are lost people Det Deus ut admonitio haec adeo sit nobis omnibus commoda quam sit accommoda Vers 9. Who so removeth stones shall be hurt therewith So he that attempteth to loose and remove the joynts and pieces of a setled Government there is danger that like Sampson he 'l be crusht in the ruin So one gives the sense of it Pemble Hee that goeth about to remove a Ruler out of his place and to divide a setled Government that is at unity in it self undertaketh a dangerous peice of businesse Granger As he undertaketh a desperate work such shall his reward be It is evil medling with edged tools c. saith another Interpreter Some by stones here understand Land-marks which to remove was counted Sacriledge among the Romans Dim Halic and worthy of death What are they guilty and worthy of then Jerem. 6. that abrogate the good old Lawes of a Land or the good old wayes of God that have given rest to so many souls See the Note on Prov. 26.27 And he that cleaveth wood shall bee in danger thereby viz. of breaking his tools if not his shins specially if hee bee a bungler at it This is to the same sense with the three former similitudes Cyprian makes use of this text against Schismatiques Test ad Quirinum lib. reading it thus Scindens ligna periclitabitur in eo si exciderit ferrum Hee that cleaveth wood shall be indangered thereby if that the iron fall off Hierom by wood here understands Hereticks as being unfruitful and unfit for Gods building and makes this Note upon it Quamvis sit prudens doctus vir c. Although he be a wise and a learned man who with the sword of his discourse cutteth this knotty wood Hieron in loc he will bee endangered by it unlesse he be very careful Lib. 34. cap. 14 Vers 10. If the Iron be blunt Pliny calls iron the best and worst instrument of mans life and shewes the many uses of it as in plowing planting pruning plaining c. but abominates the use of it in warre and murthering weapons Porsena enjoyned the Romans Ne ferro nisi in agricultura uterentur saith hee Plin. that they should not use Iron but only about their Husbandry The Philistims took the like order with the disarmed Israelites 1 Sam. 13.19 among whom swords and spears were geasen shares and coulters they allowed them but so as that they must go down to the Philistims for sharpening Gregory compares the Devil to these Philistims blinding and blunting mens wits and understandings lest the light of saving truth should shine unto them These Edge-tools therefore must bee whetted by the use of holy Ordinances and much strength put to 2 Cor. 4.4 great pains taken virtutibus corroborabitur so the old Translation hath it But when all is done he must needsly be obtusè acutus which seeth not that wisdome is profitable to direct that is that whether the iron be blunt or sharp whetted or not whetted more strength added or not added 't is wisdome that rectifies all or the benefit of rectifying is wisdome There is none to that as David said of Galiah's sword Vers 11. Surely the Serpent will bite without enchantment It is for want of wisdome that the babbler or tongue-master as the Original hath it is nothing better than the most poysonous serpent nay in some respects worse For one Serpent stings not another as back-biters doe their best friends And whereas Serpents may be charmed or their poyson kept from the vitals contra Sycophantae morsum non est remedium as the Proverb hath it there is no help to be had for the biting of a Sycophant His tongue is full of deadly poyson saith St. James Again Jam. 3. Serpents usually hisse and give warning though the Septuagint here read non in sibilo the vulgar in silentio in silence and without hissing for without enchantment so doth not the slanderer and detractor he is a silent Serpent and like the Doggs of Congo which bite but bark not Purth Pilg. And therefore as all men hate a Serpent and fly from the sight of it so will wise men shun the society of a slanderer And as any one abhorres to be like to that old Serpent the Devil so let him eschew this evil Vers 12. The words of a wise mans mouth are gracious Heb. Are grace Ne sons quae grace Col. 4. they are nothing but grace so the French Translatour hath it such as render him gracious with God and men so Lyra glosseth it as being usually seasoned with Salt and ministring grace to the hearers But the lips of a fool swallow up himself Suddenly utterly unavoydably as the Whale did Jonas as the devouring sword doth those that fall under it as the grave doth all the living How many of all sorts in all ages have perished by their unruly tongues blabbing or belching our words Quae reditura per jugulum as Pliny phraseth it that were driven down their throates again by the wronged and aggrieved parties Cave ne feriat lingua tua collum tuum Scal. Ar. Prov. Take heed saith the Arabick Proverb lest thy tongue cut thy throat it is compared to a sharp razour doing deceit Psal 52.3 which instead of cutting the hair cuts the throat Vers 13. The beginning of his words are folly Hee is an inconsiderate Ideot utters incoherences pours forth a floud of follies his whole discourse is frivolous futilous To begin foolishly may befall a wise man but when hee sees it or hath it shewed unto him he will not persist Once have I spoken saith holy Job but I will not answer again yea twice but I will proceed no further Chap. 40.4 5. Much otherwise the fool and because hee will bee dicti sui dominus as vers 11. having lasht out at first he lancheth further out into the deep as it were of idle and evil prattle And if you offer to interrupt or admonish him the end of his talk is mischievous madnesse he blusters and lets fly on all hands laying about him like a mad-man And so wee have here as one saith the Serpent the Babbler spoken of in the eleventh verse wreathed into a circle his two ends head and tayl meeting together D. Jerm And as at the one end he is a Serpent having his sting in his head so at the other end he is a Scorpion having his sting in his tavl Vers 14. A fool also is full of words A very wordy man he is Boni oratoris est sermonem habere rebus parem Plut. and a great deal of small talk he has voces susque deque effutit inanes as Thuanus hath it he layes on more words than the matter will well bear And this custom of his is graphically expressed by an imitation of his vain tautologies A man cannot tell saith he what shall be after him and what shall be after him
ictus ictus vulnera saepe vulnera morâ— consequitur Wrath stirs up strife strife causeth ill words ill words draw on blows bloodshed and losse of life sometimes But hee that is slow to anger appeaseth strife Is as busie to stint strife as the other to stir it brings his buckets to quench this unnatural fire betwixt others and puts up injuries done to himself as Jonathan did when his Father flung a Javelin at him hee rose from Table and walked into the field David also though provoked yet hee as a deaf man heard not and was as one dumb in whose mouth there was â—â— reproof Such peaceable and peace-making men are blessed of God and â—â—ghly esteemed of men when wranglers are to be shunned as perilous persons Make not friendship with an angry man saith Solomon Prov. 22.24 And they are not much to bee regarded that with every little offensive breath or disgraceful word are blown up into rage that will not bee laid down without revenge or reparation to cure their credits Vers 19. The way of a slothful man is as a hedge of thorns Perplexed and let some so that hee gets no ground makes no riddance hee goes as if hee were shackled when hee is to go upon any good course so many perils hee casts and so many excuses hee makes this hee wants and that hee wants when in truth it is a heart onely that hee wants being wofully hampered and inthralled in the invisible chains of the Kingdome of darkness and driven about by the Devil at his pleasure This will bee a bodkin at these mens hearts one day to think I had a price in my hand but no heart to make use of it I foolishly held Germani dicunt Anser est in porta that a little with ease was best and so neglected so great salvation shifting off him that spake to mee from Heaven Heb. 12.25 and pretending some Lion in the way some Goose at the gate when I was to do any thing for my souls health Never any came to Hell saith one but had some pretence for their coming thither Vâ—a strata But the way of the righteous is made plain Or Is cast up as a Causey a Gabbatha John 19.13 a rode raised above the rest There seems to bee an allusion to that bank or causey that went from the Kings house to the Temple 1 Chron. 