aske what he would asked nothing but that the Church might be disempestered of Arians And when the Emperour being himself an Arian tore his Petition he said he would never aske any thing for himself if he might not prevaile for the Church Theodor. l. c. 32. So I prayed to the God of heaven Darting up an ejaculation a sudden and secret desire to God to order and speed his Petition Begin all with prayer and then expect a blessing Call in the Divine help if it be but by darting out our desires to God Crebras habere orationes sed brevissimas raptim ejaculatas Thus Moses cryed to God yet said nothing Exod. 14.15 Hannah was not heard and yet she prayed Austin reports the custome of the Egyptian Churches to pray frequently and fervently but briefly and by way of ejaculation ne fervor languesceret lest their heat should abate Verse 5. If it please the King Silken words must be given to Kings as the mother of Darius said neither must they be rudely and roughly dealt with as Joab dealt with David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 19.5 who therefore could never well brook him afterward but set another in his place And if thy servant have found favour Pellican observeth here that Nehemiah was a great favourite of this Kings as appeareth in that having so many Nobles he chose him to this Office rather then any of them He therefore pleads it as a pledge of further favour so may we with God as being no small favourites in the beloved One Ephesians 1.5 That thou wouldest send me unto Judah Not only give me leave to go but also send me with a Commission to be Governour This was a bold request but modestly proposed and easily obtained The King is not he that can deny you any thing Jer. 38.5 Love is liberal charity is no churle Verse 6. And the King said unto me He yeelds for the thing only indents for the time as being loth to deny Nehemiah his suit and yet as loth to forgo so faithful a servant Ipse aspectus viri boni delectat Seneca The Queene also sitting by him And assisting his cause likely Some think this was Esther the Queen-mother But the Hebrew word here is Wife Now the Kings of Persia were noted for uxorious For how long c. The departure of a dear friend is so grievous that Death it self is called by that name So it pleased the King to send me As a Governour chap. 5.14 This was the fruit of prayer and therefore so much the sweeter And I set him a time sc Twelve years chap. 5.14 But more probably a shorter time at first Verse 7. Moreover I said unto the King He taketh further boldnesse upon the former encouragement so may we with Almighty God the Sunne of our righteousnes the Sea of our salvation Conclude as she did A company comes God never left bating till Abraham left begging Let letters be given me to the Governours Those nearest neighbours but greatest enemies That they may conveigh me over He committed himself to God and yet petitions the King for a Convoy In all our enterprizes God is so to be trusted as if we had used to means and yet the means is so to be used as if we had no God to trust in Verse 8. Epit Hâ—st Gall c. 114. Keeper of the Kings forrest Heb. Paradise probably so called for the pleasantnesse of it The French Protestants called their Temple or Church at Lyons Paradise Davids delight Psal 27. and 84. Of the palace that appertained to the house Id est To the Temple which is called The house by an excellency as the Scriptures are called the Bible that is the Book as being the onely best Book in comparison whereof all other books in the World are no better then wast paper And for the house that I shall enter into Id est A dwelling house for my self when once the publike is served Junius understands it of a Common-hal or Shire-house wherein he might sit and judge causes brought before him And the King granted me It was but ask and have and so it is betwixt God and his people When there was a speech among some holy men what was the best trade One answered Beggery it is the hardest richest trade Common beggery is indeed the poorest and easiest but prayer he meant A courtier gets more by one sute oft then a tradesman or merchant haply with twenty years labour so doth a faithfull prayer c. According to the good hand He calleth him his God as if he loved or cared more for him then for the rest of the World It is the property of true faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make all its own that it can lay hold upon See the Note on Ezra 7.6 Vers 9. Then I came to the Governours Josephus saith that the next day he took his journey and delivered his letters to Saddeus Governour of Syria Phoenicia and Samaria A strange example saith one to see a Courtier leave that wealth ease and authority that he was in and go dwell so far from Court in an old Torn and decayed City among a rude poor people where he should not live quietly but toyl and drudge like a day-labourer in dread and danger of his life But this is the case of earnest and zealous men in Religion c. Now the King had sent Captains This was more then Nehemiah had desired and as much as he could have done for the greatest Lord in the Land God is likewise usually better to his people than their prayers and when they ask but one talent he Naaman-like will force them to take two Verse 10. When Sanballet the Horonite That is the Moabite Isa 15.5 Jer. 48.3 5.34 His name signifieth saith one a pure Enemy he was come of that spiteful people who were anciently irked because of Israel Num. 22.3 4. or did inwardly fret and vex at them as Exod. 1.12 who yet were allied unto them and did them no hurt in their passage by them yea had done them good by the slaughter of the Amorites their encroaching Neighbours And Tobiah the servant A servant or bond-slave once he had been though now a Toparch a Lieutenant to the King of Persia Now such are most troublesome Prov. 30. ver 22. Asperius nihil est humili cùm surgit in altum A' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio. lib. 60. Rer. Rom. Heard it As they might soon do by means of their Wives who were Jewesses And the Jewes to this day are generally found the most nimble and Mercurial wits in the World Every Visier and Basha of State among the Turkes useth to keep a Jew of his private counsel whose malice wit and experience of Christendome with their continual intelligence is thought to advise most of that mischief which the Turk puts in execution against us Blounts Voyâ— P. 114. It grieved them exceedingly Heb. It seemed to them an
measure to trust in it that is to think our selves simply the better and the safer for it as our Saviour sheweth and this Disciples after some wonderment at length understood him so Mark 10.23 24. Hence that strict charge 1 Tim. 6.17 And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Contrary to Jer. 9.23 This Psalm sets forth the better gloriation of a Beleever in the grace of God and in his blessed condition wherein he is lifted up above the greatest Worldings Vers 7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother And therefore all Mony that hath been given for Masses Diriges Trentals c. hath been cast away seeing Christ is the only Redeemer and in the other World Mony beareth no Mastery neither can a man buy off death though hee would give never so much Death will not regard any Ransome neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts as Solomon saith in another case Prov. 6.35 Fye quoth that great Cardinal Beanford will not Death be hired Act. Mon. in H. 6. Will Mony do nothing Wherefore should I dye being so rich If the whole Realm would save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it c. Lewis the Eleventh would not hear of death all the time of his last Sickness but when he saw there was no remedy he sent for the Holy Water from Rhemes together with Aarons rod as they called it and other holy Reliques Epit. Hist Gall. Balth. Exner. Val. Max. Christ p. 391. thinking therewith to stop Deaths mouth and to stave him off but it would not be O Miser saith one thereupon hoc assidue times quod semel faciendum est Hoc times quod in tua mann est ne timeas Pietatem assume superstitionem omitte mors tua vita erit quidem beata atque eterna Vers 8. For the redemption of their soul is precious i.e. the price of life is greater than that any man how wealthy soever can compass it Mony is the Monarch of this World but not of the next And it ceaseth for ever i.e. The purchase of a longer life ceaseth there is no such thing beleeve it Job 36.18 19. Deut. 23.22 Zech. 11.12 To blame then were the Agrigentines who did eat build plant c. as though they should live for ever Vers 9. That be should still live for ever As every wicked man would if it might be had for mony for he knoweth no happiness but to Have and to Hold on the tother side the Grave he looketh for no good whereas a godly manholdeth mortality a Mercy as Phil. 1.23 he hath Mortem in desiderio vitam in patientin as Fulgentius saith he desireth to dye and yet is content to live accepting of life rather than affecting it enduring it rather than desiring it And not see corruption Heb. The pit of corruption The Chaldee understandeth it of Hell to the which the wicked mans death is as a trap-door Vers 10. For he seeth that wise men dye likewise the fool This to be a truth etiam muta clamant cadavera the dead Corpses of both do preach and proclaim by a dumb kinde of eloquence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death maketh no difference Pallida mors equo c. It is appointed for all men once to dye It lieth as a mans Lot as the word signifieth Heb. 9.27 and all men can say We are all mortal but alas we say it for most part Magis us◠quam sensu more of custom than feeling for we live as if our lives were rivetted upon Eternity and we should never come to a reckoning Heu vivunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Ant velut infernus fabula vana foret And the bruitish person perish His life and his hopes ending together But it would be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wise men dye as well as fools good men dye as well as bad yea good men oft before the bad Isa 57.1 Jeroboams best Son dyed before the rest because there was some good found in him And leave their wealth to others Nec aliis solùm sed alienis to meer strangers this Solomon sets forth as a great vanity It was therefore a good speech of a holy man once to a great Lord who had shewed him his stately House and pleasant Gardens You had need make sure of Heaven or else when you dye you will be a very great loser Vers 11. Their inward thought is that their houses c. Some joyn this verse to the former and read the words thus Where as each of them seeth that wise men dye likewise the fool c. yet their inward thought is c. they have a secret fond conceit of their own immortality they would fain beleeve that they shall dwell here for ever The Hebrew runneth thus Their inwards are their houses for ever as if their houses were got within them as the Pharisees goods were Luke 11.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So here Internum vel interiora not the thoughts only but the very inmost of the thoughts of wicked Worldlings the most retired thoughts and recesses of their souls are about these earthly things these lye nearest to their hearts as Queen Mary said when she dyed Open me and you shall find Calice at my heart It was a pittiful case that a rotten town lay where Christ should and yet it is ordinary They call their Lands after their own names So to make them famous and to immortalize them at once Thus Cain called his new-built City Enoch after the name of his Son whom he would thereby have to be called Lord Enoch of Enoch This is the ambition still of many that take little care to know that their names are written in Heaven but strive to propagate them as they are able upon Earth Nimrod by his Tower Absolom by his Pillar Alexander by his Alexandria Adrian by his Adrianople c. But the name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10.7 and those that depart from God shall be written in the earth Jer. 17.13 c. Vers 12. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not Howsoever he think to eternalize himself and be grown never so great dye he must whether Lord or Losel and dye like a beast a carrion beast unless he be the better man but only for his pillow and bolster At one end of the Library at Dublin was a Globe at the other a Skeliton to shew that though a man was Lord of all the World yet hee must dye his honour must be laid in the dust The mortal Sythe saith one is master of the royal Scepter and it moweth down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the field Perperam accommodatur bic versiculus saith another this verse is not well interpreted of the first man Adam to prove that he sinned the same day wherein he was Created and lodged not one night in Paradise He
