther married a wife unseasonably when all Germany was now embroyled and embrewed in the blood of the Bores and when all Saxony was in heaviness for the death of their good Prince Elector Frederick This his best friends disliked and bewailed Mel. Epist ad Camerar As for Melancthon Quoniam vero inquit ipsum Lutherum quâ—dammodò tristiorem esse cerno perturbatum ob vitae mutationem omni studio benevolentia consolari eum conor Because I see him somewhat cast down saith He at the late change of his condition I strive all I can to comfort him Vers 2. Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses Every man would be something at home and many care not to raise themselves upon other mens ruines Self-love teacheth such to turn the glass to see themselves bigger others lesser then they are That man hath true light that can be content to be a candle before the Sun of others And the Lord heard it Without any delation of Moses But while Moses is dumb God speaks while he is deaf God hears and stirres The more silent the patient is the more shrill his wrong will be Vers 3. Now the man Moses was very meek So free from passions if Josephus may be believed that he knew no such thing in his own soul he only knew the names of such things and saw them in others rather then in himself Of Beza it is said quòd sine felle vixerit that he was without gall or guile and he lived to a great age as Moses did and as Mr. Dod did their meekness preserved them Above all the men And yet Moses could be angry enough when there was cause Exod. 11.8 16.20 Levit. 1â— 16 Numb 16.15 c. Yea how blessedly blown up was he with a zeal for God Exod. 32.19 and what a stomack shews he in that case Nazianzen saith of Athanasius that he was Magnes Adamas a Load-stone in his sweet gentle drawing nature and yet an Adamant in his resolute stout carriage against those that were evil Vers 4. And the Lord spake suddenly God takes his part ever that fights not for himself Christ that said I seek not mine own glory adds But there is one that seeks is and judgeth Here he appears as a swift witness Mal. 3.5 c. a sharp revenger of his servants injuries The rule is Injuria illata legato redundat in legantem Wrong done to a messenger reflects on him that sent him Vers 7. My servant Moses is not so God had never so
Vers 12. It shall be at the salt-Sea That is the Lake of Sodome called also Asphaltites and the dead Sea Josephus saith that an ox having all his legs bound will not sink into the water of this sea it is so thick Vers 17. Eleazar the Priest Pointing to the high Priest of the new Covenant by whom we have entrance into the promised inheritance whither he is gone before to prepare a place for us and hath told us that in his Fathers house are many mansions room enough CHAP. XXXV Vers 2. SVburbs These were for pasture pleasure and other Country-Commodities not for tillage for the Levites were to have no such employment Num. 18.20 24. Vers 6. That he may flee thither All sins then are not equal as the Stoicks held neither are all to be alike punished as by Draco's laws they were in a manner Those laws were said to be written not with black but with blood because they punished every peccadillo almost with death as idleness stealing of pot-herbs c. Aristotle gives them this small commendation that they are not worth remembrance but only for their great severity Vers 7. Shall be fourty and eight cities Thus the Levites were dispersed throughout the land for instruction of the people so ought Ministers of the Gospel who are fiâ—ly called the salt of the earth that being sprinkled up and down may keep the rest as flesh from rotting and putrisying Vers 8. From them that have many ye shall give By the equity of this proportion the richer are bound to give more to the Ministers maintenance then the poorer Let this be noted by those that refuse to give any thing to their Ministers because they have not those things the tithes whereof the law requires for this purpose See Gal 6.6 with the Note there Vers 15. Shall be a refuge Christ is our Asylum to whom running for refuge when pursued by the guilt of an evill conscience we are safe None can take us out of his hands If we be in Christ the Rock temptations and oppositions as waves dash upon us but break themselves Vers 16. So that he dye Though he had no intent to kill yet because he should have look't better to 't he is a murtherer he smote him purposely and presumptuously and the man dyes of it King James was wont to say that if God did leave him to kill a man though besides his intention he should think God did not love him Vers 18. The murderer shall surely be put to death This is jus gentium The Turks justice in this case will rather cut off two innocent men then let one offender escape Cartwr travels The Persians punish theft and man-slaughter so severely that in an age a man shall hardly hear either of the one or the other A severity fit for Italy where they blaspheme oftner then swear Spec. Europ Purchas and murther more then revile or slander like the dogs of Congo which they say bite but bark not And no less fit for France where Les ombres des defunde fieurs de Villemor within ten years 6000 gentlemen have been slain as it appears by the Kings pardons Byron Lord high-Marshal of France and Governour of Burgundy slew a certain Judge for putting to death a malefactor whom he had commanded to be spared Epitome hist Gall. pag. 275. For this he sued for a pardon and had it but not long after he turned traytor to his Prince that had pardoned him and was justly executed Vers 21. He shall surely be put to death And yet the Papists allow wilful murtherers also to take sanctuary who should as Joab was be taken from the altar to the slaughter Their hatred to Protestants is so deadly that they hold us unworthy to live on Gods ground fit for nothing but fire and fagot yea they send us to hell without bail or main-prize as worse then Turks or Jews They tell the people that Geneva is a professed Sanctuary of all roguery that in England the people are grown barbarous and eat young children that they are as black as Devils c. Vers 23. Or with any stone As at the funeral solemnities of Q. Anne a scholar was slain by the fall of a letter of stone thrust down from the battlements of the Earl of Northamptons house by one that was a spectatour Vers 25. Vnto the death of the high Priest Because he was amongst men the chief god on earth and so the offence did most directly strike against him Or rather because the high Priest was a type of Christ and so this release was a shadow of our freedom and redemption by the death of Christ CHAP. XXXVI Vers 1. ANd spake before Moses Who was their common Oracle to enquire of in all doubtful cases Like as at Rome C. Scipio Nasica whom the Senate by way of honor called Optimus had a house in the high-street assigned him at the publike charge quò faciliùs consuli posset that any man might go to him for counsel And surely as the Romane General never miscarried so long as he followed the advice of Polybius his historian so neither did or could this people do amiss if ruled by Moses who was the mouth of God vers 5. Vers 6. To whom they think best See Gen. 24.57 58. with the Note there Vers 7. Shall keep himself to the inheritance This was an excellent law to cut off quarrels strifes and law-suites and to frustrates those qui latrocinia intra moenia exercent as Columella said of the Lawyers of his time Vers 11. For Mahlah Tirzah and Hoglah c. The names of these virgins as one Interpreter elsewhere observeth seem to be not without mystery M. Ainsworth For Zelophehad by interpretation signifieth the shadow of fear or of dread his first daughter Machlah Infirmity the second Noah Wandering the third Hoglah Turning about for joy or Dancing the fourth Milcah a Queen the fifth Tirzah Well pleasing or Acceptable By these names we may observe the degrees of our reviving by grace in Christ for we all are born as of the shadow of fear being brought forth in sin and for fear of death were all our life-time subject to bondage Heb 2.15 This begetteth infirmity or sickness grief of heart for our estate After which Wandering abroad for help and comfort we finde it in Christ by whom our sorrow is turned into joy He communicates to us of his royalty making us Kings and Priests unto God his Father and we shall be presented unto him glorious and without blemish Ephes 5.27 So the Church is beautiful as Tirzâ—h Cant. 6.3 Deo soli Gloria A COMMENTARY or EXPOSITION UPON The Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. Vers 1. These be the words which Moses spake ANd surely he spake thick if he spake as some cast it up this whole Book in less then ten dayes space Certain it is that he spake here as ever most divinely and like
