A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION Upon the PENTATEUCH VIZ. These five Books of MOSES GENESIS EXODUS LEVITICUS NUMBERS DEUTERONOMY Wherein The Text of every Chapter is Practically expounded according to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church in a way not usually trod by COMMENTATORS and wholly applyed to the Life and Salvation of Christians By Ab. Wright sometime Fellow of St. John's Colledge in OXFORD LONDON Printed by G. Dawson for The. Iohnson at the Golden-Key in St. Pauls-Church-Yard 1662. TO THE Right Honourable The Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings-Bench The Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Common-Pleas The Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer And the rest of the Honourable Justices of the said several COURTS Right Honourable IT is not the weight and excellency of what is here presented that may plead for so Noble a Patronage as your Lordships is it is the Subject not the Work the Text and not the Comment that deserves both your Protection and Perusal For my Lords you have here Moses that Grand Legislator of the Old Testament dedicated to you that are the reverend Iudges under the New His Laws have been the Magna Charta of the whole World and this small Pentateuch hath proved the ground-work for the Pandects of all Nations to build upon In this respect therefore it may claim a kind of propriety and right to your Honourable Patronage and take the presumption to shelter it self under your grave long Robes Here indeed are no Controversies stated no Law-cases judged and determined My Sole design and endeavours have been to make our great Law-giver Moses altogether Practical and wholly applicable to the Life and Conversation of Christians In these sheets then you have described those Antient Patriarcks of Gods Church who were also Aeconomical Iudges and so not unfitting guids for your Honours to follow where their steps have been straight and upright nay their very slips and deviations may serve to make us stand more firm and our treadings more steady and setled in the wayes of Godliness and Iourny towards Heaven But if your Lordships had rather walk by Rule than Example here is that Moral everlasting Rule of God himself in the Book of Exodus to direct you and withal that you may see how proper and convenient even a Ceremonial Law is for Gods Church you have a whole Book of it in Leviticus and this also decreed and setled after those necessary Acts of the Ten Commandments as if the very Moral Law it self had not been curb sufficient to keep in a Rebellious People without some binding Ceremonies And here my Lords I must needs confess upon the sad experience of Schism under both Testaments that all those Laws Moral and Ceremonial have not been powerful enough to settle the Peace of Gods Church something was wanting to the Jews and is at this day to us which under God is only able to produce that great and glorious Work and that is a General Council This General Council my Lords hath ever been the most approved successful way of the Catholick Church to compose her differences and it is this also that will prevent the ruin of our own miserably devided National Church and frustrate the design of that Politick Aphorisme of some that the Church of England must be ruin'd by the same way that it was reform'd for say they it was reform'd by Schisme and it must be ruin'd by Schisme Now to prevent this ruine contrived by Sectaries I know not any way more Prudential more blessed by God than a General Council to procure this that every Peaceful Christian and such are your Honours may joyn the strongest Forces of his Endeavours shall be the daily Prayers of My Lords Your most devoted Servant in all Church-Offices Ab. Wright A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY UPON THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES CALLED GENESIS CHAP. I. Verse 1. THere was a Time or something like to that before the beginning of Time when God did not work and yet was not idle For 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 in the Deity seeing it might have as indeed it had actions immanent included within the circle of the Trinity Just so ought it to be with every Christian who though he doth not alwayes perform the outward actions of Religion yet he may alwayes be imployed within himself in some practice of Christianity holy Thoughts religious Meditations mental Prayer faithful Vows and Resolutions are those inward immanent operations of a Christian whereby he may imitate his Creator in not working and yet not being idle But then when he doth begin to express himself in some outward action let him here also follow the example of his Maker and whereas it is said in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth first the Heaven and then the Earth so et our actions respect chiefly Heavenly matters in the first place let us exercise our selves in those things that are above and when from those we descend to things below let even those Terrestrial affairs look upwards and be fix'd and terminated in Heaven and let all this be done by way of Creation too let our Gifts and Graces and Endowments be acknowledged to arise from nothing in our selves and let every faculty of our Souls be subject to Gods Will as the Creation was to his Command for he spake the word and they were made so when God speaks let us hear and let our will be actuated and formed and regulated by his voice as the whole World was by his Word Verse 2. The word Ferebatur in the vulgar Latine in