whatsoever he pleaseth yet with him is strength and equity so Vatabius rendreth the word Tusbijah here used or the being substance and permanency of all creatures so Munster which subsist meerly by his manutention or the rule and certain law of wisedome and judgment by which wisedome acteth saith Mercer So then the Lord though he make his will a law yet he cannot do otherwise then well because nothing but wisedome and equity is in it The deceived and the deceiver are his This Job produceth as a proof of Gods insuperable strength and unsearchable wisedome that he hath an over-ruling hand in the artifices and slights of men even the cunning craftinesse as the Apostle speaketh Eph. 4.14 Whereby they lie in wait to deceive These he not only and barely permitteth in his just judgment upon the deceived whether through ignorance or idleness but disposeth also ordereth both the deceiver and the deceived whether in spiritual things or civil to his own righteous ends and holy purposes See Ezek. 14.9 1 Kin. 22.19 20 2 Thes 2.11 Isa 19.14 and then conclude with Job that wisedom and strength are his who can thus draw light out of darknesse and powerfully order the disorders of the world to his own glory and the good of his people For there must be heresies that they which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.9 Mean-while here is the comfort of every good soul that none can take them out of the Father hands Job 10.29 and it is impossible that the elect should be totally and finally deceived because both the deceived and the deceiver are Gods by him and from him and for him are deceivers and deceived so Broughton translateth this text By him for he suffereth and ordereth them From him for he sendeth them And For him for they promote his glory and serve his ends He many times suffereth the tree of the Church to be shaken that rotten fruit may drop off There are the set this sense upon the words they are both in Gods hands the deceiver to have revenge taken upon him and the deceived who revengeth not himself to have his cause righted as 1 Thes 4.6 an argument both of Gods wisedome to find out the deceiver how subtle soever and likewise of his power in punishing them how potent soever Verse 17. He leadeth counsellors away spoiled Viz. Of wit wealth and honour This should be a warning to such not to take ill causes in hand not to call evil good and good evil not to justifie the wicked for a reward and to take away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him not to bolster out a bad cause and to outface a good lest if they improve their wits and parts to so evil an end God make them as despicable as before they were honourable They may see what the Lord did to Abitophel that Oracle of his time to Pharaohs counsellors Isa 19.11 12. to Pharaoh himself Ex. 1.10 with Pr. 28.15 And he maketh the Judges fools Broughton rendreth the verse thus He brings Counsellors to badnesse and Judges to stark madnesse He infatuateth them not by infusing folly into them any more then the Sun when he shineth not in our Horizon causeth darknesse in the air which of it self and of its own nature is dark But when God with-holdeth that light of wisedome which he had imparted to a man his in-bred darknesse must needs shew it self More then this it sometimes cometh to passe that when God delivereth a man up for his sins to a reprobate sense to an injudicious mind he is thenceforth deprived sometimes of natural wisedome and common sense that the divine revenge may be the more apparent Verse 18. He looseth the bonds of Kings He degradeth them taking away all command and authority from them which is the bond that bindeth the people to obedience and subjection Job 30.11 Isai 45.1 5. as our Henry the third Daniel who was called Regni dilapidator ill beloved of his people and far a less King saith the Chronicler by striving to be more then he was the just reward of violations And gardeth their loins with a girdle With a rope say the Vulgar he brings them from the throne to the prison he layeth affliction upon their loynes Val. Max Christ pag. 267. as Psalm 66.11 An instance hereof beside the late King and Corradinus King of Germany likewise beheaded at Naples we had here in Richard the second brought forth in a royal robe to be deposed and then hunger-starved in prison as also in Henry the sixth who having been the most potent Monarch for dominions that ever England had was afterwards when deposed not the Master of a mole-hill nor owner of his own liberty but baffled and beaten by every base fellow Some Interpreters make the sense of this to be thus God sometimes looseth the bonds into which Princes are brought and advanceth them again to kingly dignity the ensign whereof was of old a precious girdle So it befell Manasseh Nebuchadnezzar Jehoiakins restored and honoured againe as a king by Evilmerodach 2 Kings 25.28 Historians write that Nebuchadnezzar was so offended with his son and successor Evilmerodach as he cast him into prison and that in prison he and Jehoiakim became acquainted together whence his advancement afterwards Verse 19. He leadeth away Princes spoiled Or Priests Ducit sacerdotes inglerias so the Vulgar translateth He leadeth away the Priests without glory dishonoured Priests were generally much esteemed and priviledged in all ages Alexander the great gave greatest respect to Jaddus the Jewish High-Priest When the Gauls had burnt Rome and were besieging the Capitol Caius Fabius Dorso attired as a Priest with his sacrifice and other necessaries in his hand marched through the midst of the enemies astonished at his resolution offered his sacrifice on the hill Quirinalis and returned in safety The Bardi a kind of Priests were here in Albion of such esteem among the greatest commanders that if two armies were even at push of pike and a Bard had step'd in betwixt them they would have held their hands hearkned to his advice and not have offered to strike till he were out of danger Magna fuit quondam capitis reverentia sacri Howbeit such also have been carried captive and slaine by the enemy as was Seraiah the high-priest by Nebuchadnezzar and before him the two sons of Eli whose white Ephod covered foul sins slain by the Philistims The Lord hath despised in the indignation of his anger both the King and the Priest Lam. 2.6 Both the Prophet and the Priest go about into a land that they know not Jer. 14.18 The word Cohen is used indifferently to signifie a Priest or Prince an Ecclesiastical or secular Governor Broughton rendreth it here Dukes others Presidents or praefects of Provinces Honour is no shelter against the wrath of God And overthroweth the mighty Such as might seem unmoveable as a rock or tree firmly rooted these God shaketh and shattereth to
Arian-Bishops out of banishment to breed new broyles in the Church The Jesuites have a practice at this day of running over to the Lutheran Church pretending to be Converts and to build with them but it is onely to keep up that bitter contention that is betweene the Calvinists and the Lutherans And what ill offices they do amongst us at this day to heighten our divisions and hinder the Reformation by their wiles much ensnared and hindered good men are very sensible of The Lord detect and defeat them For we seeke your God as ye do Nay not as ye do See 2 Kings 17.32 33 34. they feared the Lord not filially but for his Lions as the old Romanes worshipped their Veiones lest they should hurt them and as the Caffrani a people in India worship Devils in most terrible figure that they may not punish them Since the dayes of Esar-haddon Sonne and successour to Sennacherib 2 Kings 19.37 grand son to Salmaneser after whom it seemes he brought a new colony into the Land of Samaria who proved deadly enemies to Gods people Verse 3. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua Jeshua would be one to keep them out though they slighted him in their application to Zerubbabel and the chiefe of the fathers verse 2. You have nothing to do with us You shall neither conquer us nor compound with us This was right Roman resolution They were wont to say of cowards in Rome that there was nothing Roman in them I can never sufficiently admire saith one the speech of blessed Luther who though he was very earnest to have the Communion administred in both kinds contrary to the Doctrine and custome of Rome yet he professeth if the Pope as Pope commanded him to receive in both kinds he would receive but in one kinde lest he should seeme to receive the mark of the Beast As for these Reconcilers and Moderatours saith another learned man were they the wisest under heaven and should live to the worlds end they would be brought to their wits end before they could accomplish this works end to make a reconciliation betwixt Rome and us They have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God From such stand off saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.5 Say to them when they offer their cost and service as here Pura Deus mens est procul ô procul este profani This was one of those ancient Lawes of the twelve tables among the Romanes Impius ne audeto placare donis iram deorum Let no profane person presume to think to pacifie the gods with their pains or presents But we our selves together will build c. This the adversaries call combination conspiracy faction sedition c. See verse 13. But what saith Tertullian Cùm boni cùm probi coeunt non est factio dicenda sed curia Et è contrà illis nomen factionis accommodandum est qui in odium piorum proborum conspirant When good men get together Apol. advers gent. num 520. and hold together it is not to be called a faction but a Court. As on to'ther side they are to be counted factious who conspire against the godly as these Malignants in the Text did As King Cyrus c. They had good authority for what they did and they hold them to it Verse 4. Then the people of the land Who the nearer they came unto a conjunction with the Jewes in matters of Religion the deeper hatred they bare them Thus at this day a Jew hates a Christian worse then he doth a Pagan so doth a Turk hate a Persian worse then he doth a Christian a Papist a Protestant worse then he doth a Turk a Formallist a Puritan worse then he doth a Papist Odia Theologica sunt acerbissima Weakened the hands of the people of Judah Discouraged them all they could endeavouring to transfuse as it were a dead-palsie into their fingers that they might surcease or at least slack their paines Well might Solomon say Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious but who can stand before envie surely the venome of all vices is found in this sharp-fanged malignity And troubled them in building Heb. Kept ado about them and terrified them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was to do the work of their father the Devil that troubler of Gods Israel ad injuriam inferendam totus comparatus set upon 't to vex such as begin but to build the Tower of godlinesse and to hinder them to the utmost Verse 5. And hired Counsellours against them But good Counsellours would not have beene hired either to bolster out a bad cause or to out-face a good to justifie the wicked for a reward or to take away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him Spartian There is a notable instance of this in Papinian a Pagan Counsellour Thou mayest said he to Antoninus the fratricide command my neck to the block but not my tongue to the barre I prize not my life to the pleading of an ill cause These sordida poscinummia in the text were none such Some think they were Courtiers and Counsellours to the King such as by whom the King was even bought and sold as Aurelian the good Emperour was who might know nothing but as his Counsellours informed him This made Alphonsus King of Arragon say that Kings were herein most miserable that whereas they abounded with all things else the truth of matters they could seldome come by All the dayes of Cyrus King of Persia Who warring abroad committed the government of his Kingdome to his sonne Cambyses a light and lewd lossel easily prevailed with to hinder so good a work Even untill the reigne of Darius i. e. Of Darius Nothus say some the sonne of Artaxerxes Longimanus named verse 7. the father of Artaxerxes Mnemon Pemble But they do better in my opinion that understand the text of Darius Histaspis who succeeded Cambyses and married his sister seeking to ingratiate with the people by ratifying whatsoever Cyrus had decreed and this of the Temple among the rest See chap. 6.1 Verse 6. And in the reigne of Ahashuerosh That is of Cambyses who is also called Artaxerxes in the next verse for these two names were given to many Kings of Persia like as Pharaoh was to the Kings of Egypt as a title of honour Ahashuerosh signifieth an hereditary Prince Daniel calleth him the Prince of the Kingdome of Persia chap. 10.13 because he was Viceroy in his fathers absence Infamous he is for many lewd pranks as that he killed his brother and then his owne sister after he had first married her and made a Law that any man might do the like yet was he not so ungracious a sonne to Cyrus as our Henry the seconds eldest sonne was whom he not onely crowned King during his owne life but also to do him honour at his Coronation renounced the name of a King for that day and as Sewer served at the table For which he was thus
abased c. Bern. Sine Deo omnis copia est egostas In pleasant places From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine Prison Quis in Deo 〈◊〉 poâ—tio mea 〈◊〉 quasi in loco 〈◊〉 maeno R. David said that Italian Martyr dating his Letter Tua praesentia Domine Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit said that Ancient Thy presence Lord made Laurence his gridiron pleasant to him Yea I have a goodly heritage I have as much in content at least as hee who hath most The Bee is as well pleased with feeding on the dew or sucking from a flower as Behemoth that grazeth on the Mountaines The Lark when alost seeth further with a little eye than the Oxe on the ground with a greater Atque suum tirilitirilitiritirlire cantat Vers 7. I will blesse the Lord who hath given mee counsel David frequently consulted with God by Abiathar the Priest whom God by a sweet providence sent unto him with an Ephod for a comfort in his banishment 1 Sam. 22.20 Saul had slain those that ware the Ephod therefore God answered him not neither by dreams nor by Vrim nor by Prophets 1 Sam. 28.6 as hee did his Servant David who therefore blesseth him when the other runneth from him to the Witch for counsel and from her to the swords point My reines also instruct mee God hath not only illuminated mee whereby I shall bee the better able to endure a great fight of affliction Heb. 10.32 but hee hath also sanctified mee and honoured mee with holy inspirations and feeling of the Spirit of Adoption whereby mine internall thoughts and secret motions do dictate and suggest unto mee what I ought to do and undertake Methinks I hear a sweet still voice within mee saying This is the way walk in it and this in the night-season when I am rapt in rest and silence or night after night the Spirit is a continuall spring of counsel and comfort within mee prompting mee to make God my portion and to chuse this good part that shall never be taken away from mee In the night-seasons When commonly we are prone to evill Nox Amor c. Ovid. Illa pudore vacat c. and which is the wicked mans fittest opportunity Job 24.13 15 16. c. It must not content us that God by his word hath given us counsel but wee must labour to be inwardly taught of God A man may read the figure upon the Diall but hee cannot tell how the day goes unlesse the Sun shine upon the Diall Wee may read the Bible over and hear it opened and applied but can learn nothing till the Spirit shine into our hearts 2 Cor. 4. and so our reines instruct us c. Vers 8. I have set the Lord alwaies before mee Heb. I have equally set or proposed Ex Syro Serm. The Apostle translateth it I foresee the Lord alwaies before my face Act. 2.25 I set the eye of my faith full upon him and suffer it not to take to other things I look him in the face oculâ—irretorto as the Eagle looketh upon the Sun and oculo adamantino with an eye of Adamant which turns only to one point so here I have equally set the Lord before mee without irregular affections and passions And this was one of those lessons that his reines had taught him that the holy Spirit had dictated unto him Because hâ—e is at my right hand To help mee that I fall not saith R. David or as a thing that I cannot but remember as being of continuall use to mee It is as necessary to remember God as to draw breath saith Chrysostome I shall not be moved i.e. not greatly moved as Psal 62.2 though Satan stand at the right hand of a godly man to resist and annoy him Zech. 3.1 yet so long as God is at his right hand to assist and comfort him and hee at Gods right hand Psal 45.9 which is a place of honour and safety hee cannot bee moved The gates of Hell shall never prevail Christ our Sampson hath flung them off their hinges Vers 9. Therefore my heart is glad c. That is I am all over in very good plight as well as heart can wish or need require I do over-abound exceedingly with joy God forgive mee mine unthankfullnesse and unworthinesse of so great glory as that Martyr said In all the dayes of my life I was never so merry as now I am in this dark dungeon c. Wicked men rejoyce in appearance and not in heart Mr. Philpot. 2 Cor. 5.12 their joy is but skin-deep their mirth frothy and flashy such as wetteth the mouth but warmeth not the heart But David is totus totus quantus quantus exultabundus his heart glory flesh answerable as some think to that of the Apostle 1 Thes 5.23 Spirit Soul and Body were all over-joyed My flesh also shall rest or confidently dwell in hope Namely in this World as in a wayfaring lodging Diod. then in the grave as a place of safeguard and repose and at last in heaven as in its true and eternall mansion Vers 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell that is my body in the grave animamque sepulchro condimus or in the State of the dead Gen. 37.35 That Soul is sometimes put for a carcass or dead corps Virg. de Polydori funere Aeneid 3. See Job 14.22 Lev. 19.28 21. 1.11 Num. 5.2 6.6 19.13 which place is expounded Ezek 44.25 David can confidently write upon his grave Resurgam I shall rise against This many Heathens had no hope of 1 Thes 4.13 Cum semel occider is Non Torquate tuum genus aut facundia non te Restituet pietas c. Horat. lib. 4. od 7. Yet some Heathens beleeved both the immortality of the soul and therefore durst dye animaque capaces Mortis and the Resurrection of the body as did Zoroastes Theopompus Plato and as do the Turks at this day Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One c. that is the Messiah that is to come out of my loines and who saith to mee and all his Members 2s Isa 26.19 in effect Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust c. See the Note on the Title Michtam The former part of this verse seems to be spoken of David the latter of Christ like as Job 35.15 the former part is of God the latter of Job See the Margin Christs resurrection is a cause pledge and suerty of the Saints resurrection to glory for joy whereof Davids heart leapt within him Christs body though laid in the corrupting-pit could not see that is feel corruption It was therefore a pious errour in those good women who brought their sweet odours to embalm his dead body Luke 24.1 Vers 11. Thou wilt shew mee the path of life This being applied to Christ seemeth to shew that as man
as Fate or blinde Fortune will Câ—riosus est plenusque negotii Deus saith Cicero PSAL. LIX ALtaschith Destroy not preserve me from this Ambuscado See Psal 57. title When Saul sent and they watched the house But were disappointed by Michal shifting him out of the way preferring an Husband before a Father though she had otherwise no great goodness in her The glory of this deliverance David wholly ascribeth to God and seeketh help of him Vers 1. Deliver me from mine enemies O God This Psalm is the same in substance with those afore-going viz. Davids desire to be delivered from Sauls craft and cruelty Defend me from them Heb. Set me on high farre out of their reach Vers 2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity Sauls Assasines and Bloud-hounds hired to dispatch me Vers 3. R. Obad. Gaon in loc The mighty are gathered against me The seven sons of Saul say the Rabbines who were afterwards hang'd 2 Sam. 21. with a company of cut-throats attending them Vers 4. They run and prepare themselves At Sauls command never inquiring into the cause right or wrong but taking his will for warrant good enough Awake to help me Heb. to meet me sc in mercy Ut occurras succurrat mihi or at my calling as some render it And behold See the Note on Psal 34.15 Vers 5. Awake to visit all the Heathen These Paganish Israelites who might have some Heathens also amongst them Sauls Slaughtermen men flesht in bloud Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors Heb. That treacherously work iniquity that do it Consulto data opera Desperadoâ—s Reprobates destined to eternal destruction Vers 6. They return at evening sc To mine house at Gibeah of Saul hoping to finde me then at home again as if like the hunted Hate I must needs return to my old fourm They make a noyse like a Dogge When coming the second night also they missed of David they barked and houled like mad Doggs ready to take every one they met by the throat And go round about the City Ferretting and searching after him in all places and perhaps surrounding the City to surprise him Vers 7. Behold they bâ—lch out with theâ—r mouth Calling me Traitor where ever they come and seeking to double murther him viz. by detraction and by deadly practice As a fountain casteth out waters so do graceless men wickedness Jer. 6.7 Swords are in their lips Or To their lips they adde swords they word it not only but are armed and well appointed But it is well that they blurt out their bloody purposes and so give warning Huâ—c tibi pâ—gionem mittit Senat◠〈◊〉 faciâ—uâ— fatâ—â— c non implevit For who say they doth hear i.e. Who that we need care for Davids friends they thought durst not utter their discontent and for God they took no great thought Psal 10.3.8.55.20 Vers 8. But thou O Lord shalt laugh at them q. d. Thou not only hearest but jearest at their madnesse and wilt bring all their purposes to nought with little adoeâ— and as it were playing and sporting See Psal 2.4 Vers 9. Because of his strength will I wait on thee The stronger Saâ—lâ—â— the more will I adhere to thee Or thus His strength will I reserve to thee that is I will turn him over to 〈◊〉 who aâ— far stronger to take an order with him to put a hook into his nose and a bridle into his jaws and to bring mee at length to the Kingdome For God is my defence Heb. My high place therefore what need I feat him or his Emissaries Vers 10. The God of my mercy shall prevent me Or God will prevent mee with his mercy sc before I ask or think howsoever in the opportunity of time he will not fail mee God shall let mee see c. See Psal 54.7 Vers 11. Slay them not lâ—st my people forget Marcet sine adversarie virtus the natural heat decayeth if it have not wherewith to wrastle Carthage was not to be destroyed that Rome might not want an adversary The Saints have the reliques of corruption left in them for exercise of their graces Slay them not saith David and the Chaldee addeth statim forthwith or outright but by degrees rather lest my people my followers and fellow souldiers forget their skill in armes or thy judgements on the enemies Scatter them by thy power That they may wander as Cain did and be restlesse Or shake them to and fro as meal is shaken in a sieve let them be dissipated and by degrees wasted that they may be as so many standing monuments of the divine Justice ut â—o sint illustriera test atiora tua judicia as the dis-jected people of the Jews are at this day Vers 12. For the sin of their mouth c. The Arabians have this proverb Take heed lest thy tongue cut thy throat Many a mans mouth is a purgatory to the Master Hard words must bee reckoned for Jude 15. the Jews find it so and will do And for cursing c. Cursing men are cursed men Vers 13. Consume them in wrath c. But by degrees as vers 11. slowly Paulatiâ—â— seu gradatim in fine penitus corruant Kimchi but surely and severely that they may feel themselves wasted There may be much poyson in little drops And let them know Know to their cost Or Let men know Vers 14. And at evening let them return c. Let these back-sliders in heart be filled with their own wayes run about for hunger as before they did for malice vers Revertantur famelici Vat. Sit poena corum sicut peccatum Kimchi 6. Here the Prophet mindeth to mock them saith an Interpreter Vers 15. Let them wander up and down for meat Sicut mendici de ostio ad ostium faciunt as Beggers do from door to door saith Kimchi And grudge if they be not satisfied Murmure against God and men howling against Heaven as hungry Woolfs Isa 8.21 Others understand it thus Lee them run to and fro for meat that is to devour mee as Psal 27.2 but surely they shall not be satisfied but misse of their design thouâ—h they tarry all night watching for mee Vers 16. In the morning That time wherein they thought to have surprised mee 1 Sam. 19.11 but thou hast secured mee See Isa 65.14 Vers 17. O my strength All Davids strength was derivative in himself he was weak as water PSAL. LX. UPon Shushan Eduth An Instrument so called or to the tune of some song so casâ—â— The words signifie the Lilâ—y of the Testimony or of king 〈◊〉 whereof many make manyfold constructions but they are all conjecturall Michtam of David to teach The Hebrews have a proverb Liâ—lmâ—d lâ—tammed Men must therefore learn that they may teach Psalmo doctrinal Hisp David here imparteth what he had learned of Gods goodnesse and would teach others especially when they go to war as Judg. 3.2 2 Sam. 1.18 to call upon God and to
make use of the Ministery of these Prophets in the thirty fourth year of his life His rising up here implieth his forwardnesse speed and diligence in the work And Jeshua the sonne of Jozadak Colleague to Zerubbabel and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aaron was to Moses This Jehoshua or Jeshua began his office of High-Priest in the yeare of the world 3428. and held it thirty six years eight whereof were spent in an Embassage to Darius King of Persia say Historians And began to build the house of God i. e. They went on with the building begun before chap. 3.10 and not forbidden by the King of Persia to be finished onely he commanded them to desist from building the City chap. 4.12 21. It was therefore the peoples sloth and self-seeking that kept back the work See the Notes on Hag. 1.2 4. And with them were the Prophets of God helping them Verbo opere saith Junius both by word and deed The words of the wise are as goades Eccles 12.11 pricking men forward to duty and especially when themselves set sides and shoulders to the work as haply these Prophets did for the peoples greater encouragement Exemplis sciolâ hac aetate magis aedificant Ministri quà m concionibus Verse 3. At the same time So soone as ever they began but to build Gods house they meet with opposition which is still Evangelii Genius saith Calvin the bad Angel that haunts the cause of God and dogges it at the heeles Satan out of his inveterate envie and enmity can in no wise brook the propagation of the Truth and dilatation of Christs curtaines No sooner is Israel out of Egypt but Pharaoh pursueth them No sooner had Ezekiah kept that solemne Passeover but Sennacherib comes up against him Esau began to justle Jacob in the womb that no time might be lost and when he set his face homewards Laban followes him with one troop Esau meets him with another both with hostile intentions Dreame not of a delicacie in Gods wayes but suffer hardship as a good souldier of Jesus Christ And their companions Cum collegio suo Jun. a company of caytives combined to do mischief See chap. 4.9 with the Note Who hath commanded you to build this house Their owne houses they builded and were never once questioned All the while our Saviour lay in his fathers shop and medled onely with carpenters chips the Devil and his impes never troubled him but when he was entering upon his Ministery he is sharply assaulted in the Wildernesse And when he took upon him to purge the Temple and better informe the people presently the Grandees came upon him as he was teaching and said By what authority doest thou these things and who gave thee this authority Matth. 21.23 Like unto these were the questions put by the Papists to those noble Reformers Luther Zuinglius c. Farellus was at his first coming to Geneva more harshly handled and by the Bishop and his Clerks thus accoasted Quid tu diabole nequissime ad hanc civitatem perturbandam accessisti What a Divel makest thou here to make this disturbance c. and so was driven out of that City Scultet Anual where afterwards he wrought a glorious Reformation Verse 4. Then said we unto them We Tatnai Shether-Boznai and their companions thus said and thus enquired see verse 16. and be sensible how wicked men conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity and their belly prepareth deceit Job 15.35 Not their heads onely are hammering it but their bellies are hatching it they take a kinde of contemplative kinde of pleasure in their wily projects as the Epicure doth in his dainties he delights to be acting them over a forehand What are the names of the men They that are minded to do mischief unto others will do what they can to know their names I have heard of one saith Master Fox who being sent to the Christian Congregation in Queene Maries dayes in London to take their names and to espy their doings yet in being amongst them was converted Acts Mon. fol. 1881. and cried them all mercy Tremellius readeth this text otherwise Then answered we them thus and told them what were the names of the men who builded this building He meaneth as I conceive We were not ashamed or afraid to make them a round and ready answer and to give them the names of our chieftains Zerubbabel Jeshuae Haggai Zechariah c. This was better then that of those cold friends to Religion 1 Kings 18.11 who when the Prophet had said If the Lord be God follow him held their peace and thought it good policy to reserve themselves Better also then that of the bondslaves of Antichrist who receive his mark in their hand the which they may as occasion serveth cover or discover Rev. 13.16 The servants of the God of heaven and earth such as were these in this Chapter verse 11. receive his mark in their foreheads where it may be seene and read of all Hom. de 2. Martyr Rev. 7.3 The Primitive Christians were called in derision Confitentes and Chrysostome saith of them that they would not be kept from visiting the Martyrs in prison tametsi multis tesroribus c. though they were much threatened and punished for so doing Verse 5. But the eye of their God was upon the Elders Not the eye of his general providence onely which like unto a well-drawne picture vieweth every one that cometh in to a roome but the eye of his special grace and favour Psal 34.15 He looked upon them as afterwards the Sonne of man stood and looked upon Saint Steven combating with his cruel persecutors and clapt him on the shoulders as it were saying Cheare up Vincenti dab◠c. Acts. 7.56 They also looked up to him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed Psal 34.5 Yea they were steeled as it were and made more mettle-full like as Moses and Micaiah when they had once seene God in his favour they cared not for the menaces of angry Monarchs That they could not cause them to cease Saints dare undertake and undergo any thing for the glory of their God The heavens shall sooner fall then I will go against my conscience said that Martyr In nothing be terrified by your adversaries Phil. 1.28 Till the matter came to Darius Nor then neither for he encouraged and furthered them chap. 6. And then they returned answer Or Then answer was returned from the Court and the Jewes had a sufficient authority for what they did Verse 6. The Apharsachites That is Persians sent as deputies by the King of Persia to see the peace kept and good orders observed Verse 7. All peace See the Note on chap. 4.17 Peace is a complexive mercy Pacem te poscimus omnes It is well with Bees when they make a noise in their Hive but with men when they are at quiet in their hearts in their houses and in the publike Verse 8. To the house of
might take mollissima fandi Tempora my fittest opportunity to bestead my people CHAP. II. Verse 1. And it came to passe in the moneth Nisan TIme and place is to be registred of special mercies received This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord Psal 102.18 In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Sirnamed Longhand as our Edward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnium hominum pulcherrimus Aemil. Prob. the first was called Long-shanks and another Longespes or Long-sword This Long-hand is renowned for the fairest among men in that age and no wonder if he were as is generally thought the sonne of that fairest Esther That wine was before him There was a feast as verse 6. Not by chance but by Gods providence who of small occasions worketh greatest matters many times as he put small thoughts into the heart of Ahashuerosh for great purposes Esth 6.1 And I took up the wine c. As Esther was come to the Kingdome so Nehemiah to this office for such a time as this Esther 4.14 Though he were a prisoner a stranger one of another Religion yet is he the Kings Cup-bearer and taster an office of great trust and credit This was a strange work of God to cause heathen Princes thus to favour the Religion that they knew not and to defend that people which their subjects hated Now I had not beene before-time sad in his presence Princes are usually set upon the merry pin and all devises are used by Jesters and otherwise to make them merry no mourner might be seen in Ahashuerosh his Court Esth 4.4 But good Nehemiah had been for certaine moneths space afflicting his soul and macerating his body as in the former Chapter Hence his present sadnesse which the King being a wise man and a loving master soon observed Verse 2. Wherefore the King said unto me Why is thy countenance sad Some would have chid him and bid him be packing for they liked not his looks there might be treason hatching in his heart he was a man of an ill aspect But love thinketh no evil Seeing thou art not sick Sicknesse will cause sadnesse in the best Those Stoicks that said a wise man must be merry though sick when sicknesse came were convinced se magnificentiùs locutos esse quà m veriùs Tull. that they spake rather bravely then truly And therefore Cicero to a merry life requireth three things 1. To enjoy health 2. To possesse honour 3. Not to suffer necessity Faith in Christ is more to the purpose then any or all of these This is nothing else but sorrow of heart The heart commonly sitteth in the countenance and there sheweth how it stands affected Momus needeth not carp at mans make and wish a window in his breast that his thoughts might be seene for a merry heart maketh a chearful countenance but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken Prov. 15.13 The Hebrews say that a mans inside is turned out and discovered in oculis in loculis in poculis in his eyes purse and cup. Then I was very sore afraid Grieved before now afraid Thus aliud ex alio malum fluctus fluctum trudit One sorrow followeth another and a Christians faith and patience is continually exercised But in the multitude of Nehemiahs perplexed thoughts within him Gods comforts refreshed his soul Psal 94.19 he casts his suit or his burthen upon the Lord Psal 55.22 and doubteth not but he will effect his desire Verse 3. And I said unto the King After he had pull'd up his best heart and recovered his spirits he declareth unto the King the cause of his sadnesse How ready should our tongues be to lay open our cares to the God of all comfort when we see Nehemiah so quick in the expressions of his sorrow to an uncertain ear Let the King live for ever i. e. Very long Let him not suspect by my sadnesse that I have any evil intent or treasonable designe against him for I heartily wish his welfare It was not Court-holy-water as they call it wherewith he here besprinkleth his Prince it was not counterfeit courtesie such as was that of Squier the Traytor Anno 1597. sent by Walpoole the Jesuite Speed to poyson the pummel of Queen Elizabeths saddle when she was to ride abroad which also he did but without effect saying chearfully at the same time God save the Queen Saluta libentèr is by many practised from the teeth outward but by Nehemiah heartily Why should not my countenance be sad In time of common calamities there is just cause of a general sadnesse should we then make mirth Ezek. 21.10 The Romanes severely punished one that shewed himself out of a window with a garland on his head in the time of the Punick warre when it went ill with the Common-wealth Justinus the good Emperour of Constantinople Func Chron. took the downfal of the City of Antioch by an Earth-quake so much to heart that it caused him a grievous fit of sicknesse Anno Dom. 527. When Pope Clement and his Cardinals were imprisoned by the Duke of Burbons men in Saint Angelo Cesar in Spain forbad all enterludes to be plaid c. In France the Duke of Burbon was condemned of treason his name and memorial were accursed his armes pull'd down his lands and goods confiscated In England King Henry was extremely displeased Cardinal Wolsey wept tenderly Speed 1027. and emptied the Land of twelvescore thousand pounds to relieve and ransome the distressed Pope When the City the place of my fathers sepulchers A good argument to an Heathen who set great store by as now the Papists keep great stir about their burial-places as if one place were holier then another for that purpose a meer devise to pick poor mens purses And the gates thereof are consumed with fire The Jews at this day when they build an house they are say the Rabbines to leave one part of it unfinished lying rude in remembrance that Jerusalem and the Temple are at present desolate At least they use to leave about a yard square of the house unplaistered on which they write in great letters that of the Psalmist If I forget Jerusalem then let my right hand forget her cunning Psal 137. Hist of Rites of Jews by Leo Moden or else these words Zecher Lechorban The memory of the Desolation Verse 4. Then the King said unto me Some think that Nehemiah looked thus sad before the King on purpose to make way to this his request For what doest thou make request Not for any other honour or great office about the Court or in the Countrey nor for any private friend or the like but the good of the Church Thus Nebridius in Hierome though a Courtier and Nephew to the Empresse Tom. 1. Ep. 6. yet never made suit but for the relief of the poor afflicted Thus Terence that Noble General under Valens the Emperour being bidden to