Egypt also it is reported that it is so fruitful a Country ut cunctos mortales pascere deos ipsos excipere hospitio salvâ re posse gloriaretur It was anciently called publicum orbis horreum the worlds great barn as some forraign Writers have termed our Country the Court of Queen Ceres the granary of the Western world the Fortunate Island the Paradise of Pleasure and garden of God The worst is that as Aristotle was wont to tax his Athenians that whereas they were famous for two things Laert. l. 5. c. 1. the best land and the best laws frumentis uterentur legibus nequaquà m they abused their plenty and lived lawlesly so it may be said of us that we live in Gods good land but not by Gods good laws Vers 10. Then thou shalt blesse rarae fumant foelicibus arae Solomon's wealth did him more hurt then ever his wisdom did him good But that should not have been Solomons Altar was four times as big as Moses his Exod. 27.1 to teach us that as our peace and prosperity is more then others so should our service in a due proportion Vers 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord By casting his words behind thee Psal 50.17 and not considering the operation of his hands Isai 5.12 fulness breeds this forgetfulness laden bodies leaden minds Vers 12. And hast built goodly houses Haec suâ—t quae nos invitos faciunt mori These are the things that make us loth to die said Charles 5. Emperour to the Duke of Venice who had shewed him the stateliness of his Palace and Princely furniture Vers 13. When thy silver and thy geld Which what is it else but white and red mould the guts and garbage of the earth wonder it is surely that treading upon it we should so much esteem it Well if siâ—ver and gold be our happiness then it is in the earth and so which is strange nearer hell which the Scripture placeth in the deep then heaven which all know to be aloft and so nearer the Devil then God Vers 14. Then thy heart be lifted up The Devil will easily blow up this blab in the rich mans heart whose usual diseases are earthly-mindedness and high-mindedness Prosperity makes men proud secure impatient Ier. 22.21 In rest they contract much rust Vers 15. Who led thee thorow c. Good turns aggravate unkindnesses and our offences are increased by our obligations Vers 16. Who fed thee God will give his people Tertull. de patient pluviam â—scatilem petram aquatilem Psal 78.20 24. he will set the flint abroach and rain corn from heaven rather then they shall pine and perish Vers 17. My power As that great dragon of Egypt lying at ease in the swoln waters of his Nilus saith Ezek. 29.2 Habac. 1.16 My river is mine own I have made it for my self Vers 19. ye shall surely perish Idolatry is a land-desolating sin Judg. 5.8 CHAP. IX Vers 1. HEar O Israel It was all their business at present to hear and yet he excites them so to do by an Oyez as it were He knew their dulness and the din that corruption maketh in the best hearts how soon sated men are with divine discourses and how little heed they give to the most wholsome exhortations Let a child be never so busie about his lesson if but a bird flie by he must needs look where he lights so c. Vers 2. The children of Anak Hence seems to come the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a King for these great men were lookt upon as so many little Kings See the Note on Gen. 6 4. Vers 3. As a consuming fire The force whereof is violent and irresistible Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God Wo unto us who shall deliver us c said those crest-faln Philistims at the sight of the Ark 1 Sam. 4.8 So The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulnesse hath surprized the hypocrites Who among us say they shall dwell with this devouring fire meaning God who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Esay 33.14 Vers 4. For my righteousnesse We are all apt to weave a web of righteousness of our own to spin a threed of our own to climbe up to heaven by to set a price upon our selves above the market to think great thoughts of our selves and to seek great things for our selves Coelum gratis non accipiam saith One Merit-monger I will not have heaven for nothing and Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes saith Another Give me heaven for thou owest it me How blasphemous is that direction of the Papists to dying men Conjunge Domine obsequium meum cum omnibus quae Christus passus est pro me Joyn Lord my righteousness with Christs righteousness How much better was it with those ancient Papists here in England to whom upon their death-beds the ordinary instruction appointed to be given was that they should look to come to glory not by their own merits but alone by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ D. Vshier serm on Eph. 4.13 that they should place their whole confidence in his death only and in no other thing c. Those Justiciaries that seek to be saved by their works Luther fitly calls the devils Martys they suffer much and take much pains to go to hell and by their much boasting haec ego feci haec ego feci they become no better then Faecès saith he wittily It is a good observation of a reverend Divine Mr. Cotton on Cantic p. 217. that the Church in the Canticles is no where described by the beauty of her hands or fingers Christ concealeth the mention of her hands that is of her works 1. Because he had rather his Church should abound in good works in silence then boast of them especially when they are wanting as Rome doth 2. Because it is he alone that worketh all our works for us Isai 26.12 Hos 14.8 Vers 6. Vnderstand therefore We are wondrous apt to wind our selves into the fooles-paradice of a sublime dotage upon our own worth and righteousness otherwise what need so many words here to one and the same purpose The Scripture doth not use to kill flies with beetles to cleave straws with wedges of iron to spend many words where's no need Vers 7. Ye have been rebellious against the Lord Nothing is so hard as to be humbled for man is a proud cross creature that would be something at home whatever he is abroad and comes not down without a great deal of difficulty Hence it is that Moses so sets it on here and with one knock after another drives this naile home to the head that he might cripple their iron sinewes bring their stiffe necks to the yoke of Gods obedience and make them know that he was Iehovah when he had wrought with them for his Name sake not according to their wicked wayes nor according to
the furnace Dan. 3.25 was a miracle so it is that men so favoured love not God Vers 2. And which have not seen Segniùs irritant animos demissa per aures Horat. Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus He speaks unto them as to eye-witnesses and those that have such evidence and self-experience are usually more affected then those that have things by hear-say only Mine eye affects my heart Lam 3.51 Vers 4. Hath destroyed them unto this day i. e. Hath so destroyed and dismaid them that to this day we hear no more of them As the Romanes so quailed and quelled King Aitalus that he made a law that none of his successours should make war with that State for ever Vers 5. And what he did unto you A Diary should be diligently kept of what God does for us Psal 102.18 for the help of our slippery memories and the firing up of our dull hearts to a contention in godliness Vers 9. And that ye may prolong See the Note on Chap. 4.40 Vers 10. And wateredst it with thy foot Fetching and carrying water called therefore the water of their feet as our life is called the life of our hands Esay 57.10 because maintained with the labour of our hands Vers 11. And drinketh water of the rain of heaven God crowning the year with his goodness and his pathes dropping fatness Psal â—5 10 11 12. In the Hebrew it is thy chariot-wheel-tracks for the clouds are Gods chariots Psal 104.3 in which water is bound Job 26.8 How they are upheld and why they fall here and now we know not and wonder The Egyptians used in a prophane mockery to tell other nations that if God should forget to rain they might chance to starve for it they thought the rain was of God but not their river Nilus See Ezek. 29.3 9. Isai 19.5 6. Vers 12. Which the Lord thy God careth for Deus sic curat universa quasi singula sic singula quasi sola Aug. From the beginning of the year How easie were it for God to starve us all by denying us a harvest or two Vers 13. And it shall come to passe This passage of Scripture following the Jews read daily in their families as Maimonides reporteth Vers 14. That I will give you the rain Rain God gives to all by a providence Act. 14.17 Job 38.26 but to his Israel by vertue of a promise whereby the might live not as by bread only but as by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God Vers 16. That your heart be not deceived Having first deceived it self for the heart is deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 c. and may say to many as the heart of Apollonius the Tyrant seemed to say to him who dreamed one night that he was fleaed by the Scythians and boyled in a Caldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. It is I that have drawn thee to all this Those in hell cry so Vers 17. And he shut up the heaven The keys of heaven of the heart of the womb and of the grave God keeps and carries under his own girdle as we may say Vers 18. In your heart Yea upon your heart Esay 47.7 57.11 so as they may sink thereinto Luk. 9.44 as the best balm cast into water sinks to the bottom Vers 19. Teach them your children See the Note on Chap. 6.7 Vers 21. As the dayes of heaven i. e. As long as the world standeth Hence haply we may conceive hope of the repentance