NOw Heb. And for the former History recorded in the Chronicles is continued by Ezra that ready Scribe and perfect in the Law Chap. 7.6 Yet not so prompt or perfect can I deeme him as that he should by memory restore the Bible that was burnt together with the Temple Irenae Tertuil Clem. Alexi Hieron Aug. Euseb Alsted Chron pag. 267. Acts Mon. by the Babylonians And yet that was the opinion of many Ancients grounded upon some passages in that Apocryphal Esdras We reade also of one Johannes Gatius Ciphaleditanus who out of the vaine confidence of his learning and memory was wont to give out that if the Holy Scripture should be lost out of the world he would not doubt by Gods grace to restore it whole again Of Cranmer indeed a far better man and a profounder Divine it is storied that he had got most of the New Testament by heart And of Beza that being above eighty years of age he could say perfectly without book and Greek Chapter in Saint Pauls Epistles M. Leigh Aâ— not on John 5.39 In the first year Heb. In the one year The Hebrews oft use One for First So do also the Apostles in Greek Matth. 28.1 John 20.1 19.1 Cor. 16.2 Rev. 6.1 One being the first number neither was it without a mystery that Pythagoras bade his Scholars ever to have respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Moses also his saying Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Deut. 6.4 Of Cyrus Heb. Coresh so named by God above an hundred years before he was born See the like Josiah 1 Kiâ— 13.3 Isay 40.28 and so honoured by the Persians as the founder of their Monarchy that they liked the better of all that were Hawk-nosed like unto him The Persian word signifieth a Lord or great Prince as Hen. Stephanus noteth and thence the Greeks have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord and We our word Sir as some will have it Plutarch in Artaxerxes saith that the Persians call the Sunne Cyrus And it may very well be so Peacham for the Hebrews also call the Sunne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheres from its glistering brightnesse King of Persia So he had beene above twenty years before this and done many great exploits but this was the first year of his Empire of his Cosmocratie of the Monarchy translated from the Babylonians to the Persians The greatest Kingdomes have their times and their turnes their rise and their ruine when they shall live by fame onely Persia having oft changed her Masters since Cyrus remaineth a flourishing Kingdome to this day but wholly Mahometan Turk Hist â—ol 5. Which abominable superstition the Turks received from them when in the year 1030. they won that Countrey under their Sultan Tangrolipix Where it is hard to say saith mine Author whether nation lost more the Persians by the losse of so great a Kingdome Blounts Voy. into the Leu. pag. 81. or the Turks by embracing so great a vanity To this day they acknowledge the Persians better Mahometans then themselves which maketh the Turks farre better souldiers upon the Christian then upon the Persian That the Word of the Lord For it was He that spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets Luke 1.70 and his word cannot be broken Psal 31.5 John 10.35 for he is the God of Amen asthe Prophet David somewhere calleth him and all his promises are the issue of a most faithful and right Will void of all insincerity and falshood Prov. 8.8 By the mouth of Jeremy That admirable Preacher as Keckerman calleth him that most eminent Prophet as another with whose writings De Rhet. Eccles about this very restauration Daniel consulted and therehence collected that the time was come Dan. 9.2 which put him upon that heavenly prayer for he knew that Gods promises must be put in suit and and it was to him that the Angel afterwards said I came for thy word Dan. 10.14 God will come according to his promise but he will have his peoples prayers lead him This liberty here granted to the Jewes after so long captivity was the fruit of many prayers founded upon the promise Jer. 25.12 and 29.10 Might be fulfilled As indeed it was exactly by the death of Belshazzar slaine by Cyrus who succeeded him Dan. 5.30 In that night was Belshazzar slaine because then exactly the seventy years were ended So for the same reason it is noted Exod. 12.40 41. that at midnight the first-borne of Egypt were slaine because just then the four hundred or four hundred and thirty years foretold were expired So punctual is God in keeping his word It is not here as with men A day breaketh no square c. for he never faileth at his time The Lord stirred up the spirit It was the mighty and immediate work of God in whose hand are the hearts of all both Kings and Captives Lords and Losels to bring this wise and great Prince in the very first entrance into his Monarchy before things were fully settled to dismisse so great and so united a people in respect of their custome and religion and so given to insurrection as was generally held into their owne Countrey with such a faire and full Patent This was the Lords owne work and it was justly marvellous in the eyes of his people who could hardly believe their owne eyes but were for a while like them that dreame Then was their mouth filled with laughter and their tongue with singing c. Psal 126.1 2. Then was the great power and goodnesse of God in stirring up Cyrus to do this acknowledged Then also was the Kings clemency and courtesie no lesse cried up and magnified then was that of Flaminius the Roman General at Athens where for delivering them from servitude he was little lesse then deified Or that of our Queene Elizabeth who for her merciful returning home certaine Italians that were taken prisoners in the eighty eight Invasion was termed Saint Elizabeth by some at Venice Whereof one told the Lord Carleton afterwards Viscount Dorchester being there Embassadour that although he were a Papist yet he would never pray to any other Saint but that Saint Elizabeth That he made Proclamation Heb. He caused a voice to passe sc by his Messengers and Ministers The Posts went out being hastened by the Kings commandment Esth 3.15 even those Angarii The Lord Christ also proclaiming liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Esay 61.1 causeth his Word to run and to be glorified to spread like a Sun-beame as Eusebius saith the Gospel did at first to be carried as on Eagles wings or on Angels wings as it was thorough all Christendome when Luther first sent forth his book De Captivitate Babylonicâ of the Babylonish Captivity And put it also in writing That it might be posted up and every where published Vox audita perit littera scripta manet
his countrey Far be it from me to out-live Troy Curtius telleth us that Alexander the great when he was extreme thirsty and had water offered him he would not receive it Curt. 17. but put it by with this brave speech Nec solus bibere sustineo nec tam exiguum dividere omnibus possum There is not enough for all my souldiers to share with me and to drink it alone I cannot finde in my heart I will never do it Compare herewith this speech of Esther and you shall finde it far the better as being full of those precious graces whereunto Alexander was a perfect stranger humility prudence faith zeal toward God and ardent love toward his people Oh how great is the number of those now adayes saith Lavater here qui ne micam Spiritus Estherae habent who have not the least parcel of Esthers spirit but are all for themselves and for their own interests Or how can I endure to see Heb quomodo potero videbo How can I and shall I see how should I do otherwise then sink at the sight as she did in the Romane history when her sonne was butchered and as the Virgin Mary felt a sword at her heart when she beheld Christ crucified Luke 2.35 Melancthon said that good Oecolampadius died of grief for the Churches calamities Nehemiah was heart-sick for the breaches of Joseph chap. 2.3 with Amos 6.6 Moses wished himself expunged and Paul accursed rather then it should go ill with Gods people Verse 7. Then the King Ahashuerus said unto Esther c. Here Hamans letters of Mart are reversed by Ahashuerus whose answer to Esther is full of gentlenesse and sweetnesse but yet such as discovereth a minde perplexed and cast into straits as Princes eft-soones are by the subtilties and malice of wicked counsellours Dan. 6.15 so that they cannot do as they would unlesse they will bring all into a combustion though usually where the word of a King is there is power Eccles 8.4 and the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say that he knew not what an Act of Parliament could not do in England and King James in his speech in the Starre-chamber Anno 1616. said as much Behold I have given Esther the house of Haman i. e. I have done somewhat toward the performance of my Promise made to Esther chap. 7.2 and more I am willing to do only I must observe good order and do things with discretion Behold I give you potestatem plenariam omnimodam all the power I have that therewith you may help your selves only my former decree I cannot reverse but I shall stirre up great garboiles in the Kingdome Josephus indeed telleth us that Ahashuerus did retract the Edict procured by Haman and further gave power to the Jewes that if any withstood the Kings will herein they should kill them c. But we are not bound to believe him in all things as neither Herodotus Livy nor any of the Historians the Sacred always excepted for Vopiscus In vita Aure â—â—iani who was one of them confesseth nominem historicorum non aliquid esse mentitum that there is none of them that hath not taken liberty to lie more or lesse and it is manifest that Josephus his manner is to recite what he thinks likely to have been done and what is fit to be written of such a businesse Baronius annales facit non scribit saith one think the same of Josephus he rather maketh an history sometimes then writeth it And therefore that is but a sorry excuse that the Papists make for their sacrilegious forbidding the people to reade the Scriptures when they refer them to Josephus as having the History of the Bible more largely and plainly described Joh. Barclai M. Paraenesi Because he laid his hands upon the Jewes He did it because he designed it Like as Balak also arose and fought with Israel Josh 24.9 and yet the story saith nothing so But that is in Scripture said to be done that is intended or attempted And this the Heathen also saw by the dimme light of nature Hence that of Seneca Fecit quisque quantum voluit And another saith Quae quia non licuit non facit illa facit Polybius attributeth the death of Antiochus to his sacriledge only in his purpose and will This Josephus thinks could not be scil that a man having a purpose only to sinne should be punished by God for it Hence he derideth Polybius for the forecited censure but he had no cause so to do for the Heathens herein exceeded the Pharisees who helâ— thought free and Josephus was sowred with their leaven Verse 8 Write ye also for the Jews Here was one Syngram or authoritative writing crossing another What could the people think of this but that crownes have their cares and it were a wonder if great persons in the multitude of their distractions should not let fall some incongruities We must not think saith Lavater here if Princes or States command things different one from another that it proceedeth from lightnesse of minde but that they make Lawes and set forth Edicts according to the state and necessity of the times and as the publick good requireth In the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign here when mens mindes differed concerning Religion and Reformation could not safely be wrought at once it was by one and the same Proclamation commanded that no man should speak unreverently of the Sacrament of the Altar Camd. Eliz. p. 9. Ib. 17 20 and both kindes were permitted in the administration Religion was changed without commotion by degrees after that the Romish superstition had stood a whole moneth and more after the death of Queen Mary as afore The sacrifice of the Masse was not abolished till half a yeare after nor images cast out of Churches till two moneths after that Here then let St. James his counsel take place Be swift to hear slow to speak to speak evil of Governours when they answer not our expectations but seem to command contradictories There are certain Arcana imperii secrets of State that most men understand not and must therefore dedicate them to victory as the Romanes did that lake the depth whereof they could not fathom nor finde out Besides we must know that there will be faults so long as there be men and faults will slip betwixt the best mens fingers as Bishop Jewel was wont to say And as we endure with patience a barren yeare if it happen and unseasonable weather so must we tolerate the imperfections of Rulers and quietly expect either reformation or alteration As it liketh you Having been so lately deceived in Haman and by him miscarried to the ratifying of that bloody Edict he will no more trust his own judgement but referres the managing of the Jewes deliverance which now he greatly desired to their prudence discretion and faithfulnesse Few Kings would have yielded to have retracted lest they should thereby seem light and inconstant