the English moved denotes both motion and rest beginnings and wayes and ends We may best consider the motion the stirring of the Holy Ghost in zeal and the rest of the Holy Ghost in moderation If we be without zeal we have not the motion if we be without moderation we have not the rest the peace of the Holy Ghost he moved and he rested upon the Waters in the Creation as the word Incubabat doth imply he came and tarried still upon Christ in his Baptism He moves us to a zeal of laying hold of the means of Salvation which God offers us in the Church and he settles us in a peaceful Conscience that by having well used those means we are made his Children A holy hunger and thirst of the Word and Sacraments a remorse and compunction for former sins a zeal to promote the cause and glory of God by word and deed this is the motion of the Holy Ghost and then to content my self with Gods measure of temporal blessings and for spiritual that I do serve God faithfully in that Calling which I lawfully profess as far as that Calling will admit this peace of Conscience this acquiescence of having done that that belongs unto me this is the Rest of the Holy Ghost
of the Spirit of God Verse 3. In the first the old Creation God the Father said Fiat lux let there be light in this greater World in the Second the New Creation or Regeneration of Man God the Holy Ghost said Fiat cognitio Dei in anima hominis let there be the knowledge of God in the mind of man of man this lesser world God the Father said Fiat Firmamentum let there be a Firmament God the Holy Ghost said Firmetur volunt as in bono let the will of Man be confirmed in that which is good God the Father said let the Waters be gathered together in one place God the Holy Ghost said let many graces be united in one soul. God the Father said Fiant luminaria in Coelo let there be lights in Heaven God the Holy Ghost saith let the lights of Faith Hope and Charity be fixed in a believing Soul God the Father said Fiant volatilia let there be flying Fouls God the Holy Ghost saith let there be religious Meditations in the mind of man soaring upward And thus in every thing the work of our spiritual Creation is answerable to the Work of our temporal in the beginning of the World and the operations of the Third Person in the blessed Trinity upon our Souls now are but as so many parallel Lines drawn from the actions of the First Person of the same blessed Trinity upon our bodies then Verse 10. In this and several other Verses of this Chapter it is said that at the dayes end God looked upon the whole that he had made and he saw that it was good and at the end of the week taking a view of all his works together he saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Gen. 1. 31. which sheweth that after God had done his Works he did reflect upon them and considered the quality and the condition of them In imitation hereof Wise men do wish us that at every dayes end we should reflect upon our Works and take a view of what we have done that day and at the Weeks end take an account of all our doings for that space of time and fo further as further occasion shall require And this enquiry or account taking of our Works they call the examination of our Souls or Consciences And surely if we did observe this rule though we could not find our Works as God did his Works to be good and very good but rather naught and very naught yet by this searching into our Works we may without all doubt make our Works for the future much better than they are for the present Verse 16. God here calls the Sun and the Moon two great Lights because though there be greater in the Firmament they appear greatest to us those Works of ours are greatest in the sight of God that are greatest in the sight of men that are most beneficial most exemplary and conduce most to the moving of others to glorifie God Verse 26. In other passages of the Creation we find a kind of commanding Dialect with a Fiat lux and a producat terra let there be light let the earth bring forth but in this of Adam we meet with words more particular of deliberation and advice Let us make man Man a Creature of those exquisite dimensions for matter of body of these supernatural endowments of Soul that now omnipotency bethinks it self and will consult the privy counsel of Father Son and Holy Ghost is required to the moulding and polishing of this glorious peece no doubt something of wonder was in projecting when a compleat Deity was thus studying its perfection something that should border upon everlastingness when the finger of God was so choicely industrious and loe what it produced Man the master-peece of his design and workmanship the great miracle and monument of Nature the abstract and model and brief story of the Universe the Analysis and Resolution of the greater world into the less having little to divide him from a Deity but that one part of him was mortal and that not created so but occasioned miserably occasion'd by disobedience Verse 27. When God had created all the other species of the Creation it is still said as the complement and perfection of each And God saw that it was good but here when Man was created there is no such Eulogy no such acclamation and why because there is no Creature but Man that degenerates willingly from his natural dignity these degrees of goodness which God imprinted in them at first they preserve still as God saw they were good then so he may see they are good still they have kept their Talent they have neither bought nor sold they have not gain'd nor lost they are not departed from