Ezek. 17.4 Wells digged A great commodity in that hot Countrey Vine-yards and Olive-yards A singular help to house-keeping So they did eate and were filled They had enough of every thing and did eate whiles eating was good as they say Queen Elizabeth did seldome eate but of one dish rose ever with an appetite and lived about seventy years King Edward the sixth was wont to call her His sweet sister Temperance And delighted themselves in thy great goodnesse They lived in Gods good land but not by Gods good Lawes the refreshing they found by his best creatures was none other but such as his who warmeth himself and saith Aha I am warme I have seene the fire Isa 44.16 Verse 26. Neverthelesse they were disobedient and rebelled See how full in the mouth these holy Levites were in aggravating their own and their forefathers sinnes which swelled as so many toads in their eyes neither could they ever sufficiently disgrace them This is the property and practise of the true penitentiary They cast thy Law behinde their backs That is they vilipended and undervalued it God drew them by the cords of a man so the cords of kindnesse are called Hos 11.4 because befitting the nature of a man and likeliest to prevaile with rational people but they like men or rather like beasts transgressed the Covenant and as if God had even hired them to be wicked so did they abuse all his benefits to his greatest dishonour being therefore the worse because in reason they ought to have been better And slew thy Prophets which testified against them to turne to thee This was the worst they did to them and that for which they received mercedem mundi the wages of the mad world ever beside it self in point of salvation and falling foul upon such as seek its good This is that sinne that brings ruine without remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 Prov. 29.1 for precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116. And they wrought great provocations Or Blasphemies see verse 18. Verse 27. Therefore thou deliveredst them Flagitium flagellum sicut acus filum Sinne and punishment are tied together with chains of adamant Who vexed them Heb. Put them to straits so that they had not what shift to make or how to help themselves And in the time of their trouble Vexatio dedit intellectum The time of affliction is the time of supplication When out of the depths Gods people cry unto him they may have any thing Zach. 13.9 speedy audience unmiscarrying returnes of their prayers Thou gavest them Saviours i. e. Deliverers such as the Judges were Judg. 3.9 and such as Flaminius the Roman was to the poor Argives who therefore called him Saviour Saviour and that with such a courage Plut. in Flam ut corvi fortuito supervâ—lantes in stadium deciderent that the birds fell to the earth amazed with that outcry the aire was so dissipated with their acclamations Verse 28. But after they had rest they did evil again As standing pooles breed vermine as sedentary lives are subject to diseases If men be not poured out from vessel to vessel they will soone settle upon their â—ees Because they have no changes therefore they feare not God Psal 55.19 saith David of the wicked and Psal 30. David himself was afflicted delivered and then grew wanton Then troubled again verse 7. cryes againe verse 8.9 God turnes his mourning to joy again whereof if he surfeited not it was well bestowed on him But rarae fumant felicibus arae We are commonly best when worst and Pliny told his friend Plin. Epist that the best way to live well was to be as good in health as we promise to be when we are sick Therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies Who can do us no hurt but by Divine permission though they bandy together and bend all their forces to harme the Church yet are they bounded by God and can do nothing till he leave his people in their hands Had the dominion over them Ruled them with rigour And many times didst thou deliver them Even totiès quotiès for as the eye is not wearied with seeing nor the eare with hearing so neither is God with shewing mercy But as the Sunne shineth after it hath shone and as the spring runneth after it hath run so doth the Lord proceed to do good to his in their necessity and that according to his mercies which never fail Lam. 3.22 Verse 29. And testifiedst against them Toldest them of their sinnes foretoldest them of their dangers didst all that could be done to do them good but nothing would do Yet they dealt proudly See verse 16. And hearkened not Intus existens prohibuit alienum Hear and give eare be not proud Jer. 13.15 But sinned against thy judgements i. e. Thy Statutes though made with so much reason and respect to our good that if God did not command them yet were it every way our best way to practise them Esay 48.17 I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way which thou shouldest go As who should say It is for thy profit that I command thee this or that and not for mine own Which if a man do But that as now he cannot do and therefore not be saved by the Law Rom. 10.5 Our Saviour indeed said to that young justiciary This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 But that was all one saith Luther as if Christ had said unto him Vade morere Go upon thy death for do this of thy self and live thereby thou art never able And withdrew the shoulder When called to take up Christs yoke or to beare his crosse See the Note on Zach. 7.11 And hardened their necks To sinewes of iron they added browes of brasse Verse 30. Yet many years didst thou forbear them Heb. Protract over them or draw out thy loving kindnesse toward them to the utmost And testifiedst against them As verse 29. They wanted not for warnings or wooings with Woe unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made cleane when shall it once be Yet would they not hear But as Sea-monsters or Catadupes or men borne in a mill or as one that is running a race give him never so good counsel he cannot stay to hear it Therefore gavest thou them As uncounselable incorrigible Verse 31. Neverthelesse for thy great mercies sake Mans perversnesse cannot interrupt the course of Gods goodnesse In the middest of judgement he remembreth mercy which beareth the same proportion to his judgement which seven a compleat number hath to an Vnity Thou diddest not utterly consume them God will repent for his people when he seeth their power is gone Deut. 32.36 and be jealous with a great jealousie when the enemy goes beyond his commission Zach. 1.14 15. For thou art a gracious and merciful God And this is most seene when misery weighs down and nothing but mercy
are all young Virgins taken and stollen from forraine Nations where after they have been instructed in good behaviour and can play upon instruments sing dance and sew curiously they are given to the Grand Signior as presents of great value They live just as Nunnes do in great Nunneries c. That Esther was brought also In the general survey she was taken among the rest and brought to the Court an ill aire for Piety to breath in exeat aulâ Qui vult esse pius Fraus sublimi regnat in aulz Sen. But necessity is an hard weapon As the Turks at this day so the Persian Kings then took all their subjects to be their slaves holding not only their estates but their lives and all they have at their dispose without respect either to the cause or manner To the custody of Hegai keeper of the women Clapt up as it were in a glorious prison being not to come abroad but when the King calls nor to frequent any society but such as is appointed her for her necessary attendance and comfort See the like in the description of the Grand Signiors Seraglio chap. 4. Verse 9. And the maiden pleased him Hegai cast his favour upon her not because she was the fairest noblest most industrious most courtly c. but because God wrought his heart to it as he did Potiphars and Pharaohs to Joseph Jonathans to David Darius's to Daniel c. It is the Lord that gives favour and fashioneth mens opinions of us He gave Solomon honour and Paul prayes to him that his service may be accepted of the Saints Row 15.31 And she obtained kindnesse of him His favour was not empty favour professional only as that of Courtiers And he speedily gave her c. As resolving shortly to recommend her to the King who he knew would be much ruled by him in his choyce Here were shadows of many excellent vertues in a blind Ethnik who may in some sort teach true kindnesse and doth condemne those that boast of false liberality He dealt not basely but bountifully with Esther Her things for purification See ver 3.12 With such things as belonged to her Heb. Her portions or allowances of food raiment c. which this faithful officer interverted not for his own private gaine but rather inlarged himself in the true bestowing thereof And seven maidens When he might have put her off with one he enlargeth himself and even stretcheth his authority that he might by these maide of honour attending her set her forth as a Queen aforehand Which were meet to he given her Or which were very comely speciosa vel spectatae And he preferred Heb. He changed her sc for the better as God doth his people when he taketh them to heaven where they change place but not company as that good man said upon his death-bed and are brought from the jawes of death to the joyes of eternal life from shadows to substances D. Preston from misery to majesty c. a greater change then that of Queen Elizabeth from a Prisoner to a Princesse or that of our Henry the fourth Dan. hist 48. who was crowned the very same day that the year before he had been banished the Realme The Latines call prosperous things Res secundas because they are to be had hereafter they are not the first things Vnto the best place of the house of the women Or Vnto the best condition Gods best children shall have the best of the best fat things full of marrow wines on the lees well refined Esay 25.6 Jacob and his family had the best of the Land of Egypt that Granary of the world as one calleth it His posterity had a land that flowed with milke and honey What Countreys comparable to those that professe the Gospel Godlinesse is profitable to all things having the promises of both lives c. Verse 10. Esther had not shewed her people Because the Jewes were slighted as captives and forlorn how dear to the gods that Nation is faith Cicero it appeareth quòd est victa quòd elocata O at pro L. Hac quòd servata in that they are conquered captivated and not utterly destroyed by us they were also generally hated as different in Religion and would not so much as drink with Heathens lest they should drink things sacrificed to Idols They held it meritorious in after-times to kill an idolater as Tacitus testifieth and at this day they say Optimus inter gentes c. The very best among the Gentiles is worthy to have his head bruised as a Serpent A nasty people they are still and bloodthirsty odious and sordid An historian telleth us of an Emperour travelling into Egypt and there meeting with certaine Jews he was so annoyed with the stench of them that he cryed out O Marcomanut ô Quadi ô Surmaetae tandem alios vobis deteriores inveni Ammian lib. 2. This is the basest and most contemptible people that ever I light upon Aug. in Psal 58 The Romanes would not own them when they had conquered them as they did other Nations though they complied never so much and were their servants The Turks so hate them for crucifying Christ that they use to say in detestation of a thing Heyl. Geog. I would I might die a Jew then as when they would assure any thing in execrationibus dicunt Judeus sim si fallo they curse themselves Sanctrus in Zech 8.13 and say Let me be held a Jew if I deceive thee This lyeth upon them as a punishment for their unexpiable guilt in putting to death the Lord of life But in Esthers time they were hated chiefly for their Religion In prudence therefore she concealeth her kindred as being not called to give an account of her faith and living private might well performe her devotions and yet not thrust her self into observation For Mordecai had charged beâ— that she should not shew it Lest she should be cashiered the Court for a Jeweâ—se which was then held crime enough as afterwards it was in Nore's dayes to be a Christian and this hand perinde in crimine quà m odio humani generis as Tavitus hath it not for any great fault so much as by the hatred of mankind incensed and set on work by the Devil doubtlesse to root out the true Religion and to set up himself in the hearts of men as god of this present world Hence those complaints of Tertullian and Justin Martyr in their Apologies for Christians that their name and not their crimes was hated and hissed out of all companies Tert. Apoâ— c 1. 2.3 Just Apol. 2. Odio publico est confessio nòminis non examinatio criminis Solius hominis crimen est c. Wisely therefore did Mordecai charge Esther to conceal her self for present so long as it might be done without prejudice to the truth and scandal to her profession Worthily also did holy Esther in obeying Mordâ—cai her faithful foster-father in ruling
form'd to a pitcht battel against him and this was truly terrible for who saith Moses knoweth the power of his wrath sith the apprehension and approach of it was so terrible to an upright-hearted Job to an heroicall Luther upon whom Gods terrors were so heavy for a time In epist ad Melanc ut nec calor nec sanguis nec sensus nec vox superesset that neither heat nor blood nor sense nor voice remained but his body seemed dead as Justus Jonas an eye-witnesse reporteth agreeable whereunto is that memorable speech of Luther Nihil est tentatio vel universi mundi totius inferri in unum conflata c. The temptation and terrour of all the world nay of all hell put together is nothing to that wherein God setteth himself in battle-array against a poore soule In which case that is excellent counsel that one giveth in these words When thy sins and Gods wrath meeting in thy conscience make thee deadly sick as Isai 33. then powre forth thy soul in confession and as it will ease thee as vomiting useth to do so also it will move God to pity and to give thee cordials and comforts to restore thee Verse 5. Doth the wilde ass bray when he hath grasse q. d. Sure they doe not As if these creatures wilde or tame want necessary food you give them leave to fill the aire with their out-cryes yea you supply their wants but for me ye will do neither such is your tendernesse and love toward me Nay ye condemne me for that which is naturally common to all creatures Ye must needs think I am not without aylement that make such great lamentations unlesse ye conceit that I am fallen below the stirrup of reason nay of sense It is easie for you who want neither grasse nor fodder or mixt meat as the word signifieth who lie at rack and manger as it were and have all that heart can wish or need require it is easie I say for you to rest contented and to forbeare complaints But why am I so severely censured for impatient who am stript of all and have nothing left me praeter coelum coenum as he said but only aire to breath in and a dung-hill to sit on not to speak of my inward troubles c. Verse 6. Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt Or can that which is unsavory for want of salt be eaten Hunger will downe with unsavory or unpleasant food though salt or sawce be wanting but when meat is putrified for want of salt and full or maggots it will hardly be eaten unlesse it be in extreme famine it is as if he should say a man doth with no good will feed upon unsavory or loathsome meats how then can I use such moderation as you desire I should my evils being extreme sweetned with no kind of comfort nor seasoned with any thing that is any way toothsome or wholesome that I speake not of your tastelesse and insulse speeches which are no small vexation to me Verse 7. The things that my soul refused to touch c. I suffer such torments even in my very soule as the very thought of them would heretofore have affrighted me Thus Mr. Dioâ—ate Others take soule here for the appetite and so make this the sense Those things which I exceedingly loathed and would once have thought scorn to have touched are now my sorrowful meat I am forced with an heavy heart to feed upon them for want of better and they go down the worse because you vex me with your hard words who have little need of such choke-peares and will not allow me the liberty of a needfull lamentation which yet I must needsly take lest heart should breake and say as before chap. 3. though with some more respect to God the object of my present prayer Verse 8. O that â— might have my request How heartily begs Job for death as a medicine of all his maladies and miseries as that which would bring him mâ—lâ—rum ademptioâ—em â—â—â—orum adeptiâ—nem freedome from all evil fruition of all good By the force of his faith he lookes upon death as the best physician that would cure him of all infirmities inward and outward and of all at once and for ever Job might likely be of the same mind that Chaâ—cer was who took for his English motto Farewell Physick and for his Latine one Mors arumnarum requies death will be a sweet rest from all my labours the same â—o a believer death is that mount Ararat was to Noah where his ark rested after long tossing or as Michel was to David a meanes to shift him out of the way when Saul sent to slay him or as the fall of the house was to Samson an end of all his sorrowes and sufferings hence it is that he rejoyceth under hope and with stretcht out neck looks and longs for deaths coming as dearly as ever Siseâ—a's mother did out of a window for the coming of her son laden with spoiles from the battel As when death is come indeed he welcometh it as Jael did the fame Sisena but much in one heartily with Turn in my Lord turn in to mee Judg. 4.18 and further bespeaketh it as Jacob did his brother Esau at their interview Surely I have seen thy face as the face of God who hath made thee to meet me with kisses in stead of frowns and hath sent thee to guard me safe home to my fathers house And that God would grant me the thing that I long for Or have long looked for Heb. my hope or my expectation as that which will put a period to my miseries and possesse me of heavens happinesse as that which will be a postern to let out temporall life but a street-door to let in eternal Verse 9. That â—t would please God to destroy me That is to dispatch me out of this world and fend me to a beâ—ter A dissolution would be far more acceptable to Job then that restitution which Eliphâ—z seemed to promise him chap. 5.24 It s as if Job should say Take you the world amongst you sith you like it so well I have move then enough of it I am neither fond of life nor afraid of death but the cleane contrary I had rather die then dine and crave no greater favour then to have more weight laid upon me that I may die out of hand Feri Domine feri â—nam à peceatis 〈…〉 Luther once said strike Lord strike deepe for thou hast pardoned my sins and wilt save my soule That he would let loose his hand That now seemeth tied or hound behind him Manus ligata videâ—uâ— quando parcit saith Vatablus God had chained up Satan and strictly charged him not to take away Jobs life but this is it that Job would fain have done Mortality he would account no small mercy he desired nothing more then to be dissolved and to be with Christ he might do it because he knew that his
