distrust of the effect His Rod he knew was approved for miracles he knew not how powerful his voice might be therefore he did not speak but strike and strike twice for failing It is a dangerous thing in Divine matters to go beyond our warrant those sins which seem trivial to men are hainous in the sight of God Any thing that savours of infidelity displeaseth him more than some other crimes of morality Yet the moving of the Rod was but a diverse thing from the moving of the Tongne it was not contrary he did not forbid the one but he commanded the other this was but across the stream not against it where shall they appear whose whole courses are quite contrary to the Commandements of God CHAP. II. Verse 5. IT is God that assigns every Man his Quarters here upon Earth and cuts us out our several conditions appointing the bounds of our habitation This should make us rest contented with our own lot and not murmur at other mens though they be of the Seed of Esau for they have a right to their Inheritance from God as well as we have for ours Even the most Wicked have Earthly things given them by the Almighty and therefore it is a rigour to say they are Usurpers As when a King gives a Traytor his Life he gives him Meat and Drink that may maintain his life so it is with Wicked Men in respect of God they shall not be call'd to an account at the Last Day for possessing what they had but for abusing that possession As for the Saints who are Heirs of the World with faithful Abraham and have a double portion being Heirs of this World and the next too though here they be held to strait allowance let them live upon Reversions and consider that they have right to all and shall one day have Rule of all Wilt not thou rest content unless God set down the Vessel to thee as to St. Peter with all manner of Beasts of the Earth and Fowls of the Ayre must you needs have first and second Course It is a very hard thing to have Earth and Heaven too God did not turn you out of one Paradice that you should here provide you of another Earth is a place of bondage and banishment to all Gods Children Verse 6. Money supplies all wants and gives a satisfactory answer to whatsoever is desired or demanded and although about Money there is much noise and great complaint yet Money answereth all it effects all What great designs did Philip bring to pass in Greece by his Gold the very Oracles were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say as Philip would have them The Hebrew or rather Chaldee word used for Money Ezra 8. 27. signifies to do some great Work because Money is the Monarch of the World and therein bears most mastery Among Suitors in Love and Law especially Money drives the business and bargain to an upshot Verse 27. So should a Christian bespeak the World Let us pass through thy Country we will neither touch nor taste of thy Dainties but go by the Kings high way that good old way that God hath scored out unto us we will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left but keep an upright and an even course untill we arrive at the Land of Promise the Kingdom of Heaven Verse 30. He durst not trust them as fearing what so great an Army once got in might do they are not usually so easily removed God had also hardened his heart that he might come forth to fetch his own destruction Judgement need not go to find wicked Men out they run to meet their ruine Those whom God intends to deliver over to destruction shall have both their heart and their head hardned their heart against the motions of Gods Grace and their Head against the motions and Dictates of their own reason CHAP. III. Verse 1. THe Enemies of Gods Church are not consumed in a moment but wasted and consumed by the providence of God by little and little True it is God is able to bring them all to nothing at once with the breath of his mouth but it is his pleasure to waste and consume them by degrees one after another As here after Sihon was overthrown we see another Judgement of God upon another Enemy of the Church and this God doth because by them he may try the Faith and exercise the patience of his Servants No marvel if others be oftentimes deceived in us and are ignorant of the secrets of our Souls seeing we our selves know not throughly our selves untill we have ended and endured tryal For such we are indeed as we are in the time of Temptation Wherefore it is necessary that so long as we live in this World we should be kept in a continual exercise of Faith of Prayer of Repentance of obedience This was likewise done to plague the Israelites when at any time they should sin against God and therefore the Nations were left among them to be as snares in their paths whips in their sides and thorns in their eyes because they transgress'd the Covenant that God had made with their Fathers Ps. 81. 13. Verse 2. Among other means of working Faith in God and resting our selves in his Promises the blessed experience and comfortable proof which we have had of Gods mercies towards us in former times is one of the chiefest to cause us to trust in him and evermore to call upon him in our necessity This is confirm'd unto us in Davids faithful behaviour going to encounter with the uncircumcised Philistim 1 Sam. 17. 34 c. Whereby it appears how the Prophet strengtheneth his Faith by the experience that he had in times past of Gods helping hand nothing doubting but that the same God that had preserved him from the jaw of the Lyon and the paw of the Bear would keep him in this single Combate with that Champion that defied Israel Verse 26. Upon one single transgression God passeth the sentence of restraining Moses with the rest from the Promised Land Now he performs it Since that time Moses had many favours from God all which could not reverse this decreed castigation that everlasting Rule is grounded upon the very Essence of God I am Iehovah I change not Our purposes are as ourselves fickle and uncertain his are certain and immutable some things which he reveals he alters nothing that he hath decreed Verse 28 It is no small happiness to any State when their Governors are chosen by Worthiness and such Elections are ever from God whereas the intrusions of Bribery and unjust favour and violence as they make the Common-Wealth miserable so they come from him which is the author of Confusion woe be to that State that suffers it woe be to that person that works it for both of them have sold themselves the one to servitude the other to sin CHAP. IV. Verse 2. SUch add to Gods Book as wrest it and rack it making