Sam. 12.7 8. Deut. 32.12 19. Amos 2.9 Neverthelesse even him did outlandish women cause to sinne And that most shamefully Never was there a wiser man than Solomon and never any Saint fell into more foolish lusts Job who had the greatest adversity that ever man felt fell much but Solomon who had the greatest prosperity that ever man saw fell more Verse 27. To do all this great evil Here are three articles in the Hebrew importing the hainousnesse of this sinne See the like Gen. 39.9 To transgresse against our God No sinne can be little because a disloyalty so the word signifieth against so great a God and his most holy Law a sacrilegious trespasse Verse 28. And one of the sonnes of Jehoiada His grand-sonne Manasses brother to Jaddua the High-Priest John 4.20 Joseph lib. 11. An. iq cap. 7. a vile Apostata and first author of that famous schisme and deadly feud betwixt the Samaritans and Jews Was sonne in Law to Sanballat Who to keep him to his wife built a faire Temple on Mount Gerizim hard by the City Sichem and made Manasses chief Priest thereof Therefore I chased him from me I caused him to be excommunicated and banished from amongst us Remember them O my God For evil as me for good verse 31. and in both remember the relation that is betwixt thee and my soul Woe be to those whom Gods people do thus turn over to Him to be punished Because they have defiled the Priesthood Corruptio optimi pessima as sweetest wine makes the sowrest vineger A wicked Priest is the worst creature upon earth And the Covenant c. See the Note on Mal. 2.4 Verse 30. Thus cleansed I them from all strangers As from so much filth and rubbish I made them either put away their strange wives or quit their places He did not raise a dust onely but not remove it as Luther wittily saith of the Cardinals and Prelats that met at Rome about Reformation of the Church Slcid. Com. These he compared to Foxes that came to sweep an house full of dust with their tailes and instead of sweeping it out swept it all about the house and made a great smoke for the while but when they were gone the dust all fell down againe Nehemiah made cleane work and so purged the Priesthood that he made it shine againe as the word here signifieth the Priests were as Chrysostome saith all Ministers should be puroires coelo clearer then the azured skie and as those Nazarites Lum 4.7 purer then snow whiter then milk c. Verse 31. And for the wood-offering See chap. 10.34 35. Remember me O my God for good See chap. 5.19 and 13.15 22. He brags not but prays producing his good deeds as testimonies of his sincerity whereof he begs acceptance And this is a sweet close of the Old Testament say our last and largest Annotations upon the Bible for this was the last history and book thereof though the book of Esther be set after it Malachy propliesied anon after the Temple was built as we see saith Master Pemble by his reproving of that sinne in corrupting the holy seed by marrying strangers Bib. sacr 11. Sixtus Senensis placeth him as low as about five hundred years before Christ Many of the ancients make him to be the same with Ezra Nehemiah then as it may seeme hath the honour of putting a perclose to the Old Testament and he doth it with this short but pithy prayer which he uttereth as Luther used to pray tantâ reverentià ut si Deo tantâ fiduciâ ut si amico with so great reverence as to God and yet with so great confidence In vit Luth. as to his God a God in Covenant with him Remember me O my god for good Fiat Fiat A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION Upon the BOOK of ESTHER CHAP. I. Verse 1. Now it came to passe in the dayes of Ahashuerus THis Book is in the Hebrew called Esther because she is a chief party therein mentioned and memorized The Rabbines call it Megillath Esther that is the volume of Esther and further tell us that there be five such volume of Scripture-books viz. Solomons Song Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes and this of Esther which they use to read all over in their Synagogues at five several times of the year 1. Solomons Song at the Passeover in remembrance of their once-deliverance out of Egypt and their future salvation by the Messiah 2. Ruth at Pentecost because therein is set down the Genealogy of David their first King 3. The Lamentations of Jeremy on the ninth day of the fifth moneth that is of July in regard of the Babylonish captivity and ruine of the Temple 4. Ecclesiastes at the feast of Tabernacles in a thankful remembrance of the Divine Providence asserted in that Book and exercised over them in a special manner when they wandred in the wildernesse 5. Lastly this of Esther on the fourteenth and fifteenth dayes of the moneth Adar or February and as oft as they hear mention of Haman they do even to this day R. Abraham Hispanus tognom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their fists and hammers beat upon the benches and boards as if they did beat upon Hamans head They tell us that this Book was written by Mordecai himself and eye-witnesse and a maine party according to chap. 9.20 and have ever reckoned it among the Chetubin or Hagiographa that is the Books of holy Scripture Indeed because they finde not the name of God or Lord in this whole Book they have a custome to cast it to the ground before they read it But they need not for as the Ancient Heathens used to write upon their books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God God so might the Jews upon this Pausan there being no where in Scripture found more remarkable passages and acts of Gods immediate providence for his calamitous people then in this Surely saith a great Divine like as a man by a chaine made up of several linkes some of Gold others of Silver some of Brasse Iron or Tin may be drawn out of a pit so it may here be seen that the Lord by the concurrence of several subordinate things which have no manner of dependance or natural coincidence among themselves hath wonderfully wrought the deliverance of his Church that it might appear to be the work of his own hand In the dayes of Ahashuerus That is of Xerxes the terrour of Greece called Ahashuerosh that is an hereditary Prince begotten by King Darius and borne of a Kings daughter viz. Atossa daughter to Cyrus and heir of the Kingdome by lineal descent Such an hereditary Prince was our Henry the eighth Vide Scalig. de Emond temp lib. 6. Herod 1. 7. 9. Fevardent Ill loc Greek Authors also call Xerxes Oxyares and his wife Amestris which seemeth to be the same with Esther who is called Amestris by a like composition saith an Interpreter as Hamans father was called Ham-Adata an
are all young Virgins taken and stollen from forraine Nations where after they have been instructed in good behaviour and can play upon instruments sing dance and sew curiously they are given to the Grand Signior as presents of great value They live just as Nunnes do in great Nunneries c. That Esther was brought also In the general survey she was taken among the rest and brought to the Court an ill aire for Piety to breath in exeat aulâ Qui vult esse pius Fraus sublimi regnat in aulz Sen. But necessity is an hard weapon As the Turks at this day so the Persian Kings then took all their subjects to be their slaves holding not only their estates but their lives and all they have at their dispose without respect either to the cause or manner To the custody of Hegai keeper of the women Clapt up as it were in a glorious prison being not to come abroad but when the King calls nor to frequent any society but such as is appointed her for her necessary attendance and comfort See the like in the description of the Grand Signiors Seraglio chap. 4. Verse 9. And the maiden pleased him Hegai cast his favour upon her not because she was the fairest noblest most industrious most courtly c. but because God wrought his heart to it as he did Potiphars and Pharaohs to Joseph Jonathans to David Darius's to Daniel c. It is the Lord that gives favour and fashioneth mens opinions of us He gave Solomon honour and Paul prayes to him that his service may be accepted of the Saints Row 15.31 And she obtained kindnesse of him His favour was not empty favour professional only as that of Courtiers And he speedily gave her c. As resolving shortly to recommend her to the King who he knew would be much ruled by him in his choyce Here were shadows of many excellent vertues in a blind Ethnik who may in some sort teach true kindnesse and doth condemne those that boast of false liberality He dealt not basely but bountifully with Esther Her things for purification See ver 3.12 With such things as belonged to her Heb. Her portions or allowances of food raiment c. which this faithful officer interverted not for his own private gaine but rather inlarged himself in the true bestowing thereof And seven maidens When he might have put her off with one he enlargeth himself and even stretcheth his authority that he might by these maide of honour attending her set her forth as a Queen aforehand Which were meet to he given her Or which were very comely speciosa vel spectatae And he preferred Heb. He changed her sc for the better as God doth his people when he taketh them to heaven where they change place but not company as that good man said upon his death-bed and are brought from the jawes of death to the joyes of eternal life from shadows to substances D. Preston from misery to majesty c. a greater change then that of Queen Elizabeth from a Prisoner to a Princesse or that of our Henry the fourth Dan. hist 48. who was crowned the very same day that the year before he had been banished the Realme The Latines call prosperous things Res secundas because they are to be had hereafter they are not the first things Vnto the best place of the house of the women Or Vnto the best condition Gods best children shall have the best of the best fat things full of marrow wines on the lees well refined Esay 25.6 Jacob and his family had the best of the Land of Egypt that Granary of the world as one calleth it His posterity had a land that flowed with milke and honey What Countreys comparable to those that professe the Gospel Godlinesse is profitable to all things having the promises of both lives c. Verse 10. Esther had not shewed her people Because the Jewes were slighted as captives and forlorn how dear to the gods that Nation is faith Cicero it appeareth quòd est victa quòd elocata O at pro L. Hac quòd servata in that they are conquered captivated and not utterly destroyed by us they were also generally hated as different in Religion and would not so much as drink with Heathens lest they should drink things sacrificed to Idols They held it meritorious in after-times to kill an idolater as Tacitus testifieth and at this day they say Optimus inter gentes c. The very best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head bruised as a Serpent A nasty people they are still and bloodthirsty odious and sordid An historian telleth us of an Emperour travelling into Egypt and there meeting with certaine Jews he was so annoyed with the stench of them that he cryed out O Marcomanut ô Quadi ô Surmaetae tandem alios vobis deteriores inveni Ammian lib. 2. This is the basest and most contemptible people that ever I light upon Aug. in Psal 58 The Romanes would not own them when they had conquered them as they did other Nations though they complied never so much and were their servants The Turks so hate them for crucifying Christ that they use to say in detestation of a thing Heyl. Geog. I would I might die a Jew then as when they would assure any thing in execrationibus dicunt Judeus sim si fallo they curse themselves Sanctrus in Zech 8.13 and say Let me be held a Jew if I deceive thee This lyeth upon them as a punishment for their unexpiable guilt in putting to death the Lord of life But in Esthers time they were hated chiefly for their Religion In prudence therefore she concealeth her kindred as being not called to give an account of her faith and living private might well performe her devotions and yet not thrust her self into observation For Mordecai had charged beâ— that she should not shew it Lest she should be cashiered the Court for a Jeweâ—se which was then held crime enough as afterwards it was in Nore's dayes to be a Christian and this hand perinde in crimine quà m odio humani generis as Tavitus hath it not for any great fault so much as by the hatred of mankind incensed and set on work by the Devil doubtlesse to root out the true Religion and to set up himself in the hearts of men as god of this present world Hence those complaints of Tertullian and Justin Martyr in their Apologies for Christians that their name and not their crimes was hated and hissed out of all companies Tert. Apoâ— c 1. 2.3 Just Apol. 2. Odio publico est confessio nòminis non examinatio criminis Solius hominis crimen est c. Wisely therefore did Mordecai charge Esther to conceal her self for present so long as it might be done without prejudice to the truth and scandal to her profession Worthily also did holy Esther in obeying Mordâ—cai her faithful foster-father in ruling
must see to it that we give unto God the things that are Gods Matth. 22.21 where the three articles used in the Original are very emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is a saying of Chrysostome If Caesar will take to himself Gods part by commanding that which is sinful to pay him such a tribute is not tributum Caesaris but servitium diaboli an observing of Caesar but a serving of the devil Verse 4. Now it came to passe when they spake daily unto him This if they did of good-will as at first perhaps they did it was a friendly office and may shame many of us who are so backward to Christian admonition See my common places that spiritual Almes that we are bound freely to distribute Jude 22.23 But if as is likely at length at least they did it to ingratiate with Haman and out of envy to Mordecai because he did not comply and comport with them what did they else but act the devils part and the rather because they were importunate and impudent as not to take an answer And he hearkened not unto them They did but surdo fabulam as they say beat upon cold iron Act. Mon. John Ardley this matter was not malleable this man not to be prevailed with to do ought against his conscience The Heavens shall sooner fall then I will alter mine opinion said that Martyr This the Persecutours called obstinacy sed pro hac obstinatione fiâ—ei morâ—mar saith Tertullian but for this obstinacy of faith we gladly die and the stronger any are in faith the more resolute in warrantable purposes The strength of Israel repenteth not 1 Sam. 10.29 Unconstancy comes from weaknesse That they told Haman Purposely to pick a thank and curry favour Go not about as a tale-bearer Levit. 19.16 The word signifieth as a pedler that first filleth his pack with tales and slanders and then venteth them to the hurt of others Such are fitly joyned with flatterers Prov. 20.19 and with murtherers Ezek. 22.9 Such a wretched Pedler was Doeg and such were these evil instruments in the text whose tongues were as sharp as the quills of a Porcupine the poison of aspes was under their lips And although it was truth they told Haman yet because they did it not for any love to the truth nor for respect to justice nor for the bettering of either party but only to undo the one and to incense the other they were no better then flanderers To see whether Mordecai's matters would stand Whether he would stick to his principles and not start aside for any terrour Phil. 1.28 For he had told them that he was a Jew That is by Interpretation a Confessour yea more he was a stout Professour of the truth and though he had hitherto concealed himself yet now sith they will needs have it so he plainly tells them his countrey and his conscience the true cause of his peremptorinesse which they held and call'd prâ—de and stubbornnesse Verse 5. And when Haman saw Stirred up by these pestilent pick-thanks qui crabronem furiosum magìs irritaverant as one saith he took special notice of Hamans irreverence which with more discretion he might have dissembled When an inconsiderate fellow had stricken Cato in the Bath and afterwards cried him mercy he replied I remember not that thou didst strike me T is a signe of weaknesse to be too soft and sensible of an indignity Sen. de it l. 1. I was as a deafe man that heard not and as one dumbe in whose mouth is no reproof Psal 38.13 14. The best apology to words and carriages of scorne and petulancy is that of Isaac to Ishmael viz. patience and silence That Mordecai bowed not c. A great businesse to mad him so much but that he was set on by that old man-slayer Sic leve sic parvum est animum quod laudis avarum Subruit aut reficit A small winde raiseth a bubble ambition rideth without reines and hath inhabitatorem Draconem Apostatam the devil at inne with it Then was Haman full of wrath He swell'd like a toad glow'd like a devil being transform'd as it were into a breathing devil he seeks the utter extirpation of that people of whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as corcerning the flesh Christ was to come Rom. 9.5 wishing the same to them which Caligula in a rage did to the people of Rome I would ye had all but one neck that I might cut you all off at one blow Josephus tells us that he brake out into this blustering speech Liberi Persae me adorant Hic autem servus cùm sit tamen hoc faâ—ere dedignatur The Persians though free-men reverence me and yet this slave thinks himselfe too good to do it This he uttered no doubt with a very harsh and hateful intention of the voice such as was that of the two brethren in evil whose anger was fierce and their wrath cruel when Gen. 34.31 they answered their aggrieved father Should he deal with our sister as an harlot where the word Zâ—nab Harlot hath a great letter Gen. 49.5 7. to note their vehemency rage and rudenesse Verse 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he thought scorne to lay hands on Mordecai alone He thought it a small matter saith Josephus a thing below him too little for his revenge which like fire burneth all it can lay hold upon especially when as here it ariseth from ambition which like choler a dust if obstructed and stopped in its course is a dangerous passion and endeth in burning fevers and madnesse Haman thought scorne contempsit in oculis suis so the Hebrew to foule his fingers with Mordecai alone the whole Nation must perish and all the children of God that were scattered abroad as he once said John 11.50 52. Semblably nostri temporis Hamanus saith Merlin upon this text the Haman of our time meaning the Duke of Guise as I suppose when as by the Kings favour he was promoted and promised himself the Crown there being but one family only that stood in his way he desired together with it to overturn all the Reformed Religion and to root out all the remembrance of the Churches in France Hence the Parisian Massacre wherein Merlin had his part being houshold-Chaplaine to the Admiral and by a miracle of Gods mercy escaping those hellish cut-throates The first occasion of that bloody Massacre I have somewhere read was this Other things I know were pretended as if the Protestants had plotted and practiced against the King Queen-mother and the Princes of the blood Camd. Eliz. and coine stamped with this Inscription Virtus in rebelles c. The Pope sent to the Cardinal of Lorraine brother to the Duke of Guise a Table wherein was painted our Lady with a little childe in her armes by the most excellent Painter in Christendome and consecrated with his own hands and enclosed it in a case of silk and a letter withal giving him high
charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ c. 2 Tim. 4.1 So Saint Austin to his hearers Per tremendum Dei judicium vos adjuro I require and charge you by that dreadful day of judgement when that doomes-day book shall be opened c. It is a weaknesse to be hot in a cold matter but it is a wickednesse to be cold in a hot matter He that is earnest in good though he may carry some things indiscreetly yet is he far better then a time-server and a cold friend to the truth like as in falling forward is nothing so much danger as in falling backward Eli was too blame with his Do no more so my sonnes And so was Jehoshaphat with his Let not the King say so And the people in Ahabs time who when they were pressed to expresse whom they were for God or Baal they answered not a word 1 Kings 18.21 And yet how many such cold friends hath the truth now adayes Luke-warm Laodiceans Neuter-passive Christians c When Callidus once declared against Gallus with a faint and languishing voice Oh saith Tully Tu nisi fingeres sic ageres Would'st thou plead on that manner if thou wert in good earnest Mens faint appearing for Gods cause shewes they do but faine their coldnesse probably concludeth they do but counterfeit Mordecai plays the man and chargeth Esther to improve her interest in the King her husband for the Churches deliverance See here how he turneth every stone tradeth every talent leaveth no meanes unused no course unattempted for the Saints safety And this the Spirit of God hath purposely recorded that all may learn to lay out themselvs to the utmost for the publike to be most zealous for the conservation and defence of the Church when it is afflicted and opposed by Persecutours seeing they cannot be saved unlesse she be in safety neither can they have God for their Father unlesse they love and observe this their deare mother Vtinam iterùm autem utinam diligentiùs à cunctis ordinibus haec hodiè considerarentur saith one Cypr. Aut. l. de unit Eccles Oh that these things were duely considered by all sorts now adayes To make supplication unto him Heb. to deprecate displeasure and mischief as 1 Kings 8.28 Zech. 12.10 And to make request before him Ad quaerendum à facie ejus so Pagnine from the Hebrew to seek for good from his face an effectual smile a gracious aspect that they may live in his sight For in the light of the Kings countenance is life and his favour is as a cloud of the latter raine Prov. 16.15 The ancient Persian Kings were most fond of their wives doing them all the honour possible in Court as Partakers of all their fortunes and carried them and their children into their farthest warres by the presence of so dear pledges the more to encourage their mindes in time of battel Now therefore Esther whom Herodotus also witnesseth to have been Xerxes his best beloved is to try what she can do with him for her people who were haply grown too secure upon Esthers preferment as the French Churches also were upon the Queen of Navarres greatnesse and the promise of peace by that match God therefore shortly after shook them up not by shaking his rod only at them as here at these Jewes but by permitting that bloody Massacre Verse 9. And Hatach came and told Esther He acted the part of a faithful messenger so must Ministers those servants of the Churches declare unto the people all the minde of God Acts 20.27 and not steal Gods word every one from his neighbour Jer. 23.30 not deal deceitfully with it but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God let them speak in Christ and let them speak out not fearing any colours He that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully saith God Jer. 23.28 Aarons Bells were all of gold the Trumpets of the Sanctuary were of pure silver they did not as those inverse Trumpets of Furius Fulvius sound a retreat when they should have sounded an alarm No more must Gods Messengers Whatsoever the Lord saith unto me 1 Cor. 11. Heb. 3.5 that will I speak saith Michaiah Paul as he received what he delivered so he delivered whatsoever he received Moses was faithful in all Gods house c. Verse 10. Again Esther spake unto Hatach Having before found him a fit and faithful messenger she further employeth him so those that minister well do purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldnesse in the faith which is in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 3.13 when others shall be laid by as broken vessels whereof there is not left a sheard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withal from the pit as the Prophet hath it Esay 30.14 Verse 11. All the Kings servants His Courtiers and Counsellours who haply were as very slaves to him Turk Hist 1153. as now the greatest Lords of the Court are to the great Turk no man having any power over himself much lesse is he Master of the house wherein he dwelleth or of the land which he tilleth but is in danger of being whipped upon the least displeasure of the Tyrant especially if he be not a natural Turk borne Ibid. 361. And the people of the Kings Provinces do know i.e. All both far and near this shewes that the Law here mentioned was no new Law procured by Haman to prevent Jewish Suppliants as Lyra would have it but long since made and known to all the Kings subjects That whosoever whether man or woman Yea though she be his dearest Consort who should cohabit with him and not be sundred for a season but by consent 1 Cor. 7.5 Shall come unto the King The Persians usually hid their King tanquam aliquod sacrum mysterium as some precious businesse and that for two reasons First for State and Authority lest familiarity with their subjects should breed contempt and make them over-cheap Philip the second King of Spaine was of the same minde and practice For after that he had gotten into his hands the Kingdome of Portugal and therewith the wealth of the Indies inclusit se in Curiale he shut up and immured himself in his Court Val. Max. Christ and was seldome seen of any though never so great a man but upon long suit and as a singular favour This made him to be adored as a demi-god Secondly for security and safety lest if all should be suffered to come that would the King should be assassinated and made away as Eglon was by Ehud Ishbosheth by Baanah and Rechab Gedaliah by Ishmael and many Kings of Israel and Emperours of Rome were by their own servants The Turks at this day suffer no stranger to come into the Presence of their Emperour but first they search him that he have no weapon and so clasping him by the armes Turk Hist under colour of doing him honour dissemblingly they
Turks likewise at this day precisely observe their Fasts and will not so much as taste a cup of water Turk Hist 777. or wash their mouthes with water all the day long before the stars appear in the sky be the days never so long and hot The Hollanders and French fast but had need saith one to send for those mourning women Jer. 19.17 by their cunning to teach them to mourn The English are not sick soon enough saith another and they are well too soon this is true of their mindes as well as of their bodies Currat ergo poenitentia ne praecurrat sententia and let our Fasts be either from morning till evening Judg. 20.26 2 Sam. 3.35 Or from evening till evening Levit. 23.32 or longer as here And Acts 9.9 As the hand and wrath of God doth more or lesse threaten us Uâ—quedum stollae in coelo appareant or lie upon us There is an old Canon that defineth their continuance Till starres appear in the sky I also and my maids will fast She her self would be in the head of them as Queen Elizabeth also told her souldiers at Tilbury Camp for their comfort and as Cesar used to say to his souldiers Go we and not Go ye and as Joshua said Non ite sed ea mus Josh 14.15 I and my house will serve Jehovah Esthers maids must fast and pray or they are no maids for her And so will I go unto the King It is said of Achilles that he was Styge armatus But he that fasteth prayeth believeth Est coelo Christo Deo armatus armed with an undaunted resolution to obey God whatever come of it Which is not according to the Law She slights not the Law but waves it to obey Gods Law and save her people And if I perish I perish This she speaketh not rashly or desperately Better do worthily and perish for a Kingdom then unworthily and perish with a Kingdom as prodigal of her life but as sacrificing the same to God and his cause thorough the obedience of faith and saying as that Martyr Can I die but once for Christ See the like phrase Gen. 43.14 with the Note there Verse 17. So Mardecai went his way and did according c. As he had put her upon a dangerous but as the cause stood necessary exploit Nature will venture its own particular good for the general as heavy things will ascend to keep out vacuity and preserve the Universe so he is ruled by her though a woman and once his pupil when he perceived her counsel was good Abraham must hear Sarah and David Abigail and Apollos Priscilla when they speak reason It is foretold of a man in Christ that a little childe shall lead him Esa 11.6 CHAP. V. Verse 1. Now it came to passe on the third day THat is Seder Olam on the fifteenth day of the moneth Nissan as the Hebrew Annals say Cum adhuc ferverent popularium suorum preces whiles the prayers of her Countreymen like those of Cornelius Acts 10.4 were come up for a memorial before God she takes her opportunity and speeds accordingly she knew that sweet passage Psalme 145.18 The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfil the desire of them that feare him he will also heare their cry and will save them c. Joh. Manl. loc Com. 142. This she could afterwards seale to and say This poor soul cried and the Lord heard her and saved her out of all her troubles Psal 34.6 Luthers widow confessed that she never understood many of Davids Psalmes till she was in deep affliction That Esther put on her royal apparel She knew that Hanc homines decorant quam vestimenta decôrant People are usually regarded as they are habited good cloaths conduce much to the setting forth of beauty to the best Like a right daughter of Sarah she knew that the outward adorning I Pet. 3.3 5. by plaiting the haire wearing of gold and putting on of apparel would not at all commend her to God in obedience to whom she had wanzed her face with fasting and trusted that he would put upon her his comelinesse But considering that the King her husband looked much at such things she laid aside her fasting-weeds and put on her best Ind uit se regno so the Original runs she clothed her self in rich and royal aray as Queen Mary of England did on her Coronation day her head was so laden with precious stones that she could hardly hold it up saith the Story and all things else were according Whether Esther came to the King leaning upon one maid and having another to hold up her traine as Josephus hath it is uncertain 'T is likely she left her Attendants without lest she should draw them into danger and contented her self when she went in to the King with those faithful companions Faith Hope and Charity who brought her off also with safety according to Prov. 18.10 and 14.26 And stood in the inner Court of the Kings house A bold adventure questionlesse but the fruit of the prayer of faith this was it that put spirit and metal into her What if she were Queen so had Vasthi been and yet discarded for her disobedience Besides how could she tell either what the Kings minde toward her was he had not seen her of a moneth and if Haman knew her to be a Jewesse what would not he suggest against her Or what was the minde of God till he had signified it by the event It was therefore an heroical courage in Esther proceeding from her saith which when it is driven to work alone without sense then God thinks it lieth upon his credit to shew mercy Over against the Kings house Where she might see him and be seen by him This she did Nec temerè Lib. 12.3 1 Kings 10.18 nec timidè which saith one is the Christians Motto And the King sat upon his Royal Throne Royal indeed as Athenaeus describeth it But yet short of Solomons much more of the Lord Christs supported and surrounded with an innumerable company of Angels It should be our earnest desire to see this King of glory upon his Throne to see him and enjoy him Austin wished that he might have seen three things 1. Romam in flore 2. Paulum in ore 3. Christum in corpore Rome in the flourish Paul in the Pulpit Christ in the flesh Venerable Bede cometh after and correcting this last wish saith Imo verò Christum in solio sedentem Let me see Christ upon his Throne-royal rather Esay saw him so ch 6.1 and took far more delight therein then the merry Greeks did or could do at their Olympick games celebrated at the same time in the one thousand five hundred and fourtieth yeare after the Flood as the divine Chronologer computeth it Bucholc 541. Verse 2. And it was so God the great Heart-disposer so
