things than the Land of Canaan out of which even the Holiest among them they see excluded Sihon and Og overcome It is Six and Twenty Generations since the Creation Answerably Psal. cxxxvi doth Six and Twenty times extol the Mercy of God His Mercy endureth for ever NUM XXI Beginning the Psalm from the Creation and ending it in the Overthrow of Sihon and Og. By which Israel first took Possession of the Land promised Balaam is hired to curse Israel but cannot He curseth Rome for Crucifying Christ. NUM XXII XXIII XXIV Chap. xxiv 24 This is the Groundwork of the Revelation Balaam when he cannot curse lays a Stumbling-block in Israel's way by bringing Midianitish Women among them NUM XXV By whom they fall to Lewdness which procures a Plague among them that sweeps away those that were yet left of the Account at Sinai When the old Stock is gone they that must enter Canaan are numbred NUM XXVI Thus as they were delivered Moses by number From hence to the end of the Book all things are facil and in order by number he delivers them up SECT VII DEUTERONOMY MOses in the Eleventh Month of the last Year of their wandring rehearseth and explaineth precedent Laws and Stories He blesseth all the Tribes but only Simeon giveth Judah Priority of Levi dieth and is buried by Christ who was to bury his Ceremonies The Cloud of Glory departeth upon Moses's Death SECT VIII IOSHUA JOshua of Joseph succeedeth him to bring them into Canaan as Joseph had brought them into Egypt This Book contains a Story of Seventeen Years beginning from Nisan the Sixth Anno Mâ—ndi MMDLIII The first Seven Years are spent in Wars and then have they Peace and set up the Tabernacle in Ephraim and call the Town Shiloh i. e. Peaceable God gives Joshua Authority and even puts the Law into his Hands as that was the manner of crowning their Kings IOS I. 2 Chron. xxiii 11 This was the Sixth of Nisan that Day he makes Proclamation of Removal after three Days compleat and withal that Day sends two Men to spy Jericho IOS II. who take up their Lodging in a Victualler's House called Rahab an honest Woman tho' of a scandalous Profession But they come out again that Night The Seventh Day they lye in the Mountains the Eighth Day they return The Ninth Day the People march along upon Jordan's Banks down till they come over against Jericho IOS III. The Ark leadeth the Van. They pass Jordan on the Tenth the Waters being divided four Thousand Cubits besides where the Body of the Army marched in two Parts IOS IV The Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Days they are busie about Circumcision On the Fourteenth they keep the Passover IOS V VI. and so are sensible of both their Sacraments at once Till the Twenty-first at Even is their Passover Week From thence they strangely besiege Jericho compassing it Seven Days according to the Seven Generations since the Land was promised The Spoil of this Town must deservedly be as the first Fruits of Canaan due to the Lord. Which Achan meddling with makes Israel abominable In the Valley of Achor which is here the beginning of their Trouble IOS VII must be the beginning of their Hope Hos. ii 15 Joh. iv Ai taken and the Spoil given to the Soldiers And here they begin to take Possession of Canaan IOS VIII Then Joshua builds an Altar just where Abraham had done when he took Possession of the Land by Faith Gen. xii IOS IX The Gibeonites deceive by colour of Antiquity A miraculous Day of Thirty-six Hours long A humane History Sepher Jasher cited X c. as Paul cites Heathen Poets and Talmudic Doctors From hence to the end of the Book is a Survey of the Land and some few Histories interlaced of no Scruple for Order Only the Story of Caleb's taking of Kiriah Sepher Chap. xv 14 is rehearsed Judg. i. 12 as if it were after Joshua's Death but in this Book it is in the proper Place It is rehearsed in Judges because there speaking how Judah was appointed Captain by God it relates this Story to shew why Othniel was looked after rather than any other of Judah because of his Valour tried before in this Action SECT IX IUDGES GOD to make easier way for Israel's Possession of the Land of the Amorites useth the Amorites for their Furtherance So Sihon and Vahob King of Moab CHAP. I. fall to Wars and Sihon taketh Land from Moab that Israel might take it from him that was an Amorite for with a Moabite they might not meddle So Adonibezek and his Neighbour Kings fall to civil Wars and he conquers Seventy of them ready to Israel's Hand So that when they have conquered him they have conquered so many They cut off his Thumbs and great Toes and bring him to the great Town of the Kingdom Jerusalem and there for Terror to others do publickly kill him The things next related after the Overthrow of Adonibezek as the taking of Hierusalem Hebron and Kiriath Sepher were done in Joshua's time But they are rehearsed for this reason that we might see that Judah was chosen General after Joshua's Death by God That Israel might war under one to whom they were used and acquainted For Judah was made General by Joshua even in his Life-time And this Matter of Othniel named here to shew why he is made Judge afterward In the rest of the Chapter the Order is proper only whereas some things are mentioned here which are mentioned in Joshua's Book as ver 27 29. about Israel's not expelling the Canaanites it is to shew that as it was not done before Joshua's Death so neither was it done after For which they have heavy tidings from God Joshua's Age and Death mentioned again IVDG II. to v. 11. then read CHAPP XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI of this Book to shew that in his time all was well with