them Mal. 2.7 and though to strive with such be to invert Gods order who hath appointed the people to heare and obey their Teacher and not to prescribe to them to follow their Guides and not to run before them Heb. 13.7.17 and 1 Tim. 1 20. 2 Tim. 1.15 Num. 16. From which texts and 1 Cor. 11.2.3 a grave divine argueth thus It is a vile sin to vex our ministers by our obstinacy yea though they were not able to make so full demonstration yet when they reproove such and such things out of a spiritual jealousy and feare they corrupt their hearts they are to be heard how much more when they come in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2.4 And yet how full is the church ever hath been of such Vitilitigatores as contend with the best ministers quarrel at Gods word and take up armes against it snuffing at it Mal. 1.13 chatting at it Rom. 9.19.20 casting reproaches upon it Jer. 20.8.9 enviously swelling at it Act. 13.45 The more you touch these toads the more they swell the more you meddle with these serpents the more they gather poison to spet at you Go about to coole them with faire words you shall but adde to their heate as the smiths forge fries when cold water is cast upon it and as hot water if stirred casteth up the more fume Plin. Eliaâ— Vultures unguento irritantur scaraboni rosa Vultures cannot endure sweet odours Tygers if they heare the sound of a drum will rage and teare themselve Ahab cannot abide Micaiah nor Herod John Baptist The people contested with Jeremy and cursed him Chap. 15.10 though he were Concionator admirabilis Rhet. Eclesiast cap. vlt. as Keckerman hath it an admirable Preacher yet they sought his life saying Prophesie not in the name of the Lord that thou dye not by our hands Chap. 11.25 Jer. 44.16 Bradford yea they told him flat and plaine The word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not heare O leud losels as that martyr in like case exclaimed O faithless hard hearts O Jesabels guests rockt and laid asleep in her bed O sorrowlesse sinners and shamelesse harlots c. Ministers are lights offensive to sore eyes the salt of the earth which is bitter to wounds c. Among the Athenians if the Comedians which were their teachers such as they had pleased not the people they were overwhelmed with stones Once was I stoned saith Paul 2 Cor. 11. and Jeremy is said to have met with the like death from his flagitious countreymen in Egypt amongst whom he was ever a man of strife and his service was in that behalf like that of Manlius Torquâ—tus among the Romans who gave it over saying Neither can I beare their manners nor they my government See Chap. 20.9 Verse 5. Therefore shalt thou fall how could they do otherwise that were a nation so incorrigibly flagitious so unthankfull for mercies so impatient of remedies so uncapable of repentance so obliged so warned so shamelesly so lawlesly wicked therefore shalt thou fall in the day vivens vidensque peribis thou shalt stumble at noon day because there is no knowledge of God in the land but thou hast loved darknesse rather then light therefore shalt thou have enough of it thy feet shall stumble upon the dark mountaines Jer. 13.16 yea thou shalt stumble and fall and never rise againe which is threatned expressly to these swearers Am. 8.14 implied in the Hebrew word here used Such was Elies fall off his stoole Hamans fall before Mordecai the Jew Esth 6.13 Impenitent persons are brats of fathomlesse perdition they are ripe for ruine shall fall into remediless misery and though never so insolent and angry against those that deale plainely and faithfully with them as in the former verse yet they shall never want an Hosea to tell them so to their teeth that those that will not bend may break that if they will needs fall they may fall with open eyes and not have cause to say that they were not fore-warned And this shall be done to day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is very shortly in this present age so some interpret it aut certe clarissima luce saith Mercer or else in the open light and in the view of all men not in huggermugger Tremellius thinks it is as much as rebus adhuc integris subitò opprimentur Thou shalt be suddenly surprised when thou art in thy flourish and fearest no changes What can be more faire and flourishing then the field a day before harvest then the vineyard a day before the vintage certissimè citissiméque corrues Every wicked man may apply it wherefore also it is delivered in the second person singular Thou even thou to thee be it spoken and the Prophet also shall fall with thee in the night The Chaldee hath it as in the night if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him John 11.10 The false Prophet cannot lay his hand upon his brest and say as dying Oecolampadius did Melch. Adam Hic sat lucis Here 's store of light Such are wofully benighted shall be utterly darkened Zech. 11.17 yet more may look to be for their right eye being blind leaders of the blind yea the night shall be upon them and it shall be dark unto them the sun shall go down over their heads c. Mic. 3.6 and when they fall together with those seduced soules into the ditch of destruction themselves shall fall undermost Mat. 15.17 and receive the deeper damnation Mat. 23.14 If others shall be damned they must look to be double damned as Dives feared to be if ever his brethren by his example came to that place of torment Mercers note here is very good Nocte casuros dicit c. He saith they shall fall in the night as signifying by an allegory that when calamity shall lay hold upon these false Prophets they shall also be pricked in their consciences which shall tell them that ventris causa for their bellye 's sake and other base respects they have brought upon the seduced people so great mischiefs This shall be as a dagger at their hearts and shall fill their consciences with horrour and distress and I will destroy thy mother i. e. the whole synagogue yea the whole Church and state the Vniversity of the Israelites so that their nation and name should perish together Is it not so with the ten tribes who can tell at this day where to find them or whence to expect them whether from China as some think and alledge Isay 49.12 Or from Tartary as others who say that Tartar alias Tatari or Totari comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tothar a Residue or remnant Breerw Enquir pag. 94. This is no other then a vaine and capricious fancy saith learned Brierwood c. Is it not altogether unlikely that the Lord in
righteous proceedings and the same recited after the manner of men in the preamble to their condemnatory sentences because ye have been a snare on Mizpah a net spred upon Tabor These were two very high hils much haunted by hunters and frequented by fowlers to whom these Idolaters striving to catch people ritibus suis velut retibus et laqueis with their nets and snares of errours and superstitions are fitly compared For they lie in in wait for mens souls and catch many of them either by perswasions or punishments by allurements or affrightments as Julian the Apostate did of old and as the Papists do at this day That Jeroboam and his counsellours set watchers in these two mountains to observe who would go from him to Judah to worship that he might intercept them and punish them is a plausible opinion but wants proof I know what is alledged Viz 1 King 12.28 and Hos 6.8 according to the vulgar translation I confesse also that it is not unlikely that such things should be done then as lately wait was laid by the Papists for such as had a minde to betake themselves as Geneva Tygure Basil c. for conscience sake It is more probable that upon those high hils Idolatry was committed see chap. 4.13 with the Note and thereby people ensnared as birds and wilde beasts are in the mountains and so made slaves to the devill and even fatted for his tooth Hence in the next words Verse 2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter They lay their nets and snares deep and lie down upon the ground that they may take the silly birds that dread no danger He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall into his strong pawes Psal 10.10 He studies the devils depths Rev. 2.24 poisonfull and pestilent pollicies Machiavellian mysteries of mischief His head is a forge and fountain of wicked wiles he hath store strength of strange traps and trains frauds and fetches to draw in and deceive the silly simple That these seducers were deeply revolted Esay 31.6 they had deeply corrupted themselves Hos 9.9 they sinned not common sins as Kore and his complices died not a common death They made great flaughter of mens souls and of their bodies too that refused to yeeld to them Craft and cruelty seldom sundred in seducers as some write of the Asp that he never wanders alone without his companion with him and as those birds of prey and desolation Esay 34.16 it is said that none of them want their mate The devil lendeth them his seven heads to plot and his ten horns to push and gore c. though I have been a rebuker to them all Heb. a correction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Understand it either of the Prophet that he had dealt plainly with them and done his utmost to reclaim them yet they refused to be reformed hated to be healed We would have cured Babylon but she would not be cured Or else of God that he had both by words and scribes rebuked their superstitions but nothing had wrought upon them They were tormented with the wrath of God but repented not to give him the glory Rev. 16.9 Corrigimur might they say sed non corrigimur plectimur sed non flectimur See how God complains of this stubbornnesse Jer. 6.28 29 30. and learn to tremble at his rebukes to profit by his chastisements lest a worse thing befall us Zeph. 3.5 The just Lord is in the middest thereof he will not do iniquity every morning doth he bring his judgements to light he faileth not but the unjust knoweth no shame There are that take the words possively and render them thus Ego vero illis omnibus castigationi sum I have been rebuked or corrected by them all Levely See the like Lam. 3.13 and in the Psalms often I am a reproach to mine enemies thou makest us a reproach to all that are round about us c. So the Prophet here may seem to complain as Jeremy did after him that he was born a man of contentions that all the people cursed him that he was a common by-word and but-mark that they sharpened their tongues against him and flew in his face To Preach saith Luther Totius erbis furorem in 〈◊〉 â—â—are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11.19 Judicatur vel sententia pronunciaâ—ur Câ—merar Sâ—â—ltet Repetitione etiam auget populi rebelliauem Rivet is nothing else but to derive 〈◊〉 rage of the whole world upon a mans self Wisdom that should be justified of her children is eftsoones judged of her childrens as some read those words of our Saviour Mat. 11.19 But I like the actiue sence better Vers 3. I know Ephraim and Israel is not hid from me Those that by Ephraim understand the Princes and by Israel the common people etiam hoc operae addant et illud ex scriptura probent saith Tarnovius let them prove what they say by Scripture and we will say with them Till then we take them for Synonima's An hypocritical nation they were Isai 9.17 and Athiestically they thought by hiding God from themselves to hide themselves from God Hear them else Chap. 12.8 And Ephraim said yet I am become rich I have found me out substance In all my labour they shall finde none iniquity in me that were sin that were an hainous business that iniquity should be found in them though they were a people laden with iniquity But I know them through and through intus et in cute saith God Isai 1. I am privy to all their plots and policies And although they are profound to make slaughter Tindall reades it They kill sacrifices on heapes to deceive yet let not them be deceived I am not mocked They must not think to put me off with shewes and shadowes to colour and cover their base spirits and vile ends with specious pretences For I search the hearts and try the reines neither is there any creature no not the creature of the heart the thoughts and intentions that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open naked for the outside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tectus clathratum Luc. and open for the inside the Greek word signifieth dissected quartered and as it were cleft through the back-bone before the eyes of him with whom we have to deal Heb. 4.13 Indeed he is all eye and every man before God is all window so that no man needeth a window in his breast as the Heathen Momus wisht for God to look in at For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his goings There is no darknesse nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Job 24.21.22 His eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men Psal 11.4 the former points out his knowledge the later his critical descant David Psal 139. findeth God not onely at his finger ends but at his tongues end too vers 4. His knowledge
of the earth as swift as the Eagle flieth to which Text the Prophet here seemeth to allude as indeed all the Prophets do but comment upon Moses and draw out that Arras which was folded together by him before against the house of the Lord that is the house of Israel called Gods house Numb 12.7 Heb. 3.5 and Gods land Hos 9.3.15 and their Common-wealth is by Iosephus called a Theocratic And although they were now become Apostates yet they gloried no lesse then before to be of the stock of Abraham and of the family of faith like as the Turks call themselves at this day Musulmans that is the true and right beleevers especially after they are circumcised which is not done till they be past ten yeers of age following the example of Ismael Grand Signior Serag p. 191. whom they imitate and honour as their Progenitour alledging that Abraham loved him and not Isaac and that it was Ismael whom Abraham would have sacrificed because they have transgressed my Covenant and trespassed Sin is the mother of misery and the great Makebate betwixt God and his creature It moves him when we ask bread and fish to feed us as verse 2. to answer us with a stone to bruise us or a serpent to bite us The sin of this people was the more hainous because they were covenanters and confederate with God It was his covenant that was in their flesh Gen. 17.13 and he had betrothed them to himself and betrusted them with his Oracles but they like men transgressed the covenant and dealt treacherously against him Chap. 6.7 See the Note there they performed not the stipulation of a good conscience toward God 1 Pet. 3.21 they trespassed against his law As if it had not been holy and just and good Rom. 7. precious perfect and profitable grounded upon so much good reason that if God had not commanded it yet it had been best for us to have practised it Esay 48.17 I am the Lord that teacheth thee to profit c O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandements c. q. d. It is for thy profit and not for mine own that I have given thee a law to live by But they have trespassed or praevaricated and this out of pride and malice as the word signifieth and as before he had oft convinced them of many particulars and more will do therefore are they justly punished Verse 2. Israel shall crie unto me It is their course and custome to do so they will needs do it though I take no delight in it Hypocrisie is impudent as chap. 5.6 and Ier. 3.4 5. No nay but it will despite God with seeming honour and present him with a ludibrious devotion Israel though revolted and degenerated into Iezreel chap. 1. shall crie yea cry aloud vociferabuntur cry till they are hoarse as criers do and unto me but not with their heart chap. 7.14 It is but clamor sine side fatuus an empty ring that God regards not For not every one that saith unto him Lord Lord c Mat. 7.21 Many leane upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come unto us Mic. 3.11 who yet shall hear Discedite Avaunt ye workers of iniquity I know you not Wo then to all profligate professors carnall Gospellers their prayers shall not profit them neither shall they be a button the better for their loud cries to the most High Pro. 1.28 and odious fawnings My God we know thee When their hearts are far from him Of such pretenders to him and his truth it is that the Apostle speaketh Tit. 1.16 They professe that they know God which yet God denies Hos 4.1 5.4 but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate To come and call God Father the guide of our youth and then to fall to sinne this is to do as evil as we can We cannot easily do worse Jer. 3.4 5. To cry The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord and then to steal murther and commit adultery c. this is painted hypocrisie Ier. 7.4 9. when men shall take sanctuary and think to save themselves from danger by a form of godlinesse as the Jews fable that Og king of Bashan escaped in the flood by riding astride upon the Ark when they are perfect strangers to the power of it this is to hasten and heap up wrath Iob 36.13 Religion as it is the best armour so the worst cloak and will serve hypocrites as the disguise Ahab put on and perished Castalio maketh this last clause to be the speech of the blessed Trinity We know thee O Israel q. d. Though thou collogue and cry My God yet we know thine hypocrisie and the naughtinesse of thy heart But the former sence is better though the placing of the word Israel in the end of the verse seem to favour this for thus it runs in the Hebrew To me thy shall cry My God we know thee Israel Verse 3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good Heb. The Good as first the good God who is good originall universall All-sufficient and satisfactory proportionable and fitting to our soul He both is good and doth good Psal 119.68 and that both naturally abundantly freely and constantly Good thou art O Lord and ready to forgive saith David Psal 86.5 And the Good Lord be mircifull 2 Chron. 30. c. saith Hezekiah in his prayer for the people To speak properly there is none good but God Ase elonganit ' â—ipulis saith our Saviour Matt. 19.17 but Israel cast him or rather kickt him off procul à se rejecit as the word signifieth So do all grosse hypocrites they are rank Atheists practicall Atheists though professionall Christians Secondly they reject Christ as a Soveraigne though they could be content to have him as a Saviour they send messages after him saying We will not have this man to rule over us they will not submit to the lawes of his kingdom nor receive him in all his offices and efficacies they are Christlesse creatures as without God so without Christ in the world Thirdly hypocrites reject the good Spirit of God as David calleth him Psal 143.10 the fruit whereof is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth Ephes 5.9 When God striveth with them by his good Spirit as Neh. 9.20 they by yeelding to Satans suggestions grieve that holy Spirit and by grieving resist him and by resisting quench him and by quenching maliciously oppose him and offer despite unto him and so cast themselves into the punishing hands of the living God Heb. 10.29 31. Lastly they cast off the good Word and true Worship of God those right judgements true lawes good statutes and Commandements Neh. 9.13 they put the promises from them and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13.46 they hate instruction and cast Gods words behind them Psal 50.17 In a word bee hath left off to
A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION Upon The XII Minor Prophets Wherein the Text is explained some Controversies are discussed sundry Cases of Conscience are cleared and many remarkable matters hinted that had by former Interpreters been pretermitted Hereunto is added a Treatise called The Righteous Mans Recompence Or A true Christian characterized and encouraged out of Malachi Chap. 3. Vers 16 17 18. In all which diverse other Texts of Scripture which occasionally occurre are fully opened and the whole so intermixed with pertinent Histories as will yeeld both pleasure and profit to the judicious Reader By Iohn Trapp M. A. once of Christ-Church in Oxford now Pastor of Weston upon Avon in Gloucester-shire Acts 7.42 As it is written in the Book of the Prophets The XII Minor Prophets were conjoyned in one Volume or Book lest by their littlenesse they should be scattered or perish Rivet March 1 th 1652. Imprimatur Edm Calamy LONDON Printed by R N for Philemon Stephens at the Gilded Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard 1654. Viro Eruditione juxtâ ac Pietate praestantissimo IOANNI OWENO SS Th D. Aedis Christi Decano dignissimo Academiae Oxoniensis jam secundùm Procancellario vigilantissimo Lucubrationes hasce suas quales quales in animi devotissimi testimonium ac monumentum L.M.Q.D.D.D. IOANNES TRAPPVS Ejusdem Aedis Christi annis abhinc triginta Alumnus The Preface to the Reader TRuly Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sunne O but much more pleasant for the eye of faith to see the Sun of righteousnesse that light of life Blessed may we say are our eyes which see this Sun shine so gloriously from the Gospell and though through glasses yet such as are and will be kept from breaking by that presence of Christ promised his Ministers of the Gospel to the end of the World whom he calls the light of the world Happy art thou O England where it hath been day-light these hundred years and God-forbid that wee should expose our selves to that the condemnation in loving darknesse rather then light If we shorten this our day certainly it will be our death An evil generation therefore is that whose hellish principles prompt them utterly to extinguish all our burning and shining Lamps by draining out all their oil and so are those children of the night whose hellish practises attempt the blowing out of these lights that do discover their deeds of darknesse and because they cannot no more then becken the Sunne from the skie their breath is spent in cursing them as freely and fiercely as the Ethiopians do the Sun for scorching them If this continue sad are our fears lest our Sun be not far from setting and we take up that lamentation with Jeremy Wo unto us for the day goeth away for the shadows of the evening are stretched out Neither are the Symptomes of this onely in the professed disavowing of the Ministery by men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith and who have put away a good conscience but also in the dark lives of many of those who seem to affect Gospel-light and yet walk not honestly as in the day rejoyce in the light yet walk not as children of the light Nay amongst the best are not notions prosecuted more then practise and our light like the Moon 's without heat yea and whereas the Father of lights hath set up his Candlestick amongst us that we might do his work we rather do our own making our selves and not him our end The good Lord in mercy make all his to face about towards himself â—o face one another as the Cherubims over the Mercy-seat Reader our advice to thee is to do thy duty though many others neglect theirs Blesse God there are so many windows to let in light unto thee pray that they may be yet clearer to give in dayly new light thou knowest we speake not in a fanatick Dialect we mean fresh and fuller discoveries of Gospel-mysteries whereunto thou wilt finde this Authour hath made no small contribution by these his Annotations upon the small Prophets from before which few have drawn the curtain so far as he open therefore the Casement in reading and much light may be let into thy mind to understand things that have been hid from thine eyes or seen but dimly We need not commend the Authour all his works speak him to be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed an Interpreter one among a thousand we may say of him as Cyprian to Cald. Adeo exercitatus in Scripturis peritus ut cautè omnia consultò gerat Origen speaking of the Prophets calls them Bees and their Prophesies honey-combes this Expositor God hath made skilfull both in hiving and expressing This friend of the Spouse presents her here with more new borders of gold enameld and set out with spangles of silver wrought upon a precious part of holy Writ which he hath beautified with variety of humane Learning And lest thy heart should rise against this expression give us leave to tell thee that though many in these last and worst and wofull dayes scoffe at the learned Languages and Arts and Sciences as the Fox in the Greek Epigram disparag'd the fair and ripe grapes because they were out of his reach yet there is a necessity of them for the right dividing the word of truth which is evinced by a man approved Dr. Featly tree of sav kn who between derogating from the al-sufficiency of Scripture which is sacriledge and blasphemy on the one side and detracting from the worth of University Learning which is an Anabaptistical frenzy on the other side layes down the truth in the middle in this Aphorisme Scripture is of it self abundantly sufficient for us but we are not sufficient for it without the help of Arts and Liberall Sciences we cannot sufficiently conceive or declare the works of God without naturall Philosophy nor Law of God without morall nor his Attributes without Metaphysicks nor the dimensions of the Ark and Temple without the Mathematicks nor the songs of Sion without Musick and Poetry wee cannot Interpret the text without Grammer analize it without Logick presse and apply it without Rhetorick These it hath seemed good to the holy Ghost to use in the Penning of Scriptures to shew their usefulnesse in their opening and who can understand or expound Prophesies already fulfilled and to be accomplish't without insight into prophane History As for knowledge in the Tongues he deserves to have his tongue cut out that dares but mutter a word against it dulcius ex ipso fonte There are indeed divers Cautions and Directions given by the ancient holy Fathers in the use of humane Learning which this learned godly Writer hath exactly observed For he hath purg'd and cleans'd it cut off the bond-womans hair pared her nayles and washed her with Sope his chief care being not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is not only
flying roule of curses after them Zech. 5.2.3 he shall vomit up his sweet morsels here Job 20.15 or else disgest in hell what he hath devoured on earth as his belly hath prepared deceit Job 15.35 Serm. before K. Edw. 6. so God will take it out of his guts againe either he shall make restitution of his ill-gotten goods or for not doing it he shall one day cough in hell as Father Latimer phraseth it and committing adultery This is also an hainous crime saith holy Job yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges Chap. 31.11 Heathens have punished it very severely Of one people we read that they used to put the adulterers or adulteresses head into the panch of a beast where the filth of it lay and so stiffled him God punished those stinking Edomites with stinking brimstone for their lothsome bruitishnesse and adjudged adultery to death because society and purity of posterity could not otherwise continue amongst men We read not in any general commandement of the law that any should be burnt with fire but the high-priests daughter for adultery Lev. 21.9 yet it seemes it was in use before the law or else Judah was much to blame for sentencing his daughter in law Tamar to the fire Gen. 38.24 Let us beware of that sin for which so peculiar a plague was appomted and by very Heathens executed See Jer. 29.22.23 If men be slack to take vengance on such yet God will hold on his controversie against them and avenge the quarrel of his covenant for so wedlock is called Prov. 2.17 either by his own bare hand or else by the hands of the adulterers themselves See an instance of both these even in our times In the yeare 1583. in London two citisens committing adultery together on the Lords day Divine Tragedie were struck dead with fire from heaven in the very act of uncleannesse their bodies being left dead in the place half burnt up sending out a most lothsome savour for a spectacle of Gods controversy against adultery and sabbath breaking This judgment was so famous and remarkable that Laurentius Bayenlink a forrain historian hath thought good to register it to posterity Opus Chronologiae Or his Vniversi Antwerp 1611. p. 110. Mr. Cleaver reports of one that he knew that had committed the act of uncleanesse and in the horrour of conscience he hang'd himself But before when he was about to make away himself he wrot in a paper and left it in a place to this effect Indeed saith he I acknowledge it to be utterly unlawfull for a man to kill himself but I am bound to act the Magistrates part because the punishment of this sin is death This act of his was not to be justified Viz. to be his own deathsman but it shewes what a controversy God hath with adulterers and what a deep gash that sin makes in the conscience they break out like wild horses over hedges or proud waters over the banks The Septuagint renders in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are poured out And St. Jude hath a like expression speaking of the Libertines of his time Verse 11. they run greedily Gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were powered out or powred away as water out of a vessel they ran headlong or gave themselves over to work all uncleanness with greedinesse to satisfie their lusts and to oppose with crest and brest whatsoever stands in their way bearing down all before them Beza So Sodom and Gomorrah are in the seventh verse of the same epistle said by unbridled licentiousnesse to give themselves over to fornication In scortationem effusae And when Lot sought to advise them better they set up the bristles at him with Base busie stranger Dubartas comest thou hither thus Controwler-like to prate and preach to us c Thus these Effractores as the Psalmist somewhere calleth them these breach-makers Judg. 16.9 Psal 2.3 breake Christs bands in sunder as Sampson did the seven green withes and cast away his cords from them These unruly Belialists get the bit betwixt their teeth like headstrong horses and casting their rider rise up against him They like men or rather like wilde beasts transgresse the covenant Hos 5.7 resolving to live as they list to take their swinge in sin Psal 12.4 for who say they is Lord over us Tremellius reades that text tanquam hominis they transgresse it as if it were the covenant of a man they make no more of breaking the law then as if they had to do with dust and ashes like them selves and not with the great God that can tame them with the turn of his hand and with the blast of his mouth blow them into hell Hath he not threatened to walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him to be as cross as they for the hearts of them and to bring upon them seven times more plagues then before and seven times and seven to that till he have got the better of them for is it fit that he should cast down the bucklers first I trow not He will be obeyed by these exorbitant yokelesse lawlesse persons either actively or passively The law was added because of transgression and is given saith the Apostle not to the righteous for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a law to themselves 1 Tim. 1.9 as the Thracians boasted but to the lawlesse and disobedient who count licentiousnesse the onely liberty and the service of God the greatest slavery who think no venison sweet but that that is stolen Eccles 2.2 nor any mirth but that which a Salomon would say to Thou mad foole what do'st thou Loc for such rebels and refractaries for such masterlesse monsters as send messages after the Lord Christ saying We will not have this man to raigne over us for these I say was the law made to hamper them and shackle them as fierce and furious creatures to tame them and taw them with its foure iron teeth 1 of Irritation Rom. 7.7 2 ly of Induration Isa 6.10 3 ly Of obligation to condigne punishment Gen. 4.4 4. Of execration or malediction Deut. 28.16 17 c Let men take heed therefore how they break out against God Let them meddle with their matches and not contend with him that is mightier then they 'T is the Wise-mans counsell Eccles 6.10 and blood toucheth blood i. e. there is a continuation and as it were a concatenation of murders and other horrible villenies as was at Jerusalem in the murther of Zacharias the son of Barachias the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice And as Luke 13.1 the like fell out So at Athens when Scylla took the Town there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as mercilesse slaughter the gutters running with blood c. And so at Samaria which the Prophet may here probably intend when there was such killing of Kings and they fall not alone Hosea killed his Predecessour