the rod into his own hand I could better beare it but the tender mercies of that wicked one and his imps are meer cruelties For 1. this is as if the child should say If I might choose my rod I would not care to be whipt or the condemned Noble-man If I might chuse mine executioner I would not care to lose mine head 2. It is but one hand and many instruments that God smiteth us with Our enemies are but the men of Gods hand Psal 17.14 that can do no more then is given them from above John â—9 â—â— Gods Masons to hew us here in the Mount that we may be as the polished corners of the Temple Psal 144.12 Gods scullions to scowre up the vessels of his houshold that they may shine upon the celestiall shelf as that Martyr said 3. God ever reserveth to himself the royaltie of setting them their task limiting them their time and letting out their â—edder hitherto ye shall go and no further 4. If they exceed their commission as they are apt Gods jealousie will smoke against them Zech. 1.14 But save his life Heb. his soule put oft for the life the cause for the effect Satan shook his chain at Jobs soul and would have destroyed it but that he might not do scratch him he might with his pawes but not fasten his fangs in him Job could say for a season at least as that dying Saint did My body is weak my soul is well His afflictions as afterwards St. Pauls reached but to his flesh Col. 1.24 And see that thou save his life too saith God see how he chaineth up the divel who would faine have been sucking Jobs blood and swallowing him down his wide gullet Isa 57.16 1 Pet. 5.8 Save it that is spare it see that the Spirit faile not before me and the soul that I have made I have yet some further use of him though a lamentable Lazar. Gal. 4.13 14. You know how through infirmity of the flesh that is notwithstanding the infirmity and weaknesse of my body I preached the Gospel saith Paul and my temptation which was in my flesh you despised not Daniel though sick yet did the Kings businesse and Job though scabbed all over was yet of great use and reserved to great honour therefore Save his life saith God and the divel say the Rabbines was as much vexed and wounded with this restraint as Job was with all his wounds and ulcers It is surely a vexation to malice not to do its utmost Verse 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord The like is said of Cain when he meditated the murder of his innocent brother and went to put it in practice Malefactors amongst us we know are indited in this form For that thou not having God before thine eyes but moved by the instigation of the divel didst And smote Job He pretended to touch him only verse 5. but let every good man blesse himself out of Satans bloody fingers his iron entred into Josephs soule his stroke was very vehement upon Jobs body making totum pro vulnere corpus For he smote Job With sore boiles hot boyling boyles such as the Sorcerers of Egypt were smitten with Exod. 9.10 and afterwards the limbs of Antichrist Rev. 16.2 The Indian scab some say it was or the French disease a most filthy and odious ulcer it appeareth to have been sore and mattery why else should he so scrape himselfe with a potsheard as verse 8. such as whose sharp and pricking humour penetrated the very bone and put him to exquisite paine being worse to him then Augustus his tres vomicae briae carcinomata above-mentioned or Philip the second of Spain his loathsome and lousie disease whereof he died Anno 1598. Instit princip cap. 20. Carolus Scribanius thus describeth it This potent Prince for a long time endured ulcerum magnitudinem multitudinem acerbitatem foetorem c. i. e. Many great sharp and stinking ulcers which fastned him to his bed as to a crosse for a whole yeare before his death besides six years torture by the Gout an hectick fever with a double tertian for two yeers space feeding upon his bowels and the very marrow of his bones besides a most grievous flux for two and twenty dayes a continual nauseousnesse of his stomack an unsatisfiable thirst a continuall paine of his head and eyes abundance of matter working out of his ulcets quae binas indies scutellas divite paedore impleret besides a most loathsome stench that took away his sleep c. Alsted Chron. pag. 314. thus he Think the same and worse of Job the object of Satans utmost malice and that for a whole year say the Hebrewes for seven whole years saith Suidas chrysost de Laz. Chrysostome compareth him with Lazarus and maketh him to be in a farre worse condition Pineda sheweth that his sufferings were a great deal worse then those of the wicked Egyptians under all their ten plagues this was a boile an evil boile saith the text one of the worst sort the most painful and malignant that might be and this all over his body From the sole of the feet unto his crown It was all but one continued sore universall as the leprosie and therefore incurable threatned as an utmost plague an evil an only evil Dâ—ut 28.35 If any part were left untouched it was his tongue and mouth that it might be free to blaspheme God and that herein he was not smitten by Satan some have observed from chap. 19.20 I am escaped with the skin of my teeth having no sores there as I have all the rest of my body over Verse 8. And he took him a pot sheard a piece of a broken pot for want of better oyntments he had none nor baths to lenifie his sorenesse Physicians and friends were farre from him He looked on his right hand and beheld Psal 14.2.4 Beza but there was no man that would know him refuge failed and perished from him no man cared for his soule He had still a wife and servants and as some think his houshold-stuffe left him He should therefore by them have been helped but they helped on his misery jeering him and jesting at him as he afterwards complaineth Himself therefore in this necessity taketh a potsheard a piece of an earthen-pot thereby to mind himself saith Gregory that he was of the earth earthy For which cause also He sate down among the ashes or dust as repenting in dust and ashes chap. 42.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Jonah 3.6 Matth. 11.22 The Septuagint say that he sat upon the dirt or dung for want of a better cushion and that he was laid without the City as if for the stink and ill savour that came from him he was not suffered to be in the City as Vzziah afterwards being a Leper dwelt in a house by himself alone 2 Chron. 26.21 Disce hîc si aegrotas saith Lanater Learn here if thou be
John 14.2 no setled abode some huts we have here rather then houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clayie cottages earthy tabernacles as Paul after Plato calleth mens bodies 2 Cor. 5.1 And so the most interpreters understand these words of Eliphaz concerning the body of man rather then of his house he dwells in here made up of clay and dust a little refined and sublimated by art or nature which is nothing else but a clod of clay neatly made up What is man saith Greg. Nazianzen out of Gen. 2.7 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cinis Gen. 3.19 Gen. 18.21 Hor. Carm. l. 4. Od. 7. soule and soile breath and body a puffe of wind the one a pile of dust the other no solidity in either Pulvis umbra sumus saith the Poet and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greeke Proverb Man is but an earthen pot The first man Adam was of the earth earthy 1 Cor. 15.47 And no better are the best quos ex meliore forsan luto finxit Titan who are made of the finest common mould but as the finer the metall the purer the matter of any glasse or earthen vessel the more subject it is to break so are they to die for why Their foundation is in the dust The house is but weak and yet the foundation weaker terra friabilis flying light unstable unmoveable dust that is soone wherried and whirled about with every puffe of wind Hence the Apostle calleth mans body not an house only in respect of 1. the comely and orderly workmanship thereof 2. The soule which inhabiteth it but a tabernacle which hath no foundation and is transportative 2 Cor. 5.1 opposing to it building which is firm and stable Hence David Omnis Adam est totus Abel saith hee Verily every man in his best estate when he is best founded and setled on his best bottome when he is under-layd on all sides and seemes set to live is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 12. So Psal 144.4 Adam is Abels compeere or man is like to vanity what can he be better when as They are crushed before the moth He saith not before the Lion but before the moth Now what a poor thing is man that a moth may crush him that a flie may choak him as it did Pope Alexander that a light bruise on his toe may kill him as it did Aemilius Lepidus Plin. lib. 7. cap. 53. that a poisoned torch may light him to his long home as it did the Cardinall of Lorrain I have known saith one death admitted in by a corn on the toe and though the hurt were so farre off the heart yet the man died upon it Purchas Another I knew who seeming to have conquered the elements the wide Ocean wilde wildernsse wilder beasts wildest men hottest climates after sixteen yeares absence returned home and died of an hurt in his thumb Mr. Terry a great traveller telleth of a Noble man in the great Mogols Court who sitting in dalliance with one of his women had an haire pluckt by her from his brest this little wound Lawl liberty in a Serm. at Pauls by Edm. Terry p. 21. made by that small and unexpected instrument of death presently festered and turning to an incurable Canker killed him God needs no bigger a launce then an hair to kill an Atheist as this dying man acknowledged But besides all ill accidents and casualties from without look how the garment breeds the moth and then the moth eates the garment so mans own distempered body breeds ill humors The New-lander cure pag. 23. they diseases and these breed death as one well observeth upon this Text. It is holden for certain that in every two yeares there is such store of ill humours and excrements ingendred in the body that a vessel of one hundred ounces will scarce containe them Ipsa suis augment is vita ad detrimenta impellitur saith Gregory inde deficit unde proficere creditur Life weareth out by the very meat that maintaineth it and every man hath his bane about him Verse 20. They are destroyed from morning to evening Heb. They are beaten to pieces as in a mortar with one sorrow upon another till the very breath be beaten out of their bodies at length and all this from morning to evening all the day long or all their life long Per totum diem Drus which is here set forth for the brevity of it by an artificial day and such also as no man can be sure he shall have twelve hours to his day for how many are there whose Sun hath set at high-noon in the prime and pride of their dayes have they been suddenly snatcht away by the hand of death yea how many see we whose sun setteth in the very rising so that they are carried from the birth to the buriall Every houre surely we all yield somewhat unto death and a very short cut hath the longest liver of all from the grave of the womb to the womb of the grave Eliphaz here seemeth to compare us to those creatures called Ephemerâ—bii which are young in the morning middle-aged at non Aristot and dead 〈◊〉 night they begin and end their lives in a day Mans life is a vapour saith St. James a bubble say the Heathens a blast a dream a shadow a dreame of a shadow c. They perish for ever That is they die once for all For if a man die shall hee live againe Job 14.14 No such matter In this warre as there is no discharge Eccles 8.8 so neither is it granted to any man to erre twice therefore Austin said that he would not for the gain of a million of worlds be an Atheist for halfe an hour because he knew not but God might in that time call for him and cuâ— him off from all time of repentance acceptation and grace for ever since he could die but once onely and after death judgment every mans deaths-day is his doomes-day Heb. 9.27 Without any regarding it Heb. putting sc his heart to it or laying it upon his heart as every man living should do Eccles 7.2 but that few or none so do See Isa 57.1 David did when hearing of his childs decease he said I shall go to him 2 Sam. 12.23 And Moses seeing the peoples carcasses fall so fast in the wildernesse prayed for himself and the rest So teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts to wisedome Psal 90.12 Every dead corps is a Monitor a dumb preacher Etiam muta clamant cadavera Abel though dead speaketh but how few hearken to him Dives thought that if one came from the dead to fore-warn his brethren great matters would be done Petrus Sutorius telleth of one that preaching a funerall Sermon on a religious man as he calleth him and giving him large commendations heard at the same time a voice in the Church Mortuus sum judicatus sum damnatus sum I am dead