buried in the high-way is no good mark and therefore bury not thy self thy labours thy affections upon the world Verse 22. However Infidels and Idolaters were destitute of the knowledge of the true God yet they accounted it a special duty to honour the Priests of their Groves and Altars and perswaded themselves that they should never receive any blessing at the hands of their Gods unlesse they honoured those that were esteemed as his Servants Thus Moses witnesseth that when Pharaoh during the Dearth and Famine that was in Egypt had received all the Money bought all the Cattle and purchased all the Land of the People to supply their necessity and save their lives yet he would not buy the Priests Land but sustained them for their Office sake And are Idolaters and Infidels thus bountiful in the maintaining of their Priests How then should this serve to reprove our dulness and backwardness in the true worship of the Eternal God How many are there that live in the bosome of the Church and profess the true Religion who yet to maintain a learned Minister that is able to save their souls repine and grutch to give sixpence a quarter What a shame is it for those whom the Lord hath blessed with abundance that they should spend all on their backs and bellies on Hawks or Hounds or Whores and nothing at all to the Glory of God the comfort of their fouls and help of their Brethren Verse 28. Just so many years as Iacob had nourished Ioseph in Canaan did Ioseph nourish Iacob in Egypt repaying his Fathers love to the utmost penny These were the sweetest dayes and freest from trouble that ever the good old Patriark saw God reserves his best to the last Mark the perfect man and behold the upright saith the Psalmist for be his beginning and middle never so troublesome the end of that man his after-end at least shall be peace A Goshen he shall have either here or in Heaven and a Peace both in this world and the next the peace of Conscience here and the peace that passeth all understanding hereafter CHAP. XLVIII Verse 1. IAcob have I loved said God and yet this Beloved of God was under many troubles and afflictions in his life and visited with sickness before his death And all this doth very well agree with the dispensations of Gods Providence For whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourgeth every Son whom he receives Afflictions are Christs Love-tokens When Ignatius came to the wild Beasts Now saith he I begin to be a Christian. Omnis Christianus crucianus every true Christian must take up his Crosse and follow his Saviour It is reported of an antient Doctor of the Church lying upon his sick bed and being asked how he did and how he felt himself he pointed to his Sores and Ulcers whereof he was full and said Hae sunt gemmae pretiosa ornamenta Dei These are Gods Gems and Jewels wherewith he decketh his best friends and to me they are more pretious than all the Gold and Silver in the world Verse 3. It is not enough to relate Gods Mercies to us in the lump and by whole-sale but we must instance in the particulars both to God and men upon every occasion setting them down one by one and cyphering them up as Davids word is Psal. 9. 1. I will praise thee O Lord and I will shew forth or sum up all thy marvellous works When Moses in Exodus met with his Father in Law he reckoned all the particular Mercies that God had done for Israel in Egypt and at the Red Sea he omitted none The truly thankful keep an Ephemerides a Calender and Catalogue of Gods gratious dealings with them and delight to their last to recount and sum them up We should be like Civit-boxes which still retain the scent when the Civit is taken out of them Verse 7. Iacob makes mention of Rachels burial to put Ioseph in mind that Rachel forsook her Fathers house to live in Canaan so to stir him up much more to leave Egypt which was not his Country as also that he might have a greater desire to the place of his Mothers Sepulcher Verse 14. Iacob feeling with his hands which was the Elder and bigger for the words are he caus'd his hands to understand on purpose laid his right hand on Ephraim in way of preheminence which sheweth that God bestoweth his Gifts without respect of persons as also it prefigureth the calling of the Gentiles instead of the Iews who were as the elder Brother 3. From this we may deduce an evident truth in experience that Gods dispensations towards the Righteous and the Wicked in this life are like Iacobs dealing here with Iosephs Sons crosse and strange For as he laid his right hand on the Younger and his left on the Elder so doth God oft-times for the present distribute with his left hand crosses to the good and with his right favours to the bad And not only in a literal sense as our Saviour speaks He maketh the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall upon the just and the unjust but in a metaphorical sense he causeth the Sun of Prosperity to shine upon the Unjust and the Rain of Adversity to fall upon the Just. Verse 15. When a Curse fals upon the Children the Father is cursed as in the Blessing of the Children tht Father is blessed Thus Ioseph brought his two Sons Manasseh and Ephraim to his aged Father Iacob that they might receive his Blessing who laying his hands upon their heads blessed Ioseph saith the Text and said God before whom c. and then it follows The Angel which redeem'd me from all evil blesse the Lads Now as Iacob in blessing the Children of Ioseph blessed Ioseph himself so Noah Gen. 9. in cursing the Children of Cham cursed Cham himself Valerius l. 1. hath observed concerning the Tyrant Dionysius that though he escaped free and untouched in person from the vengeance which his sacrilegious wickedness deserved yet his Sons were involved in so much misery that in them he being pasâ— feeling suffered and being dead paid dearly for his stolue dainties The light of Nature as well as Scripture tels us that evils falling on posterity are reckoned upon the Fathers score And thus as 't is with Curses so likewise with Blessings upon the same account and for the same reason though they are conferr'd upon the Children yet the Fathers memory is blessed and honoured by them Verse 17. It is dangerous to follow men blindfold how seeing soever those men are but it is safe and our duty to follow God blindfold how seeing soever we think our selves to be We must not be displeased as Ioseph was here with his Father Iacob When we see God laying his right hand upon Ephraim and his left upon Manasseh doing things crosse to our thoughts much lesse may we take upon us to direct the hand of God as Ioseph would Iacobs where we please The Lord
not admit changes in some places fix'd indeed in respect of Fundamentals but yet a moveable Pillar for things indifferent and arbitrary CHAP. XXXIV Verse 1. GOds Ministers by preaching and crying unto men may as it were hew their stony hearts that is prepare them for writing but only the Lord must write in them by the finger of his blessed Spirit and no man can make any thing enter without him Paul may plant c. but God giveth the encrease Secondly as God did not write before the stones were hewed so no more assure your self will he ever in your heart set any good if you contemn the outward hewing and preparing of you by the Word in the Ministery of his Servants Thirdly by the former Tables broken and these new made some have thought to be figured the abrogation of the Law and establishing of the Gospel our old corruption which must be broken and our new Regeneration which must come in place Verse 8. The greater manifestation of God and his Truth is vouchsafed unto us the more ought we to humble our selves and be thankful worshiping that God which so mercifully dealeth with us Again when God gives signes of his presence let us make hast to him and not suffer him to passe away while we are hindred with this and that God gives signes of his Presence in the Word preach'd in the Sacrament in my heart by good Motions O let him not passe away but make hast as Moses here did bow down and worship Verse 9. God in the former verse had promised to be gracious and in this Moses fals to prayer to