Is there yet unto every man an house of the wicked and treasures of wickednesse so some read it see chap. 2.2 with the Note The Vulgar reads it and Gualther disliketh it not Is there yet fire in the house of the wicked sc the fire of Gods wrath and treasures of wickednesse as fuell cast upon it to consume all See Jam. 5.1 2 3. Treasures of wickednesse profit not Prov. 10.2 sith to heap up sinne is to heap up wrath Rom. 2. and to rake together ill-gotten goods is to carry home a fardle of plaguy-clothes and death with them Ephraim said yet I am become rich I have found me out substance Hos 12.8 But in so doing Ephraim fed upon the wind ver 1. yea upon pestilentiall ayre he daily increased lies and desolation that is such lying vanities as bring desolation and not consolation Desolationem potius quam consolationem Aug. Epist 121. ad Probam as hale hell at the heeles of them as we see in the parable of that wretched rich man Luk. 16. Animam ipsam incendio gehennae mancipant the fire that is in them shall feed upon their soules and flesh thoroughout all eternity Out of dores therefore with these treasures of wickednesse by restoring them to the right owners as Zacheus did and as Justinian the Emperour who would not put the vessels of the Temple taken by Titus and recovered from Gensericus into the treasury but restored them and the scant measure that is abominable Heb the Ephah of leaxenesse so called Modius macilentus both because it wante of its due proportion and makes men leane full of wrath q. d. you scant it to those you trade with but God fills it up with his fierce wrath and indignation See Am. 8.5 with the Note Verse 11. Shall I count them pure with the wicked ballances Shall I cleare and acquit such I that am the righteous Judge of heaven and earth I abhorr all injustice Exod 34.7 Iob. 8. I that have named my self a God that will by no meanes cleare the guilty nor take the wicked by the hand Doe they think to draw me in as a party or that I will beare with their false and fraudulent dealings which I have so oftdeclared against and doomed both in the law and by my servants Solomon Amos and others No assure your selves your sins shall find you out and I will curse you smite you plague you and so set it on as no creature shall be able to take it off Let earthly Judges warp as they will and wink at sin I neither can nor will but as men have sowed so they shall reape as they have sowed in hardnesse of heart so they shall reape in horrour of conscience quorum eculos culpa clausit poena aperiet as they have lived unconscionably so they shall die uncomfortably at which times their treasures of wickednesse shall leave them in the lurch as the devill leaves witches when they come to prison Verse 12. For the rich men thereof are full of violence After that they have once enriched themselves by fraud and false-dealing they take the boldnesse openly to oppresse and to exercise regiment without righteousnesse which is no better then robbery with authority of which before chap. 2. and 3. Thus wicked men wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3.13 till wrath come upon them to the utmost 2 Thess 2. and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies Not the rich men only are in fault but as the Cretians so these are alwayes liars loud and lewd liars their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth so that they no sooner open their mouthes but swarmes of lies issue out they are mendacierum loquacissimi they have taught their tongues to speak lies Ier. 9.5 they are now become artists at it Yea they take fast hold of deceit Ier. 8.5 so that they cannot be got off without striving This is lamentable and yet common especially in trading and traffiquing But oh when shall that golden age return that the argument may againe proceed Sacerdos est non fallet Christianus est non mentietur He is a minister and will not deceive you He is a Christian and will not lie See Esa 63.8 Verse 13. Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee This is one twig of that rod Vers 9. that now they shall heare and feel too that would not harken to Gods word Bernard telleth us concerning a brother of his that when he gave him many good instructions and he being a souldier minded them not he put his finger to his sides and said One day a speare shall make way to this heart of thine for instructions and admonitions to enter God can and where he intendeth mercy will make way for his his word by his rod and seale up instructions by chastening men with paine upon their beds and the multitude of their bones with strong paine Iob 33.16 19. He can fasten them to their beds as he did Abimelech David Hezekiah and thereby tame them and take them a link lower Iob 33.17 He can smite them with sicknesse and make them desolate as it is here with such sicknesse as shall make their best friends afraid of them and that none dare look at them but as through a grate and all this with a sting too in the taile of it Because of thy sins Fooles because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted Their soule abhorreth all manner of meate so sick they are and stomackelesse that nothing will down with them and they draw neare to the gates of death Psal 107.17 18. This was the case of that rich and wretched Cardinall Henry Beauford Bish of Winchester and Chancellour of England Fox Martyr fol. 925. in the raigne of Henry 6. who tossing upon his sick-bed and perceiving he must die murmured at sicknesse and death that his riches could neither relieve him under the one nor reprieve him from the other This was also the case of that great Emperour Charles 5. of whom Du-plessy reporteth that when he was old and crazy he cursed his honours his victories trophies riches saying Abite hinc abite longe Away be gone miserable comforters are ye all Mention is made before of a great man that wrot this a little before his death Spes fortuna Valete And surely there are not a few rich Cormorants who may well say to their wealth when they are sick as Cornelius Agrippa did to his familiar spirit Abi perdita bestia quae me predididsti Be gone thou wicked beast that hast been mine undoing c. A promise contrary to this threatening in the text is that Esai 33.24 And the inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity Verse 14. Thou shalt eat but not be satisfied Either as not having enough to satisfy but prisoners pittance so much only as will keep life and soule together Or else troubled with a
am even compel'd to it there is no other remedy 2. Chron. 36.16 As a woman brings not forth but with paine and as a bee stings not but provoked so here Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox he afflicteth not willingly nor grieves the children of men Lam. 3.33 It 's sin that maketh him returne as here that puts him out of his road of mercy into wayes of judgment that putteth thunderbolts into his hand and maketh him do his work his strange work and bring to pass his act his strange act Isay 28.21 What can a Prince do less then disarme a rebel what can God do less then take away his own and be gone from such an impudent adulteresse as is here described Jer. 7.18 should he suffer her with his corn to make cakes to the Quâ—en of heaven and to poure out his wine for drink-offerings to other gods that they might provoke him to anger No rather then so he will take away corn in the time thereof and his wine in the season thereof He will cut off the meate from their very mouths Ioel. 1.16 and pull their morsel from between their teeth Just at harvest when their corne is to be inned God will blast it or otherwise blow upon it when all their old store is spent and they reckoned upon a good recruit they shall be defeated and frustrated Therefore hath God watched upon the evill and brought it upon us saith Daniel chap. 9.14 Lo God watcheth his time when to be even with his enemies and taketh his fittest opportunity for their greater mischief They that are wicked overmuch shall dye before their time Eccle. 7.17 Not before Gods time for staâ—â—â—a cuique dies every mans time is set Job 7.1 our bounds are prescribed us and a pillar pitcht up by him who beares up the heavens which we are not to trespasse but before their own time that they had propounded and promised to themselves as that rich foole Luk. 12.19 who talked to himself as fooles use to do Vers 17. saying Soul thou hast much good laid up for many years But we know what became of him that very night his many years were quickly up his glass was run when he thought it had bin but new turned Psal 64.7 God shot at him with an arrow suddenly he fetcht off this bird with a bolt whilest he was gazing at the bow or pruning himself upon a bough He chopt into the earth before he was aware as one that walketh in the snow chops into a pit He died tempore non suo as some render that forecited text in Ecclesiastes not in his own time but in Gods time then when it had been better for that foole to have done any thing then to have died because like Elies sons he died in his sins and like Jezebels children he was killed with death This made Austin say Rev. 2.23 that he would not for the gaine of a world be an Atheist for one half hour because he knew not but that God might Job 27.8 in that time call him And then what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul He is troubled when God taketh away his corn in the time thereof and his wine in the season thereof he is hungry and hardly bestead and therefore ready to curse God and look upward howling against heaven as the hungry wolf But first he should consider Esay 8.21 that the corn and wine and wooll and flax that he hath in keeping is not his but Gods and that he reserves the propriety of all in his own hand neither hath any man ought in reference to him the Monarch of the world that he can call his own The rich fool indeed talked much on this manner Luk. 12.18 I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruites and my goods All was his own belike God was not in all this mans thoughts For if he had he would soon have known what to have done sc he would have acknowledged God the Author and owner of all as Moses mindeth men he would also have fed the hungry with his corn Deut. 8.17.18 and clothed the naked with his wooll and flax as Tyrus converted did with her merchandise Isay 23.18 he would have said to God as David did 1 Chron. 29.14 all things come of thee and of thine own we give thee Bernard reports of Pope Eugenius that meeting with a poore but honest Bishop he secretly gave him certain Jewels wherewith he might present him If God did not first furnish us out of his treasury we should have nothing wherewith either to honour him or to help our selves or others Gods poore I meane whom Solomon calleth owners of our goods and maketh us but their stewards Pro. 3.27 with-hold not thy goods from the owners thereof Next the hunger-bit hypocrite should consider that there is a worse hunger yet behind and an heavy account to be given of the corn wine wooll and flax the creatures that he hath deteyned in unrighteousness and spent upon his lusts Jam. 4.3 If the husband men must be ashamed and howl because the harvest of the field is perished If the drunkards must wake weep and waile because the new wine is cut off from their mouths Serm. 4. in Quadragess Jo. de comb Comp. Theol. l. 6. c. 21. Joel 1.5 11. How shall they much more howl in hell ubi nullus unquam cibus est nulla consolatio saith Bernard where there is no manner of meate no drop of water to be had for love or mony where they must fast and find no mercy for ever where they must hunger and thirst in aeterno Dei as the Schooles speak as long as God is God The sufferings of this world to the wicked is but as the falling of the leaves in comparison of the trees that will fall upon him hereafter in that eternity of extremities If here In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits and every hand of the troublesome shall come upon him When he is about to fill his belly God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him and shall raine it upon him while he is eating as it is threatned Job 20.22.23 what think we will their portion be in hell Meane while God will recover his wooll and his flax He will snatch it away as the word signifieth in great displeasure as a man doth his stolen goods out of the hands of a thief He will rescue them as Abraham did Lot and the captives from Chedor-laomer Gen. 14. 1 Sam. 30. as David did his wives goods and friends from the Amalekitish rovers The poore creatures corn wine wooll c. groan heavily under the abuse of gracelesse persons Rom. 8.22 and God heareth them as he did the oppressed Israelites in Egypt for he is gratious He hears them I say and recovers them He spoiles their possessours
for he hateth the devil for sins sake and not sin for the devils sake Idolatry must needs be so much the more odious to him because therein the devil sets up himself in the place of God and requires men as once he did Christ himself to fall down and worship him See Deut. 32.17 1 Cor. 10.20 Rev. 9.20 So he dealeth by the poor Indians at this day compelling them to worship him with bodily worship and tormenting them if they do not worse if worse may be then the cruel Spaniards Sir Francis Drake World encomp 53. who suppose they shew the wretches favour when they do not for their pleasure whip them with cords and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon The Hebrew word here used hath some letters more then ordinary in it to encrease the signification and to shew what a very horrible thing Idolatry is It is spurca pollutio Tremel in loc as Jer. 23.14 and worse See Jer. 2.11 12. and 18.13 and know that God doth not use to aggravate things beyond truth as men do witnesse Nebuchadnezzar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 3.14 Is it true O Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Or is it of set purpose so Buxtorf rendreth it Is it for the nonce to provoke me Num de industria Or Nunquid desolatio so Arias Moutanus As if he should say What you to oppose the command of a king If this be suffered what desolation must needs follow But this is not Gods way he layes no more words upon a thing then the matter amounteth to if he call Idolatry filth fornication abomination an horrible thing such as a man would start or stand agast at we may be sure it is so The Septuagint here render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things to be trembled at or shreeked at In Barbary 't is death for the Xeriffs wife when she seeth a man though but thorow a casement not suddenly to shriek out God is a jealous God and allows not his to look toward an Idol If they do he will soon see it and visit for it I have seen c. There is the whoredome of Ephraim Thus God looketh upon it as filthinesse and nastinesse which the people beheld as finenesse and neatnesse And the same do all that have the minde of God and senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil judge of all the Popish pomp and palterment wherewith they bewitch the deluded vulgar as the serpent Scytale doth the fleeing passenger whom when she cannot overtake yet with her beautifull colours she doth so astonish and amaze him Plin. that he hath no power to passe away till stung to death Verse 11. Also O Judah he hath set an harvest for thee This is a very difficult Text and much vexed by Interpreters Et hic nisi Lyra lyrasset nos omnes delirassemus Lyra sets this sence upon the Text and I accord him Though thou Judah art also to be carried captive yet God hath set or provided for thee an harvest in thine own land when I shall have returned the captivity of my people viz. under the conduct of Zorobabel by the Decree of Cyrus Here then is a promise of a joyfull harvest to Judah who is not to be punished with like severity as Israel Chap. 1.7 and for the change of person when I returned for he shall have returned See Esay 29.19 Ier. 31.23 Zeph. 3. ult Psal 14. ult Simul Judae captivitas reditus praedicitur significanter admodum saith Hierom here Both the captivity and return of Judah is here very significantly foretold It is a very good Note that One giveth here sc that God in his chastisements ever sheweth himself mindfull of his Covenant after a long barrennesse Rive◠he setteth for his people a plentifull harvest and turneth again their captivity after that for a time he hath tried them His mercy also and faithfulnesse herein appeareth that he mingleth promises with threatnings and whiles he utterly destroyeth the kingdome of the ten Tribes he preserveth the Common-wealth of Judah wherein the Messias was to come and whereof there was not by the ancient prophesies to be a dissolution till Shiloh came Hence it is that promises of the restauration of Judah are ever intermingled lest any should doubt of the manifestation of the Messiah in the fulnesse of time CHAP. VII Verse 1. WHen I would have healed Israel c. Whereas Israel hearing of an happy harvest promised to Judah Chap. 6.11 and themselves excluded unus might complain of hard dealing God shews them here that Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit the fault was meerly in themselves God came with his healing medicines to have cured them but they hated to be healed and like mad-men railed and raged against the Physician spilt the potions would none of those slibber-sauses as they accounted them yea as if on purpose to crosse God then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and the wickednesses malitia multiplex of Samaria Of so perverse a spirit were they and therefore in Solomons judgement Prov. 12.8 worthy to have been despised and let alone to perish in their corruptions In Hippocrates his time the Physicians were bound by oath to leave such under their wounds to perish by them as were unruly and would not be ordered We would have healed Babylon saith the Church but she would not be healed forsake her therefore saith God Jer. 51.9 Let them alone saith Christ Matth. 15.14 That that will die let it die A fearfull sentence Let them swelter and pine away in their iniquities Levit. 26.39 In their silthinesse is leudnesse their disease is complicate it is the leprosie in the head it breaketh forth in their forehead and my people love to have it so Jer. 5.31 but what will they do in the end thereof Ephraim here discovereth a headstrong wilfulnesse that was uncounsellable uncureable He runs away after conviction with the bit between his teeth as it were he runs I say upon the rock Am. 6.12 where he first breaketh his hoofes and then his neck Some grow desperately sinfull like those Italian Senatours that despairing of their lives when upon submission they had been promised their lives yet being conscious of their villany made a curious banquet and at the end thereof every man drank up his glasse of poyson and killed himself So men feeling such horrible hard hearts and privie to such notorious sins they cast away souls and all for lust and perish wofully because they lived desperately and so securely It is a fearfull signe of reprobation when Gods means and medicines do men no good but hurt rather when Physick which should remove the disease doth cooperate with it then death comes with the more pain and speed The stronger the conviction of sin is the deeper will be the wrath against it if it be not by repentance avoided for they commit falsehood They do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 but deal
to come out of the filth of his sins or to be washed from his wickednesse Rather then be regenerated without which there is no heaven to be had Ioh. 3.5 or freedom from deadly dangers upon earth he will venture to stay a while at least as the Text here hath it in the mouth of the matrix though it cost him a choaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such Ephraims we have not a few that proceed no further then to conviction debarring themselves of the benefit of a thorow conversion These go as far as Kadesh-barnea they are nigh to Gods kingdom they are almost perswaded to be true Christians they are come as far as the place of the breaking forth of children but there they stick and are stifled they are never brought forth from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive remission of sinnes and inheritance among the saints and sonnes of God Acts 26.18 Oh make much of the least beginnings of grace saith a Reverend man even those called repressing since they prepare the heart for conversion There is a faith in the true convert of no better perfection then that in the Temporary though he stay not there as the other being an unwise sot doth c. And although we bring forth good things saith Another as Sarah's dead womb brought forth a child it was not a child of natures but of the meer promise yet it cannot be denied that a naturall man though he be Theologically dead yet he is Ethically alive being to be wrought upon by arguments and that grace doth for the most part prepare naturals before it bring in supernaturals and if we hide our talent we are not allowed to expect the spirit of Regeneration As if we die in the wildernesse of preparatory antecedaneous works we never get to Canaan Verse 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave c. Some read it thus Calvin Tigurin Isid Clar. Danaeus Drusius I would have ransomed them c. I would have redeemed them c. had they been wise or oughts as we say had not their incurable hardnesse and obstinacy hindered had they put forth into my hands as unto a midwife c. But alas it is no such matter therefore that that will die let it die repentance shall be hid from mine eyes I am unchangeably resolved to ruine them Or repentance should have been hid from mine eyes my goodnesse toward them should never have altered c. But let us rather look upon the words as a most sweet and comfortable promise of a mighty redemption and glorious resurrection to the Remnant according to the election of grace whom God would not have to want comfort I will ransom them Here therefore he telleth his Heirs of the promises that he will bring them back out of captivity wherein they â—ay for dead as it were and that this their deliverance should be an evident argument and sure pledge of their resurrection to life eternall To which purpose the Apostle doth aptly and properly alledge it 1 Cor. 15. and thereupon rings in Deaths ears out of this Text and Esay 25.8 the shrillest and sharpest Note the boldest and bravest challenge that ever was heard from the mouth of a mortall Death where is thy sting Hell where 's thy victory c Oh thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and thereby hath made us more then conquerours that is Triumphers 2 Cor. 2.14 But to return to the Text. Be it saith the Prophet that the Common-wealth of Israel both mother and child must perish for want of wisdom as was threatned in the foregoing verse yet let not the penitent among them despair for I the Lord Christ will ransom them by laying down a valuable price so the word signifieth from the power Ephdem Heb. hand of the grave or of hell that though hell had laid hands on them yea closed her mouth upon them as once the Whale had upon Jonas yet I would open the doors of that Leviathan and fetch them thence with a strong hand I will redeem them from death by becoming their near kinsman according to the flesh whereby I shall have the next right of redemption But how shall all this be done After a wonderfull manner O death I will be thy plagues Not one but many plagues even so many as shall certainly do thee to death The Vulgar rendreth it Ero mors tua O mors morsus tuus O inferne The Apostle for plagues hath sting for the plague hath a deadly sting and so hath sinne much more the guilt thereof is by Solomon said to bite like a serpent and sting like a cockatrice Prov. 23.32 Now Christ by dying put sinne to death Rom. 1.25 Ephes 1.7 Heb. 2.14 We read of a certain Cappadocean Sphinx Phil. pag. 750. whom when a Viper had bitten and suckt his blood the Viper her self died by the venemous blood that she had suckt But Christ being life essential prevailed over death and swallowed it up in victory as Moses his serpent swallowed up the sorcerers serpents or as Fire swalloweth up the fuell that is cast upon it yea by death he destroyed him that had the power of death the devil whose practise it was to kill men with death Rev. 2.23 this is the second death O grave or O hell I will be thy destruction thy deadly stinging disease joyned with the pestilence Psal 91.6 Death to a beleever is neither totall nor perpetuall Rom. 8.10 11. Christ hath made it to him of a curse a blessing of an enemy a friend of a punishment an emolument of the gate of hell the portall of heaven a postern to let out temporall but a street-door to let in eternall life And to assure all this Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes i. e. there shall be no such thing as repentance in me for all things that are at all are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.13 The meaning is I will never change my minde for this matter my covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips Psal 89.34 Confer Psal 110.4 Rom. 11.29 Some render it but not so well Consolation is hid from mine eyes and so make them to be the words of the Church q. d. I see not this promise with mine eyes but I receive it and accept of it by my faith Verse 15. Though he be fruitfull among his brethren In allusion to his name Ephraim which signifieth fruitfull and flourishing Gen. 41.52 Confer Gen. 48.16 19 20 c. 49.22 See the like allusions Am. 5.5 Mic. 1.10 An East-winde shall come which is violent and hurtfull to the fruits of the earth the winde of the Lord a mighty strong winde meaning that most mercilesse and impetuous enemy the Assyrian sent by the Lord to avenge the quarrell of his