26.16 18. 1 King 10.5 2 Chron. 9.11 And the sense is that the godly by much practice of piety having gotten an habit dispatch duty with delight and come off with comfort See Isa 40.31 Vers 20. A wise Son maketh a glad Father See the Note on chap. 10.1 Vers 21. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of understanding See the Note on chap. 10.23 But a man of understanding walketh uprightly And hee doth it with delight as the opposition implies Christs burden is no more grievous to him Sinceritas screnitatis mater siâ—e qua tranquillitas omnis tempestas est Isidor than the wing is to the bird Matth. 11.30 1 John 5.3 His sincerity supplies him with a serenity the joy of the Lord as an oyl of gladness makes him lithe and nimble in waies of holiness And this spiritual joy in some is an habitual gladness of heart which constantly after assurance is found in them though they feel not the passions of joy but in others there are felt at sometimes the vehement passions of joy but not any constant gladnesse Vers 22. Without counsel purposes are disappointed The word here rendred Counsel signifies Secret because counsel should bee kept secret which to signifie the old Romans as Servins testifieth built the Temple of Consus their God of Counsel sub tecto in Circo in a publick place but under a covert And it grew to a proverb Romani sedendo vincunt The Romans by sitting in Counsel conquer their enemies But what a strange man was Xerxes and it prospered with him accordingly who in his expedition against Greece called his Princes together but gave them no freedome of speech Val. Max. lib. 9. cap. 5. nor liberty of Counsel Lest said hee to them I should seem to follow mine own counsel I have assembled you And now do you remember that it becomes you rather to obey than to advise Daniels Hist Such another was that James that reigned in Scotland in our Edward the fourths time Hee was too much wedded saith the Historian to his own opinion and would not endure any mans advice how good soever that hee fancied not hee would seldome ask counsel but never follow any See the Note on chap. 11.14 Vers 23. A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth It reflects comfort upon a man when hee hath spoken discreetly to the benefit and good content of others Some degree of comfort follows every good action as heat accompanies fire as beams and influence issue from the Sun which is so true that very Heathens upon the discharge of a good conscience have found comfort and peace answerable A word spoken in due season how good is it One seasonable truth falling on a prepared heart hath oft a strong and sweet operation Galeacius was converted by a similitude used by Peter Martyr reading on 1 Corinth Junius was reduced from Atheism by conference with a country-man of his Luther having heard Staupicius say that that is kinde repentance which begins from the love of God ever after that time the practice of repentance was the sweeter to him Also this speech of his took well with Luther Melch. Adam Doctrina praedestinationis incipit à vulneribus Christi The doctrine of predestination begins at Christs wounds Melancthon tells how that one time when Luther as hee was naturally passionate fell into a great distemper upon some provocation he quickly quieted him by reciting this verse Vince animos iramque tuam qui catera vincis At the hearing hereof Luther curbs in his passion and smiling said Non volumus de his amplius sed de aliis colloqui Joban Manâ— loc com Wee 'l talk no more of these matters Vers 24. The way of life is above to the wise Hee goes an higher way than his neighbour even in his common businesses because they are done in Faith and Obedience Hee hath his feet where other mens heads are and like an heavenly Eagle delights himself in high-flying Busied hee may bee in mean low things but not satisfied in them as adequate Objects A wise man may sport with children but that is not his business Domitian spent his time in catching flyes and Artaxerxes in making hafts for knives but that was the baseness of their spirits Wretched worldlings make it their work to gather wealth as children do to tumble a snow-ball they are scattered abroad throughout all the land as those poor Israelites were Exod. 5.12 to gather stubble not without an utter neglect of their poor souls But what I wonder will these men do when Death
Church and take away you so worthy a workman and labourer in the Lords Vineyard Acts and Mon. 1744. c And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing Wise a man may bee and yet not so apt and able to wise others Those wise ones that can wise others so as to turn them to righteousness shall shine as the brightness of the firmament yea as the Stars Dan. 12.3 they do so whilst upon earth Wisdome makes their very faces to shine Acts 6 15. as St. Stephens did and as Holy Jobs whiles hee was in a prosperous condition Chap. 29.8 9 10. Jobab hee was then the same some think that is mentioned Gen. 36.33 as when in distress his name was contracted into Job And then though himself were otherwise wise hee might want an Interpreter One of a thousand for such are rare every man cannot sell us this precious oyl Matth. 25.9 to shew unto him his uprightness that is the righteousness of his own experience how himself hath been helped and comforted in like case or to clear up to an afflicted Job his spiritual estate and to shew him his Evangelical Righteousness Oh how beautiful are the feet of such an Interpreter I have seen thy face saith the poor soul to such as though I had seen the face of God Gen. 33.10 A mans wisdome maketh his face to shine Godliness is venerable and reverend Holy and Reverend is his name Psal 112. Gods Image is amiable and admirable Natural conscience cannot but stoop and do obeysance to it What a deal of respect did Nebuchadnezzar and Darius put upon Daniel Alexander the Great upon Jaddus the High-Priest Theodosius upon Ambrose Constantine upon Paphnutius kissing that eye of his that was bored out for the cause of Christ c Godly men have a daunting presence as Athanasius had and Basil to whom when Valens the Arrian Emperour came whiles hee was in holy exercises it struck such a terrour into him Greg. Orat. de lande Basilii that hee reeled and had fallen had hee not been upheld by those that were with him Henry the second of France being present at the Martyrdome of a certain Taylor burnt by him for Religion was so terrified by the boldness of his countenance Epit. hist Gall. 82. and the constancy of his sufferings that hee swore at his going away that hee would never any more bee present at such a sight And the boldness of his face shall bee changed Or doubled his conscience bearing him out and making him undaunted as it did David Psal 3. and the Dutch Martyr Colonus who calling to the Judge that had sentenced him to death desired