shew us that the Promises of God kindle Prayer Wherefore use when you are dull to pray to meditate upon the Promises of God general particular so many so sweet so full of power to enflame a heart half dead and when you feel the fire kindle then pray it will flame out at last Verse 13 It is you in the singular to signifie that publick things were to be done by publick persons the Altars here were to be pull'd down by Moses But for private matters private men may do them as Iacob purg'd his own House of his Wives Idols Private men to meddle with publick matters is dangerous Paul came to Athens and found an Altar yet he threw it not down Therefore beware of false Spirits that will rashly write of Reformation without tarrying for the Magistrate So every man may be a Magistrate and the sweet society of man with man turn'd to bloud and slaughter Some yet are too mild and they tell us Idolatry must be first taken out of the heart by true teaching 'T is true teaching must go before but what then is therefore the Magistrates work excluded No For are not the sins also of the second Table to be taken out of the heart by teaching and yet I hope the Magistrate may concurre with teaching and punish Theives and Murtherers Much more then in the first Table touching Gods Honour and Service Verse 29. Modest men are not carried away with knowledge of their own gifts but are as it were ignorant of them In matters of Almes the Lord saith Let not your right hand know what your left hand doth Verse 30. To note first that Ministers Faces that is their outward actions and words which appear to men should glister and shine So let your light shine that men may see your goodworks Secondly to shadow that the Law which Moses now represented is only bright and shining in the Face a meer outward Justification before men whereas the Righteousness of Christ is all glorious within and without Thirdly to teach that the Law lightneth the Conscience which is as the Face of the inward man making it see and know sin but it lightneth not the Mind by Faith to save from sin Christ only doth this by his Spirit Therefore saith the next verse the people fear'd and durst not approach The Law ever striking a terror into the hearts of them that behold their sins in it and by it Such a Fear there is in Guiltiness such Confidence in Innocency When the Soul is once clear'd from sin it shall run to that Glory with Joy the least glimpse whereof now appales it and sends it away in terrour Verse 35. Nihil in lege gloriosum habet Moses praeter solam faciem His hands were leprous by putting them into his bosome his feet also had no glory he being bid to put off his shooes and so by that Ceremony was to deliver the Spouse unto another But in the Gospel he appeared in the Mount with Christ totus glorificatus this sheweth the preheminence of the Gospel before the Law The Latine reads facies ejus erat cornuta but this is for the mistake of our Hebrew word Keren an Horn for Karan to shine Tostatus sayes the meaning of the Latine is emittebat radios sicut cornua This also shews the righteousness of the Law only a shining of the Face that is of the external Works before men The Vail over Moses signifies the blindness of the Iewes that when Moses is read they understand not the end of the Law CHAP. XXXV Verse 1. IF God had not been Friends with Israel he had not renewed his Law As the Israelites were wilfully blind if they did not see Gods anger in the Tables broken So could they not but hold it a good sign of Grace that God gave them his Testimonies There was nothing wherein Israel out-stripped the rest of the World more than in this Priviledge the pledge of his Covenant the Law written with Gods own hand Oh what a Favour then is it where God bestows his Gospel upon any Nation That was but a killing Letter this is the Power of God to Salvation Never is God throughly displeased with any People where that continues For like as those which purposed love when they fall off call for their tokens back again so when God begins once perfectly to mislike the first thing he withdraws is his Gospel Verse 21. It is a very great blessing to have an importunate Conscience to stirre us up in all good Duties Such a Conscience regards not what pleaseth us but what is good for us that it looketh too and that it perswadeth too and that it urgeth This blessing had these willing Israelites in the Text who gave freely to the building of the Tabernacle Observe here their Heart that is their Conscience stirr'd them up ye have Bracelets ye have Rings offer them sayes Conscience to further this pious Work in hand their Spirit made them willing their faithful Friend in their bosome Conscience overcame them with Arguments and strong perswasions This then must needs be a great Blessing to have such a faithful Conscience it will make a man part with all his Lusts Pride Self-love Covetousness carnal Delights for Gods Glory and our own true Good Verse 22. When God was once reconciled to his People in the Wilderness after their sin
cleave not to the Element or Creature of Water but remember Saint Iohn 1 Iohn 5. 6. tels you that Jesus Christ came by Water and Bloud and it is he only that washeth away our spots and saveth us from our sins and by the offering of the Turtles it was plainly figured that not in themselves but in some others they must be made clean from all their impurities CHAP. XVI Verse 2. IN that Aaron was forbidden at all times to enter into the Holiest of Holies we may learn that even Ministers as well as other men are not rashly to enter into all the things of God but to stand in reverence of some Mysteries either dealing not at all or very advisedly and sparingly with them as their nature requires Verse 3. When we appear before God we must come with a Sin-offering that is come with an humble acknowledgement as this Sin-offering figured that thou art a sinner confessing it to God with a greived heart and bring Jesus Christ in thy soul with thee offering him by thy true Faith to God his Father as a sure safety for all sinners against deserved wrath and punishment Verse 4. We must be cloth'd with Christs Righteousness as with this holy linnen Coat if we ever find acceptance with God For to that end Aaron did change his Garment to shew that he sustained another person who was holy he himself being but a man subject to imperfection and sin Now if Aaron might not enter but in such sort how much lesse might the People appear at any time before God but in Christ and by Christ shadowed in all these Sacrifices Verse 21. When confession was made over the Head of the Scape-goat what diversity of words were used as all iniquities all trespasses all sins Why so many words but to teach that confession of sins must not be light and formal only but earnest vehement hearty and zealous And indeed never can a Child of God satisfie himself herein but still wisheth he could more bewail his sins and more earnestly expresse with words what his Soul feeleth in this behalf saying as I heard a dying woman once say O Sir I am sorry and sorry that I can be no more sorry Verse 31. God would name his Sabbath according to the nature of it and Sabbath is rest It is a rest of two kinds our rest and Gods rest Our rest is the cessation from labour on those dayes Gods rest is our sanctifying of the day For so in the religious