up his poyson so doth the good soul when afflicted purge it self from all filth of flesh and spirit striving to perfect holinesse in the fear of God These Jews after they had been in the Babylonish furnace for idolatry hated and feared that sinne as much as the burnt child dreads the fire They would die any death rather then admit an idoll Josephus tells how stoutly they opposed Pilate and Petronius that would would have set up Cesars statue in their Temples offering their throats to the swords of the souldiers rather then they would endure that idoll in Gods house What God is now doing with them and for them in this long time of their sad desolation and dispersion who can tell There are that think that after much purging and proving as here God will gather a Church of them to himself according to that which followeth They shall call upon my name and I will hear them I will say it is my people c. And that upon their profession of Christ shall come the sorest time of affliction that ever was chap. 14.1 2. when Gog and Magog with all his troops and armies shall compasse the beloved city Rev. 20.8 9. But the Jews shall get a glorious Conquest for God himself from heaven will miraculously fight for them verse 3 4 5. together with all the holy Angels the ministers of his judgements verse 5. Sure it is that the Turks fear some such thing as this and therefore they cannot abide that any Jew amongst them should turne Christian In the yeer 1528. a certain Jew dwelling in Constantinople became a good Christian and was baptized which the Turks understanding were vehemently exasperated against him for it fearing lest his conversion should prove prejudiciall to their Mahometan religion and therefore they apprehended and cruelly murthered him and try them as gold is tried viz. that when I have tried them they may come forth as gold Job 33.10 Hence Gods people fall into manifold temptations Jam. 1.2 they fall they go not into them step by step but are precipitated plunged into them and not into one of them or a few but into manifold temptations or trials yea fiery trials so afflictions are called because thereby God proves what is in his people Deut. 8.16 Rev. 2.10 Not to better his own knowledge of them neither for he knows all things and is intimo nostro intimior nobis Job 2.25 Act. 1.24 Heb. 4.12 Artificers perfectly know the nature and properties of their own works and shall not God see Psal 94.9 10. But tentat ut sciat hoc est ut scire nos facâ—at August he trieth us 1. That he may make discoveries of himself unto us especially of his power and goodnesse and so get him a name as Esay 63.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 12.9 Elias would have water poured upon the sacrifices yea the Altar covered therewith that Gods power might the more appear in consuming it with fire from heaven and the people thereupon might cry Iehovah he is God 1 King 18.39 Iehovah he is God think the same here 2. That he may make discoveries of us to our selves and to others who are apt to misjudge and undervalue us as not onely Satan did Iob chap. 1.9 but even Elihu also though otherwise a good man and the best of his friends chap. 34.36 But when they see our holy carriage under the crosse they can say of us as that Centurion did of our Saviour Luke 23. Verily this was the Son of God and as one Culocerius in the Church-history when he saw the piety and constancy of the Martyrs he cryed out Verè magnus est Deus Christïanorum The Christians God is a great God indeed But as by afflictions we are made known to others so to our selves much more We are apt either to over-value or else to under-value our selves till put to the triall as is to be seen in the history of Saunders and Pendleton Hard weather tries what health wind and stormes what sap withered leaves soon fall off Rotten boughes with heavy weights quickly break Woodden vessells set empty to the fire soon break and leak not so vessells of gold and silver The best divination what men are is at the parting-way as Ezek. 21.21 When the fire comes to green wood it will appear what 's within when the pond is empty what 's in the bottom It is not known what corn will yeeld till it come to the flail nor what grapes till it come to the presse Grace is like the stone Chrysolampis quem lux celat prodit obscurum which shine brightest in the dark The skill of a Pilot is unknown but in a tempest Solinus the valour of a Captain but in a battle the faithfulnesse of a wife but in an assault The wicked tried are found to be but reprobate silver or at best but Alchymy-gold that endureth not the seventh fire They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Crocodiles Chameleons Bats Spunges c. They murmure when tried as Psal 78.40 41. Or curse as Micah's mother Iudg. 17. Or fret and howl upward as Wolves when hunge-rbit Esay 8.21 Or faint in the day of affliction as Saul who lay upon the ground like a beast 1 Sam. 28.20 Or Nabal who lay in his bed like a block Or desert God and his cause as those Renegado's Dan. 11.32 and those in the Palatinate who fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall off the trees in Autumne Many titular Christians amongst us were in times of peace but as wolves in a cage but as lions tamed by art they wanted nothing but liberty and opportunity to shew their wolvish and worrying natures which now these late shedding and discriminating times have sufficiently discovered Have all these workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up Gods people as they eat bread and call not upon God They shall call upon my name and I will hear them Psal 14.4 No time for hearing of prayers and obtaining of suits like that of affliction Those are mollissima fandi Tempora the time of affliction is the very time of supplication then our hearts are largest then Gods ear is openest Then the saints may have any thing for asking Psal 50.15 and 91.15 Thus Lot had Zoar at his request Deut. 29.23 Paul had all the souls in the ship given him Act. 27. Jacob greatly fearing to be bereft of his Benjamin prayed God give you bowels of mercy before the man Gen. 43.14 He prayed it and he had it ver 30. For Ioseph made hast for his bowels did yern upon his brother c. God reserves his best comforts for the worst times as the feast-maker kept his best wine till the last Ioh. 2. as the mother brings forth her conserves and cordials when the child sis at sickest Israel was never so royally provided for as in the wildernesse I will bring her into the wildernesse and speak to her heart Hos 2.13 As a bone once broken is stronger
their holinesse as Davids children were by their garments of diverse colours For as he that hath called them is holy so are they also holy and that in all manner of conversation and communion too even when they deale with carnal men and in common matters and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowles before the Altar All this must be understood of the spirituall service which should be in the Christian church described by the ancient ceremonial service as Isa 60.7 and 66.23 Mal. 1.11 And it is to shew that the efficacy force and operation of the holy Ghost shall be far more plentifull through Christ in the Church of the Gospell then it was in times past under the law See Heb. 8.6 Eph. 3.5 Isa 44.3 4. Verse 21. Yea every pot in Ierusalem c. That is saith Danaeus God shall as God-like be worshiped of every faithfull person in his own house as he was of old in his Temple by the Jews Calvin adds ut quicquid aggrediantur homines sit sacrificium so that whatsoever good men enterprize shall be a sacrifice God shall smell a savour of rest from them they of life and peace from him there shall be no more the Canaanite The merchant saith the vulgar after Aquila and the Chaldee that is the Simoniack the Church-chopper such mony-merchants as Christ whipt out of the Temple Mat. 21.12 Ioh. 2.15 But better render it Canaanite The Phenicians those great merchants were Canaanites who were indeed great Merchants Hos 12.7 Ezek. 17.4 but here it stands for a wicked man an hypocrite that botch of Christian society Pura erit Ecclesia ab omnibus inquinamentis saith Calvin the Church shall be purged of all such Pests See Rev. 22.27 no such owles shall be seen flying in the Churches welkin God will by the due exercise of discipline and otherwise be daily purging out all scandals as such men are called Mat. 13.41 and causing the unclean spirit to passe out of the land Zach. 13.2 I conclude with Theodoret Dominus Omnipotens hanc vocem veram esse hoc tempore praestet c. God Almighty make good this promise unto us at this time that there may be no cursed Canaanite found amongst us but that we may all live according to the doctrine of the Gospell and expect that blessed hope and comming of the great God our Saviour Jesus to whom with the Father and holy Spirit be glory for ever Amen A COMMENT OR EXPOSITION Upon the Prophesie of MALACHI CHAP. I. Verse 1. THE burden that is the burdenous Prophecy as Tremellius renders it A burden as 1. enjoyned and imposed upon the Prophet to utter Lyra. Figuicr to cry aloud and not spare to life up his voice as a trumpet c. straining every vein in his heart to do it declayming lustily against sin and sinners and proclayming hell-fire for them in case they amend not This is a businesse of some burthen Chrysost onus ipsis etiam Angelis tremendum This was typified in the staff-rings that were made to continue upon the Ark the Kohathites shoulders felt wherefore If God had not helped those Levites they could never have borne the Ark 1 Chron. 15.26 St. Paul was very sensible of the ministeriall burthen rowling upon him daily 2 Cor. 11.28 And Latimer leaped when lighted of his Bishoprick 2. As burdening the people with their sins and breathing out threatnings for the same for sin how lightly soever accounted of hales hell at the heels of it and procures divine vengeance which is a burthen unsupportable It brake the Angels backs and made the son of God groan piteously 1 Pet. 2.24 then when he bare our sins in his body on the tree His soul was heavy therewith even to the death and had he not had the better shoulders had not God laid help on One that was mighty even the mighty strong God as he is stiled Esay 6.6 he had fainted and failed under his burthen David complaines that his sins were gone over his head and like a sore burthen were too heavy for him to bear Psal 38.4 That which comforted him was that no sooner he had said Peccavi I have sinned 2 Sam. 12. but the Prophet Nathan said Transtulit Deus peccatum tuum God hath translated thy sin upon Christ hath caused thy sin to passe over to him and as it were by a writt of Remove hath cast thy burthen upon his shoulders And this incomparable merey David afterwards celebrateth Psa 32 4 5. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me the guilt of finne and sense of wrath quelled him and killed him almost for his naturall moisture was turned into the drought of summer he was turned into a very skeleton or a bag of bones a bottle in the smoke wofully wanzed he was and wasted But for remedy I acknowledge my sin unto thee saith he I fled by faith to the true Scape-goat Christ Jesus on whom was laid as a burthen the iniquitie of us all Isai 53.6 Rom. 5.8 And thou presently forgavest the iniquity of my sinne that is the guilt of it that till then lay like a load of lead upon my conscience and as an obligation bound me over to condigne punishment Cam for want of this comfort ran roaring up and down my sinne Gen. 4.13 that is my punishment is greater then I can heave And a farre better man then Cain even holy Job with whom God was but in jest as it were cries out that his calamitie was havier then the sand of the sea Job 6.3 and that yet his stroake was heavier then his groaning Chap. 23.2 Those that have ever felt the misery of a laden conscience can tell what an evill and bitter thing sinne is Jer. â— Those that now run away with it and make as light of it as Sampson did of the gate of Gaza shall one day groan out Woe and alas when God shall set himself to load them with tortures in hell who do now load him with their sinnes and weary him out with their imquities Esay 43.24 For prevention oh that they would be perswaded to believe the Prophets that their souls might prosper to be sensible of sins burden that Christ might ease them to take upon them his burthen which is onus sine onere and would be no more burthen to them then the wings are to the bird whereby he is born aloft that they would imitate porters who being called and offered money to beare a burden will poise it and weigh it in their hands first which when they see they are not able to stand under no gain will entice them to undertake it Do we provoke the Lord to anger are we stronger then he Heb. 10. Is it not a fearfull thing to fall into the punishing hands of the living God Is the the wrath of a King as the roaring of a lyon as the messengers of death surely they that tremble not in hearing
he basely recalled into France whence they had been banished and admitted them into his bosom making Father Cotton his Confessour et sic probrose se gessit et rem confusione dignam admisit as here He both shamed and undid himself For she hath said I will go after my lovers Amasios meos My sweet-hearts Marbeck Act. Mon. those that have drawn away my heart from my husband But if that persecutour could say to the Martyr What a devil made thee to meddle with the Scriptures how much better might it be said to the Synagogue and so to all Apostates What a devill meant you to go a whoring from such an husband who is totus Cant. 5.16 totus desiderabilis altogether lovely even the chief of ten thousand after dumb idols and false Prophets who are their brokers proxenetae et proci and spokesmen Athenaeus brings in Plato bewailing himself and his own condition that he was taken so much with a filthy whore Adultery is filthinesse in the abstract Gelulim Ezek. 22.3 1 Pet. 4.3 so is also idolatry and therefore idols are called by a word that signifieth the very excrements that come out of a man a tearm too good for those dunghill-deities those abominable idolatries as Saint Peter expresseth it Mention is made in histories of a certain heathen people that punish adultery with death and with such a death as is suitable to the sin For they thrust the adulterers or adulteresses head into the paunch of a beast where lieth all the filth and garbage of it there to be stifled to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude 7. Sodom and Gomorrha had fire from heaven for their burning lust and stinking brimstone for their stinking brutishnesse They are also thrown out as St. Jude phraseth it for an example suffering the vengeance of eternall fire And in the like pickle are the Beast and the false Prophet those Arch-idolaters for these both are cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone Rev. 19.20 And worthily Esay 3.9 sith they declared their sins as Sodom they hid it not And as this huswife in the text who said I will go after my lovers she did of wickedness forethought upon deliberation de industria ex consilio wilfully and of purpose impudently and without all shame of sin say I will go after This was shameles indeed They should rather have gone after her Deut. 23.18 then she after them Moses fitly compareth a whore to a salt-bitch that is followed after by all the dogs in a town And am I dogs-head said Abner to Ishbosheth 2 Sam. 3.8 that is Am I so given to lust lasciviousnes as dogs are that run after every salt-bitch But this harlot verified that saying in Ezekiel The contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms whereas none followed thee to commit whoredoms thou followest them and gloriest in thy so doing as Lots daughters did in their detestable incest naming their children Moab that is a birth by my father and Benammi that is begotten by one of my near kindred These all might have held their tongues with shame enough But such kinde of sinners are singularly impudent Jer. 3.3 infatuated Hos 4.11 and past feeling Ephes 4.19 And so are Idolaters wickedly wilfull and irreclaimable for most part See Jer. 44.16 17. 2.10 Esay 44.19 20. A seduced heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul nor say Is there not a lie in my right hand How stiffe are Papists to this day in defence of their Image-worship how severe against such as deface or but disgrace them Murther is not so hainous a sin c. That give me my bread and my water c. What can be more like to the doings of the Papists then this saith Danaeus Who knows not what suit they make and what thanks they return to their He-Saints and She-Saints and how they sacrilegiously transfer the glory due to God alone to the creature The Lord rightly resolveth the genealogy of corn wine and oil into himself verse 22. of this chapter And the Aposte tells us that it is He that filleth mens hearts with food and gladnesse Act. 14.17 Et cum charissima semper Munera sint Author quae preciosa facit This should make us lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull heart to God well content if we may have offam et aquam bread and water and the gospel and vowing with Jacob Gen. 28.20 that if God will give us bread to eat and raiment to put on then shall he be our God and we will honour him with the best of our substance As for other gods whether Pagan or Papagan say we as that Heathen did Contemno minutulos istos deos modò Jovem mihi propitium habeam I care not for these petty-deities I trust in the living God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy All things I say both ad esum et ad usum for back and belly besides better things which is all that carnall people care for There be many too many that say and can skill of no other language Who will shew us any good who will give us bread Psal 4. water wooll oil c they look no higher know no heaven but plenty hell but penury God but their belly whereunto they offer sacrifice with Poliphemus and care for no more quam ut ventri bene sit ut lateri then that their bellies may be filled Epicur ap Hor. their backs fitted Let them have but plenty of victuals and the Queen of heaven shall be their good Lady Jer. 44.17 Base spirits look onely after low things gain and credit carry them any way They work for their peny a day and are like little children which will not say their prayers unlesse they may be promised their breakfast Whereas a true worshipper of God soareth aloft hath his feet at least where other mens heads are trades for higher commodities cannot be put off with mean matters When great gifts were sent to Luther he refused them with this brave speech Valde protestatus sum me nolle sic satiari Melch. Adam I deeply protested that I would not be put off by God with these low things The Papists offered to make him a Cardinall if he would be quiet He replied No not if I might be Pope They sent Vergerius the Popes Nuncio to tempt him with preferment and to tell him of Eneas Sylvius who following his own opinions Hist of Counc of Trent p. 73. with much slavery and labour could get no further preferment then to be Canon of Trent but being changed to the better became Bishop Cardinall and finally Pope Pius 2. The same Vergerius also minded him of Bessarion of Nice who of a poor Collier of Trapezond became a great renowned Cardinall and wanted not much of being Pope But what said Luther to all this Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et
him O the never-enough adored depth of Gods free grace and fuperabundant love to his people This David well understood Psal 25.11 and therefore prayed pardon my iniquity for it is great He knew that God both could and would remit more then he could commit and that mercy rejoyceth against judgement whilest God for his own sake though not for ours blotteth out the thick cloud as well as the cloud enormities as infirmities Esay 44.22 See his Non-obstante Psa 106.8 his Resolve Gen. 8.21 and his Mandamus Psal 14.4 and then it must needs be done though no god would do it but himself Mic. 7.18 though no man could imagine how it should be done Esay 55.7 8. I will allure her that is I will effectually perswade her by the preaching of the Gospel Men may speak perswasively but God onely can perswade Gen. 9.27 they may speak to the ear but He to the heart and this He doth to his Elect not onely by a morall perswasion but by an irresistible inward attraction Act. 11.17 by a mercifull violence by making them willing to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth They kisse the Son with a kisse of love and homage having first been kissed with the kisses of his mouth whereupon immediately followes Draw me we will run after thee Cant. 1.1 4. Elisha could more with a kisse then his man could with a staffe in raising the dead child Christs works upon his people fortiter but yet suaviter powerfully Recte Calvin textum hunc reddit Inclinabo eam but yet sweetly he inclineth their hearts to his testimonies and not to covetousness Psal 119.36 and brings them to the obedience of faith monendo potius quam minando docondo quam ducendo If he do seduce them as some render the word here it is for no hurt it is but to speak in a word private with them as one friend may with another it is but to give them his loves as he speakes in the Canticles to shew them his glory as he did Moses to spread before them his beauty and so to catch them by guile as Saint Paul did Corinthians 2 Ep. 12.19 to steal away their hearts before they are awar◠according to that Cant. 6.12 that they thenceforth may be an Amminadib a willing people a free-hearted people Psal 110.3 waiting for the law Esay 42.8 and walking by the rule Gal 6.16 c. Oh it is a blessed thing to be thus allured thus inveigled thus seduced out of the wayes of sin and death into the wayes of holiness and happiness by the doctrine of the Gospel Mercer Rivet which is the true Pitho the Suadae medulla qua capiuntur homines sed bono suo the divine Rhetorike wherewith mens minds are taken but for their greatest good and I will bring her into the wilderness Look how I at first allured my people out of Egypt where they sat by the flesh-pots and enjoyed the pleasures of sin for a season out of Egypt have I called my son that I might set him higher then the Kings of the earth and brought them into the wilderness and there extraordinarily provided for them never was Prince so served in his greatest pomp and spake to their hearts giving them right judgements and true lawes good statutes and commandments Neh. 7.13 to their great comfort Ps 19.8 So will I again do for them and much more then so by Christ in the dayes of the Gospel Indeed as the people at their first setting foot upon the promised land met with trouble in the valley of Achor by the sin of Achan so shall the Saints be sure of troubles but Christ will not leave them comfortless a door of hope he will open unto them in their deepest distresses Death shall be unto them not a trap-door to hell as it is to the wicked but an inlet into life eternall where they shall sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Rev. 15.13 Let the Saints therefore rejoyce in hope be patient in tribulation Vineyards God will give them here some grapes at least of the heavenly Canaan aforehand spirituall benedictions Divine comforts to sustain them such generous wine as shall make the lips of those that are asleep to speak Cant. 7.6 Yea to sing Eph. 5.18.19 Lo such wine of the bests and such songs of joy shall the Saints have for those vines which before he threatened to destroy vers 12. and that mirth which he would cause to cease vers 11. Repentance can turn crosses into comforts and like the Philosophers stone make golden afflictions 1 Pet. 1.7 As it is the fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother viz. sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is the mother of all mercies and benefits for it is repentance unto life Act. 11.18 yea to salvation and therefore never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 It is that rainbow which if God see shining in our hearts and lives he will not onely not drown us but do us all good and speak comfortably to her Heb. speak to her heart such things as shall chear her up and make her heart leap and even dance Levalto's Confer Gen. 34.3 Ruth 2.13 Judg. 9.3 Pastquam perauxero eam Tremell Benigne alloquar Castalio See Isai 40.1 and comparing 1 Sam. 15.35 Observe that the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nacham signifieth to repent first and then to comfort And to this purpose it is that some translate the text thus After I have brought her into the wilderness and so humbled her thoroughly as I once did her forefathers there I will speak to her heart yea I will take her alone for the purpose even into a solitary wilderness where I may more freely impart my minde to her so some fense it that having her whole desire she may come up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved Cant. 8.5 and so be brought into the bride house with all solemnity Verse 15. I will give her her vineyards from thence or from thenceforth either from that time or from that place God as out of his melting heartedness toward her he thinks she hath suffered double for all her sins Esay 40.1 though she think she hath suffered less then her sins Ezra 9.13 So he is ready upon her repentance to make her strait a plentifull amends He destroyed her vineyards and damped her mirth vers 11.12 Now she shall have all again with advantage not her corn onely for necessity but her vineyards also for delight yea an honest affluence of both She shall have reall manifestations of his love and although he take her into the wilderness yet will he not be unto her a wilderness or a Land of darkness wherefore then should his people say we are Lords we will come no more unto thee Jer. 2.31 why should they not rather reason thus with the prodigall I will go to my father for in his house is bread enough I will return to my first husband
