There the 〈…〉 or 〈◊〉 as do their cruell creditors and hard task-masters There that is in the state of the dead whether by land or sea the 〈◊〉 or 〈…〉 the miserable captives â—est such as were those poor Christians shut up so close by Barbâ—rusâ—a the Turkish Generall returning toward Constantinople under hatches among the excrements of nature that all the way as he went Turk hist 750. almost every houre some of them were cast dead over-board Such were many of the Martyrs kept fast shut up â—n â—ollards Tower in the Bishop of London cole-house a dark and ugly prison said Mr. Philpot as any is about London but I thank the Lord I am not alone but have six other faithfull companions who in our darknesse do lightsomely sing Psalms and praises to God for his great goodnesse Acts Mon. 1669 1670. but especially for this that I am so near the apprehension of eternall blisse God forgive me mine unthankfulnesse and unworthinesse of so great glory What pitifull hard usage Gods poor prisoners met with in the late troubles at Oxford especially from which death God graciously delivered me when I was in their hands and in the Western parts pag. 38. see Mr. Râ—nas Sermon called Jâ—b in the West where he compareth the enemies cruelty to that of the American Cannâ—bals who when they take a prisoner seed upon him alive and by degrees to the unutterable aggravation of his horrour and torment They hear not the â—ice of the oppressors Their harsh and hard speeches Jude 15. that were as a murthering weapon in the poor prisoners bones Psal 42.10 Send me back to my frogs and toads again where I may pray for you conversion said one of the Martyrs to his raiâ—â—g adversaries Art thou come thou villain how darest thou look me in the face for shame said Sâ—even Gâ—râ—iner to Dr. Tayloâ— the Martyrâ— who told him his own freely Acts Mon. but fairely for the spirit of grace is 〈…〉 Est autem Saranâ— poctus 〈…〉 saith Luthex the divell and his agents are bitter railers fetching their words as farre as hell to breaâ— the hearts of Gods prisoners Psalm 69.20 But besides that they have their cordiall of a good conscience by them 2 Cor. 1.12 in the grâ—ve they heare not the voice of the oppressor nor the barking of these dead dogs any more Verse 19. The small and the great are there In Calvary are sculls of all sizes say the Hebrewes Stat sun cuique dies It is appointed for all once to die Virg. Aeneid lib. 10. be they great or small low or high Mors sceptra liganibus aequat death makes no difference Kings and captives Lords and losels come then under an equall parity death takes away all distinctions William the Conquerours corps lay unburied three dayes his interment was hindred by one that claimed the ground to be his Daniel King Stephen was interred at Fever sham Monastery but since Speed 498. his body for the gain of the lead wherein it was coffined was cast into the river where at length it rested as did likewise the dead corps of Edward the fifth and his brother smothered in Speed 935. the Tower by Richard the third and cast into a place called the black deeps at the Thames mouth The servant is free from his Master Servant is a name of office he is not his own to dispose of but the masters instrument saith Aristotle and wholly his till he please to manumit him if he do not yet death will and by taking away his life give him his liberty his body resteth from all servile offices for a season howsoever and if with good will hee hath done service as to the Lord and not to men he shall receive of the Lord the reward of inheritance even a childs part Colos 4.24 Verse 20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery Job hath not done yet though he had said more then enough of this matter but for want of the oyle of joy and gladnesse his doors move not without creaking his lips like rusty hinges open not without murmuring and complaining Good therefore is that counsel given by David Cease from anger and forsake wrath take up in time before it hath wholly leavened and sowred you fret not thy self in any wise to do evill Psal 37.8 Hee shall not chuse but do evil who is sick of the fret David had the sad experience of this when he had carted the Ark and thereupon God had made a breach upon Vzzah David was displeased saith the Text and how untowardly spake hee as if the fault were more in God then in himself though afterwards he came to a sight of his own error 1 Chron. 13.11 with 15.2 And so did Job no doubt when come to himself but here he proceeds to expresse his peevishnesse and impatience yea against God himself though not by name forsan sese cohibens ob bonae mentis reliquias saith Mercer out of his good respect to God which he still retained and calls for a reason why the miserable should be condemned to live since death would be much more welcome to them How apt are men to think there is no reason for that for which they can see no reason Verse 21. Which long for death and it cometh not The bitter in soul long for death those that are in paine or penury are apt to desire to be dispatch'd upon any terms and would freely pardon them they say that would give them their pasport But these for most part consider not the unsupportablenesse of the wrath to come that eternity of extremity in hell that death usually haleth at the heeles of it so that by death whereof they are so desirous they would but leap out of the frying-pan into the fire as Judas did they do as the asse in the fable who desired to die that he might be no more beaten at post mortem factus est tympanum but when he was dead he was made a drum-head of and so was ten times more laid on then ever in his life-time before And dig for it more then for hid treasures Covetousnesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-daring saith an Ancient and men for love of wealth will dig to hell light a candle at the divel as they say With such an eagernesse of desire do some that have little reason for it all things reckoned long and labour after death not to bee rid of sin or to bee with Christ as Phil. 1.23 but to bee freed from misery incumbent or impendent Thus Cato having first read Plato's book of the souls immortality laid violent hands on himselfe that hee might not fall into the hands of the conqueror Thus Adrian the Emperour having lain long sick and could get no help by Physicians but was the worse for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he complained at his death would gladly have slaine himselfe if those about him would have suffered
are all young Virgins taken and stollen from forraine Nations where after they have been instructed in good behaviour and can play upon instruments sing dance and sew curiously they are given to the Grand Signior as presents of great value They live just as Nunnes do in great Nunneries c. That Esther was brought also In the general survey she was taken among the rest and brought to the Court an ill aire for Piety to breath in exeat aulâ Qui vult esse pius Fraus sublimi regnat in aulz Sen. But necessity is an hard weapon As the Turks at this day so the Persian Kings then took all their subjects to be their slaves holding not only their estates but their lives and all they have at their dispose without respect either to the cause or manner To the custody of Hegai keeper of the women Clapt up as it were in a glorious prison being not to come abroad but when the King calls nor to frequent any society but such as is appointed her for her necessary attendance and comfort See the like in the description of the Grand Signiors Seraglio chap. 4. Verse 9. And the maiden pleased him Hegai cast his favour upon her not because she was the fairest noblest most industrious most courtly c. but because God wrought his heart to it as he did Potiphars and Pharaohs to Joseph Jonathans to David Darius's to Daniel c. It is the Lord that gives favour and fashioneth mens opinions of us He gave Solomon honour and Paul prayes to him that his service may be accepted of the Saints Row 15.31 And she obtained kindnesse of him His favour was not empty favour professional only as that of Courtiers And he speedily gave her c. As resolving shortly to recommend her to the King who he knew would be much ruled by him in his choyce Here were shadows of many excellent vertues in a blind Ethnik who may in some sort teach true kindnesse and doth condemne those that boast of false liberality He dealt not basely but bountifully with Esther Her things for purification See ver 3.12 With such things as belonged to her Heb. Her portions or allowances of food raiment c. which this faithful officer interverted not for his own private gaine but rather inlarged himself in the true bestowing thereof And seven maidens When he might have put her off with one he enlargeth himself and even stretcheth his authority that he might by these maide of honour attending her set her forth as a Queen aforehand Which were meet to he given her Or which were very comely speciosa vel spectatae And he preferred Heb. He changed her sc for the better as God doth his people when he taketh them to heaven where they change place but not company as that good man said upon his death-bed and are brought from the jawes of death to the joyes of eternal life from shadows to substances D. Preston from misery to majesty c. a greater change then that of Queen Elizabeth from a Prisoner to a Princesse or that of our Henry the fourth Dan. hist 48. who was crowned the very same day that the year before he had been banished the Realme The Latines call prosperous things Res secundas because they are to be had hereafter they are not the first things Vnto the best place of the house of the women Or Vnto the best condition Gods best children shall have the best of the best fat things full of marrow wines on the lees well refined Esay 25.6 Jacob and his family had the best of the Land of Egypt that Granary of the world as one calleth it His posterity had a land that flowed with milke and honey What Countreys comparable to those that professe the Gospel Godlinesse is profitable to all things having the promises of both lives c. Verse 10. Esther had not shewed her people Because the Jewes were slighted as captives and forlorn how dear to the gods that Nation is faith Cicero it appeareth quòd est victa quòd elocata O at pro L. Hac quòd servata in that they are conquered captivated and not utterly destroyed by us they were also generally hated as different in Religion and would not so much as drink with Heathens lest they should drink things sacrificed to Idols They held it meritorious in after-times to kill an idolater as Tacitus testifieth and at this day they say Optimus inter gentes c. The very best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head bruised as a Serpent A nasty people they are still and bloodthirsty odious and sordid An historian telleth us of an Emperour travelling into Egypt and there meeting with certaine Jews he was so annoyed with the stench of them that he cryed out O Marcomanut ô Quadi ô Surmaetae tandem alios vobis deteriores inveni Ammian lib. 2. This is the basest and most contemptible people that ever I light upon Aug. in Psal 58 The Romanes would not own them when they had conquered them as they did other Nations though they complied never so much and were their servants The Turks so hate them for crucifying Christ that they use to say in detestation of a thing Heyl. Geog. I would I might die a Jew then as when they would assure any thing in execrationibus dicunt Judeus sim si fallo they curse themselves Sanctrus in Zech 8.13 and say Let me be held a Jew if I deceive thee This lyeth upon them as a punishment for their unexpiable guilt in putting to death the Lord of life But in Esthers time they were hated chiefly for their Religion In prudence therefore she concealeth her kindred as being not called to give an account of her faith and living private might well performe her devotions and yet not thrust her self into observation For Mordecai had charged beâ— that she should not shew it Lest she should be cashiered the Court for a Jeweâ—se which was then held crime enough as afterwards it was in Nore's dayes to be a Christian and this hand perinde in crimine quà m odio humani generis as Tavitus hath it not for any great fault so much as by the hatred of mankind incensed and set on work by the Devil doubtlesse to root out the true Religion and to set up himself in the hearts of men as god of this present world Hence those complaints of Tertullian and Justin Martyr in their Apologies for Christians that their name and not their crimes was hated and hissed out of all companies Tert. Apoâ— c 1. 2.3 Just Apol. 2. Odio publico est confessio nòminis non examinatio criminis Solius hominis crimen est c. Wisely therefore did Mordecai charge Esther to conceal her self for present so long as it might be done without prejudice to the truth and scandal to her profession Worthily also did holy Esther in obeying Mordâ—cai her faithful foster-father in ruling
Titles of honour far beyond those of the worlds greatest Magnifico Shall wax stronger and stronger Heb. Shall add strength Not only shall hee hold his own but get more grace not only persevere but proceed and make progresse He shall take boldnesse Sumet audaciam say the Septuagint and by an holy Antipenstasis get heart of grace as they call it from the evil attempts of others against him the more outragious they the more couragious he like as by Saint Pauls bonds many waxed confident Phil. 1.14 and as the Primitive Christians the more they were killed up the more numerous they became True zeal is of a most masculine Plures efficimur quoties mctimur Tertul. and couragious nature it is inkindled by quench-coales quickened by rubs and remora's Baâ—uc repaired earnestly bursting out into heat nehem 3.20 Shall such a man as I flye said that heavenly Spark chap. 6.11 Shall I change my opinion because hoc Ithacus velit Remit of my diligence because of a frown or a frump because such a Persecutour threatneth me Oh that I might enjoy those wild beasts prepared for my death said Ignatius Oh that I might have the maidenhead of that kind of suffering for Christ said that Martyr to Bonner threatning to whip him c. Verse 10. But as for you all do ye return c. Change your minds as Mal. 3. 18. and close with me lay aside your prejudicate opinions deliver up you selves to my discipline who am ready to teach you things both weighty and necessary Siquis culturae patientem accommodet aurem For I cannot find one wise man amongst you Nihil hic ex odio dicit saith an Interpreter This Job speaketh not out of hatred to their persons but freely uttereth that which he was perswaded to be the truth and wisheth them a better understanding of the thing controverted betwixt himself and them at this time Now it is no fault to speak of men as we find them See 1 Cor. 6.5 I speak to your shame is it so that there is not a wise man among you and yet chap. 10.15 I speak as to wise men judg you what I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theog Verse 11. My dayes are past q.d. Its past time of day for me to hope for a returne of a prosperous condition sith I am irrecoverably diseased and cannot be long of life My purposes are broken off Or My thoughts are pluckt up by the roots even the Possessions of mine heart that is those thoughts that should wholly possesse me and take me up entirely seizing upon my spirit q.d. I am not now in case to think settledly and seriously of any good my sorrowes are so many and my sores so grievous The Chaldee hath it The Tables of my heart are broken How foolish then are they who put off their repentance till they are cast upon their sick-beds when they may soon find enough to do to attend the paine and infirmity of their bodies To suffer and be sick saith One is work enough for any man at one time he had not need to have his greatest work to do when he hath such work to do Verse 12. They change the night into day i.e. My troubled thoughts render my nights restless filling me with confusion when the mind is unsettled the man cannot rest The light is short because of darknesse i.e. Comfort is long ere it cometh Bern. and soon it expireth Rara hora. brevis mora The Vulgar Post tenebras spero â—ucem here After darknesse I hope for light the ancient Motto of the Town of Geneva is far fetch'd Verse 13. If I wait the grave is mine house In that congregation house of all living as it is called chap. 30.23 both I and my hopes must be suddenly lodged Some render it thus If I build the grave is my house Solomon calleth it Tâ—â— house of eternity Eccles 12.5 And the Egyptians accordingly call graves everlasting houses as 〈◊〉 saith Lib. 1. I have made my bed in darkness The grave was Jobs house and therein he had made his bed to rest from his labours There men follow their works no more because followed by their works Rev. 14.14 Verse 14. I have said to corruption Thou art my father See how he bespeaks corruption and the wormes Ac sijam juris illorum Domesticus esset as if he were of family with them and nearest of kin to them so doth he court them as it were that they might be willing to receive him shewing withal how willing himself was to dye for whether do men in a strange Country and in misery desire rather to go then to the house of their parents Here also Job declareth what will be the end of all men and what shall be their kindred in the grave Of corruption we came for what else is the seed and blood of generation to corruption also we go as sons thereof and Pulvu Putredo we salute for sisters that shall be most tender of us and attendant upon us Why then should any boast of high kindred To the pit I cry O father O sister O mother to the worm so Broughton rendreth it Why should any boast of bodily beauty since corruption will shortly seize upon the fairest face which is now but putrefaction and wormes once removed and to the same must suddenly move back again Mihi experto credite saith Austin Believe me who have made trial of it Open a grave and upon the dead mans head you shall find toads leaping begotten of his braines upon his loynes Serpents crawling begotten of his raines Serm. 48. ad frat in crem in his belly wormes abounding arising out of his entrailes Behold what now we are and what we shortly shall be Behold the Original and filthiness of sin c. Verse 15. And where is now my hope c Heb. And where is my hope scil of restauration to my pristine prosperity which you have so often promised me who am now ready set upon the confines of death Job was past the Cape of good hope in his own apprehension but God turned again his captivity chap. 42. Qui nil sperare potest desperet nihil Job did well to propound death to himself and prepare for it by such aforementioned familiarity but yet he should have better bethought him of the infinite power and goodnesse of God who raiseth the dead and delighteth to help such as are forsaken of their hopes Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver 2 Cor 1.10 The Hebrew word that signifieth hope signifieth also a line because by hope the heart should be stretcht out as a line to the thing it hopeth for And because it signifieth also a Congregation Jerem. 3.17 Gen. 1.19 therefore some render this verse thus And where now is my congregation And as for my congregation who shall see it q.d. I have no other family or familiars but
planted turned it into the same nature with it self as copres which will turn milk into ink or leaven which turneth a very Passeover into pollution See Mich. 1.5 with the Note Verse 12. Now therefore give not your daughters unlesse ye have a mind to pitch them into hell-mouth See ver 2. with the Note Nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever For they were devoted by God to utter destruction and therefore Israel might have no intercourse with them The Jewes at this day count and call us Canaanites Edomites c. and hold it an almesdeed to knock us on the head The best among the Gentiles say they is worthy cui caput conteratur tanquam Serpenti to be killed up as a Serpent Tacitus long since observed of them that as they were very kind to their own so to all others they bare a deadly hatred Thrice a day in their prayers Buxtorf Synag Jud. cop 5. they curse us Christians and in Polony where they have a toleration they print base and blasphemous things against Christ and Religion That ye may be strong viz. by my presence amongst you and providence over you for cui adhaereo prae est as Q. Elizabeth could write how much more may God Almighty He whom I favour is sure to prevail And cat the good of the Land The best of the best the finest Wheat the choyfest fruit and those a pledge and fore-taft of the happiness of Heaven where there is nec fames nec fastidium as one saith neither lack nor loathing neither measure nor mixture but sweetest varieties felicities eternities And leave it for an inheritance personal goodnesse is profitable to posterity the righteous shall leave inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 13.22 God never casteth out his good tenants nor leaveth his servants unprovided for See Psal 103.17 and 112.1 2. Verse 13. And after all that is come upon us Affliction like foul wheather cometh before it is sent for yet not but of Gods sending and then it is ever either probational as Jobs or Cautional as Pauls prick in the flesh or penal for chastisement of some way of wickednesse as here For our evil deeds These he thanketh as well he might for all their sufferings sin is the mother of misery and hales hell at the heeles of it Seeing that thou our God Our God still and this is the sixth time that he hath so stiled Him in this holy prayer besides three times My God These are speeches of faith and refer to the Covenant that pabulum fidei food of faith When ye stand and pray beleeve when ye humble and tremble before God keep up your faith still Nihil retinet qui fidem amisit lose that and lose all Seneca Take away the iniquity of they servant saith David 2 Sam. 24.10 'T is as if he should say I am thy servant Lord still though an unworthy one And to prove himself so he addeth For I have done very foolishly I confesse it Lord that thon mayest cover it Homo agnoscit Deus ignoscit This he beleeves and speeds when Judas confessing but withal despairing misseth of mercy Hast punisht us lesse then our iniquities deserve Heb. Hast withheld beneath our iniquities The just hire of the least sin is death in the largest sense Rom. 6.23 What then might God do to us for our many and mighty sins or rather what might he not do and that most justly How great is his mercy which maketh him say Jerusalem hath received at Gods hand double for all her sins Isai 40.1 2. Too much saith God there too little saith Ezra here and yet how sweetly and beautifully doth this kind of contradiction become both And hast given us such deliverance as this A fruit of free mercy and calls hard for duty Gods blessings are binders and every new deliverance calls for new obedience Servaeti sumus ut serviamus Verse 14. Should we again break thy Commandements There is so much unthankfulnesse and disingenuity in such an entertainment of mercy that holy Ezra here thinkes that Heaven and Earth would be ashamed of it And joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations Especially when we may hear God himself screeching out as it were those words of his Oh do not this abominable thing Save your selves from this untoward generation c Wouldst thou not be angry with us Id est Chide us smite us and so set it on as no creature should be able to take it off Sin may move God when we ask bread and fish to feed us to answer us with a stone to bruise us or a Serpent to bite us Shun it therefore as a Serpent in your way or as poyson in your meats Kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way c. Psal 2.12 So that there should be no remnant So that our late preservation should prove but a reservation to further mischief as was Sodoms Senacheribs Pharaohs Verse 15. O Lord God of Israel So called because he is their portion they His Deut. 32.9 He had avouched them for his and they him interchangeably Deut. 26.17 18. Seneca could say that the basest people meaning the Jewes gave Lawes unto all the World that is had the true God Creatour of all for their God Thou art righteous In all thy judgments inflicted upon us or thou art faithful and true in thy promises but we have forfeited thy favour and deserved destruction Behold we are before thee in our trespasses Or guiltinesses which is that iniquity of sin as David calleth it Psal 32.5 whereby the sinner is bound over to condigne punishment For we cannot stand before thee But must needs causâ cadere being self condemned and such as must needs subscribe to thy perfect justice in our own utter destruction CHAP. X. Verse 1. Now when Ezra had prayed HAD presented himself as a Suppliant and opened his cause to God the Judge appealing to him that he might determine And when he had confessed And begged pardon deprecating the divine displeasure Hithpallel as the word signifieth Weeping Of this we read not in the former chapter but of other effects of his passion as renting his garments tearing off the hair of his head and beard c. His sorrow at first might be above tears which afterwards came gushing out amain as the blood doth out of a Wound but not till it hath first run back to the heart to bear the newes to it as I may so say It is said of Athanasius that by his tears as by the bleeding of a chast vine he cured the Leprosy of that tainted age May we not say the same of this good man And casting himself down before the house of God Where all might see him that their eyes might affect their hearts and contribute some tears of compunction and compassion toward the filling of Gods bottle as they had done sins toward the filling of his bag Of Men Women and
honourable Angels are Gods executioners as at Sodom Magistrates and Ministers must do their utmost by discipline and otherwise to cause the false Prophets that filth and the unclean spirit to passe out of the Land as by a dung-gate Zech. 13.2 Every man must sweep his own door that we may have a clean street Verse 15. He built it and covered it A Chaldee word This people in their captivity though they had not lost the use of their native tongue yet they had got a tincture of the Chaldee and of the Hebrew and Chaldee came the Syriack the mother-tongue in Christs time as appears by Talitha kumi and other-like passages And unto the stairs By these David descended into the lower City and suitours ascended to his Palace This is allegorically applyed by some to Christ the true Jacobs ladder John 1 ult who came down and humbled himself to the utmost that we by him might have accesse with successe in all our suits Verse 16. Over against the sepulchers of David His burying-place the Jews had their sepulchers ready made as the old Prophet 1 Kings 13.30 Joseph of Arimathaea c. So had the Emperours of Constantinople their tomb-stone presented them on their Coronation-day Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany five years before his death caused his sepulcher to be made with all things appertaining to it necessary for his buriall Another great Prince began his tomb and left it unperfect commanding a servant once every day to mind him of finishing it The Thebans had a Law that no man should set up an house for himself to dwell in but he should first make his grave David it seems had his choyce of sepulchers not far from the wall of the City of David Vnto the pool that was made With great art and cost by King Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.20 And unto the house of the mighty Where Davids Mighties or the Warders of his City lodged or where youth were trained up and taught to handle their armes Verse 17. After him repaired the Levites Who therefore were not beggerly as many would make Ministers in our dayes if they might have their will but had somewhat to spare for pious uses For when they are said to repair the meaning is they bore the charge of the work and took care that it was done Verse 18. The Ruler of the half-part of Keilah This was that City rescued by David from the Philistines and yet false to him 1 Sam. 23.12 Verse 19. Another piece Or a second measure that is he repaired two parts saith Pellican Lyra and others think it to be meant of the second ward and wall which was called Secunda where the Levites Prophets and Students dwelt their College or School is called Mishne or a second part Domus doctrina 2 King 22.14 which the Targum interpreteth an House of learning Verse 20. Earnestly repaired the other piece Or a second piece as ver 19. He did two pieces whiles others were about one A ready heart makes riddance of Gods work He burst out in a heat so the Heb. being angry both at himself and others that had done no more and in an holy fume Se accendit finished quickly kindling himself from other mens coldness and quickning himself from their slothfulnesse Sic Caesar in omnia praeceps Nil actum credens Lucan dum quid superesset agendum Fertur atrox Verse 21. Even to the end of the house of Eliashib A small praise saith One if the house were not of some greatnesse Eliashib was high Priest and dwelt like himself in a fair large house Verse 22. The men of the plains Of the plains of Jordan saith the Vulgar but better understand it of the plain Countrey round about Jerusalem as chap. 12.28 Verse 23. Over against their house See the Note on ver 10. Verse 24. Vnto the turning of the Wall Namely from the South-side to the East which turning came with the corner inwards into the City Dâ—odat according to the natural scituation of the rock and the valley Verse 25. Over against the turning Of these turnings there were many as appeareth above The Kings high house In Spain not only doth the King dwell in a stately high Palace but also the highest room in every great house is his and he must be payd for it That was by the Court of the prison Here Jeremy was prisoner more then once Jer. 32.2 and 38.7 13. And therefore other good people that came after him thither might be as well apaid as Dr. Taylour Martyr who blessed God that ever he was fellow-prisoner to that earthly Angel as he called him John Bradford Or as that other good Woman who rejoyced that she might have her foot in the hole of the Stocks in which Mr. Philpot had been before her Verse 26. Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel Of Nethinims See Ezra 2 43. Their work was to carry Wood and Water to the Temple Therefore they dwelt near the Water-gate for their own conveniency Verse 27. After them the Tekoites The people whereof had repaired before ver 5. now also the Priests but not the Nobles they continued still stout and stiffe-necked as ver 5. Verse 28. From above the Horse-gate So called say some because there they were wont to dismount leaving their Horses When the King himself came he must alight and go afoot into the Temple The great Turke at this day when he entreth into his Moschee for devotion-sake alighteth and layeth aside all his State and goeth in alone Verse 29. Shemaiah the sonne of Shechaniah Egregiè cordatus homo Ezra 8. ver 16. Verse 30. After him repaired Hananiah Or After me Nehemiah doubtlesse did his part and a large one too See chap. 16. and 4.16 but he omitteth out of his modesty to set down how much In the Hebrew Text it is After me but in the Margin After him The reason is given by some to be this that Nehemiah might most covertly set forth his own work to avoyd all shew of vain glory And Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph Not the eldest but the best of all the brethren There must be no straining courtesy who shall begin nor must men fear for their forwardnesse to be stiled Seraphical and singular If Hanun were alone it was a shame for his brethren to suffer him to be so Verse 31 After him Or After me See ver 30. Over against the Gate Miphkad The Judicial-gate saith the Vulgar the Gate of Commandement saith Junius probably where the Sanhedrin sate Verse 32. Vnto the Sheep-gate Here they began and here they end having repaired round and thereby obtained a good report being here registred and renowned Those that have an hand in building the spiritual Jerusalem shall be surely crowned and chronicled Their names shall be written in the Book of Life where no Devil can scrape them out Up therefore and be doing worthily in Ephrata that ye may be famous in Bethlehem Ruth 4.11 To them
Ezek. 17.4 Wells digged A great commodity in that hot Countrey Vine-yards and Olive-yards A singular help to house-keeping So they did eate and were filled They had enough of every thing and did eate whiles eating was good as they say Queen Elizabeth did seldome eate but of one dish rose ever with an appetite and lived about seventy years King Edward the sixth was wont to call her His sweet sister Temperance And delighted themselves in thy great goodnesse They lived in Gods good land but not by Gods good Lawes the refreshing they found by his best creatures was none other but such as his who warmeth himself and saith Aha I am warme I have seene the fire Isa 44.16 Verse 26. Neverthelesse they were disobedient and rebelled See how full in the mouth these holy Levites were in aggravating their own and their forefathers sinnes which swelled as so many toads in their eyes neither could they ever sufficiently disgrace them This is the property and practise of the true penitentiary They cast thy Law behinde their backs That is they vilipended and undervalued it God drew them by the cords of a man so the cords of kindnesse are called Hos 11.4 because befitting the nature of a man and likeliest to prevaile with rational people but they like men or rather like beasts transgressed the Covenant and as if God had even hired them to be wicked so did they abuse all his benefits to his greatest dishonour being therefore the worse because in reason they ought to have been better And slew thy Prophets which testified against them to turne to thee This was the worst they did to them and that for which they received mercedem mundi the wages of the mad world ever beside it self in point of salvation and falling foul upon such as seek its good This is that sinne that brings ruine without remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 Prov. 29.1 for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116. And they wrought great provocations Or Blasphemies see verse 18. Verse 27. Therefore thou deliveredst them Flagitium flagellum sicut acus filum Sinne and punishment are tied together with chains of adamant Who vexed them Heb. Put them to straits so that they had not what shift to make or how to help themselves And in the time of their trouble Vexatio dedit intellectum The time of affliction is the time of supplication When out of the depths Gods people cry unto him they may have any thing Zach. 13.9 speedy audience unmiscarrying returnes of their prayers Thou gavest them Saviours i. e. Deliverers such as the Judges were Judg. 3.9 and such as Flaminius the Roman was to the poor Argives who therefore called him Saviour Saviour and that with such a courage Plut. in Flam ut corvi fortuito supervâ—lantes in stadium deciderent that the birds fell to the earth amazed with that outcry the aire was so dissipated with their acclamations Verse 28. But after they had rest they did evil again As standing pooles breed vermine as sedentary lives are subject to diseases If men be not poured out from vessel to vessel they will soone settle upon their â—ees Because they have no changes therefore they feare not God Psal 55.19 saith David of the wicked and Psal 30. David himself was afflicted delivered and then grew wanton Then troubled again verse 7. cryes againe verse 8.9 God turnes his mourning to joy again whereof if he surfeited not it was well bestowed on him But rarae fumant felicibus arae We are commonly best when worst and Pliny told his friend Plin. Epist that the best way to live well was to be as good in health as we promise to be when we are sick Therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies Who can do us no hurt but by Divine permission though they bandy together and bend all their forces to harme the Church yet are they bounded by God and can do nothing till he leave his people in their hands Had the dominion over them Ruled them with rigour And many times didst thou deliver them Even totiès quotiès for as the eye is not wearied with seeing nor the eare with hearing so neither is God with shewing mercy But as the Sunne shineth after it hath shone and as the spring runneth after it hath run so doth the Lord proceed to do good to his in their necessity and that according to his mercies which never fail Lam. 3.22 Verse 29. And testifiedst against them Toldest them of their sinnes foretoldest them of their dangers didst all that could be done to do them good but nothing would do Yet they dealt proudly See verse 16. And hearkened not Intus existens prohibuit alienum Hear and give eare be not proud Jer. 13.15 But sinned against thy judgements i. e. Thy Statutes though made with so much reason and respect to our good that if God did not command them yet were it every way our best way to practise them Esay 48.17 I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way which thou shouldest go As who should say It is for thy profit that I command thee this or that and not for mine own Which if a man do But that as now he cannot do and therefore not be saved by the Law Rom. 10.5 Our Saviour indeed said to that young justiciary This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 But that was all one saith Luther as if Christ had said unto him Vade morere Go upon thy death for do this of thy self and live thereby thou art never able And withdrew the shoulder When called to take up Christs yoke or to beare his crosse See the Note on Zach. 7.11 And hardened their necks To sinewes of iron they added browes of brasse Verse 30. Yet many years didst thou forbear them Heb. Protract over them or draw out thy loving kindnesse toward them to the utmost And testifiedst against them As verse 29. They wanted not for warnings or wooings with Woe unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be Yet would they not hear But as Sea-monsters or Catadupes or men borne in a mill or as one that is running a race give him never so good counsel he cannot stay to hear it Therefore gavest thou them As uncounselable incorrigible Verse 31. Neverthelesse for thy great mercies sake Mans perversnesse cannot interrupt the course of Gods goodnesse In the middest of judgement he remembreth mercy which beareth the same proportion to his judgement which seven a compleat number hath to an Vnity Thou diddest not utterly consume them God will repent for his people when he seeth their power is gone Deut. 32.36 and be jealous with a great jealousie when the enemy goes beyond his commission Zach. 1.14 15. For thou art a gracious and merciful God And this is most seene when misery weighs down and nothing but mercy