fool-hardinesse Prov. 29.11 A fool uttereth all his minde ye shall have it presently so near his mouth doth it lie that all will out suddenly but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards or in an inner râ—m in ulteriori animi recessu as the word may be rendred till he see his time to produce it If it seem good to the King Princes must have silken words given them as the mother of Artaxerxes haply Esther told one The rule of old was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 short or sweet Let the King and Haman come this day to the banquet She knew that the King loved Hamans company and especially at a banquet It was policie in Rebecca to provide such savoury meat as the old man loved so here Be wise as Serpents David is commended for his prudent and thereby prosperous deporting himselfe in Sauls house 1 Sam. 18. God gave Solomon politick wisdom exceeding much Who is a faithful and a wise servant Mat. 24. Jam. 3.13 saith our Saviour c And who is a wise man and endued with knowledge saith St. James amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meeknesse of wisdom But if it were policy in Esther to invite Haman whom she hated was it likewise Piety did she not dissemble R. Solomon saith She invited Haman alone with the King that other Courtiers might envie him and so undermine him But that 's but a sorry excuse neither doth Lyra's allegation of her good intention much mend the matter They answer better who say that she invited him that she might aneâ—â—e him to his face and some off all matter of his excuse or escape Hereby also she would shew saith Lavater that she accursed him not out of wrath or revenge but that she was drawen to it and as it were driven by meer necessity Verse 5. Then the King said Cause Haman to make haste Heb. Accelerate or hasten Haman sc to an ill bargain as it proved the very next day Look how thunder commonly happens when the sky seemeth most clear so Haman saw himself inveloped with a storme in one of the fairest dayes of his fortune Philosophers say that before a snow the weather will be warmish when the winde lies the great rain falls and the aire is most quiet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dic. when suddenly there will be an earthquake So the King and Haman 〈…〉 Who but the King and Haman So Tiberius called Sejâ—â— My Sejâ—â— Partaker of all my cares and counsels 〈◊〉 and made him his Colleague in the Empire But he soon cast him from supreme honour to extreme ignominy so that the same Senatour who accompanied him to the Senate conducted him to prison they which sacrificed unto him as to their god which kneeled down to him to adore him scoffed at him and loaded him with contempt and concumelies So Caesar Borgia that restlesse Ambitionist who emulating Julius Caesar would needs be aut Caesar aut nullus was shortly after Caesar nullus being slain in the Kingdom of Navarre Verse 6. And the King said unto Esther at the banquet of wine Which seemeth to have been after the other banquet of dainties and sweet-meats during which they drank water Only the King had aurum potabile a golden water prepared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inter pocula which he and his eldest sonne alone might drink and none else might taste of it on paine of death At this latter Banquet they drank wine freely one to another and inter poculorum laetitiam as Josephus hath it when his heart was now merry within him after he had drunk wine abundantly as the Latine hath it the King said unto Esther What is thy Petition to the halfe of the Kingdome The Promise the King reneweth as supposing that Esther durst not propose her request because of the greatnesse of the matter and assuring her that she should have it though never so great And saith not the God of heaven as much to his servants and suppliants Esay 45.11 Jer. 33.3 Why then stand they off in a sinful shamefacednesse and improve not to the utmost this divine indulgence this precious priviledge why say they not with Luther who well understood the latitude of this royal Charter Fiat mea voluntas Let my will be done my will I say because the same with thine Lord why do they not grow upon God and work upon his Promise which is so exceeding broad Psal 119 96. as David did 1 Chro. 17.23 24 25 he goes over it again and yet still encroacheth verse 26. he presseth and oppresseth it till he hath expressed the sweetnesse out of it and so we have all good leave to do Esay 66.11 even to suck and be satisfied by those full-strutting breasts of divine consolation But what mean those foule great babies the Papists to pray the Virgin Mary to exhibit unto them the breasts of her grace Gab. Biel. c And what frontlesse blasphemers are they to say that God the Father hath shared his Kingdome with her keeping his Justice to himself and giving his Mercy to her to dispose of And this say they that they may not seem to be mad without reason was prefigured by Ahashnerus his saying to Esther I will grant thy request to the half of my Kingdom Verse 7. My Petition and my request is She bespeaketh the King in his own very words and so must we if we mean to speed in heaven Take unto you words and say Gen. 38.25 Take away all iniquity and give good c. Produce Gods own words in prayer and say as she did to Judah Whose are these He loves to be set upon in his own words to be pressed with his Promise to be sued upon his bond This David knew and therefore cries Psal 86.11 Vnite my heart to feare thy name it is as if he should say Ezek. 11.19 Thou hast promised Lord to give me one heart behold I finde mine heart divided my thoughts dissipated and my self disabled for duty for Anima dispersa fit minor Vnite it I beseech thee c. This is the way to make our prayers to be nigh the Lord day and night as Solomon phraseth it 1 Kings 8.59 Verse 8. If I have found favour in the sight of the King As she had not so much by her beauty and bravery wherein Vasht perhaps might easily have compared with her but by the finger of God who tameth to his Elect the fiercest creatures as he did the Lions to Daniel and other savage beasts to the Martyrs whom they would not meddle with and turneth the Kings heart as the rivers of water into what channel soever he pleaseth to put it Prov. 21.1 as the Plowman doth the water-course with his paddle or the Gardiner with his hand And if it please the King See verse 4. and submit to God James 4.7 And I will do to morrow as the King hath said She
things to Mordecai he thinking that he had mocked him answered with indignation Thou most wicked man doest thou thus insult over the miserable But when he had told him that indeed it was the Kings pleasure he suffered him to do it But what shall we say to reconcile those crosse passions in Ahashucrus Before he signed that decree of killing all the Jewes he could not but know that a Jew had saved his life and now after that he had enacted the slaughter of all the Jewes as rebels 〈◊〉 Hall he giveth order to honour a Jew as his Preserver It were strange saith a right Reverend Writer hereupon if great persons in the multitude of their distractions should not let fall some incongruities And brought him on horseback Whom before he could not endure to see sitting at the Court-gate A great trouble it was to Haman to lead Mordecai's horse which another man would not have thought so the moving of a straw troubleth proud flesh c. Thorough the streets of the City Where all men were now in an amazement at that sudden glory of Mordecai and study how to reconcile this day with the thirteenth of Adar And proclaimed before him Not without an honourable mention made of his loyalty and fidelity to the King the cause of that great honour This Haman was forced to proclaim and that on foot as a servant when Mordecai as a Prince in his state was on horseback It is probable that Haman thought within himself that he should shortly have his penniworths of that vile varlet whom now he thus far honoured and that haply ere night yet at the feast he might prevaile with the King to do by Mordecai as once he did by his Steersman when he came back with shame and losse from his warres with Greece He was forced saith the History to flie back in a poor Fishers boat which being over-burdened had sunk all if the Persians by casting away themselves had not saved the life of their King the losse of which noble spirits so vexed him that having given the Steersman a golden Coronet for preserving his own life he commanded him to execution as a Co-Authour of the death of his servants Verse 12. And Mordecai came again to the Kings gate No whit over-joyed of his new honour or puffed up thereby as many would have been a small winde bloweth up a bubble only he conceiveth hope thereby of a better condition and taketh every former mercy for a pledge of a future this experience breedeth confidence He doth not rush into the Court at his return and reach after an higher room but came again to the Kings gate where his office was and his businesse lay he took up also as some think his old habit again the Kings apparel and horse being restored to the right owner he had as little delight in it as David once had of Sauls armour but it is rather probable saith an Expositour that he now left that off being full of hope that as God had heard his prayers to bring him out of danger and to high honour so he should now be able to help his brethren the Jewes out of theirs also Mean-while he doth not envie his superiours insult over his inferiours trouble his equals threaten his enemies c. but committeth himself and all his affairs to Gods good pleasure and Providence and this is the guise of a godly man Psal 131.1 2. But Haman hasted to his house mourning Or vexed at heart fretting within himselfe that he was so very much disappointed Merrily he made account to have gone to the Queens feast when he had first trussed up Mordecai Of which not only missing but made to do him publike honour in that sort and that by his own direction this gall'd him and grieved him above measure so bladder-like is the foul of an unregenerate man that filled with earthly vanities though but winde it growes great and swells in pride but if prick't with the least pin of piercing grief it shriveleth to nothing And having his head covered With his cap pulled over his eyes as ashamed to look any one in the face See 2 Sam. 15.30 Jer. 14.4 Verse 13. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends Expecting comfort and counsel from them but they read him his destiny and adde to his grief and desparation letting him know that his state was such as that there was neither hope of better nor place of worse a just hand of God upon such an hard-hearted wretch that had plotted the ruine of so many innocents And this his wife and friends had they done well should have minded him of and stirred him up to repent of his wickednesse against God the cause of his present wretchednesse to be reconciled to Mordecai whom he and they plainly saw to be Gods Favourite and now the Kings also to take down that ugly Gallowes that there were no further notice taken of it the evidence and ensign of his insufferable pride and their unsavoury counsel to get the decree for the Jewes Massacre reversed or countermanded c. But not a word find we of any thing this way tending Gracelesse people neither have God in their heads Psal 10.4 nor hearts Psal 14.1 nor words Psal 12.4 nor wayes Tit. 1.16 but stand in a posture of distance nay defiance walking contrary to him and therefore he also to cry quittance walketh contrary to them Lev. 26. shewing himself as froward as they for the hearts of them Psal 18.26 Every thing that had befallen him The sad accidents of that day nothing now as once chap. 5.11 boasteth he to them of the glory of his riches and multitude of his children and how the King had advanced him above all his other Courtiers Hamans â—rowing was now turned into crying c. Then said his wife men Wizards haply such as he made use of when he cast Pur for a luckie day and into whose mouthes the devil might put this answer It is his use to bring his impes into the briars and there to leave them as he did Saul whose Funeral Sermon he preached and Judas Julian Valens and others And Zeresh his wife said unto him She is noted for a prudent woman but here she proves as cold a comforter as before she had been an evil counsellour If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jewes A Nation noted for dear to God often delivered by him and that had also the faculty of gaining the good-will of Princes by their excellent vertues as it had been seen in Daniel and his companions in Jechoniah Zerubbabel Ezra Nehemiah and the whole Nation so graciously licensed by Cyrus to return into their own Countrey It is a good Note that one gives here A Jew may fall before a Persian and get up and prevail but if a Persian or whosoever of the Gentiles begin to fall before a Jew he can neither stay nor rise c. Thou shalt not prevaile against him But why did
be a lifelesse life and hence her importunity for both together sith they were in her heart ad commoriendum convivendum if they died she could not live Good blood will not belie it selfe Esther had not shewed her kindred and people till now that she must appear for them See the like in Moses Heb. John 19 3â— 11.25 in Nicodemus that night-bird John 7.51 he speaks boldly and silences the whole company John 19. he boldly beggeth the body of Jesus neither could he any longer conceal himself Surely as Solomon by trial found out the true harlot-mother so doth God by hard times descry the affections of his people Then as Joseph could not refrain teares so nor they the exercise of their faith and charity Verse 4. For we are sold i. e. given up wholly into the power of the enemy as that which a man hath bought with his money is his own to dispose of She referres doubtlesse to the summe proffered by Haman chap. 3.9 not fearing the face of so potent an enemy nor going behind his back to set him out in his colours yea though her discourse could not but somewhat reflect upon the King who had given Haman his consent I and my people She makes it a common cause and saith to her Countreymen as once David did to Abiathar 1 Sam. 22.23 or as Charles the fifth said to Julius Pestugius who complained that he had been much wronged by the Duke of Saxony Have a little patience thy cause shall be my cause neither will I sit down till I have seen you some way righted See verse 3. To be destroyed to be slain and to perish These were the very words of that bloody decree which she purposely maketh use of that he might be sensible of what he had consented to and might see that she complained not without cause But what a case was Haman in at the hearing of this and how did he now repent him but too late of ever having a hand in so bloody a businesse His iniquity was now full and the bottle of his wickednesse filled up to the brim with those bitter waters was even about to sink to the bottom His Gallowes was finished last night and now it groaned hard for him that he might be destroyed slain and made to perish Neque enim lex justior ulla est Quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen Though it had been an hard and sad condition for a Queen especially which yet was Hecuba's case and Zenobia's yet it would not be grievous to them to sacrifice their liberty to the service of their life the Gibeonites were glad they might live upon any termes Josh 9.16 Masters might slay their bondservants but that was counted a cruelty and when one did it at Rome he was amerced by the Censor many times they were manumitted for their good service and came to great estates I had held my tongue Silence is in some cases a crying sinne Taciturnity I confesse is sometimes a vertue but not at all where it tends to the betraying of a good cause or the detriment of the labouring Church For Zions sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest c. Esay 62.1 Terentius that noble General told Vatens the Arian Emperour â—â—â—eph l. 11. 〈◊〉 that he had abandoned the victory and sent it to the enemy by his persecuting Gods people and favouring hereticks That was an excellent saying of Hierome to Vigilantius Meam injuriam patienter tuli c. whiles the wrong thou didst reached only to my self I took it patiently but thy wickednesse against God I cannot beare with so was that of Occolampadius to Servetus blaming him for his sharpnesse to the self-same purpose And lastly that of Luther in a letter to his friend Staupiâ—ius Inveniar sanè superbus c. Let me be accounted proud peremptory passionate or what men please so that I be not found guilty of a sinful silence when called to speak for God Although the enemy could not countervaile the Kings damage q.d. It is not his ten thousand talents ch 3.9 nor all that he is worth and ten more such as he is that can make up the losse that the King is sure to sustain by the slaughter of the Jewes a people painful and prayerful this Darius made high account of Ezra 6.16 useful and profitable careful to maintain good works in St. Pauls sense Tit. 3.8 that is such as were noted to exceed and excel others in witty inventions to be their Craftsmasters and faithful to their trust Besides if they be taken away great damage shall redound to the Kings revenue by non-payment of toll tribute and custome as those Malignants could alledge Ezra 4.12 a thing that Princes usually are very sensible of Or if there should be lucrum in arca yet there would he damnum in conscientia the foule blurre of blood-guiltinesse would lie heavy both upon the Kings conscience and his name among all Nations The Vulgar rendreth this text thus Nunc autem hostis noster est cujus crudelitas redundat in regâ—m And now he is our enemy whose cruelty reflecteth upon the King Tremelius thus Sâ—d non est hostis iste utilis damnosus est regi but now this enemy is no way profitable but to the King disadvantageous This the King considers not and the enemy cares not so that he may serve his own turne and satisfie his murtherous minde Verse 5. Then the King Ahashuerus answered c. It seems he did not yet by all that Esther had said understand whom she meant so high an opinion he had of Haman his minion the only ornament and bulwark of the Empire the greatest Publicola Quis hic ipseâ— ubi hic illâ— and most esteemed Patriot The King therefore as not thinking him so near hand hastily asketh He said and said so the Heb. hath it to the Queen Who is he and where is he Who is that Sirrah he and where is that Sirrah he words of utmost indignation and readinesse to be revenged such as were those of Charles the fifth Emperour If that Villaine were here speaking of Farnesius the Popes General Pâ—raei Meduâ— Hist â—rofan Eraâ—m ep l. 1â— ad obtrectat who had ravished certain Ladies I would kill him with mine own hand or those of fiery Friar who openly in the Pulpit at Antwerp preaching to the people wished that Luther were there that he might tear him with his teeth But could this King possibly so soon forget what himself had not two moneths before granted to be done against Esthers people which was with his right hand to cut off his left or did he not all this while know what Countrey-woman his beloved Esther was and might he not expect that the Hamanists should come and take her forcibly from him to execution by vertue of his own Edict as Daniels adversaries had dealt by
of Haman yet God was righteous in measuring to him as he had meted to others by belying and slandering so many innocents as he had designed to destruction The devil was and still is first a liar and then a murtherer he cannot murther without he slander first But God loves to retaliate and proportion device to device Mic. 2.1 3. frowardnesse to frowardnesse Ps 18.26 spoiling to spoiling Esa 33.1 tribulation to them that trouble his people 2 Thes 1.6 As the word went out of the Kings mouth Either the former words or else some words of command not here related such as are Corripite velate vultum take him away cover his face And this word was to Haman the messenger of death driving him from the light into darknesse and chasing him out of the world Job 18.18 Nay worse That book of Job elegantly sets forth the misery of a wicked man dying under the notion of one not only driven out of the light by devils where he shall see nothing but his tormentors but also made to stand upon shares or grinnes with iron teeth ready to strike up and grinde him to pieces having gall poured down to his belly with an instrument raking in his bowels and the pains of a travelling woman upon him and an hideous noise of horrour in his eares Job 18.18 20.24 15. 15.20 21 26 30. and a great Giant with a speare running upon his neck and a flame burning upon him round about c. and yet all this to hell it self is but as a prick with a pin or a flea-biting They covered Hamans face In token of his irrevocable condition See Job 9.24 Esa 22.17 The Turks cast a black gown upon such as they sit at supper with the great Turk Grand Sign Serag 148. and presently strangle them Many of their Visiers or greatest Favourites die in this sort which makes them use this proverb He that is greatest in office is but a Statue of glasse Plutarch wittily compareth great men to counters which now stand for a thousand pound and anon for a farthing Sic transit gloria mundi Quem dies veniens vidit superbum Hunc dies abiens vidit jacentem Haman for instance and so Sejanus the same Senatours who accompanied him to the Senate conducted him to prison they which sacrificed unto him as to their god which kneeled down to adore him scoffed at him seeing him dragged from the Temple to the Goale from supreme honour to extreme ignominy Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus â—ertinax Imp. fortunae pila dictus est One reason why the King flang out of the room and went into the Palace-garden might be because he could not endure the sight of Haman any more Wherefore upon his return they instantly covered his face Some say the manner was that when the King of Persia was most highly offended with any man Tanquam indignus qui regem oculis uâ—rparet Drus Sen. Tac. Tull. pro Rab. Liv. his face was immediately covered to shew that he was unworthy to see the Sun whom they counted their god or to be an eye-sore to the displeased King Among the Romanes it was Majestas laesa si exeâ—â—ti Proconsulimerettix non sun movetur high treason for any Strumpet to stand in the Proconsuls way whensoever he came abroad The statues of the gods were transported or covered in those places where any punishment was inflicted That in Tully and Livy is well knowen Iâ—lictor colliga manus caput abnubito arbori infelici suspendito Go Hangman binde his hands cover his face hang him on the Gallow-tree This was their condemnatory sentence Verse 9. And Harbonah one of the Kings Chamberlaines c. See chapter 6.14 with the Note Said before the King Not a man opens his mouth to speak for Haman but all against him Had the cause been better thus it would have been Every curre is ready to fall upon the dog that he seeth worried every man ready to pull a branch from the tree is falling Cromwell had experience of this when once he fell into displeasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speed by speaking against the Kings match with Lady Katherine Howard in defence of Queen Anne of Cleeve and discharge of his conscience for the which he suffered death Steven Gardiner being the chiefe Engineere Had Hamans cause been like his albeit he had found as few friends to intercede for him as Cromwell yet he might have died with as much comfort as he did But he died more like to the Lord Hungerford of Hatesby Speed who was beheaded together with the noble Cromwell but neither so Christianly suffering nor so quietly dying for his offence committed against nature viz. buggery Cromwell exhorted him to repent and promised him mercy from God but his heart was hardened and so was this wicked Hamans God therefore justly set off all hearts from him in his greatest necessity and now to adde to his misery brings another of his foule sins to light that he might the more condignely be cut off Behold also the Galloweâ— fifty cubits high See chap. 5.14 This the Queen knew not of when she petitioned against Haman But now they all heare of it for Hamans utter confusion Which he had prepared for Mordecai At a time when the King had done him greatest honour as his Preserver and near Ally by marriage as now it appeared This must needs reflect upon the King and be a reproach to him Besides the King looked upon him as one that went about either to throttle the Queen as some understand the words verse 8. or to ravish her and this was just upon him say some Interpreters eò quò aliis virginibus matronis vini intulisset because it was common with him to ravish other maids and matrons and hence the Kings suspicion and charge whereof before Who had spoken good for the King All is now for Mordecai but not a word for Haman the rising Sun shall be sure to be adored And the contrary Sejanus his friends shewed themselves most passionate against him when once the Emperour frowned upon him saying that if Caesar had clemency he ought to reserve it for men and not use it toward monsters This is Courtiers custome ad quamlibet auram sese inclinare to shift their sails to the sitting of every winde to comply with the King which way soever he enclineth It is better therefore to put trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes Psal 118.8 9. If Harbonah spake this out of hatred of Hamans insolency and in favour of Mordecai's innocency and loyalty he deserved commendation Howsoever Gods holy hand was in it for the good of his people and overthrow of their enemy and little did this night-sprung-Mushrom Haman that suck't the earths fatnesse from far better plants then himself take notice till now of the many hands ready to
diu toleratur They shall fall by the sword they shall be a portion for foxes Psal 63.10 The Spoiler shall be spoiled Esa 33.1 and he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Rev. 13.10 See 2 Thess 1.6 And did what they would unto those that hated them Where it is to be hoped that they furbished the sword of justice with the oyle of mercy that they remembred that of the Philosopher Posse nolle nobile est that in some cases a man must not do all that he may do as there be some again wherein severity ought to cast the scale The Turks severity I can by no means like that will rather cut off two innocent persons then let one guilty man go free Zenecat obs polit Nor that of the Venetians who punish with death such as cozen the State of but one penny if it be proved against them Again care must be taken that justice be not executed whether in a civil or military way with a vindictive minde but all selfish actions carefully strained out Private revenge leaveth a stain upon a man some wayes innocent witnesse Jehu and puts an innocency upon the greatest offendour witnesse Abner Verse 6. And in Shushan the Palace One would wonder that any here should offer to stir against the Jewes so much favoured by the King patronized by Mordecai and well-appointed to withstand them But they were mad with malice against Gods people and ambitious of their own destruction Hamans death still sticks in their stomacks and they resolve to be revenged whatever it stands them in With like stoutnesse of stomack it was that Jezabel painted her face and tired her head when Jehu was come to Jezreel and looking out at a window said Had Zimri peace c. Herein certainly she shewed her great stoutnesse as if she would daunt Jehu and out-brave him in the midst of his pomp and triumph 2 Kings 9.30 31. Divine vengeance suffereth not wicked people to rest and to keep in their malice and mischief but that they must break out and run headlong like wilde beasts into the hunters toile or upon the spears point whereby they perish Verse 7.8 9. And Parshandatha and Dulphon and Vajezatha This Vajezatha was the youngest but most malicious of them all against the Jewes as their Doctours guesse and gather from the little Zain and great Vau found in his name Verse 10 The ten sonnes of Haman Of whom he had so boasted chap. 5.12 and bore himself bold as believing that being so full of children he should leave the rest of his substance to his babes Psal 17.14 These ten likely were ring-leaders to those Hamanists in Shushan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that durst appear in so bad a cause being evil egges of an evil bird Non enim fieri ullo modo potest ut ex me Agrippina vir bonus nascatur said Domitius the father of Nero Dio in Ner. It cannot be that of my self and Agrippina should come any good man Haman brought up his sonnes to bring down his house and was a Parricide to them rather then a Parent His darling Vajezatha he corrected not but cockered no wonder therefore that he proved to be of a gastrill-kinde disquieting his own nest of a viperous brood and therefore though not hanged together with his father and the whole family as the Apocryphal additions of Esther chap. 16.18 tell us but not truly yet slain in this insurrection at Shushan together with the rest of his brethren the good people crying out as once they did at Rome when the sonne of Maximinus the Emperour was put to death Ex pessimo genere ne catulum quidem habendum Let not one whelp be left of so evil a litter But on the spoile laid they not their hand Lest the King should be damnified or themselves justly taxed of covetousnesse and cruelty Give none offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10.32 This is oft repeated in this chapter Non semper omnia quae licent sunt facienda Lavat to their great commendation that although by the Kings grant they might have taken the spoile chap. 8.11 yet they did it not 1. To shew that they were Gods Executioners not thieves and robbers 2. To gratifie the King for his courtesie towards them by leaving the spoile wholly to his Treasury 3. It is not unlikely Fâ—vard saith an Interpreter that Mordecai and Esther had admonished them how ill Saul had sped with his spoiles of the Amalekites and Achan with his wedge of gold which served but to cleave his body and soul asunder and his babylonish garment which proved to be his winding-sheet Verse 11. On that day the number of those that were slain This was done haply by some Malignants that would thereby have incensed the King against the Jewes Or else the King as became a good Shepherd of his people taketh an account of his slain subjects by diligent enquiry made thereinto Whereupon he might have repented him now in cold blood of his grant to Esther and the Jewes those forreigners against his natural subjects who had done nothing but by his command c. But God so ordered it that all this notwithstanding the King was well content with that which was done as supposing that Hamans sonnes and complices would be seeking revenge â—imiâ—iâ— sunt bâ—ni pâ—storiâ— boni regis opeâ—a Cyâ— 5. â—pud Xenoph. and plotting mischief if left alive He therefore goeth merrily into the Queen acquainting her with the number of the slain and giving her leave to ask of him whatever more she desired to be done This was the Lords doing all along Verse 12. And the King said unto Esther the Queen He would needs be the messenger himself as presuming the newes would be most welcome to her whom he desired to gratifie rather out of affection of love then desire of justice else he would never have so little respected the slaughter of his subjects armed by his own command What have they done in the rest of the Kings Provinces This he should have uttered with grief and regret accounting the blood of his subjects dear and precious and not making light of so many mens lives lost by his default But many Kings make as little reckoning of their subjects lives as Charles the ninth did of the Huguenots in the French Massacre or as the grand Seignior doth of his Asapi a kinde of common souldiers borne for most part of Christian Parents and used by him in his wars for no other end but to blunt the swords of his enemies or to abate the first fury and thereby to give the easier victory to his Janizaries and better souldiers Turk hist 317. This the Turkish Tyrants hold for good policy How much better that Romane General who said that he had rather save one Citizen then slay twenty enemies and Edward the Confessour who when
man slayer had so contrived it for the greater mischief Verse 16. Whiles he was yes speaking See here we may that miseries many times stay not for a mannerly succession to each other Aliud ex alio malum Terent. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acistoph but in a rude importunity throng in at once Fluctus fluctum trâ—â—â—â— one deep calleth to another and as one shower is unburthened another is brewed Eccles 12.2 It must not seeme strange but be joyous to Saints when they fall or be precipitated plunged into divers â—emptations Jam. 1.2 For crosses seldome come single There came also another and said Before Job could recollect and recover himself or take breath this was a sore trial It is a mercy that we have some lucida intervalla that the rod of the wicked doth not alwaies rest on the lot of the righteous that there are any interspiriâ— and Halcyons sith here they must have it or no where Rev. 21.4 The fire of God This was more terrible then the former because God seemed to sight against Job with his own bare hand by fire from heaven as once he did against Sodâ—â— Be not 〈…〉 unto we O Lord saith Jeremy chap. 17.17 And then I care nor though all the world set against me If Marriners in a tempest have sea room enough their is no fear so if men in afflictions can see and say 〈…〉 and on the contrary Heb. 10. it is fearfull to fall into the hands of the living God And hath 〈◊〉 up 〈◊〉 wherewith Job was wont to offer sacrifice It was great joy to those in Joel that God after a sore and long famine would yet leave a blessing behind him even a meat-offering and a drink offering c. Joel 2.14 And thy servants Those souls of men as they are called Rev. 18.13 This was a worse losse then that of his sheep And I only c. See the Note on Verse 15. Verse 17. While he was yet speaking See on Verse 16. The Chaldâ—ans A base and obscure people from the beginning subject to the Assyrians but yet more potent then the Sabaans as appeareth by the three bands they made out The Sabaeaâ—s are noted by Strabo to be an idle and effeminate people The Chaldeans are set forth in the Scripture to be a bitter and hasty Nation terrible and dreadfull fiercer then the evening wolves c. Hab. 1.6 7 8. Satan proceeds by degrees to afflict Job that he may at length over-turn him but beyond expectation he held out all assaults Instar rupis qua in mari vadoso horridi Jovu irati ut it a dicam Neptuni fervidis assultibus undique verberata non cedit aut minuitur sed obtendit assuetum luctibus latus firmâ duritie tumentis unde impetum sustiâ—â—â— ac frangit Jâ—an Wower Polymath Made out three bands Which were marshalled and set in array by the Divel who was their Commander in chief Sic sape loâ—â—catus incedit Satan cataphractus as Luther speaketh he hath his Legions among men also who like those vulturine Eagles Job 39.30 do glut-glut blood as the Hebrew word there soundeth and signifieth And fell upon the Camels Heb. Spread themselves over them rushed and ran violently making an impression upon the Camels And have carryed thâ—m away Heb. Have taken them to themselves though Job had never dealt discourteously with these Chaldeans nor had his Camels trespassed them but were carefully kept by the servants Innocency is no target against injury neither doth Victory alwayes argue a just Cause Yea and slain the servants c. See the Note on Ver. 15. Verse 18. While he was yet speaking See Vers 16. Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine This was the last but not the least of Satans assaults reserved purposely to the last to crush him quite when he was now spent and spiritlesse as he hoped Let us look for like dealing for a tough bout at death howsoever and be alwayes ready prepared for another and a worse encounter Seneca It is said of Caesar that he sometimes put up but seldom or never put off his Sword It is said of Qui Elizabeth that in the greatest calm she provided for a storm It is said or the bâ—rd Onocrotalus that she if so well practised to expect the Hawk to grapple with her that even when she shutteth her eyes she sleepeth with her beak exalted as if she would contend with her adversary Should not we stand constantly upon our Guard who have so restlesse and pitilesse an enemy Thy sons and thy daughters c. Men may die then with the meat in their mouthes and in the midst of their mirth and jollity as did Amnon Elah Balshazzar Wâ—ether therefore we eat or drink c. do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 Let there be holinesse to the Lord written upon our pots Zech 14.21 Let us eat and drink and sleep eternal life as a reverend Scotch Divine was said to do Jobs good heart aked and quaked likely at the hearing of this sad newes of so sudden a death of his children amidst their merriments for he used to say when there was no such danger It may be my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Me thinks I hear him saying or rather sighing out those sorrowfull words of Cratisicâ—â—â— in Plâ—tarch Plut. in vit Cleomenis when she saw her dear children slain afore her Quò pueri est â—â— profecti Poor souls what 's become of you See more on Verse 13. Verse 19. And behold there câ—me a great wind The Divel doubtlesse was in this wind as he is by divine permission the Prince of the power of the air Eph. 2.2 and can thereby do much mischief what wonder then though it were a great wind sith spirited by him and 〈…〉 came on amaine and with a 〈◊〉 as being driven on by the Divel It was a wonderfull wind belike a whirlwind and hath therefore a Behold set upon it such a wind as the Relator had never known before The Rabbins say that he was so affrighted with it that no sooner had he made an end of his report of it to 〈…〉 Sure it is that he relateth the matter 〈◊〉 and graphically with 〈…〉 and without that moderation and making the best of things at first as in such cases is usuall when parents are first made acquainted with the sudden death of their children or other sad accidents that have befallen theâ— This messenger clâ—ttereth out all at once being thereunto set on and suborned by Satan as Lavaâ—er thinketh to stirre up Jobs stomack and to make him break off that so well-twisted thred of his patience From the wildernesse of Idumea or Arabia called deserta The divel who haunteth dry and desert places was the Aeolus that sent it Let us blesse that God the maker and master of these Meteors and of all things else who bindeth up such an enemy and boundeth such
