can suck honey out of a flower so cannot a flye they should busie their eyes and regard the work of the Lord Isai 5.12 Psal 35.27 Ezek. 3.12 yea they should so consider the operation of his hand as to say sensibly Let the Lord be magnified Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place God hath delivered me out of all trouble saith David and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies The Edomites stood looking on and laughing at the Israelites destruction Obad. 12.13 God saw this and it displeased him as he is wondrous sensible of the least indignity done to his people He therefore payes them home in their own coyn and promiseth his Israel that they shall rejoyce when they see the vengeance Psal 58.10 they shall wash their feet in the blood of these wicked ones become more cantelous by their just destruction Learn we hence First To have our eyes open upon the judgements of God whether general or personal that nothing of this nature passe our observation lest we incur the curse denounced Isa 5.12 and be made examples to others because we would not be warned by the example of others Lege historiam ne fias historiae Sodom and Domorrah are thrown forth as Saint Iude hath it for an example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 June 7. Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 2. suffering the vengeance of eternal fire And Herodotus saith That the ruines and rubbish of Troy are set forth for an example of this rule That National sins bring national plagues and that God greatly punisheth great offences Let him that looketh upon me learn to fear God These words were engraven upon the standing picture of Sennacherib after that God had by an Angel slain his Army and sent him back with shame to his own countrey as the same Herodotus testifieth Secondly Learn we how far forth we may look upon the overthrow of the wicked with delight viz. Not as our own private but as Gods professed enemies Not simply for their ruine but as it is a clearing of Gods glory and of our integrity Psal 9.16 1 Sam. 25.39 Not out of private revenge but pure zeal for God and his cause I say pure zeal for it is difficult to kindle and keep quick the fire of Zeal without all smoke of sinister and selfe-respects And ye shal say The Lord will be magnified c. Or The Lord hath magnified himself i. e. hath declared himself mightily to be a great King above all Gods by executing judgement upon these Grandees of the earth Exod. 18.11 and making out that In the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Hâ—nce it is that praise waiteth for God in Zion 1 Sam. 12.28 his Name is great in Israel He is sent unto as sometime Ioab sent to David to come and take the city of Rabbah to take the glory of all their deliverances and victories Not unto us Lord not unto us say they but to thy Name be the praise Hunniades would not own or accept the peoples applanses and acclamations Turk hist but ascribed all to God So did our Henry the fift at the battel of Agincourt Speed 799. where he won the day He would not admit his broken Crown or bruised Armour to be born before him in shew which are the usual ensigns of war-like triumphs He also gave strait order that no ballad or song should be made or sung more then of thanksgiving to the Lord for his happy victory and safe return c. Dan. 101 Polyd. Virg. lib. 19. So our Edward the third after his victory at Poictiers where he took the French King prisoner Anno 1356. took speedy order by Simon Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that eight dayes together should be spent in magnifying the Lord from the border of England From the borders of Israel Or from beyond the borders of Israel viz. thronghout the wide world The Saints have large hearts and could beteem the Lord much more praise and service then they have for him Psal 1.45.2 Psal 48.10 Psal 103. They would praise him infinitely and according to his excellent greatness filling up the distance as it were and calling in all the help they can get of Angels men unreasonable and insensible creatures as David did c. Verse 6. A son honoureth his father Heb. Will honour his father Nature teacheth him this lesson to reverence his father Pater est si pater non esset said the young man in Terence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl It is my father I must not crosse him Our parents are our houshold Gods said another heathen and to have all possible respect from us To God and our parents saith Aristotle we can never make recompence There is no nation so barbarous that acknowledgeth not this natural axiom A son must honour his father and a servant his master as Eleazar did Abraham the Centurions servants him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by being at his beck and check in all things Servus est nomen officii A servant is not one that moveth absolutely of himself but he is the masters instrument and wholly his saith Aristoâ—le and therefore oweth him all love reverence and obedience as if he were many Masters in one the word here used for Master is plural Now from this Principle in nature thus laid down the Lord tacitly accuseth them First Of Ingratitude for his great love to them evinced and evidenced in the former verses Secondly Of contempt cast upon him and his service as appeareth first by the application of that natural law confirmed by the custom