〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he seeth through and through eyes he hath but not of flesh he seeth but not as man Or seest thou as man seeth Art thou subject to errour ignorance partiality popularity c. Proceedest thou not according to truth yea truth in the inward parts and not according to opinion or appearance Of a good Judg it is said that he doth neque suspicere nec despicere nec respicere nec circumspicere neither look up nor down nor this way nor that but straight forward to the cause and not to the person Of a just law it is said that it is an heart without affection an eye without lust a mind without passion a treasurer which keepeth for every man what he hath and distributeth to every man what he ought to have so and much more then so is God whatever thoughts might arise sometimes in Jobs heart to the contrary Verse 5. Are thy dayes as the dayes of man Art thou mortal and short-lived as sorry man is that thou proceedest in this sudden and severe manner as if thou shouldest not have time enough to try me and to take an order with me Art not thou eternal and dost thou not know in the indivisible moment of thine eternity all what hath been is and shall be Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15.18 yea long before The truth is neither foreknowledg nor remembrance are properly in God sith all things both past and future are present with him Rom. 4.17 2 Pet. 3.8 Jer 1.5 6 7. Psal 139.2 and all things without him are but as a point or ball which with as much ease he discerneth as we turn our eyes Are thy years as many dayes It is well observed that Gods time is set out by years mans by dayes his time is so short that it is reckoned by the shortest compleat time a day The dayes of our years are threescore and ten Psalm 90.10 As for God he is not only the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7.9 But the dayes Ancient for he made the day Verse 6. That thou enquirest after mine iniquity c. viz. By strong pains and mighty terrours as judges sometimes make inquisition by torture to find out treason or other hainous offence What wouldst thou that I should confesse my self a wicked person Verse 7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked A lewd liver and a rank hypocrite as these men would make of me a sinner I am but I allow not wallow not in any known sin there is no way of wickednesse found in me hypocrisie reigns not in my heart Haeret in regenitis peccatum saith one sin abideth in the best yet they may not they must not be called wicked Cyril lib. 9. i◠Julian Julian the Apostate affirmed that Peters halting at Antioch was so taxed by Paul that Peter must needs be an hypocrite but this cavil and calumny can never be proved from Pauls words for not every one that through infirmity dissembleth sometimes is presently an hypocrite It is upon thy knowledge saith Job that however I am weak yet wicked I am not my great scumme is not in me Ezek. 24.11 12. The good heart admits not the mixture of any sin like right wine or hony as the scumme ariseth it ever casteth it out as spring-water worketh it self clean as the sea will endure no poisonful thing but casts it up upon the shore so a Christian cleareth himself of sin Well it may cleave to it for a while as drosse doth to silver but it entreth not into the frame and constitution Job is confident of that and will venture all upon it And there is none or nothing that can deliver out of thine hands q. d. Thus thou Lord knowest it to be with me that I have no wicked heart but for this Junius I expect not to be delivered for thou canst still find matter in me for which to lay thine hand upon me But the more I submit my self the more mild shouldst thou surely be in thy dealings toward me as a Lion to a man crouching to him as Paul said I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not thereby justified 1 Cor. 4.4 So Job saith Lord thou knowest nothing by me yet hereby I cannot be delivered Verse 8. Thine hands have made me Or throughly and accurately wrought me as it were with much pains and labour thou hast exactly fashioned all my members not that God either hath hands or putteth himself to pains for he doth his worke without either tool or toil Isai 40.28 But this is attributed to him after the manner of men to shew the curious workmanship shewed in mans creation the master-piece of all his works of wonder This David sweetly s ingeth of Psalm 139. and Galen admireth in that excellent book of his De usu partium humani corporis setting forth the praises of that God whom he knew not and singing an hymn unto him Lib 3. Man saith one is cura divini ingenii he is Gods scutcheon wherein he hath portrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world The Sun Moon and Stars are but the works of Gods fingers Psalm 8. but man is the work of his hands Psalm 139.14 He is the most beautiful building of a most wise architect saith Euripides the bold attempt of daring nature saith another heathen the greatest of all miracles saith a third David speaking of him and of Gods goodness to him begins to wonder before he speaketh and leaves off to speak but not to wonder Psalm 8. ◠9. And fashioned me together round about A metaphor from potters who make their work by turning it round till it be all finished Jer. 18 3. Thou hast fashioned me and made me in every point so Broughton rendreth it Totum me non dimidium Thou hast made the whole and every part of me from top to toe not my nailes excepted as Mercer hath it with extraordinary care and cunning bestowing upon me mercies enow betwixt head and foot to fill a volume Who is there saith Galen which looking but upon the skin only of mans body wondreth not at the artifice of the Creator but especially he was amazed at the manner of the motion of the lungs by Systole and Diastole and would needs offer hecatombs to that God whosoever he were that was Author of so admirable and excellent a piece of work Yet thou dost destroy me And this seemeth strange to me Dost thou yet destroy me so some read this text wilt thou swallow me up quick and devour me as the greater fishes do the lesser See the Note on verse 3. Carest thou not that I am thy workmanship created unto good works Eph. 2.10 One in whom thou hast erected the fair fabrick of the new man for this also Job may here very likely referre to Verse 9. Remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay Remembrance and foreknowledg are not properly in God
c. and be wise by others woes enjoy their follies and gather with the Bee sweet honey out of those bitter weeds Poena ad pancos metus ad omnes Verse 27. Because they have turned back from him To pursue after lying vanities broken cisterns which whosoever do as they fall into two foul sins at once such as heaven and earth have cause to be astonished at and afraid of Jeremiah 2.12 13. so they are miserable by their own Election Jonah 2. vers 8. And would not consider any of his wayes Wisely consider them as David did Psal 119.168 All Gods lawes were in his sight and all his wayes in Gods sight This was the general cause of their destruction The special followeth Verse 28. So that they cause the cry of the poor c. These they compel by their oppressions to wash the earth with their tears and to importune heaven with their complaints Senault as One phraseth it The wicked do as it were bring up to God the cryes of the poor oppressed and so pull upon themselves inevitable destruction for he is the poor mans Patron and heareth the cry of the afflicted The grand Signior would have the world take notice that such as lament unto him shall be sure to have redress and succour from him Grand Sign Serag 147. Wherefore also he calleth himself Awlâ—m Penawâ—â— The worlds Refuge A title far more fit for the God of heaven than for any earthly Monarch 〈◊〉 Manl. loc 〈◊〉 were he far more gracious than the great Turk from whose courtesie freely offered him Luther blessed himself with a Deus me tutatur à tali benefice Domino God defend me from such a gracious Lord. Verse 29. When he giveth quietnesse who then can make trouble Ipse tranquillabit quis inquietabit This is like that of the Apostle saith Brentius Rom. 8. If God be for us who can be against us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect c It is he alone who giveth peace both of countrey and of conscience Peace peace Isai 26.3 Pacem omnimodam external internal eternal and then who can disturb or unsettle Surely as Isaac once said to Esau concerning Jacob He is blessed and he shall be blessed so may it be said of such as have made their peace with God Peace shall be upon them and Mercy contra gentes whosoever saith nay to it yea though it be the Devil himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is oft called the Troublesome one who ever since he was cast out of heaven keeps ado on earth and seeks to disquiet all such as by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Rom. 2.7 And when he hideth his face who then can behold him Him Whom God who dare look upon him or toward him for help when he is throughly displeased and looketh irefully Or the party frowned on by God who will smile upon him or shew him any favour and furtherance Here Aben-Ezra giveth a good Note Aversio vultus Dei c. The turning away of Gods pleased countenance is the cause of all Wars and other disasters The Physiologer in Epiphanius telleth of the Bird Charadius that being brought into the room where a man lyeth sick if he look with a steddy and fixed eye upon the sick man he recovereth but if he turn away from him and look another way the disease is to death Apply this to God and it fitteth Whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only All 's a case as they say to God he stands not upon multitudes as men use to do in case of Mutinies or the like to punish the tenth man or so in terrorem for a terrour to the rest This is not Gods way of punishing but as a thousand years are to him but as a day and one day as a thousand years so when he proceeds to execution of Justice whether it be done against a Nation c. All Nations to him are but as a drop of a bucket or dust of a balance Isai 40. And hence he buried a world full of people in one universal grave of waters And the wicked be they never so many shall be turned into hell With whole nations tht forget God Psal 9.17 God seemeth to say Fiat justitia ruat orbis Verse 30. That the hypocrite reign not That he reign no longer Almighty God taketh order by putting these mighties from their seats and exalting them of low degree Luk. 1.52 And why 1. Lest the hypocrite or the impure and impious man reign Such as was Jehu Herod Julian our Richard 3. Pope Sixtus Quintus of whom One saith Spec. Europ that he was the most crouching humble Cardinal that ever was lodg'd in an oven and the most stout proud Pope that ever wore Crown What pride equal to his making Kings kisse his Pantofâ—es What humility pretended greater than his shrieving himself daily on his knees to an ordinary Priest He calleth himself the servant of Gods servants and yet stamps in his Coyn That Nation and Countrey that will not serve thee shall be rooted out he also suffereth his Parasites to stile him Our Lord God the Pope Is not this a notorious hypocrite and when such a one reigneth and taketh upon him to be Lord of all both in spirituals and temporals may not we conclude that God hideth his face as in the former verse from his people May we not cry out as Basil once did Epist 17. Num Ecclesias suas dereliquit Dominus hath the Lord utterly forsaken his Churches It is doubtless a very great judgement upon a people when an hypocrite or a prophane person is set over them who pretends the publick good to his own designes and self-interests and by his crafty inventions undoes his subjects robbing them of their lawful liberties and enslaving them Some read the words thus Vulg. Speâ— Ab. Ezra He causeth that the hypocrite reigneth for the sins of the people It is threatened as an heavy curse Levit. 26.17 If you still trespasse against me I will set Princes over you that shall hate you mischievous odious Princes odious to God malignant to the people Such as was Phocas that bloody Tyrant who when he had slain his Master Mauricius and reigned in his stead there was an honest poor man saith Cedrenus who was earnest with God to know a reason why such a thing was suffered to whom it was answered That a worse man could not be found and that the sins of Christians required it We read of Attilus King of Swethland that he made a Dog King of the Danes in revenge of a great many injuries received by them Sr. Rich. Berkley's Sum. Pon. p. 387. Gunno likewise King of the Danes made a Dog King of Norway and appointed Counsellours to do all things under his Title and Name That which these men did spitefully God somtimes doth righteously setting up tyrants for a
pils must not bee chewed but swallowed whole so must many injuries and indignities Convitiâ— spreta exâ—lesâ—â—nt Vers 15. For in thee O Lord do I hope This was the ground of his patience and differenceth it from that of Heathens which was rather pertiâ—acy than patience and came not from a right principle Thou wile hear Or answer and therefore what need is there of my answer Vers 16. For I said hear me lest otherwise c. He spread their vile speeches before the Lord as afterwards good 〈◊〉 did Rabsheeds Letter and as it was said of Charls 5. that he spake more to God than to men so did David His former silence therefore was not either from stupidity a Sheep bitten by a Dog is as sensible thereof as a Swine though he make not so great a noyse nor from inability to make his own defence if it had been to any purpose for he was both innocent and eloquent but he thought it farre better to sustain himself in faith and patience and meekly to commit himself to God in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creator Besides he feared lest if he spake at all in this case he should speak unadvisedly with his lips as it is very easte to exceed and so give occasion to the enemy to triumph as the Papists did over Luther for his hot and hasty speeches When my foot slippeth Or when my tongue out-lasheth in the least they desire no other sport but lay it in my dish as a foul disgrace My Motto therefore shall be and my practice according Taceo Fero Spero I say nothing but suffer and hope for better Vers 17. For I am ready to halt i.e. to mis-behave my self and so to marre a good cause by ill managing it and then what will become of thy great Name This is a very forcible inotive to prevail with a jealous and just God And my sorrow is continually before me That is my sin as Eccles 11.10 Or my sorrow but much more my sin the cause of it Vers 18. For I will declare mine iniquity To them that visit me in this disease saith Aben-Ezra that they may pray for me according to Jam. 5.16 or rather to God that he may pardon me and ease me Or thus When I declare c. Then Vers 19. Mine exemies are lively c. q. d. It is nuts to them and they soon compose Comedies out of my Tragedies growing more insolent by mine afflictions and upbraiding me with my sins Vers 20. They also that render evil for good Whilst they rejoyce at my misery who fasted for them in their adversity Psal 35.15 Are mine adversaries Heb. They Satanically hate me as if they were transformed into somany breathing Devils Because I follow the thing that good is This was Devil-like indeed this was to hate and perlecute God in David Tertul. Thus Cain the Devils Patriarch hated his brother Abel and slew him And why Because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 Joh. 3.12 For like cause Meab fretted at Israel Numb 22.324 and the Courtiers at Daniel chap. 6.5 Vers 21. Forsake me not O God This was that he most of all feared Spiritual desertion So Jeremy Be not 〈◊〉 O God and then I care not what else can befall me O my God 〈◊〉 than farre from me Though my friends stand aloof vers 11. yet â—e thou ever aâ— hand â—o help me 〈◊〉 his blessings to us PSAL. XXXIX Vers 1. I said I will take heed He resolved so Psal 38.13 14. sc Ejusdem 〈◊〉 est hic 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 Cimchâ— no continue as one deaf and dumb to use Isâ—â—cks Apology to scoffing Ismael viz. no Apology unlesse it be that which is Reall for Vivendo melius arguuntur obtrectatores quam loquendo slanderers and railers are best answered by silence That I sin not with my tongue An hard task a long lesson as Pambus in the Ecclesiasticall history found it by experience and after many years tryall could not take it out For the tongue is an unruly Member And if any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body Jam. 3.2 David resolved to temper his tongue and to keep a bridle or a muzzle for his mouth whiles he was in extremity of pain and in the presence of the Wicked who lay at the catch and would soon exclaim but his heart deceived him for he quickly after brake his word vers 3. and made a rash request vers 4. so great need is there that the best pray to God to keep the door as Psal 141.3 Vers 2. I was dumb with silence As not willing either to open the mouthes of those dead dogs or to cast pearles before those sensuall swine I held my peace even from good That good which I might have spoken in mine own defence and their reproof ne miscerem illiud cum malo saith One Intellige 〈◊〉 bono licito non de bonâ— necessario 〈◊〉 praecepto lest some evill should be mingled with it as mud and gravell is with the clear water that runs down a current And my sorrow was stirred Heb. Troubled Though I had somewhat to do to do it Corruption must be curb'd and kept in by violence Jam. 1.26 Hanc fraenis hanc tu compesce catenis Vers 3. My bea rt was hot within me It was almost suff ocated for want of vent By heat of heart and fire kindled saith One the Prophet meaneth T. W. in loc not only the greatness of his grief as they that are grievously sick feel great force and power of heat but he meaneth also some motions that he had to impatiency and fretting to which fault they are very much subject that are hot and given to heat Thus He. This distemper to prevent God and Nature have placed the heart neer unto the lungs ut cum irâ accenditur pulmonis humore temperetur that when it is heated with wrath it may bee cooled and qualified by the allay of the lungs While I was musing the fire burnt This sheweth that thoughts and affections are the mutuall causes one of another so that thoughts kindle affections and these cause thoughts to boil And hence it is faith a Reverend man that new-converts having new and strong affections can with more pleasure think of God than any Then spake I with my tongue But better he had held his tongue according to his first resolution The Greeks have a saying Let a man either keep silence or speak that which is better than â—lence Austin paraphraseth thus when I refrained so from speaking for fear of speaking evill that I spake no good I was troubled at this my silence lest my sin should be counted greater for this silence than my vertue in refraining from speaking evill Vers 4. Lord make mee to know mine end This Aust in expoundeth of Heaven the end of all his troubles which he now sighed after But Vatablus Calvin and
