Genesis

A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION UPON GENESIS, WHEREIN THE TEXT IS EXPLAINED, SOME CONTROVERSIES ARE DISCUSSED, DIVERS COMMONPLACES HANDLED, AND MANY REMARKABLE MATTERS HINTED THAT HAD BY FORMER INTERPRETERS BEEN PRETERMITTED.

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. In the beginning.] A BEGINNING there was then, whatever Aristotle {a} fancied of the world’s eternity. So true is that of a learned Italians—Philosophy seeks after truth; divinity only finds it; religion improves it. {b} { Veritatem quaerit philosophia, invenit theologia, & c.} But the philosopher would be yet better satisfied. He had read (say some) {c} this first of Genesis, and was heard to say thereupon, Well said, Sir Moses; how prove you what you have so said? { Egregie dicis, domine Moses; sed quomodo probas?} An ancient {d} answereth, I believe it, I need not prove it. { credo, non probo} Another, {e} we believe the holy penmen before heathen wise men. { piscatoribus credimus, non dialecticis} A third, {f} The mysteries of the Christian religion are better understood by believing, than believed by understanding { Multo melius credendo intelliguntur, quam intelligendo creduntur fidei Christianae mysteria. Abbas Tuiciensis.} Theologia non est argumentativa. {g} But, best of all, the apostle, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." {#Heb 11:3} Divinity doth not use to prove her principles, whereof this is one. No, not Aristotle’s own divinity, (his Metaphysics, I mean) wherein he requires to be believed upon his bare word. Albeit, if Ramus may be judge, those fourteen books of his are the most idle and impious piece of sophistry that ever was set forth by any man. {h} Thus, "Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools." {#Ro 1:22} "Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?" {#Jer 8:9}

Plato had read Moses, whatever Aristotle had done; and held truly, that the world had a beginning. So did all the philosophers that were before Aristotle, except the Chaldeans, and Hossellus Lucanus, the Pythagorean, out of whom Aristotle took his arguments, which are to be read, {Physic, viii. c. 8, and ii. and l. 1. De Coelo, c. 1, and l. xii.; Metaphysics, c. 7.} But it is more than probable that he taught the world’s eternity in opposition to Plato and others, who rightly concluded the world must needs have had a beginning; otherwise we could not know whether the egg or the bird, the seed or the plant, the day or the night, the light or the darkness, were first; sure it is that he held that opinion rather out of an affectation of singularity, than for any soundness of the matter or strength of argument. Himself, in his first book of Topics, and ninth chapter, saith that it is no more than a topical problem: he should have said a plain paradox, yea, a mere falsity. For "In the beginning," the Jerusalem Targum hath "In wisdom," that is, in God the Son, saith Augustine, according to #Joh 1:3 Heb 1:2 Col 1:16. And indeed God created all things by his Son Christ; not as by a concreating cause, but as by his own essential Wisdom. {#1Co 1:24 Pr 1:20 8:1} And of this mystery and appellation some suppose the heathens had some traditional knowledge; for aa Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, was eternally and ineffably begotten in the divine essence, so they worshipped a goddess whom they called the goddess of wisdom, and feigned that she was begotten by Jupiter of his own brain; and they called her Αθηνη, which word is much like in sound with the Hebrew Adonai, as a reverend man {i} hath well observed.

God created.] Heb. Dii creavit. {Plural subject "Dii" (Gods) singular verb "creavit" . Editor.} The Mystery of the blessed Trinity, called by Elihu, {#Job 35:10} Eloah Gnoscai, "God my Makers"; and by David, {#Ps 149:1} "The Makers of Israel," and "Remember thy Creators," saith Solomon. {#Ec 12:1} To the same sense, sweetly sounds the Haphtera, or portion of Scripture which is read by the Jews, {j} together with this of Moses, viz., #Isa 42:5. And that of the psalmist, {#Ps 33:6} "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath or spirit of his mouth": that is, God the Father, by the Son, through the Holy Ghost, created all. This Trismegist, {k} an ancient Egyptian (for he flourished before Pharaoh), acknowledged, and thence had his name. The Hebrews also of old were no strangers to this mystery, though their posterity understood it not. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, writing on that, {#So 1:11} "We will make," &c., interprets it, "I and my judgment hall." Now a judgment hall in Israel consisted of three at least, which in their close manner of speech, they applied to God, who is Three in one, and One in three.

Rabbi Simeon, the son of Johai, brings a place out of Rabbi Ibba, on #De 6:4, "Jehovah Elohenu, Jehovah Echad, ‘The Lord our God is one Lord.’" Here the first Jehovah, saith he, is God the Father, Elohenu, the Son (who is fitly called our God, because he assumed our nature, as is well observed by Galatinus), the third Jehovah is God the Holy Ghost. Echad, one, showeth the unity of essence in this plurality of persons; wherefore, saith Luther, doth not Moses begin thus, "In the beginning, God said, Let there be a heaven, and earth," but because he would set forth the three persons in order; the Father, when he saith, God created; the Son, when he saith, God said; and the Holy Ghost, when he saith, God saw the light that it was good?

Created.] Made all things of nothing, in a most marvellous and magnificent manner, as the word signifieth. This Plato doubts of, Aristotle denies, Galen derides as a thing impossible, {l} because, with Nicodemus, he cannot conceive how these things can be. "The natural man," the mere animal, {Ψυχικος, #1Co 2:14} whose reason is not elevated by religion, "pereeiveth not these things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him." The cock on the dunghill meddles not with these matters. Well might St Paul tell the men of Athens, {#Ac 17:23,24} (and yet Athens was the Greece of Greece, Ελλας Ελλαδος {m} and had in it the most mercurial wits in the world), that God, "that made all things of nothing," was to them the "unknown God": and Lactantius fitly saith of Plato (who yet merited the style of Divine amongst them), that he dreamed of God, rather than had any true knowledge of him. {n} He nowhere called God the Creator, but Δημιουζγον, the workman; as one that had made the world of a preexistent matter, co-eternal to himself. Atheists of old scorned at the work of creation; and asked, "Quibus machinis," with what tools, engines, ladders, scaffolds, did the Lord set up this mighty frame? But, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed" (set in joint, ξατηζτισηαι, #Heb 11:3, the word signifieth, as all the members of the body are tied together by several ligaments), "by the word of God," without either tool or toil. {#Isa 40:28} He not only formed and made, but created all by the word of his power: see all these ascribed unto him in #Isa 43:7. There were four errors, saith a late learned man, {o} about the creation: some affirmed that the world was eternal; some that it had a material beginning, and was made of something; some held two beginners of things: that one beginner made things incorruptible, and another made things corruptible. Lastly, some said God made the superior creatures himself, and the inferior by angels. This very first verse of the Bible confutes all four. In the beginning, shows the world not to be eternal. Created, notes that it was made of nothing. The heaven and the earth, shows that God was the only beginner of all creatures. God created all: this excludes the angels. In the government of the world, we grant they have a great stroke. {#Eze 1:5,6 Da 10:1-11:45} Not so in the making of the world, wherein God was alone, and by himself. {#Isa 44:24} And, lest any should imagine otherwise, the creation of angels is not so much as mentioned by Moses, unless it be tacitly intimated in these words—"The heavens and the earth"; {p} "The world and all the things that are therein"; {#Ac 17:24} "Things visible and invisible"; {#Col 1:16} "whether they be thrones or dominions," &c., called elsewhere "angels of heaven"; {#Mt 24:26 Ga 1:8} because, probably, created with, and in the highest heaven, as Christ’s soul was created with, and in his body, in the Virgin’s womb, the self-same moment. The highest heaven, and the angels were of necessity, say some, to be created the first instant, that they might have their perfection of matter and form together; otherwise they should be corruptible. For whatsoever is of a pre-existent matter is resolvable, and subject to corruption; but that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed, hath no other change, but by the same hand to return to nothing again.

Ques. But if this were the heaven, what was the earth here mentioned?

Answ. Not that we now tread upon, for that was not made till the third day; but the matter of all that was afterwards to be created—being all things in power, nothing in act.

The Cabbalists observe that there are in this first verse of the Holy Bible six Alephs: and therehence they conclude, that the world shall last six thousand years. But they may be therein as far out as that wise man {q} was who, A.D. 1533, affirmed that the world would be at an end that very year, in the month of October, and that he pretended to gather out of those words, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum: and again those, Videbunt in quem transfixerunt. So some {r} since that, but little wiser, have foretold as much concerning the year of grace 1657, from those words mundi conflagratio; and because the universal flood fell out in the year of the world 1657. According to these groundless conjectures, confuted already by time, some have argued, that because Solomon’s temple was finished in the year of the world three thousand, therefore the spiritual temple shall be consummated in three thousand more. This reckoning comes up to that of the Cabbalists above mentioned; and to that known prophecy of Elias (but not the Tishbite), that as there were two thousand years, plus minus, before the law, and two thousand under the law, so there are to be two thousand under the gospel.

{a} Aristotle’s Physic.; vide Sharpei Symphon., p. 11, Pliny, l. i., c. 1. 2 Jo. Picas Mirand.

{b} Jo. Picus Mirand.

{c} D. Prid. Cathedra.

{d} Augustine

{e} Ambrose

{f} Rupet

{g} Alsted.

{h} Aristotle’s Σοφια, seu Theologia, sophistica, est, omnium quae literis unquam mandata sunt, maxime stulta, maximeque impia. -Ramus in Theolog.

{i} Mr Manton upon Jude.

{j} Moses was read every Sabbath, { #Ac 15:11} with a lecture out of the prophets, { #Ac 13:15}

{k} ηκμασε δε προ του φαραω—Suidas. τρις μεγιστος, in Poemandro. Nam haec propria est Hebraei verbi significatio. Jun.

{l} Irridet Galenus Mosen eo quod dicat Deum ex nulla praeexistente materia condidisse mundum. -Buch.

{m} Athenaeus.

{n} Somniaverat Deum, non cognoverat. -Instit., l. v. c. l4.

{o} Zanchi.

{p} Κοσμος μεν εστι συστημα εξ ουρανου και γης και των εν τουτοις περιεχομενων φυεων—Aristotle, De Mundo, c. 2. Yates’s Model of Divinity.

{q} Bucholcer., Chronol.

{r} Alsted., Chronol.

Ver. 2. And the earth was without form and void,] that is, as yet it had neither essential nor accidental perfection. The Lord afterward did form it into light, the firmament, the water, and the earth; so beginning above, and building downwards (in the new creature he doth otherwise); and in three days laying the parts of the world, and in other three days adorning them. The Rabbins tell us that Tohu and Bohu do properly import Materia prima and privatio; { a} and others of Tohu, derive Chaos, whence the ancient Latins called the world Chobus, and borrowed their word Inchoo (εγχυω), &c.

And darkness was upon the face of the deep,] that is, not of hell, as Origen expounds it, but of the deep waters (αβυσσος, see the like, #Lu 8:31), which "as a garment covered the earth, and stood above the mountains." {#Ps 104:6} This darkness God created not, for it was but the want of light. And to say that God dwelt in darkness till he had created light, was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees, as if God were not light itself, {#1Jo 1:5} and "the Father of lights"; {#Jas 1:17} or, as if God had not ever been a heaven to Himself, "Ere ever he had formed the earth and the heavens." {#Ps 90:2} What he did, or how he employed himself before the creation, is a sea over which no ship hath sailed, a mine into which no spade hath delved, an abyss into which no bucket hath dived. Our sight is too tender to behold this sun. A thousand years, saith a great divine, {b} are to God but as one day, &c. And who knoweth what the Lord hath done? Indeed, he made but one world to our knowledge; but who knoweth what he did before, and what he will do after? Thus he. As for St Augustine:

“The bishop Lybicus was shaping the underworld according to these verses, he said these ideas which he helps to be examined by means of such a mind.” {c}

Excellently another, {d} who wanted not wit: As in the element of fire, saith he, there is a faculty of heating and enlightening; whence proceedeth heat and light unto the external near bodies; and besides this faculty, there is also in it a natural power to go upward; which, when it cometh into act, is received into no other subject, but the fire itself: so that if fire could, by abstractive imagination, be conceived of as wanting those two transient operations, yet could we not justly say it had no action, forasmuch as it might move upward, which is an immanent and inward action. So, and much more so, though we grant that there was no external work of the Godhead, until the making of the world, yet can there be no necessary illation inference of idleness, seeing it might have (as indeed it had) actions immanent, included in the circle of the Trinity. This is an answer to such as ask, What God did before he made the world? God, saith Plotinus the Platonist, {e} not working at all, but resting in himself, doeth and performeth very great things.

And the Spirit of God moved, &c.] Or hovered over, {f} and hatched out the creature, as the hen doth her chickens; or as the eagle fluttereth over her young, to provoke them to flight. {#De 32:11} Or as by a like operation, this same Holy Spirit formed the child Jesus in the Virgin’s womb, in that wonderful "overshadowing" {#Lu 1:35}. The Chaldee here hath it, "The Spirit breathed"; and David saith the same. {#Ps 33:6} He became, to that rude dead mass, a quickening, comforting Spirit. He kept it together, which else would have shattered. And so he doth still, or else all would soon fall asunder, {#Heb 1:3 Ps 104:29} were not his conserving mercy still over, or upon, all his works. {#Ps 145:9}

{a} Ahlsted., Lexic. Theol., p. 111.

{b} Dr. Preston, Of God’s Attributes, p. 34. Rather, #2Pe 3:8—ED.

{c} Praesul ad haec Lybicus, fabricabat Tartara, dixit, His, quos scrutari talia mente iuvat.

Sabin, Poet.

{d} Cuff’s Differ. of Ages, p. 22.

{e} Ferebatur super aquas non pervagatione, sed potestate, non per spatium locorum, ut sol super terram, sed pepotentiam sublimitatis suae.—Eucherius

{f} Dei Dicere est Efficere, "of God, to say is to accomplish"

Ver. 3. And God saith, Let there, &c.] He commanded the "light to shine out of darkness." {#2Co 4:6} "He spake the word, and it was done." {#Ps 33:9 148:5} {a} Creation is no motion, but a simple and bare emanation; which is, when without any repugnancy of the patient, or labour of the agent, the work or effect doth voluntarily and freely arise from the action of the working cause, as the shadow from the body. So God’s irresistible power made this admirable work of the world, by his bare word, as the shadow and obscure representation of his unsearchable wisdom and omnipotency.

And there was light.] This first light was not the angels, as Augustine would have it; nor the element of fire, as Damascene; nor the sun, which was not yet created, nor a lightsome cloud, nor any such thing; but the "first day," which God could make without means, as Calvin well observeth. This light was the first ornament of the visible world, and so is still of the "hidden man of the heart," the new creature. {#Ac 26:18} The first thing in St Paul’s commission there, was to "open men’s eyes, to turn them from darkness to light," &c. To dart such a saving light into the soul, as might illighten both organ and object. In which great work also, Christ’s words are operative, together with his commands, in the mouths of his ministers. "Know the Lord; understand, O ye brutish among the people," &c. {#Ps 94:8} There goes forth a power to heal, as it did in #Lu 5:17; or as when he bade Lazarus arise, he made him to arise, so here the word and the Spirit go together; and then what wonder that the spirit of darkness falls from the heaven of men’s hearts, "as lightning". {#Lu 10:18} So as that they that erst "were darkness, are now light in the Lord," {#Eph 5:8} and do "preach forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light". {εξαγγεληζε, #1Pe 2:9}

{a} Dei Dicere est Efficere. "of God to speak is to accomplish"

Ver. 4. And God saw the light that it was good.]—Moveover he foresaw, so one renders it. {a} He saw this long before, but he would have us to see it; he commends the goodness of this work of his to us. Good it is surely, and a goodly creature: "sweet," saith Solomon; {#Ec 11:7} "comfortable," saith David. {#Ps 97:11} Which when one made question of—"That’s a blind man’s question," said the philosopher. {b} What is it then to enjoy him that is light essential? The Platonists (who were blind in divinis, and could not see afar off) could say that he was a blessed man, who enjoyed God, as the eye doth enjoy the light. {c}

And God divided the light, &c.]—Let not us confound them, {#2Co 6:14 1Th 5:5-7} and so alter God’s order by doing deeds of darkness, in a day of grace, in a land of light. What make owls at Athens? or such "spots," σπιλοι χαι μωμοι, among saints, as "count it pleasure to riot in the daytime?" {#2Pe 2:13} It was a shame that it should be said, There was never less wisdom in Greece, than in the time of the seven wise men of Greece. {d} It was a worse "shame," that it should be said to the Corinthians, that "some of them had not the knowledge of God"; {#1Co 15:34} and that such fornication was found among them as was not heard of among the heathen. {#1Co 5:1} For what fellowship hath light with darkness? {#2Co 6:14} Surely none. Our morning shadows fall as far as they can toward the west, evening toward the east, noonday toward the north, &c. Alexander having a soldier of his name, that was a coward, he bade him either abandon the name of Alexander, or be a soldier. {e}

{a} praeviderat autem—Zaberellus

{b} τυφλου το ερωτημα, Aristotle

{c} Beatum esse moninem Deo fruentem, sicut occulus luce. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, l. 3.

{d} Lactant.

{e} Plutarch

Ver. 5. And God called the light day, &c.] He taught men to call them so; day םרי, from the noise and hurry; night להלי, from the yelling of wild beasts. Darkness he created not, but only by accident; and yet not that, without some notable use. Much less that darkness of affliction which he is said to "create". {#Isa 45:7} "Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness," {#Ps 112:4} yea, light by darkness, as to Paul, whose bodily blindness opened the eyes of his mind. Luther said that God’s works are effected usually by contraries. {a} {Opera Dei sunt in mediis contrariis}

And the evening and the morning, &c.] Thales, one of the seven sages, had learned this truth by going to school in Egypt. For being asked whether was first, the day or the night? he answered, that the night was sooner by one day: {b} as who should say, afore God had created the light, it must needs be confessed that out of him there was nothing but darkness. Evening separates by darkness, morning by light; so the one disjoins day from night, the other night from day. Only this first evening separated not, because light was then uncreated. Yet it was of God appointed, even then, to stand between light and darkness. In the first evening was heaven and earth created, and in the first morning the light, both which make the civil day called νυχθημεζον by the apostle. {#2Co 11:25} And this (which doubtless is the natural order of reckoning the day, from evening to evening), was in use among the Athenians, {c} and is to this day retained by the Jews, Italians, Bohemians, Silesians, and other nations. Our life likewise is such a day, and begins with the dark evening of misery here; but death is to saints the daybreak of eternal brightness. Mourning lasteth but till morning. {#Ps 30:5} Nay, not so long; for, "Behold at eventide trouble, and before the morning he is not." {#Isa 17:14} It is but a "moment," yea, a very little moment, and the indignation will pertransire, be overpast, saith the prophet; {#Isa 26:20} so "little a while" as you can scarce imagine, saith the apostle. {ετι γαζ μικζον οσον οσον, #Heb 10:37} If it seem otherwise to any of us, consider:

1. That we have some lucida intervalla, some respires, interspiriates, breathing whiles. And it is a mercy that the man is not always sweating out a poor living, the woman ever in pangs of childbirth, &c. {#Ge 3:16-19}

2. That this is nothing to eternity of extremity, which is the just hire of the least sin. {#Ro 6:23}

3. That much good accrues unto us hereby. {#Heb 12:10} Yea, this "light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out unto us that far more excellent and eternal weight of glory." {#2Co 4:17} Oh, pray, pray "that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened by that Spirit of wisdom and revelation, we may know what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," &c. {#Eph 1:17,18}

{a} Laertius.

{b} Δια των εαυτων ενανια οικονομειτια ινα και μαλλον δαυμαξηται—Nazianz.

{c} Pliny, l. 2. c. 7.

Ver. 6. Let there be a firmament.] Yet not so firm, but it shall be dissolved. {#2Pe 3:11} That it is not presently so; that those windows of heaven are not opened, as once in the deluge, having no better a bar than the liquid air, and we suddenly buried in one universal grave of waters; see a miracle of God’s mercy, and thank him for this powerful word of his, "Let there be a firmament." Bartholinus {a} tells us, that in the year of Christ 1551, a very great multitude of men and cattle were drowned by a terrible tempest, the clouds suddenly dissolving, and the waters pouring down amain with such a strange stupendous violence, that the massy walls of many cities, various vineyards, and fair houses were utterly destroyed and ruined. Clouds, those bottles of rain, are vessels as thin as the liquor which is contained in them. There they hang and move, though weighty with their burdens. How they are upheld, saith a reverend divine, {b} and why they fall here and now, we know not, and wonder. {#Job 26:8} They water our lands, as we do our gardens, and are therefore called our heavens. {#De 33:28}

{a} Barthol. l. 2. De Meteoris

{b} D. H. Contemp.

Ver. 7. Waters which were above the firmament.] That is the clouds, and watery meteors above the lower region of the air, where God’s "pavilion round about him is dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies". {#Ps 18:11 Jer 10:13} These he "weighs by measure"; {#Job 28:25} not a drop falls in vain, or in a wrong place. And this is the first heaven: as the second is the starry sky, which is firm and fast, "as a molten looking-glass". {#Job 37:18} To this heaven, some that have calculated curiously, have found it five hundred years’ journey. Others say, that if a stone should fall from the eighth sphere, and should pass every hour a hundred miles, it would be sixty-five years or more, before it would come to ground. {a} Beyond this second heaven, Aristotle acknowledgeth none other. Beyond the movable heavens, saith he, there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. {b} But "we have a more sure word of prophecy." God’s blessed book assures us of a "third heaven," {#2Co 12:2} called elsewhere "the heaven of heavens," {#De 10:14} the "Paradise" of God, {#Lu 22:43} the "bosom of Abraham," {#Lu 16:22} the "Father’s house," {#Joh 14:2} the "city of the living God," {#Heb 12:22} the "country" of his pilgrims. {#Heb 12:14} A body it is, for bodies are in it; but a subtile, fine, spiritual body; next in purity to the substance of angels and men’s souls. It is also, say some, {c} solid as stone, but "clear as crystal" {#Re 21:11 Job 37:18} A true firmament, indeed, not penetrable by any, no, not by angels, spirits, and bodies of just men made perfect; but by a miracle, God making way by His power, where there is no natural passage. It opens to the very angels, {#Joh 1:51 Ge 28:12} who yet are able to penetrate all under it. The other two heavens are to be passed through by the grossest bodies.

{a} Burton. Of Melancholy

{b} ουδε τοπος ουδε κενον ουδε χρονος εστιν εξω του ουπονου—Arist. De Caelo, c. ix.

{c} Yates’s Model

Ver. 8. And the evening, &c.] Here is no mention of God’s approbation of this second day’s work. Not for that hell was then created, or the reprobate angels then ejected, as the Jews give as the reason of it; but because this day’s work was left unperfected, till the next; to the which, therefore, the blessing was reserved, and is then redoubled. God delights to do his works, not all at once, but by degrees, that we may take time to contemplate them piecemeal, and see him in every one of them, as in an optic glass. "Consider the lilies of the field," saith our Saviour. {Καταμαηετε #Mt 6:28} "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," saith Solomon. {#Pr 6:6} Luther {a} wished Pontanus, Chancellor of Saxony, to contemplate the star-chamber of heaven, that stupendous archwork borne up by no props or pillars, and yet not falling on our heads: the thick clouds also hanging often over us with great weight, and yet vanishing again, when they have greeted us but with their threatening looks. And cannot God as easily uphold his sinking saints, and blow over any storm that hangs over their heads? An artificer takes it ill, if when he hath finished some intricate piece of work, and sets it forth to be seen, as Apelles was wont to do, men slight it, and take no notice of his handiwork. And is there not a woe to such stupid persons as "regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands?." {#Isa 5:12} He was telling any tale from a bowl but that one stirred our ears, {A sino quispiam narrabat fabulam, at ille movebat aures} is a proverb among the Greeks. Christ was by at the creation, and rejoiced; {#Pr 8:30} angels also were by at the doing of a great deal, and were wrapped with admiration. {#Job 38:4-7} Shall they shout for joy, and we be silent? Oh, how should we vex at the vile dulness of our hearts, that are no more affected with these indelible ravishments!

{a} Proponit contemplandam pulcherrimam caeli concame rationem nullis pilis et columnis impositam, &c.—Scultet. Annal. 276

Ver. 9,10. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered, &c.] The water, they say, is ten times greater than the earth, as is the air ten times greater than the water, and the fire than the air. Sure it is, that the proper place of the water is to be "above the earth". {#Ps 104:6} Sailors tell us that as they draw nigh to shore, when they enter into the haven, they run as it were downhill. "The waters stood above the mountain," till (at God’s rebuke here) they "fled, and hasted away at the voice of his thunder, to the place which he had founded for them". {#Ps 104:6-8} This drew from Aristotle, in one place, {a} a testimony of God’s providence, which elsewhere he denies. And David, in the 104th Psalm, which one calleth his Physics, tells us that till the word of command, "Let the waters," &c., God "had covered the earth with the deep as with a garment." For as the garment, in the proper use of it, is above the body, so is the sea above the land. And such a garment, saith the divine cosmographer, would it have been to the earth, but for God’s providence towards us, as the shirt made for the murdering of Agamemnon, where he had no issue out. But "thou hast set a bound," saith the psalmist, "that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth". {#Ps 104:9} God had set the solid earth upon and above the liquid waters for our conveniency; so that men are said "to go down" (not up) "to the sea in ships". {#Ps 107:23} See his mercy herein, as in a mirror, and believe that God, whose work it is still to "appoint us the bounds of our habitation," {#Ac 17:26} will not fail to provide us a hospitium, a place to reside in, when cast out of all, as he did David, {#Ps 27:10} and David’s parents, {#1Sa 22:4} and the apostles, {#2Co 6:10} and the English exiles in Queen Mary’s days, and, before them, Luther, who, being asked where he thought to be safe, answered Under Heaven, {Sub caelo} {b} and yet before him, those persecuted Waldenses, after whom the Romish dragon cast out so much water as a flood, but the earth swallowed it; {#Re 12:15} and God so provided that they could travel from Cullen in Germany to Milan in Italy, and every night lodge with hosts of their own profession. {c} The waters of affliction are often gathered together against the godly, but, by God’s gracious appointment, ever under the heaven, -where our conversation is, {#Php 3:20} though our commoration be a while upon earth, -and unto one place, as the text here has it. {d} The dry land will appear, and we shall come safe to shore, be sure of it. The rock of eternity, {#Isa 26:4} whereupon we are set, is above all billows. Washed we may be, as Paul was in the shipwreck; drowned we cannot be, because in the same bottom with Christ, and "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." {#1Pe 1:5}

{a} Lib. De Mirabil.

{b} Scultet. Annal.

{c} Cade. Of the Church, p. 180.

{d} Pareus, in loc.

Ver. 10. He called earth.] This is, the earth which we tread (namely, still the land which we manage, the land we desire.) {Hoc est, terrain quam terimus (est enim, etiam, terra quam gerimus}—our bodies; -and {terra quam quaerimus,}— heaven) This he called earth, that is, he set it and settled it by the word of his power. Where we may well wonder that the earth, being founded upon the seas, and prepared upon the floods, and poised in the just proportion, by line, and measure, should abide steadfast; when the high mountains, which do, as it were, imboss the earth, may seem able to shake it, oversway it, and tumble it into the sea. {a}

{a} Bark. On Com.

Ver. 11,12. Let the earth bring forth, &c.] "Grass for the cattle, and herb for the use of man" {#Ps 104:14} and both these before either man or beast were created. He made meat before mouths. He fills for us two bottles of milk before we come into the world. Herbs and other creatures we have still to eat and to enjoy. {ad esum et ad usum} Our land flows not with "milk" only, for necessity; but with "honey" too, for delight. Nature, amidst all, is content with a little; grace, with less. Sing we merrily with him {a}

Hoc mihi pro certo, quod vitam qui dedit, idem

Et velit et possit suppeditare eibum.

This to me, for certain, because he who gave life, the same

And he wishes and is able to supply needs.

{a} Georg. Farbric. Chemnicensis

Ver. 12. And the earth brought forth, &c.] Augustine {a} thinks that thorns and thistles, brambles and briers were before the fall, though not in the same abundance as now. Basil thinks otherwise, and that till sin came in, the rose was without prickles. It is likely there were such shrubs at first created, {non ut loederent hominem non peccantem, sed peccaturum,} saith Pareus. Now since the fall, all creatures are armed against man: as that sword which Hector gave Ajax, which, so long as he used against men, his enemies, served for help and defence; but after he began to abuse it to the hurt of haemless beasts, it turned into his own bowels.

Yielding fruit after his kind.] So that men do not "gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles". {#Lu 6:44} "Can a fig tree," saith James, "bear olive berries? or a vine, figs?"; {#Jas 3:12} that were monstrous. And should not every man in like manner bear his own fruit, proper to his kind, to his calling? do his own work? weed his own gardens. "walk within his own house with a perfect heart," {#Ps 101:2} till God come unto him? Come he will, and look for fruit in its season. When he comes, he will turn up your leaves; and look that, like the tree of life, {#Re 22:21} we bear fruit every month: or that we be like the lemon tree, which ever and anon sendeth forth new lemons as soon as the former are fallen down with ripeness; or the Egyptian fig tree, which, saith Solinus, {b} beareth fruit seven times a year; pull off a fig, and another breaks forth in the place shortly after. Now if we be found like the barren fig tree, {#Lu 13:6-9} that had leaves only; or the cypress tree, which is said to be fair and tall, but altogether fruitless; or the cyparittree, of which Pliny {c} affirms, that it is always fruitless; {natu morosa, fructu supervacanea, baccis parva, foliis amara, odore violenta, ac ne umbra quidem gratiosa} what can we expect, but that he should set down his basket, and taking up his axe, hew us down as fuel for the fire of hell? Spain is said to have nothing barren in it, or not some way useful; {d} and why should Christ’s orchard, the Church? He pares and prunes {αιρει χαηαιρει, #Joh 15:2} his leaves and luxuriancies; yea, cuts and slashes where need requires; and all that we may bear more fruit. Sincerity alone will not comfort a man, unless it grow up to fruitfulness; which, springing from the exercise of grace, hath a sweet reflection on the soul, as in sick Hezekiah; {#Isa 38:3} and sweetly seals up our "calling to glory and virtue," {#2Pe 1:3} as the budding of Aaron’s rod did his calling to the priesthood: whereupon one well observeth, that not only all the plants of God’s setting, but the very boughs cut off from the body of them will flourish. Here some demand, Were the trees so created at first, that if sin had never entered, they had ever flourished, laden with fruit? Answer is made by a worthy divine, {e} that the allusion {#Re 22:2} seems to intimate some such matter. And perhaps Christ would else never have cursed the fruitless fig tree, since the time of figs was not yet come. {#Mr 11:13}

{a} Augustine, De Gen. ad Literam, l. iii. c. 18.

{b} Unde pomum decerpseris, alterum sine mora protuberat—Sol. in Polyhist., c. 45.

{c} Pliny, l. x.

{d} In Hispania nihil ignavum, nihil sterile.—Solin

{e} Brightm. On Rev.

Ver. 14,15. Let there be light.] The sun, moon, and stars, are, as it were, certain vessels, whereinto the Lord did gather the light, which before was scattered in the heavens. The sun, that prince of planets, but servant to the saints of the Most High, as his name imports, {a} cometh "out of his chamber as a bridegroom, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race"; {#Ps 119:5} this he doth with such a wonderful swiftness, as exceedeth the eagle’s flight, more than it goeth beyond the slow motion of a snail: and with such incomparable "sweetness," {#Ec 11:7} that Eudoxus, the philosopher, professed that he would be willing to be burnt up by the sun presently, so he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it. { In aeternum atri et tetri sunto et habentor, qui non tam cute quam corde Aethiopici, Solem quo magis luceat, eo magis execrentur!}{ b} Chrysostom {c} cannot but wonder, that whereas all fire tends upwards, the sun should shoot down his rays to the earth, and send his light abroad all beneath him. This is the Lord’s own work, and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes. {#De 4:19} It illuminates and beautifies all the orbs and heavenly bodies about it; yea, it strikes through the firmament, in the transparent parts, and seeks to bestow his beauty and brightness even beyond the heavens. It illightens even the opposite part of heaven (gliding by the sides of the earth) with all those glorious stars we see shining in the night. {d} Yea, it insinuates in every chink and cranny of the earth, and concurs to the making of those precious metals which lie in her bowels, besides those "precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and the precious things thrust forth by the moon." {#De 33:14} For as the sun by warmth, so the moon by moisture, maketh the earth fruitful: whence also she hath her name in the Hebrew, חרי, Jareach, from refreshing the earth with her cool influences. She is here called a "light," and a "great light": therefore she hath some light of her own, as the stars also have, besides what she borroweth of the sun; though not strong enough to rule the night without light from the sun. Galileo used perspectives to descry mountains in the moon; and some will needs place hell in the hollow of it. It is easy to discern that her body is not all alike lightsome, some parts being thicker and some thinner than others, and that the light of the sun falling on her is not alike diffused through her. It is sufficient that the Church looketh forth, at first, as the morning or day-dawning; she shall be "fair as the moon" at least in regard of sanctification, and (for justification) "clear as the sun," and therefore to the devil and his angels "terrible as an army with banners." {#So 6:10} Clouded she may be, or eclipsed, but not utterly darkened, or denied of light. Astronomers {e} tell us, that she hath at all times as much light as in the full; but oftentimes a great part of the bright side is turned to heaven, and a lesser part to the earth. God seems therefore to have set it lowest in the heavens, and nearest the earth, that it might daily put as in mind of the constancy of the one and the inconstancy of the other; herself in some sort partaking of both, though in a different manner; of the one in her substance, of the other in her visage.

{a} שׁמשׁ of שׁמשׁ, Chald. ministravit.

{b} Plutarch.

{c} Chrysost., Hom. 8 ad pop. Antioch.

{d} Bolt. Walk with God.

{e} D. Hackwel’s Apolog. Preface.

Ver. 16,17. He made also the stars.] To be receptacles of that first light, whence they are called "stars of light," {#Ps 148:3} and to work upon inferior bodies, which they do by their motion, light, and influence, { efficiendo imbres, ventos, grandines, procellas, sudum, &c., } by causing foul or fair weather, as God appoints it. Stars are the storehouses of God’s good treasure, which he openeth to our profit. {#De 28:12} By their influence they make a scatter of riches upon the earth, which good men gather, and muckworms scramble for. Every star is like a purse of gold, out of which God throws down riches and plenteousness into the earth. "The heavens" also are "garnished" by them; {#Job 26:13} they are, as it were, the spangled curtain of the bridegroom’s chamber, the glorious and glittering rough-cast of his heavenly palace, the utmost court of it, at least, from the which they twinkle to us, and teach us to remember our and their Creator, who in them makes himself visible, nay "palpable" {ψηλφησειαν, #Ac 17:27} His wisdom, power, justice, and goodness are lined out unto us in the brows of the firmament; the countenance whereof we are bound to mark, and to discern the face of the heavens, which therefore are somewhere compared to a scroll that is written. "The heavens," those catholic preachers, "declare the glory of God," &c.; "their line," saith David; {#Ps 19:1; םליק, #Hab 3:3} "their voice," saith Paul, citing the same text {φηογγος, #Ro 10:18} is gone out throughout all the earth; they are real postils of his divinity. These, nay, far meaner creatures, teach us, as Balaam’s ass did that mad prophet; {#2Pe 2:16} to this school are we now put back, as idle truants to their A B C. Only let us not, as children, look most on the babies on the backside of our books; gaze not, as they do, on the gilded leaves and covers, never looking to our lessons; but as travellers in a foreign country, observe and make use of everything, not content with the natural use of the creature, as brute beasts, but mark how every creature reads us a divinity lecture, from the highest angel to the lowest worm.

Ver. 21. And God created great whales.] In creating whereof, {creavit Deus vastitates et stupores.} For, as Pliny {a} writes of them, when they swim and show themselves above water, they seem to be so many islands, an nare insulas putes and have been so esteemed by seafaring men, to their great danger and disadvantage. Into the rivers of Arabia, saith Pliny, {b} there have come whales 600 feet long, and 360 feet broad. This is "that leviathan" that plays in the sea, besides other "creeping" or moving "things innumerable". {#Ps 104:25} This one word of God’s mouth, Fiat, hath made such infinite numbers of fishes, that their names may fill a dictionary. Philosophers tell us that whatsoever creature is upon the earth, there is the like thereof in the sea, yea, many that are nowhere else to be found; but with this difference, that those things that on the earth are hurtful, the like thereunto in the waters are hurtless, as eels, those water snakes, are without poison, &c., yea, they are wholesome and delicious food. Piscis comes of paseo; and in Hebrew the same word הכרב signifieth a pond or fishpool, and blessing. Many islands are maintained, and people fed by fish, besides the wealth of the sea. The ill-favoured oyster hath sometimes a bright pearl in it. In allusion whereunto "we have our treasure," that pearl of price, the gospel, saith Paul, οστραξινοις σξευασιν, "in oyster-shells". {#2Co 4:7} And albeit now "every creature of God is good," and "to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe"; {#1Ti 4:3,4} yet under the Law, those fish only were reputed clean that had fins and scales. {#De 14:9} So saith St. Bernard, {c} are those only clean in the sight of God, that have the scales of patience, and fins of cheerfulness. {qui squamas et loricam habent patientiae, et pinnulas hilaritatis}

And every winged fowl.] Birds were made of all Sour elements, yet have more of the earth. {#Ge 2:19} And therefore that they are so light, and do so delight in the air, it is so much the more marvellous. They sing not at all till they have taken up a stand to their mind; nor shall we praise God till content with our estate. They use not to sing when they are on the ground, but when got into the air, or on the tops of trees. Nor can we praise God aright, unless weanedly affected to the world. It was a good speech of heathen Epictetus, {d} {Si luscinia essem, facerem quod luscinia. Cure autem homo rationalis sim, quid faciam? Laudabo Deum, nec cessabo unquam; vos vero, ut idem faciatis, hortor.} But concerning the creation of birds, there is in Macrobius {e} a large dispute and disquisition, whether were first, the egg or the bird? And here reason cannot resolve it, since neither can the egg be produced without the bird, nor yet the bird without the egg. But now both Scripture and nature determine it, that all things were at first produced in their essential perfection.

{a} Pliny, l. ix. c. 3.—Ad quas nautae appellentes nonnunquam magnum incurrunt discrimen.

{b} Pliny, l. xxxii, c. 1.—Cur pisces vocat reptiles? Repere communiter dicuntur omnia αποδα, vel quae habent pedes breviores ut mures, &c.

{c} Bern., Serm. in Dei Sancti Andreae

{d} Epist. Enchirid

{e} Morneus, De Verit. Relig. c. 9.

Ver. 22. Be fruitful and multiply.] By bidding them do so, he made them do so, for his words are operative. Trismegist saith the self-same things in effect that Moses here doth. God, saith he, crieth out to his works by his holy word, saying, "Bring ye forth fruit, grow and increase," &c. Note the harmony here, and in twenty more passages, between Mercury and Moses. {a} God hath not left his truth without witness from the mouths of heathen writers. We may profitably read them, but not for ostentation. That were to make a calf of the treasure gotten out of Egypt.

{a} Morneus, De Verit. Relig. c. 9.

Ver. 24, 25. Let the earth, & c.] Lo here the earth, in itself a dead element, brings forth, at God’s command, living creatures, tame, wild, and creeping. "Why then should it be thought a thing incredible," that the same earth, at God’s command, should bring forth again our dead bodies restored to life, at the last day? {#Ac 26:8} Surely if that speech of Christ, "Lazarus, Come forth," {#Joh 11:43} had been directed to all the dead, they had all presently risen. If he speak to the rocks, they rend; if to the mountains, they melt; if to the earth, it opens; if to the sea, it yields up her dead; if to the whole host of heaven, they tremble and stand amazed, waiting his pleasure. And shall he not prevail by his mighty power, the same that he put forth in the raising of his Son Christ, {#Eph 1:19} to raise us from the death of sin; and of carnal, to make us a people created again? {#Ps 102:18} Doth he not "plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, that he may say to Zion, Thou art my people?" {#Isa 51:16} "Empty man would be wise," saith Zophar, {#Job 11:12} "though man be born like a wild ass-colt." Man’s heart is a mere emptiness, a very Tohu vabohu, as void of matter to make him a new creature of, as the hollow of a tree is of heart of oak. God, therefore, creates in his people clean hearts. {#Ps 51:10} And, as in the first creation, {a} so in the new creature, the first day, as it were, God works light of knowledge; the second day, the firmament of faith; the third day seas and trees, that is, repentant tears, and worthy fruits; the fourth day, the sun, joining light and heat together, heat of zeal with light of knowledge; the fifth day, fishes to play, and fowls to fly, so to live and rejoice in a sea of troubles, and fly heavenward by prayer and contemplation; the sixth day God makes beasts and man, yea, of a wild ass-colt, a man in Christ, with whom "old things are past, all things are become new," {#2Co 5:17} and to whom, besides that they are all taught of God {θεοδιδακτοι, #1Th 4:9} the very beasts {#Isa 1:2} and birds {#Jer 8:7} do read a divinity lecture. "Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, they shall tell thee". {#Job 12:7} The whole world is nothing else, saith one, but {b} "God expressed," so that we cannot plead ignorance; for all are, or may be, book-learned in the creature. This is the shepherd’s calendar, the ploughman’s alphabet; we may run and read in this great book, which hath three leaves—heaven, earth, sea. "A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this". {#Ps 92:6} They stand gazing and gaping on the outside of things only, but ask not who is their Father, their Creator; like little children, which when they find a picture in their book, they gaze and make sport with it, but never consider it. Either their minds are like a clock that is over-wound above the ordinary pitch, and so stands still; their thoughts are amazed for a time; they are like a block, thinking nothing at all, or else they think, atheistically, that all comes by nature; but "hast thou not known?" saith the prophet, "hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator?" &c. {#Isa 40:28} Or, at best, as the common passenger looks only at the hand of the dial to see what of the clock it is, but takes no notice of the clockwork within, the wheels and poises and various turnings and windings in the work; so it is here with the man that is no more than a mere "natural." "But he that is spiritual discerneth all things"; {#2Co 2:15} he entereth into the clock-house, as it were, and views every motion, beginning at the great wheel, and ending in the least and last that is moved. He studies the glory of God revealed in this great book of nature, and praiseth his power, wisdom, goodness, &c. And for that in these things "he cannot order his speech, because of darkness," {#Job 37:19} he begs of God a larger heart, and better language, and cries out continually with David, "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever and ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen". {#Ps 72:18,19}

{a} Lightf. Miscel.

{b} Anton. Eremita ap Aug. l. 3. De Doctr. Chris. Neceph. l. 8. c. 40. Clem. Alex.

Ver. 25. And all creeping things of the earth.] God assigns the parts of the people as of the gnat, saith an ancient. {Disponit Deus membra publicis et culicis.} And the wisdom of men and angels, saith a modern writer, cannot mend the least thing in a fly. The figure, colour, quality, quantity of every worm, and every flower, with what exactness is it ordered! as if God nod nothing else to do, but to bring forth such a creature into the world, as the product of his infinite wisdom. The devil, with all his skill, could not create a louse. {#Ex 8:18} Myrmecides spent more time to make an artificial bee, than some do to build a house. Pliny {a} makes mention of one who had spent sixty-eight years in searching out the nature of the bee, and yet had not fully found it out. God is the greatest in the smallest matters. {Deus est maximus in mininis.} Holy Mr Dod, being at Holmeby, and invited by an honourable person to see that once stately house, desired to be excused, and to sit still, looking on a flower which he had in his hand. "In this flower," saith he, "I can see more of God than in all the beautiful buildings in the world." {b}

{a} Plin. l. xi. c. 9.

{b} Full. Chur. Hist. p. 210.

Ver. 26. And God said, Let us make man.] Man is the masterpiece of God’s handiwork. Sun, moon, and stars are but "the work of his fingers," {#Ps 8:3} but man the work of his hands. He is made of divine nature, {cura divini ingenii} made by counsel at first, "Let us make," &c.; and his body, which is but the soul’s sheath {a} {#Da 7:15} is still "curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth," that is, in the womb; {comp. #Ps 139:15 Eph 4:9} as curious workmen, when they have some choice piece in hand, they perfect it in private, and then bring it forth to light for men to gaze at. "Thine hands have made me" (or took special pains about me), "and fashioned me," saith Job. {#Job 19:8} "Thou hast formed me by the book," saith David, {#Ps 139:16} yea, embroidered me with nerves, veins, and variety of limbs, {#Ps 139:15} miracles enough, saith one, beteen head and foot, to fill a volume. There are six hundred muscles, saith another out of Galen, in the body of man; and every one fitted for ten uses: so for bones, nerves, arteries, and veins, whosoever observeth their use, situation, and correspondency of them, cannot but fall into admiration of the wisdom of the Maker; who hath thus exactly framed all things at first out of nothing; and still out of the froth of the blood. Man, saith a heathen, is the bold attempt of daring nature; {b} the fair workmanship of a wise artificer,’ {c} {d} saith another; the greatest of all miracles, {e} saith a third. And surely should a man be born into the world but once in a hundred years, all the world would run to see the wonder. {Sed miracula assiduitate vilescunt.} Galen, {f} that profane man, was forced, upon the description of man and the parts of his body only, to sing a hymn to the Creator, whom yet he knew not. I make here, saith he, a true hymn in the honour of our Maker; whose service, I believe verily, consisteth not in the sacrificing of hecatombs, or in burning great heaps of frankincense before him, but in acknowledging the greatness of his wisdom, power, and goodness; and in making the same known to others, &c. And, in another place, Who is he, saith Galen, which, looking but only upon the skin of a thing, wondereth not at the cunning of the Creator? Yet, notwithstanding, he dissembleth not that he had tried by all means to find some reason of the composing of living creatures; and that he would rather have fathered the doing thereof upon nature, than upon the very Author of nature. And in the end, {g} concludeth thus: I confess that I know not what the soul is, though I have sought very narrowly for it. Favorinus the philosopher was wont to say, The greatest thing in this world is man, and the greatest thing in man is his soul. {h} It is an abridgment of the invisible world, as the body is of the visible. Hence, man is called by the Hebrews, Gnolam hakkaton, and by the Greeks, microcosmus, a little world. And it was a witty essay of him, {i} who styled woman the second edition of the epitome of the whole world. The soul is set in the body of them both, as a little god in this little world, as Jehovah is a great God in the great world. Whence Proclus the philosopher could say, that the mind that is in us is an image of the first mind, that is, of God.

In our image, after our likeness,] that is, as like us as may be, to come as near us as is possible; for these two expressions signify but one and the same thing; and, therefore, {#Ge 1:27 5:1 9:6} one of them only is used: howbeit, Basil refers image to the reasonable soul in man, similitude to a conformity to God in holy actions. Some of the fathers had a conceit that Christ made man’s body with his own hands according to the form and likeness of that body which himself would afterwards assume and suffer in. We deny not that man’s body also is God’s image, as it is a little world; and so the idea or example of the world, that was in God from all eternity, is, as it were, briefly and summarily expressed by God in man’s body. But far be it from us to conceive of God as a bodily substance, to think him like unto us, as we are very apt to do. God made man in his own image; and men, of the other side, quasi ad hostimentum, would make God after their image. {j} It was seriously disputed by the monks of Egypt, A.D. 493, {k} and much ado there was about it, whether God were not a bodily substance, having bands, eyes, ears, and other parts, as we have. For so the simpler sort among them were clearly of opinion. And in the second Council of Nice under Irene, {l} John, one of the legates of the Eastern Churches, proved {m} the making of images lawful, because God had said in this text, "Let us make man after our own image." And it was there decreed that they should be reverenced and adored in as ample and pious manner as the glorious Trinity. But "God is a Spirit," {#Joh 4:24} saith our Saviour, who best knew, for he came out of his Father’s bosom. And man’s soul is a spirit likewise, invisible, immaterial, immortal, distinguished into. three powers, which ali make up one spirit. Spirit signifies breath; {n} which, indeed, is a body. But because it is the finest body, the most subtile and most invisible, therefore immaterial substances, which we are not able to conceive, are represented unto us under this name. Such is the soul of man, which, for the worth of it, the Stoics called the whole of man. {o} The body is but the sheath of the soul, said Daniel; the shell of it, said Zoroastes; the servant, {p} yea, the sepulchre {q} of it, say others. Compared to the soul, it is but as a clay wall that encompasseth a treasure; as a wooden box of a jeweller; as a coarse case to a rich instrument; or as a mask to a beautiful face. He that alone knew, and went to the worth of souls, hath told us, that a soul is more worth than all the world besides, because infused by God, aud stamped with, his image and superscription. Now, if we must give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, και τα του θεου τω θεω, three articles, for one in the former clause; {#Mt 22:21} Gaspar Ens says—why give we not our souls to God, since they are made in his image? {Cur non etnos animam nostram, Dei imaginen, soli Deo consignemus?}

Why "present we not our bodies" also to God, "a living sacrifice," since {#Ro 12:1} it is so curiously wrought, so neatly made up? Luther, upon the Fourth Commandment, tells of two cardinals, in the time of the Council of Constance, who, riding thither, saw a shepherd weeping bitterly; they pressed him to tell the cause. He said, "I, looking upon this toad, considered that I never praised God as I ought, for making me a comely and reasonable creature, and not a toad." {See Trapp on "Ge 1:28"}

{a} Animae vaginae.

{b} τοληροτατης της φυσεως αγαλμα—Trismegls.

{c} Σοφου τεκτονος καλον ποικιλμα—Eurip.

{d} Τεχνημα σοφουντος δημιουργου και φιλοξωου—Xenoph.

{e} Miraculorum omnium maximum.—Stoici.

{f} Gal. l. iii. De usu partium. l. xi. and xvii.

{g} l. xv.

{h} Nihil in terra magnum praeter hominem, nihil in homine praeter mentem.

{i} Favorinus Gell.

{j} Molinaeus. De Cogn. Dei.

{k} Funcius. Chro. in Commentar.

{l} Heylin’s Geog. Cosmography, p. 533.

{m} Aeute obtusi.

{n} Omnis nominis Jehovae literae sunt spirituales, ut denotetur Deum esse spiritum.—Insted.

{o} Solam mentem dignam esse quae homo appelletur, Stoici statuunt. Sic Plato scripsit Ουκ εστιν ανθρωπος το ορωμενον

{p} Corpus sire corpor quasi cordispor, i.e. puer sire famulus.—Camerarius.

{q} σωμα quasi σημα. Δεμας, i.e. vinculum, sc. animae. Maerob. Som. Scip., l. i., c. 11.

Ver. 27. So God created man in his own image.] There is a double image of God in the soul. One in the substance of it, whereof I have spoken in the former verse. The other in the qualities and supernatural graces, of knowledge in the understanding, rightness or straitness in the will, and holiness in the affections. In all these, man, when he came first out of God’s mint, shone most gloriously. {O! quantum haec Niobe, &c.} But now, Oh, think of this burnt temple, and mourn, as they in Ezra {#Ezr 3:12} {Ebur candidissimum, adhibito igne, nigrescit.}

Ver. 28. Subdue the earth, and have dominion.] Make it habitable by driving out the wild beasts that infest and annoy it. Make it arable also, and useful to yourselves and yours. The creatures are man’s servants and household stuff. "God hath put all things under his feet," {#Ps 8} that be may raise himself thereby to God his maker. {a} A wise philosopher could say, that man is the end of all things in a semicircle; that is, all things in the world are made for him, and he is made for God; to know and acknowledge him, to serve and express him, to say to him as David, and that Son of David, Lord, "a body (a soul) hast thou given me; behold I come to do thy will, O God" {#Heb 10:5 Ps 40:6} The very Manichees, that denied God to be the author of the body, fasted on Sundays, and in fasting, exercised a humiliation of the body. The Paternians are not worth speaking of, who held this heresy {b} in the year of Christ 387, that the lower parts of man’s body were not made by God, but by the devil; and therefore allowing liberty of all wickedness to those parts, they lived most impurely. But if superstitious persons must reckon for it, that punish their bodies {#Col 2:22} without commandment from God, where shall those beasts appear that defile their bodies, and damn their soul? How shall all the creatures, instead of serving them, take up arms for God, and serve against them, yea, rise up in judgment and condemn them, for that when all other things keep their fit and proper places in the frame, and observe their peculiar ends and uses whereunto they were created, men only, as so many Heteroclites and Irregulars, should prove unprofitable, unuseful, nay, hurtful to the whole frame, causing vanity and misery to the poor creature which groans under it, and so defiling the very visible heavens, that they must be purged by the last fire, as those vessels were in the law that held the sin-offering! As for those that are in Christ, they are restored to the privileges of their first creation, as fellowship with God, dominion over the creatures, &c. {#Ro 8}, as appears by comparing #Ps 8:6 Heb 2:6,7, &c., where whatever is spoken of man is applied to Christ, and so is proper to the Church, which is Christ mystical, union being the ground of communion. Christ is married to his people in faithfulness, and as part of a jointure, he hath taken and bound over the best of the creatures to serve them, and bring them in provision {#Ho 2:20-22}

{a} Qui dominari in caetera possit, natus homo est.

{b} Alsted. Chron. p. 387.

Ver. 29. Behold, I have given you.] By this "behold," God stirs up them and us to confidence, thankfulness, {#Ps 16} and obedience to so liberal a Lord, so bountiful a benefactor. And surely as iron put into the fire seems to be nothing but fire, so Adam, thus beloved of God, was turned into a lump of love, and bethinks himself what to do by way of retribution. All other creatures also willingly submitted to God’s ordinance and man’s service, well apaid of God’s provision, that great housekeeper of the world, that hath continually so many millions at bed and board. This is intimated in that last clause.

Ver. 30. And it was so.] Both man and beast were well paid of God’s appointment, as good cause they had; for he is no penny father, but openeth his hand, and filleth with his blessing every thing living. {#Ps 145:16} "And it was so"; an undoubted argument surely of God’s infinite goodness, thus to have provided for so divers natures and appetites, divers food, remedies, and armour; {#Ps 104} for men, especially, "filling their hearts with food and gladness" {#Ac 14:17}

Ver. 31. Behold it was very good.] Or, extreme good, pleasant and profitable, a curious and glorious frame, full of admirable variety and skill, such as caused delight and complacency in God, and commands contemplation and admiration from us, like as a great garden, stored with fruits and flowers, calls our eyes on every side. Wherefore else hath God given us a reasonable soul, and a Sabbath day, and a countenance bent upward, and, as they say, {a} peculiar nerves in the eyes, to pull them up toward the seat of their rest? Besides a nature carried with delight after plays, pageants, masks, strange shows, and rare sights, which oft are sinful or vain, or, at best, imperfect and unsatisfactory? Surely those that "regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, God shall destroy, and not build them up"; {#Ps 28:5} which to prevent, good is the counsel of the prophet Amos; and that upon this very ground, "Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel: for lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind," &c. {#Am 4:12,13} When he had made man, he made an end of making anything more, because he meant to rest in man, to delight in him, to communicate himself unto him, and to be enjoyed by him throughout all eternity. And notwithstanding the fall, he hath "found a ransom," {#Job 33:24} and "creating us in Christ Jesus unto good works," {#Eph 2:10} he "rejoiceth over" his new workmanship "with joy"; yea, he "rests in his love," and wilt seek no further {#Zep 3:17} But what a mouth of madness did Alfonso {b} the Wise open, when he said openly, that if he had been of God’s counsel at the creation, some things should have been better made and marshalled! Prodigious blasphemy!

{a} Bodin. Theat. Naturae.

{b} Roderit. Santii. Hist. Hisp. p. 4. c. 5. ex antiq. Annanlib.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. All the host of them.] His upper and nether forces, his horse and foot, as it were, all creatures in heaven, earth, or under earth; called God’s host, for their (1) number, (2) order, (3) obedience. These the Rabbins {a} call magnleh cheloth, and matteh cheloth, the upper and lower troops ready pressed.

{a} Kimchi

Ver. 2. He rested,] that is, he ceased to create; which work he had done, without either labour or lassitude {#Isa 40:28} He made all, by command not by works. {nutu, non motu.}

Ver. 3. God blessed the seventh day,] i.e., made it an effectual means of blessing to him that sanctifieth it, as a rest from bodily labour and spiritual idleness, as Ignatius {a} exhorts.

And sanctified it,] i.e., consecrated and set it apart for holy use; as they sanctified, that is, appointed Kedesh for a city of refuge {#Jos 20:7, margin.}

{a} Εκαστος ημων σαββατιξετω πνευατικως μελετη νομου χαιρων ου σωματος ανσει Ignat. Ep 3, Ad Magnesios. Spac. Europae

Ver. 4. Jehovah God.] Moses first calls God JEHOVAH here, when the universal creation had its absolute being. This is the proper name of God. The Jews pronounce it not; we profane it, which is to them a great stumbling block. The first among the Christians that pronounced Jehovah was Petrus Galatinus. But if ye would pronounce it according to the own letters, it should be Jahua, as Jarmuth, Jagnakob. This essential and incommunicable name of God, is by the more ancient better minded Hebrews called Hashem, "the name," by an excellency; and Shem hamphorash, "the expounded name," because it might be expounded by a name of twelve letters, which is this, say they, Ab, Ben veruach hakkodesh, that is, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They call it also Tetragrammaton, or the name consisting of four letters. In reference whereunto, likely, the Pythagoreans used to swear by τετιραχτη, quaternity, or the number of four; which they also called "the fountain of everlasting nature," παγαν αεναου φυσεως.

Ver. 5. The Lord hath caused it to rain.] And none but he can give rain, {#Jer 14:22} the means of fruitfulness, which yet he is not tied to as here. The Egyptians used in mockery to tell the Grecians, that if God should forget to rain, they might chance to starve for it.

Ver. 6. But there went up a mist.] The matter of rain: and hereby God tempered the mortar whereof he would make man, as he did the clay with spittle, wherewith he cured the blind. {#Joh 9:6}

Ver. 7. Formed man of the dust.] Not of the rocks of the earth, but dust, that is soon dispersed, to note our frailty, vility, and impurity. {Lutum enim conspurcat omnia, sic et caro.} {a} But why should so glorious a soul (called here Neshamah, of affinity to Shamajim, heaven, whence it came) dwell in this corruptible and contemptible body? For answer, besides God’s will, and for order of the universe, Lombard saith, {b} that by the conjunction of the soul with the body, so far its inferior, man might learn and believe a possibility of the union of man with God in glory, notwithstanding the vast distance of nature, and excellence; the infiniteness of both in God, the finiteness of both in man.

And breathed into his nostrils.] The greatest man is but a little air and dust tempered together. {Quidam volunt metaphoram sumptam a vitrorum formatione.} What is man, saith one, {c} but Νους και χους, soul and soil, breath and body, a pile of dust the one, a puff of wind the other, no solidity in either? Man is nothing else but the son of the earth, the nephew of nothing, {terrae filius, nihili nepos} saith Augustine; or a piece of clay neatly made up, {d} as Arian upon Epictetus hath it.

And man became a living soul.] Dicaearchus doubted of the soul, whether there was such a thing in natural events. {rerum natural} {e} He could not have doubted of it without it; as man cannot prove logic to be unnecessary, but by logic.

{a} Zuinglius.

{b} Lomb., l. ii. dis. 1.

{c} Nazian.

{d} πηλος κομφως πεφυραμενος.

{e} Tusc. Quaest.

Ver. 8. And the Lord God planted.] Had planted (to wit, on the third day, when he made trees) for man’s pleasure, a garden or paradise in Eden, whence ηδονη, in the upper part of Chaldea, whereabout Babel was founded. It was destroyed by the deluge; the place indeed remained, but not so the pleasantness of the place, the rose fell and remained thorny. {cecidit rosa, mansit spina} And yet that country is still very fruitful, returning, if Herodotus and Pliny {a} may be believed, the seed beyond credulity.

He put the man whom he had formed.] And formed him not far from the garden, say the Hebrews; to mind him that be was not here to set up his rest, but to "wait till his change should come."

{a} Διηκοσια μεν το παραπαν αποδιδοι, Herod., l. i. Pliny, l. vi. c. 26. Donec a spe ad speciem transiret

Ver. 9. Every tree, &c.] The Hebrews think that the world was created in September, because the fruits were then ripe and ready. Επεχω

The tree of life also.] A symbolical tree; by the eating of the fruit whereof Adam should have had Gaius’s prosperity, "his body should have been in health, as his soul prospered," {#3Jo 2}

The tree of knowledge of good and evil.] So called, not because itself either knew, or could cause man to know; but from the event; God forewarning our first parents, that they should know by woeful experience, unless they abstained, what was the worth of good, by the want of it; and what the presence of evil, by the sense of it. In like sort the waters of Meribah, and Kibroth Hattaavah, or the graves of lust, received their names from that which happened in those places.

Ver. 10. And a river went out.] Pliny writeth, {a} that in the province of Babylon there is burning and smothering a certain lake or bog, about the size of an acre. And who knows, whether that be not a piece of Paradise now drowned and destroyed?

{a} Plin., l. ii., c. 106.

Ver. 11. Where there is gold.] Which, though never so much admired and studiously acquired, is but the guts and garbage of the earth. Gold is that which the basest element yields, the most savage Indians get, servile apprentices work, Midianitish camels carry, miserable muckworms adore, unthrifty ruffians spend. It is to be wondered that, treading upon these minerals, we cannot contemn them. They lie farthest from heaven, and the best of them in Havilah, farthest of all from the Church. Adam had them in the first paradise. In the second we shall not need them. Money is the monarch of this world, and answers all things; but in the matters of God, money bears no mastery, will fetch in no commodity {#Job 28:15} Wise men esteemed it as the stones of the street. {#2Ch 1:15} Children of wisdom might not possess it in their girdles. {#Mt 10:9} Medes cared not for it; {#Isa 13:17} and devils were sent to keep rich and pleasant palaces. {#Isa 13:22} So subject these metals are to ensnare and defile us, that God made a law to have them purified, ere he would have them used, {#Nu 31:22,23} and appointed the snuffers and snuff-dishes {#Ex 25:38} of the sanctuary to be made of pure gold, to teach us to make no account of what he put to so base offices, and is frequently given to so bad men. The Spaniard {a} found in the mines of America more gold than earth. Hasten we to that country where "God shall be our gold, and we shall have plenty of silver" {#Job 22:25, margin}

{a} Heyl. Geog., p. 714.

Ver. 12. And the gold of that land is good.] But pale, because it feareth, saith one, wittily, those many that lie in wait for it. {Sed melius est pallens aurum, quam fulgens aurichalcum.} {a} The common cry is, "Who will show us any good?" {#Ps 4:6} That will I, saith God to Moses, when he gave him a glimpse of his glory. {#Ex 33:19} and I will "show thee, O man, what is good," &c. {Ostendam tibi omne bonum} {#Mic 6:8,9} As for gold, how good soever in itself, it is to men but an imaginary good at best: for it is opinion which setteth the price upon it: brass or leather, {forma publica percussum} saith Seneca, that is, stamped for coin, may pass as well as gold; it did so some time in the Roman provinces; and here in England also, in the time of the barons’ wars. Yea, gold oft proves to the possessors a real evil. {#Pr 1:19,20} It doth always so, when it gets within them, {b} as it did within the covetous Pharisees, so that they "said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence". {as #Job 31:24} Pindar saith, it was an opinion of the people concerning Rhodes, that Jupiter rained down gold upon that city, so rich it was; yet is it now in slavery to the Turk. America is said to have as much gold ore as other earth: yet are the Americans bound by the proud Spaniard to be both popish and poor upon pain of death. Susiana, the country here called Havilah, the gold whereof is so good, had its name from Shushan or Susa, the palace of the kings of Persia, the stones whereof were joined together with gold, saith Cassiodorus: yet is it now called, in the Persian tongue, Valdac, from the poverty of the place. "Trust not," therefore, "in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy". {#1Ti 6:17}

And the onyx-stone.] Precious stones are but earth blemished and impure. {terra maculae et immunditiae.}

{a} Bernard.

{b} τα ενοντα

Ver. 13. The name of the second river is Gihon.] This is the same, say some, which the Egyptians call Nile. Others make it to be a channel of the river Euphrates, called by those that dwell near it Naharsares. The hill where Solomon was anointed king, was also called Gihon.

Ver. 14. Hiddekel.] Or Tigris, which hath its name from the swiftness of the stream: Tigris in the Median tongue signifieth an arrow, saith Curtius, which flieth very swiftly. The tiger also is the swiftest of all beasts. Hiddekel signifieth sharp, swift. Contrariwise, Nile floweth gently, { Lene fluit Nilus} saith Claudian; so do the waters of Shiloah, {#Isa 8:6} creeping and crooking" slowly" and slily, called therefore, as some think, "the dragon well". {#Ne 2:13} And of the river Araris (probably Saone) in Germany, Caesar said, {a} whether it move forward, or backward, who can tell?

{a} Oculis in utram partem fluat, iudicari non potest .— De Bel. Gal., l. i.

Ver. 15. To dress it, and to keep it.] This he did as without necessity, so without pains, without weariness. It was rather his recreation than his occupation. He laboured now by an ordinance; it was after his fall laid upon him as a punishment, {#Ge 3:19} to eat his bread in the sweat of his nose. God never made any, as he made Leviathan, to sport himself only; or to do, as it is said of the people of Tombutum in Africa, that they spend their whole time in piping and dancing; but to "work," either "with his hands" or his head, "in the sweat of his brow," or of his brain, "the thing that is good"; {#Eph 4:28} and with how much the more cheerfulness any one goeth about his business, by so much the nearer he cometh to his paradise.

Ver. 16. Commanded the man, saying.] God hath given man dominion over all the sublunary creatures; and lest he should forget that he had a Lord whom to serve and obey, he gave him this command to keep.

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.] The less need he had to have been so lickerish after forbidden fruit. προθεραπειαν hic adhibet, quod misericordiae est. But stolen waters are sweet; Nitimur in vetitum, & c.

Ver. 17. But of the tree, &c.] An exploratory prohibition. God knew well where we are weakest, and worst able to withstand; viz., about moderating the pleasures of our touch and taste, because these befall us not as men, but as living creatures. {a} Here, therefore, he lays a law upon Adam for the trial of his love, which, left to his own free will, he soon transgressed.

Thou shalt surely die.] Thou shalt surely and shortly, saith Zuinglius; or suddenly, die. {Certissime citissimeque morieris} And without doubt every man should die the same day he is born: the wages of death should be paid him presently. But Christ begs their lives for a season. For which cause he is said to be "the Saviour of all men," {#1Ti 4:10} not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. In which respect, also, God is said "so to have loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," &c. {#Joh 3:16} It was a mercy to all mankind that the Messiah was promised and provided, "sealed and sent into the world," that some might be saved, and the rest sustained in life, for their sakes. Symmachus renders it, Thou shalt be mortal.

{a} Arist. Ethic., l. i., c. 3.

Ver. 18. And the Lord God said.] Had said; to wit, on the sixth day when he made man, and there was not a meet help found for him. Then God said, "It is not good," &c., and so created the woman by deliberate counsel, as before he had done the man. Only there it was in the plural, "Let us make," here, "I will make"; to show the unity of the essence of the Trinity of persons.

It is not good for man to be alone.] It is neither for his profit, nor his comfort. {Optimum solatium sodalitium.} The Hebrews, in their bigger Genesis, say, He who wanteth a wife, wanteth a help, a joy, a blessing, an expiation: R. Josua saith, he wants a name: R. Levi addeth, he wants life: R. Hija, the son of Gamri, saith, he is no perfect man who is unmarried: R. Iose saith, such a one is without a wall, without glory, riches, a crown, favour. {a}

I will make him a help meet for him.] Or, such another as himself, of the same form for perfection of nature, and for gifts inward and outward; one in whom he may see himself, and that may be to him as an alter-ego, a second self. {#Eph 5:28} Such a one as may be a help to him—both for this life, (1.) by continual society and cohabitation; (2.) for procreation and education of children; -and for the life to come, (1.) as a remedy against sin; {#1Co 7:2} (2.) as a companion in God’s service. {#1Pe 3:7} Nazianzen {b} saith, that his mother was not only a meet help to his father in matters of piety, but also a doctress and a governess; and yet he was no baby, but an able minister of the gospel. Budaeus, that learned Frenchman, had a great help of his wife in points of learning; she would be as busy in his study as about her housewifery. Placilla, the Empress, was a singular help to her husband, Theodosius, in things both temporal and spiritual. And so was our King Edward III’s Queen, a lady of excellent virtue, the same that built Queen’s College in Oxford. She drew evenly, saith the historian, {c} with the king her husband in all the courses of honour that appertained to her side, and seemed a piece so just cut for him, as answered him rightly in every joint.

{a} εφυγον κοκον ευρον αμεινον—Athenis in nuptiis dici solitun. Zenod. Proverb.

{b} ου συνεργος μονον αλλακι αρχηγος εγενετο—Naz. in Pat. Epitaph.

{c} Non tractat negligentius libros meos quam liberos.—Daniel’s Chron. fol. 262.

Ver. 19. To see what he would call them.] If he had been permitted to name himself, it should have been, probably, the son of God, as he is called by Luke, {#Lu 3:38} in regard of his creation. But God, to humble him, calls him, first, Adam, and after the fall, Enosh, that is, frail, sorry man, a mass of mortality, a mass of misery.

Ver. 20. Adam gave names.] A sign of his sovereignty; {#Nu 32:38,41} an argument also of his wisdom, in giving them names according to their natures, as Hebricians well know.

But for Adam there was not found, &c.] God set all the creatures before him, ere he gave him a wife: (1.) That, seeing the sexes, he might desire to have a help in his kind and nature also. Men should not marry till they find in themselves the need of a wife. (2.) That seeing no other fit help, he might the more prize her. {a}

{a} Ut ei commendatius esset Dei donum.—Pet. Martyr.

Ver. 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep.] It may be thought that Adam, observing that among all the creatures there was no meet match found for him, prayed in this deep sleep, or ecstasy, that such a help might be given unto him. This is Peter Martyr’s note upon the text. Isaac went forth to pray, {#Ge 24:63, marg.} when he had sent forth for a wife; and it was but reason. "For a prudent wife is from the Lord". {#Pr 19:14} And he that "findeth a wife, findeth a good thing," {#Pr 18:22} saith the wise man. A wife, that is, a good wife; for every married woman is not a wife, unless she be a help to her husband, in the best things especially. The heathen well saith, that every man when he marrieth, brings either a good or an evil spirit into his house, and so makes it either a heaven or a hell. {a} And it is a device of the Rabbins, but the moral is good, that in the names of Ish and Ishah is included Jah, the name of God; and that, if you take out Jod and He, whereof that name consists, there remains nothing but Esch, Esch, fire, fire; the fire of dissension and brawl, which burneth and consumeth to the fire of hell. It is not evil therefore to marry, but it is good to be wary to "marry in the Lord," as the apostle hath it. He that marrieth in the Lord, marrieth also with the Lord; and he cannot be absent from his own marriage. A good wife was one of the first real and royal gifts bestowed upon Adam; and God consults not with him to make him happy. As he was ignorant while himself was made, so shall he not know while a second self is made out of him; both that the comfort might be greater than was expected, as also that he might not upbraid his wife with any great dependence or obligation; he neither willing the work nor suffering any pain to have it done. {b} The rib can challenge no more of her than the earth can of him.

And he took one of his ribs.] The woman was made of a bone, saith a reverend writer, {c} and but one bone, {ne esset ossea} lest she should be stiff and stubborn. The species of the bone is expressed to be a rib, a bone that might be best spared, because there are many of them: a bone of the side, not of the head; the wife must not usurp authority over her husband: nor yet of the foot; she is not a slave, but a fellow-helper. A bone, not of any anterior part; she is not praelata, preferred before the man: neither yet of any hinder part; she is not post-posita, set behind the man: but a bone of the side, of the middle and indifferent part, to show that she is a companion, and "the wife of thy covenant". {#Mal 2:14} A bone she is from under the arm, to put man in mind of protection and defence to the woman. A bone not far from his heart, to put him in mind of dilection and love to the woman. A bone from the left side, as many think likely, {d} where the heart is, to teach that hearty love ought to be betwixt married couples.

Uxorem vir amato,

marito pareat uxor:

Conjugis illa suae cor,

caput ille suae.

A man will love his wife,

the wife should be obedient to her husband

The husband is that heart of her,

That husband is the head of her.

{a} A bad wife is but the image of a wife; or, as Lamech’s wife’s name was a shadow of a wife, Tsilla, umbra ipius.—Gatak.

{b} See Yates’s Model.

{c} B. King’s Vitis Palatina.

{d} A yoke-fellow standing upon even ground with thee, though drawing on the left side.—Gatak.

Ver. 22. And the rib which the Lord God had taken.] Matter, in the beginning of time, was taken from man to make a woman. And matter, in the fulness of time, was taken from a woman to make a man, even "the man Christ Jesus". {#1Ti 2:5} And as out of the side of sleeping Adam Eve was formed; so, from the blood issuing out of the side and flesh of dying Christ, came his spouse the Church. His chief care therein was to "sanctify and cleanse" {#Eph 5:26} his Church, and therefore he "came by water and blood". {#1Jo 5:6} So should it be every husband’s; then would not the devil so oft break his head with his own rib; or, as St Gregory hath it, climb so oft by his rib to his heart, as by a ladder. {a} A good wife doth him good, and not evil, all her days. But this is not every man’s happiness. Lucky Sulla, if he should not have had a wife. {Sulla faellx, si non habuisset uxorem!} So Job and Moses, for whom marriage caused problems. {quorum conjugium, conjurgium} There is in most a propension to the nuptial conjunction. The man misseth his rib, say the Rabbins; {b} the woman would be in her old place again, under the man’s arm or wing. "Then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?" {#Ru 3:1}

Made he a woman.] Heb., builded, that is, created with special care, art, and fit proportion, in the manner of a house. A body hath God given the woman more capacious and roomy, both for the conceiving and containing of her young babe, which dwells in her womb, as in its house, and hath all its household stuff, as it were, about it, till time produce it into the light of life. Adam was formed, Eve built; her frame consists of rarer rooms, of a more exact composition than his doth. And if place be any privilege, we find, saith one, hers built in Paradise, when his was made out of it.

And brought her unto the man.] Marriage, then, is of Divine institution. The Saturnalian heretics sinfully said, that it was of the devil. And the blemish will never be wiped off from some of the ancients, who, to establish their own idol, of, I know not what virginity, have written most wickedly and basely against marriage. Three things we have here out of Moses to say for it against whatsoever opposite—viz., God’s (1.) Spoke; (2.) Led; (3.) Blessed. {#Ge 1:28} {Dixit, Duxit, Benedixit} God the Father ordained it; God the Son honoured it with His first miracle; God the Holy Ghost did the like, by overshadowing the betrothed Virgin. Papists and others that disgrace it appear herein more like devils than divines, if Paul may be judge; {#1Ti 4:2,3} or Ignatius, who saith, If any call marriage a defilement, he hath the devil dwelling in him, and speaking by him. {c}

{a} Diabolus per costam tanquam per scalam, ad cor Adami ascendit.—Mor, lib. iii. e. 5. Sic Phoroneus, apud Bruson, l. vii. c. 22.

{b} Requirit vir costam suam, requirit femina sedem suam. Hinc #Ru 3:1,9. Annon quaererem tibi requiem? -Aben- ezra.

{c} Habet inhabitatorem Draconem Apostatam.—Ignat. Epist. ad Philad.

Ver. 23. This is now bone of my bone.] This sentence, saith Tertullian, and, after him, Beda, is the first prophecy that was ever uttered in the world. And it is uttered in a way of admiration, which they that are taken with, do commonly use a concise kind of speech; especially if overjoyed, as Adam here was upon the first sight of the woman; whom he no sooner saw but knew, and thereupon cried out as wondering at God’s goodness to himself, "This now is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." Luther, the night before he died, was reasonably well, and sat with his friends at table. The matter of their discourse was, whether they should know one another in heaven, or not. Luther held it affirmatively, and this was one reason he gave: Adam as soon as he saw Eve, knew what she was, not by discourse, but by divine revelation; so shall we in the life to come. All the saints shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, having communion with them, not only as godly men, but as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And if with them, why not with others? {a} Chrysostom {b} saith, we shall point them out, and say, Lo, yonder is Peter, and that’s Paul, and there are the prophets, apostles, &c.

She shall be called woman.] Or maness, of man; as Ishah of Ish. He gave her her name from his own, by taking away one numeral letter that stands for ten, and adding another that stands for five; to note her infirmity, and duty of submitting to her husband, whose very naming of her notes her subjection.

{a} Melch. Adam.

{b} Ιδου, ο Πετρος, και ο Παυλος

Ver. 24. Therefore shall a man leave, &c.] Whether these are the words of God, Adam, or Moses, it is uncertain, and not much material. {a} The husband is bound more to love his wife than his parents, in regard of domestical communion, adhesion, and cohabitation, not in regard of honour, obedience, and recompense.

And they two shall be one flesh.] Two in one flesh; not three or four, as the patriarchs of old, through ignorance, or inobservance of that plain prohibition. {#Le 18:18} It is possible they might mistake the word sister for one so by blood, which was spoken of a sister by nation, as those clauses, "to vex her," and "during her life," do evince.

{a} Paraeus ad locum.

Ver. 25. They were both naked, and not ashamed.] Neither needed they. Sin and shame, as Papists say, hops and heresy, came in together. Clothes are the ensigns of our sin, and covers of our shame; to be proud of them is as great folly as for a beggar to be proud of his rags, or a thief of his halter. As the prisoner, looking on his irons, thinketh on his theft; so we, looking on our garments, should think on our sins.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Now the serpent was more subtile, &c.] And so a more fit instrument of that old serpent the devil, that deceiveth all the world. {#Re 12:9} {a} Good natural parts abused, prove rather as pressmoney to impiety, {b} as he phraseth it, and their wisdom was the crime counselor, {culpa suasoria} as Ambrose speaketh. Wit unsanctified is a fit tool for the devil to work with. Neither is there a likelier anvil in all the shop of hell, whereon to forge mischief, than one that is learned and lewd, wittily wicked. {ingeniose nequam}

And he said,] that is, the devil in the serpent, as the angel in Balaam’s ass. {Satan istius prima fabulae poeta fuit, serpens histrio.} By the ear he brought death into the world; and God, to cross him, brings life in by the same door; for it is, "Hear, and your souls shall live". {#Isa 55:3} The dragon bites the elephant’s ear, and thence sucks his blood; because he knows that to be the only place which he cannot reach with his trunk to defend. {c} So here, that great red dragon dealt with miserable mankind, setting first upon the woman as the weaker vessel—where the hedge is lowest, there the beast leaps over—and so climbing by Adam’s rib to his heart, as by a ladder, as I said before, out of St Gregory.

Yea, hath God said?] In the Chaldee, Is it true that God hath said? A concise expression, implying that this was not the first of their discourse; something had been said before. {d} It is not safe parleying with the devil. {Satan et si semel videatur verax, millies est mendax et semper fallax.} Halter him up therefore, and stop his mouth {e} soon, as our Saviour did. Or do as the French say in their proverb, When the Spaniard comes to parley of peace, then double bolt the door. The Hollanders are said to make no conditions with the Spaniard, but such as are made at sea, and scaled with great ordinance, &c. {f} He shoots with Satan in his own bow that thinks by parleying with him to put him off.

Hath God said, Ye shall not eat?] Here he began his assault upon our first parents; here, upon Christ, {#Mt 4:3,3:17} and here he doth still upon us; endeavonring to elevate {g} the truth and certainty of God’s word, and to weaken our faith in his precepts, promises, and menaces. And here, if he take us out of our trenches, if he can but wring this sword of the Spirit out of our hands he may do what he will with us. Get but the heretics, said that subtle sophister, out of the paper walls of the Scriptures, into the open fields of fathers and councils, and ye shall soon do well enough with them. {h}

{a} πανουργος Theodotion; cui Paulus opponit την απλοτητα, "simplicity," { #2Co 11:3} quam mundus vocat silliness, sheepishness.

{b} Authoramentum majoris infidelitatis.—Tertul.

{c} Pliny, l. viii., c. 25.

{d} Vide simile, #Ru 2:21, in Hebraeo.

{e} φιμωθητι

{f} Greenham, Spec. Bel. Sacr.

{g} Levis: make light of

{h} Bristow’s Motives.

Ver. 2. And the woman said unto the serpent.] Our first parents were not, in the state of innocency, silly and witless, like young children, as Socinians make them; but very knowing, though but of small experience. But if they fell the same day {a} wherein they were created, as most hold, how sudden was the serpent’s seducing, the woman’s consenting, Adam’s yielding, and God’s executing!

{a} ημερα επλασθη και εξηλασθη

Ver. 3. Neither shall ye touch it.] This is of the woman’s own addition, and of a good intention doubtless. For afterwards, when she had drunk in more of the serpent’s deadly poison, from gazing upon the fruit, she fell to gaping after it, from touching to tasting. {a} He that would not feed on sin’s meat, must beware of the broth; "keep thee from an evil matter," saith Moses. {#Ex 23:7} A good man dare not come near the treachery, though he be far off the blow; he dare not venture on the occasion, lest his tinder should take fire. It is ill playing upon the hole of the asp, or coming too near hell-mouth; {b} for by so doing, you may beseem to drop in. "Watch therefore, and pray" too, "that ye enter not into temptation," saith our blessed Saviour; and mark his reason, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak": q.d., though the spirit purpose otherwise, the flesh will falter, and be foiled: witness the woman here with her "lest ye die." She held the precept in the utmost extent of it, but that which she failed in, was that she minced the matter, and opposed not the commination to the temptation. And see how the devil works upon her weakness, as he watcheth for our haltings, and where to have us on the hip.

{a} Hausit virus peritura, et perituros paritura.—Bern.

{b} Circa serpentis antrum positus, non eris diu illaesus.—Isidor.

Ver. 4. Ye shall not surely die.] He saith not, Dying ye shall not die, or, Surely ye shall not die; this had been too plain a contradiction to that word of God that had threatened assured death; but, Ye shall not die in dying; that is, It is not certain ye shall die. And this latter is more nice and ambiguous. She seems to doubt of the certainty of what God had said. He plainly and cleanly impugns it: whereas had God’s word abidden in her, she had overcome that wicked one. {#1Jo 2:14} The word is compared to mustard seed, which being mixed with vinegar, is, they say, a sovereign medicine against serpents.

Ver. 5. For God doth know, &c.] It should take care of itself because nothing is hidden with God. {Id quod cum Deum non lateat, sibi cavet.} {a} It is remarkable that the devil here charges God with envy, which is his own proper disease; for ever since he himself fell from heaven, he cannot abide that any should come there; but of pure spite hindereth them all that may be. Here he envied that God should be served by man, and that man should be gifted and graced by God. So that he points out, and paints out himself, in saying that God envied man the gift of wisdom. There is nothing more usual with the wicked, than to muse as they use, and to suppose that evil to be in others that they find to be in themselves. Caligula, {b} that impure beast, would not believe there was any chaste person upon earth. And, I dare say, said Bonner to Hawks, the martyr, that Cranmer would recant, if he might have his living—so, judging others by himself, for Papists apply themselves, said our protomartyr, Mr Rogers, to the present state; yea, if the state should change ten times in the year, they would ever be ready at hand to change with it, and so follow the cry, and rather utterly forsake God, and be of no religion, than that they would forego lust, or living, for God or religion. {c}

Then your eyes shall be opened.] There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy. There is also an opening of the eyes of the body to confusion and shame. He promised them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them, as he doth thousands now-a-days, by the cogging of a die, as St Paul hath it {εν τη κυβεια, #Eph 4:14} giving them an apple in exchange for paradise. Thus of old he cheated Ahab and Croesus {d} with promises of victory; which, when it fell out otherwise, he had a hole to creep out, and save his credit by an equivocation. Thus of latter time he begiled Pope Sylvester II., assuring him that he should never die, till he came to say mass in Jerusalem; he, resolving never to come there, made no reckoning but to live a long time. But it fell out somewhat otherwise; for as he was saying mass in a certain church in Rome, called Jerusalem, fearing nothing, the devil claimed his due, and had it. For he was there and then taken with a strong fever, and lying on his deathbed, he sent for all his cardinals, and declaring before them what a wretched bargain he had made with the devil, selling his soul for the popedom, and deceived by him with promise of long life, he bitterly bewailed his own folly, and advised them to beware by his example. {e} And was not Leoline II., Prince of North Wales, as finely cheated? For, consulting with a witch, he was told that it was his destiny to ride through London with a crown on his head. Hereupon, he growing burthensome to the English Borders, was in a battle overthrown. His head fixed upon a stake, and adorned with a paper crown, was by a horseman triumphantly carried through London; and so the prophecy was fulfilled, A.D. 1282.

And ye shall be as gods.] The serpent’s grammar first taught, saith Damianus, "to bring down God to much; you will be as gods." {Deum pluraliter declinare; eritis sicut Dii.} This the woman understood of the Trinity, as appears, {#Ge 3:22} but the devil might mean it of the angels (so the Chaldee Paraphrast translates it) which had sinned, and now had woeful experience of the good which they had lost, and the evil wherein they lay. "Lo, this only have I found," saith the wise man, "that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions". {#Ec 7:29} {Ipsi autem quaesiverunt cogitationes Magnatum (so some render it), sive angelorum; apostatarum scilicet.} But they soon sought out the tricks or devices of great ones, that is, of the angels, who, not content with their own station, "forsook it". {#Jude 6} So did our Protaplasts.

{a} Picherellus in Colmopaea.

{b} Dio in Calig.

{c} Act. et Mon., fol. 1441.

{d} Croesus Halyn penetrans magnam disperdet opum vim.—Herod.

{e} Funccius in Chronol. Intelligit se a diabolo, amphibolia vocis, circumventum animadvertit sibi moriendum esse, pensumq. Satanae reddendum, &c.—Heylin’s Geog., p. 493.

Ver. 6. And when the woman saw.] At this portal the devil entered. How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye, and cried out, as Eve might here, "When I saw it, I died!" {Ut vidi, ut perii!} {a} If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye, or the door of the ear, it cannot enter into our hearts. "The way to our crimes is through the eyes in our mind." Quintilian said. {Vitiis nobis in animum per oculos est via} Wherefore, "if thine eye offend thee, pull it out." In Barbary, it is death for any man to see one of the Shereefs concubines; and for them too, if when they see a man, though but through a casement, they do not suddenly screech out. {b}

She took of the fruit thereof.] Whatever it were, whether an apple, as Bernard {c} and others gathered out of #So 2:3, or a fig, as Theodoret; or a pomegranate, as Mohammed in his Alkoran; or a bad peach; {malum Persicum} or "fruit of Paradise," {Pomum Paradisi}, as the Syrians call a kind of fruit common among them. God created us of nothing, and we offended him for a matter of nothing. All the legions of the reprobate devils, said one, {d} entered into one beast, and, by the Pitho and Suada of that viperous tongue, crept into the bosom of Eve, as it were by all the topic places in logic, figures in rhetoric, and other engines of guile and deceit, till they had brought her into a fool’s paradise, with the loss of the earthly, and hazard of the heavenly.

And gave it also to her husband.] It is probable, saith the same author, that Adam stood by all the time of the disputation; therefore his sin was the greater, that he rebuked not the serpent, &c. And again, I cannot believe, said he, but that the devils in the serpent did as well tempt Adam as Eve, though first they began with her, as a further means of enticing him. Others {e} are of another mind, as that the tempter set upon the woman alone and apart from her husband, as she was curiously prying into the pleasures of the garden; that the serpent crept into Paradise unseen of Adam, who was to keep beasts out of it; that he remained there without being seen by him, and crept out again when he had done his feat; that when she gave him the fruit, she gave him also a relation of the serpent’s promise concerning the force of that fruit, that it would make them wise as God, knowing good and evil, &c., whence he is said to have hearkened to her voice. {#Ge 3:17} And surely, every Adam hath still his Eve, every David his Bathsheba, a tempter in his own bosom, his own flesh, whereby he is so soon "drawn away, and enticed" as a fish by the bait, -beauty {f} is a hook without a bait, {g} as one saith, -till "when lust hath conceived," as here it did in Eve, "it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death". {#Jas 1:14,15} Satan hath only a persuasive sleight, not an enforcing might. It is our own concupiscence that carrieth the greatest stroke.

{a} Ovid.

{b} Heyl. Geog., p.]96.

{c} Porrexit pomum et surripuit paradisum.—Bern.

{d} Yates’s Model.

{e} Paraeus. Cartw. Catech.

{f} Δελεξομενος; #Jas 1:14

{g} Δελεαρ ανευ αλκστου

Ver. 7. They knew that they were naked.] Bereft of God’s blessed image; no more of it left than, as of one of Job’s messengers, to bear witness of our great loss. I call it ours, because we were all in Adam, as Levi was in Abraham, or as the whole country is in a Parliament man. tie was our head; and if the head plot treason, all the body is guilty. Hence the prophet Hosea: "O Israel, one hath destroyed thee; but in me is thy help". {#Ho 13:9} So some read it. Had we been by when this wretched "one" destroyed us all; had we seen him stand staggering betwixt God’s commandment and Eve’s allurement, not yet resolved which way to incline, and could have foreseen the danger hanging over him and ourselves, we would surely have cried out to him, Take heed, thou wretch. { Cave miser} And why do we not the same to ourselves, when solicited to sin?, { Alterius perditio tua sit cautio} saith Isidore; and, { cavebis si pavebis} saith another. {a} There is a practical judgment still practised in our hearts. On the one side is propounded the commodity of sin; on the other, the offence whereby we provoke God. So that in the one end of the balance is laid God, in the other sin, and man stands in the midst, rejecting the comnland of God, and accepting of the pleasure of sin. What is this but to prefer Paris before Paradise with Cardinal Bourbon, Barabbas before Christ, a thing of nought before heaven’s happiness? Our first parents were born with the royal robe of righteousness, as those Porphyrogeniti in Constantinople; but the devil soon stripped them of it (the same day, as some think), {b} and so they became sore ashamed of their bodily nakedness, which therefore they sought to cover by making themselves aprons to cover their privities.

Quest. But why did they, and do we still, so studiously hide those parts, rather than their eyes and ears, which they had abused to sin with?

Ans. Because sin has become natural, and derived by generation. {#Ps 51:7 Ge 5:3} Therefore circumcision was also on that part of man’s body; to show that that which was begotten thereby, deserved in like manner, as execrable and accursed, to be cut off and thrown away, by God. Here some ground their opinion, that it is a sin against nature to look on the nakedness of another. A foul shame it was for old Noah to lie so uncovered in the midst of his tent, but far fouler for those worshippers of Priapus, which Jerome and Isidore make to be that Baal-peor, {#Nu 25:5} that shamed not to say, { Nos, pudore pulso, stamus sub dove, coleis apertis}& c. {c} But in man’s soul is now a πανσεπρμια, the seed of all sin, though never so heinous or hideous. Neither by nature is there ever a better of us; "but as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of a man to a man". {#Pr 27:19} And as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so are there many Caius and Caiaphases in the best of us all. { Totus homo est iuversus decalogus} The whole man is in evil, and whole evil is in man. As the Chaos had the seeds of all creatures, and wanted only the Spirit’s motion to produce them; so our corrupt nature hath all sins in it, and wants but the warmth of Satan’s temptation to bring them into act, if God restrain not. Sure it is, we can stay no more from sinning, than the heart can from punting, and the pulse from beating. The first man defiled the nature; and ever since, the nature defiles the man. As poison put into a cup of wine disperseth itself, and makes it deadly; so original sin polluteth and poisoneth our whole man. And as the whitest ivory turns with the fire into the deepest black, the sweetest wine becomes the sourest vinegar; so here. The more unnatural any quality is, the more extreme will it be, as a cold wind from the south is intolerable, &c. So Adam, "being in honour, was without understanding," and is now in worse case than the very "beasts that perish":, {#Ps 49:20} { Pecoribus morticinis} saith Treme]; the beasts that die of the murrain, and so become carrion, and are good for nothing.

{a} Augustine.

{b} Purchas’s Pilgrims.

{c} Empedoclis vocab. apud Arist.

Ver. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord.] Either speaking something by himself of that which Adam hath done against his command; as who should say, Hath he served me so indeed? or else calling to Adam in a mighty thunder, as to Pharaoh, {#Ex 9:28} or in a terrible whirlwind, as to Job, {#Job 38:1} the better to humble him, and prepare for a sermon of mercy and forgiveness. God poureth not the off of his grace, save only into broken vessels. Christ came to cure not the sound, but the sick with sin: the Holy Ghost is poured out upon thirsty souls only that are scorched and parched with the sense of sin and fear of wrath. {#Isa 35:7,44:3} As the way to Zion was by Sinai, so, unless we desire rather to be carnally secured than soundly comforted, we must pass by Baca to Berachah, by a sight of our sin and misery, to a sense of God’s grace and mercy.

Walking in the garden in the cool of the day.] God did not meet the man angrily, as he did Moses in the inn, when tie had much ado to forbear killing him; {#Ex 4:24} nor as the angel did Balaam, with a drawn sword in his hand to destroy him; neither did he rush upon him, as David ran upon Goliath, and cut off his head; but, with a soft and slow pace {a} (as if he had no mind to it), he comes walking toward them, to do this, his work, "his strange work," {#Isa 28:21} of sentencing sinners; and that in the cool of the day, too, or towards the evening, as St Ambrose {b} hath it, after the Septuagint. Whereas to show mercy, "behold, he comes leaping {c} upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills." Lo, "this is the voice," and the pace "of my beloved." {#So 2:8} God was but six days in making the whole world, yet seven days in destroying one city, Jericho, as Chrysostom long since observed. He scourgeth not his people, "till there be no remedy." {#2Ch 36:16} He forbears us, though he "cry like a travailing woman," {#Isa 42:14} to be delivered of his judgments.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves.] Their covering of fig-leaves, then, was too short; for here they ran with their aprons into the thicket to hide from God. A poor shift, God wot, but such as is still too much in use. "If I have covered my transgressions as Adam," or after the manner of men, saith Job, {#Job 31:33} then let this and this evil befall me. The bad heart runs from God, and would run from its own terrors, {d} as the wounded deer from the deadly arrow that sticks in his side; but refusing ordinary trial, it is in danger to be pressed to death inevitably. We have no better refuge than to run from God to God. Bloodletting is a cure of bleeding, a burn of a burn. To close and get in, avoids the blow, &c. Our first parents here, in hiding themselves, did but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line, with a hook in the mouth, as one well observeth.

{a} ךלהתמ

{b} το δειλινον: ad vesperam diei .

{c} Gressu grallatorio.

{d} Faeti sunt a corde suo fugitivi.—Tertul.

Ver. 9. Where art thou?] Not as if God knew not; for he searcheth Jerusalem with lights; yea, himself is the "father of lights," {#Jas 1:17} the great eye of the world, to whom the sun itself is but a snuff. He hath "seven eyes upon one stone"; {#Zec 3:9} yea, "his eyes run to and fro through the earth"; {#2Ch 16:9} and "all things are naked and open"—naked, for the outside, and open, for the inside—"before the eyes of Him with whom we have to deal." {#Heb 4:13} Simple men hide God from themselves, and then think they have hid themselves from God; like the struthiocamelus, they thrust their heads into a hole, when hunted, and then think none seeth them. {a} But he "searcheth"—so one may do, yet not find—"and knoweth." {#Ps 139:1} "He seeth"—so one may do, yet not observe—"and pondereth." {#Pr 5:21} Though men hide their sins, as close as Rachel did her idols, or Rahab the spies; though they dig deep to hide their counsels, God can and will detect them, with a woe to boot. {#Isa 29:15} For "hell and destruction are before him"; {#Pr 15:11} how then can Saul think to be hid behind the stuff, or Adam behind the bush? At the voice of the Lord he must appear, will he, nill he, to give account of his fear, of his flight. This he doth (but untowardly) in the words following.

{a} Pliny

Ver. 10. I heard thy voice.] So he had done before his fall, and feared not. "Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" {#Mic 2:7} Excellently St Austin, Adversarius est nobis, quamdiu sumus et ipsi nobis: Quamdiu tu tibi inimicus es, inimicum habebis sermonem Dei . Yea, but I was naked, and therefore hid myself. This also was non causa pro causa . There was another pad in the straw, which he studiously conceals, viz., the conscience of his sin. {a} Hic vero non factum suum, sed Dei factum in semetipso reprehendit saith Rupertus. He blames not himself, but God, for making him naked; and so verifies that of Solomon, "The foolishness of man perverteth his way"; {#Pr 19:3} and then, to mend the matter, "his heart fretteth against the Lord." O silly simple!

{a} Excusando seipsum accusat .— Gregor.

Ver. 11. Who told thee.] His own conscience, awakened and cited by God’s voice, "told him"—as the woman of Samaria said of our Saviour—"all {#Joh 4:29} that ever he did." Before and in the acting of sin, we will hear nothing; but afterwards, conscience will send forth a shrill and sharp voice, that shall be heard all the soul over; such as was that of Reuben to his brethren: "Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child?" &c. {#Ge 42:22} The books of our consciences are now sealed up, and the woeful contents are not read by the law. They remain as letters written with the juice of oranges or onions, which are only to be made legible by the fire of God’s wrath. Then shall the wicked run away (but all in vain). with those words in their mouths, "Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" {#Isa 33:14} Then shall they tire the mountains with their hideous outcries, Fall upon us, hide us, crush us in pieces, grind us to powder. But how can that be, when the mountains melt, and the rocks rend asunder at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob?

Ver. 12. The woman whom thou gavest.] Here he rejects the fault upon the woman, and, through her, upon God, who gave her to be with him, or before him; or such another as himself (with reference to that Kenegdo,){ #Ge 2:20} or a help meet for him. This she might have been to him, had he been (as he ought to her) a manly guide in the way to heaven. He should have rebuked her, as Job did his wicked wife, for transgressing God’s law and tempting him to the like. Then had her sin been personal, resting upon herself, and gone no further, had not he hearkened to her voice. But he not only did thus, but instead of agnising his fault, seeks to transfer it upon God; that, since he could not be like unto God in the divinity, which he aimed at, he might make God like unto himself in iniquity; which was to fill up the measure of his sin, that wrath might have come upon him to the utmost, but that God’s mercy was then, and is still, over all his own good, and our bad, works.

Ver. 13. And the woman said, The serpent.] Thus the flesh never wants excuses; nature need not be taught to tell her own tale. Sin and shifting came into the world together; never yet any came to hell, but had some pretence for coming there. It is a very coarse wool that will take no dye. Sin and Satan are alike in this; they cannot abide to appear in their own colour. Men wrap themselves in excuses, as they do their hands, to defend them from pricks. This is still the vile poison of our hearts; that they will needs be naught; and yet will not yield but that there is reason to be mad, and great sense in sinning.

Ver. 14. And the Lord said to the serpent.] The serpent was not examined, because God would show no mercy to him; but presently doomed, because of mere malice he had offended. The heathens {a} called certain devils, Κοβαλοι, quasi χαχοβοθλοι,

η δε κακη βουλη παρ βουλευσαντι κυκιστη

Evil befell him that evil bethought him. As Balaam, that advised evil against Israel, was slain by the sword of Israel. The serpent also hath his part in the punishment, because instrumental to the devil. Both authors, actors, and abettors of evil shall rue it together. The serpent here is first cut shorter by the feet, and made to wriggle upon his belly; secondly, confined to the dust for his diet; which is also, saith an ancient, χαταβρωμα του εχθρου, the devil’s diet: for your adversary the devil—that "ruler of the darkness of this world" {#Eph 6:6} as he dwells in dark hearts, as so many holes and caverns—so, Behemoth-like, "he eats grass as an ox"; {#Job 40:10} yea, dust as a serpent, continually "seeking whom he may devour"; {#1Pe 5:7} and is therefore cursed above all creatures. He hath swallowed down souls, "and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly." {#Job 20:15} He sinneth every day the sin against the Holy Ghost, and shall lie lowest in hell. Every soul that he drew thither by his temptation shall be as a millstone hanged about his neck, to hold him down in the bottomless lake.

{a} Hesiod.

Ver. 15. And I will put enmity.] Instead of that amity and familiarity thou hast lately had with the woman. And here begins the Book of the Lord’s wars: his hand is here upon his throne, he hath solemnly sworn that he will have war (not with Amalek only, but) with the whole serpentine seed, from generation to generation. {#Ex 17:16} There is also a capital antipathy (saith Bodinus) {a} between the woman and the serpent: so that in a great multitude of men, if there be but one woman amongst them, he makes at her, and stings her about the heel. Pliny {b} also tells us, that the fastingspittle of a man is deadly to serpents; and that if a serpent wound a man, he is no more entertained by the earth, or admitted thereinto. Others {c} tell us that a snake fears and flies from a naked man, but pursues him when clothed or covered. "Put on Christ," and thou art safe. His blood, as Polium, is a preservative against serpents. {#Re 12:9}

It shall bruise thy head.] And so kill thee quite; as a serpent is not killed dead till knocked on the head, which he therefore carefully saves with the hazard of his whole body. To elude, or elevate {d} at least this sweet promise, this grand charter of our salvation, the devil, no doubt, devised, and by his factors, the poets, divulged that frivolous fable of Hercules, his clubbing down the Lernaean serpent, and cutting off his many heads. But Christ alone is that stronger man, that, drawing the dragon out of his den, hath cracked his crown, destroyed his works, made him to fall as lightning from the heaven of men’s hearts, and "will tread him also under our feet shortly," {#Ro 16} as he hath already done under his own, when "spoiling these principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them on his cross." {#Col 2:15} As in the mean while, till this be fully done, nibble he may at our heel, but cannot come at our head. Achilles is said to have taken his death by a wound in his heel. But "he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one the devil toucheth him not." {#Joh 5:18} That is, Tactu qualitativo , saith Cajetan, with a deadly touch; he thrusteth not his sting so far into him as to do him to death. For Christ, "who is our life," {#Col 3:4} can as soon die at the right hand of his heavenly Father, as in the heart of a faithful Christian; since "our life is hid with Christ in God"; his life is bound up in his child’s life. He shall make the broken horns of Satan to be the trumpets of his glory, and the cornets of our joy.

Thou shalt bruise his heel.] Not both his heels, but one only; so that he shall stand upon one, though hurt in the other; or if overthrown, yet he shall rise again, and be "more than a conqueror," {#Ro 8:37} {e} or "overcome" him that overturned him. He is the victor that breaketh the head; whenas he that bruiseth the heel, though he be an enemy, yet he lies along, and can do no great mischief there. And hereto the prophet seems to refer, when he saith, "Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the inquity of my heels" (that is, when the punishment of mine iniquity that reacheth but to the heels) "shall compass me about?… God will redeem my soul from the hand of hell." {#Ps 49:5,15} But how wretchedly was Josephus the Jew mistaken here, both in natural and theological history! (1.) In that, in affirming that the serpent before he deceived our first parents had the faculty of speech, went upon feet; but, by reason of that misdemeanour, was amerced of those abilities, and also had poison, as a badge of his enmity toward man, put under his tongue: (2.) In this, as esteeming what was only the instrument in tempting Eve, the principal agent: and the promise, a precept (the observance whereof would prove but of a shallow advantage) that God’s meaning was only this, that every one as he met with a serpent should strike it upon the head, which contained in it somewhat hurtful ¢o mankind. The Chaldee paraphrast attained the mind of the sentence; thus he senseth it: he put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy son and her son: he shall remember what thou didst to him iu the beginning, and thou shalt observe him in the end; i.e., Thou shalt, by thy malicious attempts, endeavour to hinder the consummation of God’s works of mercy, the application of Christ’s merits, as mine author interpreteth him. I conclude with that memorable saying of a holy martyr:—If {f} we had a lively feeling of the serpent’s poison, we could not but rejoice in our Captain, who hath bruised his head. What though the serpent shoot his sting into our heel, and make us halt: yet let us go on, though halting, to heaven; yea, "run with patience the race that is set before us; looking at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," &c. {#Heb 12:1,2}

{a} Bodin. Theat., lib. iii.

{b} Plin., lib. ii., cap. 63, and lib. vii., cap. 2.

{c} Sphinx. Philos, Plin., lib. ii., cap. 20.

{d} Make light of.

{e} υπερνικωμεν

{f} Bradford.

Ver. 16. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow.] The greatest of sorrows this is, as we are given to understand, both out of divine and human writings. "I had rather die in battle ten times over, than bring forth but once only," said Medea in the tragedy. {a} But we have a better example, in the Ecclesiastical History, {b} of a Roman lady, called Sabina; who, being great with child, was cast in prison for the profession of Christ’s truth. Now when the time came that she should be delivered, and she cried out for extremity of pain, the keeper of the prison asked her why she made such a stir now; and how she would, two or three days hence, endure to die at a stake, or by the sword. She answered, "Now I suffer as a woman, the punishment of my sin; but then I shall not suffer, but Christ shall suffer in me." In peace offerings there might be oil mixed, not so in sin offerings. In our sufferings for Christ there is joy, not so when we suffer for our sins.

In sorrow thou shalt bring forth.] And in sorrow shalt thou bring up, after the birth. {as #Ge 50:23} Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. {c} Eve had a great catch of it, when she had got a man-child of the Lord, she called him Cain, a possession, as David did Absalom, his father’s peace. But

“ Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo .”

Excellently St Gregory, Ante partum liberi sunt onerosi, in partu dolorosi, post partum laboriosi .

And he shall rule over thee ךדפב.] Yet not with rigour. She must, though to her grief and regret, be subject to all her husband’s lawful commands and restraints. But he must carry himself as a man of knowledge towards her, and make her yoke as easy as may be. It is remarkable that when the apostle had bid "wives, submit to your own husbands," &c.; {#Col 3:19} he doth not say, Husbands, rule over your wives, for that they will do fast enough without bidding; but, "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter unto them."

{a} Decies in bello mort mallem quam parere vel semel adhue.—Euripid.

{b} Job. Manlii, loc. com., p. 124.

{c} Liberi sunt dulcis acerbitas, seu—ut Tertul. loquitur—amarissima voluptas

Ver. 17. Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife.] Our English historian, {a} relating the deadly difference that fell out beteen those two noble Seymours (the Lord Protector, and the Admiral his brother) in Edward VI’s time, through the instigation of their ambitious wives, passionately cries out, "O wives! The most sweet poison, the most desired evil in the world," &c. "Woman was first given to man for a comforter," saith he, "not for a counsellor, much less a controller and director." And therefore in the first sentence against man, this cause is expressed, "Because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife," &c.

Cursed is the ground for thy sake.] Hence the Greeks and Latins borrow their words {b} for ground of the Hebrew word that signifieth cursed. The curse of emptiness and unsatisfyingness lies upon it, that no man hath enough, though never so much of it. The curse also of barrenness, or unprofitable fruits, "whose end is to be burned." {#Heb 6:8} The whole earth and the works therein shall be burnt up. {#2Pe 3:10} It was never beautiful, nor cheerful, since Adam’s fall. At this day it lies bedridden, waiting for the coming of the Son of God, that it may be delivered from the bondage of corruption {#Ro 8:20}

{a} Sir John Heywood in the Life of King Edward VI., p. 84.

{b} ’ Αρουρα et Arvum ab Heb. ץרא ררא

Ver. 18. Thorns also and thistles.] Ubi veritas dixit, quod terra homini spinas et tribulos germinaret, subintelligendum fuit, ait Petrarcha, et rusticos tribulis omnibus asperiores. { a} The clowns of Midian drove Jethro’s daughters from the water they had drawn. Rudeness hath no respect either to sex or condition. Those churls of Succoth were worthily "threshed with thorns of the wilderness, and with briers," and thereby "taught" better manners. {#Jud 8:7-16}

Thou shalt eat the herb of the field.] And no longer feed on these pleasant fruits of Paradise, which by thy sin thou hast forfeited. Thus man is driven from his dainty and delicate diet, to eat husks with hogs, as the prodigal, or at least, grass with the ox, as Nebuchadnezzar, and be glad of it too; as our ancestors, who though they fed not at first on acorns, as the poets fable, yet if they could get a dish of good green herbs, they held themselves as well provided for as if they had all.

{a} Petrach. De Remed. Ver. Fort. Dial., 59.

Ver. 19. In the sweat of thy face.] Or, of thy nose, as one {a} rendereth it; that sweat that, beginning in thy brow, runs down by thy nose, through thy hard labour. This is a law laid upon all sorts, to sweat out a poor living, to humble themselves, by just labour, to sweat either their brows or their brains, {b} for this latter also is a "sore" occupation, {#Ec 1:13} and the minister’s toil is compared to that of those that cleave wood; or work hard in harvest. {#1Th 3:5 Mt 10:10 1Co 9:14, &c.} {c}

Shalt thou eat bread.] Not herbs only, as ver. 18. And here take notice of an elegant gradation, together with a merciful mitigation of man’s misery. Thou shalt eat "earth" (ver. 17), "herbs" (ver. 18), and now here, "Thou shalt eat bread," that stay and staff of man’s life under his hard labour {d}

Until thou return unto the ground.] "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord," {#Jer 22:29} i.e., "earth" by creation, "earth" by corruption, "earth" by resolution. This is the end of all men, and the living should lay it to heart. In this third of Genesis we find man’s Exodus. This is the first text of mortality, and all comments, yea, all dead corpses {e} concur to the exposition of it.

For dust thou art.] Think on this, and be proud, if thou canst. We were created εικονι θεου, but now we live ει κονι χοιχη, saith Agapetus. Had we so sweet a generation as that little creature Scaliger {f} speaks of, that is bred in sugar, we might have some ground of boasting; but now we may sprinkle the dust of humility on our heads, as the ancients used to do, in token that they deserved to be as far under, as now they were above ground.

And to dust thou shalt return.] By this limitation, God restrains man’s death here threatened, to that earthy part of him, his body. The sorest death occurs when a man "dies in his sins," as those Jews did. {#Joh 8:21} Better die in a ditch a far deal. When he is "killed with death," as Jezebel’s "children," {#Re 2:23} this is the second death. The condemned person comes out of a dark prison, and goes to the place of execution; so do many from the womb to the tomb, nay, to that tormenting Tophet, to the which death is but a trap-door to give them entrance.

{a} Picherelius in Cosmop.

{b} See my True Treasure.

{c} κοπωντες, πατα το κοπτειν.

{d} Panem, dictum volunt α παν—Isodor., lib. xx.

{e} Etiam muta clamant cadavera.—Basil.

{f} Exercit. ad Cardan.

Ver. 20. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve.] That is, Life, or Living. Not, per antiphrasim, as some would have it; much less out of pride and stomach, in contempt of the divine sentence denounced against them both, that they should surely die, as Rupertus would have it: but because she was to be mother of all living, whether a natural or a spiritual life; and likewise for a testimony of his faith in, and thankfulness for, that lively and lifegiving oracle. {a} {#Ge 3:15}

The mother of all living.] "Have we not all," as "one father," {#Mal 2:10} so, one mother? did we not all tumble in a belly? "why do we then deal treacherously every man against his brother?" {#Mal 2:10} This one consideration should charm down our rising and boiling spirits one against another, as it did Abraham’s. {#Ge 13:8}

{a} λογια ζωντα, i.e., ζωοποιουντα.

Ver. 21. Coats of skins and clothed them.] God put them in leather, when yet there was better means of clothing, to humble them doubtless, and draw them to repentance. Whether God created these skins anew, or took them off the backs of sheep and goats killed for sacrifice, to remind man of his mortality and mortification, it much matters not. Our first parents, who, even after the fall were the goodliest creatures that ever lived, went no better clothed: no more did those worthies "of whom the world was not worthy." {#Heb 11:38} And surely, howsoever our condition and calling afford us better array, and the vulgar, like a Bohemian cur, {a} fawn upon every good suit ( purpuram magis quam Deam colunt ), yet we must take heed that pride creep not into our clothes, those ensigns of our sin and shame, since our fineness is our filthiness, our neatness our nastiness. It is a sure sign of a base mind, {b} though in high place, to think he can make himself great with anything that is less than himself, and win more credit by his garments than his graces. St Peter teacheth women (who, many of them, are too much addicted to over-much fineness) to garnish themselves, not with gay clothes, but with a "meek and quiet spirit," {#1Pe 3:3,4} as Sarah did, and not as those mincing dames, whose pride the prophet inveighs against, as punctually as if he had viewed the ladies’ wardrobes in Jerusalem. {#Isa 3} Rich apparel are but fine covers of the foulest shame. The worst is nature’s garment; the best but folly’s garnish. How blessed a nation were we, if every silken suit did cover a sanctified soul: or if we would look upon our clothes, as our first parents did, as lovetokens from God!

Nam, cum charissima semper

Munera sunt, author quae pretiosa facit.

How could they but see it to be a singular favour that God with his own hands should clothe them (though he had cast them out of Paradise for their nurture); a visible sacrament of his invisible love and grace concerning their souls, in covering their sins, and so interesting them into true blessedness. {#Ps 32:1,2}

{a} The dogs that kept Vulcan’s temple would tear those that came in tattered clothes.—Hospinian.

{b} Vestium curiositas, deformitatis mentium et morum ndicium est .— Bernard.

Ver. 22. The man is become as one of us.] A holy irrision of man’s vain affectation of the Deity. Quod Deus loquitur cum risu, tu legas cum fletu. Howbeit St Augustine {a} is of opinion that God speaks thus, not by way of insulting over Adam, but deterring others from such proud attempts. Discite iustitiam moniti, &c.

And take also of the tree of life.] And so think to elude the sentence of death pronounced upon him by God; which yet he could not have done, had he eaten up tree and all. He should but have added to his sin and judgment by abuse of this sacrament; which would have sealed up life unto him, had he held his integrity. Multi etiam hodie propter arborem scientiae amittunt arborem vitae: In terris manducant quod apud inferos digerunt. { b}

{a} Aug. De Gen. ad Literam, lib. xi., cap. 39.

{b} Aug.

Ver. 23. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth.] He gently dismissed him, as the word signifies; placed him over against Paradise, in the sight thereof (as Stella {a} observeth out of the Septuagint) that, by often beholding, the sorrow of his sin, might be increased, that his "eye might affect his heart" {b} {#La 3:5} Yet, "lest he should be swallowed up of over-much sorrow," and so Satan get "an advantage of him"—for {#2Co 2:7,11} God is not ignorant of his devices—Christ, the promised Seed, was, by his voluntary banishment, to bring back all believers to their heavenly home; to bear them by his angels into Abraham’s bosom, and to "give them to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." {#Re 2:7} Our whole life here is nothing else but a banishment. That we like it no worse, is because we never knew better. They that were born in hell, saith the proverb, think there’s no other heaven. The poor posterity of a banished prince take their mean condition well-aworth; Moses counts Egypt, where yet he was but a sojourner, his home; and in reference to it calls his son, born in Midian, Gershom, that is, a stranger there. Oh, how should we breathe after our heavenly home! groaning within ourselves, like those birds of paradise naturalists {c} speak of, stretching forth the neck, as the apostle’s word {d} importeth, "waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our bodies," {#Ro 8:23} glorifying God meanwhile with our spirits and bodies, devouring all difficulties, donec a spe ad speciem transeamus , till Christ, who is gone to prepare a place for us, return and say, "This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

{a} Stella in Luc. 7.

{b} Iisdem, quibus videmus, oculis flemus.

{c} Avis Paradisi .— Gesner.

{d} αποκαρασοκια, #Ro 8:19.

Ver. 24. So he drove out the man.] The Hebrews say, God led Adam gently by the hand, till he came to the porch of Paradise, and then thrust him out violently, who hung back, and played loath to depart. That he went out unwillingly, as I wonder not, so that he should strive with God about his going out, I believe not. This garden, planted merely for his pleasure, and all the benefits created for his use and service in six days, he lost in six hours, say some; in nine, say others; the same day he was made, say all, almost. What cause then have all his sinful posterity to distrust themselves! And how little cause had that blasphemous pope {a} to set his mouth against heaven, when—being in a great rage at his steward for a cold peacock not brought to table according to his appointment, and desired by one of his cardinals not to be so much moved at a matter of so small moment, -he answered: If God were so angry for an apple, that he cast our first parents out of Paradise for the same; why may not I, being his vicar, be angry then for a peacock, since it is a greater matter than an apple? {b} Is not this that mouth of the beast that "speaketh great things and blasphemies?" {#Re 13:5}

{a} Julius III

{b} Act. and Mon., fol. 1417.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. I have gotten a man from the Lord.] Or, that famous man, the Lord; as if she had brought forth the man Christ Jesus. These were words of hope not of substance { verba spei, non rei}; for "Cain was of that wicked one," the devil, {#1Jo 3:12} as all reprobates are. {#1Jo 3:10} Cain the author of the city of the world, saith Augustine, {a} is born first, and called Cain, that is, a "possession," because he buildeth a city, is given to the cares and pomp of the world, and persecutes his brother that was chosen out of the world. But Abel, the author of the city of God, is born second, called "vanity," because he saw the world’s vanity, and is therefore driven out of the world by an untimely death. So early came martyrdom into the world; the first man that died, died for religion. In a witty sense, saith Hugh Broughton, {b} Cain and Abel contain in their names advertisements for matter of true continuance and corruption. Cain betokeneth possession in this world; and Abel betokeneth one humbled in mind, and holding such possession vain. Such was his offering—sheep kind, the gentlest of all living beasts; and therefore the favour of God followed him. And the offering of Cain was of the fruit of the earth; as he loved the possession of this world, and the service of the body, which yet can have no continuance, and followed after bodily lusts; therefore the blessed God favoured him not. Thus far he cited from the Rabbins. Another English divine {c} hath this note upon these words, I have gotten a man from the Lord, Jehovah. Adam and Eve were all about the composition of Cain. His soul was inspired pure and holy; yet as soon as the vital spirits laid hold of it, it was in the compound, a son of Adam. A skilful artificer makes a clock of all its essential parts most accurately; only he leaves the putting of all parts together to his unskilful apprentice, who so jumbles together the several joints, that all falls to jarring, and can keep no time at all, every wheel running backward-way. So God most artificially still perfects both body and soul; but our accursed parents put all out of frame, and set every part in a contrary course to God’s will. Sin is propagated, and proceeds from the union of body and soul into one man, That phrase, "warmed in sin," {#Ps 51:5} is meant of the preparation of the body as an instrument of evil, which is not so actually, till the soul come.

{a} Aug. De Civit. Dei, lib. xv., cap. 1.

{b} H. Broughton of the 10. part. ex Rab. Bochai.

{c} Yates’s Model.

Ver. 3. In process of time.] That distance of time between the creation and the general flood, Varro, the most learned of the Romans, calleth ‘Ασηλον, obscure or unknown, because the heathen had no records of that which we now clearly understand to have been then done, out of the Holy Scriptures.