flying roule of curses after them Zech. 5.2.3 he shall vomit up his sweet morsels here Job 20.15 or else disgest in hell what he hath devoured on earth as his belly hath prepared deceit Job 15.35 Serm. before K. Edw. 6. so God will take it out of his guts againe either he shall make restitution of his ill-gotten goods or for not doing it he shall one day cough in hell as Father Latimer phraseth it and committing adultery This is also an hainous crime saith holy Job yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges Chap. 31.11 Heathens have punished it very severely Of one people we read that they used to put the adulterers or adulteresses head into the panch of a beast where the filth of it lay and so stiffled him God punished those stinking Edomites with stinking brimstone for their lothsome bruitishnesse and adjudged adultery to death because society and purity of posterity could not otherwise continue amongst men We read not in any general commandement of the law that any should be burnt with fire but the high-priests daughter for adultery Lev. 21.9 yet it seemes it was in use before the law or else Judah was much to blame for sentencing his daughter in law Tamar to the fire Gen. 38.24 Let us beware of that sin for which so peculiar a plague was appomted and by very Heathens executed See Jer. 29.22.23 If men be slack to take vengance on such yet God will hold on his controversie against them and avenge the quarrel of his covenant for so wedlock is called Prov. 2.17 either by his own bare hand or else by the hands of the adulterers themselves See an instance of both these even in our times In the yeare 1583. in London two citisens committing adultery together on the Lords day Divine Tragedie were struck dead with fire from heaven in the very act of uncleannesse their bodies being left dead in the place half burnt up sending out a most lothsome savour for a spectacle of Gods controversy against adultery and sabbath breaking This judgment was so famous and remarkable that Laurentius Bayenlink a forrain historian hath thought good to register it to posterity Opus Chronologiae Or his Vniversi Antwerp 1611. p. 110. Mr. Cleaver reports of one that he knew that had committed the act of uncleanesse and in the horrour of conscience he hang'd himself But before when he was about to make away himself he wrot in a paper and left it in a place to this effect Indeed saith he I acknowledge it to be utterly unlawfull for a man to kill himself but I am bound to act the Magistrates part because the punishment of this sin is death This act of his was not to be justified Viz. to be his own deathsman but it shewes what a controversy God hath with adulterers and what a deep gash that sin makes in the conscience they break out like wild horses over hedges or proud waters over the banks The Septuagint renders in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are poured out And St. Jude hath a like expression speaking of the Libertines of his time Verse 11. they run greedily Gr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were powered out or powred away as water out of a vessel they ran headlong or gave themselves over to work all uncleanness with greedinesse to satisfie their lusts and to oppose with crest and brest whatsoever stands in their way bearing down all before them Beza So Sodom and Gomorrah are in the seventh verse of the same epistle said by unbridled licentiousnesse to give themselves over to fornication In scortationem effusae And when Lot sought to advise them better they set up the bristles at him with Base busie stranger Dubartas comest thou hither thus Controwler-like to prate and preach to us c Thus these Effractores as the Psalmist somewhere calleth them these breach-makers Judg. 16.9 Psal 2.3 breake Christs bands in sunder as Sampson did the seven green withes and cast away his cords from them These unruly Belialists get the bit betwixt their teeth like headstrong horses and casting their rider rise up against him They like men or rather like wilde beasts transgresse the covenant Hos 5.7 resolving to live as they list to take their swinge in sin Psal 12.4 for who say they is Lord over us Tremellius reades that text tanquam hominis they transgresse it as if it were the covenant of a man they make no more of breaking the law then as if they had to do with dust and ashes like them selves and not with the great God that can tame them with the turn of his hand and with the blast of his mouth blow them into hell Hath he not threatened to walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him to be as cross as they for the hearts of them and to bring upon them seven times more plagues then before and seven times and seven to that till he have got the better of them for is it fit that he should cast down the bucklers first I trow not He will be obeyed by these exorbitant yokelesse lawlesse persons either actively or passively The law was added because of transgression and is given saith the Apostle not to the righteous for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a law to themselves 1 Tim. 1.9 as the Thracians boasted but to the lawlesse and disobedient who count licentiousnesse the onely liberty and the service of God the greatest slavery who think no venison sweet but that that is stolen Eccles 2.2 nor any mirth but that which a Salomon would say to Thou mad foole what do'st thou Loc for such rebels and refractaries for such masterlesse monsters as send messages after the Lord Christ saying We will not have this man to raigne over us for these I say was the law made to hamper them and shackle them as fierce and furious creatures to tame them and taw them with its foure iron teeth 1 of Irritation Rom. 7.7 2 ly of Induration Isa 6.10 3 ly Of obligation to condigne punishment Gen. 4.4 4. Of execration or malediction Deut. 28.16 17 c Let men take heed therefore how they break out against God Let them meddle with their matches and not contend with him that is mightier then they 'T is the Wise-mans counsell Eccles 6.10 and blood toucheth blood i. e. there is a continuation and as it were a concatenation of murders and other horrible villenies as was at Jerusalem in the murther of Zacharias the son of Barachias the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice And as Luke 13.1 the like fell out So at Athens when Scylla took the Town there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as mercilesse slaughter the gutters running with blood c. And so at Samaria which the Prophet may here probably intend when there was such killing of Kings and they fall not alone Hosea killed his Predecessour
rather Sharkes Are they protectours and not rather pillagers Latrones publici publike robbers as Cato called them These shields of the earth belong to God saith David Psal 47.9 should they not then be like him 2 Chron. 19.7 Now there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor accepting of persons nor receiving of gifts neither by himself nor by his man Elisha nor by his mans man Gehezi without distaste By one period of speech by one breath of the Lord are they both forbidden Deut. 16.18 19 20. Thou shalt not respect persons nor receive a gift For why A gift doth blind the eyes of the wise yea it transformes them into walking Idols that have eyes and see not eares and heare not onely it leaveth them hands to handle that the very touching whereof will infect and venom a man as Pliny writes of the fish Torpedo Let such therefore shake their hands from bribes Isay 33.15 as Paul shoke off the viper and be so far from saying Give ye that he should rather say to those that offer it Thy mony perish with thee he that hateth gifts shall live Prov. 15.27 Jethro's Iustice of peace should be a man of courage fearing God hating covetousness Exod. 18. not bound to the peace as one phraseth it by a gift in a basket nor struck dumb with the appearance of Angels c. Verse 19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings The evill spirit saith Hierom hurries them towards hell which is the just hire of the least sin how much more of these fore-mentioned abominations Take it rather to be spoken of the suddennesse swiftnesse and unresistablenesse of Gods judgments set forth by mighty winds rending the rocks and tearing up the mountaines by the roots Job 38.9 How then shall wicked men compared to chaffe or dust of the mountaines stand before the tempest of Gods wrath the thunder of his power Well they may applaud and stroke themselves for a time but the wind shall bind them up in her wings God shall blow them to destruction Job 4.9 his executioners have the wings of a stork large and long and wind in those wings to note their ready obedience Zech. 5.9 And although Ezek. 1. God be represented as sitting upon a throne to shew his slowness to punish yet that throne hath wings hands under those wings to shew his swiftness readinesse to do seasonable execution upon his enemies and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices wherein they trusted but now see themselves disappointed their idols not able to help them Then shall they cast their idols of silver and of gold which they have made each for himself to worship to the moles and to the bats to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged rocks Isay 2.20 21. See also Isay 30.22 If they be not thus ashamed of their former fopperies they are the more to be pittied Illum ego periisse dico cui periit pudor He is an undone man that shames not shents not himself for his evill practises that blusheth not bleedeth not before God for them lying down in his shame Jer. 3.25 as fully ashamed of his former hopes Psal 119.116 which now he seeth how far they have abused him CHAP. V. Verse 1. HEare ye this ye Priests For you are not so wise Prov. 1.5 but that ye may heare and increase learning Chap. 4.6 and besides from you is profanenesse gone forth into all the land Jer. 23.15 For you therefore in the first place I have a citation to appeare before Gods tribunall to heare your sin your sentence Jac. Ren. de vit Pont. your crime your doom God cited Adam immediately by himself Gen. 7.9 Adam where art thou so he did Cain Laban Nabal others when he sends for them by death saying as once to that Pope Veni miser in judicium Come away and heare thy sentence Centum revolutis annis Deo respon debitis mihi Mediately he citeth men by the mouth of his ministers as he did the Councill of Constance by his faithfull martyr John Husse and his word stood and as he doth here the three Estates of the kingdome Priests People and Princes by the Prophet Hosea That was very strange and extraordinary that Mr. Knox reporteth in his history of Scotland Hist of Scot. of one Sr. John Hamilton murthered by the kings meanes that he appeared to him in a vision with a naked sword drawn and strikes off both his armes with these words Take this before thou receive a finall payment for all thine impieties and within 24 houres two of the Kings sons died It is indeed but part of their punishment that wicked men here receive seem it never so grievous when God entreth into judgment with them as here it is said for judgment is toward you that is â—am about to pronounce sentence against you and to do execution and therefore hear harken and give-eare the first second and third time I admonish you that ye may know that my citation is serious and peremptory and that your damnation sleepeth not Priest and people are set before the house of the king Salvian because theirs was sedes prima vita ima an high place but a low life And besides Courtiers and great men though they be in other cases forward enough to take place of others yet in point of punishment they slink back and are well content that others should go before them God regards none for his greatnesse Potentes potenter torquebuntur neither spareth he any for his meannesse or because they were born down either by the lawes or lives of their Superiours The people are here placed betwixt the Priests and Princes and with them appealed and impeached to shew how frigid and insufficient their excuse is who plead that they did but as they were taught by their Ministers and as they were commanded by their Governours Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement because hâ— willingly walked after the commandement as it is in the eleventh verse of this chapter See the note for judgement is toward you Vengeance is in readinesse for the disobedient be he what he will kesar or caytiffe Lord or losell Priest or people every whit as ready in the Lords hand as in the ministers mouth 2. Cor. 10.6 neither shall multitudes priviledge or secure them Though they be quiet or combined and likewise many yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through Nah. 1.12 yea though they be briers and thorns that set against him in battle and those never so much confortuplicated and sharpened yet God will go through them and burn them together Esay 27.4 he will cut off the spirit of Princes and destroy a whole rabble of rebels that rise up against him because ye have been a snare on Mizpah That God may be justified and every mouth stopped a reason is here rendred of his most
righteous proceedings and the same recited after the manner of men in the preamble to their condemnatory sentences because ye have been a snare on Mizpah a net spred upon Tabor These were two very high hils much haunted by hunters and frequented by fowlers to whom these Idolaters striving to catch people ritibus suis velut retibus et laqueis with their nets and snares of errours and superstitions are fitly compared For they lie in in wait for mens souls and catch many of them either by perswasions or punishments by allurements or affrightments as Julian the Apostate did of old and as the Papists do at this day That Jeroboam and his counsellours set watchers in these two mountains to observe who would go from him to Judah to worship that he might intercept them and punish them is a plausible opinion but wants proof I know what is alledged Viz 1 King 12.28 and Hos 6.8 according to the vulgar translation I confesse also that it is not unlikely that such things should be done then as lately wait was laid by the Papists for such as had a minde to betake themselves as Geneva Tygure Basil c. for conscience sake It is more probable that upon those high hils Idolatry was committed see chap. 4.13 with the Note and thereby people ensnared as birds and wilde beasts are in the mountains and so made slaves to the devill and even fatted for his tooth Hence in the next words Verse 2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter They lay their nets and snares deep and lie down upon the ground that they may take the silly birds that dread no danger He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall into his strong pawes Psal 10.10 He studies the devils depths Rev. 2.24 poisonfull and pestilent pollicies Machiavellian mysteries of mischief His head is a forge and fountain of wicked wiles he hath store strength of strange traps and trains frauds and fetches to draw in and deceive the silly simple That these seducers were deeply revolted Esay 31.6 they had deeply corrupted themselves Hos 9.9 they sinned not common sins as Kore and his complices died not a common death They made great flaughter of mens souls and of their bodies too that refused to yeeld to them Craft and cruelty seldom sundred in seducers as some write of the Asp that he never wanders alone without his companion with him and as those birds of prey and desolation Esay 34.16 it is said that none of them want their mate The devil lendeth them his seven heads to plot and his ten horns to push and gore c. though I have been a rebuker to them all Heb. a correction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Understand it either of the Prophet that he had dealt plainly with them and done his utmost to reclaim them yet they refused to be reformed hated to be healed We would have cured Babylon but she would not be cured Or else of God that he had both by words and scribes rebuked their superstitions but nothing had wrought upon them They were tormented with the wrath of God but repented not to give him the glory Rev. 16.9 Corrigimur might they say sed non corrigimur plectimur sed non flectimur See how God complains of this stubbornnesse Jer. 6.28 29 30. and learn to tremble at his rebukes to profit by his chastisements lest a worse thing befall us Zeph. 3.5 The just Lord is in the middest thereof he will not do iniquity every morning doth he bring his judgements to light he faileth not but the unjust knoweth no shame There are that take the words possively and render them thus Ego vero illis omnibus castigationi sum I have been rebuked or corrected by them all Levely See the like Lam. 3.13 and in the Psalms often I am a reproach to mine enemies thou makest us a reproach to all that are round about us c. So the Prophet here may seem to complain as Jeremy did after him that he was born a man of contentions that all the people cursed him that he was a common by-word and but-mark that they sharpened their tongues against him and flew in his face To Preach saith Luther Totius erbis furorem in 〈◊〉 â—â—are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11.19 Judicatur vel sententia pronunciaâ—ur Câ—merar Sâ—â—ltet Repetitione etiam auget populi rebelliauem Rivet is nothing else but to derive 〈◊〉 rage of the whole world upon a mans self Wisdom that should be justified of her children is eftsoones judged of her childrens as some read those words of our Saviour Mat. 11.19 But I like the actiue sence better Vers 3. I know Ephraim and Israel is not hid from me Those that by Ephraim understand the Princes and by Israel the common people etiam hoc operae addant et illud ex scriptura probent saith Tarnovius let them prove what they say by Scripture and we will say with them Till then we take them for Synonima's An hypocritical nation they were Isai 9.17 and Athiestically they thought by hiding God from themselves to hide themselves from God Hear them else Chap. 12.8 And Ephraim said yet I am become rich I have found me out substance In all my labour they shall finde none iniquity in me that were sin that were an hainous business that iniquity should be found in them though they were a people laden with iniquity But I know them through and through intus et in cute saith God Isai 1. I am privy to all their plots and policies And although they are profound to make slaughter Tindall reades it They kill sacrifices on heapes to deceive yet let not them be deceived I am not mocked They must not think to put me off with shewes and shadowes to colour and cover their base spirits and vile ends with specious pretences For I search the hearts and try the reines neither is there any creature no not the creature of the heart the thoughts and intentions that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open naked for the outside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tectus clathratum Luc. and open for the inside the Greek word signifieth dissected quartered and as it were cleft through the back-bone before the eyes of him with whom we have to deal Heb. 4.13 Indeed he is all eye and every man before God is all window so that no man needeth a window in his breast as the Heathen Momus wisht for God to look in at For his eyes are upon the wayes of man and he seeth all his goings There is no darknesse nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Job 24.21.22 His eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men Psal 11.4 the former points out his knowledge the later his critical descant David Psal 139. findeth God not onely at his finger ends but at his tongues end too vers 4. His knowledge
if it get as seed into the bosome of the earth either it breeds an earth-quake or at least ariseth in a whirl-winde which blowes dust into the eyes and once at least buried a considerable Army in the Lybian sands Solomon saith Cambyses his souldiers He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity Pro. 22.8 But our Prophet here saith more He that soweth the wiude of iniquity shall reap the terrible tempest of unconceiveable misery By the blast of God he shall perish and by the breath of his nostrils he shall be consumed Job 4.8 9. As the beginnings of Idolatry hypocrisie vain-glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnall policy c. are empty and unhappy it is but the sowing of blasted corne as the Septuagint here hath it seed corrupted by the winde so the end thereof is very sad and dismall The word here rendred the whirl-winde hath a syllable in it more then ordinary to note saith Tremellius the fearfulnesse of the divine vengeance Suphathaâ— that will befall the forementioned and especially at death when they are entring upon eternity Oh what a dreadfull shriek gives the guilty soul at death to see it self launching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead and must swim naked in it for ever not having the least cold blast of that winde it sowed all its life long to cool it but rather to adde to its torment Then will God speak to such as once he did to Job out of a whirl-winde but after another manner Go to now ye formalists false-worshippers triflers troublers of Israel ye that have been meer mutes and ciphers nullities in the world superfluities in the earth or worse then all this Jam. 5.5 Go to now I say weep and howl for the miseries that are come upon you Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Jam. 5.5 But now an end is come is come an evil an onely evil without mixture of mercy sorrow without succour mischief without measure torments without hope of ever either mending or ending are the portion of your cup the dregs of that cup of mine must you now drink off that hath eternity to the bottome O lamentable Oh did but men forethink what would be the end of sin they durst not but be innocent Oh let that terrible tempest at death bee timely thought on and prevented Job 27.20 21 c. Terrours take hold of him as waâ—ers a tempest stealeth him away in the night The East-winde carrieth him away and hee departeth and as a storm hurleth him out of his place For God shall cast upon him and not spare he would fain flee out of his hand c. It hath no stalk the bud shall yeeld no meal Nihil habet fertilitatis firmitatisque as Ruffinus expoundeth it It hath no firmnesse or fruitfulnesse the winde of wickednesse that thou hast sown the blasted corn that thou hast committed to the earth will yeeld thee nothing but losse and disappointment A blade there may be but not a stalk or if a stalk yet not a bud or if a bud yet it shall bee nipt in the bud it shall yeeld no meal but onely dust and chaff or if it come to the meal yet strangers shall swallow it up so that you shall bee never the better for it but after that ye have sown the winde of iniquity ye shall reap the whirl-winde of misery maledictionem omnimodam curses of all kindes which God hath hang'd at the heels of your idolatry a pernicious evil whatever those superstitious shecsinners bragg'd to the contrary Ier. 44.17 Or if they flourish for a season and have hopes of a large crop yet God will curse their blessings and frustrate their fair hopes Psal 37.2 as he dealt by that rich wretch mentioned by Mr. Boroughes in his Comment on the second Chapter of this Prophesie pag. 379. I had certain information saith he from a Reverend Minister that in his own Town there was a worldling who had a great crop of corn A good honest neighbour of his walking by his corn said Neighbour you have a very fine crop of corn if God blesse it yea saith he I will have a good crop speaking contemptuously And before he could come to get it into the barn it was blasted that the corn of the whole crop was not worth six pence Verse 8. Israel is swallowed up Not their meal onely as verse 7. but themselves also are devoured by those workers of iniquity that eat up Gods people as they eat bread Psal 14.4 Persecutours are men-eaters more cruel then those American Canibals that devour men peece-meal they make but a breakfast of Gods people as Senacherib meant to do of Ierusalem and the Powder-papists of England If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us But blessed bee God who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Psal 124.2 3 6. Let us keep us out of the clawes and clutches of that old man-slayer who night and day walketh about in a circular motion that he may take us at advantage seeking whom hee may swallow down his wide gullet which he hath even made red with the blood of souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.8 and is therefore happly called the great red-Dragon Rev. 12.3 that hath seven heads to plot and ten horns to push men into the sin of idolatry and thereby into hell So long as Israel was holinesse to the Lord and the first-fruits of his increase all that devoured him found that they offended for evil came upon them Ier. 2.3 they could no more disgest him Judg. 5.1 then the Whale did Ionah a cup of trembling or of poyson he was to all the people round about Zech. 12.2 See the Note there But when he offended in Baal he died when he chose new gods then was warre in the gates when they made leagues with idolaters then were they even swallowed up by them as were likewise the Greek and Latine Churches by the Eastern and Western Antichrist those crooked Leviathans those dragons in the sea as the Egyptian and Assyrian are called Esay 27.1 now shall they be among the Gentiles whose favour and friendship they have basely sought and dearly bought It was threatned in the former Chapter verse 16. that they should be a derision in the land of Egypt See the Note To have Egyptians deride us and that for sin is an heavy judgement So here to be disdained and vilified by such as an old broken vessell fit for none but unclean uses as a vessell wherein is no pleasure No delight or complacency vas despectum reijculum abjectum a vessell that is for the carrying up and down of excrements so shall Israel be employed by Gentiles in base and contemptible offices as they were by the Babylonians Jer.
