Leviticus

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. And the Lord called.] A continuation of the former history, from the rearing of the tabernacle to the numbering of the people; being the history of one month only.

Ver. 2. Bring an offering.] Whereby they were led to Christ; as the apostle showeth in that excellent Epistle to the Hebrews, which is a just commentary upon this book.

Ver. 3. Burnt sacrifice.] A whole burnt offering, {#Heb 10:6} purporting whole Christ suffering for us, {#Isa 53:12} and our sacrificing our whole selves to him as a "reasonable service." {#Ro 12:1}

Ver. 4. And he shall put his hand.] As acknowledging his own guilt, and transferring the same upon Christ, resting upon him with full assurance of faith, handfasting us unto him.

Ver. 5. And he shall kill the bullock.] The priest shall kill it: for it was death for any man to offer his own sacrifice. So it is still for any to come to God, otherwise than in and by Christ.

Ver. 6. And he shall flay the burntoffering.] To show the grievousness of our Saviour’s sufferings; the cruel usage of his suffering saints; {#Mic 3:3 Heb 11:35} and the duty of all that have benefit by him, to flay off the old man with his deceitful lusts, {#Eph 4:22} dealing thereby as the Turk dealt by him that betrayed the Rhodes. He presented unto him his promised wife and portion; but with it told him that he would not have a Christian to be his son-in-law; and therefore caused his baptized skin, as he called it, to be flayed off, and him to be cast into a bed strawed with salt, that he might get a new skin. {a} See #Mr 9:49.

{a} Leunclavius.

Ver. 7. Fire upon the altar.] That fire from heaven {#Le 9:24} -which the heathens apishly imitated in their vestal fire—typing either the scorching wrath of God seizing upon Christ, or the ardent love of Christ to his, and their zeal for him.

Ver. 8. In order upon the wood.] Showing that ministers must rightly divide, and dispose the word of God, {#2Ti 2:15} and evidently set forth Christ crucified. {#Ga 3:1}

Ver. 9. Shall he wash.] Shadowing Christ’s perfect purity {#Heb 7:26} and our entire sanctification. {#Eze 26:19 Heb 10:22}

Of a sweet savour unto the Lord.] The burning and broiling of the beasts could yield no sweet savour; but thereto was added wine, oil, and incense, by God’s appointment, and then there was a savour of rest in it. Our prayers, as from us, would never please; but as indited by the Spirit, and presented by Christ, they are highly accepted in heaven.

Ver. 10. A male without blemish.] But "cursed be the deceiver that hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto God a corrupt thing." {#Mal 1:14}

Ver. 11. On the side of the altar northward.] Not eastward, as the heathen sacrifices: or to note the obscurity of the legal ceremonies.

Ver. 12. In order.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:8"}

Ver. 13. He shall wash.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:9"}

Ver. 14. Turtle doves, or young pigeons.] Old turtles and young pigeons are the best: God must have the very best of the best, as being best worthy.

Ver. 15. Wring off his head.] Or, Pinch it with his nail, that the blood might go out, without separating it from the rest of the body. This prefigured the death of Christ without either breaking a bone or dividing the Godhead from the manhood; as also the skill that should be in ministers, to cut or divide aright the word of truth.

Ver. 16. His crop with his feathers.] Or, The maw with the filth thereof—that is, the guts which receive the filth sent unto them from the maw—was plucked out, and the blood strained at the side of the altar. This signified those clots of blood wrung from our Saviour before his oblation upon the cross.

Ver. 17. And he shall cleave it.] That the inward part might be laid on the fire. See #Ps 51:18,19 Mr 12:33.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. Of fine flour.] No quantity is here prescribed, because it was a freewill offering: only it must be fine, no bran in it: to show the purity of Christ’s sacrifice, {#Heb 7:26} and of our services through him, {#Mal 3:11} by means of the oil of his Spirit and incense of his intercession.

Ver. 2. Shall burn the memorial of it.] Whereby God was reminded, as it were, of the party offering, and acknowledging all his store to be from God.

Ver. 3. Shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.] As meat for them. Hence it was called a meat offering; and sent them to Christ, the meat that endureth unto life everlasting. {#Joh 6:27}

Ver. 4. Unleavened cake of fine flour mingled with oil.] Sincerity is the mother of serenity; truth, of tranquillity.

Ver. 5. Baken in a pan.] Afterwards parted in pieces, and oil poured upon it: signifying the graces of God’s Spirit wherewith Christ was fully anointed within and without, {#Ps 45:8} and wherewith we should be tempered and anointed. {#1Jo 2:27 2Co 1:21}

Ver. 6. And pour oil thereon.] Jacob was the first we read of that consecrated his offerings with oil. {#Ge 28:18} Probably he had it from his predecessors.

Ver. 7. Baken in the frying pan.] So, My heart is frying of a good matter, saith David. {#Ps 45:1}

Ver. 8. He shall bring it unto the altar.] God would have all their offerings brought to one altar; both to figure out the one only all sufficient sacririce of Christ, and to teach all the faithful to consent in one and the same truth of the gospel.

Ver. 9. A memorial thereof.] Signifying the perpetual benefit of Christ’s death to all believers.

Ver. 10. Shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.] Ministers’ maintenance.

Ver. 11. Nor any honey.] Which hath a leavening virtue in it. Sweet sins are to be abandoned there will be bitterness in the end. {#Pr 26:26,27}

Ver. 12. Ye shall offer them, ] i.e., With the firstfruits ye shall offer both leaven {#Le 23:17} and honey. {#2Ch 31:5} Both which are sometimes taken in the better part. {#Mt 13:33 So 4:11}

Ver. 13. Shalt thou season with salt.] Called here the salt of God’s covenant; as signifying the covenant of God made with us in Christ, who seasoneth us, and makes all our services savoury. See the note on #Mr 9:49,50.

Ver. 14. Green ears of corn.] To signify that God should be served with the firstfruits of our age, the primrose of our childhood.

Ver. 15. And thou shalt put oil upon it.] Signifying the graces of God in Christ and his members, and the sweet odour of his oblation for us.

Ver. 16. The memorial of it, ] i.e., The thing offered for a memorial.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Whether it be a male or female.] In Christ there is neither male nor female, but all one. {#Ga 3:28} Souls have no sexes. In thank offerings, the female also might pass: to teach that God looks not so much to the worth of the gift as the honesty of the heart that offers it. Leavened bread also in this case was accepted. {#Le 7:13}

Ver. 2. Upon the altar round about.] This signified that "plenteous redemption" by "the blood of sprinkling."

Ver. 3. The fat that covereth the inwards.] Hearty thanks must be given to God; such as cometh not from the roof of the mouth, but the root of the heart. An airy "God be thanked" profiteth not. "Sing with grace in your hearts," is the best tune to any psalm. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet as that which comes from the depth of the breast.

Ver. 4. With the kidneys.] Those seats of lust. Earthly members must be mortified by the thankful.

Ver. 5. Upon the burnt sacrifice.] Which was first offered, to teach us that sin must be pardoned ere our thank offerings can be accepted. It is, therefore, ordinarily, best to begin our prayers with confession of sin, and petitions for pardon through Christ.

Ver. 6. Male or female.] See on #Le 3:1.

Ver. 7. Shall he offer it before the Lord.] Yet shall but part of it be burnt.

Ver. 8. Lay his hand.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:4"}

Ver. 9. The whole rump.] Which in those country sheep is very large: yet not so large as those in America, mentioned by Sir Francis Drake, {a} as large as cattle, and supplying in the stead of horses for burden or travel.

{a} The World Encompassed.

Ver. 10. And the two kidneys.] The inwards must be consecrated to God. "The hidden man of the heart" is his.

Ver. 11. It is the food.] That whereupon God himself seemeth to feed. {#Ps 50:13}

Ver. 17. That ye neither eat fat nor blood.] Neither be carnal nor cruel; but let your souls delight in the fatness and sweetness of God’s ordinances.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] At another time belike.

Ver. 2. Shall sin through ignorance.] Or, infirmity; being suddenly surprised, preoccupated. {#Ga 6:1 Heb 5:2} {See Trapp on "Ga 6:1"} {See Trapp on "Heb 5:2"}

Ver. 3. A young bullock.] The same sacrifice that should be offered for the sin of the whole people, {#Le 4:14} to note the heinousness of the priest’s sin above others. The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins.

Ver. 4. Shall lay his hand.] Confessing his sin, {#Le 5:5} and professing his faith in Christ, the true sin offering. {#2Co 5:21}

Ver. 5. Shall take of the bullock’s blood.] See #Heb 5:2,3 7:26-28. {See Trapp on "Heb 5:2"} {See Trapp on "Heb 5:3"} {See Trapp on "Heb 7:26"} {See Trapp on "Heb 7:27"} {See Trapp on "Heb 7:28"}

Ver. 6. Seven times before the Lord.] Because in this case there was need of much and great purgation.

Ver. 7. Upon the horns of the altar.] To signify, saith one, that the preaching of the gospel concerning the blood of Christ, should be published and proclaimed to the four corners of the earth. To show, saith another, that by faith in the blood of Christ, our prayers are acceptable unto God, and our infirmities pardoned and purged.

Ver. 8. All the fat.] Because, among other things, it signified hard heartedness and insensibleness of sin and danger. {#Ps 119:70} Dionysius the Heracleot felt not needles thrust into his fat belly, saith the history.

Ver. 9. With the kidneys.] See #Le 3:4.

Ver. 11. And the skin, &c.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:9"}

Ver. 12. Shall he carry forth, ] #Heb 13:11,12. {See Trapp on "Heb 13:11"} {See Trapp on "Heb 13:12"}

Ver. 13. And if the whole congregation.] Particular congregations, then, may err for a season; though not finally, fundamentally, if they be "the congregation of saints," {#Ps 89:5} and not "the congregation of hypocrites," {#Job 15:34} the Church malignant.

And they have done somewhat.] Either by transgression or disobedience, {#Heb 2:2} omission or commission.

Ver. 14. When the sin is known.] Sin may sleep a long time like a sleeping debt, not called for of many years. But, Nullum tempus occurrit regi. God may send out a summons for sleepers, and punish our bygone or secret sins.

Ver. 15. And the elders.] These, as the representative congregation, took upon them the guilt of their common errors, as those did in #2Ch 29:23.

Ver. 16. And the priest that is anointed, ] i.e., The high priest; a type of Christ, who was anointed, not with material oil, as they, but with the Spirit, that oil of gladness, both above and for his fellow brethren. {#Ps 45 Heb 1:9} See #1Jo 2:27 2Co 1:21,22. Howbeit his oil shines brightest, and swims aloft above all others.

Ver. 17. Seven times.] A number of perfection; to note the most absolute sufficiency of Christ’s death to purge and reconcile us to God; and that he is able to save such to the uttermost (εις το παντελες) that come unto God by him. {#Heb 7:25}

Ver. 18. Upon the horns.] {See Trapp on "Le 4:7"}

At the bottom of the altar.] To set forth the plenty and sufficiency of grace and merit in Christ’s death, for many more than are actually saved by it.

Ver. 19. And he shall take all his fat.] Christ offered himself and the best parts he had, suffering in soul and body.

Ver. 20. As he did with the bullock.] For even ignorance and infirmities are deadly sins, direct fruits of the flesh, {#Joh 3:6} and such as for which Christ laid down his life, even "for the errors (αγνοηματα) of the people." {#Heb 9:7}

Ver. 21. Without the camp.] Pointing to Christ, who carried our sins out of God’s sight. See #Heb 13:12. {See Trapp on "Heb 13:12"}

Ver. 22. When a ruler hath sinned.] Great men’s sins do more hurt, (1.) By imitation; for, Vita principis censura est, imo Cynosura; according to these glasses most men dress themselves: (2.) By imputation; for, plectuntur achivi; the poor people pay for it; as they did for David’s, whether ignorance or infirmity, in omitting that duty enjoined; {#Ex 30:12-15} thence the plague. {#2Sa 24:13-17}

Ver. 23. Come to his knowledge.] As David’s did, {#2Sa 24:11} who saw such volumes of infirmities, and so many erratas in all that he did, that he once cried out, "Who knoweth the errors of his life? Oh, cleanse me from secret sins." {#Ps 19:12} This he knew was the import of all these Levitical cleansings.

Ver. 24. Lay his hand.] {See Trapp on "Le 4:4"}

Ver. 25. At the bottom.] See #Le 4:18.

Ver. 26. All his fat.] See #Le 4:19. The fat was burnt, saith one, because, among other things, it signified duricordium, hard heartedness. {#Ps 119:70}

Ver. 27. And if any soul sin.] As there is none that liveth and sinneth not. {#1Ki 8:46} Triste mortalitatis privilegium est licere aliquando peccare. {a}

{a} Ephor. Augusta nimis res est, et nulli mortalium concessa nuspiam errare. -Amama.

Ver. 28. Come to his knowledge.] By the check of his own conscience, awakened by the word or rod of God.

Ver. 29. And slay the sin offering.] That is, the priest shall: for no man might offer his own sacrifice upon pain of death; as is afore noted.

Ver. 30. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger.] See on #Le 4:18.

Ver. 31. For a sweet savour.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:9"} The death of Christ is ever in the sight of his heavenly Father: and hence it was that those typical sacrifices and all our performances are still accepted.

Ver. 32. And if he bring a lamb.] This sacrifice hath not wholly the same fat as that of a goat, and therefore is spoken of apart.

Ver. 33. And he shall lay his hand.] He that bringeth it shall: see #Le 4:4.

And he shall offer it.] The priest shall.

Ver. 34. And the priest shall take.] See upon #Le 4:18.

Ver. 35. According to the offerings.] Or, Upon the offerings; or, Besides the burnt offerings daily offered to the Lord.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. He shall bear his iniquity, ] i.e., He shall suffer for his sinful silence; because he could, but would not, help the truth in necessity, but stand as if he were gagged by Satan, -possessed with a dumb devil.

Ver. 2. And if it be hidden from him.] Debt is debt, whether a man know of it or not.

Ver. 3. Then he shall be guilty.] Guilty he was before, {#Le 5:2} but now shall see himself so, and be ready to say, as #Pr 5:14, "I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and the assembly." "By the law is the knowledge of sin." {#Ro 3:20}

Ver. 4. To do evil.] As David did to slay Nabal. {#1Sa 25:22}

Or to do good.] As the same David did to do good to Mephibosheth, and yet he was not so good as his oath.

And it be hid from him.] As is usual with your common swearers, who will swear that they swear not. If men had such distempers of body, as their excrements come from them when they knew not of it, it would trouble them; but they swear, and let go much filth, and it is hid from them.

Ver. 5. He shall confess.] Homo agnoscit, Deus ignoscit, Man confesseth, and God pardoneth. In the courts of men it is the safest plea to say, Non feci , quoth Quintilian; "I am not guilty": not so here; but ego feci, miserere, " I did it; have mercy upon me."

“ Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei.”

Ver. 6. For his sin which he hath sinned.] Bending his thoughts upon that particular sin. It is charged upon Israel, that they "remembered not that they lay in their blood." {#Eze 16:22}

Ver. 7. Two turtle doves.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:14"}

Ver. 8. For the sin offering first.] For till sin be expiated, no sacrifice or service can be accepted. Therefore "Wash you, cleanse you," and then, "Come, and let us reason." {#Isa 1:16-18}

Ver. 9. Upon the side of the altar.] The north side, and not upon the east: (1.) that Israel might not symbolise with the heathens, who worshipped toward the east; (2.) To signify that they had no more under the law than dark "shadows of good things to come," {#Heb 10:1} "until the time of reformation." {#Heb 9:10}

Ver. 10. According to the manner.] That is, the forms and rites prescribed. So, {#Am 8:14} "The manner of Beersheba," i.e, the forms and rites of worshipping in Beersheba, as the Chaldee paraphraseth it.

Ver. 11. But if he be not able.] So low doth the Most High stoop to man’s meanness, that he will accept of a very small present from him that would bring a better, if it were in the power of his hand. Lycurgus enjoined his Lacedemonians to offer small sacrifices; for God, said he, respecteth more the internal devotion, than the external oblation.

Ver. 12. Even a memorial.] This is spoken after the manner of men who have need of remembrancers. God sometimes seems to lose his mercy, and then we must find it for him, as they in #Isa 63:15; sometimes to forget, sleep, delay, &c., and then we must in mind, awaken, quicken him. {#Isa 62:7}

Ver. 13. And it shall be forgiven him.] See a like promise made to our ministry, #Jas 5:15.

Ver. 15. In the holy things of the Lord.] Things consecrate to him, by robbing and wronging of God and his priests; be it but through ignorance or error. For to do such a thing presumptuously was death, {#Nu 15:30} and by the laws of the twelve tables in Rome, such were to be punished as parricides. {a}

{a} Sacrum qui clepserit, rapseritve, parricida esto.

Ver. 16. And he shall make amends.] No remission without restitution. God abhors holocaustum ex rapina. And if ye make no restitution, ye shall cough in hell, said Father Latimer. {a}

{a} Latimer’s Sermons.

