---- CHAPTER V: That the mercies of God's nature, in Exodus 34, are a prime object and support of f
the end of one's prayer, yet let them then take the advantage of that time and tide to pray over again afresh, and put in all they desire to pray for, or would have God do for them, for God is with them.
Now, what was Moses's petition? It follows, ver. 9 'And he said, Now if I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquities and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.' In which, as I said, he puts into use and practice (laying hold on the words now spoken by God) himself to speak a good word from thence for that people. The effect of which prayer is, that although they were indeed a stiffnecked people, as any in the world (this he first confessed), that yet God, for this his name's sake, would not leave them, but pardon their iniquities, and mine own too, Lord, says he, for the expression is,
'pardon our iniquities.' Which for God to do was the plain intent of his declaring it. And it is implied that God would do this not for the present only, but to continue to do it. He prays for the future as well as for the present when he says, 'Pardon our iniquities,' &c. This the words foregoing, 'for it is a stiff-necked people,' i.e., they will ever and anon be sinning against thee, and also the words that follow, do shew, 'Take us for thine inheritance,' says Moses, which words Calvin renders ut possideas nos, that thou mayest possess us for thine inheritance. As if he had said, says he, God cannot come to enjoy and possess his chosen as his inheritance, otherwise than by pardoning their sins continually; for man's frailty is such that they would, after his receiving pardon, fall from that grace, if they be not continually reconciled to him; which concerns us Gentiles as well as them then.
God must not only take us to be his, but keep us to be his, and continue to be merciful to us, according to this his great name, or we shall be utterly lost and undone.
CHAPTER V
That the mercies of God's nature, as they are proclaimed in Exodus 34, are a prime object and support of faith.
That this name of God, Exodus 34:6, 7, was an asylum or strong tower, unto which the faith of the most eminent saints of the Old
Testament had recourse, especially for forgiveness; and the evidence hereof carried through the times of the Old Testament, from Moses, by a cloud of witnesses, as Moses, David, Nehemiah, and the prophets.
This proclamation of grace being a magna charta of the Old Testament, was so highly valued by the prophets and saints of those times, that ever after it had been proclaimed to Moses, they had, throughout all ages,* frequent recourse thereto; and their wont was to make rehearsals of it upon several occasions, as either when particular mercies were to be obtained, or exhortations made to bring men in to God, or thanksgiving and praise offered. Their manner was upon such occasions to rehearse these words, but especially in the point of forgiveness. Besides that use that Moses made of it instantly upon the place, when God had done proclaiming it, he putting it presently in suit in all haste in the behalf of that people, the same Moses, in more cool blood, makes the same improvement of it in after times. And the occasion was another most heinous sin of murmuring committed by this people, and then he again urgeth God with these his own words for a forgiveness of them:
Num. 14:17, 18, 19, 'And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the impenitent,'—or perhaps, rather as others, 'clearing I will not clear;' that is, although he forgive, yet he will chastise, and not altogether leave unpunished,
—'visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation.'
Next comes David, who, although he had, over and above this proclamation of mercy, common to him with all the saints, a personal covenant of sure mercies particularly made and renewed to himself, yet, however, he had an usual recourse unto this more general refuge; of such use and valuation was it with him, and ought to be with us. Thus in Ps. 86, twice, in ver. 5 and 15, by way of prayer,
'Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy and truth; O have mercy upon me, and save me,' ver. 16. And then again, in another psalm, viz., 145, he brings in all the saints, with their hearts and mouths full of it, pouring forth in a way of praise (for in that channel the stream of that psalm runs) the very same words; having first said, ver. 7, 'They utter the memory of thy great goodness, and sing of thy righteousness.' Then in the next follows, as being their universal joint outcry, and the burden of their singing, 'The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy.' So as this was the general vogue of the saints of those times to cry this scripture up.
In Psalm 103 we have a reference to these words, yea, an express quotation of them. David repeats these very words of Moses in ver. 8,
'The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.' In which rehearsal there is not only a videtur alludere ad illud Mosis, an allusion, &c. (as Calvin), but a plain citing or quoting of the words, as having been spoken to Moses by name, and as punctually alleging them out of him in such a manner as we use to quote Jeremiah, Isaiah, or any other of the prophets' writings when we have occasion; for in the very words before, ver. 7, he says, 'He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.'