commandeth but the Gospel helpeth God by his spirit assisting and further accepting pence for pounds the will for the work the desire for the deed done c. and laying meate before us meate that the world knowes not of hidden Manna the convivium juge of a good conscience c. Vers 5. He shall not return unto the land of Egypt That is he needs not run to Egypt for help as King Hosea did nor to the Assyrian to whom they were tributaries from the time of Menahem for they wanted nothing and less should have wanted if they would have been ruled by me but they refused to return He was not to have returned to the land of Egypt or of the Assyrian who is his king so some read the text Others sense it thus When I threaten them with the Assyrian they think to shift and shelter themselves in Egypt but I shall keep them thence or find and ferret them out there God knowes how to cross wicked men of their will to spoyle their plots Egypt shall prove no better then a broken reed running into the hand of him that leaneth on it 2 King 18.21 The Egyptian was ever an enemy to Israel and though for his own ends he gave goodly words and seem reconciled yet such Reconciliations are but vulpinae amicitiae But were he never so fast a friend yet sin-guilty Israel shall not have their an Asylum nec stabile stabulum see Chap 9.3 with the Note because the desire of the wicked shall perish Psal 112.10 They take counsell together but it shall come to nought they speak the word but it shall not stand Esay 8.10 Confer Esay 30.1.2 and 31.1.2.3 Prov. 21.38 but the Assyrian shall be his king Will they nill they they shall be carried captive to Assyria and sith they will needs be crossing of God he will cross them much more he will walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him Lev. 26.21 and be as froward as they for the hearts of them Psal 18.26 They will not return to me saith the Lord they shall not therefore return to Egypt they will not submit to my scepter they shall therefore have the Assyrian for their King that proud cruel stout-hearted Prince Isay 10.5.7.12 who will tyrannise over their bodies and over their cattle at their pleasure so that they shall be in great distress Neh. 9.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they refused to return Heb. they disdained to do it scorned the motion slighted the messenger Sen in Agamem Plus est a viâ—s se revocaesse quà m vitia ipsa necivisse Amb. in Psal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By their sins they had run from God by repentance they should have returned unto him and then the amends had been well-nigh made for Quem poenitet peccasse paenè est innocens the penitent is in almost as good a case as the innocent Ambrose saith he is in a better But for these men to all other their sins to add obstinacie and impenitencie as Herod to all his former evils did the death of the Baptist this was to heap up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 The word here rendred refused is by the Seventy turned They would not That therefore thy returned not to God it was the fault of their will True it is they had no power to turn themselves but the cause of that inability too was in themselves They therefore neither could nor would return and both by their own fault and folly Vers 6. And the sword shall abide on his cities Heb. shall keep residence or rush upon his cities It can do no less it cannot return into the scabbard rest or be still till the Lord who put it into commission call back againe his commission Jer. 47.6.7 It is a dreadfull thing when the sword abideth on a people as in Germany that stage of warr Ireland still a land of divine ire c. England hath some Halcyons at present incredibili celeritate temporis brevitate à Pompeio confectum Aug de Civ Dei Mr. Burr praise be given to God and let every good man pray with David scatter thou the people that delight in warr Psal 68.30 The Piraâ—s warr was dispatcht by Pompey with incredible swiftness to his eternall commendation And we have cause to bless God saith a countryman of ours that God hath raised up instruments for us who have hazarded the shortening of their own lives for the shortning of the warr who have done their worke of late as if they had took it by the great c. And the same Author observeth that it is a sad thing for the sword to be in the field but for the sword to be in the cities it is much more sad and he instanceth in JerusaleÌ„ out of Josephus Jos de bell Jud l. 7. c. 7. where the number of the slaine was eleven hundred thousand We may further instance in that unhappy city of Magdeburg in Germany where so much cruelty was exercised first by Charles the fift much regrated by him at last in his retired life taking account of his actions since that in our memory by Mounsier Tilly who like a bloody villain put to the sword there twenty thousand persons at least of all ranks ages and sexes Mr. Clark life of K. of swed 23. that great city also he burned down utterly turning it into cinders excepting an hundred nine thirty houses c. The like immanity was exercised by the Popes champions upon the poor Protestants at Angrogue in France where they killed and burned without mercy but could never set fire upon the two temples there nor upon the Ministers house Act and Mone 880. which remained whole the houses round about being all consumed with fire and shall consume his branches and devour thèm His branches or his villages which are as branches of the greater cities The trees of America but especially of Brasile are so huge that it is reported of them Abbbots Geog. p. 271. that severall families have lived in several armes or branches of one tree to such a number as are in some petty village or parish here The greater cities are as the body or-root of a tree the villages as the branches The scripture oft calleth them mother and daughters as Heshborn and all her daughters That is villages Num. 21.25 as the Chalde there explaineth it See Ezech. 10.44.45.46.48.53 hence we read of a citieand mother in Isracl 2 Sam. 20.19 Branches also are called daughters of the trees they grow from Gen. 44.23 The word here rendred branches is by some rendred Barres by others Diviners or Liers as the word here used is interpreted Jer. 50.36 A sword is upon the liars or diviners and they shall dote potest Augur Augurem videre nou ridere saith Tully of such diviners that is Can they one looke upon another and not laugh considering how they gull people with their lies and fopperies The sword
too The Branch grew out of the root of Jesse when that goodly family was sunk so low as from David the king to Joseph the carpenter Besides all was out of order both in Church and State when Christ came and close up the breaches thereof Heb. wall up by unwalling as the Hebrew hath it Num. 24.17 all the children of Seth by subduing the sons of men the godly seed to the obedience of faith by bringing into captivity every haughty thought c. 2 Cor. 10.4 5. that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow Philip. 2.10 and getting a full conquest by the preaching of the gospell which shall quickly close up all ruptures and raise up all ruines by chasing away terrours and false-worships doctrines of devils and traditions of men whereby the Scribes and Pharisees had made the commandement of God of none effect and I will build it as in the dayes of old in those purer times of David and the other holy Patriarches who made up but one and the same Church with us and were saved by the same faith in Christ Jesus that Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world Rev 13.8 Mine antiquity is Jesus Christ said Ignatius the Martyr As we preferr the newest Philosophy so the ancient'st Divinity saith Another Verse 12. That they may possesse the remnant of Edom That they which are called by my name which are called Christians viz. the Apostles and their successours to the end of the world may possesse together with Christ to whom the Father hath given the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession the remnant of Edom those few of them that receive the faith who are but as a remnant to the whole peece an handful to a houseful Psal 2. â— And not of the Edomites onely those inveterate and hereditary enemies to the Israel of God but of all the heathen which are called by name who beseech and are baptized into Christs name being content to receive his mark and to professe his Religion which formerly they were perfect strangers to These and those first Preachers of the Gospel and Planters of Churches being Israelites by birth are said to possesse by inheritance because Christ was pleased to make use of their ministery and upon these his white horses to ride abroad the world conquering and to conquer Rev. 6.1 2. In a like sense it is promised Esa 14.2 that the house of Israel shall possesse their proselytes in the land of the Lord for servants and for handmaids and take them captives whose captives they were and rule over their oppressours Such a change shall the Gospel make saith the Lord that doth this For indeed none else could have done it Effectual conversion is his work alone God perswade Japhet c. Noah may speak perswasively but God onely can perswade Rebecca may cook the venison but Isaac onely can give the blessing Paul may plant c. Deus potest facere nec solet fallere Verse 13. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that the plowman c. The Gospel of peace brings with it the peace of the Gospel and with peace plenty with the horn of salvation the horn of plenty a confluence of outward comforts and contentments Boâ—us Deus Constâ—nâ— tantis terrenâ— implevit muâ—â—â—bus qâ—anta â—pâ—â—re nullus â—uderet Dâ— C D. l. 5.25 Elizabetha gloriâ—sissima foeliciss soemina Thuan. Hist lib. 124. as in Solomons dayes and Constantines whom God prospered and blessed beyond all that he could have wished saith Austin and Q. Elizabeths whom for her care to propagate the Gospel He made to be the happiest woman that ever swayed scepter as her very enemies were forced to acknowledge so liberal a paymaster is the Lord that all his retributions are more then bountiful and this his servants have not ex largitate sed ex promisso out of his generall providences but by vertue of a promise which is farre sweeter The Masorites have observed that in this verse are found all the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet as also in 26 more verses of the Old Testament to note say the Calvinists that in the kingdome of the Messiah there shall be great abundance of all things plenum copiae cornu or if that should fail yet plenty of all spiritual benedictions in heavenly things In instauratione casulae Davidicae coâ—apsae Merc. Amama Eph. 1.3 and contented godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.6 which hath an autarkie a self-sufficiency so that having nothing a man possesseth all things 2 Cor. 6.10 This the Prophet expresseth in the following words by many excellent hyperbole's though to say sooth Christus regnum ejus non patiuntur hyperbolen All words are too weak to set forth the worth of Christ and his kingdom the plowman shall overtake the reaper In signis hyperbole saith Mercer no sooner shall harvest be ended but seeding shall succeed and that promise fulfilled Levit. 26.5 all businesses belonging to the tillage of the ground and the inning of the fruit shall have their fit and sutable seasons where under the name of corporal blessings spiritual also are to be understood and indeed those blessings out of Zion are farre beyond any other that come out of heaven and earth Ps 134.3 and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed precious seed Ps 126.5 sowing-seed as one englisheth it drawn out of the seed basket and cast all along upon the land the meaning is that the vintage shall last so long that the seeds-man shall scarce have time to do his businesse for waiting upon the wine-presse and the mountains shall drop sweet wine Or juice of pomegranates more delicious liquor then that which the Italians profanely call Lachrymae Christi or that which at Paris and Lovaine is called Vinum Theologicum or Vinum Cos that is â—oloris odoris saporis optimi the best in the countrey for colour savour and taste to please the palate and al the hils shal melt sc with milk honey oyl as Joel 3.18 the same almost with this And the heathen Poet hath the like Subitis messor gaudebit aristis Claudian lib. 1. in Ruffin Rorabunt querceta favis stagnantia passim Vina fluent oleique laeus Ver. 14. And I will bring againe the captivity of my people There is an elegancy in the original that cannot be englished and God seemes delighted with such Agnominations as hath been before observed to shew the lawfull use of Rhetorike in divine discourses Act. 26.18 so it be not affected abused Idolized This promise is fulfilled when beleevers are by the gospel brought from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and be set free from the tyranny of corruption and terrour of death Heb. 2.14.15 Colos 1.13 Luk. 1.74 Zach. 9.11 Psa 68.19 and they shall build the wast cities Restore the sincere service of God as those noble Reformers did
Chron. 36.16 Good therefore is the counsel of the Prophet Lam. 3.39 40. Why is living man sorrowful a man for the punishment of his sin Let us search and trie our wayes find out the sin that God strikes at and turn again to the Lord turn and live so they cast lots They should have also prayed as Act. 1. 6. saying as Saul 1 Sam. 14. Give a perfect lot wicked men also are bound to pray Psal 14.4 but although they do not God can get himself glory by their prophane lottery as he did by Nebuchadnezzars Ezek. 21.20 21. and the lot fell upon Jonah Secret sins will out at length and be brought into judgement Eccles 12.14 Saeculi laetitia est impunita nequitiae Aug. Surely the bitternesse of death is past said Agag but he found it otherwise 1 Sam. 15. Janah thought himself out of the reach of Gods rod c. Wicked mens faults shall be written in their foreheads and they forced to answer for all at last with flames about their ears Verse 8. Tell us we pray thee for whose cause c. He confessed not till urged and necessitated Sinne gagges people and prompts them to hide their faults as Adam or at least to mince extenuate shift them upon other persons and things as Eve Sinne and shifting came into the world together and Satan that old manslayer knowing that there is no way to purge the soul but upwards holds the lips close that the heart may not disburden it self God by this means is oft put to his proof and must bring the malefactour to trial who refusing ordinary trial must therefore be prest Jer. 2.35 what is thine occupation For that thou hast one we take it for granted At Athens every man was once a year at least to give account to the Judges by what art or trade he maintained himself By Mahomets law the Grand Signior himself must use some manual trade Solyman the Magnificent made arrow-heads Mahomet the great horn-rings for archers c. That which the mariners here enquire after is whether Jonas his occupation be honest and lawful whether he laboured the thing that was good Eph. 4.28 For if any man over-reach or oppresse his brother in any matter by the use of any ill arts he shall be sure to find that the Lord is the venger of al such 1 Thess 4.6 though haply they lie out of the walk of humane justice or comes not under mans cognizance and whence commest thou Art thou not of an accursed countrey and is not thy people a people of Gods wrath as England was in the time of the sweating-sicknesse Lifeoâ— Edw. 6. by S. J. H. pursuing the English where-ever they came which made them like tyrants both feared and avoyded of all nations How the Jewes are at this day hated and shunned as an execrable people is known to all what is thy countrey and of what people art thou Notanda brevitas saith Hierome here Note the brevity of theâ—e questions nothing short of those in Virgil so much admired juvenes quae causa subegit Ignotas tentare vias quò tenditis inquit Quod genus Vâ—rg Aene. â—â— unde domo pacemne huc fertis an arma Note also here how these Pagans proceed not to execution till they have fully inquired into the matter This was farre better then that ugly custome of some people in Europe mentioned by Eneas Sylvius that if any one amongst them be suspected of theft or the like crime he is presently taken and hanged up Then three dayes after they examine the businesse and 〈◊〉 the party be found guilty they suffer his body there to hang till it rot down or if otherwise they bury him in the Church-yard 〈◊〉 Syâ— Europ cap. 20. and keep a funeral-feast at the publike charge Vers 9. And he said unto them I am an Hebrew i. e. a true Beleever as was Heber the Patriarch Gen. 10.21 and after him Abram the Hebrew as he is called Gen. 14.13 This name of Hebrews as it was the first title given to Abraham and his seed so it indureth one of the last 2 Cor. 11.22 Philip. 3 5 Epistle to the Hebrews title and I fear the Lord God of heaven That 's mine occupation I serve God with my spirit in the Gospel of his Sonne as Paul hath it Rom. 1.9 every faithful Minister is servant to the King of heaven Act. 27.23 this the devil could not deny Act. 16.16 17. neither is he of his meaner or inferiour servants of his Underling sbut of the noblest employment Ministers are his Stewards Embassadours Paranymphs or Spokesmen c. and this is their occupation or their work farre beyond that of Solomons servants which hath made the sea and the drie land This troublesome sea that now so threatneth you and that drie land which you would so fain recover These with all their contents are his creatures neither did he make them and then seave them to Fate or Fortune as a carpenter leaves the house he hath built to others or a ship-wright the ship but he ordereth and ruleth them at his pleasure and will unmake all again rather then his shall want help in one season Psal 124.8 and 134.3 This was part of Jonah's confession and but part of it for he told them no doubt how ill he had dealt with this great and good God running away by â—ealth from his masters service and detrecting his yoak and that therefore he was justly apprehended and adjudged to death To this purpose was Jonas his confession quae ei salutis fuit exordium saith Mercer which was the beginning of his safety and salvation Now his hard heart is broken and his dumb mouth opened not only to confesse his offence but to aggravate it in that being not only an Hebrew of the Hebrewes a member of the true Church but a Prophet a Doctour in Israel he should deal so perversely and perfidiously It is a sweet happinesse when sin swels as a toad in a mans eyes and he can freely confesse it in the particulars and with utmost aggravation laying open al his transgressions in all his sinnes as Moses phraseth it Lev. 16.21 Affliction sanctified will bring a soul to this as here it did the Prophet like herein to that helve Elisha cast into the water that fetcht up the iron that was in the bottom Verse 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid Heb. with great fear when once they had heard the businesse and weighed the particulars of his message to Niniveh of his miscarriage and of his present misery together with the danger that themselves were in for his sake how much more for their own as being conscious to themselves of farre more and greater sinnes then Ionas had to answer for c. This put the Marriners into a great fright And as all fear hath torment they could not be at quiet till they had further questioned him saying Why hast thou done this Lo he that would
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own Mat. 20.15 Is thine eye evil because I am good Shall I not shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy Or enviest thou these poor Ninivites their preservation for my sake Cannot I provide for mine own glory and for thine authority by other means and wayes then thou imaginest Have patience Jonah and rest better satisfied with my dispensation Be swift to bear slow to speak slow to wrath For I wot well the wrath of man worketh not the righteonsnesse of God Jam. 1.19 20. This thou wilt see and say as much when come to thy self for now thou art quite off and being transported as thou art Nil audire voles Horaâ— nil discere quod levet aegrum Hierome seeks to excuse Jonah's anger but God here condemneth it as not well and Ionah himself partly by not answering again and partly by recording the story seems to say of himself as Father Latimer doth in another case I have used in mine earnest matters to say Serm. 3. Sund. in Advent Yea by Saint Mary which indeed is not well Anger is not altogether unlawful so it be well carried It is saith one a tender vertue and as it is not evil to marry but good to be wary so here Let a man ask himself this question Do I will to be thus angry and is mine indignation rightly regulated for principle object measure end If it be not the spirit of God will be grieved in the good soul and sensibly stirre Eph. 4.30 31. yea thou shalt hear the correcting voice thereof within thee saying Dost thou well to be thus angry Should not all bitternesse and wrath and anger and clamour and evil-speaking be put away with all malice And should ye not be kind one to another and 〈◊〉 hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.31 32. Vers 5. So Jonah went out of the city As not yet knowing what God might do though he found him inclinable to shew them mercy upon their repentance Or he might think haply that these Ninivites were onely sermon-sick penitent indeed for the present but it was too good to hold long these seemingly righteous men would soon fall from their righteousnesse and then be destroyed though for present somewhat favoured of God Mercer reads the text in the preterpluperfect tense and makes it an hysteron proteron thus exierat autem Jonas but Jonas had gone out of the city sc before he had shewed himself so hot and hasty against God and brawled with him as above Others think that when he saw which way the squares were like to go he flung out of the city in a great pelt and if God had fetcht him again with a flewet on the ear as Queen Elizabeth did the Earl of Essex her favourite Camb. Elisaâ— when being crossed by her of his will â—he uncivilly turned his back as it were in contempt he had done him no wrong But God is long-suffering c. He considereth whereof we are made and with what strong corruptions we are beset He knowes that sinne hath a strong heart and will not easily be done to death that nothing cleaves more pertinaciously or is more inexpugnable then a strong lust whether it be worldlinesse wantonnesse passionatenesse pride ambition revenge or the like these Jebusites will not easily be driven out these sturdy rebels will hardly be subdued these stick closest as a shirt doth to a leprous body and cannot be done off but with great adoe Now if Jonah be of a cholerick constitution and soon kindled if this evil of his nature have been confirmed by custome a second nature if Satan stirre up the coals and say to him as the people did to Pilat Do as thou ever hast done God graciously considereth all this and beareth with his evil manners and sat on the east-side of the city Quite out of the precincts where he might see their ruine and not suffer with them Faux after he had laid his train and ser it awork to fire the powder at such an hour was to have retired himself into Georges fields and there to have beheld the sport That Jonah was so uncharitable as to wish and wait the overthrow of Niniveh and not that they would rather return and live admits of no excuse But that expecting its overthrow according to that God had threatned by him he secured himself by separating from those sinners against their own souls was well and wisely done of him See Esa 48.20 and 52.11 2 Cor. 6.17 Rev. 16.4 Lot did so from Sodom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people from Core and his complices John and his disciples from Cerinthus the heretick he sprung out of the Bath from that blasphemer lest he should be punished with him so the Church of Ierusalem packt away to Pella c. â—â—sob l. â— c. â— and there made him a booth A sorry something wherein to repose himself till the indignation were over-past Ministers as good souldiers of Jesus Christ must suffer hardship be content to dwell in tents or to lie in huts till they come to the heavenly palace where they shall have a better building 2 Cor. 5.1 yea a throne in that city of pearl whose master builder is God Heb. 11.13 Turk hisâ— fol. 3 1â— Mean while let them not seek great things for themselves but as the Turks never build sumptuously for their own private uses but content themselves with simple cottages how mean soever good enough say they for the short time of our pilgrimage here so much more should Christians especially Ministers whose reward how little soever upon earth is great in heaven Let them live upon reversions and though their dwelling be but mean a booth or little better yet they shall have stately mansions above Maâ— 5.12 and in the mean time if they can but say as that Heathen did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God dwels here with me this house of mine is a little Church a tabernacle for the God of Iacob oh how happy are they in that behalf even above the great Turk with his Seraglio which is two miles in compasse yea with his whole Empire Turk hist which saith Luther is but a crust cast by the great house-keeper of the world to his dogs and sat under it in the shadow Having food and reyment saith the Apostle let us therewith be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the word rendred rayment signifieth any covering over head if it be but an haircloth Some say it signifies domicilium an house others say that houses are not named for that they were not any where to fix Estius Vt Hamaxâ—â—â— but to be ready to run from place to place and to leave house and all behind them or as souldiers burn their huts when the siege is ended that they may go home to their houses being discontentedly contented in the