Cain brought of the fruit.] They brought their sacrifices to Adam, the high priest of the family, who offered them to God in their name. {a} So in the Levitical law, though a man’s offering were never so good, he might not offer it himself, upon pain of death; but the priest must offer it. And the priest was to offer as well the poor man’s turtle, as the rich man’s ox. To teach that none may present his service to God, how good soever he may conceit it, but in the hand of the high priest of the New Testament Jesus Christ, the Just One, who will not only present, but perfume the poorest performances of an upright heart, with his odours. {#Re 8:3}

{a} Godw. Hebr. Antiq., p. 27.

Ver. 4. Of the firstlings of his flock.] He brought the best of the best; {a} not anything that came next to hand, as Cain seems to have done, holding anything good enough, as did those rich wretches that cast brass-money {b} into the treasury. "But cursed be that cheat who has a male in his flock, and offers to God a corrupt thing." "Offer it now to thy Prince," will he be content with thy refuse stuff? Behold, "I am a great King," saith God. {#Mal 1:8,14} He stands upon his seniority, and looks to be honoured with the best of our substance. Mary that loved much, thought nothing too much for her sweet Saviour. She brought an alabaster box of ointment of great price, and poured it upon him, and he defends her in it against those that held it waste. {#Joh 12:7} Among the Papists, their Lady of Loretto hath her churches so stuffed with vowed presents of the best, as they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. {c} Shall not their superstition rise up and condemn our irreligion, our slubbering service, and doughbaked duties? The Turks build their private houses low and homely, but their mosques or temples stately and magnificent. {d}

Had respect to Abel and his offering.] "The eyes of the Lord are still upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers": {#1Pe 3:11} he "looks" {#Isa 66:2} upon such with singular delight, with special intimation of his love; he is "ravished with one of their eyes," lifted up in prayer, "with one chain of their graces"; {#So 4:9} whenas he was no whit affected with the offer of all the world’s glory. {#Mt 4:8-10} He saith of such to the wicked, as the prophet said of Jehoshaphat to the king of Israel, "Surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee," -Cain {#2Ki 3:14} here, for instance.

{a} See #Nu 18:12,29. "Fat" taken for the best of all things.

{b} χαλκον. {#Mr 12:41}

{c} Sir Edward Sandy’s Relation of West. Relig.

{d} Turk. Hist., fol. 342.

Ver. 5. But to Cain and his offering, &c.] Because he brought not the person but the work of a person { non personam, sed opus personae, } as Luther {a} hath it; who also calls those Cainists that offer to God the work done, but do not offer themselves to God. Works materially good may never prove so, formally and eventually. That which is fair to men, is abomination to God. {#Lu 16:15} He rejected the swan for sacrifice, {#Le 11:18} because under a white feather it hath black skin. Sordet in conspectu Iudicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis, saith Gregory. A thing may shine in the night from its rottenness.

{a} Luth., in Decal

Ver. 6. Why is thy countenance fallen?] Why dost lour and look so like a dog under a door? Vultu saepe loeditur pietas: Difficile est animum non prodere vultu {a} He was discontented at God, and displeased at his brother. He looks but sour and sullen upon him, and God takes him up for it. He so loves his little ones, that he cannot abide the cold wind should blow upon them. The sun must not smite them by day, nor the moon by night {#Ps 121:6} The north and south must both blow good to them {#So 4:16} "Better a millstone," &c., than "offend one of these little ones," {#Mt 18:6} be it but by a frown or a frump. Better anger all the witches in the world, than one of God’s zealous witnesses: "For there goeth a fire out of their mouths to devour their enemies." {#Re 11:5}

{a} Cicer. Orat. pro Amer.

Ver. 7. Sin lies at the door.] Like a great bandog, ready to pull out the throat of thy soul, if thou but look over the hatch. Say this dog lie asleep for a while, yet the door is for continual pass and repass, and so no fit place for any long sleep. Your sin will surely find you out, saith Moses, as a bloodhound, and haunt you like a hell hag, as the heathen could say, Nemo crimen gerit in pectore, qui non idem Nemesin {a} in tergo. A late divine {b} by sin here understandeth a sin offering, and telleth us, that as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam, {#Ge 3:15} so here he reads the first lecture of repentance to Cain, under the doctrine of a sin offering; telling him, that if he did well, he should certainly be accepted; and though he did not well, yet a sin offering lies at the door; if he repented, there was hope of pardon. {c}

{a} Nemesis dicitur Αδπαστεια, quod nemo eam effugere possit .

{b} D. Lightfoot.

{c} Resipiscenti remissio, pertinaci supplicium imminet, idque proximum et praesentissimum. -Jun.

Ver. 8. And Cain talked with Abel.] What talk they had is not set down. The Septuagint and vulgar versions tell us, Cain said, Let us go out into the field. The Chaldee adds, that he should say, There was no judgment, nor judge, nor world to come, nor reward for justice, nor vengeance for wickedness, &c. Certain it is that those that are set to go on in sin do lay hold upon all the principles in their heads, and "imprison them in unrighteousness," {#Ro 1:18} that they may sin more freely. They muzzle the mouths of their consciences, that they may satisfy their lusts without control. But had Zimri peace that slew his master? or Cain that slew his brother? hath any ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? {#Job 9:4}

Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew.] So Cain was the devil’s patriarch, and Abel the Church’s protomartyr. It is not long since Alphonsus Diazius, a Spaniard, an advocate to the Court of Rome, came from Rome to Neoberg, in Germany, to kill his own brother, John Diazius, a faithful professor of the Reformed religion, and a familiar friend to Bucer, who gives him an excellent commendation. {a} But it is worth the observing, says one, {b} that the first quarrel about religion arose propemodum inter media sacrificia, in the midst of the sacrifices almost. These theological hatreds (as I may call them) are most bitter hatreds, and are carried on, for most part, with Cain-like rage and bloody opposition. No fire sooner breaks forth, none goes out more slowly, than that which is kindled about matters of religion; and the nearer any come to other, the more deadly are their differences, and the more desperate their designs one against another. The Persians and Turks are both Mohammedans, and yet disagreeing about some small points in the interpretation of their Alkoran, the Persians burn whatsoever books they find of the Turkish sect. And the Turks hold it more meritorious to kill one Persian, than seventy Christians. {c} The Jew can better brook a heathen than a Christian; they curse us in their daily devotions, concluding them with a Maledic Domine Nazaraeis. The Pope will dispense with Jews, but not with Protestants. Lutherans will sooner join hands with a Papist than a Calvinist. And what a spirit had he, that in a sermon at Norwich, not long since, inveighing against Puritans, said, If a cup of cold water had a reward, much more a cup of such men’s blood! {d} Mortuus est Cain sed utinam ille non viveret in suis filiis, qui clavum eius, sanguine Abelis rubentem, ut rem sacrum, circumferunt, adorant et venerantur. The place where Cain slew Abel is by some thought to be Damascus in Syria, called therefore Damesec, that is, a bag of blood, {e}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 814.

{b} Bucholeer.

{c} Turk. Hist. x.

{d} See D. Day on #1Co 16:9.

{e} Bucholeer

Ver. 9. I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?] As if he had bid God, Go look. Let us not think much to receive dogged answers and disdainful speeches from profane persons. When they have learned to think better, they will speak better. As till then, pity and pray for them. These churlish dogs will be barking.

Ver. 10. What hast thou done?] Here God appeals to the murderer’s conscience, which is instead of a thousand witnesses. As oft as we feel the secret smitings of our own hearts for sin, think we hear him that is greater than our hearts, saying to us as here, What havae you done? And that there is no good to be done by denying or dawbing, for he knows all things, {#1Jo 3:20} and requires that we should see our sins to confession, or we shall see them to our confusion.

The voice of thy brother’s blood.] The blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops, and every drop a voice to cry for vengeance. "Give them blood to drink, for they are worthy." {#Re 16:6} Charles IX. of France, author of that bloody massacre of Paris, died of exceeding bleeding. Richard III. of this kingdom, and Queen Mary, had the shortest reigns of any since the Conquest; according to that, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days," {#Ps 55:23} anno 1586. {a} Walsh, Bishop of Ossery, in Ireland, a man of honest life, with his two servants, were stabbed to death by one Dulland, an Irish old soldier, while he gravely admonished him of his foul adulteries; and the wicked murderer escaped away, who had now committed forty-five murders with his own hand. At length, revenge pursuing him, he was by another bloody fellow, Donald Spaniah, shortly after slain himself, and his head presented to the Lord Deputy of Ireland. {b}

{a} Mr Camden’s Elisab., p. 165.

{b} Mr Camden’s Elisab., p. 241.

Ver. 11. And now thou art cursed.] The Pope contrarily blesses and saints traitors to their country, and murderers of their natural sovereigns; as Ravilliac, and others his assassins, those sworn swordsmen of the devil. Aphonsus Diazius, who killed his own brother for the cause of religion, as above said, fled to Rome, and was there highly commended for his zeal, and largely rewarded, as Bucer reports {a} But, driven thereto by the terrors of his own guilty conscience, like another Judas, he afterwards hanged himself upon the neck of his own mule, for want of a better gallows.

{a} Bucer in Praefat. ad Senarclaei Histor. de Morte Diaz.—Lonicer.

Ver. 12. A fugitive and a vagabond, &c.] The patriarchs were pilgrims, and stayed not long in a place. The apostles also were hurried about, {#Ro 15:19} and had "no certain dwellingplace." {#2Co 4:11} But first, God numbered their wanderings. {#Ps 56:8} He kept just reckoning of therein his count-book. Secondly, Their hearts were fixed, trusting in the Lord. {#Ps 112:7} They could call their souls to rest, when they had no rest in their bones; and fly up to heaven with the wings of a dove, when hunted on earth as so many partridges. So could not Cain the prisoner. He was not more a fugitive in the earth, than in his own conscience; {a} fain he would have fled from the terrors of it, but could not; he was prisoner to it, and must abide by it. Hence the Greek translates this text, Sighing and trembling shall you be on the earth; and so the word here used is applied elsewhere to the trembling of the heart, {#Isa 7:2} to the walking of the lips, {#1Sa 1:13} to the shaking of the forest by a violent wind, {#Isa 7:2} to the leaping of the lintel at the presence of the Lord {#Isa 6:4-8} And this, in all probability, was that mark that God set upon him. {#Ge 4:15} Not a horn in his forehead, as the Jews feign, but a hornet in his conscience, such as God vexed the Hivites with, {#Ex 23:28} stinging them with unquestionable conviction and horror. For assuredly a body is not so tormented with stings, or torn with stripes, as a mind with remembrance of wicked actions. {b}

{a} Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi. -Tertul.

{b} Cicer. Orat. pro Ros. Amer.

Ver. 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear.] Or, mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven. In either sense he sins exceedingly, and worse perhaps than in slaying his brother, whether he murmur against God’s justice, or despair of his mercy. Mine iniquity is greater, &c. Mentiris, Cain , saith a Father. Cain did not say so, because it was so; but it was so, because he said so. Despair is Satan’s masterpiece; it carries men headlong to hell, as the devils did the herd of swine into the deep; witness Guarlacus, Bomelius, Latomus of Lovain, Johannes de Canis, our English Hubertus, a covetous oppressor, who made this will, -I yield my goods to the king, my body to the grave, my soul to the devil. Pope Paul III., that spent his time in filthy pleasures, after that he had heard of the death of his son Petrus Aloisius, died in a peevish rage, and crying out in despair, Peccatum meum contra me semper, My sin is ever against me; and so gave up the ghost. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1908. Gellius in Dialog. Secundo Chimaerico. Willet on Daniel.

Ver. 14. From the face of the earth.] That is, of this earth, this country, my father’s family; which in the next words he calls God’s face, the place of his public worship, from the which Cain was here justly excommunicated. And surely St Jude’s woe will light heavily upon all such as, going in the way of Cain, and not willing to hear of their wicked ways, do wilfully absent themselves from the powerful preaching of the word. They that will not hear the word, shall hear the rod. {#Mic 6:9} Yea, a sword shall pierce through their souls, as it did Cain’s here; in whom was fulfilled that of Eliphaz; -"A dreadful sound was in his ears, lest in his prosperity the destroyer should come upon him. He believed not that he should return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword." {#Job 15:21,22}

Every one that finds me shall slay me.] Quam male est extra legem viventibus! quicquid meruerunt semper expectant. {a} Fat swine cry hideously, if but touched or meddled with, as knowing they owe their life to them that will take it. Tiberius felt the remorse of conscience so violent, that he protested to the senate, that he suffered death daily; whereupon Tacitus makes this good note, Tandem facinora et flagitia in supplicium vertuntur. As every body hath its shadow appertaining to it, so hath every sin its punishment. And although they escape the lash of the law, yet "vengeance will not suffer them to live," {#Ac 28:4} as the barbarians rashly censured St Paul, -to live quietly at least. Richard III., after the murder of his two innocent nephews, had fearful dreams and visions; insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword, which, always naked, stuck by his side, he would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. {b} Polidor Virgil thus writes of his dream that night before Bosworth Field, where he was slain, that he thought that all the devils in hell pulled and hailed him in most hideous and ugly shapes; and concludes of it at last, "I do not think it was so much his dream, as his evil conscience that bred those terrors." It is as proper for sin to raise fears in the soul, as for rotten flesh and wood to breed worms. That worm that never dies is bred here in the froth of filthy lusts and flagitious courses, and lies gnawing and grubbing upon men’s inwards, many times in the ruffe of all their jollity. This makes Saul call for a minstrel, Belshazzar for his carousing cups, Cain for his workmen to build him a city, others for other of the devil’s drugs, to put on the pangs of their wounded spirits and throbbing consciences. Charles IX., after the massacre of France, could never endure to be awakened in the night without music, or some like diversion; he became as terrible to himself, as formerly he had been to others. {c} But above all, I pity the loss of their souls, who serve themselves as the Jesuit in Lancashire, followed by one that found his glove, with a desire to restore it him. But pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, he leaps over a hedge, plunges into a deep pit behind it, unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned. {d}

{a} Petron.

{b} Daniel’s Chron. continued by Trussel, 249.

{c} Thuan. lib. lvii.

{d} M. Ward’s Sermon.

Ver. 15. The Lord set a mark, &c.] Some say it was the letter Tau; others, some letter of Jehovah: probably it was the perpetual trembling of his hands, and whole body, the very sight whereof made people pity him, till at length he was slain, say some, by his nephew Lamech. Cedrenus {a} tells us, if we may believe him, that Cain took his death by the fall of a house in the year of the world 931, the next year after the death of his father Adam. But however he died, sure it is, he had but an ill life of it. He was marked, says Philo, {b} but to his misery; he might not be killed by any, that he might everyday is dying, having a hell in his conscience, and standing in fear of every man he met with. He that would not hearken to God, so sweetly inciting and enticing him to do well, ({#Ge 4:7} has now Pavor and Pallor for his gods, as Lanctantius {c} reports of Tullius Hostilius, who had profanely derided the devotions of his predecessor Numa, as here Cain had done his brother Abel’s.

{a} Totum Cedreni opus est stabulum quisquiliarum , &c.—Scalig.

{b} Ne semel morte defungeretur, sed ut aetatem totam moriendo exigeret .— Philo.

{c} Lanctan. Instit.

Ver. 16. And Cain went out from the presence, &c.] But whither could he go from God’s Spirit? or whither could he fly from his presence? {a} {#Ps 139:7} From the presence of his power he could not: for,

"Enter, praesenter, Deus hic et ubique potenter."

God is "not very far from any one of us," saith St Paul. {#Ac 17:27} Not so far surely as the bark is from the tree, "for all things consist in him"; {#Col 1:17} so that a wicked man cannot wag hand or foot without his privity. But it was the presence of his grace, and use of his ordinances that this wretch fled from; as did likewise Jonah, {#Jon 1:3} in that, as wise as he, so going out of the grace of God into the warm sun, as we say. God fetched Jonah home again by weeping-cross, and made him feelingly acknowledge, for it had like to cost him a choking, that "they that observe lying vanities," as he had done, "forsake their own mercies." {#Jon 2:8} But Cain seated himself in the land of Nod, and there fell to building and planting, in contempt, as it is thought, of the divine doom denounced against him; or rather to drown the noise of his conscience, as the old Italians were wont to do the noise of the heavens in time of thunder, by ringing their greatest bells, and letting off their greatest ordinance. {b}

{a} Ubi est Deus? quid dixi miser? sed ubi non est? -Bern.

{b} Sigon.

Ver. 17. And he builded a city.] So, many drown themselves either in secular businesses, or sensual pleasures, and all to put by their melancholy dumps, and heart-qualms, as they call them; indeed to muffle up the mouths of their horribly guilty consciences. So Nicephorus Phocas, when, Zimri-like, he had killed his master, he laboured, like Cain, to secure himself with building high walls. After which, he heard a voice telling him, that though he built his walls never so high, yet sin within the walls would undermine all. {a} Besides that, one small drop of an evil conscience troubles a whole sea of outward comforts and contentments: a confluence whereof would no more ease conscience, than a silken stocking would do a broken leg. Silly are they that think to glide away their groans with games, and their cares with cards, &c.

Called the city after the name of his son Enoch.] That he might be styled, Lord Enoch of Enoch! This is the ambition of worldly men; their names are not written in heaven; they will propagate them therefore upon earth, as Nimrod by his tower, Absalom by his pillar, Cain by his city Enoch (which St Augustine fitly maketh a figure of Rome, because both of them were built by a parricide). "Their inward thought is," saith the psalmist, "that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations"; and therefore, "they call their lands after their own names." {#Ps 49:11} They seek to immortalise themselves upon their possessions; but the third heir seldom ever owns them. {b} Hence, houses and lands change masters so oft ( Olim eram Menippi, nunc Spensippi, & c., said that house in the Apologue). God justly crosses these "inhabitants of the earth," {#Re 12:12} as they are called, in opposition to the saints, whose "conversation is in heaven," {#Php 3:20} whereof they are fellow citizens. These know that they have here no abiding city, they look for one therefore above, not Henochia, but Heaven, "whose builder and maker is God." {#Heb 11:10}

{a} εαν υψοις τα τειχη εως ουρανου, ενδσν τς κακον ευαλωτος η πολις.—Cedren.

{b} De male quaesito vix gaudet tertius haeres .— Lucan.

Ver. 18. And unto Enoch was born Irad, &c.] Cain had a numerous offspring. Seven generations of his are here reckoned. Seth is not yet born, that we hear of. The wicked "are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." {#Ps 17:14} "They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance." They dance to "the timbrel and harp," (as here Jabal and Jubal did,) but they suddenly turn into hell, and so their merry dance ends in a miserable downfall. {#Job 21:11-13}

Ver. 19. Lamech took unto himself.] As his own lust led him, not caring for consent of parents. And two wives, {a} as little caring for the command of God, that "two," and no more, "should be one flesh," {#Ge 2:24} yea, though he "had the residue of the spirit," and so could have made many wives for Adam, yet "made he but one," saith the prophet {b} {#Mal 2:15} And wherefore one? but that he might seek a godly seed. Solomon’s polygamy was punished with barrenness. We read not of any son he had but one, and he none of the wisest neither, Rehoboam. This great king had but one son by many housefuls of wives, when many a poor man hath a house full of children by one wife. Erasmus tells a story of a poor English cripple, lame on both legs, that married a blind woman, and gave this reason, We shall the better agree, when neither can hit other in the teeth with our several defects and deformities. Nec fefellit hominem iudicium , saith he; it proved a happy match. They lived lovingly and cheerfully together, and God Almighty blessed them with a dozen lusty boys, that had not the least deformity about them. {c} Sardus tells us, that the old Britons would ten or twelve of them take one woman to wife. {d} Likely women were scarce among them. But yet that was better than the old Scots, of whom St Hierome reports, that they took no wives; but satisfied their lusts up and down as they wished, and wheresoever they liked, after the manner of brute creatures. {e} I have somewhere read, that not many hundreds of years since, they had a custom kept up among them, that the landlord might demand the first night of his tenant’s wife, as a chief rent. And Mr Fox relates, {f} that the friars in Germany were grown to that height of impudence, as to require the tenth night of every man’s wife, as a tithe due to them. Which to prevent, the Helvetians, when they received any new priest into their churches, they bargained with him before, to take his concubine, lest he should attempt any misuse of their wives and daughters. How much better were it, for the "avoiding of fornication, if every man of them had his own wife," saith Paul. {#1Co 7:2} Not so, not so, saith Cardinal Campeius; {g} for if comparison should be made, much greater offence it is, a priest to have a wife, than to have and keep at home many harlots; for they that keep harlots, saith he, as it is naught that they do, so do they acknowledge their sin; the other persuade themselves they do well, and so continue without repentance, or conscience of their fact. A fit reason for a carnal cardinal. Such another was his brother, Cardinalis Cremonensis, who after his stout replying in the Council of London, against the married estate of priests, exclaiming what a shameful thing it was to rise from the sides of a whore, to make Christ’s body, the night following was shamefully taken with a notable whore. {h} This was bad enough, but that was worse in Johannes from Casa, Dean of the Pope’s chamber, who so far forgot humanity and honesty, that he set forth a book in Italian metre, in commendation of Sodomitry, saying that he never used any other. {i} This might better have become a Turk, than a bishop. Sodomy in the Levant is not held a vice, so debauched they are grown. {j} The Turkish bashaws, besides their wives, whereof they have ten at least, each bashaw has as many, or likely more calamites, which are their serious loves. For their wives are used but to dress their meat, to laundress, and for reputation. {k} Only when the great Turk gives his daughter or sister to any bashaw to wife, it is somewhat otherwise. For he gives her at the same time a dagger, saying, I give you to this man to be your slave and bedfellow. If he is not loving, obedient, and dutiful to thee, I give you here this cunzhare or dagger to cut off his head. {l} Yet can she not forbid him to marry more wives "to vex her," {#Le 18:18} and fret her, as Peninnah did Hannah, {#1Sa 1:6} yea, to make her to thunder, as the word here signifies: for Turks may take as many wives as they are able to maintain. Hence it is that in jealousy they exceed Italians, making their women go muffled all but their eyes; and not suffering them to go to church, or so much as look out of their own windows. {m}

{a} Lamech polygamus unam costam in duas divisit .— Hier.

{b} Heroum filii noxae .

{c} Procreatis ex isto coniugio duodecim fratribus, nulloque naevo deformatis .— Dei Instit. Matr.

{d} Deni duodenique unam uxorem ducebant .- De Morib. Gent., lib. i., cap. 1.

{e} Ut cuique libitum fuerit, pecudum more lasciviunt. -Twini, Comment. de reb. Britan. ex Hieron.

{f} Act. and Mon., fol. 791.

{g} Ibid. 790.

{h} Ibid. 1065.

{i} Act and Mon., 1417.

{j} Blunt’s Voyage, p. 79.

{k} Blunt, 14.

{l} Heyl., Geog., p. 583.

{m} Blunt, 106.

Ver. 20. Adah bare Jabal.] Jabal, a good husband. Jubal, a merry Greek; whence the word iubilo in Latin, and our English jovial. Jabal, that dwelt in tents, and tended the herds, had Jubal to his brother, the father of hand and wind music. Jabal and Jubal, frugality and mirth, good husbandry and sweet content, dwell together. Virgil makes mention of a happy husbandman in his time, who

"Regum aequabat opes animis, seraque reversus

Nocte domum, dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis."

- Georg.

Ver. 21. As handle the harp and organ.] He invented Musicam, mentis medicinam maestae . The word here rendered organ is in the Chaldee Paraphrast, a pipe. It imports loveliness and delight: for men do naturally love and delight in music. Ezekiel’s hearers seemed to be much taken with his pulpit music, {#Eze 33:32} but proved at length like the Jassians in Strabo, who, delighted with the music of an excellent harper, ran all away as soon as the market bell rang, save only one deaf old man. These antediluvians likely were set all upon the merry mode, and not unlike the inhabitants of Tombutum in Africa, who are said to spend their whole time in piping and dancing.

Ver. 22. And Zillah bare Tubal-cain.] Perhaps the same that the poets call Vulcan. He was a cunning artificer in brass and iron. Tools they had before, and instruments of iron: how else could they have ploughed the accursed earth? But this man, artem iam inventam excoluit ornavitque , saith Junius; and is therefore called, a whetter or polisher of every artificer in brass and iron. They had the art of it before: but he added to their skill by his invention; he sharply and wittily taught smith’s craft; and is therefore by the heathens feigned to be the god of smiths, says another interpreter. {a}

{a} Vide Natal. com. Mythol., lib. ii., cap. 5.

Ver. 23. And Lamech said unto his wives.] Who, it seems, were troublesome to him with their domestic discords, and led him a discontented life. He therefore gives them to understand in this set speech, what a man he is, if molested by them or any other, and what slaughters he can make, if provoked by an adversary. I would slay a man, if but wounded, &c. This revenge he counts manhood, which indeed is doghood rather. So Alexander Phereus consecrated his javelin, wherewith he slew his uncle Polyphron, as a monument of his manhood, and called it his god Tychon. {a} So Sulla caused it to be registered in the public records, {b} that he had proscribed, and put to death, four thousand and seven hundred Romans. So Stokesly, Bishop of London, comforted himself upon his deathbed with this, that in his time he had burned fifty heretics, as he called them. {c} Is not this to "glory in their shame, and to have damnation for their end?" {#Php 3:19} Is it not the devil which sets men working to do thus, as he did Saul to seek David’s life, and Lamech to domineer in this sort over his wives, seeking so to repress their strife? A certain Indian coming into a house of the New English where a man and his wife were brawling, and they bidding him sit down, he was welcome: he answered, he would not stay there; "Hobomack," that is, the devil, was there; and so departed. {d}

{a} Plutar in Pelopida.

{b} Ne memoria tam praeclarae rei dilueretur .

{c} Act. and Mon.

{d} New Engl. First Fruits, p. 4.

Ver. 24. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, &c.] Boastful Lamech brags, and goes on to outdare God himself. For it is as if he should say, If God will take vengeance on them that condemn him, why may not I on those that condemn me, wives or other? Nay, though God will forgive evils against him, yet will not I evils against me. I’ll have the odds of him, seventy to seven; so Junius interprets it. A desperate expression, and somewhat like that of Pope Julius III., above mentioned, in the last note upon the former chapter; whereunto may here be added, {a} that the same Pope being forbidden by his physician to eat swine’s flesh, as being harmful and bad for his gout, he called for his steward in a great rage, and said, Bring me my pork flesh, al despito di Dio , in despite of God. O wretch!

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1417.

Ver. 25. She bare a son, and called, &c.] Sic uno avulso, non deficit alter Aureus .{ a} Dead bones may revive, and out of the ashes of a phoenix another phoenix spring. Iana iacet phoenix nato phoenice ,& c. The two witnesses that were killed, received the Spirit of life from God again. {#Re 11:11} John Baptist reviveth in our Saviour ( qui huic succenturiatus est), and Stephen in Paul; John Huss in Luther (the goose in the swan); and the suppressed Waldenses in the Protestants. The Papists gave out that when Luther died, all his sect would die with him: and when Queen Elizabeth’s head was laid, we should have strange work in England. A false Jesuit in a scandalous libel published it, {b} that she wished that she might, after her death, hang a while in the air, to see what striving would be for her kingdom. But she both lived and died with glory; her rightful successor came in peaceably, not a dog moving his tongue at him; the true reformed religion was established, and is hitherto maintained among us, evil the malice of Rome and hell. It was the legacy left us by our ancestors: the blood of those blessed martyrs was the seed of our Church, of which I may say, as he of his city,

“ Victa tamen vinces, eversaque Troia resurges:

Obruit hostiles illa ruina domos.”

When the devil and his imps had got Abel into his grave, and saw Adam without another in his place for a hundred and thirty years’ space, or near upon, what a deal of joy was there, think we, among them, and sending of gifts! But God in due time sets up a Seth, instead of Abel, and so cuts the devil’s comb, confutes his confidence. He will have a Church, when all’s done. The Pope {c} could tell the Turk so much in a message,

“ Niteris incassum Christi submergere navem:

Fluctuat, at nunquam mergitur illa ratis.”

{a} Virgil. The Duke of Florence gave for his ensign a great tree with many spreading boughs, one of them being cut off, with this posie, Uno avulso ,& c.

{b} Camdon’s Elis.

{c} Plus II. ad Imperat. Turc.

Ver. 26. Then began men to call upon, &c.] Publicly, and in solemn assemblies to serve the Lord; and to make a bold and wise profession of his name: "shining as lamps" {a} amidst that "perverse" generation of irreligious Cainites, "who said unto God, Depart from us," &c. {#Job 22:17} This Job speaks there of these wicked, "which were cut down out of time, their foundation was overflown with the flood." {#Job 22:16} The Jews translate it to this day, Then began men to fall from God; as Maimonides, their most learned rabbi, observes.

{a} ως φωστηρες. {#Php 2:15}

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. This is the book of the generations.] Sepher, {a} a ciphering of their names, acts, and accidents; that we might know, first, who were Christ’s progenitors; secondly, by whom the Church was continued; thirdly, how long the old world lasted, viz., one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. {b} Whence some have grounded a conjecture, that the year of Christ one thousand six hundred and fifty-six will bring forth some strange alteration in the world. Others think the world will be then at an end, and they base this on this chronogram, MunDi ConfLagratIo.

In the likeness of God made he him.] This is much inculcated, that it may be much observed, and we much humbled, that have parted with so fair a patrimony; striving as much as may be to recover it in Christ, who being “the express image of his Father’s person,” {c} is both apt and able to renew that lost image of God in us, by his merit and Spirit, by his value and virtue.

{a} דפס

{b} Alsted, Chron., p. 494.

{c} απαυγασμα και χαρακτηρ. {#Heb 1:3}

Ver. 2. Male and female created he them.] The Jews at this day have base conceits of women: as that they have not so divine a soul as men; that they are of a lower creation, made only for the propagation and pleasure of man, &c. {a} And therefore they suffer them not to enter the synagogue, but appoint them a gallery without. Thus “they err, not knowing the Scriptures.” {#Mt 22:29} {See Trapp on "Ge 2:22"}

{a} Blunt’s Voyage, p. 122.

Ver. 3. Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat.] This was a great trial to his faith, to wait so long for a better issue, when the Cainites spread abroad, erected cities, and perhaps meditated monarchies.

After his own image.] Corruptus corruptum . For "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" says Job. {#Job 14:4} "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," {#Joh 3:6} saith our Saviour, and we can say no better of it. This is hard to persuade men to; for each one is apt to think his own penny as good silver: and a dead woman will have four to carry her forth, as the proverb has it. The Pharisee, bad enough though he be, yet is very braggardly of his good estate to Godward: And Novatus cries out, Non habeo, Domine, quod mihi ignoscas . How much better St Augustine, Ego admisi, Domine, unde tu damnare potes me; sed non amisisti, unde tu salvare potes me . One has destroyed me, but from you is my help—my safety here, and salvation hereafter. Lord I am hell, but you are heaven, as that martyr {a} once said, &c. “One depth called upon another”; {#Ps 42:7} the depth of my misery, the depth of thy mercy. Heaven denies me; earth groans under me; hell gapes for me: help, Lord, or your servant perishes. "Wash me throughly from my iniquity, and purge me from my sin"; {#Ps 51:2} whether that imputed to me, inherent in me, or issuing from me.

{a} Bp. Hooper.

Ver. 4. He begat sons and daughters.] Philo and Epiphanius give him twelve sons; Beda thirty sons, and as many daughters.

Ver. 5. Nine hundred and thirty years.] Till the fifty-sixth year of the patriarch Lamech. In all which time he doubtless instructed his good nephews in all those great things which himself had learned from God’s mouth, and “proved” in his own experience "what that good, and holy, and acceptable will of God was". {#Ro 12:2} Moreover, out of his mouth, as out of a fountain, flowed whatsoever profitable doctrine, discipline, skill, and wisdom is in the world.

And he died.] This is not in vain so often iterated in this chapter; for there is in us by nature a secret conceit of immortality, and we can harldy be beaten out of it. That all must die, every man will yield; but that he may live yet, a day longer at least, there is none but hopes. We can see death in other men’s brows, but not in our own bosoms. It must make forcible entry, and break in violently. God must “cut” men “in twain,” {διχοτομησει, #Mt 24:51} and tear their souls from their bodies, ere they will yield to die. The best are too backward, and would not “be unclothed, but clothed upon,” {#2Co 5:4} if they might have their will. Moses himself prays, “Lord, teach us so to number our days, that we may apply,” or, as the Hebrew hath it, that we may cause “our hearts” to come “to wisdom.” {#Ps 90:12} Cause them to come, whether they will or not; for naturally they hang off, and would not come to any such bargain. How needful is it therefore to be told us, that Adam died, that Seth, Enos, and Cainan died, &c.; that this may be as a handwriting on the wall, to tell us that we must also die, and come to judgment.

Ver. 6. And begat Enos,] that is, Sorry-man, which was appellatio a dolore. Nomen cure re convenit. Homo enim est animal aerumnis plenum, imo ipsa aerumna, et calamitas, ut est apud Herodotum {See Trapp on "Ge 5:9"}.

Ver. 7. Eight hundred and seven years.] {See Trapp on "Ge 5:20"}

Ver. 8. And he died.] {See Trapp on "Ge 5:5"} Omnes una manet nox: Et calcanda semel via lethi {a} Death is the way of all flesh, saith David: of all the world, says Joshua. {#Jos 23:14} On this condition came I into the world, said Socrates, {b} that I might go out again, when called for.

{a} Horat.

{b} Sen., Ep. xxv.

Ver. 9. Enos begat Cainan.] Enos, that is, Sorry-man, begat Cainan, that is, A man of sorrows. Thus the fathers, though long-lived, were not unmindful of their mortality and misery.

Ver. 10. And begat sons and daughters.] Epiphanius in his Leptogenesis, as he calls it, will tell you how many: but you are not bound to believe him.

Ver. 11. And he died.] This final account is given in of them all, though never so dear to God. And it puts me in mind of a speech of Theodosius the good emperor; -It {a} is no news that a man dies: but that a man, dead in trespasses and sins, rises again by repentance to a life well pleasing to God, this is a marvellous matter, a just wonder. {See Trapp on "Ge 5:5"} {See Trapp on "Ge 5:8"}

{a} Niceph. Callist.

Ver. 12. And begat Mahalaleel,] i.e., Praised be God; a good name; imminding him of a good duty. God is to be incessantly praised for his excellency, thanked for his benefits. “Thou art good, and doest good.”

Ver. 13. And begat sons and daughters.] Everything is generative of itself, says the philosopher. {a} And, that man is unworthy to be born, of whom another is not born, says the orator.

{a} Propriissimum opus viventis est, generare sibi simile .— Arist.

Ver. 14. Nine hundred and ten years.] A long while to live: sed nemo propter canos et annos, diu vixit .

Ver. 15. And begat Jared,] i.e., One that is going down, sc., to the dust of death: for, to live, is but to lie a-dying: every day we yield somewhat to death, and a man’s cradle stands in his grave.

Ver. 16. And begat.] {See Trapp on "Ge 5:13}

Ver. 17. And he died.] Mors, omnibus finis, multis remedium, quibusdam votum . It was so doubtless to these holy patriarchs, more willing to die, than ever they had been to dine.

Ver. 18. And he begat Enoch,] i.e., Dedicated, and catechised. Consecrated he was to God, and accordingly brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” {#Eph 6:8} What wonder then that he became eminent and outstanding in holiness!

Ver. 19. And Jared lived after he begat Enoch.] He lived the longer, likely, for the great content he took in so good a son. Towardly and hopeful children do help to lengthen their parents’ days. God therefore lengtheneth theirs, according to that “first commandment with promise.” {#Eph 6:2} Or, if he take from them this long lease, he gives them, as he did Enoch, a freehold of a better value.

Ver. 20. Nine hundred sixty and two years.] Rabbi Livi citing Genebrardus, the longevity of the patriachs was the work of providence, not the result of nature. Rabbi Levi, citante Genebrardo, longevitatem patriarcharum opus providentiae, non natarae appellat {a} Their children also, that they waited so long for, were not more the issue of their bodies, than of their faith.

{a} Genebr., Chron.

Ver. 21. And begat Methuselah,] that is, Death’s dart, or piercing death (death is a skilful archer, that never misseth the mark it shoots at); or, He once dead, in comes the dart, i.e., the deluge: and so it did, even in the very year of his death: though the Septuagint miscounts, and make him to live fourteen years after the flood.

Ver. 22. And Enoch walked with God,] i.e., he walked in the fear of the Lord, as the Chaldee here paraphraseth: and this he did without intermission, not for a time or two, but continually, constantly: he walked with God by a humble familiarity, and a holy conformity; as a man doth with his friend. To walk with God, before God, and after God, are much at one. {See Trapp on "Ge 5:24"}

Ver. 23. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.] So many years only lived Enoch as there be days in the year. But what he wanted in the shortening of his time, was made up in his son Methuselah, the longest living man. Besides that, God took him to a better place, transplanted {#So 6:2} {a} him, as it were out of the kitchen garden into his heavenly paradise; which was not more to his own benefit, than to the comfort of the other patriarchs that survived him, before the fear of death, and the crosses of life. Seth in Enoch (whatever discouragement they had in Abel’s death) they had a hidden demonstration that "there is a reward for the righteous," and that it is not altogether in vain to walk with God.

{a} “To gather lilies,” i.e., to transplant his people into heaven.

Ver. 24. And Enoch walked with God.] And so “condemned the world”: {#Heb 11:7} first, by his life; secondly, at his death. By his life, in that he kept a constant counter-motion to the corrupt courses of the times; not only not swimming down the stream with the wicked, but pronouncing God’s severe judgment against them, even to the extreme curse of Anathema Maranatha, as St Jude tells us {#Jude 1:14} Secondly, by his death he condemned them: in that so strange a testimony of God’s grace and glory, in his wonderful translation, did not affect and move them to amend their evil manners. The heathens had heard somewhat afar off, concerning this candidate of immortality, as the ancients call him, {a} and thence grounded their apotheoses. Eupolemon saith that their Atlas was Enoch, as their Janus was Noah. And how fitly are the Papists called heathens {b} by St John. {#Re 11:2} Since, besides their Atlas of Rome, on whose shoulders the whole Church, that new heaven, must rest, there was at Ruremund, in Gilderland, a play acted by the Jesuits, anno 1622, under the title of the “Apotheosis of St Ignatius.” {c}

{a} Alsted, Chron., p. 85.

{b} Gentes sunt Antichristus cum suis asseclis .— Paraeus.

{c} Jac. Revil., Hist. Pontif. Rom., p. 309. Sil. Ital.

Ver. 25. And begat Lamech,] i.e., Poverty: but yet he was endued with the gift of prophecy. {#Ge 5:29} He might be

“ Nudus opum, sed cui coelum terraeque paterent .”

We used to call them poor souls, whom we pity: but a man may have a rich soul, in a poor condition. {#Re 2:9}

Ver. 26. And Methuselah lived.] But had the less joy of his longest life, because he lived in the very rust of that iron age; and so felt ultima senescentis mundi deliria , the utmost dotages of that decrepit old world.

Ver. 27. And all the days of Methuselah.] He lived longest of any, yet wanted thirty-one years of a thousand. Oecolampadius thinks there was a mystery in this, that they all died short of a thousand, which is a type of perfection; {a} to teach us, says he, that live we never so long here, and grow we never so fast in grace, we cannot possibly be perfect, till we get to heaven. Enoch lived long in a little time; and foreseeing the flood, named his son Methuselah; that is to say, he dies, and the dart (or flood) comes. And so it happened; for no sooner was his head laid, but in came the flood. “The righteous are taken away from the evil to come.” {#Isa 57:1} And their death is a sad presage of an imminent calamity. Hippo could not be taken while Augustine lived, nor Heidelberg while Paraeus. Semen sanctum statumen terrae {b} {#Isa 6:13} The holy seed upholdeth the state. Absque stationibus non staret mundus {c} “The innocent shall deliver the island, and it is delivered by the pureness of thy hands,” {#Job 22:30} whereas, “one sinner destroyeth much good.” {#Ec 9:18} Ambrose is said to have been “the walls of Italy.” {d} Stilico the earl said, that his death did threaten destruction to that country.

“ Hic patria est, murique urbis stant pectore in uno .”{ e}

{a} Nemo patriarcharum mille annos complevit, quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis. Hic nulla perfectio pietatu .— Oecolampad.

{b} Junius.

{c} Tertul.

{d} Paulin. Nolan., in Vita Ambros .

{e} De Fablo Cunctatore , Sil.

Ver. 28. And Lamech.] {See Trapp on "Ge 5:25"}

Ver. 29. This same shall comfort us.] Herein a figure of Christ. And Peter Martyr thinks that Lamech was in hope that this son of his would have been the Christ. A pardonable error, proceeding from an earnest desire of seeing his day, whom their souls loved, and longed for: “Greeting {a} the promise afar off,” {#Heb 11:13} and “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” {#Lu 2:25}

{a} ασπασαμενοι

Ver. 30. Five hundred, &c.] And yet if one had asked old Lamech, as he in Gerson did an old Frenchman, Quot annos habes ? How many years old are you? he might have answered as there, Annos non habeo , I reckon not upon any years: but death has avoided me these five hundred and odd years.

Ver. 31. And he died.] Death is that mistress of the world that will not be courted, nor yet cast off, by any. Hesiod may tell of Nectar and Ambrosia, the sweet wines of the gods, that will make men immortal. Pliny may prattle of the herb Moly, which hath virtue to make an old man young. Historians may write of certain fortunate islands where men live to an incredible age. But where lives that man that sees not death at length? {See Trapp on "Ge 5:5"} {See Trapp on "Ge 5:8"} {See Trapp on "Ge 5:17"}

Ver. 32. And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.] Twenty years had he heard from God, that the world should be destroyed, before he had any child. Here was “the faith and patience of this saint.” {#Re 13:10} At length he hath Japheth first; though Shem be first named, because he was in dignity preferred before his brother, to be grandfather to the Messiah. Now any relation to Christ ennobleth either place or person. If it were an honour to Mark to have been Barnabas’s sister’s son, what is it then to be related to the Son of God? Bethlehem, where he was born, though it were least, says Micah; yet it was not the least, says Matthew, among all the cities of Judah, because out of it should come Christ the Governor. {#Mic 5:2 Mt 2:6}

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. When men began to multiply.] Not good men only, but bad men too; who therefore took them more wives than one, that they might multiply amain. A numerous offspring is no sure sign of God’s special favour. It is well observed, that when God promised children as a blessing, he said, “The wife should be as the vine, and the children as olive plants”;—two {#Ps 128:3} of the best fruits, the one for cheering the heart, the other for clearing the face; {#Ps 104:15 Jud 9:9,13} the one for sweetness, the other for fatness. “Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of such, as are the arrows of a strong man.” {#Ps 127:4,5} Hence it follows, that they must have more in them than nature; for arrows are not arrows by growth, but by art: so they must be such children, the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed, and made smooth by grace. This workmanship of God in the hearts and lives of children, is like the engraving of a king’s “palace,” or the “polished corners” of the temple. {#Ps 144:12} This preserves “Jacob from confusion, and his face from waxing pale”:—this makes religious parents to “sanctify God’s name,” even to “sanctify the Holy One,” and with singular encouragement from “the God of Israel.” {#Isa 29:22,23} It never goes well with the Church, but when the son marries the mother. {#Isa 62:5}

Ver. 2. That the sons of God saw the daughters.] Sons of God; such as had called themselves by his name, {#Ge 4:26} his peculiar professant people, called sons of Jehovah, {#De 14:1} yea, his firstborn, and so higher than the kings of the earth. {#Ps 89:27} Hence, after mention made of the four monarchies, a greater than them all succeeds; and that is the "kingdom of the saints of the Most High"; {#Da 7:17,18} saints at large he means; all "that have made a covenant with him by sacrifice". {#Ps 50:5} Now we read of sacrificing Sodomites; {#Isa 1:10} "sinners in Sion"; {#Isa 33:14} profligate professors; {#Mt 7:23} who, though called "Israel," yet are to God "as Ethiopians". {#Am 9:7} Such were these sons of God.

Saw the daughters of men that they were fair.] Beauty is a dangerous bait, and lust is sharpsighted. It is not safe gazing on a fair woman. How many have died of the wound in the eye! No one means has so enriched hell as beautiful faces. Take heed our eyes are not windows of wickedness and loopholes of lust. Make "a covenant with them" as Job; {#Job 31:1} pray against the abuse of them with David; {#Ps 119:37} and curb them from forbidden objects, as Nazianzen, who had learned τους σφθαλμους σωφρονιζειν, to nurture his eyes, as himself tells us. {See note on "Ge 3:6"}

They took them wives.] Of their own heads, without God’s licence, or parents’ consent; as Esau did; and of all which they chose, that is, that they liked and loved. Thus, as some marry by their ears, upon mere hearsay; others, by their fingers’ ends, for money; so these gallants married by their eyes. They were led by the "lust of their hearts, and sight of their eyes," {#Pr 31:30} as Solomon’s young nobleman; not considering that "favour is deceitful, beauty vanity"; and that many a woman is like Helen without, but Hecuba within, or an earthen "potsherd covered with silver dross". {#Pr 26:23} {a}

{a} Amor formae rationis est oblivio, insaniae proximus, turbat consilia, altos et generosos spiritus frangit.—Jerom.

Ver. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive,] that is, I’ll consult no longer, but resolve to ruin them, as some gloss it; or, I’ll pull the sword out of the sheath, the soul out of the body, as others gather out of the Hebrew word {a} here used. But they do best, in my mind, that sense it thus: My Spirit—whereby I hitherto "went and preached," by Noah and other patriarchs, to those "spirits" (once in pleasure, now) "in prison," {#Ec 11:9 1Pe 3:18,19} but prevailed not—shall not always strive with perverse men by preaching, disputing, convincing, in the mouths of my servants, whom I have sent unto them; nor in their own minds and consciences, by inward checks and motions, which they have made no good use of. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei . Grieve it once, and you may drive it away for ever. It "bloweth where it listeth," and will not be at your whistle.

For that he also is flesh.] He is therefore the worse, because he ought to be better, {b} God expects singular things from his people, and takes it ill when they are "carnal and walk as men". {#1Co 3:3} They should be higher than others by head and shoulders, as Saul was; and all that is in them, or comes from them, should be as the fruit of the trees in Paradise, fair to the eye, and sweet to the taste.

Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.] It shall be so long ere I destroy. This longsuffering of God is celebrated by St Peter, {#1Pe 3:19,20 2Pe 2:5} and well it may; for had he not been God, and not man, he could never have held his hands so long. Neither indeed did he; for so extreme was the provocation, that he cut them off twenty years of this promised count: that all the earth might "know" to their woe his "breach of promise". {#Nu 14:34}

{a} Sunt qui deductum volunt a Nadan, Vagina.

{b} Ideo deteriores sumus, quia meliores esse debemus— . Salv.

Ver. 4. There were giants.] Gigantes, quasi Γηγενεις, earth-sprung. They were "of the earth, they spake of the earth," {#Joh 3:31} and the earth heard them; heard them, I say, and fell before them; as the beasts of the field do before the roaring lion. Hence they are called in Hebrew, Nephilim; such as being fallen from God, fell upon men, {#Job 1:15} and by fear and force, made others fall before them. Thus they sought to renown and raise themselves, by depressing others, and doing violence. But this was not the way; for now they lie shrouded in the sheet of shame. To "do worthily in Ephrata," is to "be famous in Bethlehem". {#Ru 4:11} To be patiently perseverant "in well-doing," is to "seek for glory and honour"; yea, to attain "immortality and eternal life" {#Ro 2:7}

Ver. 5. The wickedness of man was great in the earth.] Which was now grown so foul, that God saw it but time to wash it with a flood; as he shall shortly do again with streams of fire. He destroyed the world then with water, for the heat of lust; he shall destroy it with fire, for the coldness of love, as saith Ludolfu. {a}

And that every imagination of the thoughts.] Omne figmentum cogitationum :The whole fiction or "every creature of the heart," as the apostle has it, {#Heb 4:13} speaking there of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is a general disorderliness; the whole frame is out of frame. {b} The understanding dark as hell, and yet proud as the devil. The will cross and overthwart. The memory slippery and waterish to receive and retain good impressions; but of a marble firmness to hold fast that which is evil. The affections crooked and preposterous. The very tongue a world of wickedness, what then the heart? Si trabes in oculo, strues in corde . The operations thereof are evil, only evil; "every day evil," saith this text; and assigneth it for the source of the old world’s wickedness. David also resolves his adultery and murder into this pravity of his nature, as the principle of it; {#Ps 51:5} so doth Job; {#Job 40:4} Paul; {#Ro 7:24} Isaiah {#Isa 6:5} The whole Church {#Isa 64:6} cries out, "Unclean, unclean," {#Le 13:45} and, "All we like sheep have gone astray". {#Isa 53:6} Now, as no creature is more apt to wander, so none less able to return, than a sheep. "The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master’s crib"; {#Isa 1:3} the very swine accustomed to the trough, if he go abroad, yet at night will find the way home again: not so the sheep. Lo! such is man. Quintilian, therefore, was quite out when he said, "It is more marvel that one man sinneth, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of man." But he erred, not knowing the Scripture. For "do ye think," saith St James, alluding to this text, "that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" {#Jas 4:5} The civil man’s nature is as bad as the worst, -not changed, but chained up. Truly said Cicero, Cum primum nascimur in omni continuo pravitate versamur . We are no sooner born than buried in a bog of wickedness.

{a} De Vita Christ., lib. ii., cap. 7.

{b} All the thoughts extensively are intensively only evil, and protensively continually.

Ver. 6. And it repented the Lord, &c., and it grieved him.] These things are spoken of God ανθρωποπαθως, after the manner of men; but must be taken and understood θεοσπρεπως, as it beseemeth God. When repentance is attributed to God, saith Mr Perkins, it noteth only the alteration of things and actions done by him, and no change of his purpose and secret decree, which is immutable. God’s repentance, saith another learned divine, {a} is not a change of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man is the changing of his will; repentance with God is the willing of a change. Mutatio rei, non Dei; effectus, non affectus; facti, non confilii .

{a} Mr Gataker.

Ver. 7. I will destroy man.] See here the venemous and mischievous nature of sin. It causeth God to make a world, and again to unmake it: it sets him against man his masterpiece, and makes him, though he be φιλανθρωπος, not only to devise, but to delight in the destruction of his own creature, to "mock at," and make merry in his "calamity," {#Pr 1:26} to deliver "the beloved of his soul into the hands of the destroyer". {#Jer 12:7} Time was, when Christ, being by at the creation, "rejoiced in this habitable part of God’s earth, and his delights were with the sons of men". {#Pr 8:31} But since the fall, it is far otherwise; for he is "of more pure eyes than to behold sin" {#Hab 1:13} with patience. He hates it worse than he hates the devil: for he hates the devil for sin’s sake, and not sin for the devil’s sake. Now the natural and next effect of hatred is revenge. Hence he resolves, "I will destroy man."

Both man and beast, the creeping thing, &c.] Why, "what have those poor sheep done?" {#2Sa 24:17} They are all undone by man’s sin, and are, for his punishment, to perish with him, as they were created for him. This is a piece of that bondage they are still subject to; and grievously groan under, waiting deliverance. {#Ro 8:21,22}

Ver. 8. But Noah found grace.] Because in covenant with God; who of himself was a child of wrath, and saved by grace only, though "just and perfect in his generation." The mercy seat was no larger than the ark; to show that the grace of God extends no further than the covenant. As all out of the ark were drowned, so all out of the covenant are damned.

Ver. 9. Noah was a just man.] By a twofold justice: 1. imputed; 2. imparted. By the former he was justified; by the latter, sanctified: and note, that he found grace in God’s eyes, before he was either of these; for grace is the foundation of all our felicity, and comprehends all blessings, as manna is said to have done all good tastes,

Perfect in his generation.] At best in those worst times, which is a singular commendation; and perfect, that is upright: aiming at perfection, willing {θελοντες, #Heb 13:18} in all things to please God; and yet not more desiring to be perfect, than hating to seem only to be so. Or, Noah was perfect, compared to that sinful generation; which yet gloried in the title of the sons of God, and children of the Church. But was not Judas called "friend," and Dives "son?" {#Lu 16:25} Hath not many a ship been known by the name of "safeguard" and "goodspeed," which yet hath dashed upon the rocks, or miscarried by-pirates? External privileges profit not, where the heart is not upright, but increase wrath. It was an aggravation to Solomon’s sin, that God "had appeared unto him twice"; {#1Ki 11:9} and that he had been timely forewarned by his mother to beware of wine and women, {#Pr 31:3,4} both which he was afterwards, nevertheless, most inordinately addicted to. {#Ec 2:1}

Ver. 10. Shem, Ham, and Japheth.] {See Trapp on "Ge 5:32"}

Ver. 11. The earth also was corrupt before God.] Or, rotten, putrid, and stank again. Sin is an offence to all God’s senses; yea, to his very soul, as he complains in #Isa 1:1-16. Oh that it were so to ours! then would we not hide it under our tongues, as a child doth sugar, and harbour it in our hearts; yea, let it eat of our meat, and drink of our cup, and lie in our bosoms, as the poor man’s lamb did in Nathan’s parable. {#2Sa 12:3} Lust was but a stranger to David, as the prophet there intimates {#2Sa 12:4} At other times, and when himself, "I hate vain thoughts," saith he, {#Ps 119:113} yea, "every false way," {#Ps 119:104} as the vomit of a dog, as the devil’s excrements, as the putrefaction of a dead soul, dead in trespasses; dead and rotten, as here, stinking (τεταρταιος), worse before God, than Lazarus was or could be, after he had lain four days in the grave. {#Joh 11:39}

Ver. 12. All flesh had corrupted his way.] General defection precedes general destruction; as here all sorts and sexes were fallen from God. All kinds of sins were common among them. In the family, promiscuous lusts, unlawful marriages, &c. In the state, tyranny, violence, injustice. In the Church, contempt of God’s word; abuse of his patience to presumption; of his bounty to security in sin. For they ate, they drank, they married, they planted, they builded, &c. And all this they did constantly and pleasantly, passing from eating to drinking; from drinking to marrying (for, Venus in vinis , and gluttony, is the gallery that wantonness walks through); from marrying to planting, for the use of posterity, as St Luke sweetly sets forth by an elegant rhetorical figure {a} All this they did, and God was silent, {#Ps 22:2} therefore their hearts grew fat as brawn, and they knew nothing, saith our Saviour, nor would know, till the very day that the flood came. Into such a dead lethargy were they cast by their sins; which were therefore grown ripe, and ready for the sickle.

{a} ησθιον, επινον, εγαμουν, & c.—#Lu 17:27

Ver. 13. The end of all flesh is come before me.] I will surely, and swiftly ( certissime citissimeque) destroy them. A like threatening there is used in #Eze 7:2,3,6, against Israel, when once their sins were full ripe, and "hanged but for mowing," as we say: "The end is come," "is come," "is come," and so some ten or twelve times, "Is come, is come," q.d., destruction is at next door by, and Noah must know it too. Not by his skill in astrology, as Berosus belies him, but by divine premonition. For "shall I hide from" Noah, from "Abraham," "that thing which I do"? {#Ge 18:17} No surely, they shall know all: they shall be both of God’s court and counsel For "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" {#Ps 25:14} And "the Lord will do nothing" of this nature, "but he will first reveal it unto his servants the prophets". {#Am 3:7} And even to this day, the more faithful and familiar we are with God, so much the sooner and better do we foresee his judgments, and can foreshow them to others; as those that are well acquainted with men, know by their looks and gestures that which strangers understand not, but by their actions: As finer tempers are more sensible of the changes of weather, &c.

I will destroy them.] I will corrupt them, -so the Hebrew hath it, -I will punish them in kind; pay them in their own coin; corrupt them from the earth, as they have corrupted themselves in the earth, which also now is burdened with them, and cries to me for a vomit to spue them out.

Ver. 14. Make thee an ark.] Or chest, or coffin. And indeed by the description here set down, the ark, in shape, was like to a coffin for a man’s body, six times so long as it was broad, and ten times so long as it was high: and so fit to figure out, saith an interpreter, {a} Christ’s death and burial, and ours with him, by mortification of the old man: as the apostle applies this type to baptism, {#1Pe 3:20,21} whereby we are become "dead" and "buried with Christ". {#Ro 6:3,4,6} The poets’ ship, "Argos," may have reference to this ark.

{a} Mr Ainsworth.

Ver. 16. A window shalt thou make.] The ark had little outward light; so the Church, till she become triumphant. There could not but be much stench among all those creatures, though shut up in several rooms; so here, there is much annoyance to those that have their "senses exercised to discern good and evil". {#Heb 5:14} Compare the estate of Prince Charles in his queen-mother’s womb with his condition at full age, in all the glory of his father’s court; there is a broad difference. And it may fitly resemble, saith one, {a} the difference of our present and future estate; while the Church doth here travail of us, we are pent up in dark cloisters, and annoyed with much stench of sin, both in ourselves and others; but when we come to heaven, we shall see and enjoy the light of life, our feet shall be as hinds’ feet, upon the everlasting mountains.

{a} Bain’s Letter,

Ver. 17. And behold I, even I.] Verba stomachantis, &c., confirmantis veritatem comminationis suae . Abused mercy turns into fury. God will not alway serve men for a sinning stock. Crudelem medicum intemperans ager facit. {a}

Every thing that is in the earth shall die.] A dismal doom; and God is now absolute in his threatening, because he will be resolute in his execution. Oh, tremble and sin not; while others sin and tremble not. "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry"; {#Ps 2:12} "Who knoweth the power of his anger? Surely according to our fear, is his wrath". {#Ps 90:11} It is a just presage and desert of ruin, not to be warned. God hath hanged up the old world in gibbets, as it were, for our admonition. Worthily are they made examples, that will not take them. Who pities the second captain, consumed by fire with his company, {#2Ki 1:11,12} since he had a fair warning, but would not beware by it? "Behold the day of the Lord cometh, that shall burn as an oven," {#Mal 4:1} This last day was foretold by Enoch, {#Jude 1:14} before the deluge was by Noah. Longer it is before it comes, but shall be more terrible when it is come.

{a} Mimus.

Ver. 18. Thou and thy sons.] Yet Ham, soon after, degenerated: for the present he concealed his wickedness from men; from God he could not. He bears with hypocrites in his visible Church for a season, till the time of separation. In area nobiscum esse possunt, in horreo non possunt ,{ a} "He will thoroughly purge his floor". {#Mt 3:12} "The Canaanite shall not be in the land any longer"; nor "the unclean spirit". {#Zec 13:2,14:21} O foelicem illam dieculam !

Two of every sort,] i.e., Two at least: for of clean creatures (fit for sacrifice) {b} there were more.

{a} Augustin.

{b} Rab. Solom.

Ver. 20. Two of every sort shall come unto thee.] "For they are all thy servants," saith David; {#Ps 119:91} they wait upon thy word. This Noah might make good use of; and did, no doubt. See how sequacious these poor creatures are to God their centurion. If he bid them come, they come; if go, they go. And shall not I obey God, and follow his call, be there never so many lions in my way?

Ver. 21. Take thou unto thee of all food.] God could have kept them alive without either food or ark. But he will have us serve his providence, in use of lawful means; and so to trust him, as that we do not tempt him.

Ver. 22. Thus did Noah, according to all, &c.] The wicked world could not flout him out of his faith; but that "moved with fear," {#Heb 11:7} he preacheth, and buildeth, and finisheth; every stroke upon the ark being a real sermon (as Nazianzen hath it) to forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come; {a} which yet they did not, -no, not the very shipwrights that made the ark, -but were all buried together, in one universal grave of waters.

{a} He preached without preaching, saith Basil of Selucia.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. For thee have I seen righteous before me.] Not only before men, as Pharisees, {#Lu 16:15} and civil justiciaries, {#Ro 2:29} but before me who see the inside, and love "truth in the hidden man of the heart". {#Ps 51:6 1Pe 3:5} And here Noah’s sincerity prevailed with God for his safety, as did likewise Lot’s, whom God hid in Zoar; and Abram’s, to whom God was a shield to save him from the deadly thrusts of destruction, when he pursued the four kings and foiled them, because he "walked before him, and was upright." {#Ge 15:1 14:15} So true is that of Solomon, "He that walketh uprightly, walketh safely," {#Pr 10:9} as if he were in a tower of brass, or town of war. And again, "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children have a place of refuge". {#Pr 14:26} The old Rock is still ready to relieve them. {#Isa 26:3}

In this generation.] Called by St Peter, "a world of ungodly ones," {#2Pe 2:5} far worse, no doubt, than those in Enoch’s days. The greater praise was it to Noah, that, by a holy antiperistasis, he kindled from their coldness, and became nothing the worse, but much the better (as it is the nature of true goodness) by their oppositions. It was an invincible faith, whereby he both conquered the world and "condemned" it. What else could have carried him over so many difficulties, as he must needs encounter? Well might the apostle say, "By faith he prepared an ark". {#Heb 12:7} For if he had been led by sense, he would have fled as far as Jonah did, ere ever he had gone about it.

Ver. 2. Of every clean beast thou shalt take by sevens.] Three pair for generation, and a single one for sacrifice, after the flood was past. #Ge 8:20 God must have a share; and good reason. But that two only of a sort, of the unclean hurtful creatures were preserved, note his fatherly providence. To this day we see, though sheep and birds be so killed up for man’s use, yet there are far more of them, than of other unserviceable or cruel creatures. Besides, the weaker creatures go in herds together, the stronger and more savage go alone. For if they should go in multitudes, no man nor beast could stand before them. This you shall find set down to your hand. #Job 37:8 Ps 104:17-30 Ammianus Marcellinus writeth, "that in Chaldea there are a huge number of lions, which were like enough to devour up both men and beasts throughout the country. But withal, he saith, that by reason of the store of water and mud thereof, there breed yearly an innumerable company of gnats, whose property is to flee into the eye of the lion, as being a bright and orient thing, where, biting and stinging the lion, he teareth so fiercely with the claws, that he puts out his own eyes; and by that means many are drowned in the rivers, others starve for want of prey, and many the more easily killed by the inhabitants. Bodin {a} telleth us, that the wolf never seeth his sire, his dam, nor his young: for that the herd of wolves set upon, and killeth that wolf, which by the smell they perceive to have coupled with the she wolf; which unless they did, what a deal of mischief would be done by them everywhere among cattle!

{a} Bodin. in Theatro., lib. iii.

Ver. 3. Of fowls also.] Such as are of clean kinds, as R. Solomon senseth it. The eagle and the lion were not for sacrifice; like as were the lamb and the dove. "Not many mighty," &c. {#1Co 1:26}

Ver. 4. For yet seven days, &c.] God could have destroyed them by water, or otherwise, in a far shorter space: But, of his free grace, he gives them yet seven days further, and then rains upon the earth forty days, as, not willing that any should "eternally perish, but that all should come to repentance". {#2Pe 3:9} The Hebrew doctors are very injurious to Noah, because we read not that he prayed for the old world, but only took care of himself, and his own family, censuring him therefore of self-love and hard-heartedness. So they judge very uncharitably of those that perished in the flood; sending them all to hell, and wresting some scriptures thereunto; as, that in this present verse, God saith, he will destroy them, or blot them out; that is, say they, {a} out of the land of the world to come, the land of the living. I deny not, but many of their "spirits are in prison"; so saith St Peter. {#1Pe 3:19} But withal, in the next chapter, the same apostle tells us, that "for this cause the gospel was preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit". {#1Pe 4:6} Compare these words with those in #1Pe 3:18-20, and it will appear, the apostle speaks of these antediluvians. All were not saved that were in the ark, nor all damned, we may well think, that were out of it. Could they see their "foundation overflown with a flood," as the phrase is, {#Job 22:16} and "not lay for themselves a good foundation" by "laying hold on eternal life"? {#1Ti 6:19} St Ambrose conceiveth, that Noah was seven days in the Ark, before the flood came; that as God was six days in creating the world, and rested the seventh; so these perishing persons, admonished by the number of the days of the creation, might "remember their creator," {#Ec 12:1} and make their peace. Nunquam sero, si serio .

{a} R. Menachem, in loc.

Ver. 5. And Noah did according unto all.] This "All," is a little word, but of large extent. He doth not his master’s but his own will, that doth no more than himself will. A dispensatory conscience is an evil conscience. God cries to us, η ολως, η μη ολως. He will have universal obedience both for subject and object. ( Quicquid propter Deum sit, aequaliter sit .) We must be entirely willing in all things to please God, or we utterly displease him. Herod did many things, and was not a button the better. Jehu’s golden calves made an end of him, though he made an end of Baal’s worship. He that doth some, and not "all God’s will," with David, {θεληματα, #Ac 13:22} in desire and affection at least, doth but as Benhadad, recover of one disease, and die of another: yea, if he take not a better course for himself, he doth but take pains to go to hell. Then shall we not be ashamed, when we have respect, at least, to all God’s commandments. {#Ps 119:6}

Ver. 6. And Noah was six hundred years old.] He was five hundred old when God first foretold the flood, and promised the old world one hundred and twenty years’ respite: but, wearied out with their obstinacy in sin, he "cut the work short in righteousness," {#Ro 9:28} and brought the flood upon them twenty years sooner: as it is said of Christ’s second coming, that, "for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened"; {#Mt 24:22} so, for the contumacy of these ungodly sinners, their judgment was hastened. For God is not asleep, or gone a journey, as the prophet said of Baal, &c. {#1Ki 18:27}

Ver. 7. And Noah went in, and his sons, &c.] Not till he was compelled by the coming in of the flood, say the Jews: of no good will, but because there was no other remedy. Thus they belie the good old preacher. Let no man think much to be misjudged. Novit sapiens ad hoc scamma se productum, ut depuguet cure iis, qui maledictis aluntur, ut venenis capreae .{ a}

And his wife, and his sons’ wives.] Here some have noted, that when they entered into the ark, the Holy Ghost puts the men by themselves, and the women by themselves; as, when they went out, God joined them together; to teach us, say they, that in a common calamity "those that have wives, must be as they that have none". {#1Co 7:5,29}

{a} Jo. Wolverinus in Polymath.

Ver. 8. And of those that are not clean.] So a Doeg may set his foot as far within the sanctuary as a David: A "generation of vipers" may come to John’s baptism, {#Mt 3:7} as well as better men. But as these beasts came unclean to the ark, and went thence as unclean; so do most men to the holy ordinances; which yet are the heavenly exchange betwixt God and his elect: they present duty, He confers mercy. "The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity:… but the unjust knoweth no shame"; {#Zep 3:5} he that is "filthy," will "be filthy still". {#Re 22:11}

Ver. 9. There went in two and two.] Of their own accord, by divine instinct. Noah was not put to the pains of hunting after them, or driving them in. Only he seems to have been six days in receiving and disposing of them in their various cells, and fetching in food. When God bids us do this or that, never stand to cast perils; but set upon the work, yield "the obedience of faith," and fear nothing. The creatures came in to Noah, without his care or cost. He had no more to do, but to take them in, and place them. The prophet alludes hereto in #Isa 11:6,7, -all bloodiness and rapine aside.

Ver. 10. The waters of the flood were upon the earth.] God is as faithful in his menaces, as in his promises. {#Zep 3:5} The wicked think them but wind, but shall feel them to be "fire". {#Jer 5:14} "Your fathers, where are they? Did not my word" (though never so much slighted) "lay hold upon them? And they returned" (that is, changed their minds, when they smarted) "and said, Like as the Lord thought to do unto us, so hath he dealt with us". {#Zec 1:5,6} Veratio dat intellectum . There wanted not those in the old world, that held all the threats of a flood to be in terrorem only; and, when they heard Noah thundering, put off all, as those in the gospel, with "God forbid". {#Lu 20:16} We cannot get men to believe that God is so just, or the devil so black, or sin so heavy, or hell so hot; till it hath even closed her mouth upon them. "The fool rageth and is confident," {#Pr 14:16} "passeth on and is punished," {#Pr 22:3} and will not be better advised. But what said the martyr? {a} They that tremble not in hearing, shall be crushed to pieces in feeling. God’s wrath is such as none can avert or avoid.

{a} Bradford.

Ver. 11. In the second month.] In April, as it is thought; then when everything was in its prime and pride; birds chirping, trees sprouting, &c., nothing less looked for than a flood; then God "shot at them with an arrow suddenly," {#Ps 64:7} as saith the psalmist. So shall "sudden destruction" {#1Th 5:3} come upon the wicked at the last day, when they least look for it. So the sun shone fair upon Sodom the same day wherein, ere night, it was fearfully consumed. What can be more lovely to look on, than the grain field a day before harvest, or a vineyard before the vintage?

All the fountains of the great deep, &c.] So, we live continually betwixt two deaths, the waters above and below us. {a} "Serve the Lord with fear."

{a} Nos quasi medios inter duo sepulchra posuit .

Ver. 12. Forty days and forty nights.] This was God’s last warning-piece, shot off at these secure sinners, to arouse them, if haply they would awake out of "the snare of the devil," who lay "taken captive by him, at his will": {#2Ti 2:26} God loveth to fore-signify, saith the heathen historian.

Ver. 13. In the self-same day.] Things are repeated, that they may be the better observed, and the greatness of the mercy the more acknowledged: that God should single out so few, and save them, &c.

Ver. 14. They, and every beast after his kind.] Laying aside all their antipathies, and hostilities, for self-preservation, in that common danger. Oh that men were thus wise! Some Roman generals did so; and some fathers of the Church: but few such now-a-days: Apparent rari ,& c.

Ver. 15. And they went in unto Noah.] Of their own accord, by an instinct from God, whose hosts all creatures are called, for their (1.) number, (2.) order, (3.) obedience. {See Trapp on "Ge 6:20"}

Ver. 16. And the Lord shut him in.] A mean office, one would think, for God to shut the door after Noah. He could not well do it himself, the door doubtless being great and heavy, and others that were without would not do him so much service. God therefore doth it himself, and therefore it could not but be well done indeed. In a case of necessity, we need not question God’s readiness to do us any good office, so long as we keep close to him in a holy communion. {#2Ch 15:2} In a letter of B. Hooper’s, to certain good people, taken praying in Bow churchyard, and now in trouble, thus he writes; -"Read {a} the second chapter of Luke; there the shepherds that watched upon their sheep all night, as soon as they heard Christ was born at Bethlehem, by and by they went to see him. They did not reason, nor debate with themselves, who should keep the wolf from the sheep in the meanwhile; but did as they were commanded, and committed their sheep to him, whose pleasure they obeyed. So let us do. Now we be called, commit all other things to him that calleth us. He will take heed that all things shall be well: he will help the husband, comfort the wife, guide the servants, keep the house, preserve the goods: yea, rather than it shall be undone, he will wash the dishes, and rock the cradle. Cast therefore all your care upon God," &c. Thus he.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1347.

Ver. 17. It was lift up above the waters.] Afterwards it went upon the face of the waters, till, at last, the highest hills were covered with waters; the ark floating upon the surface of them, and not swallowed up by them. In reference whereunto David prays, "Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up". {#Ps 69:15} The true Christian may be tossed on the waters of affliction, yea, douced over head and ears; and, as a drowning man, sink twice to the bottom; yet shall up again, if out of the deep he call upon God, as Jonah did: "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight" (there you may take him up for dead), "yet I will look again toward thy holy temple" (there he revives and recovers comfort), {#Jon 2:4} Yea, though hell had swallowed up a servant of God into her bowels, yet it must, in despite of it, render him up, as the whale did Jonah: which, if he had lighted upon the mariners, would have devoured and digested twenty of them in less space.

Ver. 18. And the ark went upon the face of the waters.] Where now were those profane scoffers that asked what the old fool meant to build such a vessel? and whether, when he had made his ship, he would also make a sea for it to swim in?

Ver. 19. And all the high hills.] So high, some of them, that their tops are above the clouds and winds. And yet, as high as they were, they could not save those from the flood that fled to them. "Truly," might they say, "in vain is salvation hoped for from the mountains". {#Jer 3:23} Well for them, if, taught by their present distress and danger, they could go on, with the Church there, and say, "Surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." Happy storm, that beats us into the harbour!

Ver. 20. Fifteen cubits upward.] So, above any mountain. The Popish fable of Enoch, preserved alive in some high place of the earthly paradise, shall as soon be believed as the Jewish tale of Og (one of the old giants, say they), escaping death by riding astride upon the ark.

Ver. 21. And every man died.] Now these mockers behold that ark with envy, that erst they beheld with scorn; they wish themselves in the darkest corner of it, that lately laughed at it, and perhaps did what they could to hinder the finishing of it. {a} Yea, some, likely, to save them from drowning, caught at and clung as fast to the outside of the ark as Joab, for the same cause, did to the horns of the altar. But all in vain; for,

{a} Verisimile eat non abstinuisse manus ab opere turbando .— Piscator.

Ver. 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life died, of all that was in the dry land.] This last clause exempts fishes: though the Jews would needs persuade us that these also died; for that the waters of the flood were boiling hot. But rain-water uses not to be hot, we know; and therefore we reject this conceit as a Jewish fable.

Ver. 23. And every living substance was destroyed.] That all ensuing ages, considering this standing monument of God’s wrath against sin (whence once it is become, as physicians say of some diseases, corruptio totius substantiae), might hear, and fear, and do no more so.

Ver. 24. A hundred and fifty days.] Reckoning from the first day of the falling of the rain {#Ge 7:11} unto the end of the sixth month: well might the poet say—

Οψε θεων αλεουσι μυλαι, αλεουσι δε λεπτον.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. And God remembered Noah.] He might begin to think that God had forgotten him, having not heard from God for five months together, and not yet seeing how he could possibly escape. He had been a whole year in the ark; {a} and now was ready to groan out that doleful Usquequo Domine :Hast thou forgotten to be merciful? &c. But forgetfulness befalls not the Almighty. The butler may forget Joseph; and Joseph, his father’s house: Ahasuerus may forget Mordecai; and the delivered city the poor man that by his wisdom preserved it. {#Ec 9:15} The Sichemites may forget Gideon; but "God is not unfaithful to forget your work and labour of love," saith the apostle. {#Heb 6:10} And there is "a book of remembrance written before him," saith the prophet, "for them that fear the Lord". {#Mal 3:16} A metaphor from kings that commonly keep a calendar or chronicle of such as have done them good service: as Ahasuerus, {#Es 6:1} and Tamerlane, {b} who had a catalogue of their names and good deserts, which he daily perused, oftentimes saying that day to be lost wherein he had not given them something. God also is said to have such a book of remembrance. Not that he hath so, or needeth to have; for all things, both past and future, are present with him: he hath the idea of them within himself, and every thought is before his eyes, so that he cannot be forgetful. But he is said to remember his people (so he is pleased to speak to our capacity) when he showeth his care of us, and makes good his promise to us. We also are said to be his "remembrancers" {#Isa 62:6} when we plead his promise, and press him to performance. Not that we persuade him thereby to do us good, but we persuade our own hearts to more faith, love, obedience, &c., whereby we become more capable of that good.

God made a wind.] So he worketh usually by means, though he needeth them not. But many times his works are, as Luther speaketh, in contrariis mediis . As here he assuageth the waters by a wind, which naturally "lifteth up the waves thereof," and enrageth them. {#Ps 107:25 Jon 1:4} God worketh by contraries, saith Nazianzen, {c} that he may be the more admired.

Though our ark be driven in a tempestuous sea, saith one, yet it shall neither sink nor split, whiles we sail in the thoughts of Almighty God.

{a} Fuit in arca per annum integrum et decem dies.—Piscator.

{b} Turk. Hist., p. 227.

{c} Δια την εναντιων εναντια οικονομειται ινα και μαλλον θαυμαζηται

Ver. 2. And the rain from heaven was restrained.] These four keys, say the Rabbis, God keeps under his own belt: 1. Of the womb; 2. Of the grave; 3. Of the rain; 4. Of the heart. "He openeth, and no man shutteth; he shutteth and no man openeth". {#Re 3:7}

Ver. 3. And the waters returned continually.] Or, hastily (Heb., בושׁו דלזה). In going and returning; or, heaving and shoving, with all possible speed to return to their place, at God’s appointment. See a like cheerfulness in God’s servants. {#Zec 8:21 Isa 9:8 Ps 110:3}

Ver. 4. Mountains of Ararat.] On the tops of the Gordaean mountains (where Noah’s ark rested) we find many ruins and huge foundations (saith the Preacher in his travels), {a} of which no reason can be rendered but that which Josephus gives: {b} that they that escaped the flood were so astonished and amazed that they dared not descend into the plains and low countries, but kept on the tops of those mountains, and there built.

{a} The Preacher’s Travels, by John Cartwright, p. 32.

{b} Joseph. Antiq, lib. i. cap. 5.

Ver. 5. The waters decreased.] Not all on the sudden, but by little and little, for exercise of Noah’s faith. "He that believeth maketh not haste". {#Isa 28:16} God limiteth our sufferings for time, manner, and measure. Joseph was a prisoner till the time came. Smyrna was in tribulation for ten days. Physic must have a time to work; and gold must lie some while in the fire. "In the opportunity of time," saith Peter, "God will exalt you." {εν καιρω, #1Pe 5:6} Prescribe not to him, with those Bethulians in Judith; but wait his leisure, and let him do what is good in his own eyes. He waits a fit season to show us mercy, {#Isa 30:18} and thinks as long of the time as we do.

Ver. 6. At the end of forty days.] Viz., After that the tops of the mountains were discovered.

The window of the ark,] i.e., That in the upper loft of the ark, where the fowls were.

Ver. 7. And he sent forth a raven.] Which when it is made tame, though it delights in dead carcasses, whereof Noah knew the earth was now full, yet doth not easily forget its station, but returns thereto, when nature is satisfied.

Which went forth to and fro.] Fluttered about the ark, but kept out of it. Manet foris cum voce corvina, qui non habet simplicitatem columbinam. (August.)

Ver. 8. Also he sent forth a dove.] A bird that being swift and simple, willingly "flies" back "to his windows," {#Isa 60:8} through love and faithfulness to his mate and young. Besides, he fleeth a long while together, and very near the ground, and so was fitter for this service. Josephus saith, that he came into the ark with his feet and wings wet and dirty, which could not but be good news to Noah. Plutarch affirmeth, that Deucalion sent a dove to try whether the waters were dried: Satan est Dei simia .

Ver. 9. And the dove found no rest.] No more doth man’s soul (God’s turtle) till it rest in God. Domine , saith St Augustine, fecisti nos ad te, ideoque cor nostrum inquietam est, donec requieverit in te. Hic finis nostrae formationis , saith another, ut homo sit templum Dei, et Deus ara hominis . How oft doth the good soul cry, "Oh that I had the wings of a dove!" &c. {#Ps 55:6} Or, if that "Oh" will not set him at liberty, she takes up that "Woe" to express her misery: "Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech," &c. {#Ps 120:5} {a}

{a} "My heart panteth," {#Ps 38:10} רהרחס, as merchants run from country to country.—Bucholc.

Ver. 10. And again he sent forth the dove.] The fitter for such a purpose, because she flieth long and low; and out of love to her mate would soon return with the good news so much longed for by Noah and his company.

Ver. 11. In her mouth was an olive leaf.] The olive never casteth her leaf, and is greenest in the spring, saith Pliny. It might very well continue so under water during the flood. It may also very well, by an allegory, set forth that grace and peace by Jesus Christ, brought in the mouth of his ministers in this evening of the world. {#Ro 10:15} The dove returned at first without her errand; but, sent again, she brought better tidings. The man of God must not only be "apt to teach," but "patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; proving, if at any time, God will give them repentance." {a} All are not sent into the vineyard at the same hour of the day. Holy Melancthon, 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 Melancthon." {b} And yet he lacked not afterwards the seal of his ministry. For among many others converted by him, was that sweet saint, George, Prince of Anhalt, whose house was eccelesia, academia, curia , and whose heart was so upright with God, his life so laudable among men, that Melancthon {c} (once publicly defending the certainty of our future felicity by this argument, that godly men must be hereafter rewarded, wicked men punished), he named this pious prince as an unquestionable example of such a man, as might assuredly expect the promised crown of life eternal, which God the righteous Judge will give to all his. {#2Ti 4:8}

{a} Διδακτικον, ανεξικακον. {#2Ti 2:24} Ανεχου και απεχου.—Epictet.

{b} Melch. Adam.

{c} Scultet. (ex ore Bucholceri, qui Melancthonis fuit auditor.)

Ver. 12. Which returned not unto him any more.] But, out of love of liberty, forgat both her mate and her master; who yet was hereby certified, to his comfort, that now she had, abroad, met with both footing and feeding.

Ver. 13. The face of the ground.] The surface of it was dry, but yet soft and muddy: he therefore waited two months longer. Let us also "be patient". {#Jas 5:7}

Ver. 14. And in the second month.] This was God’s good time, which holy Noah was content to wait; which we must also learn to do, or all will be out of order. Christ oft stayeth long, till "the fourth watch". {#Mt 14:25} As he never faileth at his own time, so he seldom cometh at ours. Do therefore as the martyr did, who might have escaped privately out of prison, and was tempted so to do by his friends. But he replied, I will not go out of prison, when my friends would have it so, for that would be too soon; neither shall I stay here, till mine enemies would let me go, for that would be too long: but when God seeth good, and makes a fair way for me, &c.

Ver. 15. And God spake unto Noah.] {See Trapp on "Ge 8:16"}

Ver. 16. Go forth of the ark.] Learn we of this holy patriarch, to do all by God’s direction, and not dare to attempt anything without his warrant; approving ourselves to him in our comings in and goings out. He hath "charged his angels" {#Ps 91:11} with us, so long as we keep the king’s highway; but if we go out of his precincts, we go out of his protection. Take counsel at his mouth, and then we may safely say, "Lord, if I be deceived, thou hast deceived me". {#Jer 20:7} This, as at all times we have need to do, so now especially, when there is {as #2Ch 15:5} "no peace to him that goeth out, nor to him that cometh in, but great vexation upon all countries. Nation being destroyed of nation, and city of city," &c.

Ver. 17. That they may breed abundantly.] R. Solomon thinks that not only reasonable, but unreasonable creatures also did forbear carnal copulation during the flood; {See Trapp on "Ge 7:7"} which yet Mercer holds not probable.

Ver. 18. And Noah went forth.] In obedience to the divine command. Θεω επου, "follow God," was the old and good rule. {See Trapp on "Ge 8:16"}

Ver. 19. Every beast after their kind.] Heb., After their families: that is, not confusedly and pell-mell, as we say, but distinctly and in order: the lion with the lioness, &c., every male with his female, the clean by themselves, and the unclean by themselves. And as these latter came to the ark unclean, and unclean they departed; so do millions, now-a-days, to the ordinances. A preacher hath as much joy to see them there as John Baptist had to see the Pharisees thronging to his baptism, when he cried out, "O generation of vipers," who sent for you "who hath forewarned you?" &c. {#Mt 3:7}

Ver. 20. And Noah builded an altar to the Lord.] This was his first care; and so it was Abraham’s wherever he came. It must be also ours, after great deliverances especially. God’s mercies are binders: Beneficium postulat officium . He is content we have the comfort of his blessings, so he may have the praise of them. This peppercorn is all the rent he looks for. Oh, cover we God’s altar "with the calves of our lips, giving thanks to his name". {#Heb 13:15} This will "please him better than an ox that hath horns and hoofs". {#Ps 69:31} Only let it be done, the first thing that we do, after the receipt of a benefit, which else will soon wax stale and putrify as fish. No part of the thank offering might be kept unspent to the third day. Hezekiah wrote his song the third day after his recovery. Noah was no sooner out of the ark, but he offered on his newly built altar; as well for testification of his thankfulness, as for confirmation of his faith in that Lamb of God, slain and sacrificed from the beginning of the world. "God was" now also "in Christ reconciling this" new "world to himself". {#2Co 5:19}

Ver. 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.] Heb., A savour of rest {a} Greek, ευωδιας; which the apostle followeth, saying that Christ gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a smell of sweet savour. {#Eph 5:2} All our sacrifices are accepted for this of Christ, which otherwise would be turned off with, "who required these things at your hands?" {#Isa 1:12} The sacrifice of the wicked is, abomination to the Lord; {b} yea, though he should bring "thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil," with those miscreants in Micah. {#Mic 6:7} that by their munificence would fain have purchased a dispensation to sin: whereas Noah with his ox, ram, he-goat, turtle, and young pigeon, laid in for him by God himself for this same purpose, is highly accepted in that beloved One, as Christ is called {#Eph 1:6} {c}

The Lord said in his heart.] All his promises are heart-sprung; the issue of a most faithful and righteous will, void of any the least insincerity and falsehood. Whatsoever he speaks, he speaks from his heart. We may write upon it, "the eternity of Israel cannot lie". {#1Sa 15:29}

I will not again curse the ground, & c., for the imagination of man’s heart. As who should say, Man doth but his kind now, in committing evil before me. He hath by his fall brought upon himself a miserable necessity of sinning, so that he cannot but "do wickedly with both hands earnestly"; {#Mic 7:3} which though it be no excuse, but an aggravation rather of his actual sin (that he doth it out of the pravity of his nature), yet I will not take advantages to deal with him after his deserts; for then there would be no end of making worlds, and unmaking them again. "I will not curse, I will not smite any more." Where note, that God’s smiting his creature is a fruit of sin, and a piece of the curse. And unless men "return to him that smiteth them," {#Isa 9:13} all that they suffer here, is but a typical hell. Here the leaves only fall upon them, the trees will fall upon them hereafter.

{a} Minimo capitur thuris honore Deus . εις οσμην ευωδιας. {#Php 4:18}

{b} Propter animalia multa vel grandia non placuit. -Perer.

{c} εν τω ηγαπημενω.

Ver. 27. While the earth remaineth.] Heb., All the days of the earth. The earth then (though Solomon in some sense says it endureth for ever) hath its set and certain number of days appointed it by God. For "the earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up". {#2Pe 3:10} And this the heathen had heard of, and hammered at; as Lucretius, who disputes the matter out of natural causes. So doth Cicero, De Nat. Deorum , lib. i. 2. And Ovid, Metamorph . i.: Esse quoque in fatis meminit ,& c. There he hath also a large relation of the general flood in Deucalion’s days: so he calleth Noah. Lucian {a} hath the like in his book, De Dea Syriae . And Plutarch speaketh of the sending forth of the dove, and of her return unto Deucalion into the ark. "But we have a more sure word of prophecy."

Cold and heat, and summer and winter, &c.] Lopez de Gomara saith that the kings of Mexico, when they are consecrated, use to take their oath after this manner:—-I swear that the sun, during my life, shall hold on his course, and keep his wonted glory and brightness, and that the clouds shall send down rain, the river shall run, and the earth bring forth all manner of fruit, &c. But "can any of the vanities of the heathen give rain?" &c. {#Jer 14:22}

{a} Dialog. De Industr. Animal.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. Be fruitful and multiply.] Here God reneweth the world by the same word wherewith he had created it; and being reconciled to mankind, he blesseth them in like manner as before the fall. Sin once pardoned, is as if it never had been committed. Christ tells his returning Shulamite, that she was as amiable in every point as she had been before her relapse, {#So 4:1} her hair, teeth, temples, all as fair and well-featured as ever.

Ver. 2. And the fear of you, &c.] Timor, quo a bestiis timeamini, et terror quo bestias terreatis .( Piscat.) This is a piece of God’s image yet remaining to man, that every nature of wild beasts, birds, creeping things, and things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of the nature of man. {#Jas 3:7, marg.} {a}

{a} Monoceros interimi potest, capi non potest .— Solin.

Ver. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.] God of his goodness grants here to mankind, after the flood, the use of flesh and wine, that the new and much weakened world might have new and more strengthening nourishment. For it is not to be doubted but that, by the deluge, a great decay was wrought both in the earth with its fruits, and also in man’s nature. Various ridges and scars, as it were, of God’s wrath and malediction abided and appeared in the earth. Sundry maladies also and infirmities befell man’s body, not felt before the flood. God therefore in great mercy provides, penum quoddam et pharmacopolium mundo senescenti ,{ a} new food and physic for the languishing world. "Every moving thing that liveth," &c., only, that as the green herb have I given you all things; that is, as you may use them as freely as you used to do herbs, so you must use them soberly, and without curiosity; taking such things as are at hand, and eating to live, not living to eat, as the rich glutton, that fared deliciously every day:—

“ Ingluvies, et tempestas, barathrumque macelli .”— Horat.

{a} Flac. Illyric.

Ver. 4. But flesh with the life thereof, the blood.] Blood was forbidden: First, as not so wholesome food: Secondly, lest by being fleshed in blood, they should become bloody-minded: Thirdly, blood, the organ of life, is holy to God the author of life (who was also to be pacified by the blood of his Son), and therefore they should not pollute or profane it, by devouring thereof.

Ver. 5. Your blood of your lives will I require,] i.e., I will punish it either by the magistrate, or if he fail to do his office, by mine own immediate hand; as he did in David, Charles the Ninth of France, Richard the Third of England, Felix Count of Waterburg, and others, that either were above law, or escaped the lash of it. See for this, "The Thunderbolt of God’s Judgments," lib. ii. cap. iv. 5,16. Richard the Third used the instruments of his bloody plots, as men do their candles; burn the first out to a snuff, and then having lighted another, tread that under foot. {a}

{a} Daniel’s Chron. continued by Trussel.

Ver. 6. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood.] Some are of the opinion, that before the flood, the punishment of murder and other capital crimes, was only excommunication and exclusion from the Church and their father’s family. And that now first, God made murder to be a matter of death. The firstborn had power, at first, over their own families, to bless, curse, cast out, disinherit, yea, and punish with death, {#Ge 38:24} even in case of adultery, as some will have it thus among the people of God. {a} But what a madness was that in the Egyptians to make no conscience of murder, that they might enjoy their lust! And what a blindness to make less account of murder than adultery!. {#Ge 12:13} I have seen, saith the Preacher in his Travels, the king of Persia many times to alight from his horse, only to do justice to a poor body. He punishs theft and manslaughter so severely, that in an age a man shall not hear either of the one, or of the other. {b} A severity fit for France; where within ten years, six thousand gentlemen have been slain, saith he, as it appears by the king’s pardons. {c}

{a} Godw. Heb. Antiq.

{b} The Preacher’s Travels, by Jo. Cartwright.

{c} Les Ombres des Defunets Seiurs de Villemor et de Fontaines, p. 46.

Ver. 7. Be fruitful.] {See Trapp on "Ge 1:28"}

Ver. 8. And God spake.] {See Trapp on #Ge 9:9"} {See Trapp on #Ge 9:10"}

Ver. 9. And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you.] This covenant God had made with them before the flood; but here he renews it for their further confirmation: for he knows our infirmities, and therefore seals again. This covenant is said to be made with an oath, {#Isa 54:9} yet we find no such thing here expressed, because God’s bare word is as sure as an oath. So God is said to have sworn to Abraham, that which he said to him only. {#Ex 32:13, with #Ge 12:7}

Ver. 10. And with every living creature, &c.] Note this against Anabaptists, who exclude infants, for that they want the use of reason. And yet that was but a foolish reason of the canonist, that infants are therefore to be baptized, because the disciples brought to our Saviour, not the ass only, but the foal also. {a}

{a} Sphinx Philos., p. 229.

Ver. 11. Neither shall all flesh be cut off.] {See Trapp on "Isa 54:9"} {See Trapp on "Isa 54:10"}

Ver. 12. This is the token of the covenant, &c.] See here the antiquity of confirming men’s faith, by outward signs, as by the two trees in Paradise: and here the word and sacrament go together. And as God, in Noah, made a covenant with his posterity also, and confirmed it with a sign, so doth he in Christ with the Church, and ratified it with the sacraments; besides, witnesses we have three in heaven, and three in earth, &c. {#1Jo 5:7,8}

Ver. 13. I do set my bow in the cloud, &c.] There it was before, but not till now as a token of the covenant; as still it is applied for a sign of grace from God to his Church. {#Re 4:3 10:1 Eze 1:28} It is planted in the clouds, as if man were shooting at God, and not God at man. This bow with both ends downward, and back to heaven, must needs be an emblem of mercy; for he that shooteth, holdeth the back of the bow from him. Of God’s bow we read, but not of his arrows, saith Ambrose on this text. "He hath bent his bow, and made it ready," saith David; but if "he ordain his arrows," it is not but "against the persecutors". {#Ps 7:12,13} If he shoot at his servants, it is as Jonathan shot at his friend David; {#2Sa 20:20} to warn them, not to wound them. They are "arrows of the Lord’s deliverance," {#2Ki 13:17} which therefore he multiplies, that they may "compass him about with songs of deliverance". {#Ps 32:7} If he "bend his bow like an enemy," {#La 2:4} yet in wrath he remembereth mercy.

Ver. 14. The bow shall be seen in the cloud.] In this heaven-bow, there are many wonders: first, the beautiful shape and various colours; in which respect Plato thinks the poets feign Iris, or the rainbow, to be the daughter of Thaumas, or admiration. The waterish colours therein signify (say some) the former overthrow of the world by water. The fiery colours, the future judgment of the world by fire. The green, that present grace of freedom from both, by virtue of God’s covenant, whereof this bow is a sign. Next, the rainbow hath in it two contrary significations, viz., of rain, and fair weather; of this in the evening, of that in the morning, saith Scaliger. Add hereunto, that whereas naturally it is a sign of rain (and is therefore feigned by the poets to be the messenger of Juno, and called imbrifera , or showery), yet it is turned by God into a sure sign of dry weather, and of restraint of waters. Let us learn to look upon it, not only in the natural causes, as it is an effect of the sun in a thick cloud; but as a sacramental sign of the covenant of grace; a monument of God’s both justice in drowning the world, and mercy in conserving it from the like calamity. {#Isa 54:9,10} The Jews have an odd conceit, {a} that the name Jehovah is written on the rainbow. And therefore, as oft as it appeareth unto them, they go forth of doors, hide their eyes, confess their sins (that deserved a second deluge), and celebrate God’s goodness, in sparing the wicked world, and remembering his covenant. Set aside their superstition, and their practice invites our imitation. Tam Dei meminisse opus est quam respirare .{ b}

{a} Maimon.

{b} Bern.

Ver. 15,16. I will remember.] That is, I will make you to know and remember by this visible monitor.

“ Segnius irritant animum demissa per aures,

Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus .”

The rainbow is a double sacrament, answering both to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; and declares by its colours, saith one, how Christ came by water and blood. {#1Jo 5:6}

Ver. 17. This is the token of the Covenant.] This is often repeated, {a} that it may be the better observed, and we full assured; as Pharaoh’s dream was for this cause doubled. God goes over the same thing often with us, as the knife doth the whetstone, which is the scriptural allusion. He well knows how slow of heart we are, and how dull of hearing; and therefore whets and beats things of high concernment upon us, that we may once apprehend andm embrace them. Christ is said to have "a rainbow on his head," {#Re 10:1} to show that he is faithful and constant in his promises, and that tempests shall blow over. Let us see God’s love in his corrections, as by a rainbow we see the beautiful image of the sun’s light, in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud.

{a} #De 6:7. Exacues ea: id est, accurate et commodissime inculcabis. -Buxtorf. Lexic.

Ver. 18. Ham is the father of Canaan.] Who was cursed together with his father (and why, see #Ge 9:25), and became the progenitor of those cursed Canaanites, cast out by the Israelites.

Ver. 19. And of them was the whole earth overspread.] So that we need not add to them (as some have done), Jonitus, a fourth son of Noah (begotten by him after the flood), to replenish a fourth part of the world, with his posterity. Berosus and Nauclerus talk of Tuisco, another son of Noah, whom they make the father and founder of the Germans: but this is too great boldness.

Ver. 20. And Noah began to be a husbandman.] Veteres si quem virum, bonum colonum appellassent, amplissime laudasse existimabant. Cic. Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae, referente Plinio, quam cum terram colerent iidem qui Remp. regerent; quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere, scilicet, et Aratore triumphali. See #2Ch 26:10.

And he planted a vineyard.] Hence Berosus and the poets call him Janus Oenotrius. Janus, of the Hebrew, iajin, vinum; and Oenotrius of οινος, whence our English word wine.

Ver. 21. And was drunk.] For his own shame, but our learning. Instruunt nos patres tum docentes tum labentes .{ a} The best have their blemishes, and a black part, as that cloud had, that conducted Israel out of Egypt; which, while the Egyptians followed, they fell into the sea. {#Heb 11:29}

And was uncovered within his tent.] One hour’s drunkenness bewrays that which more than six hundred years’ sobriety had modestly concealed. Well might Solomon say, "Wine is a mocker"; {#Pr 20:1} for it mocked Noah with a witness; and exposed him to the mockage of his own bosom-bird.

{a} Augustin.

Ver. 22. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw.] The Hebrews say, that Canaan first saw it, and then showed it to Ham his father, who looks upon it with delight, Ut vultures ad male olentia feruntur , saith Basil; as carrion-kites are carried after stinking carcasses.

And told his two brethren without.] Sic et impii hodie ex Ecclesiae tragaediis comaedias componunt . How glad are the wicked, if they can but get any hint to lay hold on, whereby to blaspheme, and blaze abroad the saints’ infirmities! "Report say they, and we will report". {#Jer 20:10} Yea, rather than want matter against God’s people, they will suck it out of their own fingers’ ends. But if such a thing as this fall out, that Noah be drunk, though but once in an age, the banks of blasphemy will soon be broken down, and the whole race of religious persons must rue for it; among these Canaanites some also will be found to excuse them in it, as Scaliger doth Ham.

Ver. 23. And Shem and Japhet took a garment.] Ham had no hand in this good work; which shows what a good one he was, and how far from being of that good emperor’s mind, {a} who said, that if he should find a bishop committing adultery, he would rather cover that unclean act with his imperial cloak, than suffer it to come abroad to the scandal of the weak, and the scorn of the wicked.

{a} Constant. Mag. Theodoret., lib. i.—Eccles. Hist., cap. xi.

Ver. 24. And Noah awoke from his wine.] And returned no more to it. Once was enough; "the time past may well suffice, to have walked in excess of wine". {#1Pe 4:3} We will buy repentance so dear no more. It is expressly noted of Judah, that "he knew Tamar again no more". {#Ge 38:26} And we may be well assured, that Noah was never drunk again. Solomon’s drunkard cries, "when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again". {#Pr 23:35} As swine break their bellies, so do such men their heads, with filthy quaffing; yea, "whoredom and wine, and new wine, take away the heart," saith the prophet. {#Ho 4:11} They beset and infatuate, yea, rob a man of himself, and lay a beast in his room. Our drunkards say, as the vine in Jotham’s parable; Non possum relinquere vinum meum ." Take away my liquor, you take away my life." {a} How often, saith a grave divine, {b} have I seen vermin sucking the drunkard’s blood, as fast as he that of the grape and malt, yet would he not leave his hold, or lose his draught! Some are soaked with drink, and then laid out to be sunned and scorned.

And knew what his younger son had done unto him.] It is probable, that finding himself covered with a cloak, he asked his wife and children how he came covered; and that then Shem and Japhet told him all the matter; which moved him to bless them. It is our wisest way, to do what good we can to others. And though they, for present, being drunk with malice, or rash anger, know it not, yet a waking time may come, when they may see the good, and bless us for it, as David did Abigail. {#1Sa 25:33} When he had slept out his drunken passion, he saw cause to bless God, to bless her, and to bless her counsel. Mr Gilpin’s plain dealing with the Bishop of Durham, how well it succeeded. See his life written by Bishop Carleton, p. 58.

{a} Malle se vitam quam vinum eripi .— August. De Temp. Serm. 131.

{b} Mr Harris’s Drunkard’s Cup.

Ver. 25. And he said, Cursed be Canaan.] Because an imitator, and abettor of his father’s sin. Neither good egg, nor good bird, as they say. God himself hath cursed such captives with a curse. {#Pr 30:17} "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother; the ravens of the valley shall pick it out; and the young eagles shall eat it." {a} Now they are cursed with a witness, whom the Holy Ghost thus curseth, in such emphatical manner, with such exquisite terms. Their parents also, through their unnaturalness, are compelled to curse them, as Noah here: as Oedipus of old; {b} and our Henry II., who, seeing a few hours before he died, a list of their names that had conspired, with the King of France and Earl Richard (his son and successor), against him, and finding therein his son John to be the first, falls into a grievous passion, both cursing his sons, and the day wherein himself was born; and in that distemperature, departs the world, which so often himself had distempered. {c} "The causeless curse," indeed (though from a parent’s mouth), "shall not come". {#Pr 26:2} Such was it that befell Julius Palmer, martyr, {d} who, when he asked his mother’s blessing, "Thou shalt," said she, "have Christ’s curse and mine, wheresoever thou goest." He, pausing a little, as one amazed at so heavy a greeting, at length said: "O mother, your own curse you may give me, which God knoweth I never deserved; but God’s curse you cannot; for he hath already blessed me, and I shall be blessed." "As for money and goods," said she, "which thou suest to me for, as bequeathed thee by thy father, I have none of thine. Thy father bequeathed nothing for heretics. Faggots I have to burn thee; more thou gettest not at my hands." "Mother," said he, "whereas you have cursed me, I again pray to God to bless and prosper you, all your life long." And so he departed, and shortly after, valiantly suffered for the truth, at Newbury in Berkshire, having some time been Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, and all King Edward’s days an obstinate Papist. Thus for the causeless curse of parents. {e} But where it is just, it lights heavy. The very complaint of a parent makes a loud cry in God’s ears. It is said, that God, by cutting off Abimelech, "rendered the wickedness that he did to his father". {#Jud 9:56} And who can read with dry eyes that pitiful supplication of the old Emperor Andronicus to his young nephew of the same name (Turk. Hist., fol. 172)? But when it proceeds to a curse, lamentable effects have followed. Leonard, son of the Lord Dacres (one of the rebels in the north against Queen Elizabeth), whose father prayed God upon his death-bed, to send him much sorrow for his disobedience, drew forth a most poor life in the Netherlands, to where he escaped, living upon a very slender pension from the Spaniards. {f} That rebellion (like the bubbles which children blow up into the air) was no sooner blown up, than blown out, and fell into the eyes of those who with the blasts of ambition and superstition held it up. But most remarkable is that, and apposite to our present purpose, that Manlius reports {g} of a certain mother, whom he and many others had seen leading about her miserable daughter, who was possessed by the devil upon her cursing her, and bidding "the devil take her." Involet in te diabolus . Luther and others prayed publicly for the girl; and when Luther said to the devil, Increpet te Deus ," The Lord rebuke thee, Satan," the devil answered, muttering through the maid’s lips, Increpet, increpet . Another like example, the same author hath, {h} of a certain angry old man, in the town of Friburg in Misnia, who bidding his son do some business for him, and he making no haste to do it, nor stirring from the place he stood in; the father cursed him, and wished he might never stir alive from that place. God said Amen to it: and although he lived seven years after, yet there he stood leaning upon a desk while he slept, eating little, and speaking not much. When he was asked how he did, he would answer, that he was chastised justly by God, in whose hand it was what should at length become of him here. But of his eternal salvation, by the merits of Christ alone, he nothing doubted; being chastised of the Lord, that he might not be condemned with the world. The prints of his feet are to be seen in the pavement where he stood, to this day, saith the historian. After seven years’ suffering, he departed in the true faith of Christ, with good hopes of a better estate in heaven, September the eleventh, Anno 1552.

A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren.] In which title the Pope of Rome (not without the providence of God) will needs be his successor. A servant of God’s servants he will by all means be called. And yet he stamps upon his coin, "That Nation and Country that will not serve thee, shall be rooted out." What pride equal to the pope’s, making kings kiss his pantofles (upon which he hath Christ’s cross shining with pearls and precious stones, Ut plenis faucibus crucem Christi derideat)! What humility greater than his, to administer himself absolution daily to an ordinary priest! One while he will be styled, Servus servorum Dei ; another while, Dominus regnorum mundi , which is one of the devil’s titles; yea, Dominus Deus noster Papa ; taking upon him a power to excommunicate the very angels; yea, lifting up himself above Christ, who is called Pontifex Magnus ,{ #Heb 4:14} but the Pope calls himself Pontifex Maximus . Gregory the Great was the first that styled himself "a servant of servants"; in opposition, forsooth, to that proud prelate of Constantinople, who affected to be called Universal Bishop. But after the death of Mauricius, when Phocas the traitor came to be emperor, this Gregory clawed him shamefully, and all to attain that dignity and dominion that he so much condemned in another. {i} The Pope of Constantinople could not bear a superior, nor the Pope of Rome an equal. The one sought to subdue to himself the East; the other, East and West too: and thence grew all the heat between them. See the like ambition under the colour of zeal for their religion in Selymus the Turk, and Hismael the Persian. {j}

{a} Effossos oculos voret atro guture corvus .— Catul.

{b} Per coacervatos pereat domus impia luctus .— Oedip. apud Ovid.

{c} Daniel’s Chron., p. 112.

{d} Act. and Mon., fol 1755, 1761.

{e} The wild Irish inflict a heavy curse on all their posterity, if ever they should sow corn, build houses, or learn the English tongue.—Heyl. Geog., 508.

{f} Camden’s Elisab., p. 116,117.

{g} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 228.

{h} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 228.

{i} Sands’ Relation of West. Relig., sect. 12.—Johan. 23. in Extravag.— Phocae adulari, supparasitari, &c., ut suam potestatem per favorem parricidae extenderet. -Revii Hist. Pontif., p. 45.

{j} Turk. Hist., fol. 515.

Ver. 26. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.] Shem seems to have been the chief actor and persuader of that reverent behaviour; and therefore, as he is first named, {#Ge 9:23} before his elder brother Japhet; so here he hath the first and chief blessing. It is good to be first in a good matter, yea, prompt and "present to every good work," as Paul hath it. {#Tit 3:1}

And Canaan shall be his servant.] This curse was not fulfilled for many hundred years after, till the sins of the Amorites were grown full, and then it was accomplished. God’s forbearance is no acquittance. He can also turn a curse into a blessing, as he did this to Araunah the Jebusite, of the worst and most stubborn of the Canaanites; for they held the Tower of Jebus from the posterity of Shem after all the rest had yielded. {#2Sa 5:7} Yet he became a godly proselyte, and gave, as a king, his freehold to King David, to build an altar on, {#2Sa 24:18} and this deed of his was long after remembered. {#Zec 9:7} The like may be said of the Gibeonites, who are called Nethinims in Ezra and Nehemiah. They were made servants to the Shemites, drawers of water to the temple, as a kind of punishment. God made this cross a mercy. Their employment so near the house of God gave them fit occasion to be partakers of the things of God. And the Lord, we see, did wonderfully honour them; the nearer they were to the church, the nearer to God. It is good getting into his house, though to be but "a doorkeeper" with David, or a water bearer with these Gibeonites. Stand but in God’s way as he passeth, and thou shalt be preferred.

Ver. 27. God persuade Japhet.] For none else can do it. Men may speak persuasively, but to persuade is proper to God alone. He "speaks to the heart"; {#Ho 2:14} we to the ear only. He persuadeth and allureth, not only by a moral persuasion, but by an irresistible inward drawing. {#Ac 11:17} In the Hebrew there is a sweet Agnomination; q.d., God shall persuade the persuasible. He shall draw them to faith and obedience, Monendo potius quam minando, docendo quam ducendo , saith St Austin; by informing, not enforcing. He brings in his elect by a merciful violence. He sent forth at first, not swordsmen but fishermen; and prevailed by them in those places where the Romans could never come with all their forces. {a} Elisha could do more with a kiss than his man could do with a staff, in raising the dead child. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth," {#So 1:2} and then follows, "Draw me; we will run after thee."

And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.] The Church’s abode here, is but in tents; she hath "no continuing city, on earth, but seeks one to come". {#Heb 13:14} This, whether prophecy or prayer, was fulfilled when "God was manifested in the flesh, preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world," {#1Ti 3:16} some thousands of years after. The Gentiles were converted by virtue of this prayer, as Paul was by St Stephen’s, and as we enjoy the gospel by Latimer’s "yet once more," and the prayers of other martyrs.

{a} Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo tamen subdita .— Tertul.

Ver. 28, 29. And Noah lived after the flood, &c.] This man, if ever any that was born of a woman, had a long life, and full of misery. {#Job 14:1} He saw the tenth generation after him before his death. But, oh, how oft was he occasioned to get under the juniper-tree with Elias, and desire to die! Before the flood, what a deal of wickedness and disorder beheld he in family, Church, and commonwealth; and all this punished by the deluge, to his unspeakable heart-break! Soon after he was mocked by his own son, and despised by almost all the rest of his posterity; whose unheard-of hardiness in building the tower of Babel, he was nolens volens , forced to see and suffer; and then shortly after, the confusion of tongues as their just punishment. What should I speak of their so many and so great cruelties, insolences, tyrannical usurpations, effusions of innocent blood, wars, stirs, strifes, superstitions, and abominable idolatries, under Nimrod, Jupiter, Belus, Semiramis, Zoroaster (the magic master), and other Emims and Zamzummims of the earth! Of all which, and a great deal more, this good old patriarch was, to his sorrow, not only an ear but an eye-witness. All which considered, it must needs be granted, that living so long, never any martyr, or other out of hell, suffered more misery than Noah did. {a} And the like may be said of Athanasius, of whom Master Hooker witnesseth, that for the space of forty-six years, from the time of his consecration to succeed Alexander Archbishop of Alexandria, till the last hour of his life in this world, his enemies never suffered him to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable day. Was not he to be reckoned a martyr, though he died in his bed? Cur verear Chrysostomum appellare Martyrem ? saith Erasmus. {b} And why may not any man say as much of Luther? &c.

{a} Vix mihi persuadeo virum ex homine miseriorem natum fuisse quam Noah .— Funccii Chron., fol. 17.

{b} Erasm. in Vita Chrysost.

Ver. 29. {See Trapp on "Ge 9:28"}

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. And unto them were sons born after the flood.] Great store of sons: else how could they so soon have peopled the whole earth? See here the virtue of that divine benediction, #Ge 9:1,7.

Ver. 2. The sons of Japheth.] Not all, but the chief men of renown, Ethnarchs: think the same of the other two sons of Noah: seventy-one of their posterity are here registered (fourteen of Japheth, thirty-one of Ham, and twenty-six of Shem); hence it went for current among the ancients (grounding upon #Ge 10:31,32 of this chapter) that the nations were afterwards distinguished by so many tongues and countries.

Ver. 3. Ashkenaz.] Hinc Tuiscones , or Duitschmen, say the Jews; making Ashkenaz the father of the Germans, as Gomer of the Cimbrians or Danes, and Meshec of the Muscovites. But of these things there is little certainty. See Breerwood’s Inquiries.

Ver. 4. Elishah.] Whence the Eolians.

Tarshish.] Whence the Cilicians, where Tarsus (Paul’s country) was.

Kittim.] Whence the Macedonians. {#Nu 24:24 Da 11:30}

Dodanim.] Whence the Epirotes (Scanderberg’s country), where stands the city Dodaena.

Ver. 5. By these were the isles of the Gentiles.] That is, the countries of Europe and Asia the Less, inhabited by Japheth’s posterity. Europe hath its name, in Greek, {a} from the latitude and large surface of it, which answers well to the name of Japheth (signifying enlargement), who, together with his offspring, was, by God’s appointment, to rule there far and wide toward the west and north. Asia hath its name from two Hebrew words that signify the fire of the Lord, {b} which, in Persia and other parts thereof, they superstitiously deified. Asia the Less, was so called first by Attalus, king of Pergamus, who, being the last of that name and race, made the Romans his heirs by will. They turned his country into a province, and called it Asia, by the name of the continent—as devouring, doubtless in hope, that whole part of the world by this small beginning. Hence, likely, came that first distinction of the Lesser Asia.

{a} Ευρωπη, ex ευρεια et ωψ quasi dilatatio .

{b} הישׁא Ignis Domini Q. Curtius saith of Darius, that he called upon the sacred and eternal fire.

Ver. 6. Cush.] Ethiopians came of him. {#Ps 7:1. title} Wicked Saul, for his black deeds, is called Cush. {confer #Jer 13:23 Am 9:7}

Mizraim.] From whom came the Egyptians. Turks and Arabians call Egypt Mesra, or Masra, at this day. {a}

{a} Chald. parap.

Ver. 7. Seba.] Of whom seem to have come the Abassines in Africa, the only region there entirely possessed by Christians. Hence came the Queen of Sheba, &c.

Ver. 8. Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one.] His name signifies a rebel: he was the chief Babel builder, and there began to be a mighty one. A giant, saith the Greek, -such another as Goliath was in his generation, {#1Sa 17:51} where the same word is used, -a magnifico, a grandio; such a one as sought to make himself great, even to a proverb. {#Ge 10:9} But there is a double greatness; first, genuine; secondly, brutal. This latter is no such commendation; a beast in this may, and doth exceed us; as in the former, we exceed ourselves and others.

Ver. 9. He was a mighty hunter.] Of men, whose lives he sacrificed to his lust, not of beasts for sacrifice to the Lord, as Aben-Ezra will have it, and takes occasion thereupon highly to commend him. {a} But there wanted not those that commended Cain also for killing his brother, and were therefore called Cainites. Of others we read that extolled the Sodomites, Korah and his complices, Judas the traitor. Yea, there was one Bruno found that wrote an oration in commendation of the devil, who hath given him his reward, no doubt, by this, unless he recanted that monstrous madness.

{a} Epiphan. Heres., 38.

Ver. 10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.] But not the end of it. Ambition is boundless, rides without reins, builds itself on the ruins of others, and cares not to swim to its design, though in a sea of blood. Crescit interea Roma Albae ruinis , begins one of Livy’s Decades.

Ver. 11. Out of that land went forth Asshur.] Either because wickedness dwelt there, {#Zec 5:11} for Asshur was a son of Shem, and might have so much goodness in him; {#Ge 10:22} or else he was hunted thence by Nimrod, who made himself the first monarch, and had Babel, in the land of Shinar, or Chaldea, for the beginning of his kingdom.

Ver. 12. The same is a great city.] As consisting of three cities, and having more people within the walls than are now in some one kingdom. See the greatness of this city set forth in the Preacher’s Travels, p. 89. The greatest city in the world at this day is said to be Quinsai, in Tartary, which is a hundred miles about, as M. Paulus Venetus writeth, who himself dwelt therein, about the year 1260. Cambula, the imperial city, and seat of the great Cham of Tartary, is in circuit twenty-eight miles about. {a} Nineveh was three days’ journey in Jonah’s days: now it is destroyed (as was long since prophesied by Nahum), being nothing else than a sepulchre of herself, a little town of small trade, where the Patriarch of the Nestorians keeps his seat at the devotion of the Turk. As Susa, in Persia, once a lily (as the name signifies), for the sweet sight, and so rich, as afterwards is reported, {#Ge 11:3} is now called Valdac, of the poverty of the place. {b}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 75.

{b} Preacher’s Travels, 88.

Ver. 13, 14, Ludim and Anamim.] Aben-Ezra thinks that these were names of provinces, and that in every province there was a family; whence also the names are all plural.

Ver. 14. {See Trapp on "Ge 10:13"}

Ver. 15. Canaan begat Sidon.] Who built the city Sidon, in Phoenicia, near to Tyre, which afterwards contended with it for principality. It fell afterwards by lot to the tribe of Asher. {#Jos 19:28}

Ver. 16-18. These are those accursed nations.] Whose countries God afterwards gave to his people Israel, having "espied" it out of all lands for such a purpose. {#Eze 20:6}

Ver 17. {See Trapp on "Ge 10:16"}

Ver. 18. {See Trapp on "Ge 10:16"}

Ver. 19. And the border of the Canaanites.] Which was afterwards enlarged to the Israelites by the addition of two kingdoms beyond Jordan.

Ver. 20. These are the sons of Ham.] More in number, and more sweetly situated, than the posterity of either Shem or Japheth: thirty sons and nephews of cursed Ham are here recited and registered, when of blessed Shem we find but twenty-six, and of Japheth but fourteen. And for their countries, Canaan hath the navel of the world ( sumen totius orbis , as one {a} calls that country), a land that floweth with milk for necessity, and honey for delight; where the hardest rocks sweat out honey and oil. {#De 32:13 Ex 3:17} Nihil mollius coelo, nihil uberius solo , as Florus saith of Campania; a land that God had spied out among all lands for his own peculiar people, yea, for himself to dwell in. Lo, this was Ham’s possession, when his two better brethren dwelt in the more barren waste countries of the east and west. God deals by his people here as the host doth by his guests, who lets them have the best meats and fairest lodgings, but reserves the inheritance for his children. The Lord holds his servants to hard meat many times; but then they have it of free cost: whereas the wicked eat of the fat and drink of the sweet; but their "meat in their bowels is turned into the gall of asps, God shall cast it out of their bellies". {#Job 20:14,15} In fattening them he doth but fit them for destruction, as he did these Canaanites, whose pleasant land he afterwards made a spoil to his own Israel. They grew a burden to that good land, which therefore, for their wickedness, spued them out, {#Le 18:25} after they had filled it from corner to corner with their abominable uncleannesses. {#Ezr 9:11}

{a} L. Flor, lib. i. cap. 16. See #De 8:7-9 11:11,12.

Ver. 21. Unto Shem also.] His issue is set down last, because to be most insisted on in the holy history.

Ver. 22. Elam.] Father of the Persians, that warlike people, but worshippers of the sun. We read of a Persian ambassador, who, when he was among Christians, would have these words much in his mouth, Soli Deo gloria , cunningly, under that covert, giving honour to the sun.

Ver. 23. Uz.] Haply Job’s country: for we can here but hariolari in re dubia , go by conjecture only.

Ver. 24. And Arphaxad.] Held to be the father of the Chaldees.

Ver. 25. Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided.] Eber, of whom came the Hebrews or Israelites, {#Ex 1:15} that he might have before his eyes a perpetual monument of God’s just displeasure against the ambitious Babel builders, calls his son Peleg, or Division, because in his days was the earth divided. It is good to write the remembrance of God’s worthy works, whether of mercy or justice, upon the names of our children, or otherwise as we can best, to put us in mind of them; for we need all help; such is either our dulness or forgetfulness. What was it else that made David so often to put the thorn to his breast? {#Ps 103:1-3} And why would God have the plates of the censers of those sinners against their own souls, to be a covering to the altar, but to be a memorial to the children of Israel, that no stranger come near to offer incense, that he be not as Korah and his company, &c.? {#Nu 16:38,40}

Ver. 26. Joktan begat Almodad, &c.] This man with his sons may seem to have seated in the East Indies; but, fallen from Heber’s faith to heathenism, they are written in the dust: there is little mention of them in the Scriptures. They have lost their genealogy, as those degenerate priests, who in the time of the captivity took scorn to be in the register, and were therefore worthily afterwards rejected by the Tirshatha. {#Ezr 2:62,63}

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. And the whole earth was of one language.] Unity without verity, is no better than conspiracy. A legion of devils could accord to get into one man; and, though many, yet they speak and act as one in that possession. That infernal kingdom is not divided against itself. A shame for God’s saints to be at difference. What should sheep do snarling, like dogs, one at another? The children of this world are wiser, a fair deal, in their generation; {#Heb 3:10} they can combine and comply, as here; though their society be as unsavoury as the slime and filth that is congealed, when many toads and other vermin meet together.