wisely have withstood his Wives motion to blaspheme Hitherto certainly God had helped him It was the uncouth and unkind carriage of his friends concurring with the increase of his bodily paine besides the eclipse of inward comforts that drew from him those passionate expressions chap. 3. Ver. 11. And when Jobs three friends His familiar friends that did eat of his bread as Psal 49.9 that were as his own soul Deut. 13.6 his bosome friends and therefore precious Jewels such as could both keep counsel and give counsel Of such there are but few to be found Friends there is no friend said Socrates Faithfull friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Another are in this age all for the most part gone in pilgrimage and their return is uncertain A Friend is a changeable creature saith a Third all in changeable colours like the Peacock as often changed as moved Job complaineth of these his chief and choice friends that they were miserable Comforters Physicians of no value chap. 16.2 c. Amicitia sit tantùm inter binos eósque bonos such as were Jonathan and David Corporibus geminis spiritus unus erat Heard of all this evil Whether by the ministry of the good or bad Angels or of neither it skilleth not Ill newes is swift of foot saith the Greek Proverb and like ill weather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comes ere it be sent for The sins and miseries of good people are much talked of and soon bruited abroad The Chaldee Paraphrast here telleth of strange businesses viz. that these three here mentioned besides the report they heard of Jobs calamity were moved to visit him by the wonders that fell out with them at the same time for their trees suddenly withered in their Ort-yards their bread at their table was turned into raw flesh their wine into bloud c. But this may well passe for a Jewish fable The Author of that Paraphrase was R. Joseph Cacus nothing so ancient or authentick as he who paraphraseth upon the historical books but exceeding full of mistakes and seldome cometh he near the right meaning of the Text all along the Hagiographa They came every one from his own place More then these came to such a sight no doubt but these out of a desire and designe to condole with him and comfort him But it fel out far otherwise for they tormented Job well nigh as much as Satan himself though it were of ignorance and unwittingly rather then of ill will or malice fore-thought Their very silence and gesture before ever they spake a word did so torment his mind that at last he cryes out in that bitter manner as chap. 3. like a frantick man which through some grievous sicknesse hath lost his wits Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhitt c. Idumeans all likely and men of much estimation for wisdome Jer. 49.7 Is Wisdom no more in Teman and godlinesse as descended all of Abraham whose care was to catechise his whole Family and to teach them the wayes of God Gen. 18.19 Their following disputations shew as much wherein they admonish him to repent assuring him that he could be no lesse then a grosse sinner and an hypocrite because so grievously afflicted Job answereth their severall speeches tormented in body perplexed in mind but stoutly defending his own innocency and seeming to tax the Lord also like as dogs in a chase bark at their own Masters To this his friends reply sharply from chap. 15. to 22. and he answereth them again with greater boldnesse and courage then before Hereupon they begin a second reply and here Eliphaz and Bildad onely spake The third man fainted and spake no more for that Job was invincible c. till at length Elihu moderateth censuring both parties and God determineth to Jobs conviction and finall commendation For they had made an appointment together to come Not by accident or at adventure as Origen will needs have it against the Text but by solemn agreement it was a pitcht meeting Neither staid they till they were sent for but came as friends to do Job all friendly offices like as in a fright the blood and spirits run to the heart to relieve it A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity Prov. 17.17 See the Note there To mourn with him Heb. To shake the head or other parts of the body in token of commiseration to bewail his condition as Cyprian did the persecuted Saints of his time Cum singulis pectus meum copulo saith he Moeroris pondera luctuosa participo c. Who is offended and I burn not 2 Cor. 11.29 And to comfort him This they intended but proved miserable comforters too by reason of the deceitfulnesse of their hearts fitly therefore compared to a broken or a deceitfull bow that carrieth the arrow a clean contrary way So Jonah prayed unto the Lord. chap. 4.2 He thought to have prayed but it proved that he brawled Psal 78.57 The word rendred to comfort signifieth likewise to mourn with the mourning of repentance to teach us here to begin our pity to others to bewail their and our owe sins see the Note there These mens words were as a murthering weapon in Jobs bones pious they were and divine all along but much mis-applied It is said of them that they handled an ill matter well and Job a good cause as ill especially when once he came to be wet through Verse 12. And when they lift up their eyes afarre off Hence some conclude that Job lay abroad as lepers used And knew him not for they had never seen him before but in a splendidous fashion now then to see him in such a pickle that he hà d lost all form and fashion more like a dead beast then a living man this amazed and amused them they might also by this so sad a spectacle be admonished of their own mutable and miserable condition Aut sumus aut fuimus aut possumus esse quod hic est and have the same thoughts as the Psalmist afterwards had Man being in honour abideth not Psal 45.12 he is like the beasts that perish pecoribus morticinis saith Tremellius the beasts that die of the murraine and so become carrion and are good for nothing Job was now no otherwise to be seene then as a stinking carcasse full of sores more like then a living man as he painteth out himself in most lively colours They lifted up their voice and wept Good men are apt to do so saith the Poet faciles motus mens generosa capit we are bound to weep with those that weep and to be both pitifull and courteous 1 Pet. 3. To him that is in misery pity should be shewed from his friend it was so to Job here at first but he forsaketh the fear of the Lord Job 6.14 Jobs friends did so when amazed with the greatnesse of his calamity they therehence concluded him an arrant hypocrite unworthy of any one
yet flies before the beams thereof In carm still leaving it as it is able in sight to follow him and so draws it by degrees to higher things yet interposeth betwixt it and his incomprehensible Essence as many vails as were over the Tabernacle Verse 12. Behold he taketh away Raptim aufert He snatcheth away or taketh by force as a Lion doth his prey or a thief doth another mans goods Confer Prov. 23.28 Which if he do who can repel or turn him back Here Job plainly alludeth to the taking away of his children servants and cattle the likelihood also of losing his life according to the Chaldee paraphrast by his present miseries which if it should befall him from God it would not be safe for him to cavil or once question Gods proceeding to urge him to restitution or charge him with oppression sith he is chief Lord of all and may do with his own what he pleaseth He is uncontrollable as Nebuchadnezzar at length acknowledged Dan. 4.35 and his will is the true and only rule of justice it self nec solum recta sed regula Wherefore let all the earth keep silence before him Hab. 2.20 and let none presume once to ask him what he hath done either to question his right to do it or to question his righteousnesse in doing of it Verse 13. If God will not with-draw his anger That is of his own free accord forbear to execute his judgments the stoutest must stoop for he is in one mind and who can turn him and what his soul desireth even that he doth Job 23.13 his power is altogether irresistible Men though never so puissant may be withstood and over-matched as Asa was 2 Chron 14.8 9. Nature may be resisted and her power suspended as when the fire burned not the three worthies the red Sea drowned not the Israelites passing through it In the creatures there is an essence and a faculty whereby they work between these God can separate and so hinder their working In the Angels there is an essence and an executive power God comes between these sometimes and hinders them from doing what they would But God is most simple and entire and therefore the strong helper Qui portant orbem saith the Vulgar that bear up the pillars of the world which some understand of the Angels others of the Saints who stand in the gap Ezek. 22.30 and others again of carnal Combinations shall not hinder him but shall stoop and buckle under him or under it viz. his wrath as not able to bear up helpers shall prove no helpers against the mind and purpose of God no though they be as potent and as proud as Egypt such an allusion there may be in the Hebrew text or although they be helpers of latitude as one rendreth it that is of the largest extent either in power or by an elate mind and so the meaning is None are so mighty or so high-conceited of their own ability but if he be angry he wil make them to stoop under as not being able to bear his wrath Verse 14. How much lesse shall I answer him If heaven earth sea cannot stand before him if strongest men and strongly befriended and seconded cannot make their party good with him it is not for me to stout it out but rather to stoop and strike sail seeking to disarm his indignation by an humble yeildance especially since I am not able to hold discourse with him to answer him one of a thousand I not only have not arguments but I want fit words not argumentative words only but perswasive also And chuse out my words to reason with him Heb. Shall I chuse out words with him Broughton renders it Shall I chuse to word it with God Surely my best eloquence in this case will be a submissive silence It can be neither wisedome nor duty in me to deal with and undertake God either with an open or a closed hand either with Logical subtilties or rhetorical flourishes If I should either be Respondent or Opponent I should come off with losse Verse 15. Whom though I were righteous Legally righteous as none ever were but the first and second Adam Yet would I not answer viz. by pleading mine own righteousnesse sith no created righteousnesse can answer God Some render it non attollam vocem ne hiscere quidem audebo I will not lift up my voice nor dare to mute against him See 1 Cor. 4.4 No though I were never so innocent and did suffer this misery undeservedly But I would make supplication to my Judge As he doth though it were a good while first in the end of the next chapter It is likely that he intended to do it sooner but was put by by his passions which when they fume up into the head gather oft into so thick a cloud that we lose the sight of our selves and what is best to be done Jonas thought to have prayed chap. 4.1 2. but it proved a brawle and when as by prayer he thought to overcome his anger anger overcame him and his prayer too Verse 16. If I had called and he had answered If in confidence of mine own righteousnesse I had sought some good thing at his hands and he had therein condescended to me yet would I not believe that he had in mercy hearkned to my voice but rather for a further mischief that he might roll himself upon me as Joseph upon his brethren and as God did upon the Israelites after their quails that he might tear them with his tempest c. Some think that Job speaketh these words as despairing of audience or denying Gods particular providence but neither of these is likely Rather it seemeth saith Pineda to be the speech of a mind marvellously cast down and meanly conceited of himself and of his prayer and trusting to the goodnesse of God alone so Drusius Job speaketh not this saith he out of diffidence but out of fear of Gods judgments and sense of his own imperfections Yet I would not believe that he had hearkned unto my voice Namely for any worth that he findeth in it what am I poor creature that I should think I had carried the matter with God Verse 17. For he breaketh me with a tempest q. d. This is one thing also that maketh me think I am not heard because I am not helped but after my prayer I am in as bad a case as before and seem to have a repulse from God Afflictions continued are no evidence that prayer is not heard yet usually it is very inevident to an afflicted person that his prayer is heard The Hebrew and so the Vulgar hath it He will break me that is saith one If I should plead before him as pure although I might temporally or for a time be delivered yet I should not finally escape destruction although I should give him none other cause Whereby we may see upon what danger of being torn in pieces by Gods judgments our justiciaries put
themselves that will needs go to God in their own righteousnesse as the proud Pharisee Luke 18. The calamity of these merit-mongers shall rise suddenly Behold a whirle-wind or a tempest of the Lord goeth forth in fury even a grievous whirle-wind it shall fall grievously upon the head of these wicked ones Jer. 23.19 This Saint Paul knew and therefore did his utmost that he might be found in Christ sc when sought for by the justice of God not having his own righteousnesse which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Philip. 3 9. And multiplieth my wounds without cause i. e. Without any other cause then to try me and prove my patience which now Job began to perceive as Philip gathereth or without any manifest cause and perceivable by an afflicted man so Aquinas senseth it God hath not told me the reason of his chastenings but to increase my grief he concealeth from me the cause of them and yet he multiplieth still my sores and my sorrows Or without cause that is without any such cause as his friends alledged against him viz. that he was a rank hypocrite Verse 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath I am so far from a period that I have no pause of my troubles I cannot get any interspiria's or free breathing-whiles See chap. 7.19 And in the former verse he had complained that God had stormed him Interim per Pathos saith Mercer here he returns to his old practice of expostulating about the greatnesse of his grief and spares not to hyperbolize Beda and others understand this text of a bodily distemper upon Job which had made him short-winded And Lavater hath this good note here Hoc cogitandum nobis est c. Let this text be thought upon when our spirits begin to sink as also when by reason of the Ptisick or any other like disease we feel a difficulty of breathing and a straitening of our pectorals or be otherwise compassed about with great sorrows But filleth me with bitternesse Heb. He satiateth me with bitternesses i. e. with sore and sharp afflictions which are no way joyous but grievous to the flesh Heb. 12.11 Job had his belly-full of gall and worm-wood he had not only a draught or two but a diet-drink made him of most bitter ingredients Of this he complaineth heavily what then will the wicked do that must suck up the dregs of Gods cup Psalm 78.8 which hath eternity to the bottom Verse 19. If I speak of strength lo he is strong Neither by might nor right can I deal with him Broughton renders it As for force he is valiant the Lord is a man of warre saith Moses Exod. 15.3 Yea he is the Lord of arms saith David Psal 84. Yea He alone is a whole army of men Van Rere both saith Isaiah cap. 52.12 there is no doubt then but he will carry the day sith no creature is able to grapple with him The weaknesse of God if any such thing there were is stronger then men 1 Cor. 1.25 and by weakest means he can effect greatest matters as once he did in Egypt And if of judgment who shall set me a time to plead Who shall appoint the time and place of our meeting If I shall go about to sue him at law I shall have but a cold suit an ill pull of it for who shall make him appear or bring him to his answer and where shall I find an advocate a patron to plead my cause yea where shall I get a witnesse for so the vulgar reades it Nemo audet pro me restimonium dicere No man will be so bold as to give an evidence for me or be a witnesse on my side Verse 20. If I justifie my self If in default of other pleaders I should undertake to manage my cause my self I should be never the neer Mine own mouth shall condemn me i. e. God out of mine own mouth as finding mine arguments weak and worthlesse He knowes us better then we know our selves and when he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards as once Josephs steward did theirs all our secret thefts will out and those will appear to be faults that we little thought of A Dutch Divine when to die was full of fears and doubts said some to him you have been so employed and so faithful why should you fear Oh said he the judgment of man and the judgment of God are different Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili si remotâ misericordiâ judicetur Wo to the most praise-worthy man alive if he meet with judgment without mercy The best lamb should abide the slaughter except the ramme were sacrificed that Isaak might be saved If I say I am perfect What if God had said so chap. 1.1 yet Job might not Prov. 27.2 2 Cor. 10.18 Or if he do at any time justifie himself as chap. 29. 30 he doth it is in his own necessary and just defence against the charge of his friends Real apologies we must ever make for our selves when wronged verbal if any must be managed with meeknesse of wisedome Verse 21. Though I were perfect That is of an unblameable conversation yet could not I know mine own soul that is those secret sins Psalm 19.12 those litters of lusts that lurk therein therefore I despise my life I have no joy at all of it but could wish to be out of the world to be rid of these evil inmates that will not out of doors till the house fall upon the heads of them till the earthly Tabernacle that harboureth them be once dissolved Others read and sense the words thus I am perfect or upright neither do I know mine own soul i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea any allowed sin in my soul yet I am so afflicted that I despise my life as being but a continued death Aben-Ezra reads the verse with an admiration thus Perfect I am and think you that I know not mine own soul that I am so great a stranger to my self or that I have so little care of mine own good as that I despise my life and walk at all adventures Tremellius thus I am upright whatever you my friends would make of me neither value I my life or soul in comparison of mine integrity my life is but a trifle to my conscience c. Verse 22. This is one thing therefore I say it And will stand to it though I stand alone this being the one thing wherein I differ in opinion from you and because it is the hinge upon which the whole dispute betwixt us is turned therefore I will abide by it and be Doctor resolutus resolute in the maintenance of it viz. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked A harsh doctrine yet a good one saith an Interpreter Grace is no target against the greatest affliction See Eccles 9.1 2 3. Mal. 3.14 Ezek. 21.3 Heb. 11. shewes that
Illuminatus And yet how many Learned able men hath his name misled in the point of Consubstantiation Vrsin was carried away with it a while till he read his Arguments which he found to be little better then Paralogismes Holy Greenham when pressed to conformity to the Ceremonies by the Bishop of Ely who urged Luthers approbation of them and are you wiser then Luther His sober and gracious answer was I reverence more the revealed will of God in teaching Luther so many necessary things to salvation then I search into his secret will why he hid his heart from understanding in things less necessary Verse 5. He that speaketh flattery to his friends As you my friends do to and for God in seeming to assert his justice in punishing me for my wickednesse so soothing and smoothing up the Almighty quod ipsum nibil aliud est quam falso Deo blaudiri saith Merlin and seeking to make the world believe by your great words that you are his great Champions whilst you go about to cleare up his righteousnesse by concluding me unrighteous See chap. 13.7 8. with the Notes The eyes of his children shall fail Not himself only shall smart while the Lord curteth off flattering lips and the deceitful tongue Psal 12.3 but his poor children shall rue for it They shall lye languishing at Hopes Hospital and after all be disappointed or their eyes shall fail with long looking after good but nothing comes They shall look for peace and there is no good and for a time of healing but behold trouble Jer. 14.19 God will destroy flatterers head and tail branch and rush like as the Thessalians once utterly destroyed the City called Hen. Steph. Apol pro Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Flattery Verse 6. He hath made me also a by-word of the people Here Job returnes to his old task of setting forth his own misery for what men are most sensible of that their tongues do most of all run upon Job is a by word or a Proverb to this day for we say As poor as Job as of old they said Iro panperior c. He was become a common proverb a publick mocking-stock yea he was pro cantione and tympanum trita as some sense the next words And aforetime or to mens faces I was or I am â— tabret They sing my miseries to the Tabret as a matter of mirth they compose Comedies out of my Tragedies and this greatneth my grief I am openly a Tâ—bret so Broughton reads it The Vulgar hath it I am an example before them The Chaldee Paraphrast I am at hell before them The Hebrew word in Tophet taken afterwards indeed for hell but not so in Jobs tâ—me The Septuagint I became a sport to them David met with the like measure Psal 69.19 11. and the Church Lam. 2.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Christ on the Crosse was matter of mirth to the malicious Jewes God had made Job all this He that is God hath made me c. his name he spares in reverence but every where he acknowledgeth God the Author of his troubles as Mercer here noteth The whole verse may be read thus He hath made me also a by-word of the people where as aforetime I was as a Tabret that is I am now a scorn to them who delighted in me in my prosperity Verse 7. Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow Not only is my good name blasted but my body also is wasted the nerves of mine eyes are contracted the visive faculty decayed Psal 6.7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief yea my soul and my belly R. Levi. Pagnin Vatab. Psal 1.10 Not the visive only but the vital powers â—re wasted see chap. 16.16 yea the intellective part as well as the sensitive understood by the formations in the next clause that is the cogitations say they according to Gen. 6.5 But I rather take it according to our Translation for the members of the body And all my members are as a shadow My membra are but umbra they look more like a Skeleton an Anatomy an Apparition then a true body nothing being left but skin and bone so much meager'd are all my members This is hyperbolica maâ—orum suorum amplificatio saith Merlin Verse 8. Vpright men shall be a stonied at this They shall silently admire and adore the fathomlesse depth of the divine administration when they see a man so upright to suffer such heavy pressures yet shall they not censure me as you do not condemn me for complaining sith there is a cause They cannot indeed see far into Gods secret intentions they do therefore mirari rather then rimari like as the old Romanes dedicated unto Victory a certain Lake the depth whereof they could not fathom And the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite He shall learn of me not to be baffled out of his sincerity to be mocked out of his integrity but to maintain and take comfort therein against all his false Accusers Opposition doth not weaken but waken Heroick Spirits 2 Sam. 6.21 22. They proceed so much the more vigorously in the wayes of Holiness like as Lime burns the more for the cold water cast upon it and as the Palm-tree which although it have many weights at the top and many snakes at the bottome yet it stirreth up it selfe and flourisheth taking for its Posie Nee premor nec perimor Nothing hurteth or hindreth me Verse 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way Stumble he may for a time at his owne calamity and worse mens felicity but as he that stumbleth and yet falleth not gets ground so fareth it with the righteous in this case Once David said Verily I have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands in innocency For all the day long have I been plagued when had men have been prospered Hence he began to repent of his repentance and to miscensure the generation of Gods children as thrice miserable Psal 73.13 14 15. but after a while and upon better consideration he said This is mine infirmity yea he befooled and be beasted himself ver 22. for so saying And the like will all those at length do that belong to God though for the present offended at Gods proceedings and by their passions miscarried to their cost yet they return to their right minds forwards they may fall sometimes but not backwards for that were far more dangerous Lord to whom should we go saith Peter sith thou alone hast the words of eternal life John 6.68 Neither know we where to mend our selves by gadding about to change our way Jer. 2.36 The righteous shall hold on his way merdicùs tenebit he shall hold it toughly hold it as with tooth and nail not going aside a nailes bredth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall stick to it as the Greek hath it And he that hath clean hands Upright Innocent Righteous cleane handed these all are the good mans adjuncts and
of sons and of daughters the wil give them an everlasting name that shal never be cut off Not so the ungodly those men of Gods hand for though full of children they leave the rest of their substance to their babes Psal 17.14 yet it will prove to be but luctnosa foecunditas as Hierom speaketh they shall weep for their lost children and not be comforted because they are not Or if they survive they prove singular cuts and crosses to their wretched Parents who have cause enough to cry out as Moses sometimes did let me dye out of hand and not see my wretchednesse Num. 11.15 They are filled with â—â—medicinable sorrowes in the losse either of their children or of their estates by their wasteful children so that they praise the dead above the living and wish they had never been born Eccles 4.2 3. Nor any remaining in his dwellings When the souldiers slew the Tyrant Maximinius and his son at the siege of Aquilâ—ia they cryed out Ex pessima geneve ne catulum quidem habendum Of so ill a kind let not a whelp be kept alive Verse 20 Ther that come after him shal be astâ—â—ied at his day Future Ages hearing the relation of his dismal destruction shall stand agast as if they beheld the dirty ruines of some once beautiful City Happy they if in good earnest they could make that good use of it which Herodotus the Historian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod men should make of the overthrow of Troy viz. to take notice thereby that great sinners must look for great punishments from God But Ham and his Posterity were little the better for the Deluge in their dayes not the adjacent Countries for Sodoms downfal As they that went before were afrighted scil His contemporaries and eye-witnesses of his calamity apprehended horror so the Hebrew hath it they took a fright which yet was little to the purpose without faith and repentance and unlesse their hearts fell down when their hairs stood upright Verse 21. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked As sure as death 't is so and this is oft inculcated because hardly believed Bildad hints at Job in all this and therefore speaks of the wicked here in the singular number as who should say Thou art the man But Jobs innocency served him for an Heptabâ—ean Buckler And this is the place that is the state Psal 14.4 Of him that knoweth not God Periphrasis impii saith Drusius this is the character of a gracelesse man have the workers of iniquity no knowledg No none that they were a button the better for CHAP. XIX Verse 1. Then Job answered and said HE replyed as followeth to Bildads bitter and tanting invective His miseries he here setteth forth graphically and tragically grating to Bildad that he was dealt with no otherwise then if he were that wicked man described in the foregoing chapter and yet denying himself to be any such one by his lively hope of a joyful Resurrection such as would make a plentiful amends for all ver 26 27 28. For though Mercer make question of it yet I am out of doubt saith Beza that this is the true meaning of this place And surely the whole Scripture doth not yeild us a more notable or a more clear and manifest testimony to confirm unto us the Resurrection of our bodies then this This confession of his faith saith Lavater is the chief thing in this Chapter and therefore challengeth our best attention Verse 2. How long will ye vex my soul viz. with your furious and reproachful charges criminations Have I not misery enough already but you must lay more load of scorn and contempt upon me and so go on to trouble me by adding to my saddest sorrowes Hoccine est moestum consolari such as pierce to the very soul Call you this comforting an afflicted friend How long will ye break me in pieces with words Words also have their weight and if hard and harsh Leniter volant non leniter violant Like maules they break the heart in pieces like a rack they torment it Psal 42.10 As with a Murdering weapon in my bones mine enemies reproached me You shall find some saith Erasmus that of death be threatned can despise it but to be belyed reproached slandered they cannot brook nor from revenge contain themselves Job was a strong man both in faith and patience yet put hard to it by the hard words given him by Bildad and the rest who did rather hurt his eare by the loudnesse of their voices then helped his heart by the force of their reproofs Gods servants must not strive but be gentle 2 Tim. 2.23 24. shewing all meeknesse to all men Tit. 3.2 Jam. 3.17 Gentle showres comfort the earth when dashing storms drown the seed There is a two fold inconvenience followeth upon bitter and boisterous proceedings with a supposed offendour First the party looketh not so much to his own failing as to their passion Secondly As he is unconvinced so they are not esteemed but though they have the right on their side yet they lose the due regard of their cause and reverence of their persons Verse 3. These ten times have ye reproached me i.e. oftentimes Herein Job endured a great fight of affliction as the Apostle stileth it Heb. 10.32 33. a manifold fight as the word there signifieth Cate was two and thirty times accused publickly and as oft cleared and absolved Basil was counted and called an Heretick even by those who as it appeared afterwards were of the same judgement with him and whom he honoured as brethren Dogs in a chase bark sometimes at their best friends c. You are not ashamed that you make your selves strange to me Or Are you not ashamed that ye harden your selves against me Or That ye â—ter and jest at my misery Significat etiam emere vel componari Or That ye make Merchandise of me and take your peny worths out of me Beze agreeable to our Translation paraphraseth it thus Ye take me up so short as if ye dealt with a stranger and forrainer and not with a friend And so the word is taken Gen. 42.7 Verse 4. And be it indeed that I have erred Of humane frailty for that there is any way of wickednesse in me as you would have it I shall never yeeld But nimis angustares est nuspiam errare Involuntary failings I am not free from who knoweth the errors of his life Psal 19.12 What man is he that liveth and sinneth not It is the sad priviledge of mortality Euphorm saith one Licere aliquando peccare to have license sometimes to sin Mine error remaineth with my self q d. 'T is little that you have done toward the convincing me of any error in all this time and talk which until ye have done I must stil remain of the same mind Or thus You shall neither answer nor suffer for mine errour what need then all this hear and
open a way to his hard heart by his glistering sword which accordingly befel him Terrors are upon him Heb. the terrible upon him which some interpret of Divels hell-hags The Vulgar rendreth it Then horrible outs shall come upon him The word is used for Gyants Deut. 2.10 The Emins shall fall upon him that is men of fierce and cruel spirits But better take it for terrors as we render it and so the sense is That the wicked when he sees he must needsly dye is surprized with greatest anxieties and perplexities of spirit as beholding that threefold dreadful spectacle Death Judgement Hell and all to be passed through by his poor soul Verse 26. All darknesse shall be bid in his secret place That is saith Diodate wheresoever he shall think to find a place of safeguard there shall he meet with some horrible mischance Men that are proscribed and sought for to death usually hide themselves as divers Jewes did in Privies at the last destruction of Jerusalem and were thence drawn out to the slaughter The Duke of Buckingham in Richard 3 his time was betrayed by his servant Bannister Appianus telleth of a Roman hid by his wife De Bell. Civ Rom. and then discovered by his wise to the Murtherer to whom she soon after also was married Others render and sense the words thus The wicked shall come into darknesse propter abscondita for his secret sins And others thus R. Sel. All darknesse is laid up for his hid treasures that is God or men have taken order that hee shall lose his riches as well as his life though he hide them never so secretly A fire not blowne shal consume him i. e. say some calamities whose causes shall be unknowne and shall proceed immediately from God See Isai 30.33 Many of the Greeks interpret this Text of Hell with its unquenchable fire Matth. 3.12 which being created by God and kindled by its breath that is by his Word it burneth everlastingly Albeit God many times punisheth wicked men here with fire from heaven as he did Sodom Nadab and Abihu those Captiances of fifties with their companies 2 King 1. Tremellius rendreth it thus A fire consumeth him non accensum flatu I say Him not kindled by blowing but burning of his own accord Vt stipule aut stupae Ut cremium aut arefactum liguum as stubble fully dryed or hurds or sear wood See Nab 1.10 with the Note It shall go ill with him that is left His posterity shall never prosper but be rooted out Eliphaz and Bildad had said the same thing and all to pay poor Job whose family was now ruined It shall surely go ill with him or He shall be wringed saith Broughton alluding belike to the sound as well as the sense of the Hebrew word Verse 27. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity Job had called heaven and earth to record of his innocency chap 16.17 18. This is not to do now saith Zophar for all creatures have conspired thy ruine and contributed thereunto Wind Fire Sabeans c. so that he that hath but half an eye may see thee to be a wicked person Such as are wicked indeed not only secundum dici as Job but secundum esse as Ahab cannot look to heaven above or to earth beneath without horrour to think even these if other witnesses faile shall bring to light their secret sinnes and come to give testimony against them before the great Iudge at the last day And the earth shall arise up against him Night will convert it self into Noon against the evil-doers and silence prove a speaking evidence Earth cryed Cain guilty the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera as a Traytor and Rebel to the highest Majesty Yea Servi ut taceant jumenta loquentur the Asse hath a verdict to passe upon Balaam A Bird of the Aire shall carry the voice that but whispereth Treason Eccles 10.20 Yea if nothing else will reveal iniquity it will reveal it selfe It will prove like the Oyntment of the right hand of which Salomon saith that it wrayeth it self Prov. 27.16 Verse 28. The increase of his house shall depart All his posterity shall be destroyed and so shall his prosperity too even all at once with a sudden ebb in the day that God visiteth him with his wrath and righteous judgements All the wicked mans wealth and revenue shall be wretchedly wasted and embezelled by one meanes or other And his goods shall flow away As waters The Apostle saith The fashion of the world passeth away viz. as a hasty headlong torrent or as a Picture drawn upon the ice Thou carriest them away both persons and things as with a flood Psal 90.5 Verse 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God A portion God alloweth the wicked in this life Psal 17.14 As a King when he reprieveth a Traytor alloweth him a subsistence prisoners pitance at least Yes the worst of men divide the wealth and honors of the world between them for a time Nebuchadnezzar had Tyrâ—s as pay for his paines in Egypt And the whole Turkish Empire is nothing else but a crust cast to his dogs by the great house keeper of the world saith Luther But besides this God hath provided a far other portion for them saith One and that by way of inheritance never to be parted from them viz. all the forementioned miseries and many more all torments here and tortures in hell This is the inheritance Quam nunquam deserere non magis quam seipsos pottrunt which will stick to them as close as the skin to the flesh or the flesh to the bones it falls to them as the inheritance doth to the heir chap. 27.13 and 31.2 or as the mess of meat doth to the invited Guest Misery is the heritage of the wicked as they are children of disobedience and their wages as they are workers of iniquity their present prosperity also is a piece of their punishment Isai 1.5 Prov. 1.32 The words of Zophar are ended Let others reply as they please but he hath done Prastat herbam dare quam turpiter pugnare No surer sign of an evil cause then a powerlesse pertinacy CHAP. XXI Verse 1. But Job answered and said Disproving and refuting that Proposition of theirs concerning the infelicity of the ungodly by Reason by Experience and by Divine Authority All which evince and evidence that neither is prosperity a proof of mens innocence nor adversity a mark of their wickednesse as Zophar and his fellowes would have it And that they might not any more interrupt him nor think him too rough he useth a gentle Preface craving attention and pressing them thereunto by many Arguments in the six first verses Verse 2. Hear diligently my speech Heb. In hearing hear The Greek hath it Hear hear that is hear me out have so much patience with me as not to interrupt me any more yea hear with understanding Let your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