promise yea to give oath and now thy truth bindeth thee to performe All thy pathes to thy people now are mercy and truth Psal 25.10 not mercy onely but mercy and truth not by a providence onely but by vertue of a promise ratified with an oath This is sweet indeed this deserves a Selah to be set to it thou didst cleave the earth with rivers Exod. 17.6 Psal 78.15 16. Deut. 8.15 Neh. 9.15 This cleaving the hard Rock and setting it abroach this turning of the flint into a fountain Psal 114.8 was a work of Omnipotency and is therefore so much celebrated It maketh much to the miracle that the earth was cleft with rivers this importeth both the plenty and the perennity thereof for the Rock that is the river out of the rock followed them 1 Cor. 10.4 lest in that dry and barren wildernesse they should perish for want of water The same God also who had given his people petram aquatilem gave them pluviam escatilem Tertul. de patientia as Tertullian phraseth it Manna from heaven Quails in great abundance and never was Prince better served in his greatest pomp He also defended them from the fiery serpents and delivered them from a thousand other deaths and dangers all which mercies are here implied though one onely be instanced and all to ascertain the Saints how much God setteth by them and what he will yet do for them as occasion requireth As he made the world at first that he might communicate and impart himself to his Elect so for their sakes doth he still preserve and govern it ordering the worlds disorders by an over-ruling power for his own glory and their eternall good Verse 10. The mountains saw thee and they trembled sc At the promulgation of the Law Exod. 19.17 Psal 114.4 6. when God came with ten thousand of his Saints Deut. 33.2 and so terrible was the earth-quake that it wrought an heart-quake even in Moses himself Heb. 12.21 It is the office of the Law to do so and happy is he who terrified and thunder-struck by the threats thereof runnes to Christ for refuge as to One who is able to save to the utmost them that come unto God by him Heb. 9.25 Some take mountains metaphorically for the Mighties of the earth and read it thus The mountains saw thee and they grieved See Num. 22.3 Josh 2.9 10 11 The over-flowing of the water passed by the inundation of Jordan passed into the dead-sea the lower part of it I mean like as the upper stood and rose up upon an heap Gualth Josh 3.16 being bounded and barred up by the Almighty power of God the deep uttered his voice and lifted up his hands on high i. e. summo consensis suffragatus est c. It voiced and voted for Gods judgements helping forward the execution thereof Verse 11. The Sun and Moon stood still in their habitation viz. In the dayes of Joshuah and upon his prayer chap. 10.12 13. whereupon One crieth out O admirabilem piarum precum vim ac potentiam quibus etiam coelestia cedunt c. O the admirable power of prayer Buchol that worketh wonders in heaven and oh the heroicall faith of Joshuah the trophees whereof hee set in the very orbes of heaven at the light of thine arrowes they went By these shining arrowes and glittering spears some understand that terrible lightening mixt with that horrible hail Josh 10.11 with Exod. 9.23 and then it is figura planè poetica a Poeticall expression for the poets call lightening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the sword of the Lord and of Gideon Judg. 7. 18. Joves arrow See the like Psal 18.14 The huge hail-stones were Gods glittering spears wherewith he slaughtered his enemies Others suppose that these things are meant of the arms and weapons of the Israelites called Gods arrowes and spears because used at his command and ordered by him This sence Gualther liketh better as most comfortable to Christian warriours who fight the Lords battels Verse 12. Thou didst march thorow the land in indignation Heb. Thou didst walk in pomp as a Conquerour thorow the land sc of Canaan in contempt of the opposite forces treading upon the neeks of thine enemies Josh 10.24 thou didst thresh the heathen in anger See Amos 1.3 Mic. 4.13 God by the hands of Joshuah did all this The most of the old inhabitants were destroyed Some few fled into Africk and left written upon a pillar for a monument to posterity We are Phoenicians that fled from the face of Joshuah the son of Nave Verse 13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people q. d. Thou wast Generalissimo in â—our expeditions in the dayes of the Judges who therefore were so successefull How could they be otherwise when God came with them into the field Camd. Elisab If Q. Elizabeth could take for her Motto Cui adhaereo praest He to whom I adhere prevaileth how much more may Almighty God say as much even for salvation with thine anointed i. e. with David 1 Sam. 16.12 13. 2 Sam. 5.3 16. and 19.22 and 22.51 Psal 20.7 a lively type of Christ that Messiah the Prince the mystery of which promised Saviour the ancient Jew-Doctours confessed to be contained in this text It is not altogether unlikely that the Prophet might intend here to point at Jesus Christ when he saith for salvation Jeshang whence Jesus for thine anointed or thy Christ There are that read the words in the Future-tense thus Thou shalt go forth for the salvation of thy people sc when Messiah that great Sospitator cometh thou shalt wound the head of the wicked sc of the Devil Rom. 16.20 Thou shalt make naked the foundation of his kingdom unto the neck Selah thou shalt utterly destroy sin death and hell A remarkable mercy indeed a mystery of greatest concernment and most worthy to be considered Gualther carries the sence this way and yet addeth that if any please to refer the words to the history of the old Testament they must be understood of those tyrants that persecuted the true Church and whom God for Christs sake subdued and subverted together with their kingdomes Verse 14. Thou didst strike thorow with his staves the heads of his villages Heb. thou didst pierce or bore thorow as with an awger with his staves a Metaphor from shepherdy according to that Psal 23.3 thy rod and thy staffe c. or with his tribes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that entred the land of promise Acts 26.7 with these men or with these weapons though never so unlikely thou diddest by the hand of David wound the hairy scalp of thine enemies those Pagans and persecutours and much more wiâ—â— by the Son of David subdue Satan and his Complices they came out as a whirl-winde to scatter me Heb. they tempested they raised an hurly-burly being turbulent spirits as the devil is to disperse me as the dust of the mountains is scattered before a whirle-winde their
not as your fathers Man is a creature apt to imitate to be led more by his eyes then by his eares and children think they may lawfully Be as their fathers St. Peters converts had received their vaine conversation from their fathers as it were ex traduce or by tradition 1 Pet. 1.18 And St. Steven tells his perverse hearers that they were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as their fathers had been before them Act. 7.51 They used to boast much of their Ancestours Ioh. 8.33 and to bind much upon their example and authority Ier. 44. 17. Mat. 5.21 They thought they were not much to be blamed because they did but as their fathers had done before them The Prophet therefore dehorts or rather deterrs them from that folly serting forth both the crime and doome of their forefathers whom they so much admired and so stifly imitated and this he ost repeateth that they might once consider it and be wrought upon by thosé domestick examples have cryed Loudly and lustily Es 58.1 according to that Cry aloud spare not Lift up thy voice like a trumpet sic clames ut stentora vincas A minister should be a Simon Zelotes a son of thunder as Basil was said to thunder in his preaching lighten in his life as Hierome for his vehemency was called Fulmen Ecclesiasticum the Churches light-bolt as Harding before his shamefull Apostasy wished he could cry out against Popery as loud as the belles of Oseney and as Farellus that notable French Preacher whose voice when the envious Monks sought to drown by ringing the bells as he was preaching at Metis he lifted up his voyce adravim usque and would not suffer himselfe to be outroared The Saints-bell as they called it Pierius useth for an hieroglyphick of a preacher who must not speak the word onely but sound it out into all the earth Rom. 10.18 not preach it onely but cry it as the Apostles word signifieth 2 Tim. 4.2 clangite clamate Jer. 4.5 Boâte vociferate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boantis Vociferantis Mat. 3.3 Ministers have to doe with deafe men dead men living carcasses walking sepulchers of themselves Now therefore as our Saviour lifted up his voice when he said Lazarus come forth so must they stand over men and cry aloud awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead that Christ may give thee light Eph. 5.14 turne you now from your evil wayes c. This was the constant cry of the Prophets as here and Apostles as Acts 26.18 to open mens eyes naturally closed up that they cannot see the evill of their wayes Ier 2.35 Rev. 3.15 to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God and from your evill doings Heb. Designes gests or exercises enterprized advisedly and prosecuted studiously of natural disposition and inclination as Prov. 20.11 and 1 Sam. 25.3 This St. Iohn usually calleth committing of sinne 1 Epist 3.4 8 9. Iohn 8.34 this is to adde rebellion to sinne Iob 34.37 impudence to impotence browes of brasse to iron sinewes Isa 48.4 This is wickednesse with a witnesse which if men could but see in its native colours and cursed consequents they would soon be perswaded to turn from it As the eye cannot but be offended with a lothsome object so neither can the understanding Take rats-bane it looketh not evil bu◠when a man feeles it boyle burn torture him c. he hates it extremely So he should doe sinne he will doe else at length when it is too late For prevention take the counsell of a Martyr get thee Gods law as a glasse to look in So shal you see your faces foul-arrayed and so shamefull mangy pocky and scabbed Bradfords serm of Repent p. 20.26 27. that you cannot but be sory at the contemplation thereof and seek out for cure Especially if you look to the tag tied to Gods law the malediction which is such as cannot but make us to cast our currish tailes between our legs if we beleeve it But O faithlesse hard hearts O Iezabels guests rocked and laid asleep in her bed O wicked wretches c. but they did not hear Though the Prophets cryed and spake loud enough to bee heard and heeded An heavie eare is a singular judgement Isa 6.10 An hearing eare a precious mercy Prov. 20.12 God must bee intreated to boare our eare Psal 40.6 and to make the boare so big that the word may enter to say as Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and looke ye blind that ye may see Verse 5. Your fathers where are they Is not the grave their house have they not made their beds in the dark are not they gone down to the Congregation house of all living Iob 30.23 Every man should die the same day he is born as being born a child of death the wages of sinne is death and this wages should bee paid him down presently But Christ beggs their lives for a season 1 Tim. 4.10 he is the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation but of temporal reservation But what a sad thing is it for men to dye in their sinnes as these in the Text and their Nephews did Iohn 8.21 24. How may such men on their death-beds say to their sins as Charles the fifth did of his honours victories riches Abite hinc abite longè Go Mornaeus go get you out of my sight or as Cornelius Agrippa the conjurer did to his familiar that used to accompany him in the shape of a dog Abi à me perdit a bestia Joh. Manl. loc com 136. P. Sut. de vit Caribusian quae me perdidisti Be gone thou wretched beast that hast wrought my ruine Petrus Sutorius speaks of one that preaching a funeral sermon on a religious man as he calles him and giving him large commendations heard at the same time a voice in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortuus sum judicat us sum damnat us sum I am dead judged and damned The Devill preached Sauls funeral 1 Sam. 28.19 though David made his Epitaph 2 Sam. 1. And do the Prophets live for ever Those false Prophets so Hierome senseth it that cryed peace peace to your fathers and made all fair weather before them when the fierce wrath of God was even ready to burst out upon them as an overflowing scourge But they doe better that understand it of Gods true Prophets who are dead indeed for wise men dye as well as fooles Psal 4◠10 Good men dye as well as bad Ezech. 21.4 yea good men oft before the bad Esay 57.1 but their words dyed not with them the truth of their prophesies not onely lived for ever for ever O Lord thy word is stablished in heaven Psal 119.89 but struck in the hearts and flesh of their perverse hearers like the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty throughout all eternity Haeret lateri lethalis arundo Wicked men may as the wounded Hart frisk and skip
Exod 22.8 yet did this evil prevail in Israel 2 Chron. 33.6 Jer. 27.9 and here It was done by unlawful means as Saul said to the witch Divine unto me by the familiar spirit 1 Sam. 28.8 and it was a thing hateful to God even as high rebellion 1 Sam. 15.23 sith the ground of this familiarity is a diobolical contract ovort or covert explicit or implicit It is fitly called the black Art for there 's no true light in them that use it Isai 8.19 they depart from God and his testimony ib. and so tempt the devil to tempt them This was Sauls sin for which the Lord killed him 1 Chron. 10.13 and hath threatened to cut off all from among his people that do enquire of such Levit. 20.6 Thou hast been partaker with the adulterer Psal 50.18 so are such with sorcerers Surely the wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan as Ahaziah found it And they which in case of losse or sicknesse c. make hell their refuge shall smoke and smart for it in the end Satan seeks to them in his temptations they in their consultations seek to him and now that they have mutually found each other if ever they part it is a miracle He is an unspeakable proud spirit and yet will stoop to the meanest man or woman to be at their command the witch of Endor is twice in one verse 1 Sam. 28.7 called the Mistrisse of the Spirit because in covenant with him whereby he may cheat them and their clients of Salvation Every one that consults with him worships him though he bow not as Saul did neither doth that old man-slayer desire any other reverence then to be sought unto and against the adulterers Sept. the adulteresses Adultrinum qu â—si ad alterum out alterius torum a going up to another mans bed as Reuben did and was severely sentenced for it Gen. 49.4 It was to be punished with death even by the law of Nature because the society and purity of posterity could not otherwise continue amongst men Nebuchad nazzar roasted in the fire Zedekiah and Ahab two false prophets of Judah because they committed adultery with their neighbours wives Jer. 29.22 23. The Egyptians used to cut off the nose of the adulteresse the Prophet alludes to this Ezek. 23.25 The Athenians Lacedemomans and Romans were very severe against this sin as Plutarch recordeth in his parallels The old French and Saxons also as Tacitus tells us By Gods law they were to be stoned to death and the High-priests daughter was to be burned for this fault Lev. â—1 9 a peculiar punishment and not to be paralleld in the whole law If men fail to fall upon such it is an hainous crime saith holy Job and an iniquity to be punished by the Judges Venus ab antiquis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicla See Pro. 5.8 Chap. 31.10 God himself will do it Heb. 13.4 and did it effectually 1 Cor. 10.8 and on the filthy Sodomites Gen. 19. and on Charles 2. King of Navar who was much addicted to this sin which so wasted his spirits that in his old age he fell into a Lethargy To comfort his benumbed joynts he was bound and sewed up in a sheet steeped in boyling Aquavitae The Surgeon having made an end of sewing him and wanting a knife to cut off his threed took a wax candle that stood lighted by him But the flame running down by the threed caught hold on the sheet which according to the nature of the Aquavitae burned with that vehemency that the miserable king ended his dayes in the fire But say the adulterer be neither stoned nor burned yet God usually stoneth such with a stony heart Hos 4.11 which is a most fearful judgment and when they die burneth them with the hottest fire in hell Prov. 2.18 the whores guests go down to the dead Heb. el Rephaim to the Giants to that part of hell where those damned monsters are See 2 Peter 2.10 and mark the word Chiefly and against false swearers A sin of an high nature condemned by the height of nature and punished by the Heathens Perjurij poena divina exitium humana dedecus This was one of the laws of the twelve tables in Rome God punisheth perjury with destruction men with disgrace Tissaphernes the Persian General being ovecrome by Agesilaus King of Spartans craved three-moneths truce and had it They both sware to be quiet on both sides Tissaphernes soon brake his oath Cornel Nepos in vit Ages but Agesilaus religiously kept it saying that Gods and men would favour him for his fidelity but curse and execrate the other for his perjury God shewed Zachary a flying role long and large ten yards long and five broad full of curses against the false swearer with commission to rest upon his house Zac. 5.3.4 which he he holds his castle and where he thinks himself most secure Michael Paleologus Emperour of Constantinople made the Greek Church acknowledge the Popes supremacie and did many other things contrary to his oath and therefore lieth obscurely buried shrouded in the sheet of defame saith the Historian Turk hist So doth Rodulphus Duke of Sueveland who by the Popes instigation broke his oath of allegiance to Henry the Emperour and by the cutting off his faithlesse right hand lost his life So doth Sigismund the Emperour for his false dealing with John Husse Ladislaus king of Hungary for his perjurious setting upon Amurath the great Turk at the battle of Varna where he was deservedly defeated What a blur was that to the old Romans if true that Mirchanes the Persian General should say of them Roman is promitcere promptum est c. Procop. 1. de bello Persic The Romans will promise any thing and swear to it but perform nothing that makes against their profit There were at Rome such as could lend an oath at need and would not stick to swear that their friend or foe was at Rome and at Interamna both at once How slippery the Papists are and how bloody both in their Postions and dispositions is well known to all But God is the avenger of all such because they call him to witnesse a falshood and dare him to his face to execute his vengeance See Zach. 8.17 and against those that oppresse c. Either by denying diminishing or delaying their wages The vulgar rendereth it Who calamniate or make cavils to detain wages which is the poor hirelings lively-hood whereupon he setteth his heart Deut. 24.15 and maintaineth his life which is therefore called the life of his hands Isai 57.10 because upheld by the labour of his Hands He gets it and eats it and is in his house like a snail in his shell crush that and you kill him This is a crying cruelty Jam. 5.4 and hath a woe against it Jer. 22.13 Jam. 2.13 Laban is taxed for it Gen. 31.7 and for those that are guilty if they mend not and make restitution Master