efficiently say the Schools but to evil deficiâ—â—ly sc by with drawing his grace for he is a free Agent and not bound to any David prayeth God to supersede him from his wickedness and Luther saith hee was never tempted to it Vers 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity Lest looking cause liking and lusting 1 Joh. 2.16 In Hebrew the same word signifieth both an Eye and a Fountainâ— to shew that from the eye as from a fountain floweth much mischief and by that window Satan oft windes himself into the soul 2 Sam. 11. â— This David found by experience and therefore prays here Turn away transfer make to pass mine eyes c. Job steppeth one degree further viz. from a Prayer to a Vow Chap. 31.1 yea from a vow to an imprecation vers 7. He knew the danger of irregular glancing and inordinate gazing And quicken thou me in thy way Who shall else dye of the wound in the eye Alexander called the Persian Maids Oculorum delores Ut vidi ut perii The Israelites were appointed to make them Fringes with blew Ribbands to look upon that they might remember all Gods Commandements and do them and not seek after their own heart and their own eyes after which they used to go a whoâ—ing Numb 15. â—9 Vers 38. Stablish thy word unto thy Servant i.e. Make good thy promise wee must by our prayers put the promises of God in 〈◊〉 and God will 〈◊〉 Who is devoted to thy fear And so am an heir of the Promises Or which word is given for the fear of thee that thou maist be feared Vers 39. Turn away my reproach Cover it cure it suffer it not to break forth to my disgrace amongst men For thy Judgements are good But their tender mercies are meer cruelties if therefore at any time I fall into opprobrious and reproachful practices Lord bee thou my Judge and not they for thy Judgements are like thy self good and righteous c. Vers 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts This he could boldly and safely say to God offering himself to his trial for the truth of his desires See Hebr. 13.18 Quicken me in thy righteousness His desires and affections were not so large and lively but that he needed to be yet further quickned Nemo est ex omni parte beatus Vers 41. Let thy mercies come also unto me Let them come to me or else I shall never come to them 1 Pet. 1.13 Hope to the end for the grace that is to bee brought unto you Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me as the setting Sun doth the way faring man that goes from it The Arabick rendreth it Let thy mercies come upon me or cover me as a garment So the Spirit of the Lord cloathed Amasa 1 Chron. 12. and yee shall bee cloathed with power from on high Luke 24.49 Even thy Salvation Safety here and Salvation hereafter Austin expoundeth it of Christ Vers 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer i.e. To stop an open mouth Verbal Apologies are sometimes necessary but real always wee should by a pious conversation put to silence the ignorance of foolish men who like black Moors despise beauty like Doggs bark at the shining of the Moon We are also to begge deliverance of God for the confutation of such as say wee shall never bee delivered Vers Ne auferas id est ut spolium ut Exod. 12.36 Aben-Ezra 43. And take not the word of truth utterly Give me free utterance that in nothing I be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ may be magnified in my body c. Philip. 1.20 Despoyl me not of my courage in a good cause let not Satan rob me of that jewel I have read of a Noble man who when he came into jearing company of great ones would begin and own himself one of those they called Puritans and so prevented them Vers 44. So shall I keep thy Law continually If thou please to give me to beleeve with the heart and to confess with the mouth I shall surely persevere in the profession and practice of the truth Vers 45. And I will walk at liberty In the full latitude of thy Commandements and not by wilful wickedness ensnare and ensnarl my self as those do who in the fulness of their sufficiency are in streights and in pursute of their lusts do pierce themselves through with many sorrows The Italian senseth it I will walk in peace of conscience Vers 46. I will speak of thy testimonies c. Nulle vel terrore vel splendore mundano impeditus Kings commonly abound with all things but only Truth as Alphonsus King of Arragon complained David would deal plainly with them though never so high especially when he should come to be of equal level with them and so to have better opportunity Vers Ethic. l. 10 47. And I will delight my self sc In contemplation of thy Word Aristotle telleth us that the principal pleasure is to be found in contemplation Vers Utrâ—que manu â—apessam 48. My hands also will I lift up c. Removing all rubs and pulling thy Word to me with both hands earnestly with my whole man with my whole might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straining the body and stretching out the hands to do mine utmost at it whilst others put it from them with a force and so judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13.46 Vers 49. Remember thy Word God is not unrighteous to forget Heb 6.10 yet we must as his remembrancers Isa 62.6 put his Promises in sute Ezek. 36.37 Upon which thou hast caused me to hope God giveth us to do what he hiddeth us to do Ezek. 36.27 Vers 50. This is my comfort The Promises yeeld strong consolation Philosophical comforts are of little force as Plato acknowledgeth In Axiâ—â— and Cicero bewaileth in his Epistle to Octavius For thy Word hath quickned me When I was at last cast and drawing my last breath as it were Vers 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision Sooâ—â—ing proceedeth from pride Prov. 3.34 with 1 Pet. 5.5 Yet have I not c. They cannot flout me out of my zeal Vers 52. I remembred thy judgements of old O Lord This was to have an holy memory well fraught with profitable matter such as are examples of Gods dealing with his people and their enemies in all ages And was comforted Some degree of comfort followeth every good action as heat accompanieth fire as beams and influences issue from the Sun Vers 53. Horrour hath taken hold upon me Horripilatio turbo vortex an horrible tempest Psal 11.6 such as surprised holy Habbaâ—â—uk chap. 3.16 Because of the wicked To think of their hainous sins and horrible punishments which they dread not dream not of See Dan. 4.19 Vers 54. Thy statutes have been my songs Thy Promises which bind thee by Grace as statutes do us by Duty and are every whit as sure
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
incedis solito divine Sacerdos Túque acris Princeps tu fidissime custos Virginis egregiae quae utroque misella Parente Orba in te Patruele utrumque ô faustâ parentem Repperit Ostentant vestri nunc quanta libelli Jobe tua sumpsit sibi jam nova cornua Moses Quòd tibi sors praesens melior fit sorte priori Mulcet inaudit â mentes dulcedine Psaltes Jam nil triste sonat Testudo Regia at ode Quae modò lugubris jacuit nunc laeta triumphat Arte tuâ haee facilè praestas clarissime Trappe Cui vite eximiâ sobole octuplieà que beato Nestoreos exopto annos illámque salutem Quae mihi dum vixi fuit at cum Conjuge vitae Quae mihi vita fuit dulci cum Conjuge fugit Barfordiae Aug. 28. 1656. Tuus Siquis Sim. THO. DVGARDVS AN ALPHABETICAL Table Of all the Principal things contained in this whole WORK A. ABsolution Ministerial page 293 Accepting persons page b 123 Admonition the fruit of it page 721 Adultery costly a. 120. punished page 265 266. Affliction God afflicteth in measure a. 89. and for good b. 9. crosses come thick b. 11. prepare for them b. 12. See God in them b. 16. praise him for them ib accept of them b. 24. affliction shewes a man b. 39 40 it comes not by chance b. 50. maketh a man blessed b. 56. is a mercy to be tried b. 74 the best may suffer deeply b. 90. and are then subject to be slighted b. 11. crosse providences for our good b. 204. how to finde out the cause of crosses 290. the benefit of affliction 313. chuse it rather then sin 316. good men censured for their afflictions 694. afflictions teach us 882. edge of prayers 902. Affection carrieth men page a. 166 Allegories frothy page 351 Ambition punished a. 149. ruined a. 156. is all for it self page ib. Amen how to be used page 695 Angels how they are Gods sonnes b. 6. servants b. 45. their office b. 6. their comparative impurity b. 45. guard of Angels page 804 Anger an ill Counsellour a. 164. 169 unreasonable a. 109. moderate it ib. furious described 569. 't is a madnesse b. 162. a shame 278. fury is fiery page 775 Antipathies in nature page 342 Antiquitie of what Authority page b. 77 78 Apparel costly a. 178. gorgeous page a. 156. Arrogancy page b. 109. Atheisme 604. Atheists bald conceits of God 199 Pliny an Atheist page ib. And Aristotle page 913 Augustines wish page a. 146 B Backbiting page 605 Beauty compleat what page a. 114. 116 Blasphemy of Papists a. 149. of Hacket b. 23. abhorred b. 6. punished b. 84. Blasphemy of Caligula page 592 Body of man a fabrick b. 19. a house of clay b. 4â— of wonderful formation page 914 Books lest page a. 193 Brotherly unity rare b. 4. happy page ib C Calamities good men may taste of common calamities page a. 11â— Calvins censure of Luther 299. how he was conjâ—red by Farrel page 30â— Censurers shall be censured page b. 7â— Chaldee Paraphrast on Job who and of what credit page b. 2â— Chambones Conversion page 293 29â— Charitie thinketh the best page b. 14â— Childe-birth a wonder page 335 76â— Children provides for them b. 3. good and bad children 899 900. good are a great blessing b. 92â— and b. 59. Gods grace in them page 58â— Chiromancy page 32â— Christ our Surety b. 157. he reigneth and veâ—ruleth a. 155. his humanity exalted b. 825. his Kingdome and Priesthood 853. his King doâ— everlasting 922. he is a Suretie if a better Testament 888. his Sacrifice and Intercession 36â— kisse him 568. he was deserted for a time 62â— he is our pattern 651. his outward and inwâ—â— beanty 702. 703. his Deity 704. fulnesse â— sweetnesse ib. the dream of his earthly Kiâ—â—dom Chronicles use of them page a. 125. 1â—◠〈◊〉 wonder of them page 3â— Comfort all is from God b. 72. receive it b. 141. divine comforts b. 151. worth of an able Comforter page 292 252 Communion of Saints page 337 Confession of sin confesse with aggravation a. 33â— b. 294. mine not 274. how to confesse 661 deal ingenuously 746. confession hath pardon page a. 81 Conference profitable b. 39. forcible page b. 67 Conflict of flesh and Spirit page b. 28 Conscience terrours of it b. 6. b. 144.145 confidence of a good conscience page b. 119 Confidence carnal miscarrieth a. 181. See Trust Constancy in Mordecai page a. 150 Constantines donation page a. 175 Contentious desire the last word page 219 Courtiers pious page a. 155 Covetousnesse cruel a. 137. unsatisfiable b. 182. its meed page 181 Counsellours evil seduce a. 152. good a happinesse a. 155. how such should be qualified page a. 110 Courage page a. 171 Cruelty of Turkes b. 75. of Archb. Hatto a. 62. Immane cruelties page a. 129 130 132 Crown of life unloosable page b. 168 Curiosity dangerous page b. 903 Cursers accurst 851. curse not another b. 273. shall be punished page b. 270 Curates and Substitutes page b. 11 Cyrus whence so called page a. 1. D Dancing mixt condemned page a. 107 Davids Physicks 833. his love to Gods Law 885 his health-cup page 871 Day-river in Peru page 739 Death terrible to wicked a. 166. sudden b. 189. some that died sinning page b. 217 Deformity despised 825. yet preferred page ib. Deluges page b. 113 Depopulatours unblest page b. 147 Desertion what to do in that case b. 127. see 128 876 600 724. Doeg a Leper page 726 A dog King of Denmark page 303 Dreams dreadful b. 73. Pilates wives dream page 290 Drunken tospots page a. 161 E. Eagle see 342.343 how she reneweth her youth page 831 Earth how it is founded page 328 Eclipse dismal page b. 89 Education page a. 13 Elephant wonder of him page 348.349 350 Elihu described 279. He was not Balaam ib. but a Moderator ib. wronged by Gregory 280 he was an excellent Oratour page 312 Eliphaz who b. 37. his vision page 42 Q. Elizabeths clemency page a. 2 Envie poison of it a. 48. 't is divelish b. 9. mischief of it page b. 49 Envy not wickeds prosperity page a. 160 677 Esther mystery of that book a. 104. Esthers dresse and addresse to the King a. 148. her policie commended 148.149 activenesse for God page a. 191 Extortioners described page b. 211 212 Eyes abuse of them a. 116. watch over them 262 eyes full of cruelty page a. 168 Ezra's learning page a. 1.24 F. Face of Malefactours covered why a. 166. the contrary is Faith force of it a. 144. long tried it flaggeth b. 27. yet will hang on still b. 124. faithful men faile page a. 99 Family a good Master of a family b. 826. sincere page 827 Famine misery of it page b. 57 Fasting force of it a. 30. and 139. and 145. long fasts ib. fasting praised page 672 Fatal day page a. 176 Fear of God filial a. 23. and b. 2. 577. and servile a. 22. panick terrour a. 182. be not
the like here The Parliament here held Anno 1376 was called The Good Parliament and another not long after Parlamentum benedictum The blessed Parliament God grant us such a one next for at present we are without any but not without cause to cry out This was written May 18. 1653. as those in Jeremy chap. 8.20 22. The harvest is past the Summer is ended and we are not helped Is there no balme in Gilead is there no Physician there Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered We looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold trouble ver 15. Verse 9. And this is the number of them Had they not beene things of great price and use they would not have beene numbered Cant. 6.8 The Queenes and Concubines are numbered how many but not the Virgins that bring not forth fruit to God Men use not to count how many pibbles they have in their yard or piles of grasse in their field as they do how many pence in their purse or sheepe in their fold When the Great God shall count his peoples flittings bottle up their teares as sweet water book up their sighs as memorable matters Psal 56.8 shall we not say of them as the Jewes did of Lazarus when Jesus wept Behold how he loves them When the very hairs of their head are all numbered Matth. 10.30 so that not one of them falleth to the ground without their heavenly Father what store think we setteth He by their persons by their performances I know thy work and thy labour Rev. 2.19 I pitie this people they have beene with me now three dayes and fasting they are and farre from home and faint they may if sent away empty Matth. 15.32 Lo is not this a wonderful condescension that Christ should consider tantus tantillos tales and reckon every circumstance of their service so particularly and punctually that he might give to every man according to his works Oh his Jewels his book of remembrance c. Mal. 3.16 17 See the Notes there Thirty chargers Serving to hold such parts of the Sacrifices as were to be eaten by the Priests and others Nine and twenty knives Sacrificing knives richly hafted Verse 10. Thirty basins of gold These were to hold the sprinkling-water or blood And other vessels Of sundry sorts whereof see 1 Kings 7.50 Verse 11. All the vessels of gold and of silver Those best of mettals and therefore fittest for his use and service who is Good Psal 106.1 Better Psal 108.9 Best Phil. 1. 23. goodnesse it self Matth. 19.17 Whose great purse is the Earth with All that is either on it or in it Psal 24.1 whose great storehouse are the Stars and Planets the Sun especially making these mettals and causing plenty Deut. 28.12 Let us lavish out of the bag and when we have honoured the Lord with the Best of our best cry out with David Of thine owne Lord have we given thee and with Justinian 1. Chron. 29.6 Cedren dedicating a very rich Communion-table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. CHAP. II. Verse 1. Now these are the children of the province THat is of Judaea now a Province though formerly a Princesse now solitary and tributary that was once populous and great among the Nations Lam. 1.1 Medinah the word here rendered Province sometimes signifieth Metropolis aliis jus dicens a place that giveth Lawes to other places and so Judaea in her flourish had beene See chap. 4.20 But now it was otherwise and so it is at this day not onely with Judaea but with other renowned Empires and Kingdomes not a few all which together with most of those Churches and places so much mentioned in Scripture are swallowed up in the greatnesse of the Turkish Empire Shiâ—dler That Medina a City in Arabia where Mahomet lieth buried where his Sepulchre is no lesse visited then is Christs Sepulchre at Jerusalem holdeth this Medina in hard subjection making her children pay for the very heads they weare and so grievously afflicting them that they have cause enough to take up a new Jeremies Elegie over their doleful captivity That went up out of the captivity That listed themselves in Babylon to go up Which if any failed to do as by comparing verse 5. of this chapter with Nehem. 7.10 it appeareth some did it was because either they changed their minds or their lives His life by Crashaw before they came there When that Noble Marquesse Galeacius Caracciolus set forward for Geneva some of his most familiar friends promised and vowed to accompany him thither But divers of them when they came to the borders of Italy turned back again c. and so might many of these ingagers magis amantes mundi delicias quà m Christi divitias graviorem ducentes jacturam regionis quà m religionis Which had beene carried away But had Gods promise that they should returne be built up planted and not rooted out Jer. 24.6 and his command to marry and beget children Jer. 29.6 which should inherit the promises for they are good sure-hold Whom Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon That Metus Orbis flagellum Dei as Attilas King of Hunnes proudly stiled himself that is The Terrour of the world Gualth in Hab. 2. Eucholc and scourge in Gods hand See Esay 10.5 That Ira Dei Orbis Vastitas as Tamerlan loved to be called The wrath of God and ruine of the world Had carried away to Babylon As to his Lions-den Nah. 2.10 but God sent from heaven and saved them with such a mighty salvation as eclipsed that deliverance out of Egypt Jer. 23.7 8. Every one unto his City Appointed him by the present Governours For during their abode in Babylon Judaea lay utterly waste and uninhabited The Land kept her Sabbaths resting from tillage and God by a wonderful providence kept the roome empty till the returne of the Natives Verse 2. That came with Zerubbabel That famous Prince of Judah chap. 1.8 Governour of Judah Hag. 1.1 who was borne in Babylon and accordingly had a Babylonian name His hands laid the foundation of the second Temple his hands also finished Zech. 4.9 whence some conclude that the Lord gave him a life much longer then ordinary His children shall notto bed till their work be done Jeshua This was that Jehoshuah the High Priest the great assistant of Zerubbabel in building the Temple chap. 5.1 Hag. 1.14 These were those faithful Witnesses of God in their generation as before them had beene Moses and Aaron Elijab and Elisha and as after them Paul and Barnabas Luther and Melancthoâ— Oecolampadius and Zuinglius c. Christ sent out his Disciples by two and two for two is better then one and why See Eccles 4.9 10 11 12. Nehemiah Saraiah Reelaiah Mordecai Not that famous Nehemiah nor that renowned Mordecai so much spoken of in the book of Esther but others of the same name Reasons see in Master
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
warily Jerusalem lyeth wast Id est open to the spoyler as the Pope made account this Land was in Henry the eighth his time when he had given it primo ocoupaturo to him that should first invade and seize it Come and let us build c. With forces united with one shoulder Multorum manibus grande levatur onus That we be no more a reproach Quà m multa quà m paucis How much in a little said Tully of Brutus his Laconical Epistle and the like may we say of this pithy and pathetike speech Those that love to hear themselves talk saith a reverend Man upon this Text and with many words to colour their ill meaning may here learn how a simple ttuth plainly told in few words B. Pilkington worketh more in good mens hearts then a painted tale that hath little truth and lesse good meaning in it An honest matter speaketh for it self and needeth no colouring and he that useth most flattering and subtle words maketh wise men mistrust the matter to be ill A few words well placed are much better then a long unsavoury tale Thus he Verse 18. Then I told them of the hand of my God Id est of his gracious providence in prospering me in all As also the Kings words Which were likewise very gracious and comfortable Now he that hath both God and the King on his side what would he have more And they said Let us arise and build So forcible are right words delivered in a mild and moderate manner as here Let us rise say they Let us linger no longer but speedily fall to labour and recover that with our diligence that our Fathers lost by their disobedience So they strengthened their hand for this good work They took courage and went an end with it So much good may one man of place power and zeal do for the Church by â—â—irring up to love and good works It is said of the precious stone Pyrites that it puts not sorth its fiery power till well rubbed and then it is so hot that it burneth ones fingers Verse 19. But when Sanballat the Horonite c. At first these men were sad but now mad with malice Wicked men grow worse and worse in pejus proficiunt but they shal proceed no further for their madness shall appear to all men And Geshem the Arabian Lieutenant of Arabia for the King of Persia He also joyns himself to the two former to hinder the work in hand Such opposition met Luther with when he began to reform The Pope excommunicated him the Emperour proscribed him Henry King of England and Lewis King of Hungary wrote against him but the work went on neverthelesse because it was of God They laughed us to scorn and despised us As a company of Fools that could never effect what we attempted So Erasmus and Sr. Tho. Moor thought to have mockt the Lutherans out of their Religion Notum est Erasmi dicterium Qualem a se decimuÌ„ Capito fore sperat c. This the Scripture calleth Cruel mocking and ranketh it with bloody persecution Indeed the favourablest persecution saith One. of any good cause Hâ—b 11 36. is the lash of lewd tongues whether by bitter taunts or scurrilous invectives which it is as impossible to avoyd as necessary to contemn c. Bravely contemn saith another Worthy all contumelies and contempts for thy conscience taking them as crowns and confirmations of thy conformity to Christ And said what is this thing that ye do Scoffingly they said it like as Pilat said to our Saviour What 's truth Oh how easie is it to wagge a wicked tongue Nibil tà m volucre quà m maledictum nibil faciliùs emittitur Cic. One while they charge this people with folly another while with treachery If to accuse a man onely were sufficient to make him guilty none should be innocent Will ye rebel against the King This was ever saith Lipsius Vnicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabant The onely and ordinary charge laid upon the most innocent In Tacit. Elias is a Troubler Jeremy a Traytour Paul a Pest Luther a Trumpet of rebellion all the Orthodox Antimagistratical To colour the massacre of Paris and to excuse it to the World there was coyn stamped in the forepart whereof together with the Kings picture was this inscription Virtus in Rebelles Valour against the Rebels and on the other side Pietas excitavit Justitiam Piety hath excited Justice Verse 20. Then answered I them and said unto them He would not honour them so farre as to tell them of the Kings licence but shapes them a sharp answer Camd. Elis Fol. 163. and shakes them up as having nothing there to do This was true Christian courage this was right and much better then rayling for rayling for that were but lutum luto purgare to wash off one dirt with another The God of heaven Who doeth whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and earth who looketh and laugheth at your malice He will prosper us He will break his Heavens and come down amongst us and give good successe O the force of an heroick faith Though sense sayes It will not be Reason it cannot be yet Faith gets above and sayes It shall be God will prosper us It eates its way thorough the Alpes of whatsoever difficulties But you have no portion Nothing to do here neither ought you to interpose in aliena republica as busy braggers and quarellers meddle where you have command Nor right Sc. Of interest or any good desert Nor memoriall Or enrollement there as free denisons therefore we neither accept you as Friends nor fear you as Enemies c. CHAP. III. Verse 1. Then Eliashib the high Priest rose up HE was first as fit he should for example sake Ministers must be patternes of piety they have many eyes upon them and every thing in their practise should be worthy imitation This Eliashib was grand-child to Joshuae chap. 12.10 With his brethren the Priests Who were before fearful or forgetful Plut. till inminded and excited by Nehemiahs who as a Lyon became Captain to this Host of Harts and atchievd great matters So strong and so sweet an operation hath a seasonable exhortation when it falleth on a prepared heart and it set on by God And they built the Sheep-gate And reason it was saith an interpreter that as they were Shepherds to the people so they should build the Sheep-gate which was at the East-end of the City where the Temple was where the Sheep came in that were offered in sacrifice B. Pilkington and whereof they had their parts according to the Law This Gate may well be compared to Christ Jesus who sought the lost Sheep and was sacrificed as a Lamb and is the Gate whereby onely we enter and his Shepherds must be the builders of it and bring the people into the fold They sanctified it Id est beautified it and then consecrated it by their prayers and devotions