sacrifice of Noah Gen. 8. when he was come out of the Ark God is said to have smelt odorem quietis the savour of rest Upon those dayes we rest from serving the World and God rests in our serving of him CHAP. XVII Verse 4. THe Reasons of the severity of this Law were first because it served for the preservation of the Ministry which God had ordained and that every Man should not be his own Priest Secondly Because thus they were taught that all Worship of God ought to be guided and directed by his Word and Commandement and not by the private wills of Men. And if you say that Samuel offered in Mizpeh 1 Sam. 7. and Elias in Mount Carmel 1 King 18. and so neither brought the Sacrifice to the door of the Tabernacle you must answer your self thus that all this in these Men was extraordinary and we may not follow extraordinary matters without some such personal and special Vocation as no doubt they had for we do not live by Examples but by Laws Verse 6. The burning and broiling of Beasts and the sprinkling of their Blood upon the Altar could of themselves yield no sweet savour but thereto was added Wine Oyl and Incense by Gods appointment our Prayers as from us would never please but as Indited by the Spirit and presented by Christ they are highly accepted in Heaven Christ is the Incense the perfume of all our Sacrifices and therefore if ever we intend that our Sacrifice either of Praise or Prayers should carry a sweet savour along with it it must be offered up in and by Christ for he is Gods Benjamin the Son of his Love in whom alone God is well pleased Upon which account it is that the Catholick Church doth evermore conclude her Prayers with this Expression Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Verse 10. The Lord by this Law would teach Men to abstain from Murther and Blood-shed the Blood of Man being Vehiculum animae vitalis for the Vital Spirits which yield unto Man through his whole Body heat motion and action are begotten of Blood by the power of the Heart and therefore Mans life and the life of every other Creature is said to be in the Blood according to that of the Poet Purpuream vomit ille animam Secondly Because the Lord had ordained Blood to be used in the Atonement made for Sins as a plain figure of the Blood of Christ the only able Sacrifice to purge and wash away our Sins and Offences therefore he would have Blood regarded as an holy thing and not used by Man as other Meats might be CHAP. XVIII Verse 2. THis Expression I am the Lord your God is often repeated to draw attention and beget Authority For consider first it is thy Lord thy Master that speaks he whose House is the World and all the Creatures his Servants shall we not then listen when this our great Master shall speak Secondly it is thy God that speaks the Eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth he who hath made all preserves all and can as easily destroy all again he who is the All-seeing God that looks upon thee in thy privare Closet in thy bolted Chamber under thy drawn Curtains that sees all thy secret villanies and stoln Embraces all thy wicked Plots and Contrivings and shall we not then hear and fear him What running and striving would there be who should come first if a King or some great Lord should call O let not the Lord of Lords and King of Kings call so oft and thou sleight and neglect it but rather say with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth speak Lord to my Ears that they may hear speak to my Memory that it may retain speak to my Heart and Affections that they may be obedient speak to my Life and Conversation that it may be answerable to thy Word then shall thy servant hear aright and not before Verse 18. If any Man think of some Marriages of holy Men in Scripture contrary to these Rules let him remember that we now live by Laws and not by Examples What God then either approved or tolerated let us neither rashly condemn nor unadvisedly follow but obediently tarry within the Precincts of the Law of Nature And again in these Cases let it ever be remembred as good reason it should not only what is lawful but what also is convenient and fit to be done For many things are lawful which are no way yet expedient but most unfit in
offered Yet this is no imboldning to presume but a comfort when Repentance is true Verse 45. The wayes of Gods delivering penitent sinners are divers and to be observed that we err not For some upon their sorrow God not only receiveth to favour and mercy but also delivereth them out of their present affliction So did he Manasses the King 2 Chron. 33. whose sin upon his Repentance he not only forgave but released him out of captivity and brought him into his Kingdom again Others he receiveth into favour and forgiveth their sin but yet suffereth to fall by their outward affliction So did he to the penitent Thief upon the Cross he received him into Paradice but saved him not from the Temporal Death The due remembrance of this is a great comfort against the loss of Friends in Wars and Plagues and the like calamities when others escape and do well Let us therefore cleave fast unto God believe his Mercy fear his Justice So whatsoever happeneth unto us shall happen for our good one way or other CHAP. XXVII Verse 8. IT is in thy power to vow or not to vow but having vowed a thing lawful and possible it is not in thy power though never so poor to dispense with thy Vow Indulged thou maist be but not Exempted If thou hast vowed rashly that rashness must be repented of but the vow if lawful must be perform'd without delay or diminution to the utmost of our power 'T is true we are no where in Scripture expresly commanded to Vow but having vow'd we are expresly commanded to keep that Vow That of David Vow and perform to the Lord is not a pure precept saith one but like that other Be angry and sin not where Anger is not commanded but limited so neither are we simply commanded to Vow but having voluntarily vowed we may not defer to pay it to our power be we never so poor Delaies are taken for Denials Excuses for Refusals And therefore every upright conscientious votary as he looks that Gods promises should be made good to him so he is careful to make good what he hath Vowed to God and this because Gods Covenant is of Mercy ours of Obedience and if we expect that God should be All-sufficient to us we must be altogether faithful to him Verse 28. From this and other Texts which shew what large provision was made for Gods Priests under the Law we may note that if such a plentiful maintenance were allowed by God to his Ministers of the First Table then certainly as great a portion at the least doth belong to the Ministers of the Second Table For it is certain that as we under the Gospel are more bound unto the Lord in all Duties of Thankfulness since the Messias exhibited than they under the Law to whom he was only promised and as in the same respect the Ministry of the Gospel far excels the Priesthood of the Law so the portion which is due from us to God and from him to his Ministers ought to be answerable at least little inferior Verse 33. There can no one instance be given out of the Word of God either that Gods people payed or that God accepted for the Tenth some other thing money or money worth less in value than the Tenth and when our Saviour speaking of the Pharisees which Tith'd their Mint Annis Cummin said This they ought not to have left undone he signifies not obscurely that the manner of Tithing in Kind and without Diminution even for those smaller things much more for the greater was in use untill his time and was a manner of Tithing just and lawful And how precise God was in this point we may not obscurely gather by this that he prohibited any man so much as to change the Tith a good for a bad or a bad for a good without a penal augmentation of it A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED NUMBERS CHAP. I. Verse 1. SInai was a place where were many Bushes and Briars here they received the Law both Moral and Ceremonial which like Briars and Brambles prick'd and pierc'd the Consciences of Evil doers and by this means drove them to Christ who was clouded and shadowed forth under the Ceremonies of that Law for the Ceremonial Law was Christ under a Type And this Law was given four hundred and thirty years after the Promise made to Abraham not to disanull the Promise but to advance it Gal. 3. 