as was noted before on verse 5. But he is said to remember us when he relieveth us Psalm 136.23 and 9.18 1 Sam. 1.19 That thou hast made me c. viz. in those Protoplasts my first parents formed out of the ground Gen. 2.7 whence the Heathen Philosopher could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arian in Epict. that man is nothing else but a piece of clay weakly made up or thou hast wrought me like clay sc in the womb where thou hast framed and formed my body as the potter worketh his clay well-tempered into an earthen vessel Here then Job in-minds the Lord by the matter whereof he was made of the frailty vility and impurity of his nature Lutum enim conspurcat omnia sic caro to move him to a mitigation of his misery See Psal 103.14 and 78.39 Wilt thou bring me into the dust again viz. By those grievous torments Or And that thou wilt bring me into dust againe for so thou hast said to dust shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 And it is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 Oh therefore that I might have some small rest and respite before I go hence and be no more seen Psal 39.12 13. Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk Or melted me that is made me of some such thing as liquid and white milke Generationem hominis describit Man is a very mean thing in his first conception modestly here set forth by the making of cheeses Vatab. Vnde superbit homo cujus conceptâ—o turpis Nasci poena labor vitâ— necesse morâ— Concerning mans formation in the womb see the Naturallists and Lactantius de Opificio Dei cap. 12. but especially Psalm 139. where and in this text there is enough spoken to satisfie us about this great natural mystery saith Mercer that is a good Moral that one maketh of it God strains out the motes of corruption from a godly-man while his heart is poured out like milk with grief and fear whereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sinne Isa 27.9 And crudled me like cheese Siccastissimo ore elegantibus metaphoris saith an Interpreter Bodin theat natur 434. Arist de gen anim cap. 20. i. e. Thus in a most modest manner and with elegant metaphors doth Job as a great Philosopher set out mans conception in the womb Aristotle whose manner is obscurioribus obscura implicare as Bodin observeth hath some such expression as this but nothing so clear and full Verse 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh Out of that soft and liquid substance the slime of my parents loins grossed first into a rude fleshy masse and consolidated Thou hast made not only a thin skin and firm flesh but also hard bones and knitting nerves and all this for a garment or guardment to those more noble inward parts the brain heart liver c. which Job here accounts to be the man when he saith Thou hast clothed me that is my vital parts with the upper garment of skin and with the under-garment of flesh all which and the rest of the parts both similar and organical are in their original but the same matter which God hath thus diversified and all by the book Psalm 139.16 Had he left out any member in his common-place-book thou hadst wanted it saith one And hast fenced me with bones and sinews Bones are the pillars of the body giving it stability straightnesse and forme The Rabbines say there are as many of them in mans body as there are affirmative precepts in the law that all his bones may say Lord who is like unto thee c Psal 35.10 By the sinews are the bones knit together that upon them man may move from place to place as he pleaseth Sense also and Motion is by these in their wonderful and inexplicable conjugations conveyed to the rest of the parts It is God alone that knoweth how the bones think the same of the sinews arteries veins gristles flesh and blood c. do grow in the wombe of her that is with child Eccles 11.5 The Anatomists find out every day almost new wonders and an Ancient stileth Man the miracle of miracles Besides what is seen Mr. Caryl God hath pack many rarieties mysteries yea miracles together in mans chest And surely saith one if all the Angels in heaven had studied to this day they could not have cast man into a more curious mould or have given a fairer or more 〈◊〉 edition of him Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life i. e. Into my body thus formed and organized thou hast infused a soul Vatab. that principle of life quickned me in the womb and brought me alive out of it which because it is a miracle of mercy therefore 〈◊〉 addeth favour thou hast granted me Heb. thou hast wrought with me life and favâ—â—â— Thou hast dealt life and goodnesse unto me that is thou hast given me life accompanied with thy goodnesse and blessings so Beza senseth it Some understand it of the reasonable soul others of the beauty of the body according to Isa 40 6. And thy visitation hath preserved my Spirit i. e. Thy good providence hath safe guarded me from innumerable deaths and dangers Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus children are apt to run into mischief and those of riper years are subject to a thousand disasters and evil-occurrences Gods special care is exercised over his as is sweetly expressed Psalm 121. and Psalm 23. Davids pastoral and Psalm 3. where David doubteth not of safety though asleep and in the midst of enemies because God sustained him when as Samson and Ishbosheth a sleep in the midst of friends were circumvented because deserted by him oh pray pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would be ever with our spirits visit him in duty that he may visit us in mercy Verse 13. And those things hast thou hid in thine heart Legendum hoc cum stomachâ— saith Mercer And hast thou indeed hid these things in thine heart What things meaneth Job his afflictions which God was long before preparing for him and now took his time to lay load upon him to be revenged on him at unawares and at greatest advantage If this be the fense of Jobs words as some would conclude from the next verses he was mightily mistaken and this was atrox querimonia a grievous complaint and unworthy of God who lieth not at the catch nor pretendeth fair when he intendeth otherwise A Cain may do so to Abel Esau to Jacob Absolom to Amnâ—n Joab to Amasa c. The Creator needs not daub or prevaricate thus with his creatures if Job thought he did with him Job was utterly out though for confirmation he adde I know that this is with thee I am sure that thou hast dealt thus closely and covertly with me and that thy plagues have surprized me O these still revenges Merlin and others understand by those thing hid
This made that holy man Mr. Paul Baine say the sweet wayes of my youth did breed such worms in my soul Bains letters as that my heavenly Father will have me yet a little while continue my bitter worm-seed because they cannot otherwise be throughly killed I thank God saith he in another place sustentation I have but suavities spiritual I taste not any Mr. Clark in his life It is reported of this good man that when he came first to Cambridg his conversation was so irregular that his father being grieved at it before his death left with a friend forty pounds by the year desiring that his son might have it if he amended his manners else not he afterwards had it as he well deserved as proving a notable instrument of much good to many and particularly to that Reverend Dr. Sibbs whom he converted Howbeit in his last sicknesse he had many fears and doubts and God letting Satan loose upon him he went out of this world with far less comfort then many weaker Christians enjoy his case being not unlike his who saith in the next words And makest me to possesse or to inherit the iniquities of my youth Which I took for pard oned long since and so no doubt but they were but Jobs affliction renewed the remembrance of them to his conscience as it is the best art of memory Satan also made him believe that now he was punished for the new and the old as we say and that God meant to make him answer for all the sins of his life at once having watched a time to be revenged on him for all together Youth is a slippery age and soon slips into sin There is great cause that a young man should cleanse his wayes Psalm 119.9 where the word Nagnar signifying a lad or stripling comes from a root signifying to shake off or to be tossed to and fre And the other word rendred cleanse signifieth to be clean as glasse which will soon gather a new dustinesse Such must cleanse their wayes by cleaving to the word or otherwise they may one day groan as much under the sins then committed as many do under the blows and bruises then received See the former Note Verse 27. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks Mercer here observeth an elegant gradation in Gods proceeding with Job as himself describeth it rising higher and higher in his discourse 1. God hid his face and denyed him his favour 2. He counted him as his enemy 3. He broke him like a leafe or stubble 4. He wrote bitter things against him 5. He made him possesse the sins of his youth 6. For his young sins he claps him up close prisoner now in his old age and there keeps him as with a strict guard following him close at heels if he but stirre a foot was there ever sorrow like unto Jobs sorrow was ever greater severity and rigour shewed upon any godly person Where then shall the ungodly and the sinner appear c Gods wrath is like Eliah's cloud little at first as a mans hand but soon after very dismal and dreadful or as thunder of which we hear at first a little noise afarre off but soon after a terrible crack Well might Moses say Who knoweth the power of thine anger Psalm 90.19 Cavebis auteus si pavebis And lookest narrowly into all my paths He saith not wayes but paths Gregory maketh this difference Wayes are larger Paths narrower God then is said to look into all mens paths when he looketh not only at the evil done by them but at the intention of their mind which is not so easily discerned but by him the searcher of all hearts And for that which followeth Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet Gregory here observeth that God looketh at the hurt done to others by examples given by mens evil doings unto them leaving a print upon the ground as it were whereby others follow them and so their sin is in this regard made the greater to which purpose some sense those words Psalm 49.5 when the iniquity of my heels shall compasse me about Others make Jobs meaning here to be Thou followest me with continual pursuit as a prisoner that is dog'd at heels by his keeper from place to place lest he should escape Diod. Thou followest me close and upon the track like a hunter Job 10.16 The foot-steps of thy wrath saith an Interpreter are seen upon the soles of my feet so that from top to toe I have no free part like as prisoners feet are oft swelled with the weight of their fetters Verse 28. And he as a rotten thing consumeth Heb. waxeth old He that is this poor man this silly wretch as David speaketh of himself Psal 34.6 Or This body of mine as chap. 19.26 Job pointing to it as 't is like he did there And Paul 1 Cor. 15.53 54. As a rotten thing Heb. as rottennesse consumeth When a thing once rotteth as an apple flesh c. it soon perisheth such is man under pressing afflictions especially And as a garment that is moth-eaten The beauty whereof is defaced and the usefulnesse departed CHAP. XIIII Verse 1. Man that is born of a woman c. Or THat is born about by a woman in her wombe Jobs design is here to set forth the misery of man whom in the last verse of the former chapter he had compared 1. To a rotten thing 2. To a moth-eaten garment ab exordio ad exodium from his conception to his dissolution Man Earthly man that is born of a woman Gen. 3.16 or mannesse that weaker vessel who both breedeth beareth and bringeth forth in partu dolorosa post partum laboriosa every way calamitous neither is her babe in a better condition but born with a cross on his back as it is storied of Frederick the Elector of Saxony and having his whole life over-spread with sins and miseries Job Manl. los. comâ— as with a filthy morphew Is of few dayes Heb. short of dayes Short indeed every thing reckoned For 1. Child-hood and youth are vanity 2. Sleep as a publican takes off a third part of our time 3. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil and Mâ—â—â—â—â—abet vicer quae trabitur vitâ— gemitibus it is not a life but a death rather that is spent in sorrow Aug. de civ Dei lib. 9. c. 10. in which regard Plotinus the Philosopher held mortality a mercy that we may not alwaies be held under the miseries of this life present 4. Scarce one of a thousand live that little time that they are here but wofully waste the flower of their age the strength of their bodies the vigour of their spirits in sinful pleasures and sensual delights and then either sit and sing all too late and in vain O mihi praterites refâ—rat si Juppiter annâ—s Or else complain with old Themistocles that now they must die when they do but begin only to be wise the life