The coherence of which words, ver. 7, interpreters have wholly drawn up, and exhale into ver. 6, as if these words, 'He made known his ways to Moses,' were intended only for a particular instance of God's delivering the oppressed, as he had done the Israelites; because, in the verse before (ver. 5) say they, he had spoken of God's vindication of such as were oppressed. But some later critics have, to
a more ample scope, drawn those words of ver. 7, down to a coherence with the next, ver. 8, 'The Lord is merciful,' &c., the very words of God to Moses; and to justify this coherence rather than the former, those writers do pertinently compare the words which Moses had first spoken to God, chap. 33:13, with these of God's unto Moses in this chap. 34, which (say they) were spoken by God, as in answer unto what Moses had there said. Now, in the foregoing chapter,
Exod. 33:13, Moses had said, 'I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, I pray thee shew me thy way' (or thy ways, as Junius, and Drusius, and others render it), 'that I may know thee'; that is, say they, know thee by what thy inclination and disposition is, and dealings shall be towards this people; for, in the following words, he had presented before him the case of this people: 'Consider,' says he,
'that this nation is thy people'; and thereupon was further bold to ask, 'Shew me thy glory.' Upon which request on Moses's part it was, that God promiseth there to proclaim his name. Now, the Jewish writers* usually understand by thy ways, the properties of God, his inclination and disposition; by which, or from which, being inwardly in his nature moved, he outwardly goeth forth to dispense unto his people; and so by ways, in this speech of Moses, are complexly understood both the attributes of God's nature, as the root and the principles in his heart, or the original cause, and his dealings, proceeding from thence, as the effects; and to know what these ways were, was that thing which Moses desired of God, that he would fully reveal to him, that so he might know him, both for his own comfort, but especially in reference to what was, or how his mind stood, towards this people. And God in answer hereto did punctually, according to these two requests, first promise to do this for him: chap. 33:19, 'I will cause my goodness to pass before thee: and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee'; and then did perform it, in the words of my text: chap. 34:6, 'Proclaiming the name of the Lord, the Lord God, merciful,' &c. Hereupon these interpreters, comparing all these things together, are bold (and that rightly) to understand this passage in Ps. 103, 'He made known his ways to Moses,' to be meant both of that his name and properties proclaimed by God in Exodus unto Moses. What ways? (says Drusius on Exod.
33:13) or what properties? He is passionate for this explication of Moses; and that by ways God's purposes, innate dispositions, mores or ingenium should be meant. And before him Genebrard, out of the Jewish writers, doth the like on Ps. 103. Dr Hammond, on Ps. 103:7,
8, vehemently contends for the same coherence: The place (says he) evidently refers to Exod. 33, where Moses petitions God: 'Shew me thy way'; then, ver. 18, 'Shew me thy glory.' By his way and glory, meaning his nature, and his ways of dealing with men. 'And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and proclaim the name of the Lord;' by which his nature is signified; and what that name is, is set down by the enumerations of his attributes, chap.
34:6. He proclaimed the Lord merciful, gracious, &c., just as here (says he) in the Psalm, in the next verse, the Lord is merciful, &c.
Only Dr Hammond differs from the other in this, that he interprets by ways made known to Moses, God's manner of his dealings, or his actions, to be meant; and the following words, his acts, to the children of Israel, the word translated his acts he would have to import his nature and attributes that follow, according to his understanding the Hebrew phrase, &c.; but he and they all agree in that scope I allege this place for. And indeed the psalmist teacheth us that God's ways mean his inward dispositions, Ps. 103, for after he had said, 'He made his ways known to Moses,' he subjoins, 'The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy,' God thereby declaring at once to Moses that these were the dispositions in his nature, and that according unto these they should find his proceedings should be, not with this people only, but with all his children for ever in the world, as also with wicked men impenitent; so as Moses might certainly know him thereby, as he requested, and know where to have him, as we use to say, which was the main intent of what he had desired to know. And accordingly the rest of the psalm that follows is a verification in so many experiments of what
God's ways in mercy had been to that people from Moses's time downwards, drawn into maxims or propositions, according unto what he had here declared to Moses so long before.
And that his ways should more particularly and eminently note out his mercies in pardoning sins, &c. (which is one of David's applications and interpretations of Moses here), that passage in Isa.
55 confirms. For speaking of God's 'having mercy,' and 'abundantly pardoning,' ver. 7, he adds, ver. 8, 9, 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord: for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' The like many other scriptures express. I conclude, What is all this other than that David, in this famous psalm of mercy, as in which he makes a celebration of the mercies of God to himself, from ver. 1 to 7, and from thence towards others of his children, in sundry particulars, doth first professedly take these words of Moses for his text, even as we are wont to do some portion of scripture, and make a sermon upon it; that is, that part of them that concerned mercy, and then plainly writes a comment upon it in the rehearsal of sundry particular gracious dealings? All which are but explanations, confirmed from experience, of these several properties of grace, mercy, longsuffering, &c., more briefly summed up by God himself, in Moses.
And this might, though not in the same order, be exactly shewn, if prolixity here forbade it not.
But we meet not with these words only in David, upon these occasions specified, but as frequently also, at least with some pieces of them, in the prophets, unto the same or other like purposes. As Jeremiah, in that solemn prayer for the church, in the condition it was in his times, Jer. 32:18. Then again, in the prophet Joel, he lays it as a foundation and corner-stone of faith and hope, to persuade the people to come in, and turn to God: Joel 2:12, 13, 'Turn ye to me,' says God himself by him, 'with all your heart, with fasting, and weeping, &c., and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,' &c. These are still
God's words in Moses anew repeated.