of the Jews and their re-establishment in this promised land Vers 26. A blessing and a curse With the way to either that if ye miscarry ye may have none to blame but your selves For oft it falls out that whereas the foolishness of man perverteth his way his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19.3 Vers 29. Put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim That is pronounce it there See Josh 8.33 Hence the Samaritans built their Temple on this mount as a blessed place and there worshiped they knew not what Joh. 4.20 22. calling themselves Those that belong to the blessed Mount CHAP. XII Vers 1. THese are the Statutes Here Moses begins to comment upon the second Commandement of the law See the Note on Chap. 6.1 Vers 2. Ye shall vtterly destroy This clause of this law is judiciall peculiar onely to the Jewes saith a grave Interpreter as being cheifly intended to prevent their worshipping God in any other place then that one that he had appointed to which we in the dayes of the Gospell are not tied See Vers 5 6. It was a temporary Ordinance saith another and a part of Moses politie now abrogate Vers 3 And you shall hew downe As was here done notably in King Edward the sixths dayes notwithstanding the withstandings of the rude rabble Life of Edw. 6. by Sir Joh. Heyw. which more regarded commotioners then Commissioners and were more guided by rage then by right c. So that as one Master Body a Commissioner was pulling down images in Cornwall he was suddenly stabbed into the body by a Priest with a knife Vers 4. Ye shall not do so As wicked Ahaz did 2 Chron. 27.24 by the advice and help of Vriah that turn-coat 2 King 16. who had once passed for a faithful witness Isai 7.2 but afterwards proved a factour for the Devil Vers 5. And thither shalt thou come In token of an holy communion with God Vers 6 Heave-offerings of your hand For none might appear empty-handed before the Lord. Vers 7. And there ye shall eat before the Lord Loe this ye shall have of Gods hand as a recompence of all your charge and pains ye shall feast before him with joy This made those good souls go bodily on from strength to strength though they took many a weary step yet their comfort was that they should every one of them in Zion appear before the Lord Psal 84.7 This was the sweet-meats of that feast other dainty dishes there might be but this was the banquet Vers 9. For ye are not as yet come to the rest No more are any of us indeed till we come to that rest which remaineth for the people of God Heb. 4.3 8 9 10. The Ark was transportative till setled in Solomons temple so till we come to heaven are we in continual unrest Vers 10. So that ye dwell in safety Having peace both external and internl of country and of conscience Regionis Religionis Vers 12. And ye shall rejoyce No one duty is more pressed in both the Testaments then this of rejoycing in the Lord alwaies but specially in his immediate services And the contrary is complained of Mal. 2.13 and sorely threatned Deut. 28.47 Vers 14. But in the place This taught them unity and uniformity in divine worship as also that there was but one only way to obtain pardon of their sin
and acceptance of their services viz. by Jesus Christ of whom their Tabernacle and Temple was a type Vers 15. According to the blessing God allowes his not only a sufficiency but an honest affluency so they keep within the bounds of their ability Vers 16. Only ye shall not eat See the Note on Gen. 9.4 Vers 19. That thou forsake not the Levite But look to his livelihood sith Panormitar◠Ad tenuitatem beneficiorum necessariò sequitur ignorantia sacerdotum small allowances make either ignorant or negligent Ministers Vers 20. Thou mayst eat flesh Only it is noted as a fault to feed without fear Jude 12. And flesh-mongers are taxed by Solomon Nos etiam animas incarnavimus saith an Ancient complaining of the surquedry of his times Vers 22. Even as the roe-buck i. e. as common and prophane meats for these creatures were rejected for sacrifice Vers 25. Thou shalt not eat it Who can ever think any commandement of God to be light or little when this of not eating the blood is charged with so much strictness The Minutula of the law as well as the Magnalia must be carefully heeded and practised Vers 26. Go unto the place Far off though it be yet go thou must thither with thy sacrifices though at home thou mayst kill and eat for thine own repast and refreshing Vers 28. And with thy children after thee Whose comfort they that seek not Bern. Epist 111. are peremptores potiùs quam parentes rather parricides then parents Vers 32. Thou shalt not adde thereto To adde any thing to the Word of God saith Theodoret is bold madness but to open those things by the Word that in the Word are more darkly delivered is both lawful and laudable CHAP. XIII Vers 1. IF there arise among you a Prophet A publike Deceiver that shall boldly obtrude upon you his erroneous opinions for divine oracles seeking to drag disciples after him Act. 20.20 Such as of late times were Servetus Socinus Arminius Vorstius Pelargus the first Anabaptist Islelius Agricola the first Antinomian H. N. that is Henry Nicolai of Leiden the first Familist Howbeit Gerson tells us of a woman one Maria de Valentiana that had lately before his relation written a book with incredible subtilty concerning the prerogative and eminence of divine love to the which whatever soul had attained is according to her let loose from all the law of Gods Commandements Vers 2. And the sign or the wonder come to passe For so it may fall out by Divine permission for the patefaction and pudefaction of hypocrites Exod. 7.22 as when Jannes and Jambres turned water into blood or at least seemed to do so Vers 3. Thou shalt not hearken Hereticks have their pithanology their good words and fair speeches wherein they can vent a spittle of diseased opinions and whereby they deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.18 It is not safe therefore to hear them or hold discourse with such lest they insinuate and infect us as the Montanists did Tertullian as the Valentinians did divers well-affected Christians as Acacius the heretick did Anastasius 2 Bishop of Rome Anno 497. who sought to rectifie him It is reported of Placilla the good Empress that when Theodosius Seniour desired to confer with Eunomius Sozomen l. 7. cap. 7. she disswaded her husband very earnestly lest being perverted by his speeches he might fall into heresie Keep thee far from an evil matter saith Solomon Mark those that make divisions and avoid them Rom. 16.18 saith Paul And again There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers whose mouthes must be stopped c. Tit. 1.11 Vers 4. Ye shall walk after the Lord A special Antidote against Apostacy from the truth 2 Pet. 3.17 18. whereas those that have put away a good conscience do as concerning faith 1 Tim. 1.19 easily make shipwrack Vers 5. Shall be put to death This power is still in the Christian magistrate to inflict capital punishment on gross hereticks such as was Servetus at Geneva and Campian here who spider-like was swept down by the hand of justice and drew his last threed in the triangle of Tiburn Speeds hist of Engl. 1176. as the Historian wittily phraseth it Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia was a question moved by the old Donatists Libertas prophetandi is much challenged by the Arminians and other Sectaries But if in matter of religion every man should think what he lists and utter what he thinks and defend what he utters and publish what he defends and gather disciples to what he publisheth this liberty or licentiousness rather would soon be the bane of any Church Vers 6. Thy friend which is as thine own soul Amicitia fit tantùm inter binos qui sunt veri bonos qui sunt pauci Entice thee secretly saying Christ found the Devil in Peter perswading him to spare himself Cassianus reports of a young man that had given himself up to a Christian life and his parents misliking that way wrote letters to him to disswade him which when he knew he would not once open them but threw them in the fire Mention is also made in Ecclesiastical history of one Phileas a Noble-man and constant Martyr who going to execution seemed as one deaf at the perswasions and blind at the tears of his dearest friends As the waters use to break themselves on a rock so was he inflexible Vers 9. Kill him i. e. Deliver him up to the Magistrate to be killed for he bears not the sword in vain like S. Paul in a glass-window or George on a sign-post Vers 10. To thrust thee away By force not of arms but of arguments Tertull. as the Valentinians qui priùs persuadebant quam docebant Thus Jeroboam is said to have driven Israel from following the Lord 2 King 17.21 Vers 12. If thou shalt hear say Rumours are not alwaies to be credited nor alwaies to be contemned Vers 13. Childron of Belial Renegadoes are the worst of men 1 Joh. 2.19 Rabshakeh is held such a one so Bertius Tilenus Staphylus c. CHAP. XIV Vers 1. YE are the children of the Lord Ye should therefore do nothing unworthy of such a Father Antigonus being invited to a place where a notable harlot was to be present asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do He bad him only remember Plut. that he was a Kings son and do accordingly ye shall not cut See the Note on Levit. 19.28 Vers 2. For thou art See the Note on Chap. 7.6 And the Lord hath chosen thee Hence all thy holiness The maids were first purified before Ahasuerosh chose one but here it is otherwise Ephes 5.25 26. Vers 3. Thou shalt not eat any abominable See the Notes on Levit. 11. This law taught them to abstain from communion with wicked men in whom are found the malignities and evil properties of all other creatures Act. 10.13 17 20 28. They feed hard on sin