their Native and Natural dignity by any thing that they have done but of Man it seems God was distrustful from the beginning he did not pronounce upon Mans Creation as he did upon the other Creatures that he was good because his goodness was a contingent thing and consisted in the future use of his free-will Verse 28. In the former Verse it is said that God created them Male and Female not both Male nor both Female but one Male the other Female as if purposely for the propagation of Children and therefore when he had created them so he said unto them in this Verse Encrease and multiply bring forth Children as other Creatures bring forth their Kinde Nor was this all the blessing bestowed upon Man at his Creation but God hath here also joyned Man in Commission with himself in the word Dominamini when he gave Man power to possess the Earth and subdue the Creatures and exercise soveraignty and dominion over them And further God hath made Man so equal to himself as not only to have a soul endless and immortal as God himself but to have a body that shall put on incorruption and immortality too which he hath given to none of the Angels insomuch that Man is higher than the Angels who want that glory that he shall have in his body CHAP. II. Verse 7. AS when Man was nothing but Earth nothing but a body he lay flat upon the Earth his mouth kiss'd the Earth his hands embraced his eyes respected the Earth and then God breath'd the breath of Life into him and that rais'd him so far from the Earth as that only one part of his body the soles of his feet touches it nd yet Man so rais'd by God by Sin fell lower to the Earth again than before from the face of the Earth to the Womb to the Bowels to the Grave so God finding the whole Man as low as he found Adams body then fallen in Original Sin yet erects us by a new breath of Life in the Sacrament of Baptisme and yet we fall lower than before we were rais'd from Original into Actual into Habitual Sins so low as that we think we need not a Resurrection and this is a
action good without Faith no Faith without a word Happy is that man which in all things neglecting the counsels of flesh and bloud depends upon the Commission of his Maker Verse 20. No sooner is Noah come out of the Ark but he builds an Altar not an House to himself but an Altar to the Lord. Our Faith will ever teach us to prefer God to our selves delay'd thankfulness is not worthy acceptation of those few Creatures that are left God must have some they are all his yet his goodness will have man know that it was he for whose sake they were preserved It was a priviledge to those very bruit Creatures that they were saved from the Waters to be offered up in Fire unto God What a favour is it to men to be reserved from common destructions to be sacrific'd to their Maker and Redeemer Verse 21. God had accepted sacrifices before but no sacrifice is call'd Odor quietis it is not said that God smelt a favour of Rest in any sacrifice but that which Noah offered after he had been variously tossed and tumbled in the long hulling of the Ark upon the Waters and this was a sacrifice in which God himself might rest himself For God hath a Sabbath in the Sabbath of his Servants a Fulness in their Fulness a satisfaction when they are satisfied and is well pleased when they are so and therefore the Lord said That he will not Curse the Earth again speaking not generally of all kind of Cursing the Earth but only of this particular Curse by Waters And whereas 't is added for a Reason for the imagination of mans heart is evil it is not meant that God would spare the Earth and Beasts because man is subject to sin but the Promise is made specially for man that being he is by nature subdued to sin he is to be pitied and not for every offence according to his deserts to be judged for then the Lord should continually over-flow the world moreover where it is said Gen. 6. 6. That the Lord would destroy the World because the imaginations of their hearts were evil it may seem strange that the same cause should be here urged why he would not therefore this is here added to shew the original of this Mercy not to proceed from man but Gods own favour CHAP. IX Verse 1. THere is a lawful nay a necessary desire of being better and better and that not only in spiritual things for so every man is bound to be better and better better to day than yesterday and too morrow than to day but even in temporal things too there is a liberty given us nay there is a Law an Obligation laid upon us To endeavour by industry in a lawful Calling to mend and improve to enlarge our selves and spread even in worldly things And therefore when God delivers this Commandment the second time to Noah for the repairation of the World Encrease and Multiply which is not only in the multiplication of Children but in the enlargement of Possessions too he accompanies it with this Reason in the second vers The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all and all are delivered into your hands which Reason can have no relation to the multiplying of Children but to the enlarging of Possessions God planted Trees in Paradise in a good state at first at first with ripe fruits upon them but Gods purpose was That even those Trees though well then should grow greater God gives many men good Estates from their Parents at first yet Gods purpose is That they should encrease those Estates He that leaves no more than his Father left him if the fault be in himself shall hardly make a good account of his Stewardship to God for he hath but kept his Talent