old age upon his son Rehoboam upon Ephraim Hos 13.1 see the Note there upon out Edward 2 and Henry 6. Some render it He hath loosed my Bow string in reference to chap. 29.20 So that I cannot now shoot at those that slight me Job was disarmed and disabled to do as he desired as Philip King of France was in the battle between him and Edw. Dan. Hist f 237 3. King of England at the instant whereof there fell such a piercing showr of rain as dissolved the strings of his Archers and made their Bowe unuseful And afflicted me When a tree is felled each man pulleth off a branch saith the Great Proverb When a dog is worried every Curr will fall on him and have a fling at him When a Deer is wounded the whole Herd will set against him and thrust him out of their company So when God hath afflicted Job every base beggerly fellow sate heavy upon his skirts This was an addition to his affliction They have also let loose the Bridle upon me Those Insolents having pulled their heads out of the halter lay the raines in the neck and run riot yea Effraenare in â—â—inâ—ecti sunt Jun. they run at tilt against me as it were beyond all reason and measure without fear shame or manners For Vpon me some read Before me q.d. Now they dare do any thing even in my presence who formerly stood in aw of me Verse 12. Vpon the right hand rise the youth Brought on readeth The Springals The Hebrew hath it The blossom or the young birds the youngsters Vix puberes Such as are scarce out of the shel the boyes scoffed and abused Job The lawless rout riding without raines took a licentious boldnesse to despise and despite him because he was ever most severe against their unruly practises They push away my feet They trip up my heeles as we phrase it and lay me along Vide admirandam humanae sortis varietatem faith Brentius here i.e. See the strange turnes of humane condition Job was wont to have the chief Seats in the Temple and Salutations in the Market-place now he cannot have a room my where to stand in but every paltry boy is pushing him down May it not be said of Job as it was of that Emperour that he was fortunae pila lusus But he saw God in all And they raise up against me the waie of their destruction Allegoria â—astrâ—nsi Job borroweth this expression from the Camp as he doth many more from other things whensoever he speaketh of his great afflictions and the contempt that was cast upon him Vpon me they tread the paths of their unhappinesse so Beza that is they make a path in which they may practise that their malapert boldnesse in doing mischiefe They beat their paths by running up and downe therein to undo me so Vatablus They cast upon me the causes of their waâ— so Broughton Verse 13. They marre my path That is all my studies and endeavours they obstruct all passages whereby I might hope for help as if they were resolved upon my ruine They set forward my calamity See Zach. 1.15 see the Note there Or they count it profitable to them to vex me So great is there malice against me And though it do them no good yet if they may do me hurt they have enough They have no helper Neither need they any to animate them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or egg them on to mischief who of themselves are over forward though but small and young as Vajezatha Hamans youngest son was See the Note on Esth 9.9 Verse 14. They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters Quasi irruptione latâ in vedunt me As Souldiers when they have made a breach in a wall come tumbling in upon the Town and sack and ransack it yea raze it and harrasse it so have these dealt with me They rolled themselves upon me Labouring wholly to suppresse me Gen. 43.28 Taking occasion by this my downfal which they ought rather to have lamented and pitied they unmercifully fell upon me as if themselves had lived out of the reach of Gods rod. Verse 15. Terrors are turned upon me I am horribly afraid of thy judgements as David expresseth it and this was it that pointed and put a sting into all other sufferings for a wounded conscience who can bear If the shoulder be galled the burden wil be very tedious and irksom Be not thou a terror unto me Lord saith Jâ—â—â— and then I care not much what else soever befalleth me But why were these terrours so troublesome They pursue my soul as the wind Brentius rendreth 〈…〉 my liberality or They take away from me all the chearfulnesse 〈…〉 of my mind whereby heretofore I suffered so many calamities and shrank not for the joy of the Lord was my strength and therâ— nothing 〈◊〉 amisse to me Thou hath strengthned 〈◊〉 with strength in my soul Ps al. 38.3 and uphold me with thy noble spirit Psal 5â— 12 The Chaldee hath it Kingly Spirit and it is the same word in the Original that is here rendred Animaem meam nobilem incâ—tam Vat. My soul It is my Princess or my Nobility for so the soul is the more noble part David calleth it his Glory Psal 16.9 and his Darling Psal 22.21 Some of the Jew-Doctors make it the same with welfare in the words following but that 's not likely And my welfare passeth away as a cloud i.e. Totally as before irresistibly like the wind Job aboundeth with similitudes â—â—rorum vim simiâ—â— a vent illustrat satutem à se abcunt in similitudine nubis Merl. which do notably illustrate He would say I am utterly deprived of all means of avoiding this misery Verse 16. And now my soul is powred out upon me Now that I am under these inward terrors I am become strengthlesse even weak as water my soul doth melt away for grief as Psal 42.4 and I am as an hollow tree wherein there is not any heart of Oak I am utterly dispirited The dares of affliction have taken hold upon me And so hard hold that I despair of ever getting loose whiles alive Verse 17. My bones are pierced in me in the night season Sleep is the Nurse of Natura and the sweet parenthesis of mens griefs and cares But Job had so many aches and ailements in his body over and above the terrours and troubles of his mind that rest he could take none at all in the night season when all creatures are wont to be at quiet For why the very marrow of his bones raged through intolerable paine as if it had been run through with a Tuck Nay niâ—â—e And my sinewes or My Pulses take no rest Heb. Sleep not My sinewes or arteries are rackt with the Cramp and my pulses by the force of a Feaver beat excessively Vatabl. and pant without intermission Qui tamen minui deberent quiâ— calâ—â— retrabitur in
and from above and from on high By all these expressions Job affecteth himself with the due apprehension of the divine Majesty that he may be wise and beware how he fall into the punishing hands of this living God The Lord your God saith Moses to the people is God of gods and Lord of lords a great God a mighty and a terrible Deut. 10.16 19. c. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts cut off and cast away that filthy foreskin shave your eye-brows as the Leper was to do pull out your right eyes c. So Joshua God saith he is an holy God he is a jealous God be will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins sc unless you will part with them though never so dear or delicious chap. 24.19 Verse 3. Is not destruction to the wicked yes that 's their portion their inheritance and so Job makes answer to his own question proposed in the verse aforegoing The ruine of impure souls is infallible unsupportable unavoidable if God hath aversion from all other sinners he hath hatred and horrour for the unchast such stinking goates shall be set on the left hand and sent to hell where they shall have so much the more of punishment as they had here of sensual and sinful pleasure as sowre sawce to their sweet meats Rev. 18.7 Not to speak of the miseries they meet with here which are not a sew in their souls hardness of heart or horrour of conscience in their bodies soul and lothsome diseases such as will stick to them when their best friends forsake them in their names indeleble reproach and infamy like an iron-mole which nothing can fetch out like the Leprosie which could never be scraped out of the walls in their estates poverty even to a piece of bread Prov. 6.26 Harlots are Poscinummia Crumenimulge suck-purses Luk. 15.14 In their posterity as Jericho was built so is uncleanness plagued bath in the oldest and youngest It goes through the race till it have wasted all Corpus â—pes animâ—n faman vim lumina Scortum Debilitat perdit necat anfert eripit what And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Even such as is unusual and extraordinary as upon the Sodomites who going after strange flesh were thrown forth for an example as Juda hath it Verse 7. So those Benjamites Judg. 20. the Trojans the Lacedemonians at Lenctra Zimri and Cozbi Zedekiah and Ahab Jer. 29.22 Elies two sons Heraclius the Emperour Muleasses King of Tunes in Barbary bereft by his own son Amida another Absolom not of his Kingdom only but of his eyes too put out with a burning hoâ—iron those eyes of his that had been full of adultery and could not cease to sin In Hebrew the same word signifieth both an eye and a fountain to shew saith One that from the eye at a fountain floweth both sin and misery Verse 4. Doth he not see my wayes and count c yea sure he doth so and the conscience of Gods Omniscience who would soon take him tripping kept him from this great wickedness So it did Joseph but so it did not David who is therefore said to despise God and his commandement 2 Sam. 12.9 10. to do evil in his sight and this was no smal aggravation of his offence Ne peccar Dum ipsi vider I have seen the lewdness of thy whoredome Jer. 13.27 Even I know and am a witness saith the Lord Jer. 29.23 That should be a powerful retentive from 〈◊〉 Prov. 5.21 And count all my steps Doth not he cipher them up Hebeus 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 rate not my wayes only my counsels and cogitations but my steps also that is all mine outward attempts and actions A most needful and useful consideration 〈◊〉 to keep men within the compass of obedience See this doctrine of Gods singular providence plainly and plentifully set forth Psal 139.1 2 3 4. Verse 5. If I have walked with vanity As they do who disquiet themselves in vain in heaping up riches by evil arts by deceits and covin in bargaining by getting other mens means fraudmently c. The getting of treasures by an evil tongue or any the like indirect course is a vanity tossed so and fro of them that seek death Prov. 21.6 Eventually such do seek death though not intentionally they spin a fair thred to strangle themselves both temporally and eternally Such vain and vile wayes therefore Job carefully declined Furtum á Virg. vocatur inane Aencid 6. for he knew them to be both base and bootless Ephraim fed upon the wind the balances of deceit were in his hand if thereby he filled his purse with coyn yet he had emptiness in his soul Lucrum in arca damnum in conscientia filled he was with aire and that aire was pestilential too his breath and death he drew in together Job would none of that Or if my foot hath hasted to deceit If I have been nimble and active to go beyond and defraud another in any matter 1 Thess 4.6 which what is it else but crimen stellionatus the very sin of cozenage and this not only acted but arted after long trading in it as the words of walking and hasting seem to import Verse 6. Let me be weighed in an even balance Heb. Let him weigh me Examinet me saith Tremellius David with the like confidence Search me O God saith he Psa 139.23 24 and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me any course of sin that is grievous to God or man wherein I have walked or my foot hath hasted Job would not rest in his own hearts applause neither would he be borne down by his friends false charges but puts himself into Gods hands to be weighed and then makes no question but his present sufferings will be found heavier than his former miscarriages in his inter-dealings with men for matter of gain and that there is some other cause though what he knoweth not for which God doth so grievously afflict him See David doing the like Psal 7.4 26.2 That God may know mine integrity i.e. That he may make known mine innocency and upright-heartedness in this particular of commerce with others that I have not dealt deceitfully Otherwise if God should weigh the best that are in a balance they would be found too light if he mark iniquities no man living can be justified Psal 139.3 143.2 If he turn up the Bottom of the Bag all our secret thefts will out and come to reckoning It is an idle conceit of some ignorant folk That God will weigh their good deeds against their bad and they shall well enough set off with him by the one for the other This they have drawn as they have not a few other fopperies from that practise of Popish Priests to perswade people that when men are at point of death St. Michael the Archangel bringeth a pair of balances and putteth in one scale their good works
Doctors did innocent Cranmer of Adultery Heresie and Treason Philpoâ— of Parricide Heresie c. To accuse was easie but how shamefully failed they in the proof These three after they had also interested God himselfe in their rash accusation of Job were forced to give him over Verse 4. Now Elihu had waited till Job hâ—d spoken Yea though his speech was very long yet he heard him out though himself were with child to speak Broughton rendreth it waited to speak with Job he would not thrust in till they had all done their discourses This was his modesty though a man of singular abilities Raram facit virtus cum scientia mixturam To blame then surely was Gregory for thinking so ill and wrighting so harshly of this good young man as if he had been proud and arrogant descanting to that purpose upon his Name Countrey and Kindred Because they were elder than he And therefore ought of right to have the precedency of speech though it appeareth by all that followeth that in this controversie he saw further into it judged righter and rebuked Job with more gravity and wisdom then any of them so that Job was fully convinced and made no reply at all no more than Joâ—ah did when God set him down chap. 4.11 so forcible are right words Verse 5. When Elihu saw that there was no answer And therefore Job looked upon himself as one that had won the day St. Austin professeth this was it that heartened him and made him to triumph in his former Manichisme that he met with feeble opponents and such as his nimble wit was easily able to over-turn And when Carolostadius opposed Luthers Consubstantiation but weakly and insufficiently Zuinglius said he was sorry that so good a cause non satis humerorum haberet wanted shoulders Then his wrath was kindled viz. From their coldness like as Nehem. 3.20 Baruc repaired earnestly se accendit he burst out into heat angry with his own and others sloth So Elihu here when he saw that Jobs eloquence triumphed over their wisdom and that their silence was a loud acknowledgement of their defeat he grew more angry than before and transported with zeal he saith â—o them very briskly Verse 6. I am young and ye are very old Yet was he nothing inferiour to any of them in wit piety Niceph. and learning he had lived long in a little time and was as One saith of Macarius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old-young-man as if he had been an Alban-born qui albo crine nascuntur Caniciem habent auspicium capillarum Solin who come into the world hoar-headed as did Seneca and thence had his name as Cassiodorus thinketh quòd canus quasi senior natus sit Some young men are ripe betime and more ready-headed than their ancients as David was Psal 119.100 and as Solomon was a child-King but very wise contrarily his son and successour Rehoboam entered into the Kingdom at a ripe age yet Solomon was the man and Rehoboam the child Age is no just measure of wisdom There are beard-less sages and gray-headed children Not the Ancient are wise but the wise is Ancient as Elihu will tell us in the next verses Wherefore I was afraid and durst not shew you mine opinion Heb. My knowledge that is the truth so far as I understand it siquid ego ant â—â—pio an t sapio if I have any judgement Thus he delivers himself in modest terms using many prefaces And if hereafter he seem to boast and set up himself above the rest as he doth it is out of his zeal for God whose honour he seeketh and not his own The words here rendred I was afraid and to shew are both Syriack Elihu by his family of Ram or Aram may seem to be that country-man and to have a touch of that dialect as Livy had of his Patavinity Verse 7. I said Dayes should speak This seems to have been a Proverb in those dayes and it ran much in Elihu's mind We use to say That at meetings young men should be Mutes and old men Vowels Of Arsatius who succeeded Chrysostom in the Sea of Constantinople Antonin tit 10. c. 9. it is recorded but nothing to his commendation that at eighty years of age he was as eloquent as a Fish and as nimble as a Frog And multitude of years should teach wisdom Heb. Should make known wisdom sc such as consisteth in the knowledge of God and of his will of our selves and of our duties This is far beyond all that of the Heathen Sages of the Seven wise Men of Greece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. of Archimedes of Syracuse who had a name and same saith Plutarch not of humane but of a kind of divine wisdom So had Socrates so had Apollonius of whom Philostratus saith that he was non doctus sed natus sapicus not taught but born a wise man These all were the worlds wizards and what they came to see Rom. Instit l. 3. c. 30. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 2. Lactantius truly telleth us in the name of the whole community of Christians That all the wisdom of a man consisteth in this to know God and worship him aright And that these Seniours should have taught and notified such wisdom Elihu had well hoped but it proved otherwise Verse 8. But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty Or Surely there is a spirit in man but the inspiration c. Man hath a reasonable soul and a natural judgement whereby he differeth from bruit beasts And not only so but some there are that do animam excolere as Tully and Aristotle they improve their natural abilities by art and so go far beyond others in worth differing from the unlearned as much almost as a man doth from a beast Lo such a spirit there is in some men which yet amounteth not to wisdom without the concurrence of Gods good spirit to sanctifie all as the altar sanctifieth the gold of the altar If this be not attained unto the wiser any man is the vainer he proveth Rom. 1.22 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of those wise even of the choicest and most pickt men amongst them that they are vain 1 Cor. 3.20 And to such we may say as Austin once wrote to a man of great parts Ornari abs te diabolus quarit the Devil desireth to be tricked up by thee And the inspiration of the almighty giveth them understanding He is the wise man when all 's done whom whether old or young the spirit of God who acteth most freely is pleased to imbreath And although Arts and Age be good helps to knowledge yet they must be all taught of God that shall be wise unto salvation and such as these the elder they grow the wiser they are for most part and if young saints they become old angels True it is that God is debter to none neither doth a longer life of it self deserve any thing at Gods
Martyrologue it is reported that having with infinite paines finished that elaborate Work of his the Acts and Monuments of the Church in eleven years space never using the help of any other man Mr Clark in his Life he grew thereupon so leane and withered that his friends know him not Now if sorrow and hard study will so macerate a man what marvel if long and sharp sicknesse and thereby extreme stomacklesnesse cause leanness and deformity And his bones that were not seen But could hardly be felt for flesh and fat now they stick out as in an Anatomy so that you may count them as also the veines and sinewes his body is become a very bag of bones a skin-bottle in the smoak as David hath it Verse 22 Yea his soul draweth neer unto the grave His soul that is His body as ver 18. for Elihu was no Mortallist neither dreamt he of a Psychopannychia He is in the very confines of death and no wayes likely to recover he is free among the dead as the Psalmist hath it And his life to the destroyers Lethalibus malis to deadly evils saith Trâ—mellius Mortiferis i.e. Morbis to those messengers of death deadly Diseases saith Vatablus To those that kill viz. Gentiles multa de Parcis fabulati sunt to the Angels by whom God sometimes destroyeth men as 2 Sam. 24.16 17. saith Piscator To enemies say other Pollinctoribus to the Bier-carryers say the Tigurines and so Beza paraphraseth so that hee stands not in need of any remedy or help of any thing more then of those who should carry his carcass unto the grave Verse 23. If there be a messenger with him An Angel say some but one man may be an Angel to another as Bradford was to Dr. Taylor Martyr who usually called him That Angel of God John Bradford If some Prophet or Teacher sent of God See Judg. 2.1 Mal. 3.1 Rev. 1.20 to the sick man who seeth his face as the face of an Angel and receiveth him as an Angel yea as Christ himself Gal. 4. in whose stead he is 2 Cor. 5.20 bringing the Embassage of reconciliation ibid. then which what can be more acceptable An Interpreter scil Of Gods holy Will who may assure the sick party that it is God who visiteth him in very faithfulnesse that he may be true to his soul that he doth it in mercy and in measure not to ruine him but to reduce him by repentance from dead works and by faith in Christ Jesus c. who may also set him in a course and pray for him as James 5.16 Dr. Vsher tells us that even in the times of Popery amongst our forefathers the ordinary instruction appointed to be given to men upon their death-beds was that they should look to come to glory not by their own merits but by the vertue and merit of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ that they should place their whole confidence in his death only and in no other thing and that they should interpose his death betwixt God and their sinnes betwixt them and Gods anger Serm. on Eph. 4.13 This was right and considering the times admirable This was better then that blasphemous direction they give elsewhere to dying men to say Conjunge Dâ—mine c Conjoyn O Lord mine obedience to all those things which Christ suffered for me c. One among a thousand Vnus è millibus not Vnus è similibus as the Vulgar Latine hath it by a gross mistake such as that Translation hath many One among a thousand he is said to be for the scarcity of such as can time a word comfort the afflicted conscience and speak to the heart of a poor distressed Creature who laboureth under the sense of sin and fear of wrath O quam hoc non est omnium This very few can skill of Luther who was excellent at it himself telleth us That it is a work every whit as hard as to raise the dead to life again Go ye rather to them that sell said the wise to the foolish Virgins and those are rare scil such faithful and wise distributers of Gods grace Isaiah 50.4 as having the tongue of the Learned and being instructed for that purpose to the Kingdome of heaven can comfort the feeble minded shore up and support the weak c. such a choice man is worth his weight in gold and O how beautiful are his feet Angelicall his face To declare â—n o man his uprightnesse Or His Righteousnesse that is Either the righteousnesse of Christ who is his peace or His that is the righteousnesse of his own experience how he hath been raised and received to mercy Or His to clear up to him his spiritual estate and shew his evangelical righteousness consisting more in purpose then in practice in confession of our imperfection then in any perfection we can attain unto It is not so much our inherent righteousnesse in regard of the worth dignity and excellency of it much lesse purity and perfection in it but as it is a fruit of Gods love and token of his favour a signe of our Adoption and Justification and a pledge of our glorification that yeeldeth comfort And this it will do when skilfully made out to a poor soul by a godly Minister and set on by the hand of that holy Spirit whereby the Saints are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 and 1.13 Verse 24. Then is he gracious unto him and saith If the sick man thus counselled and comforted repent and believe the Gospel delivering himself up to God and to that his Messenger by the will of God Mercy and Truth shall be with him he shall be cured on both sides as that Palsie man was Matth. 9.2 the Lord shall raise him up if it may stand with his eternal welfare But howsoever if he have committed sinnes it shall be forgiven him James 5.15 Both the guilt and filth of them shall be taken away so that he shall be able to look death in the face with everlasting comfort as being made to him â—anua vitae porta coeli a postern to let out temporal but a street door to let in eternal life Deliver him from going down to the pit Tel him from me that he shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord as Psal 118.17 Nay say to this righteous man tell him so from me that it shall be well with him and very well Isai 3.10 Redeem him from going down to the infernal pit that is declare that Redemption to him wrought for him by Christ and apply it to his conscience powre the oyle of grace into his broken vessel and assure him in mine name and by mine Authority that I am his salvation Whose sinnes soever ye my faithful Ministers remit they are remitted unto them and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 18. â—8 Joh. 20.23 But all this ministerially and declaratively not absolutely and out
bear them out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But God acknowledgeth them not as such only of them to whom much is given much shall be required For they are all the work of his hands Both for their persons for they are all equally his creatures and for their conditions which God also hath cut them out and apportioned Thus he is said to have made Moses and Aaron that is to have advanced them 1 Sam. 12.6 and Christ is said to have made the twelve when he ordained them to the Apostleship Mar. 3.14 Verse 20. In a moment shall they die Be they mean or mighty they are when God pleaseth suddenly swept away by the hand of death as Chesse-men are into the bag without distinction of Kings Dukes Bishops or Common people And the people shall be troubled at midnight as were the Egyptians when their first-born were slain in their dead sleep Exod. 12.29 not without much terrour and tumult and as were the Army of Sennacherib 2 King 19.35 and Belshazzar with his Babylon Dan. 5.30 31. The people shall be troubled they shall be shaken as leaves in a great wind or be carried away as by a mighty torent when they were most secure and dreamt of no such danger Neither in all these alterations and various occurrences is God unrighteous sith he is debtour to none neither doth he any thing without reason and right And passe away Praeteribunt id est peribunt they shall passe into the grave as Eccles 1.4 One generation passeth and another cometh or they shall perish as when it is said Heaven and earth shall pass away The Vulgar hath it Pertransibunt It is not transibunt they shall passe saith Gregory but pertransibunt they shall pass thorow because the wicked are alwayes passing on to perdition throughout all their lives And the mighty shall be taken away without hand That is without seeing the hand that smiteth them which is saith One a divine force invisibly cutting asunder the thred of their lives in a moment Psal 76.12 The Lord cutteth off the spirit of Princes The Hebrew importeth that he slips them off as one should slip of a flower betwixt his finger or as one should slip of a bunch of grapes c. The Original here is They shall take away the mighty that is the Angels shall as Luk. 12.20 hurry them out of the world without hand that is without mans help without humane violence Verse 21. For his eyes are upon the wayes of man Gods Providence like a well-drawn picture that eyeth each one in the room observeth all things he seeth cause enough thus to proceed in judgement against a person or people though we see it not And although one man knoweth not another nor doth any man well know himself yet God following as it were all men hard at the heels doth with his eyes narrowly observe and mark what way every one walketh in he seeth all his goings Let not men therefore please themselves in their sinful practises as if God saw them not because for a time they scape unpunished Saculi laetitia est impunita nequitia but sin and punishment are tyed together with chains of Adamant and cannot long be asunder Verse 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death c. Sinners would fain shroud and secret themselves from Gods all-seeing eye for which end they search all corners with Adam and hope that their evil pranks and practises shall never come to light but that cannot be for not only darkness and the shadow of death but Hell also is naked before him and destruction hath no covering Job 26.6 See the Note there See also Psal 139.12 and Amos 9.2 3. Heb. 4.13 with the Notes Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Either from Gods all-seeing eye or punishing hand Adam is pulled out of the thicket Manasseth from among the thorns Zedekiah and his family from between the two walls many Jews out of the privies and other lurking-holes where they lay hid at the last destruction of Jerusalem Verse 23. For he will not lay upon man more then right Plus quà m par est Nam non sâ— virum poncâ— trà He cannot over-do likely no though he should inflict upon him all the torments here and tortures in hell sith death in the utmost eâ—tent of it is the just hire of the least sin Romans 6.23 See Ezr. 9.13 with the Note That he should enter into judgement with God Commence a suit against him or challenge him into the schools to argue it out with him as thou Job hast offered to do but unadvisedly sith God hath justice on his side as the very Heathens also saw when they set Themis their goddesse of Justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 next of all to Jupiter their chief god Verse 24. He shall break in pieces mighty men c. Infinitè conterit validos so Tremellius rendreth it He infinitely mawleth the mighty and breaketh them in pieces like a potters vessel Psal 2.9 Without number Or Without inquisition as knowing all things afore-hand and not needing any evidences or examination of witnesses Or without end because their ruine is endlesse Ruina majorum sit cantela minorum And set others in their stead As is to be seen in the rise reign and ruine of the four mighty Monarchies and others not a few that had their times and their turns as the Kingdom of the ten Tribes which in a few years fell into nine several Families and few of those Kings died a natural death No more did the Emperours of Rome till Constantine See Dan. 2.21 Psal 113.7 8. Verse 25. Therefore he knoweth their works It appeareth by their punishment that God took notice of their wicked works though they thought otherwise yea when they know not or are not aware of it he overthroweth them therefore This he doth in the night i. e. suddenly and unexpectedly Others render it Assoon as he hath changed the night they are crushed that is as soon as he hath brought forth the light which revealeth all things Ephes 5.13 and layeth them open to publick view who before were taken for better men they are destroyed as publick Pests Verse 26. He striketh them as wicked men c. Complodit eos saith Junius scilicet ut inflatas vesical in sun ipsorum sede he striketh upon them as blown bladders in their own seat This is an elegant similitude setting forth the sudden overthrow of graceless great Ones as with a kind of noise and not without publick notice for it followeth In the open sight of others Heb. In the place of beholders in proscenio as upon a Stage or Scaffold Discant justitiam moniti non temnere â—imen others may hear and fear and do no more so God is pleased for this purpose to hang up some notorious offendors as it were in gibbets as Pharaoh Sennacherib Antiochus Herod Julian c. See those Writs of Execution 1 Cor. 10.5 6 7
is not extent any Poem either of the Greeks or Latines which may be compared with this stately eloquence of Elihu in describing those natural effects which are caused in the air and for the same cause are of the Philosophers called Meteors or aiëry impressions as namely clouds rain hail snow thunder lightning and such-like whereof he here discourseth very gravely and learnedly And first of rain which he describeth 1. by the form or manner of producing it vers 27 28. 2. by the largenesse of the clouds and their noise vers 29. 3. by the suddain succession of fair weather and foul vers 30. and lastly by the different use thereof in the three last verses of this Chapter God maketh small the drops of water that is he raineth by dividing the drops in the cloud causing them to come down gutâ—atim piece-meale and not by whole spouts or paile-fulls Others read it Subtrahit Deus God draweth up drops of water viz. out of the Sea the rivers and other moist places whence those vapours do ascend of which are generated those drops of rain Psal 147.8 He covereth the heaven with clouds he prepareth rain for the earth c. They powre down rain according to the vapours thereof As the vapours are greater or lesser so is the rain The rain ascendeth in thin vapours but descendeth oft in thick showers So do our poor Prayers come down in greatest blessings and we are sure of as much mercy as we bring faith to carry it away Verse 28. Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly Hence the Dutch call it raegen and we rained à rigando from watering the earth all over at times This is Gods work and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes it would be so were it not so ordinary Non sactis id ascribamus multò minùs sagis the Heathens gave their gods the glory of it The holy Ghost here and elswhere setteth before us these common things that when we see them and yet know not the reason of them we may gather that we ought not over-curiously to pry into the profound judgements of God which are far above the clouds those receptacles of rain yea far above the highest heavens Verse 29. Also can any understand the spreading of the clouds That is the skill that God sheweth in spreading forth the clouds to that large extent and muffling the whole heavens with them so that Nature finds her self buried in darkness Some render it the divisions or differences of the clouds illic enim fiunt miracula magna For some clouds are empty Vatab. and answer not expectation worthlesse and vain boasters are compared to such R. Levi. Prov. 25.14 Jude 12. some yield rain and drop fatnesse Some again send forth hail snow frost storm thunder lightnings c. These are wonders in nature far beyond humane apprehension The clouds God maketh one while as some aiëry seas to hold water another while as some aiëry furnaces whence he scattereth the suddain fires into all parts of the earth astonishing the world with the fearful noise of that eruption Out of the midst of water he fetcheth fire and hard stones out of the midst of thin vapours Haec sunt sanè admiranda tremenda saith Mercer These are wonderful things and no lesse dreadful Is it not strange that of one and the same equal matter viz. the vapours exhaled from the earth or water so many several and different Meteors should be engendred Or the noise of his Tabernacle i.e. The swinging showres or rustling winds or ratling thunder-claps one in the neck of another out of the clouds called here Gods Tabernacle in quo velut abditus tot rerum miracula creat wherein he sits in secret and unseen creating many strange Meteors to send down upon the earth whereof the profoundest Philosopher of them all can give no certain and undoubted reason Verse 30. Behold he spreadeth his light upon it That is his fair weather clearing up the cloudy sky as some expound it Or us others his lighting shot forth every way Psal 18.13 15. 144.6 Or the sun-beams spread upon the sea and drawing up vapours unde mare hoc loco nubium radix dicitur saith Brentius whence the sea is here called the root of the clouds or the surface of the sea is called the root of it in regard of the wandring waves which are cut in sunder after the manner of roots so saith Vatablus Those that by light here understand lightnings say that God maketh them dart so abundantly through the waters of the sea that they do as it were cover all the bottom of it Verse 31. For by them judgeth he the people i.e. By rain and drought in excesse or defect he punisheth people at his pleasure whom oh how easily could he affamish by denying them an harvest or two in granting whereof he giveth testimony of his bounty Job 14.17 He giveth meat in abundance sc By sending moderate showers fatning the earth whereunto also the preaching of the Word is fitly compared Isai 55.10.11 which those that drink not in and fructifie Deut. 32.2 are accursed Heb. 6.8 Verse 32. With clouds he covereth light Heb. With the palmes of his hands so the clouds are called see 1 King 18.44 he hideth light that is the Sun-beams viz. when he sendeth rain the heavens are masked And commandeth it not to shine Heb. And forbiddeth it those words not to shine are not in the original propter intercedentem Trem. Merlin for the sake of those that intercede He giveth rain or fair weather upon the prayers of his faithful people who can thereby open and shut heaven as did Elias and the thundering Legion R. Levi interpreteth this and the following verse concerning thunder Verse 33. The noise thereof sheweth concerning it The hurry-noise made in the air before a shower of rain fore-showeth it to be at hand The Cattel also concerning the vapour Heb. Concerning that which goeth up Hogs Sheep Oxen c. are much more quick-scented than men and can perceive the vapours going up to cause rain before men can see or feel them Hence shepherds and herdsmen gather prognosticks of rain and are so weather-wise as we call it Ad dextram cuhantes oves pluviam portendunt Merlin Aben-Ezra noteth that sheep lying on the right-side fore-signifie foul weather See Virgil. Georg. lib. 1. and Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 18. cap. 35. Some render this verse than which there if not an harder in all the book saith Mercer thus Declaring toward him who intercedeth his good-will toward the cattel and also toward the encrease of the earth CHAP. XXXVII Verse 1. At this also my heart trembleth AT this At what at the thunder whereof he had spoken before Beza Diodat and more meant to speak and which he heard at that instant as it may seem by the next verse and therefore no wonder that his heart trembled and was moved out of its place by an
