6.4 Austins wish was that Christ when he came might find him aut precantem aut praedicantem praying or preaching Benè orasse est benè studuisse saith Luther Vers 11. And of them that hate him Ministers shall be sure of many enemies They hate him that reproveth in the gate Veritas odium parit praedicare nihil aliud est quam derivare in se furorem mundi said Luther to preach is to get the worlds ill-will Ye are the light saith our Saviour which is offensive to sore eyes ye are the salt of the earth which is bitter to wounds and causeth pain to exulcerate parts Vers 12. The beloved of the Lord The Lords corculum deliciae darling as their father Benjamin was old Iacobs Gen. 42.4 And he shall dwell between his shoulders These shoulders are those two holy hills Moriah and Zion whereon the Temple was built four hundred and forty yeares after this prophecy Vers 13. And of Ioseph See the Note on Gen. 49.2 Vers 14. And for the precious fruits So Saint Iames calleth them the precious fruits of the earth Iames 5.7 Diogenes justly taxed the folly of his countrymen quòd res pretiosas minimo emerent venderent que vilissimas lurimo because they bought pretious things as corn very cheape but sold the basest things as pictures statues c. extream dear fifty pounds or more a peece though the life of man had no need of a statue but could not subsist without corn May not we more justly tax men for undervaluing the bread of life and spending money for that which is not bread Isai 55.2 Vers 15. And for the chiefe things Metalls and Minerals usually dig'd out of mountains which are here called ancient and lasting because they have been from the beginning and were not first cast up as some have held by Noahs flood Psal 90.2 Vers 16. And for the good will of him c. See the Note on Exod. 3.2 The burning bush the persecuted Church was not consumed because the good-will of God whereof David speaks Psal 106.4 was in the bush So it is still with his in the fiery triall in any affliction Isai 43.1 That was separated from his brethren To be a choise and chief man amongst them De doct Christ l. 4. c. 6. Nobilis fuit inter fratres saith Augustine vel in malis quae pendit vel in bonis quae rependit Vers 17. Advers Tryph. Tertul. advers Judaeos cap. 10. Ambrose de benedict Pat. His hornes are like the hornes of Vnicorns Iustin Martyr and some other of the Ancients have strangely racked and wrested this text to wring out of it the sign of the cross resembled and represented by the horns of an Vnicorn At nihil hic de Christo nihil de cruce He shall push the people together As Generall Joshua of this tribe did notably so that Phaenicians ran away into a far country and renowned his valour by a monument set up in Africk Howbeit gratius ei fuit nomen pietatis quam potestatis as Tertullian saith of Augustus he is more famous for his piety then for his prowesse V. 18. In thy going out To trade and traffique by sea Gen. 49 13. Peterent coelum navibus Belgae si navibus peti posset saith one The low-country men are said to grow rich by warr 't is sure they do by trade at sea And Issachar in thy tents i.e. In thy quiet life Virgil. and country imployments O fortunatos nimium c. Regum aequabat opes animis seraque reversus Nacte domum dapibus mcrsas onerabat inemptis saith the Poet of a well contented country-man Vers 19. They shall call the people to the mount i.e. To Gods house scituate on mount Zion Though they be Littorales men dwelling by the sea-shore which are noted to be duri horridi immanes omnium denique pessimi the worst kind of people and though they dwell further from the Temple yet are they not farthest from God but ready with their sacrifice of righteousness as those that have sucked of the abundance of the sea and of treasures hid in the sand which though of it self it yield no crop yet brings in great revenues by reason of sea-trading Vers 20. He dwelleth as a Lyon That should make his partie good with the enemy upon whom he bordereth and by whom he is often invaded See Gen. 49.19 Iudg. 11. 1 Chron. 12.8 Vers 21. In à portion of the law-givers That portion that Moses the Law-giver assigned him on the other side Iordan Num. 32.33 He executed the justice of the Lord viz. Upon the Canaanites which is so noble an act that even the good Angels refuse not to be executioners of Gods judgments upon obstinate Malefactours Vers 22. He shall leap from Bashan i.e. He shall suddenly set upon his enemies as Achitophel counselled Absolom 2 Sam. 17.1 2. and this is called good counsell vers 14. and as Caesar served Pompey Caesar in omnia praeceps nil actum credens Lucan dum quid superesset agendum Fertur atrox Vers 23. Satisfied with favour and full c. Fulness of blessing is then only a mercy when the soul of a man is satisfied with favour when from a full table and a cup running over a man can comfortably infer with David Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I shall dwel in the house of the Lord for ever Psal 23.6 One may have outward things by Gods providence and not out of his favour Esau had the like blessing as Iacob but not with a God give thee the dew of heaven as he Gen. 27.28 Or God may give temporals to wicked men to furnish their inditement out of them as Ioseph put his cup into their sack to pick a quarrell with them and to lay theft to them Vers 24. Let Ashur be blessed with children Let his wife be as the vine and his children as olive-plants Psal 128.3 two of the best fruits the one for chearing the heart the other for clearing the face Psal 104.15 the one for sweetness the other for fatness Judg. 9.13 Let him dip his foot in oyle Like that of Iob Chap. 29.6 Confer Gen. 49.20 See the Note Vers 25. Thy shooes Thou shalt have store of mines And as thy dayes shall thy strength be i. e. Thou shalt as Eliphaz speaketh Iob 5.26 Come 〈◊〉 lusty old age to the grave This the Greesk call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Hebrews made a feast when they were past sixty if any whit healthy Vers 26. Who rideth upon the heaven Having the celestial creatures for his Cavalry and the terrestrial for his Infantry how then can his want help Vers 27. The Eternal God Heb. The God of Antiquity that Ancient of dayes that Rock of ages who is before all things and by whom all things consist Col. 1.17 who is the first and the last and besides whom there is no God Esay 44.6 And
〈◊〉 a ciphering up of their names acts and accidents that we might know first who were Christs Progenitors secondly by whom the Church was continued thirdly how long the old World lasted viz. one thousand six hundred fifty and six yeers Whence some have grounded a conjecture that the yeer of Christ one thousand six hundred fifty and six will bring forth some strange alteration in the world Alsted Chron. p. 494. Others think the world will be then at an end and they ground upon this Chronâ—gramme MVnDI Conf Lagrat Io. In the likeness of God made he him This is much inculcated that it may be much observed and we much humbled that have parted with so fair a patrimony striving as much as may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 to recover it in Christ who being the express Image of his Fathers Person is both apt and able to renew that lost Image of God in us by his Merit and Spirit by his Value and Vertue Vers 2. Blunts Voyage p. 122. Male and female created he them The Jews at this day have base conceits of women as that they have not so divine a soul as men that they are of a lower creation made onely for the propagation and pleasure of man c. And therefore they suffer them not to enter the Synagogue but appoint them a gallery without Matth 22. Thus they err not knowing the Scriptures See the Notes on Chap. 2. v. 22. Vers 3. Adam lived one hundred and thirty yeers and begat This was a great tryal to his faith to wait so long for a better issue when the Cainites spred amain erected cities and perhaps meditated Monarchies After his own image Corruptus corruptum For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Job 14.4 John 3. saith Job That which is of the flesh is flesh saith our Saviour and we can say no better of it This is hard to perswade men to for each one is apt to think his own peny good silver And a dead woman will have four to carry her forth as the Proverb hath it The Pharisee bad enough though he be yet is very brag of his good estate to God-ward And Novatus cryes out Non habeo Domine quod mihi ignoscas How much better Saint Augustine Ego admisi Domine unde tu damnare potes me sed non amisisti unde tuâ—salvâ—re potes me One hath destroyed me but of thee is my help my safety here and salvation hereafter Lord I am Hell but thou art Heaven as that Martyr once said c. B. Hooper Psal 42. One depth calleth upon another the depth of my misery the depth of thy mercy Heaven denyes me earth grones under me Hell gapes for me Help Lord or thy servant perisheth Psal 51 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and purge me from my sin whether that imputed to me inherent in me or issuing from me V. 4. He begat sons and daughters Philo and Epiphanius give him twelve sons Beda thirty sons and as many daughters Vers 5. Nine hundred and thirty yeers Till the fifty sixt yeer of the Patriark Lamech In all which time he doubtless instructed his good nephews in all those great things which himself had learned from Gods mouth and proved in his own experience what that good and holy and acceptable Will of God was Moreover out of his mouth as out of a Fountain Rom. 12. â— flowed whatsoever profitable Doctrine Discipline Skill and Wisdom is in the world And he dyed This is not in vain so often iterated in this