in a Napkin Verse 13. That little fire of Noah which he kindled in the former Chapter through the vertue of his Faith purged the World and ascended up into those heavens from which the Waters fell and caused a glorious Rain-bow to appear therein for his security And here behold a new and a second rest first God rested from making that World now he rests from destroying it even while we cease not to offend he ceases from a publick revenge His Word was enough yet withal he gives a sign which may speak the truth of his Promise to the very eyes of men Thus he doth still in his blessed Sacraments which are as real Words to the Soul The Rain-bow is the pledge of our safety which even really signifies the end of a shower And further the Rain-bow having two special Colours in it one Coeruleus exterior which is waterish is a sign the World shall not any more be drown'd the other Rubeus which may be a sign the World shall be consumed with Fire Thus all the signs of Gods institution are proper and significant Verse 21. Who would think after all the favours that God had shewn Noah to have found this Righteous man lying Drunken in his Tent Who would think that Wine should over-throw him that was preserved from the Waters That he who could not be tainted with the sinful examples of the former World should begin the example of a new sin of his own What are we men if we be left to our selves While God upholds us no tentation can move us when he leaves us no tentation is too weak to over-throw us Behold he of whom God in an unclean World had said Thee only have I found Righteous proves now unclean when the World was purged The Preacher of Righteousness unto the former age the King Priest and Prophet unto the World renewed is the first that renewes the sins of the World which he had reproved and which he saw condemned for sin Gods best Children have no fence for sins of infirmity which of the Saints have not once done that whereof they are ashamed Verse 22. Ungracious Cham saw his Fathers nakedness and laughed at it His Fathers shame should have been his and should have begot in him a secret horror and dejection How many graceless men make sport at the causes of their Humiliation Twice had Noah given him life yet neither the Name of Father and Preserver nor Age nor Vertue could shield him from the contempt of his own I fee that even Gods Ark may nourish Monsters some filthy Toads may lie under the stones of the Temple And further Cham was not content only to be a witness of this filthy sight he goes on to be a proclaimer of it Sin doth ill in the eye but worse in the tongue as all sin is a work of darkness so it should be buried in darkness The report of sin is oft-times as ill as the Commission for it can never be blazoned without uncharitableness seldom without infection Oh the unnatural and more than Chammish Impiety of those Sons which rejoyce to publish the nakedness of their spiritual Parents even to their enemies Verse 23. Behold here
Let there be no prophane person among us as was Esau saith the Apostle Heb. 12. And that there may not let not men take pleasure in pleasure spend too much time in it It was not simply a sin in Esau to go a hunting but yet the more he used the more prophane he grew by it and came at length to contemne his birthright God allows men to stoop to lawful delights and recreations for their bodies sake as the Eagle to the prey or as Gideons Souldiers to soop their handful not swill their belly full An honest heart is where his calling is such a one when he is elsewhere is like a fish in the air whereunto if it leap for Recreation or Necessity yet it soon returns to his own Element Verse 34. Esau may be as great a glutton in his Pottage as those greedy Dogs Isa. 56. 12. Thus the Poor may sin as much in their throat as the Rich for men have talem dentem qualem mentem such an appetite as they have affection there is Epicurisme in course fare as well as dainties An Esau's luxury is in his mind more than his taste CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. IF the Canaanites had amended by the former Famine this latter had been prevented For God takes no delight in the misery and affliction of his Creatures He first tries gentle means and if those will do no good rigid and severe courses must be used first he chastiseth us with Rods and then with Scorpions if a single Famine will not humble us that Famine shall be doubled till we are brought low and continued upon us so long as we continue in our sins So that if we be destroyed our destruction is from our selves and if God doth multiply his Judgements upon us it is because that we do multiply our sins if man be not weary of sinning what reason is there that God should be weary of punishing Verse 7. So long as we carry flesh and blood about us we shall be subject to such passions as arise from that flesh and blood Moses had his anger Abraham and Isaac their fear But now these passions must be kept within their bounds or else they run out into sin As here Isaac's fear was too predominant it made him as it had done his Father Abraham call his Wife his Sister and in that to lie which sin was greater in him than in his Father because he was not warn'd by his Fathers example Now the child of God should rather die than lie Nec prodam nec mentiar said that good Bishop in St. Augustine and that was a brave Woman in St. Ierome that being on the Rack resolved and answered the tormentor I had rather tell the truth and perish than lie and live The Chamelion is the most fearful of all Creatures and doth therefore change into all colours to save it self so will timerous persons Let us therefore fortifie our hearts against this passion that we may not fall into the sins of the passion Verse 13. Isaac waxed rich because the Lord blessed him verse 12. it is Gods blessing that maketh rich Godliness hath the promises of both lives now the Promises are the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes. 3. 