subjection and obedience but that he never had nor any other that took the like course Those husbands that will be honoured indeed by their wives must give honour to them as to the weaker vessels as being heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 Verse 21. And the saying pleased the King Pity but itching ears should have clawing Counsellors Memucan was a fit helve for such an hatchet and his advise fit lettice for such lips What marvel that such a smooth Counsellour pleased the King when as he had before given place to two such bad Counsellours Wine and Anger And the Princes Who perceived very likely by the Kings looks and gestures that he was much taken and tickled with Memucans counsel which they therefore second and subscribe to How rare a jewel in a Princes care is a faithful counsellour that will deliver himself freely non ad gratiam sed ad veritatem not to please but to profit Such a one was Agrippa to Augustus Polybius to Scipio Latimer to Edward the sixth c. There is safety in the multitude of Counsellours modò andeant quae sentiant as the Oratour saith so they dare speak out and will not spare to do it Cic. pro Milone And the King did according to the word of Memucan Dicto citiùs it was forthwith done Vasthi is all on the sudden divorced and the foolish King publikely shamed But all this was of the Lord that Esther might be advanced and the Church relieved So there was a wheele within a wheele which the wicked discerne not nor the Saints consider of God oft wraps himself in a cloud and will not be seene till afterwards All Gods dealings will appear beautiful in their seasons though for the present we see not the contiguity and concatenation of one thing with anâ—â—her Verse 22. That every man should beare rule in his own house Aequum sanè edictum modò moderatum A righteous Decree had it been but rightly made use of and not abused to tyranny and rough-dealing Aristotle saith that the husband ought to have a civil power over his wife as being her better in honour speech gravity and dignity Menander and Euripides say the same holding it unfit that the hen should crow that the woman should usurp authority over the man this Nature and Scripture do both condemne But why should these Persian Princes at this time send forth such an Edict as this was it because this good Law of Nature began to be depraved and obliterated among them as it was among the Egyptians where the Queen is more honoured then the King and in private houses the wife then the husband as Diodorus Siculus reporteth Lib. 2. Bibl. c. 2. Or had they a minde to divulge their own shame and to tell the world that they were least masters at home and must therefore have a law made to force obedience Or was it not lastly to countenance the Kings rash and unlawful putting away of his wife for so light a cause like as Cambyses their late King having a minde to marry his own sister made a Law that any man should have liberty to do the like Whatever it was that moved them to send forth this Decree surely there was little need to excite men to use their authority over their wives sith they are apt enough to do so without bidding Therefore Saint Paul after wives submit your selves unto your own husbands doth not say Col. 3.19 and subjoyne husbands rule over your wivess but husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them And that it should be published according to the language of every people That so being particularly understood it might appear more authentical and weighty and so take away the hatred from the Law-givers for the wrong they had done the Queen Some render it thus that he should speak according to the language of his own people that is say they that each man should keep and observe the liberty of his own Nation by commanding his people and governing his own family without any contradiction CHAP. II Verse 1. After these things AFter the wine was out the fuell of his anger spent and the lust thereof satisfied When the wrath of King Ahashuerus was appeased There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep then his wrath therefore the Hebrews put servare for servare iram to keep for to keep his anger as Jer. 3.5 Psal 103.9 Levit. 19.18 Ahashuerus by invading Greece had so incensed them that their wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unappeasable for they thenceforth hated all Barbarians for the Persians sake and forbade them their sacrifices as they used to do murtheres But Ahashuerus his wrath against Vasthi was after a time asswaged He remembred Vasthi Not without some remorse but without all true repentance He forsook not his rash anger as a sinne but regrated it for a time and laid it asleep to be raked up again upon as slight an occasion In gracelesse perso ns vitia raduntur non eradicantur absconduntur saepius non exscinduntur vices may be barbed or benumbed not mastered and mortified A Merchant may part with his goods and yet not hate them A man may part with his sinnes for self-respects and yet retaine his affection to them as Phaltiel did to Michal when he went weeping after her afarre off He may remember his Vasthi his bosome-sinnes from which he seemeth divorced and by such a sinful remembring of them recommit them See Ezek. 23.21 compared with verse 8. And what was decreed against her But whose fault was that Wine and anger are the worst of all counsellours say the Ancients and Ahasuerus found it so as did also Alexander the great Plutarch and many others but all too late Hence they came in afterwards with their Non putâram Had I wist which Scipio said should never be heard out of a great mans mouth Augustus also was wont to say that nothing doth so ill become a Commander Sueton. as hastinesse and rashnesse Tully taxeth him for a foole qui cundem laedit laudat who first wrongeth a man and then commendeth him Verse 2. Then said the Kings servaâ—â—s His friends saith Josephus to whom he had opened his mind the young Courtiers say others green wood is ever shrinking and warping but most probably those seven chief Counsellours chap. 1.14 who had perswaded him to cast off Vasthi and now feared left if not some way diverted he should fall as foul upon them as his predecessour Darius did upon those claw-backs Dan. 6.24 or as the Athenians did upon Timagoras Densagoras and Euagoras whom they condemned to die for flattering Darius Hystaspes the father of this Ahasuerus Let there be fair young Virgins sought for the King They knew him to be a sensualist and effeminate they therefore agree to feed his humour to drown him againe in pleasure so to drive away his melancholy Such miserable comforts are carnal Physicians so
wretched is our nature to endure no other Physick so justly doth God fit the Physitian to the Patient the helve to the hatchet so do the wicked help each other forward to their deserved destruction Ahasuorus his Courtiers and Counsellours become Brokers to his lusts neither is this any thing unusual with such Lenocinantur produnt blasphemant pejerant toxica miscent c. saith an Expositor here What is it that such Parasites and Sycophants will not do to ingratiate with great ones It was not therefore without good cause that the Primitive Christians prayed hard for the Emperour as Tertullian testineth that God would send him Senatum fidâ—lem a faithful Councel and free him from flatterers Verse 3. And let the King appoint officers Praeficiat praefectos Costly counsel this could not be done without much trouble and charge to the King Two or three years are spent in gathering purifying and preparing these choice Virgins for the impure bed of this Heathen Prince while he is following the chace of his ambition in the warres of Greece In all the Provinces of his Kingdome A large Commission they must have the whole Kingdome is their circuit and note that they went not to forreiners which those Princes that do while thereby they seek for greatnesse they many times misse of goodnesse while they labour to be strong abroad and so to have a stake in store as they say however the dice chance to turne they weaken themselves at home and while by forraine matcher they intend unity it proves an occasion both of intestine and forraine dissentions We of this Nation have had sad experience of these mischiefs That they may gather together This could not be done without the great grief and general discontent of the Kings best subjects nimiùm serviliter huic hirco subjectorum as one hath it thus bereft and despoyled of their dearest daughters the staves of their age All the fair young Virgins Beauty the best pearle in a carnal eye is all that 's here looked after que plerunqut virtute pudicitiâ caret which is oft without vertue and common honesty as where they meet it is a rare mixture The Heathen man saith Non est formosa mulier cujus crus laudatur aut brachium sed illa cujus universa facies admir ationem sing ulis partibus abstulit Now if this be true long enough might these commissionated officers look for fair young Virgins truly so called there being very few that are not peccant in some minnum some tittle of beauty or other It is a praise peculiar to the Vingin daughter of Zion to be all fair Cant. 4.7 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 5.26 such as in whom even Momus himselfe could sinde no errour Vtno Shushan the palace In which one place there might have been found choice enough without speaking further but that lust is unsatisfiable The eye is not satisfied with seeing and in such a multitude how could it be but that the Kings minde must needs be distracted which one to make choice of To the house of the women Such as is now the Turks Seragâ—â— See the description of the Grand Signiors Seraglio by Master John Grennes chap 4. Vnto the custody of Hege Who was their keeper or rather their Gaoler For what was this house of women but a perpetual prison to them clapt under hatches as it were and haply held in as great servitude as those in Barbary are at this day Heyl. Geog. where it is death for any man to see one of the Xeriffes concubines and for them too if when they see a man though but through a casement they do not suddenly screek out And let their things for purification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Abstersories to dry up the filth of the flesh and to cleanse natures infirmities that they might be six moneths purified with oile of myrre and six other moneths perfumed with sweet odours as verse 12. Here the maids were first purified before the King chose one But Christ first chuseth his Spouse and then purifieth her Eph. 5.26 Verse 4. And let the maiden Herein unhappy that the got her honour with the losse of her honesty and that so many maids are made miserable for her sake That pleaseth the King Heb. That is good in his eyes The eye is the lamp and ornament of the whole body and yet that most lightsome part doth oft-times draw the soul into utter darknesse whilest by those windows of wickednesse and loop-holes of lust Satan windeth himself into the heart and maketh it impudicitiae cloacam as Venus's temple on the top of Lebanon is called by Eusebius a very sink and jakes of all leudnesse and abomination Be Queen instead of Vasthi This was held a great businesse and a sufficient recompence The bramble held it a goodly thing to reigne over the trees Judg. 9. not so the vine and fig-tree And the thing pleased the King Because it added more fuel to the fire of his lust and that he may lengthen out his dayes in dalliance and wantonnesse ut libidine libidinem provocante nihil nisi muliebris fiat saith an Expositour here Feuardent that he might be the right successour of Sardanapalus who buried himself in the bosomes of his harlots and left behinde him this infamous Epitaph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Epitaph sit for an oxe saith Aristotle The Kings of Persia are noted for effeminate fitter for a Canopy then a Camp and affecting such sights â—bi Imperator Apparator lanx phalanx acies facies bella labella spicula pocula scutum scortum c. And he did so According to the counsel of those Court-parasites whose word is that of Stratocles Mihi placet quicquid Regi placet he walked in the wayes of his heart and in the sight of his eyes Plut. in vit Demetr little thinking that for all these things God would bring him into judgement But such Governours the wicked world deserveth Eccles 11.9 as being it self totus in maligno positus 1 John 5. When Phocâ—s that filthy traytour reigned at Constantinople Cedrinus saith that a certaine honest poor man was very earnest with God to know why such a man or rather monster was set up he was answered againe by a voice that there could not be a worse man found and that the sins of Christians did require it Verse 5. Now in Shushan the palace Not in Babylon as Josephus doateth There was a certaine Jew That had not returned to Jerusalem as he ought to have done and as another of his name did Ezra 2.2 Whose name was Merdccai That is Pure Myrre say some bitter contrition say others he is the son of contrition that must be the son of consolation This Mordecai was one of those few that both lived and died with glory being not taxed for any grosse sinne The sonne of Jair Happy father in such a sonne much more joy might
place Therefore is Haman to be reckoned among those cruel enemies who said Psal 83. Come and let us destroy them from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more remembred But let them rage and kill up the Saints as much as they can the sheep will still be more in number then the wolves the doves then the hawkes Plures efficimur quoties metimur Tertull. Apoll. saith Tertullian the more you crop us the faster we grow And I shall pay ten thousand talents of silver A vast summe three thousand seven hundred fifty thousand pound sterling At so great charge would this butcher be to satisfie his lust and to have his penmworths upon Gods poor people So in the Gun-powder treason besides their paines digging like moles in their vault of villany Digby offered to bring in fifteen hundred pounds Tressam two thousand Piercy foure thousand out of the Earle of Northumberlands rents besides ten swift horses to stead them when the blow was past But where should Haman have all this money may some say I answer First if he were of the seed-royal of Amalek as t is thought he might have much left him by his Ancestours Secondly being so great a Favourite to the King of Persia he had doubtlesse many profitable offices and so might lay up gold as dust Job 22.24 and silver as the stones of the brooks Did not Wolsey so here in Henry the eighth's time Thirdly he had already devoured in his hopes the goods and spoiles of all the slain Jewes which he doubted not but the King would bestow upon him for his good service Like as Henry the second of France gave his Mistresse Diana Valentina all the confiscations of goods made in the Kingdome for cause of heresie Hereupon many good men were burned for religion Hist of Counc of Trent 387. as it was said but indeed it was to satiate her covetousnesse To the hands of those c. Vulg. Arcarsis gazae tuae To bring it into the Kings treasuries That he might not be damnified in the tributes formerly paid by the Jewes for their liberty of conscience Kings use to take care that their incomes and revenues be not empaired or diminished It is said of Solyman the great Turk that seeing a company of many thousands of his Christian subjects fall down before him and hold up the forefinger as their manner of Conversion to the Turkish religion is he asked what moved them to turn they replied it was to be eased of their heavy taxations S. H. Bl. Voyage p. 181. He not willing to lose in tribute for an unsound accession in religion rejected their Conversion and doubled their taxations Verse 10. And the King took his ring from his hand And thereby gave him power to do what he pleased Gen. 41.42 1 Kings 21.8 En regis bujus inertiam imperitiam How weak weak as water Gen. 49.4 was the heart of this brutish Barbarian skilful to destroy Ezek. 21.31 seeing he did all these things the work of an imperious whorish woman Ezek. 16.30 rather then of an able man such as every Magistrate should be Exod. 18.21 just and ruling in the feare of God 2 Sam. 23.3 In the case of Vashti he could referre the matter to the consideration of a Council In the case of the two Eunuches that had conspired aganst his life he made inquisition of the matter and did all things deliberately In this case of Haman after this though deeply displeased yet he did nothing rashly till he had gone into the Palace-garden and considered with himself what was best to be done But here upon the very first motion without hearing them speak for themselves or admonishing them to do their duty better c. he gives order for the slaying of so many thousand innocents never considering that every drop of their blood had a voice in it to cry for vengeance against him and his Gen. 4.10 Matth. 22.7 And when the King heard it for blood cries aloud to God 1 Kings 9.26 Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth Murther ever bleeds fresh in the eye of Almighty God To him many yeares yea that eternity that is past is but yesterday He will give such blood again to drink for they are worthy Rev. 16.6 Dealt he not so by Herod Julian Attilas Felix of Wartemburg Farnesius Minerius Charles the ninth King of France who died by exceeding bleeding at sundry parts of his body soon after the Parisian Massacre whereof he was the Authour giving as large and as bloody a commission to the Duke of Guise to destroy to kill and to cause to perish all the French Protestants as Ahashuerus did here to Haman Neither was he slack to execute it with greatest inhumanity crying out to those of his party after that he had slaine the Admiral Courage my fellowes fall on the King commands it it is his expresse pleasure he commands it But what followed shortly after The Histe of French Mass by Mr. Clark Quem sitiit vivens sceleratâ mente cruorem Perfidus hunc moriens Carolus ore vomit Ergo Dei tandem verbo subscribite Reges Ne rapiant Stygiae vos Acherontis aquae And gave it unto Haman Who now being his Favourite might have any thing of him like as it is storied of Sejanus that in all his designes he found in Tiberius the Emperour so great facility and affection to his desire Life of Sejan by P.M. p. 5. that he needed only to ask and give thanks He never denied him any thing and oft-times prevented his request and avowed that he deserved much more It was not therefore without cause Tertull. Apol. that the primitive Christians prayed so hard for the Emperour that God would send him good Counsellours and deliver him from flatterers and slanderers those pests of the Court. The Jewes enemy That was his stile or rather his brand and mark of ignominy worse then that of Cain Gen. 4.15 that of Dathan Numb 26.9 of Ahaz 2 Chron. 28.22 It may be he affected this title and gloried in it as we read of John Oneale father to the Earle of Tyrone that rebel 1598. Camd. that he inscribed himself in all places I great John Oneale Cousin to Christ friend to the Queen of England and foe to all the world besides Verse 11. And the King said unto Haman Whom he looked upon as an honest prudent publike-spirited man and therefore so easily impowered him to do what he would O vanas hominum mentes O pectora caeca The silver is given unto thee i. e. the ten thousand talents that thou hast proffered and which Haman likely purposed to raise out of the spoile of the Jewes all this is remitted and returned to Haman as a gift again Sic ex alieno corio gigantes isti latissâ—mas corrigias secant saith an Interpreter here Such large thongs cut these Gyants out of other mens Hides But what meant they