21. In those dayes Whiles the King is drowning himself in pleasure and dreadeth no danger whiles he was ravishing and deflowring of Virgins and bragging perhaps as Proculus the Emperour did that when he made warre upon the Sâ—â—matians in fifteen dayes he got with childe an hundred Virgins of that Countrey there taken prisoners Whiles this voluptuous Prince was in the glut of his carnal delights in the flagrancy of his sinful lusts his life is sought for and hell gapes for him so slippery places are great ones set in so doth the Lord sauce their greatest prosperity with sudden and unexpected dangers Thus Artilas King of Hunnes was hang'd up in gibbets as it were by Gods own hand in the 〈◊〉 of his Nuptials Thus King Henry of France upon the marriage of his sister to 〈◊〉 King of Spaine was so over joyed that he called himselfe by a new title Tres heureuse Roy the thrice happy King But to confute him in solemnizing that marriage he was slain at Tilt by Mongomery Captain of his guard though against his Will c. Ad â—enerum Cereris sine caede sanguine panci Juvenal Descendunt reges siccâ merce â—yranni While Mor decai sate in the Kings gate See ver 19. Two of the Kings Chamberlaines In trust I have found treason said Queen Elizabeth So before her did David Solomon Rehoboam Joash Amaziah Alexander the great Julius Caesar and who not almost Hence some great Princes have wished never to have meddled with Government as Augustus Adrian foelix si non imperitâsset Pertinax who used to say that he never in all his life committed the like fault as when he accepted the Empire and many times he motioned to leave the same and to return unto his house Dioclesian and Maximian did so for they found that quot servi tot hostes quot custodes tot curnifices they could not be safe from their own servants but Damocles-like they sat at meat with a drawn sword hanging by a twined thread over their necks Hence Dionysius durst not trust his owne daughter to barbe him And Massinissa King of Numidia committed his safe-keeping to a guard of dogs for men he durst not trust Of those which kept the door sc Of the Kings bed-chamber Some render it which kept the housbold-stuffeâ—â— Men they were much intrusted and therefore the more to be abhorred Metuendum est esse sine custode sed multò magis à custode metuendum est Dio Cass said Augustus concerning his guard whom he suspected of treachery All or must of his successours till Constantine died unnatural deaths Let great ones therefore comâ—â—â— themselves to God in well-doing as unto a faithful Creatour Were wroth What the occasion of their discontent was is uncertain The Greek and Chaldee say it was because Mordecai was so promoted Others because Vasâ—ti was deposed and Esther advanced to her Royal state Others say that they affected the Kingdom as the Magi had done not long before Some again that they were not well paid their arrears Sure it is that ambition envy covetousnesse all or some of these stirred them up to this treasonable attempt Whatsoever the Sire was the bastard is anger and rage likely is the mother of treason because as it banisheth reason and so gives way to all unrulinesse so it ends in malice and malice will have blood And sought to lay hands on the King Ahashuerus Kings are fair marks for Traitours to shoot at In which regard Miseratque infelix est etiam Rex Nec quenquam mihi crede facit diadema boatum Most of the Cesars got nothing by their adoption or designation to the Empire Nisi ut citiùs interficerentur but to be slain so much the sooner Treasons there were so many plotted and practised against that incomparable Queen Elizabeth that she said in Parliament Camd. Eliz. Pref. She rather marvelled that she was then mused that she should not be were in not that Gods holy hand had protected her beyond expectation Henry the fourth of France Ibid. was first stabbed in the mouth and after that in the heart by those false Jesuites whom he had admitted into his very bosome and used with marvellous respect But in would not serve his turne to save his life His Countreyman Cominaeus telleth us that if he should write of all the Princes which he knew in his time that in the judgement of men seemed to live in great felicity and yet to those that knew them familiarly lived in a miserable estate that matter alone would require a reasoriable Volume Verse 22. And the thing was known to Mordecai How he came to know it is uncertain Josephas saith that it was revealed to him by one Barnabazus a Jew who was servant to one of the Conspiratours R. Solomon saith that the Eunuches talked of the plot before Mordecai in the language of Tarsus â—â—â—â—ing that he had not understood them and so it came forth Others conceive that 〈◊〉 sollicited him being one of the Keepers of the Kings door also to joyne with them Howsoever it was that he got inkling and intelligence of their bloody purpose God was in it and good men are of his privy counsel The secret of the Lord is with them that feare him Psal 25.11 Their apprehensions of things are deep and their observations right their knowledge rare to boult out mischiefes their experience lead them oâ— to guesse shrewdly at mens purposes by their looks and gestures I wisdome dwell with prudence or subtilty and finde out knowledge of witty inventions Prov. 8.12 Who told it unto Esther the Queen Haply as holding himself a mean man unworthy and unfit to speak to the King Or as fearing lest he should not be believed or should be out-faced by the Traitour or as conceiving that it would be better taken from Esther whom the King so dearly loved and might prove a good meanes to infeoffe her farther into his favour Yea Mâ—rdecâ—i himselfe saith an Interpreter might safely have also a further reach herein namely to try the sincere affection of Esther towards him whether she would make this an occasion to his good and preferment or rather take the glory thereof unto her selfe And Esther certified the King thereof in Mordecais name She doth not conceal the treason or further it as some ambitious Semiramis would have done or adulterous Livia For although she was wont to boast that she ruled her husband Augustus by obeying him yet Pliny and Tacitus tell us that she was over-familiar with Eudemus her Physician And whereas Augustus his last words to her were O Livia remember our marriage and Adieu She did so and 't is thought had â— finger in setting him going And the like iâ— reported of Clytemnestra Olympiaâ— Queen Isabel wife to our Edward the second But holy Esther was none such She as a loyal and faithful wife discovereth to the King the danger he was in and so saveth his life so did Michal
cared for nor called for unlesse it be to shew tricks and do miracles for a pastime Luke 23.8 The Kings and Courtiers of Persia must see no sad sight lest their mirth should be marred and themselves surprized with heavinesse and horrour But if Mourners might not be suffered to come to Court why did those proud Princes so sty up themselves and not appear abroad for the relief of the poor oppressed How much better the moderne Kings of Persia whom I have seen saith a certain Traveller to alight from their horses to do justice to a poor body How much better the great Turk who whensoever he goeth forth by land doth alwayes ride on horseback upon the Friday especially which is their Sabbath when he goeth to the Temple At which times they that go along by his Stirrup have charge to take all Petitions that are preferred to his Majesty and many poor men who dare not presume by reason of their ragged apparel to approach near stand afar off with fire upon their heads holding up their Petitions in their hands the which the grand Signior seeing who never despiseth but rather encourageth the poor sends immediately to take the Petitions and being returned home into his Seraglio reades them all and then gives order for redresse as he thinks fit By reason of which complaints the King oft-times taketh occasion suddenly to punish his greatest officers either with death or losse of place Grand Sign Serag 148. Which maketh the Bashaws and other great Officers that they care not how seldome the grand Signior stirres abroad in publike for fear lest in that manner their bribery and injustice should come to his eares 'T is probable that Haman had got this also to be decreed that none should enter into the Kings gate clothed in sackcloth lest passion might be moved thereby in any of the Courtiers or that be a meanes to make a complaint to the King of his cruelty Verse 3. And in every Province Heb. In every Province and Province c. not only in Susan which say the Hebrewes was called Elam Hammedina but throughout the Kings dominions Whither soever the Kings Commandment and his Decree The latter was irrevocable and therefore more dreadful There was great mourning among the Jewes Not murmuring or mutinying or meditating revenge against the King and Haman Not casting away their confidence in God or committing all to fate and blind fortune Not crying out of Religion as unhappy to the Professours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said he in the story O miserable vertue O practice of no profit Brutus apud Diâ—â— c. Not taking up armes or betaking themselves to flight how should poor gally slaves at this day flie out of the middle of Turkie prayers and tears were the weapons of these condemn'd captives caitives It troubled them exceedingly as well it might that through fearfulnesse and negligence they had not ere this gone back to their own countrey with Zerubabel or some other when they had good leave to have gone with their brethren and God himself cried out unto them Hoc hoe come forth c. Zach. 2.6 Michâ— 10. Arise 〈…〉 your rest because it is polluted it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction This was now a 〈◊〉 their hearts like as it shall be one day to those in hell to think we might have been delivered And fasting The word signifieth an abstinence from food and sustenance either à toto as 2 Sam. 12.16 Or at least à tanto à tali as Dan. 10.2 3. Hence it is called a day of restraint Joel 2.15 Hence Zech. 8.19 they separated themselves viz. from work meat and delights for the furtherance of their repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the enforcing of their prayers Preces nobis jejunits alendum quasi saginandum saith one our prayers must be pampered and corne-fed with fasting A practice in use not among Jewes and Christians only but among Egyptian Priests Persian Magi and Indian wizards of old and Turks to this day when they are in any great feare or pressure And weeping and wailing This was the way to get in with God though they might not come crying to the Court Oh the divine Rhetorick and omnipotent efficacy of penitent teares Psal 6.8 Weeping hath a voice Christ turned to the weeping women when going to his Crosse and comforted them He shewed great respects to Mary Magdalene that weeping Vine she had the first sight of the revived Phoenix though so bleared that she could scarce discerne him and held him fast by those feet which she had once washed with her tears and wherewith he had lately trod upon the lion and adder Psal 91.13 And many lay in sackcloth and ashes As many as were more deeply affected with their sins and the sad consequents thereof David lay on the bare ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 12.16 these and those Joel 1.13 lodged in sackcloth and ashes that they might watch as well as fast see how they go linked together Mark 13.33 See verse 17. Verse 4. So Esthers maids came and told it her She her self say Interpreters was kept in a closer place then they not having the liberty of going abroad as others had because the Persians that were of highest quality used so to keep in their wives and if they went forth at any time they were carried in a close chariot so as that none could see them Then was the Queen exceedingly grieved Dolens exhorruit So Tremellius The Hebrew is She grieved her selfe scil for Mordecai's heavinesse as our Saviour when he heard of the death of his friend Lazarus groaned in spirit and troubled himself Joh. 11.33 And here we see that of Plautus disproved Mulier nulla cordicitus dolet ex anime that is No woman can grieve heartily for any thing Holy Esther is here sick at heart of grief as the word importeth and yet as one saith of the Lady Jane Grey she made grief it self amiable her night-clothes becoming her as well as her day-dressings by reason of her gracious deportment And she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai That he might be fit to come unto her and make known the cause of his grief for she yet knew nothing of the publike calamity And although she were so highly advanced above Mordecai yet she condoleth with him and honoureth him as much as ever This was true friendship Ego aliter amare non didici said Basil to one that disliked him for stooping so low to an old friend And to take away the sackcloth c. To change his saccum in sericum sackcloth into sattin c. See verse 2. But he received it not Such was the greatnesse of his grief which he could not dissemble such was his care of community that he could not minde his own private concernments whiles it went ill with the publike Rom. 2.7 Such also was his patient continuance in well-doing that he would not give
pluck him up by the roots when the season should serve to clear the land of such weeds Standeth is the house of Haman Or by the house of Haman that he might feed his eyes with that delightful sight and cry out as Hannibal did when he saw a ditch filled with mans blood O jucundum spectaculum O pleasant Spectacle The Story of that King of France is well known who vowed to see a certain Martyr executed but before that could be done had his eye put out at a Justes whereof not long after also he died And that of Sir Ralph Ellerker Governonr of Callice in King Henry the eighths time who at the death of Adam Damlip Martyr called to the Executioner saying Dispatch the Knave have done I will not away before I see the Traitours heart out But shortly after in a skirmish betwixt the French and us at Bullen this Knight was not only slain among others but strip't dismembred and his heart rip 't out and so left a terrible example Act. Mex fol. 1120. saith Mr. Fox of Gods justice to all bloody and mercilesse men Thou shouldest not have looked c. Obad. 12. See the Note there Then the King said Hang him thereon The Kings of Persia had absolute and unquestionable power to do whatsoever they listed Quicquid libuit licuit All their subjects except their Queens were no better then their slaves whom they would they slew and whom they would they kept alive whom they would they set up and whom they would they put down Dan. 5.19 Haman is here without order of law more then the Kings command adjudged to be hanged The truth is it was a clear case and the malefactour was self-condemned Hang him therefore saith the King a short and just sentence and soon executed Verse 10. So they hanged Haman on the Gallowes Heb. tree Neither hanged they him only to death but crucified or nailed his dead body to the tree for greater ignominy So some gather from chap. 8.5 The Septuagint also render it So they crucified him And here hanged the greatnesse of Haman who now is fallen from the Palace to the Gallowes from the highest stage of honour to the lowest staire of disgrace and lies wrap't up in the sheet of perpetual infamy So let all thine enemies perish O Lord c. A like end befell Bonosus the drunken Emperour Amasis that insolent King of Egypt Joane that libidinous Queen of Naples our Roger Mortimer that Troubler of the Realme hang'd at Tyburne Oliver that proud Prefect advanced to highest honours and offices by Lewis King of France Cranz l. 12. c. 17. but hang'd up by his sonne and successour upon a new and large Gallowes set up for the purpose and not without his desert High places are not more uneasie then slippery Even height it self maketh mens brains to swim and when they fall they come down with a poise That he had prepared for Mordecai Josephus hath here a very good Note Vnde mihi contigit mirari nomen Dei sapientiam justitiam ejus agnoscere c. I cannot but admire the Lords wisdom Lib. â—1 Antiq. c. 6. and acknowledge his justice in that he not only punished him for his malice to the Church but by turning his own mischief upon himself hath made him an example to all posterity hanging him up in gibbets that others may take warning The like the Lord did by Adonibezek Pharaoh Goliah Achitophel Absalom Sennacherib Maxentius Valerianus c. Quà m benè dispositum terris ut dignus iniqui Claud. lib. in Eutrop. Fructus consilii primis authoribus instet c. See those sacred Similies to the same sense Eccles 10.8 9. Prov. 26.27 Psal 7.16 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Lib 8 de viz. verb c. 21. and beware of making a match with mischief lest ye have your belly-full thereof He that conceiveth with guile shall though he grow never so big bring forth nothing but vanity and worse Job 15.35 As he hath sowen the winde so he shall reap the whirlwinde Hos 8.6 See the Note there Diaboli servus satelles praecipuus erat Haman saith Rupertus Haman was a main stickler for the devil who paid him accordingly the wages of sin is death and it may well be feared that Haman was killed with death Lavat in loc as Jezaebels children were Rev. 2.23 Fuit enim homo dirae feritatis planéque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he was a most cruel wretch and a plain Atheist I shall shut up the story of his life Amb. de Nab. Isr c 11. as Ambrose doth that of Ahab and Jezabels fearful end Fuge ergo dives ejusmodi exitum c. Tremble at such ends and be careful to avoid them Such ends ye shall easily avoid if ye carefully fly such like foule and flagitious practises Then was the Kings wrath pacified Harbonah had helped to kindle it verse 9. and by executing Haman Sententiam ocyus dicto exequuntur oculici Merl. whom he had accused he now helpeth to quench it For it was not unusual of old that men of greatest rank and quality should execute Malefactours as Gideon did Zeba and Zalmunnah as Samuel did Agag as Benaiah did Adonijah Joab and Shimei by the command of Solomon The holy Angels delight in such an office as at Sodom and in Sennacheribs army and how active shall they be at the last day but chiefly against such as walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse and despise Government 2 Pet. 2.10 So shall Gods wrath be pacified as once it was when Phineas the High Priest had done execution upon that unclean couple The Saints have another way of pacifying him of preventing his judgements and disarming his indignation and that is by remembring their sins and being confounded in his Presence never opening their mouths any more Ezâ—ch 16.63 unlesse it be in an humble confession which is the Christians best Apology as the Apostle calleth it 2 Cor. 7.11 This will quiet Gods Spirit as the phrase is Zech. 6.8 and cause him to say as Job 33.24 I have found a reconciliation Surely if we judge our selves he will not judge us 1 Cor. 11.31 God shall be prevented and the Accuser of the brethren put out of office our Hamans also shall be hang'd up before the Sun our sturdy corruptions crucified and the Lord shall as little repent him of any good he hath done us as Ahashuerus did of gratifying his wife Esther and Kinsman Mordecai who were now all the doers seeking the wealth of Israel and speaking peace to that whole people as appeareth in the following chapters As for the King he never so much as once lamented the losse of Haman nor said se properantiùs quà m prudentiùs egisse that he had been more hasty then wise in doing him to death but was very well pleased with what he had done his wrath rested saith the text Ira est
to perish Merdecai maketh use of the self-same termes that Haman had done chap. 3.13 that all men might know that his commission was altogether as large as the others and that they would vim vi repellere stand upon their guard slay all such as should seek their lives and fight stoutly pro aris foris This Cic. pro milone saith Tully is Lex non scripta sed nata ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumus c. that which uncorrupted nature teacheth every man Both little ones and women this seemeth spoken in terrorem that the enemy might forbear to meddle if not for their own sakes Yet for their wives and children whom many hold more deare to themselves then their own lives But the Text may be better read thus To destroy to slay and to cause to perish all the power of the people and Province that would assault them their little ones and women And to take the spoile of them for a prey This also would work much with those that had estates to lose For money is the Monarch of this present world and many had as live part with their blood as their good Verse 12. Vpon one day in all the Provinces c. That once fatal day but henceforth the brunt once past festival That long-looked-for day wherein the enemy hoped to revel in the Churches ruines to frame Comedies out of her Tragedies to wash their feet in her blood yea to ride their horses up to the Saddle-skirts therein as Farnesius the Popes Champion threatened to do in Germany and Minerius in France and the Papists here in England at the death of Queen Elizabeth and again upon the good success of the Powder-plot that great crack and black day as they called it For the speeding and furthering whereof they had a devillish ditty consisting of a seven-fold Psalmody which secretly they passed from hand to hand with tunes set to be sung for the cheating up of their wicked hearts with an expectation as they called it of their day of Jubilee This is one passage therein Spec. bell sacr 20◠Confirme your hearts with hope for the day of your Redemption is not far off The year of visitation draweth to an end and Jubilation is at hand c. The Psalter is hard to be had for they are taken up by the Papists as other books be that discover their shame But do what they can shame shall be the promotion of fooles as it was of Haman but the wise as Mordecai shall inherit glory Prov. 3.35 Verse 13. The Copy of the writing Transcripts of the Original were every where published and proclaimed as the contrary Edict had been before chap. 3.14 This must needs amuse and amaze the people but who durst say to their Monarch What doest thou Is it safe to take a Lion by the beard or a Beare by the tooth That the Jewes should be ready against that day God sometimes taketh notice in his vindictive justice as of the offending member Judg. 1.6 7. Luke 16.24 so of the place where 1 Kings 21.19 Henry the third of France was stabbed to death in that very chamber where he had contrived the Massacre of Paris and of the time when mischief should have been acted to prevent and punish it as Exod. 15.9 10. Ladislaus King of Bohemia and Hungary having conspired with other Popish Princes to root out the true Christians in Bohemia on such a day on his marriage-day was immediately before in the midst of his great preparations visited with a pestilent sore in his groine whereof within thirty six houres he died Henry the second King of France M. Clarks Examples the self-same day that he had purposed to persecute the Church and burne certain of his guard whom he had in prison for religion at whose execution he had promised to have been himself in person in the midst of his triumph at a Tourney was wounded so sore in the head with a speare by one of his own subjects that ere long he died Act Mon. 1784. The Duke of Guise threatened to destroy utterly the Town of Orleans but was himself slain that very evening The Constable of France made a vow that so soon as he had taken St. Quintons he would set upon Geneva but sped as ill as Julian the Apostate did Ib. 19.14 when going against the Persians he swore that upon his return he would offer the blood of Christians But the Galilaean as he called Christ in scorne took an order with him ere that day came the Carpenters sonne had made ready his coffin as was foretold him by a Christian in answer to that bitter jeare To avenge themselves on their enemies This was no private revenge but licensed by the chief Magistrates entrusted by God with the administration of his Kingdome upon earth by the exercise of vindictive and remunerative justice Rom. 13.4 And here Bonis nocet qui malis parcit He wrongeth the good that punisheth not the bad True it is that private revenge is utterly unlawful unlesse it be in a mans own necessary defence where the case is so sudden that a man cannot call in the help of the Magistrate but must either kill or be killed Otherwise that of Lactantius holdeth true Non minus mali est injuriam referre quà m inferre And that of Seneca immane verbum est ultio Revenge is a cruel word Manhood some call it but it is rather doghood The manlier any man is the milder and more merciful as David 2 Sam. 1.12 and Julius Caesar who when he had Pompey's head presented to him wept and said Non mihi placet vindicta sed victoria I seek not revenge but victory The Jewes here sought not revenge but safety If they had been sold for bondmen they had borne it in silence and sufferance the language of the Lamb dumb before the Shearer chap. 7.4 Verse 14. So the Posts that rode upon mules and camels went out Thus God provided that his poor afflicted should be speedily comforted and assured that their prayers were accepted when this good newes came flyng towards them as on the wings of the wind over the mountaines of Bether all lets and impediments Thy words were heard and I am come for thy words saith the Angel to Daniel chap. 10.12 yea as these Posts were hastened and pressed on by the Kings commandment so was the Angel Gabriel caused to flie swiftly chap. 9.21 or as the Hebrew hath it with wearinesse of flight to bring the Prophet an answer to his prayers Who would not then pray to such a God as maketh his Angels Spirits his Ministers a flame of fire to convey seasonable relief to his poor Suppliants Being hastened Heb. Frighted and headlonged by a solicitous celerity hasting and hurrying for life as we say being driven on to a dispatch with utmost expedition they threw themselves onward their way as the second word here used importeth
man slayer had so contrived it for the greater mischief Verse 16. Whiles he was yes speaking See here we may that miseries many times stay not for a mannerly succession to each other Aliud ex alio malum Terent. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acistoph but in a rude importunity throng in at once Fluctus fluctum trâ—â—â—â— one deep calleth to another and as one shower is unburthened another is brewed Eccles 12.2 It must not seeme strange but be joyous to Saints when they fall or be precipitated plunged into divers â—emptations Jam. 1.2 For crosses seldome come single There came also another and said Before Job could recollect and recover himself or take breath this was a sore trial It is a mercy that we have some lucida intervalla that the rod of the wicked doth not alwaies rest on the lot of the righteous that there are any interspiriâ— and Halcyons sith here they must have it or no where Rev. 21.4 The fire of God This was more terrible then the former because God seemed to sight against Job with his own bare hand by fire from heaven as once he did against Sodâ—â— Be not 〈…〉 unto we O Lord saith Jeremy chap. 17.17 And then I care nor though all the world set against me If Marriners in a tempest have sea room enough their is no fear so if men in afflictions can see and say 〈…〉 and on the contrary Heb. 10. it is fearfull to fall into the hands of the living God And hath 〈◊〉 up 〈◊〉 wherewith Job was wont to offer sacrifice It was great joy to those in Joel that God after a sore and long famine would yet leave a blessing behind him even a meat-offering and a drink offering c. Joel 2.14 And thy servants Those souls of men as they are called Rev. 18.13 This was a worse losse then that of his sheep And I only c. See the Note on Verse 15. Verse 17. While he was yet speaking See on Verse 16. The Chaldâ—ans A base and obscure people from the beginning subject to the Assyrians but yet more potent then the Sabaans as appeareth by the three bands they made out The Sabaeaâ—s are noted by Strabo to be an idle and effeminate people The Chaldeans are set forth in the Scripture to be a bitter and hasty Nation terrible and dreadfull fiercer then the evening wolves c. Hab. 1.6 7 8. Satan proceeds by degrees to afflict Job that he may at length over-turn him but beyond expectation he held out all assaults Instar rupis qua in mari vadoso horridi Jovu irati ut it a dicam Neptuni fervidis assultibus undique verberata non cedit aut minuitur sed obtendit assuetum luctibus latus firmâ duritie tumentis unde impetum sustiâ—â—â— ac frangit Jâ—an Wower Polymath Made out three bands Which were marshalled and set in array by the Divel who was their Commander in chief Sic sape loâ—â—catus incedit Satan cataphractus as Luther speaketh he hath his Legions among men also who like those vulturine Eagles Job 39.30 do glut-glut blood as the Hebrew word there soundeth and signifieth And fell upon the Camels Heb. Spread themselves over them rushed and ran violently making an impression upon the Camels And have carryed thâ—m away Heb. Have taken them to themselves though Job had never dealt discourteously with these Chaldeans nor had his Camels trespassed them but were carefully kept by the servants Innocency is no target against injury neither doth Victory alwayes argue a just Cause Yea and slain the servants c. See the Note on Ver. 15. Verse 18. While he was yet speaking See Vers 16. Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine This was the last but not the least of Satans assaults reserved purposely to the last to crush him quite when he was now spent and spiritlesse as he hoped Let us look for like dealing for a tough bout at death howsoever and be alwayes ready prepared for another and a worse encounter Seneca It is said of Caesar that he sometimes put up but seldom or never put off his Sword It is said of Qui Elizabeth that in the greatest calm she provided for a storm It is said or the bâ—rd Onocrotalus that she if so well practised to expect the Hawk to grapple with her that even when she shutteth her eyes she sleepeth with her beak exalted as if she would contend with her adversary Should not we stand constantly upon our Guard who have so restlesse and pitilesse an enemy Thy sons and thy daughters c. Men may die then with the meat in their mouthes and in the midst of their mirth and jollity as did Amnon Elah Balshazzar Wâ—ether therefore we eat or drink c. do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 Let there be holinesse to the Lord written upon our pots Zech 14.21 Let us eat and drink and sleep eternal life as a reverend Scotch Divine was said to do Jobs good heart aked and quaked likely at the hearing of this sad newes of so sudden a death of his children amidst their merriments for he used to say when there was no such danger It may be my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts Me thinks I hear him saying or rather sighing out those sorrowfull words of Cratisicâ—â—â— in Plâ—tarch Plut. in vit Cleomenis when she saw her dear children slain afore her Quò pueri est â—â— profecti Poor souls what 's become of you See more on Verse 13. Verse 19. And behold there câ—me a great wind The Divel doubtlesse was in this wind as he is by divine permission the Prince of the power of the air Eph. 2.2 and can thereby do much mischief what wonder then though it were a great wind sith spirited by him and 〈…〉 came on amaine and with a 〈◊〉 as being driven on by the Divel It was a wonderfull wind belike a whirlwind and hath therefore a Behold set upon it such a wind as the Relator had never known before The Rabbins say that he was so affrighted with it that no sooner had he made an end of his report of it to 〈…〉 Sure it is that he relateth the matter 〈◊〉 and graphically with 〈…〉 and without that moderation and making the best of things at first as in such cases is usuall when parents are first made acquainted with the sudden death of their children or other sad accidents that have befallen theâ— This messenger clâ—ttereth out all at once being thereunto set on and suborned by Satan as Lavaâ—er thinketh to stirre up Jobs stomack and to make him break off that so well-twisted thred of his patience From the wildernesse of Idumea or Arabia called deserta The divel who haunteth dry and desert places was the Aeolus that sent it Let us blesse that God the maker and master of these Meteors and of all things else who bindeth up such an enemy and boundeth such