him to lay his hand upon his heart and then asked him whose heart did most beat his or the Judges By this boldness Jonathan and his Armour-bearer set upon the Garrison of the Philistims David upon Goliah their Champion The Black-Prince was so called not of his colour Speed 688. but of his valour and dreaded acts in battel Vers 2. To keep the Kings commandement Heb. Mouth i. e. The express word of command go not here by guess or good intention lest you speed as that Scotch Captain did who not expecting Orders from his Superiours took an advantage offered him of taking a Fort of the Enemies Speed for which good service hee was knighted in the morning but hanged in the after-noon of the same day for acting without order And that in regard of the Oath of God Thine Oath of Allegiance to thy Prince This Papists make nothing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascenius scoffs King James for the invention of it They can swear with their mouths and keep their hearts unsworn as shee in the Comedy Mercatorum est stare juramentis say they at Rome They can assoil men of their allegiance at pleasure and slip their solemn Oaths as easily as Monkies do their Collars And I would this were the sin of Papists onely and that there were not those found even amongst us that keep no oaths further than makes for their own turn like as the Jews keep none unless they swear upon their own Torah Weems brought out of their Synagogues Vers 3. Bee not hasty to go out of his sight Turn not thy back discontentedly fling not away in a chase for this will be construed for a contempt As it was in the Earl of Essex Anno 1598. Dissention falling out between the Queen and him about a fit man for Governour of Ireland hee forgetting himself and neglecting his duty uncivilly turned his back with a scornful countenance Shee waxing impatient gave him a cuff on the ear bidding him bee gone with a vengeance Hee laid his hand upon his sword the Lord Admiral interposing himself hee swore a great oath Camd. Elisch fol. 494. that hee neither could nor would swallow so great an indignity nor would have born it at King Henry the Eighths hands and in great discontentment hasted from the Court But within a while after hee became submiss and was received again into favour by the Queen who alwaies thought it more just to offend a man than to hate him Blunts voyage pag. 97. The very Turks are said to receive humiliation with all sweetness but to bee remorseless to those that bear up Vers 4. Where the word of a King is there is power Ibi dominatio Hee hath long hands and can reach thee at a great distance as Mithridates did when with one letter he slew fourscore thousand Citizens of Rome Val. Max. lib. 9 that were scattered up and down his Kingdome for Trading-sake So Selimus the Great Turk Turk hist. fol. 885 in revenge of the loss received at the battel of Lepanto was once in a minde to have put to death all the Christians in his Dominions in number infinite Charls the Ninth of France is reported to have been the death of thirty thousand of his Protestant Subjects in one years space Anno 1572. See Dan. 5.19 And who may say unto him What dost thou viz. Without danger What safety can there bee in taking a Bear by the tooth or a Lion by the beard I dare not dispute said the Philosopher to the Emperour Adrian with him that hath thirty Legions at his command Neque in cum scribere qui potest proscribere Praescus praesentem Pontisicem redarguit Polycraticon conscripsit Jac. Rev. 145. nor write against him that can as easily undo mee as bid it to be done How be it Elias Micaiah John Baptist and other holy Prophets and Ministers have dealt plainly with great Princes and God hath secured them John Bishop of Salisbury reproved the Pope to his face and yet the Canonists say that although the Pope should draw millions of souls to Hell with him none may dare to say unto him What dost thou But Philip the Fair made bold with his Holiness when hee began his letter to him with Sciat Fatuitas Tua c. So did
head lack no oyntment That thou mayst look smooth and handsome See Matth. 6.16 17. Oyntments were much used with those Eastern people in Banquetings Bathings and at other times Luk. 7.46 Mat. 26.7 By garments here some understand the affections as Col. 3.8 12 which must alwayes be white i. e. cheerful even in times of persecution when thy garments haply are stained with thine own bloud By the head they understand the thoughts which must also be kept lithe and lightsome as anoynted with the oyl of gladnesse Crucem multi abominantur crucem videntes sed non videntes unctionem Crux enim inuncta est saith Bernard Many men hate the Crosse because they see the Crosse only but see not the Oyntment that is upon it For the Crosse is anoynted and by the grace of Gods holy Spirit helping our infirmities it becomes not only light but sweet not only not troublesome Aug. but even desirable and delectable Martyr etiam in catena gaudet Paul gloried in his sufferings his spirit was cheered up by the thoughts of them as by some fragrant oyntment Vers 9. Live joyfully with the Wife whom thou lovest As Isaac the most loving Husband in Scripture did with his Rebecca whom he loved Gen. 24.67 not only as his Country-woman Kins-woman a good Woman c. but as his Woman not with an ordinary or Christian love only but with a conjugal love which indeed is that which will make marriage a merry-age sweeten all crosses season all comforts She is called the Wife of a mans bosome because she should be loved as well as the heart in his bosome God took one of mans ribs and having built it into a Wife laid it again in his bosome so that she is flesh of his flesh yea she is himself as the Apostle argues and therehence enforceth this duty of love Ephes 5. Neither doth he satisfie himself in this argument but addes there blow to blow so to drive this nayl up to the head the better to beat this duty into the heads and hearts of Husbands All the dayes of the life of thy vanity Love and live comfortably together as well in age as in youth as well in the fading as in the freshnesse of beauty Which he hath given thee i. e. The Wife not the Life which hee hath given thee For marriages are made in Heaven as the Heathens also held God as he brought Eve to Adam at first so still he is the Paranymph that makes the match Prov. 18.22 and unites their affections A prudent Wife is of the Lord for a comfort as a froward is for a scourge All the dayes of thy vanity i. e. Of thy vain vexatious life the miseries whereof to mitigate God hath given thee a meet-mate to compassionate and communicate with thee and to bee a principal remedy for Optimum solatium sodalitium no comfort in misery can be comparable to good company that will sympathize and share with us For that is thy portion And a very good one too if she prove good As if otherwise Arist in Rhetor. Aristotle saith right he that is unhappy in a Wife hath lost the one half at least of his happinesse on earth And in thy labour which thou takest c. They that will marry shall have trouble in the flesh 1 Cor. 7.28 let them look for it and labour to make a vertue of necessity As there is rejoycing in marriage so there is a deal of labour i. e. of care cost and cumber Is it not good therefore to have a Partner such an one as Sarah was to Abraham a Peece so just cut for him as answered him right in every joynt Vers 10. Whatsoever thy hand findes to doe doe it with thy might Wee were made and set here to be doing of something that may doe us good a thousand years hence our time is short our task is long our Master urgent an anstere man c. work therefore while the day lasteth yea work hard as afraid to be taken with your task undone The night of death