the Devils excrement as the Tartarians eat the carrion carkases of horses camels asses cats dogs yea when they stink and are full of magots and hold them as dainty as we do venison Vers 5. The Hart and the roe-buck These were dainties fit for a King 1 King 4.23 Rice and mutton is the cheer wherewith the great Turk entertaineth forraign Ambassadours and that so plainly and sparingly dressed as if they would give check to our gourmandize and excess Vers 6. That parteth the hoof See the Note on Levit. 11.3 Vers 21. Thou shalt not seethe See the Note on Exod. 23.19 Vers 22. Thou shalt truly tithe He seems to mean that second tithe wherewith they were to feast before the Lord and not the tithe given to the Levites Num. 18.24 Vers 23. That thou mayst learn A man cannot converse with God but he shall learn something Semper a te doctior redeo said He to his friend Moses came from the Mount with his face shining Confer Eccles 81. Vers 29. That the Lord thy God c. Not getting but giving is the way to thrive in the world CHAP. XXV Vers 1. AT the end of every This Sabbatical year signified the year of grace the Kingdom of Christ wherein all Israelites indeed are discharged of their debts Matth. 6.12 See the Note there Vers 2. He shall not exact it For that seventh year at least because there was neither sowing nor reaping that year how then could the poor pay their debts We must all put on bowels of mercy forbearing one another and forgiving one another c. Col. 3.12 13. Vers 3. Of a forraigner To shew that none that are alienated from the life of God or a godly life have remission of sin by Christ He sanctifies all whom he justifies Compare Rom. 11.26 with Isai 59.20 Vers 4. Save when there shall be no poor Here as in sundry other places of the new Translation the margin is better then the text as giving a good reason of the former law To the end that there be no poor amongst you that is extream poor by your exactions Of a cruel creditour it is said Psal 10.9 that he lyeth in wait to catch the poor he doth catch the poor when he draws him into his net that is into bonds debts morgages as Chrysostome expounds it Vers 7. Thou shalt not harden thy heart But draw out thy soul to the hungry Esay 58. Many have iron-bowels and withered hands See my common-place of Almes Vers 8. Thou shalt surely lend him See the Note on Matth. 5.42 Vers 9. And he cry unto the Lord Who is the poor mans King as James the fifth of Scotland was tearmed for his charity Vers 10. Thine heart shall not be grieved See the Note on 2 Cor. 9.7 The Lord thy God shall blesse thee See Prov. 19.17 and Almes ubi supra Vers 11. For the poor See the Note on Matth. 26.11 Aged and impotent poor whose misery moves compassion without an Oratour called here our poor as well as our brethren Vers 12. In the seventh year Viz. Since he was sold unto thee Vers 16. Then thou shalt take an awle Vt si non horreret servitudinem horreret saltem ignominiam publicam If we can bear reproach for Christ it s an argument we mean to stick to him as this bored servant to his master CHAP. XVI Vers 1. ANd keep the Passeover Every man that seeth another striken and himself spared is still to keep a Passeover for himself Vers 3. Even the bread of affliction Or of poverty as who should say poor folks bread ill-leavened ill-prepared Vers 4. And theâ—e shall be See the Notes on Exod. 12. Vers 10. With a tribute of a free-will offering Over and besides the sacrifice appointed for the feast-day Numb 18.27 31. and the two loaves with their sacrifices commanded Levit. 23.17 20. so good-cheap is Gods service to us over what it was to them Vers 12. And thou shalt remember It is very good to look back and recognize our former worse condition Agathocles King of Sicily being a potters son would be served only in earthen vessels Willigis Archbishop of Ments a Wheel-wrights son hang'd wheels and the tools wherewith they were made round about his bed-chamber and had these words written upon the walls in very fair Characters Willigis Willigis recole unde veneris Remember whence thou camest Vers 13. Thou shalt observe See the Notes on Exod. 23.16 Vers 15. Thou shalt surely rejoyce See the Notes on Chap. 12.12 Vers 18. With just judgment Heb. with judgment of justice Vt fiat justitia ruat coelum Let heaven and earth be blended together rather then Magistrates be drawn to deal basely It is reported by a late traveller that in Zant over the place of judgment these two Latine verses are written on the wall in letters of gold Hic locus odit amat punit conservat honorat Nequitiam pacem crimina jura bonos Vers 19. Neither take a gift Rain is good and ground is good yet ex eorum conjunctione fit lutum by the mixture of those two is made dirt so giving is kind and taking is courteous yet the mixing of them makes the smooth pathes of justice foul and uneven Vers 20. That which is altogether just Heb. justice justice that is let pure justice without mud run down let all self-ish affections be strain'd out CHAP. XVII Vers 1. THou shalt not sacrifice See the Note on Levit. 22.20 Vers 2. That hath wrought wickednesse Idolatry is wickedness with a witness Such was the venome of the Israelitish Idolatry that the brazen Serpent stung worse then the fiery Oh that the Lord as he hath revealed that Wirked one so that he would at length consume him with the spirit of his mouth 2 Thess 2.8 and dung his Vineyard with the dead carcase of that wild boar of the forrest He can as easily blast an oak as trample a mushrome Fiat fiat Vers 4. And it be told thee See the Note on Chap 13.12 And enquired diligently Men must be swift to hear slow to speak that is to censure or pass sentence Amongst the Athenians an inditement of any crime was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence and conviction made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius passâ—th for a sacrilegious person a prophane wretch a bloody persecutour a blasphemer of God c. and was so condemned before he was heard by fourscore Bishops in that Pseudosynodus Saâ—dicensis Sunt quidem in Ecclesia Catholica plurimi mali sed ex haereâ—icis nullus est bonus saith Bellarmine There be many bad men Papists but not one good to be found among Protestants Reas 8. pag. 41. The Catholikes follow the Bible saith Hill in his quartern of Reasons but the Protestants force the bible to follow them yea their condemnation is so expresly set down in their own Bibles saith another Popeling and is so cleer to
all the world Gagge of the new Gosp pref to Read that nothing more needs hereto then that they know to read and have their eyes in their heads at the opening of their Bible By the shooting of which bolt you may easily guess at the archer Vers 7. Thou shalt put the evil Both person and thing 1 Cor. 5.13 Vers 8. Too hard for thee in judgment i.e. For thee O Judge who art thereupon to consult with the Priests and by them to be informed of the true sense and meaning of Gods law For apices juris non sunt jus And the Rabbines have a saying Nulla est objectio in Lege quae non habet solutionem in latere Now the Priests lips should preserve knowledg and the Law should be sought at his mouth the high-Priest also in some cases was to enquire and answer after the judgment of Vrim before the Lord Num. 27.21 This the Pope cannot do and therefore cannot claim the final determination of all causes and controversies though his Parasites tell him Oraclis vocis mundi moderaris habenas Et meritò in terris diceris esse deus Vers 9. And unto the judg i.e. The councill of judges the Synedrion 2 Chron. 