Ver. 2. In the land of Shinar.] Which was a part of the garden of Eden, as most geographers think, fat and fruitful still above belief (Herodot. lib. i. cap. 93; Plin. lib. vi. cap. 26).

Ver. 3. And they said one to another.] One broached this counsel, and the rest soon consented. Let us consider one another to whet on to love and good works. {#Heb 10:24} One live coal may set a whole stack on fire. When Silas came, Paul "burned in spirit," {#Ac 18:5} {a} and preached lustily.

Let us make brick, &c.] Thus, wanting stones, they devised matter for their cursed building. {b} Good cause hath the Church to be as ingenious and sedulous in building staircases for heaven, as the devil and his imps in digging descents to hell.

And they had brick for stone, and slime for mortar.] And yet though the walls were high and huge, this city was taken first by Cyrus, afterwards by Alexander, and plundered at several times by many other enemies. Shusa in Persia was first built by Tithonus and his son Memnon, who was so exceeding prodigal, that, as Cassiodorus writes, he joined the stones together with gold; so rich it was that Aristagoras thus cheered up his soldiers that besieged it. This city if you can take, you may vie with Jove himself for wealth and riches. {c} Here Alexander found 50,000 talents of gold, besides silver. But what is all this to the heavenly Jerusalem, whose pavement is pure gold, and her walls garnished with all precious stones? {#Re 21:19} Why do we then labour in the fire, to "load ourselves with thick clay"? {#Hab 2:6} Why doth not this "kingdom of heaven suffer violence by us, sith the violent take it by force," {#Mt 11:12} or make a prey, a prize of it (so Hilany {d} rendereth it) as soldiers do of a city they have taken? Oh that we could say of heaven, as Sextus Ruffus doth of Cyprus, Cyprus famosa divitiis paupertatem populi Rom. ut occuparetur sollicitavit ! This island was anciently called Macaria: Heaven more truly.

{a} συνειχετο. Intus et apud se aestuabat praezeli ardore .

{b} Apud Babylone Traianus Imp. vidit lacum bituminis, ex quo moenia Babylonis aedificata fuerant, cuius tanta vis est, ut permixtum cum lateribus, quovis saxo sit aut ferro potentius .— Dio in Vita Trajan.

{c} Iam cum Iove de divitiis licet certetis .— Cassiod., lib. vii.; Var., epist. xv.

{d} Diripiunt metaph. a castris aut arce quapiam, quae irrumpentibus hostibus diripitur .— Hilar.

Ver. 4. Let us build us a city and a tower.] This tower raised a head of majesty, 5164 paces from the ground, having its basis and circumference equal to the height. The passage to go up, went winding about the outside, and was of an exceeding great breadth, there being not only room for horses, carts, &c., to meet and turn, but lodgings also for man and beast (as Verstegan reports), grass and grain fields for their nourishment. {a}

Let us make us a name.] This is a disease that cleaves to us all, to "receive honour one of another, and not to seek the honour that cometh from God only". {#Joh 5:44} A rare man he is surely, that has not some Babel of his own, whereon he bestows pains and cost, only to be talked of. Hoc ego primus vidi , was Zabarelle’s επινικιον. {b} Epicurus would have us believe, that he was the first that ever found out the truth of things. Palaemon gave out, that all learning was born and would die with him. {c} Aratus the astrologer, that he had numbered the stars, and written of them all. Archimedes, the mathematician, that if he had but where to set his foot, he could move the earth out of its place. Herostratus burnt Diana’s temple for a name. {d} And Plato {e} writes of Protagoras, that he bragged, that whereas he had lived sixty years, forty of them he had spent in corrupting of youth. Cicero {f} tells us, that Gracchus did all for popular applause; and observes, that those philosophers that have written of the contempt of glory, have yet set their names to their own writings, which shows an itch after that glory they persuaded others to despise. These two things, saith Cicero somewhere of himself, I have to boast of, Optimarum artium scientiam et maximarum rerum gloriam , my learned works, and noble acts. Julius Caesar had his picture set upon the globe of the world, with a sword in his right hand, a book in his left, with this motto, Ex utroque Caesar . Vibius Rufus used the chair wherein Caesar was wont to sit, and was slain; he married also Cicero’s widow, and boasted of them both, as if either for that seat he had been Caesar, or for that wife an orator, {g} When Maximus died in the last day of his consulship, Caninius Rebilus petitioned Caesar for that part of the day, that he might be said to have been consul. {h} So many of the Popish clergy have with great care and cost procured a cardinal’s hat, when they have lain a dying, that they might be entitled cardinals in their epitaph, as Erasmus writes. But for men’s ennobling themselves by building, those seven wonders of the world were made merely for a name. Pharos, a watch-tower in Egypt, being one of the seven, was built by Ptolomy Philadelph, all of white marble. The chief architect was Sostratus of Gnidos, who engraved on the work this inscription, "Sostratus of Gnidos, son of Dexiphanes, to the gods protectors, for the safeguard of sailors." This inscription he covered with plaster, and thereon engraved the name and title of the king the founder: that (that soon wasted and washed away) his own that was written in marble, might be eternised to posterity. This tower, saith Wickam, is a known story. And Phidias, the famous carver, so cunningly set his own countenance into Minerva’s shield at Athens, that it could not be defaced, but the shield itself must be disfigured. The Hague, in Holland, has two thousand households in it. The inhabitants will not wall it, as desiring to have it counted rather the principal village of Europe, than a lesser city. And Sextus Marius, being once offended with his neighbour, invited him to be his guest for two days together. The first of those two days he pulled down his neighbour’s farmhouse; the next, he set it up again, far bigger and better than before. And all this for a name, that his neighbours might see and say, what good or harm he could do to them at his pleasure. {i}

{a} Heyl., Geog.

{b} Dr Prid., Contra Eudoemon. Joh.

{c} Secum literas esse natas, et morituras .— Sueton.

{d} Aug. de Civit. Dei., lib. xvi.

{e} Plato in Menone Tusc. iii.

{f} Pro Archia Poeta.

{g} Epist. Famil., lib. vii.—Gabriel Simeon in Symbolis.—Dion Cass. in Tyberio.

{h} O vigilantem Consulem qui tuto consulatus sui tempore, somnum non vidit .

{i} Heylin’s Geog., p. 750, -B. Godwin’s Catalogue.—Heylin’s Geog., p. 240.—Dio in Tiberio.

Ver. 5. And the Lord came down.] Non motu locali, sed actu iudiciali .

To see the city, & c.] That so his sentence, grounded not upon hearsay, or uncertain information, might be above all cavillation or exception. A fair precedent for judges. Caiaphas first sentenced our Saviour, and then asked the assessors what they thought of it. The chief captain first commanded Paul to be scourged, and then examined. {#Ac 22:24,25} This was preposterous. God, though he knew all before, is yet said to come down to see. Let his actions be our instructions. No man must be rashly pronounced a leper: and the judges must "make diligent inquisition," {#De 19:18} as flints must carry fire but not easily express it. Potiphar was too hasty with Joseph, and David with Mephibosheth. Aeneas Sylvius {a} tells us of some places, where thieves taken but upon suspicion, are presently trussed up, and three days after they sit in judgment upon the party executed. If they find him guilty, they let him hang till he fall. And if not, they take down the body and bury it honourably at the public charge. This is not Godlike, nor a point of wisdom: for Nervus est sapientiae non temere credere .

Which the children of men builded.] Nimrod chiefly, with his fellow Hamites. But that some of Shem’s and Japheth’s posterity had a hand in it, is more than probable, by their common punishment, the confusion of tongues. Heber and his had nothing to do with them; and therefore retained the Hebrew tongue, called thenceforth "the Jews’ language," {#Isa 36:11} until they were carried captive to Babylon, where grew a mixture among them of Hebrew and Chaldee, whence came up the Syriac tongue, common in our Saviour’s time, as appears by many Syriac words in the Gospels.

{a} Aene. Sylvius., Europ., cap. xx.

Ver. 6. Behold the people is one, &c.] This benefit they abused to their pride and ambition, which they should have used to the help of the humane society, and common intercourse. They built, and God bare with them for a time, that he might make fools of them in the end. And this he doth daily.

Ver. 7. Go to, let us go down.] "Go to," say they: "Go to," saith He. "Let us build to heaven," say they: "Let us go down and see it," saith He. "Let us make us a name," say they: "Let us confound their language, that they may not so much as know their own names," saith He. "Lest we be scattered," say they: "Let us scatter them abroad the world," saith He. Thus God words it with them, and confutes their folly from point to point. Thus he sets himself in battle array against the proud, as St James has it, {αντιτασσεται, #Jas 4:7} and overthrows them in plain field. He dealt more severely with David for numbering the people than for the matter of Uriah. He turned Nebuchadnezzar grazing among beasts, for pruning and priding himself upon this Babel. "Is not this great Babel, that I have built?" Why, no; Nimrod built it, and Ninus, and Semiramis: Nebuchadnezzar only beautified it, or, at utmost, enlarged it. But pride detracts from God and man, and is therefore justly hated and scorned of both.

And there confound their language.] When men began once θεομαχειν, they were compelled by God λογομαχειν.

“Bring me, quoth one, a trowel quickly; quick

One brings him up a hammer; hew this brick,

Another bids, and then they cleave a tree;

Make fast this rope, and then they let it flee.

One calls for plank; another mortar lacks:

They bring the first a stone, the last an axe.”—Dubartus.

Neither is there any better understanding and agreement among the Babel builders at this day ( Babylon enim altera, nempe propinquior atque recentior adhuc stat, cito itidem casura, si essetis viri , said Petrarch long since); witness their many sects and deadly dissensions among themselves, of which read the "Peace of Rome," "Rhemes against Rome," {a} and various other English treatises to the same purpose. Bellarmine teaches, that the bread in the sacrament is not turned into Christ’s body productive, but adductive. And this, saith he, is the opinion of the Church of Rome. This Suarez denies, and saith, it is not the Church’s opinion. {b} Thus these great master-builders are confounded in their language, and understand not their own mother. The greatest clerks among them cannot yet determine how the saints know our hearts and prayers—whether by hearing or seeing, or presence everywhere, or by God’s relating or revealing men’s prayers and needs unto them. All which ways some of them hold as possible or probable; and others deny and confute them as untrue. {c} Alsted calls Baronius’s "Annals" the Tower of Babel. And another saith, Baronius doth not write annals, but maketh them. How he takes up St Paul for reproving Peter at Antioch, and contradicts the Holy Ghost, is well known; as also how he thunders against the king of Spain, his sovereign, concerning the kingdom of Sicily; for the which rudeness, when he was reprehended by another cardinal, he thus defended himself: An imperious zeal hath no power to spare, no, not God himself. Was not this an apology well befitting a Babel builder? Christchurch, in Oxford, like the tower of Babel, saith one, began with such stupendous magnificence, under the pride of Wolsey (another cardinal of the Church of Rome), who resolved to make it a work of wonder, that the Controller of men’s actions determined to make it a work of confusion; and so, when the cardinal fell, the walls had fallen too, had not Henry VIII. looked graciously upon it, to set it up, to some purpose. {d}

{a} De Rom. utriusque Fort. Dial. , 118.

{b} Cade Of the Church, 247.

{c} Morton’s Appeal, lib. ii. cap. 12, sec. 5.

{d} Gainsf. Glor. of England.

Ver. 8. So the Lord scattered them abroad.] Which was the evil they feared, and by this enterprise, sought to prevent. But there is neither counsel, power, nor policy against the Lord. "The fear of the wicked shall come upon him". {#Pr 10:24} As it befell those wretched Jews, {#Joh 11:48} "The Romans shall come," &c., and come they did accordingly. Pilate, for fear of losing his office, delivered up Christ, and was by Caius kicked off the bench.

Ver. 9. The Lord did there confound the language.] A sore cross and hindrance of interchange of commodities between nation and nation. This great labour also hath God laid hereby upon the sons of men, that a great part of our best time is spent about the shell (in learning of language) before we can come at the kernel of true wisdom, Scripture wisdom especially. Our Saviour’s epitaph, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as it sets forth Christ unto us to be; First, The most holy (for the Hebrew tongue is called the holy tongue); Secondly, The most wise (for in Greek is all human wisdom written); Thirdly, The most powerful (for the Latins were lords of the earth, and propagated their tongue among all the nations). So it signifies that God would have the dignity and study of these three tongues to be retained and maintained in the churches of Christ to the world’s end. Hebricians, saith Reuchlin, drink of the fountains; Grecians of the rivers; Latinists of the standing pools only. {a} There were that mocked at the multitude of tongues. {#Ac 2:13} And the monks were mad almost at such Camilli literarii as chased out barbarism and brought in the learned languages. {b} But let us acknowledge it a singular gift of God, as for the gathering of the Church at first, {#Ac 2:1-4} so still for the edifying of the body of Christ, "till we all come unto a perfect man," {#Eph 4:13} to speak the language of Canaan, in the kingdom of heaven.

And from thence did the Lord scatter them.] The Hebrew doctors say, {c} that at this dispersion there were seventy nations, with seventy various languages. Epiphanius saith, that their one language was divided into seventy-two; for so many men were then present, and each man had his own dialect, and went his own way with it. Cleopatra is famous in history for her skill in tongues. She could give a ready answer to ambassadors that came, whether they were Ethiopians, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, or Parthians. Yea, she could tune and turn her tongue, as an instrument of many strings, saith Plutarch, {d} to whatever language she pleased. This minds me of those cloven tongues, and of that utterance the Spirit gave them. {#Ac 2} "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians heard" the apostles speak "in their own tongue the wonderful works of God," to the singular advantage of the Church, that was then out of all nations to be collected, and that by a like means as these rebels were scattered.

{a} Hebraei bibunt fontes, Greci rivos, Latini paludes .

{b} Joh. Manlii. loc. com., p. 130.

{c} R. Menahem in Gen. xi.

{d} την γλωτταν ωσπερ οργανον τι πολυχορδεο, ευπετως τρεπουσα προς ην βουλοιτο διαλεκτον. Plut.

Ver. 10. These are the generations of Shem.] To whose genealogy Moses here returneth, that he may come to the history of Abraham, the father of the faithful.

Ver. 11. And Shem lived after he begat, &c.] He saw ten generations, and lived till Isaac was fifty years old, who might well be his pupil, which (if Shem were Melchisedec) is so much the more likely. Heber also lived till Abraham was dead; a singular blessing to them both. This comfort the patriarchs had of their tiresome and tedious pilgrimage, that as Shem saw Lamech, so Lamech saw Adam, and Isaac saw Shem. Now, ipse aspectus viri boni delectat , saith Seneca. How much more, when "they that fear the Lord speak often one to another" {#Mal 3:16} for mutual edification and encouragement? This the mad world calls faction and capriciousness. But what saith Tertullian to it? Cum boni, cum probi coeunt, cum pii, cum casti congregantur, non est factio dicenda, sed curia: et e contrario illis nomen factionis accommodandum est, qui in odium bonorum et proborum conspirant. {a}

{a} Tert. Apol. advers. Gentes, cap. 39, n. 520.

Ver. 12. And begat Salah.] Cainan, say the seventy interpreters, but not according to the Hebrew verity. See for this the note on {See Trapp on "Lu 3:36"}

Ver. 16. And begat Peleg.] Whether Peleg were Heber’s firstborn, Buxtorf {a} doubteth and disputeth; but without any just cause. But, cum errat eruditus, errat errore erudito , saith the Arabic proverb. {b}

{a} Dissertat. 2 Thess. 75.

{b} Erpenius. Centuricae duae Prov. Arab., 82.

Ver. 22. And begat Nahor.] Who, first of the patriarchs, fell to idolatry: for Laban sware by Nahor’s gods.

Ver. 24. And begat Terah.] Who also at first "served other gods, beyond the flood". {#Jos 24:2}

Ver. 27. Terah begat Abram.] Who whether he were Terah’s firstborn, is a great question; but, being an important man, he is first mentioned. (Abram was not Terah’s first born. #Ge 11:32 12:4 This means that Terah was 130 years old when he begot Abram. Editor.)

Ver. 28. And Haran died before his father Terah.] The Hebrews say he died a martyr, being burnt with fire by his countrymen the Chaldees, because he would not worship the fire, which they had made their god. Martyrdom came early into the world, as we know in Abel, who as he was the first that died, so he died for religion. Now if this be true of Haran, as the Jewish doctors will have it; then he had, for aught we know, the maidenhead (as a certain martyr phrased it) of that kind of martyrdom. The first that were burnt for religion, since the Reformation, are said to be Henry and John, two Augustinian monks at Brussels, anno 1523, under James Hogostratus the Dominican Inquisitor. The executioner, being demanded whether they recanted in the flames, denied there was any such thing; but said, that when the fire was put to them, they continued singing the creed, and Te Deum , till the flame took away their voice. All this Erasmus testifieth, {a} though he was no Lutheran; and thereupon maketh this good but wary note, Damnari, dissecari, suspendi:, exuri, decollari, piis cum impiis sunt communia: damnare, dissecare, in crucem agere, exurere, decollare, bonis iudicibus cum piratis ac tyrannis communia sunt. Varia sunt hominum iudicia, ille foelix qui iudice Deo absolvitur . Our protomartyr in Queen Mary’s days was Reverend Master Rogers; he gave the first adventure upon the fire. His wife, and children, being eleven in number, ten able to go, and one sucking at her breast, met him by the way as he went toward Smithfield. This sorrowful sight of his own flesh and blood could nothing move him, but that he constantly held out to the death, and so received a crown of life. {b} Neither hath God left himself without witness among the very heathens. For in the city of Lima, in Mexico, not two months before our coming there, saith Captain Drake, {c} twelve persons were condemned by the Spaniards there for profession of the gospel; of which, six were bound to one stake and burnt; the rest remained yet in prison, to drink of the same cup within a few days.

{a} Erasm., lib. xxiv., epist. 4.

{b} Act. and Mon., fol. 1356.

{c} The World Encompassed, by Sir F. Drake p. 59.

Ver. 29. And the father of Iscah.] The Chaldee Paraphrast addeth Hi Sara; , the same is Sarah. It was not yet flatly forbidden to marry a brother’s daughter, as afterwards it was. {#Le 18:14} Why then should Burgensis on the text say, that such marriages were never prohibited?

Ver. 30. But Sarai was barren.] Till she had prayed for a child thirty years, and then she had him with abundance of joy. At first she believed not the promise, but laughed at the unlikelihood, and was checked for it. But when she had better bethought herself, "through faith she received strength to conceive seed, because she judged him faithful who had promised". {#Heb 11:11} She was (when past age) delivered of a child; who was not more the child of her flesh, than of her faith. Whether she were that Iscah spoken of in the verse next aforegoing, the doctors are divided. Some say that Iscah, in Chaldee, signifieth the same that Sarai in Hebrew. Others more probably make Sarai another woman, and the daughter not of Haran, but of Terah: how else could Abram say of her, that she was the daughter of his father, but not of his mother? {#Ge 20:12} {a}

{a} Ea quae clavum administrationis tenet .

Ver. 31. And Terah took, &c.] Being admonished of the Divine oracle, {#Ac 7:2,3} by his son Abram, he rebuked him not, neither charged him, upon his blessing, to abide in his native country, as many a father would have done (for what was he wiser and better than his forefathers?) but abandoned his idols, and went as far as his old legs could carry him toward the country that God should show them. For as yet they "went forth, not knowing whither they went". {#Heb 11:8} But having God by the hand, they knew they could not go amiss. This was a blessed blind obedience, not to dispute, but to despatch; to wink, and put themselves into God’s hand, to be led about at his pleasure, to follow him without sciscitation. {a}

{a} Instar caeci oculos clausit, vocantemque Deum secutus est.—Bucholcer.

Ver. 32. Terah died in Haran.] And so fell short of the earthly, but not of the heavenly Canaan; to the which, there is as ready a way and as speedy a passage, from one place, as from another. But as the body, when once glorified, shall soon be wheresoever the soul will: so soon shall be the soul where God wills, when once delivered.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. Now the Lord had said to Abram.] But was not this to command him to do that which was against nature? No, but only against corrupt nature, which must be denied, and mortified, or there is no heaven to be had. Father and friends must be hated (that is, not loved, as "Esau have I hated"), where they hang in our light, or stand in our way to keep us from Christ. {#Mt 10:37}

Get thee out of thy country.] This is a hard saying to flesh and blood; for, Nescio qua natale solum ,& c. But hard or not hard, it must be done, because God bids it; and difficulty, in such a case, doth but whet on heroic spirits, making them the more eager and resolute. It pleased David well to be set to fetch a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. God’s kingdom must be taken by violence. It is but a delicacy to dream of coming there in a featherbed. Too many, with Joseph, dream of their preferment, but not of their imprisonment. He that will be Christ’s disciple here, and co-heir hereafter, must deny himself; that is an indispensable duty. Abram was old-excellent at it.

And from thy kindred, and father’s house.] Who set out fair with Abram—as did likewise Orphah with Ruth—but settled in Haran, which was also in Chaldea, not far from Ur, and would go no farther, after the old man’s death. There they had feathered their nests, gathered substance, and got souls, that is servants; {#Ge 12:4} and, therefore, there they would set up their staff, and afterwards turned again to idolatry. {#Ge 31:30,53 Jos 24:2} Many follow God as Samson did his parents, till he light upon a honeycomb; or as a dog doth his master, till he meet with carrion; and then turn him up. Demas forsook God, and embracing this present world, became afterwards a priest in an idol-temple, as Dorotheus tells us.

Unto a land that I will show thee.] Yet told him not whither, till he was upon the way, but "called him to his foot," {#Isa 41:2} that is, to follow him, and his direction. Magnus est animus qui se Deo tradidit , saith Seneca. Eundum quocunque Deus vocarit , saith another, etiamsi in ea loca migrandum esset —

“ Pigris ubi nulla campis

Arbor aestiva recreatur aura:

Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque

Iupiter urget .”

Ver. 2. And I will make of thee a great nation.] Why then should the scornful Jews call us nations or Gentiles in contempt? yea, heathen bastards, heathen dogs, as they do at this day? {a} Surely, either themselves are of this great Goi or nation here mentioned, or else they have not Abraham to their father; choose them which.

I will bless thee.] As a father his children, with all spiritual comforts, {#Eph 1:3} and earthly contentments; with the blessings of the right hand, and of the left; with "the upper and nether springs," {#Jud 1:15} as Caleb blessed his daughter Achsah. "He will give grace and glory," and (if that be not enough) "no good thing will he withhold," &c. {#Ps 84:11} Hence Moses cries out, "Happy art thou O Israel; who is like unto thee!" &c. {#De 33:29}

And make thy name great.] A great name then is a great blessing. So David took it. {#2Sa 7:9} And it was no small comfort to him, that whatever he did, pleased the people. Blessing and praise (or good name) is expressed by one and the same word {b} in both Testaments. {#Pr 27:21} Only (as it is in the same text) it then proves a blessing, when it is to a man "as the fining pot for silver, and furnace for gold," when it melts us, and makes us better, when it works in us a care to walk worthy of the praise given us, to purge ourselves from all filth, that we may be as pure vessels, meet for the Master’s use, fit to be set upon the celestial shelf, as that martyr phrased it, {c} "Since thou hast been precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable". {#Isa 43:4} Virtue is instead of a thousand coat-of-arms on shields.

And thou shalt be a blessing.] That is, in a high degree blessed; or a common blessing {d} to all, wherever thou comest, who shall fare the better for thee. Or, a public pattern of blessing (so some Hebrews expound it). Those that wish well to themselves, or others, shall pray God that Abram’s blessedness may befall them. The contrary hereunto is now befallen his unhappy posterity for their obstinacy. A curse they are become among the Gentiles, as was foretold them. {#Zec 8:13} Sanctius, upon that text, tells us, that all over Turkey they have taken it up for a curse, -I would I might die a Jew, then; and, Let me be a Jew if I deceive thee. {e}

{a} Pareus in #Ro 11:25. See my True Treasur., p. 297.

{b} הכרב ευλογια

{c} Act. and Mon.

{d} Vir bonus est commune bonum .

{e} In execrationibus dicunt, Iudaeus sim si fallo .— Sanct.

Ver. 3. And I will bless them that bless thee.] Some there are that will curse those whom God blessed; but nothing so many as they that will rise up and call them blessed. These are expressed here in the plural number; those in the singular only. "For who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" {#1Pe 3:13} But say there be some Balaams that would curse God’s Israel, {#Nu 23:2} or some Esaus that could wish them unblest again; yet God will turn Balaam’s curse into a blessing (which is reckoned as a great favour); and he will tell Esau (if not in his ear, yet in his conscience) that Jacob is blest, "and he shall be blest." {#Ge 27:33} If Isaac, drawn aside by natural affection, would go about to reverse the blessing, God will cause him to "tremble very exceedingly," and so overawe him that he shall not be able to do it. But see here (as in a mirror) the wonderful love of God to his children: so dear they are unto him, that he cannot but love all that love them, and bless those that bless them. They have a powerful speech in Spain, -He that wipes the child’s nose kisseth the mother’s cheek. Surely, as natural parents take the kindnesses and unkindnesses showed to their children as done to themselves, so doth God.

And in thee shall all families, &c.] That is, "in thy seed," as it is interpreted, #Ge 22:18. To wit, in Christ that shall take flesh of thee, as both Peter and Paul expound it, #Ac 3:25 Ga 3:9,16. Hence Christ is called "the gift," {#Joh 4:10} and "the benefit," {#1Ti 6:2} by an excellency, "and the desire of all nations," {#Hag 2:7} sent a purpose "to bless us, in turning every one of us from our iniquities". {#Ac 3:26}

Ver. 4. So Abram departed.] He had now enough, having such precious promises, though he previously had nothing else. He parted with his friends and kindred, but is now become the friend of God, and akin to Christ. Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the gold in the world worth one day’s society with Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit, said that noble Marquess Galeacius Caracciolus, {a} who being nephew to Pope Paul V., and a prince of great wealth and power, left all for Christ, living and dying a poor exile at Geneva, that he might enjoy the liberty of his conscience, and serve God according to the truth of the gospel. Remarkable is that which Calvin writes of him in his dedicatory epistle to him, set before his Commentary upon the First Epistle to the Corinthians, — Etsi neque tu ,& c.

And Lot went with him.] Herein Abram was more happy than Caracciolus; for he, being converted by Peter Martyr’s Lecture on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and resolving thereupon to leave all and go to Geneva, opened his mind to some of his most familiar friends, and wrought upon them so far, as they promised and vowed to accompany him, &c.; but when they came to the borders of Italy, and considered what they forsook, they first looked back with Lot’s wife, and then, without any entreaty, went back as Orphah: so going out of God’s blessing into the world’s warm sun, as they say, which yet they long enjoyed not; for they were after taken by the Spanish Inquisition, and forced to abjure Christian religion, being neither trusted nor loved of one side nor other. {b}

And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed.] So he continued a pilgrim for a hundred years together, {#Ge 25:7} having ten sore trials, and every one worse than other.

{a} His life is set forth by Mr. Crashaw.

{b} Life of Caracciolus, by Crashaw, p. 11.

Ver. 5. And Abram took Sarai his wife.] The faithful companion of all his travels and troubles—one that "did him good, and not evil all her days". {#Pr 31:12} And although she suffered much hardship with him, and for his sake, and was oft put to it, yet she was "not afraid with any amazement," as many a woman would have been. {#1Pe 3:6} A valiant woman she was, and no less violent than he for God’s kingdom, whereof Canaan was but a type.

Ver. 6,7. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abram.] The sight of those wicked Canaanites might discourage him, and unsettle his faith. But then the sight of God relieved him (he is the first man that God is said to appear to); and the promise, "Unto thy seed will I give this land," could not but put spirits into him, and make his good old heart to dance a lively dance { levaltoes} in his bosom. When the poor soul even sinks sometimes at the sight of these Canaanites (corruptions), and despairs almost of a conquest, God lets in a beam of his own light, and comforts it with some cordial promise, which is as Boaz was to Naomi, "A restorer of his life, and a nourisher of his old age". {#Ru 4:15}

Ver. 7. And there builded he an altar to Jehovah.] Although the Canaanite was then in the land. God hath promised, when he cleanseth his Church, that "the Canaanite shall be there no more". {#Zec 14:21} But while they are there, we must "shine as lamps amidst a crooked and cursed generation, holding forth the word of life"; {#Php 2:15,16} as an ensign, bearing up God’s name as a badge, or beacon; wearing his mark in our foreheads, {#Re 9:4} the place of open profession; setting up an altar even amidst idolaters, as Abram, and calling it "Jehovahnissi—the Lord is my banner," as Moses. {#Ex 17:15} Some that seemed to wish well to Edmund Allan Martyr, {a} bid him keep his conscience to himself, and to follow Baruch’s counsel: {#/APC Bar 6} Wherefore, when ye see the multitude of people worshipping them behind and before, say in your hearts, O Lord, it is thou that oughtest only to be worshipped. These had more of Nicodemus in them than of Nathanael.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1796.

Ver. 8. And he removed from thence.] Because his building altars to Jehovah was offensive to the Canaanites. Indeed, it was a wonder they stoned him not; but God restrained them.

And there he builded an altar to the Lord.] This was still his first care wherever he came, and should be ours. We are a kingdom of priests, and have an altar, {#Heb 13:10} which is Christ, who sanctifies the offering. {#Mt 23:19} "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually". {#Heb 13:15} Imo altare extruamus non lapideum, sed carneum in cordibus .

Ver. 9. Going on still towards the south.] As toward the sun, whereby may be figured, saith an expositor, his progress in faith and grace, as #Pr 4:18 2Co 3:18.

Ver. 10. Abram went down into Egypt.] Which the Hebrews much condemn him for, saying that it was out of distrust, and that for this fault of his the Israelites suffered so long and hard bondage in Egypt. But that is but a rash judgment, and as weak an argument; for God, though he must be trusted, yet he may not be tempted. But tempted he is, first, when men are too much addicted to the means, as Thomas; secondly, when they reject them, as Ahaz, who would not ask a sign, though offered him. It was not diffidence, but obedience in Abram to go down to Egypt (that granary of the world), when now, by the want of food in Canaan, he found it was God’s will he should seek out.

Ver. 11. Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman.] And yet she was now sixty-five years of age; wherein she was a figure of "Jerusalem the mother of us all." {#Ga 4:26 So 1:15 4:1} Sarai’s chief beauty was that of "the hidden man of the heart," as saith St Peter. {#1Pe 3:4,6} But outward beauty is very lovely and attractive. Plato calls it the principality of nature; Aristotle, a greater commendation than all epistles. And being asked whether beauty were amiable, he answered, That’s a blind man’s question. {a} The poet could say, Gratior est pulchro veniens in corpore virtus —

That virtue hath a better grace

That shineth from a beauteous face.

Howbeit, Seneca saith, he was out in that saying; for that virtue needs no ornament more than she hath of her own, but beautifies herself sufficiently, and consecrates the body, wherein she dwells. {b} But by the leave of so great a philosopher, I am of the poet’s mind; and although I grant that favour without grace is but a gold ring in a swine’s snout, as Solomon hath it, or ornamentum in luto , as another (so it was in Alcibiades for a man, and in Aurelia Orestilla for a woman), yet surely, where they meet, they make a happy conjunction, and draw all hearts to them, as in Germanicus (for a man), in whom beauty and virtue strove for precedency; and Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Esther, who is said to have been of all men the most beautiful and most bountiful. {c} So in Esther (for a woman), who "obtained favour in the sight of all that looked upon her". {#Es 2:15} And Aspasia Milesia, the wife of Cyrus, who deserved to be styled καλη και σοφη, fair and wise, as Aelian relateth {d} As on the other side in Vatinius, deformity of body strove with dishonesty of mind, adeo ut animus eius dignissimo domicilio inclusus videretur , saith Paterculus.

{a} Τυφλου το ερωτημς.

{b} Ipsa magnum sui decus est, et corpus suum consecrat. -Sen., epist. 67.

{c} Salvian. Cuias praeter formam nihil nunquam, bonus laudavit. -Salust. Καλλιστος μεν το σωμα, αριστος δε την ψυχην εφυ.—Dio. Artaxerxes, omnium hominum pulcherrimus, ait Emil. Prob.

{d} Aelian Var. Hist., lib. xii. cap. 1.

Ver. 12. Therefore it shall come to pass, &c.] Note here, saith Pererius, 1. The raging affection of the Egyptians, that made no conscience of murder to enjoy their lust; 2. Their blindness, that made less account of murder than adultery. Note again, saith Piscator, that beauty exposeth a body to the danger of dishonesty, and that, as the poet hath it,

“ Lis est cam forma magna pudicitiae .”

Let those therefore that have beauty {a} look to their chastity, and possess their vessels in holiness and honour;

“ Thesaurum cum virgo, tuum vas fictile servet,

Ut caveas quae sunt noxia, tuta time .”

Filthiness in a woman is most abominable; therefore is a whore called a strange woman.

{a} Cavete ab hoc quem natura notavit

Ver. 13. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister.] The truth was here not only concealed, but dissembled. As the moon hath her specks, so the best have their blemishes: a sheep may slip into a slough as soon as a swine, and an apple tree may have a fit of barrenness as well as a crab tree.

Ver. 14. The Egyptians beheld the woman.] Pleasure is blamed, in Xenophon, for this, that she ever and anon looketh back upon her own shadow, and giveth her eyes leave to rove and range without restraint. An honest man, saith Plautus, should have continent eyes, hands, and tongue. {a} Nihil enim interest quibus membris cinoedi sitis posterioribus an prioribus , said Archelaus, the philosopher, to a wanton young gentleman. The eye (that light of all the members) is an ornament to the whole body. And yet that lightsome part of the body draweth too oft the whole soul into darkness. This Job knew, and therefore "made a covenant" {#Job 31:1} to look to his looks; {b} sith of looking came lusting. Charles V., when the city of Antwerp thought to gratify him in a mask with the sight of certain fair maids brought in before him almost naked, he would not once look at them. {c} The young Lord Harrington, when he should meet with fair women in the streets, or elsewhere, would usually pull his hat over his eyes, as knowing that of our Saviour, "He that looks upon a woman, to lust after her," &c., whereupon immediately follows, "If thine eye offend thee," &c. {d} Eckius was sharply rebuked at a feast, by a modest matron, for his uncivil glances and behavior, in these words (as Melancthon relateth), Es tu doctor? Non existimo te in honesta familia, sed in lupanari educatum . Thou a doctor? I do not believe thou wast bred anywhere else but in a brothel house. {See Trapp on "Ge 6:2"}

{a} Decet habere oculos continentes, manus et linguam.

{b} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., p. 345.

{c} Saepe clausit fenestra, ne inspiceret formosiores feminas ,& c.—De Carolo V., Pareus Hist., pref. medul., p. 908.

{d} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., p. 327.

Ver. 15. The princes also of Pharaoh, &c.] Flattering courtiers please princes’ humours, and serve their delights, though to the procuring of their plagues, as here, and in young King Joash. "If a ruler hearken to lies," saith Solomon, "all his servants are wicked". {#Pr 29:12} Aulici sunt instar speculi , saith one. And Mirifica est sympathia , said another, inter magnates and parasitos . Herodotus writeth that, when Cambyses demanded of his courtiers and counsellors whether it were not lawful for him to marry his own sister, whom he greatly desired, they answered, that they found no law to license such a match: but another law they found, that the King of Persia might do what he wanted to. {a}

And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.] Not for any worse purpose than to get her goodwill to become his wife.

{a} Αλλον μεντοι εξευρηκεναι νομον τω βασιλευοντι περσεων εξειναι πωιειν α αν βουλητα—Herod., lib. iii.

Ver. 16. And he entreated Abram well for her sake.] To the end that he might solicit his sister to yield consent; or might not be a backward friend, at least, out of displeasure because they had taken away his sister from him to the court. So King Henry VIII advanced all Anne Boleyn’s kindred, &c.

Ver. 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh.] Plagued him with plagues, saith the Hebrew: tormented him with torments, or set him on the rack, saith the Greek. And for this he might thank his court parasites, who put him upon this rape. Chrysostom thinketh that Sarai was in bed with the king, and that in the bed God by his plague so restrained him that she remained untouched. But we cannot gather by the text that he intended to commit adultery, sed quod levitate et vaga libidine peccavit , but offended only in going after the sight of his eyes and lust of his heart, as Solomon hath it.

Ver. 18. What is this that thou hast done unto me?] God had reproved Pharaoh, according to that; "He suffered no man to do them wrong, but reproved kings for their sakes"; {#Ps 105:14} and now Pharaoh reproves Abram. It is a sad thing that saints should do that for which they should justly fall under the reproof of the wicked: we should rather dazzle their eyes, and draw from their consciences, at least, a testimony of our innocency, as David did from Saul’s, when he said, "Thou art more righteous than I, my son David". {#1Sa 24:17} "Whose ox have I taken?" saith Samuel. {#1Sa 12:3} "And which of you can condemn me of sin?" saith Christ. {#Joh 8:46} Now, the life of a Christian should be a commentary upon Christ’s life. {#1Pe 2:21} "Ye are a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should preach forth εξαγγειλητε his virtues," {#1Pe 2:9} and not hang his picture—his image and graces—in a dark hole, but in a conspicuous place. Bucer so lived that neither could his friends sufficiently praise him, nor his foes justly blame him for any miscarriage. And Bradford was had in so great reverence and admiration for his holiness, that a multitude which never knew him but by fame greatly lamented his death; yea, and a number also of Papists themselves wished heartily his life. {a} But to have Egyptians jeer us, and that for sin, is threatened as a grievous misery. {#Ho 7:16}

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 19. Why saidst thou, She is my sister?] He might have answered, Because I was afraid. His fear it was that put him upon this exploit. So it did David when he changed his behaviour, and Peter when he denied his Master, &c. Men should rather die than lie. Nec prodam, nec mentiar , said that good bishop {a} in St Augustine. And that was a brave woman in St Jerome, that being on the rack resolved, and answered the tormentor, Non ideo negare volo ne peream, sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peccem . The chameleon, saith Pliny, is the most fearful of all creatures, and doth therefore turn into all colours, to save itself. So will timorous persons. See #Zep 3:13. Let us fortify our hearts against this cowardly passion.

{a} Firmus Episc. Togastensis.

Ver. 20. And Pharaoh commanded.] Thus God comes, as it were, out of an engine, {a} and helps his people at a pinch. Abram had brought himself into the briars, and could find no way out. Many a heavy heart he had, no doubt, for his dear wife (who suffered by his default), and she again for him. God, upon their repentance, provides graciously for them both: she is kept undefiled, he greatly enriched for her sake; and now they are both secured, and dismissed with the king’s safeconduct. Oh, who would not serve such a God, as turns our errors and evil counsels to our great good, as the Athenians dreamed their goddess Minerva did for them!

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. And Abram went up out of Egypt.] There must be likewise daily ascensions in our hearts, out of the Egypt of this world, to the heavenly Canaan, where Christ our altar is. The Church is compared to "pillars of smoke" ascending. {#So 3:6} Black she is as smoke in regard of infirmities, yet hath a principle to carry her upwards. Who is this that ascends out of this Egypt below with pillars of smoke, elationibus fumi , that is, with her affections, thoughts, desires, upward, heavenward? Our Edward I had a mighty desire to go to the Holy Land; and because he was hindered, he gave his son a charge upon his deathbed, to carry his heart thither, and prepared 32,000 English pounds to that purpose. {a} The children of faithful Abram, though their bodies be on earth, yet they take much pains, and are at great charge, to get up their hearts to heaven. Hence they are called "eagles," {#Mt 24:28} for their high soaring, and are said to have "noses like the tower of Lebanon," {#So 7:4} for their singular sagacity in resenting and smelling after Christ, the true all quickening body.

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 2. And Abram was very rich.] All rich men therefore are not rejected of God, though it be hard for such to hit on heaven. Poor Lazarus lies in the bosom of rich Abraham there. Riches neither further nor hinder in themselves, but as they are used: as a cipher by itself is nothing, but a figure being set before it, it increaseth the sum. Wealth, if well used, is an ornament, an encouragement to duty, and an instrument of much good. All the danger lies in loving these things. Have them we may, and use them too, as a traveller doth his staff, to help him the sooner to his journey’s end; but when we pass away our hearts to them, they become a mischief, and as the word here rendered rich, signifies in the original a burden. Let not therefore the bramble be king: let not earthly things bear rule over thy affections; "fire will rise out of them that will consume thy cedars," {#Jud 9:15} emasculate all the powers of thy soul, as they did Solomon’s, whose wealth did him more hurt than his wisdom good. How many have we now-a-days, that when poor, could pray, read, &c., who, grown rich, resemble the moon, which, grown full, gets farthest off from the sun, never suffers eclipse but then, and that by earth’s interposition! Let rich men therefore take heed how they handle their thorns; let them gird up the loins of their minds, lest their long garments {a} hinder them in the way to heaven; let them see to it, that they be not tied to their abundance, as little Lentulus was said to have been to his long sword; {b} that they be not held prisoners in those golden fetters, as the king of Armenia was by Anthony, and so sent by him for a present to Cleopatra, {c} lest at length they send their mammon of unrighteousness, as Croesus did his fetters, for a present to the devil, who had deluded him with false hopes of victory. {d}

{a} Socrates divitias comparabat tunicis talaribus .

{b} Quis generum meum ad gladium alligavit ?— Cic.

{c} Dio in Augusto.

{d} Herodot.

Ver. 3. And he went on his journeys.] Many a weary step, and rested not till he came to his old altar at Bethel. Lo here a pattern of great piety and singular zeal, in father Abram. Egypt, with all her plenty and pleasure, had not stolen away his heart, so as not to hold his own in the promised land. Neither had he so laden himself with thick clay, but that he went "from strength to strength" (as those good souls did, #Ps 84:7); he took long strides; perexit per profectiones suas , as it is here. He went journey after journey, till he appeared before God at his altar, there to sanctify that good he bad got in Egypt, and to give God thanks for it; yea, to consecrate all to him the bestower of it. Oh, let us show ourselves children of Abram indeed, by "walking in these steps of our father Abram" {#Ro 4:12} Otherwise our outward profession and privileges will profit us no more than it did Dives in hell, that be could call Abraham, father. {#Lu 16:30}

Ver. 4. Unto the place of the altar, & c.] There he had found God to his comfort, and there he looks now to find him so again. It will be some help to us, for the strengthening of our faith in prayer, to hold ourselves to the same place, to have a set oratory.

Ver. 5. And Lot also, which went with Abram.] So he lost not all, by leaving friends and means, to go with Abram. They that side with the saints, shall thrive with the saints. God had promised to bless Abram, and he did it; for it is the blessing of God that maketh rich. God had promised again to bless them that blessed Abram, or wished well to him, and did him any favour or furtherance. Let Lot speak now whether this were not made good to him in those flocks and herds of his (that is, in all kind of riches), {a} and tents, that is, servants dwelling in tents. {#Jer 49:29 1Ch 4:41}

{a} Μηλα pecudes, et postea, synecdochicos, opes significant .

Ver. 6. And the land was not able to bear them.] This was sour sauce to their sweet meat, lest they should surfeit of their abundance. All earthly comforts are dissweetened with crosses, and there are thorns in all the world’s roses. It is seldom seen that God allows any, though never so dear to himself, a perfect contentment. Something they must have to complain of, that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels, that they may long after heaven. It could not but be a great cut to this good couple, to be now at length sundered, and deprived of mutual society.

Ver. 7. And there was a strife between.] How oft do servants set masters at variance! But the devil is in it, when good folk fall out especially. He is restless himself, and doth what he can to disquiet others. He loves to fish in troubled waters; and well knows out of his "devilish wisdom," saith St James, that "where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work". {#Jas 3:15,16} But what was it that made the herdsmen fall out, but penury of pasture? and what bred penury of pasture, but plenty of cattle? Great riches many times breed great brabbles. This the heathen found, and therefore feigned that Mars was the son of Juno, {a} because Juno is the goddess of riches, which prove the cause of strife and stirs among many.

And the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelled then in the land.] This is added, either as a cause of their being straitened of fit pasture, because the Canaanites possessed the better grounds; or else to set forth how unseasonable and unsavoury it was, for such men to jar, and so to expose themselves to the scandal and scorn of such wicked neighbours as desired no better sport than to see them falling out. This latter is Lyra’s {b} gloss, and I like it well. One of the main scandals the Jews take at this day from Protestants, is their dissensions. Error condonari potest, modo fides adsit in Christum: discordiam, neque si sanguinem fundamus, expiabimus , said reverend Oecolampadius in a letter to the litigious Lutherans of Sueveland. {c}

{a} Natalis Comes.

{b} Nisi Lyra lyrasset &c.

{c} Scultet. Annal. Cyprianus inexpiabilem discordiae maculam martyrii sanguine ablui, et passione purgari negat.

Ver. 8. And Abram said to Lot.] Speech endeth anger, silence nourisheth it. Much malice and grudge would be avoided, and the very poison of it drawn out, did we but give it a vent at first, by reasoning with the party that wronged us, and expostulating the injury, which most times is but a mere mistake. Now many, on the contrary, harbour this viper in their bosoms, till it hath eaten to their hearts; they not only let "the sun go down," but go its whole round "upon their wrath," {#Eph 4:26} and cannot find time from one end of the year to the other, to utter their minds, and compound their discords. Not only Abram, but Aristippus shall rise up in judgment against such pseudo-Christians, and condemn them. For when Aeschines and he had been at long debate, {a} and there was, I stout, and thou stout, and neither could find in their hearts to go to the other; Aristippus went at length to Aeschines, and said unto him, "Shall we not agree to be friends, before we make ourselves a common scorn to the whole country?" Whereunto when Aeschines answered, that he was content to be friends with all his heart; Aristippus replied, "Remember then, that although I were the elder and the better man, yet I first sought unto thee." "In very deed," said Aeschines, "thou art a far better man than I; for I began the quarrel, and thou hast been first in making up the breach." And thus these two became fast friends for ever.

For we are brethren.] This is a cooler; and should be like the angel that stayed Abram’s hand when the blow was coming.

{a} Plutarch De Cohib. Ira, Laer., lib. ii.

Ver. 9. Is not the whole land before thee?] Abram chooseth rather to take wrong, than to strive for his right, which he here parts with for peace’s sake. They that do otherwise, though they think they do bravely, and get the better of their adversary, yet (if St Paul may judge) they sit down by the loss. For he purposely disgraceth their contentious courses, in standing for their utmost right, without respect to peace and quietness, by a word (ηττημα) that signifieth disgrace, or loss of victory:—"Now therefore there is utterly a fault," or a defect of true manhood, "amongst you, because ye go to law one with another; why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" {#1Co 6:7} Aristotle {a} by the dim light of nature, could see and say, that it is better to suffer wrong than do it. It was a brave speech of Calvin: "Though Luther call me devil, yet I will honour him as a servant of God." And when a fierce friar, in dispute with Beza and his colleagues, called them foxes, apes, asses, &c., Beza answered no more but this, Nos non magis credere, quam Transubstantionem. In rixa is inferior est, qui victor est , saith Basil. And Demosthenes when he was reproached by one, thought it sufficient to say, Nolim tecum in hoc genus certaminis descendere, in quo qui vincitur ipso victore est melior .

Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me.] Sometimes, and between some natures, separation one from another better nourisheth friendship than nearer familiarity. {b} There are, that can never agree together.

If thou wilt take the right hand, &c.] As who should say; We will not be far apart, though we cannot be together; but still helpful one to the other, as the right hand is to the left. {c}

{a} Αδικεισθαι η αδικειν, Ethic.

{b} Interdum disiunctio melius alit amicitiam ,& c.—Bucholc.

{c} Pererius.

Ver. 10. And Lot lifted up his eyes.] This was "the lust of the eye" St John speaketh of, {#1Jo 2:16} as he afterwards fell into "the lust of the flesh," {#Ge 19:33} {a} his incestuous posterity into "the pride of life." We have heard of the pride of Moab, and the ambition of Ammon, .{ #Jer 48:1-49:39} Lot might not be suffered so much as to look at Sodom while it was burning, as Abram might. God knew his weakness, and so prevented the temptation. He should have had the good manners to let his uncle choose first; but the dust of covetousness had put out his eyes, that he saw not what beseemed him for the present, as afterwards he did, when God so crossed him {#Ps 66:12} in that which he chose, and so blessed Abram in that which was left him. {#Ps 107:33,35} Lot was a good man, but this, το της φιλοχρημοτιας νοσημα, somewhat obscured his virtues. {b}

That it was well watered everywhere,] and so fruitful. Hence the inhabitants, through abuse of their plenty, became wholly drowned in fleshly delights. It faring with them in this respect, as with the inhabitants of Oenoe, {c} a dry island besides Athens, who bestowed much labour to draw into it a river to water it, and make it more fruitful. But, when all the passages were opened, and the receptacles prepared, the water came in so plentifully, that it overflowed all, and at the first tide, drowned the island, and all the people. "They that will be rich," saith the apostle, -that are resolved to rise in the world, by what means it matters not, these, -"fall into temptation and a snare," as Lot, (that is the least evil can come of it), "and into many foolish and noisome lusts," as his neighbours the Sodomites did, "which" desperately "drown {d} men in" double "destruction". {#1Ti 6:9}

Like the land of Egypt.] Which was called of old, publicum orbis horreum the world’s great granary. A country so fair and fertile, that the Egyptians were wont to boast, they could feed all men, and feast all the gods, without any sensible diminution of their provision.

{a} The leper shaved his eyebrows, to teach us to mortify the lust of the eyes.

{b} De Triboniano, Procopius.

{c} Una est ex tetrapoli Attica .— Steph.

{d} βυθιξουσι. Ita immergunt, ut in aquae summitate cursus non ebuliiant .

Ver. 11. And they separated themselves the one from the other.] But not very far asunder. And herein they became a symbol of friendship: for friends, as parallel lines, neither go far apart, nor yet interfere one with another.

Ver. 12. And Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain.] Not in the land of Canaan with Abram, and his seed: God had a holy hand in that.

Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom.] A good place to pass through, but an ill place to take up in: as one once said of Athens.

Ver. 13. But the men of Sodom were wicked, &c.] See their chief sins set down, #Eze 16:49,50. The Chaldee Paraphrast here translateth, they were first unrighteous with their mammon: and secondly, sinners with their bodies, before the Lord. That unnameable sin had its name from them, who against nature were scalded εξεκαυθησαν in their lust, one toward another. {#Ro 1:27} The apostle there gives it in of the heathen philosophers, many of whom were patrons of this abhorred filth; as Cicero complains of Plato; and Socrates was shrewdly suspected, to be no more honest than he should be with Alcibiades; nor Seneca with Nero. {a} "The wisdom from above is pure," saith St James; {#Jas 1:17} and in this wisdom is "truth" and purity, saith Solomon, {#Pr 8:7} whereas all worldly wisdom is stained with error or lewdness. God punisheth the pride of all flesh with some foul sin, and so sets a Noverint universi , as it were, upon the world’s wizards, that all men may know them to be but arrant fools.

And sinners before the Lord exceedingly.] They were grown so debauched and impudent in evil, that neither fear of God nor shame of men could restrain them. Though God looked on, they were no whit abashed or abased before him. God "found not" out their sins "by secret search," {#Jer 2:34} he needed not to search them with lights. {#Zep 1:12} For "the show of their countenance did witness against them"; they could blush no more than a sackbut: shamelessness sat in their foreheads; "they declared their sins," even to a proverb. {#Isa 3:9} They "set them" in open view "upon the cliff of the rock". {#Eze 24:7} They faced the heavens, and held their heads aloft, as if they deserved commendation, rather than else. This is a high degree of sin, and an immediate forerunner of destruction.

{a} Seneca delectabatur exoletis ,& c.—Dio in Nerone.

Ver. 14. After that Lot was separated from him.] Till Lot was departed, and the strife ceased, God appeared not. He is the God of peace, and hates contention; which as it indisposeth us to holy duties, {#1Pe 3:7} so it keepeth God from us by his comforts and influences. They say of bees, that stir and strife among them is a sign their queen is about to remove, to leave the hive, and to be gone somewhere else. God refuseth to be served till the matter be agreed. {#Mt 5:24}

Lift up now thine eyes.] God’s comforts are therefore most sweet, because most seasonable. Abram had now parted with Lot, to his great grief: God makes up that loss to him in his own gracious presence and promise: which he here repeateth, to teach us, moreover, that the continual weakness of man needeth continual comfort from God.

Ver. 15. For all the land which thou seest is thine.] "God gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as a foot breadth"; {#Ac 7:5} yet he promised that he would give it to him: and that Abram took for good freehold. Men use to reckon their wealth, not by what ready money they have only, but by the good bonds and leases they can produce. A great part of a Christian’s estate lies in bonds and bills of God’s hand.

Ver. 16. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth.] Afterwards, {#Ge 15:5} God promiseth that his seed shall be as the stars of heaven. Abram’s seed, saith one, {a} are of two sorts: some are visible members of a church, yet have earthly hearts: others are as the stars of heaven, for spiritual light, motion, and influence.

{a} Moses’s Choice, by Mr Burr.

Ver. 17. Arise, walk through the land.] Thus God rewards contented Abram with the whole country. He never suffers any man to lose by a humble remission of his right, in a desire of peace. "The meek shall inherit the earth," {#Mt 5:5} and have heaven to boot; which was the chief thing here promised to Abram, in this survey. {#Heb 11:10,16}

Ver. 18. Built an altar.] {See Trapp on "Ge 12:8"}

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. In the days of Amraphel,] i.e., Nimrod, as R. Salomon saith: or Ninus, as others.

King of nations.] Of a people made up of sundry nations, saith Lyra. Symmachus rendereth it, King of Scythians: others, of Pamphylia.

Ver. 2. That these made war.] War is the slaughter house of mankind, and the hell of this present world. It hews itself a way through a wood of men, and lays "heaps upon heaps" (as Samson did, #Jud 15:16), not with "a jaw-bone of an ass," and one after another, but in a minute of time, and by the mouth of a murdering piece. Alphonsus D. of Ferrara had two of these cannons {a} of a wonderful size; the one whereof he called Archidiabolo, the other, the Earthquake. The Turks battered the walls of Rhodes, with twelve basilisks, so aptly named of the serpent, basiliscus , who, as Pliny writes, killeth man or beast with his very sight. But before these bloody instruments of death were heard of in the world, men could find means to slaughter one another in war; witness these five kings, that came with Chedorlaomer, and smote the Rephaims or giants, the Zuzims or Zamzummims, {#De 2:20} and the Emims or terrible ones, as their name imports. These they slew by the way, besides what they did in the vale of Siddim, where they joined battle with the five kings, and cut off many. If we may judge one battle by another, hear what was done in a bloody fight between Amurath III, king of the Turks, and Lazarus, despot of Servia. Many thousands fell on both sides; the brightness of the armour and weapons was as like the lightning; the multitude of lances and other horsemen’s staves shadowed the light of the sun. Arrows and darts fell so fast, that a man would have thought they had poured down from heaven. The noise of the instruments of war, with the neighing of horses, and outcries of men, was so terrible and great, that the wild beasts in the mountains stood astonished therewith; and the Turkish histories, {b} to express the terror of the day, vainly say, that the angels in heaven, amazed with that hideous noise, for that time, forgot the heavenly hymns wherewith they always glorify God. In conclusion, Lazarus was slain, and Amurath had the victory, but a very bloody one, and such as he had no great joy of. For he lost many of his Turks; as did likewise Adrian the Emperor of the Romans, when he fought against the Jews and had the better: but with such a loss of his own men, that when he wrote of his victory to the Senate, he forbore to use that common exordium, that the emperors in like ease were wont to use, Si vos liberique vestri valeatis, bene est: Ego quidem et exercitus valemus. {c} There was no such thing, believe it, nor but seldom is there. But as the dragon sucks out the blood of the elephant, and the weight of the falling elephant crushes the dragon, and both usually perish together; {d} so doth it many times fall out with those that undertake war. These four kings beat the five; but, when they got home, became a prey to Abram and his confederates. The Low-countrymen are said to grow rich—whereas {e} all other nations grow poor—with war. But they may thank a good queen, under God (Queen Elizabeth, I mean), who first undertook their protection against the Spaniard. For the which act of hers, all princes admired her fortitude: and the King of Sweden said, that she had now taken the diadem from her head, and set it upon the doubtful chance of war. {f} Dubia sane est Martis alea, nec raro utrique parti noxia , saith Bucholcerus. {g} And I cannot but—as the case stands with us, especially at this present, by reason of these unnatural uncivil wars stirred up amongst us—go on, and give my vote with him. Ideo pons aureus (ut vulgato proverbio dicitur) hosti fugienti extruendus est et magno precio, precibus, patientia ac prudentia alma pax redimenda, ne infoelicitatis portas, pacis tempore clausas, infaustum bellum aperiat . War is sweet, they say, to them that never made trial of it. {h} But I cannot sufficiently wonder at Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, of whom Justin witnesseth, that he took as much pleasure in war, as others do in supreme government. {i} He might have better learned of his own prophets; so St Paul calleth their poets. {#Tit 1:12} Homer, the prince of them, ever brings in Mars, as most hated of Jupiter above any other god, as born for a common mischief, and being right of his mother Juno’s disposition, which was fierce, vast, contumacious, and malignant. We that are Christians, as we cannot but, with the prophet Isaiah, count and call war a singular evil; so we must acknowledge with him, that it is an evil of God’s own creating. {#Isa 45:7} "I make peace, and create evil," {j} that is, war. I, is emphatic and exclusive, as who should say, I, and I alone. Whencesoever the sword comes, it is bathed in heaven. {#Isa 34:5} God is pleased for this to style himself, "A man of war". {#Ex 15:3} The Chaldee expresseth it thus, "the Lord and victor of wars". {#Ge 17:1} God elsewhere calleth himself, El Shaddai. Aben-Ezra interpreteth Shaddai a conqueror. And indeed the Hebrew word Shadad signifieth to dissipate and destroy: both which he must needs do that becomes a conqueror. {k} God seems to glory much in his workings about warlike affairs. Hence, -"Who {#Ps 24:8} is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle." He is in Scripture said to "send the sword"; {#Eze 14:17} to "muster" the men; {#Isa 13:4} to order the ammunition; {#Jer 50:25} to bring up both van and rear; {#Isa 52:12} to give wisdom, valour, and victory. {#Ps 144:1 Eze 30:24 Ec 9:11} The whole battle is his. {#1Sa 17:47} And he oft thereby "revengeth the quarrel of his covenant". {#Le 26:25} So he hath done already upon the Jews and Germans: so he is now doing, alas, upon Ireland and England. And here I cannot but insert that which I find observed by a prime preacher of our kingdom. The late battle at Edgehill was fought in a place called "the Vale of the Red Horse," as if God had said, "I have now sent you the red horse, to avenge the quarrel of the white"; {#Re 6:2,4} the blood spilt at Edgehill the same day of the month in which the rebellion broke out in Ireland, the year before, October 23. Yea, and upon the self-same day, if our intelligence be true, in which that bloody battle was fought near Leipsic, in Germany. This conjuncture is a sad presage, that England is to drink deep in Germany’s and Ireland’s cup. "Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from us." "A cup of trembling" it is, surely, to myself, among many others; such as maketh my pen almost to fall out of my fingers, while I write these things; and affects me no otherwise—when I consider of the many fearful convulsions of our kingdom, tending doubtless to a deadly consumption-than the siege of Rome did St Jerome. For hearing that that city was besieged, at such time as he was writing a Commentary upon Ezekiel, {l} and that many of his godly acquaintance there were slain, he was so astonished at the news, that for many nights and days he could think of nothing. When I think {m} of what should move the Lord to make this breach upon us, and notwithstanding that he hath been so earnestly besought; yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still; that of Cajetan comes before me; who, then commenting upon Matthew when the French soldiers having broken into Rome, offered all manner of abuse and violence to the clergy, inserts this passage into his Notes on Matt. 5:13—"Ye are the salt of the earth,"—as my former author {n} allegeth, and rendereth him:—"We, the prelates of Rome, do now find the truth of this by woeful experience, being become a scorn and a prey, not to infidels but Christians, by the most righteous judgment of God, because we, who by our places should have been ‘the salt of the earth,’ had ‘lost our savour,’ and were good for little else but looking after the rites and revenues of the Church. {o} Hence it is, that together with us, this city comes to be trodden under foot, this sixth of May 1527." That city, till it became idolatrous, was ever victorious: but since it hath been the nest of Antichrist, it was never besieged but it was taken and sacked. The God of heaven purge out of our Church, daily more and more, that land desolating sin of idolatry, and make good his promise, "That there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts," {#Zec 14:21} no evil spirit left in the land. Fiat, fiat . For of England we may now well say, as he once did of Rome: Nunquam magis iustis iudiciis approbatum est, non esse curae Deo securitatem nostrum, esse vindictam. {p}

{a} Peacham’s Valley of Varieties. {#Re 9:17} "Fire, smoke, and brimstone," seem to note out the Turks’ guns and ordnance. For the drawing of that gun that Mohammed used in besieging Constantinople, seventy yokes of oxen and two thousand men were employed.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 200.

{c} Dio in Adriano.

{d} Plin.

{e} Heylin’s Geog., p. 253.

{f} Anno 1585. Camden’s Elisab.

{g} Bucholc. Chron., p. 583.

{h} Dulce bellum inexpertis.

{i} Nulli maiorem ex imperio quam Pyrrho ex bello voluptatem fuisse.

{j} Malum per αντονομασιαν ut bellum, quia minime bellum per antiphrasin .

{k} Eundem victorem et vastatorem esse oportet .

{l} Hieron. com. in Ezekiel.—Proem.

{m} Haec scripsi cordiciuts dolens .— August 21, 1643

{n} Mr Arrowsmith, ubi supra, Ep.

{o} Evanuimus, ac ad nihilum utiles, nisi ad externas caeremonias, externaque bona ,& c.—Heylin’s Geog.

{p} Tacit. Hist., lib. i. cap. 1.

Ver. 3. The salt sea.] So it was afterwards called. {See Trapp on "Ge 19:25"} See Plin., lib. v. cap. 16.

Ver. 4. They rebelled.] Which they ought not to have done, if they had promised fidelity, unless in case of extreme necessity: and then also, at first, to have been on the defensive only. {a}

{a} Alsted.

Ver. 5. Chedorlaomer.] King of Persia; he was commander in chief; and upon his sword might have been written, as was upon Agamemnon’s, ουτος μεν φοβος εστιν ανθρωπων, this is the common terror. {a}

{a} Pausan.

Ver. 6. And the Horites in their mount Seir.] Their Seir could not secure them, when once they fell into the hands of these Ardeliones, {#Eze 21:31} burning or "brutish men," skilful to destroy.

Ver. 7. And smote all the country.] Great is the woe of war. {See Trapp on "Ge 14:2"} Great also was the goodness of God to Abram, in giving so many, and so victorious, nations into his hands.

Ver. 8. And there went out the king of Sodom, &c.] These five neighbouring kings were combined against the four kings that invaded them. It was not then a civil dissension, that worst of wars, such as was that of France (and is now, alas, of England), wherein the sons fought against their fathers, and brothers against brothers; and even women took arms on both sides for defence of their religion. {a} That was not more monstrous, that the Suevian women threw their young children at the Romans, their enemies, instead of darts, {b} than that other was piteous between the Romans themselves, those that were for Vitellius, and the other for Vespasian; that, when the women brought the Vitellians food by night, into the camp, they not only refreshed themselves, but their adversaries also, with food and drink. Each man called to his adversary by name, and said, Accipe, mi commilito, ede: Non enim tibi gladium proebeo, sed panem. Accipe rursum et bibe: Non enim tibi scutum, sed poculum trado: ut, sive tu me interficias, sive ego te, moriamur facilius: atque ut ne me, enervata atque imbecilla manu occidas, aut ego te. Hae nostrae sunt exequiae, nobis adhuc viventibus. {c} Thus they greeted over night, and the next day despatched one another; they gave wounds, and took wounds; they slew, and were slain, as the same author hath it. {d} Which as oft as I think on, I cannot but highly commend that speech of Otho the Emperor to his soldiers, a little before he took his end: I hate civil wars, though I were sure to overcome. {e} I know not why any Englishman should love it, that shall call to mind, that in the civil dissensions between the houses of York and Lancaster, there were slain (ere the quarrel ended) fourscore princes of the blood royal, and twice as many natives of England as were lost in the two conquests of France. {f} War is easily taken up, saith the wise historian, {g} but not so easily laid down again; neither is the beginning and the end of a war in any one man’s power. If the Scots should come in on the one side, and the French or Irish on the other, what an Aceldama should we soon become! what an Ireland, a seat of wrath, because a seat of war! It is never to be forgotten by us, that the dissension between England and Scotland consumed more Christian blood, wrought more spoil and destruction, and continued longer than ever quarrel we read of did between any two people of the world. Our Edward I adjured his son and nobles, that, if he died on his journey into Scotland, they should carry his corpse about Scotland, and not suffer it to be interred, till they had absolutely subdued the country. A desire more martial than Christian; a design of revenge beyond his life. Such spirits are raised in men "that delight in war". {#Ps 68:30} "Oh! pray for the peace of Jerusalem." So saith David. {#Ps 122:6} And so doth David in the next verse, "Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." The Athenians, when they had gotten the better at sea of the Lacedemonians, were so overjoyed, that they then first set up altars to the public peace; and appointed a cushion to be laid thereon, for that goddess to rest upon. {h} Oh, would the Lord but once more grant us, that "righteousness and peace might kiss each other, and mercy and truth meet" in our land, {#Ps 85:9,10} how happy should we hold ourselves; how infinitely obliged to sing, Servati sumus, ut serviamus !{ #Lu 1:74} How should we prize our restored peace, and improve it as Abram did here, to the paying of tithes, in token of thankfulness; yea, to the setting up of altars, not to public peace, as those heathens, but to the God of peace, as Abram after this did, when he had concluded a peace with King Abimelech, and his general, Phichol! {#Ge 21:32,33}

{a} Hist. of Counc. of Trent, 647.

{b} Heyl. Geog., p. 289.

{c} Dio in Vita Vitellii.

{d} ετιτρωσκον ετιτρωσκοντο: εφονευον, εφονευοντο.—Dio.

{e} Μισω πολεμον εμφυλιον, καν κρατων.—Dio in Vita Othonis.

{f} Daniel’s Chron. continued by Trussel., fol. 249.

{g} Omne bellum sumitur facile, caeterum aegerrime desin it. Non enim in eiusdem potestate est initium belli, eiusque finis .— Salust, in Jug.

{h} Tum primum arae Paci publicae sunt factae, eique Deae pulvinar institutum .— Cornel. Nepos.

Ver. 9. Four kings with five.] These five were but free princes of cities, petty kings, such as we had here of old in this island; which is therefore said, by Jerome, to be tyrannorum fertilis , fertile of tyrants.

Ver. 10. And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits.] Chosen therefore on purpose by the five kings, who fled and fell there; or (as some understand the text) made haste to fall down there; {a} skulking and scouting, {b} till their enemies should pursue them, and so perish in those pits. But their cunning failed them; for as they had travailed with iniquity and conceived mischief, so they brought forth a lie. They "made a pit and digged it, but fell into the ditch that themselves had made". {#Ps 7:15} The way of this world, saith one, is like the vale of Siddim, slimy and slippery, full of slime pits and pitfalls, springs and stumbling-blocks, laid by Satan to maim or mischieve us, to procure our ruin or ruth. To defeat him therefore (as these four kings did the five), let us tread gingerly, step warily, lift not up one foot till we find sure footing for the other: let us look ere we leap. Alioqui saliens antequam videat, casurus est antequam debeat , as St Bernard hath it. {c}

{a} Celeriter se deiecerunt .— Piscat.

{b} Eo consilio ut hostes ignari locorum ,& c.—Idem.

{c} Bern. De Bon. Deser.

Ver. 11. And all their victuals] "Fulness of bread" {#Eze 16:49} was a part of their sin; and now "cleanness of teeth" {#Am 4:6} is made a piece of their punishment, in God’s just judgment.

“ Per quod quis peccat, per idem punitur ipse.”

Ver. 12. And they took Lot.] God passeth not by the sins of his dearest saints, without a sensible check. Lot, for his affecting the first choice, had soon enough of it. Strong affections bring strong afflictions; as hard knots require hard wedges. Earthly things court us, that they may cut our throats: these hosts welcome us into our inn with smiling countenance, that they may despatch us in our beds. Beware of the world’s cut-throat kindnesses; consort not with Sodomites, lest ye partake of their plagues. Hamath lies nigh to Damascus in place, and fares the worse for its neighbourhood. {#Zec 9:2} Lot loseth his goods and liberty; Jehoshaphat had well-nigh lost his life, for "loving those that hated the Lord." {#2Ch 18:31 19:2}.

Ver. 13. And there came one that had escaped.] A Sodomite likely, but a servant to God’s good providence, for Lot’s rescue. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver his," &c. {#2Pe 2:9} He that "led captivity captive," {#Eph 4:8} can "turn our captivity as the streams in the south". {#Ps 126:4}

Ver. 14. He armed his trained servants.] Or, catechised; such as he had painfully principled both in religion and military discipline, tractable and trusty, ready pressed for any such purpose. It is recorded to the commendation of Queen Elizabeth, that she provided for war, even when she had most perfect peace with all men. {a} Speers foreseen are dintless.

{a} Camden’s Elis., fol. 164.

Ver. 15. Smote them, and pursued them.] Abram came upon them as they were, -secure, sleepy, and drunken, as Josephus writeth. So did David upon the Amalekites, {#1Sa 30:16} and Ahab the Syrians. {#1Ki 20:16} The division of his company, and taking benefit of the night, teacheth the use of godly policies and stratagems.

Ver. 16. And he brought back all the goods.] The five kings were deprived of the whole victory, because they sparest not a man whom they should have spared. One act of injustice oft loseth much that was justly gotten. Beware, saith a reverend writer hereupon, {a} of swallowing ill-gotten wealth; it hath a poisonful operation; and, like some evil simple in the stomach, will bring up the good food together with the evil humours.

And also brought again his brother Lot.] Many a crooked nature would have thought of the old jar, and let Lot taste of the fruits of his departure. In a friend’s distress, let former faults be forgotten, and all possible helps afforded.

And the women also, and the people.] The hope of this might haply move that officious messenger to address himself to the old Hebrew, {#Ge 14:13} little set by, till now that they were in distress. General Vere told the King of Denmark that kings cared not for soldiers (no more did the king of Sodom for Abram, and his soldiers) until such time as the crowns hang on the one side of their heads. {b}

{a} Mr Whateley’s Archetypes.

{b} Spec. Belli Sacri, 253.

Ver. 17. The king’s dale.] So called here by way of anticipation. {#2Sa 18:18}

Ver. 18. Melehizedek king of Salem.] Who this Melchizedek was is much controverted. Some would have him to be the Holy Ghost. Others, the Lord Christ in the habit of a king and priest. The Jerusalem Targum saith, Hu Shem Rabba: this was Shem the Great. And of the same opinion are not a few of the Hebrew doctors, and others. But what should Shem do in Canaan; which country fell not to him, but to his brother Ham? To this they answer—That by the instinct of the Holy Ghost, he left his own posterity now fallen away, for most part, to idolatry, and came to the land of Canaan, a type of heaven, and the place from whence peace and salvation should be preached to all people. If this were so, it might very well be that Amraphel, who was of Shem’s lineage, and his fellow-soldiers, moved with reverence of this their great-grandfather Shem, might forbear to molest him at Salem, or invade his territories, when they wasted and smote all the neighbour nations. {a} But then, on the other side, if Melchizedek were Shem, 1. Why doth not Moses call him so, but change his name? 2. Why did not Abram, dwelling so near, visit him all this while, that was so near allied to him, and so highly respected by him, as it was meet? 3. Why did Melchizedek, the grandfather, take tithes of his nephew, to whom he should rather have given gifts and legacies? {#2Co 12:14} Most likely, Melchizedek was a Canaanite of the Canaanites; yet a most righteous king and priest of the most High God, and so a pledge and firstfruits of the calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge and obedience of Jesus Christ, of whom he was a lively type. {#Heb 7:2}

Brought forth bread and wine.] This he did as a king; as a priest he blessed Abram; which latter therefore the apostle pitcheth upon, {#Heb 7:1} as being to treat of Christ’s priesthood. The Papists think to find footing here for their unbloody sacrifice in the Mass. Melchizedek, say they, as a priest offered bread and wine to God; for he was a priest of the living God. So they render it, or rather wrest this text, to make it speak what it never meant. Cadem Scripturarum faciunt ad materiam suam , they murder the Scriptures to serve their own purposes, saith Tertullian. {b} Where can they show us in all the Book of God, that the Hebrew word Hotsi here used, signifieth to offer? But anything serves turn that hath but a show of what they allege it for. A Sorbonist finding it written at the end of St Paul’s Epistles, Missa est, &c., bragged he had found the Mass in his Bible! So another reading #Joh 1:41, " Invenimus Messiam ," made the same conclusion, {c} A third, no whit wiser than the two former, speaking of these words I now write upon, Rex Salem panem et vinum protulit, fell into a large discourse of the nature of salt! {d} Agreeable whereunto Dr Poynes {e} writes, that it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Protestants were a malignant Church, alleging #2Ch 24:19 Mittebatque Prophetas, ut reverterentur ad Dominum, quos Protestantes illi audire nolebant.

{a} Dr Prideaux Lect. de Melchls., p. 95.

{b} Tert. de Proescrip. advers. Haeret.

{c} Beehive of Rom. Church, chap. iii. fol. 93.

{d} Melancthon. Orat. de encom, eloquentiae.

{e} Pref. to his Book of the Sacraments.

Ver. 19. And he blessed him.] Lo, here an instance of the communion of saints: Melchizedek doth all good offices to Abram (a believer, though a stranger), not of courtesy only and humanity, but of charity and piety.

Ver. 20. And he gave him tithes of all.] Not of the Sodomites’ goods, which he restored wholly, {#Ge 14:23} but of the other lawful spoil he had taken from the four conquered kings; in testimony of his thankfulness to God, the giver of all victory.

Ver. 21. And the king of Sodom said.] He that a few days since faced the heavens, and cared not for four kings, can now become suppliant to a forlorn foreigner. Affliction will tame and take down the proudest spirits; they buckle in adversity that bore their heads on high in prosperity. "In their month you may find these wild asses." {#Jer 2:24}

Give me the persons.] Abram did so, and yet they were no whit amended by their late captivity, or former servitude; from both which now they are freed by Abram, but still held captive by the devil, who owes them yet a further spite, as we shall see, #Ge 19.

Ver. 22. I have lifted up my hand.] A swearing gesture. {#Da 12:7 Re 10:5,6} Neither doth he this rashly, but for very good reason first, that by this oath, as by a buckler, he might fence himself against all covetous desires of the spoil; secondly, to show that he did seriously remit of that which was his right, and went not to war for wages; thirdly, hereby to profess his faith and religion in opposition to their superstitious vanities, &c.

The possessor of heaven and earth.] The true and rightful proprietary, whose tenants-at-pleasure we all are, as Philo from this text well observeth. And here take notice how Melchizedek and Abram concur in the very terms of professing their faith, "The most high God, possessor of heaven and earth." Whereunto Abram adds "Jehovah," by which name Melchizedek haply knew not God as yet; like as Apollos was ignorant of many needful truths, till better instructed by Aquila and Priscilla. {#Ac 18:26}

Ver. 23. That I will not take from a thread.] Melchizedek, from God, had made Abram heir of all things; for, saith he, I am the priest of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, who hath sent me with this bread and wine, as by turf and twig, as by an earnest and a little for the whole, to give thee possession of both. Now, therefore, when the king of Sodom presently after offers him the goods he had taken, Abram would none; he was grown too great to accept of such an offer; God was his "exceeding great reward". {#Ge 15:1} Aquila non captat muscas .

Lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abram rich.] Occasion must not be given to any to speak the least evil of us, lest Christ be dishonoured: for every Christian quartereth arms with Christ. And if Abram do anything unbeseeming himself, Abram’s God shall be blasphemed at Sodom.

Ver. 24. Let them take their portion.] In things indifferent, we may abridge ourselves; we may not prescribe to others, as if they must needs be just of our make. "My brethren, be not many masters," {#Jas 3:1} as Magistri nostri parisienses . See #1Co 9:14,15.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. Fear not, Abram.] Either as Daniel feared upon sight of a like vision; {#Da 10:7,8} or as Jacob feared after the sack of Shechem, lest he should be set upon by those whom he had lately discomfited. Or, fear not lest thou shalt die childless; which seemeth to be that which chiefly affrighted and afflicted him at this time. The heart is not in case to receive promises till freed of false fears. These are quelled and killed by faith only.

I am thy shield.] From the envy of thy neighbours, and enmity of others, whom thou hast lately vanquished: yea, I will deliver thee from all danger, as I have done from this. See a like promise to all believers, #Ps 115:9-11. The shield is between the body and the thrust; so is God between his and harm. He "beareth them as on eagles’ wings". {#De 32:11} The eagle fleeth with her young on her back; {a} there is no shooting them but through her body. No more can any devoratory evil, as Tertullian’s phrase is, befall the saints, but through God.

And thy exceeding great reward.] So that thou shalt lose nothing by refusing the king of Sodom’s offer. God is a liberal paymaster, and his retributions are more than bountiful. A hundredfold here, and heaven hereafter. {#Mt 19:29} Not only Caleb shall have Hebron for his valour, but Nebuchadnezzar shall have Egypt as his pay for his pains at Tyre. Never ask with Peter, What shall we have? {#Mt 19:27} You shall have whatever heart can wish, or need require. The world gives hard wages; but God’s reward is exceeding great. He will also recompense our losses for his sake, as the king of Poland did his noble servant Zelilaus; having lost his hand in his wars, he sent him a golden hand for it: so Gaius gave Agrippa, that had been imprisoned for his sake, a chain of gold as heavy as his chain of iron had been. {b}

{a} Aquilae pullos suos in alis portant; alites reliqui inter pedes .— Munster, in Scho. ex Rab. Salom.

{b} Cromerus.

Ver. 2. Lord God, what wilt thou give me, &c.] Dominator Iehovah. Adonai cum Camets sonat Dominator . A stately style. We must magnify God when we have got him into our hearts, and enlarge his room there when we conceive of him, as much as may be: do our utmost, and then say, Claudicat ingenium, delirat linguaque, mensque .{ a}

Seeing I go childless.] He had no great joy of his former victory, or the present promise, because childless. His mouth was so out of taste with the sense of his want that he could relish no comfort. This was his fault, and is often ours: like children, if we have not that piece we would have, we grow sullen, and will have none. Had not God been to Abram instead of ten children? Is he not all in all to his?

And the steward of my house.] Filius discursitationis, vel derelictionis domus meae . He that now runs about my business, and to whom I am likely to leave all. A faithful steward he was, and fearing God, {#Ge 24:2,3, &c.} and therefore might look not to live long in a low place. {#Pr 22:29}

This Eliezer of Damascus.] Or Eliazar, as #Ex 6:25. Whence Lazarus, said in the parable to be in Abraham’s bosom, {#Lu 16:23} as dear to him, and set next him in heaven.

{a} Lucret.

Ver. 3. And Abram said, Behold, to me, &c.] He harps again upon the same string; when we fall upon crosses we add, we multiply, we rise in our discourse, we are eloquent above measure, and beyond truth sometimes. But how comes Abram to speak thus to God once and again? In former visions God only spake, here Abram answers. It appears he grew in a holy familiarity with the divine Majesty, and a humble boldness, as Cajetan here observeth.

Ver. 4. And, behold, the word of the Lord, &c.] Abram’s "Behold" of grief, is answered with God’s "Behold" of grace. The Greek rendereth it, "And straightway." God was straight at hand to help Abram’s infirmity, and to raise up his faith that began to flag and hang the wing, as the best faith will, if long put to it. Adeo nihil est in nobis magni, quod non queat minui .

Ver. 5. And he brought him forth abroad.] Abram having prayed a good part of the day within, is now drawn forth at night to receive the promise. Pray that ye may joy, saith Christ: {#Joh 16:24} and, if ye will "rejoice evermore," "Pray without ceasing," saith the apostle. {#1Th 5:16,17}

If thou be able to number them.] Then mayest thou number thy posterity; and they, their privileges. It is God only that "telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names". {#Ps 147:4} No man can number them. {#Jer 33:22} And yet Aratus and Eudoxus vainly vaunted, saith St Augustine, {a} that they had cast up the stars, and could call them all by their names.

{a} Aug. De Civ. Dei., lib. xvi.

Ver 6. And he believed.] When thus the promise was repeated. So needful it is, that the word should be often preached, and the sweet promises of the gospel beaten to the smell; that God’s "name being as an ointment poured out, the virgins may love him," {#So 1:3} believe in him, and "rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." {#1Pe 1:8}

And he counted it to him for righteousness.] This imputative righteousness the Papists scoff at, calling it putative, or imaginary. This the Jews also jeer at to this day; as their fathers did of old, {#Ro 10:2,3} so do they. For being asked whether they believe to be saved by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, they answer, that every fox must pay his own skin to the finger. But is not Christ called in their law, "Jehovah our righteousness?" {#Jer 23:6} And how so, but by means of that imputation so often hammered on by the apostle? {#Ro 4} adding after all, that what is said here of Abram, "is not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus," &c. {#Ro 4:24} If Adam’s sin be mine, though I committed it not; why should it seem so strange, that the merit of Christ’s entire obedience should by the like means be mine, though I wrought it not? See #Ro 5:19 2Co 5:19. "If he hath wronged thee aught, reckon that to me," said Paul to Philemon, concerning Onesimus; {#Phm 1:18} saith Christ to his Father concerning us. And—to stop the Papists’ mouth—if another man’s faith may benefit infants at their baptism, as Bellarmine affirmeth; why should it seem so absurd that believers should be benefited by Christ’s righteousness imputed?

Ver. 7. I am the Lord that brought thee.] Let the remembrance of what I have done for thee confirm thy confidence, since every former mercy is a pledge of a future. God giveth after he hath given, as the spring runneth after it hath run. And as the eye is not weary of seeing, nor the ear of hearing, no more is God of doing good to his people. "Draw out thy lovingkindness," saith David, {#Ps 36:10, marg.} as a continued series or chain, where one link draws on another to the utmost length.

Ver. 8. Lord God, whereby shall I know?] He desires a sign, not that he believed not before, but that he might better believe. How great is God’s love in giving us sacraments, and therein to make himself to us visible, as well as audible

Ver. 9. Take me a heifer, &c.] Here God commands him a busy sacrifice, and then casts him into a terrible sleep; the better to prepare him to receive the ensuing oracle, and to teach him that he may not rashly rush upon divine mysteries. Heathens could say, Non loquendum de Deo absque lumine ;{ a} that is, without premeditation and advised consideration.

{a} Pythagoras

Ver. 10. Divided them in the midst.] In signum exitii foedifrago eventuri . This was the federal rite both among Jews {#Jer 34:18,19} and Gentiles, as it is to be seen in Virgil, {a} describing the covevant of Romulus and Tatius. God also threateneth to cut the evil servant in twain (διχοτομησει) that forgetteth the covenant of his God. {#Mt 24:51} These dissected creatures are the oppressed Israelites; the parts laid each against other signify, that God will make them up again, though dissected; the fowls that came down upon them, are the Egyptians; Abram’s chasing them away, is their deliverance by Moses after four hundred years, signified by those four kinds of creatures, as Luther interpreteth.

{a} Aeneid., lib. viii.

Ver. 11. Abram drove them away.] So must we do evil motions and distractive thoughts in holy duties, which else will muster and swarm in our hearts like the flies of Egypt; pestering us worse than the fly in Albertus Magnus, that was ever hankering after the bald head; though he flapt it off again and again, he could not be rid of it.

Ver. 12. And when the sun was going down] Heb., When he was ready to enter, to wit, into his "bride chamber". {#Ps 19:6}

Ver. 13. Know of a surety, that thy seed.] Must first suffer, before they can enter; and so be conformed to Christ their Captain, who was "perfected by sufferings," {#Heb 2:10} and came not to the Crown but by the Cross. Difficile est ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur et futuris; ut hic ventrem, illic mentem reficiat, ut de deliciis ad delicias transeat; ut in coelo et in terra gloriosus appareat , saith St Jerome. Through many tribulations we must enter into heaven. He that will go any other way, let him (as the emperor said to the heretic) erect a ladder, and go up alone {a}

{a} Erigito tibi scalam, et solus ascendito. -Const. Mag.

Ver. 14. Afterward shall they come out, &c.] All the saints’ abasements are but in order to their advancement. As God brought forth his Israel with jewels, and other wealth; so the "afflicted" Church, and "tossed with tempest," shall build her walls and "lay her foundations with sapphires and agates". {#Isa 54:11,12} See #Isa 62:3,4.

Ver. 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers.] The "spirits of just men made perfect"; all the court of heaven shall meet thee, and welcome thee into their society. That brave Panegyris, #Heb 12:22,23.

In peace.] So Josiah did, according to the promise, though he died in battle. {#2Ch 34:28} God made war to be peace to him. {a}

In a good old age.] Heb., With a good hoar head, which is "a crown," when "found in the way of righteousness". {#Pr 16:31}

{a} Bellum, cui nos instamus, pax est, non bellum. -Zuingl. apud Melch. Adam.

Ver. 16. The iniquity of the Amorites, &c.] A metaphor from a large vessel filled by drops; as elsewhere, from a harvest ready for the sickle, and from the vine ripe for the winepress. Pererius the Jesuit, writing upon this text, saith, If any marvel why England continueth to flourish, notwithstanding the cruel persecution of Catholics there (just execution of Catholics he should have said); I answer, Because their sin is not yet full. God grant it! {#Jer 28:6} Sed veniet tandem iniquitatis complementum , saith he. A true prophet, I fear me. That terrible text rings in mine ears, "An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold it is come, it is come." {#Eze 7:6}

Ver. 17. A smoking furnace, and a burning lamp.] Figuring out either God (who is a consuming fire) cutting covenant, {#Ge 15:10} per condescensum ; or else, the furnace of Israel’s affliction, and then the lamp of their salvation.

Ver. 18. From the river of Egypt.] Sihor. {#Jer 2:18} This was fulfilled in Solomon’s, and especially in Christ’s kingdom.

Ver. 19-21. The Kenites, and the Kenezzites.] R. Salomon noteth, that whereas ten nations are here reckoned up, seven only were given to the Israelites. He addeth also, that the Kenites, Kenezzites, and Cadmonims were the same with the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, all which were at length to be possessed by the Israelites.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bare him no children.] God had foretold him of his children’s affliction, and yet gave him no child, but holds him still in suspense. He knows how to commend his favours to us by withholding them, Cito data cito vilescunt ; we account it scarce worth taking, that is not twice worth asking.

A handmaid, an Egyptian.] One of those maids, belike, that were given her in Egypt. {#Ge 12:16}

Ver. 2. The Lord hath restrained me.] She faults herself, not her husband, as many a cranky dame would have done.

It may be that I may obtain children by her.] Heb., Be builded by her; as God "made the midwives’ houses," that is, gave them children, for their mercy to the poor children, and {#Ex 1:21} as he promised to make David a house, {#2Sa 7:11,12} that is, to give him seed to sit upon his throne. Sarai’s aim was good here, but the means she used naught. She was too hasty; Abram too facile; both to blame, for want of faith, and violation of wedlock. Albeit this might be a sin of ignorance in them, as was also polygamy. God had promised a seed to Abram, but not expressly as yet unto Sarai. Now, by the law, {a} bondservants’ children were their master’s. {#Ex 21:4} And among the heathens, Stratonice, the wife of King Diotarus, being barren, gave secretly her maid Electra unto her husband, by whom she had an heir to the crown. {b}

{a} Ainsworth.

{b} Plutarch.

Ver. 3. After Abram had dwelt ten years.] The Rabbis tell us of a tradition that the Hebrews grounded from hence, that if a woman had no child in the first ten years, she might be held barren, and another wife taken. But this is like one of their ill glosses that marred so many good texts, and refuted by our Saviour the Lawgiver, who best understood his own meaning. {#Mt 5:31,32}

Ver. 4. Her mistress was despised in her eyes.] Heb., Allevata est, sive elevata est :and so she was beaten with her own rod, and yet complains. Neither is it any wonder; for, "for three things the earth is disquieted," saith Agur, and two of them are, "for an odious woman when she is married, and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress". {#Pr 30:21,23} Asperius nihil est humili dum surgit in altum . Set a beggar on horseback, and there’s no hoe with him.

Ver. 5. My wrong be upon thee.] The greatest wrong doers are the greatest complainers commonly; {as #Ex 2:13,14} guiltiness is ever exceptious and clamorous. Here be verba stomachantis atque imprecantis . Or, as some think rather, verba implorantis vindictam divinam seque consolantis spe defensionis divinae . Take it which way you will, as a passionate person, she "pours out foolishness," {#Pr 15:2} and (besides the false charge she lays upon her husband) takes God’s name in vain. "Fret not thyself to do evil". {#Ps 37:8}

The Lord judge.] He must not be sent for all in haste, to decide the controversy; who, if he had come, you may soon see which of them would have had the worst of it. The best, we see, have their domestic contentions; some household words will now and then pass between them: we match not with angels, but men and women. Two flints may as soon smite together, and not fire come forth, as two persons meet in marriage and not offences fall out. Publius Rubius Celer was held a happy man among the Romans, that commanded it to be engraven upon his gravestone, that he had lived three and forty years and eight months with C. Eunia, his wife, sine querela , without the least quarrel. Another I have read of, that complained that his coniugium marriage was a continual coniurgium quarrel; and when he died, gave order it should be written upon his tomb, Heus, Viator, miraculum! hic vir et uxor non litigant ,& c. {a} This to prevent, Alphonsus, king of Arragon, was wont to say, that to procure a quiet life, the husband must be deaf and the wife blind. But they say better that advise to a mutual forbearance, that no offence be given on either side, or, if given, yet not taken. The second blow makes the fray, we say. Be not both incensed together. If Abram were to blame in conniving at Hagar’s contempt of her mistress (as it may be he was somewhat), yet it was his wisdom to bear with Sarai when she was in her passion. Let two fires meet, and it will be hard quenching them. A choleric couple being asked how they agreed so well, the husband made this answer, "When my wife’s fit is on her, I bear with her, as Abram did with Sarai, and when my fit is on me, she bears with me, and so we never chide together, but asunder." {b} Those unkind husbands had much to answer for that caused their wives to "cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and with crying out, so that he regarded not the offering any more". {#Mal 2:13} And those wives can never answer it to God that live customarily in the sin of frowardness or rebellion against their husbands. Among all the infirmities noted in any godly woman in the Scriptures, there is no example of any that did so. This of Sarai is but of one only fact: and for that of Zipporah, {#Ex 4:26} the error seems to be as much in her judgment as in her affections. Those couples that are ever warbling can neither be at peace within themselves, {#1Co 7:15} nor pray as they should do to God, {#1Pe 3:7} which, if they did often, as Isaac and Rebecca did, they could not disagree. For either praying together would make them leave jarring, or jarring will make them leave praying, which the apostle accounts no small hindrance.

{a} Legitur id Romae citante Phil. Camerar., cent. i. cap. 51

{b} Greenham.

Ver. 6. But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, &c.] Here that of Solomon is verified, "A soft answer pacifieth wrath". {#Pr 15:1} Hard to soft cloth no hurt, as a bullet against a woolsack. Uxoris vitium aut tollendum, aut tollerandum , said Varro, πασα γυνη χολος εστι {a} The woman is the weaker, and hath many provocations among children and servants that the man meets not with. This must be considered, and all bitterness abandoned. The heathens, when they sacrificed at their marriage feasts, used to cast the gall of the beast sacrificed out of doors. {b} Vipera virus, ob venerationem nuptiarum, evomit , saith St Basil, et tu duritiem animi, tu feritatem, tu crudelitatem ob unionis reverentiam non deponis ? What kin art thou to him, whose name is Wormwood? {#Re 8:11}

And when Sarai dealt hardly with her.] Beat her, belike; for "a servant will not be corrected by words," {#Pr 29:19} and then he must have blows, and be "buffeted". {#1Pe 2:20} Not so a wife. M. Aurelius, the emperor, though a heathen, could say to the shame of many bedlams among us: Uxor admonenda persaepe, reprehendenda raro, violentis manibus tractanda nunquam.

She fled.] This was her fault. {#Ec 10:4} But our natures are refractory, and will sooner break than bend, till God subdue them.

{a} Gellius.

{b} Plutarch. Proecep. Conjug., Basil. Hexemer., hom. vii.

Ver. 7. In the way to Shur.] Which lay between Canaan and Egypt. So she was fleeing homewards to her own country. Oh that our afflictions might drive us heavenward!

Ver. 8. Hagar, Sarai’s maid.] This was a good item to her, that she was out of her way, because out of her place.

Whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou?] Such is the sweet and secret voice of God’s Spirit, that angelus tutelaris , as I may say, in our hearts, when extravagant, so that we cannot do the evil we would. {#Ga 5:17}

I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarai.] Who haply had overdone, as we are all apt to do, when we are judges in our own causes and concernments. She should have thought of that of Job, {#Job 31:15} "Did not he that made me in the womb make" her? and that of Paul, Have not I also "a Master in heaven"? {#Col 4:1} But passion is headlong, and, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion, rest not till they come to the bottom. Look to it, therefore, in corrections especially.

Ver. 9. Return to thy mistress.] When now she had smarted, she is in case to be counselled. There is great skill in the choice of a fit time for admonition. It is not to give a man a purge in a fever-fit.

Submit thyself.] Heb., Afflict thyself, or suffer thyself to be afflicted or humbled under her hands. The like counsel is given us all by St James, "Be afflicted, and weep, and mourn," &c, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will lift you up" {#Jas 4:9,10}

Ver. 10. I will multiply thy seed.] Thus God contemneth not poor servants; nay, if they be faithful, he will give them "the reward of inheritance," {#Col 3:24} even a child’s part, as Hagar and her child had. We read not that she cried to God; but her affliction spake for her; and he is oft—out of his mere "philanthropy"—"found {#Tit 3:4} of them that sought him not". {#Ro 10:20} He heareth "the young ravens, that cry to him" only by way of implication. {#Ps 147:9} "The Lord hath heard thy affliction," saith the angel in the next verse.

Ver. 11. Thou art with child.] Lyra rendereth it (but not well), Thou shalt conceive. Burgensis saith, Lyra hic delirat ; and Matthias Doring (his Hyperaspistes, but an illiterate dunce) {a} saith as good as nothing in his defence; indignus sane qui nominetur , saith Steuchus of him, ob universam U. T. Scripturam foedissima barbarie conspurcatam :he is not fit to be once named for the sorry notes he hath set upon the whole Old Testament.

{a} Steuch. ad Gen. xxxvii.

Ver. 12. And he will be a wild man.] Heb., A wild ass, which is fierce, untractable, and untameable. And such by nature is every mother’s child of us, {#Job 11:12} "a wild ass’s colt." An ass is none of the wisest of creatures, much less an ass’s colt; least of all, a wild ass’s colt. Lo, such is man.

His hand will be against every man.] This was first accomplished in his person, and then in his posterity. For himself, he was ferus et pugnax , ever quarrelling and contending. {a} Now a quarrelsome man is like a cock of the game, that is still bloody with the blood of others, and of himself. As for his posterity the Saracens, Mohammed, the mischief of mankind, had his generation from this wild ass. And Sarai was utterly disappointed; for these Agarens were ever enemies, and so continue to be to her seed.

{a} Figimus, inque vicem praebemus tela sagittis .

Ver. 13. Thou God seest me.] This shows she had been well trained and tutored in her master Abram’s house. Before, she told the angel the plain truth, and lied not. {#Ge 16:8} And here she thankfully acknowledgeth God’s goodness in looking upon her forlorn solitariness, setting up a memorial of that mercy to all posterity. The greater was her sin again, that being so well principled, she should have any thoughts of returning to Egypt, there to forsake her faith learned in Abram’s family.

Have I also here looked, &c.,] q.d., Have I found God here also in the wilderness, as I had done oft before in my master’s house? Or, am I yet alive, though I have seen God? {#Ge 32:30 Ex 24:11 Jud 13:23}

Ver. 14. Beer-lahai-roi,] i.e., "The well of him that liveth and seeth me," that is, of the living God, who hath seen to my safety. So rich men are "charged" to "trust not in uncertain riches, but in God," who both "liveth" and "giveth". {#1Ti 6:17}

Ver. 15. Ishmael.] A good name, had he made good use of it, and a great name still among the Persians.

Chapter 17

Ver. 1. The Lord appeared to Abram.] After thirteen years’ absence and silence, far aught we read; so that Abram began to conclude, that Ishmael surely was the promised seed, and all the sons he was likely to have to inherit the land. The Church then may err, when she cleaves not close to the word; though God at length will direct her into the right way, as here he did Abram.

I am God Almighty.] Or all-sufficient, self-sufficient (so Aquila), {a} independent, absolute, the original, universal good. Aben-Ezra interprets Shaddai, a conqueror: others, a destroyer, which a conqueror must needs be. Eundem victorem et vastatorem esse oportet , saith Cameron. And to this the Scripture alludes when it saith Shod shall come from Shaddai, "Destruction from the Almighty". {#Isa 13:6} Some there are that derive Shaddai of Shad a dug, because God feeds his children with sufficiency of all good things, as the loving mother doth the child with the milk of her breasts. Hence the heathen called Diana (and likewise Ceres) πολυμαθον and Mammosam, as if she were the nurse of all living creatures. God is the only satisfactory good, proportionable and fitting to our souls, as the dug to the child’s stomach.

Walk before me.] Heb., Indesinenter ambula , Walk constantly, step for step, and keep pace with me. Austin would not, for the gain of a million of worlds, be an athiest for half an hour, because he knew not but God might in that time make an end of him. For "can two walk together and they not agreed?" saith the prophet. {#Am 3:3} "Ye cannot serve the Lord," saith Joshua to the people that promised fair, {#Jos 24:19} that is, unless ye will serve him entirely, walk uprightly, as Abram here; walk evenly, without halting or halving with him. Holiness must run through the whole life, as the warp doth through the woof: all the parts of our line of life must be straight before God. "As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity," with openly profane persons, when "peace shall be upon Israel," {#Ps 125:5} upon all that are "Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile". {#Joh 1:27 Ps 32:2} Surely, as an unequal pulse shows a distempered body, so doth uneven walking an unsound soul, -such as is not verily persuaded that God is all-sufficient, able, and ready to reward the upright, and punish the hypocrite.

{a} Αυταπκης Ικανος.—Aquila. Ανενδεης.—Plato

Ver. 2. And I will make my covenant.] This is now the fifth confirmation of the Covenant; which shows that it is the alpha and omega, the first, second, and third of our salvation; and it is fit we should be well studied in it, and assured of our interest. For as the mercy seat was no larger than the ark, {#Ex 25:10-17} so neither is the grace of God than the covenant. And as the ark and mercy seat were never separated; so neither is his mercy from his people.

Ver. 3. And Abram fell on his face.] It was fit he should, now that God talked with him. Such a posture of body befits us at the hearing of the word, as may best express our reverence, and further our attention. Balak is bid to rise up to hear Balaam’s parable. {#Nu 23:18} Eglon, though a fat unwieldy man, riseth up from his seat to hear God’s message from Ehud. {#Jud 3:20} The people in Nehemiah "stood up" {#Ne 8:5} to hear the law read and expounded. Constantine the Great would not be entreated to sit down or be covered at a sermon: {a} no more would our Edward VI, whose custom was also to take notes of what he heard, which (together with his own applications of the word to himself) he wrote in Greek characters, that his servants might not read them. {b} The Thessalonians are commended for this, that they heard Paul’s preaching "as the word of God, and not of man". {#1Th 2:13} Had Samuel thought it had been God that called to him (and not Eli), he would not have slept, but fallen on his face before the Lord, as Abram here, who was no novice, but knew well that though God loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in his word and judgments.

{a} Eusebius.

{b} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 4. As for me.] Ego ecce . An abrupt speech, to show what haste God made to comfort and confirm Abram, now fallen at his feet.

Thou shalt be a father of many nations.] The Israelites, Ishmaelites, Edomites, Keturites, &c., besides all believers. {#Ga 3:28,29}

Ver. 5. Neither shall thy name any more, &c.] This is reckoned for a high favour by those holy Levites. {#Ne 9:7} The Jews say, that for honour’s sake, God inserted one of the letters of his own incommunicable name Jehovah into the name of Abram, now Abraham. Sure it is, that by styling himself "the God of Abraham," he doth him more honour, than if he had engraven the word Abraham upon the firmament, or in the clouds in letters of gold.

Ver. 6. I will make thee exceeding fruitful.] Heb., Foecundabo te valde valde :and as oft as thou thinkest upon thy new name, thou shalt remember my promise, and rest assured of my performance. See how God, of his grace, condescends unto us, and accommodates us.

Ver. 7. For an everlasting covenant.] Circumcision, the outward sign of it, was temporary, and changeable into baptism; but the covenant of grace, thereby then, and by baptism now, sealed up unto us, is eternal; being established and ratified. by the death of the Testator, "by the blood of the Arch-shepherd". {#Heb 13:20} Here it must be considered {a} that there is a twofold covenant: 1. Single; such as God makes with children, when baptized; viz., if you will repent, believe, and walk with me, ye shall be saved. Now, if they break the condition, God is freed, he it not bound any further. 2. Double; such as God makes with his elect only; and that is to perform both parts, sc., if you will believe, repent, obey, ye shall be saved: and further, I will give you a new heart, so that you shall repent, believe, &c., and be saved. Thus God undertakes for both parts, and so it becomes an everlasting covenant, such as hath the "sure" or unfailable "mercies of David" {b} {#Isa 55:3} And here those, that are in double covenant with God, are fitly compared to them that are gone in at a church door: some are farther in than others, but yet all are in. So, though the weak in faith be not so forward, yet they may be in, though not so far in.

And to thy seed after thee.] {See Trapp on "Ge 17:8"}

{a} Dr Preston Of God’s Attributes

{b} Τα οσια του Δαβιδ

Ver. 8. All the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.] And yet now, for their inexpiable guilt, in putting to death the Lord of life, they are utterly dispossessed of that pleasant land. In Jerusalem itself there are not to be found a hundred households of Jews. {a} Adrian the emperor drove them utterly out of Judea, and commanded them by proclamation not so much as to look toward it, from any tower or high mountain. {b} Yea, long before this, the Lord, for their wickedness, counted them but usurpers, and called them "sojourners in that land." {#Eze 20:38 11:15} If men forfeit their privileges, God may, at his pleasure, take the forfeiture, and disprivilege them, as he did Saul, and Judas, who "by transgression fell" from his office, "that he might go to his own place". {#Ac 1:25}

I will be their God.] This is a singular comfort for all believing parents. Their greatest care is for their poor little ones, what they shall do another day: why, cast them upon God, their God as well as thine: for is not tie in covenant with them too? It would be a great stay of mind, if God should say to us for our children, as David said to Mephibosheth, or to Barzillai, of his son Chimham, "Chimham shall go over with me, and will I do to him that which shall seem good unto thee; and whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for, thee," {#2Sa 19:38} Behold, God saith all this, and more to us, when he saith, "I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." I remember a sweet passage of Mr Saunders the martyr in a letter to his wife: "Though we do shortly depart hence, and leave our poor infant, to our seeming, at all adventures, yet shall he have our gracious God to be his God: for so hath he said—and he cannot lie; -‘I will be thy God, and of thy seed.’ Yea, if you leave him in the wilderness, destitute of all helps, being called of God to do his will, either to die for the confession of Christ, or any work of obedience; that God, which heard the cry of the little poor infant of Hagar, and did succour it, will do the like to the children of you, or any other fearing him, and trusting in him." {c}

{a} Brerewood.

{b} Funccius.

{c} Act. and Mon., fol. 1364

Ver. 9. Thou shalt keep my covenant.] This is the stipulation on Abraham’s part, by receiving the sacrament of circumcision, to "avouch God to be his God". {#De 26:17} Now to the making the Lord to be our God, it is required, that with highest estimations, most vigorous affections, and utmost endeavours we bestow ourselves upon him. Thus, if we choose God for our God, {#Ps 73:25} we shall be assured that he hath chosen and avouched us for his people. {#1Jo 4:19}

Ver. 10. Every man-child among you.] Infants were circumcised to signify that we had better be flayed, and have our skin quite stripped off, than to have it as a skin-bottle hanging in the smoke of filthy desires, and blown full of unclean motions with the breath of Satan. That wretched renegade that betrayed Rhodes was well served. For his promised wife and portion were presented: but the Turk told him that he would not have a Christian to be his son-in-law, but he must be a Mussulman, that is, a believing Turk, within and without. And therefore he caused his baptized skin, as he called it, to be flayed off, and him to be cast in a bed, strewed with salt, that he might get a new skin, and so he should be his son-in-law. But the wicked wretch ended his life with shame and torment. {a}

{a} Spec. Bel. Sac., p. 157.

Ver. 11. It shall be a token of the covenant.] It seals up nothing then to those that are not in covenant. Circumcision to such is but as a seal to a blank. Unregenerate Israel was to God as Ethiopia. {#Am 9:7} Circumcision of itself avails nothing, if the heart be uncircumcised. The apostle distinguisheth of circumcision, {#Col 2:11} and tells us that the true circumcision is "made without hands" (αχειροποιητος), and "is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter". {#Ro 2:29} It is a wonderful work of the Spirit, wrought by the word, upon the saints in their first conversion, whereby corruption of nature is wounded, beloved sins cast away with sorrow, and the sinner received into an everlasting communion with God and his saints. Labour this, or you are not a button the better for your baptism. A man may go to hell with font-water on his face, if not baptized "with the Holy Ghost, and with fire". {#Mt 3:11} Circumcision seals not up any covenant of grace to Turks, as it did not, of old, to Ishmaelites, Edomites, and Midianites, who yet would needs be circumcised.

Ver. 12. And he that is eight days old.] This warrants our baptizing of infants of both sexes. {See Trapp on "Ge 9:10"} (Great leap of logic here! Editor.)

Ver. 13. He that is born in thy house.] Householders must see to it, that their families fear God. They walk not "in a perfect way" that do otherwise, {#Ps 101:2} that look not

“Aedibus in propriis, quae prava, aut recta gerantur.”

My covenant shall be in your flesh.] That is, the sign of my covenant (by a metonymy of the subject), seem it never so simple, and prove it never so painful and shameful. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, that cry, Credat Iudaeus Apella ,& c.

Ver. 14. That soul shall be cut off.] From the commonwealth of Israel; so shall those be from benefit by Christ, that are uncircumcised in heart; as hateful to him as Goliath was to David. Pray, therefore, that God will thrust his holy hand into thy bosom, and pull off that abominable foreskin. He had much ado to forbear Moses, when he met him in the inn; and we know why. {#Ex 4:24,25}

Ver. 15. Thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah.] The Chaldee, Sarai, is made Hebrew, Sarah: One of the four letters of Jehovah being also added (as before in Abraham), that she may be, absolutely, a lady or princess.

Ver. 16. Yea, I will bless her.] This is repeated, for the greater comfort of this good old couple, q.d., I will double-bless her, bless her with a witness. Margarita in mari nascitur, verum ex rore coelesti .

Ver. 17. Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed.] Not as doubting, much less deriding, {#Ro 4:19} but as rejoicing and admiring the goodness and power of God. The narrow-mouthed vessel of his heart not quickly capable of so great comfort—for, Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides -he fell upon his face, and laughed.

Ver. 18. Oh that Ishmael might live.] The life of grace here, and of glory hereafter: that he be not "killed with death" when he dies, as Jezebel’s children were. {#Re 2:23}

Ver. 19. I will establish my covenant with him.] This was a far greater favour than that bestowed on Ishmael in the next verse, "Twelve princes shall he beget." Nothing so ennobleth as Christ, graces, being in the covenant, &c. {#Isa 19:25} "Assyria" is "the work of" God’s "hands," but "Israel" his "inheritance."

Ver. 20. And us for Ishmael, I have heard thee.] Faithful prayer may have anything at God’s hands. It is but ask and have, with Abraham. As Zedekiah said to his courtiers glossingly, God saith to his servants seriously, The King can deny you nothing. Let this encourage us to pray for ourselves and children; for by prayer we may take out of God’s treasury, plentiful mercy for ourselves and ours.

Ver. 21. But my covenant.] This is the thirteenth time that the covenant is named in this chapter, saith an interpreter; and hereby is meant the promise of Christ and salvation by him. A subject so sweet to every sanctified soul, that St Paul cannot come off it. He names the Lord Jesus Christ ten times together in ten verses. {#1Co 1:1-10} It was to him Mel in ore, melos in aure, iubilum in corde .{ a}

{a} Bernard.

Ver. 22. And he left off talking with him.] As man with his friend. Such honour have all his saints. Oh, speak it when I am gone, and preach it at my funeral, God dealeth familiarly with man, said that heavenly spark, now ready to be extinct {a} St Paul calls prayer εντευξιν, an entreparlance with God, {#1Ti 2:1} and επερωτημα, the confident interrogatory or rejoinder of a good conscience toward God. {#1Pe 3:21} The Persian monarchs held it a piece of their silly glory to keep themselves from their greatest subjects. {#Es 4:11} And Jupiter’s image at Crete was made without ears. Plutarch gives the reason, Non enim convenit audiri ab eo quenquam, qui omnium rerum sit Dominus atqui princeps . A pretty plea for Baal! He is too great to talk with men. Our God thinks not himself so. He solicits suitors, and loves to be, interchangcably, solicited by them.

{a} Mr. John Holland, B.D. See my True Treas., p. 373.

Ver. 23. Abraham took Ishmael.] To make the other more willing.

Circumcised the flesh.] Not regarding the affliction, danger, scandal, shame of the action in the eyes of the world.

Ver. 24. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine.] Five different times is Abraham’s age exactly noted in Scripture; which showeth how dear the saints are to God; when the wicked are, ουτιδανοι, little set by; men of no account.

Ver. 25. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old.] The Turks’ children are not circumcised till they are ten years old, and then they use great feasting, banqueting, music, and bringing of presents. {a} They say that Abraham loved Ishmael, and not Isaac: and that it was Ishmael whom Abraham would have sacrificed.

{a} The Grand Sign Sereg., pp. 113,191.

Ver. 26. In the self-same day.] To show his prompt and present obedience, without shucking and hucking, without delays and consults.

Ver. 27. All the men of his house.] Faciles se proebent in re ardua et ridicula . An excellent pattern of a well-ordered family.

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. And the Lord appeared unto him.] 1. Ut proeludium incarnationis . 2. Ex philanthropia ;" his delight" is "in the habitable part of" God’s "earth". {#Pr 8:31}

And he sat in the tent-door.] He dwelt in a tent (let us be content, though we dwell not to our minds), yet kept a good house. A very hearty householder he was.

In the heat of the day.] The usual time of rest and repast, when travellers wax faint and hungry.

Ver. 2. And he lift up his eyes and looked.] As "pursuing hospitality" (that is the apostle’s expression, #Ro 12:13), and waiting an opportunity of doing good. Charity is no churl. "The liberal man deviseth liberal things"; {#Isa 32:8} "he considereth the poor and needy". {#Ps 41:1} Praeoccupat vocem petituri , as Augustine expounds it, {a} he stays not till he is asked a good turn; he ministereth to the uses, not only "to the necessities {b} of the saints," as the apostle’s word is, {#Ro 12:13} and as Bishop Hooper’s and Dr Taylor’s practice was. The one had his board of beggars sent for, and served every day with whole and wholesome meats, ere himself sat down to dinner. And the other went once a fortnight at the least, to the almshouse, and other poor men that had, many children, and were sick, to see what they lacked, and to supply them. {c}

And bowed himself toward the ground.] Piety is no enemy to courtesy; it doth not remove but rectify it, that it be not only complimental and ridiculous. Potest Augur Augurem videre et non ridere? {d} So it may be said of our common cringers.

{a} Aug. in Psalm ciii.

{b} ταις χρειαις Usibus, non necessitatibus. Nequis existimet prius non succurrendum proximo quam ad necessitatem sit redactus.

{c} Act. and Mon., fol. 1369, 1388.

{d} Cicero.

Ver. 3. My Lord.] He directs his speech to one of them, in whom appeared to be most majesty; and whom he afterwards knew to be the Lord by an excellency.

Ver. 4. And wash your feet.] Fouled with going barefoot; as in these parts men used to do, because of the great heat.

Ver. 5. For therefore are ye come to your servant.] He meaneth not, that they therefore came to him to taste of his cheer; but that God, by his providence, had so ordered that he should see them passing, and invite them to his house. How glad was this good man of an occasion to show kindness, acknowledging God’s good providence! And how improvident are we for ourselves, that will not offer a sacrifice, when God sets up an altar before us!

So do as thou hast said.] The angels needed not his courtesy, yet kindly accept of it. Good offers or offices, even from inferiors, are not to be rejected, but regarded, yea, rewarded.

Ver. 6. Make ready quickly.] Habent aulae suum cito, cito , saith one. So had Abraham’s house here. He, she, the boy, and all hasted, and had their various offices. The very expression itself here used, is concise and quick; much like that of the prophet in the case of returning to God, "If ye will inquire, inquire; return, come". {#Isa 21:12}

“ Praecipita tempus; mors atra impendet agenti .”— Silius.

Three measures of fine meal.] Three pecks for three man’s dinners; and the best of the best too; fine meal, the fat calf, butter and milk, God’s plenty of all, and hearty welcome; the goodman himself standing by, and bidding them "Come": which shows his humanity, and his humility also.

“ Dat bene, dat multum, qui dat cum munere vultum .”

Ver. 7. And gave it unto a young man.] Here was a well-ordered family; every one knew his office, and did it. In every society, say the politicians, as in a well-tuned harp, the several strings must concur to make up a harmony.

Ver. 8. And they did eat.] The angels, as they assumed human shapes, so they did truly eat, according to the present dispensation of the shape so assumed.

Ver. 9. Behold, in the tent.] David compares a good woman to the vines upon the walls of the house, because she cleaveth to her house. Others to a snail, that carrieth her house on her back. St Paul reckons it for a virtue in a woman to "keep at home"; {#Tit 2:5} and Solomon for a sign of a lewd housewife, that "her feet abide not in her house". {#Pr 7:11} Among the Grecians, the bride was carried through the streets in a chariot, the axle spokes was burnt, to signify that she must keep home.

Ver. 10. According to the time af life.] That is, when this time shall return again; this time twelve month. {See Trapp on "Ge 18:14"}

Sarah heard it in the tent-door.] She was listening out of womanish curiosity. Yet some think, the angel asked for her on purpose, that she hearing her name mentioned might listen.

Ver. 11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old.] So, when we were altogether "without strength," according to the time of life, "Christ died for the ungodly". {#Ro 5:6}

Ver. 12. Sarah laughed.] God’s promises seem absurd and ridiculous, many of them, to human reason, which therefore must be silenced, and shut out, as Hagar was; for it will argue carnally, as that unbelieving lord {#2Ki 7:2} storms at God’s offers, as Naaman at the message {#2Ki 5:11} looks upon God’s Jordan with Syrian eyes, as he, and after all, cries out with Nicodemus, "How can these things be?" {#Joh 3:4} measuring God by its own model; and casting him into its own mould.

After I am waxed old, shall I lust?] Old and cold, is our English proverb; and the Greek word for an old body signifies one in whom natural heat is extinct. {a} It is a most undecent thing to see the pleasure of youth prevailing in times of age, among old decrepit goats. Were it not monstrous to behold green apples on a tree in winter?

My lord being old also?] This was the only good word in the whole sentence: God takes notice of it, and by St Peter records it to her eternal commendation; {#1Pe 3:6} yea, he was so well pleased with her subjection to her husband, whom she here in her heart calleth Lord, that he is content to forgive her great sin of unbelief.

{a} Πρεσβυς, α πυρ et σβεω

Ver. 13. Said to Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh?] The wife’s sin reflects upon the husband. But Solomon shows that some wives are so intemperate and wilful, that a man may as well hide the wind in his fist, or oil in his hand, as restrain them from ill doing. {#Pr 27:15,16} Liberum arbitrium, pro quo tantopere contenditur, viri amiserunt, uxores arripuerunt , saith one {a} wittily.

{a} Heidfeld.

Ver. 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord?] He can do all things possible and honourable. He cannot lie, die, deny himself, for that implieth impotency. "He could do no mighty work" in his own country "because of their unbelief." {#Mr 6:5,6} He could not, because he would not. He can do more than he will, as "of stones raise up" churches, {#Mt 3:9} call for "legions of angels," {#Mt 26:53} create more worlds in an instant. But whatsoever he willeth, that he doeth in heaven and earth, and none can say, what doest thou? "Our God can deliver us". {#Da 3:17} "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean". {#Mt 8:2, &c.}

I will return to thee, according to the time of life.] He returned not personally, that we read of; but virtually he did, by making good his promise at the appointed time. That of Dr Sands, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, is wonderful, and worth relating. He, departing the land for fear of Queen Mary, took his leave of his host and hostess, who was childless, and had been married eight years. When the wind served, as he went toward the ship, he gave his hostess a fine handkerchief, and an old royal of gold in it, thanking her much, and said, Be of good comfort; ere that one whole year be past, God shall give you a child, a boy. And it came to pass, that day twelve months later, lacking one day, God gave her a fair son. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1894.

Ver. 15. I laughed not: for she was afraid.] And well she might; for as everybody hath its shadow, so hath every sin its fear. Her sin she saw was detected, and her conscience she felt was troubled; hence her fear.