they flourished at this time in Court and Country they waxed fat and kicked The Priests are here accused of detestable ingratitude and of unsufferable pride and insolency As they were multiplyed or magnified they have sinned against me that is they have abused my gifts to my great dishonour Like fed hawkes they have forgot their master Nay like yong mules which when they have sucked turn up their heels and kick their dam so did these haughty and haunty Priests Psal 17.10 Psal 119.70 Their hearts were fat as grease they were inclosed in their own fat but they delighted not in Gods Law Cum ipsis opibus lascivire coepit Ecclesia saith Platina The Church began to be rich and wanton at once rich and riotous They had golden chalices but wooden Priests Repugnante contra teipsum felicitate tuâ as Salvian saith to the Church in his time thy prosperity is thy bane What would he have said if he had seen the Pope in his Princely State thundering from his Capitoll and heard their big-swoln titles of Padre benedicto Padre Angelo Archangelo Cherubino Seraphino c. Spec. Europ Ammianus Marcellinus a heathen historian inveiged against the Bishops of Rome even in those purer times for their pride and luxury Odi fastum illius ecclesiae saith Basil I hate the haughtinesse of that Western Church It caused the lamentable separation of the Greek Church from the Latine the other four Patriarches not without the like pride and stomack dividing themselves from the Bishop of Rome and at their parting using these or the like words Thy greatnesse we know thy covetousnesse we cannot satisfie thy encroaching we can no longer abide live to thy self And yet if they could have held them there and shunned those evils which they blamed in others walking humbly with God and committing themselves to him in well-doing they might have flourished to this day But wrangling away the truth and contracting rust with long ease and prosperity God was forced to scour off that their rust with bloody War by the Turks Of whom these Churches being in fear and danger fled to carnall combinations sent and subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome that they might have his help But all in vain for shortly after they were destroyed and lost all God covered them with confusion and turned their glory into shame So he hath done the Roman glory in part and will do more every day Parei Medullâ— Roma diu titubans varijs erroribus acta Corruet et mundi desinet iste caput God will cast dirt in the faces of proud prelates Isa 23.9 be will stain the pride of all glory cast upon them with ignominy reproach Prov. 18.3 crush their crown with a woe Esay 28.1 change their glory their dignitie and greatnesse wherein they gloried into shame not without much bitternesse in the change as the Hebrew word here used seemeth to import Miserum enim est fuisse felicem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 8. They eat up the sin of my people that is the sin-offerings as Exod. 29 14. This they might lawfully do Levit. 6. and 10.17 But they were greedy dogs and looked every one to his gain from his quarter Esay 5.6.11 They winked at the peoples sins and cared not what evils they fell into so that they would bring in store of fat and good expiatory sacrifices which made for the Priests advantage They ate that on earth which they were to disgest in hell they fed upon such diet as bred the the worm of conscience that never dyes Just so the Papists do at this day they teach the people though they sin yet by giving mony for so many Masses to be mumbled over by a greasie Priest or by so many indulgences and Dirges purchased of the Popes pardon-mongers they shall be delivered etiamsi per impossibile matrem Dei vitiassent I tremble to English it Tecelius told them so in Germany and got huge masses of mony for the Popes coffers The common sort of Papists for want of better teaching will say When we have sinned we must confesse and when we have confessed Specul Europ Psal 14. we must sin again that we may confesse again and make work for new indulgences and Jubilees But have these workers of iniquity no knowledge that eat up Gods people as they eat bread that drink up the blood of souls much more worth â—hen the lives that Davids men had jeoparded to procure him the water of the well of Bethlehem which therefore he durst not drink of This surely is that filthy lucre Ministers should be free from 1 Pet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5.2 Let all non-residents look to it that carry onely forcipes et mulctrum those instruments of a foolish shepherd Zech. 11.15 See the Note there feeding themselves but starving the flock an heavy account will they one day make to the Arch-shepheard of this their sacrilegious rapacity and they set their hearts on their iniquity Heb. they lift up their souls that is they not onely prick up their ears as Danaeus expounds it to listen after sins and sin-offerings but they greedily desire and earnestly look after such emoluments such belly timber being gulae mancipia slaves to their guts and wholly given up to gormandise See the same expression and in this sense Jer. 12.27 Deut. 24.15 Ezek. 24.25 and compare the practise of Popish Priests who make infinite gain of every thing almost as their ringing of Saints-bels places of buriall selling of licenses for marriage and meates selling of corpses and Sepulchres All things are saleable and soluble at Rome and the savour of gaine sweet though it come out of a stinking stewes or Jewes counting-house The Priests had a trick by wires to make their Images here wag their chaps a pace if some good gift were presented as if otherwise Act. and Mon. to hang the lip in token of discontent Verse 9. And there shall be like people like priest i. e. they shall share alike in punishment as they have done in sin neither shall their priesthood protect them any more then it did Elies two sons whose white Ephod covered foule sins A wicked Priest is the worst creature upon earth Who are devils but they that were once angels of light and who shall have their portion with the devill and his angels but those dehonestamenta cleri male monetae minstri bad-liv'd ministers It was grown to a proverb in times of Popery that the pavement of hell was pitcht with souldiers helmets and shavelings-crowns Letters also were framed and published as sent from hell wherein the devill gave the Popish clergy no small thanks for so many millions of soules as by them were daily sent down to him Matth. Paris ad Ann. 1072. The Priests might haply hope to be priviledged and provided for in a common calamity for their office-sake As Chrysostom saith that Aaron though in the same fault with Miriam Numb
or enquiry Solomon answers in the next words And a wise mans heart discerneth both time and judgement that is he knowes both when and how and how far forth fitly and lawfully the commands of a King may be dispatched and no further will he go then he can with a good conscience The Pope writing to Bernard requiring him to do that which was unlawfull Bernard writes back again this answer and it was taken I as a childe do not obey and I obey in disobeying Antigona in Sophocles saith well Magis obtemperandum est Dijs c. We should rather obey God with whom we must live ever then men with whom we have but a while to sojourn Lo blind nature saw so much See the Note on Act. 4.19 It may not be forgotten or slipt over that the word here rendred the Commandment signifies Command thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he willingly walked after Command thou he danced after Jeroboams pipe saying to him as he did once to Julius Caesar Jussa sequi tam velle mihi quà m posse necesse est Lucan Or as Tiberius answered Justin Vtere me pro rota figulari Plaut though upon a better ground end Si tu volueris ego sum Situ non vis Ego non sum I am onely thy clay and thy wax c. Or lastly as Luther at first submitted to the Pope in these words though afterwards God gave him more courage in his cause I prostrate my self at your Holinesle feet with all that I am and have Vivifica occide voca revoca approba reproba vocem tuam vocem Christi in te praesidentis et loquentis agnoscam Anne 1518. Epist ad Leon. Pontific Kimchi that is Quicken me kill me call me recall me receive me reject me I shall acknowledge your voice as the voice of Christ himself ruling and speaking in you Jeroboam is not once named here nor the word Commandment set down at large out of detestation likely both of it and Him because it was a wicked commandment and He no better then an Usurper For although he had it cleared to him that Gods will was that he should be King over the ten tribes yet because it was a will of Gods decree and not of his Command as of a duty done by him he goes among Divines for an intruder and usurper in and for that fact of his 'T is obedience when we follow a Divine precept but not ever when we follow a divine instinct Verse 12. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth Their sin was the greater because they were so willing to it and so easily drawn to idolatry as most agreeable to their nature and making much for their ease which was Jeroboams main argument It may very well be that he threatned punishment to those that disobeyed his commandement but here they should have stood out and have bide the worst chusing affliction rather then sin which because they did not therefore they should perish by their own hand and counsels they shall be moth-eaten as a garment that breedeth the moth and as a tree that breedeth the worm that wasteth it Not but that God had a speciall hand in their punishment and this not permissive onely but active too I will be unto Ephraim c. For is there evil in a city and he hath not done it The changes and periods of Kingdoms are of him Psal 75.6 7. that men may know that the Heavens do rule Dan. 4.26 so are the alterations in mens bodies and estates as Job setteth it forth Chap. 4.19 and 13.28 and 27.18 Every one say some Chymicks hath his own balsam within him his own bane 't is sure that he hath his clay-cottage is every day ready to drop on his head And for his Estate 2 Cor. 5.1 there are oft-times secret issues and drains of expence at the which it runs out as at an hole in the bottom of the bag Hag. 1.6 See the Note there Howbeit Gods holy hand is in all this I will be unto Ephraim as a moth c. that is I will wast them sensim sine sensu Secretly insensively slowly but surely and inevitably This David after Job acknowledgeth Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth thou castest him into a corruptio totius substantiae as the Physicians call the Hectick surely every man is vanity Selah Yea he is altogether vanity yea and that in his best estate when he is best underlaid when setled on his best bottom verse 5. when he is gotten upon his mount with David and thinks to die in his nest with Iob Psal 130.7 Job 29.18 Luk. 12. Mar. in cap. 28. 11. c. 25. when he counts upon much good laid up in store for many years as that rich fool that reckoned without his host as we say Tinea damnum facit sonitum non facit saith Gregory The moth maketh no noise but doth a great deal of hurt among clothes The worm here rendred rottennesse is minutissimus vermisulus saith Luther here a very small creature but doth no small mischief Teredo for it eats out the heart of the strongest wood yea of the strongest oaken planks at Sea See here what a poor creature is man yea a whole kingdom when as a moth and a little worm may consume them when they may be crushed before the moth as Iob speaks Chap. 4.19 he saith not before the Lion but before the moth Learn also to take heed of sin yea of secret sins 2 King 17 9. lest we be secretly wasted our graces cast into a consumption our comfortables wiped away our consciences wearied with secret buffets as being smitten with the rod of Gods mouth Esay 11.4 our estates melted as the fat of lambs before the fire and our land insensibly wasted and by degrees desolated as Ephraim and Iudah were as the Greek Empire was and as it began to be here with us in Queen Maries raigne which was never prosperous after that she had abolished the Gospel for beside forraigne losses of Calice Speed c. extreme dearths raged much hurt was done by thunder from heaven and by fire in the royall Navie and all things went to worse till Queen Elisabeth came in Q. Eliz. life by M. Clark Mart. 2. part pag. 319. a repairer of the breach a restorer of paths to dwell in Esay 53.12 according to that glorious Epitaph caused by King Iames to be inscribed upon her Princely Monument by him erected Verse 13. When Ephraim saw his sicknesse i. e. Felt himself moth-eaten hard-driven and at a very great under as those must needs bee whom God setteth against and Iudah his wound Heb. his ulcer that needeth crushing to get out the filth Ier. 30.13 Obad. 7. Ephraim was sick God had made him sick in smiting of him Mich. 6.13 and Iudah was sore yea ulcerated impostumated and they
now cheared up himself with the remembrance of This last is a very slight and sorry comfort indeed The former hath much in it for a good man keeps every day holy day said Diogenes and can be merry without musick saith another Philosopher He hath a merry heart or good conscience which is a continual feast and is bound to rejoyce evermore 1 Thes 5.16 and to keep the feast in all countries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 5.8 the Calender of his whole life is crowned with continual festivals and he is the happiest man and may be the merriest if he but understand his own happinesse But this alas was not the case of these woful caytives and captives They had sinned away all their comforts and what with the sad remembrance of their former enjoyments and with the sense of their present servitude they had little mind to keep holy-day Hence this passionate exclamation what will ye do c God had threatned before Chap. 2.11 to take away their feast-dayes new-moons sabbaths and solemnities but they heeded him not tanquam monstra marina Dei verba surda aure praeterierunt therefore now God fulfilleth what he â—ad forethreatned Lam. 2. â—â— and calleth as in a solemn day his terrours round about them what they were wont to do in their solemn dayes and festivals may be seen Num. 10.10 what we do or should do at least upon our Lords day-sabbaths the delight of every good soul we need not be told Let us take heed lest by profane violating or carelesse observing that holy rest with all its solemnities we deprive not our selves as these Israclites did of such a precious priviledge God gave us a good warning in that the first blow given the German Churches was upon the sabbath-day which is there so ill sanctified Alsted in Encyclop Dike of Consc pag. 276. that if it should be named according to their deserving of it Doemoniacus potius quam Dominicus saith Alsted it should be called not the Lords-day but the Priests-day rather It is very remarkable that upon that day was Prague lost and with it all opportunity of hearing singing publique praying communicating on that high and honourable day Esay 58.13 Vers Abierunt i.e. obierunt 8. For lo they are gone because of destruction They are gone either into Egypt for refuge or into the state of the dead they are gone out of the world They shall perish by destructiou so some render it When God had said in the former verse what will ye do they should have faln down before him and said What wilt thou have us to do Lord we know not what at all to do but our eyes are toward thee This had been right and thus they might have disarmed Gods indignation but they had other carnal shifts and thought they could tell well enough what to do and whither to go whereupon they were so fully bent that the prophet here reports them gone already For lo they are gone and got to Egypt as divers of them did doubtlesse during the siege and after the sack of Samaria when they were forced to shift for themselves as they could but did they so escape by iniquity in thine anger cast down the people O God saith David and it is not more a prayer then a prophesie Psal 56.7 and this people had the proof of it Egypt shall gather them either for punishment or for burial as Ezech. 29.5 Jer. 8.2 so that they fled but out of the smoak into the fire and in running from death they ran to it as the Historian saith of those poor Scots at Muscleboroughfield who running for their lives S. J. Heyw in Edw. 6. p. 35. so strained themselves in their race that they fell down breathlesse and dead Memphis shall bury them Lest they should please themselves with vain hopes of return to their countrey he shews that that shall never be but they shall lay their bones in a strange land Memphis anciently called Noph Isay 19.13 or as some will No Nahum 3.8 at this day Grand Caire famous for the Pyramides and the kings sepulchres Memphis I say a principal city of Egypt shall be a Kibroth-hattaavah to you a place of sepulchres especially then when Nebuchadnezzar sent by God who giveth him Egypt as his pay for his paines at Tyre shall come and smite that land and deliver such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword c. Jer. 43.11 The pleasant places for their selves nettles shall possesse them Heb. shall possesse them as their inheritance so that the Israelites nor their heirs shall ever repossesse these pleasant places for their silver i. e. where they either laid up their silver their repositories or counting houses or where they laid out their silver either in costly buildings and sumptuous furniture or else in idols and statues placed therein to their no smal charge delight These shal be ruined and over-run with nettles thorns and thistles a token of horrible desolation Esa 32.13 and 34.13 Note hence that as God spareth a place for a few good men found therein as he would have done Sodom which is now a place of nettles and saltâ—pits Zeph. 2.9 so a fruitful land bringeth he into barrennesse or saltnesse for the wickednesse of them that dwel therein Psal 107.34 witnesse Judaea that land of desire Ezek. 1. ult that garden of Eden Joel 2.3 that glorious land Dan. 11.16 yea glory of all lands Ezek. 20.15 now wofully waste and desolate so is Grecia formerly so farmous for armes and arts so are some parts of Germany and so may England soon be without the greater mercy of God by a miracle of whose mercy and by a prop of whose extraordinary patience we have hitherto subsisted I say England whose vallies now are like Eden whose hils are as Lebanon whose springs are as Pisgah whose rivers are as Jordan whose walls is the Ocean and whose defence is the Lord Jehovah Vers 7. The dayes of visitation are come A visitation that is like to prove a vexation for every transgression and disobedience that is Omission and commission shall receive a just recompence of reward from the God of Recompences so he is called Jer. 51.56 whose eyes behold his eye-lids trie the children of men Psal 11.4 the former points out his knowledge the latter his judgement or his critical descant in his visitation or inquisition the dayes whereof are set Stat suae cuique dies and Israels dayes are come are come it is repeated for more assurance as Babylon is fallen is fallen certò citò penitus and as Ezek. 7.5 6 7. the Prophet tells them The end is come is come is come and so some ten or twelve times that he might beat it into them and awaken them them out of the snare of the devil The wickeds happinesse will take its end surely and swiftly but its hard perswading them so And the Jews as they were
commandeth but the Gospel helpeth God by his spirit assisting and further accepting pence for pounds the will for the work the desire for the deed done c. and laying meate before us meate that the world knowes not of hidden Manna the convivium juge of a good conscience c. Vers 5. He shall not return unto the land of Egypt That is he needs not run to Egypt for help as King Hosea did nor to the Assyrian to whom they were tributaries from the time of Menahem for they wanted nothing and less should have wanted if they would have been ruled by me but they refused to return He was not to have returned to the land of Egypt or of the Assyrian who is his king so some read the text Others sense it thus When I threaten them with the Assyrian they think to shift and shelter themselves in Egypt but I shall keep them thence or find and ferret them out there God knowes how to cross wicked men of their will to spoyle their plots Egypt shall prove no better then a broken reed running into the hand of him that leaneth on it 2 King 18.21 The Egyptian was ever an enemy to Israel and though for his own ends he gave goodly words and seem reconciled yet such Reconciliations are but vulpinae amicitiae But were he never so fast a friend yet sin-guilty Israel shall not have their an Asylum nec stabile stabulum see Chap 9.3 with the Note because the desire of the wicked shall perish Psal 112.10 They take counsell together but it shall come to nought they speak the word but it shall not stand Esay 8.10 Confer Esay 30.1.2 and 31.1.2.3 Prov. 21.38 but the Assyrian shall be his king Will they nill they they shall be carried captive to Assyria and sith they will needs be crossing of God he will cross them much more he will walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him Lev. 26.21 and be as froward as they for the hearts of them Psal 18.26 They will not return to me saith the Lord they shall not therefore return to Egypt they will not submit to my scepter they shall therefore have the Assyrian for their King that proud cruel stout-hearted Prince Isay 10.5.7.12 who will tyrannise over their bodies and over their cattle at their pleasure so that they shall be in great distress Neh. 9.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they refused to return Heb. they disdained to do it scorned the motion slighted the messenger Sen in Agamem Plus est a viâ—s se revocaesse quà m vitia ipsa necivisse Amb. in Psal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By their sins they had run from God by repentance they should have returned unto him and then the amends had been well-nigh made for Quem poenitet peccasse paenè est innocens the penitent is in almost as good a case as the innocent Ambrose saith he is in a better But for these men to all other their sins to add obstinacie and impenitencie as Herod to all his former evils did the death of the Baptist this was to heap up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 The word here rendred refused is by the Seventy turned They would not That therefore thy returned not to God it was the fault of their will True it is they had no power to turn themselves but the cause of that inability too was in themselves They therefore neither could nor would return and both by their own fault and folly Vers 6. And the sword shall abide on his cities Heb. shall keep residence or rush upon his cities It can do no less it cannot return into the scabbard rest or be still till the Lord who put it into commission call back againe his commission Jer. 47.6.7 It is a dreadfull thing when the sword abideth on a people as in Germany that stage of warr Ireland still a land of divine ire c. England hath some Halcyons at present incredibili celeritate temporis brevitate à Pompeio confectum Aug de Civ Dei Mr. Burr praise be given to God and let every good man pray with David scatter thou the people that delight in warr Psal 68.30 The Piraâ—s warr was dispatcht by Pompey with incredible swiftness to his eternall commendation And we have cause to bless God saith a countryman of ours that God hath raised up instruments for us who have hazarded the shortening of their own lives for the shortning of the warr who have done their worke of late as if they had took it by the great c. And the same Author observeth that it is a sad thing for the sword to be in the field but for the sword to be in the cities it is much more sad and he instanceth in JerusaleÌ„ out of Josephus Jos de bell Jud l. 7. c. 7. where the number of the slaine was eleven hundred thousand We may further instance in that unhappy city of Magdeburg in Germany where so much cruelty was exercised first by Charles the fift much regrated by him at last in his retired life taking account of his actions since that in our memory by Mounsier Tilly who like a bloody villain put to the sword there twenty thousand persons at least of all ranks ages and sexes Mr. Clark life of K. of swed 23. that great city also he burned down utterly turning it into cinders excepting an hundred nine thirty houses c. The like immanity was exercised by the Popes champions upon the poor Protestants at Angrogue in France where they killed and burned without mercy but could never set fire upon the two temples there nor upon the Ministers house Act and Mone 880. which remained whole the houses round about being all consumed with fire and shall consume his branches and devour thèm His branches or his villages which are as branches of the greater cities The trees of America but especially of Brasile are so huge that it is reported of them Abbbots Geog. p. 271. that severall families have lived in several armes or branches of one tree to such a number as are in some petty village or parish here The greater cities are as the body or-root of a tree the villages as the branches The scripture oft calleth them mother and daughters as Heshborn and all her daughters That is villages Num. 21.25 as the Chalde there explaineth it See Ezech. 10.44.45.46.48.53 hence we read of a citieand mother in Isracl 2 Sam. 20.19 Branches also are called daughters of the trees they grow from Gen. 44.23 The word here rendred branches is by some rendred Barres by others Diviners or Liers as the word here used is interpreted Jer. 50.36 A sword is upon the liars or diviners and they shall dote potest Augur Augurem videre nou ridere saith Tully of such diviners that is Can they one looke upon another and not laugh considering how they gull people with their lies and fopperies The sword
