3.56 thou heldest not thy peace at my tears Psal 39.12 quando fletu agerem non afflatu yea thou heardest the voice of mine affliction Gen. 16.11 Into thine holy Temple Whether we take it of the Temple at Jerusalem a type of Christ Jonah's prayer was accepted for Christs-sake and proved to no lesse purpose though made in the Whales belly then if he had been pouring it out in Gods holy Temple Or if we understand it of Heaven the habitation of Gods holinesse and of his glory his orisons were come up thither for a memorial before the Almighty Act. 10.4 and like pillars of incense pierced into his presence Can. 3.6 neither would they away without their errand but lay at Gods feet til he should cōmand deliverance out of Zion Verse 8. They that observe lying vanities That listen to sense and reason in matters of God and make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof as Ionah had done to his cost till having payed for his learning he descried them all to bee but lying vanities or most vain vanities emptie Nothings forsake their own mercy Are miserable by their own election because sinners in a speciall manner against their own souls as were Corab and his complices Num. 16.38 as was Pope Silvester who gave his soul to the Devil for seven years enjoyment of the Popedome and as are all those wilfull wicked persons that refusing to be reformed and hating to be healed chuse to spend the span of this life after the wayes of their own hearts though they thereby perish for ever These are those fools of the people that preferre an apple before Paradise a messe of pottage before the inheritance of heaven their swine before their Saviour turning their backs upon those blessed and bleeding embracements of his and cruelly cutting the throats of their own poor souls by an impenitent continuance in sinne so losing for a few bitter-sweet pleasures or paltry profits in this vale of tears for an inch of time that fulnesse of felicity at Gods right hand thorough all eternity It is written of them who tame the Tyger that when they have taken away the young one knowing that presently they shall be pursued by the old Tygresse they set looking-glasses in the way by which they flee whereunto when she cometh and seeth some representation of her self she lingreth about them a good space deceived by the shadow and detained in a vain hope to recover the young againe Mean-while the hunter most speedily posteth away with his prey Semblably dealeth Satan with the men of this world saith mine Authour He casts before them the deceitfull lusts of profit pleasure and preferment the worldlings Trinity those lying vanities being none other then shadows and semblances of good yet are men so delighted with these that they dote about them having no care to pursue the enemy for recovery of that image of God the Divine nature that Satan hath beguiled them of He setteth them to the tree of knowledge that they may not taste of the tree of life He putteth out their eyes with the dust of covetousnesse and shutteth their ears against the instructions of life lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and God should heal them Mat. 13.15 In all which there is not any thing more to be lamented then this that people should love to have it so Jer. 6.31 be active in their own utter undoing Hos 13.9 wittingly and willingly forsake God the fountain of living waters their own mercies as he is here called and elsewhere Psal 144.2 and hew themselves out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 Verse 9. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving q. d. Let others do as they think good let them make a match with mischief till they have enough of it Let them walk till they have wearied themselves in the wayes of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes but let them know I speak it by wofull experience that for all these things God will bring them to judgement Eccles 11.9 The best that can come of sinne is Repentance and that 's not in mans power but in Gods gift 2 Tim. 2.25 If he had not melted mine hard heart and brought me back to himself with a strong hand I had pined away in mine iniquities and perished for ever But now having been so miraculously delivered from so great a death I will sacrifice unto the Lord with the voice of thanksgiving I will set up my note and sing aloud unto God my Saviour who hath thus beyond all desert delivered such a miserable wretch rebell and runagate as my self I will sacrifice Heb. I will slay sc those birds and beasts in use for feasts and sacrifices at Jerusalem with the voice of thanksgiving Heb. of confession that is I will confesse and acknowledge God to be what he is to do what he doth and to give what he giveth Now to offer a sacrifice at such a confession or thanksgiving added much to the solemnity thereof and made it more honourable in it self and more acceptable to God To these gratulatory sacrifices the word slaying is attributed as here to shew that even in gratulation expiation must bee made and that by the blood and sacrifice of Christ all our offerings are accepted in heaven I will pay that I have vowed Not my generall vow onely as a Covenanter to devote my self to his fear and service all my dayes but those particular personall voluntary vowes made in my distresse such as was that of Jacob Gen. 28.20 Hannah 1 Sam. 1.11 David Psal 132.1 2 c. In affliction men are wondrous apt to promise great matters if they may but be delivered See Psal 78.36 Pliny in an Epistle to one of his friends that desired rules from him how to order his life aright I will saith he give you one rule that shall be instead of a thousand Vt tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi That you be sure to be the same when well that you vowed to be when you were sick But this is few mens care See Jer. 34.10 11. Sonnes of Belial break these bonds as Sampson did the green withes and cast away those cords from them if they could at least being worse herein then those Mariners chap. 1 then Saul that made great conscience of violating his vow 1 Sam. 14. then Turks and Papists who are superstitiously strict this way Jonah knew it to be as bad if not worse then perjury to vow and not to performe Num. 30.3 and that God is the avenger of all such Deut. 23.21 He therefore not merely for fear of punishment but chiefly for hatred of that sinne saith I will pay that I have vowed The Hebrew word Ashallemah seemeth to imply two things First that his vow till paid was
18. It was never beautifull nor cheerfull since At this day it lies bed-ridden and looks to be burnt up shortly with her works 2 Pet. 3.10 Here it is brought in as a mother in mourning bewayling the losse of all her children and refusing to be comforted And surely though the land be eased of a very heavy burden as I have said when purged by Gods just judgements of her ungratefull and wicked inhabitants yet because she lies under the dint of Divine displeasure at such a time therefore is shee rightly said to mourn in this case and to be in a sad disconsolate condition See Jer. 12.4 she becomes a very Ahil that 's the word here used see Iudg. 11.33 a Bochim an Hadadrimmon an Iri-sland and being desolate she mourneth unto thee for she seeth that her convulsions are like to end in a deadly consumption And every one that dwelleth therein shall languish Heb. shall wither as a flower Nahum 1.4 Or shall be weakened Those that now stand upon their tiptoes and face the very heavens stouting it out with God shall then be weak as water withered as a flower strengthlesse as a moth-eaten-cloth Psal 39.11 low-spirited and crest-faln as the king of Sodom erst man good enough to look four kings in the face but anon suppliant to Abraham a forlorn forreiner Gen. 14.21 Manasseh that sturdy rebell in trouble basely hides his head among the bushes 2 Chron. 33.11 Caligula in time of thunder ran under beds and benches Affliction will tame and take down the proudest spirits they break in adversity that bore their heads on high in prosperity they speak out of the ground and whisper out of the dust Esay 21.4 that look to be brought into the dust of death Psal 22.15 It is the pestilence that here seemeth to be threatened as before sword and famine and an universall pestilence too reaching not onely to men but to other creatures made for mans uses which shewes the greatnesse of the wrath like as when a King not onely executeth the traytour but also pulleth down his house confiscateth his goods and and disinheriteth his children c. But what have those sheep done the beasts birds Pareus and fishes that they must suffer also It is but reason they should sith first they are part of mens enjoyments secondly they are many times though harmelesse in themselves yet instruments of mens sin and therefore well doth the Chaldee here paraphrase Diminutionem patientur propter hominum peccata they shall suffer for mans sin who may therefore well say to them as Judah did to Tamar Thou art more rigteous then I. with the beasts of the field which shall dye by the murrian and the foules of the ayre which shall catch the contagion Joseph and fall down dead as those birds do that attempt to fly over the dead sea and the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away Colligentur conficientur they shall be gathered together as seeking help one of another in a common danger and yet they shall be destroyed Engl. Chron. the very waters being pestilentiall as they were here in King Edward the thirds dayes so that the very foules and fishes had botches upon them This was a heavier judgement then that which befell the old world for then the fishes perished not though the Jew-doctours would perswade us that these also died in the flood for that the waters thereof were boyling hot Verse 4. Yet let no man strive nor reprove another let him not lose so much good labour and spill so many sweet words upon this people for they are grown uncounsellable incurable incorrigible They have rejected the counsel of God within or against themselves Luk. 7.30 corripiuntur sed non corriguntur it is because the Lord intendeth to destroy them 1 Sam. 2.25 yea he hath determined it 2 Chron. 25.16 Hence as dying men lose their hearing and other senses by degrees so those that are destined to destruction grow stupid and stubborn and will neither heare good counsel nor see the things that concern their peace but spurn at admonition and scorn at reproof Tunc etiam docta plus valet arte malum And therefore God forbids to reprove such as deplored and desperate to cast pearles of good counsel before such dogs who preferr lothsome carrion before sweet odours yea rage at them as Tigers do and fly in the faces of such as present them or at best grunt and goe their wayes as swine leave good counsell where they find it not putting it in practise Now as dogs and swine were counted unclean creatures and unfit for sacrifice so are such for admonition Let a man be never so able and apt to teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be vir praestans eximius insignis a gallant man as the word here used sometimes signifieth and one that can do his work never so well yet the wisdome of his words shall be despised Prov. 23.9 Let him strive till his heart akes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disputatos arguere as St. Jude speaketh he shall but strive against the stream and by reprooving a scorner get him a blot Pro. 9.7 The Pharisees denied our Saviour and blew their noses at him Luk. 16.14 Let them alone therefore saith our Saviour to his disciples they be blinde leaders of the blind ther 's no good to be done of them Mat. 15. therefore let him that is filthy be filthy still Rev. 22.11 and he that is ignorant let him beignorant sith he will needs be so 1 Cor. 14.38 Levit. 26.39 Let him pine away in his iniquity Let him pine and perish go on despair dye and be damned My spirit shall no longer strive with him unless it be by furious rebukes Ezek. 5.15 and by fire Am. 7.4 Oecolampadius upon this text doubts not to say that the sin of such as reject admonition is the sin against the holy Ghost certainly it is worse then all the forementioned swearing lying c. Blind nature could see and say as much Hesiod saith that there are three sorts of men the first and best are those that live so well as not to need reproof The second and those not bad are such as doe not so well but can be content to heare of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Oper. et dier Ver. 29. The third and worst are they that will neither do as they ought nor be advised to do better Plutarch saith those that are troubled with tooth-ach will go to the Physitian those that have a fever will send for him but he that is frantick or stark mad will do neither but reject the remedy and strike at the Physitian So doth the scorner c. See my common place of Admonition for this people are as they that strive with the priest though Gods officer and in his stead 2 Cor. 5.20 though the peoples Oracle to preserve and present knowledg to