Ver. 17. Though he wist it not.] Ignorance, though invincible and unavoidable, well may excuse a tanto, but not a toto {#Lu 12:48}

Ver. 18. Shall make an atonement.] {See Trapp on "Le 4:20"}

Ver. 19. It is a trespass offering.] "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." {#1Jo 1:7 Heb 10:10,11}

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses.] See on #Le 4:1.

Ver. 2. Against the Lord.] As David in defiling his neighbour’s wife, and afterwards killing him, is said to have "despised the commandment of the Lord, and to have done evil in his sight," {#2Sa 12:9} which also he penitently acknowledgeth. {#Ps 51:4} Sin is properly against none but God, being a transgression of his law. Hence the manslayer was confined to the city of refuge as to a prison, during the life of the high priest; as being, saith one, {a} the chief god on earth. That was a true position of the Pelagians, Omne peccatum est contemptus Dei, that every sin is a contempt of God. {#Pr 18:3}

In fellowship.] Heb., In putting of the hand. {b} It is said in Job, {#Job 8:20, marg.} that "God will not take a wicked man by the hand," i.e., he will have no fellowship with him.

{a} Godw., Heb. Antiq., p. 98.

{b} Dextram coniungere dextrae.

Ver. 3. And lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely.] Through inordinate love of money, that "root of all evil"; {a} but such money shall perish with them. {#Zec 5:3}

{a} Quid non mortalia pectora cogit auri sacra fames? ηη φιλοχρηματιη μητηρ κακοτητος απασης.

Ver. 4. And is guilty.] Found guilty by a self-condemning conscience; which now, like Samson’s wife, conceals not the riddle, but tells all; as she said of our Saviour in #Joh 4:29.

Ver. 5. In the day of his trespass offering.] Before he compass God’s altar. See #Mt 5:23, {See Trapp on "Mt 5:23"}

Ver. 6. With thy estimation, ] i.e, As thou shalt value it. Moses did the priest’s office for present. He was likewise a prophet, {#De 18:15} and king in Jeshurun, {#De 33:5} and so became a type of Christ, that true Trismegist, the Priest, Prophet, and Prince. {#Da 9:25}

Ver. 7. Shall make an atonement.] Through the sacrifice of Christ. {#Heb 10:1,4,10,14}

Ver. 9. All night unto the morning.] God must be thought upon in the night season. {#Ps 4:4} David willingly brake his sleep to do it. {#Ps 119:62} "The day is thine, the night also is thine," saith he. {#Ps 74:16}

Ver. 10. Beside the altar.] On the east side farthest from the sanctuary, {#Le 1:16} in reverence of the Divine Majesty.

Ver. 11. Unto a clean place.] Because they came from the Lord’s holy house. See the contrary commanded concerning the stones and dust of a leprous house. {#Le 14:40}

Ver. 12. It shall not be put out.] No more should our faith, love, zeal (that flame of God, as Solomon calls it, #So 8:9), that should never go out; the waters should not quench it, nor the ashes cover it. {#So 8:10 2Ti 1:6}

Ver. 13. The fire shall ever be burning.] The Gentiles, by an apish imitation hereof, had their vestal fire, salted meal, and many other sacred rites. Basil chargeth the devil as "a thief of the truth," in that he had decked his crows with her feathers.

Ver. 14. The law of the meat offering.] Besides what is set down in #Le 2:1,2. Thus one text explains another; as the diamond is brightened with its own dust.

Ver. 15. Even the memorial.] {See Trapp on "Le 2:2"}

Ver. 16. Shall Aaron and his sons eat.] See #1Co 9:13,14. {See Trapp on "1Co 9:13"} {See Trapp on "1Co 9:14"}

Ver. 17. It shall not be baken with leaven.] Which is, (1.) souring; (2.) swelling; (3.) spreading; (4.) impuring.

Ver. 18. Shall be holy.] God "will be sanctified in all that draw near unto him."

“… Procul hinc, procul este profani.”

Ver. 20. When he is anointed, ] i.e., When any high priest: for he only was anointed, {#Ex 29:7} on the head at least.

Ver. 21. In a pan.] Figuring out the sufferings of Christ, who was so parched with the fire of afflictions for our sins.

Ver. 22. Of his sons, ] i.e., The eldest, if he have no deformity or impediment, to make him incapable of the priesthood.

Ver. 23. It shall not be eaten.] To teach the high priest to look for salvation out of himself.

Ver. 25. In the place, ] i.e., At the north side of the altar. And why {See Trapp on "Le 5:9"}

Ver. 26. Shall eat it.] Except in that case, #Le 6:30.

Ver. 27. Shall be holy.] This taught a holy use of the mystery of our redemption: for the sin offering in special sort figured Christ.

Ver. 28. But the earthen vessel.] So contagious a thing is sin, that it defileth the very visible heaven and earth: which therefore must be likewise purged by the last fire, as the earthen pot which held the sin offering was broken, and the brazen scoured and rinsed in water.

Ver. 29. It is most holy.] Heb., Holy of holies. The Greek addeth, unto the Lord.

Ver. 30. And no sin offerlng.] Here the ordinary gloss makes this observation, Remissionem dare, Dei solius est, qui per ignem significatur. That to pardon sin belongs to God alone, who is a consuming fire. The Rhemists {a} tell us of a man that could remove mountains: of which they may as soon persuade us, as that their priests have as full power to pardon sins as Christ had. One of their priests meeting with a man troubled in mind, told him that their religion afforded more comfort to the conscience than ours; and that because it had, and exercised a power to pardon sin, which our ministers neither did nor durst assume to themselves. {b}

{a} Rhem. Annot. in Job xx. see. 3.

{b} Ley’s Pattern of Piety, p. 145.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Of the trespass offering.] Heb., Asham, Piaculum, quo peccatum expiabatur. How it differed from the sin offering is hard to determine.

Ver. 2. In the place.] {See Trapp on "Le 1:11"}

Ver. 3. That covereth the inwards.] "My son, give me thy heart." See #Ps 51:6 Jer 4:14.

Ver. 4. And the two kidneys.] {See Trapp on "Le 3:4"}

Ver. 5. It is a trespass offering.] And, as in the sin offering, the priest was to have the remainder. They had many a good morsel besides their tithes and lands.

Ver. 7. As the sin offering is.] They were distinct then. See #Le 7:1.

Ver. 8. The priest shall have to himself.] It is a sign of gasping devotion when men are so straithanded to their ministers, who should have part of all. {#Ga 6:6}

Ver. 9. And all the meat offering.] Which seems to be so called, partly because it went as meat unto the priest—the labourer is surely worthy of his meat, -but {#Mt 10:10} principally as leading to Christ, whose "flesh is meat indeed." {#Joh 6:55}

Ver. 10. Have, one as much as another.] In their father’s house was bread enough. "Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest’s offices, that I may eat a piece of bread." {#1Sa 2:36} This the Tirshatha would not suffer those turn-coats to do. {#Ezr 2:63} But how hard put to it was that poor priest that answered young Pareus, asking him an alms, according to the custom of those times, Nos pauperi fratres, nos nihil habemus, an piscis, an caro, an panis, an misericordia habemus? {a}

{a} Vita Parei per Philipp. filium, primo oper. tomo praefixa.

Ver. 11. Sacrifice of peace offerings.] Or, pay offering. See #Ps 116:14. "I will pay," or, I will perfect. Fitly; for a vow, till paid, is an imperfect thing.

Ver. 12. Unleavened cakes.] There must be sincerity in all our services; for else God will not once look at them.

Ver. 13. Leavened bread.] Lo, leavened bread will pass in a peace offering: God for Christ’s sake rejects not the services of his saints, though tainted with corruption. Peccata nobis non nocent, si non placent. {a} Wine is not thrown away for the dregs, nor gold for the dirt that cleaves unto it.

{a} August.

Ver. 14. For a heave offering.] So called, because it was heaved and lifted up before the Lord, in token that they received all from him, and did acknowledge all to be due to him.

Ver. 15. Eaten the same day.] Thanks must be returned while mercies are fresh; lest, as fish, they putrify with keeping. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Hezekiah wrote his song the third day after his recovery. Jehoshaphat gave thanks first upon the ground where he had the victory, calling it Berachah; and three days after again at Jerusalem. {#2Ch 20:25,26} See David’s Now, now, now, -"I will pay my vows." {#Ps 116:14,15}

Ver. 16. And on the morrow also.] This was not allowed in a thank offering. {#Le 7:15} Hereby God would teach them, that he must be worshipped as himself appointeth, and not as they in their reason should think fit.

Ver. 17. On the third day.] Foreshadowing the resurrection of Christ on the third day, whereby all legal ceremonies were abolished, and had no use in the Church, but by accident; as he who bnildeth a vault, letteth the centrals stand till he put in the keystone, and then pulleth them away.

Ver. 18. It shall be an abomination.] Kept beyond the time; and so uneatable, unsacrificeable, profane, stinking.

Ver. 19. Shall not be eaten.] Because not fit to represent Christ.

Ver. 20. Having his uncleanness upon him.] To the unclean all things are unclean, &c. {#Tit 1:15} {See Trapp on "Tit 1:15"}

Ver. 21. Cut off from his people.] Compare #1Co 11:27-29.

Ver. 22. And the Lord spake unto Moses.] This is oft repeated to draw attention and get authority. See #1Th 2:13.

Ver. 23. No manner of fat.] {See Trapp on "Le 3:12"}

Ver. 24. Used in any other use.] Though not in sacrifice. Mud walls may be made up of any refuse matter: not so the walls of a church or palace.

Ver. 25. Shall be cut off, ] i.e., Shall be liable to God’s judgments.

Ver. 26. Ye shall eat no manner of blood.] This signified, (1.) That we should learn to honour holy things, and not to make a mock of them by employing them to common use; (2.) That we should be most careful not to shed man’s blood for the satisfying of our lust. See #Le 17:11,12 Ge 9:4,5 De 12:13.

Ver. 27. Whatsoever soul it be.] One would think this to be but a peccadillo: yet how fearfully is it threatened! No sin can be little, because there is no little God to sin against.

Ver. 29. Unto the Lord.] Not kill it in the camp, though there they might eat it.

Ver. 30. His own hands.] Teaching them that they must live by their own faith. {#Hab 2:5}

May be waved.] Or, Shaken to and fro; which signified the shaking of our lips in giving thanks to God, {#Ho 14:2 Heb 13:15,16} which yet must be fetched lower than the lips, even from the bottom of the heart; the deeper the sweeter. The voice that is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet, as that which comes from the depth of the breast.

Ver. 31,32. The breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. And the right shoulder.] To note that men must give their breasts and shoulders, affections and actions, even their whole selves; first to the Lord, and then to us ministers by the will of God, as those famous Macedonians did in #2Co 8:5; that so they may be sani in doctrina et sancti in vita, sound in doctrine, and holy in life.

Ver. 32. See note in previous verse.

Ver. 33. He among the sons of Aaron.] The breast belonged to the high priest and his family; but the right shoulder was for the priest that did officiate, or do the office of a priest, for that turn.

Ver. 34. For the wave-breast, and the heaveshoulder.] This might further signify, saith one, that Christ Jesus heaved up for us both breast and shoulder—that is, wisdom and strength to all his elect priesthood, whose portion he is. {#1Co 1:30} Or it might note, saith another, that ministers should both take care (figured by the breast) and pains (signified by the shoulder). And therefore the high priest did to that end wear the names of the tribes upon his shoulders and upon his breast.

Ver. 35. This is the portion of the anointing.] That is, Of the anointed priests; and that because they were anointed to the office. Here Origen, according to his manner, turns all into allegories and mysteries, and tells us of a threefold sense of Scripture, (1.) Literal; (2.) Moral; (3.) Mystical: comparing them to the gridiron, frying pan, and oven, used in dressing the meat offering. #Le 7:9 But this itch of allegorising dark and difficult texts hath no small danger in it. And I may doubt of Origen, as one doth of Jerome, Utrum plus boni peritia linguarum, qua excelluit, an mali suis allegoriis, in quibus dominatus fuit, ecclesiae Dei attulerit; whether he did more harm or good to the Church. {a}

{a} Allegorias spumam scripturae vocat Luth., in Gen. iii., p. 67. Amama, Antibarb.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] {See Trapp on "Le 7:22"} And for the rest of the chapter, read the notes on Exod. 28-30. {See Trapp on "Ex 28:1"}

Ver. 3. And gather thou all the congregation.] Ministers are to be ordained in the public assembly, {#Ac 14:22} that the people may show their approbation, profess their purpose of obedience, and pray for God’s Spirit to be poured upon them.

Ver. 6. And Moses brought Aaron.] They did not intrude themselves. {See Trapp on "Heb 5:4"}

Ver. 8. He put in the breastplate the Urim, &c.] Hence, it may be, God appointed the breastplate to be made double, that the Urim and Thummim might be put within, and lie hid on every side. This Urim and Thummim signified, saith one, that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, {#Col 2:3} and that he hath all secret things most perfectly known and numbered out before him, which he revealeth continually to his Church and chosen, as need requireth, by such means as himself hath sanctified. {#Ps 25:14 Joh 14:21,26 17:14,17,26}

Ver. 36. No note on this verse

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. On the eighth day.] The very next day after the priest’s consecration, that no time might be lost. "I made haste and delayed not," &c. {#Ps 119:16} "Then said I, Lo I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me," &c. {#Ps 40:7} Live, live, live, saith one, quickly, much, long: let no water go by, no day be lost, &c. Preach, preach, be instant, quick at work, &c.

“ Praecipitat tempus, mors atra impendet agenti.”

Ver. 2. Take thee a young calf] In remembrance, and for the remission of Aaron’s sin about the golden calf; as some Hebrews are of opinion.

Ver. 3. Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering.] Quia gravis odor peccati. The smell of sin is grievous; it offendeth all God’s senses, yea, his very soul. {#Isa 1:12,13, &c.}

Ver. 4. For today the Lord will appear unto you.] And he may not find you empty handed, unprepared. {See Trapp on "Ex 19:10"}

Ver. 6. And the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you.] So shall it one day to us: yea, we shall be like him, and appear with him in glory; and must therefore purify ourselves, as God is pure. {#1Jo 3:2,3}

Ver. 7. Make an atonement for thyself] See #Heb 5:3 7:27,28. {See Trapp on "Heb 5:3"} {See Trapp on "Heb 7:27"} {See Trapp on "Heb 7:28"}

Ver. 8. Went unto the altar, ] i.e., The brazen altar; for he had not yet access to the altar of incense. We must slay our corruptions before we present our supplications, wash our hearts from wickedness, and then compass God’s altar.

Ver. 22. Lifted up his hand.] He put the blessing upon them. A type of Christ. {#Lu 24:50 Ac 3:26 Eph 1:3}

Ver. 24. They shouted, and fell on their faces.] The consideration of God’s gracious acceptation of us in Christ should make us to lift many a humble, joyful, and thankful heart to God.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. And Nadab and Abihu.] These jolly young priests, overjoyed haply of their new employment and overwarmed with wine, as some gather out of #Le 10:9, over did themselves the very day of their service, {#Le 10:19} and are suddenly surprised by a doleful death. So was that inconsiderate priest of Naples, Anno Dom. 1457, of whom Wolphius {a} reports, that when the hill Vesuvius had sent huge flames, and done great spoil, he, to make proof of his piety, read a mass, and would needs go up the hill to find out the cause of such a calamity. But for a reward of his foolhardiness, he perished in the flames, and was never heard of any more.

{a} Wolph., Memorab. Lect., cent. 15.

Ver. 2. And there went out fire.] By fire they sinned, and by fire they perished.

“ Per quod quis peccat, per idem punitur et ipse:

Nestorii lingua vermibus exesa est.’’—Evag., lib. i.

So Archbishop Arundel’s tongue rotted in his head. The Archbishop of Tours in France made suit for the erection of a court called Chambre Ardent, wherein to condemn the Protestants to the fire. He was afterwards stricken with a disease called the fire of God, which began at his feet and so ascended upward, that he caused one member after another to be cut off, and so he died miserably. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1911.

Ver. 3. This is it that the Lord spake.] Where? and when? #Le 8:35 Ex 19:22. Or perhaps nowhere written, but at some other time spoken by God. Moses might but set down the short notes of his discourses, as the prophets used to do.

I will be sanctified.] Either actively or passively, Aut a nobis, aut in nos, either in us, or upon us; sure it is, that he will be no loser by us. Sanctified he will be, either in the sincerity of men’s conversation, or else in the severity of their condemnation. Singular things are expected of all that draw nigh to God in any duty, but especially in the office of the ministry. Those that stand in the presence of princes must be exact in their carriages. God appointed both the weights and measures of the sanctuary to be twice as large as those of the commonwealth; to show, that he expects much more of those that serve him there, than he doth of others. The souls of priests must be purer than the sunbeams, saith Chrysostom.

And Aaron held his peace.] He bridled his passions, and submitted to the divine justice. The like did David, {#Ps 39:9} which words were taken up by Duplessis in the loss of his only son. {a}

{a} Dr Hakw., on Psalm ci

Ver. 4. And Moses called Mishael, &c.] Aaron’s first cousins were called, to carry these two unhappy brethren out for burial: their brethren the priests might not leave their ministry to do it. Accordingly we read of one Pulvillus, a heathen, that he was about to consecrate a temple to Jupiter, and when news was brought him of the death of his son, he would not desist from his enterprise; but with much composure of mind gave order for decent burial.