his Navigation Lo said he how the gods approve of sacriledge It is no better that Ephraim here deals with the Almighty Surely saith he if God disliked my courses so much as the Prophet would make beleeve I should not gather wealth as I do but the world comes tumbling in upon me therefore my wayes are good before God This is an ordinary paralogisme whereby wicked worldlings deceive their own souls hardning and heartning themselves in their sinfull practises because they outwardly prosper But a painted face is no signe of a good complexion Seneea could say That it is the greatest unhappinesse to prosper in evil In all my labours so he calleth his fraudulent and violent practises as making the best of an ill matter They shall find no iniquity in me Though they search as narrowly as Laban did into Jacobs stuff What can they find or prove by me Am I not able either to hide mine ill-dealings or to defend them Can they take the advantage of the Law against me Why then should I be thus condemned and cried out of as I am Thus the rich man is wise in his own conceit Prov. 28.11 and covetousnesse is never without its cloak 1 Thess 2.5 which yet is too short to cover it from God who is not mocked with masks or fed with fained words whereof the covetous caitiff is sull 2 Pet. 2.3 witnesse Ephraim here with his pretences of innocency In all my labours that is mine ill-gotten goods the fruit of mine hard and honest labour saith he they shall find none iniquity no crimen stellionatus no craft or cruelty That were sinne Piaculum esset that were a foul businesse farre be it from me to stain my trading or burden my conscience with any such misdeed I would you should know I am as shie of sinne as another neither would I be taken tripping for any good Thus men notoriously guilty may yet give good words yea largely professe what they are guilty of to be an abominable thing And this is a sure signe of a profane and cauterized conscience of an heart that being first turned into earth and mud doth afterwards freez and congeal into steel and adamant Verse 9. And I that am thy Lord God from the land of Egypt This seemeth to be interlaced for the comfort of the better sort that trembled at the former threatnings for as in a family if the dogs be beaten the children will be apt to cry so is it in Gods house Hence he is carefull to take out the precious from the vile and telleth them that he hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew but would surely observe his ancient covenant made even in the land of Egypt toward his spirituall Israel I will yet make them to dwell in tabernacles c. i. e. I will deliver my Church from the spiritual Egypt and make her to passe thorow the wildernesse of the world Diodâ—e in particular Churches aspiring toward the heavenly Canaan even as my people dwelt in Tents in the wildernesse the remembrance whereof is celebrated in the feast of Tabernacles Lev. 23.43 See Zach. 14.16 with the Note Verse 10. I have also spoken by the Prophets And not suffered you to walk in your own wayes Esay 30.20 as did all other Nations Acts 14.16 The Ministery is a singular mercy however now vilipended and I have multiplied visions whereby I have discovered thy present sins and imminent dangers though thou hast said They shall finde none iniquity in me c. The wit of Mammonists will better serve them to palliate and plead for their dilectum delictum their beloved sinne then their pride will suffer them once to confesse and forsake it though never so plainly and plentifully set forth unto them and used similitudes by the ministery of the Prophets Heb. by the hand which is the instrument of instruments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher so is the ministery of the word for the good of souls It is called a hand because it sets upon mens souls with the strength of God and a certain vehemency Did not my word lay hold upon your fathers Zach. 1.6 See the Note there It is said Luke 5.17 that as Christ was teaching the power of the Lord was present c. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God Rom. 1.16 It is his mighty arm Esay 53.1 Now it was ordinary with the Prophets to use similitudes as Esay 5.2 Ezek. 16.3 which is an excellent way of preaching and prevailing as that which doth noth notably illustrate the truth and insinuate into mens affections Galeatius Caracâ—â—olus an Italian Marquesse and Nephew to Pope Paul the fiâ—t was converted by Peter Martyr reading on 1 Corinth and using an apt similitude Ministers must turn themselves into all formes and shapes both of spirit and of speech for the reaching of their hearers hearts they must come unto them in the most woing winning and convincing way that may be Onely in using of Similies they must 1. Bring them from things known and familiar things that their hearers are most acquainted with and accustomed to Thus the Prophets draw comparisons from fishes to the Egyptians vineyards to the Jews droves of cattle to the Arabians trade and traffique to the Egyptians And thus that great Apostle 1 Cor. 9 24. fetcheth Similies from runners and wrestlers exercises that they were well acquainted with in the Isthmian Games instituted by Thesus not far from their city 2. Similies must be very naturall plain and proper 3. They must not be too far urged we must not wit-wanton it in using them and let it be remembred that though they much illustrate a truth yet Theologia parabolica nihil probat There are â—nterpreters of good note that read this whole verse in the future tense and make a continuation of that promise in the verse afore I will speak by the Prophets sc in the dayes of the Gospel when great was the company of those that published it Psal 68.11 I will multiply visions See this fulfilled Acts 2.17 with Joel 2.28 I will use similitudes teach in parables and illustrate therewith grave sentences and doctrines as Christ and his Apostles did and as the best Preachers still do that they may thereby set forth things to the life and make them as plain as if written with the Sun-beams Verse 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead What in Gilead a city of Priests See chap. 6. ver 8. with the Note yea Gilead is a city of those that work iniquity a very Poneropolis a place of naughty-packs chap. 4.15 Now there is not a worse creature on earth then a wicked Priest nor a worse place then a wicked Gilead The Hebrew hath it thus Is Gilead iniquity Or as Luther Drusius and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certè verè profectè Surely it is so Confer Mich. 1.5 Gregory Nazianzen reports of Athens that it was the plaguiest place in the world for superstition Our
once said Judg. 9.29 Vbi est Rex tuus ubinam nunc servit te c. Where is the king where is he let him now save thee in all thy cities so Polanus rendreth it Can they save thee who cannot save themselves It is a Sarcasticall concession See the like Deut. 32.37 38. Judg. 10.4 Am. 4.4 And observe that Gods to deride and insult over men in their carnall confidence and his people are licenced to do so too so it be out of pure zeal Psal 52.6 7. and not out of private revenge and thy judges Or chief Officers Princes that are necessary to a King and are called his Comites cousins and counsellours whereof thou saidst and wast set upon it thou wouldst needs have them contra gentes as they say and hadst soon enough of them Strong affections bring strong afflictions Give me a king and princes It was partly their ambition and partly discontent with the present government as the present is alwayes grievous that prompted them to this request 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd. and they had it but for a mischief It is not alwayes in mercy that prayers are answered for Deus saepe dat iratus quod negat propitius God oft throwes that to his enemies when they are over-importunate which he denies to his friends in great mercy to their souls They do best that acknowledging him the onely wise God pray Not our but thy will be done c. Verse 11. I gave thee a king in mine anger As once before he gave them Quails to choak them A king that is all those kings they had since they fell off from the house of David These were Gods gifts but giftlesse-gifts which hee cast upon them in his anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a punishment both of the sinnes of Davids ho use and likewise of the peoples rebellion It was ab irato potius quam ab exorato Deo Take him saith He sith you will needs have him with all that shall follow after The hypocrite shall raigne that the people may ensnared Job 34.30 Set thou a wicked man over him saith the Psalmist and let Satan stand at his right hand Psal 109.6 See Dan. 8.23 Saul was an hypocrite Jeroboam a wicked man so were all his successours in that Throne Levit. 26.17 it is written as an heavy curse of God If you still trespasse against me I will set Princes over you that shall hate you mischievous odious princes odious to God malignant to the people and took him away in my wrath Heb. In mine immoderate wrath that passed the bounds This is spoken of God after the manner of men for he cannot exceed or over-do fury is not in him Esay 27.4 but here he threateneth to take away king and kingdome together as he did Hosea by the Assyrian that carried them all captive Observe here that better a bad Magistrate then none for this latter is the fruit of Gods utter indignation Those Anabaptists that from this Text inferred that no Christian can with a good conscience take upon him kingly dignity should have observed that as an evil king is reckoned as a plague to a people so a good king is to be held a speciall blessing to them Verse 12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up sc in a bundle or fardle or fagot as the French hath it And like as all fardles are opened on a Fair-day so shall Ephraims iniquities be brought to light and punished at the last day As the housholder bindeth up the tares in bundles at harvest and burneth them so shall it be in the end of the world The Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire c. Matth. 13.30 41 42. As the Clark of Assizes bindes up the inditements of malefactours in bundles or seals them up in a bag for more surety and at the Assizes brings his bag takes them out and reads them so will it be at that last and great day My transgression is sealed up in a bag saith Iob and thou sowest up mine iniquity viz. as the writings or informations of a processe which is ready to be sentenced See Deut. 32.34 Ier. 17.1 Hos 9.9 Sinners shall one day know that Gods for bearance is no quittance Job 14. ◠that however he is silent for a season and thereupon they are apt fondly to conceit him to be such another as themselves yet He will confute them and set their sins in order before their eyes Psal 50.21 Their actions are already in print in heaven and God will one day read them aloud in the ears of all the world And then though their sinne be hid for present all shall out to their utter shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 that last light of the day of wrath shall reveal all Rom. 2.5 punish all Hos 9.9 Whatever God hath threatned shall then be inflicted whatever arrowes are in the bow-string shall then flee and hit and stick deep And the longer the Lord is in drawing the heavier they will light Morae dispendium foenoris duplo pensabitur the longer He forbeareth the heavier He punisheth So that there shall be no cause why sinners should say Where is the God of judgement Mal. 2.17 See the Note God will enquire after their iniquity and search after their sin Iob 10.6 Verse 13. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him This Common-wealth was before compared to a mother chap. 1. 3. And as a woman that hath conceived is not for a while discerned to be with child till she biggen and burnish and grow near her time so is it with sinners see it elegantly set forth by S. Iames chap. 1.14 15. The sorrows of a travailing woman are known to be unexpected exquisite and inevitable so shall Gods judgements be upon the workers of iniquity such as they shall never be able to avert to avoid or to abide This is set forth by an apt similitude ordinary in holy Scripture Mic. 4.9 10. Psal 48.7 Ier. 49.29 and 50.43 c. And whereas some might say A travailing woman is soon delivered her pain is sharp but short she hath hope not onely of an end but of a birth the joy whereof maketh her remember her anguish no more Ioh. 16.21 The Prophet replieth that it is otherwise with Ephraim he is an unwise sonne that will be the death both of his mother and of himself He hath no list to help himself and to get free of the straights and petils of the birth by passing thorow the narrow womb of Repentance and being born anew God stands over him stretching out his hands all the day long to do a midwives office to take him out of the womb as Psal 22.9 to cut his navell and wash off his blood to salt him and swaddle him as Ezek. 16.4 but he hath no minde
brothers of love Epicurus his hoggs they might better tearme them saith the Historian Bellarm. lib. 2. de Monach. cap. 5. The Papists would prove their Monkes to be Christian Nazarites but the abolishing of that order is declared Act. 21.25 and Monks are so farr from the abstinence of the Nazarites that they eat of the best and drink of the sweetest that Sea and Land can afford So farr also from the singular sanctimony of the Nazarites whereof see Lam. 4.7 that the Poet sung truly of them Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet Effraenis Monachus They may better professe themselves successors to the Scribes Pharisees who may seem saith One to have fled and hid themselves in the Monks and friers Vitae sanctimonia voâ—o singulari ab aliis Separati Now the Pharisees pretended to succeed the ancient Nazarites as their very name imports but they were as likewise the Popish Monks a generation never instituted by God nor brought in by the Prophets but only a humane invention and through their own boldnesse whence Chemnitius upon the tenth of Iohn takes theeves there to be the Pharisees An Interpreter here sheweth how God hath now made all his people Nazarites i. e. separated and sanctified unto himself by making them paterns of piety as the Rechabites holy harmelesse undesiled of dead works and evill works Eph. 5.18 1 Thess 5.22 Jude 23. from whom they are bid to stand off 1 Tim. 6.5 as also not to be drunk with wine wherein is excesse but to be filled with the Spirit abstaining from all appearance of evill hating the garment spotted with the flesh c. See the Notes on Numb 6. Is it not even thus O ye children of Israel If it be not testified against me as Mic 6.3 and if ye cannot then read the sentence against your selves Mat. 27.4 as Judas did that ye may appear to be subverted and self-condemned Tit. 3.11 God loveth to fetch witnesse from mens own consciences for the justifying his proceedings and to convince them cleerly that he is no way wanting to them but they to themselves A cunning carver can cut the similitude of any creature but not on a rotten stick What could god do more to his Vineyard then he had done Es 5. How oft would I have gathered thy children as an hen her chickens c. Mat. 23.27 How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Ier. 4.14 God is so farr from being guilty of Israels misery as that besides other undeniable arguments of his love as bringing them out of Egypt destroying the Amorite c. he had raised them up Prophets and Nazarites given them his word Sacraments all good helps to mollify their hearts and then appealeth to their consciences by this Rhetoricall interrogation Is it not even thus so to wring from them a confession of the truth in spite of their teeth Verse 12. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink Opponit jam Propheta pessimam gratiam c. saith Gualther Here was the ill requitall they made the Lord for all his benefits they corrupted his young Nazarites as Buzzards snatch up yong lapwings and silenced his Prophets or enjoyned them at least to meddle with toothlesse truths only to preach placentia threatening them if they did otherwise for so the Original importeth that so they might sin without controule and go to hell without hinderance This God heavily here complaines of as an horrible Ingratitude To render good for evill is divine good for good is humane evill for evill is brutish but evill for good is divelish Verse 13. Behold I am pressed under you c. A countrey comparison such as this Prophet is full of plaine but pithy to shew how God is pressed and oppressed with peoples sins wearied as it were Esay 43.24 and his patience even worn out so that he can forbeare them no longer Isay 42.14 but like a travelling woman that bites in her paine as long as she is able at length cryes out so here God hath much adoe to forbeare killing men in their sins as he was ready to have a blow at Moses when he met him in the Inne and could hardly hold his hands he even grones under the pressure as a cart seemes to do under an extraordinary loade laid on it till it creake and crack againe He seemes to screeke out to sinners as Jer. 44.4 Oh doe not this abominable thing And when he cannot be heard to sigh out Ah sinfull nation a people laden with iniquity c. Esay 1.4 as Fasciculus temporum Anno. 884. bitterly bewailing the iniquities of those times cries out Heu heu Domine Deus c. That ninth age is much complained of by many Waters God hath as much nay more cause to complaine of ours considering his paines with us and patience towards us to so little purpose and profit See the Note on Mal. 1.1 many Interpreters make these words not a complaint but a communication rendring it thus I will presse or straighten your place as a cart full of sheaves presseth sc either the ground whereon it goeth or the corn which it thresheth out of the husk Esa 28.27 28. or as the creature that lieth under the wheeles of it is crusht in pieces It was a memorable saying of Mr. Bradford Martyr He that will not tremble in threatening shall be crusht in peeces in feeling These perverse Israelites would not be warned by any threatening therefore they were pressed to some purpose in that sore famine and straight siege of Samaria Obsidione vos premam saith the Chalde here Samariana I will so beleaguer your city that there shall be no escaping Look how a laden cart onustum sibi so laden that another sheaf can hardly be laid on so sticks in straight places that it can neither go forward nor backward so will I bring you into those distresses that you shall not know how to avoid or abide them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confer Psal 4.2 Prov. 4.12 2 Cor. 4.8 I will distresse my distressers and presse with such piercing afflictions as shall make you sigh and screech out another while Oh it is an evil thing and a bitter to forsake the Lord c. Jer. 2.19 Oh he is worse then mad that would buy the sweetest sin at so deare a rate Verse 14. Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift men are apt to blesse themselves when God curseth Deut. 29.19 and to bind upon impurity in a common calamity to make faire weather when such a tempest is up as shall never be blown over Or if worse come then as all creatures run to their refuges Prov. 30.25 Psal 104.18 Prov. 18.11 Dan. 4.14.11 Judg. 9.50 51. the hunted hare runns to the forme to the bushes that she formerly haunted but now those cannot save her so men in misery bethink themselves of and betake themselves to creature-comforts and refuges either naturall or artificiall as here but
some ignorant pesant when he seeth his fowls bathing in his pond should cry out of them as the causes of foul weather Verse 8. The lion hath roared who will not fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesie Who that knoweth the terrour of the Lord can dare to do otherwise when he commandeth it Shall men fear fire water bears lions c. and not the great and terrible God If he roar upon his servants and say as to Jeremy he once did Thou therefore gird up the loynes of thy minde and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee before them We must roar against mens sinnes and bee instant Jer. 1.17 though they roar against us for so doing and threaten never so much Micaiah will not budge for a Kings authority when once he had seen the Lord in his Majestie nor Paul for an Angels Gal. 1. the rest of the Apostles for the Sanhedrims Acts 4.19 5.25 c. When the Emperour threatned Basil with imprisonment banishment death he answered Let him threaten boyes with such fray-bugs I am resolved neither menaces nor flatteries shall silence me or draw me to betray a good cause or conscience If I deal not plainly and faithfully with your souls said Bernard Bern. de tempore 99. Vobis erit damnosum mihi periculosum Timeo itaque damnum vestrum timeo damnationem ineam si tacuero i. e. it will be ill for you and worse for mee The truth is you would be betrayed and I should be damned if I should hold my peace Let me be accounted proud pragmaticall any thing Luth. ep ad Staple rather then found guilty of sinfull silence when the Lord calleth me to speak saith Luther These were men whose hearts were fraught with the reverentiall fear of God and therefore found themselves necessitated to bee faithfull besides the love of Christ constraineth them 2 Cor. 5.14 so that they could do no lesse they could not but speak c. Act. 4.19 Verse 9. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod c. that is in the courts of the Philistin-princes and of the Egyptian kings who are here attested and invited to judge betwixt God and his vineyard to passe an impartiall sentence and to say whether Israels sinnes deserved not all the judgements that God by his Prophets had denounced yea and greater too Holy Ezra acknowledgeth as much chap. 9.13 But because that many were ready to say as those in Jeremy Jer. 2.35 Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me behold I will plead with thee saith the Lord because thou sayest I have not sinned Yea thy sworn-enemies shall give true evidence against thee and judge of the justice of my proceedings with thee that I may be justified and every mouth stopped Assemble your selves upon the mountains of Samaria that there-hence ye may be eye-witnesses and have a full prospect of their leudnesse which will be to you a pleasant spectacle that out of their tragedies you may frame comedies Samaria was a city set upon an hill and as it self so its wickednesse could not be hid Carnall people are very inquisitive into the miscarriages of professours and ready to search more narrowly thereinto then Laban did into Jacobs stuff What a jear made Ammianus Marcellinus of the pride and luxury of some of the primitive Bishops Averroes of the Papists Breaden-god the Turks of the Papists Asinus palmaris the Jews of their clipping the crucifix and weeping over it in the Pulpit as also the swearing that is so common amongst Protestants together with that mad conceit of some that he that cannot swear with a grace Profectò aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici wanteth his tropes and figures befitting a Gentleman This and such like unchristian practises made learned Lineker when he read Christs Sermon in the Mount cry out Certainly either this is not Gospel or we are but bad Gospellers It is a lamentable thing that it should be commonly reported that there be such abominations found in the Church as are hardly heard of among the Heathen 1 Cor. 5.1 pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Why should it be told in Gath or published in the palaces of Ashdod 2 Sam. 1.20 why should Egyptians condemn Israelites as the Scythians once did the Greeks and the heathen Indians now do the beastly Spaniards that tyrannize over them Why should there be any successours to those Hereticks mentioned by Bellarmine and called Christianocategori Accusers of Christians because by their unchristian conversation they delivered up Christ and his people to bee buffetted De Eccles triumph l. 2. c. 11. and spitted on by their enemies See the Note on Hos 7.16 This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt and behold the great tumults Or the humming-noises the garboiles the violent irruptions upon the poor oppressed causing them to cry out as those that are crushed or broken in peeces and the oppressed in the middest thereof whether by force or fraud oppressed whether it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is the avenger of all such 1 Thes 4.6 This the Heathen shall take speciall notice of and say with Calocerius the Conful Verè magnus est Deus Christianorum The Christians God is a righteous God indeed Verse 10. For they know not to do right They have done wrong so long together against knowledge and conscience that now they are given up to a reprobate sense to an injudicious minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. having sinned away that light they had and lost that little knowledge they had learned out of the law of Moses concerning good works this they have wickedly blotted out of their own minds as also those common notions of good and evill that glimmering of divine light left in the naturall man this in a defiled conscience is wholy extinct Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge No not they as appeares by what followes they eat up my people as they eat bread Psal 14.4 These Cannibals like pickrels in a pond or sherkes in the sea devoure the poorer as they the lesser fishes And though they cannot but know this to be evill condemned by the light of nature and much more of scripture yet they do it and will do it their eyes being put out with the dust of covetousnesse and their hearts so exercised therewith 2 Pet. 2.14 that they can say as that wretched fellow did We are masters of our consciences we can do what we will for all them and as Balaam resolved at length to curse whatever came of it who store up violence and robbery in their palaces Till the screech-owles of woe cry aloud from the wals and the beames out of the timber make answer Hab. 2.11.12 till their cursed boards of
incompleat it was an imperfect thing the better part of it was yet wanting Next that till that chare were done he could not be at peace within himself he could not be quiet for vowes are debts and debts till they be payed are a burden to an honest minde and do much disease it Salvation is of the Lord. Salus omnimoda as the Hebrew word having one letter more then ordinary in it importeth Jeshugnathah all manner of salvation full and plentifull deliverance is of the Lord who is therefore called the God of salvation unto whom belong the issues from death Psal 68.20 A quo vera salus non aliunde venit This Ionah speaketh as he doth all else in this holy Canticle not by reading or by rote but out of his own feeling and good experience his whole discourse was digg'd out of his own breast as it is said of that most excellent 119. Psalme that it is made up altogether of experiments and it therefore hath verba non legenda sed vivenda words not so much to be read as lived as One said once of it Dives thought that if one went from the dead to warne his wicked brethren they would never be able to resist such powerfull Rhetorick Behold here is Ionah raised from the dead as it were and warning people to arise and stand up from dead courses and companies that Christ may give them light why do they not then get up and be doing at it that the Lord may be with them Shall not the men of Nineveh rise up in judgement with this evil generation and condemn them because they repented at the preaching of Jonas Mat. 12.41 but these do not though they have many Jonas's that both preach and practise non verbis solum praedicantes sed exemplis as Eusebius saith Origen did that live sermons and not teach them onely Verse 10. Dci dicere est facere Aug. And the Lord spake unto the fish He spake the word and it was done He is the great Centurion of the world that saith to his creature Do this and hee doth it Yea he is the great great Induperator to whom every thing saith Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quà m posse necesse esse Lucan I am wholly at thy beck and check Jonah spake to God and God to the fish It may be said of faithfull prayer that it can do whatsoever God himself can do sith he is pleased to yeeld himself overcome by the prayers of his people and to say unto them cordially as Zedekiah did to his Courtiers colloguingly The king is not he that can deny you any thing Prayer is of that power that it can open the doors of Leviathan as wee see here which yet is reckoned as a thing not feisible Iob 41.14 yea of the all-devouring grave Heb. 11.35 If the Lord pricked on by the prayers of his people set in hand to save them and shall say to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back bring my sonnes from farre and my daughters from the ends of the earth Esay 43.6 they shall come amain and none shall be able to hinder them Come therefore with those good souls in Hosea who had smarted for their folly as well as Ionah and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn Hos 6.1 2. and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up After two dayes will he revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight A time we must have to be in the fire in the fishes belly as in Gods Nurturing-house but hee will take care that wee be not there overlong what 's two or three dayes to eternity Hold out faith and patience Yet a very little little while Heb. 10. and hee that shall come will come and will not tarry and it vomited up Ionah upon the dry land And here Death was defeated and wiped it was much more so when it had swallowed up Christ Quantum in devoratione mors laetata est tantum luxit in vomitu Hieron and little dreamt that it self should have been thereby swallowed up in victory But then was fulfilled that of the Prophet O death I will be thy death And as there so here in a proportion and as a type omnia jam inversa saith Mercer all things are turned t'other way Before the fish was an instrument of death now of life and serves Jonah for a ship to bring him to dry land This fish useth not to come neer the shore but to sport in the great waters howbeit now he must by speciall command vomit up Ionah upon the dry land Why then should it be thought a thing incredible with any that God should raise the dead The Sea shall surely give up the dead that were in it and death and hell deliver up the dead that were in them Acts 26. S. Sen. Nat. quaest l. 3. c. 26 27 28 29 30. and they shall be judged every man according to his works Rev. 20.13 This some of the Heathens beleeved as Zoroastres Theopompus and Plato And the Stoikes opinion was that the world should one day be dissolved by fire or water and all things brought to a better state or to the first golden age again But we have a more sure word of Prophesie and this that is here recorded may serve as an image and type of our preservation in the grave and our resurrection from the dead by one and the same Almighty power of God CHAP. III. Verse 1. AND the word of the Lord came unto Ionah the second time Ionah is a sinner but not a cast-away God layes him not by as a broken vessel treads him not to the dung-hill as unsavoury salt but receives him upon his return by repentance and restores him to his former employment gives him yet a name and a nail in his house yea sends him a second time on his message to Nineveh and counting him faithfull puts him again into the ministery who was before a runagate a rebel c. But he obtained mercy c. 1 Tim. 1.13 as did likewise the Apostles after that they had basely deserted our Saviour at his passion and Peter after he had denied him See Ioh. 20.22 23. and 21.15 16 17. Quem poenite peccasse poenè est innocens Sen Agam. The poenitent are as good as innocent Return ye back-sliding children saith the Father of mercies and I will heal your back-slidings Ier. 3.22 The Shulamite returning is as lovely in Christs eye as before and all is as well as ever betwixt them Cant. 6.4 There is a naturall Novatianisme in the timerous conscience of convinced sinners to doubt and question pardon for sinnes of Apostasie and falling after repentance But had they known the gift of God and who it is that saith to them Be of good cheer thy sinnes are forgiven thee they would have conceived strong consolation Verse
