AN handful OF GLEANINGS out of the BOOK OF EXODUS.  
Probable solution of some of the mainest scruples, and explanation of the hardest places of that book. Scarcely given by any heretofore.  
By JOHN LIGHTFOOT, Staffordiensis, Minister of the Gospel at St. Bartholomew Exchange, London.  
LONDON, Printed by R. Cotes, for Andrew Crook, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the green Dragon in Paul's churchyard. 1643.   

TO My dear, Loving, and deservedly esteemed Friends, the Inhabitants of Bartholomew Exchange, LONDON, Truth and Peace, Grace and Glory.  
I Must ever mention both in private to God, and in public to the world, the love and favour which i have received from your Congregation, how when i was unknown, ye owned me, when a stranger, ye took me in, when exiled from mine own, ye made me yours; and that not only with extraordinary readiness, when we first did meet, but with constant and continued tenderness since our meeting: I shall ever strive to the utmost of my desires, and endeavours, to make acknowledgement of such receipts, and what i shall fail of in those, to make them up in prayers, and thanks. This present mite that is tendered to you, accept as pledge and earnes● of all these, the value of it is. as small as the volume; but what it wants of worth and Learning, conceive to be supplied with observance and gratitude. The multitude of Expositions upon this book of Exodus, hath made this of mine so very little; for to set down what they had done before, were an idle labour, and to find out something that they had not set down, was a labour as difficult; what I have done here in this kind, i refer to the Reader; although i myself be settled and satisfied in the most of them, yet shall i not put them upon the belief of any, further than their due examination, and strength of reason shall make their way.  
From my House in the upper end of moor-lane. Novemb. 28. 1643. Yours, ever ready to observe and serve you in the Lord, J. L.   

AN handful OF GLEANINGS out of the BOOK OF EXODUS.  
SECT. I. Israel afflicted in Egypt about 120. years.  
FROM the giving of the promise to Abraham, Gen. 12. to the deliverance out of Egypt, and the giving of the Law, were 430 years, Exod. 12. 40. Gal. ●. 17.  
This sum of years divided itself into two equal parts, for half of it was spent before their going into Egypt, and half of it in their being there. Two hundred and fifteen years were taken up before they went into Egypt, thus: From the promise given to Abraham, to the birth of Isaac, five and twenty years; compare Gen. 12. 4. with Gen. 21. 5. From the birth of Is●ac to the birth of Jacob, three●core, Gen. 25. 26. from thence to their going down into Egypt a hundred and thirty, Gen. 27. 9 The other two hundred and fifteen years they spent in Egypt, namely ninety four, before the death of Levi the longe●liver of all the twelve Tribes, and a hundred twenty one betwixt his death and their deliverance.  
For Levi and Joseph were both borne in the seven years of Jacob's second apprenticeship, Gen. 29 & 30. Levi in the fourth, and Joseph in the seventh, so that there were three years between them: Now Joseph when his Father and brethre● came down into Egypt, was nine and thirty years old. Compare Gen. 41. 46. 51. and 45. 6. And then was Levi forty three. And Levi lived an hundred thirty and seven years, Exod● 6. 16. out of which those forty three being deducted which he had spent before their coming down into Egypt, it appeareth they were in Egypt ninety four years before his death: And those ninety four being deducted out of the two hundred and fifteen, which they spent in that land, it appeareth also that a hundred twenty one years passed betwix● his death and their delivery, and till his death they felt no ●ffliction, Ex●d. 1. 6, 7, 8.   

SECT. II. The 88 & 89. psalms, penned in the time of this affliction.  
THese two psalms, are the oldest pieces of writing that the World hath to show, for they were penned many years before the birth of Moses, by two men that felt and groaned under this bondage and affliction of Egypt, Heman and Ethan, two sons of Zerah, 1 Chron. 2. 6. In psalm 88 Heman deploreth the distress and misery of Israel in Egypt in most passionate measures; and therefore titles his elegy, Gnal Mahalath Leannoth, concerning sickness by affliction, and accordingly he and his brethren are called the sons of Mahol, 1 King. 4. 31. In Psal. 89. Ethan from the promise, Gen. 15. sings joyfully their deliverance, that the raging of the Red Sea should be ruled, vers. 9 and Rahab or Egypt should be broken in pieces, vers. 10. and that the people should hear the joyful sound of the Law, vers. 15.  
Object. But David is named frequently in the psalm, who was not borne of many hundreds of years after Ethan was dead.  
Answ. 1. This might be done Proplietically, as Samuel is thought to be named by Mosos, Psal. 99 6. for Thaes psalm according to a rule of the Hebrews, is h●ld to have been made by him.  
2. It will be found in Scripture, that when some holy men endued with the Spirit of God, have left pieces of writings behind them, indicted by the Spirit, others that have lived in after times, endued with the same gift of Prophecy, have taken those ancient pieces in hand, and have flourished upon them, ●s present, past, or future occasions did require. To this purpose, compare Psal. 18. & 1 Sam. 22. Obadiah, & Jer. 49. 14. & 1 Chron. 16. & Psal. 96. & 105. & 2 Pet. 2. and the Epistle of Saint Jude. So this piece of Ethan being of incomparable antiquity, and singing of the delivery from Egypt, in after times, that it might be made fit to be sung in the Temple, it is taken in hand by some divine penman, and that ground work of his, is wrought upon, and his Song set to an higher key; namely, that whereas he treated only of the bodily deliverance from Egypt, it is wound up so high as to reach the spiritual delivery by Christ, and therefore David is so often named from whence he should come.   

SECT. III. The words of the Hebrew Midwives not a●lye, but a glorious confession of their faith.  
THEY were Hebrew Midwives, but Egyptian Women. For Pharaoh that in an ungodly council had devised and concluded upon all ways, whereby to keep the Israelites under, would not in such a design as this, use Israelitish women, who he knew were parties in the cause against him; but he entrusteth it with women of his own Nation. They are named for their honour, as Mark. 14. 9 that wheresoever the Gospel or the Doctrine of Salvation should be Preached, this faith and fact of theirs should be published in memorial of them.  
The Midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively, &c. These words of theirs proceeded from the same faith, from whence had proceeded their work of charity, the children's preservation. And so far are they from being a lie, that they are so glorious a confession of their faith in God, that we find not many that have gone beyond it. And the things they spoke of, so far from false, that they were most admirably and miraculously true and really done. They saw in very deed the immediate hand and help of God, plainly and really showed to the Hebrew women in their labour, and that whereas other women naturally in that case are weak, fainting, and long in pain, these were strong, lively, and soon delivered. For as the strength of the promise showed itself in the Males of Israel, in that, the more they were pressed under servitude, & afflicted, the more were they able for generation, vers. 2. Act. 7. 17. So did the strength of the promise show itself upon the women, in that they were delivered of their children with a supernatural and extraordinary ease and quickness: Therefore the Midwives boldly stand out to Pharaoh, to the venture of a martyrdom, and plainly tell him, that since they were not in travel as other women, but lively, and strong, and had soon done, it could be nothing but the immediate hand of God with them, which hand they are resolved they will not oppose for all his command, lest they should be found to fight against God. For this confession so resolutely and gloriously made before Pharaoh, and for their fact answerable; God made them houses, because they feared him, vers. 21. that is, married them into the Congregation of Israel, and built up Israelitish Families by them.   

SECT. IV. Moses his birth, supernatural. Exod. 2. 2.  
MOSES was borne when his mother by the course of nature was past childbearing: For if Levi begat Jochebed at an hundred years old, which is hardly to be conceived, as Gen. 17. 17. yet is Jochebed within two of fourscore when she bare Moses. But it was more than probable that she was borne long before Levi was an hundred, unless we will have Levi to be above half a hundred years childless, betwlxt the birth of Merari and Jochebed: And thus the birth of Moses was one degree more miraculous, than the miraculous and supernatural birth of the other children of the Hebrew Women, and so was his brother Aaron's not much less wondrous. She then having a goodly child, at so great an age, saw the special hand of God in it, and therefore labours his preservation against Pharaoh's decree: for by Faith she knew he would be preserved for some special instrument of God's glory, but the manner of his preservation she knew not yet.   

SECT. V. Our saviour's allegation of Exod. 3. 6. in Luk. 20. 37. cleared.  
MOSES in Midian, under the retiredness of a pastoral life, giveth himself unto contemplation of divine things; in one of those raptures, God himself appeareth visibly to him in deed; and that in a flaming fire, now he is about to perform the promise, as he appreared to Abraham when he made it? and it came to pass, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham, Gen. 15. 17, 18.  
The words which Christ here useth to Moses in the bush, he urgeth again to the Jews, whereby to evince the Resurrection, Luk. 20. 37. And that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: which words indeed do infer the resurrection as they lie in themselves, but far more clearly, if they be laid to, and compared with the Jews own doctrine and position.  
Rabbi Simeon Ben Jo●hai saith, the holy blessed God nameth not his name on the righteous in their life, but after their death, as it is said, to the Saints that are in the earth, Psal. 16. 3. When are they Saints? when they are laid in the earth: For all the days that they live, the holy blessed God joineth not his name to them: And why? because the holy blessed God trusteth them, not that evil affections will not make them to err; but when they be dead, the holy blessed God nameth his name upon them: But behold we find that he nameth his name on Isaac the righteous whilst he liveth, for so he saith to Jacob, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. Rabbi Barachiah, and our Doctors: our Doctors say, He saw his dust, as it was gathered upon the Altar, and Rabbi Barachiah saith, since he was blind of his eyes, he is reputed as dead, because he was shut up in the midst of the house. Rabbi Tanch. in Gen. 28. Rabbi Menahem in Exod. 3.   

SECT. VI. The power of Miracles, Habbak. 3. 2. & Acts 19 2. explained.  
THe gift of prophecy or Foretelling things to come had been in the Church since the fall of Adam, and now are Miracles added because of unbelief: For observe that when Moses saith, Behold they will not believe, the Lord immediately answer, What is that in thine hand? This double faculty being given here to Moses the first Prophet of the Church of Israel, it also descended to a succession of Prophets in that Congregation from time to time. But with this excellent gift it was also given Moses himself to know, and so likewise them that did succeed, that they had this double power not from themselves, but from another: Moses his stammering tongue taught himself and them so much for prophecy, and his leprous hand taught so much for Miracles. This succession of Prophets began from Samuel and ended in the death of Christ, Acts 3. 24. Not that there were not Prophets betwixt Moses and Samuel, but because they were not expressed by name, as also because vision in that space of time was exceeding rare, 1 Sam. 3. 1.  
Now from the beginning of the rule of Samuel to the beginning of the captivity in Babel, were four hundred and ninety years; and from the end of that captivity to the end of Christ's life upon earth, were four hundred and ninety years more. The seventy years of captivity between, which were the seventh part of either of these two Numbers, that lay on either side; are called by Habbakkuk, The midst of years, namely from the beginning of prophecy in Samuel to the sealing of Prophecy in the death of Christ. Revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known. Then was it justly to be feared that the spirit of Prophecy would quite have ceased from Israel when they were captived among the Heathen. This made the Prophet to pray so earnestly, that God would preserve alive, or revive his work of Miracles in the midst of years, and in those times of captivity, that he would make known things to come by that gift of Prophecy. And he was heard in what he prayed for, and his supplication took effect, in the most prophetic and powerful Spirit of Daniel.  
The Jews had an old maxim, that after the death of Zacharie, Malachi and those last Prophets, the Spirit of God departed from Israel and went up. So that from thence forward, prediction of future things and working of miracles were rarities among them. To this aimed the answer of those holy ones, Acts 19 2. We have not so much as heard whether there be any holy Ghost. Not 〈◊〉 they doubted of such a person in the trinity, but that whereas they had learned in their schools, that the holy Ghost departed away after the death of Malachi, they had never yet heard, whether he was restored again in his gifts of prophecy and Miracles till now or no.   

