Commentary on the Pentateuch

CHAP. XXIII.

Vers. 1. OR hath his privy member cut off] As it is a barbarous custom at this day among the Turks, to deprive divers Christian children of their privities; supplying the uses of nature with a silver quill. This was first brought in amongst them by Selymus the second, out of jealousy, lest his Eunuchs were not so chaste as they should have been, in keeping their Ladies beds. Such are usually effeminate, and unfit to bear office. _____ [Shall not enter into the Congregation] i. e. Shall not go in and out before the people as a public Officer. Since such should be drained from the dregs, and sifted from the brannes of the vulgar; they should be eminent and eximious persons, higher then the rest, as Saul, by head and shoulders.

Vers. 2. A bastard shall not enter ] Lest the reproach of his birth render him contemptible, or less courageous: lest some son of Belial set upon him, as Saul did upon his son Jonathan, and say, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman; (so, of the base and beastly woman) do not I know that thou hast done this to the confusion of thy mothers nakedness? The mutinous Janizaries called their Emperor Bajazet the second, drunkard, beast, rascal, bastard, Bengi, that is, Bachelor, or Scholar; and told him moreover, that they would teach him to use his great place and calling, with more sobriety and discretion. The English slighted and scorned their William the Conqueror, because a bastard. In spite also to whom, and disgrace to his mother Arlet, they called all whores, Harlets. The Jews at this day, amongst other opprobrious words, wherewith they spitefully load us, they call all Christians, Mamzer Goi, that is, Heathen bastards: Our Savior, upon better grounds, called them long since, a bastardly brood, Matth. 12.39. And their own Prophet Isaiah did the same thing long before, Chap. 57. verse. 3, 4, and that, for their profane scoffing at the truth, and the Professors thereof. Yet who so forward as they, to say, We are not born of fornication, no bastards? Joh. 8.41.

Vers. 3. For ever] i. e. This law is perpetual, and indispensable; so highly displeasing are many mere omissions of duty. Omission of diet breeds diseases, brings death: so here.

Vers. 4. Because they met you not] As God takes notice of the least courtesy shown to his people, even to a cup of cold water, to requite it; so he doth of the least discourtesy, even to a frown or a frump, ( Gen. 4.6. See the Note there) to revenge it. _____ [ And because they bired, &c.] See the Note on Num. 22.3, 6.

Vers. 5. Nevertheless the Lord, &c.]▪ q.d. No thank to the wicked Moabites, that Balaam blasted thee not; as neither to Balaam, whose tongue was merely over-ruled by the Almighty, and made to bless those whom he would gladly have cursed. And thus still the Lord orders the worlds disorders; turning dross into gold, by a stupendous Alchymy, and directing men's evil actions to a good end. Hence it is that they fulfill (though they intend no such thing, but the satisfying of their own lusts, Isaiah 10.5, 6, 7.) neither more nor less, then what the hand and counsel of God hath determined, Act. 4.28. & • 3.27. Howbeit, the hands that nailed Christ to the Cross, were wicked hands, Act. 2.23. And Jud • s the traitor, received strangling and shedding of bowels, as a reward of his iniquity, for being guide to them that took Jesus, Act. 1.16, 17, 18. It was not without God, that the Kingdom was rent from Rehoboam, 2 King. 12. and yet he flatly renounceth it, (as well he might, all the evil that was in it) Hosea. 8.4.

Vers. 6. Thou shalt not seek their peace ] Or, enter into confederacy with them; which when David did, 2 Sam. 10.1, 2. he was basely abused in his Ambassadors. Hannibals hatred to the Romans, is well known. Tirone, 1 567. so boiled in hatred against the English, that he named a Castle that he built, Feoghnegal, that is, the hatred of the English. Among those wild Irish, the Fathers are said to inflict an heavy curse on all their posterity, if ever they should sow corn, build houses, or learn the English tongue.

Vers. 7. For he is thy brother] And therefore to be born with, though unkind and injurious. Howbeit, fratrum concordia rara est: A brother offended, is harder to be won, saith the Wiseman, then a strong city; and their contentions are like the bars of a Castle, Prov. 18.19. The dissention between England and Scotland, consumed more Christian blood, wrought more spoil and destruction, and continued longer, then ever quarrel we read of, did, between any two people of the world. The God of Peace prevent the like bloody dissensions again, now mightily endeavored by the Boutefeaus of both nations. Si collidimur, frangimur, If we clash, we perish: dissention is the mother of dissolution, of desolation. [Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian] But learn of him to return one good turn for another. Egyptii dicuntur, praeter alias nations, erga been meritos de se grati; Existimant enim magnum vitae subsidum esse, gratia retributionem, saith Diodorus: The Egyptians are said to be, above all others, a thankful people; and to look upon thankfulness, as a main support of man's life.

Because thou wast a stranger in his land ] Where, though thou mettest with much hardship, yet thou hadst kind entertainment at first, and after that, a subsistence, such as it was. Our Henry 6. is said to have been of that happy memory, that he never forgot anything but injuries. Elisha, by a noble revenge, bad set bread and water before the Syrians that came to surprise him.

Vers. 8. In their third generation ] The Edomites for their consanguinity, (it is some privilege to be allied to the Saints, to be Barnabas his sisters son,) the Egyptians for their hospitality to God's first-born Israel. God is not unrighteous, &c. Heb. 6.10. See the Note there.

Vers. 9. Then keep thee from every wicked thing ] Walk accurately, as carrying thy life in thy hand; for the sword devoureth one, as well as another, 2 Sam. 11.25. it spares neither lord nor losel, as they say. Every soldier, therefore, should be a Saint, ready pressed to meet the Lord; who hath said, I will be sanctified in all them that draw near unto me, Levite. 10.3.

Vers. 10. Then shall he go abroad ] Go voluntarily, though he be not excluded, as lepers, and the like, were. Arcta minùs obedientia est, ad legem solummode justum esse, saith One; God likes a free-will offering.

Vers. 11. He shall wash himself with water ] See Levite. 15. with the Notes. The Turks, at this day, pertinaciously & superstitiously retain this ceremony. Before prayers, they wash both face & hands; sometimes the head, and other parts: Yea some report of them, that every time they make water, or other unclean excercise of nature, they wash, little regarding who stands by: If a dog do but chance to touch their hands, they wash presently, &c.

Vers. 12. And shalt turn back and cover ] How much more curious should they be of soul-defilements? Sin is the souls excrement, and defiles a man worse then any jakes, Matth. 7.15, 20, 23.

Vers. 13. Thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp ] Where he is both Van and Rear, Isai. 52.12.

And to give up thine enemies ] Hence the Philistines were so frighted at the sight of the Ark. Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them, said those Egyptians, Exod. 14.25. And the same, said a great Commander for the King, at the dissolution of the siege at Plymouth, 1645.

That he see no unclean thing ] Hereby God taught his people holy conversation, that they should keep themselves from their iniquity, as David did, Psal. 18.23. that is, from such sins, as either by their constitution, calling, company, or custom, they are most prone to.

Vers. 15. The servant that is escaped] A heathe • servant, that flies for religion, and desires to join himself to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servant; such must have no cause given them to say, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people, Isai. 56.2, 6.

Vers. 17. There shall be no whore] And what a stinking shame is that, that stews and brothel-houses are licensed by the Pope, who reaps no small profit by them? The Papists themselves write, with detestation, that at Rome, a Jewish maid might not be admitted into the stews of whoredom, unless she would be first baptized; ut Judae filiae scortari non liceat, Dei filiae liceat: Imo Israelis filiae meretricari non aliter art possit quàm facta per baptismum sanctum Christi soror & filia.

Nor a Sodomite of the sons of Israel ] See the Note on Gen. 19.5. Pythagoras his precept, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , was intended against this kind of horrid and unnatural uncleanness; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , signifying somewhat else besides beans: But what a beast was Pope Sixtus Quintus, qui lupanar utriusque Veneris Roma condidit, as Agrippa reporteth?

Vers. 18. Nor the price of a dog] Plutarch tells us, that it was not permitted to a dog, to enter into the chief tower or Temple, at Athens, for his heat in Venery, and ill savor. The Hebrews understand this text literally, according to Isaiah 66 3. Others metaphorically, as Rev. 22.15. either of imp • dent Cynics, (such as Antisthenes ) that shame not to commit uncleanness in the sight of others; these are worse then Absalom, 2 Sam. 16.22. Or else of Sodomites, buggerers, Meritorii, as they call them, men that have put off all manhood, and are become dogs, worse then dogs. Am I a dogs head? said Abner to Ishbosheth, 2 Sam. 3.8. that is, shamelessly libidinous.

Vers. 19. Thou shalt not lend upon usury ] Heb. upon biting usury. It must needs bite at length, that licks so clean. Amalek, the licking people, I mean, the nation of Usurers, and their factors, as Cormorants, fall upon the poor borrower, and with open mouth devour him.