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
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
at once his wicked dayes and desires The Pope to honour and encourage the Leaguers in France sent them consecrated pictures and medals promising them thereby good successe against the Huguenots but God confuted and defeated them all as he did likewise Tyrone in Ireland to whom Cárlt Rem among other trinkets the Pope had sent a Plume of Phoenix feathers a meer collusion When the Kings commandment and decree drew near c. Both that for the Jewes and the other against them This latter was not reversed though the former were published The King it seemeth greatly cared not for the lives of his subjects sith he would not so much as privately hint to them to be quiet and to let the Jewes alone Such an intimation as this might have saved the lives of seventy five thousand of them But God had an holy hand in it for the just punishment of those blood-thirsty Persians confident in the good successe of their sorceries having made hell their refuge but it failed them In thi day that the enemies of the Jewes hoped c. But their hope ran astope as they say their lucky day deceived them Wicked mens hope when they most need it will be as the giving up of the ghost and that 's but cold comfort Job 11. ult and as the spiders web Job 18.13 14. who gets to the top of the window as high as she can and then when she falls she falls to the bottom for nothing stayes her From such high hopes fell our English Papists first Act. Mon. fol. 1871 when Queen Mary died You hope and hope said Dale the Promoter to Julian Lining whom he had apprehended but your hope shall end in a rope for though the Queen faile she that you hope for shall never come at it for there is my Lord Cardinals grace and many more between her and it Secondly at Queen Elizabeths death that long-look'd-for day as they called it triumphing before the victory and selling the hide before they had taken the beast This they had done before in eighty eight when in assurance of victory they had stiled their forces the Invincible Armado and also afterwards at the Powder-plot when they had presumptuously disposed of the chief offices holds and revenues of the land like as before the Pharsalian field was fought the Pompeians were in such miserable security that some of them contended for the Priesthood which was Caesars office Heyl. Geoâ— 407. others disposed of the Consulships and Offices in Rome So at the batteâ— of Aginâ—court in France where our Henry the fifth won the day the French were so confident of a victory that they sent to King Henry Speed 745. to know what ransome he would give A presumptuous confidence goes commonly bleeding home when an humble fear returnes in triumph Though it was turned to the contrary By a sweet and gracious Providence of God whose glory it is to help at a pinch to alter the Scene all on the sudden to begin where we have given over and to cause a strange turne of things according to that of the Psalmist God shall send from heaven and save me when it might seem to some that salvation it self could not save me he shall send forth his mercy and his truth Psal 57.3 and then what should hinder the Churches happinesse That the Jewes had rule over them that hated them They dominered over their enemies as so many Sultans So true is that of the Preacher Man knoweth not his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sonnes of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them Eccl. 9.12 Security is the certain usher of destruction and God delighteth by turning the scale to retaliate as he did upon the Egyptians at the red sea the Philistines at Mizpeh these Hamanists and our powder-Papists See Psal 7.16 Verse 2. The Jewes gathered themselves together They were laeti in Domino sed non securi as Bernard hath it They had prayed but yet provided for the thirteenth of Adar which by many was meant still to be a bloody day notwithstanding the knowen favour of the King and the patronage of Mordecai The Hamanists would joyn together to perform that sentence whereof the Authour repented and had rued it That old enmity Gen. 3.15 will never out of the Serpents seed the Jewes therefore well and wisely get together and unite their forces that they may make a powerful resistance They are noted by Tacitus to be a nation at great unity amongst themselves and to hate all others On of the main scandals they do at this day take from Christians is their dissension Camer med histor cent 2. c. 23. that mother of dissolution as Nazianzen calleth it The Turks pray to God to keep us still at variance and say that their fingers shall sooner be all of one length then we be of one minde What a shame 's this If nothing else will yet our common misery and the hatred of our enemies should unite us as it did these exiles and it was foretold by Jeremy chap. 50.4 that Judah and Israel that could not agree at other times yet when they should be both in a weeping condition they should better agree So did Basil and Eusebius against the Arrians Ridley and Hooper against the Papists c. And it is high time for us now to set aside our private emulatâ—ons and exceptions as the creatures in the Ark laid by their Antipathies within because of the common danger of an inundation without To lay hand on such as sought their hurt To repel force with force to kill and spoil those that sought to do so to them This nature prompted them to as was forenoted and they had also the Kings warrant for it and they kept themselves within compasse thereof by not medling with any but only those that molested them See chap. 8.11 And no man could withstand them Tantum potest bona causa bonis usa consiliis mediis saith an Interpreter here A good cause a good conscience and a good courage what cannot these three do where they meet How should any stand before those who are Deo armati Eph. 610. strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Pilates wife could warne him of medling with such and Hamans wife could tell him that a Jew might fall before a Persian and get up again and prevaile But if a Persian or whosoever of the Gentiles begin to fall before a Jew he can neither stand nor rise chap. 6.13 There is an invisible hand af Omnipotency that striketh in for his owne and confounds their opposites For the fear of them fell upon all the people This was the work not of some Pan Deus Arcadiae as the Heathens fancied but of God the sole giver of victory who when he pleaseth affrighteth the Churches
man exceedingly for this that when he died he was more solicitous of the Churches then of his own dangers So was Calvin as is testified in his life Nay Cicero as he could confidently sing O fortunatam natam me consule Romam So he elswehere professeth that he was in no lesse care what the Common-wealth would do when he was dead then whiles he was yet alive Cic. de amici Soli Deo Gloria in aeternum A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION Upon the BOOK of JOB CHAP. 1. Verse 1. There was a Man A Notable man a man by ad excellency and with an accent as it were A man of high degree as the word Ish signifieth Psal 49.2 62.9 where it is opposed to Adam utpote quem ex meliore luto finxit Titan a Manly man Animo virili praeditus every way excellent and eximious Magnus admirabilis vir c. A great and marvellous man if it be fit to call him by the name of a man as Chrysostome speaketh of Babylas the Martyr Orat. cont Gentiles Basil in his Sermon of the forty Martyrs calleth them the Stars of the World and the flowers of the Churches Chrysostome speaking of those that were praying for Peter Act. 12. saith that Puriores caelo afflictione facti sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 55. in Mat. Damâ—â—hum beminis miraculum natura ut de Scaligerâ— non nemo dixit by their afflictions they were become clearer then the azured sky and elsewhere falling into speech of some religious men of his time he doubteth not for their holy and heavenly conversation to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels That Job deserved this high title as well as the best of them we have here and otherwhere Gods own testimony of him and this whole book whereof he is the principal object doth abundantly prove him an Heroe In the Land of Vz Which what it was and where situate though our Maps shew us not yet by the consent of all it was a country bordering upon Idumea in part and part upon Arubia see Lam. 4.21 Jer. 25.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Odys Chrysostome testifieth that Jobs sepulcher hath been shewed in Arabia which might well have been called Happy if but for having such an inhabitant Ptolemy placeth the Hussites in Arabia Whose name was Job It is then a true and real history that we here have of him and not a fiction or a moral parable as some have believed see a double testimony for this the one Prophetical Ezek 14.14 the other Apostolical Jam. 5.11 and such a well-twined cord is not easily broken What if posephâ—s make â—â—â—mention in his History of such a man it was beside his purpose to write any thing but what concerned the Jewes Aristeus in his History of the Jewes maketh Johâ— be descended of Esan and to dwel in Idumea The Jew-doctors and some of the Fathers of the Church make him to be that Jobab mentioned Gen. 36.33 True it is that the words differ much in the Hebrew writing but for that whiles he prospered he might be called Joâ—â—b when in distresse which 〈◊〉 twelve months say the Hebrews seven yeares saith Suides contracted into Job See the like Rath 1.20 Cox 17.5 Some make him to be much more ancient viz. the same with that Jobab who was the Son of Jockran the nephew of Eber 1 Chron. 1.23 and that himself was pen-man of this book He doth 〈◊〉 wish that his words 〈…〉 book and haply he and his 〈…〉 in Hexameters for most part as Hierome thinketh But that it was by inspiration of God is testified not only by the divine Grandeur and Majesty of the stile together with the intrinsecal excellency and efficacy of the matter but also by the concurrent testimony of not a few other Scriptures sufficiently asserting the authentity and authority of this Book The common opinion is that is was written by Moses while he abode as a stranger among the Midianites for the comfort of his poor Country men groaning under the Egyptian servitude or else that this History written at first by Job and his friends in prose was afterwards by Moses put into verse and imbelished Preface to his Paraphrase with the most rich ornaments and the most glittering figures of Poetry Sure it is saith Senaâ—lt that there is no book in the world where the manner of speaking is more noble the conceits mere generous the descriptions more rich and the comparisons more natural Sometimes the Author reasoneth like an excellent Philosopher oftentimes like a profound Divine but alwaâ—es like an Orator and his Eloquence never leaveth him And that man was peâ—â—ect that is upright aâ—â—t followeâ—â— next and sincere without guile or gall a pattern of patience a standing rule to all ages and therefore in Gods acceptation and account perfect and entire wanting nothing Jam. 1.4 because in him patience had her perfect work Tamim de victimis perfectis immaculatis dicitur as much as mortality would afford It was but an unsavory speech of him who when he was perswaded to be patient as Job was replied what tell you me of Job Job never had any suites in Chancery no but he had far sharper trials and if he had been judge in that Court as he was in his own Country Chap. 29.12 17 he would have made as good dispatch there as ever Sir Thâ—maâ— Mâ—â—r did who calling once for the next cause was answered That there was none And upright more resembling Jacob that plain-hearted man then 〈◊〉 his great Grand father Of the word here used Jesher Israel was called Jeshâ—â—◠〈◊〉 22.15 and 33.5 26. Isai 44.1 because God requireth uprightnesse which he calleth perfection Deut. Buxtorf 18.13 and there is a great Tau in the world Tanâ—â—â— to shew that an upright man keepeth the whole law from the first to the last lenâ—â—â— thereof and where he findeth it â—eckoneth Jâ—â—her an Ishmaelite 1 Chron. 7.17 is he a very good Israelite 2 Sam. 17.25 and Job the Idumeaâ— a very good Christian such an one as Apelles was Rom. 16 approved in Christ And one that feared God with an amicable not servile feare such as was that of those mongrels who seat'd him for his Lyons and are therefore said not to have feared him Sic vive cum beminibum tanquam Deus videat Sâ—â—iquere cum Dec c. Sam â—emp 2o. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 King 17.32 33 34. Job so lived with men as if God saw him and so spake with God as if men over-heard him Thence it was that seldome or never did any man see him doing or hear him speaking but what was good and godly as Xenophon saith of Socrates Thence it was that he never did well that he might appear to do so sed quia aliter facer◠〈…〉 as Valleius saith of Cato but because acting by this principle of Gods 〈◊〉 he could not do otherwise for the fear of the
with the blood of soules In prosperity be makes men lay their hearts too near it in adversity to lay it too neer their hearts Upon Job he tried both these stratagems And from walking up and down in it A great Peripatetike he is and he walks the rounds for he is yet a prisoner at large only he hath his fetters upon his heeles Jude 6 and in them he friâ—keth up and down and fetcheth a circuit to spy faults and to take advantages Mr. Broughtoâ— readâ—â—th it from searching to and fro in the earth c. Non dormit aâ— semper-vigil ille synagâ—gâ— sun Episcâ—pus saith one Amama he is vigilant and diligent restlesss and unquiet 〈…〉 whom one calleth the divels Patriarch could settle no where but ran up and down as a fugitive and a vagabond Gen. 4. It is said Matth. 12.45 that this unclean spirit walketh in dry places seeking rest and finding none Not but that dry and wet are all one with him but it importeth his restlessnesse See the like Jer. 17.5 to run to and fro is the condition and curse of those that are once departed from God Take heed brâ—threâ— saith the Apostle lest there be in any of 〈…〉 evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God and wandring after worldly vanities Take heed of giving way to wilful distractions in holy duties Mens hearts are oft so divided and dissipated Heb. 3.12 that if after any duty they should put this question that God doth here to Satan Whence comest that 〈…〉 From compassing the earth c. Verse 8. Hast then considered my servant Job Job then was in Gods account a considerable person and 〈…〉 one as whose praise was not of men but of God Such 〈◊〉 all godly people but especially those that are eminent tall Christians full of 〈◊〉 filled with all knowledge as those Romans chap. 15.14 men of choice spirits as 〈◊〉 that walk up and down the world as so many conquerors 1 John 5.4 then are clothed with the Sun and tread upon the Moon Rev. 12.1 These are men of mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking after A man would have gone us farre to have soon Luther as he in the story did to see Livy or as the Queene of Sheba did to see Solâ—mon A man would fetch such golden sentences as those he uttered 〈◊〉 knees from Râ—me or Jerusalem saith a Reverend man that writeth his life The tongâ—ue of the just is at choice silveâ— but the heart of the wicked is little worth Mr. Sam. Claâ—â— Prov. 10.20 Hence Antiochus is called a vile person Deâ— 11.21 though a great Potentate And the Prophet tells Jorâ—m that wicked King of Israel that but for Jehoshaphats sake a better man he would not have looked toward him nor have seen him 2 King 3.14 Job was a man of weight and great worth as were those precious sons of Zion Lam. 4.2 Didst thou not therefore make a stand at his door saith God Seest thou not how he stands as a standard-bearer shines as a great light shewes forth in his whole practise such a power of godlinesse as is sufficient either to draw hearts or to daunt them hast thou met with such a man in all thy circuit that can quit himself so well and wisely in all estates like as gold is purged in the fire shineth in the water seest thou not how all his principles practises and aims are supernal and supernatural That there is none like him in the earth This was an high praise indeed and yet no hyperbole he was a Giant to other good people who were but dwarfes and Zanies to him for growth of grace and heighth of holinesse He was the paragon of his time and of impatallel piety As Ahab was a very Non-such for wickednesse 1 King 21.25 so was Job for goodnesse As Hezekiah out-stripped all the Kings of Judah for his trusting in the Lord 2 King 18.5 and Josiah for his integrity 2 King 23.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Centurion for his heroick faith Matth. 8. and Paul for his pluâ— ultra Philip. 3. and Ambrose that in Theodosius his account he was the only Bishop So it was here Job was above others as Saul was above the people by the head and shoulders As he was the greatest so the best man of all the children of the East not a man came neer him and yet they might be dear to God neverthelesse But it is with good people as with Jonathans signal arrowes two fell short and but one beyond the mark c. God hath his servants of all sorts and sizes and est aliquid prodire tenus c. A perfect and an upright man c. A tough piece thou findest him I suppose and not easily malleable Thou hast been doing at him I doubt not but canst do no good on 't Thou hast set thine heart upon him and tried thine utmost skill to overturn him but hast met with thy match and been sent away without thine errand thou hast but beat upon cold Iron thou hast struck fire but without tinder thou hast knock'd at the doore but there was none within to open to thee Thus God speaketh to sting Satan and as it were â—riumpâ—ing over his and Jobs adversary Verse 9. Then Satan answered and said Satan and his imps will â—ver have somewhat to say against the cleer truth their wits will better serve them to elude or withstand it then their pride and malice will suffer them 〈◊〉 to yeild and acknowledge it But what said Austin of the hereticks of his time Gaâ—riant illi nos credaâ—â—â— Let them talk their fill and think it a great matter to have the last word let us hold to our principles and count it enough that with 〈◊〉 we have good report of all men or if not so yet of the truth it self 3 John 12. Doth Job fear God for nought q.d. No such matter Is there not a cause as they said once hath he not wages of the best and are not thy retributions more then bountiful he may serve thee well enough for each price and pay as he daily receiveth He may swim well enough when so held up by the chin But the truth is Job is a meer mercenary and serveth God for line he serveth not God but himself upon God in a word he is an arrant hypocrite and a self seeker such an one as doth in parâ—bola ovis capras suaâ— quarere pretend piety to his own worldly respects and serves God meerely out of interest An 〈◊〉 indeed doth so being therein like the Eagle which soreth aloft not for any love of heaven her eye is all the while upon the prey which by this means shee spieth sooner and seizeth upon better But how will Satan prove that Job is an hypocrite sith he cannot possibly know his heart and did not the searcher of hearts acquit Job of this soule sin in Satans hearing when he pronounced him perfect and upright c.