ever noted for obstinate and overweening so to this day they are light aeriall and Satanicall apt to work themselves into the fools paradise of a sublime dotage But they shall know it to be so as I have said by wâ—â—â—ll experience that Mistresse of fools Israel shall know it sc to his sorrow he shall pay for his learning buy his wit Oculos incipit aperire moriendo Plin open his eyes as the mole doth when death is upon him roar and look upward Esay 8.21 as the hog doth when the knife is at his throat O Lord saith the same Prophet Chap. 26.11 when thy hand is lifted up and thy hand is a mighty hand Jam. 4.10 it falls heavy they will not see they wink wilfully or seek strawes to put out their eyes withall as Bernard hath it but they shall see will they nill they Festucam quarunt unde oculos sibi eruant and be ashamed of their former oscitancy or rather obstinacy when that hand of God which was lifted up in threatning shall fall down in punishing and the fire of thine enemies shall devâ—ur them How much more at that last and great visitation that terrible day of Retribution when they shall answer for all with flames about their ears Tunc sentient magno suo malo then shall they feel to their eternall wo the truth of all the threatnings which till then they heard and read as a man doth an Almanack-prognostications of winde or foul-weather which he thinks may come to passe and it may be not And give nothing so much credit to them as the Prior of S. Bartholomewes in London did to an idle and addle-headed Astrologer Holinshead in 1524. when he went and built him an house at Harrow on the hill to secure himself from a supposed flood that that Astrologer foretold The Prophet is a fool c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a naughty man the Hebrew word here is evil and signifieth a rash and unadvised fellow that is headstrong and headlong such were their false prophets that promised peace when warre was at their gates and made all fair weather before them when the tempest of Gods wrath was even bursting out upon them such a tempest as should neveâ— be blown over These should now appear to be fools or rather Impostours that had brought the credulous people into a fools paradise the spiritual man is mad Heb. the man of the spirit or ventosus the windy man that uttereth vain and empty conceits humani cerebelli Minervas the brats of his own brain light aery Nothings the disease of this age full of flashes and figments idle speculations of men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the truth These pretend altogether to the spirit and would be thought the onely spirituall men as the Swenkfeldians whom for their ill savour Luther called Stenckfeldians who bewitched many with those glorious words which were ever in their mouthes of Illumination Revelation the inward and spiritual man c. and entituled themselves the Confessours of the glory of Christ So the Entusiasts and Anabaptists what boast make they of the spirit professing that they will deliver nothing but what they have immediately revealed to them from heaven Muncer their ringleader wrote a base book against Luther which he dedicateth to king Jesus wherein Lutherum flagellat quod Enthusiasmorum spiritu careat nil nist carnalin sapiat he falls foul upon Luther as wanting the spirit of revelation Scultet Annal. pag. 239. and one that savoureth nothing but carnall things All his followers look upon Luther as more pestiferous then the Pope and for Calvin they say and I have heard it that it had been happy for the Church if he had never been born It was their practise of old as Leo Judae observed in his epistle before Bullingers book against the Catabaptists and is still to discourage and disparage Christs faithfull Ministers all they can as carnall and not relishing the things of the spirit the right off-spring they are of those ancient Hereticks called Messalanii the same with the Euchites and Enthusiasts who in the year of Christ 371. professed to be wholly made up of the spirit gave themselves much to sleep and called their dreams and wild phantasies prophesies and revelations for the multitude of thine iniquity and the great hatred Heb. the great Satanical hatred that thou hast born against God and thy neighbour but especially Gods faithfull prophets whom thou heartily hatedst for their plain dealing as Ahab did Michaiah because he never spake good to him It is very probable that Michaiah was that disguised Prophet who brought Ahab the fearfull message of displeasure and death for dismissing Benhadad for the which he was ever since fast in prison deep in disgrace Lo this is the worlds wages Truth breeds hatred great hatred as the text hath it devillish hatred and this is through the multitude of mens iniquities the overflow of sinnes which wretched men hold so dear to themselves that they cannot but rage against those that declaime against them and proclaim hell-fire against their hatefull practises they cannot stand still to have their eyes pickt out how should they say Now for such what wonder is it if God in justice give them up to the efficacie of errour that they may beleeve a lie sith they would not receive the love of the truth Augustin in loc 2 Thess 2.11 ut infatuati seducantur seductijudicentur that being infatuated they may be seduced and being seduced perish what wonder also if he deliver them up as to strong delusions so to vile affections and abominable actions that they may receive in themselves that recompense of their errour that is meet Kom 1.27 What marvell if men that will not endure sound doctrine be left to seducers if those that have itching ears meet with clawing Preachers 2 Tim. 4.3 4. if such as turn away their ears from the truth be turned to fables and fopperies It is for the multitude of mens iniquities and especially for their great hatred to the truth that the Church is so pestered with Impostours 2 Pet. 2.1 2. who bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Do not our modern seducers so amongst us when among other portentous opinions held by them they stick not to affirm that Christ is a carnall or fleshly thing That those that are grown Christians may go to God immediately without a Christ that Christ did not rise again c. Others contemn him by the notion of the man dying at Jerusalem O horrible Dr. Homes his character of the present times 200. Time was when the Popes were so notoriously naught as to speak thus basely of Christ to deny or at least doubt of the immortality of the soul the resurrection of the body c. and then a poor Popeling cried out that the sinnes of that Synagogue were so great as that it deserved not to be ruled by any other
simplicity as intending to beguile God which he cannot and man which he fain would and oft doth to further his worldly and wicked designes as Judas Herod Matth. 2.8 Pharisees Mat. 23.14 2. Falshoud opposite to truth as onely acting religion playing devotion compassiong God with deceit as the house of Israel here deceiving him not by impotency onely and in the event but by imposture and so in purpose contenting themselves with a shew with a semblance Luke 8.18 with a form of knowledge Rom. 2.20 and of godlinesse 2 Tim. 3.5 rather â—eeming to be good then seeking to be so These are hells free-holders and other sinners are said but to have their part with them There are that thus interpret this Text Ephraim compasseth me the Prophet preaching mercy and promising good things they beset me and gather close about me as desirous of my doctrine but it is in mendacio in hatâ—full hypocrysic see Ezek. 33.31 32. and when I crosse them never so little they craftily conspire to prejudice my Ministery to asperse my person c. To preach saith One is nothing else but to derive the rage of the whole world upon a mans self to become the But-mark yea the Center ad quod omnes lineae dolorum tendunt Meisner in loc to which all the lines of lies and falsehoods do tend but Judah yet ruleth with God To serve God is to rule with him as Livia said she ruled her husband Augustus by obeying him It is the greatest liberty Rom. 6.18 22. 1 Pet. 2.16 Abraham was a prince of God Jacob prevailed with God and had power as a Prince Gen. 32.28 Moses as if he had been Chancellour of heaven over-ruled the businesse and God is fain to bespeak his own freedom Exod. 32.10 Judah also is here said to rule with God to be potent with him because God was sincerely served amongst them and they held fast their first integrity the true religion was openly professed and the true worship of God incorruptly maintained in the Temple at Jerusalem This made Abijah though none of the best so boldly to boast and he prevailed so that there fell down of Israel slain four hundred thousand 2 Chron. 14.10 17. and yet the men of Judah that slew them were but four hundred thousand ina ll verse 3. Israels Apostacy is here aggravated by Judah's integrity they were not under the temptation of evil example Judah was the worse for them and not they for Judah and is faithfull with the Saints Or with the most Holy he keepeth the faith to God those Holy Ones the Father Son and Holy Spirit so some sence it as Josh 24.19 Prov. 9.10 he is far from those false and fraudulent dealings wherewith the ten Tribes seek to circumvent and beguile god Or thus Jâ—xlah is faithfull with the saints of former ages he holds to his old principles to the good old way wherein Abraham and the other Ancients went before him He is also faithfull with such as are sanctified the true priests of God consecrated to himself and set apart for holy use In opposition to the ten Tribes who went after those leaden priests made by Ieroboam of the lower sort of the people and well fitted to golden deities Lastly he is faithfull with the people of God those good souls that left the ten Tribes and went to Judah to the true worship of God With these Judah was faithfull courteous and communicative embracing and encouraging them all that might be This was a singular commendaton CHAP. XII Verse 1. EPhraim feedeth on wind Slender feeding unlesse Ephraim were of the Chamaeleon-kind quippe nec cor auro satiatur nec corpus aura Wind fills Esay 55.10 2 Cor. 9.10 but feeds not Ephraim had sowed the wind chap. 8.7 but to what profit Hee that ministreth seed to the sower and bread to the eater would here surely neither give bread for food nor multiply their seed sown but send them to the gods that they had chosen and to their confederates whom they so relied upon from whom they should reap the whirlwind See the Note on chap. 8.7 Wind we know bloweth up storms and tempests so doth idolatry and creature-confidence the tempest of Gods wrath that will never be blown over and followeth after the East-wind Which if he catch a great catch he is like to have of it Eurus est ventus urens exsiccans The East-wind is noted in Scripture for pernicious and hurtfull to fruits and herbs Gen. 41.6 Ezek. 7.10 and 29.17 Hos 13.15 violent it is also and spareth not men Ion. 4.8 The Seventy render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a burning blast as they do the former words Ephraim is an evil spirit by a mistake of the points Iob speaketh of some that fill their bellies with the East-wind they think to do so but it proves otherwise they snuff up the wind with the wild-asse but it tumours them onely and proves pestilentiall It is very dangerous for men to follow after their own conceits and counsels It may be worse to them upon their death-beds when they are lanching into the main of Immortality Euroaquilo then any rough East-wind or then any Euroclydon that wind mentioned Acts 27.14 Vna erusque uotusque ruunt Virg. that hath its name from stirring up stormes and is by Pliny called Navigantium pestis the Mariners misery An empty body meeting with tempests will have much ado to bear up If Ephraim first seed upon wind and then fall under the East-wind it must needs go hard with him The godly man who is filled with all the fulnesse of God Ephes 3.19 shall have him for a refuge from the storme a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storme against the wall Esay 25.4 His prayer is that of Ieremy chap. 17. vers 17. Be not thou a terrour unto me O Lord thou art my hope in the day of evil If the wind be not got into the earth and stir not there storms and tempests abroad cannot make an earthquake no more can afflictions or death an heart-quake where there is peace with God Such a mans mind immota manet is as mount Zion which cannot be removed He daily increaseth lies and desolation This being the fruit and consequent of those for flagitium flagellum sicut acus filum sinne and punishment are inseparable companions Wo unto them for they have fled from me destruction unto them because they have transgressed against me Hos 7.13 See the Note there To heap up lies is to hasten desolation A false witnesse shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lies shall perish Prov. 19.9 They tell us of a threefold lie i. e. A merry lie an officious lie and a pernicious lie But the truth is every lie is pernicious and a man should rather die then lie He that lieth in jest may go to hell for it in earnest Iacob told his father an officious three-foldlie