Nay, but thou didst laugh.] A lie must be roundly reproved, and the truth asserted. She laughed but within herself, but as good she might have laughed out aloud; for God searcheth the heart. "I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was in my country? {#Jon 4:2} No, Jonah, it was not thy saying, it was only thy thinking: but that is all one before him who understandeth thy thoughts afar off". {#Ps 139:2}

Ver. 16. To bring them on the way.] A special piece of courtesy, and much spoken of in Scripture. {#3Jo 1:6 Ac 20:38 21:5 Ro 15:24 1Co 16:11 Tit 3:13}

Ver. 17. Shall I hide from Abraham?] My bosom friend. He shall be both of God’s court, and his council. His "secret is with them that fear him". {#Ps 25:14} The kings of Israel had some one courtier, called the king’s friend by a specialty, to whom they imparted arcana imperii , state secrets. Such an office had Abraham about God, who calls him "Abraham my friend." See what our Saviour saith to all his, #Joh 15:15. "This honour have all his saints."

Ver. 18, 19. Seeing that Abraham, &c.] God’s first motive here is, from his own antecedent love to Abraham, as the second from his consequent.

Ver. 19. For I know him.] God hath a quick eye to see our good works. He weighs and rewards every circumstance. Christ could tell, that the people had come from far to hear him; that they had fasted three days; that they were in a wilderness, where they could not cater for themselves; that if they should be sent home so, they would faint by the way. {#Joh 6:5-14} What was it that he took not knowledge of? "I know thy works, and thy labour" in doing them. {#Re 2:2}

That he will command his children, &c.] A good householder, whatsoever he gets abroad, he brings home to his family, as bees bring all their honey to the hive. "The lips of the righteous feed many"; {#Pr 10:21} those under his own roof especially. Well fare Popery for that. Old folks will tell us that, when in those days they had holy bread given them at church, they would bear a part thereof to those that did abide at home. The way to get more, is to share what we have, according to that, Habenti dabitur .{ #Lu 8:18} No man hath received aught from God for private use: neither is any one born for himself, much less newborn. He that hid his talent was soon loose it.

Ver. 20. Because their sin is very grievous.] Or, very heavy; such as the very ground groans under; the axle of the earth is ready to break under it. Sin is a burden to God. {#Am 2:13} It was so to Christ; he fell to the ground when he was in his agony. It was so to the angels, who sunk into hell under it. It was so to Korah and his company; the earth could not bear them. It was so to the Sodomites; they were so clogged with this excrement of naughtiness, {a} as St James calleth it, {#Jas 1:21} that God came from heaven to give their land a vomit.

{a} η περισσεια κακιας

Ver 21. I will go down now, and see, &c.] The Sodomites sinned as freely and securely as if God knew nothing. Now therefore he is come to know, that is, to give them to know that he knew all, as well as if he had been in their bosoms.

Ver. 22. Abraham stood yet before the Lord.] And without such to stand and pray, the world could not stand: they bear up the pillars of it. Oh, the price with God, and profit to men, of praying persons! God will yield something to such, when most of all enraged {#Mt 24:20} or resolved. Lot was saved for Abraham’s sake, when all the rest perished.

Ver. 23. And Abraham drew near.] A privilege proper to such as have "a true heart," "full assurance of faith," and "a good conscience". {#Heb 10:22} "The hypocrite shall not come before him" {#Job 13:16} He must stand without as a vagrant at the gate, that knows not whether the master is providing for him an alms, or a cudgel. But the upright comes into the parlour; yea, "dwells in God’s presence," {#Ps 140:13} in the light of his countenance.

Wilt thou also destroy the righteous?] Single suits speed not: we must back them with sound arguments, and reason the case with God concerning his judgments. {#Jer 12:1}

Ver. 24. Peradventure there be fifty righteous.] Charity presumes the best, hopes the best. The disciples could not imagine that Judas was so very a traitor: each one suspects himself sooner than him. And when our Saviour said, "What thou doest do quickly"; they thought he had meant of making provision, or giving something to the poor. {#Joh 13:27-29}

Ver. 25. Shall not the Judge, &c.] He "fills his mouth with arguments". {#Job 23:4} Let us also: this will increase faith and fervency.

Ver. 26. If I find fifty righteous.] The saints are the salt of the earth, that keep the rest from rotting and putrifying.

Ver. 27. Which am but dust and ashes.] Gnaphar veephar , χονις et cinus ; none so humble as they that have nearest communion with God. The angels that stand before him, cover their faces with two wings as with a double scarf. {#Isa 6:2}

Ver. 28. Peradventure, &c.] {See Trapp on "Ge 18:29"} {See Trapp on "Ge 18:30"}

Ver. 29. And he spake unto him yet again.] Cum in colloquium descendimus cum Deo, replicemus licet, duplicemus, triplicemus, et quadruplicemus .{ a} The bolder we make, the better welcome.

{a} Alsted.

Ver. 30. I will not do it, &c.] If God so yielded to Abraham interceding for wicked Sodom, will he not hear us for his labouring Church? Joab never pleased David better, than when he sued to him for Absalom. What shall we think of God in like case? How angry is he with those that "help forward" the anger! {#Zec 1:15} How ready to answer those that speak to him for his Church, "with good words, and comfortable words!" {#Zec 1:13} Yea, should there be no praying Christians among us (as there are many thousands), yet there is hope, if any of another kingdom make intercession for us, as Abraham here did for Sodom, to the which he was a stranger.

Ver. 31. Behold now, I have taken upon me.] {See Trapp on "Ge 18:29"} {See Trapp on "Ge 18:30"}

Ver. 32. Peradventure ten shall be found there.] Lo, all the slavery and misery they had sustained hath not yet made ten good men in those five bad cities. Till God strike the stroke, and work upon the heart, afflictions, God’s hammers, do but beat upon cold iron. The wicked are no whit better by them, but much the worse; as water becomes more cold after a heat, and naughty boys more stubborn and stupid after a whipping.

Ver. 33. And the Lord went his way.] Abraham bargined with the Lord so long, till he had brought him down from fifty to ten: and mark, that he stopped begging ere God stopped lessening. Let us find praying hearts, and he will find a pitying heart.

Chapter 19

Ver. 1. Lot sat in the gate.] Not as a judge (as the Hebrews will have it), nor as a merchant; much less as a noveller; but as a good householder, looking for his herds, and as a good housekeeper, looking for guests.

Ver. 2. Nay, but we will abide in the street.] They would have done so, but for Lot’s importunity. So our Saviour would have gone farther, but that the two disciples constrained him to stay. {#Lu 24:29} This was no simulation; or if so, yet it was only exploratory, without deceit or hypocrisy. And if Solomon sinned not in making believe he would do that which was unlawful to be done, {#1Ki 3:24} it can be no sin to do the like in things indifferent.

Ver. 3. And they did eat.] They made as if they did eat and drink, saith the Hierosolymi-Targum, but not well. {See Trapp on "Ge 18:8"}

Ver. 4. Both old and young.] Nulla aetas erat culpae immunis, ideo nec exitii .— Ambrose. Sin spreads as leaven, and is as catching as the plague; like the Jerusalem artichoke, plant it where you will, it overruns the ground, and chokes the heart.

Ver. 5. That we may know them.] O faces hatched with impudency! They shroud not their sin in a mantle of secrecy, but hang out these sour grapes to the sun to ripen.

Ver. 6. Lot went out.] So he exposed himself, to save his strangers, hoping to save them from that abominable violence. The right of strangers is so holy, that there was scarce ever any nation so barbarous that would violate the same. When Stephen Gardiner had in his power the renowned clerk Peter Martyr, then teaching at Oxford, he would not keep him to punish him; but when he should go his way, as it is reported, gave him wherewith to bear his charges. But these Sodomites had not so much humanity left in them. They had put off the man, and were become dogs and worse. {#De 23:18} Am I a dog? saith Abner; {#2Sa 3:8} that is, so given as dogs be to lust. Lot was the world’s miracle, who kept himself fresh in Sodom’s salt waters.

Ver. 7. Do not so wickedly.] They were the first that fell into this foul sin, and were therefore worthily hanged up in gibbets by God for a terror to others; and besides, they "suffer the vengeance of eternal fire". {#Jude 1:7} The Pope pretends to be Christ’s vicar, and presumes to assume the title of Holiness. But how far he is from expressing God to the world appears by his, if not committing, yet conniving at, this detestable sin of sodomy… God hath delivered up these Papagans (as he did those Pagans, #Ro 1:24) to reprobate sense, to vile affections, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, for that they have worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator. {#Ro 1:24-26} Hence it is that Rome is called Sodom in the Revelation. {#Re 11:8}

Ver. 8. Behold now, I have two daughters.] This was an inconsiderate motion, such as the best minds easily yield, when once troubled, it was proper to the Lord Christ to be subject to natural passions and perturbations, "yet without sin"; as a crystal glass full of clear water remains still pure, howsoever it be shaken. The Hebrews think that for this sinful offering to prostitute his daughters, he was given up by God to commit incest with his daughters.

Ver. 9. Stand back, &c.] They set up the bristles at Lot’s admonition; a sure forerunner of destruction, as in Eli’s sons.

Ver. 10. But the men.] Thus Lot is rescued at a dead lift; that is God’s opportunity, who "knows how to deliver the godly". {#2Pe 2:9}

Ver. 11. With blindness.] Subito scotomate , saith Junius: With blindness both of body and mind, saith Aben Ezra: such as tormented their eyes, as if they had been pricked with thorns, as the Hebrew word signifies. And yet they continue groping for the door, as if they were ambitious of destruction, which now was at next door by. Deus quem destruit dementat . So Pharaoh, when under that palpable three days’ darkness, rageth against God, and threateneth Moses with death. Though doomsday should be tomorrow next, wicked men must and will serve their lusts. Vale lumen amicum , said Theotimus in St Ambrose, who chose rather to lose his sight than his sin.

Ver. 12. Hast thou here any, &c.] It is something for safety, to be Lot’s kinsman. So the Kenites in Saul’s time, receive life from Jethro’s dust, many ages after his death, and favour from his hospitality. {#1Sa 15:6}

Ver. 13. For we will destroy this place.] Even the good angels are God’s executioners. And the first execution they did in the world, that we read of, was upon these filthy Sodomites. So will it be, likely, at the last day. And St Peter seems to say as much. {#2Pe 2:9} The Lord reserves the unjust to the day of judgment, to be punished, "but chiefly them that walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness." Mark that chiefly.

Ver. 14. But he seemed as one that mocked.] Sed fuit habitus tanquam iocabundus . Graceless hearts jeer, when they should fear, and are senseless and secure, as if they were out of the reach of God’s rod, and needed not to fear his wrath. Lot here is counted but a Lob, of his own sons-in-law. {a} Wonder not, if we meet with the same measure.

{a} Ridetur cum suo Iehova: sed risus impiorum est, Sardonius .— Par.

Ver. 15. Lest thou be consumed.] So #Re 18:4. "Come out of her, that ye receive not of her plagues." Musculi ruinis imminentibus praemigrant, et aranei cum telis primi eadunt , saith Pliny. {a} Swine flee home before a storm. Let men hasten out of their natural estate, as Lot was bidden to do out of Sodom: there is the smell of the fire and brimstone upon them.

{a} Plin., lib. viii. cap. 28.

Ver. 16. And while he lingered.] Or distracted himself with much business, {a} which David did not. {#Ps 119:60}

The Lord being merciful unto him.] What is he then to us, in "delivering us from the wrath to come?" {#1Th 1:10} Why save we not ourselves from this untoward generation? {#Ac 2:40} Why see we not his mercy to us in our losses and crosses; his hand laying hold on us, when he takes away that which may hinder us from heaven?

{a} εταραχθησαν.—Septuag.

Ver. 17. Look not behind thee.] As loath to depart. Non minus difficulter a deliciis Sodomorum abstrahimur, quam canis ab uncto corio .

Ver. 18. Oh! not so, my Lord.] But who shall prescribe to the Almighty? Or limit the Holy One of Israel? Are we wiser than he? Have we a trick beyond him? He lets us sometimes have our way, but to our woe at last.

Ver. 19. Behold now, thy servant, &c.] We can receive and commend God’s favours, but be backward enough to obey him.

Ver. 20. Is it not a little one?] Let no man use this plea for his sin. Even the philosopher {a} tells us, that the smallest errors prove many times most dangerous. It is as much treason to coin pence, as bigger pieces.

{a} Αδικηματα ελαχιστα πολλακις μεγιστα—Arist. Rhet., lib. i.

Ver. 21. I will not overthrow this city.] Zoar, of all the five cites, was preserved by Lot’s prayer, saith Jerome. See #De 29:23 Isa 15:5.

Ver. 22. For I cannot do anything.] Not that the execution of the divine decree depended simply upon Lot’s removal to Zoar; but upon another decree, for Lot’s removal ere Sodom were destroyed.

Ver. 24. Then the Lord rained, &c.] Lot was no sooner taken out of Sodom, but Sodom was soon taken out of the world. The wicked are reprieved for the sake of the godly, and, but for them would suddenly be ruined. {#Isa 30:33}

Rained upon Sodom, &c.] Rained, not sprinkled; and not fire only, but brimstone and fire for increase of torment, and for a hell above ground, and aforehand. {#Jude 1:7} Hot fire they had for their burning lusts; and stinking brimstone for their stinking brutishness. Charles II, king of Navarre, was much given to sensual pleasures, which so wasted his spirits, that in his old age, he fell into a kind of lethargy. To comfort his benumbed joints, he was bound and sewed up naked in a sheet, steeped in boiling aqua vitae :the surgeon, having made an end of sewing him, and wanting a knife to cut off the thread, took a wax candle that stood lighted by him. But the flame, running down by the thread, caught hold on the sheet; which, according to the nature of the aqua vitae , burned with that vehemency, that the miserable king ended his days in the fire. {a}

{a} Heyl., Geog. p. 42.

Ver. 25. And he overthrew, &c.] Some footsteps of this overthrow are to be read of in Solinus and Tacitus. Josephus {a} tells us of the mock-apples of Sodom, and saith, that an ox, having all his legs bound, will not sink into the lake of Sodom, the water is so dense.

{a} Lib. v., De Bello, Jud.:— Omne carens vita in profundum mergitur; siquid vivum arte aliqua immerseris super exibit .

Ver. 26. But his wife looked back.] Whether out of curiosity, or foolish pity, or as loath to leave so sweet a country, she turned her about, and she was turned. Some think she was a Sodomite, and some tell us her name was Tytea. {a} Her sin, seem it never so light, was a compound of many sins. And her punishment was part of the plague of Sodom, which was "brimstone and salt," {#De 29:23} so that it became a sea of salt. And all this to season us, saith Augustine; to caution us, saith our Saviour, that we look not back. The fable of Eurydice, lost by her husband’s looking back upon her, was devised by the devil to elude this holy history. The "pillar of salt," into which Lot’s wife was turned, stands yet, saith Benjamin in his "Itinerary," about two miles from the Dead Sea; and if, by the rubbing or licking of cattle, it be any whit diminished, it groweth again forthwith, to its former size.

{a} Tyteam dictam volunt uxorem Loti ,& c.—Heidfeld.

Ver. 27. And Abraham gat up.] So solicitous he was for Sodom, that, as Luther thinks, he could not sleep all night. Lot was delivered by his prayers, though Abraham knew it not.

Ver. 28. And he looked.] Abraham might look upon the smoke of Sodom; Lot might not; because it would work more on Lot’s heart, than on Abraham’s, who had more grace.

The smoke of the country.] Nothing else was now to be seen of that fair and fruitful plain. Sic transit gloria mundi . When we most greedily grasp earthly things, we embrace nothing but smoke, which wrings tears from our eyes, and soon vanisheth into nothing.

Ver. 29. God remembered Abraham, &c.] And shall he forget us, who have Christ to intercede for us?

Ver. 30. Lot went up out of Zoar, &c.] So he should have done at first; and so he had obeyed God, saved his wife, and prevented that sin of incest with his daughters.

Ver. 31. And the firstborn, &c.] It is dangerous to live in a wicked place: yea, for though thyself mayest escape infection, thy children may be tainted, as Lot’s were.

Ver. 32. Come, let us make our father drink.] {a} She knew too well, that Venus in vinis, ignis in igne furit . It is like they had wine from Zoar. They sinned against conscience; and therefore intoxicated their father, who now forgets that he is a father, and does that, in a drunken pang, that which heaven and earth were afterwards ashamed of.

{a} So the great whore cometh forth with a cup {#Re 17:2}

Ver. 33. Nor when she arose.] There is a tittle extraordinary in the Hebrew, to note that this is a thing incredible, {a} Coire quempiam nescientem . Cajetan and Pererius conclude it possible, and give reasons for it. Calvin saith best, that it was not so much his wine, as a spirit of slumber sent upon him from God, for a scourge of his intemperance. Luther adds, Ne nos abeamus in securitatem , that we may watch against security.

{a} Appungunt desuper quasi incredibile .— Quaest. in Genes.

Ver. 34. The firstborn said unto the younger.] Lot offended against both their chastities, in offering them up to the Sodomites: and they both now conspire against his chastity.

Ver. 35. And they made, &c.] Decepit ebrietas Lotum, quem Sodoma non decepit , saith Origen. Well might Athenaeus call drunkenness the metropolis of mischief, {a}

{a} Μητροπολιν παντων δεινων.

Ver. 36. With child by their father.] God suffers, oft, such unlawful commixions to take effect; for a just punishment of the same. But as a fair and perfect child born, doth not make anything better the adultery or incest in which it was begotten, so neither doth God’s purpose the sins of graceless persons.

Ver. 37. Called his name Moab.] That is, the begotten of my father: so, Benammi; that is, begotten of one of my near kindred, viz., her father. Thus "they declared their sin as Sodom, they hid it not," {#Isa 3:9} but gloried in their shame. It is as hard to come from Sodom, and not taste of the sap of such a soil, as to walk barefaced in the hot sun, and not be tanned.

Chapter 20

Ver. 1. And Abraham journeyed from thence, &c.] Either as grieved at the sight of Sodom; or annoyed by the ill air thereof; {a} or as loathing Lot’s incest; or driven out by a famine; or desirous of doing good to many. Whatever it was that occasioned his removal, we find him ever and anon journeying from one place, and sojourning in another. God’s people are a brood of travellers. This was Abram the Hebrew, of Heber, which signifieth, pilgrim or stranger. They look toward heaven as their home, as Ulysses is said to do toward Ithaca, {b} as a bird looks to her nest on the highest rocks.

{a} Inde tam gravis halitus manat, ut eum nulla animalia perferant, cuius solo olfactu intereant .

{b} Plin. lib. viii. cap. 28.

Ver. 2. She is my sister.] This is the second time he thus sinned, both against piety by distrust; and charity, in exposing his wife to other men’s pleasure, and his neighbour thereby to God’s displeasure. So Jehoshaphat was twice taken tardy in Ahab’s amity; {#2Ch 19:2 20:37} Jonah twice reproved for rebellion; and John for angel worship; Samson, twenty years after he had loved the Philistine woman, goes down to Gaza, and went into Delilah. {#Jud 15:20 16:1} Lot committed incest two nights together. Indeed, the orifice of his lust was not yet stopped by repentance. But Jonah had surely repented of his former frowardness; and so had Samson, Jehoshaphat, and Abraham too, {a} of his former hypocrascy; which made the Lord to move Pharaoh to deal kindly with him, so that "he had sheep and oxen," &c. {#Ge 12:16} But what shall we say to that example of the apostles, {#Lu 22:24} among whom "there was a strife who should be accounted the greatest?" And this was not the first, but the third time they had thus offended by ambition; and even after our Saviour had discoursed unto them of his cross. But this last time, most absurdly, and unseasonably, after that he had foretold his passion to follow within two days; had taught them that he was anointed by the woman for the day of his burial; had administered to them the sacrament, that seal of mutual love; had washed their feet, to teach them humility and charity, &c. Oh, the incredible perverseness of corrupt nature! How strongly do the best still smell of the old cask, taste of the old stock, though ingrafted into Christ, and though poured from vessel to vessel. {#Joh 5:14} "And this have ye done again," saith the Lord. {#Mal 2:13} A great aggravation, as numbers added to numbers, are first ten times more, and then a hundred, and then a thousand. "How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert". {#Ps 78:40} A regenerate man may fall into the same sin again that he hath truly repented of nor can we define how oft, and into how heinous but surely, not oft into the same, that is heinous and scandalous. That is a graceless person that hath "eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin". {#2Pe 2:14} An enemy to God, that "goeth on still in his trespasses". {#Ps 68:21} It is expressly noted of Judah, {#Ge 38:26} that "he knew Tamar again no more."

And Abimelech king of Gerar.] A fit name for a king; and a common name to the kings of this country: it signifies father king. "I was a father to the poor," saith Job. {#Job 29:16} And "kings shall be nursing fathers" to the Church, saith Isaiah. {#Isa 49:23} Augustus was styled Pater Patriae. And Trajan gloried most in his title Optimus. He desired more to be loved, than honoured, and counted it a greater dignity, Prodesse quam praeesse .{ b} He tare his own garment to bind up therewith the wounds of his soldiers; and professed that he would so carry himself to private persons, now that he was emperor, as he wished, when he was a private man, that the emperors should carry themselves toward him. {c} Titus, for his sweet nature and carriage, was called the world’s darling. {d} Scipio the city’s sweetheart. {e} Julian the apostate, as he came not short of the greatest philosophers for learning, so neither of Titus for lenity, of Antoninus for clemency, of Marcus Aurelius for moderation, setting aside his satanical hatred of the Christian religion. {f} Queen Elizabeth ever accounted devotion and mercy the brightest stars in the sphere of majesty. She always thought it more fit to offend a man, than to hate him, saith Master Camden. In the year 1579, a young man discharged a piece out of a boat, and shot one of the bargemen in the Queen’s barge (where she was then) through both his arms; who was soon apprehended, and led to the gallows for a terror to him. But whereas he religiously affirmed, that he did it unwittingly, and thought no harm, he was discharged: the Queen many times saying, that she could believe nothing of her people that parents would not believe of their children. {g} This made her so beloved at home and admired abroad. Queen Elizabeth was the most glorious and happy woman that ever wore a crown, said that thrice noble Princess Anna Atestina, the mother of the Dukes of Guise and Nemours, as Thuanus hath recorded it {h} Her subjects were ready to say to her, as the senate said to Severus, All is well with us, so long as thou rulest well over us. {i}

{a} Non dubium, quin Abram poenitudine ductus , &c.—Pareus in #Ge 12:16.

{b} φιλουμενος μαλλον η τιμωμενος εχαιρε.—Dio.

{c} Ibid. in Vita Bucholc. in Indice Chronol.

{d} Orbis amor et deliciae .

{e} Corculum appellatus est. -Tusc. Quaest., lib. i.

{f} Parei Medul. Hist. Profan., p. 482

{g} Camd. Elis., fol. 494, 205.

{h} Thuan. Hist., lib. cxxix.

{i} παντες παντα καλως ποιουσιν επειδαν συ καλως απχεις—Dio.

Ver. 3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream.] Dreams are either natural or supernatural. Natural dreams are not much to be regarded. {#Ec 5:7} Diviners and dreamers we are forbid to hearken to. {#Jer 27:9} Cicero confutes them that do, in his book De Divinatione. {a} What use there is of them is in physic, to discern our temperatures, -in divinity, our beloved sins. Supernatural dreams are sent by God and his angels; and that either to comfort us, as, {#Mt 2:19} or to chasten us. {#Job 7:13,14} And these are, first, usually repeated till they are regarded; as Pharaoh’s and young Samuel’s dreams: secondly, they do much affect us, and leave a certain persuasion, an inward sense of God’s presence in the soul; as Daniel’s, Joseph’s, and Pareus’s dreams. In the Calends of April, -saith he, in his domestical Diary, or Day Book, 1618, -I had a terrible dream at four of the clock in the morning. For I thought, I saw all Heidelberg in a thick smoke, but the prince’s palace all on a light fire. O Deus clementissime, averte sinistrum omen, et serva Sareptam tuam a vastatione hostium intus et foris .{ b} Thus that good man dreamed, and thus he prayed: but the decree was passed, and shortly after executed, according to his dream. There are also dreams diabolical. Eusebius tells us, that Simon Magus had his dream-haunting devils, ονειροπομπους, his familiars by whom he deluded men in their dreams, and drew them into the admiration of himself. These devilish dreams are either mere illusions, as that of Eliphaz is thought {c} to be no better. {#Job 4:12,16,17} Or else they tend to sin, as nocturnal pollutions, and other evil dreams; whereby the devil sometimes fasteneth that sin upon the saints when asleep, that he cannot prevail with them to commit while awake. As for Pilate’s wife’s dream, some divines think it was from the devil, seeking thereby to hinder the work of our redemption.

For she is a man’s wife.] Adultery, even in kings, is punishable by death. Emperors and Popes {d} have been cut off by the just hand of God, in, and for this filthy sin. Society, and the purity of posterity, could not otherwise continue among men, if this crime were not capital. At Geneva they punish fornication with nine days’ fasting; adultery with death. God appointed that such should be stoned. He stoneth them, howsoever, with the stone in the heart. {#Ho 4:11 Pr 7:22} Hetfer the Anabaptist was put to death for this sin at Constance. {e} He being a learned man, and a preacher, insinuated himsef into the familiarity of many women of good rank and repute, and defiled them; when he came to execution, he confessed that he would many times have repented of that foul sin, but could not; so fast was he held in the devil’s bonds: and that now he was willing to die, and accept of the chastisement of his iniquity. Howbeit, it is an opinion held and maintained by the Anabaptists, that adultery is not to be punished by men, because the Scripture saith, "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge". {#Heb 13:4} Others would prove the same from those words of our Saviour, to the woman taken in adultery, "Neither do I condemn thee". {#Joh 8:11} But they may as well say, that inheritances are not to be divided between brethren, because Christ would not divide them, when required thereto. {#Lu 12:14}

{a} Somnia ne cures, nam mens humana quid optat ,& c.

{b} Vidi Heidelbergam totam occulto incendio undiquaque fumigantem ,& c.—Philip. Par. in Vita Davidis Parei, operibus eius praefixa.

{c} Marbury Of Repent.

{d} Moritur Paulus IV nimio veneris usu ,& c.—Valentinian, Imp.—Heyl., Geog.

{e} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., pp. 322, 487.

Ver. 4. But Abimelech had not come near her.] Being hindered by sickness. {#Ge 20:17} Well might St Ambrose call sickness the shop of virtues. {a} When men are fastened to their beds, and their bones made to rattle in their skin, lust will be laid asleep, and little leisure left for luxury. {b} This made King Alfred pray God to send him always some sickness, whereby his body might be tamed, and he the better disposed and affectioned to Godward. If it be painful to the vine to bleed, it is worse to wither. Better be pruned to grow, than cut up to burn. Otho tertius, Imperator, dictus miraculum mundi, amoribus periit .{ c} How much happier he that sang, Periissem nisi Periissem .

Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?] For he knew that whole nations had smarted for the sins of their rulers; this sin of adultery especially, as we read of Shechem, Troy, &c. How were the Greeks plagued for the rape of Chrysis! and the Lacedemonian commonwealth utterly overturned by Epaminondas in the battle of Leuctra, for a rape committed upon the two daughters of Scedasus by a couple of Spartan gentlemen, travelling to Delphi! This might make Abimelech afraid lest, for his fault, wrath should fall upon his people also.

{a} Morbos virtutum officians vocat Ambros .

{b} Nuper me amici cuiusdam languor admonuit opimos esse nos dum infirmi sumus .— Plin., epist. xxvi. lib. vii.

{c} Manl., loc. com., p. 667.

Ver. 5. Said he not unto me, She is my sister? &c.] Here Abraham and Sarah, though both famous, he for his faith, {#Ro 4:19} and she for not being afraid with any amazement, {#1Pe 3:6} yet here they show some trepidation. Sense, saith one, {a} fights sore against faith, when it is upon its own dunghill, I mean in a sensible danger. Nature’s retraction of itself from a visible fear, may cause the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point (the state of the soul) to intermit and falter at such a time. {b}

In the integrity of my heart.] Great is the boldness of a clear conscience, be it but in some one particular, as here in Abimelech; a man that was magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus (as Tacitus {c} saith of Galba) rather not evil than good; one whose nature was not changed, but chained up only. Civil men are but wolves chained up, tame devils, swine in a fair meadow; and yet these are the world’s honest men, and as high a price set upon them, as was once upon a cab of dove’s dung in the famine of Samaria. But these Abimelechs, these Catos, these civil judges, they want sincerity in the first table, and integrity in the second; for they stand not upon the inward corruptions, nor lesser breaches of the law. Abimelech, for all his confidence here, was to blame for his wandering, rash lust. And Cato, that mirror of morality, was a griping usurer, prostituted his wife, and slew himself. And yet Paterculus {d} will tell you, that he was, Homo virtuti simillimus, et per omnia virtute Diis quam hominibus propior ,& c.

{a} Mr Vines’s Fast Sermon:

{b} Elias fulminator ad Iezabalis minas trepidat .

{c} Tac., lib. i. cap. 12.

{d} Hist., lib. ii.

Ver. 6. Yea, I know that thou didst this, &c.] God takes his excuse, and yet chastiseth him; to teach us, saith Calvin (in loco), Non prorsus vacare culpa qui humano modo puri sunt . He can find flaws in that for which we may look for thanks. This makes Nehemiah crave pardon of his zealous reformations; and David cries out, "Enter not into judgment," &c. {#Ps 143:2} Sordet in conspectu iudicis, quod fulget in conspectu operantis , saith Gregory. "Ye are they that justify yourselves before men," saith Christ to the Pharisees; "but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God". {#Lu 16:15} A thing which I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness. "But be not deceived," or if ye be, yet "God is not mocked". {#Ga 6:7} When he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards—as the steward did Benjamin’s—all our secret thefts will out, all our collusions come to light {a} His law is a law of fire; {#De 33:2} His tribunal, of fire; {#Eze 1:27} His pleading with sinners, in flames of fire. {#Isa 66:15,16} The trial of our work shall be by fire; {#1Co 3:15} and before God, who is a consuming fire. {#Heb 12:29} Happy are they that are here purged by that spirit of judgment, and burning. {#Isa 4:4} These shall stand in judgment, yea, dwell with everlasting burnings. {#Isa 33:14}

For I also withheld thee.] Either by sickness, as aforesaid, or by a spirit of restraint, "a gift" that God gives "to men, yea, to the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them" {#Ps 68:18} in his religion and worshippers; which else the wicked would never suffer. Thus God chained up Laban, and made Saul to melt over David, &c. Now many take this poor counter (that is, I am not as some others are, so bad as the worst) and set it down for a thousand pounds. Our Saviour indeed is said to have "looked upon" the young Pharisee, and to have "loved him," {#Mr 10:21} because he saw him to be a tame man, free from foul crimes, and fit to live in a commonwealth: but no otherwise than as we love pictures, which are pretty things to look on, and that is all they are good for. A better nature, if rested in, is but a beautiful abomination, a smooth way to hell. And yet, say what we can, this kind of men grow crooked and aged with good opinions of themselves, and can seldom or never be set straight again. They will trust in Moses; {#Joh 5:45} and when they have sick fits, and qualms of conscience, lick themselves whole by their repentance, and so rest in it: which made Austin say, that repentance damneth more than sin. They seek not to be saved by the righteousness of faith neither see they any necessity of growing from faith to faith. No, they are set, they are as good as ever they mean to be; they that outstrip them are too forward, they that fall short of them are deeply censured.

{a} Sacco soluto apparuit argentum .— Ambrose.

Ver. 7. Now therefore restore.] Let knowledge reform what ignorance offended in. "The times of ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent". {#Ac 17:30} As a master, when he sets up his servant a double light, expects more work and better. We have a privilege not only above the blind Ethnics, but above the Church of the Old Testament. The sea about the altar was brazen; {#1Ki 7:23} and what eyes could pierce through it? Now our sea about the throne is glassy, {#Re 4:6} "like unto crystal," clearly conveying the light and sight of God to our eyes. God hath "destroyed the face of the covering cast over all people". {#Isa 25:7} "And we all with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," must see to it, that we be "changed into the same image, from glory to glory". {#2Co 3:18} If those good souls passed "from strength to strength," {#Ps 84:7} travelling many a weary step, to see the face of God in Sion, in the obscure glass of the ceremonies; voe torpori nostro , woe to us, if, now that such a light is sprung up, we walk not as children of that light! To know heavenly things, is to "ascend into heaven". {#Pr 30:3,4} And to know our Master’s will is a great talent; of all other, there is a "much" in that. {#Lu 12:48} But then, not to do his will so known, is to "be beaten with many stripes." None so deep in hell, as your knowing men, {a} because they "imprisoned the truth" (which is as a prophet from God) "in unrighteousness"; {#Ro 1:18} they kept it in their heads, as rain in the middle region, not suffering it to warm their hearts, or work upon their affections; therefore came wrath upon them to the utmost. None are oftener drowned than they that have most skill in swimming. So none sooner miscarry than men of greatest parts.

For he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee.] The proper work of a prophet. "If they be prophets, let them entreat the Lord": {#Jer 27:18} they shall be heard, when others shall not; as the father’s blessing is most effectual; as the child could not be raised till Elisha came himself, nor the sick be healed, till the elders of the Church be called for. {#Jas 5:14} The apostles divided their time between praying and preaching. {#Ac 6:4} So did the priests of the Old Testament; "They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, they shall put incense before thee". {#De 33:10} As with every sacrifice there was incense, so should every ministerial duty be performed with prayer. St Paul begins his Epistles with prayer, and proceeds and ends in like manner. What is it that he would have every of his Epistles stamped with by his own hand, but prayer for all his people. {#2Th 3:17,18}

Thou shalt surely die.] So dear to God are his saints, that he grievously punisheth even kings for their sakes; as Jehoram "in his bowels with an incurable disease," {#2Ch 21:18} the two Herods by the lousy malady. {b} Maximinus the emperor, a cruel persecutor, cast upon his bed of sickness by God, was glad to crave the prayers of the Church, as Eusebius relates it. Valens being to subscribe an order for the banishment of Basil, was smitten with a sudden trembling of his hand, that he could not. Afterward he was burned to death by the Goths, whom he had corrupted by sending them Arian teachers. {c} The putting out of that French king’s eyes, which promised {d} before with his eyes to see Anne du Bourg (one of God’s true servants) burned, who seeth not to be the stroke of God’s own hand? Then, his son Francis, not regarding his father’s stripe, would needs yet proceed in the burning the same man. And did not the same God give him such a blow on the ear as cost him his life? As for Charles IX, author of the French massacre, though he were wittily warned by Beza to beware (upon occasion of that new star appearing in Cassiopeia, Nov. 1572, which he applied to that star at Christ’s birth, and to the infanticide then) with, Tu vero, Herodes sanguinolente, time ; yet because he repented not, God gave him blood to drink, as he was worthy; for the fifth month after the vanishing of this star, Constans fama est illum, dum e variis corporis partibus sanguis emanaret, in lecto saepe volutatum, inter terribilium blasphemiarum diras tantam sanguinis vim proiecisse, ut paucas post horas, mortuus fuerit .{ e} This Charles IX, in the massacre of Paris, beholding the bloody bodies of the butchered Protestants, and feeding his eye upon that woeful spectacle, is said to have breathed out this bloody speech, Quam bonus est odor hostis mortui !{ f} Another great queen, seeing the ground covered with naked carcasses of her Protestant subjects said, {g} that it was the bravest piece of tapestry that ever she beheld; {h} but it was not long that she beheld it. Our Queen Mary, though non natura sed Pontificiorum arte ferox—ipsa solum nomen regium ferebat, coeterum omnem regni petestatem Pharisaei possidebant -died {i} of a tympany, or, as some (by her much sighing before her death) supposed, she died of thought and sorrow, either for the loss of Calais, or for the departure of King Philip. This king, going from the Low Countries by sea into Spain, with resolution never to remove thence, fell into a storm, in which almost all the fleet was wrecked, his household stuff of very great value lost, and himself hardly escaped. He said he was delivered by the singular providence of God, to root out Lutheranism, which he presently began to do, protesting that he had rather have no subjects, than Lutheran subjects, {j} Whether it was this Philip or his successor, I cannot certainly tell. But Carolus Scribanius tells a lamentable story of one of those two Philips. {k} Hear him else, Ulcerum magnitudinem, multitudinem, acerbitatem, foetorem, lecto tanquam durae cruci, anno integro, affixionem, ut in nullam prope commoveri partem possit, acres continuosque annorum sex podagrae dolores, febrim hecticam cum duplici per annos duos, tertiuna intima, adeoque et ossium medullas, depascentem gravissimam 22. dierum dysenteriam, quae nec moram daret, nec detersionem admitteret, perpetua stomachi fastidia, nullo potu sitim medicandam, capitis et oculorum insanos dolores, ingentem puris ex ulceribus redundantiam, quae binas indies scutellas divite paedore impleret: inter haec, malignissimi odoris gravitatem, quae omnem illi somnum ademerat; haec inquam, rex potentissimus longo tempore prepessus’ est . So true is that of an ancient, Potentes potenter torquebuntur ." Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: kiss the Son, lest he be angry". {#Ps 2:12} He can soon break men with his iron mace, and dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel. Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia , as the Centurists have it. Christ shall reign, when kings and Caesars shall lie in the dust. His name is "King of kings, and Lord of lords"; {#Re 19:16} and this name is written "upon his vesture," that all creatures may see his power, and "upon his thigh," to show the eternity of his monarchy, in his children and posterity. This "everlasting Father" shall have an endless government. {#Isa 9:6,7} "He shall see his seed," the fruit of his thigh; "he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands". {#Isa 53:10} I shut up this discourse with the story of Ladislaus, king of Bohemia and Hungary, who most unjustly had caused Ladislaus, son to Hunniades, to be beheaded; and together with many other Popish princes, had conspired to root out the true Christians in Bohemia; which should have been put in execution at the time of his marriage; immediately before, in the midst of his great preparations he fell sick, and within thirty-six hours died of a pestilent sore in his groin. {l} Like as Attilas, {m} that king of the Huns, and scourge of Christendom, had died before, being suffocated in his own blood, at such a time as he celebrated his wedding, having distempered his body with excess in wine and venery, adeo ut proverbio de eo dictum sit, eum per eandem partem animam profudisse, per quam acceperat ,{ n} He went out of the world the same way that he came into it, and sent his soul as a harbinger to the devil to provide room for his body.

{a} Sapientes sapienter descendunt in infernum .— Bern.

{b} Non desunt qui ad phthiriasin referunt, quo avus quoque ipius Herod. Mag. periit. -Beza Annot. in Acts xii

{c} Orosius.

{d} He protested, Siquam sui corporu partem Lutherianismo sciret infectam revulsurum illico, ne longius serperet .— Sleid Comment. lib. ix.

{e} Act. and Mon., 1914.—Camden’s Elis., fol. 165.—Act. and Mon., fol. 1949.

{f} Spec. Bel. Sac., p. 248.

{g} M. Newcomen, Fast Serm., 27.

{h} Like Hannibal’s O Formosum Spectaculum .

{i} De Alexandra Josephus.—Act. and Mon., fol. 1901.

{j} Hist. of Coun. of Trent, 417.

{k} Carol. Scriban., Instit. Princip., cap. 20.

{l} Bucholcer.

{m} Paul. Jovius.

{n} Jacob. Revius.

Ver. 8. Therefore Abimelech rose early, &c.] He "made haste, and delayed not to keep God’s commandments". {#Ps 119:60} This is a check to our dulness, whom so many exhortations and menaces of God’s mouth move not to amend. Some are semper victuri , as Seneca saith. They defer so long till the drawbridge be taken up, till the gale of grace be blown over, till the bridegroom goes by, and so are shut out with the foolish virgins, for their lingering and futuring. Nolite vero tempus in nugis terere, vel Cras, ut ille, Seria, reiectis in hilari compotatione, literis indiciis hodie morituri, protelare . At the next puff of breath thou mayest blow away thy life; or, by not discerning thy time, thou mayest lose thy soul, as Saul did his kingdom. Opportunities are headlong. {a}

And called all his servants.] Nature taught infidels to take care of their own families. Socrates is said to have called philosophy down from heaven to earth; {b} that is, to have directed men to be good at home, and setting aside other studies, chiefly to mind,

“ Aedibus in propriis quae pravae aut recta gerantur.”

Cato said that he could pardon all men’s faults, save only the faults of his own family. And Augustus, when he went about to restrain garish attire, and looseness of life in others, was jeered and upbraided at Rome with the excesses and enormities of his own household. He had three untoward children whom he was wont to term tres vomicas, tria carcinomata so many mattery impostumes, ulcerous sores. His wife Livia was thought to be too familiar with her friend and physician, Eudemus; Pliny calls him her paramour. Tacitus saith, he was specie artis, frequens secretis . All this might be without his fault, but not without his reproach. {c} The malicious Pharisees could object it to our Saviour—"thy disciples wash not," "thy disciples fast not," &c.; as if he were much to blame for suffering such things. And surely, he is not a complete Christian, walks not "in a perfect way," that is not good "at home," {#Ps 101:2} that is, not relatively good. The fifth commandment is called by Philo, εντολη μικτη, a mixed commandment, and made a part of the first table. It is therefore set between both tables of the law, saith another, because all we get from God or men we bring it home to our houses—as Abimelech here relates his divine dream to his servants—the place of well employing it.

And the men were sore afraid.] This fear freed them; for according to men’s fear, so is God’s displeasure. {#Ps 90:11} Cavebis si pavebis .{ #Ro 11:21} But they that tremble not in hearing, shall be crushed to pieces in feeling, said that martyr. {d} This was a sign that the Israelites feared God, when they believed God, and his servant Moses. {#Ex 4:31} The best way of prevention is to tremble at God’s judgments, while they hang in the threatenings. But frequentissimum initium calamitatis securitas , saith Paterculus. Sola igitur securitas est, nunquam esse securum, sed semper pavidum et trementem , saith another. {e} Should servants fear their masters {#Col 3:22} because they have power over the flesh, and not we fear God? &c.

{a} εις αυριον τασπουδαια, vox erat Archiae illius Thebanorum praefecti

{b} Wolfius in Tiliani tab. Philosoph.

{c} Οττιτοι εν μεγαροισι κακων, αγαθων τε τετυκται—Dio in Vita.—Sueton. in Aug., cap. 65.

{d} Bradford Of Repent.

{e} R. Grosthead.

Ver. 9. What hast thou done unto us? &c.] Some warmth must be in a reproof, but it must not be scalding hot. Words of reviling and disgrace, they scald, as it were; but words that tend to stir up the conscience to a due consideration of the fault (as here) they be duly warm, and tend to make the physic work more kindly. {a} How could Abraham resist this sweet and sovereign reprehension? How could he but be much ashamed, that he should give occasion to it? No oratory is so powerful with good natures as that of mildness. Remember to reprove with modesty and moderation.

{a} Aegros, quos potus fortis non curavit, ad salutem pristinam aqua tepens revocavit .— Greg.

Ver. 10. What sawest thou?] He hath not yet done, but further expostulateth the injury, and setteth on the reproof. Personatae reprehensiones frigent ." Rebuke them sharply". {#Tit 1:13}

Ver. 11. Surely the fear of God, &c.] The only best curb to restrain from evil, and spur to incite to good. All honesty flows from this holy fear. It is a problem in Aristotle, why men are credited more than other creatures. The answer is, Οτι θεους νομιζει μονον; "Man only reverenceth God," therefore you may trust in him, therefore you may commit yourself to him. He that truly feareth God is like unto Cato, of whom it is said, He never did well that he might appear to do so, but because he could do no otherwise. {a} You need not fear me, said Joseph to his brethren, for I fear God, and so dare do you no harm. Ought ye not to have feared God? said Nehemiah to those usurious Jews. {#Ne 5:9}

{a} Sed quia aliter facere non potuit .— Villeius.

Ver. 12. And yet indeed.] {See Trapp on "Ge 11:29"}

Ver. 13. When God caused me to wander.] Cum facerent Dii , when they, even God, caused me. The mystery of the Trinity, {a} though Calvin interpret it of the angels; as Cartwright likewise doth that of Solomon, which Junius conceiveth to be spoken of the blessed Trinity, "There be higher than they," {#Ec 5:8} sc., that Three in One, and One in Three.

{a} Mysterium Triados .— Jun.

Ver. 14. And Ablmelech took sheep and oxen.] Great men should be bountiful to good men. Aeneas Sylvius was wont to say of learning—how much more may it be said of grace?—popular men should esteem it as silver, noblemen as gold, princes prize it as pearls. Arcadius the emperor gave his schoolmaster Arsenes, a holy man, the revenues of all Egypt, desiring him to pray for him. Arsenes promised him his prayers, but refused his rich offer; saying, that he wanted no money, as being long since dead to the world. {a}

{a} Pecunia non egere, quod mundo iampridem mortuus esset .— Parei Hist. Profan. Medul., p. 495.

Ver. 15. Behold, my land.] This is the way to make a reproof work kindly, viz., to preserve still an opinion in the hearts of the reproved, that we love them nevertheless, and would do them any good.

Ver. 16. I have given thy brother.] Not thee, to avoid suspicion, "Provide," we must, "things honest in the sight of all men"; {#Ro 12:17} and not only keep a good conscience, but a good name as much as may be; learning this of the unjust steward, by lawful (though he did it by unlawful) means. For our Saviour noted this defect, when he said, "The children of this world," &c. {#Lu 16:8} It was good counsel that Livia gave her husband Augustus. It behoveth thee not only not to do wrong, but not to seem to do so, &c. {a} We must shun, and be shy of, the very show and shadow of sin, if we tender either our credit abroad or comfort at home. The Church took it ill, that her veil was pulled off, and that she was judged to be a dishonest woman. {#So 5:7} As in the first chapter, she prays her spouse to tell her, where she may come to him: for "why should she be as one that turneth aside," or as one that was veiled or covered, a sign of lightness and dishonesty? {#Ge 38:14,15} She was willing to eschew all appearance of evil. Some take the sense of the text thus:—I have given thy husband money to buy thee a veil, to cover thy face that all may know thee to be a married woman.

{a} Λει σε, ω Αυγουστε, μη μονον μηδεν αδικειν, αλλα μηδε δοκιεν.—Dio in Vita.

Ver. 17. So Abraham prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech.] Here was that of St James verified, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him". {#Jas 5:15} So he is healed on both sides. The story of Luther is well known, how by his prayers he recovered Theodorus Virus of a consumption, after the physicians had given him up for dead. {a} The saints are God’s favourites; they may have anything of him. Sejanus found Tiberius so facile, that he needed only to ask, and give thanks. {b} He never denied him anything, and ofttimes anticipated his request. What shall we think of God’s goodwill to his faithful servants and suppliants?

{a} Melch. Adam. in Vita Luther.

{b} Life of Sejanus, by P. M., p. 5.

Ver. 18. For the Lord had fast closed up all, &c.] In quibus peccamus, in iisdem plectimur . God oft takes notice of the offending member. Dives was tormented most in his tongue, quia lingua plus peccaverat , saith Cyprian. {a} Nestorii lingua vermibus exesa . Archbishop Arundel was so smitten in his tongue, that he could neither swallow nor speak, for serveral days before his death. Atque id multi tum fieri putabant, quod verbum Dei alligasset, ne suo tempore praedicaretur , saith the historian. {b} The like is reported of Stephen Gardiner, Fertur Heraclius Imp. inguine sursum converso faciem suam perminxisse, nisi urina (tabella imo ventri appossita) averteretur. Id ei accidisse creditum, ob incestum cum fratris filia coitum. {c}

{a} Evag., lib. i.

{b} Theo. Gascon. in Diction. Theolog.

{c} Act. and Mon. 1622.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. And the Lord visited Sarah.] God pays not his people with words only, as Sertorius did his soldiers, {a} He fools them not off with fair promises, {b} as Ptolemy (surnamed therefore Δωσων) did his favourites; but is real, yea, royal in his promises and performances. Of many promisers it may be said, as Tertullian of the peacock, all in changeable colours: as oft changed as moved. Italians all; as Aeneas Sylvius said of Italy; Novitate quadam, nihil habet stablile . Not so their ancestors, the Romans. They had a great care always to perform their word; insomuch, that the first temple built in Rome was dedicated to the goddess Fidelity. Great men’s words, saith one, are like dead men’s shoes: he may go barefoot that waits for them. Not so good men; they will stand to their oath, though it tend to their loss. {#Ps 15:4} They are children that will not lie. {#Isa 63:8} Their Father is a God that cannot lie. {#Tit 1:2} He is the God of Amen, as Isaiah calleth him; {#Isa 65:16} and "all his promises are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus," {#2Co 1:20} "the faithful and true witness". {#Re 3:14} Judah would not break promise with the harlot, lest he should be shamed. {#Ge 38:23} One of the laws of the knights of the band in Spain was, that if any of them broke his promise, he went alone by himself, and nobody spake to him, nor he to any. When God serves any so, let him be so served. But the promises are ancient. {#Tit 1:2} And not any tittle of them, as yet, ever fell to the ground. Wherefore, "gird up the loins of your minds, and trust perfectly on the grace that is brought unto you". {#1Pe 1:13} "Faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it". {#1Th 5:24}

{a} Zonaras.

{b} Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest .— Plutarch.

Ver. 2. For Sarah conceived.] By the force of her faith, though at first she faltered. {#Heb 11:11}

And bare Abraham a son in his old age.] Beatae senectutis et emeritae fidei filium , as one well calleth Isaac. {a} St Paul, for this, saith he was "born after the Spirit". {#Ga 4:29}

{a} Bucholcer.

Ver. 3. And Abraham called the name, &c.] A ridiculous name, but such as God had imposed. All God’s ways are foolishness to the world, -Christ and all. But—as old men use to say to young—they think us fools, we know them to be so. It will not be long ere they shall wail and howl out, Nos insensati , we fools held their life madness, &c. Say therefore with David, If this be to be vile, we will be more vile. God hath a barren womb for mocking Michal. He is a fool, we say, that would be laughed out of his coat; but he is a double fool that would be laughed out of his skin, that would hazard his soul, because loath to be laughed at. Caligula socerum Scyllanum, molestum ei propter virtutem et affinitatem, ad mortem sibi consciscendam ludibriis adegit . More fool he.

Ver. 4. And Abraham circumcised his son.] At circumcision, as now at baptism, names were given. Let them be such as are significant, and may immind us of some good, either person or thing; all will be found little enough, Optima nomina, non appellando fieri mala, faenerator Alfius dixisse verissime fertur .{ a} We read of a good woman, that had named her three daughters, Faith, Hope, and Charity. And when she was to be condemned by Bonner; My lord, said she, if you burn me, I hope you will keep Faith, Hope, and Charity. No, by my truth, will I not, quoth the bishop; keep them who will, I’ll take no charge of them. {b} We read also of another, that, courting a harlot, asked her name: she answered, Mary; whereupon, remembering Mary Magdalene, that penitent harlot, he repented him of his evil purpose, and, advising the courtesan to repent by her example, departed, and lived honestly. {c} We cannot have too many monitors to mind us of our duty.

{a} Columel., De Re Rust., lib. i. cap. 7.—Horat., epod. ii. line 66.

{b} Act. and Mon., 1798.

{c} Strange Viney. in Palest.

Ver. 5. And Abraham was a hundred years old.] After twenty years’ praying, and waiting the fulfilling of the promise; besides thirteen of those years’ silence, for aught we read, after the promise of a child. This was a sore trial; but God knew him to be armour of proof, and therefore tried him thus with musket-shot. Well might the apostle say, "Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God," and suffered it too, "ye might receive the promise". {#Heb 10:36} The "spoiling of their goods" required patience: but this waiting much more. Good men find it easier to bear evil, than to wait till the promised good be enjoyed. This waiting is nothing but hope and trust lengthened; which they that cannot do, like children, they pull apples afore they are ripe, {a} and have worms bred of them; as those hasty Ephraimites, that set upon the Philistines, and were slain in Gath. They had indeed a promise of the land, but the time was not yet come. They were weary of the Egyptian bondage, and would have thus got out; but they were too hasty. Fugientes ergo fumum, incidebant in ignem .{ #1Ch 7:21,22 Ps 78:9}

{a} Importuno tempore poma decerpunt .— Cyprian. See my Love-tokens, p. 94.

Ver. 6. God hath made me to laugh.] "A wise son maketh a glad father". {#Pr 10:1} Monstri autem simil est, quando pro risu sunt fletus, sunt flagellum . And yet this is many a good man’s case. How many parents are put to wish Moses’ wish, {#Nu 11:15} "Lord, if I have found favour in thy sight, kill me, that I behold not my misery!" Had he lived to see what ways his grandchild Jonathan took, what a grief would it have been unto him! {#Jud 18:30} "Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh," &c. In the best Hebrew copies, Nun is suspended in that name: whereupon the Hebrews descant, that this Gershom was the son of Moses; but because he and his posterity walked not in the ways of Moses, but rather of Manasses, {#2Ki 21:1-9} and did his works: therefore the penman of this book would not so far disgrace Moses, as to make him his son, as indeed he was, {#Ex 2:1,2,10 1Ch 23:14,15} but rather of Manasses, whom he imitated and resembled. {a} How much better and happier had it been for them both if they had expressed their father’s manners, as Constantine’s sons did: of whom it is said, that they had put on whole Constantine, and in all good things did exactly resemble him. {b}

{a} Ac proinde studio inseruisse literam Nun, suspensam tamen; in signum, eam adesse vel abesse posse, ut sit et filius השׁמ vel השׁבמ, istius prosapia, huius imitatione. -Buxtorf. Tiber.

{b} δλον ενεδυσαντο τον Κονσταντινον, εμπρεποντες τοις του πατρος καλλωπισμασιν—Euseb.

Ver. 7. That Sarah should have given children suck.] So she had a double blessing, -of the womb, and of the breasts. Milk she had at those years, and great store of it too: whence she is said to "give children suck," not a child only. She could have nursed another for a need, besides her own. Note, that though she were a great lady, yet she was a nurse. Let it not be niceness, but necessity that hinders any mother from so doing; lest she be found more monstrous than the "sea-monsters," that "draw out their breast, and give suck to their young". {#La 4:3} If the child must be set out, let a fit nurse be looked after. Quidam scrofae lacte nutritus cum esset, in coeno sese identidem volutabat. {a}

{a} Sphinz Philosoph., p. 235.

Ver. 8. And Abraham made a great feast.] A laudable custom, saith Cajetan, that the beginning of the eating of the firstborn should be celebrated with a feast. St Augustine observeth here, that this solemnity at the weaning of Isaac, was a type of our spiritual regeneration: at, and after which, the faithful keep a continual feast, {a} "Let us keep the festivity, {εωρταζωμεν #1Co 5:7} or holy day," saith Paul, that "feast of fat things full of marrow; of wines on the lees well refined," {#Isa 25:6} proceeding from milk to stronger meat, {#Heb 5:12} and being to the world, as a weaned child. His mouth doth not water after homely provisions, that hath lately tasted of delicate sustenance.

{a} Ανηρ αγαθος πασαν ημεραν εορτην ηγειται—Diog. ap. Plutarch.

Ver. 9. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking.] At that mystical name Isaac, as a gaud, or laughingstock. At the feast also, made upon such a frivolous occasion. As who should say, What care I, though this ado be made now about Isaac’s weaning? I am the firstborn, and beloved of my father, who will not deny me the inheritance. This Sarah had soon spied, or overheard. Liberorum curiosi sunt parentes . The mother especially observeth the wrong done to the child. And besides, dislike soon spies a fault. A fault it was no doubt, and a great one too. Otherwise, the apostle would not have called it "persecution": {#Ga 4:29} nor God have punished it with ejection. Machiavel, that scoffing atheist, rotted in the prison at Florence. Jeering Julian had his payment from Heaven. Sir Thomas Moor ( qui sceptice et scabiose de Luthero et Religione Reformata loquebatur) lost his head. Another lost his wits for mocking at James Abbs, martyr, as a madman; for that, having no money, he gave his apparel to the poor; some to one, some to another, as he went to the stake {a} "What is truth?" {#Joh 18:38} said Pilate to our Saviour, in a scornful profane manner. Not long after which, he became his own deathsman. Apion scoffed at circumcision, and had an ulcer at the same time, and in the same place. {b} Surely, God is the avenger of all such: he calls it blasphemy in the second table, and shows his wrath from heaven against it, as that which proceeds from the very superfluity of malice (as herein Ishmael) and tends to murder. The Hebrew word here used signifies that he not only mocked Isaac, but also made others to mock him.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1904.

{b} Josephus.

Ver. 10. Cast out this bondwoman.] Who had been, likely, either an author or abettor of her son’s sin, in ambitiously seeking the inheritance. Out they must, therefore, together: as all hypocrites one day must be cast out of God’s kingdom. Heaven is an "undefiled inheritance": no dirty dog ever trampled on that golden pavement. There is no passing e coeno in coelum . Heaven would be no heaven to the unregenerate. Beetles love dunghills better than ointments; and swine love mud better than a garden.

“ Quid Paris? ut salvus regnet vivatque beatus,

Cogi posse negat .”

“What of Paris? To reign in saftey and live in happiness,

- nothing, he says, can force him.”

- Horat., epist. 2, lines 9, 10.

Ver. 11. And the thing was very grievous, &c.] See, there is grief sometimes between the best couples as above said. {#Ge 16:5} But why was it so grievous to cast out Ishmael, when in the next chapter, it seems no such grief to him to slay Isaac? Surely for that, here, he hears only his wife’s voice: there he well understood it to be the will of God. Veniat, veniat verbum Domini, et submittemus illi, sexcenta si nobis essent colla , said that reverend Dutchman. {a} When Abraham came to know it was God’s will as well as Sarah’s, he soon yielded.

{a} Baldassar in Epist. ad Oecolamp.

Ver. 12. In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, &c.] The wife then is to be hearkened to when she speaks reason. Samson’s mother had more faith than her husband: {#Jud 13:23} and Priscilla is sometimes set before Aquila. Paul’s hearers at Philippi were only women at first. {#Ac 16:13} And St Peter tells Christian wives that they may win their husbands to Christ by their "chaste conversation coupled with fear". {#1Pe 3:1} "The Scripture" is said to "say" what Sarah here saith. {#Ga 4:30}

Ver. 13. Because he is thy seed.] So bountiful a Master is God, so liberal a Lord, that he blesseth his servants in their seed too. We count it a great favour if an earthly lord give an old servant a country cottage, with some small annuity for life; but God’s love extends beyond life; as David’s love to Jonathan preserves Mephibosheth from the gallows, yea, promoteth him to a princely allowance, and respect at court. Your children shall find and feel it, double and treble, said that martyr, whatsoever you do or suffer for the Lord’s sake. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1481.

Ver. 14. And Abraham rose up early.] He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but set upon the execution of God’s will with expedition. Voluntas Dei, necessitas rei . A godly man says Amen to God’s Amen, go it never so much against the hair with him: he puts his fiat, his assent to God’s; and saith, {as #Ac 21:14} "The will of the Lord be done," which was Vox vere Christianorum , as one said.

Ver. 15. And the water was spent in the bottle.] All creature comforts will fade and fail us; as the brook Cherith dried up while the prophet was drinking of it; as those pools about Jerusalem, that might be dried up, with the tramplings of horse and horsemen. {#2Ki 19:24} But they that drink of Christ’s water shall never thirst; for it shall be in them (as the widow’s oil, or Aaron’s ointment) "a well of water springing up to eternal life". {#Joh 4:14}

She cast the child, &c.] Whom till then she had led in her hand, faint, and ready to die for thirst; who while he lived at the full in his father’s house, but could not be contented. God loves to let us see the worth of his favours by the want of them; {a} to chasten men’s insolency with indigency, as he did the prodigal in the gospel.

{a} Carendo potius quam fruendo.

Ver. 16. Let me not see the death of the child.] This, saith an interpreter, {a} was but poor love. Give me a friend that will not leave in the instant of death. {#Ge 46:4}

She lift up her voice, and wept.] As hinds by calving, so we by weeping "cast out our sorrows". {#Job 39:3}

“ Expletur lachrymis, egeriturque dolor .”

{a} Babington.

Ver. 17. And God heard the voice of the lad.] Weeping hath a voice. {#Ps 6:8} And as music upon the water sounds farther and more harmoniously than upon the land, so prayers joined with tears. These, if they proceed from faith, are showers quenching the devil’s cannon shot; a second baptism of the soul, wherein it is rinsed anew, nay, perfectly cured: as the tears of vines cure the leprosy; as the lame were healed in the troubled waters. Whether Hagar’s and Ishmael’s tears were for sin, or for the present pressure only, I have not to say. {a} But God is so pitiful, that he hears and helps our affliction, as he had done Hagar’s once afore. {#Ge 16:11} And as our Saviour raised the young man of Nain, though none sought to him, merely because he was the only son of his mother, a widow, the stay of her life, and staff of her old age. See a sweet place, #2Ki 14:26,27.

{a} Lachrymas angustiae, exprimit crux; lachrymas poenitentiae, peccatum.

Ver. 18. For I will make him a great nation.] A nation by himself, as he had promised to Abraham. This had not come to pass, had not she missed her way to Egypt, and wandered in this wilderness. God, by his providence, ordereth our disorders to his own glory. Divinum consilium dum devitatur, impletur: Humana sapientia dum reluctatur, comprehenditur. {a}

{a} Gregor.

Ver. 19. God opened her eyes, &c.] The well was there before, but she saw it not till her eyes were opened. So, till God irradiate both the organ and the object, we neither see nor suck those "breasts of consolation". {#Isa 66:11} We turn the back, and not the palm of the hand, to the staff of the promises.

Ver. 20. And God was with the lad, &c.] The fountain of Hagar, saith a divine, lying between Bared and Kadesh Barnea, was afterwards called the well of the living God; and seemeth mystically to represent baptism, the laver of regeneration. For the Church, like Hagar with her son Ishmael, travelling through the wilderness of this world, is pressed with a multitude of sins and miseries, &c. Wherefore they, joining together in prayer, crave to be refreshed with the water of life. For Hagar signifieth a pilgrim. Ishmael, a man whom the Lord heareth; who, travelling together with his mother the Church in this world, fighteth against the enemies thereof, and shooteth the arrows of faith against all infernal and cruel beasts and lusts. Thus he. {a}

{a} Itinerar. Script., fol. 95.

Ver. 21. And his mother took him a wife.] Adeo est iuris non gentium, sed ipsius naturae, ut parentes matrimonia liberis procurent . Children are a chief part of their parents’ goods; therefore to be disposed of by them in marriage. When Satan had commission to afflict Job in his goods, he fell upon his children. Yet, in the Church of Rome, parents’ consent is not much regarded.

Ver. 22. God is with thee in all that thou doest.] Natural conscience cannot choose but stoop to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly. When they see in them that which is above ordinary, they are afraid of the name of God called upon by them. Their hearts even ache and quake within them. {#De 28:10}

Ver. 23. Swear unto me here by God, &c.] This visit, we see, was more of fear than of love: there can be no hearty love, indeed, but between true Christians. Kings, then, have their cares, crowns their crosses: thistles in their arms, and thorns in their sides. This made one cry out of his diadem, O vilis pannus ,& c. And Canutus set his crown upon the crucifix. Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, is said to have been born with the sign of a cross upon his back. {a} And the next night after that Rodulphus Rufus was crowned emperor of Germany, anno Dom. 1273, over the temple, where the crown was set upon his head, a golden cross was seen to shine, like a star, to the admiration of all that beheld it. {b} These were the same emperor’s verses concerning his crown imperial:—

“ Nobilis es fateor, rutilisque onerata lapillis:

Innumeris curis sed comitata venis;

Quod bene si nossent omnes expendere, nemo

Nemo foret, qui te tollere vellet humo .”

{a} Scultet. Annal.

{b} Dan. Pare., Hist. Profan. Medulla., 723, 728.

Ver. 24. I will swear.] Abraham quickly consents to so reasonable a request, from so honourable a person. The wisdom from above is "easy to be entreated". {#Jas 3:17} The churl Nabal holds it a goodly thing to hold off. It is but manners to reciprocate: very publicans can find in their hearts to do good to those that have been good to them. {#Mt 5:46,47}

Ver. 25. And Abraham reproved Abimelech.] Inferiors may reprove their superiors, so they do it wisely and modestly.

Ver. 26. I wot not who hath done this thing.] A fault it might be in Abraham, not to complain to the king. For many a good prince is even bought and sold by his officers and counsellors; as it was said of Aurelian the Emperor, who might know nothing but as they informed him. As of another German prince it was said, Esset alius, si esset apud alios .{ a}

{a} Bucholc.

Ver. 27. Abraham took sheep and oxen.] In token of true and hearty reconciliation. Reconciliationes , saith Menander, sunt vulpinae amicitiae . Let it be so among heathens. But we have not so learned Christ.

Ver. 28. By themselves.] Because for a distinct use; nothing concerning the covenant aforementioned.

Ver. 29, 30. These seven ewe-lambs.] Wherewith I will buy my peaceable enjoyment of this well, for the future.

That they may be a witness.] A means to prevent contention, which is sooner stirred than stinted. And I have not observed, saith one, that many have been healed by going into troubled waters, though moved by the best angels of the Church.

Ver. 31. They sware both of them.] Or, they were sworn. The Hebrew is passive ( עבשׁנ). To show that an oath is not rashly to he undertaken, but by a kind of necessity imposed. It comes of a root that signifies to satisfy; because he, to whom we swear, must therewith be contented. An oath is an end of strife, saith the apostle. {#Heb 6:16} The Greeks call it ορχος ψυασι ερχος, a hedge, which a man may not break.

Ver. 32. A covenant.] Foedus , παρα το πεποιθεναι {a}

{a} Sic fidus , παρα το πειθειν

Ver. 33. Abraham planted a grove.] That he might have a private place for prayer and meditation. And thus he improved and employed that recent peace he had made with Ahimelech. Oh that God would once more try us, and trust us with the blessing of peace! How should we now prize it, and praise him for it! Bona a tergo formosissima .

Ver. 34. Many days.] Twenty-five years at least: for so old was Isaac when he went to be sacrificed. Some halcyons God vouchsafes to his "afflicted, and tossed with tempest"; {#Isa 54:11} some rest and repose to his poor pilgrims. Laus Deo .

Chapter 22

Ver. 1. God did tempt Abraham.] Temptation is twofold—(1.) Probationis (2.) Perditionis The former is of God; the latter, of the devil. God is said to tempt, when he puts us upon the trial of our faith and obedience, that he may "do us good in the latter end". {#De 8:16} Satan ever seeks to do us harm. He, when he comes to tempt, comes with his sieve, as to Peter. {#Lu 23:21} Christ with his "fan". {#Mt 3:12} Now a fan casteth out the worst, and keepeth in the best; a sieve keepeth in the worst, and casteth out the best. Right so Christ (and his trials) purgeth our corruption, and increaseth grace: contrarily the devil, if there be any ill thing in us, confirmeth it; if faith, or any good thing in us, he weakeneth it. Now the temptations of Satan are either (1.) of seducement; {#Jas 1:15} or (2.) of buffeting and grievance. {#2Co 12:7} In seducement we are pressed with some lesser or darling corruption, whereto our appetites by nature are most propense. And here Satan hath his machinations; {#2Co 2:11} methods; {#Eph 6:11} "depths"; {#Re 2:24} "darts"; {#Eph 6:16} "fiery darts" pointed and poisoned with the venom of serpents, which set the heart on fire from one lust to another. In buffetings we are dogged with the foulest lusts of atheism, suicide, &c., such as nature startleth at, and abhorreth; and these, if we resist, and be merely passive, are only our crosses, Satan’s sins. For before a temptation can be a sin, it must have somewhat of coveting in it. And trials are only taps to give vent to corruption.

Ver. 2. Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, &c.] This was the last of Abraham’s ten trials, and the sorest. All our troubles to this are but as the stivers and chips of that cross upon which this good patriarch was crucified. Origen hence persuades parents to bear patiently the loss of their children. Laetus offer filium Deo, esto sacerdos animae filii tui ,& c. Abraham was not only to kill his only son (which yet was more than to have torn out his own heart with his own hands), but to cut him in pieces, to lay him orderly on the altar, after the manner of a sacrifice, and to burn him to ashes; himself making and tending the fire, and putting him in, piece after piece, when any was out. A hard and heavy task: especially since it directly crossed the promise, that "in Isaac all nations of the earth should be blessed"; and seemed to involve the utter ruin of all mankind. Here, reason was at a stand. It was faith only that could extricate the perplexed patriarch, by giving him to know "that God was able to raise him up even from the dead". {#Heb 11:19} Hoc Abrahamum fecit αμεταπτωτον. This was it that kept him from tripping.

Get thee into the land of Moriah.] Both Abraham’s great temptations began with one strain, Vade tibi , Get thee gone. {#Ge 12:1,22:2} Here God led Abraham into temptation, but delivered him from evil. Have you not been tempted, saith the holy man, {a} in this or that kind? It is because God in mercy would not "lead you into temptation." Yea, this is in some sort more to be acknowledged than victory when you are tempted. For not to be tempted is more immediately from God, and less in man’s power than to prevail against temptation. Since nothing doth overcome us against our will: but without our will God doth lead us into trials: for he knoweth we would taste little of these if we might be our own carvers.

{a} Bain’s Letters.

Ver. 3. And Abraham rose up early, &c.] To show his prompt and present obedience. He neither consulted with his wife, nor with his own reason. She might have haply hung upon him and hindered him, as Zipporah did Moses to the hazarding of his life. {#Ex 4:24-26} He captivates all the powers of the soul to his Creator; goes after him without questioning, and so shows himself to be "renewed in the spirit of his mind": that is, in his natural reason: for that, like an old beldam, is the mother and nurse of all our distempers and strayings. Cassianus tells us of a young man that had given himself up to a Christian life: and his parents, misliking that way, wrote letters to dissuade him from it; which when he knew, he would not once open them, but threw them in the fire. Let us do so by the suggestions of flesh and blood, and the counsel of carnal friends, or we shall never rest and feast in Abraham’s bosom. I know not by what reason, said Borthwick the Scotch martyr, they so called them my friends, which so greatly laboured to convert me, as they called it: neither will I more esteem them than the Midianites, which in time past called the children of Israel to do sacrifice to their idols. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1157.

Ver. 4. Then on the third day.] A great while for him to be plodding, ere he came to the place. But we must conceive that his brains were better busied, than many of ours would have been therewhile. We must not weigh the cross, for then it will prove heavy: we must not chew the pill, but swallow it whole, else it will prove bitter. We must not plod too much, but ply the throne of grace for a good use and a good issue of all our trials and tribulations.

Ver. 5. Abide ye here with the ass.] This, the Hebrews use for a proverb, against such as are dull and uncapable. Zophar saith, that "man is born as a wild ass’s colt". {#Job 11:12} As an "ass’s foal" for rudeness, and "a wild ass’s" for unruliness. It imports that he is untamed and untractable, till a new heart be put into him. Agur had not the understanding of a man, till he spake to Ithiel and Ucal for it. {#Pr 30:1,2} He wants the whole man, totum hominis , that doth not fear God and keep his commandments. {#Ec 12:13} Tu et asinus unum estote , will not do it; which was the counsel given to a young novice entering a monastery {a}

And come again to you.] Nesciens formam rei futurae, prophetavit sciens de eventu, prophetavit quod ignoravit , saith Ambrose. {b}

{a} Alex. Cook’s Abatement of Popish Brags.

{b} Epist.

Ver. 6. And laid it upon Isaac his son.] Who was herein a lively type of Christ, bearing the cross whereon he was offered up. Τω σωματι των χολαζομενων εχαστος εκφερει τον εαυτου σταυρον, , saith Plutarch, speaking of the Roman fashion of crucifying malefactors. And surely it was by a wonderful providence of God that the Jews brought our Saviour to Pilate to be put to death; since they hated nothing more than to confirm or countenance the Roman tyranny among them by any means. Hence Gamaliel gave counsel to dismiss the apostles. {#Ac 5:38} And hence the chief priests and rulers took it as so exceedingly heinous that Paul was taken out of their hands by the chief captain. {#Ac 23:10} But God had a hand in it, that this and other types and scriptures might be fulfilled, that foretold the very manner of his death on a tree. Let the Jews stumble now at the cross, and fall backward. Let the Gentiles jeer us, as Lucian {a} doth, for that we deny the multitude of their gods, and yet believe in a crucified God, {b} Let us desire to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified; and if ever we desire to be kings in heaven, -and every man must be aut Caesar, aut nullus , a king or a captive, -let us seek by the eye of faith to see the Sun of Righteousness in the west (as Strato’s servant taught him): let us look upon Christ hanging on the cross, dying on that altar, and we shall live for ever.

{a} Ανασκολοπισμενον ( horreo dicere) σοφιστην προσκυνουνθες—In Vita Peregr.

{b} Omnis homo aut est cum Christo regnaturus, aut cum diabolo crucianduv .— Aug. Justin, lib. 18.

Ver. 7. Where is the lamb for a burnt offering.] Isaac was not to be told now what belonged to a sacrifice. He had been long since taught by his father what was to be done in the service of God. "When I was young, my father taught me," saith Solomon, {#Pr 4:4} so did his mother also, {#Pr 31} in her Lemuel’s lesson. Plantus tenellas frequentius adaquare proderit , saith Primasius. {a}

{a} Primas, in Philip. Greg. Moral., lib. xxvii cap. 14.

Ver. 8. God will provide himself a lamb.] A pious and precious proverb; {a} much to be mused on, and made use of, when we are in an exigent, and see not whither to turn us. Then say, Deus viderit . God will with the temptation also give an issue. {#1Co 10:13} Necesse est adesse divinum, ubi humanum cessat auxilium , saith Philo. Sciat etiam Celsitudo vestra , saith Luther in a letter to the Prince Elector of Saxony; {b} I would your Highness should well know that businesses are far otherwise carried and concluded in heaven than at the Diet at Noringberg, &c. And to Philip Melancthon he writes thus: Si nos ruemus, ruet Christus una, ille regnator mundi: et esto ruat, &c. Sed scribo haec frustra, quia tu secundum philosophiam vestram, has res ratione rogere, hoc est, ut ait ille, cum ratione insanire pergis, et occidis teipsum; nec vides prorsus extra manum tuam et consilium positam esse causam, etiam extra curam tuam velle agi. {c}

{a} Qui finxit alas papilioni, is curabit omnia .

{b} Scultet. Ann.

{c} Idem.

Ver 9. And they came to the place.] Mount Moriah; where the temple was afterwards built. {#2Ch 3:1} This was a little from Salem, as Mount Calvary also was a little from Jerusalem.

And bound Isaac his son.] Who struggled not, neither resisted, though able for his age (being twenty-five years old, as Josephus makes him; others thirty-three) to have overpowered his old father. He was acquainted with God’s counsel, saith Luther, wherein he rested. Yet he was bound, (1.) For that the rite of sacrifices so required; {#Ps 118:27} (2.) Lest any involuntary motion, by pangs of death, should be procured. Whence various of the martyrs, as Ridley, Rawlins, &c, desired to be bound fast to the stake, lest the flesh should play its part. Rawlins, when the smith cast a chain about him at the stake, "I pray you, good friend," said he, "knock in the chain fast; for it may be, that the flesh would strive mightily. But, God, of thy great mercy, give me strength and patience to abide the extremity." {a} Nature at death will have a bout with the best, whether he die as Elisha, slowly, or as Elijah, suddenly.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol 1415

Ver. 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, &c,] What painter in the world can possibly express the affection of Abraham, when thus he bound his son, and bent his sword? Surely that painter that set forth the sacrificing of Iphigenia, would also have drawn Abraham, as he did Agamemnon, with his face veiled; as not able to delineate his inconceivable grief. {a} But a man in Christ is more than a man, and can do that which other men cannot reach unto. It was a matter of blame to the carnal Corinthians, that "they walked as men". {#1Co 3:3} And our Saviour looks for some singular thing to be done to those that pretend to him. {#Mt 5:47} Abraham had denied himself in his beloved Isaac, and therefore went an end with his work, hard though it were. Another that hath not done so, shall find a heavy business of it, an unsupportable burden. Sozomon {b} tells of a certain merchant, whose two sons being taken captives and adjudged to die, he offered himself to die for them; and with this promised to give the soldiers all the gold he had. They, pitying the poor man’s calamity, allowed his request for one of his sons (which he would); but let them both escape they could not, because such a number must be put to death. The miserable man, therefore, looking at and lamenting both his sons, could not find in his heart to make choice of either, as overcome with an equal love to them both, but stood doubting and deliberating till they were both slain. At the siege of Buda in Hungary, there was among the German captains a nobleman, called Erkius Raschachius, whose son, a valiant young gentleman, being got out of the army without his father’s knowledge, bore himself so gallantly in fight against the enemy, in the sight of his father and the army, that he was highly commended of all men, and especially of his father that knew him not at all. Yet before he could clear himself, he was compassed in with the enemy, and, valiantly fighting, slain. Raschachius exceedingly moved with the death of so brave a man, ignorant how near he touched himself, turning about to the other captains, said, This noble gentleman, whosoever he be, is worthy of eternal commendation, and to be most honourably buried by the whole army. As the rest of the captains were with like compassion approving his speech, the dead body of the unfortunate son rescued, was presented to the most miserable father; which caused all them that were there present to shed tears. But such a sudden and inward grief surprised the aged father, and struck so to his heart, that after he had stood a while speechless with his eyes set in his head, he suddenly fell down dead, Anno Dom. 1541. {c}

And took the knife to slay his son.] The apostle with, he did offer him up a slain sacrifice. {#Heb 11:17} God took it in as good part as if indeed he had done it, because he would have done it. Every man is so good before God, as he truly desires to be. In vitae libro scribuntur omnes, qui quod possunt faciunt, etsi quod debent, non possunt , saith one father. {d} And another, {e} Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est. Ambulas, si amas. Non enim passibus ad Deum sed affectibus currimus. Tantum velis, et Deus tibi praeoccuret, saith a third. {f}

{a} Aspice vultus Ecce meos, utinamoque oculos in pectora posses Inserere .— Sol Phaetonti, apud Ovid.

{b} Sozomon, 1. c. 24.

{c} Turkish Hist.

{d} Bernard.

{e} Augustine.

{f} Basil.

Ver. 11. And said, Abraham, Abraham!] Twice, for haste’s sake: yet not at all till the very instant. When the knife was up, the Lord came. God delights to bring his people to the mount, yea, to the very brow of the hill, till their feet slip, and then delivers them. He reserves his holy hand for a dead lift. Only be sure you look to your calling; for it was otherwise with Jephthah, {#Jud 11:1} whom St Augustine calls facinorosum et improbum , a lewd and naughty man, in his questions upon the Old Testament. What then would he have said to Thomas the Anabaptist, who beheaded his brother Leonard, in the sight of his parents, at Sangal in France, Anno 1526, pretending the example of Abraham? {a} As did likewise those odious idolaters of old, that offered their children in sacrifice to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom; which was so called, because the poor child put into the arms of the red-hot image, was סהנ, nohem, that is, roaring; or because the priests comforting the parents said, Jehenneh lach. "It shall be profitable or pleasant to thee," as Kimchi hath it. {b} So, because Abraham planted a grove to serve God in, {#Ge 21:33} the devil, God’s ape, set the blind heathens a work to plant a thicket near the altar of their god Priapus, whereinto his worshippers stepped when the sacrifice was ended, and there, like brute beasts promiscuously satisfied their lusts, thereby, as they conceived, best pleasing their god; which was the true cause, as it seems, that the true God commanded that no groves should be planted near the place of his worship; and if any were, they should be cut down.

{a} Stumpt., lib. v.

{b} Condimentum erit tibi .— Falkut in Jerem.

Ver. 12. Lay not thine hand upon the lad.] As he was about to do, having armed his pious hand, not only with the knife, but with faith that works by love; as had likewise David, when going against the giant, he flies upon him, perinde ac si fundae suae tunicis non lapillum, sed Deum ipsum induisset ac implicuisset. {a}

Now I know that thou fearest me.] With a fear of love (Hoses iii. 5). And here that of Fulgentius is true, and taketh place. Deum sique parum metuit, valde contemnit; huius qui non memorat beneficentiam, auget iniuriam . God knew Abraham’s fear before, but now he made experience of it. Nunc expertus sum , saith Junius. Nunc omnibus declarasti , saith Chrysostom.

{a} Bucholcer.

Ver. 13. Behold, behind him a ram.] Be like the angel called behind him; which when he turned to listen to, he spied the ram caught in a thicket, Heb., Sabbech, which signifies the perplexity; winding or binding of a bush or brier. And to this both David seems to allude, {#Ps 116:19} and the son of David in that famous "Lama Sabachthani" of his. {#Mr 15:34}

And Abraham went and took the ram, &c.] How likely is it, saith one, {a} that we will offer to God Isaac, our joy, who will not sacrifice the ram; that is, mortify our sinful lusts, and the desires of our flesh! God tempteth us now, saith Mr Philpot, martyr, as he did our father Abraham—commanding him to slay his son Isaac, which by interpretation signifieth mirth and joy—who by his obedience preserved Isaac unto life, and offered a ram in his stead. Similarly, we are to sacrifice to God, our Isaac; that is, our joy and consolation; which if we be ready to do, our joy shall not perish, but live and be increased: although our ram be sacrificed; that is, the pride and concupiscence of our flesh entangled, through sin, with the cares of this stinging world, for the preservation and perfect augmentation of our mirth and joy, sealed up for us in Christ. Thus he. {b} And as God provided another sacrifice, saith a third, {c} for Abraham, that so he might save his son, which was a ram tied and entangled in thorns: so God provided a sacrifice for the salvation of the world, Christ that immaculate Lamb; whose head being crowned with thorns, and hanging on the cross, by his death opened unto us the door, and made us capable of eternal happiness. It is probable, saith Bucholcerus, that Abraham, when he slew and sacrificed the ram, looked up to heaven with new eyes full of divine light; and that being filled with the Spirit of God, and carried beyond himself, he thought of more things, he felt more, he seemed to see and hear more than was possible to be uttered. Ipse Deus quodammodo expositurus, et declaraturus Abrahae actionis praesentis augustam significationem, et manu eum ducturus ad introspicienda huius sacrificii sui adyta, promissionem de Christo repetit, et iureiurando confirmat .{ d}

{a} Bastard’s Serm. on #Ge 22:1.

{b} Act. and Mon., 1667.

{c} Itinerar. Scripturae , fol. 99.

{d} Bucholc. in Chronol., p. 187.

Ver. 14. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.] God will be found of his in fit time and place. "To him belong the issues of death". {#Ps 68:20} None can take us out of his hands. He knows how to deliver his, and when; as Peter spake feelingly. {#2Pe 2:9 Ac 12:11}

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh.] To perpetuate the memory of God’s mercy; not of his own obedience, which yet was notable, and not to be matched again. If we honour God, we shall have honour: that is a bargain of God’s own making. {#1Sa 2:31}

Ver. 15. And the angel of the Lord.] Who stood, as a spectator and applauder of Abraham’s heroical faith and transcendent obedience. Spectant Dii magnos viros, cum calamitate colluctantes. Ecce spectaculum, ad quod respiciat operi suo intentus Deus , saith Seneca of Cato, {a} and other gallant Roman spirits. Jehovahjireh, in the precedent verse, signifies, the Lord doth see; as if it had been a sight, that God and his angels came down to look upon.

{a} Lib. de Provid., cap. 2.

Ver. 16. By myself have I sworn.] God swears for the further confirmation of our faith. For here he swore, not more for Abraham’s sake, than ours, as the apostle shows. {#Heb 6:13,14,17,18} As when he spake with Jacob at Penuel, "there he spake with us"; {#Ho 12:4} and what he said to Joshua, he said to all, "I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee". {#Heb 13:5}

And hast not withheld thy son, thine only son.] And yet what was this to that sic without a sicut that hyperbole, that excess of love in God, that moved him to send his Son to die for our sins? He loved Christ far better than Abraham could love Isaac; and yet he gave him up freely, which Abraham would never have done without a command and to die as a malefactor, and by the hands of barbarous and bloody enemies; whereas Isaac was to die as a holy sacrifice, and by the hand of a tender father. How much more cause have we to say, Now I know the Lord loves me: and to swear as David did, to "keep his righteous judgments". {#Ps 119:106}

Ver. 17. Shall possess the gate,] i.e., Both their strength and government.

Ver. 18. Because thou hast obeyed.] This "because" is not so much causal, as rational. Significat non causam meritoriam, sed subalternam, et sine qua non .

Ver. 19. Went together to Beersheba.] The Hebrews conceive, because here is no mention of Isaac’s return, that he was sent by his father to Shem, or that he remained for certain years in Mount Moriah. But this is uncertain.

Ver. 20. It was told Abraham.] Good news out of a far country; God usually cheers up his children after sharpest trials; brings them, as once, from Marah to Elim, &c.

Ver. 21. Buz.] Of whom came (likely) Elihu the Buzite, {See Trapp on "Job 32:2"} as of Huz some say Job came.

Ver. 22. Bethuel.] Of whom {See Trapp on "Ge 24:15"}

Ver. 23. And Bethuel begat Rebekah.] Rebekah is born; Sarah dies: thus one generation passeth, and another cometh. Our children are the Danes that drive us out of the country.

Ver. 24. His concubine.] Or half-wife, as the word signifies; one that was between a servant and a wife.

Chapter 23

Ver. 1. And Sarah was a hundred, &c.] It is observed by divines, that God thought not fit to tell us of the length of the life of any woman in Scripture, but Sarah, to humble that sex, that because they were first in bringing in death, deserved not to have the continuance of their lives recorded by God’s pen.

Ver. 2. And Sarah died.] The Jews would persuade us that the devil represented to her the offering of Isaac, whereat she took sick and died. This is but a mere conceit of theirs; for Abraham then dwelt at Beersheba, now at Hebron.

And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah.] So she was the first that we read of mourned for at death; and it is mentioned as an honour to her. Solon’s Mors mea ne careat lachrymis , is to be preferred before Ennius’s Nemo me decoret lachrymis . It is one of the dues of the dead, {a} to be lamented at their funerals; and the want of it is threatened as a curse in many scriptures. It is a practice warranted by the best in all ages; and mourn we may in death of friends, so we mourn (1.) in truth, and not feignedly; (2.) in measure, and not as men without hope. For the first, how grossly did Tiberius dissemble at the death of Augustus, {b} and at the funeral of Drusus! Whereupon Tacitus makes his note, Vana et irrisa vero et honesto fidem adimunt . So when Julius Caesar wept over Pompey’s head, presented to him in Egypt, they that saw it, laughed in their sleeves, {c} and held them no better than crocodile’s tears. So the mourning that Nero and his mother made over the Emperor Claudius, whose death they had conspired and effected, was deep dissimulation. {d} This is no less hateful, than to mourn heartily, but yet immoderately, is unlawful. Here Jacob forgat himself, when so overgrown with grief for his Joseph, {#Ge 37:35} and Rachel for the rest of their children, that they would not be comforted. {#Jer 31:15} So David for his Absalom: Alexander the Great for his friend Hephestion; when he not only clipped his horses’ and mules’ hair, but plucked down also the battlements of the walls of the city, &c. The soldiers of Pelopidas {e} were no less excessive, when for grief of his death they would neither unbridle their horses, nor untie their armour, nor dress their wounds. Something here may be yielded to nature, nothing to impatience. Immoderate sorrow for losses past hope of recovery is more sullen than useful. Our stomach may be bewrayed by it, not our wisdom. The Egyptians mourned seventy days for Jacob: Joseph (who had more cause, but with it more grace) mourned but twenty days. God flatly forbade his people those heathenish customs, of shaving their heads and cutting their flesh, {#Le 21:1} in token of mourning for the dead. We read in the gospel of minstrels and people making a noise {f} at the terming-house, as they call it. {#Mt 9:23} And the Jews that were comforting Mary, when they saw her rise up hastily and go forth, followed her, saying, "She goeth unto the grave to weep there". {#Joh 11:31} Such customs, it seems, they had in those days among them, to provoke themselves to weeping and lamentation; which was, saith one, {g} as if they that have the dropsy should eat salt meats. How much better father Abraham here, who came indeed from his own tent to Sarah’s, to mourn for her (as good reason he had), but exceeded not, as the Jews think is signified by that one letter less than ordinary in the Hebrew word for weep (Libcothah) used here in the text. {Hebrew Text Note} Baal-turim gives but a bald reason of it: Parum flevit; erat enim vetula ; Abraham wept not much for her, she being but an old wife, and past her best. Buxtorf gives a better: Potius quia luctus eius fuit moderatus . And therefore also in the next verse it is said, that he stood up from before his dead—where in likelihood he had sat a while on the earth, as was the manner of mourners to do {#Job 2:12,13 Isa 47:1} -to take order for her burial, as having good hopes of a glorious resurrection. Excellent for our purpose is that of St Jerome, Lugeatur mortuus, sed ille quem Gehenna suscipit, quem Tartarns devorat, in cuius poenam aeternus ignis aestuat. Nos, quorum exitum Angelorum turba comitatur, quibus obviam Christus occurret, &c., gravemur magis, si diutius in tabernaculo isto habitemus . Mourn for none, but such as are dead in their sins, killed with death, as those in #Re 2:23.

{a} Hinc νομιζομενα, et Iusta defunctorim .

{b} Testamentum Augusti praelegit tanto simulato gemitu, ut non modo vox, sed et spiritus deficeret .

{c} Επι μεν τη προσποιησει ταυτη γελωτη ωφλισκανε.

{d} Eum se lugere simulabant quem necaverant .— Dio in Claud.

{e} Plutar. in Vita Pelop.

{f} #Mr 5:38; Αλαλαζοντας, vel Ολολυζοντες; ut #Jas 5:1.

{g} Perinde ac si intercute laborantes falsamenta comederent -Cartur.

Ver. 3. And Abraham stood up from before his dead.] So she is called eight several times in this chapter; to note that death makes not any such divorce between godly couples and friends, but that there remains still a blessed conjunction between them, which is founded in the hope of a happy resurrection. {a} Job’s children were still his, even after they were dead and buried. How else could it be said, that God "gave Job twice as much of everything as he had before," {#Job 42:10,13 1:2} since he had afterwards but his first number of children, viz., "seven sons and three daughters"?

{a} Pareus, in loc.

Ver. 4. That I may bury my dead out of my sight.] She that had been "the desire of his eyes," {#Eze 24:16} the sweet companion of his life, is by death so defaced, that he loathes to look on her. This we are to think on in our mourning for the dead; to bewail the common curse of mankind, the defacing of God’s image by death through sin, &c. And yet to comfort ourselves in this, that these "vile bodies" of ours, shall once be "conformed to Christ’s glorious body," {#Php 3:21} the standard in incorruption, agility, beauty, brightness, and other most blessed and inconceivable parts and properties.

Ver. 5. And the children of Heth answered Abraham.] "With good words and comfortable". {as #Zec 1:13} "Be pitiful, be courteous". {#1Pe 3:8}

Ver. 6. Thou art a prince of God amongst us.] That is, excellent or prosperous, as #Ge 21:22; and it was their ingenuity and candour to acknowledge it. God’s people are "princes in all lands" {#Ps 45:16} Kings they are in righteousness and peace; but somewhat obscure ones, as was Melehizedek, and therefore little set by. {#1Jo 3:1,2} Unkent, unkist, as the northern proverb is. So was Christ the heir of all. But "we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him"; that is enough for us. In the meantime, "the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour" (let him dwell by whomsoever), and shall be more prosperous, if it may be for his good.

Ver. 7. Abraham stood up and bowed himself, &c.] It is very comely in Christians to salute willingly; and in words and gestures to show civil respect even to wicked men. Abraham’s behaviour to these Hittites may shame the most Christians; yea, the very Hittites themselves may teach them good manners. Even the savage cannibals, saith a grave divine, {a} may receive an answer of outward courtesy. If a very dog fawn upon us, we stroke him on the head, and clap him on the side. Much less is the common band of humanity untied by grace. If Elisha bade his man, or our Saviour his disciples, salute no man by the way, that was for haste’s sake; they should not hinder themselves in their journey by overmuch courtesy. Our Saviour was sweet and sociable in his whole conduct, and the proud Pharisees upbraided him for it. He never refused to go to any man’s table when invited, yea, to Zaccheus’ he invited himself, not for the pleasure of the dishes, but for the benefit of so winning a conversation. Courtesy allureth men’s minds, as fair flowers do their eyes. Pomponius Atticus so carried himself at Athens, ut communis infimis, par principibus videretur. {b} Alexander the Great, got the hearts of his foot soldiers, by calling them pezetairouv , his fellow footmen, {c} Aristotle, the better to insinuate into his hearers, read not to them (as other philosophers used to do) from a lofty seat or desk, but walking and talking with them familiarly, as with his friends, in Apollo’s porch, he made them great philosophers. {d} Vespasian was as highly esteemed by the people for his courtesy, as Coriolanus contemned and condemned of all for his rusticity. With one churlish breath Rehoboam lost ten tribes, whom he would, and might not, recover with his blood. But whatsoever David did pleased the people. What a deal of courtesy passed between Boaz and his reapers! "The Lord be with you," said he; "The Lord bless thee," said they. {#Ru 2:4} The Turks’ salutation at this day is, Salaum aleek, Peace be to thee: the reply is, Aleek salaum, Peace be to thee also. {e} The Romans had their χαιρς and their υγιαινε, answerable to our Good day, and Good evening. {f} That finger next to the thumb they called Salutaris, because they put that finger to their mouth (as at this day the Roman dames do) when they saluted any. {g} Charles V is renowned for his courtesy: when he passed by John Frederick the elector of Saxony, he always took off his hat and bowed to him, though he were his prisoner, and had been taken by him in battle. And when he had in his power Melancthon, Pomeran, and other divines of the reformed religion, he courteously dismissed them. {h} As he is the best Christian that is most humble; so is he the truest gentleman that is most courteous. Your haughty upstarts, the French call gentle-villains.

{a} Dr Hall.

{b} Corn. Nepos in Vita Attici.

{c} Harpocrat. in voce πεζεταιρος.

{d} των διδασκαλικων επιβεβηκοτες θρονων.—Diog.

{e} Blount’s Voyage into the Levant.

{f} Dio in Vita Adriani.

{g} Becman., De Origin. in verbo Digitus .

{h} Parei Hist. Profan. Medul., p. 906.—Peacham’s Complete Gentaleman.

Ver. 8. If it be your mind that I should bury my dead.] Alexander the Great lay unburied thirty days together. His conquests above ground purchased him no title for habitation underground. So Pompey the Great,

“ Nidus pascit aves, iacet in qui possidet orbem,

Exiguae telluris inops .”— Claudian.

Ut cui modo ad victoriam terra defuerat, deesset ad sepulturam , saith Paterculus. So William the Conqueror’s corpse lay unburied for three days; his interment being hindered by one that claimed the ground to be his. {a} Abraham therefore doth well to make sure of a place of sepulture for him and his; and this at Hebron—which signifieth society or conjunction—for there lay those reverend couples, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, &c. These died upon the Promised Land, and being there buried, kept possession, as it were, for their posterity; as those that are dead in Christ do of heaven, for the saints that survive them. Sepulchres are symbols of the communion of saints, and of the resurrection of the dead. Hence the Hebrews call church yards Bethchajim, the house of the living. {b} Job also calls the grave "the congregation house of all living". {#Job 30:23} As the apostle after him calleth heaven "the congregation house of the firstborn". {#Heb 12:23} The Hebrews call it gnolam hammalachim, the world of angels; and the author to the Hebrews, saith that the saints are come by Christ "to an innumerable company of angels". {πανηγυριν, #Heb 12:23} When godly men die, they are said to be gathered to their people. They do no more than repatriasse , as Bernard hath it; they are not put out of service, but removed only out of one room into another, out of the outter houses into the presence chamber. They change their place, but not their company, as good Dr Preston said upon his death bed. They are gathered by Christ’s hand, as lilies, {#So 6:2} and transplanted into the Paradise of God. And this, Plotinus the Philosopher had a notion of, when breathing his last, he said, That in me that is divine, I resign up to the First Divine, that is, to God. {c} As for the body it is but the case, the cabinet, the suit, the slough, the sheath of the soul, as Daniel calleth it. Scaligeri quod reliquum est ,{ d} was Julius Scaliger’s epitaph. It returns to its original dust, and is sown as seed in the ground till the resurrection. {#1Co 15:35}

{a} Daniel’s Chron., fol. 50.

{b} Veteres sepulchrum mortuorum domicilium credebant, et portum corporis appellabant .— Turneb.

{c} το εν εμοι θειον αναγω επι το πρωτογονον θειον.—Synes., epist. 139.

{d} λειψανα.

Ver. 9. For a possession of a burying place.] It is remarkable that the first purchase of possession mentioned in Scripture, was a place to bury in, not to build in. The Jews also had their sepulchres hewn out long before their deaths, to mind them of their mortality. Joseph of Arimathea had his tomb in his garden, to season his delights with the meditation of his end. The Egyptians had a death’s head carried about the table at their feasts. The emperors of Constantinople had a mason who came to them on their Coronation Day with choice of tomb stones, and these verses in his mouth—

“ Elige ab his saxis ex quo (invictissime Caesar)

Ipse tibi tumulum me fabricare velis .”

Our first parents, saith one, {a} made them garments of fig leaves; but God, misliking that, gave them garments of skins. So in the gospel he cursed the fig tree, which did bear only leaves to cover our sin, but commended the Baptist who did wear skins to discover our mortality.

{a} Dr Playfair.

Ver. 10. And Ephron dwelt.] Or, was sitting, sc., as a city counsellor.

Ver. 11. The field give I thee, &c.] A brave speech of a bountiful spirit, to a stranger especially; and in that respect beyond that of Araunah the noble Jebusite to David, his liege lord; "All these things did Araunah as a king give to the king". {#2Sa 24:23} Indeed, to give is a kingly employment; making men like to "the Father of lights, from whom comes every good gift and perfect giving". {#Jas 1:17} Kings are styled benefactors; {a} and of the ancient kings of Egypt it is recorded, and was rehearsed among other of their praises, that they were ευμεταδοτοι, και κοινωνικοι, "willing to distribute, ready to communicate," which are the apostle’s two words in #1Ti 6:18. Cyrus took more delight in giving than possessing, as his soldiers could say of him in Xenophon. {b} It is not only better, but sweeter to do good, than to receive good, said Epicurus. {c} It is a "more blessed" thing, saith our Saviour. Titus would say, when he had done no good, he had lost a day: et molestius erat Severo Imperatori nihil peti, quam dare . Our General Norrice, like that Bishop of Lincoln, never thought he had that thing, which he did not give. Few such now-a-days.

{a} ευεργεκαι.—Diodor. Sic., lib. i. {#Lu 22:25}

{b} Διδους μαλλον η κτωμενος ηδεται

{c} του ευ παχειν το ευ ποιειν, ου καλλιον μονον αλλα κια ηδιον.—Epicur.

Ver. 12. Abraham bowed down himself.] Civil courtesy is a Christian duty. Religion teacheth not a severe austerity of carriage, or rusticity; but humanity and a genuine affection.

Ver. 13. I will give thee money.] Full money, as he had said, {#Ge 23:7} or as much money as it is worth. Such is the care of the conscientious, that they had rather lose of their own, than usurp of another’s. And that he gives a just price for the field, was an act of great wisdom; for hereby he provided that his posterity might not hereafter be put beside it.

Ver. 14, 15. What is that between me and thee?] Who both are great friends, and well underlaid. See a like kind contestation between David and Araunah, #2Sa 24:22,23.

Ver. 16. In the audience of the sons of Heth.] Whom he takes to witness, and so provideth for his security and quietness afterwards; as did also Jeremiah in the purchase of his uncle’s field. Wisdom and circumspection are to be used in contracts and covenants.

Current with the merchant.] It may well be said of money hoarders, they have no quicksilver, no current money.

Ver. 17. Which was in Machpelah.] Where was a double cave, one within another: and haply one for men, and another for women. This was not that purchased burying place whereof Stephen spake, {#Ac 7:16} for that was in Sychem, this in Hebron; that was bought of Emor the father of Sychem, this of Ephron.

Ver. 18. Unto Abraham for a possession.] Thus Abraham, as a purchaser, had some land in Canaan; but not as possessed of it by God’s gift, which is St Stephen’s sense. {#Ac 7:5}

Ver. 19. And Abraham buried Sarah his wife.] The last office of love to bring the deceased saints honourably to their "long home," {#Ec 12:5} to lay them in their last "bed," {#Isa 57:2} to put them into the grave, as into a haven and harbout, where they may rest from their labours, "till their change shall come." {#Job 14:14} This is to "deal kindly with the dead"; {#Ru 1:8} "to show mercy to them," {#2Sa 2:5} especially when "the mourners go about the streets," {#Ec 12:5} when there is a "great mourning made over them," as for Stephen, {#Ac 8:2} and a "great burning for them," as for Asa, {#2Ch 16:14} -of whom also it is further added, as an honour, that he was "buried in his own sepulchre, which he had dug for himself among the kings of Israel in the city of David, and laid in the bed that was filled with sweet odours," &c. Of Joram, Joas, and Ahaz, it is expressly noted in the Chronicles, that they were buried in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. A worse place was thought good enough for them, unless they had been better. As of Tiberius the emperor it is storied, that he was so hated for his tyranny, that when he was dead, some of the people would have had him thrown into the river Tiber; {a} some, hanged up at such another place as Tyburn. Others also made prayer to mother Earth, to grant him, now dead, no place but among the wicked. {b} Contrarily when Dio died, the people of Syracuse would have gladly redeemed his life with their own blood; which because they could not, they buried him very honourably in an eminent place of their city. {c} Whereas anciently, as Lambinus well noteth, {d} kings and princes, in Homer and other poets, are not read to have been buried, but without the gates, somewhere in the fields and gardens; as the patriarchs also were, looking for the return of that everlasting spring.

{a} Scalae Gemoniae, a place in Rome where condemned persons were cast down from a pair of stairs into the Tiber.—Ainsworth.

{b} Quidam etiam Terrain matrem orarent, &c. -Pareus.

{c} Cornel. Nepos in Vita Dionis.

{d} Dionys. Lambin. in Annot. ad locum.

Ver. 20. Were made sure] sc., by witnesses, without writings: but now it is hard to be sure of anything; there is so much robbery and rapine amongst the sons of men.

Chapter 24

Ver. 1. And Abraham was old.] Non tam canis et annis, quam virtutibus et sapientia gravis , as one saith of Atticus. {a} Abraham had a good gray head, as it is elsewhere said of him: hence, so honoured not only at home, but by the Hittites. {#Ge 23:6} Cognata sunt γνρας et γερας ( ut ηθος et εθος), old age and honour are near akin in the Greek tongue. And God bids, "honour the face of the old man"; {#Le 19:32} for the hoary head is a crown, so that it be found in the way of righteousness. God is called "the Ancient of days": and, because "holy," therefore "reverend is his name," as saith the psalmist. {#Ps 111:9} But it is a poor praise to Nectarius, who succeeded Nazianzen in the church of Antioch, that he was veneranda canitie et vultu sacerdote digno, a comely old man, and of a bishop like visage, and that was all that could be said for him. {b}

{a} Beurer. in Vita Attici.

{b} Si prolixa faeit sapientem barba, quid obstat barbatus posset quin caper esse Plato? -Baron. Annal.

Ver. 2. Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh.] Either as a token of subjection, or for the honour of circumcision, quae erat in parte femoris; q.d., I adjure thee by the Lord of the covenant, whereof circumcision is a sign. Or (which is most likely) in reference to Christ, who was to come of Abraham, according to that phrase. "The souls that came out of Jacob’s thigh". {#Ge 46:26}

Ver. 3. I will make thee swear by the Lord.] Who alone is the proper object of an oath. {#Isa 65:16} Howbeit, in lawful contracts with an infidel or idolater, we may allow such oaths, whereby they swear by false gods; as those of old, that swore by God and Malcom; and the Turks’ great oath now-a-days is, By the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mohammed, by his father’s soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he is girt, &c. {a}

That thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, & c.] Lest they should "turn away" his heart "from following God," {#De 7:3,4} as those "foreign wives" did Solomon, {#Ne 13:26} whom therefore God Almighty punished both in himself and his successor Rehoboam, his only son (that we read of) by so many wives and concubines; and he was none of the wisest, nor happiest: tam auspicata sunt coniugia contra Dei legem contracta, saith the divine chronologer. "Be not unequally yoked," {#2Co 6:14} therefore, with any untamed heifer that bears not Christ’s yoke. If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we disregard it in our most important choice? I wish Manoah could speak so loud, saith a reverend divine, {b} that all our Israelites might hear him. "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all God’s people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" {#Jud 14:3} What is the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant (yet here they will); but in hope to draw more to them? For they well know what power wives many times get over their husbands, as Jezebel did over Ahab; the hen was suffered to crow, and all went as she would have it. And therefore the Legates in the Council of Trent were blamed for allowing the article of priests’ marriage to be disputed, as dangerous, {c} because it is plain that married priests will turn their affections and love to wife and children; and, by consequence, to their house and country. So that the strict dependence that the clergy hath upon the apostolic See would cease: and to grant marriage to priests would destroy the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and make the Pope to be Bishop of Rome only.

{a} Turk. Hist., 345.

{b} Dr Hall

{c} History of Council of Trent. 680.

Ver. 4. But thou shalt go unto my country, &c.] Nahor’s stock were neither pure in religion nor precise in life, {#Jos 24:2 Ge 31:30} yet far better in both than those cursed Canaanites. Some knowledge they retained of the true God, of whom they speak much in this chapter, and concerning whom they hear Eliezer here relating how he had answered his prayer, and prospered his journey. And for their manners, we find them hospitable, and their daughter, though fair, yet a pure virgin. Now,

“Lis est, cure forma, magna pudicitiae.”

Like unto these are the Greek Church at this day, which is far greater than the Roman: and though in some points unsound, and in others very superstitious, yet holdeth sufficient for salvation. Cyril, their good patriarch of Constantinople, set forth the confession of the faith of those Eastern churches anno 1629, agreeable in all things for most part to the reformed Protestant religion, but diametrically opposite to that they call the Roman Catholic. He is also busy about a general reformation among them, and hath done much good. {a}

{a} Brerewood’s Enquiries, p. 139.—Bp. Ussher’s Ser. at Wanstead.—-D. Field, Of the Church.—Jac. Revius, De Vit. Pontif., p. 320.

Ver. 5. Peradventure the woman, &c.] He swears cautiously, he doth not rashly rush upon his oath; he swears not in jest, but in judgment. So must we, {#Jer 4:2} duly considering the conditions and circumstances; as the nature of an oath, the matter whereabout, the person by whom, and before whom, the time, the place, our calling, and warrant thereunto. "Be not rash"; {#Ec 5:2} the best that can come of that is repentance, that fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother. {a} Swear not in heat and choler, as David did when he was going against Nabal; but soon after blessed Abigail for better counsel. Swear not in jest, lest you go to hell in earnest. {#Jas 5:12} Swear not petty oaths, those civilised compliments, and interjections of common talk, Faith and truth, &c. Thou must not swear by thy hairs, thou canst not make one of them white or black; much less by faith and truth, that is more worth than hairs. Remember that large roll, ten yards long, and five yards broad, full of curses against the swearer. {#Zec 5:2} And it rests upon his house, where he thinks himself most secure. When we are called to take a lawful oath, we must be reverently affected (as this good servant in the text), according to the excellency of the duty, and greatness of the person, whom we attest and invocate. The ancient form of taking and imposing an oath was, "Give glory to God". {#Jos 7:19 Joh 9:24} And he that took the oath was said to "confess to God". {#Isa 45:23 Ro 14:11} Therefore also St Paul, in swearing, useth a word of attention, and saith "Behold," I speak it "before God". {#Ga 1:20} Louis the French king was taken prisoner by Meletisaka the Sultan; and conditions of peace being concluded between them, for more assurance thereof, the Sultan offered to swear, if he failed in performance of anything, to renounce his Mohammed; requiring likewise of the king to swear, if he failed in anything that he had promised, to deny his Christ to be God: which profane oath the king detesting, and wishing rather to die than to give the same, the Sultan wondering at his constancy, took his word without any oath at all, and so published the league. {b} As on the other side, King John of England, being overcome in his barons’ wars, when he sent ambassadors to the monarch of Morocco for aid, offering to swear fidelity to him, and to receive the law of Mohammed, he grew into such a dislike of our king, that ever after he abhorred the mention of him. {c}

{a} εχθρου πατρος φιλτατον τεκνον; as the Romans, in Plutarch, said of Pompey.

{b} Turk. Hist.

{c} Heyl., Geog., p. 714.

Ver. 6. That thou bring not my son thither again.] Where yet he had never been, but in his father’s loins. He would not his son should part with the Promised Land for any outward accommodations. "Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into God’s rest, any of us should seem to come short, to fail back, or be left behind". {υστερηκεναι, #Heb 4:1} Take we all heed lest, for our lingering and hankering after the flesh pots of Egypt, God carry us back again into Egypt, which was the last and greatest curse threatened against the people of Israel, and is the greatest misery that can come upon this nation. {#De 28:68}

Ver. 7. He shall send his angel.] There are myriads of angels, {#Da 7:10} and all sent out for the solace and safe conduct of the saints. {#Heb 1:14} Oh, the dignity and safety of a child of God!

Thou shalt take a wife.] He argues from what God hath done for him, to what he will do. Every former favour is a pledge of a future. Thou hast, thou wilt, is a Scripture demonstration. {see #Ps 85:1-4} Six thou hasts; whereupon he infers and enforceth his, "Turn us, O God of our salvation," &c.

Ver. 8. Only bring not my son thither again.] This second time he lays charge on his servant not to do it. Better no wife, than displease God, than violate conscience. He purchaseth his pleasure at too dear a rate, that pays his honesty to get it. He hath less of the ballast, and more of the sail, makes more haste than good speed, that thus speeds himself.

Ver. 9. And the servant put his hand., &c.] That, and the lifting up of the hand to heaven, {#Ge 14:22} was the ceremony of old, as now it is, laying the hand upon the book. Let it be what it will, if not wicked, we need not scruple it. Henry III of England, undertaking the crusade, in taking his oath laid his right hand on his breast (according i to the manner of a priest, saith the history); {a} and after on the book, and kissed it as a layman. The Moors, when they swear to be faithful to any, put their swords to their own throats. {b} At the siege of Norwich by Ket and his complices in Edward VI’s time, the Earl of Warwick, general for the king, drew his sword, and caused others to do the like; and (according to a soldierly custom in cases of extremity) by interchange of a kiss by everyone of them upon the swords of others, they bound themselves, as by an oath, to maintain the place? {c}

{a} Daniel’s Chro.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 747.

{c} Life of Edward VI., by Sir Jo. Heywood, p. 75.

Ver. 10. Took ten camels.] Creatures that are famous for their swiftness, strength, hardiness; for they will travel, they say, three days together, without water, which, in those hot countries, is in many places hard to come by. Sir Francis Drake in his travels {a} tells us of certain sheep in America as large as a cow, and replacing horses for burden or travel. The mule, they say, must have the bag hang by his mouth; so must some, the pipe or the pot at their elbows.

{a} World Encomp., p. 55.

Ver. 11. And he made his camels to kneel down.] Or, rest themselves, as the Greek interprets it. A good man is merciful to his beast; {#Pr 12:10} but the poor "creature groaneth and travaileth in pain" {#Ro 8:22} under our abuses.

Ver. 12. And he said, O Lord God.] Begin we all our enterprizes with prayer. God may give good success without, but it will be nothing so sweet. See therefore that,

“Hoc primum repetas opus, hoc postremus omittas.”—Hor., epis. 6. l. 48.

Ver. 13. And the daughters, &c.] So did Rachel, and those in Deborah’s song, that rehearsed the acts of the Lord at the places of drawing water; {#Jud 5:11} and Jethro’s daughters, though he were prince of Median. Oh, the simplicity and plainness of those times! They that plead Rebekah’s ornaments for their garish attire, would be loath to take her office—to be at the pains that she was.

Ver. 14. Drink, and I will give thy camels, &c.] This argued a good nature, a kind, courteous disposition; which therefore may be he singled out as a token of a suitable wife, as a thing especially to be looked at in a wife. Good dispositions sanctified, become more useful, because more amiable; and so more graceful to the gospel, and powerful with others. As if not yet sanctified, yet there is more hopes they may be. For where a good nature is, the soul is a plain, smooth board, whereon a painter may more easily draw a picture: and a harsh crabbed nature, is as a board full of knots, and rugged, whereon the artificer cannot so well show his workmanship. And though the power of God will show itself wherever he intends to make a vessel of mercy, yet it is with more ado; and will cost a man the more sorrow, and him that hath the working of it the more pains. {a}

{a} See Mr Valent’s Fast. Serm.

Ver. 15. Before he had done speaking.] So quick is God, many times, in the answer of prayers. {#Isa 65:24 Da 9:23} The angel had even tired himself with flight, to tell Daniel that his prayers were heard. David did but say, "I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord"; and before he could do it, "God forgave the iniquity of his sin". {#Ps 32:5}

Rebekah came out.] She took her name, saith one, as it may seem, from the expectation of eternal life. For Rebekah denoteth a woman which expecteth a free delivery from all calamity, and an inheritance of eternal life. Therefore, she is a notable type of the Church, which is the spouse of Christ shadowed in Isaac. {a}

{a} Itinerar. Script., p. 97.

Ver. 16. And the damsel was very fair.] Καλη και σοφη, Fair and wise, as it was said of Aspasia Milesia. {a} Here beauty was not ill-bestowed, as a gold ring in a swine’s snout, but (as the history {b} reports of the Lady Jane Gray) adorned with all variety of moral virtues, as a clear sky with stars, as a princely diadem with jewels. Beauty is of itself very attractive, as the poet hath it. {c} For which cause, Heraclonas, the young emperor of Constantinople, being sent into banishment, together with Martina his mother, had his nose cut off, lest his beauty should move the people to pity. And Angli tanquam Angeli, said Gregory the Great, of the English boys presented to him. How much more when accompanied and accomplished with chastity, as in this damsel. {d}

A virgin, neither had any man known her.] This latter clause is added, because many pass for virgins that are not so; if that of the poet be true, especially

“Quae, quia non licuit, non facit, illa facit.”—Ovid.

And that of the orator, {e} Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit. The Romans cashiered a vestal virgin for uttering this verse—

“Foelices nuptae! moriar, nisi nubere dulce est.”

The strumpet when she eats stolen bread, hath such dexterity in wiping her lips, that not the least crumb shall be seen to her shame. So that Solomon shows it to be as hard to find it out, "As the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid," {#Pr 30:18-20} that is a close and chaste virgin; one that should be chaste at least, as being kept close from the access of strangers.

Filled her pitcher, and came up.] Here was no tarrying, gazing, gossiping. Not slothful in business. {#Ro 12:11} She had not been delicately or wantonly bred, but inured to hard labour, and she followed it closely. Thucydides scribit Lacedaemoniis πατριος γεγονεναι εκ στων τονων τας αρετας κταθαι. {f}

{a} Aelian, Var. Hist., lib. xii., cap. 1.

{b} Life of Edward VI., p. 176.

{c} Οττι καλον φιλον εστι.—Bucholcer.

{d} Αγνεια ab αγνος, quod ab ανος veneratio. Sic castus quasi καστος, ornatus.

{e} Senec., in Declama.

{f} Thucyd., lib. ii.

Ver. 17. And the servant ran to meet her.] For although he was at the well before, praying, {#Ge 24:13} yet, having stood at a distance till she had done drawing, he now ran to meet her. Though marriages are made in heaven, and a good wife must be sought of God, adhibenda tamen sunt media ordinaria et ordinata, yet due means must be used, &c.

Ver. 18, 19. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:14"}

Ver. 19. I will draw water for thy camels also.] This was, in everything, according to his desire. {#Ge 24:14} God sometimes fitteth his mercy, ad cardinem desiderii, letteth it be to his servants even as they will. As, at other times, he answereth their prayers, non secundum voluntatem, tamen ad utilitatem, not as they wish, but as is best for them. {a}

{a} πραξω α θελετε α δε λεγετε παραιτησομαι, ut ille apud Plutarch.

Ver. 20. And ran again to the well.] In the city of Haran, at this day, saith one, there is to be seen a well of very clear water, where Rebekah gave drink to Eliezer and his camels; there likewise, Rachel, Laban’s daughter, first spake to Jacob, &c. It is called by the townsmen Abraham’s Well. {a} This water hath a very pleasant taste, and is a notable type of holy baptism. For as the patriarchs took their wives by this well; so Christ receiveth his spouse the Church, by that sacrament; which is, Beersheba, the Well of an Oath, where we pass into the covenant, and are betrothed unto Christ in faithfulness, {#Ho 2:20} the thistle to the cedar. {#2Ki 14:9}

{a} Itinerar. Script., p. 83.

Ver. 21. Wondering at her.] At her courtesy; but more at God’s good providence, and so sweet a return of his prayers. The Greek hath it, He considered her, and held his peace.

Ver. 22. The man took a golden earring.] Abiliment, or jewel; Ut imponeret naso eius, saith Junius, to hang upon her nose, or forehead. {as #Ge 24:47} Each country hath its fashions and garnishes. In very many places of America, they have their lower lips bored through; as likewise, the upper parts of their ears, and something put into them. Which, as it seems to themselves to be a point of beauty, so it makes them appear to others to be wondrous ugly. {a}

{a} Archb. Abbot’s Geog., 278.

Ver. 23. Whose daughter art thou?] This he had asked her, before he had put upon her the jewel aforesaid, as may be seen, #Ge 24:47.

Ver. 24. The son of Milcah.] Bethuel’s wife, not concubine.

Ver. 25. She said moreover unto him, &c.] It ia well observed by an interpreter, {a} that in the narration of this story (which yet seemeth to be of light and trivial matters) the Spirit of God is very exact and large; whereas other things wherein great mysteries are infolded (as the history of Melchizedek, &c.), are set down in few words; that men might consider God’s wisdom and providence in things of least esteem among men. I add, that all may see what delight he takes in the meanest actions and speeches of his dearest children; when the great acts and exploits of Nimrod, Ninus, and other nobles of the world are not once mentioned, but lie shrouded in the sheet of oblivion or shame.

{a} Ainsworth.

Ver. 26. And the man bowed down his head.] See how he relisheth of his master’s house, and showeth a gracious heart, ready to offer up a sacrifice of praise, wherever God shall please to set it up an altar. The same word in Greek (χαρις) signifieth, grace and thanks; to show, that as any man hath more grace, he is more grateful to God and man. It is observable also, that our Saviour sets these two together, -"the unthankful, and the evil"; "He is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil". {#Lu 6:35}

Ver. 27. Who hath not left destitute my master.] He ascribeth all to God’s good providence, nothing to his good luck or service. Men play the atheists in speaking of fortune, like those {#Isa 65:11} "that prepared a table for fortune": and those Philistines, that said, "It is a chance". {#1Sa 6:9} Augustine repented that ever he spoke such language of Ashdod.