good prayers in answer whereunto one saith well Si magicae Deus non vult tales si piae non per tales God heareth not good prayers from a bad man as that State in story would not hear a good motion from an ill mouth or as wee cannot indure to hear sweet words from a stinking breath The bloud of a Swine might not be offered in Sacrifices though better to look upon than the bloud of a Sheep Vers 4. Stand in awe and sin not Be stirred or commoved or troubled Tremble and sin not But now adays the Word and the World too is altered for men sin and tremble not being arrived at that dead and dedolent disposition of those Heathens who were past feeling Ephes 4.18 19. St. Paul rather alludeth to this text Eph. 4.6 than citeth it as some think Commune with your own heart upon your bed Advise with your Pillow what you have to do in a business so important as the practice of Repentance whereunto I am now exhorting you Here then examine your selves prove your own selves as 2 Cor. 13.5 Sift you sift you Zeph. 2.1 Recoil turn short again upon your selves thrust your hands into your bosoms as Moses did and took it out again Leprous white as snow Take a review of your hearts and lives converse with your selves a wise man can never want with whom to discourse though he be alone But as it is a sign that there are great distempers in that Family where Husband and Wife go divers days together and speak not the one to the other so in that Soul that flyeth from it self and can go long without Self-examination A good mans business lieth most within doors and he taketh the fittest time night or day for the better dispatch of it though thereby he abridge himself of his Natural rest Mr. Bradford the young Lord Harrington and sundry others kept Journals or Day-books and oft read them over for an help to Humiliation And be still Selah Or make a pause dwell upon the work of self-examination till you have made somewhat of it till you have driven it up to a Reformation as Lam. 3.39 40. Let us try and turn The word signifieth Be dumb and hereupon all our Silentiaries have founded their superstitious opinions and practices such as were those old Monks of Egypt who saith Cassian were umbrarum morè silentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as speechless as Ghosts So the Carthusian Monks at this day who speak together but once a week Some kind of Anabaptists also will not speak a word to any but those of their own Sect. Vers 5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness Confess your sins and slay them run to him who is the propitiation Jesus Christ the righteous present your bodies a living Sacrifice bring a contrite spirit to do good and to communicate forget not c. else you offer the sacrifice of fools as Eccles 5.1 and not of righteousness here The Chaldee hath it Domate concupiscenti as sacrifice and subdue your lusts And put your trust in the Lord It is well observed that God brings men home by a contrary way to that they fell from him We fell from him by distrust by having him in a jealousie as if he aimed more at himself than at our good Wee return to him by having a good conceit of him that he loves us better than we can love our selves and therefore that we ought to put our trust in him both in life and death Vers 6. There be many that say Who will shew us c. This is Vox populi the common cry Studium improborum vagum good they would have but pitch not upon the true good It was well observed that he who first called Riches Bona goods was a better Husband than Divine but the most are such Husbands O siquis daret ut videâ—mus bonum Who will help us to a good bargain a good estate c. but God the chief good is not in all their thoughts they minde not communion with him or conformity to him which is the Bonum hominis Mic. 6.8 the totum hominis Eccles 12.13 the one thing necessary though nothing is less thought upon What are these outward comforts so much affected and admired saith Plato but Dei ludibria banded up and down like Tennis Balls from one to another A Spiritual man heeds not wealth or at least makes it not his business What tell you me of Money saith Paul I need it not but to further your reckoning Phil. 4.1 And David having spoken of those rich and wretched people that have their portion herein all abundance Psal 17.14 concludeth I neither envie their store nor covet their happiness it is enough for me that when I awake so at the Resurrection of the just I shall be full of thine Image vers ult Christ who had all riches scorned these Bona scabelli earthly riches he was born poor lived poor dyed poor for as Austin observeth when Christ dyed he made no will c. and as he was born in another mans house so he was buried in another mans tombe And yet he was and still is God blessed for ever Cicero indeed writing to Atticus would have one friend wish to another three things only viz. to enjoy Health possess Honour and not suffer Necessity How much better Pauls with Grace Mercy and Peace or Davids desire here Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us One good cast of Gods countenance was more to David than all this Worlds wealth than a confluence of all outward comforts and contentments He had set up God for his chief good and the light of Gods loving Countenance was the guide of that way that leadeth to that good and hence his importunity he cannot draw breath but in that air nor take comfort in any thing without Gods gracious aspect and some comings in from Christ It is better saith one to feel Gods favour one Hour in our repenting Souls than to sit whole Ages under the warmest Sun-shine that this world affordeth Saith not David so much in the next words Vers 7. Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than c. Joys unspeakable and full or glory 1 Pet 1.8 We read of some godly men that they have been overwhelmed with Spiritual joy till they have cried out Hold Lord stay thine hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot endure to bear the light Indeed Bain Letterâ— this is not every good mans case witness that saying of sweet Master Bain I thank God in Christ sustentation I have but suavities spiritual I taste not any And that of holy Rolloc Whiles I live I never look to see perfect Reformation in the Church or to feel perfect ravishing joys in mine heart But those Gods people have are far beyond all Carnal comforts Than in the time that their Corn c. These indeed are the precious fruits of the earth Jam. 5.7 but they seal not up
and God will receive you graciously pouring the oyl of his grace into your broken Vessels This comforted Bernard on his death bed he dyed with this sentence in his mouth Je. Manl. loc com 73. Austin caused it to be written on the wall over against his bed where he lay sick and dyed Many poor soules even in times of Popery had Heaven opened unto them by meditating on this Psalm and especially on this 17. vers Vers 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion Having made his own peace with God he now prayeth for the Church and the rather because by his foul sins he had hazzarded or rather exposed both Sion and Jerusalem Church and State to divine displeasure Delirantreges plectuntur Achivi Build thou the walls of Jerusalem i. e. Protect defend and maintain the civill State grant all things necessary for its safety and well-being supply of all wants confirmation and increase of all blessings Thus pray we Jer. 29.7 Psal 122.6 7 8. for except the Lord keep the City c. See Isa 5.1 2 3. 27.3 Hee is a wall of fire Rev. 20.9 of water Isa 33.20 21. say therefore as Isa 26.1 and beware of security sensuality senselesnesse c. Vers 19. Then shalt thou bee pleased with the sacrifices c. i. e. Such as are offered in faith and according to the will of God Psal 4.6 Then shall they offer Bullocks upon thine Altar They shall be free-hearted and frequent in thy work and service va torpori nostro Woe to our dulnesse and backwardness in these happy dayes of peace and free profession which we had need improve as they did Act. 9.31 Otherwise we may desire to see one of the dayes of the Son of man and not see it Luk. 19.22 Go to Shiloh c. PSAL. LII A Psalm of David Of the same time and argument likely with Psal 58. Maschil Or to teach that the end of the Wicked is evill Redarguit pravos mores saith the Syriack When Doeg the Edomite When Abiathar escaping the slaughter-slave the blood-hound as Edomite may signifie came and told David what was befaln the Priests and their City This was no small affliction to David the rather because by telling the Priest a lye himself had occasioned that Massacre Hereupon for the comfort of himself and other good people who were startled at this sad accident and might be deterred thereby from succouring David he penned this Psalm When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul c. Doeg is a fit name for a courtier for it signifieth a solicitous or busy-headed fellow a catch-poll a progging-companion an informer one that listeneth after rumours and carrieth tales to curry favour An Edomite he was by Nation but a Proselyte in pretence at least and one that was at that time detained before the Lord either by vertue of some vow or because it was the Sabbath-day and he would not travel on it or to perform some other religious service 1 Sam. 21.7 this dissembled sanctity was double iniquity and he became a type of Judas as some make him He came and told Saul Like a Parasite and a pick-thank as he was when as he should rather have told Ahimelech that David was out of Sauls favour and sought for to the slaughter as Kimchi here noteth on vers 3. but he concealed that that he might accuse Ahimelech and so slew three at once saith another Rabbine viz. himself Saul and Ahimeleck calumniatorem calumniatum calumniam audientem And said David is come to the house of Ahimeleck Few words but full of poyson Verba Doegi erant pauci sed multum nocua Kimchi Midrash Tillin leviter volant non leviser vulnerant See the story more at large 1 Sam. 22 9. c. The Rabbines say from Levit. 14. where the same word is used of the Leprous house that is here vers 5. of Doegs doom that he was for this fact smitten with leprosy and afterwards sent to Hell which they gather from Psal 120.4 Vers 1. Why boastest thou thy self in mischief thou mighty man Or Thou Giart for so he seemed to himself when he had slain tot inermes nec repugnantes so many naked men not making any resistance though they were the Priests of Jehovah and afterward had smitten the innocent inhabitants of the City of Nob together with the women the infants and the Cattel like another Ajax flagellifer or Hercules furens and now vaunted himself in that mischievous prowesse Egregiam veroâ—undem c. The Hebrew word for boasting here signifieth also madness when it is taken in the worse sence as Jer. 46.9 See Prov. 2.14 and to boast of his hearts desire is the note of an Atheist Psal 10.3 The goodness of God endureth continually Maugre thy spitefulness R. Solomon Kabuenaki Midrash Tillin God is good to Israel to the pure in heart and will be so The Rabbins make this the sense If Ahimeleth had not releeved me God would have stirred up some other to have done it Some others understand it thus The goodness of God towards thee a wicked wretch endureth all the day This should lead thee to repentance But thou after the hardness c. Rom. 2.4 Vers 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefes i.e. Cogitat id est eructat venteth the mischievous devices of thy minde being an inter preter and an instrument fit for such a purpose Such another Doeg was Nicholas saunders Priest the Fire-brand of Earl Deswâ—â—â—ds Rebellion in Ireland Anno 1580. a restless and wretched man whose foul mouth was at length stopped with famine that had been ever open to stir up rebellions against the State that had uttered so many Blasphemies against God and his holy Truth and invented so many loud and lewdlyes against men Like a sharp razor working deceitfully That instead of shaving the hair launcheth the flesh or missing the beard cutteth the throat Exscindit carnem cum crinibus R. Solom Consutro aberrans jugulum petit whence Dionysius the Tyrant would not trust any Barber no not his own Daughters to shave him but singed off his own hair with hot coals The slanderers Tongue as sharp as a razor or as the quills of a Porcupine flasheth and gasheth the good names of others and that many ways viz. both by denying disguising leslening concealing misconstruing things of good report and also by forging increasing aggravating or uncharitable spreading things of evil report not for any love to the truth nor for respect to justice nor yet for the bettering of the Hearer or the Delinquent but only to prejudice the one and to incense the other This was Doegs sin and denominateth him a Lyer vers 3. though hee had spake but the truth Vers 3. Thou lovest evil more than good Indeed evil only and not at all good whatever thou pretendest Thy heart is naught and thence it is that thy tongue is so mischievons as stinking breath cometh from corrupt inwards And
one with another to shew his liberality which yet he might better have bestowed in another way then in belly-chear and such openhouse-keeping to all comers without difference sith this is rather prodigality then bounty Seven dayes Too long together to be a feasting sith at such times men are so apt to exceed and out-last eating that on earth that they must digest in hell and drowning both bodies and souls in wine and strong drink as Richard the third did his brother Clarence in a Butt of Malmsey In the court of the garden In the banquetting-house or sub dio in the open aire in the garden where they had elbow-roome and all manner of delights fit to have beene seasoned and allayed with the sight of a sepulcher the Jewes built their Tombs a forehand in their gardens or else of a deaths-head as was the manner of the Egyptians at their great feasts to keep them from surfetting Verse 6. Where were white greene and blew hangings Rich and royal tapestry set forth with variety of colours pleasant to the eye Fastened with cords of fine linnen More precious then silk And pillars of marble To bear up the hangings that the guests might the better behold them and be defended by them from winde dust and heat The beds Whereon they sate at meat which was the manner of all those Easterne parts their bodies so composed as that the upper part thereof being somewhat bent and bowed the rest lay along Were of gold and silver The bedsteds were See Amos 6.4 2.8 Jer. 23.41 Vpon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble Or porphyry or crystal Haec sunt quae nos faciunt invitos mori All very costly and stately And these are those things that make us desirous to live longer here as Charles the fifth told the Duke of Venice who had shewed him his fair Palace richly furnished But what said Nugas the Scythian Prince to certaine Embassadours who brought him brave and rich presents Will these save a man from sicknesse Will they stave off death Do not these outward gawdes and gayeties carry away the heart from the love and care of better things Val Max. Christian Solomon saith as much in his sacred Retractations and Charles the fifth who besides other Territories and Dominions had twenty eight Kingdomes voluntarily gave over the Empire as a burden and cursing his honours in his old age Mornay his trophees riches royalties said to them all Abite hinc abite longè Be gone all of you get you hence Abi perdita bestia quae me perdidisti as Cornelius Agrippa said on his death-bed Delrio Disq Mag. to 3. l. 6. to his familiar Devil Be packing thou wretched beast that hast undone me for ever Verse 7. And they gave them drink Think the same of meat also but the whole feast hath its denomination in the original from drinking because at such times they drank freely Quia in conviviis largiter bibi solet Corn. Nepos in vit Alcibiad Xenoph Cyrop lib 8. Athenaeus and many times more then did them good The Persians are infamous for their intemperancy though they had Lawes to the contrary and Xenophon tells us that of old they were otherwise Onely once a year their King had licence to be drunk viz. when they sacrificed to the Sun In vessels of gold Beset with precious stones as Josephus addeth ad delectationem spectaculum The vessels being diverse one from another To shew the Kings store of them that there was not curta supellex but great plenty and variety of dishes and dainties And royal wine Choice wine and fit for a Kings palat Vinum Cos as they call it merrily at Lovain and Paris id est coloris oderis saporis optimi of the best colour smell and tast Beehive of Rome Pref. In abundance They swam in wine and the tables did even sweat with variety of dishes quicquid avium volitabat quicquid piscium natabat quicquid ferarum discurrebat c. to use Seneca's expression According to the state of the King For whom it was not unlawful to feast so to shew his liberality toward his Peeres and courtesie to his people But that which was blame-worthy in him was 1. His vainglory 2. His prodigality 3. His mis-spending of time 4. Merlin in loc His neglect of businesse 5. His contempt of the true God not once acknowledged by him or his guests Lastly their profane mirth and jollity without the least note of sanctity or respect to Gods glory Verse 8. And the drinking was according to the Law Prescribed by the King and it was but needful lest men should make his house a schoole of intemperancy and lest shameful spewing should be on his glory Habac. 2.16 And inasmuch as of evil manners come good Lawes it appeareth by this Edict of the King that the Persians were now degenerated from their ancient sobriety and moderation in meats and drinks So likewise were the Cretians when Minos made a Law that men should not drink one to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto drunkennesse And the same we may well think of the inhabitants of this Land when King Edgar made an ordinance for putting pins in cups to stint men how farre they should drink and that none should quaffe whole ones Quinetiam Spartae mos est laudabilis ille Vt bibat arbitrio pocula quisque suo None did compell Domitius the father of Nero slew Liberius an honest Roman because he refused to drink so much as he commanded him Sueâ—on Tiberius for his drunkennesse called Caldius Biberius Mero instead of Claudius Tiberius Nero made Novellus Tricongius Proconsul for that he could drink three pottles of wine together with one breath He preferred also L. Piso to the government of the City of Rome because he could sit drinking with him continually for two whole dayes and nights together Lyra upon this text declaimeth against this detestable healthing and carowsing too too common in all parts of Christendome and saith that it was brought up first by the Barbarians in Normandy who came and depopulated that Countrey And what a lamentable thing is it that at this day in such a State as ours the civil sober and temperate man shall be urged and it may be forced to swallow down needlesse draughts as a horse doth a drench by domineering drunkards The late good Act against drunkennesse if well executed will be some curb to our Roaring-boyes so they will needs be called by a woful Prolepsis Here for hereafter Oh that we could perswade such as Mahomet did his followers that in every grape there dwelt a Devil or that fire and brimstone storme and tempest this shall be the portion of the Drunkards cup. For the King had appointed to all the officers of his house He had appointed Heb. he had founded or stablished it for an inviolable Decree and officers on purpose Controulers of his house to see it
