went with him to New-England By sins mens bands are made strong as by repentance they are loosened videte ergo ut resipiscatis mature Ver. 23. Give ear and hear my voice hearken c Being to assure the faithful of Gods fatherly care of their safety and indemnity amidst all those distractions and disturbances of the times he calleth for their utmost attention as knowing how flow of heart and dull of hearing the best are how backward to believe Luk. 24.25 and apt to forget the consolation Heb. 12.5 See the Note on Mat. 13.3 Ver. 24. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow Or every day Doth he not find him somewhat else to do besides Preponit parabolam rusticam sed magna sapientia refertam Sua sunt rebus omnibus agendis tempora novandi arandi occandi aequandi serendi metendi colligandi excernendi grani suae rationes singulis And shall not the only wise God afflict his people with moderation and discretion yea verily for he is a God of judgement and waiteth to be gratious chap. 30.18 We are no longer plowed then needs and whereas we may think our hearts soft enough it may be so for some grace but God hath seeds of all sorts to cast in the wheat and the rie c. and that ground which is soft enough for one is not for another God saith Chrysostom doth like a Lutanist who will not let the strings be too slack lest they marr the musick nor suffer them to be too hard-stretcht or scrued up lest they break Ver. 25. When he hath made plain laid it level and equal Doth he not cast in the fitches See on ver 24. The appointed barley Hordeum signatum Whatsoever is sealed with a seal is excellent in its own kind so are all Gods sealed ones Eph. 4.30 Ver. 26. For his God doth instruct him to discretion Being a better Tutor to him then any Varro de Agricultura Cato derè Rustica Hesiod in his works and dayes Virgils Georgicks or Geonomica Constantino inscripta Some read the verse thus And he beateth it out according to that course that his God teacheth him that is according to the judgement of right reason God is to be praised for the art of Agriculture How thankful were the poor Heathens to their Saturn Triptolemus Ceres c. Ver. 27. For the fitches are not threshed out c. So are Gods visitations diversly dispensed he proportioneth the burthen to the back and the stroke to the strength of him that beareth it sparing his afflicted as a man spareth his Son that serveth him Thus Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death but not unto death and why see Phil. 2.27 Some of the sweet smelling Smyrnians were in prison ten dayes and no more Rev. 2.10 Ver. 28. Bread-corn is bruised yet not mauled or marred That of Ignatius is well known Commolor dentibus ferarum ut purius Domino panis fiam Because he will not ever be threshing it As he is not ever sowing mercies so he will not alwayes be inflicting miseries Nor bruise it with his horsemen Or with his horses-hoofs Ver. 29. This also cometh forth from the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As doth likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 1.17 Which is wonderful qui mirificus est consilio magnificus opere Chap. XXIX Ver. 1. WO to Ariel to Ariel i. e. to the brazen altar Metonymia adjuncti Synecdochica Ezek. 43.15 16. called here Ariel or Gods lyon because it seemed as a lyon to devour the sacrifices daily burnt upon it Here it is put for the whole Temple which together with the City wherein it stood is threatned with destruction The City where David dwelt Both Mount Moriah whereon stood the Temple and Mount Zion whereon stood the Palace both Church and State are menaced with Judgements Temporal in the eight first verses and Spiritual in the eight next The rest of the Chapter is no less Consolatory then this is Comminatory Add ye year to year i. e. feed your selves on with these vain hopes that years shall run on alwayes in the same manner See 2 Pet. 2.4 Ezek. 12.22 Let them kill sacrifices and thereby think but falsly and foolishly to demerit God to themselves as that Emperor did who marching against his enemy sacrificed and then said Non sic deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret Antonin Philosop we have not so served God that he should serve us no better then to give our enemies the better of us see Isa 58.3 Jer. 7.21 Hos 9.1 Ver. 2. Yet I will distress Ariel though a sacred place Profligate Professors are the worse for their priviledges The Jew first Rom. 2.9 And it shall be unto me as Ariel i. e. it shall be full of slain bodies as the Altar is usually full of slaughtered beasts and swimmeth as it were in blood So Jer. 12.3 Isa 34.6 Arias Montanus giveth this sense Jerusalem which once was Ariel that is a strong lyon shall now be Ariel that is a strong curse or a rain of malediction Ver. 3. And I will camp against thee round about I will bring the woe of war upon thee a woe that no words how wide soever can possibly express see this accomplished 2 King 25.4 And will lay seige As the Captain General of the Chaldees Ver. 4. And thou shalt be brought down from those lofty pinacles of self exaltation whereunto thy pride hath peirhed thee And speak out of the ground humillime submissime thou shalt speak supplicatione with a low voice as broken men who wast wont to face the heavens and speak in spite of God and men speak big words bubbles of words See Jer. 46.22 And thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit cujus vox est gracilis flebilis hiulca confusa gemebunda Out of the ground as the Devil at Delphos did Ver. 5. Moreover the multitude of thy strangers thy forreign Auxiliaries these shall do thee no good but be blown away as with a whirlwind It shall be at an instant suddenly The last siege and sack of Jerusalem was so by a specialty as is to be read in Josephus And some Interpreters understand this whole Chapter of the times of the new Testament because our Saviour and St. Paul do cite some places herehence and apply the same to those their times not by way of Accommodation only but as the proper and true sense of the text as Mat. 15.8 9. Rom. 11.8 1 Cor. 1.19 Ver. 6. Thou shalt be visited with thunder and earth-quake i. e. fragosis repentinis vehementibus immedicabilibus plagis with ratling sudden violent and unmedicinable miseries and mischiefs as if heaven and earth had conspired thine utter undoing Some apply this to the prodigies that went before the last devastation of Jerusalem whereof see Joseph lib. 7. cap. 12. Ver. 7. Shall be as the dream of a night-vision Both in regard of thee to whom this siege and ruin
Ver. 22. Thy silver is become dross Heb drosses A proverbial kind of speech deciphering Apostacy It is as if the Prophet had said There is nothing pure in thee nothing sincere or simple sed omnia fallacia omnia fucata omnia inquinata but all things are deceitful degenerate and corrupt Dross looketh like silver and is nothing less Wine mixt or marred with water hath the name of wine when it is nil nisi vappa Hypocrites are meer seemers Jam 1.26 Juglers Job 13.16 having a form of Knowledge Rom. 2. a form of Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 fair professors they are and foul sinners But be not deceived God is not mocked he is a faithful Metallary saith a Father and will easily find out mens mixtures and impostures It is to be feared that he hath yet a further controversie with this Nation for our hateful Hypocrisie and Apostacy for where now alas is our ancient fervour and forwardness our heating and whetting one another O how dull and dilute are we c. Ver. 23. Thy Princes are rebellious Or Revolters Apostates there is an Elegancy in the Original such as this Prophet is full of ac si dicas primi sunt Pravi vel Perversi so saith Calvin here Episcopi may be called Aposcopi Cardinales Carnales vel Carpinales Carpet-men Canonisi Cenonici Praepositi praeposteri c. This note A Lapide is very angry at lapides loquitur And companions of Thieves Whilest they not only suffered such to go unpunished but also shared with them as Psalm 50.18 Cato complained that in his time some thieves stood at the bar in cold Irons when others and worse sat on the Bench with Gold-chains about their necks The bold Pirat told Alexander to his teeth that he was the Arch-Pirat of the World And what shall we think of Pope Alexander who Anno 1505. sent a Bull of Pardons for many Speed 992. dispensing thereby with such as kept away or by any fraud had gotten the goods of other men which they should now retain still without scruple of conscience so as they paid a rateable portion thereof to his Holinesses receivers And at this day Popish Priests will absolve a thief of his wickedness Scultet in loc if he may have half with him of the stollen goods Every one loveth gifts Not only taketh although in taking also the Greek proverb saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great care and caution should be used Olim didici quid sint munera said a grave man See Deut. 16 19. And followeth after rewards As an Hunter his game or a Merchant his gain or a Martialist his enemy Sectantur retributiones i. e. Collidunt inter se judices saith the Chaldee Paraphrast the Judges complot saying one to another Help thou me in Judging against the poor and I 'le do as much for thee another time They judge not the fatherless Because friendless pennilesse Sed pupillos laedere est pupillam oculi Dei contingere Neither doth the cause of the Widow come before them The Widow cannot speak for her self in the Original she hath her name from Dumness and hath no mony to make room for her hence her cause is slighted Ver. 24. Therefore thus saith the Lord Dominator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great House-keeper of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord of Hosts Heb. Jehovah of Armies The mighty One of Israel Able enough to deal with them and to punish their facinus majoris abollae Ah Some render it Heu Alass to shew that God punisheth nolens dolens unwillingly and with grief Heu â—olentis Luther Oecolâ—mp Ab exultantis as Lam. 3.33 Others make it to be an expression of joy to shew what content he will take in punishing the obstinate and so it followeth I will ease me I will avenge me As it is an ease to a full stomack to disgorge and as to a vindictive person Revenge is very sweet Est vindicta bonum vita jucundius ipsa So but in a way of Justice God delighteth in the destruction of his stubborn enemies animumque explesse juvabit See Deut. 28.63 Ezek 5.13 Prov 1.26 Mine Adversaries Such by a specialty are corrupt Judges as Calvin here noteth Ver. 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee So Zech. 13. I will turn my hand upon the little ones so soon doth it repent the Lord concerning his servants Here he mitigateth the former fearful menace and promiseth a Reformation And purily purge away thy dross Et expurgabo ut purificativum scorias tuas The wicked are the dross of the State Psal 119.119 and wickedness is the dross and dregs of the soul Prov. 17.3 27.21 God promiseth her to purge out both to separate the precious from the vile to reform refine all a Metaphor from Metallaries And I will take away all thy tinne 1. Thine Hypocrisie for tinne hath a shew of silver but t is not so nay it is a deadly enemy to gold silver saith One making them hard and brittle Diod. It is also a Tyrant over them and will hardly be separated from them Hereby are figured your most noted rooted and inveterate sins Ver. 26. And I will restore By new minting the Common-wealth Volut adulterinum nummum as Jer. 9.7 Mal. 3.3 This I will do for thee after thy Captivity but especially after the coming of Christ in the flesh Thou shalt be called Thou shalt have the name and the note the comfort and the credit of such a one The City of Righteousness Wherein dwelleth Righteousness or the City of the Righteous of Jesus Christ the Righteous One 1 Ioh. 2.2 and of his people which shall be all righteous Isa 60.21 Thou shalt be a very Jehovah shammah Ezek 48.35 The faithful City As once thou wast ver 21. Ver. 27. Zion shall be redeemed in judgement Or by judgement executed on her enemies who are also Gods enemies ver 24. And her converts Such as were Manasseh made of a Lion a Lamb Matthew of a Publican an Evangelist Paul of a Pharisee an Apostle Justin of a Philosopher a Martyr Cyprian of a Rhetorician and as some think a Magician a most famous Bishop Austin of a Manichee a Champion of the Church Petrus Paulus Vergerius of the Popes Nuntio a zealous Preacher at Zurich that I speak not of Peter Martyrs converts in Italy Earl Martinens Marquess Caracciolus Lacisius Tremellius Zanchius and other great Divines Hist of Modern Divines by Lupton Bucer was first wrought upon by Luthers Sermon preached before the Emperour at Worms and so of a Dominican became a famous Protestant Bilney was converted by reading Erasmus his Translation of the New Testament for the Eloquence of it and particularly by that sweet sentence 1 Tim. 1.15 Latimer was converted by blessed Bilney as he calleth him from a stiff Papist to a stout Professor of the Truth Julius Palmer the Martyr by reading Calvins Institutions Dr. Sibbs by a
will not hearken unto them See Prov. 1.28 Zech. 7.13 with the Notes Ver. 12. Then shall the Cities of Judah go and cry unto the Gods Or Let them go and cry unto them q. d. Let them for me This is one of those bitter answers that God giveth to wicked suitors Ezek. 14. See Judg. 10.14 Or if he give them better at any time it is in wrath and for a mischief to them Ver. 13. For according to the number of thy Cities See chap. 2.28 And according to the number of thy streets See Ezek. 16.31 Ver. 14. Therefore pray not thou for this people See on chap. 7.16 When they cry unto me for their trouble It is not the cry of the spirit for grace but of the flesh only for ease it is but the fruit of sinful self-love In thee indeed it proceedeth from a better principle but I am at a point Ver. 15. What hath my beloved to do in mine house i. e. Mine once-beloved people which had the liberty of mine house and was welcome thither Vatab. but is now discarded and discovenanted as if an husband should say to his adulterous wife What maketh this strumpet in my bed sith she hath so many paramouts And the holy flesh The sacrifices sanctified by the Altar Is passed from thee Shall be wholly taken away from you together with the Temple When thou doest evil then thou rejoycest Thou revellest in thine impurities and sensualities as dreading no danger but slighting all admonition Ver. 16. The Lord called thy name a green Olive-tree Green all the year long fair and fruitful this was thy prosperous and flourishing condition but now thy best dayes are over For With the noise of a great tumult Barritu militari such as souldiers make when they storm a City Ver. 17. For the evil of the house of Israel That evil by a specialty that land-desolating sin of Idolatry Ver. 18. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it i. e. Of the treacherous plot of my country-men of Anathoth against me who should never have dreamt of any such danger Dius pro suis excubat Ver. 19. But I was like a lamb or an Ox Harmlesse and blamelesse busied in my function and not in the least suspecting any such evil designe against me Mâ—t. 10. I send you forth as lambs amongst wolves saith Christ who himself being the Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the world his servants also are slain all the day long and counted as sheep to the slaughter Rom. 8. Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof Let us poison his food so the Chaldee senseth it Ponamus lignum taxi in sorbitiunculam Others let us destroy the Prophet and his prophecyes together Others let us make an end of him either by sword or by famine as the punishment threatned ver 22. pointeth us to That his name may be no more remembred Sic veritas odium peperit So the Papists have given order that wheresoever Calvins name is found it shall be blotted out and by a most malicious Anagram they have turned Calvin into Lucian One of them lately took a long journey to Rome only to have his name changed from Calvin to some other and that out of devilish hatred of that most learned and holy man Ipsa à quo virtus virtutem discere posset Ver. 20. But O Lord of hosts Thou who art potentissimus liberrimus a most powerful and free Agent That tryest the reines and the heart And so knowest with what mind I make this complaint and request Let me see thy vengeance upon them A prophetical imprecation guided by Gods Spirit and not lightly to be imitated So the Church prayed against Julian the Apostate whom they knew to be a desperate enemy and to have committed that sin unto death So perhaps had these men of Anathoth Ver. 21. Of the men of Anathoth that seek thy life Where shall a man find worse friends then at home A Prophet is nowhere so little set by as in his own countrey Epist famil lib. 7. ep 6. Mat. 13.57 Probatissimus optimus quisque peregrè vivit saith Ennius in Tully Saying Prophecy not in the Name of the Lord A desperate speech proceeding from an height of hatred and coasting upon the unpardonable sin Ver. 22. Behold I will punish them Sic tandem bona causa triumphat The visible vengeance of God followeth close at the heels the persecutors of his faithful messengers Ver. 23. And there shall be no remnant Behold the severity of God their bloody design was to destroy Jeremies stock and fruit stalk and grain together ver 19. God meteth unto them the self-same measure leaveth them not a remnant This is not ordinary justice chap. 4.27 Isa 1. and 10. A remnant shall be left saith he here not so Let Rome that shambles of the Saints and Prophets especially look to it God is now coming to make inquisition for blood c. CHAP. XII Ver. 1. RIghteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Or though I should contend with thee Est elegans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This the Prophet fitly premiseth to the ensuing disceptation that he might not be mistaken Thy judgements saith he are sometimes secret alwayes just this I am well assured of though I thus argue Yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements Let me take the humble boldnesse so to do that I may be further cleared and instructed by thee Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Viz. Whil'st better men suffer as now the wicked Anathothites do whil'st I go in danger of my life by them This is that noble question which hath exercised the wits and molested the minds of many wise men both within and without the Church See Job 21.7 13. Psal 37.1 and 73.1 2 12. Hab. 1.4 5. Plato Cicero Seneca Epictetus Claudian against Ruffin c. Wherefore are they all happy Heb. at ease Not all neither for some wicked have their payment here their hell afore-hand To this question the Lord who knoweth our frame Psal 103. being content to condescend where he might have judged calmly maketh answer ver 5. like as Christ in like case did to Peter Joh. 21.21 22. Ver. 2. Thou hast planted them and they have taken root All goes haile with them they have more then heart can wish Psal 73.7 And in lieu of Gods goodnesse to them they professe largely and pretend to great devotion but that 's all Thou art near in their mouth and far from their reines That is from their affections Tit. 1.16 Hypocrites are like that heap of heads 2 King 10.8 that had never a heart among them they have vocem in chorâ— mentem in foro virtutem non colunt sed colorant That Persian Embassadour of whom before when conversing with Christians he had so oft in his moth Soli Deo Gloria made believe that he gave glory to the only true God when as he meant the
and punishment are linked together with chains of adamant Of sin wee may say as Isidore doth of the Serpent Tot dolores quot colores so many colours so many dolours The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. ult The same in effect with this sentence of Solomon But to the righteous good shall bee repaid Or hee that is God shall repay good Now hee is a liberal pay-master and all his retributions are more than bountiful Never did any yet do or suffer ought for God that complained of an hard bargain L. Brooks discourse of Episcop God will recompence your losses saith that thrice noble Lord Brook who lost his precious life in this late unhappy wars at Litchfield as the King of Poland did his noble servant Zelislaus having lost his hand in his wars hee sent him a golden hand Caius Agrippa having suffered imprisonment for wishing him Emperor when hee came afterwards to the Empire the first thing hee did was to prefer Agrippa and gave him a chain of gold as heavy as the chain of iron that was upon him in Prison Those that lose any thing for God hee seals them a bill of Exchange of a double return nay an hundred fold here and eternal life hereafter Vers 22. A good man leaveth inheritance to his childe Personal goodness is profitable to Posterity God gives not to his servants some small annuity for life onely as great men use to do but keepeth mercy for thousands of generations of them that fear him Exod. 34.7 Where the Masorites observe Nun. Rabbath a great N in the word Not for keepeth to note the large extent of Gods love to the good mans posterity God left David a Lamp in Jerusalem 1 Kings 15.4 although his house were not so with God 2 Sam. 23.5 And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just as Nabals was for David Hamans for Mordecai the Canaanites for the Israelites Howbeit this holds not perpetually and universally in every wicked person for some of them are full of children and leave the rest of their substance for their babes Psal 17.14 Hereupon their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever c. they call their Lands after their own names as Cain called his new built City after the name of his son Henoch Gen. 8.4 This their way is their folly or is their constant hope for the word signifies both and their Posterity approve their sayings and vote the same way Psal 49.11 13. But together with their lands they bequeath their children their sins and punishments which is far worse than that legacy of Leprosie that Joab left his issue 2 Sam. 3.29 Confer Job 27.16 17. Isa 61.5 Vers 23. Much food is in the tillage of the poor Who have but a little and look well to it That of the Poet is well known Laudato ingentia rura Exiguum colito It is best for a man to have no more than hee can master and make his best of Vigil Geog. lib. â— Lib. 1. cap 3. The ground should bee weaker than hee that tills it saith Columella The earth is a fruitful mother and brings forth meat meet for them by whom it is dressed Heb. 6.7 But there is that is destroyed for want of judgement viz. in plowing and sowing Isa 28.26 or in managing and husbanding what hee hath gotten for the best For non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri Wee must bee good husbands and see that Condus bee fortâ—or Promo our comings in more than our layings out Bonus Servatius facit bonum Bonifacium saith the Dutch man in his blunt Proverb A good saver makes a well-doer Vers 24. Hee that spareth his rod hateth his son It is as if one should bee so tender over a childe as not to suffer the wind to blow upon it and therefore hold the hand before the mouth of it but so hard as hee strangleth the childe It is said of the Ape that shee huggeth her young one to death so do many fond Parents who are therefore peremptores potius quam parentes rather Paricides than Parents Eli would not correct his children God therefore corrected both him and them David would not once cross his Absolom and his Adonijah Bern. and hee was therefore singularly crost in them ere hee dyed The like befell old Andronicus the Greek Emperour in his unhappy Nephew of the same name and Muleasses King of Tunes in his son Amida whom hee cockered so long till Absolom-like hee rose against his father Turk hist 745.747 and possessing himself of the Kingdome put out his father and brethrens eyes slew his Captains polluted his Wives and took the Castle of Tunes But hee that loveth him chasteneth him betimes And this is a God-like love Prov. 3.12 Rev. 3.19 See the Notes there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethic. l. 2. Correction is a kinde of cure saith the Philosopher the likeliest way to save the childes soul where yet curam exigeris non curationem saith Bernard it is the care of the childe that is charged upon the Parent not the cure for that is Gods work alone But hee usually worketh by this mean and therefore requires that it bee soundly set on if need so require A fair hand wee say makes a foul wound A weak dose doth but stir bad humours and anger them not purge them out In some diseases the Patient must bee let blood even ad deliquium animae till hee swoon again So here Quintilian tells us of some faults in a childe that deserve not a whipping And Chrysippus is ill spoken of by some because he first brought the use of the rod into the Schools It was hee I trow that first offered that strict and tetrical division to the world Aut mentem aut restim comparandam Either a good heart or a good halter for your self and yours The condemned person comes out of a dark prison and goes to the place of Execution so do children left to themselves and not nurtured come from the womb their prison to the fire of hell their execution Severitas tamen non sit tetra sed tetrica Corrections must bee wisely and moderately dispensed Sidonius Ep. lib. 4. Col. 4.21 Parents provoke not your children to wrath lest they bee dispirited and through despondency grow desperate or heartless Our Henry 2. first crowned his eldest son Henry whilst hee was yet alive and then so curbed him that through discontent hee fell into a Feaver whereof hee dyed before his Father A Prince of excellent parts Daniels hist who was at first cast away by his Fathers indulgence and afterwards by his rigour Vers 25. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul Have hee more or less hee hath that which satisfies him Nature is content with a little grace with less Cibus potus sunt divitia Christianorum If Jacob may but have bread to eat
was heavier than his groaning and yet his complaint was bitter too Chap. 23.2 Some holy men as Mr. Leaver have desired to see their sin in the most ugly colours Dr. Sibbes and God hath heard them But yet his hand was so heavy upon them that they went alwayes mourning to their graves And thought it fitter to leave it to Gods wisdome to mingle the portion of sorrow than to bee their own choosers And the stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy None but such as are of the family of Faith can conceive the surpassing sweetness of spiritual joy Gal. 6. The Cock on the dunghil knows not the worth of this Jewel It is joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1.8 Such as none feel but those that stir up sighs unutterable Rom. 8.26 It is joy unspeakable and full of glory a hansel of Heaven a foretaste of eternal life It is the peace that passeth all understanding they that have it Phil. 4.7 understand not the full of it nor can relate the one half of it Paul said somewhat to the point when hee said I do over-abound exceedingly with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 7.4 Chrysost but words are too weak to utter it Father Latimer said somewhat when hee said it was the sweet-meats of the feast of a good conscience But sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est It is a thing fitter to bee beleeved than possible to bee discoursed Tell a man never so long what a sweet thing hony is hee can never beleeve you so well as if himself taste it Those that never yet tasted how good the Lord is are far from intermedling with the just mans joy Act. Mon. fol. 1668. The World wonders saith Mr. Philpot Martyr how wee can bee so merry in such extreme misery But our God is omnipotent which turneth misery into felicity Beleeve mee there is no such joy in the world as the people of Christ have under the Cross I speak it by experience c. Another holy Martyr Richard Collier after his condemnation sang a Psalm Ibid. 1533. Wherefore the Priests and the officers railed at him saying Hee was out of his wits Vers 11. The house of the wicked shall bee overthrown As Phocas his high walls were because sin was at the bottome Brimstone also shall bee scattered on the top Job 18.15 As it befel Dioclesian whose house was wholly consumed with fire from Heaven Wherewith himself also was so terrified that hee died within a while after Euseb de vit Const lib. 5. But the Tabernacle of the upright shall flourish The wicked have houses and are called the Inhabitants of the earth Rev. 12.12 The upright have Tabernacles or Tents that were transportative and taken down at pleasure Here they have no continuing City no mansion-place And yet that they have shall flourish Our bed is green the beams of our house are Cedar and our rafters of Firr Cant. 1.16 17. See 2 Sam. 23.4 Vers 12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man Sin comes cloathed with a shew of reason Exod. 1.10 And lust will so blear the understanding that hee shall think that there is great sense in sinning Adam was not deceived 1 Tim. 2.14 That is hee was not so much deceived by his judgement though also by that too as by his affection to his wife which at length blinded his judgement The heart first deceives us with colours and when wee are once a doting after sin then wee joyn and deceive our hearts James 1.26 using fallacious and specious sophisms to make our selves think that lawful to day which wee our selves held unlawful yesterday and that wee are possest of those graces whereto wee are perfect strangers But the end thereof are the waies of death Via multiplex ad mortem The very first step in this evil way was a step to Hell But the journies end if men stop not or step not back in time is undoubted destruction Some flatter themselves as Micah Judg. 17.13 They flye to the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord And think to take Sanctuary and save themselves there from all danger as the Jews fable that Og King of Bashan escaped in the flood by riding astride upon the Ark without Wherein it falls out oft as it did with the riflers of Semiramis her tomb who where they expected to finde the richest treasure met with a deadly poison Or as it doth with him that lying asleep upon a steep rock and dreaming of great matters befallen him starts suddenly for joy and so breaks his neck at the bottome As hee that makes a bridge of his own shadow cannot but fall into the water So neither can hee escape the pit of Hell who laies his own presumption in place of Gods promise who casts himself upon the unknown mercies of God c. Vers 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful Nulla est sincera voluptas Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas Of carnal pleasures a man may break his neck before his fast All this avails mee nothing said Haman Omnia fui nihil profuit said that Emperour Vanity of vanity all is vanity said Solomon and not vanity onely but vexation of spirit Nothing in themselves and yet full of power and activity to inflict vengeance and vexation upon the spirit of a man so that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful Some kinde of frothy and flashy mirth wicked men may have such as may wet the mouth but not warm the heart smooth the brow but not fill the breast It is but a cold armful as Lycophron saith of an evil wife as they repent in the face Mat. 6.16 so they rejoyce in the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lyc. not in the heart 2 Cor. 5.12 Rident ringuntur there is a snare or a cord in the sin of the wicked that is to strangle their joy with but the righteous sing and are merry Prov. 29.6 Others may revel they onely must rejoyce Hos 9.1 And the end of that mirth is heaviness They dance to the Timbrel and Harp but suddenly they turn into Hell Job 21.12 13. and so their merry dance ends in a miserable downfal Luk. 6. Woe bee to you that laugh now Those merry Greeks that are so afraid of sadness that they banish all seriousness shall one day wring for it Adoniah's guests had soon enough of their good cheer and jollity So had Belshazzar and his combibones optimi Thou mad fool what dost thou Eccles 2. saith Salomon to the mirth-monger that holds it the onely happiness to laugh and bee fat Knowest thou not yet there will bee bitterness in the end Principium dulce est sed finis amoris amarus The candle of the wicked shall be put out in a vexing-snuff Their mirth as Comets blazeth much but ends in a pestilent vapour As lightning it soon vanisheth leaveth a greater darknesse behinde it and is