19.8 consisting partly of Priests and partly of civile Magistrates Amongst the Turks at this day their Iudges are ever Ecclesiasticall persons whereby both orders joyned Blounts voyage 89. give reputation one to another and maintenance for these places of judicature are the only preferment of the Priest-hood Vers 10. According to all that they inform thee viz. Agreeable to the sentence of the law vers 11. The Iews from this text foolishly seek footing for their traditions which they so much magnifie Mat. 15.1 2. Vers 14. And shalt say I will set a King A King then they might chuse so they did it orderly Zuinglius in ea fuit sententia regna omnia esse electiva nulla propriè successiva haereditaria In quo non negamus eum errasse in facto ut loquuntur Rivet Iesuita vap Psal 2.6 Vers 15. Whom the Lord shall chuse As he did Saul but especially David and his progeny types of Christ Vers 16. He shall not multiply horses Lest he be held as our Henry the third was Regni dilapidator the royall spend-thrift Vers 17. Silver and gold Lest his exactours receive from his subjects no less summs of curses then of coyne and lest he gather money the sinews of war but lose his peoples affection the joynts of peace as our King Iohn did Vers 18. He shall write him a copy The Iews say that if printing had been found out then yet was the King bound to write two copies of the law with his own hand one to keep in the treasurie and another to carry about him This Book of God was Davids delight Psal 119.70 Alphonsus King of Aragon is reported to have read over the Bible fourteen times with Lyra's notes upon it Charles the Wise of France not only caused the Bible to be translated into French as our King Alured translated the Psalter himself into his Saxon tongue but was also very studious in the holy Scripture And that peereless princesse Q. Elizabeth as she passed in triumphall state through the streetes of London after her Coronation when the Bible was presented to her at the little Conduit in Cheape-side Speeds hist she received the same with both her hands and kissing it laid it to her breasts saying that the same had ever been her chiefest delight and should be the rule whereby she meant to frame her government Vers 19. And it shall be with him As his Vade-mecum his Manuall his running library the man of his counsell Luther said he would not live in paradise without the Bible as with it Tom. 4. Oper. Latin p. 424. he could easily live in hell it self V. 20. That his heart be not lifted up That his good and his blood rise not together as that Kings of Tyre did Ezek. 28.2 and that Lucifer son of the morning Isai 14.12 13. See my common place of Arrogancy Of Caligula it is said that there never was a better servant or a worse Lord Vespasian is said to be the only man that became better by the Empire The most of the Emperours grew so insolent that they got nothing by their preferment nisi ut citius interficerentur but to be sooner slain CHAP. XVIII Vers 1. ANd his inheritance i.e. Whatsoever by the Law belonged to the Lord as decimae deo sacrae c. V. 4. Plin. hist The first fruit also Pliny lib. 18. tells us that among the Romans also no man might taste of his own corn wine or other fruits priusquam Sacerdotes primitias libassent till the Priests had offered the first-fruites and made their use of them Vers 6. With all the desire of his minde To do God better service A good heart holds the best he can do but a little of that much that he could gladly beteem the Lord and is still devising what to do more Psal 116.12 Vers 8. Besides that He shall not maintain himself of his own private stock but live of the Holy things of the Temple Vers 10. That maketh his son See the Note on Levit. 18.21 Vers 11. Or a Necromancer Bellarmine and other Papists play the Necromancers when they would prove a purgatory from the apparitions of spirits that tell of themselves or others there tormented Vers 13. Thou shalt be perfect See the Note on Mat. 5.48 Vers 14. Hath not suffered thee so to do He â—hath shewed thee a more excellent way and kept thee from these devoratory evills as Tertullian calleth them so ordering the matter that that evill one toucheth them not with any deadly touch I Ioh. 5.18 For either he suffers not his to be tempted above strength 1 Cor. 10.13 Or else he with-holds the occasion when temptation hath prevailed to procure consent and purpose c. Vers 15. Like unto me Both in the participation of nature and of office a true man and a true Mediatour Similes they are but not pares Christ being worthy of more glory then Moses and why See Heb. 3.3 c. Heb. 7.22 9.15 Vers 18. And he shall speak unto them Christ is that palmoni hammedabbar Dan. 10. that excellent speaker that spake with authority and so as never man spake being mighty in word and deed See my true treas p. 1. Vers 22. Thou shalt not be afraid Though he spake great swelling words of vanity Camd. Elis fol. 403. 2 Pet. 2.18 milstones and thunderbolts as Hacket here did CHAP. XIX Vers 3. THou shalt prepare thee a way A direct plain faire high-way Such a way must Ministers prepare and pave for their people to Christ the true Asylum by giving them the knowledg of salvation by the remission of their sins Luk. 1 76 77. Vers 4. Whom he hated not in time past There is a passion of hatred This is a
2.3 CHAP. XXV Vers 1. IF there be a controversie Among the Mahometans there are very few law-suites and the reason is given quòd temerè litigantes publicè flagellis ceduntur because they that sue others without just cause Caesar Com. are whipped publikely Once it was counted ominous to commence actions and follow suites Of our common-barretters we may well say as the Historian doth of Mathematicians Tac. lib. 1. c. 7. Genus hominum quod in rep nostra vetabitur semper retinebitur Vers 2. To be beaten before his face The Turks when cruelly lashed are compelled to return to the Judge that commanded it to kiss his hand to give him thanks and to pay the officer that whipped them Vers 3. Should seem vile unto thee There is an honour due to all men 1 Pet. 2.17 and though we must hate the sin yet not the sinner Vers 4. That treadeth out the Corn Which was the manner of that country Whereunto also the Prophet alludeth Hos 10.11 Ephraim is a heifer that loveth to tread out the corn because while it treads it feeds on the corn but not to plow because no refreshing till the work was done Vers 5. Her husbands brother This was a special exception from that general law Levit. 18.16 but yet gave no liberty under this pretext to have more wives then one at once See the Note on Matth. 22.23 Vers 6. The first-born Provided that he be a son as appears by the reason here given that his name be not put out of Israel It signified the birth-right of Christ that should never dye He shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes Isai 53.10 Filiabitur nomine ejus Psal 72.17 The name of Christ shall endure for ever it shall be begotten as one generation is begotten of another there shall be a succession of Christs name Vers 9. And loose his shooe To shew that he was worthy to go bare-foot and had no right howsoever to tread upon that ground as any part of his estate See Ruth 4.7 The Turks have a ceremony somewhat like this The woman may sue a divorce when her husband would abuse her against nature Blunts voy which she doth by taking off his or her shooe before the judg and holding it the sole upward but speaking nothing for the uncleanness of the fact And spit in his face As unworthy to shew his face amongst his brethren See Num. 12.14 Isai 50.6 That will not build up his brothers house See the Note on Exod. 1.21 Vers 12. Cut off her hand The instrument of her sin thus Cranmer thrust his hand wherewith he had subscribed a recantation first into the fire crying out thou unworthy right hand An act of Parliament was here made in the raign of Philip and Mary that the authours and sowers of seditious writings should lose their right hands By vertue whereof John Stubbes and William Page had their right hands cut off with a cleaver driven through the wrist with the force of a beetle in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth for a book written against the marriage with the Duke of Anjou entituled the Gulf Camb. Elisab fol. 239. wherein England will be swallowed up by the French marriage c. which most men presaged would if it had gone one have been the ruine of religion Vers 13. Divers weights a great and a small As they have that weigh not out a whole seventh day to God who hath given men six whole dayes to labour in these sell by one measure and buy by another It was an errour doubtless for want of due light and better information in that pious Prince Edward the sixth Life of Edw. 6. by Sr. I. H. pag. 147. to give order to his Councell that upon Sundayes they should intend publique affaires of the realm dispatch answers to letters and make full dispatches of all things concluded in the week before provided that they be present at common-prayer Vers 18. How he met thee by the way Not with bread and water but with fire and sword See Exod. 17.8 And he feared not God Who had so powerfully brought his Israel out of Egypt See Iob 6.14 Gen. 20.11 with the note there Vers 19. Thou shalt not forget it Neither did they Saul should have utterly destroyed them 1 Sam. 15. But wherein he failed God stirred up the Simeonites in Hezekiah's dayes to smite the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped 1 Chron. 