17. and that guilt being discovered and every mouth stopped we might pass from Mount Sinai to Mount Syon from the Law to the Gospel and might acknowledg the riches of Free Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ. Verse 5. As this Book of Moses beareth the Title of Numbers so a great part of it is spent in numbring of the People to assure us that God hath numbred those that are his he keepeth the taile of them and none are hidden from him none escape his knowledge and sight From whence we learn that the Lord knoweth perfectly who they are that are his both what their numbers and what their Names are Are we then in trouble and persecution are we accounted silly Men obscure base and unregarded do we live as contemptible persons to the men of this World let not this trouble or grieve us dismay or discomfort us but rather let us lift up our heads assuring our selves that although men turn themselves from us yet God looketh upon us and though they seek to root out our Names from the Earth yet he will know us and call us by our Names Verse 19. It is required of all Gods Servants to perform obedience to Gods commands when ever God speaks unto us we must hear and obey his voice Noah received a Commandement from God to build the Ark many hindrances might have staid him and sundry inconveniences might have stopt him and infinite dangers might have terrified him from that enterprize as the greatness of the Ark the labour of the building the Taunts of the Wicked and an hundred of such like troubles might stand in his way yet Noah over-looked them all By Faith Noah being wrrn'd of God moved with reverence prepared the Ark Heb. 11. 7. which shews that whensoever God hath a mouth to open and a Tongue to speak we must have an Ear to hear and a Heart to obey whatsoever is enjoyn'd us Verse 46. This may seem very strange unto us that so small an handful of seventy Souls should multiply so greatly in the space of 216 years but herein we are to consider the truth of God joyn'd with his power who because he is true of his Word and able of his power perform'd that to his people which he promised long before to their Fathers God had promised to Iacob that he would make him a great Nation Gen. 46. and here it was performed All the promises of God are Yea and Amen and shall in our time be accomplished to his Children CHAP. II. Verse 1.
of the Wave-offering belong'd to the Priest to teach him to serve the Lord with all their hearts their dearest affections intimated by the Breast and with all their might and strength typified in the shoulder and whereas it is here call'd the Heave-shoulder this signified the heaving of Christ upon the Cross and the heaving up of our heatts to God for so great benefits Verse 23. A set form of Prayer is lawful to be used whether publickly in the Church or privately in the Family and this is most strongly infer'd from hence if we consider the persons to whom this Commandement was given For this solemn form was set not for the simple sort or the most ignorant among the people but it was appointed to be pronounc'd by the Priests and that too not in a corner but in the Tabernacle of the Lord before many witnesses If any were able of themselves to conceive a Prayer certainly they were the Priests of the Lord whose lips must preserve knowledg Mal. 2. 7. and yet are they both allowed and prescrib'd to follow a set form in blessing the people And so likewise at their marching forward and at their standing still there were set forms injoyn'd Numb 10. 35 36. CHAP. VII Verse 8. THe service of the Gershonites was not so much as the service of the Sons of Merari and therefore Moses doth here proportion the assistance answerable to the service two Waggons and four Oxen to the Sons of Gershon but double the number to the Sons of Merari because their service was double to the others and their carriage as much more God knows what every one of his Children is able to bear and therefore proportions the burthen to the Back none of his shall be oppressed though press'd out of measure afflicted they may be and that in an high nature but never brought to despair left for a time but not forsaken for ever Ioseph may be shot at Gen. 49. 23. but he cannot be shot through His bow did abide in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Iacob verse 24. and thence his safety He used his Bow against his Enemies as David did his sling against Goliah who slung as if he had wrapt up God in his sling Verse 13. No quantity was here prescribed because it was a Free-will offering only it must be fine no Bran in it to shew the puriry of Christs Sacrifice and of our services through him by means of the Oyl of his Spirit and Incense of his Intercession Verse 19. In these words as before and in the words following we see what is offered Silver and Gold they spare nothing they bring the best they have Neither do they bring the best in a sparing manner but they deal bountifully and liberally Which teacheth us to serve God with the choicest and chiefest things we have and that in a large and liberal manner We read Exod. 36. that the people were so forward for the building and furnishing of the Tabernacles that the Workmen complained the People brought too much How far are we from this in our dayes The people bring more than enough for the work of the Lord. O that we might come but one degree behind them that it might be said our people bring enough The Israelites thought they never brought enough we think we never bring too little they offered more than they were commanded we bring no more than we are compell'd and constrain'd to bring They offered with a glad and chearful heart we will do no more than the Law urgeth or not so much They brought of the best we think the worst good enough for God and his Service and Ministers Verse 24. The Spirit of God thinks it not sufficient to set down what was offered in the general but takes notice of every mans particular offering to teach us first that we should apply these Examples to our selves and if we pass over one of them without regard yet we should take hold of the next Secondly to assure us that no man shall have that forgotten to the utmost of his praise who is any way forward in doing good because God will honour them that honour him 1 Sam. 2. All the