Surely there is cause enough to be cast down if he be so big and dreadful to bebold as is reported See the Note on Verse 1. Verse 10. None is so fierce that dare stir him up Unlesse he be ambitious of his own destruction cruel so the word here signifieth to his owne life which hereby he desperately casteth away Aristotle telleth us That fishes do sleep and perhaps these greater fishes take more sleep Now who dare awake them sleeping or encounter them waking and rouling in the waters None surely but a mad man Who then is able to stand before me Et est qui coram me stet No more surely then a man before a Whale or a glass bottle before a Cannon shot Here then we have the accommodation and application of the former Discourse which we must not look upon as cunningly devised fables 2 Pet. 1.16 or read as we do the old stories of forragne businesses but as that wherein our selves are nearly interested and concerned that we may give God the glory of his Power as here far beyond that of the Whale or any other creature and of his Justice as verse 11 12. Verse 11. Who hath prevented me that I should repay him Who can tax me with injustice who am bound to no man but Owner of all things If any one can say I am beholding to him let him prove it and I shall readily requite it he shall have no cause at all to complain of me as ungrateful Rom. 11.34 35. Whatsoever is under the whole heavens is mine The Divel told our Saviour that all was his and to whomsoever he would he gave it Luke 4.6 The Pope also that first born of the Divel takes upon him as Lord of all to dispose of Spirituals or Temporals in all Countries as Boniface the VIII wrote to Philip King of France who answered him with a Sciat fatuitas tua c. And as the Pope that then was gave our Henry the Eighth's Kingdome prime occupâ—turo to him that should first take it but he slighted him with Os Pupae culus Diaboli in eodem sunt praedicamento It is for God alone to say as Dan. 4.32 I rule in the Kingdome of men and give it to whomsoever I will How then can I do any man wrong who am obliged to none but all are engaged to me for all they have Verse 12 I will not conceal his parts nor his power That therein as in a picture of the most principal piece of my Workmanship thou maist behold how great and how glorious a God I am In the year of Grace 1577 July 2. the Ship-men took a Whale not far from Antwerp the picture whereof was printed and published to this effect His hide was without scales and of a leaden colour he was 85 foot long and sixteen soot high From his mouth to his eyes was fifteen foot from his eyes to his finnes four foot and three fingers c. Such a kind of picture or character of this Sea-monster we have here from the most skilful hand of heaven Pliny observeth that pictures of things exact and excellent are seldom drawn but with great disadvantage Not so this in the text as will appear in the sequel Nor his comely proportion Heb. Nor the grace of his disposition i.e. Dicam quà m egregiè concinnè membra â—jus composita sint I will declare how finely and fitly all his parts are proportioned Vatab. and put together In the most deformed Creatures as we count them there is no part superfluous uselesse or uncomely Deus est magnus in minimis nec parnus in maximis Verse 13. Who can discover the face of his garment That is saith Piscator Who can pull him out of the sea wherewith he is covered as with a garment Who can slip off his skin whiles he is alive as men do the Eels-skin say others Who as men use to do when horses are to be saddled will take off his cloth and set the saddle upon his back This last is Beza's Paraphrase and it suits best with that which followeth Or who can come to him with his double bridle Let it be never so large or strong his mouth is too wide his jawes too strong to be held in with bit and bridle lest he come near unto thee Verse 14. Who can open the doors of his face The two-leaved-doors of his jawes to let in a bridle Sampson durst venture upon a roaring Lion and rend him as a man would rend a Kid. But never durst any such thing be done to a Whale His teeth are terrible round about The Whales teeth are said to be 120. each tooth four cubits long Verse 15. His Scales are his pride They are like so many glistering shields wherein he puts his confidence and takes his pride as thinking them impenetrable Shut up together as with a close seal So closed and put together like Paper sealed with Wax as that nothing can part them The Jewes use to write upon the back of their sealed Letters Nun Cheth Shin that is Niddui Cherem and Shammatha all sorts of Excommunication to those that open them Verse 16. One is so near to another that no air c. One scale or flake is This is more proper say some to the Crocodile than to the Whale but who can tell the several kinds of Whales Vide Cocceium in locum some whereof are said to have great and thick scales closely compacted as here Quòd si squammae Leviathan ita cohareant ut earum opere textili densato c. Let the Saints strengthen themselves by close-sticking the one to the other as the primitive Christians did so that the very heathens acknowledged that no people under Heaven did so hold together and love one another as they being like that Sacra cohors holy band of Souldiers in the Theban Army which consisted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athenaeus lib. 3. of such only who were joyned together in the bonds of love and these they esteemed the prime of all their strength in battel Verse 17. They are joyned one to another c. They are lapt over one another like tiles on a house See the Note on vers 16. Verse 18. In sublime nimbos efflat Plin. lib. 9. c. 6. By his neesings a light doth shine When this dreadful Monster sneezeth or snorteth fire breaketh out at his eyes and nose By this neezing of the Whale is meant the abundance of white frothy water which he casteth forth at his nostrils And his eyes are like the eye-lids of the morning Bright and beamy Olaus writeth of the Norway Whales that their eyes shine in a dark night like a fire so that Marriners have oft thought when they have seen them that they saw a great fire Verse 19. Out of his mouth go burning lampes This and those that follow are all hyperbolical expressions Here he is brought in as a spit-fire as the Devil was wont to be in Playes and
accomplishment of your purposes and practices destruction shall suddenly seize you 1 Thess 5.3 When his wrath is kindled but a little It is sometimes let out in minnums as Hos 5.12 but if timely course be not taken it grows to a great matter as Thunder doth and as Fire that at first burns a little within upon a few boards but if not quenched bursteth out in a most terrible flame Blessed are all they that put their trust in him That is in Christ Joh. 14.1 Now to trust in him is so to be unbottom'd of thy self and of every Creature and so to lean upon Christ that if he fail thee thou sinkest it is to relye upon him alone for safety here and Salvation hereafter This this is to secure a mans title to true Blessedness and with this grave sentence the Prophet shutteth up the whole Psalm shewing the different condition of the godly from the wicked See the Note on vers 9. PSAL. III. A Psalm of David Tremellius addeth Quem cecinit which he sang when hee fled c. As Birds in the Spring tune most sweetly when it rains most sadly This was better yet than that black Sanctis as they call it sung by our Henry 2. in like case and for like cause For when as some few hours before he dyed he saw a List of their names who conspired with the King of France Dâ—n Hist 112 and Earl Richard his Son and Successor against him and found therein his Son John whom he had made Earl of Cornwell Dorset Summerset Nottingham Darby and Lancaster c. to be the first he fell into a grievous passion both cursing his Sons and the day wherein himself was born and in that distemperature departed the world which so often himself had distempered When he fled from Heb. from the face of Absolom which he had too much admired Midrash Tillin and was now afraid of Then when he went up Mount Olivet weeping 2 Sam. 15.30 made he this Psalm say the Rabbins So in the Sack of Ziglag he comforted himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 A Christian is never without his Cordial Absalom his Son his Darling his Tidling his one Eye Such another good Son was Barabbas whcih signifies His Fathers Son his white Boy as we say like as Absalom signifieth his Fathers peace but it proved otherwise as it likewise befell Eve when she called her first-born Cain and thought she had got a great boon from the Lord. But Fallitur augurie spes bona saepe suò David was disappointed for Absalom proved like the Sea Pacifick or calm Heyl Geog so it is called but Captain Drake found it rough and troubleous above measure Absalom would have done by David if he could have come at him Turk Hist as afterwards Amidas did with his Father Muleasses King of Tunes in Africk whom he first dethroned and afterwards put out his eyes In Absalom was nothing good but his name that may have a good name the nature whereof is so ill that it is not to be named like as Levit. 20.17 abominable Incest between Brother and Sister is called Châ—sed or Kindness per Antiphrasin Vers 1. Lord how are they increased that trouble me He worthily wondreth at so sudden a change Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo Et subito casu quaevaluere ruunt David was deserted by all almost and had now as many enemies as till now he had subjects excepting a few that stuck to him Our Hen. 6. who had been the most Potent Monarch for Dominions that ever England had was when deposed not the master of a Mole-hil and served to shew that mortality was but the stage of mutability Many are they that rise up against me Many and many by the Figure Anaphora here is also in the Original an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words Tsarai in the former clause and Gnalai in the latter not unlike that doleful ditty of the Church Lam. 5.16 Oi na lanu chei chattanu Wo to us that we have sinned which is so elegant in the Original that Mr. Will. Whately of Banbury who used to bee very plain in his preaching Mr. Leig Saints encou Ep. dedic and not to name a Greek Latine or Hebrew word quoted it once in the Hebrew as an Hearer of his relateth Vers 2. Many there be which say of my soul These scoffs and sarcasmes Leniter volant non leniter violant David felt them as a murthering weapon in his bones Psal De patient cap. 15. 42.3.10 and oft complaineth of them to God Qui satis idoneus est patientiae sequester as Tertullian phraseth it who will see that his Saints shall lose nothing by their patience There is no help for him in God Salvation it self cannot save him he is at that pass that there is neither hope of better for him nor place of worse there is no help health or deliverance for him at all The Hebrew hath a letter more than ordinary to increase the signification R. David rendreth it Nullum auxilium nullum auxilium there is no help there is no help for him and interpreteth it neither in this world nor in the world to come Thus haply his enemies argued from his sin in the matter of Vriab concluding that God would not look at him therefore But for that matter he had soundly repented and made his peace 2 Sam. Ex tradit Hebraeor 12.13 Psal 51.1 2. though this present cons piracy and the trouble thereupon which lasted six Months saith Hierom was a part of the temporal punishment of that scandalous sin 2 Sam. 12.10 But that it lay not upon his Conscience it appeareth in that on his Death-bed he regrateth it not as he did his not punishing of Joab and Shimei concerning whom he therefore leaveth his charge with his Son Salomon 1 King 2.5 8. Selah i.e. Plane Tremel Omnino peâ—itus revra Polan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In truth or Amen saith Aben-Ezra The Hebrews at this day accordingly adde to the end of their Prayers and Epitaphs Amen Selah twice or thrice repeated The Greek maketh it only a Musical Notion Vers 3. But thou O Lord art a Shield for me And such a Shield as will never fail me Prodente clypeo vulneratus sum I am betrayed by my Shield said Brasidus the Lacedaemonian Plutarch when he was wounded through it David had a better Shield than so better then that of Ajax in Homer which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 better than that of Demosthenes whereupon was written Quod felix faustumque sit better than that of Sceva at the siege of Dyrrachium wherewith he so long resisted Pompeys Army Lucan that he had two hundred and twenty Darts sticking in it Densamque tulit in pectore syâ—vam God was to David a Shield round about him as the Hebrew here hath it and not a Shield only but a Sun too as Psal 84.11 Hence it
on this Text Men that is broken crackt-creatures Morbis mortique obnoxii woful weights sorry and sickly Caitives This to know savingly is the beginning of true Humility saith Augustine here PSAL. X. VErs 1. Why standest then afar off O Lord As if thou-hadst forgotten what thou hadst promised thy people in the former Psalm which the Greek and Latine Versions make to be one and the same with this as having no title and tending almost to the same purpose Hence the difference in Numbers which holdeth almost to the end of the Psalter viz. to Psal 148. Why hidest thou thy self in time of trouble So God seemeth to do when he helpeth not presently neither doth any thing more trouble the Saints in affliction than the want of Gods gracious presence This maketh them thus to expostulate and lament after the Lord not quarrel as those Hypocrites did Isa 58.3 or revile as Caligula did his Jupiter taking up that Verse in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or with him little better in the holy History who said Behold this evil is of the Lord and what should I wait for the Lord any longer 2 King 6.33 The good Soul knows that God waiteth to be gracious and as he seldom cometh at our time so at his own which is ever the best time he never faileth Vers 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost The wicked in his pride doth persecute c. Heb. hotly pursueth and that out of his pride the true cause of Persecution whatever else is pretended And this is fitly here alledged and urged as an Argument to move God to make hast See Deut. 32.27 The Saints fare the better for the insolencies and outrages of their enemies whose ruine is thereby accelerated and somewhat God will do the sooner for his people lest the enemy exalt himself Psal 140.8 and say Our hand is high the Lord hath not done this Let them be taken in the devieâ—s c. As all Persecutors are sure to be In which regard Tertullian well adviseth Scapula Si nobis non parcis tibi parce si non tibi Carthagini If thou wilt not spare us Christians yet spare thy self or if not thy self yet thy City Carthage which else will smart and smoke for thy cruelty Vers 3. For the wicked boasteth of his hearts desire Though the Soul of the wicked desire evil Prov. 21.10 yet he glorieth in it as did that Thrasonical Lamech Gen. 4. and that Pyrgopolynices Nebuchadnezzar Isa 10.9 10 11 12. See Psal 5 Phil. 3.19 This the just and jealous God cannot bear as neither that which followeth He blesseth the Covetous Vt sapientem providum as a wise man and good Husband So they in Malachy who said And now we count the proud happy c. Felix scelus virtus vocatur Whom the Lord abhorreth smiting his hands with indignation at his dishonest gain Ezek. 22.13 like as Balac did at Balaam Senecaâ— with whom he was deeply displeased Numb 24.10 Vers 4. The wicked through the pride of his countendnce That is of his heart appearing in his countenance as a master-pock in his fore-head For Pride buddeth Ezek. 7.10 the pride of Israel testifieth to his face Hos 5.5 the thoughts are oft seen in the countenance and the heart is printed upon the face Isa 3.9 'T is a hard thing saith one to have a brazen face and a broken heart Will not seek He thinks it not necessary or worth the while and his practice is agreeable that is nought all over Pride in the Soul is like a great swelling in the body which besides that it is a dangerous Symptom unfits it for any good service and is apt to putrifie and to break and to run with loath some and soul matter So doth Pride disable the Soul from doing duty and at last breaketh forth into odious deeds abominable to God and men It is observed that the ground whereon the Peacock useth to sit is by that occasion made exceeding barren so where pride roosteth and reigneth no good groweth God is not in all his thoughts God is neither in his head as here nor in his heart Psal 14.1 nor in his words Psal 12.4 nor in his ways Tit. 1.16 he is wholly without God in the world Ephes 2. he studies Atheism and all his thoughts are There is no God so this Text may be read he would fain so perswade himself Vers 5. His ways are always grievous As he Pleaseth not God so he is contrary and vexatious to men Via ejus semper terrent so Aben-Ezra The Psalmist here noteth him for such an one as the Cyclops are set forth to have been by the Poets Thy Judgements are far above out of his sight He looketh not so high but reckoneth that quae supra nos nihil ad nos If he read them at any time he regardeth them as little as he doth the story of forein Wars wherein he is not concerned As for all his enemies he puffeth at them He holdeth himself man good enough to make his party good with them and that he can overthrow them all with a puffe He defieth them and domintereth over them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost as the Greek renders it Vers 6. He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved So said a better man once Psal 30.6 but he was quickly confuted If a beleever conclude by the force of his faith that he shall never be moved from that good estate in which Christ hath set him this is the triumph of trust and not the vain vaunt of presumption For I shall never be in adversity The Chaldee hath it Quoniam non sum in malo and understandeth it of the evil of sin as Exod. 32.22 and then the sense is because the wicked man suffereth not the punishment of sin therefore he conceiteth that he is innocent and without sin See Hos 12.8 with the Note Vers 7. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit Such cursing men are cursed men and for such slippery and deceitful persons the Lord is the avenger of all such 1 Thess 4.8 Vnder his tongue is mischief that is in his heart which is by Nature placed beneath the Tongue making its use of it for much mischief Matth. 12.34 Jam. 3.8 The word Toch here rendred fraud signifieth properly the middle of any thing Quoniam fraus in modio cordis est saith R. David because fraud is in the middle of the heart and there-hence sent into the mouth Vers 8. He sitteth in the lurking-places c. A description of an High-way-robber saith Diodate under which name are meant all violent and fraudulent men and their actions Vers 9. He lieth in wait secretly as a Lion in his den See Job 38.40 with the Note When hee draweth him into his Net that is into his bonds debts morgages saith Chrysostome When a poor man is once gotten into these Nets wicked Oppressors do not only rob but ravish them coyning their mony
Man-slayer who lendeth the wicked man his seven Heads to plot and his ten Horns to push And gnasheth upon him with his teeth Saying unto him when he hath laid hold on him Nunc inveni te as Kimchi Paraphraseth Now I have found you and shall be even with you Art thou come thou Villain said Stephen Gardiner to Doctor Taylour Martyr when he first appeared before him Act. and Moâ— How darest thou look me in the face for shame Knowest thou not who I am Thus that proud Prelate gnashing his teeth and boasting great matters with his tongue and he was bravely answered as hath been before related Vers 13 The Lord will laugh at him See Psal 2.4 the righteous also shall have a time to laugh at him Psal 52.6 and mean while comforteth himself with this that God laugheth at him and that therefore himself hath no great cause to cry sith riden do irritos reddit by laughing at them he blasteth all their designs and that with disgrace men love not to be laughed at For he seeth that his day is coming His dismal day his Deaths day which wil also be his Dooms-day that day wherein God hath determined to slay them with their own sword and to save the Righteous as it is in the two next verses But especially that last and great day of the World wherein Dicetur reprobis Ite Venite probis Vers 14. The Wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their how That they may assault the Righteous both cominus nearer hand and eminus at a distance for which purpose they come against him like a walking Armorie with sword how and other instruments of death as resolved to kill and slay We are counted as sheep to the slaughter Rom. 8. Vers 15. Their sword shall enter into their own heart As did Sauls and his armour-bearers 1 Sam. 31. See Psal 7.16 Per quod quis peccat per idem punitur ipse And their bows shall be broken Neither their bowes only but their armes also Vers 17. They shall utterly be disarmed and disabled when once God takes them to do which is commonly when they are at the strongest and most confident Vers 16. A little that the Righteous man hath c. Whereas it was said before The meek shall inherit the earth some man might object that such are commonly poor enough and that 's no small affliction as the Heathens Menander Euripides Alcaeus c. have affirmed and experience assureth it Hereunto is answered that a little that the Righteous man hath is better c. as a box of pearles is more worth than many loads of pibbles And as a bird with a little eye and the advantage of a wing to soar with may see farre wider than an Ox with a greater so the Righteous with a little estate joyned with faith tranquillity and devotion may have more pleasure feel more comfort see more of Gods bounty than one of vast possessions whose heart cannot lift it self above the earth as One well observeth Some render it thus Better is the little of one Righteous man than the plentious Mammon of many Wicked The Bee is as well if not better content with feeding on the dew or sucking from a flower as Behemoth that grazeth on the Mountaines Here the Psalmist speaketh saith Vatablus of the secret blessing of God Quia etsi in diem victitent è caelotamen non secus ac Manna pascuntur for although they have but from hand to mouth yet they are fed from Heaven as it were with Manna Vers 17. For the armes of the wicked shall be broken i.e. His power valour all that wherein they think their strength and help standeth See vers 15. the strongest sinew in the arm of flesh cracks But the Lord upholdeth the Righteous Though seemingly never so weak and wealthlesse Vers 18. The Lord knoweth the dayes of the upright In bâ—num novit Psal 1.6 id est prolongat saith Kimchi he knoweth that is he acknowledgeth approveth hath a gracious regard unto their dayes and the events thereof he hath decreed to a minute how long they shall suffer and what happinesse shall succeed their sufferings And their inheritance shall be for ever Here long and hereafter eternal What they want here shall be there made up abundantly Vers 19. They shall not be ashamed c. They shall hold up their heads when others droop neither shall they be without comfort in times of common calamity as Noah was media tranquillus in unda And in the dayes of famin they shall be satisfied God will work wonders rather than they shall want any thing that is good for them as he fed the Israelites in the Wildernesse Eliah by the Ravens Jeremy by a special providence in the siege As Rochel was relieved by an extraordinary shoal of fish cast in upon them by divine providence And as Leiden besiedged by the Duke of Alva and forced for their sustenance to search and scrape dunghills to boil old leather c. was rescued by the turning of the Winds and swelling of the Tide which forced the Duke to raise the siege and be gone Vers 20. But the Wicked shall perish In the midst of their wealth and greatest abundance their mony shall perish with them And the enemies of the Lord These are worse than those Wicked aforementioned saith Theodoret they are such as go on still in their trespasses Psal 68.21 Shall be as the fat of Lambes which in sacrifices was wholly to be burnt and consumed Levit. 3.15 16 17. Into smoak shall they consume away Smoak the higher it ascendeth the sooner it vanisheth Quanto fuerit globus ille grandior tanto vanior saith Austin They shall be consumed in the smoak of Gehenna or Hell saith the Chaldee here Vers 21. The Wicked borroweth and payeth not again Either because he cannot he is so unable or because he cares not he is so unconscionable But in the midst of his wealth he is many times wanting in the fullnesse of his sufficiency Non sunt 〈◊〉 dendo he is in straits and to supply his necessities sticketh long in the Usurers furnace which leaveth him at last neither metall nor matter But the Righteous sheweth mercy and giveth Of that which is his own to which end he hath a great care to pay his debts When Archb. Cranmer discerned the storm which after fell upon him in Queen Maries dayes he took expresse order for the payment of all his debts which when it was done a most joyfull man was hee How hospitable he was and liberall Tremelius testifieth in his Epistle before his comment on Hosea Vers 22. For such as be blessed of him c. See Vers 9. 11. Shall be cut off In hoc seculo futuro saith Kimchi Or this verse may be taken as a reason of the former viz. why are Wicked rich men so necessitated and Righteous men so enabled enlarged God curseth the one but blesseth the other
wasted the Fig-tree Christ cursed so forcible is his curse Vers 37. Mark the perfect mâ—n c. As we must treasure up experiences our selves so we must stir up others to do the like There is a wo â—o such as consider not the operation of Gods hands Isa 5.12 For the end of that man is peace Though his beginning and middle may bee troublesome yet his end his after-and at least shall be peace He shall by death enter into peace rest in his bed Isa 57.2 Vers 38. But the transgressours c. Here the end is worse than the beginning Sin ever ends tragically The end of the wicked shall be cut off Their end is not death but destruction they are killed with death Rev. 2.23 life and hope end together Vers 39. But the salvation of the righteous c. 〈◊〉 ut paâ—oâ—i◠〈◊〉 coâ—â—lectar their salvation temporal and eternal is of the Lord so is also the destruction of the wicked as is here necessarily implied He is their strength c. That they faint not sink not under the heaviest burden of their light afflictions which are but for a moment Vers 40. And the Lord shall help them c. He shall He shall He shall Oh the Rhetorick of God! the safety of the Saints the certainty of the Promises PSAL. XXXVIII A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Made purposely for a memorial both of what he had suffered and from what he had been delivered See 1 Chron. 16.4 Exod. 30.16 Lev. 2.2 6.15 Recordatâ—â—â— autem intelligitur miserie ex misericordia Psal 132. Isa 62.6 63.7 It is probable that David had so laid to heart the Rape of his Daughter Tamar the Murther of his eldest Son Amnon the flight of his next Son Absolom and other troubles that befell him Basil thinks Absoloms conspiracy Ahitophels perfidy Shimeies insolency c. that it cost him a great fit of sickness out of which hardly recovering he penned this and some other Psalms as the 35.39 40. but this especially for a Momento to imminde him of his own late misery and Gods never-failing mercy to him Both these we are wondrous apt to forget and so both to lose the fruit of our afflictions by falling afresh to our evil practices as Children soon forget a whipping and to rob God our Deliverer of his due praises like as with Children eaten bread is soon forgotten Both these mischiefs to prevent both in himself and others for we are bound not only to observe Gods Law but also to preserve it as much as may be from being broken David composed this Psalm for to record or to cause remembrance See the like title Psal 70. and for a form for a sick man to pray by as Kimchi noteth not to be sung for those in Purgatory as some Papists have dreamed Vers 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath He beginneth and endeth the Psalm with Petitions filleth it up with sad complaints wherein we shall finde him groaning but not grumbling mourning but not murmuring for that is not the guise of Gods people He beginneth with Eheu Jehova non recuso coargui castigari Correct me O Lord but with Judgement not in anger lest thou bring me to nothing Jer. 10.24 See Psal 6.1 with the Notes Vers 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me i. e. Sicknesses of body R. Obadiah Deus amatquod sagittat Aug. and troubles of minde Job 6.4 Psal 18.14 the Jew-Doctors say that he had a Leprosie for fix Months and that the Divine presence was taken away from him so that he complained not without cause But these were sagitta salut is saith Chrysostom Arrows of Salvation Love-tokens from the Lord not unlike Jonathans arrows 1 Sam. 20.36 and he had been fore-warned of them by Nathan the Prophet 1 Sam. 12 and so bore them the better Praevisa jacula minus forinnt Darts fore-seen are in a manner dintless And thine band presseth me sore Heb. Thou lettest down thy hand upâ—s me Now Gods hand is a mighty band 1 Pet. 5.6 and the weight of it is importable but that Vna eademque manus c. Vers 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of 〈…〉 This was the immediate cause of Davids misery it came from â—ove displeased and 〈…〉 sins seldom â—â—â—pe better But blessed be our Almighty 〈…〉 who 〈◊〉 health out of sickness by bringing thereby the body of death into a Consumption Neither is there any rest in my bones â—is repetit mere lâ—gentium He saith the same thing twice as Mourners use to do but with an aggravation of his pain reaching to his very bones Because of my sin This was the remote cause of his present sufferings and is the true Mother of all mans miserie Now when these two Gods wrath and mans sin meet in the soul as physick and sickness in the stomack there must needs be much unrest till they be vomited up by confession T is as naturall for guilt to brâ—â—d disquiet as for putrid matter to brâ—â—d vermin Let God therefore be justified and every mouth stopped Vers 4. Sicut aquae praevalentes in quibus erat absorptus Kimchi For mine iniquities are gone over my head So that I am even overwhelmed by them and almost drowned in perdition and destruction The Gospel is post naeufragium tabula and assureth us that God hath cast all our sins into the bottom of the Sea and this keepeth the head of a sinking soul above water As an heavy burden How light soever sin seemeth in the committing it will lye full heavy even as a Talent of lead Zach. 5.7 or as an huge Mountain Heb. 12.1 A facie irae tuae A facie peccati mei A facie stulritiae meae when once we come to a sight and sense of it when Gods wrath and mans sin shall face one another as the former verse hath it according to the originall Vers 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt What his grief or disease was we read not some say the Leprosy some take all this allegorically the word rendred wounds Livores vibices turnices signifieth stripes scarres wailes mattery soares running ulcers the effects of the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty Could we but foresee what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent That we do not is extream foolishnesse as David here acknowledgeth Because of my foolishnesse In not considering aforehand the hainousnesse of my sinâ—nor the heavinesse of the divine displeasure The word signifieth unadvised rashnesse Prov. 14.17 and t is probable he meaneth his great sin with Bathsheba wherein he was miscarried by his lusts to his cost See Psal 107.17 18. Because of my foolishnesse i.e. Quia non praveni Nathanons confessione saith R. Obadiah because I prevented not Nathans comming by a voluntary confession of my sin unto the Lord. Vers 6. I am troubled Heb. wryed I am bowed down c. Incurvus et prorsuâ— obstipus arroque vulâ—u squallidus