Foenus a multiplici foetu, ut 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . In the year, 1235. there were spread thorough England, certain Roman Usurers, called Caursini, quasi capientes Ursi, devouring bears, saith Matthew Paris. These bite to purpose: Others are more cunning, and close in their conveyance; like Serpents, they can sting without hissing; like our-dogs, suck your blood only with licking, and in the end, kill you, and cut your throats without biting. For as much as all Usury, being forbidden by the law of God, is a sin, and detestable, &c. saith the statute, 13. Elisab. Chap. 8. And, Verily, so many as increase themselves by usury, &c. they have their goods of the 'Devils gift. Homil. of the Church of England, Vol. 2. Hom. 17. pag. 2. Aristotle, by the dim light of nature, saw the evil of it; condemning in one page, the Usurer and the Dicer. And Agis, General of the Athenians, so hated Usury, that he made a bonfire of all the Usurers bills and bonds, in the market place; and then said, that he never saw a finer fire then that, in all his life.

Vers. 20. Unto a stranger thou mayst] And they do it to purpose, at this day, in foreign parts where they live; straining up their Usury to eighteen in the hundred, upon the Christian. This is their chief trade; and this is yielded, by some, as a reason why the Jews do so stink; quod plerique omnes mensarii sint, faeneratoriam exercentes, et ita nullis exercitati laboribus, i.e. Because most of them are usurers, lead sedentary lives, and use no bodily exercise. It was the saying of a merry fellow, that in Christendom, there were neither scholars enough, gentlemen enough, nor Jews enough. If the first, so many would not be • uralists; If the second, so many Pesants would not be reckoned among the Gentry; If the third, not so many Usurers.

Vers. 21. Thou shalt not slack to pray ] Come off with it roundly and readily, as those, Zech. 5.9. that had wings, and wind in their wings. Habent aulae suum cito, cite. God loves a cheerful giver.

Vers. 22. It shall be no sin in thee] i.e. No such great sin, as John. 9.41. So Job. 15.22, 24. Jam. 4.17. See Eccles. 5.5. Vovere nusquam est pr • ceptum, saith Bellarmine: We are nowhere in Scripture commanded to vow. And, Fateor quod deus non praecipit, sed tantùm consulit nobis ut aliquid illi voveamus, saith another Popish writer. I confess, God nowhere commandeth, but only counselleth us to make vows: But what will they say to Psal. 76.11. Vow, and perform to the Lord your God, bring presents, &c? And are not the nine lepers condemned by Christ, for their negligence and unthankfulness, Luk. 17.17, 18.

Vers. 24. When thou comest, &c.] As a passenger, Mat. 12.1, 2. (how much more as a laborer, 1 Cor. 9.7.) thou mayest take what thou wilt for necessity, but not for superfluity.

Vers. 25. But thou shalt not move 〈◊〉 sickle ] Here God reserveth the right and property of the owner, which no man might invade or infringe.

CHAP. XXIV.

Vers. 1. BEcause he hath found some uncleanness ] He is displeased with some defect, which he hath found either in her body, or behavior: as our Henry the eight pretended at least, to do in his Anne of Cleeve, sister to William Duke of Cleeve, whose other sister Frederike Duke of Saxony (Luther's Patron and protector) had espoused. This Lady, being s • nt into England (against Fredericks liking,) and married to King Henry, seemed nothing pleasing in his eye, and was therefore (sed quo jure?) soon after divorced. This, Steven Gardener, thought a fit subject for him to work upon, against the Lord Cromwell, who had made the match, and now opposed the divorce, and was therefore put to death; which he suffered right christianly, and cheerfully.

Let him write her a bill of divorcement Heb. he shall write her a bill of divorcement. God permitteth, he commandeth not the Jews thus to do; as they mistook the matter, Math. 19.7. and were better informed by our Savior, verse. 8. See the Notes there.

Vers. 3. And if the latter husband ha •• her] As many Nabal's now-a-days do: Job was not more weary of his boils, then they are of their bed-fellows; cursing their wedding-day as much, as he did his birth-day; and thirsting after a divorte, as he did after death: Which because it cannot be had, their lives prove like the sojourning of Israel in Marah; where almost nothing could be heard, but mourning, conjuring, and complaining.

Vers. 4. After that she is defiled ] Or, caused to be defiled, to wit, by her husband, who put her away first, he being her only lawful husband, Marth. 5.32.

Vers. 5. Shall cheer up his wife ] For the better knitting of their affections; which if well done at first, will continue the more firm ever after; as a broken bone well set, or as two boards well glued together, will sooner break in a new place, then there.

Vers. 6. A man's life ] That is, his livelihood. A poor man in his house, is like a •• ail in his shell; crush that, and you kill him. See Luk. 8.43. Mark 12.44. all her life, that is, all her living.

Vers. 7. And maketh merchandise of him ] What then shall be done to those seducers, that creeping, or shooting themselves into houses, lend taptive silly women, 2 Tim. 3.6. and simple men, Rom. 16.18. take them prisoners, and then make prize of them? 2 Pet. 2.3. Of which sort of soul-merchants, there are nowadays found not a few. See Rev. 18.13.

Vers. 8, The Levites shall teach you ] Not the history only, but the mystery too. See the Notes on Levite. 13.

Vers. 9. Did unto Miriam ] When he spate in her face, and spared her not, though a Prophetess, and a Conductress of God's people to Canaan, Mic. 6.4. God will not pass by the sins of his Saints, (if scandalous especially,) without a sensible check.

Vers. 10. To fetch his pledge ] To see, quàm sit curta supellex and to pick and choose what pledge thou pleasest.

Vers. 12. Thou shalt not sleep with his pledge] As those cruel crafties did, Amos 2.8. that sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes, verse. 6.

Vers. 13. May bless thee ] Saying, as St. Paul brings in the relieved poor Christian, 2 Cor. 9.15. Thanks be unto God, for his unspeakable gift. God will surely bless thee for such a blessing.

And it shall be righteousness unto thee ] God will reckon it for a good work; and graciously reward it: he will turn paymaster to thee; thy righteousness (and thy riches too) shall endure forever, Psal. 11 2.3.

CHAP. XXV.

Vers. 1. IF there be a controversy] Among the Mohammedans there are very few law-suites; and the reason is given, quod temere litigants publice flagellis ceduntur, because they that sue others without just cause, are whipped publicly. Once it was counted ominous, to commence actions, and follow suites. Of our common-barretters, we may well say, as the Historian doth of Mathematicians, Genus hominum quod in rep: nostra & vetabitur semper & retinebitur.

Vers. 2. To be beaten before his face ] The Turks, when cruelly lashed, are compelled to return to the Judge that commanded it, to kiss his hand, to give him thanks, and to pay the officer that whipped them.

Vers. 3. Should seem vile unto thee ] There is an honor due to all men, 1 Pet. 2.17. and though we must hate the sin, yet not the sinner.

Vers. 4. That treadeth out the Corn ] Which was the manner of that country: Whereunto, also, the Prophet alludeth, Hos. 10.11. Ephraim is a heifer, that loveth to tread out the corn, (because, while it treads, it feeds on the corn) but not to plow, because no refreshing, till the work was done.

Vers. 5. Her husbands brother ] This was a special exception from that general law, Levite. 18.16. but yet gave no liberty under this pretext, to have more wives then one at once. See the Note on Matth. 22.23.

Vers. 6. The first-born ] Provided, that he be a son; as appears by the reason here given, that his name be not put out of Israel. It signified the birth-right of Christ, that should never die. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, Isai. 53.10. Filiabitur nomine ejus, Psal. 72.17. The name of Christ shall endure forever; it shall be begotten, as one generation is begotten of another, there shall be a succession of Christ's name.

Vers. 9. And loose his shoe ] To show, that he was worthy to go bare-foot, and had no right (howsoever,) to tread upon that ground, as any part of his estate. See Ruth 4.7. The Turks have a ceremony somewhat like this: The woman may sue a divorce, when her husband would abuse her against nature; which she doth, by taking off his or her shoe before the judge, and holding it, the sole upward, but speaking nothing, for the uncleanness of the fact. [And spit in his face] As unworthy to show his face amongst his brethren. See Num. 12.14. Isai. 50.6. [That will not build up his brothers house] See the Note on Exod. 1.21.

Vers. 12. Cut off her hand ] The instrument of her sin: thus Cranmer thrust his hand (wherewith he had subscribed a recantation,) first into the fire, crying out, thou unworthy right hand. An act of Parliament was here made, in the reign of Philip and Mary; that the authors and sowers of seditious writings, should lose their right hands: By virtue whereof John Stubbes and William Page, had their right hands cut off, with a cleaver driven through the wrist, with the force of a beetle, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, for a book written against the marriage with the Duke of Anjou, entitled the Gulf, wherein England will be swallowed up, by the French marriage, &c. which most men presaged, would (if it had gone one,) have been the ruin of religion.

Vers. 13. Divers weights, a great and a small] As they have that weigh not out a whole seventh day to God, who hath given men six whole days to labor in: these sell by one measure, and buy by another. It was an error doubtless, for want of due light and better information, in that pious Prince Edward the sixth, to give order to his Council, that upon Sundays, they should intend public affairs of the realm, dispatch answers to letters, and make full dispatches of all things, concluded in the week before: provided, that they be present at common-prayer.