good works of Gods children done to the setting forth of his glory the advancement of his Worship or the good of his Saints shall be punctually reckoned up and rewarded and as their deeds are here registred in the Book of God so the Doers of them are registred in the Book of Life CHAP. VIII Ver. 3. THe Lamps were placed over against the Candlestick which was over the Table in the Tabernacle and typified the Law of God enlightning the Church and People of God For the Commandement is a Lamp or Candle whereof there is no small use when Men go to Bed or rise betimes He that hath the Word of Christ richly dwelling in him may lay his Hand upon his Heart and say as one dying did Hic sat lucis here 's plenty of light Under the Law all was in Riddles Moses was veil'd and yet that saying was then verified Et latet lucet there was light enough to light Men to Christ the end of the Law Verse 10. There was Imposition of Hands upon the Levite under the Law and why not then upon the Minister under the Gospel Certainly the Ceremony is significant or else it had not been used by Gods people of the Old Testament nor yet by us that are his People of the New And thus much it may import when the Reverend Man laies his Hand on thy Head remember thou art then manumniz'd from all secular ties and sequestred no less from the callings of the People than their vices thou art then brought before the Lord as it is in the Text and dedicated wholly to his Service and certainly the Holy impression of Episcopal Hands set on from above is such an Elixar as by contraction if there be any disposition of goodness in the baser mettal it will render it of the property Verse 14. The Levites are here said to be Gods after a more peculiar and special manner than the rest of the People were For though all the Congregation is Holy even as the Levites all the People of God sanctified as well as his Priests which was the saying of Corah and his Complices and it was true yet they were not sanctified to the same degree of Holiness with the Priests but they sicut populus as Gods people these Sicut Aaron as his peculiar servants they are holy it is true but these Holiest of Holies Hence it was that when the Law kept ordinations certain pieces of the Sacrifices were put into the Priests hands and now instead of that a Bible into ours not only as a Rule to direct but as a sacred Witness of that profession into which we are by a Divine hand invested Verse 17. All the first-born of the Children of Israel are mine saith God
not so affect us if it were not with the danger of our own Secure minds never startle till God come home to their sences Verse 4. The Midianites joyn with the Moabites in Consultation in Action against Israel one would have thought they should have look'd for favour from Moses for Iethro's sake who was both a Prince in their Country and Father in Law to Moses and either now or not long before was with Israel in the Wilderness Neither is it unlike but that Moses having found forty years harbour among them would have been what he might inclineable to favourable treaties with them but now they are so fast link'd to Moab that they will either sink or swim together Intireness with wicked consorts is one of the strongest Chains of Hell and binds us to a participation both of sin and punishment an easie occasion will knit wicked hearts together in conspiracy against the Church of God Verse 6. Their Errand is Divelish Come curse Israel that which Sathan could not do by the Sword of Og and Seon he will now try to effect by the Tongue of Balaam If either strength or policy would prevail against Gods Church it could not stand And why should not we be as industrious to promote the glory of God and bend both our hands and heads to the causes of the Almighty When all helps fail Moab the Magician is sent for it is the sign of a desperate Cause to make Sathan either our Counsellor or Refuge Verse 9. I should wonder to hear God speak with a false Prophet if I did not know it hath been no rare thing with him as with men to bestow words where he will not bestow favour Not the sound of the voice of God but the matter which he speaks argues love he may speak to an Enemy he speaks peace to none but his own It is a vain bragg God hath spoken to me so may he do to Reprobates or Devils but what said he Did he say to my Soul I am thy Salvation hath he indented with me that he will be my God and I shall be his I cannot hear this voice and not live God heard all the Consultation and Message of these Moabites these Messengers could not have moved their Foot or their Tongue but in him and yet he which asked Adam where he was asks Balaam What men are these I have ever seen that God loves to take occasion of proceeding with us from our selves rather than from his own immediate prescience Hence it is that we lay open our Wants and confess our sins to him that knows both better than our own hearts because he will deal with us from our own mouths Verse 12. The reward of the divination had easily commanded the Journey and Curse of the Covetous Prophet if God had not stayed him How oft are Wicked men Curs'd by a Divine hand even in those sins which their Hearts stand to It is no thank to lewd men that their Wickedness is not prosperous Whence it is that the World is not over-run with Evil but from this that Men cannot be so ill as they would Verse 15. Where Wickedness meets with power it thinks to command all the World and takes great scorn of any repulse So little is Balack discouraged for one refusal that he sends so much the stronger Message more Princes and more Honourable O that we could be so importuuate for our good as Wicked Men are for the compassing of their designs a Denial doth but whet the desires of vehement Suitors Why are we faint in Spiritual things when we are not denied but delayed Verse 22. We that see only the outside of Balaam may wonder why he that permitted him to go afterward opposeth his going but God that saw his Heart perceived what corrupt affections carried him he saw that his covetous desires and wicked hopes grew the stronger the nearer he came to his end an Angel is therefore sent to with-hold the hasty Sorcerer Our inward disposition is the life of our actions according to that doth the God of Spirits judge us whiles men censure according to our external motions To go at all when God had commanded to stay was presumptuous but to go with a desire to Curse made the act doubly sinful and fetcht an Angel to resist it It is one of the worthy employments of good Angels to make secret opposition to evill designs many a wicked act have they hindred without the knowledg of the Agent It is all one with the Almignty to work by Spirits and Men it is therefore our glory to be thus set on Work to stop the course of evill either by disswasion or violence is an Angelical service Verse 28. That no man may marvel to see Balaam have visions from God and utter Prophecies from him his very Ass hath his Eyes opened to see the Angel which his Master could not and his mouth opened to speak more reasonably than his Master There is no Beast deserves so much wonder as this of Balaam whose common sence is advanc'd above the Reason of his Rider so as for the time the Prophet is brutish and the Beast Prophetical who can but stand amaz'd at the Eye at the Mouth of this silly Creature