Titus remembring one day that hee had done no good to any one cryed out Amici diem perdidi And again Hodie non regnavimus Wee have lost a day c. This was that Titus that never sent any suitor away with a sad heart and was therefore counted and called Humani generis deliciae the darling of mankind the peoples sweet-heart The Senate loaded him with more praises when hee was dead than ever they did living and present Vers 7. Truly the light is sweet The light of life of a lightsome life especially Any life is sweet which made the Gibeonites make such an hard shift to live though it were but to bee hewers of wood and drawers of water I pray thee let mee live live upon any terms said Benhadad in his submissive message to that merciful Non-such 1 King 20.32 If I have found favour in thy sight O King and if it please the King let my life bee given mee at my petition Sic de Aspasia Milesia Cyri concubina Aelian lib. 12. cap. 1. var. hist said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that paragon of her time Q. Esther cap. 7.3 Ebedmelech is promised his life for a prey Jer. 39.18 And so is Baruc as a sufficient reward of that good service hee had done in reading the Roll for the which hee expected some great preferment Jer. 45.5 compared with chap. 36.1 2. The Prophet chides him and tells him hee might bee glad of his life in those dear years of time when the arrows of death had so oft come whisking by him and hee had so oft stradled over the grave as it were and yet was not fallen into it To maintain our radical humour that feeds the lamp of life is as great a miracle saith One as the oyl in the widows cruise that failed her not To deliver us from so many deaths and dangers as wee are daily and hourly subject unto is a mercy that calls for continual praises to the Preserver of mankind But more when men do not onely live but live prosperously as Nabal did 1 Sam. 25.6 Thus said David to his messengers shall yee say to him that liveth viz. in prosperity Which such a man as Nabal reckons the onely life The Irish use to ask what such a man meant to dye And some good Interpreters are of opinion that the Preacher in this verse brings in the carnal carl objecting or replying for himself against the former perswasions to acts of charity Ah! saith hee but for all that to live at the full to have a goodly inheritance in a fertile soil in a wholesome air near to the River not far from the Town to bee free from all troubles and cares that poverty bringeth to live in a constant sun-shine of prosperity abundance honour and delight to have all that heart can wish or need require what an heavenly life is this what a lovely and desirable condition c. Psal 34.12 What man is hee that desireth life and loveth many daies that hee may see good saith David I do saith one and I saith another and I a third c. as St. Austin frames the answer It is that which all worldlings covet and hold it no policy to part with what they have to the poor for uncertainties in another world In answer to whom and for a cooler to their inordinate love of life the Preacher subjoyns Vers 8. But if a man live many years and rejoyce c. q.d. Say hee live pancratice basilice and sit many years in the worlds warm sun-shine yet he must not build upon a perpetuity as good Job did but was deceived when hee said I shall dye in my nest Job 29.18 Psal 30 and holy David when hee concluded I shall never bee moved For as sure as the night follows the day a change will come a storm will rise and such a storm as to wicked worldlings will never be blown over Look for it therefore and bee wise in time Remember the daies of darkness that is of adversity but especially of death and the grave The hottest season hath lightning and thunder The Sea is never so smooth but it may bee troubled the Mountain not so firm but it may bee shaken with an earthquake Light will bee one day turned into darkness pleasure into pain delights into wearisomeness and the dark daies of old age and death far exceed in number the lightsome daies of life which are but a warm gleam a momentary glance Let this bee seriously pondred and it will much rebate the edge of our desires after earthly vanities Dearly beloved saith St. Peter I beseech you as Pilgrims and strangers abstain from fleshly lust c. q. d. 1 Pet. 2.12 The sad and sober apprehension of this that you are here but sojourners for a season and must away to your long home will lay your lusts a bleeding and a dying at your feet It is an observation of a Commentator upon this Text that when Samuel had anointed Saul to bee King to confirm unto him the truth of the joy and withall to teach him how to bee careful in governing his joy hee gave him this sign When thou art departed from mee to day 1 Sam. 10.2 thou shalt finde two men at Rachels sepulchre For hee that findeth in his mind a remembrance of his grave and sepulchre will not easily bee found exorbitant in his delights and joyes For this it was belike that Joseph of Arimathea had his sepulchre ready hewn out in his garden The Aegyptians carried about the Table a deaths-head at their feasts and the Emperours of Constantinople Isidor on their Coronation-day had a Mason appointed to present unto them certain Marble-stones using these ensuing words Elige ab his saxis ex quo Invictissime Caesar Ipse tibi â—umulum me fabricare velis Chuse Mighty Sir under which of these stones Your pleasure is ere long to lay your bones Vers 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth i. e. Do if thou darest like as God said to Balaam Rise up and go to Balak Numb 22.20 that is go if thou thinkest it good go sith thou wilt needsly go but thou goest upon thy death Let no man imagine that it ever came into the Preachers heart here oleum camino addere to add fuel to the fire of youthful lusts to excite young people unruly enough of themselves to take their full swinge in sinful pleasures Thus to do might better befit a Protagoras of whom Plato reports Plato in Menen that hee many times boasted that whereas hee had lived threescore years forty of those threescore hee had spent in corrupting those young men that had been his pupils or that old Dotrel in Terence that said Non est mihi crede flagitium adolescentem helluari potare scortari fores effringere I hold it no fault for young men to swagger drink drab revel c. Solomon in this Text either by a Mimesis brings in the wilde
This day have I paid my vows A votary then shee was by all means and so more than ordinarily religious So was Doeg why else was hee deteined before the Lord 1 Sam. 21.7 A Doeg may set his foot as far into Gods Sanctuary as a David That many Popish Votaries are no better than this huswife in the text see the Lisbon-Nunnery c. besides those thousands of Infants skulls found in the fish-pools by Gregory the Great Vers 15. Therefore came I forth As having much good chear at home Sine Cerere Libero frigâ—t Venâ—â— as at all peace-offerings they had Gluttony is the gallery that libidinousness walks through Diligently to seek thy face Or thy person not thy purse thee not thine do I seek Quis credit And I have found thee By a providence no doubt God must have a hand in it or else 't is marvel God hath given mee my hire said Leah because I have given my Maid to my Husband Gen. 30.18 See 1 Sam. 23.7 Zach. 11.5 Vers 16. I have decked my bed Lest haply by being abroad so late hee should question where to have a bed shee assures him of a dainty one with curious curtains Vers 17. With Myrrhe Aloes c. This might have minded the young man that hee was going to his grave for the bodies of the dead were so perfumed Such a meditation would have much rebated his edge cooled his courage Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts and why shee remembred not her latter end Lam. 1.9 As the stroaking of a dead hand they say cureth a tympany and as the ashes of a viper applied to the part that is stung draws the venome out of it so the serious thought of death will prove a death to fleshly lusts Mr. Wards Sermons I meet with a story of one that gave a loose young man a Ring with a deaths-head with this condition that hee should one hour daily for seven daies together look and think upon it which bred a strange alteration in his life Vers 18. Until the morning But what if death draw the curtains and look in the while If death do not yet guilt will And here beasts are more happy in carnal contentments than sensual voluptuaries for in their delights they seldome surfeit but never sin and so never finde any cause or use for pangs of repentance as Epicures do whose pleasure passeth but a sting staies behinde Job calleth sparks the sons of fire being ingendred by it upon fuel as pleasures are the sons of mens lusts when the object and they lye and couple together And they are not long-lived they are but as sparks they dye as soon as begotten Vers 19. For the good man is not at home Heb. The man not my man or my husband c. the very mention how much more the presence of such a man might have marred the mirth Vers 20. Hee hath taken a bag of mony And so will not return in haste Let not the children of this world bee wiser than wee Lay up treasure in Heaven provide your selves baggs that wax not old Luk. 12.33 Do as Merchants that being to travel into a far Country deliver their mony here upon the Exchange that there they may receive it Evagrius in Cedrenus bequeathed three hundred pound to the poor in his will but took a bond beforehand of Synesius the Bishop for the re-payment of this in another life according to the promise of our Saviour of an hundred fold advantage Vers 21. With much fair speech Fair words make fools fain This Circe so enchanted the yonker with her fine language that now shee may do what she will with him for hee is wholly at her devotion Vers 22. Hee goeth after her straightway Without any consideration of the sad consequents Lust had blinded and besotted him and even transformed him into a brute Nos animas etiam incarnavimus saith one Many men have made their very spirit a lump of flesh and are hurried on to Hell with greatest violence Chide them you do but give physick in a fit counsel them you do but give advice to a man that is running a race bee your counsel never so good hee cannot stay to hear you but will bee ready to answer as Antipater did when one presented him with a book treating of happiness he rejected it and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have no leasure to read such discourses As an Oxe goeth to the slaughter When hee thinks hee goeth to the pasture or as those Oxen brought forth by Jupiters Priest with garlands unto the gates but it was for a slain-sacrifice Acts 14.13 Fatted ware are but fitted for the shambles Numella Beza in loc Or as a fool to the correction of the Stocks Such stocks as Paul and Silas yet no fools were thrust into feet and neck also as the word there signifieth Acts 14.24 This the fool fears not till hee feels till his head bee cooled and his heels too till hee hath slept out his drunkenness and then hee findes where hee is and must stick by it See this exemplified Prov. 5.11 How many such fools have wee now adaies Mori morantur quocunque sub axe morantur that rejoyce in their spiritual bondage and dance to Hell in their bolts as one saith nay are weary of deliverance They sit in the stocks when they are at prayers and come out of the Church when the tedious Sermon runs somewhat beyond the hour like prisoners out of a Gaol The Devil is at Iâ—ne with such saith Master Bradford and the Devil will keep holy-day as it were in Hell in respect of such saith another Vers 23. Till a dart strike thorow his liver i. e. Filthy lust that fiery dart of the Devil Plato in hepate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ponit Horat Ode 1. lib. 4. Ode 25. lib. 5. Ovid. Trist pointed and poisoned as the Sythian darts are said to bee with the gall of Asps and Vipers Philosophers place lust in the liver Mathematicians subject the liver to Venus the Poets complain of Cupids wounding them in that part Cor sapit pulmo loquitur fel commovit iras Splen ridere facit cogit amare jecor Or as some sense it till the Adulterer bee by the Whores husband or friends or by the hand of justice deprived of life perhaps in the very act as Zimri and Cozbi were by Phineas in the very flagrancy of their lust Vers 24. Hearken now therefore Call up the ears of thy minde to the ears of thy body that one sound may pierce both Solomon knew well how hard it was to get ground of a raging lust even as hard as to get ground of the Sea Hence hee so sets on his exhortation Vers 25. Let not thine heart Think not of her lust not after her Thoughts and affections are sibi mutuo causae Whilest I mused the fire burned Psal 39. so that thoughts kindle affections and these cause thoughts to boyl See Job