Vers. 18. How he met thee by the way ] Not with bread and water, but with fire and sword. See Exod. 17.8.

And he feared not God ] Who had so powerfully brought his Israel out of Egypt. See Job 6.14. Gen. 20.11. with the note there.

Vers. 19. Thou shalt not forget it ] Neither did they: Saul should have utterly destroyed them, 1 Sam. 15. But wherein he failed, God stirred up the Simeonites in Hezekiah 's days, to smite the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, 1 Chron. 4.42, 43. It is ill angering the ancient of days. His wrath lasts longer then hot coals of juniper, Psal. 120.4. his judgments are severe and durable: As we use to say of winter, they never rot in the sky; but shall fall, if late, yet surely, yet seasonably. God's forbearance is no quittance.

CHAP. XXVI.

Vers. 2. THat thou shalt take of the first, &c.] In token of homage, or as a chief rent due to God the true proprietary, of whom they held all.

Vers. 5. A Syrian ready to perish] Jacob, whose original was from Haran in Syria, Gen. 11.31. and whose abode had been with Laban the Syrian, in much poverty, affliction, and misery, Hos. 12.12. [And became there a nation] Consider we likewise what we were by nature, and should have been; what we are by grace, and shall be: and then take we up that most modest speech of that noble Athenian Captain Iphicrates, in the midst of all his glory, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; from how great baseness and misery, to what great blessedness and glory, are we advanced; being raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus? Eph. 2.6. See verse. 11.12, 13. with the notes. What was there in us (said Tamerlian to Bajazet the great Turk, now his prisoner;) that God should set us over two great Empires, of Turks and Tartars, to command many more worthy then ourselves; you being blind of one eye, and I lame of a leg, &c? Peter Martyr told Queen Elizabeth in an epistle, that Princes must be double thankful to God. 1. As men. 2. As eminent men, exalted above others: so must all God's servants; who being his first-born, are in that respect, higher then the Kings of the earth, Psal. 89.27. and being the first fruits of his revenue, are therefore holiness to the Lord, Ier. 2.3.

Vers. 12. The stranger, the fatherless ] Thus God doth not only plead the poor man's cause, Chap. 15.10, 11. but he allots a portion, of the third-years tyth, not only to the Levite, (who is never excluded,) but to the stranger, fatherless, and widow; as Jerome observeth, and calleth it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; the poor man's tyth.

Vers. 13. I have not transgressed ] This is spoken, not by way of Pharisaical boasting, or opinion of merit, but public testification of entire obedience.

Vers. 14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning] All God's worships, were to be celebrated with joy, Deut. 12.7. Sacrifices offered with mourning, were 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 ourselves; 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 funeral feast, Ier. 16.7. Ezek. 24.7. Hos. 9.4. [Ye have done according, &c.] It is a witty expression of Luther. By men's boasting of what they have done, says he, Haec ego feci, haec ego feci; they become nothing else but Faeces, dregs. But so did not these. See the note on verse. 13.

Vers. 17. Thou hast avouched ] This we do, when with highest estimation, most vigorous affections, and utmost endeavors we bestow ourselves upon God; giving up our names and hearts, to the profession of truth. And this our choosing God for our God, Psal. 73 25. is a sign, he first chose us, 1 John. 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 cries out, who is on my side? Who? and then gives us to answer, as Isaiah 44.6. One says, I am the Lord's; another calls himself by the name of Jacob, another subscribes, &c.

Vers. 19. And to make thee high] Assyria is the work of God's hand, but Israel is his inheritance, Isa. 19.25. & 43.3.

CHAP. XXVII.

Vers. 2. ANd plaster them with plaster ] That they might have it in white and black.

Vers. 4. In mount Ebal ] Where the curse was denounced, verse. 13. to signify, that those that sought salvation in the law, must needs be left under the curse. The law is a yoke of bondage, as Jerome calls it: and they who look for righteousness from thence, are like oxen, who toil and draw; and when they have done their labor, 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 moral law, drove the Jews to the ceremonial, (which was their Gospel;) as it doth now drive us to Christ, who is indeed the end of the law for righteousness, to everyone 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 Savior's passion very lively, (both things, and acts, and persons,) on the nails 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, ant 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 God's 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, 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-beams 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 connection 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; but without my blessing, will be bitter sweets. Blessed is the man, that hath his quiver full of such, as are as the arrows of a strong man; the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed, and made smooth by grace. Arrows be not arrows by growth, but by art: what can better preserve Jacob from confusion, or his face from waxing pale, then, when he shall see his children, the work of God's hands, framed and fitted by the word in regeneration, and the duties of new obedience. This will make him to sanctify God, even to sanctify the Holy One, and with singular encouragement 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 enjoined by Parliament, was put in execution at London, by burning of Idolatrous images. Such a dependence hath our success, upon our obedience.

And flee before thee seven ways ] 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, 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 ] Natural 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 ache, 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 humor, 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 it.

Vers. 12. And thou shalt lend ] This was our condition, in the happy days of that incomparable Elizabeth, not to be passed over slightly, without one sigh breathed forth, now after 40 years, in her sacred memory. What a deal, both of men and moneys, did she lend the French, the Hollanders, &c?

Vers. 13. And the Lord shall make thee ] See a parallel place, Hos. 13.1. When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. Before, none durst budg against the name of Ephraim; but after he offended in Baal, every paltry adversary trampled upon him, as a dead man. So they did, likewise, upon Henry 4. of France, ever victorious, till he changed his religion; till then, Bonus orbi; but after that, Orbus boni, as One wittily anagrammatized his name, Borbonius.

Vers. 15. All these ourses shall come ] Far more curses are mentioned, then blessings. Such is the baseness of our natures, that we are sooner terrified with menaces, then moved with mercies. See we may here, how the curse of God haunts the wicked (as it were a fury) in all his ways. In the City it attends him, in the Country it hovers over him: Coming in, it accompanies him; going forth, it follows him; and in travel, it is his Commorade. If it distaste not his dough, or empty his basket, ye • will it fill his store with strife, or mingle the wrath of God with his sweetest morsels. It is a moth in his wardrobe, murrain among his cattle, mildew in his field, rot among his sheep, and ofttimes makes the fruit of his loins his greatest heart-break; so that he is ready to wish with Augustus, Utinàm aut coelebs vixissem, aut orbus periissem; O that I had either never married, or d • ed childless▪

Vers. 21. The Lord shall make the pestilence ] Which Hipocrates calls, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the falling sickness is called Morbus sacer, as more immediately sent of God.

Vers. 22. The Lord shall smite thee, &c.] See the Note on Levite. 26.16.

Vers. 24. Powder and dust ] Which the wind, and other things, raise in times of drought.

Vers. 27. With the botch of Egypt ] i. e. with the leprosy, called Elephantiasis, when the skin grows hard as the Elephants skin. This, saith One, was bred only about Nile the river of Egypt.

Vers. 28. With madness and blindness ] Spiritual especially; such as befell the Jews of old, Rom. 11.18. 2 Cor. 3.14. the chief Priests and Scribes especially, who being questioned by Herod, about the King of the Jews, Matth. 2.4, 5. could answer directly out of the Scriptures, and give such signs of the Messias, as did evidently agree to Jesus Christ. And yet, because they discerned not their day of grace, but winked hard with their eyes, and shut the windows, lest the light should come in, they were, by a special judgment, so besotted and infatuated, that when God shows them the man, to whom their own signs agree, they cannot allow of him, nor will yield to be saved by him, upon any terms. How shamefully they were deluded by Barchocab, is notoriously known: And after this, when they saw Mahomet arising in such power, they were straight ready to cry him up for their Messiah. But when they saw him eat of a camel, they were as blank, as when they saw the hoped issue of their late Jewish virgin turned to a daughter. They are generally light, aerial, and fanatical brains, apt to work themselves into the fools Paradise of a sublime dotage. Howbeit, God, we trust, will, at length, cure them of this spiritual ophthalmy and frenzy. Their dispersion for this 1600 years is such, as that one of their own Rabbin's concludes from thence, that their Messiah must needs be come, and they must needs suffer so much, for killing him. Oh that the salvation of Israel were once come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, then shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel be glad, Psal. 14.7.

Vers. 29. And thou shalt be only oppressed] As the Thebanes, ever till then victorious, were, after the death of Epaminondas, famous only for their overthrows: As Rome, since Antichristian, was never besieged by an enemy, but it was taken and plundered: as the Jews, since Christ's death, never attempted anything, but miscarried. An evil, an only evil, &c. Ezek. 7.5.

Vers. 30. Thou shalt build an house, &c.] A great aggravation of a man's misery it is, to fall from high hopes, to fail of large expectations, as Haman did, and Absalom, and Alexander the Great, and Tamerlan; who preparing to perfect his conquest of the Greek Empire; and having given a good beginning thereunto, in the midst of his high hopes, and greatest power, died of an ague, Jan. 27. 1462. Many men spend their strength, and waste their wits, in getting these outward things, and in learning how to put them to their delightfullest use: and then (when to possess them, might seem a happiness,) either they die, or are otherwise deprived of all the sweet they have labored for.