for so dull a sight it was much to see a bodily object that were not too apparent but to see that Spirit which his Rider discern'd not was far beyond Nature To hear a Voice to come from that Mouth which was used only to bray it was strange and uncouth but to hear a Beast whose Nature is noted for incapacity to out-reason his Master a professed Prophet is in the very height of Miracles Yet no heart can stick at these that considers the dispensation of the Almighty in both Our Eye could no more see a Beast than a Beast can see an Angel if he had not given this power to it and if his power can make the very Stones to speak how much more a Creature of sense we may wonder we cannot distrust when we compare the act with the Author which can as easily Create a Voice without a Body as a Body without a Voice There is no Mouth into which God cannot put words and how oft doth he chose the weak and unwise to confound the Learned and Mighty Verse 32. I hear the Angel of God taking notice of the cruelty of Balaam to his Beast his first words to the unmerciful Prophet are in expostulating the wrong We little think it but God shall call us to an account for the cruel unmerciful usage of his poor mute Creatures He hath made us Lords not Tyrants Owners not Tormentors he that hath given us leave to kill them for our use hath not given us power to abuse them at our pleasure they are so our Drudges as that they are our Fellows by Creation It was a signe the Magician would easily strike Israel with a Curse when he wish'd for a Sword to strike his harmless Beast It is
of Innocence and Charity and other Christian Vertues were daily slaughtered and devoured while the Swine and all the uncleaner Creatures were denyed that favour placed under a kind of Anathema or excommunication-sentence of such it was not lawful no not to eat and thus it must be expected in the Antitype that all the heat of the Satanical impression all the fire of a furious zeal the fatal sentence to be Sacrificed and devoted should fall upon Lamb-like Dove-like Christians it being constautly the portion and the prerogative of the best Men to be under the Cross to have their hundred-fold of good things in this world with persecutions Mark 10. 30. Verse 12. When Moses sheweth here what Fowls are unclean you may note the great mercy of God in that most of these unclean Fowls are indeed odious to our Nature and we eat them not whereas he might have restrain'd his People from those that they loved and liked so good is God in all things and careful not to lay heavy burthens upon us Some good Fowls are yet restrain'd that Men might learn Temperance and obedience for Gluttony and excess we are very prone unto Some have considered the nature of every Fowl and laboured from that to learn something for amendment as for instance by the Eagle that mounteth high they have noted mounting aspiring minds to be a fault and to make Men unclean By the Gossnauk Men that prey upon their weaker Brethren and Neighbours and gripe them so as they kill them and undo them By the Vulture Men that delight too much in Wars and Contention and so of the rest But in the general you must even take it so that God stood not so much upon these Ceremonies as to teach his people hereby inward truth and cleanness of heart ever fit for such as are Gods people at this therefore we must carefully aim to be holy as God is holy CHAP. XV. Verse 1. EVery Seventh Day the Jews rested from their labours every Seventh Year the Ground rested and every Seventh Seventh was the Jubilean Sabbath at which all Debts were remitted Prisoners released Morgages restored to the right Inheritors The great and eternal Sabbath comprehends all these that is the Year of Grace that blessed Jubilee wherein all true Israelites all the faithful people of God shall be discharg'd from all their engagements as well of sin as for sin God shall forgive us all our Debts all our Trespasses how much more then should we forgive those that trespass against us For Judgement without mercy shall be to them that shew no mercy there 's but an hairs bredth betwixt him and Hell that hath not his sins pardoned in Heaven such is the case of every one that doth not forgive his offending Brother Mat. 18. 35. or that saith I will forgive the fault but not forget the matter or affect the person men must forbear one another and forgive one another as Christ forgave them and that if any man have a quarrel against any for else what thanks is it the glory of a Man is to pass by an infirmity It is more comfortable to love a Friend but more honourable to love an Enemy if thou reserve in thy mind any piece of the wrong thou provokest and daily pressest God to reserve for thee a piece of his wrath which burneth as low as the nethermost Hell Neither will it help any to do as Latimer reports of some in his dayes who being not willing to forgive their Enemies would not say their Pater Noster at all but instead thereof took our Ladies-Psalter in hand because they were perswaded that by that they might obtain forgiveness of their sins of favour without putting in of so hard a condition as the forgiveness of their Enemies into the bargain Verse 3. Those that are without the Covenant are also without the mercy of God Christ will never pardon those for whom he never died their sins only shall be blotted out of Gods Book whose Names are written in it Christ is the covering or propitiation of his peoples sins be they never so many and never so great as was sweetly shadowed of old by the Ark covering the Law the Mercy-seat covering the Ark and the Cherubims over them both covering one another in allusion whereunto Blessed saith David is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Psalm 32. 1 2. But then you must remember that all this covering of this Law and this Mercy-seat and these Cherubims had relation unto the people of God which were then the Jews no other Nation had any of these types and as the types did not so neither did the Antitype belong to them our Saviour was no covering to their sins no discharger of their Debts they were all of the number of these Forreiners in the Text they were at the Creditors mercy to be cast into Prison and from thence not to depart till they had paid the utmost farthing But now there is no exacting from them no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus saith St. Paul Rom. 8. 1. Non una Condemnatio not one Condemnation There it none in Heaven God doth not Condemn them none on Earth their own hearts and conscience doth not condemn them no Word no Commandement no Threatning But now an unbeliever shall have a double Condemnation one from the Law which he hath transgressed another from the Gospel which he hath despised as a Malefactor that is Condemn'd and dead in Law despiseth and rejects his Princes pardon But now it is quite otherwise with those that are in Christ Jesus the Law cannot condemn them because they have appeal'd the Gospel cannot because they have believ'd Verse 11. The Poor are here call'd Our poor as well as Our Brethren to shew that our compassion and love should be as ready for them as for our nearest Relations and these Poor saith this Text shall never cease out of the Land to try and exercise our liberality yea our Justice as the Syriack calls it for our Alms are due unto the Poor either by the Law of Equity or of charity For there is a debt of Love Rom. 13. that we must be ever owing and ever pay and as we say of thanks thanks must be still given and still held as due so must this debt of Love Quicquid Clerici habent pauperum est said St. Ierome which is true in a sence of others as well as Ministers the Poor Gods Poor and our Poor such as are Aged and impotent are the owners of that we have we are but Stewards and dispensers of Gods bounty to his necessitous servants now if our Receits be found great and our layings out small God will cast such Bills back in our faces and turn us out of our Stewardship they are fools that fear to loose their Wealth by giving but fear not to loose themselves by keeping it Verse 21. Whatever Beast was offered up and sacrificed to the Lord must be