by a Canvase Vers 31. The mouth of the just c. Heb. Buddeth forth as a fruit-tree to which the tongue is fitly and finely here resembled Hence speech is called the fruit of the lips But the froward tongue shall bee cut out As a fruitless tree is cut down to the fire Nestorius the Heretick his tongue was eaten off with worms Nestorii lingua vermibus exesa Arch-bishop Arundels tongue rotted in his head From Miriams example Num. 12. the Jew Doctors gather that Leprosie is a punishment for an evil tongue and in special for speaking against Rulers The Lady de Breuse had by her virulent and railing tongue more exasperated the fury of King John whom shee reviled as a Tyrant and a Murtherer than could bee pacified by her strange present of four hundred Kine and one Bull all milk-white Speeds Chron. fol. 572. except onely the ears which were red sent unto the Queen Vers 32. The lips of the righteous Hee carries as it were a pair of ballances betwixt his lips and weighs his words before he utters them Et prodesse velens delectare willing to speak things both acceptable and profitable The wicked throws out any thing that lyes uppermost though never so absurd obscene defamatory c. Aera puâ—o nosci tinnitâ— sed pectora verbis Sic est namque id sunt utraque quale sonantâ— CHAP. XI Vers 1. A false Ballance is abomination SEe the Notes on Lev. 19.36 Deut. 25.15 This kinde of fraud falls heaviest upon the poor Amos 8.5 who are fain to fetch in every thing by the penny Hither may bee referred corruptions in Courts and partialities in Church-businesses See that tremend charge to do nothing by partiality or by tilting the ballance Hos 12.7 1 Tim. 5.21 Those that have the ballances of deceit in their hand are called Canaanites so the Hebrew hath it that is meer natural men Ezek. 16.3 that have no goodness in them no not common honesty they do not as they would bee done by which very Heathens condemned Vers 2. When pride cometh Where Pride is in the Saddle Shame is on the Crupper tanquam Nemesis a tergo Hee is a proud fool saith our English Proverb Proud persons whiles they leave their standing and would rise above the top of their places they fail of their footing and fall to the bottome But with the lowly is wisdome Which maketh the face to shine Pride proceeds from folly and procures contempt But God gives grace to the humble that is as some sense it good repute and report amongst men Who am I saith Moses and yet who fitter than hee to go to Pharaoh Hee refused to bee Pharaohs daughters Son hee was afterwards called to bee Pharaohs God Exod. 7.1 Aben-Ezra observes that the word here rendred lowly signifies bashful shame-faced Qui prae vtrecundia sese abdunt that thrust not themselves into observation The humble man were it not that the fragrant smell of his many vertues betrayes him to the world would chuse to live and dye in his self-contenting secrecy Hence humility is by Bernard compared to the Violet which grows low to the ground and hangs the head downward and besides hides it self with its own leaves Vers 3. The integrity of the upright shall guide them An elegant allusion in the original Their uprightness shall lead them whither they would and secure them from danger They fulfil the Royal Law James 2.8 keep the Kings high-way and so are kept safe whiles those that go out of Gods Precincts are out of his protection But the perversness of transgressors Of prevaricators that run upon rough Precipices These are by the Prophet Amos likened to horses running upon a rock where first they break their hoofs and then their necks Amos 6.12 Vers 4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath Neither their silver nor their gold shall bee able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath Zeph. 1.18 Isa 13.7 Yea they carried away the richer Jews when the poorer sort were left to till the land 2 King 24. The great Caliph of Babylon whom all the Mahometan Princes honoured above all others as the true successour of Mahomet and the grand Oracle of their Law being taken together with his City by the great Cham of Tartary was by him set in the midst of his infinite Treasure and willed to feed thereon and make no spare In which order the covetous wretch kept for certain dayes Turk hist fol. 113. miserably dyed for hunger in the midst of those things whereof hee thought hee should never have enough Wherefore should I dye being so rich said that wretched Cardinal Henry Beauford Bishop of Winchester in Henry the sixths time Fic quoth hee will not death bee hired Act. Mon. fol. 925. will mony do nothing His riches could not reprieve him But righteousness delivereth from death See the Note on Chap. 10.2 Vers 5. The righteousness of the perfect This is the same in effect with vers 3. Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur Seneca But the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness Or In his own wickedness hee shall fall out of one wickedness unto another whiles hee draws iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Isa 5.18 Thus Babylons sins are said to reach unto Heaven quasi concatenatus funis Rev. 18.5 Therefore shee is fallen shee is fallen certo brevi penitus nondum tamen Flagitium flagellum ut acus filum Sin and punishment are inseparable companions Vers 6. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them As Noahs integrity prevailed for his safety Many are the troubles of the righteous but out of them all they are sure to bee delivered No Country hath more venemous creatures than Aegypt none more Antidotes So godliness hath many troubles and as many helps against trouble As Moses hand it turns a Serpent into a Rod And as the tree that Moses cast into the waters of Marah it sweetneth the bitter waters of affliction Well may it bee called the Divine Nature For as God brings light out of darknesse c. so doth grace But transgressours shall bee taken in their own naughtiness Taken by their own consciences those blood-hounds and by the just judgements of God which they shall never bee able to avoid or abide Though now they carry themselves as if they were out of the reach of his Rod or had gotten a protection Vers 7. When a wicked man dyeth his expectation shall perish Hee died perhaps in strong hopes of Heaven as those seem to have done that came rapping and bouncing at Heaven-gates with Lord Lord open unto us but were sent away with a Non novi vos Depart I know you not Mat. 7. And the hope of unjust men Etiam spes valentissima perit So some render it his most strong hope shall come to nothing Hee made a bridge of his own shadow and thought
was heavier than his groaning and yet his complaint was bitter too Chap. 23.2 Some holy men as Mr. Leaver have desired to see their sin in the most ugly colours Dr. Sibbes and God hath heard them But yet his hand was so heavy upon them that they went alwayes mourning to their graves And thought it fitter to leave it to Gods wisdome to mingle the portion of sorrow than to bee their own choosers And the stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy None but such as are of the family of Faith can conceive the surpassing sweetness of spiritual joy Gal. 6. The Cock on the dunghil knows not the worth of this Jewel It is joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1.8 Such as none feel but those that stir up sighs unutterable Rom. 8.26 It is joy unspeakable and full of glory a hansel of Heaven a foretaste of eternal life It is the peace that passeth all understanding they that have it Phil. 4.7 understand not the full of it nor can relate the one half of it Paul said somewhat to the point when hee said I do over-abound exceedingly with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 7.4 Chrysost but words are too weak to utter it Father Latimer said somewhat when hee said it was the sweet-meats of the feast of a good conscience But sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est It is a thing fitter to bee beleeved than possible to bee discoursed Tell a man never so long what a sweet thing hony is hee can never beleeve you so well as if himself taste it Those that never yet tasted how good the Lord is are far from intermedling with the just mans joy Act. Mon. fol. 1668. The World wonders saith Mr. Philpot Martyr how wee can bee so merry in such extreme misery But our God is omnipotent which turneth misery into felicity Beleeve mee there is no such joy in the world as the people of Christ have under the Cross I speak it by experience c. Another holy Martyr Richard Collier after his condemnation sang a Psalm Ibid. 1533. Wherefore the Priests and the officers railed at him saying Hee was out of his wits Vers 11. The house of the wicked shall bee overthrown As Phocas his high walls were because sin was at the bottome Brimstone also shall bee scattered on the top Job 18.15 As it befel Dioclesian whose house was wholly consumed with fire from Heaven Wherewith himself also was so terrified that hee died within a while after Euseb de vit Const lib. 5. But the Tabernacle of the upright shall flourish The wicked have houses and are called the Inhabitants of the earth Rev. 12.12 The upright have Tabernacles or Tents that were transportative and taken down at pleasure Here they have no continuing City no mansion-place And yet that they have shall flourish Our bed is green the beams of our house are Cedar and our rafters of Firr Cant. 1.16 17. See 2 Sam. 23.4 Vers 12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man Sin comes cloathed with a shew of reason Exod. 1.10 And lust will so blear the understanding that hee shall think that there is great sense in sinning Adam was not deceived 1 Tim. 2.14 That is hee was not so much deceived by his judgement though also by that too as by his affection to his wife which at length blinded his judgement The heart first deceives us with colours and when wee are once a doting after sin then wee joyn and deceive our hearts James 1.26 using fallacious and specious sophisms to make our selves think that lawful to day which wee our selves held unlawful yesterday and that wee are possest of those graces whereto wee are perfect strangers But the end thereof are the waies of death Via multiplex ad mortem The very first step in this evil way was a step to Hell But the journies end if men stop not or step not back in time is undoubted destruction Some flatter themselves as Micah Judg. 17.13 They flye to the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord And think to take Sanctuary and save themselves there from all danger as the Jews fable that Og King of Bashan escaped in the flood by riding astride upon the Ark without Wherein it falls out oft as it did with the riflers of Semiramis her tomb who where they expected to finde the richest treasure met with a deadly poison Or as it doth with him that lying asleep upon a steep rock and dreaming of great matters befallen him starts suddenly for joy and so breaks his neck at the bottome As hee that makes a bridge of his own shadow cannot but fall into the water So neither can hee escape the pit of Hell who laies his own presumption in place of Gods promise who casts himself upon the unknown mercies of God c. Vers 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful Nulla est sincera voluptas Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas Of carnal pleasures a man may break his neck before his fast All this avails mee nothing said Haman Omnia fui nihil profuit said that Emperour Vanity of vanity all is vanity said Solomon and not vanity onely but vexation of spirit Nothing in themselves and yet full of power and activity to inflict vengeance and vexation upon the spirit of a man so that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful Some kinde of frothy and flashy mirth wicked men may have such as may wet the mouth but not warm the heart smooth the brow but not fill the breast It is but a cold armful as Lycophron saith of an evil wife as they repent in the face Mat. 6.16 so they rejoyce in the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lyc. not in the heart 2 Cor. 5.12 Rident ringuntur there is a snare or a cord in the sin of the wicked that is to strangle their joy with but the righteous sing and are merry Prov. 29.6 Others may revel they onely must rejoyce Hos 9.1 And the end of that mirth is heaviness They dance to the Timbrel and Harp but suddenly they turn into Hell Job 21.12 13. and so their merry dance ends in a miserable downfal Luk. 6. Woe bee to you that laugh now Those merry Greeks that are so afraid of sadness that they banish all seriousness shall one day wring for it Adoniah's guests had soon enough of their good cheer and jollity So had Belshazzar and his combibones optimi Thou mad fool what dost thou Eccles 2. saith Salomon to the mirth-monger that holds it the onely happiness to laugh and bee fat Knowest thou not yet there will bee bitterness in the end Principium dulce est sed finis amoris amarus The candle of the wicked shall be put out in a vexing-snuff Their mirth as Comets blazeth much but ends in a pestilent vapour As lightning it soon vanisheth leaveth a greater darknesse behinde it and is
though they bee and set on with some more than ordinary earnestness Better it is that the vine should bleed than dye Sinite virgam coâ—ripientem ut sentitatis malleum conterentem Certes when the Lord shall have done to you according to all the good that hee hath spoken concerning you 1 Sam. 25.30 31. and hath brought you to his Kingdom This shall be no grief unto you or offence of heart as hee said in a like case that you have hearkned to instruction and been bettered by reproof Vers 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdome See the Note on Chap. 1.7 And before honour is humility David came not to the Kingdome till hee could truly say Lord my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty c. Psal 131.1 Abigail was not made Davids wife till shee thought it honour enough to wash the feet of the meanest of Davids servants 1 Sam. 25.40 Moses must bee forty years a stranger in Midian before hee become King in Jeshurun hee must bee struck sick to death in the Inne before hee go to Pharaoh on that honourable Ambassage Luther observed that ever for most part before God set him upon any special service for the good of the Church hee had some fore fit of sickness Surely as the lower the ebbe the higher the tyde So the lower any descend in humiliation the higher they shall ascend in exaltation the lower this foundation of humility is laid the higher shall the roof of honour bee over-laid CHAP. XVI Vers 1. The Preparations of the heart in man HEE saith not of man as if it were in mans power to dispose of his own heart but in man as wholly wrought by God for our sufficiency is not in ourselves but in him as wee live so wee move Act. 18.28 understand it of the motions of the minde also It is hee that fashioneth the hearts of men Psal 33.13 shaping them at his pleasure Hee put small thoughts into the heart of Ahashuerosh but for great purposes And so hee did into the heart of our Henry 8. about his Marriage with Katherine of Spain Scult Annal. dec 2. ep dedic the Rise of that Reformation here Quam desperasset atas praterita admiratur praesens obstupescet futura as Scultetus hath it which former ages despaired of the present admireth and the future shall stand amazed at And the answer of the tongue is from the Lord For though a man have never so exactly marshalled his matter in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disponere ordinare aciem instruere significat as it were in battel array as the Hebrew word here imports and as David using the same word saith hee will marshal his Prayer and then bee as a spy upon a watch-tower to see what became of it whether hee got the day Psal 5.3 though hee have set down with himself both what and how to speak so that it is not only scriptum in animo sed sculptum etiam as the Orator said yet hee shall never bee able to bring forth his conceptions without the obstetrication of Gods assistance The most eloquent Demosthenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sent sundry times in Ambassage to Philip King of Macedony thrice stood speechless before him and thrice more forgot what hee intended to have spoken Likewise Latomus of Lovain a great Scholar having prepared a set speech to bee made before the Emperour Charles the fifth was so