he met with since his coming into the world if those doors being shut had shut him out of the world Man is no sooner born then born to trouble Job 5.7 yea man that is born or conceived of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble Job 14.1 Miserable he is even so soon as he is warm in the womb as David phraseth it Psal 51.5 If he live to see the light he comes crying into the world and an untimely birth may be better then he Eccles 5.3 The Hebrews call him Enosh that is sorry-man Psal 3.21 or dolefull miserable and desperately diseased man whose living is but to lye a dying The Greeks when they would set forth one extremely wretched they call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thrice-a-men that is thrice miserable And What is man faith Seneca He answereth Marbidum puâ—re cassum à fletu vitam auspicatum Ad Mar. cap. 11. a diseased rotten empty thing beginning his life with tears as if he wept to think upon what a shore of trouble he is landed or rather into what a sea of sorrowes he is lanching not unlike the Stâ—eights of Magellan a sea of that nature say Geographers that which way soever a man bend his course he shall be sure to have the wind against him Verse 11. Why dyed I not from the womb why did not I give up the Ghost c. Why was I not forthwith carried ab utero ad urnam from the womb to the tomb from the birth to the buriall True it is that infants have the seed of death in them and the principle of corruption Rom. 5.14 Every one say some Chymicks hath his owne balsame within him his own bane it is sure that he hath But why should Job be so weary of life and so wish to be rid of it Is not life a great mercy Doth not the Philosopher affirme that a pismire excelleth the heavens in dignity Eccl. 9.4 because it is a living creature Saith not the Scripture that a living dog is better then a dead Lion and why is living man sorrowful a man for the punishment of his sinne Lam. 3.39 q. d. Let him be never so much punished it is for his sinne and if a midst all he be yet a living man and have his life spared hee need not be so over-sorrowful and to make such an out-cry and a wishing himself out of the world as Job here doth Life alass in its utmost extent is but a little spot of time between two eternities before and after but it is a great consequence and given us for this end 2 Pet. 2.11 that glory may be begun in grace and we have a further and further entrance here into the Kingdome of heaven as Peter saith This if Job had seriously and sedately considered but now alass as in a hot sever all the humors were on an hurry he would rather have done as they say Themistocles did who though he lived till he was about 107 years of age yet when he came to dye he was grieved upon this ground Now I am to dye said hee when I begin to bee wise Verse 12. Why did the knees prevent me Why did the over-officious Midwife lay me on her lap and not let me alone to perish by my fatall helplessness Man is a poor shiftlesse creature and Pliny railes at nature for producing him so forlorn naked and unable to help himself but he knew not that this was a fruit of sinne Tully indeed could say whether he believed himself therein I know not Cum primùm nascimur in omni continuò pravitate versamur as soon as we are borne we are head and eares all over in wickednesse but Pliny was not so perswaded as I have elswehere shewed Or why the brests that I should suck Why did not my mother turn tygresse and cast me out when new born Why was she not cruell like the Ostriches in the wildernesse Lam. 4.3 that refuse to give suck to their young ones Rather we may ask why doth Job out of his deepest discontent think much of such a mercy and not rather blesse God first for filling two such bottles with milk for him ready against he came into the world and then for giving his mother an heart to suckle him which some nice or unnaturall women will not being therein worse then those Sea-monsters Lam. 4.3 that succour their young The Heathens called their Ceres Queene of plenty Mammosam as the Nurse of all living creatures And there are that derive Gods Name Shaddai from Shad a dug because as he openeth the hand so he drawes out the brest to every living thing And for his Saints they may suck and be satisfied with the full-strutting brests of his consolations the two Testaments Isai 66.11 And whatever Job now under an heavy temptation which like lead sunk downward and carried his soul with it may mis-judge they may sit and sing thankfully with David Lord thou and not the midwife art He that took me out of the womb thou and not my mother keptst me in safety when I hung upon the brests neither then only but afterwards for puerilitas est periculorum pelagus and the Preserver of men keepeth us still from a thousand deaths and dangers And is this matter of complaint and not rather of thankfulnesse Verse 13. For now should I have lien still and been quiet Why but is it not better to be preserved in salt then to putrifie in sugar to be emptied from vessel to vessel then to be at ease and so to settle on the lees Jer. 48.11 to be tumbled up and down as fishes are in the streames of Jordan then to perish in the dead sea It is not alwaies if at all an happinesse to lie still and to be quiet Life consists in action Isa 38.16 and in all these things is the life of my spirit saith good Hezekiah who had beene in deaths hands where Job so much desired to be and could therefore make a better judgment What haste then was there of his lying still and being quiet say that he were assured of his salvation for else death had been but a trap-door to eternal torments was there nothing more to be done but taking present possession nothing to be suffered with Christ Rom. 8.17 or ere we come to be glorified with him Ought not he himself first to have suffered and then to have entred into his glory Luke 24.26 And ought not we to be conformed to his image in sufferings also that he might be the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 Let us run with patience running is active and patience passive the â—ace that is set before us looking unto Jesus c. and looking off our present troubles as the word there importeth which while Job beheld over-wishtly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.2 and was more sensible of then was meet he brake out in this fort and shewed himself too much a man
Let us do up our work and then God will send us to hed all in good time Isa 57.2 Rev. 14.13 Verse 14. With Kings and Counsellors of the earth g. d. Those that here have been most negotious and as the Grandees of the earth have had greatest matters in hand with those should I have been coupled in the grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Congregation-house of all living as it is called Job 30.23 That long or old home Eccles 12.5 Heaven is called the Congregation-house of Gods first born Heb. 12.23 and their house not made with hand 2 Cor. 5.1 But not many Kings or Nobles meeâ—e here 1 Cor. 1.26 because strait is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth to it there must be stripping and stooping which great men cannot frame to It was a poor comfort to Hen. 8. to be told upon his death-bed that he should now go to the place of Kings And a small commendation to Hen. 2. The Spanish Brier was wone to say there were but few Princes in hell for why because there were but few in all Daniels hist 111. that some sew hours before he died seeing a list of their names who had conspired against him and finding therein two of his own sons he fell into a grievous passion both cursing his sons and the day wherein himself was born and in that distemperature departed the world which himself had so often distempered He went indeed to his grave and slept with his fathers yea he was royally interred under a stately Monument meant here haply by building desolate places for themselves Absolom had erected a pillar for this purpose and the Egyptian Kings their Pyramides â—o perpetuate their memories Confer Ezek. 26.20 With these Iob had he died betime or never seene the light might have been fellowed for death is the only King against whom there is no rising up Prov. 30.31 and the mortall fithe is master of the royall Scepter mowing down the lilies of the crown Sceptra ligonibus aquat as well as the grasse of the field Verse 15. Or with Princes that had gold great store of it Petrarch reporteth of Pope John 22 that his heirs found in his coffers no lesse then 250 tuns of gold Boniface the eighth taken prisoner and plundered by the command of Philip the Faire King of France had as much gold carried away out of his Palace as all the Kings of Europe received for one years revenue from their subjects together with their crown-land What a Masse of Treasure had Cardinal Wolsey gotten here and before him Cardinall Beauford who when he saw that he must needs die and that his riches could not reprieve him till a further time asked Fox Mart. 925. why should I die being so rich fie will not death be hired will mony do nothing The Cardinall Sylberperger took so great a pleasure in mony that when he was grievously tormented with the gout his onely remedy to ease the paine was to have a bason full of gold set before him into which he would put his lame hands turning the gold upside-down Of Nugas the Scythian Monarch it is storied that when Michael Paleologus the Greek Emperour sent him many rich ornaments for a present Pachymer hist l. 5. he asked whether they could drive away calamities diseases and death this because they could not do he slighted them These Princes that had gold and filled their houses with siluer what would not they have given to have bought off death but riches availe not in the day of wrath it is righteousnesse only that delivereth from death Prov. 11.4 Thrice happy then are they who are rich to God as our Saviour phraseth it who have the Almighty to be their gold and who have silver of strength as Eliphaz speaketh chap. 22.25 Who filled their houses with silver That is their graves say some called the dead mens houses chap. 17.13 The Jewes call the burying-place Beth-chajin the house of the living and they used not only to adorn their sepulchers richly but also to put their wealth into the grave with them Iosephus saith that Hircanus found in Davids sepulchre three thousand talents And Ier. 8.1 Lib. 13. Antiq. cap. 15. 〈◊〉 cap. 11. God threatneth that the Chaldeans shal bring out the boxes of the Kings of Iudah and of his Princes out of their graves as searching there for hid treasure so some conceive Sure it is Josephm that in the siege of Jerusalem under Veâ—pâ—sian there was gold found in the entrailes of a Jew that was slain which caused above twenty thousand of them to be ripped up Verse 16. Or as an hidden and untimely birth I had nor been As an abortive or miscarrying Embryâ— that falleth from the mother as untimely fruit falleth off from the tree See Râ—v 6.3 Hidden it is called because cast a deâ— as an unsightly spectacle that cometh in with vanity and departeth in darknesses and his name is covered with darknesse Eccles 6.4 Jâ—â— could have wisâ— eâ—â—ome way or other never to have been rather then to have been in so calamitous aâ— condition and herein he linned Job 3.6 no doubt for that 〈◊〉 as of the flesh is flesh As infants wâ— châ—rever â—aw the â—ight but were still-born as we call them The word rendred infants is taken from a word that signifieth to 〈◊〉 â—ee Job 16.15 for children in the womb are compassed about with pollution and the first sheeâ— or blanket wherewith they are covered is woven of sinne shame blood and filth Ezek. 16.4.6 Verse 17. There the wicked cease from troubling Here they are restlesse as being acted and agitated by the divel who being a discontented turbulent creature maketh adoe in the world and setteth his â—mps awork to do mischief and to vex others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word here rendred wicked signifieth vexatious persons that worry and weary out others molestuous and mischievous In the grave they shall cease from so doing That was a strange mind of our Edward the first who adjured his Son and Nobles that if he died in his journey into Scotland they should carry his corps with them about Scotland and not suffer it to be interred till they had absolutely subdued the Country This was a deure more Martial then Christian saith the â—hronicler Daniels hist 201. shewing a mind so bent to the world as he would not make an end when he had â—one withâ—â—t but deâ—greth his travel beyond his life An 〈…〉 Hence some Heathens also have counted mortality a mercy and some of them appointed contrary ceremonies to those now in use for they brought their friends into the world with mournfull obsequies but they carried them out or the world with joyfull exequies Plotin ap Aug. de C. D.l 9 c. 10 Quntil Inst lib. 5 Hâ—â—ol l. 5. Vaâ— Max. all sorts of sports and pastimes because then they conceived they were at rest and out oâ— gun-shot Verse 18.
man a blessed man this the world wondreth at and can as little conceive of or consent to as the Philistines could of Sampsons riddle of meat out of the cater c. How can these things be say they It will never be saith Sense it can never be saith Reason it both can bee and will bee saith Faith the property whereof is to gather one contrary out of another life out of death happinesse out of misery assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses and to believe God upon his bare word and that against sense in things invisible and against reason in things incredible What if the afflicted man be Enosh that 's the word here a sorry sickly miserable man so the world esteemeth him yet Blessed is the man there he is called Geber the gallant man whom thou 〈…〉 O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law Psal 94.12 Oh the happinesses the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present and future happinesse of the man whom God correcteth and withall instructeth chastening him with pain upon his bed and withall opening his cares to counsel and sealing his instructions Job 33.16 19 disputing him out of his evil practises with a rod in his hand Therefore despise not than the chastening of the Almighty Fret not faint not be not so impatient as to think that either thy crosses come not from God or not in mercy or that he is not All-sufficient to beare thee up under them or to help thee out of them Set not light by his love-tokens this is one of those two extremes Solomon warnes us of Prov. 3.11 neither despise afflictions nor despond under them See my Treatise called Gods love-tokens and the afflicted mans lessons page 37 38 39. c. Loath we are to take up the crosse and when called to carry it we shrink in the shoulder no chastening seemeth joyous but grievous as averse the best may be to it Psal 75.8 as a sick man is to those physicall slibber-sawees he had as lieve die almost as take them down How then alass will wicked men doe to drink off that cup of Gods wrath that hath eternity to the bottome Let the saints be content and say Ferre minora voto ne gravior a feram It is the Lords mercy that we are not consumed Lâ—in 3.22 that wee are set safe from the wrath to come what-ever here betideth us It is the chastening of the Almighty who could as easily crush us as correct us See Isai 13.6 Jeal 1.15 Verse 18. For he maketh fore and bindeth up As a Surgeon maketh an incision to let out the impost humed matter and then heals up the wound againe God hath a salve for every sore a medicine for every malady he is both a Father and a physician hee 〈◊〉 us not unlesse aâ—ed be 1 Pes. 1.6 Wee are judged of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world Would wee that God should let us alone to perish in our 〈…〉 Ephraim Hos 4.14 and not meddle with us 〈…〉 they are set 〈◊〉 up our fores before they 〈…〉 mercy more cruel then any cruelty as a Father calls it And yea most 〈…〉 of by Luther who being in his 〈…〉 to take in good part his present pain as a token of Gods love answered Ah quam velim alios amare non me If this be his love I could wish he would love others and not me Luth. in Gen. He woundeth This is more then to make sore or sick like as Heb. 12.6 Scourging is worse then Chastening God sometimes makes bloody wales upon the backs of his best children he wounds them with the wound of an enemy Psal 68.21 110.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cruentavit and leaves them all gore blood as the word here used importeth And his hands make whole He hath as a Chirurgion should have a Ladies hand soft and tender a fathers heart relenting over his pained Ephraims Hos Lam. 3.33 11.8 Hee afflicteth not willingly or from the heart it goeth as much against the heart with him as against the hair with us and evermore Dejicit us relevet promit ut solatia prastet Enecat ut possit vivificare Deus Verse 19. He shall de liver thee Heb. Snatch thee away or pull thee out as a brand out of the fire or as a prey out of the teeth of a wilde beast Thus God snatcht Lot out of Sodom David out of many waters Paul out of the mouth of the Lion Jonah out of the belly of hell c. As birds flying so will I defend Jerusalem Isa 31.5 A metaphor from the Eagle and other birds which when they flie highest set a watchfull eye upon the nest to rescue their young ones in case of danger In six troubles Or straits such as enemies or other evils put men to Israel at the red sea for instance where they were sorely distressed encircled with troubles neither was there any way of escape unlesse they could have gone up to heaven which because they could not heaven came down to them and delivered them Yea in seven A certaine number for an uncertain boundlesse deliverances will God grant to his people even as oft as they shall need deliverance enemies oft plow upon their backs and God as often cuts their traces Psal 129.3 4. As Catâ— was two and thirty times accused and two and thirty times cleared and absolved so shall it be with the Saints and this not only at the end of the world as Gregory and others interpret this text as if by six and seven allusion were made to Gods creating the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh and so must his servants labour here under afflictions and rest in heaven but in this life present where many are the troubles of the righteous millions some render it but the Lord delivereth them out of all Psal 34.19 Yea in them all as this text hath it by his supporting grace and those divine comforts which as blown bladders beare them aloft all waters There shall no evill touch thee so tactu qualitativo with a deadly touch God chargeth afflictions as David did his Captaines concerning Absolom Handle the young man gently for my sake Touch not mine annointed c. Either touch them not at all or not to hurt them Troubles may touch the Saints but evils must not 1 Cor. 10.14 Verse 20. In famine be shall redeeme thee from death They that be slaine with the sword are better then they that be slaine with hunger Lamen 4.9 Famine therefore is here set as the first and greatest of the six ensuing evils the sorest of Gods judgments Ezek. 6.11 Jer. 24.10 The certaine harbinger of death as here From this so great a death God delivered Abraham Gen 12. Isaak Gen. 26. Jacob and his family Gen. 47. The poor widow 1 Kings 17. The Israelites in the wildernesse by quailes the Rochellers by a miraculous shoale of shel-fish cast up into their town in a strait
form'd to a pitcht battel against him and this was truly terrible for who saith Moses knoweth the power of his wrath sith the apprehension and approach of it was so terrible to an upright-hearted Job to an heroicall Luther upon whom Gods terrors were so heavy for a time In epist ad Melanc ut nec calor nec sanguis nec sensus nec vox superesset that neither heat nor blood nor sense nor voice remained but his body seemed dead as Justus Jonas an eye-witnesse reporteth agreeable whereunto is that memorable speech of Luther Nihil est tentatio vel universi mundi totius inferri in unum conflata c. The temptation and terrour of all the world nay of all hell put together is nothing to that wherein God setteth himself in battle-array against a poore soule In which case that is excellent counsel that one giveth in these words When thy sins and Gods wrath meeting in thy conscience make thee deadly sick as Isai 33. then powre forth thy soul in confession and as it will ease thee as vomiting useth to do so also it will move God to pity and to give thee cordials and comforts to restore thee Verse 5. Doth the wilde ass bray when he hath grasse q. d. Sure they doe not As if these creatures wilde or tame want necessary food you give them leave to fill the aire with their out-cryes yea you supply their wants but for me ye will do neither such is your tendernesse and love toward me Nay ye condemne me for that which is naturally common to all creatures Ye must needs think I am not without aylement that make such great lamentations unlesse ye conceit that I am fallen below the stirrup of reason nay of sense It is easie for you who want neither grasse nor fodder or mixt meat as the word signifieth who lie at rack and manger as it were and have all that heart can wish or need require it is easie I say for you to rest contented and to forbeare complaints But why am I so severely censured for impatient who am stript of all and have nothing left me praeter coelum coenum as he said but only aire to breath in and a dung-hill to sit on not to speak of my inward troubles c. Verse 6. Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt Or can that which is unsavory for want of salt be eaten Hunger will downe with unsavory or unpleasant food though salt or sawce be wanting but when meat is putrified for want of salt and full or maggots it will hardly be eaten unlesse it be in extreme famine it is as if he should say a man doth with no good will feed upon unsavory or loathsome meats how then can I use such moderation as you desire I should my evils being extreme sweetned with no kind of comfort nor seasoned with any thing that is any way toothsome or wholesome that I speake not of your tastelesse and insulse speeches which are no small vexation to me Verse 7. The things that my soul refused to touch c. I suffer such torments even in my very soule as the very thought of them would heretofore have affrighted me Thus Mr. Dioâ—ate Others take soule here for the appetite and so make this the sense Those things which I exceedingly loathed and would once have thought scorn to have touched are now my sorrowful meat I am forced with an heavy heart to feed upon them for want of better and they go down the worse because you vex me with your hard words who have little need of such choke-peares and will not allow me the liberty of a needfull lamentation which yet I must needsly take lest heart should breake and say as before chap. 3. though with some more respect to God the object of my present prayer Verse 8. O that â— might have my request How heartily begs Job for death as a medicine of all his maladies and miseries as that which would bring him mâ—lâ—rum ademptioâ—em â—â—â—orum adeptiâ—nem freedome from all evil fruition of all good By the force of his faith he lookes upon death as the best physician that would cure him of all infirmities inward and outward and of all at once and for ever Job might likely be of the same mind that Chaâ—cer was who took for his English motto Farewell Physick and for his Latine one Mors arumnarum requies death will be a sweet rest from all my labours the same â—o a believer death is that mount Ararat was to Noah where his ark rested after long tossing or as Michel was to David a meanes to shift him out of the way when Saul sent to slay him or as the fall of the house was to Samson an end of all his sorrowes and sufferings hence it is that he rejoyceth under hope and with stretcht out neck looks and longs for deaths coming as dearly as ever Siseâ—a's mother did out of a window for the coming of her son laden with spoiles from the battel As when death is come indeed he welcometh it as Jael did the fame Sisena but much in one heartily with Turn in my Lord turn in to mee Judg. 4.18 and further bespeaketh it as Jacob did his brother Esau at their interview Surely I have seen thy face as the face of God who hath made thee to meet me with kisses in stead of frowns and hath sent thee to guard me safe home to my fathers house And that God would grant me the thing that I long for Or have long looked for Heb. my hope or my expectation as that which will put a period to my miseries and possesse me of heavens happinesse as that which will be a postern to let out temporall life but a street-door to let in eternal Verse 9. That â—t would please God to destroy me That is to dispatch me out of this world and fend me to a beâ—ter A dissolution would be far more acceptable to Job then that restitution which Eliphâ—z seemed to promise him chap. 5.24 It s as if Job should say Take you the world amongst you sith you like it so well I have move then enough of it I am neither fond of life nor afraid of death but the cleane contrary I had rather die then dine and crave no greater favour then to have more weight laid upon me that I may die out of hand Feri Domine feri â—nam à peceatis 〈…〉 Luther once said strike Lord strike deepe for thou hast pardoned my sins and wilt save my soule That he would let loose his hand That now seemeth tied or hound behind him Manus ligata videâ—uâ— quando parcit saith Vatablus God had chained up Satan and strictly charged him not to take away Jobs life but this is it that Job would fain have done Mortality he would account no small mercy he desired nothing more then to be dissolved and to be with Christ he might do it because he knew that his
Redeemer lived c. So might Simeon because he had seen Gods salvation and so might Paul who had fought a good fight and kept the faith But how could Plato say in the eighth of his lawes The communion of the soule with the body is not better then the dissolution as I would say if I were to speak in earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato His master Socrates when to die was nothing so confident for he shut up his last speech with these words as both Plato himself and Cicero tell us Tempâ—â— est jam hinc abireâ— It is now high time for us to go hence for me to die and for you to live longer and whether of these two is the better the gods immortall know hominem quidem arbirâ—or sciro neminem it is above the knowledge I believe of any man living Thus he but Job was better perswaded otherwise he would have been better advised then thus earnestly to have desired death And cut me off Avidè me absumat quasi ex morte mea ingens lucrum reportaturâ—â— Let him greedily cut the 〈◊〉 so the word signifieth even as if he were to have some great gain Piâ—eda or get some rich booty by my blood Verse 10. Thou should I 〈◊〉 have comfort yea I would harden my self in sorrow c. I would take hard on and beaâ— what befalleth me as well as I could by head and shoulders had I but hopes of an end by death as having this for my comfort I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. I have boldly professed the true Religion Ps 40.10 116.10 119.43 not â—â—ared to preach the truth sincerely to others for Gods glory and their good however you may judge of me I never rejected the word of God but have highly honoured it so that my desire of death is not desperate as you may conceive but an effect of good assurance that by death heaven advanceth forward that happy term when all my miseries shall end at once and hence it is that I am so greedy after the grave Verse 11. What is my strength that I should hope q. d. Thou hast told me O Eliphaz that if I frame to a patient and peaceable behaviour under Gods chastisement I shall go to my grave in a good old age c. but alasse it is now past time of day with me for that matter my breath is corrupt my dayes are extinct the graves are ready for me chap. 17.1 Were I as young and lusty as ever I have been some such things as ye have promised me might be hoped for but alasse the map of age is figured on my forehead the calenders of death appeare in the furrowes of my face besides my many sores and sicknesses which if they continue but a while will certainly make an end of mee And what is mine end i.e. The later part of my life what is that else but trouble and sorrow see this elegantly set forth by Solomon Eccles 12.2 3 4 c. That I should prolong my life That I should desire my life to be prolonged or eeked out to that De re râ—st lib. 1. cap. 1. Rather let it be my â—are with Varro ut sarcinas colligam antequà m proficiscar è vita to be ready for death which seemeth so ready for mee Verse 12. Is my strength the strength of stones Or Is my flesh of brasse Is it made of marble or of the hardest metal as it is said of one in Homer that hee was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of brazen bowles and of Julius Scaliger that he had a golden soule in an iron body he was a very Iron sides but so was not Job he had neither a body of brasse nor sinewes of iron to stand out against so many stormes and beare so many batteries he felt what he endured and could not long endure what he felt As for the damned in hell they are by the power of God upheld for ever that they may suffer his fierce wrath for ever which else they could never do And as for those desperate Assasines Baltasar Gerardus the Burgundian who slew the Prince of Orange Anno Dom. 1584. and Ravilliac Ferale illud prodigium as one calleth him that hideous helâ—hound who slew Henry the fourth of France in the midst of his preparations and endured thereupon most exquisite torments this they did out of stupidity of sense not solidity of faith and from a wretchlesse desperation not a confident resolution Verse 13. Is not my help in me Have I not something within wherewith to sustaine me amidst all my sorrowes viz. the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 â—o this is my rejoycing this is my cordial c. Innuit innocentiam suam aâ— vita integritatem saith Drusius he meaneth the innocency and integrity of his heart and this was the help Job knew he had in store this was the wisedome or right reason he speaketh of in the following words and is wisedome or vertue driven quite from me no no that holdeth out and abideth when all things else in the world passe away and vanishâ— as the word Tushijah importeth Job had a subsistence still for his life consisted not in the abundance which he had possessed but was now bereft of The world calleth wealth substance but God giveth that name to Wisedome only The world he setteth forth by a word that betokeneth change for its mutability Prov. 3.8 and the things thereof he calleth Non-entia Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes saith he upon that which is not and which hath no price but what opinion setteth upon it Grace being a particle of the divine nature is unloosable unperishable Virtus post funera venit Verse 14. To him that is afflicted Heb. melted viz. in the furnace of affliction which melteth mens hearts and maketh them malleable as fire doth the hardest metals Psal 22.15 Josh 7.5 Pity should le shewed from his friend By a sweet tender melting frame of spirit such as was that of the Church Psal 102.13 and that of Paul 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is weakâ— and I am not weak sc by way of sympathy who is offended and I burne not when others are hurt I feele twinges as the tongue complaineth for the hurt of the toe and as the heart condoleth with the heele and there is a fellow-feeling amongst all the members so there is likewise iâ— the mysticall body From his friend who is made for the day of adversity Prov. 17.17 and should shew â—ove at all times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et cum fortuna statque cadisque fides and especially in evil times but poor Job bewaileth the want of such faithfull friends David also complaineth to God his onely fast friend of those that would be the causes but not the companions of his calamity that would fawn upon him in his flourish but forsake him in his misery
of this and especially in this book which shewes that we are very apt to forget it A point this is easie to be known but very hard to be believed every man assents to it but few live it and improve it to reformation Mine eyes shâ—ll no more sâ—e good sc in this world for in the world to come hee was confident of the beatificall vision chap. 19.27 Hezekiah hath a like expression when sentenced to die I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living that is in this life present Psal 27.13 and 52 5. and 142.5 Isa 53.8 called also the light of the living John 9.4 Psal 56.13 I shill behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Isa 38.11 And this both sick Job and sick Hezekiah tell the Lord and both of them begin alike with O remember Isa 38.3 God forgetteth not his people and their condition howbeit he requireth and expecteth that they should be his Remembrancers for their own and others good Isa 62.6 7. See the Margin Verse 8. Thâ— eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more In death we shall neither see nor be seen but be soon both out of sight and out of mind too It is storied of Richard the third that he caused the dead corps of his two smothered Nephews to be closed in lead and so put in a coffin full of holes and hooked at the ends with two hookes of iron and so to be cast into a place called the Black-deeps Speed 935. at the Thames mouth whereby they should never rise up nor be any more seen Such a place is the grave till the last day for then the sea shall give up the dead which are in it and death ad he grave shall render up the dead that are in them Rev. 20.13 then shall Adam see all his nephews at once c. Thine eyes are upon me and I am not Thou even lookest me to death like as elsewhere God is said to frown men to destruction Psalm 80.16 and Psalm 104.29 they are not able to endure his flaming eyes sparkling out wrath against them What mad men therefore are they that speak and act against Him who can so easily do them to death If God but set his eyes upon them for evil as he oft threatneth to do Amos 9.4 Job 16.9 they are undone Verse 9. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away A cloud is nothing else but a vapour thickened in the middle Region of the aire by the cold encompassing and driving it together psalm 18.19 vessels they are as thin as the liquor that is in them but some are waterlesse the former are soon emptied and dissolved the later as soon scattered by the wind and vanish away See the Note on verse 7. So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more sc to live and converse here with men as ver 10. Or he shall come up no more sc without a miracle as Lazarus and some others long since dead rose againe he cannot return to me said David of his deceased child 2 Sam. 12.23 God could send some from the dead to warn the living but that is not now to be expected as Abraham told the rich man Luk. 16. Those spirits of dead men that so oft appeared in times of Popery requiring their friends to sing Masses and Dirges for them and that drew this verse from Theodorus Gaza sunt aliquid manes lethum non omnia finit were either delusions or else divels in the shape of men That Job doubted of the Resurrection or denied it as Rabbi Solomon and some other both Hebrew and Greek writers conclude from this text is a manifest injury done to this good man and a force offered to the text as appeareth by that which next followeth Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house Either to dispatch businesses or to enjoy comforts he hath utterly done with the affaires of this world Melanchthon telleth of an aunt of his who having buried her husband and sitting sorrowfully by the fires side saw as she thought her husband coming into the roome and talking to her familiarly about the payment of certaine debts and other businesses belonging to the house and when he had thus talked with her a long time he bid her give him her hand she at first refused but was at length perswaded to do it he taking her by the hand so burnt it that it was as black as a coal and so he departed Was not this the divel Neither shall his place know him any more His place of habitation or his place of honour and ruledome these shall no more acknowledge him and welcome him back as they used to do after a journey Death is the conclusion of all worldly comforts and relations Hence wicked people are so loth to depart because there is struck by death an everlasting parting-blow betwixt them and their present comforts without hope of better spes fortuna valete said one great man at his death Cardinall Burbon would not part with his part in Paris for his part in paradise Fie said another rick Cardinall will not death be hired will mony do nothing Never did Adam go more unwillingly out of paradise the Jebusites out of the strong-hold of Zion the unjust steward out of his office or the divels out of the demoniack then gracelesse people do out of their earthly tabernacles because they know they shall return no more and having hopes in this life only they must needs look upon themselves as most miserable Verse 11. Therefore I will not refraine my mouth Heb. I will not prohibite my month sc from speaking I will bite in my grief no longer but sith death the certaine end of all outward troubles is not farre from mee I will by my further complaints presse the Lord to hasten it and not suppresse my sorrowes but give them a vent I will speake in the anguish of my spirit Heb. In the straitnesse or distresse of my spirit which is almost suffocated with grief I will complaine in the bitternesse my soul his greatest troubles were inward and if by godly sorrow for his sinnes he had powred forth his soule in an humble confession as some understand him here he had taken a right course but thus boisterously to break out into complaints savoureth of humane infirmity and sheweth quantae sint hominis vires sibi à Deo derelicti what a poor creature man is when God leaveth him to himself Mercer and subjecteth him to his judgments Verse 12. Am I a sea or a whale Can I bear all troubles as the sea receives all waters and the whale beares all tempests This as is well observed was too bold a speech to God from a creature for when his hand is on our backs our hands should be upon our mouths as Psalm 39.9 I was dumb or as others read it I should