SECT. VII. The two first Miracles, Exod. 4.  
1. THe turning of Moses rod into a Serpent, did utterly disclaim any power of the devil in these wonders which he was to work, which power only the Magicians wrought by: For as a Serpent was the fittest emblem of the devil, as Gen. 3. and Revel. 12. 9 So was it a sign that Moses did not these Miracles by the power of the devil, but had a power over and beyond him, when he can thus deal with the Serpent at his pleasure, as to make his rod a Serpent, and the Serpent a rod as he seeth good.  
Yet is it worth the observing, that he is commanded to take it by the tail, vers. 9 for to meddle with the serpent's head belonged not to Moses, but to Christ that spoke to him out of the bush, as Gen. 3. 15.  
His rod at Sinai is said to be turned into Nabash, a common and ordinary Snake or Serpent; but when he casts it down before Phara●h, it becometh Tannin, Chap. 7. 10. a Serpent of the greatest dimensions, belike a Crocodile, which beast the Egyptians adored, and to whose jaws they had exposed the poor Hebrew Infants in the River.  
2. His leprous hand disclaimed also any power of Moses his own in these wonders which he wrought, for it was not possible that so great things should be done by that impure and unclean hand, but by a greater.  
3. Both of these Miracles which were the first that were done by any Prophet in the world, did more specially refer to the Miracles of that great Prophet that should come into the world, by whose power these Miracles were done by Moses at this time. For as it belonged to him only to cast out the power of the devil out of the soul, and to heal the soul of the leprosy of sin, so was it reserved for him first, to cast out the devil out of the body, and to heal the leprosy of the body. For though the Prophets from Moses to Christ had the gift of doing Miracles, and performed wonders many of them in an high degree, yet could never any of them or any other cast out a devil or heal a Leper till the great Prophet came. Elisha indeed directed Naaman how he should be healed, but he neither touched him nor came out to him at all, that he might show that it was not his power, but such cures were reserved for Christ to come.   

SECT. VIII. Moses in danger of death, because of distrust. Exod. 4. 24.  
THE fault of Moses that brought him into this danger, was not the uncircumcision of his son, as it is commonly held, for that had been dispensable withal in him, as it was with thousands afterwards of the Israelites in the wilderness, but his fault was grievous diffidence and distrust. For this is that that makes him so much so off, and so earnestly to decline so glorious and honourable a message as the Lord would send him on, and this was that that brought him into this danger of death, when he was even going on this message. Observe therefore his evasions, and how they sound exceeding hollow and empty of belief. First, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? cap. 3. 11. This the Lord answereth, I will be with thee, and this my appearing to thee may be an undoubted token to th●e that I have sent thee. vers. 12.  
Secondly, But who shall I say hath sent me? for forty years ago, they refused me, saying, Who made thee a Prince and a Ruler over us? cap. 4. 1. This scruple the Lord removeth by giving him the power of miracles.  
Thirdly, But I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to me, for though I may work miracles upon others, yet is not this wrought upon myself, that I speak any whit better than I did before. This receiveth this answer, I will be with thy mouth, vers. 10. 11. 12.  
Fourthly, But I pray thee send by that hand that thou wilt send or stretch out, vers. 13. for thou saidst to me, I will stretch out mine hand, and smite Egypt, &c. Chap. 3. 20. Now therefore I pray thee stretch out this hand of thine, for the hand of man is not able to perform it. At this the Lord's anger was kindled against him, and that deservedly. For in this he denied the mystery of the redemption which was to be wrought by a man, the godhead going al●ng with him.  
Now it is time for Moses to set for Egypt when he seeth God angry at his excusing: he doth so, but he taketh his diffidence along with him, in that he taketh his wife and children with him. One would think that had been a special piece of charity, but it being looked into, will prove a special piece of distrust.  
For when God appeareth to him, at the very first, he giveth him assurance of the people's delivery, and that they should come in their journeys to that very place, When thou hast brought the people forth out of Egypt ye shall serve God upon this mountain. Chap. 3. 12.  
Now if Moses had believed certainly this promise, and that undoubtedly he and the people should come thither, he would never have taken wife and children with him to trouble them and himself in so long a journey, and in so earnest a business, but would have left them still with Jethro, till he and Israel should march up to them. But this he feared, that this his journey would be to no effect, that Israel would accept of none, & therefore should obtain no delivery, that this message would produce nothing, unless danger to himself, and that while he spoke of delivering others, he might incur bondage himself, so that if he left wife and children behind him, it was odds he should never see them again. And therefore to make sure work he will take them with him, and for this his distrust the Lord meets him, and seeks to kill him.  
Nor was this distrust and diffidence little or small in him, but if the circumstances be considered, it will appear to be very great, and his want of faith exceeding much.  
Zipporah his wife was now lying in Childbed, a weak woman but lately delivered, and therefore far unfit for so long a journey, and the newborn child as unfit, if not unfitter than she: and yet Mother and child in this weak case, must travel to the hazard of both their lives, for he durst not leave them behind him for fear he and they should never meet again: For this it is that Zipporah twice calleth him a bloody husband: before the child's circumcision, and after: before, because he had hazarded both their lives in bringing them forth, both of them being in their blouth and blood: and after, because she through him was put to Circumcise the child, which bloodiness a tender mother must needs abhor: and for this also is the word circumcisions in the plural number, vers. 26. A bloody husband, Lemuloth, because of the circumcisions.   

SECT. ix.. Zipporah but very lately delivered of her child.  
THat Zipporah was so lately delivered of child, is plain by observing these things.  
First, that Jethro her Father was circumcised both he and his household, for he was a Midianite, a son of Abraham, by Ke●●rah, and all Abraham's children after the flesh were circumcised, and that not by usurpation or unwarrantable imitation, but by the bond and tye of the institution: therefore though Moses had been absent never so long, or never so far off, yet would Jethro have taken care of the child's circumcision on the eight day: but now the child may not stay, till he be eight days old, & whole again upon his circumcision, but must travel young and uncircumcised as he is.  
Secondly, observe the child's name, which was usually given at Circumcision, and if the child were older than we speak of, then had he been so long without a name, or had had another name than Eliezer.  
Thirdly, he called his name Eliezer, for the God of my fathers, said he, hath been mine help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh, Chap. 18. 4. Now Moses was not secure of Pharaoh's sword, till just at his setting for Egypt. For after he came from Horeb into Midian again, the Lord tells him that all those are dead which sought his life, vers. 19 This doth aggravate his diffidence the more. Who though he had seen such wonders at Horeb, and heard of other wonders done for him by God in Egypt, in cutting off his enemies there, yet durst he not trust the promise of God, for his returning to his wife and children, but will take them along with him. For this God brings him into danger of his life visibly, which Zipp●rah poor woman thought to have been for the uncircumcision of her son, therefore she taketh and circumciseth him: but Moses being conscious of his own infidelity or distrust, in this so great a danger, rubbeth up his faith again, and the peril refineth it as silver, so that now he betaketh himself wholly to God, by confidence in the promise, and to express this his faith, he calleth his son when the mother had circumcised him, Eliezer, God is mine helper; so that I shall escape danger from Pharaoh and the Egyptians in this mine errand: And the Lord saw his faith, and let him go.   

SECT. X. Of the name Jehovah, and how it was unknown to the Fathers, Exod. 6. 3.  
THis is the uncommunicable name of God, not given at any time unto the Creature, Esay 42. 8.  
This name in its sound and letters was known unto the Fathers, yea even in its signification. Abraham calls mount Moriah, Jehovah Jireh, Gen. 22. 14.  
Isaac called upon the name of Jehovah, Chap. 26. 25. And Jacob saith; Jehovah thy God hath brought it to me, Chap. 27. 20.  
The name Jehovah signifieth three things,  
First, God's eternal being in himself, without dependence or mixture, upon, or with any other thing. For his being independent, it is rendered, the first, and the last; and which is, and which was, and which is to come.  
For his being without mixture, or composition, it is said here, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: Not, By my name Jehovah was I known: Nor, My name Jehovah was known: But, My name Jehovah, I was known, to show that God and his name are not two things, united by composition, but one and the same thing.  
Secondly, Jehovah betokeneth God's giving of being to the Creature. To this purpose, it is observable, that God is never called Jehovah, till all the Creation be perfected, and every thing have received its being, Gen. 2. 4.  
So in all the speeches that pass between Job and his friends, God is never called Jehovah but once, where mention is made of the Creatures receiving their being, Job 12. 10.  
Thirdly, Jehovah signifieth the faithfulness of God in his promise, and in this sense it is rendered, Amen, true and faithful. In this sense it is set after so many commands, Thou shalt, or thou shalt not do thus and thus, I am Jehovah.  
And in all these significations it is justly prefixed before all the commandments, Exod. 20. I am Jehovah thy God.  
As this name is not communicable to any Cr●ature, but only appropriate to the godhead, so it is severally given to every Person in the Trinity.  
First, to the Father, Psal. 110. 1. For he is the fountain of being in himself.  
Secondly, to the son, Jer. 23. 6. For he is the giver of being to the Cr●ature.  
Thirdly, to the Holy Ghost: compare Esay 6. 8, 9, 10. with Act. 28. 25, 26. For he is the Spirit of Truth, and giver of being to the promise.  
The name Jehovah, and the significancy of it to the utmost, did the holy Fathers know before Moses. But they saw not experience of the last signification named, namely the faithfulness of God in his promise made to Abraham concerning his delivery of his seed from bondage, and bringing them into a Land flowing with milk and honey: God gave them the promise by the name of El Shaddai, God Omnipotent: and they relied upon his omnipotency, because he that promised was able to perform: but they beheld it afar of, and tasted not of my p●rformance of it, but now will I show myself Jehovah, faithful to bring to pass and accomplish what I promised.   

SECT. XI. Putiel, Exod. 6. 25.  
MAny, and the most of them far fetched, notations are given upon this name: and when all is said of it that can be said, the last resolution lieth but in a conjecture; and then may we guess as well as others.  
Eliezer married his wife in Egypt, and of the Egyptian Idiom doth this name of her Father seem as probably to sound as of any other.  
Now among the Egyptian names or titles, these two things may be observed.  
First, That among them, Gentry, Nobility, and Royalty, seem to have been denoted and distinguished by these increasing Syllables, Phar, Phara, and pharaoh oh. The Gentry by phar, as Poti-phar a captain, Gen. 41. 45. The Nobility by phara, as Poti-phara, a Prince, Gen. 41 45. And Majesty by Phara-oh, the common name of all their Kings.  
There was another title of dignity given to the governor of the Jews in Alexandria in that Land, in after times, namely Alabarcha, as is to be seen in Josephus: which though he and others would derive from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Salt, yet since we are yet to seek for the latter part of the word, it may as probably be conceived to be compounded of the Article Al, so common in the Arabic tongue, and Abrech which hath relation to dignity and honour, Exod. 41. 43.  
Secondly, The Egyptians delighted to affix or join to their names and titles, the word Poti, or Puti, whether in memorial of their Uncle Put, Gen. 10. 6. or in reverence of some deity of that name, or for what else is not so easily resolved, as it may be conceived they did the thing, by the names forecited, Potiphar, and Potiphara, and of the same nature seemeth to be putiel, the word that is now in hand.  
This Putiel therefore may seem to have been some convert Egyptian, [imagine him to have been of the posterity of Puti-ph●ra, among whom Joseph had sowed the seeds of true Religion] who changing his Idolatry, and irreligiousness for the worship of the true God, did also change the latter part of his name Phera, into the name of that God which he now professed, and instead of Puti-phera, to be called Puti-el. The best resolution, as was said before, that can be given in this point, can be but conjectures, and in a matter of this nature, it is as excusable if we err, as difficult to hit at a right.   

SECT. XII. Of Moses words, Glory over me. Exod. 8. 9  
THe Plagues of Egypt began answerable to their sins, the waters wherein the children's blood had been shed, and they poor souls sprawled for life, are now turned into blood, and scrawle with frogs.  
The former Plague of blood, was not so smart as the other of frogs, for by digging they found fresh water, and so had that remedy against that plague. But they had none against the frogs, for they came into every place, and seized upon all the victuals that lay in their way, and devoured them; nay they spared not to raven upon men themselves: Therefore the Psalmist saith, Frogs destroyed them.  
Yet for all this doth Pharaoh make but a mock at Jehovah in all this his doing: and scornfully and in derision, bids Mose● and Aaron try what Jehovah could do for the removing of them: To whom Moses answers, Glory over me, mock me hardly wit● my Jehovah, yet appoint when I shall pray, and I will pray, tha● thou mayest know that there is none like my Jehovah. And Pharaoh appoints him the next day for his prayer, which he would never have put off so long, had he in earnest thought that Jehovah could have removed them upon Moses prayer.   

