Chapter V
That the mercies of God s nature, as they are proclaimed in Exodus xxxiv., are a prime object and support of faith. That this name of God, Exodus
xxxiv. 6, 7, was an asylum, or strong tower, unto which the faith of the
most eminent saints of the Old Testament had recourse, especially forforgveeness ; 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
20 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I.
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 ob
tained, 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. xiv. 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 proclama tion 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. Ixxxvi.,
twice, in ver. 5 and 15, by way of prayer, Thou, Lord, art a God full of compassion, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy and truth ; have mercy upon me, and save me, ver. 16. And then again, in another psalm, viz.,
cxlv., 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
* They utter the memory of thy great goodness, and sing of thy righteousness. Then
psalm runs) the very same words ; having first said, ver. 7,
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 ciii. we have a reference to these words, yea, an express quota tion 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 dlludere ad illitd Mosis, an allu
sion, &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
* Nee minim est Davidem sumpsisse haec Elogia ex celebri illo Mosis loco, Exod. xxxiv. 6, quum proplietis visionem, quse illic refertur, summo in prctio fuisse : quia, nusquam. clarius, vel familiarius, exprimitur Dei natura. Calvin in Ps. cxlv. ver. 8. Mollerus, upon the 86th Psalm (where this description of mercy is twice re
hearsed), hath these words: Sumptus est hie versus ex Mose, et quia tanquam insignis qusedam gemma inter caeteras promissiones elucet, crebrb repetitur in scriptura. Mollerus in ver. 15, Ps. Ixxxvi.
CHAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 21
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
* The Lord is merciful,
ver. 7, down to a coherence with the next, ver. 8,
&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, xxxiii. 13, with these of God s unto Moses in this chap, xxxiv., which (say they) were spoken by God, as in answer unto what Moses had there said. Now, in the foregoing chapter, Exod. xxxiii. 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 Dru-
sius, 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 tluj
ivays, 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, proceed
ing 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
* I will cause my goodness to
promise to do this for him : chap, xxxiii. 19,
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, xxxiv. 6,
* Pro
claiming 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. ciii., 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. xxxiii.
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. ciii. Dr Hammond, on Ps. ciii. 7, 8, vehemently con
tends for the same coherence : The place (says he) evidently refers to
Exod. xxxiii., 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, xxxiv. 6. He proclaimed the Lord
* Viassuas, hoc est, qualiter se gerat erga suos. Muis. Apud Hebrseosplerunque via significat rationem, et institutum vitse, mores, negotia, &c., et Scire viam tuam, id est, rationem agendi qua uteris erga tuos, vel simpliciter quomodo cum piis agas.
Mollerus in Ps. Ixxxvi. 11.
22 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [BOOK I.
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
* He made his ways known to Moses, he subjoins,
his inward dispositions, Ps. ciii., for after he had said,
* 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 impeni tent ; 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. Iv. 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 nays, 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, long-suffering, &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.
xxxii. 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 ii. 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
CHAP. V.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 23
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
lie had sent him with so precise a message to foretell them of their utter
* that thou art a
destruction within so many days
: I knew, says he,
gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and
* / knew,
repentest of the evil, Jonah iv. 2. And his saying,
1 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 repent ance 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. iii. 8, 9. And they had to do with God, who to be sure knew and was privy to himself, what he had set forth him
self by, as that which was in his heart and nature ; and he could not denj
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 pro clamation 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. xv. 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. vii. 18, by way of wonderment at such and so gracious a God : Jehovah, Jehovah God,
* Who is a God
pardoning iniquity and sin. Thus God speaks to Moses:
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [[BOOK I-
i unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? So the prophet there. ;
like
t 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 repent ance. 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. xxx. 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. ix. 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 forgive nesses 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 mam drift in that chapter, concluding his prayer thus : Thou art a merci ful 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. xxxiv. 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, from hence I may well conclude that this publication of mercy was accounted the basis or foundation of Old Testament mercies on God s part, and faith on theirs, in all the after ages of it.
You see I have traversed this from Moses to the last of Scripture records. And though a thousand other promises had been given between, yet still this is above all rehearsed, as the original of all other. So as I may well conclude it to have been a main article of the Old Testament creed.
CHAP. VI.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 25