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
sparrow-hawkes are extreme greedy Malesuada fames putteth them upon it These Harpies seize upon his very harvest ad majorem cruciatum miseriam pulling the meat out of his mouth as it were and not suffering him to roast that which he took in hunting Prov. 12 27. Hee shall meete with greatest disappointment and come to that poverty which he so studiously shunned singing that doleful ditty En queis consevimus agros 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See this threatned Lev. 26.16 Deut. 28.33 Isa 1.6 Micah 6.15 And taketh it even out of the thornes Creeping through the midst of the thornes and bushes wherewith it is fenced and hedged in to steale it away Hunger wee say breakes through stone walls the Rabbines sense it thus Hee that comes out of the thornes Scutatus that is every base fellow carrieth away the store of this rich oppressor The armed man carrieth it away so the Vulgar after the Septuagint Mr. Broughton reades it thus The hungry shall eat up his harvest which he had gotten through the thornes that is not without a great deal of care and much pains in stubbing up the thornes that he might not sow amongst them And the robber swalloweth up their substance Or the thirsty shall drink up their substance as gold-thirsty Babel did Hezekiahs treasure for his coming so neare the garb and guise of the wicked in his ostentation The thirsty shall swill up their wealth so Broughton rendreth it â—â—so that neither their esculenta nor poculenta shall escape the spoiler but there shall be a clean riddance of all the enemy shall play at sweep-stake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall soop up all as the Hebrew hath it and as Eliphaz would have Job consider that the Chaldees and Sabees had done his substance Verse 6. Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust It cometh not by fate or blind fortune it haps not as it may that men suffer Philistines indeed wil say haply It is a chance 1 Sam 6.9 a common occurrence that had a time to come in and must have a time to go in but every Naomi will in such case conclude The hand of the Lord is gone out against mee Ruth 1.13 and carry her sailes accordingly verse 20 21. and every good soule will cry out I will bear the indignation of the Lord who is the efficient cause of all my miseries because I have sinned against him which is the meritorious cause The word here rendred affliction signifieth also iniquity and well it may sith they are tyed together with chaines of adamant as that Heathen said Flugitism 〈◊〉 sunt sicut 〈◊〉 silum saith another Man weaves a spiders web of sin out of his own bowâ—â—â— saith a Third and then he is intangled in the same web the troubles which ensnare and wrap about him are twisted with his own fingers Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no ginne is for him Am. 3 6◠〈…〉 Of the black-birds dung is made the bird-lime whereby he 〈◊〉 so out of the dung of mens sins are made the lime-twigs of their punishments Verse 7. Yet man is borne unto trouble Which is the naturall fruit of his sinne and a piece of the curse hee hath in him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common seminary of all sinne and this hee brings into the world with him what wonder then though troubles come trouping in upon him on every side as if he were born for no other end but to suffer and that as naturally as fire ascendeth Sure it is that sinne doth as naturally and ordinarily draw and suck judgements to it as the loadstone doth iron or Turpentine fire Some read the words thus Man is borne to sin and so consequently to trouble for sinne usually endeth tragically and troublesomely Hence the same word both here and that in the former verse signifie both sinne and sorrow and man by reason of his birth-blot hath a birth-right to them both he is even born to them The divel when he speaketh lies speaketh of his owne Joh. 8.44 And we when either we do evil we work de nostro sicundum hominem of our own and according to men 1 Cor. 3.3 Or when we suffer evill wee suffer nothing but what is humane and incident to men 1 Cor. 10.13 Thy very heathen could say as much witnesse that of Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It behooveth him that is no more then a man to expect all sorts of troubles and that of Demosthenes it is fit for men to hope the best but bravely to beare the worst as that which is common to all mankind and that of Isocrates O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hee that remembreth that he is a man will not be discontented at whatsoever trouble befalleth him and that of Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man is miserable For this it was likely that God to keep Ezekiel lowly in the abundance of revelations calleth him so oft Son of man And when the French King Joh. Manl. loc com 175. Homo sum humanum nihil à me alicnum puto being prisoner to Charles the fifth saw written upon the wall that Emperours motto plus ultra further yet and underwrote Hodie mihi cras tibi I am now thy prisoner thou mayst hereafter be mine the Emperour came after him and subscribed I confesse I am a man and may soon suffer any thing incident to mankind As the sparkes fly upward Heb. The sonnes of the quick or live coale lift up to fly The vulgar hath it as the birds fly upward the Septuagint As the young vultures fly upwards Sparkes and birds fly upward naturally and by a principle of their owne they need not be taught it so here Birds though they have more of the earth then of the other three elements Gen. 2.19 yet are light which is a wonder and delight in high-flying and this is innate to them so is it to man as man to be in trouble Job 14.1 Some of the Hebrews by sparkes or sons of the quick coale here understand the divels and make this to be the sense like as sin is connatural to men so doth God stirre up the divels to whom it is as natural to flutter up and down here for the punishment of such as sinne Sed hoc friget saith Mercer but this is not likely to be the meaning Verse 8. Surely I would seek unto God Not let flie at him as thou hast done cursing thy birth-day and wishing thy self out of the world Assure thy self this that thou takest is not the way to get off with comfort but rather to return by repentance unto him that smiteth thee and to seeke the Lord of Hostes Isa 9.12 sith else his anger will not turn away but his hand will be stretched out still as the Prophet there hath it for is it fit that he should lay downe the bucklers first or that we should stand upon termes and
be ever a whit the better thought of Not among wise men surely what ever he may amongst his fellow fools for in multiloquio stultiloquium Some gravel and mud passeth away with much water some vanity with much talk it is no wisedom for a man to lay on more words then the matter will well bear A good Orator saith Plutarch will see that his words and his matter be matches And Hesiod saith that words as a precious treasure should be thriftily husbanded and warily wasted especially sith an account is to be rendred as our Saviour assureth us Matth. 12.36 yea by thy words he saith not for thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words if superfluous and sinful wast and wicked thou shalt be condemned verse 37. Vers 3. Should thy lyes make men hold their peace Or Thy toyes toilsome toyes hammered in thine own head hatcht in thine own heart which is deceitful above all things and so a fit shop to frame lies in but should we be silent at the hearing of them and so become guilty of thy sin by a tacit consent Can any mortall wight hear what thou hast said in behalf of thine own imaginary innocency chap. 6.29 30. And how bold an appeal thou hast made to God as a witnesse thereof chap. 10.7 and not reply upon thee and reprove thee The truth is had Job been a liar as Zophar would make of him even mendaciorum loquacissimum as Tertullian saith of Tacitus one that fearing his many words would not carry his cause had intermixed divers untruths the better to grace the businesse he ought not to have been forborn by Zophar or any else that wished well to his soul But it was far from good Job to be guilty of this foul sin so hated of God so like the divel so inconsistent with religion Christianus est non mentietur he is a Christian you may be sure he will not lie was the old argument he will rather die then lie Davia indeed in a distress roundly told two or three lies together to Abimelech the high-priest who suspected that he fled as a proscribed person 1 Sam. 21.2 8. So 1 Sam 27.10 But that he allowed not this sin in himself it appeareth in that 1. He had chosen the way of truth his election was truth Psalm 119.30 And 2. He prayed against the contrary evil Remove from me the way of lying Psalm 119.29 He was not one of those that took fast hold of deceit as Jeremiah phraseth it chap. 8.5 Much lesse was Job however Zophar was mistaken in him as he was much more in his next charge wherein he maketh him a scoffer of God and good people And when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed Job is made a mocker here yea a scorner and derider as the word signifieth such as David describeth Psalm 22.6 and the Author to the Hebrewes chap. 11.36 where he speaks of cruel mockings such as the Scripture every where but especially in the Proverbs brandeth for the worst sort of sinners See Psalm 1.1 where the Septuagint translate for scorners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pests as elsewhere Incorrigible Prov. 21.1 Naught Prov. 9.12 Proud Prov. 3.34 Workers of iniquity Psalm 119.51 But where did Job mock in Zophars judgment First he spoke contemptuously as he thought of God as chap. 10.3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppresse c. And whereas he spake better sometimes of Gods wisdom and righteousnesse Zophar thought it was but from the teeth-outward but poor Job had little lift or leisure to mock and jear next he mocked his friends for saying that he was justly afflicted saying that they were cold comforters void of Gods fear mercilesse men c. This they took in very ill part and Zophar thinks to make him ashamed of it for saith he Shall no man make thee ashamed sc By refuting thee and by bringing thee to a due sight of thine error this good office he that shall undertake to do for another must be sure that he be able to do it effectually else better not to attempt it When Carolostadius opposed Luthers Consubstantiation but weakly and insufficiently Zuinglius said Non satis humerorum haberet he was sorry that so good a cause wanted shoulders Vers 4. For thou hast said Thou hast confidently affirmed and this he makes to be a loud lie and not an idle word only But where and when had Job said it Did not Zophar openly play the Sophister so interpreting what Job had spoken chap. 6.10 and 9.22 and 10.7 in defence of his innocency as if Job had maintained that he was free from all sin whereas notwithstanding he had very often witnessed and confessed himself to be a sinner insomuch as that albeit he were without sin yet he could not be accounted clear and pure in the sight of God But Zophar took these for good words only and was therfore so sharp-set against him So Cyril and Theodoret mistook one another and objected heresie mutually when as afterwards it appeared that they were both of one judgment Charity would have taught Zophar to have taken Job in a better sense and to have said of him as Cruciger did of Luther eum commodiùs sentire quà m loquitur dum effervescit that he held right though in his heat he spake not so fitly as might be wished good mens words are reverenter glossanda as one said of the Lawes to have a reverent glosse put upon them and not by a spiritual unmannerlinesse to be taken with the left hand when they might and ought to be taken with the right My doctrine is pure Clear as chrystal transparent as a chrystal glasse with a light in the midst you may see through it and find no flaw or filth in it Job was no professed preacher yet he had not concealed the words of the Holy One chap. 6.10 As he had received the knowledg of the truth from parents and teachers the word here rendred doctrine comes from a root that signifieth to receive so he had freely and purely imparted it to others commending it unto them as sound and sincere and therefore well worthy of all acceptation But that which troubled Zophar and his two fellows was that Job should affirm that God did afflict good men in this world as heavily as bad men which yet was an irrefragable truth such as Job resolved to live and die in And I am clean in thine eyes i. e. I am not sinlesse but sincere and upright no hypocrite as you have charged me no worker of iniquity but one that would be cleansed from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit and do by the daily practice of mortification purifie my self as God is pure more then this Job said not though Zophar thought he did and therefore wisheth in the next words that God himself would convince him of his errour Verse 5. But oh that God would speak c. For we do but lose our sweet words upon
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
cloathed with flesh or in the likenesse of man And here do but think with thy self though it far passe the reach of any mortal thought faith One what an infinite inexplicable happinesse it will be to look for ever upon the glorious body of Jesus Christ shining with incomprehensible beauty and to consider that even every vein of that blessed body bled to bring thee to heaven And that it being with such excesse of glory hypostatically united to the second Person in Trinity hath honoured and advanced thy Nature in that respect far above the brightest Cherub The whole verse may be read thus And after I shall awake though this body shall be destroyed yet out of my flesh shall I see God And being thus read it is a plainer and fuller confession of the Resurrection saith an Interpreter It is common is Scripture to compare death to sleep and Resurrection to awaking Dan. 12.2 Psal 17.15 The bodies of the Saints are laid in the grave as in a bed of Roses to ripen and mellow against the Resurrection and they write upon their graves as One did once Resurgam I shall surely rise again Moses his body hid in the valley of Moab appeared afterwaths glorious in Mount Tabor D. King This is matter of joy and triumph as it was here to Job and to those good souls who were to lose all Dan 12.2 and those Heb. 11.35 considering that God by rotting would refine their bodies and in due time raise them conformabley to Christs most glorious body the standard The forethought of this cheared up Davids good heart Psalm 16 9. and those in Isaiah chap. 26.19 and the good people in our Saviours time Beauchama John 11.24 I know saith Martha concerning her brother Lazarus that be shall rise again at the Resurrection at the Consolation saith the Syriack Interpreter Resurrection and Consolation then were termes equivalent Hence that great Apostle 2 Cor. 4.17 For this cause we faint not saith he For what cause Because we believe that be which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you And the same Apostle maketh this Doctrine of the Resurrection the Canon of Consolation 1 Thes 4.13 14. c. to the end Verse 27. Whom I shall see for my self He speaketh confidently as one full assured of a Resurrection which if it should not be how should there be a remuneration of the body Say not We cannot see how t is possible See we not a yearly Resurrection of grasse grain herbs flowers fruits every Spring tide Know we not that men can of ashes make glasses that a Chymist can of several metals mixt to get her Lavâ— in Job 14.12 extract the one from the other and reduce every metal to its own species or king Etiam animalula quaedam typi Resurrectiones sunt saith Lavater Some little living creatures are Types of the Resurrection He instanceth in Dormise which sleep all wintes and revive in the spring in Silk wormes which dying leave nothing behind them but a certain excrement which being born about in the bosomes of women takes heat and reviveth Wherefore if Nature do such things shall it be held havd for the God of Nature to raise the dead The keeping green of Noah Olive tree in the time of the flood the blossoming of Aarons dry Rod the flesh and sinewes coming to Ezekiels dry bones what were these but lively emblemes of the Resurrection And mine eyes shall behold and not anothers Here he maintaineth the identity of his flesh and body in the Resurrection an identity I say not specifical only but numerical or individual The self saâ—â— particular body which fell shall rise Tert de Resurrect lib. 2. This was denyed of old by the Marcionists Basilidians and Valentinians those Simi-Sadduces as Tertullian termeth them and after them Entuchius Bishop of Constantinople who as Gregory saith taught that men rising again should have ayery bodies and not fleshly yea more subtile then the Aire abusing that place of the Apostle It is â—â—wen a natural body it is raised again a spiritual body c. but his book was burnt as Heretical A spiritual body it is called for its great strength and activity wherewith it shalt be endowed and where by it is enabled to bear a weight of glory as also for that it shall have no need of food sleep or other natural helps but we shall be as the Angels of God Matth. 22 30. yet still the same men that now we are Let no man say with Nicodemus How can this be There is no difficulty to Omnipotency Phil. 3. 〈◊〉 Besides there is a substance still preserved even when the body is turned to dust and this shall be raised 〈◊〉 and reunited to the soul He that made man at first of nothing can easily remake him of something And what though his dust be scattered hither and thither and mixt with that of others The skilful Gardener having sundry sorst of seeds mixt together can soon sever them and shall not he who hath the whole earth in his fist discern the dust of his Saints one from another Little balls or pickles or Quick-silver being scattered on the ground mix not themselves with any of another kind But if any man gather them they run together into one of their own accord So it is here greg Nyssen saith a Father Though my raines be consumed within me Though from my skin outward to my raines inward all be wasted yet all shall be raised and restored The Vulgar rendreth these words thus This hope is laid up in my bosome and is by Burgensis expoundod thus This is the only thing that I do most earnestly wish and wait for viz. to see Christ in the flesh at the last day the raynes are the sent of strong desires Verse 28. But ye should say Why persecute we him This ye shall one day surely say Then shall ye return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked c. Nam â—lim dicitiâ— cur cum persequebamâ—r Tigur Mal. 3.18 Then shall it repent you it should do so now that ye have rated and reviled me for an by poerite viz. when God hath cleared mine integrity as he did chap. 42. or at the last day howsoever what time there shall be a Resurtection of names as well as of bodies Would ye but say so now it would be some satisfaction Queâ— panites precasse poene est innâ—cons You have heard by the confession I have made I am no miscreant no misbeliever but that I do hold fast the faithful Word The root of the mentor is in me Or the root of the Word the engrafied word of God that is able to save my soul hath taken deep root in me Jâ—n 1.21 I hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 this is the Cabinet that the Jewel hept therein And with what face can ye censure such an one for
least of grosse ignorance Knowest thou not this which every one knoweth that is not a meer Novice and which is proved by the examples and experience of all ages To wit Malis male esse that it shall be ill with the wicked This is a generally received maxime and the Histories of all ages do plainly and plentifully confirm it Hinc collige diligenter observanda esse c. Merlin Hence we may well gather that Gods Judgements against wicked persons are to be diligently observed out of the Histories of all ages both divine and humane Since man was placed upon the earth Heb. Since he placed man upon the earth viz. in that earthly Paradise the Garden of Eden planted on purpose for mans pleasure where neverthelesse he stayed not one night as some gather from Psal 49.12 Pecoribâ— morticinis but soon by his sin became like the beasts that perish that dye of the murrain saith Junius and so are good for nothing Cain for like cause was cast out the old world drowned Sodom and her sisters consumed with fire c. There cannot be one instance given to the contrary of that which is here affirmed viz. Verse 5. That the tryumphing of the wicked is short Heb. That the shouting of the wicked is from neer it is of no long standing but like a blaze of thorns that is quickly extinct or as a bubble in the water that is soon down The pleasure of sin is but for a season Hujus sententiae exemplum habes in Goliah saith Brentius here An example of this sentence we have in Goliah 1 Sam. 17. And another in his Country-men the Philistines who had twice beaten the Israelites and taken the Ark 1 Sam. 4. but this tryumph was soon at an end and so was that of the Jewes when they had crucified Christ and now danced upon his grave as the Proverb is but he arose in despite of them and set up his Trophies Say that the tryumph of the wicked should last as long as life what 's that to the infinite Punctum est quod vivimus puncto minus But wicked men commonly dye before their time as Solomon phraseth it Eccles 7.17 that is by an untimely death they live not half their dayes Psal 55.25 God cuts them off that others may live more quietly and whiles they live their comforts are not sincere but mixt with many molestations Little knoweth the world where their new shooes pinch them as that roman said One little drop of an evil conscience can trouble a whole sea of the wicked mans tryumphs The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Zophar had a strong conceit that Job was but an hypocrite one that was wicked before God in heart notwithstanding his fair pretences and prosessions of piety and should therefore be led forth with the workers of iniquity Psal 175.5 as cattel led to the slaughter or as Bulls led to the Altar with Garlands on their hornes and Musick by their sides Act. 14.13 but suddenly they feel and fall under the murthering Axe Such is the hypocrites joy and Zophar would he should know so much being sensible of this that himself was the party in speech sith his prosperity had ended in misery and God had dashed all his comforts Verse 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens Though he conceit himself and would have others hold him to be more then a man and to accord him divine honour If his pride ascend even up to heaven so the Vulgar rendreth it If his gifts ascend up to heaven so the Septuagint and indeed hypocrites are ever lifted up with their gifts as some Corinthians were with their waxen wings 1 Cor. 8.1 being enriched in all utterance and knowledge and coming behind others in no gift 1 Cor. 1.7 yet were they babes at best and carnal walking as men chap. 3 2 3. their Religion was more in notion then in motion They had the spiritual Rickets grew big in the head c. as the Moon they encreased in light but not in heat In which respect also and for her external priviledges Capernaum is said to be lifted up to heaven Matth. 11.23 And the Temporary to taste of the heavenly gift to partake of the powers of the world to come Hebr. 6.4 5. And his head reach unto the clouds Aequalis astris gradior faith He in the Poet and Bibulus in Coele est Sen. in Thiest Cic. ad Attic. saith the Oratour The Heathen Rhetorick is but dull stuff to that in this Book and indeed in this one Chapter An hypocrites head is oft above the clouds of heaven when his heart is beneath the clods of the earth Like the Eagle which when he soareth highest of all even out of sight almost hath his eye all the while upon his prey below Or like the Apricock tree which shoots up and leanes upon the wall but is fast rooted in the earth This whole Allusion may be unto a tree like that of Nebuchadnezzar whose height was great and reached unto heaven Dan. 4.10 11. with 22. Or that of the Amorite whose height was like the heighth of the Cedars and he was strong as the Oaks Amos 3.9 Verse 7. Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung Then the which nothing is more filthy an detestable See this exemplified in Herod Haman Boniface the Eight bloody Bonner buried in a muck-hil c. The word rendred dung hath its denomination from rowling because it is rolled out of doores and swept out of sight Many instances hereof might be given in the pristine and moderne Persecutors punished with ignominious and disgraceful ends Sisera and Jabin perished at Endor and became as dung for the earth Psal 83.10 Jehorans died undesired Julian the Apostate abhorred Isai 14.23 God hath for such a Beesome of Destruction They which have seen him Where is he They which have seen him with wonder shall now see him with horrour when they see him at such an under such an ebbe such a dead low water See this exemplified in that proud Caldean Isai 14.4 12 16. Tam subito casu quae valuere ruunt Verse 8. He shall flee away as a dream c. As a delightful dream is soon forgotten so shall it he with the hypocrite His felicity is meerly imaginary his joy is but as the commotion of the affections in a dream which comes to nothing Isai 20.7 8. A man that is to be hanged next day may dream over night he shall be a King A man that sleepeth upon a steep Rock may dream of great possessions befalne him and starting for joy may fall to the bottom and mischieve himself Psal 73.20 As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image that is their painted pageant of outward pomp Surely such of all men walk in a vain shew or in an image Psal 39 6. their seeming prosperity hath no tack consistence in it themselves