comes when none can work That 's a time not of doing work but of receiving wages Up therefore and be doing that the Lord may be with you Praecipita tempus mors atra impendet agenti Silius Castigemus ergo mores moras The Devil is therefore more mischievous because hee knowes he hath but a short time Rev. 12.12 and makes all the haste he can to out work the children of light in a quick dispatch of deeds of darknesse O learn for shame of the Devil as Latimer said once in another case therefore to doe your utmost because the time is short or rolled up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor 7.29 as sayls use to bee when the ship drawes nigh to the harbour This argument prevailed much with St. Peter to bestirre him in stirring up those hee wrote unto because hee knew that hee must shortly put off his tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.13 14. The life of man is the lamp of God saith Solomon God hath set up our lives as Alexander when hee sate down before a City did use to set up a light to give those within to understand that if they came forth to him whiles that light lasted they might have quarter as if otherwise no mercy was to be expected Vers 11. That the race is not to the swift Here the Preacher proveth what hee had found true by experience by the event of mens indeavours often frustrated that nothing is in our power but all carried on by a providence which oft crosseth our likeliest projects that God may have the honour of all Let a man be as swift as Asahel or Atalanta yet hee may not get the goal or escape the danger Speed The battel of Terwin in France fought by our Henry 8. was called the battel of spurres because many fled for their lives who yet fell as the men of Ai did into the midst of their enemies At Muscle-borough-field many of the Scots running away so strained themselves in their race Life of Edw. 6. by Sir John Heywood that they fell down breathlesse and dead whereby they seemed in running from their deaths to run to it whereas two thousand of them that lay all day as dead got away safe in the night Nor the battel to the strong As we see in the examples of Gideon Jonathan and his armour-bearer David in his encounter with Goliah Leonidas who with six hundred men worsted five hundred thousand of Xerxes host Dan. 11.34 They shall be holpen with a little help And why a little that through weaker means we may see Gods greater strength Zach. 4.6 Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord This Rabshakeh knew not and therefore derided Hezekiah for trusting to his prayers Esay 36.5 What can Hezekiah say to embolden him to stand out What I say saith Hezekiah I have words of my lips that is Prayer Prayer saith
sure to finde it as in hony-pots the deeper the sweeter Such as so eat are called Christs friends by a specialty and such as so drink his beloved as Gregory here well observeth and they onely do thus that hear the Word with delight turn it in succum sanguinem concoct it incorporate it as it were into their souls and are so deeply affected with it that like drunken men they forget and let go all things else that they may retain and practice it These are not drunk with wine wherein is excess but filled with the Holy Ghost Ephes 5.16 Vers 2. I sleep but my heart waketh It was no sound sleep that she took Shee did not short aloud in the Cradle of security as those do whom the Devil hath cast into a deep Lethargy but napped and nodded a little and that by candle-light too as those wise Virgins did Matth. 25.5 Shee slept with open eyes as the Lion doth shee slept but half-sleep the Spirit was willing to wake but the flesh was weak and overwayed it as it fared with those sleepy Disciples Matth. 26.41 Fain would this flesh make strange of that which the Spirit doth embrace O Lord how loth is this loitering sluggard to pass forth into Gods path said Mr. Sanders in a letter to his wife Act. Mon. fol. 1359. a little afore his death with much more to like purpose As in the state of Nature men cared not for grace but thought themselves well enough and wise enough without so in the state of Grace they are not so carefull as they should Heaven must bee brought to them they will scarce go seek it 1 Pet. 1.13 And as the seven tribes are justly taxed by Joshua for their negligence and sloth in not seeking speedily to possess the Land God had offered them Josh 18.2 So may the most of Gods people be justly rebuked for grievous security about the heavenly Canaan They content themselves with a bare title or hang in suspense and strive not to full assurance they follow Christ but it is as the people followed Saul trembling they are still troubled with this doubt or that fear and all because they are loth to be at the pains of working out their salvation Phil. 2.12 Something is left undone and their conscience tells them so Either they are lazy and let fall the watch of the Lord neglecting duty or else they lose themselves in a wilderness of duties by resting in them and by making the means their Mediatours or by pleasing themselves with the Church here in unlawful liberties after that they have pleased the Lord in lawful duties The flesh must bee gratified and such a lust fulfilled A little more sleep a little more slumber in Jezabels bed as Mr. Bradford was wont to phrase it Solomon must have his wine Act. Mon. and yet think to retain his wisdome Eccles 2.3 Samson must fetch a nap on Dalilahs knees till God by his Philistims send our summons for sleepers wake them in a fright cure security by sorrow as Physicians use to cure a Lethargy by casting the Patient into a Burning Feaver Cold diseases must have hot and sharp remedies The Church here found it so And did not David when hee had sinned away his inward peace and wiped off as it were Psal 51. all his comfortables It is the voyce of my beloved that knocketh Shee was not so fast asleep but that the hidden man of the heart as St. Peter calls him 1 Ep. 3.4 was awake and his ears arrect and attent so that shee soon heard the first call or knock of Christ whose care was to arrouse her that though shee slept a while through infirmity of the flesh yet shee might not sleep the sleep of death Psal 13.3 dye in her sins as those Jews did John 8.21 In the sweating sickness that reigned for many years together in this Kingdome those that were suffered to sleep as all in that case were apt to do they died within a few hours The best office therefore that any one could do them was To keep them waking though against their wills Sembably our Saviour solicitous of his Churches welfare and knowing her present danger comes calling and clapping at the door other heart and sweetly wooes admission and entertainment but misseth of it Hee knocketh and bounceth by the hammer of his Word and by the hand of his Spirit see Revel 3.20 with 2 Pet. 1.13 and if the Word work not on his people they shall hear the rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6.9 that they may by some means bee brought to summon the sobriety of their senses before their own judgements and seeing their danger to go forth and shake themselves as Sampson did Judg. 16. Open to mee my Sister my Love c. What irresistible Rhetorick is here what passionate and most pithy perswasions Ipsa Suada credo si loqui posset non potuisset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi quot verba tot tela quae sponsae animum percellant fodicent lancinent shee was not so dead asleep but that shee could hear at first and tell every tittle that he said And this she doth here very finely and to the full that shee may aggravate against her self the foulness of her fact in refusing so sweet an offer in turning her back upon so blessed and so bleeding