prayer of his chap. 6.8 9. See also Jer. 20.7 8. I pray thee O Lord was not this my saying c. that is my thought for whether he worded it thus with God till now it appeareth not but God heareth the language of mens hearts and their silence to him is a speaking evidence when I was yet in my countrey And had Jonah so soon forgotten what God had done for him since he came thence Oh what a grave is oblivion and what a strange passage is that and yet how common Then beleeved they his words they sang his praise They soon forgat his works they waited not for his counsel Psal 106.12 13. Jonah did not surely wait for Gods counsel but anteverted it Idcirco anteverti saith he in the next words Therefore I fled before and thought hee had said well spoke very good reason It is the property of lust and passion so to blear the understanding of a man that he shall think he hath reason to be mad and that there is great sence in sinning Dogs in a chafe bark at their owne masters so do people in their passions let flie at their best friends They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh thorow the earth Psal 73.9 Ionah in his heat here justifieth his former flight which he had so sorely smarted for Et quasi quidam Aristarchus he taketh upon him to censure God for his superabundant goodnesse which is above all praise For I knew that thou art a gracious God and mercifull c. This He knew to be Gods name Exod. 34.6 7. but withall he should have remembred what was the last letter in that Name viz. that he will by no means clear the guilty See Nahum 1.2 3. The same fire hath burning heat and chearfull light Gracious is the Lord but yet righteous saith David Psal 116.5 his mercy goes ever bounded by his truth This Jonah should have considered and therefore trembled thus to have upbraided God with that mercy by which himself subsisted and but for which he had been long since in hell for his tergiversation and peevishnesse But mercy rejoyceth against judgement and runneth as a spring without ceasing Jam. 2. It is not like those pools about Jerusalem that might be dried up with the tramplings of horse and horse-men The grace of God was exceeding abundant 1 Tim. 1.14 It hath abounded to flowing-over as the Sea doth above the hugest rocks See this in the present instance Jonah addeth sinne to sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth enough to undo himself for ever so that a man would wonder how God could forbear killing him as hee had like to have done Moses when he met him in the Inne But He is God and not man he contents himself to admonish Jonah of his fault as a friend and familiar velut cum eo colludens jesting with him as it were and by an outward signe shewing him how grievously he had offended Mercer Concerning these Attributes of God here recited see the Note on Joel 2.13 and say with Austin Laudent alij pietatem Dei ego misericordium Let no spider suck poison out of this sweetest flower nor out of a blind zeal make ill use of it as Jonah doth for a cloke of his rebellion lest abused mercy turn into fury Verse 3. Threfore now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me A pitifull peevish prayer such as was that of Job and that of Jeremy above noted to which may be added Sarah's hasty wish for God to arbitrate betwixt her and her husband Moses his quibling with God till at length he was angry Exod. 4.10 14. Eliah's desire to die out of discontent c. What a deal of filth and of flesh clogs and cleaves to our best performances Hence David so prayes for his prayers and Nehemiah for pardon of his reformations Anger is ever an evil counsellour but when it creeps into our prayes it corrupts them worse then vinegar doth the vessel wherin it standeth Submit your selves therefore to God as Ionah should have done resist this devil of pride and passion and he will flee from you Jam. 4.7 as by giving place to impatiency ye give place to the Devil Eph. 4.26 who else by his vile injections or at least by his vain impertinencies will so flie-blow and marre our duties that we may well wonder they are not cast back as dirt into our faces Sure it is that if the holy Ghost had not his hand in our prayers there would not be the least goodnesse in them no not uprightnesse and truth without which Christ would never present them or the Father accept them for it is better for me to die then to live sc in that disgrace that I shall now undergo of being a false prophet not henceforth to be believed Lo this was it that troubled the man so much as it did likewise Moses Exod. 4.1 They will not believe me for they will say The Lord hath not appeared unto thee But God should have been trusted by them for that and his call obeyed howsoever without consults or disputes carelesse of their own credit so that God might be exalted True it is that a man had better die with honour then live in disgrace truly so called It were better for me to die 1 Cor. 9.15 saith holy Paul then that any man should make my glorying void Provident we must be but not over-tender to preserve our reputation learning of the unjust steward by lawfull though he did by unlawfull means to do it for our Saviour noted this defect in the children of light that herein they were not oft so wise as they should be Luke 16.8 But Ionah was too heady and hasty in this wish of his death because his credit as he thought was crackt and he shoulld be lookt upon as a lyar But was the Euge of a good conscience nothing to him was Gods approbation of no value nor the good esteem of his faithful people It was enough for Demetrius that he had a good report of the truth 3 Iohn 12. what ever the world held or said of him What is the honour of the world but a puffe of stinking breath and why should any Jonah be so ambitious of it as that without it he cannot find in his heart to live Life is better then honour Joseph is yet alive saith Jacob. To have heard that Joseph lived a servant would have joyed him D. Hall Cont. more then to heare that he died honourably The greater blessing obscureth the less He is not worthy of honour that is not thankfull for life St. Pauls desire to be dissolved that he might be with Christ which is farr farr the better Phil. 1.3 was much different from this of Jonah Vers 4. Doest thou do well to be angry Or what art thou very angry Nunquid rectè Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgement and see whether there be a cause
the rebellious Iewes that God stileth them his people Doth he not elsewhere disclaim them and call them a sinful nation a people laden with iniquity the people of his wrath and of his curse May not all Formalists fear Jacobs fear Gen. 27.12 My father peradventure will feel me and I shall seem to him as a deceiver and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Our heavenly Father will surely feel us in our addresses and if he find us but complementing and contenting our selves to be called the house of Jacob he will confute our vain confidences and cut us out of the roll as he did Dan and Ephraim who were named the house of Jacob and yet for their wickednesse are passed by in the reckoning up of the twelve tribes Rev. 7. as if they were souldiers put out of pay and cashiered Is the spirit of the Lord straitned or shortned Is he a penny-father hath he but one blessing Mal. 2.15 Is there not with him the residue of the spirit plenteous redemption an exceeding abundant goodnesse even to a superpleonasme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.14 Where then is the fault that you are no more Jacob-like plain-hearted and perswasible that ye refuse to be reformed hate to be healed saying to me Depart and to my Prophets Drop not c. Neither curse ye nor blesse ye as he said to Balaam wherein if they should hearken to you and be ruled by you yea should you straitly threaten them with bonds to speak henceforth to no man in my name as Act. 4.17 yet my word is not bound 2 Thess 3.1 2 Tim. 2.9 but runs and is glorified my spirit is not straitned but is free and not fettered I tell you that if these Prophets should hold their peace Luk. 19.40 and not drop the stones would immediatly cry out which against change of weather do stand with great drops of water to confute your unyeeldingnesse Turn ye therefore now at my reproof behold I will turn out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Prov. 1.23 I will do it howsoever yea in despite of you I will do it as some sense the foregoing verse reading it thus and the original will bear it Drop ye not but they shall drop Are these his doings i.e. Such as God doth approve of or rather are these Jacobs doings tread you in the steps of your father Jacob did he ever silence the Prophets and withstand those that were sent unto him Did he not rather lie low put his mouth in the dust and crie out speak Lord for thy servant heareth Good is the word of the Lord which ye have spoken c. And whereas ye will be apt enough to replie that Iacob had no other cause for the Prophets never spake but good and comfortable things to him it is answered in the next words Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Heb. upright that pondereth his paths by the weights of my word and turneth not to the right hand nor to the left Pro. 4.26 27. but walketh exactly accurately and precisely Eph. 5.15 keeping within my precincts c. Do not my words do good to such and speak they not peace to him David felt it as sweet as honey Ps 119.103 But as honey causeth pain to exulcerate parts though of it self it be sweet and medicinal so doth the word of God to exulcerate consciences Children though they love to lick in honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al. Aphrod Probl. yet they will not endure to have it come neer their lips when they have sore mouths so is it here Excellently saith Saint Austin Adversarius est nobis quamdiu sumus ipsi nobis c. The word of God is adversary to none but such as are their own greatest adversaries c. It may well be compared to Moses rod which whiles he held it in his hand it flourished and brought forth almonds but being cast on the ground it turned into a serpent Did it not take hold of those refractaries Zech. 1.6 that would not take hold of Gods covenant and chuse the things that pleased him Esay 56.4 Doth it not still sting wicked people with unquestionable conviction and horrour when as great peace have they which love Gods law Psal 119.165 and nothing shall offend them Vers 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy Heb. yesterday no longer ago to all their former flagitious practises they have now newly added this of execrable rapine and robbery which is still fresh and as it were flagrant in mine eyes Although the truth is that God looketh upon former sins as presently committed for as there is no beginning of eternity so neither is there any succession But let men take heed how they heap up sin lest they heap up wrath for although God may bear with people for one or two out-strayes yet when once it comes to three transgressions and to four he will not turn away the punishment Am. 1.2 and one new sin may set many old awork in the conscience making it like Ezekiels scroul Ezek. 2.12 wherein was written lamentations and mourning and woe Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons saith the Lord 2 Kin. 9.26 The word signifieth last night though it were done some while before See the word yesterday so used by the Apostle Hebraizing with his Hebrews Chap. 15.8 Some read the text thus He that was yesterday my people is risen up on the other side as against an enemy viz. raging against God and ranging against all men biting all they come aneer as mad dogs See Esay 9.21 1 Thess 2.15 they please not God but rise up in rebellion against him and are contrary to all men being rather Ismaelites then Israelites Gen. 16.12 and therefore not rightly named the house of Jacob that plain man Gen. 25.27 without welt or gard guile or gall nor could the word of the Lord do good unto them so long as their deeds were evil and they loved darknesse rather then light Joh. 3.19 Ye pull off the robe with the garment Robbing and pillaging passengers with greatest inhumanity not leaving them a rag to cover them or a crosse to blesse them with as the proverb is This was common in Scotland and Africa saith Daâ—â—â— here It was in England also till the dayes of king Alfred who first divided the land into shires and then the subjects into tenths or Tithings every of which severally should give bond for the good a bearing of each other c. Heyl. Geog. 474. By this course men were not careful onely of their own actions but had an eye to all the nine for which they stood bound as the nine had over each Insomuch that a poor girle might travel safely with a bag of gold in her hand and none durst meddle with her from men that passe by securely as
the Electour of Saxony he rightly answered Because he meddleth with the Popes tripple crown and with the Friars fat paunches Verse 9. Therefore night shall be unto you Ye shall be benighted your gifts blasted and your persons baffled your lamp shall be put out in obscure darknesse the sword shall be upon your arms and upon your right eyes your arms shall be clean dried up Zech. 11.17 and your right eyes utterly darkened Those illuminations and inspirations that ye seemed to have shall be taken from you and God shall passe that dreadfull sentence Take the talent from him even here in this life let him not have the least dram or drop of a prophetick Spirit of ministeriall abilities and then in the next world cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darknesse c. Mat. 25.28.30 and it shall be dark unto you that ye shall not divine Tenebrae vobis à divinatione vel propter divinationem so Calvin All the reward ye shall have for your divination shall be disgrace and confusion your folly shall be manifest unto all men as was that of Jannes and Jambres 2 Tim. 3.9 And the Sun shall goe down over the Prophets The same thing is set forth by sundry Metaphors for more assurance for Hypocritis nihil stupidius it is hard to perswade an hypocrite that evill is toward him see ver 11. Verse 7. Then shall the Seers be ashamed and the diviners confounded They shall be hissed and hooted at for Impostour and falsaries shame shall be the promotion of these fooles as it is at this day of the Heathen Philosophers of the Iewish Rabbins of the Popish Doctours and Schoole-men who once caried the bell for most acute and accurate Divines but now appear to be great triflers a rotten generation of dunghil-divines as one stileth them in detestation of whose vain jangling and doting about questions 1 Tim. 6.4 Luther saith Luth. tom 1. oper lat ep 47. Prope est-ut jurem c. I could swear almost that there was not a Schoolman that understood one chapter of the Gospel Latimer professed that by hearing Bilneys confession he learned more then afore in many yeares So from that time forward saith He Act. Mon. 917 I began to smell the word of God and forsake the School-doctours and such fooleries yea they shall all cover their lips And stand aloof as lepers See Lev. 13.45 Ezek. 24.17 22. Or they shall leave off their lying for I will stop their mouthes Ego illis os claudam Calv. that they shall not hereafter so much as mute any more The Septuagint render it All men shall abhorre them shall open their lips against them Montanus involuent mysta cem suam they shall wrap up their mustachoes which saith à Lapide the false Prophets wore upon their upper-lip incedebant comptuli and went neatly trimmed as do now the Calvinistical Ministers But if some do so yet this is better then the Popish priests shaving which is a ceremony so bald that some Priests in France are ashamed of the mark and few of them have it that can handsomly avoid it for there is no answer of God He comes not at them as sometimes he did to Abimelech Laban Balaam neither speake they according to his word for why there is no light in them Es 8.20 The Philosophers professing themselves to be wise but wanting the wiâ—dome from above became fooles Rom. 1.22 The Pharisees had they known any thing aright and as they ought they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 Oracles they had and miracles enow but they rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized Luke 7.30 or if they were yet remained they a viperous brood Mat. 3. and never attained to that answer of a good conscience toward God 1 Pet. 3.21 The Schoolmen often cite the Philosophers Lombard Passim seldome the Apostles they count the authority of Fathers as good as that of Scriptures neither doubt they to call the writings of the Eathers by the name of Scripture Was not this to set mens threshold by Gods threshold and their posts by his posts Ezek. 43.8 what marvel therefore though they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened while they taught for doctrines mens traditions what marvell though Popish fopperies once so admired be now so much slighted since the world seeth further into them then formerly Notable is that passage in K. Henry the eights protestation against the Pope England is no more a babe there is no man here but now he knowes that they do foolishly that part with gold for lead c. Surely except God take away our right wits not only the Popes authority shall be driven out for ever Act. Mon. 990. but his name also shortly shall be forgotten in England We will from henceforth ask counsell of him and his when we list to be deceived when we covet to be in errour when we desire to offend God Truth and honesty c. Ver. 8. But truely I am full of power But doth it become the Prophet thus to praise himself Laus proprio sordescit in ore and those who vaunt most have oft the least courage as those creatures who have the greatest hearts of flesh are the most timerous as the Stag Panther Hare c. For answer it must be considered that the Prophet speaketh not here of his own good parts out of a vain glorious humour it was enough for him that he was all glorious within Psal 45.13 virtusque suo contenta theatro est but to separate himself from those false prophets aforementioned and to assert his calling by his qualifications as doth likewise St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. to those who sought a proof of Christ speaking in him The word rendered But truly signifies All which notwithstanding q. d. Albeit there is such a generall defection from God and such unfaithfulnesse in the Prophets of these times yet I am full of power lively and lusty vigorous and vivacious by the spirit of the Lord That noble Spirit as David calleth him that spirit of power Psal 51. 2 Tim. 1.7 of love and of a sound mind as Paul that putteth spirituall mettle into the soule and steeleth it against all opposition And truely if the spirit put not vigour into us how dead and flat are our duties and all ordinances like liquor that hath lost its spirits there is as much difference many times as betwixt cold water and Aquavitae and of judgment to discern of things that differ to time a word as the Prophet Esay hath it Esa 50.4 and to teach things profitable and proper to my auditours not as He in the Emblem that gave straw to the dog and a bone to the Asse or as those false Prophets who spake good of evill and evill of good and wisely to distinguish betwixt law and Gospel in praxi Gratias agat Deo
paraphrasâ—â—â— thus Although the Ninevites enjoy great peace and by peace are so mâ—â—â—plied that they are very numerous yet shall they be shorn and cut down Verse 13. For now will I break his yoke from off thee Lest the promised deliverance should be any whit doubted of the time when and the misery whence they should be delivered is here laid open God hath set the time of his peoples sufferings which shall be neither so little a while as they would â—or so long as the enemy would Hold out faith and patience deliverance is at next doore by and will burst thy bonds in sunder By yoke and bonds here understund those Tributes which the Assyrians called out by Ahaz imposed upon the kingdome of Judah 2 King 18. God promiseth them here their ancient liberty which was soon after this recovered under Hezâ—kiah who trusting in God and reforming religion rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him no longer Shortly after also the Persians destroyed Nineveh dealt more gently with the captive Jews and gave them good leave to return home again as many as had a mind to it Ezr. 1.4 2 Chron. 36. Verse 14 And the Lord hath given a commandement sc to his upper and lower forces for he is Lord of Hosts Commander in Chief of all creatures against thee O Sennacherib devoted to destruction for thine intolerable pride and cruelty God resisteth the proud Iam. 4.6 he setteth himself in battell-array against him as the word signifieth commanding all his creatures to fall on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no wonder For whereas all other vices flee from God pride alone fleeth in his face casteth down the gauntlet of defiance and maketh head against him Hence his hatred of a proud person that no more of thy name be sown i. e. that no more children be born to thee so Lyra expounds it that thy posterity perish so Gualther This must needs bee grievous to proud and ambitious persons who promise themselves a kind of immortality here in their posterity and that there shall be a perpetuall succession of their name in this world Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever they call their lands after their own names Psal 49.11 But their lamp shall be put out in obscure darknesse Prov. 20.20 there shall be Nullus cui lampada tradant Others sense the Text thus Thou shalt no more be talked of but the memory of thy name shall bee utterly extinct The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth Psal 34.16 See Esay 10.12 13 c. Ier. 49.34 Sennacherib had done great exploits till he lifted up his hand against heaven he had been very victorious and famous but now lies wrapt up in the sheet of shame and is made an instance of divine vengeance even among the Heathen For so Herodotus telleth us that in Egypt there was Sennacheribs statue erected with his inscription Let whosoever looketh upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hero l 2. learn to fear God He lifted up himself against his Creatour and Father hee is therefore slain by his own children He thought to overturn the true service of God he is therefore slain at his idoll-worship He went about to destroy the house of God he is therefore destroyed in the house of his god Esay 37.38 Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image This those superstitious Heathens held a great losse a sore affliction It is reported of the people of the East-Indies in the Isle Zeylon that having an Apes tooth got from them which was a consecrated thing by them they offered an incredible masse of treasure to recover it What a noise made Micah after his Ephod and images Judg. 18.24 and Laban after his Teraphim Gen. 31. and the men of Ophrah for their altar and grove And what a price set Papifts on their pictures and trinkets Judg. 6.30 I will make thy grave sc Of thine idoll-temple polluted by thy slaughter therein and so converted into a sepulchre for thee There is a story but of no great authority that Sennacherib after his shamefull return out of Judea demanding of some about him what might bee the reason that the unresistable God of heaven so favoured the Jewish nation as he had found by sad experience Answer was given him that Abraham from whom they descended sacrificed unto him his onely sonne which purchased this protection to his progeny If that will win him saith he I will spare him two of my sonnes to procure him to be on my side Which Sharezzer and Adrammelech his sonnes hearing of prevented their own deaths by slaying him It is more likely that they laid wicked hands upon their father Castal Annot. either out of ambition or discontent for the losse of the Army Howsoever God made use of their cruelty for the just punishment of Sennacherib and is here therefore said to have commanded it After this cruell warre arose among Sennacheribs sonnes which were the utter overthrow of that nation In Cyropad and laid them open as a prey to the kings of Babylou as Xenophon writeth for thou art vile Worthlesse and weightlesse All wicked men are so be they never so great Psal 15.4 Dan. 11.21 In his estate shall stand up a vile person that is Antiochus Epiphanes the great king of Syria whom the Samaritans in flattery stiled The mighty god 'T is vertue onely that enobles Them that honour God he will honour but they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Contempt shall be their portion and with ignominy repreach Prov. 18.3 Here then the Prophet threateneth the same that Joel had done chap. 2.20 His stink shall come up and the ill savour shall come up becaue be hath done great things i. e he hath attempted to do them but was hindered from heaven God put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips and turned him back to Nineveh where within lesse then fifty dayes after he was slain by his two sonnes Tob. 1.23 and although his third sonne Asar-haddon reigned in his stead yet hee soon after lost both his life and his kingdome which was devolved to the Babylonians and all the royall race of Assyria was rooted out Verse 15. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him c. This Behold is as the sound of a trumpet before some Proclamation to bespeak attention Jerusalem is surrounded with mountains Psal 125.2 and on the mountains a voice may bee heard afarre off Pedes Evangelizantis Vulg. The feet of him that bringeth good tidings Or Of an Evangelist that brings news of Sennacheribs ruine but-especially of Satan subdued by Christ which is the summe of all the good news in theworld Luke 2.10 that publisheth peace Pacem omnimodam externall internall eternall peace of countrey and of conscience by Christ who is our peace It is usuall with the Prophets
31.23 and plentifully reward the proud doer A Prophet he is here stiled and a Seer and that 's all is said of him nothing of his pedegree or time of prophesying that the Word and not the man might be glorified Act. 13.47 Regis epistolis acceptis saith Gregory When a kings letters are brought to his subjects it is a ridiculous thing for them to enquire with what Pen they were written 't is the matter must be minded So here A Prophet Habakkuk was and is therefore to be received into our hearts if we look for a Prophets reward He received heavenly visions whereunto therefore we must not be disobedient Act. 26.19 That memorable sentence of his The just shall live by faith is more then once made use of by St. Paul in that weighty businesse of Justification Rom. 1.17 Gal. 3.11 which proves the Canonicall authority of this prophesie The precise time when it was uttered is not known In the dayes of Manasseh most think but some are of opinion in Josiah's time rather or not long before because he foretelleth the Babylonish captivity and seemeth to agree with Jeremy in many things Sure it is that this Prophet lived not after the captivity see verse 6.7 of this chapter as Epiphanius and Hierom would have it Hierem. in Prolog grounding upon those Apocryphal additions to Daniel which either are false or else there were two Habakkuks Vers 2. O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear Lo this is the confidence of a good conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 when it is parling with him by prayers and bold intercessions 1 Tim. 2.1 it dare plead as Jer. 12.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and interrogate as Rom. 8.33 34 35. Esay 63.15 and expostulate as David often when God seems to be asleep he wakes him when to delay he quickens him when to have lost his wonted kindnesse he finds it for him so doth Habakkuk here for he knew he might do it See his holy boldnesse beneath verse 12. and learn to continue instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 crying Quousque Domine Beza in vita How long Lord This was Mr. Calvias Motto ever in his mouth as Dâ—o gratias was in Austins even cry out unto thee of violence i. e. Of all sorts of hainous sinnes which I have long cryed out upon and sought by preaching and prayer to redresse but cannot so incorrigibly flagitious are they grown that I have now no other way left but to turn them over to thee with a Non convertentur They will not be converted Shall they still escape by iniquity In thine anger cast down the people O God Psal 56.7 and let them feel the power of thy wrath that will not submit to the scepter of thy kingdom Thus the holy Prophet Elias-like Rom. 11.2 Impendam expendar maketh intercession to God against Israel when once incorrigible uncurable for whose souls health he would have spent and been spent Verse 3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity c. These were Hazaiâ—s to Habakkuks eyes he could not see them with dry eyes he could not but vex his righteous soul from day to day as Lot did at Sodom with their unlawfull deeds 2 Pet. 2.8 privately committed as here in their common commerce and publikely as in the next words in Courts and Consistories for all was out of order and cause me to behold grievance Molestation and mischief done to those that would live peaceably in the land Confer Psal 7.14 16. and 94.20 and 55.11 to the poor that are fallen into their nets debts bonds and morgages Psal 10.9 It is as if the Prophet should say Why dost thou not punish these enormous practises but suffer evil-doers to abuse thy long-sufferance to thy dishonour Averroes the Philosopher drew an argument from Gods patience to deny his providence But what saith Austine Some wicked God punisheth here In Psal 30. lest his providence and but some lest his patience and promise of judgement should be called in question for spoâ—ling and violence are before me E regione mâ—i vastatio violentia so that I cannot look besides them I cannot but complain of them Elias and Jeremy were more passionate 1 King 19.4 10 14. Jer. 15.10 and 20.14 and there are that raise up strife and contention These are Satans seeds-men and kindle-coals He is an unquiet spirit and strives to make others so loves to fish in troubled waters doth all he can to set one man against another Greg. that hee may prey upon both as the Master of the pit suppeth upon the bodies of those cocks whom he hath set to kill one another Be not make-bates seeds-men of sedition Verse 4. Therefore the law is slacked Desluit lex An elegant Metaphor from the pulse which in a dying man beateth faintly The law is the pulse of the Common-wealth If it stirre not at all the Common-wealth is dead If it have but slow motion the Common-wealth is weak But if it keep an equall course the Common-wealth is in good constitution Lex lux the law is a light saith Solomon but the deluge of sin had well-nigh put out this light in Israel who was now grown in a manner lawlesse through long impunity and judgement doth never go forth Or it goeth not forth to the utmost Vsque ad finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to victory it is not carried on to a right upshot as the Septuagint and Latine render it for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous As a crown compasseth the head He surroundeth and circumventeth him to his hurt The children of this world are wiser in their generation c. The Midianites out witted the Israelites Num. 25.18 The Pharisees hemmed in our Saviour to ensnare him but were disappointed therefore wrong judgement proceedeth Distorted judgement So Ezek. 9.9 the city was full of Mutteh that is of mishpat din mitteh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Kimchi expoundeth it judgement turned from the biasse the ballance of justice was tilted on the one side 1 Tim. 5.21 A judge is to retaine the decency and gravity of the law to do nothing of partiality or popularity to proceed not according to opinion or appearance but as a just law is an heart without affection an eye without lust a minde without passion c. so should he Else wrong and wrested judgement will soon proceed to the prejudice of the righteous Verse 5. Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvelously Heb Wonder Wonder This is Gods answer to the former expostulation which he disliketh not but incourageth the rest of his people to the like holy boldnesse It containeth a promise to the Prophet and the rest that were like affected that he would shortly vindicate his glory and be avenged of the wicked though he bore long with them This that he may the better assure He proceedeth by an elegant Climax wherein his speech getteth ground and ariseth higher