Chapter for there is in us by nature a secret conceit of immortality and we can hardly be beaten out of it That all must dye every man will yield but that he may live yet a day longer at least there is none but hopeth We can see death in other mens brows but not in our own bosomes It must make forcible entry and break in violently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 24.51 2 Cor. â— 4 God must cut men in twain and tear their souls from their bodies ere they will yield to die The best are too backward and would not be unclothed but clothed upon if they might have their will Moses himself prayes Psal 9â— 12 Lord teach us so to number our days that we may apply or as the Hebrew hath it that we may cause our hearts to come to wisdom Cause them to come whâ—ther they will or no for naturally they hang off and would not come to any such bargain How needful is it therefore to be told us that Adam died that Seth Enos and Câ—inan died c. That this may be as a hand-writing on the Wall to tell us That we must also dye and come to judgment Vers 9. Enos begat Cainan Enosh that is Sorry man begat Cainan i. e. A man of sorrows Thus the Fathers though long-lived were not unmindful of their mortality and misery Vers 20. Nine hundred sixty and two yeers Rabbi Levi citante Genebrardo Genebr Chron. long aevitatem patriarcharum opus providentiae non naturae appellat Their children also that they waited so long for were not more the issue of their bodies then of their faith Vers 23. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five yeers So many yeers onely lived Henoch as there be days in the yeer But what he wanted in the shortning of his time was made up in his son Methuselah the longest liver Besides that God took him to a better place transplanted him as it were out of the Kitchin-garden into his heavenly Paradise Cant 6.2 To gather Lillies i. e. To transplant his people into Heaven which was not more to his own benefit then to the comfort of the other Patriarks that survived him against the fear of death and the crosses of life Sith in Henoch what discouragement soever they had in Abels death they had an ocular demonstration that there is a reward for the righteous and that it is not altogether in vain to walk with God Vers 24. And Enoch walked with God And so condemned the World First Heb. 11. by his life secondly at his death By his life in that he kept a constant counter-motion to the corrupt courses of the times not onely not swimming down the stream with the wicked but denouncing Gods severe judgment against them even to the extream curse of Anathema Maranatha Jude 14. as Saint Jude tells us Secondly By his death he condemned them In that so strange a Testimony of Gods grace and glory in his wonderful translation did not affect and move them to amend their evil manners The Heathens had heard somewhat afar off concerning this Candidate of Immortality Alsted Chron. p. 85. as the Ancients call him and thence grounded their Apotheôses Eupolemon saith That their Atlas was Henoch as their Janus was Nâ—ah Gentes sunt Antâ—â—brislus â—um suis asseclis Paâ—aeus Jac. Revâ—i
cruel witness the Popish Inquisition to Lithgow who in ten houres received 70. several torments And the Massacre of Paris wherein they poisoned the Queen of Navarre murdered the most part of the pearless Nobilitie in France their wives and children with a great sort of the common people an hundred thousand in one year in divers parts of the Realm som saie three hundred thousand So in Ireland what havock have those breathing-Divels made of the innocent English c And what threatnings and slaughter do our desperate Malignants now breathe out against us Vers 27. As hee shall command us Manner as well as matter circumstance as well as substance is to bee heeded in God's service els there may bee malum opus in bona materia as one saith an evil work in a good matter Vers 28. Onely yee shall not go verie far So loath was hee to loos his hold â—useb so is the Divel The Pope made large offers to Queen Elisabeth as also to our King when in Spain Intreat for mee So Simon Magus in a fright begg's Peter's praiers so Maximinus the persecuting Emperor sent to the Church for Praiers when God had laid upon him a grievous diseas So Ezra 6.10 praie for the King's life and for his Sons Vers 29. Deal deceitfully anie more Som are so slipperie there 's no believing of them Egesippus saith of Pilate that hee was vir nequam parvi faciens mendacium a naughtie man and one that made no conscience of a lie No more did Pharaoh Vers 30. Intreated the Lord See the Note on Vers 12. Vers 31. There remained not one Praier make's clean work it can do wonders in heaven and earth Saie thou with David Cleans thou mee from secret faults Psal 19.12 those that are of dailie and hourlie incursion Praier will scour the coast clear the conscience of dead works Acts 8.22 Vers 32. And Pharaoh hardened All blows and pressures were so far from mollifying him that hee hardened and emmarbled more and more CHAP. IX Ver. 1. Let my People go THe verie same message to a word as before often Austin perswade's God's Messengers so long to insist upon the same point De Dâ—ctrina Christianâ— beating and repeating of it in the same words till they perceiv by the gesture and countenance of the hearers that they understand and embrace it Chrysostom at Antioch preached manie Sermons against swearing and told the people that seemed to bee wearie of that subject that till they left their swearing hee would never leav preaching against that sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Socrates Vers 3. Is upon thy Cattle Both those ad esum and those ad usum Men sin these suffer and therefore groan Rom. 8. Ver. 4. And there shall nothing die It is fair weather oft with the Saints when it is foulest with the wicked God hideth his in the hollow of his hand Psal 91. till the indignation bee overpast Isa 26.20 Hee giv's the like charge of them as David did of Absolom 2 Sam. 18.5 Ver. 6. And all the cattel That is a great sort of them Non universâ—liter sod commaniter not all chap. 9.19.25 And this was the fifth of those ten plagues a number of perfection to note that God therein did most perfectly administer and execute his judgments Ver. 7. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened like a Smith's anvil hee grew harder for hammerine There was little need to saie to Pharaoh as the Smith did to the Lantgrave of Thuring Pet. Nicol. Gelstronp Durescite durescite O infeâ—â—x Lantgravi Hee hardned fast enough Ver. 8. Sprinkle's it toward the heaven in token that this plague should in a special manner bee inflicted from heaven The Philistims by their golden emrods acknowledged that the emrods in their flesh were from God Hippocrates called the pestilence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divine diseas as wee call the spots thereof God's marks The Falling sickness was antiently called morbus sacer as an immediate hand of God Life of K Edward 6. by Sir John Heywood pag. 127. And what can wee conceiv less of the Sweating sickness with which no stranger in England was touched and yet the English were chased therewith not onely in England but in other countries abroad which made them like tyrants both feared and avoided wherever they came Ver. 9. A boil breaking forth this Moses threatneth to all disobedient persons Deut. 28.27 Job's boils were rather probational then penal So were Munster's ulcers medicinal they were howsoever which hee shewed to his friend and said He sunt gemmae pretiosa ornamenta Dei quibus Deus amicos suos ornat ut eos ad se attrahat These bee those gems and jewels wherewith God adorneth his best friends that hee may bring them nearer to himself Ver. 11. For the boil was upon the Magicians who were convicted but not converted Exod 8.9 They stood still to withstand Moses as Balaam against the light of his own conscience was resolved to curs howsoever and therefore went not aside as at other times to speak with God but set his face toward the wilderness Like a head-strong hors that get's the Bit in his teeth and run's away with his Rider Ver. 12. And the Lord hardned See ver 7. and chap. 4.21 c. Ver. 13. Let my people go See ver 1. Ver. 14. All my plagues upon thine hart Hart-plagues are the worst plagues of all A hard Hart is in som respects wors then Hel sith one of the greatest sins is greater in evil then anie of the greatest punishments Ver. 15. For now I will stretch out His former preservation was but a reservation and hee hath hitherto escaped with his life not for anie love that God bare to him but to shew his power on him Wicked men may have common mercies and deliverances but the Lord loveth the righteous Psal 146.8 Ver. 16. Have I raised thee up Heb. I have constituted and set thee up as a But-mark that I may let flie at thee and follow thee close with plague upon plague till I have beaten the verie breath out of thy bodie See Prov. 16.4 Rom. 9.17 Ver. 17. As yet exaltest thou thy self q. d. No amendment yet A sore sign of a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction It is ill with the bodie when physick will either not enter or not staie with us Ver. 18. Such as hath not been in Egypt Dio maketh mention of a shower of blood and of water Dio in Aug. that fell in Egypt a little before it was subjected by Augustus in quae loca ne stilla quidem aquae antè ceciderat saith hee where never anie drop of water much less of blood ever fell before Ver. 19. Jam. 2.13 Send therefore now Here mercie rejoiceth against judgment Solinus if by anie means hee might bee wrought upon Sed Rhinoceros interimi potest capi non potest It was past time of daie to