SECT. XIII. The Plague of Lice. The speech of the Sorcerers, This is the finger of God, Exod. 8. 19 not a confession of the Lord, but an hideous and horrid blasphemy.  
AT the Plague of Lice, the Sorcerers are put to a nonplus, and in the least creature can do nothing, for [besides that it was the will of God, to bring their devices to nought, and to show himself maximum in minimis] if they should have imitated this miracle, they must have done two things: first, they must have produced dust, and then of the dust, lice, for the text saith, That all the dust of the Land became lice, throughout all the Land of Egypt, ver. 17. Neither of which they can do, and therefore say, This is the finger of God. For the understanding of these their words, observe these things.  
First, That in the two foregoing Plagues of blood and Frogs, Moses gave warning of them before they came, but of this he did not.  
Secondly, That the Lice were also in the land where Israel dwelled, as well as in other parts of Egypt, for there is no severing betwixt Goshen and Egypt mentioned, till the next Plague of Flies, In that day, I will sever the Land of Goshen. in which my people dwell, And I will put a division between my people, and thy perple, ver. 22, 23, whereas none had been put before.  
For when Moses turned the waters of Egypt into blood, the Sorcerers did so also with their enchantments, and turned the waters of Goshen into blood likewise. Here Pharaoh thinketh his Sorcerers have matched the Jehovah that Moses so talked of, and that they could do as much against his people, as he could do against theirs.  
And so when Moses from Jehovah brought Frogs upon Egypt, the magicians also by their enchantments bring Frog● likewise upon Goshen, and still they think their God is hard enough for Israel's Jehovah.  
Thus is blood and Frogs through all the Land of Goshen, but neither were these real blood or frogs, nor wa● this any punishment at all upon Israel, for it was not from the Lord, but only vain delusions permitted by the Lord, that at last he might catch the crafty in their own net.  
But when the Plague of Lice cometh, it cometh also upon Goshen from the Lord himself, and this is a plague indeed upon his own people, laid upon them by him, as well as upon Egypt: For Israel that had partaken in so many of Egypt's sins, must also think to partake in some of her punishments.  
For this it is, why the man of God in Psal. 78. reckoning up the Plagues of Egypt, never mentioneth the Plague of Lice: because that was equally a Plague to Israel, as to the Egyptians, they had both blood and frogs as well as they, but not as really, nor from God, and therefore no plague to them.  
Thirdly, The Egyptians acknowledged a supreme great Deity, whom they thought they adored in their petty deities, whom they worshipped. For when they adored an ox, a dog, a Crocodile, &c. they adored not the carcase, but the good qualities that in these creatures conduced to their benefit and good, so saith Eusebius, that whatsoever was helpful, or furthered the good of humanelife, that they accounted a Deity.  
Fourthly, They accounted not of Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, but as a petty, trivial God, such as every Nation had one or more of, that that God could do something, as they saw in the blood and frogs, but could do no more, if so much, as theirs, Chap. 5. 2. Who is Jehovah that I should obey him? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go. So that the magician's words, This is the finger of God, come from them reasoning thus: When blood and frogs came, Moses gave warning of them before, from his Jehovah, but these Lice come and he never gave warning; Hence it is plain, this is none of Jehovah's doing, otherwise would Moses have known it before, but now he did not. Again, when the Hebrews Jehovah brought blood and frogs upon our land, he brought none upon theirs, but spared his own people: but this Plague of Lice is also upon them, as soon as upon us, and without our doing: And therefore this cannot be Jehovah, for he would not plague his own people, but this is done by the finger of El●●im the great deity, and the Jehovah of the Hebrews is a God of no value.   

SECT. XIIII. The Plague of boils, Exod. 9 9 Two contrary Plagues in one.  
MOses and A●ron must take their handfuls of ashes out of the Furnace, that whence Israel had had their sore affliction, Egypt might receive their corporal punishment. Moses is to scatter the four handfals into the air towards the four quarters of heaven, hereupon a double miracle followed. 1. That so little or few as●es were multiplied so as to fly throughout all the Land of Aegyp● and to light upon every man and beast in it. 2. That lighting on them, it was a Plague to them in their bodies.  
As the Miracle was double, so was the Plague.  
1. The Ashes became She●in, that is, a burning itch, or an inflamed Scab: for so the word signifieth, as is plain, Job 2. 7, 8. where the holy man's body is struck with Shehin, such an intolerable dry hot itch, that his nails would not serve to scratch enough, but he is glad to get a potsherd to skrub himself.  
2. This Itch had also blains and boiles brok● out with it, [and so jobs had not] so that the Egyptians were vexed at once, with intolerable itch and intolerable ache: Their itch called upon them to scratch and skrub, and yet they could not do so, for the soreness and aching of their boiles.  
In the five preceding Plagues, the obduration of Pharaoh's heart is attributed to himself, in these five forward, it is attributed to God: And justly [when being punished for his sins, he hardeneth his heart so many times] is his heart hardened so many times that he sinneth for a punishment.   

SECT. XV. The Plague of darkness, Exod. 10. Why first named, Psal. 105. 28.  
AS the men of the old world, of Sodom and the Jews at the death of Christ, were struck with darkness, before they entered into utter darkness; so it is with the Egyptians here.  
This Plague lay upon them three days, namely, the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth days of the month Nisan. For upon the conclusion of the darkness, Moses being sent for to Pharaoh giveth him such distaste that he chargeth him never to come into his presence again, which Moses saith he will not do, I will see thy face again no more: but before he goeth out of the presence, he giveth him warning concerning the slaughter of the first borne to be that night, Chap. 11. Vers. 4. by which it is clear that the darkness ended on the Passeover day in the morning.  
Quest. Why then seeing it was the ninth plague in number, hath Psal. 105. set it first?  
Answ. Because it was the most terrible of all the Plagues that came upon them. For those that had gone before had plagued only their land, or cattle, or bodies; that that came after, light not upon all, but only on the first borne, but this is a Plague even to the very mind and conscience, and universally so to them all.  
It was not their sitting in darkness and not stirring about their business for three days together, that plagued them so much, for this had been no great ●orment, but their torture was, that in this darkness they saw fearful apparitions of Fiends and devils, and horrible visions, which so hideously affrighted and even distracted them, that they were as it were in Hell already. For observe that Pharaoh that had been nothing at all moved in a manner with all the plagues that went before, is so stirred with this, that he sends for Moses as soon as ever the darkness is over, and permits him to depart, Exod. 10. 24. which mere sitting in darkness could not have wrought him to, but those terrors which he saw in the dark.  
Hence it is that Psal. 78. 49. nameth not the plague of darkness by its name, but in the place where it should come, he mentioneth that which was the very quintessence of it. he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation and trouble, by sending evil Angels among them.   

SECT. XVI. Israel circumcised in the three days' darkness. He sent darkness and made it dark, and they rebelled not against his word, Psal. 105. 28.  
THis latter clause, they rebelled not against his word, is to be understood of Israel, who in this plague of darkness performed some special part of obedience: And that upon inquiry will be found to be their undergoing of circumcision. For they had followed the Idols of Egypt, and in Idolatry were become like the Egyptians, so were they also in uncircumcision. For when Joshuah had circumcised them at their entrance into Canaan, he saith, I have rolled away from you the reproach of Egypt, Josh. 5. 9 or that wherein y●e were like unto the Egyptians uncircumcised to your reproach.  
But when God ordaineth the Passeover, he giveth charge for circumcision, for no uncircumcised person must eat thereof, Exod. 12. 48.  
Then was required a general circumcision of all the people, or at least of the most of them, for all were uncircumcised, unless it was some few that were more constant to the Covenant of their God. And that there was a general Circumcision in Egypt, is inferred in the forenamed place, Joshu. 5. where God commandeth Joshua to Circumcise the people a second time, which inferreth that there was a first time when they were circumcised with a general Circumcision as they were that second time. But in Egypt must this first Circumcision be, for the Text in that very place telleth, that in the wilderness there was no Circumcision at all.  
Whilst then Israel sat sore of their Circumcision, God closeth up Egypt in three days' darkness, and in horror, that they might not take the opportunity against his people.   

SECT. XVII. The beginning of the year changed. Exod. 12. 1.  
THe world from her creation hitherto, had begun her years in Tisri or September, which was the time, of the year when she was created. This will easily be showed [against those that maintain the world did begin in March] by these reasons.  
1. From Exod. 23. 16. The feast of in gathering in the end of the year.  
2. From Joel 2. 23. The latter rain in the first month.  
3. Had Adam been created in March he had had no fruits ripe for his food, but in autumn they were ready for him.  
4. Should the months before the Passover be reckoned to begin from March, it will follow that the general deluge increased in the heat of Summer, and abated and dried up in the deep and moist of Winter.  
5. Had the year begun from March from the beginning, it had had been unnecessary to have commanded them to begin it thence, who never knew where to begin it else.  
From the creation than the years began from September, but here upon a work greater in figure, as which represented the redemption by Christ, the beginning is translated to March. And this is the first commandment given to Israel by Moses.  
As that old account began from an Equinox, so must this, but not alike; That began exactly from the Equinox day, this from the first new moon after, and not from that day, unless that day was the new moon. The fourth day of the world's creation was both Equinox and new moon: and though the years after began from that day of the sun, yet were they counted by the months of the moon.  
Their year then beginning thus from a new moon it plainly speaketh for itself that it was reckoned by Lunary months, which falling short eleven days of the year of the sun, every third year was leap year, or intercalary of a month added of 33. days, which was called Veadar: So that howsoever it is said that Solomon had twelve special officers for the twelve months of the year, it meaneth the ordinary year, and not the Embolimquan or leap year: for that year, those twelve in their several months served so much the longer, as that the added months might be made up by them and not a new officer chosen, for that month, who should have no employment when that month was over till three years after.  
The equity or life of this Law that their years should begin from March or Ahib was because the preaching of the gospel should begin, and the redemption be consummate from that time. For it was just at that time of the year when John began to baptise, which was the beginning of the gospel, Mark. 1. 1●Acts 1. 22. And it was at that time of the year when our Saviour suffered, and fulfilled that which this presigured, our redemption.   