Ver. 5. In their coats.] These were not burnt, as neither were their bodies: the fire, being of a celestial and subtile nature, might pierce their inward parts, not touching their outward; as lightning kills by piercing, not by burning. {a}

{a} Tostat.

Ver. 6. And Moses said unto Aaron.] Philo reporteth that the high priest of the Jews, to keep always his soul pure, never saw any mournful object. Tiberius, counterfeiting grief at the funeral of Drusus, had a vail laid betwixt the dead and him, that he might not see the body, because he was, as the rest of the emperors also were, pontifex maximus, or the high priest; and therefore a sacred person. Mourning in Aaron might have seemed murmuring; he is therefore forbidden it, and accordingly he forbears. So did Luther when he buried his daughter; he was not seen to shed a tear. {a} No more did Rev. William Whately, late pastor of Banbury, when, after he had preached his own child’s funeral upon this text, "The will of the Lord be done," he and his wife laid the child in the grave with their own hands.

Bewail the burning.] It is fit enough, ordinarily, that the body, when sown in corruption, be watered by the tears of those that plant it in the earth.

{a} Manlii, loc. com., p. 215.

Ver. 7. For the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.] This is every true Christian’s case, who should therefore carry himself accordingly. There is a το πρεπον, a seemly carriage, belongs to every calling. "You have an unction," &c. {#1Jo 2:20}

Ver. 9. Do not drink wine, nor strong drink.] As some are of opinion Nadab and Abihu had done; which miscarriage of theirs occasioned this precept. {a} The perpetual equity whereof is, that ministers be no wine bibbers or tipplers or drunken sots. {#1Ti 3:3} Why should it be said as of old, "They have erred because of wine, and have gone out of the way because of strong drink, even the priest and the prophet?" {#Isa 28:7} Drunkenness is a crime in all, but it is a kind of sacrilege in ministers. And if other drunkards deserve double punishments for their misdemeanours, as Aristotle {b} judgeth, first for their drunkenness, and then for the sin committed in and by their drunkenness what do drunken priests? {#Isa 56:12}

{a} Ex malis moribus bonae leges.

{b} διπλα τα επιτιμια.—Arist., Ethic., lib. iii. cap. 5.

Ver. 10. And that ye may put difference.] Drunkenness takes away the heart, {#Ho 4:11} besots and infatuates; robs a man of himself, and lays a beast in his place.

Ver. 11. And that ye may teach.] The priest’s lips should both preserve knowledge and present it to the people; even all the counsel of God. {#Mal 2:7 Ac 20:27} "To give the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins." {#Lu 1:77}

Ver. 12. Take the meat offerlng, ] q.d., Think not that God hath cashiered you because he hath corrected you; neither refuse your meat out of a sullen sourness; but fall to your meat offering, and take better heed another time. Only "eat before the Lord." {#De 12:18}

Ver. 13. See #Le 6:26.

Ver. 14. And the wave breast, and heave shoulder.] These were the priests’ due: teaching them to set breast and shoulder to God’s work: and minding them, that a minister should be both a breast to love, and a shoulder to support the people in their troubles and burdens.

Ver. 15. The heave shoulder.] See on #Ex 29:24.

Ver. 16. And, behold, it was burnt.] Passion for their dead friends had so transported the priests, that they knew not well what they did. We use to say, Res est ingeniosa dolor: but then it must not be excessive as here, and as #2Sa 18:33.

Ver. 17. To bear the iniquity.] This the sinner doth subjectively, the priest typically, the Lord Christ really.

Ver. 18. Ye should indeed have eaten it.] Thus, by misreckoning a point, ye have missed the haven, and hazarded yourselves to the rocks of the divine displeasure, against which your brethren so lately split. God is usually most angry when he is about a reformation; as here against Nadab and Abihu: so afterwards against Uzzah, Ananias and Sapphira, &c.

Ver. 19. Should it have been accepted.] God loves a cheerful server. {#De 12:7 26:14} Mourners’ bread is polluted bread, {#Ho 9:4} and those unkind husbands are blamed for causing their wives, when they should have been cheerful in God’s service, 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} This Aaron knew, and allegeth for himself.

Ver. 20. He was content.] For that time at least. It is not good sowing in a high wind. To choose a fit time to admonish an offender, is a singular skill, and a very great advantage. The mildest medicine is troublesome to an eye that is inflamed.

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. Unto Moses and to Aaron.] Magistrate and minister must jointly see that God’s laws be duly executed. Queen Elizabeth once in her progress visiting the county of Suffolk, all the justices of peace in that county met her majesty; having every one his minister next to his body; which the queen took special notice of, and thereupon uttered this speech, that she had often demanded of her Privy Council why her county of Suffolk was better governed than any other county, and could never understand the reason thereof, but now she herself perceived the reason. It must needs be so, said she, where Moses and Aaron, the word and the sword, go together.

Ver. 2. These are the beasts which ye shall eat.] These, and these only; (1.) That ye may be at mine appointment for your very meat, as who am chief Lord of all; (2.) That there may be a difference betwixt you and all other people; (3.) That ye may be taught to study purity, and know that the very creatures are defiled by man’s sin; (4.) That ye may have these things as "a shadow of things to come." {#Col 2:16,17}

Ver. 3. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and cheweth the cud.] To teach them to think upon God’s commandments to do them, {#Ps 103:18} cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. {#2Co 7:1} Moreover clean Christians, typed by those clean beasts, must rightly part the hoof; that is, rightly divide their time; giving a due share thereof to either of their callings.

Ver. 4. The camel.] The foolish Jews when they saw Mohammed arising in such power, were immediately ready to cry him up for their Messiah. But when they saw him eat of a camel, saith mine author, {a} they were as blank as when they saw the hoped issue of their late Jewish virgin turned to a daughter.

{a} Dr Hall’s Peacemaker.

Ver. 5. And the coney.] Which hath his name in Hebrew from hiding himself in holes. A weak, but a wise creature. {#Pr 30:26} And wisdom is better than strength. {#Ec 9:15} The hare that trusts to the swiftness of her legs, is at length taken and torn in pieces; when the coney that flees to the rocks, doth easily avoid the dogs that pursue her. See #Isa 40:30,31.

Ver. 6. Because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not.] Meditation must end in practice: as lessons of music must be practised, and a copy not read only, but written after.

Ver. 7. And the swine.] Anima sui data pro sale, ne carnes putrescant, said Cleanthes. The swine hath his soul for salt only; so hath the drunkard.

Ver. 8. Of their flesh shall ye not eat.] Not above the quantity of an olive, say the Jew doctors, who will needs be mending magnificat, adding to the law.

Ver. 9. Whatsoever hath fins and scales.] The fins of the fish are for steering of their motion, the scales for smoothness of passage, for safeguard, for ornament. Those only are clean in the sight of God, Qui squamas et loricam habent patientiae, et pinnulas hilaritatis, saith Bernard. {a}

{a} Sermon I. in Die oct. And.

Ver. 10. Of all that move in the waters.] And yet swim also in the air. Like to these is the temporary believer: for that seeming to mount up in spiritual joys, yet he withal swimmeth, yea, batheth himself in the waters of sensual delights.

Ver. 11. They shall be even an abomination.] To teach us, that nothing is lawful, no not for our common use, unless it be "sanctified by the word of God and prayer." {#1Ti 4:5 Ac 10:35}

Ver. 12. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales.] These are little in motion or action, and so not so wholesome as eels and lampreys, that lie lazily in the mud.

Ver. 13. The eagle.] Which yet is counted and called the king of birds, and delights in high flying. That which is highly "esteemed amongst men is abomination before God." {#Lu 16:15}

Ver. 14. And the vulture, and the kite.] That feed upon carrion and dead carcasses, and are emblems of greedy gripers and oppressors.

Ver. 15. Every raven.] Unnatural to his young, whom God himself heareth and feedeth, {#Ps 147:9} though they cry with a harsh note, and cry to God by implication only; and though the raven be an inauspicate bird, and a sign both of man’s punishment and God’s curse. {#Isa 34:11}

Ver. 16. And the owl, and the night hawk.] Night birds that hate the light, or fly against it, as bats do, are an abomination. Deeds of darkness are out of date, now in the days of the gospel especially. {#Ro 13:12,13}

Ver. 17. And the cormorant.] An unsatisfiable bird, that fitly resembleth the devil, who daily devours souls, and yet enlargeth his desires as hell.

Ver. 18. And the swan.] Whose white feathers, but black skin under them, might serve to set forth the hatefulness of hypocrisy.

Ver. 19. And the stork.] Which builds high, {#Ps 104:17} but feeds low on fishes, frogs, and snakes; and so might be the rather rejected as unfit for food.

And the lapwing.] Which is worthily made a hieroglyphic of infelicity; because it hath as a coronet upon the head, and yet feeds upon the worst of excrements. It is pity that the saints, that are brought up in scarlet, should embrace the dunghill; {#La 4:5} that any one that is washed in Christ’s blood, should bedabble his robe in the stinking puddle of the world.

And the bat.] Cast away either thy wings or thy teeth, saith one {a} to a neuter, and loathing this batlike nature, be what thou art, either a bird or a beast.

{a} Dr Hall, Epist. to W. L.

Ver. 20. All fowls that creep.] So all mongrels in religion, that, like the planet Mercury, can he good in conjunction with good, and bad with bad; that have religionem ephemeram, fidem menstruam. {a}

{a} Hilar.

Ver. 21. Which have legs above their feet, ] i.e., Which have the hinder feet longer, whereby they may leap. Whereas those that have all four feet equal, as #Le 11:23, may not be eaten.

Ver. 22. The locust, &c.] All creeping fowls that go upon all four might not be beaten, except Arbe, Soleam, Chargol, and Chargah, names to us unknown.

Ver. 23. Which have four feet.] See on #Le 11:21.

Ver. 24. Whosoever toucheth the carcass.] This and the like signified that all, even the least sins, are to be purged through Christ, and carefully cast away.

Ver. 25. Beareth aught, &c.] In his clothes, though he do not touch them with his flesh.

Shall wash his clothes.] This was a type of the defiling property of sin: as also of our cleansing by repentance, and faith in Christ’s blood.

Ver. 26. Not cloven footed.] See on #Le 11:5.

Ver. 27. Paws.] As wolves, lions, bears, dogs, cats, apes, &c.

Ver. 28. Shall wash his clothes.] As having committed a greater sin than he that toucheth a carcass only. All sin defileth not alike.

Ver. 29. And the tortoise.] Which hath its name in Hebrew of a coach or wagon. The thick shell wherewith it is covered is said to be so hard, that a loaded wagon may go over it and not break it. And such is a hard heart, that cannot repent, or relent never so little.

Ver. 30. The chameleon.] A very fearful creature, and therefore easily turning himself into sundry colours. Carnal fear puts men upon unwarrantable shifts. See #Zep 3:13.

Ver. 31. Touch them, when they be dead.] There is no kind of living creature that is defiled while it is alive, or that defileth while it is alive, save man only, saith Maimony. Others note that there were more remarkable expressions of God’s anger upon man’s sin in the dead body of a man than of a beast. The one made unclean but till evening: the other seven days.

Ver. 32. It shall be unclean.] With a ceremonial uncleanness only, and not moral: howbeit, the disobedience, even in such a small matter, brought a guilt upon the soul, which did defile, while the prohibition was in force; as one well observeth.

Ver. 33. Ye shall break it.] So shall reprobates be broken in pieces, like a potter’s vessel. {#Ps 2:9, Jer 9:11}

Ver. 34. Such water.] Coming out of such an unclean place, or vessel.

Ver. 35. Whether it be oven, or ranges for pots.] All this, to teach them how strict they were to be, in avoiding the least pollution of sin.

Ver. 36. Nevertheless a fountain.] Because it would cleanse itself, and work out the uncleanness. So will faith.

Ver. 37. It shall be clean.] Because of necessity.

Ver. 38. It shall be unclean.] And therefore not to be eaten, but given to beasts.

Ver. 39. Of which ye may.] Compare #Ps 49:12, pecoribus morticinis. -Tremel.

Ver. 40. Shall wash his clothes.] To teach them to "hate even the garment spotted by the flesh," {#Jude 1:23} all provocations and instruments of sin.

Ver. 41,42. And every creeping thing.] Whether it goeth upon the belly, as snakes, worms; or crawls upon all fours, as toads, scorpions; or hath any feet to creep withal, as caterpillars, Millepedae, & c.

Ver. 42. {See Trapp on "Le 11:41"}

Ver. 43. Ye shall not make yourselves.] Heb., Your souls. See on #Le 11:32.

Ver. 44. Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.] Great men look to be served like themselves: so the great God.

Ver. 45. That bringeth you up.] This is often inculcated. God’s blessings are binders; and every new deliverance calls for new obedience.

Ver. 46. This is the law of the beasts.] Grounded upon right reason, however it may seem otherwise, as is also every other law of God.

Ver. 47. To make a difference.] Ministers also in their discourses should put a difference, and take out "the precious from the vile," {#Jer 15:19} as did Zuinglius; who, when he inveighed most vehemently against sin, would usually come in with this clause, Probe vir, haec nihil ad te, This is not intended to thee, thou godly man.

Chapter 12

Ver. 2. If a woman have conceived seed.] Or yielded seed, as #Ge 1:11. Urgendum hoc adversus Anabaptistas; qui, ut suos de humanae Christi naturae origine errores stabiliant, faeminas semen habere praefracte negant. {a} Hebraeorum magistri, ex eodem loco, {#Ge 1:11,12} colligunt marem edi quoties mulier semen mittere prior coeperit; foeminam, ubi vir. {b}

Then she shall be unclean.] This signified that corruption of man’s nature wherein he is conceived, {#Ps 51:5} being condemned as soon as conceived, Damnatus antequam natus, { c} and the remedy we have in Christ.

{a} Amama, Antibarbar, 575.

{b} Gatak. cont. Pfochen.

{c} Augustine.

Ver. 3. And in the eighth day.] {See Trapp on "Ge 17:13"} {See Trapp on "Ge 17:14"}

Ver. 4. She shall touch no hallowed thing.] Preparation must go before participation of holy ordinances. {#Hag 2:13}

Ver. 5. But if she bear a maid child.] To intimate, it may be, the woman’s being first in the transgression. {#1Ti 2:14}

Ver. 6. And when the days of her purifying.] The Virgin Mary also observed this law, {#Lu 2:21} not in conscience of any particular sin, which in the conception of our Saviour she was free from; nor in show, to satisfy the law, much less upon hypocrisy; but in conscience of her natural corruption, which by this oblation, according to the law, she did confess holily and religiously before God and his congregation, as one well observeth.

Ver. 7. And make an atonement.] Whereby her faith was confirmed, that by Christ her sin was remitted and the curse removed. {#1Ti 2:15}

Ver. 8. And if she be not able.] As the blessed Virgin was not. {#Lu 2:22,24} Who now can despise any one for want, when the mother of our Lord was not rich enough to bring a lamb for her purification? We may be as happy in russet {a}, as in tissue.

{a} A coarse homespun woollen cloth of a reddish-brown, grey or neutral colour, formerly used for the dress of peasants and country folk

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] {See Trapp on "Le 7:22"}

Ver. 2. Like the plague of leprosy.] Leprosy is both an effect and type of sin; which is such a sickness of the soul, as those are of the body, which physicians say are corruptio totius substantiae, universal diseases tending to the issues of death. It dries up and draws out the very vital blood and life of the soul.

Ver. 3. The plague in the skin of the flesh.] That is, the white bright spot. {#Le 13:2} Compare #Ex 4:6 Nu 12:10.

Is turned white.] This might note such as have continued long and are aged in any wickedness.

Be deeper than the skin of his flesh.] Compare #Nu 12:12 2Ki 5:14. Such are they whose wickedness is not only acted by their hands, but seated in their hearts and sunk into their spirits: like the spots of the leopard, which no art can cure, no water wash off, because they are not in the skin, but in the flesh and bones, in the sinews and most inner parts. Ingrained diseases are not easily stirred, much less destroyed.

Ver. 4. Shall shut up him.] For further trial of truth, that daughter of time. We may not precipitate a censure, but be slow to speak, slow to wrath. The leper must be shut up from week to week, till the thing were certain: so till men’s perverseness be made "manifest," {#2Ti 3:9} we must suspend our censures. Many are like candles whose tallow is mixed with brine; no sooner lighted, but they spit up and down the room.

Ver. 5. Spread not in the skin.] So if men mend by admonition, and take up in time; if they refuse not to be reformed, hate not to be healed, as Babylon, {#Jer 51:9} as Ephraim. {#Ho 7:1} "When I would have healed Ephraim, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered," or brake out as a leprosy in his forehead. See #Eze 24:13.

Ver. 6. It is but a scab.] Such as may be "the spot of God’s children." {#De 32:5} Sin makes wicked men the object of God’s hatred, the saints of his pity; as we hate poison in a toad, but we pity it in a man.

And he shall wash his clothes.] The best cannot wash in innocency; he must therefore wash in tears. {#Isa 1:16} God also will set in and wash such with the blood of his Son.