as was Alphonso the wise the Fool rather who feared not to say openly Roderic sanct Hâ—st Hispan p. 4. ch 5. That if he had been of Gods Council at the Creation some things should have been better made and marshalled The wisest men are benighted in many things and what light soever they have it is from the Father of Lights whose judgements are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out what a madness were it therefore for any mortal to prescribe to the Almighty or to define whom when by what means and in what measure he must punish offendors Herein Jobs friends took too much upon them and he gives them the telling of it wishing them to be wise to Sobriety and not to give Laws to God who well knoweth what he hath to do and how to order his earthly kingdom To disallow of his dealings is to reach him knowledge which is greatest sawciness Seeing he judgeth those that are high Excelsos in excâ—lsis the Angels who are so far above us in all manner of excellencies and yet are ignorant of the wisdom of Gods wayes which they know but in part for how little a portion is heard of him Job 26.14 His judgements therefore are rather to be adored than pryed into Mirarioportet non rimari let us rest contented with a learned ignorance Verse 23. One dieth in his full strength Iste moritur There 's one dieth in his very perfections or in the strength of his perfection when he is in the Zenith in the highest degree of earthly felicity And he seemeth to point at some one eminent wicked person well known to them all Confer Eccles 9.2 God is pleased to do wonderful contradictory things in mans reason so that we must needs confess an unsearchableness in his wayes In hoc opere ratio humana talpâ magis caecâ—est saith Brentius In this work of his humane reason is blinder then a Mole Averroes turned Atheist upon it and Aristotle was little better as being accused at Athens and banished into Chaelcis quod de divinitate malè sentiret Being wholly at ease and quiet At ease in body and quiet in minde The common sort ask What should ayle such a man The Irish What such an one meaneth to die Verse 24. His Brests are full of milk and his Bones c. He is well lined within as we say having abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body fat and plump and well liking He is enclosed in his own fat Psal 17.10 His back is well larded and his bones are moistened with marrow which Plato saith Plat. in Timâ—â— is not only the sourse and seminary of generation but the very seat of life Now such a state of body as is here described is no defence at all against death saith Job Nay it is a presage and a forerunner of it many times For ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus say Physicians the highest degree of health is nearest to sickness We many times chop into the earth before we are aware like a man walking in a field covered with Snow who falleth into a pit suddenly Verse 25. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul Heb. And this dieth with a bitter soul in a sad and sorrowful condition having suffered many a little death all his life long as godly men especially use to do being destitute afflicted Heb. 11. tormented seldom without a cross on their backs and then dieth not only in the sorrows of death but in the sorrows of life which to him hath been a liveless life because a joyless life And never eateth with pleasure Either because he hath but Prisoners pittance which will neither keep him alive nor suffer him to die Or if he sit at a full table yet his body is so ill affected by sickness or his mind with sorrow that he finds no good relish in what he eateth That it is better with any of us see a mercy and be thankful Verse 26 They shall lye down alike in the dust and worms c. Death and Afflictions are common to them both as Eccles 9. How then do ye pronounce me wicked because afflicted and free among the dead free of that company c And the worms shall cover them Who haply were once covered with costliest cloathing The best are but worms-meat why then should we pamper and trick up these Carcasses câ— Verse 27. Behold I know your thoughts sc By your words as it is no hard matter for a wise man to do Prov. 20.5 for otherwise God only knoweth the heart 1 Pet. 1.24 Psal 139.3 it is his royalty But when men discover their thoughts by their discourses looks gestures c. we may say as Job doth here I know your thoughts and that by the wicked wretch described by you my self is intended this I am well aware of though you hover in generals and speak in a third person Lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblig Bartolus writeth of Dr. Gabriel Nelâ— â—hat by the only motion of the Lippes without any utterance he understood any mans thoughts The like some say they can do by looks The Italians have a proverb That a man with his words close and his countenance loose may travel undiscovered all the world over And the devices which you wonderfully imagine against me viz. To take away as it were by violence my Credit and Comfort this is the foulest theft avoid it Verse 28. For ye say Where is the house of the Prince Ye say though not in so many words yet upon the matter Where is this mans Jobs princely pomp and port that but even now was so splendidous A Prince they called Job in a jear Per ironiâ—m antiphrafin Vaâ—ab and by contraries saith Vatablus because he had been rich and should have been liberal and munificent but had not been so The Apostle calleth the Pharisees and Philosophers in like sort Princes of this world 1 Cor. 2.8 And where are the dwelling places The Palaces large and lofty Junius ut sunt pratoria et principum aedes as the houses of Princes use to be Lavater rendreth it Taberâ—â—cillum babitaculâ—t 〈◊〉 The Tabernacle of Tabernacles as Gentlemens houses amongst us are called Places Halls Courts c. Of the Wicked viz. Of Job and his Children the eldest sons especially which was blown down chap. 1.18 As if it might not befal a good man also to have his house plundered burnt his children brained c. They had often in their discourses jerked at Jobs children Verse 29. Have ye not asked them that go by the way The cause of that their rash judgement Job sheweth here to be their ignorance of things known to every ordinary passenger and such as whereof there are many pregnant proofes and Examples every where Some by them that go by the way understand men by experience such as have gone many voyages c. made many observations in their Travels of things
thought Minerva did to her Athenians and as the Romans fancied of their God â—esâ— Vibilia that she set them in their right way when they were wandering or will shine over them with his blessing contrary to thy complaint chap. 19.8 Verse 20. When meâ— are 〈…〉 And that by the 〈◊〉 of thy Faith the 〈…〉 out of another 〈…〉 distresses 〈◊〉 32.36 and to believe God upon his 〈…〉 and that against 〈…〉 things 〈…〉 in 〈…〉 thou 〈…〉 and saving of 〈…〉 eyes down whereof some makes this to be the sense 〈…〉 be able out of his own experience to 〈…〉 who likewise humble themselves Junius rendreth this and the following verse 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 upon 〈…〉 they be 〈…〉 and 18.24 And hence Jobs intercession 〈…〉 And he shall save the humble person Heb. Him that is low of eyes as was Job at this time and the Publican Luk. 18.13 An high look and a proud heart go together Psal 101.5 And as God resisteth such Jam. 4.4 1 Pet. 5.5 so he giveth grace to the humble and not grace only but glory too as here safety here and salvation hereafter Verse 30. He shall deliver the Island of the innocent Or. He shall deliver thâ— not innocent him that iâ— not guiltless and even such shall be delivered for the purity of thine handi Thus God gave Zâ—ar to Lot and all the souls in the ship to Paul and the guilty Israelites to Moses See Jer. 5.1 Or the innocent shall deliver the Island Or Liberabitur vâ— innocentis The innocent shall be freed from affliction so Brentius And it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands i. Of thy works or by the pure hands listed up in Prayer Semen sanctum statuâ—â—â— terra the Saints bear up the state Isa 6.13 they uphold the pillars of the earth by their Piety and Prayers and therefore when God is unchangeably resolved to ruin a people he silenceth his Saints as Jer. 7.16 or removeth them out of the world as he did Methuselah the year before the Flood And as one Sinner may destroy much good Eccl. 9.18 So one Praying Saint may save an Island a whole Country it is delivered by the pureness of thy hands It may be the work sticks at thee why then is not thy shoulder at the wheel when the cart is stalled CHAP. XXIII Verse 1. Then Job answered and said Fiz IN defence of his own integrity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. against Eliphaz his calumnies in the foregoing Chapter To make Apology to every one that shall traduce us â—latâ— holdeth to be both base and Bootlesse But when such a weighty man as Eliphaz shell say load upon so innocent a man as Job Quâ—â— tâ—lerit something would be said in way of answer Verse 2. Even to day is my complaint bitter q.d. After all mine endeavoar to satisfie you I am still mis-interpreted and accounted by you my friends no better then a Malecontent and a Murmuâ—er against God albeit my laments do no way equal my torments True it is that Eliphaz had given him excellent counsel chap. 22.21.22 c. but it was to flatter him into the same errour that himself held viz. that bodily and temporal sufferings are a sure sign of a notorious hypocrite Hence Job never taketh notice of it in this reply but begins his Apology pathetically and abruptly and soon falls into an appease to God the righteous Judg who well knew though his friends would take no notice of it that he complained not without causeâ— but the contrary My stroak is heavier thou my groaning Most mens groaning is greater then their stroaks or sufferings Invalidum â—mus natura querulum est Senec. Some are ever whining and growling their lips like rusty hinges move not without murmuring and mâ—â—tinying yea they not only creak but break as rotten boughs do if but alittle weight be hung upon them Or as some mens flesh which if never so little â—â—ved with a pin it presently rankleth and festereth Job was none of these if he groaned as he did and will they deny him that ease of his colour Expletur laâ—â—ry mis Ovi◠〈…〉 â—olor there was very great cause for it 〈◊〉 his pressures were greater then could be expressed by any signes or words Verse 3. Oh that I knew where I might find him that is God so oft in his mind and mouth that his acquaintance might easlly know whom he meane Aph-Hâ— everu â—â— 2. Kings 2.14 is held by some to be one of Gods Attributes And 〈…〉 Weemâ—â— without mention of 〈◊〉 was an ordinary oath in Plato's mouth as 〈…〉 That I might come even to his seat His Tribunal prepared for him Great is the confidence of a good conscience Venirem usque ad stationem ejus Mercer See Gen. 20.5 1 Pet. 3.21 But yet hac certè omnia andacius dituntur a misero homunâ—ione this was too bold a speech for a mortal creature as God himself who gave him his wish will afterwards tell him chap 38.2 and 40.2 and contrary to that which he had before resolved on chap. 9.3 See the like failing in David Psalm 39 1 3. and 2 Samuel 6.8 9. In these examples of so good men we may see how natural it is to us in affliction to rise up against God Hoc à pietate alienum est quòd adversus Deum praefractius contumtliosius loquatur quam humilitas fidei feras Brent as the horse that casteth his Rider and riseth up against him This the Poets shadowed out in their fiction of the Gyants conspiring to pull Jove out of heaven That which may be said in favour of Job herein is 1. That ver 6. he professeth to plead with God in Gods strength 2. That being accused by his friends of so foule offences he had no other way of clearing himself then by appealing unto God whose most just judgement he acknowledged 3 That he durst not have spoken thus boldly but in confidence of his mercy 4 That he would have this his controversie with his friends and not his whole life to be exactly examined and judged by God Verse 4. I would order my cause before him I would not stick to approach to his Tribunal Beza there to plead my cause not against him as being the Supreme Judge and not either Plaintiff or Defendant but against your false and wrongful accusations which undoubtedly I would disprove and confute by many forcible and strong Arguments And fill my mouth with arguments Heb. Redargutions increpations reprehensions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good Oratour will first rightly lay down his cause state the Question as we call it 2. Confirm it with reasons 3. Observe what is said to the contrary and confute it Job would do all this if he might have audience but if to God all this Job was much mistaken And so at another time when in a better mind he could say Whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but I would make
supplication my Judge If I justifie my felfe mine own mouth shall condemns me c chap. 9.15 20. Verse 5. Mercer I would know the words that he would answer me q.d. I cannot know your minds O my friends non understand your words which yet I believe are little to the purpose But God I know will utter his mind plainly and approve my cause which you so rashly condemne Thus John Husse and other Martyrs when they could not have a faire hearing from men appealed and applied themselves to God committing their cause to him who judgeth righteously Verse 6 Will he plead against me with his great power No for then you were in a wo-case For if Gods breath blow us to destruction as so many dust heaps Job 4.9 if he frowne us to death and nod us to destruction Psal 80.16 What shall we think of his Almighty power which none can abide or avoid Difficile est contra enâ—â— scribere qui potest proscribere It is dangerous dealing with him who hath at his command thirty legions said the philosopher to the Emperour who would needs crack an Argument with him And should Job dare to do it with the Lord of hostes as if stronger then he The thunder of his power who can bear The stoutest men quake before him and as the wormes when it thundreth wriggle into the corners of the earth ready to run as Caligula did under any bed or any bench-hole No. Merlin but he would put strength in me Sic enim ex fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persuasus saith an Interpreter Thus was Job perswaded out of the full assurance of his faith that God would deal with him as a loving Father and not as a severe Judge for who can stand before his wrath or withstand his will No man surely can contend with God unlesse he put strength in him as he did into Jacob Gen. 32. whom he upheld with the one hand as he strove against him with the other This foregoing with therefore of Job hath an excellent commendation in it of his faith and integrity yet so as that in some things it is blameworthy For who can come to Gods Seat sith he dwelleth in light unapproachable neither can any one see God and live Exod. 3.4 For this boldnesse therefore of his he shall be hereafter sharply reproved first by Eliâ—u and then also by God himself stepping forth as it were from behind the hangings overhearing him and saving Who is this that talks thus how now chap. 38.2 3. Vese 7. There the righteous might dispute with him There for Thâ—â— scil when God shall put strength into him the upright or honest man who draweth neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith having his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Jesus Christ Heb. 10.22 might dispute with God but not unlesse he have that Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Just One to appear in the presence of God for him Heb. 9.24 as the Lawyer appeareth for his Client to put by and non-suit all accusations to plead his cause and to justifie him by the only merit of his righteousnesse and obedience All Saint Pauls care was to be found in Christ when fought 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 Phil. 3.9 for sordet in conspectu judicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis Aug that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God Luke 16.15 They only may dispute with God that is in an humble and laudable manner plead with him as did Jacob. Gen. 32.24 and Jeremy chap. 12â—â— who partake of Christs righteousnesse imputed and imparted opposing to the appearances of Gods wrath the firme perswasion of his grace by the Seal of his Spirit Etâ— quam hâ—â— non est â—mnium This is few mens happinesse So should I be delivered for ever from my Judge Who would quit me by Proclamation and then I should the less care to be condemned by you my fellow-prisoners I care not for mans day fith he that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4.3 4. Where note what boldness and confidence the upright have in God neither shall they be herein deceived as Job was not Verse 8. Behold I go forward Heb. Eastward which is reckoned the forepart of the world because that eye of the world the Sun riseth there and every man looketh to the rising Sun But he is not there sc In that sort as I desired to finde him verse 3. he is not visible to me he is too subtile for sinew or sight to seize upon his judgements also are unsearchable and his paths past finding out True it is that the whole world is nothing else but Deut explicatus a Mirrour or Theatre wherein God may be seen yea felt and found out by those that are blind Act. 17.27 If a man hear a Sermon by night and in the dark though he see not the Preacher yet he knows he is there So Job questioned not Gods Omnipresence but complaineth that himself was benighted and forsaken of his hopes to be eased of his troubles outwardly in body or inwardly in minde this is the judgement of the flesh when under Affliction And backward but I cannot perceive him For indeed he is imperceptible by bodily eyes neither sitteth he any where in this world to decide controversies as he shall do in the clouds at the last day when the righteous shall look up Luk. 21.28 for their redemption draweth nigh and the wicked shall look on and waile because of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 1.7 they shall look and lament yea be mad for the sight of their eyes which they shall see as Deut. 28.34 Verse 9. On the left hand where he doth work i.e. Northward where God is said to work either because that in the North-part of heaven are more signes and of more remarkable influence than in the South or else because the Northern parts of the world are more inhabited than the Southern because more temperate and so there is more of God to be seen there in his works as letters refracted in a glass Seculum est speculum que Deum intucamur But I cannot behold him See the Note on verse 8. He hideth himself on the right hand c. He worketh not so much in the Southern parts of the world the torrid Zone is unhabitable c. Yet the Ethiopian Judges were wont to keep the chief Seat for him empty when they sate in judgement And beside the Habassines that large region of Nuâ—ia had from the Apostles time as t is thought professed the Christian Faith though now it hath again Alvarez above an hundred years since forsaken it and embraced 〈◊〉 and Idolatry That I cannot see him See the Note on vers 8. Verse 10. But he knoweth the way that I take Heb. That is with
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