SECT. XVIII. Particulars concerning the Passeover, Exod. 12.  
1. THE Paschall Lamb was Christ's body in a figure. Compare Exod. 12. 46. with John 19 36. and to this it is that the word hoc, in the words of our Saviour, Hoc est corpus meum, had reference and respect. They had but newly eaten the Pasteover lamb, and that had been the body of Christ Sacra mentally to the Jews hitherto: but now Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and told them that this hence forward must be his body under the gospel in that same manner that the paschal lamb had been his body under the Law.  
Secondly, the lamb must not be eaten raw, vers. 9 which would never have been forbidden, if the very raw flesh and blood of Christ, as it was upon the cross, were eaten in the Sacrament, as transubstantiation dreameth, for then had the raw Passeover represented it the better. And especially among those People who sometimes used to eat raw flesh in their hasty meals as the Jews did.  
Necessity sometimes transfers the Passeover to another month, but never further than the next. So the first Passeover but o●e, was kept by some on the fourteenth day of the second month, because uncleanness by a dead corpse necessitated them to forego it at the right time, Num. 9 11. And so the last Passeover but one that we read of before the Captivity was kept in the second month, 2 Chron. 30. 2. because Hezekiah coming to his crown but just in the beginning of the year, or very little before, could not procure the Temple, and the Priests to be sanctified and purged sufficiently, and the People to be assembled against the right Passeover day, See 2 Chron. 29. 3.  
This translation of the Feast a month out of its place, did the more enforce its significancy of things future then of things past; as rather recording the death of Christ to come, than their delivery from Egypt: for the force of the commemoration of that was enfeebled much, when it hit not upon the very night. Again, this movableness of this Feast, which so nearly represented the death of our Saviour, received its equity when our Saviour died, not upon the very Passeover day, but deferred the Sacrificing of himself to a day after.  
Object. But it seemeth that Christ did not eat his Passeover on the fourteenth day, For Job. 18. 28. The Jews went not into the Judgement Hall, lest they should be defiled: but that they might eat the Passeover.  
Now it is most apparent that our Saviour had eaten the Passeover, over night: which as soon as he had done he was apprehended, and arraigned all night, and the next morning early he is brought to Pilate, into whose house the Jews durst not come for fear of defiling, but that they might eat the Passeover: so that it appears that either Christ or the Jews hit not upon the right Passeover day enjoined by the Law, either he a day too soon, or they a day too late.  
Answ. Neither the one nor the other. For the text expressly saith, that Jesus ate his Passeover, and the Jews theirs upon the same night, which was on the fourteenth day at even.  
Mat. 26. 17. Now the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread, the Disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passeover?  
Mark. 14. 12. The first day of unleavened bread when they killed the Passeover, So Luk. 22. 7.  
So that the Passeover which the Jews reserved themselves to the eating of, when they durst not enter into Pilate's Judgement Hall for fear of defiling, is not to be understood of the Paschall Lamb, which they had eaten the evening past, but of the Passeover bullock where of mention is made, Dent. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 35. 7, 8, 9  
Now these bullocks were indeed slain at Passeover time, but not for the Passeover beast properly taken, for that must be of a lamb or kid unalterably: but these bullocks were slain as attendants upon the Paschall, from the nature of which Sacrifice they differed in these particulars.  
First, the Paschall lamb was always, and all of him rost●d: these were sodden, 2 Chron. 35. 13.  
Secondly, the Paschall lamb was roasted whole, and eaten without breaking the bones, these were broken piecemeal, and so parted among the people.  
The Paschall lamb was a necessary service to which they were bound by command: these were arbitrary according to their stay in Jerusalem in the Passeover week; for if they would they might return home the next morning after the Paschall lamb was eaten, Deut. 16. 7. and then they needed no bullock to be killed for their diet the rest of the Feast: but if they stayed any more days of the feast at Jerusalem then the first, than was not their diet arbitrary to eat any thing what they would, but they must eat of these bullocks because their diet must be holy at that time. Hence resulteth another difference betwixt the Paschall lamb, and these, which is this; that these were not of the first institution of the Passeover, nor had they any bullocks slain at the Passeover in Egypt, but lambs only.   

SECT. XIX. That the Supper in Job. 13. was not the Passeover Supper.  
FIRST, It is very commonly held that the Supper in John 13. was the Passeover Supper, and that Judas stayed not the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, for that our Saviour having dipped a sop into the bitter or sour sauce, which they used to the Paschall lamb, and given it to him, Satan with it entering into him, he packed him away with, What thou dost do quickly: An opinion mistaken in the groundwork that it builds upon, and consequently in the structure built upon it. For that that was no Passover at all, the Evangelist maketh it most plain in ver. 1. when he saith, it was before the Feast of the Passeover, and Matthen in Chap. 26. 2. telleth, it was two days before, and indeed, two miles from Jerusalem, namely in Betbany: The serious Harmonizing of the four Evangelists together, at this place, will make this most clear.  
Secondly, if then it were not the Passeover Supper, there can be no Paschall lamb looked for at it, nor no Haroseth, or sauce of bitter herbs to eat it with, but the meat that they were then eating, and the sauce in which our Saviour dipped the sop, was ordinary meat, and ordinary sauce.  
Thirdly, Judas when he was packed away with his Quod facis fac cito, went not from Jerusalem to G●thsemani, where Christ was apprehended by him on the Passeover night, but he went from Be●hany to Jerusalem, to bargain with the chief Pri●st, for his betraying, which when he had done, he returned to Be●hany again.   

SECT. XX. Borrowing Egyptian Jewels, Exod. 12. 35, 36.  
IT may be equally questionable, whether Israel showed less honesty in borrowing what they meant not to restore, or Egypt less wisdom, in lending what they knew would not be restored?  
For the first, it is easily answered, that they had the express warrant of God, who cannot command unrighteousness, and whom to obey in all things is piety.  
The second is as easily resolved thus, that Idolaters, in the worship of their Idols, used to deck themselves with Jewels, and earrings, and fine things, thereby to make them as they thought the more acceptable, to their fine decked deity. So do the Egyptians now conceive of Israel, that seeing they desired these their fine knacks, being now going to sacrifice, they intended to sacrifice to the Egyptian gods, as they had done heretofore, and they thought, sure there can be no danger of departing the Land, because they still adhere to our Religion. For Moses had but still spoken of going but three days' journey into the wilderness to worship.   

SECT. XXI. Rameses, and Succoth, ver. 37.  
THe most famous of the Deities of Egypt, was their goddess Isis, mentioned in all Heathen authors, of her doth the last syllable in Raam-ses, and Rame-ses, seem to sound, as being towns that bare the name of this goddess, and importing the town, or Temple, or some such thing of Isis. For that which the Egyptians called says, or Sis, other languages in pronouncing would augment with a vowel before, for so was it ordinary. Egypt at home was called Cophtis, but foreigners did call it Esophtis, and so it came to be Egypti. So the Sea that lay among the Gentiles of Greece, was in Hebrew Mare Goiim, the Sea of the Gentiles, but other Nations would put E before, and so it came to be called EGoiim or EGaeum. The Syrian and Arabic Testaments, and the writing of Jewish Authors are full of examples of this nature. Succoth, is held to have been so called, because Israel here lodged and pitched their tents in their March out of Egypt: but they marched too much in suspicion of Pharaoh's pursuit, to settle a camp, and to pitch tents so near him. But it rather seemeth to have taken denomination from the cloud of glory coming upon them in this place, which was as a covering to them, Psal. 105. 39  
This their Divine conductor, stayed with them till Moses death, save that it was taken up for a while, because of the golden calf: at Moses death it departed from them; for when they are to march through Jordan, the ark is to lead the way, which while the cloud was with them it never did, but went in the body and very heat of the Army.  
As the cloud departed at the death of Moses the first Prophet, so is it restored and seen apparently at the sealing of the great Prophet, Luk. 9 30.   

SECT. XXII. The decree at Marab, Exod. 15: 25.  
shame Sam lo hhok umishpat: There he set a decree, and a judgement for them: God is beginning now to compose and platform the people into a settled policy, which while they were under the fear and danger of Pbaraoh could not be done; And here he passeth a decree and judgement upon them, what they must look for in the wilderness, according to their dealing with him. If they will diligently harken to his words, &c. he will heal and keep them free from diseases, as he healed those brackish waters, and of bitter had made them sweet; but if otherwise, they must expect accordingly. Those that have obscured this place by questioning whether this Ordinance at Marah, were for the Sabbath, or for the red Cow, or for the trial of the suspected Wife, or for the dimensum of their diet in the wilderness, have made obscurity where there is none at all, and have supposed this to have been an Ordinance whereafter Israel was to walk, whereas it was rather a decree whereafter God would deal with them according to their walking; And answerably seem the latter words, Vesham Nissahu, to bear this sense, for there he had tried them.  
The word Hhok, is taken in a signification agreeable to this, Psal. 2. 7. I declare it for a decree, that since the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, &c. That therefore, ye Kings, and Potentates, &c. submit to the obedience of him, or else his anger will shortly kindle, &c.   

SECT. XXIII. That this story of Jethro is misplaced, and why.  
THat this story is misplaced, is plain by these things: First, Jethro, Moses father in Law, took a burnt offering, and sacrifices for God, ver. 12. Secondly, Now on the morrow, Moses sat to judge the people, vers. 13. and made them know the Statutes of God, and his laws, vers. 16.  
But as the story lieth here, there was no Tabernacle nor Altar for Sacrifice yet built; Neither as yet did Moses know the Statutes and laws of God himself, for as yet they are not come to Sinai.  
Thirdly, Moses himself telleth that the choosing of Judges and Elders, which was done upon Jethro's counsel, was not till their departing from Sinai. The Lord your God spoke unto us in Horeb, saying, You have dwelled long enough in this mountain, &c. And I spoke unto you at that time, s●ying, I am not able to bear you myself alone, &c. Deut. 1. from vers. 7. to 19  
So that this story should lie at the 10 of Numbers, and come in betwixt the tenth and eleventh verses of that chapter, and the story to be conceived thus. When Moses had received all the laws which God would give him at Sinai, from Exod. 20. to the Law of the silver Trumpets, which was the last, Num. 10. then came Jetbro, and brought Moses wife and children, and seeing him toiling in judgement, he adviseth him to choose Judges to ease him; which being done, ere long the cloud removed, and they must flit from Sinai, ver. 11. When they are ranked to march, Moses desireth Hobab or Jethro his Father in Law to go along with him, which he denyeth, but returneth to his own Country, Num. 10. 29, 30. 31, 32. compared with the last verse of this Chapter. Thus lieth the order of the story. Now, the reason why it is misplaced is this. In the last verse of the preceding Chapter, there is a perpetual curse decreed against Amalek, The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek, from generation to generation. Now the Midianites and Amalekites lived so promiscuously together, that they were as one people, and the Kenites, or the family of Jethro, dwelled in the midst of them, 1 Sam. 15. 6. Therefore that it might be observed that Jethro fell not under that curse of Amalek, Moses bringeth him in coming to the camp of Israel, and to God, as soon as ever the curse is uttered, that every eye might presently observe that Jethro was exempted from it.  
Object. But Moses and Israel, by this account lay almost a twelve month at Sinai, before his wife and children came at him, and can this be thought, that they should be so unnatural one to another?  
Answer. This was Moses his doing, not of unnaturalness, but piety, to restrain their coming, till his great task of receiving and giving the Law, and building the Tabernacle was over; Letters and Vi●its passed betwixt them there is no doubt, and they kept at distance thus by consent for a season.  
That letters passed may be collected from verse. 6. 7. And Jethro, Moses Father in law, said unto Moses, I Jethro thy Vather in law, come to thee. And Moses went out to meet his Father in law. Jethro said not thus to Moses his face, I am come to thee: For then why or how upon this tidings, could Moses go forth to meet him, when they spoke face to face already? Nor could this speech be delivered by a messenger, for it had been an improper and senseless speech of a messenger to say, I Jethro come to thee: but this Jethro himself telleth Moses by letter, before he cometh at him, whereupon Moses goeth forth to meet him.   

SECT. XXIIII. Israel's march from Rephidim to Sinai. Saint Paul explained. 1 Cor. 10. 4.  
Quest. HOw can it be said that they departed from Rephidim, and came to Sinai, whereas Rephidim and Sinai were all one? For every one knoweth that the mountain whereon the Law was given is called Horeb and Sinai, indifferently: as Exod. 19 18. compared with Malach. 4. 4. Now when they were at Rephidim, chap. 17. 1. they were at Horeb, vers. 2. So that to go from Rephidim to Sinai, is to go from Horeb to Horeb.  
Answ. The hill on which the Law was given had indeed two names, and as Bellonius saith, two tops, the one side of it was called Horeb, from the rocky drought of it, being utterly devoid of water: The other side was called Sinai, from the bushes and brambles that grew upon it, in one of which Moses saw the Lord in a flame of fire; if so be it took not the name from Sini the son of Canaan, Gen. 10. Now when Israel lay at Rephidim they lay upon Horeb side, and there out of the droughty rock, Moses m●raculously bringeth forth water. Their march from Rephidim is at the skirts of the hill from Horeb to Sinai side of the mountain. And in the same sense is Paul to be understood, 1 Cor. 10. 4. They drank of the rock that followed them. Not that the rock stirred and went along with them, but that the water which miraculously gushed out of the one side of the hill Horeb, ran along with them as they marched at the foot of the hill, till they came to the other side of the hill Sinai. And so is Moses himself to be understood. I cast the dust of the golden calf into the brook that descended out of the Mount. Deut. 9 21. Not that the brook gushed out of the mount on that side on which the calf was erected, but on the other, and at the skirt of the hill came running to that.   