that he would set up his own kingdome here more and more amongst us then should were be more happy then the Israelites were under the raigne of king Solomon or the Spaniards under their Ferdinand the third who reigned 35. years in all which time there was neither famine nor pestilence in the land Lopez Gloss in prolog par 1 Vers 13. Your words have been stout against me Or reenforced or strongly confirmed Superant me verba vestra so some have rendred it By your hard and hatefull words you have been too hard for me as it were And it is as if God should say I have given you my best advice o break off your sinnes and to bring me my tythes that I might blesse you both with store and honour But I have lost my labour I see well my sweet words are worse then spilt upon you who are so hardened in your errour and blasphemy Prov. 23.8 Verba quid incassum non proficientia perdo Mal. 2.17 that you are still clamouring and casting out odious words against me Once before you had set your foul mouthes against me and like so many wolves that were wood you held up your heads and howl'd out these ugly words Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them c. was it possible that the wit of malice could devise so high a slander And now you are at it again creaking like doors that move upon rusty hinges nay clattering and blustering out such hellish and hideous blasphemies as at the hearing whereof it is great wonder if the heavens sweat not earth gape not sea roar not all creatures conspire not to be avenged upon you as the very stones in the wall of Aphek turned executioners of those blasphemous Aramites when as being but ignorant Pagans their tongues might seem no slander Your words have been stout against me Yea stouter and stouter your wickednesse frets like a canker and encreaseth still to more ungodlinesse 2 Tim. 2.17 Evil men and deceivers grow worse and worse 2 Tim. 3.13 as being given up by God Rom. 1.28 acted and agitated by the devil Ephes 2.2 serving diverse lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 which to satisfie is an endlesse piece of businesse Neither let any here say they were but words that these are charged with and words are but wind c. for words have their weight and are marvellous provoking Leviter volant sed non leviter violant You shall find some saith Erasmus that if death be threatned can despise it but to be belied they cannot brook nor from revenge contain themselves As a murthering-weapon in my bones saith David mine enemies reproach me Psal 42.10 Desperate speeches and blasphemies that impose upon the Lord any thing unbeseeming his Majesty a thing common among the Jews even at this day he can by no means away with See how God stomacketh such proud contumelious language Psal 73.11 and 94.4 5 6 7 c. Zeph. 1.12 Ezech. 9.9 See how he punished it in him that bored thorough his great Name Lev. 24.11 Ludovike commonly called St. Lewis caused the lips of blasphemers to be seared with an hot iron Philip the French King punished this sin with death yea though it were committed in a Tavern The very Turks have the Christians blaspheming of Christ in execration and will punish their prisoners sorely when as through impatience or desperatenesse they wound the ears of heaven Yea the Jews in their speculations of the causes of the strange successe of the affairs of the world Specul Europae assigne the reason of the Turks prevailing so against the Christians to be their blasphemies and among other scandals and lets of their conversion are all those stout words darted with hellish mouthes against God in their hearing so ordinarily and openly by the Italians especially who blaspheme oftner then swear and murther oftner then revile or slander Andrew Musculus in his discourse intituled The devil of blasphemy hath a memorable story of a desperate dice-player in Helvetia Anno 1553. at a town three miles distant from Lucerna Where on a Lords-day three wretched fellows were playing at dice under the town-wall One of them named Vlricus Schraeterus having lost a great deal of money swore that if he lost the next cast he would fling his dagger at the sace of God He lost it and in a rage threw up his dagger with all his might toward heaven The dagger vanished in the air and was seen no more five drops of blood fell down upon the table where they were playing which could never be washed out part of it is still kept in that town for a monument the blasphemer to say the best of him was fetcht away presently body and soul by the devil with such an horrible noise as affrighted the whole town The other two came to a miserable end shortly after The truth of this relation is further attested by Job Fincelius and Philip Lonicerus Theat histor pag. 142. yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee Chald What have we multiplied to speak before thee As if they should say â—t is not so much that we have spoken that thou shouldest make such a businesse of it Nothing more ordinary with gracelesse men then to elevate and extenuate great sins with them are small sins and small sins no sins when as every sinne should swell like a toad in their eyes and the abundant hatred thereof in their hearts should make them say all that can be said for the aggravation and detestation of it sith there is as much treason in coyning pence as bigger pieces because the supreme authority is as much violated in the one as in the other But this sin of theirs was no peccadillo as appeareth by the following instance Verse 14. Ye have said It is vain to serve God Vulg. He is vain that serves God Ye are idle ye are idle said Pharaoh to the Israelites when they would needs go sacrifice and to Moses and Aaron Ye let the people from their works Any thing seems due work to a carnall mind saving Gods service that 's labour lost time cast away they think But this is their want of spirituall judgement they see not the beauty of holinesse they taste not how good the Lord is they discern not things that are excellent they measure all by present sight sense and taste as do children swine and other bruit creatures And therefore they themselves are vani vanissimi as an Expositor here speaketh vain and most vain and that for two reasons and in two respects First for that they take themselves to be servers of God Secondly they stick in the bark serve him with the out-side onely honour him with their lips and not with their hearts to bring him vein oblations empty performances serve him wih shews and formalities which he delights not in nay he rejects them with infinite scorn as he did the Pharisees devotions
must not be written on any parchment but what is made of the skin of a clean beast nor read but in a clean place No man must touch it but with the right hand and not without a kisse of reverence they usually carry it in procession about their synagogue with many ornaments of crowns and scepters the children kissing it as it passeth by them No man must sit in the presence of it nor so much as spet before it c. Whereas the Gospel of grace they utterlly reject and abominate as a Volume of vanity That Italian Translation that they had of the New Testament is called in and taken from them Evangelâ—â—â— Aven gelaion Eliah in Thesh Rad gillaion Buxâ—orf syneâ— cap. 1 p. 4. for their horrible abuse of it this being still the twelfth Article of their Creed I believe with a perfect faith that the Messiah is yet to come No marvell if the Apestle would not have us ignorant that blindnesse in part is happened to Israel Rom. 11.23 That lesser part or rather particle of them that are proselyted to our religion they pretend that they are none other then poor Christians hired to personate their part Voyage into Levant And yet they give compleat dispensation to counterfeit Christianity even to the degree of Priesthood In the day of their expiation their Rabbi doth absolve them from all their perjuries and deceits used against Christians He also assures them that they are not bound to keep any oath but what is sworn upon their own Torah or Law of Moses brought out of their Synagogue Weemse to the reading whereof they depute one third part of their day and wherein they are generally so expert that they have it as ready as their own names The mischief of it is Facilius quâ—â— nomen soum recitat Joseph Cont Appion lib. 2. that they are too much affixt to it and will needsly be saved by it which the Law cannot do for them as being weak through the flesh Rom 8 3. The Law is a yoke of bondage as Hierome calleth it and they who look for righteousnesse from thence are like oxen who coil and draw and when they have done their labour are fitted for slaughter Luther fitly calleth such drudges the devils Martyrs they suffer much and take much pains to go to hell And in another place he saith Qui scit inter Logem Evangelium disting siere gratiâ—â— agat Dto sciat se esse Theologum He that can rightly distinguish between Law and Gospel hath cause to praise God and may well passe for a Divine Moses my servant A farre higher title then Sonne of Pharaohs daughter for this was to be Pharaohs God Exod. 7.1 and higher then the kings of the earch Psal 89.27 No marvell though Moses so esteemed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Nâ—â—â—t king of Romans an Heathen did and Augustus the Emperouâ— câ—â—igratius fuit 〈◊〉 pietatis quam potestatis saith Tertultian he preserred prety before Monarchy so did those three succeeding Emperours Câ—â—stantine 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 who called themselves Vassallos Christi the vassals of Christ as 〈◊〉 reporteth It was noted as a great both presage and desert of Dâ—â—ins his ruine when in his proud Embassie to Alexanaer he called himself the King of kings and Cousin of the gods but for Alexander he called him his servant That was worse in John Oneal father to the Earl of Tirone that rebell Anno 1398 who blasphemously inscribed himself in all places 1 great John Oneal Cousin to Christ friend to the Queen of England and foe to all the world c. Camd Eliz. 2 Pet. 2 What big bâ—bbles of words were these as Peter calls them His pretended Successour stileth himself the servant of Gods servants and one day in the yeer in an apish imitation of our Savtour washeth certain mens feet But he acteth as Dominâ—s â—â—gnorum munâ—i which is one of the Devils titles and can endure to be called by his Parasites Dominus Deus noster Papa Our Lord God the Pope Moses held it honour enough to be the servant of the Lord and yet he was Vir Dâ—o longe acceptissimus quo 〈◊〉 habuit antiqua aetas mitius sapientius sanctius highly accepted in heaven and the most meek wise and holy man that Antiquity ever had or mentioned as Bellarmine himself acknowledgeth which I commanded him in Horeb Moses then was not the Law-maker as Solon Lycurgus Zaleucus c. but onely Gods Minister to utter what he would have him deliver or at utmost a Mediatour Gol. 3.19 not of expiation for so Christ onely but of communication of the Law to all Israel Exod. 20.19 wherein he was faithfull in all Gods house as a servant Hob. 3.5 Famulus inginuus a servant of the better sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of worship as the word there seemeth to import The place where Moses received the Law is mentioned Horeb the same with Sinai Act. 7.30 Exod. 19.1 18. to inmind them of the terrour of the Lord on that mountaine when God came down upon it with ten thousand of his Saints Deut. 33.2 from his right hand went a fiery law for them Heb. a fire of law And surely that fire wherein the law was given and shall one day be required is in it still and will never out Hence are those terrours which it flashth in every conscience that hath felt remorse of sinne Every mans heart is an Horeb and resembleth to him both heaven and hell The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. to all Israel And it is reckoned as a singular priviledge to that people Neh. 9.14 Rom. 9.4 Prospers conceit was that Judaei were so called because they received Jus Dei the Law of God Josephus calleth their Common-wealth a Theocratie or God-government That of Philo is not so solid that their law was given in a wildernesse because it is to be learned in a wildernesse seeing there we cannot be hindered by the multitude But what a wretched conceit is that of the Jews at this day that the law of Nature shall bring to heaven those that observe it but the Hebrews unto whom the Law of Moses was peculiarly given by keeping it shall have a prerogative of glory How shall the Lion of the tribe of Judah roar upon them at that day and say Do not think that I will accuse you there is one that accuseth you Joh. 5.45 even Moses in whom ye trust Get you to him whom ye have chosen but cold comfort ye are like to have from him a very froward generation he ever found you children in whom is no faith Deut. 33.20 with the statutes and judgements that is with the Ceremoniall and Judiciall Law But what meant that false Rabbin to adde to this Text these following words Quamdiù non venit dies juâ—icy R. David Till the day of judgement comes as if men were bound till
others strange p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.4 and wonder what 's come to us alate that we refuse to run with them as once into the same excesse of riot say thou to thy self * To walk with God is a precious praise though none do it but my sell â—and to walk with man with the world with a town or â—arish in wicked wayes is a deadly sin though â—â—lhous do 〈◊〉 B Babington upon Gen. 6.8 Better go to heaven alone and with the ill will of my neighbours then to hell with never so much company and with the love of all the world But indeed ye are not alone however it may seem so as it did once to Elias q 1 King 19.10 for ye have many fellows abroad your brethren and companions in the kingdom and patience of Iesus Christ r Rev. 1.9 who will be ready as here to joyn with you in speaking often one to another for mutuall edisication and encouragement * Clouds of wimesses thousands thousands of 〈◊〉 and every of them worth ten thousand of others as St Chrysost speaks Hom. 26. ad Pop. Antioch Beside those other also above whom you may see by the eye of saith the crowned and glorfied Saints I mean all which trode the same tract of holinesse with you have gone to heaven alone and been hated for it Å¿ Joh. 15.15 yet is not any one of them heard now to say Oh what fools were we when time was to be so strict and conscientious to stand upon such nice points to sequester our selves from the corrupt courses and companies of others t 2 Cor. 6.17 to deprive and abridge our selves of the pleasures of sin and delights of life c. Oh no such word is ever heard to fall from their holy lips but they rejoyce rather and infinitely exult and glory in that God that gave them an heart to do as hath been said and in those rivers of exquisite and unmixed pleasures with the which their good hearts are even inebriated u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh 2.10 Hag. 1.6 and in a sober sence made drunk again whiles they continually behold his face with whom they once walked in the flesh as a man with his friend In who e presence is the fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for ever more w Psal 16. ult CHAP. II. Doctr. II. Of the severall sorts of Feares and That every faithfull Christian feareth the Lord. Hâ—th rto of the Duty here performed as touching the first circumstance to wir of time noted in the particie Then The second followes and that 's of person who they were that thus spake often one to another And these come here described unto us under a double notion first as fearing the Lord secondly an thinking upon his Name As to the first * Constriciia cordis ex sensu mali instantis Pareus in Mâ—t 25 Hinc Gâ—eci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—cant â— ligâ—menâ—um eò quod quasi gâ—lu aâ—lringit Naâ—ianzâ—orat 7. Fear in a generall sence is nothing â—lse out an astection of the soule shâ—inking in it self from some imminent evill Hereof there are three sorts usually reckoned 1. Naturall 2. Carnal 3. Spirituall The first of these we cannot justly fault if it do not degenerate into the second for every thing by an instinct of uncorâ—upted Nature desires the conservaâ—ion of it self and fears the contrary You may sâ—e an instance of it in our blessed â—aviour who to manâ—fest himself a true man subject to like passions with 〈◊〉 yet still without sin * It being with Châ—â—â—t as with a christal glass full oâ—â—iear water which is still pure howsoever is he shaken P. B. trembled at the apprehâ—nsien and approach of Death which iâ—to nature of all terribles the most terrible as the Philosopher * Aristot Ethic. l 3. and the king of feares as Iob defines it a Iob 18.14 To him you must needs think it was so if ever to any whose soule suffered the very soule of sufferings as one expresseth it * Purchas Microcâ—sm which made him offer up prayers and supâ—lications with strong crying and teares to him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared b Heb. 5.7 Next there is a carnall feare and that is of the Creature * Majore formidin callidiore â—â—â—â—litate Caesarem 〈…〉 Sed 〈◊〉 ratiore 〈◊〉 sed ment praesentatrae 〈…〉 c. Tert. de Ro 〈◊〉 Apologeâ—â—op 27. more then the Creatour the great the mighty and the terrible God c Nche 9.32 as Nehemiah stiles him itarisâ—th partly from want of faâ—th in the power and providence of the Almighty the Aposties were therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnally-fearsull because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 petty-sidians or small-sauls d Mat 8.25 Partly also from want of Spirituall fear to the which therefore it is usually opposed in holy scripture as in that of our Saviouâ— Fear not them that kill the body c. but fear him which after he hath killed hath â—ower to â—ast into hell yea â—â—ay unto you fear him e Mat. 10.28 And this latter is that third sort of fear which being nothing else but an awsull respect to the Divine Majesty we therefore call Spirituall 1. from the object God whâ— is both a Spiâ—i f Ioh. 4. and the father of Spirits g Heb. 11. the proper object of this and all other affections of uâ—ns â—oule h Luc. 10.27 Whence it is that by an appeilative proper he is 〈…〉 Fear by the Psalmist â—ring presents unto Fearâ— i Psal 76.11 so runs the Origiâ—all that is to him that ought to be feared as it is usually read and rendred 2. from the principall efficient and chief Authour of it and that is Gods holy Spirit called therefore a spirit of fear k Esay 11.2 3. from the blessed effect it hath upon the spirit of a man for it spiritualizeth and sanctisieth both us and our services l Psal 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—uae parit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doct and is therefore here rightly made the mark of a spirituall-minded man the constant charter of a true Christian and a plain distinctive note whereby to discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serâ—â—th God and him that serveth him not What may we learn hence but this That every faithfull Christian feareth the Lord neither is he any true servant of God that hath not his heart possest and seasoned with the spirituall reverentiall feare of God SECT I. The Doctrine cleared and confirmed by Scripture THe truth of which Assertion will soon appear if we take notice how the holy scripture 1. conjoynes Gods service and his fear making them go hand in hand as individuall friends and companions 2. confounds them and takes them for one and the same thing 3. gives it ordinarily
14.26 as it did distressed David u Psal 119 38 and fainting Habakkuk w Hab. 3 16 17. who after he had poured forth his soul before God with reverence and godly fear rose up off his knees as confident as might be that Although the fig-tree shall not blossome nor fruit be found in the vines the labour of the olive should fail and the fields yeeld no meat the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord saith he I will joy in the God of my salvation The Lord God is my strength c. So true is that of Solomon In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children have a place of refuge x Prov. 14.26 And this is that fear of God that speaks a man truly religious Apply your selves now every one to the rule and search and see in some of you an utter nullity in othersome a fearfull deficiency of this reverentiall fear of God SECT VI. Vse 3. Exhortation to get and grow in this holy Fear with six Motives Vse 3 and three Means tending thereto ANd for a third Use of the point learn we all first to get and then to grow in this grace Let the fear of the Lord be upon you and do it y 2 Chro. 19.6 Give all diligence to fashion your hearts to this reverent regard of God considering the terrour of the Almighty which we must needsly know either as slaves or sons but better as sons that in the day of distresse he may spare us as a man doth his own sonne that serveth him z Mal. 3.17 Motives to the fear of God If yet ye look for further Motives to this duty Consider that the fear of God is 1. But equall and reasonable 2. Gainfull and profitable 3. Needfull 4. Honourable 5. Acceptable 6. Comfortable 'T is equall first for it is our bounden duty sith he hath so often commanded and required it upon our allegeance a Psal 2.11 psal 33.8 prov 3.7 Esay 8.13 Heb. 12.28 besides that it of right appertaineth unto him as a due though he should never have called for it Bring presents unto him that ought to be feared b Psal 76.11 saith David and who would not fear thee ô king of nations for to thee doth it apprtain because there is none like to thee c Jer. 10.7 Eccles 12.13 It is then you see and act of justice to fear the Lord. And when we have done our utmost that way we have done no more then was our duty to do d Luke 17.10 Secondly 't is a practise no lesse gainfull then equall whatever those profane miscreants above the text blasphemed to the contrary Profitable it must needs bee for it hath the promises of both lives In the life present he that hath the fear of the Lord shall not be visited of evil e Prov. 19.23 in generall Not of the evil of sinne for te fear of the Lord is to hate that evil f Prov. 8.13 Nor of pain for the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to escape the snares of death g Prov. 14.27 Say hee meet with troubles without or terrours within yet he that feareth God shall come out of them all h Eccles 8.12 Thus for evil And for good both to us and ours after us By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life i Prov. 22.4 Esay 33.6 One would think that were enough yea but then here 's more then enough They that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good k Psal 34 Ob. Sol. Ey but what shall their poor children do when they are gone Well enough for their seed shall be mighty upon earth and their generation blessed Psal 112. thoroughout Thus for temporalls they are provided for And for spirituall blessings in heavenly things l Ephes 1.3 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him m Psa 147.11 he will teach such a one in the way that he shall chuse n Psal 25 12 guide them he will with his counsell and afterwards receive them to his glory o Psal 73 24 Surely Gods salvation is nigh them that fear him p saith David and the covenant of life and of peace was with Levi because he feared God q Mal. 2.5 saith Malachy Lo thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord r Psal 128.4 Thirdly this holy fear is wondrous needfull for it inciteth and inableth to all Christian duties Whence it was that the Lord both delivered his Law at first in a fearfull manner ſ Exod 19. and afterward wished that the hearts of his people might bee season'd with his fear that they might keep his commandements alwayes t Deut. 5.29 Serve the Lord with fear saith David u Psal 2.11 yea he thou in the fear of the Lord all day long w Prov. 23.17 saith Solomon The primitive Christians walked in the fear of the Lord saith St. Luke x Acts 9 31 and it is a spot in your feasts to eat an drink without fear y Jude 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Jude Fourthly 't is honourable for besides that God takes himself highly honoured by it and therefore calls for it in this Name If I be a father where is mine honour and if a Master wher 's my fear z Mal. 1.6 we our selves are not a little dignified hereby The woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and though many daughters had done vertuously yet she excelled them all a Pr. 31.29 30 This grace winnes a man a wonderfull deal of respect both from God and men as it did Job of whom God himself boasted b Job 1.8 and Abraham who was a Prince of God to the Heathenish Hittites c Gen. 23 6 Fifthly 't is a grace very acceptable for it gives grace and vertue to all other graces and duties which else are unpleasing to the Almighty For to him will I look even to him that trembleth at my word d Esay 66.2 3 as to none else be his sacrifice never so specious or costly And to shew how highly God esteemeth this fear you shall find it not seldome set for the whole service of God in holy Scripture as was said before Lastly it is exceeding comfortable for it freeth the heart of all base fears which vanish out of sight before this as the lesser lights before the Sun and fills it with strong confidence and consolations making the man in whom it is to hold up his head in the greatest hurly-burlie and to walk about the world as a conquerour void of all fear what man or devil can do unto him e Psal 3 thoroughout You see that this holy fear comes commended unto you by many names what remains but that ye set your selves in all good earnest