their lives Not one whereof was lost in this hot encounter in this sharp revenge they took off their avowed enemies This was even a miracle of Gods mercy Who would not feare thee O King of Nations c. And had rest from their enemies Or That they might have rest from their enemies who would not otherwise be quieted but by the letting out of their life-blood but would make an assault upon the harmelsse Jewes though it were to die for it so that upon the matter they were their own deathsmen besides the wilful losse of their immortal soules which our Saviour sheweth Mat 16.26 to be a losse 1. Incomparable 2. Irreparable And slew of their foes seventy and five thousand Neither was it any dishonour to them to be God Almighties slaughtermen Even the good Angels are Executioners of Gods righteous judgements as they were at Sodom in Sennacheribs army and oft in the Revelation There cannot be a better or more noble act then to do justice upon obstinate Malefactours But they laid not their hands on the prey They would not once foule their fingers therewith No godly man in Scripture is taxed for covetousnesse that sordid sin See the Note on verse 10. Verse 17. On the thirteenth day of the moneth Adar On this day they stood for their lives that they might rest from their enemies And accordingly On the fourteenth day of the same rested they i. e. the very next day after their deliverance they would not defer it a day longer but kept an holy rest with Psalmes and sacrifices of praise those calves of their lips the very next day whiles the deliverance was yet fresh and of recent remembrance This they knew well that God expected Deut. 23.21 and that he construeth delayes for denials Hag. 1.2 4. he gave order that no part of the thank-offering should be kept unspent till the third day to teach us to present our praises when benefits are newly received which else would soon wax stale and putrifie as fish I will pay my vowes now now saith David Psal 116.18 Hezekiah wrote his Song the third day after his recovery Queen Elizabeth when exalted from a prisoner to a Princesse and from misery to Majesty before she would suffer her self to be mounted in her charet to passe from the Tower to Westminster Englands Eliz. she very devoutly lifted up her hands and eyes to heaven and gave God humble thanks for that remarkable change and turn of things And made it a day of feasting and gladnesse Exhilarating and chearing up their good hearts that had long layen low with a more liberal use of the creatures that they might the better preach his praises and speak good of his name and that sith they could not offer up unto him other sacrifices prescribed in the Law because they were far from the Temple they might not be wanting with their sacrifice of thanksgiving which God preferreth before an oxe that hath hornes and hoofs saith the Psalmist Words may seem to be but a poor and slight recompence but Christ saith Nazianzen calleth himself the Word and this was all the fee that he looks for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee With these calves of our lips let us cover Gods Altar and we shall finde that although he will neither eat the flesh of bulls nor drink the blood of goats yet if we offer unto God thanksgiving and pay our vowes unto the most High Psal 50.13 14. it will be look't upon as our reasonable service Rom. 12.1 Verse 18. On the thirteenth day thereof and on the fourteenth What they could not do on one day they did it on another Men must be sedulous and strenuous in Gods work doing it with all their might and redeeming time for that purpose Eccl. 9.10 On both these dayes they destroyed their enemies They did their work thoroughly Let us do so in slaying our spiritual enemies not sparing any Agag not reserving this Zoar or that Rimmon but dealing by the whole body of sinne as the King of Moab did with the King of Edom Amos 2.1 burn the bones of it to lime destroy it not to the halves as Saul but hew it in pieces before the Lord as Samuel As Joshua destroyed all the Canaanites he could lay hold on As Asa spared not his own mother as Solomon drew Joab from the Altar to the slaughter and put to death Adoniah the darling so must we deale by our corruptions ferretting and fetching them out of their lurking holes as these Jewes did their enemies on the fourteenth day that had escaped the day before Sith we must either kill them up all or be killed by them for as that one bastard Abimelech slew all Gideons sonnes upon one stone so one lust left unmortified will undo the soul And as one sinner so one sin may destroy much good Eccl. 9.18 And on the fifteenth day of the moneth they rested So shall the Saints do after death which will be the accomplishment of mortification for he that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 and filled with joy Isa 35.10 The ransomed of the Lord shall then return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Verse 19. Therefore the Jewes of the villages c. Pagani This is expounded in the next words that dwelt in the unwalled townes Such as is the Hague in Holland that hath two thousand housholds in it and chuseth rather to be counted the principal village of Europe then a lesser City Made the fourteenth day c. See verse 17. while the Jewes in Shushan were destroying the remainder of their enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Mac. 15.36 This day was afterwards called Mordecai's Holiday And of sending portions one to another See Nehem. 8.10 To the rich they sent in courtesie to the poor in charity and both these to testifie their thankfulnesse to God for their lives liberties and estates so lately and graciously restored unto them Verse 20. And Mordecai wrote these things He wrote with authority as a Magistrate say some that the Jewes should keep these dayes with greatest solemnitie He wrote the relation of these things before-mentioned say others as the ground of this annual festivitie Or else it may be meant more generally that Mordecai was the Pen-man of the Holy Ghost in writing this whole book of Esther as was before hinted And sent letters unto all the Jewes both night and farre Propinquis longinquis that they might all agree together about the time and manner of praising God and so sing the great Hallelujah See 2 Cor. 1.11 2 Chron. 20.26 27 28. Psal 124.1 2. and 126.1 Psal 136. penned for a recorded publike forme to praise God among the multitude Psal 109.20 and in the great Congregation Psal 22.22 25. David would go into the presses of people and there praise the Lord Psal 116.18
19. This was to walk worthy of the Lord Col. 1.10 This was to make a proportionable return for we are Gods soile and our thanks his crop Verse 21. To establish this among them scil by a law that they should yearly on those two dayes rest and repeat among themselves that signal deliverance propagating the remembrance of it to all posterity Mordecai well knew that eaten bread is soon forgotten that deliverances are usually but nine dayes wonderment that it is easie and ordinary with people to rob God and wrong themselves by their unthankfulnesse which forfeiteth former mercies and forestalleth future he therefore setleth it upon them saith the text statuendo eis ut facerent he exacteth it of them by vertue of his office That they should keep the fourteenth day and the fifteenth day Both dayes nam gaudet produci haec sclennitus as Austin said of the feast of Pentecost such a solemnity should be drawn out to the full length as the silk-worm stretcheth forth her self before she spinneth her finest thread Jehosaphat and his people shewed themselves unsatisfyable in their praises which they presented again and again 2 Chron. 20.26 27. And good Hezekiah when he observed in his subjects such a float of affections at the Passeover and that they were in so good a frame took counsel with them to keep other seven dayes and they kept other seven dayes with gladnesse 2 Chron. 30.21 22 23. See with what a flood of words holy David poureth forth his soul in prayer Psal 145.1 to 8. as if therewith he would even fill up the distance between God and himself Sometimes he seemeth to forget himself in point of praising God for he will like a bird having got a note record it over and over as Psal 136. And in the last Psalme there are but six verses yet twelve Hallelujahs He concludeth Let every thing that hath breath or Let every breath praise the Lord let it be as the smoke of the Tabernacle when peace-offerings were offered Tam Dei meminisse opus est quà m respirare saith Chrysostom we have as much need to remember God as to take breath Verse 22. As the dayes wherein the Jewes rested from their enemies And therefore they in thankfulnesse would consecrate the same as an holy rest unto the Lord calling the fourteenth day Festum sortium minus the lesser festivity of lots and the fifteenth day Festum sortium majus the greater festivity of lots as Drusius telleth us And the moneth They thought the better ever after of the moneth Adar that magnificent moneth wherein was that golden day of their deliverance O dieculam illam c. dexter sanè prae laetitia mihi salit oculus said he Oh that joyful day Oh that the Calendar of my life might be filled with such festivals Which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy As God remembred poor Joseph and turned his fetters into a chaine of gold his rags into robes his stocks into a charet his prison into a Palace his brown bread and water into manchet and wine And as he had turned again the captivity of his people as the streams in the South Psal 146.4 So here he had made a great alteration bringing them from the jawes of death to the joys of a glorious deliverance turning their sadnesse into gladnesse their sighing into singing their musing into musick their teares into triumph luctum in laetitiam saccum in sericum jejunium in epulum manuum retortionem in applausum c. And this is no new thing in the Church Verse 23. And the Jewes undertook to do as they had begun Which yet they could not do unlesse God gave them an heart to do it Holy David understood this and therefore when he found that heat and height of good affections in his people he prayed O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel our fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and stablish their heart unto thee 1 Chron. 29.18 And when he had at another time undertook for himself that if God would deliver him from blood-guiltinesse his tongue should sing aloud of Gods righteousnesse he subjoynes by way of correction as if he were sensible that he had promised more then was in his power to perform O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Psal 51.14 15. The Hebrew or rather Chaldee word here rendred Vndertook is of the singular number to shew that every particular Jew undertook for himself and for his posterity to all perpetuity And indeed they keep this feast annually to this day and exceedingly please themselves in the reading of this history counting and calling all such Princes and States as crosse them Hamans and wishing that they may be able one day to be avenged of them as their fathers were of these Persians c. Verse 24. Because Haman the sonne of Hammedatha the Agagite c. In detestation of whose wicked plot the Jewes at this day when at this feast of Purim they read the book of Esther in their synagogues as oft as they hear mention of Haman Anton. Meraanta lib. de Jud. cerem they do with their fists and hammers beat upon the benches and boards as if they did knock upon Hamans head Lavater saith the Papists in some countreyes do the like on Good-friday when in the reading of the Gospel mention is made of Iudas the Traitour But as for Faux Digby Piercy Catesby and the rest of that hellish crue of Popish Hamans treacherous Judasses these they have crowned with fresh Encomiasticks and little lesse then sainted Garnet that boutefeau hath his picture set among the rest of Rome's Saints Cornè á Lap. in Apoc. 7.3 Ger. ◠Apol. Cont Jesuet in the Jesuites Church at Rome with this Inscription Voluisse sat est Prodigious impudency And had cast Pur But found to his cost that there is no inchantment against Jacob Ut contereret eos neither any divination against Israel but that according to this time it should be said of Jacob and Israel said by way of wonder at Gods doing on their behalf what hath God wrought Numb 23.23 To consume them Heb. to crush them as a thing crushed to pieces as the lesser beasts are crushed by the Lion or as things are broken with a maule Verse 25. But when Esther came Heb. when she came This was the subject of the Jewes discourse upon those dayes which they spent not in idle chat but in telling one another what great things the Lord had done for them relating all the particulars All honourable mention was then made of Esther and Mordecai neither was Hamans malice instanced without utmost detestation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Memoria ejus sicut vinum Libani say the Jewes of those they honour Bud. Pand. Herod l. 2. So true is that of Solomon Prov. 10.7 The memory of the just is blessed or is with praises as
of this and especially in this book which shewes that we are very apt to forget it A point this is easie to be known but very hard to be believed every man assents to it but few live it and improve it to reformation Mine eyes shâ—ll no more sâ—e good sc in this world for in the world to come hee was confident of the beatificall vision chap. 19.27 Hezekiah hath a like expression when sentenced to die I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living that is in this life present Psal 27.13 and 52 5. and 142.5 Isa 53.8 called also the light of the living John 9.4 Psal 56.13 I shill behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Isa 38.11 And this both sick Job and sick Hezekiah tell the Lord and both of them begin alike with O remember Isa 38.3 God forgetteth not his people and their condition howbeit he requireth and expecteth that they should be his Remembrancers for their own and others good Isa 62.6 7. See the Margin Verse 8. Thâ— eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more In death we shall neither see nor be seen but be soon both out of sight and out of mind too It is storied of Richard the third that he caused the dead corps of his two smothered Nephews to be closed in lead and so put in a coffin full of holes and hooked at the ends with two hookes of iron and so to be cast into a place called the Black-deeps Speed 935. at the Thames mouth whereby they should never rise up nor be any more seen Such a place is the grave till the last day for then the sea shall give up the dead which are in it and death ad he grave shall render up the dead that are in them Rev. 20.13 then shall Adam see all his nephews at once c. Thine eyes are upon me and I am not Thou even lookest me to death like as elsewhere God is said to frown men to destruction Psalm 80.16 and Psalm 104.29 they are not able to endure his flaming eyes sparkling out wrath against them What mad men therefore are they that speak and act against Him who can so easily do them to death If God but set his eyes upon them for evil as he oft threatneth to do Amos 9.4 Job 16.9 they are undone Verse 9. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away A cloud is nothing else but a vapour thickened in the middle Region of the aire by the cold encompassing and driving it together psalm 18.19 vessels they are as thin as the liquor that is in them but some are waterlesse the former are soon emptied and dissolved the later as soon scattered by the wind and vanish away See the Note on verse 7. So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more sc to live and converse here with men as ver 10. Or he shall come up no more sc without a miracle as Lazarus and some others long since dead rose againe he cannot return to me said David of his deceased child 2 Sam. 12.23 God could send some from the dead to warn the living but that is not now to be expected as Abraham told the rich man Luk. 16. Those spirits of dead men that so oft appeared in times of Popery requiring their friends to sing Masses and Dirges for them and that drew this verse from Theodorus Gaza sunt aliquid manes lethum non omnia finit were either delusions or else divels in the shape of men That Job doubted of the Resurrection or denied it as Rabbi Solomon and some other both Hebrew and Greek writers conclude from this text is a manifest injury done to this good man and a force offered to the text as appeareth by that which next followeth Verse 10. He shall return no more to his house Either to dispatch businesses or to enjoy comforts he hath utterly done with the affaires of this world Melanchthon telleth of an aunt of his who having buried her husband and sitting sorrowfully by the fires side saw as she thought her husband coming into the roome and talking to her familiarly about the payment of certaine debts and other businesses belonging to the house and when he had thus talked with her a long time he bid her give him her hand she at first refused but was at length perswaded to do it he taking her by the hand so burnt it that it was as black as a coal and so he departed Was not this the divel Neither shall his place know him any more His place of habitation or his place of honour and ruledome these shall no more acknowledge him and welcome him back as they used to do after a journey Death is the conclusion of all worldly comforts and relations Hence wicked people are so loth to depart because there is struck by death an everlasting parting-blow betwixt them and their present comforts without hope of better spes fortuna valete said one great man at his death Cardinall Burbon would not part with his part in Paris for his part in paradise Fie said another rick Cardinall will not death be hired will mony do nothing Never did Adam go more unwillingly out of paradise the Jebusites out of the strong-hold of Zion the unjust steward out of his office or the divels out of the demoniack then gracelesse people do out of their earthly tabernacles because they know they shall return no more and having hopes in this life only they must needs look upon themselves as most miserable Verse 11. Therefore I will not refraine my mouth Heb. I will not prohibite my month sc from speaking I will bite in my grief no longer but sith death the certaine end of all outward troubles is not farre from mee I will by my further complaints presse the Lord to hasten it and not suppresse my sorrowes but give them a vent I will speake in the anguish of my spirit Heb. In the straitnesse or distresse of my spirit which is almost suffocated with grief I will complaine in the bitternesse my soul his greatest troubles were inward and if by godly sorrow for his sinnes he had powred forth his soule in an humble confession as some understand him here he had taken a right course but thus boisterously to break out into complaints savoureth of humane infirmity and sheweth quantae sint hominis vires sibi à Deo derelicti what a poor creature man is when God leaveth him to himself Mercer and subjecteth him to his judgments Verse 12. Am I a sea or a whale Can I bear all troubles as the sea receives all waters and the whale beares all tempests This as is well observed was too bold a speech to God from a creature for when his hand is on our backs our hands should be upon our mouths as Psalm 39.9 I was dumb or as others read it I should