confounded when hee came to deliver it that he uttered nothing but non-sense and thereupon fell into a fit of despair So Augustine having once lost himself in a Sermon and wanting what else to say fell upon the Maâ—ichees a point that hee had well studied and by a good Providence of God converted one there present that was infected with that errour Digressions are not alwayes unuseful Gods Spirit sometimes draws aside the doctrine to satisfie some soul which the Preacher knows not But though God may force it yet man may not frame it and it is a most happy ability to speak punctually directly and readily to the point The Corinthians had elocution as a special gift of God And St. Paul gives God thanks for them that in every thing they were inriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge 1 Cor. 1.5 Vers 2. All the wayes of a man are clean in his own eyes Every man is apt enough to think well of his own doings and would bee sorry but his penny should bee good silver They that were born in hell know no other heaven neither goes any man to hell but hee hath some excuse for it Quintilian could say Sceleri nunquam defuisse rationem As covetousness so most other sins go cloaked and coloured August Sed sordet in conspectu judiciis quod fulget in conspectu estimantis All is not gold that glisters A thing that I see in the night may shine and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness Bern. Melius est pallens aurum quam fulgens aurichalcum That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God Luke 16.15 But the Lord weigheth the spirits Not speeches and actions only as Prov. 5.21 but mens aims and insides Men see but the surface of things and so are many times mistaken but Gods fiery eyes pierce into the inward parts and there discover a new found world of wickedness Hee turns up the bottome of the bag as Josephs steward did and then out come all our thefts and mis-doings that had so long lain latent Vers 3. Commit thy works unto the Lord Depend upon him alone for direction and success this is the readiest way to an holy security and sound settlement Hang not in doubtful suspense as Meteors do in the ayr Luke 12.29 Neither make discourses in the ayr so one renders it as those use to do whose hearts are haunted with carking cares Let not your thoughts bee distracted about these things So the Syriack hath it But cast your burden upon the Lord Psal 55.22 by a Writ of remove as it were Yea cast all your care upon God for hee careth for you 1 Pet. 5.7 I will bee Careless according to my name said John Careless Martyr Commit the matter to God and hee will effect it Psal 37.5 And thy thoughts shall bee established Never is the heart at rest till it repose upon God till then it flickers up and down as Noahs Dove did upon the face of the Flood and found no footing till shee returned to the Ark. This is certain saith a Revered Divine Mr. Case yet living so far as a soul can stay on and trust in God so far it injoyes a sweet settlement and tranquillity of spirit Perfect trust is blessed with a perfect peace A famous instance for this we have in our Saviour Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I to this hour
so here in the event all our wisedom is soon refuted with one black Theta which understanding us not snappeth us unrespectively without distinction and putteth at once a period to our reading and to our being And why was I then more wise This is a peece of peevishnesse a childish folly we are all prone to viz. to repent us of our best pains if not presently paid for it so short spirited are we that unlesse we may sow and reap all in a day unlesse all things may goe with us as well as we could wish wee repent us of our repentance with David Psal 73.13 hit God in the teeth with our obedience as those hypocrites in Esay chap. 58.2 3. and as that elder brother in the Parable that told his father he had never been worth a Kid to him for all his good service But what is God like to break or to dye in our debts that we are so hasty with him This was good Barucks fault and he is soundly chidden for it Jer. 45.1 with chap. 36.1 2. Good men oft find it more easie to bear evil than to wait till the promised good bee enjoyed It was so with those Christian Hebrews chap. 10.34 36. whom therefore the Apostle there tells they had need of patience or tarriance to carry Gods time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It needs not repent the wise of this world much lesse the children of Light of any good they have done or gotten however it prove with them sith some degree of comfort follows every good action as hear accompanies fire as beams and influences issue from the Sun And this is so true that very Heathens upon the discharge of a good Conscience have found comfort and peace answerable Vers 16. For there is no remembrance of the wise viz. unlesse hee bee also wise to salvation for then he shall be had in everlasting remembrance Or otherwise either he shall be utterly forgotten as being not written among the living in Jerusalem Esay 4.3 or else he shall not have the happiness to bee forgotten in the City where he had so done Eccl. 8.10 I mean where he had been either a dogmatical or at least a practical Atheist as the very best of the Philosophers were Rom. 1. 1. Cor. 1. the choysest and the most picked men amongst them 1 Cor. 3.21 And how dyeth the wise man as the fool See the Note on vers 14 15. wise men dye as well as fools Psal 49.10 good men dye as well as bad Ezek. 21.4 yet with this difference that the righteous hath hope in his death which to him is neither total but of the body only nor perpetual but for a time only till the day of refreshing See both these Rom. 8.10 11. Vers 17. Therefore I hated life i. e. I lesse loved it than I had done I saw mortality to be a mercy with Cato I was neither fond of life Vsque adeone mori miserum Virgil. nor afraid of death with Q. Elizabeth I preferred my Coffin before my Cradle my Burial-day before my Birth-day chap. 7.1 A greater than Solomon threatens those that love life with the loss of life Luk. 17.33 and hath purposely set a particular vanity and vexation upon every day of our life that wee may not dote upon it sith we dye daily Sufficient to the day is the evil that is the misery thereof Quicquid boni est in mundo saith Austin what good thing soever we have here is either past present or to come If past it 's nothing if to come it 's uncertain if present yet it is unsufficient unsatisfactory So that whilst I call to mind things past said that incomparable Q. Elizabeth behold things present and expect things to come Camb. Eliz. fol. 325. I hold them happiest that goe hence soonest Vers 18. Yea I hated all my labour i. e. I was sorry to think that I had been so eager and earnest in getting a great estate which now I must leave and to whom I know not sure I am to those that never took any pains for it And herein we see the corruption of our nature discover it self in that we are so wedded to the things of this world especially if gotten by our own art and industry that we think much to bee divorced from them by death and to leave them to others when our selves can enjoy them no longer Henry Beauford that rich and wretched Cardinal Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England in the reign of Henry 6. when hee perceived that hee must dye Act. Mon. fol. 925. and that there was no remedy murmured at death that his riches could not reprieve him till a further time For he asked wherefore should I dye being so rich If the whole Realm would save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it Fye quoth he will not death bee hired will money doe nothing Latimer in a Sermon before King Edward the 6. tells a story of a rich man that when hee lay upon his Sick bed there came one to him and told him that certainly by all reason they can judge by hee was like to be a man for another world a dead man As soon as ever he hears but these words saith Latimer What must I dye said he send for a Physician wounds sides heart must I dye wounds sides heart must I dye and thus he goes on and there could bee nothing got from him but wounds sides heart must I dye Must I dye and goe from these here was all here 's the end of a man that made his portion to bee in this world If this mans heart had been ript up aâ—ter hee was dead there might have been found written in it The God of this present world Serm. on Psal 17.14 April 3. 1643. before the L. Maior Mr. Jeremy Burroughes relates in print of another rich man that had sometime lived neer unto him who when hee heard his sickness was deadly sent for his bags of mony and hugg'd them in his arms saying Oh! must I leave you Oh! must I leave you And of another who when hee lay upon his sick bed called for his bags and laid a bag of gold to his heart and then bad them take it away it will not do it will not do Mr. Rogers in his Treatise of love tels of one that being near death clapt a twenty shillings peece of gold into his own mouth saying Some wiser than some I le take this with mee howsoever Vers 19. And who knoweth whether he shall bee a wise man A friend or an enemy an acquaintance or a meer stranger riches oft change masters How many by a just hand of God dye childless or else leave that they have to ding-thrifts that will spend it as merrily as ever their parents got it miserably scatter with a fork as it were what they have wretchedly raked together Our Henry 2. some few hours before hee
years So that hee bee trisaeclisenex as Nestor was of old and Johannes de temporibus a French-man not many ages since to whom I may add that old Parre old very old man that died of late years having been born in Henry the sevenths daies or Edward the fourths And his soul bee not filled with good Though hee bee filled with years and filled with children that may survive and succeed him in his estate yet if hee bee a covetous caytiff a miserable muckworm that injoyes nothing as in the former verse is not Master of his wealth but is mastered by it lives beside what hee hath and dies to save charges * As hee in Camd. Remains And also that hee have no burial Hee leaves nothing to bring him honestly home as they say or if hee do yet his ungrateful greedy heirs deny him that last honour Jer. 22.19 so that hee is buried with the burial of an Ass as Coniah suffered to rot and stink above ground as that Assyrian Monarch Isa 14. 19 20. and after him Alexander the Great who lay unburied thirty daies together So Pompey the Great of whom Claudian the Poet sings thus Nudus pascit aves jacet en qui possidet orbem Exiguae telluris inops And the like is storied of our William the Conquerour and divers other greedy engrossers of the worlds good See here the poisonful and pernicious nature of niggardise and covetousness that turns long life and large issue those sweetest blessings of God into bitter curses And withall take notice of the just hand of God upon covetous old men that they should want comely burial which is usually one of their greatest cares as Plutarch observeth For giving the reason why old men that are going out of the world should bee so earnestly bent upon the world hee saith it is out of fear that they shall not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 friends to keep them whiles alive and some to bury them when they are dead I say that an untimely birth I affirm it in the word of truth and upon mature deliberation That an untimely birth not onely a naked young childe as aforesaid that is carried ab utero ad urnam from the womb to the tomb from the birth to the burial but an abortive that coming too soon into the world comes not at all and by having no name findes it self a name as Pliny speaks of the herb Anonymus Vers 4. For hee cometh in with vanity c. As nothing being senseless of good or evil And departeth in darkness is buried in huggermugger And his Name shall bee covered c. that is there is no more talk of this abortive Vers 5. Moreover hee hath not seen the Sun A second priviledge and prerogative of the poor abortive None are so miserable wee see but they may bee comparatively happy It is ever best to look at those below us and then wee shall see cause to bee better contented This hath more rest than the other The Corn that is cropt as soon as it appeareth or is bruised in peeces when it lies in sprout is better than the old weed that is hated while it standeth and in the end is cut down for the fire Vers 6. Yea though hee live a thousand years Which yet never any man did Methusalah wanted thirty two of a thousand The reason thereof is given by Occolampadius quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis ut qui constet è centenario decies revoluto because the number of a thousand types out perâ—ection as consisting of an hundred ten times told But there is no perfection here saith hee Yet hath hee seen no good For All the daies of the afflicted are evil saith Solomon And mans daies are few and full of trouble Prov. 15.15 Job 14.1 Gen. 47.9 saith Job Few and evil are the daies of my pilgrimage saith Jacob and I have not attained to the daies of the years of the life of my Fathers c. For Abraham lived one hundred seventy five years and Isaac one hundred eighty near upon forty years longer than Jacob but to his small comfort for hee was blinde all that time yet nothing so blinde as the rich wretch in the Text qui privatus interno lumine tamen in hac vita din vult perpeti caecitatem suam as one speaketh who being blind as a Mole lies rooting and poring uncessantly in the bowels of the earth as if he would that way dig himself a new and a nearer way to Hell and with his own hands addeth to the load of this miserable life As hee hath done no good so hee hath seen or enjoyed none but goes to his place Do not all go to one place the place that Adam provided for all his posterity the house appointed for all living as Job calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.23 chap. 30.23 the Congregation-house as One renders it Heaven the Apostle calls the Congregation-house of the first-born whose names also are there said to bee written in Heaven But covetous persons as they are called the inhabitants of the earth Rev. 12. Jer. 17.13 in opposition to those Coelicola Citizens of Heaven the Saints so their names are written in the earth because they have forsaken the Lord Jer. 2.13 the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns that can hold no water What marvel then if they live long and yet see no good if they are driven to that doleful complaint that Saul made God hath forsaken mee 1 Sam. 28.15 and the Philistims are upon mee sickness death hell is upon mee I am even now about to make my bed in the dark and all the comfort I can have from God is that dismal sentence This shall yee have of mine hand yee shall lye down in sorrow Isa 50.11 Loe this is the cursed condition of the covetous carl as hee hath lived beside his goods having jaded his body broken his brains and burthened his conscience so hee dies hated of God and loathed of men the Earth groans under him Heaven is shut against him Hell gapes for him 1 Cor. 6.8 9. Phil. 3.18 Thus many a Miser spins a fair threed to strangle himself both temporally and eternally O that they would seriously think of this before the cold grave hold their bodies and hot hell torment their souls before death come with a writ of Habeas corpus and the Devil with a writ of Habeas animam as once to that rich fool Luk. 12. Vers 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth That is Dii boni quantum hominum unus exercet venter Seneca Deus homini augustum ventrem c. Sergius PP for food and rayment as 1 Tim. 6. a little whereof will content nature which hath therefore given us a little mouth and stomach to teach us moderation as Chrysostome well observeth to the shame of those beastly belly-gods that glut themselves and devour the creatures
