Numbers

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. In the wilderness of Sinai.] Here God held his people well nigh a year. Here they received the law, both moral and ceremonial: the moral drove them to the ceremonial, which was then Christ in figure; as it doth now drive us to Christ in truth. The ceremonial law, saith one, was their gospel. We must also pass by Sinai to Sion, unless we like rather to be carnally secured than soundly comforted. {See Trapp on "Ex 19:1"}

Ver. 2. Take ye the sum.] Hence this book is named in the Greek, Numbers.

Ver. 3. All that are able.] The people perceiving how many hundred thousand strong they were, might go on with more courage against their enemies. It is an ancient custom in Scotland, in cases of importance, to command the fire cross to be carried; that is, two fire brands to be set in fashion of a cross, and pitched upon the point of a spear, and proclamation is thereupon made, that all men, above sixteen years of age and under sixty, shall come into the field to advance against the common enemy. {a}

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

Ver. 4. A man of every tribe.] These were men of renown. {#Nu 1:16} To "do worthily in Ephrata," is the way to be "famous in Bethlehem." {#Ru 4:11} It is said of a great statesman, in Queen Elizabeth’s days, that he was in the number of those few that both lived and died with glory. {a}

{a} Camden’s Elisab.

Ver. 16. Princes of the tribes.] These were those officers over them in Egypt, saith a Hebrew doctor, that had been beaten for them. {#Ex 5:14} Now they are raised to great preferment. Sic per angusta ad augustum, per spinas ad rosas, per motum ad quietem, per crucem ad coelum contendimus.

Ver. 17. Which are expressed by their names.] And they are all excellent good names and very significant; hereby is testified to posterity that they forgat not the name of their God when they were in the iron furnace, but could say, as #Ps 44:17, "All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee; though thou hast sore broken us, in the place of dragons," &c.

Ver. 18. And they declared their pedigrees.] Which those that could not do, {#Ezr 2:62} were cut out of the roll, capite diminuti, cashiered.

Ver. 19. So he numbered them.] {See Trapp on "Ex 30:12"} At every general muster they paid poll money. {#Ex 30:16} Such a taxation was first granted in this kingdom to Edward III; but in the next reign proved of ill consequence; the exactors receiving from the people no less sums of curses than of coin; whereupon, also, followed the first and greatest popular insurrection that ever was seen in this kingdom. {a}

{a} Daniel’s Hist.

Ver. 47. Were not numbered.] Because, by special privilege exempted from secular and military employments, that they may wholly devote themselves to the service of the sanctuary. Peter, in like sort, must put up his sword; and Timothy "not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" of another nature. {#2Ti 2:4} But Timotheus Herulus, that warlike bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 467, was a gallant fellow in his generation. And some of Peter’s pretended successors were viri biliosi et bellicosi; cast the keys into Tiber, and took up St Paul’s sword, {a} and the imperial clothes. So have various of their dear sons done; as Philip, bishop of Beauvieu, in France, who, being taken in battle by our Richard I, in a skirmish, had his armour he was taken in sent to the Pope, with these words engraven thereon, Vide utrum filii tui tunica sit, vel non, See whether this be thy son’s coat or not.

{a} Theophilus Alexandriae Episcopus, primus inter Christiani nominis episcopos, arma tractavit. -Socrat.

Ver. 53. Shall pitch round about.] As the living creatures (the ministers) are between the four and twenty eiders, the congregation of the faithful, and the throne. {#Re 4:4}

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] He being the Lord of these hosts of Israel, {#Ex 12:41} gives order for the marshalling of them in such good array, and all comely equipage, as made them as a city that is compact together; both "beautiful as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." {#Ps 122:3 So 6:10} This Balaam beheld with admiration. {#Nu 24:5,6}

Ver. 2. Far off about the tabernacle.] About it: the emperor’s tent is among his soldiers. Xerxes pitched his tent not only among, but above his soldiers, that he might look on them, when in fight, for their encouragement. So the Lord, who, as he "is round about his people": {#Ps 125:2} so they are "round about the Lord." {#Ps 76:12} "A people near unto him." {#Ps 148:14} Yet not so near, but they must know, and keep their just distance; as here they pitched far off, about the tabernacle, a mile off, as is gathered from #Jos 3:4. God, though he loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience, yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in our addresses to his Majesty.

Ver. 3. And on the east side.] Judah encamped foremost. It was fit the lion should lead the way. Better an army of harts, with a lion to lead them on, &c. This order in their march showed the principality that should continue in this tribe till Shiloh came. Judah herein also was a type of Christ, who is "the Captain of the Lord’s host," {#Jos 5:14} and "of our salvation," {#Heb 2:10} and goeth before his heavenly armies. {#Re 12:7}

Ver. 10. And on the south side.] The order proceeded from east to south, and so to the west and north; according to the course of the sun, and climates of the world, saith one. I may add, according to the course and progress of the gospel; which went out of Judea, lying east, into Greece, which lieth south; and from thence passed to the western parts, the Latin Church, and so to us of the north: and because

“ Vespera nunc venit, nobiscum Christe maneto:

Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam.”

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Of Aaron and Moses.] Of Aaron by nature, of Moses by education and instruction. See #1Co 4:15 Ga 4:12, {See Trapp on "1Co 4:15"} {See Trapp on "Ga 4:12"} So the Jesuits call themselves padres, and require of their novices blind obedience, which is more than ever Moses did.

Ver. 3. Which were anointed.] And so should have walked, as became God’s anointed; leaving a sweet smell behind them everywhere; but they went out in a stench; they fell, as if they had not been anointed with oil. {#2Sa 1:21}

Ver. 4. And Nadab and Abihu.] Such a cross had David in his two eldest, Amnon and Absalom. {See Trapp on "Le 10:1"} {See Trapp on "Le 10:2"}

Ver. 9. They are wholly given unto him.] Heb. They are given, they are given. So the ministers of the gospel are called "gifts"; {#Eph 4:8,11} honoraries; such as Christ bestowed upon his Church at the day of his coronation, and solemn inauguration into his throne, at his wonderful ascension.

Ver. 10. And the stranger.] Though a Levite, yet if not of Aaron’s seed. {#Nu 18:3 Heb 5:4} Let this be thought upon by our too bold intruders into the work of the ministry.

Ver. 13. Because all the firstborn.] So they were from the beginning: but here is noted a continuance of this ordinance, when it is said that he sanctified the first born to himself, what time he smote every firstborn in Egypt. Now the firstborn are said to be God’s by a singular right, {#Ex 13:2} and so they were types, (1.) Of Christ, {#Ro 8:29} to whom therefore we must give the honour of his first birthright; all our sheaves must vail and bow to his sheaf: (2.) Of Christians; those "firstborn whose names are written in heaven," {#Heb 12:23} who are dear to God, as his firstborn, {#Ex 4:22} and so "higher than the kings of the earth," {#Ps 89:27} for they are "kings and priests unto God," {#Re 1:6} to "serve him day and night in his temple." {#Re 7:15}

Chapter 4

Ver. 2. Of the of Kohath.] Kohath was not Levi’s firstborn, but Gershom: and yet he hath the pre-eminence, and chief charge, as of the ark, tables, candlestick, altars, &c., {#Nu 3:31} perhaps because Moses and Aaron were of that family.

Ver. 3. To do the work.] The work of the ministry is not an idle man’s occupation, but a labouring even to lassitude; compared therefore to harvest work, and to that of cleaving wood, digging in mine pits, rowing with oars, &c. All the comfort is, that God that helped the Levites to bear the ark of the covenant, {#1Ch 15:26} will not be wanting to his weak, but willing servants, "that labour in the word and doctrine." {#1Ti 5:17}

Ver. 5. And when the camp setteth forward.] Which was not till the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle, by the Lord, {#Nu 10:11,12} who went before them. Semper memento illud Pythagoricum, Επον θεω, {a} Let God lead us, and we cannot miscarry.

{a} Boetius.

Ver. 8. And cover the same.] It is well observed, that only the ark (representing Christ), and the table with show bread, (representing the Church), had three coverings; all the other holy things had but two, for "a covert from storm and from rain." Thus, "upon all the glory shall be a defence." {#Isa 4:5,6}

Ver. 13. The ashes from the altar.] The fire from heaven was also carefully kept alive, {#Le 6:12} though nothing be here said of it.

Ver. 15. Lest they die.] As Uzzah did. {#1Ch 13:10}

The burden of the sons of Kohath.] Who, as they had the honos, so the onus See #Nu 4:1.

“ Fructus honos oneris, fructus honoris onus.”

Ver. 16. And to the office of Eleazar.] Called therefore prince of the princes of the Levites. {#Nu 3:32}

Ver. 18. Cut ye not off, ] i.e., Cause them not, by your default, to be cut off. Heed must be taken, that we neither give offence carelessly, nor take offence causelessly.

Ver. 20. But they shall not go in to see.] The men of Bethshemesh paid for their peeping. {#1Sa 6:9} Search not into God’s secrets: hic oportet mirari, non rimari {#De 29:29} Remember that saying of Xenocrates the philosopher: Nihil interesse, pedesne quisquam, an oculos in aliena domo ponat, { a} It is as great unmannerliness to pry into another man’s house as to press into it.

{a} Plutarch, De Curiosit.

Ver. 30. From thirty years.] The Greek hath it, from twenty-five years: for then they began to be learners and probationers; and at thirty, they set upon the service. See #Nu 8:24. In their old age they had leave to retire.

Ver. 32. By name ye shall reckon.] That all might be ready and forthcoming, when the sanctuary was set up again. Christ "knoweth" and "calleth" all his "by name," {#Joh 10:3} not the meanest of them is missing. {#Joh 17:12}

Ver. 44. Three thousand and two hundred.] By this diversity of number among the Levite families, God showeth his wisdom, saith an interpreter, in fitting men for the work, whereunto he hath appointed them, whether it requireth multitude or gifts. "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, &c., dividing to every man severally as he will." {#1Co 12:8,12} It is reported, that in Luther’s house was found written, Res et verba Philippus, res sine verbis Lutherus, verba sine re Erasmus, Melancthon hath both matter and words; Luther hath matter, but wants words; Erasmus hath words, but wants matter. Every one hath his own share: all are not alike gifted.

Ver. 48. Eight thousand, &c.] What a poor few were these to the other tribes! God’s portion is ever the least.

Chapter 5

Ver. 2. Put out of the camp.] To show, that sin unrepented of, throws us out of the communion of faith and saints; shuts us out of the congregation of God in earth and heaven. No fellowship, place, or reward with them. See #Re 21:27. {See Trapp on "Re 21:27"}

Defiled by the dead.] Heb., Defiled by a soul. The Hebrews call a dead corpse Nephesh here, and elsewhere; that is, a soul, to note that it shall live again, and that the soul shall return to it. The heathene also (saith a grave interpreter) called a dead body a soul: possibly from some glimpse of the resurrection.

{a} Animamque sepulchro condimus -Virg., Aeneid.

Ver. 3. Without the camp shall ye put them.] Evildoers are to be suspended, excommunicated, {#1Co 5:13} which text showeth plainly the truth of this ceremony.

Ver. 6. Any sin that men commit.] For what man is he that liveth and sinneth not? I am a man a sinner, {a} saith Peter, {#Lu 5:8} not more a man than a sinner. Our lives are fuller of sin, than the firmament of stars, or the furnace of sparks: we can as little cease to sin, as the hart to pant, pulse to beat, &c. The devil, when he speaks lies, speaks of his own, {#Joh 8:44} so when we do evil, we work of our own, we "walk as men." {#1Co 3:3} Sins are here called human sins, as the Greek hath it.

{a} ανηρ αμαρταλος

Ver. 7. Then they shall confess their sin.] So they were bound to do, all their sins. {#Pr 28:13 Job 33:27,28} Confessio peccati est medicina peccati, saith Nazianzen; a sin acknowledged is half amended.

And he shall recompense his trespass.] Restitution must be made of goods unjustly detained, or else you shall cough in hell, said Mr Latimer. Our King Henry VII, in his last will and testament, after the disposing of his soul and body, he devised and willed restitution should be made, of all such moneys as had unjustly been levied by his officers. {a} So did Selymus the great Turk give orders at his death for the restoring and recompensing of the great treasure he had taken from the Persian merchants. {b}

{a} Speed’s Hist., fol. 995.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 767.

Ver. 8. Unto the Lord, even to the priest.] The priest is the Lord’s receiver. {a} {So #Heb 7:6-9} Tithes are due to the ministers of Christ "that liveth," because due to him, and they are in his stead. {#2Co 5:20}

{a} Sacerdos est vicarius et quasi haeres. -Dio.

Ver. 9. And every offering.] So liberally doth the Lord provide for his priests. {See Trapp on "Le 27:30"} And is not the right of livelihood as equal and due to the ministers of the gospel, whose ministry is far more glorious, {#2Co 3:8,9} even greater than that of John Baptist? {#Mt 11:11}

Ver. 12. If any man’s wife go aside.] Ad alterum, vel ad alterius torum; unde dicitur adulterium. If, as a naughty woman, she want one, when she hath her own. But how naughty are the Lithuanians, who give way to their wives to have their gallants, if Maginus belie them not, and call such connubii adiutores, prizing them far above all their acquaintances!

Ver. 13. And it be hid from the eyes] As #Pr 30:20. Such a privy whore was Livia, the wife of Augustus Caesar, who, though otherwise very observant of her husband, yet lived in adultery with Eudemus her physician: qui specie artis frequens secretis, saith Taeitus; who, under a show of curing her, corrupted her. So do the Jesuits many dames at this day; being, as one saith of them, Connubi sanctifugae, clam meretricitegae. The friars are said to send men whose wives are barren, in pilgrimage to St. Joyce the patroness of fruitfulness, and meanwhile to lie with their wives.

Ver. 14. And the spirit of jealousy come upon him.] In the baths at Upper Baden in Helvetia, cernunt viri uxores tractari, cernunt cum alienis loqui, et quidem solam cum solo, saith Munster, and yet are not jealous. But the Italians are so jealous, that how many husbands, so many jailers. And the Turks as far exceed the Italians herein, as the Italians do us. Therefore their women go muffled, all but the eyes: nor are they suffered to go to church, or so much as look out at their own windows. {a} In Barbary it is death for any man to see one of the Shereef’s concubines: and for them too, if, when they see a man, though but through a casement, they do not suddenly scream out.

{a} Blunt’s Voyage into Levant.

Ver. 15. Barley meal.] Barley, not wheat. She hath done the act of a beast, and her oblation is the meat of a beast, as Sal. Zarchi here noteth.

Ver. 16. Set her before the Lord.] Whose the judgment was; that, if guilty, she might be scared from submitting herself to this trial; since God knows all our thefts.

Ver. 17. Holy water, ] i.e., Water taken out of the holy laver: no warrant for Popish lustral water, and sprinkling of sepulchres: for the ground whereof Cardinal Baronius fairly refers us to Juvenal’s sixth Satire. {a}

{a} Annal. ad Annum 44.

Ver. 18. Uncover the woman’s head.] Because she stood now upon her justification, and thereupon laid aside, for present, this sign of subjection to the man. {#1Co 11:7}

The offering of memorial.] Brought by her husband, {#Nu 5:15} who was now sick of one of those three diseases, that they say are hardly cured, jealousy, frenzy, and heresy.

Ver. 19. Causeth the curse.] The divine justice caused it; the water discovered it.

Ver. 21. Thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell.] God takes notice of the offending member; as he did in those blasphemers, who gnawed their tongues; {#Re 16:10} Absalom’s hair; Jeroboam’s hand; the adulterer’s loins; {#Pr 5:11} Zimri and Cozbi, thrust through the belly. {#Nu 25:8} Charles II, King of Navarre, Joan, Queen of Naples, &c., suffered as they sinned.

Ver. 22. Amen, amen.] Twice; to show the fervency of her zeal, the innocency of her cause, the uprightness of her conscience, and the purity of her heart.

Ver. 23. Shall write these curses in a book.] To show, that the word written should cause the water thus to work, according to the cleanness or uncleanness of the party. See #2Co 2:16. {See Trapp on "2Co 2:16"}

Ver. 27. And her belly shall swell.] This was a usual miracle among the Jews; and showed that their religion was of God.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] Est Venus in vinis: therefore after the law for the privy harlot, here is a law given for abstinence from wine and strong drink, which some have called lac veneris. The whore cometh forth with a cup, {#Re 17:4} as with a fit instrument.

Ver. 2. To vow a vow.] A voluntary vow, a religious promise made in prayer; hence ευχη, a vow, προσευχη, a prayer.

To separate themselves unto the Lord.] As mirrors of singular sobriety and sanctimony, {#La 4:7} especially required in such as are "separated unto the gospel of God," {#Ro 1:1} and as types of Christ, that great votary, true Nazarite, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, {#Heb 7:26} that holy thing, {#Mt 1:20} that holy of holies, or most holy. {#Da 9:24}

Ver. 3. He shall separate himself from wine.] Lest he should drink and forget the law, {#Pr 31:5} which he was to study diligently: but loaden bellies make leaden wits: intemperance takes away the heart, {#Ho 4:11} overchargeth it. {#Lu 21:34}

Moist grapes or dried.] Dried as raisins, currants, or grapes of Corinth, whence they come, and are called.

Ver. 4. From the kernels even to the tusk.] Nothing that might occasion, or tempt him to break his vow. All shadows and shows of evil must be shunned: Quicquid fuerit male coloratum, as Bernard hath it; whatsoever looks but ill-favoured. {#1Th 5:22 Jude 1:23} He that would not eat the meat, must not meddle with the broth. He that would not toll the bell, must not tuggle with the rope. He that would shun the blow, must keep aloof from the train.

Ver. 5. There shall no razor.] In opposition to heathens, votaries who nourished their hair to offer to their gods. The popish priests also cut and shave their hair, that they may still look neat and effeminate; which God allowed not in his Nazarites. {#Am 2:11}

Ver. 6. At no dead body.] Christ was never defiled by any person dead in sin, nor by any dead work; no more must we.

Ver. 7. He shall not make himself uncIean.] In all changes he must be unchangeable; so was Christ, so must we.

Ver. 8. He is holy unto the Lord.] With an inward holiness, else all his outward observations were to no purpose.

Ver. 9. And If any man die.] A figure of the involuntary and unavoidable infirmity of the saints, which must be bewailed, as direct fruits of the flesh; and for which there is, through Christ, a pardon of course.

Ver. 10. Two turtles.] See #Le 15:14, & c. It is the same expiation with those that had unclean issues.

Ver. 11. For that he sinned by the dead.] Heb., By a soul. See on #Nu 5:2.

Ver. 12. And he shall consecrate.] He shall begin the world anew: so must we, after some foul fall especially: "Repent and do thy first works," {#Re 2:5} as the Shulamite did. {#So 5:2, &c.}

Ver. 13. And this is the law of the Nazarite.] The third part of it, to teach him thankfulness, that most needful, but much neglected duty.

Ver. 14. And he shall offer his offering.] Though he had fulfilled his vow in the best manner, yet he must come with his sin offering, &c., leading him to Christ, for pardon of failings in the manner; and with his thank offering, for what he had been enabled to do, before he could be released of his Nazariteship.

Ver. 16. And shall offer his sin offering.] Acknowledging thereby, that he had sinned in the most sanctified time and actions of his life; and needed therefore a Saviour.

Ver. 18. And put it in the fire.] To teach us, that the Lord so loveth his children, that he esteemeth the least hair of their head as a precious gift.

Ver. 19. The sodden shoulder, ] i.e., The left shoulder; for the right was due unto him raw. {#Le 7:32} This taught the Nazarite special thankfulness: dignity requires duty.

Ver. 20. The Nazarite may drink wine.] The Popish votaries will needs fetch colour and approbation for their superstitious vows, from this order of Nazarites. But the abolishing of this ordinance is declared in #Ac 21:25, and they are so far from the abstinence of Nazarites, that they eat of the best, and drink of the sweetest: the most generous wine in Louvain and Paris is known by the name of Vinum Theologicum, the divines, those Sorbonists, do so whiff it off.