Yea, Jonah points as plainly unto these words, as those the remembrance whereof moved God to be merciful in pardoning the
Ninevites, upon their serious and solemn repentance. He attributes that his sparing them, unto the substance of these words which Jonah had learned from Moses, as the cause of God's pardoning them; and was certainly led to do it by the Holy Ghost that penned that prophecy; although he uttered it whilst he was expostulating the matter with God for his having spared them, that when he had sent him with so precise a message to foretell them of their utter destruction within so many days: 'I knew,' says he, 'that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest of the evil,' Jonah 4:2. And his saying, 'I knew,' prompts evidently that the knowledge he had of God, had been taken from these words in Moses, as that which from his writings was the familiar, wonted, and common notion; which both he and that people that knew the law were nourished up in. And that when matter of threatening judgment was apprehended (which excited to repentance), the thoughts of this scripture was at hand, and rose up in their minds, as here it did in his, although to a worse purpose, as in his thought. Yea, and Jonah tells God there plainly that, from the knowledge of that very declaration of mercy, and God's wont in pardoning, he had suspected that this might or would prove to be the issue; and that the remembrance of mercy, as he had declared it to Moses, would overcome him, and prevail with him haply to give repentance to those Ninevites, and thereupon to save them, even against the peremptory message of their destruction, wherein God shewed he loved the glory of his mercy more than of his justice, or his own declared threatening, and his own prophet's credit.
And which is yet more to be wondered at, and God to be adored in it, is, that although the prophet knew this aforehand from this scripture in Moses, yet the poor Ninevites knew not thereof, having not seen as then Moses's writings, nor had ever heard one, tittle of this proclamation of mercy; nor can we think that Jonah had revealed it to them, for a denunciation of destruction was precisely all of his commission; but it was God's own Holy Spirit who alone prompted these poor ignorant souls with this suggestion, to 'cry mightily unto
God; and to turn every one from his evil way, who can tell if God will
repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?' chap. 3:8, 9. And they had to do with God, who to be sure knew and was privy to himself, what he had set forth himself by, as that which was in his heart and nature; and he 'could not deny himself,' and his own declaration of it, though these poor souls could not have challenged him by it.
I only add this comfortable observation (comfortable indeed to us Gentiles) from Jonah's allegation of these words, even that 'Jehovah, gracious and merciful,' &c., as in Moses it was proclaimed, that this proclamation concerned not only the Jews, or was a measure for God to go by towards that people, but was intended by God, even at the first delivery, for us Gentiles also. For he proceeded according to the tenor of it with those Ninevites, who were an handsel of the Gentiles' conversion to come. And therefore let us Gentiles, from the apostle's instruction, Rom. 15:9–11, adore and glorify God for his mercy, and exercise our faith much upon these blessed words, 'Jehovah, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in kindness and truth,' as having been proclaimed and written that we might have as much hope as the Jews had therein, and so turn to the Lord, as these
Ninevites did. This for Jonah.
Next the prophet Micah brings in a piece of it, chap. 7:18, by way of wonderment at such and so gracious a God: 'Jehovah, Jehovah God, pardoning iniquity and sin.' Thus God speaks to Moses: 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?' So the prophet there.
Hezekiah also, that holy king, writing to his brethren of the ten tribes, inviting them to return to God from forth of that long and great apostasy and revolt from God and his worship which they had made, assuring them that God would notwithstanding pardon and receive them again upon their repentance. He assures and he persuades them of it by God's own words, the words of this proclamation, so commonly known amongst all Israel: 2 Chron.
30:9, 'For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and therefore will not turn away his face from you if you return unto him.'
Lastly, good Nehemiah, almost a thousand years after Moses, doth make mention of these words: Neh. 9:17, 'Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.' Mark the whole drift of that which follows in that chapter, and you will find it to be: first, to ascribe all the mercies and forgivenesses of that people, both in the wilderness, and in after ages that followed, upon and after most grievous backslidings, which he there all along reciteth, unto that declaration of mercies first uttered to Moses, as the cause of all, and as that which had been verified over and over in so many experiments, through so many ages; and, secondly, his scope was to put force into his present prayer and plea for mercy and restoration for the future to this then so sinful and broken a people, which he pursues as his main drift in that chapter, concluding his prayer thus: 'Thou art a merciful and a gracious God.' Ver. 13, 'Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy.' &c. Now that word of his therefore draws unto this his conclusive prayer the strength of all he had alleged, both of that proclamation recited, ver. 17, and of all God's merciful dealings with that people in former ages, according to the tenor thereof; and that, therefore, God would please to manifest and magnify, and put forth the same grace now to them. Yea, and to that end he repeats and revives again the memorial of the same words (for it is a blessed memorial to all generations), as our translators have observed, in referring us unto Exod. 34:6, 7.
And Nehemiah's times being with the last of those (I do not say the last) wherewith Scripture records of the Old Testament do end, and he in that 9th chapter having gone over all times that had been past from Moses's time, and having devolved all God's merciful dispensations during all those times into the mercy of God then published, as the well-head of them all, and he still continuing to plead the same for the whole time to come, from those times of his,