Moses Self-Denial, Treatise
MOSES HIS SELFE-DENIALL.
HEB. 11. 24.
By Faith Moſes, when hee was come to yeares, refuſed to bee called the ſonne of Pharaohs Daughter.
IN this Chapter we have a divine record,The ſenſe and meaning of the words cleared, & Doctrines raiſed. a famous catalogue of the worthies of the Lord, manifeſting the power and life of that bleſſed grace of faith in the glorious effects of it; amongſt whom Moſes is one of the moſt choice & eminent, holding forth unto us the glory & efficacie of his faith, in divers wonderful bleſſed fruits of it, both actively & paſſively, in what he did, & in what he ſuffered; his wonderfull ſelf-deniall, his ſtrange choice, his fixed eye upon Heaven, his undaunted courage, his glorious conſtancy, his cleare ſight of the inviſible God.
The firſt is his ſelfe-deniall, which the Holy Ghoſt here records, as a high cō mendation, as a moſt famous teſtimony of the pretiouſneſſe of his faith; and indeed ſo it is, faith above all graces fills the heart with the fulneſſe of God, but moſt empties it of its ſelfe, raiſes the heart the higheſt in communion with God, but keepes it downe the loweſt in ſelfe-abaſement. By faith Moſes, when he was come to yeares refuſed to bee called the ſonne of Pharaohs daughter.
[He refuſed] not a bare willingnes, & contentedneſſe to be without that honour, but, when he was put upon it, he denyed it, ſo the word is: Yea, horruit, aver ſatus eſt, ſaies Chryſoſtome upon that place, he trembled, hee was aſtoniſhed at ſuch a thought, that he ſhould embrace the honours of the Court, rather then to own the people of God in their moſt afflicted, diſtreſſed condition: He abhorred, he deteſted the entertaining ſuch a thought in his heart & therfore turned away from it with diſdaine. We never reade that he refuſed, or denied in words, that ever he ſaid to Pharaohs daughter, or any other to this effect, that he would not be her heire, or be called her ſonne, but actions have as lowd a voyce as words. When Moſes came downe from the Mount, his face ſhined ſo gloriouſly, as the people were not able to behold it; here his faith raiſeth him higher then the Mount, and puts an unexpreſſible luſtre & glory up on him. Here is a Worthy of the Lord indeed, bright and glorious in the ſhining beauty of his faith, ſet out unto us in the full expreſſions of it by the Holy Ghoſt himſelfe.
By faith [Moſes] Moſes a man compleate every way, for his parts admirable, the Holy Ghoſt witneſſes of him, that hee was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians: ſo Act. 7. 22. Philo Iudaeus in vita Moſis ſaies, that there were ſent for learned men at exceeding great charge out of forraine parts, to inſtruct him in the liberall arts, and out of Caldaea, ſuch as might inſtruct him in Aſtrology, beſides the moſt learned of Egypt;Lib. 9. de praepar. and Euſebius cites another, affirming that Moſes was not onelyonly learned in the learning of the Egyptians,Evan. c. ult. but that he taught the Egyptians the uſe of letters; and therefore was honoured of them by the name of Mercurius. Stromat. lib. 1.And Clemens Alexandrinus cites one, ſaying, that Moſes taught the Iſraelites letters, and from the Iewes he ſayes the Phoenicians had them, and from the Phoenicians the Graecians.
For the beauty of his body it was incomparable,2. when he was borne hee was exceeding faire: ſo Act. 7. 20. The words in the Greeke have a greater emphaſis with them then our Engliſh expreſſion hath;foreign fine, elegant, ſo as citizens are when they are trimmed up in their bravery, upon dayes of feſtivity, that is the propriety of the word, and this is ſaid to be exceeding, in the text, it is foreign fayre to God, divinely beautifull, a kinde of divine beauty was upon him, a beauty beyond humane beautie, ſuch beauty as in his very face a divine luſtre appeared. The Scripture uſeth this phraſe to ſignifie the higheſt degree of a thing, as Ionah 3. a very great citie, it is in the Hebrew magna Deo: ſo here, exceeding faire, venuſta Deo. Ioſeph. lib. 2. cap. 5.Ioſephus reports of him, that by that time hee was three yeares old, God added an admirable grace to his countenance, ſo that there was none, but was amazed at the beauty of Moſes, and would leave their ſerious buſineſſe, to feede their eyes with Moſes his incomparable beauty, & their eyes were held with it, that they could not tell how to looke enough upon him; and hee ſayes that they never went from him but unwillingly.