themselves that will needs go to God in their own righteousnesse as the proud Pharisee Luke 18. The calamity of these merit-mongers shall rise suddenly Behold a whirle-wind or a tempest of the Lord goeth forth in fury even a grievous whirle-wind it shall fall grievously upon the head of these wicked ones Jer. 23.19 This Saint Paul knew and therefore did his utmost that he might be found in Christ sc when sought for by the justice of God not having his own righteousnesse which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Philip. 3 9. And multiplieth my wounds without cause i. e. Without any other cause then to try me and prove my patience which now Job began to perceive as Philip gathereth or without any manifest cause and perceivable by an afflicted man so Aquinas senseth it God hath not told me the reason of his chastenings but to increase my grief he concealeth from me the cause of them and yet he multiplieth still my sores and my sorrows Or without cause that is without any such cause as his friends alledged against him viz. that he was a rank hypocrite Verse 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath I am so far from a period that I have no pause of my troubles I cannot get any interspiria's or free breathing-whiles See chap. 7.19 And in the former verse he had complained that God had stormed him Interim per Pathos saith Mercer here he returns to his old practice of expostulating about the greatnesse of his grief and spares not to hyperbolize Beda and others understand this text of a bodily distemper upon Job which had made him short-winded And Lavater hath this good note here Hoc cogitandum nobis est c. Let this text be thought upon when our spirits begin to sink as also when by reason of the Ptisick or any other like disease we feel a difficulty of breathing and a straitening of our pectorals or be otherwise compassed about with great sorrows But filleth me with bitternesse Heb. He satiateth me with bitternesses i. e. with sore and sharp afflictions which are no way joyous but grievous to the flesh Heb. 12.11 Job had his belly-full of gall and worm-wood he had not only a draught or two but a diet-drink made him of most bitter ingredients Of this he complaineth heavily what then will the wicked do that must suck up the dregs of Gods cup Psalm 78.8 which hath eternity to the bottom Verse 19. If I speak of strength lo he is strong Neither by might nor right can I deal with him Broughton renders it As for force he is valiant the Lord is a man of warre saith Moses Exod. 15.3 Yea he is the Lord of arms saith David Psal 84. Yea He alone is a whole army of men Van Rere both saith Isaiah cap. 52.12 there is no doubt then but he will carry the day sith no creature is able to grapple with him The weaknesse of God if any such thing there were is stronger then men 1 Cor. 1.25 and by weakest means he can effect greatest matters as once he did in Egypt And if of judgment who shall set me a time to plead Who shall appoint the time and place of our meeting If I shall go about to sue him at law I shall have but a cold suit an ill pull of it for who shall make him appear or bring him to his answer and where shall I find an advocate a patron to plead my cause yea where shall I get a witnesse for so the vulgar reades it Nemo audet pro me restimonium dicere No man will be so bold as to give an evidence for me or be a witnesse on my side Verse 20. If I justifie my self If in default of other pleaders I should undertake to manage my cause my self I should be never the neer Mine own mouth shall condemn me i. e. God out of mine own mouth as finding mine arguments weak and worthlesse He knowes us better then we know our selves and when he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards as once Josephs steward did theirs all our secret thefts will out and those will appear to be faults that we little thought of A Dutch Divine when to die was full of fears and doubts said some to him you have been so employed and so faithful why should you fear Oh said he the judgment of man and the judgment of God are different Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili si remotâ misericordiâ judicetur Wo to the most praise-worthy man alive if he meet with judgment without mercy The best lamb should abide the slaughter except the ramme were sacrificed that Isaak might be saved If I say I am perfect What if God had said so chap. 1.1 yet Job might not Prov. 27.2 2 Cor. 10.18 Or if he do at any time justifie himself as chap. 29. 30 he doth it is in his own necessary and just defence against the charge of his friends Real apologies we must ever make for our selves when wronged verbal if any must be managed with meeknesse of wisedome Verse 21. Though I were perfect That is of an unblameable conversation yet could not I know mine own soul that is those secret sins Psalm 19.12 those litters of lusts that lurk therein therefore I despise my life I have no joy at all of it but could wish to be out of the world to be rid of these evil inmates that will not out of doors till the house fall upon the heads of them till the earthly Tabernacle that harboureth them be once dissolved Others read and sense the words thus I am perfect or upright neither do I know mine own soul i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea any allowed sin in my soul yet I am so afflicted that I despise my life as being but a continued death Aben-Ezra reads the verse with an admiration thus Perfect I am and think you that I know not mine own soul that I am so great a stranger to my self or that I have so little care of mine own good as that I despise my life and walk at all adventures Tremellius thus I am upright whatever you my friends would make of me neither value I my life or soul in comparison of mine integrity my life is but a trifle to my conscience c. Verse 22. This is one thing therefore I say it And will stand to it though I stand alone this being the one thing wherein I differ in opinion from you and because it is the hinge upon which the whole dispute betwixt us is turned therefore I will abide by it and be Doctor resolutus resolute in the maintenance of it viz. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked A harsh doctrine yet a good one saith an Interpreter Grace is no target against the greatest affliction See Eccles 9.1 2 3. Mal. 3.14 Ezek. 21.3 Heb. 11. shewes that
Verse 18. Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb Why but was not that a mercy David esteemed it so and gives God the glory Psalm 22.9 But discontent is an utter enemy to thankfulnesse The bird sings not till she have taken up her stand to her mind Some mens eyes are so bleared and glazed with tears for what they want that they cannot see what good they have cannot see mercies for blessings Job here in a distemper wisheth himself as he had done before chap. 3. Who can understand his errors Psalm 19.12 either unborn or presently dead without the distance of one day betwixt his birth and his burial In quo errorem erravit non levem vir alioqui pientissimus this was a worse wish then if he had desired that his life might be presently taken away from him for herein he sheweth himself unthankful to God for all his former benefits and not so only but angry with God for the good he had done him thus we have seen dogs in a chafe fly at their masters and children in a pelt strike at their parents But these were the voices of the flesh lusting against the spirit which afterwards being justly reprehended for them first by Elihu and then also by God himself he repressed and repented of in dust and ashes Psalm 42.6 Oh that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me sc with delight for what pleasure is there in seeing a dead corps especially a still-born child see Gen. 23.4 with the Note This text teacheth us saith an Interpreter what sad effects extreme grief and pain worketh in the very best it distempereth their spirits and so disturbeth them that their complaints look like the blasphemies of the wicked and they sometimes wish absurd things dishonourable to God and prejudicial to themselves Verse 19. I should have been as though I had not been Here he sings the same song as chap. 3. and 6. It is hard to say how oft a child of God may discover the same infirmity Our lives are fuller of sins then the firmament is of stars or the furnace of sparks I should have been carried from the womb to the grave He makes mention of the grave as a desirable place which yet in the two last verses he describeth as a place of darknesse and disorder Thus Job himself was in the dark and in his passion he throweth out words without wisedome Itaque solicitè orandus est Dius saith one here God is therefore to be earnestly intreated that when we are hard put to 't with pain and misery we may not give way to unruly passion nor suffer our tongues to out-lash as they will be apt to do See Psal 39.1 confer Psal 22.77.88 89. and we shall see David well nigh as far out as Job in his complaints and wishes but God can put a difference between the godly and sin in them as between poison and the box that holdeth it He can also pity them as we do poison in a man which yet we hate in a toad c. Verse 20. Are not my dayes few And oh that they might not be also evil sith I shall not much trouble the world oh that I might not find much trouble in the world What man is he that would fain see good dayes saith David Psalm 34.12 What man is he that would not saith Austin in answer to him Job and David joyn in one and the same suit for a truce from trouble sith their time here was so very short Psalm 39.13 and 89.47 Cease then and let me alone After he had vented his passions he fals again to his prayers Ye have done all this wickednesse saith Samuel to the people who had been over-importunate for a King yet turn not aside from following the Lord c. 1 Sam. 12.20 Whilest prayer stands still the whole trade of godlinesse stands still Saints though they have sinned yet must not restrain prayer but go home to God again with shame in their faces and tears in their eyes and he will speak peace only they must be sensible that their Father hath spit in their faces c. That I may take comfort a little A modest request the poor man speaks supplications begs a farthing They who are lowly make low demands Oh that I were but a door keeper oh that Ishmael might live in thy sight c. Verse 21. Before I go whence I shall not return Before I go out of this world never more to return hither to enjoy the comforts that are here to be had Death is a departure hence 1 Pet. 1.15 Luke 9.31 And so the Ancients Irenaeus Clement and others used to call it I shall change my place but not my company said that dying Saint who had here walked with God in uprightnesse Tertul. and was now to bid adieu to all worldly interests The old Romans were wont to say of a dead friend Abiit eversurus est He is gone and will come again It seems hereby that they had some darke notions of a Resurrection whence also their Poets called a dead body a soul animamque sepulchro condimus The Hebrews did the like Virg. Aeneid Numb 5.2 and 9.10 and 19.11 Hag. 2.14 as having a more sure word of Prophesie and Job was clear in this point firmly believing the resurrection of his body chap. 19.26 27. It must needs be therefore that he speaks here of not returning into this world See the like chap. 16.22 Psalm 39.13 2. Sam. 12.23 Even to the land of darknesse c. See the Note on verse 22. Verse 22. â—â—land of darknesse c. This is not a description of hell and of the state of the damned as some would have it for Job never meant to come there no more then Jacob did Gen. 37.35 and 42.38 But it is such an elegant description of the grave 〈◊〉 exceedeth the phantasie of Poets and the rhetorick of all heathen Orators There is something like it in Davids Psalms especially Psalm 88.11 12. where the grave is called a place of perdition a land of forgetfulnesse and of darknesse whereinto they who descend praise not God Psalm 115.17 In respect of their bodies they do not they cannot Isai 38.18 Hell indeed is much more a land of darknesse as darknesse it self it is that outer-darknesse a darknesse beyond a darknesse as the dungeon is beyond the prison and the pains of hell are the chains of darknesse now death is â—eâ—â—â—aâ—binger to the wicked and hence it is so dreadful in the apprehension and approach of it that mens hearts do even die within them as Nabals did through fear of death and they tremble thereat as the trees of the wood or leaves of the forrest with Ahaz Isai 7.2 Darknesse we know is full of terrour the Egyptians were sorely a frighted by their three dayes thick darknesse in so much as that none stirred off his stool all that while Exod. 10.23 and it was the more
terrible doubtlesse because they had no warning of it as they had of other plagues How oft do men chop into the chambers of death their long-home the grave all on the sudden as he that travelleth in the snow may do over head and ears into a marle-pit Death of any sort is unwelcome to nature as being its slaughterman but when sudden It is so much the more ghastly and those that desperately dare death to a duel cannot look it in the face with blood in their cheeks only to those that are in Christ the bitternesse of death is past the sting of it pulled out the property altered as hath been already noted Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse saith a Learned Expositor here lay in the grave and hath left perpetual beams of light there for his purchased people Mr. Caryl The way to the grave is very dark but Christ hath set up lights for us c. And of the shadow of death The shadow is the dark part of the thing so that the shadow of death is the darkest side of death death in its most hideous and horrid representations the shadow of death is the substance of death or death with addition of greatest deadlinesse Without any order Heb. and not orders What then confusion surely without keeping to rules or ranks mens bones are mingled in the grave whether they have been princes or peasants it cannot be discerned Omnia mors aequat as chesse-men are put up all together in the bag when the game is ended without distinction of King Duke Bishop c. so here Junius rendreth it expertem vicissitudinum without any interchanges distinctions vicissitudes or varieties as of day night summer winter heat cold c. of which things consisteth the greatest part of the brevity of this world And where the light is 〈◊〉 darknesse How great then must needs be that darknesse as our Saviour speaketh in another case Matth. 6.23 Surely when by the return of the Sun there is light in the land of the living in the grave all is abyssed and sunk into eternal might as the bodies of those two smothered Princes were by their cruel Uncle Richard the third in the black-deeps a place so called at the Thames-mouth in the grave light and darknesse are both alike and as the Images in Popish Temples see nothing though great wax candles be lighted up before them so the clearest light of the Sun shining in his strength would be nothing to those that are dead and buried Let this be much and often thought on mors tuâ— mors Christi c. Cyrus that great Conqueror lying on his death-bed praised God saith Xenophon that his prosperity had not puffed him up for he ever considered that he was but mortal and must bid adieu to the world Charls the fifth Emperour of Germany caused his sepulcher and grave clothes to be made five years before his death and carried them closely with him whithersoever he went Samuel sent Saul newly annointed to Rachels sepulcher 1 Sam. 10.24 that he might not surfet upon his new honours c. CHAP. XI Verse 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite WIth a most bitter invective savouring more of passion then charity Zophar rejoyneth or rather revileth innocent Job mis-interpreting his meaning verse 4. and laying to his charge 1. Loquacity or talkativenesse 2. Lying 3. Scoffing at Gods good providence and mens good counsel 4. Self-conceitednesse and arrogancy besides rashnesse boldnesse c. For want of better arguments against him he falls foul upon him in this sort And if the adversaries of the truth do the like by us as our Saviour saith they will Matth. 5.11 and as himself after Job and many other of his members had the experience of it we must not be over-troubled Zophar signifieth a watcher he watched for Jobs halting and took him up before he was down he is stiled the Naamathite from Naamah a city in the land of Vz eighteen miles from Jobs Pyramis saith Adricomius which signifieth â—air But he dealeth not so fair with his friend as had been fit for he giveth him no honour or respect at all but treateth him with singular sharpnesse and violence or rather virulence of speech hear himâ—elfe Verse 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered Should not he who speaketh what he will Nunquid qui multa loquitur non audiet Vulg. hear what he would not yes Job shall now or you 'l want of your will but if Job have talked more then his part came to the truth is his speeches are longer then any of those his three friends which are all except that first made by Eliphaz chap. 4. and 5. comprehended in one chapter whereas his take up two three or more he may well be excused considering the sharpnesse of his disease the ungentlenesse of his friends and the sense of Gods displeasure which his soul laboured under Zophar and the rest looked upon him as a wretched hypocrite and were angry that he would not yeild himself so they accused his former conversation as wicked what way had he therefore to defend and assert his own integrity but by words and must he yet passe for a pratling fellow a man of lips a very wordy man one that loveth to hear himself talk because he will not be by them out-talked and over-born by their false charges Most sure it is that profane and profuse babblings are to be avoided and to bring fulnesse of matter in fewnesse of words it is very commendable Quà m multa quà m paucis said Tully of Bruâ—â—s his Laconical Epistle how much is here in a little but 1. Every man cannot be a short-spoken Spartan It is reported that in Luthers house was found written Melancthou hath both matter and words Luther hath matter but wants words Erasmus hath words at will but wants matter Every one hath his own share all are not alike-gifted 2. He is to be accounted talkative who uttereth unprofitable words and far from the purpose beside the point and so Zophar himself was to be blamed in this whole discourse of his wherein he talketh much but speaketh little Concerning the infinite and unsearchable wisedom of God he argueth truly and gravely but yet nothing fitly to convince Job who himself had said as much and more of the same subject The counsel also that therehence he giveth Job doth little or nothing concern him it being the same in effect that Eliphaz and Bildad had said before him Zophar therfore was the locutuleius the talkative man here mentioned rather then Job the lipâ—-man adversus sua ipsius vitia facundus satis and as Bion was wont to say that the Grammarians of his time could discourse wel of the errors of Vlysses but not at all see their own so it befell Zophar And should a man full of talk be justified Heb. a man of lips so called as if he were made all of lips and had no other members Shall such an one
of his Office as the Jebusites did out of the Fort of Zion or as the Devil out of the Demoniack Sâ—d voluntas Dei necessitâ—s rei he passeth because he can neither will nor chuse as they say Thou changest his countenance and sendest him away Eleganter vero mors notatur immutandi verbo saith one Elegant is death set forth by changing the countenance for death taketh away the faire and fresh colour of a man and makes him look wan and withered pale and ghastly It is easâ—e to see death many times before it come in the sick manâ—face in his sharp nostrils thin cheeks hollow eyes c. Facies Hippocratica those Harbingers of death whereby God sendeth for him and so sendeth him away extrudit amandet as once he did Adam out of Paradise Lavaters Note here is Propone tihi semper horribileus speciem mortis ut eò minus pecces Set before thy self alwayes the horrid face of death to restraine thee from sin Verse 21. His sons come to honour and he knoweth it not Whilst he lyeth sick Omnis in Ascanio chari statcura parentis Vir. he regardeth no earthly thing no not what becometh of his children formerly his greatest care whether they be advanced or impaired in their outward condition As when he is dead he can take no knowledge of any thing done in this world Isai 63.16 Eccles 2.19 and 96. be his children or friends rich or poor high or low he is both ignorant and insensible It was a base slander published by a Jesuit some years after Queen Elizabeths death That as she died without sense or feeling of Gods mercies Cambd. Eliz. Prefat so that she wished she might after her death hang a while in the Aire to see what striving would be for her Kingdome As for that opinion of some Papists That the dead do sometimes returne into the Land of the living that they know how things go here and make report thereof to those in heaven it is contrary to the whole Scripture Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain That is say some But as long as he is living his body is afflicted with a thousand evils and though his soul by the condition of her creation be exempt from them yet she beares a part in them and becomes miserable with it A dying man hath sorrow without and sorrow within the whole man is in misery as Job here felt himself Others hold Aben-Ezra Mercer Deodate that this Poetical representation hath no other meaning but that the dead have no manner of communication with the living Broughtou rendreth it His flesh is grieved for it self and his soul will mourn for it self q.d. he takes no thought or care for his children or neerest relations CHAP. XV. Verse 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanice and said LApides locutus est In this second encounter Eliphaz falls upon Job not so much with stronger Arguments as with harder words reproving him sharply or rather reproaching him bitterly Facundiâ quadam caninâ with more Eloquence then charity So hard a thing is it saith Beza espetially in disputing and reasoning to avoid self-love as even in these times experience daily teacheth us He hinteth I suppose at the publick Conference betwixt himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard Lib. 35. Hist whereby the strife was rather stirred then stinted as Thuanus complaineth Or else at the Disputation at Possiacum wherein Beza Speaker for the Protestant party Hist of Counc of Trent 453. before the Queen Mother of France the young King Charles and many Princes of the Blood entring into the matter of the Eucharist spake with such heat unlesse the Historian wrongs him that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side so that he was commanded to conclude Such meetings are seldome successeful saith Luther because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather then verity In this reply of Eliphaz to Job we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinacy which make a man forget all modesty and fall foule upon his best friends Here 's enough said to have driven this sorrowful man into utter despaire had not God upheld his spirit whiles he is fiercely charged for a wicked man Non affert ullaâ—â— consolationem non invitat eum ad panitentiam sed potiâ—â— ad desperationem complelas Lav. and hated of God neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance or one comfortable promise as Lavater well observeth Verse 2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledg Heb. Knowledg of the wind light frothy empty discourses that have no tack or substance in them but only words that are no better then wind a meer flash or Aiery nothing Solomon thinks a wise man should beware of falling into this fault lest he forfeit his reputation Eccles 10.1 Dead flyes cause the Oyntments of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour as spots are soonest observed in the whitest and finest garments and envy like wormes and moths doth usually feed on the purest cloth Neh. 6.11 A great many dead flies may be found in a Tar-box and no hurt done but one of them falne into a pot of sweet Odours or precious Perfumes may soone taint and corrupt them And fil his belly with the East-wind Per ventrem mentem intellige per ventum Orientalem vanam opinionem saith Vatablus By belly understand the mind and by the East wind a vain conceit or frothy knowledg blown forth out of a swelling breast to the hurt of others for the East wind is destructive to herbs and fruits Hos 12.1 Gen. 41.6 But doth not Eliphaz here by these bubble of words and blustering questions betraying much choler and confidence fall into the very same fault which he findeth with Job Doth not he also fill his belly with heat so the Vulgar rendreth this Text which kindling in his bosom blazeth out at his lips Doth not this angry man exalt folly and shew himself none of the wisest though he were the oldest in all the company Verse 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk Why But if he do should he therefore be thus rippled up and rough-hewed And not rather reduced and rectified with hard Arguments and soft words Man is a cross crabbed creature Duci vult trahi non vult Perswade him you may compel him you cannot A fit time also must be taken to perswade him to better for else you may loose your sweet words upon him The Husbandman soweth not in a storm The Mariner hoyseth not sail in every wind Good Physicians evacuate not the body in extremity of heat and cold A brother offendâ—d is harder to be 〈…〉 a strong City Prov. 18.19 This Eliphaz should have considered and not so rashly censured Job for a fool and his talk for trash but
are of his mind who said He that will not venture his body will never be valiant and he that will not venture his soul will never be rich But what saith the Prophet He that getteth riches and not by right shall dye a poor fool Jer. 17.11 And what saith Zophar here He shall dye a plain beggar and leave no estate worth the looking after or suing for this falleth not out alwayes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many times it doth as is easily to be observed Verse 22. In the fulnesse of his sufficiency be shal be in straits The covetous man never hath a sufficiency but is as greedily gasping still after more as if he were not worth an half-peny much lesse a fulnesse of sufficiency a superfluity a superabundance What soever Esan pretended in his I have enough my brother Gen. 33.9 Jacob could indeed say truly I have enough ver 11. for godlinesse only hath an autarkie 1 Tim. 6.6 True piety hath true plenty and is never with out a well-contenting sufficiency wherein the good man is when is the fulnesse of straits See it in David 1 Sam. 30.6 in Habakkuk chap. 3.16 17. in Paul 2 Cor. 6.10 Phil. 4-11 he had nothing and yet possessed all things But that which Zophar here drives at is to shew that the Oppressour shall be ruinated when at highest and when he least looketh for it as was Nebuchadnezzar Haman Belshazzar Babylon the great Rev. 18.7 8. How was Alexander the Great surprized at a Feast Caesar in the Senate house many of the Emperors in their own Palaces c Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him Or Of the Labourer whose wages he hath detained Or of the poor oppressed whom he hath forced to labour hard for a poor living Broughton rendreth it Each hand of the injured and grieved shall come upon him and so he shall have many fists about his ears many ready to rifle him and to pull a fleece from him Verse 23 When he is about to fill his belly It appeareth by this expression that it was belly timber wherein the wicked man placed his sufficiency ver 22. his felicity Si ventri bone sit si lateri saith the Epicure in Horace If the belly may be filled the body fitted that 's all that these Lurcones these Losels look after Pelyphemus knew no other God but his belly There were belly-gods in Saint Pauls time such as of whom be could not speak with dry eyes Phil 3 18-19 Such are compared by Clemens Alexandrinus to the Sea-castle that hath his heart in his belly By others to the Locust the belly whereof is said to be joyned to his mouth and to end at his taile to the fish called Blax that is altogether unprofitable and to Rats and Mice good for nothing but to devour victuals When therefore such a Pamphagus is about to fill his belly and to pamper his panch or otherwise to gorge himself with the full messes of sins Dainties as the Viper lives on venemous things the Spider on Aconite the Sow on swill as Tartarians on Carrion holding them as dainty as other men do Venison then saith Zophar God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him Heb. He shall send forth c. He will no longer keep in his judgments in the chaines of mercy but give them their full forth upon this wicked Oppressor and that even very then when hee bids his heart make merry and assures himselfe of unchangeable happinesse For He shall rain it upon him that is reveal it from heaven against him Rom. 1. while he is eating As it befel chose Cormorants Numb 11.33 and the old world Luke 17. Matth. 24.38 Sudden destruction cometh upon them as travel upon a woman with child Vel ut pluvia quae sereno coelo inopinantes opprimit Or as foul weather that comes unsent for and oft unlook'd for The Vulgar rendreth it And he shall rain his war upon him But this Zophar setteth forth in the next verse where he denounceth war and weapons Verse 24. He shall flee from the iron weapons i. e. whiles he seeks to shun one mischief he shall fall into another and when he thinks to run from death he runs to it God who can do what he will with his own bare hand is here brought in after the manner of men with sword and bow to shew that both at home and afar off he can tame his Rebels Neither boots it any man to stand out with God or to seek to save himself by sight or flight sith he is that King against whom there is no rising up Prov. 30.31 and if he be angry no other helps can relieve us Brasse and iron can fence me against an Arrow or a sword but if I were to be cast into a furnace of fire it would help to torment me if into a pit of water to sink me Now our God is a consuming fire and his breath a stream of brimstone Isai 30.33 Submit your selves therefore to God Jam. 4.7 Humble your selves therefore under his mighty hand and he shall lift you up in due season 1 Pet. 5. To run into God is the way to escape him as to close and get in with him that would strike you doth avoyd the blow And the bow of steel shall strike him through Or shall change him that is kil him Death is our great change and to the wicked a dismal change for they shal be killed with death Rev. 2.23 Then Balaam and his bribes Baltasar and his bowls Dives and his dishes Herod and his Harlots the Usurer and his bills the Merchant and his measures c. shall part asunder for ever But that is not the worst of it The word here used signifieth excision or cutting off and hence that of Bathsheba Prov. 31.8 Bene chaloph children of destruction answerable to that of our Saviour John 17.12 A son or child of perdition that is a man devoted to utter destruction Verse 25. It is drawn and cometh out of the body that is the Arrow out of the Quiver or the sword out of the sheath as the Vulgar translateth it By a like Metaphor the body is called the souls sheath Dan. 7.15 But I rather take it properly It cometh out of his body that is out of the wicked mans body who is under such a deep and deadly wound as Jehoram was whom Jehu shot through the heart and as William Rufus was by Walter-Tirrel who in hunting mistook him for a Dear Yea the glistering sword cometh out of his gall And so the wound must needs be mortal sith none can come at the gall to cure it The wicked shall be double slaine first with Gods bow and then with his sword rather then he shall escape How much better were it to fall down as Paul did Rom. 7. slaine with the sword of the Spirit Bernard told his brother a souldier that because he would not listen to the word of exhortation God would shortly