SECT. XXV. The Station and Posture of Israel before Sinai, Exod. 19  
ON the first day of the month Sivan, which was towards the middle of our May, in the year of the world 2513. they come from Rephidim to Sinai, and pitch in their main body, more especially on the South and South East side of the Mount, See Deut. 33. 2. and compare the situation of S●ir in the point of the compass.  
In three parts or squadrons did their camp sit down before it.  
1. Next to the hill pitched the Elders or 70. heads of the chief families which had gone into Egypt, these are called the house of Jacob, Vers. 3. as Gen. 46. 27.  
2. Next behind them pitched the people in their main body, consisting of so many hundred thousands: these are called the children of Israel, Vers. 3. And this distinction is observed, Vers. 7. 8. And Moses called the Elders, &c. And all the people answered.  
3. On the outside of all lay the mixed multitude or the Egyptians that had joined to them and came out with them.  
On the second day of the month, and of their arrival there Moses goeth up into the mountain, being called up by the Lord, Vers. 3. and when he cometh down telleth the people the words of the Lord, Vers. 5. If ye will hear my voice indeed and keep my Covenant, ye shall be my peculiar people: To which the people even before they know what the commandments of the Lord would be, do promise to obey and harken, not by rash undertaking to perform they knew not what, as some have been bold to tax them, nor yet presuming upon their own ability to keep the Law, as others have concluded upon them; but having been trained up from their infancy, and instructed in the doctrine of Faith, they piously conclude, when God cometh to give them a Law and to make a covenant with them, that God would not cross himself in the Doctrine of salvation, but that the Law that he would now give them should be a Law conducing and leading to Faith still, a schoolmaster to Christ, and not an extinguisher of the doctrine of salvation by him.  
On the third day of the month Moses goeth up into the mountain again, Vers. 9 and is charged to sanctify the people, which accordingly is done on that day; and on the fourth and fifth, and on the sixth day in the morning the ten commandments are given.   

SECT. XXVI. The Jews Tenet concerning the Law. Talm. in Maccoth. Rab. Abhuhahh Ner. 1.  
THe whole Law, say they, was given to Moses in six hundred and thirteen precepts. David in the fifteenth psalm bringeth them all within the compass of eleven. 1. To walk uprightly. 2. To work righteousness. 3. To speak truth in the heart. 4. Not to slander. 5. Not to wrong a Neighbour. 6. Not to entertain or raise an ill report. 7. To vi●i●●e a reprobate. 8. To honour them that fear the Lord. 9 That altereth not his oath. 10. Not to lend to usury. 11. Not to take bribes against the innocent.  
The Propbet Isaiah brings these to six, in Chap. 33. 15. 1. To walk justly. 2. To speak righteously. 3. To refuse gain of oppression. 4. To shake hands from taking bribes. 5. To stop the ears from hearing of blood. 5. To shut the eyes from seeing of evil.  
Micab reduceth all to three, Chap. 6. 8. 1. To do justly. 2. To love mercy. 3. To walk humbly with God. Isaiah again to two, Chap. 56. 1. 1. keep judgement. 2. Do justice. Am●s to one, Chap. 5. 4. seek me. Habakkuk also brings all to one, Chap. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live. Thus the Jews witness against themselves while they conclude that Faith is the sum of the Law, and yet they stand altogether upon works; A testimony from Jews exceedingly r●markable.   

SECT. XXVII. Articles of a believing Jews Creed collected out of Moses Law.  
1. I believe that salvation is by Faith, not by works.  
When the Talmudic Jews make such a confession as is mentioned instantly before, wherein they reduce all the tenor and marrow of the Law under this one doctrine of living by Faith, Hab. 2. 4. The just by his Faith shall live: it is no wonder if the more ancient and more holy Jews under the Law looked for salvation, not by their own merits and works, but only by Faith: This fundamental point of Religion they might readily learn by these two things.  
1. From the impossibility of their keeping the Law, which their consciences could not but convince them of, by their disabiliti● to hear it, and by their daily carriage.  
2. In that they saw the holiest of their men, and the holiest of their services, to receive sanctity, not from themselves, but from another. So they saw that the Priest [who was or should be at least the holiest man amongst them] was sanctified by his garments, and that the sacrifices were sanctified by the Altar. From these premises they could not but conclude, that no man, nor his best service could be accepted as holy in itself, but must be sanctified by another.  
2. I believe that there is no salvation without reconciliation with God, and no reconciliation without satisfaction.  
The first part of this Article is so plain that nature might teach it, and so might it the latter also; and laying hereto Moses his lex talionis, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, it made it doubtless.  
3. I believe that satisfaction shall once be made.  
This they might see by their daily sacrifice, aiming at a time when there should full satisfaction be made, which these poor things could not do. No less did their jubilee year intimate when men in debt and bondage were quitted; The very time of the year, when the jubilee year began, calling all Israel to think of a Jubilee from sin and Satan's bondage, into which mankind fell at the same time of the year.  
4. I believe that satisfaction for sin shall be made by a man.  
This is answerable to reason that as a man sinned, so a man should satisfy: but Moses Law about redemption of land by a kinsman, taught Israel to expect that one that should be akin in the flesh to mankind, should redeem for him mortgaged heaven: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Hebrew is both a kinsman and a Redeemer.  
5. I believe that he shall be more than a man.  
This they learned from the common service about the Tabernacle, wherein the high Priest, a man as fully hallowed and sanctified as man could be, for his outward function; yet did he offer and offer again for the people and himself, and yet they were unclean still. This read a Lecture to every one's apprehension, that a mere man could not do the deed of satisfaction, but he must be more.  
6. I believe the redeemer must also be God as well as man.  
The disability of beasts to make satisfaction, they saw by their dying in sacrifice one after another, and yet man's conscience cleansed never the better. The unability of man we saw before: The next then that is likely to do this work are Angels. But them Israel saw in the Tabernacle curtains spectators only and not actors in the time and work of reconciliation. From hence they might gather that it must be God dwelling with man in one person, as the cloud, the glory of God never parted from the ark.  
7. I believe that man's Redeemer shall die to make satisfaction.  
This they saw from their continued bloody sacrifices, and from the covenants made, and all things purged by blood. This the heedless manslayer might take heed of, and see that as by the death of the high Priest he was restored to liberty, so should mankind be by the death of the highest Priest to the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Their delivery from Egypt by the death of a lamb taught them no less.  
8. I believe that he shall not die for his own sins, but for man's.  
Every sacrifice read this lecture, when the most harmless of beasts and birds were offered.  
9 I believe that he shall overcome death.  
This Israel saw by necessary conclusion, that if Christ should fall under death, he did no more than men had done before. His resurrection they saw in Aaron's Rod, Manna, Scapegoate, Sparrow, &c.  
10. I believe to be saved by laying hold upon his merits.  
Laying their right hand upon the head of every beast that they brought to be offered up taught them, that their sins were to be imputed to another, and the laying hold on the horns of the Altar, being sanctuary or refuge from vengeance, taught them that another's merits were to be imputed to them, yet that all offenders were not saved by the Altar, Exod. 21. 12. 1 King. 2. 29. the fault not being in the Altar but in the offender, it is easy to see what that signified unto them.  
Thus far●e each holy Israelite was a Christian in this point of doctrine, by earnest study finding these points under the veil of Moses. The ignorant were taught this by the learned every Sabbath day, having the Scriptures read and expounded unto them. From these groundworkes of Moses, and the prophet's Commentaries thereupon concerning the Messiah, came the schools of the Jews to be so well versed in that point, that their Scholars do mention his very name Jesus: the time of his birth in Tisri: the space of his preaching three years and a half: the year of his death they year of jubilee, and divers such particulars to be found in their Authors, though they knew him not when he came amongst them.   

SECT. XXVIII. The Covenant made with Israel: They not sworn by it to the ten commandments, Exod. 24.  
When Israel cannot endure to hear the ten commandments given, it was ready to conclude, that they could much less keep them. Therefore God giveth Moses privately fifty seven precepts besides, namely ceremonial and judicial: to all which the people are the next morning after the giving of the ten commandments, sworn and entered into Covenant, and these made them a ceremonial and singular people. About which these things are observable.  
1. That they entered into Covenant to a written Law, Chap. 24. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, &c. Against tradions.  
2. That here was a book written forty days before the writing of the two tables: Against them that hold that the first letters that were seen in the world, were the writing of God in those Tables. And we have seen before also two pieces of writing before this of Moses, viz. the 88 and 89. Psalms: And of equal antiquity with them, or not much less was the penning of the book of Job, most probably written by Elibu one of the Speakers in it, as may be conjectured from Chap. 32. 15, 16, 17. and some other probability.  
3. That this first Covenant was made with water, and blood, and figurative language: For the twelve pillars that represented the people are called the people, Exod. 24. 4. 8. As the words in the second Covenant, this my body, are to be understood in such another sense.  
4. That the ten commandments were not written in the book of that Covenant, but only those 57 precepts mentioned before.  
For 1. The Lord giveth the other precepts, because the people could not receive the ten: for could they have received and observed those as they ought, they must never have had any parcel of a Law more: as if Adam had kept the moral Law, he had never needed to have heard of the promise; and so if we could but receive the same Law as we should, we had never needed the gospel. Now it is most unlike that since God gave them those other commands, because they could not receive the ten, that he would mingle the ten and them together in the Covenant.  
2. It is not imaginable that God would ever cause a people to swear to the performance of a Law which they could not endure so much as to hear.  
3. The ten commandments needed not to be read by Moses to the people, seeing they had all heard them from the mouth of the Lord but the day before.  
4. Had they been written and laid up in this book, what necessity had there been of their writing and laying up in the Tables of stone?  
5. Had Moses read the ten commandments in the beginning of his book, why should he repeat some of them again at the latter end, as Exod. 23. 12.  
Let such ruminate upon this, which hold and maintain that the Sabbath as it standeth in the fourth commandment, is only the Jewish Sabbath, and consequently ceremoviall. And let those good men that have stood for the day of the Lord against the other, consider whether they have not lost ground, in granting that the fourth commandment instituted the Jewish Sabbath. For,  
First, The Jews were not sworn to the Decalogue at all, and so not the Sabbath as it standeth there, but only to the fifty seven precepts written in Moses his book, and to the Sabbath as it was there, Exod. 23. 12.  
Secondly, The end of the ceremonial Sabbath of the Jews was in remembrance of their delivery out of Egypt, Deut. 5. 15. but the moral Sabbath of the two Tables is in commemoration of God's resting from the works of the Creation. Exod. 20. 10. 11.   

SECT. XXIX. The punishment of Israel for the golden Calse. Exod. 32.  
ISRAEL cannot be so long without Moses, as Moses can be without meat. The fire still burneth on the top of mount Sinai, out of which they had so lately received the Law, and yet so suddenly do they break the greatest commandment of that Law to extremity: of Egyptian Jewels, they make an Egyptian Idol, because thinking Moses had been lost, they intended to return for Egypt.  
Grievous was the sin, for which they must look for grievous punishment, which lighted upon them in divers kinds.  
First, the Cloud of Glory, their divine conductor, departeth from the camp, which was now become profane and unclean.  
Secondly, the Tables Moses breaketh before their face, as showing them most unworthy of the Covenant.  
Thirdly, The building of the Tabernacle, the evidence, that God would dwell among them, is adjourned and put off, for now they had made themselves unworthy.  
Fourthly, for this sin God gave them up to worship all the host of heaven, Act. 7. 42.  
Fifthly, Moses bruiseth the Cal●e to Powder, and straweth it upon the waters, and maketh the People drink. Here spiritual fornication cometh under the same trial that carnal did. Num. 5. 24. These that were guilty of this Idolatry the water thus dr●nke, made their belly to swell, and to give a visible sign and token of their guilt: then setteth Moses the Levites to slay every one whose bellies they found thus swelled, which thing they did with that zeal and sincerity that they spared neither Father, nor Brother of their own, if they found him guilty.  
In this slaughter there fell about three thousand, these were ringleaders and chief agents in this abomination, and therefore made thus exemplary in their punishment: upon the rest of the People the Lord sent a Plague, vers. 35.  
A●ron had first felt the smart in this destruction, had his action in this business been as voluntary as was theirs, but what he did, he did in fear of his life.   