And for the ſweet temper & diſpoſition of his ſpirit,3. that was exceeding amiable: the Scripture ſaies that hee was the meekeſt man upon earth. Joſph. lib. 4. cap. ult.Numb. 12. 3. And Joſephus in his fourth booke, and laſt chapter, sayes hee was ſo free from paſſions, that hee knew no ſuch thing in his owne ſoule; he only knew the names of ſuch things, and ſaw them in others rather then in himſelfe.
And fourthly,4. for honour in the world, he was very eminent, the adopted ſon of Pharaohs daughter; the name of this Pharaohs daughter,Ioſeph. lib. 2, cap. 5. Ioſephus tells us, was Thermuthis: he ſayes likewiſe ſhe was the onelyonly child Pharaoh had, Pharaoh had no ſonne to inherite the kingdom, and that this his daughter Thermuthis had no child, and therefore having found Moſes, ſhee ſet her heart upon him, and feined her ſelfe to bee with child, and kept Moſes hid, untill ſuch a time as it might be thought to bee her owne child, to that end, that he might inherite her fathers crowne.
And further hee tells us, that this daughter of Pharaoh was much beloved of her father, and that, in reſpect to her, he loved Moſes alſo, which appeares in this relation that hee hath. Hee ſaith that when Moſes was a little one, Pharaohs daughter brought him to her father, & put him into his armes, & he, to gratifie his daughter, tooke off his owne diadem, and ſet it upon Moſes head. There were likewiſe divers prognoſtications that Moſes ſhould hereafter doe great things. Ioſephus ſaith, that Amram, Moſes his father, had a ſpeciall revelation concerning this childe, that he ſhould be delivered from the danger of being ſlaine, and that hee ſhould bee a deliverer of his people. He tells us likewiſe, that when Pharaoh put his diadem upon his head, hee, though but a little child, tooke it off, and ſtampt it under his feete; whereupon ſome of his Magicians would have had him put to death, ſaying that it was a ſigne, that this child in time would caſt downe Pharaohs Crowne.
And one Gualmyn a later writer,Gualmyn de vita Moſis. p. 1. 2. 10. 11. writing of the life of Moſes, hath this relation; that when Moſes was three yeares old, Pharaoh made a great feaſt, and his Queene holding him by the right hand, and his daughter together with Moſes by the left, his Nobles being bid to ſit before him, Moſes before them all tooke Pharaohs crowne from his head, and ſet it upon his own, whereupon all being amazed, one Balaam a Magitian, put Pharaoh in minde of a dreame hee had had, which was this: There ſtood before him an old man, having a paire of ſcales in his hand, and in one of the ſcales there appeared to him as if all Aegypt, the children and women had beene in it, in the other ſcale hee ſaw onelyonly one childe, which downe-weighed the whole Kingdome, and all that was in the other ſcale. This is Moſes, whoſe faith, whoſe ſelfe-deniall is ſet downe unto us thus glorious in this Scripture, one who might have lived a moſt brave life in the enjoyment of the higheſt honours, the ſweteſt pleaſures, the choiſeſt delights that heart could wiſh, & yet this Moſes refuſed to be called the ſonne of Pharaohs daughter. This Moſes chooſes rather to ſuffer afflictions with the people of God: this Moſes is contented to bee ſcorned and contemned for Chriſt, he ventures upon the wrath of the King and endures it all.
In this excellent argument of the ſelfe deniall of ſuch a worthy of the Lord,1. we are to conſider: Firſt, what he refuſes, namely, to bee accounted the ſonne of Pharaohs daughter: for Moſes was generally reputed to be her owne ſonne, and honoured as her owne ſon, but he thought it a greater honour, to be a ſonne of Abraham, to come of the promiſed ſeede, to have his pedigree from Gods people, this hee accounts more noble, and this hee will rather glory in, though hee does prejudice himſelfe in great p…eferments, dignities, and riches, and all kind of outward glory that otherwiſe hee might have enjoyed: from whence the point is:
That nobility of birth,Doct. and court honours, and all outward delights are to bee denied for Chriſt.
Secondly,2. wee are to conſider the time when this was, it was when hee was of full yeares: the words in the originall are,foreign. when hee came to bee great, and the obſervation from this is:
That it is then truly honorable indeede,Doct. to deny honours and pleaſures, when wee have opportunitie to enjoy them to the full, in the very prime of our time.
Thirdly,3. wee are to conſider the principle which carried him on, which was faith; and from thence the point is:
That faith is the principle,Doct. that muſt carry through, and make honorable all a Chriſtians ſufferings. For the firſt.