hee will speak of and the dark saying that hee will open And hereunto hee makes a solemn Oyez Hear this all yee people and give ear all yee Inhabitants of the World c. Because hee is poor As the greater fish devour the lesser and as the Mastiff falls upon the Cur and worries him only because hee is bigger than the other This is a brutish ferity See Psal 10. And if those that relieve not the poor shall bee damned surely they that rob them shall bee double-damned Neither oppress the afflicted The poor man must needs bee an afflicted man obnoxious to all manner of injuries and hard usages But God who is the poor mans King more truly so called then James the fourth of Scotland was takes order here that no man oppress or wrong him either at the gate of his house whither hee comes a begging or at the gate of the City where hee sues for redress of injury Gel. l. 11. c. 18. let not might suppress right lest some Cato complain as once and not without cause that poor Theeves sit in the stocks when greater Theeves sit on the seats of Judicature Vers 23. For the Lord will plead their cause Without fee for those that come to him formâ pauperis and without fear of their oppressours against whom hee will plead with pestilence and with blood Ezek. 38.22 as hee did against the house of Saul for the poor Gibeonites and against Ahab for Naboth And spoil the soul or life of those that spoiled them A poor mans livelihood is his life Mark 12. ult Luke 8.43 Hee is in his house as a Snail in his shell crush that and you kill him quite God therefore who loves par pari referre to pay oppressors home in their own coyn will have life for life if they may escape so and not bee cast to hell among those cruel ones Prov. 5.9 See the Note O that these Cannibals would think of this before the cold grave hold their bodies and hot hell hold their souls Vers 24. Make no friendship with an angry man Anger is a short madness it is a leprosie breaking out of a burning Lev. 13.5 and renders a man unfit for civil society for his unruly passions cause the climate where hee lives to bee like the torrid Zone too hot for any to live near him The Dog-dayes continue with him all the year long hee rageth and eateth fire-brands so that every man that will provide for his own safety must flye from him as from a netling dangerous and unsociable creature fit to live alone as Dragons and wilde Beasts or to bee looked on only through a grate as they where if they will do mischief Turk hist they may do it to themselves only As Bajazet the great Turk who being taken by Tamberlain and carried up and down in an iron Cage beat out his own brains against the bars thereof Vers 25. Lest thou learn his wayes As a man is an imitating creature and easily conformed to the company hee keepeth Sin is also very spreading and more infectious than the plague This of rash anger especially whereunto being naturally inclined wee shall easily get an habit of frowardness Intireness with wicked consorts is one of the strongest chains of hell and bindes us to a participation both of sin and punishment And get a snare to thy soul This is all thou art like to get by such mens company An angry man a master of anger as the Hebrew here hath it or rather one that is mastered by his anger and enslaved thereunto is fitly compared by one to a Cock of the game that quarrelsome creature that is still bloody with the blood either of others or of himself he flyes upon his best friends sometimes as Alexander did and slayes those whom hee would revive again with his own heart blood Dogs in a chase bark oft at their best friends Vers 26. Bee not thou of them See the Notes on Chap. 6.1 2 3. Vers 27. If thou hast nothing to pay And yet art gotten into the Usurers furnace hee will leave thee at last neither metal nor matter Vers 28. Remove not the ancient land-mark Unless yee covet a curse Deut. 27.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles 10.8 Let Levellers look to it and know that property is Gods Ordinance Act. 5.4 Psal 17.14 That Magistracy is the hedge of a Nation and that hee that breaks an hedge a Serpent shall bite him That the Ministry is Christs own Institution Eph. 4.11 And that Lay-preachers may look to speed as Nadab and Abihu as Uzzah and Uzziah or as other Usurpers See the Note on Deut. 1◠14. Vers 29. Seest thou a man diligent God loves nimbleness what thou dost do quickly said Christ to Judas though it were so ill a businesse that he was about Princes love such and imploy them as Pharoah did Joseph and those that were men of activity among his brethren Salomon also made use of Jeroboam for the same reason though that was not the wisest act that ever he did 1 Kings 11.28 How dear was Daniel to Darius because though sick yet he dispatched the Kings business What Favourites to our Henry 8 were Wolsey Cromwell Cranmer for like reason A diligent man shall not fit long in a low place Or if he do all the days of his life yet if his diligence proceed out of conscience he shall stand before the King of Kings when he dies And surely if Salomons servants were held happy for this and the greatest reward Salomon could promise the diligent is this in the text what an unconceivable honour must it needs be to look for ever upon the face of God and Angel-like stand in his presence CHAP. XXIII Vers 1. When thou sittest to eat SEe my common place of Abstinence Consider diligently what is before thee And feed with fear Iude 12. Lest thou lose by thy luxury that praise and preferment that thou hadst gotten by thine industry chap. 22.9 Non minor est virtus quà m quaerere parta tueri Vers 2. And put a knife to thy throat Put into thy throat as Aben-ezra reads it rather than offend by inordinate appetite Some read it thus For thou puttest a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite Thou shortnest thy life and diggest as it were thine own grave with thine own teeth Meat kills as many as the Musket the board as the sword Chrysost Tennis mensa sanitatis mater but much meat much malady Vers 3. Be not desirous of his dainties It is a shame for a Saint to be a slave to his Palat. Isaac loved venison too too well the Disciples are cautioned by Christ Luk. 21.34 who well enough knew where they were weakest For they are deceitful meat There is a hook under that bait it may prove as dangerous as Ionathans hony of which he had no sooner tasted but his head was forfeited There is a deceitfulness in sin Heb. 3.13 a
so is good news This and many more of these Proverbs Salomon might well utter out of his own experience for he sent out into farre Countries for Gold Horses and other Commodities 1 King 9.26 besides Ambassies of state and enquiries into the natures and qualities of forein parts and peoples Of the Conversion of other Countries to the faith he could not then hear as wee now may and lately have good news from New-England Neither had he the happiness to hear that which we have not only heard but seen and handled of the Word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 He had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Promise but we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the joyful tidings the sum of all the good newes in the World as the Angels those first Messengers cleped it Luk. 2.10 Jesus is a short Gospel and the good newes of him should drown all discontents yea make our very hearts dance Levaltoes within us as Abrahams did though hee heard of him only by the hearing or the ear or saw him afarre off Heaven is called a farre Country Matth. 25.14 good news from thence brought in by the hand of the Holy Ghost witnessing with our spirits that we are the Sons of God and if Sons then Heirs of that farre Country of that fair City whose maker and builder is God how welcome should that be to us and how inexpressibly comfortable See 1 Pet. 1.8 Vers 26. A righteous man falling down before the wicked i. e. Doing any thing though by meer frailty unbeseeming his Profession or that redounds not to the scandal of the weak only as Gal. 2.11 but to the scorn of the wicked as 2 Sam. 12.14 is as a troubled fountain c. is greatly disgraced and prejudiced What a blemish was it for Abraham to fall under the reproof of Abimelech for Sampson to be taken by the Philistims in an Whore-house for Josiah to be in-minded of his duty by Pharaoh Necho for Peter to be drawn by a silly Wench to forswear his Master c was not the Fountain here troubled when trampled by the feet of these beasts the Spring corrupted when Conscience is thus defiled and gashed Let it be our care to cleanse this spring of all pollutions of flesh and spirit as a troubled fountaine will clear it self and as sweet water made brackish by the coming in of the salt yet if naturally it bee sweet at length it will work it out Vers 27. It is not good to eat too much honey For it breeds choler and brings diseases So for men to search their own glory i. e. To be desirous of vain-glory Gal. 5.26 to seek the praise of men to hunt after the worlds plaudite to say to it as Tiberius once answered Justinus Situ volueris ego sum Si tu non vis ego non sum I am wholly thine I am only thy Clay and Wax this is base and in-glorious this is to be Gloriae animal popularis aurae vile mancipium the creature of vaine-glory Hier. ep ad Julian Consolater a base slave to popular applause as Hierome calls Crates the Philosopher who cast his goods into the Sea meerly for a name Some doe all for a name as Jehu and the Pharisees like Kites they flutter up a little but their eye is upon the carrion The Chaldee Paraphrast by their glory understands the Majesty of the Scriptures which to David were sweeter than honey These wee must search but not over-curiously Ne qui scrutatur majestatem opprimatur aegloria as the vulgar here hath it lest prying into Gods Majesty we be oppressed by his glory Vers 28. He that hath no rule over his own spirit Cui non est cohibitio in spiritum suum that reigns not in his unruly affections but suffers them to run riot in sin as so many head-strong Horses or to ride upon the backs one of another like Kine in a straight This man being not fenced with the wall of Gods fear lies open to all assaults of Satan and other enemies Ephes 4.26 27. Jam. 4.7 as Laish Judg. 18. or Hazor that had neither gates nor bars Jer. 49.31 or the Hague in Holland which the inhabitants will not wall Heyl. Geog. as desiring to have it counted rather the principal Village of Europe than a lesser City CHAP. XXVI Vers 1. So honour is not seemly for a fool HOnour is the reward of vertue dignity should wait upon desert Sed dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto as Salvian Honour is as fit for a fool as a Gold-ring for a Swines snout Sedes prima vita ima will never suit The order of nature is inverted when the vilest men are exalted Psal 12.8 it is a foul incongruity and of very evil consequence Cicer. de divina◠lib. 2. For thereby themselves will be hardened and others heartened to the like prosperous folly Felix enim scelus virtus vocatur saith Tully The study of vertue also will be neglected when fools are preferred and Gods heavie Wrath poured out in full measure upon these uncircumcised Vice-gods as I may in the worst sense best term them who mis-represent him to the world by their ungodly practices as a wicked crooked unrighteous Judge Vers 2. As the Bird by wandring and the Swallow i. e. As these may fly where they will and no body cares or is the worse So here And as Birds tired with much wandring and not finding where to rest return again to their Nest after that they have beat the air with weary wing so the causelesse curse returns to the author Cursing men are cursed men So the curse causlesse shall not come What was David the worse for Shimei's rash raylings or Jeremy for all the Peoples cursings of him chap. 15.10 Or the Christian Churches for the Jewes cursing them in their daily Prayers with a Maledic Domine Nazaraeis or the reformed Churches for the Popes Excommunications and Execrations with Bell Book and Candle The Pope is like a Wasp no sooner angry but out comes a sting which being out is like a fools dagger ratling and snapping without an edge Sit ergo Gallus in nomine Diabolorum The Devil take the French said Pope Julius the second Annal. Gallie as he was sitting by the fire and saying his Prayers upon news of his Forces defeated by the French at the battel of Ravenna Was not this that very mouth that speaketh great things and blasphemies Revel 13.5 And as qualis herus talis servus like master like man a certain Cardinal entring with a great deal of pomp into Paris when the people were more than ordinarily earnest with him for his fatherly benediction Quandoquidem said he hic populus vult decipi decipiatur in nomine diaboli Forasmuch as this people will be fooled let them bee fooled in the Devils name And another Cardinal when at a Diet held at Ausborough the Prince Electors Ambassadour was in his Masters name present at Masse but would
who had lately lost his head of obstinacy Camd. Elis fol. 562 rash counsels and wilful disdaining to ask pardon and wished that the French King would rather use milde severity than careless clemency cut off the heads of treacherous persons in time c. This might have terrified Biron from those wicked attempts which he was even at this time plotting against his King had not his mind been besotted But the power of his approaching fate did so blind him that within few months after he underwent the same death that Essex did though nothing so piously and christianly as having hardened his neck against wholsome counsel Now if men harden their hearts God will harden his hand and hasten their destruction and that without remedy Vers 2. When the righteous are in authority Or are increased as chap. 28.28 See the note there The people mourn Hebrew sigh as the oppressed Israelites in Egypt did where they dare not speak out But what a bloody tyrant was Sylla who put to death M. Plaetorius onely for sighing at the cruel execution of M. Marius Act. Mon. fol. 1164. So one Lancelot was burnt in Giles his fields for pittying the cruel death of a couple of Martyrs Vers 3. Who so loveth wisdome rejoyceth his father See the Note on Chap. 10.1 But he that keepeth company with Harlots See the note on chap. 5.9 Those she sinners as they call them are costly Creatures and they that keep them care not what cost they cast away upon them Vers 4. The King by judgement stablisheth the land This one piece of Salomons Politicks hath much more good advice in it than all Lypsius his Bee-hive or Machiavels Spider-web But he that receiveth gifts Heb. A man of oblations that is as some interpret it A man that sacrilegiously medleth with things dedicated to pious uses and makes a gain of them to himself See chap. 20.25 Vers 5. A man that flattereth his neighbour c. A smooth-boots Glaber as the word signifies a butter-spoken man see Isa 3.12 or a divided man for a flatterers tongue is divided from his heart Vers 6. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare Or a cord viz. to strangle his joy with to check and choak all his comforts in the midst of his mirth he hath many a secret gripe and little knowes the world where his shooe pincheth him Every fowl that hath a seemly feather hath not the sweetest flesh nor doth every tree that bringeth a goodly leaf bear good fruit Glass giveth a clearer sound than Silver and many things glister besides Gold The wicked mans jollity is but the hypocrisie of mirth it may wet the mouth but not warm the heart smooth the brow but not fill the breast we may be sure that as Jezabel had a cold heart under a painted complexion so many a mans heart akes and quakes within him when his face counterfeits a smile But the righteous sing and rejoyce Good men only may be glad and none have any reason to rejoyce but they Hos 9.1 The Papists have a Proverb Spiritus Calvinianus est Spiritus melancholicus and the mad world are easily perswaded by the Devil that there is no comfort in a Christian course that your precise fellows live a melancholy and Monkish kind of life and have no joy of any thing Herein the Devil deals like those inhospitable salvages in America that make great fires and set forth terrible sights upon their Country-shore purposely to affright Passengers from landing there And as those wicked Spyes brought up an evil report of the Land of Canaan and thereby discouraged the people so doth the Devil and his Impes of the purity of religion and power of godlinesse as uncouth and uncomfortable when in truth there is no sound comfort without it no true joy but in it Though Saul could not be merry without a Fidler Ahab without Naboths Vineyard Hamon without Mordecaies courtesie yet a righteous man can be merry without all these Yea as the Lilly is fresh beautiful and looks pleasantly though among thorns so can he amidst troubles Paul than whom never any out of Hell suffered more did not only glory in tribulation but over-abound exceedingly with joy 2 Cor. 7.4 Vers 7. The righteous considereth the cause of the poor The cause not the person of the poor for that is forbidden in the Law Levit. 19.15 The great must not be favoured for their might nor the mean for their misery but Justice Justice must be done to all as Moses hath it that is even law and execution of right as the Oath runs that is given to our Judges without respect of persons The cause of the poor and needy must come into equal ballance with the rich and mighty lest hee be trampled on by those fat bulls of Basan to his utter undoing For a poor man in his house is like a Snail in his shell crush that and yee kill him But the wicked regardeth not to know it Unlesse there were more to bee got by it Felix had soon enough of Pauls defence because he expected some bribe from him but nothing came How ill-willing was that unjust Judge Luâ— 18. either to take knowledge of or to take course for the relief of the poor Widdow Aperi bursam apperiam buccam saith the greedy Lawyer they that cannot lavish mony out of the bag are little welcome to these Crâ—menimâ—lga as one calls them these Purse-suckers that will weigh your gold but not your cause and if a man put not into their mouths they even prepare war against him Mich. 3.5 Vers 8. Scornful men bring a City into a snare The Vulgar renders it Pestilent persons undoe a City or a State as Nahash did the Ammonites 1 Sam. 11.2 11. and as his son Hanan did much more 2 Sam. 10.4 with 12.31 Mocking is catching as the Pestilence and no less pernicious to the whole Country Giraldus Cambrensis tells of three Irish Kings that being derided for their rude habits and fashions rebelled and set the Country in a combustion And the young King of France jesting at William the Conquerours great belly whereof he said he lay in at Rouen so irritated him as he being recovered of a sickness entred France in the chiefest time of their fruits making spoyl of all in his way till he came even to Paris where this scornful King then was to shew him of his visiting Dan. Chron. 42 and from thence marcht to the City of Mants which hee utterly sackt and ransackt razed and harased But wise men turn away wrath They stand in the gap and divert the Divine displeasure Psal 106.23 Ezek. 13.5 Their persons are in acceptation God will look upon them and doe much for them when hee is most of all angry with the wicked Exod. 32.10 14. Job 22. ult Gen. 18.32 Their prayers also are prevalent something the Lord will yeeld thereunto when most bitterly bent against a people Matth. 24.20 and
sought for a comfortable use of the Creature and then be merry at thy meat and put sorrow from thy heart chap. 9.7 Eat the fat and drink the sweet c. for the joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8.10 Vers 25. For who can eat or who can hasten c. And yet I have found and so shall you that tranquillity and true happiness the Kindgom of God doth not consist in meats and drinks A Turk may beleeve sensualities in his fools paradise but no servant of God is a slave to his palate Vers 26. Wisdome and knowledge To get these things rightly and to use them comfortably To gather and to heap up Converrere congerrere to rake and scrape together the muck-worms occupation That he may give As he did the Aegyptians goods to Israel Nabals to David Hamans to Mordecai CHAP. III. Vers 1. To every thing there is a season A Set time such as we can neither alter nor order This is one of those keys that God carries under his own girdle Act. 1.7 To seek to doe or get any thing before the time is to pull apples before they are ripe saith a Father which set the teeth on edge Fomâ— importuni tempore decerpunt Tertul. and breed stomack-worms They labour in vain that would prevent the time prefixed by God as those hasty Ephraimites in Aegypt 1 Chron. 7.22 with Psal 78.9 those heady Israelites in the Wilderness Numb 14.40 Moses would be acting the Judge before his time Exod. 2.12 he is therefore sent to keep sheep in Midian vers 15. David staid Gods leisure for the Kingdom those in Esther for deliverance they knew that God would keep his day exactly as he did with the Israelites in Aegypt Exod. 12.40 41. Evâ—n the self-same day when the four hundred and thirty years fore-told were expired Gods people were thrust out of Aegypt So Dan. 5.30 In that night was Belshazzar slain because then exactly the seventy years were ended And as God fails not his own time so he seldome comes at ours Jâ—r 8.20 for he loves not to be limited We are short-breath'd short-sighted apt to antedate the promises in regard of the accomplishment Hab. 2.2 And no less apt to out-stand our own markets to let slip opportunities of grace which are ever head-long and once past irrecoverable O if thou hadst known at the least in this thy day Heb. 2.3 Psal 32.6 c. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Therefore shall every one that is godly seek thee in a time when thou mayst be found There is a certain time set for men to come in and be saved as Alexander set up a Taper when he besieged a Town as Tamerlan hang'd out first a white flag and then a red Many a man loseth his soul as Saul did his Kingdome by not discerning his time Esau came too late so did the foolish Virgins If the gate of grace be over-past the gate shut the draw-bridge taken up there is no possibility of entrance Heb. 4.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us and an overture made us of entring into Gods rest any of us should seem to fall short or come late a day after the fair an hour after the feast God who in his eternal Counsel hath appointed things to be done hath also ordained the opportunity and time wherein each thing should bee done which to neglect is such a presumption as hee usually punisheth with final hardning Ezek. 24.13 Vers 2. There is a time to be born and a time to dye Wee doe not hear the Wise-man say There is a time to live What is more fleeting than time yet life is not long enough to be worthy the title of time Death borders upon our birth and our cradle stands in our grave Orimur Morimur Multos ostendunt terris bona faeta nec ultra Esse siâ—unt Finisque ab origine pendet How many have we seen carried from the Womb to the Tomb from the birth to the burial Ab utero ab urnam And what a short cut hath the longest liver from the grave of the womb to the womb of the grave Men chop into the earth before they are aware many times like as he that walks in a field covered with snow falls suddenly into a marle pit A time to plant c. In point of good husbandry fit seasons are to be observed or else little increase can bee expected God also the great vine-dresser plants and plucks up more Churches or particular persons at his pleasure Esay 5.1 to the 8. Mat. 15.13 Jerusalem that plant of renown is now of an Eden become a Sodom and that which Moses threatned Deut. 28.49 c. fulfilled to the utmost Susa in Persia signifies a Lilly and was so called for the beauty and delectable sight Now it is called Valdac of the poverty of the place Niniveh that great City that once had more people within her walls than are now in some one Kingdome is at this day become a sepulture of it self a little Town of small Trade where the Patriarch of the Nestorians keeps his â—eat at the devotion of the Turks Frid. secund Imper. Roma diu titubans variis erroribus acta Corruet mundi desinet esse caput Vers 3. A time to kill viz. To cut off corrupt members by the sword of Justice or of War ne pars sincera trahatur There is a cruel mercy saith one there is a pious cruelty saith another But cursed is hee that doth the Lords work negligently and cursed is hee that in a good cause and upon a good calling keepeth back his sword from blood Jer. 48.10 But that souldier can never answer it before God that striketh not more as a Justice of Peace than as a souldier of fortune A time to break down and a time to build up This and the rest though every one knows to be so in common experience yet one and the same thing in effect is oft repeated that it may be once remembred viz. that this whole world is nothing else but a mass of mutabilities that every man every State every thing is a planet whose spherical revolutions are some of longer some of shorter continuance Omnia versantur in perpetuo ascensu descensu there is a perpetual ascending and descending of life and state Vers 4. A time to weep and a time to laugh Onely wee must not invert the order but weep with men that wee may laugh with Angels lay godly sorrow as a foundation of spiritual joy Surely out of this eater comes meat out of this strong sweet strong and sweet refreshments follow upon penitential performances these April showers bring on May flowers Tertullian saith that he was nulli rei natus nisi poenitentiae born for no other purpose but to repent but then he that truly repenteth de peccatis dolet de dolore gandet is grieved for his
Rabshekah those are empty words an aery thing for counsel and strength are for the war so some read the words and not in a Parenthesis as our Translation hath it Neither yet bread to the wise To the worldly wise Those Young Lions doe lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 34.10 Prov. 30.8 Panem demensi Their daily bread day by day food convenient for them they shall be sure of Dwell in the land and doe good and verily thou shalt bee fed Psal 37.5 by vertue of a promise and not by a providence only as the young Ravens are Nor yet riches to men of understanding Plutus is said by the Poets to bee blind Epit. hist Gallic and Fortune to favour fools Of Pope Clement 5. the French Chronicler saith Papa hic ditior fuit quam sapientior This Pope was rather rich than wise Aristides was so poor that he brought a flurre upon Justice saith Plutarch as if she were not able to maintain her followers Phocion also Pelopidas Lamachus Aelian lib. 2. Ibid. l. 5. Ephialtes Socrates those Greek Sages were very poor Epaminondas had but one garment and that a sorry one too Lactantius had scarce a subsistence Many wise men have been hard put to 't Paupertas est Philosophiae vernacula saith Apuleius Rhodigin l. 29. c. 10. Nor yet favour to men of skill Rara ingeniorum praemia rara item est merces saith one wit and skill is little set by small regard or reward is given to it whereas popular men should esteem it as silver said Aeneas Sylvius Noblemen as gold Princes as pearls But time and chance happeneth to them all i. e. Every thing is done in its own time and as God by his providence ordereth it not as men will much lesse by hap-hazard for that which to us is casual and contingent is by God Almighty fore-appointed and effected who must therefore bee seen and sought unto in the use of means and second causes And if things succeed not to our minds but that wee labour in the fire yet wee must glorifie God in the fire and live by faith Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat Vers 12. For man also knoweth not his time His end say the Septuagint and Vulgar What may befall him in after time say others Flebile principium melior fortuna sequatur Accidit in puncto quod non speratur in anno So are the Sons of men snared in an evil time This is the reddition of the former proposition As the fishes are taken c. So are gracelesse men snared c. Security ushers in their calamity when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction breaks in upon them as travel upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5.3 God made fair weather before Pharaoh till hee was in the heart of the red sea The old World Sodom Amnon Belshazzar Herod the rich Fool were all suddenly surprized in the ruff of their jolity Jerusalem had three years of extraordinary great plenty Joseph before her last utter destruction Philosophers tell us that before a Snow the weather will bee warmish when the wind lyes the great rain falls and the air is most quiet when suddenly there will be an Earth-quake Vers 13. This wisdome also have I seen i. e. This fruit and effect of wisdome have I observed that through the iniquity of the times it is slighted and left unrewarded if joyned with a mean condition And it seemed great unto me Though not unto the Many who value not wisdome if meanly habited according to its worth consider not that Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste that within that leathern purse may be a pearl of great price and in those earthen pots abundance of golden treasure I know thy poverty but thou art rich Revel 2. The Cock on the dung-hil understands not this That which seems great to a Solomon Multis pro vili sub pedibusque jacet Stultorum enim plena sunt omnia Vers 14. There was a little City Such as was Lampsacum besieged by Alexander and saved by Anaximenes Rhodes besieged by the Great Turk Rochel by the French King Geneva by the Duke of Savoy This last a little City a small people environed with enemies and barred out from all ayd of neighbour Cities and Churches Brightman yet is strangely upheld Well may they write as they doe on the one side of their coyn Scultet Deus noster pugnat pro nobis Our God fights for us Vers 15. Now there was found in it a poor wise man Such as was Anaximener at Lampsacum and Archimides at Syracuse Vat. Max. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. lib. 14. of whose wisdome Plutarch testifieth that it was above the ordinary possibility of a man it was divine And of whose poverty Silius assures us that hee was Nadus opum sed cui coelum terraeque paterent By his warlike devises and engines hee so defended his City against Marcelius the Roman General that the souldiers called him Briareus and Centimanus a Giant invincible there was no taking of the Town as Livy relates it The City of Abel was delivered by a wise woman that was in it 2 Sam. 20. The City of Coccinum in the Isle of Lemnos See Judges 9.35 Turk hist 413. by Marulla a Maiden of that City Hippo could not bee taken whiles Augustine was in it not Heidelberg whiles Pareus lived Elisha preserved Samaria from the Syrians and the Prophet Isaiah Jerusalem from the Assyrians They shall not shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shields nor cast a bank against it saith the Lord Isa 37.33 Jeremy had preserved it longer but that his counsel was slighted Indeed hee was a Physician to a dying State Tunc etenim docta plus valet arte malum Yet no man remembred that same poor man Had hee been some Demetrius Phalareus or such like Magnifico hee should have had an hundred statues set up in honour of his good service Hee should have heard Saviour Saviour as Flaminius the Roman General did or Father Father as Huniades after hee had defeated Mesites the Turk But being poor hee is soon set aside and neither succoured nor honoured This is Merces mundi the worlds wages The Dutch have a Proverb that a man should bow to the tree that hath sheltered him in a storm But many well-deserving persons Sed restituta serenitate abeuntes vellicarent have cause to complain as Elias did when hee sate under the Juniper or as Themistocles did when hee compared himself to a Plane-tree whereunto his Country-men in a tempest would run for refuge but when once took up they would not onely leave him but pull the leaves from him Are you weary said hee once to them of receiving so many good turns from one man Vers 16. Then said I wisdome is better c. This