Ver. 7. But if the scab spread.] So if sin be gaining and growing still upon the sinner, even after admonition, or is scattered and spread to the infecting of others, it is a very ill sign.

Ver. 8. The scab spreadeth.] This signifieth that there was yet more corruption within the body, and the inward parts were not sound. Think the same of the reign of sin in our mortal bodies. {#Ro 6:12,14,20}

Ver. 9. He shall be brought unto the priest.] Who was to discern it by the law of leprosy: so must we find out our sins by the moral law. {#Ro 3:20 7:7} "The works of the flesh are manifest." {#Ga 5:19} Neither need we half so much caution or curiosity to be persuaded of our spiritual leprosy, which is too apparent: only those many ceremonies, as one well noteth, may put us in mind how much more exquisite our diligence ought to be in finding and ferreting out our special sins.

Ver. 10. And there be quick raw flesh.] It is one of the most remarkable things in all this law, saith a learned divine, that quick or sound flesh in the sore should be judged leprosy, and the man unclean: whereas if the leprosy covered all his flesh, he was pronounced clean. {#Le 13:13} Hereby may be meant, (1.) Such as justify themselves and their wickedness, as Jonah did his anger; whereas he who judged himself, is like him who had the leprosy all over, and might be declared clean: or, (2.) Such who sin against the light of knowledge, and the quickening, yea, rawness of a galled conscience.

Ver. 11. It is an old leprosy.] So habituated sinners, that are crooked and aged with good opinions of themselves, these are seldom or never set straight again.

Ver. 12. And if a leprosy.] So called, because so counted at first: but it proves no more than a kind of scurf or scab.

Ver. 13. He shall pronounce him clean, ] i.e., Not infectiously or incurably unclean.

Ver. 14. But when raw flesh.] Because it showed that there were still corrupt and poisoned humours in the body, not easy to be expelled till death.

Ver. 15. It is a leprosy.] Properly so called; a fretting soreness or scabbedness. The Greeks call it Elephas, or Elephantiasis, when the skin grows hard as the elephant’s skin. This the Israelites brought, likely, out of Egypt; for it was bred only about the Nile, and is therefore called the botch of Egypt. {#De 28:27}

Ver. 16. Turn again, ] viz., To be white like the rest of the body: so if a sinner stop or step back, &c.

Ver. 17. He is clean, ] i.e., He will be so shortly: for why? the venom of the plague is coming forth apace.

Ver. 18. Was a boil, and is healed.] Seemed to be healed, as apostates to have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ, {#2Pe 2:20} and to have known the way of righteousness, {#2Pe 2:21} and yet the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. They become altogether filthy. {#Ps 53:3} Forsakers of the covenant, yea, wicked doers against the covenant. {#Da 11:30,32} These sin not common sins, as Core and his company died not common deaths. {#Jude 1:11}

Ver. 22. And if it spread much abroad.] So, if sin reign, there is no pardon: rebel it may, reign must not.

Ver. 23. But if the bright spot stay.] Sin, if it reign not, is not imputed; for "we are not under the law, but under grace." {#Ro 6:12,14}

Ver. 25. A leprosy broken out of the burning.] Seldom do passions burn, but there is a leprosy breaking out of that burning; such as causeth the climate where such lepers live to be like the torrid zone, too hot for any to live near them.

Ver. 30. A yellow thin hair.] Which is a true sign of a scall.

Ver. 34. He shall wash his clothes.] {See Trapp on "Le 13:6"}

Ver. 35. After his cleansing.] {See Trapp on "Le 13:18"}

Ver. 37. Black hair.] A sign of soundness. Quod sanitas in corpore, id sanctitas in corde, saith Bernard.

Ver. 39. A freckled spot.] Or white leprous eruption. This made not a man unclean: no more do mere infirmities make God abhor us.

Ver. 44. His plague is in his head.] Such a leper is every ignorant man; how much more the man that is a heretic! whom therefore after the first and second admonition we must reject, {#Tit 3:10} yea from such stand off. {#1Ti 6:5} Keep aloof as from lepers, their very breath is infectious; and like the dogs of Congo, they bite, though they bark not. {a}

{a} Purchas’s Pilg.

Ver. 45. His clothes shall be rent.] To show his sorrow for sin, the cause of his calamity.

And his head bare.] That men might not mistake him; and further to show his humility, whereof this also was a ceremony.

A covering upon his upper lip.] His moustaches that by his breath he might not infect others: and to show that God will not hear a good motion from an ill mouth.

Unclean, unclean.] Say we the same in our humblest acknowledgments; but withal add that of the leper in the Gospel, yet "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." {#Mt 8:2}

Ver. 46. Without the camp.] And that utterly, if incurable, as Uzzias. A lively type of excommunication, which the apostle describeth in #2Co 5:11,12, and our Saviour in #Mt 18:17.

Ver. 47. The garment also.] A plague not anywhere else read or heard of: being nothing like clothes now-a-days infected with the plague, but far more strange and dangerous; whether it did spread or fret inward, the garment was to be burnt with fire. This signified that all instruments of idolatry, or of any other sin, are to be destroyed and made away. As the law commandeth, "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire." {#De 7:25,26} And Jude alludeth to it, when he biddeth us "save some with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." {#Jude 1:23} See #Isa 30:22 Ac 19:19. Justiciaries also shall one day find, that though to the world-ward they "wash themselves with snow water, and make their hands never so clean; yet God will plunge them in the ditch, and their own clothes shall make them to be abhorred." {#Job 9:30,31}

Ver. 59. This is the law of the plague.] A plague ordinary among the Jews, not so among Christians, who should therein see great cause of thankfulness. It is observed to have most infested the Jews upon their revoltings from religion, and that Christians took the infection of it from their country, when they went thither to recover it, out of the hands of the Turks. But what a lewd liar was that Egyptian mentioned by Phagius, who said, that both Jews and Christians were a foul discharge of most base and beastly people, followed with a foul disease, that forced them to rest one day in seven. A blister on that foul tongue, may it well be said. From Miriam’s example, {#Nu 12:10-15} the Jewish doctors gather that leprosy is a punishment for an evil tongue.

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses.] And to Aaron also, though not here mentioned, as he is, #Le 14:33.

Ver. 2. He shall be brought unto the priest.] To teach us to go to Jesus Christ the High Priest of our profession, who healeth all our diseases. {#Ps 103:3} He cured the leprosy, to others altogether incurable, by a touch of his hand only. {#Mr 1:41} Yea, "he sent his word and healed them," {#Ps 107:20} and so he doth the souls of sinners that come unto him.

Ver. 3. If the plague of leprosy be healed.] As it was in Simon the leper that entertained Christ. Jealousy, frenzy, and heresy are counted incurable diseases: not so leprosy; though the most carried it to their death, as Gehazi, Azariah, &c.

Ver. 4. Command to take.] That the leper might show his thankfulness to Jehovah his physician, as he is called. {#Ex 15:26} See #Mt 8:4. Men pray and pay physicians of their bodies, who yet do but officiose occidere many times. And shall God have nothing? Must he ask as once, Where are the other nine? Shall we not turn again with Naaman now cleansed, and offer our service, renounce our idols, dedicate all we are and have to the God of Israel?

Two birds.] Or sparrows, whereof two were sold for a farthing: to show how lightly set by Christ is in the world, whose blood nevertheless is more worth than a thousand worlds.

Ver. 5. Over running water.] Heb., Living water. Life consists in motion, in action: hence waters that spring and run, are, for their continual motion, called living waters. O Lord, saith Hezekiah, "By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." {#Isa 38:16}

Ver. 6. That was killed over the running water.] Pointing at Christ, who "came not by water only, but by water and blood." {#1Jo 5:6} {See Trapp on "1Jo 5:6"} {See Trapp on "1Co 6:11"}

Ver. 7. And he shall sprinkle.] This led them to that blood of sprinkling, {#Heb 12:23,24} applied unto them by that hyssop branch of faith, whereby the heart is purified.

And shall let the living bird loose.] This figured, say some, that neither Christ’s deity without the shedding of his blood, nor Christ’s blood, but for the quickening life of the Godhead personally dwelling in him, could have been available for the purging of sin. Both which himself declareth. {#Joh 6:53,63} And hither belongeth #2Co 5:19 Ac 20:28. Moreover it figured, that Christ by his death conquered him that had the power of death, {#Heb 2:15} whilst he fled as a bird to the everlasting mountains, from the jaws of death to the joys of heaven. {#Heb 7:26}

Ver. 8. Shall wash his clothes, and shave.] This the leper was to do the first day of his cleansing; to teach men to be thorough in the practice of mortification, at the first conversion: "laying a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." {#1Ti 6:19}

And shall tarry abroad.] Men must not be too hasty at first to catch at comfort; but let humiliation have her perfect work, and our sorrows be suitable to our sins.

Ver. 9. Even all his hair he shall shave off.] To show that repentance and mortification is not the work of a day, as he said in another case, {#Ezr 10:13} but of a man’s whole life. There must be a daily shaving and paring of lusts and superfluities; which are to the soul as excrements are to the body. Yea, the more a sinner is exercised in mortification, the more he searcheth out his corruptions. Now he shaveth off the hair not of his head only, but of his beard and eyebrows.

Ver. 10. He shall take two he lambs.] That by these sacrifices he might be taught to seek for the cleansing of his soul, together with the healing of his body; that there might be mens sana in corpore sano, a cure done on both inside and outside too.

Ver. 11. At the door of the tabernacle.] There God is to be found, viz., in the public assemblies, and that we are indeed, saith one, which we are at the door of the tabernacle.

Ver. 12. And wave them.] This may note, (1.) Christ’s extreme sufferings; (2.) The waving of Christ in the preaching of the gospel; (3.) The motion of the sinner’s lips in confession and supplication.

Ver. 13. It is most holy.] The way of holiness in and by Christ is an absolute way as ever was devised.

Ver. 14. Upon the tip of the right ear.] To signify that all Christ’s sanctified ones have a hearing ear, an active hand, a nimble foot to walk in the way that is called holy.

Ver. 15. Some of the log of oil.] Christ’s comforts must be warily propounded to men, and with good discretion.

Ver. 16. Seven times.] This might note the perfection of the joys God hath for his, and our imperfection in believing it, in that it was so many times sprinkled.

Ver. 17. Upon the tip of the right ear.] To assure him of comfort, in hearing, doing, persevering.

Ver. 18. Upon the head.] Everlasting joy shall be upon the heads of Christ’s ransomed ones. {#Isa 35:10}

Ver. 19. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering.] We must be reconciled by Christ, our sin offering, before the sacrificing of ourselves—which is our reasonable service—can be accepted.

Ver. 20. And the meat offering.] The meat offering annexed to the burnt offering shows, saith one, {a} either that Christians grow marvellously in this life, after they have full assurance of pardon of sin: or else that Christ will be their eternal food in heaven.

{a} Bifield, on #1Pe 1:22.

Ver. 21. And if he be poor.] there is a proviso for poor people: God makes no difference, but accepts of a little where much is to be had.

Ver. 32. Whose hand is not able to get.] This is often urged, to show that the best that can be got must not be thought too good for God: and that if through carelessness or niggardice men do not their utmost, that is a just exception.

Ver. 34. Plague of leprosy in a house.] Such is the contagion of sin, that it will infect the very house we dwell in, the garments we wear, even all the creatures we use, so as all things are to us impure; {#Tit 1:13} even the house of God also, {#Le 16:16} and his holy ordinances. The Canaanites had defiled the land from one end to another with their uncleannesses, {#Ezr 9:11} and so infected the air. This law taught men, (1.) Upon all occasions to show their utter detestation of sin, but especially of idolatry; (2.) To take heed of despising admonition, lest they be utterly ruined, "and that without remedy." {#Pr 29:1}

Ver. 35. As it were a plague.] He might not flatly say, it was the leprosy, till the priest had so pronounced it.

Ver. 36. That all that is in the house be not made unclean.] As it will be when once the priest hath been there and pronounced it unclean. Learn here, saith a good interpreter, to prevent God’s last judgment, by sequestering ourselves betimes, from the contagion of sinners.

Chapter 15

Ver. 2. A running issue.] An involuntary flux of semin, such as David imprecateth upon Joab. {#2Sa 3:29}

Ver. 3. It is his uncleanness.] Hereby they were taught the turpitude of sin, of original sin especially, that peccatum peccans, as the Schools call it; that sinful sin, as St Paul, {#Ro 7:13} for so filthy it is, that he can call it no worse than by its own name, as wanting a fitter epithet.

Ver. 4. Every bed.] Sin is more catching than any plague, and more defiling than any out house; {#Mr 7:23} Paul found it as noisome to his soul as a dead body to his sense, {#Ro 7:24} or as the sanies; {a} of a plague sore to a rich robe. Job abhors himself for it in dust and ashes. {#Job 40:4} And Isaiah looks upon himself as an undone man by reason of it. {#Isa 6:5}

{a} A thin fetid pus mixed with serum or blood, secreted by a wound or ulcer.

Ver. 8. Spit upon him.] Noting the pollution that comes to men’s souls by those that spit heresies and belch out blasphemies.

Ver. 13. Bathe his flesh.] This taught them to run to that open fountain, that kings’ bath. {#Zec 13:1 Eze 36:29}

Ver. 15. And the priest shall offer them.] This priest and these sacrifices led them to Christ, who bore our sicknesses and expiated our sins. Seest thou then the bloody issue of thy corruptions always running, and gushing out at thine eyes, ears, mouth, flesh? the issue of blood and water opened in Christ’s side runs alway for washing it away.

Ver. 16. Go out from him.] By nocturnal pollutions, filthy dreams, &c.

Ver. 18. With seed of copulation.] Though lawful in itself, as being the ordinance of God. {#Ge 2:24} Sin is like copperas, {a} which will turn wine or milk into ink; or leaven, which turns a very passover into pollution.

{a} A name given from early times to the protosulphates of copper, iron, and zinc (distinguished as blue, green, and white copperas respectively); etymologically it belonged properly to the copper salt; but in English use, when undistinguished by attribute or context, it has always been most commonly, and is now exclusively, applied to green copperas, the proto-sulphate of iron or ferrous sulphate (Fe SO4), also called green vitriol, used in dyeing, tanning, and making ink.

Ver. 24. And if any man lie with her.] Unawares, or secretly. For to do it presumptuously, and upon public notice, it was death. {#Le 20:18 Eze 22:10} And God often punisheth such unclean copulations now-a-days, with monstrous, deformed, or diseased births.

Ver. 25. Have an issue.] As she had in #Mr 5:25.

Ver. 31. That they die not.] Which is worse than to die in a ditch.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. After the death.] That others might be warned. Lege historiam, ne fias historia, saith one.

When they offered before the Lord.] A little strange fire might seem a small matter in the eyes of indifferency: and yet it was such a sin as made all Israel guilty, as appears by the sacrifices offered for that sin, set down in this chapter.

Ver. 2. that he come not at all times.] Whensoever he pleaseth, but when I appoint him, i.e., once a year only, {#Ex 30:10} and then also with reverence and godly fear. God, as he loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience, so he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in his judgments.

Ver. 3. For a sin offering, ] viz., For himself and his family. {#Le 6 Le 11} {See Trapp on "Le 14:3"}

Ver. 4. Therefore shall he wash.] As we must be always holy, so then most when we present ourselves to the holy eyes of our Creator. We wash our hands every day; but when we are to sit with some great person, we scour them with balls. See #Le 16:24.

Ver. 5. Two kids of the goats.] Both of them types of Christ: who though he died not for wicked goats, yet he seemed rejected of God, and was reckoned among malefactors. {#Isa 53:9}

Ver. 6. And for his house.] Whereof a minister must be mainly careful, {#1Ti 3:4} lest, as Augustus doing justice on others, he be hit in the teeth with his own disordered family. Aaron had lately smarted in his two eldest.

Ver. 7. The two goats.] See on #Le 16:5.

Ver. 8. Shall cast lots.] To show that nothing was done for us by Christ but what God’s hand and his counsel determined. {#Ac 4:28 1Pe 1:20} {See Trapp on "Ac 4:28"} {See Trapp on "1Pe 1:20"}

For the scape-goat.] Which being a piacular or purging oblation, carried the people’s curse with it: as did likewise those Obominales among the Grecians; who, from this custom of the Hebrews, borrowed their yearly expiation of their cities: the manner whereof, somewhat like unto this. {See Trapp on "1Co 4:13"}

Ver. 9. The goat.] A type of Christ’s mortal humanity, say some, as the scape goat of his immortal deity: or the one of his death, the other of his resurrection. Others are of the opinion that hereby was signified that the deity of Christ dwelling in light inaccessible gave to his humanity sufficient strength for the enduring of those things, which no other creature could have come near, for the full expiating of our sins. So he telleth the Jews first, and afterwards his disciples, "Whither I go ye cannot come." {#Joh 8:22,13:36}

Ver. 11. An atonement for himself.] That having first made his own peace, he may be in case to atone for the people. This was David’s method. {#Ps 25 Ps 51}

Ver. 12. And bring it within the vail.] So to prepare the way into the holy place. This incense small beaten might prefigure Christ in his agony, praying more earnestly, before he entered with his own blood into the most holy place of heaven.