SECT. XXX. That Moses fasted three Fasts of forty days apiece.  
IT is a doubt of no small import: Why seeing it pleased God to appoint the Feast of expiation, the solemn Feast of Humiliation, in that month of the year, in which sin entered into the World, why he also did not appoint it upon the same day in which sin entered, viz. the sixth day of the month, but on the tenth.  
The reason of this is to be found out by observing Moses his Fasts in the mount, and the conclusion of the last of them.  
That he fasted thrice forty days, is not so frequently observed, as it easily may be concluded from his own words.  
The first Fast in Exod. 24. 18. And Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights: At the end of these days they made the golden calf.  
The second Fast, Exod. 32. 30, 31. It came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the People, Ye have sinned a great sin●e, and now I will go up into the mount, &c. and Moses returned unto the Lord, &c. which he explaineth, Deut. 9 18. I fell down● before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights, &c.  
The third Fast when he goeth up with the new hewed Tables. Ex●d. 34. 28. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights, &c.  
All which being reckoned together from the day after the giving of the ten commandments, or from the seventh day of the month Sivan, it will be found that his last fast, when he had obtained pardon for Israel, and the Tables renewed, ended on the tenth day of Tisri: on which day he came down with the glad tidings of reconciliation: in mem●riall of which, that day was ever after observed for the Feast of expiation: upon the tyding● of this, and of the making of the Tabernacle the People begin to dispose of their tents, and to build them booths, because it will be long ere the work be finished, and they remove from Sinai: for this the fifteenth day of the month is instituted for the feast of Tabernacles, ever after.  
Hence forward is the Tabernacle begun, and is half a yeer● in making within a very little.   

SECT. XXXI. The sornte, or Idea, and representation of the Tabernacle.  
THe form and fabrick● of the Tabernacle is thrice re●earsed in the pattern, in the making, and in the setting up, as if by this threefold cord of description, the Holy Ghost would draw all to a serious observation.  
Moses saw a glorious Tabernacle pitched in Mount Sinai to be the pattern of his, as his was to be the pattern of a more glorious: According to the exact form of this that he saw, was he to make his: This taught Moses and Israel, that the making and service of their Tabernacle, did only serve to the pattern and shadow of heavenly things, Heb. 8. 5. Christ is the true Tabernacle, by, and in whom God dwelleth among men. Joh. 2. 21. Heb. 9 11. Now as there was a Tabernacle pitched before God in Sinai, before there was one made in Israel, so was Christ's inca●nation in the decree of God, long before he was exhibited in the flesh. Upon the making of Moses his Tabernacle, this in the mount vanished, as that of Moses was to do upon the coming of the true one, Christ.  
The Tabernacle was Israel's movable Temple, and so at every flitting might teach them to look for one that should not be moved. It consisted of three parts, the holiest, the holy, and the Court, as our Churches do, of the chancel, Church, and Churchy●rd. It was always pitched East and West, whensoever it was set down, as our Churches stand, but with this difference, that the chiefest place in the Tabernacle, or holiest of all, answering to our Chancels, stood Westward, and Israel worshipped with their faces Westward, because they would not imitate the Heathen, who worshipped towards the sunrising. And in their services looked always towards us Gentiles in the West, as expecting us to be joined to their God with them.   

SECT. XXXII. The dimensions of the Tabernacle.  
THe Tabernacle was thirty cubits long, for twenty planks of a cubit and a half breadth apiece made one side, or the length of it, and it was ten cubits broad, as shall appe●re hereafter. But first observe these two things.  
First, That those which are translated boards, were indeed planks of a good thickness, even of nine inches thick apiece, for it is said, in the fastening of the sides of the Tabernacle, that a bar of Shittim wood, ran through the thickness of the boards, as they stood edging oneto another. Now this bar was no small one, for it was the chief strength of the side, and therefore must have a large hole bored to run through, and consequently, it must be a thick plank that would bear such a hole, and not an inch, or two inch board.  
Secondly, The cubi● by which the Tabornacle is measured, was but half a yard, or the common cubit, and not the Sanctuary or holy cubit, which was a full yard. For, first, it is said that every plank was a cubi● and a hal●e broad; if this were a yard and a half, do but imagine where planks of such a breadth should be had: Secondly, every plank was ten cubits long; if this were ten yards, imagine how they should be carried: Thirdly, every two silver Bases were as long as a plank was broad; now two talents would fall short of reaching to a yard and an half. Lastly, the Altar of burnt offering was three cubits high; if this were three yards, who could reach to serve at it? These things considered, you find that the cubit here spoken of, is but half a yard, and this will help well in measuring all the things to be spoken of after.   

SECT. XXXIII. The people's contribution to the silver foundation: and its form and posture.  
MEasure out in your imagination, an unequal square, or a plot of ground, of thirty cubits, or fifteen yards long, and of ten cubits or five yards broad, such was the compass of the Tabernacle betwixt Wall and Wall. The Foundation was of massy pieces of silver, showing the solidity and purity of the truth, whereupon the Church is founded; Of these massy pieces there were an hundred in all, and in every piece was a talon of silver. Every man in Israel from twenty years old and upward, was to give half a Shekel, towards these foundation pieces, whereas for other things they were not bound to a setsumme, but to give what their hearts moved them. This might teach them, that to the fundamentals of their Religion, they were all bound, but to other things, each one according to the gift given him. Their manner of giving half a Shekel, you find Exod. 36. 26, 27, 28. thus. There were numbered of Israel, from twenty years old, and upward, six hundred thousand, and three thousand five hundred and fifty men. Reckon thus; The talon of the Sanctuary, contained 120 pound, the pound 25 shekels, or 50 half shekels, so that every talon contained 3000. shekels, or 6000. halves: so that six hundred thousand half shekels, given by six hundred thousand men, do amount to a hundred talents: Now there were three thousand five hundred and fifty men besides, which gave so many half shekels, or one thousand seven hundred seventy five whole ones, with which were made the hooks of pillars, &c. Exod. 38. 28. These hundred Talents of silver were thus wrought. Each one was cast into a solid piece of thirteen inches and a half long, and nine inches square; in the side that lay upward was a morteise hole, near unto the end, now two and two were laid close together, end to end, and the morteises were not in the ends that joined, but in the outmost ends.  
Now every plank, whereof the sides were made, was in height five yards, but in breadth three quarters, just as broad as two of these pieces of silver were long, at the foot of the plank, at either corner was a tenon made, the plank being cut down, or abating so much between the tenons, as the tenons themselves were in length, so that when the tenons were shrunk in the morteises, the middle of the plank settled upon the pieces or Bases.   

SECT. XXXIV. The walls and juncture of the Tabernacle.  
THese silver Bases than were thus laid: forty at the South side, forty at the North side, and sixteen at the West end, laid as close together as was possible, so that though there were so many pieces, yet was it but one entire foundation; Here are fourscore and fifteen of the hundred talents disposed of, in the two sides and the West end, what became of the four talents remaining, and of the East end, we shall see hereafter.  
These Bases thus laid, the planks were set in them, one plank taking up two Bases, twenty planks making the South side, and twenty the North, and eight the West end; these were five yards long apiece, and so when they were set up, they made the Tabernacle five yards and a little more, high upon the walls; Now for the making of these planks sure, and to stand steadfast, the two corner planks were great helps, of which first, you remember the length of the sides, namely fifteen yards or twenty planks, of three quarters breadth apiece. The West end had six planks entire, besides a plank at either corner, jointing end and sides together. These corner planks were of the same breadth that all the other were, and thus set: The middle of the breadth of the one plank, was laid close to the end of the South side, or to that plank that was furthest West, so that a quarter of a yard of the breadth of the corner plank, was inward, to make up the Tabernacle breadth, a quarter was taken up with the thickness of the side plank to which it joined, and a quarter lay outward.  
Thus at the South-west, just so was it at the northwest corner. Then count; the two corner planks were inward a quarter of a yard apiece, and the six planks that stood between them of three quarters apiece, behold five yards, just the breadth of the house between wall and wall. These corners knit end and side together, and were strength of the building, as Christ is of his Church, making Jews and Gentiles one spiritual Temple.  
Besides these corners strengthening the fabric, there were seven bonds to make all sure. First, planks to planks were close jointed at the foot, so that the Text calls them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, or twins. Secondly, each plank was linked to the next, at the top, with a golden link. Thirdly, on the side, staples of Gold were fastened in every plank, so that four bars of Shittim wood, overlaid with Gold, were carried in the staples, from one end of the Tabernacle to another. Besides these, there was also another bar of the same wood, that ran from end to end, through the body or thickness of the planks, a hole being bored through each plank for the purpose. By these bars Christ is fitly resembled, who is conveyed throughout the whole Scripture, in the rings of diverse passages and stories; In the fourth Chapter of the Ephesians, there are seven bonds that bind the Church to unity; First, one body; secondly, one spirit; thirdly, one hope of our calling; fourthly, one Lord; fifthly, one Faith; sixthly, one baptism; seventhly, one God and Father of all.  
Now view in imagination the body of the Tabernacle, as it stands only planked [without any more addition to it] with planks of Shittim wood. The length fifteen yards from end to end, the breadth five yards from side to side. The sides and West end planked up five yards high and somewhat more, the foundation of those planks, massy pieces of silver: The top of the house, and the East end left open, till they be covered hereafter: First then of the covering of the top, and sides, and West end.   

SECT. XXXV. Of the curtains of the Tabernacle.  
THe Tabernacle was bounded with curtains [as lightest for carriage] which curtains covered top and sides. These curtains were Tapestry work: The ground was of fine yarn died blue, Purple, and Scarlet, woven together; the embroidery was of Pictures of Cherubims.  
These curtains were in number ten, each one being twenty eight cubits, or fourteen yards long, & four cubits or two yards broad: They were sewed together five curtains in one piece, and five in another: so that they made two large pieces of Tapestry of fourteen yards long, and ten yards broad. These two pieces are called couplings, Exod. 26. 5. And these two were thus joined together. In the edge of either, were made fifty loops of blue tape, one answerable or correspondent to another; or one over against another; and with fifty hooks or clasps of gold, he linked the loops together, and so the two main pieces were made one covering or Tabernacle, Exod. 36. 13.  
Quest. Why were not all the ten curtains sewed together on one piece, but five and five sewed together, to make two pieces, and then those two thus looped together with a button or clasp of gold?  
Answ. First, the Tabernacle consisted of two parts; the holy place, and the most holy: which two were divided one from another by a veil; of which hereafter: Now according to this division of the house, was also the division of the curtains. For Exod. 26. 32. it is plain that the veil that parted the holy from the most holy, was hung just under these golden clasps that knit the five and five curtains together: So that five curtains lay over the holy place, and the other five over the most holy, but with this difference: The holy place was ten yards long, and the five curtains sewed together were just so broad, and so they covered only the top and sides, but hung not down at the end, which was Eastward; but the most holy was but five yards long, and the five curtains over, that did not only cover the top, but also hung down at the West end, to the silver bases.  
Secondly, the looping together of the curtains, five and five on a piece, with a golden tye, doth sweetly resemble the uniting of the two natures in Christ, divinity and humanity, into one person, which two natures were not confounded, as curtains sewed together, but were sweetly knit together by golden and ineffable union.  
Thirdly, this might also fully signify the two Churches of Jews and Gentiles, knit together by Christ, that so they make but one spiritual Tabernacle.  
Now come and measure the curtains again, imagining them thrown length way over the Tabernacle: they were fourteen yards long, and twenty yards broad, when they were all sewed and looped together: This breadth covered the length of the building, which was fifteen yards, and it hung down behind the West end, even to the foundation. The East end was still left open. Of the length of them, five yards were taken up in covering the flat top of the house, which was five yards broad between wall and wall: A quarter of a yard was taken up on either side, with covering the thickness of the planks: so that on either side they hung down four yards and one quarter, which was three quarters of a yard short of the silver foundation, or little less.   