an embracement the tearms and titles hee here giveth her are expounded before Vndefiled or perfect hee calleth her for her Dove-like simplicity purity and integrity For mine head is filled with dew i. e. I have suffered much for thy sake and waited thy leisure a long while and must I now go look my lodging Doest thou thus requite repulse thy Lord O thou foolish woman and unwise Is this thy kindness to thy friend Jer. 13.27 Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not bee made clean when shall it once bee It is the ingratitude that makes the Saints sinnes so hainous which otherwise would bee far less than other mens sith his temptations are stronger and his resistance is greater Oh when Gods grace shall come suing to us nay kneeling to us when Christ shall come with Hat in hand and stand bare-headed as here and that in foul weather too begging acceptance and beseeching us to be reconciled and we will not what an inexcusible fault is this Vers 3. I have put off my Coat Thus the flesh shews itself not onely weak but wayward treacherous and tyrannical rebell it doth in the best and reign it would if it might bee suffered This bramble would fain bee playing Rex and doth so other-whiles till hee be well buffeted as St. Paul served it 1 Cor. 9.27 and brought it into subjection But what a silly excuse maketh the Church here for her self Trouble mee not for I am in bed as hee said to his friend Luk. 11.7 My cloathes are off my feet are washed and I am composed to a settled rest But are you so might
sacred solemnities And everlasting joy upon their heads As an unfadable crown 1 Pet. 1.5 and 5. 4. they shall passe from the jawes of death to the joyes of heaven Joy and gladnesse i. e. Outward and inward say some And sorrow and sighing Their joyes shall be sincere and constant CHAP. XXXVI and CHAP. XXXVII FOr these two Chapters see 2 King 18 and 19. with the Notes See also 2 Chron. 32. CHAP. XXXVIII Ver. 1. IN those dayes was Hezekiah sick See 2 King 20.1 2. 2 Chron. 32.24 with the Notes Ver. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. See as before Ver. 9. The writing of Hezekiah Scriptum confessionis A song of thanksgiving set forth by Hezekiah and here inserted by the Prophet Isaiah as a publick instrument and lasting monument of Gods great goodnesse to him in his late recovery such a thankful man is worth his weight in the gold of Ophir Heathens in such a case were wont to hang up tables in the Temples of their gods Papists build Chappels erect Altars hang up Memories as they call them and vow presents to their hee-Saints and she Saints But amongst us alas it is according to the Italian Proverb When the disease is once removed God is utterly defrauded Sciapato il morbo fraudato il sancto Aegrotus surgit sed pia vota jacent We may be wondred at not without cause as the Emperour Constantine marvelled at his people that were newly become Christians I marvel said he how it comes to passe that many of my people are worse now than before they were Christians Ver. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes When I looked upon my self as a dead man Here he telleth us what passed betwixt God and him whilest he lay desperately sick The utmost of a danger escaped is to be recognized and recorded This will both instruct the judgement enlarge the heart and open the mouth I shall go to the gates of the grave He maketh the grave to have gates either by a poetical fiction or else by a proverbial expression So the gates of death Psal 9. 13. 107.18 See 1 Sam. 2.6 I am deprived of the residue of my years sc that I might have lived in a natural course Vox baec queritantis quidem est Quis enim vult mori prorsus nemo Nature shunneth death as its slaughter-man Ver. 11. I said I shall not see the Lord In the glass of his Ordinances his love whereunto made Hezekiah so loth to depart as also his delight in the Communion of Saints and his desire to do more good amongst them on all occasions This made good Paul in a strait also Philip. 1.23 24. I loved the man said Theodesius concerning Ambrose for that when he died he was more sollicitous of the Churches welfare then of his own Even the Lord Non videbo Jah Jah I shall not see the Lord of the Lord Leo Castrius Deum Dei vel Deum de Deo That is Christ in the flesh as I had well hoped to have done so some sense it Others say He redoubleth the word Jah to express his ardent affection to Gods service and to intimate his desire of life to that purpose Ver. 22. Ver. 12. Mine age is departed Or my generation or my habitation here I have no settled abode no continuing City but am flitting as a shepherds shed I have cut off like a weaver my life By my sins I have shortned my daies as Gen. 38.7.10 Or rather God as a weaver that hath finished his web cutteth me out of the Loom of life We know what the Poets fain of the Fates Clotho colum bajulat Lachesis trabit Atropos occat He will cut me off with pining sicknesse Or from the thrum for the same Hebrew word signifieth both because of the thinnes and weakness of it From day even to night So that by night I shall be dead as they story of the Ephemerobii and as Aristotle writeth that the River Hypanis in Thracia every day bringeth forth little bladders out of which come certain flies which are thus bred in the morning fledgd at noone and dead at night Ver. 13. I reckoned until morning And then at utmost I thought there would be an end of my life and pain together for what through troubles without and terrours within he was in a woe case even as if a Lion had broke all his bones Hoc sentiunt qui magnis febribus aestuant saith an Interpreter Now whereas some say All dye of a feaver let us take care we dye not of a cold shaking fit of fear Ver. 14. Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter Ita pipiebam perapta sunt similitudines Broken petitions coming from a broken heart are of singular avayl with God Psal 51.17 Ah Pater brevissima quidem vox est sed omnia complectitur saith Luther i. e. Ah Father it a short prayer but very complexive and effectual So is the prayer here recorded O Lord I am oppressed undertake for me Miserere mihi misero Tu tuam fidem interpone Hezekiah though a most holy man begged pardon at his death and flyeth to Christ his surety So did Augustine he prayed over the seven penitential Psalms and Fulgentius and Arch-Bishop Vsher Some render it Pertexe me weave me out lengthen my life to its due period Ver. 15. What shall I say This he seemeth to speak in a way of wondering at Gods goodness in delivering him from so great a death The like doth the Apostle Rom. 8.31 What shall we then say to these things He hath both spoken unto me Dixit fecit and himself hath done it He no sooner bade me be well but he made me so Thus he attributeth his recovery to the most faithful promise of God and not to the lump of figs c. I shall shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul Or I shall go quietly and chearfully all my years after my souls bitterness sc when it is past and gone Scultet Ver. 16. O Lord by these things men live By thy promises so performed the just do live by Faith and live long in a little while For life consisteth in action and some live more in a day then others do in a year An Elephant liveth two hundred years saith Aristotle three hundred and fifty saith Philostratus and yet man though of much shorter a continuance is not inferiour to an Elephant For this is not the best thing in nature saith Scaliger to live longest but to live to best purpose Now mans life is a way to life eternal Other creatures have that they live for Not so Man whilst here And in all these things is the life of my Spirit The godly esteem of life by that stirring they find in their souls Else they lament as over a dead soul So wilt thou recover me Or hast thou recovered me Ver. 17. Behold for peace I had great bitternesse Mar Mar the approach