Si non castè saltem cautè say the Popish Shavelings who are sometimes taken in the manner as was that carnal Cardinal Cremonensis Acts Mon. fol. 1065. Ibid. 1905. Barns Funccius Luth. Coloq the Popes Legat here in Hen. 8. dayes and Dr. Wâ—ston Dean of Windsor in the Raign of Queen Mary apprehended in Adultery and for the same deprived of all his Spiritual Livings by Cardinal Pool Pope John the twelfth being taken a bed with another mans wife was killed immediately by her husband In Germany a Gentleman of note and his Harlot were served in like sort as Luther relateth So was Reâ—â—â—ldus the Eighth King of Lombardy and Sergui a King of Scotland Of all these P.Mel. Chron. Lang. Chron. and many more esusdem furfuris it may well be said as here that being noted and notified they were in the terrors of the shadow of death Which death to escape Verse 18. He is swift as the waters He stayes not long in a place but flies away swiftly like the River Tigris swift as an arrow out of a bow to avoid punishment Heb. He is light upon the face of the waters The meaningâ—s saith One they are as a light thing upon the streams of water running swiftly and carrying it away with speed Some that it is spoken in respect of their swift passing on from one wickednesse to another or their never being settled after such wickednesse committed but alwayes ready to be overturned as a ship that is unballasted and so to be drowned in the sea Their portion is cursed on the earth Cain-like they wander up and down à corde suo facti fugitivi but their sin will surely find them out neither can they run out of the reach of Gods rod c. This Job saith lest any should gather from what he had said before that it should be alwayes well with the wicked and ill with the godly Some take it curse-wise thus Let their portion on earth be accursed neither let them turn themselves to the Vineyards scil either to dresse them or to taste of the fruits of them He beholdeth not the way of the Vineyards That is say some to run away by them which were common wayes to Cities but by some other obscure by-way that he may not be found In Vineyards something is to be done at all times that way therefore they take not lest they should be discovered and punished Beza rendreth it He turneth not into the way that is the nature of the Vines which by cutting and pruning sprouteth out and becometh more profitable Others sense it far otherwise The concise brevity and ambiguity of the words together with the change of number hath caused a cloud upon them Verse 19. Drought and heat consume the snow waters Here also brevity hath bred obscurity Snow waters as they are more subtile so they sooner sink into the dry earth so dye the wickeds quickly and easily See chap. 21.13 31. There are that read the whole verse thus In the drought and heat they rob and in the snow waters they sin to the grave that is they rob and run into other flagitious practises in all weather Summer and Winter and never give over till they dye They persist in their sins saith Calvin wherein they have been nuzzelled up even to their grave This is a good sense Luther tells of one filthy Adulterer so set upon that sin that he was heard to utter these abominable words If I were sure to live here for ever and that I might still be carried from one Brothel-house to another I would never desire any other heaven then that Vae dementiae impietati Theat Hist pag. 568. This beastly man breathed out his wretched soul betwixt two harlots Once I knew a most odious Adulterer of seventy years old saith another great Divine who having wasted his flesh and state with harlots and lying neer death was requested thus Potter call upon God M. Dan. Rog. he replyed with his ordinary oathes Pox and Wounds is this a time to pray I knew saith a third Reverend man a great swearer who coming to his death-bed Satan so filled his heart with a madded and enraged greedinesse after sin Mr. Bolton that though himself swore as fast and as furiously as he could yet as though he had been already among the bannings and blasphemies of hell he desperately desired the standers by to help him with Oathes and to swear for him Athenaeus reporteth of one covetous Mammonist that at the hour of his death he devoured many pieces of Gold and sewed the rest in his coat commanding that they should be all buried with him And our Chroniclers write of King Edward 1. that he adjured his son and Nobles Dan. Hist 202. that if he dyed in his Expedition against Bruce King of Stots they should not interre his Corps but carrie it about Scotland till they had avenged him on that Usurper Verse 20. The Womb shall forget him Some read it The merciful man forgetteth him scil because himself was mercilesse Or because he was a trouble to the world and a common Pest therefore good men are glad to be so rid of him and in stead of sighing over him say Let the worm feed sweetly on him 't is well he is gone as he lived wickedly so he dyed wickedly let him be no more remembred or honourably mentioned but moulder away and fall as a rotten tree Others interpret the words of the sudden and easie death of the wicked thus The womb shall forget him that is saith Beza being once dead neither his mother nor his wife do bewail and lament his death because without that pain and torment that many suffer when they depart the world The wormes shall feed sweetly on him Moritar impunitus he maketh the worms a feast with his fat Corps as Dr. Taylor Martyr made account to have done if buried in Hadley Church-yard and feels no pain He shall be no more remembred And this is reckoned up as a piece of his happiness See Eccles 8.10 with the Note there And wickednesse that is the wicked person that crooked piece that can hardly ever be set straight again Shall be broken as a tree As a rotten tree blown down by the wind Verse 21. He evil intreateth the barren that beareth not Who had more need to be comforted then further afflicted But Homo homini Daemon Jacob and Elkanab loved and comforted their wives under this crosse The Vulgar rendreth it He hath fed the barren whereupon some expound it of wicked mens feeding Whores and maintaining them for their pleasure keeping them barren that they may keep their beauty And doth not good to the widow i.e. Doth her much hurt for not to do good is to do evil Mark 3.4 He hath afflicted his barren wife and evil intreated the poor desolate widow his mother What marvel then if the womb forget him c. if his wife bewail not so unkind an husband
partem interiorem which yet should move more slowly by night because then the heat is drawne into the internal parts Verse 18. By the great force of my Disease is my garment changed soil sudore cruâ—te sanit sanguine By the matter that my Disease forceth outward in Boils and Botches is my garment which once was decoru Magistratus insigne the Ensign of my Authority utterly stained and spoiled loathsom to my self and noysom to others Merlin Totum cruentem sordidatum Merc. Every one say some Chymicks hath his own Balsom within him his own bane it is sure he hath Physicians hold that in every two years there is such store of ill humours and excrements ingendred in the body that a vessel of one hundred ounces will scarce contain them Now if these by Gods appointment for he is the great Centurion Matth. 8.9 who hath all diseases at his beck and check break outward what an ulcerous Leper and Lazar must that man needs be This was Jobs case and Munsters who called his sores Gemmas preciosa Dei ornamenta Gods Gems and Jewels Job Manl. loc câ—â— p. 127 where with he decketh those whom he loveth and King Philips of Spain who besides many other diseases had ingentem puris ex ulceribus reaundantiam qua binas indies scutellas diuits paedore impleret Abundance of filthy matter issuing out of his sores Carol Scriban Instit Princep cap. 20 insomuch as that no change of cloathes or Art of Physicians could keep him from being devoured by Lice and Vermine thereby ingendred It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat It is become so stiff and starky that it wrings me and hurts me as an uneasie collar girds and gripes a mans neck As the edge of my coat in gards me so Broughton readeth it Beza rendreth this latter part of the verse thus He God compâ—sseth me about as the collar of my coat Piscatoâ— the whole thus By the greatnesse of his Gods strength which he putteth forth in scourging me with diseases my garment changeth it self putteth on as it were another 〈◊〉 of scabâ— and scurf As the mouth of my coat he God girdeth me 〈…〉 he pincheth my body with diseases But the former â—â—â—ding is better Verse 19. He 〈◊〉 cast me into the mire My Disease hath so Vatablus senseth it Others God hath as it were trampled me to dirt thrown me into the kernel and so done me the greatest disgrade that can be And I am become like dust and ashes Like a dust-heap behind the door cadâ—veiâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 saith Mercaâ— Being covered all even saith Beza with the 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 that full from my 〈◊〉 I am become more unlike unto the unprofitable dust and ashes then unto a living man Dust and ashes are not more like one another then their names are in the Original sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cinis See Gen. 3.19 and 18.17 Verse 20 I cry unto thee and thou dost not hear me This was a sore trial that God should cast him into straits and there leave him His enemies indeed he usually dealeth so by Ezek. 22.20 and 29.5 but not by his servants Heb. 13.5 Or if he do leave them yet he will not forsake them The mother leaves her child sometimes but when he setteth up his note and cryeth lustily she hasteneth to help him So doth God But now Job cryed unto him and was not heard or answered to his thinking at least and that was a great cut to him as Psalm 22.2 I stand up scil To make supplication to my Judg as Haman stood up to make request for his life Esth 7.7 as the Publican stood and prayed Luke 18.13 and as Moses and Samuel are supposed to stand before God in prayer for their people Jerem. 15.1 Hence that Proverb amongst the Jewes Absque stationibus non staret mundus Did not the Saints stand in prayer the world could not stand And thou regardest me not This was but a Mistake in Job for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open to their prayers Only God answereth our prayer non secundum voluntatem tamen ad utilitatem Not alwayes or as soon as we would but doth that which is better for us and takes it ill to be misconstrued as he was by Job witnesse the next words bloody words indeed Accusat ergo Job Dominum mendacii Brent Contumeliosus viderispotest Merl. and not far from Blasphemy Verse 21 Thou art become cruel to me Mutatus es mihi in tyrannum thou art turned Tyrant towards me so Brentius rendreth it and the like he had said before chap. 16.13 and 19.8 9 10. out of the vehemency of his pain and he sense of his flesh which should have been silenced and faith exalted the property whereof is to pick one contrary out of another as life out of death assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses Deut. 32.36 and to perswade the heart that God concealeth his love out of increasement of love and in very faithfulness afflicteth his darlings that he may be true to their souls Psal 1.19.75 With thy strong hand thou opposest thy self against me Heb. Thou batest me Satanically hatest me Intestinum odium exerces adversum me Tremell and accordingly thou dost practise all thy might upon me Thus Job in his heat and that he may not seem to rage without reason he subjoyneth Verse 22. Thou liftest me up to the wind Thou whifflest and wherriest me about as chaff or thistle-down Pro libidine tractas me thou usest me at thy pleasure Brent Thou causest me to ride upon it Upon the wings of the wind lifting me up aloft that I may fall with the greater poise as the Eagle is said to do the Tortoise Vt lapsu graviore ruam Thou dissolvest my substance Or Thou meltest my wisdome I have neither flesh nor reason remaining The issue that he expecteth of all these his forementioned miseries followeth Verse 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death Such hard thoughts had Job of God and such heavy thoughts of himself Nam experior mors avocat me so Tremellius For I feel it death calleth me away Sic ludis mecum ut facilè conjiciam mihi moriendum esse saith Brentius Thou so dalliest with me that I plainly perceive I must shortly dye there 's no avoiding of it 2 Cor. 1.8.9 10 Thus good Job was pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as be despaired even of life and had the sentence or denunciation of death in himself c. But God was better to him then his fears and delivered him from so great a death this is usual Qui nil sper are potest desperet nihil And to the house appointed for all living That is the grave Psal 49.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 89.48 that Congregation house of all living as heaven is called the Congregation house of the first born Heb. 12.23 the publick or
him It is said to Trajan that he neither feared nor hated any man living What then shall we think of him Mercer who is Moderator Dominator supremus ac solus Or who hath disposed the whole world The habitable world and especially that habitable part of Gods earth as man is called Prov. 8.31 Verse 14. If he set his heart upon man Viz. For evil and not for good and have a purpose to unmake him again which he can as easily do as will it to be done If he gather unto himself his Spirit and his breath If he take away his life which what is it else but a puffe of wind a vapour c. who can say he is unjust May not the Potter do with his pot as he pleaseth We subsist meerly by his Manutension and if he but pull back his hand only we are gone immediately This is to be seen in those that swoon suddenly away See Psal 104.29 and consider how little this is considered by the most Elihu thought that Job was wanting herein for he had heard him chap. 12. disputing concerning the soveraigne and absolute power of God almost in the very same words which himself here useth from ver 13. to 31. Verse 15. All flesh shall perish together i. e. All men called here All flesh as Mark 16.16 they are called every creature a little world If God command it to be so they shall all breath out together And man shall turn to his dust again The body to the dust whence it was taken but the Spirit to God who gave it Eccles 12. Verse 16. If now thou hast understanding hear this Hear it and know it for thy good as chap. 4.27 if at least thou hast any wit for thy selfe or care of thine own well doing This is a stinging Apostrophe to Job Si vel â—ica est in te bonae mentis unlesse thou hast buried thy braines and lost thy â—enses listen as for life Verse 17. Shall even he that hateth right govern Heb. Bind sc Malefactors whom Magistrates use to hamper Others take it of binding up the wounded after the manner of Chirurgeons An qui odit judicium Chirurgos imitaretur so the Tigurines translate Would he who hateth right do as Chirurgeons use to do Would God if he were unrighteous bind up the broken hearted or receive into favour as he doth a sinner that repenteth doing him good again as if there never had been a breach betwixt them It hath been noted That a King hath his name in the Greek tongue from healing and that Isai 3.7 a Governor is called a Healer or Binder up the same word there as here in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medela But how unfit for such an Office must he needs be who not only doth not right but hateth it as did Nero Caligula Commodus c And wilt thou condemn him that is most just Or That is strong and just illúmne impietatis sugillabis None in his right wits would ever do so for what else were this Tigur but to exalt a mans self above the divine Majesty And yet what do they lesse then this who grudge at Gods proceedings and are ready to think that if they had the ordering of things in their hands they could dispose of them a fair deal better How absurd and unseemely this is in any one is aptly set forth in the next verse Is it fit c Verse 18. Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked Heb. Belial that is Thou yoaklesse Qui dicit regi Apostata Vulg. lawlesse masterlesse Monster Kings are not wont to be so accoasted and aviled nor is it lawful Exod 22.28 It is blasphemy in the second Table to speak evil of dignities Jude 8. It was some disadvantage to Saint Paul that although provoked and unjustly smitten he called the High Priest whited wall Act. 23.3 he was glad to excuse it by his ignorance And Luther cryed our Henry 8 mercy for his uncivil language to him such as was that Audi Domine Rex edocebo ie in a jeer Dan. Hist Hâ—nry 6. indeed was coursely handled in a tumult and wounded but then he was at an under and being restored he freely pardoned the Offendor saying Alass poor soul he struck me more to win favour with others then of any ill will he bare me But this was a rare example of patience in a King Alexander the Great dealt more harshly with his friends Clitus and Callisthenes for their plain-dealing Seâ— Tiberius put to death a Poet for uttering some free words against him though under the person of Agamemnon quem in iragoedia probris lacessisset Savanarola suffered deeply for telling the Pope his own And Bajazet the second took great revenge upon his Janizaries Turk hist fol. 444. who for his casting Achmetes Bassa into prison they in an uproar insolently cryed out that they would by and by teach him as a drunkard a beast and a Rascal to use his great Place and Calling with more sobriety and discretion Plut. Kings must be spoken to with soft and silken words as she said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Elias or Elisha or Isaiah or the Baptist do otherwise that is not a copy for every man to write after Is it safe to take a Lion by the beard or a Bear by the tooth Naboth suffered though falsly accused to curse the King and Shimei had at length his payment for reviling David If Ezekiel called the King of Judah Thou wicked and profane Prince chap. 21.25 that was by an extraordinary spirit and by a special command of God And to Princes ye are ungodly Ingenuis These as they must not be flattered so neither may they be unmannerly advertized of their duty or danger It is probable that Joseph used some kind of preface to Pharaohs chief Baker in reading him that hard destiny Gen 40.19 such haply as was that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar chap 4.19 My Lord the dream be to them that hate thee c. Or ad Philo brings him in with a Vâ—inam tale somnium non videsses I would I had no such dream to interpret unto you But for the matter he giveth him a sound though a sharp interpretation Verse 19 How much lesse to him that accepteth not the person of Princes How much more both dangerous and undecent must it needs be wrongfully to accuse God of injustice and partiality which is far below him sith he neither doth nor needeth prefer great ones before meaner men in judgement See on chap. 13.7 and 52.21 Nâ—â— regardeth the rich more then the poor The word rendred rich opulent or potent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes either from a root that signifieth to save because it is in the power of such to save others from hurt and damage or else from another root that signifieth to cry aloud because such men use to speak their minds more freely and boldly as having that which can
his head to a beam over him that so when he did but nod by reason of sleep he might be awakened thereby Is not this check to our oscitancy and carelesnese of searching the Scriptures and making them our daily and nightly study Hierom exhorted some godly women to whom he wrote Hier. ad Eâ—â— De custed Virgin not to lay the Bible out of their hands until being overcome with sleep and not able any longer to hold up their heads they bowed them down as it were to salute the leaves below them with a kiss Vers 3. And he shall be like a tree An Olive-tree say some from Psal 52.8 which is green all the year saith Pliny that in Noahs Floud kept its greenness though it had been so long time under the water and is therefore made an Embleme of the Resurrection Others will have it to be the Palm-tree from Psa 92.12 Nâ—t Hist 〈◊〉 16. cap. 20. Gen. 8.11 Purch Pilgri v. 2. p. 1466 which likewise is always green and very fruitful Plutarch saith that the Babylonians make three hundred and sixty Commodities of it The Tree whereon the Coquonuts grow in the Indies is said to be such as where with alone a ship may be built and furnished to Sea with Meat and Merchandize Let it be what tree it will that is here meant if Plato could say that Man in a tree inverted with the root above and the branches below and that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heavenly Plant Plato Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as another hath it Much more may we say so of a godly man that Plant of renown rooted in Christ and fruited by the Spirit of a right constitution and righteous conversation Gal. 5.25 See Jer. 17.8 Ezekiel 47.12 Planted by the rivers of water In locis irriguis in moyst places where most trees thrive best understand it of those waters of the Sanctuary Ezek. 47.12 together with those never-failing influences of grace and consolation that are in him as a Well of water bubling up to eternal life Job 4.14 That bringeth forth his fruit in his season There are no barren trees in Gods Orchard and yet they may have their fits of barrenness as an Apple-tree sometimes hath but they will reâ—flourish with advantage as those Philippians did Chap. 4.10 see the Note there and bear fruit in the right season Nec praecocem nec serum Now every thing is beautiful in its season Eccles 5.11 and it was no small shame to Achitophel when it was told him by Hushai the Archite Thy counsel is good but not nâ—w 2 Sam. 17.7 His leaf also shall not wither Heb. fade for want of sap or safety from Christ the root but as the Olive of Palm-tree Semper in sue genere viret vigetque retaineth its green leaf and hath for its Motto Nec premor nec perimor so doth the good Soul persevere and persist in the profession and practise of the truth which is after godliness Tit. 1.1 Maugre the malice of Earth and of Hell Plin. l. 12. cap. 11. Aug. de C. 〈◊〉 lib. 21. cap. 〈◊〉 Of Tylos an Indian Island Pliny and Austin say That no tree therein growing doth at any time of the year lose their leaves Certain it is that saving faith cannot be lost altogether though it may suffer some decays Isa 6.13 And whatsoever he doth shall prosper So Josh 1.7 8. This and the like Promises must be understood with an exception of the Cross as need requireth 1 Pet. 1.6 Gain his prosperity that of the Soul I mean he shall be sure of Rom. 8.28.37 Temporal also so far as may make for his etenal good Pintus out of Pliny tells us That the Palm-tree will not grow well in a fat ground but in a light an sandy and that if the foyl be strong and fertile they must cast salt and ashes at the root to qualifie the strength of the ground As Christ is the true Vine so his Father is a good Husband-man and knoweth well how to order his trees of righteousness but usually Piety hath prosperity an is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4.8 And outward prosperity if it follow close walking with God is very sweet as the Cypher when it followeth the Figure addeth to the Number though it be nothing in it self Vers 4. The ungodly are not so Not like any such tree afore described but rather like the Cypress-tree which the more it is watered is the less fruitful or like the Cyparit-tree whereof Pliny writeth that it is good for nothing no not for shew shadow or smell Saint Jude saith They are trees indeed but such as are twice dead pulled up by the roots vers 12. Twice dead they are said to be 1. Because a Spiritual death is so great a death that it may well go for two 2 Because those ungodly ones were dead both in regard of fruit and leaves truth of grace and any outward actings of grace Their fruit if any is but Hedge-fruit their leaves of formal profession wither and come to nothing if they prosper in the World as Sigonius observeth of Pope Zachary that he dyed Rebus non tà m piè quà m prosperè gestis Not over-pious and yet every prosperous it is that they may be cut down for ever Psal 37.2 such a temporary prosperity Plus deceptionis habet quà m delectationis saith Lactantius is more deceitful than delightful and is therefore well called by Bernard Misericordia omni indignatione crudelior a gift-less gift c. But are like the chaff Not so they are but much worse in many respects as it is fit they should be God will surely set a difference Mal. 3. ult See the note there A profane Souldier at the siege of a Town passing a place of danger was heard swearing and when one that stood by warned him saying Fellow Souldier do not Swear the bullets fly he answered They that swear come off as well as they that pray But what came of it Soon after a Shot hit him and down he fell The wicked is as chaff driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 The word here rendred Chaff is Palea tenuissima minutissimè contrita chaft beaten to dust and therefore good for nothing but apt to be whiffled up and down with every wind of Doctrine with every puff of temptation A good man is as a tree stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult An evil man as chaff light and worthless Religionem habens Ephemeram constant in nothing so much as in his inconstancy serves God by fits and starts flies in his face when afflicted as chaff doth in the face of the Winnower whiles the weightier Corn falls low at his feet See Job 21.18 〈◊〉 steris trent Psal 55.5 Hos 13.3 Mat. 3.12 with the notes Vers 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement i. e. Causâ
better of us but as there were many Marii in one Caesar so are there many Doegs and Absoloms in the best of us all As in water face answereth to face so doth the heart of a man to a man They flatter with their tongue The Apostle Rom. 3.13 rendreth it With their tongues they have used deceit And it is remarkable that in the Anatomy of a Natural man there he stands more on the Organs of Speech Tongue Lips Mouth Throat than on all the rest of the Members Vers 10. Destroy thou them O God Heb. Condemn them as guilty They were Gods enemies no less than Davids Tom. 8. in Enarr â—ujus precationis and implacable incorrigible and hence hee so prayeth against them Est Prophetia non malediction saith Austin Let them fall by their own counsel As it befel Ahitophel Haman the Powder-Traitors Or let them fall from their own counsels i.e. not be able to effect their evil designs but defeated frustrated Cast them out c. Let those who were once a terrour now be a scorn for they are even ripe for ruine as having added rebellion to their sin Job 34.37 For they have rebelled against thee And so are more thine enemies than mine which maketh me so earnest against them being swallowed up with a zeal of thy glory Vers 11. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoyce Joy is the just mans portion contra Hos 9.1 Isa 65.13 14. and according to the measure of his faith so is his joy 1 Pet. 1.8 Let them ever shout or shrill out set up their Note as a Peacock doth which hath his name in Hebrew from this root Because thou defendest them Heb. Velut pie tabernaculum R. David Thou over-coverest them with thy sure defence for upon all the glory shall be a defence And there shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain Isa 4.5 6. The Ram-skins covering the Ark from the violence of wind and weather figured out Christs protecting his people Let them also that love thy name As all the Virgins do who have smelt Christs name as an Oyntment poured out Cant. 1.3 See the Note there Be joyful in thee Heb. exult and leap for joy as if they were dancing Levalto's Thus Dr. Taylor the Martyr fetcht a frisk and danced when he was near unto the place where he should be burnt Rabbi Zabdi Ben Levi repeated this verse when he was at point of death Mid. Tillin in Psal 5 Another that in Psal 32. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee A Third that in Psal 84. One day in thy Courts is better c. A Fourth that in Psal 31. O how great is thy goodness c. Vers 12. For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous yea the righteous man shall abound with blessings Prov. 28. 20. yea God will bless all them that bless him Gen. 12.3 or that but give him a cup of cold water Mat. 10. With favour Or goodwill Qua praecedit nostram bonam voluntatèm saith Augustin Wilt thou compass him Or encircle him as with a Crown and so make them higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 whose Crowns cannot keep their heads from aking but fill them with cares which made one King cry out Val. Max O vilis pannus c. and another spake this to his Crown Nobilis es fateor rutilisque onerata lapillis Innumeris curis sed comitata venis Quod benè si nossent omnes expendere neme Nemo foret qui te tollere wellet humo As with a shield A piked-shield such as doth circuire tres partes hominis compass about three parts of a man saith R. Salomon on this Text. Shields and Bucklers ' besides other Bosses for ornament had one great Boss in the middle with a sharp pike in it for use to pierce and wound the adversary See Job 15.26 God will be all in all to his People Crown Shield c. they may therefore well enough rejoyce shout leap as in the former verse PSAL. VI. TO the chief Musician on Neginoth See Psal 4. Title Upon Sheminith or upon the eight i.e. Intentissimo sono clarissimo voce Vatab. to be sung aloud An Eight is the highest Note in Musick See 1 Chron. 15.21 Others say that hereby is meant the Base and Tenor as fittest for a Mourner Vers 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger In this and some other Psalms David begins so heavenly ends so merrily that one might think they had been composed by two men of a contrary humour as Moulin observeth De L' amont Divin Every new man is two men Rom. 7. The Shulamite hath in her as it were the company of two Armies Cant. 6.13 The Lord also chequereth his Providences white and black hee speckleth his work represented by those speckled Horses Zach. 1.8 Mercies and Crosses are inter-woven Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure Chastened David desires to be as Jer. 10.24 1 Cor. 11.32 Heb. 12.7 8. But in Mercy and in measure 1 Cor. 10.13 Fury is not in me saith God however it may sometimes seem to be Isa 27.4 Of furious people the Philosopher giveth this Character that they are angry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against those whom they should not 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for matters they should not 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more than they should be But none of all these can be affirmed of God Anger is not in him secundum affectum but seemeth so to be secundum effectum when he chideth and smiteth as angry people use to do when there is no other remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 his anger is in Scripture put 1 For his threatnings Hos 11.9 Jon. 3.10 2. For his punishments Mat. 3.7 Rom. 2.8 But as God therefore threatneth that he may not punish Amo. 4.12 so in the midst of Judgement he remembreth Mercy and it soon repenteth him concerning his people Vers 2. Have mercy upon me O Lord As the woman in story appealed from Philip to Philip so doth David fly from Gods anger to Gods grace for he had none else in Heaven or Earth to repair to Psal 73.25 he seekes here to escape him by closing with God and to get off by getting within him For I am weak or crushed gnashed extreamly dejected with sickness of body and trouble of mind Basil expounds it of his soul sins into which he fell of infirmity and for which hee was threatned with Judgements by the Prophet Nathan O Lord heal me On both sides heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Psal 41.4 heal my body which is full of dolours and diseases Psal 107.18.20 for thou art Jehovah the Phisician Exod. 15.26 Heal mine estate which is very calamitous by reason of mine enemies who wish my death and would gladly revel in my ruines See Hos
Vers 10. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee They can do no otherwise that savingly know Gods sweet Attributes and noble Acts for his people We never trust a man till we know him and bad men are better known than trusted Not so the Lord for where his name is poured out as an oyntment there the Virgins love him fear him rejoyce in him repose upon him Them that seek thee So they do it seriously seasonably constantly Vers 11. Sing praises to the Lord c. This is the guise of godly people to provoke others to praise God as being unsatisfiable in their desires of doing him that service and as deeming that others see him as they do totum totum desiderabilem worthy to bee praised Psal 18.3 highly to be admired vers 1. of this Psalm Vers 12. When he maketh inquisition for bloud for innocent bloud unjustly spilled as he did for the bloud of Abel Gen. 4.10 of Naboth 1 King 9.26 surely I have seen yesterday the bloud of Naboth Murther ever bleeds fresh in the eyes of God of Zechariah the Son of Barachiah 2 Chron. 24.22 those ungrateful Guests who slew those that came to call them And when the King heard it for Bloud cryes aloud he was wroth and destroyed those Murtherers Matth. 22.6 7. These shall have bloud to drink for they are worthy Revel 16.6 God draws Articles of enquiry in this case as strict and as critical as ever the Inquisition of Spain doth the proceedings whereof are with greatest secrecy and severity He forgetteth not the cry of the Humble Heb. of the poor lowly meek afflicted Humility and Meekness are Collactancae twin-sisters as Bernard hath it Vers 13. Have mercy upon me O Lord c. These are the words say some of those humble ones whom God forgetteth not they were Gods remembrancers See Isa 62.6 or it is a prayer of David for further deliverances according to that I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised Psal 18.3 Betwixt praysing and praying he divided his time and drove an holy trade between Heaven and Earth Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death i.e. Ex praesentissimo certissimo interitu from desperate and deadly dangers such as threaten present destruction and shew a man the Grave even gaping for him David was oft at this pass and God delivered Paul from so great a death 2 Cor. 1.10 he commonly reserveth his hand for a dead lift and rescueth those who were even talking of their Graves Vers 14. That I may shew forth all thy praises i.e. All that I can compass or attain unto Alitèr omnes laudes Dei dici non possunt quia plures ignorat home quà m novit saith R. David here for all the praises of God cannot be shewn forth sith those wee know not are more than those we know In the gates of the daughter of Zion These are opposed to the Gates of Death as Aben-Ezra here noteth and betoken the most publick places and best frequented Vers 15. The Heathen are sunk down c. Hoc est initium cantici Sanctorum saith Aben-Ezra This is the beginning of the Saints Song knit to the former verse thus saying The Heathen c. In the Net which they bid c. To Hunters they are compared for cruelty and to Fowlers for craft But see their success they are sunk down in their own pit caught in their own Net Thus it befell Pharaoh Exod. 15.9 10. Jabin and Sicera Judg 4. Sennacherib 2 Chron. 32. Antiochus Epiphanes Maxentius the Tyrant Euseb lib. cap. 9 who fell into the river Tiber from his own false Bridge laid for Constantine The Spanish Armado our Powder-Papists c. See the Note on Psal 7.15 Vers 16. The Lord is known by the judgement c. The Heathen Historian observed that the ruine of Troy served to teach men Herod that God punisheth great sinners with heavie plagues Go up to Shiloh c. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Heb. Palms hollows noting the close conveyance of his wicked plots and practises but for his own mischief Higgaion Selah Ainsworth rendreth it Meditation Selah meaning that this is a matter of deep meditation worthy to be well-minded and spoken or sung with earnest consideration always The word is found only here and Psal 92.3 where also the wonderful works of God are discoursed R. Solomons Note here is Ultimum judicium debet esse continua meditatio The last Judgement should be continually thought upon Vers 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell Heb. into into Hell twice that is into the nethermost Hell the lowest Dungeon of Hell The word Lâ—shâ—â—lah hath a vehement inforcement from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locall as Grammarians call it and importeth that they shall be cast into outer darkness August In tenebras ex tenebris infelicitèr exclusi infelicius excludenâ—â— R. Solomons Note here is They shall be carried away from Hell to Judgement and from Judgement they shall be returned to the deepest Pit of Hell This if men did but beleeve they durst not do as they do as once Cato said to Cesar And all the Nations The wicked be they never so many of them they may not think to escape for their multitudes as amongst Mutineers in an Army the tenth man sometimes is punished the rest go free Vers 18. For the needy shall not always be forgotten Because he that shall come will come and will not tarry The Lord is at hand to help those that are forsaken of their hopes Julian Lining was apprehended by Dale the Promooter in Queen Maries days who said unto him You hope and hope but your hope shall be aslope For though the Queen fail she that you hope for shall never come at it for there is my Lord Cardinals Grace Act. Mon. 1871. and many others between her and it c. But the Cardinal dyed soon after the Queen and according to Father Latimers prayer Elizabeth was crowned and England yet once more looked upon Vers 19. Luther Arise O Lord let not man prevail Prayers are the Churches Weapons her Bombards instrumenta bellica whereby she is terrible as an Army with Banners she prays down her enemies Vers 20. Put them in fear O Lord strike them with a panick terrour as once the Canaanites Philistines 2 Sam. 5. Syrians 2 King 7. Germans in the War against the Hussites c. Some read it Put a Law upon them bridle them bound them as thou hast done the Sea Job 38.11 The Greek and Syriack favour this reading That the Nations may know themselves to be but men And not gods as that proud Prince of Tyrus Ezek. 27. and Antiochus who would needs be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such an height of pride will Persecutors grow if they prosper and be not taken a link lower as we say Home id est fracti saith R. Obad.