head of the poor Covetousnesse is craving and cruel it rides without reins as Balaam did after the wages of wickednesse and cares not whose head it rides over to compasse commodity Yea it panteth after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor as desirous not onely to lay them in the dust Anhelant but to lay them a-bleeding and a-dying there They gape over the head or life of the poor in the dust of the earth so some read the words as devising to destroy them A poor mans lively hood is his life Mar. 12. ult Luke 8.43 for a poor man in his house is like a snail in a shell crush that and you kill him These cormorants earnestly desired and indeavoured to bring dust upon poor mens heads the garb of those that were in heavinesse Iob 2.12 Ezech. 27.30 Lam. 2.20 by their oppressions and injustice yea to bring them down to the dust of death to set them as farre under ground as now they were above Lo this they do as greedily and as greatly desire as serpents and other hot creatures covet the fresh air to cool their scorched entrails See Ier. 14.6 Job 5.5 and 7.2 It is said of Saul the persecutour that he breathed out threatnings against the Church Acts 9.1 as a tired Wolf that wearied with worrying the flock lieth panting for breath So Bonner whipt the poor Martyrs till he was breathlesse Some Interpreters note out of Joseph Ben Gorion Gorionides hist c. 44. that there was an old custom that those that were accused before the Judges should be arrayed in black and have their heads covered with dust And hence they conceive the sence to be this That pant i. e. that earnestly desire that such poor men may be accused by the rich Drusius Mercer of whom they may receive gifts to pervert judgement And this they think to be confirmed by the following words they turn aside or pervent the way of the meeke that is the cause businesse judgement of the modest and self-denying poor the subject of rich mens injuries for most part and unreasonable oppressions Jam. 2.6 A crow will stand upon a sheeps back pulling off wool from her side she durst not do so to a wolf or a mastiffe Even reasonlesse creatures know whom they may bee bold with so do wicked oppressours Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam The meek by pocketting up one wrong invite another Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you Jam. 5.6 Ye not onely rob but ravish the poor that are faln into your nets Psal 10.9 ye do even whatsoever you please to them as One Martyr said of John Baptist that he was put to death Acts and Mon. as if God had been nothing aware of him and a man and his father will go in c. by an horrible if not incestuous filthinesse such as Heathens by the light of nature condemned and execrated 1 Cor. 5.1 The Indians abhor it shewing themselves in respect of the incestuous Spaniards amongst them as the Scythians in respect of the Grecians whom they so far excelled in life as they were short of them in learning Am I a dog said Abner to Isbbosheth 2 Sam. 3. that is so impudently and excessively lustfull as a dog is so scalded in his own grease Rom. 1.27 Some libidinous sensualists put off all manhood become dogs worse then dogs following their harlots stiled in Scripture salt-bitches Deut. 23.18 such as having abandoned both the fear of God and shame of the world care not whom they admit father son any one every one to profane my holy name As if I were Authour or Fautour of such cruelties and villanies This is to take Gods name in vain Prov. 30.9 yea this is to blaspheme 1 Tim. 1.20 by breaking down the banks of blasphemy and causing the enemies of the truth to speak evil with open mouth as they did in Davids dayes 2 Sam. 12.14 And in Pauls dayes Rom. 2.24 And in Origens dayes Nunc male audiunt castiganturque vulgo Christiani De opisicio Dei prooem quòd vitia sub obtentu nominis Dei celent c. saith He Christians and their religion heareth ill among Heathens by reason of their impious and impure lives and their conversation not becoming the Gospel of Christ Philip. 1.27 Of such carnall Gospellers it may be truly said as Diogenes said to Antipater who being vitious wore a white cloke the ensigne of innocency that they do virtut is stragulam pudefacere put honesty to an open shame bring contempt upon God and his wayes c. Verse 8. And they lay themselves down upon clothes i. e. table-carpets or bedcoverlets layd under those that sit at meat whether on the ground with their legs gathered under them as the Turkish Bashawes do to this day and the Trojans of old stratoque super discumbitur ostro or at beds or tables Turk hist fol. 231. Virg. Enead lib. 1. Horat. 1. Car. od 27. Vide Lambin ad loc Lips lib. 3. Antiq. lection leaning on the left elbow Esth 1.6 and 7 8. Ioh. 13.28 Et cubito remanete presso laid to pledge These should have been restored and not detayned beyond the time prescribed Deut. 24.12 13. Exod. 22.26 27. by every altar It was their fashion to feast in their Idol-temples 1. Cor. 8.10 and 10.21 See Horat. Oda 37. lib. 1. And this in imitation belike of Gods people who were commanded to feast before the Lord in the place that he should chuse to place his name in See Deut. 14.23.26 1 Sam. 1.3 4. c. And here Paucis verbis multiplex scelus arguit saith Gualther in few words he accuseth them of much wickednesse and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God A God they have of their own devising a wodden God and such as if he had but a paire of hornes clapt on his head might make an excellent devill as the Major of Dancaster told the wise men of Cockram in Q. Maries dayes that came to complaine of the Carver for making them an ugly Crucifix Next they drink wine in the house of their God Act. and Mon. besides their drink-offerings which Davids soule hated Psal 16.4 they had their drunken compotations in their Idoll-temples Heyl. Geog. 449. as now they say in the Isle of Sardinia after masse done they fall to drinking and dancing in the middest of the Church singing in the mean time songs too immodest for an Ale-house Lastly they drink the wine of the condemned or of such as they have fined or mulcted for not comming along with them to the Idol-temples Diodate rendreth it the wine of the amercements that is bought with such mony as they have unjustly amerced and condemned the innocent in There are that here understood that wine that was wont to be given to malefactors led to execution Prov. 31.6 to cheer them up but these wretches drank it
choice young men best able to endure thirst a long season shall faint for thirst Heb. shall be over-covered with grief shall be troubled and perplexed shall faint and swoon shall find by experience that all flesh is grasse and the glory thereof as the flower of the field that even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Esa 40.30 31. Verse 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria i. e. by the calfe set up at Bethel not farre from Samaria This calfe is called the sin or guilt of Samaria Esa 40.6 7. to shew the abomination of it for which cause also Paul cals it sinful sin Rom. 7.13 as not finding for it a worse Epithite and Antichrist for like cause he calleth That man of sin 2 Thess 2 3. to note him Merum scelus saith Beza meerly made up of sin Now to swear by this of Samaria was to deifie it to swear by any thing besides the true God is to forsake him Jer. 5.7 which is an hateful wickednesse Jer. 2.12 13. as in Papists who familiarly swear by their Hee-Saints and She-Saints and so sacrilegiously transferre upon the creature that which pertaineth to God alone and say Thy god O Dan liveth God onely liveth to speak properly 1 Tim. 6.17 but to say that Dan's Deunculus lived being no better then a dumb and dead idol and to sweat by the life of it Spec. Eurâ—p as the Spaniards do now in the pride of their Monarchy by the life of their king this is horrible impiety As for that of Abigail to David 1 Sam. 25.26 Now therefore my Lord as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth the former was an oath the latter was not an oath but an asseveration or obtestation onely conjoyned with an oath and the manner of Beersheba liveth that is the formes and rites of worshipping in Beersheba another nest of idolatry Chap. 5.5 and Hos 10.13 as the Chaldee paraphraseth it Durandus hath written the Romish Ritual the way of worship used in that Synagogue of Satan Mercer rendreth it Vivet peregrinatio Beerseba the way or passage of Beerseba liveth Beerseba had an idol and was the way to Dan and Bethel hence this superstitious oath drawn out to the full length By the sin of Samaria by the god of Dan and by the manner of Beersheba like as the great Turk Mahomet promising his souldiers the spoyle of Constantinople for three dayes together if they could win it for confirmation of his oath solemnly swore by the immortal God and by the four hundred Prophets by Mahomet by his fathers soul by his own children Turk hist 345. and by the sword wherewith he was girt faithfully to perform whatsoever he had to them in his proclamation promised even they shall fall and never rise up again Fall fatally ferally irrecoverably as old Eli did when his neck was broken but first his heart The ten tribes for their idolatry and contempt of the word never returned out of captivity From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruine though for a time they might flourish See Prov. 29.1 with the note Of that spiritual famine let us be most impatient and say as Luther did I would not live in Paradise without the word but with it I could make a shift to live in hell it self CHAP. IX Verse 1. I saw the Lord This Seer Chap. 7.12 saw the Lord in a vision for otherwise God is too subtile for sinew or sight to seize upon him We cannot look upon the body of the Sun neither can we see at all without the beams of it so here standing upon the Altar Or firmly set sc to do execution upon that Altar sc that idolatrous Altar at Bethel fore-mentioned and formerly threatned by another Prophet 1 Kin. 13.1.2 The Rabbines say God was seen standing upon that Altar as ready to sacrifice and slay the men of that age whose idolatries and other impieties he could no longer bear with And hence it is haply that he is brought in standing like as Act. 7.55 Jesus at Stevens death was seen standing at the right hand of God where he is usually said to sit Stat ut vindex sedet ut judex And he said sc to the Angel that stood by Zeck 3.7 or to the enemy commissionated by him or to some other creature for they are all his servants Psal 119.91 neither can he want a weapon to tame his rebels with smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake Smite with a courage as Ezeck 9. Angels give no light blowes Behold the Lord the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terrour and the high ones of stature shall be hewen down and the haughty shall be humbled Esa 10.33 34. And he shal cut down the thickest of the forrests with iron and Lebanon shal fal by a Mighty one that is by an Angel shall he smite to the ground that mighty army which was like a thick wood see Esai 37.36 Psal 78.25 and 89.6 So at our Saviours Resurrection an Angel in despite of the souldiers set to watch rolled away the grave-stone and sat upon it And as a mighty man when he sitteth down shaketh the bench under him so did He shake the earth and for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Mat. 28.2 4. Down with this Idol-Temple down with it saith God here even to the ground and cut them in the head al of them cleave them down the middle so that every post may be sure to fall being divided from the top to the bottom and let this act be a signe to them all of what I intend to do to their persons as many of them as by this gate have entred into this Idol-Temple and Altar A deep cut in the head is dangerous and deadly Gen. 3.15 Psal 68.22 and I wil slay the last of them I by mine agents and instruments as afore for it is but one hand and many executioners that God slayes men with Job could discern Gods arrowes in Satans hand and Gods hand on the armes of the Sabaean robbers The sword is bathed in heaven before it is embrewed in mens blood Isai 34.5 The Lord killeth and maketh alive saith holy Hannah 1 Sam. 2.6 He that fleeth of them shall not flee away See chap. 2.14 with the Note and say Behold the severity of God Rom. 11.12 Verse 2. Though they dig into hell c. No starting-hole shall secure them from the wrath of God and rage of the creature set a work by him Hell and destruction are before the Lord Prov 15.11 yea hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering Job 25.6 He hath a sharp eye and a long hand to pull men out of their
too The Branch grew out of the root of Jesse when that goodly family was sunk so low as from David the king to Joseph the carpenter Besides all was out of order both in Church and State when Christ came and close up the breaches thereof Heb. wall up by unwalling as the Hebrew hath it Num. 24.17 all the children of Seth by subduing the sons of men the godly seed to the obedience of faith by bringing into captivity every haughty thought c. 2 Cor. 10.4 5. that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow Philip. 2.10 and getting a full conquest by the preaching of the gospell which shall quickly close up all ruptures and raise up all ruines by chasing away terrours and false-worships doctrines of devils and traditions of men whereby the Scribes and Pharisees had made the commandement of God of none effect and I will build it as in the dayes of old in those purer times of David and the other holy Patriarches who made up but one and the same Church with us and were saved by the same faith in Christ Jesus that Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world Rev 13.8 Mine antiquity is Jesus Christ said Ignatius the Martyr As we preferr the newest Philosophy so the ancient'st Divinity saith Another Verse 12. That they may possesse the remnant of Edom That they which are called by my name which are called Christians viz. the Apostles and their successours to the end of the world may possesse together with Christ to whom the Father hath given the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession the remnant of Edom those few of them that receive the faith who are but as a remnant to the whole peece an handful to a houseful Psal 2. â— And not of the Edomites onely those inveterate and hereditary enemies to the Israel of God but of all the heathen which are called by name who beseech and are baptized into Christs name being content to receive his mark and to professe his Religion which formerly they were perfect strangers to These and those first Preachers of the Gospel and Planters of Churches being Israelites by birth are said to possesse by inheritance because Christ was pleased to make use of their ministery and upon these his white horses to ride abroad the world conquering and to conquer Rev. 6.1 2. In a like sense it is promised Esa 14.2 that the house of Israel shall possesse their proselytes in the land of the Lord for servants and for handmaids and take them captives whose captives they were and rule over their oppressours Such a change shall the Gospel make saith the Lord that doth this For indeed none else could have done it Effectual conversion is his work alone God perswade Japhet c. Noah may speak perswasively but God onely can perswade Rebecca may cook the venison but Isaac onely can give the blessing Paul may plant c. Deus potest facere nec solet fallere Verse 13. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that the plowman c. The Gospel of peace brings with it the peace of the Gospel and with peace plenty with the horn of salvation the horn of plenty a confluence of outward comforts and contentments Boâ—us Deus Constâ—nâ— tantis terrenâ— implevit muâ—â—â—bus qâ—anta â—pâ—â—re nullus â—uderet Dâ— C D. l. 5.25 Elizabetha gloriâ—sissima foeliciss soemina Thuan. Hist lib. 124. as in Solomons dayes and Constantines whom God prospered and blessed beyond all that he could have wished saith Austin and Q. Elizabeths whom for her care to propagate the Gospel He made to be the happiest woman that ever swayed scepter as her very enemies were forced to acknowledge so liberal a paymaster is the Lord that all his retributions are more then bountiful and this his servants have not ex largitate sed ex promisso out of his generall providences but by vertue of a promise which is farre sweeter The Masorites have observed that in this verse are found all the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet as also in 26 more verses of the Old Testament to note say the Calvinists that in the kingdome of the Messiah there shall be great abundance of all things plenum copiae cornu or if that should fail yet plenty of all spiritual benedictions in heavenly things In instauratione casulae Davidicae coâ—apsae Merc. Amama Eph. 1.3 and contented godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.6 which hath an autarkie a self-sufficiency so that having nothing a man possesseth all things 2 Cor. 6.10 This the Prophet expresseth in the following words by many excellent hyperbole's though to say sooth Christus regnum ejus non patiuntur hyperbolen All words are too weak to set forth the worth of Christ and his kingdom the plowman shall overtake the reaper In signis hyperbole saith Mercer no sooner shall harvest be ended but seeding shall succeed and that promise fulfilled Levit. 26.5 all businesses belonging to the tillage of the ground and the inning of the fruit shall have their fit and sutable seasons where under the name of corporal blessings spiritual also are to be understood and indeed those blessings out of Zion are farre beyond any other that come out of heaven and earth Ps 134.3 and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed precious seed Ps 126.5 sowing-seed as one englisheth it drawn out of the seed basket and cast all along upon the land the meaning is that the vintage shall last so long that the seeds-man shall scarce have time to do his businesse for waiting upon the wine-presse and the mountains shall drop sweet wine Or juice of pomegranates more delicious liquor then that which the Italians profanely call Lachrymae Christi or that which at Paris and Lovaine is called Vinum Theologicum or Vinum Cos that is â—oloris odoris saporis optimi the best in the countrey for colour savour and taste to please the palate and al the hils shal melt sc with milk honey oyl as Joel 3.18 the same almost with this And the heathen Poet hath the like Subitis messor gaudebit aristis Claudian lib. 1. in Ruffin Rorabunt querceta favis stagnantia passim Vina fluent oleique laeus Ver. 14. And I will bring againe the captivity of my people There is an elegancy in the original that cannot be englished and God seemes delighted with such Agnominations as hath been before observed to shew the lawfull use of Rhetorike in divine discourses Act. 26.18 so it be not affected abused Idolized This promise is fulfilled when beleevers are by the gospel brought from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and be set free from the tyranny of corruption and terrour of death Heb. 2.14.15 Colos 1.13 Luk. 1.74 Zach. 9.11 Psa 68.19 and they shall build the wast cities Restore the sincere service of God as those noble Reformers did
Chron. 36.16 Good therefore is the counsel of the Prophet Lam. 3.39 40. Why is living man sorrowful a man for the punishment of his sin Let us search and trie our wayes find out the sin that God strikes at and turn again to the Lord turn and live so they cast lots They should have also prayed as Act. 1. 6. saying as Saul 1 Sam. 14. Give a perfect lot wicked men also are bound to pray Psal 14.4 but although they do not God can get himself glory by their prophane lottery as he did by Nebuchadnezzars Ezek. 21.20 21. and the lot fell upon Jonah Secret sins will out at length and be brought into judgement Eccles 12.14 Saeculi laetitia est impunita nequitiae Aug. Surely the bitternesse of death is past said Agag but he found it otherwise 1 Sam. 15. Janah thought himself out of the reach of Gods rod c. Wicked mens faults shall be written in their foreheads and they forced to answer for all at last with flames about their ears Verse 8. Tell us we pray thee for whose cause c. He confessed not till urged and necessitated Sinne gagges people and prompts them to hide their faults as Adam or at least to mince extenuate shift them upon other persons and things as Eve Sinne and shifting came into the world together and Satan that old manslayer knowing that there is no way to purge the soul but upwards holds the lips close that the heart may not disburden it self God by this means is oft put to his proof and must bring the malefactour to trial who refusing ordinary trial must therefore be prest Jer. 2.35 what is thine occupation For that thou hast one we take it for granted At Athens every man was once a year at least to give account to the Judges by what art or trade he maintained himself By Mahomets law the Grand Signior himself must use some manual trade Solyman the Magnificent made arrow-heads Mahomet the great horn-rings for archers c. That which the mariners here enquire after is whether Jonas his occupation be honest and lawful whether he laboured the thing that was good Eph. 4.28 For if any man over-reach or oppresse his brother in any matter by the use of any ill arts he shall be sure to find that the Lord is the venger of al such 1 Thess 4.6 though haply they lie out of the walk of humane justice or comes not under mans cognizance and whence commest thou Art thou not of an accursed countrey and is not thy people a people of Gods wrath as England was in the time of the sweating-sicknesse Lifeoâ— Edw. 6. by S. J. H. pursuing the English where-ever they came which made them like tyrants both feared and avoyded of all nations How the Jewes are at this day hated and shunned as an execrable people is known to all what is thy countrey and of what people art thou Notanda brevitas saith Hierome here Note the brevity of theâ—e questions nothing short of those in Virgil so much admired juvenes quae causa subegit Ignotas tentare vias quò tenditis inquit Quod genus Vâ—rg Aene. â—â— unde domo pacemne huc fertis an arma Note also here how these Pagans proceed not to execution till they have fully inquired into the matter This was farre better then that ugly custome of some people in Europe mentioned by Eneas Sylvius that if any one amongst them be suspected of theft or the like crime he is presently taken and hanged up Then three dayes after they examine the businesse and 〈◊〉 the party be found guilty they suffer his body there to hang till it rot down or if otherwise they bury him in the Church-yard 〈◊〉 Syâ— Europ cap. 20. and keep a funeral-feast at the publike charge Vers 9. And he said unto them I am an Hebrew i. e. a true Beleever as was Heber the Patriarch Gen. 10.21 and after him Abram the Hebrew as he is called Gen. 14.13 This name of Hebrews as it was the first title given to Abraham and his seed so it indureth one of the last 2 Cor. 11.22 Philip. 3 5 Epistle to the Hebrews title and I fear the Lord God of heaven That 's mine occupation I serve God with my spirit in the Gospel of his Sonne as Paul hath it Rom. 1.9 every faithful Minister is servant to the King of heaven Act. 27.23 this the devil could not deny Act. 16.16 17. neither is he of his meaner or inferiour servants of his Underling sbut of the noblest employment Ministers are his Stewards Embassadours Paranymphs or Spokesmen c. and this is their occupation or their work farre beyond that of Solomons servants which hath made the sea and the drie land This troublesome sea that now so threatneth you and that drie land which you would so fain recover These with all their contents are his creatures neither did he make them and then seave them to Fate or Fortune as a carpenter leaves the house he hath built to others or a ship-wright the ship but he ordereth and ruleth them at his pleasure and will unmake all again rather then his shall want help in one season Psal 124.8 and 134.3 This was part of Jonah's confession and but part of it for he told them no doubt how ill he had dealt with this great and good God running away by â—ealth from his masters service and detrecting his yoak and that therefore he was justly apprehended and adjudged to death To this purpose was Jonas his confession quae ei salutis fuit exordium saith Mercer which was the beginning of his safety and salvation Now his hard heart is broken and his dumb mouth opened not only to confesse his offence but to aggravate it in that being not only an Hebrew of the Hebrewes a member of the true Church but a Prophet a Doctour in Israel he should deal so perversely and perfidiously It is a sweet happinesse when sin swels as a toad in a mans eyes and he can freely confesse it in the particulars and with utmost aggravation laying open al his transgressions in all his sinnes as Moses phraseth it Lev. 16.21 Affliction sanctified will bring a soul to this as here it did the Prophet like herein to that helve Elisha cast into the water that fetcht up the iron that was in the bottom Verse 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid Heb. with great fear when once they had heard the businesse and weighed the particulars of his message to Niniveh of his miscarriage and of his present misery together with the danger that themselves were in for his sake how much more for their own as being conscious to themselves of farre more and greater sinnes then Ionas had to answer for c. This put the Marriners into a great fright And as all fear hath torment they could not be at quiet till they had further questioned him saying Why hast thou done this Lo he that would
of prayer This therefore Jonah having prayed and perceiving that he was heard and by the goodnesse of God preserved safe in body and sound in mind he growes strong in faith Rom. 4. giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that he should yet walk before him againe in the land of the living out of the fishes belly where though he might seem buried alive and free among the dead yet he enjoyed Gods gracious presence and those strong consolations that made him live in the very mouth of death and say in effect as blessed Bradford did Act Mon. fol. 1476. I thank God more of this prison and of this dark dungeon then of any parlour yea then of any pleasure that ever I had For in it I find God my most sweet God alwayes Verse 2. And said I cried by reason of mine affliction His lips did not move in affliction like a creaking doore or a new cart-wheele with murmuring and mutinying against God and men Psal 73.9 he set not his mouth against heaven as the howling wolf when hunger-bit neither did his tongue walk through the earth cursing the day of his birth Lam. 3.29 and cutting deep into the sides of such as were meanes of his misery But putting his mouth in the dust if so bee there might be hope he cried by reason of his affliction The time of affliction is the time of supplication no time like that for granting of suites Zech. 13.9 Gods afflicted may have what they will of him then such are his fatherly compassions to his sick children he reserveth his best comforts for the worst times and then speaketh to the hearts of his people when he hath brought them into the wildernesse Hos 2.13 This Jonah experimented and therefore said I cried out of mine affliction unto the Lord. Ad Dominum asslicto de pectore suspirando And he heard me How else am I alive amidst so many deaths here 's a visible answer a reall return Oh blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Psal 66.20 Surely as the cloud which riseth out of the earth many times in them and insensible vapours falleth down in great and abundant showers so our prayers which ascend weak and narrow return with a full and enlarged answer This was but a pittifull poore prayer that Ionas here made as appeares ver 4. and so was that of David Psal 31.22 For I said in mine hast I am cut off from before thine eyes Neverthelesse thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee It would be wide with us if God should answer the best of us according to our prayers yea though well watered with teares sith Ipsae lacrymae sixt lacrymabiles c. we had need to weep over our teares sigh over our sobs mourne over our griefs c. Jonah was so taken with this kindnesse from the Lord his God that he repeates it and celebrates it a second time out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice The whales belly he calleth hels-belly because horrid and hideous deep and dismall Thence he cried as David did De profundis and was heard and delivered Yea had hell it self closed her mouth upon a praying Jonah it could not long have held him but must have vomited him up A Mandamus from God will do it at any time Psa 44.4 and what cannot faithfull Praier have of God there is a certaine omnipotency in it said Luther Verse 3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep A graphicall