9. who is the heir of all and hath godly men his co-heirs entailing upon them riches and honour life and length of daies the blessings of both hands and if at any time God doth deny gain to godliness it is that it may be admired for itsself as having a self-sufficiency and a hid treasure of its own Agrain of Grace is worth all the gold of Ophir and a remnant of Faith of more value than the richest Ward-Robes Thus a Righteous man is the richest man in the World true piety hath true plenty and whereas the Wicked in the fulness of their sufficiency are in straits the Godly in the fulness of their straits are in all sufficiency Verse 18. Origen extends this power far though not very confidently perchance saith he in every one of our souls there is this well of the Water of Life and this power to have power to open it whether our souls be intended by Origen of us as we are men or of us as we are Christians I pronounce not but divide it in all us as we are natural men there is this Well of Water of Life Abraham digg'd it at first the Father of the Faithful our Heavenly Abraham infused it unto us at first in Adam of whom as we have the image of God though defaced so we have this Well of Water though stopt up but then the Philistins having stopt this Well Satan by sin having barr'd it up the power of opening it again is not in the natural man but Isaac diggs it again Isaac who is Filius laetitiae the Son of joy our Isaac our Jesus he opens this Well of Life again to all that receive him according to his Ordinance in his Church he hath given this power of keeping open in themselves this Well of Life these means of Salvation Verse 22. When Isaac's servants had digged a first and a second Well the Heardsmen of Gerar contended about it saying the Water is ours then his Servants digg'd a third Well and for that they strove not therefore he call'd the name of it Rehoboth i. e. room for now saith he the Lord hath made room for us Thus we may say of all our comforts and mercies Rehoboth that is room but of all our afflictions that they are straits Verse 30. In a Feast there are two things extraordinary provision and extraordinary company both are lawful God hath given us the Creature not only for necessity but for delight and it is a clear argument that such use of the Creatures in feasting is lawful because God hath made more Creatures serving for the delight of man than he hath made for the necessity of man If God had meant that men should do nothing but maintain their lives and serve their own necessity so as they might go on in their places and callings one half of the Creatures might have been spared but God made nothing in vain therefore he is willing we should use the creatures for moderate delight Thus Abraham made a great Feast at the weaning of Isaac and Isaac here makes a Feast for Abimelech and Phicol the chief Captain of his Army and the like examples we have in divers other places And our Saviour Christ himself was at a Feast in Cana of Galilee where when Wine fail'd he supplied it by miracles Verse 31. Men may do much and go far in the love of Gods people and yet not love them as they ought to be loved they may hold an outward correspondency with them in outward peace and neighbourhood they may live quietly by them and with them be free from quarrels suits contentions vexations and oppositions against them and in these respects may keep fair quarter with them and yet for all this not love them as Gods people are to
that thou shouldest look on such a dead dogg as I am and when he considers from what a low to what an high estate God hath brought him he saith as Iacob here I am less than the least of all thy mercies and when Christ tells a Soul that he will make him a King and a Priest to God he humbly saith as Saul to Samuel am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel yea it saith as Elizabeth said to Mary the blessed Mother of our ever blessed Jesus when she heard the Salutation that the Babe the heart of a true Believer leap'd within her and she spake Blessed art thou whence O whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord Oh saith the Soul that my God should come to see me even me poor worthless me it fares with such a Soul as with the Disciples Luke 24. Jesus stood in the midst and said Peace be unto you and they were terrified and affrighted but he said Why are ye troubled it is I behold my hands and my feet and they believed not for joy and wondred Verse 11. It is like that Esau prepared himself to be revenged of Iacob as may appear by Iacobs prayer and fear here which was not without cause whereby the power of God is also set forth that could in the very way change that purpose of Esau and withall Iacob sheweth in this his weakness and infirmity that although looking to Gods promise he had confidence yet turning himself to the present danger he fear'd and here while Iacob prepared himself by war prayer and gifts to satisfie his Brother he doth well for though God hath promised us deliverance we ought to use all good means and working under Gods providence Verse 12. Prayer is not only a bare manifestation of our mind to God by such a sute or petition