Ver. 21. Besides that that his hand, ] i.e., Beside his voluntary devotion, according to his ability. This he may do; but that he must do, be he poor or rich.

Ver. 23. Ye shall bless the children of Israel.] Praying for them with hands first stretched out to heaven, {#Le 9:22} and then laid upon the people; so putting the blessing of God upon them. So Christ did upon his apostles, which was his last action upon earth, {#Lu 24:50} and so must all pastors do, that would do good on it, -pray down a blessing on their people.

Ver. 24. The Lord bless thee.] Here some observe the mystery of the holy Trinity. See it explained in #2Co 13:14.

Chapter 7

Ver. 2. The princes of Israel offered.] So they did at the making of the tabernacle, and at the building of the temple, {#Ex 35:27 1Ch 29:6-8} which was but to give God of his own; as David aeknowledgeth with all thankfulness, {#1Ch 29:14} τα σα εκ των σων σοι προσφερομεν. {a} Of thine own we offer unto thee, said Justinian, when he had offered up, in the temple of Sophia, at Constantinople, a communion table that had in it, saith the author, all the riches of land and sea.

{a} Cedrenus.

Ver. 8. And four waggons and eight oxen.] Double the number of what the Gershonites had, because their carriage was heavier; God proportions the burden to the back: none of his shall be oppressed, though "pressed out of measure above strength," {#2Co 1:8} as Joseph was, whom the archers hated, and shot at: "But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob," ever reserved for a dead lift. {#Ge 49:23,24 Mt 8:17} {See Trapp on "Ge 49:23"} {See Trapp on "Ge 49:24"} {See Trapp on "Mt 8:17"}

Ver. 9. Bear upon their shoulders.] Therefore when David carted the ark, as the Philistines had done before, God was angry, and made a breach upon Uzza, because they sought him not in due order. {#1Ch 15:13}

Ver. 11. For the dedicating of the altar.] No warrant at all for Popish dedications of altars, churches, religious houses built for superstitious uses, as appears in stories: {a} as pro remissione et redemptione peccatorum; pro remedio et liberatione animae; pro amore caelestis patriae; pro salute regnorum; in honorem gloriosae virginis, &c.

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 12. Of the tribe of Judah.] Ut ubique superemineat praerogativa Christi a Iuda oriundi.

Ver. 17. And for peace offerings.] Sacrifices of all sorts they brought, whereby, having made their peace, they kept a feast with joy before the Lord, for his mercy to them through the merits of his Son.

Ver. 18. On the second day.] Their offerings are severally and largely described; to show how highly accepted in heaven.

Ver. 19. And when Moses was gone into, &c.] Scipio Africanus was wont, before day, to go into the Capitol, in cellam Iovis, and there to stay a great while, quasi consultans de Rep. cum Iove, as if he had advised with his god about the public businesses. {a}

{a} Gell., lib. vii., cap. 1.

Chapter 8

Ver. 3. He lighted the lamps.] This candlestick, on the south side of the tabernacle, over against the table, figured the law of God shining in his Church; {#Pr 6:23 2Pe 1:19} and the lighting of one lamp from another, showed the opening of one text by another. The Rabbins have a saying, Nulla est obiectio in lege quae non habet solutionem in latere; i.e., there is not any doubt in the law, but may be resolved in the context.

Ver. 4. Beaten work.] To show that ministers must beat their brains to beat out the sense of the Scriptures, as the fowl beats the shell, to get out the fish, with great vehemency. {a}

{a} Κοπιαν, παρα το κοπτειν.

Ver. 7. Sprinkle water of purifying, &c.] This taught that none were meet for the holy ministry, but by the free favour of Christ, and by the sanctification of his Spirit. {#2Co 2:16 Ga 1:15} Ministers are fullones animarum, their office is to whiten others; themselves therefore should be as those Nazarites {#La 4:7} "whiter than snow."

Shave all their flesh.] As the lepers did; Levites are by nature no better than lepers: ministers, men subject to like passions as others, and liable to more temptations.

Ver. 9. The whole assembly.] By their representatives the elders, or the firstborn; figuring the Church of Christ, those "firstborn which are written in heaven." {#Heb 12:23}

Ver. 10. Shall put their hands.] Imposition of hands is an ancient rite at the ordination of ministers.

Ver. 11. And Aaron shall offer the Levites.] Heb., Wave the Levites; which might figure, ministers’ miseries and afflictions, by Satan’s sifting them, and wicked men’s turmoiling them, as Jeremiah, that "man of contentions." {#Jer 15:12}

Ver. 12. The one for a sin offering.] The sin offering for actual sin; the burnt offering for original.

Ver. 19. As a gift to Aaron.]

“ Clarissima semper

Munera sunt, Author quae pretiosa facit.”

Ministers also are given as an honorary to the Church. {#Eph 4:11}

Ver. 24. From twenty-five years.] {See Trapp on "Nu 4:30"}

Chapter 9

Ver. 2. Keep the passover.] This passover; for they kept no more but this, till they came into the land of Canaan, {#Jos 5:10 Ex 12:25} because of their often and uncertain removes. The feast of tabernacles likewise was for many ages omitted; or at least not in due manner observed, as by dwelling in booths, reading the book of the law, &c., {#Ne 8:16-18} which a man would wonder at. But Vexatio dat intellectum: those Jews were newly returned from captivity.

Ver. 3. According to all the rites.] It was a true saying of Socrates in Xenophon, Deum eo cultus genere coli velle, quem ipse instituerit that God must be worshipped in his own way only. Whereunto agreeth that of Cicero, Deum non superstitione coli velle, sed pietate.

Ver. 5. And they kept the passover.] {See Trapp on "Ex 12:1"} &c

Ver. 6. They could not keep the passover.] Because they were to be unclean seven days. {#Nu 19:11} Now, among the very heathen, the sacrificers were to purify themselves some days before; they had their caena pura the night before, &c., {a} and having expiated the company, they cried, τις τηδε; who is here? to which they made reply, πολλοι κα γαθοι γε παρεισιν, Many and good are here. {b}

{a} Demosth.

{b} Aristoph.

Ver. 7. And those men said unto him.] Moses they knew was a meet man to resolve this case of conscience. He was a messenger, an interpreter, "one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness," {#Job 33:23} a merchant to sell oil and balm from Gilead, to cure consciences. {#Mt 25:9} Others may write cases, that is, covers of conscience; but resolve none. Conscience is a diamond, and will be wrought on by nothing but dust of diamond, such as contrition hath ground it to.

Ver. 8. Stand still and I will hear.] Moses was but the echo of God’s voice; John Baptist, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness": St Paul "received of the Lord" what he delivered to the Church, {#1Co 11:23} and took care that the faith of his hearers "might not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." {#1Co 2:4,5} Unwarranted doctrines come not cum gratia et privilegio.

Ver. 10. Or be in a journey afar off.] This rendered a man unfit to partake; because either his head would be so taken up about his business then, or his mind so set upon home, that he would have little leisure or liberty to prepare for the passover.

Ver. 11. With unleavened bread.] Teaching them to "purge out the old leaven," that fusty, swelling, souring, spreading, corruption of nature and practice.

And bitter herbs.] Directing them to true humiliation and bitterness for sin; without which there can be no sweetness in the blood of Christ.

Ver. 12. They shall leave none.] The Lord in his infinite wisdom would hereby prevent all occasions of idolatry, which is easily admitted in the reservations of holy things, as in Popery at this day.

Ver. 17. And when the cloud.] This visible sign they had of God’s presence, for their motion or station by night or by day, through all their pilgrimage. "In all thy ways acknowledge God, and he shall direct thy paths." {#Pr 3:6} "When thou sittest in darkness, the Lord shall give thee light." {#Mic 7:8}

Ver. 19. Kept the charge of the Lord.] Or, His wateh—viz., to be ready at any hour to remove. So must we always watch and be in readiness, as not knowing whether at even, or at midnight, or cock crowing, or in the dawning, Christ will come. {#Mr 13:35}

Ver. 22. When it was taken up they journeyed.] In that wilderness of Arabia there were no beaten paths, no footsteps of passengers appeared; wherefore travellers there used to steer their course, as mariners at sea do, by a mathematical chart. But these Israelites went by a better direction. So do all saints. {#Heb 11:16}

Ver. 23. At the commandment of the Lord.] This signified that the saints are to rest, or go on, at the voice of Christ, {#Joh 10:3,4} and that "whatsoever they do in word or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus," {#Col 3:17} to seek and find all their perfection and defenee in him alone.

Chapter 10

Ver. 2. Two trumpets of silver.] Signifying the voice of the law and gospel in the mouths of God’s ministers, who must "lift up the voice like a trumpet," {#Isa 58:1} with fervour, zeal, and courage; {a} (1.) To gather the people, and assemble the elders; {#Joe 2:16} (2.) To put them upon their marchings and motions towards the heavenly Canaan; and here to blow an alarm—

“ Sic clames ut Stentora vincere possis—”

as that famous Farellus did, when the friars, to drown his voice in the pulpit, rang their greatest bells, but he drowned them out; (3.) To get them upon their battlements, and there hence to blow an alarm likewise, upon the approach of spiritual enemies; taking the same liberty to cry down sin, that men take to commit it; {b} and to descry the devil’s stratagems that are so destructive to men’s souls. They must cast away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvius, which sounded a retreat when they should have sounded an alarm; they must faithfully show God’s "people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins," {#Isa 58:1} yea, "all their transgressions in all their sins." {#Le 16:21} Lastly, as the priests were to sound the silver trumpets at their solemn feasts, {#Ps 81:3} for a monument of spiritual gladness before the Lord; so must ministers of the gospel publish the glad tidings of the gospel; "Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, her sin is pardoned"; {#Isa 40:2} make the people hear the joyful sound, that they may walk in the sense of God’s presence, and in the light of his countenance; yea, "rejoice in his name all the day long." {#Ps 89:15,16}

{a} Ad ravim usque vocem intendit, nec vinci se a strepitu ullo passus est. -Melch. Adam., 114.

{b} Suetonius ea libertate scripsit Imperatorum vitas qua ipsi vixerunt.

Ver. 7. But when the congregation.] Cenalis, bishop of Avranche, {a} was hard driven, when to prove the Church of Rome a true church, he makes no mention at all of ministers, or ordinances, but allegeth that the Catholics had bells to assemble them together, whereas the Lutherans met by the clap of harquebuses {b} and pistols. And so he goes on to triumph in a long antithesis. The bells, saith he, do sound, the harquebuses crack. The bells give a sweet and melodious tune, but the harquebuses a foul and terrible noise. Bells open heaven; the other hell. Bells chase away clouds and thunder; the other, gender clouds and counterfeit thunder, &c. Oh, the profound arguments of these doting doctors!

But you shall not sound an alarm.] Or, A broken sound; but a continued equal sound, as fittest for their quiet assembling, to the service of God, and hearing of the law. The sound of God’s word must not be broken or quavering— pompalis, Tertullian calleth it—but downright and simple. Non oratorum filii sumus, sed piscatorum: nec verborum υπεροχη, sed Spiritus επιδειξει, {c} &c. {#1Co 2:1,4}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 838.

{b} The early type of portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket, which on account of its weight was, when used in the field, supported upon a tripod, trestle, or other ‘carriage’, and afterwards upon a forked ‘rest’.

{c} Nazianz., ad Libanium.

Ver. 8. Shall blow with the trumpets.] A trumpeter, as one observeth, winds his trumpet with his mouth, and holds it up with his hand: so should a minister both preach and practise; vivere concionibus, concionari moribus.

Ver. 9. Ye shall be remembered before the Lord.] Who will arise, as it were, awakened by this sound of the trumpet. See #2Ch 13:12 Isa 51:9. That is, by the prayer of faith; such as were the prayers of the ministers of Angrogna, in France, wherewith their enemies cried out, they were so bewitched that they could not fight. It was the custom of these poor persecuted Protestants, so soon as they saw the enemy approach, to cry all together for aid and help to the Lord: and when the combat was ended, constantly to give him thanks for the good success he had sent them. {a} So, at the siege of Montauban, the people of God, using daily humiliation, as their service would permit, did sing a psalm after it, immediately before their sallying forth: with this practice the enemy coming acquainted, ever upon the singing of the psalm, after which they expected a sally, they would so quake and tremble, saying, They come, they come, as though the wrath of God had been breaking out upon them.

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 883.

Ver. 10. For a memorial.] Or, A sacred sign, to mind and assure them that God will hear their suits, and accept of their services thus performed with joy of faith.

Ver. 12. Out of the wilderness of Sinai.] Where they had dwelt long enough. {#De 1:6-8} It being a place of bondage, by reason of the law there given. {#Ga 4:24,25} The law is a yoke of bondage, as Jerome calls it; and they who look for righteousness from thence, are like oxen, who toil and draw, and when they have done their labour, are fatted for slaughter.

Ver. 25. The rearward of all the camp.] Called the gathering host. {#Jos 6:9} Because to their charge was committed the care of gathering together the lame, faint, and feeble, and to look that nothing was lost, or left behind. And to this David seems to allude. {#Ps 27:10} Compare #Isa 58:8 52:12.

Ver. 29. And Moses said.] Or, Moses had said, viz., in #Ex 18:1,2.

Unto Hobab the son of Raguel.] Rabbi Solomon telleth us, that Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had seven names, viz., Ruguel, Jether, Jethro, Hobab, Heber, Cinaeus, and Phutiel.

For the Lord hath spoken good.] And God’s promises he knew to be good surehold.

Ver. 30. To mine own land.] Patriam quisque amat, non quia pulchram sed quia suam. {a}

“ Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos

Ducit, et immemores non sinit esse sui.’’—Ovid.

{a} Seneca.

Ver. 31. Instead of eyes.] To descry unto us the commodities and discommodities of the country, which is well known to thee. Herein thou mayest be of singular use unto us, though we have God going visibly before us. The Jews had a kind of officers at their feasts, called οφθαλμοι, the eyes of the feast, et praefecti morum. {a}

{a} Gaudentius. Casaubon.

Ver. 33. Three days’ journey.] Three days together without resting: this made them murmur. {#Nu 11:1}

Went before them.] And, as the Jews conceive, for the facilitating of their march the cloud levelled mountains, raised valleys, and laid all of a flat; that is, burnt up bushes, smoothed rocks, and made all plain, &c. {a}

{a} Non quia dura sed quia molles patimur. -Sen.

Ver. 35. Rise up, Lord.] Commanders must pray, as well as lead on their forces, as did Charles the Great, and that late brave King of Sweden, more addict to prayer than to fight.

Flee before thee.] Heb., Before thy face. The ark is called God’s face. {#Ps 105:4} Yea, even God himself. {#Ps 132:5}

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. And when the people complained.] Or, Were as it were complainers: they did inwardly and secretly repine and mutter at their three days’ march, without intermission; like those horses that digest their choler by biting their bridle.

Consumed them that were in the uttermost parts.] There, it seems, the sin began amongst those that were faint and weary with travel, as #De 25:18.

Ver. 2. And the people cried to Moses.] That lord chancellor of heaven, as one calleth him, that could rule with God, and overrule. Of Moses it might be said, as once of Luther, Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit, He might have whatsoever he would of God.

Ver. 3. The name of the place Taberah.] So to perpetuate the memory of the people’s sin, and God’s judgment. Alterius perditio, tua sit cautio.

Ver. 4. And the mixed multitude.] {See Trapp on "Ex 12:38"} Observe the danger of ill company. Fish retain their sweetness in the salt sea. The river Dee in Merionethshire, running through Pimblemere, remains entire, and mingles not her streams with the waters of the lake. The rivers of Peru, after they have run some miles into the sea, retain their sweetness, as writers report. But to converse with the ungodly, and not to learn their manners, is marvellously rare and difficult. A man may pass through Ethiopia unchanged; but he cannot dwell there and not be discoloured.

The children of Israel wept again.] And were punished again. Herein they were like froward children, that, while crying for an apple that is in the father’s hand, will fling away the cake that is in their own; and so get a whipping rather than a pippin, as we say; a lashing rather than their longing.

Ver. 5. We remember the fish.] They forgat their servitude. Discontent is ever harping upon wants, and enjoys nothing: no more than Haman did his honour, or Ahab his kingdom, when he longed for a salad out of Naboth’s garden.

Ver. 6. There is nothing at all besides.] The wheat of heaven was held a light meat, because lightly come by; Cito parta vilescunt. How are many queasy stomachs even nauseated with the bread of life! it makes not to their dainty palates; plain preaching is disrelished.

Ver. 7. And the manna.] {See Trapp on "Ex 16:14"} {See Trapp on "Ex 16:31"} There was therefore no such cause they should so loathe it.

Was as coriander seed.] Small, but full of sweetness and nourishment. This might be some cause of Moses’ undecayedness. {#De 34:7}

As the colour of bdellium.] A kind of transparent and precious gum.

Ver. 8. And the people went about.] Or, "Went to and fro," as men ought still to "increase knowledge," {#Da 12:4} "labouring for the meat that endureth to eternal life." {#Joh 6:27} God might have saved them this labour, by raining manna into their mouths; but he would not, for the trial of their diligence; and that they might not think that worth nothing, that cost them nothing.

And ground it in mills.] So was Jesus Christ ground and pounded with passion, baked and dried up in the oven of his Father’s displeasure, before he became fit food, and a Saviour to his Church.

As the taste of fresh oil.] Or, Wafers baked with honey. {#Ex 16:31} The sweet promises of grace are sweeter than honey. {#Ps 19:10} No fresh and sweet oil can so cherish the face, as they do the heart of a believer.

Ver. 9. And when the dew fell.] As manna fell in the dew, so doth the Spirit descend in and by the word preached. {#Ga 3:2}

In the night.] Figuring that hidden manna, laid up and prepared for the saints. {#Re 2:17}

Ver. 10. Weep throughout their families.] Generally and openly they rebelled and murmured, though so lately they had smarted at Taberah. And this they did, not once or twice, but ten times over; whereby it appears that God chose this unthankful people, not for their merits, sed ex mera et mira misericordia. He chose them for his love, and loved them for his choice.

Ver. 11. Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant.] Antoninus the Emperor said often, Imperium oceanum esse malorum, that to be a governor of others is to be plunged into an ocean of miseries. Pope Adrian caused to be engraven upon his own tomb, Faelix si non imperitasset. Melancthon said, the three sorest labours of all were, Docentis, imperantis, parturientis, the labours of ministers, magistrates, and of travailing women.

Ver. 12. As a nursing father beareth, &c.] Lovingly, mildly, gently. A magistrate should carry himself as a pater patriae. Queen Elizabeth would many times say, That she could believe nothing of her people that parents would not believe of their children. {a}

{a} Camden’s Elisab.

Ver. 13. Whence should I have flesh.] Lust is unsatisfiable; to go about it, is to go about an endless piece of work; it is to cast oil into the fire to quench it.

Ver. 14. It is too heavy for me.] Crowns have their cares; high seats are uneasy, many a cumber attends honour. Beatus ille qui procul negotiis. {a}

{a} Horat.

Ver. 15. And if thou deal thus with me.] Here the word Thou, spoken to God, is of the feminine gender. At, for Atta, -ex magna perturbatione, saith a Rabbin. Moses was so exceedingly moved with anger and grief, these passions did so overcarry him, that he could not complere vocem, utter his whole speech; as he that groaneth or gapeth in the beginning of his sentence cannot make up his breath to speak what he intended.

Ver. 16. Gather unto me seventy men.] Here, say some, began the Sanhedrim, that is, the great council of the Jews, consisting of seventy seniors and one president. It continued till the time of Herod the Great, who took it away, and changed the form of it.