Ver. 13. May cover the mercy seat.] And so be as a screen betwixt the priest and those everlasting burnings: or as a cloud to darken the glory of their shining, for the high priest’s safety.

Ver. 14. Upon the mercy seat eastward.] This and the following verses signify, saith one, that even heaven itself is defiled unto us by our sins; until it be made clean by the blood and obedience of Christ, who is entered thither, "not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood," and thereby hath "purified the heavenly things themselves." {#Heb 9:12,23}

Ver. 16. In the midst of their uncleanness.] Which did cleave to the tabernacle, as the sins of spiritual Babylon are said to be glued (εκολληθησαν) to heaven. {#Re 18:5}

Ver. 17. And there shall be no man.] Christ will have no partner, and he needs no assistant. {#Heb 7:25 Isa 63:3}

Ver. 18. And he shall go out unto the altar.] This signified, saith one, that every church assembly is acceptable to God, only through the blood of Christ, by the remission of all their sins.

Ver. 19. From the uncleanness, ] i.e., The defects and imperfections of their holiest performances.

Ver. 20. Reconciling the holy place.] Defiled in some sort by the sins of the people, in whose behalf the priests there performed their service.

Ver. 21. All their transgressions in all their sins, ] i.e., In their several circumstances and aggravations: laying open how many transgressions were wrapped up in their several sins. This was to bring out their sins, as they took the vessels of the temple, {#Ezr 8:34} "by number and by weight."

Ver. 22. Shall let go the goat.] The Hebrews say, that he was to throw it down the rock, and so it died. The Grecians had a like custom {a} in their solemn expiations of their cities. They tumbled the persons devoted from some rock into the sea; sacrificing them to Neptune, saying, Be thou a propitiation for us. {b}

{a} Aemulus Dei diabolus.

{b} Suidas.

Ver. 23. Shall leave them there.] As afterwards the priests did, in some of the holy chambers about the sanctuary. {#Eze 44:16}

Ver. 24. He shall wash his flesh.] See what this taught them and us. {#Heb 10:22} That Epistle to the Hebrews is an excellent commentary upon this Book of Leviticus.

Ver. 25. Upon the altar.] The brazen altar in the outer court.

Ver. 26. Shall wash his clothes.] To show, (1.) That it was for our sins that Christ suffered; (2.) That all that partake of his benefits must wash their hearts from wickedness. {#Jer 4:14 2Co 5:15 7:1}

Ver. 27. Without the camp.] See #Heb 13:11,14.

Ver. 28. He that burneth.] Whoever he be whom the priests shall appoint to do it.

Ver. 29. Ye shall afflict your souls.] With voluntary sorrows for your sins, -as David did, {#Ps 35:13} and Daniel, {#Da 10:3,12} -and so dispose yourselves to obtain pardon and reconciliation. The Lord’s supper is with us a day of atonement; at which time both the scape goat was let go, and affliction of soul was called for. This passover must be eaten with sour herbs.

Ver. 30. That ye may be clean from all your sins.] And so God may turn your fasting into feasting, as #Zec 8:19. The joyful jubilee was begun and proclaimed in this same tenth day. {#Le 25:8,9}

Ver. 31. It shall be a Sabbath of rest.] An exact and careful rest, such as is described in #Isa 58:13, which place of the prophet some understand of this day of atonement, and yearly fast, spoken of in the beginning of that chapter.

Ver. 32. Whom he shall consecrate, ] i.e., God: or the present high priest, the chief God on earth. See on #Le 6:2.

Ver. 33. For the holy sanctuary.] For all the sins of your holy services, it being the manner that either makes or mars an action.

Ver. 34. For all their sins once a year.] For whereas in their private sacrifices they durst not confess their capital sins for fear of death, due to them by the law, God graciously provided and instituted this yearly sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the whole people, without particular acknowledgment of any. There are of good note who think, {a} that this anniversary fast, called "the fast" by a specialty, {#Ac 27:9} was instituted in reference unto, and solemn remembrance of, the fall of Adam; which happened, say they, on the tenth day of the world, answering to the first of November. But how strangely are the Jews at this day besotted, if that be true of them that some {b} report, viz., that at this their feast of reconciliation, they use to bribe Satan, that he may not accuse them for their sins; and that this is one thing for which they do yearly afflict their souls, namely, the translation of the Bible out of Hebrew into Greek, by the Septuagint!

{a} Arch. Ussher, Annales Vet. Test., p. 2.

{b} Alex. Ross’s View of Religions.

Chapter 17

Ver. 2. This is the thing which the Lord.] Who must be readily obeyed without evasion, or questioning.

Ver. 3. What man soever.] Whether Israelite or proselyte, {#Le 17:8} unless by special dispensation from the lawgiver, as #1Sa 7:9,11:15 2Sa 24:18 1Ki 18:22; and then they were to offer upon altars of earth, or rough stone, that might be soon and easily thrown down. {#Ex 20:24,25}

Ver. 4. And bringeth it not unto the door.] To teach, that in the Church alone, and by Christ alone, that is, by faith in him, acceptable service can be performed to God. Christ is the door of the sheep, {#Joh 10:7,9} by whom we come to the Father, {#Joh 14:6} and may everywhere lift up pure hands, without wrath, without doubting.

Ver. 5. Unto the priest.] No man might offer his own sacrifice, though never so good, but must bring it to the priest; and the priest was to offer as well the poor man’s lamb, as the rich man’s ox.

Ver. 6. Shall sprinkle the blood.] See #Le 1:9.

Ver. 7. Unto devils.] {a} As they had done in Egypt. {#Eze 23:8 De 32:17} And as both Pagans and Papagans do. {#1Co 10:20 Re 9:20} The Americans in Canada worship the devil; who, when he is offended with them, flings dust in their eyes. At Calecutta, the chief city of Malabar, they worship Satan with flowers on his altars, and sacrifices of cocks. The Brahmins, or priests, wash his image, sitting in a fiery throne with three crowns and four horns, with sweet water every morning. The king of Calecutta eats no meat till it be first offered by his priests to this idol. When a man lies a dying, they show him the picture of the devil, that he may be the better acquainted with him in the other world. The word here rendered devils signifieth rough ones, satyrs. {#Isa 34:14} Satan is a rough, rugged, harsh spirit: and such also are his imps, as Esau, Ismael, &c.

{a} Synesius saith, the devil is ειδωλοχαρης, an idol lover.

Ver. 8. That offereth a burnt offering.] They were strictly tied to one place, that they might be kept all in one uniform way of God’s worship appointed by himself.

Ver. 9. Shall be cut off, ] i.e., Destroyed; not excommunicated only, as some do sense it.

Ver. 10. That eateth any manner of blood.] {See Trapp on "Ge 9:4"}

Ver. 11. And I have given it to you.] I have set it apart for a sacred use: therefore you may not make food of that which is a figure of Christ.

Ver. 12. No soul of you shall eat blood.] Haply because the Magi or wise men of Chaldea did use to eat blood when they conversed with devils; and, by them, foretold things to come. {a}

{a} Maimonides.

Ver. 13. Which hunteth.] Though he be as hungry as a hunter. See #1Sa 14:32-34.

Ver. 14. Is the blood, ] i.e., Is in the blood, and goeth out together with it.

Ver. 15. And every soul that eateth.] Ignorantly eateth.

Ver. 16. Shall bear his iniquity, ] i.e., The punishment of it: they are so near akin, that one name serves for both.

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] {See Trapp on "Le 7:22"}

Ver. 2. I am the Lord your God.] Your Maker and Master.

Ver. 3. After the doings of the land of Egypt.] Where, and in Canaan, these heinous sins are counted peccadillos; as at this day also they are in Spain, Italy, Turkey, where their catamites are their serious loves; sodomy is hardly held a vice; bestiality was boasted of by Mohammed their prophet.

In their ordinances.] The Egyptians made it lawful, so did the Persians, for brother and sister to couple together in marriage. Of this and the like ordinances it might be rightly said, as once it was of the ceremonial law, that they were statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. {#Eze 20:25}

Ver. 4. To walk therein.] Not to halt therein, nor to take a turn or two, or for a while, as Samson went with his parents till he met with a honeycomb; but indesinenter ambulabo, as David saith, {#Ps 116:9} "Walk, and not be weary; run, and not faint," as those in #Isa 40:31. "So run, that ye may obtain," saith the apostle. {#1Co 9:24}

Ver. 5. He shall live in them.] As the flame lives in the oil, as the creature by his food, so the spiritual life is maintained by an evangelical keeping of God’s commandments. As on the contrary, every motion of the soul out of this way, tends to death; being as the motion of the fish out of his element.

Ver. 6. None of you shall approach, ] viz., To couple carnally with them. {#Eze 18:6 Isa 8:3} Yea, though it be under a pretext of marriage: for by marriage they seem to justify their incest, which makes it the worse, saith Tostatus, whose reason here I like better than that of Cardinal Campeius, though it sound somewhat like. If comparison should be made, said this carnal cardinal, much greater offence it is for a priest to have a wife than to have and keep at home many harlots. For they that keep harlots, said he, {a} as it is naught that they do, so do they acknowledge their sin; the other persuade themselves they do well, and so persist without repentance or conscience of their fact.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 790.

Ver. 7. She is thy mother.] And so it is against nature to lie carnally with her. Aristotle {a} tells of a camel that killed his keeper for causing him to cover his dam, and of a horse that cast himself down headlong after he had done the like.

{a} Hist. Animal., lib. ix. cap. 47.

Ver. 8. It is thy father’s nakedness.] For "the wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband": {#1Co 7:4} and when her chastity is assaulted, she should say, saith Chrysostom, Non est corpus meum, sed mariti, My body is not mine, but my husband’s.

Ver. 9. Or born abroad, ] i.e., Base born, which our English laws call natural children. The Hebrews call them brambles, and Mamzerim, spots abroad, and Shatukim, such as must say nothing when others are praising their parents. The Greeks call bastards, υβριδες, because they are their fathers’ reproach, and are subject to contempt and contumelies of others.

Ver. 10. For theirs is thine own nakedness.] Children are but the father multiplied; the father of another edition.

Ver. 11. Thou shalt not uncover.] This verse is added for an exposition of #Le 18:9.

Ver. 12. She is thy father’s near kins woman.] As near as may be: and therefore nature abhorreth any such copulation.

Ver. 13. {See Trapp on "Le 18:12"}

Ver. 14. Of thy father’s brother.] The nakedness of whose wife is called his nakedness, because man and wife are one flesh. {#Mt 19:6} {See Trapp on "Mt 19:6"}

Ver. 15. Son’s wife.] Whether he be dead or alive.

Ver. 16. Brother’s wife.] Except in that special case. {#De 25:5} This was Herod’s sin {#Mt 14:4} and our Henry VIII’s; whereupon was the divorce.

Ver. 17. It is wickedness.] Wickedness with a witness; and yet avowed for lawful by some odious upstart sectaries, who teach that those marriages are most laudable that are betwixt persons nearest in blood, brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son, &c. This they shame not to set forth in print. {a}

{a} Hist. Davidis Georg., pp. 28, 29; Little Non-such, pp. 5-7.

Ver. 18. A wife to her sister, ] i.e., Any two women together: compare #Eze 1:9. Here polygamy is flatly forbidden. In which sin many of the patriarchs lived and died; not through any impiety, the Lord testifying that their hearts were upright, but merely through the mistaking of this text, as it may seem, taking 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.

Ver. 19. Unto a woman.] {See Trapp on "Le 15:24"}

Ver. 20. To defile thyself.] As David, how did he embroil himself with Bathsheba, and chased away that pure Spirit. {#Ps 51:10-12} Casta Deus mens est.

Ver. 21. Pass through the fire.] Either to be burnt to death in honour of that abominable idol; or to be consecrated thereto, by passing between two fires, which scorched them. {See Trapp on "Mt 5:22"}

Neither shalt thou profane the name, ] i.e., Cause it to be profaned and blasphemed by others, as in #Pr 30:9 1Ti 1:20. {See Trapp on "1Ti 1:20"}

Ver. 22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind.] The Sodomites’ sin. {#Ge 19:5} {See Trapp on "Ge 19:5"} This, say the Hebrews, was Ishmael’s sporting with Isaac: and this, say others, was the sin of Joseph’s brethren, the evil report whereof he brought to his father. A sad report it was surely to our King Henry I, that was brought him concerning his eldest son, William, who, crossing the seas from France to England, was with many other gallants cast away by shipwreck, being Sodomitica labe infecti fere omnes, saith Guliel. Parisiensis, almost all of them infected with this abomination of going after strange flesh. {#Jude 1:7,8}

Ver. 23. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast.] See what a foul sink of sin man’s nature is! Who would think that any such surpassing wickedness—so {a} Aristotle calls bestiality—should ever enter into man’s heart? But "there, as in the sea, is that Leviathan," the devil, and there are "creeping things," abominable and ugly lusts, "innumerable." {b}

{a} υπερβαλλουσα τις κακια η θηριστης.

{b} 2. Mag. Mor., cap. 5.

Ver. 24. The nations are defiled.] And yet are not the Scriptures defiled, by providing against such filthinesses, no more than the sunbeams are by shining upon a stinking lake.

Ver. 25. And the land is defiled.] From one end thereof to the other; {#Ezr 9:11} as the face of the old world was grown so foul, that God was fain to wash it with a flood.

Ver. 26. Ye shall therefore keep.] Unless ye be ambitious of a like destruction. {#Lu 13:3}

Ye shall therefore keep my statutes.] Or else, it will be a horrible shame to you to live in my good land, and not to live by my good laws.

Ver. 27. Which were before you.] But had not your helps.

Ver. 28. That the land spue not you out.] It is wisely said by Herodotus, That the destruction of Troy is a fit example of the rule, that great sins bring great plagues.

Ver. 29. The souls.] That is, the persons. The soul is the man.

Ver. 30. These abominable customs.] Heb., Statutes of abominations. Their evil customs became as laws: that tyrant of three letters, Mos, had made them so.

Chapter 19

Ver. 2. Ye shall be holy.] Ritually and really. {See Trapp on "Le 11:44"} {See Trapp on "Mt 5:48"} {See Trapp on "1Pe 1:16"} {See Trapp on "1Jo 3:3"}

Ver. 3. Ye shall fear every man his mother.] The mother is set first, because usually most slighted. The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob, said that profane profligate. {#Ge 27:41} As for his mother, he makes no reckoning of her, he cared not to grieve her.

And keep my Sabbaths.] To the which the honouring of good governors, who are to see the Sabbath sanctified by all under their roof, doth very much conduce.

Ver. 4. Turn ye not unto idols.] Heb., Elilim; deunculi, deastri; Petty gods, dunghill deities; of all which we should say, as he did once, Contemno minutulos istos deos, modo Iovem (Iehovam) mihi propitium habeam, I care for the favour of no god, but of the great God of gods.

Ver. 5. At your own will.] Or, for your favourable acceptation, that God may graciously accept you.

Ver. 6. It shall be eaten the same day.] {See Trapp on "Le 7:15"} {See Trapp on "Le 7:17"} {See Trapp on "Le 7:18"} {See Trapp on "Le 7:19"}

Ver. 7. It is abominable.] A thing to be rejected (απιβλητον), saith Aquila, who is thought by some to be the same with Onkelos, the Chaldee paraphrast, who lived ninety years after Christ, and translated the Old Testament into Greek.

Ver. 8. Shall bear his iniquity.] See on #Le 17:16.

Ver. 9. And when ye reap.] See what provision the Lord maketh for his poor, commanding that the fuller cups of the richer sort may overflow into their empty dishes: besides that πτωχοδεκατη, as Jerome calls it, that poor man’s tithe appointed in #De 14:28,29 15:11. James V of Scotland was, for his charity, called the poor man’s king; much more may God.

Ver. 10. I am the Lord.] The chief owner of all thou hast.

Your God.] Whom thou oughtest to honour with thy substance. {#Pr 3:9}

Ver. 11. Ye shall not steal] {See Trapp on "Eph 4:28"} {See Trapp on "Eph 4:25"} {See Trapp on "Ex 20:15"} {See Trapp on "Le 6:3"}

Ver. 12. Neither shalt thou profane the name.] By presuming rashly and lightly to blurt out this reverend name in an oath, or otherwise. The Grecians, as Suidas observes, when they would swear by Jupiter, out of the mere dread and reverence of his name forbear to mention him, breaking off their oath with a υα τον, as those that only dare to owe the rest to their thoughts. And Clinias the Pythagorean, out of this regard, would rather undergo a fine of three talents than swear.

Ver. 13. The wages of him that is hired.] This is a crying sin, {#Jas 5:3} condemned by the very light of nature. Plato {a} would have him double paid that is not paid in due time.

{a} De Legibus, lib. x.

Ver. 14. Thou shalt not curse the deaf.] So by analogy, the absent that cannot speak for themselves, or the dead. Of all fowl we most hate and detest the crows; and of all beasts the 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.

But shalt fear thy God.] Who both hears and sees all thy miscarriages, and will reckon with thee for all. Deo obscura clarent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur, saith an ancient. Night will convert itself into noon before God, and silence prove a speaking evidence.