but in Prayer there is or ought to be an holy arguing with God about the matter which we declare which is a bringing out and urging of reasons and motives whereby the Lord may be moved to grant what we pray for and this is clear from this example of Iacob in this Chapter Verse 24. When we are most retired from the World then we are most fit to have and usually have most communion with God David shews us divine work when we go to rest the bed is not all for sleep commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still Psal. 4. be still and quiet and then commune with your hearts God will come and commune with them to his Spirit will give you a loving visit When Iacob fearing the rage of his Brother had put himself into the best posture and defence he could and had sent his Wives and Children over the River the Text saith that he was left alone which is not to be understood as if his company had left or deserted him Iacob's solitariness was not passive but effective he having disposed of all his Family withdrew himself and stayed alone and what then then he had a Vision indeed then there wrestled a man with him till the breaking of the day he spent not the night in carping and caring what should become of him to morrow no he retires to pray for a blessing upon his former cares and a blessing he obtains Verse 25. What a wonder is here Iacob received not so much hurt from all his enemies as from his best Friends not one of his hairs perish'd by Laban or Esau yet he lost a joynt by the Angel and was sent halting to his Grave he that knows our strength yet will wrestle with us for our exercise and loves our violence and importunity O happy loss this of Iacob he lost a joint and won a blessing it is a favour to halt from God yet this favour is seconded with a greater He was blest because he would rather halt than leave ere he was blessed If he had left sooner he had not halted but then he had not prospered that man shall go away sound but miserable that loves a limb more than a blessing Surely if Iacob had not wrestled with God he had been folid with evils how many are the troubles of the righteous Verse 30. Holy men even in this life have a sight of the face of God the Soul of a Believer hath interviews with God God and he do often look one another in the face Wheresoever the Saints are except in cases of desertion the place may be called as Iacob here call'd this where he wrestled with God Peniel that is the face of God yet not in that sence fully in which Iacob calls it so he call'd it the face of God because he had seen God face to face We can call it so only ordinarily because we see his face It is one thing to see the face of God another thing to see God face to face the former is the common priviledge of Saints in this life the latter is the priviledge of but some Saints and those rare ones to have it here Verse 31. At death God wrestles with his people laying hold on their Consciences by the menaces of the Law They again resist this assault by laying hold upon God in Christ by the Faith of the Gospel well assured that Christ hath freed them from the curse of the Law by being made a curse for them on the Cross. God yields himself over-come by this re-encounter but yet toucheth their thigh takes away their life howbeit this hinders not the Sun of Life Eternal to arise upon them CHAP. XXXIII Verse 4. VArious and miraculous are the means which God useth to deliver his People from their Enemies sometimes he divides them and sets the Churches enemies one against another so he did for Gideon's small Army to the Midianites mighty Host setting every mans Sword against his fellow sometimes he changeth their minds and turneth the stream of their affections Thus was Esau's heart mollified towards Iacob who instead of a devouring enemy becomes an embracing friend and meets him with kisses to whom he had intended blowes Indeed what Solomon saith of the Kings heart is true of all mens That they are in the hands of the Lord as the Rivers of Waters and he turneth them wheresoever he will No wonder then if sometimes he mollifies the Obdurate qualifies the Malicious and melts the Frozen Hearts of Wicked men into Love and Compassion towards his Servants Verse 5. Children are the blessings of the Lord nay they are part of his inheritance Children are an heritage of the Lord saith the Psalmist and the fruit of the Womb is his reward they are special blessings Children as it is to be observed are a resemblance of our immortality because man revives again lives a-new as it were in every Child he is born again in a civil sence when others are born to him There are some who count their Children but Bills of Charges but God puts them upon the account of our Mercies And