who can tell He hath got this sentence that may well become a wise man chap. 6.12 and 8.7 by the end and hee wears it thread-bare hee hath never done with it misapplying and abusing it to the defence of his wilful and witlesse enterprises Thus the Asse in the Fable would needs imitate the Dogge leaping and fawning in like manner on his Master but with ill successe The lip of excellency becomes not a fool Prov. 17.17 See the Note there See also Prov. 10.19 Prov. 17.27 Eccles 5.3 7. with the Notes But empty casks we know sound loudest and baser metals ring shrillest things of little worth are ever most plentiful History and experience tells us that some kind of Mouse breedeth one hundred and twenty young ones in one nest whereas the Lion and Elephant bears but one at once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the least wit yeelds the most words and as any one is more wise he is more sparing of his speeches Hesiod saith that words as a precious treasure should bee thriftily husbanded and warily wasted Christians know that for every waste word account must be given at the great day Mat. 12.36 See the Note there Vers 15. The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them Whilest hee laboureth in vain and maketh much adoe to little purpose Hee medleth in many things and so createth himself many crosses hee will needs bee full of businesse and so must needs be full of trouble sith hee wants wit to manage the one Isa 57.10 47.13 and improve the other Thou art wearied in the greatnesse of thy way And again Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsells saith God to such as had wearied him also with their iniquities and made him to serve with their sins Isa 43.24 Yea even then when they think they have done him very good service Thus Paul before his conversion persecuted the Saints so eagerly Acts 26. and was so mad upon it as himself speaketh that like a tired Wolf wearied in worrying the flock hee lay panting as it were for breath and when hee could doe no more Acts 9.1 Act. Mon. 1684. 1843 yet breathed out threatnings Thus Bonner would work himself windlesse almost in buffeting the Martyrs and whipping them with rods as hee did Mr. Bartlet Green Mr. Rough and many others So the Philosophers wearied themselves and their followers in their wild disquisitions after and discourses of the chief Happinesse which because it lay not in their walk therefore ab itinere regio deviantes ad illam metropolim non potuerunt pervenire saith Cassian they wandring from the King of Heavens High-way they could never be able to get to that Metropolitan City called Jehovah-shammah or the Lord is there Ezek. 48.34 They wandred in the Wildernesse in a solitary way they found no City to dwell in Psal 107.4 Fools many times beat their wings much as if they would fly farre and high but with the Bustard they cannot rise above the earth or if they doe they are soon pulled down again by the Devil to feed upon the worst of excrements Picrius as the Lapwing doth though it hath a coronet on the head and is therefore fitly made an hieroglyphick of infelicity Vers 16 Woe to thee O Land when thy King is a Childe sc In understanding though not in years such as was Shechem Gen. 34.19 Neque distulit puer and Rehoboam 1 King 14.21 with 2 Chron. 13.7 Solomon was a Childe-King so was Josiah Vzziah our Edward the Sixth and yet it was well with the Land in their dayes Hic regum decus juvenum flos spesque bonorum Deliciae saecli gloria gentis erat Acts and Mon. As Cardan sings of King Edward in his Epitaph As hee was the highest so I verily beleeve hee was the holiest in the whole Kingdom saith Mr. Ridley Martyr And whilest things were carried on by himself in his health time all went very well here and si per leges fas illi fuisset omnia proprio nutu voluntate regere if by the Lawes of the Land hee might have done all himself without Officers all should have been farre better done saith Mr. Cartwright upon this text By Childe is here therefore meant a weak or wicked King that lets loose the golden reigns of Government is carried by his passions lyeth heavie upon his Subjects See Esay 3.6 compared with vers 13. Such Princes are threatned as a plague to a people Levit. 26.17 and they prove no lesse this child-hood of theirs is the maturity of their Subjects misery the Land it self is woe and woe it self the Land as one Expositor observed from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used which signifieth both Woe and Land See Job 34.30 And the Princes eat in the morning As children use to call for meat as soon as they have rubbed sleep out of their eyes If the King be a Childe the State-Officers will be loose and luxurious yea like morning Wolves will devour the prey Jam. 5.4 and nourish themselves as in a day of slaughter The morning is a time to seek God and search for wisdome Prov. 8.17 to sit in Counsel and dispatch businesse as was Moses his manner Exod. 18. and the ancient Romans Scipio Africanus was wont before day to goe into the Capitol in cellam sovis into Jupiters Chappel and there to stay a great while quasiconsultans de republica cum Jove saith Gellius Lib. 7. cap. 1 as if hee were consulting with Jupiter concerning the Weal publick whence his deeds were pleraque admiranda admirable for the most past saith that Heathen Author Vers 17. Blessed art thou O Land c. Ita nati estis ut bona malaque vestra ad Remp. pertineant You Governours are of such condition as that your good or evil deeds are of publick concernment saith hee in Tacitus Annal. lib. 4. It is either weal or woe with the Land as it is well or ill governed When thy King is the Son of Nobles Well-born and yet better bred Princeps bonis moribus liberaliter institutus Hieron in loc Speed for else they will bee noti magis quam nobiles notable or notorious but not Noble Our Henry the First sirnamed Beauclark was often heard to say that an unlearned King was no better than a crowned Ass Sure it is that royalty without righteousness is but eminent dishonour gilded rottenness golden damnation Godly men are the excellent Ones of the Earth Psal 16. the Beraeans were more Noble or better Gentlemen than those of Thessalonica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 17.11 non per civilem dignitatem sed per spiritualem dignationem not by civil but by spiritual dignity without which riches revenue retinue high birth c. are but shadows and shapes of Noblenesse Since thou hast been precious in my sight thou hast been honourable saith God Isa 43.4 who is the top of good mens kin as
growth is not alwaies to be measured by joy and other accessory graces These sweet blooms may fall off when fruit comes on c. Verse 15. A fountain of gardens a well c Or Oh fountain of the Gardens c. For they do best in mine opinion that make this to be the Churches speech to Christ grounded upon his former commendation of her And it is as if she should say Callest thou me Lord a Garden enclosed a Spring shut up a Fountain scaled True it is I am the garden which thine own right hand hath planted walled watered c. but for all that I am or have the entire praise belongs to thee alone All my plenty of spiritual graces all my perennity of spiritual comforts all my pleasancy and sweetness is derived from thee no otherwise than the streams of Jordan are from mount Lebanon all my springs are in thee as in their Well-head Certum est nos facere quod facimus sed Ille facit ut faciamus saith Augustine True it is that wee do what wee do but it is as true that Christ maketh us to do what wee do For without him we can do nothing John 15.5 In him is our fruit found Hos 14.8 It is hee that works all our works in us Isa 26.12 Hence it is that the Church is no where in all this book described by the beauty of her hands or fingers because hee alone doth all for her The Church of Rome that will needs hammer out her own happiness like the Spider climbing up by a threed of her own weaving and boasting with her in the Emblem Mihi soli debeo shews thereby of what Spirit shee is That wretched Monk died blasphemously who said Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes Pay mee heaven which thou owest mee And what an arrogant speech was that of Vega Coelum gratis non accipiam I will not have heaven of free-cost Haec ego feci haec ego feci shews men to be no better than meer Feces said Luther wittily This I have done and that I have done speaks them dregs and dogges that shall stand without doors Rev. 22.15 Hear a childe of our Church speaking thus of himself Georg. Fab. Chemnicensis de scipso Fabricius studuit bene de pictate mereri Sed quicquid potuit gloria Christe tua est This was Matrissare to be like his mother whose Motto hath ever been Non nobis Domine Not unto us Lord not unto us but to thy name give the praise Psal 115.1 If I be thy garden Thou art my fountain from whence unless I be continually watered all will be soon withered and I shall bee as one that inhabiteth the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited Abbot his Georg. 251. Jer. 17.6 In the Island of St. Thomas on the back-side of Africa in the midst of it is an hill and over that a continual cloud wherewith the whole Island is watered Such is the Lord Christ to his Church Hos 14.5 6 7. which therefore as Gideons Fleece must needs be wet and moist when all the Earth besides is dry and desolate as the mountains of Gilboah or as St. Davids in Wales which is said to be a place neither pleasant fertile nor safe A well of living Or A pit of living and life-giving waters Christus coelum non patiuntur hyperbolen 2 Sam. 1.20 Godw Catal. Giral Camb. Puteus effossus ubi est aqua viva scaturiens clara Merc. A man cannot say too much in commendation of Christ and his Kingdome Hence the Church here cannot satisfie her self A Fountain shee calls him a well a stream such as makes glad the City of God even that pure river of the water of life proceeding out of Gods Throne Rev. 22.1 with Ezek. 47.6 Gregory makes this Fountain to bee the Scriptures which bee saith are like both to a Fountain and to a pit Some things in them are plain and open and may be compared to a spring which runs in an open and eminent place Other things therein are dark and deep and like unto a pit that a man must dive into and draw out with hard labour And streams from Lebanon Watering the whole Church as Jordan did the holy Land and tasting no doubt of that sweetness mentioned before vers 11. Even as we see by experience saith one that the waters that come out of the hills of some of the Islands of Molucca taste of the Cinnamon cloves c. that grow there Verse 16. Awake O North winde come thou South c. These windes she supposeth to be asleep because they blow not Rupertus calls the windes Mundi scopas the worlds Beesomes because God makes use of them to sweep out his large house and to purge the air The Spirit of God first purgeth and then watereth the faithful whom the Church here calleth her garden though indeed it bee Christs by reason of the nigh conjunction that is between him and her Ephes 5.30 so that they both make but one mystical Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Now wee all know that to a compleat Garden are necessary 1 that it be well enclosed 2 Well planted 3 Well watered 4 that it bee amaena coeli aspiratione perflabilis well situate for winde and air 5 that it bee fruitful and profitable The Churches Garden hath every of these good properties as appears here And for the fourth Christ is all the diverse windes both cold and hot moist and dry binding and opening North and South fit for every season What winde soever blows it blows good to the Church for Christ speaks to them as David did to his Captains Do this young man no hurt handle him gently for my sake The Sunne may not smite him by day Psal 121. nor the Moon by night The nipping North of adversity the cherishing South winde of prosperity must both make for him That the spices thereof may flow out That I may be some way serviceable to God and profitable to men Shee knew that in Gods account to be idle is all one as to bee evil Matth. 25.26 to bee unthankfull Horat. is to bee wicked Luke 6.35 Paulum sepulta distat inertia Celata virtus could one Poet say and another Vile latens virtus quid enim submersa tenebris Proderit obscuro veluti sub remige puppis Claudian de Consul Honor. Vel lyra quae reticet vel qui non tenditur arcus Christ had made his Church a garden of sweetest sweets Her desire is therefore that her fruits being rightly ripened her graces greatned and made mature by the benign breath of the Holy Ghost compared here as elsewhere to the several windes their sweetness may bee dispread and conveyed to the nostrils of such as have their senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 5.14 As for others their heads are so stuffed with the stenches of the world that great muck-hill and themselves so choaked up
That wee may seek him with thee For hee is not like to seek long that seeks alone there being a notable tye to constancy in the Communion of Saints Surely as sincerity is the life of Religion so society is the life of sincerity The Philippians had no sooner received the Gospel but they were in fellowship to a day Phil. 1.5 Vers 2. My Beloved is gone down into his garden Now she can tell where Christ is and inform others who before was to seek of him and sought information from others Post tenebras lux is the Churches Motto Though I sit in darkness the Lord shall give mee light hee will with the temptation give the issue a way to get out of it as the Moon wades out of a cloud as the Seed gets up from under a clod And see how forward shee is to communicate her friends shall know all that shee can tell them There is no envy in Spiritual things because they may bee divided in solidum one may have as much as another and all alike Yea Gods people know that the manifestation of the Spirit is given them to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 and that it is not powring out but want of powring out that dries up the streams of grace as that of oyl 2 Kings 4.6 What is meant by Christs garden see chap. 4.17 with the Note Hee is said to go down to it in allusion to the situation of Jerusalem which was on an hill their gardens being below in the fruitfull valleys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex omni ad nihilum seipsum redegit Beza Christ came down to his Church he descended into the lower parts of the earth that is into his mothers womb Eph. 4.9 with Psal 139.15 yea hee emptied himself of all his excellencies and took upon him the form of a servant yea of an evil servant that was to bee beaten Yea more hee humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2.9 Oh humble Saviour whether wilt thou descend Facinus vincire civem Romanum Cicero It was much for the Son of God to bee bound more to bee beaten most of all to bee slain Quid dicam in crucem tollâ— c well might the Apostle say He humbled himself To the beds of spices i. e. To the particular Churches or to the companies of Believers these beds or rowes of renewed souls Christ as a good Gardiner treadeth out soweth planteth watereth fenceth filleth with sundry gifts and graces To feed in the Gardens and to gather Lillies Like as men go to their Gardens either to make merry as wee say or to gather fruits So Christ here either to eat his pleasant fruits Cant. 4.16 his peoples holy performances better to him than any Ambrosia and then to gather his Lillies to transplant them into heaven Pascitur Christus quando suorum virtutes videt saith one Lilia decerpit quando optimum quemque ex hac vita traducit Christ feedeth in the Gardens when hee beholdeth the vertues of his people hee gathereth Lillies when hee translateth good souls into his Kingdom above Verse 3. I am my Beloveds c. Or I am for my Beloved and hee is for me i. e. for mee onely Flammâ— redardescit quae modo nulla fuit Ovid. hee resteth in his love and I in mine wee will seek no further And here her faith reviveth who in her late temptation and desertion was in a mist and could not read her own graces See the Note on chap. 2.16 It reviveth I say and fetcheth out Christ that had hid himself as that brave woman did Mark 7.24 25. Vers 4. Thou art beautiful O my Love as Tirzah A most neat and elegant City where the Kings of Israel kept their Courts A place of pleasure it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the very name imports hence the Greeks translate it here Good pleasure like as the Italians call a City of theirs Placenza Of the Churches exquisite beauty much hath been said before let it ever bee remembred that all her beauty is but borrowed Ezek. 16.14 Uxor fulget radiis mariti as they say in the Civil Law Isaac when hee was to marry Rebecca sent her jewels aforehand that having them shee might bee more lovely in his eye So doth Christ the Spirit of faith and other graces besides the imputation of his own perfect righteousness that hee may delight in his Spouse And albeit shee had so discourteously dealt with him as chap. 5.3 and thereupon hee had stept aside for a while yet that shee might know that hee was still the same without shadow of change and that hee hated putting away Mal. 2.16 meeting her again hee doth marvelously commend her that is his own graces in her and all is as well as ever betwixt them Homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit it is but acknowledging the debt and Christ will soon cross the book and cancell the hand-writing Col. 2.14 Quem poenitet peccasse Jer. 3.22 pene est innocens Repent and the amends is made Return yee backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings Comely as Jerusalem That City of the great King great among the Nations and Princess among the Provinces Lam. 1.1 the glory of the whole earth urbium totius Orientis clarissima Plin. l. 5. c. 14. saith Pliny the most famous of all the Cities of the East Orbis totius lumen as another calls it yea an earthly paradise as Josephus soli coelique fertilitate omnes civitates superans a City compact together Psal 122.3 The Church is all this in Christs esteem and though the least yet not the least among the Princes of Juda as it is said of Bethlehem in a different respect Mic. 5.2 Mat. 2.6 Terrible as an army with banners i. e. Of invincible faith and Spiritual courage terrible also and full of majesty either to draw hearts or to daunt them as Nazianzen saith of Athanasius that hee was Magnes Adamas a Loadstone in his sweet gentle drawing nature and yet an Adamant in his resolute stout carriage against those that were evil and erroneous Exod. 15.14 15 16. Psal 48.5 6. How terrible were the Israelites encamped and bannered in the wilderness unto the Moabites Canaanites c And the like may bee said of the Hussites in Bohemia when all Germany were up in arms against them and worsted by them of the Britains under the conduct of Germanus D. Usher de Britan. Eccles primord 337. fighting against a mighty army of Pelagian Picts and Saxons in this Kingdome and prevailing onely by the three times pronouncing the word Hallelujah Of the Protestants in France at the siege of Mountalban where the people of God using daily humiliation immediately before their sallying forth sang a Psalm which when the enemy heard they would so quake and tremble crying They come Speâ— beâ—li sac 282. they come as though the wrath of God had been rushing out upon them
saw a pit full of mans blood O formosum spectaculum O brave sight The very name Dimon signifieth bloody so called as some think on this occasion instead of Dibon the old name ver 2. Additamenta plegarum Haymo I will bring more upon Dimon Lions upon him that escapeth of Moab Heb. I will put additions upon Dimon i. e. additions of evils viz. Lions and other like fierce and cruel creatures which shall prey upon the Moabites there Chap. 35.9 2 King 17.25 Some say by Lion is here meant Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 4.7 fitly compared to a Lion for his strength and swiftness Certain it is that God hath in store plenty of plagues for evil-doers and if they escape one mischief they shall fall into another their preservation is but a reservation except they repent CHAP. XVI Ver. 1. SEnd ye the Lamb For prevention of those Lions Chap. 15.9 submit to Hezekiah your right Liege-Lord 2 Sam. 8.2 with 2 King 3.4 a Lamb i.e. your appointed number of tribute-Lambs in token of homage But especially make your peace with God the Ruler of the whole World 1 Chron. 29.12 by paying him homage and fealty that there may be a lengthening of your tranquillity Strabo lib. 16. From Selo in the wilderness otherwise called Petra because beset with rocks whence the countrey it stood in was called Arabia Petraea Some make it the head-head-City of Moab others of Edom a place it seemeth it was full of cattle and by King Amaziah who took it called Jokâ—eel 2 King 14.7 Alioqui fiet Jun. Ver. 2. For it shall be that as a wandring bird c. Or Otherwise it shall be that as c. i. e. except ye do as I have advised you ver 1. a double mischief shall befal you 1 dissipation as a wandring bird c. 2 deportation at the foords of Arnon where ye shall be carried captive As a wandring bird See Prov. 27.8 with the Note Ver. 3. Take counsel execute judgment Or make a decree or deal equally and uprightly shew the like kindness to Abrahams posterity as he once did to your proginitour Lot whom he rescued or as Lot did to the Angels whom as strangers he entertained fac inquam quod suggero dum subdo Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of noonday i. e. Shelter and shade my persecuted people este illis securum perfugium jucundum refrigerium protect them refresh them do all kâ—nd offices for them which your fathers did not but the contrary Deut. 23.3 4. Ver. 4. Let mine out-casts who are dear to me Jer. 30.17 though I may seem to have cast off the care of them Out easts they may be but not castawayes See chap. 52.5 6. persecuted but not forsaken 2 Cor. 4.9 Bowels of mercy must be put on toward godly Exiles especially who are Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should therefore be dear to us For the extortioner is at an end Heb. Emunctor the Milker or Squeezer or Wâ—inger out Prov. 30.33 so the Assyrian Tyrant is called as also Vastator Proculcator the spoiler or plunderer and Conculcator the Oppressour or Treader down is consumed out of the Land and it shall not be long ere I fetch home my banished be content therefore to harbour them awhile herein thou shalt do thy self no disservice at all Ver. 5. For in mercy or piety shall the throne be established Hezekiah's throne shall but especially Christs from whom ye may once have occasion to borrow that mercy which now you are called upon to lend to those outcasts of Israel And he shall set upon it i. e. He shall make it his business to relieve and right his people And seeking judgment Making inquisition after wrongs of such as dare not complain The Grand Signior they say shew himself on purpose weekly abroad for the receiving the poors petitions and punishing the Grandees of his Court by whom they are oppressed whence also he stileth himself Awlem Penawh i. e. the world 's Refuge And hastening justice Dispatching and dispeeding causes Ver. 6. We have heard of the pride of Moab His harsh and haughty carriage toward Gods poor people though he were advised the contrary ver 1.3 4. Good counsel is but cast away upon a proud person Now the Moabites were as much noted then for their pride as now the Spaniards are And their pride appeared by their braggs and threats But His lyes shall not be so Or his indignation is more then his strength as Hierom rendreth it His boastings and blusters shall come to nothing his pride shall be his bane and break-neck Ver. 7. Therefore shall Moab houle for Moab One Moabite to another or each within himself ut solent desperantes For the foundations of Kirharesheth Which shall be utterly rased and harased Kirhareseth is interpreted the city of brick walls as was Babylon or rather the city of the Sun as Bethshemesh and Heliopolis because there the Sun was in a special manner worshipped Shall ye mourn Or roar or mutter or muse Ver. 8. For the fields of Heshbon languâ—sh as being decayed and destroyed hence so great mourning in Moab Their father and founder was begotten in wine and themselves were likely great wine-bibbers Historians say that some of their Cities were built by Baâ—chus Fitly therefore are these drunken Moabites bereft of their vines as those gluttonous Sodomites were of their victuals Gen. 14.11 The Drunkards motto is Take away my liquour and take away my life The Lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants therereof The great Turk causeth all the vines to be cut down wherever he cometh as hearing out of the Alchoran that in every grape there dwelleth a devil Ver. 9. Therefore I will bewail with the weeping Defleo fletum Paronomasia that is the misery of Jazer Or I will with weeping bewail Jazer and the vine of Sibmah For the shouting for thy summer-fruits i.e. Thy joy and jollity over thy summer-fruits and over thine harvest expressed by songs and shouts do now fail and cease Ver. 10. And gladness is taken away Laetitia i. e. quicquid laetificum erat all matter of mirth is removed Heb. gathered up or gathered in as your harvest also is to your hand by the enemy Ver. 11. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab The elect of God holy and beloved have bowels of mercy Ego ex intimiâ— visceribuâ— meis conturbaâ—m Jun. tenderness and kindness toward their very enemies also Colos 3.12 whom they do oft pitty more then they pitty themselves as Habakkuk did the Chaldeans calamity Chap. 3.16 and as Daniel did Nebuchadnezzars downfal Dan. 4.19 Sicut cithara plectro tacta dat sonitum in funere funereum As they have mournful musick at funerals Jer. 9.17 20. Mat. 9 23. or as the strings of a Shaulm sound heavily so do my heart-strings for miserable Moab In an harp if one string be touched all the rest sound so it should
be with us in regard of fellow-feeling We should feel others hard cords thorough our soft beds Ver. 12. That Moah is weary on the high place tired out in his superstitious services by all which he is not a button the better but a great deal the worse But he shall not prevail This is every wicked mans case and curse for we know that God heareth not sinners Joh. 9 31. He will never accept of a good motion from a bad mouth Isa 1. The very heathen could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 13. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken And is therefore sure and certain for the word of the Lord cannot be broken Joh. 10.35 Since that time i. e. Since Balaam hired by Balac say the Hebrews cursed not the Israelites as he would have done but the Moabites as he was made to do Ex tunc Ver. 14. Within three years In which time the sins of the Moabites shall be full and themselves ripe and ready for vengeance Three years hence therefore sc in the fourth year of King Hezekiah for then came up Salm inezer against Samaria and t is probable that in his march thither he invaded and subdued these Moabites that he might leave all safe behind him An hundred years after which or more Nebuchadnezzar utterly ruined them according to Jer. 48. As the years of an hireling i. e. praecisè nec citius nec tardius three years precisely This time Moab had to make his peace in but he minded nothing less and therefore deservedly perished So alas shall all such infallibly as repent not within their three years space which perhaps may not be three moneths or three dayes saith Oecolampadius I may add three minutes and yet ex hoc momento pendet aeternitas upon this short inch of time dependeth eternity Up therefore and be doing Stat sua cuique dies c. CHAP. XVII Ver. 1. THe burden of Damascus See chap. 13.1 Of Damascus That is of the Kingdom of Syria the head City wherof was Damascus and it was destroyed by Salmaneser five or six years after this burdenous Prophecy the like whereunto see chap. 49.23 Am. 1.2 Zech. 9.1 It had been taken before by Tiglath-pileser 2 King 1. and hath been rebuilded since Act. 9.2 2 Cor. 11.32 being at this day a noble City of the East civitas laetitiae landabilis as Jeremy calleth it Chap. 49. And it shall be a ruinous heap It was so till re-edified and inhabited by a new people Ver. 2. The cities of Aroer are forsaken i. e. The countrey beyond Jordan Deut. 2.36 is desolated and depopulated the Gadites and the Reubenites being also together with the Syrians carried captive by Tiglath-pileser 1 Chron. 5.26 Ver. 3. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim Heb. shall sabbatizâ— or rest Ephraim or the ten tribes had joyned with Syria in a confederacy against Judah they justly therefore partake with them in their punishment Shall be as the glory of the children of Israel Poor glory now but so their low condition is called Ironically and by way of contempt saith Oecolamp Ver. 4. The glory of Jacob shall be made thin Their multitudes wherein they gloried shall be greatly impaired And the fatness He shall be cast into a deadly consumption Now the consumption of a Kingdom is poverty and the death of it is loss of authority saith Scultetus wickedness being the root of its wretchedness like as the causes of diseases are in the body it self Ver. 5. And it shall be as when the harvest man Their utter captivity is set forth by three lively Similitudes for better assurance a very small remnant only left in the Land This by some Ancients is alledged to shew how few shall be saved surely not one of ten thousand said Simeon And before him Chrysostom How many think you shall be saved in this City of Antioch Hom. 4. ad Pop. Antioch Though there be so many thousands of you yet there cannot be found an hundred that shall enter into Gods Kingdom and I doubt much of those too c. In the valley of Rephaim which was nigh to Jerusalem Jun. Josh 15.8 nam simili tudine populari propheta ulitur Ver. 6. Yeâ— gleaâ—ing grapes c. See on ver 5. Ver. 7. At that day shall a man look to his Maker The Elect among the Isralites shall do so having been whipt home as before There is an Elegancy in the original as there are many in this Prophet that cannot be Englished Here also and in the next Verse we have a description of true Repentance the right fruit of Afflicton sanctified Penitency and Punishment are words of one derivation Ver. 8. And he shall not look to the Altars As having looked before to his Maker with a single eye with an eye of Adamant that will turn only to one point See on Hos 14.8 Ver 9. Which they left for the children of Israel Which the enemy left by a sweet providence of God the like whereto see on Zech. 7.14 Ver. 10. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation Thou hast disloyally departed from him as a Wife doth from her Husband though he were both able and ready to have saved thee Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants But all to no purpose Hoc patres familias pro regula habeant oeconomica There is a curse upon the wicked though never so industrious all will not do God cannot abide to be forgotten And shalt set it with strange slips i. e. Rare and excellent ones Exotica fere non nisi preciosa afferuntur Jun. but for the enemies use as ver 11. Deut. 28.29 Ver. 11. In the day thou shalt make thy plant to grow So Prov. 22.8 he that soweth inquity shall reap vanity and the more serious and sedulous he is at it the worse shall it be with him Gal. 6.8 But thy harvest shall be an heap This is a Proverb among the Jews to signifie labour in vain In the day of grief and desperate sorrow Heb. aegrae sc plagae for grapes ye shall gather thorns for figs thistles Ver. 12. Wo to the multitude of many people Met to make up Sennacheribs Army Mihi hoc loco admirantis vi etur Oecolamp Or O the multitude c. The Prophet wondereth as it were at the huge multitude of the enemies and their horrible noise Like the rushing of many waters Ob impetum fremitum Ver. 13. The Nations shall rush Or rustle The Assyrians did so when they brake in chap. 36.1 20. But God shall rebuke them i. e. Chide them smite them and so set it on as none shall be able to take it off And they shall flee far off Heb. he shall flee viz. Sennacherib who frighted with the slaughter of his Souldiers by the Angel shall flee his utmost Ver. 14. And behold at even-tide trouble Or terrour sc within Jerusalem besieged by Sennacheribs forces But this mourning lasted but till morning The