them After the Tenth Verse of this Chapter take in the XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI Chapters of this Book for hereabout is their Order For howsoever these these Stories be laid in the end of the Book yet were the things there mentioned done before any Judge arose in Israel For the evidencing of which consider First the Connexion of the Passages there mentioned one to another I. Micah of Ephraim set up an Idol as Jeroboam of the same Tribe did afterward The Danites take it away IUDG XVII XVIII even in Micah's Life time and set it up publickly in Dan as Jeroboam also did afterwards And Jonathan a Grandchild of Moses is the first publick Idolatrous Priest This Moses had for marrying in an Idolatrous Line Dan for Idolatry first set up in his Tribe is not sealed Rev. vii among Israel Upon Toleration of Idolatry all Iniquity follows IUDG XIX XX. so that a City of Israel becomes Sodom Against this City all Israel goes by God's Permission to War
as in the Old Testament to search out the true and exact Order which the Continuation of the History requireth The Evangelists being Four in number and being all to write one and the same Story must either not write the same things or if they did must not write them in the same Style and Order Otherwise had the Uniformity of their Story and Phrase been but Repetition if not Confusion But while they either vary in Matter or Phrase or in Order this breeds the best Consort Their difference of Matter and Phrase is easily seen and easily reconciled But their Change of Method and Order requireth some Skill to tune to an Unison Like him in Plutarch that would first play rude and harshly to his Scholars before they should hear true Consort So have I to you after my rude and rough course gone a little way before you in the Gospel in this Course that your self may tune to your self more pleasing Music. Where I have laid the Evangelists together you may see they tune themselves and the Music is sweet let my Descant invite you to a better Strain II. In reading of the New Testament never take your Eye off the Old for the New is but again that in plainer Phrase God himself hath taught us by the writing of the Scripture what is the best way to read For he hath folded the Two Testaments together so that as the Law begins so the Gospel ends and as the Prophets end so the Gospel begins as if calling upon you to look still for the one in the other Moses and Elias Law and Prophets were Evangelists as well as Matthew and the other So that he that sees not Christ in them first in a Cloud sees him not in the other in Glory What did ever Christ do or suffer which you may not see in the Law and Prophets Which laid to the Gospel shews the more Lustre It were worth Study and Labour to trace Christ throughout all the Old Testament and to see a Gospel written by Moses and Elias concerning Christ's Actions Passion and Doctrine To shew my Meaning take here in brief what you may at Leisure and Study enlarge as you read SECT XIII Evangelium Mosaico-Propheticum WHEN Adam had sinned God promised to him one that should break the Head of the Serpent who could be no other than God Christ's two Natures taught in the Garden But he should become the Seed of the Woman to do this and so be Man When the Fulness of time came when the Scepter was even ready to depart from Judah Gen. xlix and the Stem of Jeâ—â— even worn to the Root Esa. xi and the Feet of the great Image broken and the other parts fallen Dan. ii this came to pass For when Cittim afflicted Eber Num. xxiv and Augustus taxed all the World and among the rest the Jews Jesus is born having been taxed in his Mother's Womb as Levi paid Tythes in the Loins of Abraham His Mother was a Virgin yet bare him against the Course of Nature as barren Women had done the like above it Immediately after his Conception she goeth to Hebron where Abraham had his first Land and David his Kingdom There she keeps her swelling Belly undiscried three Months as Moses was hid three Months after he was born Which when her Husband detected he was incensed till like Tamar Gen. xxxviii it was clear she was without Fault In Tisri she brings forth her Son at what time of the Year Sin came into the World and at what time of the Year the solemn Festival of Expiation of Sin was and what time of the Year the great Jubilee-Year began a Type of him who should work Release At two Years old he is visited and worshipped by Wise Men of Persia who among the Records laid up there had found Daniel's Prophecy of the time of the Messiah Dan. ix Upon the Appearance of a new Star they know the time is come and from Persia from whence Cyrus had done Good to Jerusalem they come thither Herod of Esau persecutes Christ into Egypt Whence Pharoah had persecuted Moses least Christ should surprize Herod of his Kingdom as Jacob had done Esau of his Birthright and Blessing For now had Esau shaken off the Yoke of Jacob as Gen. xxvii 40 At twelve Years old Christ shews his Wisdom in the Sanhedrin at which Age Solomon had done his deciding the Matter of the two Harlots At thirty Years old he is baptized and anointed by the Holy Spirit and begins to publish the Gospel At which Age the Priests entred their Office Num. iv Joseph his Honour Gen. xli 46 And David his Kingdom 2 Sam. v. 4 He is tempted as Eve to the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life but overcometh having fasted Forty Days and Nights as did Moses and Elias in Horeb. So did he in the very same place Upon [a] John i. 29 his Return by Jordan John teaches the People That he was the Aim of the Paschal Lamb which every Year and the Offering Lamb which