God gave me to my self and God gave himself to me God the Father gave his Son to me God the Son gave himself to me and God the Holy Ghost gave his Seal to assure that gift to me and shall I not be content God the Son received all things from the Father for me that in him and through him and with him I might receive all things from the Father and why should I not content my self with him without whom all things are as nothing Verse 31. The end of the gifts and oblations under the Law was not that God had reserved these things for his own spending but for the use and sustentation of his selected Servants that so being alwayes to have Ministers of his own he might have also of his own Goods to feed and maintain them This I take to be clear from Gods own words in this Chapter for having set his mark upon divers things calling them My Gifts and my Offerings he adds These have I given to the Sons of Levi for the service they do me in the Tabernacle verse 21. And it is your wages which I give you for your service in this verse which words plainly shew that God would that such as attend him should receive their maintenance as his pay and not as mans Whereupon he saith not to the people you shall give them your offerings for the service they do you But I have given them my Offerings for the service they do me as if he should say these things are mine not yours to me you shall pay them that as mine not as yours they may receive them and so I may pay them with my own hands and of my own Goods and not they to serve at others cost CHAP. XIX Verse 2. This red Heifer was the type of Christ crucified who as a Father saith was Candidus sanctitate rubicundus passione white and ruddy white in his Innocency and red in his Passion And this Heifer must be without spot and blemish our Saviour was free from all sin the spot of Original and the blemish of Actual Sin It must be a Heifer likewise on which never came yoke Christ never bore the yoke either of sin or slavery he offered up himself he was a willing Sacrifice he was not fore'd and drawn to it It is true there was a necessity of our Saviours Death but it was a necessity of immutability because God had so decreed it Acts 2. 23. not of Co action He dyed willingly therefore when he gave up the Ghost he cryed with a loud voice which shews his life was not then spent he might have kept it longer if he would Lastly this Heifer was to be brought by the people at the common charge because for the common good All the Congregation must get them a bloody Saviour Verse 5. The burning of the Heifer with the Garbage and Dung could yeild no sweet savour but thereto was added Cedar-wood and Hysop by Gods appointment and then there was a savour of rest in it Our Prayers as from us would never please hut as indited by the Spirit and presented by Christ they are highly accepted in Heaven Nay our sins were so odious to God that even Christ himself when burnt up with the fire of his Fathers wrath had no savour in him in respect of our sins but by the everlasting Spirit whereby he offered up himself without spot to God he was a full Sacrifice of sweet smelling Incense to purge offences for the Spirit of God gave both value and vertue to his Death both to satisfie and to sanctifie Verse 9. The gathering of the ashes is the applying of the merits of Christ and laying hold on the mysteries of his Kingdom The laying up of the ashes imports that the Christian accounts Christ merits his chief Treasure The clean place is the clean heart without the Camp notes that the Gentiles were strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel These ashes kept for the Congregation shew the fulness of Christs merits for all his people When he saith It is to make a water of separation it notes that our Sins separate betwixt us and our God but now in Christ Iesus we who sometimes were far off are made nigh in his blood Eph. 2. 13. CHAP. XX. Verse 1. ALl Israel murmured when they wanted Bread and Flesh and yet all Israel departed into the desart of Zin at Gods command The very worst men will obey God in something none but the good in all He is rarely desperate that makes an universal opposition to God It is an unsound praise that is given a man for one good action It may be safely said of the very Devils themselves that they do something well they know and believe and tremble If we follow God and murmur it is all one as if we had stayed behind Verse 2. Those begin to distrust Gods providence in this verse in their necessity that in the former were ready to follow his guidance in their welfare It is an harder matter to endure in extream want than to obey an hard Commandment Sufferings are greater tryals than actions And God will have his throughly tryed he puts them to both and if we cannot endure both to follow him into the Wilderness of Zin and then to thirst in Rephidim we are not sound Israelites God set them on purpose to this dry place he could as well have conducted them to another Elim to convenient waterings or he that gives the waters of all their Channels could as well have derived them to meet Israel but God doth purposely carry them to thirst It is not of necessity that we fare ill but of choice It is all one with God to give us health as sickness aboundance as poverty the treasure of his riches hath more store than his Creature can be capable of we should not complain if it were not good for us to want Verse 3. I looked to hear when they would have entreated Moses to pray for them but instead of intreating they contend and instead of Prayers chide and murmur If they had gone to God without Moses I should have prais'd their Faith but now they go to Moses without God I hate this stubborn Faithlesness to seek to the second means with neglect of the first is the Fruit of a false Faith But why do these mutiners say O that we had dyed as our Brethren did before the Lord and before whom do ye dye O ye fond Israelites if you must perish by thirst God carried you forth God restrain'd his creatures from you God is still present with you and yet you say while you are to dye for want of Water in the presence of God O that we had dyed before the Lord. These Israelites loved their lives well enough I heard how they screek'd while they were in danger of the Egyptians and yet now they say O that we had dyed Although life be naturally sweet yet a little discontentment makes us weary It is a base