natural men are very hardly drawn to do The best are so backward that an Ezekiel may hear Son of man behold with thine eye and hear with thine ears and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee c. chap. 40.4 and Hagget calleth upon the good people of his time to consider and better consider chap. 1.5 7. Ver. 21. Produce your cause saith the Lord He had dealt with the Heathens and convinced them now have at their Gods and their best proofs are called for Bring forth your strong reasons Heb. your bony arguments argumenta trabalia but alass they had none such Saith the King of Jacob Not the God of Jacob for that was now the matter in question whether he were God or the Heathen deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And because they were silent and to seek of such arguments he helpeth them to a couple Ver. 22. Let them bring forth and shew what shall happen By such arguments as these Cleanthes in Tully testifieth though himself were an Heathen that the deity might be known And whereas it may be objected Lib 2. de nat deorum that the Delphick devil had foretold things to come it is answered that the devil cannot foretel all future things nor any thing infallibly and of himself but either as it is revealed unto him by God as was Ahabs fall at Rameth-Gilead or as he forseeth it in the causes signes or Prophecies of holy Scripture wherein he is not a little skilled Ver. 23. Shew the things that are to come This first argument is much insisted on God alone can properly predict Tertul. Apol. cap. 20. and Testimonium divinitatis est veritas divinationis Cato Major was wont to say that he wondered how one Diviner could look upon another and not laugh as knowing themselves to be no better then deceivers of the people Yea do good or evil good to your friends evil to your foes this is the second argument and it is unanswerable If it be objected that this the Devil can do and hath done The answer is 1. that Idols can do neither good nor evil 2. No nor yet Devils but the good they do their clients is a meer juggle and the evil they do to any is by divine permission Vide etiam Aug. de Civ Dei l. 2. c. 22. 25. Baruc. 6. See Cyprians fourth treatise de vanitate idolorum Ver. 24. Behold ye are of nothing Hence Paul took that assertion of his 1 Cor. 8.4 we know that an Idol is nothing in the world For the matter of it t is true wood is wood and stone is stone but the relation and signification which is fastned thereunto is nothing at all all the being of an Idol is nothing but the Idolaters imagination And your work of nought Or of the Basilisk or Viper it will doe you to death An abomination is he that curseth you Papists therefore must needs be abominable Idolaters Dr. Rainolds his work De Idololatria Romana is yet unanswered Weston writes that his head aked in reading it Ver. 25. I have raised up one from the North Here God beginneth to prove that He can do both those things whereof the Heathen vanities could do neither This One in the Text is Cyrus say some Christ say others by whom God here foretelleth that he will punish his enemies but do good to his Church and chosen He shall call upon my name Or proclaim my name Ver. 26. Who hath declared Who besides my self ever did or could predict such a thing If any other hath done it we will do him right clepe him a God Ver. 27. The first shall say to Zion Or I first said to Zion I first brought her that good tidings by my Prophets Ver. 28. For I beheld and there was no man None to say any thing for these dumb Idols why I should not pass a definitive sentence against them It is therefore this Ver. 29. Behold they are all vanity Jer. 10.3 15. Their works are nothing See ver 24. Are wind and confusion Or emptynesse Heb. Tohu Nothing in themselves and yet of sufficient efficacy to inflict vengeance on their worshippers CHAP. XLII Ver. 1. BEhold my servant Cyrus partly but Christ principally Matth. 12.18 See the Notes there with Philip. 2.7 A Servant he was yet not Menial but Magisterial that he was one or other is admirable and well deserveth an Ecce Whom I uphold That he faint not under the weight of his Mediatorship and the importable burthen of my wrath which he must suffer for a season Some render it whom I lean upon see 2 King 5.18 7.2 13. Mine elect Or choice one Cyrus was so chap. 44.28 45.3 4. but Christ much more chap. 43.10 Joh. 6.27 29. 10.36 See the Notes on Matth. 12.18 Cyrus was so singular a man saith Herodotus that no Persian ever held himself worthy to be compared unto him Herod lib. 3. Xenoph. Cyrop lib. 8. And of his Court Xenophon hath this merable saying that though a man should seek or chuse blindfold he could not miss of a good man How much more truly may this be spoken of the Lord Christ and his people In whom my Soul delighteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God affected Cyrus chap. 45.3 4. 44.28 but nothing so well as Christ Matth. 3.17 17.5 Once God repented him that he had made man but now it is otherwise He shall bring forth Judgement to the Gentiles Who shall all cry Grace Grace unto it to see mercy rejoycing against judgement See on Matth. 12.18 Lib. 3. Ver. 2. He shall not cry nor lift up See on Matth. 12.19 Cyrus was a very mild and gentle Prince so that his Persians called him their Father but his Son Cambyses their Lord as Herodotus recordeth Christs government is much more gentle he will not by a loud and terrible voice affright broken spirits or rule them with rigour Cyrus umbra Christus Sol ipse c. Christians must likewise put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour And be kind one to another tender-hearted Eph. 4.31 32. This is to be like unto Christ all whose actions whether Moral or Mediatory were either for our Imitation or Instruction Ver. 3. A bruised reed shall he not break i. e. A contrite heart Psal 51.17 in whom there shall appear to be any thing of Christ Mar. 9. though never so little that are faithful in weakness Cruclger though but weak in Faith as He was who cried out Lord I believe help mine unbelief and Another Invoco te fide quamvis languidâ fide tamen See on Matth. 12.20 He shall bring forth judgement unto truth Unto victory saith the Evangelist after the Septuagint Truth will prevail sincerity proceed to perfection The righteous also shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 Where there is truth of grace there will be victory Bernard