dejection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever befalls thee yea against all distempers sith they hinder comfortable intercourse with God and that Spiritual composedness that Sabbath of spirit that we must enjoy or else we cannot keep that continual Holy-day 1 Cor. 5.8 How many are there who through unnecessary sadness come to Heaven before they are aware Dr. Sibbes Hope thou in God Faith quieteth the soul first or last saith a Reverend man on these words there will be stirring at the first As in a pair of Ballance there will be a little stirring when the weight is put in till it come to a poise so in the soul it comes not to a quiet consistency till there be some victory of faith till it rest and stay the soul For I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Heb. Homil. in Genes The healthâ— of his countenance Adhuc confitebor ei salutes vultus ejus Chrysostom bringeth in a man loaden with troubles coming into the Church where when he heard this passage read Why art thou cast down hope in God c. he presently recovered Vers 6. O my God my soul is cast down within me Though before he had schooled himself out of his distem pers yet now he is troubled again such are the vicissitudes and interchanges of joy and sorrow that the Saints are here subject unto as soon as the Spirit gets the better as soon the Flesh sometimes good affections prevail sometimes unruly passions Affections are the wind of the soul passions the storm The soul is well carried when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly Therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan That is saith one I will call to minde former experiments there and take comfort Or I will remember thee as I may here at Mahanaim beyond Jordan under the mount Hermon and that other little Hill where I have found thee in my meditations and prayers propitious unto me though I cannot now worship thee in the beauty of holiness being driven out by my ungracious Son Absolom from the place where thine honour dwelleth Vers 7. Deep calleth unto deep Vorago voraginom advocat i.e. one calamity inviteth another Aliud ex also malum they come thick and three-fold Gurges gurgitem excipit Beza the Clouds return after the rain Eccles 12.2 as one shower is unburthened another is brewed One affliction followeth and occasioneth another without ceasing or intermission so that they are grown as it were to an infiniteness as Psalm 40.12 At the noyse of thy water-spouts i.e. Thy Clouds pouring down amain in a storm at Sea especially by a Cataclysm of waters falling at once out of the Clouds sometimes to the overwhelming and breaking of a ship This Mariners call a spout Psal 18.4 The flouds of Belial made me afraid All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me Fluctou fluctum trudit yet not without the Lord the enemies and the evils that befell him are called Gods waves or breakings Propter peccata noltra à te immiffa Kimchi Vers 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness He will after all this misery send forth a Commission and a command to set me free and his Mandamus will do it at any time And in the night his Song shall be with me When others that are without God in the World have restless nights the gnats of cares and griefs molesting them a Saint can sing away care and call his soul to rest as Psal 116.7 being filled with peace and joy through beleeving such as setteth him a singing to Gods glory And my prayer unto the God of my life i.e. My Praises which are a chief part of prayer 1 Tim. 26.1 Thanks-giving is an artificial begging Gratiarum actio est adplus dandum invitatio Vers 9. I will say unto my God nay Rock why hast thou forgotten me Tenè veâ—â— mei immemoremesse Thus I will in a familiar manner expostulate with him and lay my case open unto him as to a friend The flesh suggesteth that he is forgotten but faith holdeth its own fastning on the Rock of ages Why go I mourning Heb. Black as one that is in mourning weeds or that had lain among the pots Vers 10. As with a sword in my bones Heb. A murthering weapon which when thrust into the bones causeth most exquisite pain so deeply was good David affected with the dishonour done to God by his blasphemous enemies it went to the very heart of him as a dagger While they say daily See the Note on vers 3. Vers 11. Why art thou cast down See vers 5. Who is the kealth of my countenance i.e. The Author of my manifold present and apparent safety such as shall make me look blithe and beautiful cheery and chirp PSAL. XLIII VErs 1. Judge me O God This Psalm is as it were an Epitome or an Appendix to the former and little differing in words or matter Plead my cause See Psal 35.1 Against an ungodly Nation Heb. A Nation not mild or merciful so he calleth Absoloms Complices who sought and would have suckt his bloud Such are a people of Gods wrath and of his curse O deliver me c. From Absolom or Abitophel or the whole Faction Vers 2. For thou art the God of my strength As being in Covenant with me both offensive and defensive In the Lord Jehovah is a Rock of ages or everlasting strength Isa 26.4 for God of my strength Psa 42.9 is my Rock Why go I mourning See Psal 42.9 Vers 3. Lux veritas piorum comites O send out thy light i.e. thy comforting grace opposed to that vers 2. I go mourning or in black And thy truth i.e. Thy faithfulness opposed to the deceitful man vers 1. The Rabbines interpret Light and Truth by Christ and Elias the Arabick maketh it a prayer for the Jews conversion Let them bring me unto thy holy bill Zion the place of holy assemblies for Gods service Iterum commendatur hic dignit as ministerii Publici Vaeigitur illis qui caducorum bexeruns usum redimunt sacri ministerii jacturâ qui conciones â—acras Sacramenta ultro negligunt c. And to thy Tabernacles Socalled either because it was set up at sundry times in sundry places whilst it was tranfportative or else because it was parred by veiles into several rooms Heb. 9.2 3. Vers 4. Then will I go muto the Altar of God Not without store of Sacrifices Gods service is now nothing so costly and should therefore be more chearfully performed Heathens had their Altars c. all save the Ferfiaus Vers 5. Why art thon bowed down c. See Psal 42.9 11. PSAL. XLIV MAschil i.e. Making wise or giving instruction for which purpose this Psalm was composed by David as it is most probable or some other excellent Prophet for the use of the Church which is hares crucis
and contemptible people than you are any meaning the Jews with whose stench he was much annoyed Vers 14. Thou makest us a by-word among the Heathen Who use to say As base as a Jew as wretched as an Israelite c. The Turks at this day say Judaeus sim si fallam If I be not as good as my word count me a very Jew We use to say As bard-hearted as a Jew Thus is fulfilled that which was threatned Deut. 28 37. 1 King 9.7 Jer. 24 9. Vers 15. My confusion is continually before me Heb. All the day long or every day so as that there is neither hope of better nor place of worse Vers 16. For the voyce of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth Reproacheth Religion blasphemeth God and his people as if hee cared not what became of them and his dispensation seemeth to say as much this reflecteth upon the Saints and maketh them cry out Pudet hac opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Vers 17. All this is come upon us yet This they alledge viz. their constancy as an argument of their sincerity and a motive to pitty apply this with Hierom to Christians and then it is the voyce of Martyrs Neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant i.e. We have not relinquished the true Religion or revolted to dumb Idols but held us close to they sincere service And therefore if that Heathen Emperour going against his enemy could say Non sic Deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceres We have not so served the gods that they should serve us no better than to suffer us to be worsted Autoni Philosoph How much more may Gods faithful Servants be confident of his help and say All people will walk every one in the name of his god and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Mic. 4.5 Vers 18. Our heart is not turned back Metaphora à studie saith Vatablus As those that run a race stand not at a stay much less turn back again so neither have we either stopped or stepped backward but advanced still toward the mark having Nondum metam We have not yet attained for our Motto as Saint Paul had Phil. 1.28 1 Pet. 3.6 Phil. 3.12 being in nothing terrified by our adversaries nor afraid with any amazement Neither have our steps declined We have watched over every particular action Gods people are best when at worst Vers 19. Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons i.e. Gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Desarts haunted by Dragons See Isa 34.13 35.7 Whereinto we are driven in banishment and there hast crushed us and covered us with the shadow of death i.e. deadly calamity Vers 20. If we have for got ten the name of our God i.e. forgone our Religion as Renegadoes denying the Lord that bought us In the time of the Maccabees many revolted to Paganism Daemas forsaking Paul became an Idolatrous Priest at Thessalonica saith Dorotheus Julian turned Pagan Damascen Mahometan as some write Harding an obstinate Papist In the Palatinate when not forty years since taken by the Spaniard scarce one man in twenty stood out but fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall in Autumn Or stretched out our bands to a strange God This Ignatius Laurentius and thousands of those Primitive Christians would dye rather than be drawn to do So the three Children the seven Brethren c. Origen for yeelding a little was excommunicated Vers 21. Shall not God search this out What pretences or excuses soever bee used for the colouring and covering of the same For he knoweth c. See Mat. 10.26 with the Note Vers 22. Yea for thy sake are we kiâ—ed c. q. d. Thou knowest that for thy sake Potes videre hominem morte affici quare mortificetur nescis Aug. Act. Mon. 8â— and not for vain glory or out of pertinacy c. we are killed T is the cause and not the punishment that maketh the Martyr Some suffer as Malefactors rather We are counted as sheep for the slaughter As those Christians in Calabria Anno 1560. thrust up in one house together as in a Sheep-fold and butchered severally See Rom. 8.36 besides those many whose names being written in red Letters of bloud in the Churches Calender are written in golden Letters in Christs Register in the book of life as Prudentius hath it Vers 23. Awake why sleepest thou Considering all the premises stir up thy self and come and save us carest thou not that we perish Vers 24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face God sometimes concealeth his love as Joseph did out of increasement of love he retireth but faith fetcheth him out as the Woman of Canaan did Mark 7.24 25. Vers 25. For our soul c. Soul and Belly or body both are oppressed and lye suppliant at Gods feet resolved there to live and dye together Vers 26. Arise for our help Heb. A help for us a sufficient help proportionable to our necessities The Hebrew bath a letter more than ordinary PSAL. XLV UPon Shoshannim The name of an Instrument with six strings faith Kimchi Or Cant. 2.1 2. Steph de urb concerning the Lillies that is the Messiah and his people faith Kabuenaki The City Shusan had its name from Lillies there plentifully growing as Rhodos from Roses Florence from flowers c. Maschil It is not said as elsewhere of David and yet some will have him to have been the penman others Salomon epitomizing his book of Canticles with which indeed it is of the self-same argument viz. Asong of loves An Epithalamium or nuptiall verse made at the marriage of Solomon and the Shulamite As for Pharaohs Daughter diverse good Divines are of opinion that neither here nor in the Canticles any respect is had or allusion made to that match of Salomon with her so expresly condemned by the Holy Ghost 1 King 11. ut perabsurdum mihi videatur illud matrimonium existimare fuisse tante rei typum faith learned Beza Ainsworth rendreth it A song of the well-beloved Virgins friends of the Bridegroom and Bride vers 9.14 to set forth Christ in his glory and his Church in her beauty So when Hieron had freed the Locrians from the tyranny of Anaxilas and Cleophron the Virgins sang his praise as is to be read in Pindarus his Odes which Politian preferred before Davids Psalmes ausu nefario Pind. Pi. 2. like an Atheist as he was Vers 1. Exordium ut vocant floridum My heart is enditing a good matter Heb. Fryeth sicut qua in sartagine friguntur as things are fryed in a frying-pan Levit. 7.9 The Prophet being to sing of such a sublime subject would not utter any thing but what he had duly disgested throughly thought upon and was deeply affected with What an high pitch flieth St. Paul whenever he speaketh concerning Christ See Ephes 1.6 2.4 7. 3.19 The like is reported of
inane Other Kingdoms have their times and their turns their rise and their ruines not so Christs and this is great comfort His name shall be continued Filâ—â—â—â— nomini 〈◊〉 it shall be begotten as one Generation is begotten of another Heb. His name shall be childed that is so continued as Families are continued there shall bee a constant succession of Christs Name to the end of the World there will still be Christians who are his Children Heb. 2.13 14. The old Hebrews tell us that Jâ—nnâ—n the Hebrew word â—ere used is one of Christs Names And men shall be blessed in him Or they shall bless themselves in him viz. in Salomon but especially in Christ of whom Salomon was but a shadow All Nations shall call him blessed If all Generations shall call the Mother of Christ blessed Luke 3.48 how much were Christ himself Vers Sunt verba leribae ut hodit Aben-Ezra ex R. Jehudah 18. Blessed be the Lord God 〈…〉 these are the words of the Psalmist say the Rabines blessing God who had given Leâ—â—gneph church strength to him fainting to finish the Second Book of the Psalms as he had done the Firsst or rather praising God for all the 〈…〉 the Lord Christ Vers 19. And blessed 〈…〉 so unsatisfiable and unweareable are the 〈…〉 a Christ And 〈◊〉 God expecteth that 〈…〉 by all his at all 〈…〉 Vers 20. The Prayer 〈…〉 PSAL. LXXIII A Psalm of Asaph Who was not only an excellent Musician but a Prophet also an Oratour and a Poet not unlike for his stile to Horace or Persius This and the ten next Psalms that bear this name in the front consist of complaints for most part and sad matters Vers 1. Truly God is good to Israel Or Yet God is c. Thus the Psalmist beginneth abruptly after a sore Conflict throwing off the Devil and his fiery Darts where-with his heart for a while had been wounded It is best to break off temptations of corrupt and carnal reasonings and to silence doubts and disputes lest wee be foyled Hee shoots saith Greenham with Satan in his own bow who thinks by disputing and reasoning to put him off To such as are of a clean heart Such as are Israelites indeed and not Hypocrites and dissemblers For as for such as turn a side unto their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity as malefactours are led forth to execution but Peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125.5 upon the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 Vers 2. But as for mee my feet were almost gone i. e. I was wel-night brought to beleeve that there was no divine providence as the Athenians did when their good General Nicias was worsted and slain in Sicily as Pompey did Thucid. when having the better cause he was overcome by Cesar as Brutus did that last of the Romans as he was called for his courage when beaten out of the field by Anthony he cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I see that vertue is nothing but all things are moderated by Fortun whom he charged his children therefore to worship as a goddesse of greatest power My steps had welâ—nigh slipt Quasi nihil effusi sunt gressus mei that is as Kimchi interpreteth it Status meus crat tantillus quasi nullus esset pre figendo peds locus I had scarce any fastening for my feet my heels were gone almost What wonder then that Heathens have been stounded and staggered Cum rapiaent mala fata bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. Saith Ovid. And to the fame purpose another Poet. Marmoreo Licinies tumulo jacet Cato parve Pompeius nullo quis putet esse Deos Vers 3. For I was envious at the foolish Heb. At the Bragadochies the vain-glorious the mad-boasters I aemulated and stomached their prosperity Jact abundis compared with mine own far-worse condition Godly men though cured of their spirituall phrenzy yet play oft many mad tricks one while fretting at the prosperity of their adversaries and another while murmuring at their own afflictions or plotting courses how to conform themselves to the World c. When I saw the prosperity of the Wicked This hath ever been a pearl in the eyes not of the Heathens only but of better meu See Jer. 12.1 2 Habbak 1.3 Psal 37. c. Yet Seneca writeth a treatise of it and sheweth the reasons if at least he beleeved himself therein Erasmus passeth this censure of him Read him as a Pagan and he writeth Christian-like read him as 2 Christian and he writeth Pagan-like Vers 4. For there are no bands in their death Or No knots and knorles they dye without long sicknesse or much pain or trouble of mind If a man dye â—ike a Lamb and pass out of the World like a bird in a shel he is certainly saved think some The wicked are here said to dye quietly as if there were no loosening of the band that is betwixt soul and body Julian the Apostate dyed with these words in his mouth Vitam reposcents natura tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurum exulto Anomian that is I owe a death to Nature and now that she calleth for it as a faithfull debtour câ—â—t lib. 7. 〈◊〉 Diodor. I gladly pay it The Princes of the Sogdians when they were drawn forth to death by Alexander the great carmen more latumtium etcinerut tripuâ—isque gaudium animi ostentare caperunt They sang and danced to the place of execution But their strength is firm They are lively and lusty they are pingues praevalidi fat and fair-liking fat is their fortitude so some render it Others strong is their porch or Palace Vers 5. They are not in trouble as other men But live in a serene clime under a perpetuall calm as he did of whom it is storied that he never had any crosse but at last was nailed to a cross Polycrates I mean King of Egypt Marullâ—â— telleth us that Ambrose comming once to a great mans house who boasted that he had never suffered any adversity Marul l. 5. c. 3. he hasted away thence and said he did so we una cum â—omine perpetuis prosperitatibus uso periret lest he should perish with the man that bad been so extraordinarily prosperous And no sooner was he and his company departed but the earth opened and swallowed up that mans house with all that were in it Vers 6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain The pride of their hearts breaketh forth in their costly habits whiles they are torquati auro ac gemmis amicti setting up their plumes as Peacocks which have their names in Hebrew from the joy they take in their fair feathers so do these glory in their pride and are puffed up with a foolish perswasion of their own prudence Vermis divitiarum est superbia Charge the rich that they be not high-minded 1 Tim. 6.17 He is a great rich man saith
wilderness i. e. To the birds and wild-beasts who fed upon the dead carcasses of the Egyptians cast upon the shore the Israelites having first taken the spoil of them whereby they were provided of many necessaries for their voyage toward Canaan Vers 15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood i. e. Fontium torrentium scatebras latebras thou didst set the rock abroach once and again Exod. 17.6 Numb 20.11 rescissis ipsius naturae legibus Thou driedst up mighty rivers Jordan wherein some say met two great Rivers Jor and Dan whereunto the Chaldee here addeth Arnon and Jabbok wherof see Numb 21.14 Deut. 2.37 Vers 16. The day is thine the night also is thine He had argued with God and strengthened his own faith from Gods extraordinary works and now he doth the like from his ordinary works in nature with the alternal course thereof wherein appeareth a kind of image of the seasonable driving away of calamities and turning all things into a desired state Psal 30.5 Lam. 3.23 Thou hast prepared the light and the Sun i. e. That first light scattered abroad the heavens but afterwards gathered into the Sun as into a vessel By light some understand here the Moon that other great luminary it being the manner of the Hebrews nomen generis restringere ad speciens deteriorem Vers 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth Securing it from the overflowings of the Sea and appointing to the several Nations the bounds of their habitations Thou hast made summer and winter Plasmasti ea Now thou that hast done all this and more for mankind in general wilt thou be wanting to thy Church Vers 18. Remember this Forgetfulnesse befalleth not the Lord neverthelesse he giveth us leave to be his Remembrancers and not to keep silence when he is concerned Isa 62.6 That the enemy See vers 10. And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy Name This irketh the Saints worse than their own particular sufferings The Egyptians out of their respect to their Mercurius Trismegistus would not rashly pronounce his name no more would the Grecians their god Jupiter no not when they sware by him Turtur minimus censetur in columbarum genere Aristâ— Should not we be much more tender and respective of the holy and reverend name of our God taking it ill when by any it is blasphemed Vers 19. O deliver not the soul of thy Turtle-dove Turturilla tua that groaneth unto thee being not more innocent chast mild simple and sociable than weak shiftlesse Columb mas faemina dormiunt pascuntur codem in loco Arift hist anim lib. 8. c. 3â— Patitur non rapit Kimchi and unable to defend her self from those beasts of prey Optatus observeth that no fowl is more preyed upon by Hauks Kites c. than the Dove yet are there still more Doves than Hauks or Kites for all that So the Church increaseth notwithstanding all persecutions Unto the multitude Or To the beast the wild-company The same word is put here also immediatly for the Congregation or lively flock of Christ Vers 20. Have respect unto the Covenant This the Church knew to be her best plea and therefore she so plieth it For the dark places of the earth are full of cruelty That is saith Basil those places where men are in the darkness or ignorance not knowing God are full of ambition and tyranny Others make this the sense We can hide our selves no where but the Persecutors ferret us out Vers 21. O let not the Oppressed c. Contusas non revertatur confusas let him not take the repulse be disappointed of his expected help from Heaven Vers 22. Plead thine own cause For if we mis-carry Thou art sure to suffer among the proud Chaldees as an impotent God Remember how the foolish man c. See vers 18. Vers 23. The tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth daily Heb. Ascendeth viz. up to Heaven as Jon. 1.2 there is not hoe with them Mundi laetitia est impunita nequitia If the Lord take them not a link lower as we say they will grow intolerably insolent PSAL. LXXV TO the chief Musician Al-taschith That is Destroy not The Chaldee paraphraseth In the time when David said Destroy not the people The Psalm seemeth to have been made either by Asaph in Davids name or by David himself and by him committed to Asaph at such time as the difference depending betwixt him and Ishosheth many were slain on both sides This drew from David an Al-taschith not long before he was anointed King over all Israel 2 Sam. 5.1 c. Vers 1. Unto thee O God do we give thanks Heb. Wee celebrate thee O God we celebrate thee viz. both for mercies and crosses sanctified for these also are to be reckoned upon the score of Gods favours For that thy Name is near Nomen id est numen Thy Name that is thy self are near ad liberandum invocantem as Aben-Ezra expoundeth it to deliver those that call upon thee Vers 2. When I shall receive the Congregation i. e. The government of all the twelve Tribes as I beleeve I shall do shortly according to Gods promise to mee by Samuel I will judge uprightly That a man is in truth that he is his own particular place and station that he is really that he is relatively Vers 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved Both Church and Common-wealth here are utterly out of order I shall indeavour mine utmost to set all to rights and so to preserve the World from ruine which subsisteth by and for the sake of Gods Israel Absque stationibus non staret mundus I bear up the pillars of it Semen sanctum statumen terrae Isa 6.13 The holy seed upholdeth the State David did as Lucan saith of Cato toti genitum se credere mundo Jesus Christ much more he is the true Atlas upholding all things by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 Vers 4. I said unto the fools deal not foolishly Boast not your selves so proudly and petulantly but submit to Gods decree and my government how much more to Christs Lift not up the horn Metaphor a à tauris cornupetis Vers 5. Lift not up your horn on high Against the High God so Tremellius rendreth it Speak not with a stiff neck Some render it with an old neck let old things pass and now speak with a new and humble throat Hard words and stout speeches uttered from a mind vehemently moved out of its plate as the word here used importeth shall be one day dearly answered for Jud. 15. Vers 6. For Promotion commeth neither from the East Dignitatis nullum est â—â—porium Ambitionists use to look this way and that way how to advance themselves but all in vain Hispanic Monarchia Cathalica debetur divinitus sod in Utopia saith One Nor from the South Where the warm sunshine is Vers 7. But God is the Judge He sitteth
his prime and pride Thou hast covered him with shame Selah Thou hast wrapped him up in the winding-sheet of shame Lord this is true Vers 46. How long Lord c. Here faith prevaileth against flesh and falleth a praying and at length a praising God Vers 47. Remember how short See Psal 39.5 Wherefore hast thou c. As thou mayest seem to have done unlesse they may chearfully serve thee and enjoy thee Vers 48. What man is he that liveth c q. d. Sith dye we must let us live while we may to some good purpose Selah q.d. Mark it and meditate well and oft on this savoury subject Vers 49. Lord where are c. q. d. Thou seemest to have lost them and we would fain find them again for thee Vers 50. Remember Lord Thou seemest to have forgotten us and our sufferings and we would fain remind thee Verse 51. The fool steps of thine anointed Heb. The heels or foot-soles that is his doings and sufferings The Chaldee and others render it tarditates mor as Christi tui the delayes of thy Christ in comming whom therefore they twit us with velut tar digradum vel loripedem claudum and say where is the promised Messiah Vers 52. Blessed be the Lord c. sc For a Christ or for adversity as well as for prosperity and this not formally and slightly but earnestly and with utmost affection Amen and amen PSAL. XC A Prayer of Moses Made by him belike when he saw the carkasses of the people fall so fast in the wildernesse committed to writing for the instruction of those that were left alive but sentenced to death Numb 14. and here fitly placed as an illustration of that which was said in the precedent Psalm Vers 48. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah Vers 1. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place In all our troubles and travels thorough this wildernesse and before we have not been houselesse and harbourlesse Maon habitaculum tutum for Thou hast been our dwelling-place our habitacle of refuge as some render it We use to say A mans house is his castle The civile-law saith De domo sua nemo extrahi debet aut in jus vocari quia domus tutissimum cuique resugium atque receptaculum No man ought to be drawn out of his house at the sute of another because his house is his safest refuge and receptacle He that dwelleth in God cannot bee unhoused because God is stronger than all neither can any one take another out of his hands Joh. 10. Here then it is best for us to take up as in our mansion-house and to seek a supply of all our wants in God alone It was a witty saying of that learned Picus Mirandula God created the Earth for beasts to inhabit the Sea for fishes the Air for fouls the Heaven for Angels and stars Man therefore hath not place to dwell and abide in but the Lord alone See Ezek. 11.16.2 Cor. 6.8 9 10. Vers 2. Before the Mountains were brought forth And they were made at the creation not cast up by the Flood as some have held Moses first celebrateth Gods eternity Eccles 7.14 and then setteth forth mans mortality that the one being set over against the other as Solomon speaketh in another case God may be glorified and man comforted which is the main end of the holy Scriptures Rom. 15.4 and far beyond those consolatiunculae ◠Philosophicae Vers 3. Thou turnest man to destruction Ad minutissimum quiddam so Beza rendreth it to a very small businesse to dust and powder Others ad contritionem vel contusionem by turning loose upon him diverse diseases and distresses thou turnest him out of the World Eccles 1.13 And generally thou layest of all and singular sons of men Return ye Your bodies to the earth according to the decree Gen. 3.17 18 19. your souls to God that gave them Eccles 12.7 And here the course of mans life is compared saith One to a race in a Tilt or Turney where we soon run to the end of the race as it were and then return back again Intelligit Moses vit am humanam similem osse gyro saith Another Mans life is compared to a ring or round we walk a short round and then God gathers us in to himself One being asked what Life was made an answer answerless for he presently turned his back and went his way We fetch here but a turn and God saith Return yee Children of men This some make to be an irony as if God should say Live again if yee can Some apply it to the Resurrection others to Mortification and Vivification Vers 4. For a thousand years in thy sight c. q. d. Live men a longer or shorter space Serius aut citius thou endest their days and in comparison of thine Eternity Punctum est quod vivimus puncto minus it is a small space of time that the longest liver hath upon earth 2 Pet. 3.8 Psal 39.5 Non multum sane abest à nihilo Some would hence inferre that the Day of Judgement shall last a thousand years sides sit penes authores When it is passed We judge better of the shortness of time when it is past And as a watch in the night Which is but three hours space for Souldiers divide the Night into four Watches and our life is full of the darkness of errour and terrour Vers 5. Thou carryest them away as with a floud Suddenly violently irresistibly by particular Judgements besides that general necessity of dying once Heb. 9.27 This is set forth by a treble comparison of Flouds Sleep and Flowers here and indeed the vanity and misery of mans life is such as cannot sufficiently be set forth by an similitudes See Vers 9 10. They are like a sleep Or dream the dream of a shadow saith Pindarus the shadow of smoke saith another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are as grass An ordinary comparison Isa 40.6 Jam. 1. Vers 6. In the morning it flourisheth So doth man in his prime and vigour his bones full of marrow his brests of milk In the evening it is cut down So is man by Deaths mortal Sythe which moweth down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the Field In the evening grass will cut better and the Mowers can better work at it Vers 7. For we are consumed by thine anger Justly conceived for our sins ver 8. this is a cause of death that Philosophy discovereth not as being blinde and not able to see farre off and therefore cannot prescribe any sufficient remedy against the fear of death such as is here set down vers 12. but such as made Tully complain that the Disease was too hard for the Medicine and such as left men either doubtful Socrates for instance or desperate and devoyd of sense as Petronius in Tacitus Qui in ipsis atriis
c. Heb. That they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in society This is all the rent that God requireth he is content that we have the comfort of his blessings so he may have the honour of them This was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee Words seem to be a poor and slight recompence but Christ saith Nazianzen calleth himself the Word Vers 9. For he satisfieth the longing soul c. This is a recaâ—iâ—ulation of the first part vers 5 6 7. and setteth forth the reason why the Redeemed should praise God out of the sweet experience they have had of his wonderful providence and goodness toward them And filleth the hungry soul with good things This flower the blessed Virgin picketh out of Davids garden among many others out of other parts of holy Scripture wherein it appeateth she was singularly well versed and puts it into her Posie Luke 1.53 Vers 10. Such as sit in darkness c. Here come in the second fort of Gods redeemed or rescued Ones viz. captives and prisoners whose dark and doleful condition is in this verse described And in the shadow of death In dark caves and horrid prisons where there is Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Such was Josephs first prison Jeremies miry dungeon Lollards Tower the Bishop of Londons Cole-house c. Being bound in affliction and irâ—â— Or in poverty and ivâ—n as Manasseb was Many are the miseries that poor prisoners undergo Good 〈◊〉 had the experience of it and Zegedians and the Mattyâ—â— and divers of Gods dear servants in the late waâ—â— hâ—tâ— A certain-pious Prince discoursing of the dangers that were to bâ—e then expected for the profession of Religion said Nibisse magâ—s metuere quâ—m diururnos carceres that he feared nothing so much as perpetual imprisonment Vers 11. Because they rebelled against the words of God Sin is at the bottome of all mens miseries as the procreant cause thereof For God afflicteth not willingly nor grieveth the children of men Lam. 3.35 but they rebel against his words written in the Scriptures or at least in their hearts and so he is concerned in point of honour to subdue them And contemned the counsel A foul fault See Luke 7.30 Verse 12. Therefore he brought down their heart That proud peece of flesh Quod erat elatum verba Dei contempsit saith Kimchi which had stouted it out with God and thought to have carried it away with a strong hand as Manosseh that sturdy Rebel till God had hampered him and laid him in cold irons Vers 13. Then they cryed unto the Lord See vers 6. And be saved them c. This is comfort to the greatest finners if they can but find a praying heart God will find a pitying heart and rebels shall be received with all sweetness if at length they return though brought in by the cross Vers 14. He brought them out of darkness He sent his Mandamus as Psal 44.4 and that did the deed as Act. 5.19 and 12.7 Vers 15. Oh that men c. See vers 8. Vers 16. For he hath broken the gates of brass If Sampson could do so how much more the Almighty whom nothing can withstand Nature may be stopped in her course as when the fire burnt not Men may not be able to do as they would Angels good or bad may be hindred because in them there is an essence and an executive power between which God can step at his pleasure and interpose his Veto But who or what shall hinder the most High Vers 17. Foâ—ls because of their transgression Propter viam defectionis suae by means of their defection their departing away from the living God through an evil heart of unbeleef Heb. 3.12 And because of their iniquities The flood-gates whereof are set open as it were by that their defection from God For now what should hinder Are afflicted Heb. Do afflict themselves procure their own ruthe if not ruine and so prove sinners against their own souls as those Num 16. Vers 18. Their soul abborreth That is theirâ—st mach loatheth it as unsavoury though it be never so dainty An appetite to our meat is an unconceivable mercy and as we say A sign of health And they draw neer to the gates of death Jam ipsum mortis limen pulsant as till then little sense of sin or fear of the wrath to come See Job 33.19 20 21 22 23. with the Notes Vers 19. Then they cry c. Quando medicus medicine non prosunt saith Kimchi when Physicians have done their utmost See vers 6. Vers 20. He sent his word and bealed them He commanded deliverance and it was done unless there be an allusion to the essential Word who was afterwards to take flesh and to heal the diseased And delivered them from their destructions Heb. From their corrupting-pits or graves which do now even gape for them And he calleth them theirs quia per peccatum faderunt eas saith Kimchi because by their sin themselves have digged them Vers 21. Oh that men c. See vers 8. And for his wonderful works Men are misericordiis miraculis obsesse and it were no hard matter to find a miracle in most of our mercies Vers 22. And let them sacrifice c. If they have escaped sickness let them offer a Passeover and if they have recovered a Thank-offering Heathens in this case praised their Esculapius Papists their Sebastian Valentine Apollonia c. Earâ— of wax they offer to the Saint who as they suppose cureth the ears eyes of wax to the Saint that cureth the eyes c. But it is Jehovah only who healeth us And declare his Works c. Memorize and magnifie them Vers 23. They that go down is the Sea in ships Here we have a fourth specimen or instance of Gods gracious and wise dispensations towards men in their trading or traffiquing by Sea These are said to go down to Sea because the banks are above it but the water is naturally higher then the land and therefore Saylers observe that their ships flye faster to the shore than from it But what a bold man saith the Poet was he that fiâ—st put forth to Sea Illi robur et triplex Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci Commisit pelage ralem Primus Hec timuit praetipitem Africum c. Harat. Od lib. â— 3 That do business in great waters Merchants and Matriners who fish and find Almug or Coral saith Kimcht who do export and import commodities of all sorts Vers 24. These see the works of the Lord c. In Sea-monsters as Whales and Whirlepools and sudden change of weather and the like not a few Ebbs and Flows Pearls Islands c. These are just wonders and may fully convince the veriest Atheist that is Vers 25. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind c. Of this Seneca