Vers. 32. And thine eyes shall look] A sad sight, to see our children butchered before our eyes, as Mauricius the Emperor did; or otherwise misused by a merciless enemy. Doves sometimes sit in their dove-cotes, and see their nests destroyed, their young ones taken away, and killed before their eyes; neither do they ever offer to rescue or revenge, as all other creatures either do, or desire to do. [ And fail with looking] As Sisera 's mothers did, Judge. 5.28.

Vers. 33. The fruit of thy land, &c.] So Ezek. 25.4. They shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. See Ier. 5.17. & 1.7.

Vers. 34, 35. So that thou shalt be mad, &c.] As Bajazet was in his iron cage; as Pope Boniface 8. was, when shut up in St. Angelo, by Sara Columnus his mortal enemy; renting himself with his teeth, and devouring his own fingers. Philip the Spanish King, is said to have born patiently, the defeat given to h • s invincible Armado, in the year 88; but ten years after, he died of a very loathsome and incurable disease; a sore botch that seized upon him from the sole of his foot, unto the top of his head; as is to be seen set down by Carol. Scribanius, Instit. Princip. cap. 20.

Vers. 47. For the abundance of all things] Aristotle was wont to tax his Athenians, quod cùm duas res invenissent, frumenta ac leges, frumentis uterentur, legibus nequaquàm; imo moribus suis quàm legibus uti mallent, as Valerius Maximus addeth. Sure it is, that as these Jews of old, so we, to this day, are much to be blamed, for that we live in God's good land, but not by God's good laws.

Vers. 53. And thou shalt eat ] See the Note on Levite. 26.29.

Vers. 56. The tender and delicate ] These threatenings were tanquam in speculo conspicuae, literally and punctually fulfilled upon the Jews, at the last destruction of Jerusalem; at which time, wrath came upon them to the utmost, 2 Thess. 2.

Vers. 58. This glorious and fearful Name ] That Nomen majestativum, as Bernard calleth it. The wiser sort of Heathens acknowledged, augustius esse de Deo sentiendum, quàm ut nomen & imaginem ejus passim ac temere usurpemus, that higher thoughts must be taken of God, then lightly and profanely to make use of his name; which no man may presume in a sudden unmannerliness to blurt out. When they would swear by their Jupiter, they would break off their oath with a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as those that only durst to owe the rest to their thoughts.

Vers. 63. So the Lord will rejoice over you ] See here the venomous nature of sin, so far forth offensive to Almighty God, as to cause him, (who otherwise afflicts not willingly, Lam. 3.33. but delights in mercy, Mic. 7.18.) to rejoice in the ruin of his creatures, as here, to laugh at their destruction, and mock when their fear cometh, Prov. 1.26. to take as much pleasure therein, as a man would do in a cup of generous wine, Rev. 16.19. and to be as much eased thereby, as one over-gorged would be, in ridding his stomach of that that oppressed it, Rev. 3.16.

Vers. 65. A trembling heart] Juvenal, by a jeer, calls them Judaeos trementes, trembling Jews, Sat. 6. It seems they had Cain's curse upon them.

Vers. 66. And thy life shall hang in doubt] Semper & indesinenter desperabis de vita; thou shalt live in continual expectation of death; as Tiberius caused such to do, as he most hated, for a singular punishment.

Vers. 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt ] This is the last and greatest curse here threatened. Oh pray, pray, said that Dutch Divine, upon his death-bed, Pontifex enim Romanus, & concilium Tridentiaum mira moliuntur, for the Pope and his Council, are seeking to bring us all back into spiritual Egypt.

What long hath been the opinion and fear of some, not unconsiderable Divines, that Antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the West, and suppress the whole Protestant Churches; I pray God to avert.

CHAP. XXVI.

Vers. 1. BEside the covenant ] Which yet was also a covenant of grace, and the same with this in substance; only that at Horeb was made and delivered in a more legal manner: this in a more Evangelical, as appears in the following Chapter.

Vers. 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you ] Nor is he bound to do; but on whom he will, he showeth mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth; i.e. he softeneth not. Till when, a man stands in the midst of means, as a stake in the midst of streams, immovable; yea the more God forbids a sin, the more he bids for it, Rom. 7.8. See the Notes on Matth. 13.11, 13, 14.

Vers. 5. Your clothes ] See the Note on Chap. 8.4.

Vers. 6. ye have not eaten bread] Viz. ordinarily, (see Deut. 2.6.) but Manna; & beneficium postulat officium.

Vers. 11. From the hewer of thy wood ] The meanest amongst you, such as afterwards were the Gibeonites; who also, by faith, became Covenanters, and are called Nethinims in Ezra and Nehemiah. They were made drawers of water to the Temple, as a kind of punishment; God made it a mercy; for the nearer they were to the Church, the nearer they became to God.

Vers. 16. How we have dwelt] And how hard is it to pass thorough Ethiopia, (how much more to dwell there?) and not to be discoloured? Sin is catching; and by the senses (those cinque-ports of the soul) that old serpent oft winds himself into the heart. Ye have seen their abominations; (oh that you would say, Satis est vidisse, &c.) Now therefore, lest there should be, &c. verse. 18.

Vers. 17. A root that beareth gall] An evil heart of unbelief, Heb. 3.12. a deceitful and deceived heart, Ier. 17.9. Isai. 44.20 that is ever either weaving spiders webbes. ( i e. loving vanity, seeking after leasing, Psal 4.2.) or, hatching cockatrice eggs, that is, acting mischief, Isaiah, 59.5. As in that first Chaos were the seeds of all creatures; so in man's heart, (here therefore fitly called a root of rottenness ) of all sins. Holy Bradford would never look upon any ones lewd life with one eye, but presently reflect upon himself with the other, and say, In this my vile heart remains that sin, which, without God's special grace, I should have committed as well as he.

Vers. 19. When be heareth the words ] But feareth them no more, then Behemoth doth the iron weapons, which are esteemed by him as straws. The presumptuous sinner (saith one,) makes God a God of cloths: one that howsoever he speaks heavy words, will not do as he saith. Words are but wind, say they in Jeremiah, Chap. 5.13. God forbid, say they in the Gospel, Luk. 20.16. These things are but spoken in terrorem, thinks the practical Atheist; bug-bear words devised on purpose to affright silly people, &c. Ahab. (after he was threatened with utter rooting out,) begat fifty sons, as it were to cross God, and to try it out with him. So Thrasonicall Lamech brags, and goes on to out-dare God himself; If Cain be avenged, &c. Gen. 4.23. The old Italians were wont in time of thunder, to shoot off their greatest ordnance, and to ring their greatest bells, to drown the noise of the heavens: like unto these, are many frontless and flagitious persons. But shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger, (it is not more a prayer, then a prophecy;) cast down the people, O God, Psal. 56.7.

To add drunkenness to thirst ] To add rebellion to sin, Job 34.37. To drink iniquity, like water. Vers. 7. His sin and his repentance run in a circle; as drankenness and thirst do. He sins, and cries God mercy, and says he will sin no more, and yet does it again the next day; till his heart be so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, that at length he looseth all passive power, of recovering himself out of the snare of the devil, by whom he is taken alive, at his pleasure, 2 Tim. 2.26.

Vers. 20. The Lord will not spare him ] God cannot satisfy himself, in threatening this heinous sin; as if the very naming of it had enraged his jealousy. Yea when he threateneth it, he useth here no qualifications, (as he doth in other cases) but is absolute in threatening, to show, that he will be resolute in punishing. See the like, Isaiah 22.12, 13, 14. Ezek. 24 1 • . It is better, therefore, to have a sore, then a seared conscience; as a burning fever is more hopeful then a lethargy.

Vers. 22. When they see the plagues] A presumptuous offender is a traitor to the State; and one sinner destroyeth much good, Eccles. 9.18.

Vers. 23. And beareth not any grass] As they say, no ground doth, where the great Turk hath once set his foot; such waste he makes, and such desolation he leaves behind him.

Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah ] See the Notes on Gen. 19.24, 25. _____ [Admah and Zeboim] Which two Cities bordering on Sodom and Gomorrah, were the worse, and fared the worse for their neighbourhood; as Hamath did for Damascus, Zech. 9.2. God overthrew them, and repented not; Ier. 20.16.

Vers. 26. And whom he had not given unto them ] Or, who had not given to them any portion. For, Can the vanities of the Gentiles give rain? or can the heavens give showers? Jer. 14.22. As Saul said, Can the son of Jesse give you vineyards, and olive-yards, &c? so may God say to Apostates, Can the world do for you, as I can?

Vers. 28. And cast them into another land ] Cast them with a violence, with a vengeance, (in the Hebrew the word [cast] hath an extraordinary great letter (sling them out, as out of a sling.