pieces he rooteth them up and ruineth them Let no man think to prevail by strength 1 Sam. 2.9 sith the weaknesse of God if any such thing there were is stronger then men 1 Cor. 1.25 He will smite his enemies as so many puny-boyes in the hinder-parts and so put them to a perpetual reproach Psalm 78.66 Yea he will not only smite them on the loins but through the loins Deut. 32.11 that they never rise again Let them therfore learn to meddle with their match Eccl. 6.10 and take heed how they fall into the punishing hands of the living God Verse 20. He removeth away the speech of the trusty Or of the eloquent as Demosthenes the most eloquent of the Greeks being by them frequently sent as an Ambassadour to Philip King of Macedony thrice stood speechlesse before him and thirty several times forgat those things which he had thought to have spoken as Tzâ—tzes testifieth Chiliad 7. So Latomus of Lovain that Apostate and Persecutor of the truth having prepared an elegant Oration to make to Charls the fifth Emperour was so confounded that he could hardly speak a word of sense the grief whereof broke his heart The Counsellor and the Eloquent Orator the Prudent and the Ancient are reckoned up as the stay and the staffe the beauty and bulwark of a Nation Isa 3.2 3 These God removeth at his pleasure and for a general judgment causing either them to dye or their abilities to die and decay or crossing their attempts that they shall speak perswasively but not perswade people but be slighted and exploded of all Veracium Yea though they be Truth-speakers so the Vulgar hath it or Trusty as our translation Confiding men as they are called worthy to be trusted such faithful counsellors as Polybius was to Scipio who never miscarried in any thing wherein he followed his advice as the Historian testifieth yet God can remove or change the speech of such by leaving them to their own unfaithfulnesse and inconstancy as we have plentifully experimented in these late discriminating and shedding times And taketh away the understanding of the aged Heb. And taketh the sense or savour or raste of the Elders or Senators that they shall be no more able to discern and determine what is true or false right or wrong then old Barzillaâ— could skill of the Court-meates and musick See this threatned Isai 29.14 Such old men as either were bred Scholars or have had much experience in the management of great affairs are presumed to be of great understanding but God can either take such away as he threateneth to do Isa 3.3 4. or take away their wisedome to render them uselesse to the publick as it is reported of Theodorus Gaza and of Albertus Magnus those great Scholars that for certain years before they died they did so dote and were so childish that they could not write their own names or read a letter on the book Let therefore the Eloquent and the aged take heed they abuse not their abilities lest they forget and lose them Verse 21. He poureth contempt upon Princes Or Nobles or Gentlemen which are or should be free bounteous munificent benefactors if they be not Nedibim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Nebalim liberal but churlish see these opposed Isa 32.5 it is just in God to pour contempt to lay abundance of shame and scorn upon them as sordid penny-fathers ignoble Euclio's poor-spirited men the base brood or rather blot of their better fore-fathers Of out Edward the second it is chronicled that never was Prince received with greater love and opinion of all then he or never any that sooner lost it for his very first action in recalling his minion Pierce Gaveston Daniel discovered an head-strong wilfulnesse that was uncounsellable hence he was slighted by his subjects pursued by his wife and son and at length cruelly murthered Mercer observeth that David hath the self-same words Psalm 107.40 that are found here and verse 24. Neither need we wonder sith they both spake by the same spirit And weakneth the strength of the mighty Heb. He slackneth the girdle of the impetuous that like strong streams in narrow straits bear down all before them So do Souldiers in warre see 2 Sam. 22.16 Job 6.15 But God can loose their girdles or belts which bind their garments and buckle their armour close to them he can dispirit them and make them feeble and faint-hearted as he did Samson and those Assyrians Psalm 76.5 6. By this whole discourse of Job it appeareth that he had very diligently observed Gods providence and way of administration in the several ranks of men and alterations of common-wealths whereby he had learned secretly to admire and adore Gods judgments which thing we ought also semblably to do Verse 22. He discovereth deep things out of darknesse As he did to Joseph and Pharaoh by dreams to the Prophets by visions and revelations and still doth to his people by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 He bringeth to light also the hidden things of darknesse hellish conspiracies as in the Powder-plot the deep reaches of Kings to maintain their authority and compasse their designs resolving to suffer never a rub to lie in their way that might hinder the true running of their bowle Philip de Comines dived so deep Heyl. Geog. and wrote so plainly of the Stately affairs those arcana imperii that Katharine de Medices Queen-mother of France was wont to say that he had made as many hereticks policy as Luther had done in Religion she saw not that God had set Comines awork and that he will yet further bring out to light that all men may see the shadow of death that is the things that are most abstruse and most unlikely ever to have been discovered see Matth. 16.26 with the Note and say Wo to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord Isai 29.15 The powder-plot was a deep thing of darknesse it was under ground they were so long digging in their vault of villany and a long time it was secreted under oaths and strongest concealments But a bird of the air revealed it and that which had wing told the matter Eccles 10.20 It was a quill a piece of a wing brought all to light by a blind letter put by a providence into a wrong hand the danger was at the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within eight hours of being acted when from a match ready fired we received a matchlesse deliverance Say then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 23. Hee encreaseth the Nations and destroyeth them It is all one with God whether against a single man or a whole Nation Job 34.29 when he once taketh them to do The wicked shall be turned into hell and that they may not hope to escape because a multitude all the nations that forget God Psalm 9.17 Soon after the flood the Babel-builders were scattered
bespeaking us as once hee did Jacob Fear not to go down to Egypt so down to the grave for I will go with thee and will surely bring thee up again Gen. 46.4 Or as he did his labouring Church Isa 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast That thou wouldst keep me secret In limbo Patrum say the Papists in parabola ovis capras suas quaerentes Vntil thy wrath be passed For it is such as I can of my self neither avoid nor abide Turn it away therefore or turn it into gentlenesse and kindnesse Psal 6.4 and be friends again Jer. 2.35 Or secret and secure me til the resurrection when all thy wrath will be gone from me That thou wouldst appoint me a set time Heb. set me a statute set down even what time thou pleasest either to send me to bed or to call me up again so that thou wilt but be sure at last to remember me And remember me Job is willing to die out of the world but to die out of Gods memory to be out of sight but not out of mind that God should bury him in the grave but not bury his thoughts of him he could be content to be free among the dead free of that company but not as the slain that lie in the grave whom God remembreth no more Psal 88.5 Job would be remembred for good as Nehemiah prayeth and be dealt with as Moses was whose body once hid in the valley of Moab did afterwards appear glorious in Mount Tabor at the transfiguration Verse 14. If a man dye shall he liâ—e again This he speaketh in way of admiration at that glorious work of the Resurrection See the like question chap. 15.11 Gen. 3.1 and 17.17 So the Apostle Rom. 8.30 31. having spoken of those glorious things predestination vocation justification glorification concludeth in these words What shall we say then We cannot tell what to say to these things so much we are amazed at the greatnesse of Gods goodnesse in them Surely as they have a lovely scarlet blush of Christs blood upon them so they are rayed upon with a beam of divine love to them that are in Christ We read of that godly and learned Scotch-Divine Mr. John Knox that a little before his death he gat up out of his bed and being asked by his friends why being so sick he would offer to rise and not rather take his rest he answered that he had all the last night been taken up in the meditation of the Resurrection and that he would now go up into the pulpit that hee might im part to others the comforts which thereby himself had received And surely if he had been able to have done as he desired I know not what text fitter for his purpose he could have taken then these words of Job If a man die shall he live again He shall without question and those that deny it or doubt of it as the Sadduces of old and some brain-sick people of late they erre not knowing the Scriptures this among the rest which are express for it and the power of God Mat. 22.29 being herein worse then divels which believe it and tremble worse then some heathens who held there would be a resurrection as Zoroastres Theopompus Plato c. worse then Turks who at this day confesse and wait for a resurrection of the body at such a time as the fearful trumpet which they call Soor shal be sounded by Mahomet say they at the commandment of the great God of the judgment All the dayes of mine appointed time or warfare will I wait till my change come i. e. till my death Prov. 31.8 men appointed to die are called in the original children of change or till the resurrection come when we shall all be changed 1 Cor. 15.51 our vile bodies shall be changed and conformed to Christs most glorious body the standard Philip. 3.23 in beauty agility impassibility and other Angelical perfections When I awake saith David sc at that general Resurrection I shall be full of thine image Psalm 17.15 I shall be brought from the jawes of death to the joyes of eternal life where are riches without rust pleasures without pain c. Three glimpses of this glorious change were seen 1. In Moses his face 2. In Christs transfiguration 3. In Stevens countenance when he stood before the council Such a change as this is well worth waiting for what would not a man do what would he not suffer with those noble professors Heb. 11. to obtain a better resurrection I would swim through a sea of brimstone saith one that I might come to heaven at last The stone will fall down to come to its own place though it break it self in twenty pieces so we that we may get to our center which is upwards c. Sursum cursum nostrum dirigamus manantem imminentem exterminantem mortem attendamus ne simul cum corporis fractura animae jacturam faciamus Let us wait and wish every one for himself as he once did Mî sine nocte diem vitam sine morte quietem Det sine fine dies vita quiésque Deus Verse 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee At the Resurrection of the just thou shalt call me out of the grave by thine All-powerful voice uttered by that Archangel with the trump of God 1 Thes 4.16 1 Cor. 15.52 Psalm 50.3 4. and thou shalt not need to call twice for as I shall not need then to fear as the hypocrites will to shew my face so I will readily answer Here I am Mr. Boroughs yea as that dying Saint did so I will say I come I come I come I will even leap out of the grave to obey thine orders and I doubt not but to draw me out of that dark prison thou wilt lend me that hand of thine whereof I have the honour to be the workmanship Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands I know that thou thy self for the love thou bearest me of thy goodnesse who am thy creature Abbot and on whom thou hast shewn favour and reprinted thine image wilt long after the consummation of my happinesse for then I shall be like unto thee more like then ever for I shall see thee as thou art and appear with thee in glory Col. 3.4 1 John 3.2 being next unto thee Luke 22.30 Yea one with thee John 17.21 and so above the most glorious Angels Heb. 1.14 The King shall greatly desire my beauty Psal 45.11 and rejoyce over me as the bridegrom doth over his bride Isa 62.5 See chap. 10.3 The word here rendred Thou wilt have a desire signifieth Thou wilt desire as men do after silver The Lord seemed to deal by Job as men do by drosse to put him away as wicked Psalm 119.119 neverthelesse he believed that he would look
upon him as silver and although he now crushed him together and brake him to pieces as the silver-smith doth an old piece of plate which he means to melt yet that he would in the grave as in a furnace refine him and at the Resurrection bring him out of a new fashion Lo this is the right Logick of faith to make conclusions of life in death and of light in darknesse to gather one contrary out of another Verse 16. For now thou numbrest my steps Or But now thou numbrest c. thou keepest an exact account of every sin of mine of every step that I have trod awry yea though it be but some wry motion of my mind as the Septuagint here translate so curious art thou and critical in thine observations of mine out-strayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See chap. 10.14 But is this Job that speaketh or some other How confident was he 〈◊〉 while and comfortable in the hope of a glorious resurrection but now down again upon all four as we say and like an aguish man in a great fit of impatiency which holdeth him to the end of the chapter But for this who knoweth not that every new man is two men that in the Saints the flesh is ever lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh that in the Shulamite is as it were the company of two armies maintaining a continual contest Cant. 0.13 â—said I am cast out of they sight yet I will look againe toward thine holy Temple Jon. 2.4 See the Note there Dost thou not watch over my sin This is the same with the former but without a figure The Rabbines have a saying that there is not any doubt in the law but may be resolved by the context the Scripture is its owne best Interpreter Verse 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag As the writings or informations of a processe which is ready to be sentenced Deut. 32.34 Hos 13.12 Thou hast as it were sealed up and made sure work with all my sins saith Job to have them forth-coming for the increase of my punishment Look how the Clark of Assizes saith one seals up the indictments of men and at the Assizes brings his bag and takes them out to read the same against them so God dealt with Job in his conceit at least The truth is God had not sealed his transgressions in a bag but had cast them behind his back a bag God hath for mens sins and a bottle he hath for their tears Psalm 56.8 Now Job was one of those penitents that helped to fill Gods bottle and therefore he saw at length though now he were benighted all his sins bag and all thrown into the sea and sinking as a waighty milstone in those mighty waters of free-grace and undeserved mercy And thou sowest up mine iniquity Adsuèsne aliquid iniquitati meae so the Tigurines translate i. e. Wilt thou sew or adde any thing to mine iniquity wilt thou tye to it that tag as a Martyr phraseth it of the Lawes malediction conjoyning the punishment to the sin Adsuere ad iniquitatem est poenas poenis continenter adjungere Merl. Some make this an explication of the former q. d. the bag is not only sealed but for more surety sewed too and that purposely for a purchase of punishment as some sense it Verse 18. And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought q. d. If thou Lord proceed to deal thus rigidly with me viz. to number or cipher up my steps to watch over my sins to seal them up in a bag c. and all this in fierce wrath that thou mayest lay load upon me what mountain what rock what other creature is ever able to abide it chap. 6.12 chap. 7.12 Job had said before Is my strength the strength of stones Am I a sea or a whale Were I these or any the like robustuous creatures yet could not I expect to stand before the displeased Omnipotency who takest the hills like tennis-balls and crackest the rocks like a Nut-shell See Hab. 1.4 5 6. with the Notes And the rock is removed out of his place As in earth-quakes it sometimes falleth out See on chap. 9.5 or by reason of the sea underlaking it decayeth in time and waxeth old as the Hebrew word signifieth Verse 19. The waters weare the stones Gutta cavat lapidem c. the weakest things wear out the hardest by often falling upon them or continual running over them so doth Gods wrath though let out in minnums secretly but surely consume Hos 5.12 I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Judah as rottennesse or that little worm teredo that eats into the heart of wood and rots it Thus he plagued the Egyptians by lice and flies There may be much poison in little drops Thou washest away the things that grow out of the earth Or Thou ever-flowest as once in the general deluge when the face of the earth was grown so foul that God was forc'd to wash it with a flood and frequently since we see that after great rains there are huge floods that marre whole meadows and corne fields not only discolouring but drowning all their beauty and plenty This is the fourth comparison used in this and the former verse where a man would wonder saith an Interpreter Olymp. audire Jobum in medus â—rumuis philosophantem to hear Job in the midst of his miseries making use of his philosophy and travelling thus in his thoughts for illustrations of his own case over mountains and rocks c. Thou destroyest the hope of man viz. In destroying the things above-mentioned or so thou destroyest c. though some reserve the raddition to the next verâ—â— so Thou prevailest against him c. i.e. So thou never ceasest with thy might to cast down sorry men till such time as they changing countenance and departing with an heavy and sorrowful heart thou violently throwest them out their lives and hope ending together if they have been wicked as if godly yet their vain and groundlesse hopes of prosperity and plenty c. come to nothing though over the red sea yet Gods people may be made to tack about two and forty times in the wildernesse Verse 20. Thou prevailest for ever against him This and the rest of the words to the end of the Chapter some make to be the Application of the Similitudes Others an Amplification only of what he had said Thou destroyest the hope of man Thou must needs when thou overmatchest and over-masterest him and art never worsted Exod. 15.3 the Lord is called A Man of War the Chaldee there hath it The Lord and Victor of Wars And the word here rendred Ever cometh from a root that signifieth to finish conquer and triumph And he passeth scil Out of the world by a violent or untimely death Violenâ—â— mortâ— aut certe immaturà Merlin with as ill a will many times as the unjust Steward did out