abominated Hos 9.4 yea accursed Deut. 28.47 None might come to the court of Persia in mourning weeds Esth 4.2 For any unclean use Or common profane use Common and unclean is one and the same in sundry languages to teach us that it is hard to deal in common businesses and not defile our selves and that those that come to holy things with common affections and carriages profane them Nor given ought thereof for the dead To bury them or buy provision for the funerall feast Ier. 16.7 Ezek. 24.7 Hos 9.4 Ye have done according c. It is a witty expression of Luther By mens boasting of what they have done sayes he Haec ego feci haec ego feci they become nothing else but Faeces dregs But so did not these See the note on vers 13. Vers 17. Thou hast avouched This we do when with highest estimation most vigorous affections and utmost indeavours we bestow our selves upon God giving up our names and hearts to the profession of truth And this our chusing God for our God Psal 73 25. is a sign he first chose us 1 Ioh. 4.19 Mary answers not Rabboni till Christ said Mary to her It is he that brings us into the bonds of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 He first cryes out who is on my side Who and then gives us to answer as Esay 44.6 One sayes I am the Lords another calls himself by the name of Jacob another subscribes c. Vers 19. And to make thee high Assyria is the work of Gods hand but Israel is his inheritance Isa 19.25 43.3 CHAP. XXVII Vers 2. ANd plaister them with plaister That they might have it in white and black Vers 4. In mount Ebal Where the curse was denounced vers 13. to signifie that those that sought salvation in the law must needs be left under the curse The law is a yoke of bondage as Hierom calls it and they who look for righteousness from thence are like oxen who toyle and draw and when they have done their labour are fatted for slaughter Vers 5. Thou shalt build an altar For burnt offerings c. Vers 6.7 God teacheth them thereby that righteousness impossible to the law was to be sought in Christ figured by that altar and those sacrifices Thus the morall law drove the Iewes to the ceremoniall which was their Gospell as it doth now drive us to Christ who is indeed the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 Vers 8. All the words of this law very plainly Therefore it could not be all Deuteronomy much less all Moses books as some have thought for what stones could suffiee for such a work Unless they could write as close but how then could it be very plainly as he did who set forth the whole history of our Saviours passion very lively In canicular colloq both things and acts and persons on the nailes of his own hands as Maiolus reporteth Vers 15. Cursed be he c. The blessings are not mentioned by Moses that we might learn to look for them by the Messiah only Act. 3.26 Vers 16. That setteth light That vilipendeth undervalueth not only that curseth as Exod. 21.17 Vers 24. That smiteth Either with violent hand or virulent tongue Ier. 28.18 Vers 26. Cursed Aut faciendum an t patiendum Men must either have the direction of the law or the correction CHAP. XXVIII Vers 1. IF thou shalt hearken diligently Heb. If hearkening thou shalt hearken If when Gods speaks once thou shalt hear it twice as David did Psal 62.11 by a blessed rebound of meditation and practice Will set thee on high Thou shalt ride upon the high places of the earth Isai 58.14 There thou shalt have thy commoration but in heaven thy conversation Philip. 3.20 being an high and holy people Deut. 26.19 high in worth and humble in heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian as one saith of Athanasius Vers 2. And overtake thee Unexpectedly befall thee Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee Psal 23.6 as the evening Sun-beames follow the passenger as the rock-water followed the Israelites in the wilderness and overtook them at their stations 1 Cor. 10.4 O continue or draw out to the length thy loving kindness unto them that know thee Psal 36.11 There will be a continued Series a connexion between them to all such Vers 3. Blessed shalt thou be What blessedness is See the Note on Mat. 5.3 Vers 4. The fruit of thy body Which is thy chief possession Dulcis acerbitas amarissima voluptas Tertull. but without my blessing will be bitter sweets Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of such as are as the arrowes of a strong man Psal 128 4. the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed and made smooth by grace Arrowes be not arrowes by growth but by art what can better preserve Iacob from confusion or his face from waxing pale then when he shall see his children the work of Gods hands framed and fitted by the word in regeneration and the duties of new obedience This will make him to sanctifie God even to sanctifie the Holy One and with singular incouragement from the God of Israel Isai 29.22 23. Vers 7. The Lord shall cause thine enemies Mr. Fox observes that in King Edward the sixth's time the English put to flight their enemies in Muscleborough field the self-same day and hour wherein the reformation enjoyned by Parliament Act. Mon◠was put in execution at London by burning of Idolatrous images Such a dependance hath our success upon our obedience And flee before thee seven wayes In the fore-mentioned fight many so strained themselves in their race that they fell down breathless and dead whereby they seemed in running from their deaths to run through it 2000 lying all day as dead got away in the night The Irish were so galled or scared with the English ordnance Life of Edw. 6 by Sr. Io. H. that they had neither good hearts to go forward nor good liking to stand still nor good assurance to run away saith the Historian Vers 8. The Lord shall command the blessing Now if he send his Mandamus who shall withstand it Vers 10. And they shall be afraid of thee Naturall conscience cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly When they see in them that which is above the ordinary nature of men or their expectation they are afraid of the Name of God whereby they are called their very hearts ake and quake within them as is to be seen in Nebuchadnezzar Darius Herod Dioclesian who was so amazed at the singular piety and invincible patience of the primitive Christians that he laid down the Empire in a humour Bucholcer quod christi nomen se deleturum uti cupiverat desperasset because that when he sought to root out religion he saw he could do no good on 't Vers 12. And
Heaven and the Angels were of necessity say some to be created the first instant that they might have their perfection of matter and form together otherwise they should be corruptible For whatsoever is of a praeexistent matter is resolvable and subject to corruption But that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed hath no other change but by the same hand to return to nothing again But if this were the Heaven Quest what was the Earth here mentioned Not that we now tread upon for that was not made till the third day But the Matter of all Answ that was afterwards to be created being all things in power nothing in act Vers 2. And the earth was without form and voyd That is as yet it had neither essential nor accidental perfection The Lord afterward did form it into Light the Firmament the Water and the Earth So beginning above and building downwards in the new Creature he doth otherwise and in three days laying the parts of the World and in other three days adorning them The Rabbins tell us Alsted Lexic Theol. p. 111. that Tohu and Bohu do properly import Materia prima and privatio and others of Tohu derive Chaos whence the ancient Latines called the World Chohus and borrowed their word Inchoâ— c. And darkness was upon the face of the deep That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of Hell as Origen expounds it but of the deep waters see the like Luke 8.31 Which as a garment covered the earth and stood above the mountains Psal 104.6 This darkness God created not for it was but the want of Light And to say That God dwelt in darkness till he had created Light was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees as if God were not Light it self and the Father of lights 1 John 1.5 James 1. Or as if God had not ever been a Heaven to himself Ere ever he had formed the earth and the heavens Psal 92.2 What he did or how he imployed himself before the Creation is a Sea over which no ship hath sailed a Mine into which no spade hath delved an Abyss into which no bucket hath dived D. Preston of Gods Attributes p. 34. Our sight is too tender to behold this Sun A thousand yeers saith a great Divine are to God but as one day c. And who knoweth what the Lord hath done Indeed he made but one World to our knowledg but who knoweth what he did before and what he will do after Thus he As for Saint Augustine Prasul ad haec Lybicus Sabin Poâ—â— fabricabat Tartara dixit His quos scrutari â—â—lia mente juvat Excellently another Cuff his Differ of Ages p. 22. who wanted no wit As in the eliament of fire saith he there is a faculty of heating and inlightning whence proceedeth heat and light unto the external neer bodies And besides this faculty there is also in it a natural power to go upward which when it cometh into act is received into no other subject but the fire it self So that if fire could by abstractive imagination be conceived of as wanting those two transient operations yet could we not justly say it had no action forasmuch as it might move upward which is an immanent and inward action So and much more so though we grant that there was no external work of the Godhead until the making of the World yet can there be no necessary illation of idleness Seeing it might have as indeed it had actions immanent included in the circle of the Trinity This is an answer to such as ask what God did before he made the World Plotin Eunâ—â—d 3. lib. 2. c. 2. God saith Plotinus the Platonist not working at all but resting in himself doth and performeth very great things And the Spirit of God moved c. Or hovered over and hatched out the creature Ferebatur super aquas non pervagatione sed potestate non per spatium locorum ut Sol super terram sed per potentiam sublimitatis suae Eucberius Psal 145 9. as the Hen doth her chickens or as the Eagle fluttereth over her young to provoke them to flight Deut. 32.11 Or as by a like operation this same holy Spirit formed the childe Jesus in the Virgins womb in that wonderful over shadowing Luke 1.35 The Chaldee here hath it The Spirit breathed and David saith the same Psal 33.6 He became to that rude dead mass a quickning comforting Spirit He kept it together which else would have shattered And so he doth still or else all would soon fall asunder Heb. 1.3 Psal 104.29 were not his conserving Mercy still over or upon all his Works Verse 3. And God said Let there c. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness He spake the word and it was done 2 Cor. 4.6 Psal 33.9 148.5 Creation is no motion but a simple and bare emanation which is when without any repugnancy of the Patient or labor of the Agent the work or effect Dei Dicere eft Efficere doth voluntarily and freely arise from the action of the working cause as the shadow from the body So Gods irresistible power made this admirable Work of the world by his bare word as the shadow and obscure representation of his unsearchable wisdom and omnipotency And there was light This first light was not the Angels as Augustine would have it nor the Element of fire as Damascen nor the Sun which was not yet created nor a lightsome cloud or any such thing but the first day which God could make without means as Galvin well observeth This light was the first ornament of the visible World and so is still of the hidden man of the heart the new Creature Acts 26.18 The first thing in Saint Pauls commission there was to open mens eyes to turn them from darkness to light c. To dart such a saving light into the soul as might illighten both Organ and Object In which great work also Christs words are operative together with his commands in the mouths of his Ministers Know the Lord understand O ye bruitish among the people c. There goes forth a Power to heal as it did Luke 5 1â— Or as when he bade Lazarus ariâ—e he made him to arise So here the Word and the Spirit go together and then what wonder that the spirit of darkness falls from the heaven of mens hearts Ephes 5 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet 2 9. as lightning Luke 10.18 So as that they that eâ—st were darkness are now light in the Lord and do preach forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Verse 4. And God saw the light that it was good Praeviderat autèm â—â—sberellus so one rendereth it he saw this long before but he would have us to see it he commends the goodness of this work of his to us Good it is surely
we have a more sure word of prophesie Gods blessed booke assures us of a third heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 called elsewhere the heaven of heavens the Paradise of God the bosome of Abraham the Fathers house the City of the living God the Country of his pilgrims A body it is for bodies are in it but a subtile fine spirituall body next in purity to the substance of Angels and mens soules It is also say some solid as stone but cleare as chrystall Rev. 21.11 Job 37.18 A true firmament indeed not penetrable by any no not by Angells Yates his Modell spirits and bodies of just men made perfect but by a miracle God making way by his power where there is no naturall passage It opens to the very Angels Job 1.51 Gen. 28.12 who yet are able to penetrate all under it The other two heavens are to be passed through by the grossest bodies Verse 8. And the evening c. Here 's no mention of Gods approbation of this second dayes worke Not for that hell was then ceated or the reprobate Angels then ejected as the Jewes give in the reason of it but because this dayes worke was left unperfected till the next to the which therefore the blessing was reserved and is then redoubled God delights to doe his workes not all at once but by degrees that we may take time to contemplate them peece-meal and see him in every of them as in an opticke glasse Consider the lillies of the field saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6.18 Prov. 6.6 Goe to the Pismire thou sluggard saith Solomon Luther wisht Pontanus the Chancellour of Saxony to contemplate the Starchamber of Heaven that stupendious arch-worke born up by no props or pillars Proponit contemplandam pulcherrimam coeli concamerationem Nullis pilis columnis impositam c. Scultet Annal. 276. and yet not falling on our heads the thicke clouds also hanging often over us with great weight and yet vanishing againe when they have saluted us but with their threatning lookes And cannot God as easily uphold his sinking Saints and blow over any storme that hangs over their heads An Artificer takes it ill if when he hath finished some curious piece of work and sets it forth to be seen as Apelles was wont to do men slight it and take no notice of his handy-work And is there not a woe to such stupid persons as regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands A sino quispiam narrabat fabulam Esay 5.12 at ille movebat aures is a proverb among the Greeks Christ was by at the Creation and rejoyced Prov. 8.30 Angels also were by at the doing of a great deale and were rapt with admiration Job 38.4 5 6. Shall they shout for joy and we be silent Oh how should we vex at the vile dulnesse of our hearts are no more affected with these indelible ravishments Verse 9 10. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered c. The water they say is ten times greater then the earth as is the ayre ten times greater then the water and the fire then the ayre Sure it it is that the proper place of the water is to be above the earth Psal 104.6 Saylers tell us that as they draw nigh to shore when they enter into the haven they run as it were downe-hill The waters stood above the mountains till at Gods rebuke here they fled and hasted away at the voyce of his thunder Psal 104.6 7. to the place which he had founded for them This drew from Aristotle Lib. de mirabil in one place a testimony of Gods providence which elsewhere he denyes And David in that Psal 104. which one calleth his Physicks tells us that till this word of command Let the waters c. God had covered the earth with the deepe as with a garment For as the garment in the proper use of it is above the body so is the sea above the land And such a garment saith the divine Cosmographer would it have been to the earth but for Gods providence toward us as the shirt made for the murthâ—ring of Agamemnon Psal 104.6 9. where he had no issue out But thou hast set a bound saith the Psalmist that they may not passe over that they turn not againe to cover the earth God hath set the solid earth upon and above the liquid waters for our conveniâ—nâ—y so that men are said to goe downe not up to the sea in ships Psal 107.23 See his mercy herein as in a mirrour and believe that God whose work it is still to appoint us the bounds of our habitations will not faile to provide us an hospitium Act. 17.26 a place to reside in when cast out of all as he did David Psal 27.10 and Davids parents 1 Sam 22.4 and the Apostles 2 Cor 6.10 and the English exiles in Queen Maries dayes Sculâ—et Aâ—â—al and before them Luther who being asked where he thought to be safe answered Sub Coelo and yet before him those persecuted Waldenses Rev. 12.15 after whom the Romish Dragon cast out so much water as a flood but the earth swallowed it and God so provided that they could travell from Cullen in Germany to Millain in Italy Cade of the Church p. 180. and every night lodge with hosts of their own profession The waters of affliction are often gathered together against the godly but by Gods gracious appointment ever under the heaven where our conversation is Tareus in loc Philip. 3.20 though our commoration be a while upon earth and unto one place as the Text here hath it The dry-land will appeare and we shall come safe to shore be sure of it Esay 26.4 The Rock of eternity whereupon we are set is above all billows washt we may be as Paul was in the shipwrack drowned we cannot be 1 Pet. 1.5 because in the same bottome with Christ and kept by the power of God through faith to salvation Verse 11.12 Psal 104. Let the earth bring forth c. Grasse for the cattle and herb for the use of man and both these before either man or or beast were created He made meat before mouthes He fills for us two bottles of milke before we come into the world Herbes and other creatures we have still ad esum ad usum Our land flowes not with milke onely for necessity but with hone too for delight Nature amidst all is content with a little Grace with lesse Sing we merrily with him Hoc mihi pro certo Georg. Fabricius Chemnicensis quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 12. and the earth brought forth c. St. Austine thinks that thorns and thistles brambles and briars were before the Fall Aug de Gen. 〈…〉 cap. â— 8 though not in that abundance that now