Ver. 15. Thou shalt not respect.] Spare not the great for their might, nor the mean for their misery. Causes must be heard, and not persons.

Ver. 16. Up and down as a talebearer.] Heb., As a pedlar, that first fills his pack with reports and rumours, and then goes peddling up and down, dropping a tale here and another there, to the taking away of the good name, and sometimes of the life of another. Hence it follows here, "Neither shalt thou stand against the life of thy brother." And agreeable hereunto is that of #Eze 22:9, "In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood." Such a wretched pedlar was Doeg: and such is that backbiter spoken of in #Ps 15:3. The word there used doth in the Hebrew properly signify such a one as footeth and trotteth it up and down, prying, and spying, and carrying tales and rumours. {#2Sa 19:21}

Ver. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother.] Most unkindnesses that fall out among friends grow upon mistakes and misunderstandings. Now, a friendly reasoning the case, or, if need be, a godly reproof, cures both the reprover and the reproved; whereas the neglect of this duty breeds dwelling suspicions; suspicions breed a very habit of misinterpretation; this breeds a loathness to come to the light, to show the reasons af our dislike; this loathness begets a very separation in heart, which at length turns to downright hatred in heart. All which might have been better prevented by a seasonable venting our minds in a reproof or admonition.

Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour.] Neither is this any argument of hatred, but an office of love. Friends, as bees, are killed with the honey of flattery, but quickened with the vinegar of reproof. The eagle, though she loveth her young ones dearly, yet she pricketh and beateth them out of the nest.

And not suffer sin upon him.] But save him "with fear, pulling him out of the fire." {#Jude 1:23} Out of the fire of hell, as Jerome {a} interprets it, which sin suffered will bring him unto. Others read it thus: Lest thou suffer for his sin; which, by not opposing, thou makest to become thine own. To withstand evil in thy brother, is the best way to do him good, and thyself too. Others render it thus: Thou shalt not lift up his sin over him, as an ensign, by babbling or blazing it abroad to his just grief and disgrace; but clap a plaster of reproof upon the sore, and then, as surgeons use to do, cover it with thy hand, that the world may be never the wiser.

{a} Ex igne gehennali. -Jer.

Ver. 18. Nor bear any grudge.] Heb., Nor keep. There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep than his wrath. Therefore the Hebrews both here and #Jer 3:5 Ps 103:9, put servare for servare iram. But we must neither revenge nor remember; we must not throw away the dagger, and keep the sheath, but both forgive and forget.

But thou shalt love thy neighbour.] {See Trapp on "Mt 22:37"} {See Trapp on "Mt 22:38"} {See Trapp on "Mt 22:39"} {See Trapp on "Mt 22:40"} {See Trapp on "Ro 13:9"}

Ver. 19. Ye shall keep my statutes.] Even these next following, though they may seem to be but minutula legis, not worth keeping.

Thou shalt not let thy cattle.] The doctors of Douay, upon this text, Here all participation, say they, with heretics and schismatics is forbidden. Philip of Spain said he had rather have no subjects, than subjects of a diverse religion. Our King Edward VI told the Popish rebels of Devonshire, who fought for liberty of conscience, as they call it, that rather than he would yield to them, he would spend his own royal person, his crown, treasure, realm, and whole estate; whereof we assure you, said he, of our high honour. {a} But now, alas! what secret and subtle projects and practices are there amongst us of this nation to bring in a universal, boundless, lawless, abominable and intolerable toleration, which—as the London ministers affirm in their "Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ," now newly published to the singular praise of their exemplary and seasonable zeal for God will prove a hideous and complexive evil of most dangerous and mischievous consequence, if ever, which God forbid, it shall be consented to by authority. England shall be swallowed up with sects, schisms, divisions, disorders, contentions, and confusions, and become an odious sink and commen receptacle of all the prodigious errors, lies, heresies, blasphemies, libertinism, and profanenesses in the world: so that Rome itself shall not be a more odious puddle and cage of all abomination and uncleanness. The godly shall sit down and lament us. The wicked shall rise up and insult over us. All the nations about us shall be amazed at us. All the reformed Churches shall be ashamed to own us. Thus, and much more to this purpose, write those worthy zealots, whose testimonial to the truth, coming by a providence to my hand, even whilst I was writing upon this chapter, I could not but here set my seal to it, and here insert this part of it, the whole being such as deserves to be written in letters of gold upon a table of marble, for the use of all posterity {b}

Neither shall a garment.] Hence the Jews at this day sow not a woollen garment with a linen thread: nor contrariwise. {c}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1189.

{b} The London Ministers’ Testimony, &c., Attested.

{c} Leo Moden.

Ver. 20. She shall be scourged.] Thus still, saith a grave interpreter, the Lord debaseth bond servants, to teach his children to hate the bondage of sin.

Ver. 21. His trespass offering. Whereof see #Le 5.

Ver. 22. Shall be forgiven, ] sc., By faith in Christ, whom these sacrifices did shadow and set forth.

Ver. 23. Three years shall it be as uncircumcised.] And so to be cast away, as the foreskin of the flesh was. The fourth year it was to be separate, to be offered to the Lord in sign of thanksgiving. And then in the fifth year to be eaten. This was to show that the very fruits of the earth are, after a sort, polluted by man’s sin, till purged by a new kind of blessing. {#1Ti 4:5} Hereby also God would separate his own people from other nations: and show that they might with a better conscience feed upon the fruits of the earth than others could. There are that set this mystical sense upon the text. Christ, for three years’ space, planted the gospel in Judea; but the foreskins were cast away for that time—that is, the gospel was not preached yet to the uncircumcised Gentiles. In the fourth year these fruits were consecrated to God—that is, Christ in the fourth year of his ministry died for the sins of the world, rose again, ascended, and sent down the Holy Ghost, whereby the apostles and others were sanctified, being, as it were, the first fruits of the Promised Land. In the fifth year, the fruits of the gospel, planted by Christ, began to be common, preached to the Gentiles, believed in the world. {#1Ti 3:16}

Ver. 24. Shall be holy, ] i.e., They shall be given the priests as firstfruits.

Ver. 25. That it may yield unto you the increase thereof, ] i.e., Abundantly in recompense of those four former years. In doing of God’s will there is great reward.

Ver. 26. Neither shall ye use enchantment.] Or, observe fortunes, conjecture by signs of good or evil luck, as some render it.

Ver. 27. Ye shall not round.] Because the Arabians their neighbours did so, and they should not be conformed to idolaters. {a} Oleaster, a Popish interpreter, understandeth such a shaving here, as their priest use to bear. But shaving is so bald a ceremony, that some priests in France are ashamed of the mark, and few of them have it that can handsomely avoid it.

{a} Herod., in Thal.

Ver. 28. Ye shall not make any cuttings.] Another heathenish custom, of such as mourned without hope. {a} Plutarch tells of some barbarians that did tear their hair, rend their flesh, slit their ears and nose for the dead. {#Jer 16:6}

{a} Consol., ad Apol.

Ver. 29. Do not prostitute thy daughter.] As some of the heathens did in honour of their gods. As the papists do at this day, in their stews and brothel houses. {a} Their casuists complain of some harlots there so boldly lascivious, as to solicit others, so as to prostitute themselves to all comers; yea, in some Spanish stews to an unnatural filthiness. But what a shameful thing is that which Espencaeus, a Papist, reports with detestation, that in Rome a Jewish maid might not be admitted into the stews of whoredom, unless she would be first baptized. Dici nequit, saith he, {b} quam incredibili Christianorum tum pudore, tum etiam eorum, qui vere tales sunt, cordollo, ut Iudae filiae scortari non liceat, Dei filiae liceat: What a shameful and sad thing is this, that a Jewess, unless she turn Christian, &c.

{a} Martin. Vival., in Candelabro, Cap. de Confessione.

{b} Espenc., De Continent., lib. iii. cap. 4.

Ver. 30. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths.] Twice in this chapter is this commanded, that it may be the better remembered: and that men may know that it is not enough to rest on that day, but that rest must be sanctified by a reverent resorting to the sanctuary, and not profaned by running into whorehouses and tippling houses, as in Germany; where Alfred {a} complains and says, that if the Sabbath day should be named according to many men’s observing of it, Daemoniacus potius quam Dominicus vocaretur.

And reverence my sanctuary.] Come we must into the places of God’s worship, with an inward awe and fear of his presence, and not as into a dancing school as some do. "How fearful is this place," saith Jacob. It is the place of angels and archangels, the kingdom of God, it is heaven itself, saith Chrysostom. {b} Away then with all careless negligence and carnal security.

{a} Alsted., Encyc.

{b} Hom. 36, ad 1 Cor. iv.

Ver. 31. I am the Lord your God.] What need you then run to the devil for direction? Is it because there is no God in Israel? Every one that consults with Satan, worships him, though he bow not: neither doth that evil spirit desire any other reverence than to be sought unto.

Ver. 32. Thou shalt rise up.] Cognata sunt γηρας et γερας, old age and honour are near akin in the Greek tongue, ut ηθος et εθος. See #Pr 20:29 La 5:12.

Ver. 33. And if a stranger.] {See Trapp on "Ex 22:21"}

Ver. 34. Shall be unto you as one born among you.] If he be a proselyte.

Ver. 35. Mete yard.] Or line, for measuring of ground.

Ver. 36. Just balances.] See #Pr 11:1,16:11 20:10.

Ver. 37. And do them.] For they are verba vivenda, non legenda. Words not so much to be read as lived.

Chapter 20

Ver. 2. That giveth any of his seed unto Moloch.] {See Trapp on "Le 18:21"} Lactantius reports out of "Pescennius Festus," that the Carthaginians being overcome by Agathocles king of Sicily, and fearing lest their slackness in the service of Saturn—who is thought to be the same with Moloch—was the cause, offered unto him for a sacrifice no fewer than four hundred young gentlemen at once.

Ver. 3. To defile my sanctuary.] Great sins do greatly pollute. See #Le 18:21.

Ver. 4:. Hide their eyes, ] i.e., Be negligent or ignorant.

Ver. 5. I will set my face against that man.] See the reason in #Eze 16:20,21, "Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to pass through the fire for them?" This was an enraging sin; such as God is absolute in threatening, and will be as resolute in punishing.

Ver. 6. And will cut him off.] Nemo cum serpente securus ludit, nemo cum diabolo iocatur impune. {a}

{a} Chrysolog., Serm. 155.

Ver. 7. For I am the Lord your God.] And God that is holy should be sanctified in righteousness. {#Isa 5:16}

Ver. 8. I am the Lord which sanctify you.] Ut acti agatis, that ye may trade with your talents, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and lives, and walk up to your principles.

Ver. 9. For every one that curseth.] {See Trapp on "Mt 15:4"} {See Trapp on "Ex 21:17"}

Ver. 10. Shall surely be put to death.] Adultery was death long before this law. {#Ge 26:11 38:24} So it was afterwards among the Greeks, Romans, and many other nations. {#Jer 29:22,23}

Ver. 11-14. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 12. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 13. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 14. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 15. Ye shall slay the beast.] Though innocent: this shows the heinousness of the sin. See #Le 18:9.

Ver. 16. And the beast.] Lest the sight of such a beast should bring that loathsome sin to remembrance.

Ver. 17. And see her nakedness.] In the Pope’s war against the Albigenses, those ancient French Protestants, when the bishops had taken a great town yielded to them, they commanded the inhabitants, both men and women, to depart stark naked, Partibus illis, quae honeste nominari non possunt, sanctorum illorum cruciatorum oculis expositis, saith Rivet, {a} not suffering them to hide from the impure eyes of those pope holy fathers those parts that nature would have covered. David that had faulted in looking lustfully on bathing Bathsheba, prays hard, after he had smarted for it, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity," &c. {#Ps 119:37}

“ Cur aliquid vidi, cur noxia lumina feci?’’—Ovid.

See #Hab 2:15. Of looking comes lusting, especially when they do σκοτειν, which is the apostle’s word, {#2Co 4:14} so look, as the archer at the mark.

It is a wicked thing.] Heb., An impiety or reproach: Chesed, it is called, per antiphrasin. That may have a good name, the nature whereof is so ill that it is not to be named.

{a} Jesuita Vapulans., p. 331.

Ver. 18-20. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 19. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 20. See on #Le 18.

Ver. 21. They shall be childless.] Either barren or bereft; for this is a sin, saith Job, that roots out all a man’s increase. {#Job 31:12} Hence that of Hosea, They shall commit whoredom, velo iepparedu, they shall not increase. Pered is a mule, which is a beast very libidinous, but begetting nothing. Solomon had many concubines, yet but one son and two daughters. So had our Henry VIII. He had uncovered his brother’s nakedness, and was well-nigh childless by her. Afterwards he married many wives, and was blameworthy for women, but left no more children than Solomon did. More happy he was in them than Solomon; for he had Rehoboam, a man neither wise nor fortunate, as they call it: his daughters but obscure, and both of them subjects. But Henry had a peerless prince to his son, viz., Edward VI, and his two daughters were both sovereigns of an imperial crown.

Ver. 22, 23. See on #Le 18

Ver. 23. See on #Lev 18

Ver. 24. Separated you.] With a wonderful separation; such as was that of light from darkness at the creation.

Ver. 25. Between clean beasts.] How much more then shall you abstain from those unlawful copulations, whereby men put off all manhood, degenerate into dogs? {#Ro 1:27 De 23:18 2Sa 3:8}

Ver. 26. See #Le 19:2 20:7.

Ver. 27. That both a familiar spirit.] As Paracelsus had one confined to the pummel of his sword, or else Erastus belies him.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. There shall none be defiled for the dead.] This holy abstinence of the priests in matter of mourning, marriage, &c., figured the transcendent holiness of Christ: the devils could call him that Holy One of God. {#Mr 1:24} It taught also both ministers and people, who are "a kingdom of priests"; (1.) Well to govern their passions, and to be patterns of patience; (2.) Ever to keep such a Sabbath of spirit, that by no dead works, or persons dead in trespasses and sins, they be hindered in the discharge of their duties of either calling.

Ver. 2. And for his brother.] The high priest might not for any of these, {#Le 21:10,11} nor might Eleazar and Ithamar for their dead brethren Nadab and Abihu, {#Le 10:6} because in that case, mourning might have seemed murmuring.

Ver. 3. And for his sister.] What! and not for his wife? Yes surely, though she be not mentioned, because she is nearer than either daughter or sister. See #Eze 24:16. He was a priest, but that was an exempt case, an exception from what was ordinarily done.

Ver. 4. Being a chief man.] A vir gregis; all whose actions were exemplary, and have not an impulsive only, but a compulsive power and property. "Why compellest thou the Gentiles?" {#Ga 2:14} His example was a compulsion.

Ver. 5. They shall not make baldness, &c.] So #Le 19:27. Howbeit in humiliation for sin the Lord God of hosts called them all, both priests and people, to weeping and mourning, {#Joe 2:17} yea to baldness and sackcloth. {#Isa 22:12} Here we cannot easily overdo.

Ver. 6. They shall be holy.] Heb., Holiness, i.e.. all holy, even as holiness itself, merely spiritual.

Not profane the name of their God.] Not do anything unworthy the majesty of the ministry: but suffer the dead to bury their dead. {#Mt 8:22}

Ver. 7. They shall not take a wife.] Lest their function be disgraced. That which Hosea was commanded to do against this prohibition {#Ho 1:2} was but visional.

Or profane.] Deflowered, ravished.

Put away from her husband.] Because of evil report.

Ver. 8. Thou shalt sanctify him.] i.e., Thou, Moses, shalt command him to be sanctified, as #Ex 19:10.

Ver. 9. She shall be burnt with fire.] A peculiar plague, to show the hatefulness of the sin.

Ver. 10. Shall not uncover his head.] So neither doth the Mufti among the Turks, nor the Pope of Rome uncover to any man: but this is their pride and stateliness.

Ver. 11. Nor defile himself.] But appear impassionate, as it were, and more than a man.

Ver. 12. For the crown of the anointing.] Noting thereby that Christ, now risen, is crowned with glory and honour; {#Heb 2:7 Zec 6:12} and so shall we with him. {#Heb 2:9,10 1Co 15:47-49}

Ver. 13. In her virginity.] Such is Christ’s wife, {#2Co 11:2 Re 14:4 Mt 25:1-13} not giving her love, or his worship to any other.

Ver. 14. Of his own people.] A Jewess of any tribe. {#Eze 44:22 2Ch 22:11}

Ver. 15. Profane his seed.] Disable them for the priesthood by marrying such a wife as was forbidden him.

Ver. 17. That hath any blemish.] Christ was without blemish: so should all the saints be, but especially ministers, of whom it should be said as of Absalom, that from top to toe there was no blemish in him. {#2Sa 14:25}

Ver. 18. He shall not approach.] Lest his ministry be slighted for his personal defects and deformities: how much more for his ignorance, envy, indirect aims, uneven walking, injudiciousness, unheavenly mindedness, &c., purported by these bodily imperfections?

Ver. 19. Or broken handed.] In the hands, the Hebrews say, there might be seven blemishes.

Ver. 20. A blemish in his eye.] By a mixture of the humours there, or otherwise; when that little man {a} in the eye, as the Hebrews call the apple thereof, acteth not his part aright.