side to shew their numbers and their insolencies all places are full of them such dust-heaps are found in every corner when as the godly are as the salt of the earth sprinkled here and there as Salt useth to be to keep the rest from putrifying When the vilest men are exalted Heb. Vilities the abstract for the concrete quisquiliae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oft empty Vessels swim aloft rotten Posts are gilt with adulterate Gold the worst weeds spring up bravest Chaff will get to the top of the Fan when good Corn as it lieth at the bottom of the heap so it falls low at the feet of the Fanner The reason why wicked men walk on every side are so brisk so busie and who but they is given in to be this because Losels and Rioters were exalted See Prov. 28.12.18 29.2 As Rhewms and Catarrhes fall from the Head to the Lungs and cause a Consumption of the whole body so it is in the Body Politick As a Fish putrifies first in the head and then in all the parts So here Some render the Text thus When they that is the wicked are exalted it is a shame for the Sons of men that other men who better deserve preferment are not only slighted but vilely handled by such worthless Ambitionists who yet the higher they climbe as Apes the more they discover their deformities PSAL. XIII VErs 1. How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever It appeareth that when David penned this Psalm which some think was about the end of Sauls Persecution when he was forced to fly into the Land of the Philistines 1 Sam. 27.1 he was under a dreadful desertion and that for a long while together Hence his many How-longs and for ever Christ saith Greenham was forsaken for a few hours David for a few months and Job for a few years Luther confesseth of himself that after his conversion he lay three days in desperation and the like is reported of Mr. Robert Bolâ—on who felt himself for the time in the Suburbs of Hell as it were So did Heman Psal 88.5 so did David here and elsewhere The final absence of God is Hell it self Depart from me yee cursed is worse than into everlasting fire To be punished from the presence of the Lord is the Hell of Hells 2 Thess 1.9 God seemeth to forget his dearest Children sometimes for a season to the end that they may remember themselves and become every way better as the Lion leaves her Whelps till they have almost killed themselves with roaring that they may become the more courageous But to speak properly God cannot forget his people Isa 44.16 49.14 15 16. Non deserit Deus etiamsi deserere videatur non deserit etiamsi deserat saith Austin If he leave us for a time yet he forsaketh us not at all If he hide his face as in the next words which is a further trial and a greater misery for it importeth indignation contempt and hatred yet it is but for a moment though it should be during life and he therefore taketh liberty to do it saith one because he hath an eternity of time to reveal his kindness in time enough for kisses and embraces mean while as when the Sun is ecclipsed though the earth wants the light thereof yet not the influence thereof so Gods supporting Grace is ever with his deserted Vers 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul i.e. conceal my grief saith Aben-Ezra which is no small aggravation of it or how long shall I toss and tumble in my mind sundry counsels and purposes but allto no purpose This is no small affliction when we try all courses to get out of durance and nothing will do Such must needs have much sorrow in their hearts Having sorrow in my heart daily Heb. by day sc when others are full of business and forget their sorrows saith R. David But the Greek rendreth it day and night David was a cheerfull man and a great Musician but at this time heavinesse had possest his heart and his harp would not relieve him Sadnesse of Spirit had dryed up his bones Prov. 17.22 and made him a very bag of bones a bottle in the smoak shrinking away to nothing almost See Prov. 12.25 15.13 and the Notes Vers 3. Consider and hear mee O Lord my God Hee turns him to God in this peck of troubles for they seldome come single and pleads the Covenant My God beseeching him to see and hear both at once how it fared with him and to send him feasonable and suitable succour It were wide with the faithfull if they had not their God to repair unto in distresse pouring out their souls into his blessed bosome This they must do most earnestly when under a cloud of desertion as our Saviour being in an agony prayed more fervently Luk. 22.44 and as Micah having lost his Gods set up his Note Judg. 18. Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep death i. e. Comfort my conscience clear up my condition and chear up my drooping spirit lest I faint away as a dying man whose eyes through weaknesse wax dimme lest I fall into that somnus ferreus as the Poets call death that longest sleep Surge ne longus tibi somnus unde Non times detur Mor. lib.3 â— 11. Vers 4. Lest mine enemy say I have prevailed against him This David frequently deprecateth as a great evill because Gods honour was concerned in it and would suffer by it As unskilfull hunters shooting at wild Beasts do sometimes kill a man so Persecutors shooting at Saints hit Christ reproach him and this the Saints are very sensible of And those that trouble me rejoyce when I am moved Compose Comedies out of my Tragedies iram Dei ad calumniam rapiant The wicked are vindictive and implacable sick of the Devills disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoycing at other mens harms revelling in other mens ruins But this is to inrage God and hasten wrath Prov. 24.17 18. Vers 5. But I have trusted in thy mercy Notwithstanding all the endeavours of Earth and of Hell to cast down this castle of my confidence I will not quit it but be still as a green Olive tree in the house of God I le trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever Psal 52.8 Vers 6. I will sing unto the Lord How farre different is the end of this Psalm from the beginning See the like Psalm 6.1 with the Note there Because hee hath dealt bountifully with mee Qui retribuit mihi so Popish merit-mongers read it and would there-hence collect something in favour of their absurd Tenent But their own Vulgar Translation hath it bona tribuit Aynsworth hath givenmee good things And it is well observed that though the Hebrew word be sometimes taken for rewarding evill for good Psal 7.5 or evill for evill Psal 137.8 yet from God to his people it commonly signifieth a bountifull rewarding of good things instead of evill which
the same mind might bee in us that was in Christ Jesus c. Vers 16. For dogs have compassed mee That is men of mean rank opposed to Bulls and Lions i. e. great ones and interpreted in the next words the assemblie of the wicked the rude rabble and of rancorous disposition Job 30.1 Prov. 26.11 Mat. 7.6 Phil. 3.2 Psal 59.7.15 Anno Dom. 1556. at Wessensten in Germany a Jew for theft was in this cruel manner to bee executed Hee was hanged by the feet with his head downward Melch. Ad. in vit Jac. And. betwixt two doggs which constantly snatcht and bit at him They peirced my hands and my feet fc When they nailed Christ to the Crosse Mat. 27.35 Joh. 20.25 Where let mee similate saith a learned man the Oratours gradation Facinus vincire civens Romanum c. It was much for the Son of God to bee bound more to bee beaten most of all to bee slain Quid dicam in crucem tolli but what shall I say to this that hee was crucified that was the most vile and ignominious of all punishments it was also a cruel and cursed kind of death which yet hee refused not and here wee have a clear testimony for his Cross which the Devill would fain wring from us by his agents the Jews with their Keri and Chetib See Galatin lib. 8. cap. 17. lib. 1. c. 8. Mercer in Job 7.20 Vers 17. I may tell all my bones Now especially when stretcht out upon the Crosse Quando pendens extentus erat in lignâ— saith Austin Derident maciem meam saith Kimchi They look and stare upon mee Aspiciunt id est despiciunt ut Cant. 1.6 saith Kimchi they feed their eyes and passions with my misery as Luk. 23.35 This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Devils disease and declareth a devilish disposition sc for a man to make himself merry in other mens miserie Vers 18. They part my garments among them and cast lots A very clear Testimony to us that our crucified God as they scornfully term him was the true Messiah so long since fore-prophecied of and accordingly accomplished Luk. 23.34 Joh. 20.24 Such Texts as this wee should make much of as the best and iurest evidences of our Christian faith 2 Pet. 1.19 Vers 19. But bee net thou farre from mee O Lord Here hee resumeth and reinforceth his former prayer after a most patheticall description of his so dolefull condition Faith wadeth out of trouble as the Moon doth out of a cloud by hearty and affectionate prayer O my strength God is so to a Beleever then especially when hee feeleth himself weak as water Hafte thee to help mee Who am now in anâ—â—igent and am therefore bold without limitation to request thee to haste away to me Vers 20. Deliver my soul from the sword i. e. From desperate and deadly danger from the wicked which is thy sword Psa 17.13 My darling from the power of the dog Heb. Mine only one from the hand c. as Gen. 9.5 Sic est anima in corpore ut in domo lâ—â—ea nec habet sâ—cium saith R. David here The soul is alone in its cottage of clay and hath no companion That was a mad fellow who gave out that hee had two soules one for God and another for whomsoever would have it If the dog that is the Devill as some interpret this Text lay hands on this darling it will bee found to bee all that a man hath his alonely-soul the losse whereof our Saviour sheweth to bee both incomparable and irreparable Mat. 16.26 Vers 21. Save mee from the Lions mouth 2 Tim. 4.17 David was oft snatcht out of deaths mouth and so was Christ for although hee had his life taken away upon the Cross yet was it as Calvin here well observeth more miraculously and by greater power restored after death than if hee had been delivered from the Cross and it is a greater miracle to raise the dead than to heal the most dangerously sick and to stay the life when it is departing For thou hast heard me from the Horns of the Vnicorns See Heb. 5.7 It is ordinary with David to call his enemies by the names of the fiercest Creatures This here mentioned whether the Vnicorn or Rhinoceros or some other wild Beast See Job 39.9 c. Cornua habet fortiera aliorum cornibus Asperrimath feram appella Plinius saith Aben-Ezra Et audivi qued deâ—icâ—t seipsum ab alto monte super cornie ejus irrupto illo permanente Vers 22. I will declare thy Name c. Here beginneth the second part of this Psalm which is gratulatory and declaratory of the fruit of Christs Passion and Resurrection who is not here ashamed to call us Brethren but doth communicate the Kingdom to us as coheirs with himself In the middest of the Congregation c. viz. That I may not sing alone but in consort with others and be their praecentor Vers 23. Yee that fear the Lord praise him viz. For your redemption by Christs Death and Resurrection Neither are any fit for such a purpose but such as fear the Lord. Excellent words become not a fools mouth saith Solomon Christ would not suffer the Devil to confess him To be praised by a praiseless person is no praise saith Seneca All yee the seed of Jacob i. e. Illi qui diligunt eum All yee the seed of Israel Qui timent sed adhuc non diligunt saith R. David but I like not his distinction for none do truly fear God but those that love him Hos 3.5 Vers 24. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction Vel responsionem id est orationem qua est responsio linguae Prov. 16.1 R. David With men a poor mans tale cannot be heard and the answer given to such cuts off half the Petition as the Eccho doth the voyce but here it is otherwise I know thy poverty saith Christ to one of the Seven Churches but that is nothing thou art rich God thinks not the worse of his Suppliants for their meaneness but the better rather Vers 25. My praise shall be of thee in the great Congregation where it may bee most publick and exemplary They that neglect publick service for private do but read their own Inditement pray their own punishment I will pay my vows c. My Peace-offerings vowed in my distress these are heavily payed by most people according to that Italian Proverb The danger once escaped the Saint is defrauded See Davids care Psal 116. and elsewhere Vers 26. The mâ—â—k shall eat and be satisfied They shall be well filled at my Peace-offering Feast saith David at my holy Supper saith Christ and in meshall have the full fruition of all good things as at a feast of fat things full of Marrow of Wines refined on the lees Isa 25. Nec copiam hujus saeculi concupiscent nec timebunt inopiam saith Austin here they shall neither covet the wealth of this World nor
Man-slayer who lendeth the wicked man his seven Heads to plot and his ten Horns to push And gnasheth upon him with his teeth Saying unto him when he hath laid hold on him Nunc inveni te as Kimchi Paraphraseth Now I have found you and shall be even with you Art thou come thou Villain said Stephen Gardiner to Doctor Taylour Martyr when he first appeared before him Act. and Moâ— How darest thou look me in the face for shame Knowest thou not who I am Thus that proud Prelate gnashing his teeth and boasting great matters with his tongue and he was bravely answered as hath been before related Vers 13 The Lord will laugh at him See Psal 2.4 the righteous also shall have a time to laugh at him Psal 52.6 and mean while comforteth himself with this that God laugheth at him and that therefore himself hath no great cause to cry sith riden do irritos reddit by laughing at them he blasteth all their designs and that with disgrace men love not to be laughed at For he seeth that his day is coming His dismal day his Deaths day which wil also be his Dooms-day that day wherein God hath determined to slay them with their own sword and to save the Righteous as it is in the two next verses But especially that last and great day of the World wherein Dicetur reprobis Ite Venite probis Vers 14. The Wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their how That they may assault the Righteous both cominus nearer hand and eminus at a distance for which purpose they come against him like a walking Armorie with sword how and other instruments of death as resolved to kill and slay We are counted as sheep to the slaughter Rom. 8. Vers 15. Their sword shall enter into their own heart As did Sauls and his armour-bearers 1 Sam. 31. See Psal 7.16 Per quod quis peccat per idem punitur ipse And their bows shall be broken Neither their bowes only but their armes also Vers 17. They shall utterly be disarmed and disabled when once God takes them to do which is commonly when they are at the strongest and most confident Vers 16. A little that the Righteous man hath c. Whereas it was said before The meek shall inherit the earth some man might object that such are commonly poor enough and that 's no small affliction as the Heathens Menander Euripides Alcaeus c. have affirmed and experience assureth it Hereunto is answered that a little that the Righteous man hath is better c. as a box of pearles is more worth than many loads of pibbles And as a bird with a little eye and the advantage of a wing to soar with may see farre wider than an Ox with a greater so the Righteous with a little estate joyned with faith tranquillity and devotion may have more pleasure feel more comfort see more of Gods bounty than one of vast possessions whose heart cannot lift it self above the earth as One well observeth Some render it thus Better is the little of one Righteous man than the plentious Mammon of many Wicked The Bee is as well if not better content with feeding on the dew or sucking from a flower as Behemoth that grazeth on the Mountaines Here the Psalmist speaketh saith Vatablus of the secret blessing of God Quia etsi in diem victitent è caelotamen non secus ac Manna pascuntur for although they have but from hand to mouth yet they are fed from Heaven as it were with Manna Vers 17. For the armes of the wicked shall be broken i.e. His power valour all that wherein they think their strength and help standeth See vers 15. the strongest sinew in the arm of flesh cracks But the Lord upholdeth the Righteous Though seemingly never so weak and wealthlesse Vers 18. The Lord knoweth the dayes of the upright In bâ—num novit Psal 1.6 id est prolongat saith Kimchi he knoweth that is he acknowledgeth approveth hath a gracious regard unto their dayes and the events thereof he hath decreed to a minute how long they shall suffer and what happinesse shall succeed their sufferings And their inheritance shall be for ever Here long and hereafter eternal What they want here shall be there made up abundantly Vers 19. They shall not be ashamed c. They shall hold up their heads when others droop neither shall they be without comfort in times of common calamity as Noah was media tranquillus in unda And in the dayes of famin they shall be satisfied God will work wonders rather than they shall want any thing that is good for them as he fed the Israelites in the Wildernesse Eliah by the Ravens Jeremy by a special providence in the siege As Rochel was relieved by an extraordinary shoal of fish cast in upon them by divine providence And as Leiden besiedged by the Duke of Alva and forced for their sustenance to search and scrape dunghills to boil old leather c. was rescued by the turning of the Winds and swelling of the Tide which forced the Duke to raise the siege and be gone Vers 20. But the Wicked shall perish In the midst of their wealth and greatest abundance their mony shall perish with them And the enemies of the Lord These are worse than those Wicked aforementioned saith Theodoret they are such as go on still in their trespasses Psal 68.21 Shall be as the fat of Lambes which in sacrifices was wholly to be burnt and consumed Levit. 3.15 16 17. Into smoak shall they consume away Smoak the higher it ascendeth the sooner it vanisheth Quanto fuerit globus ille grandior tanto vanior saith Austin They shall be consumed in the smoak of Gehenna or Hell saith the Chaldee here Vers 21. The Wicked borroweth and payeth not again Either because he cannot he is so unable or because he cares not he is so unconscionable But in the midst of his wealth he is many times wanting in the fullnesse of his sufficiency Non sunt 〈◊〉 dendo he is in straits and to supply his necessities sticketh long in the Usurers furnace which leaveth him at last neither metall nor matter But the Righteous sheweth mercy and giveth Of that which is his own to which end he hath a great care to pay his debts When Archb. Cranmer discerned the storm which after fell upon him in Queen Maries dayes he took expresse order for the payment of all his debts which when it was done a most joyfull man was hee How hospitable he was and liberall Tremelius testifieth in his Epistle before his comment on Hosea Vers 22. For such as be blessed of him c. See Vers 9. 11. Shall be cut off In hoc seculo futuro saith Kimchi Or this verse may be taken as a reason of the former viz. why are Wicked rich men so necessitated and Righteous men so enabled enlarged God curseth the one but blesseth the other
Solom a vengeance hath befallen him God for his foul offence hath put him over to the Devill to be tormented by a pestilentiall disease that will surely make an end of him So Genebrard that mad dog in the fourth book of his Chronology Anno Dom. 1564. reckoning up those diverse diseases whereof Calvin dyed all which was well known to be false addeth An Herodes terribilius animam Satana reddiderit equidens nascio whether Herod yeelded up his soul to the Devill in a more horrible manner Lib. 5. cap. 1. I know not With as little charity did Evagrius say of Justinian the great Law-giver ad supplicia justo Dei judicio apud inferos luenda profect us est he went to hell-torments Lib. de Miffi privats Anno 1533. when he dyed by Gods just Judgement And Luther of Oecolampadius se credere Occolampadium ignit is Satane telis hast is confossum â—ubitanea morte periisse tant â—â—e animis calestibus ire This false conceit is sufficiently confuted by the history of his life and death set forth by Simon Grynaus as also is that concerning Calvin by his life written by Beza and others Vers 9. Yea mine own familiar friend Heb. The man of my peace This was a great cut to David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Sophacles what greater wound can there be than a treacherous friend such as was Abitophel to David Judas to our Saviour Brutus to Julius Casar who was slain in the Senat-house with three and twenty wounds Ann Dom. 337 given for most part by them whose lives he had preserved Magnentius to Constans the Emperour who had formerly saved his life from the Souldiers fury Michael Balbus to the Emperour Leo Armenius whom he slew the same night that he had pardoned and released him This evil dealing made Socrates cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Friends there is hardly a friend to bee found and Queen Elizabeth complain that in trust she had found Treason and King Antigonâ—s pray to God to preserve him from his friends and King Alphonsus to complain of the ingratitude of his Favourites In whom I trusted So did not our Saviour in Judas for hee knew him better than so and therefore this clause is left out Joh. 13.18 where hee applieth this saying to himself Hieroâ—s and some others apply the whole Psalm to Christ and for that end they render these words actively Cui credidi to whom I entrusted or committed my ministery Who did eat of my bread My fellow-commoner with whom I had eaten little less than a bushel of Salt A mans enemies are many times those of his own house the Birds of his own bosom Judas dipt in the same dish with Jesus beâ—rayed him with a kiss Caveatur of culuns I scarioticuns Hath lifâ— up his heel against me Heb. Hath magnified the heel or the feet-sole sc to supplant me or to trample upon me or to spurn against me Metaphera ab equis calcitreâ—ibus saith Vatablus a Metaphor from unruly and refractory Horses See Judg. 15.8 it importeth contempt despite and cruelty Vers 10. But thou O Lord be merciful unte me As storms beat a Ship into the harbour so did mens misusages drive David to God and as Children meeting with hard measure abroad hye home to their Parents so here And raise mee up From off this bed of weaknesse and from under their feet of insolency and cruelty That I may requite them Not in a way of private revenge for that was utterly unlawfull and would not bear a prayer but of Justice as I am a King and a lawfull Magistrate The fear of this might happily make Ahitophel foreseeing that all would be naught on Absoloms side to save the hangman a labour Vers 11. By this I know that thou favourest mee This is the triumph of trust and the fruit of faithfull prayer ever answered sometimes before it is uttered sometimes in and sometimes after the act but we may be sure of an un-miscarrying return if we pray and not faint Luk. 18.1 even such as shall bring us word that God favoureth our persons Vers 12. And as for mee thou upholdest mee in mine integrity Which earth and hell had conspired to rob mee of but in vain through thy help My shield is yet in safety My faith faileth mee not nor yet mine innocency in regard of men or the Righteousnesse of my cause And settest mee before thy face for ever So that being never out of thy sight I cannot possibly be out of thy mind Confer 1 King 17.1 Vers 13. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Thus he sweetly shutteth up this first book of the Psalmes as some distinguish with a patheticall doxology redoubling his Amen Fiat Fiat to shew his fervency and most earnest desire that God should be blessed by his whole Israel This was the custome of the Scribes to do saith Kimchi when they had finished any book The other four books of Psalmes as they are reckoned end in like manner From everlasting to everlasting i.e. From the beginning of the World to the end of it or as the Chaldee hath it from this World unto the World to come Amen and Amen So be it and so it shall bee Dictio est acclamationis approbationis confirmationis The Rabbines say that our Amen in the close of our prayers must not be first hasty but with consideration 1 Cor. 14.16 Secondly nor maimed or defective wee must stretch out our hearts after it and be swallowed up in God Thirdly nor alone or an Orphan that is without faith love and holy confidence The spirits of the whole prayer are contracted into it and so should the spirit of him that prayeth PSAL. XLII Maschil for the sons of Korah Korah and his complices were swallowed up quick by the earth in the Wildernesse for their gain-saying Num. 16. but some of his sons disliking his practice escaped and of them came Heman the Nephew of Samuel a chief singer 1 Chron. 6.23 Now to him and his Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nocumenta documenta was this and some other of Davids Psalms committed both to be kept as a treasure and to besung in the Sanctuary for comfort and instruction under affliction according to the signification of the word Maschil whereof See Psal 3â— title Vers 1. As the Heart panteth after the water-brooks Heb. As the Hind Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in females the passions are stronger saith an Interpreter here quicquid volunt valde volunt This Creature is naturally hot and dry De nat aniâ— 1.6 cap. â—â— about Autumn especially as Aristotle testifieth but when hunted extream thirsty Chrysostom and Basill say that she eateth Serpents and so is further inflamed by their poyson Now as the hunted and heated Hind glocitat breatheth and brayeth after the water-brooks Sopanteth my soul after Thee O God He saith Amo te Dâ— mine plus quam 〈◊〉 mos me Ben not after my former dignity and
our enemies Vers 10. According to thy Name O God so is thy praise i. e. It is infinite and inexpressible Psal 148.1 Psal 145.3 Gods Name is exalted above all blessing and praise as those holy Levites acknowledge Noh 9.5 The distance betwixt God and us is infinite and we should labour to fill up that distance if possible with our praises Thy right hand is full of righteousuess i. e. of noble Acts which thou hast done for us according to thy promise Psal 25.10 Vers 11. Let. Mount-Zion rejoyce let the Daughters c. Let the Church Catholick and each particular Member thereof give God the glory of his Justice and see that their joy be spirituall Vers 12. Walk about Sion and tell the Towers thereof q.d. Are they not still the same and as many as they were before the approach of the enemy is any thing diminished or defaced by the late siege or assault Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria He shall not come into this City nor shoot an arrow there c. Isa 37.33 Vers 13. Mark ye well her Bulwarks Not at all impaired The great Turk could never have gotten the Rhodes but by treachery notwithstanding his long and mighty batteries made upon that place day and night How he raged at the last assault of Scodra and blasphemed see Turk hist page four hundred twenty three Geneva Hanc urbem non nisi miraculose stetisse stare per multos â—â—nos res ipsa clamst Anton Fayus is invironed with enemies French Spanish Savoy Pope and barred out from all aid of neighbour Cities and Churches yet is upheld as it were by an immediate hand of Heaven as Beza hath set forth in an elegant Emblem Vers 14. For this God is our God To draw them up to this consideration it was that the Propher so calls upon people to view Sion c. and to take notice that she might well have written upon her gates as that City Hippocrates writeth of had Intacta manet the Daughter of Sion is a Maid still through the prowesse of her Champion Even unto death And after too for this is not to be taken exclusive He will never leave us nor forsake us PSAL. XLIX VErs 1. Hear this all ye people This that is of so great consequence and universall concernment viz. that the Saints should not be frighted nor perplexed at the present prosperity of gracelesse persons but consider that death at utmost shall render them extreamly miserable and at the day of Judgement men shall retutn and discern a manifest difference betwixt the Righteous and the Wicked betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mal. 3. ult Give ear all ye Inhabitants of the World Hear and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken it Jer. 13.15 The Inhabitants of the World Heb. of the transitory World are like men in a Mill through hurry of businesse or as one that is running a race to whom though never so good counsell be given he cannot stay to hear it Of such we use to say that they hear with their harvest-ears harvest it is a time of great pleasure and of great businesse and hence it is that we have so ill a feed-time for the Word Wee had need to wish as Harding once did that wee could cry out against sin as loud as the bells of Oseney yea as those Catholick Preachers whose voice is heard in all speeches and languages Psal 19.3 Vers 2. Both low and high rich and poor together Heb. Both sons of Adam or earthy-man and sons of Ish or noble-man quorum Exmeliore lute finxit pracordia Titan. Diogenes once made a like out-cry at Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear Oyemen and when a company came about him expecting what he would say to them he looked upon them and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I called for men and not for Varlets Vers 3. My mouth shall speak and wisdome Heb. Wisdomes and understandings and yet the matter of this Psalm was nothing extraordinary for the main of it so that a profane person would have come out with his Quid dignum tanto tulit hic promissor hiatu But good points are not therefore to be â—â—ighted because commonly handled but therefore the better to be heeded and proof to be made by practice what that good and holy and acceptable will of God is that is so much pressed upon as Rom. 12.2 Vers 4. I will incline mine ear to a parable q. d. I desire you to do no more than I will do my self I 〈◊〉 therefore have I spoken I have wrought my Doctrin upon mine own affections first and shalt digge it out of mine own bosome for your benefit It is a Parable I must tell you or a Master-sentence yea it is a Mystery a Riddle as the other word here signifieth I will open my dark sayings The doctrine of Life Eternal and the Judgement to come here more clearly deliy ered than any where else almost in the Old Testament is a mystery Vers 5. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil All the days of the afflicted are evil Prov. 15.15 But why should either â— or any other afflicted Servant of God be over-muchtroubled as if some strange thing had befaln us or staggered at the better condition of worse men all things considered When the iniquity of my heels Or of my Supplanters mine enemies those naughty men called here iniquity in the abstract who seek to trip up my heels and do surround me with their snares for that purpose See Psal 56.7 Or thus When the iniquity of my heels c. That is as some will have it when my sins come to my remembrance or are chastened upon me Every mans heel hath some iniquity As we shall have some dirt cleaving to our heels whiles we walk in a dirty world so there is some defilement upon all our actions which wee may call the iniquity of ourheels He that is washed saith our Saviour to Peter needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit Joh. 13.10 The comparison seems to be taken from those that wash in Bathes for although their whole bodies are thereby made clean yet going forth they touch the earth with their feet and so are fain to wash again semblably the Saints though bathed in that blessed Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13.1 and thereby freed from the stain and reign of sin yet their feet or heels have some filth on them some reliques of corruption do still cleave to them and cause them some sorrow yet ought they not to fear or be dismayed but by the practice of mortification purge themselves daily from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Vers 6. They that trust in their wealth which was never yet true to those that trusted in it And yet it is wondrous hard to have wealth and not in some