Ver. 28. Of her mother’s house.] For the women had houses apart from the men: and the daughters were most about their mothers’ lodgings.

Ver. 29. And Laban ran out.] Whether out of courtesy or covetousness. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:30"}

Ver. 30. When he saw the earring and bracelets.] These were the boons that Laban looked after; these drew the churl forth, and made him so courteous. Worldlings in serving God, serve themselves of God; they follow him for loaves more than for love. Vix diligitur Iesus propter Iesum. Hypocrites would use Christ as a bridge to get to heaven by; which if they could compass, let Christ sink or swim for them, they would not much care. Their love is meretricious, their obedience mercenary; they work only for wages. {a} Fac me pontificem, et ero Christianus, said one Pammachius, a heathen, to the Pope. Those degenerate priests would fain have had priests’ places, when something was to be got, but might not. {#Ezr 2:61,62}

{a} These make earth their throne, heaven their footstool.—August.

Ver. 31, 32. And he ungirded his camels.] Laban did. Si spes lucri affulserit, & c. Sing but a song of "Utile," and many will dance after it, yea, stoop to any drudgery almost.

Ver. 32. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:31"}

Ver. 33. I will not eat, till I have told mine errand.] He preferred his work before his food. So did our Saviour at the well of Samaria. {#Joh 4:6-8,31-38} And another time, when he thought to have slaked his hunger at the barren fig tree, and found nothing but leaves, he went on to Jerusalem; and forgetting his hunger, as he had before forgot his breakfast, he turned not into a victualling house, but went to the temple and taught the people; and confuted the elders all that day long till the evening. {#Mt 21:18-27 Mr 11:13-15} Job "esteemed God’s word more than his necessary food"; {#Job 23:12} not only more than his dainties or superfluities.

Ver. 35. And the Lord hath blessed my master.] Ministers, Christ’s spokesmen, must likewise woo for Christ, by setting forth his great wealth; and not speak one word for Christ and two for themselves, as those did in #Php 1:15. John Baptist was no such spokesman. {#Joh 3:29} It is the special office of the ministry to lay Christ open, to hold up the tapestry, and let men see him as he is set forth, {#Heb 1:2,3} that they may be sick of love; for otherwise, Christ is like to have but a cold suit of it.

Ver. 36. Unto him hath he given all that he hath.] This he knew would take well with them. What hath he? is a main question. In suites both of law and of love, money weighs and sways much. R. Solomon here addeth to the text (but not well) these words, -And lo the conveyance, or deed of gift is here in mine hand.

Ver. 37. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:3"} {See Trapp on "Ge 24:4"}

Ver. 38. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:3"} {See Trapp on "Ge 24:4"}

Ver. 39. Preadventure the woman will not.] Here he leaveth out, in his discretion, Abraham’s charge. {#Ge 24:6} For that would but have offended and irritated. Part of the truth may be concealed sometimes, as #Jer 38:27.

“ Quid, quod, ubi, per quos, quoties, cur, quomodo, quando,

Quilibet haec animo reputet, medicamina dando.”

But what shall we think of that practice of Buchanan the Scotch poet, who being taken hold of by some of the Pope’s inquisitors in his travels, to acquit himself, sent this Distichon to the Pope—

“ Laus tua non tua fraus, virtus non copia rerum

Scandere te fecit hoc decus eximium.”

Hereupon he was released: but, when got out of the Pope’s jurisdiction, he sent to him, and desired that his verses might not be misunderstood; but, according to his true meaning, might be read backward: which being so read, stand thus—

“ Eximium decus hoc fecit te scandere rerum

Copia, non virtus; fraus tua, non tua laus.”

This was, saith one, so only to speak the truth, as to leave the incorrigible to their lusts, wisely avoiding their hatred: this is σοφον φαρμακον, at least, say I.

Ver. 40. The Lord, before whom I walk.] To walk before God, with God, after God, are much at one: est, quod Persius dixit vivere cum Deo: est ad Dei voluntatem vitam instituere, it is to be ever in the sense of his presence, and light of his countenance.

Ver. 41. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:8"}

Ver. 42. And I came this day to the well.] God’s providences are carefully to be observed and registered. We might have a Divinity of our own, would we but lay up our experiences: which are nothing else, saith the philosopher, but multiplex memoria. David "will remember God from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar," where he had formerly found him to his comfort. {#Ps 42:6}

Ver. 43. Behold, I stand by the well.] But at a distance, as {See Trapp on "Ge 24:17"} See also {See Trapp on "Ge 24:20"}

Ver. 44. The woman, whom the.Lord hath appointed.] God is the match maker, and marriages are made in heaven, as very heathens have yielded. The Governor of Eskichisar, hearing Othoman’s relation of a fair lady, with whom he was in love, seemed greatly to like of his choice; saying, that she was by the Divine Providence (for so the Turks religiously use to speak) appointed only for him to have. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 136.

Ver. 45. With her pitcher on her shoulder.] Though a sufficient man’s daughter, and a match for a prince’s son. {See Trapp on "Ge 23:6"}

Ver. 46. And she made the camels drink.] {See Trapp on "Ge 24:14"}

Ver. 47. And I put the earring upon her face.] So did Christ put upon his spouse his own comeliness, {a} which was as a jewel on her forehead, an earring in her ear, and a beautiful crown upon her head; {#Eze 16:12-14}—whence she is called Callah, of the perfection of her beauty and bravery; and {#Jer 2:32} Hephzibah, {#Isa 62:4} of his delight in her; since he hath purified her, as Esther; sanctified her; {#Eph 5:26} and so beautified her, that now he "rejoiceth over her as a bridegroom doth over his bride". {#Isa 62:5} Yea, he "resteth in his love," and will seek no further; he "joyeth over her with singing," as well paid for his choice. {#Zep 3:17}

{a} "Uxor splendet radiis mariti." A maxim in the civil law.

Ver. 48. And I bowed down my head.] A good Christian is ever either praying or praising: he drives a constant trade between earth and heaven.

Ver. 49. That I may turn to the right hand, &c., ] i.e., Seek somewhere else: for something I must do, in answer to my trust. "It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful". {#1Co 4:2}

Ver. 50. Laban and Bethuel.] Laban, the young master, was the great doer in this affair.

We cannot speak unto thee bad or good.] "Good" (with reason) we cannot say against the motion; and "bad" we will not say. Demosthenes, pressed by his friends to plead for one whom he greatly liked not, answered, επαινειν αυτον ου δυναμαι ψεγειν δε ου βουλομαι: Say for him I cannot; say against him I will not.

Ver. 51. As the Lord hath spoken.] For his signs also are vocal. {#Ex 4:8}

Ver. 52. He worshipped.] {See Trapp on "Ge 24:48"}

Bowing himself to the earth.] This humble posture he had learned, belike, of his holy master, who walked before God in a humble familiarity. God loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience; yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in his judgments.

Ver. 53. And gave them to Rebekah: he gave also.] Note, that the custom was then, to give gifts to the bride and her friends. Now it is otherwise. Yet in Hungary their women have no portion, they say, {a} but a new coat at their wedding. Moris est apud Thraces (saith Solinus, cap. 14), ut nupturae non parentum arbitratu transeant ad matiros; sed quae prae coeteris specie valent, subhastari volunt; et licentia taxationis admissa, non moribus nubunt, sed proemiis.

{a} Heyl., Geog.

Ver. 54. And they did eat and drink.] It is lawful to be honestly merry after business despatched.

Ver. 55. Let the damsel abide with us.] Men promise in baste; perform by leisure.

Ver. 56. Hinder me not.] Say we so to Satan soliciting us to stay a while in our old courses and companies.

Ver. 57. And inquire at her mouth.] Eve was not dragged, but brought by God to her husband. There must be a mutual consent, or it is not of God.

Ver. 58. I will go.] Christ’s Hephzibah is no less willing to go with him: he toucheth her heart, and maketh her so. {#Isa 56:6} He commanded his lovingkindness; {#Ps 42:8} q.d., Go, Mercy, and seize on them; go, Lovingkindness, and make them take you. Hence it is, that they are a freehearted people; {#Ps 110:3} they wait for his law; {#Isa 42:4} they love to be his people. {#Isa 56:6} The Macedonians were Αυθαιρεστοι volunteers; {#2Co 8:3} they had their own free choice.

Ver. 59. And her nurse.] Deborah, who was a great stay to Jacob’s family, and her loss much lamented. {#Ge 35:8}

Ver. 60. Be thou the mother of thousands.] Votum nuptiale, Hebraeis solenne. We wish them joy, we assure them sorrow, and that in the flesh, where they look for most felicity.

Ver. 61. They rode upon the camels.] A tiresome and tedious journey it was, but for a good husband. Suffer we with, and for Christ, "that we may be glorified together," {#Ro 8:17} when the marriage shall be consummated. Heaven will pay for all. What though thou ride on a trotting camel it is to be married. He that rides to be crowned, will not think much of a rainy day.

Ver. 62. The well Lahairoi.] Whereof see #Ge 16:14. To this well there was, likely, some convenient walk from Beersheba, where Isaac dwelt with his father.

Ver. 63. To meditate in the field.] Or to pray; there he had his oratory; there he used to pray secretly (but now more earnestly, upon so important an occasion) with deep meditation or soliloquy. Domitian, about the beginning of his empire, usually sequestered himself from company an hour every day; but did nothing the while but catch flies and kill them with a pen-knife. {a} God’s people can better employ their solitariness, and do never want company, as having God and themselves to talk with. And these secret meals are those that make the soul fat. It was a witty and divine speech of Bernard, that Christ, the soul’s spouse, is bashful, neither willingly cometh to his bride in the presence of a multitude.

{a} Sueton.

Ver. 64. She lighted off the camel.] To meet him with the more reverence and submission; for which cause also, she veiled herself. Here that of the poet held not.

“Fastus inest pulchris, sequiturque superbia formam.”—Ovid.

Ver. 66. And the servant told Isaac.] Ministers also must give account of their stewardship. Happy he that can present his people "as a chaste virgin to Christ," with Paul {#2Co 11:2} that can say, with the prophet, "Here am I, and the children that thou hast given me"; {#Isa 8:18} and with that arch-prophet, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do". {#Joh 17:4} Reverend Mr Stork was wont to protest, that it was more comfort to him to win one of his own charge than twenty others. {a}

{a} Abrah. Deceas., by T. Gataker.

Ver. 67. Isaac brought her into his mother’s tent.] There to rest till the marriage rites were performed; till he had got her goodwill; till their affections were knit, and in some sort settled; till they had pledged their mutual trust; sought God for a blessing, and performed such solemnities as the time required. Youth rides in post to be married: but in the end, finds the inn of repentance to be lodged in.

And took Rebekah.] Not as Shechem took Dinah, or Amnon Tamur, to deflower her; but as Boaz took Ruth, and David Abigail, to make her his wife by lawful wedlock.

And he loved her.] Not only as his countrywoman or his kinswoman, or a good woman, &c., but as his woman, with a conjugal love. And he had reason: for (1.) She was his wife, the proper object of his love; (2.) A wife of God’s providing; a mate meet for him; none in all the world so meet; (3.) She was love-worthy, because fair, courteous, virtuous: and as meat pleaseth us better in a clean dish, so doth virtue in comely persons, saith Hugo; (4.) She forgot her father’s house, and forsook all her friends for him, &c.

And Isaac was comforted.] If God takes away one comfort, he will give another. Cheer up, therefore.

Chapter 25

Ver. 1. Then again Abraham, &c.] After Sarah’s death, though Calvin thinks otherwise. His body, dry and dead forty years before, is now, by God’s blessing, made lively and lusty.

Ver. 2. No Text for this verse.

Ver. 3. No Text for this verse.

Ver. 4. Ephah, and Epher.] These five were, haply, the founders of the families of those five kings of Midian mentioned in #Nu 31:8.

Ver. 5. Abraham gave all, &c.] So #Isa 19:25, Assyria is the work of God’s hand, and Israel his inheritance.

Ver. 6. Abraham gave gifts.] So doth God to reprobates; but they are giftless gifts, better be without them. {a} Saepe Deus dat iratus quod negat propitius. God gives wealth to the wicked, non aliter ac siquis crumenam auto plenam latrinae inieciat. {b} The Turkish empire, saith Luther, as great as it is, is but a crust cast to the dogs by the rich householder, {c} or as Joseph’s cup, &c.

Eastward, to the east country.] To both the Arabias, which were countries rough but rich; looked rudely, but, searched regularly, afforded great store of fine gold, precious stones, and pleasant odours.

{a} Εχθρων αδωπα δωπα και οικ ονησιμα—Soph.

{b} Gasp. Ens.

{c} Panis mica quam dives pater familias proiecit canibus.

Ver. 7. !!An hundred threescore and fifteen years.] He was sixty-five when he came out of Haran: a whole hundred years he was a stranger in the land, contenting himself with the bare promise of God, and "dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." {#Heb 11:9} Salmanticensis giveth him this eulogy: Erat modestus, mimineque invidus, spiritu depresso, animoque humili, et munificus admodum. Beatus ipse, et beati filii eius post eum.

Ver. 8. Gave up the ghost.] Deficit; leniter, expiravit. Describit Moses placidam et optatam, quasi, ευθανασιαν; which in Abraham, God’s friend, is no wonder. But how could that apostate, Julian, say, in truth, Vitam reposcenti naturae, tanquam debitor bonae fidei, rediturus, exulto? Sure it was but a copy of his countenance, but not of his dying countenance; for no wicked man alive can look death in the face with blood in his cheeks.

Died in a good old age.] Or, with a good hoar head, after a hundred years’ troublesome pilgrimage in the Promised Land. We, if for one year we suffer hardship, think it a great business. Non quia dura, sed quia molles patimur, saith Seneca.

An old man, and full of years.] The godly have oft a satiety of life: as willing they are to leave the world, as men are wont to be to rise from the board when they have eaten their fill,

“ Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis?”

said the heathen poet: and they feign that when Tithonus might have been made immortal, he would not, because of the miseries of life. This made Plotinus the Platonist account mortality a mercy, {a} and Cato protest, that if any god would grant him, of old to be made young again, he would seriously refuse it. {b} As for me, said Queen Elizabeth, in a certain speech, I see no such great cause why I should be fond to live, or afraid to die. {c} And again, while I call to mind things past, behold things present, and expect things to come, I hold him happiest that goeth hence soonest.

{a} Aug., De Civ. Dei., lib. iv. cap. 10.

{b} Siquis Deus mihi largiatur, ut ex hac aetate repuerascam, et in cunis vagiam, valde recusem. -Cato ap. Cic., De Senect.

{c} Card. Elisabeth, fol. 325.

Ver. 9. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael, &c.] It is like that Abraham, a little afore his death, sent for his two sons and reconciled them. This joining with Isaac in the burying of Abraham, some take for an argument of his repentance; whereunto also they add, that his whole lifetime is recorded in Holy Scripture, which cannot be showed of any reprobate, and that he is said, when he died, to be gathered to his fathers.

Which is beside Mamre.] Where, seventy-six years before, he had entertained the Lord Christ, and heard from his mouth the promise of the Messiah. Wherefore, in remembrance of that most amiable apparition, and for love and honour of the divine promise there uttered, he would there be buried, in full hope of a glorious resurrection; and that his posterity might take notice that he even died upon the promise. As that brave Roman captain {a} told his soldiers, that if they could not conquer Britain, yet they would get possession of it by laying their bones in it.

{a} Xiphilinus.

Ver. 10. The field.] {See Trapp on "Ge 23:17"} {See Trapp on "Ge 23:18"}

Ver. 11. Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi.] This had been his oratory, where he had formerly found God; {#Ge 24:62} and he loved it the better ever after.

Ver. 12. These are the generations of Ishmael.] Who became the progenitor of twelve princes, according to the promise. {#Ge 17:20}

Ver. 13. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael.] When Isaac was twenty years married, and had no child; and afterwards, no so many as Ishmael, nor so great in the world. This is God’s usual way of dealing forth his favours: saints suffer; wicked prosper. This made Pompey deny Divine Providence; Brutus cry out, Ω τλημων αρετν: Oh miserable virtue, slave of fortune, &c. {a} The Athenians, in Thucydides, {b} when they had lost Nicias their good general, who, together with his whole army perished in Sicily, were at a great stand, and much offended; seeing so pious a person fare nothing better than those that were far worse. And what wonder, when Jeremiah and David stumbled at the same stone, ran upon the same rock, and were well-nigh shipwrecked? {#Jer 12:1 Ps 73:3,4} Neither they only, but many other of God’s dear servants, as it is in the same Psalm {#Ps 73:10}, "Therefore his people return hither"; that is, are every whit as wise (or rather, as foolish) as I have been, to miscensure and misconstrue God’s dealings on this manner; to repent me of my repentance, and to condemn the generation of the just, "because waters of a full cup are wrung out to the wicked." When David went into God’s sanctuary, and there consulted his Word, he was better resolved: then he saw that the sunshine of prosperity doth but ripen the sin of the wicked, and so fits them for destruction: {#Ho 14:9} as fatted ware are but fitted for the slaughter. What good is there in having a fine suit with the plague in it? Poison in wine works more seriously than in water. Had Haman known the danger of Esther’s banquet, he would not have been so brag of it. The prosperity of the wicked hath ever plus deceptionis, quam delectortonis, saith one; more deceit than delight; able to entice, and ready to kill the entangled. As cunning to do that, as the spirit that seduced Ahab; and as willing to do the other, as the ghost that met Brutus at the battle of Philippi. In which respect, David having spoken of these "men of God’s hand, that have their portion in this life," {#Ps 17:14} &c., wishes them make them merry with it, and subjoins, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." {#Ps 17:15} As who should say, I neither envy nor covet their happiness, but long after a glorious resurrection, and have, in the meanwhile, that which is sufficient to sustain me; "I shall behold thy face in righteousness," that is, Beshechinah, in Christ, as Rabbi Menachem {c} expounds it. And one good look of God is worth all the world. It is better to feel his favour one hour, than to sit whole ages, as these Ishmaelites did, under the world’s warmest sunshine.

{a} Δογος ορ ησθα αλλως εγω δε σε ως εργον ησκουν ου δ απ εδουλευες τυχη.—Dio Cassius.

{b} Ανδρα ορωντες θεοφιλη, ουδενος επεικεστερα τυχη χρησθαι των κακιστως.—Thucyd.

{c} Menach. on Levit. x.

Ver. 14. And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massah.] Out of these three names—which signify hearing, silence, and suffering—the Masorites gather the three principal duties of man, in common conversation; viz., to hear, to keep silence, and bear: these, say they, make a quiet and good life. Sustine et abstine, is the philosopher’s {a} counsel. Video, Taceo, " I see, and say nothing," was Queen Elizabeth’s {b} motto: and "I am for peace," {#Ps 120:7} was David’s; or, as the Hebrew hath it, "I am peace." He "heard the slander of many, fear was on every side"; {#Ps 31:13} but he "as a deaf man heard not, and as a dumb man, so he opened not his mouth". {#Ps 38:13} Facile est in me dicere, cum non sim responsurus, said one once, to another that reviled him; thou shalt fight without an adversary, for I will hear and bear, and say nothing. The best answer to words of scorn and petulancy, saith learned Hooker, is Isaac’s apology to his brother Ishmael, patience and silence, no apology. Πασιν, απολογεισθαι θεραπευτικον. A man would not be bound to such a slavery as to answer every calumny. Qui nescit ferre calumnias, convitia, iniurias, nescit vivere, saith Chytraeus. He that cannot patiently bear reproaches and injuries, may make up his pack, and get him out of the world; for here is no being for him. Vitus Theodorus sent to advise with Melancthon, what he should do when Osiander preached against him: Melancthon per Deum obtestatur, ut taceret, et se ira gereret, quasi non audiret: Melancthon besought him, for God’s sake, to say nothing in that case, but to carry himself so as if he heard not. Vitus writes back, that this was very hard; yet he would obey. {c} It is hard to swallow down physical pills: but better swallow them whole, then chaw them between the teeth.

{a} Ανεχου και απεχου. Epictet.

{b} Cared. Elisab.

{c} Melch. Adam.

Ver. 15. Naphish, and Kedemah.] Twelve in all, princes of their tribes, as was promised. {#Ge 17:20} See, saith one, {a} here, what God can do for a poor boy sent out with a bottle of water on his back. God "setteth the solitary in families"; {#Ps 68:6} "he raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set him among princes," &c. {#1Sa 2:8}

{a} B. Babington.

Ver. 16. These are their names by their towns.] Which they called after their own names, as Cain did, that first built the city Enoch, after his son’s name; that he might be styled "Lord Enoch of Enoch." So, the many Alexandrias, Caesareas, Augustas, &c. See #Ps 49:11.

Ver. 17. And he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered, ] sc., to "the congregation house of all living," as the grave is called, {#Job 30:23} and, for aught we know, to "the congregation house (πανηγυρις) of the firstborn," as heaven is called. {#Heb 12:23} Abraham prayed that Ishmael might live in God’s sight: Ishmael joined with his brother Isaac in burying their father Abraham. {#Ge 25:9} Here he hath his whole lifetime recorded, the like whereof cannot be showed of any reprobate; and at his death, he is said gently to "give up the ghost," or yield up the spirit (as Abraham also did, #Ge 25:8), and to be "gathered to his people," as he. These are probable arguments, that, however he lived, yet he died in the faith of his father Abraham. He runs far, we say, that never turns. Nunquam sere si serio.

Ver. 18. And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur.] A large tract and territory; but nothing so large as his posterity the Saracens’, called more rightly Hagarenes, {#Ps 83:6} proved to be; whose name and empire notwithstanding is now swallowed up in the greatness of the Turkish empire; which laboureth with nothing more, than with the weightiness of itself. {a}

And he died.] Or, dwelt, as some read it. Compare #Ge 16:12.

{a} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 19. And these are the generations.] That is, the affairs and occurrences.

Ver. 20. And Isaac was forty years old.] He was not overhasty to marry in the heat of his youth: but by hard labour, ardent prayers, and pious meditations, kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, as St Paul likewise did. {#1Co 9:27} "We are not debtors to the flesh"; {#Ro 8:12} we owe it nothing but stripes, nothing but the blue eye, that the apostle gave it.

Ver. 21. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife.] He did it constantly and instantly, as the word רתע signifies; he multiplied prayer, which (as those arrows of deliverance, #2Ki 13:19) must be often iterated, ere the mercy can be obtained.

And the Lord was entreated of him.] Though it were long first, even full twenty years. God knows how to commend his mercies to us, and therefore holds us long in suspense. Cito data, vilescunt. Manna, lightly come by, was as lightly set by.

Ver. 22. And the children struggled together.] Heb., Jithrotsatsu. They ran at tilt, as it were, and jostled one against another, even to bruising and hurting. Esau, that he might lose no time, began to set against Jacob before he was born.

If it be so, why am I thus?] A passionate abrupt speech: q.d., Better no children, than so troubled with them. {See Trapp on "Ge 27:46"} {See Trapp on "Ge 3:16"} "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception." This she should have borne more patiently: but she presently bethought her of the best course; for "she went to inquire of the Lord": she got into a corner, and prayed, and was answered. She prayed down her passions, as a man sleeps out his drunkenness, and set to work lustily, and so got the ensuing oracle.

Ver. 23. And the Lord said unto her.] Either by an angel, or a prophet, or some divine answer in her own heart.

Two nations are in thy womb.] So, what can a man "see in the Shulamite," in every sanctified soul, but "as it were the company of two armies"? {#So 6:13} Every good man is a divided man; every new man, two men.

Ver. 24. And when her days to be delivered.] Which fell out fifteen years before Abraham’s death, to his great comfort, no doubt. God doth for his, his best at last.

There were twins in her womb.] See #So 4:2, Isa 66:8.

Ver. 25. And the first came out red.] Red and rough, cruel and crafty, as that red old dragon {#Re 12:3} who inhabited in him, and both acted and agitated him. {#Eph 2:2} Ab ascensore suo daemone perurgebatur, saith Bernard. And so are those Romish Edomites, Esauites, Jesuites, &c.

And they called his name Esau.] Factus et perrictus pilis, a bearded man, one that had everything more like a man than a babe; a manly child.

Ver. 26. And after that came his brother out.] God could have brought Jacob out first, for it is he that "takes us out of the womb"; {#Ps 22:9} but he suffereth Esau for a time to enjoy the first birthright, till his own time came to set things to rights. God "waits to be gracious; for he is a God of judgment". {#Isa 30:18}

And his hand took hold on Esau’s heel.] As if he would have turned up his heels, and got to the goal before him.

And his name was called Jacob.] Calcanearius , a heel catcher, or supplanter, as he afterwards proved to Esau, who hit him also in the teeth with it. {#Ge 27:36}

“Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis.”

And Isaac was threescore years old.] He lived twice threescore years after this, being a hundred and eighty when he died. {#Ge 35:28} Five years longer he lived than his father Abraham, {#Ge 25:17} being blind for the last forty. {#Ge 27:1}

Ver. 27. And the boys grew.] Nature, art, grace, all proceed from less perfect to more perfect. "Grow in grace," saith Peter: {#2Pe 3:18} grow "unto a perfect man," even "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," saith Paul. {#Eph 4:13}

And Esau was a cunning hunter.] Like Nimrod and Ishmael, whom he chose to imitate, rather than Abraham, and those holy patriarchs that had lived before him.

A plain man.] Sept., Απλαστος, without welt or gard, guile or gall. Gregory hereby notes the diverse dispositions of worldly and godly men.

Ver. 28. And Isaac loved Esau, &c.] Here, as likewise in Manoah’s wife, more grace appears in the woman than in the man; whose blind and misplaced love, for carnal ends, commends and illustrates the divine adoption.

Ver. 29. And Jacob sod pottage.] Pottage of lentiles, which was a kind of pulse much like to vetches or small peas: so frugal and sparing was the diet of those precious patriarchs, to the shame of our luxury. Quicquid avium volitat, quicquid piscium natat, quicquid ferarum discurrit, nostris sepelitur ventribus. {a} We devour the wealth of earth, air, and sea. {b}

Esau came from the feld, and he was faint.] Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas. Of carnal pleasures, a man may break his neck sooner than his fast. Nor is it want of variety in them, but inward weakness, or the curse of unsatisfyingness, that lies upon them. The creature is now as the husk without the grain, the shell without the kernel, full of nothing but emptiness; and so may faint us, but not fill us.

{a} Seneca.

{b} Κακιστον θνριον η γαστηρ.

Ver. 30. Feed me, I pray thee, with that red, red.] He doubleth it, and could not, for haste and hunger, tell what to call it, to show his greediness. {a} And saith, "Feed me," or let me swallow at once; as camels are fed by casting gobbets into their mouth. He thought he should never have enough Our proverb is, As hungry as a hunter: but this hunter hath no he with him, and is therefore branded for a "profane" {#Heb 12:16} sensualist, Edom. The word used for a glutton, {#De 21:20} is used for a vile person, or a worthless person. {#Jer 15:19}

{a} Geminatio indicat vehementiam appetitus -Pareus.

Ver. 31. Sell me this day thy birthright.] Which he knew, by the instruction of his mother, to be his by God’s appointment; and therefore takes this opportunity to get it. A well chosen season is the greatest advantage of any action.

Ver. 32. What profit shall this birthright, &c.] Pluris facio pulticulam bonam, quam titulam inahem. Sensualists look only at the present pleasure, and sell their souls for it. Earthly things are present and pleasant, therefore we so cleave to them; striving, like the toad, who shall fall asleep with most earth in his paws.

Ver. 33. Swear to me.] With fickle men, make all firm and fast.

“Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo?”—Horat.

And he sold his birthright to Jacob.] And, with it, heaven also, as the Jerusalem Paraphrast addeth, whereof the birthright was a type and pledge. So his sin was in unthankfulness for such a dignity; in limiting it to this life; in selling it so very cheap; but especially, in his profane parting with a spiritual blessing for a temporal. Such a foolish bargain makes every impenitent person in the sale of his soul for a thing of nought; which Christ, who only went to the price of a soul, saith is more worth than a world. "Let there be no fornicator," as every worldling is, {#Jas 4:4} "or profane person among us, as Esau". {#Heb 12:16} And that there may not, let not men take pleasure in pleasure, spend too much time in it, shoot their affections too far into it. It is no wisdom, to go as far as we may. It was not simply a sin in Esau to go a hunting: but yet the more he used it the more profane he grew by it, and came at length to condemn his birthright. Adrian {a} the emperor was a great hunter; broke his leg in hunting; called a city that he built in Mysia, by the name of Adrian’s huntings: but how little care he took for his poor soul, that Animula vagula blandula of his, abundantly testifieth. The maddest hunter that ever I read of was Mithridates; who was so set upon it, that he came not into any house, either of city or country for seven years together. {b} To lawful delights and recreations, God allows men to stoop, for their bodies’ sake; as the eagle to the prey, or as Gideon’s soldiers, to soop their handful, not to gorge their bellyful. An honest man’s 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 its own element.

{a} Dio in Vita.

{b} Adeo venandi rubie percitus ut septem continuis annis, nec urbis, nec ruris tecto sit usua.

Ver. 34. He did eat and drink, and rose up, &c.] Hac verborum congeri, impoenitentia Esaui deseribitur. {a} Away he went, without showing the least remorse or regret for what he had done. Lysimachus soon repented him for parting with his crown for a draught of cold water, in his extreme thirst. {b} Wine is a prohibited ware among Turks; which makes some drink with scruple, others with danger. The baser sort, when taken drunk, are often caned on the soles of their bare feet. And I have seen some, saith mine author, {c} after a fit of drunkenness, lie a whole night, crying and praying to Mohammed for intercession, that I could not sleep near them; so strong is conscience, even where the foundation is but imaginary, to the shame of many profligate professors—-cauterised Christians.

{a} Piscator.

{b} O dii, quam brevis voluptatis gratia ex rege me feci servum!

{c} Blount’s Voyage, p. 105.

Chapter 26

Ver. 1. Beside the first famine.] New sins bring new plagues Flagitium et flagellura, ut acus et filum. Where iniquity breakfasts, calamity will be sure to dine—to sup where it dines, and to lodge where it sups. If the Canaanites had amended by the former famine, this later had been prevented; for "God afflicts not willingly, nor grieves the children of men". {#La 3:35} Polybius wonders why man should be held the wisest of creatures, when to him he seemeth the foolishest. For other things, saith he, where they have smarted once will beware for the future. The fox will not rashly return to the snare; the wolf to the pitfall, the dog to the club, &c. Solus homo, ab aevo ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem, et in iisdem plectitur. Only man is neither weary of sinning, nor wary of smarting for it.

And Isaac went to Abimelech.] As Abraham had done before to Pharaoh. {#Ge 12:10} The trials of God’s servants, in several ages, are much alike: we suffer the same things that our betters have done afore us: which both Paul and Peter press as a lenitive to our miseries, and a motive to patience. {#1Co 10:13 1Pe 5:9} The same fable is acted over again in the world, as of old; the persons only changed. "That which hath been, is now; and that which is to be, hath already been": "and there is no new thing under the sun," saith Solomon. {#Ec 3:15 1:9,10}

Ver. 2. And the Lord appeared unto him.] God knows our souls, and our souls him, best in adversity. See #Zec 13:9. This famine was to the Canaanites in the nature of a curse; to Isaac, of a cure. Hinc distinctio illa poenae in conferentem et nocentem, sive in suffocantem et promoventem; item in poenam vindictae et poenam cautelae, sire in condemnantem et corrigentem.

Ver. 3. Sojourn in this land.] Though it lay under the common lash; that he might see God’s power in providing for him amidst greatest straits and difficulties. Poena duplicem habet ordinationem: unam ad culpam quae praecedit, alteram, ad gloriam Dei quam praecedit. {a}

{a} Alex. Alesius Hayles, p. 3, q. 5, m. 1.

Ver. 4. As the stars of heaven.] {See Trapp on "Ge 13:16"}

Ver. 5. Because that Abraham.] His obedience was universal to all the wills of God; and is here alleged, not as the meritorious cause, but as an antecedent, of the blessing. Our good works do truly please God in Christ, and move him, after a sort, to do us good; yet not as merits, but as certain effects of Christ’s merits alone, and such as of his merit. {a}

{a} Rulloc., De Vocatione, p. 25.

Ver. 7. She is my sister.] How apt are children to imitate their father’s infirmities! Πατροπαραδοτου. {#1Pe 1:18} Which yet is no excuse, {#Eze 18:14} but an aggravation. {#Da 5:22,23} The orator {a} therefore was far wide, that said, Me ex ea opinione, quam a Maioribus accepi, de cultu deorum immortalium, nullius unquam oratio aut docti aut indocti movebit. Isaac’s fault here, was greater than Abraham’s, because he was not warned by domestical examples. Seest thou another make shipwreck of a good conscience? look well to thy tacklings. Sin is worse after warning.

For he feared to say, &c.] Fear and infidelity are found in the most faithful. Corruption, in the best, will have some flurts, some outbursts. As therefore Luther entreats his readers, if they find in his writings anything that smelleth of the old cask of Popery, to remember he was once a poor monk; so when we see the saints humanum aliquid pati, to play some mad pranks, we must consider they were but lately cured of a spiritual frenzy.

Because she was fair to look upon.] Beauty therefore is not much to be desired, or the want of it to be bewailed; because it creates so many dangers to them that have it, and their dearest husbands. The British virgins deformed themselves, that the Danes might not deflower them. {b}

{a} Cic., De Natur. Deor.

{b} Sabina, cum aliquando se non satis bona formia in speeulo cerneret, mori priusquam senesceret, optavit. -Dio.

Ver. 8. Sporting with Rebekah his wife.] Or, laughing and rejoicing; according to that of Solomon, "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth: let her be as the loving hind, and pleasant roe," &c. {#Pr 5:18} The hind and roe are the females of the hart and roebuck. Now of the hart and roebuck, it is noted, saith a grave divine, {a} that of all other beasts they are most enamoured, as I may so speak, with their mates, and even mad again with heat and desire after them. Which, being taken in a good sense, doth set forth the lawful vehement affection that an Isaac may bear to his Rebekah; which may be such, as that others may think he even dotes on her. And so much is imported in that which follows: "Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and err thou always in her love". {#Pr 5:19, marg.} Not but that a man may be out in this lawful error too, and exceed in love to his wife; as he in Seneca did, who, whenever he went abroad, wore his wife’s fillet on his bosom for a favour, would never willingly be without her company, nor drink, but when she drank to him; with many the like fooleries, in quae improvida vis affectus erumpebat, saith he. The beginning of this love was honest; but the nimiety was not without deformity. Est modus in rebus.

{a} D. Gouge.

Ver. 9. Lest I die for her.] {See Trapp on "Ge 20:11"} {See Trapp on "Ge 11:29"}

Ver. 10. Brought guiltiness upon us.] Or, a shameful crime, subjecting us to condign punishment. This is more than many pseudo-Christians will yield; who hold adultery a light sin, if any at all, a trick of youth: being of the same mind with that old dotard in Terence: It is nothing for a young man to be found potting, piping, drinking, drabbing, swearing, whoring, &c. {a} And this poisonful position passed, it seems, for current at Corinth; whence the apostle Paul so strives to uproot that wretched opinion, by many arguments. {#1Co 6} And {#1Co 10:8} instead of the cloak of heat of youth, he puts upon fornication a bloody cloak, bathed in the blood of three and twenty thousand.

{a} Non est, mihi crede, flagitium, adolescentem belluari, potare, scortari, fores effringere.

Ver. 11. He that toucheth this man, &c.] So sweetly doth God, many times, turn even our sins to our safety here, and to our salvation hereafter. What is not God able to do for his?

Ver. 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land.] In ground hired for his use, and managed by himself: for it was anciently a great commendation, saith Cicero, to be a good husbandman. {a} M. Curius, after three triumphs, returned to the plough, and held it no disgrace; neither ever was there more plenty at Rome than then, saith Pliny; Quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere, et Aratore triumphali. This good husbandman in the text, sowing in that barren land, and in a time of famine too, hath a hundredfold increase; which is the utmost that our Saviour mentioneth in the parable of the sower; {#Mt 13:23} and in reference hereunto, he elsewhere assureth such as part with all for his sake and the gospel’s, they "shall receive a hundredfold here, and eternal life hereafter". {#Mt 19:29} That which Herodotus and Pliny report of Babylon is beyond belief: that the land thereabouts returns two hundredfold increase. {b} But grant it were true, yet he that is a good husband for his soul, sows in a better ground, and shall have a better return: for, "he that soweth to the Spirit, shall, of the Spirit, reap life everlasting." Only it is required, that he "be not weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not". {#Ga 6:8,9} We must not look to sow and reap all in a day, as he {c} saith of the Hyperborean people far north; that they sow shortly after the sunrising, and reap before the sunset; because the whole half year is one continual day with them. We must "wait," with "the husbandman, for the precious fruit of the earth, and have long patience for it, until we receive the former and latter rain". {#Jas 5:7} And "be diligent" in the meanwhile, that when Christ comes, "we may be found of him in peace". {#2Pe 3:14} Heaven will pay for all our pains and patience. "He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully," {#2Co 9:6} even blessing upon blessing, as the word there (επ ευλογιαις) signifies: he "shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him". {#Ps 126:6}

{a} Veteres siquem virum bonum colonum appellassent, amplissime laudasse exstimabant. -Cic.

{b} Διηκοσια μεν το παραπαν αποδιδοι.—Her., lib. i.—Plin., lib. vi. cap. 26.

{c} Heresbach., De Re Rustica.

Ver. 13. And the man waxed great.] Because the Lord blessed him, {#Ge 26:12} for it is his blessing that maketh rich. He sowed, and feared God, and the Lord blessed him. Godliness hath the promises of both lives. {#1Ti 4:8} Now the promises are "the unsearchable riches of Christ," {#Eph 3:6,9} who is "the heir of all," {#Heb 1:2} and hath made godly men his co-heirs, {#Ro 8:17} entailing upon them riches and honour, delight and pleasure, life and length of days, the blessings of both hands. {#Pr 3:16,17 8:18 De 28:1-14 Ps 112:2,3} Godly men, in Scripture, are read to have been richer than any; as Abraham, Isaac, David, &c., so they might be now (likely) if they would be as godly, Bonus Deus Constantinum Magnum, tantis terrenis implevit muneribus, quanta optare nullus auderet, saith Augustine. {a} If God deny gain to godliness, it is that it may be admired for itself, as having an autarchy. (μετ’ αυταρκειας), a self-sufficiency {#1Ti 6:6} He makes up in the true treasure: and a grain of grace is worth all the gold of Ophir; a remnant of faith, better than all gay clothing. Achan’s wedge of gold served for no better purpose, than to cleave asunder his soul from his body; and the Babylonish garment but for a shroud. But, contented godliness, like Solomon’s good wife, "doth a man good, and not evil, all his days": {#Pr 31:12} for it brings his mind and his means together, and makes him rest well assured of a sufficiency, though he miss of a superfluity.

{a} Aug. De Civ. Dei., lib. v. cap. 25.

Ver. 14. And the Philistines envied him.] Envy is the constant companion of prosperity, as David felt and complained. Succoth and Pennel contemn Gideon, out of envy of his victory; Joseph’s brethren cannot abide him, because more favoured of his father. Korah maligneth Moses; Saul, David; the Pharisees, our Saviour; their malice wilfully crossing their consciences. Caligula sacrificed to Neptune and Envy, ne sibi, ut ipse dicebat, invideretur. {a} He thought other men sick, like him, of his disease (as the devil accused God of envy to our first parents); for certainly there was not a more envious person living than he; witness his throwing down the statues of all famous men, and defacing their titles; forbidding any new to be set up without his leave and liking. So that tiger, Tiberius, laid hold, with his spiteful teeth, on all the excellent spirits of his time: he put a poet to death, for making an excellent tragedy; {b} and banished a certain architect, for building an elaborate porch at Rome, which he could not choose but admire and reward with money. Nero envied all men that were any whit gracious with the people. {c} Valentinian hated all that were well apparelled, or well learned, or wealthy, or noble {d} Fortibus etiam detrahere solebat, ut solus videretur bonis artibus eminere, saith Ammianus. {e} Germanicus had not any more deadly enemies than his own ornaments, {f} and his adversaries (as here Isaac’s) had—nothing to complain of him, more than his greatness. So true is that of Salust; {g} Difficillimum inter mortales est, gloria invidiam vincere. Hercules had not more ado with Hydra than a good man shall have with this beast. Envied he shall be of his neighbour, for his labour and right work. {#Ec 4:4} "This is also vanity, and vexation of spirit."

{a} Dio in Vita Caligula.

{b} Sueton., cap. 3 and 4. Lucano, quod arte poetics clarus erat vetitum fuit, ne carmen faceret.

{c} Dio in Neron.

{d} Seneca.

{e} Am. Marcell., lib. xxx. cap. 29.

{f} Tacitus.

{g} Salust in Catil.

Ver. 15. The Philistines had stopped them.] They deprived themselves of the benefit of those wells, so that Isaac might not water at them. Envy doth nothing with reason. It is vitium diabolicum, saith Augustine. {a} The devil, of pure spite, hinders men from heaven: he rageth and rangeth, roaring up and down, "seeking whom to devour"; and not caring to be doubly damned himself, so that others may not be saved. We should be so far from envying at the happiness of others, that we should rejoice in it. This were to be as the angels of God; and the contrary, is to be like the devils of hell, as Saul was, who, because he could not see David’s heart, fed upon his own. Envy devours itself, as the worm doth the nut out of which it grows.

{a} Aug. in Ps. cxxxix.

Ver. 16. Go from us; for thou art, &c.] Isaaco ob benedictionem Dei Ostracismus indicitur. It was well they had nothing against him. Of Isaac it may be more truly said, than of Mithridates, Virtute eximius, aliquando fortuna, semper animo maximus. {a} Δαμπρυτατα μεν πραξας αλγεινοτατα επαθε as Dio saith of Pompey. {b}

{a} Paterculus.

{b} Dio, lib. 41.

Ver. 17. And Isaac departed thence.] Was compelled to do so; though, not long before, the king of the country had charged all his people, on pain of death, not to disquiet him. Ενθα το ηδυ πλησιον και το λυπηρον. {a} So near neighbours are prosperity and adversity. Friends are very changeable creatures, saith Plato {b} Friends! there is no friend, saith {c} Socrates, no fast friend. Faithful friends, quoth the Duke of Buckingham to Bishop Morton in Richard III’s time, are in this age, all, for the most part, gone in pilgrimage; and their return is uncertain. {d} Sejanus’s friends showed themselves, as did likewise Haman’s, most passionate against him; saying, that if Caesar had clemency, he ought to reserve it for men, not use it toward monsters. Carnal friends were never true to any that trusted to them: whereas, trust in God, at length, will triumph, as we see in this patriarch.

{a} Antipho.

{b} Φιλος ευμεταβλητον ζωον.—Plato.

{c} φιλοι, ουδεις Φιλος.

{d} Trussers Contin. of Dan. Chronicle.

Ver. 18. Isaac digged again the wells, &c.] Both for more certainty to find water—a scarce commodity in those hot countries; and because the labour was the easier, and his fight the better, since they had once been his father’s.

Ver. 19. A well of springing water.] Heb., Living; so called for their continual motion. Life consisteth in action: and the godly esteem of life, by that stirring they find in their souls. "O Lord," saith Hezekiah, "by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit". {#Isa 38:16} And thus, many a man lives more in a shorter, than others in a longer time. St Jerome tells of one, qui in brevi vitae spatio tempora virtutum multa replevit. {a} As Seneca of another, qui non diu vixit, sed diu fuit: Non multum navigavit, sed multum iactatus est. Oh, live, live, live, saith a reverend man, {b} quickly, much, long: else you are but hissed and kicked off this stage of the world, as Phocas was by Heraclius; nay, as many {#Job 27:23,15} who were buried before half dead.

{a} Jerom. Epist. ad Fri.

{b} Abner’s Fun., by M. Harris.

Ver. 20. And the herdmen of Gerar.] Not content to have cast him out, they pursued him, with cruel hatred; and, by denying him water, went about to destroy both him and his herds. Crosses seldom come single, but in a crowd. {#Jas 1:2} "The clouds return after the rain," {#Ec 12:2} and cluster against a new storm. See, therefore, that ye keep your cloak close about you.

Ver. 21. And he called the name of it Sitnah.] Of Satan; to hate deadly, as the devil doth. So the Preacher in his Travels {a} tells us of a place called, The mouth of hell. And we read of a country called, Terra del fuego. {b} Savoy, for the strait passages infested with thieves, was once called Malvoy; till a worthy adventurer cleared the coasts, and then it was called Salvoy, or Savoy, quasi salva via. {c} So, King Alfred, as he divided the kingdom into shires, so the subjects, in the several shires, into tens, or tithings; every of which should give bond for the good bearing of each other. The most ancient of the ten, was called the tithing man. And the kingdom was called Regnum Dei, and Albion, quasi Olbion, { d} happy; as Angli quasi Angeli; for that then a poor girl might safely travel with a bag of gold in her hand, and none durst meddle with her.

{a} Preach. Trav., p. 10.

{b} Heyl., Geog. 130.

{c} Ibid., 474

{d} Polyd., Virg.

Ver. 22. And he removed from thence, &c.] See here a pattern of a patient and peaceable disposition, not broken by the continual injuries and affronts of the Philistines, that maligned and molested him, "I am peace," saith David; {#Ps 120:7} and I, saith Isaac; and I, saith every son of peace, every child of wisdom. How well might good Isaac take up that of David, and say, "My feet stand in an even place" {a} {#Ps 26:12} now that he was at Rehoboth especially, and God had made room for him: The scales of his mind neither rose up toward the beam, through their own lightness; nor were too much depressed with any load of sorrow: but, hanging equally and unmoved between both, gave him liberty, in all occurrences, to enjoy himself. Our minds, saith a divine, {b} should be like to the adamant, that no knife can cut; the salamander, that no fire can burn; the rock, which no waves can shake; the cypress tree, which no weather can alter; the hill Olympus, higher than storm or tempest, wind or weather can reach unto; or rather, "like mount Zion, that cannot be removed, but standeth fast for ever". {#Ps 125:1} Thus Paul had "learned how to abound, and to be abased". {#Php 4:11} Bradford, if the Queen would give him life, he would thank her; if banish him, he would thank her; if burn him, he will thank her; if condemn him to perpetual imprisonment, he will thank her; as he told one Cresswell, that offered to intercede for him. {c} Praeclara est, aequabilitas in omni vita, et idem semper vultus eademque frons, ut de Socrate, idemque de C. Laelio accepimus, saith Cicero, in his books of offices, {d} which book the old Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth, would always carry about him, to his dying day, either in his bosom or pocket: {e} and what use he made of it, take M. Camden’s {f} testimony: Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, was wont to say, that he overcame envy more by patience than pertinacy. His private estate he managed with that integrity, that he never sued any man, no man ever sued him. He was in the number of those few, that both lived and died with glory.

{a} Barthol. Westmer., in Ps. xxvi.

{b} Ambros.

{c} Act. and Mon.

{d} Aelian., lib. ix.—Solln., cap. 8.

{e} Peacham’s Complete Gentleman, p. 45.

{f} Camden’s Elisabeth, fol. 495.

Ver. 23. And he went up.] To the place of God’s worship. Strabo writeth that the Metapontines, when they were enriched by a good year of grain, dedicated to Apollo a golden harvest. {a}

{a} Dedicasse in Delphis χρυσουν θερος.

Ver. 24. Fear not.] For the continued opposition of the Philistines, or whatever other discouragement. The best minds, when troubled for any long time, yield inconsiderate motions, and suffer some perturbation; as water that is violently stirred sends up bubbles. They cannot be so much master over their passions, as not otherwhiles to be disquieted: for, not the evenest weights but, at their first putting into the balance, somewhat sway both parts thereof, not without some show of inequality; which, after some tittle motion, settle themselves in a meet poise. Potissimum vero fidei murus, tentationum ariete durius aliquanto pulsatus et concussus, facile nutare ac ruinam minari incipit, nisi divinitus sustentetur. {a}

{a} Bucholcer. Χηρονολ., 320.

Ver. 25. And called upon the name of the Lord.] That had made room for him; and now, by his presence and promise, comforted him. Let the streams of God’s bounty lead us, as the watercourse doth, either to the spring upward, or downward to the main ocean, to the source and fountain whence they flow. Let God taste of the fruit of his own planting. Otherwise, it is no better than the refreshing of him that standeth by a good fire, "and crieth, Aha, I am warm". {#Isa 44:16} We are no better than brute beasts, if, contenting ourselves with a natural use of the creatures, we rise not up to the Author; if, instead of being temples of his praise, we become graves of his benefits. Isaac first built an altar, and then digged a well.

Ver. 26. And Abimelech went to him.] Not of any great love, but as (1.) pricked in conscience; (2.) to provide for posterity. It was a mercy to him, howsoever, that strangers and heathens should do him this honour: as it was to Luther, that when the pope had excommunicated him, the emperor proscribed him, two kings written against him, &c., the elector of Saxony should nevertheless stick to him; and that the great Turk should send him word, not to be discouraged, for he would become his gracious lord, &c., though "from such a lord," said Luther, "good Lord deliver me." {a}

{a} Man., loc. com.

Ver. 27. Wherefore come ye to me?] Here was his magnanimity and his modesty both, in expostulating the wrongs they had done unto him. He could not but be sensible of their discourtesies, though he dissembled them. A sheep feels the bite of a dog, as well as a swine, though she make no such noise. Isaac having now a fit opportunity, gives them the telling of it: and "how forcible are right words"! {#Job 6:25} There is a real confutation of injuries: and we should consult, whether, in such a case, it be best to deal with the wrongdoers, at all, by words. God’s way is by works: and he must get an Isaac-like temperance and prudence, that thinks himself able to convince them by reason, and to set them down.

Ver. 28. Let there be now an oath.] See here, saith Chrysostom, {a} how great the power of virtue is, and the might of meekness. For they that lately drove him out from among them, now come to him in courtesy, though a forlorn foreigner; and not only give him satisfaction, but seek his friendship. Thus "when a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him". {#Pr 16:7}

{a} Quanta virtutis potentia, quantum mansuetudinis robur, &c. -Chrysost. Hom. quinta.

Ver. 29. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.] This they had observed, and therefore did him this honour. So the king of Babylon sent ambassadors and a present to Hezekiah, because he had heard of the miracle of the sun’s going back for him. Now, because the sun, which was their god, had honoured him so much, the king of Babylon would honour him too, as Abulensis hath well observed. {a}

{a} Abulens. in #2Ki 20.

Ver. 30. And he made them a feast.] Not to mischief them thereat, as Absalom did Amnon, as Alexander did Philotas, as the great Turk doth the nobles whom he intends to strangle; {a} but to show there was no rancour or purpose of revenge.

{a} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 31. And they rose up betimes, &c, ] The proverb is, De sero convivium, de mane consilium. It was the Persians’ barbarous manner, in the midst of their cups, to advise of their weightiest affairs, as Pererius here noteth: Ardua negotia, praesertim in quibus iuramentum intervenit, ieiuno stomacho suscipi peragique debent, saith Piscator. Weighty businesses are best despatched fasting.

Ver. 32. We have found water.] As crosses, so mercies, seldom come single, but by troops; as she said, when her son Gad was born, "A company cometh". {#Ge 30:11}

Ver. 33. Is Beersheba to this day.] So it was before; but the name was almost worn out, the well being stopped up. Isaac therefore newly names it, and so preserves it for a monument of God’s mercy to his father, and to himself.

Ver. 34. And Esau was forty years old.] In an apish imitation of his father, who married not till that age; keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection, as Paul, {#1Co 9:27} being inured by good education, to hard labour, prayer, and pious meditation. But Esau did not so, a pleasure monger; he was a profane person, and, as the Hebrews say, a filthy whore master. So much also the apostle seems to intimate, when he sets them together, and saith, "Let there be no fornicator, or profane person, as Esau". {#Heb 12:16}

He took to wife.] Not consulting his parents, or craving their consent. This was abdicationis praeludium; Deus quem destruit, dementat.

Ver. 35. Which were a grief.] Because idolatresses, {#Re 2:2} and untractable; because given up by God. {#Ho 4:17 Ro 1:28}

Chapter 27

Ver. 1. Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim.] Old age is of itself a disease, and the sink of all diseases. This Solomon sweetly sets forth {#Ec 12:1-7} by a continued allegory, Ubi quot lumina imo flumina orationis exerit saith one. In general, he calls it "the evil day, the years that have no pleasure in them." In particular, the senses all fail; the hands tremble; the legs buckle; the teeth cannot do their office, as being either lost or loosened; "the silver cord," that is, the marrow of their backs, is consumed; "the golden ewer," that is, the brainpan, broke; "the pitcher at the well," that is, the veins at the liver; "the wheel at the cistern," that is, the head, which draws the power of life from the heart; all these worn weak, and wanting to their office. So that sleep faileth; "desire faileth"; {a} neither spring nor summer (signified by the almond tree and grasshopper) shall affect with pleasure; "the daughters of music shall be brought low," as they were in old Barzillai; "the sun, moon, and stars are darkened," for any delight they take in their sweet shine; yea, "the clouds return after rain"; a continual succession of miseries, like April weather, as one shower is unburdened, another is brewed, and the sky is still overcast with clouds. Lo, such is old age. And is this a fit present for God? wilt thou give him the dregs, the bottom, the very last sands, thy dotage, which thyself and friends are weary of? "Offer it now to thy prince, will he be pleased with thee"? {#Mal 1:8} The Circassians, a kind of mongrel Christians, as they baptize not their children till the eighth year, so they enter not into the Church, the gentlemen specially, till the sixtieth year, but hear divine service standing outside the temple; that is to any, till through age they grow unable to continue their rapines and robberies, to which sin that nation is exceedingly addicted: so dividing their time between sin and devotion; dedicating their youth to rapine, and their old age to repentance. {b} But God will not be so put off. He is "a great King," and stands upon his seniority. {#Mal 1:14} In the Levitical law, there were three sorts of firstfruits:

1. Of the ears of corn, offered about the Passover;

2. Of the loaves, offered about Pentecost;

3. About the end of the year in Autumn.

Now of the first two God had a part, but not of the last: to teach us, that he will accept of the services of our youth or middle-age: but for old age, vix aut ne vix quidem . Besides Abraham in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, I know not whether we read of any old man ever brought home to God.

{a} Sept., η καππαρις, quum et appetitum et Venerem irritat.

{b} Brerewood’s Enquiries, p. 135.

Ver. 2. I am old, I know not the day of my death.] No more doth any, though never so young. There be as many young skulls as old, in Golgotha. But, young men, we say, may die; old men must die. To the old, death is pro ianuis; to the young, in insidiis. Senex, quasi semi-nex. Old men have pedem in cymba Charontis, one foot in the grave already. Our decrepit age both expects death, and solicits it: it goes grovelling, as groaning for the grave. Whence Terence {a} calls an old man Silicernium; and the Greeks γηροντα, πασα το εις γην οραν, of looking toward the ground, whither he is tending; or, as others will have it, of loving earth and earthly things; which old folk greedily grasp at, because they fear they shall not have to suffice them while alive, and to bring them honestly home, as they say, when they are dead; as Plutarch gives the reason, {b}

{a} Vel quod curvus silices cernat; vel quod mox silentiqus umbris cernendus sit. -Ter, in Adelph.

{b} Τους θριψαντας, και τους θαψαντας.

Ver. 3. Take me some venison.] It is some blemish to holy Isaac, that he so favoured and loved Esau, and that because he did eat of his venison, or because venison was in his mouth. {#Ge 25:28} "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under of any thing". {#1Co 6:12} It is a shame to a saint, to be a slave to his appetite, that it should be said of him, as it was of Epicurus, Dum palato quid sit optimum iudicat, coeli palatium suspexit. {a}

{a} Ennius

Ver. 4. That my soul may bless thee before I die.] The words of dying men are living oracles. It was the patriarch’s care, and must be ours, to leave a blessing behind us; to seek the salvation of our children while we live, and to say something to the same purpose when we die, that may stick by them. So when we are laid in our graves, our stock remains, goes forward, and shall do till the day of doom.

Ver. 5. Esau went to the field to hunt, &c.] But before he returned, the blessing was otherwise bestowed. "The hope of the hypocrite shall perish". {#Job 8:13} How many lie languishing at hope’s hospital, as he at the pool of Bethesda, and no help comes! They repair to the creatures, as to a lottery, with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks. Or, if they draw nigh to God, they think they take hold of him; but it is but as the child that catcheth at the shadow or the wall, which he thinks he holds fast in his hand; but it vanisheth. The common hope is ill bottomed. "Hope unfailable," {#Ro 5:5} is founded upon "faith unfeigned". {#1Ti 1:5} Deo confisi nunquam confusi. He sneaketh sweetest comfort "to the heart, in the wilderness". {#Ho 2:14}

Ver. 6. I heard thy father.] She overheard what Isaac spake secretly. Women will be listening; as Sarah behind the door, when she laughed, and little thought to be questioned for it.

Ver. 7. That I may eat, and bless thee.] Being cheered up by thy good cheer and wine, I may be the fitter instrument of the Spirit of God. So the prophet called for a minstrel. {#2Ki 3:14,15} Plato called wine and music μαλακτικα, the mollifying medicines of human miseries. Cheerfulness is called for in all services.

Ver. 8. How therefore, my son, obey my voice.] Which yet he ought not to have done, because she commanded him that which was evil: and they that do thus, are peremptores, potius quam parentes; rather parricides than parents, as saith St Bernard.

Ver. 9. Savoury meat for thy father, &c.] She knew his diet, and could fit his tooth. The wife is to take care to please (μεριμνα) her husband; to use her wits, and busy her thoughts how to give him content in diet, and other things of the world, as the apostle hath it. {#1Co 7:34} It was devilish policy in Agrippina, the mother of Nero—and it came home to her—to temper the poison that she gave her husband Claudius the emperor, in the meat he most delighted in, {a} and then to make a jest of it. Let us be sure to bring God such service as he loveth. He will eat, not only our "honey," but our "honeycomb"; he will drink, not only our "wine," but our "milk"; {#So 5:1} take in good part unperfect performances, so the heart be upright. But displeasing service is a double dishonour. The fat of rams was rejected with infinite disdain, where the hands are full of blood, the heart of sin. {#Isa 1:11,15} The philosopher {b} could complain of his countrymen, that when they went to offer sacrifice to health, they did then banquet most riotously against health.

{a} Dixit Nero boletos θεων βρωμα ειναι, quod Claudius boleto in numerum Deorum relatus esset. -Dio.

{b} Diog. Laert.

Ver. 10. And thou shalt bring it to thy father.] Though this action, in the general intendment, was good, yet the execution of it wanted not particular error. Her course had been, rather, to have reminded her husband of God’s promise to Jacob, and gently to have exhorted him to do nothing against it; and then to have entreated the Lord, to bend his mind to the obedience of his divine will, though to the crossing of his own. But the saint’s righteousness, while here, is mixed; as light and darkness, dimness at least, in a painted glass, dyed with some obscure and dim colour: it is transparent, and giveth good, but not clear and pure light.

Ver. 11. Esau my brother is a hairy man.] This Rebekah thought not of. Plus vident oculi, quam oculus. Two is better than one; but woe be to him that is alone. We want much of our strength, in the want of a faithful friend, who might be our monitor. Whence David so bemoans the loss of his Jonathan; and St Paul counted it a special mercy to him, that Epaphroditus recovered. {#Php 2:25-27} This the heathen persecutors knew, and therefore banished the Christians, and confined them to isles and mines, where they could not have access one to another. {a} Dr Taylor rejoiced that ever he came into prison, there to be acquainted with that angel of God—so he calls him—John Bradford. While Ridley and Latimer lived, they kept up Cranmer from entertaining counsels of revolt. It was not for nothing, surely, that our Saviour sent forth his disciples by two and two. He knew, by experience, that Satan is readiest to assault when none is by to assist. Aaron may be for a mouth to Moses, Moses for a God to Aaron. {#Ex 4:16}

{a} Cyprian, Epist.

Ver. 12. My father peradventure will feel me.] Our heavenly Father will certainly feel us, and better feel us; and we shall feel him too, in his fatherly corrections, before he bless us. Suffer we must, or ere we reign: no coming to the crown, but by the cross. Christ himself was "perfected by sufferings"; {#Heb 2:10,5:9} and we must be "conformed to his image". {#Ro 8:29} When Ignatius came to the wild beasts, Now, saith he, I begin to be a Christian. Qui non eat Crucianus, non est Christianus, saith Luther, on the 29th of Genesis: and in another place, I have no stronger argument, saith he, against the Pope’s kingdom, than this, that he reigneth without the cross.

And I shall seem to him as a deceiver.] So shall all complimenting hypocrites to God, that pretend his service to their wicked or worldly ends and aims. They think, belike, to deceive him; {a} but therein they are fairly deceived, for he searcheth the hearts; and bring a curse, instead of a blessing, upon themselves and their posterity. "The hypocrite in heart heaps up wrath". {#Job 36:13} Nemo enim magis; ram meretur, saith a father, { b} quam amicum simulans inimicus . Where shall we read of a hypocrite received to mercy?

{a} Sapiens nummularius Deus est: nummum fictum non recipiet. -Bern,

{b} Bern.

Ver. 13. Upon me be thy curse, my son.] A bold speech: but she respected the promise by faith; she relied on that oracle, {#Ge 25:23} which Isaac might misinterpret, understanding it not of the persons of his sons, but of their posterity. Bernardus non vidit omnia. Isaac was not more blind in his eyes than in his affection to his firstborn; and that might mislead him. But Rebekah saw further than he, and therefore made this bold adventure, not without some mixture of infirmity, to procure Jacob the blessing, against her husband’s will and intention. A wife is not to perform such blind obedience to her husband as Plutarch {a} prescribeth, when he layeth it as a law of wedlock on the wife to acknowledge and worship the same gods, and none else, but those whom her husband honours and reputes for gods. Be men pleased or displeased, God must not be displeased.

{a} Plut. Moral., 318.

Ver. 14. And he went, and fetched.] Herein he was over obsequious to his mother. It was an act of faith in her to seek to transfer the patriarchal blessing upon Jacob: it was likewise an act of faith in him to seek to get that blessing. Sed fides utriusque impegit in via; But they took not a right course for the compassing of it.

Ver. 15. And Rebekah took goodly raiment.] The priestly garments, some think, proper to Esau had he kept his birthright; but kept, not by Esau or his wives, but by the mother of the family. The Hebrew calleth them Vestes desiderabiles, garments of desires; goodly, sweet, precious; yet far inferior to that rich and royal robe of Christ’s righteousness, that garment of our Older Brother, wherewith arrayed we obtain the blessing. We read of Solomen’s bravery; of Herod’s cloth of silver; of Alcisthenes the Sybarite’s cloak, sold to the Carthaginians by Dionysius for one hundred and twenty talents; of Demetrius’s robe of estate, which, for the exceeding costliness of it, no prince that came after him would ever put on. {a} But all these were but rags to the robe of righteousness, that fine white linen, and shining. {#Re 19:14}

{a} Propter invidiosam impendii magnificentiam .— Athenaeus.

Ver. 16. And she put the skins of the kids.] This by some is excused, as if it were only dolus bonus, to keep her husband from wrong doing; as, when the physician deceives his patient, that he may heal him. But howsoever what she did may be extenuated, it can hardly be justified, albeit God ordered it to his own purpose.

Ver. 17. And she gave.] {See Trapp on "Ge 27:14"}

Ver. 19. I am Esau thy firstborn, &c.] Here he utters three lies in a breath: besides his ascribing to God that he did, {#Ge 27:20} so taking that reverend name in vain. This was his sin, and he smarted for it to his dying day: for he had scarcely a merry hour after this; but God followed him with one sorrow upon another, to teach him and us what an "evil and bitter thing sin is," {#Jer 2:19} and how it ensnares and ensnarls us. Aristotle could say, that a lie is in itself evil and wicked. {a} The Hebrews call it Aven, a great iniquity. And the Scripture reckons it among monstrous sins, {#Re 21:8} and condemns it to hell, -whether it be the officious, merry, or pernicious lie. Indeed, every lie is pernicious to ourselves or others, or both; because flatly forbidden of God, and because it is against the order of nature, and for that "no lie is of the truth," as St John hath it, {#1Jo 2:21} but of the devil, who began, and still upholds his kingdom by lies. {#Joh 8:44} Contrarily, God is truth, and his children are all such as will not lie, {#Isa 63:8 Re 14:5} at least, not get a haunt and a habit of lying, which David calls "a way of lying": "Remove from me the way of lying," saith he, {#Ps 119:29} that I make not a trade or common practice of it. We find that {#1Sa 21:2} he very roundly telleth two or three lies together, as Jacob here did; and all deliberate. So that tale he told Achish of invading the south of Judah, when he had been upon the Geshurites and Gerarites. {#1Sa 27:8-11} I know not how it can be excused. But this was not David’s "way," his common course; pity it should. Honest heathens condemned lying; the Persians punished it severely in their children. {b} Homer censures it in Dolon, Ulysses, and others, {c} Clitarchi historici, saith Quintilian, ingenium probatur, fides infamatur. Nepos reporteth of Epaminondas, {d} that he so loved truth that he would not once lie, no, not in jest. A shame to many Christians, who think the officious and sporting lie to be nothing. Whereas {#Ga 1:10} we must not speak the truth to please men, much less lie. And for saving ourselves, we must rather die then lie; else Peter had not sinned in denying his Master. As for profiting others, we may not lie, though it were to save a soul. {#Ro 3:7} We may as well commit fornication with the Moabites, to draw them to our religion, or steal from rich men to give to the poor, as lie to do another man a good turn. See #Job 13:7-9.

{a} Arist. Ethic., lib. iv. cap. 7.

{b} Xenoph., Cyrop., lib. i.

{c} Ισκε ψευδεα πολλα λεγειν ετυμοισιν ομοια.—Hom.

{d} Cor. Nepos in Vita Epam.

Ver. 20. How is it that thou hast found it so quickly?] A man may very well ask our common Protestants this question concerning the faith they so much boast of, but came by it too quickly to be fight. They were never yet in the furnace of mortification, -felt the spirit of bondage, the terrors of God in their consciences. Their faith is like Jonah’s gourd, that grew up in a night; or a bullet in a mould, that is made in a moment. Let ours be like the water of Bethlehem, much longed for, and hardly come by, &c. {#2Sa 23:15}

Ver. 21. That I may feel thee, my son.] Here Isaac used all his senses, and yet is cozened. "There is neither wisdom nor counsel against the Lord". {#Pr 21:30} Mihi hominum prudentia similis videtur talparum labori, non sine dexteritate sub terra fodientium, sed ad lumen Solis coecutientium. {a}

{a} Gasp. Ens.

Ver. 22. The voice is Jacob’s voice.] Jacob must name himself Esau, with the voice of Jacob. It is hard, if our tongues do not betray us, in spite of our clothes, as it did the wife of Jeroboam.

Ver. 23. So he blessed him.] {See Trapp on "Ge 27:25"}

Ver. 24. Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.] Thus one sin entertained fetcheth in another; a lie especially, which, being a tinkerly, blushful sin, is either denied by the liar, who is ashamed to be taken with it, or else covered by another and another lie, as we see here in Jacob, who, being once over shoes, will be over boots too, but he will persuade his father that he is his very son Esau.

Ver. 25. Bring it near to me.] Divinum consilium dum devitatur, impletur: humana sapientia, dum reluctatur, comprehenditur, saith Gregory. Here Isaac doth unwilling and unwitting justice.

Ver. 26. Come near now, and kiss me, my son.] Kissing is a symbol of sweetest love: and those that "love out of a pure heart fervently," {#1Pe 1:22} do therefore kiss, as desiring to transfuse, if it might be, the souls of either into other, and to become one with the party so beloved, and, in the best sense, kissed.

Ver. 27. As the smell of a field.] Compare #So 2:13,4:12-14. Aristotle {a} writes of a parcel of ground in Sicily that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields and pasturages thereabouts, that no hound can hunt there, the scent is so confounded by the sweet smell of those flowers. Labour we so to resent heavenly sweetnesses, so to savour the things above, that we may have no mind to hunt after earthly vanities, &c. Alexander’s body is said to be of such an exact constitution, that it gave a sweet scent where it went. Christ, the true body, smells so sweet to all heavenly eagles, that, being now lifted up, he draws them after him. {#Mt 24:28 Joh 12:32}

{a} Arist. Lib. de Mirab. Auscult.

Ver. 28. God give thee of the dew.] For that country was dry and thirsty. They had rain, say some, but twice a year; the former in seedtime, and the latter rain in May. The blessings here bestowed are plenty, victory, domestical preeminency, and outward prosperity. Esau likewise hath the like, but not with a God give thee. But beyond all these, "some better thing" was provided and promised. Erant enim speculum, et pignus coelestium. The Church of Rome borrows her mark from the market plenty, or cheapness, &c.; she vaunts of her temporal felicity, and makes a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholics have had. Immo vix unquam fuerunt Haeretici superiores, quando iusto proelio dimicatum est, saith Bellarmine. {a} Upon one of the Easter holidays, saith George Marsh, martyr, Master Sherburn and Master More sent for me, persuading me much to leave mine opinions, saying, all the bringers up and favourers of that religion had ill luck, and were either put to death, or in prison, and in danger of life. {b} Again, the favourers of the religion now used, had wondrous good luck and prosperity in all things. These wizards, these "disputers of this world," as the apostle calls them, {#1Co 1:20} either knew not, or believed not, that the Church is the heir of the Cross, Ecclesia haeres Crucis, as an ancient speaketh; that opposition is, as Calvin wrote to the French king, Evangelii genius ,- the bad genius that dogs the gospel; that truth breeds hatred, {c} as the fair nymphs did the ill favoured fawns and satyrs, and seldom goes without a scratched face. Some halcyons the Church hath here, as in Constantine’s time ( Repugnante contra temetipsam tua faelicitate, saith Salvian, in his first book to the Catholic Church); but grace she shall be sure of here, "with persecution"; and glory hereafter without interruption. As for outward things, aut aderunt sane, aut non oberunt; either she shall have them, or be as well without them. God shall be her cornucopia; her All-sufficient; her "shield and exceeding great reward." Sine Deo, omnis copia est egestas.

{a} Bell., tom. ii. lib. iv. cap. ult.

{b} Act. and Mon., fol. 1421.

{c} Veritas odium parit. -Ter.

Ver. 29. Let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee.] That is, thy brethren; which are therefore denominated from the mother, quod certior est a matre progenies, quam a patre, saith an interpreter. {a} But this blessing is pronounced in a higher style than ordinary: therefore sentences are doubled, and that kind of speech is here used which, with us, is either poetical, or not far from it.

{a} Castalio in Annotat., ad locum.

Ver. 30. Esau his brother came in.] All too late. Detained he was by the devil, say the Hebrews, who not seldom makes a fool of hunters, and leads them about. A sweet providence of God there was in it, certainly, that he should come in as soon as Isaac had done and Jacob was gone, and no sooner. Like as there was in that which Master Fox {a} reports of Luther, that on a time, as he was sitting in a certain place upon his stool, a great stone there was in the vault, over his head; which being stayed miraculously so long as he was sitting, as soon as he was up, immediately fell upon the place where he sat, able to have crushed him in pieces. A warrant once came down, under seal, for the execution of the Lady Elizabeth: Stephen Gardiner was the engineer, and thought he had been sure of his prey, but God pulled the morsel out of his mouth; for one Master Bridges, mistrusting false play, presently made haste to the queen, who renounced and reversed it. {b} Another time, while Sir Henry Benningfield, her keeper, was at court, one Basset, a gentleman and a great favourite of Stephen Gardiner’s, came, with twenty men well appointed, to Woodstock to have murdered her. But by God’s great providence, Sir Henry had left so strict a charge behind him, that no living soul might have access unto the princess, upon what occasion soever, till his return, that they could not be admitted, whereby their bloody enterprise was utterly disappointed. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver his". {#2Pe 2:9} "He keepeth all their bones, not one of them is broken". {#Ps 34:20}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 793.

{b} England’s Elizabeth, by Heywood.

Ver. 31. And he also had made savoury meat.] Esau’s works here are better than Jacob’s. Election is not of works, but of grace. {#Ro 9:11} Quis te discernit? saith the apostle. {#1Co 4:7} Grevinchovius, the Arminian, saucily answers, Ego meipsum dicerno. And surely, had the cause of our election been either by our faith, or good works foreseen, as the Papists and Arminians would have it, St Paul might have spared his question, or soon received a ready answer.

Ver. 32. Thy firstborn Esau.] But have you forgot that you sold your first birthright to your brother Jacob, who now hath outwitted you?

Ver. 33. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly.] The fear of God reined him in that he durst not reverse the blessing, though haply he had a mind to it; nay, he stablished it to Jacob here, and more advisedly in the next chapter. Noli peccare: nam Deus videt, Angeli astant, diabolus accusabit, conscientia testabitur, infernus cruciabit. A reverend and religious man had this written before his eyes, in his study, saith M. Gataker.

Ver. 34. He cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry.] Not for his sin, in selling the birthright; but for his loss, in missing the blessing: {a} though having sold the birthright, he had no right to the blessing. This is the guise of the ungodly. He cries, Perii; not Peccavi. If he "howl upon his bed," {#Ho 7:14} it is for corn and oil, as a dog tied up howls for his dinner: it never troubles him, that a good God is offended, which to an honest heart is the prime cause of greatest sorrow.

{a} Non dolet de peccato venditionis, sed de damno perditionis. -Par.

Ver. 35. Thy brother came with subtilty.] Junius observes, that Isaac here, to please his son, committeth some oversight, in transferring the fault upon Jacob. He might have seen how God chastised his seeking to cross the oracle, in the sin of Rebekah and Jacob, who beguiled him. But our minds are as ill set as our eyes, -neither of them apt to turn inwards.

Ver. 36. Is he not rightly named Jacob?] He cavils and quarrels at his brother’s guile; at his father’s store, Hast thou but one blessing? &c.; but not a word we hear of his own profaneness. How apt are men to mistake the cause of their sufferings, and to blame anything sooner than their own untowardness!

Ver. 37. I have made him thy Lord.] {See Trapp on "Ge 27:29"} This Isaac did, as he was the minister and prophet of God.

Ver. 38. Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.] Yet, "found no place for repentance". {#Heb 12:17} That is, he could not, by his tears, prevail with his father to reverse the blessing. See the fruit of God’s holy fear. Moses’ rod was not so famous for being turned into a serpent, for even the magicians did as much, as for devouring the magicians’ rods: so the true fear of God is most eminent and effectual when set in emulation or opposition to other fears or carnal aims and affections.

Ver. 39. Answered and said unto him.] Dixit, non benedixit; quia potius fuit praedictio futurae conditionis, quam benedictio, saith Pareus. And whereas we read, "Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven"; Castalio renders it thus: Tua quidem sedes a terrae pinguitudine, et a supero coeli rore aberit. For Mishmanne, saith he, signifieth ab pinguitudine, sive sine pinguitudine: as it doth also, #Ps 109:24, "My flesh faileth from fatness," that is, for lack of fatness, or, without fatness." {a} So the sense he sets upon this text is, Thou shalt dwell far from the fatness of the earth, in a barren country, &c. For Isaac could not give Esau what he had given Jacob afore: and this was what Esau so grieved at, and threatened his brother for. Or if he could, what cause had Esau so to take on? why should it trouble me, that another partakes of the sunlight with me, when I have never the less? &c. Objection. But the apostle saith, "Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau". {#Heb 11:20} Solution. It was a blessing, no doubt, that Edom should shake off Israel’s yoke; as it follows, #Ge 27:40, and happened, #2Ki 8:20.

{a} Sic dicimus Ab re, απο τροπου, απο πατριδος: et composite, Amens, abesse, απογινεσθαι.

Ver. 40. When thou shalt have the dominion.] Cum planxeris, saith Junius; when thou hast for some time undergone hard, troublesome, and lamentable servitude, the grief whereof thou dost greatly groan under; as in David’s time, {#2Sa 8:14} who "cast his shoe over them". {#Ps 60:8} The Sodomites, those worst of men, were the first that we find in Scripture brought in bondage to others. {#Ge 14:4} When the Danes and other foreigners domineered in this kingdom, was it not a lamentable time? were not men’s dearest lives sold as cheap as sparrows were among the Jews, five for two farthings? Did we but live a while in Turkey, Persia, yea, or but in France, saith one, a dram of that liberty we yet enjoy, would be as precious as a drop of cold water would have been to the rich man in hell, when he was so grievously tormented with those flames. Take we heed, lest for the abuse of this sweet mercy, God send in the Midianites to thresh out our grain, the Assyrians to drink up our milk, to make a spoil of our cattle, {#Jer 49:32} and to cause us to eat the bread of our souls in the peril of our lives, as our fathers did in Queen Mary’s days.

Ver. 41. And Esau hated Jacob, &c.] Because God said, "Jacob have I loved." And, as all hatred is bloody, he resolves to be his death. "The righteous is abomination to the wicked," saith Solomon. {#Pr 29:27} Moab was irked because of Israel, or, did fret and vex at them, {#Nu 22:3,4} who yet passed by them in peace. But the old Serpent had set his limbs in them, transfused his venom into them: hence that deadly hatred that is and will be betwixt the godly and the wicked. Pliny speaks of the scorpion, that there is not one minute wherein he doth not put forth the sting: so doth that serpentine seed, acted by Satan. The panther so hates man, that he flies upon the very picture of a man, and tears it to pieces. So doth Satan and his imps upon the image of God, in whomsoever they find it. They "satanically hate me," saith David {#Ps 35:19} of his enemies. And seest thou thy persecutor full of rage? saith Bernard; know thou, that he is spurred on by the devil that rides him, {a} that acts and agitates him. {#Eph 2:2}

And Esau said in his heart.] Effutiverat etiam minaces voces; he had also bolted out some suspicious speeches, as our gunpowder traitors did whereby he was prevented.

The days of mourning for my father.] No matter for his mother: yet God saith, "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father". {#Le 19:3} The mother is first mentioned, because usually most slighted. Luther thinks, he threateneth his father also, in these words; as if he should say, I will be avenged, by being the death of my brother, though it be to the breaking of my father’s heart. {b} A bloody speech of a vindictive spirit, whom nothing would satisfy, but to be a double parricide.

I will slay my brother.] But threatened men live long: for even Isaac, who died soonest, lived above forty years beyond this. "My times are in thy hand," saith David. {#Ps 31:15}

{a} Scito quia ab ascensore suo daemone perurgetur. -Bern.

{b} Vindicabo me afferendo Patri luctum caede fratris. -Luth.

Ver. 42. And these words of Esau, &c.] For he could not hold, as Absalom did, who, intending to murder Amnon, spake neither good nor evil to him. These still revenges are most dangerous, as a dog that barks not. That Esau vented himself in words, was a great mercy of God to Jacob. He thought nothing, good man, but followed his calling, not knowing his danger. But his provident mother heard about it, and took course to prevent it. So doth the sweet fatherly providence of God take care and course for the safety of his servants, when they are either ignorant or secure. Masses were said in Rome for the good success of the Powder Plot; but no prayers in England for our deliverance: and yet we were delivered. A sevenfold psalmody they had framed here, which secretly passed from hand to hand, with tunes set, to be sung for the cheering up of their wicked hearts, with an expectation, as they called it, of their day of Jubilee. {a} The matter consisteth of railing upon King Edward, Queen Elizabeth, and King James; of petition, imprecation, prophecy, and praise. This Psalter is hard to be had: for they are taken up by the Papists as other books are, that discover their shame. But Mendoza, that liar ( conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis), sounded the triumph before the victory. That blind letter of theirs brought all to light, by the mere mercy of "the Father of lights," who was pleased to put a divine sentence into the mouth of the king. Sorex suo perit indicio. Hunc tibi pugionem mittit Senatus, dixit ille: detexit facinus fatuus, et non implevit. So here. See the like, #1Sa 19:2 Ac 9:24,23:16.

And she sent and called Jacob.] Why did she not call both her sons together, and make them friends, by causing the younger to resign up his blessing to the elder? Because she preferred heaven before earth, and eternity before any the world’s amity or felicity whatsoever. The devil would fain compound with us when he cannot conquer us; as Pharaoh would let some go, not all; or if all, yet not far. Religiosum oportet esse, sed non religantem. He cannot abide this strictness, &c. But we must be resolute for God and heaven. Better flee with Jacob, yea, die a thousand deaths, than, with the loss of God’s blessing, to accord with Esau.

{a} Spec. Bell. Sacri.

Ver. 43. Flee thou to Laban.] Flee then we may, when in danger of life; so it be with the wings of a dove, not with the pinions of a dragon. God must be trusted, not tempted. Means must be neither trusted nor neglected.

Ver. 44. Tarry with him a few days.] Heb., unos dies. Sed facti sunt viginti anni. She reckoned upon a few days; but it proved to be twenty whole years: and she never saw Jacob again, as the Hebrew doctors gather. Thus man purposeth, God disposeth. Some think she sent Deborah her nurse to fetch him home, who died on the return. {#Ge 35:8}

Ver. 45. And he forget, &c.] While wrongs are remembered, they are not remitted. He forgives not, that forgets not. When an inconsiderate fellow had stricken Cato in the bath, and afterwards cried him mercy, he replied, I remember not that thou didst strike me. {a} Our Henry VI is said to have been of that happy memory, that he never forgot anything but injuries. Esau was none such: he was of that sort whom they call πικροχολοι, soon angry, but not soon pleased. His anger was like "coals of juniper," {#Ps 120:4} which burn extremely, last long (a whole twelve month about, as some write), and though they seem extinct, revive again:—

“ Flamma redardescit, quae modo nullas fuit .”— Ovid.

{a} Sen., De Ira., lib. i.

Ver. 46. I am weary of my life, &c.] A wise woman, saith an interpreter, not willing to grieve her husband, she conceals from him Esau’s malicious hatred of Jacob, and pretends another cause of sending him away, to take him a fit wife. Let women learn not to exasperate their husbands with quick words or froward deeds; but study their quiet. Livia, wife to Augustus, {a} being asked how she could so absolutely rule her husband, answered, By not prying into his actions, and dissembling his affections, &c.

{a} Dio in Aug.

Chapter 28

Ver. 1. Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him.] He doth not rate him, or rail at him. Anger must have an end. The prodigal’s father met him and kissed him, when one would have thought he should rather have kicked him and killed him. Pro peccato magno, paululum supplicii satis est patri .{ a}

{a} Terent.

Ver. 2. Arise, go to Padanaram.] Jacob was no sooner blest, but banished. So our Saviour was no sooner out of the water of baptism, and had heard, "This is my beloved Son," &c., but he was presently in the fire of temptation, and heard, "If thou be the Son," &c. {#Mt 3:1-4:11} When Hezekiah had set all in good order, {#2Ch 31} then up came Sennacherib with an army. {#2Ch 32:1} God puts his people to it; and often, after sweetest feelings.

Ver. 3. And God Almighty bless thee.] Here Isaac establishes the blessing to Jacob, lest haply he should think, that the blessing so got, would be of no force to him. God passeth by the evil of our actions, and blesseth the good.

Ver. 4. And give thee the blessing of Abraham.] Here he is made "heir of the blessing," as are also all true Christians. {#1Pe 3:9} Caesar, when he was sad, said to himself, Cogita te esse Caesarem :so, think thou art an heir of heaven, and be sad if thou canst.

Ver. 5. Isaac sent away Jacob.] With his staff only, {#Ge 32:10} and to "serve for a wife". {#Ho 12:12} It was otherwise, when a wife was provided for Isaac. But Jacob went as privately as he could; "he fled into Syria," probably, that his brother Esau might not know of his journey, and wait him a shrewd turn by the way. Theodoret saith, it was that the divine providence might be the better declared toward him, no better attended or accommodated.

Ver. 6. When Esau saw, &c.] But he was ever too late (Οψινοος), and therefore what he did was to little purpose. An overlate sight is good neither in piety nor policy. They will find it so that are semper victuri ,{ a} and never can find time to begin till they are shut out of heaven for their trifling. How many have we known taken away in their offers and essays; before they had prepared their hearts to cleave to God!

{a} Seneca.

Ver. 7. And was gone to Padanaram.] Which was distant from Beersheba almost five hundred miles. This was the father of the that family of travellers; and his affliction is our instruction. {#Ro 15:4 1Co 10:11}

Ver. 8. Pleased not Isaac his father.] Whether himself or they pleased God or not, was no part of his care. God is not in all the wicked man’s thoughts. {#Ps 10:4} What he strives for is, to be well esteemed of by others, to have the good will and good word of his neighbours and friends, such especially as he hopes for benefit by. Thus Julian counterfeited zeal, till he had got the empire: afterwards, of Julian, he became Idolian, as Nazianzen saith he was commonly called, because he set open again the idols’ temples, which had been shut up by Constantine, and restored them to the heathens.

Ver. 9. Then went Esau unto Ishmael.] Stulta haec fuit κακοζηλια, et hypocrisis , saith Pareus rightly. Apes will be imitating men: spiders have their webs, and wasps their honeycombs. Hypocrites will needs do something, that they may seem to be somebody: but, for want of an inward principle, they do nothing well: they amend one error with another, as Esau here; and as Herod prevents perjury by murder. Thus, while they shun the sands, they rush upon the rocks, and while they keep off the shallows, they fall into the whirlpool. {a} Sed nemo ira perplexus tenetur inter duo vitia, quin exitus pateat absque tertio , saith an ancient.

{a} Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim .

Ver. 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba.] A long journey, but nothing so long as Christ took, from heaven to earth, to serve for a wife, his Church; who yet is more coy than Rachel, and can hardly be spoken with, though he stand clapping and calling, "Open to me, my sister, my spouse." Stupenda dignatio , saith one; a wonderful condescending.

Ver. 11. And he lighted upon a certain place.] Little thinking to have found heaven there. Let this comfort travellers, and friends that part with them. Jacob never lay better than when he lay outdoors; nor yet slept sweeter than when he laid his head upon a stone. {a} He was a rich man’s son, and yet inured to take harsh situation.

{a} Male cubans suaviter dormit, et foeliciter somniat.

Ver. 12. Behold a ladder.] Scala est, piorum in hoc mundo peregrinatio , saith Pareus, after Junius. But besides this interpretation, our Saviour offereth us another, {#Joh 1:51} applying it to himself, the true ladder of life, per quem solum in coelum ascendere possimus . He that will go up any other way must, as the emperor once said, erect a ladder and go up alone. He touched heaven, in respect of his Deity; earth, in respect of his humanity; and joined earth to heaven, by reconciling man to God. Gregory speaks elegantly of Christ, γεφυρωσας, that he joined heaven and earth together, as with a bridge; being the only true Pontifex , or bridge-maker. Heaven is now open and obvious, to them that acknowledge him their sole Mediator, and lay hold, by the hand of faith, on his merits, as the rungs of this heavenly ladder: these only ascend; that is, their consciences are drawn out of the depths of despair, and put into heaven, as it were, by pardon, and peace with God, rest sweetly in his bosom, calling him, Abba, Father, and have the holy angels ascending to report their needs, and descending, as messengers of mercies. We must also ascend, saith St Bernard, by those two feet, as it were, -meditation and prayer: yea, there must be continual ascensions in our hearts, as that martyr {a} said: and as Jacob saw the angels ascending, and descending, and none standing still; so must we be active, and abundant in God’s work, "as knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord": {#1Co 15:58} and that, non proficere est deficere ,{ b} not to go forward is to go backward.

{a} M. Philpot.

{b} Bern.

Ver. 13. I am the Lord God of Abraham, &c.] What an honour is this to Abraham, that God was not ashamed to be called his and his son’s God! Eusebius the historian, was called Eusebius Pamphili, for the love that was between him and the martyr Pamphilus, as St Jerome testifieth. "Friend to Sir Philip Sidney," is engraven upon a nobleman’s {a} tomb in this kingdom, as one of his titles. Behold the goodness of God, stooping so low as to style himself "the God of Abraham"; and Abraham again, "the friend of God."

{a} The old Lord Brook.

Ver. 14, 15. And thy seed shall be as the dust.] Against his fourfold cross, here is a fourfold comfort, as Pererius well observeth, a plaster as broad as the sore, and sovereign for it. (1.) Against the loss of his friends, "I will be with thee": (2.) Of his country; "I will give thee this land": (3.) Against his poverty; "Thou shalt spread abroad, to the east, west," &c. (4.) His solitariness and aloneness; angels shall attend thee, and "thy seed shall be as the dust," &c. And "who can count the dust of Jacob?" {#Nu 23:10} saith Balaam, that spellman of the devil, as one calls him. Whereunto we may add that which surpasseth and comprehendeth all the rest; "In thee, and thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Now whatsoever God spake here with Jacob, he spake with us, as well as with him, saith Hosea. {#Ho 12:4}

Ver. 15. {See Trapp on "Ge 28:14"}

Ver. 16. And I knew it not, ] viz., That God is graciously present in one place, as well as in another. Our ignorance and unbelief is freely to be confessed and acknowledged. Thus David; {#Ps 73:22} Agur. {#Pr 30:2} Pray for me, saith Father Latimer to his friend; pray for me, I say: for I am sometimes so fearful, that I would creep into a mouse hole. {a} And in a certain sermon; {b} I myself, saith he, have used, in mine earnest matters, to say, "Yea, by St Mary"; which indeed is naught.

{a} In his letter to Ridley, Act. and Mon., 1565.

{b} Sermon in 3d Sunday in Advent.

Ver. 17. How dreadful is this place!] The place of God’s public worship is a place of angels and archangels, saith Chrysostom; {a} it is the kingdom of God; it is very heaven. What wonder, then, though Jacob be afraid, albeit he saw nothing but visions of love and mercy? "In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple," saith David. {#Ps 5:7} The very Turk, when he comes into his temple, lays by all his state, and hath none to attend him all the while. Omnino opertet nos, orationis tempore, curiam intrare coelestem , saith St Bernard, {b} in qua Rex regum stellato sedet solio ,& c. Quanta ergo cum reverentia, quanto timore, quanta illuc humilitate accedere debet e palude sua procedens et repens vilis ranuncula ? Our addresses must be made unto God with the greatest reverence that is possible.

{a} Τοπος `Αγγελων και `Αρχαγγελων, Βασιλεια, Θεου, αυτος ο ουρανος.

{b} Bern., De Divers., 25.

Ver. 18. And set it up for a pillar.] The better to perpetuate the memory of that mercy he had there received; and that it might be a witness against him, if hereafter he failed of fulfilling his vow. It is not amiss, in making holy vows, to take some friend to witness, that, in case we be not careful to fulfil them, may mind us, and admonish us of our duty in that behalf. Jacob, that was here so free, when the matter was fresh, to promise God a chapel at Bethel, was afterwards backward enough; and stood in need that God should pull him by the ear, once and again, with a "Go up to Bethel," and punish him for his delays, in the rape of his daughter, cruelty of his sons, &c. {#Ge 35:1}

Ver. 19. Bethel, ] i.e., The house of God; yet afterwards for the calf worshlp there set up by Jeroboam, it became Bethaven. {#Ho 4:15} See the note there. God grant that Anglia , once called Regnum Dei , never become Thronus Satanae , the place "where Satan’s seat is". {#Re 2:13} And let all true hearted Englishmen with one mind and one mouth say, Amen and Amen.

Ver. 20. And Jacob vowed a vow.] The first holy vow that ever we read of: whence Jacob also is called the father of vows; which, out of this text, may be thus described. A vow is nothing else but a religious promise made to God in prayer, and grounded upon the promise of God; whereby we tie ourselves, by way of thankfulness, to do something that is lawful, and within our power; with condition of obtaining some further favour at the hands of God. Thus Jacob vows to God only: he is the sole object of fear, therefore also of vows. See them set together, #Ps 76:11. Next, he prays when he vows. Ευχη ετ προσευχη: a vow and a prayer are of near and necessary affinity. See #Ps 61:8 Jud 11:30,31. That was a blasphemous vow of Pope Julius, that said, he would have his will, al despito di Dio .{ a} And not unlike of Solyman the great Turk, in a speech to his soldiers: So help me great Mohammed, I vow, in despite of Christ and John, in short time to set up mine ensigns with the Moon, in the middle of the market place in Rhodes. {b} Jacob, as he vowed only by the fear of his father Isaac, so he presented his vow in a holy prayer, not in a hellish execration. I add, that it is a promise grounded upon God’s promise; so was Jacob’s here, in all points, as is to be seen if compared with #Ge 28:15. Next, I say, that by this vow we bind ourselves, &c. Not as casting any new snare upon ourselves thereby; but rather a new provocation to the payment of an old debt. For what can Jacob vow to God that he owes him not beforehand, without any such obligation? This he doth, too, by way of thankfulness; as doth likewise David in #Ps 116:8,9, and otherwhere. And that which he voweth is lawful and possible: not as theirs was, that vowed Paul’s death, {#Ac 23:14} or as Julian the apostate’s, who, going against the Persians, made this vow; that if he sped well, he would offer the blood of Christians. Or as that Constable of France, who covenanted with God, that if he had the victory at St Quintin’s, he would attack Geneva. {c} These men thought they had made a great good bargain with God; but did not his hot wrath kindle against them? So Gerald Earl of Desmond’s Irishmen were justly consumed with famine and sword, which had barbarously vowed to forswear God, before they would forsake him. {d} Lastly, all this that Jacob doth, is on condition of some further favour: "If God will be with me, and will preserve me, and provide for me," &c. All which he doubts not of, as having a promise; but yet helps forward his faith by this holy vow; then shall God have the utmost, both in inward and outward worship: for God shall be his God; and he will build him a house, and pay him tithes, &c.

And will give me bread to eat.] "Having food and raiment," saith the apostle, "let us therewith be content." Nature is content with little; {e} grace with less. Insaniae damnandi sunt, qui tam multa, tam anxie congerunt, quum sit tam paucis opus , saith Ludovicus Vives. Ολιγοδεης ο σπουδαιος, saith Clem. Alex. Cibus et potus sunt divitiae Christianorum , saith Jerome. Bread and water, with the gospel, are good cheer, saith Greenham. Cui cum paupertate bene convenit, pauper non est .{ f} The disciples are bid pray for bread, not biscuit: they dined, on a Sabbath day, with grain rubbed in their hands, with broiled fish, &c. Luther made many a meal of a herring; {g} Junius, of an egg. One told a philosopher, If you will be content to please Dionysius, you need not feed upon green herbs. He replied, And if you be content to feed upon green herbs, you need not please Dionysius.

{a} Act. and Mon.

{b} Turk. Hist.

{c} Act. and Mon., 1914.

{d} Camd. Elisab., fol. 258. A.D. 1583.

{e} Vir bonis paucis indiget .

{f} Seneca.

{g} Melch. Adam.

Chapter 29

Ver. 1. Then Jacob went on his journey.] Heb., Lifted up his feet: indefessi cursoris instar ; as it were a generous and manly horse, refreshed with his wait by the way, he went lightly on his long journey. "The joy of the Lord was" Jacob’s "strength": {#Ne 8:10} it became as oil; wherewith his soul being suppled, he was made more lithe, nimble, and fit for action. He that is once soaked in this oil, and bathed, with Jacob, in this bath at Bethel, will cheerfully do or suffer aught for God’s sake. Tua praesentia, Domine, Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit , saith one. {a} Gaudebat Crispina cum tenebatur, cum audiebatur, cum damnabatur, cum ducebatur , saith Austin. So did many of the Marian martyrs, as were easy to instance. Bernard gives the reasons: The cross is oiled, {b} saith he; and, by the grace of the Spirit helping our infirmities, it is made, not only light, but sweet; and not only not troublous and terrible, but desirable and delectable. From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison: so that Italian martyr Algerius dated his letter. {c} Another Dutch martyr, feeling the flame to come to his beard, Ah, said he, what a small pain is this, to be compared to the glory to come! {d} Let us pluck up our feet, pass from strength to strength, and take long and lusty strides toward heaven. It is but a little afore us; and a ready heart rids the way apace.

{a} Aug. in Psalm cxxxvii.

{b} Crux enim inuncta est ,& c. Crucem multi abominantur, crucem videntes, sed non videntes unctionem .— Bern.

{c} Act. and Mon., fol. 857.

{d} Ibid., fol. 813.

Ver. 2. Three flocks of sheep lying by it.] Semblably Christ, the chief Shepherd, "feeds" and "leads his flock to the lively fountains of waters"; {#Re 7:16,17 Ps 23:2} commanding his under shepherds, the ministers, to roll away the stone, by opening the promises, that his sheep may drink "water with joy out of those wells of salvation". {#Isa 12:3}

Ver. 3. And they put the stone again upon the well’s mouth.] To keep the waters clean and filth free. The Turks had procured some traitor in Scodra, where Scanderbeg ruled, to poison the town well. {a} The Pope hath endeavoured the like, by pouring out his deadly poison "upon the rivers and fountains of water" (the Scriptures) "that they might become blood". {#Re 16:4} Witness that heathenish decree of the Council of Trent; equalising, if not preferring, the Apocrypha to the canonical Scripture; the vulgar translation to the original; traditions to Holy Writ; and affirming that the Holy Ghost himseff is not to be heard, though he bring never so plain Scripture for himself; nisi accedat meretricis purpuratae effrons interpretatio , saith a learned doctor, unless the Pope may interpret it. {b} Horrible blasphemy! Had not God’s servants need to see to the cleansing of this well, and the keeping it free from the tramplings and defilements of this foul beast? The Council of Constance comes in with a Non-obstante against Christ’s institution, withholding the cup from the sacrament. {c} Before that the gospel was corrected, amended, and expounded, say the Canonists, there were many things permitted (as priests’ marriage); which now, since the time is come that all things are made perfect, are clearly abolished and taken away. When the Hussites denied to admit any doctrine that could not be proved by the Holy Scriptures, the Council of Basil answered them, by Cardinal Cusanus, that the Scriptures were not of the essence of the Church, but of the well being of it only; that the Word of God was so much the better taught the people, by how much it had less of the Scriptures in it; that the Scripture was to be interpreted according to the current rite of the Church; {d} qua mutante sententiam, mutetur et Dei iudicium . Can any hear this, and his ears not tingle? This was then the Pope’s express: for in Popish councils, the bishops and others have no more to do, but simply, inclinato capite , to say Placet to that which in the Pope’s name is propounded to them: as nothing was resolved by the Trent fathers, but all in Rome: whence grew that blasphemous proverb, which I abhor to relate. {e} This council was that sea, upon which the second angel poured out his vial, {#Re 16:3} and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in that sea. Cavete .

{a} Turk. Hist.

{b} D. Prid., Lect. de Testibus .

{c} Licit Christus, post coenam, instituerit, et suis discipulis administraverit ,& c.—Caranza, Sum. Concil., sess. 13; Bee Hive of Rome, p. 12.

{d} Tanto dignius verbum Dei tradi, quanto remotius ab omni Scriptura: eam explicandam iuxta currentem Ecclesiae ritum , &c.— Revius, De Vit. Pontif ., p. 235.

{e} Hist. of Coun. of Trent, 497.

Ver. 4. And Jacob said.] These petty passages are recorded, when the acts of mighty monarchs are unmentioned; to show God’s dear respect to his poor servants. The lion and eagle were not offered in sacrifice as the lamb and dove were. Mr Fox being asked, whether he knew such an honest poor man, answered, I remember him well: I tell you, I forget lords and ladies, to remember such. So doth God.

Ver. 5. {See Trapp on "Ge 29:4"}

Ver. 6. And, behold, Rachel his daughter.] Note, that our least and ordinary actions are ordered and directed by God; as Nathanael’s being under the fig tree, {#Joh 1:48} &c. Birds flying seem to fly at liberty, yet are guided by an overruling hand of Heaven: so are our thoughts, affections, actions. Sic curat Deus universos, quasi singulos; sic singulos, quasi solos , saith Augustine, Rachel, by a divine providence, meets Jacob at the well: so doth the Church (that shepherdess, #So 1:7,8) meet Christ in his ordinances. {#Ps 23:2,3}

Ver. 7. Neither is it time, &c.] Time is a precious commodity, and must be thriftily husbanded. The common complaint is, We want time: but the truth is, we do not so much want, as waste it, as the heathen observed: {a} which they that do, are wastefullest prodigals: for, of all other possessions, two may be had together; but two moments of time cannot be possessed together. This made the philosopher so parsimonious of time: Nullus mihi per otium exit dies -I cannot afford to cast away a day; pattem noctium studiis vindico -part of the night I take for my studies. So did Charles the Great; and after him, Charles the Fifth, who, when at any time in the field against the enemy, spent what hours he could spare in the study of the mathematics. He had, for that purpose, as his instructor, Turrianus of Cremona ever with him. As if he had been of Cato’s mind, {b} that great men must be able to give good account, non minus otii, quam negotii ; no less of their leisure, than of their labour. His constant custom was, saith Cicero, {c} to call to mind, at evening, what thing soever he had seen, read, or done, that day. King Alfred, that reigned here (Anno Dom. 872), is said to have cast the natural day into three parts: eight hours he spent in praying, study, and writing; eight in the service of his body; eight in the affairs of state. Which spaces (having then no other engine for it) he measured by a great wax light, divided into so many parts; receiving notice by the keeper thereof, as the various hours passed in the burning. {d}

“ Qui nescit quo vita modo volat, audiat horas:

Quam sit vita brevis, nos docet ille sonus .”

{a} Non parum habemus temporis, sed multum perdimus. -Senec. Epist.

{b} Cato in Orig.

{c} Cic. De Senect.

{d} Dan. Chron., fol. 13.

Ver. 8. We cannot, until all the flocks.] As we are not, by the example of these shepherds, to enterprise things above our strength, {#Ps 131:1} so neither to be discouraged by every difficulty; but to lend, and borrow help one of another; each man "pleasing his neighbour for his good, and serving him in love, to edification". {#Ro 14:1,2}

“ Divisae his operae, sed mens fuit unica, pavit

Ore Lutherus oves, flore Melancthon apes .”

Ver. 9. For she kept them.] Leah might be left at home, for the tenderness of her eyes. A man is to see that all under his roof have a fit employment; as the master gave each servant his task, his talent, {#Mt 25:15} according to his various abilities, secundum peritiam et potentiam . And everyone hath some excellency or other in him, can we but find and improve it. God hath dispensed his gifts diversely, for the common benefit. And as, in the same pasture, the ox can find fodder, the hound a hare, the stork a lizard, the fair maid flowers: so there is none so worthless, but something may be made of him; some good extracted out of the unlikeliest. Yea, wisdom is such an elixir, as by contaction (if there be any disposition of goodness in the same metal) it will render it of the property.

Ver. 10. Went near, and rolled the stone, &c.] If he did this alone, as the text seemeth to say, it was very strange. He might put forth his strength, to gratify Rachel, and to insinuate himself into her love.

Ver. 11. Lifted up his voice, and wept.] For joy, that he had so happily lighted upon his kinswoman. It argued also his great affection, and passion of mind, for her sake; love is ecstatical; nec iuris se sinit esse sui. Animus est ubi amat, non ubi animat. {a} He kisseth Rachel, as if he would have transfused his soul into her: and wept aloud; not as those vain lovers, who ut flerent, oculos erudiere suos :nor as the Brasileans, {b} whose faculty is such, that tears are for a present salutation, and as soon gone, as if they had said, How do you? but as Joseph wept over Benjamin; the prodigal’s father over him, &c.

{a} Ovid. Amor., lib. ii.

{b} Magni. in Geogr.

Ver. 12. That he was her father’s brother.] And therefore made so bold with her, upon no further acquaintance. His kisses were not unchaste, but modest; such as were common among kindred. And yet here care must be taken that Satan corrupt not our courtesy, or more intimate acquaintance, with never so near an alliance. Flies may settle upon the sweetest perfumes, and putrify them. St Paul saw cause to exhort Timothy (that mortified young man) to exhort the younger women, "as sisters with all purity"; {#1Ti 5:2} because, through the subtilty of Satan, and the deceit of his own heart, even whilst he was exhorting them to chastity, some unchaste motions might steal upon him. A great deal of caution doth no hurt. {a}

{a} Abuadans cautela non nocet .

Ver. 13. He ran to meet him, and embraced him.] All in hypocrisy, as the Hebrews hold. There be many Labans: hot at first, cold at last; friendly in the beginning, froward in the end. A free friend at first, a kind friend to the last, is rara avis in terris ." Trust not in a friend, put not confidence in a brother," &c. {#Mic 7:5} Look rather unto the Lord, as the Church doth there: he is the only one dependable, as they say, and will never fail us; when the world, as Laban, will show itself at parting, if not before.

He told Laban all these things.] Why and how he came so poorly to him, whereas Abram’s servant, coming upon a like errand, came far better attended and appointed; which was the thing that Laban likely looked after when he ran out to meet Jacob.

Ver. 14. Surely thou art my bone, &c.] Good words cost nothing; and the veriest countrymen are commonly freer of them than of real courtesies. Pertinax the emperor was surnamed Χρηστολογος, quid blandus esset, magis quam benignus . But that of Nero was abominable, who, the very day before he killed his mother, most lovingly embraced her, kissed her eyes and hands, and, accompanying her when she departed, used these sweet words: All happiness attend you, my good mother; for in you I live, and by you I reign. {a} "As a potsherd covered with silver dross, so are burning lips and a wicked heart". {#Pr 26:23}

{a} Μητερ ερρωσο μοι, και υγιαινε, εν γαρ σοι και εγω ζω, και δια σου Βασιλευω.—Dio in Ner.

Ver. 15. Shouldest thou therefore serve me.] He pretends love and equity to his covetous aims and reaches. Candid he would needs seem (according to his name) {a} and considerate. But as blackmoors have their teeth only white, so is Laban’s kindness from the teeth outward. He was as a whited wall or painted sepulchre, or an Egyptian temple—fair and specious without, but within, some cat, rat, or calf there idolised and adored. Hypocrites, whatever they pretend, have a hawk’s eye to praise or profit: they must be gainers by their piety or humanity, which must be another Diana, to bring gain to the craftsmaster. The eagle, when she soareth highest, hath an eye ever to the prey.

{a} Laban, est candidus.

Ver. 16. The name of the elder was Leah, ] i.e., Weak and wearish, by her natural constitution {a} No marvel, therefore, though she were weak-sighted, as #Ge 29:17.

{a} Debilis, nec bene habita, quasi lassa ex debilitate constitutionis.

Ver. 17. Leah was tender-eyed.] Purblind or squint, as one {a} interprets it. Now, a froward look and squint eyes, saith the historian, {b} are the certain notes of a nature to be suspected. The Jerusalem Targum tells us, that her eyes were tender with weeping and praying. Mary Magdalene is famous for her tears; and Christ was never so near her as when she could not see him for weeping. After which she spent (as some report) thirty years in Gallia Narbonensi, in weeping for her sins.

But Rachel was beautiful, &c.] Plato calls beauty the principality of nature; Aristotle, a greater commendation than all epistles. {See Trapp on "Ge 24:16"}

{a} Mercer.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 483.

{c} Heidfeld.

Ver. 18. I will serve thee seven years.] He had nothing to endow her with; he would therefore earn her with his hard labour: which, as it shows Laban’s churlishness to suffer it, and his baseness to make a prize and a prey of his two daughters, so it sets forth Jacob’s meekness, poverty, patience, and hard condition here, mentioned many years after by the prophet Hosea. {#Ho 12:12} He was a man of many sorrows; and from him therefore the Church hath her denomination: neither were the faithful ever since called Abrahamites but Israelites.

Ver. 19. It is better that I give her to thee.] Indeed, he sold her to him for seven years’ service. This was Laban, or Nabal, choose you which. Their names were not more like than their conditions. Laban’s daughters and Nabal’s wife were alike handled by their unkind parents. "He hath sold us," said they, "and hath also quite devoured our money". {#Ge 31:15} And, He hath married me, might Abigail have said, to the money, and not to the man; and though he named me his joy, yet he hath caused me much sorrow. How many a child is so cast away by the covetous parents! It was better with Laban’s two daughters; but no thanks to their father.

Ver. 20. And they seemed unto him but a few days.] And yet lovers’ hours are full of eternity. But love facilitated the service, and made the time seem short. {a} Should anything seem hard or heavy to us, so we may have heaven at length? The affliction is but light and momentary; the glory massive, and for all eternity. Hold out, Faith and Patience. Love is a passion, and seen most in suffering; "much water cannot quench it". {#So 8:7} Nay, like fire, it devours all delays and difficulties, spending and exhaling itself, as it were, in continual wishes to be at home, to be with Christ, which is "far, far the better," (πολλω μαλλον, κρεισσον, #Php 1:23). Oh, let the eternal weight of the crown weigh down with us the light and momentary weight of the cross.

{a} Nox longa quibus mentitur amica, diesque longa videtur opus debentibus, et piger annus pupillis.

Ver. 21. Give me my wife, for my days, &c.] Jacob had served out his time, and now demands his due. David also is said to have "served the will of God, for his own age"; {#Ac 13:36} and John Baptist to have "fulfilled his course". {#Ac 13:25} "Moses also was faithful in all God’s house, as a servant". {#Heb 3:2} Yet these could not call for heaven as their wages, because they were (as the best are, at their best) but "unprofitable servants," {#Lu 17:10} and did not, in any measure, what their duty was to do. We have not a bit of bread of our own earning; and are therefore taught to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread": we get our living by begging. Our best plea is, Domine, non sum dignus, nihi—lominus tamen sum indigens :Lord, I am not worthy, but I am needy, as Pomeran said. Then will God, of his free grace, supply all our necessities, and "afterwards receive us to glory." He will bring us into the bride chamber of heaven, and there will he give us his loves. He will let out himself into us, to our infinite delight. Of all natural delights, that of marriage is the greatest, because there is the greatest communication of one creature to another; and according to the degrees of communication are the degrees of delight. Think the same in the mystical marriage.

Ver. 22. And made a feast.] Never more seasonable, surely, than at the recovery of the lost rib. The wedding day is called, "The day of the rejoicing of a man’s heart". {#So 3:11} Our Saviour graced such a feast with his presence and first miracle: he supplied them with wine to glad their hearts; not with a little, for health’s sake only, but with a great quantity, for sober delight and honest affluence. It is noted as an absurd thing in Samson’s wife, that "she wept all the days of the feast". {#Jud 14:17} A feast, then, there was at Samson’s wedding, and of seven days’ continuance. And so there was at Jacob’s, as may be gathered out of #Ge 29:27. "Fulfil her week," saith Laban; to wit, of banquet or bride-ale, as we call it: only that of Chrysostom comes here in fitly, De nuptiis Iacobi legimus; de choreis et tripudiis non legimus :of Jacob’s wedding feast we read; but of dancing and dalliance, of tracing and tripping on the toe, we read not. In maxima libertate, minima licentia , saith Salvian. Merry we may be, at such a time, but in the Lord: eat and drink we may, but "before the Lord". {#De 12:7} The old world may be a warning to us: they "fed without fear"; {#Jude 1:12} and therefore perished without favour. Let such look to it, as "live in pleasure, and are wanton"; {#Jas 5:5} that eat to excess, and drink to drunkenness, accounting nothing mirth, but madness; no bread sweet, but stolen; no such pleasure, as to have the devil their playfellow; so "nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter," or belly-cheer, {#Jas 5:5} and swallowing down those murdering morsels now, that they must digest in hell. {a}

{a} Multi apud homines manducant, quod apud inferos digerunt. -Aug.

Ver. 23. He took Leah his daughter.] The elder, for the younger; by a like fraud, as Rebekah his mother had not long before, in a cunning disguise, substituted him, the younger son, for the elder. God pays us often in our own coin, {a} and measures to us again the self-same measure that we have meted to others. {#Mt 7:2} Herod mocked the wise men, and is mocked of them. {#Mt 2:16} And how oft do we see those that would beguile others, punished with illusion? God usually retaliates, and proportions jealousy to jealousy, provocation to provocation, {#De 32:21} number to number, {#Isa 65:11,12} choice to choice, {#Isa 66:3,4} device to device, {#Mic 2:1,3} frowardness to frowardness, {#Ps 18:26} contrariety to contrariety. {#Le 26:21} Even the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, {#Pr 11:31} as was Jacob.

{a} Plerumque Deus servat legem talionis .

Ver. 24. Zilpah his maid.] Who, very likely, was of the conspiracy.

Ver. 25. In the morning, behold, it was Leah.] A foul disappointment: but so the world ever serves us. The Hebrews have taken up this passage for a proverb, when a man’s hopes are deceived in a wife, or anything else, wherein he looked for content and comfort.

Ver. 26. It must not be so done in our country.] A sorry excuse; but better, he thought, than none at all. A subtle fox he was, and far too hard for honest Jacob, who was "simple to evil," but of a large reach for heaven. "The children of this world are wise in their generation"; and so is the fox in his: but God will take them in their own craft, as wild beasts in a snare, "made and taken to be destroyed". {#1Co 3:19,20} {a} Let us take heed how we deal with them, and make our bargains as wise as we can. Crebro nobis, sicut Ciceroni ,{ b} vafer ille Siculus insusurret Epicharmi cantilenam illam suam , Νυφε και μεμνησο απινειν. "We have not received the spirit of this world"; {#1Co 2:12} we cannot skill of the devil’s depths: but we have received a better thing; "the Spirit which searcheth all, yea, the deep things of God". {#1Co 2:10}

{a} Ο δρασσομενος. Manu capere et firmiter tenere .

{b} Cic. ad Attic .

Ver. 27. We will give thee this also.] See here the guise of wicked and deceitful men: when one fetch has been born in their minds, they devise another; and make no end of overreaching; there never wanting (as the proverb hath it) a new knack in a knave’s cap. They will search the devil’s skull, but they will find out one slippery trick or another, to cheat and go beyond those they deal with. But let them look to it; "God is the avenger of all such," {#1Th 4:6} whose, not heads only, but "bellies prepare deceit". {#Job 15:35}

Ver. 28. And Jacob did so.] A mirror of patience; which, in Jacob here, had line and rope, "her perfect work"; showing him to be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing". {#Jas 1:3,4} Godly people can bear wrongs best of any: compel them to go a mile, they will be content, if it may do good, to go twain; {#Mt 5:41} yea, as far as the shoes of "the preparation of the gospel of peace" {#Eph 6:15} will carry them.

Ver. 29. Bilhah his handmaid.] Who afterward played false play with her master and husband, and incestuously lay with Reuben.

Ver. 30. And he went in also unto Rachel.] Which incestuous fact cannot ordinarily be justified, nor may at all be imitated. Wicked Julia, soliciting Caracalla to incestuous marriage with her, when he answered, Vellem si liceret , replied impudently (and is therefore, by very heathens, condemned extremely), Si libet, licet: an nescis te Imperatorem esse, leges dare non accipere ?& c. Herod, for marrying his brother’s wife, was reproved, and punished.

Ver. 31. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated.] That is, less loved and respected. So God hated Esau; and accounts the neglects of wife or husband, no better than hatred. {#Eph 5:25}

But Rachel was barren.] God commonly crosseth men’s preposterous affections, that he may draw all love to himself. Jonah loseth his gourd, and we our dearest delights, by overloving them.

Ver. 32. Therefore my husband will love me.] This was her greatest care (and is every good wife’s)—-to "please her husband," {#1Co 7:14} and to win his love.

Ver. 33. And she conceived again.] God usually heapeth his favours upon those whom others slight, and look aloof on.

Ver. 34. And she conceived again.] So, what she wanted in beauty, she had in fecundity or fruitfuiness: and this redounded to God’s greater glory, by Leah’s thankfulness; who might say—

“ Si mihi difficilis formam natura negavit,

Laude Dei, formae, damna rependo, meae .”

- Sappho, apud Ovid.

Ver. 35. Now will I praise the Lord.] So she had done before, at the birth of her other children: but now she would do it anew, upon the receipt of a new mercy: according to that, "Sing unto the Lord a new song." {#Isa 42:10} A good woman she seems to have been; and the better, because not so well beloved of her husband; which she could not but see to be just upon her, for her consenting (with her father) to the sin of deceiving Jacob. #Ge 30:1

Chapter 30

Ver. 1. Give me children, or elso I die.] She was sick of the fret; and could not live, unless Jacob could cure her. "Envy is the rottenness of the bones," {#Pr 14:30} and ever devours itself first; as the worm doth the nut out of which it groweth.

Ver. 2. And Jacob’s anger was kindled.] He that will be angry, and not sin, must not be angry, but for sin. Reprove thy wife, thou mayest; chide her, thou mayest not, unless the offence be against God, as here, and #Job 2:10. And here a man may carry a severe rebuke in his countenance, as God doth, #Ps 80:16, though he say nothing: he may chide with his looks only.

Am I in God’s stead?] Who carrieth this key under his own girdle; as is aforenoted. "Lo, children are a heritage that cometh of the Lord," as David {#Ps 127:3} once sang for Solomon, who had the experience of it: for of so many wives, he had but one son, that we read of; and he was none of the wisest. {#Ec 2:19} This Solomon foresaw, and bewailed, as one unhappy bird, in his nest of vanities.

Ver. 3. Behold my maid Bilhah.] Given her by her father on purpose, it may seem; that in case she proved barren, she might be built up by her. So Stratonice, the wife of King Dejotarus, being barren, gave secretly her maid Electra unto her husband; by whom she had an heir to the crown, as Plutarch relateth.

Ver. 4. And Jacob went in unto her.] Merely to please his wife, he yielded to that which he could not but disallow as evil. Heed must be taken that the hen crow not, that the wife rule not. This γυναικοκρατεια was a part of Jacob’s punishment.

Ver. 5. And bare Jacob a son.] Whom Rachel might adopt, and dandle "on her knees," as #Ge 30:3.

Ver. 6. God hath judged me, &c.] A vile profanation of God’s holy name, under an opinion and pretence of piety. So they that, brow-beating their brethren, better than themselves, said, "Let the Lord be glorified"; {#Isa 66:5} and it grew to a proverb, In nomine Domini incipit omne malum . The conspirators in Edward VI’s time endorsed their letters with "Glory be to God on high, on earth peace," &c. {a} A fair glove drawn upon a foul hand.

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 8. With great wrestlings.] Heb., With wrestlings of God; that is, with excellent and most earnest wrestlings and endeavours; by storms of sighs, and showers of tears. {a} Stupidity is the low extreme, like the dull earth. Despair is as much too high, as it were in the element of fire, which scorches up the spirit. The middle region of air and water, sighs and tears, is the best.

{a} Magno desiderio, precibus, suspiriis luctata est adversus sororem .— Pareus, in loc.

Ver. 9. Left bearing, ] viz., Till she began again, #Ge 30:17.

Ver. 10. Bare Jacob a son.] Here Jacob was too indulgent both to his wives and to himself.