of all countries If then I be a father c. As you commonly call me and claim me Ier. 3.4 Iohn 8.41 We have one Father even God And you have been long since taught Io to do by Moses and told by what right I come to be your Father though with an exprobration of your detestable undutifulnesse Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord Is not he thy Father and is not he by the same right and reason thy master too that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established or preserved thee Hath he not more then all that adopted and accepted thee for his childe 1 Pet. 1.3 begetting thee again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unlesse thou be still in thy sinnes then the which thou canst not chuse unto thy self a worse condition All which considered what more equal then that I should have both love from thee as a father and fear as a master A mixture of both is required of all Gods children and servants that they yield unto him an amicable fear and a reverent love that they look at once upon his bounty and severity Rom. 11.12 and so call God Father that they spend the whole time of their sojourning here in fear that they fear God and his goodness
Petition of Right 1629 4 87 Severall Catechismes in Welch 8 88 An Analysis on the â— Timothy 1.15 with an Appendix câ—â—led Chronologia vapulans py Laurence Sarson fellow of Emmanuel Colledge Camb. 4 89 The Strong Helper offering to bear every mans bâ—then shewing how in all troubles to cast our burthen on God with infallible grounds of comfort for the quieting of troubled consciences by Jo. Haiward 8 90 A Commentary upon the XII Minor Prophets wherein the Text is explained some Controversies discused sundry Cases of Conscience cleered and many remarkable matters handled that had by former Interpreters been pretâ—mitted Hereunto is added the Righteous Mans Recompence or a true Christian Characterized and encouraged out of Masdhi Chap. 3. vers 16 17 18. by John Trapp of Weston upon Avon in Gloucester-shire A COMMENT OR EXPOSITION Of the Prophesie of HOSEA CHAP. I. Verse 1. THE Word of the Lord Not cunningly devised fables 2 Pet. 1.16 or humane testimonies that can make but a humane faith but the word of the everliving God the Scripture that cannot be broken John 10.35 1 Thes 2.13 the very heart and soul of God as Gregory cals it That came unto Hosea The Lord is said to come to Laban Abimelech Balaam c. Cor anima Dei. But he never concredited his word to any such profane wretches as he did to the holy Prophets which have been since the world began of whom it is said as here The word of the Lord came to Hosea Luke â— His name signifieth a Saviour a fit name for a Minister whose work it is to save himself and them that hear him To save them if he can Obad. 21. 1 Tim. 4.16 to deliver their souls from going into the pit Joh 33.24 to pull them if possible out of the fire Jude 23. to give them the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin to give it I say not by infusion for that he cannot do but by instruction and that he must indeavour to do Luke 1.77 as this Prophet did then whom few Ministers ever ran so long a race without cessation or cespitation so constantly so couragiously so unweariable For he continued prophecying sixty five years at least saith Pareus seventy saith Oecolampadius it is very probable fourscore years saith Mr Burroughes The Hebrews say ninty years quibus multa dixit quae non scripsit wherein he uttered much more then he wrote This we may easily believe for we have but the short Notes or heads of his Sermons and larger Discourses which he seems also to have set down for the use of the Church in his extream old age whereof they carry a smatch in the shortnesse of his speech applied as much as might be to the measure of his breath Hence Hierom fitly calleth him commâ—ticum quasi per sententias loquentem concise and sententious Amputatas loquitur sententias verba ante expectatum cadentia Victor Giselin de Salust stylo Lud. Vives as one saith of Salust Multo est verbis quam sensu restrictior atque concisior as another saith of Livy He speaketh much in few and seems to have more sentences then sayings The ofner you read him the more you may get by him nunquam tamen dimittat te sine siti Lips de Thucyd. and yet the more you get the more you covet Obscure he is as delivering things briefly and such as will not be easily acquainted with you but upon further suit Hence that Epiphonema in the perclose of his prophesie Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them But this must waken and not weaken our more diligent search not being content with the first oar that offereth it self to our view but digging deeper and deeper till we become owner of the whole treasure which will sufficiently pay for the pains Wherefore search the Scripture follow on to know the Lord get all the dimensions of knowledge which now in the great abundance of the means we have doth even bow down to us as trees do that are laden with fruit so that a child may gather from them the son of Beeri That is of a well that hath pure and clear water in it and that never faileth living water as the Scripture calleth it and not mixt with mud Ministers should be the children of Beeri of a well digged by the direction of the law-giver Numb 21.17 whence people should draw waters with joy the pure waters of life the unadulterated milk of Gods word not troubled brackish and sowrish doctrines such as the Popish Clergy called therefore the Sea Rev. 12.12 do set abroach which rather brings barrennesse to their hearers and gnaws their entrals then quench their thirst or cause fruit These and all false teachers make Gods flock drink that which they have fouled with their feet Ezek. 34.19 yea impoysoned with their hands as the malicious Jews once cast bags of poison into many wells here to do mischief and were therefore banished the Countrey False doctrine is like a filthy pond wherein fish die soon and frogs live long it is like the dead Sea Rev. 8.10 11. or the great falling-star called Wormwood which made the third part of the waters become wormwood so that many men died of the waters because they were made bitter by that son of perdition who was himself the gall of bitternesse and bond of perdition Who this Beeri was it appears not in Scripture It seems he was a man famous in those dayes among the Israelites and is here named honoris gratia for honour sake to the Prophet as Alexander and Rufus the sons of Simon the Cyrenian were men famously known in the Church of the New Testament and are therefore but named only by S. Mark ch 15.21 The Jews have a tradition that whensoever a Prophets father is named that father was likewise a Prophet as well as the son And Beeri might be binominis and have some other name of more note like as Pethuel the father of the Prophet Joel Joel 1.1 Alsted is thought by some to have been Samuel and to have been called Pethuel that is a perswader of God because what he asked of God he obtained in the dayes of Vzziah Jotham Ahaz c. A young Prophet he must needs be especially if he prophesied fourscore years See the the note above Haply he began as early as did Samuel Jeremy Timothy Origen or Cornelius Mus of whom Sixtus Senensis testifieth Lib. 4. that he was an admirable preacher at twelve years old Vzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah The Throne of Judah had some enterchanges of good Princes Israel none at all The same justice therefore that made Israel a scourge to Judah made Assyria a scorpion to Israel as is here set forth under the type of Hosea's two last children Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi whereof in their place Mean-while this Prophet went through variety of conditions under so many
heritage Not of all but of those poor few that confesse and forsake their sins Pro. 28.13 and in whose spirit there is no guile Psa 32.2 that are mortified persons Rom. 11.26 with Esay 59.20 It is a priviledge proper to the Communion of Saints he retaineth not his anger for ever Angry he may be and smite in his anger Esay 57.17 yea he may take vengeance of the inventions of those whom he hath pardoned Psal 99.8 temporall vengeance I mean but it soon repenteth him concerning his servants and a little punishment serveth turn for a great offence Jer. 31.19 20 21. David no sooner said I have sinned but he heard The Lord hath taken away thy sin 2 Sam. 12. because he delighteth in mercy And hence he pardoneth iniquity of free-grace ex mero motu out of his pure and unexcited love out of his Philanthropy and undeserved favour the sole impulsive cause of pardon What a man delighteth to do he will do howsoever If the Sun delight to run his race who shall stop him If God so delight in mercy that he will save for his Names sake and come in with his Non obstante as he doth Psal 106.8 who or what shall hinder him Verse 19. He will turne again he will have compassion upon us Here 's the pith and power of faith particularly applying promises to a mans self Say that sin hath separated betwixt us and our God Esay 59.2 and made him send us farre away into captivity yet he will turn again and yern toward us he will turn again our captivity as the streams in the South His compassions are more then fatherly Psal 103.13 motherly Esay 49.15 brotherly Heb. 2.12 This the Church knows and therefore cries after him Cant. 8.14 Make hast my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart which when it fleeth looketh behind it saith the Chaldee Paraphrast there And this that he will do she is bold to beleeve He will he will and that to us saith the Prophet here Lo this is that work of faith to wrap it self in the promises as made to us in particular 1 Tim. 1.15 and unlesse faith be on this sort actuated it is as to comfort as good as no faith Compare Mat. 8.26 with Mark 4.40 He will subdue our iniquities By force and violence as the word signifieth subjugabit pessundabit conculcabit Sin is sturdy and will rebell where it cannot reigne It hath a strong heart and will not easily yeeld But yeeld it shall for God will subdue it And this is a further favour as every former is a pledge of a future To pardon of sinne God will adde power against sinne to justification by Christs merit sanctification by his Spirit he will let out the life-blood of sin and lay it adying at our feet he will tread Satan with all his black train under our feet shortly Rom. 16.20 He will not onely turn us againe but turne his hand upon us and purely purge away our drosse and take away all our tinne Esay 1.25 In fine hee will so mortifie the deeds of the body by his Spirit that sinne shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 shall not play Rex in us the traveller shall not become the man of the house as Nathans parable speaketh And thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the bottom of the sea Where-hence they shall never be boyed up again This the Prophet by an insinuating Apostrophe turneth himself to God and speaketh with much confidence Such is the nature of true faith sc to grow upon God and as I may so say to encroach as Moses did Exod. 33.12 13 c. to chap. 34.10 and as David did 1 Chron. 17.23 c. See how he improves Gods promise and works upon it ver 24 25. he goes it over again and yet still encroacheth and the effect was good chap. 18. We hinder our selves of much happinesse by a sinfull shamefacednesse Let us come boldly to the throne of grace Heb. 4. ult so shall we see our sins as Israel did the Egyptians dead on the shore Verse 20. Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham Heb. Thou wilt give for all is of free gift His love moved God to promise his truth binds him to performe 2 Sam. 7.18 21. For thy words sake and according to thine own heart hast thou done all these things Having made himself a voluntary debter to his people he will come off fairly with them and not bee worse then his word but better Hence Rev. 10.1 Christ is said to have a rainbowe upon his head to shew that he is faithfull and constant in his promises and that tempests should blow over the skie be cleared For this is as the waters of Noah unto mee saith the Lord for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee For the mountains shall depart c. Esay 54.9 10. God hath hitherto kept promise with nights and dayes Jer. 33.20 25. that one shall succeed the other therefore much more will he keep promise with his people which thou hast sworn unto our fathers And in them to us by vertue of the covenant So he spake with us when he spake with Jacob at Bethel Hos 12.4 and that the promises sworn to the Fathers of the old Testament belong also to us of the New See Luke 1.55 73 74. Now that God swore at any time to them or us hee did it for our sakes doubtlesse that by two iâ—â—â—â—table things in which it was impossible for God to lie wee might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6.17 18. See the Note there Gloria Deo in Excelsis A COMMENT OR EXPOSITION Upon the Prophesie of NAHUM CHAP. I. Verse 1. THE burden of Nineveh i. e. The burdenous prophesie See the Note on Malac. 1.1 It is a burden to wicked men to be told of their sinnes and foretold of their punishments To whom we may not unfitly apply that of the Civilian Perquà m durum est Vlpian sed ita lex scripta est If it be so tedious to hear of it what will they do to bear it Nineveh had fair warning before by Jonah and for present the unclean spirit seemed to be cast out of her but he returned soon after with seven worse as appears by this Prophesie and so their last state was worse then the former Mat. 12.45 Their bile half-healed breaking out again proved to be the plague of leprosie Lev. 13.18 19 20. such as shut them out of heaven God will do good to those that are good and continue so But as for those that turn aside unto their crooked wayes as all Apostates do the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity as cattle are led to the slaughter or malefactours to
saith David Psal 51.4 Lo there lay this pinch of his grief that he had offended so good a God It was the Myrrhe and its scent that Christ had dropped on the bars of the door that waked the drousy Spouse and made her bowels fret Cant. 5. This made her first weep in secret and then seek out after him whom her soul loved She first went to enquire of the Lord as Rebecca did Gen. 25.22 and then she hears from him those sweet words Cant. 2.14 Oh my dove that art in the clefts of the rocks that hast wrought thy self a burrough a receptacle of rest in the Rock of ages in the secret places of the stars whither thou art retired as for security so for secrecy to mourn as a dove and to pray for pardon Shew me thy face which now appeareth most orientally beautiful because most instampt with sorrow for sin Let me hear thy voice which never sounds so melodiously as when thy heart is broken most penitentially for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance comly and their wives apart Sarah had her peculiar tent Ge. 24.65 wherein she dwelt Ge. 18.6 died Ge. 23.2 Rebecca likewise had her retiring-room whither she went to enquire of the Lord Ge. 25.22 Rachel Leah had their several tents apart from Iacobs Ge. 31.33 Miriam and her women do apart by themselves praise God for deliverance Exo. 15.20 Esth 4.16 I and my maidens will fast likewise saith Esther In a time of solemn humiliation let the bride-groom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet Ioel 2.16 See 1 Cor. 7.5 Amongst both Jews Greeks and Romans the women were separated from the men in publike acts and assemblies in times of common calamity especially as may be gathered out of Plutarch Athenaeus Virgil Livy ad templum non aequae Palladis ibant Iliades Stratae passim Matres crinibus Templa verrentes veniam irarum coelestium exposcant saith He The men by themselves and the women by themselves sought to appease the angry Gods Here they are severed to shew that they wept not for company sed sponte proprio affectu as Calvin hath it but of their own accord and out of pure affection they freely lamented not so much for Christs dolorous death as for that themselves had a chief hand in it and were the principal causes of it The best kinde of humiliation is to love and weep as that woman did Luk. 7. who made her eyes a fountain to wash Christs feet in and had his side opened for a fountain to wash her soul in as it is Chap. 13.1 A remnant according to the election of grace Rom. 11.5 all the families that remain Out of every family of this people God will have some converts A thing so incredible that to perswade it the Prophet may here seem to some prophane person to use more words then needeth CHAP. XIII Verse 1. IN that day there shall be a fountain opened Nunc fructum poenitentiae adiungit sath Calvin here This is the fruit of their repentance No sooner mourn they over Christ but they are received to mercy I said I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord and or ever I can do it thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin that is both the sting and stain of it the guilt and the filth Psal 32.5 the crime and the curse Repent and your sins shall be blotted out saith Peter to those nefarious Kill-Christs Act. 3.9 God will crosse the black lines of your sins with the red lines of his sons blood 1 Ioh. 1.6 A fountain shall be opened not a cistern but a spring a pool better then that of Siloam which is by interpretation Sent Iohn 9.7 and so a type of Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen To seal up this matchlesse mercy to us Rev. 1.5.6 he sent first by the hand of his forerunner and baptized those that repented for the remission of sins Mat. 3.2 Act. 2.38 And afterwards he set wide open this blessed fountain this laver of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 Saying by his Ministers to every beleever as once to Paul Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord. Act. 22.16 whereunto salvation is promised Rom. 10.13 Ioel 2.22 Baptisme also is said to save us 1 Pet. 3.21 sc sacramentally for it sealeth up salvation to the beleever Mar. 16.16 and is of perpetual and permanent use to him for that purpose his whole life thorowout ut scaturigo semper ebulliens as a fountain bubbling up to eternal life Here then the Sacrament of Baptisme is prophecied of and promised And hence haply the Baptisme of Iohn is said to have been from heaven Mat. 21.25 All the Levitical purifications pointed to this Kings-Bath of Christs meritorious blood this ever-flowing overflowing fountain for the grace of our Lord Jesus hath abounded to flowing over as S. Pauls expression is with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither can it ever be dried up as was the river Cherith the brooks of Tema c. but is an inexhausted fountain a fresh-running spring for all that have but a minde to make toward it Tam recens mihi nunc Christus est ac si hac horâ fudisset sanguinem saith Luther Christ is still as fresh and soveraign to me as if this very hour he had shed his blood He was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world and shall be so to the end thereof Cruci haeremus sanguinem sugimus intra ipsa Redemptoris nostri vulnera figimus linguam saith Cyprian of the Lords Supper i. e. We cleave to the crosse at this holy ordinance we suck Christ's blood we thrust our tongues into the very wounds of our Redeemer and are hereby purged from all pollutions of flesh and spirit to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem i. e. To all sorts and sexes of penitents be they noble or ignoble strong Christians or weak see Zach. 12.8 none shall be secluded from this fountain thus opened or exposed to all not sealed and shut up as that Cant. 4.12 God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him Act. 10.34 35. and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him for sin and for uncleannesse i. e For all sorts of sinnes though they be such as in their desert do separate us from communion with God and company of men See Levit. 12. and 15. render us worthy to be excommunicated proscribed and banished out of the world as pists and botches of humane society by a common consent of nations as the obstinate Iews are at this day for their inexpiable guilt in crucifying Christ The vulgar here
of the Lord so we read 2 Chron. 31.4 that is that they might not follow their callings heavily for want of maintenance but cherefully bend themselves wholy to the service of the Lord. And here as Ferus once wished for the Romish synagogue I would we had some Moses said He to take away the evils of the times non enim unum tantum vitulum sed multos habemus for we have not one golden calf but many So have we of these times cause to wish we had some zealous Nehemiahs and Hezekiahs to stickle and stand for Christs Ministers not defrauded of their due maintenance only a signe of gasping devotion but trampled upon by the foul feet of the basest of the people as the filth of the world and the offcouring of all things Tythes they say are Iewish but if Melchisedech tythed Abraham by the same right whereby he blessed him Heb. 7. and if tythes by all lawes of God Nature Nations have been hallowed to God as Junius and other modern Divines alledge and argue and lastly if things consecratd to Gods service may not be alienated out of case of necessity Pro. 20.25 Gal. 3.15 it will appear to be otherwise Or if tythes be Jewish and yet Ministers must have a maintenance Christ having so ordained 