Ver. 17. And I will take of the spirit, ] i.e., I will bestow the same spirit upon them as upon thee; and this shall be nothing at all to thy loss or disadvantage. Habet Hispania montem ex sale magnum, de quo quantum demas, tantum accrescit.

Shall bear the burden of the people.] Who are in nothing more a burden than in this, that with them αει το παρον βαρυ, {a} Praesens imperium semper grave, They are ever grumbling at the present government, though never so gentle. Alleva iugum, Ease the yoke that thy father put upon us, said they to Rehoboam, forgetting the golden age they had lived in under his father Solomon. {#1Ki 12:4}

{a} Thucyd.

Ver. 18. Sanctify yourselves.] Ironice dictum; or, Sanctify; that is, Prepare yourselves for the day of slaughter, as in #Jer 12:3.

For ye have wept in the ears.] Tears, of what sort soever, have a voice in them, {#Ps 39:12} as blood hath. {#Ge 4:10}

For it was well with us in Egypt.] Such is the murmuring of those malcontents, that say, It was a merry world before there was so much preaching and teaching.

And ye shall eat.] Flesh with a vengeance; which ye shall eat on earth, but digest in hell. {a}

{a} In terris manducant quod apud inferos digerant. -August.

Ver. 20. But even a whole month.] Deus saepe dat iratus quod negat propitius. Patientia Dei quo diuturnior, eo minacior—

“ Poena venit gravior quo magis sera venit.”

God’s forbearance is no quittance: fatted beasts are but fitted for the slaughter: wicked men are killed with kindnesses: "Ease slayeth the fool." {#Pr 1:32}

Ver. 21. Six hundred thousand footmen.] In the conquest of Canaan, there is no mention of horsemen. The adversaries, both Egyptians and Canaanites, had horses and chariots; not so this people of Israel. See #Ps 33:17.

Ver. 22. Or shall all the fish of the sea.] Moses forgat, belike, the fowls of the air, but God sent them such a drift of quails, as Moses dreamed not of: he fed them with meat of kings, bread of angels.

Ver. 23. And the Lord said unto Moses.] God bears with Moses here; which afterwards he did not, {#Nu 20:12} because then he showed his distrust before the people. God will not pass by the scandalous practices of his own people without a sensible check.

Is the Lord’s hand shortened.] Moses thought God had made an unadvised promise, and prays him to consider, that the people were so many thousand, and that the flocks and herds would not suffice them. But God answers here, that he is never nonplussed.

Ver. 24. And set them roundabout the tabernacle.] That the fear of the Lord might be upon them, &c., {#2Ch 19:6,7} and that they might carry themselves worthy of God, who had set them in places of judicature. To the company of the Areopagites (judges in Athens) none were admitted, but wise, wealthy, and noble men, famous for good life and innoceney. Nay, men whose behaviour was intolerable, after they were chosen into the college of the Areopagites, abhorring and blushing at their former disposition, changed their natures and embraced virtue. {a}

{a} δκνουντες τη φυσει χρησθαι.

Ver. 25. Took of the spirit.] {See Trapp on "Nu 11:17"}

They prophesied.] Nec praedicendo, nec praedicando; but by uttering grave and wise sentences, apothegms, or counsels, as Moses did, concerning the public affairs of Israel; by political and prudential speaking of things appertaining to government.

Ver. 26. But there remained two of the men.] Being stayed by some lawful occasion, as in #1Sa 20:26 Jer 36:5, or haply out of sense of their own insufficiency, as in #1Sa 10:22. Howsoever, hereby it appeared to all the people that these seventy seniors were set apart by God for the service.

And they prophesied in the camp.] Hermas, in his book called "Pastor" (chap. ii.), mentioneth a book of their prophesy, and citeth these words, "The Lord is near to all those that turn unto him, as it is written in Eldad and Medad, who prophesied in the wilderness to the people." But this book of Hermas is of small credit.

Ver. 27. And there ran a young man.] Three manner of persons, said Mr Latimer, can make no credible information: (1.) Adversaries and enemies; (2.) Ignorant persons and without judgment; (3.) Whisperers and blowers in men’s ears, that will utter in secret more than they dare avow openly.

Ver. 28. My lord Moses, forbid.] Thus, "the spirit that is in us lusteth to envy." {#Jas 4:5} Nero omnium erat aemulus, qui quoquo mode animum vulgi moverint, Nero envied every man that excelled.

Ver. 29. That all the Lord’s people.] This is not meant of a sacrifically teaching others, but a political discoursing unto others. {See Trapp on "Nu 11:25"}

Ver. 32. And they spread them.] They fed without fear, {#Jude 1:12} though foretold they should pay dear for these murdering morsels; {#Nu 11:20} that which they ate being sauced, and that which they drank being spiced, with the bitter wrath of God. {#Job 20:23}

They gathered the quails.] Which they might the more easily do, if that be true which some {a} write, that the Arabian Gulf breedeth great store of quails, which fly low usually, so as they may easily be taken up with one’s hand.

{a} Drusius.

Ver. 34. They buried the people.] Who, by a hasty testament, bequeathed this new name to the place they lay buried in.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. And Miriam and Aaron spake.] She is set first, because chief in the transgression. Her discontent might arise from this, that, being a prophetess, she was not one of those seventy that were chosen to be helps in government. {#Nu 11:24} According to her name, Miriam would be exalted: ambition rides without reins.

Because of the Ethiopian woman.] Zipporah the Midianitess, {see #Hab 3:7} to whom he had been married many years before; but they were resolved to pick a hole in Moses’ coat. An ungodly man diggeth up evil, {#Pr 16:27} but for Moses to be thus used by his brother and sister, was some trial to his patience. To be derided by Egyptians, is threatened as a misery, {#Ho 7:16} but to be reproached by professors, is very grievous. Zedekiah feared more to be mocked by the Jews, than by the Chaldees. {#Jer 38:19}

For he had married an Ethiopian.] That was an old fault, if any; and should have been buried in oblivion. Luther married a wife unseasonably, when all Germany was now embroiled, and embrewed in the blood of the Bores; and when all Saxony was in heaviness for the death of their good Prince Elector Frederick. This, his best friends disliked and bewailed. As for Melancthon, Quoniam vero, inquit, ipsum Lutherum quodammodo tristiorem esse cerno, et perturbatum ob vitae mutationem, omni studio et benevolentia consolari eum conor. {a} Because I see him somewhat cast down, saith he, at the late change of his condition, I strive all I can to comfort him.

{a} Mel, Epist. ad Camerar.

Ver. 2. Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses.] Every man would be something at home; and many care not to raise themselves upon other men’s ruins. Self-love teacheth such to turn the glass, to see themselves bigger, others lesser than they are. That man hath true light that can be content to be a candle before the sun of others.

And the Lord heard it.] Without any delation of Moses. But while Moses is dumb, God speaks; while he is deaf, God hears and stirs. The more silent the patient is, the more shrill his wrong will be.

Ver. 3. Now the man Moses was very meek.] So free from passions, if Josephus may be believed, that he knew no such thing in his own soul; he only knew the names of such things, and saw them in others, rather than in himselfi Of Beza it is said, Quod sine felle vixerit, that he was without gall or guile, and he lived to a great age as Moses did, and as Mr Dod did. Their meekness preserved them.

Above all the men.] And yet Moses could be angry enough when there was cause. {#Ex 11:8,16:20 Le 10:16 Nu 16:15, &c.} Yea, how blessedly blown up was he with a zeal for God, {#Ex 32:19} and what a stomach shows he in that case! Nazianzen saith of Athanasius, that he was magnes et adamas, a loadstone in his sweet gentle drawing nature, and yet an adamant in his resolute stout carriage against those that were evil. Some {a} are of opinion that this verse was added by Joshua or Esdras, as also those three verses. {#Nu 21:14,15,27}

{a} Weems.

Ver. 4. And the Lord spake suddenly.] God takes his part ever that fights not for himself. Christ that said, "I seek not mine own glory," adds, "But there is one that seeks it, and judgeth." Here he appears as "a swift witness," {#Mal 3:5, &c.} a sharp revenger of his servant’s injuries. The rule is, Iniuria illata legato redundat in legantem, Wrong done to a messenger reflects on him that sent him.

Ver. 5. Out of the cloud.] As from the throne of his glory.

Ver. 6. In a vision.] To those awake.

In a dream.] To those asleep: but dreams and visions do soon vanish and fly away. {#Job 20:8}

Ver. 7. My servant Moses is not so.] God had never so much magnified Moses to them, but for their envy. We cannot devise to pleasure God’s servants so much as by despiting them. Quisquis volens detrahit famae meae, nolens addit mercedi meae, saith Augustine; He that willingly detracteth from mine honour, doth, though against his will, add to my reward.

Ver. 8. And the similitude.] {See Trapp on "Ex 33:20"}

Ver. 9. And he departed.] Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them; {#Ho 9:12} then all evils come in as by a sluice. The final absence of God is hell itself.

Ver. 10. Miriam became leprous.] How escaped Aaron? for the dignity of the priesthood he was spared, saith Chrysostom. {a} Rather he met God by repentance, and so disarmed his indignation, and redeemed his own sorrow.

{a} Διδ το της ιεποσυνης αξιωμα—Hom. 3, ad Coloss.

Ver. 11. And Aaron said unto Moses.] His late sin had choked him, as it were, -as David in like case felt his mouth stopped, {#Ps 51:15}—and therefore he requesteth Moses to mediate for Miriam. Our own key may be rusty sometimes, and we glad to make use of another’s key, to open the cabinet of God’s grace, that therehence we may take out mercy for ourselves and others.

Ver. 12. As one dead.] As "free among the dead," free of that company.

Ver. 13. And Moses cried.] Passing by all the unkindness, he prayed earnestly for her. This was a noble kind of revenge. David was much in it.

Ver. 14. Let her be shut out.] That her sorrow for her sin may be sound and soaking, deep and downright.

Ver. 15. And the people journeyed not.] But stayed for her restoration. She had once stayed for Moses, saith Jarchi, when he was cast into the river, {#Ex 2:4} therefore the people stay for her. There is a memorandum set upon this leprosy of Miriam, {#De 24:9} like as afterwards was upon Lot’s wife’s transformation. {#Lu 17:32}

Ver. 16. Wilderness of Paran.] At a place called Rithmah, {#Nu 33:18} and Kadeshbarnea. {#Nu 13:3,26}

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] Yielding to the people’s importunity, and winking at their infidelity; for he had before spied out the land for them, {#Eze 20:6} and searched it out, {#De 1:33} but that satisfied them not; seeing was, with them, believing. See #De 1:22.

Ver. 2. Every one a ruler amongst them.] That might be, as Uriah and Zachariah, {#Isa 8:2} faithful witnesses; for lying lips become not a prince. {#Pr 17:7}

Ver. 3. By the commandment of the Lord.] That is, by his permission; {See Trapp on "Nu 13:1"} God’s command was, that they should forthwith, without any further search, go up and possess the land. {#De 1:21} Now wicked men are esteemed unjust, because they act against God’s command, though according to his decree; like as believers are esteemed just, not because they obey God’s decree, but his command.

Ver. 6. Caleb.] A hearty man, according to his name; as Bishop Hooper, martyr, was called hearty Hooper; and as one of our Richards was called Coeur-de-lion. It is now but two days since, from a sweet friend, {a} living at Hartford in New England, I received a loving letter, dated Sept. 12, 1659, and therein this following passage, "Old Mr John Wilson, pastor at Boston, {b} is in very good health, a hearty old good man still." A hearty good man indeed; I have for forty years almost known him to be a cordial Caleb, one who from his youth up, hath "fulfilled after God—followed him fully," and been of "another spirit" than the most are found to be. And to hear that the Lord still lengtheneth out his life, and keepeth up his young zeal with his old discretion, which was Mr Greenham’s great desire to his last, as it is no small comfort unto me; so, for the good respect I do deservedly bear to that good old man, I could not but here tell my reader so. Oh how well may he, with a very little variation, take up Caleb’s words to Joshua, hic fidus Achates, and say, "Forty years old was I" when many worthy zealots of old England "sent me to espy out this good land, and I brought them word again, as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me, made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And now behold the Lord hath kept me alive these forty and five years. And now, lo, I am well toward fourscore year old: As yet I am as strong this day as I was many years since: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for the Lord’s wars, both to go out and to come in." {#Jos 14:7,8,10,11} I add no more but, Go forth in this thy might, thou valiant man: and do thou still "worthily in Ephrata," and be "famous in Bethlehem." Serus in coelum redeas, Iohannes; come thou to thy grave in a lusty old age, {c} "like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." {#Job 5:26}

{a} That religious matron Mrs Mary Willis, of Hertford, in Connecticut. This was written Nov. 25, 1659.

{b} Mr Wilson was one of the first that went over to plant there. At his return he encouraged and drew over not a few.

{c} εν ευγηρια.

Ver. 16. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.] His name was now changed from Save us O God, to God shall save us. Under the law which brings us, as it were, into a wilderness, we may desire, wish, and pray that there were a Saviour: but under the gospel, we are sure of salvation, and that our Jehoshua hath bound himself "to fulfil all righteousness" for us.

Ver. 17. Go up into the mountain.] This was the great mountain of Seir, which encloseth Palestine on that side.

Ver. 18. See the land.] Two and two likely he sent them, and by several ways: as our Lord also did his seventy disciples.

Ver. 22. Was built seven years before Zoan.] And so was one of the ancientest cities of the world, seeing it did contend with the ancientest and chiefest city of Egypt. {#Isa 19:11} Hebron signifies an association: there lay buried those three reverend couples, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. {#Ge 23:19 35:27-29} Here David began his reign over Israel, {#2Sa 2:1} and hither came Mary to visit Elizabeth. {#Lu 1:39}

Ver. 23. And they bare it between two.] Christum utrique portamus, ut botrum Israelitae, tum illi qui adventum Christi antecesserunt, tum nos, &c. So Christ is borne between the believers of both Testaments.

Ver. 27. And this is the fruit of it.] Plutarch {a} tells of the Gauls, that after they had once a taste of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy, they inquired in what country such sweet wine was: and after they had understood where such grapes grew, they would never be at rest, till they had got that country. Sextus Rufus, writing of Cyprus, saith, Cyprus famosa divitiis, paupertatem populi Rom. ut occuparetur, solicitavit, Cyprus by her wealth tempted the Romans to seize it into their hands. The pearls usually cast out with the flood, and gathered with the ebb, drew Caesar’s affection for the conquest of Britain, as Suetonius {b} saith: God hath given us here a grape of the heavenly Canaan, to edge our desires.

{a} In Vita Camilli.

{b} In Vita Caesar.

Ver. 28. Nevertheless the people be strong.] Thus many amongst us wish very well to heaven, speak glorious things of it, and could gladly go to it; but there is a lion in the way: they complain, with these malcontents, of the strength of the Anakims, and the impossibility of the conquest. It is a hard thing doubtless, to watch continually against a spiritual enemy, to keep up the banks against the sea of lusts and passions; to bear daily crosses without stooping; to carry the cup of prosperity without spilling; to climb the hill of good duties without fainting; to go against the crowd without sweating; to bear the reproach of Christ without buckling, &c. But hard though it be, should we be discouraged? The sweetness of the honey makes the bears break in upon the hives, contemning the stings. The merchant refuseth no adventure for hope of gain: the hunter shrinketh at no weather for love of game: the soldier declineth no danger for desire of spoil. The sweetness of God’s face, though to be seen only in the dark glass of the ceremonies, cheered up those good souls, in their hard and tedious travel to Zion. {#Ps 84:6, &c.}

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. And the people wept that night.] As being too light of belief: the lies of the spies they took for oracles.

Ver. 2. Would God that we had died.] Words of deep discontent, despair, and unthanklulness.

Ver. 3. Were it not better for us to return into Egypt.] How could that be better? It is our wisest way, to crush the very first insurrections of unruly passions (do not great storms rise out of little gusts?); to smother the smoke thereof, which else will fume up into the head, and gather into so thick a cloud, as we shall soon lose the sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done.

Ver. 4. Let us make a captain.] Thus they proceeded from bad to worse. Passions, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom. Whether this people did make them such a captain, for such a purpose, is uncertain; but howsoever their very intention of doing it, is charged upon them, as if they had done it. {#Ne 9:16,17}

Ver. 5. Before all the assembly.] What they said unto them see #De 1:29,30. See also on #Nu 16:15.

Ver. 6. Rent their clothes.] And wept, saith Sulpitius.

Ver. 9. They are bread for us, ] q.d., We shall make but a breakfast of them. So that valiant Prince of Orange told his soldiers at the battle of Newport, when they had the sea on the one side, and the Spaniards on the other, that they must either eat up those Spaniards, or drink up that sea.

Ver. 10. But all the congregation bade stone them.] This is merces mundi, this is the fruit of ochlocratie, that rule of rascality, as one calls it.

Ver. 11. Ere they believe me.] Unbelief is the root of rebellion and apostasy. {#Heb 3:12}

Ver. 12. And I will make of thee a greater nation.] Here God offered Moses a private fortune, which he prudently refuseth, because God should be a loser by it. And surely, saith a divine, as God was displeased with Balsam for going, though he bade him go: so the Lord would not have taken it so kindly of Moses if he had taken him upon the offer he made in a time of his heat, against his people.

Ver. 13. Then the Egyptians shall hear it.] And they will soon make comedies out of the Church’s tragedies.

Ver. 14. And they will tell it.] The proverb is, Oculus et fama non patiuntur iocos, A man’s eye and his good name can bear no jests. And he {a} was no fool that said, Negligere quid de se quisque dicat, non solum arrogantis est, sed et dissolati, He shall pass for a proud fool that makes no matter what men say of him. God is most tender of his glory; and we must take heed how we cast any slur upon it; for we quarter arms, as it were, with God.

{a} Cicero.

Ver. 15. Kill all this people as one man.] As he can quickly do, with a turn of his hand, with a nod of his head, {#Ps 80:16} with a breath of his nostrils. {#Job 4:9} He can as soon do it, as bid it be done, "whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only." {#Job 34:29}

Ver. 17. Let the power of my Lord be great.] In multiplying pardons, {#Isa 55:8} in passing by the many and bony, or "mighty sins of" {a} this people, such sins as none else could or would pardon: "For who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth such iniquity?" &c. {#Mic 7:18} Hebricians have observed, that in the word jidgal here used in the original text, there is a great jod, which in numbering is ten, to show, that if the people should murmur ten times more against God than they had done, yet out of tender respect to his own great name, which would otherwise be basely blasphemed, he should pardon and spare them. {Hebrew Text Note}

{a} #Am 5:12. Heb., Bony sins, fortia peccata.

Ver. 18. And by no means clearing the guilty.] This last letter in God’s dreadful name ought much to be marked. God may pardon men’s sins, and yet lay it on their skin, to humble themselves, and to warn others. "Thou forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions." {#Ps 99:8}

Ver. 19. According to the greatness of thy mercy.] God’s power pleaded, {#Nu 14:17} and his mercy here are the Jachin and the Boaz whereon faith resteth.

Ver. 20. I have pardoned them, ] viz., So as not utterly, and at once, to extirpate them. I will be "as a moth" unto them, and not as a devouring lion. {#Ho 5:12,14}

Ver. 21. But as truly as I live.] This is an oath, as appears by comparing herewith #Ps 95:11. To blame therefore are they that use it so often.

All the earth shall be filled.] I will make me a great name abroad; and even of those maidservants, the heathens, which thou hast spoken of, shall I be had in honour, as he said in another case. {#2Sa 6:22}

Ver. 24. Because he had another spirit.] Let us go up and possess it, saith he. {#Nu 13:30} As if it were no more than to go and see and conquer. {a} A free spirit is enkindled with that which quencheth others: as when a bowl runs downhill, every bounce quickens it, whereas if uphill, it would slug it.

And hath followed me fully.] Heb., Hath fulfilled after me. {b} A metaphor from a ship under sail, carried strongly with the wind, as fearing neither rocks nor sands.