cast off the care of his earthly Kingdome to gratifie thee and to make good thine Assertion That good men may suffer and bad men go unpunished Never think it thou maist sooner expect him to overturn the whole world for thy sake and put every thing out of that order he hath decreed and made it in then cease to be just in punishing the wicked The course of Justice is as firmly settled as the course of Nature is Fias justitia periac mandâ—â— Of Fabricim it was said That the Sun might as easily be turned out of his track as he out of his path of Justice much more they it be so said of Almighty God the Rock that cannot be removed though he varieth the manner the means the times and seasons of executing Justice as seemeth best unto his heavenly wisdom Verse 5. Tea the light of the wicked shall be put out The ensuing description of a wicked mans unhappinesse in life at death and after death is very true and daintily set forth but falsly and wrongfully wrested against Job You or of a surety the light of the wicked shall be put out though thou wilt not hear of it but the truth shall be spoken however it be taken and thou shalt hereby see thy self to be a wicked man Merlin because thy light is extinct that is thy outward prosperity fitly compared to light because 1. It cheareth our minds 2. Directeth our hands to every businesse 3. Lesseneth our frights 4. Rendreth us conspicuous The light of the wicked shall put out it self so some render it he is commonly the cause of his own ruine And the spark of his fire shall not shine He is quenched as the fire of the thornes Psalm 118.12 Whereof after a while neither spark nor spunk remaineth Vers 6. The light shall be dark in his Tabernacle The glory of his family shall be obscured he and his shall come to utter and unexpected ruine as Hamans did And his candle shalt be put out with him He and his prosperity shall dye together he shall go out in a snuff and leave nothing behind him but a detestable name Sicat fetis fugrens vedit sit ille moritas hone erepitium cecenit saith Melancthon concerning Echius his last piece De conjugio ficet duum Or his candle shall be put out above him so the Vulgar Interpreter the Lamps which glistered over head during the pride and pomp of his Feasts shal give us more light or if they give any it shall be but to shine upon his Tomb. Verse 7. The steps of his strength shall be strâ—â—â—ed that is saith Vatablus he shall not do what he would and was wont He shall lost his courage in the midst of his enterprizes and not be able to effect his attempts And his own counsel shall cast him down His cunning shall faile him his counsel whereby once he rose shall serve but to advance his overthrow and to precipitate him into misery We use to say of a cunning-pated fellow that he never wanteth a trick wherewith to help himself but there is neither power not policy against the Lord and his judgements Of the Athenians it is said that Minerva turned all their evil counsel into good unto them Gods enemies have no such friend to help them at a dead lift The stone cut out of the mountaine without hands shall bring down the golden Image with a powder and make it like the chasse of the Summer-floor Dan. 2.35 Verse 8. For he is cast into a net by his own feet Wicked men are even ambitious of destruction judgements need not go to find them out they run to meet their bane Divine Justice and their own indiscretion undo them He hath sent his feet into the net so the Vulgar rendreth it He is sent into a net by his own feet so Mr. Broughton His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins Prov. 5.22 these shall cast him into inextricable straits And he walketh upon a suare Vpon a platted grin saith Broughton whereout the more he strives to get the more he entangleth himself Sen de ira lib. 3 cap. 6. Sic laqueas fera dum jactat astringit Sic aves viscum dum trepidantes excutiunt plumis omnibus illinunt So the beast whilst he tosseth the snares wherein he is taken straitneth them So the birds while they think to shake off the birdlime besmeare all their feathers with it Verse 9. The grin shall take him by the heel Or He shal lay hold on the grin with his heel so Mercer readeth it that is he foolishly runs upon his own ruine he perisheth by his own oversight And the Robber shall prevail against him Horridi sitibundi the shaghaired Ruffians that have wasted their own estates and now thirst after other mens Broughton readeth it The savage shall lay hold on him So that either by secret contrivance or open violence he shall be undone Verse 10 The snare is laid for him in the way c. This heap of words net snare grin trap cords sheweth that God hath many wayes to catch the wicked with and that nusquam nunquam non eis impendeat exitium destruction is ready to meet them at every turning God cannot want a weapon to beat a Rebel And a trap for him in the way He walks as it were upon a Mine of Gun-powder The Hebrew hath it His trap such as most of the Cesars till Constantine the great met with and among the rest Maximinus that Mastive Tyrant eight foot high who daily devoured forty pounds of flesh and drank thereto six gallons of Wine This soul beast after he had raised the sixth Persecution against the Christians especially against the Pastors of the Church and exercised many other great cruelties was told to his teeth Miâ—â—m in theatro Elephas grandis est occiditur Leo fortis est occiditur Cave multos si singulos non times And it befel him accordingly for at the siege of Aquileia in Italy Euseb he was slaine as he slept at noon in his Tent by his own souldiers Ezekiel foretelleth the degenerate sons of Josiah that they shall be taken by the King of Babylon as beasts in a toil So Pharaoh that natural brute beast was made to be taken and destroyed 2 Pet. 2.12 with Exod. 9.16 So Saul complaineth that God had forsaken him and the Philistines those savage creatures were upon him 2 Sam. 28. Behold I will send for many hunters and they shal hunt them c. Jer. 16.16 Verse 11. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side These terrors are as it were the cruel Sergeants and mercilesse Officers of that King of terrors Apparitores lictores Jun. verse 14 arresting him as it were in the Devils name and bringing him to justice How can it be but a terrible time with him when death comes with a Writ of Habeas Corpus and the
Devil with a Writ of Habeas animam when the cold earth must have his body and hot hell hold his soul according to that of the Psalmist Let death seizâ— upon them and let them go down quick into hell for wickednesse is in their dwellings and among them Psal 55.17 The sad forethought hereof causeth many unutterable griefs and gripings perplexities of spirit and convulsions of soul a very hell above ground and a foretaste of eternal torments The word here rendred terror signifieth utmost affrightments such as put a man well nigh out of his wits and distract him R. Solomon understandeth it of devils others of furies such as the Poets fain Most certain it is Cic. Orat. pro Rosc Amer. that a body is not so tormented with stings or torn with stripes as a mind with remembrance of wicked actions and fear of future evils And shall drive him to his feet As they did Cain that Caitiff Qui factus est à corde sâ—â— fugitivus Tertul. who would fain have fled from his own conscience if he could have known whither and became a Fugitive and a Vagabond upon the earth Gen. 4.12 seeking to outrun his terrors which yet dogged him hard at the heels They shal presse him at his feet so Broughton readeth this Text. Verse 12. Fit famelicum robur ejus His strength shall be hunger-bitten Heb. His strength or wealth shal be famine Or Famine shall be his strength He who whilom having health and wealth at will fared deliciously and gathered strength shall be hunger-starved and hardly have prisoners pittance so much only as will neither keep him alive nor suffer him to dye See 1 Sam. 2.5.36 'T is as much faith Brentius as we use to say of an extreme poore or feeble person his wealth is poverty his strength weaknesse And destruction shall be ready at his side i.e. Shall suddenly and inevitably seize upon him there will be no running away from it for can a man run from his side The word signifieth not an ordinary calamity but a dreadful and direful destruction Some understand it of the Plurisie or Vlcers in the side of a man Others of ribrost as they call it tortures inflicted on condemned persons as Heb. 11.34 who are beaten with bats Verse 13. It shall devour the strength of his skin i.e. his bones which support his skin these destruction shall devour or swallow up at a bit as an hungry Monster The first born of death shall devour his strength i.e. The Devil say some that Destroyer Rev. 9.11 that old Man-slayer John 8.44 Prince of death Heb. 2.14 as Christ is called Prince of Life Act. 3.15 and first born of death as Christ is the first born of the Resurrection Col. 1.18 Others understand it De cruentissima at funestissima morte of the most tragick and cruel kind of death See Isai 14.30 Broughton readeth it A strange death shall cat the branches of his body judgments shal come upon thee in their perfection saith God to Babylon Isai 47.9 Verse 14. And his confidence shall be rooted out of his Tabernacle Whatsoever he trusteth in about his house shall be pulled up by the roots or grub'd up Thus it befel Doeg Psal 52.7 And this disappointment this broken confidence of his shall bring him or make him go to the King of terrors i.e. to death that most terrible of terribles Aristot as the Philosopher calleth it Or the Devil as R. Solomon interpreteth it that black Prince Eph. 6.12 to whom wicked men are brought by death which to them is not only Natures Slaughterman but Gods curse and hels Purveyour hence Rev. 6 8. death haleth hell at the heels of it Verse 15. It shall dwell in his Tabernacles because it is none of his Heb. Not his for why the King of terrors hath turned him out of it and taken it up for an habitation for himself Some render it thus nothing or have nothing that is want shall dwell in his Tabernacle his house shall be replenished with emptinesse scarcity shall be the furniture of his habitation Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation As is also threatned Psal 11.6 And as was executed upon Sodom and her sifters as also upon Dioclesian the Tyrant who giving over his Empire Euseb de Vita Const lib. 5 decreed to lead the rest of his life quietly But he escaped not so for after that his house was wholly consumed with lightening and a flame of fire that fell from heaven not without a sulphurous smell he hiding himself for fear of the lightning dyed within a little after Verse 16. His roots shall be dryed up beneath c. The meaning is saith Dâ—odate he shall be deprived of Gods grace which is the root of all happinesse and of his blessing which is the top of it Verse 17. His remembrance shall perish from the earth As a tree when root and branch is gone is clean forgotten and no man remembreth where it grew so shall it be with the wicked Mercer Non celebrabitur ejus nomon fama nise in malum Eccles 8. 10. It is reckoned as a great benefit to a wicked man to have his memory dye with him which if it be preserved stinks in keeping and remains as a curse and perpetual disgrace And he shall have no name i.e. no honourable Name no renowne A good name only is a name Eccles 7.1 as a good wife only is a wife Prov. 18.22 Every married woman is not a wife Zillah Lamechs wife was but the shadow of a wife as her name also signifieth In like sort those only have a name in the streets or publick places who are talked of for good as the Martyrs who have left their names for a blessing Isai 65.15 when as their wretched Persecutors have left a vile snuff behind their Lamps being put out in obscurity Verse 18. He shall be driven out of light into darknesse Heb. They shall drive him scil the devils shall drive him out of the light of life into outer darknesse as they did that rich wretch Luke 12.20 confer Mat. 8.12 and 25.30 The Dutch Translation readeth it Men shall drive him Others understand it of his troubles and sorrowes And chased out of the world As Tarquin was by Collatine as Phâ—â—as was by Heraclius kickt off the stage of the world as one phraseth it or as Job saith of some wicked buried before half dead chap. 27.15 Men shall chap their hands at him and shal hiss him out of his place verse 23. Verse 19. he shall neither have son nor Nephew c. A sore affliction to be written childlesse which yet is the portion of some good people as Abel many Prophets and Apostles for whose comfort that is written Isai 56.4.5 God as he will be to his childlesse children better then ten sons so he will give them in his house 1 Sam. 1.8 Isal 96.5 and within his wals a place and a name better then
partem interiorem which yet should move more slowly by night because then the heat is drawne into the internal parts Verse 18. By the great force of my Disease is my garment changed soil sudore cruâ—te sanit sanguine By the matter that my Disease forceth outward in Boils and Botches is my garment which once was decoru Magistratus insigne the Ensign of my Authority utterly stained and spoiled loathsom to my self and noysom to others Merlin Totum cruentem sordidatum Merc. Every one say some Chymicks hath his own Balsom within him his own bane it is sure he hath Physicians hold that in every two years there is such store of ill humours and excrements ingendred in the body that a vessel of one hundred ounces will scarce contain them Now if these by Gods appointment for he is the great Centurion Matth. 8.9 who hath all diseases at his beck and check break outward what an ulcerous Leper and Lazar must that man needs be This was Jobs case and Munsters who called his sores Gemmas preciosa Dei ornamenta Gods Gems and Jewels Job Manl. loc câ—â— p. 127 where with he decketh those whom he loveth and King Philips of Spain who besides many other diseases had ingentem puris ex ulceribus reaundantiam qua binas indies scutellas diuits paedore impleret Abundance of filthy matter issuing out of his sores Carol Scriban Instit Princep cap. 20 insomuch as that no change of cloathes or Art of Physicians could keep him from being devoured by Lice and Vermine thereby ingendred It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat It is become so stiff and starky that it wrings me and hurts me as an uneasie collar girds and gripes a mans neck As the edge of my coat in gards me so Broughton readeth it Beza rendreth this latter part of the verse thus He God compâ—sseth me about as the collar of my coat Piscatoâ— the whole thus By the greatnesse of his Gods strength which he putteth forth in scourging me with diseases my garment changeth it self putteth on as it were another 〈◊〉 of scabâ— and scurf As the mouth of my coat he God girdeth me 〈…〉 he pincheth my body with diseases But the former â—â—â—ding is better Verse 19. He 〈◊〉 cast me into the mire My Disease hath so Vatablus senseth it Others God hath as it were trampled me to dirt thrown me into the kernel and so done me the greatest disgrade that can be And I am become like dust and ashes Like a dust-heap behind the door cadâ—veiâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 saith Mercaâ— Being covered all even saith Beza with the 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 that full from my 〈◊〉 I am become more unlike unto the unprofitable dust and ashes then unto a living man Dust and ashes are not more like one another then their names are in the Original sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cinis See Gen. 3.19 and 18.17 Verse 20 I cry unto thee and thou dost not hear me This was a sore trial that God should cast him into straits and there leave him His enemies indeed he usually dealeth so by Ezek. 22.20 and 29.5 but not by his servants Heb. 13.5 Or if he do leave them yet he will not forsake them The mother leaves her child sometimes but when he setteth up his note and cryeth lustily she hasteneth to help him So doth God But now Job cryed unto him and was not heard or answered to his thinking at least and that was a great cut to him as Psalm 22.2 I stand up scil To make supplication to my Judg as Haman stood up to make request for his life Esth 7.7 as the Publican stood and prayed Luke 18.13 and as Moses and Samuel are supposed to stand before God in prayer for their people Jerem. 15.1 Hence that Proverb amongst the Jewes Absque stationibus non staret mundus Did not the Saints stand in prayer the world could not stand And thou regardest me not This was but a Mistake in Job for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open to their prayers Only God answereth our prayer non secundum voluntatem tamen ad utilitatem Not alwayes or as soon as we would but doth that which is better for us and takes it ill to be misconstrued as he was by Job witnesse the next words bloody words indeed Accusat ergo Job Dominum mendacii Brent Contumeliosus viderispotest Merl. and not far from Blasphemy Verse 21 Thou art become cruel to me Mutatus es mihi in tyrannum thou art turned Tyrant towards me so Brentius rendreth it and the like he had said before chap. 16.13 and 19.8 9 10. out of the vehemency of his pain and he sense of his flesh which should have been silenced and faith exalted the property whereof is to pick one contrary out of another as life out of death assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses Deut. 32.36 and to perswade the heart that God concealeth his love out of increasement of love and in very faithfulness afflicteth his darlings that he may be true to their souls Psal 1.19.75 With thy strong hand thou opposest thy self against me Heb. Thou batest me Satanically hatest me Intestinum odium exerces adversum me Tremell and accordingly thou dost practise all thy might upon me Thus Job in his heat and that he may not seem to rage without reason he subjoyneth Verse 22. Thou liftest me up to the wind Thou whifflest and wherriest me about as chaff or thistle-down Pro libidine tractas me thou usest me at thy pleasure Brent Thou causest me to ride upon it Upon the wings of the wind lifting me up aloft that I may fall with the greater poise as the Eagle is said to do the Tortoise Vt lapsu graviore ruam Thou dissolvest my substance Or Thou meltest my wisdome I have neither flesh nor reason remaining The issue that he expecteth of all these his forementioned miseries followeth Verse 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to death Such hard thoughts had Job of God and such heavy thoughts of himself Nam experior mors avocat me so Tremellius For I feel it death calleth me away Sic ludis mecum ut facilè conjiciam mihi moriendum esse saith Brentius Thou so dalliest with me that I plainly perceive I must shortly dye there 's no avoiding of it 2 Cor. 1.8.9 10 Thus good Job was pressed out of measure above strength insomuch as be despaired even of life and had the sentence or denunciation of death in himself c. But God was better to him then his fears and delivered him from so great a death this is usual Qui nil sper are potest desperet nihil And to the house appointed for all living That is the grave Psal 49.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 89.48 that Congregation house of all living as heaven is called the Congregation house of the first born Heb. 12.23 the publick or