fry weep and gnash live and die a dying life a living death not for a time or times or half a time t Rev. 12.14 oh happy they if ever they might hope an end but ever and ever and beyond all time throughout all eternity Oh considerchis all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you u Psal 50.22 Save your selves from this tormenting Tophet and be forwarned to flee from the wrath to come See what miserable slaves ye are to Satan being altogether as much in his power and clutches x Act. 26 18 as he that goes gyved is in the gaolers or he that goes up the ladder pininond and hoodwinkt in the hangmans and for how little good advantage ye lay forth your selves and toyl out your lives in wearisome * Ier. 9.5 Psal 55.10 wickednesse Do but summon the sobriety of your senses afore your own judgments and see what uncessant pains ye are at and all to go to hell whiles you do wickedly with both hands earnestly y Mic. 7.3 working hard at the works of the flesh but putting your gets into a bottomlesse bag z Hag. 1.6 Nay that 's not all for he that soweth the winde shall reap the whirelwinde a Prov. 22 8 Hos 10 12 saith Solomon that is he that soweth the wind of sin and vanity shall reap the whirlwinde of vengeance and misery And he that soweth to his flesh shall of the fiesh reap that corruption that is contradistinguisht to life everlasting b Gal. 6.8 for the wages of sin is death c Rom. 6. ult Sursum cursum nostrum dirigamus minantem imminentem exterminantem mortem attendamus ne simul cum corporis fractura animae jacturam faciamus temporal spiritual and eternal And is it nothing to lose an immortal soul to purchase an everliving death hear then set thy self in good earnest to see and sigh under Satans servitude be sensible of his yoke as galling thy neck and let it make thee cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this unsufferable servitude Behold I am more miserable then Samson at the mill for he had hope in his death d Prov. 14.32 but what hope have I When God shall take away my soul e Job 27.8 I am more miserable then Zedekiah in cold irons for though he los his eyes yet he escaped with his life but I alasse am am dead while alive f 1 Tim. 5.6 a very living ghost a walking sepulchre of my self I am more miserable then Ieremy in the dungenon for he found friends and means of enlargement but to which of the Saints shall I turn my self g Job 5.1 or where shall I finde help or rescue in heaven or earth I am more wretched then Israel in Egypt for if they performed their tasks they escaped the lash but I after all my best services done o the devill am laden with stripes and shall be scourged with scorpions * â—â—â—nsideret his quilibet quam jod 1 sir servitus servhe priacipi immò tyranno diabolo qui subditos sibi infandis divexat modis Bucer Thus make moan to thy self first and tenmake out to Christ next for manumission and enlargement for if the son set you free you shall be free indeed h Ioh. 8.36 Cry to the Lord Christ in the words of the ancient Church O Lord other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but we will remember thee only and thy name i Isa 26.13 Thy name is as an oynt munt powred out theresore the Virgins love thee k Cant 1.3 O pour upon my dry soul of that precious oyntment and stablish me with thy free spirit l Psal 51 12 for where thy spirit is there is liberty m 2 Cor. 3.17 from both the commanding and the condemning poer of sin and Satan O deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove to these wicked ones x in thy righteousnesse rid me and set me free For a day in thy courts is better then a thousand other-where I had rather be a dore-keeper in the house of my God o Ps 84.10 11 then to be Satans chlef-favourite or one of the privy chamber For the Lord God is a Sun and a shield the Lord will give grace and glory large wages grace and glory what things be these one would think that were reward enough for such sorry service as we can do him a best ey but then her 's more then enough for no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Oh bountifull God! who would not chuse and covet to be thy servant who would not gladly stand waiting at the posts of thy gates p Prov. 8 34 if haply at any hour of th day he might hear thy happy call and be hired into thy heavenly Vineyard who would not â—un through thick and thin * Quidam ad omnia viae vitae hujus exercitia non solum ambulant sed currunt imò potius volant Bern. Serm. 3. de Asc Dom. to compasse such a gainfull service And yet 't is a world to see a wonder to behold how strangely men hang off here how hard they are to be wonn to the setting in hand with the works of the Lord miserably slighting God offers and letting slip their golden opportunities of getting into his employment They talke sometimes of the wages but shrink at the work as the Israelites talked of the reward of Goliath's conquest yet fled from it when they had done q 1 Sam. 17.24 25 The land is good said those faint-hearted spies but the cityes are walled up to heaven and the inhabitants unconquerable They wish well other-whiles to heaven as he that kneeled to our Saviour with good master r Mat. 19.16 Turpe est impios diabolo tam strenuèservire nos Christo pro sanguinis â—retio nihil rependere Cyprian lib. de oper et eleemos in his mouth they could be glad with Balaam to dye the death of the righteous but to live their precise and austere life that goes to the heart of them they cannot frame to it O blinder then Beetles the merchant refuseth no adventure for the hope of gain the hunter shrinketh at no weather for love of game the souldier declineth no danger for desire of glory or spoile the bear breaks in upon the hives contemning the stings And shall we fain to our selves an ease in not understanding or an idlenesse in not seeking after that service that will be a means unto us not only of avoyding intollerable and endlesse torments which is the devills meed and wages but also of attaining immeasurable and immortall glory pleasure and gain which is Gods reward and guerdon For glory honour and peace to every man that works good to the lew first and also to the Gentile Å¿ Rom. 2 10 And contented godlinesse
Lord our God other lords besides thee have had dominion over us d Rom. 1.9 yet through thee onely will we make mention of thy name h Esay 26.13 e Psal 16.8 I finde a law in my members warring against the law of my minde that frame of holy thoughts and carrying me captive to the law of sin and of death i Rom. 7.23 The law truly is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin I consent to the law that it is good even then when I transgresse it and do that I would not Nay more I delight in the law of God after the inward man yea with the minde I my self serve the law of God then when with the flesh the law of sin Thus the regenerate part in a christian still hankers and hangs toward God as the sea-mans needle toward the North-pole as the miserable captive toward his own countrey as the distressed spouse toward him whom her soul loved she slept indeed but her heart waked k Cant. 5.2 all the while God is the proper and most pleasing object of a good mans thoughts and affections 14. as David often avoweth him in the book of Psalms 16. And though he be hard layed at somtimes ey 22. and not seldom seduced l Iam. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hurried aside by armies and changes of evil thoughts noysome lusts satanical injections 25. and other grievous temptations both from within and without Yet for the main bent the general inclination and intention of his thoughts and affections he is still with God as David when I awake I am still with thee m Psal 17. saith he And oh how precious are thy thoughts unto me O God n Psal 139.17 how great is the sum of them in the multitude of my perplexed thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul And to like purpose the Church All this is come upon us yet we have not forgotten thee o Psal 94 19. neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant Our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy wayes Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretcht out our hands to a strange God shall not God search out this for he knowes the secrets of our hearts p Psal 44.17 18 19 20 21 And that consideration as it kept their thoughts within compasse so it may well minister unto us a ground of good reasoh for the point in the first place SECT II. The Point proved and enforced by five reasons GOds people are much taken up in the thought of his name Reas 1 for they know that he knows the secrets of their hearts q Heb. 4.13 as he that makes a watch knoweth every turning and winding in the watch And that as he knowes them so he owes them too For 't is he that made us these spirits r All tings are for the outlide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked and for the inside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dislected quar terd clest thorough the back-bone as it were and therefore he requires to be served in our spirits ſ Ioh. 4.24 It is he that gave us our thinking faculties we cannot move no not with a motion of the minde but in him t Act. 17.28 Both the preparations of the heart and answer of the tongue is of the Lord u Prov. 16.1 And is it not reason therefore that he should have a tribute of our thoughts a thought-service also It is true our bodies with the members thereof must be offered up and presented to God as a living sacrifice x Rom. 12.1 But that sacrifice can neither be living nor well pleasing where the heart is wanting y Isai 29.13 Hence he so called of old for all the fat of the inwards in the sin offering z Exod. 29.39 and testified afterwards by David that he delighteth more in a broken heart then in all sacrifices a Psal 51 17 he rolles himself in it as in a bed of spices b Cant. 6.1 and seemes to say of it to the sonnes of men as sometimes Joseph to his brethren concerning Benjamin his brother or as David to Abner concerning Michol his wife ye shall not see my face except ye bring it c Gen. 43.3 He will have the heart d Prov. 23.26 Deut. 6.6 or nothing because it is the treasury of all our thoughts speeches and actions but first of our thoughts which are the next and immediate fruit and issue of the heart whence the services done him by them cannot but be most pleasing sith they are most spirituall and farthest off from pollution of hypocrily whereunto they cannot be so subject as outward services which are performed sometimes more out of respect to the Creature then to the Creator Hence the Church in that fore-alledged Psalme seeking to approve her selsto God pleades the sincerity goodnesse of her thoughts as a sufficient testimony of her truth integrity e Psal 44.17 c. But this is not all Gods people are thoughtfull of his Name not only moved with feare as the text here couples them Reas 2 because he searcheth out the secrets of their hearts and calles principally for their thoughts but also out of love and strength of affection as the spouse acknowledgeth the property whereof is to set the thoughts aworke upon the thing beloved according to that in the proverb the minde of a man is not where it lives but where it loves * Animus est ubi amet non ubi animat And so it is here Gods Name is as an oyntment powered out therefore the virgines love him f Cant. 1.3 They have tasted and seen how good the Lord is g Psal 34.8 They had often heard by the hearing of thee are but now their eye hath seen him h Iob 42.5 His good name hath been sweeter to them then a precious oyntment i Eccles 7.1 it hath filled their hearts as Maries Spikenard did the house k Ioh. 12.3 This maketh the virgines that follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth that stand with him upon mount Sion having his fathers name written in their foreheads l Rev. 14.1.4 to love him for the odour of his good ointments though they see him not m 1 Pet. 1.8 And out of the deare respect and love they bear unto his Name to be continually thinking upon that which their soule loveth The more they love the more they think and the more they think the more they love God having shed abroad his love that part of his Name in their hearts n Rom. 5.5 as a sweet oyntment by the Holy ghost that anointing that is given unto them and which teacheth them all things o 1 Ioh. 2.20 And that 's a third Reason Reas 3 why
away his stomack as he did also for 40. dayes together in the mount of God In a word the Lord of hosts hath a thousand means ready and at hand to provide for his people his strength and wisdome ever busieth and bestirreth it self for their comfort The Lord saith Peter who had tried it knowes how to preserve his own 2 Pet 2.9 Phil. 4.12.13 1 King 22. Heb. 11. Act. 7. and to deliver the godly out of temptation And I can do all through Christ that strengtheneth me saith Paul whether it be to be full or to be hungry to abound or to be abased A beleever walks about the world like a Conquerour as Michaiah did after he had seen the Lord on his throne with all the host of heaven about him So Moses after he had by faith seen him that is invisible and Steven after he had seen the son of man on the right hand of God Angels authorities and powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. 3.22 And as in temporall so in spirituall regards also this holds true for the soul and inward man of the heart much distressed many times by wicked spirits in high places Ephe. 6.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about our interest in heavenly priviledges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Xerxis exercitu Aristi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1.19.2 Cor. 12 9 Luke 22.31 Rev. 12.8 11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 8 37 They have the upper ground of us which is no small advantage they assault us out of the air and there-hence buffet and batter us with their fiery darts so called for the dolour and distemper they work in us like a fire in the flesh and the likest hell of any thing with the haile-shot hell-shot of their temptations But God succours us by the supplies of his spirit and by the visible ministry of his angels as he did our Saviour in his agony and after his great temptations His grace is sufficient for us his strength made perfect in our weaknesse The serpents head is broke his work dissolved his trenches thrown down and himself driven out of the field by the Captain of our salvation the author and finisher of our faith who hath also prayed that our faith fail not even at such times as Satan desires to have us as a challenger Goliath-like desires to have one of the other side to combate with Michael and his angels have disarmed and driven out the dragon and his angels they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb yea the saints do overcome or are more then conquerours because through faith in Christ they overcome before they fight they are sure of victory aforehand And although Satan is said to make warre upon the Saints and to overcome them Revel 13.7 yet this is but spoken according to humane conceit and in regard of outward persecutions But thanks be to God who maketh us alwayes to triumph through Christ 2 Cor. 2.14 The gates of hell shall not prevail against us that is Mat. 16.18 all the power and policy of hell combined for in the gates sate the Elders to consult in time of peace and at the gates was planted the best munition in time of warre Impostours should deceive if it were possible the very Elect as that third part of the stars of heaven but that cannot be Object not here that Satan with a full mouth as a fell Lion roars upon you Obj and threatens to ruin you It is a Spanish Proverb The Lion is not so fierce as he is painted Sol. Satan in sidiis tanquam Leo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5 8. Christus insub sidiis tanquam Leo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 1.10 Obj. Rev. 12.15 Draco multis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaligero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quia animal venenatum homini infestū Sol. Rom. 16.20 Colos 2.15 1 Cor. 15.55 1 Joh. 4 nor is the Devil so powerfull 〈◊〉 he makes himself well he may shake his chain at us but he cannot set his fangs in us well he may nibble at the heel but he cannot hurt us in the head He that is born of God keepeth himself and that wicked One toucheth him not that is Tactu qualitative saith Cajetan with a deadly touch Besides Christ is a Lion also even the Lion of the Tribe of Judah the victorious Tribe that can out-roar Satan and easily over-master him As for thee that humblest thy self at his feet for mercy assure thy self he will never trample on the yeelding prey Oh but Satan is not onely a Lion but a dragon hee not onely roars but spets poyson yea spews out of his mouth floods of venemous and violent temptations yea he is a great red dragon colour'd and died red as it were with the blood of souls he hath swallowed and besides he hath seven heads to plot and ten horns to push me into the pit of perdition Rev. 12.3 True all this but Mi-ca-el who is as the strong God Christ our onely Michael hath with his sore and great and terrible sword punished Leviathan that crooked piercing serpent and slain the dragon that is in the sea Esay 27.1 Under our feet he will tread him shortly as he hath done already under his own triumphing over him on the crosse with Death where 's thy sting hell where 's thy victory To be brief The Lamb with his two horns can do more then the dragon with his ten Stronger is he that is in you then he that is in the world Christ is that stronger man that casts out the strong man armed out of his castle and spoils his goods Oh but he hath so strongly entrenched himself in my heart Obj by a herd of base lusts and a frame of evil thoughts that he will hardly ever out if at all The weapons of our warfare are not carnall Sol. but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds or trenches casting down imaginations and every thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Christs Ministers are called his white horses whereon he rides about the world conquering Rev. 6.2 and to conquer And although for their persons they be mean and contemptible yet their message and ministery is that power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 Luk. 10 which the Devil cannot stand before Our Saviour saw Satan falling as lightning from the heaven of mens hearts when the Apostles were abroad preaching the Gospel We preach Christ crucified saith St. Paul unto the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishnesse But unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1.22 23. And a verse or two before It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that beleeve As unlikely a means in the worlds eye to do such a feat as the blowing of rams horns to over-turn
that ye may see the inequality of the comparison our light and momentary affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory In which text there is well observed to be a triple Antithesis with a more then superlative description of heavens happinesse 2 Cor. 5.14 Mr. Leigh of the promises Hicsi usquam Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque Lucret. by an hyperbole above an hyperbole For for affliction here 's glory for light affliction a waight of glory a heavy massy substantial glory for momentary affliction an eternal excessive weight of glory A lively losty kinde of expression but such as falles far short of that inexplicable felicity that abides us and is wrought out unto us by our shortest sufferings Words are too weak to uter it Thirdly Rev. 21.4 consider that it s here that God must meet with us or no where Hereafter there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Here we must have it or in a worse place This world is our purgatory our little-ease our wash-house our place of penance penalty pilgrimage Here he rubs off our rust scours off our scurf hewes us as in the mount to be living stones in the coelestial Temple 〈◊〉 â—â—9 54. Here he fines us files us polisheth us thresheth us out of the husk that we may be meat for the masters tooth as that Father phrased it In a word this is all the hell we are like to have let us make us merry with it and sing sweet songs as David did in this house of our pilgrimage Home's hard by In the mean while fourthly life is a mercy though never so full of misery A living dog is better then a dead lion Eccles 9.4 Lam. 3.39 Ioseph is yet alive that 's more then Joseph is the second man in the land Why is living man sorrowful Man suffers for his sin q. d. Suffer he never so much never so long he receives but the due desert of his evil deeds as that penitent thief told his fellow And that he yet lives amidst all and cuts not off as a weaver the thrum of his wretched life Hezekiah held it a precious indulgence The reason whereof he yeelds a little after The grave cannot praise thee they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth Death cannot celebrate thee that is dead men cannot be exemplary and so shine before men that they may see their good works Esay 38.12.18.19 and glorifie thee The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth Adde hereunto for a fist consideration that no man is so hard beset with sorrows behinde and before but he hath some lucida intervalla some refreshings some respits and breathing-whiles betwixt Iobs case is not every mans nay it is scarce any mans to be visited every morning to be tried every momâ—â— to be held uncessantly on the rack and not so much liberty left him as while he swallows his spittle This was an hard case and might be any of ours as well as Jobs Now that it is not see ground of patience nay of thankfulnesse to that God that might have doomed man at first to be ever in sweating out a poor living called therefore the life of his hand Esay 57.10 because it is upheld by the labour of his hand and women to be ever labouring in the extream paines of child birth neither yet to be saved after all 1 Tim 2.15 no though she should continue in faith and charuy and holinesse with sobriety Sixthly God is with us al the while we are in durance optimum solaâ—ium sodaliâ—â—um can we have better company He goes along with us into the fire as with the three children and into the water as with Ionas yea though hel had closed her mouth upon us and swallowed us up into her bowels yet it must in despite of it render us up again because God is with us and for us Hels stomack could not long hold us no more then the whale could brook Ionas which if he had light upon the marriners he would devoured and disgested twenty of them in lesse space Seventhly God accounts what we suffer now sufficient for all and lookes upon us as those that have been judged already yea that have received double for al our sins The time is now that judgement begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 And when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.32 Abiathar though worthy of death shall live because he had been formerly afflicted with David So shall we which have suffered with Christ raign for ever with him Psal 94.12 Prov. 6.23 2 Cor. 7.6 Esay 30.13 Sustine tu illum qui sustinuit te Sustinuit ille te dum tu corrigeres vitam malam sustine tuillum dum coronet vitam bonam Aug. Esay 26.9 1 Pet. 5.6 who else had been but dead men had not God chastised us and taught us in his law by those corrections of instruction that are the way to life Lastly consider that God that comforteth the abject hath set a certain time for our deliverence a day to do us good in waiting mean-while to shew mercy and counting as it were the slow minutes till we become capable Iob. 13.36 Now shall he wait upon us and sall not we wait for him Yea we have waited for the Lord saith the Chruch in the way of thy judgements And humble your selves under the mighty hand of God saith Peter and he will lift you up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the opportunity of time To prescribe to the most wise God were intolerable presumption and to antevert his season dangerous precipitancy to set him a time with that king of Israel 2 King 6.33 to send for him by a post with those Bethulians either be must save us now or not at all how can he endure it Rebeccah was too nimble with her If it be so why am I thus as ill-advised when she said I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. And she and her son Jacob should have had the patience to wait Gods leisure for the blessing and not to have gotten in by the back-door But we are all naturally impatient of delaies and too ready to think we should sow and reape both in a day As our grand-mother Eve who having received the promise of a Messiah thought that her first-borne Cain must needs have been the Man and therefore as pleased with the conceit thereof she said I have gotten that Man that famous Man even the man Christ Jesus of the Lord. But she was fairely deceived and so are all such like to be as are in like hast and cannot frame with patience to wait for the Lord as David-Psal 40.1 Yea to pant and somtimes to faint as Ieremy with