Ver. 11. A troop cometh.] Or, as some render it, Good luck cometh; compare #Isa 65:11. Theodoret saith Leah speaks thus, as one that had been profanely bred; and could not so suddenly forget her old language.

Ver. 13. For the daughters will call me blessed.] This phrase the Virgin Mary maketh use of, {#Lu 1:48} as she doth also of various other Scripture phrases, in that holy song of hers: which showeth that she was very well versed in the Book of God.

Ver. 14. And found mandrakes.] Some render it, lovely flowers; others, violets; others, lilies; others again, cherries of Jury; the Greek, and most interpreters, mandrakes, or mandrake apples. It is a plant very amiable, according to the name, {a} both for sweetness of smell, {#So 7:13} the loveliness of the flower resembling a man; and for the peculiar virtue it hath, to cause sleep, affection, and conception.

{a} םיאדוד— Vide Drus. in fine Com. Ruth.

Ver. 15. Therefore he shall lie with thee, &c.] Thus he is bought and sold by his emulous wives: which was no small affliction to him, and a punishment of his polygamy.

Ver. 16. Thou must come in unto me.] These contentions, saith an interpreter, {a} were not merely carnal, but partly also for desire of God’s ordinary blessing in propagation; and chiefly, for the increase of the Church, and obtaining the promised Seed for salvation.

{a} Ainsw.

Ver. 17. God hearkened unto Leah.] She prayed then, and invited God to her marriage bed. This was praiseworthy in her, howsoever.

Ver. 18. God hath given me my hire.] Wherein she was much mistaken, as having not her "senses exercised to discern good and evil." Here she rejoiceth in that for which she should have repented; and was in the common error of measuring and judging of things by the success; {a} as if God were not many times angry with men, though they outwardly prosper. Thus Dionysius, after the spoils of an idol temple, finding the winds favourable, Lo, said he, how the gods approve of sacrilege!

{a} Foelix scelus virtus vocatur .— Cicero, De Divin., lib. ii.

Ver. 20. God hath endued me with a good dowry.] That is, as it proves, though children are dulcis acerbitas , saith one; certain cares, but uncertain comforts, saith another; {a} yet all men desire them: how much more should we covet grace, and those things that accompany salvation! These having gotten, we may safely and surely say, "God hath endued me with a good dowry."

{a} Φροντιδες μεγαλαι, ελπιδες αδηλοι.—Plutar., De Prolis Amore.

Ver. 21. And called her name Dinah.] Philo in his "Antiquities" saith (but we need not believe him) that this Dinah was afterwards married to Job, and brought him many children.

Ver. 22. And God remembered Rachel.] She began to think that God had forgotten her, because she was so long suspended, and her prayers not answered. This is a common fault. David bewails it in himself. {#Ps 77} Basil grew so weary of the Arian persecution, that once he cried out, An Ecclesias suas prorsus dereliquit Dominus? an novissima hora est? &c. So the Church of old: "Where is thy zeal and thy strength, Lord? the sounding of thy heart and of thy mercies toward us? are they restrained?". {#Isa 63:15} Here we must check and chide ourselves, for once questioning God’s kind remembrance of us, whom he cannot forget, and learn and labour not to "waken our well beloved, until he please". {#So 3:5} He "waits to be gracious," {#Isa 30:19} and, when it is fit, will come "leaping over the mountains of Bether," {#So 2:17} all lets and impediments.

Ver. 23. God hath taken away my reproach.] That is, her barrenness, -with which she was often upbraided, -when now she was sufficiently humbled; besides that her children, as the rest of those women that were long barren, are noted to have been the best, and most gracious; as Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, the Baptist, &c. A child of many prayers cannot lightly miscarry, as he {a} told Monica.

{a} Ambrose.

Ver. 24. The Lord shall add to me another son.] A sweet and sure way of argumentation. God, that hath thus and thus done me good, will not be wanting to me in anything that may be conducive to mine eternal comfort; but "will perfect that which concerneth me". {#Ps 138:8} Qui ad vituli hortatur esum, quid tandem mihi negaturus est? {a}

{a} Bernard.

Ver. 25. Unto mine own place.] The Promised Land, which he reckoned his own. The promises are good surehold.

Ver. 26. Let me go.] Here Jacob was too hasty; as Moses was, in doing justice before his time, and therefore fled for it. {#Ex 2:11-14}

Ver. 27. I pray thee, if I have found favour, &c.] This miserable muckworm, so he may advance his own ends, abased himself to his servants, colloguing or anything, to curry favour, and compass commodity. But he that is swallowed up of the earth (as Korah was), his ears stopped, his heart stuffed, and all passages for God’s Spirit obstructed by it, shall have earth enough when he dies: his mouth shall be filled with a spadeful of mould, and his never-enough quit with fire-enough, in the bottom of hell. Such another courteous caitiff as this in the text was that Plautianus, a rich Roman, of great authority with Severus the Emperor. Omnia enim petebat ab omnibus, et cupiebat omnia , saith the historian {b} Herein only he differed from Laban, when he married his daughter to Antonius the son of Severus, he gave her as much portion as would have sufficed for fifty queens. {a}

{a} Dio in Vita Severi.

{b} Is tantum filiae suae dedit, quantum reginis quinquaginta satis esset .— Dio in Vita Severi.

Ver. 28. Appoint me thy wages.] Heb., Expressly name, or nominate plainly.

And I will give it.] Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest .

Ver. 29. Thou knowest how I have served thee, ] sc., With all my might, and to thy singular advantage: if therefore I stay longer, reason requireth that there should be some respect had to my benefit also, since he that "provideth not for his own is worse than an infidel". {#1Ti 5:8}

Ver. 30. The Lord hath blessed thee since my coming.] Heb., At my foot. Hence grew that proverb used in Africa, Homo boni pedis ; a man whose coming is prosperous; -appliable to the ministers of the gospel, whose "feet are beautiful," {#Isa 52:7 Ro 10:15} and prosperous, if they faithfully feed the flock.

Ver. 31. What shall I give thee?] Solent multum quaerere, qui cupiunt parum dare . But Laban would know his price, that he might be out of his pain.

Ver. 32. And of such shall be my hire.] As white and black sheep were most set by in Mesopotamia, so were the variously coloured in Palestine, Jacob’s country; whence the shepherds there are called Nochudim ,{ #Am 1:1} that is, keepers of spotted cattle. This might be a reason why Jacob desires to be paid in such; and, perhaps, had learned that skill there which he used in the following verses.

Ver. 33. So shall my righteousness, &c.] A good conscience fears no judge; no, not God himself, in some particulars. {as #Ps 7:3,4} That which Jacob did here was of God. {#Ge 31:10} It was also a plain bargain between them, and Laban was handled in his kind. Besides, the means Jacob used was not fraudulent, but natural; not depending on man’s skill, but God’s blessing: and all to recover out of the wretch’s hands that which was but due to him for his hard service, and for his wives’ dowry.

Ver. 34. Behold, I would it might be.] He was glad to have him on the hip for a bad bargain, but is fairly deceived himself. God will see to his servants, that they shall not lose all: though the world think it neither sin nor pity to defraud them of their due.

Ver. 36. And he set three days’ journey.] Hoping so to disappoint Jacob of having anything, and to make his own party good with him. For, naturally, the cattle would bring forth others like themselves; and so Jacob’s part should be little enough. Sed et hic fallitur sordidus impostor , saith Pareus. Laban was utterly out in his count, and crossed in his design.

Ver. 37. And of the hazel.] Or nut tree, Heb. Luz, which was the ancient name of the city of Bethel; {#Ge 28:19} so called, as it seemeth, of nut trees growing there.

Ver. 38. And he set the rods which he had pilled.] This was done, partly by the force of the fantasy, which is much affected with objects of the sight; or some other cogitation in the time of conception: partly and chiefly by the blessing of God: for, he that shall now try the same conclusion, shall find himself frustrated.

Ver. 39. Ring-straked.] With a round streak, or ring, about their legs, as if they were gartered.

Ver. 40. And set the faces of the flocks, &c.] That by the sight of the speckled cattle they might bring forth lambs like them that were in their eye.

Ver. 41. The stronger cattle.] Heb., Bound together, i.e., lusty and well set.

Ver. 42. So the feebler were Laban’s.] So elsewhere God promiseth that his people "shall rob those that robbed them, and spoil those that spoiled them". {#Eze 39:10}

Ver. 43. And the man increased exceedingly.] So shall all those do, if it be for their eternal good, that depend upon God for success and blessing upon their hard and honest labours. As for others, that will needs care and carve for themselves, being troubled about many things, but neglecting that "one thing necessary," the Lord either gives the souls of such over to suffer shipwreck, or else strips them of all their lading and tacklings, breaking their estates all to pieces, and making them glad to go to heaven upon a broken plank.

Chapter 31

Ver. l. And he heard the words of Laban’s sons.] These were chips off the old block, as they say; as like the father, as if spit out of his mouth. Avarice made them think, as Sejanus did, Quicquid non acquiritur, damnum; { a} all lost, that fell beside their own lips. As a ship may be overladen with gold and silver, even unto sinking, and yet have compass and sides enough to hold ten times more: so, covetous men, though they have enough to sink them, yet have they never enough to satisfy them.

Hath he gotten all this glory.] That is, All this wealth, which easily gets glory; and goes therefore joined with it. {#Pr 3:16 8:18} This regina pecunia doth all, and hath all here below, saith Solomon. {#Ec 10:19} Money beareth the mastery, and is the monarch of this world. None so admired, or so soon admitted, as he that is well heeled. The Chaldee word for money, {b} signifies to do some great work. It was commonly said in Greece, that not Philip but his money took their cities. {c} And a certain Grecian coming to Rome, where the honour of a lord was offered unto him, answered—

Ουκ εθελω δομναι, ου θαρ εχω δομεναι.

Allin had a cardinal’s hat there bestowed upon him by the Pope: but because his hat had so thin lining—he wanted wealth, I mean, to support his state—he was commonly called, The starveling cardinal; and nobody cared for him. {d}

{a} Tacitus.

{b} ןוכרדא, from רדא strong, and ןוכ to prepare.

{c} Ου Φιλιππος, αλλα το Φιλιππου χρυσιον .— Plut. in Emyl..

{d} Manl., loc. com., p. 441.

Ver. 2. And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban.] He said little, for shame, but thought the more, and could not so conceal his discontent, but that it appeared in his lowering looks. That which he had parted with in his riches, was, as it were, raked out of his belly; {#Job 20:15} he had as beloved have parted with his very heart blood. And this was plain to Jacob by his countenance, which had been friendly, smooth, and smiling; but now was cloudy, sad, spiteful. The young men were hot, and could not hold or hide what was in their heart, but blurted it out, and spoke their minds freely. This old fox held his tongue, but could not keep his countenance.

“En, quam difficile est animum non prodere vultu.”

Ver. 3. Return unto the land of thy fathers.] Laban’s frowns were a grief to Jacob; the Lord calls upon him therefore to look homeward. Let the world’s affronts, and the change of men’s countenances, drive us to him who changeth not, and mind us of heaven, where is a perpetual serenity and sweetness.

Ver. 4. And Jacob sent and called Rachel, &c.] He consults with his wives; so should we in matters of weight, of remove especially. They are our "companions," the wives "of our covenant," {#Mal 2:14} not our vassals or footstools; and must therefore be both of our court and counsel.

Ver. 5. I see your father’s countenance, &c.] This is the world’s wages. All Jacob’s good service is now forgotten. Do an unthankful person nineteen kindnesses, unless you add the twentieth, all is lost {a} Perraro grati homines reperiuntur , saith Cicero. {b} Nemo beneficium in Calendarium scribit , saith Seneca. And the poet Ausonius not unfitly—

“Sunt homines humeris quos siquis gestat ad urbem

Ausoniam, domiti quae caput orbis erat:

Nec tamen ad portam placide deponat eosdem,

Gratia praeteriti nulla laboris erit”

{a} Παλαια μεν ευδει χαρις αμνημονες δε βροτοι.—Pindar.

{b} Orat. pro Planc.

Ver. 6. With all my power I have served.] The word translated power signifieth that natural moisture of the body that maketh it lively and lusty, vigorous and valorous to do service. So it is used, #Ge 49:3 Ps 22:15. Now if Jacob served Laban with all his might, should not we the Lord, a far better Master? Baruch "repaired earnestly". {#Ne 3:20} Caleb "fulfilled after God". {#Nu 14:24} Nehemiah traded every talent with which divine providence had trusted him: he worketh, warreth, watcheth, commandeth, encourageth, threateneth, punisheth, &c. "David danced with all his might," {#2Sa 6:14} and did all the wills of God to his dying day; painfully serving out his time to the last. Happy is he that can say, in a spiritual sense, as it was said of Moses, that, after a long profession of religion, he remits not of his zeal; "his sight is not waxed dim, nor his natural" heat or "force abated"; {#De 34:7} that he is "not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord". {#Ro 12:11}

Ver. 7. Changed my wages ten times.] And ever for the worse. The matter mended, with poor Jacob, as sour ale doth in summer. Laban, the churl, the richer he grew by him, the harder he was to him: like children with mouthfuls and handfuls, who will yet rather spoil all, then part with any. It is the love, not the lack of money, that makes men churls.

Ver. 8. Ring-straked.] {See Trapp on "Ge 30:39"}

Ver. 9. Thus God hath taken away, &c.] He is the true proprietary, and gives and takes away these outward things at pleasure; as Hannah hath it. {#1Sa 2:7} And, "promotion cometh neither from the east nor west," saith David; "nor yet from the south," {#Ps 75:6} where the warm sunshine is: much less from the north (for, Ab Aquilone nihil boni); "but God is the judge; he puts down" Laban "and sets up" Jacob; {#Ps 75:7} he spoiled the Egyptians, and enriched the Israelites with their jewels; {#Ex 12:36} which yet proved a snare to them, perhaps, in the matter of the golden calf; as riches always do, when sent to men by God’s providence only, and not out of his favour, as here to Jacob, and by virtue of the promise.

Ver. 10-12. I saw in a dream, &c.] Of divine dreams, such as this was, {See Trapp on "Ge 20:3"}

Ver. 11. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:10"}

Ver. 12. I have seen all that Laban doeth.] And am resolved to fleece him for thy hire. Gain ill got will burn men’s fingers, and burn through their purses. Yea, the greater wealth, the greater spoil awaits such misers; as a tree with thick and large boughs, every man desires to lop it. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:10"}

Ver. 13. I am the God of Bethel, &c.] Here God pulls Jacob by the ear, as it were, and reminds him of his vow which he had well nigh forgotten. But the Lord looked for a performance, and afterward punished him for his slackness. Most men’s practice proclaims, that having escaped the danger, they would willingly deceive the saint. {a} And of those that vow against sin, how many have we, who, when temptations, like strong Philistines, are upon them, break all bonds of God, whereby foul breaches are made into their consciences, such as nothing can cure, but the blood of that great votary, that Nazarite, Christ Jesus. Vows are solemn services; and they have much to answer for that care not either to make or keep them; that dally and play with them, as children do with nuts and beads. When the cardinals meet to choose a pope, they make a vow, Whosoever is chosen, he shall swear to such articles as they make. And Sleidan {b} saith, The pope is no sooner chosen, but he breaks them all, and checks their insolences; as if they went about to limit his power, to whom all power is given, both in heaven and earth. Is not this pretty collusion? But "God is the avenger of all such."

{a} Sciapato il morbo, fraudato il Santo .

{b} Sleid., Comm.

Ver. 14. Is there yet any portion, ] q.d., We have all we are like to have. In setting forth their father’s ill usage of them, they offend not in some respect—viz., in that they speak the truth. Only herein they were to blame, that they speak the truth with more passion, and with less respect to their father than was fit.

Ver. 15. Are we not counted of him strangers?] Well might that father {a} say, Αεινος και παντολμος πης φιλοχρηματιος ερως. "The love of money is the root of all evil," as the apostle hath it. {#1Ti 6:10} This kyte-footed corruption, wheresoever it seizeth and domineereth, it blasteth and banisheth all nobleness of spirit, natural affection, humanity, reason, discretion, manliness, mutual entertainment, intercourse of kindness and love: so that, for any fair dealing, a man had as good converse with a cannibal, as with a truly covetous captive. Well might the apostle set "covetousness" and "want of natural affection" together, as signs of a reprobate sense. {#Ro 1:29,31} Laban sells his own daughters here, and devours also their price. And the covetous Pharisees taught children to starve their parents, to offer to the altar; that is, to their paunches and purses. {#Mt 15:4-6}

{a} Isidor., Pelus., lib. iii. ep. 24.

Ver. 16. For all the riches, &c.] Here they speak the truth; but offend, (1.) In that they utter it passionately, and with perturbation of spirit; (2.) In that they seem somewhat to obscure God’s blessing; as though it were but their due, as daughters. In dealing with those that have done us wrong, it is hard not to offend, either in the matter or manner of our expressions.

Now then, whatsoever God hath said, &c.] Thus they prefer a husband to a father. So did Michal, though there was no great store of religion in her. And so nature had taught that "daughter of women" to do, #Da 11:17. Antiochus the Great gave Cleopatra, his daughter, to Ptolemy Epiphanes, thinking to use her as an instrument to destroy him. But she, contrary to his expectation, clave to her husband.

Ver. 17. Then Jacob rose up.] Taking his time, when Laban was from home, shearing his sheep.

Ver. 18. To go to Isaac.] But was long in going; about ten years.

Ver. 19. Rachel had stolen the images.] She was somewhat tackt {a} with her father’s superstition, though somewhat reclaimed. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols". {#1Jo 5:21} Nothing so natural to us as image worship. Nothing so retained by us, when once entertained. After all that airing in the wilderness, Micah’s mother smells of Egypt, and hath her molten and graven gods. {#Jud 17:3} Rachel also had her idols a long time after this. {#Ge 35:2,4} The devil is ειδωλοχαρης, saith Synesius; and so he would have us. Fence we therefore ourselves and ours against this abomination: the itch of it, once got, is hardly ever cured and clawed off.

{a} Touched.

Ver. 20. And Jacob stole away.] God’s saints are put upon the use of such means sometimes, for their own safety, as render them contemptible to worldly men; all whose contumelies they can bravely bear, so long as their consciences clear and cheer them: yea, they can rejoice and say, It is a mercy they know no worse by me. It is a great work of nature to keep the filth of the body, when it is in man, from being unsavoury to others. But it is a greater work of God to keep the filth of the soul, that is so unsavoury to him, from the knowledge of those that wait all occasions to blaze and blaspheme us.

Ver. 21. He passed over the river.] Euphrates; and so declined the ordinary way, that Laban might not overtake him; which yet he did. So God would have it, that he might have the greater glory of Jacob’s deliverance.

Ver. 22. That Jacob was fled.] Here was verified that saying of Eliphaz, #Job 5:12,13.

Ver. 23. And he took his brethren.] The wicked may band themselves, and bend their strength against the saints; but they are bounded by God. He lets them have the ball on their foot many times, till they come to the very goal, and yet then makes them miss the game. He lets out their tether, and then pulls them back again to their task.

Ver. 24. Take heed thou speak not good or bad.] That is, that thou seek not, either by flattery or force, by allurement or affrightment, to bring him back. They write of the asp, that he never wanders alone, without his companion with him. So the flattering promises of the Church’s adversaries go ever accompanied with cruel menaces, their rising tongues with their terrifying saws. {#Heb 11:37} "None of them shall want their mate"; as the Scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation. {#Isa 34:16}

Ver. 25. Jacob had pitched his tent.] Seeing Laban so near, he set himself in as good order as he could, fearing the worst, saith Musculus. But God was better to him than his fears. He spake for him; and so he can, and doth oft for us, in the hearts of our enemies. See #Isa 41:9. Charles V—than {a} whom, all Christendom had not a more prudent prince, nor the Church of Christ almost a sorer enemy, -when he had in his hand Luther dead, and Melancthon, Pomeran, and certain other preachers of the gospel alive, he not only determined not anything extremely against them, or violated their graves; but also, entreating them gently, sent them away, not so much as once forbidding them to publish openly the doctrine that they professed.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1784.

Ver. 26. As captives taken with the sword.] No such matter; but that the old churl must have somewhat to say: for Jacob had their goodwills to go with him: and besides, they were now his more than Laban’s. Jacob had them in marriage, and not in bondage: he carried them not as his captives, but companions.

Ver. 27. That I might have sent thee away with mirth.] A likely matter! but it is the hypocrite’s best now, to say the best. He durst do no other; for God had overawed him, and put his hook into his nostrils. Hypocrites are likened to "bulrushes," {#Isa 58:5} which are green and smooth; and he is curious to a miracle, that can find a knot in them; but within is nothing but a useless and spongy pith. Compared they are also to "vipers," {#Mt 3:7} that are painted, as it were, without, but poisonful within: they have their teeth also buried in their gums, saith Pliny, so that one would think them to be harmless beasts, and that they could not bite. So hypocrites seem most innocent. Who would have thought otherwise of Laban, that had not known him, considering his dispute here with Jacob, his protests, afterwards, of deep and dear love to his daughters, and lastly, his attestation and taking God to witness for their good usage, and his heap of stones to witness (together with his heap of words to small purpose), calling it first Jegar-sahadutha, as a witness betwixt man and man; and then Mizpeh, as a watch-tower or witness between God and man? Who could take Laban for less now, than a loving father, yea, and an honest man? But, as the historian {a} saith of another, so may we of him; Palam compositus pudor, intus summa adipiscendi libido . All this was but blanched hypocrisy, and coloured covetousness, as St Paul calls it. {#1Th 2:5}

“ Astutam vapido servat sub pectore vulpem .”— Pers.

{a} Tacit., De Sejano.

Ver. 28. Thou hast now done foolishly.] And yet he had done no more than God bade him do. Wretched men dare reprehend that which they do not comprehend. But if a wise man speak evil of thee, or to thee, endure him; if a fool, pardon him. Shake off reproaches and hard censures, as Paul did the viper; yea, in a holy scorn, laugh at them, as the wild ass doth at the horse and his rider. "Diotrephes prates against us," saith St John. {#3Jo 1:10} In the Greek (φλυαξει) it is, "trifles against us with malicious words." Although his words were malicious, and he a great man, yet all was but trifles to a clear conscience.

Ver. 29. It is in the power of my hand.] It was, he might have said, till God forbade him: though indeed it never was (as our Saviour told Pilate, upon a like bravado, #Joh 19:10,11), further than "given him from above." "To God belong the issues of death," {#Ps 68:20} whatever tyrants dream they can do. Rideo, dicebat Caligula, Consulibus, quod uno nutu meo iugulare vos possim, et uxori tam bana cervix, simul ac iussero, demetur . And Caesar told Metellus, that he could as easily take away his life, as bid it to be done. But what saith our Saviour? "Fear not them that kill the body"; {#Mt 10:28} to wit, by divine permission. He saith not, them that can kill the body, have power to do it at their own pleasure: for that is a royalty belongs to God only.

But the God of your father spake unto me, &c.] Hypocrites forbear sin, as dogs do their meat; not because they hate the carrion, but fear the club. These are as wicked, in their fearful abstaining from sin, as in their furious committing of it. Lupus venit ad ovile: quaerit invadere, iugulare devorare vigilant pastores, latrant canes.—Lupus venit fremens, redit tremens: lupus est tamen, et fremens et tremens , saith Augustine. {a}

{a} Aug., De Verb. Apost., ser. 21.

Ver. 30. Why hast thou stolen my gods?] Goodly gods that could not save themselves from the thief! See #Jer 10:5,11,15. But Jacob, a just man, is here made a thief of. The best must look to be blasted; "as deceivers, and yet true". {#2Co 6:8} Wicked men’s "throats are open sepulchres," {#Ps 5:9} wherein the good names of God’s innocent ones too oft lie buried: their breath, as fire, shall devour them, saith the prophet. {#Isa 33:11} Joseph suffered as a dishonest person; Elisha, as a troubler of the state; Jeremiah, as a traitor; Luther, as the trumpet of rebellion. {a} Nay, in one of his Epistles to Spalatinus, Prorsus Satan est Lutherus, saith he; sed Christus vivit et regnat, Amen. He adds his Amen to it; so little was he moved at it. He had learned, and so must we, to pass through "good and evil report," with Paul. {#2Co 6:8} Epiphanius saith, somewhere, that the Jews give out that St Paul turned Christian for spite, because he could not obtain the high priest’s daughter in marriage. We are made "the filth of the world, the sweepings of all things," {περιψηματα; #1Co 4:13} saith St Paul of himself and his companions; who yet were the very "glory of Jesus Christ". {#2Co 8:23} Phagius reports the story of an Egyptian who said, The Christians were a company of most filthy lecherous people. And for the keeping of the Sabbath, he saith, they had a disease upon them, and were therefore fain to rest the seventh day.

{a} Tuba rebellionis.

Ver. 31. Because I was afraid.] Note the patriarch’s simplicity and veracity, without cunning or colouring. Truth is like our first parents; most beautiful when naked. It was sin covered them; and so this, for the most part.

Ver. 32. Let him not live.] This was a rash sentence. Hasty speech may work much woe. How sorry would Jacob have been if Laban had found the images under Rachel, and taken him at his word! What a snare befell Jephthah by his rash speaking! It is a proverb among the Arabians, Cave ne feriat lingua tua collum tuum .{ a} "He is a perfect man that offends not in word," saith St James; for "the tongue is an unruly evil". {#Jas 3:2,8} Sooner may a man teach a camel to dance upon a rope, than bridle his tongue from evil speaking. Pareus {b} reckons up five virtues of the tongue that perfect a man: but Peraldus {c} recounts twenty-four various vices of it, that, if not restrained, will work his ruth (distress) and ruin. It should seem by that of our Saviour {#Mt 12:37} that a man’s most and worst sins are his words. And St Paul, making the anatomy of a natural man, stands more upon the organ of speaking than on all the other members: {#Ro 3:9-18} Let therefore thy words be few, true, and ponderous. An open mouth is a purgatory to the master. Carry a pair of balances betwixt thy lips. Nescit poenitenda loqui, qui proferenda prius suo tradidit examini , saith Cassiodone. {d} Jacob might have learned of the heathen Romans, to speak warily in passing sentence on, or giving testimony of, another. Romani semper Videri in sententiis, in testimoniis Arbitrari, dicebant, saith Cicero.

{a} Scal., Prov. Arab., cent. i. prov. 75.

{b} Veracitas, constantia, docilitas, taciturnitas, urbanitas .— Pareus on James iii. 5.

{c} Perald., tom. i., p. 264.

{d} Cassiod., lib. x., ep. 4.

Ver. 33. And Laban went into Jacob’s tent.] Hypocrites are suspicious of others better than themselves, and impudently inquisitive: Curiosi ad cognoscendam vitam alienam, desidiosi ad corrigendam suam; as Augustine hath it. Those that are most inquisitive about other men’s manners, are most careless of their own.

Ver. 34. Put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them.] Presumptuous sinners deal as homely with the dear mercies of Almighty God, pleading and pretending them to their wicked courses; and so kicking against his heart; which are therefore fast closed against them.

Ver. 35. For the custom of women is upon me.] A subtle, but sinful excuse, to shift a shame. Women’s wits, we say, are best at a pinch: but they must take heed they be not as C. Curio the Roman, ingeniose nequam , wittily wicked, {a} Wit will not bear out sin.

{a} Velleius, lib. ii. c. xlviii.

Ver. 36. And Jacob was wroth, and chode.] An angry expostulation; but not without some error, in the heat of altercation. "Be angry, and sin not," {#Eph 4:26} is, saith one, the easiest charge, under the hardest condition, that can be. It is difficult to kindle and keep quick the fire of zeal, which is the best kind of anger, without all smoke of sin.

Ver. 37. Set it here before my brethren.] See the confidence of a clear conscience! Happy is he that can be acquitted by himself in private; in public by others; in both by God. Lucrum in arca, saepe facit damnum in conscientia. But all such as conceive with guile, by that time they have reckoned their months aright, though they grow never so big, shall bring forth nothing but wind and vanity. Yea, they that "sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind". {#Ho 8:7} Let that thou hast be well gotten, and thou needest not care whom thou lookest in the face; thou shalt not be ashamed to "speak with thine enemies in the gate". {#Ps 127:5}

Ver. 38. The rams of thy flock have I not eaten.] A lively picture of a careful pastor. {#2Co 11:9} He fats not himself, but feeds the flock; he seeks not theirs, neither fleece nor flesh, but them and their welfare. He takes not to him "the instruments of a foolish shepherd"; {#Zec 11:15} that is, forcipes et mulctram, that he may carry away lac et lanam; but feeds the flock of God, and takes care of the cure, as Peter bids; "not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind," &c. {#1Pe 5:2} About the year of Christ 1260, the people and clergy of England, the Pope’s ass, as it was called, opposed themselves to the legate’s exactions. And when Rustandus, the legate, alleged that all churches were the Pope’s, Leonard, a learned man of those times, answered, Tuitione, non fruitione; defensione, non dissipatione. {a}

{a} Jac. Revius, De Vitis Pontif., p. 178.

Ver. 39. Of my hand didst thou require it.] Which was against all right and reason; {#Ex 22:10,13} but that weighed little with this covetous cormorant. God "smites his fists" at such "dishonest gain," as Balak did at Balaam, in token of extreme indignation. {#Eze 22:13} And lest Laban, or any like, should object, that these were but great words; -The Lord would not do it; They would deal well enough with the Lord for that matter; -he adds, in the next verse, "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it". {#Ge 31:14}

Ver. 40. Thus I was; in the day, &c.] Nonresidents do none of all this, those idol, and idle shepherds: they cry out, as he, Pan curet oves, oviumque magistros; { a} being herein not only worse than this good shepherd in the text, but also than Ulysses’ swineherd, in Homer, who would not lie from his charge, {b}

{a} Virg.

{b} Ουδε συβωτη Ηνδανεν αυτοθι κοιτος υων απο κοιμηθηναι.—Odyss., xiv. 525.

Ver. 41. I served thee fourteen years, &c.] If all this, to be son-in-law to Laban; what should not we do, or suffer gladly, to be the sons of God?

Ver. 42. The fear of Isaac.] God, the proper object of fear; whence he is absolutely called "The fear". {#Ps 76:11} "Bring presents to fear"; that is, to him, to whom all dread is due. The Chaldee Paraphrast rendereth Teraphim, {#Ge 31:32} Laban’s fear. It was an atheistical speech of Statius, Primus in orbe deos fecit Timor. But it was a true saying of Varro, as Calvin cites his words, They that first brought in images of the gods, increased men’s error, but took away their fear. {a}

{a} Qui primi deorum simulachra induxerunt, errorem auxerunt, metum dempserunt. -Var.

Ver. 43. These daughters are my daughters, &c.] All this is a flaunt, or rather a flattery. Now he seeks to curry favour, where he could not exercise cruelty; smoothing over the matter, as if he meant them no harm; when he was merely bridled, and could not do them that harm that he desired. This is still the guise of hypocrites, and false brethren; they would be taken for friends, and seek to build up themselves upon better men’s ruins: as here Laban would render Jacob suspicious to his daughters, as one that would hereafter deal hardly with them, if not bound by him, in a covenant, to his good abearance toward them.

Ver. 44. Now therefore come thou, &c.] "A fool is full of words," saith Solomon. Which odious custom of his is expressed, μιμητικως, in his vain tautologies: "A man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell?". {#Ec 10:14} Laban likewise talks a great deal here; and is up with the more, and down with the less, as they say. A covenant he will have, a pillar he will have, and a heap he will have; and that heap shall be a witness, and that pillar a witness, and God a witness, and a Judge too, &c., -there is no end of his discourse; as if, Domnio-like, he cared not so much what, as how much, he spake. {a} The basest things are ever most plentiful. History and experience tell us, that some kind of mouse breedeth an hundred and twenty young ones in one nest whereas the lion and elephant bears but one at once. So the least worth yields the most words.

{a} Qui non quid, sed quantum dicat, ponderare consuevit. -Hieron. in Apol. ad Domnion.

Ver. 45. A stone.] Or stones, as #Ge 31:46.

Ver.46. And Jacob said unto his brethren.] As well Laban’s company as his own, #Ge 31:51.

Ver. 47. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:44"}

Ver. 48. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:44"}

Ver. 49. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:44"}

Ver. 50. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:44"}

Ver. 51. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:44"}

Ver. 52. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:44"}

Ver. 53. And Jacob swear by the Fear of his father.] The Chaldee Paraphrast sometimes useth the word fear, or terror, for God, for the reason above given. {#Ge 31:42} Hence Jacob, coming from Syria, and being to swear to a Syrian, swears here by "the Fear of his father Isaac." Where note, that he riseth up no higher than his father, whereas Laban, the idolater, pretends antiquity, appeals to the gods of Abraham, of Nahor, and of their father Terah, who served strange gods. {#Jos 24:2} Papists boast much of antiquity, as once the Gibeonites did of old shoes and mouldy bread. A gentleman being importuned by a Popish questionist, to tell where our religion was before Luther; answered, That our religion was always in the Bible, where your religion never was. Mine antiquity is Jesus Christ, saith Ignatius, and we with him. {a}

{a} Εμοι αρχεια εστιν Ιησους ο Χριστος—Ignat.

Ver. 54. Called his brethren to eat bread.] And so overcame evil with good; which is the noblest of all victories. God cannot but love in us this imitation of his mercy; and that love is never fruitless.

Ver. 55. Laban rose up.] Laban leaves him, Esau meets him, and both with a kiss. "When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him". {#Pr 16:7}

Chapter 32

Ver. 1. Angels of God met him.] Sensibly and visibly, as servants meet their masters, as the guard their prince. Oh, the dignity and safety of the saints! who are in five respects, say some, above the angels. (1.) Our nature is more highly advanced in Christ. (2.) The righteousness whereby we come to glory is more excellent than theirs; which, though perfect in its kind, is but the righteousness of mere creatures, such as God may find fault with, {#Job 4:18} such as may need mercy; therefore the cherubims are said to stand upon the mercy seat, and to be made of the matter thereof. (3.) The sonship of the saints is founded in a higher right than theirs—viz., in the Sonship of the second Person in Trinity. (4.) They are members of Christ, and so in nearer union than any creature. (5.) They are the spouse, the bride; angels only servants of the Bridegroom, and "ministering spirits, sent out (as here) to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation". {#Heb 1:14} They meet us still, as they did Jacob: they minister many blessings to us, yet will not be seen to receive any thanks of us: they stand at our right hands, {#Lu 1:11} as ready to relieve us as the devils to mischief us. {#Zec 3:1} If Satan, for terror, show himself like the great "leviathan"; or, for fraud, like a "crooked" and "piercing serpent"; or, for violence and fury, like "the dragon in the seas"; yet the Lord will smite him by his angels, as with his "great, and sore, and strong sword". {#Isa 27:1} Angels are in heaven as in their watch tower {whence they are called watchers, #Da 4:13}, to keep the world, the saints especially, their chief charge, in whose behalf, they "stand ever before the face of God," {#Mt 18:10} waiting and wishing to be sent upon any design or expedition, for the service and safety of the saints. They are like masters or tutors, to whom the great King of heaven commits his children: these they bear in their bosoms, as the nurse doth her babe, or as the servants of the house do their young master, glad to do them any good office; ready to secure them from that roaring lion, that rangeth up and down, seeking to devour them. The philosopher told his friends, when they came into his little and low cottage, Εντευθεν ουκ απεισι θεοι, The gods are here with me. The true Christian may say, though he dwell never so meanly, God and his holy angels are ever with him, &c.

Ver. 2. This is God’s host.] So called, for their number, order, obedience, strength, &c. God hath a complete host of horse and foot. Angels, and heavenly bodies, are his horse, as it were; "horses and chariots of fire"; {#2Ki 6:17} yea, both horse and foot: for there are whole "legions" of them. {#Mt 26:53} Now a legion is judged to be six thousand foot, and seven hundred horse. Daniel tells us, there be millions of angels, {#Da 7:10} yea, "an innumerable company," saith the author to the Hebrews. {#Heb 12:22} The Greek poet could say, There were thirty thousands of them here upon earth, keepers of mortal men, and observers of their works: {a} some think they are meant in the parable, by the ninety and nine sheep; as if they were ninety and nine times as many as mankind in number. All these, how many soever, pitch camp round about the godly, {#Ps 34:7} make a lane for them, as they did here for Jacob at Mahanaim (which signifies a double camp), fight in battle array against their enemies, {#Da 10:20} and convey them at death, as they did Lazarus, through their enemies’ country, the air, into Abraham’s bosom. {#Lu 16:22} So that all God’s children may call death, as Jacob did this place, Mahanaim; because there the angels meet them. And as the palsied man, in the gospel, was let down with his bed through the tiling before Jesus, {#Lu 5:19} so is every good soul taken up in a heavenly couch (or coach, rather) through the roof of his house, and carried into Christ’s presence, by the blessed angels.

{a} Τρις γαρ μυριοι εισις επι χθονι πουλυβοτειρη Δαιμονες αθανατοι, φυλακες μεροπψν ανθρωπων.—Hesiod.

Ver. 3. And Jacob sent messengers.] Means, he knew, was to be used by him, though well assured of safeguard. God must be trusted, not tempted: means must be used, but not trusted. Jacob was "as one that fled from a lion, and a bear met him". {#Am 5:19} Laban, as a lion, had some shamefacedness, saith a Rabbi: {a} Esau, as a bear, had none. Jacob therefore prays, and sends, and submits, and presents him; and all to pacify him. He that meets with a bear, will not strive with him for the wall, but be glad to escape by him.

{a} Pirkei R. Eliez., cap. 37.

Ver. 4. Unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob, &c.] This was not baseness of spirit, much less a renouncing of his birthright and blessing; but a necessary submission for a time, such as was that of David to Saul, {#1Sa 24:7,9} till the prophecy of his superiority should be fulfilled. That was baseness in the Samaritans, that in writing to Antiochus Epiphanes, that great king of Syria, because he tormented the Jews, to excuse themselves that they were no Jews they styled him, Antiochus the mighty God: {a} the Scripture styles him "a vile person". {#Da 11:21} So was that also in Teridates, king of the Parthians, who, with bended knee and hands held up, worshipped Nero, and thus bespake that monster of mankind: To thee I come as to my god; and thee I adore as I do the sun: what thou decreest of me, I will be and do; for thou art to me both fate and fortune &c. {b} And what shall we think of those superstitious Sicilians, who, when they were excommunicated by Pope Martin IV, laid themselves prostrate at his feet, and cried; -O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace. The Venetians also, being excommunicated by Pope Clemens V, {c} could not be absolved till such time as their ambassador Dandalus had not only fallen at the Pope’s feet, but lain also under his table as a dog with an iron chain about his neck, feeding on such scraps as were cast unto him. {d} Had this dog dealt by the Pope as the Earl of Wiltshire’s spaniel did, he had served him but right. This earl, with Doctor Cranmer, and others, being sent ambassador to Rome about King Henry’s divorce; when he should have kissed the Pope’s foot, his spaniel, as though he had been of purpose appointed thereunto, went and caught the Pope by the great toe, which the spaniel haply mistook for some kind of repast. {e} But this by the way only. What hard servitude kings and emperors were forced to undergo in former times, and how basely to avile {f} themselves to the beast of Rome, is better known than that it need to be here related. Henry II of England, Henry IV of France, and Henry, the fourth Emperor of Germany, for instance. This last came, in the midst of a sore winter, upon his bare feet, to the gates of the Castle of Canusium, and stood there fasting from morning to night for three days together, waiting for the Pope’s judicial sentence, and craving his pardon: which yet he could not obtain by his own or others’ tears, or by the intercession of any saint, save only of a certain harlot, with whom the Pope was then taking his carnal pleasure. {g} The good emperor mistook who thought that the Pope could be pacified by fasting and prayer. This god required another kind of sacrifice than these. And here that of Solomon was fulfilled, "I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth". {#Ec 10:7}

{a} Josephus.

{b} Ηλθον προς σε τον εμον θεον, προσκυνησων σε, ως και τον Μιθραν, και εσομαι τουτο οτι αν συ επικλωσης συ γαρ μοι και μοιρα ει και τυχη.—Dio in Vita Neronis.

{c} Jac. Rev., De Vitis Pontif., p. 198.

{d} Unde ei Canis cognomentum apud suos. -Ibid.

{e} Act. and Mon., fol. 1690.

{f} Abase.

{g} Brightm., Upon the Revel., fol. 449.

Ver. 5. And I have oxen, and asses, &c.] This Jacob mentioneth in his message, that Esau might not think that he sought to him for any need; but only for his favour. And this was something, to a man of Esau’s make; for such like not to hear of, or be haunted with, their poor kindred. {#Lu 15:30} "This thy son," saith he, that felt no want: he saith not, This my brother: he would not own him, because in poverty. {a}

{a} "Αφιλον το δυστυχες. Et cum fortuna statque caditque fides.

Ver. 6. And four hundred men with him.] Four hundred cut-throats, as appears, #Ge 32:8. And here, good Jacob is brought again into the briars. When he was well rid of his father-in-law, he thought all safe; and his joy was completed by the sight of that army of angels. Presently upon this, he is so damped and terrified with this sad message of Esau’s approach and hostile intentions, that he knows not what course to take to. Out of heaven he is thrust suddenly, as it were, into hell, saith Pareus. {a} This is the godly man’s case while here. Fluctus fluclum trudit: one trouble follows in the neck of another. {b} Ripen we apace, and so get to heaven, if we would be out of the gunshot, The ark was transportative, till settled in Solomon’s Temple; so, till we come to heaven, shall we be tossed up and down and turmoiled: "within" will be "fears, without fightings," {#2Co 7:5} while we are in hoc exilio, in hoc ergastulo, in hac peregrinatione, in hac valle lachrymarum , as Bernard hath it; in this exile, in this purgatory, in this pilgrimage, in this vale of tears.

{a} Ex coelo repente quasi in infernum detruditur.

{b} Πονος πονω πονον φερει

Ver. 7. Then Jacob was greatly afraid.] This was his weakness, and may be ours in like case, as looking to the present peril, and "forgetting the consolation," as the apostle speaketh, #Heb 12:5, that he might have drawn from the promise of God, and presence of angels. Faith quelleth and killeth distrustful fears: but Satan, in a distress, hides from us that which should support us, and greatens that that may appal us. But what saith the Spanish proverb? The lion is not so fierce as he is painted; nor danger, usually, so great as it is represented. Some hold that Esau was here wronged, by being presumed an enemy, when he was a friend. Pessimus in dubiis augur Timor.

Ver. 8. If Esau come, &c.] It is a point of prudence, if we cannot keep all, to save what we can.

Ver 9. The Lord which saidst unto me.] Promises must be prayed over. God loves to be burdened with, and to be importuned in, his own words; to be sued upon his own bond. Prayer is a putting the promises into suit. And it is no arrogancy nor presumption, to burden God, as it were, with his promise; and of duty to claim and challenge his aid, help, and assistance, in all perils, said Robert Glover, martyr, in a letter to his wife. {a} Such prayers will be nigh the Lord day and night, {#1Ki 8:59} he can as little deny them, as deny himself.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1553.

Ver. 10. I am not worthy of the least, &c.] In prayer, we must avile ourselves before God to the utmost; confessing our extreme both indigency and indignity of better. "I am dust and ashes," saith Abraham. "I am a worm, and no man," saith David. "I am more brutish than any man," saith Agur. "I am a man, a sinner" (ανηρ αμαρτωλος #Lu 5:8), saith Peter. "I am not worthy to be called thy son," saith the prodigal. Pharisaeus non vulnera, sed munera ostendit. The proud Pharisee sets forth not his wants, but his worth: "God, I thank thee," &c. But if David were so humbled before Saul that he called himself "a flea," {#1Sa 26:20} what should we do to God? Unworthy we should acknowledge ourselves of the least mercies we enjoy, with Jacob; and yet not rest satisfied with the greatest things in the world, for our portion, as Luther. Valde protestatas sum me nolle sic a Deo satiari: he deeply protested that God should not put him off with these poor things below. {a}

For with my staff I passed over this Jordan.] Paupertatem baculinam commemorat. Jacob, though now grown great, forgets not his former meanness, but cries out with that noble captain, ‘Εξ οιων, εις οια: From how small, to how great an estate am I raised! {b} So did Agathocles, who, of a potter’s son, became King of Sicily; yet, would ever be served in earthen vessels. And in the year of Christ 1011, one Willigis, bishop of Ments, being son to a wheelwright, caused wheels, and such like things, to be hanged on the walls, up and down his palace, with these words written over them, in capital letters; Willigis, Willigis, recole unde veneris. {c} Excellent was that counsel that Placilla, the Empress, gave her husband Theodosius: Remember, O husbaud, what lately you were, and what now you are: so shall you govern well the empire, and give God his due praise for so great an advancement. {d}

{a} Melch. Adam. in Vita. Luth.

{b} Iphicrates.

{c} Siffridus. Bucholc.

{d} Hist. Trip.

Ver. 11. And the mother with the children.] It seems to be a metaphor taken from birds, when fowlers take away the young and the dams together; which God forbade, #De 22:6. See the like also of the ewe and the lamb, not to be slain in one day, #Le 22:28. But, Homo homini lupus, nay, daemon. The Indians would say that it had been better for them that their country had been given to the devils of hell, than to the Spaniards, such hath been their cruelty towards those poor creatures; and that, if Spaniards went to heaven, they would never come there. Three poor women were burnt at the Isle of Guernsey for religion; together with the infant child falling out of the mother’s womb, and cruelly cast back into the flames. {a} Another sweet child of eight or nine years old, coming to Bonner’s house, to see if he might speak with his father, a prisoner in the Lollard’s Tower, was, for some bold answer that he gave the bishop’s chaplain, so cruelly whipped, that he died within four days after. {b} At Merindol in France, besides other execrable outrages and butcheries there done by Minerius, one of the Pope’s captains, the paps of many women were cut off, which gave suck to their children; which, looking for suck at their mother’s breasts, being dead before, died also for hunger. {c} Was not this, to "kill the mother with the children?" And was not that a barbarous act of Pope Honorius III, in the year of grace 1224, to cause four hundred Scots to be hanged up, and their children castrated! and all for the death of Adam, bishop of Caithness, who was burned in his own kitchen, by his own citizens, for that he had excommunicated some of them for non-payment of tithes. {d}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1392.

{b} Ibid., fol. 1864.

{c} Ibid., fol. 868.

{d} Jac. Revius, De Vitis Pontiff, p. 163.

Ver. 12. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good.] So Jacob interprets that promise, "I will be with thee": {#Ge 28:15} which, indeed, hath in it whatsoever heart can wish, or need require. This promise was so sweet to the patriarch, that he repeats and ruminates it, rolling it as sugar in his mouth, and hiding it under his tongue. God "spake it once, he heard it twice"; as David, {#Ps 62:11} in another case. "He sucks, and is satisfied with these breasts of consolation"; he presseth and oppresseth them—such a metaphor there is in that text, {#Isa 66:11} -as a rich man doth the poor man, till he hath gotten out of him all that he hath. A fly can make little of a flower; but a bee will not off till he hath the sweet thyme out of it. The promises are precious spices, which, being beaten to the smell, by the preaching of the Word, yield a heavenly and supernatural scent in the souls of God’s people. Oh! it is a sweet time with them, when Christ "brings them into his banqueting house" of the Holy Scriptures, and there "stays them with flagons" of divine consolations, and bolsters them up "with apples" of heavenly doctrines. When these, by the Spirit, are applied to the love sick soul, then is Christ’s left hand under their head, and his right hand—which "teacheth him terrible things"—doth {#Ps 14:5} embrace them. All in Christ, is for their support and succour: his love also is displayed over them, as a banner. And this doth so fully satisfy their souls, and transport them with joy, that now they are content to wait God’s leisure for deliverance; and would not have their "Beloved wakened, until he please." See all this, #So 2:4-7.

Ver. 13. And took of that which came to his hand, &c.] Or, that was in his power. Such as he had, he sent. Silver and gold he had none; cattle he had, and of these he made no spare: for he knew that "a gift" (such a rich gift, especially) "maketh room for a man, and bringeth him before great ones". {#Pr 18:16} And here Jacob, for our instruction, takes a right course, observes a right method; which is, to pray, and use means; to use means, and pray. Ora et labora, was the Emperor’s symbol; and, Admota manu invocanda est Minerva, the heathen’s proverb. "Why criest thou unto me?" saith God to Moses; {#Ex 14:15} "speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." There was a fault: Moses craved help, but was not forward in the course whereby to make way for God’s help. So, "get thee up," saith God to praying Joshua; "wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?" Israel hath sinned, and thou must go search, &c. {#Jos 7:10,11} So, he that would have knowledge, must not only beg for it, but "dig for it," saith Solomon, out of his own experience. {#Pr 2:3-5}

Ver. 14. Two hundred she-goats, &c.] A very great present for a private person to send. Five hundred and fifty beasts, of sundry sorts, for store. He spares no cost, that he may buy his peace, and enjoy his birthright. Heaven, he knew (whereof Canaan was a type and pledge), would pay for all. Get but a patriarch’s eye to see heaven afar off, and we shall be soon ready to buy it at any rate. The pearl of price cannot be a dear bargain, though we part with all to purchase it. Moses was forty years old, and therefore no baby, when "he preferred the reproach of Christ," the worst thing about him, "before the treasures of Egypt". {#Heb 11:26} Egypt was a country rich, fruitful, and learned. Thence Solomon had his chief horses; {#2Ch 9:28} thence the harlot had her fine linens. {#Pr 7:16} Moses might, in likelihood, have been king of Egypt, yea, and of Ethiopia too, as some think: but he had a better prize in his hand, and therefore slights all the world’s flitting and flattering felicities. When Basil was tempted with money and preferment, he answered, pecuniam da quae permaneat, ac continuo daret, gloriam quae semper floreat. This the world cannot do; nay, it cannot keep off diseases, death, &c. Non domus et fundus, &c. When Michael Paleologus, Emperor of Constantinople, sent to Nugas the Scythian prince, for a present, certain royal robes and rich ornaments, he set light by them, asking, Whether they could drive away calamities, sickness, death? {a} No, no: this, nothing can do, but the favour of God and interest in Christ. Wherefore should I die, being so rich? was the foolish question of that rich and wretched cardinal, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, and Chancellor of England, in the reign of Henry VI. Fie, quoth he, will not death be hired? will money do nothing? {b} No, saith Solomon: "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing; but righteousness delivereth from death". {#Pr 10:2} Many are loath to die, because they have treasures in the world; as those ten men had in the field. {#Jer 41:8} The Irish ask, -What! such men mean to die? But such men must die; nor can their riches reprieve them. Oh! happy is he that, with Jacob, lays hold on the heavenly inheritance, though with the loss of earthly possessions; that cares not to part with his cattle, so he may have his crown; with his swine, so he may have his Saviour. {#Mt 8:34} This is the wise merchant, this is the true tradesman, that traffics for heaven; looking upon the world as a great dunghill, with Paul, σκυβαλα, dog’s dung. {#Php 3:8}

{a} Numquid calamitates, morbos, aut mortem depellere possent? -Pachymer. Hist., lib. v.

{b} Act, and Mon., fol. 925.

Ver. 16. Every drove by themselves.] That Esau, having occasion of viewing the present, questioning the servants, and hearing Jacob’s submission, might be somewhat mollified, and his anger abated. "Be wise as serpents". {#Mt 10:16}

“Ut fragilis glacies, occidit ira mora.”

Ver. 17. Whose art thou? &c.] Short questions, such as great ones used to ask {a} {See Trapp on "Ge 33:12"}

{a} Imperatoria usus est brevitate.

Ver. 18. They be thy servant Jacob’s.] "A soft answer turneth away wrath": {#Pr 15:1} {a} "but grievous words stir up anger." And it is easier to stir strife than stint it. Still, rain softens the hard earth: and though nothing be more violent than the winds, Iidem tamen imbribus sopiuntur, saith Pliny.

“Lenis alit flammas, grandior aura necat.”

How daintily did Gideon disarm the angry Ephraimites {#Jud 8:1} by a mild answer!

It is a present sent, &c.] For, "a gift in secret pacifieth anger". {#Pr 21:14} This proverb, in an abbreviature, after that manner, the Jews wrote upon their alms box. {b}

And, behold, also he is behind us.] He sends not only, but comes after us himself, to salute thee, and offer his service unto thee. Thus, by all means, he seeks to assuage the wrath of that rough man.

{a} Frangitur ira gravis, quando est responsio suavis.

{b} Godw., Heb. Antiq. ex Buxtorf.

Ver. 20. Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us.] This he requires them all to insist on, lest Esau should think he meant, meanwhile, to escape some other way.

Ver. 21. And himself lodged that night.] But lay upon thorns, and had little rest.

“Εις εστι δουλος οικιας, ο δερποτης”

The master is the greatest servant in the house, and hath most business. This verse did so please Luther, that he translated it in certain Dutch rhymes. {a}

{a} Jo. Manlii, loc. com.

Ver. 22. And his eleven sons.] Together with his only daughter Dinah: but females are not so much observed in Scripture.

Ver. 23. Sent them over the brook.] Which he would not have done had he not been, upon his prayer, well confirmed and settled in his mind concerning the Lord’s protection.

Ver. 24. And Jacob was left alone.] Purposely, for secret prayer: so the Church gets her into "the clefts of the rocks"; {#So 2:14} Isaac, into the fields; Daniel, to the river’s side; Christ, into the mount; Peter, up to the roof, or house top; that they might pour out their prayers and solace themselves with God in secret. This a hypocrite may seem to do, either of custom or vain glory: as the Pharisee went up to the temple to pray solitarily, as well as the publican; the temple being then, in regard of ceremonial holiness, the place as well of private as public prayer. "But will the hypocrite delight in God? will he pray always?". {#Job 27:10}

There wrestled a man with him.] In a proper combat, by might and slight; to the raising of dust, and causing of sweat; as the word importeth. This strife was not only corporeal, but spiritual; as well by the force of his faith, as strength of body. "He prevailed," saith the prophet, {#Ho 12:4} by prayers and tears. Our Saviour also prayed himself into "an agony"; {#Lu 22:44} and we are bidden to "strive in prayer," even to an agony. {#Ro 15:30, συναγωνισασθαι} Nehemiah prayed himself pale. {#Ne 2:2} Daniel prayed himself "sick". {#Da 8:27} Hannah prayed, striving with such an unusual motion of her lips, that old Eli, looking upon her, thought her drunk. {#1Sa 1:13} Elijah puts his head betwixt his knees, as straining every string of his heart in prayer: {#1Ki 18:42} "he prayed, and prayed," saith St James; and, by his prayer, he had what he would of God. Whereupon also he infers (as a result) that "the effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much," if it be "fervent" {#Jas 5:16,17, ενεργουμενη} or working; if it be such as sets all the faculties awork, and all the graces awork, then it speeds. Every sound is not music; so neither is every uttering petitions to God a prayer. It is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart. Common beggary is the easiest and poorest trade: but this beggary, as it is the richest, so the hardest. A man can with more ease hear two hours together than pray half an hour, if he "pray in the Holy Ghost," as St Jude hath it. {#Jude 1:20} He must strive with his own indevotion, with Satan’s temptations, with the world’s distraction: he must wrestle with God, and wring the blessing out of his hands, as the woman of Canaan did: he must "stir up himself to take hold of God," {#Isa 64:7} as the Shunamite did of Elisha, {#2Ki 4:30} as the Church did of her spouse, {#So 3:4} and "not let him go" till he bless us. This is to wrestle; this is to threaten heaven, as Gorgonia did, thus to be modestly impudent and invincible, as her brother speaks of her; in beseeching God, to besiege him, and get the better of him. as Jacob; whose wrestling was by "weeping," and his "prevailing" by praying.

Ver. 25. And when he saw that he prevailed not.] He, that is, "the angel" (Christ) "that redeemed Jacob from all evil," {#Ge 48:16} and here held him up with the one hand as he strove against him with the other; and yielded himself overcome by the patriarch’s prayers and tears. Deus ipse, qui nullis contra se viribus superari potest, precibus vincitur , saith Jerome.

He touched the hollow of his thigh.] That, if he would needs have the blessing, he might have somewhat with it, {a} that might keep him humble, not ascribing the victory to his own strength. Pride is a weed that will grow out of any ground (like misletoe that will grow upon any tree); but, for most part, from the best. Like air in all bodies, it will have a being in every soul, and creeps into every action, either in the beginning, proceeding, or conclusion. Now therefore it is God’s care to cure his people of this dangerous disease, as he did Jacob here, and afterwards Paul; {#2Co 12:7} who, if he had not been buffeted, "had been exalted," and carried higher in conceit than ever he was in his ecstasy.

{a} Victoria non fit sine vulnere: luxat nobis femur: immittit stimulum carni, & c.

Ver. 26. Let me go, &c.] Pugna suum finem, cum rogat hostis, habet. Jacob, though lamed, and hard laid at, will not let Christ go without a blessing: to teach us, as our Saviour did, by the parable of the importunate widow, {#Lu 18:1-8} to persevere in prayer, and to devour all discouragements. Jacob holds with his hands, when his joints were out of joint. The woman of Canaan will not be put off, either with silence or sad answers. The importunate widow teacheth us to press God so far, till we put him to the blush, yea, leave a blot in his face (as the word there used signifies, υπωπιαζη, #Lu 18:5), unless we be masters of our request. Latimer so plied the throne of grace with his, Once again, once again, restore the gospel to England, that he would have no nay at God’s hands. {a} He many times continued kneeling and knocking so long together, that he was not able to rise without help. His knees were grown hard like camels’ knees, as Eusebius reports of James, the Lord’s brother. Paul "prayed thrice," {#2Co 12:8} that is, often, till he had his desire. Nay, Paulus Aemelius, the Roman general, began to fight against Perses, king of Macedonia, when, as he had sacrificed to his god Hercules and it proved not to his mind, he slew twenty various sacrifices one after another; and would not stop till in the one and twentieth he had descried certain arguments of victory. {b} Surely his superstition shames our indevotion, his importunity our faint heartedness and shortness of spirit. Surely, as painfulness of speaking shows a sick body, so doth irksomeness of praying a sick soul.

{a} Act. and Mon.

{b} Sabellicus.

Ver. 27. What is thy name?] As if the angel should say, Thou art such a fellow as I never met withal. Titles of honour are not worthy of thee. Kneel thou down "Jacob," rise up "ISRAEL": Thou art a conqueror, if ever any were. Factus et teipso fortior, et Creatore tuo superior. O quam hic honos non est omnium! {a}

{a} Bucholc.

Ver. 28. No more Jacob, but Israel.] That is, not only, or not so much Jacob as Israel. Both these names he had given him, of striving and struggling. All God’s Israel are wrestlers by calling, {#Eph 6:12} and, "as good soldiers of Jesus Christ," must "suffer hardness". {#2Ti 2:3} Nothing is to be "seen in the Shulamite, but as the appearance of two armies," {#So 6:13} maintaining civil broils within her. {a} The spirit would always get the better of the flesh, were it upon equal terms: but when the flesh shall get the hill, as it were, of temptation, and shall have the wind to drive the smoke upon the eyes of the combatant, and so to blind him, -upon such a disadvantage, he is overcome. For it is "not flesh and blood only" that "we wrestle against,"—whether we take the apostle’s meaning, for the weakness of our nature or the corruption of it, -"but against principalities, against powers," &e.; against many, mighty, malicious adversaries; "spiritual wickednesses in high places," that are above us, and hang over our necks. Wherefore, we have more than need to "take unto us the whole armour of God," and to strengthen ourselves with every piece of it: whether those of defence, as "the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace" and patience, "the shield of faith, the helmet of hope"; or those of offence, as, "the sword of the spirit," and the darts of prayer. {#Eph 6:14} At no place must we lie open; for our enemy is a serpent. If he can but bite the heel, he will transfuse his venom to the heart and head. God’s "Spirit" in us "sets up a standard". {#Isa 59:19} The apostle sounds the alarm, Arm, arm. {#Eph 6:10-17} The Holy Scripture is our armoury, like "Solomon’s tower, where hang a thousand shields, and all the weapons of strong men". {#So 4:4} God himself is the ´ Αγωνοθεπης, that both ordaineth and ordereth our temptations with his own hand, as he dealt with Jacob. And the Lord Christ stands over us, as he did once over Stephen, {#Ac 7:55} with a crown upon his head and another in his hand, with this inscription, Vincenti dabo, " To him that overcometh will I give," &c. {#Re 2:7,11,17,26 3:5,12,21} Fight but with his arms and with his armour, and we are sure to overcome before we fight; for he hath made all our foes our footstool, and hath "caused us to triumph". {#2Co 2:14} Let therefore the assaults of our already vanquished enemies not weaken, but waken us: let their faint oppositions and spruntings before death encourage us, or rather enrage us, to do them to death: we are sure to be "more than conquerors," {#Ro 8:37} and to have Victoriam Halleluiatieam, as the Britons, fighting for their religion, had once against the Saxons and Picts in this kingdom. {b}

{a} Nunquam bella bonis, nunquam discrimina desunt.

{b} Dr. Ussher, De Britan. Eccles. Primord. u. 332.

Ver. 29. And he blessed him there.] That was a better thing to Jacob than to answer his curious request of knowing the angel’s name. So when the disciples asked our Saviour, {#Ac 1:6} "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" "It is not for you to know the times," saith he, "but ye shall receive the Holy Ghost"; that is better for you, &c. {#Ac 1:8} God sometimes doth not only "grant a man’s prayer," but "fulfil his counsel." {#Ps 20:4} This if he do not, because we sometimes ask we know not what, yet some better thing we shall be sure of. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and they shall be as if I had not cast them off l and I will hear them." {#Zec 10:6}

Ver. 30. I have seen God face to face.] Christ would not tell Jacob his name, to lift up his mind above what he saw of him, and to insinuate that his name was "Wonderful," his essence incomprehensible. {#Jud 13:17,18} And whereas Jacob said here, he had "seen God face to face": he means only, praesens praesentem, as Moses spake with God "mouth to mouth". {#Nu 12:8} He saw not God’s majesty and essence; for he is a God "that hides himself," {#Isa 8:17} and "dwells in the light unapproachable". {#1Ti 6:16} But he saw him more apparently and manifestly than ever he had done before. We can see but his "back parts" {#Ex 33:23} and live; we need see no more, that we may live. God that fills all, saith Nazianzen, though he lighten the mind, yet flies before the beams thereof; still leaving it, as it is able, in sight to follow him; draws it by degrees to higher things; but ever interposeth between it and his incomparable essence, as many vails as were over the tabernacle. Some created shape, some glimpse of glory, Jacob saw; whereby God was pleased, for the present, to testify his more immediate presence; but not himself.

Ver. 31. He halted upon his thigh.] Yet had the blessing. So God’s people are promised a hundredfold here, with persecution; that is tied, as a rag, to the profession of Christianity. Christ, our Captain, had a bloody victory of it. Paul "bare in his body the marks," or scars, "of the Lord Jesus"; {#Ga 6:17} and glories in these "infirmities," {#2Co 12:9,10} as he calls them. These are God’s gems and precious ornaments, said Munster to his friends, pointing them to his sores and ulcers, wherewith God decketh his children, that he may draw them to himself. This he said a little before his death. At death, saith Piscator, God wrestles with his people, laying hold on their consciences by the menaces of the law. {a} They again resist this assault by laying hold upon God, 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 overcome by this re-encounter; but yet toucheth their thigh, takes away their life. Howbeit, this hindereth not the sun of life eternal to arise upon them as they pass over Penuel.

{a} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 127.

Ver. 32. Therefore the children, &c.] This custom, Josephus saith, continued till his time. A ceremony indifferent in itself, and good by institution (in remembrance of that famous conquest), might become evil by abuse, if it turned into superstition.

Chapter 33

Ver. 1. He divided the children.] Carnal fear oft expels man’s wisdom, and leaves him shiftless. But Jacob, after he had prayed and prevailed, was not so moped as not to know what to do in that great danger: he masters his fears, and makes use of two the likeliest means: (1.) The marshalling of his wives and children in best manner, for the saving of the last, at least; (2.) The marching before them himself, and doing low obeisance. So Esther, when she had prayed, resolved to venture to the king, whatever came of it. And our Saviour, though before fearful, yet, after he had prayed in the garden, goes forth and meets his enemies in the face, asking them, "Whom seek ye?". {#Joh 18:4} Great is the power of prayer to steel the heart against whatsoever amazements.

Ver. 2. He put the handmaids, &c.] Of children and friends, some may be better beloved than others: and whereas all cannot be saved or helped, the dearest may be chiefly cared for.

Ver. 3. And he passed over before them.] As a good captain and shepherd, ready to be sacrificed for the safety of his charge. So the Captain of our salvation, the Arch-shepherd, Christ. So should the under-shepherds, the captains, as ministers are called, fight in the front, and bear the brunt of the battle, "not loving their lives unto the death, so they may finish their course with joy," {#Ac 20:24} de scuto magis quam de vita solliciti, as Epaminondas. The diamond in the priests’ breastplate showed what should be their hardness and hardiness, for the people’s welfare.

Ver. 4. And kissed him.] The word kissed hath a prick over every letter in the original: to note, say the Hebrew doctors, that this was a false and hypocritical kiss, a Judas-kiss. {Hebrew Text Note} Καταφιλειν ου εστι φιλειν, saith Philo: Amos non semper est in osculo. But our interpreters are agreed that this kiss was a sign that his heart was changed from his former hatred, {a} and that those extraordinary pricks do denote the wonder of God’s work therein; which is further confirmed in that they both wept, which could not easily be counterfeit, though they were in Ishmael, that notable hypocrite, {#Jer 41:6} and in the emperor Andronicus, who, when he had injuriously caused many of the nobility to be put to death, pretended himself sorry for them, and that with tears plentifully running down his aged cheeks, as if he had been the most sorrowful man alive. So the Egyptian crocodile, having killed some living beast, lieth upon the dead body, and washeth the head thereof with her warm tears, which she afterward devoureth, with the dead body. {b} We judge more charitably of Esau here. And yet we cannot be of their mind, that herehence conclude his true conversion and salvation. We must take heed we neither make censure’s whip nor charity’s cloak too long: we may offend in both, and incur the curse, as well by "calling evil good," as "good evil". {#Isa 5:20} Latomus of Lovain wrote, that there was no other a faith in Abraham than in Cicero. Another wrote a long defence and commendation of Cicero, and makes him a very good Christian, and true penitentiary, because he saith, somewhere, Reprehendo peccata mea, quid Pompeio conflsus, eiusque partes secutus fuerim. I believe neither of them. {c}

{a} Qui probabilius loquuntur, aiunt eo ipso notari animi Esauici conversionem. -Am.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 50, 175.

{c} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 496, 483.

Ver. 5. The children which God hath graciously given.] Sept., Εχαριτατο. For children are God’s gifts, as David taught Solomon. {#Ps 127:3} It is well observed, that good Jacob before a bad man, speaks religiously, "God of his grace," &c.; and Esau, as bad as he was, makes no jest of it. There is no surer sign of a profane heart, than to jeer at good expressions; than which, nothing now-a-days is more familiar. Carnal spirits cannot hear savoury words, but they turn them off with a scorn, as Pilate did our Saviour, speaking of the truth, with that scornful profane question, "What is truth?" Shall these scoffers be counted Christians? Could any that heard Elijah mocking the service and servants of Baal, believe that Baal was God in his esteem? Shall not Esau rise up in judgment against such profane persons? And shall not Jacob disclaim all such profligate professors for having any relation to him, that dare not speak religiously, for fear of some Esau in company? that are ashamed to seem what they are, with Zedekiah, lest they that are fallen to the Chaldeans should mock them?

Ver. 7. After came Joseph near, &c.] Iussus accedere Joseph, saith Junius; for he was but a little one of six years old, therefore he did nothing, but as his mother bade him; and, because he went before her, he is first named.

Ver. 8. What meanest thou by all this drove? &c.] He met it, but had not yet accepted of it: either that he might take occasion at their meeting, more mannerly to refuse the present; or, that he might show his brotherly affection frankly and freely, not purchased or procured by any gift or present. Utrumque liberale et civile est, oblata munera modeste recusare, proesertim si grandia sint, et eadem ab instante humaniter acceptare. {a}

{a} Piscator.

Ver. 9. I have enough, my brother.] Here is no mention of God: God is not in all the wicked man’s thoughts: he contents himself with a natural use of the creature, as brute beasts do. The godly taketh all as from God, and findeth no such sweetness, as in tasting how good the Lord is, in the creature. Tam Dei meminisse, opus est, quam respirare, saith one. But profane Esaus will neither have God in their heads, {#Ps 10:4} nor hearts, {#Ps 14:1} nor ways, {#Tit 1:16} nor words. {#Ps 12:4} They stand in a posture of distance, nay, of defiance to God.

Ver. 10. As though I had seen the face of God.] I cannot but see God, and his goodness, in thy so unexpected kindness. "The Lord hath done great things for me, whereof I am glad," {#Ps 126:3} and think my present well bestowed.

Ver. 11. I have enough.] Heb., I have all. Esau had much, but Jacob had all, because he had the God of all. Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia, saith Augustine. Esau’s "enough," in the original, is not the same with Jacob’s. {a} There are two manner of enoughs. Godliness only hath contentedness. {#1Ti 6:6}

{a} ילבר, יל־לכ

Ver. 12. Let us take our journey.] The Hebrews note, that Esau speaks in few, Jacob more fully: because it is the guise of proud stately persons to speak briefly, and hardly to bring forth half their words. "The poor speaketh supplications," saith Solomon; "but the rich answereth roughly". {#Pr 18:23}

Ver. 13. If men should over-drive.] A pattern of a good pastor, ever to have an eye to the weak ones; and so to regard all in his flock, as he overdrive not any. "Who hath despised the day of small things?" {#Zec 4:10} Weak ones are to be received, "but not to doubtful disputations." {#Ro 14:1} Novices are not to be put upon the austerities of religion. {#Mt 9:15} Christ preached "as they were able to hear." {#Mr 4:33} Peter was specially charged to look to the "lambs." {#Joh 21:15} Christ "bears them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young." {#Isa 40:11}

Ver. 14. Until I come unto my lord, unto Seir.] Which yet he never meant, say some: it was but an officious lie, saith Tostatus. Others think that he did go to Seir, though it he not recorded. It is like he purposed to go, but was otherwise warned by God; as the wise men were, {#Mt 2:12} or necessarily hindered, as St Paul was in many of his intended journeys.

Ver. 15. Let me find grace.] That is, Condescend unto me, and leave none.

Ver. 16. On his way unto Seir.] Whither God had sent him beforehand to plant, out of Jacob’s way. He was grown rich, desired liberty, and saw that his wives were offensive to the old couple; therefore he moved his dwelling to mount Seir, and left better room for Jacob; who, perhaps, had intelligence thereof from his mother, by Deborah, and so was the rather willing to return.

Ver. 17. Built him an house, and made booths.] So did his posterity, at their going out of Egypt, {#Ex 12:37} and, for a perpetual memorial thereof, were appointed to keep a yearly feast of booths or tabernacles, {#Le 23:34} made of green boughs of trees, in praise of God, who had now vouchsafed them better houses. And here one would wonder, saith a divine, {a} that all along, during the reign of David and Solomon, who gave a pattern of, and built the temple, and all those succeeding reformers, there should something be omitted about this feast of tabernacles, till their return from Babylon: yet so it was. {#Ne 8:16,17} This feast was kept, as it is thought, by Solomon, {#2Ch 7:8} and by these same Jews, {#Ezr 3:4} yet not in this manner. Now {#Ne 8:14} they had learned, by sad experience, to keep it aright, in dwelling in booths, by having been lately strangers out of their own land: to signify which, and profess themselves strangers—as this "Syrian ready to perish their father" {#De 26:5} was, now at Succoth—was the intent of that feast, and that rite of it, dwelling in booths. This is intimated, "They did read also out of the law," &c., {#Ne 8:17,18} which, till then, they had not done.

{a} T. Goodwin.

Ver. 18. Came to Shalem.] Or, Came safe and sound to Shechem, as the Chaldee interprets it.

Ver. 19. For an hundred pieces of money.] Heb., Lambs, -as {a} we call angels, Jacobuses, -because stamped with the image of a lamb. So #Jos 24:32, marg.; #Job 42:11.

{a} Sic pecunia, a pecude.

Ver. 20. And he erected there an altar.] (1.) As a memorial of the promises, and a symbol of God’s presence; (2.) As an external profession of his piety; (3.) That he might set up God in his family, and season all his worldly affairs with a relish of religion.

Chapter 34

Ver. 1. Went out to see the daughters of the land.] Who went abroad at this time, with timbrels, to play, say the Hebrews; kept a solemn feast, saith Josephus. Hence Dinah’s desire to see them. But what saith St Bernard? Si tu otiose spectas, otiose non spectaris: tu curiose spectas, sed curiosius spectaris. Dinah’s wanton gadding, and gazing on others, gave occasion to the adulterer to look and lust after her. See the fruit of her needless getting abroad to see fashions and novelties. The name of a virgin, in the original tongues, {a} is derived from the house hiding; shadow; locked treasure; apple of the eye: to teach them to refrain ill company, and idle gadding. Young women are taught "to be keepers at home". {#Tit 2:5} As when they come abroad among men, they must be, if not veiled, as at Venice, yet clothed, and in their right minds, as that demoniac in #Lu 8:35. And this not only in winter, that they take no cold; but in the summer, that others take no heat from them, -which may rather burn them, than warm them, -as Shechem here did.

{a} תלותב; of תב a house; המלע; of םלע to hide; אתילט; of ללט to shadow. Παρθενος; of παραθειναι, to lay up. Κορη, a virgin, and the apple of thc eye.

Ver. 2. Saw her, he look her, and lay with her.] Ut vidit, periit. By those windows of the eyes and ears, sin and death often enter: through them the devil throws balls of wild fire into the soul, and sets all into a combustion. Visus, colloquium, contactus, osculum, concubitus, do too oft one succeed another. {a} See to the five senses, if ye would keep out the enemy. Shut up the five windows, if ye would have the house, the heart, full of light, saith the Arabian proverb. Joseph’s mistress cast her eyes upon him; but when she laid hands on him, she was the more inflamed, and set agog, as it were. The viewing, touching, or familiar talking with a woman, either without necessary occasion, or then, without prayer for holy affection, is dangerous, saith a grave divine. {b} Thou mayest not look intently upon what thou mayest not love. Democritus the philosopher pulled out his eyes, that he might not look upon forbidden beauties. This was no part of his wisdom: but it shall be ours, by mortification, to pluck the wanton eye out of old Adam, and to set it sober into the new man: to get that occulum irretortum, that well-ordered eye, that Job had; {#Job 31:1} that Joseph had; that Gregory Nazianzen had, who could σοφρονιζειν τους οφθαλμους, tutor his eyes; that Charles V, Emperor of Germany, had, who would shut the casements, when at any time he saw fair women afar off, or heard that such were to pass by his window {c} It is not safe to pry into the beauty of a fair woman. Circe {d} often used allusively. may enchant us, the cockatrice slay us with her sight. "Let her not take thee with her eyelids," saith Solomon; {#Pr 6:25} as larks, while they gaze in a glass, are taken in a hunter’s net. {See Trapp on "Ge 6:2"} {See Trapp on "Ge 26:7"}

{a} Mars videt hanc, visamque cupit, potiturque cupita. -Ovid.

{b} Time Well Spent, by Ezek. Culverwel, p. 53.

{c} Saepe clausit fenestram, ne inspiceret formosiores foeminas, &c. -Par., Hist. Profan., p. 908.

{d} In Greek and Latin mythology the name of an enchantress who dwelt in the island of Aea, and transformed all who drank of her cup into swine.

Ver. 3. And his soul clave unto Dinah.] He kicked her not out of doors, as Amnon did Tamar, far sweeter to him in the ambition, than in the fruition; but to make amends, as they call it, by marriage, he seeks to go by the old rule in that case, Et doter, et ducat. Howbeit, marriage, God’s ordinance, is not to be entered into through the devil’s portal.

Ver. 4: Get me this damsel to wife.] This is praise worthy in Shechem, as bad as he was, that he correcteth his base-born love, or lust rather, by seeking to make her his wife; not without consent of parents on both sides; which, in the Church of Rome, is ofttimes not regarded. Children are a principal part of their parents’ possessions, as Job’s children were accounted by Satan; yea, a piece of themselves. "Have mercy upon me," that is, "upon my daughter". {#Mt 15:22} Fit it is, therefore, that they should by the parents be disposed of in marriage.

Ver. 5. And Jacob heard.] To his very great grief and regret: for she was his only daughter; a damsel of not more than fifteen years of age. The Hebrews say she was afterwards given to Job in marriage; but that is not likely; for she is reckoned anong those that went down to Egypt. {#Ge 46:15}

And Jacob held his peace.] He felt God’s hand upon his back; he therefore lays his own hand upon his mouth. And herein he did better in "ruling his own spirit," than his sons did, that "took the city." {#Pr 16:32} "He sitteth alone, and is silent," {#La 3:28} saith the prophet of the afflicted person. So was Aaron; {#Le 10:3} so was David; {#Ps 39:9} so was the Lord Christ, as a sheep dumb before the shearer. The Romans placed the image of their goddess Angeronia upon the altar of Volupia, with her mouth shut, and sealed up; to signify, saith Macrobius, {a} that they that bridle their grief, and say nothing, shall, by their patience, soon attain to greatest pleasure. Patience in the soul, as the town clerk at Ephesus, {#Ac 19:35,36} sends away mutinous thoughts, as he did the many headed multitude; it quiets the boiling spirit, as Christ becalmed the raging sea, with ‘"Peace," and "Be still"; it makes a David dumb—a dumb show, but a very good one; it says, Cedamus: leve fit, quod bene fertur onus.

{a} Macrob., lib. i., in Som. Scip .

Ver. 6. And Hamor the father of Shechem, ] Unruly youth put their aged parents, many times, to much travail and trouble; as Samson, Shechem, Paris, &c. Green wood is ever shrinking and warping; whereas the well-seasoned holds a constant firmness.

Ver. 7. The men were grieved, and very wroth.] A pair of unruly passions, when combined, especially: they ride one upon the back of another, as kine do in a strait passage; and will make an Alexander kill his best friends, such as he would afterwards have revived, with the best and warmest blood in his own heart.

“Qui non moderabitur irae,

Infectum velit esse, dolor quod suaserit, et mens.”

- Horat.

Because he had wrought folly in Israel.] That is, in the Church, where fornication should "not be once named," much less committed. {#Eph 5:3} Sin is odious anywhere; most of all among saints. A thistle is unseemly in a garden, filthiness in a vestal, baseness in a prince. And yet, by the malice of Satan, there are, many times, more scandals in the Church than else where: such incest at Corinth, {#1Co 5:1} as not among heathens; such folly in Jacob’s family, as not at Shechem, or Seir. "Sodom, thy sister, hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters." {#Eze 16:48} This is lamentable!

Ver. 8. And Hamor communed with them.] A fond father seeks to satisfy the lust of a loose son, whom he should severely have punished; such parents are peremptores potius quam parentes, saith Bernard; like apes, that kill their young with culling them. They show their love as little, as if, by clapping their hands on their children’s mouths, to keep the cold wind from them, they should strangle them to death. A fair hand, here, maketh a foul wound; when correction would be a kind of cure. Severitas tamen non sit tetra, sed tetrica, saith Sidonius. {a} For, as a cur by trying waxeth fiercer, and as new wine breaketh weak vessels; so too much severity overthroweth, and quite spilleth a tender mind.

{a} Sidonius, lib, iv. epist. 9.

Ver. 9. And make ye marriages with us.] The world thinks we may do as they; and what need we be so scrupulous and straitlaced? But saints must "walk accurately" {a} {#Eph 5:15} by line, and by rule; not as unwise, but as wise; having their feet where other men’s heads are: for "the way of the wise is on high," saith Solomon; he goes a higher way to work than others; he may not buckle and stoop to their base courses. Singular things are conferred upon him; singular things are expected from him. An Israelite dare not yoke himself with any Sichemish heifer, that bears not the yoke of Jesus Christ. Those that "stood with the Lamb," had "not defiled themselves with women," &c. {#Re 14:4} Nec aliunde noscibiles, saith Tertullian of those primitive Christians, quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum. {b} They were distinguished from all others by their holy behaviour.

{a} Ακριβως, παρα το εις ακρον βαινειν.

{b} Tertul., Ad Scapulam.

Ver. 10. And ye shall dwell with us, &c.] Thus the world tempts the saints, by offer of profits, pleasures, and preferments. Sed surdo cantilenam. For they answer the world, as here, "We, cannot do this thing"; {#Ge 34:14} or, as the children of Israel bespake the king of Edom, "Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields of profit, or vineyards of pleasure, &c.; we will go by the king’s highway," chalked unto us in the Holy Scriptures: we will not turn to the right hand, or to the left, for any allurement or affrightment of thine, "until we have passed thy borders". {#Nu 20:17}

Ver. 11, 12. Ask me never so much dowry.] Heb., Multiply ye upon me, vehemently. Unbridled affection spares for no cost, so it may be satisfied. Judah parted with his signet, bracelets, and staff to the harlot. {#Ge 38:18} Herod, that old fornicator, bids the dancing damsel ask what she will, to the half of his kingdom. {#Mt 16:7} One there was that would not buy repentance so dear as the harlot demanded. {a} But those miscreants in Micah will give anything for a dispensation to live in sin; they offer "thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil; yea, the sons of their body, for the sins of their souls." {#Mic 6:7}

{a} Demosth.

Ver. 12. {See Trapp on "Ge 34:11"}

Ver. 13. Deceitfully, and said, Because he had, &c.] Therefore they thought they had reason to do as they did. Satan doth so bemist men, many times, that they think they have reason to be mad, and that there is some sense in sinning; when as, indeed, our only wisdom is to keep God’s laws; {#De 4:6} all which are founded upon so good reason, that, had God never made them, yet it had been best for us to have practised them.

Ver. 14. That were a reproach unto us.] And yet the world reproached them with nothing more than with their circumcision; as it is to be seen in Horace, Juvenal, Tacitus. Appion scoffs at it, and is answered by Josephus. But, as he were a fool that would be mocked out of his inheritance; so he, much more, that would be mocked out of his religion. "Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor," saith David, "because the Lord is his refuge"; because he runs to God by prayer. But to show how little he regarded their reproaches, he falls presently a-praying, "Oh that the salvation of Israel," &c. {#Ps 14:6,7} So Nazareth was a reproach cast upon Christ; and he glories in it: {#Ac 22:8} "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." He saith not; I am the Son of God, heir of all things, King of the Church, &c.; but, "I am Jesus of Nazareth." "If this be to be vile," said David, "I will be yet more vile." {#2Sa 6:22}

Ver. 15. That every male of you be circumcised.] Lo, herein was their deceit. How often is religion pretended, made a stale and stalking-horse to worldly and wicked aims and respects! A horrible profanation: as when Naboth was put to death at a fast; Henry VII, Emperor, poisoned in the sacramental bread, by a monk. Herod pretends to worship Christ; intends to worry him, &c. "From such stand off," saith St Paul; {#1Ti 6:5} or, if ye come near them, "set a mark upon them". {#Ro 16:17,18} Foenum habet in cornu.

Ver. 16. Then will we give our daughters.] Whether Jacob were present at this whole conference, it is not certain. It is probable that he was not. For surely, he would either have dissuaded them from thus doing; or, if he had consented, he would have said something more to the Shechemites, for their better assurance. It is a maxim in Maehiavel; Fidem tamdiu servandam esse, quamdiu expediat. But Jacob had not known this depth of the devil: his sons better could skill of it. They seem to be somewhat akin to those Thracians, of whom it was anciently said, Eos foedera nescire; that they knew no covenants: or the Turks at this day, whose covenants, grounded upon the law of nations, be they with never so strong capitulations concluded, or solemnity of oath confirmed, have, with them, no longer force, than standeth with their own profit; serving, indeed, but as snares to entangle other princes in. {a} There is no faith, say they, to be kept with dogs; that is, with Christians. {b} And this, perhaps, they have learned of those pseudo-Christians, the Papists, who dealt so perfidiously with them at the great battle of Varna; where Amurath, the great Turk, seeing the great slaughter of his men, in spite of the oath given him by king Ladislaus, dispensed with by the Pope’s legate, and beholding the picture of the crucifix in the displayed ensigns of the voluntary Christians, he plucked the writing out of his bosom, wherein the late league was comprised, and holding it up in his hand, with his eyes cast up to heaven, said, Behold, thou crucified Christ, this is the league thy Christians, in thy Name, made with me, which they have, without cause, violated: Now, if thou be a God, as they say thou art, and as we dream, revenge the wrong now done to thy Name, and me; and show thy power upon thy perjurious people, who, in their deeds, deny thee their God. {c} And it happened out accordingly: for God hates foul and faithless dealing. {#Zec 5:4 Ro 1:31} Periurii poena divina exitium; humana, dedecus. This was one of the laws of the twelve tables in Rome. {d}

{a} Turk. Hist.

{b} Ibid., 755.

{c} Ibid., 297.

{d} Heu miser, etsi quis primo periuria celat, Sera tamen tacitus poena venit pedibus -Tibull.

Ver. 17. But if ye will not hearken.] How often have men found treason in trust, and murder under show of marriage! as in #1Sa 18:17,25 Da 11:17, and in the massacre of Paris.

Ver. 18. And their words.] See the force of love, and hope of profit!

Ver. 19. And the young man deferred not, &c.] Heb., Neque distulit puer; The lad deferred not. He is called a lad or a child, that is, a fool; because he was carried, not by right reason, but blind affection, "walking in the ways of his heart and sight of his eyes". {#Ec 11:9} And the word {a} used to signify "youth," {#Ec 11:10} signifieth darkness; to note, that youth is the dark age, hot, and headlong, indeliberate and slippery, such as had need to "cleanse their ways, by cleaving to the Word," saith David; {#Ps 119:9} where the word for "cleansing," properly signifies the cleansing of glass, which, as it is slick and slippery, so, though it be very clean, yet it will gather filth, even in the sunbeams, and of itself: which noteth the great corruption of this age.

{a} Ητθεος, of αιθω. Ατζηος, of ζεω.

Ver. 20. And Hamor and Shechem, &c.] These great men easily persuaded and prevailed with the people to have what they would. Great need have we to pray for good governors. When Crispus believed, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue, many Corinthians believed also. {#Ac 18:8} Paul was loath to lose the deputy; because his conversion would draw on many others, is on the contrary, Jeroboam caused Israel to sin; and generally, as the kings were good or evil, so were the people; in which, as in a beast, the whole body follows the head.

Ver. 21. These men are peaceable, &c.] Nothing more ordinary, with politicians, than to cover private ends and respects, with pretence of public good: as Jeroboam told the people, it was too much trouble for them to go up to Jerusalem to worship; they should take a shorter cut to Dan and Bethel. So Jehu, in all his reformations, had a hawk’s eye to a kingdom; his main end was, to settle the crown upon his own head. The Turkish Janizaries, desirous to be rid of their Sultan Osman, pretended, and persuaded the people, that he was Jaour, that is, an infidel; and that he endeavoured to betray the Turkish Empire to Christian dogs, May 18, 1622. {a}

{a} Parei, Hist. Profan. Medal., 1176.

Ver. 22. If every male among us be circumcised.] {See Trapp on "Ge 34:26"}

Ver. 23. Shall not their cattle, &c.] Profit persuades mightily with the multitude. They all look to their own way; "Every one for his gain from his quarter". {#Isa 56:11} "Who will show us any good?" is Vox populi .{ #Ps 4:6} And who begs not attention, or inoculates not his faithful endeavour into his friend’s creed and belief, with a tale of gain!

Ver. 24. And every male was circumcised.] Many have lost their blood, and suffered so much trouble for their lusts, as, had it been for religion, they had been martyrs. But the cause, and not the punishment, makes the martyr. Samson and the Philistines died together; sed diverse fine at fate. Multum interest, saith Augustine, et qualia quis, et qualis quisque patiatur.

Ver. 25. On the third day.] Which is the worst day to those that are wounded; the critical day, as the surgeons call it. Wicked men are witty, to take their opportunity to act villany.

Ver. 26. And they slew Hamor and Shechem.] This is commended in apocryphal Judith {#/RAPC Jdt 9:2} for zeal; which the canonical Scripture condemneth for self-will; and Jacob, on his death bed, cursed it for cruelty, and blessed himself from their assembly. {#Ge 49:6,7} Quest. But why doth he not more sharply reprove it here? Ans. First, he considered God’s just judgment on the Shechemites; who, without the knowledge and faith of God, had profaned the sacrament of circumcision. A sin that God suffers not to pass without a sensible check, {#1Co 11:29,30} in his dearest children; how much less in strangers and enemies? The Donatists, that cast the holy elements of the Lord’s Supper to dogs, were devoured of dogs. He that came without his wedding garment, was taken from the table to the tormerntor. Secondly, Jacob gave place, for present, to his sons’ rage and fury. Discretion in the choice of seasons for reproving, is no less necessary than zeal and faithfulness in reproving. Good physicians use not to evacuate the body, in the extremities of heat and cold. Good mariners do not hoise up sail in every wind.

Ver. 27. Because they had defiled their sister.] So it was just in God, though unjust in the instruments; who were therefore cursed by Jacob; {#Ge 49:7} but yet not rejected by God. His election is of free grace, and not of foreseen faith or works.

Ver. 28. They took their sheet, &c.] One only sinned; all suffered. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump". {#1Co 5:2,6} All the Corinthians were tacked with, and taxed for, the incestuous man’s offence, because they bewailed it not, repressed it not He knew what he did, that prayed for pardon of his other men’s sins.

Ver. 29. And all their wealth, ] Or, Power: for in a man’s wealth is his power; yea, it is his "tower of strength," {#Pr 18:11} and so much he is valued at, as he is able to disburse. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:1"}

And spoiled even all that was in the house.] So dealt Minerius at Merindol; Charles V, at Magdeburg; the bloody Papists, at the Parisian massacre. But when the Lord came to "make inquisition for blood, he remembered them." {#Ps 9:12} He drew articles of inquiry against them, as strict, and as critical, as ever the Spanish Inquisition; and dealt with them accordingly. Cambyses lighting off his horse, after he had been showing great cruelty to them of Athens, his sword flew out of the scabbard, and slew him. {a} If these brethren in iniquity sped better, they may thank a good God, whose terror fell upon the adjacent cities. For they did enough to undo, not themselves only, but their father, and his whole family. It was good counsel to such, that Tertullian gives to bloody Scapula; Si nobis non parcis, tibi parce: si non tibi, Carthagini: See thou undo not thyself and thy city by thy cruelty to Christians.

{a} Justin.

Ver. 30. Are have troubled me.] In mind and estate, {a} and many such trouble houses and trouble towns there are abroad. All places are full of them, and so is hell too. There God will trouble them another while, as he did Achan, {#Jos 7:25} when he will show mercy to such Jacobs in whose families that is committed that they abhor.

I being few in, number.] So the saints were ever a little flock, a poor few to the many; jewels, nothing so much in bulk as lumber; strangers, few, in respect of home dwellers; sons of God, few, to common subjects. When Christ "came to his own, his own received him not." {#Joh 1:12} He wondered at one good Nathanael, and set a "Behold" upon him, as a rare bird. {#Joh 1:47}

{a} Cum in animo tum in rationibus. -Jun.

Ver. 31. Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?] Why, no: but should you therefore speak so boldly to your father, and deal so cruelly with your confederates; whom you first cheated into a covenant, and then basely butchered, when not able to help themselves? But anger is outrageous, and forethinks not what will follow hereafter, or becomes a man for present. Bridle it therefore.

Chapter 35

Ver. l. Arise, go up to Bethel.] This is not the first time that God tells him of that vow, and calls for performance. See #Ge 31:13. It is with us, as with children—Eaten bread is soon forgotten: deliverances, commonly, are but nine days’ wonderment at most; and it is ten to one, that any leper returns to give praise to God. If anything arouse and raise up our hearts to thankful remembrance of former mercy, it must be the sense of some present misery, as here. Jacob was in a great strait and fright: his sons had troubled him; the country was ready to rise upon him, and root him out: God also was justly displeased with him for his forgotten vow; yet chides him not, now that he was in heaviness; but takes his opportunity, for we are best when at worst, and gently minds him of what was his duty, and would be for his safety. Numa is said to have put so much confidence in his gods, that when he was sacrificing and news came that the enemy was at hand, he laughed, and said, At ego rein divinam facio. {a} Those Philistines were even ambitious of destruction, and ran to meet their ruin, that gathered themselves against Israel, while they were sacrificing and serving the Lord in their meet at Mizpeh. {#1Sa 7:7} The Church, in her worship, is "terrible as an army with banners"; {#So 6:10} "a cup of trembling to all the people round about"; "a burdensome stone for all people"; "a torch of fire in a sheaf." {#Zec 12:2,3,6} He is a mad man that will meddle with her while she is upon good terms with Christ, her Champion. {#Isa 37:22} Balaam knew this, and therefore gave that villanous counsel. All Germany was in arms against that handful of Hussites in Bohemia, yet could not suppress them. {b} Geneva, a small people, surrounded with enemies, and barred from aid of neighbours, yet faithful with God, hath been hitherto strangely upheld. At the siege of Mountabone in France, the people of God, using daily humiliation, as their service would permit, did sing a Psalm after, and immediately before, their sallying forth. With which practice the enemy coming acquainted, ever, upon the singing of the Psalm, upon which they expected a sally, they would so quake and tremble, crying, They come, they come, as though the wrath of God had been breaking out upon them. {c}

{a} Εγω δε ηυω—Plut

{b} Germani nondum, viso hoste, Danico terrore perculsi diffugerunt. -Pareus.

{c} Spec. Belli Sacri, 282.

Ver. 2. Then Jacob said unto his household.] So Gideon began his reformation at his father’s house. David also would walk wisely in the midst of his house; and this he calls "a perfect way," a sign of sincerity. {#Ps 101:2} This Psalm Bishop Ridley read over often to his family, hiring them to learn it by heart; and taking care that they might be a spectacle to all others of virtue and honesty.

Put away the strange gods.] Strange it was that such idols should be suffered among them. Calvin thinks that Jacob winked at Rachel’s superstition, of a blind love to her; as Solomon gratified his mistresses of Moab. I should think rather that they were the idols of Shechem, brought into the house either by Jacob’s sons and servants, or by the captive women.

Be clean, and change your garments.] God is to be approached unto with the best preparation we can make. Heathens saw that God is not to be drawn nigh unto, hand over head, but preparation to be made at home. {a} We wash us every day; but, when to dine with great ones, we wash us with balls, and put on our best.

{a} Ουκ εκ παροδου προσκυνειν, αλλ´ οικοθεν παρεσκυασμενοι.—Plut. Heathens had their caena pura before their solemn sacrifices.—Godw., Antiq.

Ver. 3. And was with me in the way, &c.] Deducendo, reducendo, fraenumque socero, fratri, finitimisque Shecemi inieciendo, ne me ullo pacto laederent, saith Junius. All this called for thankfulness. Prayer and thanks should be like the double motion of the lungs. The air that is sucked in by prayer should be breathed out again by praises. God had heard Jacob; now he should hear of him.

Ver. 4. And they gave unto Jacob.] Now they were in danger of destruction, they would do anything. So those false Israelites, when God "slew them, then they sought him." {#Ps 78:34} So many, when they are deadly sick, are wondrous good; as William Rufus, who vowed, upon his recovery, to see all vacancies furnished. {a} In the sweating sickness, so long as the ferventness of the plague lasted, there was crying, Peccavi, peccavi: the ministers were sought for in every corner—You must come to nay lord, you must come to my lady, &c. {b} The walnut tree is most fruitful when most beaten. Fish thrive best in cold and salt waters. The most plentiful summer follows upon the hardest winter. David was never so tender as when hunted like a partridge; nor Jonah so watchful, prayerful, as in the whale’s belly. {c} When men suffer for their sin, {#La 3:39,41} hands and hearts and all are lift up to heaven, that before were as "without God in the world," and thought they could do well enough without him. A lethargy is commonly cured by a fever; worms killed with aloes; so are crawling lusts by bitter afflictions. Israel under the cross, will "defile" the idols that they had deified; {#Isa 30:22} and after that they were captives in Babylon, they could never be drawn to that sin, whatever they suffered for their refusal, as under Antiochus. I end, with St Ambrose: Beata anima, quae est instar domus Iacobi, in qua nulla simulachra, nulla effigies vanitatis: Blessed is that soul, that, like Jacob’s house, hath no idol in it.

{a} Daniel’s Chro., fol. 58.

{b} Dike, Of Deceitf., p. 217.

{c} Vigilabat in ceto, qui stertebat in navi.

Ver. 5. The terror of God was upon the cities.] The Hebrews tell us, that they pursued Jacob, and were beaten back by him: whereupon he saith, {#Ge 48:22} that he took that country "out of the hand of the Amorites, with his sword and with his bow." God might send a panic terror upon them as they were fighting against Jacob, and so bridle them from further attempts. The Syrians heard a noise of chariots and horses in the air, {#2Ki 7:7} made by angels, likely; or whether it were but their own fancy, as #Jud 9:36, and as the Burgundians took a field of standing corn for an army of fighting men, and fled for their lives. Theodosius, the Emperor, overcame the Persians and Saracens by means of a panic terror smitten into them by God; so that they ran into the river Euphrates, and above a hundred thousand of them perished in the waters. {a}

{a} Alsted, Chronol, p. 300.

Ver. 6. So Jacob came to Luz.] Which was thirty miles from Shechem: a long journey for such a large family, who went it with hearts full of heaviness, for, "without were fightings, within fears": but this was their comfort, they went to see the face of God at Bethel. As they that "passed through the valley of Baca," though they took many a weary step, yet went "from strength to strength," because they were to "appear before God in Zion." {#Ps 84:6,7} Popish pilgrims, though used hardly and put to much expense and inconvenience, yet satisfy themselves in this, I have that I came for, viz., the sight of a dumb idol, as Calvin notes. What, then, should not we suffer to see God in his ordinances? "They shall bring your brethren as an offering to the Lord, upon horses, in chariots, and in litters," saith the prophet: {#Isa 66:20} that is, though sick, weakly, and unfit for travel; yet, rather in litters, than not at all.

Ver. 7. Because there God appeared.] Heb., Revelavissent Dii. Not the angels, but the sacred Trinity. {See Trapp on "Ge 1:1"}

Ver. 8. But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died.] A grave matron she was; of great use while she lived, and much missed when she died. This is not every man’s case. Some have their souls, as swine, for no other use, than, as salt, to keep their bodies from putrefaction. {a} And when they die, they are no more missed than the sweepings of the house, or parings of the nails.

{a} Suillo pecori anima pro sale.

Ver. 9. And God appeared, &c.] A sweet allayment of his late heaviness for Deborah, and a gracious preparative to the ensuing loss of Rachel. The joy of the Lord is the Christian man’s strength. {#Ne 8:10} One sight of him is enough to carry one through all conditions with comfort. As a man that hath his bones filled with marrow, and that hath abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body, he can endure to go with less clothes than another, because he is well lined within; so it is with a heart that hath a great deal of fat and marrow, communion with God, and feeling of his favour; he will go through troubles, in the fail of outward comforts. And as the lily is fresh, and looks fair, though among thorns; so will he, amidst miseries.

Ver. 10. And God said unto him, &c.] It is usual with God to revive and renew the promises with fresh supplies of comforts upon the hearts of his faithful servants, for the further confirmation of their faith and hope. Thus he seals to us at every sacrament, besides those sweet supplies of the Spirit of promise, {επιχορηγια, #Php 1:19} whereby we are daily sealed to the day of redemption, as the merchant’s goods are signed with his seal. {#Eph 1:13,4:30}

Ver. 11. I am God Almighty.] This is hardly persuaded; and yet it is the ground of all true comfort and spiritual security. We are apt to measure things according to our own model, as to think God so powerful as our understanding can reach, &c. But, for a finite creature to believe the infinite all-sufficiency of God, he is not able to do it thoroughly without supernatural grace; nor can he be soundly comforted till he comes to comprehend it. Of his will to do us good we doubt not, till, in some measure, we doubt of his power to help.

Ver. 13. And God went up from him.] Not by local ascension; for he is everywhere; but in respect of that visible sign of his glory, which he now withdrew from over, or from upon Jacob. For the righteous are as God’s chariot, say the Hebrews on this text. Compare #So 6:12.

Where he talked with him.] Prayer is a free and familiar conference or intercourse with God; a parling with his Majesty, as St Paul calls it; {εντευξις, #1Ti 2:1} a standing upon interrogatories with him; especially when Satan, sin, and conscience accuse. It was a part of the Persian kings’ silly glory, to keep their greatest subjects from coming near them without special licence. {#Es 4:11} To God we have free access upou all occasions, and are bid to "come boldly." {#Heb 4:16} If Seneca could say, Audacter Deum roges, nihil illum de alieno rogaturus; how much more may the faithful Christian, since all is his, God and all! {#1Co 3:22} Moses and Luther could have what they would of God. Fiat voluntas mea, saith Luther; and then he adds, Mea voluntas, Domine, quia tua: Let my will be done; but no otherwise mine, than as thine, Lord.

Ver. 14. And Jacob set up a pillar.] Or, Had set up a pillar, had poured a drink offering, &c., -to wit, #Ge 28:18,19. And now he either repeats it in the presence, and for the edification of his family; or else he repairs the pillar now ruinated, and new consecrates it, by the old name Bethel.

Ver. 16. She had hard labour.] Woman, of all creatures, bringeth forth with most pain and peril, as the philosopher {a} observeth, and experience confirmeth. Her only way is to send for Lady Faith, the best midwife; {#1Ti 2:15} and thereby to repose upon him whose "voice causeth the hinds to calve," {#Ps 29:9} which yet, of all brute creatures, bring forth with greatest trouble, "bowing themselves," bruising their young, and "casting out their sorrows." {#Job 39:3,4}

{a} Arist., De Anima., lib. vii.

Ver. 17. Thou shalt have this son also.] So she had "children," according to her desire; but this last, to her cost, for a chastisement of her strong affections, which drew on strong afflictions; as hard knots must have hard wedges. They that would needs have a penny for their pains, had no joy of their penny: when the end of the day came, {#Mt 20:13} when they were to go into another world, they saw that their penny was no such good silver; that preferment, profit, credit, were but empty things, and could not satisfy. It is best to be moderate in our desires after these outward things; and not so set upon it as to indent with God for such, and so much: this may be dangerous.

Ver. 18. As her soul was in departing, ] viz., To God that gave it. It is a spiritual, immortal substance, distinct from the body; and can subsist of itself; {a} as the mariner can, when the ship is broken.

For she died.] In our birth, we rent our mothers, to death sometimes, whom before we had burdened; so far nature witnessing our viperous generation, because of sin, which we bring into the world.

But his father called him Benjamin.] Lest the former name should be a daily reminder of his loss. Let men make their burdens as light as they can, and not increase their worldly sorrow by sight of sad objects. It will come, as we say of foul weather, soon enough; we need not send for it. What should dropsy men do eating salt meats?

{a} Epicharmium est illud; concretum fuit et discretum est, rediitque unde venerat, terra deorsum, spiritus sursum.

Ver. 19. And Rachel died.] We forfeit many favours, by over loving them. Our jealous God will not endure us to idolise any creature. Let them that have wives, or any other thing they hold most dear to themselves, be as if they had none. So love, as to think of loss. {a} Let all outward things hang loose, as an upper garment that we can throw off at pleasure. {#1Co 7:29}

{a} Iudaei vitrum ex quo sponsus et sponsa biberunt, confringunt; ut memores sint sponsi fragilitatis humanae.

Ver. 20. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave.] To testify his love, and continue her remembrance. Dead friends may be lawfully thus honoured with monuments; modo vitetur luxus et superstitio. .

Ver. 21. Beyond the tower of Edar.] Or, Of the flock. This tower was built, it seems, for the safety and service of shepherds. There it was, probably, that those shepherds, #Lu 2:8, watched their flocks. There also, Helena, mother to Constantine the Great, did afterwards build a temple, for a memorial of the angels that there appeared to those shepherds, carolling Christ into the world.

Ver. 22. Reuben went and lay with Bilhah.] A foul fault, in so good a family: but so it sometimes falls out, by the malice of Satan, for the discrediting of religion. Such ugly incest was committed at Corinth, as was hardly {a} "heard of among heathen, that a man should have his father’s wife." {#1Co 5:1} Some such there were among the kings of Egypt; but not many. Ethelbald, king of West Saxons, with great infamy marrying his father’s widow Judith, enjoyed his kingdom but two years and a half. {b} But how hateful is that Spanish incest, by Papal dispensation! King Philip of Spain might call the Archduke Albert, both brother, cousin, nephew, and son: for all this was he unto him, either by blood or affinity; being uncle to himself, first cousin to his father, husband to his sister, and father to his wife. {c} Abhorred filth!

And Israel heard it.] And held his peace, because he saw God in it, chastising him for his polygamy. The punishment is sometimes so like the sin, that a man may boldly say, Such a sin was the mother of such a misery. And here is a pause in the Hebrew, to show Jacob’s great amazement at this sad tidings. Dolores ingentes stupent. He was even "dumb, and opened not his mouth, because God was in it." {#Ps 39:9}

{a} Seleucus, Syriae rex, tradidit filio Antiocho novercam Stratonicen, cuius amore ille decumbebat. -Appian, in Syriacis.

{b} Dan., Chron., p. 12.

{c} Sandys’s Relation of West. Religion.

Ver. 23. Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.] Who, though by his sin he fell from his birthright, yet is here reckoned as a patriarch, and afterwards, upon his repentance, not a little honoured. {#Ex 28:21,29 Re 21:12} God is not off and on with his elect; their frowardness interrupts not the course of his goodness.

Ver. 29. And Isaac gave up the ghost.] Twelve years after Joseph was sold, and forty years after he first became blind. Three special friends Jacob buries, in this chapter. Crosses come thick: be patient.

Chapter 36

Ver. 1. Who is Edom.] The name and note of his profaneness. A stigmatical Belialist. It were a happiness to the wicked, if they might be forgotten. {#Ec 8:10}

Ver. 4. Eliphaz.] Job’s friend, say some: a good man; but much mistaken in Job, whom he so sharply censures.

Ver. 6. From the face of his brother Jacob.] Or, Before the coming of his brother Jacob; by a special providence of God, to make room for the right heir. It is he that "determineth the bounds of our habitations." {#Ac 17:26} It was he that espied out this land for his peculiar people; and that kept the room empty all the time of the Babylonish captivity, till the return of the natives; though it were a pleasant country, left destitute of inhabitants, and surrounded with many warlike nations. Piscator renders this text, propter Iacobum, and expounds it, Because he knew that the land of Canaan should be Jacob’s, according to God’s promise made to him in his father’s blessing of him. But I doubt whether Esau would yield to him for any such reason.

Ver. 7. For their riches were more, &c.] And besides, mount Seir was more fit for a hunter. A good ease it was to Jacob, who had little joy in his neighbourhood. "God will not take the ungodly by the hand"; {#Job 8:20, marg.} no more will his people. When they are forced to be in ill company, they cry, "Oh that I had the wings of a dove! that I might flee away": {#Ps 55:6} or if that "Oh" will not set them at liberty, they take up that "Woe," to express their misery; "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech!" &c. {#Ps 120:5} It was once the prayer of a good gentlewoman, when she came to die, being in much trouble of conscience: O Lord, let me not go to hell, where the wicked are; for, Lord, thou knowest I never loved their company here. {a}

{a} Moses’s Choice, by M. Bur., p. 330.

Ver. 11. And the sons of Eliphaz.] See here the fulfilling of God’s predictions and promises, even to an Esau. Will he be wanting to his obedient people?

Ver. 20. These are the sons of Seir.] Esau was by marriage allied to this Seir: for he married his niece Aholibamah: {#Ge 36:2} yet the children of Esau chased away the Horims of Seir, and dwelt in their stead in mount Seir. {#De 2:12} Wicked men are void of natural affection, in their pursuit of profit or preferment; Abimelech, Absalom, Athaliah, for instance; and that Amida, son of Muleasses, king of Tunis, who rose up against his father, and possessing himself of his kingdom, slew his captains, polluted his wives, took the castle of Tunis; and, after all, put out his father’s and brethren’s eyes, like as Muleasses himself, before, had dealt with his own brethren. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 745, 747, 642.

Ver. 24. That found the mules.] By breeding different kinds together, contrary to #Le 19:19. Neither did the world, till then, want any perfect kind of creature; for the mule and the ass differ not, but only in degree. The Greeks call mules half-asses. {a} See here, saith one, {b} the busy curiosity of some men’s natures, given to new and strange inventions. So he that taught a parrot in Rome to repeat the Creed, every article in order, and by itself, distinctly. {c} Another, that painted the whole story of our Savour’s passion, both for persons and things, upon the nails of his own fingers. Had not he little to do, that learned to write a fair hand with his feet? Heidfeld saith he saw it with wonderment. And he {d} as little, that enclosed Homer’s Iliads written in a nut? which Cicero tells us he saw with his eyes. These were laborious toys, quae nec ignoranti nocent, nec scientem iuvant, as Seneca saith {e} of sophistry. Hard they are to come by; but of no use or worth: like an olive, or date stone; hard to crack the one, or cleave the other: but nothing, or nothing worth aught, when cracked or cloven, within either, {f} This same foolish wittiness Alexander wittily scoffed, when he gave a fellow only a bushel of peas, for his pains of throwing, every time, a pea upon a needle’s point, standing a pretty way off.

{a} Ημιονους.

{b} Bp. Babington.

{c} Fuit olim psittacus Romae aureis centum comparatus, &c.—C. Rhodig., lib. ii. cap. 32.

{d} Maiolus, in Canic., coloq. 23.

{e} Sphinx Phil., p. 785.

{f} Plin., lib. vii. cap. 12.

Ver. 31. Before there reigned any king, &c.] Sicut herba tectorum praecocem habet vigorem, sed citius arescit. Exoriuntur impii, sed exuruntur. They are set up on high, but "on slippery places"; {#Ps 73:18} advanced, as Haman, but to be brought down again with a vengeance. This observation the Hebrews make upon this text: While Edom reigns and flourishes, Israel groanes under the servitude of Egypt. Pomp and prosperity, then, is no sure note of the true Church.

Ver. 40. Duke Timnah, duke Alvah.] We had a Duke d’Alva lately in the Netherlands, governor there for the Spaniard, infamous for his inhumanity. For he roasted some to death, starved others, and that even after quarter; saying, though he promised to give them their lives, he did not promise to find them meat. {a} This was a right Romish Edomite. The Hebrews think the Romans came of the Idumeans. Sure I am, if they be not of the natural descent, they are of the spiritual, or unnatural; and so like, as by the one we may see the face, favour, and affection of the other.

{a} Grimston, Hist. of Netherlands.

Ver. 43. These be the dukes of Edom.] As the principality of Edom began with dukes, and rose to kings; so it returneth to dukes again, after the death of Hadad, in Moses’s time. {#1Ch 1:51} It is likely, saith an interpreter, that, upon the unkind dealing of that Hadad, in denying to let Israel pass through his land, the Lord removed the dignity of kings from that commonwealth, and let it be ruled by dukes again; whereof eleven are here by name rehearsed. So sensible is God, and so severe, in punishing the least unkindness done to his people. Julius Pflugius, complaining to the Emperor, by whom he had been employed, of great wrong done him by the Duke of Saxony, received this answer: Have a little patience; tua causa erit mea causa. So saith God to his abused. "He reproveth," yea, deposeth "even kings for their sakes"; {#Ps 105:14} and accounts that the whole "world is not worthy of them!" {#Heb 11:38} nay, not worth one of them, how mean soever regard of outwards; as Chrysostom expounds it.

Chapter 37

Ver. 1. In the land of his father’s sojournings (Marg.).] The dukes of Edom had habitations in the land of their possessions. {#Ge 36:43} But Jacob, with his father Isaac, were pilgrims in the land of Canaan; content to dwell in tents here, that they might dwell with God for ever. Justin Martyr saith of the Christians of his time: They dwell in their own countries but as strangers; have fight to all, as citizens; but suffer hardship, as foreigners, &c. {a}

{a} Πατπιδας οικουσιν ιδιας, αλλ" ως παροικοι, &c.—Epist. ad Diognetum.

Ver. 2. These are the generations.] That is, Events, begotten of time, after he came to live with his father Isaac, who also wept for Joseph, {#Ge 37:35} as Junius.

With the sons of Bilhah, &c.] It is thought that these sons of the handmaids, for the baseness of their birth, were more modest than the rest; and that Joseph therefore, out of his humility, sorted himself with them. Probable it is, they were more unruly than the rest, and ill conditioned, -as such are, commonly, -whereof Joseph made complaint, and was therefore hated. Veritas odium parit. Truth is a good mistress; but he that follows her too close at heels, may hap to have his teeth struck out. An expectas ut Quintillanus ametur? said he. Those that are wakened out of sleep are usually unquiet, ready to brawl with their best friends. So here.

Ver. 3. Because he was the son of his old age.] The Chaldee Paraphrast renders it morally, Because he was a wise son, in quo ante canos sapientia: such a one as Macarius was, of whom Nicephorus saith, that, for his prudence and gravity while he was yet but a youth, he was surnamed παιδαριογερων, the old stripling. Josephus saith, he was very like his mother Rachel; and therefore his father so loved him. But Chrysostom saith, better, that it was for his virtuous life, and godly disposition. Goodness is lovely in any; much more in an own child. John was the best beloved disciple, because best conditioned. But otherwise, Cavete, saith Ambrose, ne quos natura coniunxit, paterna gratia dividat. Parents’ partiality may breed heart-buruings. {#Eph 6:4}

Ver. 4. They hated him.] 1. There is a passion of hatred: this is a kind of averseness, and rising of the heart against a man, when one seeth him; so that he cannot away with him, nor speak to him, nor look courteously or peaceably upon him; but one’s countenance falls whea he sees him, and he oven turns away, and, by his good will, would have nothing to do with him. 2. There is a habit of hatred: when the soul is so soured with this leaven, so settled in this alienation and estrangement, that it grows to wish, and desire, and seek his hurt. And this is one difference between hatred and envy: whom men hate, they will harm; but sometimes men’s gifts are envied, against whom no hurt is intended.

Ver. 5. And Joseph dreamed.] Of divine dreams to be regarded as oracles, {See Trapp on "Ge 20:3"}

They hated him yet the more.] So the Jews did Jesus, for his parables; especially when he spake of his exaltation.

Ver. 6. Hear, I pray you, this dream.] Thus he bespeaketh them, not out of a vain glorious boasting, but out of youthful simplicity, and because himself wondered at it. God also had a holy hand in it.

Ver. 7. We were binding sheaves.] This was fulfilled, when they came to him for grain into Egypt. Here Joseph dreams of his advancement, but not of his imprisonment: so do many professors, which therefore prove apostates.

Ver. 8. Shalt thou indeed reign over us?] They rightly interpreted the dream, yet stubbornly resist the revealed will of God. This leaves sin without a cloak, {#Joh 15:22} as it did in the Pharisees. They rightly interpreted that place in Micah, {#Mt 2:1-10} and yet, when Christ, to whom all their own signs did so well agree, came amongst them, they would by no means receive him; nay, they sent a message after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us."

Ver. 9. Behold, the sun, and the moon.] The father of the family should be as the sun, full of heavenly light, and illightening all about him: The mother, as the moon, shining out in her husband’s absence, and veiling to him, when he is in place. The children, as stars of light, or rather, as a heaven full of stars, as one saith well of Joseph: Fuit Iosephi vita coelum quoddam lucidissimis virtutum stellis exornatum. The people of God are called, "the host of heaven," {#Da 8:10} and are bid to shine as lamps, or rather, φωστηρες, as those great lights of heaven. {#Php 2:15}

Ver. 10. And his father rebuked him.] Either as not yet understanding the mystery, or dissembling it. It is wisdom, at some time, and in some place, to pretend a dislike of another man’s fact (so far as we may with truth), for the preventing of envy. This, some think, was Jacob’s drift here. And therefore he draws an argument, ab impossibili et absurdo; Shall thy dead mother rise and reverence thee? A likely matter: and yet, as light as Jacob made of it, to unload Joseph of the envy, he laid it to heart. {#Ge 37:11}

Ver. 11. And his brethren envied him.] Envy is a filthy fruit of the flesh {#Ga 5:21} and the devil; who is called, the envious man; {#Mt 13:19,25} and such wisdom is said to be "devilish." {#Jas 3:15} The Pharisees, envying our Saviour, did the devil’s work. {#Joh 8:41} So did Cain, the devil’s patriarch, when he laid his cruel club on the innocent head of his brother Abel. And Saul, when, seized upon by the evil spirit more than a melancholy humour, he envied David, and sought his death. For, this vice, as it makes the heart to boil with hellish venom, so it blisters out at the tongue, as here; "They could not speak peaceably to Joseph," but scoff, and consult his ruin. It sits, also, looking out at the windows of the eyes; and, as a basilisk, blasteth the object. {a} Hence, invidere; to see with an evil eye, and naughty mind: and our English saith, to overlook a thing; that is, to bewitch it. This very looking upon other precellencies, whereby we are over shined, so as to lust to have that light put out, that our candle might shine above it—this is every man’s sin—though it act nothing, yet it is abominable. {#Jas 4:5} As, on the other side, to rejoice in the good parts of others, though it eclipseth our light, and this from the heart; this is indeed more than to excel others in any excellency, if this be wanting. For this, it is good to get the heart fraught with mercy, meekness of wisdom, fear of God, -whose providence cuts us out our various conditions and proportions, -zeal for his glory, as Moses; humility, charity ("Love envieth not," #1Co 13:4); and to take heed of strife. {#Ro 13:13} "Envy and strife" go coupled; they are brought in there by the brace, as it were twisted together. Likewise, of pride and vain-glory; {#Php 2:3} covetousness; {#Pr 28:22} contention about words; {#1Ti 6:4} self-love, ignorance, &c.; all which make the soul sick of the fret, {#Ps 37:8 73:3} and to pierce itself through with many sorrows. For, this sin killeth the silly one, {#Job 5:2} if it kill no other. Envy and murder {b} go coupled. {#Ro 1:29 Ga 5:21} A hectic it is to itself, however; the same that rust is to iron, blasting to corn, or a moth to the cloth it breeds in. It drinketh the most part of its own venom, gnaws on its own heart, is consumed in its own fire, as Nadab and Abihu were; and, like the snake in the fable, licks off its own tongue, as envying teeth to the file in the forge. Socrates called it, the saw of the soul. {c} David compares it to fire in billets of juniper, which burns vehemently, and continues, they say, more years than one. Simul peccat et plectitur: expedita iustitia, saith Petrarch. Other sins have some pleasure; this hath none, but torment. It is a very hell above ground, and paves a way to the unpardonable sin, as in Saul, and the Pharisees.