description of his wofull condition which yet he remembreth now as waters that are past and is thankfull to his Almighty Deliverer See the like in David Psa 116.3 and learn of these and other Saints to acknowledge the uttermost extremity of a calamity after we are delivered out of it For hereby thy judgement will be the better instructed and the more convinced thine heart also will be the more inlarged to admire and thy mouth the wider opened to celebrate the power wisdome and mercy of God in thy deliverance As if this be not done God will be provoked either to inflict heavier judgements or else to cease to smite thee any more with the stripes of a father and to give thee up for a lost child for thou had'st cast me into the deep Not the mariners but Thou didst it and therefore there was no averting or avoyding it Thou had'st cast me with a force as a stone out of a sling or as that mighty Angel Rev. 18.21 that took up a stone like a great milstone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence c. In the middest of the seas Heb in the heart of the sea 's so Mat. 12.40 So shall the Son of man be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth And Deut. 4.11 we read of the heart of heaven that is the middle of it as the heart sitteth in the middest of the body as king of that Isle of Man Now if it were so grievous to be cast into the main Sea what shall it be to be hurled into hell by such an hand and with such a force into that bottomelesse gulf whence nothing was ever yet boyed up againe and the floods compassed me about Aquarum confluges The Sea whence all floods or rivers issue and whereto they return Homer calleth the Ocean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a river by the figure Miôsis Danaeus here noteth that out of that gulf of the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which of Plato is called Tartarus that is hell the waters do flow into the veines of the earth as it is Eccles 1.7 losing their saltnesse in the passage Here Jonah cried out as Psa 69.1.2 Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my soule I fink in deep mire where there is no standing I am come into the deep waters where the floods overflow me It was onely his faith that held him up by the chin and like blown bleathers bore him alost all waters all thy billowes and thy waves passed over me All so it seemed to Jonah that God had powred out all his displeasure upon him but he sufâ—ereth not his whole wrath to arise against his people neither remembreth iniquity for ever Thy billowes or surges not the seas but thine God seemed to fight against Jonah with his own hand David likewise in a desertion complaines that all Gods waves and floods were gone over him Ps 42.7 In this case for it may be any ones case let us do as Paul and his company did in that dismall tempest Act. 27. when they saw neither sun nor star for diverse dayes and nights together cast anchor of hope even beyond hope and then wait and wish for day God will appeare at length and all shall clear up he will deliver our soules from the nethermost hell Vers 4. Then I said I am cast
holy violence as Tertullian saith the good people of his time did The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much but then it must be the working stirring labourfull prayer as the word signifieth that strives and struggles and straines every veine in the heart as Elias seemed to do by that posture in prayer of putting his head betwixt his leggs 1 King 18.42 that sets awork all the faculties of the soule and all the graces of the spirit that stirrs up dust as Jacob did maketh a man sweat as our Saviour who being in an agonie prayed the more earnestly Luk. 22.44 not without strong crying and teares and was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7 For such a prayer when a man cryes to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mightily or with all his strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it availeth much it can do any thing as Paul using the same words saith I can do all things through Christ who streng theneth me Philip. 4.13 Yea let them turn every one from his evill way c. For else Prayer profits not Humiliation is to no purpose without Reformation Repentance for sin without repentance from sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there must be fruits meet for repentance answerable to amendment of life tantamount as repentance and that weigh just as much as it for Optima aptissima poenitentia est nova vita saith Luther the best and truest repentance is a new life and if gods people will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and withall turn from their evill wayes then he will do much for them 2 Chron. 7.14 and from the violence that is in their hands Heb. In the hollow of their hands where it lay hid as it were but not from God who here bids them turn from their wrong-dealing and rapacity This was their speciall sin ut in magnis imperijs emporiis magnae sunt rapinae therefore are they charged to relinquish it It is a speech saith Mercer like to that of our Saviour Go tell my Disciples and Peter c. Tell them all but be sure you tell Peter So here turn from all your evill wayes but especially from the violence that is in your hands See Es 59.6 Ezech. 23.27 Psal 7.4 The Hebrewes understand this text of restitution to be made of evill-gotten goods or wrongfully deteined from the right owners This say they must be done or the party can be no more renewed by repentance then a man could be legally purified by the washing of water when he continued to hold in his hand an unclean thing That of Austin is well known The sin is not remitted till that which hath bin ill-gotten from another be restored And that of Father Latimer Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Aug. Restore or else you will cough in hell and the Devils will laugh at you Gravell in the kidneys will not grate so upon you as a little guiltinesse in this kind will do upon your consciences The same Latimer tells us in a sermon of his afore K. Edw 6. that the first day that he preached about Restitution there came one and gave him twenty pounds to restore the next time another and brought him in thirty pounds another time another gave him two hundred pounds ten shillings The Law for restitution see Num. 5.6 7. the party must not only confesse but restore or he is not a true convert And this will well appeare when death comes to draw the curtaine and looke in upon a man Hence our Henry the 7. in his last will and testament after the disposition of his soul and body Speed 995. Turk hist fol. 767. he willed restitution should be made of all such monies as had unjustly been levied by his officers And the like we read of Selymus the grand Signiour in the Turkish history Verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent This is the speech of one that doubteth and yet despaireth not like that of David praying for his sick child Who can tell whether God will be gratious to me that the child may live 2 Sam. 12.22 We are staggering saith Saint Paul but not wholy sticking 2 Cor. 4.8 They that go down to the pit of despaire as well as of the grave Es 38.18 cannot hope for thy truth but are hurried headlong into hell as the Gergesites swine were into the sea The Prophet Jonah was peremptory that by such a day Niniveh should be destroyed These men therefore had good reason to doubt if not of the pardon of their sins yet of the saving of their city All their hope is that this that Jonah denounced was not Gods absolute decree but onely his threatening and that conditionall too viz. except they repented This if they could do and heartily they knew not but that mercy might be yet had Keep hope in heart or the work will go on heavily Psal 43. ult Hope is the daughter of Faith but such as is a staff to her aged mother See the Note on Ioel. 2.14 Of God repenting I have spoken elsewhere Verse 10. And God saw their works i. e. He noted and noticed them to others Or he saw them that is he approved of them Videre Dei est approbare Let God but see Repentance as a rainbow appearing in our hearts and lives and he will never drown us in destruction But unlesse God sees turning he sees no work in a fast saith One upon this very Text. God may say to impenitent fasters saith Another as Isaac did to his father Behold the fire and wood but where is the lamb Or as Jacob did concerning Joseph Here 's the coat but where 's the child Get thee behind said Jehu to the messengers what hast thou to do with peace Confessions and humiliations are our messengers but if the heart be not broken if the life be not amended what peace The Talmudists note here that God is not said to have seen their sack-cloth and ashes but their repentance and works those fruits of their faith truth in the inward parts which God eyeth with singular delight Ier. 5.3 as the work of his own spirit Eph. 8.9 August Certum est nos facere quod facimus sed ille facit ut facimus and he is pleased to call his grace in us our works for our incouragement in well-doing and freely to crown it in us without any merit on our part That they turned from their evill way To which they were by nature and ill custome so wedded and wedged that they could never have been loosened but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of heaven The conversion of a sinner from the evill of his way is Gods own handy-work Jer. 31.18 2 Tim. 2.25 Ezech. 6.9 Plato went three times into Sicily to convert Dionysius the tyrant and could do no good on him Polemo of a drunkard by hearing Xenocrates is said to have become a Philosopher But what saith Ambrose to
Church out of which went the law that is the Gospâ—l ver 2. See Esa 40.9 and 52.7 Heb. 12 22. There shall Christ raigne and so he did ever but now he shall declare himself to be Messiah the Prinâ—e Dan. 9.25 Lord and hâ—â—st Act. 2.36 Saviour and Soveraigne As king he 1. of rebels makes them sâ—â—jects willing to be ruled by him 2. He preserves them in that priviledge by his spirit 3. He gives them lawes far better then those of the twelve tables â—â— Rome which yet far exceeded saith Cicero all the learned libraries of the Philosâ—phâ—rs in worth and weight 4. He sweetly inclineth their wilâ— to yeâ—â—d universal obedience thereunto and to crosse themselves so they may please 〈◊〉 5 He rewards them with comfort and peace here and with life eternall hereafter 6. He destroyes all the enemies of his Church and then at last delivers up the kingdome to his Father 1 Cor. 15.24 not his essentiall kingdome as God but his oecâ—â—omical kingdome as Mediatour Verse 8. And thou O tower of the flock that is O Church of Christ who is oft compared to a shepherdesse in the Canticles here to a Migdal-â—der or tower of the flock that flock of Christ which hath golden fleeces precious souse in reference either to that tower Gen. 35.21 built for the safety and seâ—vice of shepherds or else to the sheep-gate in Ierusalem whereof read Nâ—h 3.1 and 12.39 so called from the sheep-market which for the conveniency of the Temple was neare to it as was also the sheep-pool called Bethesda Ioh 5.2 where the sacrifices were washed The world is a field the Church a fold in that field and a strong fold strong as a tower yea a strong-hold Ophel as it is stiled in the next words and that of the daughter of Zion that is of the Christian Church the inviolable security whereof is here noted unto thee shall it come even the first dominion such as was in Davidâ— dayes and Solomons laâ—ge rich peaceable prosperous terrible to other nations c. This was carnally understood by the Jewes who therefore drâ—ame to thiâ— day of an earthly kingdome and have in their â—ynagogues a crown ready to set upon the head of their Messiah whensoever he shall come neither were Christs disciples without a tincture of this Pharisaicall leaven whence their often-enquiries when the kingdome of God shall come and their frivolâ—us contests among themselves who should be the greatest in Christs kingdome who should sit at his right hand and at his left c. as if there should have been in Christs kingdome as in Solomons a distribution here of honours and offices And this groundlesse conceit hung as bullets of lead at their eye-lids that they could not look up to see that Christs kingdome was spirituall and not of this present world the kingdome shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem This the Jewes mistaking it as before pray earnestly that it may come citò Baxtor Syn Jud. citiùs citissimè bimherah bejamenâ—s with speed and even in our dayes oft throwing open their windowes to behold their King and to receive their long-looked-for preferment in his earthly monarchy Ver. 9. Now why doest thou cry out aloud Hout and houle q.d. hast thou any such cause to be so unreasonably and out ragiously impatient so long as Christ is thy king and counsellour What if there now be no king in thâ—e What if thy counsellour be perished A wo-case I confesse and great confusion most needes be the issue of it as it fell out in Ierusalem after Iosiah was slaine Confer Hos 3.4 with the Note there But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing neither need the Saints be so excessively dejected with outward crosses so long as Christ is with them and for them If Seneca could say to his friend Polybius Fas tibi non est salvo Caesare de fortuna tua queri Be thy case never so miserable Sen. ad â—olyb Consol thou hast no cause to complaine so long as Caesar is in safety How much lesse ground of mourning or murmuring have Christs subjects so long as He liveth and raigneth Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est Calvin Epist alioqui totus desperassem writeth Miconius to Calvin of the Churches enemies I am glad that Christ is Lord of all for otherwise I should have had