remarkable their notes are here called their tokens By those that go by the way others understand Abraham the Hebrew so he is called Gen. 14.13 that is that Trans-Euphrataean Or He that passed over the River Euphrates when he passed by the way from Chaldea to Canaan and his Progeny Isaac and Jacob who were passengers and pilgrims and could tell by experience that men greatly afflicted may be yet favoured of God and in due time delivered Abraham had ten sore trials and yet the friend of God Isaak besides many other sharp afflictions all along his pilgrimage was blind for above twenty years before his death Few and evil were the dayes of the years of Jacob his whole life almost one continuate affliction and yet it was Jacob have I loved Of all this Job likely was not ignorant and why should his friends And do ye not know their tokens Or Their tokens you shall not be estranged from Broughton thus So ye would not make their signes strange There will be so much evidence of truth in what they say that you will not be able to gainsay it Verse 30. That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction Here 's the Passengers verdict viz that wicked men shal scape scot-free and flourish for a season neverthelesse their preservation is but a reservation as Pharaoh Sennacherib and others have found it and if they flourish for the present it is that they may be destroyed for ever Psal 92.7 Others read this verse more suitably to the next thus That at the day of destruction the wicked is kept back and they are carried out in the day of wrath that is they are oft spared whey the testimonies of Gods wrath are rife against others Verse 31. Who shall declare his way to his face c Who shall be so bold as to deal plainly with this rich wretch and tell him his own Divitibus ideo deest amicus quâ—a nihildeest Great men have many flatterers and not a few mutterers against them but very few that will faithfully shew them their sin and forewarn them of their danger lest they meet with the same hard measure that the Hares in the Fable did who taking upon them to reprove the Lion were torn in pieces by him for the same Truth breedeth hatred and although she be a good Mistresse yet they that follow her too close at heels may hap to have their teeth-struck out But truth downright truth must be spoken however it be taken Elias dealt roundly and impartially with wicked Aâ—ab Jeremy with â—â—siah â—s sons and successours the Baptist with Herod Christ with the Elders and Pharisees that noble General Traâ—an with Valens the Arian Emperour telling him That by his persecuting the Orthodox he had lost the day abandoning the Victory and sending it away to the enemy And who shall repay him what he hath done q.d. Men dare not for who will take a Lion by the beard or a Bear by the tooth God will not punish him here therefore he must needs scape unpunished This is by Gregory fitly referred to Antichrist who may not be admonished and wil not be punished but thinks to bear out his most malapâ—rt misdemeanour because it is facinus majoris abolle the fact of a great one Verse 32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave He that was erst so stern and terrible shal shortly be laid low enough and then leâ—ni mortuo vel mus insultabiâ— Though he were such a son of Belial that none could speak to him as Nabal was 1 Sam. 25.17 yet death will speak with him and confute this proud haughty Scorner that dealeth in proud wrath Hist of World When death comes saith Sir Walter Raleigh which hates and destroyes men that 's believed and obeyed But God that loveth and maketh men he is not regarded O mighty death O eloquent death whom none could advise thou art able to prevail with And shall remain in the Tomb Heb. He shall watch over the heap super tuâ—â—lum oâ—mul◠〈◊〉 in area constructo similem as a Watch-man there he is fixed and keeps this place Lavat Or He shall be watched in the Tomb. Verse 33. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him Here he saith the same as before but more poetically and is variously rendred The Vulgar alluding to an old Poeticall Fable readeth it thus He shall he sweet to the sand of Cocytus which is fained to be one of the Rivers of Hell or an infernal Lake so called from the moan there made by damned Ghosts who should be glad of his arrival there Hell from be â—â—ath as â—â—â—ured for him to meet him at his coming as 't is said of the Assyrian Tyrant Isai 14.9 Others better expound it thus He shall taste so much bitterness whiles he treads upon the clods of the earth that the clods under the earth shall be reckoned sweet unto him And Oh how well pleased would he be if he might forever lye hidden there and never rise up again to come to judgement Caten Grac. And as it is with one wicked man departed so it is with all other whether they dyed before or shall dye after Verse 34. How then comfort ye me in vain Sith ye apply nothing rightly to me nor affirm nothing rightly of me but instead of comforting me which you came for ye trouble me And such are all those consolatiunculae creaturulae as Luther finely phraseth it petty-creature-comforts waterish and empty businesses an unsubstantial sustance as one saith of the bulrush Seeing in your answers remaineth false-hood Or Provarication or double-dealing fowle mistakes and little lesse then malice CHAP. XXII Verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said ABruptly without any Preface he sets upon Job as doth likewise Bildad chap 25. acting the part of a spiteful Caviller rather then of an ingenuous Accuser reckoning and ranking just Job among the wicked not covertly as before but overtly and expresly and then thinking to salve all by an exhortation to repentance backed with a faire promise of a full restauration Pulcherrima paâ—anesis sed quid ad Johum saith Brentius A very good exhortation but ill applyed We shall do well to take notice what a dangerous thing it is to give way to unruly passions which like heavy bodies down steep hills once in motion move themselves and know no ground but the bottom Verse 2 Can a man be profitable unto God No neither doth Job say he can but the contrary chap. 21.22 Howbeit the God of glory as he is called Act. 7.2 although his glory is as himself infinite and eternal and therefore not capable of our addition or detraction the Sun would shine though all the would were blind yet to try how we prize his glory and what we will do for him he hath declared that he accounteth himself made glorious by us when we get so far as to conceive of him above all creatures As he that is wise may be
hath done them good Josh 24.20 their preservation proveth but a reservation Verse 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty viz. When trouble cometh upon him as in the former verse No this is Christianorum propria virtus a practise that none can skill of but Gods people saith Hierâ—me to rejoyce in tribulation and then to continue instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 for deliverance with some confidence grounded upon former experience Crâ—â— cuiâ—â— is inuncta est saith Bernard Together with the Crosse they have an unction from the Father annointed they are with that Oyle of gladnesse 1 Pet. 2.14 the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon â—heâ— and refresheth them amidst all their sorrowes and sufferings and hence their delight in the Almighty yea though he frown and lay upon them as he did upon Jâ—â— with his own bare hand Not so the hypocrite for why he hateth God an his heart as doth every evil-doer Bernard John 3.20 Est 〈◊〉 talium pâ—na Deus utpot◠〈◊〉 est â—t quid talibus am invisuâ— God is light and therefore hated as a punishment to such inanspicate night-birds He is holinesse but the hypocrite filthinesse as his name also importeth How thâ—n can be delight himself in the Almighty What complacency can there be where is such an â—tter contrariety They that love the Lord haâ—e evil Psal 81 2◠〈◊〉 so doth not any hypocrite leave it he may but not loath it Paâ—t with it he may as Jacob did with Benjamin lest otherwise he should starve or as 〈◊〉 with Michael lest he should lose his head but his heart is glued to it still he hath a months mind to be doing if he durst Finally He is without faith and therefore without joy and peace of conscience And as for his Spider-web of hope a little wind bloweth it down The world hath his heart and so the love of the Father cannot be in him 1 John 2.15 He leaneth upon the Lord and saith Is not the Lord amongst us Mic. 3.11 yet is he rootedin the delights of life Like as the Apricock tree leaneth against the wall but is fast rooted in the earth Will he alwayes â—all upon God Heb. Iâ— every time No nor scarce at any time Indeed as beggâ—rs have learned to 〈◊〉 so have some hypocrites to pray Isai 26.16 They have powred forth charm when thy chastening was upon them When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired after God Psal 78.34 But this was only a prayer of the flesh for â—ase and not of the Spirit for grace They spoke God fair as the Divel did Christ only to be rid of him Thus 〈◊〉 when on the rack roâ—â—ed out a consession and called for a Prayer Joaâ— in danger of death hangs on the hornes of the Altar The Captivated Jews fasted and prayed for seventy years to get off their thaines rather then their sins Zech. 7.5 which Daniel therefore reckoned lost labour chap â— 13. But many wiâ—â—â—d men though in prosperity they have some short-wishes such as was that of â—â—laâ—â—s Numb 23.10 wherewith compare that of David Psal 26.9 and see a difference or perhaps are able by strength of wit and one money to pray handsomely yet in adversity they set their mouthes against heaven 〈…〉 Wolves and howle upward they curse their King and their God and look upward saith Isaiah chap. 8.21 they murmure and mutiny as the Israelites in the wilderness they banne and blaspheme as did that Israelitish womans son Lev. 14.11 and Micahs mother Judg. 17.2 A Parrot may be taught to talk like a man Histories tell us of one at Rome that could repeat the whole Creed but let him be but beaten and he returnes to his own natural harsh voice So an hypocrite while all goes well with him may seem very devout at his Orisons but lay thy hand upon him saith Satan to God concerning Job presuming thereby to prove him an hypocrite and he will curse thee to thy face chap. 2.5 But say he be somewhat better conditioned as they call it and for a while pray to God for ease and help yet he will not pray alwayes he will not persevere in prayer follow on to pray wait upon God for an answer and be content to want it if God see good to deny it He cannot draw nigh to God with a true heart such a heart as is well satisfied if God may be glorified though himself be not gratified in full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Which is saith Brentius Orationis medulla the marrow of prayer Hence Saint James calleth it the prayer of faith chap. 5.15 Afflictions cause a Saint to seek out Gods Promise the Promise to seek Faith Faith to seek Prayer and prayer to find God to find him at length For he is a God that hideth himself Isai. 45.15 But what saith faith I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Isai 8.17 See this exemplified in the woman of Canaan who fetcht Christ out of his retiring room by the force of her faith Mark 7.24 and prayed on though denied She would not be said nay or set down either with silence or sad answers but shewed her self a woman of a well knit resolution such as could credere invisibilia sperare dilaia amare Deum se ostendentem contrarium as Luther speaketh Believe things invisible hope for things deferred and love God when he shewes himself most angry and opposite Now this the hypocrite who is an Infidel cannot skil of He is short spirited and cannot hold out in prayer cannot as our Saviour taught by that Parable Luke 18.1 alwayes pray and not faint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shrink back as sluggards do in work or Cowards in War Oratio est res ardua magni laboris saith Luther Prayer is a hard work and a man must tug at it and stick to it as Jacob did who wrestled and raised dust as the Hebrew word signifieth he held fast and hung on yea he held with his hands when his thigh was lamed Let me go saith God bespeaking his own liberty No thou shalt not saith Jacob until thou blesse me Lo such is the generation of them that seek God in sincerity of them that seek thy face this is Jacob Psal 24.6 One thing have 〈◊〉 desired of the Lord and that I will seâ—k after saith David Psal 27.4 If his suit had not been honest he would never have begun it But being so he will never give it over till he hath prevailed he will pray till he faint and then to it again Psal 119.81 82. Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 So doth not the hypocrite for want of an inward principle If God come not at a call he is out patience and ready to say with that profane Prince 2 Kings 6.33 Behold this evil is of the Lord and what should I wait