every Day was sacrificed At [b] John ii 9 Cana of Galilee he turneth Water into Wine That beginning with the Elements and changing their Form his working Miracles upon things composed of the Elements might be without Exception So did Moses in his Wonders in Egypt At [c] John ii 14 15. the first Passover after his Baptism he casteth out Buyers and Sellers in the Temple coming to his own House purgeth it and the Sons of Levi Mal. iii. 1 2 3. He [d] John iii. teacheth what the Spirit moving upon the Waters Gen. i. 2 and the Brazen Serpent Num. xxi aimed at In [e] John iv the Valley of Achor Hos. ii 15 he telleth an Adulterous Woman what Hosea's Adulterous Wives represented and briefly and sweetly expoundeth to her all Hosea's Prophecy He [f] Mat. iv chuseth Galileon Disciples of Nepthali who must give goodly Words Gen. xlix and Zebulun and Issachar who must bring Men to God to offer Righteous Sacrifices Deut. xxxiii 19 He healeth Diseases at distance Psal. cxlvii c. He [g] Mat. v. pronounceth the Blessings upon a Mount which upon their Entrance into Canaan should have been pronounced with the Curses and in number but were not Deut. xxviii In his Sermon there he destroyeth the Doctrine of the Scribes Pharisees and Sadduces the three Shepherds whom his Soul hated Zech. xi 8 He [h] Mark iii. 3 would not own his Mother nor acknowledge his Brethren Deut. xxxiii 9 when they went about to hinder the Work of the Lord. He seeks to unite Judah and Israel under one Head Hos. i. 11 by tendring an easie Yoke to them that were parted by the threatning of an heavy 1 King xii He opens his Mouth in Parables as Psal. xlix 2 and from that very Psalm sheweth the State of Luxurious rich Men Luke xvi and giveth more to the Scriptures than to the Words of Apparitions Luke
And in one and the same Year both Father and Son dye Divers such Passages as these you will find in this Story of the Kings if you will but cast it into Annals after this manner as be these Ahaziah Two Years older than his Father 2 Chron. xxii 2 Baasha fighting Nineteen Years after he is dead 2 Chron. xvi 1 Jotham reigning Four Years after he is buried 2 King xv 30 Joram crowned King in the Seventeenth Year of Jehoshaphat 2 King i. 17 compared with 1 King xxii 51 And in the Two and Twentieth Year of Jehoshaphat 2 King viii 16 And after Jehoshaphat's Death 2 Chron. xxi 1 Variety of such strange things are to be found by taking this course which otherwise you can never see nor doubt of For Resolution of such Ambiguities when you have found them the Text will do it if it be well searched Conference with some Man or other learned and practiced in this way will soon resolve and remove all Scruples One Month or two spent thus with a living Guide will profit more than Seven Years Study spent according to the common way of reading the Bible This way attained to will guide you it self in what else is agreeable to profitable reading As in marking those things that seem to be Contradictions in the Text or Slips of the Holy Ghost in which always is admirable Wisdom Parallels of Times Places and Persons c. Which if you once fix sadly to make a Scripture-Chronicle you cannot slip unmarked and it will be enough to me to see you Doubt I know your Doubting will not rest till resolved I have here briefly run before you the Order of Scripture as I conceive the Continuance of the History requires it to lye If you will but settle to make a Scripture Chronicle this is needless for that will search out the Order for you So that you may spare your Labour of reading this that I have written and then I need not to excuse my Confusedness in it for haste Yet if you do read it it may shew you the Necessity of that that I so instantly urge viz. Skill in the Chronicle For if there be whole Chapters and Books laid out of their Places and the reason thereof commonly most sweet what may we expect in smaller Bulk of things as Genealogies Names Speeches Years Quotations c. but strange Variations yet always Divine Admirable it is to see how the Holy Spirit of God in Discords hath shewed the sweetest Music. But few Men mark this because few â—ake a right course in reading of Scripture Hence when Men are brought to see flat Contradictions as unreconciled there be many in it they are at amaze and ready to deny their Bible A little Pains right spent will soon amend this wavering and settle Men upon the Rock whereon to be built is to be sure SECT II. THE Canonical Books of the Bible are Seventy if the Psalms be parted into Five like the Seventy Souls that built up the House of Israel The Apocrypha speaks for it self that it is not the Finger of God but the Work of some Jews Which got it so much Authority among Christians because it came from them from whom the lively Oracles of God indeed came also But the Talmud may be read to as good Advantage and as much Profit and far more Leviathan reserved to be eaten 2 Esdra vi 52 is Judaism in Targ. Jonath in Gen. R. Sol. Elias 〈…〉 of all tastes in Wisd. xvi 20 21. is Jewish R. Sol. in Num. xi Paradise created before the World is Judaism in Targ. Jonath in Gen. ii Pirke R. Eliezer R. Nephtali Bel and the Dragon is a Jewish Parable from Jer. li. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon and I will bring forth out of his Mouth that which he hath swallowed up c. 