c. Note this against Anabaptists who exclude Infants for that they want the use of reason And yet that was but a foolish reason of the Canonist that Infants are therefore to be baptised Sphinx Philos pag. 229. because the Disciples brought to our Saviour not the Asse onely but the Foal also Vers 12. This is the tâ—ken of the Covenant c. See here the antiquity of confirming mens faith by outward signs as by the two trees in Paradise and here the Word and Sacrament go together And as God in Noah made a Covenant with his posterity also and confirmed it with a sign so doth he in Christ with the Church and ratified it with the Sacraments besides witnesses we have three in heaven and three in earth c. Vers 13. I doe set my bow in the cloud c. There it was before but not till now as a token of the Covenant as still it is applyed for a sign of grace from God to his Church Rev. 4.3 and 10.1 Ezek. 1.28 It is planted in the clouds as if man were shooting at God and not God at man This bow with both ends downward and back to heaven must needs be an emblem of mercy for he that shooteth holdeth the back of the bow from him Of Gods bow we read Ambros but not of his arrows saith Ambrose on this text Psal 7.12 13. He hath bent his bow and made it ready saith David but if he ordain his arrows it is not but against the perseâ—â—tours If he shoot at his servants it is as Jonathan shot at his friend David to warn them not to wound them They are arrows of the Lords deliverance 2 King 13.17 19. Psal 32.7 which therefore he multiplyes that they may compass him about with songs of deliverance If he bend his bow like an enemy Lam. â— 4 yet in wrath he remembreth mercy Vers 14. The bow shall be seen in the cloud In this heaven-bow there are many wonders First the beautifull shape and various colours In which respect Plato thinks the Poets feign Iris or the Rainbow to be the daughter of Thanmas or admiration The waterish colours therein signifie say some the former overthrow of the world by water The fiery colours the future judgement of the world by fire The green that present grace of freedome from both by vertue of Gods Covenant whereof this bow is a sign Next the Rainbow hath in it two contrary significations viz. of rain and fair-weather of this in the evening of that in the morning saith Scaliger Adde hereunto that whereas naturally it is a sign of rain and is therefore feigned by the Poets to be the messenger of Junâ— and called imbrifera or showry yet it is turned by God into a sure sign of dry weather and of restraint of waters Let us learn to look upon it not onely in the naturall causes as it is an effect of the Sun in a thick cloud but as a Sacramentall sign of the Covenant of Grace Esa 54.9 10. a monument of Gods both Justice in drowning the world and Mercy in conserving it from the like calamity The Jews have an odd conceit That the name Jehovah is written on the Rainbow And therefore as oft as it appeareth unto them they go forth of doors Maimoâ—y hide their eyes confess their sins that deserved a second deluge and celebrate Gods goodness in sparing the wicked world and remembring his Covenant Set aside their superstition and their practice invites our imitation Bern. Tam Dei meminisse opui est quam respirare Vers 15 16. I will remember That is I will make you to know and remember by this visible Monitor Segniùs irritant animum demissa per aures Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus The Rainbow is a double Sacrament answering both to Baptism and the Lords Supper and declares by its colours saith One how Christ came by water and blood 1 John 5.6 Vers 17. This is the token of the Covenant This is often repeated that it may be the better observed and we full assured Deut. 6.7 Exacues ea iâ— est accuratè commodissimè inculcabis Buxtorf Lexic as Pharaohs dream was for this cause doubled God goes over the same thing often with us as the knif doth the Whetstone which is the Scripture-allusion He well knows how slow of heart we are and how dull of hearing and therefore whets and beats things of high concernment upon us that we may once apprehend and embrace them Revel 10.1 Revel 10.1 exp Christ is said to have a Rainbow on his head to shew that he is faithful and constant in his promises and that tempests shall blow over Let us see Gods love in his corrections as by a Rainbow we see the beautiful image of the Suns light in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud Vers 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman Veteres si quem virum bonum colonum appellassent amplissime laudasse existimabant Cic. Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae referente Pliuio quà m cum terram colerent iidem qui Remp. regerent quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere scilicet Aratore triumphali See 2 Chron. 26.10 And he planted a vineyard Hence Berosus and the Poets call him Janus Oenotrius Janus of the Hebrew iajin vinum and Oenotrius of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence our English word Wine Vers 21. And was drunk For his own shame but our learning Instruunt nos patres tum docentes tum labentes Augustin The best have their blemishes and a black-part as that cloud had that conducted Israel out of Egypt Heb. 12.1 which while the Egyptians followed they fell into the Sea And was uncovered within his tent Operta recludit One hours drunkenness bewrayes that which more then six hundred yeers sobriety had modestly concealed Well might Solomon say Wine is a mocker For it mocked Noah with a witness and exposed him to the mockage of his own bosom-bird Vers 22. And Ham the father of Canaan saw The Hebrews say That Canaan first saw it and then shewed it to Ham his father who looks upon it with delight Vt vultures ad malè olentia feruntur saith Basil As carrion-kites are carried after stinking carcases And told his two brethren without Sic impii hodiè ex Ecclesiae tragoediis comoedias componunt How glad are the wicked if they can but get any hint to lay hold on whereby to blaspheme Jere. 20.10 and blaze abroad the Saints infirmities Report say they and wee 'l report yea rather then want matter against Gods people they 'll suck it out of their own fingers ends But if such a thing as this fall out that Noah be drunk though but once in an age the banks of blasphemy will soon be broken down and the whole race of Religious persons must rue for it among these Canaanites some also will be found to excuse them
beleeved When thus the promise was repeated So needfull it is that the word should be often preached and the sweet promises of the Gospell beaten to the smell that Gods name being as an oyntment poured out The Virgins may love him beleeve in him Cant. 1.3 1 Pet. 1.8 and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And he counted it to him for righteousness This imputative righteousness the Papists scoffe at calling it putative or imaginary This the Jews also jear at to this day as their Fathers did of old Rom. 10.2 3. so do they For being asked whether they beleeve to be saved by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them they answer That every Fox must pay his own skin to the Fleaer But is not Christ called Jer. 23.6 in their law Jehovah our righteousness And how so but by means of that imputation so often hammered on by the Apostle Rom. 4. adding after all that what is said here of Abram is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleeve on him that raised up Jesus c. Rom. 4.24 If Adams sin be mine though I committed it not why should it seem so strange that the merit of Christs intire obedience should by the like means be mine though I wrought it not See Rom. 5.19 2 Cor. 5.19 If he hath wronged thee ought reckon that to me said Paul to Philemon Philem. 18. concerning Onesimus saith Christ to his Father concerning us And to stop the Papists mouth If another mans faith may benefit Infants at their Baptisme as Bellarmine affirmeth why should it seem so absurd that beleevers should be benefited by Christs righteousness imputed Vers 7. I am the Lord that brought thee Let the remembrance of what I have done for thee confirme thy confidence sith every former mercy is a pledge of a future God giveth after he hath given as the spring runneth after it hath run And as the eye is not weary of seeing nor the ear of hearing no more is God of doing good to his people Draw out thy loving kindness Psal 36.10 saith David as a continued series or chain where one linke draws on another to the utmost length Vers 8. Lord God whereby shall I know He desires assign not that he beleeved not before but that he might better beleeve How great is Gods love in giving us Sacraments and therein to make himself to us visible as well as audible Vers 9. Take me an heifer c. Here God commands him abusie sacrifice and then casts him into a terrible sleep the better to prepare him to receive the ensuing oracle and to teach him that he may not rashly rush upon divine mysteries Heathens could say Non loquendum de Deo absque lumine that is Pythagâ—raâ— without praemeditation and advised consideration Vers 10. Divided them in the midst In signum exitii foedifrago eventuri This was the federall rite both among Jews Jer. 34.18 19. and Gentiles as is to be seen in Virgil Aeneid l. 8. describing the covenant of Romulus and Tatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God also threatneth to cut the evill servant in twain that forgetteth the Covenant of his God Matth. 