CHAP. XXXIII.
Vers. 2. ANd Moses wrote] Moses was primus in historia, as Martial saith of Salust.
Vers. 4. For the Egyptians buried] As iron is very soft, and malleable, whiles in the fire; but soon after, returns to its former hardness: so was it with these Egyptians. Affliction meekneth men: hence affliction and meeknesse grow upon the same Hebrew root.
Vers. 29. From Mithcah] Which signifies sweetnesse.
And pitched in Chasmonah] Which signifies swiftnesse. We must also, when we have tasted of Gods sweetness, use all pos∣sible swiftness in the wayes of holiness: as Jacob, when he had seen visions of God at Bethel, he lift up his feet,* and went on his way lustily, like a generous horse after a bait; or a giant after his wine; the joy of the Lord is your strength, Neh. 8.
Vers. 38. And dyed there in the fourtieth year] Nec te tua plu∣rimaPage 70Penthe• Labentem texît pietas. — The righteous dye as well as the wicked; yea the righteous oft before the wicked: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, God sends his servants to bed, when they have done their work; as here he did Aaron: and as within these few dayes, he hath done, (to mine unspeakable loss and grief,) my dearest brother, and most faithful friend, Mr. Thomas Jackson, that able and active instrument of Gods glory, (while he lived) in the work of the Ministery at Glocester; the sad re∣port of whose death, received whilest I was writing these things, made the pen (almost) fall out of my singers; not for my own sake so much, as for my Countrey, whereof he was, I may truly say, * the Bul-wark and the Beauty; as Ambrose is said to have been the walls of Italy:〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, said Theodosius. Ambrose, whiles alive, was the only Minister, (to speak of) that I knew in the whole Countrey: And dilexi virum, qui cum corpore solveretur, magis de Ecclesia∣rum statu, juam de suis periculis angebatur, said the same Em∣perour, of the same Ambrose; I could not but love the man, for that when he dyed, his care was more for the Churches welfare, then for his own. I can safely say the same of the man in speech, (without offence to any be it spoken;) and I greatly fear, lest as the death of Ambrose fore-ran the ruine of Italy; so that it bodes no good to us, that God pulls such props and pillars out of our building. But this by way of digression, to satisfie my great grief for so dear a friend deceased, as David did his, for his bro∣ther Jonathan; and made him an Epitaph, 2 Sam. 1.17.
Vers. 52. Destroy all the pictures] Those Balaam's blocks, those excellent instruments of idolatry; such as was the rood of Hailes, and Cockra• rood; which if it would not serve to make a god, yet with a pair of horns clapt on his head, might make an excellent Devil; * as the Mayor of Doncaster perswaded the men of Cockram, who came to him, to complain of the Joyner that made it, and refused to pay him his money for the making of it.
Vers. 55. Shall be pricks in your eyes] The eye is the tenderest part, and soon vexed with the least mote that falls into it. These Jebusites preserved, should be notorious mischi•fs to them; as the Jesuites, at this day, are to those Christian States that ha•bour them. Shall we suffer those vipers to lodg in our bosomes, till they eat out our hearts? Sic notus Ʋlysses? Jesuites, like bells, Page 71will never be well tuned, till well hanged. Among much change of houses in forraign parts, they have two, famous for the ac∣cordance of their names; the one called the Bow at Nola, the other, the Arrow (la Flesc•e, given them by Henry 4, whom afterwards they villanously stabbed to death,) in France. Their Apostate Ferrier plaid upon them, in this distich:
