Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	according_a	speak_v	zion_n	54	3	9.2979	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55226	A commentary on the prophecy of Malachi, by Edward Pocock D.D. Canon of Christ-Church, and Regius Professor of the Hebrew tongue, in the University of Oxford	Pococke, Edward, 1604-1691.	1677 (1677)	Wing P2661A; ESTC R216989	236,012	119

expressed and beyond which nothing but the inexpressible terror of the conflagration of the whole World at the last day of which therefore it is as we have said usually interpreted can be imagined and nearer to which no terrible judgement in the World ever on any People executed came or can well come then this here spoken of While he saith that the day shall burn as an oven what doth it less then represent the condition of those whom the judgement spoken of shall then seize to be as if they were surrounded with fire without possibility of avoiding the fury and dire effects thereof then which nothing we know is to men more terrible as if the heavens were on fire over their heads and made an hideous noise and the Elements melted with fervent heat about them and the Earth and all the works therein were burning that we may take in and so compare with these those not unlike expressions in II Pet. III. 10 12. by which usually the terror of the day of the last general Judgement is thought to be described but in the opinion of the learned Doctor Hammond this that is here spoken of viz. that of the judgement threatn'd to the obstinate Jewish Nation The words as there so here also are such as no figurative or hyperbolical expressions that can be possibly used for setting forth a most dreadful judgement can surpass yet so great was the judgement according to this prediction executed on them as that we may look on them not as a figurative but real description of what should be What could be said less to express the face of things when their stately City and magnificent Temple were all at once on fire and none could quench it may it not well be said that the day there then burnt like an oven and in words appositely here appliable though spoken to another sense Isa. XXXI 9 that Gods fire was then in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem To shew how in that day that day of punishment as an ancient Arabick Translator not unfitly for expressing the sense renders it that which he before said concerning a certain discrimination to be made between the righteous and the wicked should be made evident he describes in the following words the effects of it and first as concerning the wicked saying and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly all those that obstinately went on in wicked courses and contemned God and his Laws shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts c. Where is now then any occasion to say as they did c. III. 15 we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are delivered what shall now become of their happiness and of their glory when they shall be but as stubble before the fire which shall without delay or resistance be certainly consumed where is now that deliverance that they talked of how shall they deliver themselves who shall deliver them no escape shall there be found for them such utter destruction shall that day that cometh in that dreadful manner bring on them as if they were clear burnt up so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch which is apparently contrary to that being set up or built c. III. 15 This also is a proverbial speech to express utter destruction by a similitude taken from a tree destroyed not only by having its boughs and branches cut off but its roots also plucked up The Chalde Paraphrast renders it shall not leave them son nor nephew because saith Kimchi explaining it the first son is as the root and his son is as the branch but we may rather say it shall leave neither them nor their posterity the Father being the root the sons and posterity branches from him That interpretation of the Chalde being by most of the Jewish Expositors followed Abarbinel not seeing how that may be so conveniently applied to the punishment of the wicked at the Resurrection finds out another explication which he thinks more convenient viz. That what is said is concerning the good works of wicked men for which because in this World they receive their reward God will not there leave to them any root or branch of any commandment by them performed or any good work for which they may receive reward in the day of Judgement according to a saying of their Rabbins That he the most of whose works are evil and the least part good he is rewarded for his small righteousness in this World that he may be wholy punished in the World to come This he gives as his own opinion though a very far fetched one not knowing how to adapt otherwise the words of the Text to that punishment of the day of Judgement which he here thinks to be the day spoken of Other opinions he mentions also as of some that by branch is understood the infants of wicked men as if they should not be admitted into the World to come and otherwise that by root is understood the soul and by branch the body with the like neither root in this World nor branch in the World to come Among Christian Expositors also they who expound the Text concerning the day of Judgement are at some difference in applying the expression to the matter or thing signified but to them who go the way that we have chosen of expounding the Text concerning the day of the destruction of the Jews and their City by the Romans there is no difficulty but the proverbial speech may be interpreted as nigh to the letter as may be to denote Fathers and Children the wicked and their posterity Well may that day be said to have burnt them up and consumed them so as to leave them neither root nor branch when at that time Histories testify that in the Siege and taking of the City there perished of them by fire famine and sword no less then eleven hundred thousand to which if we add those vast multitudes and many thousands of others which were immediatly and within the space of few years after by the same enemies destroyed which all we may account as consumed by the time which is called that day having the authority of a Jew Kimchi himself so far to extend the notion of that day and reckon all for one continued day of destruction while he saith although it be said that the day shall burn them up yet their destruction shall not be all in one day but they shall go on in perishing and in a short time be consumed add I say those great multitudes to the former if there be need and what less can be said to express the greatness of the desolation and destruction then that they were cut off root and branch so far that it is no small wonder that there should be any remainder of them These things are manifest out of the Histories of those times especially

out of Josephus's History of the Jewish War in the sixth Book according to the Greek division the seventh according to the Latin and Eusebius lib. 3. c. 5. as to the main and first part concerning the destruction of the City and those multitudes that were then there gathered together and perished and as to the gleanings of that day as we may call the following destructions of the Jews out of such other Historians as relate the great variety of miseries and calamities which one on the back of another befell them by their pride as it is here called and obstinate behaviour towards the Lord pulled on them If any have not opportunity of consulting those Histories he may without farther trouble find enough collected out of them by D r Hammond in his Annotations on the New Testament in which he applies several things which by reason of the dreadfull expressions in which they are set down or denounced are usually by Interpreters applied to the last general Judgement and destruction of the whole World particularly to this day of Jerusalem which we look on as here meant to shew that if what is here said in the highest language that a scene of horror may be represented by be applied to what was then really done there will be found no great hyperbole or figurative exceeding in it but rather a plain draught or description before hand according to which things were afterward acted By what hath been said appears what little reason there was to account the proud happy and those that work wickedness set up and that God delighted in them because at that time they were suffered to prosper but whether there were any profit in serving God and keeping his Ordinances and what should be done for them by which any might discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked that part of the question remains yet unanswered for if they perish with the wicked be involved in one common judgement with them what is their case yet better then theirs To this therefore a full answer follows in the next words 2 ¶ But unto you that fear my Name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall But unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings c. In these words is safety and happiness assured to the righteous in the day that the wicked shall be miserably destroyed so that there shall be a manifest discrimination between them What S. Peter saith The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgement to be punished II Pet. II. 9 which he infers from two examples before given viz. his saving Noah when he brought in the Floud upon the World of the ungodly And his delivering just Lot when he turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes and brought them to utter destruction by fire from Heaven ver 5 6 7. is here manifestly asserted in that the same day which shall come as a burning oven to the proud wicked ones to burn them up and destroy them shall be to those that fear the Name of the Lord as a glorious day wherein the benigne Sun shall arise with his best influences of comfort to them to cherish and refresh their drooping spirits It is well known that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsedakah here rendred righteousness is used to signify both justice or righteousness and also benignity or mercy and both significations will to this place well agree for that Salvation and comfort then to be reached forth to the righteous is a demonstration both of justice and mercy by it shall be declared the righteousness of God whose justice those wicked ones questioned saying where is the God of Judgement c. II. 17 in that he now rewardeth them for their obedience when he punisheth those that would not obey and by it also his mercy in sparing them though perhaps having many defects in them in that day of Judgment as a man spareth his own son that serveth him as he promiseth c. III. 17 And this would be a clear sense if we should no farther press the letter of the words then so by way of similitude to denote that the same time which should be to the wicked a day of utter destruction consuming them as fire should be by the justice and mercy of God to the godly as a fair day wherein the Sun doth kindly arise and benignly and largely impart his light as Drusius explains the expression for the comfort of men and other creatures a gracious and comfortable day a day of saving health to them so Kimchi not unaptly notes that the words import that they should be delivered from all evil and rejoyce with a good or glad heart But Interpreters think it not enough to stop here but farther enquire who is meant by this Sun and Christians generally agree that Christ who is Luke I. 78 called the day-spring or rising Sun is by this title meant and this day here spoken of being the day of his coming as it is c. III. 2 called he being entitled a Sun his coming in it may be well called his rising Why Christ may be so called many reasons may be and are brought by Interpreters But among them to our purpose in this place and according to our understanding of the time here spoken of the most agreeable will be because as by the Suns rising those things which before were covered in darkness are discovered and made apparent so by his coming in this manner both Gods justice and his mercy to them that feared his Name which before was not so discernible while he suffered them to be mixed with the wicked yea insulted over by them as if he did not own them more then others nor take any peculiar care of them so that they sate as it were in the shadow of death should now be made conspicuous to all in his freeing them from their oppressions delivering them from those judgements by which the wicked were destroyed and signally rewarding them for their obedience so that they that sate before in darkness now should see a great light and joyfully walk in it Such a difference should be in their condition from what it was before as that it might well be said The Sun of righteousness of justice and mercy was risen to them and that with healing in his wings i. e. his comfortable raies or beams as all agree by wings here to be meant The ordinary Sun kindly arising in the morning may at any time be said to bring healing in his wings to diffuse and communicate health by his raies both to men and other creatures which after his setting and in his absence all the night seem to droop languish to be sick and out of order and those that are so otherwise in that while to be more so Whence the