no hope of help at all David in deep distress comforteth himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 and Psal 119.94 I am thine save me saith He q. d. my professed subjection to thee calleth for thy care and protection of me and here he stayes himself Kings and Councellours are great stayes to a state but Christ is not tied to them These are but particular good things as is health against sicknesse wealth against poverty c. but Christ is an Vniversall good all sufficient and satisfactory every way proportionable and fitting to our soules and severall necessities Why then do we cry aloud as utterly undone why sing we not rather with David when at greatest under The Lord liveth and blessed be the God of my salvation Psal 18.46 It is God that avengeth me and delivereth me from the violent man c He is King of all the earth He is wonderfull in counsel and excellent in working c. It was a learned mans Motto Blessed be God that he is God and blessed be Christ that he reignes for ever that Counsel is his and sound wisdome that he hath understanding he hath strength Prov. 8.14 for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travel They have but they needed not hadst thou but turned into thy counting-house and considered thy manifold priviledges in Christ thy King and Counsellour We oft punish our selves by our passions as the lion that beates himself with his own taile Sed ô benè saith an Interpreter here quod sint hidolores saltem similes parturientium It is yet an happinesse that the Churches pangs though bitter Tarnou yet are no worse then as those of a woman in travell For 1. The paines of travell seldome bring death but life both to mother and child so do afflictions to the Saints 2 Cor. 4.17 Heb. 12.9 2. Travell comes not by chance nor for long continuance neither doth affliction Ioh. 7.30 Luk. 22.53 3. Travell is unavoidable and must be patiently born so must affliction or else we lose the fruit of it Act. 14.22 2 Tim. 3.12 4. Sharp though it be yet it is short so mourning lasteth but till morning Psal 30.6 and 73.24 and 135.14 Ioh. 16.15 Ier. 10.23 5. As the travelling woman hath the help of other women so hath the afflicted of God Angels and men 6. Lastly as she remembreth the sorrow no more for joy of a manchild born into the world so is it here Ioh. 16.20 Rom. 8.17 18. Verse 10. Be in pain and labour to bring forth c. Be sensible of thine ensuing captivity and take on but yet with hope
up and down when the deadly arrow sticks in their ribbes but not so easily shake it off Verse 6. Did they not take hold of your fathers Overtake and catch them as Huntsmen their prey or as one enemy doth another in flight 1 King 18.27 2 King 25.5 to drag them down to the bottome of hell A godly man as he hath peace with God with himselfe and with the creatures so he hath also with the Ordinances and may say as Hezekiah Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken Are not my words alwaies good saith God to them that walk uprightly Mic. 2.7 Excellently Augustine Adversarius est nobis quamdiu sumus ipsi nobis quamdiu tu tibi inimicus es inimicum habebis sermonem Dei Gods word is adversary to none but such as are adversaries to themselves Neither doth it condemn any but such as shall be assuredly condemned by the Lord Cor anima Dei Greg. in 3. Reg. for what is the Word but the heart and soul of God as Gregory saith And what saith the Essential Word of God who came out of the bosome of his father and knew all his counsell He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the some shall judge him in the last day Iohn 12.48 Oh consider this ye that forget God that slight his word as if it were but wind that bely the Lord and say It is not he neither shall the cvill foretold come upon us neither shall we see sword nor famine And the Prophets shall become wind and the word is not in them thus shall it bee done unto them Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts because ye speak this word and is there not such language of many mens hearts now-adayes Behold I will make my words not wind but fire and this people wood and it shall devour them Ier. 5.12 13 14. The Word of God in the mouths of his Ministers may well be likened to Moses his rod which whiles he held it in his hand it flourished and brought forth almonds but being cast upon the ground it became a serpent Semblably Gods words and statutes if laid to heart they yeeld fruit and comfort but if slighted or snuffed at as Mal. 1.13 serpent-like they will sting the soul and become a savour of death c. This contempt will also call for a sword to revenge the quarrel of the Covenant as it did upon these mens fathers for their instance and admonition It is reckoned by Daniel as a great aggravation of Belshazzars sinne Dan. 5.22 that hee was not sensible of his father Nebuchadnezzars pride and fall And thou his sâ—nne Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this The sinne of these Jewes in the Text was the greater because their Fathers and Elders either out of sound conversion or at least out of clear conviction of conscience had confessed and remonstrated the truth and justice of God in threatening and executing his judgements upon themselves saying as Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous for we have rebelled against his commandements and as chap. 2.17 The Lord hath done that which he had devised he hath fulfilled his word he hath thrown down and hath not pittied c. Hear them in their own words here like as the Lord of hosts whose power is irresistible thought devised determined with himselfe Zamam and accordingly denounced by his Prophets to doe unto us who did not the words which he commanded us Ier. 11.8 according to our wayes which were alwaies grievous Psal 10.5 and according to our doings that were not good Ezek. 36.31 so hath he dealt with us for he loves to retaliate and to render to every transgression and disobedience a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 Verse 7. Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month The third month after the former prophecy when the Jewes probably had practised the doctrine of Repentance so earnestly pressed upon them and had humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God who was now ready to lift them up by this and the seven following most comfortable Visions touching the restauration and reformation of the Church and State The Devill and his impes love to bring men into the briars and there to leave them as familiars forsake their witches when they have brought them once into fetters as the Priests left Judas the traytour to look to himself Mat. 27.4 and as the Papists cast off Cranmer after that by subscribing their Articles he had cast himself into such a wretched condition that there was neither hope of a better nor place for a worse Melch. Ad. in vita ut jam nec honestè mori nec vivere inhonestè liceret But such is not Gods manner of dealing with those that tremble at his word and humble at his feet Deijcit ut relevet premit ut solatia praestet He comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 commandeth others to comfort the feeble-minded 1 Thes 5.14 and noteth those that do not with a black-coal Nigro carbone notar Job 6.14 See the workings of his bowels the rowlings of his compassions kindled into repentance toward his penitentiaries Jer. 31.20 Hos 11.8 Esay 40.1 2. See how he comforts them with cordials according to the time wherein he had afflicted them Psal 90.15 and in the very thing wherein he had abased them as he once dealt with their Head Philip. 2.7 8. Kerse 8. I saw by night The usuall time for such revelations It may note moreover the obscurity of the Prophecy whence also the mention of myrtle-trees low and shady and that in a bottom as Calvin conceiveth and all this that he might give a taste of good hope to the Jews by little and little and behold a man riding upon a red horse Not Alexander the Great riding upon his horse Bucephalus and translating the Empire from the Persians to the Grecians as Arias Montanus conceited it But the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 the Captain of the Lords Host Josh 4.14 and of our salvation Heb. 2.10 riding upon a red horse In the same sense saith One that this colour is given to his garments Esay 63.1 2 3. and to the Angels horse Rev. 6.4 The wild Bull saith Another of all things cannot abide any red colour Therefore the hunter for the nonce standing before a tree puts on a red garment whom when the Bull seeth he runneth at him as hard as he can drive But the hunter stepping aside the bulls horns stick fast in the tree as when David slipped aside Sauls spear stuck fast in the wall Such an hunter is Christ He lifted up upon the tree of his crosse had his garment dipt and died in his own blood as one that cometh with red garments from Bozra Therefore the Devil and his Angels like wild bulls of Bashan ran at him with all their force in that
their cruelty the valour of the patients the savagenesse of the persecutours strove together till both exceeding nature and belief bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers These were those lion-like men of the tribe of Judah that took the kingdom by violence Judah which signifieth the Confessour had the kingdom as Levi had the Priest-hood both forfeited by Reuben who was weak as water Gen. 49. and I will save the house of Joseph that is Ephraim but for the ten tribes whom God here promiseth to save not to bring back saith the Geneva-Note on Ver. 9. But others there are that gather from these words and these that follow that God will not onely preserve them but reduce and resettle them in their own countrey yea and multiply them so abundantly as that their countrey shall not be able to hold them Verse 10. Whence cometh Ashurs and Egypts subjection to Christ that is all the tract of the East and of the South verse 1. and their perpetual establishment in the faith Verse 12 And I will bring them again to place them I will place them in their houses as Hos 11.11 The Sept. render it I will cause them to dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compos The Caldee I will gather together their captivity Some special mercy is assured them by this special word of a mixt conjugation for I have mercy upon I them Here 's a double cause alledged of these so great and gracious promises and both excluding works First Gods mere mercy Secondly his Election of grace for I am the Lord their God This latter is the cause of the former for God chose his people for his love and then loveth them for his choice The effects of which love are here set down 1. That he heareth their prayers I will hear them 2. That he reaccepteth and restoreth them in Christ as if they had never offenced against him They shall be as though I had not cast them off That was a cutting speech and far worse then their captivity Jer. 16.13 When God not onely threateneth to cast them out of their countrey into a strange land but that there he would slew them no favour Here he promiseth to pitty them and then they must needs think deliverance was at next door by and they shall be as though I had not cast them off And this the sooner and the rather because they called them out-casts saying This is Zion whom no man seeketh after Jer. 30.17 The Jewish Nation saith Tully shew how God regards them that have been so oft overcome viz. by Nehuchad-nezzar Pompey c. God therefore promiseth to provide for his own great name by being fully reconciled to his poor people whom the world looked upon abjects for I am the Lord their God And if I should not see to their safey Psal 119. it would much reflect upon me This David well knew and therefore prayes thu I am thine Lord save me and will hear them Or I will speak with them speak to their hearts It is no more saith One then if a man were in a fair dining-room with much good company and there is some speciall friend whom he loveth dearly that calleth him aside to speak in private of businesse that neerly concerneth him and though he go into a worse room yet he is well enough pleased So if God in losse of friends houses countrey comforts whatsoever will speak with us will answer us the losse will be easily made up Philip Lantgrave of Hesse being a long time prisoner under Charles 5. was demanded what upheld him all that time He answered that he had felt the favour of God and the Divine consolations of the Martyrs There be Divine comforts that are felt onely under the crosse I will bring her into the wildernesse and there speak to her heart Hos 2.13 Israel was never so royally provided for with Manna Quails and other cates as when they were in the wildernesse The crosse is anointed with comfort which makes it not onely light but sweet not onely not troublesome and importable but desirable and delightful saith Bernard Thy presence O Lord made the very gridiron sweet to Laurence saith another How easily can God make up our losse and breaches Verse 7. And they of Ephraim shall be as a mighty man The same again and in the same words for more assurance because the return of the ten Tribes might seem a thing more incredible Erant enim quasi putridum cadaver saith Calvin here they were as rotten carkasses and they had obiter onely heard of these promises as if some grain of feed should be dropt by the high-way-side for they were now as aliens from the Common-wealty of Israel and their hert shall rejoyce as throught wine Which naturally exhilarateth Psal 104.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is called by Plato one of the Mitigaters of humane misery See Prov. 31.6 with the Note Some nations use to drink wine freely before they enter the battel to make them undaunted Some think here may be an allusion to such a custom I should rather understand it of that generous wine of the spirit Eph. 5.18 yea their children shall see it Therefore they were not to antedate the promises but to wait the accomplishment which should certainly be if not them yet to theirs after them even a full restauration in due season Verse 8. I will hisse for them and gather them As a shepheard hisseth or whistleth for his flock See Judg. 5.16 where it should not be translated the bleatings of the flocks but the hissings or whistlings of the shepheards to their flocks when they would get them together God who hath all creatures at his beck and check can easily bring back his hanished gather together his dispersed with a turn of a hand Zech. 13.7 with a blast of his mouth as here as if any offer to oppose him herein he can blow them to destruction Iob. 4.9 He can frown them to death Psal 80.16 He can crush them between his fingers as men do a moth Psal 39.11 and crumble them to crattle Psal 146.4 Like sheep they are laid in the grave death shall feed on them and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling Psal 49.14 For I have redeemed them I have in part and that 's a pledge of the whole my hands also shall finish it as Chap 4.9 God doth not his work to the halves neither must we but if he shall be All in All unto us we must be altogether His Cant. 2.16 His is a covenant of mercy ours of obedience which must be therefore full and finall as Christ hath obtained for us an entire and everlasting redemption Heb. 9.12 and they shall increase as they have increased By verue of that promise to Abraham Gen. 13.16 I will multiply thy seed as the dust of the earth and Gen 15.5 as the stars of