Called the Jews language chap. 35.11 13. the Hebrew tongue wherein were written the lively Oracles of God This Language therefore the Elect Egyptians shall learn and labour for that pure lip Zeph. 3.9 to speak as the Oracles of God 1 Pet 4.11 Wholsom words 2 Tim. 1.13 Right words Job 6.25 Words of wisdom Prov. 1.6 Of truth and soberness Act. 26.25 to be Examples to others not only in faith and conversation but also in words and communication 1 Tim. 4.12 And swear to the Lord of hosts Devote themselves to his fear and service Nempe susceptione baptismi Piscat taking a corporal oath for that purpose as in baptisme and other holy covenants whereupon haply they might be inabled to speak with tongues the holy tongue especially as most necessary for Christians Here then we have a description of a true Christian not such as the Jesuites in their Catechisme give us viz. A Christian is he who believeth whatsoever the Church of Rome commandeth to be believed swearing fealty to Her One shall be called the City of destruction i. e. Nevertheless there shall be a few cities that shall despise Christian Religion and shall therefore be destroyed for neglecting so great salvation It shall be easier for Sodom one day then for such Others render the text Heliopolis or the city of the Sun shall be accounted one sc of those 5 converted cities and become consecrated to the Sun of righteousness Joseph Ant. lâ—b 13. cap. 6. Ver. 19. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord A spiritual altar for spiritual sacrifices as ver 20. Heb. 13.10 Onias the Jewish Priest who hereupon went and built an altar at Heliopolis in Egypt and sacrificed to God there was as much mistaken as the Anabaptists of Germany were in their Munster which they termed new Jerusalem and acted accordingly sending forth Apostles casting out orthodox Ministers c. And a pillar in the border thereof that is saith One the Gospels and writings of the Apostles that pillar and ground of truth Or a publike confession of the Christian faith Rom. 10 9. An allusion to Josh 22.10 25. See Zech. 14.9 20 21. Ver. 20. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness The doctrine of Christs death is a clear testimony of Gods great love and kindness to mankind Rom. 5. and 8. For they shall cry unto the Lord for their oppressours As the Israelites sometimes had done under the Egyptian servitude Exod. 3.9 And he shall send them a Saviour not Moses but Messias that great Saviour Servatorem magnatem vel magistrum for God hath laid his peoples help on One that is mighty Psal 89.19 See Tit. 2 13. Ver. 21. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt They shall both know the Lord Christ and be known of him as Gal. 4.9 See Rom. 10.20 And shall do sacrifice and oblation Perform reasonable service Rom 12.1 such as whereof they can render a reason Not a Samaritan service Joh. 4.22 or Athenian Act. 17.23 Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship c. God will have no such blind sacrifices Mal. 1.8 Yea they shall vow a vow c. That in baptisme especially Facit opus aâ—tenum ut faciat proprium Isa 28. Ver. 22. And the Lord shall smite Egypt That he may bring it into the bond of the covenant Ezek. 20.37 Heb. 12.9 Hos 6.1 He shall smite and heal it Heb. smiting and healing Vna eademque manus c. Vna gerit bellum monstrat manus altera pacew as it was said of Charles 5. And shall heal them Pardon their sins heal their natures and make up all breaches in their outward estates Ver. 23. In that day there shall be an highway c. All hostility shall cease and a blessed unanimity be settled amongst Christs subjects of several nations Hereunto way was made by the Roman Empire reducing both these great countries into Provinces And the Egyptiant shall serve Serve the Lord with one shoulder as Zeph. 3.9 Ver. 24. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt The posterity of Sem Ham and Japhâ—t shall concur in the communion of Saints the pale and partition-wall being taken away Even a blessing in the middest of the earth The Saints are so Absque stationibus non staret mundus If it were not for them the world would soon shatter and fall in pieces Jun. Ver. 25. Whom the Lord of hostes shall bless Or For the Lord of hostes shall bless and then he shall be blessed as Isaac said of Jacob Gen. 27.33 Blessed be Egypt my people A new title to Egypt and no less honorable Vide quantum profecerit Aegyptus flagellis saith Oecolampad here i e. See how Egypt hath got by her sufferings See ver 22. She who was not a people but a rabble of rebels conspiring against heaven is now owned and taken into covenant And Assyria the work of my hands For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 And Israel mine Inheritance This is upon the matter one and the same with the former every regenerate person whether Jew or Gentile is all these three in conjunction O the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heaped up happiness of all such Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Psalm 149.2 For the Lord her God in the midst of her is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over her with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over her with singing Zeph. 3.17 CHAP. XX. Ver. 1. IN the year that Tartan A certain Commander under Sennacherib 2 King 18.17 who came against Ashdod among other Cities of Judah about the twelfth year of King Hezekiah Came to Ashdod Called also Azotus Act. 8.40 and much praised by Herodotus in Euterpe When Sargon That is Sennacherib most likely who had seven Names saith Hierom eighth say some Rabbins Commodus the Roman Emperour took unto himself as many names as there are months in the year 1 â—on which also he changed ever and anon but constantly kept that of Exuperans because he would have been thought to excel all men The like might be true of Sargon Herod l. 2. And fought against Ashdod and took it Psammetichus King of Egypt had before taken it after a very long siege now it is taken again from the Aegyptian by the Assyrian to teach them and others not to trust to Forts and fenced Cities Ver. 2. At the same time spake the Lord Against Egypt and Ethiopia whom he had comforted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Per Isaiam tanquam organum disâ—ensatorem suoâ—um myster Oecolamp Vestimentum â—i losum ver 18. 19 and yet now again threateneth shewing by an ocular demonstration what miseries should befall them This was done in Jury but the report thereof might easily come to these confederate Countreys and the Jews howsoever were given hereby to
Lawes by Ordinances the ceremonial and by everlasting Covenant the Decalogue Others by Lawes the municipal Lawes of the Common-wealth by Ordinances the Lawes of Nations as not to violate an Embassadour c. by everlasting Covenant the Law of Nature which is that Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world John 1.9 Ver. 6. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth The Chaldee and Vatablus render it the perjury viz. in transgressing the Laws c. which they had covenanted and sworn to observe See Psalm 119.106 That dreadful curse of the Jews Matth. 27.25 is come upon them to the utmost devouring their Land and desolating the Inhabitants thereof Though the curse causeless come not yet God sometimes saith Amen to other mens curses as he did to Jothams upon the Shechemites Judg. 9.57 How much more to mens banning themselves Ver. 7. The new wine mourneth As being spilled and spoiled by the enemy All the merry-hearted do sigh Who were wont to sing away care and to call for their cups Ver. 8. The mirth of Tabrets ceaseth Quicquid laetitiarum fuit in luctum vertitur Ver. 9. They shall not drink wine with a song Revel it as they had wont to do non convivabuntur pergroecando We use to call such merry-griggs that is Greeks Ver. 10. The City of confusion Vrbs desolanda destined to desolation whether it be Babylon Tyre Jerusalem or any other Mundum intellige in quo nihil nisi vanum saith Oecolampadius that is by this City of vanity so the Vulgar translateth it understand the world according to that of the Preacher Vanity of vanities all is vanity Austin in the beginning of that excellent work of his De Civitate Dei maketh two opposite Cities the one the City of God the other the City of the Devil the one a City of Verity the other a City of vanity Ver. 11. There is a crying for Wine The Drunkards weep the Ale-stakes yell because the new Wine is cut off from their mouthes Joel 1.5 All joy is darkened Heb. It is eventide with joy As the ayr in the evening waxeth dark so shall their mirth be turned into heaviness The mirth of the land is gone Together with their liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wine is by Simonides called the expeller of sadness Ver. 12. In the City is left desolation There is nothing of any worth left but havock made of all it is plundered to the life as now we phrase it since the Swedish Wars Custom is the sole Mint-Master of currant words Ver. 13. When thus it shall be in the midst of the Land Or for so it shall be in the land among the people as in the beating of an Olive-tree c. En misericordiae specimen still there is a remnant reserved for royal use quando omnia passim pessum â—unt God never so punisheth but he leaveth some matter for his mercy to work upon A Church on earth he will ever have Ver. 14. They shall lift up their voyce c. Laudabunt Deum laetabuntur this Elect remnant in all Countries shall be filled with spiritual joy and peace through the belief of the Truth which shall vent it self by singing praises to God And here we have the very mark of the true Church which is to celebrate and profess the great and glorious Name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ For the Majesty of the Lord Or for the magnificence that great work of his especially of divulging his Gospel all the world over and thereby gathering his Church out of all Nations They shall cry aloud from the sea i. e. From the Islands and transmarine parts as we do now from great Brittain thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift calling to our Neighbour-nations and saying Ver. 15. Glorifie ye God in the fires In ipsis ignibus in the hottest fires of afflictions rejoyce in hope be patient in tribulation praise God for crosses also this is Christianorum propria virtus saith Hierom. Jun. In the Isles of the sea Quicunque quocunque loco inter quoscunq sitis Ver. 16. From the uttermost part of the land have we heard songs Or Psalms aliquid Davidicum The Martyrs sang in the fire Luther in deep distress called for the 46. Psalm to be sung in contemptum Diaboli in despight of the Devil Maerore ac macie conficior Even glory to the Righteous To Jesus the just One 1 John 2.2 But I said my leanness my leanness The Prophets flesh was wasted and consumed with care and grief for his graceless Country-men See the like in David Psalm 119.158 and Paul Rom. 9.1 2. Wo unto me Or Alass for me The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously They have crucified the Lord of Glory upon a desperate and deep malice out of most notorious contumacy and ingratitude This was with most treacherous treachery to deal treacherously this was to do evil as they could Ver. 17. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon thee Metaphora à venatoribus a Metaphor from Hunters elegantly expressed in the original by words of a like sound God hath variety of plagues at command his quiver is full of shafts neither can he possibly want a Weapon to beat his Rebels with If the Amorites escape the Sword yet they are brain'd with Hail-stones Josh 10. If the Syrians get into a walled Town yet there they are baned by the fall of a Wall upon them 1 King 20. Ver. 18. He who fleeth from the noise of the fear See Am. 5 19. with the Note and learn to fear God the stroke of whose arm none may think to escape For the windows from on high are opened The cataracts or sluces of the clouds as once in the general Deluge The foundations of the earth do shake Heaven and earth shall fight against them and conspire to mischieve them Ver. 19. The earth is utterly broken down This he had said before Oyl if not well rub'd in pierceth not the skin Menaces must be inculcated or else they will be but little regarded Let Preachers press matters to the utmost drive the nayl home to the head not forbearing through faint-heartedness nor languishing through luke-warmness Ver. 20. The earth shall reel too and fro like a drunkard As the Inhabitants thereof had drunk in iniquity like water Job 15.17 so they should now drink and be drunk with the Cup of Gods wrath And shall be removed like a cottage Or lodge but or tent so shall they be tossed and tumbled from one place to another And the transgression i. e. The punishment of your transgression Observe here the wages and the weight of sin Ver. 21. The Lord shall punish the host of the high-ones that are on high Altitudinis in excelso Hereby he may mean the Jews Gods first-born and therefore higher then the Kings of the earth Psalm 89.27 though now for most part degenerated and therefore in the next words also heavily
is our Judge Ours in all relations therefore we shall not dye or do amiss See Habak 1.12 with the Note Our Judge will do us right Our Law-giver will give us the best direction See Nehem. 9.13 with the Note Our King will see to our safety Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Psal 149.2 Ver. 23. Thy Tacklings are loosed Thy shipping O Assyrian is wracked and dissipated Vbi per funes tentoria per vela vexilla intelliguntur The Prophet elegantly expresseth the matter in Sea-mens termes Ver. 24. And the inhabitant shall not say I am sick Sc. by reason of the long and streight seige None shall be so lame ver 23. or sick and in pain as here but that he shall be in case to pursue and prey upon the enemies The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity Jehovah Rophe or the Physician shall heal them on both sides make them whole every whit This is a most sweet Promise and highly to be prized by all that are heires of the Promises Optandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano CHAP. XXXIV Ver. 1. COme near ye Nations In this Chapter and the next the Prophet for the terrour of the wicked and comfort of the godly summeth up what he had said before concerning the destruction of the enemies and the restauration of the Church Lib. 11. de praep Evang. Eusebius with many other Ancients will have this Chapter to be understood of the end of the world and the last judgement and further saith that Plato hath taken this place of the Prophet Isaiah into his writings and made it his own Litera vero hujus vaticinii de extremo judicio non loquitur but this cannot be the literal sense of the text saith Scultetus The Jew-Doctours will needs understand these two Chapters as a Prophecy of their return into the holy land when once Idumea shall be destroyed and for this they alledge Lam. 4.22 which yet proveth it not Ver. 2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations Is or shall be upon all the Churches enemies whether of former or latter time even his boyling wrath as the Word signifieth He hath utterly destroyed them Or he will make an Anathema of them as ver 5. the people of my curse devoted to destruction Ver 3. Their slain also shall be cast out Buried with the burial of an Asse Jer. 22.19 which Cicero somewhere calleth sepulturam insepultam This may also befall such as for Gods sake are slain all the day long but to them it is no such judgment Caelo tegitur qui caret urna And their stink shall come up out of their carcasses They stink alive as Goates as whited Tombes as walking dunghils and now their dead carcasses also shall stink above-ground And the mountaines shall be melted with their blood Justè omnino because they moistened the earth with the blood of Gods people and dunged the land with their dead carcasses Ver. 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved Inusitati supplicii atrocitas sic designatur So great shall be the slaughter of the Nations that the heavenly bodies shall seem to be sensible of it and amazed at it and the whole heaven to be rolled together as a scroll lest it should be forced to behold it In a bloody fight between Amurath the third King of Turkes and Lazarus Despot of Servia many thousands fell on both sides the Turkish Histories to express the terrour of the day vainly say that the Angels in Heaven amazed with that hideous noise for that time forgot the heavenly hymnes wherewith they alwayes glorifie God Ver. 5. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven Heb. drunk or drenched i. e. In caelo decretum est ut inebrietur whence-soever the sword comes it is bathed in Heaven hath its commission from God Jer. 47.6 7. See Jer. 46.9 and as a drunken man reeleth to and fro so the sword when once in commission roveth up and down and rideth circuit usually Ezek. 14.17 Behold it shall come down upon Idumea i e. Upon the Edomites who were assidui acerrimi hostes Judaeorum bitter enemies to the Jews though both Nations came of Isaac both were circumcised so are now the Romish Edomites to the Churches of Christ with whose blood they are red all over Rev. 17. The Hebrews understand here by Idumea Rome Ver. 6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood c. That is it maketh clean work as the blood and fat were in sacrifices consumed Levit. 1.16 17. and this execution was no less pleasing to God than some solemn sacrifice For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah The Metropolis of Idumea Ptolomy calleth it Botsra And it prefigured Rome saith Piscator the chief City and seat of Antichrists Kingdom Ver. 7. And the Vnicornes shall come down Monocerotes qui interimi possunt capi non possunt creatures of untameable fierceness or Rhinocerotes as the Margent hath it he meaneth the Great ones Ver. 8. For the controversie of Zion i. e. Of the Church both Jewish and Christian saith Piscator Confer Rev. 18.2 Alludit ad vicinam sâ—tu scelere clade Sodomam lib. 5. de bell Jud. Geog. l. 16. Ver. 9. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch Like the Lake of Sodom which is near to Idumea and whereof Josephus writeth that an Ox having all his legs bound will not sink into it the water is so thick and pitchy Strabo though a stranger to this Prophecy attesteth the accomplishment of it Lyra saith that in some part of Idumea there is still ascending a smoke of fire and brimstone as out of Mount Aetna in Sicily And Hyperius thinketh that the Edomites are here further threatned with hell-torments It should seem so by the next words Ver. 10. It shall not be quenched night nor day the smoak of it shall go up for ever See Revel 14.11 and 18.18 and 19.3 And observe how John the Divine picks out the choicest passages of the Old Testament and polisheth therewith his Revelation None shall passe thorough it for ever i. e. Incolendi animo to dwell there passengers did passe through it and wondred at Gods dreadful judgments thereon Jer. 49.17 Ver. 11. The cormorant and the bittern shall possesse it God cannot satisfie himself in saying what he will do to the Edomites because they had dealt by revenge and had taken vengeance with a despightful heart to destroy the Church for the old Satanical hatred as Ezek 25.15 He will turn in those animalia faeda fera terribelia to dwell in their land whereby is noted extream devastation which is here in many exquisite words more propemodum Poetico described And he shall stretch out upon it So that men shall in vain think of rebuilding and repeopling it Ver. 12. They shall call the Nobles thereof to the Kingdom The Venetians have Magistrates called Pregadi because at first men
Persians Lib. 6. c. 26. and might be to them of as great worth as was Nebuchadnezzars massy Image of gold dedicated in Dura Dan. 3.1 2. This great golden image some think to be the same that is here called Nebo or Nebuchadnezzar Others think it to be Apollo Deus vaticinus Tremellius rendreth it the prophecying or oracular God Jeremy seemeth to call him Merodach chap. 51.1 Dagon the Septuagint render him but not well Your carriages were heavy laden tam estis dii graves Ver. 2. They stoop The Babylonians together with their Mawmets Ridiculous Gods that could be thus plundered carried captives born on the backs of Asses But themselves are gone into captivity Heb. and their soul went into captivity that is their Idols that were dear unto them as their very souls Ver. 3. Which are born by me from the belly You do not bear me as they do their Idols in procession and otherwise but I bear you and so have done from the first and shall do the last like as the tender mother doth her beloved babe or as the Eagle doth her young upon her wings Exod. 19.4 Deut. 32.11 Ver. 4. And even to your old age I am he The mother beateth not her childe in her bosom Idem faciunt â—qui calcibus canes morlu when grown to some bigness The Eagle beateth her young out of the nest when able to prey upon their own wing but God dealeth better a great deal with his whom he never casteth off as neither doth he his labouring and languishing Church upon whom the ends of the world are come I have made and I will bear even I will carry God himself will do it I is emphatical and exclusive Et si gratissima semper Munera sint Author quae preciosa facit How sweet should this precious promise be unto us and how soveraigne against the fear of want in old age Plutarch giveth this for a reason why old men are so covetous viz. because they fear they shall not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as will keep them whiles they live and such as will bury them decently when dead The Lord here assureth all his that he will see to their support and sustentation as long as life lasteth yea for spirituals as well as temporals This was no small comfort to old David Psal 71. to Dr. Rivet and others And well it might See Psal 48. ult with the Notes Pathos habent verba Me Cui Alap Ver. 5. To whom then will ye liken me c. q. d. To which of your paramours for here the Lord rerurneth to his discourse against idolaters and their Idols earumque inanitatem inopiam demonstrat inveighing against them with no less stomach and indignation then a jealous husband against his adulteresses stallions Let every godless person who idolizeth his lusts think he heareth God thus bespeaking him as in this Text. Ver. 6. They lavish gold out of the bag They spare for no cost Nebuchadnezzar did not in that vast Colossus Dan. 3.1 Canutus bestowed upon a Cross his whole annual Entrado or revenue He also gave an hundred talents of silver and one of gold for St. Austine arme which he bestowed on Coventry as a memorial of his blind zeal The Lady of Loretto hath her Churches so stuffed with vowed Presents and memories as they are fain to hang their Cloysters and Church-yards with them Sands Relat. Ver. 7. They bear him upon their shoulders As the Papists breaden god furfuraceum illud numen is at this day born about to be adored whereas the true God beareth up all things by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 Yea one shall cry unto him As they did to Baal in Eliah's dayes and the Cretians to their Jupiter whom they therefore pictured without eares Ver. 8. Remember this Suffer me not to press these things so oft upon you to no purpose And shew your selves men Roboramini fortify your hearts by the Word of God and true reason renewing your good resolutions oft against this senseless sin of Idolatry Bring it again to mind Heb. bring back to heart turn short again upon your selves recognize your iniquities and be humbled Ver. 9. Remember the former things of old Again he calleth upon them to remember who had so foully forgot themselves in the days of Ahas and Manasseh and would do so again in Babylon where they kept not themselves from Idols Papists unman themselves or otherwise they could not be such gross Idolates Ver. 10. Declaring the end from the beginning This forttelling of things future is a precellency in God above Idols that he much standeth upon I will do all my pleasure What God pleaseth to do there is no question but he is able to do But they are out who argue from Gods power to his will Ver. 11. Calling a ravenous bird i. e. Cyrus who was hawk-nosed and came swiftly to seiz upon Babylon like a Falcon or some such ravenous bird Cyripaed l. 7. So Nebuchadnezzar is called an Eagle Jer. 48.49 Xenophon testifyeth that Cyrus had in his standard a golden Spred-Eagle as had after him the Persian Kings and likewise the Romans See Matth 24.28 with the Note Ver. 12. Hearken unto me ye stout-hearted Ye cruel Caldeans And here some begin the next Chapter That are far from righteousness And therefore not far from ruine Psal 119. ver 155. Ver. 13. I will bring near my righteousness I will suddainly right my wronged people by Cyrus my servant but especially by Christ my Son therefore it followeth I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory Or in Israel my magnificence i. e. Now which of your Idols can do thus for their worshippers CHAP. XLVII Ver. 1. COme down from thy lofty top and towring state as the head Sic transit gloria mundi Cyrillus legit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 City of the world Sit in the dust as a mourner Job 2.8 42.6 So Judea being subdued by Vespatian was pictured upon mony coined by him as a hand-maid sitting on the ground Sic ruet alto à culmine Roma O Virgin daughter of Babylon Thou that hast never yet been subdued So Venice hath for her Motto Intacta manto So Cullen upon Rhine is called The virgin-Virgin-City Thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate so as Queens use to be Cleopatra for instance Ver. 2. Take the mil stone As the most abject slaves used to do qui in pistrinum trudebantur Neither is this an end of thy sorrows for out of the mil-house thou must be carried captive into a far Country and therefore in order thereunto Vncover thy locks Cast away thy diadem Make bare thy leg Denuda turpituainem the Vulgar rendereth it that thou maist pass through the waters naked and squallid into captivity Ver. 3. The nakednesse shall be uncovered Thou shalt be stript and worse dealt with the ordinary lot of women-prisoners At the sack of Magdeburg by Monsieur Tilly Ladies
money-Merchants hath mystical Babylon also not a few Rev. 18.11 Non desunt Antichristo sui Augures malefici saith Oecolampadius Antichrist hath those abroad that trade with him and for him these shall be cast alive with him into the burning lake Rev. 19.20 and though they wander yet not so wide as to misse of hell CHAP. XLVIII Ver. 1. HEar ye this O house of Jacob Ye stiffenecked of Israel and uncircumcised in heart and eares who do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 to you be it spoken for to the Israelites indeed enough hath been said of this subject already Which are called by the name of Israel Sed nomen inane crimen immane Ye are called Jews and make your boast of God Rom. 2.17 having a form of knowledge Picti estis Israelitae est◠hypocritae Rom. 2.20 and of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 and that 's all the voyce of Jacob but the hands of Esau Let such fear Jacobs fear My Father perhaps will feel me and I shall seem to him as a deceiver and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Gen. 27.12 'T is sure enough And are come forth out of the waters of Judah i. e. Out of the bowels Pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videtur hic legendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gen. 15.4 as waters out of a spring Deut. 33.28 Psal 68.26 Judah was the tribe royal hence they so gloried and remained ruling with God and faithful with the Saints when other tribes revolted Which swear by the Name of the Lord And not of Baal And make mention of the God of Israel Who was neer in their mouths but far from their reines Jer. 22.2 Psal 50.16 Religionem simulabant cum in cute essent nequissimi arrant hypocrites But not in truth nor in righteousnesse i. e. Without faith and sound conversion Ver. 2. For they call themselves of the holy City Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah yea they swore by their City and Temple as appeareth in the Gospel and cryed out ad ravim usque The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Jer. 7. like as the Romists now do The Church the Church glorying in the false and empty title of Roman Catholicks Sed grande est Christianum esse non dici saith Hierom and it is a great vanity saith the Poet Respicere ad fumos nomina vana Catonum And stay themselves As far as a few good words will go See on Mic. 3.11 The Lord of hosts is his Name So said these hypocrites bearing themselves bold upon so great a God who had all creatures at his command Ver. 3. I have declared the former things This God had said oft before but being now to conclude this comfortable Sermon he repeats here the heads of what had been spoken in the seven foregoing Chapters Ver. 4. Because I knew that thou art obstinate Heb. hard obduraete therefore do I so inculcate these things if by any means I may mollify thee Hypocrites are harder to be wrought upon then other sinners And thy neck is an iron sinew Thou art utterly averse from yea adverse to any good no more bended thereunto than if the body had for every sinew a plate of iron And thy brow brasse Sinews of iron argue a natural impotency and somewhat more but brows of brasse impudency in evil quando pudet non esse impudentes when men are shamelesse in sin setting it upon the cliffe of the Rock Ezek. 24.7 and declaring it as Sodom Isa 3.9 Ver. 5. I have even from the beginning c. See ver 3. It is probable that there were many among the Jews who when they saw themselves to be so punished and the heathen prospered would be ready to think that the God of Israel either could not or would not do for his people as those Devil-gods did for theirs For their help therefore under such a temptation God was pleased to foretell his people what good or evil should betide them and accordingly to accomplish it Ver. 6. Thou hast heard see all this Here God extorteth from them a confession of the aforesaid truth and urgeth them to attest and publish it Ver. 7. They are created now i. e. They are now brought to light by my Revelations and predictions Behold I knew them By my gods or Diviners or by my natural sagacity Ver. 8. Yea thou heardest not yea thou knewest not Yea so oft used here is very emphatical and sheweth how hardly sinners are born down and made to beleeve plain truths where they are prepossessed with conceits to the contrary And wast called a transgressour from the womb Ever since thou madest and worshippedst a golden Calf in the wildernesse See here the Note on Psal 58.3 and art still as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever thy Fathers were Act. 7.51 Ver. 9. For my name sake will I defer mine anger Heb. prolong it Here he setteth forth the cause of his patience toward so perverse a people viz. the sole respect to his own glory whereof he is so tender and so loth to be a loser in Propter me faciam And for my praise The praise of my might and mercy That I cut thee not off Which I would do were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy lest thine adversaries should behave themselves strangely and lest they should say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Deut. 32.27 Ver. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with silver Much lesse as gold which is wont to be fined most exactly Non agam summo jure tecum Jun. and to the uttermost because these precious mettles will not perish by fire But thou hast more drosse in thee than good oare therefore I have refined thee with favour Psal 118.18 Ne totus disperires lest I should undoe thee for if thy punishment should be commensurate to thine offence thou must needsly perish I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction i. e. In affliction which is as a furnace or crucible See Ezek. 20.37 Ver. 11. For mine own sake even for mine own sake This is oft repeated that it may once be well observed Bene cavet spiritus sanctus ubique in Scripturis ne nostris operibus salutem tribuamus it is Oecolampadius his Note upon the first verse of this Chapter i. e. The holy Ghost doth everywhere in Scripture take course that we ascribe not our safety to our own works See on chap. 43.13 For how should my Name be polluted As it will be by the blasphemous Heathens who else will say that their gods are fortiores faventiores more powerful and more merciful than the God of the Hebrews Thus the Turkes at this day when they have beaten the Christians cry up their Mahomet as mightier than Christ And I will not give my glory to another Presse this in prayer 't is an excellent argument Exod. 32.12 Josh 7.9 Psal 79.9 10. Psal