Mon. 865. than swear The Merindolians those antient French Protestants were known by this through all the Country of Province that they would not swear nor easily bee brought to take an oath except it were in judgement or making some solemn covenant Vers 3. This is an evil Hoc est pessimum so Hierome the Vulgar and Tremellius renders it this is the worst evil this is wickedness with a witness scil that sith there is one event to all graceless men should therehence conclude that sith there is one event to all graceless men should therehence conclude that it is a bootless business a course of no profit to serve God Hence they walk about the world with hearts as full as hell of lewd and lawless lusts Hence they run a madding after the pleasures of sin which with a restlesse giddiness they earnestly pursue yea they live and die in so doing saith the Wise-man here noting their final impenitency that hate of Heaven and gate to Hell Ex primis per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eorum sermones Lav. Joh. 24. Sic Benedic 9. Alexand. 6. Leo. 10. Vers 4. For to him that is joyned to all the living there is hope These are the words of those wicked ones whose lives and hopes end together whose song is Post mortem nulla voluptas when life ends there is an end of all Is there not such language in some mens hearts who knows whether there bee any such thing as a life to come c. Now I shall know said that dying Pope whether the soul of man bee immortal yea or no and whether that tale concerning Christ have any truth in it Oh wretch So a living Dogg is better than a dead Lion But so is not a living sinner better that a dead Saint for the righteous hath hope in his death and they that dye in the Lord are blessed Rev. 14.13 how much more if they also dye for the Lord these love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 but go as willingly to dye as ever they did to dine being as glad to leave the world for a better especially as men are wont to bee to rise from the board when they have eaten their fill to take possession of a Lordship Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis Lucret. Vers 5. For the living know that they shall dye Hence that Proverb amongst us As sure as death Howbeit that they think little of it to any good purpose appears by that other Proverb I thought no more of it than of my dying-day But the dead know not any thing So it seemeth to those Atheists that deny the immortality of the soul but they shall know at death that there is another life beyond this wherein the righteous shall bee comforted Luk. 16.25 and their knowledge perfected but the wicked tormented and with nothing more than to know that such and such poor souls as they would have disdained to have set with the Doggs of their flocks are now sitting down with Abraham Job 30.1 Luk. 13.28 Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of God and themselves thrust out into utter darkness Augustin in tenebras extenebris infeliciter exclusi infelicius excludendi Neither have they any more a reward What Psal 58.11 not a reward for the righteous Not a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour evil-doers That were strange Heb. 10.27 But wicked men would fain perswade themselves so ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant Bern 2 Pet. 2.5 Of these things they are willingly ignorant For the memory of them is forgotten This is true in part but not altogether Joseph was forgotten in Egypt Gideon in Israel Exod. 1 Judg. 9 Joash remembred not the kindness which Jehoiadah had done to him but slew his son 2 Chron. 24.22 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands firm having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2 Mal. 3.16 Luk. 10.20 and there is a book of remembrance written before him for them that fear the Lord their names are written in Heaven and the memory of the just is blessed Proverbs 10.7 See the Note there Vers 6. Also their love and their hatred c. Here is lie upon lie The Atheist as hee had denyed knowledge to the dead so here hee denies affections as love hatred envy or zeal as Hierome renders it But it is certain that those that are dead in Jesus do very dearly love God and hate evil with a perfect hatred The wicked on the other side continue in that other world to hate God and goodness to love such as themselves are to stomach the happiness of those in Heaven c. Vers 7. Go thy way eat thy bread with joy Vade juste Go thy way thou righteous man live in cheerfulness of mind proceeding from the testimony of a good conscience so Lyra senseth the words Gods grace and favour turned brown bread and water into manchet and wine to the Martyrs in prison Rejoyce not thou O Israel for joy as other people for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God Hos 9.1 Thou eatest thy bane thou drinkest thy poison because to the impure all things are impure and without faith it is impossible to please God Prov. 29.6 In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare or a cord to strangle his joy with but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce Hee may do so hee must do so what should hinder him hee hath made his peace with God and is rectus in curia let him bee merry at his meals lightsome and spruise in his cloaths cheerful with his wife and children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.13 c. Is any man merry at heart saith St. James is hee right set and hath hee a right frame of soul is all well within let him sing Psalms yea as a traveller rides on merrily and wears out the rediousnesse of the way by singing sweet songs unto himself so should the Saints Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage Psal 119.54 Vers 8. Let thy garments bee alwayes white i. e. Neat spruse cleanly comely Or by a metaphor it may signifie Be merry in good manner for they used to wear white clothing on Festivals Devita theoretica Stuckius in Antiq. conviv Anton. Margarit and at Weddings as Philo witnesseth At this day also the Jewes come to their Synagogues in white rayment the day before the Calends of September which is their New-years-tide Purple was affected by the Romans white by the Jewes see Jam. 2.2 Hence Pilate clad Christ in purple Matth. 27.28 Herod in white Luke 23.11 Herod himself Acts 12.21 was arrayed in royal apparrel that is in cloth of silver saith Josephus which being beaten upon by the Sun-beams dazeled the peoples eyes and drew from them that blasphemous acclamation The voyce of God and not of man And let thine
sepulturâ turpissâ—me abiectus es â—cult and kept from thy grave This befell Baltasar upon the surprizal of the City Dan. 5 30. And the like also befell Alexander the Great dying at the same City and our Will. Conqueror who having utterly sackt the City of Mants in France and in the destruction thereof got his own dyed shortly after at Rouen Dan. Hist 42. 50. where his corpse lay three dayes unburied his interment being hindered by one that claimed the ground to be his Like an abominable branch The matter is here set forth by three notable similitudes such as this Prophet is full of Ver. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned to them in burial i. e. To thy Compeers thy fellow Kings in Funeral-state and pomp Christians have an honest care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with whom they be buried and where they are laid when dead that as they lived together and loved together so in their death they may not be divided 2 Sam. 1.23 Because thou hast destroyed thy land Tyrannized over thine own Subjects also The Septuagint read it my land and my people So did Saul Manassâ—h Herod who butchered about Bethlehem 14000. Infants as some affirm and his own son among the rest Tyberius that Tyger Nero that Lion Commodus who was saith Orosius cunctis incommodus Charls 9 of France c. The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned The house of the wicked shall be ouerthrown but the Tabernacle of the upright shall flourish Prov. 14.11 See the Note there notanto hoc parentes à sceleribus se abstinento ni sibi velint parcere ut posteritati parcant Ver. 21. Prepare another slaughter for his children For Baltsars posterity This is Gods charge to the Medes and Persians See on ver 20. Ver. 22. For I will rise up against him And therefore it is to no purpose for them to rise up to possess the Land and to fill the face of the world with Cities as ver 21. I will overturn overturn overturn c. Ezek. 21.27 and who shall gain-stand it Ver. 23. I will also make it a possession for the Bittern Which is a kind of water-fowl that maketh a hideous noise And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction Scopa vastatrice verram cam Scopis â— en purgatoriis sed perditoriis R. David in Radâ—c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercer in Pagnin Thesaur Vatab. I will not brush them for Ornament but sweep them or rather scrub them to their ruine by my Persian Praedones whom I will set upon them And here the Jewish Rabbins acknowledge that they came to understand this Text by hearing an Arabian woman mention a broom or a besom in her Language to her maid Apollos a learned Teacher may yet learn of a Tent-maker Ver. 24. The Lord of Hosts hath sworn If he had but said it only it had been sure enough for he cannot lye he cannot denye himself but when he sweareth any thing we may build upon it especially since he is Lord of Hosts He can do more then he will but whatsoever He willeth shall undoubtedly be done for what should hinder Juravit Jehovah is the best assurance Ver. 25. That I will break the Assyrian in my Land Or as in breaking the Assyrian in my Land for here saith Junius the overthrow of the Assyrian Monarchy which should shortly be is given for a sign of the overthrow of the Babylonian Ver. 26. This is the purpose that is purposed Heb. The Council that is consulted Now there are many devices in the heart of man but when all 's done the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand Prov. 19.21 Ver. 27. For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed and who shall disannul it Emphasin habet interrogatio An excellent and unanswerable way of arguing from the irresistible Will and Almighty power of God the like whereof is used by a certain Persian in Herodotus In Calliope in most Elegant expressions as Junius here noteth Ver. 28. In the year that King Ahaz dyed A very good worlds riddance When Tiberius the Tyrant died some of the people offered sacrifice for joy others in detestation of him cryed out Tiberium in Tiberim Let Tiberius be thrown into Tiber Think the like of Ahaz that stigmatical Belialist Howbeit as bad as he was the Philistins hearing of his death hoped to find some advantage thereby against the Jews who are therefore here encouraged Ver. 29. Rejoyce not thou whole Palestine That is the Philistins quos Judaei animis armisque sibi infestissimos habuere These were as bad Neighbours to the Jews as the Dunkâ—rkers now are to us Vzziah had subdued them 2 Chron. 26.6 but Ahaz had been much damnified and despoiled by them 2 Chron. 28.18 and in the beginning of Hezekiahs Raign they thought to have over-run all the Countrey Here therefore Gods decree concerning them is published for the comfort of his poor people and it is this Philistaeis non jubilandum sed ejulandum Philistins must not be over joyed but rather weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon them Because the Rod of him that smote thee is broken Because Vzziah is dead and Ahaz hath had ill success against you through his own sinfulness and sluggishness do not you thereupon take boldness to set up your crest and think all 's your own For out of the Serpents root Out of Vzziah's issue Shall come forth a Cockatrice or Basilisk which is said to kill with his looks only and hereby is meant Hezekiah as also by the fiery flying Serpent for thus he is called both for his fierceness and for his swiftness two very commendable properties of a Commander J. Caesar was in omnia praeceps very fierce and withal notable nimble witness his Veni Vidi Vici I no sooner came but overcame The Hebrews from this text have a Proverb Deradice colubri egredietur regulus i e. Afflictissimi inter pauperes praecipui ac primi atque adeò tolerandis Calamitatibus nati Quis globu◠ó cives caligine volvitur â—tra Hostis adest Virg. Out of the Serpents root shall come forth a Cockatrice i. e. One woe is past but behold a worse at hand Ver. 30. And the first-born of the poor shall feed i. e. Gods poor people shall who though never so poor as they were at a very low ebb under Ahaz were Gods first-born and in that respect higher then the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 And I will kill thy root See Zeph. 2.4 with the Note Ver. 31. Howle O gate Philistines are elsewhere taxed for flashy and foolish mirth Judg. 16. 2 Sam. 1. Here they are told they have more cause to fear then stear to sigh then sing to bowle then hollow From the North a smoke i. e. Hezekiah's army raising a dust and setting all in a combustion Ver. 32. That the Lord hath founded Zion Not Hezekiah but Jehovah hath done it CHAP. XV. Ver. 1. THe burthen of