{a} Ishon

Ver. 22. He shall eat the bread.] So might not the unclean priests. {#Le 22:3} Our involuntary weaknesses shall not debar us from benefit by Christ.

Ver. 23. For I the Lord do sanctify them.] By my presence, and services there performed.

Ver. 24. And to all the children of Israel.] Who were to see that these things were thus done.

Chapter 22

Ver. 2. That they separate.] Though priests, yet they may not hold themselves privileged above others to commit sin, but are the rather obliged to duty. Why should any Chrysostom have cause to say, Non arbitror inter sacerdotes multos esse qui salvi fiant, I do not think that many of our ministers can he saved, it is well if any? or any Campian to exclaim, Ministris eorum nihil vilias?

Ver. 3. Cut off from my presence.] Who am omnipresent: Postea nullus erit. Where shall the ungodly and the wicked appear? Surely, nowhere.

Ver. 4. Or hath a running issue.] Seminifluus: especially if it come by contemning that counsel of the wise man. {#Pr 31:3}

Ver. 5. Or a man.] Whether a leper, or a dead man.

Ver. 6. Unless he wash his face with water.] Whereby he was led to the laver of Christ’s blood, which is opposed to legal washings. {#Heb 9:9} Run we to that open fountain, {#Zec 13:1} and be every day washing and cleansing ourselves therein from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. Every Jew had his water pots for daily purification. {#Joh 2:6} We have a far better bath.

Ver. 7. ; Because it is his food.] Animantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, and must be preserved by food.

Ver. 8. See on #Le 17:15 Ex 22:31.

Ver. 9. And die therefore.] It is no dallying with God. Either do it we must, or die for it.

Ver. 10. There shall no stranger.] The equity of all this was, that ministers should have a comfortable subsistence for them and theirs; and that the things that are appointed to that purpose should not be converted to other uses. {#1Co 9:13} It is certainly a sad complaint that Luther {a} makes: Nisi superisset spolium Aegypti quod rapuimus Papae, omnibus ministris verbi fame pereundum esset, &c. Were it not for such spoils of Egypt as we have won from the Pope, God’s ministers might starve and perish. And if ever it come to that, that they must be maintained by the people’s benevolence, a miserable maintenance they are like to have of it. That little that we have now, diripitur a magistratu, is got from us by the great ones who rob our churches and schools, as if they meant to make an end of us with hard hunger. Thus he. See #Hag 2:14. All the water in Jordan, and the ceremonies in Leviticus, cannot cleanse a man so long as the polluted thing remains in his hand.

{a} Luther, in Gen, xlvii.

Ver. 11. He shall eat.] As being a menial servant to the priest.

Ver. 12. Unto a stranger.] That is not a priest, or of the family of the priests.

Ver. 13. And have no child.] Nor is with child.

Ver. 14. {See Trapp on "Le 22:10"}

Ver. 15. Profane.] By suffering the holy things to be eaten of strangers.

Ver. 16. Or suffer them.] From my "other men’s sins," good Lord deliver me, said one: have we not enough of our own to answer for? See #1Ti 5:22, {See Trapp on "1Ti 5:22"} That cannot be wholesome meat that is sauced with the blood of souls, and spiced with the wrath of God.

Ver. 19. At your own will.] Yet observing strictly the law in that case provided, with all the rites appointed. Such will worship is very acceptable.

Ver. 20. It shall not be acceptable.] Nay, it shall be abominable. {#Mal 1:7} God requires the best of the best, fine flour without bran, {#Le 2:1, &c.} and curseth that cheat, that having a sound or a fat male in his flock, bringeth to him a corrupt carrion, or a lean starveling, for sacrifice. {#Mal 1:14}

Ver. 21. It shall be perfect to be accepted.] Saints also are perfect in God’s acceptation, if harmless and blameless.

Ver. 23. That mayest thou offer.] Though it have some kind of defect, yet, in free will offerings, it might pass. This was to signify that our imperfect obedience after that we are once in Christ, is accepted by Christ, who is without all blame and blemish.

Ver. 24. Neither shall you make any offering.] No, not a freewill offering. Religion loves to lie clean. God will take up with a poor, but it must be a pure sacrifice.

Ver. 25. Their corruption is in them.] As not having their hearts purified by faith; and therefore not in case to please God.

Ver. 27. It shall be seven days.] As not being man’s meat, till then: but legally impure, and in their blood, as were likewise infants.

Ver. 28. Ye shall not kill it and her young.] Because it bears a show of cruelty, and of adding affliction to the afflicted. See #Ge 32:11 Ho 10:14.

Ver. 29. Offer it at your own will.] God strains upon no man. Virtus nolentium nulla est.

Ver. 30. On the same day.] {See Trapp on "Le 7:15"}

Ver. 31. I am the Lord.] Your rightful Lord, and my reward is with me, to give unto every man according to his works.

Ver. 32. My holy name.] "Holy, and" therefore "reverend." {#Ps 111:9} Holiness hath honour.

Chapter 23

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] {See Trapp on "Le 7:22"}

Ver. 2. To be holy convocations.] Not bare rests, as Plato said, that the gods, pitying men’s labour, appointed their festivals to be a remission of their labour. {a} {See Trapp on "Ex 20:8"} {See Trapp on "Ex 20:9"} {See Trapp on "Ex 20:10"} {See Trapp on "Ex 20:11"}

{a} Αναπαυλας των πονων.—2. De Legib.

Ver. 3. Ye shall do no work therein.] Save only works of piety, charity, and necessity. These are allowed by our Saviour. {#Mr 2:23-28 3:4} The Jews superstitiously hold, {a} that it is not lawful for a blind man to lean upon a staff on a Sabbath day, as the lame may: that if a flea bite a man on that day, he may take it, but not kill it. That if a thorn prick him in the foot on that day, he may not pull it out. That a tailor may not carry a needle, much less a sword; that a man may not spet, {b} or be taken out of a jakes, as that Jew of Tewkesbury, who said,

“ Sabbata santa colo, de stercore {c} surgere nolo.”

Whereunto the Earl of Gloucester replied,

“"Sabbata nostra quidem (Solomon) celebrabis ibidem."”

“(Sir, reverence {d} of the Sabbath keeps me here:

And you, sir, reverence {e} shall our Sabbath there.)”

In all your dwellings.] Where you are to sanctify this rest, and to repair to your synagogues. {#Ac 15:21}

{a} Ranulph., lib. vii. cap. 37.

{b} ?Spit.

{c} A play upon the double meaning of the word stercus. See Ainsworth’s Dictionary.

{d} Ibid.

{e} Idid.

Ver. 4. In their seasons, ] i.e., Once a year.

Ver. 5. In the fourteenth day.] {See Trapp on "Ex 12:18"}

Ver. 6. Eat unleavened bread.] To teach us to eat the Christian passover, not with the "old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." {#1Co 5:8}

Ver. 7. No servile work.] But that about victuals. {#Ex 12:26}

Ver. 8. But ye shall offer an offering.] What these offerings must be, see #Nu 28:18,24.

Ver. 10. And shall reap the harvest.] Barley harvest; for that was first.

Ver. 11. And he shall wave the sheaf.] This signified that they and theirs were accepted of God through Christ.

On the morrow after the Sabbath.] Here the Lord’s day was prefigured, saith one, therefore prescribed, and instituted of God. This shake day sheaf was a pregnant type of Christ’s rising again, the firstfruits from the dead. It was fulfilled in Christ’s resurrection, the day after the Sabbath. And because this Sabbath was chiefly meant of the Passover (which was a high Sabbath) it was a double Sabbath wherein Christ rested in the grave. The very next morning was Christ waved before the Lord, when, in the earthquake, he rose from the dead "the firstfruits of them that sleep," and there hence entered the everlasting gates as a King of glory, {#Ps 24:7} which psalm is in the Greek called A psalm of David of the first day of the week.

Ver. 12. A he lamb.] Prefiguring Christ, by whom those first fruits were sanctified.

Ver. 13. Two tenth deals.] This was double to the ordinary proportion, {#Nu 15:4} because on such an occasion.

Ver. 14. And ye shall eat neither bread.] It was fit that God the giver should have the first.

Ver. 15. Seven Sabbaths.] That is, seven weeks. The Sabbath is queen of all the days of the week; and therefore carries the name of the whole week.

Ver. 16. Shall ye number fifty days.] And then keep the feast of Pentecost or of weeks, so called because it was seven weeks after the passover.

Ver. 17. Out of your habitations.] That is, Out of the new corn (growing of the same land which God gave them to inherit) not foreign.

The firstfruits, ] viz., Of their wheat harvest, as the shake sheaf {#Le 23:10} was of their barley harvest. Thus were they to express their thankfulness to God for those precious fruits of the earth. {#Jas 5:7}

Ver. 18. Seven lambs.] Besides which, they had other oblations at the feast of Pentecost. {#Nu 28:27} The service of God was heretofore very costly.

Ver. 20. Wave them.] See on #Ex 29:24.

Holy to the Lord.] And wholly to the priest.

Ver. 21. A holy convocation.] The feast day of Pentecost, kept in testimony of their thankfulness for the land’s fruitfulness, their deliverance from Egypt, {#De 16:10,12} and the receiving of the law at that time of the year. {#Ex 19:11}

Ver. 22. And when ye reap.] See #Le 19:9. In these we entertain Christum convivam, Christ a guest, saith Jerome.

Ver. 24. Of blowing of trumpets.] This feast signified the spiritual joy and gladness of the saints that are redeemed by Christ, all their life long. {#Isa 23:10}

Ver. 25. See on #Le 16:30, &c.

Ver. 26. See on #Le 16:30, &c.

Ver. 27. Also on the tenth day.] {See Trapp on "Le 16:31"} Thus they were kept in sorrow five days, before they might keep their feast of joy. {#Le 23:34}

Ver. 34. The feast of tabernacles.] It signified, the prophet Zechariah being interpreter, {#Le 14:16-19} that the remembrance of our redemption by Christ should be perpetuated with all spiritual gladness.

Ver. 42. Ye shall dwell in booths.] The siege of Jerusalem by the Romans lasted six months. It began at the passover, and ended at this feast of tabernacles. Ita festum illud fuit finis istius politiae.

Ver. 43. That your generations may know.] For which purpose also they had at this feast the law read unto them. {#Ne 8:18 De 31:10,13}

Chapter 24

Ver. 2. Beaten for the light.] Ministers must beat their brains, and bend their utmost endeavours to "give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide their feet into the way of peace": as that "burning and shining light," the Baptist, did. {#Lu 1:79}

Ver. 3. From the evening unto the morning.] In the morning it went out. {#1Sa 3:3}

Ver. 4. Upon the pure candlestick.] Pure, because daily purified by the priests: so must our consciences be from dead works by daily repentance.

Ver. 5. Twelve cakes.] {See Trapp on "Mt 12:4"}

Ver. 6. Six on a row.] One by another, not one upon another, as they are commonly painted.

Ver. 7. On the bread.] Or, Instead of the bread.

Ver. 8. Every Sabbath.] So must the bread of life be every Sabbath at least set before the saints.

Ver. 9. Made by fire.] The frankincense laid upon them, was.

Ver. 10. Whose father was an Egyptian.] His mother taught him to speak, his father to blaspheme.

Strove together.] In the beat of contention, what will not men say or do?

“… qui non moderabitur irae,

Indictum velit esse, dolor quod suaserit, et mens.”

Ver. 11. Blasphemed the name, &c.] Heb., Bored it through; gored it; pierced it; as did those Syrians, slain by the fall of the wall of Aphek; Rabshakeh that dead dog; {#Isa 36:4-6} Julian the apostate, Chosroes the Persian, the raging Turk at the siege of Scodra; {a} that foul mouthed Papist that dared say, The God of the Protestants is worse than Pan, god of clowns, which can endure no ceremonies nor good manners at all. {b} To these add Paul Best, who hath lately published blasphemous verses against the Trinity. See the "London Ministers’ Testimonial to the Truth of Jesus Christ."

{a} Turk. Hist., 423.

{b} Sheldon’s Mark of the Beast, epis. dedic.

Ver. 12. That the mind.] God had not yet made a particular law against blasphemy. Solon made no law against parricide, Lycurgus none against ingratitude; because they thought no such offence would be committed.

Ver. 14. And let all that heard him.] The Jews at this day abhor the blasphemies of Christians, so openly and ordinarily darted up with hellish mouths against God. The Turks punish their prisoners sorely, when as, through impatience or desperateness, they break out into them. {a}

{a} Spec. Europ.

Ver. 15. Curseth his God.] This is worse than blaspheming, as implying a deep and desperate malignity. There is a negative cursing of God, concerning which see #Job 1:5. {See Trap on "Job 1:5"}

Ver. 16. And he that blasphemeth.] Swearers and blasphemers toss God’s name to and fro with such impiety and profaneness, as if their speech could have no grace but in his disgrace: as if Augustus Caesar were dealing with some god Neptune; or the three sons trying their archery at their father’s heart, to see who can shoot nearest. {a}

Shall surely be put to death.] Though he be never so much provoked by others, as this blasphemer was; that shall no whit excuse him.

{a} Lonicer, Theat. Hist.

Ver. 17. And he that killeth any man.] Though in hot blood; Scripture makes no difference between murder and man slaughter. {See Trapp on "Ge 9:6"}

Ver. 19. As he hath done.] God loves to retaliate; it is his usual manner of proceeding in punishing.

Chapter 25

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai.] Posthuman, returning from the eastern parts, is, by Sulpitius, {a} brought in thus speaking: I saw the Red Sea, I went up Mount Sinai, the very top whereof, reaching up almost to heaven, cannot be come at.

{a} Sulp., Dial i., cap. 2.

Ver. 2. Then shall the land keep a Sabbath.] By their weekly Sabbath they professed that themselves belonged to God, though Seneca jeers them for it, as those that cast away the seventh part of their time. By this seventh year Sabbath, they professed that their land belonged to God, and that they were only his hinds, his tenants, and tithemen. Hence it is called the Lord’s land, {#Ho 9:3} and Immanuel’s. {#Isa 8:8}

Ver. 3. Six years.] Beginning at September, according to the Jews’ civil account.

Ver. 4. A Sabbath of rest unto the land.] This and the jubilee year shadowed our eternal rest. {#Col 2:16,17 Heb 4:9} (l.) Every seventh day they rested from their labours. (2.) Every seventh year the ground rested. (3.) Every seventh seventh (as some reckon it) was the jubilean Sabbath: at which time all debts were remitted, prisoners released, mortgages restored to the right inheritors. The great and eternal Sabbath comprehends all these. How then should we breathe after it, and even go forth to meet it, as the Jews do their weekly Sabbath, beginning it an hour sooner than the law required? and this they called their Sabbatulum, or little Sabbath.

Ver. 5. Thou shalt not reap, ] sc., All at once, as other years: but now some, and then some, for thy necessary food. {a}

{a} Maimon., in Jobel.

Ver. 6. Shall be meat for you.] Thus God taught and inured them to depend upon his providence, and to feed on faith, as some read that text. {#Ps 37:3} For though the owner of the field might gather, even on that year, for the maintenance of himself and family, yet he was neither to sow his field, thereby to increase his harvest, nor to hedge his field, or lock up his vineyard, &c.

Ver. 8. Seven Sabbaths of years.] See on #Le 25:4.

Ver. 9. In the day of atonement.] Here began the jubilee: this feast was founded in a fast. "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy": neither is there any such comfort as theirs that have soundly soaked themselves in godly sorrow. Pardon of sin is the only foundation of all jubilees: and when God hath pardoned us, our hearts are in fittest frame to pardon others.

Ver. 10. And proclaim liberty.] See this expounded by the prophet Isaiah. {#Isa 61:1,2 Lu 4:21} A most joyful jubilee indeed. In the year of Christ, 1617, the Pope proclaimed a jubilee for the peace of Italy and Austria. The Protestants also of Germany did the like, in honour of God, and for joy of the Reformation begun by Luther in Germany, a just {a} hundred of years before.

{a} Exactly a hundred years before.

Ver. 11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be.] Or, That jubilee shall be unto you the year of fifty years. This first Mosaical jubilee was in 1396 BC.

Ver. 12. Out of the field.] {See Trapp on "Le 25:6"}

Ver. 13. Ye shall return every man unto his possession.] So shall all saints to the paradise of God, at the sound of the last trumpet.

Ver. 14. Ye shall not oppress.] But proceed by that golden rule, "Whatever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye to them."

Ver. 15. Years of the fruits.] The land was not properly sold, but the fruits and revenues thereof.

Ver. 17. But thou shalt fear thy God.] And so depart from this evil also. {#Ge 42:18} Joseph said to his brethren, who feared he would roll himself upon them, "This do and live, for I fear God," q.d., I dare do you no hurt, though ye be fallen into my danger. So his grandfather Isaac, seeing that he had done unwilling justice, durst not reverse the blessing, though he had some mind to it, for God had overawed him. {#Ge 27:33} And "ought ye not to have walked in the fear of the Lord?" said good Nehemiah to those merciless griping usurers. {#Ne 5:10}

Ver. 18. Ye shall do my statutes.] Ye shall do them, and do them: that is, ye shall do them diligently, {as #Ps 119:4} and then ye shall dwell in the land in safety; yea, ye shall dwell there in safety: that is, ye shall assuredly; take my word for it.