Vers. 29. The secret things belong ] This is one of those sixteen places, which in the Hebrew, are marked with a special note of regard. Eorum quaescire nec datur, nec fas est, docta est ignorantia, scientiae appetentia, insaniae species, saith Calvin, out of Augustine.

CHAP. XXX.

Vers. 1. THe blessing and the curse ] When thou hast made trial of both, and hast bought thy wit: as feeling by woeful experience, what an evil and a bitter thing sin i • ▪ and how easily thou mightest have redeemed thine own sorrows, by better obedience.

Vers. 2. And shalt return to the Lord ] By sin, we run away from God; by repentance, we return to him.

Vers. 3. That then the Lord thy God] Conversie Judaeorum magnisice hic promittitur, saith One. Here's a stately promise of the conversion of the Jews; concerning which, see the Notes on Rom. 11.25, &c.

Vers. 4. If any of thine be driven ] The Jews have been for this 1600 years and upward, a disjected and despised people, hated and cast out, by a common consent of all nations, for their unexpiable guilt, in murthering the Messiah; which they now begin to be somewhat sensible of, and will be so more and more. See the Note on Chap. 28.28.

Vers. 6. And the Lord thy God ] See Chap. 10.16.

Vers. 7. Will put all these curses upon thine enemies ] God will recompense tribulation to them that have troubled you, 2 Thess. 1.6. he will spoil the spoilers, Isaiah 33.1. deliver the just out of trouble, and the wicked shall come in his stead, Prov. 11.8. Isa. 65.13, 14. It seemeth to the Churches enemies, an incredible paradox, and a news by far more admirable then acceptable, that there should be such a transmutation of conditions on both sides, to contraries; but so it will be, as sure as the coat is on their backs, or the heart in their bodies. See Lam. 4.21.

Vers. 9. And in the fruit of thy land, for good ] God will provide, that thou shalt not be the worse for thine outward abundance; that fullness shall not breed forgetfulness. It is as hard to bear prosperity, as to drink much wine, and not be giddy; or as to drink strong waters, and not weaken the brain thereby. The parable of the Sun and Wind is well known. Some of those, in Queen Mary's days, who kept their garments close about them, wore them afterwards more loosely, when they came to prosperity, and preferment. It is a marvelous great mercy to have outward comforts and contentments, for good. Bonus Deus Constantinum Magnum tantis terrenis implevit muneribus, quanta optare nullus auderet, saith Augustine, God of his goodness, heaped all good things upon Constantine.

Vers. 11. For this commandment ] This word of faith, Rom. 10.8. that teacheth the righteousness of faith, verse. 6. and speaketh on this wise; the doctrine of salvation by faith, that works by love: this is clearly enough revealed in both testaments; so that none can reasonably plead ignorance, and think to be excused by it.

Vers. 12. Who shall go up for us to heaven] And yet to know heavenly things, is to ascend into heaven, Prov. 30.4.

Vers. 13. Neither is it beyond the sea ] Beyong the sea it was to us, till blessed Luther's books were brought hither, together with Tindals translation, and other good men's writings. Some Papists jeer us, and say, that Turkies, hops, and heresy, came into this kingdom in one bottom. Howbeit, long before this, the Lady Anne, wife to King Richard the second, siller to Wenceslaus King of Bohemia, by living here, was made acquainted with the Gospel: whence also many Bohemians coming hither, conveyed Wycliffe's books into Bohemia, whereby a good foundation was laid for the ensuing reformation, Anno 1417, by the help of another good Queen there, called Sophia. The writings also of John Hus brought thence, wrought much good in this kingdom, a hundred years before Luther's time.

Vers. 19. Therefore choose life ] Which yet man (of himself,) can as little do, as a dead carcase can fly aloft. It was therefore an unsound and unsavory speech of him that said, quod vivamus, dei munus est; quod been vivamus, nostrum: That we live, it is of God; but that we live well, it is of ourselves. See the contrary, Isai. 26.12. Hos. 14.8. John. 15.5.

CHAP. XXXI.

Vers. 2. I am an hundred and twenty, &c.] And so might well bespeak them, as Augustus once did his army, and pacified them thereby, when they were in a mutiny; Audit senem juvenes, quem j • venem senes and erunt.

Vers. 6. He will not fail thee ] Five times, in holy Scriptures, is this precious promise repeated; and Heb. 13.5. made common to all believers, with a very deep asseveration.

Vers. 9. Unto the Priests ] God's library-keepers, his depositaries. _____ [Unto all the elders of Israel] As to the Keepers of both Tables.

Vers. 11. Thou shalt read this law ] Which was nevertheless read in their synagogues every Sabbath-day, Act. 15. And by this reading, at the feast of Tabernacles, every seventh year, the original copy written by Moses; they might perceive that those copyes that they had amongst them, were right and authentic. It was ill ordered, in our english bibles of the new translation, that between the Printers haste, and Correctours over-sight, such foul escapes have been lately committed; as Judas printed for Jesus, in the great Bible, The Turkish Alcoran is written, and to be read in Arabic▪ under pain of death not to mistake a letter, which is as easily done in this tongue, as in any.

Vers. 17. And many evils and troubles] As it befell Sampson and Saul, when God was gone: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all miseries came trooping and treading one in the heels of another. So Ezek. 9.10, 11. God makes many removes: and as he goes out, some judgment comes in upon the land.

Vers. 19. Put it in their mouths ] That out of their own mouths I may judge them: things made up in meeter, are better remembered. Before the knowledge of letters and writing, among the ancients, it was a custom to sing their laws, lest they might forget them; used in the days of Aristotle, by the Agathyrsi, a people near to the Scythians.

Vers. 21. For I know their imagination] As a man that knows what roots he hath in his garden; thought here be not a flower appears, yet he can say, when the spring comes, this and this will come up; because he knows the garden, and knows what roots are there: So the Lord knows our thoughts afar off; because he knows the principles that are within, and knows what they will do, when occasion serves: he is privy to that root, that beareth gall and wormwood, Chap. 29.18.

Vers. 26. In the side of the Ark ] That it might be heard, and regarded, as the very law of God, though penned by Moses. And indeed the Jews at this day, show exceeding great respect to the law: No man may touch it, but with the right hand, and without a kiss of reverence; nor carry it behind him, but lay it next to his heart in his travel: If it but fall to the ground, they institute a fast for it, &c. The very Turks have so high an esteem of Moses, that if they find any piece of his writings, (be it but a torn paper) lying on the ground, they presently take it up, and kiss it. [That it may be there for a witness] Hence haply the Ark was called, the Ark of the testimony; the law might be called the dooms day book such a book there is in our common-law, so called, saith Matthew Paris, because it spares no man.

Vers. 29. To provoke him to anger ] Which is the greatest folly that can be, for, are we stronger then he? can we imagine to make our party good with him? Surely, as Ulysses his companions told him, when he would needs provoke Polydamus;

May not we much more say so to them, that will needs provoke the Lord? It is good for men, to meddle with their matches, and not contend with him that is mightier then they.

CHAP. XXXII.

V. 1. GIve ear O ye heavens] q. d. Such is this people's stupidity and obstinacy, that I may as soon gain audience of these inanimate creatures, as of them. See Isai. 1.2. Josh. 24.27. Ier. 22.29. We may cry, till we are hoarse; speak, till we spit forth our lungs, and to no more purpose, then Bede did, when he preached to an heap of stones. Holy Melanchthon, being himself newly converted, thought it impossible for his hearers, to withstand the evidence of the Gospel. But after he had been a Preacher a while, 'tis said he complained, that old Adam, was too hard for young Melanchthon.

Vers. 2. My doctrine ] Heb. My taking, or winning doctrine: according to that▪ Prov • . 1.30. He that winneth. (Heb. taketh ) souls, (as fowlers do birds) is wise. [Shall drop as the rain ] Drop, not dash; and as the rain, not as the storm, or as the spout, as they call it at sea. Evangelizatum non maledictum missus es, said Oecolampadius, to Facellus, an excellent, but an over earnest Preacher. And such a one, say some, was Mr. Perkins in his younger time; able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down, and their hairs to stand upright. The word Damn, he would pronounce with such an emphasis, as left a doleful Echo in his auditors ears, a good while after. True it is, that Preachers should take the same liberty, to cry down sins, that men take to commit them. Peccata tantâ severitate arguebat, (saith one of Chrysostom,) acsi ipse etiam per injuriam laesus esset: But yet moderation must be used, and instruction dropmeale distilled, that it may soak and sink; and so soften the heart, that all grace may abound, &c. Such sweet drops were Mr. Bradford, Mr. Dod. Dr. Sibbes,

Vers. 3. Ascribe ye greatness] i.e. Tremble at his word, and take it to heart. See 1 Thess. 2.13.

Vers. 4. He is the Rock] A firm and everlasting refuge, a rock of Ages, Isai. 26.4. One age passeth away, and another, and a third, &c. but the rock remains. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, Prov. 18.10. munition of rocks, Isai. 33.16. Rocks so deep, no pioner can undermine them; so thick, no Cannon can pierce them; so high, no ladder can scale them.