and it soon repents him concerning his servants Prov. 12 10. but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Those shepheards in the former verse were grievous wolves what wonder therefore that they spared not the flock Act. 20.29 But yet whiles God pittied them there was hope in Israel concerning this thing as He said Ezr. 10.2 whereas now that Gods soul is disjoynted from them and his bowels shut up desolation must needs be at â—ext door by Ier. 6.8 Jer. 17.17 Be not thou a terrour unto me O Lord said that Prophet and then I care not though all the world frown upon me and set against me But woe be to Lo-ruamah the people of Gods wrath and of his curse I have noted before out of Ier. 16.13 that Gods I will shew you no favour was worse then I will cast you out of this land I will deliver the men Heb. I will make them to be found pulling them out of their starting holes and lurking places Evil shall hunt the violent man to destroy him Psal 140.11 every one unto his neighbours hand As into the hang-mans hand this was fulfilled especially during the siege by the seditious within the walls of Jerusalem Josephâ—d bel Jâ—d l. 6. cap. 2. and 4. one man proving a wolf nay a devil to another and into the hand of his king The Roman Emperour who disclaimed indeed the name of a king to avoid the hatred of the people and yet exercised the full power of kings both at home and abroad These lews first subdued by the Romans and reduced into a province did afterwards rebel though they had once in opposition to Christ cryed out we have no king but Caesar and were therefore after five moneths siege utterly ruined For what with extremity of famine and what with the fury of the sword there perished in Jerusalem and in the province adjoyning Joseph vâ—i supra as Eusâ—buis affirms about 600000. able men to bear armes Or as Josephus holds who was an eye-witnesse and prelent in the war there died 1100000. besides others taken captive to the number of 97000. and I will smite the Land So that it hath lain as it were bed-ridden ever since Verse 7. And will I seed the flock of slaughter even you O poor of the flock Or as Mâ—ntanus readeth it for you for your sakes O poor of the flock i.e. O ye that are poor in spirit pure in heart my little little flock as our Saviours expression is in Luke Even for your sakes will I yet for a time spare the reprobate goates feeding them by my Prophets and provoking them to repentance The word and Sacraments and all Gods common temporal favours are in respect of external participation communicated to Reprobates by way of Concomitancy onely because they are intermixed with the Elect. Thus tares mingled among wheat partake of the fat of the land and moysture of the manure which was not intended for them and I took unto me two staves viz. That I might therewith do the office of a shepheard and yet in more then an ordinary manner For shepheards commonly carry but one staffe or crook or at most but a staffe on their shoulders and a rod in their hands as David shews in his Pastoral Psal 23.3 But here are two staves taken to shew saith Mr. Calvin that God would surpasse all the care and pains of men in governing that people the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bands What these two should mean much adoe is made among Interpreters Some are for the two Governants Others for the two Testaments Others for the order of Christs preaching sweet and mild at first terrible and full of threatnings at last as appeareth in Ma. 24.24 25. But what a wilde conceit was that of Anthâ—â—â— Arch-Bishop of Florence who understood the words of Dominick and his Order construing them thus I that is God took unto me two staves vir Beauty that is the Order of Preachers Hist Proph. 3 tit 23. and Bonds that is the Order of Minorites who are girt with a cord The sounder sort of lixpositours make it to be a figure of the two wayes which Christ useth at all times in feeding of his Church the one by love guiding them by his word and Spirit the other by severity punishing them by the cruel hand of their enemies See Esay 10.5 Thus Vaâ—ai lus Dâ—odue c. And that this is the true sense saith A Lapide it appeareth First because this oracle of the Prophet is of the time to come and not of the time past Secondly the event that best interpreter of prophecies maketh for it For first Gods government of the common-wealth of Israel was beautiful and gentle in the time of the Maccabees and of Christ and then terrible and destructory in the time of the Romans of Nero Vespasian Adrian c. Thirdly because that a little after the Prophet saith that he brake both the staves that is he utterly rejected the Jews and brought his wrath upon them to the utmost which cannot be meant of any other time then that of Christ and of Titus Especially since in the fourth place the Prophet declareth Verse 13. that the stâ—ff of Beauty was broken at the death of Christ for their unworthy selling and slaughtering of him as if he had been some slave or base person and I fed the slock q. d. I did my part by them Thy destruction therefore is of thy self O Israel England is a mighty Animal saith a Politician which can never die except it kill it self The same might be much more said of the Jesish Common-wealth which Iosephus truely and trimly calleth a Theocratia or a God-government for the form and first constitution of it and Moses in this respect magnifieth that nation above all other Deut. 4.6 7. Verse 8. Three shepheards also I cut off in one moneth That is in a short time I took away and displaced even by the heathen Princes many proud princes and Priests such as were Menelaus Jason the Aristobuli Hireani Annas Caiaphas and others Or I removed those three sorts of shepheards of the old Law viz. Princes Prophets and Priests Thus Theodoret and Vatablus Diodate understands the text of the three chief Empires that had tyrannized over the people ver 6 3 and 12,10 Namely the Caldean Persian and Grecian Empire which were destroyed by the Son of God Dan. 2.45 But they do best in mine opinion that by these three shepheards understand those three sects among the Jews at Christs coming in the flesh viz. Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes whereof though the Pharisees were the best and most exact for the outward observation of the Law yet are they in the Gospel for their putid hypocrisy first sharply taxed by our Saviour after the Baptist and then plainly rejected and even sent to hell by a chain-shot of eight links of woes Mat. 23. and my soul loathed them Or was taken off from them or
and at length return them up again to his heavenly Father without losse of any one He is also called the Man by an excellency that matchlesse man the chief of ten thousand as his mother is called hagnalma that famous Virgin whom all generations are bound to call blessed He is Man-God both in one and is therefore also called Gods-fellow or Mate as being Consubstantiall to the Father according to the Godhead and very neer akinne to him according to the Man-hood by reason of the hypostaticall union of both natures into one person the Man Christ Jesus Smite the shepheard that that blessed Fountcin of his Bloud mentioned verse 1. may be opened and the flock of God washed and healed and satiated as the people were when the Rock was smitten and so set abroach and as when God clave a hollow place in the jaw-bone of the Asse so that there came water thereout Sampson drank and was revived And as when the Alabaster-box of ointment was broke all the house was filled with a sweet savour Judg. 15.19 And the sheep shall be scattered scattered and scattered shifting for themselves and leaving Christ to the mercy of his enemies who seized upon him as so many Carrion Kites upon a silly Dove Thomas who once said come let us go dye with him disappeares and is lost Peter followes aloof off but better he had heen farther off John if at least it were he flies away stark naked for hast Iudas comes nearer to him but to betray him with a kisse But is this thy kindnesse to thy friend Christ had indented with the enemie aforehand for their securitie Joh. 18.8 so that they needed not have retreated so disorderly and scattered as they did But the fear of man bringeth a snare Prov. 29.25 Howbeit mans badnesse cannot break off the course of Christs goodnesse For though they thus unworthily forsake him and leave him at the worst as they say yet I will turn my hand saith he upon the little ones i.e. I will recollect my dispersed flock how little soever either for number or respect in the world and bring back my banished So soon doth it repent the good Lord concerning his servants Mich. 7.18 Psal 136 23. He remembreth not iniquity for ever saith the Prophet because mercy pleaseth him and again He remembreth us in our low estates for his mercy endureth for ever He looked back upon Peter when his mouth was now big swoln with oathes and execrations and set him a weeping bitterly He called for Thomas after his resurrection and confirmed his weak faith by a wonderfull condescention He sealed up his love to them all again restoring them to their ministeriall imployment and not so much as once upbraiding them with their base dereliction but only with their unbelief Lyra and others sence the Text thus I will turn my hand upon the little ones that is I will so smite the Shepheard Christ that not only the sheep shall be scattered but the little lambs also even the least and lowest Christians shall have their share of sufferings shall feel the weight of my hand shall pledge the Lord Christ in that cup of afflictions that I have put into his hand shall be conformed to the Image of Gods Son as his co-sufferers that he may be the first born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 And this was fulfilled in the persecutions that followed soon after our Saviours death Ecclesia haeres crucis saith Luther and Persecutio ect Evangelij genius saith Calvin Persecution is the black Angel that dogges the Church the red horse that â—ollows the white at the heels All the comfort is that Gods holy hand hath a speciall stroke in all those afflictions that are laid upon his faithfull people I will turn mine hand c. Verse 8. Two parts therein shall be cut off and die q.d. they shall they shall how strange or incredible soever this sad tidings seem to you it shall be even so take my word for it Behold the severity of God Rom. 11.22 In the Greek it is the Resection or Cutting off as a Chirurgion cutteth off proud and dead flesh The Just Lord is in the middest thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will not do iniquity c. Zeph. 3.5 Fiat justitia ruat coelum may seem to be his Motto In point of justice he stands not upon multitudes Psal 9.17 It is all one to him whether against a Nation or against a man only Job 34.29 National sins bring national plagues heinous sinnes heavy punishments In the universal deluge God swept away all as if he had blotted out that part of his title The Lord the Lord gracious merciful c. and had taken up that of Attilas Orbis flagellum The worlds scourge Sodoms sinnes were multiplyed above measure therefore God took them away as he saw good Ezek. 16.49 50 and hath thrown them out as St. Jude speaketh for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude 7. Herodotus a Heathen Historian saith the very same of the destruction of Troy viz. that the ruines and rubbish thereof are set forth for an example of that noted Rule that God greatly punisheth great offences and that hainous sinnes bring hideous plagues Here we have two parts of three cut off in the land of Judea as it fell out at the last destruction thereof by the Romans at which time more then a million of men perished see Matth. 24.21 with the Note And what think we shall become of Babylon the great Her sinnes reach up to heaven whereunto they are even glewed and fastened as the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 18.5 therefore she shall be brought down to hell with Capernaum for flagitium flagellum sicuâ— acus filum therefore shall her plagues come in one day to confute their fond conceit of an eternal Empire death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly overthrown with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her full able to effect it Rev. 18.18 seem it to Babels brats never so improbable or impossible It was never besieged since it became Papal but it was taken whereas before it was held invincible Sinne that lyeth at the bottom will easily undermine and overturn the walis though never so strong built as the voice from heaven told Phocas the Murtherer The bloud of that innocent Lamb of God lyes heavy upon the whole Nation of the Jews to this day Their last devastation and present dismal dispersion is such as that one of their own Rabines concludes from thence that their Mesliah must needs be come and they must needs suffer so much for killing him but the third shall be left therein A holy remnant kept for a reserve Good husbands cast not all their corn into the oven but keep some for seed Esa 6.13 But yet in it shall be a tenth saith another Prophet Es 17.6 there shall