〈◊〉 blessing Simeon for the Slaughter of 〈◊〉 is worse than Jewish Jud. ix 2 c. flat against Jacob who curseth the Fact and against Moses who for it leaves him out of his Blessings Deut. xxxiii Tobit's Chronology is worse than Heathenish Tob. xiv 4 and 15. making the Ruin of Nineveh by Nebuchadnezzar to depend upon Jonah's Prophecy Whereas since Jonah's Prophesie that City had been deâ—â—royed by Arbaces and Belosus and built again and stood the Succession of Seven or Eight Kings and near about Two Hundred Years before it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar So might one censure the rest but Verbum Sapienti Believe not every Spirit SECT III. GENESIS CHAP. I. THE Law begins with the Creation because by the Creature is our first Step to the Knowledge of God Rom. i. 20 Ps. xix It teacheth the end from the beginning the Resurrection from the Creation For if God made Man of Dâ—st he can raise him our Spiritual Union with God in Glory even in our Body by the Union of our Spirit and Body in Creation God not named Jehovah till the Creation be perfect for special Reason The second Days Work not approved but the third twice Heaven and Earth created in one and the same instant as Center and Circumference The First Day The Heavens are made perfect and move as soon as ever they are made and with them are created the Angels But the Earth is unformed and vast all covered over with Water And the Spirit of God by the Motion of the Heavens cherisheth the inferior Creature of Earth and Waters Twelve Hours did the Heavens move in Darkness and then by God's Appointment Light appeared in that Hemisphere in which God had decreed that the Light of Religion should first shine And there it gave Lustre for Twelve Hours more declining by degrees with the Motion of the Heavens to the other Hemisphere where it also shone Twelve Hours So that the first Day to that part of the World was †So long was Joshuah's Day when the Sun stood still and so long was Christ under Death Six and Thirty Hours long The Second Day As soon as ever the Light was gone off from this upper Horizon God commanded that instead of that Vacuity which was between the Waters that covered the Earth and the Clouds which were created full of Water in the same instant with the Heavens the Air should be spread abroad throughout the Universe And in Four and Twenty Hours the Command is accomplished The Third Day The Waters that cover the Earth at God's Command recoil Westward into those Channels which God had appointed them And still as they go away and dry Land appears Herbs Plants and Trees with their ripe Seed and Fruit upon them grow instantly out of the Earth This Day God plants the pleasant Garden of †The Story of Eden Gen. 11. ver 9 10 11 12 13 14. in proper Order should lye between ver 12 and 13. of this Chapter But Moses hath reserved the History of that to be handled at Adam's being placed in it Because he would dispatch his Treatise of Generals before he come
to Particulars Eden The Fourth Day The Sun Moon and Stars created The inferiour Hemisphere first sees the Sun Or else the Moon was made before the Sun The Fifth Day Fowl and Fish made The Whale particularly named to shew that even the greatest Creature could not make it self The Sixth Day Beasts and Cattel created and Man Lord of the Creatures on Earth Who come to acknowledge their Homage to Man when they come for their Names Which Adam giveth them GEN. II. Begin to read this Chapter at ver 4. This Chapter is a particularizing upon some Generals of the Chapter preceding at their first Sight according to their Natures He seeth not amongst them all a Mate for himself God provides one for him of his own Flesh marries them together puts them into the Garden gives them the Moral Law in few Words and to shew to them their intire Dominion as well over themselves as over the Creature he leaves them to their own free Will with Power either to stand or fall He gives his Angels charge over them to be ministring Spirits for their Good Some Angels despise this Office and for that Pride are cast from their first Estate of Happiness and are reserved in the Chains of God's Providence under the Darkness of his Displeasure unto the Judgment of the great Day No Comfort they have left them but to have Company of the same Misery and to bring Man into the same Perdition GEN. III. This they soon enterprize and having first obtained Leave of God they assail the Woman by three Temptations to the Lust of the Flesh Lust of the Eye and Pride of Life as 1 Joh. ii 16 she being overcome bringeth the Man into the same Transgression About Three Hours after their Fall God cometh to censure them but first he promiseth Christ a Redeemer Which Promise Adam layeth hold on and for that calleth his Wife's Name Eve or Life God seeth his Faith and teacheth him to Sacrifice clean Beasts as a Seal of his Faith in him who should be sacrificed for him With the Skins of which Beasts he cloatheth Adam and his Wife and driveth them out of Eden even on the Day of their Creation The Seventh Day After the end of Gen. iii. take in the three first Verses of Chap. ii That Adam fell on the day of his Creation were there no other Evidence Gen. v. 2. were sufficient The next Day God by his own Example ordaineth as a Day of Rest for Adam and his Posterity to meditate upon these things Evil Concupiscence generated in Adam by his Fall doth readily forward Adam upon the present Necessity of Generation of Children GEN. IV. He hath two born at a Birth First that which was Natural and after him that which was Spiritual Their Mother upon the Birth of the first of them shews her Apprehension of the Promise and calls his Name Cain a Possession or Purchase †The Original Words may well if not best bear this Sense For saith â—he I have obtained the Lord to become Man But the Purchase or Possession of the Propagation of Original Sin did most shew it self in the Nature of Cain Because his Brother's bloody Sacrifice which properly