An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milke, and crudled me like cheese?

¹Under the modest shadow of this verse, that great natural mystery of mans generation and conception is contained. The former word signifies not only the pouring forth of liquids, but the melting and dissolving of the hardest metals, iron, brass, &c. that they may be fitted to run or be poured forth, Ezek. 22.21, 22. And as this signifies the softening and melting of that which is hard, so the next word (which we translate curdled) signifies the hardening or thickening of that which is soft and fluid. Moses useth it in describing the miraculous dividing of the red sea, Exod. 15.8. The floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The Prophet Zephany useth it for the settledness and resolvedness of a people in sin (Chap. 1.12.) The Lord (saith he) will punish the men that are settled (we put in the margin curded or thickened) on their lees. I might from these proprieties of the original words, illustrate that secret of mans original. But forasmuch as the Spirit of God hath drawn a curtain, and cast a veil of metaphors over it, therefore I intend not to open or discover it.² Ancient Philosophers have spoken of these natural operations in a like language, and under these similitudes: I shall only say in general, that these two expressions; First, Thou hast poured me out as milk; secondly, And curdled me like cheese, are appliable to that special contribution, which God hath charged upon each parent, towards that great work, the continuation of their own kind,³ and the raising up of a posterity in their place, to serve himself and their generation. Learn hence,