And his seed.] Personal goodness is profitable to posterity. Who would not serve such a Lord?

{a} Veni, Vidi, Vici. I came, I saw, I conquered!

{a} Implevit post me.

Ver. 25. Now the Amalekites.] There was but a mountain between: so they were close by the Promised Land, and yet could not enter because of unbelief. Thou art not far from God’s kingdom? the greater is thine unhappiness, that fallest from so high hopes.

By the way of the Red Sea.] Since you have such a mind to it, you shall have enough of it. "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." {#Pr 14:14}

Ver. 28. So will I do to you.] God took them at their words: so he may well do our desperate swearers, since the mercy they desire God to show is to damn them. This self-cursing seldom escapeth God’s visible vengeance: witness those Jews of old, who cried, "His blood be on us," &c., besides many others of late that might be instanced. Mr Perkins tells of certain English soldiers in King Edward VI’s time, who were cast upon the French shore by a storm, in which stress they went to prayer, that they might be delivered; but one soldier among the rest, instead of praying, cried out, Gallows take thy right, or claim thy due: when he came home he was hanged indeed. So was Sir Gervaise Ellowayes, Lieutenant of the Tower in King James’ time, whose usual word at his playing at cards and dice had been, as he sorrowfully confessed at the gallows, I would I might be hanged if it be not so or so. {a}

{a} Looking glass for Malignants.

Ver. 29. Your carcasses shall fall.] Cadaver a cadendo; πρωμα παρα το πιπτειν. Who knows whether God purpose not to wear out this generation, that hath been defiled with the superstitions of the land we live in, that we may not see the good that he will bring upon this Church!

Ver. 34. My breach of promise, ] i.e., Ye shall find to your cost, what it is to charge me with breach of promise, through unbelief.

Ver. 39. Mourned greatly.] God gave them somewhat to cry for.

Ver. 40. We have sinned.] Here was confession of sin, without confusion for sin. So was that of Saul. {#1Sa 15:30}

Ver. 45. And smote them.] To be out of God’s precincts, is to be out of his protection.

Chapter 15

Ver. 2. When ye be come into the land.] God, who in the midst of judgment remembereth mercy, and suffereth not his whole wrath to arise, seals up his love again to these recent revolters: and although he led them in and out, backward and forward, in that terrible wilderness, as if he had been treading a maze; yet he here gives them new directions what to do, when they, that is their children, came into the land of Canaan. Yea, he further tells them that he will smell a sweet savour of the herd, and of the flock; and is pleased to enlarge and explain some laws formerly delivered, in token of his reconciliation to them. So he renewed his favour to his relapsed spouse, now returning unto him, {#So 5:3,6:4,5, &c.} and to his disciples, that had basely forsaken him, by giving them a new commission to execute the ministerial function. {#Joh 20:21}

Ver. 4. Bring a meat offering.] As an appendix to the other sacrifices. These following laws were given likely during their so long station at Kadesh. {a}

{a} Abulens.

Ver. 5. For a drink offering.] These drink offerings of wine signified that the saints must be most ready and cheerful to offer themselves up to God in martyrdom, as a drink offering, for the testimony of their faith, and for the service and ministry of the Church, as Paul, {#Php 2:17 2Ti 4:6} and many martyrs, who went as willingly to die as to dine. One of them called it his wedding day, and invited his friends thereunto: others, filled with the Holy Ghost, so rejoiced, that they were misjudged by their adversaries to be drunk with wine, wherein is excess, as Morgan falsely objected to Mr Philpot in a conference. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1653.

Ver. 20. Ye shall offer up a cake.] As a homage penny, as acknowledging God the chief Lord of all; and as craving his leave to partake of his creatures.

Ver. 22. And if ye hath erred and not observed.] Not serving of God, not sacrificing, is a sin. {#Mal 3:8 Ec 9:2} Not robbing only, but the not relieving of the poor, was the rich man’s ruin. {#Lu 16:21} Omission of diet breeds diseases, so doth omission of duty; and makes work for hell, or for the physician of our souls.

Ver. 24. By ignorance.] Or, Infirmity; incogitancy; inadvertency. For such there is a pardon, of course, ready sealed by God in Christ: else we might die in our sins, while the pardon is providing.

Ver. 30. But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously.] When the heart at any time deliberates, saith a learned divine, {a} and yet that word is not sufficient to express it; but when the heart works according to its own proper inclination, and then wilfully disobeys the Lord in any commandment, certainly then it casts God away. And this is that "great transgression." {#Ps 19:11}

The same reproacheth the Lord.] As if he wanted either wisdom to observe, or power to punish, such as take themselves to be out of the reach of his rod. See #Eze 20:27.

{a} Dr Preston, Of God’s All-suff.

Ver. 31. That gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.] This he did with a high hand, as #Nu 15:30, in contempt of God and his law. The baser sort of people in Sweden do always break the Sabbath day, saying, that it is only for gentlemen to keep that day. {a} How much better that poor Indian in New England, who, coming by, and seeing one of the English profaning of the Lord’s day, by felling of a tree, said unto him, Do you not know that this is the Lord’s day? Much machet man, i.e., very wicked man, what! break you God’s day? {b} The best and wealthiest of the Jews, to prevent servile work on the Sabbath day, with their own hands chop the herbs, sweep the house, cleave wood, kindle the fire, &c., on the day before. {c}

{a} Mr Abbot’s Sermons.

{b} New England’s Firstfruits, p. 4.

{c} Buxtorf. Synagog.

Ver. 38. That they may make them fringes.] {See Trapp on "Mt 23:5"}

A ribband of blue.] This sky coloured ribbon taught them, that though their commoration was on earth, their conversation should be in heaven. {#Php 3:20}

Ver. 40. That ye may remember.] Our memories are like strainers, nets, grates, that let the pure water run away, but retain mud, trash, &c. It is with us as with those in #Ps 106:13, "they soon forgat his works," &c., and therefore we have need of all good helps.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. The son of Izhar.] And so first cousin to Moses and Aaron; for Izhar was brother to Amram their father. {#Ex 6:18}

Sons of Reuben.] Who, being next neighbours to Korah in the camp, were the sooner corrupted by him.

“ Uvaque corrupta livorem ducit ab uva.’’—Juven.

Ver. 2. Princes of the assembly.] A very dangerous conspiracy: for as in a beast the body follows the head, so in that bellua multorum capitum, the multitude. Great men are the looking glasses of the country, according to which most men dress themselves: their sins do as seldom go unattended as their persons: height of place ever adds two wings to sin, example and scandal, whereby it soars higher, and flies much further.

Ver. 3. Against Moses and against Aaron.] They were against both magistracy and ministry, as our late levellers, and would have brought in anarchy, that every man might offer his own sacrifice, and do that which is good in his own eyes: Regnum Cyclopicum.

Ver. 4. He fell upon his face.] As a suppliant to them, not to proceed in their rebellion; or rather to God, not to proceed against them for their sin.

Ver. 5. And he spake unto Korah.] By the instinct of the Spirit, who had given into his heart a present answer to his prayer, and furnished him with this answer.

Ver. 7. Ye take too much upon you.] He retorts that upon them, that they had falsely charged upon him and Aaron. So doth Elias upon Ahab. {#1Ki 18:17,18} So do we worthily upon Popery, the charge of novelty. When a Papist tauntingly demanded of a Protestant, Where was your religion before Luther? he was answered, In the Bible, where yours never was. Scaliger truly and trimly told the Jesuits, Nos non sumus novatores, sed vos estis veteratores, We are not novellers, but you old cheaters.

Ver. 8. Ye sons of Levi.] He took these to task apart; as hoping, haply, to withdraw them from their purpose, and to hide pride from them, {#Job 33:17} but they proved uncounsellable, incorrigible.

Ver. 9. Seemeth it but a small thing.] While these ambitious Levites would be looking up to the priests, Moses sends down their eyes to the people. The way not to repine at those above us, is to look at those below us.

Ver. 10. And seek ye the priesthood also.] Ambition is restless and unsatisfiable; for, like the crocodile, it grows as long as it lives.

Ver. 11. And what is Aaron?] q.d., Is it not God whom ye wound through Aaron’s sides? "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" {#Ac 9:4}

Ver 12. We will not come up.] Sturdy rebels, ripe for destruction. See #Pr 29:1. {See Trapp on "Pr 29:1"} One perhaps had knocked off, and is therefore no more mentioned. Satius est recurrere, quam male currere, as that emperor said, Better stop or step back, than run on to utter ruin.

Ver. 13. That floweth with milk and honey.] So they falsely and maliciously speak of the land of Egypt, in derision of the land of Canaan, whereunto that praise properly belonged. Those that were born in hell know no other heaven.

Altogether a prince over us.] So their quarrel was against Moses’ principality, though they pretended the priesthood only at first. If the ministry once be taken away, let the magistrate see to himself; he is next.

Ver. 14. We will not come up, ] sc., To the place of judgment. So they add rebellion to sin, and justify their treasonful practices; as did Ravailliac, Fawks, Saunders, others.

Ver. 15. And Moses was very wroth.] Or, Very sore grieved. He might have said, as one once did, Felix essem si non imperitassem, Happy had I been if I had never been in place of authority. Egypt is said by Seneca to have been loquax et ingeniosa in contumeliam praefectorum provincia, in qua qui vitaverit culpam non effugit infamiam, A province apt to find fault with, and to speak hardly of their rulers, though never so innocent. These rebels had haply learned those Egyptian manners, by living so long amongst them.

I have not taken one ass from them.] Moses was not of them that follow the administration of justice as a trade only, with an unquenchable and unconscionable desire of gain. This is but robbery with authority, and justifies the common resemblance of the courts of justice to the bush, where to while the sheep flees for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part of his fleece.

Ver. 16. Thy company.] Or, Thy congregation, thy faction, or Church malignant, as #Ps 26:5 Ac 19:32,40.

Ver. 17. And take every man his censer.] Which they had ready provided, when first they combined to thrust themselves into the priests’ office.

Ver. 18. And stood in the door.] Such an impudency had sin oaded in their faces, that they stood stouting it out before the Lord, and made open profession of their wickedness: there was no need to dig to find it out, {#Jer 2:34} for they set it, as it were, upon the cliff of the rock. {#Eze 24:7}

Ver. 19. All the congregation.] Not his own company only: for the whole multitude was too ready to favour his attempt, as he persuaded them God also would, his design being to introduce an equal popularity.

And the glory of the Lord.] Shining in the cloud over the sanctuary as at other times in like cases. {#Nu 16:42 Nu 14:10 Ex 40:34}

Ver. 21. Separate yourselves.] Good men are taken away from the evil to come. When God pulls away the pillars, what will become of the building? Lot was no sooner taken out of Sodom, but Sodom was taken out of the world.

Ver. 22. The God of the spirits.] The Former and Father of spirits, {#Zec 12:1 Heb 12:9} "that giveth to all ζωην και πνοην, life and breath," {#Ac 17:25} in whose hand is the soul of all living, and the spirit of all flesh. {#Job 12:10}

Ver. 24. Get you up from about.] "Save yourselves from this untoward generation"; {#Ac 2:40} force yourselves from them, stave them off, as the word signifies (στελλεσθαι παραγγελλομεν, #2Th 3:6), and we charge you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to do so. Ut scias quam aegre divellimur, saith one.

Ver. 26. Lest ye be consumed.] See #Nu 16:24, {See Trapp on "Re 18:4"} Hamath fares the worse for lying so near Damascus. {#Zec 9:2} St John sprang out of the bath, where he found Cerinthus the heretic.

Ver. 27. Came out and stood.] As out facing Moses, and scorning the judgment threatened. Deus quem destruit dementat. Hardened sinners make no more of God’s dreadful threatenings, than behemoth doth of iron weapons, which he esteemeth as straws.

Ver. 28. Hereby ye shall know.] Thus he engageth the truth and honour of his office upon a miracle. But now he that expects a miracle, is himself a miracle, saith Augustine. Let Papists brag of their lying wonders. {#2Th 2:9} We dislike not altogether that observation of Gretser the Jesuit, Tam sterilis et deserta est Lutherana et Calviniana secta, ut diabolus ne dignetur quidem per eam aliquid fallacium et umbratilium prodigiorum aggredi, saltem frequenter et palam. So dull and dry is the Lutheran and Calvinian sect, that the devil deigns not to work any, or not many miracles, among them, as he doth among the Catholics.

Ver. 29. The common death of all men.] Ne quisquam sua morte defunctus est, said Suetonius of Caesar’s murderers. So may we say of our gun powder plotters; Your sin will find you out.

Ver. 30. Quick unto the pit.] Not into hell, as the Papists conclude from this text; for how could their houses and goods go down to hell? {#Nu 16:32} and who would not hope that some of them were innocent, some penitent? The punishment they suffered in being buried alive was very miserable; and so accounted by the heathens, who served their vestal virgins in this sort that had been deflowered.

Ver. 31. As he had made an end of speaking.] Dictum factum; so it is still. {#Joh 20:23} Vengeance is every whit as ready in God’s hands, as in his ministers’ mouths. {#2Co 10:6}

Ver. 32. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up.] So it did a great part of Antioch, by a horrible earthquake, anno 527, for their horrible heresies and blasphemies there broached by the bishops, and defended by the people. So lately Pleurs in Italy.

Ver. 33. And they perished from among.] So the gun powder plotters here; and before them the northern rebels. That rebellion, saith one, like the bubbles, which children blow up into the air, was no sooner blown up than blown out, and fell into the eyes of those who with blasts of ambition and superstition held it up.

Ver. 34. Lest the earth swallow us up also.] Let the destruction of others be a terror to us, that we may wash our feet in the blood of the wicked. {#Ps 52:6} But he that is swallowed up with earth, as Korah, his ears stopped, his heart stuffed with earth, shall have earth enough when he dies, but of heaven little enough.

Ver. 35. And there came out a fire.] By fire they sinned, and by a fire they suffer:—

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

Ver. 37. For they are hallowed.] And therefore may not be turned to any other use.

Ver. 38. These sinners against their own souls.] So are all such as spend the span of this transitory life, after the ways of their own hearts, and thereby perish for ever. Sin is the soul’s poison; yet how heartily do men feed upon it, as Tartars do upon dead horses; as the maid in Pliny did upon spiders; as the Turkish galley slaves do upon opium, an ounce whereof they will eat at once as if it were bread!

Ver. 40. To be a memorial.] God cannot abide to be forgotten; and they are worthily made examples that will not take them; as that second captain in #2Ki 1:11,12

Ver. 41. But on the morrow.] That after conviction they should so soon again rebel, and run away with the bit in their mouths, was prodigious contumacy.

Ver. 42. And behold the cloud.] Deus εκ μηχανης. God, as out of an engine, appears for his distressed servants.

Ver. 46. For there is wrath.] Moses is quick sighted, and spies it at first setting out. By how much more faithful and familiar men are with God, so much earlier do they discern his wrath.

Ver. 47. The plague.] Which ran as a fire in a grain field.

Ver. 48. And he stood between.] A clear type of Christ.

Chapter 17

Ver. 2. Take of every one of them a rod.] Or, Staff; the ensign of their honour, {#Nu 21:18} and of their civil authority; {#Ps 110:2 Jer 48:16,17} a suificient witness against them, that the priesthood belonged not to them. Uzziah smarted for invading it. George, prince of Anhalt, was a singular example, qui primus et unus ex omni Principum Germanorum numero, subditos suos ipse et viva voce et scriptis editis de via salutis erudiret, who was the first, and the only German prince, that both by preaching and writing taught his subjects. {a}

{a} Melch. Adam.

Ver. 5. And I will make to cease.] But then he must do more than work miracles. For such is the habitual hardness of men’s hearts, as neither ministry, nor misery, nor miracle, nor mercy, can possibly mollify. Nothing can do it, but an extraordinary touch from the hand of Heaven.

Ver. 8. And bloomed blossoms.] (1.) For a testimony of Aaron’s calling from God, to the honour of the priesthood; (2) For a type of Christ, the branch growing out of the stem of Jesse; {#Isa 11:1} (3) For a figure of the ministry of the gospel, which although to profane persons it seem a dry, barren, and vanishing voice, yet it bloometh and flourisheth in the hearts of God’s elect; -and surely fruitfulness is the best argument of our election, and that we are called of God, for not only all the plants of his setting, but the very boughs cut off from the body of them will flourish; (4.) For a lively representation of a glorious resurrection. At the French massacre, Aug. 25, 1572, in the churchyard of St Innocent at Paris, a certain bush suddenly bloomed about the middle time of that bloody day, at an unusual time of the year. {a} The Papists boasted, that God by that miracle showed his good liking of that massacre they had made. But the Protestants took it for a confirmation of their religion, and a testimony of their innocency.

{a} Epitome Hist. Gallicae, p. 149.

Ver. 10. And thou shalt quite take away their murmurinus.] Which yet would hardly be done. See on #Nu 17:5. Many men’s lips, like rusty hinges, for want of the oil of grace and gladness, move not without murmuring and complaining.

Ver. 13. Whosoever cometh anything near.] Let them keep further off then who have no sufficient warrant. Why should they meddle with that belongs not to them? Why should they touch the tabernacle? as the Greek here hath it. The fingers of many triflers itch at this day, to be tampering with that tremendous function, the ministry: which if they forbear to touch, it is but as once Mercury is fain to spare Jupiter’s thunderbolts, which he durst not steal, lest they should roar too loud, or at least burn his fingers.

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. Shall bear the iniquity, ] i.e., The punishment of whatsoever iniquity is done in the sanctuary. Sin and punishment come under one name, as being tied together with chains of adamant: where the one dines, the other will sup; where the one is in the saddle, the other will be upon the crupper. Nemo crimen gerit in pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgments to it, as the loadstone doth iron, or turpentine fire.

The iniquity of your priesthood.] Priests then are not angels, free from sin, as that Popish expositures dreamed, and drew from #Ex 30:31,32. Cajetan confesseth of the Popish prelates, that whereas by their places they should have been the salt of the earth, they had lost their savour, and were good for little else but looking after the rites and revenues of the Church. {a} John Huss complains of the priests of his age, that Multa quae illi ordinem dicunt, omnium rerum in Christianismo confusionem pariunt, { b} Many things that they call order, bring all into confusion. Non arbitror inter sacerdotes multos esse qui salvi fiant, I believe few of our priests will be saved, saith Chrysostom, {c} of those of his time. And "from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land"; saith Jeremiah. {#Jer 23:15}

{a} Comment. in Matt.

{b} Bellum Hussiticum, p. 9.

{c} Hom., 3. in Act.

Ver. 3. And you also die.] For your ‘other men’s sins’ which you have not prevented or prohibited. Qui non, cum potest, prohibet, iubet.

Ver. 7. As a service of gift.] So our Saviour counts and calls his work a gift; "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." {#Joh 17:4} Any employment for, and about God, is a special favour, a high honour.

Ver. 9. Which they shall render unto me.] As a recompense for some trespass against me. {#Nu 5:8 Le 6:6}

Ver. 10. In the most holy place, ] i.e., In the priest s’ court.

Ver. 12. All the best of the oil.] Heb., The fat. God can afford the ministers the best of the best, though the most now-a-days think the worst too good for them.

Which they shall offer.] Not appointing them how much, but leaving that to the people’s liberality. And what that was, let Philo {a} the Jew speak, who well knew the customs of his own nation, and tells us, that all things due to the priests were paid very freely, and most cheerfully. At haec gens debitam pecuniam lubens gaudensque depromit, saith he; This people willingly, and with rejoicing, draw out their money for the priests, not as if they gave, but received rather, adding happy forebodings and gratulations.

{a} Philo, De Sacerdot. Honor.

Ver. 13. And whatsoever is first ripe.] See what an honourable maintenance, and liberal entertainment God himself assigneth to the Levitical priesthood. And shall the ministers of the gospel be held to hard allowance? {#Ga 6:6 1Co 9:7,9} Ad tenuitatem beneficiorum necessario sequitur ignorantia sacerdotum. {a}

{a} Panormit.