the wicked are in their generation subtil and slye but so is the Serpent or the Fox the Swine that wandereth can make better shift to get home then the Sheep can to the fold They have received the spirit of this world 1. Cor. 2.12 the Devil also worketh effectually in them as a Smith in his forge Ephes 2.2 Hence they are wise to do evil Elymas was a vere subtle fellow but the Devils child and so the more dangerous Acts 13.10 Magnum ingenium magna tentatio saith Vincentius Lirinenses concerning Origen who had a great wit but proved a great scandal to the Church The Devil covets to be adorned by thee said Austin to one that was wittily wicked Surely as Jet gathereth drosse and refuse things to it self but le ts go gold and precious things so do the Worlds wisards Ver. 23. I beheld the earth and loe it was without form and void Tohu vabohu as Gen. 1.2 sightlesse and shapelesse Sermo est hyperbolicus all was in a confusion what shall it then be at the last day Ver. 24. I beheld the mountains and loe they trembled War is a woe that no words how wide soever can sufficiently utter And all the hills moved lightly As being lightned of their burden saith a Rabbin trees and houses Ver. 25. I beheld and loe there was no man But all killed captived or fled Judaea lay utterly waste for Seventy years Insomuch that after the slaughter of Gedaliah when all men women and children fled into Egypt there was not a Jew left in the Country And all the Birds of the heavens were fled Birds were given men for food Physick and delight as companions of his life therefore it is reckoned both here and chap. 9.10 as a judgement to lose them Ver. 26. At the presence of the Lord c. Who was the chief Agent as Titus the Roman Emperour also acknowledged after he had destroyed Jerusalem Suidas Non se id fecisse dixit sed Deo iram suam declaranti manus suas accommodasse he said it was not He that had done it but that He had only lent his hands to God justly displeased at that Nation Ver. 27. Yet I will not make a full end God kept the room empty all those Seventy years till the return of the natives Ver. 28. Because I have spoken it c. Quod scripsi scripsi said Pilat I will not alter it See the like Ezek. 24.13 14. Ver. 29. Every City shall be forsaken See ver 25. Ver. 30. Though thou rentest thy face with paint Jesabel like 2 King 9.30 See Ezek. 23.40 In vain shalt thou make thy self fair i. e. Seek to ingratiate with the Chaldees by submitting to them and worshiping their Idols Thy lovers will despise thee As an old withered strumpet and now out of date See Ezek. 16.36 23.22 Ver. 31. As of her that bringeth forth her first childe Primiparae such have greatest pains and least patience oft For my soul is wearied because of Murtherers Once her Paramours her Sweet-hearts There is nothing got by comporting with Idolaters The Duke of Medina's sword knew no difference between Papists and Protestants in Eighty eight and that they should have found had the Spaniard then prevailed CHAP. V. Ver. 1. RVn to and fro Spaciamini scrutamini Goe as many of you as ye please the verbs are plural In the streets of Jerusalem Where it was strange there should be such a rarity of righteous ones But the faithful City was now become an harlot Esa 1.21 Like as Rome is at this day Tota est jam Roma lupanar Shee had a Mancinel a Savanorola and some few other Jeremies to tell her her own but she soon took an order with them The Primitive Christians called Heathens Pagans because contrey people living in pagis that is in Hamlets and Villages were heathenish for most part after that Cities were converted and had many good people in them but Jerusalem here afforded not any one hardly In Polyh If ye can find a man i. e. A godly a zealous man For homines permulti virè perpauci saith Herodotus there is a great paucity of good people Diogenes is said to have sought for a good man in Athens with a lantern and candle at Noon-day And once when he had made an O yes in the market-place crying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear O ye men and thereupon company came about him to hear what the matter was he rated them away again with this speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I called for men and not for varlets Job was a man every inch of him See the Notes on Job 1.1 So was Moses that man of God Daniel that man of desires John Baptist then whom there arose not a greater among all that were born of woman Paul that little man Calvinus erat vir admirabilis Ipsa à quo rosset virtutem dicere virtus Guevara but who did great exploits Athanasius and Luther who stood out against all the world and prevailed But not many such blessed be God that any such Cicero observeth that scarce in an Age was born a good Poet. And Seneca saith Such as Clodius was we have enow but such as Cato are hard to be found The Host of Nola being bid to summon the good men of the Town to appear before the Roman Censor gat him to the Church-yard and there called at the graves of the dead for he knew not where to call for a good man alive God himself sought for a man that might stand up in the gap but met not with any such one Ezek. 22.30 And I will pardon it Sodoms sins cryed loud to God for vengeance so did now Jerusalems But had there been but a voice or two more of righteous religious persons there their prayers had outcryed them A few birds of Song are shriller then many crocitating birds of prey Ver. 2. And though they say The Lord liveth i. e. Albeit they talk religiously as those pretenders also did Isa 66.5 and make a great flaunt as if some great matter with Simon Magus Acts 8.9 yet they are arrant Hypocrites and therefore odious to me who desire truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 These neither say the truth nor do it 1 Joh. 3.10 Ver. 3. O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth And can these painted Hypocrites hope ever to please thee how much are they mistaken Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved As being past feeling of a dead and dedolent disposition like naughty boyes which are the worse for a whipping or Solomons drunkard who is beaten but never the better Prov. 23.35 There is no surer sign of a carnal Israelite of a profligate professour then to be senseless or incorrigible under publike judgements Ver. 4 Therefore I said i. e. I thought with my self Surely these sc That swear falsely and refuse to be reformed c Are poor Of the rascality under law base and beggarly who
brutish for want of knowledge so the words may be rendred the heathen idol-makers especially Brutescit homo prae scientia so Vatablus 1. Every man is brutish in comparison of knowledge viz. of Gods knowledge whil'st he goeth about to search into the causes of rain lightening wind c. which God only understandeth Ver. 15. They are vanity Vanity in its largest extent is properly predicated of them And the work of errours Meer mockeries making men to embrace vanity for verity In the time of their visitation See on Isa 46.1 Ver. 16. The portion of Jacob is not like them God is his peoples portion they are his possession Oh their dignity and security this the cock on the dunghil understands not Ver. 17. Gather up thy wares out of the land Make up thy pack and prevent a plundering Reculas tuas sarcinas compone Ver. 18. Behold I will fling out the inhabitants of this land I will easily and speedily sling them and fling them into Babylon so God will one day hurle into hell all the wicked of the earth Psal 9.17 And will distresse them that they may find it so Just so as they were foretold it would be but they could never be drawn to beleeve it Ver. 19. Wo is me for my hurt my wound is grievous This is the moane that people make when in distresse and they find it so But what after a while of pausing Truly this is my grief and I must bear it i. e. Bear it off as well as I may by head and shoulders or bear up under it and rub through it wearing it out as well as I can when things are at worst they 'l mend again Crosses as they had a time to come in so they must have a time to go out c. This is not patience but pertinaecy the strength of stones and flesh of brasse Job 6.12 it draweth on more weight of plagues and punishments God liketh not this indolency this stupidity this despising of his corrections as he calleth it Heb. 12.5 such shall be made to cry when God bindeth them Job 36.11 as here Ver. 20. My Tabernacle is spoiled I am irreparably ruined like as when a camp is quite broken up not any part of a tent or hut is left standing Ver. 21. For the Pastours are become brutish The corrupt Prophets and Priests who seduced the people from the truth were persons that made no conscience of prayer hence all went to wrack and ruine Ver. 22. Behold the noise of the bruit is come This doleful peal he oft rung in their eares but they little regarded it See chap. 9.11 Ver. 23. O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself He is not master of his own way but is directed and over-ruled by the powerful providence even this cruel Chaldaan also that marcheth against us It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps We know not what to do or which way to turn our selves only our eyes are toward thee Behold we submit to thy justice and implore thy mercy This text doth mainly make against free-will saith Oecolampadius and yet the Pelagiam would hence gather that man can by his own strength walk in the way to heaven but he must be holpen say they by Gods grace that he may be perfect Cum ratione seu modo Leniter discretè Lap. Ver. 24. O Lord correct me but with judgement i. e. In mercy and in measure Correction is not simply to be deprecated the Prophet here cryes Corret me David saith It was good for me Job calleth Gods afflicting of us his magnifying of us chap. 7.17 Feri Domine feri clementer ipse paratus sam saith Luther Smite Lord smite me but gently and I am ready to bear it patiently King Alfred prayed God to send him alwayes some sicknesse whereby his body might be tamed and he the better disposed and affectioned to God-ward Ecclesiastical history telleth of one Servulus who sick of a palsie so that his life was a lingering death said ordinarily God be thanked Ver. 25. Pour out c. This is not more votum then vaticinium a prayer then a prophecy And upon the families Neglect of family-prayer uncovers the roof as it were for Gods curse to be rained down upon mens tables meat enterprizes c. CHAP. XI Ver. 1. THe Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord To him it came but to be imparted to other Prophets say some Priests of Anathoth say others ver 2. which might be the reason why they were so enraged against him and fought his life ver 18 19. as the Popish Priests did Mancinels Savanarolas and other faithful Preachers for exciting them to do their duties Ver. 2. Hear ye the words and speak ye Ye Priests whose ordinary office it is to teach Jacob Gods judgements and Israel his Law Deut. 33.10 Ver. 3. And say thou unto them Thou Jeremy whether the rest will joyn with thee or not Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this Covenant It is probable that Jeremy when he said thus held the book in his hand viz. the book of Deuteronomy which the Rabbines call Sepher Tochechoth because of the many increpations and curses therein contained Ver. 4. From the iron furnace Where iron is melted and a fierce fire required Obey my voyce See chap 7.23 Ver. 5. A land flowing with milk and honey With plenty of dainties The City of Aleppo is so called by the Turkes of Alep milk for if the via lactea were on earth it would be found there saith one So be it O Lord Amen Fiat Fiat Oh that there were an heart in this people to obey thy voyce And oh that thou would'st still continue them in this good land c. Our hearts should be stretched out after out Amen and we should be swallowed upon God say the Rabbines Ver. 6. Hear ye the words of this Covevant and do them Else ye hear to no purpose as the Salamander liveth in the fire and is not made hot by the fire as the Ethiopian goeth black into the Bath and as black he cometh forth Ver. 7. Rising early i. e. endeavouring earnestly See chap. 5.8 Ver. 8. Yet they obeyed not See chap. 7.24 Therefore I will bring Heb. and I brought upon them Ver. 9. A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah A combination in sinful courses this is not Vnity but Conspiracy See Ezek. 22.25 Hos 6.9 such is the unity of the Antichristian crew Rev. 17.13 The Turkes have as little dissension in their religion as any yet are a rabble of rebels conspiring against heaven Ver. 10. They are turned away to the iniquities of their fore-fathers Shewing themselves herein to be a race of rebels as good at resisting the holy Ghost as ever their Fathers were and are therefore justly chargeable with their iniquities which needeth not Ver. 11. Which they shall not be able to escape To avert avoid or abide I
all the Cities of the East he might have said of the whole world if he had known all Which say Who shall come down against us or who c. This they said out of carnal confidence in the natural strength of the place increased by their fortifications The Jebusites had done so 2 Sam. 5.6 and were unrooted Security ushereth in destruction Who shall enter into our habitations Which we hold impregnable Such like vaunts precede and presage ruine See chap. 49. Obad. 3. Puniam vos pro meritis Ver. 14. But I will punish you And if I take you once to doe you are sure of your full payment Heb. I will visite upon thee according to the fruit of your actions i. e. I will lay upon you a punishment answerable to your sins the sin being as the seed and the punishment as the fruit that cometh of it q. d. Ye have sown the wind and ye shall reap the whirl-wind And I will kindle a fire in the Forrest thereof i. e. In the streets which stand as thick with houses as the forrest of Lebanon doth with trees and are built with timber fetcht from that forrest CHAP. XXII Ver. 1. GOe down to the house of the King of Judah To the Palace royal of Jehojakim son of Josiah who reigned after that his brother Jehoabaz was carried captive to Egypt 2 King 23.34 Ver. 2. Thou and thy servants Thine attendants and Officers who too oft are evil instruments This made the Primitive Christians pray for the Emperour that God would send him Senatum fidelem faithful Counsellours Tertul. Apol. Ver. 3. Execute ye judgement and righteousnesse Make good Laws and see that they be well executed This the Prophet presseth quasi ad fastidium ever and anon over and over as the likeliest means to prevent future judgements so Phineas found it See chap. 21.12 Ver. 4. For if ye do this thing indeed Heb. if doing you do this word i. e. If seriously and sedulously ye do it Then shall there enter in Kings sitting See chap. 17.25 Ver. 5. That this house shall become a desolation This stately edifice the place of thy royal resiance Note here the Prophets boldnesse and learn That truth must be spoken however it be taken Ver. 6. For thus saith the Lord concerning the Kings house i. e. Concerning the whole Kingdom of Judah saith Junius Thou art Gilead unto me and the head of Lebanon i. e. High and happy as these fruitful mountains famous for spicery and other things desirable Gen. 37.25 Yet surely I will make thee a wildernesse Like as I have made them when the ten Tribes were carried away captive Ver. 7. And I will prepare destroyers Heb. sanctify them that is send them on mine errand and set them forward Gods holy hand is in all such desolations Every one with his weapons Or tooles rather to fell with And they shall cut down Sonat icta socuribus ilex Ver. 8. And many Nations shall passe c. By a Prosepopaeja of passengers admiring the utter ruine of so famous a City the Prophet setteth forth the cause of their desolation Ver. 9. Because they have forsaken the Covenant Magdeburg c. In promptu causa est Hainous sinnes bring hideous plagues Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia Ver. 10. Weep not for the dead neither bemoan him Lament no more for good Josiah lately slain in war and yet dead in peace Ne fletote neque condoletote there is no such cause every thing counted neither shall ye have leisure so to do because of later miseries befalling you thick and threefold Weep ye rather for his son Challum carried captive into Egypt and there miserably handled without hope of return Ver. 11. Which reigned instead of Josiah his father But was too hasty stepping into the Throne before his elder brother Jehojachim and therefore soon after dethroned carried down to Egypt and as some say there put to death See 2 Kings 23.33 2 Chron. 36.2 with the Notes Ver. 12. But he shall dye in the place See on ver 11. Ver. 13. Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousnesse This was Jehojakim cujus injusta insana aedificia hic accusantur who would needs be building but whether by right or by wrong-dealing regarded not This was to incur that curse Isa 5.8 Habak 2.9 12. See the Notes there Such injurious and therefore accursed builders were the Pyramid-makers in Egypt Tarquinius Priscus Suetom Niceph. Caligula Nero Phocas who is said to have heard this voice from heaven Though thou shouldest erect thine edifice as high as heaven Aedificans auro sedesque in sidera mittens Yet sin that lyeth at the foundation will soon overturn all Bernard inveigeth against some in his time who did with great care and cost erigere muros negligere meres build high manours but not amend their manners which should have been their chief care That useth his neighbours service His neighbour he was though his vassal and poor labourer And giveth him not for his work This is a crying sin Deut. 24.14 15. Jam. 5.4 See the Note there Ver. 14. I will build me a wide house Heb. a house of measures or dimensions such as is the Turkes Seraglio two or three mile in compasse or rather such as is Westminster-hall built by Wâ—llâ—am Rufus who found much fault with it for being too little saying it was fitter for a chamber then for a hall for a King of England Daniels Hist and taking a plot for one more spacious to be added unto it he came to an untimely end Sarcophago contentus shut up in a little grave which yet was more honour then this ambitious Prince attained to for he was cast out and buried with the burial of an Asse as it followeth ver 19. And large chambers Hed. widened or winded through-aired Caenacula perflabilia Thus with those Megarensians spoken of by Plato he built as if his life had been riveted upon Eternity And cutteth him out windows Some render it and the Original will bear it that teareth my windows sc to enlarge and beautify therewith his new building Et lacerat sibi senestras meas Trem. he took in belike a piece of Gods House This was such a piece of Sacriledge as the very Heathens abhorred A certain King of Sicily to enlarge his Palace pulled down an old Temple but the Emperour Marcus Antonius calleth it a beastly and leud action not to be spoken of without shame protesting that is was a matter of wonder and scandal not only to him but to the whole City and Senate of Rome and therefore he blamed the King exceedingly for it Our William the Conquerour is much cried out upon for throwing down thirty six Mother-Churches in Hampshire for the making of his New-forrest to hunt in Camd. Brit. Ver. 15. Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in Cedar Hast thou no better mediums to establish thy throne no better defence against
Greeks of the Persians the Romans of the Greeks the Gothes and Vandals and now the Turks of the Romans such an aestuaria vicissitudo there is in earthly Kingdoms such a strange uncertainty in all things here below Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare Heb. 12.28 Let us serve Him and not serve our selves upon him as self-seekers do Ver. 8. And it shall come to passe that the Nation c. It is better then to serve a forrein Prince then to perish by the sword famine or pestilence It should not be grievous to any man to sacrifice all his outward comforts to the service of his life And that will not put their neck under the yoke The Lord disposeth of the Kingdoms of the Heathens also though in such a way as may seem to us to be meer hap-hazard That Nation will I punish By seeking to shun a lesse mischief they shall fall into a greater if they escape frost the shall meet with snow Ver. 9. Therefore hearken not ye to your Prophets Whom the devil setteth a work to perswade you otherwise to your ruine as he is an old man-slayer and hath his breathing devils abroad as his agents such as are here mentioned Ver. 10. To remove you far from your Land So it would prove and such would be the event of their false prophecies Ver. 11. But the Nations that bring their neck When God bids us Yoke it is best to submit In all his commands there is so much reason for them that if God did not enjoyn them yet it were best in self-respects for us to practise them sith in serving him we shall have the creatures to serve us c. Ver. 12. I spake also to Zedekiah See on ver 1. Bring your necks under the yoke Better do so then worse if ye will not be active in it ye shall be passive and that because ye would not take upon you the lighter yoke of mine obedience Deus crudelius urit Quos videt invitos succubuisse sibi Tibul. Eleg. 1. Ver. 13. Why will ye dye thou and thy people Ecquae haec pertinacia If thou hast no mercy on thy self yet pitty the State which is like to perish by thy pertinacy Josephus highly commendeth Jeconiah for his yeelding to go into captivity for the safety of the City Tertullian giveth this counsel to Scapula the Persecutor If thou wilt not spare us yet spare thy self or if not thy self yet thy Country Carthage which is like to smoke for thy cruelty for God is the avenger of all such Ver. 14. Therefore hearken not unto the words of the Prophets Quantâ opus operâ saith Oecolampadius what a businesse it is to beat men off from fale Prophets and Seducers but let the end and the evils they lead to be remembred Cavete à Melampygo Ver. 15. For they prophesy a lye When they speak a lye they speak of their own as it is said of their father the devil Joh 8.44 See chap. 23.21 22. Ver. 16. Behold the vessels of the Lords house c. Notorious impudency but it hath ever been the lot of the Church to be pestered with such frontlesse rake-shames who dare affirm things flat opposite to the truth and flatter men in their sin to their utter ruine Those who are of God can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13.8 Ver. 17. Harken not unto them Life and death is let in by the eare Isa 55.3 Take heed therefore what ye hear Serve the King of Babylon And so long as ye may have liberty of Conscience upon any reasonable terms be content and not as the bird in the cage which because pent up beateth her self Ver. 18. Let them make intercession to the Lord of hosts Let them pray in the Holy Ghost by whom they pretend to be inspired Let us see what answer So Elias called upon the Baalites to call aloud unto their god and forasmuch as he heard them not the people were satisfied that they were false Prophets God will fulfil what he hath foretold but then he looketh that his servants should make intercession Elias had foretold Ahab that there should be store of rain after a long drought but then he went up into Mount Carmel to pray for that rain I came for thy prayer said the Angel to Daniel Gods Prophets are his favourites and may have any thing of him Ver. 19. Concerning the sea and concerning the pillars c. Of these see 1 King 7.15 23 27. And concerning the residue of the vessels All the goodly plate whether sacred or prophane that the moderation of the Conquerour had lest in the City Ver. 20. Which Nebuchadnezzar took not See on ver 19. Diod. Ver. 21. Vntil the day that I visite them Till by my providence I appoint a great part of them to be brought back again and to be new consecrated to my service Ezr. 1.7 7.19 CHAP. XXVIII Ver. 1. ANd it came to passe the same year sc Wherein Jermiah spake to Zedekiah and the Priests cap. 27 12. In the beginning In his first year dividing his reign into three parts That Hananiah the son of Azur the Prophet i. e. The pretended Prophet Dictum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Priest he seemeth to have been by his Country Gibeon Josh 21.13 17. and a Prophet he taketh upon him to be preacheth pleasing things through flattery and for filthy lucre likely He saw how ill Vriah and Jeremy had sped by telling the truth He resolveth therefore upon another course These false Prophets would ever with the Squiril build and have their holes open to the Sunny-side ever keep in with the Princes and please the people Ver. 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of Hâ—sts the God of Israel Thus this wretch makes over-bold with that Nomen Majestaâ—ivum holy and reverend Name of God whom he entileth also to his falsities with singular impudence that he may passe for a Prophet of the Lord when as the root of the matter was not in him Ver. 3. Within two full years Jeremy had said seventy Hananiah a man of prime authority some say High-priest within two years This was some trial to good Jeremy to be thus confronted Jeremy's discourse was so much the more distasted because he not only contradicted Hananiah and his complices but also perswaded Zedekiah to submit to the King of Babylon and afterwards to yield up the City when as the Prophet Isay not long before had disswaded Hezekiah from so doing Ver. 5. Then the Prophet Jeremiah said Without gall or guilt Like the waters of Siloah at the foot of Sion Isa 8 6. which run softly he made but small noise though he heard great words and full of falsehood In the presence of the Priests and in the presence of the people Publikely he took him up though mildly because he had publickly offended See Gal. 2.14
for their own and not emulate others A good man shall be satisfied from himself Prov. 14.14 as knowing within himself that whatever he hath here little or much he hath in heaven a better and more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 Ver. 26. Vpon this I awaked Out of my prophetike dream And my sleep was sweet unto me i. e. The promises Christ in the promises were sweet unto me and I was as much refreshed therewith as with sound sleep after hard toile or travel Ver. 27. I will sow the house of Israel I will repeople the country and raise up many believers to Christ Ver. 28. Like as I have watched over them I have been sedulous and assiduous To pluck up and break down c. See chap. 1.10 11. 10.12 18.7 So I will watch I will make them a plentiful amends Ver. 29. In those dayes they shall say no more There shall be tersius de operibus Dei judicium a righter judgement passed upon Gods proceedings See of this by-word Ezek. 18.2 Ver. 30. But every one shall dye for his own iniquity i. e. Every unbeliever shall neither shall the Gospel save him Ver. 31. I will make a new Covenant The same for substance with the former made with Adam Noah Abraham Moses and the Israelites in the Wildernesse but new in respect of the form thereof the manner of dispensing it viz. more clearly freely effectually and spiritually now under the Gospel then in those dayes of yore when they saw the Face of God only in that dark glasse of the ceremonies whereas we with open face c. 2 Cor. 3.18 Ver. 32. Not according to the Covenant Not so but a great deal better in regard of larger measures of the Spirit now poured out upon all flesh together with the efficacy thereof in the hearts of Gods Covenanters who have a duplicate of Gods Law written within them ver 33. Lex jubet gratia javat hence it is an everlasting Covenant and the fruits of it are sure mercies compassions that fail not as is here set forth Ver. 33. I will put my Law in their inward parts This the Apostle calleth the law in their minds oppsed to the law of their members Rom. 7.23 for the natural man is inversus decalogus he is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be But God putteth into the hearts of his people the counterpant of his holy Law he stamps as it were a decalogue upon their spirits he puts into them an inward aptnesse answering the Law of God without as the lead answereth the mould wax the seal as tally answereth tally or as indenture indenture And I will be their God and they shall be my people This promise is divini mellis alveare as One calleth it The hive of heavenly hony Ver. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour Deest coactie Oecolamp non deerit cohortatio Men shall learn with much lesse adoe because taught of God and lively illightened by his Holy Spirit quando Christus magister quam cito discitur quod docetur saith Agustine when Christ becomes a mans Teacher he must needs be a forwardly Scholar Some make this to be the sense of the words that in Gospel-times the truths of Christ and the knowledge of the Son of God should be so evident that men might get more of themselves without a teacher then with one in the legal administrations as Paul also sheweth 2 Cor. 3. Not that men should have no need of teaching at all in those times for the best know but in part and must daily grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 For they shall all know me All mine Elesh shall know me in some competent measure know the Principles Heb. 6.1 2. and go on unto perfection ib. For I will forgive their iniquities In heaven and in their own consciences also Zach. 3.4 provided that they put this and the like promises in suit by their prayers Mal. 6.11 Augustine Mr. Perkins and Arch-bishop Vsher expired with crying for mercy and forgivenesse Ver. 35. Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun c. For their better security and setlement he borroweth a comparison from the surest things Sun Sea c. Which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar Or who when I trouble the the sea the waves thereof roar but cannot passe their bound which I have set them See Isa 51.15 Ver. 36. If these ordinances depart from before we If they alter their constant course Then shall the seed of Israel cease Then shall the faithful fail and rhe Israelitish nation be utterly abolished Ver. 37. If heaven above can be measured By man for God measureth it with his span Isa 40.12 And the foundations of the earth be searched out If any man can dig or dive to the Center Ver. 38. That the City should be built to the Lord Jerusalem shall be reedified the Church eternally reestablished by Christ From the tower of Hananeel Neh. 3.1 12.39 Zach. 14.10 Vnto the gate of the corner 2 Kings 14.13 Zach. 14.10 Ver. 39. Vpon the hill Garth Versus collem scabiosi toward the hill of the scabby so Tremellius rendereth it and Junius thinks it was so called because thither they used to send their Lepers and Lazars At Geneva in times of Popery there they had a in void place certain cottages set up whereunto they sent their Lepers wherewith that City then abounded through the horrible filthinesse that was there in those dayes committed But from the year 1535. wherein they embraced the purity of the Gospel there hath been not above one Leper seen in that City So restifieth Matthaeus Cottherius in his exposition of the Revelation printed at Sedan in France Anno 1625. And shall compasse about to Goath Alias Golgotha as some think but these places here mentioned as also those Zach. 8. 14. as they were known to the Ancients so to us at this day they are unknown Travellers tell us that Jerusalem is now a poor obscure place governed by a Turkish Sanzak and that Golgotha or Calvary is in the very midst of the town Ver. 40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies Of Rephaim say some of Tophet say others See on ver 39. Shall be holy unto the Lord So is the holy Catholike Church the new Jerusalem which is above especially It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more for ever This cannot be applyed to the earthly Jerusalem which was plucked up and thrown down by the Romans once and again but especially by Aelius Adrianus the Emperour who laid the whole Country waste almost drove the Jews utterly out of it set a Sow of white marble over the chief gate of Jerusalem in reproach of their Religion and called the City by his own name Aelia commanding the Jews not once to look towards it from any tower or hill It must be therefore meant of tht