think things sufficiently refuted by the learned which yet had need to be further inquired into 5. That one younger man may see further sometimes into a matter then many others of longer standing and experience 6. That men may be esteemed obstinate and opinionative who are nothing less 7. That multitude and antiquity are but ciphers in Divinity c. Verse 13. Lost ye should say we have found out wisdom Or See that ye say not we need not search out words as verse 11. For we have found out wisdom rem acu pertigimus We have hit the nail on the head and said sufficient to convince him if any reason would do it whilst we affirm that God thrusteth him down as it were with a thump on the back and not man Who might do amisse but so cannot God who for as much as he fighteth against Job tossing him as a Tennis ball or as the wind doth a withered leafe from one affliction to another who can doubt but that he holdeth him a wicked man This saith Elihu is a very weak way of reasoning therefore never please your selves in it as convincing Hoc argumentum tam facilè dilustur quam vulpes comest pyrum as one merrily phrased it There is no judgement to be made of a person or cause by the good or evil successe of things sith none out of hell ever suffered more then Gods dearest children witnesse that little Book of Martyrs Hebr. 11. Neither have any sped better here then those worst of men Turks Papists Persecutors c. Verse 14. Now he hath not directed his speech against me And so I have no particular edge or grudge against him he hath no reason to think that I come prejudicated or exasperated This Elihu speaketh purposely to get within Job that he might the better perswade with him We must endeavour to preserve in the party with whom we would prevaile an opinion of our love and good affection to him for else we shall lose all our sweet words sith man is a cross and crabbed creature duci vult trahi non vult lead him you may drag him you must not Neither will I answer him with your speeches But with better He shall have from me soft words and hard Arguments I will come over him in a milder manner and to better purpose whilst moved merely by a zeal for Gods glory I shall shew him his miscarriages not in mine own words but in Gods That 's a true saying of learned Junius Personatae reprehensiones frigent plerimumque interest ex animo omnia ut conscientia fert animusque facias an de industria Verse 15. They were amazed As if they had seen Medusa's head or some such terrible spectacle that had rendred them dumb Talkative enough they have been when there was no such necessity but now that they might speak to some purpose they stand like stocks and are mute as fishes whereby they bewray their ignorance and folly Silence in some cases is sepes sapientiae as the Rabbins speak Pirke aboth the fruit and fence of wisdome Amos 5.13 See the Note there But withal there is a sinful silence which Luther wished never to be found guilty of Modò impii silentii non arguar Luth. And it is the divel doubtlesse that gaggeth people when being called to speak of or for God as these friends of Job were at this time they answer no more They leave speaking The desert a good Cause or betray it by a cowardly silence It may be feared the spirit of faith is no indweller where the door of the lips move not right 2 Cor. 4.13 He speaks thus of those three seniors in a third person by way of irony and contempt turning his talk to the by-standers whereof its likely there were many or as Tremellius thinketh to Job with whom he seeketh to ingratiate Verse 16 When I had waited for they spake not but stood still Or Seeing I have waited but they have not spoken c. Nothing appears but a dumb shew a deep silence such as Elihu much marvelled at and therefore setteth it forth in many words all to one purpose See verse 15. Verse 17. I said I will answer also my part It is a vertue to be forward and forth putting in that which is good and a vice to be shye and shame faced A Christian should catch at opportunities of doing and receiving good he should be ready to every good work as the busie Bee so soon as ever the Sun breaks forth gets abroad to gather honey and wax I also will shew my opinion Heb. My knowledg as verse 6. and so the Vulgar readeth it Hereupon Gregory taking Elihu but not well for an arrogant person sheweth that such love to vaunt themselves and out of ostentation to set forth their good parts to publick view and are therein like unto a vessel without a cover touching which the Law saith that it shall be counted unclean Thus He. But to utter a mans knowledge for the benefit of others as good Elihu did is not pride but zeal however the world censure it And they have doubtlesse an heavy account to make who hide their talents and having a great treasure of rare abilities will not be drawne to impart them the canker of these mens great skill shall be a swift witness against them Vile latens virtus Verse 18. For I am full of matter Heb. Of words such as are weighty and stuffy steep'd in mine understanding as Plutark saith Phocions words were and very well digested I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in very good case to speak as full of solid Arguments as the Moon is of light Whether Elihu speaketh this arrogantly and from the flesh or from the Spirit I determine not saith Brentius here But sure it is that such words as these howsoever they may seem arrogant and carnal Possunt tamen esse spiritualissima yet they may be very spiritual as Jer. 4. and 20. And as sure it is that we should be in company like full clouds or paps that pain themselves with fulness till eased of their milk The Spirit within me constraineth me Heb. The spirit of my belly that is Gods Holy Spirit inhabiting mine heart and exciting me to so good a work The love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.14 It hath not only an impulsive but a compulsive faculty Sicu◠flatus in ventre conclusus magno impetu exitum quaerit sic zelus mentis quaerit exitum per sermonem Pisc Rumperer medius si non erumperet sermo intra me conceptus as Brentius here paraphraseth I should even burst if I did not vent my conceptions which like a child in the womb at full time or as wind in the bowels want room and presse to come out Psal 39.3 Jer. 20.9 Verse 19. Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent By this elegant similitude Elihu illustrateth what he had said before wherein as Merlin well observeth he compareth words shut
up in the mind of him that would faine utter them to new wine not yet throughly purged the soul to bottles silence to the stopple which keeps in the wine grief hereupon to the breaking of those bottles speech to the opening of them by taking away the stopple of silence And although in this Discourse Elihu may seem to lay on more words then the matter requireth yet he doth not for he saith no more then the Psalmist doth Psal 45.1 and Jeremiah chap. 6.11 and the Apostles Act. 4.20 We cannot but speak c. And whereas Gregory saith that all this came from pride in Elihu Chrysostom praiseth him rather and therein he is in the right for his zeal which will have a vent or the heart will cleave as the waters undermine when they cannot overflow As for that which is urged against Elihu that God saith of him as of a Reprobate and one whom he knew not Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledg ch 38.2 It is plain that God speaketh there not of Elihu but of Job and so Job understood and applyed it chap. 42.2 And that God speaketh not of Jobs sacrificing for him as for the other three makes more for his praise then else and shewes that he had spoken of God the thing that was right which they had not done chap. 42.7 Verse 20. I will speak that I may be refreshed Heb. That I may breath This many Martyrs did though to the losse of their precious lives as those that came to the Tribunals and cryed out Christiani sumus We are Christians hang us burn us stone us c. Modo Jesum nostrum nanciscamur so that we may get our Jesus And when they were told that they were put to death Non pro fide sed pro obstinatione not for their Religion but for their obstinacy Tertullian answered Pro hac obstinatione fidei morimur For this Religious obstinacy we gladly dye As for those that made not a good confession but either denied or dissembled their Religion for politick respects what a deal of unrest found they in their consciences till they had better declared themselves or revoked their recantations as Bilney Bainhum Benbridg Abbes Sharp besides Origen and all those of old Let a man speak boldly and freely in a good Cause when called to it and he shall be refreshed for as every flower hath its sweet smell so hath every good word and work its comfort I will open my lips and answer Viz. Freely and fully as Eph. 6.19 with great a lacrity of spirit and vehemency of speech Some kind of answer a man may make though he open not his lips as he did who being asked what mans life was presently turned his back and went his way Theadoret also upon Matth. 5.2 observeth that our Saviour taught sometimes when yet he opened not his mouth viz. by holy life and wondrous works Verse 21. Let me not I pray you accept any mans person q.d. This leave you must give me or at least wise I must take it sith my life lyeth upon it to be impartial and plain-dealing laying the blame where it lights and sparing the paines of pleasing and Parasitical Poems of oratorical and rhetorical insinuations Nihil loquar ad gratiam c. I shall know no man after the flesh in this businesse nor look on any face If Job found this fault with his other three friends chap. 13.7 he shall have no cause so to do with me but as a right Moderatour I will hear Arguments speak and not persons I will shut out my friend or my seniour and speak the truth in love Diem hominis non desideravi saith Jeremy chap. 17. And if I yet please men I am no more the servant of Christ Gal. 1.10 See the Note there Neither let me give flattering Titles Praenomen aut cognomen those that seeme to be somewhat whatsoever they be it shall make no matter to me God accepteth no mans person Gal. 2.6 I shall call a spade a spade tell every one their owne without circumlocution and not sooth or smooth up any man though never so great in his sinful practices Semper Augustus In vâ—â—a Alpâ—on is a Title still given to the Germane Emperours But Sigismund once Emperour when a fellow flattered him above measure and extolled him to the Skies gave the Flatterer a good box on the eare and when he asked Why swiâ—â— you me He answered Why clawest thou me Verse 22. For I know not to give c. I have as little Art in it 't is out of my road as heart to it For In so doing my Maker should take me away i.e. Kill me and send me packing to Hell He would soon snatch me away he would burn me as some render it so dangerous is the sinne of flattery A Preacher called Constantine the Great Euseb de vita Const l. 4. c. 4. Blessed to his face but he went away with a check What will God say to such think we CHAP. XXXIII Verse 1. Wherefore Job I pray thee hear my speeches PLain Job for flattering Titles Elihu would give one chap. 32.22 only in prefacing to his Discourses he is very large witnesse the whole former chapter which may well stand for a common exordium to all the five following and the seven first verses of this wherein he both calleth upon Job for audience and useth Arguments for that purpose An Orator he sheweth himself all along for in his Introduction he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milder affections which suit best to insinuate and toward the conclusion he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pathetical expressions that may leave an impression in his Hearers And hearken to all my words And not to some of them only picking and chusing what pleaseth you and turning a deaf eare to the rest as he in Tacitus did who said Tulingua ego aureum dominus You may say what you please but I will hear no more then I like and lift This is an evil ear and must be healed as the Orator told his Country-men ere any good can be done The good soul lyeth low at Gods feet and saith Speak Lord for thy servant heareth All that the Lord our God shall speak unto us that will we hear and do Deut. 5.27 Now therefore we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Act. 10.33 It is sign of an honest heart to take the Precepts together with the Promises and to tremble at the threatnings as well as to reach after the comforts of Gods holy Word which last every hypocrite will be catching at as children do at Sweet-meats passing by the better provision Verse 〈◊〉 Behold now I have opened my mouth I have taken upon me to be a Speaker an Arbitratour in this Controversie which is usually a thanklesse Office for he who interposeth in businesses of this nature if he had two friends before is likely enough to lose
them and not suffer them so to be held under And maketh us wiser than the fowles of heaven Sapientificat Some Birds are very silly Plin. l. 10. c. 1. as the Struthiocamelus that having thrust his head into a thicket and seeing no body thinketh that therefore none seeth him and so maketh himself a prey Doves sit in their dove-cotes and see their nests destroyed their young ones taken away and killed before their eyes neither ever do they offer to rescue or revenge Mention is made by Writers of a certain namelesse little Bird which for fear lest the Heavens should fall upon her Cael. Rhod. puts alwayes when she sleepeth one foot upon her head How much better the Bird Onocrotalus of whom it is reported that out of expectation of the Hawk to grapple with her she sleepeth with her beak exalted as if she would contend with her adversary Something there is that the wisest may learn from the fowles of the air to whom therefore they are sent and set to schoole Mat. 6.26 Jer. 8.7 yet generally God hath put more understanding into men so that as he should not do like them by preying upon others so he should not cry unto God only in distresse as the young Raves do when hunger-bit but pray alwayes and in every thing give thanks for which purpose it is that God hath given us reason speech and much matter and meanes far above the unreasonable Creatures Vae igitur stupiditati hominum in calamitatibus torpentium Verse 12. There they cry but none giveth answer Cry they do but not to the true God Jon. 1.5 The Papists have their he-saints and she-saints for several uses Or if to the true God yet not in a due manner not in faith and with remorse for their misdoings And hence it is that either they are not heard and helped or not in mercy but for a further mischief and to furnish out their indictment at the last day and on their death-beds God will not come at them or be intreated by them Prov. 1.28 Psal 18.42 Because of the pride of evil men i. e. Because these oppressed ones that thus cry are not so poor as proud humbled they are but not humble low but not lowly Plectuntur sed non flectuntur they have lost the fruit of their afflictions and are not a button the better for all that they have suffered Verse 13. Surely God will not hear vanity Prayer without Faith is but an empty ring a tinkling cymbal Neque enim omnes qui citharam habent sunt citharoedi Every sound is not Musick neither is every complaint and out-cry of men in extremity an effectual Prayer Those in Hosea when pined almost howled as Dogs growled as Swine bellowed as Bulls screeched horribly as the Ravens of Arabia Hos 7.14 but because they cryed not to God with their hearts he heard them not It is not the labour of the lips or the loudnesse of the voice but the travel of the heart and truth in the inward parts that he regardeth Psal 51.6 Wilt thou not know O vain or empty man that Faith without Works is dead saith St. James chap. 2.20 so that prayer without faith is to no purpose Men may cry aloud in distresse and make their voices to be heard on high they may chatter out a charm when Gods chastening is upon them yea be with child as it were of a prayer yet bring forth nothing better than wind work no deliverance at all in the earth Isai 26.16 17 18. God may turn them off and justly with Depart ye workers of iniquity get you to the gods whom ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation for I will deliver you no more Judg. 10. vers 13 14. Neither will the Almighty regard it Heb Look intently into it It is other and better fruit of affliction that he looketh for Whereof missing he looketh another way as it were and taketh no notice of their prayers or pressures Hence they deny or at least doubt of the divine providence and are ready to let fly at God as the Chineses whip their gods if they help them not at a call Verse 14. Although thou saiest thou shalt not see him c. This is that tertium Jobi pronuntiatum Jobs third speech which Elihu taketh upon him to reprehend and refute It is taken out of chap. 23.8 9. and the sense is that God would never appear to do him right But although thou saiest such a thing and so seemest to chime in with those wicked ones who deny Gods providence yet thou oughtest to be better preswaded of his presence with thee and providence over thee for judgement is before him and he will certainly do right only thou must give glory to God and wait his time Yet judgement is before him Or Judge thy self in his sight give glory to God and confesse thy sin and then stepping from the Bar to the Bench judge thy self worthy to be destroyed 1 Corinth 11. vers 31. This do and then Trust thou in me For safety here and salvation hereafter acting thy Faith upon the precious promises Pia salubris adhortatio Mercer and hopefully expecting the performance thereof in due time This was excellent counsel indeed and worthy of all acceptation Verse 15. But now because it is not so he hath visited in his anger Because thou hast not yet done as I have prescribed God is forced thus to treat thee and to encrease his plagues upon thee in great displeasure at thine incorrigiblenesse Thus is good Job miscensured whom God suffered so to be afflicted for his tryal and not for his punishment though there wanted not in him cause enough if God should have taken advantags But know now that his anger hath visited thee but a little this is Beza's translation of the whole verse neither hath he made any great inquisition Piscator readeth this and the next verse thus But now because his anger hath not visited neither hath he taken notice of the multitude of his sins very much therefore doth Job open his mouth with vanity and heap up words without knowledge Tremellius thus For now because there is nothing of these doth his anger visit thee viz. because thou neither rightly judgest thy self nor waitest upon God but lookest upon thy self as utterly undone casting away all hope of better therefore art thou yet held under Yet he knoweth it not in great extremity Job perceiveth not so blind he is though he have his back-burden of afflictions and knows not how to be rid of them This Elihu speaketh to the company by an angry Apostrophe Verse 16. Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain Dilarat divaricat rictum diducit ut bellua An open mouth is oft a purgatory to the Master digito compesce labellum He multiplieth words without knowledge Eliphaz had charged Job with malice and blasphemy chap. 22. Elihu only with vanity and ignorance We may not make
the worst of things but give a favourable interpretation CHAP. XXXVI Verse 1. Elihu also proceeded and said HEB. And Elihu added viz. This his fourth Oration not unlike the former made in behalf and for defence of Gods Justice which he here further asserteth against Job who had seemed to cast some slur upon it by arguments drawn from his wondrous works the Meteors especially and all to prevail with Job to submit to Gods justice Ex abundanti quae sequuntur adjicit and to implore his mercy Verse 2. Suffer me a little and I will shew thee He promiseth brevity and thereby wooeth attention brevity and perspicuity are to great graces of speech and do very much win upon intelligent hearers who love to hear much in few and cannot away with tedious prolixities When a great Trifler had made an empty discourse in the presence of Aristotle and then cryed him mercy for troubling him so long You have not troubled me at all said He for I scarce hearkned to any one word you said all this while That I have yet to speak on Gods behalf Heb. That there are yet words for God His zeal for Gods glory drew from him this following speech wherein insignis est Elihu magnificus Elihu excelleth himself and appeareth to be no worse an Orator then was M. Crassus among the Romans Cic. de Orat. l. 1. who had this commendation given him Quod cum aliquid accuratiùs dixisset semper ferè contigit ut nunquam dixisse meliùs putaretur That when ever he spake it was judged to be the very best that ever he spake Verse 3. I will fetch my knowledg from afar Even from heaven as one taught of God I will discourse of ancient things for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fetch my reasons from the wonderful and sublime works of God De arduis atque admirandis Dei operibus those real demonstrations of his Deity Est autem planè hic Elihu mirus egregius saith Mercer And he is not a little wronged by that French Paraphrast who saith of him That he knew well how to begin a discourse but knew not how to end it and that seeing well that his tediousnesse might make him troublesome he awakened his languishing Auditours by this artificial preface And will ascribe righteousnesse to my Maker This is both the maine proposition of the ensuing Oration and the main end of mans creation viz. to glorifie his Maker Rom. 11. ult Rev. 4.11 Verse 4. For truly my words shall not be false I shall deal truly and plainly with thee my Discourse shall be simple and solid having no better ornament but that of Truth which is like our first parents most beautiful when naked 't was sin covered them 't is treachery hides this Aperta veritas clausos etiam oculos ferit saith One. He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee Integer sententiis Vâ—â—abl meaning himself who fully understood the businesse betwixt them and would faithfully deliver it There are that hold God to be hereby meant A pious sense but not so proper Verse 5. Behold God is mighty and despiseth not any Much lesse oppresseth he any one in a good Cause or tyrannically abuseth his power to the crushing of an Innocent He is equally good as great neither was Job well advised in seeming to sunder these two excellencies in God the one from the other sith whatsoever is in God is God neither ought we to think of him otherwise then of one not to be thought of as of one whose Wisdom is his Justice whose Justice is his Power whose Power is his Mercy and all Himself He is mighty in strength and wisdom Or He is mighty the strength of the heart He was so to David Psal 138.3 Validus est virtâ— animi Trem In the day when I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthnedst me with strength in my soul At the sack of Ziglag in the fail of all outward comforts David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 A Christian is never without his cordial Vna est in trepida mihi re medicina Jehovae Cor patrium os verax omnipotensque manus Verse 6. He preserveth not the life of the wicked He is no such friend to them though he be good to the godly he greatly careth not what becomes of them Their life they hold of him and many good things besides for he is the Saviour or Preserver of all men but especially of them that believe But he suffereth not the wicked to live as the Hebrew here hath it he withdraweth them not from the hand of Justice he bindeth not them up in the bundle of life he reckoneth them not among the living in Jerusalem among the first born whose names are written in heaven he many times slayeth them with his owne hand and cutteth them short in righteousnesse Or if not so yet their preservation is but a reservation c. But giveth right to the poor Or To the afflicted For poverty is an affliction and subjecteth a man to many injuries Zeph. 3.12 they are an afflicted and poor people but trusting in the name of the Lord they shall be relieved and righted not so soon perhaps as themselves would nor yet so long hence as their Oppressours would In the Mount will the Lord be seen who as he seldome comes at our times so he never failes his owne time Meane while this comfort they have Verse 7. He with draweth not his eyes from the righteous He is so lost in love as I may say toward such that he cannot like to look beside them he beholdeth them when afflicted with singular care and complacency Then if ever The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears open to their cry Psal 34.15 then they may have any thing of God their being no time like that for hearing of prayers Zach. 13.9 Times of affliction are times of supplication Psal 50.15 and 91.15 They are Mollissima fandi tempora Jer. 51.19 20 21. Then our hearts are largest then Gods ears are openest Neither his eares only but his eyes too are busied about his suffering servants as the Gold-smiths are about the Gold cast into the furnace that no grain thereof be lost He sits downe by the fire saith Malachi and tends it as a Refiner and Purifier of silver chap. 3.3 He refines them but not as silver Isai 48.10 that is Not exactly and to the utmost lest they should be consumed in that fiery tryal he seeth to it that the choice spirits of his people fail not before him Isai 57.16 as they would do if he should bring upon them an evil an only evil Ezek. 7.5 and not in the midst of judgement remember mercy But with Kings are they on the throne i.e. He raiseth them to highest honors as he did Joseph whose fetters God in one houre changed into a chain of Gold his stocks into a Chariot his Jaile into a