so in an apish imitation did the heathens before their Idols Judg. 9.27 Ezek. 18.6 7. 1 Cor. 8.10 and of them these superstitious Jews had learned to do the like in the dayes of Ahaz and Manasseh who degenerated into his Grand-Father Ahaz as if there had been no intervention of an Hezekiah For that troop So the Prophet speaketh as pointing to their Idols whereof they had great store Gad here used and Menni rendered Number here likewise some interpret Fortune and Fate others Jupiter and Mercury The Septuagint for to that Number hath to the Devil Oecolampadius thinks the Prophet alludeth to the Pythagorean numbers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and especially to the number of four which they superstitiously observed Others say the Jews symbolized with the Heathens in drinking to their Idols by number to such an Idol they would drink so many cups and that was called a Drink-offering to that Number Hence Antiphanes in Athenaeus saith Lib. 10. Adusque tria pocula venerandos esse deos Ver. 12. Therefore I will number you to the sword Est elegans Paronomasia I will give you up to the sword by number and tale to the end that none of you may escape God usually retaliateth and proportioneth number to number so choice to choice chap. 66.3 4. jealousy to jealousy provocation to provocation Deut. 32.21 device to device Mic. 2.1 3. frowardness to frowadrness Psal 18.26 And ye shall all bow down to the slaughter As you used to bow down to your Idols Because when I called ye did not answer See on Prov. 1.24 But did evil before mine eyes Did evil things as you could Jer. 3.5 with both hands earnestly Mic. 7.3 Ver. 13. Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Lepidas antitheses ponit You have spent your meat and drink upon Idols therefore ye shall fast another while yea you shall feed upon the fierce wrath of God in hell and drink deep of that cup of his that hath eternity to the bottom But ye shall be ashamed Your hopes and hearts failing you together ye shall pine away in your iniquities Ezek. 24.23 Ver. 14. Behold my servants shall sing In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare or a cord to strangle his joys with but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce Prov. 29.6 See the Note there And shall howl When ye come to Hell especially where is wailing and yelling and gnashing of teeth Ver. 15. And ye shall leave your name for a curse So that when mine Elect shal denounce my curse against any one they shall say God make thee such another as was such a cursed caytiff See Jer. 24.9 29.22 34.9 See Zach. 8.13 with the Note Judaeus sim si fallo say the Turks at this day As hard-hearted and unhappy as a Jew say we And call his servants by another name Jews inwardly Israelites indeed Christians a chosen Generation a royal Priest-hood an holy Nation a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 The wicked when they dye go out in a snuff leave a stench behind them as they say the Devil doth when he goeth out of a room but when the Saints depart they leave a sweet smell behind them as those lamps do that are fed with aromatical oyle Yea it is more then probable that in the next world we shall look upon Bradford and such with thoughts of extraordinary love and sweetness through all eternity as Bonner and such with execration and everlasting detestation Ver. 16. That he who blesseth himself in the earth c. Or that blesseth either himself or any other Shall bless himself in the God of truth Heb. shall bless in the God of Amen that is say some in Christ who is Amen the faithful and true witness Rev. 3.14 in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 and who was wont often to say Amen Amen Others render it thus Benedicat sibi per Deum firmi shall bless himself by the God of the firm or faithful people founded and rooted in God so as that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them Shall swear by the God of truth Or by the God of the firm and faithful people as before Because the former troubles are forgotten Rememberd no otherwise then as waters that are past See Zach. 10.6 with the Note Ver. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth I am making of a new world that is Gospel-times called a new Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 and the world to come Heb. 2.5 Heaven aforehand Matth. 3.2 The consummation hereof we are to expect at the last day 2 Pet. 3.13 Rev. 21.1 5. when the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind because the Lord who made Heaven and Earth shall bless his people out of Zion Psal 134.3 Ver. 18. But be glad and rejoyce for ever what can ye be less then everlastingly merry when you consider your Gospel-priviledges which are such as may well swallow up all discontents and make you more then Conquerours and that is Triumphers For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing Creo talem Jerusalem ut sit ei nomen Tripudium populus ejus vocetur Gaudium Oecol Hence it appeareth that these things are not to be taken according to the letter but of Jerusalem which is above that mother of us all Ver. 19. And I will rejoyce in Jerusalem Well may Jerusalem then rejoyce in in God who as in all her afflictions he is afflicted so he taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his people And the voice of weeping See chap. 35.11 51.12 Rev. 21.4 Ver. 20. There shall be no more thence an infant of dayes This verse as some others had been easie had not Commentatours made it so knotty There shall be no more thence that is from Jerusalem ver 19. an infant of dayes or a childe for dayes viz. that shall so dye by an untimely death for longevity is the blessing here promised Nor an old man that hath not filled his daies That hath not lived his utmost satur dierum as Abraham For the child shall dye an hundred years old i. e. He that is now a childe shall live till he be so many year old Note this against those that otherwise understand the words and have therehence fished out many frivolous crotchets too long here to be related Hinc proverb Puer centum annorum But the sinner being an hundred year old shall be accursed And the more accursed because so long-lived and yet dyeth in his sin going down to the grave with his bones full of the sins of his youth See Eccles 8.12 13. with the Notes Ver. 21. And they shall build houses and inhabit them The contrary whereunto is threatned against the wicked Deut. 28.30 c. Gods people are freed from the curse of the Law from the hurt if not from the smart of afflictions Ver. 22. They shall not build and another inhabit They shall not provide
the captivity of Judah for it was but three hundred and ninety exactly in all but because he would set and mark out Judah's singular iniquity by a singular mark for that they had forty years so pregnant instructions and admonitions by so eminent a Prophet and yet were impenitent to their own destruction Vnto the carrying away of Jerusalem He thought belike when he prefixed this title that he should have prophecyed no more when once Jerusalem was carried captive but it proved otherwise for he peophecyed after that in Egypt chap. 44. yet not forty years also after the captivity as the Jews have fabled Nor is it so certain that for that prophecy he was slain by Pharaoh Ophrae whom Herodotus calleth Apryes and saith he was a very proud Prince as some have storied Lib. 2. in fine Ver. 4. Then the word of the Lord came unto me The Lord is said to come to Balaam Abimelech Laban c. but he never concredited his word to any but to his holy Prophets of whom it is said as here The Word of the Lord came to them Ver. 5. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee viz. With a knowledge not Intuitive only but also Approbative Verba notitiae apud Hebraeos secum trahunt affectum I sanctified thee Infusing grace into thy heart as afterwards also into the Baptists Luke 1.15 and setting thee apart in my secret purpose to this sacred office of a Prophet as afterwards also God did Paul to the Apostleship Gal. 1.15 And I ordained thee a Prophet Magna semper fecerunt qui Deo vocante docuerunt saith Luther They have alwaies done great things whom God hath called to teach his people quod est contra eos qui Ecclesiam ruituram putant nisi ipsi doceant saith Oecolampadiusâ— This text maketh against such as think that the Church must needsly suffer unlesse they though uncalled turn Teachers Vnto the Nations i. e. First to the Jews qui fere in Gentiles evaserant who were little better then Gentiles so Papagant are called Pagans Rev. 11.2 Secondly to forreiners of and to whom he prophecyed chap. 44 c. Thirdly to people of all times who may and must be instructed by this Book which is such as was highly see by and cited in the Old Testament by Daniel Ezechiel Nehemiah Ezra Obadiah who taketh most of his Prophecy out of him as in the New by our Saviour Matth. 