Ver. 14. Every thing devoted.] Unless devoted to some particular use. {#Le 27:28,29}

Ver. 18. And the flesh of them shall be thine.] And besides these here touched, they had other revenues of no small value, as their cities, suburbs, lands, {#Nu 35} that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. {#2Ch 31:9}

Ver. 19. It is a covenant of salt.] So #2Ch 13:5; that is, Inviolable, incorruptible; non computrescens vetustate, saith Flaccius. Pierius also tells us, that amity and friendship was symbolised by salt— Corpora enim solidiora facit, et diutissime conservat -for its consolidating and conserving property.

Ver. 21. For their service which they serve.] No man did so much as shut the doors of God’s sanctuary, or kindle a fire on his altar for nought. {#Mal 1:10}

Ver. 22. Neither must the children.] But only God’s kinsmen, the priests and Levites, as they are called, {#Le 10:3} according to some translations, or his nigh ones. So in the New Testament, others are called God’s children, God’s servants, God’s people: ministers only are called God’s men. {#1Ti 6:11 2Ti 3:17}

Ver. 31. For it is your reward.] Or, wages, which you dearly earn, and may justly call for. So #Lu 10:7.

Chapter 19

Ver. 2. This is the ordinance of the law, which.] An ordinance, a law, a commanded law: all this to show the peremptoriness of the Lord in this point, that unless we lay hold upon the blood of Christ, prefigured by this red heifer, we cannot escape the damnation of hell.

That they bring thee.] At a common charge, because for a common good. All the congregation must get them a bloody Saviour.

A red heifer.] Typing out Christum cruentatum, Christ covered with his own blood: {see #Isa 63:1,2} white and ruddy, as the Church says of him: {#So 5:10} Tam recens mihi Christus crucifixus, ac si iam fudisset sanguinem. {a} The pressure of his sufferings made him sweat great drops, or rather clods of blood, in a cold night, besides what afterwards issued from his many wounds in his head and body.

Never came yoke.] Christ never bore the yoke either of sin or servitude. He laid down his life of himself. {#Joh 10:17,18} See #Heb 9:13,14. He was not subject to any command of man. {#Lu 2:44 Joh 2:4}

{a} Luther.

Ver. 3. To Eleazar the priest.] To assure him of the succession of the priesthood. Besides, it was fitter he should be defiled than his father. {#Nu 19:7} Hereby also might haply be foretold, that the priests should kill Christ; but they were but our workmen, we should "look upon him whom we have pierced, and mourn over him," {#Zec 12:10} that the fountain opened for sin, and for separation from uncleanness, {see #Nu 19:9} may be free to us, the king’s bath of Christ’s blood. {#Zec 13:1}

Without the camp.] Signifying, that Christ should be taken from all earthly comforts, and crucified "without the gate." {#Heb 13:12}

Before his face.] So was Christ before God’s face; yea, his Father laid upon him with his own hand, and let loose all the powers of darkness at him.

Ver. 4. Shall take of the blood with his finger.] Not with his whole hand. Christ’s blood must be touched or applied with great discretion and reverence; our practice also must be dyed in Christ’s blood.

Ver. 5. Shall he burn.] To set forth Christ’s ardent love and bitter sufferings. Love itself is a passion, and delights to express itself by suffering for the party beloved.

Ver. 6. Cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet.] Hereby was signified, that Christ, howsoever in respect of our sins he was burnt up with the fire of his Father’s wrath; yet by the everlasting Spirit, whereby he offered up himself without spot to God, and by the gifts and graces of it, he was a full sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to God to purge offences. {#Heb 9:14 Ps 51:9 Eph 5:2}

Ver. 7. The priest shall wash his clothes.] To show the contagion and pollution of sin, {#2Co 7:1} and imperfection of the legal priesthood.

Unclean until the evening.] So #Nu 19:8,10. We had need take time till the evening, to humble our souls, and bewail our unworthiness of the blood of Christ.

Ver. 8. {See Trapp on "Nu 19:7"}

Ver. 9. And a man that is clean.] Hereby is meant the Gentile purified by faith, as one well observeth. The gathering of the ashes, is the applying of the merits of Christ, and laying hold of the mystery of his kingdom. The laying up of the ashes imports that the Christian accounts Christ’s merits his chief treasure. The clean place is the clean heart. Without the camp, notes, that the Gentiles were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, &c. These ashes kept for the congregation, show the fulness of Christ’s merits for all his people. When he saith, it is to make a water of separation, it notes that our sins separate betwixt us and our God. But "now in Christ Jesus, we who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by his blood." {#Eph 2:13}

Ver. 10. Shall wash his clothes.] To note, that even the nearer a Christian comes to the merits of Christ, the more he is affected with the sense of his own uncleanness; yea, he retains it till even, that is, till death.

Ver. 11. He that toucheth.] To teach them to observe God’s curse in death, and to avoid the society of sinful men.

Ver. 16. Shall be unclean seven days.] {See Trapp on "Le 11:31"}

Ver. 17. And running water.] Signifying the ashes of Christ’s merit, and the water of his Spirit. See #1Co 6:11 Joh 7:38,39.

Ver. 18. Shall take hyssop.] No benefit by Christ, without mortification of sin.

Chapter 20

Ver. 1. In the first month.] To wit, of their fortieth year, after they came out of Egypt. For from this chapter to the end of Deuteronomy, are described the passages of the last year only, of their journeying in the wilderness; little being recorded of the thirty-eight years, since the spies’ report.

And Miriam died there.] A good woman, and of great use to the people in their travels. {#Mic 6:4} But once she raised a great storm against her brother’s wife, {#Nu 12:1} about precedency probably: as did likewise in this kingdom Anne Starthope, Duchess of Somerset, against Katherine Parr, Queen Dowager, wife to her husband’s brother, the Lord Admiral, in the days of King Edward VI. This Anne died A.D. 1587, being ninety-nine years of age. {a} Miriam could be no less likely than 130, taking her to be same that was set to watch what would become of Moses, when he was laid out in an ark of bulrushes. {#Ex 2:4}

{a} Life of Edw. VI, p. 81. Camd., Elis., fol. 356.

Ver. 3. And the people chode.] Wanting both water and patience, they broke the peace with their superiors. {See Trapp on "Nu 14:15"}

Ver. 4. And why have ye brought up.] See how this new generation doth patrissare This is but the old coccysmus of those ancient malcontents; {#Ex 17:2} so much the worse in these, because they made no better use of God’s dealing with their fathers. {#Da 5:22}

Ver. 5. Neither is there any water to drink.] Thirst, a most eager appetite, enrageth their affections, and makes them thus hot with Moses.

Ver. 8. Take the rod.] God puts off their rebellion, and satisfies their thirst by a miracle.

Speak unto the rock.] He is not bidden now to smite it; as once in #Ex 17:6, which because he did unbidden, God was deeply displeased, as some are of opinion.

Ver. 9. And Moses took the rod.] The same rod that once smote the river, to destroy the Egyptians. The same word is a savour of life to believers, and of death to unbelievers. {#2Co 2:16}

Ver. 10. Hear now, ye rebels.] They could hardly hear, for the belly hath no ears, and their tongues scarce knew to utter any language but that of Samson, "Give me water, or I die." {#Jud 15:18} But why did Moses speak to them, when he should have spoken to the rock only? {#Nu 20:8} This was ill; but worse to speak so unadvisedly. He struck at the rock, and as ready almost to split against it, he makes two arguments against it. (1.) Hear now, ye rebels, q.d., Will the Lord ever give water to such rebels? (2.) Shall we give you water out of the rock? Will that ever be done To fetch fire out of a flinty rock is far more likely; but to distil water out of it, how can that be done? Lo, Moses is staggered, and now at a stand. Adeo nihil est in nobis magnum, quod non queat minui: {a} the strongest faith much assailed, may flag and hang the wing. The best carry their treasure but in earthen vessels, which, dashing against the rock of unbelief, miseras rimas ducunt, &c., leak pitifully.

{a} Bucolch.

Ver. 11. He smote the rock twice.] In a great heat and pang of passion.

“ Qui non moderabitur irae,

Infectum velit esse dolor quod suaserit, et mens.’’—Horat.

Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts. The best may be miscarried by their passions to their cost. Ira comes of Ire, say grammarians: because an angry man goes out of himself, off from his reason; and when he is pacified, he is said redire ad se, to come again to himself.

And the water came out abundantly.] This cleaving of the hard rock was a work of omnipotency. {#Ps 78:15} The works of God are in contrariis medias. {a} This rock was Christ, {#1Co 10:4} fitly compared to a rock; (1.) For despicable appearance; {#Isa 53:2,3} (2.) For exaltation and advancement; (3.) For firmness and stability; {#Mt 16:18} (4.) For scandal and offence to the wicked; {#Ro 9:33} (5.) For weight and danger. {#Mt 21:44}

And their beasts also.] The wicked, in like sort, coming to the Lord’s supper, do receive there panem Domini, not panem Dominum.

{a} Luther.

Ver. 12. Because ye believed me not.] Ye could not conceive, and were not very willing, that I should show such favour to so undeserving a people: so measuring my thoughts by your thoughts, and my ways by your ways; {#Isa 55:8} casting me into a dishonourable mould, as it were; and this publicly, before all the people.

Therefore ye shall not bring.] So God was unto them "a God that forgiveth, and taketh vengeance of their practices," as the psalmist saith. {#Ps 99:8} Repentance may come too late in regard of temporal chastisement, as here it did. {#De 3:24-26}

Ver. 13. And he was sanctified in them.] By overcoming their evil with good; striking the rock for them, when he might justly have stricken them with utter destruction. Man’s badness interrupteth not the course of God’s goodness; "his unbelief maketh not the faith of God without effect." {#Ro 3:3}

Ver. 14. Thus saith thy brother.] "A brother is born for adversity"; {#Pr 17:17} and good blood will not belie itself. But "a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city; and their contentions are like the bars of a castle." {#Pr 18:19}

Ver. 16. Sent an angel.] This was Christ; or, as some would have it, Moses; like as Phineas is thought to be that angel at Bochim. {#Jud 2:1}

Ver. 17. We will not pass.] So should a Christian bespeak the world. Let us pass through thy country; we will neither touch nor taste of thy cares, but go by the king’s highway, that good old way that God hath scored out unto us, until we arrive at the key of Canaan, at the kingdom of heaven.

Ver. 18. Thou shalt not pass.] As fearing what so great an army once got in might do; they are not usually so easily removed. It was therefore great injustice in Pope Julius, to excommunicate and depose John, king of Navarre, as a heretic, and public enemy to the see apostolic, because being himself a peer of the realm of France, and having a great part of his patrimony in that country, he would not suffer the Spaniard, the Pope’s champion, to lead an army through his country against the French, his liege lord, and deliver to him three of the strongest castles he had in his kingdom. {a}

{a} Guicciard., lib. ii.

Ver. 24. Ye rebelled.] In that ye smote the rock, and smote it twice: he spoke bitterly also to the people, calling them rebels, and slighting them. This is called rebellion here. Every man’s heel hath some iniquity, as dirt, cleaving to it: and the greatest lamps have needed snuffers.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. And took some of them prisoners.] A sore affliction, worse than any of those outward crosses that Job suffered, whose captivity therefore, as that which comprehended all the rest, God is said to have turned, {#Job 42:10} Barbarossa, the Turkish general, returned from Tunis towards Constantinople with such a multitude of poor Christian captives, shut up so close under hatches among the excrements of nature, that all the way as he went, almost every hour, some of them were cast dead overboard. {a} The late Duke of Alva, governor of Flanders, roasted some of his prisoners to death, starved others, and that even after quarter; saying, though he promised to give them their lives, he did not promise to find them meat. {b}

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 750.

{b} Grimst., Hist. of Netherl.

Ver. 2. And Israel vowed a vow.] This is the way to prevail with God, as Jacob found it, {#Ge 28:20} who is therefore called, the father of vows. Concerning vows, {See Trapp on "Ge 28:20".}

Ver. 3. Delivered up the Canaanites.] This King Arad, heartened with his former success, might—-as Guicciardini saith of Charles VIII of France, in his expedition against Naples—come into the field like thunder and lightning, but go out like a snuff; more than a man at first, less than a woman at last.

Ver. 4. Discouraged because of the way.] So are many in their voyage towards heaven, which is an afflicted way, τεθλιμμενη η οδος, {#Mt 7:14} strawed with crosses. {#Ac 14:22} Indeed, if men could go to heaven in a feather bed, or pass e coeno in coelum, a deliciis ad delicias, feed on manchet, tread on roses, fly to heaven with pleasant wings, none should be so forward as they. But to go "through fire and through water," {#Ps 66:12} to "run with patience the race that is set before them," {#Heb 12:1} and "through many tribulations to enter into heaven," this they like not. Theotimus in Ambrose, would rather lose his sight than his sin: Vale lumen amicum, said he, when forbidden wine, as naught for his eyes. Beetles love dunghills better than ointments, and swine love mud better than a garden; so do swinish epicures prefer earth to heaven, &c.

Ver. 5. This light bread.] {See Trapp on "Nu 11:6"}

Ver. 6. Fiery serpents.] Heb., Seraphim; from their burning heat, whereby these ungrateful Israelites, that causelessly cried out of thirst, had somewhat given them to cry for. Their tongues, so full of deadly poison, and set on fire from hell, are now parched and scorched with venomous heat and torments, the likest hell of any other. These serpents are here called seraphims: that old serpent the devil can transform himself into an angel of light.

Ver. 7. Pray unto the Lord.] Prayer is the best lever at a dead lift.

Make thee a fiery serpent, ] i.e., The similitude of such a one; an unlikely means to effect such a cure. Yea, some write, that it is deadly for those that are stung with a serpent to look upon brass. Certain it is, that this cure was not wrought by anything in the nature of the brazen serpent, but by the institution and ordination of God, to be also a type of Christ; a noble and notable figure of Christ lifted up on the cross, {#Joh 3:14} or rather in his ordinances. {#Ga 3:1} They that looked upon their sores, and not upon the sign, died for it; as those that looked on the sign, though but with one eye, though with but a squint eye, or but with half an eye, they were healed presently. So they that fix their eyes upon their sins only, and not upon their Saviour, despair and die; but those that look to Christ, being faithful in weakness, though weak in faith, are sure to be saved. It is but look up and live. Only look up, as they did that were wounded, weepingly, wishfully, pitifully, cravingly. See and sigh, look upon him whom you have pierced; let your sins be as so many Hazaels to you, and your hearts as so many Hadadrimmons. {#Zec 12:10,11}

Ver. 14. In the book of the wars of the Lord.] This book here cited by Moses, is now either lost, or at least latent. It was not any part of the Canon, -for God hath provided, that not one hair of that sacred head is diminished, -but as the chronicles of England, or some famous poem.

Ver. 16. And I will give them water.] Now that they murmured not, they might have anything. {#Ps 34:10} Only we must be content to wait God’s time (is it fit to send for the prince by a post?), or to want that particular mercy, if God see it meet, being content that God be glorified, though we be not gratified. Surely if God saw us thus studying his share more than our own, we might have what we would, and God even think himself beholden to us, as one phraseth it.

Ver. 17. Then Israel sang this soug.] A sign of that Christian joy. {#Isa 12:3,4}

Ver. 18. The princes digged the well.] Called therehence Beerelim, i.e., the well of the mighty ones. {#Isa 15:8} Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae, quam cum terram colerent iidem qui remp. regerent: quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere scilicet, et aratore triumphali. {a}

With their staves.] Those ensigns of their honour they made to be instruments of the common good. See the Epist. Dedicat. set before my notes upon John.

{a} Plin.

Ver. 22. Let me pass.] {See Trapp on "Nu 20:17"}

Ver. 23. And Sihon would not.] He durst not trust them: men muse as they use: God had also hardened his heart, that he might come forth to fetch his own destruction. {#De 2:30} Judgment need not go to find wicked men out; they run to meet their bane.

Ver. 27. Wherefore they that speak in proverbs.] Or, Bywords; by way of derision, as #De 28:17 Hab 2:5. Ballad makers, petty poets, that penned popular songs, such as this was.

Ver. 30. We have shot at them.] Great swelling words of vanity, uttered by the conquering Amorites. How much better our Henry V, who, after his victory at Agincourt, gave strait order, that no ballad or song should be made or sung, more than of thanksgiving to God for his happy victory; and that nothing that might tend to ostentation or boasting of the valiant, or cowardly act of any, should be set forth. {a}

{a} Dan., Hist., p. 101.

Chapter 22

Ver. 1. In the plains of Moab.] Once of Moab, then of the Amorites, now of the Israelites. Lands and lordships often change masters; Adeo nihil certi est in rebus humanis, &c. In the greatness of the Turkish empire is at this day swallowed up the name and empire of the Saracens, the most glorious empire of the Greeks, the renowned kingdoms of Macedonia, Peloponnesus, Epirus, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Armenia, Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, Judea, Tunis, Algiers, Media, Mesopotamia, with a great part of Hungary, as also of the Persian kingdom, and, besides all those famous Churches spoken of in Scripture, so much in Christendom, as far exceedeth that which is thereof at this day left; yet, no doubt, time shall triumph over this so great a monarchy, when it shall but then live by fame as others now do. {a} It laboureth with nothing more already than with the weightiness of itself.

{a} Turk. Hist., Preface.

Ver. 3. And Moab was distressed.] Or, Was irked, fretted, vexed. And yet Moab was allied to Israel, eased by them of a troublesome encroaching neighbour Sihon, and assured by them, that they would not meddle or molest them. But being of a different religion, they were carried with satanical malice against God’s people, and sought their ruin. This is the guise of graceless and absurd men, acted and agitated by the devil.

Ver. 4. Unto the elders of Midian.] Their neighbours and confederates. These are called the dukes of Sihon, as having been subdued by his tyranny, whereof Israel had now freed them, and meant them no hurt. {#Nu 31:8 Jos 13:21}

And Balak the son of Zippor.] A politic and potent prince, {#Mic 6:5} not more valiant than vigilant, ingeniose nequam, wittily wicked.

Ver. 5. Balaam, the son of Beor.] The devil’s spelman, as one calls him, a soothsayer, or sorcerer, called a prophet, {#2Pe 2:16} as false prophets are called diviners {#Jer 27:9}

Ver. 6. Peradventure I shall prevail.] Hence he is said to have warred against Israel. {#Jos 24:9} He did not, because he durst not. Sed fieri dicitur, quod tentatur, aut intenditur, saith Ribera on #Am 9:5.

Ver. 7. With the rewards of divination.] Which Jude calls the wages of wickedness. {#Jude 1:11 2Pe 2:15} The Athenians complained, that Philip by his gold had corrupted the oracle of Apollo, which now did φιλιππιζειν.

Ver. 8. As the Lord shall speak unto me.] Good words and wishes may be found in hell’s mouth; as wholesome sugar may be found in a poisoned cane, and a stone of great virtue in the head of a toad. The French have a berry which they name Uve de spine, the grape of a thorn.

Ver. 9. And God came to Balaam.] So he came to Abimelech, to Laban, &c. He never credited his word to these, as he did to the holy prophets, of whom it is said, "The word of the Lord came to them."

Ver. 13. For the Lord refuseth.] Like a mercenary, and one that had a month’s mind to the money, he hides from them that part of the answer that might have kept them off from coming again to him, viz., Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed, Auri sacra fames, &c.

Ver. 15. And Balak sent yet again.] So unweariable are wicked men in pursuing and practising their evil designs. This is check to our dulness for the good of our souls. Oh, how soon said and sated are we! Felix trembles, and yet at the same instant covets and expects a bribe from Paul, who had some occasion to expect repentance of Felix.