Church which cannot be ruinated CHAP. XXXII Ver. 1. THe word that came to Jeremiah What this word was see ver 26. In the tenth year of Zedekiah The City had now been a year at least besieged Notanda est tam diutina populi pertinacia and yet these sinners against their own souls went on to do wickedly and held the Prophet prisoner for the faithful discharge of his duty Full forty years had he been prophecying to them and for many years he had foretold this seige and the following deportation but could never be believed and now he is imprisoned but not left destitute by God of prison-comforts such as made his Prison a Paradise and his sleep sweet unto him as chap. 31. Ver. 2. And Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the Court of the prison Where he had some liberty more then at some other times chap. 37.16 20 21. So had Paul at Rome Acts 28. Bradford in the Counter c. this was a mercy and so they esteemed it Good people were suffered to come about them and they made use of that opportunity to do what good they could Ver. 3. For Zedekiah had shut him up He who before had set him at liberty and thereby haply hoped to have stopt his mouth but that might not be Behold I will give this City This holy City as the false Prophets stiled it and therefore held this Prophecy little better then Blasphemy Ver. 4. And Zedekiah King of Judah shall not escape As he hoped to have done either by his wiles or by his wealth and accordingly attempted it but all in vain And he shall speak with him mouth to mouth This was no small punishment to Zedekiah that he must look him in the face from whom he had so persidiously revolted even against oath and hear his taunts before he felt his fingers How then will gracelesse persons do to stand before the King of Kings whom they have so greatly offended at that great day See Rev. 9.17 Ver. 5. And there shall he be untill I visit him sc With death but the Prophet useth a general term that might be taken either in good part or bad for his own safety sake Ver. 6. The Word of the Lord came unto me saying He had Gods Word for his warrant and this bore him out against the jeares of the ungodly who would easily think it a very simple part in him who prophesied a desolation of the whole land to go about to buy land Ver. 7. Behold Hanameel the son of Shallum This Shallum and Hilkiah the Father of Jeremiah were brethren And it was no lesse an honour to Hanameel to have such a kinsman as Jeremy then afterwards it was to Mark to be Barnabas his sisters son Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth The Priests though they had no corn-fields yet they had meadows for their cattle gardens and orchards in the suburbs of their Cities which in some cases they might sell one to another till the year of Jubilee howsoever Some say that if such a field were so sold to a kinsman as here it remained to him for ever But the possession of the Levites might at any time be redeemed Lev. 25.32 For the right of redemption is thine See Levit. 25.25 32. Ruth 3.12 4.3 4. Ver. 8. So Hanameel my uncles son came to me God ruleth and boweth mens wills and all second causes according to the good pleasure of his will he doth also so frame and contemper them among themselves that there may be an harmony and correspondency betwixt them Then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord Or that it was a businesse of God sc for the better settling of the faithful in the assurance of a return out of captivity Ver. 9. And I bought the field This was bravely done Liv. lib. 26. Plutar. in Annib Flor. l. 2. c. 6. to make a purchase at such a time when the enemy was seizing upon all That Roman is famous in history who adventured to purchase that field near Rome wherein Annibal had pitcht his camp Verum eorum res non erant ita deploratae but the Romans were nothing near so low at that time as the Jews were at this And weighed him the money That was the manner of payment in those times Olim moneta librabatur Pater puellae id aurum in dotem viro appendit Vnde nomen marcharum bodie nobis superest Zegedin Hence the Hebrew Shekel from Shakel to weigh Gen. 23.16 our English word Scale seemeth to come from it the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ponderare Exod. 30.13 Mat. 27.9 or of statera for a balance the Dutch and English Mark cometh from a like Original Even seventeen shekels of silver No great sum not much above fourty shillings but it might be as much as the thing was worth considering the times especially Ver. 10 And I subscribed the evidence Heb. I wrote in the book and sealed it Men love to be upon sure grounds in things temporal oh that they were as wise for their souls Ver. 11. So I took the evidence of the purchase both that which was sealed c. There were then two copies of these contracts and covenants for preventing of after-claimes and quarrels Ver. 12. And I gave the evidences of the purchase unto Baruch Who was Jeremiah's houshold servant and his Scribe or Notary such as was afterwards Paulus Concordiensis to Cyprian In the sight of Hanameel c. Here was good husbandry Fullers Church hist which Bishop Andrews was wont to say was good Divinity Before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison Whither they came likely Act. Mon. 1457. to hear the Prophet as the well affected here did to hear and see the Martyrs in Queen Maryes dayes To Mr. Bradford by his keepers courtesie there was such resort at his lecture and ministration of the Sacrament that commonly his chamber was well-nigh filled therewith Ver. 13. And I charged Baruch See on ver 12. Ver. 14. That they may continue many dayes Even beyond the seventy years of Captivity and then be produced again Ver. 15. Houses and fields and vineyards c. How unlikely soever it may seem like as it did to Moses that the people should eat flesh a moneth together He thought that God had made an unadvised promise and prayes him to consider that the people were six hundred thousand footmen and that the flocks and herds would not suffice them Jeremy seemeth to object some such matter in his following prayer especially ver 25. But God answereth them both alike viz. that his hand was not waxen short that nothing was too hard for him that he was never non-plust c. See ver 27. with Num. 11.23 Ver. 16. I prayed unto the Lord saying His heart began to boile with unbelief and carnal reasonings he therefore setteth himself to pray down those distempers As a man may sleep out his
not keep their Temples from burning Diana said one jestingly was so busie at the birth of great Alexander that she could not a while to be at Ephesus where her stately Temple was at the same time set on fire by Herostratus And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt as a Shepherd putteth on his garment i. e. Easily and speedily shall he carry away the spoile of that rich country there being none there to hinder him either in taking them or carrying them away Pastor enim secum portat tectumque laremque Ver. 13. He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh Or Heliopolis Lib. 2. where the Sun was worshipped with great superstition as Herodotus writeth The Hebrews also called this City On or Aven that is Vanity or Iniquity as well they might for the abominable idolatry there committed Josephus saith that five years after this prophesie Antiq. l. 10. c. 11. Nebuchadâ—ezzar who had Egypt given him as pay for his paines at Tyre invaded Egypt and the King thereof being slain he set up another there and took the Jews that remained alive away into Babylon CHAP. XLIV Ver. 1. THe Word that came to Jeremiah No word of comfort how could it be so long as they lived in open rebellion against the Lord but all of reproof and threatning for why they were obdurate and obstinate and did dayly proficere in pejus grow worse and worse Which dwell at Migdol To these chief Cities Jeremiah resorted to speak unto them Noph alias Moph Hos 9.6 is held to be Memphis now Alcair Ver. 2. Ye have seen all the evils that I have brought upon Jerusalem And should have been warned by this exemplum terrificum dreadful instance of mine indignation They that will not take example are worthily made examples Ver. 3. Because of their wickednesse That root of all their wretchednesse Ver. 4. Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants Here the badnesse of men and goodnesse of God come equally to be considered Saying Oh do not this abominable thing which I hate Is were happy if this saying of God weres alway shrilly sounding in our eares whenever we are about to do any thing that is evil It would surely be a notable Retentive from vice Ver. 5. But they harkened not See chap. 7.24 26. Ver. 6. Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth A Metaphor from metalles See chap. 42.18 Ver. 7. Wherefore commit you this evil against your souls This land-desolating soul-destroying sin of idolatry Ver. 8. In that ye provoke me to wrath This is a most pithy and peircing Sermon all along not unlike that preached by Steven for the which he was stoned Acts 7. and likely enough that this was Jeremy's last Sermon also Ver. 9. Have ye forgotten the wickednesse of your fathers Mira hic verborum apparet emphasis What a powerful and pressing discourse is this Sed surdis fabulam but they were as a stake in the water that stirreth not Ver. 10. They are not humbled Not tamed not affected with attrition much lesse with contrition for their sins This I tell thee Jeremy for to them I am weary with talking to so little purpose Plactuntur sed non flectuntur corripiuntur sed non corriguntur Ver. 11. Behold I will set my face against you for evil I will be implacable as you are irreclaimable Ver. 12. That have set their faces I also will set my face against such ver 11. and they shall all be consumed and fall Oh what work hath sin made in the world Ver. 13. For I will punish them Let them never think that they shall one day be setled again in their own country they could easily come down into Egypt Sed revocare gradum c. Hic labor c. I will watch them for ever going back again let them set their hearts at rest for that matter it will never be Ver. 14. For none shall return but such as shall escape sc From these fighters against God Johanah and his complices The Talmudists tell us but who told them that Nebuchadnezzar at his conquest of Egypt sent back into Judea Jeremy and Baruch c. Ver. 15. Then all the men which knew that their wives had burnt incense And by suffering them so to do had consented to what they had done for qui non cum potest prohibet jubet And all the women that stood by Mulieres quicquid volunt valde volunt Women as they have lesse of reason then men Omne malum ex Gynaecio so more of passion being wilful in their way and oft carrying their men along with them Sicut ferrum trahit magnes Sic masculum suum trahit Agnes Answered Jeremiah saying One of the women speaking for the rest and that might well be one of Zedekiah's daughters the men conniving and well content therewith See ver 19. Ver. 16. As for the word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee This is just woman-like See ver 15. When man lost his free-will saith One woman got it and whereas there came twelve kabs measures of speech at first down from Heaven women ran away with ten of them say the Rabbines merrily Here they are very talkative and peremptory In some there is a strong inclination a vehement impetus to whoredom which the Prophet Hosea calleth a spirit of whoredom Such there was in these women to idolatry they were fully set upon 's Ver. 17. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth Heb. we will doing do every word hath gone forth from our mouth that we may be dicti nostri dominae as big as our words our vows especially as ver 25. which we made to worship the Queen of heaven in case we came safe into Egypt To burn incense to the Queen of heaven See chap. 7.18 As we have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes Antiquity is here pleaded and Authority and Plenty and Peace These are now the Popish plea's and the pillars of that rotten religion It is the old religion say they and hath potent Princes for her Patrons and is practised in Rome the Mother-Church and hath plenty and peace where it is professed and where they have nothing but Mosse and Matins These are their arguments but very poor ones as were easy to evince But as women counted the devouter sex have alwayes carryed a great stroke with their husbands as did Eve Jezabel Eudoxia c. the women of Antioch could do much against Paul and Barnabas Acts 13. so the people are indeed a weighty but unweildy body Plus valet malum inolitum quam bonum insolitum slow to remove from what they have been accustomed to The Irish will not be perswaded to put geeres and harnesse on their horses but will have the plough still tied to their tails as they have been neither in matters of religion will they be drawn
twentieth year of his reign as Jeremy also had set forth by a sign chap. 44.30 Ver. 14. Publish in Noph and in Tahpanes See chap. 44.1 For the sword shall devour round about thee Egypt was no whit amended by the former discomfiture at Carchemish therefore is now wholly subdued by the Babylonian Conquerour about three and twenty years after And the like befell the Greek Empire overturned by the Turks Ver. 15. They stood not because the Lord did drive them He struck a Panick terrour into them and then no wonder that men flee at the noise of a shaken leaf Ver. 16. Yea one fell upon another See ver 12. in a confused flight it is wont so to be And they said The Auxiliary and Stipendiary souldiers said so when once they saw that there was no good to be done for the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar having so wasted all Steperus est Ver. 17. Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noyse A meer flash one that vaunteth and vapoureth and that 's all So of Charles the eighth King of France Guicciardin saith that in his expedition to Naples he came into the field like thundering and lightning but went out like a snuffe more then a man at first and lesse then a woman at last He hath passed the time appointed He let slip his best opportunity which in giving battle is sometimes the losse of all Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem was for this fault called Carolus Cunctator i. e. the Delayer Ver. 18 As I live Formula jurandi Elliptica Deo propria let none presume to swear in that sort Surely as Tabor is among the mountains As Tabor surmounteth and commandeth the little hills round about it and Carmel the adjoyning sea over which it hangeth a promontory so shall Nebuchadnezzar come into Egypt and subdue the whole Country Ver. 19. O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt But not likely long to dwell there Furnish thy self to go into captivity Heb. make thee instruments or implements of captivity Sarcinis reculisque collectis prepare to be packing Ver. 20. Egypt is like a very fair heifer Vitula elegans a trim bullock Juvenca petusca worshipping Apis the Bull and Mnenis the Cow and unaccustomed to the yoke of subjection as Hos 10.11 but I shall bring her to it Destruction cometh Or excision from the North cometh cometh certo cito penitus venit Ezek. 7.6 there come those that shall cut up this fair heifer or fat calf Ver. 21. Also her hired men in the midst of her like fatted bullocks Heb. bullocks of the stall not like to do much good service in respect of their luxury and petulancy Fat Eglon had but sluggish souldiers Campania with her delicacies matred Hannibals forces These mercenaries carried themselves as if hired non ad militiam sed saginam not to fight but to fat themselves Ver. 22. The voyce thereof of Egypt shall go like a serpent Submissa voce loquetur she shall hisse and whisper as being daunted and damped Vox trepida prae metu instar serpentuÌ„ stâ—idula scarce able to mutter or utter ought for fear Esa â—9 4 Ver. 23. They shall cut down her forrest i. e. Her many Cities Herodotus telleth of one thousand and twenty Cities that were in the land of Egypt in the dayes of King Amasis Because they are more then the grashoppers The Babylonian fellers are Lib. 2. Diodor. l. 1. c. 31. and those many hands will make light work Ver. 24. The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded This is in plain termes Subjungit Epiphonema the sum of all that had been said before Ver. 25. The Lord of hosts the God of Israel saith And shall he say and not do Num. 23.19 shall the Word of God be broken Joh. 10.35 Ver. 26. Behold I will punish the multitude of No Called populous No Hâ—die dicitur Alexandria Nah. 3.8 populous as Nineveh so Galilee of the Gentiles some render it nourishing No. And their Kings Here Calvin conjectureth that Pharaoh had made many of his Princes Kings for his greater magnificence but this came down soon after A bulging wall is near unto a downfal And Pharaoh Hophra chap. 44.30 And all them that trust in him As the Jews in Egypt did Ver. 26. And afterward it shall be inhabited Fourty years after Ezek. 29.13 sc in the dayes of Amasis whom Cambyses the Persian conquered after which it remained subject to the Persian Monarchs 150. years saith Eusebius being but a base and tributary Kingdom Ver. 27. But fear not thou O my servant Jacob If Egypt find so much favour as ver 26. what mayst not thou hope for See the same chap. 30.10 Ver. 28. Fear thou not O Jacob c. See chap. 30.11 But correct thee in measure c. God dealeth much otherwise with his own people then he doth with unbeleevers whose prosperity as it is full of thornes so their adversity is but a foretaste of eternal torment whereas all things even afflictions also work together for good to them that love God c. CHAP. XLVII Ver. 1. BEfore that Pharaoh smote Gaza Called also Gazer and Gazera having its name not from the Persian Gaza signifying wealth or treasure but from an Hebrew word signifying strength It was first smitten by Pharaoh at his return from Carchemish likely after he had slain Josiah and afterwards worsted the Babylonian at Euphrates Next by Nebuchadnezzar this and the four other satrapies of the Philistines were overrun then when he came against Egypt After that it was besieged and taken by Alexander the great who laid it waste Yet was it built again and called Constantia after the name of Constantine the great his sister being one of the chief Cities in Syria and having received the faith Euseb de vit Constant l. 4. Ver. 2. Behold waters rise up out of the North The Chaldaean as a mighty torrent shall overflow the whole Country and bury all as it were in one universal grave of waters as once at the deluge So Esa 8.7 This seemeth to have been done somewhat before Egypt was destroyed when Moab Ammon and Syria and therein Palestine drank of the same cup. Ver. 3. The Fathers shall not look back to their children Though never so dear to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks call them and the Latines have their Filius of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but shall be sollicitous of their own lives only qui de Deo ne tantillum quidem fuerant solliciti For feeblenesse of hands Through fear and fail of vital spirits so as to forget natural affection also Ver. 4. Because of the day that cometh to spoile all the Philistines God will find a time of vengeance to fall upon the wicked enemies of his people though he bear long with them Patientia Dei quo diuturnior eo minacior The wicked practiseth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth The Lord shall laugh at him for he
then it would not be Afterwards Saul and David subdued them but in Jehosaphats time they came again together with the Moabites and the men of mount Seir to make a disturbance but were defeated 2 Chron. 20. Now when those Israelites beyond Jordan were carried away and their land desolated first by the Syrians 2 King 10.33 and afterwards by the Assyrians 2 King 15.29 then in likelyhood it was that the Ammonites thus invaded the Countrey and laid it to their own Confer Am. 1.13 that they might dwell alone in that part of the earth Ver. 2. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord sc After the subversion of the Jewish Nation Ezek. 21.33 c. For Judgement commonly beginneth at the House of God And I will cause an allarm of war to be heard in Rabbah Megalopolis the Metropolis of the Ammonites it was afterwards called Philadelphia from Ptolomie Philadelph who reedified it And it shall be a desolate heap Heb. an hillock of desolation And her daughters The neighbour Towns and Villages Then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs It hath been often observed that God loveth to retaliate How this was fulfilled see 1 Macchab. 5.6 and Joseph l. 13. c. 21. Ver. 3. Howl O Heshbon A City of the Gadites but seized upon it seemeth first by the Ammonites and then by the Moabites chap 48.2 24 25. For Ai is spoiled Not that Ai Josh 7.1 but another of that name beyond Jordan Gaja Ptolomy calleth it And run to and fro by the hedges Hide you behind the hedges For their King Or Malcham their idol as Chemosh chap. 48.7 Ver. 4. Wherefore gloriest thou in the vallyes Because fat and fertile as being near to Sodom and Gomorrah that pleasant plain Gen. 13.10 O back-sliding daughter Or untoward and refractary Sept. Thou daughter of rashnesse Appellat homines regni erroneos filiam vagam or of impudence quae ita lascivis sicut puella quae libidinatur virum quaris saith Oecolamp That trusted in her treasures Never yet true to those that trusted them 1 Tim. 6.17 Psal 52.7 Who shall come unto me Or Who can come at me Ver. 5. Behold I will bring a fear upon thee Panicum vel bellicum Ver. 6. I will bring again the captivity Then when Christ shall come the Gentiles also shall be freed from the tyranny of sin and terrour of hell Ver. 7. Is wisdom nowhere in Teman The Edomites and especially the Temanites of whom Elephaz Job's friend was one were famous for wisdom Obad. 8. which although it be of excellent use for putting things to the best yet without the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 and his blessing it proveth not only unprofitable but pernicious also It is saith James earthly sensual and devilish See what the Scripture speaketh of it Job 12. 1 Cor. 3. Ver. 8. Dwell deep Hide your selves in holes of the earth grots in the ground clefts of the rocks where you may best secure your selves from the pursuing enemy Ver. 9. If grape-gatherers c. See on Obad 5. Ver. 10. I have uncovered his secret places Where he had hid himself or his treasures those sinews of war And he is not sc Any more a State or a people Time shall triumph over him so that he shall but live by fame Ver. 11. Leave thy fatherlesse children c. Thus God speaketh to the profane Edomites in derision but to all true Israelites in serious sadnesse and so it is very comfortable and must needs be a good stay of mind to a dying Saint as it was to Claviger a Dutch Divine He was held happy of whom Cassiodore saith So many sons Selnec Paedag. Christ par 2. p. 379. Quot dedit familiae suvenes tot reddidit Curiae consulares so many Counsellors to the State but he is happier that can say So many children so many of Gods clients heavens heirs c. Ver. 12. Behold they whose judgement c. See chap. 25.29 See also Obad. 19. Ver. 13. I have sworn by my self saith the Lord Because it seemed incredible that Bezra should be beaten down as also to shew how exceedingly God was incensed against the Edomites to whom therefore also no comfort is spoken as is to Amon and Moab in after-times Ver. 14. I have heard a rumour from the Lord See on Obad. 1. Ver. 15. For low I will make thee See on Obad. 2. whence Jeremy took this and more besides or else Obadiah from him Ver. 16. Thy terriblenesse i. e. Thine insolency and cruelty wherewith thou frightest folk Or thine idol that terrible businesse so called in contempt Though thou shouldest make thy nest See Obad. 4. Ver. 17. And Edom shall be a desolation Heb. for a desolation See on ver 13. Ver. 18. as in the overthorw of Sodom See Gen. 19.24 25. And the neighbour Cities Whereof See Deut. 29 23. No man shall abide there As little as in the dead Sea where no creature can live Ver. 19. Behold he shall come up Nebuchadnezzar shall Like a Lion from the swelling of Jordan As Lions at such a time are forced to quit their dens near Jordan Against the habitation of the strong i. e. Against Idumaea But I will suddenly make him run away from her As having soon conquered her or rather I will suddenly make him over-run it i. e. Get above it and become Master of it And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her Or For I will give charge to him that is a choice one against her i. e. To Nebuchadnezzar For who is that shepherd that will stand before me q. d. There is no standing before God and his Lion sent by him Ver. 20 Therefore hear the counsel Now by counsel things are established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And his purposes Or contrivements that he hath contrived Surely the least of the flock The meanest of Nebuchadnezzar's men shall drag them out of their shelters as dogs do a dead carcasse Ver. 21. In the red Sea i. e. A long way off yer not so fâ—r as the doating Talmudists say the Serpents cry was heard when the Angels come down and cut off his legs according to that doom past on him Gen. 3.14 viz. all the world over Ver. 22. Behold he shall come up and flye See chap. 48.40 41. Ver 23. Concerning Damascus The chief City of Syria so pleasantly situate so rich and luxurious that one compareth it to Corinthus or Ephesus Julian the Emperour in his Epistles calleth it the City of Jupiter and the Eye of the whole East Tamerlan would not come into it lest he should be detained there by the delights and delicacies of it He destroyed it in a displeasure and built three Towers with the skuls of those he had there slain for a trophie with singular skil It was built again by the Seldan of Egypt and is now possessed by the Turkes There is sorrow on the sea it
cannot be quiet Or There is sorrow as upon the sea which cannot rest Ver. 24. And fear hath seized on her Horrorem fâ—brilem apprehendit Piscat Shee shaketh as in a fit of an Ague Ver. 25. How is the City of praise not left Why is so praise-worthy and renowned a City so demolished See ver 23. Cause enough there was because it was a valley of vanity Am. 1. and Comus Venus and Bacchus there made their divident and shared their Devoto's Ver. 26. Therefore her young men Or Surely Ver. 27. And I will kindle a fire See on Amos 1.4 Ver. 28. Concerning Kedar These Kedarens the off-spring of Kedar-Jshmael's son Gen. 25.13 dwelt or rather abode for most part in Arabia the stony or desart Hagarens they were also called and afterward Saracens of Saraca their chief City saith Stephanus or of Sarach for more credit sake as others hold Lib. de Vâ—bib Of this people came Mahomet that grand-Impostour and the Turks who have now gotten into their hands so great a part of the habitable world A rude people they were in Jeremye's dayes and uncivilized yet because wicked they are here doomed And concerning the Kingdoms of Hazor Their bead-city Ver. 29. Their tents and their flocks For which they were termed Scenitae and Nomades as living a pastoral life in tents And they shall cry unto them Fear is on every side Magor-misabib might be their word wherewith loudly-uttered they might affright and overcome these enemies like as the Britones our Ancestours once overcame a mighty Army of Saxons and Picts in this Land by ringing out the word Hallelujah with a courage among the mountains nigh to the which the enemy had encamped Ussiâ—r de Brit. Eccles primord Ver. 30. Flee get you far off See on ver 8. Ver. 31. Arise go you up into the wealthy Nation Or quiet Nation that dwelleth without care Heb. in confidence but such a security doth not secure any but oft betrayeth Infelix felicitas quae non est in Domino saith Oecolampadius here There 's no true happinesse or safety but in God Ver. 32. Them that are in the uttermost corners Or that have the corners of their hair cut See chap. 9.26 and 25.23 Ver. 33. And Hazor shall be a dwelling for Dragons See chap. 9.11 and 12.22 and 51.37 Ver. 34. Against Elam i. e. The Medes say some the Persians say others or a people betwixt both whose head-City was that Susa where Alexander found fifty thousand talents of gold besides silver Aristagoras also thus cheared up his souldiers that besieged it This City if you can but take Cum Jove de divitiis licet certetis you may vie with Jove himself for wealth These Elamites joyned with the Chaldees against the Jews when they first wasted Judea and carried away Jehoiakim Hence they are here so threatned for their cruelty then Ver. 35. Behold I will break the bow of Elam In the use whereof they excelled being very skilful Archers Esa 22.6 Gunnes now-adayes carry it as bowes of old Ver. 36. And upon Elam will I bring the four winds i. e. Great concussions enemies on all sides Scythians and Sarmatians especially out of the North. Calvin thinketh this Prophesie was fulfilled after Alexanders death when his captaines strove most fiercely for the Kingdoms of the earth which he had subdued Ver. 37. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed q. d. They trust in their great strength and hold themselves insuperable but I can easily dispirit and so destroy them See ver 5.14 29. Diod. Ver. 38. And I will set my throne in Elam i. e. I will solemnly execute my judgements upon these people as if I sate in my Judgement-seat in a publick Court in the midst of them Ver. 39. I will bring again the captivity of Elam Principally by bringing them to Jesus Christ In vit Constant Claruit Theod Anno 390. And so we read Act. 2.9 of Parthians Medes and Elamites amongst those first and best believers Eusebius also telleth us that in the Council of Nice there was a Bishop from Persia And Theodoret a very good man withal a great writer served the Churches of the Elamites CHAP. L. Ver. 1. THe word that the Lord spake against Babylon Which was built by Nimrod as Ninive was afterwards by his nephew Ninus Gen. 10.11 Of the greatnesse of this City besides what we read in holy writ much may be read in Herodotus and Pliny It was the head-City of the Assyrian and Chaldaean Monarchy which lasted above 1700. years till Cyrus the Persian took the Kingdom Esay prophesied against it in several Chapters Habakkuk maketh it his whole businesse Jeremy had set forth how Sheshak that is Balthasar should drink the dregs of the cup of Gods wrath chap. 25.26 Here and in the next Chapter he discourseth it more at large shewing how it was that Babylon was to drink of that cup and for more certainty it is spoken of in this prophesie as already done Ver. 2. Declare ye among the nations Let all take notice of the good news there shall be a general goal-delivery sing therefore Jo triumphe Say Babylon is taken So Esay 21.9 Bel is confounded This Bel was Nimrod whose nephew Ninus set him up for a god Merodach a restorer of their Empire whereof Nimrod had been founder was likewise idolized Merodach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive sce tâ—ifer Chaldaicâ appellatione They are called dirty deities faeditates stercora a name good enough for them and said to be confounded See Esa 46.1 Sorrows also because their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God Psal 16.4 Ver. 3. For out of the North there cometh up a Nation against her i. e. Out of Media and Persia which lay Northward from Chaldaea The Jews had their bane out of the North as had been foretold Jer. 1.14 15. sc from Babylon And now Babylon is to be baned from the same quarter This was some comfort doubtlesse to the poor Jews in captivitie Which shall make her land desolate This was not fulfilled till many years after Cyrus indeed began it but Seleucus Nicanor finished it Plin. lib. 6. cap. 26. by building near unto it another great City called Seleucia Ver. 4. In those dayes and at that time Destructio Babel salus est populo Dei so shall it be at the ruine of Rome The children of Israel shall come and the children of Judah together In better times they could not agree but when they were both in a weeping condition misery bred unity as it did also betwixt Hooper and Ridley when they were both in prison for the truth Going and weeping Teares of sorrow for their sinnes and teares of joy for their deliverance by Cyrus but especially by Christ They shall go and seek the Lord their God Whom they had long been without and do now long and linger after Ver. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces
they religiously worshp Agnus Dei's reliques of Saints painted doves resembling the Holy Ghost the Asse whereon Christ rod they say Wolph mem lect on Palm-Sunday The tayl of that Asse they shew still at Genua and require low obeysance to be done thereunto Ver. 11. And there stood before them seventy men of the Ancients The whole Sanhedrin or great Council haply Councils may erre and have done often The ill example of these Ancients was very attractive Magnates Magnetes Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan A Cheiftain amongst them and haply President of the Council whom they called Nasi or Prince His father Shaphan was Scribe in Josiah's dayes as some think 2 Kings 22.12 And a thick cloud of incense went up Abundantia nubis Papists to this day cense their images semel singulis thuribulum ducat sacerdos saith the Roman Masse-book The Primitive Christians were pressed by their Persecutours to throw at least a little frankincense into the fire which when Origen and Marcellinus did through infirmity of the flesh they were cast out of the hearts of good people and branded with the name of Thurificati i. e. Incensed persons Ver. 12. What the Ancients of Israel do in the dark Idolatry is a deed of darknesse The Athenians had their Eleusinia the Romans the rights of their Bona Dea and the Egyptians their Ofiridis Pamylia all done in the dark The Popish Temples are many of them dark and some so stuffed with presents and memories that they are thereby made much the darker For they say The Lord seeth us not Atheisme is the source of all sinfulnesse These fools being in the dark thought that God could not see what they did there The Lord hath forsaken the earth Hath cast of all care off us and therefore we must see to our selves look us out some other deities See Jer. 18.15 Lib. 2 cap. 7. What a base speech is that of Pliny Irridendum verò curam agere rerum humanarum illud quicquid est Summum T is no way likely that God taketh care what becometh of mans matters Os durum Ver. 13. Turn thee yet again q. d. Little didst thou think Ezekiel that thy Country-men of Jury were so prodigiously abominable as now thou seest And what more sure then sight Ver. 14. And behold there sat women These were Preists of Isis whose impious and most impudent kind of worship is largely described by Herodotus Diodorus Siculus Plutarch and Eusebius as celebrated with very unseemly ceremonies worse if it might be then those of Priapus But who would ever have looked for such immodest doings among Gods professed people See 1 Cor. 5.1 Weeping for Tammuz i. e. For Osiris King of Egypt and idolatrously adoring his image which his wife Isis had advanced Ver. 15. Hast thou seen this q. d. And canst thou easily believe thine own eyes Neverthelesse these flagitious persons have the face to say In all my doings they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin Hos 13.8 Say not Popish Idolaters still as much Thou shalt see greater abominations Idolatry is stintlesse Ver. 16. Were about five and twenty men These say some were the King and his Councel See chap. 11.1 With their backs toward the Temple And yet in a part of it hoc fuit signum nimiae improbitatis Here to turn their posteriours upon Gods house and Ark which they were commanded to look towards Veluti Dominum in certamen provocantes as a Type of Christ was to bid open defiance to him and to renounce his service cum ingenti contumelia sanctitatis Domini Oh the unspeakable patience of God! And they worshipped the Sun So did the Persians under the name of Mithra the Assyrians of Osiris the Egyptians of Orus son of Isis c. Heathens thought that Christians did so too Tertul. Apol. because anciently they prayed with their faces Eastward Ver. 17. And loe they put the branch to their nose In honour to the Sun whose heat produceth the most redolent wines Or they might be branches of Laurel dedicated to the Sun R. Solomon rendereth it they put a stinck to my nose even ventris crepitum pro suffitu Ecce ipsi subsannates Sept. Vah Vah Vah Ver. 18. Mine eye shall not spare Chap. 5.11 7.4 And though they cry in mine eares c. Because it is the cry of the flesh for ease and not of the Spirit for grace CHAP. IX Ver. 1. HE cryed also God to whom vengeance belongeth calleth aloud and with a courage as we say to the Executioners of his wrath to come and fall on Praefecti urbis Cause them that have charge over the City i. e. The Angels here called the visitations or visiters of Jerusalem the prefects of the City Every man with his destroying weapon Called ver 2. a maule or battle-ax telum dissipatorium Ver. 2. And behold six men came Ad hunc Dei clamorem vel clangorem the Angels came the Chaldees came at the call of this Lord of Hoasts who hath all creatures at his beck and check By the way of the higher gate Called also the New gate Jer. 26.10 built by Jotham 2 Chron. 27.3 Toward the North Where stood the idol of jealousy and whereby Nebuchadnezzar entred Per quod quis peccat per idem punitur ipse One man among them This was a created Angel say some chap. 10.2 Christ the Angel of the Covenant say others with more likelyhood of truth Clothed with linnen As High-Priest of his people and withal an offering for them and that without spot Heb. 7. And a writers inkhorn by his side An ensign of his Prophetical office say some as his linnen cloathing was of his Priestly and of his Kingly that he was Among or in the midst of the six slaughter-men as their Captain and Commander They went in and stood beside the brazen altar Where they might receive further instructions from God So in the Revelation those Angels that were to pour out the vials of divine vengeance are said to come out of the Temple Ver. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel i. e. The Son of God appearing upon the glorious Charret 1.3 3.23 and being the brightnesse of his Fathers glory the expresse image of his person Heb. 1.3 Was gone up from the Cherub i. e. From those four Cherubines upon which the glory of the Lord did then appear to the Prophet chap. 8.4 He was gone from his Ark to shew that the refractary Jews were now discovenanted and from his Mercy-seat to shew that he would shew them no more mercy Many removes God maketh in this and the two following Chapters to shew his lothnesse utterly to remove And still as he goeth out some judgement cometh in Here he removeth from the Cherubims in the Oracle to the threshold and upon that remove see what followeth ver 5 6 7. So for the rest see chap. 10.1 2. chap. 10.19 11.8 9 10. chap. 11.23 and when God
living creatures chap. 1. Now God is represented as in his Temple where things are more clearly discryed and described Psal 29.9 In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Cherubims the Angels are called from the greatnesse of their knowledge saith Hierom as Gods Rabbines or rather because the Lord rideth upon them Psal 18.20 99.1 as upon his chariot 1 Chron. 28.19 Here they are said to be under the firmament and near the throne to execute Gods commands with expedition It is not therefore as those miscreants said chap. 9.9 The Lord hath forsaken the earth There appeared ever them as it were a saphire-stone i. e. Jehovah in his glory As the appearance It was but as and as the appearance we cannot see God as he is Some have seen Merchabah velo harocheb say the Hebrews the chariot but not the Rider therein Ver. 2. And he spake unto the man See chap. 9.2 Christ who had marked the mourners scattereth coales upon the rebellious City Kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish And scatter them over the City To shew that Jerusalem was to be burnt by the Chaldees as must likewise Rome by the Kings of the earth for strong is the Lord who judgeth her Rev. 18.8 And he went in my sight Saints see and foresee that oft-times which is hid from others Ver. 3. Now the Cherubims stood on the right side i. e. On the South side being now removed from the North-door chap. 8.3 4. with 9.3 as loathing that place of so great idolatry And the cloud filled the inner court To signifie that now upon Gods departure there should be darknesse in the Temple yea in the Priests court Significat sequentia tempora nubila fore Lav. See Psal 18.11 Rev. 15.8 Ver. 4. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the Cherub i. e. From the Cherubims so it had done once before chap. 9.3 and returned again to shew that he was even driven out by the peoples impenitency And stood over the threshold of the house As taking his last leave of it And the house was filled with a cloud Sublatenter abit à suo loco Dominus Oecol so Isa 6.4 the house was filled with smoke Josephus saith that when God departed a voyce was heard out of the Temple saying Let us leave these seats like as a little before the last desolation of it there was heard Migremus hinc let us go hence And a heathen writer saith that a voyce greater then mans was heard Audita major humana vox excedere deos Tacit. that the gods were thence departing Ver. 5. And the sound of the Cherubims wings was heard As applauding Christs act and rejoycing thereat As the voyce of the Almighty God i. e. As thunder Psal 29. Hereby might also be signified insignis insolita mutatio in urbe a notable noise that should be made in the City by clattering of armes neighing of horses roaring of enemies c. The Hebrew word here used is Shaddai which signifieth vastatorem victorem saith Aben-Ezra a Waster and a Victour Ver. 6. When he had commanded the man Christ as Mediatour was at his Fathers command Mat. 12.18 John 14.31 15.10 Then he went in and stood beside the wheeles As considering saith one the mutability and uncertainty of all things and observing the equity of the divine proceedings Ver. 7. And one Cherub stretched forth his hand The holy Angels whom the Jews looked upon as Ministers of Gods grace unto them Josephus calleth them the Keepers of the Jewish people are here brought in as Ministers of those weapons wherewith they were to be destroyed Who took it and went out Neverthelesse the City was not burnt till four or five years after this vision Tam piger ad paenas Deus est ad praemia velox Ovid. Meanwhile how jocund were the Jews as if no such judgement were likely to befall them Ver. 8. And there appeared the form of a mans hand under their wings Quasi gladius intra vaginam as a sword within the scabberd ready to be drawn out for execution The hand saith Aristotle is the instrument of instruments Nature hath given us hands saith Cicero multarum artium ministras c. to act and do businesse Angels have neither hands nor wings to speak properly yet are said here to have both to shew their activity and celerity in Gods service Hands of a man they are said to have to shew that they do all prudently and with reason and these hands are under their wings saith one to signifie their hidden nature and operation A good man like a good Angel saith another hath the wings of contemplation the hands of action the wings of faith the hands of charity Essayes Mor. and Theol. p. 23. wings whereon he raiseth his understanding and hands wherewith he exciteth his will c. Ver. 9. And when I looked behold the four wheels This chapter compared with the first do like glasses set one against another cast a mutual light As the colour of a Beryl stone Lapidis Berylli thalassis See chap. 1.16 wheels are voluble and the sea tumultuous so are all things and places in this present life lay hold on life eternal Ver. 10. As if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel So intricate and perplexed oft-times are Gods wayes and works that the wisest men know not what to make of them Zech. 14.6 In that day the light shall neither be clear nor dark but betwixt both tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 11. Vpon their four sides That is to their several quarters assigned them by God who doeth things methodically and in order Translatio à re militari Jun. Diod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnia in omnes partes illustrat Dei Providentia Jun. Dei Providentia oculatissima A Lap. Diod. But to the place whither the head looked That is God who guided the whole chariot by an universal and equal inspiration chap. 1.12 20 21. Ver. 12. And the whole body viz. Of the Cherubims as chap. 1. The wheels are said to be full of eyes God who over-ruleth all is All-eye His Providence is like a well-drawn picture which vieweth all that are in the room Ver. 13. It was cryed unto them By him who sat upon the throne calling for their obedience as indeed all things here yea even the senselesse creatures are Gods servants Psal 119.91 O wheel O round world q. d. Hear the voyce of thy Maker and Master or oh how unstable and changeable art thou Ver. 14. The face of a Cherub i. e. Humana quidem sed splendidissima saith Junius facies pueri alati saith another There are that tell us that in the Syriack tongue the word Cherub is taken from a word which signifieth drawing the plough which is the bullocks proper labour We must beleeve therefore say they that Cherub signifieth properly the figure of a bullock under which hieroglyphically was represented an
Angel The laborious Preachers face shall once shine as an Angels Ver. 15. Were lifted up Or they lift up themselves sc to follow and attend their departing Lord. That I saw by the river of Chebar And now saw again for further confirmation Ver. 16. And when the Cherubims went Angels have a great stroke in ordering the affaires of the world as hath already been noted on chap. 1. Quod vero candem rem saepe repeto lectori molestum esse non debet saith Lavater in his Preface to this Prophet Ver. 17. When they stood See chap. 1.21 The spirit of the living-creatures Or of life God governeth all events He moveth the Angels they the wheels No Clock hath so certain motions as the vicissitudes of all things are over-ruled by God Ver. 18. Then the glory of the Lord departed This the stubborn Jews would never be drawn to beleeve possible till it befell them hence they hear of it so often but to little good purpose as to them Ver. 19. Over the East-gate The gate of the Court where the people met and pray'd with their faces West-ward here now stood the Cherubims and here stood the Glory over them that all the City might see that God was going from them and seek by all good means to retaine him with them Ver. 20. And I knew that they were the Cherubims Now at last I knew Divine light is darted into the soul by degrees and at several times Ver. 21. Every one had four faces apiece Ad taedium usque candem rem repetis ut nihil excusationis haberent These carelesse and crosse-grained Jews are told the same things thus over and over to leave them without all excuse if they would not be wrought upon by all Ver. 22. They went every one straight forward Let us by their example learn to advance forward to the high prize of the heavenly calling in Christ Jesus CHAP. XI Ver. 1. MOreover the spirit lift me up The same Spirit of God that lifted up and acted the living wights and the wheels like as the same breath causeth the diverse sounds in the Organs Vnto the East-gate Of the outward Court chap. 10.19 Five and twenty men Proceres populi the Senatours of the City with their Prefect or President The like number is now at Rome and likewise at London an Alderman in each of the twenty four Wards and a Mayor See Rev. 4.4 Among whom I saw Jaazaniah I saw them and knew them by name but for no good Judex locusta civitatis est malus Scaliger Ver. 2. These are the men that devise mischief That whet their wits and beat their brains about it the Polititians of the time who like children are ever standing on their heads and shaking their heels against heaven And give wicked counsel As Balaam and Ahitophel did of old as Machiavel did at Florence and Gondamor here did of later times The Prophet here nameth a couple and taketh the same liberty to reprove them that they took to do amisse Ver. 3. Which say it is not near sc The evil day is not the vision that he seeth is for many dayes to come and he prophesieth of the times that are far off chap. 12.22 27. See Am. 6.3 Isa 29.1 2 Pet. 3.4 And this was likely the evil counsel they gave the King and people lulling them asleep in the cradle of carnal security Let us build houses Though Jeremy hath counselled us to the contrary chap. 29.5 though he with all the wit he hath hath told us that this City is the Cauldron and we are the flesh chap. 1.13 Some such thing Jeremy had indeed foretold and these profane scoffers make a jear at it Captant argutias quibus elevant omnem fidem doctrinae coelestis This made god Jeremy complain heavily chap. 20.7 8. I am in derision daily every one mocketh me c. Our Prophet Ezekiel though he name him not yet confirmeth his holy sayings and threateneth his scurrilous adversaries Ministers should stand by and for one another c. Ver. 4. Therefore prophesie against them prophesie Vrget repetit ne cunctetur Out of greatest indignation against these Pests he pricketh him on to Prophesie as having vengeance in a readiness for the disobedient 2 Cor. 10.6 Mockers shall be sure to have their bands increased Esa 28.22 Ver. 5. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me Et irruit in me Spiritus Jehovae with force and power it was a mighty illapse from a God much offended Thus have you said As ver 3. but better ye had held your peace or thus have ye thought and as good ye might have spake out For I know the things that came into your minde Heb. And the ascensions of your Spirit I know it i. e. I know them every one as if they had all been but one I understand your Ironies your sly jears and will deal with you accordingly See Luk. 24.38 Deut. 31.21 Ver. 6. Ye have multiplied your slain in this City Called therefore a bloody City chap. 22.2 and 9.9 and 7.23 and it shall therefore despume you Vos sicut spumae ejicieminis Evil counsellours are cruel and bloody minded their craft is never but accompanied with cruelty and their cruelty seldom without craft none of them wanteth their mate as the Scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation Esa 34.16 Ver. 7. Your slain Whether ye have slain them out-right or have laid them a bleeding and a dying by your oppressions for a poor mans livelyhood is his life Mar. 12.44 Luk. 8.43 he is in his house lâ—ke a snaile in his shell crush that and you kill him Haec verba Monachi funibus trahunt ad Purgatorium proband nixi autoritate Originis And this City is the cauldron Thus their own words spoken in mockage are wittily retorted upon them and driven back again down their throats as it were But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it As rotten flesh to be cast out or as filthy scum to boile over Ver. 8. Ye have feared the sword And yet they made as if they feared nothing they doubted not but to dye in their nest but all guilt hath fear and all such fear hath torment Vellelus l. 2. And I will bring a sword upon you Such as all your craft can never keep off Ineluctabilis vis fatorum cujus fortunam mutare constituit consilia corrumpit See Prov. 10.24 with the Note Ver. 9. And I will bring you out of the midst thereof The same again for better assurance We use to do so oft when we threaten ought Ver. 10. I will judge you in the border of Israel In the Northern border even at Riblah 2 King 25.6.21 Jer. 52.10 24 27. Virgil. Ver. 11. This City shall not be your cauldron Ye shall not be so happy as to dye in your own native Country atque ante or a patrum but elsewhere at Riblah or Antiochia Ver. 12.
to hold the remnant that returned And they shall be there a base Kingdom Reditum regnum illis promittit sed humile a Kingdom God promiseth them but base and abject because subject and tributary to the Persian so that the Israelites shall no more lean upon it God oft removeth occasions of sin from his people taketh away their stumbling blocks that they may not fall under his heavy displeasure Ver. 15. It shall be the basest of the Kingdoms And worthily for their worshiping the basest creatures See Rom. 1.23 24. but especially for their faithlesnesse to Gods Israel Turk Hist For I will diminish them As God hath likewise done the Persians at this day who have undone their confederates the Egyptians and Georgians and the Grecians no lesse who have now lost their liberty and are so degenerate by means of the Turkish oppression Ib. 260. that in all Graecia is hardly to be found any small remembrance of the glory thereof Ver. 16. And it shall be no more the confidence For I will cut them and keep them short enough I will pull their plumes so that they shall not stretch their wings beyond the nest they shall have nothing so many clients and adherents Which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance Creature-confidence is so hated of God that it inmindeth him of former miscarriages also and causeth him to plague men for the new and the old together Ver. 17. In the seven and twentieth year Of Jeconiah's captivity as Ezekiel ordinarily counteth or of Nebuchadnezzar's reign say the Jew-doctours when as Tyre was overthrown some part of Egypt wasted Jeremy and Baruch taken into his protection Sedar-olam The Word of the Lord came This was Ezekil's last sermon his swan-like song shewing wherefore and whereby Egypt should be so laid waste Ver. 18. To serve a great service For thirteen years together as saith Josephus Every head was made bald sc By continual carrying upon their heads and shoulders earth wood and stones for which they were much laughed at by the Tyrian souldiers to fill up that strait of the Sea which separated Tyre from the Continent before it could be taken Yet he had no wages The Tyrians when they saw they could hold out no longer had sent much of their wealth away to Carthage and other places much of it also they cast into the Sea saith Lyra so that Nebuchadnezzar at his entrance found nothing but a bare rock saith Hierom out of an old Assyrian Chronicle Ver. 19. Behold I will give the land of Egypt As pay for his pains at Tyre God is a liberal pay-master and his retributions are more then bountiful Serve him therefore with chearfulnesse Turk Hist 345. lb. 227. Ver. 20. I have given him the land of Egypt As the great Turk gave his souldiers the rich spoil of Constantinople and as Tamerlan never forgat the good service of his servants nor left the same long unrewarded often saying that day to be lost wherein he had not given them something Because they wrought for me By mine instinct though beside their own intent Ver. 21. The horn i. e. The strength power and authority in the Kingdom of Christ especially Luke 1.69 The opening Occasion to blesse my Name They shall know Nebuchadnezzar also and his Babylonians CHAP. XXX Ver. 1. THe Word of the Lord See chap. 18.1 Ver. 2. Woe worth the day Ah de die ista This shall be the voice much more of reprobates at that last day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgement of God Rom. 2.5 Enoch foretold this dreadful day before Noah the deluge That day is longer before it comes but shall be more terrible when it is come Ver. 3. A cloudy day Heb. a day of a cloud which was rarely seen in Egypt Ver. 4. Great pain Heb. pain upon pain as the throws in childbirth Ver. 5. Chub Certain Africans who shall be worse put to 't then were those succeeding Africans who had a prophecy but not of like credit with this of Ezechiel that when the Romans sent an army into their country Mundus cum tota sua prole periret which made them think the world should then be at an end But afterwards the Romans sent an army thither under the conduct of one Mundus who in battle was slain together with his sons by the Africans Lib. 15. and discovered the illusion of the devil The Septuagint render Chub Spaniards which I like the better saith Lavater because Strabo saith Nebuchadonoser came with his victorious army as far as Spain Ver. 6. They that uphold Egypt shall fall i. e. Their confederates or as some their Tutelar gods Herodotus writeth that Cambyses wasted with the sword Egypt and Ethiopia killed their god Apis and defaced all their idols This he did doubtlesse rather in scorn of all religion then hatred of idolatry And the pride of her power shall come down Tumbling down as a great and weighty bullet from a very high and steep mountain From the tower of Syene See chap. 29.10 Ver. 7. And they shall be desolate See chap. 29.10 Non est Perissologia repetitur cum fructu Lavat Ver. 8. And they shall know that I am the Lord Men will not take knowledge of this till they have paid for their learning Vexatio dat intellectum smart makes wit When I have set a fire in Egypt War is fitly compared to fire it feeds upon the people See Esa 9.19 with the Note Ver. 9. In that day shall messengers go forth from me i. e. The Chaldeans by an instinct from me to subdue Ethiopia also In ships For Nilus was navigable Lene fluit Nilus Claudian To make the carelesse Ethiopians Heb. confident Cush Security ushereth in calamity As in the day of Egypt That cloudy day ver 3. when clouds of blood were dissolved upon them Or that dismal day of old when they perished in the red sea Exod. 15.14 Ver. 10. I will also make the multitude Or the great noise and hurry They shall have no more cause to complain that they are too many of them so that they cannot one live by another Ver. 11. The terrible of the nations Tyranni gentium Homo homini lupus Ver. 12. And I will make the rivers dry The Chaldees shall drink them up as 2 King 19.24 or I will dry them up for a punishment of your vain trust in them and boasting of them chap. 29.3 9. And sell the land Passe it away utterly from you The earth is the Lords he is the true Proprietary Ver. 13. I will also destroy their idols He did so by Cambyses See on ver 6. he doth so still by the Turkes when they invade Popish countries they break down their mawmets Out of Neph Called also Moph Hos 9.6 afterwards Memphis the Metropolis of idolatry Nazianzen calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mad City because mad-set upon idols Apis especially afterwards Babylon and now Aleair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
saith that in the faculty of Physick there is nothing small 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De part anim lib. 1. cap. 5. nothing contemptible Aristotle saith in all nature nothing is so mean vile and abject that deserveth not to be admired The Rabbines have a saying that there is a mountain of sense hangeth upon every Apex of the Word of God c. And brought me thither sc To Jerusalem in vision that valley of Vision In the beginning of this book the spirit carried him into the plain of Shinar there to see a vision purporting the destruction of the material Temple Here toward the close of it he is by the same hand carryed to Jerusalem to see a mystical Temple set up in the stead thereof far more stately The sufferings of this life are in no comparison worthy of the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8.18 Ver. 2. Brought he me i. e. The Spirit brought me who is called Gods hand ver 1. quia à Patre Filioque quasi manus dimanat so he is called the finger of God Exod. 8.19 that is his power And set me upon a very high mountain Moriah where had stood the Temple which overlooked the City and had been a kind of heaven upon earth wherein the holy Priests and Israelites were as stars By which was the frame of a City So the Temple seemed to him for its many courts walls towers gates c. So doth the Seraglio at this day Ver. 3. And behold there was a man Christ the Soveraign Architect of his Church as Rev. 11.1 This might well be brought in with an Ecce He appeared after another manner in that first dreadful vision chap. 1. Whose appearance was like the appearance of brasse Bright and durable importing Christs purity and eternity With a line of flax in his hand Christs measuring-line is the holy Scripture and the preaching of the Word so is also his measuring rod here said to be of reed but Rev. 11. of gold Both these are in Christs hand to shew that the power and efficacy of the Word read or preached is from him alone See 1 Cor. 3 9 10. 18. 2 Cor. 10.13 17. Ver. 4. Son of man A most kind compellation holding forth Christs Philanthropy or love to mankind He calleth us sons of men who for our sakes became the Son of Man that we might become the sons of God It is observed that Ezekiel with the Seventy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of man but Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the son of Adam he was the next and only other common-person Behold with thine eyes and hear with thine eares and set thine heart c. We should give all possible diligence and heed to a discourse of the new Jerusalem that City of pearle setting a work both our outward and inward senses and those well exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5. ult Declare all that thou seest unto the house of Israel For therefore hast thou seen it The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 And as any man hath received the gift so let him minister the same to others 1 Pet. 4.10 What use is there of candle under a bushel Ver. 5. And behold a wall on the outside of the house Betokening Gods Almighty Protection of his Church and chosen Esa 26.1 Zach. 2.9 Job 1. Psal 125.1 2. Psal 46.1 c. Ver. 6. Then came he unto the gate Henceforth we shall read of gates greeces posts porches courts chambers windows c. after the manner of Solomons Temple now burnt to ashes Concerning all which various and very different are the opinions of Interpreters We shall see hereafter the whole building in heaven meanwhile for many things here mentioned we must content our selves with a learned ignorance and not call it descriptionem insulsam Sanctius Argum in hoc cap. as that Popish Commenter blasphemed or think that the holy Pen-man spake he knew not what This was basely to speak evil of the things that he knew not How much better those Rabbines who meeting with many things here inextricable and inexplicable say Elias cum venerit solvet omnia Ver. 7 And every little chamber Or Porters-lodge Ver. 8. He measured also the porch This porch which had neither doores nor roof that we read of was symbolum caeli De bell Jud. l. 6. c. 6. caelum enim undique conspicuum lateque patens significabat saith Josephus it represented heaven Ver. 9. And the porch of the gate was inward Or this was the porch of the inner gate Ver. 10. And the little chambers Here lay the door-keepers whose office was to keep out the unclean 2 Chron. 23.19 Oh for such officers amongst us Ver. 11. And the length That is the height of the gate Ver. 12. The space also before the little chambers Which space served either for seats walks or eaves rather at either end Ver. 13. Door against door The one facing the other in a direct line Ver. 14. Even unto the post i. e. The height was the same everywhere See these things best set forth by pictures at the end of Castalio's and Lavaters Annotations on the Text. Ver. 16. Narrow windows i. e. Narrowed the better to let in light and so shadowing out that spiritual illumination and joy wrought in the hearts of the children of light See Esa 42.7 49.6 60.19 20. Mic. 7.8 Luk. 2.32 Joh. 3.19 8.24 9.5 12.35 36 46. Were palm-trees As for ornament so in token of Victory gotten by the Saints who do over-overcome Rom. 8.31 37. 1 Cor. 15.54 55. Ver. 17. Then brought he me into the outward court In this Temple were more Courts and more Chambers then ever were in Solomons Heaven is large and full of mansions Joh. 14. And a pavement made More costly and stately then that of Ahashuerosh Esth 1.6 Gods people are said to be living stones 1 Pet. 2. more precious then Sapphires Esa 54. firm as a pavement by faith and low by humility submitting to their teachers Heb. 13.17 and obeying from the heart the form of doctrine delivered unto them Rom. 6.17 Ver. 18. Was the lower pavement See on ver 17. Ver. 19. An hundred cubits Square Ver. 21. Of the first gate i. e. Of the east gate first measured Ver. 22. And their windows See ver 16. And they went up unto it by seâ—â— steps Whereby was noted the Saints progress in knowledge and holinesse Luk. 17.5 Rom. 1.17 Rev. 22.11 still climing up toward the heavenly Temple Psal 84.7 Ver. 31. And palm-trees See on ver 16. Eight steps See on ver 22. Ver. 35. And measured it according to these measures Vilalpandus here noteth that whatsoever is measured in one gate the same is common to all the rest Ver. 38. Where they washed the burnt-offering All must be pure and clean in Gods Service Pura Deus mens est c. This washing of