he rebuked the red-sea and it was dried up Psal 105. and as he rebuked the winds Mat. 8.26 the fever Luk. 4.39 the devil Mat. 7.18 he will say unto them Abite 〈◊〉 hine Get you hence and that 's enough for they are all his servants Psal 119.91 He is the great Centurion or rather Lord of Hosts that faith to this creature Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh c. if he do but say Who is on my side who all creatures look out at their windows as ready prest to do his pleasure neither is there any so mean amongst them or so despicable that cannot if set on by him make the proudest on earth stoop and say This is the singe of God But of this see more in the 1. Dost on vers 18. of this Chapter Let all that look for Gods blessing either upon their persons or possessions make their peace with God the genealogie of corn and wine is resolved into him Hos 2.22 and bring him all his tythes into the store-house c. les hee blast their fair hopes out off the meat from their mouthes take his own and bee gone take away his corn in the time thereof and his wine in the season thereof c. Hos 2.9 The Jews in our Saviours time suis malis edosthi were punctuail in paying their tythes even to a potherb Marth 23. And at this day though not in their own countrey nor have a beviticall Priesthood yet those of them that would bee reputed religious Godw. Heb. Antiq p. 277. do distribute in lieu of tythes the tenth of their increase unto the poor being perswaded that God doth blesse their increase the more For their usuall proverb is Dectma in dives fias â—ythe and be rich Of the young Lord Harrington the last of that name it is reported by Mr. Stock who preached his Funerall that he constantly gave the tenth of his yearly revenue to pious and charitable uses And of reverend Mr. Will Whately Minister of Banbary it is likewise recorded in his life that he set apart and expended for many years before he died for good uses the tenth part of his yearly comings in both out of his temporall and ecclesiasticall means of maintenance and that he never thrived in his outward estate till he took that course Besides the sweet comfort that the spirits of his wealth thus distilled as it were brought to his conscience both in life and at death and the blessing of a good name left behind him according to that which follows next in the text And all nations c. Verse 12. And all nations shall call you Hessed viz. for the abundance of outward comforts and commodities by the which the Nations measured mens happinesse saying Blessed is the people that is in such a ease Psal 144.15 Cyprus was for this cause anciently called Macaria that is the blessed countrey as having a sufficiency of all things within it self and England was called Regnum Dci the kingdome of God or the Fortunate Island and Englishmen Deires as those that were set safe de ira Dei from the wrath of God In the time of Pope lement the sixth as Robert of Avesbury testifieth when Lewis of Spain was chosen Prince of the Fortunate Islands and for the conquest thereof was to raise an Army in France and Italy the English Agent at Rome together with his company departed and gat home as conceiving that the Prince was bound for England then the which they thought there was not a more fortunate Island in the world Of the Island of Lycia Sol nus saith Lyciam Horatius claram dicit that all the day long the sky is never so cloudy but that the Sun may be seen there Semper in Sole siva est Rhodos The Rhodes is ever in the Sun-shine saith Aeneas Sylvius And of Alexandria in Egypt Ammianus Marcellizus observeth that once in the day the Sun hath been seen to shine over it I confesse the same cannot be said of England I remember also what I have read of a certain Frenchman who returning home out of England and being asked by a countreyman of his that was bound for England what service he would command him into this countrey Nothing but this said the other When you see the Sunne Per duos enim menses quibus ibi fui Solem mihi videre non licuit Garincieres de tabe Anglica p 84. Vt finem atque initium lucis exiguo discrimine in ternoscas Nomentque ex eo sortitam Polyh c. 17. have me commended to him for I have been there two moneths and could never see him in all that space Belike he was here in the deep of winter For at Summer Solistice Tacitus in the life of Agricola hath observed that the Sun shineth continually in Britanny and neither setteth nor riseth there but passeth so light by us by night that you can searce say we have any night at all But if we speak of the Sunshine of Gods grace and favour either for spirituals or temporals as Delos is said by Solinus to have been the first countrey that had the Sun shining upon it after the generall deluge and therehence to have had its name so was England one of the first Hands that both received Christ and that shook off Antichrist And for temporall blessings all nations call us blessed and count us a delightsome land indeed a land of desires such as all men would desire to dwell in for the exceeding fruitfulnesse and pleasantnesse of it it being the Court of Queen Ceres the granary of the Western world as forreigne Writers have termed it the paradise of pleasure and garden of God as our own Chronicler The truth is We may well say of England as the Italians do of Venice by way of proverb He that hath not seen it cannot beleeve what a dainty place it is and he that hath not lived there some good space cannot understand the worth of it Our Mr. Ascham Schoolmaster to Q. Eizabeth had lived there some time and had soon enough of it for though hee admired the place he utterly disliked the people for their loose living And the like alasse may be too truly affirmed of us We live in Gods good land but not by Gods good lawes we eat the fat and drink the sweet but we sanctifie not the Lord God in our hearts we live not as becometh Christians Our hearts like our Climate hath much more light then heat light of knowledge then heat of zeal our lukewarmnesse is like to be our bane our sinnes our snuffes that dimme our candlestick and threaten the removall of it O si siat id in nobis saith One quod in Sole videtur qui quibus affulserit ijs etiam calrem colorem impertire solet O that the Sun of righteousnesse would so shine upon us as to warm us and transforme us into the same image from glory to glory as by his Spirit O
Corsâ—etur Lutherus so esse Apostatam sed â—eatam sancium qui fidem diaâ—olâ— datam non servavit Athanasius was impeached by the Arrians of adultery Basil by his brethren of heresie Luther by the Papists of Apostacy Austere John is said to have a devil Sociable Christ to be a wine-bibber And it was the worse because from Scribes and Pharisees whose word must carry such credit with it as alone to condemn Christ We would not have brought him to thee were he not worthy of death And whose life must be a rule to others Do any of the Pharisees beleeve in him Take heed therefore what you hear and to whom you give credit But may I not beleeve mine own eyes Oâ—j judge the tree by the fruits Matth. 7. Not alwayes in matter of fact Sol. Our Saviour speaks there of heretikes and seducers and bids judge of them by their fruits that is by their doctrines and opinions that are corrupt and carnall But for point of practise the best tree doth not alwayes bear or not alwayes alike An apple-tree may have a fit of barrennesse as well as a crab tree or the fruit may be nipt sometimes by a frost God onely knows what sap is in the root what truth is in the heart and let him that knows it judge of it 2. Be favourable in sinnes strengthened by naturall inclination or by long continued custome which is not so easily broke off or by multitude of temptations and enticements The best minds when troubled yeeld inconsiderate motions as water that is violently stirred sends up bubbles and how often have carnall respects drawn weak goodnesse to disguise it self with sinne 3. Judge no man by that he is in a passion whether of grief fear or anger for these are violent and have made the holiest in their behaviour little â—esse then bestiall witnesse David in his sear of Sauls fury in his roaring over Absolom and rage at Nabal Passions like kine in a narrow passage ride one upon another and like heavy bodies down steep hills once in motion they know no ground but the bottom Oh how subject are Gods best Saints to weak passions and if they have the grace to ward an expected blow how easily are they surprized with a sudden foil Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest brests and the wisest are miscaried by their passions to their cost What shiprack of his faith and patience had meek Moses well-nigh made against the Rock Rimmon As at another time how did he in a sudden indignation cast away the two-Tables and abandon that which he would in cold blood have held faster then his life But passion doth so bemist the cleerest judgement otherwhiles that a man shall bee apt to think there is sense in sinning and that he hath some reason to be mad 4. Censure not any to be either better or worse for some particular action but consider what his main bent is and accordingly conceive of him David that saith his sinnes were more then the hairs of his head saith also in respect of his generall resolution and full purpose of heart I have not declined from thy statutes neither is there any way of wickednesse in me Saint Iohn looked upon the Lady 2 Joh 1.4 and her children as elect because they walked in the truth though not without some particular stumblings and aberrations And Saint Paul was confident of the Thessalonians election 1 Thes 1.4 though so compassed with infirmities that he doubted he had laboured in vain and feared their Apostacy 1 Thes 3.5 Perswaded also he was better things of the Hebrews Heb. 6.9 and such as accompany salvation though he found them slow of foot and dull of hearing and frights them with the terrour of the Lord upon Apostates Who can promise himself freedome from grosse infirmities when Aaron that went up into the mount comes down and doth that in the valley which he heard forbidden in the hill Gods best children may not onely be drenched in the waves of sinne but lie in them for a time and perhaps sink twice to the bottom before they recover Sudden indeliberate out-bursts contrary to the generall bent and purpose break not the league betwixt God and his people as the robberies done by Pirates of either Nation do not betwixt King and King A good man is habitually good when actually evil and an evil man is habitually evil when actually good He that goes up a hill may have many slips and falls yet is still said to be going up the hill because his face is toward the top A sheep may slip into a dich as he is leaping over it yea lye there some time till the shepheard finde it and help it out Behold I even I will both search my lost sheep and seek them out saith the Lord. I will seck that which was lost and bring again that which was driven away and will binde up that which was broken Ezek. 34.11 12.16 Rev 24. Psal 119.176 and will strengthen that which was sick I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day Christ the good shepheard tiddleth his lambs dyed for their ignorance Heb. 7.7 bare their infirmities Esay 53. breeds a first love in his little ones and gives charge that none despise them much lesse discard them no though they go astray as David did like a lost sheep And mark his reasons God despiseth them not Math 18.10 but senthis son to seek them and sets his Angels to tend and look to them therefore let none set light by them SECT XIV Take comfort and courage notwithstanding infirmities and failings in the manner LAstly this doctrine methinks might make the servants of God everlastingly merry it should wonderfully clear up the countenances and cheer up the hearts of all Gods chosen it should banish and bar out of their blessed souls all their unnecessary scruples distrusts dejections and discouragements arising from the sense of their manifold defects distractions in duty indisposition ignorance forgetfulnesse omissions or failings in the manner All which so long as they are groned under grieved at and striven against Peccata nobis non nocent si non placent Augustin God will never impute unto them nay he will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him Now how that is they can well tell that are parents of towardly and tractable children that are good-natured and well-conditioned And yet they cannot neither be they never so tender and their children never so tractable sith there is no more comparison betwixt their mercy and his then is betwixt a molehill and a mountain nay the least drop of a bucket and the main Ocean Yea I dare be bold to say that all the mercies of all the fathers mothers husbands wives friends allyes in the world compared to his mercy are mere cruelty This makes the Prophet as having