24. These dissected creatures are the oppressed Israelites the parts laid each against other signifie that God will make them up again though disâ—jected the fowls that came down upon them are the Egyptians Abrams huffing of them away is their deliverance by Moses after foure hundred years signified by those foure kindes of creatures as Luther interpreteth Vers 12. And when the Sun was going down Heb. when he was ready to enter to wit into his Bride chamber Psal 19 6. Vers 13. Know of a surety that thy seed Must first suffer before they can enter and so be conformed to Christ their Captain Heb. 5.9 who was perfected by sufferings and came not to the Crown but by the Crosse Dissicile est ut prasemibus bonis quis fruatur futuris ut hic ventrem illiâ— mentem resiciat ut de deliciâ—s ad delicias transeat ut in coelo in terra gloriosus appareat saith St. Hierome Erigito tibi scalam Acoâ—â—â— solus ascenâ—ito Constant Mag. Through many tribulations we must enter into heaven He that will goe any other way let him as the Emperour said to the Hâ—retick erect a ladder and go up alone Vers 14. Afterward they shall come out c. All the Saints abasements are but in order to their advancement As God brought forth his Israel with jewels and other wealth so the afflicted Church and tossed with tempest shall build her walls and lay her foundations with Sapphires and Agates Esa 54.11 12. See Esa 62.3.4 Vers 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers The spirits of just men made perfect all the court of Heaven shall meet thee and welcome thee into their society that brave Panegyris Heb. 12.22 23. In peace So Josiah did Bellum cui nos instamus pax est non bellum Zuingl apud Melch. Adam Prov. 16.31 though he dyed in battle according to the promise 2 Chron. 34.28 God made war to be peace to him In a good old age Heb. With a good hoar head which is a Crown when found in the way of righteousness Vers 16. The iniquity of the Amorites c. A metaphor from a large vessell filled by drops as elsewhere from an harvest ready for the sickle and from the vine ripe for the wine-press Pererius the Jesuit writing upon this text saith Perer. in loc If any marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of Catholikes there just execution of Cacolikes he should have said Answers because their sin is not yet full God grant it Jer. 28.6 Sed veniet tandem iniquitatis complementum saith he Ezek. 7.6 7 10 A true Prophet I fear me That terrible text rings in mine ears An end is come the end is come it watcheth for thee behold it is come it is come CHAP. XVI Vers 1. Now Sarai Abrams wife bare him no children GOd had foretold him of his childrens affliction and yet gave him no child but holds him still in suspense He knows how to commend his favours to us by withholding them Citò data citò vilescunt we account it scarce worth taking that is not twice worth asking A handmaid an Egyptian One of those maids belike that were given her in Egypt Gen. 12.16 Vers 2. The Lord hath restrained me She faults herself not her husband as many a crank dame would have done It may be that I may obtain children by her Heb. Be builded by her as God made the midwives houses that is gave them children for their mercy to the poor children Exod. 1.21 and as he promised to make David an house 2 Sam. 7.11 12 that is to give him seed to sit upon his Throne Saraies ayme
her and that of Paul Have not I also a master in Heaven Colos 4.1 But passion is head-long and like heavy bodies down steep hills once in motion rest not till they come to the bottome Look to it therefore in corrections especially Vers 9. Return to thy Mistress When now she had smarted she is in case to be counselled There 's great skill in the choice of a fit time for admonition It is not to give a man a purge in a fever-fit Submit thy self Heb. Afflict thy self or suffer thy self to be afflicted or humbled under her hands Jam. 4.9 The like counsell is given us all by St. James Be afflicted and weep and mourn c. Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up Vers 10. I will multiply thy seed Thus God contemneth not poor servants nay if they be faithfull Coloss 3.24 he will give them the reward of inheritance even a childs part as Hagar and her child had We read not that she cryed to God but her affliction spake for her and he is oft on t of his meer Philanthropie found of them that sought him not He heareth the young Ravens that cry to him onely by way of implication Pâ—al 147.9 The Lord hath heard thy affliction saith the Angel in the next verse Vers 12. And he will be a wild-man Heb. A wild-asse which is fierce untractable and untameable And such by nature is every mothers childe of us Job 11.12 A wild-asse-colt An Asse is none of the wisest creatures much less an Asses-colt least of all Vigimus inque vicem praebemus tela sagitâ—is a wild-asse-colt Lo such is man His hand will be against every man This was first accomplished in his person and thâ—n in his posterity For himself he was ferus pugnax ever quarrelling and contending Now a quarrelsome man is like a Cock of the game that is still blood with the blood of others and of himself As for his posterity the Saracens Mahomet the mischiefe of mankinde had his generation from this wild-asse And Sarai was utterly disappointed for these Agarens were ever enemies and so continue to be to her seed Vers 13. Thou God seest me This shews she had been well trained and tutored in her Master Abrams house Before she told the Angell the plain truth and lyed not vers 8 And here she thankfully acknowledgeth Gods goodness in looking upon her forlorn solitariness setting up a memoriall of that mercy to all posterity The greater was her sin again that being so well principled she should have any thoughts of returning to Egypt there to forsake her faith learn'd in Abrams family Have I also here looked Gen. 32.30 Exod. 24.11 Juâ—g 1â— 23 c. q. d. Have I found God here also in the wilderness as I had done oft before in my Masters house Or am I yet alive though I have seen God CHAP. XVII Vers 1. The Lord appeared to Abram AFter thirteen years absence and silence for ought we read so that Abram began to conclude that Ismael surely was the promised seed all the sons he was likely to have to inherit the land The Church then may erre when she cleaves not close to the word though God at length will direct her into the right way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here he did Abraham I am God All-mighty Or Al. sufficient Self-sufficient so Aquila Independent Absolute the Original Universall good Aben-Ezra interprets Shaddai a Conqueâ—or Others a Destroyer which a Conqueror must needs be Eundem victorem vastatorem esse oportet saith Cameron And to this the Scripture alludes when it saith Shod shall come from Shaddai Destruction from the Almighty Esa 13.6 Some there are that derive Shaddai of Shad a dug because God feeds his children with sufficiency of all good things as the loving mother doth the child with the milk of her breasts Hence the Heathen called Diana and likewise Ceres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mammosam as if she were the Nurse of all living creatures God is the onely satisfactory good proportionable and sitting to our souls as the dug to the childes stomach Walk before me Heb. Indesinentèr ambula Walk constantly step for step and keep pace with me Austin would not for the gain of a million of worlds be an Atheist for half an houre because he â—new not but God might in that time make an end of him Am. 3.3 For can two walk together and they not agreed saith the Prophet Ye cannot serve the Lord saith Joshua to the people that promised fair that is Jâ—sh 24.19 unless ye will serve him entirely walk uprightly as Abram here walk evenly without halting or halving with him Holiness must run thorough the whole life as the warp doth thorough the woof all the parts of our line of life must be streight before God As for such as turne aside to their crooked wayes as the Planets steal back by a secret slow motion of their own contrary to that of the Primum Mobile The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity with openly prophane persons Psal 125.5 when peace shall be upon Israel upon all that are Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile Surely as an unequall pulse shews a distempered body so doth uneven walking an unsound soul such as is not verily perswaded that God is All-sufficient able and ready to reward the upright and punish the hypocrite Vers 2. And I will make my Covenant This is now the fifth confirmation of the Covenant which shews that it is the prora and puppis the first second and third of our salvation and it is fit we should be well studied in it and assured of our interest For as the Mercy-seat was no larger then the Ark so neither is the Grace of God then the Covenant And as the Ark and Mercy-seat were never separated Exod. 25.10 to 17. so neither is his mercy from his people Vers 3. And Abram fell on his face T was sit he should now that God talked with him Such a posture of body befits us at the hearing of the word as may best express our reverence and further our attention Balac is bid to rise up to hear Balaams parable Eglon though a fat unweildy man riseth up from his seat to hear Gods message from Ehud Neh. 8.5 The people in Nehemiah stood to hear the Law read and expounded Constantine the Great Euseb would not be entreated to sit down or be covered at a Sermon No more would our Edward the sixth whose custome was also to take notes of what he heard Act Mâ—n which together with his own applications of the word to himself he wrote in Greek characters that his servants might not read them The Thessalonians are commended for this that they heard Pauls preaching as the word of God and not of man Had