or as a ship tossed in the Sea without an Anchor which presently dasheth on the Rocks or falleth upon the Quick-sands Saul for instance who being in distress and forsaken of God ran first to the Witch and then to the Swords point Save me from all them that persecute me Where the Prince is a Persecutor as in the Primitive times and here in the Marian days many will be very active against Gods people O sancta simplicitas said John Husse Martyr when at the stake he observed a plain Country-fellow busier than the rest in fetching Faggots Vers 2. Lest he tear my Soul like a Lion i. e. put me to a cruel and tormentful death exercising against me both cruelty and also craft by taking me at such a time as there is none to deliver me Vers 3. O Lord my God See on Vers 1. If I have done this i.e. This treachery and treason whereof Saul doth causelesly suspect me and wherewith his pick-thank Partisans unjustly charge me As for Sedition saith Latimer for ought that I know methinks I should not need Christ if I might so say But where malice beareth mastery Serm. 3. before K. Ed. 6. the doing of any thing or of nothing is alike dangerous If there be iniquity in my hands Heb. in the palms of my hands where it may bee concealed If I have secretly acted against my Soveraign Vers 4. If I have rewarded evil c. If I have broke the conditions of our reconciliation or betrayed my trust Yea I have delivered him that c. This was true Christianity to overcome evil with good Matth. 5.44 c. Rom. 12.17 c. O quam hoc non est emnium O how few can skill of this Elisha made the Syrians a Feast who came to make him a Grave David spared Saul and delivered him not without the hazard of his own life Bradford conducted Bourn from the Pulpit at Pauls Cross where hee had cried up Popery at the coming in of Queen Mary safe to his Lodging A certain Gentleman said unto him Ah Bradford Bradford thou savest him that will help to burn thee I give thee his life if it were not for thee I would run him thorow with my sword And it proved as the Gentleman had Prophesied There he sits I mean my Lord of Bath Mr. Bourn said Bradford in his third Examination before Stephen Gardiner which desired me himself for the Passion of Christ I would speak to the people Upon whose words I coming into the Pulpit I had like to have been slain with a Dagger which was hurled at him I think for it touched my sleeve He then prayed me I would not leave him and I promised that as long as I lived I would take hurt before him that day And so went I out of the Pulpit and intreated with the people and at length brought him my self into an house Besides this in the afternoon I preached in Bow Church and there going up into the Pulpit one willed me not to reprove the people For quoth hee you shall never come down alive if you do it And yet in that Sermon I did reprove their Fact and called it Sedition at least twenty times For all which my doing I have received this recompence Prison for a year and half and more and Death now which you my Lord of Bath among the rest go about Acts and Mon. fol. 146◠Let all men bee judge where Conscience is Thus Master Bradford like another David in his own defence Vers 5. Let the enemy persecute my Soul and take it Thus he cleareth himself by an holy imprecation The Spanish Bible hath for Shiggaion Davidis in the Title Purgatio Davidis as the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both Sin and Purification from sin Psal 51. taking God to witness of his innocency and good Conscience and wishing evil to himself if it were otherwise This he did from a good cause in a good manner and for a good end And not as many prophane ones do now adays who taxed though never so truly with some evil they have done seek to justifie themselves by appealing to God and calling for his Curse upon them if guilty who therefore striketh such impudent imprecatours immediately as Anne Averies and others See Mr. Clarks Mirrour And tread down my life Heb. My lives so usually called saith an Interpreter for the many faculties and operations that are in life the many years degrees estates thereof And lay mine honour in the dust Selah Let him brand me for a most treacherous ignominious wretch and let me lye buried in a bog of indeleble infamy Vers 6. Arise O Lord in thine anger Here David repeateth and re-inforceth his Suit filling his mouth with Arguments for that purpose such as he well knew would be of avail Lift up thy self c. Wherein they deal proudly be thou above them to controle and over-top them And awake for me Sometimes God seemeth to be asleep we must awake him to forget we must in-mind him to have lost his mercy we must finde it for him Where is thy zeal and thy strength c. Isa 53. To the Judgment that thou hast commanded That is promised viz. that thou wilt command deliverances out of Zion Or which thou hast commanded to men in case of wrong done to releeve the oppressed and wilt no◠thou for me great Judge much more do it Vers 7. So shall the Congregation of the people compass thee about As people love to flock to Assizes or such places of Judicature where Sentence is passed upon Great ones that have offended Or thus then shall the publick sincere Service of God be set up and people shall fly to it as the Doves do to their windows For their sakes therefore return thou on high Seat thy self upon thy Tribunal and do justice q. d. Thou hast seemed to come down from the Bench as it were and to have no care of Judgement but go up once again and declare thy power Reverteid est ostende manum tuam esse altam return that is shew that thou hast an high hand saith R. Solomon Vers 8. The Lord shall judge the people The Aethiopian Judges leave the chief Seat ever empty as acknowledging that God is the chief Judge According to my righteousness viz. In this particular Crime whereof I am accused great is the confidence of a good Conscience toward God Such only can abide by the everlasting burnings Vers 9. O let the wickedness c. Put a stop to their rage and rancour But establish the just The overthrow of the one will be a strengthening to the other as it was betwixt the House of Saul and David 2 Sam. 3.1 But who are just The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins i. e. The thoughts and affections or lusts of people Gogitarlonum cupiditatum Junius and accordingly esteemeth of them for Mens cujusque is est quisque and God judgeth of a man according
nor bestow upon them thy crown of righteousness Vers 28. Let them be blotted out c. Wherein they were never indeed written among those living in Jerusalem Isa 4.3 those first-born whose names are written in Heaven Heb. 12.23 but they accounted themselves of that number and were so esteemed by others This was a mistake and the Psalmist prayeth God to make it appear so No videantur in alhum tuorum velats quibus vgra vita 〈◊〉 destinasâ—i Vers 29. But I am poer and sorrowful The Church is usually so and may sing as here Vaâ—nignant c. but her comfort is 1 That Christ saith unto her as Rev. 2.9 I know thy sorrow and poverty but that is nothing Thou art rich 2 That her poverty is not penal but Medicinal Gods dispensation is sit her for better riches As a wise Physician purgeth a foul body till he bring it almost to skin and bone But why That having made it poor there may bee a spring of better bloud and spirits Vers 30. I will praise the Name of God i. e. aquitum Deum I will thankfully agnize and recognize Gods great goodness to me in this deliverance with mine uttermost zeal and skill Vers 31. This also shall please the Lord better c. True thankfulness is epimum optimum sacrificium those calves of our lips Hos 14.3 Heb. 12 1â— These Calves or Bullocks as in the Text must 1 Have burnt and hoofts bee young and tender the very best of the best 2 They must bee slain our thanks must proceed from a mortified minde 3 They must be sacrifised where is required 1 An Altar our praises must be tendred in the mediation of Christ 2. Fire our hearts must be enflamed with zeal and ardency 3 Our hands must be laid on the head of the Bullock That is we must in all humility confess our unworthiness c. This will surely please the Lord better than an Oxe or Bullock that hath â—erns and hâ—â—ofâ— Vers 32. The humble shall see this and be glad Davids great care was for others confirmation and comfort much more Christs witness that holy prayer of his Joh. 17. Your 〈◊〉 shall live Which before was all 〈◊〉 Pray that yet may joy David did so often Psal 6. c. Vers 33. For the Lord he 〈◊〉 the poor He is the poor mans King the wronged mans refuge Trajan the Emperour is renouned for this Aeli spart that when he was mounted for a battel he alighted again to hear the complaint of a poor Woman that cried unto him for Justice and our Edw. 6. for this that he would appoint certain hours to sit with the Master of the Requests Engl. Elis only to dispatch the Causes of the poor God is much more to be magnified Vers 34. Let the heaven and earth praise him As they do in their kind and have good cause so to do for their resstaâ—ration by Christ Rom. 8.11 Vers 35. 〈…〉 The Church universal And will build the Cities The paâ—â—â—dâ— at Churches That they may dwell there viz. The seed of his servants vers 36. 〈◊〉 after them shall be incorporated into the Church and 〈◊〉 thing to all perpetuity PSAL. LXX A Psalm of David Made likely or rather made use of from Psal 40.14 15 c. when Shaba the Son of Bichri was up in rebellion after Absoloms death 2 Sam. 20.1 c. See Psal 69. title To bring to remembrance Worthy to be remembred and followed as a pattern of prayer Some make this Psalm an Appendix to the former as Psal 43. is to Psal 42. Others make it a part of the next Psalm which is therefore say they without a title Vers 1. Make haste O God to deliver me As a Father â—ans without leggs when his childe is hazarded Vers 2. Let them be ashamed See Psal 40.14 35.26 27. Vers 3. Let them be turned back for a reward Vel ficit per insidias vel supplantationem more Athletarum a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them be supplanted defeated That say Aha aha Augustine rendreth it Enge Enge that is Well done and giveth this Note upon it Plus persequitur lingua adulator is quà m manus interfectoris The tongue of a Flatterer may mischief a man more than the hand of a Murtherer The Apostle Heb. 11.37 ranketh their tempting and flattering promises among their bloudy deeds their is sing tongues with their terrifying jaws Vers 4. Let all those that seek thee c. Piorum characteres saith one a godly man caracterized by his search after God his joy in him his love to him his praises of him Let God be magnefied In illo quicquid ego ille non ego saith Augustine Vers 5. But I am poor and needy See Psal 69.29 with the Note PSAL. LXXI VErs 1. In thee O Lord do I put my trusts See Psal 31.1 with the Note It appeareth by vers 9.18 that this Psalm was written by David in his old age when Absolom or Sheba was in rebellion against him though haply for haste and in that fright he could not superscribe it as he did the rest The Greek title viz. of David A Psalm of the Sons of Jonadab and of them that were first captived hath no footing in the Original Hebrew Vers 2. Deliver me in thy righteousness Let my deliverance be the fruit of thy promise and of my prayer and so it will be much the sweeter Vers 3. Thou hast given Commandement sc To thine Angels and all other thy Creatures or thou hast commanded that is thou hast promised Vers 4. One of the hand of the unrighteous That seeketh by fraud to undermine me and by force to overturn me And cruel man Qui totus in fermento jacet soure as leaven sharp as vineger Vers 5. For thou art my hope Helpless I may seem but hopeless I am not Vers 6. Hâ— thee have I been bolden us from the womb As in the Womb I lived upon thee so from the womb The same that breede thus feedeth us that matter that nourisheth the Childe in the Womb striking up into the breasts and by a further concoction becoming white is mode milk for it Thou ar◠〈…〉 me out infamy to other bowels Else I had never been born alive That a childe is bound 〈…〉 saith Galen Sed quomoda fiat admotoritar 〈…〉 calleth it 〈◊〉 supra mirabiloâ— muja mirabila the greatest wonder in the World Surely if a Childe were born but once in an hundred years space we should all then to see so strange a work saith another Vers 7. I am as a wonder 〈◊〉 Or 〈◊〉 the great ones a Monster to the mighty Quia credo 〈…〉 glosseth because I beleeve what I yet see not viz. that this storm shall blow over and I he reâ—â—â—ed in my Throne Vers 8. 〈…〉 Vers 9. Cast me not off in the time of old age For now I have most need of thee The white Rose is soonest cankered so is the white Head soonest corrupted
contentions that were in the Church might be quenched though it were with his bloud so when he dyed he was more sollicitous of the Churches welfare than of his own Vers 2. He shall judge thy people with righteousness sc If thou please to remember thy promise to me and to answer this my prayer of faith founded thereupon And thy poor Or thine afflicted The people the poor afflicted especially are the Lords and therefore not to bee tyrannized over and trampled on by their Governours Vers 3. The mountain shall bring peace i. e. They shall not be so pestered and infested by Theeves and Robbers who usually 〈◊〉 and hide themeselves in hills and hollow places By righteousness By right administration of Justice as it was here in King Alfreds days who ordained that his 〈◊〉 should be divided into Tâ—â—s or Tythings every of which severally should give Bond for the good abearing of each other and he who was of that 〈◊〉 behaviour that he could 〈◊〉 be admitted to these Tythings was forth wich conveyed to the House of Correction The ancientest of these men were called by a specialty the Tything men Vers 4. He shall judge the 〈◊〉 of the people Indeed all indifferently without respect of persons but a poor mans Tale shall be heard and his Cause judged as well as a rich mans Under Christs Government it shall be so howsoever I know thy poverty but thou art rich saith he Rev. 3.9 Amongst men both in sures of Love and of Law Money maketh Mistery Not so here And shall break in peeces the oppressour The Syceyâ—â—nt saith the Creek the Slanderer saith the Latine the Devil say some Over these He shall turn the wheel Vers 5. They shall fear this Who hast blessed them with so good a King such as maketh it his main care to set up God where-ever he hath to do As long as the Sun and Moon 〈…〉 The Lacedonians publickly professed Quoad sol codem it itenire maebit quo 〈◊〉 meet 〈…〉 sociat cum Xerxe 〈◊〉 whiles the Sun shall hold on his course we will never make a League with Xerxes Vers 6. He shall come down like rain upon the 〈◊〉 grass That is he shall bee very dear to us and much delighted in See Job 29.23 with the Note As showers that water the earth This is chiefly fulfilled in Christ who by raining down righteousness maketh his Church to grow and flourish Vers 7. In his days shall the righteous flourish As watered Gardens Jar. 31.12 or as the Willows by the water courses Isa 44.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And abundance of peace The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and affurance for ever Isa 32.17 Christs subjects have peace 〈◊〉 Isa 25.3 a multiplied peace a multiplied pardon Isa 55.7 where sin aboundeth grace superaboundeth neither can they commit more than God will remit unto them Vers 8. He shall have dominion also from Sea to Sea Salomon shall from the Mediterranean in the West to the Persian Sea or Indian Ocean in the East And from the river unto the ends of the earth i.e. From Euphrates and the Northern Countries to Aegypt and the utmost pares of all Africa This was a Type of Christs universal dominion thoroughout the whole World Zech. 9.9 Psal 110.1 Vers 9. They that dwell in the Wildereness Wild Barbarous rude people such as were the ancient Britains our Progenitours till Christ the Sun of righteousness shone upon them till they were brought to the obedience of faith Bond in Horsâ— Tunâ— enim sensinâ— evannit ferit as indias ezulavit immanit as corruit crudelites c. for then it was otherwise And his enemies shad lick the dust A Ceremony much in use among the Easterlings Prostrani adorant hiâ—rationemâ— saith Herodotus of the Persians Lib. 1. they worship their betters by falling to the ground before them and how Tridetes King of Parthians worshipped Nero. is to be read in Die Cassius Christs foes shall all bee made his footstool Vers 10. The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles i.e. All the Kings of the earth which being encompassed with the Ocean is therefore by the old Geographers called a great Island Judes though part of the Conâ—iâ—â—â—at is called an Isle Isa 20.6 because separated from other Countries with whom God would have his people to have as little to do as might be that they might not be corrupted with forein fashion This was a 〈…〉 in Salomon See 1 King 4.21 24 chap. 10.25 perfectly it is and shall be in Christ De 〈…〉 of the Christ a certain saith Kimchi all the Kingdom of the earth shall one day but his Kingdoms he shall be the 〈…〉 and be alone Ver. 11. 〈◊〉 King 〈…〉 Vers 12. For 〈…〉 If the people complained of See on vers 9. If the people complained of Salomon 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 yoke 〈◊〉 as by thy Father it was but of a sinful 〈…〉 saith 〈…〉 people 〈◊〉 know when they are well but quarrelling at and complaining of the present Government you even 〈◊〉 Christs 〈◊〉 yoke and light burden as if importable Vers 13. He shall spare the poor an 〈◊〉 Hereby David sheweth his Son and all his Successours Quaâ—â— debent 〈…〉 what manner of man a King ought to be Regiment without Righteousness turneth into tyranny it is but Robbery with authority O. Scipio Nastra for his good Government was â—â—â—med Optimus by the Senate and had an house gived him at the Pâ—â—lick charge in 〈◊〉 saira that the poor might repair to him Vers 14. He shall redeem their soul from decent and violence Those two noted Engines of all mischief to the poor viz. privy deceit Ufury the Septuagint and Vulgar render it and open violence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fraud and force craft and cruelty And precious shall their bloud be in his sight He shall be very tender of their lives that they bee not causelesly cast away either in times of Peace or War Precious also in the sight of the Lord Christ is the death of his 〈◊〉 his Martyrs Psal 116 15. Vers 15. And he shall live The King shall according to the poor mans prayer when releeved or the poor shall and the King shall give him gold brought from Sheon or 〈◊〉 the happy Whereupon Prayer shall be 〈◊〉 c. By the poor for him or though 〈◊〉 applying it to Christ and for the increase of his Kingdom and for his coming Vers 16. There shall be an handful of Corn â—amp c. 〈◊〉 The batrâ—â— mountain shall yeeld Corn abundantly and also by handfuls as 〈◊〉 in those seven years of plenty Gen. 41.47 The fruit thereof shall 〈◊〉 The Corn shall 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 like the Trees in Lebanon shaken by the Wind. And they of the city shall flourish Men also increase and multiply Jerem. 31.27 to a very great number as piles of Grass Christs subjects shall Vers 17. 〈…〉 for ever i. e. His Kingdom for it shall not bee nomen
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
they were first written And the people which shall be created Created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 Isa 51.16 his regenerated people For God planteth the heavens and layeth the foundations of the earth that be may say to Zion Thou art my people Vers 19. For he hath looked down from the height c. This is no small condescention sith he abaseth himself to look upon things in heaven Psal 113.6 From heaven did the Lord behold the earth That is his poor despised servants that are in themselves no better than the earth they tread on Vers 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner Those prisoners of hope held so long captive in Babylon the cruelty whereof is graphically described Jer. 51.34 Vers 21. To declare the Name of the Lord in Zion This shall bee the business of the converted Gentiles to make up one Catholick Church with the Christian Jews and to bear a part in setting forth Gods worthy prayses See vers 18. Vers 22. When the people are gathered together sc to the Lord Christ For to Shilâ—â— shall be the gathering of the people Gen. 49.10 And the Kingdoms to serve the Lord As they did under Constantine the Great Valentinian Theodosius which three Emperors called themselves Vasalles Christi as Socrates reporteth the Vassals of Christ And the like may be said of other Christian Kings and Princes since who have yeelded professed subjection to the Gospel and cast their Crowns at Christs feet Vers 23. He weaâ—ned my strength in the way This is the complaint of the poor captives yet undelivered In via hoc est in vita quia bic sumus viatores in coelo comprehensores here wee are but on our way to heaven and wee meet with many discouragements He shortned my dayes viz. According to my account For otherwise in respect of God our dayes are numbred Stat sua cuique dies Vers 24. Take me not away in the midst of my dayes Heb. Make me not to ascend Serus in coelum redeam Fain I would live to see those golden dayes of Redemption Abraham desired to see the day of Christ Job 8. Simeon did and then sang out his soul All the Saints after the Captivity looked hard for the consolation of Israel Thy years are throughout all generations And that 's the comfort of thy poor Covenanters who are sure to participate of all thy goods Vers 25. Of old thou hast laid the foundation c. Here is a clear proof of Christs eternity Heb. 1.10 because he was before the creation of the world and shall continue after the consummation thereof vers 26 27. So the Saints a parte pest 1 Job 2.17 The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Vers 26. They shall perish i.e. They shall change form and state being dissolved by the last fire 2 Pet. 3.7 10. But thou shalt endâ—re Heb. Stand and with thee thy Church Mat. 22.32 Yea all of them shall wax old as a garment Which weareth in the wearing so do the visible heavens and the earth what ever some write de constantia naturae Isaiah saith It rotteth as a book that is vener andae rubiginiâ— and wasteth away as smoak chap. 65.17 and 66.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tucetu Arab. At a vesture shalt thou change them The Greek hath roul them confer Isa 34 4. Vers 27. But thou art the same Therefore immutable because Eternall ut nihil tibi possit accedere vel decidere Vers 28. The children of thy servants shall continue By vertue of the Covenant and that union with thee which is the ground of communion If it could be said of Cesar that he held nothing to he his own that he did not communicate to his friends how much more of Christ Propterea bene semper sperandum etiamsi 〈◊〉 ruant the Church is immortal and immutable PSAL. CIII A Psalm of David Which he wrote when carried out of himself as far as heaven saith Beza and therefore calleth not upon his own soul onely but upon all creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest worm to set forth Gods praises Vers 1. Bless the Lord O my soul Agedum animulâ— mi intima mea visera A good mans work lyeth most within doors he is more taken up with his own heart than with all the world besides neither can he ever be along so long as he hath God and his own soul to converse with Davids Harp was not ofâ—ner out of tune than his heart which here he is setting right that he may the better make melody to the Lord. Musick is sweet but the setting of the strings in tune is unpleasing so is it harsh to set out hearts in order which yet must be done and throughly done as here And all that is within me All my faculties and senses The whole soul and body must be set a work in this service the judgement to set a right estimate upon mercies the memory to recognize and retain them Dent. 6 11 12. and 8.14 the Will which is the proper seat of thankfulness the affections love desire joy confidence all must bee actuated that our praises may be cordial vocal vital In peace-offerings God called for the sat and inwards Vers 2. Bless the Lord O my soul David found some dulness and drowsiness hence he so oft puts the thorn to the breast hence he so impeâ—â—ously instigateth his soul as One shere phraseth it And forget not all his benefits Forgetfulness is a grave look to it Eaten bread is soon forgotten with us as it is with children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pinâ—u neither perisheth any thing so soon with many as a good turn Alphonsus King of Arragon professed that hee wondred not so much at his Courtiers ingratitude to him who had raised many of them from mean to great estates which they little remembred as at his own to God Vers 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities David not only taketh upon him with an holy imperiousness laying Gods charge upon his soul to be thankful but intending to shew himself good cause why to be so he worthily beginneth with remission of fin as a complexive mercy and such as comprehendeth all the rest He had a Crown of pure gold set upon his head Psal 21. But here hee blesseth God for a better Crown vers 4. Who crowneth thee with loving kindness c. And how was this Crown set on his head but by forgiving all his iniquities Who healeth all thy diseases Corporal and spiritual Quod saniâ—as in corpore id sanctitas in corde Jehovah Rophe or the Lord the Physician as he is called Exod. 15.26 cureth His people on both fides maketh them whole every whit See Isa 19.22 Mat. 8.17 He bore out diseases Vers 4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction From hell saith the Chaldee from a thousand deaths and dangers every day All this Christ our kind kinsman doth for us dying