beast Tiberius These are to be avoided as Pests and botches of humance society So also are Stage-playes for that very cause as the Brothels of bawdery the corrupters of youth the canker of the Common-wealth as Plato an heathen complained Filthiness and fornication should not be once named among Christians Ephes 5.3 Groves were flatly forbidden by God to be planted near the places of his Worship in detestation of that heathenish custome of Priapus his worshippers promiscuously satisfying their lusts in a thicket after they had sacrificed thereby as they conceived best pleasing their god Verse II. For this is an heinous crime Hoc enim grande flagitium est so the Tigurines translate For this is a wickedness with a witness though counted by some a light offence a peccadillo The Popish Priests deeply guilty of it themselves seldom cryed out against it in their Sermons this the great ones and others observed and therefore ran into it as if it had been a venial sin if any sin at all But we have not so learned Christ and there was once found an English Bishop Adelm Elect Bishop of Sherborn anno 705. who boldly and sharply reproved Pope Sergius to his face for this foul sin Godwin Catal. pag. 333. Joseph calleth it a great wickedness Gen. 39.9 because a breach of the bond of loyalty which cannot but be treachery as also because it destroyes society and the purity of posterity stealing sometimes an heir into the estate c. Yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges Sith it is a thest of that which is most precious and most peculiar to the owner as Joseph told his Mistress Gen. 39. the suspicion or jealousie of it raiseth the rage of a man to such an hâ—â—ght that it will not be allayed without revenge Prov. 6.34 35. Some render it iniquitas judicata an iniquity already adjudged capital The Hebrew hath it an iniquity of the Judges that is That which Judges should severely punish Before the Law Tamar was to have been burnt for it Gen. 38.24 as under the Law the High-Priests daughter Levit. 21.9 Ahab and Zedekiah were rosted in the fire for this offence Ezek. 23.25 alludeth to this custome by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon Jer. 29.22 23. Some think that these two were the Elders that assaulted Susanna The Egyptians cut off the Harlots nose and the Adulterers members The Locrians pulled out their eyes The Julian Law among the Romans Lex Julia dormis adjudged them to dye and Hierom saith this Law was yet in force in his time but the Poet complaineth that for want of due execution it lay dormant as many other good Lawes do by the basenesse and partiality of the Judges Such as were those Athenian Judges who having before them Phryne that notable Strumpet Plutarch vit 10 Rhetor. in Hyper were about to passe sentence of death upon her but when her Advocate Hyperides had opened her bosom and shewed them her beautiful brests to move them to mercy they acquitted her and let her go In like sort also they dealt with the Dame of Smyrna whom they appointed to appear some hundred years after How much better the old Saxons who whilst they were yet heathens made a Law and saw it well executed that the Adultetess should be first strangled and then burnt in a bonfire Lavat in loc over which the Adulterer was to be hanged in chaines and burnt to death by degrees And of another Heathen people we read Burroughs on Hos vol. 1. p. 276 that they put the Adulterers and Adulteresses heads into the paunch of a beast where all the fifth lyeth and so stifled them to death Verse 12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction Ad Gehennam usque to the place of destruction Heb. to Abaddon that burneth as low as hell it self In case â—â—en should be slack to punish this heinous Grime yet Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge Heb. 13.3 shutting them out of heaven Rev. 22.15 for what should any such dirty dog do trampling on that golden pavement and thrusting them into hell as he did the filthy Sodomites Jude 7. beside that hell above-ground which he rained from heaven upon them hot fire for their burning lusts and stinking brimstone for their stinking brutishnesse How God signally punished this sin in Charles 2 King of Navarre roasting him to death See my Note on Gen. 19.24 Joane of Naples also and Mary of Arragon wife to the Emperour Otho the third burnt at a stake are set upon Record as instances of the divine displeasure against Adultery a fire which burns hearts and consumes houses And would root out all mine increase Leaving me nothing as a devouring fire burnes up men cattle houses corn trees c. So doth this fin all a mans income baring him to the very bones and exhausting him to the utmost So that like Tiberius at Capreae he doth indies perire which is a bitternesse beyond that of death Eccles 7.26 Or like Samson befooled and bereft of all by Dalilah who had not her name for naught for it comes from Dalal to exhaust and impoverish And indeed such king of creatures do ordinarily drain the strength exhaust the purses dry up the credit waste and consume the all of the mightiest Samsons Besides the loss of their immortal souls and perpetual shame at the last day when all their faults shall be written in their foreheads unlesse the matter be taken up in the Judges privy Chamber of mercy and unlesse by timely repentance course be taken to stop his open judicial proceeding in Court Verse 13. If I did despise the cause of my man servant c. Servants of old among the Heathen especially were mere slaves to their Masters according to the flesh who had power to use them at their pleasure as they did their cattle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A servant saith Aristotle is the Masters Instrument and wholly his He might do what he would to them saith Seneca even to the taking away of their lives without danger of Law But Job held with the same Seneca That Posse nolle nobile est and that in some cases Nimis angusta innocentia est ad legem bonumesse That utmost right is utmost wrong and that there will come an after reckoning the forethought whereof awed him and swayed him to do his servants right when he might have oppressed them and tyrannized over them as now the Turks do over their Gally-slaves Of Archbishop Cranmer it is recorded that he never raged so far with any of his household-servants as once to call the meanest of them Varlet or Knave in anger Tremellius who was for a time entertained in his house saith of it That it was Enarat in Hos praefat Schola vel Palaestra pietatis literarum A school or Nursery of Piety and Learning And therefore what wonder that there was so good accord betwixt him and his
to School to the unreasonable Creatures even the most contemptible as the Pismire Prov. 6.6 And Basil writing to one that was proud of his knowledge propoundeth unto him diverse questions concerning this same Pismire as namely how many feet he hath whether he hath entrailes as kidneyes liver heart veines nerves as other living Creatures c Semblably God here to humble Job and to convince him of his meanness asketh him whether he knoweth the wild Goats and Hinds with the time of their bringing forth young the means and the manner c And whether these things were done by his ordination and vigilancy Many admirable things are written of these wild Goats as what cold places they live in what inaccessible Rocks Pendemem summa capream de rupe videbis casuram spâ—res decipit illa canes Mart. how strangely there they hang what huge leaps they fetch but especially about their bringing forth how by a natural sagacity they help themselves both before and after by biting upon certain herbs that are helpful to them in that case These things and many more such may be read of in Pliny's Natural History of which Book Erasmus well saith That it is a store-house or rather a world full of things most worthy to be read So are not the Jewish Expositors who tell us many strange things here concerning these Creatures quae commentitia esse putâ— which I take to be meer Fictions saith Learned Mercer And I to be trifles and old wives Fables saith Lavater To the belief whereof they are justly given up by God for their rejecting of Christ the Light of the world We grant that the whole world is full of miracles though for the commonness of them they are little noted or noticed But should these men think to help the truth by their lyes Should they speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Or canst thou mark when the Hinds do calve Which they do not without a great deal of pain as the Hebrew word importeth no creature the like unlesse it be woman God sometimes frighteth them by his thunder and so furthereth their delivery Psal 29.9 whilest they struggle with many griefs and to give life to their calves are in danger of losing their own Now if God help the Hinds in this case will he be wanting to his labouring daughters Let them send for Lady Faith to be their Midwife and all shall go well She hath delivered Graves of their dead Heb. 11.35 How much more then will she them of their quick births yea though they carry death in their bowels Verse 2. Canst thou number the months they fulfil Eight months Aristotle saith the Elephant is said to go above eight yeares but who can tell the instant when or why not sooner or later Doest thou exactly observe and count those months as I do to a moment Sola hic Dei providentia elucet Verse 3. They bow themselves sc By an instinct of nature whether it be the pain they suffer which compelleth them to it or the fear of hurting their calves which obligeth them to it They bring forth their young Diffindunt fissa sc et aperta tandem matrice they bring forth with a great deal of difficulty to the crushing of their young which yet escape and grow up Let good women learn sperare à Deo faciles salices partus to trust in God for a happy delivery though it go hard with them sometimes to the making of some Medaeâ— say Eurip. Millies in acie mori mallem quam semel parere I had rather a thousand times die in battel than bring forth one childe They cast out their sorrows Tormina their throws and therewith their young by the benefit of the herbs Arus and Seselis Arist hist anim lib. 9 cap. 5. Plin. lib. 8. c. 31. which they feed upon for the better bringing away of their gleanings as they call the involucrum that wrappeth the young in the matrix The vulgar hath it They utter roarings they cast forth cryes which are as terrible as the roarings of Lionesses Stato partus tempore valve dehâ—sount que à partu mox occluduntur id quòd fieri vidensus inquit Galenus fed quomodo fiat admirari tantum possumus Avicenna vocat opus supra mirabilia omnia mirabile Sed miracula assiduitate vilescunt If a man should be born but once in an hundred years all the world would stand amazed at such a Miracle Verse 4. Their young ones are in good liking Or They recover revalescunt as Isai 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 58.16 notwithstanding the hardnesse of their birth by reason of their dams exceeding dry temperature Psal 42.1 As the Hinde brayeth after the Water-brooks as being naturally hot and dry when in pain especially and this the young are sensible of in their coming into the world which yet they soon recover and grow slick and fat Let God be trusted for the welfare of our children though weak and wearish when new-born and hard put to 't in the birth They grow up with Corn. Or In the Field after that they have been nourished a while with their dams-milk they forrage for themselves being calved about Autumne as Aristotle noteth that is in Seed-time others say about Harvest when corn is in the field and Gods greatâ—harn door open as the proverb is This is here brought as an Argument of the divine providence They go forth and return not unto them That is To their dams as finding food enough abroad Thus other creatures so soon as born almost can shift for themselves only poor shift-lesse man is long ere he can do any thing or comes to any proof to be able to provide for himself Verse 5. Who hath sent out the wild-Asse free 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phere serum animal so Tremellius rendreth it the wild Creature And it is not unlikely that the Latine word Fera Eò quòd onager feritate antecellit Piscat comes from this Hebrew word for a wild-Asse which is a most untameable untractable creature Every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed hath been tamed of mankind Jam 3.7 We read of Augustus Caesar that he had a tame Tiger but who ever board of a wild-Asse tamed Africa is said to have whole heards of them and it is reported that when they see a man they stand stock still and kick with their hinder feet braying aloud And when the Hunter comes so near them that he could touch them almost they snuff up the wind kick up their heels and run quite away so nimble they are that they can hardly be taken much lesse tamed To the Colt of this wild Creature is a natural man compared by Zophar chap. 11.12 for his extreme rudenesse and unrulinesse The Prophet Jeremy hath the like of the Idolaters of his time chap. 2.24 who were lawlesse and lewd Losels obstinate and refractary such