as being apt and able to teach but he wanted a fit Audience as having to do with a sort of drunken sots that were unteachable uncapable So Ezek. 47.11 when the waters of the Sanctuary flowed the miry places could not be healed Think the same also of those that are drunk with pride as ver 1. and self-conceitedness who make Divinity only a matter of discourse or that come to sit as Judges or Criticks on their Ministers gifts c. It will be long enough ere such will be taught any thing One may as good undertake to teach a young weanling void of understanding and in some respects better for these to their natural corruption and impotency have added habitual hardness and obstinacy to their sinews of iron brows of brass Isaiah 48.4 and what hope can there be of working upon such Ver. 10. For precept must be upon precept Children are of weak understanding and of short memories and Hebraei dicunt hisce verbis infantilitatem significari they must also have short words and sentences prescribed unto them such as are kau and flau and inculcated upon them that something at least may stick so must most of our Hearers or little good will be done Deut. 6.7 thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children Heb. thou shalt whet or repeat them by often going over the same thing as the knife goeth over the whetstone till it be sharp But very many of our common hearers are not only unteachable but untameable deriding sound doctrine and making a mocking stock of their godliest Ministers And so some very good Expositors haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Prophetadici tradunt make these words here recited to be the scoffs and taunts of those profane mockers ver 14. 22. which they put upon the Prophet q. d. We have nothing but rule upon rule precept upon precept c. Zaulazau kau lakau the very sound of the words carrieth a jear like as scornful people by the tone of their voice and riming words scorn at such as they despise Thus this good Prophet became the drunkards song Any man may be witty in a biting way and those that have the dullest brains have commonly the sharpest teeth to that purpose Rightly said the Comedian Homine imperito nunquam quicquam injustius Terent. Qui nisi quod ipse fecit nihil rectum putat Ver. 11. For with stammering lips c. with a lisping lip Heb. with scoffs of lip or with language of mocks Surely God scorneth the scorners Prov. 3.34 for he loveth to retaliate and proportion choice to choice Isa 66.3 4 device to device Micah 2.1.3 frowardness to forwardness Psal 18.26 scoffing to scoffing Prov. 1.25.26 And with another tongue lingua exotica such as they shall be no whit the better for see 1 Cor. 14.21 We read of John Elmar Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeth's raign that on a time when he saw his Auditory grow dull in their attention to his Sermon he presently read unto them many verses out of the Hebrew Text whereat they all started admiring what use he meant to make thereof then shewed he them their folly that whereas they neglected English whereby they might be edifyed they listened to Hebrew whereof they understood not a word and how justly God might bring in Popery again with Latine service blind obedience and dumb offices for their contempt of the Gospel Ver. 12. To whom he said This is the rest i. e. the ready way to find rest to your souls as Mat. 11.28 29. sc by obeying my precepts and embracing my promises Wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest i. e. Me who am pressed by your sins Amos 2.13 and wearied out with your iniquities Isa 43.24 or your poor brethren tired with miseries or your own souls laden with sin guiltiness Ver. 13. But the word of God was unto them precept upon precept c. i. e. a derision as ver 10. therefore henceforth hearing they shall hear and not understand Sic Sanniones Deus punit That they may go and fall backward ut vadant cadant retrorsum tanquam turpiter ab hoste superati resuperati laid flat on their backs brought to remediless ruin This came of their obstinacy though not intentionally yet eventually Ver. 14. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord Stand forth and hear your doom ye that jear when you should fear as if ye were out of the reach of Gods rod. Ye scornful men Heb. ye men of mockage ye who mock at the word of God by your words deeds and gestures quales sycophantas quotidie videmus of which sort we find not a few now a dayes such dust-heaps as these we have in every corner men that have turned religion not only into a form but also into a scorn accounting the wisdom of God foolishness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Saint Peter calleth scoffers or such as make sport with the word 2 Pet. 3.3 And the Prophet here uno verbo multa peccata exprimit dum Illusores nominat in calling them mockers calleth them all that naught is That rule the people such as Shebna now was and afterwards Tobiah Neh. 2.19 Herod Domitian Julian Sr. Thomas Moor c. Ver. 15. Because ye have said i. e. ye have thought and reckoned so but without your hoast as they say Jer. 6.19 Hear O earth behold I will bring evil upon this people even the fruit of their thoughts We have made a covenant with death Nos ab omni malo sumus securissimi Thrasonicae hyperbolae we are shot-free and shall scape scotfree Beckets friends advised him for his security to have a Mass in honour of St. Stephen to keep him from the hands of his enemies Spencer He had so but it saved him not As not to have been dipt in Lethe-lake could save the Son of Thetis from to dye c. And with hell are we at agreement Heb. we have made provision or taken order egimus cantum The Prophets tell us a tale of death and hell but we shall yet dance upon their graves and for hell we fear it not The Lyon is not so fierce as he is painted nor the Devil so black as he is represented Diabolo optimè convenit cum lurconib us Good-fellows shall have good quarter with the Devil say our modern Atheists But what a mad fellow was that Advocate in the Court of Rome mentioned by Bellarmine who lying at his last gasp almost and being called upon to repent and cry to God for mercy prayed thus O Lord I have much desired to speak one word unto thee before I dye not for my self but for my wife and children ego enim propero ad inferos neque est ut aliquid pro me agas for I am hasting to hell neither is there any thing now to be done by thee for me De arte mor. lib. 2. cap. 10. And this he spoke saith Bellarmine who was
dreary tears from us Zach. 12.10 Ver. 9. And he made his grave with the wicked i. e. He should have been buried among malefactours had not rich Joseph begged his body Or his dead body was at the disposal of wicked ones and of rich men or Rulers the Jews and Pilat at his death And with the rich The same say some with wicked And indeed Magna cognatio ut rei siâ— nominis divitiis vitiis Rich men are put for wicked rich Jam. 5.1 And how hardly do rich men enter Heaven Hyperius thinketh that the two thieves crucified together with Christ were rich men put to death for Sedition and Christ was placed in the midst as their chieftain whence also that memorable title set over his head King of the Jews Because he had done no violence Or albeit he had done c. notwithstainding his innocency and integrity Nec te tua plurima Pentheu Labentem texit pietas Ver. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him Singula verba hic expendenda sunt cum Emphasi saith One Here every word hath its weight Hyper. and it is very sure that the Apostles and Evangelists in describing the mysteries of our salvation have great respect as to this whole Chapter of Isaiah so especially to these three last verses And it must needs be that the Prophet when he wrot these things was indued with a very great Spirit because herein he so clearly setteth forth the Lord Christ in his twofold estate of Humiliation and of Exaltation that whereas other oracles of the Old Testament borrow light from the New this Chapter lendeth light to the New in several places He hath put him to grief Or he suffered him to be put to pain See Acts 2.23 4.28 God the Father had a main hand in his Sons sufferings and that out of his free mercy Joh. 3.16 for the good of many When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin Confer 2 Cor. 5.20 He made him sin for us that knew no sin Our sins were laid upon him as the sins of him that sacrificed were laid upon the beast which was thereby made the sinner as it were and the man righteous Christs Soul suffered also Matth. 26.38 it was undequaque tristis surrounded wich sorrows and heavy as heart could hold This Sacrifice of his was truly expiatory and satisfactory Confer Heb. 10.1 2. He shall see his seed Bring many sons to God Heb. 2.10 13. See on ver 8. an holy seed the Church of the New Testament to the end of the world Parit dum perit perit dum parit Phaeâ— nic aenigma Psal 72.17 filiabitur nomine ejus The name of Christ shall endure for ever it shall be begotten as one generation is begotten of another there shall be a succession of Christs name till time shall be no more And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He came to send fire on the earth which whiles he lived upon earth was already kindled Luke 12.49 This some interpret of the Gospel which how wonderfully it spred and prospered the Evangelical and Ecclesiastical histories testify Ver. 11. He shall see of the travel of his soul Or because his soul laboureth he shall see his seed and be satisfied A Metaphor from a travelling woman confer Acts 2 24. Joh. 16.21 And shall be satisfied As a Parent is in his dear children or a rich man in the fight of his large farms and incomes Saturabitur salute fidelium quam esurivit If therefore we would gratify and satisfy Christ come by troops to the Ordinances By his knowledge i. e. By the lively light and impression of Faith as Joh. 17.3 Acts 25.23 26.18 Joh. 6.69 Faith comprehendeth in it self these three acts Knowledge in the understanding Assent of the will and Trust of the hearâ— so that justifiyng Faith is nothing else but a fiducial assent presupposing knowledge The Popish-Doctours settle the seat of Faith in the Will as in its adaequate subject that they mean while may doe what they will with the Heart and with the Understanding To which purpose they exclude all knowledge and as for confidence in the promises of Christ they cry it down to the utmost and everywhere expunge it by their Iudices expurgatorii for a bare assent though without wit or sense is sufficient say they and Bellarmine defendeth it that Faith may better be defined by ignorance then by knowledge Shall my righteous servant Jesus Christ the just one 1 Joh. 2.2 Jehovah our righteousnesse Jer 23.6 Justify many i. e. Discharge them from the guilt of all iniquity by his righteousnesse imputed unto them This maketh against Justification by works Cardinal Pighius was against it so before him was Contarenus another Cardinal And of Stephen Gardiner it is recorded that he died a Protestant in the point of mans Justification by the free mercies of God Fullers Church hist and merits of Christ For he shall bear their iniquities Bajulabit that by nailing them to his Crosse he may expiate them Ver. 12. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great Or I will give many to him Psal 2.8 Some sense it thus I will give him to conquer plunder and spoil the evil spirits as Colos 2.15 and this he shall have for a reward of his ignominious death and his intercession for some of his enemies whom he conquered by a new and noble kind of victory viz. by loving them and by praying for them And he was numbred with transgressours So he became a sinner though sinlesse 1. By Imputation 2. By Reputation And he bare the sins of many Not of all as a Lapide here would have it because all are many c. And made intercession For those that with wicked hands crucified him Luke 23.34 so for others still Heb. 7.25 CHAP. LIV. Ver. 1. SIng O barren thou that didst not bear O Church Christian O Jerusalem that art above the mother of us all the purchase of Christs passion chap. 53. to whom thou hast been a bloody spouse Acts 20.28 an Acheldama or field of blood 1 Pet. 1.18 19. he hath paid dear for thy fruitfulnesse As the blood of beasts applied to the roots of trees maketh them sprout and bear more fruit so doth the blood of Christ sprinckled on the roots of mens hearts make them more fruitful Christians as it did the Gentiles whose hearts were purified by Faith Acts 15.9 See Gal. 4.27 The corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died there abode not alone but brought forth much fruit Joh. 12.44 For more are the children of the desolate The Christian Church made up of Jews and Gentiles shall have a more numerous and glorious off-spring then ever the Synagogue had Sarah shall have more issue then Hagar Hannah then Peninnah Ver. 2. Enlarge the place of thy tent Thus he speaketh after the custom of those Countries wherein was frequent use of tents neither is it