{a} Nescio quis teneros, &c.; fascino, Βασκαινω, i.e., τοις φαεσι κτεινειν.

{b} φθονου και φονου. φθονος, of φθινω, to consume.

{c} Serram animae.

Ver. 12. In Shechem.] Sixty miles from Hebron, where Jacob now dwelt.

Ver. 13. And he said to him, Here am I.] "Children obey your parents,"— quorum divina est dignitas, saith Chrysostom: our parents are Θεοι εφεστιοι, saith another; and Philo, for this maketh the fifth commandment a part of the first table, "for this is right." {#Eph 6:1} Blind nature saw it to be so. For it is not fit, saith the philosopher, to cross the gods, a man’s own father, and his tutor or teacher. {a}

{a} Μη καλον κρινειν εναντια τοις Θεοις, πατρι, και Δαδασκαλω.—Aristot., Rhetor.

Ver. 14. Well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks.] His first care is for the welfare of his children. Many a Laban is more solicitous of his flock than of his family. It were better being Herod’s swine than his son, said Augustus. Hawks and hounds are better tended and tutored in some great houses than children. Or if they be taught manners, and handsome behaviour, that is all that is cared for. But piety must be principally planted, where God’s blessing upon posterity is expected: the promise whereof is therefore’specially annexed to the second commandment. {a}

{a} Macrob.

Ver. 15. What seekest thou?] This was not the angel Gabriel, as the Hebrews will have it; but some courteous passenger, that thus offereth himself to wandering Joseph, and sets him in his way again. At Athens there were public curses appointed against such as showed not those their error that were out of the way. {a} See the like, #De 27:18. "Brethren," saith St James, "if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he saves a soul from death"; {#Jas 5:19,20} yea, he pulls him out of the fire of hell, saith Jude {b} {#Jude 1:23} for they that err from God’s commandments are cursed. {#Ps 119:21}

{a} Dion. Lamb., in Corn. Nep.

{b} Ex igne gehennali -Pareus.

Ver. 16. I seek my brethren.] He stayed not at Shechem, whither his father sent him; but missing them there, he seeks farther, till he found them. This is true obedience, whether to God or man, when we look not so much to the letter of the law, as to the mind of the lawmaker; apices iuris non sunt ius.

Ver. 17. And found them in Dothan.] That is, In Defection. So found our Saviour his lost sheep, in utter defection, both of doctrine and manners: some four, or fewer, "that looked for the consolation of Israel."

Ver. 18. They conspired against him.] So did the husbandmen against Christ: "This is the heir," say they, &c. {#Lu 20:14} The word is by one rendered, They craftily conspired. The Greek hath it, malignantly: craft and cruelty go usually together in the Church’s adversaries. The devil lends them his seven heads to plot, and his ten horns to push poor Joseph, that dreads no danger.

Ver. 19. Behold, this dreamer.] This captain dreamer, or, this architect of dreams. A lewd scoff, and, by it, a cruel calumny. Envy, so it may gall, or kill, cares not how true or false it be, that, it allegeth: it usually aggravates the matter beyond truth, to do mischief, as here. Their hearts were so big, swollen with spite and spleen, that they could not call him by his name, but "this dreamer." So the Pharisees called our Saviour, "this fellow." {#Lu 23:2} And "the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?"—εκεινος— {#Joh 7:11} They could not find in their hearts to say, Where is Jesus? as Saul asked not for David, but for "the son of Jesse," by way of contempt. Christ tells his disciples that men shall, in hatred of them, cast out their names for evil, for his sake. {#Lu 6:22} Their persons should be proscribed, and their names expunged, as unworthy to breathe in the common air. That like as we give names to newly born babes; so when we cannot afford to mention a man’s name, it shows we wish him out of the world: {a} Nomine Christianorum deleto, qui Remp. exercebant. So those bloody tyrants of the primitive times sounded the triumph beforehand, and engraved the victory they never got, upon pillars of marble. Ubicunque invenitur nomen Calvini, deleatur, saith the Index Expurgatorius. After Stephen Brune the martyr’s death, his adversaries commanded it to he cried, that none should make any more mention of him, under pain of heresy. {b} So in Queen Mary’s days, one Tooly, hanged for felony, for defying the Pope, was, after his death, suspended and excommunicated; and strict charge given, that no man should eat or drink with him; or if any met him by the way, he should not bid him good morrow, or call him by his name. {c} It was not for nothing, surely, that our Saviour, in token of hearty reconciliation, requires men to greet their enemies, and to call them friendly by their names. {#Mt 5:47}

{a} Sic apud Latinos dicebantur capitis diminutionem pati, qui ex albo a censoribus expungebantur.

{b} Act. and Mon., fol. 820.

{c} Ibidem, fol. 1439.

Ver. 20. And we will say.] So they consult, to cover their murder with a lie. One sin admitted makes way for another. He that hath fallen down one rung of hell’s ladder, knows not where he shall stop, till he break his neck at the bottom.

Ver. 21. And he delivered him out of their hands.] Josephus relates his arguments, whereby he prevailed with them: as (1.) That God would surely see them; (2.) Their father would extremely grieve at it; (3.) That Joseph was but a child, and their brother; (4.) That they would bring upon themselves the guilt of innocent blood, &c. It was happy they hearkened to him. God would have it so: and he will ever have one Reuben or another, to deliver his. It is not in vain for some one to stand for God and his people against many adverreties. When the Pharisees had destined our Saviour to death, {#Joh 7:1} Nicodemus, though he had none in the council to second him, spoke in his behalf, {#Joh 7:51} and for that time frustrated their bloody intention. See the like, #Jer 26:24.

Ver. 22. Shed no blood.] Every drop of it hath a tongue to cry for vengeance. Well might King James say, that if God did allow him to kill a man, he would think God did not love him. David, God’s darling, falling into that crimson sin, carried the bruise of that fall with him to his grave. Woe to those Italians that blaspheme oftener than swear; and murder more than revile or slander! {a}

{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig., sec. 13.

Ver. 23. They stripe Joseph out of his coat.] For, (1) It an eyesore to them; (2.) There with they would colour their cruelty. And this while they were doing, Joseph used many entreaties for himself, but they would not hear him. {#Ge 42:21} Reuben also pleaded hard for the child, but all to no purpose. {#Ge 37:22} Their tender mercies were cruelties.

Ver. 24. They cast him into a pit.] Where they meant he should pine and perish with hunger, which is a more cruel death than to die by the sword. {#La 4:9} Thus died Drusus by the command of Tiberius; food being denied him, he had eaten the stuffings of his bed. {a} I have heard of a certain bishop, saith Melancthon, who, having cast ten men into a dungeon for their religion’s sake, kept them there so long without all manner of food, that they devoured one another. {b}

{a} Druso adeo alimenta subducta, ut tomentum a culcitra tentaverit mandere. -Tacit.

{b} Joh. Manlii, loc. com., 124.

Ver. 25. And they sat down to eat.] To weep for their wickedness, they should have sat down rather. But the devil had drawn a hard hoof over their hearts, that either they fdt no remorse of what they had done, for present; or else they sought to ease themselves of it by eating and merry making. "They drank wine in bowls; but no man was sorry for the affliction of Joseph." {#Am 6:6} Nay, perhaps they had so tired themselves with making away their brother, that they were even spent again, and stood in need of some refreshing. The good providence of God was in it howsoever, that they should there sit down, till the merchants came by from Gilead, which was a market for merchants. {#Jer 8:22 22:6} "All things co-operate for good to them that love God." {#Ro 8:28}

Ver. 26. What profit is it? &c.] Cui bono said that old judge in Rome. {a} This is a song that most men will listen to. As the Jassians in Strabo, delighted with the music of an excellent harper, ran all away, when once they heard the market bell ring, save a deaf old man, that could take little delight in the harper’s ditties. But it were to be wished, that whenever we are tempted to sin, we would ask ourselves this question, What profit is it? &c.

{a} Cic., Orat. pro. C. Rabir.

Ver. 27. For he is our brother, and our flesh.] This consideration should be, as the angel’s call to Abraham, to stay our hand from striking another; (1.) That he is our brother, in respect of God; for "have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" {#Mal 2:10} (2.) That he is "our flesh," in regard of our first parents. {#Ac 17:26 Isa 58:7}

Ver. 28. For twenty pieces of silver.] A goodly price! not all out the price of a slave. {#Ex 21:32} Here "they sold the just one for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes." {#Am 2:6} The Hebrews tell us, that of these twenty shekels, every of the ten brethren had two, to buy shoes for their feet {a}

And they brought Joseph into Egypt.] Little knowing what a prize they had in their hand, even the jewel of the world, and him that should one day be lord of Egypt. The saints, for their worth, are called "princes in all lands"; {#Ps 45:16} kings in righteousness, {b} though somewhat obscure ones, -as Melchisedec. {#Heb 7} They are called "God’s portion"; {#De 32:9} "the dearly beloved of his soul"; {#Jer 12:7} "a royal diadem in the hands of Jehovah." {#Isa 62:3} This the cock on the dunghill, the Midianitish muckworms take no notice of. They could see no comeliness in Christ, though the fairest of ten thousand; nothing more than a despicable man. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?." {#Joh 6:52} God had hid him ("in whom all the treasures of" worth and "wisdom were hid," #Col 2:3) under the carpenter’s son: this pearl was covered with a shellfish; so are all God’s precious people, for most part, abjects in the world’s eye; their glory is within; "their life is hid": they are great heirs, but as yet in their non-age; kings, but in a strange country; heads destinated to the diadem; but this "the world knows not." {#1Jo 3:1} Let it suffice us that God, and all that can spiritually discern, know it; and so shall others: as Joseph’s brethren did him, in his bravery. For "when Christ, our life, appear, we shall appear with him in glory." {#Col 3:4}

{a} Pirke R. Eliez, cap. 38.

{b} "Many righteous," are "many kings." Compare #Mt 13:17 with #Lu 10:24.

Ver. 29. He rent his clothes.] In token of extreme passion. A custom in use also among some heathens.

Ver. 30. The child is not; and I, &c.] In an old manuscript, I met with these words thus pathetically rendered:—

“Heu quid agam! periit puer ille, puer puer ille.”

Reuben was the oldest, and therefore thought he should be most blamed. Besides, he had not forgot how highly his father had been lately offended with him, for his detestable incest.

Ver. 31. And dipped the coat in the blood.] That Jacob might think his son Joseph was dead; and so make no further inquiry after him.

Ver. 32. Know now whether it be thy son’s coat.] One Philip, bishop of Beauvieu, in France, in the time of our Richard I, being a martial man, and much annoying our borders, was by King Richard in a skirmish happily taken, and put in prison. The bishop hereupon complained to the Pope, who wrote in the behalf of his son, as an ecclesiastical person, &c. The king sent to the Pope the armour he was taken in, with these words engraven thereon, "Know whether this be thy son’s coat, or not." Which the Pope viewing, sware it was rather the coat of a son of Mars, than a son of the Church; and so bade the king use his pleasure. {a}

{a} Heyl., Geog., p. 108.

Ver. 33. It is my son’s coat, &c.] The Lord may well say as much of hypocrites: Their outward form of godliness is the garb of my sons and daughters; but some evil spirit hath devoured them, who use it only in hypocrisy. They are fair professors, but foul sinners. And when the filthy stoner goes damned to hell, what shall become of the zealous professor? As the churl said to the Bishop of Cullen, praying in the church like a bishop; but as he was a duke, going guarded like a tyrant: Whither thinkest thou the bishop shall go, when the duke shall be damned?

Ver. 34. Mourned for his son many days.] Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus. Few live to be old, for one evil beast or another that devours them: as for one apple that hangs till it falls, many are cudgelled down or gathered off the tree. We should learn to bury children and friends, while yet alive; by acting their death to ourselves aforehand.

Ver. 35. And all his sons, &c.] Oh, faces hatched with impudence! Oh, hearts hewn out of a rock! Could they cause his woe, and then comfort him? Miserable comforters were they all; such as the usurer is to the young novice, or the crocodile that weeps over the dead body that it is devouring. These were the evil beasts that devoured Joseph. {a}

But he refused to be comforted.] Wherein he showed his fatherly love, but not his son-like subjection to God’s good providence: without the which, no evil beast could have set tooth in Joseph; whom he was sure also to receive safe and whole again at the resurrection: which was a great comfort to those afflicted Jews, {#Da 12:2} and those mangled martyrs. {#Heb 11:34}

Thus his father wept for him.] Jacob’s father Isaac, saith Junius; which might very well be; for he lived twelve years after this, and likely loved Joseph best, for his great towardiiness.

{a} Nullae infestae hominibus bestiae, ut sunt sibi ferales plerique Christiani. -Am. Marcell., lib. ii. cap. 2. A sad thing that a heathen should see cause to say so.

Ver. 36. And the Midianites.] Little knew Joseph what God was in doing. Have patience, till he have brought both ends together.

Chapter 38

Ver. 1. And it came to pass at that time.] Before the rape of Dinah, the sale of Joseph, and soon after their return from Mesopotamia.

Judah went down from his brethren.] A green youth of thirteen or fourteen years of age, left his company, where he might have had better counsel. There is a special tie to perseverance in the communion of saints. They that "forsake the assembling of themselves together," axe in a fair way for apostasy. {#Heb 10:25}

To a certain Adullamite.] There is a double danger of evil company. (1.) Infection of sin, -at least, defection from grace. (2.) Infliction of punishment. {#Re 18:4}

Ver. 2. And Judah saw there, &c.] He saw, took, went in, all in haste: Patre inconsulto, forte etiam invite; his father neither willing nor witting. Hence, for a punishment, was so little mercy showed to his sons. These hasty headlong matches seldom succeed well. It is not amiss to marry, but good to be wary. Young men are blamed of folly for following "the sight of their eyes" and "lust of their hearts." {#Ec 11:10} Sed Leo cassibus irretitus dicet, Si praescivissem.

Ver. 3. And she conceived, &c.] St Jerome tells us of a certain drunken nurse, that was got with child by her nursling, a boy of ten years old. {a} This he relates as monstrous, and takes God to witness that he knew it to be so.

{a} Bruson., lib. iv. cap. 9.

Ver. 4. She called.] Shush named her two latter children; the one it is like by the licence, the other by the absence of her husband.

Ver. 5. He was at Chezib.] Called also Achzib. {#Mic 1:14} It hath its name from lying.

Ver. 6. And Judah took a wife for Er.] When he was but fourteen years of age, as appears by the Chronicle, seven years after the selling of Joseph. And here it is well observed, {a} that though Judah took a wife without his father’s consent, yet he will not have Er to do so.

{a} Musculus.

Ver. 7. Wicked in the sight of the Lord.] A Sodomite, say the Hebrews; but this is hard to say. {a} As an evildoer, he was soon cut off. {#Ps 37:9} God would not have such to be his son Christ’s progenitor. Too wicked he was to live: you may know him to be the son of a Canaanitess. Partus sequitur ventrem.

{a} In Heb., videtur esse allusio seu inversio nominis. רע erat ער: q.d., Er erat vigil perversus.

Ver. 8. And Judah said unto Onan.] At fourteen years of age likewise. For, from the birth of Judah to their going down to Egypt, were but forty-three years. And yet before that, Pharez had Hezron and Hamul, {#Ge 46:12} being married about the fourteenth year of his age; which was, doubtless, too soon. Childhood is counted and called the flower of age. {#1Co 7:36} And so long the apostle would have marriage forborne. While the flower of the plant sprouteth, the seed is green, unfit to be sown. Either it comes not up, or soon withereth. Too early marriages is one cause of our too short lives. Pursuit of sexual pleasure is death’s best harbinger, saith one.

Ver. 9. When he went in unto his brother’s wife.] God, for the respect he bears to his own institution of marriage, is pleased to bear with, cover, and not impute many frailties, follies, vanities, wickednesses that are found between man and wife. Howbeit, there is required of such a holy care and conscience, to preserve between themselves, by a conjugal chastity, the marriage bed undefiled; taking heed of an intemperate or intempestive use of it: which by divines, {a} both ancient and modern, is deemed no better than plain adultery before God. Qui cum uxore sua, quasi eum aliena, concumbit, adulter est, saith that heathen. {b} Onan’s sin here was self-pollution, aggravated much by his envy that moved him to it, expressed in these words, "lest he should give seed to his deceased brother." And the more sinful was this sin of his in spilling his seed; because it should have served for the propagation of the Messiah; therefore the Lord slew him: as also, because he was not warned by his brother’s punishment. {c}

{a} Intemperans in coniugio, uxoris suae adulter est. -Aug. In uxorem alienam omnis amor turpis est, in suam vero nimius. -Hieron.

{b} Seneca.

{c} Hebraei inquiunt perinde ut homicidam, reum esse qui temere semen profundit. -Mercer., in loc.

Ver. 10. Wherefore he slew him.] God oft punisheth the abuse of the marriage bed, either with untimely death—it was well said of one, {a} that Venus provides not for those that are already born, but for those that shall be born—-or else with no children, misshapen children, idiots, or prodigiously wicked children, &c. Cavete let this consideration be as the angel standing with a drawn sword over Balaam’s shoulders.

{a} Cuffe’s Differ. of Ages, 106.

Ver. 11. Lest peradventure he die also, &c.] Judah lays the fault all on her, whereas it was in his sons. Sarah, on the other side, blamed herself only for barrenness. {#Ge 16:2} "Judge not, that ye be not judged": but "if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged." In judging of the cause of our crosses, we are oft as far out as she was, that laid the death of her child to the presence of the good prophet.

Ver. 12. The daughter of Shuah, &c.] This was just in God upon Judah, for his fraudulent dealing with Tamar; whom he neither married to his son Shelah, nor suffered to be married to another. Sin is oft punished in kind.

Ver. 13. To shear his sheep.] And so to put by his sorrow, as Jonathan did his anger, by going into the field to shoot. At sheep shearings they had feasts. {#1Sa 25:8,11}

Ver. 14. Covered her with a vail.] As they that do evil shun the light. She was going about a deed of darkness.

For she saw that Shelah was grown.] She ran into this foul sin, partly for revenge, and partly for issue. But this excuseth her not: for the revenge she took was private; and she should have sought a godly seed by lawful wedlock, and not by abominable incest. Discontent is the mother of much mischief; as it was in Judas, Haman, &c.

Ver. 15. He thought her to be an harlot.] Because she sat in an open place: first, In bivio, saith Junius, where there is liberty of looking every way; the guise and garb of harlots. {#Pr 7:12,9:14 Eze 16:24,25} Next, she sat covered: whores were not altogether so shameless then as now: they shun not to be seen with bold and bare faces, breasts, and wrists. {a} Such a sight may soon inflame a Judah; nay, occasion a Job to break his covenant. {#Job 31:1} The ivy bush showeth there is wine within: which, though no evil follow upon it; yet the party shall be damned, saith Jerome, because she offered poison to others, though none would drink it. See #Isa 3:16.

Because she had covered her face.] Some read, Because she had coloured or painted her face. But that he knew her not by her voice one would wonder. Surely, he was so set upon the satisfying of his lust that he minded nothing else. Lust is blind; "and if the blind lead the blind," &c.

{a} #Ho 2:2 -"Let her take away her fornication from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts"; laid out, and painted, or patched.

Ver. 16. Let me come in unto thee.] This is recorded, (1.) To cut the comb of those proud Jews, that glory so much of their pedigree, and name of Judah. How could they say, "We be not born of fornication?" {#Joh 8:41} (2.) To mind us that there is no Church to be found on earth without blot and blemish. (3.) That we may consider and admire the utter abasement of our Lord Christ, who would be born, not only of holy, but of impure parentage. And this, to show, 1. That he borrowed no grace or glory from his progenitors, and as he needed not to be ennobled, so neither was he disparaged by them; 2. That by his purity and passion all our sins are expiated and done away; like as the sun cleareth whatsoever filth is found in the air or on the earth. Three women only are mentioned in his genealogy; Rahab the harlot, Bathsheba the adulteress, and this incestuous Tamar; {#Mt 1:3,5,6} to show his readiness to receive the most notorious offenders, that come unto him with bleeding and believing hearts. {#1Ti 1:15}

Ver. 17. Wilt thou give me.] The love of money breeds noisome lusts. {#1Ti 6:9} Harlots are sordida poscinummia, as Plautus hath it.

Ver. 18. And he gave it her, and came in unto her.] He gave her whatsoever she desired; as the manner of such men is: and although he committed incest ignorantly, yet not through ignorance, but through heat of lust, which is brutish and boisterous, burning as an oven: whence the Greeks have named it: and Plato compares it to a headstrong horse. {a}

{a} ’ Επιθυμια απο του θυμιεν ardere. Plato appetitum assimilat equo, qui sit, σκολιος, κρατεραυχων, Βραχυτραχηλος, μελαγχρως, κωφος, μαντιγι μογις υτεικων.

Ver. 20. By the hand of hls friend.] His broker. Fie upon such Adullamites! Such coal carriers as this, saith one, be good to scour a hot oven with. Such another was Jonadab to Amnon. How much better that heathen, that answered, Amicus tibi sum, sed usque ad aras.

Ver. 21. Where is the harlot?] The holy whore, as the Hebrew word importeth; such as committed that filthiness, under a pretence of holiness. Such, among the heathens, were the lewd worshippers of Priapus (this is thought to be Baalpeor); and Venus at Cyprus; where the maids, in honour of their goddess, prostituted their chastity to all that would, once a year. So in their Lupercals and Bacchanals at Rome, in quibus discurrebatur ad publicos concubitus, for like reason. Of such unclean persons, even by God’s house, we read in #2Ki 23:7, and of such as "sacrificed with harlots" in #Ho 4:14, who brought their hire for a vow; called therefore, the price of a salt bitch (dog). {#De 23:17,18} Vah propudium!

Ver. 22. There was no harlot in this place.] Few places can say so. Every house in Egypt had a dead corpse in it; and too many houses here have such, as, "living in pleasure, are dead while they live." {#1Ti 5:6} {a} Of this sort was that Arlet, a skinner’s daughter in Normandy, whose nimbleness in her dance made Duke Robert enamoured, &c. On her he begat our William the Conqueror. {b} In spite to whom, and disgrace to his mother, the English called all whores, harlets. But who can read without detestation, that in Rome a Jewess may not be admitted into the stews, unless she will be first baptized? as Espencaeus, an honest Papist, complains. {c}

{a} Sane, hercle, homo voluptati obsequens fuit dum vixit. -Terent.

{b} Heyl., Geog., p. 96.

{c} Espencae., De Continentia, lib. iii. cap. 4.

Ver. 23. Lest we be shamed.] His care was more to shun shame, than sin. How much better that heathen! Satis nobis persuasum esse debet, &c.; this we should be fully persuaded of, saith he, that although we could conceal the matter from all, both gods and men, yet we should do nothing covetously, nothing unjustly, nothing against chastity, or common honesty. {a} Though I were sure, saith another philosopher, {b} that all men would be ignorant of what evil I do, and that all the gods would forgive it me; yet, for the filthiness that is in sin, I would not commit it. Plato condemns the poets for saying, that it were no matter though men did commit sin, so they could hide it. {c} Si non caste, saltem caute. How much better the Christian poet! Turpe quid acturus, te, sine teste, time. "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight," though none else saw thee? said God to David. {#2Sa 12:9} And David, in his sorrowful confession, saith as much to God upon the matter; "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned"; viz., in respect of the secrecy of my sin; therefore it is added, "and done this evil in thy sight." {#Ps 51:4}

Behold, I sent this kid, &c.] He comforts himself in the loss of his pledge, that yet he had been as good as his word: but not a word we hear of sorrow for his sin; which, if he can but keep secret, he rests secure. This is a piece of natural atheism; and it is general. {d}

{a} Nihil tamen avare, nihil iniuste, nihil libidinose, nihil incontinenter esse faciendum. -Cicero Offic.

{b} Si scirem homines ignoraturos, et Deos ignoscituros, tamen propter peccati turpitudinem peccare non vellem. -Sen.

{c} Ως λυσιτελει το αδικειν εαν λανθανη.—-Auson.

{d} Quasi dicat, Ego steti promissis, hoc mihi sufficit.

Ver. 24. Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.] He was willing to be rid of her, for fear of losing his son Shelah, and therefore passeth a precipitate and savage sentence, to burn a great-bellied woman; which the very heathens condemned as a cruelty, in Claudius. {a} Howbeit there are that take these to be his words, not as a judge in the cause, but as an accuser. {b} "Bring her forth," sc., into the gates, before the judges; and let her be burnt if found guilty, according to the custom of the country. We read not of any that were, by God’s law, to be burnt with fire, but the high priest’s daughter only, for adultery. {#Le 21:9} Hence the Hebrews say, that this Tamar was Melchizedek the high priest’s daughter. But it is more likely she was a Canaanitish proselyte. Let us beware of that sin, for which so peculiar a plague was appointed, and by very heathens executed. See #Jer 29:22,23.

{a} Dio, lib. lvii.

{b} Verba Iudae de vivicomburio Thamarae, non sunt Iudicis, sed Accusatoris. -Alsted.

Ver. 25. By the man, whose these are, &c.] So his secret sin comes to light. All will out at length, though never so studiously concealed. {#Mt 10:26} "That which hath wings shall tell the matter." {#Ec 10:20} It was a quill, a piece of a wing, that discovered the Gun Powder Plot. {a}

Discern, I pray thee, whose are these.] So, when we come to God, though he seem never so angry and ill set against us, can we but present unto him ourselves his own; our prayer, Mediator, arguments, all his; and then say, as she here to Judah, "Whose are these?" he cannot deny himself.

{a} Ut taceant homines iumenta loquentur. —- Juven.

Ver. 26. She hath been more righteous than I.] A free confession, joined with confusion of his sin; for he knew her no more. This was, to "confess and forsake sin," as Solomon hath it. {#Pr 28:13} Not like that of Saul; "I have sinned, yet honour me before the people": {#1Sa 15:30} or that of those in the wilderness; "We have sinned; we will go up": they might as well have said, We have sinned, we will sin. {#De 1:41} The worser sort of Papists will say, When we have sinned, we must confess; and when we have confessed, we must sin again, that we may also confess again, and make work for new indulgences and jubilees; making account of confessing, as drunkards do of vomiting. {a} But true confession goes along with hatred, care, apology.

{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig., sec. 8.

Ver. 27. Behold, twins were in her womb.] Betokening two peoples pertaining to Christ. The Jews first put forth their hand, as it were, willing to be justified by their works, and to regenerate themselves. For this, they were bound with a scarlet thread—condemned by the law: wherefore, pulling back their hand, they fell from God. Then came forth Pharez, the breach-maker, that is, the violent and valiant Gentiles; who took the first birthright and kingdom by force: who when they are fully born, then shall the Jews come forth again. {#Ro 11:11,25,26} And that this is not far off, hear what a worthy divine, {a} yet living, saith: In #Da 12:11 we have a prophecy of the final restoration of the Jews, and the time is expressed, which is 1290 years after the ceasing of the daily sacrifice, and the setting up of the abomination of desolation, which is conceived to be in Julian’s time; who did essay to rebuild the Temple of the Jews, which was an abomination to God; who therefore destroyed it by fire out of the earth, tearing up the very foundation thereof, to the nethermost stone. This was Anno Dom. 360, to which if you add 1290 years, it will pitch this calculation upon the year 1650. Before this, Babylon must down, &c.

{a} Mr Case’s God’s Wait. to be Grac., p. 58.

Chapter 39

Ver. 1. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s.] See here a sweet providence, that Joseph should fall into such hands. Potiphar was provost-marshal, keeper of the king’s prisoners. And what could Joseph have wished better than this, that, since he must be a prisoner, he should be put into that prison, where he might, by interpreting the butler’s dream, come to so great preferment? Chrysostom, in his nineteenth Homily on the Ephesians, saith: We must not once doubt of the divine providence, though we presently perceive not the causes and reasons of many passages. And this he sweetly sets forth by apt similitudes drawn from the works of carpenters, painters, bees, ants, spiders, swallows, &c. Surely, as a man, by a chain made up of various links, some of gold, others of silver, some of brass, iron, or tin, may be drawn out of a pit: so the Lord by the concurrence of several subordinate things, which have no manner of dependence, or natural coincidency among themselves, hath oftentimes wrought and brought about the deliverance and exaltation of his children, that it might appear to be the work of his own hand. {a}

{a} See M. Reynold on Psalm cx. 5.

Ver. 2. And the Lord was with Joseph, and he, &c.] "The Lord" also "is with you, while ye be with him": {#2Ch 15:2} and so long you may promise yourselves prosperity; that of Gaius, howsoever, -that your souls shall prosper; and for most part also, your outward estates. If it fall out otherwise, it is because God will have godliness admired for itself. If ungodly men prosper, it is that ease may slay them, {#Pr 1:32} and "that they may perish for ever." {#Ps 37:20} Moritur Zacharias Papa, rebus pro Ecclesiae salute et Apostolicae sedis dignitate, non tam pie quam prospere gestis, saith Sigonius. This was little to his commendation, -that he was not so pious as he was prosperous.

Ver. 3. And his master saw.] Though he knew not God, yet he acknowledged that God was the giver of prosperity, and that piety pleaseth him. This ran into his senses, but wrought not kindly upon his heart.

Ver. 4. And Joseph found grace in his sight.] This also was of God, who fashioneth men’s opinions, and therefore Paul, though he went to carry alms (and such are commonly welcome), yet prays that his "service might be accepted of the saints." {#Ro 15:31}

And he served him.] As his page or chamberlain; afterwards he became his steward. He that is faithful in a little shall be master of more.

Ver. 5. The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house.] There is nothing lost by any love men show to the saints. "God is not unfaithful to forget" it, nor unmindful to reward it. {#Heb 6:10}

Ver. 6. And he knew not aught he had, &c.] Some expound this of Joseph, that he took nothing for all his pains, but the food he ate; did not feather his own nest, as many in his place would have done; nor embezzle his master’s goods committed to his trust. But without doubt the other is the better sense: Potiphar took what was provided for him, and cared for no more. This is few men’s happiness; for usually the master is the greatest servant in the house.

And Joseph was a goodly person.] But nothing so goodly on the outside as on the inside. {a} His brethren had stript him of his coat, but could not disrobe him of his graces. Still he retained his piety and fear of God, his integrity and faithfulness toward his master, his chastity and modesty toward his mistress, his spiritual prudence and watchfulness over himself. How stoutly did he resist the devil, despise the world, subdue the flesh! Many "archers shot at him, but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made firm by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." {#Ge 49:23,24} Of bodily beauty, {See Trapp on "Ge 6:2"}

{a} Pulchrior in luce cordis quam facie corporis.

Ver. 7. After these things.] After he had been ten or eleven years in that house. So long he was safe: yet at length set upon. Learn we always to stand upon our guard; to do, as it is reported of the bird Onocrotalus, that she is so well practised to expect the hawk to grapple with her, that even, when she shutteth her eyes, she sleepeth with her beak exalted, as if she would contend with her adversary. {a} A man is to expect, if he live out his days, to be urged to all sins, to the breach of every branch of the ten commandments, and to be put to it in respect of every article of our creed.

His master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph.] She looked and lusted. {b} {See Trapp on "Ge 34:2"}

And she said, Lie with me.] An impudent harlotry, that could so barely and basely solicit. Such a frontless propudium was that in the #Pr 7:13,18. Such were those insatiate empresses, Messalina, wife to Claudius; and Barbara, wife to Sigismund, emperor of Germany, faemina immensae libidinis et procacitatis inverecundae, quae saepius viros peteret quam peteretur. Vitam omnem censuit inanem, quae non coitu, luxu, ac libidine contereretur. {c} And such were those brazen faced courtezans that Franciscus Junius, that learned man, met with; and for their sakes abhorred the company of all women ever after, as himself recordeth in his own life.

{a} The Divine Cosmographer, p. 94.

{b} Non dicit Moses, "Vidit"; "Aspexit," &c. Hic fuit aspectus impudicus. -Pareus.

{c} Pareus, in Medul. Hist. Profanae, p. 786. Haec stultas vocabat virgines pro Christi nomine passas, quod voluptatum gaudia non gustassent.

Ver. 8. But he refused.] So would but a few have done of his years (he was now about twenty-seven), and that might have committed this sweet sin, as they wickedly call it, with so much security and secrecy, &c. The fear of God is both a virtue, and a keeper of other virtues. It is the bond of perfections, as Paul saith of charity. It is the ribbon or string that ties together all those precious pearls, the graces, as Peter saith of humility. {a} It is, as Basil saith of the same grace, caeterarum virtutum θησαυροφυλακιον, the storehouse of other virtues; and, as Chrysostom, the mother, and root, and nurse, and foundation, and ligament of all good things in us. {b}

Behold, my master wotteth not, &c.] Beneficium postulat officium. To argue from bounty to duty, is but right reason: but to argue, as most do, from God’s liberality to liberty in sin, is the devil’s logic. Joseph will not deal so basely with his master, though an Egyptian. To render good for evil is divine; good for good is human; evil for evil is brutish; but evil for good is devilish. "Should we again break thy commandments," saith holy Ezra, {#Ezr 9:14} after so many mercies and deliverances? There is so much unthankfulness and disingenuity in such an entertainment of mercy, that heaven and earth, he thinks, would be ashamed of it. Every blessing is a binder, and each new deliverance a new tie to obedience. The "goodness of God should lead us to repentance," saith Paul. {#Ro 2:4} And this Peter picks out of Paul’s Epistles, as one of the choicest sentences, and urged it upon those to whom he wrote. {#2Pe 3:15}

{a} εγκομβωσασθε. {#1Pe 5:5}

{b} Μητηρ, και ριζα, και τραφος, και υπδθερις, και συνδερμδς των αγαθων.—Chrysost.

Ver. 9. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee.] As the beams of the sun shining upon fire doth discourage the burning of that, so should the shining of God’s mercies or man’s favours on us quench and quell lust and licentiousness in us.

Because thou art his wife.] In primitiva ecclesia Christiani animo animaque inter se miscebantur, et omnia, praeter uxores, indiscreta habebant, saith Tertullian. Community of wives is a monster in religion. {a}

How then can I do this great wickedness? &c.] So he calls it; not a trick of youth, a light offence, a peccadillo; but "wickedness," and "great wickedhess." Abhorred be that religion of Rome that licenseth it; nothing better herein than that of the Turks, whose Koran tells us, that God did not give men lusts and appetites to be frustrated, but enjoyed; as made for the enjoyment of man, and not for his torment, wherein his Creator delights not. {b}

And sin against God.] Who makes the marriage covenant, and keepeth the bonds. {#Pr 2:17} Thus David, {#Ps 51:4} "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned," &c. The trespass was against Uriah, but the transgression against God, who only can remove the guilt, remit the punishment. And here, though the iron entered into Joseph’s soul, sin could not; because it was fraught with: God’s fear. He had "set God at his right hand," with David, {#Ps 16:8} and "therefore was not moved" by the importunate impudency of his wanton mistress. Satan knocked oft at that door, but there was none within to answer or open. He struck fire, but upon wet tinder. Joseph in Egypt, like a pearl in a puddle, keeps his virtue still, wherever he comes.

{a} Ensis, equus, mulier: caetera κοινα φιλων.

{b} Blunt’s Voyage into the Levant, 82.

Ver. 10. And it came to pass, as she spake, &c.] A violent temptation valiantly withstood and vanquished; and that by the force of the fear of God, that powerful grace where it may bear sway. Alexander, Scipio, Pompey, tempted with the exquisiteness and variety of choicest beauties, forbare that villany; not for conscience’ sake, or fear of God, whom they knew not, but lest thereby they should stop the current of their victories, and obscure the glory of their remarkable valour. But what saith Cyprian? As it is the greatest pleasure to have overcome pleasure, so there is no such victory as that that is gotten over a man’s lusts. This none but a Joseph fearing God can do. For "the fear of the Lord is pure," saith David: {#Ps 19:9} it "is to hate evil," not forbear it only, saith Solomon; and he instanceth in inward evils, as pride, arrogancy, &c., so unchaste thoughts, lustful vipers, and hankerings after strange flesh. These the fear of God purgeth upon and represseth; not suffering a man to sin, though he could do it so closely and covertly that the world should be never the wiser. Lo, this is chastity: and it differs herein from continency, which is the best we can say for those heathens aforementioned. The continent person refrains the outward act of uncleanness, either for love of praise or fear of punishment, but not without grief; for inwardly he is scalded with boiling lust. Whereas the chaste man, like St Paul’s virgin, {#1Co 7:34} is "holy both in body and in spirit"; and this with delight, out of fear of God and love of virtue. Now, if upon such a ground we can refuse proffered pleasures and preferments, resolving rather to lie in the dust with Joseph than to rise by wicked principles, the trial is as sound as if we had endured the tortures of the rack. {#Heb 11:35}

As she spake to Joseph day by day.] Satan will not be said with a little, nor sit down by a light repulse. A man must give him a peremptory denial (απαρνησασθω) again and again, as our Saviour did; and yet the tempter departed not, but for a season. He is called Beelzebub, that is, the Master Fly, because he is impudent as a fly, and soon returns to the bait from which he was beaten. He will be egging us again and again to the same sin, and try every way to overturn us. Many times he tempts by extremes, as he did Mr John Knox, on his deathbed; first, to despair, by setting before him his sins; and, when foiled there, afterwards to presumption, and challenging of heaven as his due, for his many good works, and zeal in the Scottish Reformation. {a} So he dealt here by Joseph. He first set upon him on the left hand, when he sold him for a slave; and when this prevailed not, he sets here a Delilah to tickle him on the right side, and to tie him with the green withes of youthful pleasures. Sed pari successu: but he lost his labour. Joseph was semper idem; famous for all the four cardinal virtues, if ever any were. See here in this one temptation, his fortitude; justice; temperance; and prudence, in that he shuns the occasion; for he would not only not lie with her, but not "be with her," saith the text: and that a man is indeed, that he is in a temptation; which is but a tap to give vent to corruption.

To lie by her, or to be with her.] "Keep thee far from an evil matter," saith Moses. {#Ex 23:7} "Come not nigh the door of" the harlot’s "house," saith Solomon. {#Pr 5:8} "Flee fornication," saith Paul. {#1Co 6:18} And "Flee youthful lusts." {#2Ti 2:22} Not abstain from them only, but "flee" them, as ye would do a flying serpent. These are God’s commandments: and they are to be "kept as the sight of the eye." {#Pr 7:2} The Nazarite might not only not drink wine, but not taste a raisin or the husk of a grape. {#Nu 6:3,4} The good Christian is taught to "abstain from all appearance of evil"; {#1Th 5:22} and to "hate the very garment that is spotted by the flesh." The devil counts a fit occasion half a conquest; for he knows that corrupt nature hath a πανσπερμια, a seed plot of all sin: which being drawn forth and watered by the breath of ill company, or some other occasion, is soon set awork, to the producing of death. Satan cheats us, when he persuades us that it is no conquest, except we beat away the temptation, yet keep the occasion by us. God will not remove the temptation till we remove the occasion. And in such case to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," is to thrust our finger into the fire, and then pray it may not be burnt. A bird while aloft is safe; but she comes not near the snare without danger. Solomon thought himself wise enough to convert his wives, and not be corrupted by them. But "it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods," &c. {#1Ki 11:4} He that can shun or remove the occasion, of his own proper motion, as Joseph did, he is the man; this is grace; here is a victory.

{a} Mr Perkins.

Ver. 11. To do his business.] To look up his bills of account, saith the Chaldee. Idleness is the devil’s opportunity, the hour of temptation. But let a man be never so busy about his lawful employments, he is to expect assaults. As he is not idle, so neither is Satan: but walks about, and spreads his snares for us in all places, and businesses; speaking a good word also in temptations that come from the flesh, which are therefore called "his messengers," {#2Co 12:7} and by giving place to them, we "give place to the devil." {#Eph 4:27}

And there was none of the men of the house there within.] Josephus saith that they were all gone forth to a feast; and she only left at home, as feigning herself sick. Sick she was, as likewise Amnon, with the lust of concupiscence, which the apostle calls παθος, a disease, {#1Th 4:5} such as those which the physicians say are corruptio totius substantiae; the body and soul are both tainted and rotted by it. Other diseases consume only the matter of the body, but this, the holiness and honour of the body. {a} Other sicknesses sanctify us, but this profanes us, and lets the devil into our hearts. Behemoth lieth in the fens; {#Job 40:21} that is, the devil in sensual hearts; as Gul. Paris. applieth it. And when the waters of the sanctuary flowed, the miry places could not be healed. {#Eze 47:11}

{a} Quod sanitas in corpore, sanctitas in corde. -Bern.

Ver. 12. And she caught him by his garment.] By wanton touches and dalliance, mental adultery is oft committed. He that "toucheth his neighbour’s wife, shall not be innocent," saith Solomon. {#Pr 6:29} This is the offensive "right hand," that must be "cut off." {#Mt 5:30} The harlot "caught the silly simple, and kissed him; and with an impudent face said unto him; —"{ #Pr 7:13} "till a dart struck through his liver": {#Pr 7:23} cogit amare iecur.

And he left his garment in her hand.] This second time is Joseph stript of his garment; before, in the violence of envy, now of lust; before, of necessity, now of choice; before, to deceive his father, now his master. Infamy and other misery he was sure to suffer, but that must not drive from duty. {#2Co 6:8} The Church "comes from the wilderness," that is, through troubles and afflictions, "leaning on her beloved"; {#So 8:5} choosing rather to suffer than to sin. The good heart goes in a right line to God, and will not fetch a compass, but strikes through all troubles and hazards to get to him. It will not break the hedge of ally commandment, to avoid any piece of foul way. The primitive Christians chose rather to be thrown to lions without, than left to lusts within: Ad leonem mayis quam lenonem, saith Tertullian. I had rather go to hell pure from sin, saith Anselm, than to heaven polluted with that filth. {a} I will rather leap into a bonfire, saith another of the fathers, than wilfully commit wickedness against God. {b} Of the mouse of Armenia they write, that she will rather die than be defiled with any filth. Insomuch as if her hole be besmeared with dirt, she will rather choose to be taken than to be polluted. Such are, or ought to be, the servants of God; "unspotted of the world," {#Jas 1:27} "undefiled in the way." {#Ps 119:1}

{a} Mallem purus a peccato et innocens gehennam intrare, & c.

{b} Potius in ardentem rogum insiluero quam ullum peccatum in Deum commisero. -Pintus, in Dan.

Ver. 13. And it came to pass, &c.] Incontinency is a breeder. It never goes alone, as some say the asp doth not, but hath many vices; impudency, subtlety, treacherous cruelty, &c., that come of it, and accompany it; crying out, and calling to one another, as they once did; "Now Moab to the spoil." {#2Ki 3:23}

Ver. 14. See, he hath brought in an Hebrew.] So she calls him, by way of contempt; as they called our Saviour Nazarene, and his followers Galileans. The Arians called the true Christians Ambrosians Athanasians, Homousians, &c. {a} And at this day, the most honourable name of Christian is in Italy and at Rome a name of reproach; and usually abused, to signify a fool, or a dolt. {b}

{a} Sir Humphrey Lynde.

{b} W. Fulke, Rhem. Test. on Acts xi., sec. iv.

Ver. 15. And it came to pass, &c.] How many innocents, in all ages, have perished by false accusation! Here, this vermin accuseth her husband of foolishness, her servant of filthiness; which she first affirmeth, secondly confirmeth, by producing his garment, left in her hands. That "accuser of the brethren" {#Re 12:10} set her on; as he did the malicious heathens, to traduce and denigrate those pure primitive Christians (purer than snow, whiter than milk; ruddier than rubies; their polishing was of sapphire, #La 4:7), as so many murderers, man-eaters, adulterers, church-robbers traitors, &c. {a} Which last, Lipsius calls Unicum crimen eorum, qui crimine vacabant. So the Waldenses were spitefully accused of Manicheeism, and Catharism; and thereupon a Croisado crusade was published against them, as common enemies. {b} So, a little afore the massacre of Paris, it was given out by the French Papists, that the Protestants in their conventicles plotted treason, acted villany, &c. {c} And after the massacre, there was a coin stamped, in the fore-part whereof, together with the king’s picture, was this inscription; Virtus in rebelles: and on the other side, Pietas excitavit iustitiam. Those that kill a dog, make the world believe he was mad first: so the enemies of the Church ever first traduced her to the world, and then persecuted her; {d} first "pulled off her veil," and then "wounded her." {#So 5:7}

{a} Tertullian.

{b} Arch. Ussher., De Christ. Eccles. Success. et Statu. p. 236.

{c} Camden’s Elisab., fol. 163.

{d} Qui son chien vult tuer, la rage luy met sus.—A French Proverb.

Ver. 16. {See Trapp on "Ge 39:12"} {See Trapp on "Ge 39:15"}

Ver. 17. And she spake unto him, &c.] Here "the adulteress hunteth for the precious life." {#Pr 6:26} Her lust, as Amnon’s, turneth into extreme hatred. This is just the custom of a courtezan:—

“Aut te ardenter amat, aut te capitaliter odit.”

- Mantuan.

Heathens tell us the like of their Hippolytus; that when Phaedra, his stepmother, could not win him to her will this way, she accused him to his father Theseus, as if he had attempted her chastity: whereupon he was forced to flee his country. Likewise of Bellerophon, a young prince, with whoso beauty Sthenobaea, queen of Argives, being taken, solicited him to lie with her; which when he refused, she accused him to her husband, that he would have ravished her. {a} This he believing, sent him with letters to Iobates, king of Lycia, to make him away; Iobates put him upon many desperate services, to have despatched him. But finding him a valiant and victorious man, he afterwards bestowed his daughter on him, with part of his kingdom. Which when Sthenobaea heard of, she hanged herself for woe. {b} So perhaps did this housewife in the text, when she saw Joseph so highly advanced by Pharaoh. The death, howsoever, was too good for her.

{a} Ovid, Metam.

{b} Homer, Iliad, lib. vi.

Ver. 18. {See Trapp on "Ge 39:15"}

Ver. 19. His wrath was kindled.] Heb., Exarsit nasus eius. Good cause he had, if all had been true that his wife told him. {#Pr 6:34,35} It is well known how the rape of Lucrece was punished upon the Tarquins. Valentinian, the Emperor, defiled the wife of his subject Maximus. Maximus afterwards slew Valentinian, succeeded him in the empire, ravished his wife, and forced her to marry him. She, to be revenged, sent for Gensericus, who seized upon all Italy, &c. {a} But Potiphar was too light of belief; and should have examined the matter ere he had condemned the man. Credulity is a note of folly. {#Pr 14:15}

{a} Eudoxiam Valentiniani uxorem vi compressam, turpibus nuptiis sibi copulat.

Ver. 20. And Joseph’s master took him.] It was a providence that he had not presently slain him upon that false accusation. The devil is first a liar, and then a murderer; {#Joh 8:44} but he is limited by God. Joseph is imprisoned in the round tower, where "they hurt his feet with fetters; the iron entered into his soul." {#Ps 105:18, marg.} He, meanwhile, either pleads not, or is not heard. Doubtless he denied the fact; but durst not accuse the offender. His innocency might afterwards appear, and thereupon the chief keeper show him favour. {#Ge 39:21} But his master should have been better advised. If he lived till Joseph was advanced, he had as good cause to fear his power, as ever Joseph’s brethren had. Cardinal Wolsey was first schoolmaster of Magdalen School in Oxford; after that, beneficed by Marquess Dorset, whose children he had there taught; where he had not long been, but one Sir James Paulet, upon some displeasure, set him by the heels: which affront was afterwards neither forgotten nor forgiven. For when the schoolmaster became Lord Chancellor of England, he sent for him; and after a sharp reproof, imprisoned him: {a} a good precedent for men in authority which work their own wiles without wit; not to punish out of humour, &c. Discite iustitiam moniti, &c. Despise not any man’s lowness; we know not his destiny.

{a} Negotiations of Card. Wols., p. 2.

Ver. 21. But the Lord was with Joseph.] A prison keeps not God from his; witness the apostles and martyrs, whose prisons, by God’s presence, became palaces; the fiery furnace, a gallery of pleasure; the stocks, a music school. {#Ac 16:25} Bradford, after he was put in prison, had better health than before; and found great favour with his keeper, who suffered him to go whither he would, upon his promise to return by such an hour to his prison again. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1489, 1457.

Ver. 22. And the keeper of the prison.] Here Joseph experimented that of St Peter. {#1Pe 2:20}

Ver. 23. Looked not to anything.] {See Trapp on "Ge 40:6"} {See Trapp on "Ps 1:3"}

Chapter 40

Ver. 1. Had offended their lord the king of Egypt.] What their offence was is not expressed. The Hebrews say, Pharaoh found a fly in his cup, and a little gravel in his bread, and therefore imprisoned these two great officers. But this had been to kill a fly, as one said, upon a man’s forehead with a great beetle. Some think they attempted the chastity of Pharaoh’s daughters. Such a thing as this made Augustus so angry against Ovid. But most likely it was for some conspiracy; such as was that of Bigthan and Teresh. {#Es 2:21} The present government is, for most part, always grievous; {a} to some discontented great ones especially, who know not when they are well, but are ready to drive a good prince out of the world, and then would dig him up again, if they could; as the swain said of Dionysius. {b} But what said Alphonsus, that renowned king, to this, in a speech to the Pope’s ambassador? He professed that he did not so much wonder at his courtiers’ ingratitude to him, who had raised sundry of them from mean to great estates, as at his own to God, whom by every sin we seek to depose, nay, to murder: for, Peccaturn est Deicidium .{ #Ro 1:30 1Jo 3:15}

{a} Αει το παρον βαρυ.—Thucyd.

{b} Dionysium refodio.

Ver. 2. And Pharaoh was wroth, &c.] That had been enough to have broke their hearts: as a frown from Augustus did Cornelius Gallus; and another from Queen Elizabeth did Lord Chancellor Hatton. {a}

“ Ut mala nulla feram, nisi nudam Caesaris iram

Nuda parum nobis Caesaris ira mali est?”

saith Ovid. And again,

“ Omne trahit secum, Caesaris ira, malum.”

{a} Carmd., Elis., fol. 406.

Ver. 3. And he put them in ward, &c.] See the slippery estate of courtiers: today in favour, tomorrow in disgrace; as Haman; Sejanus, whom the same senators conducted to the prison, who had accompanied him to the senate. They which sacrificed unto him, as to their god, which kneeled down to adore him, now scoffed at him, seeing him dragged from the temple to the jail, from supreme honour to extreme ignominy. His greatest friends were most passionate against him, &c., they would not once look at him; as men look not after sundials, longer than the sun shines upon them. {a}

The place where Joseph was bound.] Here was a "wheel within a wheel," {#Eze 1:16} a sweet providence; that these obnoxious officers should be sent to Joseph’s prison.

{a} Tacit.

Ver. 4. And the captain of the guard, &c.] This was Potiphar probably: who by this time saw his own error, and Joseph’s innocency; yet kept him still in prison, perhaps to save his wife’s honesty. Truth is the daughter of Time; {a} it wil1 not always lie hid. Splendet cure obscuratur; vincit cum opprimitur, Hinc, ut Pacis templum in media urbe extruxerunt olim Romani, ita Veritatis statuam in suis urbibus olim coluerunt Aegyptii. {b}

{a} The word Αληθεια is from α and ληθειν

{b} Caseus, in Ethic

Ver. 5. And they dreamed, &c.] Of dreams natural and supernatural. {See Trapp on "Ge 20:3"}

Ver. 6. And, behold, they were sad.] Or, Angry; and yet knew not how to help themselves. But carnal men digest their passions, as horses do their choler, by chewing on the bit. Pope Boniface being kept prisoner by Cardinal Columnus, tore his own flesh with his own teeth, and died raving. {a} Bajazet, the great Turk, could not be pacified in three days, after he was taken by Tamerlane; but, as a desperate man, still sought after death, and called for it. {b} Vivere noluit, mori nesciit; as it is said of that bishop of Salisbury, {c} prisoner in King Stephen’s days.

{a} Revius.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 220.

{c} Roger, Bishop of Salisbury.

Ver. 7. And he asked Pharaoh’s officers, &c.] Vincula qui sensit, didicit succurrere vinctis. Joseph’s tender heart soon yearned toward them, upon the sight of their sadness: and, unasked, he offers himself to them; as our Saviour did to the widow of Nain, and to those two doubting disciples, #Lu 24:17. Cyprian’s compassion is remarkable: Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, maeroris et funeris pondera luctuosa participo: cum plangentibus plunge, cum deflentibus defleo, &c. I weep with those that weep, and am like affected, as if like afflicted.

Ver. 8. And there is no interpreter.] The superstitious Egyptians did curiously observe their dreams; and commonly repaired to the soothsayers for an interpretation. {#Ge 41:8} Joseph calls these idolaters from their superstitions vanities to the living God; as Isaiah did those of his time, {#Isa 8:19,20} and Daniel those of his. {#Da 2:28,5:18} He had consulted with God by prayer, and with the Scripture, which revealed sufficient direction to him, {#Eze 31:1-12} and so soon despatched the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. {#Da 4:10} So Joseph here; he suffered "troubles as an evildoer, even unto bonds: but the word of God is not bound." {#2Ti 2:9}

Ver. 9. Behold, a vine was before me.] God, of his infinite grace and wisdom, gives men such signs as excellently answer and agree to the thing thereby signified; those two sacraments of the New Testament, for instance; which the Greek fathers (in the apostle’s sense, #Heb 9:24) call αντιτυπα, signs and symbols of better things, signified and sealed up thereby to the believer. The Lord, saith venerable Beza, knowing well the vanity of our natures, prone to idolatry, hath appointed us two sacraments only; and those consisting also of most simple signs and rites. For signs, he gave us water, bread, and wine. The rites are no more than to sprinkle, eat, drink (things of most common use); and a very little of these too, that men may not too much doat on the elements, or external acts in the sacrament, but be wholly raised up to the mystery, and by faith mount up to Christ thereby set forth and exhibited—fetching him down, as it were, that we may feed on him. Hence the outward sign is no further used than may serve to mind us of the inward grace. {a} The minister also stirs up the people to look higher than to what they see, with Sursum corda; Lift up your hearts. A thing in use among the primitive Christians. {b}

{a} Nempe ne miseri mortales in istorum mysteriorum usu in rebus terrestribus haereant, et obstupescant. -Bez. Confess.

{b} Sacerdos parat fratrum mentes, dicendo, Sursum corda. -Cyprian.

Ver. 10. It was as though it budded.] As though; for dreams are but the empty bubbles of the mind, children and tales of fancy, &c.

Ver. 11. And pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup.] That he might have his wine fresh and new.

“Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae.”

Ver. 12. The three branches are three days.] That is, They signify three days. So #Ge 41:26. "The seven kine are seven years." So, "this is my body": that is, This signifieth my body, saith Zuinglius, after Augustine and Ambrose. Or, This is the sign and figure of my body, saith Calvin, after Augustine and Tertullian; whatsoever Bellarmine and Hunnius {a} prate to the contrary. It is an ordinary metonymy, whereby the name of a thing signified is given to the sign, for the analogy that is between them, and for the certainty of signification. Homer and Virgil have the like. {b} As for those Christians that eat their God, let my soul be with the philosophers, rather than with them, saith Averroes, the learned Arabian. When it was objected to Nicolas Shetterden, martyr, by Archdeacon Harpsfield, that the words of Christ, when he said, Hoc est corpus meum, did change the substance, without any other interpretation, or spiritual meaning, he answered: Then like when Christ said, "This cup is my blood," the substance of the cup was changed into his blood, without any other meaning; and so the cup was changed, and not the wine. Harpsfield hereupon was forced to confess that Christ’s testament was broken, and his institution changed from that he left it; but he said, they had power so to do. {c}

{a} Hun., De Sacram., cap. 14.

{b} Hom. (Iliad, iii. 280) victimas quibus faedera sanciebantur ορκια, i.e., faedera vocat. -Virgil, "fallere dextram" dixit, i.e., fidem et iusiurandum, quod datis dextris concipitur.

{c} Act. and Mon., fol 1515.

Ver. 13. Yet within three days.] Joseph foresaw the time of the butler’s deliverance; he knew not the time of his own. In good hope he was, that now he should have been delivered, upon the restoration of the butler, and his intercession for him; but he was fain to stay two years longer; "till the time that God’s word came: the word of the Lord tried him"; {#Ps 105:19} by trying, as in a fire, his faith and patience in afflictions.

Ver. 14. But think on me, &c.] Liberty is sweet, and should be sought by all lawful means. {#1Co 7:21} The Jews censure Joseph for requesting this favour of the butler; and say, he was therefore two years longer imprisoned. But this is a hard saying. Possible it is, that Joseph might trust too much to this man, and be too hasty to set God this time, and no other; and so might be justly crossed of his expectation. It is hard and happy so to use the means as not to trust to them; and so to wait God’s good leisure, as not to "limit the Holy One of Israel." We trust a skilful workman to go his own way to work, and to take his own time. Shall we not do as much for God! He oft goes a way by himself, and gives a blessing to those times and means whereof we despair.

Ver. 15. For indeed I was stolen away.] Joseph inveighs not against his brethren that he may clear himself; but hideth their infamy with the mantle of charity, which is large enough to cover a multitude of sins. It is a fault to speak of other men’s faults, unless it be in an ordinance. Infamy soon spreads. {a}

Out of the land of the Hebrews.] So he by faith calls the land of Canaan; which yet was detained from them, till the sins of the Amorites were become full. But God’s promises are good freehold. Jacob disposeth of this land on his deathbed; though not the least master of it.

And here also have I done nothing, &c.] We may not betray our innocency by a base silence, but make seasonable apology; as did Daniel, {#Da 6:12} Paul, {#Ac 24:12,13} Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and other the primitive apologists. Francis, king of France, to excuse his cruelty exercised upon his Protestant subjects to the German princes, whose friendship he sought after, set forth a declaration to this purpose: that he punished only Anabaptists, that preferred their private revelations before the Word of God, and set at nought all civil government. {b} Which brand set upon the true religion, and all the professors thereof, Calvin not enduring, though he were then a young divine, twenty-five years old, yet he compiled and set forth that admirable work of his, called, "The Institution of Christian Religion." In commendation whereof, one {c} writes boldly—

“ Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempora chartas

Huic peperere libro saecula nulla parem.”

{a} Βλαβαι ποδωκεις.—-Sophocl.

{b} Scult., Annal., p. 454.

{c} Paul. Melissus.

Ver. 16. When the chief baker saw.] So when hypocrites hear good to be spoken, in the word, to God’s children, they also listen, and fasten upon the comforts, as pertaining to them: they "receive the word with joy": {#Mt 13:20} they laugh, as men use to do in some merry dream; they catch at the deserts as children, and conclude with Haman, that they are the men whom the king means to honour. But when they must practise duty, or bear the cross, they depart "sad"; {#Mr 10:22} and Christ may keep his heaven to himself, if it be had on no other conditions.

Ver. 17. And the birds did eat them.] He seeth not that he did anything, but suffereth only. He heareth therefore an unpleasing interpretation, saith Pareus.

Ver. 18. And Joseph answered, &c.] It is probable he used some preface to this sad destiny he reads him; as Philo brings him in saying, I would thou hadst not dreamed such a dream: {a} or as Daniel prefaced to Nebuchadnezzar; "My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation to thine enemies." {#Da 4:19} If ministers, God’s interpreters, must be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of their message they must be resolute. {a} Not only toothless, but bitter truths must be told, however they be taken. "If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." {#Ga 1:10}

{a} Utinam tale somnium non vidisses.

Ver. 19. And shall hang thee on a tree, &c.] This was cold comfort to the baker: so shall the last judgment be to the ungodly; when the saints, as the butler, shall lift up their heads with joy. But what a sweet providence of God was this, that the butler should first relate his dream, and receive his interpretation, as good as he could wish! Had the baker begun, the butler would have been disheartened, and hindered, perhaps, from declaring his dream. And then, where had Joseph’s hopes been of deliverance by the butler? How could he have had that opportunity of setting forth his innocency, and requesting the butler’s favour, and good word to Pharaoh for his freedom? {a} See how all things work together for good to them that love God.

The birds shall eat thy flesh.] Those that were hanged among the Jews were taken down. {#De 21:23} Not so among the Gentiles. A sore judgment of God threatened, in a special manner, against those that despise parents {b} {#Pr 30:17} and fulfilled in Absalom. Abslon Marte furens, pensilis arbore obit. Gretser, the Jesuit, to show his wit, calls that tree, a cross; and makes it a manifest figure of the cross of Christ. Sed o mirum et delirum figurativae crueis fabrum! Our Lord indeed died upon the cross, and that with a curse. But that Absalom should, in that behalf, be a type of him, is a new Jesuitical invention. Some say, that in honour of Christ crucified, Constantine the Great abolished that kind of death throughout the empire.

{a} Piscator.

{b} Effossos oculos voret atro gutture corvus. -Catull., De Cruce., lib. i. cap. 6.

Ver. 20. Which was Pharaoh’s birthday.] An ancient and commendable custom, to keep banquets on birthdays; in honour of God, our Sospitator, for his mercy in our creation, education, preservation, &c.

Ver. 22. But he hanged the chief baker.] God’s menaces, as well as promises, will have their accomplishment. Vengeance is "in readiness" for the rebellious. {#2Co 10:6} Every whit as ready in God’s hand, as in the minister’s mouth.

Ver. 23. Yet did not the chief butler.] Too many such butlers, that forget poor Joseph! What cares Nabal though David die at his door, so he may eat the fat and drink the sweet, &c.? The heathens’ picture of their graces, young and fresh, two looking towards you, and one from you, bids check to all ungrateful persons.

Chapter 41

Ver. 1. At the end of two full years.] After the butler was restored; by whose intercession Joseph hoped to have been presently delivered, but was fairly deceived. So are all such sure to be, as depend upon living men (never true to them that trust in them) or deceased saints to intercede for them to God. Deus O. M. pro ineffabili sua clementia dignetur, et in Tosterum Divo Kiliano intercessore, Amplitudinem tuam contra fidei et Ecclesiae hostes tueri fortiter, et fovere suaviter, saith Eckius, in a certain Espistle {a} to a Popish bishop. Such a prayer begs nothing but a denial, with a curse to boot.

{a} Epist. dedicat. ad Episcop. Herbipolens .

Ver. 2. There came up out of the river] Nile; which, by overflowing, fatteneth the plain of Egypt, filling it with fruits; and so fitly deciphering the seven years of plenty. {a} So far as this river watereth, there is a black mould so fruitful, that they do but throw in the seed, and have four rich harvests in less than four months, say travellers. {b}

{a} Mercer.

{b} Blunt’s Voyage, p. 37.

Ver. 3. Seven other kine came up out of the river.] These, by their leanness, portended drought and dearth, though they came up out of Nile also. This river, when it overflows unto twelve cubits’ height only, causeth famine; when to thirteen scarcity; when to fourteen, cheerfulness; when to fifteen, affluence; when to sixteen, abundance, as Pliny tells us. The greatest increase ever known, was of eighteen cubits, under Claudius (we read of a general famine in his days, #Ac 11:28, mentioned also by Suetonius and Josephus); {a} the smallest of five cubits, in the history of the Pharsalian wars. Such a thing might happen now, to cause this sore famine. Or the river, for their sins, might be dried up, as God threatens them. {#Eze 29:3,9 Isa 19:5,6} And as it happened in the reign of Cleopatra, that prodigiously prodigal queen, the river overflowed not for two years together, saith Seneca: as at another time it overflowed not for nine years together, saith Callimachus; and after him Ovid. {b} How easy is it for God to starve us all, by denying us a few harvests! In case of famine, let us inquire the supernatural cause; as David did, {#2Sa 21:1} when he knew the natural cause to be the drought.

{a} Suet., in Claudio. Joseph., Antiq., lib. xx. cap. 2. Luc., lib. v. cap. 9.

Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva

Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem. -Ovid.

{b} Sen., Nat. Quaest., lib. iv. cap. 2.

Ver. 4. Did eat up the seven, &c.] In famine is not only outward want, but a greedy dog-like appetite within (Βουλιμια, appetitas caninus), that an ordinary meal sufficeth not, {#Isa 9:20} but men are ready to eat one another: as they did at Potidea, in the Peloponnesian war; at Utica, when it was besieged by Hamilcar the father of Hannibal; at Jerusalem, when it was beleaguered by Vespasian; at Tunis, in the African war, when the soldiers were tithed, that is, every tenth man was cut in pieces and devoured. Such a famine there was at Rome in the days of Honorius the Emperor, that they were ready to eat one another; and this voice was heard in the place of public meeting, Pone precium humanae carni. At Antioch in Syria, many of the Christians, in the holy war, through famine, devoured the dead bodies of their recently slain enemies. At the siege of Scodra, they were well-nigh put to this extremity, when horses were dainty meat; yea, they were glad to eat dogs, cats, rats, and the skins of beasts sod. It exceedeth all credit, to tell at what exceeding great price a little mouse was sold, or puddings made of dogs’ guts. {a} And if our relations deceived us not, such things as these we heard of lately, to have happened in Germany. Alterius perditio, tua cautio. Seest thou another man perish? see to thyself.

{a} Thucyd.; Polyb.; Joseph.; Manlii., loc. com. 278; Alsted., Chronol., p. 300; Turk. Hist., fol. 18, 426.

Ver. 5. And dreamed the second time.] Divine dreams use to be repeated, and to take deep impression, as this did. {#Ge 41:8} "Pharaoh’s spirit was troubled"; Heb., behammered.

Ver. 6. Blasted with the east wind.] Which is, Ventus urens et exsiccans, saith Pliny: The property of this wind is to burn and blast the fruits. {#Eze 17:10 19:12 Ho 13:15}

Ver. 7. Behold, it was a dream.] That is, It was but a dream, and no more; yet a divine dream: whereof, {See Trapp on "Ge 20:3"}

Ver. 8. All the magicians.] Or, Natural philosophers, that studied the secrets of nature, and could give a ready reason of everything. Magus is a Persian word, and hath affinity with the Hebrew הנחפ, a contemplative person; συφος θεωρητικος: Such as was Aristotle among the heathens, and Augustine among Christians—the greatest and accuratest of men, after the apostles, in contemplation and argumentation, as many are of opinion. The Grecians were so delighted with his learned labours, that they have translated him wholly into their tongue. {a} As for the deep theorems of natural philosophy, they make one learned indeed, but seldom better, ofttimes worse, nearly atheists; as these wise men of Egypt, elsewhere called enchanters, wizards. {#Ex 7:11} Of these were "Jannes and Jambres" that "resisted Moses"; {#2Ti 3:8} learned they were, and lewd, as were those philosophers. {#Ro 1:18-32}

But there was none that could interpret.] Because God had smitten them with a spirit of dizziness, and made the "wisdom of the wise to perish"; {#Isa 29:14} for else, it had been easy for them to have seen plenty in the fat kine, and penury in the lean, &c. But God had reserved that honour to Joseph, as a step or stirrup to further preferment.

{a} Planudes eum transtulit anis aliquot ante Constantinopolim captum. Manl., loc. com., p. 684.

Ver. 9. I do remember my faults this day.] Oratio vere aulica, saith Pareus, -a right courtier’s speech. He so relates the history of his imprisonment, that he takes all the blame thereof to himself; gives Pharaoh the full commendation of his justice and clemency. As for Joseph, he mentions him to the king, lest, if any else should have done it before him, he should have been disgraced for his silence; but somewhat slenderly, and more for self-respects, than of any good affection to the innocent prisoner; whom he calls a young man, a bondman, and Hebrew; in whose behalf he neither adviseth, nor entreateth that he may be sent for. So very little is it that Joseph oweth to this patron! And such, for most part, are court commendations. There you have αναβολην και μεταβολην; as one said of old, delays and changes good store: every man seeking and serving his own aims and ends; but little minding the good of others, further than subservient to their own.

Ver. 10. Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, &c.] It is wisdom in a man to confess his faults before the prince whom he hath offended; and to commend his clemency in pardoning them: as Cicero did Caesar’s; {a} as Mephibosheth did David’s, &c. The Lord Cobham, the Lord Gray, Sir Griffin Markham, being condemned for treason, about the beginning of King James, anno 1603, and brought forth to execution, as they were upon the scaffold, the sheriff notified the king’s pardon, his Majesty’s warrant for the stay of the execution: at which unexpected clemency, besides the great shouts of the people, the condemned wished that they might sacrifice their lives to redeem their fault, and to repurchase so merciful a prince’s love. {b}

{a} Orat. pro M. Marcello, et O. Ligario, & c.

{b} Bp. Carleton’s Thankful Remembrance of God’s Mercies, p. 181.

Ver. 11. Each man according to the interpretation.] That is, no vain dream, but significant, and deserving an interpreter.

Ver. 12. And he interpreted to us our dreams.] And well you requited him! But better late than never, {a} though a ready despatch doubleth the benefit. Howbeit God had an overruling hand in it, for Joseph’s greatest good: he turneth the world’s ingratitude to the salvation of his servants.

{a} Praestat sero quam nunquam.

Ver. 13. As he interpreted to us, so it was.] Similiarily: as Christ foretold the two thieves with whom he suffered, so it happened; the one went to heaven, the other to hell. And so it shall fare with all men at the last day, according to #Isa 3:10,11.

Ver. 14. And they brought him hastily.] Heb., They made him run: who haply knew not what this haste and hurry meant, but was betwixt hope and fear till he came to the king. It is God that "bringeth low, and lifteth up; that raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set him among princes," &c. {#1Sa 2:7,8} In the year of grace 1622, the Turkish Janizaries, who have learned that damnable art of making and unmaking their king at pleasure, drew Mustapha, whom they had formerly deposed, out of prison: and when he begged for his life they assured him of the empire; and carrying him forth upon their shoulders, cried with a loud voice "This is Mustapha, Sultan of the Turks; God save Mustapha, &c.," with which sudden change the man was so affected that he fell into a swoon for joy, and they had much ado to keep life in him. {a} Our Henry IV was crowned the very same day, that the year before he had been banished the realm {b}

And changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.] And should not we get on our best when we are to come before God? Should we accost him in the nasty tattered rags of the old Adam; and not spruce up ourselves with the best of our preparation?

{a} Mustapha, subita illa mutatione qua ex carcere ad summam dignitatem et potentiam evectus erat, ita commotus fuit, ut animi deliquium pateretur ,& c.—Parei. Medul., p. 1165.

{b} Dan., Hist. of Engl., p. 48.

Ver. 15. I have dreamed a dream, and there is none, &c.] So men send not for the minister till given up by the physician. Then they cry out with him in the gospel: "Sir, if thou canst do anything, help us," &c. {#Mr 9:22} Whereunto what can we reply, but as that king of Israel did to the woman that cried to him for help, in the famine of Samaria; "If the Lord help thee not, whence shall I help thee? out of the barn floor, or out of the winepress?" {#2Ki 6:27} Did not I forewarn you, saying, "touch not the unclean thing," &c., and ye would not hear? "Therefore is this thing come upon you." {#Ge 42:21 2Co 6:17}

And I have heard say, &c.] Pharaoh despiseth not wisdom, how meanly soever habited. Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste: Paupertas est philosophiae vernacula, saith he in Apuleius: and Eumolpus in Petronius, being asked why he went so poorly apparelled, answered, "The study of wisdom never made any man wealthy." {a} And afterward he addeth, "However it comes to pass, poverty is the sister of piety, {b} and virtue is forsaken of fortune." Nudus opum, sed cui coelum terraeque paterent, saith Silius of Archimedes, that great mathematician. And Aelian observes, that the best of the Greeks, Aristides, Phocion, Pelopidas, Epaminondas, Socrates, were very poor men: Lactantius, that Christian Cicero, as Jerome calls him, {c} was so needy that he wanted necessaries. All that Calvin left behind him, books and all, came scarcely to three hundred French crowns, as Beza his colleague witnesseth.

{a} Amor ingenii neminem unquam divitem fecit. -Petron.

{b} Nescio quomodo bonae mentis soror est paupertas. -Ibid.

{c} Lactantius quasi quidam fluvius Tullianae eloquentiae. -Jerome.

Ver. 16. It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh, &c.] This is the voice of all that have true worth in them: they are humble upon the knowledge of their perfections; they vilify and nullify themselves before God and men: like true balm, that put into water, sinks to the bottom; or like a vessel cast into the sea, which the more it fills, the deeper it sinks. And this is the bottom and bosom of humility, and very next degree to exaltation, as here.

Ver. 17. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph.] Here begins Joseph’s rise. Being in prison, be struck not fire, though he had a good brain: but waited till it came down from heaven to him, first in the butler’s dream, and now in Pharaoh’s. Had he ravenously roamed after preferment, and ravished it, as in his mistress’s offer he might have done, it would have shunned him, &c.

Ver. 18. {See Trapp on "Ge 41:2"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:3"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:4"}

Ver. 19. {See Trapp on "Ge 41:2"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:3"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:4"}

Ver. 20. {See Trapp on "Ge 41:2"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:3"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:4"}

Ver. 21. {See Trapp on "Ge 41:2"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:3"} {See Trapp on "Ge 41:4"}

Ver. 25. The dream of Pharaoh is one.] One in signification, but diverse in respect of vision. Why it was doubled, {#Ge 41:32} Repetitions in Scripture are not tautologies, but serve to set forth to us the necessity, excellency, or difficulty of the thing so reinforced. "To write" to the Philippians "the same things," to St Paul, "it is not grievous, and for them it is safe." {#Php 3:1} Nunquam satis dicitur, quod nunquam satis discitur. {a} Away then with those nice novelists that can abide to hear nothing but what is new minted. Ministers meet with many that are slow of heart and dull of hearing; these must have "precept upon precept, line upon line," &c.; many also of brawny breasts and horny heart strings; that, as ducklings stoop and dive at any little stone thrown by a man at them, yet shrink not at the heaven’s great thunder, &c. Here a minister must beat and inculcate; turn himself into all fashions of spirit and speech, to win and work upon his hearers. He must so long pursue and stand upon one and the same point, saith Austin, till, by the gesture and countenance of his auditors, he perceives they understand and assent to it. {b} "Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world," saith the Psalmist; "both low and high, rich and poor, together." {#Ps 49:1,2} Quid dignum tanto feret hle promissor hiatu, { c} will some proud spirit say? what so great matter is there delivered in this Psalm, that so much attention is called for? Is it not an ordinary argument, such as we have heard of a hundred times—viz., the happy and secure estate of the saints, though in trouble, and the miserable and slippery condition of the wicked, though they prosper in the world? True, saith the Holy Ghost; this is the subject of this Psalm; and this, how common a theme soever, is the great wisdom, and the dark saying, that I will here open unto you, and that calls for your utmost attention.

{a} Seneca. Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros. -Juven.

{b} Aug., De Doct. Christ, and, in Psalm. x.

{c} Horat.

Ver. 26. Seven good kine are.] {See Trapp "Ge 40:12"}

Ver. 32. The dream was doubled.] {See Trapp on "Ge 41:25"}

Ver. 33. Now therefore let Pharaoh, &c.] This was good counsel, and it proved best to the counsellor. The Jews injuriously charge him with ambitious self-seeking: so they did Noah, as is above noted, with hard-heartedness and incompassionateness to the old world. These made the worst of things, and so condemned the generation of God’s children. How much better had it been to have followed that golden rule of Epictetus! Take every man by that name whereby he may best be held; {a} as Virgil dealt by Ennius, Cyprian by Tertullian, Jerome by Origen, Augustine by Tichonius. If an action had a hundred various faces, we should always cast our sight upon the fairest; and make the best of everything. What Joseph did here, he did doubtless by divine direction. {b}

{a} Ea quemque ansa prehendamus qua commode teneri queat. -Epictet.

{b} Fran. de Sales, cap. 28.

Ver. 34. And take up the fifth part of the land.] For so much money as it is worth. The Egyptians might well spare it, and the king might as well buy it, since he should sell it again for very good profit. Neither would Joseph advise, nor Pharaoh be advised, to take his subjects’ goods by violence. When Samuel tells the people that their king, whom they called for, would take their fields and vineyards, the best of them, and give them to his servants, &c., loquitur non tam de iure quam de more, he speaks not of the right of kings, as if all were theirs, and no man had anything of his own, but of the manner, and illimited power that some kings take over their subjects’ goods; as in Turkey, Persia, &c. Let it be the voice of a Nero, whensoever he put any one in office, Scis quid mihi opus sit, et hoc agamus, nequis quicquam habeat: {a} of a Seleucus, to proclaim that the king’s pleasure is the only law; {b} as if it were not enough to be above men, but above mankind: as those princes would be, saith our English chronicler, {c} that would have their will to be law. Melancthon tells us of a certain prince in those parts, that extorted money from his miserable subjects, by knocking out their teeth. First he knocked out one tooth, {d} threatening to do so by the rest, unless they brought him in such a sum, by such a time, as he demanded. The same author elsewhere {d} relates, that he was at a sermon on the birthday of our Saviour. The preacher took his text out of #Lu 2:1, "There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." And whereas the audience expected that the preacher should have discoursed of Christ’s nativity, of the hypostatical union, &c., he spent his whole hour (the weather being extremely cold) in this subject, that obedience must be yielded to the higher powers; that they must have as much money given them as they call for; with a great deal of such like stuff, little to the purpose, but much to the pleasure of some princes then and there present. Such court parasites many times do much mischief in a state; as well by seducing good princes, qui essent alii, si essent apud alios, as by stickling against them, when the world doth not favour them. When Edward II, surnamed Carnarvan, was pursued by his Queen and son, the Bishop of Hereford being to preach before her at Oxford, and to deliver the cause of her proceeding, took for his text, "My head acheth, my head acheth"; {#2Ki 4:19} and concluded most undivinely, that an aching and sick head of a kingdom, was, of necessity, to be taken off, and no otherwise cured. {f}

{a} Sueton., in Nerone.

{b} Δικαιον ειναι το προς βασιλεως οριζομενον.—Appian.

{c} Dan., Hist. of Eng., fol. 144.

{d} Primo unum dentem evellebat, minitans, & c.—Manl., loc. com., 636.

{e} Eram aliquando in die Natali, in cuiusdam concione, & c. Erant παρεργα quibus gratificabatur et assentiebatur quorundam auribus, & c.—Ibid. 479.

{f} Dan., Hist. of Engl, fol. 216.

Ver. 35. And let them gather all the food.] This text warranteth providence in laying up for a rainy day. Solomon sends us to school to the ant to learn this lesson. {#Pr 6:6} And it is well observed, that our Saviour had a purse for common store for himself and those about him. Neither was this a penny pouch, but a bag so big as needed a bearer. God would have us to be good husbands, and see that Condus be fortior promo, our comings in more than our layings out. "Parents" must "lay up for their children," {#2Co 12:14} yea, "leave inheritance to children’s children," {#Pr 13:22} playing the good husbands abroad and at home. {#Pr 27:26,27}

Ver. 36. For store.] He not only foretelleth Egypt’s misery, but showeth the means to mitigate it. This is the right method, and must be made use of.

Ver. 37. And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh.] The devil, no doubt, by the magicians and politicians of those times, did his utmost to hinder the king’s purpose of preferring Joseph; as he did here for Cromwell, that great reformer, whom King Henry VIII, of a smith’s son, made Earl of Essex. {a} But "there is neither counsel nor wisdom against the Lord." {#Pr 21:30}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1070.

Ver. 38. And Pharaoh said unto his servants.] He would resolve nothing without the advice of his Council. He was not like the Persian monarchs, who gave their peers no freedom nor liberty of advice; {a} nor that wilful King James of Scotland, that reigned in our Edward IV’s time, that would seldom ask counsel, but never follow any: so wedded he was to his own opinion, saith the historian, that he could not endure any man’s advice, how good soever, that he fancied not. {b} Pharaoh heard what his servants could say to it; who all at length consented when the ill-affected saw it was no profit to dissent.

Can we find such a man as this?] Hence some collect that Joseph preached many more things to the king, of God, his power, providence, goodness, &c., than are here recorded; and was therefore so admired, and advanced to the office of teaching his senators wisdom. "To bind his princes to his soul, and make wise his elders," {#Ps 105:22} as the original hath it.

Ver. 39. Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this.] Pharaoh at first took him for no other than a cunning soothsayer and conjecturer of dreams. Now he finds better worth in him, a spirit of wisdom and discretion: he took him to be a man spiritually rational, and rationally spiritual; one that seemed to see the insides of nature and grace, and the world and heaven, by those perfect anatomies he had made of them all. Briefly, such a heart so well headed, nor such a head better hearted, he had never met with. Wherefore he resolves to set him at the head of the state; there being not anything that makes a man so good a patriot, as true religion; which admits not of that distinction between a good man and a good citizen.

{a} Val. Max., lib. ix. cap. 5.

{b} Dan., Hist. of England, contin. by Trussel, 207.

Ver. 40. Thou shalt be over my house, &c.] Pharaoh prefers him, because he found good parts in him. They that bestow places of charge in church or commonwealth upon undeserving persons, for by-consideration, shall have Pharaoh to rise up in judgment against them. In King Edward VI’s minority, dignity waited upon desert, saith the historian, which caused it again to be waited upon by respect {a} Order also was taken that no man should have any benefice from the king, but first he should preach before him. Tamerlane never bestowed his preferments upon such as ambitiously sought them; as deeming them, in so doing, unworthy thereof: but upon such as whose modesty or desert he thought worthy of those his great favours {b}

{a} The Life of King Edward VI, by Sir Jo. Heywood, pp. 6, 115.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 227.

Ver. 41. See, I have set thee over all, &c.] So Antoninus, the emperor, made Pertinax, {a} a lowly man, but well qualified, consul, which many murmured at. But he was afterwards became emperor; and finding the public treasure woefully wasted by his predecessor Commodus, he restored it by his good husbandry, which many prominent men laughed at; caeteri, quibus virtus luxuria potior erat, laudabamus, saith the historian.

{a} Pertinax ob res praeclare gestas consul est factus: caius causa multi indignati sunt, & c.—Dio, in Vita Pertinacis.

Ver. 42. And Pharaoh took off his ring.] Pliny therefore is mistaken, who thinks the use of rings came not up before the Trojan war. How happy had he been, that was so great a book devourer, {a} had he lit upon the Bible. He was insighted in all the secrets of nature, as appears by his works, which is non minus varium quam ipsa return natura, saith Erasmus: he never read anything but he excerpted it; neither in his library only, but in his couch: and while he was on horseback, he either wrote or dictated somewhat to be written. {b} When he saw his nephew walk out some hours without studying, he said to him, Poteras has horas non perdere. He lived in the days of Vespasian, and was a great dealer under him. What pity it was that neither by Jews nor Christians he came to the knowledge of the Scriptures, where he might have met with many antiquities, as this of the use of the ring, an ornament of honour, not elsewhere to be read of. But God had "hid these things from the wise and prudent, because it so seemed good in his sight." {#Mt 11:25,26}

And put a gold chain about his neck.] Behold, saith a learned interpreter, {c} one hour hath changed his fetters into a chain of gold, his rags into robes, his stocks into a chariot, his jail into a palace; Potiphar’s captive to his master’s lord; the noise of his chains into Abrech. God commonly exalts his people to the contrary good to that evil he had cast them into; as Joseph here, of a slave to be a ruler; Christ judged, to be Judge of all. So Gaius, so soon as he came to the empire, the first thing he did was to prefer Agrippa, who had suffered imprisonment for wishing him emperor: he made him king of Judea (this was that Herod that was eaten with worms, #Ac 12:23), and gave him a chain of gold, as heavy as the chain of iron that was upon him in prison.

{a} Helluo librorum.

{b} Nihil unquam legit, quin excerperet: nec in Bibliotheca tantum, sed in lectica; sed equitans quoque vel scribebat vel scribendum aliquod dictabat. -Textor Officina.

{c} D. Hall.

Ver. 43. Bow the knee.] Or, Tender father, because he was young in years, but old in wisdom, μειρακιογιρων, as Micarius was called. Not the ancient are wise, but the wise ancient.

Ver. 44. I am Pharaoh.] Of a root ( ערפ) that signifieth to make bare, because, say some, he was to be bared—that is, sifted and manifested by Joseph.

Without thee shall no man lift up his hand.] And yet the Egyptians, in Seneca’s time, however, were a proud peremptory people, apt to cast contempt and contumely upon their governors, were they never so upright and unblamable. {a} Joseph had said, Without me, God shall answer Pharaoh; and now he heareth, Without thee shall no man, &c.

{a} Aegyptus loquax et ingeniosa in contumeliam praefectorum provincia: in qua qui vitaverit culpam, non effugit infamiam. -Seneca.

Ver. 45. Zaphnath-paaneah.] That is, saith Jerome, the Saviour of the world. A high style; so the Greeks, when Flaminius, who had freed them from bondage, came among them, called him Saviour, Saviour, with such a courage, that the birds that flew over their heads, amazed at the noise, fell to the ground. Hunniades, having overthrown Mesites, the Turks’ general, at his return into the camp a wonderful number of the poor captives came, and falling at his feet and kissing them, gave God thanks for their deliverance by him. Some called him father, some the defender of his country; the soldiers, their invincible general; the captives, their saviour; the women, their protector; the young men and children, their tender father. He again, with tears standing in his eyes, courteously embraced them, rejoicing at the public good; and himself giving most hearty thanks unto God, commanded the like to be done in all the churches of that province. {a}

The daughter of Potipherah priest of On.] Called Aven, #Eze 30:17, that is, "wickedhess," because there they sacrificed to the sun; whence it was called Heliopolis. The chief ruler here under Pharaoh was Priest of the Sun: belike, priests were no small men in those days among the Eygptians. Among the Ethiopians, their neighbours, the priests of Jupiter were grown to that height of insolency, and had so bewitched the people with their superstitions, that they would sometimes take upon them to depose and kill their kings. This had been often done there; till at length, when they attempted the same upon Erganes, king of that country, he slew them all, and took away their priesthood. {b} Oh that God would once put into the hearts of Christian kings to deal so by that high priest of Rome, who hath so long usurped authority to depose and abuse them at his pleasure!

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 269.

{b} Nullo detrectante, donec ad Erganem regem perventum est, qui omnes occidit et saterdotium sustulit. -Alex. ab Alexandro.

Ver. 46. And Joseph was thirty years old.] This is mentioned, to show what wonderful graces he had attained at those years; what rare endowments both of piety and policy. Julius Caesar beholding the picture of Alexander in Hercules’s temple at Gades, wept, that he had done no worthy act at those years, wherein Alexander had conquered the whole world. Behold, Joseph, at thirty, showed more wisdom and virtue than either of them; as Parerius, on this text, well observeth: and hath for his thirteen years’ service and imprisonment, fourscore years’ liberty, prosperity, and honour. God is a liberal paymaster.

Ver. 47. By handfuls.] Manipulatim. Every grain of corn yields a handful of increase. {a} Thus God "filled their hearts with food and gladness"; {#Ac 14:17} and so "left not himself without witness" amongst those infidels.

{a} Ex uno grano integer manipulus colligebatur.

Ver. 48. And laid up the food in the cities.] He provided storehouses for every city; so they needed not to travel far. It is our happiness that we have the Word, that bread of life, brought homo to us. Yet some are so wretched, that unless God will set up a pulpit at the ale house door, they will not come to hear him. They will run to hell as fast as they can; and if God cannot catch them they care not, they will not return.

Ver. 49. And Joseph gathered corn.] Against the future famine; mentioned also by Justin, lib. xxxvi., out of Trogus Pompeius. It happened, as Orosius computeth it, in the year before Rome was built, 1048. Ussher dates this about 1715 BC.

Ver. 50. Asenath the daughter of Potipherah.] This was not Potiphar, Joseph’s master. Joseph would not marry the daughter of such a housewife. Partus fere siquitur ventrem. Ingenlum ipsum atque indoles (veluti conclusio sequitur inferiorem partem) plerumque matrissat.

But what a jest is that of Jonathan the Chaldee Paraphrast, Asenath quam pepererat Dina Sichemo, &c. Asenath was Sichem’s daughter by Dinah, but adopted and bred up by the wife of Potiphar! Audi hoc et ride, saith Drusius.

Ver. 51. Manasseh: For God, said he, hath, &c.] He writes God’s mercies to himself upon the names of his two children; that might be as so many monitors to thankfulness and obedience. The stork is said to leave one of her young ones where she hatches, as it were, out of some instinct of gratitude. Doves, at every grain they pick, look upward, as giving thanks.

And all my father’s house.] Even that toil and those indignities that were offered me in my father’s house, so Jnnius; the grief whereof his preferment allayed and mitigated.

Ver. 52. {See Trapp on "Ge 41:51"} This Ephraim was afterwards, by Jacob, set before his older brother.

Ver. 53. And the seven years of plenteousness, &c.] All earthly felicities will determine; they are called "a sea of glass mingled with fire"; {#Re 15:2} that is, with affliction. Henry VI, that had been the most potent monarch for dominions that ever England had, was, when deposed, not the master of a molehill nor owner of his own liberty; so various are the changes and chances of this mortal life. {a}

{a} Dan., Hist. of England, contin. by Trussel, 189.

Ver. 54. According as Joseph had said.] Joseph foresaw and foretold the famine, but caused it not: so God’s prescience, &c.

In all the land of Egypt.] Such a revenue is thrift and parsimony, Optimum vectigal parsimonia. -Cic.

Ver. 55. Cried to Pharaoh.] Though they knew he had deputed Joseph: so #1Ki 6:27. Ισοθεοι ημεν; We should be as gods, if we had not businesses, cares, and fears, above any of our subjects, {a} said Augustus to his wife Livia.

{a} ει μη και πραγματα, και φροντιδας, και φοβους, υτερ παντας τους ιδιοτευοντας, ειχομεν—Dio.

Ver. 56. Sold.] Heb., Brake, shivered, parcelled it out.

Ver. 57. All countries came to Joseph, &c.] Foreigners also should be relieved so much as may be. King Edward VI sent five thousand pounds to relieve Protestants beyond the seas. {a} Geneva received our fugitives for religion in Queen Mary’s time: and Strasburg, the poor banished Lorrainers, that were well nigh famished, being forced to feed on hips and haws, &c.

{a} Hi frondibus et gramine vescebantur. -Scultet., Annal., p. 315.

Chapter 42

Ver. 1. Now when Jacob saw that there was corn.] A sale of corn. Heb., A breaking: so called, either because corn breaks famine; or, because it is broken and ground to make bread of; or, for that they made their bread in thin cakes and so broke it. Or lastly, because he that selleth it breaks the heap and gives part to the buyer.

Why look ye one upon another?] As hopeless and helpless; or, as at your wits’ ends, and not knowing whither to turn you. Youth is one while witless, another while shiftless. Let days speak, and multitude of years teach wisdom. {#Job 32:7} As at feasts, so at other meetings, old men should be vowels, young men mutes; or at most, but semivowels. {a}

{a} Convivium sit simile Alphabeto, & c.

Ver. 2. Get you down thither, ] Here the divine decree of Israel’s sojourning and suffering in Egypt begins to be fulfilled, by a wonderful providence. The ruinous of Joseph’s barns invites Jacob, first to send, and then to go thither himself for relief. Shall not the fulness that is in Christ {#Joh 1:16} incite and entice us to come to him; as bees to a meadow full of flowers; as merchants to the Indies full of spices and othex riches; as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon full of wisdom; as Jacob’s sons to Egypt full of corn, in that extreme famine; that we may return full fraught with treasures of truth and grace? "It pleased God, that in him should all fulness dwell." {#Col 1:19} And his fulnees is not only repletive, but diffusive; a fuiness of plenty and abundance, but of bounty also and redundance. He was "anointed with the oil of gladness," not only "above," but for "his fellows." {#Heb 1:9}

That we may live, and not die.] Saints have their share in common calamities. Jacob tasted of the famine, as well as his neighbonrs the Canaanites; so had Abraham and Isaac done before him. Both the good figs and bad figs were carried captive; {#Jer 24:5} the corn as well as the weeds is cut down at harvest, &c.

Ver. 3. And Joseph’s ten brethren went.] Forty or fifty miles an end: Austin saith three hundred. Should we think much to go a few steps, say it be miles, to get food for our souls? Beware of that famine. {#Am 8:11,12} The seven churches of Asia, Bohemia, the Palatinate, and many other parts of Germany, are under it already. So is the large region of Nubia in Africa, which had from the apostles’ time, as it is thought, professed the Christian faith, but now embraced Mohammedanism through lack of ministers. For, as Alvarez {a} hath recorded, at his being in the king of Habasaia’s court, there were ambassadors out of Nubia to entreat him for a supply of ministers, to instruct their nation, and repair Christianity, gone to ruin among them; but were rejected. Oh, fearful!

{a} Alvar., Hist. Aethiopic., cap. 137.

Ver. 4. But Benjamin Jacob sent not.] Because best beloved; as last born, and likeliest to live longest; and the least, and least able to shift for himself; and all that was left of his dearest Rachel; his only darling that had been always at hand, and in the father’s eye.

Ver. 5. And the sons of Israel came.] God could have fed them by a miracle, as he did Elijah by the ravens; and Israel in the wilderness, where he rained them down manna, and set the flint abroach; {a} and Merlin, hid in a hay mow in the massacre of Paris, by a hen that came thither, and laid an egg by him every morning. {b} But he worketh ordinarily by means, and will have them used, but not trusted to.

{a} Dedit eis pluviam escatilem, et petram aquatilem. -Tertul.

{b} Dike’s Mich. and the Drag.

Ver. 6. And Joseph was the governor.] Of the Hebrew word here used, is made in Arabic the title Sultan, given at this day to the great Turk by his subjects; among whom the Arabic is now the learned language. Their Koran is written in it, and prohibited to be translated; which both preserves the tongue, they say, and conceals religion.

And Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed.] This those mockers little thought ever to have done to that dreamer. But the will of the Lord, that shall stand.

Ver. 7. Spake roughly unto them.] To bring them the sooner to a sight of their sin. God also, for like purpose, writes bitter things against his people, stands afar off, hides his love, as Joseph, out of increasement of love; fights against them with his own hand, as he threw his brethren into prison; -than the which there is no greater affliction, saith Luther; and all to show them their sin, and to bring them home to himself by repentance. {a}

{a} Nihil est tentatio vel universi mundi et totius inferni in unum conflata, ad eam qua Deus contrarius homimi penitur. -Luther.

Ver. 8. But they knew not him.] As being now altered in stature, voice, visage, his present pomp, and haply also, by his former imprisonment and affliction. We read of a young man, that being condemned to die, was turned gray-headed in one night, through forethought and fear of death, and was thereupon spared.

Ver. 9. And Joseph remembered the dreams.] Event is the best interpreter of divine oracles The disciples understood not many things at first that our Saviour said to them; as that. #Joh 2:22 12:16 So John Baptist’s preaching wrought not for some years after it was delivered, and then it did. {#Joh 10:41,42} The spouse either heard not, or heeded not that speech of her beloved, "Open unto me, my sister, my spouse," till some while after he was gone. {#So 5:2-6}

Ye are spies.] This, Joseph speaks not, assertive, but tentative; not seriously, but by a covert counsel; not as himself thought, but as the Egyptians suspected; or not absolutely, but conditionally; "ye are spies," unless you prove what ye have spoken. {a}

{a} Exploratores deputo homini merito mendacii vestri. -Aug.

Ver. 10. Nay, my lord.] The world is well changed since they said one to another, "Behold, this dreamer cometh." Then they could not find in their hearts to call him brother; now they call him "lord." God, when he pleaseth, can change the note of our worst enemies to us. There is a promise, that "they shall bow down to thee with their faces toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet." {#Isa 49:23}

Ver. 11. We are all one man’s sons.] Therefore no spies; for what one man would hazard all his sons at once upon so dangerous a design?

We are true men.] Heb., Recti. The Popish doctors reject those ancient authors that are alleged against them, with Non sunt Recti in Curia. Bellarmine saith, To Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius, and Luther, I answer, Omnes manifesti haeretici sunt; when anything in the decrees likes not the Pope, he sets Palea upon it, &c. {a}

{a} De Christo, lib. i. cap. 4.

Ver. 12. Nay, but to see the nakedness.] That is, the weakness, and where we may be best invaded; as #Nu 13:19. By this wile he gets out of them that which he much longed to hear of; his father and brother Benjamin’s health and welfare. {#Ge 42:9}

Ver. 13. And one is not.] They tell Joseph that Joseph is not. When God holds men’s eyes, they see not the truth that lies before them; "Who is blind as my servant?" {#Isa 42:19}

Ver. 14. That is it that I spake unto you.] He lays it hard to them still: as who should say, The longer I hear you, the worse I like you; ere while ye said, ye were ten brethren of you: now you acknowledge two more: liars had need to have good memories, &c. {a} Be we as jealous of Satan, and as watchful against his wiles, when he comes to set out the nakedness of our souls; that where the hedge is lowest, this beast may leap over; watch him, I say, and "learn out his haunts," for we have heard and felt that he is very subtle; as Saul said of David, #1Sa 23:22.

{a} Mendacem oportet esse memorem.

Ver. 15. By the life of Pharaoh.] Joseph, that he might seem enough an Egyptian, swears heathenishly; Egyptians, partly of flattery, and partly of superstition, used to swear by the life, or, as the Greek here hath it, by the health of their king. The Spaniards, in the pride of their monarchy, are grown also now to swear by the life of their king. {a} The Hebrews write, to this day, that he which falsely swears by the king’s head, in a money matter, shall be put to death; as Pererius upon this text tells us. This grew, doubtless, of that cursed custom of deifying their kings; as Antiochus surnamed Θεος; and Caligula would be styled Dominus Deus: as at this day the Pope’s parasites call him Dominum Deum nostrum papam. To be sworn by, is an honour peculiar to God. {#Isa 65:16 Jer 4:2} That of Paul {#1Co 15:31} is not an oath, but an obtestation; or, a taking of his afflictions for Christ to witness. That of the spouse {#So 3:5} is not an oath, but an adjuration: for he chargeth his church’s enemies not to trouble her; and if they do, roes and hinds shall testify against them; which would not do so had they but reason. This of Joseph, likewise, is by some said to be not an oath, but an earnest asseveration: {b} as who should say, As true as Pharaoh liveth; or, So Pharaoh live. Be it what it will, Joseph cannot altogether be excused for conforming himself to the Egyptians. The place had somewhat tainted him; and he might well take up that of the prophet Isaiah, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips"; and why? "for I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips." {#Isa 6:5} Courts and great places are ill air for zeal to breathe in: it is hard for such not to remit somewhat of their former fervour, and contract filth of sin, which is as catching as the plague. As sheep among thorns lose part of their fleece; so do the saints part of their goodness among the wicked.

{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig.

{b} Non est forma iuramenti, sed asseverationis seriae, et obtestationis domesticae.

Ver. 16. By the life of Pharaoh surely, &c.] See how easily sin entereth twice, where it had once entered. "Be not overcome of evil." {#Ro 12:21} Some swear, and find it not; they would be sorry their excrements should pass from them, and they feel it not. Oh, cross this ill custom; and though ye cannot so soon turn the stream, yet swim against it. It is the devil that saith unto thee, as those Jews did to Pilate; "Do as thou hast ever done." {#Mr 15:8} God also will answer such, when they plead for their swearing, that they have got a custom, and cannot leave it; as the judge did that thief that desired him to spare him, for stealing had been his custom from his youth. The judge replied, it was also his custom to give judgment against such malefactors, therefore he must be condemned, {a} "Swear neither by heaven, nor by earth, lest ye fall into condemnation," saith St James {#Jas 5:12} to the converted Jews. This they had learned of the Pharisees, to whom it was familiar to swear by creatures. {#Mt 5:34} And though now converted, they could not leave it: but they must, or be damned for it, choose them which, as the apostle there assures them. {b} And whereas such kind of oaths are now grown a piece of gallantry, and such as cannot swear them are thought to want the tropes and figures befitting a gentleman, God will deal with such as that judge did with one that pleaded for his life that he might not be hanged, because he was a gentleman; he told him, that therefore he should have the gallows made higher for him: so shall these have a deeper damnation, because better bred, and should have kept a better watch; as that martyr told the swearing Bishop Bonner. {c}

{a} Barker, On the Commandments.

{b} Hoc κακοηθες a iudaismo conversis tenaciter ahdaerebat. -Pareus, in Jac., v. 12.

{c} "You keep a good watch, my lord."—Act, and Mon.

Ver. 17. And he put them all together into ward three days.] Not into close prison, but into some chamber, or private room, where they might have opportunity of reflecting upon themselves, and repenting. {a} I have heard of a grave divine, lately living, that did much good upon many that came to him to crave alms, by shutting them up in a room by themselves, having first taken great pains with them by way of direction what to do to be saved, joining in prayer, setting them in a course of better living, and then providing for them fit services. {b}

{a} In conclave aliquod, ubi custodiebantur. -Pisc.

{b} Dr Chetwind, Dean of Brist.

Ver. 18. And Joseph said unto them the third day.] So God, "after two days, will receive his; in the third day he will raise them up, and they shall live in his sight." {#Ho 6:2} "The rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous, lest they put forth their hands to folly"; {#Ps 125:3} lest their "spirits fail" before him. For others he cares not so much, as for the choice spirits of his faithful people. When we beat ordinary spices, we care not for every dust, but let some fly out, and fall on the ground; but if Bezoar stone, or some such precious stuff, every little is looked to. So here.

For I fear God.] Deum illum, saith Junias, that true God, the proper object of fear; and therefore you need not doubt of fair dealing. {See Trapp on "Ge 20:11"} Learn here, that confession of our faith is to be made as oft as thereby God may be glorified and our brethren edified.

Ver. 19. Let one of your brethren be bound.] By binding Simeon, he brought down Benjamin to himself. So doth God, by chastening our bodies, save our souls.

Ver. 20. But bring your youngest brother unto me.] So saith God to all his worshippers, See that you bring your hearts with you, whatever you leave behind you. And as David sent to Abner, "Thou shalt not see my face, except thou bring Michal, Saul’s daughter": {#2Sa 3:13} so here. The poor widow’s heart’s being put to her mite, gave it weight above the greater but heartless largesses of the Pharisees.

Ver. 21. We are verily guilty, &c.] See here the force of conscience and fruit of affliction to bring old sins to a new reckoning. Conscience, though for a while still, and seemingly asleep, yet is faithful in recording, and fearful in accusing. It writes bitter things, and will article against the sinner in the evil day. Therefore, as Bishop Latimer took special heed to the placing of his words, in his examination before Bonner, when he heard the pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth, and describing whatsoever he said; {a} so should we; since conscience is not only God’s spy, but notary: and albeit it doth not always execute the acts of accusing, yet hath always the habit of it. And that we shall know when trouble overtakes us; then shall we feel those darts of the Almighty, dagging at the heart, and those arrows of his, drinking up the spirit. Daniel chose rather to be cast into the den of lions than to carry about a lion in his bosom—an enraged conscience.

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 22. Spake not I unto you, &c.] Fellows in sin oft fall out, and then all comes to light. Mohammed the great Turk had, with great rewards, procured two Turks to undertake to kill Scanderbeg. These traitors came to Seanderbeg, making such a show of the detestation, both of Mohammed’s tyrannical government and vain superstition, that they were, both of Scanderbeg and others, reputed to be indeed the men they desired to be accounted: and so, after they had learned the principles of the Christian religion, were, by their own desire, baptized. But so it happened by God’s good providence, that these false traitors, expecting nothing but opportunity to perform their devilish device upon some occasion, fell at variance between themselves, and in their heat let some such words fall, as being taken up by some there present, drew them both into suspicion. And thereupon, being straitly examined, it was at last by them confessed that they were sent for such a purpose; for which they were both presently executed, as they had well deserved. {a} Evil men are as glass that is soldered together; as soon as the solder is melted, the glass falls in pieces, and all is discovered.

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 400.

Ver. 23. Understood them.] Heb., Heard them. See #1Co 14:2, marg. So #Isa 36:11. So a hearing heart is put for "an understanding heart," {#1Ki 3:9} which many of our common hearers want; and therefore hear to no purpose. {#Isa 6:9}

Ver. 24. And wept; and returned, &c.] The better any one is, the more inclined to weeping; as David, than Jonathan. {#1Sa 20:41}

“Nam faciles motus mens generosa capit.”

Paulus non tam atramento quam lachrymis chartas inficiebat, saith Lorinus.

And took from them Simeon, and bound him.] He is thought to have been the chief doer in the sale of Joseph; and is therefore singled out for punishment. Judas Iscariot is said to come of his tribe. Of a turbulent and restless spirit Joseph knew him to be; and therefore detained him, saith Musculus, lest he should have hindered the motion of bringing down Benjamin.

Ver. 25. Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks.] This was the revenge he took upon them for their many misusages. So Joshua marched all night, and fought all day for the Gibeonites that had deceived him. So Elisha set bread and water before the Syrians that came to surprise him. So St Paul bids, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him," &c. Injuries are more bravely overcome with benefits than recompensed with the pertinacy of a mutual hatred, said a very heathen. {a}

{a} Speciosius aliquanto iniuriae beneficiis vincuntur, quam mutui odii pertinacia pensantur. -Val. Vax., lib. iv. cap. 2.

Ver. 26. And they laded their asses.] Which are beasts fit to bear burdens; and have their names in Greek of their usefulness. {a}

{a} ονος from ονημι. Asinum oneramus quia est asinus, &c.

Ver. 27. To give his ass provender in the inn.] Their inns then were not so well furnished as ours are; but they were forced to carry their provender, which was a trouble.

Ver. 28. My money is restored.] Joseph had stolen this benefit upon them, which they misinterpret, their own misgiving hearts telling them that God’s just hand was in it for their harm. Conscience, being now awakened, meets them at every turn, till they were soundly humbled, and had made their peace. Better a sore than a seared conscience; as, better a tormentful strangury than a senseless lethargy. Bee masters tell us that those are the best hives that make the greatest noise.

Ver. 29. And they came to Jacob.] Who had looked many a long look for them, no doubt, and was now glad to see their faces and full sacks. But this joy lasted but a little while; for no sooner had he heard them speak, but he was thunderstruck, as it were: so little stability is there in any worldly felicity. The saints have all here their back burdens of afflictions; yet some have more than others; as Jacob, who was seldom without: God not only gave him a draught of them, but made him a diet drink. Look how your refiners of sugar, taking sugar out of the same chest, some thereof they melt but once; other, again and again: not that it hath more dross in it, but because they would have it more refined: so is it here.

Ver. 30. See #Ge 42:9,11,13,19, &c.

Ver. 31. See #Ge 42:9,11,13,19, &c

Ver. 32. See #Ge 42:9,11,13,19, &c

Ver. 33. See #Ge 42:9,11,13,19, &c

Ver. 34. See #Ge 42:9,11,13,19, &c

Ver. 35. And it came to pass as they emptied.] Calvin’s note on this text is, that Joseph was misunderstood, and ill-advised; for that intending to help his father, by sending back his money, he grieved and frighted him. But this might be Jacob’s fault more than Joseph’s. We many times mistake God himself, through self-guiltiness, as if he meant to kill us with kindness, which is a great unthankfulness. See my "Love Tokens," p. 32.

Ver. 36. Simeon is not.] That is, As good he were not; for ye have left him prisoner, and unless ye return the sooner with Benjamin, which I cannot yield to, is like to be put to death as a spy. See here the pangs and passions of a parent, and how love descends!

Ver. 37. Slay my two sons.] A simple and sinful offer. Reuben was the oldest, but not the wisest. Age is no just measure of wisdom. Howbeit, of him we may learn, in our parents’ fear, to be hardy and hearty; in our brethren’s distress, to be eager and earnest.

Ver. 38. Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs, &c.] To the state of the dead; not to hell, or Limbus Patrum. Many of the ancients erroneously held that men’s souls were not judged till the last day; nor rewarded or punished, but reserved in some secret receptacles unto the general judgment. Bellarmine would hence prove Purgatory. {a} Luther also seems to approve of that figment of the fathers; for in his notes upon this text, he will have "Sheol" here translated "the grave," to be an underground receptacle of all souls, where they rest and sleep till the coming of Christ. But gray hairs descend not farther than the grave. And Luther somewhere entreats his readers, that if they find anything in his books that smelleth of the old cask, they should consider he was not only a man, but some time had been a poor monk, &c.

{a} Bell., De Purg., lib. i.

Chapter 43

Ver. 1. And the famine was sore in the land.] In the Promised Land. Hold out faith and patience. Os quod in sorte tua cecidit, rodas: Bear thy cross, and be content. {a}

{a} Drus., in Adag.

Ver. 2. Buy us a little food.] They had learned to live with a little, which is a great skill; nature is content with a little, grace with less. Epicurus himself was wont to say, if he might have but aquam et offam, a draught of water, and a morsel of meat, he could live happily. {a}

{a} Paratum se esse cum Iove de faelicitate contendere, si aquam haberet et offam. -Aelian.

Ver. 3. Ye shall not see my face, &c.] No acceptation without Benjamin, that son of sorrow: so, neither with God, without sound repentance. This is the rainbow, which if God sees shining in our hearts, he will never drown our souls.

Ver. 4. And buy thee food, ] q.d., Thou art as much concerned as any of us, and more; because thou art master of the family.

Ver. 6. And Israel said, &c.] Here he begins to outwrestle his fears, by resting upon God; and is therefore called Israel.

Ver. 7. Could we certainly know, &c.] Inferences many times axe made upon what we say or do, such as we never thought of, Arbitror nonnullos in quibusdam locis librorum meorum opinaturos, me sensisse quod non sensi, aut non sensisse quod sensi, saith Augustine. {a} And it fell out accordingly. For, as Baronius witnesseth, after St Austin’s death, there arose up divisions, who, out of his writings, wrested and misconstrued, brought in many errors; which they endeavoured to maintain by the name and authority of St Augustine. {b} And the like may be said of Luther.

{a} Aug., lib. i., De Trin., cap. 3, ad finem.

{b} Qui ex eius scriptis male perceptis complures invexerunt errores. -Annal, tom. vi., ad Ann. 450.

Ver. 8. Send the lad.] A large lad, that was thirty years old, and had ten children. But he is so called, because the youngest son of them, and the father’s darling.

Ver. 9. I will be surety for him.] Herein he was a type of Christ, that came of him, who is both our surety to God, for the discharge of our debt and duty, and God’s surety to us, for the performance of his promises. {#Heb 7:22}

Ver. 10. For except we had lingered, &c.] In the words of God there is not any hyperbole to be found. In the words of men, related by the Scripture, if we meet with such kind of expressions as this and that in #Joh 21:25, it nothing derogates from the authority of the Scripture, as Pareus here noteth.

Ver. 11. If it must be so now, &c.] Perplexity is blind and untractable. Let the mind but settle, and it will soon yield to a reasonable motion, if seasonable, especially, as this of Judah was: for, besides the weightiness of his words, necessity now spake for him, that most powerful orator.

Take of the best fruits.] De laudatissimis rebus, saith Juulus. Of the verse or melody, saith the original; {a} that is, of the most praiseworthy fruits; such as deserve to be commended in verse, and sung of, to the praise of God the giver.

A little balm, and a little honey.] Great men regard not the worth of the gift, but the will of the giver. If I had had more, I would have given more, said that Greek to Augustus, {b} and it was accepted. The poor Persian that met Artaxerxes with a handful of water, out of the river Cyprus, went away well rewarded. So did the gardener that presented the Duke of Burgundy with a rape root; which, when the master of his house observed, he presented his lord with a brave small saddle horse, looking for like liberality, but was disappointed.

{a} Ex carmine, vel melodia, vel modulatione, vel denique Psalmo. -Isa. lxv. 8.

{b} Ει πλεον ειχον, πλεον εδιδουν.—Aelian.

Ver. 12. And take double money.] Invaluerat enim fames, {#Ge 43:1} ideoque annonae pretium auctum erat, saith Junius. It went hard with the inhabitants of Samaria, when an ass’s head was worth four pounds.

Peradventure it was an oversight.] Which called for restitution; we must buy and sell by that standard, {#Mt 7:12} "Whatever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye the same to them." Now no man would be cheated. Woe be to him that cries Caveat emptor; He that cannot lie, cannot live, {a} &c. "God is the avenger of all such." {#1Th 4:6}

{a} Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere.

Ver. 13. Take also your brother.] Since there is no other remedy. But if I could otherwise do, he should never go. God doeth us good sometimes against our wills, and crosseth us with a blessing. The heathens could pray thus—

“Great God, the good thou hast to give,

Whether we will’t or no,

Let’s still receive: no mischief thrive

To work our overthrow.”

Ver. 14. And God Almighty give you mercy.] Heb., Give you bowels, the seat of mercy. Here God not only grants Jacob’s prayer, but fulfils his counsel, gives him the very particular he prays for. {#Ge 43:30} Joseph’s "bowels yearned upon Benjamin."

If I be bereaved, I am bereaved.] This is like that of Esther, committing herself and her attempt to God, "If I perish, I perish"; {#Es 4:16} and like that of those saints in the Acts, "The will of the Lord be done"; which is, saith one, Vox vere Christianorum. Jacob prays for Benjamin’s safety, but will be content his own will be crossed, so that God’s will may be accomplished. This is the right way of praying; this is to "draw near with a true heart." {#Heb 10:22} Hypocrites seek God only out of self-love; which is as little pleasing to him, as if a woman should strive to content her husband, not out of love to him, but to another.

Ver. 15. Double money in their hand.] Both that they met with in their sacks’ mouths, and new money to buy more.

Ver. 16. Slay, and make ready.] Heb., Slay a slaughter of beasts, as at feasts is usual. Quaere nunc cur subito moriamur? saith Seneca; quia mortibas vivimus; What wonder we die suddenly, that live by the death of others?

Shall dine with me at noon.] After serious business despatched in the morning. Aristotle disposed of the morning in studying philosophy; of the afternoon in eloquence, or whatever else he made his recreation.

Ver. 17. And the man did as Joseph bade.] Things then go well within doors, when the hands take counsel of the head, the servants of their master, and are active to execute.

Ver. 18. And the men were afraid.] Where no fear was; but that an ill conscience haunted them, and so "the sound of a shaken leaf" {#Le 26:36} put them into a fright. As every body hath its shadow, so hath every sin its fear; and fear torment. {#1Jo 4:18}

Ver. 19. And they came near.] {See Trapp on "Ge 43:20"}

Ver. 20. O sir, we came indeed, &c.] We must not lie wretchlessly under suspicion of dishonesty; but carefully clear ourselves, as there is opportunity.

Ver. 21. Every man’s money.] This made their hearts even ready to go out of their mouths, as the Heb. hath it. {#Ge 42:35}

Ver. 22. We cannot tell.]

Ver. 23. Peace be to you, fear not.] "The feeble minded" must be "comforted"; {#1Th 5:14} not crushed, or cashiered, as the wounded deer is by the whole herd. David, in the spirit of prophecy, pronounceth a bitter curse upon those that "persecuted him whom God hath smitten, and talked to the grief of those whom he had wounded." {#Ps 69:26} Joseph’s steward had learned better things of his master.

Ver. 24. Washed their feet.] {See Trapp on "Ge 18:4"}

Ver. 25. And they made ready the present.] For, "a man’s gift makes room for him, and bringeth him before great men." {#Pr 18:16} So it doth also before God, who looks for "a present," {#Ps 72:10} and loves to hear from us. "Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed." {#Ps 65:1}

Ver. 26. And bowed themselves to him.] In their father’s name, as well as their own. {#Ge 43:28} And here Joseph’s dream {#Ge 37:9} was accomplished.

Ver. 27. And he asked them of their welfare.] Heb., Of their peace; which is a comprehensive, voluminous mercy.

Ver. 28. {See Trapp on "Ge 43:26"}

Ver. 29. God be gracious unto thee, my son.] Governors should temper clemency with severity, so as to be at once loved and feared. Mercy is the brightest star in the sphere of majesty. Queen Elizabeth, next to the Bible, took special delight in Seneca’s tract, "De Clementia."

Ver. 30. And Joseph made haste, &c.] He hid his affection, as a wise and valiant man, till he had once more beaten vehemently upon their guilty consciences; and so brought them to a more sound and serious sight of their sin, that they might repent and make sure work for their souls.

Ver. 31. Set on bread.] Which the Latins call panis of παν, either because all covet it, or because whatever else the cheer be, men always set on bread. {a}

{a} Isidor., lib. xx.

Ver. 32. Because the Egyptians might not eat, &c.] Such was their pride and superstition. Such was the hatred between the Jews and Samaritans: as is little less at this day between Papists and Protestants. If a Protestant give thanks at his food, though this chaseth not a Catholic from his dinner, which were to his loss, yet he must forbear to say Amen to it. As on the other side, some Roman Catholics will not say grace, though it be at their own table, when a Protestant is present; thinking it better to leave God unserved, than that a Protestant join in serving him. {a} They hold us no better than dogs, worse than Turks or Jews, damned heretics, cursed captives, unworthy to live on God’s ground, fit for nothing but fire and fagot. Certain it is, that whosoever in this new faith and service hath ended this life, is in hell most certainly, saith Bristow, in his 36th Motive. It cannot be that a Lutheran so dying can escape the damnation of hell, saith Coster the Jesuit; if I lie, let me be damned with Lucifer. {b} Are not God’s Hebrews an utter abomination now to these Romish Egyptians?

{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig., sec. 32.

{b} Coster, Resp. ad Enchirid. Osiand., propos. 8.

Ver 33. And they sat before him, &c.] He marshalled them in their right rank and degree; and this amazed them. He made them an absolute feast, such as Varro describes with these conditions; Si belli conveniant homines, si temporis sit habita ratio, si locus sit non ingratus, si non negligens apparatus. {a} This feast is of that sort in use among the Romans, that were called χαριστια, to which were invited none but kinsfolks, to continue love and seek reconciliation where had been any breach. {b}

{a} In Veter. Fragm.

{b} Val. Max., lib. ii. cap. 1.

Ver. 34. And he took and sent messes.] So did Cyrus in Xenophon, to such as he favoured.

But Benjamin’s mess, &c.] Love will creep where it cannot go; and good blood will never belie itself. Ambrose makes it a type and token of St Paul’s excellent parts and gifts above the rest of the apostles, &c.