1 Cor. 9.14 and that both honourable 1 Tim. 5.17 18. and liberall Gal. 6.6 how else shall they be given to hospitality 1 Tim. 2.2 if they be not hospitable they will be despicable how will men satisfie their consciences in the quota pars the particular quantity they must bestow upon them The scripture speaketh only of the tenth part Sed manum de tabula Enough of this if not more then enough Verse 9. Ye are cursea with a curse Vuig ye are cursed with penury and scarcity of victuals according to Deut. 28.23 c. and so great was this peoples poverty that they were forced for food to sell not their fields only but their sons and daughters Neh. 5. They had pinched on Gods side and he had paid them home in the same kind they thought in the famine to have kept the more to themselves and they had the lesse for keeping from him that which was his A just hand of God upon all church-robbers for most part they are alwayes in want and needy their wealth melting away as snow before the sun and their fields of blood purchased with the spoiles of Christ proving as unfortunate and fatall to them as the gold of the Temple of Tholose did to Scipio's souldiers of which whoever carried any part away never prospered afterward What get men by such a detiny that shall prove their fatall destiny Say they leave the gold behind them yet they are likely to carry the guilt to hell with them Iem 5.1 2. yea to cough in hell as Latimer phrased it unlesse they make restitution to disgest in hell what they have devoured on earth as Austin Because Pharaoh faith the river is mine own therefore faith God I will dry up the river Ezek. 29.3 9. The Merchant that denyeth to pay his custome forseits all his commodities so here for ye have robbed me And therefore I have cursed you God never punisheth people but there is just cause for it could they but see it but that the are hardly drawn to as here and Esay 26.11 the root of the matter is in themselves as job speakes in another case the plague of their own hearts 1 King 8 38. procureth them all the mischief and may say to them as the heart of Apoâ—â—â—â— us the tyrant seemed to say to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who dreamed one night that he was steaed by the Scythians and boyled in a caldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle It is I that have drawn thee to all this Let men therefore when under any misery lay their hand upon their heart thrust their hand into their besom with Moses they shall be sure to bring it out lepious let them turn short again upon themselves and say every man What have I done what evill have I committed or at least admitted what good have I omitted or intermitted Profane Esau beguiled of the blessing cryes out of his fathers store of his brothers subtlety not a word of his own prophanenesse in slighting and selling his birth-right he had forgot since he did eat and drink and went his way Gen. 25.4 The lerusalem-Paraphrast adds that he also despised his portion in the world to come and denyed the resurrection But this he never taketh notice of So Pompey beaten by Caesar out of the field blamed the divine providence for his ill successe when he should rather have faulted his own retchlesse security that he never considered into what place he were best to retire if worsted and especially his sacriledge not long before that defeat when he sackt Jerusalem and ransackt the Temple He might have considered what became a little before his time for the same offence of Alcimus 1 Maccah 9.54 55 56. 2 Maccah 3.24 25. and 4.39 41.42 and 5.15 16. and 13.4 8. and 15.30 34 Heliodorus Lysimachus Antiochus Menclaus and Nicanor all notorious Church-robbers and all hang'd u in gibbets as it were for example and admonition to all that should come after Sacriledge is a share saith Solomon Pro. 20.25 that 1. catcheth suddenly 2. holdeth surely 3. desroyeth certainly Cavete even this whole nation The disease was grown Epidemicall like that which Physicians call corruptio totius substantiae or that which he Prophet Esay also complaineth of chap. 1.5 6. The whole head is sick the whole heart is faint c. This sin of sacriledge was grown Nationall there was a conjuncture of all sorts in this wickednesse a rabble of rebels they were ripe for judgement yea though Gods judgements were upon them yet they persisted Neh. 13.18 and encreased wrath Ezra 9.13 God had smitten them but they sorrowed not Ier. 5.3 but to be revenged on him as it were for laying famine upon them they took away his tythes c. Verse 10. Bring ye all the tythes into the store-house All whether praediall or personall all and of every kind into the store-house the standing place for tythes as it is called Neh. 13.11 12 13. the tyth-barn as the Vulgar hath it that there may be meat in my house Tereph unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the English prey that there may be maintenance for my Ministers Cibus qui discerpi dividi disiribuiq polest enough not for themselves only but for to be distributed to those that are about them that they may not cat their morsels alone that they may not be slaves to others servants to themselves that they may not bite with their teeth and cry peace teach for hire and divine for money Mic. 3.5 11. that is be fain to maintain themselves with sordid and unworthy flatteries Balaam the false Prophet rode with his two men Num. 22.