4.42 43. It is ill angring the ancient of days His wrath lasts longer then hot coales of juniper Psal 120.4 his judgments are severe and durable As we use to say of winter they never rot in the skie but shall fall if late yet surely yet seasonably Gods forbearance is no quittance CHAP. XXVI Vers 2. THat thou shalt take of the first c. In token of homage or as a chiefe rent due to God the true proprietary of whom they held all Vers 5. A Syrian ready to perish Jacob whose originall was from Haran in Syria Gen. 11.31 and whose abode had been with Laban the Syrian in much poverty affliction and misery Hos 12.12 And became there a nation Consider we likewise what we were by nature and should have been what we are by grace and shall be and then take we up that most modest speech of that noble Athenian Captain Iphicrates in the midst of all his glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from how great baseness and misery Aristot Rhetoric l. 5. c. 9. to what great blessedness and glory are we advanced being raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.6 See vers 11.12 13. with the notes What was there in us said Tamerlian to Bajazet the great Turk Leionclav Annal. Turc now his prisoner that God should set us over two great Empires of Turks and Tartars to command many more worthy then our selves you being blind of one eye and I lame of a leg c Peter Martyr told Queen Elizabeth in an epistle that Princes must be double thankfull to God 1. As men 2. As eminent men exalted above others so must all Gods servants who being his first-born are in that respect higher then the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 and being the first fruits of his revenue are therefore holiness to the Lord Ier. 2.3 Vers 12. The stranger the fatherless Thus God doth not only plead the poor mans cause Chap. 15.10 11. but he allots a portion of the third-yeares tyth not only to the Levite who is never excluded but to the stranger fatherless and widdow as Hierom observeth and calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the poor mans tyth Vers 13. I have not transgressed This is spoken not by way of Pharisaicall boasting or opinion of merit but publike testification of entire obedience Vers 14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning All Gods worships were to be celebrated with joy Deut. 12.7 Sacrifices offered with mourning were
countries and because the labour was the easier and his right the better sith they had once been his fathers Vers 19. A well of springing water Heb. living so called for their continual motion Life consisteth in action and the godly esteem of life by that stirring they finde in their souls O Lord saith Hezekiah by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit And thus many a man lives more in a shorter then others in a longer time S. Jerome tells of One Hieron Epist ad Fri. qui in brevi vitae spacio tempora virtuâ—im multa replevit As Seneca of another qui non diu vixit sed diù fuit Non multum navigavit sed multum jactatus est Oh live live live saith a Reverend man quickly much long else you are but histed and kickt off this stage of the world as Phocas was by Heraclius Nay Abners fun by M. Harris many as Job 27.23 and v. 15. who were buried before half dead Vers 20. And the herd-men of Gerar Not content to have cast him out they pursued him with cruel hatred and by denying him water went about to destroy both him and his herds Crosses seldom come single Eccles 12.2 but in a croud James 1.2 The clouds return after the rain and cluster against a new storm See therefore that ye keep your cloke close about you Vers 21. And he called the name of it Sitnah Of Satan to hate deadly as the devil doth So the Preacher in his travels tells us of a place called The mouth of hell And we read of a Country called Terra del fuego Preach trav pag. 106. Heyl. Geog. 130. Savoy for the strait passages infested with thieves was once called Malvoy till a worthy adventurer cleared the coasts and then 't was called Salvoy or Savoy quasi salva via Ibid. 474. So King Alfred as he divided the kingdom into shires so the subjects in the several shires into Tens or Tythings every of which should give bond for the good abearing of each other The ancientest of the ten was called the Tything-man And the Kingdom was called Regnum Dei Polyd. Virg. and Albion quasi Olbion happie as Angli quasi Angeli for that then a poor girl might safely travel with a bag of gold in her hand and none durst meddle with her Vers 22. And he removed from thence c. See here a pattern of a patient and peaceable disposition not broken by the continual injuries and affronts of the Philistims that maligned and molested him Psal 120.7 I am peace saith David and I saith Isaac and I saith every son of peace every childe of wisdom How well might good Isaac take up that of David Psal 26.12 Psal 4.2 and say My feet stand in an even place now that he was at Rehoboth especially and God had made room for him The scales of his minde neither rose up toward the beam Barthol Westmer in Psal 26. through their own lightness nor were too much depressed with any load of sorrow but hanging equally and unmoved between both gave him liberty in all occurrences to enjoy himself Our mindes saith a Divine should be like to the Adamant Ambros Hexam 4. that no knife can cut the Salamander that no fire can burn the Rock which no waves can shake the Cypress-tree which no weather can alter the hill Olympus higher then storm or tempest winde or weather can reach unto or rather like mount Sion Psal 1â—5 1 Philip. 4.11 Act. Mon. that cannot be removed but standeth fast for ever Thus Paul had learned how to abound and to be abased Bradford if the Queen would give him life he would thank her if banish him he would thank her if burn him he will thank her if condemn him to perpetual imprisonment he will thank her as he told one Creswel that offered to intercede for him Praeclara est aequabilitas in omni vita idem semper vulius eademque frons Aelian lib. 9. Solin cap. 8. ut de Socrate idemque de C. Laelio accepimus saith Tully in his books of Offices which book the old Lord Burleigh Peachams comp Gent. pag. 45. Lord high Treasurer to Queen Elisabeth would always carry about him to his dying day either in his bosom or pocket And what use he made of it take M. Camdens testimony Camd. Elis fol. 495. Burleigh Lord Treasurer was wont to say that he overcame envie more by patience then pertinacy His private estate he managed with that integrity that he never sued any man no man ever sued him He was in the number of those few that both lived and died with glory Vers 23. And he went up to the place of Gods worship Strabo writeth that the Metapontines Dedicasse in Delphis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they were enriched by a good yeer of corn dedicated to Apollo a golden harvest Vers 24. Fear not for the continued opposition of the Philistims or what-ever other discouragement The best mindes when troubled for any long time yeeld inconsiderate motions and suffer some perturbation as water that is violenly stirred sends up bubbles They cannot be so much master over their passions as not otherwhiles to be disquieted for not the evenest weights but at their first putting into the balance somewhat sway both parts thereof not without some shew of inequality which after some little motion settle themselves in a meet poize Potissimùm verò fidei murus Bucholcer Chronol 320. tentationum ariete durius aliquantò pulsatus concussus facilè nutare ac ruinam minari incipit nisi divinitus sustentetur Vers 25. And called upon the Name of the Lord that had made room for him and now by his presence and promise comforted him Let the streams of Gods bounty lead us as the water-course doth either to the spring upward or downward to the main Ocean to the source and fountain whence they flow Let God taste of the fruit of his own planting Otherwise it is no better then the refreshing of him that standeth by a good fire and crieth Ah ah I am warm Isai 44.16 We are no better then bruit beasts if contenting our selves with a natural use of the creatures we rise not up to the Author if in stead of being temples of his praise we become graves of his benefits Isaac first built an altar and then digg'd a Well Vers 26. And Abimelech went to him Not of any great love but as 1. prickt in conscience 2. to provide for posterity It was a mercy to him howsoever that strangers and Heathens should do him this honour as it was to Luther that when the Pope had excommunicated him the Emperour proscribed him two Kings written against him c. the Elector of Saxony should nevertheless stick to him Manh. loc com and that the Great Turk should send him word not to be discouraged for he would