so far as that we cannot but look on him as the person here designed and have not reason to expect any other for making good as we have before said this here spoken What this last Rabbin adds They that will not be warned by his admonition shall be consumed and perish in the wilderness of the People or at the day of Judgement in the Land of Israel doth only shew that he knew not well what to say as to the curse or destruction here spoken of when or how it should be not willing to understand it of that destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans on their rejecting both John's and Christs admonitions which it is as we have before shewed evidently meant of He knows not on what to fix and so speaks at random that which signifies nothing and leaves the Reader in a maze But if it be applied to that all will run clear not so if to any other For against that which as we have seen many concurre in that it should be meant of the day of doome at Christs last coming to judge the World the form of the expression as is by some observed affords an evident argument lest I come saith the Lord and smite c. that shews that this judgement might by their repentance and conversion be prevented which is confirmed by what our Saviour saith Matt. XXIII 37 38. and Luke XIII 34 35. that therefore their house was left unto them desolate because they would not be gathered when he would have gathered them nor be brought to repentance by his call and that all those evils and a terrible destruction came upon them because they would not know the things that belonged to their peace nor the day of their visitation when they were told of them both by John and himself Luke XIX 42 and 44. But that general Judgement is a day that cannot by any means be prevented but shall in Gods appointed time certainly come so that lest I come cannot be applied to that For certainly he will come without any peradventure As for the explication of the word earth viz. that by it is here meant the Land of Judea the People spoken to and of and not the whole Earth in general is evident That it is in that restrained signification for the Land of Israel and Judea peculiarly often used both in the Old and New Testament is a thing so confessed as that there is no need farther to insist on it Abarbinel seeming to take it more generally thence infers That the destruction that is here spoken of should be of things generable and corruptible such as are on the Earth not of the Heavens and the Hosts thereof or things therein so as it was at the universal Deluge when God destroyed every living substance In summe all only that was in this lower World What he aims at in this inference he doth not farther explain if he would have it that at the end of the World only the Earth and the things that are therein should be destroyed we have to oppose against him that constantly professed truth that as well the Heavens as the Earth are reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement as S. Peter speaks II Pet. III. 7 and shall be dissolved therewith but otherwise if there be weight in his way of argument it will make for our purpose viz. that the day here spoken of is not that day of the last Judgement because it is a day of such destruction as was to be executed on Earth only and therefore in this World viz. as we have all along said the destruction of Jerusalem By the earth or land will easily be understood by a most usual notion Ahlol ardi the People of the Earth or inhabitants of the Land as an Arabick Translation done by a Jew hath it together with the Land it self They that expound it earthly minded men such as follow earthly things and will not make use of the time of grace and embrace Gods Salvation offered to them say what is true but seem not to give the full latitude of the word Such of the People only were destroyed and those that turned to God were saved yet for the sake of the many obstinate rebels was the Land together destroyed and made desolate As for the last word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem which is rendred a curse it may be likewise as it is by several rendred destruction or utter destruction So R. Tanchum saith he means an universal destruction according to the sense of the verb in that place Num. XXI 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 veheeharamti then I will utterly destroy their Cities and so do our Translators in Zacch XIV 11 render the same word that they render here a curse by utter destruction and the same verbe that Num. XXI 2 they render I will utterly destroy do they render Micah IV. 13 I will consecrate and Levit. XXVII 28 29. the nown the same that is here used is rendred a devoted thing and Deut. VII 26 a cursed thing So that looking into the Scriptures we shall find the root of this word to have these significations of cutting off or destroying and cursing and consecrating to omit another notion in which it signifieth a net The prime signification seems to be that of cutting off or destroying which appears in the other two in that of cursing which is a devoting to destruction manifestly and not obscurely in that other of devoting or consecrating inasmuch as that is a cutting off as it were and taking out of the way from common use that which is so devoted In this place it is manifest that they that render it curse mean the same with those that render it destruction not such a lighter curse for correction as is spoken of ch III. 9 but a curse ending in a final excision and utter destruction For what is here meant by what is threatned the event and manner in which it was fulfilled on them to whom it was spoken makes evident The generality of the Jews having rejected the admonitions of John Baptist who was sent to warn them to flee from the wrath to come by embracing Christ and his doctrine whom they not only refused but procured to be crucified and pulled on themselves a curse by saying his blood be on us and on our childhen God seconded it with his curse and sent on them that curse which ended in that fearfull destruction of them and their Land from which they could never recover and which makes undeniably manifest to all the World that this Prophecy had its full accomplishment in them and in vain do they seek to elude it Thus here ends this Prophecy in the Hebrew Bibles and all that follow them but in many Copies of the Greek the verses are so transplaced as that the fourth verse being taken out of its place is put after this viz. Remember the Law of Moses c. and so made to conclude