only in the Lord saith Paul The pride of Virginity is as foul a sin as Impurity saith Austin so here Ver. 25. That I will punish all them c Promiscuously and impartially That are circumcised Some read it The circumcised in uncircumcision Unregenerate Israel notwithstanding their circumcision are to God as Ethiopians Am. 9.7 Ver. 26. That are in the utmost corners Heb. Praecisos in lateribus polled by the corner Tempora circumradunt which was the Arabian fashion saith Herodotus See chap. 49.32 For all these Nations are uncircumcised sc In heart though circumcised in the flesh as now also the Turks are CHAP. X. Ver. 1. HEar ye the Word which the Lord speaketh Exordium simplicissimum saith Junius A very plain preface calling for attention 1. From the authority of the Speaker 2. From the duty of the hearers O house of Israel The ten Tribes long since captivated and now directed what to do say some The Jews say others and in this former part of the chapter those of them that had been carried away to Babylon with Jeconiah Vide Selden de diis Syris Ver. 2. Learn not the way of the heathens Their sinful customes and irregular religions meer irreligions And be not dismayed at the signes of heaven Which the blind heathens feared and deified and none did more then the Syrians the Jews next neighbours Of the vanity of judicial Astrology see on Esa 47.13 He who feareth God needs not fear the stars for All things are yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.21 Muleasses King of Tunis a great star-gazer fore-seeing by them as he said the losse of his Kingdom and life together left Africa that he might shun that mischief but thereby he hastened it Anno 1544. God suffereth sometimes such fond predictions to fall out right upon men for a just punishment of their curiosity For the heathen are dismayed at them Therefore Gods people should not if it were for no other reason but that only See Mat. 6.32 Let Papists observe this Caeremoniae populotum Ver. 3. For the customes of the people are vain Their rites confirmed by custome their imagery for instance a very magnum nihil whether ye look to the Efficient Matter Form or End of those mawmets For one cutteth a tree out of the Forrest See Isa 40.2 and 44.12 17. which last place Jeremy here seemeth to have imitated Ver. 4. They deck it wâ—th silver and with gold Gild it over to make it sightly goodly gods therewhile See Esa 4.4 That it move not Vt non amittat saith Tremellius that it lose not the cost bestowed upon it Ver. 5. They are upright as the Palm-tree Which it straight tall smooth and in summo prosert fructus and beareth fruits at the very top of it Ver. 6. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee None of all these dii minutuli these dunghil deities are worthy to be named in the same day with thee Thou art great God is great Psal 77.13 Greater Job 33.12 Greatest Psal 95.3 Greatnesse it self Psal 145.3 He is a degree above the superlative Think the same of other his names and attributes many of which we have here mentioned in this and the following verses which are therefore highly to be prized and oft to be perused Leonard Lessius a little before his death finished his book concerning the fifty Names of Almighty God Ex vita Lessii often affirming that in that little book he had found more light and spiritual support under those grievous fits of the stone which he suffered then in all his voluminous Commentaries upon Aquinas his summs which he had well-nigh fitted for the Presse Ver. 7. Who would not fear thee O King of Nations Tremble at thy transcendent greatnesse thy matchlesse Majesty power and prowesse See Mal. 1.14 Rev. 15.4 Psal 103.19 with the Notes Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations Who used to deifie their wise men and their Kings Ver. 8. But they are altogether brutish and foolish The wise men are for that when they knew there was but one only true God as did Pythagoras Socrates Plato Seneca c. they detained the truth in unrighteousnesse and taught the people to worship stocks and stones Rom. 1.21 22 23. The Nations are because they yeeld to be taught devotion by images under what pretext soever Considerentur hic subterfugia Papistarum Pope Gregory first taught that images in Churches were Laey-mens books A doctrine of devils Ver. 9. Silver spread into plates See Isa 40.19 Is brought from Tarshish From Tarsus or Tartessus Ezek. 27.12 from Africa saith the Chaldee Idolaters spare for no cost And gold from Vphaz The same with Phaz Job 28.17 Or with Ophir as some Aurum Obzyrum They are all the work of cunning men Quaerunt suos Phidias Praxiteles but how could those give that deity which themselves had not Ver. 10. But the Lord is the true God Heb. Jehovah is God in truth not in conceit only or counterfeit He is the living God and an everlasting King See on ver 6. At his wrath the earth shall tremble The earth that greatest of all lifeless creatures And the Nations shall not be able Lesse able to stand before him then a glasse-bottle before a Cannon-shot Ver. 11. Thus shall ye say unto them Confession with the mouth is necessary to Salvation This verse written therefore in the Syriack tongue which was spoken at Babylon is a formulary given to Gods people to be made use of by them in detestation of the Idolatries of that City The Gods that made not the heaven and the earth The vanity of Idols and heathenish-gods is set forth 1. By their impotency 2. Frailty Quid ad haec respondebunt Papistae aut qualem contradictoriae reconciliationem afferent Ver. 12. He hath made the earth by his power Here we have the true Philosophy and right original of things Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Almighty God made the earth the main bulk and body of it Gen. 1.1 He alone is the powerful Creatour the provident disposer the prudent preserver of all things both in heaven and in earth therefore the only true God Ver. 13. When he uttereth his voyce Again when he thundereth Ps 29.3 it raineth a main lighteneth in the midst of the rain which is a great miracle and bloweth for life as we say no man knowing whence or whither Joh. 3.8 All which wondrous works of God may well serve for a Theological Alphabet and cannot be attributed to any god but our God And he causeth the vapours to ascend See Psal 135.7 with the Notes Ver. 14. Every man is brutish in his knowledge Or Every man is become more brutish then to know That was therefore an hyperbolical praise given by Philostratus to Apollonius Non doctus sed natus sapiens that he was not taught but born a wise man See Job 11.12 Rom. 1.22 with the Notes Every man is become
to leave their old Mumpsimus for the new Sumpsimus so powerful is usage and so sweet our present though perverse opinions and perswasions For then had we plenty of victuals Just so doth the Church of Rome borrow her Mark from the Markets plenty or cheapnesse of all things But one chief reason of that is the scarcity of mony that was in our fathers dayes and the plenty thereof that is in ours by means of the rich mines in the West-Indies not discovered till the dayes of Henry the seventh Hollinshead saith that some old men he knew who told of times in England when it was accounted a great matter that a Farmer could shew five shillings or a Noble together in silver And were well and saw no evil Vbi utilitas ibi pietas saith Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si ventri bene si lateri Horat. and deos quisque sibi utiles cudis saith Another for profit men will be of any religion If the belly may be filled the back fitted c. modo serveat olla so the pot may boil much will be yielded to It is well observed that the Papists are most corrupt in those things where their profit ease or honour is engaged In the doctrine of the Trinity and other points that touch not upon these they are sound Ver. 18. But since we have left off to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven we have wanted all things This was non-causa pro causa Not unlike hereunto was that grosse mistake of certain Lutheran Ministers Burroughs on Hos tom 1. pag. 465. who not long since consulting at Hamborough about the causes and cure of Germanies calamities concluded it was because their images in Churches were not adorned enough which therefore they would procure done Ver. 19. And when we burnt incense to the Queen of heaven So the Papists also call the Virgin Mary and idolize her as the word here rendered to worship her doth properly signify idoli rejectitii appellationem in eam transferentes Did we make her cakes without our men i. e. Without our husbands privity and approbation But is that a sufficient excuse should not God be obeyed rather then men Plutarch Moral 318. A wife is not to perform such blind obedience to her husband as Plutarch prescribeth when he layeth it as a law of wedlock on the wife to acknowledge and worship the same gods and none else but those whom her husband honoureth and reputeth for gods Ver. 20. Then Jeremiah said unto all the people The Prophet without any speciall command from God moved with a spirit of zeal confuteth that blasphemy of theirs and sheweth plainly that idolatry maketh no people happy but the contrary though this be an old plea or rather cavil answered fully long since by Cyprian against Demetrian Augustine de civt Dei and Orosius Ver. 21. Ye and your fathers your Kings and you Princes This was another thing they stood much upon that their fathers had done it so had their Grandees If men can say We have sinned with our fathers they think t is enough The heretike Dioscurus cried out I hold with the Fathers I am cast out with the Fathers c. yea Hierom once desired leave of Augustine to err with seven Fathers whom he found of his opinion But what saith the Scripture Be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 And what said a great Politician I will not live by example but by rule neither will I pin my faith on anothers sleeve because I know not whither he may carry it Did not the Lord remember them When you thought he had forgot them Sin may sleep a long time like a sleeping debt not called for of many years c. Ver. 22. So that the Lord could no longer bear His abused mercy turned into fury See chap. 15.6 Ver. 23. Because ye have burnt incense c. See chap. 42.21 43.7 Ver. 24. Hear the Word of the Lord Not my word only See on ver 20. Ver. 25. Ye and your wives Who ought to be the better but are much worse the one for the other the devil having broken your head with your own rib We will surely perform our vowes A little better then many Popish votaries and others also not a few do now-a days Erasm Col. in Naufr not unlike him in Erasmus who in a storm promised the Virgin a picture of wax as big as St. Christopher but when he came to shore would not give a tallow-candle Ver. 26. Behold I have sworn by my great name Jehovah my incommunicable name my proper name or by myself and that 's no small oath Ver. 27. Behold I will watch over them for evil I will watch them a shrewd turn as we say I will take my time to hit them when I may most hurt them Ver. 28. Yet a small number Methe mispar men of number a poor few still God reserveth a remnant for royal use Shall know whose word shall stand Because they are so peremtory and resolute I shall try it out with them I shall be as crosse as they yet still in a way of Justice Ver. 29. That I will punish you in this place Which you looked upon as a place of surest security and safeguard and would not harken to me opening my bounties-bosom to you at home Ver. 30. Behold I will give Pharaoh Hophra Called also Vaphres and by Herodotus Apries Antiq. l. 10. c. 11. Hieron in Thren cap. 4. being nephew to Necho who slew Josiah A very proud Prince he saith Apries was slain by Amasis who succeeded him but others gather from this text and from Ezek. 29.19 31.11 15 18. that he was slain by Nebuchadnezzar Josephus also and Jerom say as much CHAP. XLV Ver. 1. THe word that Jeremiah the Prophet spake unto Baruch It is thought that Jeremiah preached his last when he prophecyed in the foregoing Chapter the destruction of Pharaoh Hophra and together with him of the Jewes that were found in Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar He seemed to them to speak stones as the proverb hath it and therefore they stoned him to death as Epiphanius and others report Lapides loquitur This word that he spake to Baruch belongeth to chap. 36. and should have been annexed unto it in a natural order as appeareth both by the date and by the matter Baruch had with much pains and patience first written out Jeremiah's Prophecies and then read them to the people and afterwards to the Princes For this piece of work he expected belike some good piece of preferment as the Apostles also did for their forsaking all and following Christ Mat. 18.19.20 c. Thus flesh will shew it self in the best and in many things we offend all But instead of any such thing Baruch together with his Master Jeremy was sought for to be slaughtered and besides he meets with here a contrary Prophecy wherby before he is comforted he is sharply reproved 1. For a
cannot be quiet Or There is sorrow as upon the sea which cannot rest Ver. 24. And fear hath seized on her Horrorem fâ—brilem apprehendit Piscat Shee shaketh as in a fit of an Ague Ver. 25. How is the City of praise not left Why is so praise-worthy and renowned a City so demolished See ver 23. Cause enough there was because it was a valley of vanity Am. 1. and Comus Venus and Bacchus there made their divident and shared their Devoto's Ver. 26. Therefore her young men Or Surely Ver. 27. And I will kindle a fire See on Amos 1.4 Ver. 28. Concerning Kedar These Kedarens the off-spring of Kedar-Jshmael's son Gen. 25.13 dwelt or rather abode for most part in Arabia the stony or desart Hagarens they were also called and afterward Saracens of Saraca their chief City saith Stephanus or of Sarach for more credit sake as others hold Lib. de Vâ—bib Of this people came Mahomet that grand-Impostour and the Turks who have now gotten into their hands so great a part of the habitable world A rude people they were in Jeremye's dayes and uncivilized yet because wicked they are here doomed And concerning the Kingdoms of Hazor Their bead-city Ver. 29. Their tents and their flocks For which they were termed Scenitae and Nomades as living a pastoral life in tents And they shall cry unto them Fear is on every side Magor-misabib might be their word wherewith loudly-uttered they might affright and overcome these enemies like as the Britones our Ancestours once overcame a mighty Army of Saxons and Picts in this Land by ringing out the word Hallelujah with a courage among the mountains nigh to the which the enemy had encamped Ussiâ—r de Brit. Eccles primord Ver. 30. Flee get you far off See on ver 8. Ver. 31. Arise go you up into the wealthy Nation Or quiet Nation that dwelleth without care Heb. in confidence but such a security doth not secure any but oft betrayeth Infelix felicitas quae non est in Domino saith Oecolampadius here There 's no true happinesse or safety but in God Ver. 32. Them that are in the uttermost corners Or that have the corners of their hair cut See chap. 9.26 and 25.23 Ver. 33. And Hazor shall be a dwelling for Dragons See chap. 9.11 and 12.22 and 51.37 Ver. 34. Against Elam i. e. The Medes say some the Persians say others or a people betwixt both whose head-City was that Susa where Alexander found fifty thousand talents of gold besides silver Aristagoras also thus cheared up his souldiers that besieged it This City if you can but take Cum Jove de divitiis licet certetis you may vie with Jove himself for wealth These Elamites joyned with the Chaldees against the Jews when they first wasted Judea and carried away Jehoiakim Hence they are here so threatned for their cruelty then Ver. 35. Behold I will break the bow of Elam In the use whereof they excelled being very skilful Archers Esa 22.6 Gunnes now-adayes carry it as bowes of old Ver. 36. And upon Elam will I bring the four winds i. e. Great concussions enemies on all sides Scythians and Sarmatians especially out of the North. Calvin thinketh this Prophesie was fulfilled after Alexanders death when his captaines strove most fiercely for the Kingdoms of the earth which he had subdued Ver. 37. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed q. d. They trust in their great strength and hold themselves insuperable but I can easily dispirit and so destroy them See ver 5.14 29. Diod. Ver. 38. And I will set my throne in Elam i. e. I will solemnly execute my judgements upon these people as if I sate in my Judgement-seat in a publick Court in the midst of them Ver. 39. I will bring again the captivity of Elam Principally by bringing them to Jesus Christ In vit Constant Claruit Theod Anno 390. And so we read Act. 2.9 of Parthians Medes and Elamites amongst those first and best believers Eusebius also telleth us that in the Council of Nice there was a Bishop from Persia And Theodoret a very good man withal a great writer served the Churches of the Elamites CHAP. L. Ver. 1. THe word that the Lord spake against Babylon Which was built by Nimrod as Ninive was afterwards by his nephew Ninus Gen. 10.11 Of the greatnesse of this City besides what we read in holy writ much may be read in Herodotus and Pliny It was the head-City of the Assyrian and Chaldaean Monarchy which lasted above 1700. years till Cyrus the Persian took the Kingdom Esay prophesied against it in several Chapters Habakkuk maketh it his whole businesse Jeremy had set forth how Sheshak that is Balthasar should drink the dregs of the cup of Gods wrath chap. 25.26 Here and in the next Chapter he discourseth it more at large shewing how it was that Babylon was to drink of that cup and for more certainty it is spoken of in this prophesie as already done Ver. 2. Declare ye among the nations Let all take notice of the good news there shall be a general goal-delivery sing therefore Jo triumphe Say Babylon is taken So Esay 21.9 Bel is confounded This Bel was Nimrod whose nephew Ninus set him up for a god Merodach a restorer of their Empire whereof Nimrod had been founder was likewise idolized Merodach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive sce tâ—ifer Chaldaicâ appellatione They are called dirty deities faeditates stercora a name good enough for them and said to be confounded See Esa 46.1 Sorrows also because their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God Psal 16.4 Ver. 3. For out of the North there cometh up a Nation against her i. e. Out of Media and Persia which lay Northward from Chaldaea The Jews had their bane out of the North as had been foretold Jer. 1.14 15. sc from Babylon And now Babylon is to be baned from the same quarter This was some comfort doubtlesse to the poor Jews in captivitie Which shall make her land desolate This was not fulfilled till many years after Cyrus indeed began it but Seleucus Nicanor finished it Plin. lib. 6. cap. 26. by building near unto it another great City called Seleucia Ver. 4. In those dayes and at that time Destructio Babel salus est populo Dei so shall it be at the ruine of Rome The children of Israel shall come and the children of Judah together In better times they could not agree but when they were both in a weeping condition misery bred unity as it did also betwixt Hooper and Ridley when they were both in prison for the truth Going and weeping Teares of sorrow for their sinnes and teares of joy for their deliverance by Cyrus but especially by Christ They shall go and seek the Lord their God Whom they had long been without and do now long and linger after Ver. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces
gracelesnesse She remembreth not her last end i. e. What a black tail of plagues sin draweth after it Plura de extremis loqui pars ignaviae est Tacit. lib. 2. Hist and that for all these things she must come to Judgment Memorare novissima is a good preservative from sin but most men are of Otho the Emperours mind who thought it a piece of dastardy to speak or think much of death whereas Moses assureth us that by keeping out the thoughts of death we keep our spirits void of true magnanimity and that one of those that will consider their latter end would chase a thousand Deut 32.30 Therefore she came down wonderfully Heb. with wondermentâ— Her incogitancy and inconsideratnesse together with the licentious wickednesse following thereupon being more heavy then a talent of lead Zach. 5.7 brought her down with a powder as we say ita ut ad miraculum corruerit O Lord behold mine affliction If not me as utterly unworthy yet mine affliction as thou once didst Hagar's Gen. 16.13 and if I may obtain no favour yet why should the enemy insult to thy dishonour Deut. 32.27 Psal 35.26 38.16 Jer. 48.26 42. Zeph. 2.20 Ver. 10. The adversary The common enemy both of God and us out of hatred of the truth and the professors thereof Hath spread out his hand His plundring and sacrilegious hand Vpon her pleasant things But especially those that were consecrated to the service of God in the Temple The Rabbines here by pleasant or desirable things understand principally the book of the Law which say they the Moabites and the Ammonites sought for in the Temple that they might burn it because therein was forbidden their admission into the Church for ever Ver. 11. All her people sigh And so think to ease their grief They shall seek bread The staff of life which without repaire by nutrition would be soon extinct so in the spiritual life which made Job prefer the word before his necessary food There is a famine of the Word which is much worse Amos 8. Isa 5. Pray against it and prevent it They have given their pleasant things for meat Which must be had at any rate much more must the food of the soul Act. Mon. 750. Keckerm praefat Geograph Our forefathers gave five Markes or more for a good book a load of hay for a few Chapters of St. James or of St. Paul in English saith Mr. Fox The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering voyage to the West Indies when he had shewed his Maps though our Henry the seventh loth to part with mony slâ—ghted his proffers and thereby the golden mines were found and gained to the Spanish Crown Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life which next to his soul should be most dear unto him Our ancestours in Queen Maries dayes were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives To relieve the soul Heb. to make the soul come again For Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est Life must be fetcht again by food when it is fainting away See O Lord and consider Quam delicata epulatrix facta sim to what hard meat I am held to how strait an allowance See it and be sensible of my prisoners pittance and how I have made many a meals meat upon the promises when I have wanted bread as that good woman once said Ver. 12. Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by the way Siste viator Stay passenger hast not a tear to shed c. Sanchez thinks that this is Jerusalem's Epitaph made by her self as to be engraven on her tomb to move compassion The Septuagint have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hei ad vos subaudi clamo Woe and Alasse cry I to you Make ye nothing of my misery I wish the like may never befal you Ne sit super vos for so some render the words Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow What we see in the water seemeth greater then it is so in the waters of Marah See chap. 3.1 T is sure that no temptation taketh us but what is humane or common to man 1 Cor. 10.13 But what did the man Christ Jesus suffer All our sufferings are but chips of his cross saith Luther not worthy to be named in the same day c. Wherein the Lord hath afflicted me This was yet no smal allay to her grief that God had done it The Stoicks who held that all came by destiny were noted for their patience or rather tolerance and aequanimity in all conditions Ver. 13. Form above hath he sent fire into my bones Like as when the marrow and natural moisture is dryed up by a violent fever or rather as when the solid parts of bodies below are lightening-struk from above and scorcht by these sulphureous flames that pierce unto them And it prevailed against them Or. And he ruled it viz. the fire i. e. he directed and disposed it He hath spred a net for my feet And so hamperd me an unruly creature ut constricta fuerim in ruinam that there is no escaping from him yea the more I strive to get out the faster I stick He hath turned me back Laid me on my back He hath made me desolate and faint My calamities come thick one in the neck of another words are too weak to utter them and yet here is very great copy and variety of words so that Paschasius saith this book may well be called the Lamentations of Lamentations like as Solomon's Song is called for its excellenty The Song of Songs Ver. 14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand Compactum est Or is bound upon his hand that is the Lord carrieth them in his continual remembrance They are wreathed Wrapped and wreathed together as a strong cord My sins are twisted together saith One and sadly accented so are the punishments of my sins saith the Church here neither can I get free but as the heifer by wriggling against the yoke galleth her neck so do I. And come up upon my neck Praeclarum scilicet monile torques mearum virtutum index insigne He hath made my strength to fall Heb. he hath caused my power to stumble i. e. so to stumble as to fall for he who stumbleth and yet falleth not getteth ground From whom I am not able to arise Only God can raise me and it is a work worthy of God who Dejicit ut relevet premit ut solatia praestet Ver. 15. The Lord hath trodden under foot As unsavory salt that is he hath covered with the greatest contempt All my mighty men Vulg. My Magnifico's or Gallants in whom I too much trusted In the midst of me In the very bosom of their mother as Caracalla killed his brother Geta consecrating the sword wherewith he
and sith they think us not worthy to breath in the common aire whom thou hast made heires of the world together with faithful Abraham our Progenitour destroy them from under these heavens of thine in the compass and cope whereof thou raignest and rulest all From under the heavens of the Lord Do thou O Christ to whom the Father hath committed all judgment root them out from under the heavens of thy heavenly Father Thus some Paraphrase the words and observe therehence the mystery of the Trinity like as they do from Gen. 19.24 CHAP. IV. Pet. à Figueir Ver. 1. HOw is the gold become dim How by way of wonderment again as chap. 1.2 q. d. Quo tanto scelere hominum qua tanta indignatione Dei What have men done and how hath God been provoked that there are such strange alterations here all on the sudden By gold and fine gold here understand the Temple overlaid by Solomon with choice gold or Gods people his spiritual Temple who had now lost their lustre and dignity The stones of the Sanctuary are poured out Come tumbling down from the demolished Temple Ver. 2. The precious sons of Zion Those Porphyrogeniti as the Greek Emperours children were called Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because born and bred up in a room made up of precious stones Understand it of the Jews in general Gods peculiar people precious in his sight and therefore honourable Isa 43.4 of Zedekiahs sons in particular who as did also the rest of the Jewish Nobility if Josephus may be beleeved poudered their hair with gold dust Antiq. l. 8. c. 7. to the end that they might glister and sparkle against the beams of the Sun The precious children of the Church are all glorious within by means of the graces of the Spirit that golden oyle Zach. 4.12 and the blessings of God out of Zion Psal 134.3 which are far beyond all other the blessings of heaven and of earth As earthen pitchers Weak and worthlesse Ver. 3. Even the sea-monsters Heb. Whales or Seales which being Amphibii have both a willingnesse Vulg. Lamiae and a place convenient to suckle their whelps The daughter of my people is become cruel She is so perforce being destitute of milk for want of food but much more by feeding upon them ver 10. and chap. 2.20 Oh what a mercy is it to have meat and how inexcusable are those unnatural mothers that neglect to nurse their children not out of want but wantonnesse Surely as there is a blessing of the womb to bring forth so of the brests to give suck Gen. 49.25 and the dry breasts and barren womb have been taken for a curse Hos 9.14 as some interpret that text Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth For want of suck That was a miracle which is recorded of the old woman of Bolton in Lancashire who took up a poor child that lay crying at the breasts of her dead mother slain among many others by Prince Ruperts party and laying it to her own dry breasts that had not yeelded suck for above twenty years before on purpose to still it had milk came to nourish it to the admiration and astonishment of all beholders This and another like example of Gods good providence for the releif of little ones whom their mothers could not relieve may be read of in Mr. Clarks Mirror for Saints and Sinners Edit 3. fol. 495 507. And no man breaketh it unto them The parents either not having it for them or not having an heart to part with it to them Ver. 5. They that did feed delicately Such uncertainty there is of outward affluence Our Richad the second was famished to death Speed Lib. 3. c. 4. Henry Holland Duke of Excester grand-child to John of Gaunt was seen to run on foot bare-legged after the Duke of Burgundy's train begging his bread for Gods sake This I saw saith Philip de Comines This Henry was brother in law to King Edward the fourth from whom he fled They that were brought up in scarlet Qui nutriebantur in croceis sen cocceis In fimetis victum quaeritant prae inopia Jun. that were gorgeously arrayed or that rolling on their rich beds wrapped themselves in costly coverlets Embrace dunghils There take up their lodgings and there also are glad to find any thing to feed on though never so course and homely The Lapwing is made an Hieroglyphick of infelicity because he hath as a coronet upon the head and yet feedeth upon the worst of excrements It is pitty that any child of God washt in Christ's blood should bedabble his scarlet robe in the stinking guzzle of the worlds dunghill that any one who hath heretofore soared as an Eagle should now creep on the ground as a bettle or wallow as a swine in the mire of sensuality Ver. 6. For the punishment of the iniquity of Zion is greater For Sodom was destroyed by Angels Zion by malicious men The enemies were not enriched by Sodom as they were by Zion Sodom was destroyed in an instant not so Zion for she had her punishment piecemeal first a long seige and then the loss of all after a world of miseries sustained in the seige Julius Caesar was wont to say It is better once to fall then alwaies to hang in suspence Augustus wished that he might dye suddenly His life he called a Comedy and said that he thought he had acted his part therein pretty handsomly Now if he might soon passe through death he would hold it an happinesse Souldiers wish is thus set forth by the Poet quid enim concurritur horae Momento aut cita mors venit aut victoria laeta It is the ancient and manful fashion of the English who are naturally most impatient of lingering mischiefs to put their quarrels to the trial of the sword Speed 963. as the Chronicler observeth Ver. 7. Her Nazarites Who served God in a singular way of abstinence above other men These had their rules given them Num. 6. which whiles they observed They were purer then snow whiter then milk Temperance is the mother of beauty as luxury is of deformity This is nothing to the Popish Votaryes those Epicures and Abby-lubbers Quorum luxuriae totus non sufficit orbis Some by Nazarites here understand their Nobles and such as wore coronets on their heads Nezar is a crown 2 Sam. 1.10 2 Kings 11.12 thus Joseph was a Nazarite Gen. 49.26 So Daniel and his three Associates in whom that was verified Gratior est pulchro veniens in corpore virtus Ver. 8. Their visage is blacker then a coal Heb. their visage is more darkned then blacknesse sc With famine fear grief and car those vultures have so fed upon them that all sightlinesse and lovelinesse is lost Think the same of Apostates God may complain of such as Mic. 2.8 Ver. 9. They that be slain with the sword are better They suffer lesse pain in dying