Chapter 44

Ver. 1. And he commanded the steward.] Peccata extrinsecus radere, et non intrinsecus eradicare, fictio est, saith Bernard. Humiliation for sin must be sound and soaking, or else it is to no purpose. Hypocrites "hang down their heads as a bulrush," {#Isa 58:5} while some storm of trouble is upon them; but in a fair sunshine day, they lift up their heads as upright as ever. Something they do about sin, but nothing against it. As artificial jugglers seem to wound, but do not; or as players seem to thrust themselves through their bodies, but the sword passeth only through their clothes. This Joseph well knew; and therefore, that his brethren might make sure work, and have their hearts leavened and soured (as David’s was, #Ps 73:21) with the greatness of godly sorrow; that they might mourn as men do in the death of their dearest friends; {#Zec 12:10} that their sorrow might be "according to God" (η κατα Θεον λυπη, #2Co 7:10), deep and daily, like that sorrow, #2Sa 13:36; that waters of Marah might flow from their eyes, and their hearts fall asunder in their bosoms like drops of water; he puts them to one more grievous fright and agony before he makes himself known unto them. And this was a high point of heavenly wisdom in him. For had he presently entertained and embraced them as his brethren, they would sooner have gloried of their wickedness than repented of it. Neither would a little repentance serve for a sin so ingrained, and such a long time lain in. Their hearts were woefully hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, their consciences festered: and had it been fit for him to break their bones before they were set; and lap up their sores before they were searched? "Repent ye," saith St Peter to those that had crucified Christ, and were now "pricked in their hearts." {#Ac 2:37,38} He saith not, "Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven," now that you feel some remorse for them; but, Stay a while upon the work of repentance, and be thorough in it; leave not circumcising your hearts, till you find them as sore as the Shechemites felt their bodies the third day. And this the apostle said to such as already felt the nails wherewith they had crucified Christ sticking fast in their own hearts and piercing them with horror. Take we heed of laying cordials upon full and foul stomachs: "the feeble minded" only are to be "comforted," such as are in danger to be swallowed up with grief. But some men’s stains are so inveterate, that they will hardly be got out till the cloth be almost rubbed to pieces.

Put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth.] Should they not have been content that their sacks were filled with corn, though there had not been money in the mouth of them? And should not we also rest satisfied with our many mercies? &c.

Ver. 2. He did according to the word.] Servus est nomen officii. A servant is not αυτοματος, one that moveth absolutely of himself, saith Aristotle; but the master’s instrument, and ολως εκεινου, wholly his. Such was this servant of Joseph; and such should we all be to God.

Ver. 3. The men were sent away.] This was no small courtesy to them, that were so willing of their way.

Ver. 4. Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?] This, blind nature saw to be the sum of all sins. Ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris. Some vices are such as nature smiles upon, though frowned at by divine justice; not so this. Hercules is much condemned by the heathens for killing his schoolmaster Linus; Alexander, for doing the like by his friend Clitus; Nero, by his tutor Seneca: Muleasses, king of Tunis, is cried out on, for torturing to death the Manifet and Mesnar, by whose means especially he had aspired to the kingdom. {a} Philip, king of Macedonia, caused a soldier of his, that had offered unkindness to one that had kindly entertained him, to be branded in the forehead, with these two words; Hospes ingratus. Unthankfulness is a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, a paradox in divinity, a parching wind to dry up the fountain of further favour. Benjamin’s five fold mess was no small aggravation to the theft here laid to his charge. {b}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 642.

{b} Manlii, loc. com.

Ver. 5. And whereby indeed he divineth.] Junius reads it thus— Et nonne ipse experimento certo didicerit per illum, quales sitls? q.d., Hath he not by this fact of yours, found out your fraud and false dealing; whereby ye have hitherto sought to delude him? Is it not plain ye are spies and naughty-packs? The Jerusalem Targum seemeth to tax Joseph here for a soothsayer; or, at least, a seeker to such; which God forbade. {#De 18:10} Calvin also thinks he did grievously offend in pretending to be such a one; and did impiously profane the gift of the Spirit in professing himself a magician. But, pace tanti viri, this is too heavy a censure, and a forcing of the text, saith Junius. All that Joseph did was to sift his brethren, and to try their affection to Benjamin. And if he took upon him to be a diviner, he did it not seriously; but made use of that conceit the vulgar had of him: like as St Paul made use of that superstitious custom among the Corinthians, of baptizing over the dead, to prove the resurrection. {a}

{a} #1Co 15:29. Scalig. Not.

Ver. 6. And he spake.] {See Trapp on "Ge 44:2"} {See Trapp on "Ge 43:17"}

Ver. 7. God forbid that thy servants should do.] Rapine and robbery was ever condemned amongst very heathens, and severely punished. Tamerlane, in his expedition against Bajazet, took such order with his soldiers that none were injured; insomuch, that if a soldier had but taken an apple, or other thing of like value from any man, he died for it. One of his soldiers having taken a little milk from a country woman, and she thereof complaining, he ripped up his stomach; where when he found the milk, he contented the woman and sent her away, who had otherwise died for her false accusation. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 213.

Ver. 8. Behold, the money.] Those that from a right principle can find in their hearts to make restitution, may be safely trusted as to wronging others, either by covin or ravin. (agreement or robbery)

Ver. 9. With whomsoever it be found, &c.] Innocency is bold, but withal had need to be wise, for fear of further inconvenience. {See Trapp on "Ge 31:32"}

Ver. 10. Shall be my servant, ] i.e., Mine, in my master’s name and behalf.

Ver. 12. And he searched, and began at the eldest.] The better to avoid suspicion, for he knew well enough where to find the cup. So Jonadab, Amnon’s carnal friend but spiritual enemy, could tell David that not all the king’s sons, as the report ran, but Amnon only was slain by Absalom. The devil also when he hath conveyed his cups into our sacks, his goods into our houses, -as the Russians use to deal by their enemies, and then accuse them of theft, -his {a} injections into our hearts, if we fancy them never so little, will accuse us to God, and claim both them and us too for his own.

And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.] Sacco soluto apparuit argentum, saith Ambrose. When God comes to turn the bottom of the bag upward, all will out. Sin not, therefore, in hope of secrecy; on the fair day, at the last day, all packs shall be opened.

{a} Heyl., Geog., p. 243.

Ver. 13. Then they rent their clothes.] In token of the rending of their hearts for their sins, which now had found them out, and they their sins: for misery is the best art of memory; being like to that helve Elisha cast into the waters, which fetched up the iron in the bottom. Conscience is like a looking glass, which while it lieth all covered with dust, showeth not a man his natural visage: but when it is wiped, then it makes the least blemish appear. Never till now could we hear these men confess. Now, what shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? saith Judah, the Confessor—so his name signifieth. Or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Not this, that they were now charged with (for why should they be false to their own innocency?); but their cruelty to Joseph, and other like foul offences; for the which God in his just judgment had now brought them to condign punishment. How could Joseph hold, when he heard all this; and not cry out, as Paul did, in a like case, to his disconsolate Corinthians:

“Though I made you sorry with a letter" (with a cup), "I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that this same epistle" (cup) "hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing… For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it hath wrought in you, yea, what apology, {a} yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” {#2Co 7:8-11}

{a} Απολογιαν, Satisfaction, saith the old interpreter. It may be he meant a new life, to make amends thereby to the congregation offended, saith Bradford.—Serm. of Repent., 14.

Ver. 14. They fell before him on the ground.] Humble submission, they knew, if anything, would make their peace, and procure their pardon—

“Sic ventos vincit, dumse submittit arundo.”

It is no hoisting up sail in a storm, no standing before a lion, &c. William the Conqueror often pardoned rebels, and received them into favour; as he held submission satisfactory for the greatest offences, and sought not to defeat them, but their enterprises. {a}

{a} Dan., Hist., fol. 51.

Ver. 15. What deed is this that ye have done?] As Joseph here, so Christ sometimes impersonates an adversary, when he intends most love.

Wot ye not that such a man as I, &c.] If that be true that some conceive of Joseph, that he, here and at #Ge 44:5, made himself a soothsayer, he was certainly to blame. "The lip of excellency becometh not a fool," saith Solomon, but "much less do lying lips a prince." {#Pr 17:7, marg.} That is, it is naught when wicked men will be using gracious words, to seem religious. But it is far worse, when good men will use the fashion of the wicked, that they may seem impious.

Ver. 16. What shall we say, &c.] An ingenuous and penitent confession, joined with self-loathing and self-judging; teaching us how to confess to God.

“Sit simplex, humilis, confessio, pura, fidelis,

Atque frequens, nuda, et discreta, lubeas, verecunda,

Integra, secreta et lachrymabilis, accelerata,

Fortis, et accusans, et se punire parata.”

These sixteen conditions were composed in these verses by the Schoolmen. And such a confession is the sponge that wipes away all the blots and blurs of our lives. {#1Jo 1:7} Never any confessed his sin in this sort to God, but went away with his pardon. Wot ye what, -quoth King Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk, concerning Stephen Gardiner, when he confessed his Popery, for which he should have been, the morrow after, sent to the Tower, -he hath confessed himself as guilty in this matter, as his man; and hath, with much sorrow and pensiveness, sued for my pardon: and you know what my nature and custom hath been in such matters, evermore to pardon them that will not dissemble, but confess their fault. {a} How much more will God!

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1175.

Ver. 17. But the man in whose hand, &c.] This was the heat that Joseph shot at in all this interdealing with them, -to try the truth of their love to Benjamin, and whether they would stick to him in his utmost peril God hath like ends in afflicting his children. "The king of Babylon stood at the parting way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination." {#Eze 21:21} So doth God. He knows that the best divining of men is at the parting way; there every dog will show to what master he belongs. God shoots at his servants for trial, as men shoot bullets against armour of proof, not to hurt it, but to praise it.

Ver. 18. For thou art even as Pharaoh.] This he saith the better to insinuate; for great men love to hear of their honour, and are tickled with their great titles. Paulus Jovius, writing of Pompey Colomia, Bishop of Reatino, saith, that when the said bishop, by the means of many great personages, was reconciled again, and brought into favour with the Pope, whom he had formerly offended; and that when they signified so much unto him in a short letter, in whose superscription, Bishop of Reatino, by chance, was left out; he receiving the letter, threw it away, and bade the messenger go seek some other Pompeio, to whom the letter was directed.

Ver. 19. Have yea father?] This we read not of till now, as we do of all the rest, in the next following verses.

Ver. 20. {See Trapp on "Ge 44:19"}

Ver. 21. {See Trapp on "Ge 44:19"}

Ver. 22. {See Trapp on "Ge 44:19"}

Ver. 26. We cannot go down, ] sc., Without breach of our promises, and danger of our lives. Before he had said, "We will not." {#Ge 43:5} Now he mends that expression.

Ver. 30. Seeing that his life is bound up.] God loved his Son Jesus infinitely more than Jacob did Benjamin; he exalts his love far above that of any earthly parent; which is but a spark of his flame, a drop of his ocean. And yet be freely parted with him, to certain and shameful death, for our sakes. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," &c. This is a Sic without a Sicut; there is nothing in nature whereby to resemble it.

Ver. 31. That he will die.] For, so great is the love, {a}

“ Corporibus binis spiritus unus inest.”

{a} Propter impensum amorem.

Ver. 32. For thy servant became surety.] So did Christ for us; and therefore he must acquit us of all our sins, ere he could go to his Father. Lo, herein lies the strength of that reason, "He shall convince the world of righteousness, because I go to my Father." {#Joh 16:10}

Ver. 34. For how shall I go up, &c.] Here love ascends, as fit it should. Judah, a man wise and well spoken, prefers his father’s life before his own liberty. He could not live to see the death of his aged father. A certain citizen of Toledo being condemned to die, his son ceased not with prayers and tears to entreat that he might be put to death instead of his father. This he obtained after much suit, and most gladly died for him. {a} At Gaunt in Flanders, when a father and his son were condemned to die together, the earl, desirous to make trial whether of the two were more loving, granted that he should live that would cut off the other’s head. And after much ado between them, the father, by many arguments, persuaded his son to be his executioner. {b}

{a} B. Fulgos, lib. v.

{b} Philip. Camerar., cent. i. cap. 92.

Chapter 45

Ver. 1. Then Joseph could not refrain.] No more can Jesus, in the extreme afflictions of his brethren, {#Isa 42:14} he must cry like a travailing woman; which, though she bite in her pain for a while, cannot long contain. As Croesus’s dumb son burst forth into, "Kill not King Croesus." {a} So when the Church is overlaid by Satan or his instruments, his bowels work, he can hold no longer, but cries, "Save my child, Do the young man Absalom no harm." "I was but a little displeased, and they have helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies," or bowels. {#Zec 1:15,16} Their groans and moans, as every word of Judah’s pathetical speech to Joseph, are as so many darts and daggers at his heart; he must take course for their relief and rescue. For he is a very tender-hearted Joseph, said that martyr, {b} and though he speak roughly to his brethren, and handle them hardly, yea, and threaten grievous bondage to his best beloved Benjamin, yet can he not contain himself from weeping with us, and upon us, with falling on our necks, and sweetly kissing us, &c.; -as he sweetly goes on in a letter to his wife, Pray, pray for us, everybody; we be shortly to be despatched hence to our good Christ. Amen, Amen.

Cause every man to go out from me.] That he might weep his fill, and not reveal his brethren’s faults to strangers. It is wisdom in plastering the wounds of others, to clap our hand on the place, that the world may be never the wiser. Mercer thinks that Joseph concealed from his very father the hard dealings of his brethren with him; for if he had known, he would likely have set some note upon them for their cruelty, as he did upon Simeon and Levi for their bloody butchering of the Shechemites.

{a} Ανθρωπε, μη κτεινε Χροισον.—Herodot.

{b} Mr Sanders. Act. and Mon., 1564.

Ver. 2. He wept aloud.] And so gave vent to his passion, which else would have burst him. As hinds by calving, so men by weeping, "cast out their sorrows." {#Job 39:3}

Ver. 3. I am Joseph.] What a word was that! At the hearing thereof, what a strange conflict of contrary passions fell out in the hearts of the patriarchs! Wonder, doubt, reverence, fear, hope, guiltiness, joy, grief, struck them at once. Shall it not be so with the Jews at their glorious conversion, when they shall hear, "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye have persecuted and pierced?" {#Zec 12:10 Re 1:7} {See Trapp on "Ge 38:27"}

Ver. 4. I am Joseph your brother.] Therefore you are to expect no hard sentence from a brother’s mouth. Christ "is not ashamed," nor will be at the last day, "to call us brethren," He that was willingly judged for me, said that good woman, {a} will surely give no hard sentence against me. We may say boldly to him, as Ruth did to Boaz, "Spread thy skirt over me, for thou art a near kinsman" {#Ru 3:9}

{a} Pattern of Piety.

Ver. 5. Now therefore be not grieved, &c.] See here a lively image of Christ’s love toward his enemies, for whom he prayed and died, "to give them repentance and remission." {#Ac 5:31} This Angel of the Covenant first troubles the waters, and then cures those cripples that step in. This Sun of Righteousness first draws up vapours of godly grief, and then dispels them. "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he bring forth judgment to victory"; {#Mt 12:20 Isa 42:3} that is, weak grace to perfection.

To preserve life.] Animantis euiusque vita in fuga est, saith the philosopher, and must be maintained by means. Hence it is called "the life of our hands," {#Isa 57:10} because upheld by the labour of our hands.

Ver. 6. {See Trapp on "Ge 41:54"}

Ver. 7. God sent me before you.] He it is that by a powerful providence orders all the disorders of the world, by a certain counsel, to his own ends, and at length to his own glory. The hands that nailed Christ to the cross were "wicked hands." {#Ac 2:23} And Judas was sent to "his own place," for being "guide to them that took Jesus." {#Ac 1:16} And yet they did no more than what "God’s hand and counsel determined before to be done" {#Ac 4:28} for his glory, and the salvation of his elect. This Pliny derides as a strange doctrine, {a} but Plato hammers at it, when he saith, that God doth always φεωμετρειν. Indeed he doth all, in number, weight, and measure, as the wise man saith. He alters the property of his people’s afflictions, and by an almighty alchemy turns dross to gold, &c. As a skilful apothecary, he makes of a poisoness viper a wholesome antidote.

{a} Irridendum vero curam agere rerum humanarum illud quicquid est summum. -Plin., lib. ii. cap. 7.

Ver. 8. It was not you that sent me.] Joseph makes the best of an ill matter, that they may not be overwhelmed with grief, and so made a prey to the devil. {#2Co 2:11} "After I was made known to myself," saith Ephraim, "I repented." {a} Get thee, saith Mr Bradford, {b} God’s law as a glass, to look in; so shalt thou see thy face foul arrayed, and so shameful, saucy, mangy, pocky, and scabbed, that thou canst not but be sorry at the contemplation thereof, &c. Especially if thou look to the tag tied to God’s law, the malediction, which is such as cannot but make us to cast our currish tails between our legs, if we believe it. But here, to clear our eyesight, and keep us upright, we must anoint our eyes with Christ’s eyesalve. {#Re 3:17,18} We read of a sensible eyesalve made of Christ’s spittle and clay. {#Joh 9:6} As it were, of the knowledge of Christ by his word which proceedeth out of his mouth, as also of the knowledge of ourselves; who being made of earth, do savour nothing else but earth. {c} Both of these two knowledges are to be joined and beaten together in a lump; else they help not. For our misery acknowledged, without Christ, breedeth desperation: and Christ, without sense of our vileness, presumption.

{a} Postquam ostensum fuerit mihi. -Tremell.

{b} Mr Bradford’s Sermon of Repent., pp. 26, 27.

{c} Bright., in loc.

Ver. 9. Come down unto me, tarry not.] Christ seems to send from heaven, and say unto us in like sort, God hath made me Lord of all; come up unto me, tarry not. Should the king call us to court, upon no other condition than to have and enjoy the pleasures and treasures there to be had, old Jacob never went so willingly into Egypt, as we should gladly accept and embrace such a motion.

Ver. 10 Thou shalt be near unto me.] So sweet a comfort to friends, that death itself is called but a departure. This the heathen persecutors knew, and therefore banished the Christian confessors far asunder {a} One man may be by his counsel an angel to another; {#Ezr 10:3} as Bradford was to Dr Taylor in prison. Communion with such is the "being bound up in the bundle of life," {#1Sa 25:29} which was the blessing of Abigail upon David. St John trusted to come unto the elect lady, and "speak face to face, that their joy might be full." {#2Jo 1:12} When one desired to see Alexander’s treasure, he bid one of his servants show him, not αργυριου ταλαντα, but τους φιλους; not his wealth, but his friends. {b} What an honour is that, that Christ should say to us, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you!" {#Joh 15:14} And should say to his Father, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me!" {#Joh 17:24} What could Joseph say more for his father and brethren?

{a} Cyprian., Epist.

{b} Liban. Prog. Chris., i.

Ver. 11. And there will I nourish thee.] To requite parents is "good and acceptable before God." {#1Ti 5:4} At Athens, {a} it was death not to be kind to parents and cherish them. The stork nourisheth her old sire and dam with admirable piety, saith Pliny; {b} and is therefore called by the Hebrews Chasidah, or Merciful: and by the Latins Pietatis-cultrix. The cuckoo, on the other side, is worthily hated, for that she cruelly devoureth her own dam, the hedge sparrow, saith Melancthon. {c} Mice are said to nourish their old ones that cannot shift for themselves, insigni pietate, { d} Cornelius, among the Romans, got the name of Scipio, by his kindness to his blind father, to whom he was the staff of his old age; as Macrobius relateth. {e} And Aristotle {f} tells a strange story, how that, when from the hill Etna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts, in the midst of those fearful flames, God’s special care of the godly shined most brightly. For the river of fire parted itself, and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents, and pluck them out of the jaws of death. Our Saviour much distasted and detested that damnable doctrine of the Pharisees, teaching children to starve their parents, under pretence of devotion. {#Mt 15:4-6} And what would he have said to the Popish Pharisees, that say, that a monk may not leave his cloister to relieve his father, but rather let him die for hunger in the streets? Christ upon his cross, though as full of sorrow as heart could hold, commended his mother to be kept by the disciple whom he loved, with Ιδου η μητηρ σου. {#Joh 19:27} Agreeable whereunto was that speech of the Samians, "I give thee this woman for a mother," {g} when to the richer of the citizens the mothers of those who died in the wars were given to be maintained by them.

{a} Athenis capitale fuit, parentibus θρεπτηρια non persolvere -Melanct., Not. in Hesiod.

{b} Plin., lib. x. cap. 23.

{c} Propriam matrem crudeliter devorat, currucam silicet. -Melancth.

{d} Mures genitores suos alunt insigni pietate. -Sphinx Philos., p. 230.

{e} Macrob., Satur., lib. i. cap. 6.

{f} Ενθα το των ευρεβων γενος εξοχως ετιμησε το δαιμονοιν—Aristot., De Mundo., cap. 6.

{g} Σοι παυτην διδωμαι την μητιρα.

Ver. 12. That it is my mouth.] I speak not now, as before I did, by an interpreter: I speak Hebrew also. God seems to say the same to us concerning the whole word; those "ten words" especially.

Ver. 13. And ye shall tell my father.] So the Lord Christ bade Mary Magdalene tell his "disciples and Peter, " because he was most dejected for denying his Master, and in his dumps he must know with the first, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." {#Joh 20:17}

Ver. 14. And he fell upon his brother, &c.] God’s people are not senseless stoics or flinty Nabals; but have natural affections in them, as others; yea, above others, that have banished good nature, and can weep as little as witches. The enemy hath stopped the wells, and stayed the watercourses, as Holofernes: what should hinder him now from taking the town?

Ver. 15. Kissed all his brethren.] {See Trapp on "Ge 39:11"}

Ver. 6. It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.] And therefore his servants, because Pharaoh. For, Aulici sunt instar speculi, saith Pareus. Courtiers are their prince’s looking glasses; if he laugh, so do they; where he loves, they love, in pretence, at least; for all is but counterfeit. And here, Potest Augur Augurem videre, et non ridere? saith Cato, in Cicero. {a} The senate gave public thanks to the gods for all that Nero did, even when he had killed his mother, though they never so much abhorred it. When he sang at any time, though it were never so ill, for he had a small harsh voice, his courtiers would soothe him up with, Quam pulcher Caesar, Apollo, Augustus, εις ως πυθιος, μα σε Καισαρ ουδεις σε νικα, &c. {b} And because he hated the senate, notwithstanding all their flatteries, Vatinius was greatly in favour with him, for saying, Odi te Caesar, quod Senator es. Parasiti principum sputa, instar canum lingunt.

{a} Cic., De Divinatione, lib. ii.

{b} Dio, in Nerone.

Ver. 17. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph.] Pharaoh is good to Jacob and his house, for Joseph’s sake; so is God to us and ours, for Jesus’ sake. As any man was intimate with Sejanus, so he found favour with Tiberius. As if any were at odds with him, they lived in continual danger and durance, saith Tacitus; {a} so here.

O miserabilis humana conditio, et sine Christo, vanum omne quod vivimus, saith Jerome.—Epitaph. Nep., tom. i. p. 25.

O the misery of those that be without Christ in the world!

{a} Ut quisque Seiano intimus, ita ad Caesaris amicitiam validus: contra, quibus infensus esset, metu ac sordibus conflictabantur. -Tacit.

Ver. 18. Come unto me: and I will give your, &c.] So saith Christ, "Come unto me, and ye shall find rest to your souls," {#Mt 11:28} health to your bones, all the blessings of this life and a better. Say, you meet with some trouble by the way, as haply Jacob had foul weather ere he came down to Egypt. Non sunt condignae passiones ad praeteritam culpam quae remittitur, ad praesentis consolationes gratium, quae immittitur, ad futuram gloriam, quae promittitur, saith Bernard, sweetly. What is a drop of vinegar put into an ocean of wine? No country hath more venomous creatures than Egypt, none more antidotes. So godliness, saith one, hath many troubles, and as many helps against trouble.

Ver. 19. Take you wagons out of the land of Egypt.] Christ also will send his wagons for us, his cherubims, and clouds to fetch us up to heaven, at the last day, {#1Th 4:15} as they did Moses and Elias. {#Mt 17:3} This David foresaw, and therefore envied not the pomp and state of those men of God’s hand, that are whirled here up and down in wagons and chariots, &c. {#Ps 17:14,15}

Ver. 20. Also regard not your stuff.] The same saith God to his; Care not for your lumber and trumpery; suffer with joy the loss of your goods: Come, come away in your affections; I have far better things for you above: the good of all the land of the living is yours, &c. And should we not cheerfully follow the divine call? Many play loath to depart, because they have treasure in the world, as those ten men had in the field. {#Jer 12:8} But all that this world affords is but trash to the truly religious. Alexander, hearing of the riches of the Indies, divided his kingdom of Macedon among his captains and soldiers. And being asked what he had left for himself; he answered, Hope. And should not the hope of heaven make us slight all earthly vanities? Spes in terrenis, incerti nomen boni: spes in divinis, nomen est certissimi. #Heb 11:1.

Ver. 21. And gave them provision for the way.] So doth God give all his; meat that the world knows not of; joy that the natural heart never tasted of; the white stone; the hidden manna; the continual feast; the foretaste of eternal life, to hold up their hearts till they come home to heaven. On the cares of a good conscience, he goes on feeding, as Samson did on his honeycomb, till he came to his parents; as Joseph’s brethren here did on their venison, till they came to their father Jacob.

Ver. 22. But to Benjamin he gave, &c.] God gives his best blessings to his Benjamins. "He is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe." {#1Ti 4:10} "The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down";—these are common favours: but behold a better thing; -"the Lord loveth the righteous." {#Ps 146:8} This is more than all the rest. Outward things God gives to the wicked also, but as Joseph put his cup into their sack to pick a quarrel with them; or at best, as he gave them here change of raiment, to show his general love to them: but three hundred silverlings and five suits none but a Benjamin shall have the honour and favour of. Artabazus, in Xenophon, complained, when Cyrus had given him a cup of gold, and Chrysantas a kiss, in token of his special respect and love, saying, that the cup that he gave him was not so good gold as the kiss that he gave Chrysantas. When David said to Ziba, "All is thine that pertained to Mephibosheth"; Ziba answereth, "I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight." {#2Sa 16:4} As who should say, I had rather have the king’s favour than the lands. Valde protestatus sum, said Luther, me nolle sic ab eo satiari. He would not be put off with lands and large offers. And Moses would not hear of an angel to go along with them. He would have God himself, or none. {#Ex 33:12-17} The blessings that come "out of Sion," are choice, peculiar, even above any that come out of "heaven and earth." {#Ps 134:3}

Ver. 23. After this manner.] Not the same that he gave Benjamin, as some sense it; but as followeth in the text.

Ver. 24. Fall not out by the way.] Such a charge layeth Christ upon all his, to love one another, and to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Si collidimur, frangimur; If we clash, we are broken; according to the old fable of the two earthen pots swimming in the sea. The daughter of dissension is dissolution, said Nazianzen. And every subdivision in point of religion is a strong weapon in the hand of the contrary party, as he upon the Council of Trent wisely observed. {a} Castor and Pollux, if they appear not together, it presages a storm.

{a} Hist. of Coun. of Trent, fol. 49.

Ver. 25. They came unto Jacob their father.] Who had looked many a long look for them: and now had far more joy of their return than before. {#Ge 42:29}

Ver. 26. Joseph is yet alive.] This was the most joyful news that ever Jacob heard, and the sincerest pleasure that ever he had; which therefore God reserves for his age. How did his good heart, after he had recollected himself, dance Levaltoes in his bosom, to hear of Joseph’s honour, but especially of his life! What shall ours do, when we see Christ in his kingdom!

Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not.] They had told him a tale before; and he that once hath cracked his credit is hardly, after, believed. Besides, he thought the news was too good to be true. Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides. The joy of heaven is so great, that we must "enter into it"; it cannot enter into us. "Enter into the joy of thy Lord." {#Mt 25:21}

Ver. 27. When he saw the wagons.] Such assurance have deeds above words, {a} Nos non eloquitour magna, sed vivimus, said those primitive Christians. And no Christian is an ill-lived man, unless he be a pretender only to that religion, saith Athenagoras, in his apclogy for them. {b} For as one said of David’s words in the ll9th Psalm, that they are verba vivenda non legenda; so is religion to be credited, by the power and practice of it. Christians should lead convincing lives: and, by their piety and patience, muzzle the malevolent, throttle envy itself. I have read {c} of a woman, who, living in professed doubt of the Godhead, after better illumination and repentance, did often protest that the vicious life of knowing man in that town did conjure up those damnable doubts in her soul. The difference between divinity and other sciences is, that it is not enough to know, but you must do it; as lessons of music must be practised, and a copy not read only, but acted.

The spirit of Jacob their father revived.] How will our spirits exult and triumph when we shall hear the last trump, see the messengers and wagons sent for us! Consider the crowns, sceptres, kingdoms, glories, beauties, angelical entertainments, beatifical visions, sweetest varieties, felicities, eternities, that we are now to be possessed of! Surely, as Aeneas and his company, when they came within view of Italy, after long tossing in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, joyfully cried out—

“Italiam, Italiam primus conclarnat Achates;

Italiam socii laeto clamore salutant.”—Virg.

And as when Godfrey of Bulloin and his company went to Jerusalem, as soon as they saw the highi turrets they gave a mighty shout, that the earth: rang. So when we shall see the battlements of the New Jerusalem, what acclamations will it ring of!

{a} Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,

Quam quae sunt oculis subiecta fidelibus, & c.

{b} Ουδεις Χριστιανος πονηρος, ει με υποκρινηται τον λογον.

{c} Mr Ward’s Serm., The Happiness of Paradise.

Ver. 28. It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive.] Jacob rejoiceth more for his life than his honour. "Why is living man sorrowful?." {#La 3:39} Yet he is alive; that is a mercy, amidst all his miseries.

Before I die.] This he speaks after the manner of old men, whose song is, "My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me." {#Job 17:1}

Chapter 46

Ver. 1. And came to Beersheba.] A place, (1.) Consecrated to God’s worship; (2.) Where he and his fathers had met God, and received many mercies; (3.) That lay in his way from Hebron to Egypt. But say it had been out of his way; yet it had been nothing out of his way to go thither and seek God. A whet is no let; a bait by the way no hindrance; the oiling of the wheel furthers the journey. As it is, Tithe, and be rich; so, Pray, and be prosperous. But say it should be some prejudice; Is it not wisdom to make God’s service costly to us? Cannot he make us amends? "give us much more than the hundred talents?" {#2Ch 25:9} Is anything lost by his service? Prayer furthers thrift. The night of Popery will shame many of us; who in their superstitious zeal had this proverb, Mass and meat hindereth no man’s thrift. The very heathen offered sacrifices when they took journeys, as Festus witnesseth. {a}

{a} Fest., lib. xiv.

Ver. 2. Here am I.] Josephus tells us, {a} he said, Who is there? He seems never seriously to have read the Bible; but only in transcursu, et quasi aliud agens. Is not that then a proper excuse for the Church of Rome’s sacrilege, in robbing the common people of the Holy Scriptures, that she allows them to read Josephus, where they may find the history of the Old Testament more plainly and plentifully set forth than in the Bible! But Barclay, {b} that made this apology, was of the mind, belike, of Walter Mapes, sometime archdeacon of Oxford, who, relating the gross simony (traffic in sacred things) of the Pope, for confirming the election of Reginald, bastard son to Jocelin, bishop of Sarum into the see of Bath, concludes his narration thus: Sit tamen domina materque nostra Roma baculus in aqua fractus, et absit credere quae vidimus; { c} howbeit, far be it from us to believe our own eyes.

{a} Antiq., lib. i.

{b} Quod vero ad historiam Vet. Test. eam fuse et magis ex vulgi intellectu in Iosepho inveniunt. -Barcl. Paraen.

{c} Dr Sanderson.

Ver. 3. Fear not to go down into Egypt.] Cause of fear he might see sufficient; but God would have him not to look downward on the rushing and roaring streams of miseries that ran so swiftly under him and his posterity, but steadfastly fasten on his power and providence, who was his God, and the God of his father. He loves to perfect his strength in our weakness; as Elijah would have the sacrifice covered with water, that God’s power might the more appear in the fire from heaven.

Ver. 4. I will go down with thee.] That was as good security as could be. For if Caesar could say to the fearful ferryman, in a terrible storm, Be of good cheer, thou carriest Caesar, and therefore canst not miscarry; {a} how much more may he presume to be safe that hath God in his company! A child in the dark fears nothing while he hath his father by the hand.

And I will also surely bring thee up again.] So saith God to his dying people when they are to enter into the grave. He will surely bring them back from the jaws of death to the joys of eternal life. Yea, by rotting, he will refine their frail bodies; as the goldsmith melts a picture of gold, or bruised piece of plate that is out of fashion, to make it up better.

And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.] An ancient and an honourable custom, in use among the Romans also, as Pliny tells us. The eyes are commonly open, lift up to heaven, when men are dying; unless they be such as that pope was, who, breathing out his last, said, Now I shall know whether the soul be immortal, or not. {b} Or that desperate advocate in the court of Rome, mentioned by Bellarmine, who, dying, used these words, Ego propero ad inferos, neque est, ut aliquid pro me agat Deus. But Jacob had hope in his death; and Joseph had the honour of closing up those eyes, that shall shortly "see God" again "in the flesh." {#Job 19:26}

{a} Perge contra tempestatem forti animo: Caesarem fers, et fortunam Caesaris.

{b} Sic Benedic. IX, Alexander VI, and Leo X.—Bell., De Arte Moriendi, lib. ii. cap. 10.

Ver. 5. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba.] The word "rose up" is emphatical, and imports that his heart was lightened, and his joints oiled and nimbled, as it were, with the heavenly vision. As when he had seen God at Bethel, he "lift up his feet," and went on his way lustily; {#Ge 29:1} so here, as fast as his old legs would carry him; as Father Latimer said to Ridley, when they were going to the stake. {a} And as it is recorded of good old Rawlins White, martyr; that whereas before he was wont to go stooping, or rather crooked, through infirmity of age, having a sad countenance and very feeble complexion, and, with it, very soft in speech and gesture; now he went and stretched up himself, not only bolt upright, as he went to the stake, but also bare, with it, a most pleasant and comfortable countenance, not without great courage and audacity, both in speech and behaviour. {b} In like sort, Jacob here, having sought God, and received a gracious promise of his presence and protection, rose up merrily from Beersheba, and doubts not to follow God whithersoever he shall lead him.

{a} Act. and Mon.

{b} Ibidem, fol. 1415.

Ver. 6. And they took their cattle, and their goods.] Though Pharaoh sent to them they should not, yet, not willing to be much chargeable, they brought that they had. It is a happiness so to live with others as not to be much beholden; but rather helpful, than burdensome. He that receives a courtesy, we say, sells his liberty: and "the borrower is servant to the lender." {#Pr 22:7} St Paul glories in this to the liberal Corinthians, that when he was present with them he was "chargeable to no man." {#2Co 11:9} Ου κατεναρκησα ουδενος; {a} dunned no man, I was no man’s parasite. He was not of those that "served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies." {#Ro 16:18} The Duke of Bavaria’s house is so pestered with friars and Jesuits that, notwithstanding the greatness of his revenue, he is very poor; as spending all his estate upon these Popish parasites. Such among the Turks are the Dervislars and Imailers, that under pretence of religion, live, like body lice, upon other men’s sweat and labours. {b}

{a} Ναρκη, torpedo piscis, cuius ea est natura ut propius accedentes seque tangentes obstupefaciat. Hinc καταναρκεω obstupeo cum alicuius incommodo. Pasor.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 477, 950. Heyl., Geog., p. 291.

Ver. 7. His daughters, and his sons’ daughters.] That is, by a synecdoche, integri; his niece Serah, and his daughter Dinah, who came down with the rest into Egypt; and therefore was not Job’s wife, as the Jews would persuade us.

Ver. 12. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron.] Hezron and Hamul, not yet born, are reckoned instead of Er and Onan, who were dead before the descent into Egypt. See Funccius’s Chronolog. Comment., A.M. 2273.

Ver. 26. Which came out of his loins.] Heb., e femore eius. A modest description of generation, by the instrumental and material cause thereof. And because it is said, that so many souls came out of Jacob’s body, Augustine {a} moves the question here, whether souls also are not begotten, as well as bodies? And when the learned father demurred, and would not presently determine the point, a rash young man, one Vincentius Victor, as Chemnitius relates it, boldly censured the father’s unresolvedness, and vaunted that he would undertake to prove by demonstration that souls are created, de novo, by God; for which peremptory rashness the father returned the young man a sober reprehension. But souls are doubtless here put for persons, which the Latins call capita.

{a} Annon igitur animae propagentur ex traduce; argumenta post triduum demum solvo. -Melancthon.

Ver. 27. Threescore and ten.] St Stephen reckons seventy-five. {#Ac 7:14} And so the Greek translateth here, which Stephen seemeth to follow; as doth likewise St Luke for Cainan; {#Lu 3:36} that translation being then received, and they not willing to alter it. The Jews say, that these seventy souls were as much as all the seventy nations of the world. And Moses tells them, that whereas their fathers went down into Egypt with seventy souls, now Jehovah had made them "as the stars of heaven for multitude." {#De 10:22}

Ver. 28. And he sent Judah before him.] "A good man guides his affairs with discretion"; {#Ps 112:5} doth all things decently, and in order. It was great "joy" to the apostle to behold the Colossians’ "order." {#Col 2:5}

Ver. 29. Presented himself unto him.] Joseph, a prince, was no whit ashamed of the poor old shepherd his father, before so many his peers, and other courtiers, that accompanied him and loathed such kind of persons. Colonel Edmonds is much commended for his ingenuous reply to a countryman of his, recently come to him, into the Low Countries, out of Scotland. This fellow desiring entertaimnent of him, told him, my lord his father, and such knights and gentlemen his cousins and kinsmen, were in good health. Quoth Colonel Edmonds, Gentlemen (to his friends by), believe not one word he says; my father is but a poor baker; whom this knave would make a lord, to curry favour with me, and make you believe I am a great man born. {a} {See Trapp on "Ge 22:10"}

And he fell on his neck, and wept, &c.] For exceeding joy. What then shall be the meeting of saints in heaven! Christ shall say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father." As if he should say, Where have ye been all this while, my dear brethren? It was a part of his joy, when he was on earth, "that we should be with him where he is, to behold his glory." {#Joh 17:24} And this he now prays not, but, "Father I will that they be with me"; as that which he had merited for them. And now, what joy will there be, to see them and suaviate them, for whose sake he shed his most precious blood; through which they may safely sail into the bosom of the Father! Surely, if Plotinus the philosopher could say, Let us make haste to our heavenly country; there is our Father, there are all our friends; {b} how much more triumphantly may Christians say so! If Cicero could say, O praeclarum diem, cure ad illum animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar! &c.; Oh, what a brave day will that be, when I shall go to that council and company of happy souls! to my Cato, and other Roman worthies, dead before me; -how {c} much more may Christians exult, to think of that glorious "nightless day" (ανεσπερον ημεραν), as Nazianzen calls it, when they shall be admitted into the congregation house (πανηγυριν) of the firstborn, {#Heb 12:23} as the apostle calls heaven; and joyfully welcomed by Abraham, David, Paul, &c., who shall be no less glad of their, than of their own happiness! Who can conceive the comfort of Jacob and Joseph, -or of those two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, -at their first meeting? But for the joys of heaven, it is as impossible to comprehend them, as to compass heaven itself with a span, or contain the ocean in a nut shell. They are such, saith Augustine, ut quicquid homo dixerit, quasi gutta de mari, quasi scintilla de foco. {d} If the presence of Christ, though but in the womb, made John to spring, and dance a galliard, as the word imports (εσκιρτησεν εν αγαλλιασει, #Lu 1:44); what shall it do when we come to heaven! Sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est, saith Chrysostom. It is more fit to be believed, than possible to be discoursed, saith Prosper. Nec Christus nec caelum patitur hyperbolen, saith another. The apostle, after he had spoken of glorification, breaks forth by way of admiration, into these words; "What shall we say to these things?," {#Ro 8:31} these "wordless words!" as he phraseth it (αρρηστα ρηματα, #2Co 12:4); and ever uttereth himself, in a transcendent expression, as #2Co 4:17, where he calleth it "a weight of glory"; such as, if the body were not by the power of God upheld, it were not able to bear. Jacob could hardly hear the news of Joseph, and live: but when once he saw him; "Now let me die," saith he.

{a} Peacham’s Complete Gentleman, p. 5.

{b} Fugiendum ad clarissimam patriam: ibi pater, ibi omnia. -Aug., De Civit. Dei., lib. ix. cap. 16.

{c} O praeclarum diem, cum ad illud animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar, ad Catonem meum, & c.—Cic., De Sen.

{d} Aug., De Triplici Habitu., cap. 4.

Ver. 30. Vow let me die.] What would this good old man have said, had he seen Christ in the flesh, which was one of Augustine’s three wishes? {a} How merrily would he have sung out his soul, as Simeon did, {#Lu 2:29,30} who had long looked for the consolation of Israel; and having now laid in his heart what he lapt in his arms, cries, "Nunc dimittis Domine": I fear no sin, I dread no death (as one Englisheth it): I have lived enough, I have my life: I have longed enough, I have my love: I have seen enough, I have my light: I have served enough, I have my saint: I have sorrowed enough, I have my joy. Sweet babe! let this song serve for a lullaby to thee, and a funeral for me. Oh, sleep in my arms; and let me sleep in thy peace.

Because thou art yet alive.] If this were so great a matter to Jacob, what should it be to us, that Christ was dead, and is alive; yea, that he ever lives to make request for us; and that he stands at the right hand of his Father, when any Stephen of his is stoned, {#Ac 7:56} as ready prest to interpose between them and any harm that may thereby come unto them! If Seneca could say to his Polybius, Fas tibi non est, salvo Caesare de fortuna tun queri; how much less cause have we to complain, so long as Christ is alive! Can our hearts die within us, while our head is the Lord of life, yea, "our life," as St Paul calls him? {#Col 3:4}

{a} Optavit se videre potuisse Romam in flore, Paulum in ore, Christum in corpore.

Ver. 32. The men are shepherds.] The truly virtuous or valorous are no whit ashamed of their lowly parentage, but rather glory in themselves, that their merit hath advanced them above so many thousands far better descended. Dr Cox, almoner, and Sir John Cheek, tutor, to King Edward VI, were men of lowly birth, but so well esteemed, saith the historian, {a} for virtue and learning, that they might well be said to be born of themselves. So were Iphicrates, that brave Athenian, the son of a cobbler; Eumenes, one of Alexander’s best captains, the son of a carter; Agathocles king of Sicily, of a potter, &c. And these would many times freely discourse of their beginning, and plainly relate their bringing up, and what their parents were.

And they have brought their flocks.] As choosing rather a poor shepherd’s life in God’s service, than to ruffle it as courtiers, out of the Church. So did Moses afterwards; and David; {#Ps 84:10} and the poor prophet that died so deep in debt; and Micaiah; and those that "wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins," {#Heb 11:37} who haply might have rustled in silks and velvets, if they would have strained their consciences. Origen was contented to be a poor catechist at Alexandria, every day in fear of death, when he might have been with his fellow pupil Plotinus, in great authority and favour, if not a Christian. Luther was offered a cardinalship, to have held his tongue; Galeacius Caracciohs, a great sum of gold, to have returned to his marquesdom in Italy, &c. God takes it kindly when men will go "after him in the wilderness, in a land not sown"; {#Jer 2:2} that is, choose him and his ways in affliction, and with self-denial.

{a} Sir John Heywood in his Edward VI

Ver. 33. When Pharaoh shall call you.] At Athens every man gave a yearly account to the magistrate, by what trade, or course of life, he maintained himself; which if he could not do, he was banished. {a} By the law, Mahomet, the great Turk, himself is bound to exercise some manual trade or occupation, for none must be idle: as Solyman the Magnificent’s trade was making of arrow heads; Achmat the Last’s, horn rings for archers, &c.

{a} Lex illa Solonis imprimis commendatur, ut quisque quotannis, & c.—Textor., Epist. Peacham.

Ver. 34. Thy servants’ trade hath been, &c.] They were not ashamed of their trade, though low and despicable. Malo miserandum quam erubescendum, saith Tertullian. {a} No lawful calling, but hath an honour put upon it by God; unlawful only are shameful. Ask a poor scavenger what his occupation is, he will answer, I am a scavenger; water bearer, &c. Ask a usurer, gamester, &c., that question; and he will not say, I am a usurer, &c.

That ye may dwell in the land of Goshen.] Which, as it was next to the land of Canaan, so it was most fat, fertile, and fit for their cattle. Sumen totius regionis, the like to Egypt, that Campania was to Italy; of which Florus thus writeth: Nihil mollius caelo, nihil uberius solo, nihil hospitalius mari, &c. Liberi, Cererisque certamen dicitur. {b}

For every shepherd is an abomination, &c.] An Israelite is still an abomination to an Egyptian, the righteous to the wicked, {#Pr 29:27} and will be to the world’s end. And there is no love lost between them. The shepherds of Israel especially, are by profane great ones thought scarce worthy to wait upon their trenchers; the baser sort make songs of them, and the abjeets vilify them. Papists make more of hedge priests, than most among us do of powerful preachers: a sad forerunner of the departure of the gospel. If dishonour kept Christ from Nazareth, {#Joh 4:44} much more will it it drive him thence when he is come.

{a} Tertul., De Fug. Persec.

{b} L. Flor., lib. i. cap. 16.

Chapter 47

Ver. l. Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh.] This was great wisdom in him, to do nothing for his friends, though he were so great a favourite, without the king’s privity and approbation. There wanted not those that waited for his halting; envy attends upon honour, {a} and always aimeth at the highest; as the tallest trees are weakest at the tops. Melancthon tells us he once saw a certain ancient piece of coin, having on the one side Zopyrus, on the other Zoilus. It was an emblem of kings’ courts, saith he; {b} where calumnies accompany the well-deserving, as they did Daniel, Datames, Hannibal, {c} &c. Difficillimum inter mortales est gloria invidiam vincere, saith Sallust. {d} How potent that quick-sighted and sharp-fanged malignity is, we may guess by that question, #Pr 27:4.

{a} Scipioni obtrectabat Carbo; Alcibiadi Hyperbolus; Homero Zoilus; Ciceroni Clodius. Habuerunt et suos cucullos omnes docti et heroici.

{b} Manlii, loc. com., p. 414.

{c} Corn. Nepos, in Vita Datamis et Hannib.

{d} Sal., in Catilin.

Ver. 2. Even five men.] R. Solomon telleth us (but who told him?) which five they were; sc., Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Benjamin.

Ver. 3. What is your occupation?] That they had an occupation Pharaoh took for granted. God made Leviathan to play in the sea; {#Ps 104:26} but none to do so upon earth. Turks and Pagans will rise up in judgment against the idle. {See Trapp on "Ge 46:33"} Periander made a law at Corinth, that whosoever could not prove that he lived by his honest labour, he should suffer as a thief. The apostle bids "him that stole steal no more, but labour with his hands the thing that is good," &c. {#Eph 4:28} Not to labour, then, with hand, or head, or both, is to steal. Every one must bring some honey into the common hive, unless he will be cast out as a drone. {a} "Thou idle and evil servant," saith our Saviour. {#Mt 25:26} To be idle, then, is to be evil; and he shall not but do naughtily that does nothing. God wills that men should earn their bread afore they eat it, {#2Th 3:12} neither may they make religion a mask for idleness. {#Ge 47:11}

{a} Ignavum fucos pecus, & c.

Ver. 4. For to sojourn in the land are we come.] And had they returned home again after the death of Joseph, they had taken a right course for themselves. But as God had otherwise decreed it, so they thought it best being there; and, therefore, not without their own fault, they fell into servitude.

Ver. 5. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph.] Kind he was, and constant, to so good a servant; as Darius likewise was to his Zopyrus, whom he preferred before the taking of twenty Babylons; {a} the King of Poland to his noble servant Zelislaus, to whom he sent a golden hand, instead of that hand he lost in his wars {b}

{a} Herodot., lib. iv.

{b} Cromerus.

Ver. 6. If thou knowest any men of activity.] Or ability of body and mind; such as "Jeroboam, a mighty man of valour," {#1Ki 11:28} and fit for the work; prudent and diligent, ingenious and industrious, that hath a dexterity and handiness to the business. Such St Paul would have all Christians to be. {#Tit 3:8,14} "Let them that have believed in God," saith he, "be careful to maintain good works," or profess honest trades, "for necessary uses," and that therein they be their crafts masters, and excel others, Αιεν αριστευειν και υπειροχον εμμεναι αλλων. This was Cicero’s posy from his youth, as himself witnesseth. And Plutarch tells us that all his strife and drift was, all his life long, to leave others behind him, and to be the best at anything he ever undertook. {a} This should he every man’s endeavour in his place and station, as that which is "good before God, and profitable unto men," as the apostle there subjoineth. Solomon also assures us that such shall "stand before kings," and not live long in a low place. {#Pr 22:29}

{a} των καλων εργων προιστασθαι.—Homer. ινα παντων κραστος τυγχανη.—Plut.

Ver. 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] That is, he prayed God to bless him, both at meeting and parting. To salute is comely: but see that ye be hearty, not frothy; prayerful, not complimental. We are heirs of blessing, and must therefore be free of it. {#1Pe 3:9}

Ver. 8. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob.] This king took not pleasure, as those Persian kings did, in a wild retiredness, or stern austerity, but in a mild affableness, and heart attracting courtesy, He shows not himself strange or stoical, but sweet and sociable. So Atticus seemed in his carriage, cornraunls infimis, par principibus. Adrian, the Emperor, would most courteously confer with the lowest. Vespasian was wont, not only to greet the chief senators, but even private persons; inviting them many times to his table; himself again going to their houses, especially if he found them learned and virtuous. {a} Pharaoh might find Jacob both these; and so make very good use of him, as his faithful counsellor. Princes had learned men ever with them, called monitors or remembrancers (μνημονες): as Dio had his Plato; Scipio, his Polybius, &c. Abimelech made much of Abraham, and afterwards of Isaac; some think it was for their skill in physic and astronomy. {b} Why might not Pharaoh find and favour the same worth in Jacob, and learn the same wisdom from him, that his senators, by his appointment, did of his son Joseph?

{a} Corn. Nepos. Spartan. Dio.

{b} Patriarchae praecipue professionis medicae studiosi fuerunt, ut Abraham, Isaac, Iacob: unde regibus grati, quos postea in doctrina Christiana simul instituerunt. -Melanc.

Ver. 9. The days of the years of my pilgrimage.] All saints here are sojourners, all good people "pilgrims and strangers." {#1Pe 2:11 Heb 11:13,14} Far they are from home, and meet with hard measure; as Israel did in Egypt; as those three worthies in Babylon. {#Da 3:23} Their manners are of another manner: hence the world owns them not. {#Joh 15:19} But God both owns and honours them; he knows their whole way; {#Ps 1:6} "leads them in his hand"; {#Isa 63:13} "guides them with his eye"; {#Ps 32:8} "bears them in his bosom," {#Isa 40:11} when ways are rough and rugged; provides "mansions" {#Joh 14:2,3} for them, where they shall "rest in their beds," {#Isa 57:2} feast "with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," {#Mt 8:11} walk arm in arm with angels, {#Zec 3:7} be "gathered to their people," {#Ge 25:8 Heb 12:23} to their God, to their Christ," &c.—Provided that, in the meanwhile, they "set their faces towards Sion, inquiring the way"; {#Jer 50:4,5} that they walk therein "from strength to strength"; {#Ps 84:7} that they take in good part any kindness, as Ruth did; {#Ru 2:10} that they put up any unkindness, as Paul did; {#Ga 4:12} that they make much of any company; {#Ps 119:63} send home by any hand; {#Ne 2:5} "abstain from fleshly lusts"; {#1Pe 2:11} and have "their conversation in heaven"; {#Php 3:20} eating, drinking, and sleeping eternal life; so wishing to be at home, yet waiting the Father’s call; sighing out, when moved to be merry, -as the French king did, when prisoner here in England, in the days of King Edward III, -"How can we sing songs in a strange land?" {#Ps 137:4}

Ver. 10. {See Trapp on "Ge 47:7"}

Ver. 11. In the land of Rameses.] That is, in the whole territory where Rameses was afterwards built. {#Ex 1:11}

Ver. 12. And Joseph nourished his father.] For which end he was "sent before" {#Ps 105:17} by God: and for whose sake so many thousands were preserved, that else would have perished. What fools, then, are they that hunt out the saints, their only safeguard! and hate them to whom they owe all the good they have! This is, with the foolish deer, to eat up the leaves that hide them from the huuter.

Ver. 13. The famine was very sore.] Of this famine mention is made by Justin, lib. i., and Orosius, lib. i., cap. 8.

So that the land of Egypt fainted.] Furebat, saith Junius. The Egyptians in the fifth year of the famine began to rage, if they could have told at what; and were well-nigh mad. Our Saviour’s friends "went out to lay hold of him: for they said, He is beside himself." {a} {#Mr 3:21} Or, as some render it, he will faint: for, #Mr 3:20, "The multitude came so together, that they could not so much as eat bread." These Egyptians, whether they fainted or fretted, it was for want of bread. Joseph had foretold them of this seven years’ famine; but saturity and security had so besotted them, that they feared nothing, till they felt it. Fulness bred forgetfulness; and now they are ready to let fly at others, because pinched with that penury that they might have prevented. "The wickedness of a man perverts his way, and his heart frets against the Lord." {#Pr 19:3} See it in that furious king, #2Ki 6:33.

{a} οτι εξεστη. So #Ge 45:26. εξεστη τη διανοια.—Sept.

Ver. 14. And Joseph gathered up all the money.] There is something, then, besides grace, that is better than money: though misers will as easily part with their blood, {a} as with their good. Constantinople was lost through the citizens’ covetousness. The like is reported of Heidelberg. Worthy they were, in this name, to have been served as the great Caliph of Babylon was by the great Cham of Tartary. He was set in the midst of those infinite treasures which he and his predecessors had most covetously amassed; and bidden to eat of that gold, silver, and precious stones, what he pleased, and make no spare. In which order, the covetous catiff kept for certain days, miserably died for hunger. {b} Money is a baser thing than "food and raiment": these if we have, "let us be content." {#1Ti 6:8}

{a} Chaldaei nummum מד, id est, Sanguinem, appellant.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 113.

Ver. 15. Why should we die in thy presence?] When it is in thy power to save us alive in this our extreme indigency? Qui non cum potest, iuvat, occidit, saith the proverb. And, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil? to save, or to destroy a life?" {#Mr 3:4} -intimating that not to save when we may, is to destroy. The Egyptians, therefore, put Joseph to it. Money they had none, but must have answered, if now it had been required of them, as those inhabitants of Andros did Themistocles. He being sent by the Athenians for tribute money, told them that he came on that errand accompanied with two goddesses; eloquence to persuade, and violence to enforce them. Whereunto the Andraeans made this answer; that they had on their side, also, two goddesses as strong; necessity, {a} they had it not, and impossibility, whereby they could not part with that which they possessed not. {b}

{a} Ingens telum, necessitas.

{b} Plutarch.

Ver. 16. Give your cattle.] {See Trapp on "Ge 47:17"}

Ver. 17. And Joseph gave them bread in exchange, ] An ancient and yet usual way of traffic, with savages and barbarians especially; as in Virginia, &c., where they usually change, as Glaueus did with Diomedes, χρυσεα χαλκειων. {a}

{a} Homeri Ilias, lib. vi.

Ver. 18. We will not hide it from my lord.] Confess we our pitiful indigence also to God, and he will furnish us with food and seed. Say with learned Pomeran, Etiamsi non sum dignus, nihilo minus tamen sum indigens.

Ver. 19. Buy us and our land for bread.] It was their own desire, therefore no injury. Nay, it was charity in Joseph, in remitting their services, and taking only their lands: yea, liberality, in reserving the fifth part only to the king; when husbandmen usually till for half the increase. And this the Egyptians thankfully acknowledge, #Ge 47:25.

Ver. 20. So the land became Pharaoh’s.] Regi acquisivit imperium despoticum. This the Egyptians would never have yielded unto, but that stark hunger drove the wolf out of the wood, as the proverb is. Philo Judaeus reports of a heathenish people who in their wars used only this expression, to put spirit into their soldiers; estote viri, libertas agitur. The contention was hot in this land between prince and people for fourscore years together, about liberty and property; and ceased not till the great charter, made to keep the beam right between sovereignty and subjection, was in the maturity of a judicial prince, Edward I, freely ratified. {a}

{a} Dan., Hist. of Engl.

Ver. 21. And as for the people, he removed them.] So to alter tim propriety of their land, and to settle it upon Pharaoh; who with his own money had bought it. See his prudence and policy for his lord and master. So Daniel, though sick, did the king’s business with all his might. These were, as the philosopher saith, πεπραγωνοι ολοκληροι; few such now-a-days. Great need we have all to flee to Christ who "dwells with prudence"; {#Pr 8:12} as Agur did, when he found his own foolishness. It was he that made Aholiab wise-hearted.

Ver. 22. Only the land of the priests bought he not.] Ministers’ maintenance, we see, is of the law of nature. Jezebel provided for her priests; Micah for his Levite. "Do ye not know," saith that great apostle, "that they which minister about holy things, live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar, are partakers with the altar?" {#1Co 9:13} Where, by "holy things," St Ambrose understands the law of the Gentiles by "the altar," the law of the Jews. Before them both, Melchizedek, δεδεκατωκε, tithed Abraham; by the same right, whereby he blessed him. {#Heb 7:6} As after them, the apostle rightly infers, "Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." {#1Co 9:14} But where hath the Lord ordained it? "The workman is worthy of his meat," saith Matthew; {#Mt 10:10} "of his hire," saith Luke: {#Lu 10:7} of both, no doubt; as the labourers in harvest, who have better fare provided than ordinary, and larger wages. See Nehemiah’s zeal for church maintenance, #Ne 13:10,14. He knew well that a scant offering makes a cold altar; and that, ad tenuitatem beneficiorum necessario sequitur ignorantia sacerdotum; as in Ireland, where, in former time, some of the bishops had no more revenue than the pasture of two milk cows, &c. In the whole province of Connaught the stipend of the incumbent is not above forty shillings; in some places but sixteen shillings. {a} Melancthon {b} complains of his Germany, that the ministers for most part were ready to say with him in Plautus: Ego non servio libenter: herus meus me non habet libenter, tamen utitur me ut lippls oculis. Such use Micah made of his Levite; more fit to have made a Gibeonite, to cleave wood, than to divide the word; and yet he maintained him; and doubted not, thereupon, to promise himself God’s blessing. He is a niggard to himself, that scants his beneficence to a prophet; {#Mt 10:41} whose very cold water shall not go unrewarded. Many rich refuse to give anything to the minister’s maintenance; {c} because they cannot be tithed. But "be not deceived; God is not mocked," saith the apostle in this very case. "Let him that is taught in the word, communicate unto him that teacheth in all his goods." {#Ga 6:6,7} Such tribes as had more cities in their inheritance were to part with more to the priests: such as had fewer, with less. {#Nu 35:8} The equity of which proportion is still in force. The Jews, {d} at this day, though not in their own country, nor having a Levitical priesthood, yet those who will be reputed religious among them do distribute, in lieu of tithes, the tenth of their increase unto the poor: being persuaded that God doth bless their increase the more; according to that proverb of theirs, Tithe and be rich. But how is both the word and the world now altered among us? All is thought by the most to be well saved that is kept from the minister; whom to deceive is held neither sin nor pity. Fisco potius apud multos consulitur quam Christo, ac tonsioni potius gregis quam attentioni; as one complaineth, {e} Covetous patrons care not to sauce their meat with the blood of souls; while by them, et succus pecori, lac et subducitur agnis, { f} Besides, they bestow their benefices, non ubi optima, sed ubi quaestuosissime; being herein worse than these Egyptians, shall I say? nay, than the traitor Judas. He sold the head, they the members: he the shepherd, they the sheep; he but the body, they the souls; like that Romish strumpet, {#Re 18:13} of whom they have learned it. But let them look to it, lest they ruin their wages of wickedness, with Judas. In the meanwhile, let them give us a just commentary upon that in #Pr 20:25, and tell us who hath authority to take that, from a church, shall I say? nay, from God, that hath been once given him? We can tell them a sad story, of five servants of Cardinal Wolsey’s, employed by him, in tot piorum hominum donariis intervertendis, saith the annalist, {g} and came all to fearful ends. Two of them disagreed; and, challenging the field, one killed the other, and was hanged for it. A third drowned himself in a well. The fourth, from great riches, fell to extreme beggary and was starved with hunger. The last, one Dr Alan, being Archbishop of Dublin, was there cruelly murdered by his enemies. Now, if divine justice so severely and exemplarily pursued and punished these that converted those abused goods of the Church to better uses without question, though they looked not at that, but at the satisfying of their own greedy lusts, what will be the end of such sacrilegious persons as enrich themselves with that which should be their minister’s maintenance? Sacrum, sacrove commendatum qui clepserit rapseritque, parricida esto, said the Roman law. {h} It is not only sacrilege, but parricide, to rob the Church.

{a} Panormitan. Heyl., Geog., p. 524.

{b} Manlii, loc. com., 472.

{c} Perstringit tenaces. -Pareus.

{d} Godw., Heb. Antiq., 277.

{e} Episc. Winton.

{f} Virgil.

{g} Scultet., Annal., p. 332.

{h} Ex duod. tab.—Neand. Chron.

Ver. 23. Lo, seed for you, and ye shall sow.] This was the last of the seven years of famine: they might therefore sow "in hope." {#1Co 9:10} Spes alit agricolas.

Ver. 24. Ye shall give the fifth part.] {See Trapp on "Ge 47:19"}

Ver. 25. Let us find grace.] That is, Do us the favour to intercede for us to Pharaoh, that we may be his perpetual farmers, and hold of him. It seems that Pharaoh was no proper name, but common to the kings of Egypt; as Caesar, to the emperors of Rome; a title of honour, as His Majesty amongst us. Otherwise these poor people had been too bold with his name.

Ver. 26. Except the land of the priests only.] {See Trapp on "Ge 47:22"}

Ver. 27. Grew and multiplied exceedingly.] Here that promise in #Ge 46:3 began to be accomplished. God dies not in any man’s debt.

Ver. 28. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years.] So long he had nourished Joseph; and so long Joseph nourished him; paying his αντιθρεπτηρια to the utmost penny. These were the sweetest days that ever Jacob saw. God reserved his best to the last. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for," be his beginning and his middle never so troublesome, "the end of that man is peace." {#Ps 37:37} A Goshen he shall have, either here or in heaven.

Ver. 29. Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.] This he requested, partly to testify his faith concerning the Promised Land, heaven, and the resurrection; partly to confirm his family in the same faith; and that they might not be glued to the pleasures of Egypt, but wait for their return to Canaan; and partly also to declare his love to his ancestors, together with the felicity he took in the communion of saints.

Ver. 30. Bury me in their burying place.] That he might keep possession, at least by his dead body, of the Promised Land. There they would be buried, not pompously, but reverently, that they might rise again with Christ. Some of the fathers think that these patriarchs were those that rose corporally with him. {#Mt 27:53}

Ver. 31. And Israel bowed himself.] In way of thankfulness to God, framing himself to the lowliest gesture he was able; rearing himself up upon his pillow, "leaning" also "upon" his third leg, "his staff." {#Heb 11:21} In effaeta senecta, fides non effaeta.

Chapter 48

Ver. 1. Behold, thy father is sick.] And yet it was "Jacob have I loved." So, "Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." {#Joh 11:3} Si amatur, quomodo infirmatur? saith a father. Very well, may we say. The best, before they come to the very gates of death, pass oft through a very strait, long, heavy lane of sickness; and this in mercy, that they may learn more of God and depart with more ease out of the world. Such as must have a member cut off, willingly yield to have it bound, though it be painful; because, when it is mortified and deadened with strait binding, they shall the better endure the cutting of it off: so here, when the body is weakened and wasted with much sickness, that it cannot so bustle, we die more easily. Happy is he, saith a reverend writer, {a} that after due preparation is passed through the gates of death ere he be aware; happy is he that, by the holy use of long sickness, is taught to see the gates of death afar off, and addresseth for a resolute passage. The one dies like Enoch and Elijah; the other like Jacob and Elisha; both blessedly.

{a} Dr Hall, Contemp.

Ver. 2. And Israel strengthened himself.] Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat, saith Seneca; sure it is that the sight of a dear friend reviveth the sick. One man, for comfort and counsel, may be an angel to another; nay, as God himself. Such was Nathan to David; Bishop Ridley to King Edward VI; and that poor priest to Edward III, who, when all the king’s friends and favourites forsook him in his last agony, leaving his chamber quite empty, called upon him to remember his Saviour, and to ask mercy for his sins. This none before him would do, every one putting him still in hope of life, though they knew death was upon him. But now, stirred up by the voice of this priest, he showed all signs of contrition; and, at his last breath, expresses the name of Jesus. {a}

{a} Dan., Hist. of Engl., 255.

Ver. 3. God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz.] The truly thankful keep calendars and catalogues of God’s gracious dealings with them, and delight, to their last, to recount and reckon them up; not in the lump only, and by wholesale, as it were, but by particular enumeration upon every good occasion; setting them forth one by one, as here, and ciphering them up, as David’s word is. { רפס, #Ps 9:1} We should he like civet boxes, which still retain the scent when the civet is taken out of them. See #Ps 145:1,2 Ex 18:8.

Ver. 4. For an everlasting possession.] This is fully made good to the Israel of God, those heirs of heaven.

Ver. 5. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.] God hath in like sort adopted us for his dear children; saying, "I will be a Father unto them, and they shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." {#2Co 6:18} This St John calls a royalty or prerogative, {εξουσια, #Joh 1:12} such as he elsewhere stands amazed at. {#1Jo 3:1} And well he may; for all God’s children are "firstborn," and so "higher than all the kings of the earth." {#Ps 89:27} They "in the fulness of their sufficiency are in straits." {#Job 20:22} Whereas the saints, in the fulness of their straits, are in an all-sufficiency.

Ver. 6. After the name of their brethren.] That is, of Ephraim and Manasseh; as if they were not their brethren, but their sons. Thus Jacob transfers the birthright from Reuben to Joseph. {#1Ch 5:1,2}

Ver. 7. And I buried her there.] He could not carry her to the cave of Machpelah; and he would not bury her at Bethdehem among infidels. This he tells Joseph, to teach him and the rest not to set up their rest anywhere but in the land of Canaan.

Ver. 8. Who are these?] Here Jacob, seeing Joseph’s two sons, and now first understanding who they were, breaks off his speech to Joseph, till the two last verses of the chapter, and starts blessing his sons; teaching us to be "ready to every good word and work," {#Tit 3:1} laying hold of every hint that God puts into our hands, accounting it a mercy that we may have opportunity.

Ver. 9. They are my sons, whom God, &c.] The Lord Christ in like sort presents us to his heavenly Father with, "Here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me." {#Heb 2:13} Whereunto the Father replies, as Jacob here, Bring them now unto me, and I will bless them.

Ver. 11. I had not thought to see thy face.] God delights to outbid the hopes of his people, and to be better to them than their deserts, than their desires, yea, than their faith. {#Isa 54:2,3,12,14} As it is storied of a certain emperor, that he delighted in no undertakings so much as in those that his counsellors and captains held impossible: and he seldom miscarried. So God, #Ex 15:11.

Ver. 12. From between his knees.] That is, From between his father’s knees, that he might place them right to receive the blessing, presenting them again according to their age. This he did for the best; but "God only wise" had otherwise ordered it. We many times think we do well, when it proves much otherwise. "Lean not therefore to thine own understanding," saith the wise man; {#Pr 3:5} but make out to him that "dwells with prudence." {#Pr 8:12}

Ver. 13. Both, Ephraim in his right hand.] The right hand hath the pre-eminence of the left among most people: yet not so among the Turks; their soldiery especially. The right hand they hold uppermost ibr the clergy, and the left for a soldier: because it gives a man possession of his companion’s sword. Thus do both orders converse without the depression of either, saith mine author. {a}

{a} Sir Henry Blunt’s Voyage.

Ver. 14. Guiding his hands wittingly.] Cognoscebat palpando manibus suis, saith Junius: Intelligere fecit manus, saith Patens. An emphatical metaphor; as if he should say, Jacob with his eyes could not distinguish them, but his hands shall therefore do the office of his eyes. Bartolus {a} writes of Dr Gabriel Nele, that by the motion of the lips only, without any utterance, he understood all men; perceived and read in every man’s countenance what was his conceit. But that is far more credible, and no less admirable, that Jerome reports of Didymus of Alexandria; that though he had been blind of a little child, yet he was excellently skilled in all the liberal arts, and had written Commentaries upon the Psalms and Gospels, being at this time, saith he, eighty-three years of age. {b}

{a} Bartol., lib. i., De Ver. Oblig.

{b} Jerome, in Catalogo Virorum Illustrium.

Ver. 15. God, beforewhom my fathers did walk.] This is the highest praise that can be given to ancestors; this is the crown of all commendation, to have walked with God as a man walketh with his friend. This is better than a thousand escutcheons.

The God which fed me all my life long.] As a shepherd tends and feeds his sheep. {#Ps 23:1 80:1} Jacob looks beyond all second causes, and sees, as once at Bethel, God on the top of the ladder. {#Ge 28:12-15}

Ver. 16. The Angel which redeemed me.] Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, the Mediator of the New Testament, the Redeemer, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. "For we were not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the blood of Christ, as of a lamb undefiled." {#1Pe 1:19} Paul by that "freedom" {#Ac 22:28} escaped whipping: we, by this, the pain of eternal torment.

And let my name be named on them.] Lest any should think it to be some prejudice to them that they were born in Egypt, and of an Egyptian mother, he adopts them for his own.

Ver. 17. And when Joseph saw that, &c.] So great a prophet and diviner as Joseph was, in this was out in his judgment. He seeth not that man’s dignity is "not by works," or nature, but grace and "election." {#Ro 9:7,8,11,12}

Ver. 18. Not so, my father, &c.] Here are a couple of holy prophets differing in their judgments; yet not about the substance of the blessing, but the circumstance of it. Wonder not though such things still fall out in the true Church, and the doctors be likewise divided in points less material, and that touch not the foundation. Luther interprets those words of Christ, "This is my body," synecdochically; Calvin, metonymically. Hence the Jesuits straight cry out: The Spirit of God dissents not from itself; but these interpretations dissent one from another, therefore they are not of the Spirit. {a} Now it were easy to stop their foul mouths, by telling them of their own far worse differences. But is it not a doleful thing that we should, with those birds, aqnoscere in nostris vulneribus nostras pennas? "Brother goeth to law with brother, and that before infidels." {#1Co 6:6} This is the devil’s malice, to sow tares, &c. Christ came to destroy his works; yet never were so many possessed as about that time.

{a} See The Peace of Rome.

Ver. 19. And his father refused, and said.] Here are father and son divided in matter of ceremony, as Bishop Babington observeth. This hath been an ancient quarrel, from the very cradle of the Christian Church. The Jewish converts stood hard for a mixture of Christ and Moses. Their rites they called "the rudiments of the world"; {#Col 2:8} because they held them as needful as the four elements of the world; or as the first letters of the book, to school God’s people. Soon after, what a dispute was there among the primitive Christians, even unto blows and bloodshed, about the time of keeping Easter, and other like trifles and niceties! St Augustine complains, that in his time the Church, which the mercy of God would have to be at liberty, was woefully oppressed with many burdens and bondages this way; so that the condition of the Jews was in this respect more tolerable, for that they were held under by legal injunctions, and not by human presumptions. {a} What would this father have said to the following times, under the rise and reign of Antichrist? wherein the formality of God’s worship had utterly eaten up the reality of it, as Pharaoh’s lean kine did the fatter; and gotten out the very heart of it, as the ivy dealeth by the oak it grows on. Our heroic reformers, Luther, Zuinglius, &c., pruned and pared off these luxuriances for the most part; which caused John Hunt, a Roman Catholic, in his humble appeal to King James, thus to blaspheme:—The God of the Protestants is the most uncivil and ill-mannered God of all those who have borne the name of gods upon the earth; yea, worse than Pan, god of the clowns, which can endure no ceremonies, nor good manners at all. {b} But yet, what a grievous stir was there, about these indifferents, between Luther and Carolostadius, at Wittenberg; between the doctors of Magdeburg and Leipsic, Anno Dom. 1549; {c} and between Calvin {d} and his auditors of Geneva, about wafer cakes at the communion; insomuch as he was compelled to depart the city till he had yielded they should be used, though he never liked them, but could have wished it otherwise. Who knows not what jars and heart burnings were here between Ridley and Hooper, two godly bishops, in King Edward VI’s time, about cap and surplice. They could never agree till they met in prison; and then misery bred unity; then they could heartily bewail their former dissensions about matters of no more moment. Peter Martyr commends it to the care of Queen Elizabeth, {e} that church governors endeavour not to carry the gospel into England upon the cart of needless ceremonies. By his advice, among others, in King Edward VI’s days, some people contending for one image, some for another, the king took down all those Balaam’s blocks. And the very self-same day and hour wherein the Reformation enjoined by Parliament was put ia execution at London by burning of idolatrous images, the English put to flight their enemies in Musselburgh field, as Mr Fox hath well observed. {f}

{a} Queritur Aug. suo tempore Ecclesiam, quam misericormdia Dei esse liberam voluit & c.—Pareus, in #Mt 15:2.

{b} Dr Sheldon’s Mark of the Beast., ep. ded. Scultet. Annul.

{c} Alsted., Chron., p. 550.

{d} Beza, in Vita.

{e} Epist. 36, ad Reg. Elizabeth.

{f} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 20. And he set Ephraim before.] God many times sets the younger before the elder; makes the last to be first, and the first last; to show the freedom of his grace, and that "he seeth not as man seeth." {#1Sa 16:7} The maids were first purified and perfmned, before Ahasuerus chose one. But Christ first loves, and then purifies his Church, {#Eph 5:25,26} and loves, because he loves. {#De 7:7,8} "And hath mercy on whom he will have mercy." {#Ro 9:18}

Ver. 21. Behold, I die.] This was a speech of faith, uttered without the least fear, consternation, or dismayment. As it was no more betwixt God and Moses, but "Go up and die"; so betwixt God and Jacob, but "Behold, I die." Death, he knew, to him should neither be total, but of the body only; nor perpetual of the body, but for a season only. See both these set forth by the apostle, #Ro 8:10,11. The Chaldee Paraphrast on this text hath: Behold, I die; and the word of the Lord, i.e., Christ, shall be your help.

Ver. 22. I have given thee one portion.] Joseph had the double portion, as Judah the dignity, from Reuben; who had forfeited both by his incest. And here it appeareth that the right of the firstborn to a double portion was in force and in use before that law; {#De 21:17} as was also the Sabbath, circumcision, and the raising up seed to a deceased brother.

With my sword and with my bow.] That is, With the warlike weapons of my sons, Simeon and Levi, whose victory he ascribeth to himself; not as it was wickedly got by his sons, for so he disavows and detests it, {#Ge 49:5} but as by a miracle from heaven, the Canaanites were held in from revenging that slaughter, and made to fear his force and valour. The Chaldee Paraphrast expounds it metaphorically; I took it with my sword and my bow; hoc est, oratione et deprecatione mea, saith he; by my prayer and supplication. Prayers, indeed, are bornbardae et instrumenta bellica Christianorum, saith Luther; a Christian’s best arms and ammunition. The Jesuits pretend and protest that they have no other weapons or ways to work, but preces et lachrymas. Whereas it is too well known that they are the greatest incendiaries and boutefeux of Christendom, and their faction a most agile sharp sword, whose blade is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of every commonwealth; but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain.

Chapter 49

Ver. 1. Gather yourselves together.] This is Jacob’s swan-like song, {a} his last bequeath, his farewell to the world; and it is a most heavenly one. The wine of God’s Spirit is usually strongest and best at last in the hearts of his people: his motions, quickest when natural motions are slowest; most sensible when the body begins to be senseless most lively when holy men are dying. Look how the sun shines most amiably toward the descent and rivers, the nearer they draw to the sea, the sooner they are met by the tide: so it is with the saints when nigh to death; when grace is changing into glory, they deliver themselves usually to the standers-by most sweetly. So, besides Jacob, did Moses, Joshua, Paul, and he in whose one example is a globe of precepts, our Lord Jesus Christ, in that last heavenly sermon and prayer of his, #Joh 14:1-17:26 Whereunto let me add that faithful martyr, John Diazius, who was cruelly butchered by his own brother Alphonsus Diazius, and that merely for his religion. {See Trapp on "Ge 4:8"} I remember, saith Senarclaeus, his friend and bedfellow, who wrote the history of his death, when he and I were at Newburg, the very night before he was murdered, he prayed before he went to bed more ardently than ordinary, and for a longer time together. After which he spent a good part of the night in discoursing of the great works of God, and exhorting me to the practice of true piety. And truly I felt myself so inflamed and quickened by his words, that when I heard him discoursing, I thought I heard the Spirit of God speaking unto me. This, and much more, Senarclaeus writes to Bucer, {b} who at that time had employed Diazius to overlook the correct printing of a book of his that was then in the press.

That I may tell you that which shall befall you.] But how knew Moses this last speech of Jacob, being born so long after? Partly by revelation, and partly also by tradition. For the words of dying men are living oracles, and their last speeches are long remembered. And the accomplishment of all these prophecies in their due time, as the following scriptures show, adds much to the authority of Moses’s writings, and confirms them to be "faithful and true," as he saith, #Joh 21:24.

{a} Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis, Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor. -Ovid., Epist.

{b} Ego vero illius oratione sic incendebar, ut cum eum disserentem audirem, Spiritus sancti verba me audire existimarem. -Ibid.

Ver. 2. Hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken.] Draw up the ears of your souls to the ears of your bodies, that one sound may pierce both at once. "Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear": not only with that outward gristle that grows upon his head, but with his utmost intention of mind, attention of body, and retention of memory, and of practice also, He that hears the word of God, must hear as ff he did, for so he doth, hear for life and death; he must, as Jacob bids his sons, "hear and hearken."

Ver. 3. My might, and beginning of my strength.] Nate meae vires… The word here used signifieth the straining of the body forcibly to effect a thing much desired: such as was that of St Paul, {επεκτεινομενος, #Php 3:14} and that of Elijah, {#1Ki 18:42} when he prayed and prayed, as St James hath it, that is, with utmost intention of affection (προσευχη προσνυξατο, #Jas 5:17).

The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.] That is, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast, Excellens principatu et sacerdotio. Both these he forfeited and fell from; so cannot Christians. {#Re 1:6}

Ver. 4. Unstable as water.] Easily drawn to sin, and suddenly down from his dignity. Reuben, for a short sinful pleasure, lost great privileges and blessings. So do all epicures that lose heaven for a base lust, their souls for their sin. As Ambrose reports of one Theotinus, that having a diseased body, and told by the physician that unless he lived temperately he would lose his eyes; Vale lumen amicum, said he; if my eyes will not away with my lusts, they are no eyes for me. So here; men will have their swing in sin, whatever come of it. They may so, and for a time, hear no more of it; as Reuben did not for almost forty years after his incest was committed. But, quod defertur non statim aufertur. The heathen historian could see, and say, That, sooner or later, great sins will have great punishments from God. {a} Deus horrenda peccata horrendis poenis immutabiliter vindicat, saith Pareus on this text.

He went up to my couch.] The fact was so odious to Jacob, that, "abhorring" {#Ro 12:9, αποστυγουντες} the very thought of it, he turneth his speech from Reuben to the rest. Hate as hell that which is evil, saith Paul. And, as for "fornication, and all uncleanness, let it not be once named amongst you." {#Eph 5:3} Spit it out of your mouths, as the devil’s drivel.

{a} των μεγαλων αδικηματων μεγαλαι εισι και αι τιμωριαι παρα τους Θεους.

Ver. 5. Simeon and Levi are brethren.] Nobile par fratrum {a} not more in nature than in iniquity. Here Moses blancheth not over the blemishes of his progenitors, but wrote as he was inspired by the impartial Spirit of truth. If it could be said of Suetonius, {b} that in writing the lives of the twelve Caesars, he took the same liberty to set down their faults that they took to commit them; how much more truly may this be said of the holy penmen, they spared not themselves, much less their friends. See my "True Treasure," page 21.

Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.] Or, Are their swords. {c} Barbarous and brutish peraons they were; skilful to destroy. {#Eze 21:31} Such a one was Drusus, the son of Tiberius the Emperor; so set upon bloodshed that the sharpest swords were from him called in Rome, Drusians. {d} The Spaniards are said to try the goodness of their swords upon the bodies of the poor Indians: and they suppose, saith Sir Francis Drake, {e} that they show the wretches great favour, when they do not, for their pleasure, whip them with cords; and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon, which is one of their least cruelties.

{a} Horat. Metaphora et latens Antanaclasis. -Piscat.

{b} Ea libertate scripsit Imperatorum vitas, qua ipsi vixerunt.

{c} Mekerah הרכמ alii reddunt per Graecam vocem, Machoeroe eorum. Non incommode. -Pareus.

{d} ωστερ και τα οξυτατα των ξιφων Δρουσιανα απ αυτου κληθηναι.—Dio.

{e} The World Encomp., by Sir Fr. Drake, p. 53.

Ver. 6. O my soul, come not thou, &c.] Jacob here meaneth that neither should any, neither would he approve of their perfidy, saith an interpreter. And yet Thuanus writes that the Pope caused the massacre of Paris to be painted in his palace. Another of them highly extolled in his consistory the noble act of Clement the monk, that killed the king of France, comparing it with the work of creation, incarnation, &c. Friar Garnet, our chief gunpowder plotter, had his picture set among the rest of their saints, in the Jesuits’ Church at Rome. And Cornel. a Lapide, upon Apoc. vii. 3, crowns this traitor with fresh encomiastics. {a}

In their anger they slew a man.] Yea, many innocents; and then cried out, O rem regiam! as Valesius did when he had slain three hundred. O pulchrum spectaculum! as Hannibal, when he saw a pit full of man’s blood. Quam bonus est odor hostis mortui! as Charles IX, in the massacre of Paris; where they poisoned the Queen of Navarre; pistoled the Prince of Conde; murdered the most part of the peerless peers of France, their wives and children; with a great sort of the common people, in various parts of the realm, -thirty thousand in one month, three hundred thousand in the space of a year! Mohammed I, Emperor of the Turks, was thought, in his time, to have been the death of eighty thousand men. Selymus II, in revenge of the loss he had received at the battle of Lepanto, would have put to death all the Christians in his dominion, in number infinite. Mithridates, king of Pontus, with one letter, slew eighty thousand citizens of Rome in Asia, that were scattered up and down the country for traffic’s sake. It was the cruel manner of Uladus, prince of Wallachia, together with the offenders, to execute the whole family; yea, sometimes the whole kindred. {b} Did not these two brethren in sin do so, and worse?

{a} Jacob Revius, De Vitis Pont., p. 291. Gir. i. Apol. contra Jesuit.

{b} Answ. to Cathol. Supplic., by Gab. Powel, 885. Val. Max., lib. ix. Turk. Hist., fol. 363.

Ver. 7. Cursed be their anger.] Of the mischief of rash anger, and means to repress it. {See Trapp on "Ge 34:7"} See my "Commonplace of Anger."

I will divide them in Jacob.] A punishment suitable to their sin: they conspired to do mischief, and are therefore divided in Jacob. Of Simeon, Judas Iscariot is said to have come; who tumbled as a stone till he came to his place. Levi had his habitation among the other tribes; and this curse was afterwards turned to a blessing, when they were consecrated as priests, to preserve and present knowledge to their brethren, to "teach Jacob God’s judgments, and Israel his laws." {#De 33:9,10}

Ver. 8. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren.] All this is chiefly verified in Christ, and of him to be understood. In him is beauty, bounty, goodness, greatness, and whatsoever else is praiseworthy. He goeth forth riding on his white horse, "conquering and to conquer." {#Re 6:2} St Paul, his chief herald, proclaims his victory with a world of solemnity and triumph, {#1Co 15:55-57} and calls upon all his brethren to bow down before him, {#Php 2:10} as they do, {#Re 12:10} casting down their crowns at his feet, {#Re 4:10} and setting the crown upon his head, -as the manner was among the Romans, that the saved should crown their saviours, and honour them as their fathers all their lives long, being wholly at their service. {a} It was not without mystery that David did reverence to his son Solomon, when he was newly crowned; what would he have done, think we, to his Lord, as he calls Christ, {#Ps 110:1} had he been there in his royalty?

{a} Apud Romam siqui servati essent, solebant Servatorem suum coronare. Σεβεται δε τουτον, και παπα ολον τον βιον ο σωθεις ως πατερα και παντα δει τουτω ποιειν ως τω γονει.—Polyb., lib. vi.

Ver. 9. Judah is a lion’s whelp.] Many lionlike Lysimachusses came of this tribe, that, as Samson and David, first fought with lions, and then with their enemies; all which were types of that "Lion of the tribe of Judah," #Re 5:5. The devil is a roaring lion, Leo ωρυομενος, lies in wait {a} for the Church: but Christ, her invincible champion, is ever at hand for her help, {b} who is also Leo ο ρυομενος, as St Paul hath it, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, "that delivereth us from the wrath to come." {#1Th 1:10} And when this lion roareth, all creatures tremble. {#Am 3:8} St Ambrose tells us that when the lion puts forth his voice, many creatures that could outrun him are so astonished at the terror of his roars, that they are not able to stir from the place. And Isidore writeth, that the lion’s whelp, for the first three days after it comes into the world, lieth as it were asleep, and is afterwards roused and raised by the old lions’ roaring, which makes the very den to shake. Christ, at the last day, shall come with the voice of the archangel, and trump of God, &c. And then shall they "that sleep in the dust of death awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting horror and amazement." {#Da 12:2}

{a} In insidiis.

{b} In subsidiis.

Ver. 10. Until Shiloh come.] Shiloh is by some expounded, the son of his secundines. {a} The Hebrew word implies His son, and, Her son; that is, the son of the Virgin, that came of the line Judah. Secundines are proper to women. He therefore, whom Secundines alone brought forth, without help of man, is Christ alone, the promised seed. Others render Shiloh, Tranquillator, Salvator, the Safe maker, the Peace maker, the Prosperer. {b} This Prince of Peace was born in a time of peace, {c} not long after that Pompey had subdued Judea to the Roman government, and reduced it into a province. Then was the sceptre newly departed from Judah; and Herod, an Edomite, made king of the country.

And unto him shall the gathering of the people be.] As unto the standard bearer, {#So 5:10, marg.} the carcass, {#Mt 24:28} the desire of all nations (#Hag 2:7, with #Heb 12:25). Totus ipse desideria, saith the Church. {#So 5:16} And, "When I am lifted up," saith he, "I will draw all men after me." {#Joh 12:32} They follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth; as the hop and the heliotrope do the sun.

{a} Usque dum venturae erunt secundinae eius, id est, Iudae, ut masculinum genus in Heb. ostendit.

{b} A themate Shalah, unde Shaluah, tranquillitas; unde Lat. Salvere, Salvus, salvare.—Amama.

{c} Sub Augusto cuncta atque continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit, aut pactio. -Flor., Hist., lib. iv.

Ver. 11. Binding his foal unto the vine.] Vines shall be so plentiful, that as countrymen tie their asses to briers and shrubs, so shall Judah to the vines, that shall grow thick everywhere. Where Christ is set up in the power and purity of his ordinances, there is usually a confluence of all inward and outward comforts and contentments. He is the Cornucopia of both to his Church and chosen.

Ver. 12. His eyes shall be red, &c.] Wine and milk are used to signify plenty of spiritual blessings in heavenly things. {#Isa 55:1 25:6}

Ver. 13. Zebulun shall dwell, &c.] It is God that "appoints us the bounds of our habitations." {#Ac 17:26} Be content therefore; and although we have not all things to our minds, yet having God for our portion, let us cry out with David, "The lines are fallen unto me in a fair place," &c. Zebulun is placed by the sea side. Now shoremen are said to be horridi, immanes, latrociniis dediti, omnium denique pessimi. Hence the proverb, Maritimi mores. And hence, haply, that rash and harsh character, that Scaliger {a} gives of us, Angli perfidi, inflati, feri, contemptores, stolidi, amentes, inertes, inhospitales, immanes. His bolt, you see, saith one, {b} is soon shot; and so you may haply guess at the quality of the archer. Be it that our ancestors were such, yet the gospel hath civilised us at least, whatever the more be. Christ left Nazareth, and came and dwelt at Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. Ever since which, "the people which sat in darkness have seen a great light," &c. {#Mt 4:13,16} And when "Gilead abode beyond Jordan," and "came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty," Reuben was busy about his sheep, Dan about his "ships," Asher about "his breaches," &c. Zebulun and Naphtali are much commended for "a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field," {#Jud 5:16-18} that studied and promoted the public, more than their own particular interests. Oh, it is a brave thing to be of a public spirit, and to study God’s ends more than our own. Surely if God saw us to be such, we might have what we would, and God even think himseff beholden to us. Shall a heathen say, Non nobis solum nati sumus? &c. {c} And again, Mihi non minoris curae est, qualis resp. post meam mortem futura sit, quam qualis hodie sit? And shall Christians be all for themselves, looking only to their own things, and not to the things of one another, the common good of all especially? St Chrysostom upon those words "Not seeking mine own profit," &c., {#1Co 10:33} saith, that to seek the public good of the Church, and to prefer the salvation of others before his own safety and commodity, is the most perfect canon of Christianity, the highest pitch of perfection, the very top gallant of religion. {d} And, I could not but love the man, saith Theodosius the Emperor concerning Ambrose, who, when he died, Magis de Ecclesiarum statu, quam de suis periculis angebater, was more troubled for the Church’s troubles than for his own dangers. This made the same good emperor say that he knew none that deserved to be called a bishop but Ambrose. {e} He was called "the walls of Italy," whilst he lived: as when he died, Stilico the earl said, that his death did threaten the destruction of that whole country.

At the haven of the sea.] Zebulun and Issachar dwelling so conveniently for the purpose, and being for a haven of ships, as it here followeth, did "call the people" (foreigners) "to the mountain" of God. {#De 33:18,19} So, one of the Sibyls, Augustine {f} hopeth, might belong to the city of God: and so might direct others thither.

{a} Scal., De Re Poet., cap. 16.

{b} Heyl., Geog., p. 468.

{c} Cicero, Lael.

{d} τουτο κανων χριστιανισμου του τελειοτατου, τουτο ορος ηκριβωμενος, αυτη η κορυφη η ανωτατη, το τα κοινη συμφεροντα ξητειν.

{e} Αμβροσιον οιδα μονον επισκοπον αξιως καλουμενον.—Paulin. Nolan., in Vita Amb.

{f} De Civit. Dei, lib. xviii, cap. 23.

Ver. 14. Issachar is a strong ass, &c.] He so commends his strength, that, with it, he condemns his dulness. This Christ can so little abide, that he said even to Judas, "That thou doest, do quickly." God utterly refused an ass in sacrifice. The firstling of an ass must either be redeemed, or have his neck broke. Bellarmine gives the reason, and it is a very good one, quia tardum et pigrum animal, because it is a slow sluggish creature, segnis quasi seignls, without fire; slow to action, which God, who is himself a pure act spirit?, cannot abide.

Ver. 15. And he saw that rest was good.] He submitted to any burdens and hard conditions for a quiet life. This was a low poor spirit; and his posterity were, for the general, very unworthy and vile. For Issachar’s lot fell in Galilee. {#Jos 19:18, &c.} Now, doth "any good come out of Galilee?" The best that we read of them was that they "had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," {#1Ch 12:32} and were therefore in great account with David. But for action, it seems they were heavy-spirited, dull-mettled men; much like those "potters," mentioned in #1Ch 4:23, "that dwelt among plants and hedges"; the base brood of their degenerated forefathers in Babylon. "He, he, come forth, and flee from the land of the north," said the Lord unto them. {#Zec 2:6} Cyrus also had proclaimed liberty to all that would, to return to Jerusalem. But these dull drones, because they got a poor living by making pots for the king of Babylon, thought themselves well as they were, and chose rather to stay under the hedges of Babylon. These are res obsoletae, so Junius renders the text there; things worn out and forgotten; and indeed they deserve to be forgotten.

Ver. 16. Dan shall judge.] Here is an allusion to his name in the original; q.d., the Judger shall judge. This is a high honour, to sit in the seat of judicature, and no less a burden: Fructus honos oneris, fructus honoris onus. They that are called to this office must neither spare the great for might, nor the mean for misery; as they must have nothing to lose, so nothing to get neither; they must be above all price or sale; and straining out all self-affections, see to it that "justice, justice"—as Moses speaks, #De 16:20, marg.; that is, pure justice, without mud—run down as a mighty torrent.

Ver. 17. Dan shall be a serpent by the way.] He shall subtly set upon his enemies, and suddenly surprise them: as they did the men of Laish; and as Samson, of this tribe, did the Philistines. Moses saith, "Dan is a lion’s whelp." {#De 33:22} But when his lion’s hide would not serve his turn, he could piece it out with his fox skin or serpent’s slough; {a} he could, if not outfight his enemies, outwit them: and—

“… dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?”—Virg.

Of Decebalus, king of Dacians, it is reported, to his singular commendation, that he could, optime insidias facere, proelium committere, optime uti victoria, et acceptam cladem ferre moderate. {b} All which were the parts and points of an excellent warrior.

{a} Leoninae pelli vulpinam assuere.

{b} καλως μεν νικη χρησασθαι, καλως δε και ητταν διαθειναι—Dio, in Vita Domit.

Ver. 18. I have waited for thy salvation.] A sudden and sweet ejaculation; either, as, feeling himself faint and spent with speaking, he desires to be dissolved, and so to be freed from all infirmities; or else, foreseeing the defection of this tribe to idolatry, and their many miseries thereupon, he darts up this holy desire to God for them, and himself in them. Good Nehemiah is much in these heavenly ejaculation: and the ancient Christians of Egypt were wont to use very short and frequent prayers, saith Augustine; {a} lest, in longer, their fervour of affection should suffer diminution. "Why criest thou unto me?" saith God to Moses. {#Ex 14:15} This was but a sudden desire darted up.

{a} Ne per moras evanesceret et hebetaretur oratio. -Aug.

Ver. 19. Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but.] This is every good Christian’s case in the spiritual warfare; he conquers, {#Joh 16:33} but comes to it through many conflicts and counter buffs. He "made war upon the saints, and overcame them": {#Re 13:7} for a season it may be, according to human conceit howsoever. But "they conquered and overcame him," according to the truth of the thing, "by the blood of the Lamb," {#Re 12:11} in whom they do overcome, and "are more than conquerors." {#Ro 8:37} This was fulfilled in the tribe of Gad. {#1Ch 5:18-20}

Ver. 20. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat.] The "heart of the wheat," as the psalmist hath it. {#Ps 81:16} Or, choicest bread corn. Moses expoundeth this; Asher shall "dip his foot in oil." {#De 33:24} That is, he shall dwell in "the horn of the son of oil," as the expression is. {#Isa 5:1, marg.} Or in a very fruitful corn country, which was a singular blessing, according to his name, which signifieth bliss and happiness.

He shall yield dainties for a king.] Kings use to feed of the finest. {a} Yet of Augustus we read, that he was never elaborate in his diet; but content with ordinary and common food. He never drank but thrice at one meal, and lived near fourscore years. Queen Elizabeth of England did seldom eat but one sort of meat, rose ever with an appetite, and lived about seventy years: King Edward VI called her by no other name than his "sweet sister Temperance." Contrarily, Sulla the Roman dictator, by surfeiting and banqueting, at last got a most miserable disease, and died full of lice. Surfeiters either dig their graves with their own teeth (the Grecians called the intemperate, ασωτους quasi ασωστους, as wanting health), or else they come to some untimely end, by the just judgment of God; as those monstrous epicures, Caligula, Heliogabalus, Geta the Emperor, who was served in with dainties by the alphabet. One while he would have anserem, anatem, aprum; another time he would have phasianum, farra, ficus; sometime again, pullum, pavonem, perdicem, porcellum, piscem, perham, & c. This was one of those Caesars who got nothing by their honour, but ut citius interficerentur.

{a} Newlander’s Cure, by Sir Edward Vaughan. Camd., Elisab. Sabellic. Aenead., ii. Plures pereunt gula quam gladio, lancibus quam lanceis, crapula quam capulo, & c.—Heidfeld. Bauson., lib. iii. cap. 1.

Ver. 21. Naphtali is a hind let loose.] Swift of foot; and which, when it flieth, looketh behind it, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast on #So 8:14. This was fulfilled in Barak of this tribe, who "went up on his feet" against Sisera’s iron chariots, {#Jud 4:6,10,15,16} which were first a terror, and afterwards a scorn, as Vegetius {a} saith of chariots, armed with scythes and hooks. Origen observes, that in all the victories God gave his people in Canaan, he never used the help of horses. The adversaries, both Egyptians and Canaanites, had chariots and horses: not so Israel. A horse is a warlike creature, full of terror, {#Job 39:19 Pr 21:31} so swift, that the Persians, as Pausanias {b} hath it, dedicates him to their god the sun; as the swiftest creature, to the swiftest god. But what saith David? "A horse is a vain thing for safety." {#Ps 33:17} And to the same purpose, Solomon: "A horse is prepared for the day of battle; but," when all is done, "salvation is of the Lord." {#Pr 21:31} This, Barak, with his friend Deborah, found, and celebrated in that famous song. {#Jud 5}

He giveth goodly words.] In the aforesaid song, Christ also began to utter his words of grace in the land of Naphtali. {#Mt 4:13} And this is the reason, that as, of the children by Leah’s side, Judah obtained the first place among those that were sealed, {#Re 7:5} because Christ sprang of him; so, of those on Rachel’s side, Naphtali is first named, because there he dwelt at Capernaum where he had hired a house and preached, ut ubique superemineat Christi praerogativa, saith a learned interpreter, {c} Compare with this text #De 33:23, and then observe, that good words do ingratiate with God and men.

{a} Veget., lib. i. cap. 24.

{b} ωαπερ ταχιστον τω ταχυρατω θεων.—Paus.

{c} Medes, in Apocalyps.

Ver. 22. Joseph is a fruitful bough.] Of the vine, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast. But it may be, Jacob meant it of the Egyptian fig tree, whereof Solinus reporteth that it beareth fruit seven times in the year; pull one fig, and another presently puts forth, saith he. {a}

{a} Uno anno septies fructus sufficit. Unde pomum decerpseris, alterum sine mora protuberat. -Solin.

Ver. 23. The archers have sorely grieved him.] These were his barbarous brethren, that sold him; his adulterous mistress, that, harlot-like, hunted for his precious life; his injurious master, that, without any desert of his, imprisoned him; the tumultuating Egyptians, that, pined with hunger, perhaps, "spoke of stoning him," as #1Sa 30:6; and the envious courtiers and enchanters, that spoke evil of him before Pharaoh, to bring him out of favour, as the Jerusalemy Targum addeth. All these "arrow masters," as the Hebrew here hath it, set against Joseph, and shot at him as their butt-mark; willing to have abused him, but that God’s grace, providence, and unchangeable decree (called here Joseph’s "bow" and "strength," #Ge 49:24) would not permit them; as those cruel Turks did one John de Chabas, a Frenchman, at the taking of Tripolis in Barbary. They brought him into the town; and when they had cut off his hands and nose, put him alive into the ground, up to the waist, and there, for their pleasure, shot at him with their arrows, and afterwards cut his throat. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 756.

Ver. 24. But his bow abode in strength.] He "gave not place to them by subjection, no, not for an hour." {#Ga 2:5} "If thou faint in adversity, thy strength is small," saith Solomon. {#Pr 24:10} Joseph did not; but, as it was said of old Rome, Roma cladibus animosior; and as of Mithridates, {a} he never wanted courage or counsel, when he was at the worst; so neither did Joseph. Virtus lecythos habet in malis. The sound heart stands firm under greatest pressures. {#2Co 1:9,12} Whereas, if a bone be broke, or but the skin rubbed up and raw, the lighest load will be troublesome. Hang heavy weights upon rotten boughs, they presently break. But Joseph’s were green, and had sap.

By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.] It was said of Achilles, that he was Styge armatus; but Joseph was Deo forti armatus, and thence his safety. He used lfis bow against his adversaries, as David did his sling against Goliath. He slung, saith Bucholcer, perinde ac si fundae suae tunicis non lapillum, sed Deum ipsum induisset ac implicuisset, as if he had wrapped up God in his sling.

{a} το φρονημα ην αυτω δει, καν ταις ρυμφοραις.—Plut.

Ver. 25. Who shall help thee.] God hath, God shall, -is an ordinary way of arguing; it is a demonstration of Scripture logic, as #Ps 85:1-4 2Co 1:10. Every former favour is a pledge of a future.

With blessings of heaven above, &c.] God "shall hear the heaven, the heaven shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, wine, and oil": the genealogy of all which is resolved into God. {#Ho 2:21,22}

With blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.] Yet rather than "Ephraim shall bring forth children to the murderer," the prophet prays God to give them, as a blessing, as some think, "a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts." {#Ho 9:13,14} And our Saviour saith, "Woe be to such as are with child, and give suck in those days" of war and trouble. {#Mt 24:19}

Ver. 26. Above the blessings of my progenitors.] Chiefly because Jacob pointed them out the particular tribe whereof, and the very time wherein, Shiloh should come. This mystery was made known to the Church, not all at once, but by degrees. Adam was told "the seed of the woman should break," &c.; but whether Jew or Gentile, he heard not a word. Abraham, the Hebrew, long after was certified that "in his seed all nations should be blessed"; but of what tribe Christ should come, till now, the world never heard. After this, David was made to know that Christ should be a male; but that he should be born of a virgin was not known till Isaiah’s time. Thus God crumbles his mercies to mankind; and we have his blessings by retail, saith one, to maintain trading and communion betwixt him and us. So the cloud empties not itself at a sudden burst, but dissolves upon the earth, drop after drop.

Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.] "Spiritual blessings in heavenly things," {#Eph 1:3} whereof those temporals afore promised were but types and pledges. Whence David doubts not to argue from temporals to spirituals. {#Ps 23:5,6} God in the Church’s infancy fed them and led them along by earthly to heavenly blessing, speaking unto them as they could hear.

Ver. 27. Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf.] There are that think that this ought to be applied to St Paul the Benjamite; {a} who while he was Saul, not content to consent to St Stephen’s death, -though it be all one to hold the sack, and to fill it; to do evil, and to consent unto it, -"he made havoc of the Church," like a ravening wolf; "entering into houses also, and haling men and women to prison." Yea, he lies "breathing out threatenings and slaughter," {#Ac 9:1} panting and windless, as a tired wolf: and, having recovered himself, is marching toward Damascus for more prey, but, met by the chief Shepherd, of a wolf, he is made a lamb, {#Isa 11:6} not once opening his mouth, unless it were to crave direction; "What wilt thou have me to do Lord?" After which time, he never persecuted the saints so fast, as now he pursues and "presses" hard {διωκω, #Php 3:14} "toward the high prize"; and as mad every whit he is thought to be for Christ, as ever he was against him. {#2Co 5:13 Ac 26:11} The Papists, some of them, have censured him for a hot-headed person, and said that there was no great reckoning to be made of his assertions. Is this blasphemy in the first or second table, say you? Porphyry, the philosopher, could say, that it was pity such a man as Paul was cast away upon our religion. And the monarch of Morocco told the English ambassador in King John’s time, that he had lately read Paul’s Epistles, which he liked so well, that were he now to choose his religion, he would, before any other, embrace Christianity. But every one ought, said he, to die in his own religion: and the leaving of the faith wherein he was born, was the only thing that he disliked in that apostle. {b}

{a} Sunt qui autumant hanc prophetiam Paulo applicari debere. -Bez., Annot. ad #Ac 8:3.

{b} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig. Heyl., Geog., p. 714.

Ver. 28. Blessed them; every one according, &c.] These hard blessings, to some of them especially, hindered not the covenant. Still they were patriarchs, and heirs of the promises. Afflictions, how sharp soever, show us not to be castaways. If a man should be baited, and used as a dog or a bear, yet so long as he hath human shape and a reasonable soul, he will not believe he is either dog or bear. Let not crosses cause us to take up hard thoughts of God, or heavy thoughts of ourselves, as if out of his favour; but account it a mercy rather, that we may scape so; and be "judged" here "of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world." {#1Co 11:32} Jacob is here said to have blessed all his sons. He rather seemed to curse some of them. And for his well-beloved Benjamin, Parum auspicata et honorifica videtur haec prophetia, saith Pareus. But because they were not rejected from being among God’s people, -as Ishmael and Esau were, for less faults perhaps, -though they were to undergo great and sore afflictions, they are said to be blessed, yea, and they shall be blessed, as Isaac said to his whining son, Esau.

Ver. 29. I am to be gathered, &c.] That is, I am now going to heaven; whereof being so well assured, what wonder though he were so willing to die? "I know that my Redeemer liveth," saith Job; "I know whom I have trusted," saith Paul. And what shall become of my soul when I die, let him see to it, who laid down his life for it, saith Luther. {a} Death may kill me, but cannot hurt me, said another. {b} This assurance of heaven is, as Mr Latimer calls it, the deserts of the feast of a good conscience. There are other dainty dishes in this feast, but this is the banquet.

{a} Ipse viderit, ubi anima mea mansura sit qui pro ea sic sollicitus fuit, ut vitam pro ea posuerit. —- Luth.

{b} Occidere potest, laedere non potest.

Ver. 30. In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah.] Mercer thinketh that this cave is here so copiously described by Jacob, lest, after so many years’ absence in Egypt, any of them should have forgotten it. As also, lest they should doubt or fear that any one would claim it from them, or not permit them quiet possession thereof.

Ver. 31. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, &c.] It is observed by an interpreter, that these here mentioned, and Jacob himself the sixth, buried in one grove, the first letters of all their names are contained in that one name, Israel. Whether these here buried were those that rose with our Saviour Christ, were seen in the holy city, and accompanied him to heaven at his ascension, I have not to say, though some have held it.

Ver. 32. The purchase of the field, &c.] {See Trapp on "Ge 49:30"}

Ver. 33. He gathered up his feet.] He quietly composed himself, as it were, to sleep in Jesus. He had stretched out himself before, saith Musculus, as well as he could, for reverence to the word of God, which he delivered, &c.

And was gathered unto his people.] To "the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven." {#Heb 12:23} In Jerusalem, records were kept of the names of all the citizens. {#Ps 87:5} So is it in heaven, where Jacob is now a denizen.

Chapter 50

Ver. 1. And Joseph fell upon his father’s face.] As willing to have wept him alive again, if possible; yet more moderate than his father had been in the supposed death of him by an evil beast devouring him. But of mourning for the dead. {See Trapp on "Ge 23:9"}

Ver. 2. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians.] Physicians, {a} it seems, were formerly of no great esteem; perhaps it was because, through ignorance, they many times officiously killed their patients. We know who it was that cried out upon his death bed, Many physicians have killed the emperor. {b} And it is grown to a proverb, No physician can be his craftsmaster, till he have been the death of thirty men. {c} The Egyptians, to prevent this mischief, appointed fox every ordinary disease, a several physician; enjoining them to study the cure of that only. And till then, the fashion was to lay the sick man at his door, where every passenger was bound to inquire the nature of his disease; that if either himself or any within his knowledge had recovered of the like, he might tell by what means, or stay to make trial of that skill he had upon the patient. {d} Physic is, without question, the ordinance of God. {#Ex 21:19} He styles himself, "Jehovah Rophe," {#Ex 15:26} the Lord the physician. And a physician is more worth than many others, saith the heathen poet. {e} Use them we must, when there is need, {#Mr 2:17 1Ti 4:4} but not idolise them, as #2Ch 16:12.

And the physicians embalmed Israel.] According to the custom of that country; concerning which, he that will see more, may read in Herodotus and Pliny. {f} This custom continued also in after ages, as well among Jews as Gentiles. But the devil turned it, in time, into most vain superstition, both among the Greeks, whom Lucian frequently jeers for it, and among the Latins; witness that of Ennius, Tavquinii corpus bona faemina lavit, et unxit. Joseph embalmed his father’s corpse, partly to honour {#2Ch 16:14 21:19} him with this solemnity; and partly to preserve him for so long a journey; but principally to testify his faith of the resurrection, and that incorruption he hoped for at the last day. Some think the apostle hath relation to this, in that #1Co 15:29, and they read it thus; "Why do they then wash—βαπτιζονται, voce media —- over the dead?" Compare #Ac 9:37.

{a} Θεραπευω, famulor, curo, remedium morbo adhibeo.

{b} πολλοι ιατροι κατεκτειναν τον βασιλεα.—Adrian Imp.

{c} Tritum est, nullum medicum esse peritum, nisi triginta homines Orco demiserit. "Farewell, Physic," was Chaucer’s motto.

{d} Olim exponebatur aeger obvio cuilibet sanandus. -Plutarch. Herodot., lib. i.

{e} Ιατηρ δ ανηρ πολλων ανταξιος αλλων.—Hom.

{f} Herodot., Euierpe. Plin., lib. xi. cap. 27.

Ver. 3. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.] Longer than Joseph mourned; they did it through "ignorance," and as men "without hope"; for both which, see #1Th 4:13. Joseph could look through his own loss, and see his father’s gain beyond it. Besides, he could say, as Jerome {a} in like case, Tulisti, Domine, patrem, quem ipse dederas: Non coutristor quid recepisti; ago gratias, quod dedisti. And if epicures could comfort themselves in their greatest dejections, ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione; { b} how much more could Joseph now; not only by calling to mind this last seventeen years’ enjoyment of his dear father, beyond all hope and expectation; but chiefly, that happy change his father had made, from darkness to light, from death to life, from sorrow to solace; from a factious world, to a heavenly habitation, where he drinks of that torrent of pleasure, without let or loathing.

{a} Jerome, ad Julian.

{b} Cic., De Finib., lib. ii.

Ver. 4. Speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh.]. He spake not to the king himself, but set others to work. Not because he was fallen out of favour, for he had the happiness to be favourite to five kings, {a} Onus, Amasis, Chebron, Amenophes, and Mephiris, in the eleventh year of whose reign he died, -but because he was now a mourner; and such were not wont to come before kings, {#Es 4:2} though none but such as mourn are suffered to come before God. {#Mt 5:4}

{a} Pareus.

Ver. 5. In my grave which I have digged for me.] A usual thing of old. {#2Ch 16:14 Mt 27:60} {See Trapp on "Ge 23:9"} Quintillus Plautianus, an ancient senator of Rome, in the days of Severus the Emperor, being wrongfully accused and condemned to die, desired before his death to see those things that he had long since laid by for his burial; {a} which when he saw to be little worth with long lying, Quid hoc rei est? inquit; itane cunctati sumus? What a thing is this? said he. Have we made no more haste to die than so? {b}

{a} Postulavit, ut ea quae ad sepulturam suam comparaverat, &c.

{b} τι τουτο εβραδυνωμεν.—Dio.

Ver. 6. As he made thee swear.] Oaths must be religiously kept, even those that are private, betwixt friend and friend. For, although whatsoever is more than yea and nay, in our ordinary communication, is evil, {#Mt 5:37} yet a private oath, as betwixt Boaz and Ruth, so it be sparingly and warily used, is not unlawful. For in serious and weighty affairs, if it be lawful in private to admit God as a judge, why may he not as well be called to witness and to avenge? But this only in case of necessity, when yea and nay will not be taken.

Ver. 7. And with him went up all the servants.] That is, most of them, as #Mt 3:5. In doing the patriarch this honour, they stand renowned for thankful men; and such, saith one, are worth their weight in gold. "Blessed be he of the Lord, who leaveth not off his kindness to the living and to the dead." {#Ru 2:20} But how base was Bonner, that railed so bitterly against his patron Cromwell, whose creature he had been, after his death; calling him the rankest heretic that ever lived, and that it had been good he had been despatched long ago! {a} And Cardinal Pool played the unworthy man, in having an intent to take up King Henry VIII’s body at Windsor, and to have burned it. {b} This the Papists did to Paulus Phagius, a learned German, that died at Cambridge, being sent for over by King Edward VI. And although they never heard him speak—for he died soon after his coming into the realm, having not time either to dispute or preach here—yet they unburied him, and burnt his bones. {c} Of all birds, we most hate and detest crows; and of all beasts, those called jackals, a kind of foxes in Barbary: because the one digs up the graves and devours the flesh; the other picks out the eyes of the dead. {d}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1089.

{b} Ibid., 1905.

{c} Ibid., 1789.

{d} Featly’s Transubstantion Exploded, 219.

Ver. 8. Only their little ones.] And some to look to them.

Ver. 9. A very great company.] This was for the honour of Jacob at his death, whose greatest care had been to honour God in his whole life.

Ver. 10. And he made a mourning for his father.] Not seventy days, as those infidels did, #Ge 50:3. But why mourned he at all, since God had signified his will? So far forth as something concurs with God’s will that is grievous to us, we may mourn moderately without offence.

Ver. 11. Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.] A gracious providence of God, as Piscator well observeth, that for the confirmation of the Israelites’ faith, when they were to pass over Jordan, and afterwards, there should be a standing monument there of the transportation of Jacob’s body out of Egypt into Canaan, for burial’s sake. Thus, "all things work together for good to God’s beloved." {#Ro 8:28}

Ver. 15. Joseph will peradventure hate us.] An ill conscience, we are sure, still haunts them as a hell-hag, and fills them with unquestionable conviction and horror. Better be langold tied to a lion than to an unquiet conscience. {See Trapp on "Ge 4:14"} {See Trapp on "Ge 42:21"} Such take no more rest than one upon a rack or bed of thorns. There were not many to kill Cain besides his father and his mother, and yet he cries, "Every one that finds me," &c.

Ver. 16. Thy father did command, &c.] It is a just question, whether there were ever a true word of all this. For Jacob, probably, never knew how ill they had used Joseph, as is above said. But if this had been his command howsoever, as they pretend, would not Jacob have spoken himself for them to Joseph before he died? "Fear of man" causeth lying, {#Zep 3:13} and so "brings a snare to the soul." {#Pr 29:25}

Ver. 17. Forgive, I pray thee now.] In this case a man is bound, not only to let fall all wrath and desire of revenge, but to make a solemn profession of hearty forgiveness. {#Lu 17:4} If the wrongdoer say, "I repent," you must say, "I forgive," as ever you hope to be forgiven of God. Our Saviour {#Lu 11:4} seems to make our forgiving our trespassers the intervenient cause—that which they call, sine qua non -of God’s forgiving us. Mark this, lest we be constrained to do, as Latimer reports of some in his days, that being not willing to forgive their enemies, would not say their pater noster, lest they should therein curse themselves, but instead thereof, took their lady psalter in hand, because they were persuaded that, by that they might obtain forgiveness of favour ex gratis without the putting of so hard a condition as forgiveness of their enemies.

For they did unto thee evil.] Joseph had long ago seen their sorrow; never, till now, heard their confession, and is abundantly satisfied. Think the same of God. Do but confess, and he must forgive, upon his faithfulness. {#1Jo 1:9} In the courts of men, it is the safest plea, saith Quintilian, to cry, Non feci; not so here. "Take away the iniquity of thy servant," saith David and to prove himself so, he adds, "For I have done foolishly." {#2Sa 24:10} Acknowledge the debt, and God will forthwith cross the book.

Forgive the trespass of the servants of the God, &c.] Nothing should more persuade to unity than religion. {#Eph 4:3-5} Others may cleave together, as the clay in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, but the saints only incorporate into each other.

Ver. 18. Behold, we be thy servants.] Oh that God might hear such words fall from us, prostrate at his feet! How soon would he take us up and embrace us! Deus redire nos sibi, non perire, desiderat, saith Chrysologus; φοβειθαι βουλεται ου φονευσαι, saith Basil; suffundere sanguinem quam effundere, saith Tertullian. I agnized my sin, and the amends was soon made, saith David. {#Ps 32:5}

Ver. 19. Am I in the place of God?] q.d., Can I hurt you when God intends good to you? Is it for me to cross his decree?

Ver. 20. But God meant it unto good.] God altereth the property, as of his people’s sufferings, which in themselves are the fruit of sin and a piece of the curse, so of their misdoings, which also he turns to the best unto them and others; according to that sweetest text, #Ro 8:28.

Ver. 21. I will nourish you.] To requite your kindness, that consulted to starve me in the waterless pit. This was a noble way of revenging; this was heroical, and fit for Christian imitation. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." {#Ro 12:20}

Ver. 22. And Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.] Fourscore of these he lived in great wealth, and all of them, perhaps, in very good health; as Pliny {a} reports of one Xenophilus, that he lived a hundred and five years without sickness, which yet was a rare thing, and few men’s happiness.

{a} Plin., lib. vii. cap. 5.

Ver. 23. Brought up upon Joseph’s knees.] Who with great joy danced and dandled them. So God is said to do his people, {#De 33:3} as some understand it. {a}

{a} Pedibus suis inservit. Metaph. a parentibus qui filiolos suos quos charos habent, sic tractant. -Cartw., Hist. Christi. Sic Shindler. Buxtorf.

Ver. 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die.] A sad saying to them, poor souls. For now began their misery and slavery in Egypt. When Epaminondas died, his whole country died with him; the Thebans were never after known by their victories, but by their overthrows. When Augustus died, the sun seemed to the Romans to fall from heaven: such an alteration presently followed in that state. When Louis XII departed this world, saith Budaeus, {a} he that erewhile seemed to touch heaven with his finger, lay grovelling, as if he had been thunderstruck. All Israel’s prosperity died with Josiah; and so did their liberty and worldly felicity with Joseph. His nephews, the Ephraimites, attempted, before the time, their own deliverance, not long after Joseph’s death, even while their father Ephraim was yet alive, but with ill success, to his great grief and regret. {#1Ch 7:22 Ps 78:9} Hasty work seldom ends well: how this of mine will do, I know not, made up, as it might be, in little more than four month’s space, amidst manifold fears and distractions, at spare hours; and bearing date from mine enlargement, July the llth, Anno Dom. 1643, that happy day that saw me both a prisoner and a free man, by the good hand of my God upon me; to whom be glory and praise for ever. As for this my book, made {b} purposely to testify my thankfulness to God, mine Almighty Deliverer, and to those whom he was pleased to use as instruments of my much endeared liberty; such as it is, Εχετε, κρινατε; as he said of his rhetoric: and, if I shall cast in my verdict,

“ Cum relego, scripsisse pudet, quia plurima cerno,

Me quoque, qui scripsi iudice, digna lini.” {c}

{a} Qui prius digito coelum attingere videbantur, nunc humi de

repente serpere sideratos esse diceres. -Bud.

{b} See mine Epist. Dedicat. set before my Com. on the Four

Evangel.

{c} Ovid., De Pont., eleg. i. 6.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50