Vers. 5. Their spot is not the spot ] Saints also have their spots, but not engraven, not Leopards spots, that are not in the skin only, but the flesh and bones, in the sinews, and the most inner parts; and so cannot be cured by any art, or, washed away with any water. It is of incogitancy, that the Saints fall; put them in mind, and they mend all: It is of passion, and passions last not long. They are preoccupated, taken at unawares, &c. Gal. 6.1. They have ever God for their chief end, and will not forgo him upon any terms: Only they err in the way, as thinking they may fulfill such a lust, and keep God too: but there is no way of wickedness found in them. Though shaken, yet they are rooted as trees; and, though they wag up and down, yet they remove not, as a ship at anchour. Sin stings the wicked, as the fiery serpents did the Israelites: the sins of the saints, are but like the viper on Paul's hand, that hurt him not. Sin makes wicked men the object of God hatred, the Saints, of his pity: as we hate poison in a toad, but we pity it in a man; in the one, it is their nature; in the other, their disease.

Vers. 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord ] Good turns aggravate unkindnesses; and our guilt is increased by our obligations. Solomon's idolatry was far worse then that of his wives: he had been better bred, and God had appeared to him twice. It is the ingratitude, that makes the godly man's sin so heinous; which otherwise, would be far less then other men's: since his temptations are stronger, and his resistance greater. Hebricians observe, that in Halaihovah, there is in the text, one 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 greater then ordinary; to show, that the wonder was the greater, that they should so evil requite such a Lord. Father, Redeemer, Maker, and Governor, by being so corrupt, perverse, crooked foolish, and unwise: five opposed to live: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being used for the number of five.

Vers. 8. He set the bounds of the people ] Of the seventy nations reckoned, Gen. 10. and the seventy souls of Israel, Gen. 46.27. Deut. 10.22. The Jews have a saying, that those seventy souls were as much, as all the seventy nations of the world; as being the Lord's portion, for whom he espied out the land of Canaan, which is the glory of all lands, Ezek. 20.6.

Vers. 9. For the Lord's portion ] Dear to God, though despised of the world. They are the Lord's inheritance, Isai 19.25. peculiar ones, Exod. 19.5. the people of his purchase, that comprehended all his gettings, 1 Pet. 2.9. his glory, Isai. 46.13. his ornament, Ezek. 7.20. his throne, Ier. 4.21. his diadem, Isai. 62.3. heirs of the kingdom, saith Saint James, heads destinated to the diadem, saith Tertullian,

Vers. 10. And in the waste howling wilderness] A figure of the cries of a thirsty and troubled conscience, and of infernal horrors. See Ezek 16.4. &c. [He instructed him] Both by his word and works, both of mercy and justice: for God's rods also are vocal, Mic. 6.9. his house of correction, is his school of instruction. [He kept him as the apple of his eye ] The tenderest piece of the tenderest part: The crystal humor, as the Philosophers call it. Heb. Ishon, of Ish; as Pupilla of Pupa; because therein appears the likeness of a little man: Or, because a man is to be prized above all other creatures; so God esteemeth his people, above all the world.

Vers. 11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest ] So doth God stir up his people, by his word of promise. [Fluttereth over them] By the motions of his Spirit, as Gen. 1.2 [Spreadeth abroad her wings] Hovereth and covereth them with his protection, Mat. 23.37. [Taketh them] With much tenderness, but nothing comparable to that of God. [Beareth them on her wings] Aquilae pullos suos in alis portant, alites reliqui inter pedes, saith Munster here, out of Rabbi Solomon. See the Note on Exod. 19.4.

Vers. 12. And there was no strange god with him ] Why then should any share with him in his service? Be the gods of the heathen good-fellows, saith One? the true God will endure no corrival.

Vers. 13. To suck honey out of the rock ] Water, as sweet as honey, in that necessity; So doth every worthy Receiver by faith, at the Sacrament: Whereas, who so comes thereunto, without faith, is like a man, saith Mr. Tindal, that thinks to quench his thirst, by sucking the Ale-powl.

Vers. 14. With the fat of kidneys of wheat ] With the very Best of the Best; figuring heavenly dainties, that full feast, Isai. 25. Judea, for its admirable fertilty, is called Sumen totius orbis: how basely soever Strabo speaks of it, as of a dry barren Country; wherein he shows less ingenuity, then railing Rabshakeh did.

Vers. 15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked] Jeshurun, h •• est Integellus, saith One, as Shimshon, or Sampson, Solilus, a little Sun, but a type of the Sun of righteousness, that hath health in his wings, that is, in his beams. Israel should have been Jeshurun, that is, Righteous, or upright before the Lord, Israelites indeed; but were nothing less. If ever they had been better in the time of their espousals, when they went after God in the Wilderness, in a land that was not sown, Jer. 2.2. yet now that they were full fed, they kicked; as young mulets, when they have sucked, matrem calcibus petunt, kick the dams dugs. Fullness breeds forgetfulness; and the best are but too prone to surfeit of the things of this life; which, by our corruption, ofttimes, prove a snare to our souls. I will lay a stumbling block. Ezek. 3.20. Vatablus his note there, is, Faciam, ut omnia habeant prospera; calamitatibus us eum a peccato non revocabo; I will prosper him in all things, and not by affliction, restrain him from sin. The most poisonous flics are bred in the sweetest fruit trees: how apt are the holiest to be proud and secure: even as worms and wasps eat the sweetest apples and fruits! Repugnante contra temet ipsam tua foelicitate▪ saith Salvian, to the Church in his time; thy prosperity is thy bane: And, cum ipsis opibus lasciv • re coepit Ecclesia, saith Platina; The Church began to be rich and wanton at once. Religio peperit divitias, & silia devoravit matrem: Religion brought forth riches, and the daughter soon devoured the mother, saith Augusti • e. The much wool on the sheep's back, is ofttimes his ruin; he is caught in the thorns, and famished. The fatter the ox, the sooner to the slaughter. When the Protestants of France began to grow wanton of their prosperity, and to affect a vain frothy way of preaching, then came the cruel massacre upon them. The good Lord keep this Church of England from the like mischief, much threatened by the Malignant party, who even wish with big-swoln Balaam, I would there were a sword in mine hand; for now would I kill thee, Num. 22.29. A sword they have lately gotten again into their hand in Wales, but with evil success, Blessed be the Lord our strength, which teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers to fight, Psal. 144.1. Surely, he that, in so ill a cause, killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword, Rev. 13.10. Those sworn swordmen of Satan, shall fall by the sword; they shall be a portion for foxes, Psal. 63.10. They shall be so, no doubt, if we hinder not our own happiness by an unworthy kicking against the tenderest bowels of God's Fatherly compassions, ever earning toward us. Should we, with the fed hawk, forget our master? Or being full with God's benefits, like the full-Moon, then get furthest off from the Sun; and by an interposition of earthly desires, become dark? The cords of love, are called the cords of a man, Hos. 11.4. To sin against mercy, is to sin against humanity; it is bestial, nay it is worse. To render good for evil, is Divine; to render good for good, is human; to render evil for evil, is brutish; but to render evil for good, is devilish, as a Reverend man hath well observed. [Then he forsook God] Here Moses, weary of speaking any longer to a gain-saying and disobedient people, turneth his speech to the heaven and earth, whom he had called in to bear witness, verse. 1. So, when a certain people of Italy had commanded the Roman Ambassador, ad quercum dic • r • , se interim alia acturos, to deliver his Ambassage to the great oak; for they had somewhat else to do, then to give him audience; he at swered, Et haec sacrata quercus audiat foedus esse a vob • violatum, I will, indeed, direct my speech to the Oke, and tell it in your hearing that you have basely broken covenant, and shall dearly answer it.

Vers. 16. They provoked him to jealousy ] See the Note on Chap. 31.29.

Vers. 17. They sacrificed unto Devils ] See the Note on Levite. 17.7. [To new gods that came newly up] Such as are all Popish He-Saints, and She-Saints; concerning whom, Bellarmine himself cann • t but yield, that, Cumscriberentur Scripturae, nondum coeperat usus vovendi Sanctis, There was no vowing (or bowing either) to Saints departed, when the Scriptures were written. And a loaf of the like leaven are those Newlights, and all subtleties, whereby our Sectaries would distinguish themselves from Brownists. Are they not all, or most of them, borrowed out of Mr. H. Jacob's books, who was but of yesterday? The Antinomians usually call upon their hearers to mark; it may be they shall hear some new truth, that they never heard before: when the thing is either false, or (if true) no more then ordinarily is taught by others.

Vers. 18. And hast forgotten God that formed thee ] Or, that brought thee forth. Here God is compared to a mother, as in the former clause, to a father. So, Jam. 1.18. Of his own will begat he us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He brought us forth, and did the office of a mother to us; which doth notably set forth his love, and the work of his grace.

Vers. 19. Of his sons, and of his daughters ] Titular at least; wherefore their sin was the greater. What? Thou, my son Brutus? This cut Caesar to the heart.