detestable decree of the Council of Trent is well known whereby the Apocryphaâ— is set cheek by joule as they say with the holy Canon the Vulgar Translation with the Original traditions with Scriptures and unwritten verities with those that are written This is intolerable presumption Jews and Turks do the like in their Talmud and Alchoran that I speak not of our Sect-Masters who boldly obtrude their Placits without just proof and require to be beleeved And the wall between me and them Which they have wretchedly set up by their sins to their singular disadvantage Esa 59.2 or they have come under my nose as it were to provoke me Or the nearer they were to Church the further from God Ver. 9. Now let them put away their whoredom So shall all be well betwixt us See Jer. 3.1 Isa 1.18 with the Notes Piscator ictus sapiat Some read it Now they will put away c. and so they did after the captivity but will not be yet drawn to worship the true God aright the Lord perswade their hearts thereto Fiat Fiat And the carcasses See on ver 7. And I will dwell in the midst of them for ever This is the same with that Mat. 28. I am with you to the end of the world Ver. 10. Shew the house Heb. that house sc which I have shewed thee in visions the idea of that Temple which shall shortly be set up its figure and dimensions That they may be ashamed Of having dealt so unworthily with a God so gracious And let them measure the pattern Vt metiantur universe that by a holy Geometry they may in the spirit of their minds take all the dimensions of it and be transformed into the likeness of the heavenly pattern These are those holy and heavenly Mathematikes which none can learn but those that are taught of God Scholae Platonis haec fuit inscriptio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and without which none can be Christs Disciple like as none might be scholar to Plato that had not the grounds of Geometry Ver. 11. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done If they blush and bleed at heart for their iniquities Penitents are to be taught the truth which is according to godliness and all such are exactly to know and to do the whole will of God as had not rather be carnally secured then soundly comforted Ver. 12. Vpon the top of the mountain The Church is as a City on an hill seen far and near Mat. 5.14 and the members of it are still ascending from one degree of grace to another from strength to strength till they see the face of God in Sion Psal 15.1 Heb. 12.22 23. The whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy All the Lords people are so at least in profession inchoation honest endeavour divine acceptation and shall be so one day in all perfection Rev. 21.8 27. 22.14 15. Ver. 13. And these are the measures of the Altar viz. Of burnt offerings which was in the Priests court and not at all spoken of till now The cubit viz. That of the Sanctuary Even the bottom Heb. the bâ—som This shall be the higher place Heb. the back as that which bore all We have also an Altar Heb. 13.10 even Jesus Christ the just one who is both our Ariel Gods Lion Rev. 5.5 and our Harcel Gods Mount of four cubits as being preached unto the Gentiles in all parts believed on in the world received up into glory 1 Tim. 3.16 Ver. 14. And from the bottom upon the ground This so exact measuring of the Altar may import saith Polanus the faithful and perfect preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles and all faithful Ministers of Gods Word after them 2 Cor. 10.13 c. 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Rev. 11.1 Ver. 15. So the Altar Heb. Harcel the hill of God or the only place of sacrifices And from the Altar Ariel the Lion of God so called because the fire of this Altar devoured the sacrifices as a Lion doth the prey See Esa 29.16 Ver. 16. Square in the four squares thereof Christ the Christian Altar is compleat firm and fixed Ver. 17. And his staires shall look toward the East As leading to the Sun of righteousnesse and the light of eternal blessedness arising out of heaven Ver. 18. These are the ordinances of the Altar Christians also have their sacrifices though of another alloy to offer and must look to the ordinances of their Altar Ministers must especially Ver. 19. And thou shalt give to the Priests All this is to be understood spiritually as being figuratively spoken A young bullock Together with a goat and a ram ver 22 23 25. All that are Christs have crucified the flâ—sh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 and are still doing at it Ver. 20. And thou shalt take of the blood Christ as Mediatour was consecrated and qualified for the work Ver. 21. Without the Sanctuary So Christ suffered without the gate Heb. 13.11 12. Ver. 22. And they shall cleanse the Altar To set forth how Christ clenseth and sanctifieth his people Heb. 9.19 24. Job 17.19 Heb. 9.13 14. Ver. 23. Thou shalt offer See on ver 19. Plato salâ—ominat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diu charis Nihil utilius sale â—c soâ—e Cael Rhodig l. 6. c 1. Ver. 24. And the Priests shall cast salt upon them Christians must have salt within themselves Mar. 9.50 and see to it that all their speeches be seasoned with the salt of mortification and discretion Eph. 4. so shall God make an everlasting covenant with them even a covenant of salt See Levit. 2.13 Ver. 25. Every day a goat Mortification must be a Christians dayly practice Ver. 26. They shall purge Thou and they together We must also sanctifie the Lord God in our hearts 1 Pet. 3.15 Ver. 27. It shall be upon the eighth day The services of mortified men shall be accepted on the eighth day especially the Christian sabbath in the holy Assemblies CHAP. XLIV Ver. 1. THen he brought me back From the Eastgate which was found shut to the Northgate where the Prophet received large instructions ver 4. Christ must be followed though he seem to lead us in and out backward and forward as if we were treading a maze Ver. 2. This gate shall be shut Is and shall be save only to Messiah the Prince Psal 118.20 and to whomsoever he as having the keyes of David shall open it This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter sc by that new and living way which Christ their forerunner Heb. 6.20 hath prepared and paved for them with his own blood Heb. 10.20 See Heb. 7.8 9 11 12 24. And no man shall enter in it No meer man unless it be by Emmanuel See Joh. 3.13 Ver. 3. It is for the Prince For Messiah the Prince so Christ is called Dan. 9. Or for the Chief Priest who as he had a singular priviledge herein above other Priests so
were at first but a very few Act. 1. that is 120 of all the great multitudes which had formerly followed Jesus Sed vix diligitur Jesus propter Jesum It was more for the loaves then any great love that the most followed him Ver. 4. Again he measured a thousand This is a number of perfection The Gospel is a perfect doctrine and is able to make the man of God perfect thoroughly furnished or perfected unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.17 The waters were to the knees Grace grows by degrees and the Scriptures have their shallows wherein the Lamb may wade like as they have their profundities wherein the Elephant himself may swin Confess l. 5. cap. 13. Confess l. 7. c. 21. Augustine contemned the holy Scriptures at first as neither eloquent nor deep enough for the elevation of his wit But afterwards when he was both a better and a wiser man he saw his own shallownesse and admired the never-enough adored depth of Gods holy Oracles Ver. 5 A river that could not be passed over Representing as the fathomlesse depth of the Scriptures which is such as that we may well do by it as the Romans did by a lake the depth whereof they could not found they dedicated it to Victory so the abundance of Spiritual graces in the Church the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge Ephes 3.19 the over-abounding goodnesse of God 1 Tim. 1.14 the superpleonasm of it as the Apostle hath it there Oh saith Chrysostom speaking of this subject I am like a man digging in a deep spring I stand here and the water riseth upon me and I stand there and still the water riseth upon me It is indeed a sea that hath neither bank nor bottom Ver. 6. Son of man hast thou seen this And art thou soundly sensible thereof it is very fit thou shouldest that God may have the glory of his great goodness and power in propagating the Gospel and bringing forward the work of his grace in the hearts of his people maugre the malice of earth and of hell The Reformation wrought in Germany from how small beginnings grew it The establishing of that amongst us how imperfect soever to be done by so weak and simple means yea by casual and cross means against the force of so potent and politick an adversary this is to be looked upon as a just miracle To the brink of the river Where my work was to stand and cry O the depth O how great things hath God prepared for those that fear him O the joy the joy eye hath not seen nor ear heard c. Arboretum Christi est Ecclesia Ver. 7. Behold at the bank of the river were very many trees These were trees of righteousnesse fruitful Christians See Psal 1.3 92.12 Isa 44.3 4 5. 55.11 12 13. Jer. 17.8 Rev. 22.2 where and elsewhere it is easie to observe that John the Divine borroweth the elegancies and flowers of this and other Prophets in his description of the Church Christian Ver. 8. These waters issue out toward the East country In Galilaeam anteriorem See Acts 9.31 Piscat The Churches in Galilee walking in the fear of the Lord and comforts of the holy Ghost were multiplied And go down into the desart Or plain i. e. into the plaines of Moab Num. 22.1 The Gospel worketh upon the worst even to a transmentation And go into the sea The dead sea The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus freeth men from the law of sin and of death Rom. 8.2 The waters shall be healed i. e. Made wholesome and useful so great a cure is done upon corrupt nature by the grace of the Gospel He who was before vitiorum vorago lacus libidinum mare sceleribus amarum ac mortuum a lake of lusts a guzzle of vices a dead sea of wickednesse and wretchednesse shall by a strange change become a pleasant river pure clear sweet and savoury beset not with such mock-fruit as the banks of the dead sea are said to be but with trees richly laden with the choicest fruits as was to be seen in the penitent thief who as soon as Gospellized and converted bestirred him and bore abundance of fruit in a very little space Plin. l. 5. c. 16. Ver. 9. Whithersoever the river shall come shall live Not dye immediately as they used to do in the dead sea so bituminous and sulphurous were the waters thereof but live the life of grace here and of glory in heaven See Zach. 14.8 Acts 5.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. de C. D. l. 18. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Histories tell us of 580. Jews converted to the Christian faith at Axvernum by one Avitus a Bishop and baptized Pappi Eccles hist epit p. 214. Joseph de bel lib. 1. c. 13. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish i. e. Of Christians See Mat. 4.19 with the Note Christ himself from the initial Greek letters of his names and title was by some of the ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fish And every thing shall live whither the river cometh The Gospel is the true Aqua-vitae the true aurum potabile the true Physick for the soul as one said once concerning the Library at Alexandria Ver. 10. The fishers shall stand upon it Upon the dead sea where formerly they had little enough to do This sea is the wide world dead in sins and trespasses Eph. 2.1 These fishers are Christs Apostles and Ministers who are called fishers of men Mat. 4.19 and their preaching compared to fishing Mat. 13.47 they fish with various success as did Peter Luk. 5.5 but may enclose a great multitude as he did Acts 2.3 and as Farellus who gained five Cities to Christ who brought them to hand by whole shoales From Engedi Called also Hazazon-Tamar 2 Chron. 20.2 that is the City of Palmes where grew the best balsam in the world though it were near to the dead sea Even unto Eneglaim Which is likewise a place adjacent to the dead sea where Jordan falleth into it as Hierom testifieth They shall be a place to spread forth nets Dr. Preston being asked why he preached so plainly and did so much dilate his sermons being of such abilities answered he was a fisherman Now such if they should wind up their net and so cast it into the sea they should catch nothing but when they spread the net Mr. Walls None but Christ p. 400. they catch the fish I spread my net because I would catch souls said he and indeed he had a very happy hand at it The fish shall be according to their kinds The sea they say hath as many kinds of living creatures as the earth hath There is that Leviathan and there are creeping things innumerable Psal 105. Ver. 11. But the myrie places thereof and the marishes shall not be healed Sensual souls are seldom wrought upon by the word Behemoth the devil lyeth in
his dominion without dimension Ver. 3. A portion for Naphthali There are many portions of inheritance in Christs Kingdom there are also in heaven many mansions Joh. 14.2 all which shall be divided among the Elect. Ver. 4. A portion for Manasseh Which they do not of their own accord and as they see good seize upon but take their share set them out of the divine sentence Ver. 5. A portion for Ephraim An equal portion with his elder brother Manasseh In Christs Kingdom all is of grace nothing of merit Ver. 6. And by the border of Ephraim There is a continuity and conjunction of all the portions to set forth the communion that is betwixt the Saints a sweet mercy a heaven aforehand Ver. 7. A portion for Judah Who is set next to the sanctified oblation of the Lord wherein were the portions of the Priests Levites City and Prince He must be a Jew inwardly a confessour and witness of the truth who shall have part and portion in the priviledges of Gods people Ver. 8. Shall be the offering Whereof see chap. 45.1 2 3 c. Of 25000. reeds Which being exactly cast up saith one come to 45. miles and therefore cannot be meant of any City to be built by the Jews again after their return from Babylon but must be understood of the Church under the Gospel Ver. 9. Vnto the Lord As distinguishing it from other oblations here stood the Sanctuary Ver. 10. And for them even for the Priests No mention is here made of Cities of refuge as of old for they shall not hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain but the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Esa 11.9 Ver. 11. Of the sons of Zadok See chap. 44.15 16 c. Which went not astray To be faithful with God in a common defection is a singular praise See my Righteous mans Recompense pag. 695. Ver. 12. And this oblation of the land Ministers of Gods Word may lawfully take maintenance of the Church 1 Cor. 9. Ver. 13. The Levites shall have But after the Priests There are degrees of officers in the Church and good order must be well observed there Five and twenty thousand in length These several portions set together make up a perfect square which serveth well to set forth the beauty and firmity of the Church of Christ Ver. 14. And they shall not sell of it This law is here occasionally and by the way inserted It seemeth to hold forth that lands given to the Ministers of Christ under the New Testament may never be again taken away or put to any other use but to their maintenance for ever See Mr. Clarks Mirrour chap. of Sacriledge The first-fruits of the land i. e. This part thus consecrated to God as the first-fruits of the earth were Ver. 15. Shall be a profane place i. e. A common place and so all Israel were profane in a sense sc as compared to the Priests and Levites those consecrated persons Symmachus and Theodotion reader it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Deut. 20.6 And the City shall be in the midst thereof Ten miles at least distant from the Temple some say many more to shew say they what a long way he must go that would attain to eternal life he must get above the world howsoever who would serve God acceptably Ver. 16. And these shall be measures thereof This representation is meerly figurative and mystical shewing us how specious and spacious the Church of Christ is Ver. 17. And the suburbs of the City These were much larger then the suburbs of the Temple as may be observed by comparing chap. 40. See chap. 45.2 Ver. 18. For food to them that serve the City To all the Citizens who all are to turn servitours to their fellow-brethren that come to the publike meetings to serve one another in love which they that do shall not lose their reward but verily they shall be fed Ver. 19. Shall serve it out of all the tribes i. e. At the common charge and by a general contribution Ver. 20. Ye shall offer the holy oblation foure square See on ver 13. All our dealings must be square or else we are not of the holy portion Epilogus est of the new Jerusalem Rev. 21.16 Ver. 21. And the residue shall be for the Prince His occasions are many and therefore his proportion is very large yet must he not be Regni dilapidator the Waster of the Kingdom by his profuseness as our Henry the third was called whereby he became ill beloved of his people Ver. 22. Being in the midst of that which is the Princes The Prince was taught by this position of his portion to have an equal care of Church and State Ver. 23. Benjamin shall have a portion The division of the land as it ended with Judahs portion in speaking of the seven former tribes ver 8. so here it beginneth with Benjamins in speaking of the five following Ver. 24 25 26 27. See the Notes on ver 2 3 4 5 6 7. Ver. 28. Even from Tamar Not Jericho but Palmira called afterwards Adrianople of the Emperour Adrian who rebuilt and beautified it And to the river The river of Egypt called Sihor Josh 13.3 Ver. 29. This is the land This is the Epilogue of the whole chapter as to the greatness of the holy City It remaineth only to touch at the situation and measures thereof the gates also and the Ministers together with their use and maintenance the elegancy lastly and perpetuity of the City For inheritance Not from the brook as Tremellius mis-translateth it Ver. 30. And these are the goings out of the City That is the utmost bounds as Rabbi Solomon glosseth Ver. 31. And the gates of the City Through which all the Israel of God both Jews and Gentiles from all parts Qua data porta ruunt do enter into the Church of Christ flowing and flocking thereto as waters do to the sea and as the doves to their windows Three gates Northward Twelve in all the reason whereof see in the Note on Rev. 21.13 One gate of Levi Who though he had no lot in the land yet he had a gate into the City as Vatablus here noteth Ver. 32. Four thousand and five hundred And the like on each side of all which are made up fifty and four miles at the least so large is the City of God Niniveh was nothing to it no more is Alcair Scandereon or Cambalu the Metropolis of Tartary which yet is said to be twenty eight miles about Ver. 33. One gate of Simeon Here all along the tribes are reckoned not as they were before in this Chapter but as they are set down in Numbers at the marching of the Tabernacle in the midst of them saving that whole Joseph hath here but one gate and Levi is taken into the number of the twelve tribes And forasmuch as it entreth not into the heart of man what God hath
of one learned Gentleman who ran out of his wits after many years study upon it The Doctours are much divided about the beginning and ending of these seventy weeks I chuse rather thus to compute then to dispute From the outgoing of the word ver 25. seemeth to me to fix the beginning of these weeks on Cyrus his decree concerning the holy City and the Temple to be reedified The end and period of them must be at the death of Christ though some will have it at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans It is well observed by the learned that the Jews after their seventy years captivity have seven seventies of years granted for the enjoying of their own country Gods mercies bear the same proportion to his punishments which seven a complete number have to an unit besides the mercy of mercies the grace of the Messiah Vpon thy people Of whose welfare thou art so sollicitous and inquisitive To finish the transgression Transgressionem illam that great tranâ—gression of our first Parents in Paradise that whereby sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Now Christ by his death took away the power and destroyed the dominion of all sin Rom. 6.11 12. And to make an end of sins Heb. To seal up sins that they come not into Gods sight against us ever to be charged upon us A Metaphor say some from the Jews manner of writing in Rolles which being wrapped up and sealed on the backside all the writing was covered And to make reconciliation for iniquity viz. By the expiatory and propitiatory sacrifice of himself for his Elect whereby the divine Justice is fully satisfied And to bring in everlasting righteousnesse Those righteousnesses of the Saints Rev. 19 8. both Imputed and Imparted Righteousnesse called here everlasting as that which shall make the Saints accepted of God for ever never can be lost as Adams was And to seal up the vision and prophecy i. e. To fulfill all the Prophetical predictions concerning the life and death of the Lord Christ And to anoint the most holy This was done when Christ was baptized say some but others better when he ascended into heaven consecrating it to the service of God therein to be performed by the Elect throughout all eternity like as Moses once consecrated the most holy place to the ceremonial service there to be performed by the High-Priest Ver. 25. Know therefore and understand See on ver 24. Here the Angel brancheth the whole seventy sevens into three heads or into three distinct periods of time Shall be seven weeks Which make forty nine years these the Angel purposely speaketh of a part because they chiefly concerned the reparation of the City made under the Persian Monarchy Within this first seven weeks or forty nine years the street of Jerusalem was rebuilt and the wall with trench though the times proved troublous and full of straits And threescore and two weeks Which make four hundred thirty four years the events of which are mentioned ver 26. as those of the seven years following ver 27. out of which it might easily be supplyed and is therefore here omitted by the Angel Ver. 26. And after threescore and two weeks See on ver 25. within these threescore and two weeks befel the Jews many memorable things as may be seen chap. 8 11. Shall Messiah be cut off Excindetur not abscindetur cut off that is by wicked hands crucified and slain Act. 2.23 not only cast out of the synagogue and excommunicated as that malicious Rabbine read and sensed this text Others of the Jew Doctours by the evidence of these words have been compelled to confesse that Messiah is already come and that he was that Jesus whom their forefathers crucified See for this R. Samuels Epistle to R. Isâ—ak set down at large by Dionys Carthus in his Commentary on this text See also R. Osea his lamentation for this inexpiable guilt of the Jewish Nation recorded by Galatinus lib. 4. c. 18. Polanus reporteth that he living sometime in Moravia where he used the help of some Rabbines for the understanding of the Hebrew tongue heard them say that for this ninth chapters sake they acknowledged not Daniel to be authentical and therefore read it not amongst the people lest hereby they should be turned to Christ finding out how they had been by them deceived But not for himself i. e. Not for any fault of his nor yet for any good to himself but to mankind whence some render these words There being nothing therein for him Et non sibi vel nihil ei others when he shall have nothing i. e. nothing more to do at Jerusalem but shall utterly relinquish it and call his people out of it to Pella c. And the people of the Prince that shall come i. e. Titus his souldiers whose rage he himself could not repress Joseph but they would needs burn down the Temple which he would fain have preserved as one of the worlds wonders Messiah the Prince had a hand in it doubtless whence also those Roman forces are called his armyes Mat. 22.7 Shall destroy the City That slaughterhouse of the Saints And the Sanctuary That den of thieves And the end thereof shall be with a flood i. e. Their extirpation shall be suddain universal irresistible as was Noah's flood How this was fulfilled see Josephus Hegesippus Eusebius c. And unto the end of the war c. The Romans shall have somewhat to do but after tedious wars they shall effect it Ver. 27. And he Messiah shall confirm the Covenant See ver 24. with many Heb. with his Rabbines that is with his Elect. Confer Esa 53.11 Job 32.9 Jer. 41.2 For one week i. e. In the last seven years of the seventy And in the midst of the week i. e. In three years and a half he shall by his passion disannul the Jewish sacrifices and services And for the overspreading or wing or abominations i. e. For the abominable outrages committed by the seditious Jews those zelots as they called themselves who filled the Temple with dead bodyes Others from Mat. 24.15.16 with Luk. 20.20 21. think the Romans to be meant who set up their Eagles their ensignes in the Temple together with the images first of Caligula and then of Titus their Emperours Perpetuâ consummatiss consumptione urgentur Even untill the consummation Until the end and to the utmost The Jews have oft attempted but could never yet recover their country nor are like to do Shall be poured As if the windows of heaven were opened as once they were at the flood See ver 26. CHAP. X. Ver. 1. IN the third year of Cyrus King of Persia This whole chapter is but a Preface to the ensuing Prophecy or visional prediction recorded in the two following chapters It beginneth at the third year of Cyrus his Empire and reacheth till the time of the Jews rising from the dust of their
Ezek. 17.16 2. That he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord 2 Chron. 36.12 13. Hitherto he had not but now in his distresse he seeketh to this Prophet yea sendeth an Embassage Kings care not for souldiers said a great Commander till their crowns hang on the one side of their heads Sure it is that some of them slight Gods Ministers till they cannot tell what to doe without them as here Kingdomes have their cares and Thrones their thornes Antigonus cried out of his diadem O vilis pannus O base rag not worth taking up at a mans feet Julian complained of his own unhappinesse in being made Emperour Dioclesian laid down the Empire as weary of it Thirty of the ancient Kings of this our Land saith Capgrave resigned their crowns such were their cares crosses and emulations Zedekiah now could gladly have done as much But sith that might not be He sendeth to Jeremiah whom in his prosperity he had slighted and to gratifie his wicked Counsellours wrongfully imprisoned He sent unto him Pashur Not that Magor-missabib chap. 20.1 but another of his name though not much better as it afterwards appeared when seeing Jeremies stoutnesse for the Truth he counselled the King to put him to death Chap. 38. And Zephaniah the son of Maasciah Of whom see further chap. 29.25 29. 37.3 Ver. 2. Enquire I pray thee of the Lord for us He seeketh now to the Lord whom in his prosperity he regarded not so doth a drowning man catch at the tree or twig which before he made no reckoning of Rarae fumant felicibus arae In their affliction they will seek me early Hos 5. ult When he slew them then they sought him and enquired earely after God Psal 78.34 Pharaoh when plagued calleth earnestly for Moses to pray for him and Joab when in danger of his life runneth to the horns of the Altar If so be the Lord will deal with us according to his wondrous works Or it may be the Lord will deal with us c. sc As he did not long since with Hezekiah when invaded by Sennacherib Thus wicked wretches are willing to presume and promise themselves impunity See Deut. 29.19 with the Note Ver. 3. Then said Jeremiah unto them He answereth them modestly and without insultation but freely and boldly as a man of an heroik spirit and the Messenger of the King of Kings Ver. 4. Behold I will turn back the weapons of War i. e. I will render them vain and uselesse as it is God who in battel ordereth the ammunition chap. 50.25 and maketh the weapons vain or prosperous Isa 54. ult Jer. 50.9 This was plainly seen at Edge-hill-fight Ver. 5. And I my self will fight against you This was heavy tidings to Zedekiah and his Courtiers Optassent sibi Prophetas qui dixissent laeta saith Oecolampadius they could have wished for more pleasing Prophecies but those that do what they should not must look to hear what they would not Such bitter answers as this they must look for who seek to God only in a time of necessity silence or else sad answers they shall be sure of Ver. 6. They shall dye of a great Pestilence See chap. 16.4 18.21 Hippocrates calleth the Pestilence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the divine disease Sr. Jo. Heyw. Life of Edw. the sixth because there is much of Gods hand in it like as there was here in the sweating sicknesse wherewith the English only were chased not only in England but in all Countries Ver. 7. And afterward saith the Lord This is noted by the Hebrew Criticks for a very long verse as having in it two and forty words which consist of one hundred and threescore letters and it sounds very heavily all along to the Courtiers especially Potentes potenter torquebuntur Ver. 8. Behold I will set before you the way of life and the way of death They should have their option but a very sad one Saved they could not be from their enemies but by their enemies nor escape death but by captivity which is a kind of living death and not much to be preferred before death Only life is sweet as the Gibeonites held it and therefore chose rather to be hewers of wood and drawers of water then to be cut off with the rest of the Canaanites Ver. 9. His life shall be unto him for a prey And lawful prey or booty is counted good purchase Isa 49.24 He shall save his life though he lose his goods And it should not be grievous to any man to sacrifice his estate to the service of his life why else did Solomon make so many hundreds of targets and sheilds of gold Ver. 10. For I have set my face against this City I have looked this City to destruction I have decreed it and will do it When our Saviour set his face to go towards this City Luke 9.51 he was fully resolved on it and nothing should hinder him See Levit. 17.10 20.5 Ver. 11. And touching the house of the King of Judah say i. e. His Courtiers and his Counsellours which probably were now as bad or worse then they had been in his Father Josias dayes Zeph. 3.3 Her Princes within her were roaring Lions her Judges evening wolves See the Notes Ver. 12. O house of David But much degenerated from the piety of David So Mic. 2.7 O thou that art named the house of Jacob are these his doings c. See the Notes there To be a degenerate plant of so noble a vine is no small discommendation Thus saith the Lord After that the Court had sent to him he is sent to the Court with these Instructions Execute justice in the morning As David your Progenitour and pattern did Psal 101.8 Be up and at it betime and make quick dispatch of causes that poor men may go home about their businesses who have other things to do besides going to Law It is a lamentable thing that a suit should depend ten or twenty years in some Courts Oecolamp quo saturentur avarissimi rabulae omnia bona pauperum exugentes through the avarice of some Pleaders to the utter undoing of their poor Clients This made one such when he was perswaded to patience by the example of Job to reply Mane i. e. Maturè What do ye tell me of Job Job never had any suits in Chancery Jethro adviseth Moses Exod. 18. to dismsse those timely whom he cannot dispatch presently Ver. 13. Behold I am against thee I who alone am a whole army of men Van and Reare both Isa 52.12 and may better say then any other How many reckon you me at O inhabitant of the valley i. e. Of Jerusalem called elsewhere the valley of vision It stood high but yet was compassed about with mountains that were higher Psal 125.2 See there And rock of the plain The bulwark and beauty of the whole adjacent Country Pliny saith that it was the most famous of