and a type of Christ the great Mediator of his Church Aben-Ezra calleth him Cohen baccoâ—aniâ—â— the Priest of Priests And Philo writing his life concludeth This was the life and death of Moses the King the Lawgiver the prophet and the chief Priest And Samuel A man that could do much with God like wise Jer 15.1 and is therefore as some conceive called Pethuel that is a perswader of God Joel 1.1 Alsted Vers 7. They kept his testimonies And so shewed that they called upon God with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 Vers 8. Thou wast a God c. A sin pardoning God Neb. 5â— 17 So thou wast to them under the Law so thou wilt be to those under the Gospel Though thou tookest c. Though Moses might noâ— enter for his unbeleef and Samuel smarted for indulging his sonâ— Vers 9. Exalt the Lord Versus amaelaus See Vers 5. PSAL. C. A Psalm of prcise Suavis gravis short and sweet appointed likely to be sung at the Thank-offerings quando pacifica erant offerende say the Italian Levit. 7. â—â— and Spanish annotators See vers 4. Enter with Thanks-giving or with Thank-sacrifice Vers 1. All ye lands Both Jews and Gentiles Rom. 15.10 11. for your common salvation Vers 2. Serve the Lord with gladness The Caâ—balists have a Proverb The Holy Ghost singeth not but out of a glad heart Cheerfulness is much called for in both Testaments God loveth a cheerful server Vers 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God Be convinced of it ye Heathens whose fantasies have forged false gods and ye Jews acknowledge the true God to be Three in One and One in Three It is he that hath mode us And new made us for we are his workmanship a second time created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 The word signifieth saith Kimchi Ornate beneficiis afficere donis gratiis cumulaâ—e confer 1 Sam. 12.6 and so is distinguished from Barâ— to create and Jaâ—sar to form William of Malmsbury telleth of a certain Emperor of Germany who coming by chance into a Church on the Sabbath day found there a most mis-shapen Priest penè portentum natura insomuch as the Emperor much scorned and contemned him But when he heard him read those words in the Service For it is beâ— that bath made us and not we our selves the Emperor checkt his own proud thoughts and made in quiry into the quality and conditions of the man and finding upon examination that he was a very learned and devout man he made him Archbishop of Collen which place he discharged with much commendations We are his people and the sheep See Psal 95.7 This is a priviledge proper to the Communion of Saints Vers 4. Enter into his gates c. As sheep into his sheepfolds frequent his publick Ordinances wait at the posts of the gates of Wisdome there as at an heavenly Exchange the Saints present duty and God confers mercy Vers 5. For the Lord is good Though we be evil he giveth us all these good things graâ—â—e and although we provoke him daily to punish us yet his mercy is everlasting like a fountain it runneth after it hath run And as the Sun which shineth after it hath shined See Zach 13.1 Job 1.27 And his truth endureth to all generations Heb. to Generation and Generation He saith not for ever saith an Interpreter because his promises are true but under a condition which perhaps the following Generations will not observe The condition is to the promise as an Oar in a Boat or stern of a Ship which turns it another way PSAL CI. A Psalm of David Wherein he promiseth and pre-ingageth that whenever hee came to the Kingdome he will be a singular example both as a Prince and as a Master of a Family In which respect this Psalm should be often read and ruminated by such that their houses may be as the house of David Zach. 12.8 and as the Palace of George Prince of Anbaâ—â— which was saith Melanctben Ecclesia Academia Curia a Church Act. Mon. fol. 1559. an Academy and a Court. Bishop Ridley read and expounded this Psalm oftentimes to his houshold hiring them with money to learn it and other select Scriptures by heart A good Governour is like that Noble-man who had for his Impress two bundle of ripe Miâ—â—et bound together with this Mâ—tto Servare Servari meâ—â— est for the nature of the Miâ—â—et is both to guard it self from all corruption and also those things that lye near it That is a rare commendation that is given the late Reverend and Religious Dr. Chatterton that he was an house-keeper three and fifty years and yet in all chat time he never kept any of his servants from Church to dress his meat His life by Mr. Clark saying That he desired as much to have his servants know God as himself Vers 1. I will-sing of Mercy and Judgement â— Davids Ditty was composed of discords Mercy and Justice are the brightest stars in the sphere of Majesty the main supports of a Throne Royal How heit there should be a preheminence to Mercy as one well observeth from Micah 6.8 Mercy must be loved and not shewn onely Justice must be done and no more The sword of Justice must be bathed in the oyl of Mercy A well-tempered mixture of both preserveth the Commonwealth Rom. 13.34 Vnto thee O Lord will I sing Acknowledge thee alone the bestower of these graces and thy glory â—s the end These are matters that Philosophers and Politicians mind not Vers 2. I will behave my self wisely I will begin the intended reformation at my self and then set things to rights in my family which while Augustus did not he was worthily blamed by his subjects and told that publick persona must carefully observe Aedibus in prâ—priis quae recta 〈◊〉 prava gerantur Pluâ—â— Cate said that he could pardon all mens faults but his own But Cate the wise wanted the wisdome from above and was therefore short of David who promiseth here so be merry I will sing and yet wise I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way that is in an upright conversation and in a faithful discharge of the great trust committed unto me Oâ— when wilt then come unto me In the performance of thy promise concerning the Kingdom For I am resolved not to â—â—â—evert thee but to wait thy coming Est suspirium 〈…〉 ex abrupto like that of Juâ—â—â— I have waited O Lord for thy salvation Gen. 49 18. Or When wilt thou come viz. to reckon with me For come thou wiles I wilt walk within my house with a perfect heart And although my house â—â— not sâ— with God 1 Sam. 23.5 yet this is all my desire and shall be mine endeavour although be make it not to grow ib. Indesinentes â—mâ—ulabo Kimchi I will walk uncessantly walk in the midst of mine house 〈…〉 2 King 4.35 and this I
peculiar To touch these is to touch the apple of Gods eye Zach. 2.8 they are sacred persons And do my Prophets no harm The Patriarchs were such Gen. 20.7 so are still all godly Ministers whom they who harm by word or deed have not so much knowledge as Pilats wise had in a dream See Psal 14.4 Vers 16. Moreover he called for a Famine How easie is it with God soon to stawe us all by denying us an harvest or two If he do but call for a Famine it is done He brake the while staff of bread Either by withdrawing bread that staff of mans life or his blessing from it for man liveth not by bread alone or at all but by every word c. Mat. 4. without which bread can no more nourish us than a clod of clay In pane conclusus est quasi baculus qui nos sustineat See Hag. 1.6 with the Notes Vers 17. He sent a man before them An eminent and eximious man Cujus vita fuit coelum queddam lucidissim is virtutum stellis exornatum to be their friend in the Court and to provide for their livelihood No danger befalleth the Church but God before-hand provideth and procureth the means of preservation and deliverance 2 Pet. 2.9 Even Joseph whom they had sold God ordereth the disorders of the world to his own glory and his peoples good Vers 18. Whose feet they hurt with fetters God hereby fitting him for that great service as he did afterwards Moses by forty years banishment in Miâ—ian and David by Sauls persecution till his soul was even as a weaned child Psal 131.2 He was laid in iron Heb. His soul came into iron or the iron entred into his soul but sin entred not into his conscience See a like phrase Luke 2.35 Vers 19 Until the time that his word came The time that Gods purpose and promise of deliverance was fulfilled This word of God prophane persons call Fate Fortune c. The word of the Lord tried him That he was Affliction-proof and still retained his integrity 1 Pet. 1.7 Vers 20. The King sent and loosed him By his own Master Potiphar who had laid him there at his wives in stance such as are bound ignominiously for righteousness sake shall be one way or other loosed honourably Vers 21. He made him Lord of his house Thus for his short braid of imprisonment where of he never dreamt Joseph hath eighty years preferment more than ever he dreamt of God retributions are very bountiful Vers 22. To bind his Princes at his pleasure To over-aw and to over-rule them to bind them in prison if need so required as himself had been bound and that at his pleasure or according to his own soul sine consensu Pharaoh saith Rabbi Solomon without Pharaohs consent as he dealt by Potiphar say other Rabbins And to teach his Senators wisdome Policy and piety which yet the Egyptians long retained not Vers 23. Israel also came into Egypt Whither he feared to go till God promised him his presence and protection Gen 46.3 4. God saith the same in effect to us when to descend into the grave Fear not to go down I will go down with thee and be better to thee than thy fears Jacobs best and happiest dayes were those the spent in Egypt Vers 24. And be increased his people greatly Against all the power of Egypt set against them And made them stronger than their enemies They were not so for present but the Egyptians conceited and feared they would be so Vers 25. He turned their hearâ— to hate Mens hearts are in Gods hands and he formeth and fashioneth their opinions of and affections to others at his pleasure yet without sin To deal subtilly with his servants Seeking to imbase and enervate their spirits by base drudgeries imposed upon them So afterwards dealt the Persian Tyrant with Hormisaus and the great Turk with the Christians Vers 26. He sent Moses his servant Quande duplicantur lateres venit Moses say the Jews as this day And Aaron c. God usually sendeth his by two and two for mutual helps and comfort Vers 27. They shewed his signs Heb. The words of his signs for Gods wondrous works are vocal they are real sermons of Gods power and justice See Exod. 4.8 Vers 28. He sent darkness Palpable darkness by reason of most black and thick vapours of the earth mingling themselves with the air such as Aben-Ezra said that hee once felt sayling upon the Ocean the gross vapours there putting out the light of fire and candle and not suffering them to be re-inkindled And they rebelled not against his word They that is the plagues called for came immediately with an Ecce me Or They that is Moses and Aaron refused not to denounce and inflict those plagues though Pharaoh threatned so kill them where a man would wonder at Pharaohs hardness and hardiness that being in the midst of that deep and dreadful darkness he could rage against God and threaten with death his servant Moses The Arabick reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendreth it Et irritarunt sermonem ejus And they the Egyptians provoked his word or rebelled against it Vers 39. He turned their waters into blood A just hand of God upon them for their cruelty in drowning the Hebrew Infants and a real forewarning if they could have seen it of the death of their first-born and their final overthrow at the red Sea And slew their fish Which was a great part of their food Piscis à pascendo dictus Vers 30. The land brought forth frogs in abundance Like grass that grows upon the ground or as fishes spawned in the Sea as the word signifieth Gen. 1.20 Some think they were not common frogs sed venenat as hâ—rrendas quales sunt rubetae bufones Ab. Ezra but Toads and Lizards Crocodiles some think came out of the River and destroyed people In the chambers of their Kings Regis regulorum inter medias enseâ— medias custodias This was the finger of God as it was likewise when a Town in Spain was overturned by Conies and another in Thessaly by Moles a City in France undone by Frogs Plin. l. 8. c. 29 and another in Africa by Locusts c. Vers 31. He spake and there came divers sorts of Flyes Heb. a mixture so of Waspes Hornets Dog-flyes the most troublesome of all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all sorts of Insects And Lice in all their coasts This the Magicians could not do Quid ciniphe vilius c saith Philo What 's baser than a Louse yet hereby God can tame the sturdiest of his rebels Some Kings and other Grandees have dyed of the lousie disease as Herod Philip of Spain c. Vers 32. He gave them Hail for Rain Rain was geason in Egypt but now they had hail for rain a giftless gift Heb. He gave their rain hail Exod. 9.23 And flaming fire in their land That they