Ver. 17. For I will promote thee.] Thus Satan tempted our Saviour, {#Mt 4:8,9} and the Pope Luther, offering him a Cardinalship to hold his tongue, and proposing unto him the example of Aeneas Sylvius, who casting away his opinions, became Pope; and of Bessarion of Nice, who of a poor Calover of Trebizond, became a great renowned Cardinal, and wanted not much of being Pope. {a} But Luther answered the messenger, Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor, I care not for the Pope’s proffers of any preferment. And when one counselled to try him with money, another more wise answered, Hem, Germana illa bestia non curat aurum, That Dutch beast cares not for gold. But Balaam was not a man of Luther’s make.

{a} Hist. of Coun. of Trent.

Ver. 18. I cannot go beyond.] Intus Nero, foris Cato; loquitur hic ut Piso, vivit ut Gallonius: Audi, nemo melius; specta, nemo peius. A preacher, as Quintilian saith of an orator, should be Vir bonus dicendi peritus, A well-spoken and well-deeded person.

Ver. 19. Tarry also now this night, &c.] Very loath he was to forego so fat a morsel. His mouth even watered, his fingers itched to be dealing with Balak. He therefore detains the messengers, and will try again what may be done for them.

Ver. 20. Rise up and go.] God answers him according to the idols of his heart; bids him go, since he was set upon it, but at his utmost peril; like as Solomon bids the young man "walk in the ways of his own heart"; {#Ec 11:9} but then follows that stinging but.

Ver. 21. And saddled his ass.] Which never runs fast enough after preferment, till horse and man and all to the devil.

Ver. 22. And God’s anger.] Deus saepe dat iratus quod negat propitius.

And his two servants were with him.] This false prophet rides not without two men. God’s Levite had one man. {#Jud 19:11} Oh let not ministers of the gospel be slaves to others, servants to themselves!

Ver. 23. And the ass saw the angel.] Which Balaam saw not; his eyes were put out with the dust of covetousness, or dazzled at least with the glittering of the promised promotions.

Ver. 24. But the angel] If an angel stand in the way of a sorcerer’s sin, how much more ready are all those heavenly spirits to stop the miscarriages of God’s dear children! Surely as our good endeavours are oft hindered by Satan, so are our evil by good angels; else were not our protection equal to our danger, and we could neither stand nor rise.

Ver. 27. She fell down under Balaam.] And so "condemned" her master’s "madness." {#2Pe 2:16} Polybius in his history saith, Whereas man is held the wisest of all sublunary creatures, to me he seemeth the most foolish of all. For whereas other creatures, when they have once smarted, will come no more there, -as the fox returns not rashly to the snare, the wolf to the pitfall, the dog to the club, the horse to the hole where he hath been stalked, &c., — solus homo ab aevo ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem; man only falls into the same offence and mischief from day to day, and will not be warned till he be utterly ruined, as it befell Balaam.

Ver. 28. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass.] Fear not, therefore, thine own inability and rudeness to reply in a good cause. There is no mouth into which God cannot put words; and how oft doth he choose the weak to confound the wise

And she said unto Balaam.] The angel, some think, did speak in the ass, as the devil had done to Eve in the serpent.

Ver. 29. I would there were a sword.] Pity but a madman should have a sword! How much fitter for him were that rod that Solomon speaks of. {#Pr 26:3}

Ver. 32. Because thy way is perverse.] Thou art resolved to curse howsoever, and not to lose so fair a preferment, which he must needs buy at a dear rate that pays his honesty for it. Better a great deal lie in the dust, than rise by such ill principles. I shall shut up with that excellent prayer of Zuinglius: {a} Deum Opt. Max. precor, ut vias nostras dirigat: ac sicubi simus Bileami in morem, veritati pertinaciter obluctaturi, angelum suum opponat, qui machaerae suae minis hunc asinum, inscitiam et audaciam dico nostram sic ad maceriam affigat, ut fractum pedem, hoc est, impurum illicitumque carnis sensum auferamus, nec ultra blasphememus nomen Domini Dei nostri.

{a} Zuing., Epist., lib. tertio.

Ver. 33. I had slain thee.] As thou wouldst have slain thine ass, for a less fault.

Ver. 37. To promote thee to honour.] But what is such honour more than a magnum nihil, nay a great mischief? Like the wings of a butterfly curiously painted; but they foul the fingers of those that catch it.

Chapter 23

Ver. 1. Build me here seven altars.] Here, in Baal’s high places. {#Nu 22:41} A sinful mixture, such as was that of those mongrels {#2Ki 17:28,29} and their natural nephews, the Samaritans, {#Joh 4:5} Ambidexters in their religion, which being grosser at first, was afterward refined by Manasseh a Jewish priest—such another as Balaam—that in Alexander’s time made a defection to them, and brought many Jews with him. Of Constantinus Copronymus it is said, how truly I know not, that he was neither Jew, heathen, nor Christian, sed colluviem quandam impietatis, but a hodge podge of wickedness. And of Redwald, king of the East Saxons, the first that was baptized, Camden reports, that he had in the same Church one altar for Christian religion and another for sacrificing to devils. And a loaf of the same leaven was that resolute Rufus, that painted God on the one side of his shield, and the devil on the other, with this desperate inscription, In utrumque paratus, Ready for either, catch as catch may.

Ver. 2. And Balak did.] Ready to conform to any religion, so he might obtain his purposes. God abhors these lukewarm neuter passives, that are inter coelum terramque penduli, that halt between two, that commit idolatry between the porch and the altar, with those five and twenty miscreants. {#Eze 8:16}

Ver. 3. Stand by thy burnt offering.] Or, Present thyself, to see if God will accept thy person.

Ver. 4. I have prepared seven altars.] He boasts of his devotions, and so thinks to demerit God’s favour. So those hypocrites in Isaiah. {#Isa 58:3} Non sic deos coluimus, ut ille nos vinceret, We have not so served the gods, as that the enemy should have the better of us, said the Emperor Antonius, the philosopher.

Ver. 5. And the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth.] The words thus put into his mouth, do but pass from him; they are not polluted by him, because they are not his! as the trunk through which a man speaks is not more eloquent for the speech uttered through it. Balaam did not "eat" God’s word as Jeremiah did, {#Jer 15:16} nor believe what he had spoken, as David, and after him St Paul did. {#Ps 116:10 2Co 4:13} No more did Plato, Seneca, and other heathens, in their divine sentences.

Ver. 7. And he took up his parable.] Or, Pithy and powerful speech, uttered in numerous and sententious terms, and taken among the heathen for prophecies or oracles: poemata pro vaticiniis, &c. Poets were taken for prophets, {#Tit 1:12} and poems for prophecies. Hence their στοιχομαντεια, wherein opening a book of Homer, Hesiod, &c., they took upon them, by the first verse they lighted upon, to divine. Tragedians also, for their parables, or master sentences, were highly esteemed of old, insomuch as, after the discomfit of the Athenians in Sicily, they were relieved who could repeat somewhat of Euripides.

Out of Aram.] Aram Naharim, or Mesopotamia, so called, because it is situated between those two rivers of Paradise, Tigris and Euphrates. This was Abraham’s country, where, while he was in it, he "served strange gods." {#Jos 24:2}

Ver. 8. How shall I curse?] He had a good mind to it, but did not, because he durst not: God stood over him with a whip, as it were; the angel with a sword in his hand could not be forgotten by him. Virtus nolentium nulla est.

How shall I defy?] How easy a thing is it to wag a wicked tongue? to find good words in mouth of hell?

Ver. 9. From the top of the rocks I see him.] And have no power to hurt him. She heard me without daunting; I departed not without terror, when I opened the conspiracy against her life; howbeit, clothed with the best art I could; -said Parry the traitor concerning Queen Elizabeth. {a} Achilles was said to be Styge armatus, but Israel was Deo armatus, and therefore extra iactum.

Lo, the people shall dwell alone.] That they might have no meddling with the heathen. God would not have them lie near the sea coasts, for the Philistines lay between them and the sea, lest they should by commerce wax prouder, as Tyre did, {#Eze 27:3} and learn foreign fashions. See #Es 3:8. Hence Judea, though part of the continent, is called an "island." {#Isa 20:6}

{a} Camden’s Elisab.

Ver. 10. Let me die the death.] But he was so far from living the life of the righteous, that he gave pestilent counsel against the lives of God’s Israel: and though here, in a fit of compunction, he seem a friend, yet he was afterward slain by the sword of Israel, whose happiness he admireth, and desires to share in. {#Nu 31:8} Carnales non curant quaerere, quem tamen desiderant invenire; cupientes consequi, sed non et sequi, { a} Carnal men care not to seek that which they would gladly find, &c. Some faint desires, and short-winded wishes, may be sometimes found in them, but the mischief is, they would break God’s chain, sunder happiness from holiness, salvation from sanctification, the end from the means; they would dance with the devil all day, and then sup with Christ at night; live all their lives long in Delilah’s lap, and then go to Abraham’s bosom when they die. The Papists have a saying that a man would desire to live in Italy, a place of great pleasure, but to die in Spain, because there the Catholic religion, as they call it, is so sincerely professed. And a heathen being asked, whether he would rather be Socrates, a painful philosopher, or Croesus, a wealthy king; answered, that for this life he would be Croesus, but for the life to come Socrates. Thus all men wish well to heaven’s happiness; but bad men find no more comfort of it, than a man doth of the sun when it shines not in his own horizon. Balaam might here be compared to a stranger, that travelling a far country, seeth the state and magnificence of the court, and is admitted into the presence chamber, which greatly doth affect him, though himself have no part or interest in the king. {See Trapp on "Nu 24:5"}

{a} Bern.

Ver. 11. What hast thou done unto me.] Hereby it appears that Balak, in serving of God by building altars and offering sacrifices, did but serve himself upon God; as Ephraim bore "fruit to himself"; {#Ho 10:1} and "Did ye fast to me, even to me?" {#Zec 7:5}

Ver. 12. Must I not take heed to speak.] See how those hypocrites mock one with another. Potest augur augurem videre, et non ridere? {a} said Cato.

{a} Cic., De Divinat., lib. ii.

Ver. 13. From whence thou mayest see them.] And over-look them, as they say witches do, Βασκαινειν quasi φαεσι καινειν; Nescio quis teneros, &c. In Hebrew the same word signifies both an eye and a fountain; to show, that from the eye, as a fountain, flows both sin and misery.

Ver. 16. Put a word.] {See Trapp on "Nu 23:5"}

Ver. 18. Rise up, Balak.] The greatest potentate must reverently attend to the word of God. Ehud, though a fat unwieldy man, stood up to hear a message from God. {#Jud 3:20} So did Constantine the Great, {a} and our Edward VI, hear sermons standing, and usually uncovered. {b}

{a} Euseb.

{b} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 19. That he should repent.] When at any time God is said to repent, it is Mutatio rei, non Dei; effectus non affectus; facti non consilii: it is not a change of his will, but of his work.

Ver. 20. Behold, I have, &c.] A bad man may bless by command from God, and he say Amen to it. The precious stone Lyncuris may issue out of the body of the lynx, an unclean and spotted beast.

Ver. 21. He hath not beheld iniquity.] Of this place of Scripture we may say as we did of another, This verse had been easy, had not commentators made it so knotty. The sense I like best is, that at this time, when Balak hired Balaam, there was no peccatum flagrans, no foul sin of that people, flaming in the eyes of God, or stinking in his nostrils; and therefore there could be no enchantment against them. {#Nu 23:23} Whence that devilish counsel of his to Balak, to set fair women afore them, to entice them to adultery and idolatry, and so to put them under God’s displeasure. But what strange inferences are those from this text, that God sees no sin in his elect, that the very being of their sins is abolished out of his sight; that God is never displeased with his people, though they fall into adultery or the like sin, no not with a fatherly displeasure! &c.

Ver. 23. Surely there is no enchantment.] No looking for signs of good luck, as #Nu 24:1. The gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

Ver. 24. Behold the people.] This is chiefly true of God’s peculiar people, subduing their spiritual enemies, {#Mic 5:8,9} being bold as lions.

Ver. 25. Nor bless them at all.] But they are blessed, and they shall be blessed, the one cursing the malice of earth and of hell.

Ver. 26. That I must do.] Though with no goodwill. Devils and wicked men do God’s will; but oft full sore against their own.

Ver. 27. Peradventure it will please God.] Heb., It will be right in the eyes of God. Never think it, man. "He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness." {#Ps 5:4}

Ver. 28. Unto the top of Peor.] An idolatrous and therefore most unlikely place. {#De 3:29}

Ver. 30. And Balak did.] How unweariable are wicked men in their ways!

Chapter 24

Ver. 1. He went not as at other times.] As being resolved to curse howsoever, and without God’s leave; yea, al despito di Dio, as that mouth of blasphemy, Pope Julius III, once said in another case; {a} to take his own course whatever came of it.

He set his face.] As fully bent to do it, and nothing should hinder him. So our Saviour Christ "steadfastly set (εστηριξε) his face to go to Jerusalem." {#Lu 9:51} He steeled his forehead against all oppositions.

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

Ver. 2. And the spirit of God came upon him.] A common spirit, a spirit of prophecy: "Have not we prophesied in thy name?," {#Mt 7:22} said those castaways. In impiis quandoque sunt dona Dei, sine Deo. God gives gifts to men, "yea to the rebellious," {#Ps 68:18} for the use of his Church. A blind man may bear a torch in his hand, whereby others may receive benefit, though himself receive none; so here.

Ver. 3. Whose eyes are open.] And therefore can speak it of a certainty: for what is more sure than sight? q.d., Israel shall be blessed, and I will stand to it. He is blessed, "yea, and he shall be blessed." {#Ge 27:33}

Ver. 4. Falling into a trance.] As was usual with the prophets; {#Ge 15:12 Da 8:17-19 2Pe 1:21} {See Trapp on "1Pe 1:21"} They were carried out of and beyond themselves. And still—

“ Amor Dei est ecstaticus, neque iuris

Se sinit esse sui—”

Ver. 5. How goodly are thy tents.] It fareth with a hypocrite, as with a surveyor of lands, that taketh an exact compass of other men’s grounds, of which he shall never enjoy a foot. See #Nu 23:10.

Ver. 6. As the trees of lign aloes.] An odoriferous sweet smelling tree, growing in Arabia, which is said to be a country so sweet that swine cannot live in it.

Ver. 7. His seed shall be in many waters.] He shall sow in locis irriguis; as men are bid to cast their bread, their alms, upon the waters, upon the poor; as upon a well-watered soil. {#Ec 11:1} Such is the land of Egypt, watered by Nile; which makes the ground so fruitful, that they do but throw in the seed, and have four rich harvests in less than four months, -saith one that had been there. {a}

He shall be higher than Agag.] King of the Amalekites, who was then the greatest monarch of those parts, and did haply think as highly of himself as that proud prince of Tyre, {#Eze 28:2-6} or as the great Cham of Cataia, of whom it is reported that every day, after he had dined, he caused the trumpets to be sounded, by that sign giving leave to other princes of the earth to go to dinner.

{a} Blunt’s Voyage into Levant.

Ver. 8. God brought him forth out of Egypt.] This he tells Balak, in answer to that complaint of his. {#Nu 20:5} Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, q.d., Come they are indeed, but not of themselves, but by God, who said, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."

Ver. 9. He lay down as a lion.] {See Trapp on "Ge 49:9"}

And cursed is he.] Here the sorcerer pronounceth a curse upon himself; for he desired to curse Israel, and therefore in God’s account he did it.

“ Qui, quia non licuit, non facit, ille facit.’’—Ovid.

Ver. 10. And he smote his hands together.] So doth God at the covetous person, such as Balaam was. "Behold, I have smitten my hands at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made," &c. {#Eze 22:13}

Ver. 13. I cannot go beyond.] Here was coloured covetousness, or "a cloak of covetousness." {#1Th 2:5} {See Trapp on "1Th 2:5"} God lets out the tedder to wicked men for a time, and then calls them back with shame enough to their task; lets them have the ball on the foot till they come almost to the goal, and then defeats them of their great hopes; as he did this sinful couple. Balak had not his will, nor Balaam his wages; God fooled them both, pulling the morsel out of their mouths, that they had well-nigh devoured.

Ver. 14. I will advertise thee, ] viz., What to do; as he did. {#Nu 31:16} Parasites propound to princes, suavia potius quam sana consilia, pleasing but pestilent counsel, and so do officiously mischieve them; as the dragon is said to bite the elephant’s ear, and there hence to suck his blood, that being the only place that he cannot reach with his trunk to defend.

Ver. 16. And knew the knowledge of the Most High.] The eye may be clear while the hand is palsied. Baalam’s great knowledge was but intuitiva, standing in speculation; it was not directiva vitae: he knew but by hearsay, as a blind man knows colours; his light served but to light him into utter darkness. Neronis Quantus artifex pereo, quadrabit in te peritum, et periturum.

Ver. 17. I shall see him.] So shall "every eye, and those also that pierced him," {#Re 1:7} but not as "Abraham saw him, and rejoiced"; nor as Job. {#Job 19:25,27} "The pure in heart" only "shall see him" to their comfort, as pure glass or crystal lets in the light of the sun. Some wicked men have greater common gifts than the godly; as many metals are brighter and more orient than the heavens. Yet as those metals are not so fit, either to receive or convey the light of the sun, so neither are the wicked so fit, either to take or give to others, "the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins."

A Star out of Jacob.] Jesus Christ the true Morning Star. {#Re 22:16 Joh 1:9} That those wise men {#Mt 2:1} had heard of, probably, either from the Chaldean sybils, or from the Jews in the Babylonish captivity, or from this prophecy of Balaam; for he was an east countryman, and uttereth here a very clear and comfortable prophecy of the Messiah, by whom himself received no benefit. Thus the Church, Christ’s "garden enclosed," {#So 4:12} may be watered through a wooden gutter; the sun give comfortable light through a sluttish window; the field may be well sowed with a dirty hand; the bell calls us to the church, though it never enter itself but by the sound; the well may yield excellent water, though it have much mud, &c.

And destroy all the children of Seth.] Heb., Unwall; that is, conquer and subdue. Christ by those ram’s horns, by the foolishness of preaching, pulls down strongholds. {#2Co 10:4,5}

Ver. 18. And Edom shall be a possession.] This was literally fulfilled in David, {#1Ch 18:13 Ps 60:8} but spiritually, and especially in Christ, {#Isa 63:1,2, &c.} who shall shortly subdue the Romish Edomite. {#2Th 2:8}

Ver. 19. And shall destroy him.] David in the history, {#1Ki 11:15,16} Christ in the mystery, {#Ob 1:18} even all the antichristian rout and rabble. {#Re 19:21}

Ver. 20. First of the nations.] Or, Principal See #Nu 24:7.

Ver. 21. The Kenites, ] i.e., The Midianites, {#Jud 1:16 4:11} mingled among the Amalekites, {#1Sa 15:6} for whom they are, and fare the worse, as Hamath did for Damascus. {#Zec 9:2}

Ver. 22. Until Ashur.] Who, together with the Jews, carried captive all the neighbouring nations. {#Jer 25:9}

Ver. 23. Who shall live when, &c.] The Assyrian, that rod of God’s wrath, that overflowing scourge, shall take all afore him, shall bereave millions of their lives, as Caesar is said to have done; and of Mohammed, the first Emperor of the Turks, it is storied that he had been in his time the death of eight hundred thousand men {a}

{a} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 24. From the coast of Chittim.] Greece and Italy. These four great monarchs had their times and their turns, their ruins as well as their rise.

Ver. 25. Returned to his place.] Homewards he went, but stayed amongst the Midianites, and soon after came back to them, to receive money of them, saith Chazkuni, when he heard say of the plague which had been in Israel by his counsel: but as Shimei sought his servants, and lost his life, so Balaam.