5.10 she received not correction or disciplâ—ne as being incurable or incorrigible pining away in her iniquity Lev. 26.39 and not accepting the chastisement of her sin she trusted not in the Lord but knockt at the creatures doore for help in her distresse and made flesh her arme her heart departed from the Lord Ier. 17.5 This God taketh very ill Ier. 2.12.13 as he hath very great reason Confidence being the least and yet the best we can render to him for all his benefits she drew not neer to her God Though he were her God yet she gat as far from him as she could and like a wild beast would not be tamed nor managed by him Now if these be undoubted arguments of filthy and polluted State as surely they are what shall we think of our selves who are as deeply guilty as ever Jerusalem was in the promises what shall the Lord do or what shall he not do rather to a nation so incorrigibly flagitious so obliged so warned so shamelesly so lawlesly wicked Verse 3. Her Princes within her are roaring lions Roaring over the meaner sort and tearing them with their claws See the Notes on Mic. 3.1 2 3. her Iudges are evening-wolves c. See Hab. 1.8 This rapacity and bribery they had learned likely under Manasses and Amon and exercised under good Iosiah who either knew it not or could not redresse it Est ergo periculi plena reip forma quae ab uno dependet saith Gualther here And Tertullian telleth us Tert. Apol. that one speciall thing the Primitive Christians pray'd for the Emperour was that God would send him Senatum fidelem a faithfull Senate pious Councellours good under-officers Of Aurelians Councell it was said that by them the good Emperour who might know nothing but as they informed him was even bought and sold Alphonsus King of Arragon said that Princes were for this in a worse condition then other people because they could seldome heare the truth of things Augustus bitterly bewailed the death of Varus because now said he Grand Signi Serag 148. I have none about me that will deal truly with me The Grand Signior goes oft abroad that he may receive poor mens petitions and right them upon the greatest Bashawes who bewitcht by bribery have denied them justice And hence it hath been ever observed that few of his chief officers die in their bed These evening-wolves many times have not a morrow left them to gnaw the bones in Rodulphus Archb. of Canterb next after Anselm was surnamed Nugax for his jesting toying Verse 4. Her Prophets are light Rash headlong futilous debauched as the French translateth it aeriall fantasticall waightlesse worthlesse men such as in whose doctrine there is no authority in whose life no gravity staiednesse severity constancy like the planet Mercury they can be good in conjunction with good and bad with bad like that French Apostate of whom Beza saith that he had religionem ephemeram for every day a new religion ab his ad illos ab illis ad hos leviter iens levius transiens double-minded and unstable in all his wayes Jam. 1. and treacherous persons Viri perfidiaerum most perfidious persons This is their true title whom the world counteth and calleth facile facetious fair-conditioned comporting condescending people-pleasing preachers Can there be a worse treachery then to betray mens souls as your Aiones and Negones do that cry peace peace and so cozen men to hell her priests have polluted the sanctuary Or holy services Cum coelum terrae commiscent sacra profanis God looks to be sanctified in all those that draw nigh unto him Levit. 10.3 that they should be singularly holy handling the word sanctè magis quà m scitè as One once told the wanton Vestall and living so that malice it self may be silenced God of old appointed both the weights and measures of the sanctuarie to be twice as large as those of the Common-wealth to shew that hee expects much more of those that serve him there then he doth of others See 1 King 7.15 with 2 Chron. 3.15 they have done violence to the law sc by their crafty and perverse glosses setting it on the rack as it were and so making it speak more then it would tawing it with their teeth as shoomakers do their upper-leather forcing it two miles when it would go but one yea murthering it as Tertullian saith of some quod caedem scripturarum faciant that they slaughter the scriptures to serve their own purposes for which cause also he calleth Marcion the heretike Murem Ponticum the Rat of Pontus for his arroding and gnawing the text Verse 5. The just Lord is in the middest thereof The unjust Princes were said to be in the middest of Jerusalem as roaring lions vers 3. Here the just Lord is also said to be in the middest of her as a sin-revenging Judge He sitteth as God in the middest of those uncircumcised vice-gods as I may in the worst sence best terme them he sets a jealous eye upon all their unrighteous proceedings and is with them in the judgement Neither eyeth he them onely but all others in like sort as the king in the Gospel came in to see his guests His eye like a well-drawn picture taketh view of all that come into the room O that we could be in his fear all the day O that we would ever walk uin the sense of his presence and light of his countenance Nè pecces Deus ipse videt bonus Angelus astat c. Sinne not for God seeth thee the good Angels stand about thee Satan will accuse thee Noli peccare nam Deus videt Angeli astant diabolus accusabit conscientia testabitur Infernus cruciabit Conscience will give in evidence against thee Hell will torment thee A reverend and religious man had this written before his eyes in his study he will not do iniquity i. e. He will not let enormities go unpunished nor passe by the infirmities of his people without a sensible check Psal 99.8 See Hab. 1.13 Every morning doth he bring his judgement to light Daily and diligently doth He both threaten by his Prophets and execute with his hand the menaces of his mouth upon those that will not be warned that refuse to be reformed He hath in a readinesse to revenge all disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 Maturely he will do it and accurately It is his mornings work Psal 101.8 like as it is theirs to rise early and corrupt all their doings vers 7. He will be up and at it as soon as they he faileth not As he may seem to do when he forbeareth Non deest He will not be wanting to his office to proceed against the uncounsellable but the unjust knoweth no shame He can blush no more then a sackbut as the proverb is Such an impudency hath sinne woaded in his face that he basheth nothing Et pudet non esse impudentem he is past all
from a blind understanding and carnall affection The Church in its infancy was inticed with shewes and shadowes but now God requires a reasonable service he calls for spirit and truth Verse 4. Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel c. Here he exhorteth all ranks first to good Affection Be strong or of a good courage Secondly to good Action Work or Be doing for affection without action is like Rachel beautifull but barren Charach unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valeo Sept. vertunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be strong so as to prevaile and carry on the service all discouragements notwithstanding Those that will serve God in the maintenance of good causes must be couragious and resolute 1 Cor. 16.13 For otherwise they shall never be able to withstand the opposition that will be made either from carnall reason within or the World and Devill without for want of this spirituall mettle this supernaturall strength this spirit of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 4.7 opposed to the spirit of feare that cowardly passion that unmans us and expectorateth and exposeth us to sundry both sins and snares when he that trusteth in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29.25 Here then that we faulter not budge not betray not the cause of God nor come under his heavie displeasure who equally hateth the timerous and the treacherous let us 1. Be armed with true faith for Fides famem non formidat faith quelleth and killeth distrustfull feare 2. Get the heart fraught with the true feare of God for as one fire so one feare drives out another Mat. 10.28 1 Pet. 3.13 14. 1. Get and keep a clearing chearing conscience for that feareth no colours as we see in St. Paul Athanasius Luther Latimer and other holy Martyrs and Confessours 4. Think on Gods presence as here Be strong and be doing for I am with you Though David walk thorough the vale of the shadow of death that is of death in its most hideous and horrid representations he will not feare For why thou art with me saith He Psal 23.3 4. Dogs and other creatures will fight stoutly in their Masters presence 5. Consider your high and heavenly calling and say Et Turnum fugieutem haec terra videbit Virg. Shall such a man as I fly c Either change thy name or be valiant saith Alexander to a souldier of his that was of his own name but a coward Lastly look up as St. Steven did to the recompence of reward steale a look from glory as Moses Heb. 11.26 help your selves over the difficulty of suffering together with Christ by considering the happinesse of raigning together Thus be of good courage or deale couragiously and God shall be with the good 2 Chro. 19. vlt. as Iehosaphat told his Judges when to go their circuit and work Good affections must end in good actions else they are scarce sound but much to be suspected Num. 23.10 Ruth 1. Good wishes and no more may be found in hels mouth Num. 23. Orphah had good affections but they came to nothing God must be entreated to fix our quick-silver to ballast our lightnesse to work in us both to will and to doe that it may be said of us as of those Corinthians that as there was in them a readinesse to will so there followed the performance also 2 Cor. 8.12 Desire and Zeal are set together 2 Cor. 7.11 desire after the sincere milk and grouth in grace 1 Pet. 2.2 John Baptists hearers so desired after heaven that they offered violence to it Mat. 11. True affections are the breathings of a broken heart Acts 2.37 Rom. 7.23 But the desires of the slothful kill him Prov. 21.25 Virtutem exoptat contabescitque relictâ Good affections are ill bestowed upon the sluggard sith they boyl not up to the full heat and height of resolution for God or Pers at least of execution of his will The sailes of a ship are not ordained that shee should lie alwaies at rode but launch out into the deep God likes not qualmy Christians good by fits as Saul seemed to be when Davids innocency triumphed in his conscience or as Ephraim whose duties were dough-baked and whose goodnesse was as the morning-dew c. Be ye stedfast and unmoveable 1 Cor. 15. 〈◊〉 always abounding in the work of the Lord. Stick not at any part of it difficulty doth but whet on Heroick Spirits as a boule that runs down hill is not slugged but quickened by a rub in the way If this be to be vile I le be yet more vile 1 Sam. 6.22 who art thou O great mountain Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain Zach. 4.7 And hee said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.9 For I am with you saith the Lord of hosts By a twofold presence 1. Of help and assistance 2. Of love and acceptance Of the first see chap. 1. verse 13. with the note there The second seems here intended The Jews were poore yet God assureth them they had his love So had the Church of Smyrna Rev. 2.9 I know thy poverty but that 's nothing thou art rich rich in reversion rich in bils and bonds yea rich in possession or All is theirs they hold all in capite they have 1. plenty 2. propriety in things of greatest price for they have God All-sufficient for their portion for their protection I am with you saith he and that 's enough that 's able to counterpoise any defect whatsoever as we see in David often but especially at the sack of Ziklag where when he had lost all and his life also was in suspence the Text saith he comforted or encouraged himselfe in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 whereas Saul in like case goes first to the witch and then to the swords point A godly man if any occasion of discontent befals him retires himselfe into his counting-house and there tells over his spiritual treasure he runs to his cordials he reviews his white stone his new name better then that of sonnes and of daughters Isay 56.5 Rev. 2.17 he hath meat to eat that the world knoweth not of the stranger meddleth not with his joy Virtus lecythos habet in malis Tua praeseutia Domine Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit saith a Father Thy presence O Lord made the very gridiron sweet to the martyr Laurence It made the fiery furnace a gallery of pleasure to the three worthies the lions den an house of defence to Daniel the whales belly a lodging-chamber to Jonas Egypt an harbour a sanctuary to the child Jesus c. He goes with his into the fire and water as a tender father goeth with his child to the Surgeon Neverthelesse saith David I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory Again I am with you that
among the princes of Judah Mat. 2.6 because Christ was born there The tribe of Nepthali is first reckoned of those by Rachels side because at Capernaum in this tribe Christ inhabited Rev. 7.6 in which respect also this town is said to be lifted up to beaven Mat. Gen. 42.4 11.2 3. Benjamin is called the beloved of the Lord Gods darling as their father Ben amin was old Jacobs because God dwelt between his shoulders sc in his Temple built upon those two mountaines Moriath and Zion Deut. 33.12 The glory of that first Temple was that the Majesty of God appeared in it covering it self in a cloud The glory of this later house was greater because therein the same divine Majesty appeared not covered with a cloud but really incarnated For the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Ioh. 1.14 In this flesh of ours and under this second Temple Christ not only uttered oracles did miracles and finished the great work of our redemption but also laid the foundation of the Christian Church Jam. 1. For the Law that perfect Law of liberty the Gospell came out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem to all the ends of the earth Esay 2.3 Psal 110.1 From hence it was that the Lord of glory whom the blind Jewes had crucified sent out his Apostles those messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ as they are called 2 Cor 8.23 to gather together unto him those desirable ones his elect verse 7. See the Note there whom he calleth the glory Esa 46.13 the house of his glory Esay 60.7 a crown of glory Esay 62.3 the throne of glory Ier. 4â— 21 the ornament of God Ezek 7.20 the beauty of his ornament ib. and that set in majesty ib. a royall diadem in the hand of Jehovah Esay 62.3 and in this place will I give peace Even the Prince of peace and with him all things also Rom. 8.32 pacem Pectoris Temporis Peace of countrey and of conscionce this later especially seemeth here to be meant For the former viz. outward Peace was not long enjoyed by these Jewes and their second Temple was often spoyled by the enemies Ioh. 14. and at length burnt and overturned But the Peace of God that passeth all understanding is that Legacy which the world can neither give nor take from Gods people And of this inward Peace the Septuagint according to the Roman edition taketh the Text and so doth Ambrose Haec est pax suâ—er pacem saith He. Christ as he was brought from heaven with that song of Peace Luk 2.14 Onearth peace good will toward men which is the same with that salutation of St. Paul who learned it belike of those Angels Grace be to you and Peace so he returned up againe with that farewell of peace Ioh. 14.27 and left to the world the doctrine of peace the gospell of peace Eph. 2.17 whose Authour is the God of peace 1 Cor. 14.33 whose Ministers are ministers of peace Rom. 10.15 whose followers are the children of peace Luk 10.6 whose unity is in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 whose duty is the study of peace Rom. 12.18 and whose end is to enter into peace to rest in their beds their soules resting in heaven their bodyes in the grave till the joyfull resurrection even every one walking in his uprightnesse Esay 57.2 Psal 37.33 Verse 10. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month in the second yeer of Darius This diligence of the Prophets in noting and noticing the precise time of Gods hand upon them Scultet Annal. should teach us to do the like See the Note on chap. 1. ver 1. Melch. Adam in vit Bugenhà g The churches in Switzerland kept that day yearely as an holiday whereon the Reformation began amongst them Bugenhagius kept a feast every yeer on that day of the month wherein he and some other Divines had finished the Dutch Bible and called it The feast of the Translation of the Bible Philipp Pareus in vita Dau. Parei The University of Heidelberg kept an Evangelicall Iubilee three whole dayes together Anno Dom. 1617. in the Calends of November in the remembrance of the renowned Reformation of religion begun by Luther a just hundred yeers before Hereby Gods name shall be sanctified our faith strengthened and our good affection both evidenced and excited By the time here described it appeareth that they had now been three moneths building and the Prophet meane-while had given them great incouragement thereunto But forasmuch as he found that they stuck in the bark as they say rested in the work done thought they should therefore win upon God because they built him a Temple the Prophet gives them to understand that there is more required of them then a Temple viz. that therein they worship the Lord purely and holily in spirit and in truth that their divine worships bee right both quoad fontem quoad finem for principle and end of intention for else they impure all that they touch and are no whit better but a great deal the worse for all their performances This the Prophet teacheth them in the two following oracles propounded by way of demand to the Priests How apt are men to lose themselves in a wildernesse of duties To dig for pearls in their own dunghils to think to oblige God to themselves by their good works to spin a threed of their own to climbe up to heaven by to rest in their own righteousnesse to save themselves by riding on horses Hos 14.3 The Prophets designe is here to beat them off from such fond conceits telling them that the person must be accepted ere the service can bee regarded as Abels To the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Tit. 1.15 saith the Apostle Calvin upon this Text saith no more and yet Cor. a Lapide is very angry with him for saying so much Aug. de vera innocent c. 56. There is in Peter Lumbard this golden sentence eited out of August inc The whole life of unbeleevers is sinne neither is any thing good without the cheifest good This sentence Ambrose Rybera a Poprsh Postiller censureth for harsh and cruell But doth not God here say the same thing Crudelis est illa sententia Certain it is that good actions from bad men displease as a man may speak good words but we cannot hear because of his stinking breath The facrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 Charity is nothing unlesse it flow out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 Verse 11. Ask now the Priest concerning the Law For who should know the law better then the Priests And who so fit to
three-hours darknesse especially but he delivering himself as a mighty Conquerour their horns stick fast as it were in his crosse as Abrahams ramme by his horns stuck fast in the brier c. and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom Myrrhe-trees some render it Here Christ that horseman and head of his Church keepeth himself as touched with the feeling of our infiunities Heb. 4.15 as suffering and sorrowing with his people who are fitly compared to myrtles that grow in a shady grove in vallies and bottoms and by waters sides amantes littorae myrtos Virg. Georg. Blessed are ye that sowe beside all waters Esay 32.20 Myrtles also are odoriferous and precious Esay 41.19 and 55.13 so are the Saints Esay 43.4 Colos 4.6 they cast a good scent where-ever they go by the grace of God that is in them as Alexander the Great is said to do by the excellent temperament of his body Lastly Levit. 23.40 with Neh 8.15 the Jews at their joyfull feast of Tabernacles used myrtle-branches among others to testifie their thankfulnesse for a settlement in the promised land after so long wandring in the wildernesse The Gentiles also in their solemn feasts enterludes and cingebant tempora myrto wore garlands made of Myrtle Virg. Georg Let us keep the feast Let us keep holy-day saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who himself did over-abound exceedingly with joy had an exuberancy of it at that constant feast of a good conscience Diogenes could say that a good man keeps holy-day 2 Cor 7.4 all the yeer about Christ crowneth the Kalendar of his peoples lives with continuall festivals here how much more in heaven Pliny tells us Plin. lib. 15. cap. 29. that ex myrto facta est ovantium corona subinde triumphantium of Myrtle was made among the Romans the crown or garland of those that did shout for victory or ride in triumph and behind him were there red horses i. e. horse-men Nam nimis crassum est illud commentum fuisse locutos equos saith Calvin here These horse men are Angels as verse 10. deputed to severall offices and executions for judgement foâ—mercy or both shadowed by the divers colours of their horses Verse 9. â—alvin Then said I O my Lord what are these Thus the Prophets enquired and searched diligently as saith Saint Peter 11 Epist 1.11 for the truth of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hunters seek for game and as men seek for gold in the very mines of the earth who not content with the first oar that offereth it self to their view dig deeper and deeper till they are owners of the whole treasure See Prov. 2.4 and rest not till ye see that blissefull sight Ephes 1.18 19. and the Angel that talked with me Or in me as the Vulgar rendreth it This was some created Angel who might reveal things to the Prophet by working on the phantasie and spirit by way of information and instruction as Dan. 9.21 Luk. 1.11 Apoc. 1.1 I will shew thee what these be How ready are the holy Angels to serve the Saints Heb. 1.14 rejoycing more in their names of office then of honour of employment then preferment to be called Angels that is Messengers or Internuntio's then Principalities Thrones Dominions Ephes 1.20 accounting it better to do good then to be great to dispense Gods benefits then to enjoy them Hence they are with and about the Saints as their companions guides protectours monitours and rulers of their actions as here Verse 10. And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees The man Christ Jesus that is ever with his Church and in the midst of his people that feedeth among the lillâ—es and walketh in the middest of the seven golden candlesticks He being asked by the foresaid Angel answered him in Zacharies hearing for he is Palmoni hammedabber that excellent Speaker as Daniel calleth him and therefore asketh him of the vision Dan. 8.13 These are they whom the Lord hath sent As his Epoptai or Overseers and Intelligencers Not that God needeth them as Princes need the counsell and aid of their subjects The holy Angels receive möre from God then they performe or bring to him But he maketh use of their service about us 1. For the honour of his Majesty and comfort of our infirmity 2. To make out his love unto us by employing such noble creatures for our good 3. To make and maintain love and correspondency between us and Angels till we come to walk arm in arm with Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Zach. 3.7 and to be like unto them yea their equals Luke 20.36 if not more Ephes 1.23 Verse 11. We have walked to and fro thorow the earth Itavimus we have coursed up and down with incredible swiftnesse Hence they are called the charrets of God Psal 68.17 Heb. Gods-charret to note out their joynt-service as of one as here his horsemen ready prest to do his pleasure and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest excepting the Church alone which like Noah's Ark is ever tossed up and down till it rest at last on the everlasting mountain then she shall have her happy Halcyons then she shall see her enemies afar off as Lazarus did Dives or as the Israelites at the red-sea did their persecutours dead upon the shore Mean-while she must not expect to be calm and quiet for any continuance Joh. 16.33 Joh. 16.20 Esth 3.15 Esay 21.10 1 Cor. 3.9 In the world ye shall have trouble And ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce they shall revel and laugh themselves fat The king and Haman sat down to drink but the city Shushan was perplexed The Church is called Gods threshing-floor because threshed with continuall crosses and Gods-husbandry because he will be sure to plow his own ground and to make long furrows upon their backs whatsoever become of the waste and to weed his own garden though the rest of the world be let alone and grow wild Moab is not poured from vessell to vessell Jer. 48. Job 10.10 â— but setleth upon the lees when the Israel of God is poured out as milk and crudled like cheese as Job speaketh in another case Verse 12. Then the Angel of the Lord That Advocate with the Father Jesus the Juft One 1 John 2.2 who appeareth for his afflicted people and feelingly pleads for them as being afflicted in all their afflictions even the Angel of his presence that saveth them Esay 63.9 It much moved him to hear that Gods enemies were in better case then his people and this put him upon the following passionate expostulation O Lord of Hosts How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem c. Vsquequo Domine Calvin had these words much in his mouth thereby breathing out his holy desires in the behalf of the afflicted Churches Melch. Adam in vita with whose sufferings hee was more affected
regno graviore regnum est See Eccles 5.7 with the Note there CHAP. II. Verse 1. I lift up mine eyes againe and looked i. e. I looked wishly not sluggishly as betwixt sleeping and waking as chap. 4. I saw further by the spirit then common sense could have carried me I beheld Ierusalem in her future glory I looked intently I took aime not by the things which are seen but by the things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 Heb. 11.27 Gal. 4.26 and behold a man The Man Christ Jesus as his Mother is called a Virgin Isa 7.14 the Virgin that famous Virgin that conceived and bare a Son that gat a man from the Lord Gen. 4.1 This Man called before and after an Angel as appearing in humane shape is here seen and set forth as an Architect or Master-builder going to take the plot of his Church see Rev. 21.15 and observe by the way how in that book the holy Ghost borrows the allegories and elegancies of the Old Testament to set out the story of the New in succeeding ages Verse 2. Whither goest thou This was great boldnesse But the Prophet understood himself well enough and Christ approves and assents to it in a gracious answer here and especially verse 4. Great is the confidence of a good conscience toward God See Esay 63.16 17. Hab. 1.12 We may come boldly to the throne of grace Heb. 4.16 1 Pet. 3.23 to measure Jerusalem This had been promised before Chap. 1.16 But for their further confirmation who saw a little likelyhood of such a reedifying and repeopling it is repeated Thus the Lord tendering our infirmity seals to us again and again in the holy Sacrament what he had said and sworn to us in his word Verse 3. And behold the Angel Zacharies Angel as One calleth him Went forth to take direction from Christ and to give the prophet further information See the Note on Chap. 1.9 and another Angel went out to meet him So ready is Christ to answer prayers and to satisfie his weak but willing people that draw near unto him with a true heart Heb. 10.22 If any such ask and misse it is because they ask amisse Jam. 4.3 Verse 4. Run speak to this young man Not go but Run yea fly swiftly with wearinesse of slight as Dan 9.21 Christ thinks it long ere his praying people hear from him Onely he will be enquired of by them Ezek. 36.37 Zachary seemes to have been a young Prophet and Christ remembred the kindnesse of his youth and became a wonderful counseller to him He gave to this young man or green-headed stripling knowledge and discretion Prov. 1.4 Epiphanius saith he was an old man and that he is called a young man because a client and disciple of the Angel that communed with him Where Angels are called men it was no dis paragement to Zachary to call himself a lad or servant considering his distance Thus Abrahams servant though old is called his boy Gen. 24.52 by a Catachresis That 's a good Note that One gives here That the Angel tells the prophet Mr. Pemble but the prophet must tell the people God using not the Ministery of Angels but men earthen vessels to bear his Name to his people Acts 8.26 and 9.6 and 16.9 Jerusalem shal be inhabited as towns without wals Or shall dwell in towns without walls viz. in the suburbs or villages there being not room enough within the walls to receive them This seemed an incredible thing to this poor remnant now returned from Babylon But it is the property and duty of beleevers to trust God upon his bare word and that against sense in things invisible and against reason in things improbable for the multitude of men and cattel therein That is saith Augustine of spiritual and carnal persons in the Chuch Catholike Verse 5. For I saith the Lord Igneus qui cominus arceat eminus terreat Theodor. will be unto her a wall of fire The Church Christs garden may seem to lie open to all incursions and disadvantages but as it hath a well within it Cant 4. So it hath a wall without it yea round about it better and stronger then that about Babylon or Susa in Persia the stones whereof were joyned together with gold as Cassiodorus testifieth Lib. 7. Var. Epist The Lacedemonians were forbidden to wall in their city of Sparta as being sufficiently fortified by the valour of the inhabitants The Hollanders will not wall the Hague though it have 2000 housholds in it as desirous to have it counted rather the principal village of Europe then a lesser city China is said to be surrounded with a strong wall of stone and England with walls of wood sc A puissant Navy But what 's all this either for defence or offence to a wall of fire who dare venture to scale such a wall It is not valour but madnesse to fight with a flame Fire is terrible to the fiercest creatures as Lions Leopards c. Shepheards and travellers were used to guard themselves by making great fires round about their night-lodgings to keep of wild beasts Some think the prophet alludeth to that custome others to the Angel guarding of Paradise with a flaming sword Instit Lib. 2. Cap 13. that is saith Lactantius with a wall of fire The Church may sit and sing we have a strong city salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks Esay 26.1 Heb 1.7 Gen. 32.1 He maketh his Angels spirits his ministers a flame of fire These met and ministred unto Jacob at Mahanaim making a lane for him These are the watchmen over the walls of the new Ieru salem and of the mountains about the same Isai 62. as the word importeth These fiery charets and horsmen appeared for Elisha by whole legions 2 Kin. 6.17 and do still pitch their camp round about the godly Psal 34.8 Who therefore cannot but be safe as being guarded by the peace of God within them and by the power of God without them through faith unto salvation and will be the glory in the midst of her God is the Churches both bulwark and beauty her muniment and ornament His presence his worship his Grace his protection is that tower in the midst of her Esay 5. that golden head of the picture that tower of the slock and strong hold of the daughter of Gods people Mic. 4.8 Hence the Ark is called the glory Rom. 9.4.5 and all comforts without it but Icabods 1 Sam. 4.20 Hence Judea is called the glorious land and Heathens are brought in saying Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people For what nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for Deut. 4.5 6 7 And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and â—udgments so righteous as all this law c. Surely as Samsons strength and glory lay in