Gods Precepts but wee must practice them if wee would bee happy To keep thy Precepts diligently Nimis valde vehementer Odi nimium diligentes saith One but where the businesse is weighty and the failing dangerous one can hardly bee too diligent Let a man here do his utmost hee shall not overdo Vers 5 O that my wayes were directed c. David can wish well to that perfection which hee cannot attain unto The whole life of a good Christian is an holy desire saith Austin and this is alwayes seconded with indeavour without the which Affection is like Rachel beautifull but barren Vers 6. Then shall I not bee ashamed i. e. I shall bee highly honoured both by thee and all thy people able to look thee and them in the face free from an evill conscience When I have respect unto all thy Commandements Mine obedience being universal both for subject and object this is a sure sign of sincerity such as entitleth a man to true blessednesse vers 1. An Hypocrite is funam bulus virtutum as Tertullian phraseth it hee hath a dispensatory conscience his obedience is partiall and such as goeth in a narrow tract it extendeth not to the compasse of the whole Law and is therefore lost labour Vers 7 I will praise thee with uprightnesse David was yet but a learner and if God would teach him to profit in knowledge and holinesse hee would lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull heart to him Vers 8 Lucan I will keep thy Statutes Yea and that very much or with vehemency as some read it usque valde this hee had said before was Gods command vers 4. and hee would do it Jussa sequi tam velle mihi quam posse necesse est O for sake mee not Or if at all as thou mayest without breach of promise yet not very much not usque valde not utterly Christ saith Greenham was forsaken for a few hours David for a few months and Job for a few years seven years faith Suidas for the triall and exercise of his faith and patience This might seem to them usque valde but it was not 〈…〉 Leave them God did to their thinking but forsake them hee did not forsake them he did in regard of vision but not in regard of union 〈…〉 Vers 9 Wherewith all shall a young man 〈◊〉 a lad a stripling who hath his name in Hebrew of 〈◊〉 to 〈…〉 and the same word 〈…〉 when â—hiâ—â—led 〈…〉 vanity of youth and 〈…〉 once affections begin to boil within them The Greek word for a youth comes from another that signifieth to bee hot and to boil up or scald 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a one therefore had need if ever hee think to bee blessed as vers 1. to cleanse his wayes by cleaving to the word sith an impure heart and an undefiled inheritance will not stand together Cleanse his way Mundabit idest emenâ—abit The Hebrew word signifieth the cleansing of glasse which though it bee very clean yet will it gather filth even in the Sun-beams and of it self which noteth the great corruption of this slippery age and what care must be taken that it may shine as picked glasse or clearest Chrystall By taking heed thereto according to thy word Which is of a purifying property Job 15.3 17.17 and can cleanse the heart of a young man also where lusts are strong stains deep and will not out without fullers sope There is a sharpness in these wholesome or healing words that maketh us sound in the faith and sincere in practice as it did Mr. Paul Bains whose conversation when hee came first to Cambridge was so irregular that his Father being grieved at it before his death left with a friend forty pounds by the year desiring that his son might have it if hee amended his manners else not Hee did so and had it c. Mr. Clark lives When a Child is come to bee thirteen years and a day old the Jews account him a man and call him Barmitsuah a child of the Commandement because bound to live by the law Leo Mâ—denâ— oâ— Jewâ—riteâ— Vers 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee And that of a child little being nourished up in the words of faith and of good Doctrin 1 Tim. 4.6 I did all the wills of God and so became a man after his own heart Act. 13.22 O let mee not wander As I shall surely if thou but withdraw thy grace for I subsist meerly by thy manutension Vers 11 Thy word have I hid in my heart Ut peculium in Apotheca as treasure or as an amulet in a case or Chest as the pot of Manna in the Ark. That I might not sin against thee Set but the commination against the temptation and it will bee a speciall preservative Eve held the Precept but faltered in the threat The Rabbines have a saying In cuâ—us corde est lex Dei imâ—ginatio mala non habet in eum dominium Hee who hath the law of God in his heart is armed against evill lusts Vers 12 Blessed art thou or hee thou O Lord viz. For what thou hast already taught mee of thy will and my duty Teach mee thy Statutes Gratiarum actio est ad plus dandum invitatio David had never enough but craveth more Teach mee thy Statutes saith he that I may bless thee better Vers 13 With my lips have I declared Heb. Have I sipâ—ered up these have been the matter of my discourse and out of the good treasure of my heart vers 11. have I brought forth those good things for the good of others Mat. 12.35 Vers 14 I have rejoyced Heb. I have inwardly rejoyced Pleasures of the mind are unspeakably joyous Eudoxus was content to have been burnt by the Sun presently might hee but come so near it as to learn the nature of it Pliny perished by peeping into the fire of Etna Archimedes lost his life by being too intent upon his Mathematical studies As much as in all riches Heb. In all oppulency and affluence Vers 15 I will meditate Or Confabulate talk freely of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. as worldlings do of their wealth and wayes to get it And have respect unto thy wayes As an Archer hath to his mark Vers 16. I will delight my self Deliciabor the Arabick hath it lectitabo leges tu as I will oft read over thy laws I will not forget Men do therefore forget the word because they delight not in it they seldom forget where they lay their mony Vers 17 Deal bountifully with thy servant Per indebitam gratiam â—etribue Of thy free grace confer good upon mee and that not scantily or niggardly but liberally and like thy self The word sometimes signifieth to repay to recompense but therehence to infer matter of merit on mans part is too sandy a foundation foâ— such a lofty Babel That I may live Who am in deaths often and that I may comfortably
name of Sana to hate the word here used because it is most of all to be hated as the greatest evil as that which setteth us furthest from God the greatest good This none can do but those that love the Lord Christ in sincerity for all hatred comes from love A naturall man may be angry with his sin as a man is sometimes with his wife or friend for some present vexation but hate it hee cannot yea he may leave it for the ill consequents of sin but not loathe it If he did he would loathe all as well as any for hatred is ever against the whole kind of a thing saith Aristole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rhetor. lib. 2â— Vers 11. Light is sown for the Righteous The Righteous is haeres cruc â—â— the Heir of the Crosse and many are his troubles A Child of light may walk in darknesse and have no light Isa 50.10 yet Christ will not leave him comfortlesse Joh. 14. Light is sown for him 't is yet seeding-time and that is usually wet and dropping and the seed must have a time to lye and then to grow ere a crop can be expected there must be also weeding and clodding c. behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it By ye also patient stablish your hearts c. Jam. 5.7 8. We look not to sow and reap in a day as He saith of the Hyperborean people far North that they sow shortly after the Sun-rising with them and reap before the Sun-ser so because the whole half year is one continuall day with them Heresbach dâ— rerust Deliverance will come in Gods good time and as before the morning-light is the thickest darknesse as the seed that lyeth longest under ground commeth up at length with greatest increase so here Semen modicum sed me ssis faecunda saith Aben-Ezra on the Text. And gladnesse for the upright This clause expoundeth the former Vers 12. Rejoyce in the Lord See Psal 32. ult with the Note At the remembrance of his holinesse That is of himself for whatsoever is in God is God as also of his works and benefits whereby he giveth you so good occasion to remember him PSAL. XCVIII A Psalm The Greek addeth of David A man might think it were rather of John Baptist pointing out Christ and his Kingdom as it already come with the great good thereby accrewing to the Saints Vers 1. O sing unto the Lord a new song See Psal 96.1 and observe how the compiler of the Psalms hath hereabout set together sundry Psalms of the same subject His right hand and his holy arm His is emphatical and exclusive q.d. Christ alone hath done the deed he is our sole Saviour Isa 59.16 63.5 In the justification of a sinner Christ and faith are alone saith Luther Tanquam sponsus sponsa in thalamo As Wax and Water cannot meet together so neither can Christ and any thing else in this work Away then with that devillish Doctrin of the Saints Merits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot in Meteor Quibuscunque tandem pigmentis illita obtrudatur If any commend or go after any other way to Salvation besides Christ hee doth according to the Greek Proverb draw mischiefs to himself as the Wind Caecius doth Clouds Vers 2. The Lord hath made known his salvation His way of saving his people by his Som Christ Mat. 1.21 this Mystery so long kept secret is now made known to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom 16.25 26. His Righteousness Made ours by imputation this the Jews to this day deride and the Papists call it putative in a jeer Vers 3. He hath remembred his mercy and his truth His Mercy moving him to promise and his Truth binding him to perform 2 Sam. 7.18 21. and hence all our happiness Vers 4. Make a joyful noyse Bless God for a Christ The Argives when delivered by the Romans from the tyranny of the Macedonians and Spartans Quae gaudia quae vociferationes fuerunt quid florum in Consulem profuderunt what great joys expressed they what loud out-crys made they the very Birds that flew over them fell to the ground Plut. in Flamin assonied with their noyses They Cryer at the Nemean Games was forced to pronounce the word Liberty Iterumque iterumque again and again Vers 5. Sing unto the Lord with the Harp Tum cithararum tum vocum mutuis vicibus do your utmost in the superlativest manner you can devise Vers 6. Make a joyful noyse By the repeating and inculcating of this exhortation is intimated our dulness and backwardness to a business of this nature the necessity of the duty and the excellency of the mercy that can never be sufficiently celebrated Vers 7 8 9. See the Notes on Psal 96.11 12 13. PSAL. XCIX VErs 1. The Lord reigneth Even the Lord Christ as Psal 97.1 Let the people tremble Let them serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling by the people some understand the Jews and by the Earth all other Nations let there bee a general subjection yeelded to the Scepter of his Kingdom Vers 2. The Lord is great in Zion In his Church he giveth many great testimonies of his power and presence and is therefore magnified by his people And he is high above all people In the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them Exod. 18.11 Vers 3. Let them praise thy great and terrible Name Nomen illud Majestativum Some hereby understand the name Jehovah of which Josh 7. What wilt thou do to thy great Name And Jer. 44. I have sworn by my great Name But Gods Name is usually put for Gods self For it is Holy And therefore to be sanctified in righteousness Isa 5.16 Vers 4. The Kings strength also loveth judgement i.e. abest à Tyrannide God abuseth not his Kingly power to Tyranny but Joyneth it with his Justice and Uprightnese Regiment without Righteousness is but robbery with authority The Ara bick hath it Magnificentia Regis est ut diligat aequitatem Vers 5. Exalt the Lord our God Have high apprehensions of him and answerable expressions Set him up and set him forth to the utmost And worship at his footstool i.e. At his Temple saith the Chaldee At the Ark of the Covenant say the Rabbins Austin interpreteth it of Christs humanity which although of it self it is not to be adored because it is a creature yet as it is received into unity of person with the Divinity and hath a Partner-agency with the God-head according to its measure in the works of Redemption and Mediation 1 Tim. 2.5 it is to be worshipped But how hard driven was that second Synod of Niâ—e when they abused this Text among many others to prove the worshipping of Images and Pictures Vers 6. Moses and Aaron among his Priests or chief Officers as 1 Chron. 18.17 Moses was if not a Priest yet a continual Intercessor for the people