Prayers We beat our Servants if they offend us being but men as they are and may not God then beat us for our faults he being our Creator and we but dust Thus make use of these Curses and instead of them God ever give us for Christs sake his blessings both Temporal and Eternal both of this World and also of that better to come Verse 23. How oft have we seen the same Field both full and famishing how oft the same Waters safe and by some irruption or new tincture hurtful Howsoever natural causes may concur Heaven and Earth and Ayre and Waters follow the temper of our soules of our lives and are therfore indisposed because we are so He turneth the Heavens into brasse saith this Text and the Earth into iron And so Psal. 107. He turneth the Rivers into a wildernesse and water-springs into a dry ground for the wickedness of the Inhabitants Verse 31. If sorrow be in the eye it will not stay long from the heart And therefore the Lord here threatens his People thus in case of disobedience Thine oxe shall be slain before thine eyes And vers 67. he shewes what Convulsions and Divisions of spirit the Visions of the Eye would bring upon them The fear of the Heart and the sight of the Eye are near adjoyned The sight of the Eye caused the fear of the Heart and both were as concauses of those distracting thoughts and wishes there of hasting the morning to the evening and againe suddainly reducing back the evening to the morning Unlesse sorrow be hid from the Eyes it can hardly be kept from the Heart It is an usuall custome if a man be but let bloud to bid him turn away his head if he be faint-hearted for the sight of his bloud will make his heart faint and so from more gashly spectacles men commonly turn away their faces which is to keep sorrow from their sorrow and so from their Hearts Verse 47. As there is no affliction so there is no outward blessing can change the Heart or bring it about unto God Abundance as you see here doth not draw the heart unto God yet Satan when he came before the Lord Iob 1. would infer that it doth asking God the Question Doth Iob serve God for nought which might well be retorted upon Satan himself Satan why didst not thou serve God then Thou didst once receive more outward blessings from God then ever Iob did the blessedness of an Angel Yet that glorious Angelical estate wherein thou wast created could not keep thee in the compasse of obedience thou didst rebel in the abundance of all blessings thine own apostacy refutes thine errour in making so little of Iobs obedience because he had received so much and confirms the truth of this Text that it is not Abundance that makes Gods People serve him CHAP. XXIX Verse 4. VVE see no further than God gives us light and so far as he leads us we go right if he withdraw we turn aside and quickly wander from the way of truth and righteousnesse Thus Moses speakes here of the many signes and wonders which God wrought in the midst of that People which they did not understand Why what was the reason Moses tels us expresly The Lord had not given them an heart to conceive c. They had sensitive Eyes and Ears yea they had a rational heart or mind but they wanted a spirituall Eye to see a spiritual Ear to hear a spiritual Heart to apprehend and improve those wonderful works of God and these they had not because God had not given them such Eyes Ears and Hearts Wonders without Grace cannot open the Eyes fully but Grace without wonders can And as man hath not an Eye to see the wonderful works of God spiritually until it is given so much lesse hath he an Eye to see the wonders of the Word of God till it be given him from above Verse 12. This hath been the practise of Gods Children in Scripture to consecrate themselves to God by Vow or Covenant Thus Moses here after he had given the Law to the People causeth them to enter into Covenant for the performance of it Nor is it without singular reason that godly men have taken this course that hereby they might be the more strongly obliged to God and God to them There is indeed a sufficient obligation in Gods Precepts to require our obedience but when to his Precepts we add our own Promise it is so much the more engaging True it is the Creatures natural Obligation to his Creators Command is so great that in its self it is not capable of addition but yet our voluntary Promises serve to inflame our Luke-warmnesse and stir up our backwardnesse to obedience Indeed a religious resolution is as the putting of a new rowel into a spurre which maketh it the sharper the twisting of another thred into the rope whereby it is the stronger And hence it is that as God in condescention to our weakness hath annexed an oath to his Promises not to make them firmer in themselves but to confirme us the more So godly men in consideration of their own dulness adjoyn their Promises to Gods Precepts not to strengthen their force in enjoyning but to quicken themselves the more in observing Verse 18. Nothing is more bitter then sin and therefore compared here to gall and wormwood Lest there be among you any root that beareth gall wormwood i. e. least any person among you should commit this wickednesse namely Idolatry which will be as distastefull to God as gall is to man and which will be as bitter as gall to the man who commits it whether we consider the bitternesse of repentance if it be pardoned or the bitternesse of paine if he persisting in it impenitently be punished Verse 29. When secret things are revealed unto us of God we ought to endeavour to learn them to understand them to publish them and speak of them to others Whensoever God hath a mouth to speak we must have an ear to hear Therefore Moses saith Secret things belong to the Lord but the things revealed belong unto us to our children Which may serve to reprove all such as refuse to look into these revealed things of God but dwel in blindnesse and ignorance Of this sort are the greatest number of Christians they are wise enough to look into their own profit but they care not for the wisdome that is of God they are brought up in the Church but know not the Doctrine of the Church whereas being brought up in the Schoole of Christ they must every day be profiting and going forward CHAP. XXX Verse 2. THere is no returning without hearing nor hearing without believing nor believing to be believed without doing Returning is all these therefore where Christ saith that if those works had been done in Tyre and Sidon Tyre and Sidon would have repented in sackcloth and ashes In the Syriack translation of saint Matth we have this