SECT. XXXVI. Of the goat-hair curtains.  
TO help this defect, as also to shelter the rich curtains from weather, were made curtains of goat's hair, eleven in number; in breadth each one two yards, as was the breadth of other, but being one curtain more than the other, they were two yards broader than the other, when they were all coupled together. Each curtain was thirty cubits, or fifteen yards long, and consequently a yardlonger than those spoken of before. These were sewed, six together on one piece, and five on another. These two main pieces were linked together, with fifty clasps of brass, as the other were with fifty of gold. But when these curtains were laid upon the other over the Tabernacle, they were not so laid as these brazen loops, did light just upon the golden ones, over the veil, but three quarters of a yard more Westward, so that the five curtains that went West did reach to the ground, and half a curtain to spare, Exod. 26. 12. The other six that lay East, reached to the end, covered the pillars whereon that veil hung, and they hung half a curtain breadth, or a yard over the entrance. Their length of fifteen: yards reached half a yard lower on either side, than the other curtains did, and yet they came not to the ground by a quarter of a yard, so that the silver foundations were always plain to be seen, everywhere but at the West end.  
Thus had the Tabernacle two coverings of curtains; yet both these on the flat roof would not hold out rains, and weather, wherefore there was made for the top a covering of rams skins died red, signifying well the blood of Christ the shelter of the Church.  
Above that was also another covering of Tahash skins, a beast not perfectly known what he was, but well Englished, a Badger, and guessed well because of his during hide. Thus if you view this building erected, and thus covered, you see the silver foundation always open to view. Half a yard above that hid only under one curtain: all the side above that under two, and the top with four.   

SECT. XXXVII. Of the most holy place.  
THe Priests entered into the Tabernacle at the East end of it, and so must we; where pace up ten yards forward, and you come to the veil which parted between the Holy place, and the most Holy of all. The holiest place of all, was filled and furnished before the veil was hung up, and so it shall be first handled. This place was five yards long, five yards high, and five yards broad; a perfect square, the figure of firmness, herein fitly signifying Heaven.  
In this place, at the West end, stood the ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the world, Joh. 3. 11. typifying Christ, by whom God is come into Covenant with Gentiles as well as Jews.  
The ark was made like a Chest, hollow, that it might receive things within it. It was a yard and a quarter long, and three quarters broad, and three quarters high, made of Shittim boards, and it was gilded both within and without, representing Christ's purity, both in inward thoughts and outward actions. It had no feet, but the bottom stood upon the ground, a figure of Christ's abasing himself upon the earth. On the outside of the uppermost brink was made a Golden Crown round about, representing [say the Jews] the crown of the Law, but most fitly, Christ Crowned with glory. At each corner was struck in, a staple or ●ing of Gold, wherein were put two staves of Shittim wood gilded over, to bear the ark withal, which staves were never to be taken out, but there to stay continually, teaching the Priests, as some say, to be ready pressed for their service: but rather shadowing out Christ's Deity, supporting his humanity, never to be parted from it. Now for the cover of this chest, or ark, it was made of pure Gold, beaten or formed to the just length and breadth of the ark, that when it was laid on it touched the Golden crown round about. At either end was made a Cherub, or the form of an angel, like a child, standing bowed, with wings reaching over the ark, so that the wings of one Cherub touched the wings of another. They were of Gold, beaten out of the same piece that the cover of the ark was of. Their faces were one to another, and both toward to the cover of the ark. This cover both by the Old and New Testament, is called the Propitiatory, vulgarly in our English, the Mercy-seat. So called, because from hence God mercifully spoke to his People. View this part well, and you see Christ fully.  
First, the two Cherubims bowed toward the Mercy-seat. So all Angels to Christ.  
Secondly, They looked each at other, but both toward the Mercy-seat. So both Testaments Old and New, look each at other, and both at Christ. So do the two Churches, of Jews and Gentiles.  
Thirdly, This covered the Law: so doth Christ that it plead not against his people to condemn them.  
Fourthly, God speaks to Israel from hence, so God by Christ to us, Heb. 1. 2.   

SECT. XXXVIII. Of the Holy place without the veil.  
THus was the Sanctum Sanctorum, or the most holy of all: for fabric and furniture. To separate this from the holy place was hung up a veil, of the same stuff and work that the rich curtains of the Tabernacle were: The hanging up of this veil was thus: Just under the golden clasps that linked the curtains together, were set up four pillars of Shittim wood gilded over, upon four Bases of silver, such as the planks stood upon, and these make up the hundred pieces, or Talents spoken of before: The pillars stood a yard from each other, and the two outmost stood a yard from the walk; at the top of each pillar was fastened a golden hook, on the which the veil hung, five yards broad, and five yards high; This veil represented Christ's flesh or humanity, celebrated by four Evangelists, the four Pillars that bear up that story.  
This place without the veil was ten yards long and five yards broad: Into this might the Priests come, and Moses the Prince by a special warrant. The furniture of this was, the showbread Table, the golden Candlestick, and the gilded Altar.   

SECT. XXXIX. The Table of showbread.  
ON the P●iests right hand, as he walked up this place was the Table of showbread, of this form and matter, and for this end.  
A Table frame was made two cubits long, and a cubit broad, and a cubit and a half high; the matter of it was Shittim wood all overlaid with Gold: equal with the top of the frame was a curious wrought border of gold, of a hand breadth; the higher edge equal with the top of the frame, and the border so broad below; on the higher edge of this border was set a golden crown, which went quite about the frame, and within this crown was the cover laid; At each corner or foot was fastened a staple or ring of gold, close by the lower edge of the golden border. As the feet, so these rings were four, wherein were put staves of Shittim wood gilt with gold, to bear the Table.  
Upon this Table were set twelve Cakes or Loaves, resembling the twelve Tribes, who had their daily bread from God. As on Aaron's shoulders, six and six names of Tribes, so on this Table six and six Cakes, for the Tribes were set one upon another. Each Cake had in it two Omers, which measure was significative. For so much Manna every Israelite gathered against the Sabbath in the wilderness, Exod. 16. and on the Sabbath were these Cakes set on the Table, to put Israel in mind by the very measure and day of their sustenance in the wilderness. These Cakes were called the bread of faces, and the Table, the Table of faces, because they were set before God continually; showing that Israel's provision was from and before God.  
Under the lowest Cake was 
* {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  a golden dish wherein that Cake lay, and between every Cake was 
* {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  a golden dish: on the top of either row lay 
* {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  a golden dish whelmed down; and upon that stood 
* {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  a dish of Gold with Frankincense in it. These told Israel of God's special providence toward every several Tribe.   

SECT. XL. The Golden candlestick.  
OVer against this Table on the South side or on the left hand stood the golden candlestick of one massy piece. The form of it was thus; The foot of it was of Gold, from which there went up a shaft straight, which was the middle light; 〈◊〉 the foot was a golden dish wrought Almond wise, and a little above that a golden knop, and above that a golden flower.  
Then issued out two branches on either side one, which were carried bowed in equal rate till they might be brought up straight to be as high as the middle shaft out of which they proceeded. Upon either of these branches were wrought three golden Cups Almond-wise, that is, on sharp Scollop shell fashion, for ornament; above which was a golden knop or boss, and above that a golden flower, and near above that the socket wherein the light was to be set. Thus were these two lowest branches: Above which, in the middle shaft was a golden boss, and then out came two branches more in formejust like the other; above the coming out of which in the shaft was another knop or boss, and out came two others like the former; from thence the shaft upward was decked with three golden Scollop cups or dishes, a knop and flower. Thus the head of all the branches stood in an equal height and distance. Here were seven golden Candlesticks representing the seven Spirits of the Messiah, spoken of Esay 11. 2. 3. and from thence by the Talmudists and Apocalyptique. The variety of sevens here might remember Israel of the seven days of Creation. As the twelve Cakes represented the twelve Tribes, so the light of the candlestick set before them, signified the light of the Law whereby they were to be guided: And the lights always standing here, as well as the Loaves there, tell Israel that they have as much need of this as of their daily su●tenance.   

SECT. XLI. The Altar of Incense.  
Between the candlestick and the Table stood the Altar of Incense: fitly teaching that it is the incense of prayer that sanctifies both our spiritual food signified by the light of the Candles, and our bodily food by the loaves. This Altar was made of Shittim wood, overlaid with gold: It was a cubit long, as much broad, and two cubits high. At each corner it had a horn, made of the same piece with the corner post; horns, top and side were all gilded with gold: On the end of the frame upward was set a 
* {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  golden crown; at the foot of which crown, on either side were struck two golden rings or staples, in which were put two staves of Shittim wood, overlaid with gold to bear this Altar withal. This Altar was set near the veil, just in the midst of the breadth of the room [before the midst of the ark which was within the veil] distant from either wall two yards and a quarter. On the north side of it stood the Table, which being set length way to the wall, took up half a yard of the breadth of the house: so between it and the Altar was a passage or way a yard and quarter broad. The candlestick was of the same br●adth with his branches spread, that the Table was oflength, and so was set over against it, showing five inches between every socket wanting one inch at the whole: This being set as far from the wall as the outmost edge of the Table that stood on the other side of the house, afforded the same space between the Al●ar and it that the Table did. Thus was the furniture of this place called the Holy. Go● into it at the East end, and look just before you, and there is the veil and golden Altar: on your right hand nigh the veil twelve loaves on a golden Table: on your left hand seven lamps burning in seven golden Candlesticks made of one piece, by which you see golden snuffers and dishes for the cleansing of the lamps morning and night. Look upon the walls on either side, and you see nothing but gold; over your head, and there you behold pictures of Cherubims curiously wrought in rich curtains: It is not fit every eye should see so rich a room; therefore to prevent this, the east end had a hanging like the veil within, of the same dimensions, and of the same matterials wrought with needle. This was hung upon five Pillars of Shittim wood overlaid with gold, each Pillar was fastened in a base of brass, and at the top had a golden hook on which the covering hung.  
Quest. Whether was the veil hung within the Pillars or without?  
Answ. Without, so that it hid the Pillars from the view of the people, else had not the building been uniform, all the Timber of the housebing hid with hangings, and this not. Thus was the Tabernacle made, with all the furniture of it; Now are we to consider the outmost part of it, or the Court of the people.   

SECT. XLII. Of the Court of the people.  
THis fabric of the Tabernacle was enclosed with another pale of curtains hanging round about it. On the South side of the house, twenty cubits distant from the house, were set a row of Shittim Pillars, twenty in number: Each Pillar was set in a base of brass distant from each other five cubits, counting from the middle of one Pillar to another. So that the twenty made a length of an hundred cubits: in each Pillar was struck a hook of silver, and each Pillar had a border of silver wrought about it. Thus were they on the South side, just so were they on the North. At the West end, 35. cubits from the house were set ten Pillars in the same manner and distance, making the breadth of the Cou●t fifty cubits at either end, for just in the middle, the house took up ten cubits' breadth: just so were the Pillars set at the East end, at the same distance from the house, and from one another. On the sides upon the hooks of the Pillars were hangings fastened, made of linen well twisted, of an hundred cubits in length and five in height, at the west end were the like, just half so long, and just so high: At the East end there was some difference, for that had three pieces to make it up. On either side of the entrance was a piece hung of fifteen cubits long, and of the same height: Just in the middle was a piece of twenty cubits long; of the same height with the other hangings, but of more rich stuff; for whereas the other were made only of linen, this was of the same stuff that the rich c●rtaines were, curiously wrought with the needle. To fasten these hangings that they might not fly up in the lower end, there were cords fastened to them, and these cords tied to brazen pins, which pins were fastened in the ground, and so made all sure. Thus were also the curtains that covered the house served with pins of the same metal, with cords fastened to them in like manner, to prevent the like inconvenience. So was the Court called the Court of the people, because into this the people had entrance, as well as the Priests and Levites.   

SECT. XLIII. Of the Altar of Burnt Offerings.  
IN the Court of the people stood the Altar of burnt sacrifice up toward the Tabernacle, that the people might stand to beho d the sacrifice offered, with their faces toward the holy place; only the Laver stood above the Altar between it and the Tab●●nacle.  
This Altar was made of Shittim wood, five cubits or two yards and a half long, and as much broad, and one yard and a half high, thus made: First a strong frame like the frame of a Table of these dimensions: The open places in the frame were made up with boards. All this bulk was overlaid with brass, at each corner was a horn made of the same wood and piece that each corner post was of. Thus stood it hollow, and within the hollow, just in the middle between bottom and top, was set a brazen grate, made in manner of a net, that the Ashes might fall through; upon this grate the fire burned continually and never went out. At each corner of this grate was a brazen ring, which at each corner came through the Altar frame and hung out of the frame; in these rings were ●●aves of Shittim wood overlaid with brass, put, which made the frame, and the grate sure together, and so were they also carried together.  
To this Altar belonged divers appurtenances made of brass: As first brazen Pans, in which they carried forth the Ashes of the Altar. As also brazen shovels to scrape the Ashes together. Then brazen bason● wherein to take the blood of the sacrifice: brazen hooks, with which they turned the burning pieces into the fire if any part lay out, that so every part might be surely burnt. Lastly, brazen dishes or Censors, in which the Priests took burning coals from the Altar to carry into the Holy place, there to offer incense.   