though an heathen could say Inter caetera providentiae uivina opera boc quoque dignum est admiratione c. Among other works of the Divine providence this is admirable that the winds lye upon the Sea for the furtherance of Navigation c. Vers 26. They mount up to heaven they go down c. An elegant hypolyposis or description of a storm at Sea like whereunto is that in Virgil. Tollimur in coelum curvate gurgite iidem Subducta admanes imos descendimus undâ Tollimur in câ—â—â—um nanc 〈◊〉 tadimus undas Their soul is melted because of trouble They are ready to dye through sear of death Junius understandeth it of extreme vomiting as if they were casting up their very nâ—â—â—ts Anocbarses for this cause doubted whether he should reckon Marriners amongst the living or the dead And another said that any man will go to Sea at first I wonder not but to go a second time thither is little better than madness Vers 27. They reel to and fro c. Nutart nautae vacillant cerebro pedibus And are at their wits end All their skill and strength faileth them at once they can do no more for their lives Heb. All their wisdome is swallowed up that is the art of Navigation is now to no use with them Vers 28. Then they cry unto the Lord Then if ever Hence that speech of One Qui nescit oraâ—e discat navigate He that cannot pray let him go to Sea and there he will learn See vers 6. Vers 29. He maketh the storm a calm He that is God Almighty whose the Sea it and he made it Psal 100. not the Pagans Neptune or the Papagans St. Nicholas So that the waves thereof are still If therefore the voluptuous humors in our body which is but as a cup made of the husk of an Acorn in respect of the Sea will not be pacified when the Lord saith unto us Be still every drop of water in the Sea will be a witness of our monstrous rebellion and disobedience Vers 30. Then are they glad because they be quiet All is husht on the sudden as Mat. 8.26 both their fears and the Seas outrages being quickly reduced to a peaceable period So he bringeth them to their desired haven This is more than they then wished for God is many ties better to men than their prayers Vers 31. Oh that men would c. See vers 8. Vers 32. Let them exalt him also in the Congregation c. i.e. In all publick meetings Ecclesiastical and Civil Vers 33. He turneth vivers into a wilderness Hitherto the Psalmist hath set forth Gods good providence in delivering men from divers deaths and dangers now hee declareth the same in his just and powerful transmutations in nature whilst according to the good pleasure of his will he changeth mens condition either from good to evil or from evil to good beyond all expectation It is even He that doth it whatsoever a company of dizzy-headed men dream to the contrary as One phraseth it It is God who dryeth up those Rivers whereby the land was made fat and fertile Isa 41.17 Vers 34. fruitful land into barrenness Heb. Salâ—â—ess See Luke 14.34 35. Deut. 29.23 Jud. 9.45 Sals beendeth barrenness by eating up the lat and moisture of the earth Some think the Psalmist here alludeth to Sodâ—me and her sisters turned into the dead Sea For the wickedness of them that dwell therein Hereof Judea is at this day a noble instance besides many parts of Asia and Africa once very fruitful now since they became Mabemetan dry and desert Judea saith One hath now onely some few parcels of rich ground found in it that men may guess the goodness of the cloath by the fineness of the shreds Greece which was once Sol sal gentium saith Another terrarum flos fons lite rarum nunc vel Priams miserands manus nunc in Graecia desideremus Graeciam 't is nothing like the place it was once Vers 35. He turneth the wilderness c. Some place a again God to shew his power and providence of steril maketh to become fertil Polâ—â—ia for instance and other Northern Countries Germany and France were of old full of Woods and Lakes as Cesar and Tacitus testifie now 't is otherwise So in America at this day So divers desert places of Egypt and Ethiopia when once they became Christian became fruitfull Vers 36. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell As our English and other Plantations in America where sundry poor people get fair estates That they may prepare a City The building of Cities is of God and so is their conservation Vers 37. And sow the fields and plant vineyards These are noble imployments such is the ancient Patriarchs we re much in and the most honorable among the Romons as Coriolanus M. Curius Cate Major c. Our forefathers if they could call any one Bonum colonum a good husbandman they thought it praise enough saith Cicero Which may yield The thankful earth yeelding by Gods blessing her gratum onus full burden to the laborious tiller Vers 38. He blesseth them also c. See Prov. 10.12 Psal 127.1 Jam. 4 15. They are out that rest in natural causes Vers 39. Again they are minished Minorati sunt This also is of the lord who hath treasuries of plagues and cannot be exhausted Vers 40. He poureth contempt c. See Job 12.21 24. with the Notes Poena tyrannoram est contemptus exilium nex saith Genebrard All their policy or King craft cannot save them Vers 41. Yet setteth be abe poor The godly poor as he did David And maketh him families like a flock of sheep which multiply exceedingly in a short space Vers 42. The righteous shall see it and rejoyce It shall cheer them up to see that the reigns of Government are in Gods hand and to behold such love in such providence And all iniquiry shall stop her mouth Shall be down in the mouth as we use to fay See Job 5.16 and have her tongue chambered Vers 43. Whose is wise Heb. who is wise q d. not many Rari quippe boni Exclamatio querulatoriâ— Piscat None but those that observe providences and lay up experiences which if men would do they might have a Divinity of their own were they but well read in the story of their own lives Even they shall understand c. And as for those providences that for present he understandeth not rejicit in Dei abyssâ—s he beleeveth there is a reason for them and that they shall one day be unridled PSAL. CVIII VErs 1. O God my heart is fixed For the five first verses of this Psalm see the Notes on Psal 57.7 8 9 10 11. And for the eight last see the Notes on Psal 60. vers 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. PSAL. CIX A Psalm of David Written by him usque adâ—â— terribili bâ—rrifica eratiom saith Beâ—â—â— in such terrible terms as
the precious from the vile and make men the same within as without Vers 120 My flesh trembleth Horripilatur Job 4.15 In the Saints is a mixture of contrary passions fear and great joy as was in those holy women Mat. 28.8 and the one makes way for the other Vers 121 I have done Judgement and Justice I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day Act. 23.1 my cause is right and my carriage righteous But Innocency is no target against detraction and deadly practice therefore Leave mee not to mine oppressours Or traducers for they will soon exceed their commission Zach. 1.15 Vers 122 Bee surety for thy servant for good Obi vadimonium appear for mee and non-suit all accusations against mee Or undertake for mee that I shall keep thy lawes as I have said and sworne to do Sis fide jussor meus Some observe that this is the only verse throughout the whole Psalm wherein the word is not mentioned under the name of Law Judgements Statutes or the like tearms And they make this Note upon it where the Law faileth there Christ is a surety of a better Testament There are that render the words thus Dulcify or delight thy servant in good Oblects servum tuâ—m â—uscul that is make him joyfull and comfortable in the pursuit and practice of that which is good Vers 123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation Not my bodily eyes only but the eyes of my faith See vers 81.82 And for the word of thy Righteousness That is for thy faithfull promises which many times bear a long date Vers 124. Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy i.e. Shew mee so much mercy as to teach mee thy Statutes Cathedram in caelis habet qui corda dâ—cet Divine learning is of Gods free favour If common skill then this much more commeth forth from the Lord of Hâ—asts who is wonderfull in counsel and excellent in working Isa 28.19 Vers 125 I am thy servant give mee understanding I have voluntarily hired my self unto thee chosen the things that please thee and take hold of the Covenant loving to bee thy servant Isa 56.4 6. Now this is all the wages I crave of thee Give mee understanding c. This David speaketh saith one in a reall and heavenly complement with his Maker That I may know thy Testimonies Work done in the dark must bee undone again David therefore would fully know his Masters mind that he might acceptably do it Vers 126 It is time for thee Lord to work For else what will become of thy great name and of thy poor people This the Psalmist speaketh not as prescribing God a time but as in minding him of his own glory and of his peoples necessity For they have made void thy Law They would if they could as out Antinomians dogmaticall and practicall our aweless lawless Belialists untameable untractable Vers 127 Therefore I love thy Commandements I like them the better because they sleight them and prize that way the more that they persecute I kindle my self from their coldness and whilst they greedily grasp after gold and fine gold I lay hold upon eternall life 1 Tim. 6.10 11 12. Vers 128 Therefore I esteem all thy Precepts concerning all things to â—ee right Therefore from the same ground again as before by an holy Antipâ—ristasis I esteem c Rectiâ—icavi I have declared them to bee right in every part and point against those that wrangle and wrâ—st them to a wrong sense I esteem every parcell of Truth precious and arm an utter enemy to every Hetoâ—odoxie The many All 's in this verse used not unlike that in 〈◊〉 chap. â—4 30 sheweth the integrity and â—â—â—â—ersality of his obedience All is 〈◊〉 word but of large extent I hate every false way Whether in point of opinion or practice all sinfull deviations and prevarications Hatred is ever against the whole kind of a thing Rhet. lib. 2. saith Aristotle Vers 129 Thy Testimonies are wonderfull As comprehending high and hidden mysteries such as are far above the reach of humane reason such as the very Angels admire and adore A man must have more than common faith to subject his reason to them But all men are Socinians by nature they will beleeve Gods word no further than they can see reason which while men make the rule of their faith as did the wise Grecians the rationall Romans they stumble at the preaching of the Cross as foolishness and dis-beleeve the riches of Christ which are unsearchable Therefore doth my soul keep them Though I cannot comprehend them yet I am comprehended by them and though I cannoâ— do them as I would yet I am doing at them as I can I admire what I cannot attain to Vers 130 The entrance of they Words giveth light So soon as men are over the threshold of thy house sese lux quaedam inâ—uâ—rrabilis conspiciendam offert a marvellous light shineth about themâ— So little cause is there that any should accuse Gods word of darknesse and hardnesse or give way to negligence and carelesness of the Scriptures because they are wonderfull Lex Lux the Law is a Light Prov. 6.23 and the Gospel a great Light Mat. 4.16 See 2 Pet. 1.19 It giveth under standing to the simple And maketh them subtle Prov. 1.4 so they bee but docible The very first rudâ—ments of religion make wise the rude so they bee not refractary Vers 131 I opened my mouth and panted Heb. And Sâ—â—ped in the air as one that laboureth for life Oh the sighs and the groans that I uncessantly breathed forth As one that â—unneth himself out of breath Sitio propter lâ—gem sicut dâ—acones proptet pluviam Job 29. out of zeal to thy law Oh the strong affections kindled on the harth of my heart for I longed for thy Commandements The Septuagint render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a most vehement desire impatient of delays Vers 132 Look thou upon mee c. Face about towards mee and give mee a glimpse at least of thy grace for full fruition I expect not in this present life Brevis hora parva mora As thou usest to do unto those c. Common mercies satisfie not a Saint hee must have peculiar favours spirituall blessings in heavenly things even the sure mercies of David Hee pleads for a childs part Vers 133 Order my steps in thy word Let mee walk as in a â—â—ame walk by rule exactly accurately Ephes 5.15 Here hee prayeth that hee may keep the affirmative Precepts saith Aben. Ezra as in the next words the negative And let not any iniquity have dominion over mee Let it not reigne though it doth rebell let it bee like those beasts in Daniel whose dominion was taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time chap. 7.12 Vers 134 Deliver mee from the oppression of man Homo hominâ— lupus David besides his corruptions within met with oppressions and persecutions
Sanctuary-men continens pro contento Hearts and hands must both up to Heaven Lam. 3.41 and God bee glorified both with spirits and bodies which are the Lords 1 Cor. 6.20 And bless the Lord Like so many earth'y Angels and as if yee were in Heaven already say Vers 3 The Lord that made Heaven and Earth And therefore hath the blessings of both lives in his hand to bestow See Num. 6.24 Bless thee out of Zion They are blessings indeed that come out of Zion choice peculiar blessings even above any that come out of Heaven and Earth Compare Psal 128.5 and the promise Exod. 20.24 In all places where I put the memory or my name I will come unto thee and bless thee PSAL. CXXXV VErs 1 Praise yee the Lord praise yee Praise praise praise When duties are thus inculcated it noteth the necessity and excellency thereof together with our dulness and backwardness thereunto O yee Servants of the Lord See Psal 134.1 Vers 2 Yee that stand in the house See Psal 134.1 In the Courts Where the people also had a place 2 Chron. 4.9 and are required to bear a part in this heavenly Halleluiah Vers 3 Praise the Lord for the Lord is good scil Originally transcendently effectively hee is good and doth good Psal 119.68 and is therefore to bee praised with mind mouth and practice For it is pleasant An angelicall exercise and to the spirituall-minded man very delicious To others indeed who have no true notion of God but as of an enemy it is but as musick at funerals or as the trumpet before a Judge no comfort to the mourning wife or guilty prisoner Vers 4 For the Lord hath chosen God 's distinguishing grace should make his elect lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull heart to him And Israel for his peculiar treasure Such as hee maketh more reckoning of than of all the World besides The Hebrew world here rendred peculiar treasure seemeth to signifie a Jewell made up of three precious stones in form of a triangle Segullâ—h 〈◊〉 dici Sâ—gol 〈…〉 The Saints are Gods Jewels Mal. 3.17 his ornament yea the beauty of his ornament and that set in Majesty Ezek. 7.20 his royall Diadem Isa 62.3 Vers 5 For I know that the Lord is great As well as good vers 3. This I beleeve and know Job 6.69 saith the Psalmist and do therefore make it my practice to praise him And that our Lord is above all Gods Whether they bee so deputed as Magistrates or reputed as Idols Vers 6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased This the Heathens did never seriously affirm of any their dunghill deities sure it is that none of them could say I know it to bee so De diis utrum sint non ausim affirmare said one of their wise men Vers 7 Hee causeth the Vapours Not Jupiter but Jehovah See Jer. 10.13 Hee is the right Nubâ—coga Maker of the Metcors whether fiery aiery or watery Job 26.8 9 28.26 27 37.11 15 16. 38.9 See the Notes there Hee maketh lightenings for the Rain Or With the Rain which is very strange viz. that fire and water should mingle and hard stones come cut of the midst of thin vapours Hee bringeth the winde out of his treasuries Or Coffers store-houses where hee holdeth them close prisoners during his pleasure This the Philosopher knew not and thence it is that they are of so diverse opinions about the winds See Job 36.27 28 c. Job 37. throughout Vers 8 Who smote the first-born of Egypt And thereby roused up that sturdy rebell Pharaoh who began now to open his eyes as they say the blind mole doth when the pangs of death are upon him and to stretch out himself as the crooked Serpent doth when deadly wounded Vers 9 Who sent tokens and wonders Vocall wonders Exod. 4.8 to bee as so many warning-peeces Vers 10 Who smote great Nations Who by their great sins had greatly polluted their land and filled it with fiâ—th from one end to another Ezra 9.11 And slow mighty Kings Heb. Bony big mastiff fellows quasi â—ssâ—tâ—s five 〈◊〉 as the word signifieth Vers 11 Sihon King of Amorites A Giant like Cyclops And Og King of Bashan Of whom the Jews fable that being one of the 〈◊〉 Giants hee escaped the flood by riding affride upon the Ark. Vers 12 And gave their lands for an heritage Which hee might well do as being the true Proprietary and Paramount Vers 13 Thy Name O Lord c. Else O nos ingratos Vers 14 For the Lord will judge his people Judicabit id est vindicabit hee will preserve them and provide for their wel-fare And hee will repent himself This is mutatio rei non Dei effectus non affectus Some render it Hee will bee propitious Others hee will take comfort in his Servants See Judges 10.16 Vers 15 16. The Idols of the Heathen See Psal 115.4 5 6 c. Vers 17 Neither is there any breath in their mouths If they uttered Oracles it was the Devil in them and by them As for those statues of Daedalus which are said to have moved Aristot Diod. Sic. Plato spoken and run away if they were not tyed to a place c. it is either a fiction or else to be attributed to causes externall and artificiall as quick-silver c. Vers 18 They that make them c. See Psal 115.8 Vers 19 Bless the Lord And not an Idoll Isa 66.3 as the Philistines did their Dagon and as Papists still do their hee-Saints and shee-Saints Vers 20 Yee that fear the Lord Yee devout Proselytes Vers 21 Blessed bee the Lord out of Sion There-hence hee blesseth Psal 134.3 and there hee is to bee blessed Which dwelleth at Jerusalem That was the seat of his royall resiance per inhabitationis gratiam saith Austin by the presence of his grace who by his essence and power is every where Enter praesenter Deus hic et ubique potenter PSAL. CXXXVI VErs 1 O give thanks unto the Lord This Psalm is by the Jews called Hillel gadel the great Gratulatory See Psal 106.1.107.1.118.1 For his mercy endureth for ever His Covenant-mercy that precious Church-priviledge this is perpetuall to his people and should perpetually shine as a picture in our hearts For which purpose this Psalm was appointed to bee daily sung in the old Church by the Levites 1 Chron. 16.41 Vers 2 For his mercy endureth for ever This is the foot or burthen of the whole song neither is it any idle repetition but a notable expression of the Saints unsatisfiableness in praising God for his never-failing mercy These heavenly birds having got a note record it over and over In the last Psalm there are but six verses yet twelve Hallelujahs Vers 3 O Give thanks to the Lord of Lords That is to God the Son saith Hierâ—â— as by God of Gods saith hee in the former verse is meant God the Father who because they are no more but one God
for an Hypocrite and a Belialist Some render it O that thou wouldest slay them in as much as they hate mee for my zeal and forwardness to turn the wheel of Justice over them and to give them their due and condign punishment for for mine own part I cannot abide them but bid them Avaunt with Depart from mee yee bloody men Yee that dare to destroy so goodly a peece of Gods handy work as man is above described to bee See Gen. 9.6 Or yee that seek to double undo mee first by detraction and then by deadly practice See Ezek. 22.9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood Vers 20 For they speak against thee wickedly Inasmuch as they speak against mee Tua causa erit mea caâ—sa said Charles the fifth Emperour to Jutius Pflugiâ—â— who complained hee had been wronged by the Duke of Saxoâ—y so saith God to every David This Luther knew and therefore wrot thus to Melancthon Causa ut sit magna magnus est actor auctor ejus neque enim nostra est The cause is Christs and hee will see to it and us Moses told the people that their murmurings were not against him but against the Lord Exod. 16.8 As unskilfull hunters shooting at wild beasts kill a man sometimes so whilst men shoot at Christians they hit Christ And thine enemies take thy name in vain Whilst they would despoil thee oâ— thine omnipresence omnipotence c. casting thee into a dishonourable mould as it were and having base and bald conceits and speeches of thee and thine Kimchi interpreteth it of Hereticks those false friends but true enemies to God of whom they make great boasts as did the Gnosticks Manichees Novatians and alate the Swenkfeldians who stiled themselves the Confessours of the Glory of Christ and many of our modern Sectaries Vers 21 Do not I hate them O Lord And therefore hate them because they hate thee This the Hebrews understand of Hereticks and Apostates See a like zeal in that Angel of Ephesus Rev. 2.2 And am not I grieved Or irked made ready to vomit at as at some loathsome spectacle fretted vext Vers 22 I hate them with a perfect batred That is unfeignedly and with a round heart saith one for this only cause that they are workers of iniquity It was said of Antony hee hated a Tyrant not Tyranny and of Craessus hee hated a covetous man not covetousness It may as truly bee said of an Hypocrite Hee hates sinners not sins these hee nourisheth those hee censureth David was none such and yet as something mistrusting his own heart hee thinks good to adde Vers 23 Search mee O God and know my heart Look into every corner and cranny and see whether it bee not so as I say viz. that I hate wicked men meerly for their wickedness and for no self-respect have I thus cast down the gauntlet of defiance unto them and bidden them battel Wee should not rest saith a Reverend man in our hearts voice nor accept its deceitfull applause But as once Joshuah seeing the Angel examined him Art thou 〈◊〉 out side or on the adversaries so should wee deal in this case yea beg of God to do it for us and do it thoroughly as here this is a sure sign of 〈◊〉 void of all 〈◊〉 Vers 24 And see if there bee any wicked way in mee Heb. Any way of pain 〈◊〉 of grief or of 〈◊〉 any course of sin that is grievous to God or man Quae spirâ—â—â—â— tuum veâ—â—t â—â— Psal 7â— Aboâ—â— Ezra A Saint alloweth not of any wickedness walloweth not in it maketh it not histrade is not transformed into sins image his 〈…〉 but as in right â—ine or Honie it is continually cast out The good heart admitteth not the 〈…〉 any sin Sin may cleave to it as dross to silver but it entreth not into the frame and constitution it is not weaved into the texture of a good mans heart there is no such way of wickedness to bee found in him no such evill heart of unbelief as to depart away from the living God Heb. 3.12 There is no time wherein hee cannot say as 〈◊〉 1â— â—â— Pray for us for wee trust wee have a good conscience in all things willing to please God And lead mee in the way everlasting Heb. In the way of eternity or of antiquity that good old way Jer. 6.16 traced by Adam Abraham Moses c. and that leadeth to Heaven Rid my heart of those remnants of Hypocrisie and help mee to perfect 〈◊〉 in the fear of God â— Cor. 7.1 PSAL. CXL VErs 1 Deliver mee O Lord from the evill man Made of malice in which is steeped the venom of all vices Preserve mee from the violent man Man of violences who vulture-like Levit. 11.10 liveth by rapine Such were Saul and his Sycophants Vers 2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart Where the Devil worketh night and day as a mintman as a Smith in his forge or an Artificer in his shop A godly man is said to have right thoughts Prov. 12.5 and that his desires are only good chap. 11.23 An evill man is called a man of wicked devices Prov. 12.2 14 17. being ingeniose nequam wittily wicked as it was once said of C. Curio the Roman Lawyer They are gathered together for war Heb. They gather wars as Serpents gather poison to vomit out at others Coaceruant praelia q. d. sunt tanquam tube belli Vers 3 They have sharpened their tongues like a Serpent Which by reason of his sharp tongue striketh more deeply Adders poison Venenum Payados R. Solomon readeth Spiders poison others Aspes Vipers Malice turneth men into Serpents saith Chrysostom Vers 4 Keep mee Who am thus sought and set for but thou canst rescue mee To over-throw my goings Pracipitare to hurl mee down head-long Vers 5 The proud have hid a snare c. They are restless to ruine mee adding all kind of craft to their cruelty Vers 6 I said unto the Lord Danger drove David home to God as bug bears do little Children to their Parents Vers 7 In the day of battel Heb. Of armour for battel David never had any with Saul but declined it Vers 8 Grant not O Lord c. For if they should bee 〈◊〉 competes Masters of their desires they would bee intolerably insolent so as to say Our high hand and not the Lord hath done all this Deut. 32.27 Vers 9 As for the head The chieftain the ring-leader Dâ—â—g or Saul himself Or thus Let mischief cover the heads of my besiegerâ— Let it fall upon their pates as Psal 7. Similitude est a sacreficiis 〈…〉 execrabantur Vers 10. Let burning coals fall upon them Conflagrant 〈…〉 Haec 〈◊〉 vâ—ta quam vaticinia Vers 11 Let not an evil-speaker Heb. A man of tongue whereof Peraldus reckoneth up four and twenty severall 〈◊〉 A world of wickedness St. James calleth it chap. 3. Evil shall 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 man The Angel of death
him and done for him and hence this congeries or heap of holy expressions and all to shew that God is a Rock of refuge a firm Fortress a recepracle of rest a sanctuary of safety to all his Saints in time of trouble David had had his share and had been put to his shifts glad to hide himself as he could in rocks and strong-holds that sheltered him from the storm To these he alludeth when he calls God his Rock Fortress c. And my deliverer Rocks and Strong-holds do not always deliver witness the Shechemites Jebusites Arimasphes but God always doth And the Horn of my Salvation Qui veluti cornu petit conficit hostes meos saith Vatablus who goareth and dispatcheth mine enemies A Metaphor either from horned Beasts or else as some will have it from the ancient custom of wearing horns of Iron upon their Helmet for a Crest or Military ornament â—whereupon the raised Horn was a sign of Victory and the Horn beaten down a sign of being overcome Vers 3. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised Or is the proper object of praises because he is good and doth good Psal 119.68 David vows to praise him 1 By loving him entirely 2 By trusting in him stedfastly vers â— 3. By calling upon him continually here and Psal 116.2 3. which Psalm is very like to this in the beginning especially both for matter and method So shall I be saved c. He had often proved the power of Prayer specially when he came ready prepared to praise God for the return of Prayer and thence he is bold to promise himself all good Vers 4. The sorrows of death compassed mee Or the pangs pains throws as of a travelling woman these invironed mee or came thick and threefold upon mee perventebant usque ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to my face as the Rabbines descant upon the word or flew upon me desperate and deadly dangers assailed mee The worst of an evill escaped Medrash Tillin Aphaphuni pro â—naphaphuni is to bee thankfully acknowledged and highest straines of eloquence therein to bee used so that pride bee avoided and the praise of God only aimed at And the floods of ungodly men Heb. of Belial that is of Belialists acted and agitated by the Devill these came tumbling upon him like many and mighty waters Fluct us flustum trudit Torrentes Belial terrebant me Vers 5. The sorrows Or throws or cords such as wherewith they bind malefactors led forth to execution The snares of death prevented mee David knew how to make the most of a mercy hee means I was almost surprized and all hope of help seemed to bee prevented if help should come it would come too late Vers 6. In my distresse I called upon the Lord This was Davids anchora sacra prayer hee knew could never come too late nor God want a way to deliver his distressed The time of affliction is the time of supplication and mans extremity is Gods opportunity And cryed unto my God Hee grew more and more earnest wee must pray and not faint Luk. 18.1 but rise in our sutes Out of his Temple i.e. Heaven where of the Temple was a type as being the place of Gods speciall presence and of transcendent holinesse Vers 7. Then the earth shook and trembled c. Upon Davids prayer all this befell like as Act. 4. the house shook wherein they were praying and the thundering Legion procured thunder and rain and so did Samuel by his prayers 1 Sam. 12. But this terrible tempest here described is to be taken rather allegorically than historically The Prophet in most lofty and lively tearmes and expressions farre above the strain of the most sublime either Poets or Oratours describeth Gods powerfull presence and concurrence in Davids conquests The foundations also of the hills That is so vehement was the Earthquake that it shook as it were the roots of the Mountains which lye deep within the ground 2 Sam. 22.8 these hills are called the foundation of Heaven as Job 26.11 the pillars of Heaven because the tops of high Mountains seem to touch the clouds and the Heavens seem to lean upon them and because the Earth is in the centre of the World about the which the Heavens do continually turn Because he was wroth Or burn did his nose So Vers 8. There went up a smoak out of his nostrills As angry men breath vehemently and seem to spit fire by their blustering speeches and menaces so here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnia qua tamen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt intelligenda Vers 7. Hee bowed the Heavens i.e. velociter venit saith R. David hee came speedily to destroy mine enemies And darknesse was under his feet Hee came invisible Vers 10. And he rode upon a Cherub Which word hath affinity with Rechub a Charret Hereby is noted Gods swiftnesse in comming to succour David He waits to bee gracious and when it is a fit season hee comes leaping and skipping over the Mountaines of Bether or division all lets and impediments Gabriel came to Daniel with wearinesse of flight chap. 9.21 Hee did flie upon the wings of the Wind For by the Ministry of Angells God raiseth and stilleth the winds Vers 11. Vatab. Hee made darknesse his secret place As a King that being angry withdraweth himself from his subjects and will not bee seen of them Vel quia decret a Dei veniunt invisibiliter said R. David Vers 12. At the brightnesse that was before him c. i.e. at his bright presence his thick clouds wherein hee was inveloped passed or did cleave as it were in sunder whence came hailstones mixed with coales of fire or lightnings out of the cloudes which God maketh at once aery seas and aery furnaces fetching fire out of the midst of water and hard stones out of the midst of thin vapours Vers 13. The Lord also thundred in the Heavens Quasi pro classico aâ—spicio praeliâ—ineundâ— Vers 14. Yea hee sent out his arrowes c. Tandem permisc entur omnia grandine flammis fulminibus tanquam telis sagittis Dei adversus hostes pugnantis After the vaunt-curriers vers 12. the great Ordinance vers 13. the battel begins and all is on an hurry Vers 15. Then the Chanels of waters were seen The force of this terrible Tempest is further set forth by the effect of it a dreadful concussion of the universe not without an allusion to the drying up of the red Sea and of Jordan before Israel which deliverances stood for Archetypes or chief patterns to all Posterity Vers 16. He sent from above he took me He rescued me as by an hand reacht me from Heaven Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or he sent his Angels to secure me He drew me out of many waters As he had once done Moses Exod. 2.10 who there-hence also had his name Musaeus for the same cause calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water-sprung
Vers 17. He delivered me from my strong enemy Saul this he oft instanceth rolling it as Suger under his tongue and turning aside often to look upon it as Sampson did to see his dead Lion fetching Hony out of it For they were too strong for me And then Gods help was most seasonable when David found himself over-matcht Vers 18. They prevented me c. They took me on the sudden and unprovided The Children of this World are wiser c. But the Lord was my stay Or my staff whereon I so leaned as that if he had failed me I had been all along Vers 19. He bronght me forth also c. He freed me out of all straights and stated me in a most happy condition He delivered because he delighted in me All was of free grace and favour not of any merit And this he purposely premiseth as a caution to the ensuing profession of his innocency Vers 20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness viz. The righteousness of my Cause and my freedom from such crimes of disloyalty and ambition wherewith mine enemies charged me as if prickt on by my pride I sought the Kingdom As also according to mine honest desire and endeavour in all things else â—o keep a good Conscience voyd of offence toward God and men This though Gods own work and a debt most due to him yet he is pleased graciously to reward Vers 21. For I have kept the ways of the Lord For the main and for the most part though not without some particular stumblings and startings aside against my general resolution and the tendency of mine heart And have not wickedly departed from my God By an utter defection I have not been transformed into Sins Image by projecting sin by falling into it with full consent and by lying under the power of it Non ex superbia sed errore saith R. David here not of presumption have I offended or with an high hand but of infirmity and with reluctancy rising up again by repentance and renewing my Covenant Vers 22. For all his Judgements were before mee Mine obedience in desire and indeavour at least was universall extending to the compass of the whole Law and this is a sure sign of sincerity Hence in the next words Vers 23. I was also upright before him This he had because he kept Gods Commandements as Vers 22. had respect to them all Psal 119.6 both to the Magnalia and minutula legis which he kept as the apple of his eye Prov. 7.2 even all Gods Wills Act. 13.22 and was therefore approved in Christ as Apelles Rom. 16.10 and passed for an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile as Nathaniel Joh. 1.47 And I kept my self from mine iniquity i.e. from my peccatum in delicâ—is my darling sin whereto I am either by Nature or Custom most inclined and addicted From the iniquity of my heart and secret thoughts which no man can charge me with saith Aben-Ezra from that sin of disloyalty R. David which Saul and his Courtiers falsly charge me with Say others Vers 24. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me See on vers 20. Reward and Mercy are joyned together in the Second Commandement and Psal 62.12 it is a mercy in God to reward a man according to his work According to the cleaneness of my hands in his eye sight i.e. which he hath beheld in me Qua illo judice praeditus dum Vatab. though mine enemies were of another judgement Ver. 25 With the mercifull c. Hypothesin hic ad thesin transfert it is as if the should say I and mine enemies are a pattern of thy Truth and Justice that thou wilt do good to those that are good and to them that are upright in their hearts As for such as turn aside unto their crooked paths thou Lord shalt lead them forth with the workers of iniquity Psal 125.4 5. Vers 26. With the pure c. Cum candido candide agere soles The pure shall have all that heart can with And with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward Or thou wilt wrastle viz. with such cross peices as proudly and perversly erre from thy precepts as it were on purpose to thwart thee or to try Masteries with thee Against such stubborn persons God threatneth not eight degrees which are the highest Notes in Musick and degrees in qualities as the Philosopher distinguisheth them but twenty and eight degrees of wrath Levit. 26.18 21 24 28. Exiget ab â—is rationem minutissimorum saith R. Obad. Gaon upon this Text he will reckon with them for their least offences and not bate them an Ace of their due punishment He will pay them home in their own coyn over-shoot them in their own Bow fill them with their own ways be as cross as they are for the hearts of them yet still in a way of Justice though he break the necks of them in wrastling and send them packing to their place in Hell Ainsworth rendreth it With the froward thou wilt shew thy self wry It is a Similitude taken from Wrastlers and noteth a writhing of ones self against an adversary Compare herewith Deut. 32.5 They are a perverse and crooked Generation the same two words that are here in this Text the latter importeth that they wriggled and writhed after the manner of Wraâ—â—lers that wave up and down and wind the other way when one thinks to have them here or there But all will not serve their turn to save them from punishment God will be sure to meet with them his Word will lay hold on them and their sin shall finde them out Vers 27. For thou wilt save the afflicted people Even the same whom before he had called Merciful or godly upright pure here are the Afflicted and seem by God to be neglected but he will save them assuredly though he bear long with them Luk. 18.7 But will bring down high looks In Samuel it is Thine eyes are upon the haughty that thou maist bring them down 2 Sam. 22.28 q.d. Gods eyes are upon them all the while that he spareth them to watch for a fit season to ruine them Vers 28. For thou wilt light my Candle Or Thou hast lighted my Candle that is thou hast bettered my condition which seemed to be put out in obscurity The wicked mans is Job 18 6. 21.17 Prov. 13.9 The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness He hath and yet still will turn my grief into joy as Hest 8.19 and mean while direct and comfort me in mine Afflictions as a Candle is a great comfort in the dark though it doth not make Day where it comes as the Sun doth Vers 29. For by thee have I run thorow a Troop Though but a little man yet by Gods help heatchieved great matters did great exploits Homo tricubitalis saith a Father concerning Paul Et coelum ascendit so here Some render it Currebam accinctus Bucholc I ran well appointed and they interpret