become his gracious Lord c. through From such a Lord said Luther good Lord deliver me Vers 27. Wherefore come ye to me Here was his magnanimity and his modesty both in expostulating the wrongs they had done unto him He could not but be sensible of their discourtesies though he dissembled them A sheep feels the bite of a dog as well as a swine though she make no such noise Isaac having now a fit opportunity Job 6. gives them the telling of it and how forcible are right words There is a real confutation of injuries and we should consult whether in such a case it be best to deal with the wrong-doers at all by words Gods way is by works and he must get an Isaac-like temperance and prudence that thinks himself able to convince them by reason and to set them down Vers 28. Let there be now an oath See here saith Chrysostom how great the power of vertue is Quanta virtutis potentia quantum mansuetudinis robur c. Chrysost Hom. quinta Prov. 16.7 and the might of meekness For they that lately drove him out from amongst them now come to him in courtesie though a forlorn forraigner and not onely give him satisfaction but seek his friendship Thus When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him Vers 29. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord This they had observed and therefore did him this honour So the King of Babylon sent Ambassadours and a Present to Hezekiah because he had heard of the miracle of the Suns going back for him Now because the Sun which was their god had honoured him so much the King of Babylon would honour him too Abulens in 2 Reg. 20. as Abulensis hath well observed Vers 30. And he made them a feast Not to mischief them thereat as Absalom did Amnon as Alexander did Philotas as the Great Turk doth the Bashaws whom he intends to strangle Turk hist but to shew there was no rancour or purpose of revenge Vers 31. And they rose up betime c. The proverb is De sero convivium de mane consilium It was the Persians barbarous manner in the midst of their cups to advise of their weightiest affairs as Pererius here noteth Ardua negotia praesertim in quibus juramentum intervenit jejuno stomacho suscipi peragique debent saith Piscator Weighty businesses are best dispatched fasting Vers 32. We have found water As crosses so mercies seldom come single but by troops as she said when her son Gad was born A company cometh Vers 33. Je Beershebah to this day So it was before Gen. 21.31 but the name was almost worn out the Well being stopped up Isaac therefore new names it and so preserves it for a monument of Gods mercy to his father and to himself Vers 34. And Esau was fourty yeers old In an apish imitation of his father who married not till that age keeping under his body and bringing it into subjection as Paul being inured by good education to hard labour prayer and pious meditation 1 Cor. 9. But Esau did not so a pleasure-monger he was a profane person and as the Hebrews say a filthy whore-master So much also the Apostle seems to intimate when he sets them together and saith Let there be no fornicator or profane person as Esau Heb. 12.16 He took to wife Not consulting his parents or craving their consent This was abdicationis praeludium Deus quem destruit dementat Vers 35. Which were a grief because idolatresses Rev. 2.2 and untractable because given up by God Hos 4.17 Rom. 1.28 XXVII Vers 1. Isaac was old and his eyes diâ— OLd-age is of it self a disease and the sink of all diseases This Solomon sweetly sets forth Eccles 12. by a continued allegory Vbi quot lumina imò flumina orationis exserit saith One. In general he calls it The evil day Eccles 12.2 3. c. expounded the yeers that have no pleasure in them In particular the Senses all fail the hands tremble the legs buckle the teeth cannot do their office as being either lost or loosened the silver cord that is the marrow of their backs is consumed the golden ewre that is the brain-pan broke the pitcher at the well that is the veins at the liver the wheel at the cistern that is the head which draws the power of life from the heart all these worn weak and wanting to their office So that sleep faileth desire faileth * Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quum â—ppetitum Veuerem irritat neither spring nor summer signified by the almond-tree and grashopper shall affect with pleasure the daughters of musick shall be brought lowe as they were in old Barzillai the sun moon and stars are darkened for any delight they take in their sweet shine yea the clouds return after rain a continual succession of miseries like April-weather as one shower is unburthened another is brewed and the skie is still over-cast with clouds Lo such is old age and is this a fit Present for God wilt thou give him the dregs the bottom the very last sands thy dotage Mal. 1.8 which thy self and friends are weary of Offer it now to thy prince will he be pleased with thee The Circassians a kinde of mongrel-Christians as they baptize not their children till the eighth yeer so they enter not into the Church the Gentlemen especially till the sixtieth yeer Brerewoods Enquires 135. but hear Divine Service standing without the Temple that is to say till through age they grow unable to continue their rapines and robberies to which sin that Nation is exceedingly addicted so dividing their time betwixt sin and devotion dedicating their youth to rapine and their old-age to repentance But God will not be so put off He is a great King and stands upon his seniority Mal. 1.14 In the Levitical Law there were three sorts of first-fruits 1. Of the ears of corn offered about the Passeover 2. Of the loaves offered about Pentecost 3. About the end of the yeer in Autumn Now of the two first God had a part but not of the last to teach us that he will accept of the services of our youth or middle-age but for old-age vix aut ne vix quidem Besides Abraham in the Old Testament and Nicodemus in the New I know not whether we read of any old man ever brought home to God Vers 2. I am old I know not the day of my death No more doth any though never so young There be as many young sculls as old in Golgotha But young men we say may die old men must die To the old Death is projanuis to the young in insidiis Senex quasi seminex Old men have pedcm in cymba Charontis one foot in the grave already Our decrepit age both expects death and sollicites it it goes groveling as groaning for the grave Ter. in Adelph Vel quod
retein the number of ten words so loth are Hereticks to have their assâ—â— cars seon they divide the last which yet is called the Commandement not the Commandements Rom. 7.7 Vasques not able to answer our Argument saith That the second Commandement belonged to the Jews onely Ver. 2. Which have brought thee God's blessings are binders and everie deliverance a tie to obedience Ver. 3. Thou shalt have This Thou reacheth everie man Xenophon saith of Cyrus that when hee gave anie thing in command hee never said Let som one do this but Do thou this Hoc tu facias Xenophon Cyropaed No other Gods before mee But know and serv mee alone with a perfect heart and with a willing minde 1 Chron. 28.9 Hoc primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur saith Luther In this first Commandement the keeping of all the other nine is commanded Ver. 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee i. e. For religious use for civil they may bee made Mat. 22.20 Howbeit the Turks will not indure anie Image no not upon their coins becaus of this second Commandement The Papists by their sacrilegeous practices have taken away this Commandement out of their vulgar Catechism This is a great stumbling-block to the Jews and a let to their conversion for ever since their return from Babylon they do infinitely abhor Idolatrie And for their coming to Christian Sermons they saie That as long as they shall see the Preacher direct his speech and praier to that little wooden Crucifix that stand's on the Pulpit by him Specul Europ to call it his Lord and Saviour to kneel to it to embrace it to kiss it to weep upon it as is the fashion of Italie this is preaching sufficient for them and perswade's them more with the verie sight of it to hate Christian Religion then anie reason that the world can allege to love it Ver. 5. Thou shalt not bow down Images came first from Babylon For Ninus having made an Image of his father Belus all that came to see it were pardoned for their former offenses whence in time that Image came to bee worshipped through the instigation of the Divel who is saith Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that rejoiceth in Images Am a jealous God Bee the gods of the Heathens good-fellows saith one the true God is a jealous God and will not share his glorie with another nor bee served by anie but in his own waie They that wit-wanton it with God may look to speed wors then that Citizen in K. Edward the Fourth's daies did who was executed in Cheapside as a traitor Speed's Chron for saying hee would make his son heir of the crown though hee onely meant his own hous having a crown for the sign Visiting the iniquitie This second Commandement is the first with punishment becaus men do commonly punish such as worship God in spirit and truth As therefore one fire so one fear should drive out another the fear of God the fear of men Ver. 6. Vnto thousands Of succeeding generations Personal goodness is profitable to posteritie And this promiss though made to all yet is more specially annexed to this second Commandement to teach saith one that parents should chiefly labor to plant pietie in their families as they would have God's blessing intailed upon their issue Ver. 7. The Name of the Lord That holie and reverend Name Psal 111.9 that Nomen Majestativum as Tertullian calleth it dreadful among the Heathen Mal. 1.14 The verie Turks at this daie chastise the Christians that live amongst them for their oaths and blasphemies darted up against God and Christ The Jews also are much offended thereat and it should bee no small grief to us to hear it When one of Darius his Eunuchs saw Alexander the Great setting his feet upon a low table that had been highly esteemed by his master hee wept Diod. Sic. lib. 17. Beeing asked the reason by Alexander hee said It was to see the thing that his master so highly esteemed to bee now contemned and made his foot-stool Ver. 8. Remember the Sabbath daie Hee saith not The seventh daie from the Creätion but the daie of religious rest such as is now our Christian Sabbath called a Sabbath-daie by our Saviour Mat. 24.20 who is Lord of this Sabbath called therefore the Lord's-daie Rev. 1. 