Chapter 25

Ver. 1. To commit whoredom.] By the wicked counsel of Balaam, who knew well, that no one means hath more enriched hell than beautiful faces, and therefore taught Balak to lay this stumblingblock before the children of Israel; and is therein held by some to have sinned against the Holy Ghost. Howsoever he goes out in a stench, as it is usually said of his master the devil.

Ver. 2. Unto the sacrifices of their gods.] Unto their idol feasts; for Sine cerere et libero friget Venus. Gluttony is the gallery that lechery walketh through.

And bowed down to their gods.] Nemo repente fit turpissimus: by degrees they were drawn to open idolatry. If a man’s foot slip into the mouth of hell, it is a miracle if he stop ere he come to the bottom. Principiis obsta. Dally not with the devil; sin is very insinuative; and the old serpent, if he once get in his head, will quickly wind in his whole body.

Ver. 3. Joined himself to Baalpeor.] Separated himself to that shame, {#Ho 9:10} that abominable and shameless service of Priapus, as Jerome and Isidore understand it, as Maachah the mother of Asa seems to have done, {#1Ki 15:13} and other filthy persons, whose fashion was, as soon as their sacrifice was ended, to step aside into the grove of their god, and there, like brute beasts, promiscuously to satisfy their lusts, &c. Vah scelus infandum!

Ver. 4. Take all the heads.] The chieftains: their greatness might not bear them out. Potentes potenter torquebuntur. Hell is paved, said one of old, with the bald pates of shavellings, and with the crests of great commanders, who had ever opposed with crest and breast whatsoever stood in the way of their sins and lusts.

Ver. 5. Unto the judges of Israel.]. Those of them that had not defiled themselves; else with what face could they punish others? or look upon those, that before their faces had been hanged up against the sun, whose destruction was for ever to be remembered? {#Mic 6:5}

Ver. 6. In the sight of Moses.] This man’s face was hatched over with detestable impudence; he thought, it may be, that being so great a man, none durst meddle with him. Pliny {a} reports of Proculus Caesar, that by him, viginti virgines intra dies quindecim faetum conceperunt. Louis II of France inviting our Edward IV to the French court, Recte erit cognate, saith he, iucundi vivemus et suaviter, teque oblectabis cum lectissimis faeminis, &c. -he should have added, "But know, that for all these things thou must come to judgment": {#Ec 11:9} that would have haply allayed his lust, cooled his courage, and not have come in with his— Adhibebo tibi Cardinalem Borbonium; is, quicquid peccaris, pro ea quam habet potestate, facile expiabit. Thou shalt take thy full pleasure, and then my cardinal shall give thee full pardon. {b}

{a} Plin, lib. vii.

{b} Comineus, lib. vi.

Ver. 7. He rose up.] A heroical act, by an extraordinary motion: as was also that of Ehud; and therefore is not to be made a rule of practice, as Burchet conceited, when by this example he held himself warranted to kill a great personage in this kingdom, whom he took to be a vicious man, and God’s enemy.

Ver. 8. And thrust both of them through.] So they died in the flagrancy of their lust; as did likewise one of the Popes, taken in the act, and slain together with his harlot, by the husband of the adulteress. Mention is likewise made by William Malmesbury, of one Walter, bishop of Hereford, A. D. 1060, his offering to force his seamstress; she resisted what she might, but finding him too strong for her, thrust her shears into his belly, and gave him his deathly wound. {a}

{a} Godw., Catal.

Ver. 9. Twenty and four thousand.] Twenty and three thousand, saith St Paul, {#1Co 10:8} insisting only in the special punishment of the people, who were provoked to sin by that other thousand, their princes, {#Nu 25:4} and all to show, quam frigida et ieiuna sit eorum defensio, &c., saith Junius, {a} how poorly they plead for themselves, that think to excuse their sins by alleging the examples of their superiors.

{a} Jun., Parallel.

Ver. 13. Because he was zealous for his God.] Enraged, as a jealous man, with a holy hatred of sin, and inflamed with love to God, Quem aliter amare non didicerat, as Chrysostom speaks of Basil. Non amat, qui non zelat, saith Augustine. {a} He is no friend to God that is not zealous for him. To one that desired to know what kind of man Basil was, there was presented in a dream, saith the history, a pillar of fire, with this motto, Talis est Basilius, Basil is such a one, all on a light fire for God.

{a} Contra Adamant., cap. 13.

Ver. 14. A prince of a chief house.] Whom yet Phineas spared not; as neither did John Baptist spare Herod; nor Nathan David; nor Bishop Lambert King Pippin, whom he freely reproved to his face for his adultery, A.D. 798, though he were afterwards therefore slain by the harlot’s brother. {a} Odo Severus, the twenty-second Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 934, dealt like plainly with King Edwin, excommunicated his concubines, and caused one of them, on whom the king doted unreasonably, to be fetched out of the court by violence, burnt her in the forehead with a hot iron, and banished her into Ireland. {b}

{a} Epitome Hist. Gall., p. 30.

{b} Godw., Catal.

Ver. 17. Vex the Midianites.] As more malicious and mischievous than the Moabites; as appears, (1.) By their detaining of Balaam, when the Moabites dismissed him in great displeasure; (2.) By the wickedness of their women, who by Cozbi may seem to have been meretrices meretricissimae, such as afterwards was Julia, Messalina, and that Romish Lucretia, concubine to Pope Alexander VI., of whom Pontanus, {a}

“ Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re

Thais, Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus.”

{a} Lib. ii. tum.

Ver. 18. For they vex you with their wiles.] Not with their wars; they outwit you, out smart by counterfeit courtesy, cut-throat kindness; they have deceived you into those sister sins, fornication and idolatry, which God hath so severely punished.

Chapter 26

Ver. 2. From twenty.] {See Trapp on "Nu 1:3"}

Ver. 9. Which were famous.] But for no goodness. Tubulus, who was the Roman praetor a little afore Cicero’s time, was homo tam proiecte improbus, ut eius nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur, so wicked a wretch, that he seemed to be wickedness itself. {a} Portius Latro calleth Catiline, sacrarium libidinum, portentum scelerum, gurgitem et sentinam flagitiorum, &c., a sink of sinfulness. And Josephus saith of Antipater, that his life was no better than a mystery of iniquity. These men were famous, or rather infamous, for their flagitious practices; notoriously naught; signally sinful.

{a} Lips., Antiq. Lection.

Ver. 10. And they became a sign.] An example of that rule, that great sins bring great plagues, as Herodotus hath it, speaking of the destruction of Troy. Aliorum perditio, tua sit cautio, Enjoy other men’s madness, &c. Discite iustitiam moniti, &c. Let all that behold me beware; this was written upon the statue of Sennacherib, saith Herodotus.

Ver. 11. The children of Korah died not.] As being either innocent or penitent; for Aut paenitendum, ant pereundum {#Lu 13:3}

Ver. 44. The family of the Jesuites.] Serrarius will needs derive the name Jesuites from #Nu 26:24; it is wonder how he missed of this plainer text. Jesuites quasi Jashubites: like as Erasmus found friars in St Paul’s time, inter falsos fratres, amongst the false brethren. In Salamanca a friar would prove that the name of the Virgin Mary was spoken of in #Ge 1. God called the gathering together of the waters Maria {a} Dr Poynes {b} writes, that it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Protestants were a malignant Church, alleging, {#2Ch 24:19} Mittebatque prophetas ut reverterentur ad Dominum, quos protestantes illi audire nolebant. We may, with far more show of reason, fetch the name of Protestants (retained also in their Douay translation) from that text than they can from this, the name of Jesuites alias Jebusites.

{a} Stella, De Modo Concionandi, cap. 6.

{b} Preface to his book Of the Sacrament.

Chapter 27

Ver. 3. But died in his own. sin.] i.e., By a natural and an ordinary death; not by a special plague, as that arch-rebel Korah. Death is the just hire of the least sin. {#Ro 6:23} But some evildoers God doth not only put to death, but also hangs them up in gibbets, as it were, for public notice and admonition.

Ver. 4. Give unto us, therefore, a possession.] This plea for a part in a land not yet conquered is a proof of their faith, and could not but encourage others. Such a masculine faith was that of Mrs. Anne Askew, martyr, who thus subscribed her confession: Written by me, Anne Askew, that neither wisheth for death, nor feareth his might; and as merry as one that is bound for heaven. {a} I will not bid you good night—said Helen Stirk, a Scotchwoman, to her husband, at the place where they both suffered martyrdom—for we shall suddenly meet in the heavenly Canaan. {b} And was it not by the force of her faith, -that "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," {#Heb 11:1} -that Crispina gaudebat, cum tenebatur, cum audiebatur, cum damnabatur, cum ducibatur. {c}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1128.

{b} Ibid., 1154.

{c} Aug., in Psal. cxxxvi.

Ver. 7. And thou shalt cause the inheritance.] Let the French defend their Salic law as they can. It was a witty essay of him who styled women the second edition of the epitome of the whole world; witness Artemisia, Zenobia, Blandina, the Lady Jane Gray (whose excellent beauty, adorned with all variety of virtues, as a clear sky with stars, as a princely diadem with jewels, gave her the style of Eruditionis, pietatis, et modestiae delicium), and Queen Elizabeth, in whom, besides her sex, there was nothing womanlike or weak: as if (what philosophy saith) the souls of those noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies, which consist of a frame of rarer rooms, of a more exact composition than man’s cloth; and, if place be any privilege, we find theirs built in paradise, when man’s was made out of it. Besides, "in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female," but all are one, souls having no sexes, and whosoever are "Christ’s, are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." {#Ga 3:28,29}

Ver. 11. A statute of judgment.] A standing law; a standard for all cases of like kind in that policy at least. For we cannot consent to Carolostadius, who contended, in foro ius ex Mose discendum esse, that all other national and municipal laws were to be abolished; and that all courts were now to pass sentence according to Moses’ laws. Hic non intellexit vim et naturam Christianae libertatis, This man knew not the extent of Christian liberty, saith Melancthon.

Ver. 12. See the land.] It was somewhat to see; but oh how fain would he have entered the land, and could not! We shall have in heaven not only vision, but fruition; we have it already in capitetenure, in Christ our head and husband, who will not be long without us, it being part of his heaven, that we shall be where he is, {#Joh 17:24} and enjoy God, which is heaven itself; whence in Scripture God is called Heaven, "I have sinned against Heaven." And I had rather be in hell and have God present, than in heaven and God absent, saith Luther. {a}

{a} Malim praesente Deo esse in inferno, quam absente Deo in coelo. -Luth., in Gen. xxx.

Ver. 13. Gathered unto thy people.] To that great panegyris, "the general assembly and church of the firstborn in heaven"; {#Heb 12:23} to that glorious amphitheatre, where the saints shall see and say, Ιδου ο Πετρος, και ο Παυλος, &c., as Chrysostom hath it; Look, yonder is Peter, and that is Paul, &c.; we shall "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"; have communion with them, not only as godly men, but as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Ver. 14. For ye rebelled.] Sin may rebel in the saints, but not reign; neither is it they that rebel, "but sin that dwelleth in" them; dwelleth, but not domineereth.

Ver. 16. The God of the spirits of all flesh.] "Thou, Lord, that knowest the hearts of all men." {#Ac 1:24} {See Trapp on "Ac 1:24"} Artificers know well the nature and properties of their own work. Deus intimior nobis intimo nostro.

Chapter 28

Ver. 2. My offering.] He is owner of all; and of his own we give him. Τα σα εκ των σων, said that great emperor.

And my bread.] Called their bread for their souls; that is, the bread for their natural sustenance, common bread, when not rightly offered. So #Jer 7:21. God in scorn calls their sacrifice flesh, ordinary flesh, such as is sold in the shambles. So at the Lord’s Supper impenitent communicants receive no more than the bare elements; panem Domini, but not panem Dominum. {a}

In their due season.] Which for eight and thirty years they had intermitted. Get a settlement, or Sabbath of spirit, or else God shall be but ill, if at all, served.

{a} August.

Ver. 3. This is the offering.] {See Trapp on "Ex 29:38"} {See Trapp on "Ex 29:39"}

Ver. 9. And on the Sabbath day.] Every day should be a Sabbath to the saints, in regard of ceasing to do evil, learning to do well; but on the seventh day Sabbath our devotion should be doubled. Debet totus dies festivus a Christiano expendi in operibus sanctis, said Robert Grosthead, Bishop of Lincoln, long since. {a} The whole Sabbath should be spent in God’s service. #Ps 92:1, titled, A Psalm for the Sabbath, mentions morning and evening performances. {#Ps 92:2} Variety of duties may very well take up the whole day with delight. Besides, God gives us six whole days. Now, to sell by one measure and buy by another, is the way to a curse.

{a} In Decalog. Praecep., 30.

Ver. 11. And in the beginning of your months.] Thus they had their daily, weekly, monthly, yearly addresses unto God, that they might ever be in communion with him, and conformity unto him, by this continual intercourse. On the new moons they rested, {#Am 8:5} feasted, {#1Sa 20:5} heard the word, &c.

Ver. 17. {See Trapp on "Ex 12:18"} {See Trapp on "Le 23:7"}

Ver. 18. {See Trapp on "Ex 12:18"} {See Trapp on "Le 23:7"}

Ver. 19. {See Trapp on "Ex 12:18"} {See Trapp on "Le 23:7"}

Chapter 29

Ver. 1. And in the seventh month.] This Sabbath month, as it were, had as many feasts in it as were celebrated in all the year besides. So that as the Sabbath is the queen of days, so was this of months.

It is a day of blowing.] {See Trapp on "Le 23:24"}

Ver. 7. And ye shall have.] See #Le 16:19, {See Trapp on "Le 16:19"}

Ver. 12. And on the fifteenth.] See #Le 23:34,35, &c., {See Trapp on "Le 23:34"} &c There the feasts were prescribed, and here the sacrifices belonging to them are described.

Ver. 17. And on the second day ye shall offer twelve, &c.] In every of these seven days sacrifices, one bullock is abated: hereby the Holy Ghost might teach them their duty, to grow in grace and increase in sanctification, that their sins decreasing, the number of their sacrifices, whereby atonement was made for their sins, should also decrease daily. Or it might signify a diminishing and wearing away of the legal offerings, &c., as one well observeth; Hac caeremonia significabat Deus gratiam suam de die in diem crescere, ita nempe ut minuatur vetus homo, et novus augeatur, &c., saith Alsted, -till the very ruins of Satan’s castles be, as most of our old castles are, almost brought to ruin.

Ver. 18. After the manner.] That is, in manner and form aforesaid. The manner is that which makes or mars the action; as a good suit may be marred in the making, so a good duty: there may be malum opus in bona materia. Jehu’s zeal was rewarded as an act of justice, quoad substantiam operis; and punished as an act of policy, quoad modum agendi, for the perverse end. Yea, David, for failing in a ceremony only, though with an honest heart, suffered a breach instead of a blessing. {#1Ch 15:13} Idolaters also went on in their own manner as their idol priests prescribed. "The manner of Beersheba liveth"; {#Am 8:14} that is, the form of rites of the worshipping in Beersheba, as the Chaldee paraphraseth.

Chapter 30

Ver. 1. And Moses spake unto the heads.] Because they were in place of judicature, and had power either to bind men to their vows or set them at liberty.

Ver. 2. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord.] God is the proper object of a vow. {#Ps 76:11} Papists vow to saints, both themselves, as to Francis, Austin, Dominick, &c., and other things, as pilgrimages, oblations, &c. Our Lady, as they call her, of Loretto, hath her churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memories, as they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. {a} This is sacrilege; yea, it is idolatry.

To bind his soul with a bond.] Which none ought to do, but such as (1.) are free, or have the consent of their governors; (2.) Such as have knowledge and judgment to discern of a vow or oath; {#Ec 5:3,5} (3.) Are conscientious, as Jacob, Hannah, &c. Not such votaries as Herod, {#Mt 14:7} those assassins, {#Ac 23:14} those idolaters. {#Jer 44:27}

He shall not break his word.] If he do, he will make a great breach in his conscience and crack his comfort exceedingly. "Better not vow than not pay." {#Ec 5:4} It is a sin as bad or worse than perjury, and God takes it heavily at men’s hands. {#Jer 34:10,11}

{a} Sandys’s Relation of West. Relig., sect. 4.

Ver. 4. And her father shall hold his peace.] Qui tacet, consentire videtur, a rule in civil law; silence is a kind of consent.

Then all her vows shall stand.] Provided that she vow, (1,) Such things as are lawful and warrantable by the word; for to vow to do evil is an utter abomination; {as #Ac 23:14 De 23:18} (2.) Such things as are possible and in her power, either naturally or by the assistance of God’s grace promised to her: such is not the Popish vowing of virginity, since omnes non capiant hoc, all men cannot contain. Their vows of continency breed all manner of incontinency in their clergy.

Ver. 5. But if her father disallow her.] Those that vow monastical obedience renounce all duty to their parents and service to their country. Parents are our Θεοι εφεστιοι, as a heathen said, our household gods, as it were; and have power to disannul or ratify the vows of their children: but the Papists are true heirs to the Pharisees, who taught not to honour father or mother, {#Mt 15:6} and so do "make the commandment of God of none effect by their tradition." "Full well" have they done it. {#Mr 7:9} But what cannot they do? The Pope, saith Cardinal Bellarmine, {a} potest de iniustitia facere iustitiam, ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium; he can make righteousness of unrighteousness, something of nothing, vice of virtue; and it seems so indeed by his practice. For when the cardinals meet to choose a Pope, they make a vow, whosoever is chosen, he shall swear to such articles as they make. And Sleidan saith, {b} the Pope is no sooner chosen, but he breaks them all, and checks their insolencies, as if they went about to limit his power, to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth.

{a} Lib. iv., De Pontif. Rom.

{b} Sleidan, Com.

Ver. 6. And if she had at all a husband.] Hannah’s vow {#1Sa 1:11} was made either by the consent of her husband, or else by peculiar instinct from God.

Ver. 13. To afflict her soul.] This is one instance of what she may vow. She may curb wanton flesh from the use of things lawful in themselves, but harmful to her, and that by a vow, as did the Rechabites, {#Jer 35:8-10} which the devil seeing will despair; for vows are as exorcisms to allay our rebellious spirits, and as cords to hamper our treacherous hearts, when they would slip the collar, and decline the yoke. In short, a man may lawfully vow a thing that is either a part of God’s worship—as to fast once a month before the sacrament, to pray so many times a day, &c.—or a furtherance thereof, -as to found a lecture, build a college, school, almshouse, give so much weekly to the poor, &c.

Chapter 31

Ver. 2. Avenge the children of Israel.] This is called the vengeance of Jehovah. {#Nu 31:3} The righteous Judge will not fail to avenge our unrighteous vexations, if we "commit ourselves to him in well doing." {#1Pe 4:19}

Ver. 3. Arm some of yourselves unto the war.] Lactantius {a} being, according to his name, a mild and gentle man, abhorred bloodshed, thought it not lawful for a just man to be a warrior, whose justice was his warfare. But this was his error; Patres legendi sunt cum venia; God bids here, Arm yourselves, &c. Indeed it is utterly unlawful for men wilfully to thrust themselves into unnecessary wars: and it is reported in the life of Augustine, that he would never pray for such. But when God sounds the alarm, as here, "Cursed is he that doeth this work of the Lord negligently: Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood." {#Jer 48:10}

{a} Instit., lib. vi. cap. 20.

Ver. 5. Twelve thousand.] This was no great army, but they were Deo armati, with whom "there is no restraint to save by many or by few." {#1Sa 14:6} How wondrously did God work by that handful of Hussites in Bohemia, when all Germany was up in arms against them by the Pope’s instigation! And may it not be said of that small remnant, that now fighteth the Lord’s battles in Ireland, "The Lord hath done great things for them, whereof we are glad?" Have they not been "helped with a little help indeed?" {#Da 11:34} The more is our shame, that send them no more.