signified that of Chrisâ— was visibly fired from Heaven and his dry Sheaves of Corn the likelier Materials to burn are not he falls into a desperate Discontent which tho' God himself from Heaven would remove with †The common Gloss upon ver 7. Sin lies at the Door That is the Punishment for Sin is ready to seize on thee is that contrary to the Sense of the Verse going before and the latter end of that Verse God comes not there to deject but comfort him The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Sin signifies the Sacrifice for Sin all along Leviticus which was brought to the Tabernacle Door comfortable Words yet sticketh it fast even to the Death of his Brother For which he is made a Runnagate and hedged in that he cannot die as Job iii. 21 tho' he begged of the Lord Let any one that findeth me kill me God gives him a Token that no one should kill him Upon which he grows resolutely wicked as appears in the Discipline of his Children One of which Lamech the seventh from Adam in this Line is notoriously wicked and bringeth in height of Wickedness by his double Marriage This Chapter undertaking to set down the Wickedness of Cain's Brood runs on with the holy Line till it stop at Enosh In whose time that Wickedness began to be notorious See 2 Pet. ii 5 Which Enoch the seventh from Adam in the other Line prophesieth against Jud. ver 12. Yet Lamech boasteth in his Villany and even undervalues his great Grandâ—ire Cain His Children give their Minds to Trades that may further Luxury and Vanity as fatting Cattel Imagery and Music. Thus is Cain's Generation scattered and shall be utterly rooted out by the Flood But these are the Generations of Adam that should hold out and not fail GEN. V. This Chapter is a a Chronicle of 1656 Years from the Creation to Methuselah's Death This time is called Early in the Mâ—â—ning or the dawning of the Day Mat. xx 1 This Chapter cast into a Chronological Table giveth much Light to what went before to what follows and to it self In the Day that God made Adam he created him in his own Image even both the Male and Female he made in this Image and blessed them with Power of begetting Children in the same Image also but they fell on the Day of their Creation so that God names them Earthly Adam the Day that they were created And when Adam was an Hundred and Thirty Years old compleat he begat a Son in his own Image sinful like himself and called his Name Seth. And all the Days of Adam were Nine Hundred and Thirty Years a Thousand within Seventy But now Seventy Years are a Man 's whole Age Psal. xc 10 In this long time Adam saw his Children's Children to the Ninth Generation Enoch the Seventh from Adam is dedicated to God as the Seventh Day and God took him away that he should not see Death when he had lived as many Years as be Days in a Year Enoch before he was translated prophesied against the Wickedness of the World and foretold of the Flood Which those that feared God believed and therefore kept themselves long unmarried because they would not beget many Children for the Waters For Methuselah lived an Hundred Eighty-seven Years and begat Lamech and Lamech lived an Hundred Eighty-two and begat a Son and foresaw that to him should be given Liberty for all the World to eat Flesh whereby they should be much eased of the Toyl which they endured in Tillage of the Ground when hitherto they ate nothing but the Fruits thereof and he called his Name Noah And when Noah was Five Hundred Years old That Sem was Noah's second Son collect from Gen. v.
32 and vii 11 and xi 10 he begat Japhet and Two Years after he begat Sem and afterward he begat Ham. GEN. VI. To Noah God determines the Date of the old World an Hundred and Twenty Years and then should all perish but himself and Family Who should be preserved in a large and spacious Ark which Noah and his Sons make and enter into in the Year of the World MDCLVI GEN. VII on the Seventeenth Day of Marheshwan or the Second Month having newly buried his Grandfather †Methuselah dieth at the most not above Forty Days before the Rains begin This Enoch foresaw when he named him so Methushelah He dieth and it is sent Methuselah With him he taketh of Birds Beasts and Cattel some for Preservation of the kind of unclean Creatures only a Couple but of clean three Couple for Breed and an odd one to sacrifice upon his Delivery The Rains begin and within Forty Days the Earth is as it was at the Creation all covered with Waters When the Wicked see Destruction begin it is too late to pray For when they would not make their Prayer to God in a time when he might be found in the Flood of Waters they could not make their Prayers to come nigh him Psal. xxxii 6 They are soon wiped away with Waters Job xxii 15 16. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked Men have trodden Which were cut down out of time whose Foundation was overflown with a Flood And their Spirits are now in Prison 1 Pet. iii. 19 The Waters grow Fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountain The Ark draws Water Eleven Cubits On the First of Sivan the Waters ebb and but a Cubit in Four Days for Two Months together but faster GEN. VIII being got within the Compass of the Mountains After Noah had been a compleat Solar Year in the Ark he cometh out GEN. IX and sacrificeth and receiveth a Blessing and * The Doctrine of Transubstantiation is against this Law of Nature and Nations Liberty of eating Flesh but without the Blood The Rainbow that before was only Natural is now also †The Rainbow the likeliest Sacrament to be of Accidents that ever was yet are they in a subject Transubstantiation teacheth strange