departed from our English Israel my name shall be great Name for fame as Exod. 34.5 6. Philip. 2.9 Gen. 11.4 Renouned men are called men of name Gen. 6.4 and base men are called men of no name Iob 30.8 shall be great Not that God is great or lesse Magnum parvum sunt ex ijs quae sunt ad aliquid saith Aristotle But Gods name is said to be great when he is declared or acknowledged to be great as the word sanctified is used Mat. 6.9 and the word justified Mat. 11.19 Iam. 2.21 Gods fame and glory is as himself eternall and infinite and so abides in it self not capable of our addition or detraction As the Sun which would shine in its own brightnesse and glory though all the world were blind and did wilfully wink Howbeit to try how we prize his Name and how industrious we will be to magnifie and exalt it he hath declared that he esteemes himself made glorious and accounts that he hath received as it were a new being by those inward conceptions we have of his glory and those outward honours we do to his name and in every place incense shall be offered Not at Ieâ—usalem only as the Jews held nor in mount Gerizim as the Samaritans Iob. 4.20 21. but any place without difference be it but a chimney might make a goodly Oratory 1 Tim. 2.8 All religious difference of places was taken away by Christs death Therefore so soon as he had said Ioh. 19.30 It is finished he gave up the Ghost and presently the vail of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom Mat. 27.51 And from that hour there was no more holinesse in the Temple then in any other place Though till then the Temple was so holy a place and such religious reverence did Gods people beare to it that after the Caldeans had burnt it they honoured the very place where it had stood and esteemed it holier then any other This appears by those eighty persons whom Ishmael murthered Ier. 41.5 and by Daniels opening his windowes toward Ierusalem when he prayed Dan. 6.10 Incense shall be offered and a pure offering Insigne testimonium pro sacrificio Missae saith Bellarmine This text is a notable testimony for the sacrisicing of the Masse which Papists will needsly have to be the sacrifice here meant and mentioned Much like that Sorbonist that finding it written at the end of S. Pauls epistles Missa est Bee-hive of Rome fol. 93. c. bragg'd he had found the Masse in his Bible So another reading John 1.4 Invenimus Messiam made the same conclusion We shall wave their arguments as sufficiently answered by others and take the meaning of the holy Ghost here to be of such spiritual sacrifices of the new Testament as all Christians even the whole royal priesthood 1 Pet. 2.5 are bound to offer up to God These are called Incense and Offering by Analogy the type for the thing thereby shadowed as Ireneus Tertullian Rev. 5.8 Rev. 8.3 4. and Augustine interpret the Text. This incense is prayer and praise Psal 141.2 Heb. 13.15 Hos 14.4 Psal 51.21 This pure offering is every saithful Christian together with all the good things that he hath or can do It is simplex oratio de oonscientia pura Cont. Marcion lib. 4. saith Tertullian Thus those good Macedouians gave themselves to the Lord saith S. Paul and vnto us by the will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 I hus the Romans had delivered themselves up to the form of Doctrine Rom. 12.1 that had been delivered unto them Rom. 6.17 and are yet further exhorted to exhibit present make tender yield up and offer as spiritual priests their bodies and much more their souls to God as a living sacrifice by a willingnesse to do what he requireth Psal 40.6 Rom. 15.16 and to die for his fake if called thereunto Phil. 2.17 2 Tim. 4.6 Swenk feldians took away all external service saith Zanchy Libertines say it is sufficient that we sacrifice to God the hidden man of the heart The Pope saith to his vassals My Son give me thy heart be a papist in heart and then go to Church dissemble do what ye will But God requires to be Glorified with our spirits and bodies both because both are his 1 Cor. 6.20 The very Manichees that denied God to he the Author of the body fasted on sundayes and in fasting exercised an humiliation of the body But 2 as the true christian sacrificeth himself to God so all that he hath or can and is ready to say as that Grecian did to the Emperor If I had more more I would bring thee It comforts him to consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 8. 1 Tim. 1.5 That if there be a willing minde God accepts according to that a man hath and not ac-according to that he hath not Noahs sacrifice could not be great yet was it greatly accepted because of clean beasts and offered in faith It is the godly mans care that his offering though it be poor yet may be a pure offering proceeding from a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfained and then he is sure it is pure by divine acceptation through Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 In confidence whereof he lifts up holy hands 1 Tim. 2.8 And although sensible of his impurities imperfections his heart misgives him sometimes as Jacobs did lest his father should discern him yet when heremembreth that he is clothed as Jacob was with the garment of his elder brother the robe of Christs righteousnesse which is not a scant garment as Bernard saith but reaching to the heels and covering all the parts of the soul he goeth boldly to the throne of grace and covers Gods altar with his evangelical sacrifices Such as are contrition and self-denial Ps 51.17 Confidence in God Ps 4.6 Obedience to the preaching of the gospel Rom. 15.16 Beneficence to the poor Phil. 4.8 c. In all which his aim and endeavour is to worship God in spirit and to do all more out of thankfulnesse and lesse out of constraint of conscience For he knows that as the greatest growth of sinners is in spiritual wickednesse as in those that sin against the holy Ghost so the greatest growth of grace is in spiritual holinesse in worshipping God more in spirit and truth Verse 12. But ye have prophaned it Ye Jews in general though my peculiar people and called by my name You that quarter armes with me as it were and should therefore lift up my Name as an ensign that you should use me thus coursely and cast dirt upon my name by your irreligion this moves me not a little so that I cannot but once and again complain of it Had it been an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I should better have born it But it was thou my familiar c. What thou my son Brutus Friend betrayest thou the Son of man and that with a kisse Scipio had rather
left falling before the Ark till his neck was broke Sin doth as naturally draw and suck curses to it as the Loadstone doth iron or Turpentine fire The Chaldee and the Vulgar make these words but a repetition of the former for they read the Text thus Idem repetit in culcat à Lapide I will curse your blessings and I will curse them to intimate his peremptorinesse in the thing and that he was unchangably resolved upon it Now when God will do a thing who shall hinder it Nature may be resisted and hindred in its course as when the fire burnt not the three worthies when the Sun stood still in heaven yea went backward Men and devils though never so potent may want of their will and be crossed in their designes and desires But if God will have this or that to be done ther 's no gain-standing him If he have a mind to blesse his people they shall be blessed If he will have pitty for his own names sake which the house of Israel had prophaned Ezek. 36.21 If he will come in with his Non-obstante Neverthelesse he saved them c. and dealt with his servants not according to his ordinary rule but according to his prerogative who shall contradict him In like sort if he will redouble his strokes upon his enemies and not only curse them but curse them bitterly as the Angel did Meroz who can hinder or object against his proceeding in that behalf Judg. 5 His judgements are sometimes secret but alwayes just and if he once say I will curse yea that I will there is as little hope of altering him as there was of Pilate when he had once pronounced what I have written I have written It shall surely stand because ye do not lay it to heart As he had repeated their curse so he doth here their sin instancing in that branch of it that most offended him and that was their stupidity and senselesnesse either of their sin or danger This is a God-provoking evill oft complain'd of but especially when it proceeds from presumption as Deut. 29.19 Esay 22.12 13 14. Ezek. 24.13 The Lord cannot satisfie himself in threatening such as if the very naming of it had enraged his jealousie neither is he more absolute in threatening then he will be resolute in punishing Verse 3. Behold I will corrupt your seed And so mar your hopes of an harvest I will bring famine upon you that fore judgement worse then that of the sword Lam. 4.9 which yet is the slaughter-house of mankind and the very hell of this present world By this scourge God will tame his prodigals and starve their bodies Hag. 1.4 who by the contempt of his ordinances starve their own soules Either by immoderate drought God can cause a famine Ioel 1.10 Or by immoderate moisture Verse 17. The seed rotting under the clods c. to revenge the quarrel of his covenant Israel was plagued with famine for breaking their faith with the Gibeonites What may they expect that keep not touch with God 2 Sam. 21.1 David knew that the naturall cause of that famine was drought but he enquired though t were long first after the supernaturall As Jacob enquired who stood on the top of the ladder and sent the Angels to and fro so must we in case of publike calamities Gen. 28.13 ascend to the top of them and see who sends them and what is the cause of them that we may cast the traitours head over the wall and he may return and repent and leave a blessing behind him For till then we may look that he should cut off our provision and victualls as wise Princes use to do from their rebels whom they have gotten up into a walled town and spread dung upon your faces cast contempt upon you and cover you with confusion make you to stink above ground so that men shall shun and abhorr your company This is another fruit of sin and piece of the curse and many wicked men are more afraid of it then of the sin that causeth it as Chaereas in Terence not ashamed to deflour a virgin was yet ashamed to be seen in an Eunuchs habit the signe of that sin True it is that the best may have dung cast into their faces as St. Paul and his precious companions had 1 Cor. 4.13 We are faith he the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things The later word signifieth the dung-cart that goes thorough the city 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which every one brings and casts his filth to note that every foole had some filth to cast upon those Worthies of whom the world was not worthy And truely all publike persons that are faithfull to their trust had need carry a spare handkerchief to wipe off dirt and drivell which yet many times will hardly stick as dirt will not upon marble though it will upon a mud-wall The wise shall inherit glory when shame shall be the promotion of fooles Pro. 3.35 A fair promotion but good enough for them unlesse they were better If the precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold be at any time esteemed as earthen pitchers as Lam. 4.2 or trodden in the dirt by the fat buls of Basan God will in due time make all his that have laine sullied and slurred among the pots to become as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with pure gold Psal 68.13 In the mean while they have the Euge of a good conscience which is better then the worlds Plaudite But profane and profligate persons with their spiritual nastinesse and super fluity of naughtinesse stink worse then these cityes of the plaine in the nostrils of God and all good men whiles they live according to that The name of the wicked shall rot And again Pro. 10.7 9 He that perverteth his wayes shall be known And when they dye they shall be carried thorough the dung-gate of death to the town-ditch of utter destruction At which time Iob. 20.6 7. that in Iob shall be verified of them Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him in his flourish shall say Where is be Let those dehonest amenta Cleri look to this all idle and evill Ministers who as unsavoury salt are fit for no place but the dung-hill even to be buried in a dunghill as Bishop Bonner was and mean-while to be trodden under foot which is a thing not only calamitous but extremely ignominious Mat. 5.13 even the dung of your solemne feasts i. e. for the iniquity of your most solemn services which you have slubber'd over and made to stink I will make you also abject and abominable as the dung of sacrifices offered in great number on festivall dayes was carried into some by-corner and set out of sight And here it is
he rebuked the red-sea and it was dried up Psal 105. and as he rebuked the winds Mat. 8.26 the fever Luk. 4.39 the devil Mat. 7.18 he will say unto them Abite 〈◊〉 hine Get you hence and that 's enough for they are all his servants Psal 119.91 He is the great Centurion or rather Lord of Hosts that faith to this creature Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh c. if he do but say Who is on my side who all creatures look out at their windows as ready prest to do his pleasure neither is there any so mean amongst them or so despicable that cannot if set on by him make the proudest on earth stoop and say This is the singe of God But of this see more in the 1. Dost on vers 18. of this Chapter Let all that look for Gods blessing either upon their persons or possessions make their peace with God the genealogie of corn and wine is resolved into him Hos 2.22 and bring him all his tythes into the store-house c. les hee blast their fair hopes out off the meat from their mouthes take his own and bee gone take away his corn in the time thereof and his wine in the season thereof c. Hos 2.9 The Jews in our Saviours time suis malis edosthi were punctuail in paying their tythes even to a potherb Marth 23. And at this day though not in their own countrey nor have a beviticall Priesthood yet those of them that would bee reputed religious Godw. Heb. Antiq p. 277. do distribute in lieu of tythes the tenth of their increase unto the poor being perswaded that God doth blesse their increase the more For their usuall proverb is Dectma in dives fias â—ythe and be rich Of the young Lord Harrington the last of that name it is reported by Mr. Stock who preached his Funerall that he constantly gave the tenth of his yearly revenue to pious and charitable uses And of reverend Mr. Will Whately Minister of Banbary it is likewise recorded in his life that he set apart and expended for many years before he died for good uses the tenth part of his yearly comings in both out of his temporall and ecclesiasticall means of maintenance and that he never thrived in his outward estate till he took that course Besides the sweet comfort that the spirits of his wealth thus distilled as it were brought to his conscience both in life and at death and the blessing of a good name left behind him according to that which follows next in the text And all nations c. Verse 12. And all nations shall call you Hessed viz. for the abundance of outward comforts and commodities by the which the Nations measured mens happinesse saying Blessed is the people that is in such a ease Psal 144.15 Cyprus was for this cause anciently called Macaria that is the blessed countrey as having a sufficiency of all things within it self and England was called Regnum Dci the kingdome of God or the Fortunate Island and Englishmen Deires as those that were set safe de ira Dei from the wrath of God In the time of Pope lement the sixth as Robert of Avesbury testifieth when Lewis of Spain was chosen Prince of the Fortunate Islands and for the conquest thereof was to raise an Army in France and Italy the English Agent at Rome together with his company departed and gat home as conceiving that the Prince was bound for England then the which they thought there was not a more fortunate Island in the world Of the Island of Lycia Sol nus saith Lyciam Horatius claram dicit that all the day long the sky is never so cloudy but that the Sun may be seen there Semper in Sole siva est Rhodos The Rhodes is ever in the Sun-shine saith Aeneas Sylvius And of Alexandria in Egypt Ammianus Marcellizus observeth that once in the day the Sun hath been seen to shine over it I confesse the same cannot be said of England I remember also what I have read of a certain Frenchman who returning home out of England and being asked by a countreyman of his that was bound for England what service he would command him into this countrey Nothing but this said the other When you see the Sunne Per duos enim menses quibus ibi fui Solem mihi videre non licuit Garincieres de tabe Anglica p 84. Vt finem atque initium lucis exiguo discrimine in ternoscas Nomentque ex eo sortitam Polyh c. 17. have me commended to him for I have been there two moneths and could never see him in all that space Belike he was here in the deep of winter For at Summer Solistice Tacitus in the life of Agricola hath observed that the Sun shineth continually in Britanny and neither setteth nor riseth there but passeth so light by us by night that you can searce say we have any night at all But if we speak of the Sunshine of Gods grace and favour either for spirituals or temporals as Delos is said by Solinus to have been the first countrey that had the Sun shining upon it after the generall deluge and therehence to have had its name so was England one of the first Hands that both received Christ and that shook off Antichrist And for temporall blessings all nations call us blessed and count us a delightsome land indeed a land of desires such as all men would desire to dwell in for the exceeding fruitfulnesse and pleasantnesse of it it being the Court of Queen Ceres the granary of the Western world as forreigne Writers have termed it the paradise of pleasure and garden of God as our own Chronicler The truth is We may well say of England as the Italians do of Venice by way of proverb He that hath not seen it cannot beleeve what a dainty place it is and he that hath not lived there some good space cannot understand the worth of it Our Mr. Ascham Schoolmaster to Q. Eizabeth had lived there some time and had soon enough of it for though hee admired the place he utterly disliked the people for their loose living And the like alasse may be too truly affirmed of us We live in Gods good land but not by Gods good lawes we eat the fat and drink the sweet but we sanctifie not the Lord God in our hearts we live not as becometh Christians Our hearts like our Climate hath much more light then heat light of knowledge then heat of zeal our lukewarmnesse is like to be our bane our sinnes our snuffes that dimme our candlestick and threaten the removall of it O si siat id in nobis saith One quod in Sole videtur qui quibus affulserit ijs etiam calrem colorem impertire solet O that the Sun of righteousnesse would so shine upon us as to warm us and transforme us into the same image from glory to glory as by his Spirit O
Luk. 16.15 because they were but skin-deep and not heart-sprung therefore they were not a button the better for them God loves and looks for truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 he looks that men should do his will from the heart Ephes 6.6 and serve him in their spirits Rom. 1.9 In doing whereof there is great reward Psal 19.11 praemium ante praemium that Euge of a good conscience this the stranger medleth not with conceives not of the wealth of Gods pilgrims standing more in Jewels and gold things light oâ— carriage and well portable then in house and land His servants have that here that doth abundantly pay them for their pains afore-hand righteousnesse being it own reward and they knowing within themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. But hereaster oh the rich recompence that God shall make them oh the heaped up happinesse of such at the last when these vain talkers in the text and all that are of their mind shall roar out Nos insensati We fooles counted their lives madnesse But now c. See more of this in the following Note on ver 16. doctr 5. what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance The Chaldee hath it Quod mammon adeptisumus what mammon or wealth have we gained Mammonists are all for gain their very godlinesse is gain still they have an Eagles-eye to the prey when they seem to sly highest toward heaven If they may not get by God they soon grow weary of his work What shewes soever they make of better sure it is their belly is their God they mind earthly tings These will follow the chase as Jonathan till they meet with the hony-combe or as a curr followes his master till he meet with a 〈◊〉 These come to Christ as that young Pharisee did hastily but the 〈…〉 because they consider not that with the Lord are durable rich's Prv. 8.18 and that godlinesse as it hath many crosse so it hath many conâ—â—â—ts against 〈◊〉 Virtus lecyâ—â—â—â— habet in malis like as no countly hath more venomous creatures then Egypt 〈…〉 Antidotes This there Sensualists having not the spirit understand not 〈…〉 hence their complaint of a disappointment casting a stirr upon Gods 〈…〉 as those spies did upon the promised land Num. 14. and ready to run back into Egypt toth air flesh-â—ots garliâ—k and onions there Lo this is the guise of 〈…〉 wath whom thâ— ' the best religion that brings greatest advantage 〈…〉 thiâ— life if the Ark bring a blâ—ling with it as it did to Ohed-Edom it 〈…〉 upon as worthy of entertainment but if a plague of poverty 〈…〉 these Philistines will be glad to â—id their hands of it The garishnesse of ho 〈◊〉 wealth and pleasures do so â—azle their eyes that they think it the only happinesse to have and to hold Such fooles they are and such great beasts if David may judge Psal 73.22 to fly a fooles-pitch and to goc hawking after that that cannot be had as Solomon faith Pro. 23.5 Or if had yet cannot be held as being of swisrest wing and 〈◊〉 soon gone as a post that passeth by Godlinesse hath the preomise of â—â—th lives and we read of some godly men in scripture that were richer then any other But God will have it sometims to be otherwise that godimesse might be adâ—â—â—â—d for it self and to shew that his people serve him not for 〈…〉 Iob 1.9 But that none serves God for nought no not so much as 〈◊〉 a dâ—â— or 〈…〉 See before ch p. 1.10 that 〈◊〉 have kept his ordinances which if they had done indeed they would never have thâ—â—â—â—gged much less blasphemed they would have accused themselves 〈…〉 livine providence they would have said with holy Ezra All this is come upon us for our â—vill deeds and for 〈…〉 and thou our God hast punished us less then our iniquities deserve Aâ—â—â—â—test thou not be justly angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should the no remnant nor eseaping Ezr. 9 1â— 14. Thus the good wheat falls low at the feet of the fanâ—er when thâ— chaff 〈◊〉 and flyes at his face Thus the sheep when shorn Hâ—at and lookes downward whereas the hang rbit wolf lookes up and howlesagainst heaven Hypocrites use to wrangle with God and expostulate the unkindness of his non-acceptance of their services as Esay 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we aslicted our soule and thou takest no knowledge God was in their opinion far too short and much behind with them and therefore much to blame and they must give him the telling of it They do so and they have their answer So they shall have here in the following verses and the next chapter which ought not to be divided from this as some conceive They upbraid the Lord as with their observances so with their humiliations and that we have walked mournfully Or in black the habit of mourners whence that of the Heathen Oratour Athenienses non nisi atrati c. The Athenians are never so good as when they are all in black that is under some heavy affliction And a great Satesman of this kingdome had this verse written upon his study door Anglica gens est optima flens pessima ridens Great Brittain all in black is in its best condition But what is it to wear sackcloth 1 Kâ—ng 21.27 and walk softly with Ahab when he had sold himself to do wickedly what is an humbling day without an humbled heart not only an irreligious incongruity but an high provocation like Zimri's act when all the congregation were weeping before the dore of the Tabernacle Surely God may say to such pretenders as Isaac did to his father Behold the fire and the wood but wher 's the lamb for a sacrifice or as Jacob did to his sons that brought him the bloody coat Loe her 's the coat but wher 's my child your garments are black but your hearts and lives are much blacker Go cleanse your hands ye sinners and purisie your hearts you double-minded Be afflicted in good earnest and mourn to some purpose and weep soak and souce your selves in teares of true repentance let your sorrow for sin be deep and downright turn your laughter to mourning and your joy to heavinesse Jam. 4.8 9. And then come let us reason together saith the Lord. All these unkind contestations shall cease and all loving correspondencies shall passe betwixt us God had said as much as all this before to them verse 7 10 11. Sed surdo fabulam their adamant was too hard to be mollified Their bulrushes though bowed down for a day while some storm of trouble was upon them was now so pierkt up as if it would threaten heaven witnesse their continued contumacy their robustious language in the next verse also stouting it out still with God Verse 15. And now we call the proud happy Such