Ver. 20. And if ye shall say.] A clear answer to a carnal objection. Usually God conceals the objection in Scripture, and meets it with an answer, which is an act of grace.

Ver. 21. Command my blessing.] Now if God send his mandamus, who shall gainstand it?

Ver. 22. Ye shall eat of the old store.] Leave that care to me, who will cause you to have "all sufficiency in all things, that ye may abound to every good work." {#2Co 9:8,10}

Ver. 23. The land is mine.] See #Le 25:2.

Ver. 24. Ye shall grant a redemption, ] i.e., Yield to it.

Ver. 25. And if any of his kin.] Christ is our near kinsman, and so by propinquity, as man, had the right of redemption. {#Ru 2:20 3:9,11,13}

Ver. 28. And he shall return unto his possession.] So do all God’s Israel to their heavenly inheritance. {#Col 1:12-14 Eph 1:10,11,18 1Pe 1:4}

Ver. 30. And if it be not redeemed.] This would make the owners the better husbands, and keep the houses in better repair.

Ver. 31. They may be redeemed.] Lands and homestall had need go together.

Ver. 32. May the Levites redeem at any time.] They were ever counted privileged persons: and it was but reason. See #Le 25:33,34.

Ver. 33. See previous verse.

Ver. 34. May not be sold.] This law lasted but during the paedagogy: for Joses, a Levite, sold his land, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. {#Ac 4:36,37}

Ver. 35. That he may live with thee, ] i.e., Live in good fashion; for a necessitous life is a lifeless life. Thus shall ye say to him that liveth. {#1Sa 25:6} So #Joh 4:50, "Thy son liveth."

Ver. 36. Take thou no usury.] God dispenseth with no usury, but condemns both Neshec the biting, and Tarbith the toothless. In Rome at this day, all usurers are excommunicated monthly. The Jews indeed are permitted to strain up their usury to 18 per cent upon the Christian, for among themselves they nowhere use it, which causeth many of the unconscionable Christians to use these Jews underhandly in improving their unlawful rents to the utmost proportion.

Ver. 38. I am the Lord your God.] Freely you have received, freely lend. You have had me your benefactor, you shall have me your debtor.

Ver. 39. Thou shalt not compel him.] To serve for ever, nor use him basely and hardly meanwhiles.

Ver. 41. And then shall he depart from thee.] Yea, and though he had been bored through the ear, in token of perpetual servitude. {#Ex 21:2,6}

Ver. 43. Rule over him with rigour.] As the Egyptians did over the Israelites. {#Ex 1:13} Thy servant is made of the same earth with thee, and hath right to the same heaven with thee. See #Ga 3:28. The servant paid the half shekel as well as the master. Stand not therefore on terms of inequality, but know that yourselves also have a Master in heaven. Do therefore to them "that which is right and equal." {#Col 4:1}

Ver. 44. Both thy bondmen.] Reprobates might be hereby figured.

Ver. 46. But over your brethren the children of Israel.] Tacitus observed of the Jews in his time, that to their own countrymen they were very kind: but toward all others, cursed and cruel.

Chapter 26

Ver. 1. Ye shall make you no idols.] {See Trapp on "Ex 20:4"} {See Trapp on "Ex 20:5"} God knew the people’s proneness to idolatry.

Ver. 2. Ye shall keep.] {See Trapp on "Le 19:30"}

Ver. 3. If ye walk in my statutes.] God’s promises are with a condition, which is as an oar in a boat, or stern of a ship, and turns the promise another way.

Ver. 4. Rain in due season.] The best almanac we should rely upon for seasonable weather is our obedience to God, love to our neighbour, care of ourselves.

Ver. 5. Dwell in your land safely.] Confidently, fiducially, as boldly relying upon God’s protection.

Ver. 6. Neither shall the sword.] To devour and desolate it, to eat flesh and drink blood, without measure or safety. A fire it is that feeds upon the people, {#Isa 9:19} a hungry wolf that snatcheth on both hands. {#Isa 9:20}

Ver. 7. And ye shall chase your enemies.] If foreigners invade you, you shall be able to quell and quiet them quickly.

Ver. 8. And five of you.] God strengthens or weakens the arm of either party, {#Eze 30:24} strikes a panic terror oft, as into those Aramites that heard a hurry noise in the air, made by the angels likely, and fled.

Ver. 9. And establish my covenant with you.] This is more than all the rest. So #Ge 17:20,21, "I have blessed Ishmael; twelve princes shall he beget, but my covenant will I establish with Isaac."

Ver. 10. Because of the new.] Which shall sufficiently secure you from want, though the old were spent.

Ver. 11. I will set my tabernacle.] The philosopher could comfort himself, that though he had little else to trust to, yet ενθα και οι Θεοι ιεσιν, Here are the gods with me, meaning his household gods. And he in Plutarch said of the Scythians, That though they had no music, nor vines amongst them, yet they had gods. How much more may the saints glory in God’s presence! Habent omnia qui habent habentem omnia. {a}

{a} August.

Ver. 12. And I will walk.] {See Trapp on "2Co 6:16"}

Ver. 13. Which brought you forth.] This they often hear of, not by way of exprobration, {#Jas 1:5} but to incite them to thankful obedience. {#De 8:11 Jos 24} Servati sumus, ut serviamus.

Ver. 14. But if ye will not hearken.] Here we may observe twice so many threatenings as promises; which serves to set forth the baseness of our natures, that will do more for fear than love.

Ver. 15. Or if your soul abhor my judgments.] As, so it may prove; such is the vile canker of your corrupt natures.

Ver. 16. I will even appoint.] Put them in commission; send them with such authority as shall be irresistible.

Terror, consumption, and the burning ague, ] i.e., Terrible sicknesses of all sorts, such as was the sweating sickness, called Sudor Anglicus, quia Anglis perpetuum malum. {a} It reigned {b} here some forty years together, and slew so many, that strangers wondered how this island could be so populous to bear and bury such incredible multitudes. No stranger in England was touched with this disease, and yet the English were chased therewith, not only in England, but in other countries abroad: which made them like tyrants, both feared and avoided, wherever they came. {c}

{a} Sennert., De Febrib., lib. iv. cap. 15.

{b} Coepit anno 1486.

{c} Life of King Edward VI, by Sir John Heywood.

Ver. 17. They that hate you.] A heavy curse to any people, to have mischievous, malicious princes set over them: odious to God, malignant to the people.

Ver. 18. Seven times more.] God will have the better of us, and good reason: for is it fit that he should cast down the bucklers first? Illud quidem sic habeto, said the orator, {a} nisi sanatus animus sit, quod sine philosophia fieri non potest, finem miseriarum nullum fore, Be sure of this; if thy mind mend not, there will be no end of thy misery.

{a} Tusc. Quae., Cic. iii.

Ver. 19. Your heaven as iron.] Hard hearts make hard times.

“ En quia iam nobis sint ferrea pectora, reddit

Coelum etiam nobis durius aere Deus.

Et quia iam nummos gignant pro faenore nummi:

Ante ferax tellus desinit esse ferax.” {a}

{a} Bill. Anthol., lib. ii.

Ver. 20. Your land shall not yield.] See this fulfilled. {#Jer 14:1,2, &c., and #Joe 1:12 Jer 8:13} And yet their country was called Sumen totius orbis. Cornelius Tacitus yields it to be a fruitful country. So did Rabshakeh long before. {#2Ki 18:32}

Ver. 21. Contrary unto me.] Or, Carelessly before me; as our ungirt Christians, profligate professors do.

Seven times more Plagues.] God cannot be exhausted, neither need we fear, as he did of his Jupiter.

“ Si quoties peccent homines, sua fulmina mittat

Iupiter, exiguo tempore inermis erit.”

Ver. 22. I will also send wild beasts.] As he did. {#Nu 21:6,2Ki 17:25,2:24 Isa 13:21 Jer 5:6}

Ver. 23. Ye. will not be reformed.] Or chastised. God will master us; but the wicked refuse to receive corrections: like naughty boys they prove more stubborn or more stupid: they stout it out, and will not stoop. When God’s "hand is lifted up they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed." {#Isa 26:11}

Ver. 24. Then will I also walk contrary.] God will be as froward as they for the hearts of them. {#Ps 18:20} He will wry with them; neither may they look to get anything of him by wriggling and wrestling.

Ver. 25. I will bring a sword.] God "makes peace and creates evil," i.e., war. called evil per antonomasiam. Whencesoever the sword comes, it is "bathed in heaven." {#Isa 34:5}

The quarrel of my covenant.] For breach whereof Jerusalem is long since laid waste, those seven golden candlesticks are broken in pieces. Bohemia lies still a bleeding, which was the seat of the first open and authorised Reformation. And what may we think will become of us all, who, "like men have transgressed the covenant," {#Ho 6:7} or as Junius reads it, not tanquam homines, but tanquam hominis, &c. We have made no more of breaking covenant, than if therein we had had to do with dust and ashes like ourselves, and not with the great God; who is therefore whetting his sword, and furbishing it for slaughter. Quod Deus avertat!

Ver. 26. And not be satisfied.] As sick of a bulimy, or dog-like appetite, common in times of famine, such as was that of Samaria, Saguntum, Jerusalem, Sancerra, &c.

Ver. 27. But walk contrary unto me.] Or, At all adventures with me.

Ver. 28. Seven times for your sins.] God will not cease pursuing till Sheba’s head be thrown over the wall. Three times in this chapter God raiseth his note of threatening, and he raiseth it by sevens, and those are discords in music. Such sayings will be heavy songs, and their execution heavy pangs to the wicked. In musical notes there are but eight degrees; and then the same returns again. Philosophers, when they distinguish degrees in qualities, do usually make the eighth degree to be the highest. But in the wrath of God against impenitents here in this chapter, #Le 26:18,21,24,28, there are no fewer than twenty-eight degrees threatened, as is well observed. {a}

{a} Dr Rain.

Ver. 29. And ye shall eat.] As they did. {#2Ki 6:29 La 4:19} Pone pretium humanae corni, was once heard openly proclaimed at Rome in the reign of Honorius the Emperor. A hard case indeed. Here in England, in Edward II’s time, anno 1316, there was so terrible a famine, that horses, dogs, yea, men and children, were stolen for food, and the thieves newly brought into the jail were torn in pieces, and eaten presently half alive, by such as had been longer there. {a}

{a} Alsted, Chron. Speed’s Hist.

Ver. 30. Upon the carcasses.] Or, Stumps and shivers of your idols overturned. {#Jer 16:18 Eze 4:3-7} Thus in Ket’s conspiracy, those rebels of Norfolk, that brought with them into the field the pyx under his canopy in a cart, not without masses, crosses, banners, candlesticks, &c., all which trumpery, together with their breaden god, was tumbled in the dirt, amidst the carcasses of their late idolatrous worshippers. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1190.

Ver. 31. I will not smell.] I will show myself implacable, inexorable.

Ver. 32. Which dwell therein.] After that you shall be driven out of it.

Ver. 33. And I will scatter you.] As chaff. Compare #Ps 44:11 Zec 7:14. Therefore "fan you, fan you, O nation, not to be desired before the day pass as the chaff," &c. {#Zep 2:1,2} {See Trapp on "Zep 2:1"} {See Trapp on "Zep 2:2"}

Ver. 34. Then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.] Rest from your disquietments, whilst ye sinned upon it; and gat out the heart of it to spend it on your lusts. Compare #2Ch 36:21. Where there is not a resting from sin, the Sabbaths are not truly kept.

Ver. 35. {See Trapp on "Le 26:34"}

Ver. 36. I will send a faintness.] See this explained in #Job 15:21,22.

Ver. 37. And they shallfall.] Through feebleness or prefestination.

Ver. 39. Shall pine away in their iniquity, ] i.e., saith Diodate, Forsake their hardness of heart, and humble themselves with tears and repentance. But I rather adhere to those who take the words for a dreadful threatening worse than all the rest, viz., that after all their losses, captivities, &c., they that were left should swelter and pine away in their iniquities, as if nothing could awake them.

Ver. 40. A special text touching the rejection and conversion of the Jews.

Ver. 41. Accept of the punishment of their iniquity.] Taking all in good part, as less than their deserts; yea, taking God’s part against themselves, humbly submitting to his justice, and imploring his mercy.

Ver. 43. They shall accept, ] q.d., I will give them to do what I require of them. See #Le 26:41.

Chapter 27

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] This is oft premised and prefaced for authority’s sake, and that we may learn to resolve all divine doctrines into Deus dixit.

Ver. 2. When a man shall make a singular vow.] Votum eximium, as Vatablus renders it, a personal, particular, voluntary vow; which, drawn by some peculiar reason, a man promiseth to God of his own accord. It is a binding of one’s self to God by a holy and religious promise, to do or not to do something lawful, possible, useful for our increase in godliness. As here of persons, afterwards of things: all which might be redeemed, under such exception as the law provideth, by the estimation of the priest for certain shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary: this was double to the ordinary shekel. The aim and intent of these personal vows was, say some, that the price of their redemption might be employed either for the maintenance of the priests, {#Nu 18:14} or for the repair of the sanctuary. {#2Ki 12:4,5} Neither by such vows do we cast any new snares upon ourselves, but rather a new tie to the payment of an old debt.

Ver. 3. Fifty shekels of silver.] This was the greatest rate, because people are then in their prime; and yet no very great one, lest they should think much to vow, or perform to the Lord their God.

Ver. 4. And if it be a female.] She is set at a lower valuation then the male, because less able for any laborious or rational employment.

Ver. 5. From five years old.] Childhood and youth is vanity. There is a bundle of folly in a child’s heart. {#Pr 22:15} The same Greek word νηπιος, signifieth a fool, and a child. And the Hebrew word used to signify youth, {#Ec 11:10} signifieth blackness or darkness, to note, that youth is a dark and dangerous age. Few Macariuses to be found, who, for his gravity in youth, was surnamed παιδαριογερων, the old young man. {a}

{a} Niceph.

Ver. 6. From a month old.] If his parents have made a vow concerning him.

Ver. 7. And if it be from sixty years.] The rate of old age is less than of youth, and more than of childhood.

Ver. 8. But if he be poorer.] Indulged he shall be, but not exempted. Vows, in things lawful and possible, must be performed, as we can at least. If rashly made, that rashness must be repented of, but the vow, if otherwise lawful, must be kept, without delay or diminution, to the utmost of our power. Men may not play with vows, {#Ec 5:3,4 Ps 76:11} as monkeys with their collars, which they can slip at pleasure. To vow is voluntary, to pay is necessary. And yet what more common in the world than shipmen’s vows? As he in Erasmus, {a} who in a storm promised his saint a picture of wax as big as St Christopher, but when he came to shore, would not give a tallow candle.

{a} Erasm. Colloq.

Ver. 9. Giveth, ] i.e., Consecrateth unto God by his vow; and so, giveth him of his own. {#1Ch 29:14}

Ver. 10. Then it and the exchange thereof.] For a punishment of his instability and lightness.

Ver. 11. Any unclean beast.] Unless the dog were excepted. {#De 23:18} {See Trapp on "De 23:18"}

Ver. 12. So shall it be.] What the priest doeth, God ratifieth.

Ver. 13. Then he shall add.] The owner, if he repent of his vow, shall pay for his levity. See #Ec 5:2,4,5.

Ver. 14. Sanctify his house.] Consecrate it, or any thing in it, by vow to the Lord. #Le 27:15,13

Ver. 20. Or if he have sold the field.] And so, sacrilegiously robbed God.

Ver. 22. Of his possession, ] i.e., Not his patrimony, but his purchase.

Ver. 26. No man shall sanctify.] Because they were due unto the Lord before.

Ver. 28. Notwithstanding no devoted.] Hitherto of things consecrate; now of things execrate, whereof see a command, {#De 13:15,17} an example. {#Nu 21:2} These could not be sold, nor redeemed, but must remain with the priest: if it were a beast, then to be put to death.

No devoted thing.] No anathema: so the offerings of the temple were called. {#Lu 21:5}

Ver. 29. None devoted, ] sc., To destruction: as were the Amalekites; {#1Sa 15:3} Canaanites; {#Nu 21:2} Jerichuntines. {#Jos 6:17}

Ver. 30. And all the tithe.] See here in this chapter what a liberal maintenance God allowed the priests: (1.) Various votive oblations, or their redemptions; (2.) All the firstborn, or their redemptions; (3.) Every devoted thing, unless devoted to some particular use; (4.) All the tithes of what kind soever: besides firstfruits, oblations, portions of sacrifices, &c. And I see not, saith a reverend man, {a} but that tithes at least, or some better thing, should be due to the ministers of the gospel by Divine ordinance: and that those that take them from us should give us a better thing, as those here that had a mind to redeem their tithe, were bound by the law to add to the price every fifth penny above the true value.

{a} Mr Wilkinson’s Debt Book.

Ver. 32. Passeth under the rod.] Coloured at the end with red, to mark out the tenth, as they passed out. See #Jer 33:13.

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