Philosophy Sacramental Man's Age is halfed Noah many Years after the Flood is overtaken with Wine and discovered Sem and Japhet joyned in Religion Cain cursed in his Son Canaan As before the Flood so after the Multitude grows wicked The Children of Noah's Three Sons joyntly go about to build a Rendezvous for Idolatry GEN. X XI These two Chapters may seem to lye wrong in that the Dispersion of Nations is told Chap. x. before the Cause of it which was the building of Babel Chap. xi But the reason of reckoning thus is to shew first that the Sons of Sem Ham and Japhet were alike accessary to that Rebellion and that when he had related the Story of Babel and the Dispersion he might follow the Story of Heber and that Family that held to the first Tongue Which Work God disannulleth by confounding their Hebrew Tongue into divers Idioms Our Father Japhet's Sons have every one a several Tongue which Sem's and Ham's have not This makes their calling home again to God to be the longer by how much they are the further severed from that Tongue in which only God was truly professed At Babel began Heathenism and Men as before the Flood to be the Sons of Men Gen. xi 5 And so are to continue till Christ give Priviledge to them to be called the Sons of God Joh. i. 12 The Means must be by the Gift of Tongues Acts ii At Babel Ages are again halfed Peleg dies the youngest Man mentioned since the Creation The Ages of these Fathers before the Tower are summed up because there is no mâ—re to be said of them Cast this Chapter into a Chronological Table and you shall find Eber alive after Aâ—raham is dead In all this Chapter it is not said 〈…〉 as Gen. v. till it come to Terah and Terah died in 〈◊〉 In Gen. v. it is said of those Fathers that they Died to 〈◊〉 that they were not swept away with the Flood 〈…〉 with whom this Genealogy begins is alive and 〈…〉 the Name of Melchizedek Gen. xiv 〈…〉 the rest are not mentioned till Terah 〈…〉 to shew that Abram left 〈…〉 Terah's Age at Abram's Birth 〈…〉 4. Gen. xi 3 His Father Heber holds the Language and Religion of the Holy Fathers from the beginning But his Children swerve especially Terah who is Idolatrous in Ur of Chaldea And when he is an Hundred and Thirty Years old begets Abram whom he traineth up in Idolatry also Christ is promised to Abram in a Heathen Town which Promise in time was to concern the Heathens GEN. XII Terah and Abram both leave their Idolatry and Country and embrace the Promise They go for the Land which was promised as an earnest of a greater Mercy Terah dies by the way Abram goes into Canaan and builds two Altars †Compare Deut. xxvii and Josh. viii with this one upon Gerizim and the other upon Ebal by Faith taking Possession of that Land Afterward by his own Sufferings he sheweth what they should suffer that should inherit that Land before they come there For Famine drives him into Egypt where when Canaan wanteth Corn thro' want of Rain the River Nilus supplies that Defect and affords Sustenance His Wife Sarai a white Woman is soon espied by the Blackamoors of Egypt and commended and taken to the King but restored upon the plaguing of Pharoah a Type of Things to come Upon his return to Canaan Let at Mount Ebal the Hill of Cursing doth wilfully alienate himself and His GEN. XIII from the Communion of Abram and the Church in his House For which he is justly punisht with Captivity with the Sons and Curse of Canaan and becomes a Prisoner to Chedorlaomer a Son of Elam the Son of Sem GEN. XIV but is released by Abram who by Promise was Lord of that Land and suffers not the Spoil to go out of the Land but at Dan upon the Frontiers of Canaan gets it again In his return he pays Tythes of the Spoil to Melchizedek or Sem. Who having seen the two fearful Plagues of the World the Flood and the Confusion of Tongues had out of a Godly Fear and Zeal given himself up totally to the Service of God and voluntarily was become a Priest He now refresheth Abram's weary Company with Bread and Wine and him with a Blessing Which Blessing God secondeth with Promise of Children numerous like the †The Tribes are Stars in Joseph's Dream Gen. xxxvii Stars GEN. XV. and a new Promise of the Land of Canaan with an evident Assurance by Vision God himself passing in a Flame of Fire between the Parts of divided Beasts as the Custom was in making Covenants Jer. xxxiv 18 But withal
Days March they come to Marah From hence to the Fifteenth of the next Month they remove but twice  23  24  25 In all their Journeys the Cloud of Glory leadeth them When they pitched if sat down upon Moses's Tent. When the Tabernacle was built it flitted from Moses's Tent and rested upon that For Christ was first to be Glorious in the Tabernacle of Moses the Law but more in the Gospel  26  27  28  29  30 Year of the World MMDXIII Days of the M. Jiar  1 In the Institution of the Passover they are enjoyned to eat Unleavened Bread till the One and Twentieth Day For till that Day they are not quite free from the Danger of Egypt Therefore till then they are to eat the Bread of Affliction  2  3  4  5 In the Three Days Darkness they are Circumcised being then secure of Egypt And so both their Sacraments come together as they did when they came into Canaan  6  7  8 After the first Year or second spent in the Wilderness the Passover is neglected because Circumcision was also  9 Both which taught by this their own end  10 Israel's Camp when they enter Canaan is for the most part uncircumcised yet of Israel tho' they wanted the visible Sign of Admission This pleads against Jewish holding Perpetuity of Circumcision and Popish Visibility of the Church  11  12  13  14 EXOD. XVI 15 They