Vers. 20. I will see what their end shall be ] This is spoken after the manner of men; as likewise that, verse. 27. [In whom is no faith] i. e. fidelity; as Matth. 23.23. there's no trusting them, or taking their words.

Vers. 21. And I will move them to jealousy ] Thus God delights to retaliate and proportion jealousy to jealousy, provocation to provocation; So, frowardness to frowardness, Psal. 18.26. contrariety to contrariety, Levite. 28.18, 21, &c.

With a foolish nation ] With the conversion of the Gentiles, Rom. 10.19. which the good Jews could not easily yield to at first, Act. 11.2, 3. And the rest could never endure to hear of it. See 1 Thess. 2.15, 16. At this day they solemnly curse the Christians thrice a day in their Synagogues, with a, Maledic Domine Nazarais. They have a saying in their Tulmud, Optimus qui inter gentes est dignus cui caput conteretur, tanquam serpenti; The best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head broke, as the Serpent had. Yea they think they may kill any Idolaters: Therefore Tacitus saith of them, There was misericordia in promptu apud suos, sed contra omnes alios hostile odium, mercy enough toward their own, but against all others they bare a deadly hatred.

Vers. 22. For a fire ] See the Note on Chap. 10.4.

Vers. 23. I will spend mine arrows ] Which yet cannot be all spent up, as he feared of his Jupiter, Si quoties peccent homines, &c.

Vers. 24. Burnt with hunger ] Which makes men's visages blacker then a coal, Lam. 4.8. [with burning heat] i. e. With the burning carbuncle, or plague-sore. See Haba • . 3.5.

Vers. 25. And terror within ] Warring times are terrible times. By the civil dissensions here in King John 's time, all the Kingdom became like a general shambles, or place of infernal terrors and tortures. War, saith One, is a misery which all words (how wide soever) want compass to express. It is saith Another, the slaughter-house of mankind, and the hell of this present world. See the Note on Gen. 14 2.

Vers 27. Were it not that I feared ] See verse. 20.

Lest their adversaries ] This is that (likely) that moves the Lord, hitherto, to spare England. God hath dealt with us, not according to his ordinary rule, but according to his prerogative. England (if it may be so spoke with reverence) is a paradox to the Bible. Pererius, the Jesuit, commenting upon Gen. 15.16. If any marvel, saith He, why England continueth to flourish, notwithstanding the cruel persecution (just execution he should have said) of Catholics there: I answer, Because their sin is not yet full. Sed veniet tandem iniquitatis complementum, &c. We hope better, though we deserve the worst that can be▪ But somewhat God will do for his own great Name; and lest the enemy exalt himself, Psal. 140.8. and say, Our hand is high, the Lord hath not done this.

Vers. 28. For they are a nation ] See the Note on Chap. 4.6. It was Chrysippus that offered that strict and tetrical division to the world, Aut mentem, aut restim comparandum.

Vers. 29. Oh that this people were wise ] Sapiens est, cui res sapiunt prout sunt, saith Bernard. [That they would consider their latter end] This is a high point of heavenly wisdom. Moses himself desires to learn it. Psal. 90.12. David also would fain be taught it, Psal. 39.4. Solomon sets a Better upon it, Eccles. 7.2. Jerusalem's filthiness was in her skirts, because she remembered not her latter end; therefore also she came down wonderfully, Lam. 1.9, The kite, by the turning of his tail, directs and winds about all his body. Consideratio fini • tanquam caudae, ad vitam optime regendam confert, saith Berchorius. I meet with a story of one that gave a prodigal a ring, with a deaths-head, with this condition, that she should one hour daily, for seven days together, look and think upon it; which bred a strange alteration in his life; like that of Thesposius in Plutarch; or that more remarkable, of Waldus, the rich Merchant of Lions, &c.

Vers. 30. How should one chase a thousand ] i.e. Howshould one of the enemies chase a thousand Israelites, (who had a promise of better things, Levite. 26.8.) but that having first sold themselves for naught, Isai. 52.3. they were now sold by God; who would own them no longer, Psal. 31.7, 8.

Vers. 31. For their Rock is not as our Rock ] We may well say, who is a God like unto thee? Mic. 7.18. Contemno minutulos istos deos, modo jovem (Jehovam) mihi propitiumc habeam; I care not for those dunghill-Deities, so I may hav • the true God to favor me. [Even our enemies] Exod. 14.25. Num. 23.8, 12. 1 Sam. 4.8.

Vers. 32. For their vine is of the vine ] Vitis non vinifera, sed venenifera. The vine is the wicked nature, the grapes are the evil works. So Isai. 59.5. They hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spiders web; ( vanity or villainy, is their whole trade;) he that eateth of their eggs, dieth, &c. Look how the bird that sitteth on the serpents eggs, by breaking and hatching them, brings forth a perilous brood to her own destruction: so do those that are yet in the state of Nature; being the heirs of Original, and the fathers of Actual sins; which when they are finished, bring forth death, Jam. 1.15.

Vers. 33. Their wine ] i. e. Their works, yea their best works prove pernicious to them; not their own table only, but God's Table becomes a snare to the unprepared communicant; he sucks there the poison of asps, &c. Job 20 16. he eats his bane, and drinks his poison: as Henry 7. Emperor, was poisoned in the Sacramental bread by a Monk; Pope Victor 2. by his Sub-deacon in his challice, and one of our Bishops of York, by poison put into the wine at the Eucharist.

Vers. 34. Is not this laid up in store ] To wit, for just punishment, though for a while I forbear them. The wicked man is like a thief, which having stolen a horse, rides away well mounted, till overtaken by hue and cry, he is apprehended, sentenced, and executed. Your sin will find you out, as a blood-hound; et patientia Dei erga impios quo diuturnior, eo minacior. Morae dispendium foenoris duplo pensatur; the longer God forbeareth, the heavier he punisheth.

Vers. 35. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense ] The Hebrew word for vengeance, signifies comfort also; for God will be comforted in the execution of his wrath, Ezek. 5.13. See the Note on Chap. 28.63. He show; such severity sometimes, as if he had blotted that out of his title, Exod. 34.6. and now took up that Emperors Motto, Fiat justitia, pereat mundus.

Their foot shall slide in due time ] They are set in slippery places, Psal. 73.18. they ever walk as upon a mine of gun powder, ready to be blown up: Nemo crimen gerit in Pectore, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Nemesis dicitur, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quod 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . God's wrath is such, as none can avert or avoid.

Vers. 36. And repent himself for his servants ] Thus God mingleth and allayeth the rigor of his justice, with the vigor of his mercy.

Vers. 37. And he shall say ] i. e. He shall upbraid them with the inability of their idols to do for them.

Vers. 39. I, even I am he ] I, is emphatical and exclusive.

Vers. 41. If I whet my glittering sword ] God first whets, before he smites; and first takes hold on judgment, before his judgments take hold on men. Est piger ad poenas, ad proemia velox. See the like, Psal. 7.12. God was but six days in making the whole world, yet was he seven days in destroying that one city of Jericho, as Chrysostom observeth. Fury is not in me, Isaiah 27.4. As a be stings not, till provoked; so God punisheth not, till there be no other remedy, 2 Chron. 36.16.

Vers. 43. Rejoice, O ye Nations ] Give God the glory of his just severity, which is no less commendable in a Judge, then seasonable clemency.

Vers. 47. For it is not a vain thing ] God's favor is no empty favor; it is not like the Winter-Sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little comfort and heat.

CHAP. XXXIII.

Vers. 1. BEfore his death ] The words of dying men, are living oracles; they should therefore be pious and ponderous.

Vers. 2. Went a fiery law for them ] This fire, wherein the law was given, and shall be required, is still in it, and will never out: hence are those terrors which it slasheth in every conscience that hath felt remorse of sin. Every man's heart is a Sinai, and resembles to him both heaven and hell. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

Vers. 3. Yea, he loved the people ] With a general love, with a common Philanthropie. But the love of God in Christ is that we must all labor after; such a love, as doth better for a man, then restore him to sight, or raise him when bowed down, Psal. 146.8. [ Are in thy hand] And so in a safe hand, John. 10.29. [And they sat down at thy feet] As attentive, and tractable Disciples. See Act. 22.3. Luk. 10.39 & 2 King. 2.5. Knowest thou not, that the Lord will take thy master from thy head? A phrase taken from their manner of sitting, at the feet of their Teachers.

Vers. 4. Moses commanded us a law ] These are the words of those Saints above-mentioned, expressing their good affection to the law, and to Moses, by whose mediation they received it. [Even the inheritance] For perpetual use to us and our posterity. Indeed the law lies not upon the righteous, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Tim. 1.9.) nor urgeth them, as it doth upon the wicked. To those, the law is as chains and shackles; to those, as girdles and garters, which gird up their loins, and expedite their course the better. It confines them to live in that element where they would live; as if one should be confined to paradise, where he would be, though there were no such law.