kings as Iosephus relates it He was faithfull in all Gods house as a servant Joh. 8.35 but that was not all For the servant abideth not in the house for ever as the son doth Moreover the kings of the earth take tribute of their servants and subjects but their children go free Mat. 17.26 Behold Gods children are all manumitted by Christ and possessed of a twofold freedome 1. Multò plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae Gerson Privative from the dominion and damnation of sin from the rigour and irritation of the law from the captivity and cruelty of the devill from the danger of death and horrour of hell c. This is a priviledge far beyond that of a citizen of Rome which yet might neither be suffered to beg nor be bound with thongs Act. 22.29 Rom. 8. And this is that the Apostle calls the glorious liberty of the sons of God as elsewhere he couples Adoption with glory Rom. 9.4 includes it in glory Rom. 8.30 and puts it for glory Rom. 8.23 Freed Gods children are not I confesse of crosses and corrections for then were they bastards and not sons He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Joh. 14.18 but he never leaveth them orphans helpelesse comfortlesse In the midst of desertion the sorest kinde of affliction they may nay they must call him Father and ask him blessing Esay 64.7 8 9. and he knowes not how to say them nay coming unto him in that name and under that notion Should a parent see his sick childe pant and look pittifully cry out as once the Shunamites son to his father O my head my head my heart is sick my head is heavy I am weary with paines what shall I do where shall I rest c. He could not turn his back upon him and neglect his moans much lesse could he continue to strike him lifting up his feeble hands for mercy and looking upon him with watery eyes but would rather set himself to seek out and to do him all possible ease and comfort Hic cum triste aliquid staruit fit tristis ipsa Cuique ferè poenam sumere poena fua est Ovid. 2 de Pont eleg 2. To say God hath cast you off because he hath hid his face is a fallacy fetcht out of the Devils Topicks And shall not the God of all mercy and the Father of all consolation pity his poor children that are distressed or diseased and send deliverance Will he not melt over his childe and burn his rod Will he not hold him up with one hand as he did Iacob when he beats him down with the other will he not look through the chinkers to see how we do when he hath shut us up close prisoners will he not deal by us as the mother deals by her little-one makes him beleeve she will cast him away to the puttock or pitch him headlong into the pool when yet she keeps fast hold on him 2. Positive and so he is made a free-denison of Jerusalem that is above and possessed of all the priviledges of that supernall citty See a brief extract of them in that 1 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are yours A very large charter All illuminations inspirations gifts and graces of the spirit gifts of Gods ministers and the abler sort of Christians all these are not more their own then yours to use you have title to them and interest in them and may claime them for your own Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world you are heirs of it together with faithfull Abraham Or life grace to spend it well or death to the wicked a trap-dore to hell Janua vita porta coeli Bern. but to the saints an inlet into eternall happines or things present all occurrences are sanctified to you or things to come heaven waits for you hell hath nothing to do with you Thus all is yours as the Apostle there reiterates it though not in possession unlesse it be in our Head yet in use in right or by way of reduction as we say the worst things are Gods childrens they are heirs of the kingdome saith Iames heads destinated to the diadem Jam. 2.5 Serms non valet exprimere experimento opus est Chrys Lati simus non securi gaudentes in spiritu sancto scd tamen caventes à recidivo Bern. saith Tertullian Their priviledges as sons are fitter to be beleeved then possible to be discoursed And this should make them hold up their heads but not too high and be cheerfull but not withall scornefull CHAP. V. God will pity and pardon his people their wants and weaknesses And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him HOw graciously God will deal with his dear children in respect of their pious performances is here sweetly set forth by an exquisite simile Shindler Pentag miserebor misericordia commovebor Figuier Clementiâutar Trem. polan. In quo duplex est aemoris ratio c. Figuier De Cartulone filio à patre Machaeo ob contemptum cruci affixo lege Just lib. 18. Heb. 13.18 from the dealing of an indulgent father with his obsequious childe I will spare them saith he nay that 's not full enough I will pardon and pity them I will commiserate and compassionate them as Pharaohs daughter once did the forlorne infant she found among the flags I will use clemency and shew kindnesse unto them And how As a man doth to his own son that serves him In which comfortable expression there is a double declaration saith an Interpreter of Gods fatherly affection as thus We cannot but shew love even to a stranger that observes us As o' tother side we dislike and detest even a son that slights us But a son and a serviceable son what father can chuse but love and like well of And shall God the father of all the father-hoods in heaven and earth shew lesse love to his obedient children that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing at least to keep a good conscience and are faithfull in weaknesse though weak in faith No but he will kindly accept of what they are able and remit the rest He will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him Than the which I know not what the good Lord could have spoken more effectually for the setting forth of his own fatherly compassion or for the setting of our hearts in sound consolation Take it thus God will surely shew like mercy and mildenesse to his obedient children in Doct their faults and faculties in their wants and weaknesses as the kindest father would do to his dearest son that serves him SECT 1.2.3.4 Reasons from God out of Micah 7.18 19. THis is no new doctrine for besides that the Text is for us in so many words almost the man whose eyes are open hath said it He hath said Num. 23.21 who heard the words of God who saw the visions of the Almighty God
seeth no iniquity in Jacob nor transgression in Israel See he doth 't is true for he is all eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King 1.6 and all things are naked and open before him Yea he seeth enough in the best to provoke the eyes of his glory For though the crow think her owne bird whitest and some parents can see nothing amisse in their children as David in his Adonijah Jeb 4.18.21 25.5 6. yet he charged his Angels with felly and the starrs are not pure in his sight How much less man that is a worme c. He is neither so blinde as not to behold nor so fond as not to mislike the least fault in his best childe For he is of more pure eyes then to behold evil in whomsoever Habuc 1.13 with approbation he cannot look on iniquity and not shew his displeasure All which notwithstanding the truth of this point is irrefragable and the text alledged is no lesse firm then plain for us God seeth no sin in his children For besides that he will never throw them to hell which is the just hire of the least sin it 's often seen Rom. 6.23 that he never so much as corrects them no not with the rods of men for innumerable faylings and infirmities But winking at smal faults as we say nay passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage like as a father pittieth his children and pardoneth them their childishnesse so the doth lord pitty them that fear him Lo he pittieth them not punisheth them Psal 103.13 14. Or if he do proceed to correction as he must other whiles such is our frowardnesse yet amidst all he knoweth our frame he remembreth we are but dust Esay 2.22 a peace of earth neately made up that we carry our souls as a light in a paper-lanthorne that our breath in our nostrils is every moment ready to puffe out and that therefore if he should alwayes chide the spirit would fail before him we should soon faint and swoon under his hands wherefore he deals not with us after our sins nor rewards us according to our iniquities But as a man chasteneth his son saith Moses and he would have us wisely to consider of it too so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee Deut. 8.5 Break their stomackes he will but not their bones their hearts but not their heads And albeit they such is their peevishnesse under the rod give up all for lost and make desperate conclusions upon their corrections Judg 6.13 2 Tim. 2. as Gideon did yet the foundation of God remaineth sure The Lord knoweth who are his he knows their souls in adversity I said in my haste I am cast out of thy sight Here was a poor prayer And yet thou heardest the voyce of my prayer poor though it were when I cryed unto thee Psal 31.22 So Zion when under the lash sud The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Esay 49.15.16 Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea she may forget and some Tigresses have done it yet I will not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands c. Look how a natural mother turns her childe out of doors for dabbling himself or some other shrewd turn and with a thump on the back bids it be gone a begging yet when the childe begins once to make a lip whimper and set up his lure Jer. 31.20 she takes him in again and puts him in her bosom the very like dealing we may read of in God with Ephraim his dear son his pleasant childe Hos 13.1 2 3. c. Ephraim of trembling and tender conscienced became a flagicious offendour a desperate idolater Ver. 1.2 And was not it high time then to take him in hand therefore they shall be as the morning cloud as the early dew as the chaffe before the whirl-winde as the smoke out of the chimney No lesse then utter desolation is threatened against them But the Lord soon repents him concerning his servants witnesse the words following Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt I am thy sole saviour Here 's now mercy in the midst of judgement Oh but they abuse mercy forget their God and sin again Ver. 6. Why therefore God threateneth them again with a more terrible judgement Vers 7 8. Behold I will be unto them as a Lion and a leopard as a bear bereft I will rent the kell of their hearts and devour them Oh fearful condition who would ever think of such but as of deplored and desperate yet see the sequel O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Ver. 9. Thou hast done thy utmost utterly to undoe thy self but yet I have thought of a way for thy help I will be thy king where is any other that would save thee as I do in all thy cities And albeit thou art an unwise son yet I will binde up thine iniquity as a cancelled bond and hide thy sin Ver. 12. And although the travels of a sorrowful woman be upon thee such is thy dulnesse in not coming off roundly with God work with those lively Israelitish women Exod. 1.19 but staying too long in the birth which might justly be thy death as it was Racâ—els yet I will ransome thee from the power of the grave I will redeem thee from death Ver. 14. Ey but for how long might they say I shall be likely breaking out again and then thou wilt undoe me after thou hast done me good No saith God repentance shall be hid from mine eyes He will not cast away a perfect man saith Bildad Iob 8.20 The Lord will not cast off for ever saith Ieremy but though he cause grief Lam. 3.31 32. yet will he have compassion according to the multitude or the magnitude of his mercies And this was that miracle that amused so and amased the Prophet Micah chap. 7.18 who is a God saith he like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever And will ye know a reason That text supplies us with two for failing and both from God 1. He delights in mercy 2. He provides for his own glory as occasioning hereby his pardoned people to praise him for present saying as here who is a God like unto thee c. and to trust him for future He will turn again he will have compassion upon us c. Thou wilt perform thy truth to Iacob c. ver 19.20 SECT II. The reasons are of two sorts First respecting God Reas 1 FIrst God will father-like pitty and pardon his poor people Psal 19.4 Eccles 7.25 Numb 14.8 2 Sam. 15.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 2.13 because he delights in mercy Now delight will do any thing as we say If the sun delight to run his race who
easie p. 152. he is a thorough-Saviour 169. a dew to his 179. King of his Church 360. Abyssines emblem of his works 457. his Deity asserted 485. he pacifieth the heart 488. be shall reigne 492. his intercession answered 506. how he is sent of his Father 513. how anointed 522. his dolorous passion 523. his subjects have peace ib. why He is called the Branch 539. All prophecies are fulfilled in him 557. his poverty stumbled at ib. the Bath of his blood 583 660. benefites thereby 682. he is Gods shepherd 589. the Sun of righteousnesse 683. the souls physitian 683. his Intercession 943. A false Christ p. 689 Clouds p. 560 Comfort God comforteth the abject 503. comforts of the scripture and of the creature 423. Company evil is contagious p. 490 513 Conference benefit of it p. 680 700 824. Satan hindereth it 680. it is an indispensable duty 812. and why 813. barrennesse in and backwardnesse unto it reproved 818. be forward and free that way 820. means and helps thereunto 821 822 823 824. Conscience naturall stoopeth to the image of God p. 700 Consideration its necessity and utility p. 473. See thought meditation Constantinople covetousnesse was its ruine 403. 591. Conversion turn to God and how p. 197 498 600. because God is gracious 499. Cyprian converted by reaâ—ing Jâ—nah 351. Covenant breach a great sin p. 643. dangerous 647. New covenant sweet p. 44. see 594 Covetousnesse restlesse p. 340 341. unsatisfiable 405. accursed 428 Councell of Trent p. 16 Courage for Christ get it p. 482. and how ib. Cruelty inhumane p. 223 225 226 227. gloried in 429. Parisian Massacre 227 Curse of God lights heavy p. 626 D DEad digg'd up p. 228 Deliverance the times of it p. 885 866 527 903. Church shall be delivered 887 888 903. pray for it 888 Dependance upon God for all p. 925 Depopulation accursed p. 455 Desertion p. 89. what to do in it 836 Desolation fruit of sin p. 36 Desires seconded with endeavours p. 483 Digressions when they are lawfull p. 441 Diligence in well-doing p. 891 Disgrace a great judgement p. 633. more feared then sin is ib. Devils first sin what p. 899 Divorce for light matters not lawfull p. 654. 655 Doctrine like rain and how p. 246 Drowsinesse spirituall p. 476 Drunkennesse mischief of it p. 104. 't is the mother of mary sinnes 426. 't is a damning sin 432. gloried in by some 265. drunken-healthing 431. drunken soâ—s 187 Duty be much in it p. 834 835 891 shall be accepted 825. and why 827 828 829 E Earthquakes terrible ones p. 597 222 394 Eclipses portentous p. 210 211 Egypt fruitfull p. 604 converted ib. Q. Elisabeths clemency p. 309. her prayer 436 Enemies of Gods people open and secret p. 214. their cruelty 215 Gods heavy hand upon them 601. set 〈◊〉 against another 602. Woe unto them 870 871 916. who they be 871. see persecutours Church England our ancient mearenesse p. 165. our Reformation wonderfull 205. our destruction may be sudden 278. God warned us by John Friths Book in a fishes-belly 321 Englands Genge 395. 't is a blessed Countrey 674 675. Pererius his prophecy of our ruine 505 Enthusiâ—sts slight the scriptures p. 129 130. see 209 Exact walking required of saints p. 910 911 Self-Examination p. 452. do it or God will punish 453 475 F FAith an hard work p. 43. wherein it consisteth 45. aâ—â—â—opriate God by it 384. it quickeâ—â—th other graces 425. founded upon the power of God 546. live by faith 426 808 889. it maketh men couragious 602. do all in faith 662. beleeve the goodnesse of God 936 Famine a sore plague p. 632 245 Fasting the exercise of it p. 197 201 202. fruit of it 204 Father God is a Father to all his faithfull ones p. 911. whence and how 91 914 he is not a Father to the wicked 915. yet they claim kindred 916. his mercy is more then fatherly 927 928. Fear it causeth hast p. 157. Panick fears 412 577 602 805 Fear of God p. 614. every true Christian feareth the Lord 708 709. how and why 707 800 801 c causes effects companions and opposites of this holy fear 800 801 802 803. kinds of it 804 627 708. who they are that fear not God 804. or other things more then God 805. The best are defective in it 807. signes of Gods holy fear 807 809. moâ—ives to it 810. means 810 811 Few exalt God p. 154. few wise 182. few good 212 377 591 Scottish fire-crosse p. 217 Forgetting of God p. 121 Fortune how represented p. 237 Free-grace p. 179. all is of mercy 509. magnifie free-grace in our adoption 920 Friends are oft perfidious p. 383 Fruitfulnesse p. 180 G GAin of godlinesse p. 676 849. many look onely at wages â—77 Garments wherefore given p. 33 Geneva upheld by the hand of heaven p. 509 5â—0 Gentiles your calling p. 623. disgusted by Jews ib. Gifts once abused blasted p. 632 Glory give all to God p. 422. in case of victory 612 Glory of saints here and hereafter p. 898 God he is a great King p. 628. 629. his name is dreadfull 629. his patience abused turns to fury 655 656. his hatred of sin 22. his omniscience 78. his liberality in rewarding 145. seek him ib. his patience 233 238. his superabundant pardoning mercy 388 389 390. his subduing grace 390. he frowaeth the wicked to destruction 286. how he is a Rock 421. He seeth therefore take heed 421 652. how he hateth sinne 4â—1 his faithfulnesse 425. We see but little of Him 438. He is with his and for them 479. his anger against sinners 497. his jealousie for his people 506 507. he comforteth the abject 503. his tender mercies 508 513. he effecteth great matters by small means 529 he is immutable 666 667. how he is said to repent ib. wicked men have base and bald thoughts of him 855. He is Lord of Hosts 867 869. what his hosts are and why so called 867 868. his truth 883. his goodnesse ib. his justice ib. he is not an hard Master 934. he taketh small things in good part 935. let us beleeve his goodnesse 936. Gospels three-fold operation p. 486 Grace of God is the greatest blessing p. 621. get it rather then gold ib. seek it first 472. it is free p. 14 179 518. See free-grace Grace hath unspeakable comfort p. 909 Great mens sins do much hurt p. 322. they must be told of them 348 Grief causing death p. 133 Grow in grace p. 684 685 Gunpowder-treason p. 58 H HArdnesse of heart p. 544 Hear attentively p. 136. enhearing ear 501 Heavens rest and happinesse p. 889 Heavenly-mindednesse p. 605 Hell-fire terrible p. 591 592 681. torments thereof 601. not beleeved 681. History usefull p. 166 Holinesse is honourable p. 907. and therefore to be sought 907 908 Honour God in 1 thought 2 words 3 works p. 921. see glory and praise Hope p. 40 The horrible Sophister p. 419 Hosea when and how long he prophesied
came first from Babylon For Ninus having made an image of his father Belus this Baal in the text all that came to see it were pardoned for all their offences whence in time that image came to be woâ—shippâ—d A great promoter of this kind of Idolatry in Israel was Ahab in favour of his wife Jezebel and to ingratiate with her kindred 1 King 16.31 and this was the ruine of his house This Baal was by the Zidonians called Jupiter Thalassius or their sea Jupiter and is thought to be their chief God They had their Dij minorum gentium petty gods called in scripture the host of heaven the queen of heaven and a little further in this chapter Baalim the Greeks called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith Plato are certain middle-powers or messengers betwixt God and man to carry up prayers and bring down blessings c. Quam autem haec damonum theologia conveniat cum sanctorum et Angelorum cultu apud pseudochristianos res ipsa loquitur Mede in Apoc. pag. 115. saith learned Master Mede How this doctrine of devils or heathen-deities agreeth with Saint-worship Melch. Ad. de Germ. Theol. pag. 815. and Angel-worship among he Papists is easie to be discerned A great stumbling it is to both Jewes and Turkes who know it to be contrary to the first commandment and image-worship to the second Whence the Turkes will not endure any images Lib. 4. no not upon their coynes And Paulus Jovius tells us when Sultan Solyman had taken Buda in Hungary he would not enter into the chief Temple of that city to give praise to Almighty God for the victory till all the images were first down and thrust out of the place We read also of a certain Turkish Embassadour who being demanded why the Turkes did not turn Christians he answered because the Christian Religion is against sense and reason for they worship those things that are of lesse power then themselves and the works of their own hands as these in the text that made them Baal yea as if God had hired them to be wicked they made it of the very gold and silver which he had given them though for a better purpose And this was horrible wickedness hatefull ingratitude This was to sue God with his own mony to fight against him with his own weapons as David did against Goliath as Jehu did against Jehoram and as Benhadad did against Ahab with that life that he had lately given him Zâ—naras in Annal. I read of a monster who that very night that his Prince pardoned and preferred him slew him and raigned in his stead This was Michael Balbus and he is and shall be infamous for it to all posterity Ingratitude is a monster in nature Lycurgus made no law against it quod prodigiosa res esset benesicium non rependere To render good for evil is Divine good for good is humane evil for evil is brutish but evil for good is devilish And yet alasâ—e how ordinary an evil is this amongst us to abuse to Gods great dishonour our health wealth wit prosperity plenty peace friends means day night corn wine silver gold all comforts and creatures our times our talents yea the holy Scriptures the Gospel of grace and our golden opportunities the offers of mercy and motions of the spirit turning our backs upon those blessed and bleeding embracements and pursuing our lusts those idols of our hearts those Baals that is Deut. 32.5 Lords and husbands that have us at their beck and check But is this faire dealing Do we thus requite the Lord foolish and unwise as we are Holy Ezra thinks there is so much unthankfulnesse and dis-ingenuity in such an entertainment of mercy that heaven and earth would be ashamed of it Ezra 9.13 Should we do so saith He oh God forbid us any such wickednesse Others render it which they have sacrificed or dedicated to Baal for Idolaters spare for no cost Dum Deum alienum dotant as some render that text Psal 16.4 whiles they give their goods not to the Saints as David that are on the earth but to another God They lavish gold out of the bag as we read of a certain King of this land who laid out as much as the whole crown revenues came to in a yeare upon one costly crucifix and of another that left by will a very great sum of mony for the transporting of his heart to be buried in the holy land as they called it How profuse papists are in decking their mawmets and monuments of idolatry is better known then that it needeth here to be spoken of Their Lady of Loretto that Queen of heaven as they call her stilo veteri hath her Churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memories Sands his Relat. as they are faine to hang their Cloisters and Churchyards with them Verse 9. Therefore will I returne i. e. I will alter my course change my stand change the way of mine administrations deale otherwise with them then yet I have done they shall bear their iniquities and know my breach of promise as Num. 14.34 they shall know the worth of mine abused mercyes by the want of them another while I will go and returne to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early Hos 5.15 Finally I will cut them short of alimony and hold them to straight allowance Hos 7.14 and then I shall be sure to heare them howling upon their beds for corne and wine as dogs do that are tied up and cannot come at their meat And take away my corn and my wine those precious fruits of the earth as S. James calleth them James 5.7 the product of Gods great care from years end to years end Deut. 11.12 without which the earth could not yield her increase neither would there be a veine for the silver a mine for the gold iron taken out of the earth or brass molten out of the stone Job 28.3 All that we have is his in true account and he is the great Proprietary Mat. 20.15 who onely can say as he in the gospel May not I do what I will with mine own And what should he sooner and rather do then take away meate from his childe that marrs it If fulnesse breed forgetfulnesse as the fed hawk forgets his master and as the full Moon gets furthest off from the Sun so men when they have all things at the full forget God and wickedly depart from him what can he do lesse then forget them that so they may remember themselves and make fat Ieshurun look with leane cheeks that they may leave kicking Deut. 32.15 Isay 26.9 and learne righteousnesse Neither doth God do this till greatly provoked till there is a cause for it Therefore I will returne He may well say as that Roman Emperour did when he was to pronounce sentence of death Non nisi coactus I