come to the Wilderness of Sin  16 They murmur Quails are given at Even  17 Manna falleth in the Morning  18 They stay at Sin  19 They stay at Sin  20 They stay at Sin  21 They stay at Sin  22 They stay at Sin  23 They stay at Sin By this their Stay at Sin a serious Eye may go very near to find the Sabbath  24 They remove to Dophkah Num. xxxiii 12  25 They march to Alush Num. xxxiii 13 EXOD. XVII 26 They come to Rephidim Num. xxxiii 14  27 Water is given out of Horeb. Here may you understand a place of S. Paul 1 Cor. x. They drank of the Râ—â—k that followed them Horeb and Sinai were at one Mountain For the Law given in Sinai Exod. xix 20 is said to be given in Horeb Mal. iv 4 yet Exod. xvii Israel is in Horeb or under it drinking Water And Exod. xix 1 they go from Horeb to Sinai Yet these two were the same Hill The Hill had two Names one side of it was called Horeb Drought because it wanted Water till this Miracle the other side was called Sinai Bushy because of the Brambles there In one of these did God appear in Fire So that Israel's marching from Horeb to Sinai Exod. xix 1 is no more but this they had lien Four Days under the Hill Sinai on the South-west side of it Which side is called Horeb from the want of Water there but Moses smote the Rock and Water came out and the People drank their Fill. Then they removed thence to the East side of the Hill marching about the Foot of it And the Brook of Water that issued out of the South side ran about the Skirts of the Hill even to the place where they pitched on the other side called Sinai This Rock was Christ even as the Bread is his Body Not really for then Moses had had his Doom here of not entring Canaan for striking of Christ really and he had been as bad as the Roman Soldiers that opened his Side Year of the World MMDXIII Days of the M. Jiar  28 Amalek cometh against them  29 Amalek is overthrown   Amalek for this first assailing Israel when they came from Egypt and again in Haman is cursed to Eternal Destruction Num. xxiv The next Chapter viz. Exod. xviii is misplaced Therefore when you have read the Seventeenth Chapter go to the Nineteenth For the proper Place of the Eighteenth is to come in between the Tenth and Eleventh Verses of Num. x. For this Election of Judges by the Counsel of Jethro was not till they were ready to depart from Sinai Deut. i. 6 7 8 9 c. Now the reason why the Story of Jethro is laid here is this Amalek is cursed Exod. xvii 14 Among the Amalekites lived Jethro 1 Sam. xv 6 Now to shew that Jethro found Favour both with God and Israel immediately after the Curse of Amalek it was fit that Jethro's coming to Israel should be set down to shew that he fell not under that Curse Year of the World MMDXIII Days of the M. Sivan EXOD. XIX 1 Israel comes to Sinai  2 Moses goes into the Mount and returns  3 He goes up again to relate the Peoples Words  4 He sanctifieth the People  5 The People still sanctified EXOD. XX XXI XXII XXIII 6 This Morning the Moral Law is given and before Night those Ceremonials that have nearest Relation EXOD. XXIV 7 The People enter into Covenant in the Morning and before Night Moses goeth into the Mount and stays there Forty Days and Forty Nights fasting Moses his first Fast of Forty Days 8 EXOD. XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX XXXI 9 God shews him a Glorious Tabernacle pitched in Mount Sinai to be a Pattern of his as his was to be of a better Upon the making of his the other vanisheth as his was to do when a better came 10  11  12 The Tabernacle was a Figure of Christ's Body so was the Temple John ii 19 For this they that were absent from Jerusalem looked always that way in their Devotions  13  14 The Tabernacle was the Fountain of their Religion From which they were taught the Favour of God to Men thro' Christ that Religion is the Heart of a State the Easiness and Perspicuity of the Fundamentals of Religion the Seven Bonds of the Church the Ministration of Angels the Mediation of Christ and even every particular concerning his Nature and Function  15  16  17 The Fabric and Ceremonies of the Tabernacle as they be hard to find so being found they give great Delight and Information A serious Student may see the Fabric and Service of it almost as plain in the Text as Moses did in the Mount Take these Observations to help to facilitate  18  19 1. The Cubits by which the Tabernacle is measured are but half Yards   2. Those that are translated Boards are Planks of a great Thickness  20 3. The Tabernacle was Fifteen Yards long   4. The most Holy Place Five Yards square every way  21 5. The Five and Five rich Curtains were looped together just over the Partition by the Vail Here Geneva Notes fail  22 6. The Silver Foundations lay open to view   7. The Cherubins were Pictures of Children winged and bowing forward  23 8. The Pillars both in the East Entrance and in