Ver. 6. Them and Phinehas.] Not without Joshua, the general (though not here mentioned), the mighty conqueror of all Israel’s enemies that rose up and resisted them: famous is he for his faithfulness and fortitude, In cognoscendis rebus bellicis perspicax, in agendo solers: noverat optime insidias facere, proelium committere, victoria uti, &c., as Dio saith {a} of Decebalus, king of the Daci, in Domitian’s days: i.e., Well skilled in warlike businesses, and diligent in despatching them; He knew well how to lay an ambush, worst an enemy, use a victory, &c.

{a} Dio, in Domitiano.

Ver. 8. And Zur.] The father of Cozbi, that noble harlot. Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto. Sedes prima, et vita ima, is but golden rubbish, eminent infamy, noble dishonour.

Balaam, also, the son of Beor.] {See Trapp on "Nu 24:25"} Oh that God would cause the false prophets, and the unclean spirit (for whom they act, and by whom they are acted) to pass out of our land, according to his promise! {#Zec 13:2}

Ver. 9. Took all the women.] The Jews are a nation, to this day noted for effeminate; and yet they hold that women are of a lower creation, made for the propagation and pleasure of man; and, therefore, they suffer them not to enter their synagogues but appoint them a gallery without. {a}

{a} Blunt’s Voyage.

Ver. 10. And they burnt all their cities.] For the same reason, perhaps, that our Henry VIII demolished so many monasteries, saying, Corvorum nidos esse penitus disturbandos, ne iterunt ad cohibitandum convolent, That the crows’ nests were to be utterly, destroyed, lest they should make further use of them again another time. {a} Or rather, lest sloth or covetousness should draw any of the Israelites to hide themselves in these nests, and neglect the Promised Land. See #Jud 6:1.

{a} Diruendi sunt etiam ipsi ciconiarum nidi ne redeant, - said Zisca Lavat. in Deuter. Sander. Schism. Anglic., lib. i.

Ver. 13. Went forth to meet them.] As Melchisedec went forth to meet Abraham returning with victory; {#Ge 14:18} as Archbishop Hubert met our Richard I returning from the Holy Land, (as they called it,) both of them first falling to the earth, rose again and ran into each other’s arms, comforting themselves with mutual embraces, and weeping with joy. {a}

{a} Speed, Hist., fol. 540.

Ver. 14. And Moses was wroth.] For all the joy he could not but be zealous for the Lord of hosts, when he saw the train. Zeal is the cream of all the affections.

Ver. 15. Have ye saved all the women alive.] By whom ye have so lately sinned, and so lately suffered! "Keep thee far from an evil matter," {#Ex 23:7} Circa serpentis antrum positus, non eris diu illaesus, saith Isidore. We should take heed how we play about the hole of the asp, or near the den of the cockatrice. {#Isa 11:8} Sin and temptation come both under one name in the Lord’s Prayer. To pray, "Lead us not into temptation," and yet to run upon the occasion of sin, is to thrust a finger into the fire, and then pray not to be burnt. These Israelites should have said to those Midianitish housewives, as those in Isaiah did to their idols, "Get you hence," Avaunt; they should have here been as cautous as they were in other cases. For being forbidden to make covenants with the Gentiles, they also abstained from drinking with them, because that was a ceremony used in striking of covenants, and so it might have drawn them on thereunto. Our dallying with the occasions of sin, doth usually tempt the devil to tempt us.

Ver. 18. That have not known a man.] As far as they could conjecture by their age. But the way of a man with a maid, is one of Solomon’s secrets. {#Pr 30:19} Of Rebecca it is noted, that she went for a maid, and she was so. {#Ge 24:16} But Quartilla, the strumpet in Petronius, was not ashamed to say, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse, { a} That she could not remember that ever she was a maid. And what a base slander was that cast upon our religion by an impudent Jesuit, Sylvester Petrasancta, Puellas plerumque corruptas nuptui dari in reformato Evangelio, { b} That few maids amongst us come clear to marriage.

{a} Petron., Satyr.

{b} Rivetti Jesuita Vapulans.

Ver. 19. Whosoever hath killed any person.] War, though never so just, is the slaughter house of mankind, and the hell of this world. Homer brings in Mars, the god of battle, as most hated of Jupiter. Bellum per antlphrasin, quia minime bellum. "For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood." {#Isa 9:5} What a strange man then was Pyrrhus, King of the Epirotes, of whom Justin reports, that he took more pleasure in fighting than in reigning! And what a hard heart had Hannibal, who, when he saw a pit full of man’s blood which he had spilt, cried out, O formosum spectaculum! O brave sight! So, O rem regiam, said Valesus, i.e., O kingly act! when he had slain three hundred persons. And what a strange hell-hag was that queen, who, when she saw some of her Protestant subjects lying dead and stripped upon the earth, cried out, The goodliest tapestry that ever she beheld! God, that he might teach his people not to have "feet swift to shed blood," tells them here of a ceremonial uncleanness, contracted by killing, though an enemy, devoted by him to destruction.

Ver. 23. And all that abideth not the fire.] We must deal with every man, saith one from this text, according to his temper; indulge them what lawfully you may. Quod tamen accipiendum est cum grano salis.

Ver. 49. And there lacketh not one man of us.] A wonderful work of God; a whole nation cut off with no loss at all. "This was the Lord’s own doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." {#Ps 118:23} Surely, if the Grecians so thankfully acknowledged to their Jupiter that overthrow they gave to the Persians, by Themistocles, and called him Ελευθεριος, their deliverer, how much more might these Israelites celebrate the unparalleled goodness of their gracious God in this so unbloody a victory!

Ver. 53. For the men of war had taken spoil.] And kept what they caught to themselves. The Turks, when they had taken Constantinople, wondered at the wealth thereof—which the citizens would not be drawn to part with for their own preservation—and were so enriched therewith, that it is a proverb amongst them at this day, if any grow suddenly rich, to say, "He hath been at the sacking of Constantinople." {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., 347.

Chapter 32

Ver. 1. A place for cattle.] Fat, and fit for the purpose; like those pastures in Ireland, so fertile and abounding with sweet grass, that the people are forced to drive their cattle to some other more barren grounds, at some time of the day, lest they should over eat. See #Mic 7:14 Jer 50:19.

Ver. 5. Let this land be given unto thy servants.] An unsavoury and unseasonable motion this might seem at first, and did, even to Moses himself, as appears in the next verse. And surely it is probable that they were too much set upon that portion of earth, as Lot was upon the plain of Sodom, {#Ge 13:10} and was therefore soon after carried captive by the four kings, as these in the text are noted to be the first that were carried captives out of their land. {#1Ch 5:25,26} Strong affections cause strong afflictions; when God seeth people set upon it to have this or that, have it they may, but with an after-clap that shall dissweeten it. How was David crossed in his Absalom, Absalom in his kingdom, Amnon in his Tamar, Elkanah in his Hannah! {#1Sa 1:5} He loved her, and the Lord made her barren.

Ver. 11. They have not.] {See Trapp on "Nu 14:24"}

Ver. 14. An increase of sinful men.] A race of rebels; neither good egg nor bird; sin runs in a blood many times; ye seed of serpents, "ye generation of vipers, ye fill up the measure of your fathers’ sins" {#Mt 23:32} Domitius, the father of Nero, foretold the wickedness of his son; for it cannot be, said he, that of me and my wife, Agrippina, any good man should be born. {a} When one complained that never father had so undutiful a child, Yes, said his son, with less grace than truth, my grandfather had.

{a} Dio, in Vita Neron.

Ver. 16. We will build sheep folds.] This was their intent at first, though Moses mistook them. There may be gross mistakes, and thereupon grievous unkindnesses, betwixt dearest friends. Cyril, and John, bishop of Antioch, objected heresy one to another, and proceeded as far as excommunication; postea comperti idem sentire: so did Cyril and Theodoret.

Ver. 23. Be sure your sin will find you out.] The guilt will haunt you at heels, as a bloodhound, and the punishment will overtake you, as it did that Popish priest in Lancashire, who being followed by one that found his glove, with a desire to restore it him, but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, leapt over a hedge, plunged into a mirey pit behind it, unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned. Or as it did that other priest, who, having escaped the fall of Blackfriars, A.D. 1623, where two of his fellow shavelings, {a} with about a hundred more, perished, and taking water, with purpose to sail into Flanders, was cast away, with some others, under London Bridge, the boat being overturned. {b}

{a} A contemptuous epithet for a tonsured ecclesiastic.

{b} Jac. Rev., De Vit. Pontific., 312.

Ver. 38. Their names being changed.] Out of detestation of those idols, Baal, Nebo, &c. {see #Ex 23:13 Ps 16:4 Isa 46:1} Absit ut de ore Christiano sonet Iupiter omnipotens, et Mehercule, et Mecastor, et caetera, magis portenta quam nuraina, saith Jerome. Heathenish gods should not be so far honoured as to be heard of out of Christian mouths, nor Popish idols neither. I myself, saith Latimer, {a} have used in mine earnest matters, to say, Yea, by the rood, by the mass, by St Mary, which indeed is naught. Some simple folk say, they may swear by the mass, because there is no such thing; and by our lady, because she is gone out of the country.

{a} Sermon in Third Sunday in Advent.

Chapter 33

Ver. 2. And Moses wrote.] Moses was primus in historia, as Martial saith of Salust.

Ver. 4. For the Egyptians buried.] As iron is very soft and malleable while in the fire, but soon after returns to its former hardness, so was it with these Egyptians. Affliction meekeneth men: hence affliction and meekness grow upon the same Hebrew root.

Ver. 29. From Mitheah.] Which signifies sweetness.

And pitched in Chasmonah.] Which signifies swiftness. We must also, when we have tasted of God’s sweetness, use all possible swiftness in the ways of holiness; as Jacob, when he had seen visions of God at Bethel, "lifted up his feet," {#Ge 29:1, marg.} and went on his way lustily, like a generous horse after a bait, or a giant after his wine. "The joy of the Lord is your strength." {#Ne 8:10}

Ver. 38. And died there in the fortieth year.]

“ Nec te tua plurima Pentheu

Labentem texit pietas.”

The righteous die as well as the wicked, yea, the righteous oft before the wicked: Ωκυμοροι οι θεοφιλεις. God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work, as here he did Aaron; and as within these few days he hath done, to mine unspeakable loss and grief, my dearest brother and most faithful friend, Mr Thomas Jackson, that able and active instrument of God’s glory, while he lived, in the work of the ministry at Gloucester; the sad report of whose death, received whilst I was writing these things, made the pen, almost, fall out of my fingers, not for my own sake so much as for my country, whereof he was, I may truly say, the bulwark and the beauty, as Ambrose is said to have been "the walls of Italy": {a} Αμβροσιον οιδα μονον Επισκοπον αξιως καλουμενον, said Theodosius; Ambrose, whilst alive, was the only minister, to speak of, that I knew in the whole country. And dilexi virum, qui cum corpore solveretur, magis de ecclesiarum statu, quam de suis periculis angebatur, said the same emperor of the same Ambrose; I could not but love the man, for that when he died, his care was more for the churches’ welfare than for his own. I can safely say the same of the man in speech, without offence to any be it spoken; and I greatly fear lest, as the death of Ambrose forebode the ruin of Italy, so that it bodes no good to us, that God pulls such props and pillars out of our building. But this by way of digression, to satisfy my great grief for so dear a friend deceased, as David did for his brother Jonathan, and made him an epitaph. {#2Sa 1:17}

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

Ver. 41. Pitched in Zalmonah.] Of Zelem; signifying an image; so called because there the people, stung by fiery serpents, not by little dragons sprung out of their own bodies, as Fontunius Licetus {a} will have it, looked up to the brazen serpent, by God’s command, and were healed. {#Nu 21:5,9 Joh 3:16 1Co 10:9}

{a} De Spontan. Vivent. Ortu., lib. iii. cap. 51.

Ver. 52. Destroy all the pictures.] Those Balaam’s blocks, those excellent instruments of idolatry; such as was the cross of Hailes, and Cockram cross, which, if it would not serve to make a god, yet with a pair of horns clapped on his head, might make an excellent devil, as the mayor of Doncaster persuaded the men of Cockram, who came to him to complain of the joiner that made it, and refused to pay him his money for the making of it. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1340.

Ver. 55. Shall be pricks in your eyes.] The eye is the tenderest part, and soon vexed with the least mote that falls into it. These Jebusites preserved, should be notorious mischiefs to them; as the Jesuits at this day are to those Christian states that harbour them. Shall we suffer those vipers to lodge in our bosoms till they eat out our hearts? Sic notus Ulysses? Jesuits, like bells, will never be well tuned till well hanged. Among much change of houses in foreign parts, they have in France two famous for the accordance of their names, the one called the Bow at Nola, the other the Arrow, la Fleche, given them by Henry IV, whom afterwards they villanously stabbed to death. Their apostate Ferrier played upon them in this distitch:—

“ Arcum Nola dedit, dedit illis alma sagttram

Gallia; quis funem, quem meruere, dabit!”

“Nola the bow, and France the shaft did bring;

But who shall help them to a hempen string?”

Chapter 34

Ver. 2. This is the land that shall fall.] It is God that assigns us our quarters, and cuts us out our several conditions, "appointing the bounds of our habitation." {#Ac 17:26} This should make us rest contented with our lot, and, having God our portion, say howsoever, as David did, "The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places." {#Ps 16:6} It is what our Father sees fit for us.

Ver. 3. Then your south quarter shall be.] Judea was not above two hundred miles long, and fifty miles broad; not near the half of England by much, but far more fertile, called, therefore, Sumen totius orbis. And yet England is, for good cause, counted the western granary; the garden of God, whose valleys are like Eden, whose hills are as Lebanon, whose springs are as Pisgah, whose rivers are as Jordan, whose walls is the ocean, whose defence is the Lord Jehovah. {a}

{a} Speed’s Hist.

Ver. 6. The great sea.] Commonly called the Mediterranean Sea, betwixt which and the Jews lay the Philistines; as now betwixt the Church and the Turk lies the Pope and his followers, Italy being the mark that the Turk shoots at. Lo, a sweet providence of God!

Ver. 8. Unto the entrance of Hamath.] Called Hamath the great, {#Am 6:2} affecting haply to be held the greatest village, as the Hague in Holland doth, and remains therefore unwalled.

Ver. 12. It shall be at the salt sea.] That is, the Lake of Sodom, called also Asphaltites, and the Dead Sea. Josephus saith, that an ox, having all his legs bound, will not sink into the water of this sea, it is so dense.

Ver. 17. E1eazar the priest.] Pointing to the High Priest of the new covenant, by whom we have entrance into the promised inheritance, whither he is gone before to prepare a place for us, and hath told us, that in his "Father’s house are many mansions," room enough.

Chapter 35

Ver. 2. Suburbs.] These were for pasture, pleasure, and other country commodities, not for tillage; for the Levites were to have no such employment. {#Nu 18:20,24}

Ver. 6. That he may flee thither.] All sins then are not equal, as the Stoics held; neither are all to be alike punished, as by Draco’s laws they were, in a manner. Those laws were said to be written, not with black, but with blood, because they punished every peccadillo almost with death, as idleness, stealing of pot herbs, &c. Aristotle gives them this small commendation, that they are not worth remembrance, but only for their great severity.

Ver. 7, Shall be forty and eight cities.] Thus the Levites were dispersed throughout the land for instruction of the people; so ought ministers of the gospel, who are fitly called the salt of the earth, that being sprinkled up and down, may keep the rest (as flesh) from rotting and putrifying.

Ver. 8. From them that have many ye shall give.] By the equity of this proportion, the richer are bound to give more to the minister’s maintenance than the poorer. Let this be noted by those that refuse to give anything to their ministers, because they have not those things, the tithes whereof the law requires for this purpose. See #Ga 6:6, {See Trapp on "Ga 6:6"}

Ver. 15. Shall be a refuge.] Christ is our asylum, to whom running for refuge, when pursued by the guilt of an evil conscience, we are safe; none can take us out of his hands; if we be in Christ the Rock, temptations and oppositions, as waves, dash upon us, but break themselves.

Ver. 16. So that he die.] Though he had no intent to kill, yet because he should have looked better to it, he is a murderer; he smote him purposely and presumptuously, and the man dies of it. King James was wont to say, that if God did leave him to kill a man (though beside his intention), he should think God did not love him.

Ver. 18. The murderer shall surely be put to death.] This is ius gentium. The Turks’ justice in this case will rather cut off two innocent men, than let one offender escape. The Persians punish theft and manslaughter so severely, that in an age a man shall hardly hear either of the one or the other. {a} A severity fit for Italy, where they blaspheme oftener than swear, and murder more than revile or slander {b} (like the dogs of Congo, which, they say, {c} bite, but bark not): and no less fit for France, where within ten years six thousand gentlemen have been slain, as it appears by the king’s pardons. {d} Byron, Lord high-Marshal of France, and Governor of Burgundy, slew a certain judge for putting to death a malefactor, whom he had commanded to be spared; for this he sued a pardon, and had it: but not long after he turned traitor to his prince that had pardoned him, and was justly executed. {e}

{a} Cartwr., Travels.

{b} Spec. Europ.

{c} Purchas.

{d} Les ombres des defunde sieurs de Villemor.

{e} Epitome Hist. Gall., p. 275.

Ver. 21. He shall surely be put to death.] And yet the Papists allow wilful murderers also to take sanctuary; who should, as Joab was, be taken from the altar to the slaughter. Their hatred to Protestants is so deadly, that they hold us unworthy to live on God’s ground, fit for nothing but fire and faggot; yea, they send us to hell without bail or surety, as worse than Turks or Jews. They tell the people, that Geneva is a professed sanctuary of all roguery; that in England the people are grown barbarous, and eat young children, that they are as black as devils, &c.

Ver. 23. Or with any stone.] As at the funeral solemnities of Queen Anne, a scholar was slain by the fall of a letter of stone, thrust down from the battlements of the Earl of Northampton’s house, by one that was a spectator.

Ver. 25. Unto the death of the high priest.] Because he was amongst men, the chief god on earth, and so the offence did most directly strike against him. Or rather, because the high priest was a type of Christ: and so this release was a shadow of our freedom and redemption by the death of Christ.

Chapter 36

Ver. 1. And spake before Moses.] Who was their common oracle to inquire of in all doubtful cases. Like as at Rome, C. Scipio Nasica, whom the senate, by way of honour, called Optimus, had a house in the high street assigned him at the public charge, Quo faeilius consuli posset, that any man might go to him for counsel. And surely, as the Roman general never miscarried so long as he followed the advice of Polybius, his historian; so neither did or could this people do amiss, if ruled by Moses, who was the mouth of God. {#Nu 36:5}

Ver. 6. To whom they think best.] See #Ge 24:57,58, {See Trapp on "Ge 24:57"} {See Trapp on "Ge 24:58"}

Ver. 7. Shall keep himself to the inheritance.] This was an excellent law to cut off quarrels, strifes, and law suits, and to frustrate those qui latrocinia intra moenia exercent, as Columella said of the lawyers of his time.

Ver. 11. For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, &c.] The name of these virgins, as one interpreter {a} elsewhere observeth, seem to be not without mystery. For Zelophehad, by interpretation, signifieth the shadow of fear or of dread: his first daughter, Mahlah, infirmity; the second, Noah, wandering; the third, Hoglah, turning about for joy, or dancing; the fourth, Milcah, a queen; the fifth, Tirzah, well-pleasing, or acceptable. By these names we may observe the degrees of our reviving by grace in Christ; for we all are born, as of the shadow of fear, being brought forth in sin, and "for fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage." {#Heb 2:15} This begetteth infirmity, or sickness, grief of heart for our estate. After which, wandering abroad for help and comfort, we find it in Christ, by whom our "sorrow is turned into joy." He communicates to us of his royalty, making us "kings and priests unto God his Father"; and we shall be presented unto him glorious, "and without blemish." {#Eph 5:27} So the Church is beautiful as Tirzah. {#So 6:4}

{a} Mr Ainsworth.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36