SECT. XLIIII. Of the Laver for water.  
IN this court also stood a vessel of brass, upon a foot or base of brass, in which vessel water was kept for the Priests washing themselves, &c. The form of this is not expressed in the Text, therefore we will look only at the matter and the end. This vessel was made of brazen bright pieces, which the women used to look their faces in: and out of this piece water was taken when a suspected woman was to be tried. The end why this was set so nigh the Altar was, that the Priests might wash themselves when they went about the service of the Tabernacle, and that they might wash some part of the sacrifices. This Laver fitly resembled the water of baptism that admits us to sacred Mysteries, and chiefly the blood of Christ that cleanseth us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.   

SECT. XLVI. High Priests Garments.  
NExt unto his flesh he had a coat wrought chequer work, this reached down to his heels: such a coat as this each one 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  of his sons had, Exod. 39 27. This was made of fine linen: and it was girded to him about his loins, with a needle-wrought girdle, of divers colours.  
About this he put another coat, called the coat of the Ephod, because the Ephod, being put upon this did gird it. This 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  coat was all of one stuff and colour, namely of fine yarn died purple. This coat he put not on after the ordinary fashion of putting on coats which were open before, but this he put on like a surplice, over his head, for it had a hole in the top wherethrough he put his head, and this hole w●s edged about with an edging of the same stuff woven in, that the hole should not rent. At the skirts of this coat, were made Pomegranates of linen and woollen of divers colours, and Bells of gold, so that there were a Bell and a Pomegranate, a Bell and a Pomegranate, round about: This coat was not so long as the under coat, for then the Bells would have drawn on the ground, and would not have been heard, which to have missed had been death to Aaron: this represented to the Priests, that the sound of good doctrine, and fruit of good living, must always be about them, as these Bells and Pomegranates: This coat also did fitly resemble Christ's human nature. First, as this was of one stuff without mixture, so that, without corruption. Secondly, as this was put on after an extraordinary manner, so Christ put on humanity by an extraordinary conception and generation. Thirdly, as was the edge about the hole to keep it from renting, such was the unseparable union of Christ's two natures. Fourthly, as were the Bells and Pomegranates, such were his life and doctrine.   

SECT. XLVII. High Priests Ephod.  
ABove this he put the Ephod, the materials of which were fine yarn or threads died blue, and purple, and scarlet, and 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  with every thread of these, was twisted a thread of gold, fitly showing the purity and holiness of the Priest in every action, as also most fitly resembling the lustre of the deity shining in each of Christ's human actions.  
The word Ephod, doth generally signify any thing that girdeth a man, so the word originally signifies. More particularly it betokens garments or other things used in divine servic●: So Samuel ministered before Eli in a linen Ephod, or a linen coat girded to him. So David when he brought up the ark to Jerusalem, being desirous to be as Priest-like as he might, he was clothed with such a garment, a linen Ephod: So the abomination which Gideon made Judg. 8. 27. is called an Ephod. Because he made it to resemble that Ephod which he had seen upon the High Priest at Shiloh. Most especially the Ephod signifies the upmost garment of the High Priest when he served at the Altar or Tabernacle. The form of this was somewhat like the aprons which some workmen wear, tied over their shoulders and covering their breast: Such was this, a rich piece of stuff, of the materials before named, the breadth of the priest's breast; at either side it had a shoulder piece of the same piece, which went over the priest's shoulders and were fastened behind one to another: Before his breast the piece came down to his paps, and there was the lower edge of it, upon which was woven a piece to gird it withal, of the same stuff and piece, so that it was girded over his paps or heart; whence John speaketh, when he saith, he saw Christ girded about the Paps with a golden girdle, Apoc. 1. 13. Upon the shoulder pe●ces were two precious s●ones set in ouches of gold, one on the one side, and another on the other. The stones were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or beryl, vulgarly Onyx, the stone which among the twelve belonged to Joseph. In these two stones were engraven the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel, ●ixe on one and ●ixe on another.  
Thus when the Priest appeared before the Lord, he bare the charge of all Israel upon his shoulders: A full resemblance of Christ.  
Upon the shoulder pieces likewise were two bosses of gold near to these stones, unto which the gold chains that tied the breastplate to the Ephod, were made so fast that they might not part one from another. Thus was the curious work of the Ephod, with its girdle and other appurtenances, a full signification of the preciousness, and yet heavy charge of the Priesthood.   

SECT. XLVIII. The breastplate.  
Upon the Ephod was the breastplate fastened; it was called the breastplate of Judgement, because from it God answered 
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  by Urim and Thummim, Numb. 27. 21. The materials of this were the same that the Ephods were, viz. Fine yarn or thread, of various colours, and a thread of gold twisted with each, which thread woven together, made as it were cloth of gold. This breastplate was of this clo●th, of such a piece, as when it was folded double, was a just square of a span every way: Thus as the best part of all the Tabernacle, viz. the most holy, was a perfect square, so is the best piece of Aaron's garments. This piece was double, because of the weight of the ston●s in it, which required that it should be stro●g.  
In this piece were twelve precious stones, set in four rows, three in a row, every stone bearing upon it the Name of a Tribe.  
First, 1 Reuben, 2 Simeon, 3 Levi.  
Second, 1 Judah, 2 Issachar, 3 Zabulun.  
Third, 1 Dan, 2 Naphthali, 3 G●d.  
Fourth, 1 Asher, 2 Joseph, 3 Benjamin.   

SECT. XLIX. Of the Urim and Thummim.  
THat Urim and Thummim should be nothing but the name Jehovah written and put into the breastplate, as some have held, ●avours more of exorcism than a divine Oracle.  
Or that the lustre, or dimness of the twelve stones should be the Oracle, as others, is as strange a fancy as the former, if we consider the particulars of Answers that have been given: As among others, that of David's, Whither shall I go? the Vrim answered, to Hebron.  
This impossibility others having espied, have averred that the urim consisted of the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Twelve Tribes, and that when a question was asked, the letters that served to give the answer, either rose up above the others, or else met strangely together, and made words to give an answer. But if the letter T●th were to be spelled in the answer, where was it to be had?  
Leaving then these and other conjectures, let us see what light the Scripture will give us concerning these things.  
First, Urim and Thummim were not two things, but one and the same thing, and for this reason, they are called sometime by by a single name, Num. 27. 21. 1 Sam. 28. 6. &c.  
Secondly, the stones in the High priest's breastplate, are called the Urim and Thummim, Exod. 28. 30.  
Thirdly, when God answered by Urim and Thummim, the a●swer was not given by any appearance in the stones, but by the mouth of the Priest. Num. 27. 21.  
Fourthly, the Priest when he was to receive his answer, was to have the Ephod on, 1 Sam. 23. 9  
Lastly, the Priest when he was to receive an answer, stood b●fore the ark, Judg. 20. 27. 28.  
The manner then of inquiring of the Lord by Urim and Thummim, was thus.  
The things to be inquired of must be of weight and generality: for the stones represented the Judgement of all the people, Exod. 28. 30. therefore the inquiry by them must concern the general: Such was the general question at Shiloh, Judg. 1. 2. Who shall first set upon the Canaanites? Such was that of all Israel: Shall I go up against my Brother Benjamin? Judg. 20. 23. and divers others.  
When such a scruple was to be resolved, it was told to the High Priest what he should ask: So did David wish Abin●tech the High Priest at Nob to inquire whether his journey should prosper, 1 Sam. 22. 10. So did the Danites to the feigned Idolatrous High Priest, Judg. 18. 5. The Priest knowing what to ask, put on the Ephod and breastplate, which hung unseparably at it. This do David's words mean, when he saith to Abiathar the Priest, Bring hither the Ephod, 1 Sam. 23. 9 And for this it was that Abiathar made sure of the Ephod, when he fled from bleeding Nob, 1 Sam. 23. 6. Without the stones on his breast, the Priest inquired not: for the stones represented Israel, and when the Priest brought them before the Lord, he brought as it were Israel and their matters before him. To go without these was to go without his errand. If Saul's conscience could have told him of no other cause whyGod would not answer him, as it might many, yet he might see this to be one reason undoubted, viz. Because though he had the ark near him, yet had he neither High Priest nor Ephod; and seeing his cross in this that he could not be answered, his conscience might tell him what he did when he slew the Priests of the Lord.  
When the Priest knew what to inquire about, and had put on these habiliments, he went and stood before the ark of the Lord, and inquired about the matter, and the Lord answered him from off the Propitiatory from between the Cherubims, and so the Priest answered the People. Now there was some difference in the priest's manner of inquiring, according to the situation of the ark, when the Tabernacle was up, the Priest went into the holy Place, and stood close by the veil which parted the holy from the most holy, and there inquired, and God from between the Cherubims which were within the veil, gave him an answer.  
But when the Tabernacle was down, or the ark distant from the Tabernacle, travelling up and down, then did the Priest in his Robes stand before the ark, as it stood covered with the curtains, and inquired, and the answer was given him, in behalf of Israel whom God saw on his breast: For this reason the stones, for whose sakes the perfect light of resolution was given, are called the perfect light or Urim and Thummim, and the answer given from the priest's month is called the answer by Urim and Thummim.  
David once inquired of the Priest, having the Ephod, but wanting the ark, and God answered him, and showed him that God was not bound to means. On the contrary Saul once inquired of the ark, wanting the Ephod, and God answered him not, showing him how God honoured his Priests whom Saul had dishonoured, even to the Sword.  
Thus have we seen the breastplates form, richness and glory. Form, foursquare a span every way: the richness, it was set with twelve precious stones: the glory, that for the sake of these stones, that is, for their sakes whose names these stones bare, God revealed secrets to his people. See this breastplate fastened to the Ephod, and you see Aaron the High Priest arrayed in his glorious garments. At each corner of the breastplate, was a golden ring fastened. On the upper side of the piece, just upon the edge, was laid a little golden chain, which ran like an edging lace upon the edge, and was brought through the two rings which were at either corner one, and the ends of the chains were made fast to bosses or loops of gold which were on the shoulder pieces of the Ephod by the Onyx stones. At the lower edge of the breastplate was an edging chain, carried just in the same manner that the other was, through two gold rings, and the chains tied to the embroidered girdle of the Ephod, as the other were to the shoulder pieces. Breastplate and Ephod might not be parted, no more than might the Staves and ark.   

SECT. L. The erection of the Tabernacle.  
IN the year of the World two thousand five hundred and fourteen, which was the second year current of Israel's departure out of Egypt, in the month Abi●, or the first month Stilo novo, in the first day of the month, Moses set up the Sanctuary under mount Sinai, and this was the manner of his setting it up.  
He laid the silver foundations in their ranks, and in them he set up the planks and strengthened them with the five bars, linking them also together at the top with a golden hasp. He set up the four Pillars in the house whereon to hang the veil, and the five pillars at the East end whereon to hang that veil also. He set the ark in the most holy place, hanging up the veil before it. In the holy place he set the Table and showbread on the North side, and the candlestick on the South, and the Altar of perfume, just in the middle betwixt them: And at the East end he hung up the veil to keep these things from vulgar eyes.  
The Altar and Laver he set up before the entrance, and encompassed them, and the Tabernacle it sel●e with a pale of hangings round about.  
Thus was the Sanctuary erected, and was lovely to them that beheld it, being the glory and the strength of Israel. Then did the cloud of glory flit from off the Tent of Moses, and lighted upon the Sanctuary, and dwelled there more gloriously then on the other.  
And thus endeth Exodus in a cloud, under which we are to look for a more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, nor of this building, in which the godhead ●hould dwell bodily.   
FINIS.  

Judico Libellum hunc (cui titulus, A handful of Gleanings out of the book of Exodus) insigni doctrina refertum, summa cum utilitate imprimendum.  
Ja. Cranford.