Vers. 5. And he was King in Jesharu • ] An herrick King, reigning by virtue and justice only, not by force and violence: One that said not, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; This I can do, but This is fit for me to do. [When the heads of the people, and the tribes] Here was a government made up of King, Lord's, and Commons. The best of governments, doubtless, so that the boam be kept right betwixt Sovereignty and subjection. The contention (now again flagrant in England ) between Prince and people, about command and obedience, ceased not, till the Magna Charta (first obtained of King John; after, of his son Henry 3. though observed truly of neither,) was, in the maturity of a judicial Prince, Edward the first, freely ratified, after fourscore years.

Vers. 6. Let Reuben live, and not die ] Let him have a nail, and a name in God's house, notwithstanding the heinousness of his sin, and the severity of Jacob's sentence, Gen. 49.4. See the Note there.

Vers. 7. And this is the blessing ] Simeon is not mentioned, but implied in Judah 's blessing; in the midst of whose inheritance, lay his portion, Josh. 19.1. Besides, that tribe was exceedingly defiled with fornication, spiritual and corporal; and by that means much decayed and diminished, Numb, 26.14. [Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah] Putting thy promises, Gen. 8.9, 10, 11. into suit by his prayers, and pressing thee for a performance.

Vers. 8. Let thy Thummim and thy Urim ] Sincerity of life, and soundness of doctrine. See the Note on Exod. 28.30. There is great cause, That Ministers, of all men, should be much prayed for.

Vers. 9. Who said unto his father ] In that heroical fact, Ezod. 32.26, 29. Not to be wryed or biassed by respect to carnal friends, is a high and hard point of self-denial. Mark was Barnabas his sisters son; hence he stood so stiff for him against Paul, his faithful fellow-traveler, Act. 15.37. Colos. 4.10. Moses to please Zipporah, displeased God, and it went hard with him, Exod. 4.24. Eli was too indulgent to his wicked sons; and so perhaps was Samuel too, 1 Sam. 8.1, 3.

Vers. 10. They shall teach Jacob] Apt and able to teach must all Ministers be, as Paul, Act. 20. Praedicationis officium suscipit, quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit, saith Gregory: He's no Minister, that's no teacher. Aidanus the first Bishop of Durham, Anno Dom. 636. neglected no duty of a good Pastor, travelling up and down the country, even on foot, to preach the Gospel; giving whatsoever he could get, unto the poor; and by the example of his own virtues instructing, as well as by word and doctrine. Amongst the Greeks, Tragedians and Comedians were said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to labor in teaching the people: What should Ministers then do?

They shall put incense before thee ] i.e. Pray for the people, as well as preach to them. So Act, 6.4. Austin's wish was, that Christ when he came, might find him, aut precantem aut praedicantem, praying or preaching. Bene orasse est been 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. Ueritas 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 Savior, 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 Lord's corculum, deliciae, darling, as their father Benjamin was old Jacob's, 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 years after this prophecy.

Vers. 13. And of Joseph ] See the Note on Gen. 49.2.

Vers. 14. And for the precious fruits ] So Saint James calleth them, the precious fruits of the earth, James 5.7. Diogenes justly taxed the folly of his countrymen, quod res pretiosas minimo emerent, venderent que vilissimas▪ lurimo, because they bought precious things, (as corn) very cheap; but sold the basest things, (as pictures, statues, &c.) extreme dear; fifty pounds or more a piece: 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 chief things ] Metalls and Minerals usually digged 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 Noah's 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 trial, in any affliction, Isai. 43.1. [That was separated from his brethren] To be a choice and chief man amongst them. Nobilis fuit inter fratres (saith Augustine ) vel in malis, quae pendit, vel in bonis quae rependit.

Vers. 17. His horns are like the horns of Vnicorns ] Justin 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 Unicorn. At nihil hic de Christo, nihil de cruce. [He shall push the people together] As General Joshua (of this tribe,) did notably; so that, Phoenicians ran away into a far country, and renowned his valor by a monument, set up in Africa. Howbeit, gratius ei fuit nomen pietatis, quam potestatis, as Tertullian saith of Augustus; he is more famous for his piety, then for his prowess.

V. 18. In thy going out ] To trade and traffic by sea, Gen. 49 13. Peterent coelum navibus Belgae, si navibus peti posset, saith one. The low-countrymen are said to grow rich by war; 'tis sure they do by trade at sea. [And Issachar in thy tents] i.e. In thy quiet life, and country employments. 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 God's 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 itself it yield no crop, yet brings in great revenues, by reason of seatrading.

Vers. 20. He dwelleth as a Lyon ] That should make his party good with the enemy, upon whom he bordereth, and by whom he is often invaded. See Gen. 49.19. Judge. 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 Jordan, 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 God's judgments, upon obstinate Malefactours.

Vers. 22. He shall leap from Bashan ] i.e. He shall suddenly set upon his enemies; as Achitophel counseled Absalom, 2 Sam. 17.1, 2. (and this is called good counsel, verse. 14.) and as Caesar served Pompey—Caesar in omnia praeceps, nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum,

Vers. 23. Satisfied with favor, and full, &c.] Fulness of blessing is then only a mercy, when the soul of a man is satisfied with favor: 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 days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, Psal. 23.6. One may have outward things by God's providence, and not out of his favor. Esau had the like blessing as Jacob, 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 Joseph put his cup into their sack, to pick a quarrel 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, two of the best fruits; the one for cheering the heart, the other for clearing the face, Psal. 104.15. the one for sweetness, the other for fatness, Judge. 9.13. [Let him dip his foot in oil] Like that of Job, Chap. 29.6. Confer Gen. 49.20. See the Note.

Vers. 25. Thy shoes ] Thou shalt have store of mines. [And as thy days, shall thy strength be] i. e. Thou shalt (as Eliphaz speaketh, Job 5.26.) Come 〈◊〉 lusty old age to the grave. This the Greesk call, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : 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 days, 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, Isaiah 44.6.

And underneath are the everlasting arms] A Saint cannot fall so far, as to fall beneath the supporting arms of God, Cant. 2.6. his hand is reserved for a dead lift.

Vers. 28. Israel then shall dwell, &c.] See the Note on Num. 23.9. [The fountain of Jacob] Or, as some read it, The eye of Jacob. The same word signifies both an eye, and a fountain. He that, with Mary Magdalene, can make his eye a fountain to wash Christ's feet in, shall be sure to have that fountain of Christ's blood opened, to wash his soul in, Zech. 13.1.

Vers. 29. Happy art thou, O Israel ] Or, Oh the happiness of thee, O Israel! the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the heaped up happiness!

Who is like unto thee?] The Saints are the worlds Paragons, yea such, as the world is not worthy of, Heb. 11. that is, saith Chrysostom, Take all the men of the world, they are not worth one of the people of God, though never so mean, in regard of outwards. [Shall be found liars] Shall feign to be friends, for fear, and shall yield a forced obedience. See Psal. 18.45.

CHAP. XXXIV.

Vers. 1. ANd Moses went up ] With as good a will to die, as ever he did to dine; for it was but (as that Martyr said) winking a little, & he was in heaven immediately.

Vers. 2. Unto the utmost sea ] The Mediterranean.

Vers. 3. The City of palm-trees ] So called, even by Heathen-Authors also.

Vers. 4. I have caused thee to see it ] By an extraordinary power; for in an ordinary way, Moses could never have taken so large a prospect at once. Faith puts a man's head into heaven, and gives him a view of far better things; neither vision only, but fruition also, which Moses had not.

Vers. 5. So Moses the servant of the Lord died ] It was no more betwixt God and Moses, but, Go up and die; he changed indeed his place, but not his company; death was to him but the daybreak of eternal brightness.

Vers. 6. And he • uried him ] Either the Lord, or Michael, Jude. 9. There lies the body of Moses, as in a chamber of rest, or bed of down, Isa 57.2. His very du • being precious; for Christ is not perfect without it. Ephes. 1.2 • . [But no man knoweth of his sepulcher] Though the Devil made much ado about it, Jude. 9. as desirous thereby, to set up himself in the hearts of the living.

Vers. 7. Nor his natural force abated ] Jerome reads it, Nor his teeth loosed. And the use of Manna might be some reason; it being an exquisitely pure kind of food, of an aereal, and not very corruptible substance.

Vers. 8. And the children of Israel wept] And were ready to wish, (likely) as the Romans did of Augustus, that either he had never been born, or never died.

Vers. 9. And Joshua the son of Nun ] Sic uno avulso, non deficit alter Aureus. The Duke of Florence gave for his Ensign, a great Tree, with many spreading boughs, one of them being cut off, with this above-said Poesie: As one is broke off, another riseth up in the room.

Vers. 10. And there arose not ] This testimony, and indeed this whole Chapter is thought to have been added by Joshua, or Eleazar, being Divinely inspired, for the completing of the history, famous throughout the world; approved and expounded by all the holy Prophets, and Apostles; who out of this fountain, or rather, Occan of Divinity, (as Theodoret calleth Moses, ) have watered their several gardens: yea in pressing moral duties, what do they else but explain the Pentetench? What do they but unfold, and draw out that Arras, which was folded together before?