difference pell-mell lords and losels together as the Poet also singeth Sub tua purpurei veniunt vestigia reges Deposito luxu turba cum paupere mixti Claudian Omnia mors aequat Ver. 15. I restrained the floods thereof I made them keep home as mourners use to do And I caused Lebanon to mourn for him Heb. To be black i. e. in mourning-habit Athenienses non nisi atrati sapiunt said one Ver. 16. I made the Nations shake at the sound of his fall As the earth seems to shake at the fall of some mighty Cedar Sic subito casu quae valuere ruunt Shall be comforted In so noble a companion and partaker of their misery Confer Esa 14. Ver. 17. They also went down into hell with him It was wont to be said that hell was paved with Kings crests and shavellings bald-pates Henry the eight was told on his death-bed that he was now going to the place of Kings See Esa 30.33 what a coile kept this Esar-haddon in his time Oecolamp as being superstitibus terror praemortuis laetitia complicibus exitium sui ipsius ruina Ver. 18. To whom art thou like He fitly returneth to Pharaoh applying all this discourse to him In the midst of the uncircumcised Chap. 28.10 This is Pharaoh This is like that of the Poet Hic finis Priami fatorum hic exitus illum Virg. Aeneid lib. 2. Sorte tulit CHAP. XXXII Ver. 1. IN the twelfth month About a year and half after the City was taken Ver. 2. Take up a lamentation i. e. A lamentable Prophecy destructive to the Egyptians and it is very likely that they heard of it but heeded it not tanquam monstra marina Dei verba praetereuntes Thou art like a young lion For pride fiercenesse and cruelty And thou art as a whale Or Crocodile thou domineerest over sea and land far and wide thou playest Rex Thou camest forth with thy rivers With the armes of thy Nilus into the Midland-sea insanis bellis inquietans omnia breeding a great bustle in the Countries near adjoyning Ver. 3. I will therefore spread out my net Thou shalt be taken in an evil net when thou little thinkest of it Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him Psal 140.11 Look how Leo cassibus irretitus ait Si praescivissem and as the whale enclosed by fishers is lugg'd to land done to death cleft in peices with axes his flesh being made a prey for birds and beasts his blood far and near drenching the earth so shall it fare with Pharaoh and his forces Ver. 4. Then will I leave thee upon the land As whales are sometimes left by an ebbe whilst they pursue lesser fishes In June 1658. there was one so taken near Greenwich lately a peice of whose flesh was shewed unto me Oecol Ver. 5. With thy height Celsitudine tua with thy glory which thou holdest dearer then thy flesh or life Ver. 6. I will also water with thy blood Instead of thy river Nilus The land wherein thou swimmest Egypt where thou sportest as the whale doth in the mighty waters Natabunt colles valles cruore tuo Even to the mountains A most elegant Hyperbole the like whereto see 2 King 21.16 Ver. 7. And when I shall put thee out Or extinguish thee who art for thy power and glory as one of the worlds great Luminaries I will cover the heaven c. So great a fume or rather so vile a snuffe shall exhale that the heavens shall seem to be muffled c. It shall be once again deep darknesse over all the land of Egypt Hypallage Poetica Another Hyperbole Ver. 8. All the bright lights of heaven See ver 7. All this shall befal the world really and without an Hyperbole at the last day Mat. 24.29 Impiaque aeternam patientur saecula noctem Ver. 9. I will also vex Or grieve See Eccles 7.3 where the same word signifieth anger and sorrow Nebuchadnezzars growing greatnesse shall be a cut and a corrosive to them Ver. 10. When I shall brandish my sword As fetching my blow at them too and ayming where to hit them Every man for his own life Which he knows he hath forfeited and hath now great cause to fear sith his neighbours house is on fire Jam proximus ardet Ucalegon Ver. 11. The sword of the King of Babylon Here is that delivered plainly which was before parabolically Ver. 12. By the swords of the mighty Or of the Heroes or Giants The terrible of the nations Grassatores as Munster hath it inexpugnabiles as the Vulgar such as with whom there is no dealing Ver. 13. All the beasts thereof Egypt a most moist and fat Country was full of cattle Ver. 14. Then will I make their waters deep There shall not be men lef to derive them by ditches and channels into their grounds and pastures for the making of them fruitful And cause their rivers to run like oyle i. e. Smoothly and silently Lene sluit Nilus sed cunctis amnibus extat Claudian Vtilior nullas confessus murmure vires Ver. 15. When I shall make the land desolate See here the sad effects of sin and beware Then shall they know that I am the Lord Plerà que supra habuimus ideò sum brevior saith Lavater on ver 12. Ver. 16. This is the lamentation And this is the epilogue of this former Prophecy the latter followeth being of the self-same argument viz. a funeral dirge and exequy over Egypt Ver. 17. In the fifteenth day of the moneth i. e. Of the twelfth moneth ver 1. and about a fortnight after the former Prophecy God loves to foresignify and to do it often Ver. 18. Wail for the multitude Prophesy their destruction but doe it not without grief and regret Cast them down Do thou foretel it and I will not fail to fullfil it See Jer. 1.10 with the Note Let them know that hell gapeth for them and here I give thee the keyes thereof So God doth to every faithful Minister Matth. 16. not to Peter only nor to his pretended successor the Pope whom therefore Luther bravely slighted in these words of his Contemptus est à me Romanus favor furor I care neither for the Popes favour nor frowns Ver. 19. Whom dost thou passe in beauty What art thou better then other thy comperes and complices in sin Thou must also dance Down to hell Down to hell with the rest Be thou laid with the uncircumcised Strangers to the Covenant whereof Circumcision was a seal sinners the Chaldee here calleth them such as the devil sweeps Serm. of Repent p. 70. they are his birds saith Mr. Bradford Martyr whom when he hath well fed he will broach them and eat them chaw them and champ them world without end in eternal woe and misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cadaver Ver. 20. They shall fall Carkeises have their names both in Greek and Latine from falling Fit subitò funus
who so falleth not down and worshippeth c. Fire and sword are Idolaters best arguments But Conscience is the fountain and spring of duty and if that be not directed and awed by the Word of God in vain are Acts of Parliament and Proclamations though backed with menaces as if the spring of a clock be down in vain are all the wheels kept clean and put in order Ver. 7. All the people nations and languages fell down They that come of the yielding Willow and not of the sturdy Oak will yield with the time and ever be of the Kings religion In Queen Maries dayes here and so in the Palatinate lately scarce one in five hundred stood out but fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall in Autumn See on ver 5. Ver. 8. Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews All the Jews are accused because some refused to worship So still all the generation of the righteous must be charged with the pretended miscarriages of some few amongst them The world we see is no changeling antiquum obtinet The Jews indeed ever since the Captivity have abhorred idolatry and the Papists worshipping of images for which both Jews and Turks call them idolatrous Christians is a main scandal to them Spec. Eur. and a let to their conversion Ver. 9. They spake and said O King live for ever Thus they insinuate themselves by flattery so Act. 24.2 3. Ver. 10. Thou O King hast made a decree Kings decrees are much urged by such as are resolved to be of King Harries religion whether he stand for the old Mumpsimus or the new Sumpsimus Ver. 11. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth that he should be cast c. This with a graceless man is a swaying argument he will rather turn then burn as he came not frying into the world as one said in Queen Maries dayes so he cannot go frying out of it Aug. de â—iv D. lib. 18. c. 41. Epicurus in word confessed a God but indeed denyed him because Anaxagoras was put to death for denying God at Athens where Epicurus flourished Lib. 15. Ver. 12. There are certain Jews Everywhere spoken against as were afterwards Christians odio humani generis saith Tacitus hated for their religion Whom thou least set over the affaires This was it that irked these spiteful accusers Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious but who is able to stand before envy Prov. 27.4 Shadrach Meshac and Abednego Whom though thou hast highly preferred and by calling them by the names of thy gods engaged them to thy religion yet will they not yeild to it but be singular and refractory These men O King have not regarded thee Chald. have set no regard upon thee This was ever unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabant Ver. 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury His blood boyling at his heart as brimstone doth at the match for preventing whereof nature hath placed the heart near to the lungs ut cum irâ accenditur Pulmonis humore temperetur for an allay to the heat of it lest perturbations should boyle it into brine Commanded to bring Shadrach Who it seems were present at first with an holy boldness confronting their idolatries in the very teeth of the King and Nobles Daniel is excused by his absence and ignorance But perhaps Nebuchadnezzar might shew him the like favour as our Henry the eight did Cranmer who disputing zealously against the six Articles Act. Mon. 1037. was willed by the King to depart out of the Parliament-house into the Council-chamber for a time till the Act should passe and be granted which he notwithstanding with humble protestation refused to do and so its likely would Daniel who must therefore be excused as before Ver. 14. Is it true O Shadrach Meshac c. q. d. I can very hardly believe it Certè tu non occidisti patrem sure thou didst not kill thy father said Augustus Cesar once to a parricide whom he had in examination And Suetonius saith that it was usual with him to examine malefactors in that sort as if he could not believe any such thing of them Tremel Buxtoâ—f Some render the text Num de industria aut certo consilio Do ye this on set purpose to cross and provoke me others as Montanus Nunquid desolatio q. d. what you to oppose the command of a King If this be suffered what disorder yea desolation must needs follow Pride ever aggravateth any thing done against its own mind Ver. 15. Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear Many can no sooner hear flattering promises of preferment as it were Nebuchadnezzars instruments but they presently fall down and worship the Babylonish idol but these three Worthies were none such And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand What God is he Sure a mean God he were thou poor thimbleful of dust could he not stay thy hand and stop thy blasphemous mouth with a spadeful of mould and that in a trice Ver. 16. Shadrach Meshac and Abednego answered With an heroical faith and well-knit resolution A sound faith and a clear conscience saith one are able by their native puissance to pull the very heart as it were out of hell and with confidence and conquest to look even death and the devil in the face We are not careful to answer thee The Saint hath a Quietus est that supersedeth all his cares Philip. 4.6 Some render it Non necesse habemus As the King would admit no discussing his decree but would have it absolutely obeyed so they were at a point never to do it nor to be removed from their religion The heavens shall sooner fall said that Martyr then I will start or stir an inch from what I have professed With the like undaunted courage answered Cyprian the Proconsul Bâ—sil the Arrian Emperour Valens D. Taylor Stephen Gardiner Mr. Hawkes bloody Bonner A faggot will make you believe the Sacrament of the Altar said Bonner Act. Mon. 1445. No no answered Hawkes a point for your faggot what God thinks meet to be done that shall ye do and no more Paenae sunt pennae queis super astra vehor Ver. 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us And deliver us he will either from death or thorough it and we are by his grace in utrumque parati wholly at his dispose Never ask then O King Who is that God that shall deliver you Our God is in heaven and doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth He well knoweth how to deliver his out of temptations and to reserve the unjust be he King or Caytiffe unto the day of judgement to be punished 2 Pet. 2.9 From the burning fiery furnace Sic fortissimum Martyrem saith Ambrose of Laurentius may we as well say of these saevissima presecutoris flamma superare non potuit quod longe ardentius veritatis radiis