carried along by the swinge and sway of the place where they love but like sishes retaining their naturall sweetnesse in the salt sea * Orcus â—â—avius in Pencum illabitur quem nec Peneus recipit sed instar osei super nuanteth brevi spatio portatum abdicat nec penales aquas Dirisque genitas argenteis suis aquis misceri permittit Solin like Salamander unscorchtin the fire like oyle that will overtop all other liquors but not commingle * Orcus â—â—avius in Pencum illabitur quem nec Peneus recipit sed instar osei super nuanteth brevi spatio portatum abdicat nec penales aquas Dirisque genitas argenteis suis aquis misceri permittit Solin ever holding a constant countermotion to the course of the world and the corruptions of the time that ainidst all you may keep a good conscience that richest treasure and dearest Jewel as One sarth well that ever the heart of man was acquainted with To help you herein for it is a duty of greatest difficulty take these few rules and directions Lirst presse upon your could nees the former precepts Follow not a melcitude h Exod. 23 2. Sâ—turham invitari volueritis inter paucos angustam cram amoulantes non eritis Aug. c. with the rest above recited consider withail the equity and reasonablenesse of those commandements for there is not any one law of God but is holy and just and good i Rom. 7.12 Majer pars meliorem vincat Non possamiss negare plures esse masos tam pluresâ—ut inter eosprorsus non oppareant grana in area Aug. in Psal 47. Could we but see into it Who cannot say that the greater part overcommâ—th the baster and that the most are ever the worâ—â— and shall we go against common fense and univer sall experience Besides the seriptures are plain in this point as in all other simply necessa y to salvation telling us that the way to hell is broad and well beaton and the many go in there at But oâ— how straight is the gare and narrow the way that leades to life and how few there be that sinde it k Mat 7.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In vetustis codicibus legitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idque Theophylactus interpretatur quasi particula n sit admiran t is ita seriptum esset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ slock hath ever been found a little flock l Luc. 12.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing as the host of lsrad like two little slocks of kids when the wicked on to'ther side like the Aramites fill the country m 1 King 20.27 in This the put blind Philosopher could see and therefore say Sapiendum cum pâ—â—uc is m and Diogenes thought he should ever do best when he did least what the most did And Cassianus counsels us in his epistles Vive ut pauci c. Live as those sewest live that with the few ye may be found in the kingdome of heaven n ut cum paucis inveniri merearis in regno dei It was a brave answer of Liberius an orthodox Bishop in the primitive times who when he was pressed by the Emperour Constantius to forsake the truth and vote for Arrianisme by this argument o Theodoret. lib. 2. cap. 16. Quota pars es tu orbis terrarurn Art thou wiser then all the world * Mali undique persirepunt Quare sic vivis Tu solus christianus es quare non facis quod facium alijs Aug. in Psal Dementia est-re solum in doctrina relrgionis majorem esse lucem consecutum putare quam tot hominum millra multis jam seculis videre potuerunt c. Malvenda apud Senarchaenum in vita Johan Diazij He very honestly and discreetly reply'd The truth is no whit prejudiced by my alonenesse in standing out nam olim tres soturn c. for of old also there were there only that would withstand the wicked edict of the king of Babel And remarkaâ—le is the speech of Nicolas the first Bishop of Rome to Michael the Emperour of Constantinople p Numerus pusillus non obest ubi abundat pietas nec multiplex predest ubi abundat impietas It matters not how srnall the number he if godly nor how great if ungodly sith multitude and Antiquity are but ciphers in Divinity and not much to be stood upon surther then they will bear waignt in the ballance of the Sanctuary q Non numeranda suffragra sed expendenda Non numero haec judrcantur sed pondere Tull Off. Secondly study that great but much neglected art of self deniall and learn to say peremptory r Luc. 9.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a stout and constant denial again again to so unreasonable a request nay to any whether person or thing theugh never so deare or delightfull that would coole thy courage for Christ or call thee cst this most savoury course And first if carnall Reason come in and offer to obtrude that twise-sodden colewort Å¿ Crambe bis posita foetet Eras of hers perswading thereby to a politick forbearance of forwardnesse by the fear of what may follow Be not righteous overmuch neither make thy self over-wise t Eccles 7.16 q. d. be discreet and wary and stand not so strictly upon tearmes of conscience why shouldst thou destroy thy self why shouldst thou incurr the needlesse danger of envy and vexation by thrusting thy self over-eagerly into observation Stop thine eares I say to this subtle enchantresse u Mat. 16.24 and rather harken to the voice of Gods spirit in the verses immediatly following Be not wicked overmuch saith he in opposition to that former Be not just overmuch w Eccle 7.17 See Pemble in locum q. d. He that slackes and remits but a little in goodnesse and for his owne ease and honour qualifies it though but with a little degree of badnesse the same is wicked and over-much wicked Neither be foolish in opposition to that above-said Be not wise over-much as all are that temper spirituall wisdome with carnall pollicy for why shouldst thou dye before thy time to wit by an unseasonable death from Gods hand then when it were better for thee to do any thing then to dye sith after death there is judgement and hell-fire and all to be passed thorough by the poore soule This is the voice of heaven wherewith ye are to still and stop the mouth of that wisdome which descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish x Iam. 3.15 Next for carnall friends deny your self also in them y Deut 33 9. if you mean to keep in with Christ They 'le be ready enough with Peter z Mat. 16.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prompt you to be good to your self and not rashly to run the hazard of a singularitan to your I know not how great disgrace and disadvantage * If my father stood
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again want we any good 't is no more but run to God for it who takes it in high scorn we should seek to any other If any man want wisdmi and by consequence any good thing else let him ask it of God n Jam. 1.5 expounded ob sol ob sol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Antigon apud Plutar. ob sol Oh but my deserts are nothing They are as much as he looks for he gives unto all men not sels or payes them for wages I know his reward is with him to give unto every man according to his works and then my share will be a very smal or nothing rather Nay he gives liberally saith the apostle not as befits us to receive but as becomes him to give Now no small things can fall from so great a hand as his Yca to such and such he will give and liberally Nay to all men without exception can they but name the name of the Lord Jesus in prayer and do their good will to depart from iniquity they shall be saved Oh but I have these and these discouragements My sins presse me down o 2 Tim. 2.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oh that I cannot look up p Psal 40.12 sol and prick me in the foot that I cannot come neer Fear not for this God upbraides no man neither with former faults or present failings if heartily disclaimed and soundly set against The Publican departe Gods presence never awhit the lesse justified for his former extortions because truly humbled q Luk. 18.14 Take heart therefore upon all occasions to go boldly unto the throne of Gods grace in full assurance r Heb. 4. ult of finding him facile to stretch out his golden scepter upon the first sight of us as we appear in his Christ in whom he is abundantly well pleased ſ Mat. 3. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look what Zedekiah spake faintly and flateringly to his Princes you know that the king can denie you nothing t Ier. 38.5 Hence their stile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what the Heathens falsely report of some of their Princes that never any departed pensive out of their presence the same is most true of our God Never came any unto him aright in his ordinances but he received thus much comfort and incouragement at least that he would come again Noah's dove brought an olive leaf in her mouth at first and that was encouragement to send out a second time and a third also and then better tidings So though the Lord hold his people off at first and seem to slight them yet his heart is still toward them and his hand is still under them there is a secret supporting grace upholding the Saints in their greatest desertions God hears sometimes when he seems to do nothing lesse and love entirely where he makes shew to hate extreamly as David dealt with his Absolom and s the son of David with the woman of Canaan Quest But how shall I know that God hearkens and hears when he seems to neglect and suspends his answer well enough Answ and 1. By a cast of his countenance 2. By the verdict of thine own conscience First you may guesse at Gods good minde and meaning towards you by a smile of his face by a cast of his countenace as a petitioner may read in the kings looks while his petition is in reading what the successe shall be If the king smile upon it and look cheerfully he is made as if the king frown and bend his brows upon it he is dashed Just so it is between God and his people in performance of religious duties The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous as wel as his ears open to their cryes u Psal 34.15 16. As o' to'ther side the face of the Lord as well as his heart is against them that do evil as the Psalmist there opposeth them A good man gathers by Gods countenance cast upon him in his service how he shall speed And this is his priviledge to be admitted into Gods presence-chamber when the wicked stand without doors amongst dogs and devils x Rev. 22.15 For an hypocrite shall not come before him y Iob 13.16 saith Job but the upright shall dwell in his presence z Psal 140.13 saith David The wicked man stands at the gate like a vagrant but comes not into the house to see whether the master be preparing for him an almes or a cudgel whereas a good man like a good Angel stands alwayes before the face of God who doth not hide his face from him but when he cryes unto him he hears a Psal 22.24 Secondly consult thine own sanctified conscience for thy better satisfaction and resolution in this case Conscience is Gods spie and mans over-seer excusing or accusing cheering or checking in Gods stead as there is occasion It may fitly be called our God in the sence that Moses was Pharaohs b Exod. 7.1 Come see a thing that tells all that ever we have done c Joh. 4.29 nay all that ever God doth as touching our salvation being enlightened and sanctified by the holy Ghost For as God knows the meaning of his spirit d Rom. 8.27 so doth the spirit know the meaning of God Now this spirit witnesseth together with our spirits e Rom. 8.16 Nay it disdaineth not for our comfort to give in evidence at the bar of our consciences that we are Gods children and our services good in his sight refreshing our hearts after holy actions with a secret content Weemse with a hidden approbation Now therefore as the High priest of the old Testament might read Gods minde in his Urim and Thummim born upon his brest though he heard no voice though hesaw no shape so may a christian inform himself from within what the Lord thinks of him and hi works he need but reflect upon his own conscience if not bemisted or abused by Satans temptaions and it will do him to know what his acceptation is in heaven If our hearts condemn us not saith Saint Iohn then have we confidence toward God And whatsoever we ask we receive of him f 1 Joh. 3.21 22. either in the same kinde we ask or a better By a clearing chearing conscience God testifies as once by fire from heaven that he is well pleased with our sacrifices c. CHAP. VI. Doctr. V. God perfectly remembreth and plentifully requiteth all our labours of love to him and his And there was a book of remembrance written before him for them that feared the Lord c. A Figurative speech Oblivis enim in Deum non cadit Parabolicw̄c hac dicta sunt pro humano captu Pol. and framed to our capacity for it befalles not God to be forgetful or to stand in need of a remembrancer It was in a distemper you may be sure that David asked Hast thou forgotten to be merciful
Lord often of his covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob b Exod. 32.13 and treats with him to that purpose by his Name Jehovah that emphaticall and comfortable Name c Exod. 6.3 so when he had foretold a plague to the Aegyptians or the remove of it yet he omitted not to pray the accomplishment And the later when he had by warrant from heaven promised rain to Ahab after three yeers draught yet he went afterward to the top of Carmel and prayed earnestly d Jam. 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. James he prayed toughly lustily laboriously he strained every vein of his heart as it were in prayer for he stoopt and stretcht and put his face between his knees saith the story and this for a great while together till at length a cloud and after this a cataelysme of raine and waters came of it when once he had prayed to purpose e 1 Kin. 18.42 and not till then For the Lord though he be liberall yet he is not prodigall and although he reject not our weak services yet he throwes not away his mercyes upon such as hold them not worth whistling after as they say Be his children never so deare unto him yet they shall know their distance and their duty and although he love to be acquainted with them in the walkes of their obedience yet he taketh state upon him in his ordinances and wil be sought unto for his mercies Seek the Lord saith the Prophet and then will he raine righteousnesse upon you f Hos 10.12 For like as the Sun drawes up vapours from the earth not to retaine them but to return them to the moistening and so fattening of the same so doth the Lord draw from us our devotions and other duties not for any benefit of his own but to raine them down againe upon us in so many blessings SECT VIII LAstly this me thinks should mightily encourage good peoples hearts and strengthen their hands in well-doing to consider that the Lord doth perfectly remember plentifully to requite whatsoever service The pains cannot be cast away that we resolve to lay out nay to lose for Christ Master saith Peter we have laboured all night and have taken nothing Neverthelesse at thy word wee will let down the net g Luk. 5.5 6 And he sped accordingly for he enclosed a great draught of fishes even to the breaking of the Net c. So true is that of the Apostle Heâ— that is Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him h Rom. 10.12 He gives exceeding abundantly even above all that we ask or think i Ephes 3.20 Thus David asked life of the Lord and he gave him length of dayes for ever and ever k Psal 21.4 Solomon asked wisdome not wealth and he had wisdome and wealth too Hezekiah asked one life and God gave him two added fifteen yeers to his dayes which we count two mens lives and a yeer over The palsie man seeking health at Christs hands had health and heaven to boot Zacheus striving to see Christ not onely seeth him but heareth him spealâ—ing salvation to him and his Yea may some say God may crown his people with salvation Ob. John Baptist was without any law right or reason beheaded in Prison as though God had known nothing at all of him George Marsh Martyr Act. Mon. fol. 1423. Sol. but they are hardly put to 't in the mean while many of them and sorely vexed by the oppressions of their enemies who make pitifull havock of them and God regards it not First this is not for their diligence but negligence rather in the work of the Lord lazy servants must be quickned Secondly God hereby tryeth the truth and soundnesse of their graces makes it appear that they serve him for himself and not meerly for provender or for a whole skin as the Devil accused Job l Iob. 2.4 Thirdly God in humbling them remembreth them for his mercy endureth for ever m Psa 136.23 Is Ephraim my dear sonne is he a pleasant child for since 1 spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord n â—er 31.20 Lastly heaven will pay for all and the lesle they take up of their wages before hand the more they shall receive at the quarter day It we suffer together with him we shal be glorified together o Rom. 8.17 This made Abraham content to dwell in tents because he looked for a more enduring city p Heb. 11.9.10 Moses chose the repreach of Christ the worst part of him before the honour of Pharaoh's court this when he was no baby neither but at mans estate q Heb. 11.24 c. and therfore knew well what he did and all because he had respect to the recompence of Reward This made the beleeving Hebrewes suffer with joy the spoiling of their goods as knowing that they had in heaven abetter and more enduring substance r Heb. 10.34 Nudus opum sed cui coelum terraeque paterent De Archimede suo Silius lib. 14. Ezekiel willing to deliver an unpleasing message and suffer for it too because God took him up and let him heare the noise of a great rushing saying Blessed be the glory of the Lord Å¿ Ezek. 3 12 Nay our Saviour Christ helped himself over the hardship of his crosse by casting his eye upon the Crown leaving us an example to follow a copie t â— Pet. 2.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to write after And indeed it is a matter passing difficult to obey God when carnall reason suggesteth likely hood or damage or other danger But if it were a sufficient reason to move Jacob to neglect his stuffe in the land of Canaan because Pharaoh promised him the best things of Egypt u Gen. 45.20 How much more should the assurance of heaven that true treasure make us carelesse of this earthly trash How should the very fore-thought of that exceeding exceeding weight of glory x 2 Cor. 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There ye have an elegant treble Antithefis double hyperbole beyond englishing A superlative transcendent phrase saith one such as is not to be found in all the Rhetorike of the Heathens because they never wrote of such a theme nor with such a spirit make us plentifull in Gods worke cause and even compell us to hear much pray much live holily deale uprightly be constant and abundant in well-doing what ever come of it Not standing upon the worlds censure who are apt enough to call thee foole for thy forwardnesse and two fooles for thy foole-hardinesse so they usually call and count the care of good conscience and courage in a good cause let them work on and spare not but scare thou God and against all their * Nigro carbone notandus Juven black coles comfort thy self with bis white
self as is above said it noteth out also 1. all that is or can be known concerning God by the reasonable creatour * Rom. 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are his essentiall Attributes communicable and incommunicable Indeed they are all incommunicalbe to speak properly and as the thing is for they are infinitely otherwise in God then thy are in the creature in whom they are only by some 〈◊〉 resemblance and proportion These are his Simplenes Infinitenes Life Love Wisdome Power Holinesse Justice Goodnesse c. All which are but one in God for whatsoever is in God is God they are distinguished only for our better apprehension the Lord speaking to us of these things as divers one from another only in regard of our shallow capacities And this truth though we cannot so well comprehend yet we are bound to beleeve n Philip. 3.12 Credise vult Deus non examinari non judicari Aug. Our safest eloquence concerning God is our silence Hooker Deus sphaera est cujus centrum ubique peripheria nusquam Empedocles though we cannot subdue it to our understandings yet we must strive to be subdue unto it Here then think of God as one not to be thought of as one whose wisdome is his justice whose justice is his power whose power is his mercy and all himself Good without quality great without quantity everlasting without time present every where without place contayning all things and yet sustayn'd of nothing And here the well is deep and we want a bucket o Joh. 4.11 A wise ignorance therefore in these high points is better then a foolish wisdome It is sufficient here that we be of Gods Court thogh we be not of his Councel * We cansee but his back-parts and live and we need see no more that we may live But secondly Gods Name as it notes out the properties of God so his Ordinances also I mean all these means whereby he is pleased to manifest himself unto the world As 1. his works whether common to the world as Creation and providence the making and maintyning of all things by both which he may be groped out p Act. 17 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh in the dark or rather he is made visible q Rom. 1.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We cannot see the Sun in rota as the School-men speak that is in the eircle wherein it runs but only the beams of it No more can we see God in his essence you may see him in his word in his works c. Preston of Gods Attributes as the same Apostle saith elsewhere to the dimmest eye as the beams of the Sun are by reflection or as letters refracted and broken in a pair of spectacles And here in contemplating these generall works of God remember to tast the sweetnesse of God in the creature and to delight thy self more in a spirituall then in a naturall use of the same Secondly those works are Gods Name that are more proper and peculiar to the Church such as are Predestination Redemption Justification Sanctification c. Precious blessings and never enought thought upon and admired no though we should think upon nothing else all the dayes of our lives nay as long as the dayes of heaven shall last as that Martyr once said These are the works of God Secondly his word r Act. 9.15 Mal. 1.9 7 11 12 Micah 4.5 and all other means of salvation as the Sacraments Prayer discipline c. with whatsoever belongeth else to Christian religion is comprised under this Name of God Her 's a large field then of matter you see wherein you may freely and fruitfully expatiate and feed your thoughts with these sweetest varieties and most necessary pleasant profitable and excellent objects And to them that think upon these good things shall be mercy and truth ſ Prov. 14.22 SECT IX 2. For the manner of doing this duty well both for substance and circumstance BUt then secondly see as wel to the manner as matter of your meditaion For it is the manner that makes or marrs every action of religion and as a good garment may be marr'din the making so may a good duty in the doing The rules here to be observed if we would do this good work well concerne 1. the circumstances 2. substance of this service The circumstances are time and place For the time first there must be a taking heed lest at any time there be in us an evill heart of unbeleef to depart away from the living God t Heb. 3.12 But besides a continuall care of keeping alwayes a good conscience and communion with God and of raysing up the heart by occasionall meditation taken up from matters ever where occurring and offering themselves to our senses that may minde us of God as the spirituall mans fire will ever be aspiring Nehemiah u Neh. 2.2 for instance that man of ejaculations and much acquaintance with God But besides this I say there must be a set and solemn thinking upon Gods Name on sett purpose all the powers of the soul being concentricke and drawn into one point that we may attend upon God all the while as near as may be without distraction x 1 Cor. 7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore I should judge it fit that some convenient portion of time should be redeemed from other occasions and purposely allotted and appointed for the better and more thorough discharge of this most necessary but yet much neglected duty Secondly for the place where we meditate let it be retired and secret for the preventing of distraction which else will certainly grow upon us by the singular policy and malice of the devil who taking all advantages of our carnality and knowing how near and familiar earthly things are to our senses how remote and supernaturall heavenly things y Prov. 24.7 he labours therefore all he can by outward objects to distract and divide * Divide regna Machia Anima dispersa fit minor the faculties of the soul by uncomely motions and impertinent thoughts so to slaken the earnestnesse of our affections and bereave us if possible of the benefit of our best meditations Retire we therefore into some secret place whensoever wee would meditate Peter did it upon the leads z Acts 10.9 Isaac in the field a Gen. 24 63 David in his closet b Psal 4.4 Jacob upon the high-way to Mesopotamia c Gen. 21.12 to whom therefore so good a day was followed with so sweet a night For he saw the blessed Angels climbing up and down that sacred ladder at the top whereof is the Father the whole length whereof is the Son the Spirit firmly fastning all such thereunto as duely meditated that they may bee transported unto blisse eternall Now in the next place for the substance of this duty let it be done in manner and form following First cheerfully for God
the walls of Jericho But what matter is it how unlikely the means are if in the hands of Omnipotency An Ox-goad in the hand of a Shamgar an Asse-bone in the hand of a Sampson may do much so here The Devil must needs down if God once send forth his Pauls to open mens eyes to turn them from darknesse to light Acts 26.18 and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Oh Obj but the Devil tells me I shall never inherit for I am not sanctified by faith Settle that first be sure by sound and infallible evidences Sol. See that thy faith and other graces be of the right stamp effectuall faith laborious love patient hope c. 1 Thes 1.3 and then sing a Requiem to thy self as Luther once did after a grievous conflict the Psalm De profundis Joh Manly loc com in contemptum Diaboli in defiance to the Devil Onely be advised not to pore over-much upon thy sanctification which in the best is unperfect but to take comfort of thy Justification which is compleat and absolute In confident consideration whereof St. Paul triumphantly cries out Rom. 8.33 34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen so long as it is God that justifieth Or as Austin reads it Shall God that justifies us Who is he that condemneth Do Angels No they rejoyce in our conversion and call us their fellow-servants But who then Do the insensible or unreasonable creatures They in their kind are in covenant with us Hos 2.18 and in earnest expectation groan nay travell together with us waiting and as it were lying bed-ridden the while for our full manifestation â—â—en the redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.19 c. But who is it then Do our own hearts condemn us No neither if not bemisted and abused by Satan for being justified by faith we have so farre peace with God that we glory in tribulation by the confident intergatory of a good conscience toward God Rom. 5.1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Joh. 3.20 But say our own hearts do wrongfully accuse us yet God is greater then our hearts as well for good as for evil to do us right notwithstanding a misgiving or misguided heart of our own But say then who is he that condemneth us Is it the Devil and his wicked imps Let them do their worst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 12. He is indeed the accuser of the brethren but Christ our Advocate is ever ready to non-suit and cast out all his accusations The Spirit also is in direct and full opposition to this Accuser called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter or Pleader for us Yea what apology or clearing of your selves Rev. 12.10 pleading our evidences to our spirits and helping us upon true repentance to make apology for our selves 2 Cor. 7.11 such as God admits of and accepts As for that old Serpent the Accuser of the brethren he is cast down already and all his limbs shall bee cast after him ere long into the burning lake In the mean while what cares the prisoner at the barre though the gaoler and his fellow-prisoners passe sentence of death upon him in the gaole so long as the Judge acquits him from the bench And as little need any servant of the Lord of Hosts stand upon the censurs of earth and hell so long as God thinks well of him and all the Hosts of God combine for his comfort Oh Obj but I have hosts within me that do me all the despite and displeasure The flesh lusteth against the spirit and other-whiles gets the better of it Besides there be bands of fleshly lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 which like armed souldiers lie billetted in my bosome and ever and anon fight against my soul Yet bee of good comfort the spirit also lusteth against the flesh so that thou canst not do what thou naturally wouldest Sol. Gal. 5.17 thy new nature will not suffer thee as Paul would have gone to a certain place but the Spirit forbade him As for thy lusts be they never so lordly God can easily cut the combes nay the throats of them and let out their life-blood My Father is stronger then all and None can take you out of his hands The weak brother shall be holden up amidst a world of scandals without Joh. 10 Rom. 14.4 and staggerings within for God is able to make him stand He can preserve a fire alive upon the face of the Ocean a spark of the spirit amidst a world of wickednesse within He can cause weak and worthlesse grashoppers to become a great nation Ioel 1.6 a mighty people chap. 2.2 a huge army ib. Esay 30.22 Psal 19.5 He can make the house of Israel pollute the idols which they had once perfumed with incense and to say to their familiar devils get thee hence He can stop or strike back the course of the Sun though it rejoyce as a strong man to run his race Naturally and freely it giveth light but he can turn it into darknesse and blood The mountains of themselves are ponderous and pressing yet at Gods command they skip like lambs Think the same of our dull and undutiful hearts God can quickly oyl them and nimble them drawing us by his free spirit so as we shall run after him as a baldder of it self is a heavy substance and unapt for motion but being filled with winde it will scarce ' bide in a place So we being filled with the holy Ghost shall finde our feet as hinds feet upon the everlasting mountains no longer shackled by corruption Psal 119. but at very good liberty to run the wayes of Gods commandments It s most sure we are not strained at all in God but in our own bowels He is both able and ready both to cover and cure our sins and sicknesses In the dayes of his flesh he offered himself to his patients and was found of them that sought him not He heal'd them also of diseases hereditary and such as all the Physitians in the countrey might have cast their caps at Now he hath lost nothing by heaven you may be sure neither of his will nor skill to do the same cures upon mens souls as once he did upon their bodies nay he cured their bodies onely in reference to their souls and still hangs out his table of cures Math. 8.17.18 to draw custome Rev. 3.18 Lo thus we have searched and so it is Hear it and know it for thy good Iob. 5.27 CHAP. II. The Lord will finde a fit time to make up his jewels from the worlds misusages And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels Doct GOd is the Lord of hosts This is a point hath been hitherto proved and improved Followes now a second Observation Confirmat