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
is like the beasts that perish Fecoribus morticiuis saith Junius the Beasts that dye of the Murren and so become Carrion and are good for nothing Vers 13. This their way is their folly This their fond conceit of an immortality is an egregious folly fully confuted by every days experience for the longest liver dieds at last as did beside the Antediluvian Patriarches Jounnes de Temporibus Armour-bearer to Charls the Great who dyed Anno Dom. Asteds Chronol 475. Naucler Purchas Pilâ—â— p. 481. 1139 aged three hundred sixty one years So the old man of Bengala in the East-Indies who was three hundred thirty five years old when he came to the Portugals from whom for his miraculous age he received a yearly stipend till he dyed He that lived in our days till one hundred and fifty years or thereabouts yeelded at length to Nature and yet men doat and dream still of an immortality The first doom that ever was denounced was Death Thou shalt surely dye and the first doubt that ever was made was concerning Death ye shall not surely dye ever since which time there is something of the spawn of that old Serpent left in our natures prompting us to doubt of that whereof there is the greatest certainty and although every man granteth that he shall dye yet there is scarse any man that futureth not his death and thinketh that he may live yet and yet and so long this is folly in an high degree and we should be sensible of it labouring to become neither fond of Life nor afraid of Death Yet their posterity approve their sayings Selah Heb. Delight in their mouth are as wise as their Ancestors tread in their tract take up their inward thoughts ver 11. observe the same lying vanities and so forsake their own Mercies Jon. 2.8 Selah q.d. O wonderful for see the issue of their folly Vers 14. Like sheep they are laid in the Grave These fatlings of the World these brainless yonkers that will not be warned by other mens harms but walk on in the same dark and dangerous ways whatever cometh of it these chop into the grave as a man that walketh in the Snow may do suddenly into a Marl-pit and there be smothered or rather are there pent up as Sheep are thrust up in a stall or stable to be slaughtered there and in Hell their souls they lye as Grapes in a Wine-press pickled Herring in a Barrel Stones in a Lime-furnace Tiles in a Brick-kiln c. Tanquam pecudes like sheep saith the Psalmist here and Junius his Note is Morticinas puta in cloacis exquiliis vel puticulis project as 3 like sheep that dying of the Murrain are thereupon cast into Ditches Jakes Boggs Death shall feed on them They shall be meat for Worms yea they shall be killed with death Rev. 2.23 which is worse than all the rest sin as an heavy grave-stone presseth them to death c. And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning i.e. at the Resurrection when the Saints shall share with Christ in his Kingdom when the wicked shall be his foot-stool and shall judge the World yea the Angels Others by morning understand suddenly or seasonably as Psal 46.5 And their beauty shall consume in the Grave All their pomp and bravery wherein they came abroad whiles alive as Agrippa and Bernice came to the Tribunal with a great deal of phancy Acts 25.23 and with which they affect to be buried in state Sic transit gloria mundi 1 Cor. 7.31 From their dwelling Whence they are carried to the Grave that dark house of all living Job 30.23 Some render the text thus Infernus habitaculum ipsis Hell shall be their habitation Tremellius thus Et formam corum consumat infernus receptam exhabit aculo ejus and Hell consume their shape that is their bodies now re-united to their souls received out of its House that is out of the Grave Vers 15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave Heb. From the hand of Hell q.d. I am and shall be in far better condition both in life at death Spe bona Doâ—ab indoctis diâ—forunt disisâ— Chilo and after death than any of the Worlds darlings why then should I fear as vers 51. why should I envie their seeming happiness which will have so sad a Catastrophe as vers 14 I shall have heaven and that is more worth than all For he shall receive me Selah A notable Text indeed and well worthy of a Selah a clear testimony for the immortality of the soul and for a better life after this as is well observed He sunt parabola hac sunt anigmasa saith a good Interpreter These are those Parables and these are those dark sayings mentioned vers 4. riddles to the wicked but cordials to the faithful Vers 16. Be not thou afraid David was comforted and so he would have others to be for as it was said of a certain Bishop of Lincoln that he held nothing his own but what he had bestowed upon others Hoc babeo quodcunque dedi so the Saints think their comforts nothing so comfortable unless others may share in them and fare the better by them When the glory of his house is increased viz. By a numerous Off-spring stately building gay furniture great rents and revenues for as they say of the metal they make glass of it is nearest melting when it shineth brightest so are the wicked nearest destruction when at greatest lustre Vers 17. For when he dyeth he shall carry nothing away Nothing but a Shrowd as that great Emperour caused to be proclamed at his Funeral He was a fool that on his Death-bed clapt a peece of Gold into his mouth and said Some wiser than some I will take this with me See Job 1.21 1 Tim. 6.7 with the Notes there His glory shall not descend after him No nor be able to breath one cold blast up-on him when he is burning in Hell O that wicked rich men would think of this before the cold Grave hold their bodies and hot Hell hold their souls Vers 18. Though whilst be lived he blessed his soul As that rich fool did Luk. 12. and that King of France who puffed up with the Marriage of his Sister to the King of Spain called himself by a new title Tres-bureuse Roy the thrice happy King but was soon after accidentally slain by the Captain of his Guard running at Tilt with him at the solemnizing of that same Marriage in the very beginning of his supposed happiness And men will praise thee when thou doest well to thy self Feathering thine own Nest and pampering thine own Carcass thou shalt bee sure of Parasites and Trencher-flies who will highly commend thee though against their own Consciences Rom. 1. ult The world generally admireth the happiness of such as live at full and ask what should such a one ayl The Irish ask what they meant to dye Vers 19. He
my garment A fashion at solemn fasts among the Easterlings as if they thought the coursest cloathing too good for them and but for shame would have gone stark naked I became a proverb to them Dicterium They would say with mocking Michal How glorious was the King of Israel to day as one of the vain fellows 2 Sam. 6.20 Vers 12. They that sit in the gate Men of Authority and Dignity who should have shewed more grace and gravity The Saints are sure of enemies of all sorts David was traduced at publick and private meetings seriis ludicris sobriis ebriis And I was the Song of the Drunkards Heb. Of the drinkers of strong drink the Ale-stakes made Ballads on their Ale-bench de maeie mea miseria These Varlets tear and toss my Name as Curs do Carrion Vers 13. But as for me my prayer is unto thee O Lord So Saint Paul Being defamed saith he we pray Christ in like case committed himself to God in well-doing 1 Pet. 2. In an acceptable time Or there will be an acceptable time Fâ—ebile principiums melior fortuna sequeter Vers 14. Deliver me out of the mixe i. e. De civitate Gehennae saith the Hebrew Scholiast out of that deadly danger whereof he had complained Val. Max. Christ 41. vers 2. Alphonsus King of Arcagâ—â—â— by a gracious condescension helped a laden Asse out of the mire with his own hand and is renowned for it in History God helpeth his out full oft and little notice is taken of it Vers 15. Let not the water-floud over-flow me See vers 1. 〈…〉 Leave me not helpless and hopeless Viâ—ere 〈◊〉 facias qui moriturus eram Vers 16. Hear me O Lord for thy loving kindness is good It is not like the 〈…〉 that lighteth but hearteth not it is like the Summer-Sun that doth both Vers 17. And â—ids not thy face from thy Servant Who am devoted to thy fear and do therefore implore and expect thy favour For I am in trouble And so a fit object of thy pity Vers 18. Draw nigh unto my soul Who seemest to be afarre off so the flesh suggesteth when help is any whit deferred Because of mine enemies Who else will excessively insult Vers 19. Thou hast known my reproach That is enough for David that God taketh Cognizance of the injuries and indignities cast upon him for he will surely right him Vers 20. Reproach hath broken mine heart c. He knew his own innocency and yet it much grieved him to be so defamed for he knew that a good man should be as much as might be not only without fault but without suspicion of a fault as August us Caesar was wont to say of his house Howsoever it is happy that a true Christian hath always his cordial by him 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. And I looked for some to take pity Heb. To lament with me or to shake the head over me as Mourners use to do to run to my comfort and to condole with me Davids friends failed him in this office also But that was not all Vers 21. They gave me also gall for my meat Venenum vel sicutam and so shewed themselves miserable comforters And in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink This befel David in Figure but Christ in the Letter Mat. 27.34 It were happy if the Vineger given him might melt our adamantine hearts into godly sorrow Vers 22. Let their table become a snare before them Let them care their bane and drink their poyson whiles all their cates are sauced with the Wrath of God Quoniam hoc modâ— cibarunt me saith Kimchi because they have served me on this sort By table saith another Interpreter we are to understand all means of comfort and refreshing both of body and soul which turn to the ruine of the wicked even an odour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2.15 16. And that which should have been c. Tremellius rendreth it Pro retributionibuâ—â— pro tendicula ipsis for recompenses for a trap to them Rom. 11.9 Others Pacifica in rete Others again Et ubi pacem sperant illic impingunt Where they hope for peace let them fall Vers 23. Let their eyes be darkned Let them be infatuated and besotted that they may go hoodwinkt to Hell And make their loyns continually to shake Ne fugiant saith R. Obadiah Gaon that they may not be able to fly or otherwise to help themselves for in the loyns and reins of a man lieth his strength Deut. 33.11 The Syriack hath it Lumbi eorum sint curvi viz. under their enemies burdens See Rom. 11.10 bow down their backs Vers 24. Pour out thine indignation upon them By Indignation saith Basil we are to understand speedy vengeance by Wrath durable This is befaln the Nation of the Jews to the utmos t 1 Thess 2. or to the end as some render it Vers 25. Let their habitation be desolate Heb. Their Palaces or Castles so named of being fair and high built in row and order It is here put not only for their Habitation but for their Function See Acts 1.20 And let none dwell in their Tents Lege 〈◊〉 saith one speaking of the mine of Jerusalem by the Romans Dio in Adrian 〈◊〉 Enquir under Velpasian and again 〈…〉 all Judea was left almost 〈…〉 upon pain of death to look toward their own Country At the day 〈…〉 be found in Jerusalem it self an hundred housholds of Jews Behold 〈…〉 of God of the contempt of Christ and his people Vers 26. For they perscute 〈◊〉 whom 〈…〉 Christ 〈…〉 of God and afflicted Isa 53.4 Him they persecuted to the death and abused when he was at the greatest under with bitter taunts and Satan 〈…〉 â—â—casmes so the Pagans and the Papist dealt 〈◊〉 the dying Martyrs and profane persons and 〈…〉 Dogge that worried and as when a Deer is shot the 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 their company so here Now if it could be said of Mishridates that 〈…〉 such as maliciously persecuted vertue forsaken of Fortune much more may we think doth God abhor such cruel Carâ—iâ—â—s spoken of See Isa 47.6 Obad 1. Zeeh. 1.15 And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded Narrâ—â—â—â—â—â—exuâ—â— they frame discourses to the grief of thy wounded ones pouring into their woundâ— not Oyl or Balsome but vineger or salt-water Heb. Thâ—â— number or cipâ—â— up the grief that is saith one they study and devise new waye of torturing them so that hee who would speak of them all must keep a remembrance of their number Vers 27. Adde iniquity unto their iniquity Punish one sin with another by giving them up to a reprobate sense to an incureable hardness and plague them soundly for their fin The same Hebrew word signifieth both sin and punishment these two are tied together with chains of Adamant And let them not come into thy righteousness i. e. Hold them not righteous
Saepe nigrum cor est capue albium Satan maketh a prey of old Salomon Asa Lot others whom when young hee could never so deceive The Heathens therefore well warn us to look well to our old age as that which cometh not alone but is infested with many diseases both of body and minde This David knew and therefore prayed as here Cast me not off in the time of old age for sake me not when my strength faileth He is a rare old man that can say with Caleb Josh 14.10 11. Omnia fert atâ—â— animum quoque Vers 10. For mine enemies Who rather than their lives would bereave me of mine these would double murther me first by detraction and then by deadly practice Vers 11. God hath forsaken him For his late fin against Vriah and as may appear by his present distress his forlorn proscribed condition Vers 12. O God be not farre from me The insolency of his enemies sets an edge upon his prayers Oratio sine malis est avis sine alis Our Saviour in his Agony prayed the more earnestly Luk. 22.44 Vers 13. Let them be confounded and consumed Here he beginneth Diris devovere to devote his foes to destruction who soon also found that these were not bruta fulmina as the Popes Bulls are wittily compared by one to a fools Dagger ratling and snapping without an edge but that there was an energy in them though haply not felt for present and that they had better have angered all the Witches in the Country than occasioned David thus to curse them in the Name of the Lord. Vers 14. But I will hope continually I will lengthen out mine hope as a line drawn out Tremellius renders it I am in expectation still of compleating thy praise and will go on therein viz. when thou shalt have compleated my deliverance Vers 15. My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation Lo here a sweet and comfortable conjunction of Gods Righteousness and our Salvation See 2. Thess 1.6 7. For I know not the numbers thereof Or Though I know not c. by a modest correction sith they may be celebrated but not enumerated Littera quot conchas quot amaena rosaria flores Quotve soporiferum grana papaver habet Sylva feras quot alit quot piscibus unda natatur Et teneram pennis aera pulfat avis So many and ten thousand times more are Gods loving kindnesses The Psalmist elsewhere venteth himself by an Exclamation Psal 31.19 See the Note there Vers 16. I will go in the strength of the Lord God Ingrediar in potentias Domini I will do what I can with Gods help in glorifying his Name though I cannot do as I would and as I ought Narrabo res inenarrabilos and then intreat those that hear me to think higher things of God than I am able to utter Evan of thine only For that is enough and more than I can well do I will not once mention as profane persons use to do mine own Wisdom valour c. alas they are not worthy to be named in the same day with thine Vers 17. O God thou hast taught me Happy David in such a School-master All the faithful are taught of God outwardly by his Word and Works inwardly by his Spirit Et quando Christâ—â—â—â—â—gister quam cite discitur quod decetur Aug. Ambros Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia Vers 18. Nâ—â— also what I am 〈◊〉 and rray-headed Now that the Plumb-tree is full of bloomes the map of age is figured in my sore-head the calendar of death appeareth in the furrows of my face let me do nothing to spot my white head Let me with the Sâ—n give greatest glimpse at the going down and with the Rose 〈…〉 though I have lost my colour See vers 9. And thy power to every one that is to come Mirus fervor David is in celebranda bonitate Dei saith Vatablus here David would propagate Gods praise to all posterity Vers 19. Thy righteousuess also O God is very bigh Farre above the reach of human reason yet for the strengthening of my hope I will look up after it though mine eye should be tired in the way Vers 20. Thou which bast shewed me great and sore troubles Augustias magnas malas and hast thereby taught me vers 17 Quae nocent docent Shall quicken me again And this is one singular height of thy righteousness that thou carryest thy people thorough so many deaths and causest them to ascend from the lowest ebbe of affliction to the highest pitch of comfort Stoicks ascribe such Occurrences to Fate Epicures to Fortune but David to God alone Vers 21. Thou shalt increase my greatness Meam id est Tuam quam mihi dedisti saith the Arabick gloss here My greatness that is thy greatness which thou hast given me Vers 22. I will also praise thee with the Psaltery In Organo natali with an instrument made like a bottle O thou holy one of Israel Who sanctifiest thine throughout and art to be sanctified of thine throughout all eternity Isa 5.16 Vers 23. And my soul which thou hast redeemed Heart and lips shall concur in this work The voyce which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet as that which cometh from the depth of the breast The deeper and hollower the belly of the Lute or Viol is the pleasanter is the sound the fleeter the more grating and harsh in our ears Vers 24. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness Advisedly talk and upon due deliberation What a mad Edict was that of Henry the second of France that men should not talk at all of Scripture-matters And that of the Jesuites at Dola forbidding any talk of God either in good sort or in bad PSAL. LXXII A Psalm for Salomon Whom his Father David had crowned whilst yet alive and now at point of death leaveth him this his last bequeath as a Basilicon-doron a direction in point of Government and a prediction of a most flourishing reign thereupon This last he so describeth that by a spirit of Prophecy attributing eternity thereunto he riseth up from Salomon to Christ of whom hee was a type like as also the Promise made to David concerning Salomon and Christ was conceived in such terms by God himself as if they had been almost one and the same person 2 Sam. 7.13 14. 1 Chron. 22.10 Vers 1. Give the King thy Judgements O God i. e. Give me for that little time I have here to live and reign skill and will to do it aright and as thy Law requireth And thy righteousness unto the Kings Son To Salomon and his Successors for Davids great care was the welfare of Gods people after his decease for which end he both prayeth and principleth his Son Salomon and herein his great piety to the end appeareth I could not but love the man said Theodosius the Emperour concerning Ambrose who as whiles he lived he heartily wished that the
inane Other Kingdoms have their times and their turns their rise and their ruines not so Christs and this is great comfort His name shall be continued Filâ—â—â—â— nomini 〈◊〉 it shall be begotten as one Generation is begotten of another Heb. His name shall be childed that is so continued as Families are continued there shall bee a constant succession of Christs Name to the end of the World there will still be Christians who are his Children Heb. 2.13 14. The old Hebrews tell us that Jâ—nnâ—n the Hebrew word â—ere used is one of Christs Names And men shall be blessed in him Or they shall bless themselves in him viz. in Salomon but especially in Christ of whom Salomon was but a shadow All Nations shall call him blessed If all Generations shall call the Mother of Christ blessed Luke 3.48 how much were Christ himself Vers Sunt verba leribae ut hodit Aben-Ezra ex R. Jehudah 18. Blessed be the Lord God 〈…〉 these are the words of the Psalmist say the Rabines blessing God who had given Leâ—â—gneph church strength to him fainting to finish the Second Book of the Psalms as he had done the Firsst or rather praising God for all the 〈…〉 the Lord Christ Vers 19. And blessed 〈…〉 so unsatisfiable and unweareable are the 〈…〉 a Christ And 〈◊〉 God expecteth that 〈…〉 by all his at all 〈…〉 Vers 20. The Prayer 〈…〉 PSAL. LXXIII A Psalm of Asaph Who was not only an excellent Musician but a Prophet also an Oratour and a Poet not unlike for his stile to Horace or Persius This and the ten next Psalms that bear this name in the front consist of complaints for most part and sad matters Vers 1. Truly God is good to Israel Or Yet God is c. Thus the Psalmist beginneth abruptly after a sore Conflict throwing off the Devil and his fiery Darts where-with his heart for a while had been wounded It is best to break off temptations of corrupt and carnal reasonings and to silence doubts and disputes lest wee be foyled Hee shoots saith Greenham with Satan in his own bow who thinks by disputing and reasoning to put him off To such as are of a clean heart Such as are Israelites indeed and not Hypocrites and dissemblers For as for such as turn a side unto their crooked wayes the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity as malefactours are led forth to execution but Peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125.5 upon the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 Vers 2. But as for mee my feet were almost gone i. e. I was wel-night brought to beleeve that there was no divine providence as the Athenians did when their good General Nicias was worsted and slain in Sicily as Pompey did Thucid. when having the better cause he was overcome by Cesar as Brutus did that last of the Romans as he was called for his courage when beaten out of the field by Anthony he cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I see that vertue is nothing but all things are moderated by Fortun whom he charged his children therefore to worship as a goddesse of greatest power My steps had welâ—nigh slipt Quasi nihil effusi sunt gressus mei that is as Kimchi interpreteth it Status meus crat tantillus quasi nullus esset pre figendo peds locus I had scarce any fastening for my feet my heels were gone almost What wonder then that Heathens have been stounded and staggered Cum rapiaent mala fata bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. Saith Ovid. And to the fame purpose another Poet. Marmoreo Licinies tumulo jacet Cato parve Pompeius nullo quis putet esse Deos Vers 3. For I was envious at the foolish Heb. At the Bragadochies the vain-glorious the mad-boasters I aemulated and stomached their prosperity Jact abundis compared with mine own far-worse condition Godly men though cured of their spirituall phrenzy yet play oft many mad tricks one while fretting at the prosperity of their adversaries and another while murmuring at their own afflictions or plotting courses how to conform themselves to the World c. When I saw the prosperity of the Wicked This hath ever been a pearl in the eyes not of the Heathens only but of better meu See Jer. 12.1 2 Habbak 1.3 Psal 37. c. Yet Seneca writeth a treatise of it and sheweth the reasons if at least he beleeved himself therein Erasmus passeth this censure of him Read him as a Pagan and he writeth Christian-like read him as 2 Christian and he writeth Pagan-like Vers 4. For there are no bands in their death Or No knots and knorles they dye without long sicknesse or much pain or trouble of mind If a man dye â—ike a Lamb and pass out of the World like a bird in a shel he is certainly saved think some The wicked are here said to dye quietly as if there were no loosening of the band that is betwixt soul and body Julian the Apostate dyed with these words in his mouth Vitam reposcents natura tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurum exulto Anomian that is I owe a death to Nature and now that she calleth for it as a faithfull debtour câ—â—t lib. 7. 〈◊〉 Diodor. I gladly pay it The Princes of the Sogdians when they were drawn forth to death by Alexander the great carmen more latumtium etcinerut tripuâ—isque gaudium animi ostentare caperunt They sang and danced to the place of execution But their strength is firm They are lively and lusty they are pingues praevalidi fat and fair-liking fat is their fortitude so some render it Others strong is their porch or Palace Vers 5. They are not in trouble as other men But live in a serene clime under a perpetuall calm as he did of whom it is storied that he never had any crosse but at last was nailed to a cross Polycrates I mean King of Egypt Marullâ—â— telleth us that Ambrose comming once to a great mans house who boasted that he had never suffered any adversity Marul l. 5. c. 3. he hasted away thence and said he did so we una cum â—omine perpetuis prosperitatibus uso periret lest he should perish with the man that bad been so extraordinarily prosperous And no sooner was he and his company departed but the earth opened and swallowed up that mans house with all that were in it Vers 6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain The pride of their hearts breaketh forth in their costly habits whiles they are torquati auro ac gemmis amicti setting up their plumes as Peacocks which have their names in Hebrew from the joy they take in their fair feathers so do these glory in their pride and are puffed up with a foolish perswasion of their own prudence Vermis divitiarum est superbia Charge the rich that they be not high-minded 1 Tim. 6.17 He is a great rich man saith