he lighted upon a certain place Little thinking to have found heaven there Let this comfort travellers and friends that part with them Jacob never lay better Malâ— cubans suaviter dormâ—â— sâ—licitèr somâ—â—â—t then when he lay without doors nor yet slept sweeter then when he laid his head upon a stone He was a rich mans son and yet inured to take hard on Vers 12. Behold a ladder Scala est piorum in hoc mundo peregrinatio saith Pareus after Iunius But besides this interpretation our Saviour offereth us another Ioh 1.51 applying it to himself the true ladder of life per quem solùm in coelum ascendere possimus He that will go up any other way must as the Emperour once said erect a ladder and go up alone He touched heaven in respect of his Deity earth in respect of his humanity and joyned earth to heaven by reconciling Man to God Gregory speaks elegantly of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he joyned heaven and earth together as with a bridge being the onely true Pontifex or bridge-maker Heaven is now open and obvious to them that acknowledge him their sole Mediator and lay hold by the hand of faith on his merits as the rounds of this heavenly ladder These onely ascend that is their consciences are drawn out of the depths of despair and put into heaven as it were by pardon and peace with God rest sweetly in his bosom calling him Abba Father and have the holy angels ascending to report their necessities and descending as messengers of mercies We must also ascend saith S. Bernard by those two feet as it were Meditation and Prayer yea there must be continual ascensions in our hearts as that Martyr said M. Philpot. And as Iacob saw the Angels ascending and descending and none standing still so must we be active and abundant in Gods work as knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord Bern. and that non proficere est deficere not to go forward is to go backward Vers 13. I am the Lord God of Abraham c. What an honour is this to Abraham that God was not ashamed to be called His and his sons God! Eusebâ—â—s the Historian was called Eusebius Pamphili for the love that was betwixt him and the Martyr Pamphilus as S. Hierome testifieth Friend to Sir Philip Sidney is ingraven upon a Noble-mans Tomb in this Kingdom The old Lord Brook as one of his Titles Behold the goodness of God stooping so lowe as to stile himself The God of Abraham and Abraham again The friend of God Vers 14 15. And thy seed shall be as the dust Against his fourfold cross here 's a fourfold comfort as Pererius well observeth a plaister as broad as the sore and soveraign for it Against the loss of his friends I will be with thee 2. of his country I will give thee this lond 3. against his poverty Thou shalt spread abroad to the east west c. 4. his solâ—tariness and aloneness Angels shall attend thee and Thy seed shall be as the dust Num. 23.10 c. And who can count the dust of Iacob saith Balaam that Spelman of the devil as One calls him Whereunto we may adde that which surpasseth and comprehendeth all the rest In thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed Now whatsoever God spake here with Iacob he spake with us as well as with him saith Hosea Chap. 12.4 Vers 16. And I knew it not Viz. that God is graciously present in one place as well as in another Our ignorance and unbelief is freely to be confessed and acknowledged Thus David Psal 73.22 Agur Prov. 30.2 Pray for me In his Letter to Ridley Act. Mon. 1565. Seâ—m in 3 Sund. in Advent saith Father Latimer to his friend pray for me I say for I am sometimes so fearful that I would creep into a mouse-hole And in a certain Sermon I my self saith he have used in mine earnest matters to say Yea by S. Mary which indeed is naught Vers 17. How dreadful is this place The place of Gods publike Worship is a place of Angels and Archangels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom it is the Kingdom of God it is very heaven What wonder then though Iacob be afraid albeit he saw nothing but visions of love and mercy Psal 5.7 In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple saith David The very Turk when he comes into his Temple lays by all his State and hath none to attend him all the while Omninò oportet nos orationis tempore curiam intrare coelestem saith S. Bernard in qua Rex regum stellato sedet solio Bern. de divers 25. c. Quanta ergo cum reverentia quanto timore quantâ illuc humilitate accedere debet e palude suâ procedens repens vilis ranuncula Our addresses must be made unto God with the greatest reverence that is possible Vers 18. And set it up for a pillar The better to perpetuate the memory of that mercy he had there received and that it might be a witness against him if hereafter he failed of fulfilling his vow It is not amiss in making holy vows to take some friend to witness that in case we be not careful so to fulfil them may minde us and admonish us of our duty in that behalf Iacob that was here so free when the matter was fresh to promise God a Chappel at Bethel was afterwards backward enough and stood in need that God should pull him by the ear once and again with a Go up to Bethel and punish him for his delays in the rape of his daughter cruelty of his sons c. Gen. 35. Vers 20. And Iacob vowed a vow The first holy votary that ever we read of whence Iacob also is called The father of vows which out of this Text may be thus described A Vow is nothing else but a religious promise made to God in prayer and grounded upon the promise of God whereby we tie our selves by way of thankfulness to do something that is lawful and within our power with condition of obtaining some further favour at the hands of God Thus Iacob vows to God onely he is the sole object of Fear therefore also of Vows See them set together Psal 76.11 Next he prays when he vows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vow and a prayer are of neer and necessary affinity See Psal 61.6 Iudg 11.30 31. That was a blasphemous vow of Pope Iulius that said Act. Mon. he would have his will al despito di Dio. And not unlike of Solyman the Great Turk in a Speech to his Souldiers So help me great Mahomet Turk hist I vow in despite of Christ and Iohn in short time to set up mine Ensignes with the Moon in the middle of the Market-place in Rhodes Iacob as he vowed onely by the Fear of his father Isaac so he presented
all which and a great deal more this good old Patriark was to his sorrow not onely an ear but an eye-witness All which considered it must needs be granted that living so long never any Martyr or other out of Hell suffered more misery then Noah did And the like may be said of Athanasius of whom Master Hooker witnesseth That for the space of fourty six yeers from the time of his consecration to succeed Alexander Archbishop of Alexandria till the last hour of his life in this world his enemies never suffered him to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable day Was not he to be reckoned a Martyr though he dyed in his bed Erasm in vitae Chrysost Cur veriar Chrysostomum appellare Martyrem saith Erasmus And why may not any man say as much of Luther c. CHAP. X. Vers 5. By these were the the Isles of the Gentiles THat is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 en 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi dilaâ—atio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignis Domini Q. Curtius saith of Darim that he called upon the sacred and eternall fire the Countries of Europe and Asia the less inhabited by Japhets posterity Europe hath its name in Greek from the latitude and large surface of it which answers well to the name of Japhet signifying inlargement who together with his off-spring was by Gods appointment to rule there far and wide toward the West and North. Asia hath its name from two Hebrew words that signifie the fire of the Lord which in Persia and other parts thereof they superstitiously deified Asia the less was so called first by Attalus King of Pergamus who being the last of that name and race made the Romans his heyrs by will They turned his Country into a Province and called it Asia by the name of the Continent as devouring doubtless in hope that whole part of the world by this small beginning Hence likely came that first distinction of the lesser Asia Vers 8. Nimrod he began to be a mighty one His name signifies a Rebell he was the chiefe Babel-builder and there began to be a mighty one a Giant saith the Greek such another as Goliah was in his generation 1 Sam. 17.51 where the same word is used a Magnifico a Grandio such a one as sought to make himself great even to a proverb vers 9. But there is a double greatness First Genuine Secondly Belluine This latter is no such commendation a beast in this may and doth exceed us as in the latter we exceed our selves and others Vers 9. He was a mighty hunter Of men whose lives he sacrificed to his lust not of beasts for sacrifice to the Lord as Aben-Ezra will have it and takes occasion thereupon highly to commend him Epiphan heres 38. But there wanted not those that commended Cain also for killing his brother and were therefore called Cainites Of others we read that extolled the Sodomites Core and his complices Judas the Traytor Yea there was one Bruno found that wrote an Oration in commendation of the Devill who hath given him his Guerdon no doubt by this unless he recanted that monstrous madness Vers 11. Out of that land went forth Assur Either because wickedness dwelt there Zach. 5.11 for Ashur was a son of Sem and might have so much goodness in him vers 22. Or else he was hunted there-hence by Nimrod who made himself the first Monarch and had Babel in the land of Shinar or Chaldea for the beginning of his Kingdome Vers 12. The same is a great City As consisting of three Cities and having more people within the walls then are now in some one Kingdome See the greatness of this City set forth in the Preachers Travels pag. 89. The greatest City in the world at this day is said to be Quinsai in Tartary Paul Venet. which is a hundred miles about as M. Paulus Venetus writeth who himself dwelt therein Turk hist fo 75 about the year 1260. Cambalu the Imperiall City and seat of the great Cham of Tartary is in circuit twenty eight miles about Nineveh was three dayes journey in Jonah's dayes Now it is destroyed as was long since prophesied by Nahum being nothing else then a sepulchre of her self a little Town of small trade Nah. 2. 