doest fret Why doest faint Hope in God for I shall yet praise him c. Should I conclude that it will never be better with me either I should deny that I am Gods child and one of his Jewels which were to bely my self and deny the work of Gods grace in my soul or basely and blasphemously to joyne with those ranke Atheists above-mentioned that charge him with heedlesnes and improvidence as one that laid his Jewels at his heels and cared not what became of them Which were to set my mouth against heaven and like a breathing-devill to bely the Almighty whose secret is upon my tabernacle Iob 29.4 that is his secret and singular providence who ordereth my down-sitting and mine uprising Psal 139.2 who cutteth out my whole condition and not only keepeth my bones not one of them is broke but numbreth all my haires not one of them is missing Things are therefore numbred that none of them may be diminished Lo the hairs of our heads are numbred as the three childrens were in the Babylonish furnace not one of them can fall to the ground without your heavenly father And if not a hair much less the head it self Mat. 10.29 Zion may say The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lordâ—hath forgotten me But that was but her mistake and misprision of the matter Esay 49.14 Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not utterly cast off his people nor forsake his inheritance for ever For a small moment he may forsake them to their thinking but with great mercy will he gather them In a little wrath he may hide his face from them for a moment Esay 54.7 8 Esay 57.16 but with everlasting kindnesse will he have mercy on them He will not contend for ever nor be alwayes wroth for the spirit should faile before him When the childe swouns in the whipping God le ts fall the rod and falls a kissing it to fetch life into it again In some diseases blood must be let usque ad deliquium till the patient faint again Yet it is a rule in Physick still to maintain nature so doth God uphold the spirits of his children by cordials of consolation in their deepest affliction This we should never doubt of but constantly shame and shent our selves in Gods presence for our forwardnesse and faintheartednesse SECT XI Exhortation to diligence in duty THe last use we shall put this point to for present Use 3 is an Exhortation to a double duty 1. Diligence in doing Gods will 2. Patience in suffering it For the first It 's encouragement enough to shew all good Conscience and fidelity in our generall and particular callings to consider that sooner or later God will not sail to requite our labour of love even to a cup of cold water or a bit of bread cast upon the waters and so cast away as a man would think but after many dayes thou shalt finde it Give a portion to seven and also to eight Eccles. 11.1 for he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he giveth will he pay him again Not down upon the naile it may be Prov. 19.17 but he is a sure and a liberall paymaster he gives double interest Mat. 19.29 nay a hundred fold here as Isaac had a hundred sold increase of the seed he sowed in the land of Canaan and eternall life hereafter When we have laid our grain in the ground we look not to see it the same day in the barne or garner as he saith of the Hyperborean people farr North that they sow shortly after fun-rising and reap before sun-set Heresbach de re rustica Spes alit agricolas spes sulcis credit aratis Semina quae magno foenore reddit ager Tibull for with them the whole half-yeer is but one continuall day but we are content to wait for a crop till the yeer be run about living in hope mean-while and therewith sustaining our selves And shall we not shew like patience in waiting Gods good leisure without being dismayed or dishartened though not presently requited light is sowen for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Lo it is but seed-time with the saints while here and that 's commonly a wet time and dropping But they that sow in tears shall reape in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtlesse come again with rejoycing Psal 126.5 6 Ob. Sol. Rev. 22.12 Act. 13.36 Act. 13.25 2 Tim. 4.7 8 Gal. 6.9 1 Cor. 15. ulc bringing his sheaves with him Ey but when Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give unto every man according to his works David served out his time and it entred into his masters joy Iohn Baptist did up his work and is gone to take up his wages St. Paul finished his course and hath received his crown Wherefore let us not be weary of well doing for in due season we shall surely reap if we faint not Yea be ye stedfast and unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. SECT XII Exhortation to patience in misery NExt let this Doctrine of gods day of delivering and doing good to his people patient our hearts and quietly compose our spirits in an humble submission to Gods holy hand and a hopefull expectation of the day of grace walking and waiting in the midst of our houses till he come unto us Psal 101.2 It is but a little while that we have to wait that he futures us yet and comes no sooner it is for the more effectuall triall of our faith and patience and for the better exercise of our hope and prayerfulnesse When that 's once done He will send his Mandamus as Psal 44.4 by some swift Gabriel who brought an answer to Daniels prayers with wearinesse of flight Dan. Esay 64.1 9.21 Yea he himself will break the heavens and come down he will come riding upon the wings of the wind he will come leaping as a hind over the mountains of Bether all lets and impediments to our relief and release In the Courts of Princes there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cant. 8 delayes and discardings But God is quick to help and constant in his care even when he seems to cast off hee hates putting away Jam. 5.7 whatever he makes shew of Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord saith St. James and sweeten your present tears yea though God should make you a diet-drink of them with the hope of future comforts Look upon the husband-man saith he who although his barn bee empty and his seed cast into the earth not yet appearing above ground yet hee waiteth for the crop and hath long patience for it untill he receive the former and latter rain Verse 8 And what of all this Be ye also patient therefore and stablish your hearts for the comming of
is diminished but he accounts himself damnified You know how dearly the proud Ammonites paid for the hair they shaved off from Davids servants 2 Sam. 10 Luke 18.7 1 Sam. 2 Psal 91 And shall not the son of David avenge his own elect though he beare long with them He keepeth the very feet of his Saints saith holy Hannah and chargeth his angels with them to beare them in their hands lest at any time they dash their feet against a stone If they stumble and fall yet they shall get up againe for the Lord puts under his hand Psal 37.24 Yea the everlasting armes are underneath Deut. 33.27 Am. 1â— They that swear by God and Malchom shall fall as old Eli did and never rise againe but the Saints of God though Ioseph-like they fall into a pit yet as prisoners of hope they shall come forth by the blood of the covenant Zach. 9.10 Good Mordecai a Jew may fall before a Persian and get up againe yea prevaile and prosper But if wicked Haman begin to fall before a Jew that is in covenant with God he can neither stay when he stumbles Esth 6.14 nor rise when he is down God himself is so far interested and ingaged in the quarrels of such as I was saying erewhile that who so toucheth them toucheth the ball of his Eye The eye is a tender part we know and a small matter offends it God is every whit as choice and as chary of his people What part is more sensible of the least touch then the eye or being hurt canseth greater smâ—rt and rage or if put out brings more deformity to the face God is as tender of us c Pemble on Zach. 2.8 as a man is of his eyes Now a good thump on the back is better borne then a light touch on the eye Take heed I advise you how you meddle with Gods Eye lest you heare of him to your cost For although we must turne t'other cheek also yet he will not take a blow on the eye for the proudest of them all No man will stand still while his eyes are pecked out much lesse will God Thou knowest saith dying David to his son Solomon what Ioab did to me He meaneth it of the slaugher of Abner and Amasa which David appropriats and makes it his own case The soveraigne is smitten in the subject neither is it other then just that the arraignement of mean Malefactours runs in the stile of wrong to to the Kings Crowne and dignity Gods people are his crowne let none presume to attempt against it his dignity his glory let none turne it into shame Psal 4.3 His pearles let no swine trample them his holy things let no dogs profane them by holding their lives madnesse and their ends without honour by speaking basely of their persons actions sufferings as if they were vile and inglorious It was an heavy indictment doubtlesse Psal 14.6 You have shamed the counsell of the poore because the Lord is his refuge Thus those miscreants that mocked and railed at Christ upon the crosse upbraided him not with any evill but only for the good he had done in saving others for his trust in God and prayers to God Thus also they deale with David they that render evill for good are mine adversaries or hate me like divels and why Psal 38.20 they satanically hate me Because I do the thing that good is And the very truth is that were wicked mens insides turned outward it would well appeare that when they disgrace those that make conscience of their waies under the infamous names of puritans singularitans zelots and the like termes of reproach it is for the good that is in them and for the true glory that God hath stamped upon their persons and performances This savours strongly of the Devill of hell Tertull. 1 Ioh. 3.12 Graecinum Julium virum egregium Caesar occidit ob hoc unum quod melior vir erat quam esse quemquam tyranno expediret Sen. l. 2. de benef c. 21. whose property it is to hate and persecute any footstep of Gods holy image where-ever he finds it as the Tigre if he see but the picture of a man he flies upon it and tears it to peeces And it proves men to be the posterity of Cain the devils Patriarch as one calls him who was of that wicked one of the serpents seed and slew his brother And wherefore slew he him but because his own works were evill and his brothers good That was all the quarrell then and is still All that viperous brood bear an aking tooth to the better sort they do maliciously and mortally hate all holy impressions of grace wrought upon any by the sanctifying spirit though they restrain sometimes the expression and exercise of this hatred for advantage and in policy by accident and for by-respects it may be SECT 8. 9. 10. Exhortation to honour them that fear the Lord and what great cause men have and shall have so to do LEt us that know and professe better things approve our selves to be of the family of heaven Use 3 and followers of God as dear children by contemning a vile person though never so glorious a magnifico in the worlds eye and esteem but honouring them that fear the Lord though never so much under-prized and vilipended by the wicked of the earth This is a note of Gods houshold-servant Psal 15.4 Nabal shall not be stiled Nadtb 1 Ioh. 4.17 1 Pet. 2.17 and of one that hath share in Christs kingdome wherein the vile person shall no more be called liberall nor the churle bountifull Esay 32.5 Further would we have boldnesse in that last and great day and be able to lift up our faces before the son of man let love be perfect in us toward the brotherhood loving them in truth and for the truths sake and being ready to serve the saints in love to wash yea to kisse their very feet and to lay down our lives for the brethren if called thereunto And because this can never be done except men see more in them then ordinary to move them labour and learne to know the price of a saint and to esteem them very highly in love for their worths sake The Jews tell us and truly that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as much worth as all the seventy Nations of the world besides It is not for nothing sure that the saints are called All things Coloss 1.20 and Every creature Mar. 16.15 Mat. 5. Is 6.11 statumen terrae Tren and the salt of the earth that keep the rest from putre fying the substance and support of the earth that keep the rest from shattering I bear up the pillars of it saith David and the Innocent delivereth the Island saith Eliphaz Iob. 22.30 For their sakes it is that God spares and prospers the wicked as he did Laban for Iacobs sake Potiphar for Iosephs Sodom for Lots when they were
over with flowers magnified dung guilded rottennes golden damnation who knowes not how sharply St. James takes up the partiall Christians of his time for admiring mens ease wealth and pomp rather then grace and true spirituall worth This saith he is to despise Christs poor and to be judges of evill thoughts Tanti vitrum â— quanti Margaritum Melius est pallens aurum quam fulgens aurichalcum Ber. in cant 6. Davids desire by Rob. Abbots Vertue is a thousand Escucheons saith one and it is grace alone that animateth and ennobleth all other good parts and abilities which else are but as a glassy bugle saith Hierome after Tertullian to the pearle of price or as gold to brasse saith Barnard and a little of the palest and counterfeit gold is far better then much of the finest and brightest brasse so is the meanest of Gods servants better then the most magnificent glorious worlding that ever trod upon earthly mould and so let us esteeme them Mr. Fox when he was asked whether he knew a certain poore man who had received succour from in time of trouble answered I remember him well I tell you I forget Lords and Ladies to remember such SECT XI Exhortation to practise holinesse that is so honoured FOurthly are those that are sound faithfull so highly honoured in heaven Vse 4 This me-thinks should much raise the price of religion and bring godlinesse into greater request amongst all those that would be of any reckoning or repute with God at that day It will go to the hearts of ungodly men I wot well to see some of all sorts sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob Rev. 21.8 Job 29. in the kingdome of heaven and themselves shut out amongst dogs to see such as they would have disdained to have set with the dogs of their flocks to be set then upon thrones judging their judges and having power over the Nations to binde their Kings with chaines and their Nobles with fetters of iron To execute upon them the judgments written 1 Cor. 3 and yet this honour have all his Saints Psal 149.8 9. For know ye not saith the Apostle that the Saints shall judge the world yea the angels Who would not therefore rule with God as Iudah by labouring to be faithfull with his Saints Hos 11.12 We see with what a deal of eagernesse honours and offices rich prizes and great places are sought and pursued after Balaams asse never gallops fast enough to fetch in profit and preferment Set but a wedge of gold in sight and Ioshua that could stop the course of the Sun cannot stay Achan from courting and catching at it In cepeet allium impensa 1600 talenta in pyramidum una extruenda refert Heredot Viri beni aviditas tuta est Sene. epist 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambitiese quippiam contendere sic ut te non patiaris ab alio vinci Eras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sumpta est metaphora à procis Zelotypis Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 24.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subaudi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interea duut resurrectiouem expecto Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet what are riches and honours but golden gyves the Noble miseries of this wretched life And what do they that are so set upon them with the neglect of heavenly honours and that wealth of a better world but prefer the onions of Egypt before the bread of angels paltry pibbles before precious pearles thick clay before pure gold counterfeit coine before true treature Oh see and bewaile this so great a folly in your selves and others and for future learne to covet spirituals to be greedy of grace to encroach upon God for more and more of his favour and fellowship as Moses did Exod. 33.12 13 14 17 18 19. chap. 34.9 To be ambitious of peace 1 Thess 4.11 And of pleasing God 2 Cor. 5.9 To seek for honour and glory by well-doing Rom. 2.7 To be zealous of the better things 1 Cor. 12.31 To pursue after the perfect knowledge of Christ having it as it were in chase as St. Paul had Philip 3.4 .. as the hunter hath his prey or as the persecuter hath him that he persecuteth He had once been mad in persecuting the saints Acts 26.11 And breathed out threatnings lay panting as it were for breath like a tired wolfe Acts 9.1 2. Now when God had turned the streame he was judged by some as mad the other way 2 Cor. 5.13 Whilst knowing the terrour of the last day he perswaded men and in the meane-while he laid his policy and bent his best wits as the word there signifies to keep a good conscience that richest treasure and most precious Jewell that ever the heart of man was acquainted with SECT XII Why. TO quicken you to the pursuit and practise of this duty Consider that Grace is the only thing that God looks after in this world God looked down from heaven saith David upon the sons of men to see not who were wealthy witty mighty Psal 14.2 magnificent c. but to see if there were any that did understand or sought God And he bids the Propher Jeremy run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem to sâ—eâ—f he could finde a man Ier. 5 1 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog. Lucernâ accensâ Hominem quaâ—â—bat Aesopus Ipris â—â—stijs bestâ—â—â—â—or est hâ—mâ—â—â—atione vigers ratione non vivens Bern in Cant. 5 Ratione homines jurentis religione hommes hominibus antestant Boet de consol l 4. Pros 3. Vltra homines prove nit probitas sola infra horninem detrudit improbitas tb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. that is a righteous man that feareth God and kept his commandements Hoc est enim torus homo for this is the whole man saith Solomon And it is as if he should say He is not a compleat man that 's voyd of Gods holy fear framing him to obedience though otherwise never so west accomplished This is that whereby one man doth as far excell another as any man excells a beast saith Bernard and Boetius The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour laith Solomon let him dwell where he will He is of better birth and breeding of better alliance and atendance of better place and office of higher degree and dignity The Holy Ghost stileth such the Nobles of the earth Ps 16.3 honourable personages Psal 45.9 plants of renown Esay 5.3 privy-councellours to the great King Psal 25.14 Princes in all lands Psal 45.16 Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1.5 yea higher then heathen kings Psal 89.27 and better then those mighty Monarks Dan. 7.37 Where it is very remarkable that the Prophet having set forth the greatnesse and glory of the Princes Potentates and mighty states in the four Monarchies comes to speak at last of a kingdome which is the greatest under the whole heaven and that is the kingdome of the saints of the most High Hence is
kings as Iosephus relates it He was faithfull in all Gods house as a servant Joh. 8.35 but that was not all For the servant abideth not in the house for ever as the son doth Moreover the kings of the earth take tribute of their servants and subjects but their children go free Mat. 17.26 Behold Gods children are all manumitted by Christ and possessed of a twofold freedome 1. Multò plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae Gerson Privative from the dominion and damnation of sin from the rigour and irritation of the law from the captivity and cruelty of the devill from the danger of death and horrour of hell c. This is a priviledge far beyond that of a citizen of Rome which yet might neither be suffered to beg nor be bound with thongs Act. 22.29 Rom. 8. And this is that the Apostle calls the glorious liberty of the sons of God as elsewhere he couples Adoption with glory Rom. 9.4 includes it in glory Rom. 8.30 and puts it for glory Rom. 8.23 Freed Gods children are not I confesse of crosses and corrections for then were they bastards and not sons He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Joh. 14.18 but he never leaveth them orphans helpelesse comfortlesse In the midst of desertion the sorest kinde of affliction they may nay they must call him Father and ask him blessing Esay 64.7 8 9. and he knowes not how to say them nay coming unto him in that name and under that notion Should a parent see his sick childe pant and look pittifully cry out as once the Shunamites son to his father O my head my head my heart is sick my head is heavy I am weary with paines what shall I do where shall I rest c. He could not turn his back upon him and neglect his moans much lesse could he continue to strike him lifting up his feeble hands for mercy and looking upon him with watery eyes but would rather set himself to seek out and to do him all possible ease and comfort Hic cum triste aliquid staruit fit tristis ipsa Cuique ferè poenam sumere poena fua est Ovid. 2 de Pont eleg 2. To say God hath cast you off because he hath hid his face is a fallacy fetcht out of the Devils Topicks And shall not the God of all mercy and the Father of all consolation pity his poor children that are distressed or diseased and send deliverance Will he not melt over his childe and burn his rod Will he not hold him up with one hand as he did Iacob when he beats him down with the other will he not look through the chinkers to see how we do when he hath shut us up close prisoners will he not deal by us as the mother deals by her little-one makes him beleeve she will cast him away to the puttock or pitch him headlong into the pool when yet she keeps fast hold on him 2. Positive and so he is made a free-denison of Jerusalem that is above and possessed of all the priviledges of that supernall citty See a brief extract of them in that 1 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are yours A very large charter All illuminations inspirations gifts and graces of the spirit gifts of Gods ministers and the abler sort of Christians all these are not more their own then yours to use you have title to them and interest in them and may claime them for your own Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world you are heirs of it together with faithfull Abraham Or life grace to spend it well or death to the wicked a trap-dore to hell Janua vita porta coeli Bern. but to the saints an inlet into eternall happines or things present all occurrences are sanctified to you or things to come heaven waits for you hell hath nothing to do with you Thus all is yours as the Apostle there reiterates it though not in possession unlesse it be in our Head yet in use in right or by way of reduction as we say the worst things are Gods childrens they are heirs of the kingdome saith Iames heads destinated to the diadem Jam. 2.5 Serms non valet exprimere experimento opus est Chrys Lati simus non securi gaudentes in spiritu sancto scd tamen caventes à recidivo Bern. saith Tertullian Their priviledges as sons are fitter to be beleeved then possible to be discoursed And this should make them hold up their heads but not too high and be cheerfull but not withall scornefull CHAP. V. God will pity and pardon his people their wants and weaknesses And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him HOw graciously God will deal with his dear children in respect of their pious performances is here sweetly set forth by an exquisite simile Shindler Pentag miserebor misericordia commovebor Figuier Clementiâutar Trem. polan. In quo duplex est aemoris ratio c. Figuier De Cartulone filio à patre Machaeo ob contemptum cruci affixo lege Just lib. 18. Heb. 13.18 from the dealing of an indulgent father with his obsequious childe I will spare them saith he nay that 's not full enough I will pardon and pity them I will commiserate and compassionate them as Pharaohs daughter once did the forlorne infant she found among the flags I will use clemency and shew kindnesse unto them And how As a man doth to his own son that serves him In which comfortable expression there is a double declaration saith an Interpreter of Gods fatherly affection as thus We cannot but shew love even to a stranger that observes us As o' tother side we dislike and detest even a son that slights us But a son and a serviceable son what father can chuse but love and like well of And shall God the father of all the father-hoods in heaven and earth shew lesse love to his obedient children that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing at least to keep a good conscience and are faithfull in weaknesse though weak in faith No but he will kindly accept of what they are able and remit the rest He will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him Than the which I know not what the good Lord could have spoken more effectually for the setting forth of his own fatherly compassion or for the setting of our hearts in sound consolation Take it thus God will surely shew like mercy and mildenesse to his obedient children in Doct their faults and faculties in their wants and weaknesses as the kindest father would do to his dearest son that serves him SECT 1.2.3.4 Reasons from God out of Micah 7.18 19. THis is no new doctrine for besides that the Text is for us in so many words almost the man whose eyes are open hath said it He hath said Num. 23.21 who heard the words of God who saw the visions of the Almighty God
willing in all things to keep a good conscience pleasing God Lo the very will to do well pleaseth God if sincere and seconded with strifes and attended with grief for coming short of what we should do Hearty humiliation under weaknesse in well-doing is as true a signe of sanctification and fruit of conversion as abilitie to do better â—ow I demand which of Gods children doth not thus much and whether in doing hereof they cannot or at least may not finde sweetest acceptance and surest recompence Consider is not Abraham said to have sacrificed his son Heb. 11.11 because he would have done it And for David had not he for his bare purpose of building God an house this promise made him that God would build his house for ever And albeit that very purpose of his was ignorantly and fondly taken up as wanting warrant from God 2 Sam. 7.7 yet the Lord both graciously approves it for thou didst well saith he in that thou wast so minded 2 Chron. 6.8 1 Chron. 6.13 and bountifully rewards it by fulfilling that with his hand that he had promised with his mouth as Solomon thankfuly acknowledgeth God takes not advantages against his servants as he might but makes the best of every thing where the heart is upright The good women that came with their spices to embalm our Saviours dead body should have known that God would not suffer his holy one to see corruption Psal 16. thaâ— his body could not have putrified it was their ignorance and yet they are commended for their good intentions So afterwards Luk. 24.1 when they came to look for the living among the dead they deserved a chiding for not remembring what he had foretold them of his resurrection but receive a comforting from the Angels Math. 28.5 The preparations of the heart are of great price with God Esay 55.1 Jer. 30.2 Hath he not promised to blesse our buds Es 44.2 3 4. so that we shall grow up as the willows by the water-courses to be as the dew to his people so that they shall grow as the lilly and cast forth their roots as Lebanon Hos 14 4 5. to open a door to such as have but a little strength and such a door as none can shut Rev. 3.8 9 Phil. 4.19 to supply all our necessities out of the riches of his glory Hath he said all this for our encouragement who is the Amen the faithful and true witnesse and shall we not by faith subscribe seal to it Do we yet doubt and demur with Zachary do we yet stagger at the promises with Sarah do we question Gods either power or patience with Moses at Meribab Oh take heed lest a promise Luk. 1 nay a covenant which is a whole bundle of promises lie a cluster of the grapes of Canaan a league of love being left us any of us should seem to fall short through unbelief Heb. 4.1 Certain it is that God that will bear much with his children in other cases can least of all brook their unbelief For this is as for a childe to question his fathers love though he protest it never so deeply which is an extream provocation Hence his severity to his best servants for offending in this kinde Zachary shall speak no more words for nine moneths because he beleeved not the Angels words that spake good unto him Sarah is checkt for her laughing at the unlikely hood though â—he overcame the doubt judged him faithfull that had promised and by her faith received power to conceive seed Those two disciples going to Emaus heard Heb. 11.11 O fooles and slow of heart c. and the other eleven were reproved for their unbeleef Mar. 16.14 Moses also and Aaron were denyed the comfort of an earthly Canaan because they beleeved not God to sanctify him at the rock Rimmon Deut. 32.52 1 Cor. 10.11 Now all these things hapned unto them for types to us and are written for our admonition c. Be not ye therefore unbeleevers but beleeve turne not the back of the hand to the promise that as a staffe should support you spoile not your soules by a cruell modesty by a false humility of the comfort God affords you but having found hony Colos 2 Prov. 25.16 eate it beleeve the prophets and ye shall prosper see your names written in this and other precious promises and if ye cannot out-reason the devill who seekes to unsettle you yet out-will him and say I will not be blasted out of my beliefe I will not cast away my confidence or be drawne from the hornes of the Altar Christ Jesus If I must dye I will dye at his feet who hath promised to spare me as a man spareth his own son that serveth him SECT X. Reproofe of such as uncharitably censure others LAstly such are here met with as superciliously censure others for those things that God is content to passe by and pardon in them that will needs be many masters Jam. 3.1 as St. James hath it and judge another mans servant that step into Gods seat of judicature and presume to passe hard sentence upon their fellow servants because not so forwardly and forth-putting as themselves forsooth Yea there want not such unbridled spirits as stick not to forestall the angels office of severing the elect from the reprobats to condemne the race of the righteous to excommunicate them for some srailties and infirmities out of their consciences and companies yea to unchurch them and to unbrother them in a passion despising Christs little ones casting dirt on his Jewels and estranging themselves from such in affection in countenance in society for every small infirmity as if they were akin to those hypocrits in Esay that cry stand apart Esay 65.5 Jude 19. or those wandring starres in St. Jude that separate themselves sensuall having not the spirit which yet they make great boasts of or at least to those inconsiderat sons of Zebedee who would needs have fet fire from heaven straight were therefore told Luk. 9.54 ye know not of what spirit ye be Not of his spirit surely that came not to be served but to serve not to judge but to save For cure of this corrupt humour Consider 1. Is this to be followers of God as deare children and to walk as we have him for an example Or would you be content God should deale thus rigidly with you I trow not He seeth noe sin in his children such is his love and and shall we be juster then God Christ will not quench but cherish the least spark of grace that is in any and shall we be wiser then Christ The holy ghost disdaines not to dwell in the darke and smoaky chambers of their hearts And shall we be holier then he Zach. 4.10 who is this that hath despised the day of small things for they shall rejoyce c. saith God to those Jewes that wept and slighted the second temple