1 Cor. 10. as one of our Sacraments is called the Lord's Supper and the table of the Lord becaus instituted by him Pope Sylvester presumed to alter the Christian Sabbath Hospin de fest Christ decreeing that Thursdaie should bee kept through the whole year becaus on that daie Christ asscended and on that instituted the blessed Sacrament of his bodie and bloud And generally Papists press the sanctification of the Sabbath as a mere humane institution in religious worship an ordinance of the Church and do in their celebration more solemnly observ the Festivals of the Saints then the Lord's Sabbaths making it as Bacchus's Orgies c. that according to what their practice is it may more fitly bee styled Dies daemoniacus quà m Dominicus The divel's-daie then God's To sanctifie it Let everie one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually saith Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist 3.2d Magnesian rejoicing in the meditation of Christ's Law more then in the rest of our bodies The ox and ass must rest wee must consecrate a rest â—s God on the seventh daie rested not from his works of preservation John 5.17 Ver. 9. Six daies shalt thou labor God hath reserved but one daie in seven as hee reserved the Tree of knowledg of Good and Evil. Gen. 2. yet wretched men must needs clip the Lord's coin In manie places God's Sabbaths are made the voider and dunghil for all refuse businesses The Sabbath of the Lord the sanctified day of his rest saith one is shamelesly troubled and disquieted B. King on Jon. Lect. 7. The world is now grown perfectly profane saith another and can plaie on the Lord's-daie without book Ver. 10. But the seventh daie Or a seventh daie Not onely Hebrews but also Greeks and Barbarians did rest from work on the seventh daie witness Josephus Clemens Alexand. and Eusehius That which they tell us of the river Sabbatius it's resting and not running on that daie I look upon as fabulous Thou shalt not do anie work Onely works of Pietie of Charitie and of Necessitie may bee don on the Sabbath daie Hee that but gathered sticks was paid home with stones The first blow given the Germane Churches was upon the Sabbath daie Dike of Cons pag. 276. which they carelesly observed Prague was lost upon that daie Thou and thy son c. Everie mother's childe The baser sort of people in Swethland do alwaies break the Sabbath David's desire by R. Abbot saying That it 's for Gentlemen to keep that daie Thy man-servant There is an old law of the Saxon King Ina If a villain work on Sundaie
by his Lord's command hee shall bee free Sr. H Spelman in Concil Ver. 11. For in six daies God took six daies to make the world in to the end that wee might bee in a muse when wee think of it and think on his works in that order that hee made them And rested the seventh daie Not as tired out for hee made all without either tool or toil his Fiat onely did the deed but to give us example as John 13.15 Wherefore the Lord blessed c. How God esteemeth the strict observation of the Sabbath daie may appear by the exact deliverie of it For hee hath fenced it about like Mount Sinai with marks and bounds that profaneness might not approach it 1. By his watch-word Remember 2. By his bountie Six daies c. 3. By his sovereigntie It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God 4. By the latitude Thou and thy son c. 5. By his own example And rested the seventh daie 6. By his benediction as here Hee blessed it and ordained it to bee a means of much blessing to those that observ it Add hereunto that God hath placed this Command in the midst of the Decalogue betwixt the two tables as much conducing to the keeping of both It stand's like the sensus communis between the inward and outward senses Boâ—in Theat Naturae beeing serviceable to both And hallowed it Diem septimam opifex ut mundi natalem sibi sacravit Ver. 12. Honor thy father c. Philo well observeth that this fifth Commandement which therefore hee maketh a branch of the first Table and so divide's the Tables equally is a mixt Commandement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and differ's somwhat from the rest of those in the second Table They consider man as our neighbor in nature like us this as God's Deputie by him set over us and in his name and by his autoritie performing offices about us That thy daies may bee long A good childe lengthneth his father's daies therefore God promiseth to lengthen his Ill children as they bring their parents graie hairs with sorrow to the grave so they are manie times cut off in the midst of their daies as Abimelech was God rendring upon him the evil that hee did to his father Judg. 13.5 Besides the pnnishment they have in their posteritie to whom they have been peremptores potiùs quà m parentes Bern. One complained that never father had so undutiful a childe as hee had yes said his son with less grace then truth my grandfather had Ver. 13. Thou shalt not kill A crying sin Gen. 4. For the which God make's inquisition Psalm 9.12 and strangely bring 's it to light It was a saying of King James that if God did leav him to kill a man hee would think God did not love him Ver. 14. Thou shalt not commit adulterie Adulterie onely is named because bestialitie Sodomie and other uncleannesses though more hainous yet they do not directly fight against the puritie of posteritie and humane societie which the Law mainly respect's Ver. 15. Thou shalt not steal i.e. Not rob or wrong another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. either by force or fraud 1 Thes 4.6 See the Note there Basil chargeth the Divel as a thief of the truth in that hee had decked his crows with her feathers And it was of the Divel surely that Shee had learned her answer who beeing charged by her mistress for stealing her linnens Light for smoke p. 85. and other things which shee found in her trunk said that shee stole them not and when shee was asked how came they to bee laid and locked up there Did not you do this No said shee it was not I but sin that dwelleth in mee Ver. 16. Thou shalt not bear Neither bear it nor hear it rais nor receiv wrong reports of another Deut. 19.16 Make a lie nor love it when it is made Rev. 22.15 The truth must bee spoken and that in love Doeg had a fals tongue though hee spoke nothing but truth against David Psal 120.3 Ver. 17. Thou shalt not covet See the Note on Rom. 7.7 and on Heb. 13.5 Thy neighbor's hous House is here first set as that which hold's and harbor's all the rest To these ten words written by God himself in the daie of the Assemblie Divines have reduced those other Laws Moral Judicial and Cerimonial written by Moses 34.27 28. Deut. 10.4 And herein Alstedius that excellent Methodist hath in his Harmonia Musica as in all those brief but pithie Notes upon the Pentateuch don the Church of Christ singular good service whom therefore for a Preface to that which follow 's in the opening of this and the three next Books and for the use of mine English Reader I have abbridged translated and the same here inserted SECT I. Of reducing all the Moral Laws to the Decalogue TO the first Commandement belong laws that concern Faith Hope and Love to God First Faith as that there is but one God and three Persons Jehovah Elohim that hee will send them a Prophet greater then Meses Deut. 18. that hee is to bee honored with our confidence patience and inward worship Next Hope of Favor Grace and Glorie Thirdly Love to God with the whole heart filial fear humble praier holie vows constant care to avoid idolizing the creature seeking to the Divel tempting of God listening to Seducers c. To the second Commandement belong laws made against gross Idolatrie will-worship c. and for right worship To the third pertein laws for Praier Thanksgiving Oaths Lots Blasphemies worthie walking c. To the fourth all laws of sanctifying the Sabbath To the fifth of honoring and reverencing Parents Princes Elders c. and of punishing rebellious children To the sixth may bee reduced all laws concerning Murther Revenge Rancor Smiting Fighting cursing the Deaf laying a block before the blinde c. To the seventh all that is said against Fornication Adulterie Sodomie Incest wearing the Apparel of the other Sex To the eighth Laws against Robberie Rapine Usurie Sacrilege deteining Wages or Pledges removing Land-marks accepting of Persons taking of Gifts fals Weights c. To the ninth belong laws against Back-biting Tale-bearing Fals-witnessing judging not admonishing c. To the tenth no laws are referred becaus it is wholly spiritual and hath no visible violations SECT II. Of reducing Judicial Laws to the Decalogue TO the first Commandement It was death 1. to denie obedience to the Priest who was a type of Christ 2. To perswade Apostacie from the true God 3. To seek to witches and wizzards It was likewise unlawful to make a covenant with the Canaanites whom God had cursed to make mixtures of divers kindes of creatures c. whereby they are taught sinceritie in Religion and conversation To the second Commandement God commanded to abolish Images Pictures Idolatrous temples Altars Groves c. and forbad them upon pain of death to bow to Sun Moon or anie other strange