3. where the Patriarch of the Nestorians keeps his seat at the devotion of the Turk As Susa in Persia once a Lilly as the name signifies for the sweet scite and so rich as afterwards is reported cap. 11. Preachers Travels 88. vers 30 is now called Valdac of the poverty of the place Vers 20. These are the sons of Ham More in number and more sweetly situated then the posterity of either Shem or Japhethâ— thirty sons and nephews of cursed Ham are here recited and registred when of blessed Shem we finde but six and twenty and of Japheth but fourteen And for their Countries Canaan hath the navell of the world Sumen totius orbis as one calls that Country a land that floweth with milk for necessity and hony for delight where the hardest rocks sweat out hony and oyl Deut. 32.13 Exod. 3.17 Nihil mollius câ—â—lo nihil uberius solo L. Flor. l. 1. c. 16 See Deut. 8.7 8 9 cap. 11.11 12. as Florus saith of Campania a land that God had spied out among all lands for his own peculiar people yea for himself to dwell in Lo this was Hams possession when his two better brethren dwelt in the more barren waste Countries of the East and West God deals by his people here as the host doth by his guests who lets them have the best meats and fairest lodgings but reserves the inheritance for his children The Lord holds his servants to hard-meat many times but then they have it of free-cost whereas the wicked eat of the fat and drink of the sweet but their meat in their bowels is turned into the gall of â—spes God shall cast it out of their bellies Job 20.14 15. In fatting them he doth but fit them for destruction as he did these Canaanites whose pleasant land he afterwards made a spoyl to his own Israel They grew a burden to that good land which therefore for their wickedness spued them out Lev. 18.25 after they had filled it from corner to corner with their abominable uncleannesses Ezra 9.11 Vers 25. Peleg for in his dayes was the earth divided Eber of whom came the Ebrews or Israelites Exod. 1.15 that he might have before his eyes a perpetuall monument of Gods just displeasure against the ambitious Babel-builders â—alls his sonne Peleg or Division because in his dayes was the earth divided It is good to write the remembrance of Gods worthy works whether of mercy or justice upon the names of our children or otherwise as we can best to put us in minde of them for we need all helps such is either our dulness or forgetfulness What was it else that made David
so often to put the thorn to his breast Psal 103.1 2 3. And why would God have the plates of the censers of those sinners against their own souls to be a covering to the Altar but to be a memoriall to the children of Israel that no stranger come near to offer incense that he be not as Corah and his company c Numb 16.38 40. Vers 26. Jokâ—an begat Almodad c. This man with his sons may seem to have seated in the East-Indies But fallen from Hebers faith to Hethenisme they are written in the dust there 's little mention of them in the Scriptures They have lost their Genealogie as those degenerate Priests who in the time of the captivity took scorn to be in the register and were therefore worthily afterwards rejected by the Tirshata â—â—ra 2.61 CHAP. XI Vers 1. And the Whole earth was of one language UNity without verity is no better then conspiracy A legion of Devills could accord to get into one man and though many yet they speak and act as one in that possession That infernall Kingdome is not divided against it self A shame for Gods Saints to be at difference What should sheep do snarling like dogs one at another The children of this world are wiser a fair deal in their generation they can combine and comply as here though their society be as unsavoury as the slime and filth that is congealed when many Toads and other Vermine meet together Vers 2. In the land of Shinar Which was a part of the garden of Eden as most Geographers think fat and fruitfull still above beliefe Herodot l. 1. c. 193. Plin. l. 6.26 Vers 3. And they said one to another One broached this counsell and the rest soon consented Heb. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 18.5 Intùs apud se aestuabat prae â—elâ— ardore Let us consider one another to whet on to love and good works One live-coal may set a whole stack on fire When Silas came Paul burned in spirit and preached lustily Let us make brick c. Thus wanting stones they devised matter for their cursed building Good cause hath the Church to be as ingenious and sedulous in building Stair-cases for heaven as the Devill and his Imps in digging descents to hell Apud Babylonem Trajanuâ— Imp. vidit lacum bitumiâ—is ex quo moenia Babylonis aedificata suerant Cujus tanta vis est ut permixtum cum lateribus quovis saxs sit aut ferro potentius Dio in vita Trajan Jam cum Jove de divitiis licet certetis Cassiod l. 7. Var. â—pist 15. Habac. 2. Matth 11.12 Diriâ—iunt metapb à castris aut arcâ— quapiam quae irrumpeutib hostâ—buâ— diripitur Hâ—lar And they had brick for stone and slime for morter And yet though the walls were high and huge this City was taken first by Cyrus afterwards by Alexander and plundered at severall times by many other enemies Shusa in Persia was first built by Tithonus and his son Memnon who was so exceeding prodigall that as Cassidorus writeth he joyned the stones together with gold so rich it was that Aristagoras thus cheared up his souldiers that besieged it This City if you can take you may vye with Jove himself for wealth and riches Here Alexander found 50000. talents of gold besides silver But what is all this to the heavenly Jerusalem whose pavement is pure gold and her walls garnished with all pretious stones 〈◊〉 Rev. 21.19 Why do we then labour in the fire to load our selves with thick clay Why doth not this Kingdome of heaven suffer violence by us sith the violent take it by force or make a prey a prize of it so Hilary rendreth it as souldiers do of a City they have taken Oh that we could say of heaven as Sixtus Ruffus doth of Cyprus Cyprus famosa divitiis paupertatem populi Rom. ut occuparetur sollicitavit This Island was anciently called Macaria Heaven more truly Vers 4. Let us build us a City and a Tower This Tower raised a head of Majesty 5164. paces from the ground having its basis and circumference equall to the height The passage to goe up went winding about the outside and was of an exceeding great breadth there being not onely room for horses carts c. Hey Geog. to meet and turn but lodgings also for man and beast and as Verstegan reporteth grasse and corn fields for their nourishment Let us make us a name This is a disease that cleaves to us all to receive honour one of another and not seek the honour that cammeth from God onely Joh. 5.44 A rare man he is surely that hath not some Babel of his own Dr. Prid. contra Eudamon Joh. whereon he bestows pains and cost onely to be talked of Hoc ego primus vidi was Zabarelles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicurus would have us believe that he was the first that ever found out the truth of things Secum literas esse natas moriâ—uras Sucton Aug. de Civit. Dâ—â— l. 16. Pâ—lamon gave out that all learning was born and would dye with him Aratus the Astrologer that he had numbred the Starâ— and written of them all Archimedes the Mathematician that if he had but where to set his foot he could move the earth out of its place Herestratus burnt Diana's Temple for a name And Plato writes of Protagoras that he vaunted Platâ— in Meâ—â—â— Tusc 3. Pro Archiâ— Pocta that whereas he had lived sixty years forty of them he had spent in corrupting of youth Tully tells us that Gracchus did all for popular applause and observes that those Philosophers that have written of the contempt of glory have yet set their names to their own writings which shews an itch after that glory they perswaded others to despise These two things saith Tully somewhere of himself I have to boast of Epist famil l. 7. Optimarum artium scientiam maximarum rerum gloriam my learned works and noble acts Julius Caesar had his picture set upon the globe of the world with a sword in his right hand a book in his left Gabriel Simâ—on in Symboâ—is Dion Cass in Tyberto with this Motto Ex utroque Caesar Vibius Rufus used the chair wherein Caesar was wont to sit and was slain he married also Tullies widow and boasted of them both as if either for that seat he had been Caesar or for that wife an Oratour When Maximus dyed in the last day of his Consulship Caninius Rebilus petitioned Caesar O vigilantem Consulem qui tuto consulatâ—â— sui tempore somnum non vidit for that part of the day that he might be said to have been Consul So many of the Popish Clergy have with great care and cost procured a Cardinals hat when they have lain a-dying that they might be entituled Cardinals in their Epitaph as Erasmus writeth But for mens enobling themselves by building those seven wonders of the world were made