c. and be wise by others woes enjoy their follies and gather with the Bee sweet honey out of those bitter weeds Poena ad pancos metus ad omnes Verse 27. Because they have turned back from him To pursue after lying vanities broken cisterns which whosoever do as they fall into two foul sins at once such as heaven and earth have cause to be astonished at and afraid of Jeremiah 2.12 13. so they are miserable by their own Election Jonah 2. vers 8. And would not consider any of his wayes Wisely consider them as David did Psal 119.168 All Gods lawes were in his sight and all his wayes in Gods sight This was the general cause of their destruction The special followeth Verse 28. So that they cause the cry of the poor c. These they compel by their oppressions to wash the earth with their tears and to importune heaven with their complaints Senault as One phraseth it The wicked do as it were bring up to God the cryes of the poor oppressed and so pull upon themselves inevitable destruction for he is the poor mans Patron and heareth the cry of the afflicted The grand Signior would have the world take notice that such as lament unto him shall be sure to have redress and succour from him Grand Sign Serag 147. Wherefore also he calleth himself Awlâ—m Penawâ—â— The worlds Refuge A title far more fit for the God of heaven than for any earthly Monarch 〈◊〉 Manl. loc 〈◊〉 were he far more gracious than the great Turk from whose courtesie freely offered him Luther blessed himself with a Deus me tutatur à tali benefice Domino God defend me from such a gracious Lord. Verse 29. When he giveth quietnesse who then can make trouble Ipse tranquillabit quis inquietabit This is like that of the Apostle saith Brentius Rom. 8. If God be for us who can be against us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect c It is he alone who giveth peace both of countrey and of conscience Peace peace Isai 26.3 Pacem omnimodam external internal eternal and then who can disturb or unsettle Surely as Isaac once said to Esau concerning Jacob He is blessed and he shall be blessed so may it be said of such as have made their peace with God Peace shall be upon them and Mercy contra gentes whosoever saith nay to it yea though it be the Devil himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is oft called the Troublesome one who ever since he was cast out of heaven keeps ado on earth and seeks to disquiet all such as by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Rom. 2.7 And when he hideth his face who then can behold him Him Whom God who dare look upon him or toward him for help when he is throughly displeased and looketh irefully Or the party frowned on by God who will smile upon him or shew him any favour and furtherance Here Aben-Ezra giveth a good Note Aversio vultus Dei c. The turning away of Gods pleased countenance is the cause of all Wars and other disasters The Physiologer in Epiphanius telleth of the Bird Charadius that being brought into the room where a man lyeth sick if he look with a steddy and fixed eye upon the sick man he recovereth but if he turn away from him and look another way the disease is to death Apply this to God and it fitteth Whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only All 's a case as they say to God he stands not upon multitudes as men use to do in case of Mutinies or the like to punish the tenth man or so in terrorem for a terrour to the rest This is not Gods way of punishing but as a thousand years are to him but as a day and one day as a thousand years so when he proceeds to execution of Justice whether it be done against a Nation c. All Nations to him are but as a drop of a bucket or dust of a balance Isai 40. And hence he buried a world full of people in one universal grave of waters And the wicked be they never so many shall be turned into hell With whole nations tht forget God Psal 9.17 God seemeth to say Fiat justitia ruat orbis Verse 30. That the hypocrite reign not That he reign no longer Almighty God taketh order by putting these mighties from their seats and exalting them of low degree Luk. 1.52 And why 1. Lest the hypocrite or the impure and impious man reign Such as was Jehu Herod Julian our Richard 3. Pope Sixtus Quintus of whom One saith Spec. Europ that he was the most crouching humble Cardinal that ever was lodg'd in an oven and the most stout proud Pope that ever wore Crown What pride equal to his making Kings kisse his Pantofâ—es What humility pretended greater than his shrieving himself daily on his knees to an ordinary Priest He calleth himself the servant of Gods servants and yet stamps in his Coyn That Nation and Countrey that will not serve thee shall be rooted out he also suffereth his Parasites to stile him Our Lord God the Pope Is not this a notorious hypocrite and when such a one reigneth and taketh upon him to be Lord of all both in spirituals and temporals may not we conclude that God hideth his face as in the former verse from his people May we not cry out as Basil once did Epist 17. Num Ecclesias suas dereliquit Dominus hath the Lord utterly forsaken his Churches It is doubtless a very great judgement upon a people when an hypocrite or a prophane person is set over them who pretends the publick good to his own designes and self-interests and by his crafty inventions undoes his subjects robbing them of their lawful liberties and enslaving them Some read the words thus Vulg. Speâ— Ab. Ezra He causeth that the hypocrite reigneth for the sins of the people It is threatened as an heavy curse Levit. 26.17 If you still trespasse against me I will set Princes over you that shall hate you mischievous odious Princes odious to God malignant to the people Such as was Phocas that bloody Tyrant who when he had slain his Master Mauricius and reigned in his stead there was an honest poor man saith Cedrenus who was earnest with God to know a reason why such a thing was suffered to whom it was answered That a worse man could not be found and that the sins of Christians required it We read of Attilus King of Swethland that he made a Dog King of the Danes in revenge of a great many injuries received by them Sr. Rich. Berkley's Sum. Pon. p. 387. Gunno likewise King of the Danes made a Dog King of Norway and appointed Counsellours to do all things under his Title and Name That which these men did spitefully God somtimes doth righteously setting up tyrants for a
6.2 Isa 30.26 For my bones are vexed viz. by reason of my leanness and long lying For albeit the bones of themselves are insensible and ake not yet the membranes and tunicles do that compass the bones Vers 3. My soul is also sore vexed This was worse than all the rest A light load to a raw shoulder is very grievous A little water in a leaden vessel is heavie so is a little outward grief to a laden soul Hence Job so complaineth and Jeremy prayeth be not thou a terrour unto me O Lord and then I much matter not what becomes of me But thou O Lord how long soil Wilt thou stand off and not hast to my help This is plena affectus Reticentia Vatab. an emphatical and affectionate Aposiopesis such as is ordinary with those that are in pain and durance Vers 4. Return O Lord deliver my soul He calleth hard upon Jehovah which sweet name of God he hath now five times in these four first Verses made use of as one that knew and could improve the full import of it Here David beggs of him to return not by change of place for God filleth all places being Entèr praesentèr Deus hic ubique potentèr But Miserationis serenitate by a beam of his mercy and by a dispensation of his gracious providence altering his condition for the better Deut. 30.9 Act. 15.16 O save me for thy mercies sake Quà m pulcherrimè ista supplicatio propriis proficicuis sermonibus explicatur saith Cassiodore concerning this text i.e. How finely and fitly is this request set forth David pleadeth not Merit but humbly craveth Mercy The Heart that peice of proud flesh must be brought to such a temper and tameness as to crouch to God for the crums that fall from his table Vers 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee Some Heathens were of opinion that when a man dyed all dyed with him neither was there any further sense of weal or woe for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. 1.3 c. 9 Socrates doubted but Aristotle affirmed it to be so for ought he knew Eusebius and Augustine make mention of certain Arabian Hereticks who held that the Soul dyed with the Body and so remained dead till the last day and then they revived with the resurrection of the body This was long since exploded for a foul errour contrary to that which the Scripture holdeth forth in many places All that David would say here is that dead men remember not that is they mention not Gods worthy Acts to the quickning of others their praises cannot provoke other men to beleeve in God or serve him as in their life-time they might therefore David would fain live to do more good A certain Martyr going to suffer said he was sorry that he was going to a place where hee should do God no more work Seven Epist 3. but be receiving wages only Domine si adhuc populo tuo sim necessarius non recuso laborem said a dying Saint Lord if I may be yet useful to thy people I should be very well content it might be so See Isa 38.18.19 David and Hezekiah prayed hard that they might not yet dye lest Religion and the true Worship of God which they had begun to vindicate and establish should by their decease fall to the ground through the wickedness of their survivers and successors In the grave who shall give thee thanks scil Palani cum aliis saith Aben-Ezra openly and exemplarily in the company of others Some render it In Hell who shall consess to thee Hereby is shewed the fear of Gods Children saith Diodate anguished by the feeling of his Wrath least they should dye out of his grace unreconciled and by that means be excluded and debarred from their desired aime to be everlastingly instruments of his glory But it is better to take Sheol here for the place and state of the dead after their dissolution though Dilrio will needs have it to be always in Scripture meant of Hell which if it be so then why should Job so earnestly desire to be hid in it chap. 14.13 That was a singular example of Paul the Hermite Adag Sacr. in 2 Sam. 22. Digress 2. Hier. in Vit. Paul who though dead seemed to be serving God and affected those that beheld him For he was found saith Hierom dead kneeling upon his knees holding up his hands lifting up his eyes so that the very dead corps seemed yet by a kind of religious gesture to pray unto God Vers 6. I am weary with my groaning I have laboured therein even unto lassitude There must be some proportion between our sin and our sorrow A storm of sighes at least if not a shower of tears some sorrow is above tears some constitutions are dry and will not yeeld tears and in such case dry sorrow may be as available as wet Shee that touched the heth of Christs Garment only was as welcome to him as Thomas who put his fingers into the print of the nails All the night make I my bed to swim So one hours sin brought many nights pain Transit voluptas mani◠dolo Nocet emp◠dolore voluptas Bishop Pilkiton on Nehem 1.4 Did we but fore-think what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent But now adays saith a reverend Writer weep a man may not for disfiguring his face fasting is thought Hypocrisie and shame and when his panch is full then as Priests with their drunken Now is said Mattens and belched out Eruct avit cor meum verbum with good devotion as they thought so hee blusters out a few blustering words and thinks it repentance sufficient c. Another descants thus upon the text As in Sicilia there is Fons Solis the Fountain of the Sun out of which at Mid-day when the Sun is nearest floweth cold water at Mid-night D. Playfere Psal 6.6 when the Sun is further off floweth hot water So the Patriarch Davids head is full of water and his eyes a fountain of tears who when he enjoyed his health as the warm Sun-shine was cold in confessing his sins But being now visited with sickness his reins chastising him in the night season he is so sore troubled and withall so hot and so fervent that every night he washeth his bed Simson in Lo◠and watereth nay even melteth his Couch with tears c. A third makes this good Note upon these words The place of Davids sin his Bed is the place of his repentance and so it should be yea when we behold the place where wee have offended we should be prickt in heart and there again crave him pardon As Adam sinned in the Garden and Christ sweat bloudy tears in the Garden sanctify by tears every place which we have polluted by sin and let us seek Christ Jesus in our Bed with the Spouse in the Canticles who saith In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loved Cant. 3.1
abased c. Bern. Sine Deo omnis copia est egostas In pleasant places From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine Prison Quis in Deo 〈◊〉 poâ—tio mea 〈◊〉 quasi in loco 〈◊〉 maeno R. David said that Italian Martyr dating his Letter Tua praesentia Domine Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit said that Ancient Thy presence Lord made Laurence his gridiron pleasant to him Yea I have a goodly heritage I have as much in content at least as hee who hath most The Bee is as well pleased with feeding on the dew or sucking from a flower as Behemoth that grazeth on the Mountaines The Lark when alost seeth further with a little eye than the Oxe on the ground with a greater Atque suum tirilitirilitiritirlire cantat Vers 7. I will blesse the Lord who hath given mee counsel David frequently consulted with God by Abiathar the Priest whom God by a sweet providence sent unto him with an Ephod for a comfort in his banishment 1 Sam. 22.20 Saul had slain those that ware the Ephod therefore God answered him not neither by dreams nor by Vrim nor by Prophets 1 Sam. 28.6 as hee did his Servant David who therefore blesseth him when the other runneth from him to the Witch for counsel and from her to the swords point My reines also instruct mee God hath not only illuminated mee whereby I shall bee the better able to endure a great fight of affliction Heb. 10.32 but hee hath also sanctified mee and honoured mee with holy inspirations and feeling of the Spirit of Adoption whereby mine internall thoughts and secret motions do dictate and suggest unto mee what I ought to do and undertake Methinks I hear a sweet still voice within mee saying This is the way walk in it and this in the night-season when I am rapt in rest and silence or night after night the Spirit is a continuall spring of counsel and comfort within mee prompting mee to make God my portion and to chuse this good part that shall never be taken away from mee In the night-seasons When commonly we are prone to evill Nox Amor c. Ovid. Illa pudore vacat c. and which is the wicked mans fittest opportunity Job 24.13 15 16. c. It must not content us that God by his word hath given us counsel but wee must labour to be inwardly taught of God A man may read the figure upon the Diall but hee cannot tell how the day goes unlesse the Sun shine upon the Diall Wee may read the Bible over and hear it opened and applied but can learn nothing till the Spirit shine into our hearts 2 Cor. 4. and so our reines instruct us c. Vers 8. I have set the Lord alwaies before mee Heb. I have equally set or proposed Ex Syro Serm. The Apostle translateth it I foresee the Lord alwaies before my face Act. 2.25 I set the eye of my faith full upon him and suffer it not to take to other things I look him in the face oculâ—irretorto as the Eagle looketh upon the Sun and oculo adamantino with an eye of Adamant which turns only to one point so here I have equally set the Lord before mee without irregular affections and passions And this was one of those lessons that his reines had taught him that the holy Spirit had dictated unto him Because hâ—e is at my right hand To help mee that I fall not saith R. David or as a thing that I cannot but remember as being of continuall use to mee It is as necessary to remember God as to draw breath saith Chrysostome I shall not be moved i.e. not greatly moved as Psal 62.2 though Satan stand at the right hand of a godly man to resist and annoy him Zech. 3.1 yet so long as God is at his right hand to assist and comfort him and hee at Gods right hand Psal 45.9 which is a place of honour and safety hee cannot bee moved The gates of Hell shall never prevail Christ our Sampson hath flung them off their hinges Vers 9. Therefore my heart is glad c. That is I am all over in very good plight as well as heart can wish or need require I do over-abound exceedingly with joy God forgive mee mine unthankfullnesse and unworthinesse of so great glory as that Martyr said In all the dayes of my life I was never so merry as now I am in this dark dungeon c. Wicked men rejoyce in appearance and not in heart Mr. Philpot. 2 Cor. 5.12 their joy is but skin-deep their mirth frothy and flashy such as wetteth the mouth but warmeth not the heart But David is totus totus quantus quantus exultabundus his heart glory flesh answerable as some think to that of the Apostle 1 Thes 5.23 Spirit Soul and Body were all over-joyed My flesh also shall rest or confidently dwell in hope Namely in this World as in a wayfaring lodging Diod. then in the grave as a place of safeguard and repose and at last in heaven as in its true and eternall mansion Vers 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell that is my body in the grave animamque sepulchro condimus or in the State of the dead Gen. 37.35 That Soul is sometimes put for a carcass or dead corps Virg. de Polydori funere Aeneid 3. See Job 14.22 Lev. 19.28 21. 1.11 Num. 5.2 6.6 19.13 which place is expounded Ezek 44.25 David can confidently write upon his grave Resurgam I shall rise against This many Heathens had no hope of 1 Thes 4.13 Cum semel occider is Non Torquate tuum genus aut facundia non te Restituet pietas c. Horat. lib. 4. od 7. Yet some Heathens beleeved both the immortality of the soul and therefore durst dye animaque capaces Mortis and the Resurrection of the body as did Zoroastes Theopompus Plato and as do the Turks at this day Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One c. that is the Messiah that is to come out of my loines and who saith to mee and all his Members 2s Isa 26.19 in effect Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust c. See the Note on the Title Michtam The former part of this verse seems to be spoken of David the latter of Christ like as Job 35.15 the former part is of God the latter of Job See the Margin Christs resurrection is a cause pledge and suerty of the Saints resurrection to glory for joy whereof Davids heart leapt within him Christs body though laid in the corrupting-pit could not see that is feel corruption It was therefore a pious errour in those good women who brought their sweet odours to embalm his dead body Luke 24.1 Vers 11. Thou wilt shew mee the path of life This being applied to Christ seemeth to shew that as man