insnare the Saints Gratiae privativae multò plures sunt quam positivae saith Gerson God daily delivereth his from innumerable deaths and dangers By Fowler here some understand the punishing Angel 2 Sam. 24. and conceive that this Psalm was penned upon occasion of that great Plague that followed upon Davids numbring the people for then if ever both Prince and People stood in need of special comfort and here they have it Divine consolations are therefore sweet because seasonable and suitable And from the noysome Pestilence That uncomfortable and contagious disease Ab excidio exitiorum The vulgar rendreth it and from rough words In Hebrew Dabhar signifieth a word Debher a Pest an evil tongue hath the Pestilence in it Vers 4. He shall cover thee with his feathers As the Hen doth her Chickens Fides est quae pullastrum Christum gallinam facit ut sub pennis ejus speres num salus in pennis ejus saith Luther It is Faith which maketh thee the little Chicken and Christ the Hen that thou maist hide and hope hover and cover under his wings for there is health in his wings And under his wings shalt thou trust For without Faith what use is there to us of the Promises Non de se debet sperare Christianus si vule esse firmus vapore materno nutriatur ut pullus gallinaceus saith Austin Let no man hope for safety or strength but under Christs wings graciously stretcht out over him Vers 5. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night Thou shalt be freed if not from the common destruction yet from the common distraction Impavidum ferient ruinae Nor for the arrow that flyeth by day Sudden ill occurrences quae nec provident nec praecavent fideles the arrows of Death shall come whisking by thine ears and not hit Quid quisque Hor. lib. ◠Od. 13. vitet nunquam hominisatis Cautum est in horas Improvisa lethi Vis rapuit rapietque gentes True Faith is a Target and saveth a man if not from the smart yet from the hurt of evil accidents Vers 6. Nor for the Pestilence Called before Terrour and Arrow as some conceive Hippocrates calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Disease because sent more immediately from God as an evil Messenger Not but that a good man may dye of the Plagues as did Oecolampadius and many others Hezechiah is thought to have had it so had reverend Beza his Family was four several times visited here with who was much comforted under that and other heavy afflictions by this sweet Psalm which therefore he hugg'd and held most dear all the dayes of his life as himself witnesseth in his argument and use of this Psalm Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day For the noon-day-Devil so the Vulgar rendreth it after the Sept. as for Pestilence walking in darkness one old English Manuscript hath Goblin The Chaldee here expounds it the company of Devils As in the next verse A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand c. R. Solomon expoundeth A thousand Devils shall pitch their tents on thy right hand and on thy left but shall not hurt thee because the good Angels shall counterguard thee against them But it is better to understand all as before of the Pestilence though I doubt not but the Devil that old man-slayer hath a hand in this and other common calamities yet not without the Lords over-ruling power limiting him Vers 7. A thousand shall fall c. This deadly disease layes heaps upon heaps as we have had lamentable experience and scarce leaveth living enow to bury the dead as in the dayes of Decius the Emperour But it shall not come nigh thee Thou shalt be antidoted and priviledged sc if God see it good for thee See vers 6. and thou be carefull to serve his providence The Turks shun not the company of those that have the plague but pointing upon their foreheads say It was written there at their birth when they shall dye Thus to do is not to trust god but to tempt him Vers 8. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold And say O the severity of divine justice O the venemous and mischievous nature and effects of mens sin Behold the goodnesse and severity of God on them which sell severity but toward mee goodnesse if I continue in his goodnesse otherwise I shall also be cut off Rom. 11.22 And see the reward of the wicked Thy self being as it were shot-free thy sincerity prevailing for thy safety Vers 9. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge c. Because thou hast done as I do thou shalt speed as I have sped for God is rich in mercy to all his Even the Most High thy habitation See Psal 90.1 Vers 10. There shall no evill befall thee No devoratory evill as Tertullian expresseth it nothing that tendeth ad exitium but only ad exercitium and such as shall end in thy good Neither shall any plague What a wonderfull separation made the Lord betwixt the houses of the Israelites and the Egyptians Exod. 11.7 See Job 5. and take these places as verse 6. For it may befall a Saint to share in a common calamity as the good Corn and weeds are cut down together but for a different end and purpose Non te tua plurima Pentheu Labentem texit piet as Vers 11. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee This guard of Angels many Angels yea all if need be to secure every poor beleever how manly soever he thinks of himself or is esteemed by others is no small priviledge See Mat. 4 6. with the Note To keep thee en all thy wayes In all thy lawfull and Christian undertakings for no further doth God or his holy Angels take charge of thee If we keep not within Gods precincts we cannot look for his protection Wefts and strayes fall to the Lord of the soil The State secureth none that are abroad at undue hours that travell not betwixt Sun and Sun Divines observe that the Devil citing this Text Mat. 4.6 left out these words on purpose as not for his purpose yet doth not our Saviour so much as upbraid him with this mutilation nor yet tell him of that which followeth verse 13. Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon and Adder c. to teach us in dealing with an adversary not to lye at the catch but answer to the thing c. Vers 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands See the Note on Mat. 4.6 and be sensible of the many good offices done us by the blessed Angels not once looking for our thanks Vers 13. Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon c. No Creature shall harm thee so as to hinder thineeternal happinesse See Isa 11.6 7 8. Hos 2.18 Job 5.23 Mar. 16.18 this Text was shamefully abused by Pope Alexander Anno 1159. when at Venice he trod upon the neck of the Emperour Frederick Barbarossa and
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
administration whereof Christs Birth-dew that is the influence of his Spitis and his presence in those Ordinances is from the womb of the morning i.e. is of that generating and enlivening vertue that the dew of the teeming morning is to the seeds and plants of the earth An apt similitude both to express the multitude of Christâ— converts and the manner of their heavenly generation See Mac. 5.7 with the Note Vers 4. The Lord hath sworn c. Christs Priestly Office as well as his Kingly is here described whereof how many and how great mysteries there are see Heb. 7. with the Notes The Church is collected and conserved not onely by Christs Kingly power but also by his Priestly mediation Thou art a Priest 1. To expiate 2. To intercede After the order of Melchisedeck Who whether he were Shem or some other is not easie to determine Melchisedeck was a King and a Priest Christ was more a Priest a Prophet and a King These Offices have met double in some others as Melchisedech was King and Priest Samuel a Priest and a Prophet David a King and a Prophet but never met all three in any but in Christ alone Vers 5. The Lord at thy right hand Before Christ was at the Fathers right hand here the Father at his this is to shew the equality of the Father and the Son falsh Hierom. Athanasius by Lord here understandeth the Holy Ghost Others by thy right hand will have the Church to be meant who is promised protection and victory The Lord Christ shall slay her enemies in battel vers 5. compel them to flye and turn their backs vers 6. pursue them flying vers 7. as Judg. 7.5 c. Vers 6. He shall judge among the heathen Do execution upon his enemies as vers 1. whether Kings or Caitives He shall fill the places The ditches of their own camps He shall wound the heads Heb. Head cruontabit caput whereby some understand the Roman Empire with its Image Antichrist with his adherents who are called Heathens Rev. 11.2 Others Turks and Saracens reading the next words Over the land of Rabbab the chief City of the Ammonites who were likewise Arabians and so they make it an allusion to Davids victories over the Ammonites 2 Sam. 10. 12. Vers 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way i. e. Of the wrath of the Almighty Viver paupâ—rem vitem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysâ—st Aeâ—umnas omnes dutisâ— mae militiae perferet Beâ— pointing to Christs state of humiliation as in the next words to his exaltation Or he shall content himself with a low condition here such as was that of Eliâ—â— when he drank of the brook I King 17. Or in the eager pursuit of his enemies he shall drink hastily of the water next at hand i.e. as Gideon and his Souldiers did Therefore shall be lift up the hand Maugre the heads of his enemies he shall rise again reign and triumph and so shall all his members after that through many â—â—ibulations they have entred into the Kingdom of heaven Christs and their 〈◊〉 but a drinking of the brook not a spring of water for perpetuity they are 〈◊〉 a dark entry into out Fathers house a dirty lane to a stately Pallace shut but your eyes as that Martyr at the stake said and there will be a change immediately Look how the Disciples after they had taken Christ into the ship were presently at shore after a Tempest So the Saints have no sooner taken death into their besomes but they are landed presently at the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 at the Kingdome of heaven PSAL. CXI Vers 1. 〈◊〉 ye the Lord At the 〈◊〉 especially for this and the other Hallelujatical Psalms that follow called by the Jews the Great Hallelujah were sung as that and other solemn 〈◊〉 in praise of God for his manifold mercies I will praise the Lord Musica hujuâ— Psalmi insignis est siquis com consequi potuit The great are used in the composure of this and some other Psalms after the order of the Hebrew Alphabet serveth both to set forth their excellency and for the help of memory Vers 2. The works the Lord aye great Magnalia no small things are done by so great a hand Grandior solet esse Deus in parvulis quam in magnis in formic is major anima quam in Elephantis in nanis quam in gigantibus Sought out of all them q.d. Great though they be yet are they seriously sought into and found out by those that delight therein and the deeper they dive into them the sweeter they find them Basil diligently described many creatures and so did Ambrose after him Pliny who was himself a very great searcher in Natures secrets telleth of one who spent eight and fifty years in learning out the nature of the Bee Et non duns assecutus sit omnies and yet could not attain to all Our Anatomists find still new wonders in the body of a man c. God hath shewed singular skill in his works that men might admire him But woe to such as regard not his handy-work Isa 5.12 Vers 3. His work is honourable Heb. Honour and glory they all come tipt and gilt with a glory upon them à centro ad coelum This the bruitish man knoweth not Psal 92.6 His righteousness endureth for ever His judgements are sometimes secret but alwayes just Vers 4. He hath made his wonderful c. Memorabilia reddedit mirabilia sua clemens misericors Jehova Vers 5. He bath given meat Heb. a prey Escam demensam as he did Manna to the Israelites to each an Homer so to all his he giveth food convenient for them Prov. 30.8 Cibum petum quae sunt divitiae Christianorum Hieron He will ever be mindful of his Covenant To pass by his peoples sins and to supply all their necessities All his pathes to such are not mercy onely but truth Psal 25. Vers 6. He hath shewed his people c. To them it is given to see but not to others who are delivered up to a judiciary blindness Call unto me and I will answer theâ— and shew thee great and hidden things which thou knowest not Jer. 33.3 That he may give them c. Yea power over all Nationâ— Rev. 2. Vers 7. The works of his hands They speak him a true and just God Chrysostome taketh truth here for mercy and noteth that God usually mixeth mercy with justice yet sometimes he sendeth an evil an onely evil Ez. k. 7. All his commandements That is his promises added to his commandements or they are so called because firm and sure as the commandements of an Emperor Vers 8. They stand fast for ever and ever The promises are infallible good sure hold not yea and nay but Yea and Amen And are done i.e. Ordained made and ratified Vers 9. He sent redemption to his people Once out of Egypt ever out of Satans thraldome He hath commanded his Covenant for ever Sic cum
the Israel of God for only such are fit to praise God excellent words become not a fool the Lepers lips are to bee covered Vers 3. Let the house of Aaron now say Ministers are Chieftains Heb. 13.7 17. and should be as the chief Chanters in Gods praises Vers 4. Let them now that fear the Lord say See Psal 115.11 and observe that the Psalmist beateth upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as doth also the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. â— Now now now saith he because for ought we know t is now or never to day or not at all the dead praise thee not Psal 6.6 That his mercy c. This is the fourth time in four verses as Psal 136. in every one of those twenty six verses like as a Bird that having gotten a Note recordeth it over and over Vers 5 I called upon the Lord in distress Heb. out of distress q. d. I celebrate not God mercy of course but out of experience The Lord answered me Heb. Jah answered me with a large râ—â—â—â—th See Psa 4.2 Vers 6. I will not fear c. See Psal 36.4 11. Vers 7. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me Not only as one of my helpers but instead of all and more than all How many reckon yee me at said that General to his Souldiers who were afraid of their enemies numbers Cui adhaereo praest He whom I take part with must needs prevail Vers 8. It is better to trust in the Lord c. Luther on this text calleth it Artem artium mirificam ac suam artem non fidere hominibus that is the Art of Arts and that which he had well studied not to put confidence in man as for trust in God he calleth it Sacrificium omnium gratissimum suavissimum cultum omnium pulcherrimum the most pleasant and sweetest of all Sacrifices the best of all services we perform to God Than to put confidence in man Quia mutatur aut fortuna aut voluntas aut vita saith Genebrard because either men may dye or their affections may dye or their wealth decay Vers 9. Than to put confidence in Princes In ingenuis Great mens words saith one are like dead mens shooes he may go bare-foot that waiteth for them Surely men of high degree are a lye Psal 62.9 Vers 10. All Nations compassed me about This is still the condition of Christs Church in this evil world to be hated of all and set against with utmost might and malice Haud perinde crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt saith Tacitus of those Christians at Rome put to cruel deaths by Nero who having for his pleasure fired the City fathered it upon them as people hated of all men But in the name of the Lord i.e. by faith in Gods power and promises Wee might also do great exploits against our Spiritual enemies did we but set upon them with Gods arms and with his armour did we but observe the Apostles rule Whatsoever yee do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus c. Col. 3.17 Vers 11. They compassed me about yea c. They thought to make sure work of me indeed as Saul and his men when they hemmed him in at Mâ—on 1 Sam. 23.26 as the Churches enemies when they had gotten her as a Bird into the sâ—aâ—â— of the Fowler Psal 124.7 as when the adversaries said They shall not know neither see till we come in the middâ—st among them and stay them Neâ— 4.11 But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them Eâ—â—rvaâ—â— â—â—eidâ—â— The word signifieth Non 〈◊〉 dormiâ—uti â—â—â—iâ—gâ—râ— victâ—riâ—â— sed â—â—rtami prâ—lâ—aâ—â—i Moller Plat. in Syl. that hee foiled not his foes without pains and peril Towns were said to come into Thâ—â—thâ—us his toyls whiles he slept but that was but a fiction of those that 〈◊〉 him Vers 12. They â—â—â—possed me about like Bees Like so many swarms of Bees which being angred Venâ—â—â—m Morsibus inspirant spicula caca relinqnunt Affixa venis animasque in 〈◊〉 pâ—â—â—â—t Virgil. Bees to be revenged lose their stings Aristâ—t and therewith their lives or at least they become drones ever after Wicked men are no less spiteful they care not to undoe themselves so they may wrong the Saints yea they are not unlike the Scorpion of which Pliny saith that there is not one minute wherein it doth not put forth the sting They are quenched or kindled aâ— the fire of thorns Which is quickly kindled and as quickly quenched Ex spinis non â—â—un exbones 〈◊〉 leaving no coals behind it See Eccles 7.6 The enemies of the Church may make a blaze but they are but a blast Vers 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me Thou O Saul or thou Ishbibenob 2 Sam. 21.16 or thou O Satan setting such a work But the Lord helped mee Hee sent from heaven and saved mee hee came in the nick of time as it were out of an Engine Vers 14. The Lord is my strength and song i.e. The matter of my song and mean of my joy Trust in God shall once triumph Vers 15. The voice of rejoycing c. q.d. Though themselves are but travellers and their habitations tabernacles or tents yet are they not without the joy of their salvation which is unspeakable and full of glory so that they go merrily on their way feeding on this hony-comb as once Sampson and Gods Statutes are their songs in the house of their Pilgrimage Psal 119.54 The right hand of the Lord c. This and that which followeth is the righteous mans ditty which hee singeth uncessantly See on vers 4. Vers Haec est vox Epiniâ—il 16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted By right hand here some understand the humanity of Christ Gods hand and our handle whereby wee come to take hold of God The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly Thrice hee celebrateth Gods right hand to set forth his earnest desire to say the utmost or in reference to the sacred Trinity as some will have it Vers 17 I shall not dye but live This hee was well assured of by Faith as was also the Church in Habbakkuk chap. 1.12 Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God mine boly One wee shall not dye Learned Keckerman lying on his death bed and desirous if it had so pleased God to have lived a while longer for the finishing of those excellent peeces hee had in hand made use of these words of the Psalmist I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord hee was then upon his system of naturall Philosophy but God had otherwise appointed it and hee submitted Vers 18. The Lord hath chastened mee sore Corripuit me seria severa castigatione and yet David was his darling But hee hath not given mee ever to death It might have been worse may the afflicted Saint say and it will yet bee better
Sanctuary-men continens pro contento Hearts and hands must both up to Heaven Lam. 3.41 and God bee glorified both with spirits and bodies which are the Lords 1 Cor. 6.20 And bless the Lord Like so many earth'y Angels and as if yee were in Heaven already say Vers 3 The Lord that made Heaven and Earth And therefore hath the blessings of both lives in his hand to bestow See Num. 6.24 Bless thee out of Zion They are blessings indeed that come out of Zion choice peculiar blessings even above any that come out of Heaven and Earth Compare Psal 128.5 and the promise Exod. 20.24 In all places where I put the memory or my name I will come unto thee and bless thee PSAL. CXXXV VErs 1 Praise yee the Lord praise yee Praise praise praise When duties are thus inculcated it noteth the necessity and excellency thereof together with our dulness and backwardness thereunto O yee Servants of the Lord See Psal 134.1 Vers 2 Yee that stand in the house See Psal 134.1 In the Courts Where the people also had a place 2 Chron. 4.9 and are required to bear a part in this heavenly Halleluiah Vers 3 Praise the Lord for the Lord is good scil Originally transcendently effectively hee is good and doth good Psal 119.68 and is therefore to bee praised with mind mouth and practice For it is pleasant An angelicall exercise and to the spirituall-minded man very delicious To others indeed who have no true notion of God but as of an enemy it is but as musick at funerals or as the trumpet before a Judge no comfort to the mourning wife or guilty prisoner Vers 4 For the Lord hath chosen God 's distinguishing grace should make his elect lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull heart to him And Israel for his peculiar treasure Such as hee maketh more reckoning of than of all the World besides The Hebrew world here rendred peculiar treasure seemeth to signifie a Jewell made up of three precious stones in form of a triangle Segullâ—h 〈◊〉 dici Sâ—gol 〈…〉 The Saints are Gods Jewels Mal. 3.17 his ornament yea the beauty of his ornament and that set in Majesty Ezek. 7.20 his royall Diadem Isa 62.3 Vers 5 For I know that the Lord is great As well as good vers 3. This I beleeve and know Job 6.69 saith the Psalmist and do therefore make it my practice to praise him And that our Lord is above all Gods Whether they bee so deputed as Magistrates or reputed as Idols Vers 6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased This the Heathens did never seriously affirm of any their dunghill deities sure it is that none of them could say I know it to bee so De diis utrum sint non ausim affirmare said one of their wise men Vers 7 Hee causeth the Vapours Not Jupiter but Jehovah See Jer. 10.13 Hee is the right Nubâ—coga Maker of the Metcors whether fiery aiery or watery Job 26.8 9 28.26 27 37.11 15 16. 38.9 See the Notes there Hee maketh lightenings for the Rain Or With the Rain which is very strange viz. that fire and water should mingle and hard stones come cut of the midst of thin vapours Hee bringeth the winde out of his treasuries Or Coffers store-houses where hee holdeth them close prisoners during his pleasure This the Philosopher knew not and thence it is that they are of so diverse opinions about the winds See Job 36.27 28 c. Job 37. throughout Vers 8 Who smote the first-born of Egypt And thereby roused up that sturdy rebell Pharaoh who began now to open his eyes as they say the blind mole doth when the pangs of death are upon him and to stretch out himself as the crooked Serpent doth when deadly wounded Vers 9 Who sent tokens and wonders Vocall wonders Exod. 4.8 to bee as so many warning-peeces Vers 10 Who smote great Nations Who by their great sins had greatly polluted their land and filled it with fiâ—th from one end to another Ezra 9.11 And slow mighty Kings Heb. Bony big mastiff fellows quasi â—ssâ—tâ—s five 〈◊〉 as the word signifieth Vers 11 Sihon King of Amorites A Giant like Cyclops And Og King of Bashan Of whom the Jews fable that being one of the 〈◊〉 Giants hee escaped the flood by riding affride upon the Ark. Vers 12 And gave their lands for an heritage Which hee might well do as being the true Proprietary and Paramount Vers 13 Thy Name O Lord c. Else O nos ingratos Vers 14 For the Lord will judge his people Judicabit id est vindicabit hee will preserve them and provide for their wel-fare And hee will repent himself This is mutatio rei non Dei effectus non affectus Some render it Hee will bee propitious Others hee will take comfort in his Servants See Judges 10.16 Vers 15 16. The Idols of the Heathen See Psal 115.4 5 6 c. Vers 17 Neither is there any breath in their mouths If they uttered Oracles it was the Devil in them and by them As for those statues of Daedalus which are said to have moved Aristot Diod. Sic. Plato spoken and run away if they were not tyed to a place c. it is either a fiction or else to be attributed to causes externall and artificiall as quick-silver c. Vers 18 They that make them c. See Psal 115.8 Vers 19 Bless the Lord And not an Idoll Isa 66.3 as the Philistines did their Dagon and as Papists still do their hee-Saints and shee-Saints Vers 20 Yee that fear the Lord Yee devout Proselytes Vers 21 Blessed bee the Lord out of Sion There-hence hee blesseth Psal 134.3 and there hee is to bee blessed Which dwelleth at Jerusalem That was the seat of his royall resiance per inhabitationis gratiam saith Austin by the presence of his grace who by his essence and power is every where Enter praesenter Deus hic et ubique potenter PSAL. CXXXVI VErs 1 O give thanks unto the Lord This Psalm is by the Jews called Hillel gadel the great Gratulatory See Psal 106.1.107.1.118.1 For his mercy endureth for ever His Covenant-mercy that precious Church-priviledge this is perpetuall to his people and should perpetually shine as a picture in our hearts For which purpose this Psalm was appointed to bee daily sung in the old Church by the Levites 1 Chron. 16.41 Vers 2 For his mercy endureth for ever This is the foot or burthen of the whole song neither is it any idle repetition but a notable expression of the Saints unsatisfiableness in praising God for his never-failing mercy These heavenly birds having got a note record it over and over In the last Psalm there are but six verses yet twelve Hallelujahs Vers 3 O Give thanks to the Lord of Lords That is to God the Son saith Hierâ—â— as by God of Gods saith hee in the former verse is meant God the Father who because they are no more but one God
sing in a strange Land Quid nobis cum fabulis cum risu saith Bernard in hoc exilio in hoc ergastulo in hac valle lachrymarum Let us cast away carnall mirth and groan earnestly to bee cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 Vers 5 Iâ— I forget thee O Jerusalem As I might seem to do should I herein gratifie these Idolaters or otherwise obey them rather than God The Jews at this day when they build an house they are say the Rabbines to leave one part of it unfinished and lying rude in remembrance that Jerusalem and the Temple are at present desolate At least they use to leave about a yard square of the house unplaistered on which they write Leo Modena of the riâ—es of the Jews in great letters this of the Psalmist If I forget Jerusalem c. or else these words Zecher lechorban that is The memory of the desolation Let my right hand forget Fiat abalienata atque emortua Let it bee paralyticall and useless unfit to touch the harp Vers 6 If I do not remember thee Hi gemitus Sanctorum sunt gemitus Spiritus sancti these are the very sighs unutterable that precede joys unspeakable and full of glory Either our beds are soft or our hearts hard that can rest when the Church is at unrest that feel not our Brethrens hard cords through our soft beds If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Heb. If I cause it not to ascend above the head of my joy Christ in his Ordinances must bee our chiefest comfort overtopping all other and devouring all discontents whatsoever Vers 7 Remember O Lord the Children of Edom Those unbrotherly bitter enemies The Jews call Romists Edomites Rase it rase it Discooperite discooperite Diruite ex imis subvertite fundamentis Buchanan Darius hearing that Sardis was sacked and burnt by the Athenians commanded one of his servants to say to him thrice alwayes at supper Sir remember the Athenians to punish them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod Tâ—rp Vers 8 That art to bee destroyed Spoliatrix saith the Syriack Isa 33.1 Happy shall hee bee i. e. Well rewarded with wealth and good wishes Vers 9 That taketh and dasheth thy little ones So at the destruction of Troy Sed palam raptis heu nefas heu Nescios fari puerâ—s Achivis Ureret flammis etiam latentes Mâ—tris in alve Horat. l. 4. Od. 6. PSAL. CXXXVIII VErs 1 I will praise thee with my whole heart Which no Hypocrite can do though hee may pray in distress from the bottom of his heart A gratefull manis a gracious man viz. if hee come with a true heart as the Apostle hath it Heb. 10.22 Aben-Ezra Before the Gods will I sing praise unto thee That is before Angels who are present in holy assemblies 1 Cor. 11.10 as was represented by those Cherubines pictured in the Temple as also before Princes and Potentates see vers 4. Kimchi Vers 2 I will worship toward thy holy Temple Wheresoever I am the face of my soul shall turn like the needle of a Diall by sacred instinct Abbot towards thee in the Ark of thy presence in the son of thy love For thy loving kindness and for thy truth For thy grace and truth which come by Jesus Christ the Ark and Mercy-seat were never sundred Gods loving kindness in Christ moved him to promise his truth binds him to perform and hence our happiness For thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Or Thou hast magnified thy name in all thy Words Or Thou hast magnified above all things thy Name by thy Word that is Thou hast got thee a very great name by fulfilling thy promises and by setting on thy Word with power Vers 3 In the day when I cryed c. This hee worthily celebrateth as a singular favour a badge of grace Psal 66.18 and pledge of glory Act. 2.21 And strengthenedst mee with strength in my soul With strength in the inward man Ephes 3.16 20. with spirituall mettal with supporting grace keeping head above water My body is weak my soul is well said that dying Saint I am as full of comfort as heart can hold said a certain Martyr The Apostle speaketh of the new supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 the joy of the Lord is strengthening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neh. 8.10 Vers 4 All the Kings of the earth shall praise thee Such of them as shall read these Psalms of my composing or otherwise shall hear of thy gracious dealing with mee according to thy promise Such also as shall hereafter bee converted to the faith for though Not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1.26 yet some are and these shine in the Church like stars of the first magnitude Vers 5 Yea they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord As having tasted the excellencie of the comforts of godliness far surpassing those of the Crown and Scepter and felt the power of Gods Word subduing them to the obedience of faith whereby they come to rule with God to bee faithfull with his Saints and to sing their songs Vers 6 Though the Lord bee high c. Even the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity Isa 57.15 See on Psal 113.6 7. Yet hath hee respect unto the lowly This maketh that Ancient cry out Videte magnum miraculum See here a great miracle God is on high thou liftest thy self up Aug. de Temp. and he flieth from thee thou bowest thy self down and hee descendeth unto thee Low things hee looketh close upon that he may raise them higher lofty things he knoweth a far off that he may crush them down lower The proud Pharisee pressed as near God as he could the poor Publican not daring to do so stood a loof of yet was God far from the Pharisee near to the Publican The Lord Christ is a door to Heaven Aug. in Johaâ— but a low door hee who will enter in thereby humiliet se oportet ut sano capite intrare contingat saith Austin hee must needs stoop to save his head-peece But the proud hee knoweth a far off As not vouchsafing to come anear such loathsome lepers For pride is like a great swelling in the body apt to putrifie break and run with loathsome and foul matter Hence God stands off from such as odious and abominable hee cannot abide the sight of them Superbâ—s à calo longè propellit as the Chaldee here paraphraseth he driveth the proud far enough off from Heaven yea hee thrusteth them into Hell to their Father Lucifer that King of all the children of pride as Leviathan is called Job 41.34 Vers 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble Even in the vale of the shadow of death so that I seem little different from a dead man Thou wilt revive mee That is restore mee from so great a death as 2 Cor. â— 10 Thou shalt stretch