Wilfulness to have their own Will contrary to the Will of God 2. Now in what particulars this their Wilfulness centered and what it was in which they would have their own Minds contrary to the Mind of God may be the better conjectured by tracing them a little from their Creation to their Fall They were Created as is most probable at the very first bâ—ginning of the Works of God when he laid the Foundation of the Earth the very first instant of the Creation Moses indeed does not mention their Creation at all because he would treat only of things Visible The Great Book of Nature and the Letters of that Book which Men see and from them read the Invisible things of God His Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. i. 20 Upon their first Creation they break into Singing and Praising God upon the Sight of the Glory of him that Created them upon the Sense of the Gloriousness in which themselves were created and upon Observation of the Infinite Power of the the Creator From that first instant they were Spectators of God's proceeding in the Six Days Creation They see him make the Firmament and the Sun Moon and Stars of Heaven They see him command the Waters that covered the Earth into their Bounds and Channels and they Obey him They see him lay the Earth dry and plant it with all manner of Trees and Vegetables and Beasts They see the whole Progress of the Creation and Sing and Praise and Shout for Joy all along For no cause why they should rebel hitherto can be imagined But at last and the last of his Creation God makes Man in his own Image in as Happy a Condition as an Earthly Creature could be capable of He makes him Lord of all the Creatures Nay he chargeth the Angels themselves to attend upon him and to be Ministring Spirits to him for his good As the Apostle tells us their Charge and Employment Heb. i. ult This some of them embraced with all willingness of Mind partly out of most ready Obedience to God for whom they saw they could never do too much who had done so much for them and partly out of pure love to Man whom they saw God had made their Brother having stamped him with his own Image as well as themselves Now as to the others that fell what can we imagine to have been the reason of their Fall more probably and properly than that they envied this Honour and Dignity of Adam and scorned to obey the Command and Charge that God had laid upon them to attend upon him What Must a Piece of Clay be so Honoured as to be Lord of the whole Creation Must a lump of Earth be waited on by Angels And he that is but Dust and Ashes must he be attended on by such Morning Stars the Attendents of Heaven No they scorn this Service They account themselves too good to do it It is a business below their Dignity And so for this Malice against Man and his Honour and their Pride against God and his Command from Angels they become Devils and from Heaven they are cast into Hell and Reserved there in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the last Day For a more proper Reason and Means of their Fall I suppose can hardly be given And their continual Malice and Hate to Mankind doth very much confirm it And I believe Eliphaz Job v. 2 doth speak something home to it He had said Ch. iv 18 That God put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with Folly Much less might he put trust in poor Man that dwelleth in a House of Clay c. And then he comes on and says Call now if there be any that will answer thee And to which of the Saints wilt thou look For Wrath Killeth the Foolish and Envy Slayeth the Silly one The Papists would fain wrest this passage to prove the Invocation of Saints Departed because there is mention made of Calling and Looking to the Saints But the meaning of the Holy Man looks clean another way viz. to this Tenour Call and look about to all the Saints and Holy Ones whatsoever And where can you find any that God may put trust in For Wrath killeth the Foolish and Envy slayeth the Silly One. Wrath against God and Envy against Man Killed the Foolish and Silly Angels So that God did justly charge them with Folly And very justly indeed take Folly in its most common acceptation And let this that we have mentioned be their Sin and Fall or be it something else as some other Reasons are given they were Fools to purpose to forsake Heaven when they might have kept there To leave their own Habitation saith the Apostle Jude and might have inhabited there still To be in so Blessed Company God and Holy Angels and would forsake it In so Blessed Employment as Praising and Singing and would leave it off In the Blessed Presence of God in his Favour in his Enjoyment and weary of these things Have I been a Wilderness to Israel saith God and a Land of Darkness Is Heaven become a Wilderness a Land of Weariness and Tyring that they that are there should be weary of it What could be in these Creatures Minds to make them so Mad and Desperate so Foolish and Besotted The Raze-brain'd Prodigal to forsake his Father's House where it was so well with him and to go to wander he knew not whither Had he been asked a Reason why he would do so he could have given no better than this Because I will do so And these could be moved by no other Reason than this unreasonable one they were desperately bent to have their own Will though to the defiance of the Will of God Be that their Sin that we have spoken of or be it what else it will it was without all doubting their crossing of the Will of God to have their own Wills and violating some of his Commands upon some wilful bent to have their own Mind It was not Ignorance of what he would have them to do For they knew his Will as well as those Angels that stood in Obedience but they would not do what he would have them It was not of Weakness or Disability to do what he would have them for there is no Reason to think otherwise but that they had the same ability of Obedience that the other had But it was a desperate Wilfulness and a sturdy Resolvedness to have their own Wills let the Will of God be what it will Had one been there to have questioned these Rebels when they first set upon their Rebellion what do you think to do Do you think to better your Estates by crossing him that set you in your happy Estate Or do you think to cross God that made you and he not to meet with you Or do you think your Malice to Adam will any whit abate God's Favour to him Well be it what it will in event we will take