to his people bee it but in an unseemly gesture as Labans lowrings See Matth. 27.39 and sets them upon record against the day of account Vers 8. Hee trusted on the Lord that hee would deliver him Is this a prophecie of of our Saviours sufferings or an History rather See Matth. 27.43 with the Note Seeing hee delighted in him A most virulent Irony whereby they sought to cajole him of his confidence and so to drive him into utter desperation and destruction Vers 9. But thou art hee that took mee out of the womb When but for thine almighty midwifery I might have been strangled or as an untimely birth never seen the Sun It is no lesse than a miracle that the child is kept alive in the womb and perisheth not in the midst of those excrements and that in comming forth it dyeth not c. The very opening and shutting again of the body when the child is to be born is a thing so incomprehensible that some Naturalists acknowledge the immediate hand and power of God in it But because it is a common mercy little notice is taken or use made of it Thou didst make mee hope Or keptst mee in safety for puerilit as est periculorum pelagus a thousand deaths and dangers little ones are subject to but God preserveth and provideth haec non sunt per accidens saith Kimchi these things are not by chance but by divine providence Vers 10. I was cast upon thee from the womb Id est a Patre Matre mea saith Kimchi by my Father and my Mother whom thou Lord feddest and filledst her breasts Veluti exposititius tibi fui a Matrice Vat. that she might suckle mee Did men but seriously consider what kept and fed them in the womb and at the breasts when neither they could shift for themselves nor their Parents do much for them they would conclude hee would much more now by their holy prayers honest endeavors c. Thou art my God from my Mothers belly This is a privilege proper to Children born within the Covenant and they may claim it they have God for their God from their nativity and they may lay their reckoning so in all their addresses unto God Vers 11. Bee not farre from mee for trouble is near And so it is high time for thee to put forth an helping hand Homimbus profanis mirabilis videtur hac ratio to profane persons this seemeeh to bee a strange reason saith an Interpreter but it is a very good one as this Prophet knew who therefore makes it his plea. For there is none to help Set in therefore O Lord and help at a dead lift poor mee who am forsaken of all other hopes Vers 12. Many Bulls have compassed mee Young Bulls which noteth their lustiness and courage Tauri bene saginati petulci Strong Bulls of Bashan A farre Country beyond Jordan famous for fat and fierce cattel Hereby are meant Princes and Potentates persecutors of Christ and his people against whom they run and rush with utmost might and malice but not alwaies with desired successe Of the wild Bull it is said that of all things hee 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 hard at him as hard as hee can drive but the hunter slipping aside the Bulls hornes stick fast in the tree as when David slipped aside Sauls spear stuck fast in the wall In like manner saith a Divine Christ standing before the tree of his Crosse put on a red garment dipt and died in his own blood as one that cometh with red garments from Bâ—zra Isa 63.1 Therefore the Devill and his agents like wild Bulls of Bashan ran at him But hee saving himself their hornes stick fast in the Crosse as Abrahams Ram by his hornes stuck fast in the briars Vers 13. They gaped upon mee with their mouths As if they would have swallowed mee up at a bit like so many Lycanthropi or savage Canniballs As a ravening and a roaring Lyon Rapiens rugiens Leâ— licet non sit mos Boum rapere Bulls do not use to raven though they roar Kimchi but the malignities of all fierce and fell Creatures are to bee found in cruell persecutors Would any man take the Churches picture saith Luther then let him paint a silly poor Maid sitting in a Wood or Wildernesse compassed about with hungry Lions Wolves Bulls Loc. cum de Persec Boares and Beares and with all manner of cruell and hurtfull beasts and in the midst of a great many furious men or rather Monsters assaulting her every moment and minute for this is her condition in the World Vers 14. I am powred out like water i.e. I am almost past all recovery as water spilt upon the ground And all my bones are out of joynt Or disparted as on a rack or by a strappado Who hath not heard how Lithgow the Scot was used at Maligo in Spain Lithg traâ— by the bloody Inquisitours after that hee had passed thorough the greatest part of the known World and travelled thorough Forrests Wildernesses and Deserts where hee met with theeves and murderers Lions Bulls Bears and Tigers and escaped them how they starved him wounded him dis-joynted him in ten houres space laid seventy severall torments upon him though they had nothing against him but suspition of Religion And yet after this God wonderfully delivered him so that hee was brought on this bed wounded and broken to King James whose letters of recommendation hee had for his safe travell through the World and to whom hee made this relation to the face of Gundamour the Spanish Ambassadour This was much but yet little or nothing to Christs sufferings whence that passage in the Greek Letany 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By thine unknown sufferings good Lord deliverus My heart is like wax c. Fear and faintnesse causeth an extreme sweat such as was that of our Saviour in his agony Luk. 22.44 it disableth also the Members from acting their parts and softeneth the heart Job 23.16 Vers 15. My strength is dried up like a potsheard My spirits are utterly spent Viror metâ—â— Humidum radicale membra in 〈◊〉 conglutinans Abon-Ezra my naturall moisture quite wasted and dryed up so that I am even like a skin-bottle in the 〈◊〉 c. For my strength some read my palar And my Tongue eleaveth to my jaws That which â—eedeth and facilitateth the motion of the tongue in speech is exhausted Consider here the greatnesse of the divine displeasure poured upon Christ our suerty Words are too weak to utter it And thom haft brought mee into the dust of death Here is the utmost of our Saviours humiliation Whilst alive hee was a worm and no man but now hee is lower for a living dog is better than a dead Lion saith Solomon O humble Saviour whither wilt thou descend Oh that
wasted the Fig-tree Christ cursed so forcible is his curse Vers 37. Mark the perfect mâ—n c. As we must treasure up experiences our selves so we must stir up others to do the like There is a wo â—o such as consider not the operation of Gods hands Isa 5.12 For the end of that man is peace Though his beginning and middle may bee troublesome yet his end his after-and at least shall be peace He shall by death enter into peace rest in his bed Isa 57.2 Vers 38. But the transgressours c. Here the end is worse than the beginning Sin ever ends tragically The end of the wicked shall be cut off Their end is not death but destruction they are killed with death Rev. 2.23 life and hope end together Vers 39. But the salvation of the righteous c. 〈◊〉 ut paâ—oâ—i◠〈◊〉 coâ—â—lectar their salvation temporal and eternal is of the Lord so is also the destruction of the wicked as is here necessarily implied He is their strength c. That they faint not sink not under the heaviest burden of their light afflictions which are but for a moment Vers 40. And the Lord shall help them c. He shall He shall He shall Oh the Rhetorick of God! the safety of the Saints the certainty of the Promises PSAL. XXXVIII A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Made purposely for a memorial both of what he had suffered and from what he had been delivered See 1 Chron. 16.4 Exod. 30.16 Lev. 2.2 6.15 Recordatâ—â—â— autem intelligitur miserie ex misericordia Psal 132. Isa 62.6 63.7 It is probable that David had so laid to heart the Rape of his Daughter Tamar the Murther of his eldest Son Amnon the flight of his next Son Absolom and other troubles that befell him Basil thinks Absoloms conspiracy Ahitophels perfidy Shimeies insolency c. that it cost him a great fit of sickness out of which hardly recovering he penned this and some other Psalms as the 35.39 40. but this especially for a Momento to imminde him of his own late misery and Gods never-failing mercy to him Both these we are wondrous apt to forget and so both to lose the fruit of our afflictions by falling afresh to our evil practices as Children soon forget a whipping and to rob God our Deliverer of his due praises like as with Children eaten bread is soon forgotten Both these mischiefs to prevent both in himself and others for we are bound not only to observe Gods Law but also to preserve it as much as may be from being broken David composed this Psalm for to record or to cause remembrance See the like title Psal 70. and for a form for a sick man to pray by as Kimchi noteth not to be sung for those in Purgatory as some Papists have dreamed Vers 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath He beginneth and endeth the Psalm with Petitions filleth it up with sad complaints wherein we shall finde him groaning but not grumbling mourning but not murmuring for that is not the guise of Gods people He beginneth with Eheu Jehova non recuso coargui castigari Correct me O Lord but with Judgement not in anger lest thou bring me to nothing Jer. 10.24 See Psal 6.1 with the Notes Vers 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me i. e. Sicknesses of body R. Obadiah Deus amatquod sagittat Aug. and troubles of minde Job 6.4 Psal 18.14 the Jew-Doctors say that he had a Leprosie for fix Months and that the Divine presence was taken away from him so that he complained not without cause But these were sagitta salut is saith Chrysostom Arrows of Salvation Love-tokens from the Lord not unlike Jonathans arrows 1 Sam. 20.36 and he had been fore-warned of them by Nathan the Prophet 1 Sam. 12 and so bore them the better Praevisa jacula minus forinnt Darts fore-seen are in a manner dintless And thine band presseth me sore Heb. Thou lettest down thy hand upâ—s me Now Gods hand is a mighty band 1 Pet. 5.6 and the weight of it is importable but that Vna eademque manus c. Vers 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of 〈…〉 This was the immediate cause of Davids misery it came from â—ove displeased and 〈…〉 sins seldom â—â—â—pe better But blessed be our Almighty 〈…〉 who 〈◊〉 health out of sickness by bringing thereby the body of death into a Consumption Neither is there any rest in my bones â—is repetit mere lâ—gentium He saith the same thing twice as Mourners use to do but with an aggravation of his pain reaching to his very bones Because of my sin This was the remote cause of his present sufferings and is the true Mother of all mans miserie Now when these two Gods wrath and mans sin meet in the soul as physick and sickness in the stomack there must needs be much unrest till they be vomited up by confession T is as naturall for guilt to brâ—â—d disquiet as for putrid matter to brâ—â—d vermin Let God therefore be justified and every mouth stopped Vers 4. Sicut aquae praevalentes in quibus erat absorptus Kimchi For mine iniquities are gone over my head So that I am even overwhelmed by them and almost drowned in perdition and destruction The Gospel is post naeufragium tabula and assureth us that God hath cast all our sins into the bottom of the Sea and this keepeth the head of a sinking soul above water As an heavy burden How light soever sin seemeth in the committing it will lye full heavy even as a Talent of lead Zach. 5.7 or as an huge Mountain Heb. 12.1 A facie irae tuae A facie peccati mei A facie stulritiae meae when once we come to a sight and sense of it when Gods wrath and mans sin shall face one another as the former verse hath it according to the originall Vers 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt What his grief or disease was we read not some say the Leprosy some take all this allegorically the word rendred wounds Livores vibices turnices signifieth stripes scarres wailes mattery soares running ulcers the effects of the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty Could we but foresee what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent That we do not is extream foolishnesse as David here acknowledgeth Because of my foolishnesse In not considering aforehand the hainousnesse of my sinâ—nor the heavinesse of the divine displeasure The word signifieth unadvised rashnesse Prov. 14.17 and t is probable he meaneth his great sin with Bathsheba wherein he was miscarried by his lusts to his cost See Psal 107.17 18. Because of my foolishnesse i.e. Quia non praveni Nathanons confessione saith R. Obadiah because I prevented not Nathans comming by a voluntary confession of my sin unto the Lord. Vers 6. I am troubled Heb. wryed I am bowed down c. Incurvus et prorsuâ— obstipus arroque vulâ—u squallidus
calleth it The heavenly Exchange betwixt God and his people they present dury he conferres mercy Luther saith he would not live in Paradise without the Ordinances as with them he could frame to live in Hell it self And a small village with a godly Pastor and a good people in it is an earthly Paradise saith He. If that Italian Martyr could date his letter From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine prison what may we think of the free use of the ordinances what of Heaven nam facile literatransfertur ad Spiritum Vers 2. My soul longeth As she did who said Give mee Children or else I dye His soul once longed for the waters of the well of Bethlehem but not so earnestly as now to draw waters with joy out of those wells of salvation My heart and my flesh Ut sit sanctitus in corde sanitas in corpore And for obtaining of this whole David cryeth aloud as a child when hungry cryeth every whit of him hands feet face all cry and then the Mother flings by all then she flyes and out-runs her self So here The desires of the Righteous shall be satisfied Prov. 10.24 Vers 3. Yea the sparrow Avis communissima haunteth about houses buildeth about windows and there chirpeth The Heb word ken for a nest hath the first letter bigger than the rest to note Gods providence in teaching birds to build Exclamatio pathetica ex abrupto Trem. And the Swallow a nest for her self c. She hath her name in Hebrew from her liberty to flye boldly and to nestle in mens chimneyes Prov. 26.2 Even thine Altars Or Oh thine Altars so some read it by a passionate exclamation importing strongest desires after them The want of Gods Ordinances should pinch us to the heart Vers 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house viz. Those Meniall-servants of thine the Priests and Levites who have their lodgings near thee and their imployment about thee This is still the happiness of Gods Ministers whose holy function and calling both in the preparation to it and execution of it leadeth them to God and holdeth them with him They will be still praising thee As having hearts full of Heaven and consciences full of comfort There cannot but be musick in the Temple of the holy Ghost Vers 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee i.e. Who is enabled by thee both in body and mind to come from the place of his aboad to the solemn feasts In whose heart are the wayes of them Here the old translation In whose heart are thy wayes is far better i.e. As he bringeth his body to the Ordinances so he hath thy wayes or laws ingraven in his heart Vers 6. Who passing thorough the valley of Baca That is of tears say some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. of Mulberry-trees say others the one are moist the other use to grow in more dry places Betwixt them both they may serve saith One to make up a more compleat emblem of this miserable World made up of woes and wants In hoc exilio saith Bernard in hoc ergastulo in hac peregrinatione in hac valle lachrymarum c. Make it a Well They are as chearfull in their travel to Gods house as if they had plenty of water all the way Finis edulcat media the joy of the Lord is their strength whereby they are carried on an end as they say to their journeys end the joyfull preconceit of appearing before God in Zion allaying their great thirst Vers 7. Pergunt tarmatini Beza They go from strength to strength i.e. Lustily and constantly turma turmae subinde sese adjungente one company comming this way and another that out of their several parishes and so they grow stronger and go more comfortably on together Some render it de doctrina in doctrinam vel de academia in academiam they grow til they come to a perfect knowledge of God Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God And then think their pains though never so great well bestowed though then they saw Gods face but obscurely in the dark glass of the ceremonies Popish pilgrims though used hardly and loose much of their estates yet satisfie themselves in this I have that I came for viz. the sight of a dumb Idol What then should not we then suffer to see God in his ordinances c. Vers 8. O Lord God of Hoasts hear my prayer Satisfie mine earnings pantings and inquietations of mind after the liberty of they Sanctuary verse 2. These very desires he calleth prayers Vers 9. Behold Not only Hear see Psal 34.15 with the Note Look upon the face of thine anointed Christi cujus festina adventum saith Kimchi do me good for Christs sake Vers 10. For a day in thy Courts Every Flower hath its sweetness so hath every holy duty its comfort I had rather be a Door-keeper As the Korites were to whom this Psalm was committed and for whose incouragement this might be spoken A Door-keeper is first in last out so would David be in holy assemblies Tardy hearers would be loath to beg this office out of his hand In the tents of wickedness Tentoriis vexationis Kimchi Vers 11. For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield An universal All-sufficient and satisfactory good proportionate to our necessities The Lord will give grace and glory One would think that were enough yea but then here is more than enough No good thing will he with-hold c. and thence is Davids desire so to be about him Vers 12. O Lord of Hosts c. Conclusio Epiphonematica PSAL. LXXXV VErs 1. Lord thou hast been favourable c. Gods free grace and favour is fitly premised as the Fountain and Mother of all the following Mercies This is that other Book Rev. 20 12. that hath our names in it and our pardon Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob Of old from Aegypt and alate from the Philistines who after Sauls death miserably tyrannized over Israel till David delivered them Some hold that this Psalm was composed at the end of the Babylonish Captivity Others conceive it may be a prayer for the conversion of the Gentiles who are brought in speaking the whole Psalm throughout Vers 2. Thou hast for given the iniquity c. This is worthily mentioned as a main mercy as a chief fruit of Free-grace Thou hast covered all their sin That that filthy thing may be no longer an eye-sore unto thee In the Original there are Six Homoioteleuta which is an elegancy not to be englished Vers 3. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath Heb. Thou hast gathered it thou hast recollected it that we might not bear it when Sin is once remitted Wrath is soon removed Thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness c. Here are six Hasts drawing in the next Turn vers 4. God hath and therefore God will is a strong Medium of hope if not a demonstration of Scripture-Logicks See
of his Office as the Jebusites did out of the Fort of Zion or as the Devil out of the Demoniack Sâ—d voluntas Dei necessitâ—s rei he passeth because he can neither will nor chuse as they say Thou changest his countenance and sendest him away Eleganter vero mors notatur immutandi verbo saith one Elegant is death set forth by changing the countenance for death taketh away the faire and fresh colour of a man and makes him look wan and withered pale and ghastly It is easâ—e to see death many times before it come in the sick manâ—face in his sharp nostrils thin cheeks hollow eyes c. Facies Hippocratica those Harbingers of death whereby God sendeth for him and so sendeth him away extrudit amandet as once he did Adam out of Paradise Lavaters Note here is Propone tihi semper horribileus speciem mortis ut eò minus pecces Set before thy self alwayes the horrid face of death to restraine thee from sin Verse 21. His sons come to honour and he knoweth it not Whilst he lyeth sick Omnis in Ascanio chari statcura parentis Vir. he regardeth no earthly thing no not what becometh of his children formerly his greatest care whether they be advanced or impaired in their outward condition As when he is dead he can take no knowledge of any thing done in this world Isai 63.16 Eccles 2.19 and 96. be his children or friends rich or poor high or low he is both ignorant and insensible It was a base slander published by a Jesuit some years after Queen Elizabeths death That as she died without sense or feeling of Gods mercies Cambd. Eliz. Prefat so that she wished she might after her death hang a while in the Aire to see what striving would be for her Kingdome As for that opinion of some Papists That the dead do sometimes returne into the Land of the living that they know how things go here and make report thereof to those in heaven it is contrary to the whole Scripture Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain That is say some But as long as he is living his body is afflicted with a thousand evils and though his soul by the condition of her creation be exempt from them yet she beares a part in them and becomes miserable with it A dying man hath sorrow without and sorrow within the whole man is in misery as Job here felt himself Others hold Aben-Ezra Mercer Deodate that this Poetical representation hath no other meaning but that the dead have no manner of communication with the living Broughtou rendreth it His flesh is grieved for it self and his soul will mourn for it self q.d. he takes no thought or care for his children or neerest relations CHAP. XV. Verse 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanice and said LApides locutus est In this second encounter Eliphaz falls upon Job not so much with stronger Arguments as with harder words reproving him sharply or rather reproaching him bitterly Facundiâ quadam caninâ with more Eloquence then charity So hard a thing is it saith Beza espetially in disputing and reasoning to avoid self-love as even in these times experience daily teacheth us He hinteth I suppose at the publick Conference betwixt himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard Lib. 35. Hist whereby the strife was rather stirred then stinted as Thuanus complaineth Or else at the Disputation at Possiacum wherein Beza Speaker for the Protestant party Hist of Counc of Trent 453. before the Queen Mother of France the young King Charles and many Princes of the Blood entring into the matter of the Eucharist spake with such heat unlesse the Historian wrongs him that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side so that he was commanded to conclude Such meetings are seldome successeful saith Luther because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather then verity In this reply of Eliphaz to Job we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinacy which make a man forget all modesty and fall foule upon his best friends Here 's enough said to have driven this sorrowful man into utter despaire had not God upheld his spirit whiles he is fiercely charged for a wicked man Non affert ullaâ—â— consolationem non invitat eum ad panitentiam sed potiâ—â— ad desperationem complelas Lav. and hated of God neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance or one comfortable promise as Lavater well observeth Verse 2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledg Heb. Knowledg of the wind light frothy empty discourses that have no tack or substance in them but only words that are no better then wind a meer flash or Aiery nothing Solomon thinks a wise man should beware of falling into this fault lest he forfeit his reputation Eccles 10.1 Dead flyes cause the Oyntments of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour as spots are soonest observed in the whitest and finest garments and envy like wormes and moths doth usually feed on the purest cloth Neh. 6.11 A great many dead flies may be found in a Tar-box and no hurt done but one of them falne into a pot of sweet Odours or precious Perfumes may soone taint and corrupt them And fil his belly with the East-wind Per ventrem mentem intellige per ventum Orientalem vanam opinionem saith Vatablus By belly understand the mind and by the East wind a vain conceit or frothy knowledg blown forth out of a swelling breast to the hurt of others for the East wind is destructive to herbs and fruits Hos 12.1 Gen. 41.6 But doth not Eliphaz here by these bubble of words and blustering questions betraying much choler and confidence fall into the very same fault which he findeth with Job Doth not he also fill his belly with heat so the Vulgar rendreth this Text which kindling in his bosom blazeth out at his lips Doth not this angry man exalt folly and shew himself none of the wisest though he were the oldest in all the company Verse 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk Why But if he do should he therefore be thus rippled up and rough-hewed And not rather reduced and rectified with hard Arguments and soft words Man is a cross crabbed creature Duci vult trahi non vult Perswade him you may compel him you cannot A fit time also must be taken to perswade him to better for else you may loose your sweet words upon him The Husbandman soweth not in a storm The Mariner hoyseth not sail in every wind Good Physicians evacuate not the body in extremity of heat and cold A brother offendâ—d is harder to be 〈…〉 a strong City Prov. 18.19 This Eliphaz should have considered and not so rashly censured Job for a fool and his talk for trash but
hee did not yet fully understand that inexplicable glory wherewith the Father would glorifie him after death with himself Job 17.5 Sure it is that David did not nor can any man living 1 Cor. 2.9 Contra Aâ— ron ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit illaetab unda vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut vule Plâ—â— quòd fluaâ—â— ctuosis undâ—â— here is as much said as can be said but words are too weak to utter it For quality there is in Heaven joy and pleasures For quantity a fulnesse a torrent whereat they drink without let or loathing For constancy it is at Gods right hand who is stronger than all neither can any take us out of his hand it is a constant happiness without intermission And for perpetuity it is for evermore Heavens joyes are without measure mixture or end PSAL. XVII A Prayer of David Hee was a man of prayer but this was his appeal to God the supreme Judge as the word importeth Vers 1. Hear the right O Lord Heb. Righteousnesse which cryeth unto God no lesse than blood doth Gen. 4. Or hear the right that is my prayer faith R. David rightly made with heart and voice Or Hear O righteous Lord as Christ also faith O righteous Father Joh. 17. Attend unto my cry Some prophane persons bear well their crosses because their cause is good but they cry not when God bindeth them Job 36.13 Or Thucyd Dio. if they cry they cry out of hard fortune as the Athenians did when their good Generall Nicias was slain and their army routed in Cicily or against Dame Vertue as if it were no more than a meer name as Brutus did when beaten out of the field Or against Providence as if there were a mist over the eye of it as Pompei did when discomfited by Caesar so blaming the Sun because of the sorenesse of his own blear eyes But David greatly wronged by Saul and his Courtiers by humble and hearty prayer maketh his request known to God with thanksgiving Phil. 4.6 And this like his harp drove away the Evill spirit of grief and discontent That goeth not out of feigned lips His devotion was not ludibrious as is that of Hypocrites it was not an empty ring a meer out-side the labour of the lips but the travell of the hurt it was sincere and thorough-wrought as St. James hath it Wicked men speak God fair but it is as the Devill did our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 to bee rid of him or as those Psal 78.36 who flattered him with their mouthes and lyed unto him with their tongues Vers 2. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence Let it be both pronounced and executed forthwith Let thine eyes behold c. i.e. Make it appear that thou both leest and likest mine integrity and that thou winkest not at mens wickednesses Vers 3. Thou hast proved my heart And knowest mee to bee no dissembler and traytor as they wrongfully charge mee whilst they muse as they use Thou hast visited mee in the night In which God is wont to stir up and in mind men of his will Job 4.13 14. as being all gathered within themselves and when the darknesse doth unmask them of worldly dissimulation Thou hast tryed mee As Metallaries do their gold and silver And shalt find nothing Heb. hast not found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deficit saith Aben-Ezra no blot or blemish that is not the spot of Gods Children Deut. 32.5 no drosse or deceit that may not well consist with godlinesse I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgresse My generall purpose is such though I may have my particular failings I speak my whole heart so sarre as I know it Magna est concordia cordis oris Vers 4. Concerning the works of men sc which ought to bee done by them according to thy Law Or which they are wont to do whether right or wrong I have not now to say but this I can safely say by thy mercy that By the word of thy lips Which I have taken for the rule and rudder of my life I have kept mee from the paths of the destroyer Effractoris of the breach-maker such as is the Bridge-maker of Rome at this day David meaneth that hee had shunned the society of gracelesse persons Psal 26.4 Prov. 24.21 Jer. 15.17 and taken heed to his wayes that hee offended not with his tongue whilst the wicked was present Psalm 39.1 2. lest the Wicked should rejoyce at his Misdemeanors Psal 38.17 Vers 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths c. Keep me within the circle of thy Word as thouhitherto hast done make me to walk exactly and as in a frame Ephes 5.15 Grant me thy preventing concomitant and subsequent grace O thou God of all grace perfect strengthen stablish me 1 Pet. 5.10 That my foot-steps slip not by the malice of Satan who seeks to subvert such as are most eminent to the scandal of the weak and scorn of the wicked by the corruption also of mine own heart Qua quisque sibi Satan est as one well faith whereby every man is a Satan to himself could we but divorce the flesh from the Devil there would be no such danger And lastly by the allurements or affrightments of this present evil world the way whereof is like the vale of Siddim slimy and slippery full of Lime-pits and Pit-falls Springs and stumbling-blocks Vers 6. I have called upon thee for thou wilt hear me q. d. Thou wast always wont to hear me and therefore I presume thou wilt Experience breeds confidence Incline thine ear See how he re-enforceth his former request as if he would wring the blessing of out Gods hands by an holy violence and take no denial Vers 7. Shew thy marvellous loving kindness c. Mirificas benignitates tuas less than a marvellous mercifulness will not serve Davids turn he was so hardly bestead ut nisi miabiliter feceris pereo We now alive have lived in an age of Miracles and God hath dealt with our Land not according to his ordinary course but according to his Prerogative by a Miracle of his Mercy have we hitherto subsisted and by a prop of his extraordinary patience O thou that savest c. Servator sperantiam Choyce must be made in Prayer of fit Titles and Attributes of God such as may strengthen faith and quicken affection From those that rise up against them Or against thy right hand The Saints are at Christs right hand Psal 45.9 as Christ is at the Fathers and he puts his holy hand betwixt them and harm Vers 8. Keep me as the apple of the eye Heb. As the black of the apple of the eye two words to the same sense for more vehemency q. d. Serva me studiosissimè The apple of the eye that little man in the eye as the Hebrew word importeth the girl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Huc pertinet locus Cicer. a De nat deor as
God whereby he was sealed to the day of redemption Ephes 4.30 and is therefore at a losse for comfort he had vilipended that patent of his pardon which God had passed under his hand and seal God therefore calleth for it home again into the pardon-office as it were that he may know the worth by the want A man may sin away not only the sense and comfort of his pardon but the evidence and knowledge of it as that place of Peter seemeth to imply 2 Pet. 1.9 Mountebanks who wound their flesh to try conclusions upon their own bodies how soveraign the salve is D. Sibbes Souls confl do oft feel the smart of their presumption by long and desperate wounds So God will let his Davids see what it is to make wounds in their consciences to try the preciousnesse of his balsam such may go mourning to their graves And though with much ado they get assurance of pardon yet their consciences will be still trembling till God at length speak further peace even as the waters of the Sea after a storm are not presently still but move and tremble a good while after the storm is over And upholdest moe with thy free Spirit Heb. firmly sustain mee with thy noble or Princely Spirit that may make mee steddy and ready to come off roundly in thy service Sin against conscience disableth for duty taketh away freedom to it and stability in it David therefore prayes God to fix his quick-silver to ballance his lightnesse to settle and fill that vain and empty heart of his with something that may stay and stablish it that may also free and enlarge it for where the Spirit of God is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 that he might yeeld prompt and present obedience to God in all things and with all might be apt and able to teach transgressors as he promiseth to do in the next words Vers 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy wayes Instruunts nos Patres tum docentes tum labentes saith Augustine Two wayes the Saints teach us First By their Doctrin Secondly By their Falles and Failings David had taught men this last way to his cost that it is triste mortalitatis privilegium licere aliquando peccare Now he promiseth by his example and instruction to teach transgressours those that are in the very bonds and hands of the Devill Gods wayes of mercy to the penitent and that they must either turn to God or burn for even in Hell And sinners shall be converted unto thee They shall give not the half but the whole turn and it shall appear by them The turning of a sinner from evill to good is like the turning of a Bell from one side to another you cannot turn it but it will make a sound and report its own motion Vers 14. Deliver mee from blood-guiltinesse O God Heb. From bloods in every drop whereof is a tongue crying for vengeance Besides if Davids adultery was a sin of infirmity he was preocoupated as Gal. 6.1 yet his murthering of Uriah and many others that fell together with him was a sin of presumption a deliberate prepensed evill done in cold blood and therefore lay very heavy upon his conscience Howbeit he gat pardon of this great sin also so that it never troubled him on his death-bed as some other did though not so great where of he had not so throughly repented 1 King 2. Thou God of my salvation By making choice of this so fit an Attribute he flirreth up himself to take better hold And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy Righteousness That is of thy faithfullnesse in performing thy promise of pardon to the penitent As Aarons golden bells sounded so should our tongues sound Gods praises and sing them aloud shrill them out Vers 15. O Lord open thou my lips Which now I find stopt and sealed up as it were with the sin that doth so easily beset mee so that whereas I promised before to sing aloud of thy Righteousnesse this I shall never be able to do without thy speciall furtherance nisi verba suppedites tanquam pracas unlesse thou please to supply mee both with affections and expressions as well as with matter of praise And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise David had not been dumb till now all the while he lay in his sin but all he did was but lip-labour and therefore lost-labour Daniel confesseth the like of himself and his people chap. 9.13 All this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord â—ur God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth Prayed they had but because they turned not frons their iniquities they got nothing by their prayers or praises God is a Fountain and if he meet with a fit pipe as is an ordinance rightly performed there he usually conveyeth his grace but if he meet with a foul pipe and obstructed there he doth not conferre a blessing The Pharisees were not a button the better for all their long prayers because rotten ar heart Vers 16. For thou desiâ—â—st not sacrifice This is the reason why David restipulateth Praise if God will pardon his great sin vers 14. viz. because he well understood that God preferred praise before all sacrifices whatsoever provided that iâ— came from a broken spirit Vers 17. rightly humbled for sin and thankfully accepting of pardon See Psal 50.14 15 23. Thou delightest not in burnt-offering viz. Comparatively and indeed not at all without a contrite heart Una Deiest purum gratissinsa victima pectus Nazianz. Much lesse then doth God respect the sacrifice of the Masse that hath no footing or warrant in the word A certain Sorbonist finding it written at the end of St. Pauls Epistles Missa est c. bragg'd he had found the Masse in his Bible Bee-hive cap. 3â— fol. 93 94. Buxtorf And another reading Joh. 1.44 Invenimus Messiam made the same conclusion Some of them as Bellarmine for one would fain ground it upon Mal. 1.11 Others fetch the name Missa from the Hebrew Mass for tribute which comes from Masas to melt because it many times melteth away mens estates Rect è quidem saith Rivet per Missam scilicet pietas omnis liquefacta est dissoluta Vers 17. The sacrifices of God area broken spirit i.e. Such an heart as lyeth low and heareth all that God saith such a sacrifice or service as is laid on the low altar of a contrite heart which sanctifieth the Sacrifice Mr. Abbas such a person as with a self-condemning self-crucifying and sin-mortifying heart humbly and yet beleevingly maketh out for mercy and pardon in the blood of Christ this this is the man that God expects accepts and makes great account of A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise This is great comfort to those that droop under sense of sin and fear of wrath being at next door to despair Bring but a broken heart