21. Mar. 11. Matthew the Evangelist chap. 2. Paul 2 Cor. 6.1 10. Heb. 8. 10. John the Divine Rev. 2. 15. Ver. 6. Then said I Ah Lord God Verbum angustiae The old Latin hath it A A A whereby is noted say some a threefold defect sc of age of knowledge and of eloquence but that 's more subtil then solid True worth is ever modest and the more fit any man is for whatsoever vocation the less he thinketh himself forwardnesse argueth insufficiency Behold I cannot speak Heb. I know not to speak i. e. a right and as I ought Tanto negotio tam instructum oratorem me non agnosco Jeremy was an excellent Speaker as well appeareth by these ensuing Homilies of his which shew that he was suaviter gravis graviter suavis as One saith of Basil a grave and sweet Preacher one that could deliver his mind fitly and durst do it freely Hence some of the Jews judged our Saviour to have been Jeremiah propter dicendi agendique gravitatem Parrhesian for his gravity and freedom of speech Neverthelesse Jeremy in his own opinion cannot speak that is was no way fit to speak So Moses is at it with his Who am I Exod. 3. when as none in all Egypt was comparably fit for such an Embassage It was an usual saying of Luther Etsi jam senex in concionando exercitus sum c. Although I am now an old man and an experienced Preacher yet I tremble as oft as I go up into the pulpit For I am a child Epiphanius saith that Jeremy was not now above fourteen or fifteen when he began to Prophecy Samuel also and Daniel began very young So did Timothy Origen Cornelius Mus a famous Preacher say his fellow Jesuites at eleven years of age Arch Bishop Vsher was converted at ten years old His life and death by D. Bern. preached betime and so continued to do for sixty years or near upon Mr. Beza was likewise converted at sixteen years old for the which as for a special mercy he giveth God thanks in his last Will and Testament and lived a Preacher in Geneva to a very great age God loveth not Quaerists but Currists did Luther Ver. 7. Say not I am a child Plead no excuses cast no perils never dispute but dispatch never reason but run depending for direction and success upon God alone in whom are all our fresh springs and from whom is all our sufficiency c. Paul was a most unlikely peice of wood to make what he was afterwards called a Mercury Act. 14.11 yet God made use of him Act. 9.13 14. For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee Whether Kings or Captives Lords or Losels He preached before Jehoiachim concerning the office of a King and threatened him with the burial of an asse chap. 22. and 36. he dealt plainly with the Princes who beat him and with the Priests who stockt him with all sorts to his great cost he was of an heroical and unexpugnable spirit so are not many in these times Verbi Dei truncatores emasculatores men-pleasing Preachers Act. Mon. Ver. 8. Be not afraid of their faces Look they never so big as did Henery 8. upon Latimer and upon Lambert who yet told him his own as did Stephen Gardiner upon Dr. Taylour Martyr but had as good as he brought The majesty of a man as also his wrath sheweth itself in his countenance and young men especially are apt to be baffled and dasht with fierce looks For I am with thee to deliver thee On one sort or another thy crown be sure no man shall take from thee thy perpetual triumph thou shalt not lose Ver. 9. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth This was a very great favour and a sweet settlement to the hesitating Prophet The like visible sign for confirmation was given to Isaiah chap. 6 to Ezekiel chap. 2. and 3. and to John the Divine Rev. 10. how much are we bound to God for his Word and Sacraments Behold I have put my words in thy mouth And in thy mind also together with good courage for the better uttering of them Fear not therefore though thou be as thou objectest infantissimus infirmissimus but go in this my might and Preach lustily Ver. 10. See I have set thee this day over Nations sc With authority to use the same liberty in reproving their sins that they take in committing them Fear not the highest for I have set thee over them
they are soon dispatcht See on ver 6. But Famine is an hard weapon Triste genus mortis miseris mortalibus omne Est tamen imprimis triste perire fame For these pine away By a lingering death as Drusus the Roman to whom meat being denied Speed 766. he had eaten the stuffings of his bed saith Suetonius and our Richard the second who was Tantalized and starved to death at Pomfret Castle where his diet being served in and set before him in the wonted Princely manner he was not suffered either to taste or touch thereof Jam. 5. Stricken through for want of the fruits of the field Those precious fruits of the earth as James the Apostle calleth them These as a sword defend us from death and the want of them as a sword runneth us thorough In the time of Otho the Emperour there was so great a scarcity of bread corn in Germany for three years together that many thousands dyed of hunger Melancth In remembrance of which great dearth there is yearly baked at Erphord a little loaf such as was then sold for much money Ver. 10. The hands of the pittiful women have sodden Sodden them rather then roasted them lest they should be discovered by the smell and so in danger to be despoiled of them as it sell out at the last seige by the Romans Lege Luge They were their meat In eadem viscera ex quibus exierant retrusi sunt they returned into the same bowels whence they came forth Ver. 11. The Lord hath accomplished his fury Which he had long deferred but now hath paid it home Cave ne ira delata fiat duplicata He hath poured out his fierce anger As it were by whole buckets or paile-fulls Gods anger may be set out in minums as there may be much poison in little drops But woe be those on whom it is poured He hath kindled a fire in Zion His wrath is like fire that furious Element which at first burneth a little upon a few bords but when it prevaileth it bursteth forth into a terrible flame Ver. 12. The Kings of the earth c. These knowing how impregnable a piece Jerusalem was how the Jebusites of old held out the Tower of Zion against David how long it had kept out Nebuchadnezzar viz. for two years space almost how it had been preserved by God against Sennacherib c. looked upon it as in a sort insuperable and could not but see a divine vengeance in the destruction of it Ver. 13. For the sins of her Prophets These these were the right cause of her ruine Not that the People were not faulty for they loved to have it so Jer. 5. ult but those were the ring-leaders in that general defection Ver. 14. They have wandred as blind men in the streets Well might a certain Expositour say Hic versus cum sequentibus varie exponitur The sense in short is this saith One that the Jewes misled by their Prophets and Priests were so blind in knowledge that every example of sin led to evil which for want of grace they could not refrain from Ver. 15. They cryed unto them The enemies in a mockery said aloud unto the Jewes Depart ye it is unclean depart depart Mimesis q. d. You that are so pure and as people say profanely amongst us so Pope-holy that none must come anear you but get away as far and as fast as they can as if they were Lepers c. They said among the Heathen The blind Ethnikes beholding the Jews wickednesse have judged that it was impossible God should suffer them any longer to live in his good land sith they would not live by his good Laws Ver. 16. The anger of the Lord hath divided them Say the Heathen still concerning the wicked Jews continuatur enim hic instituta Mimesis He will no more regard them Heb. look after them sc facie blandâ ac benevolâ in mercy Sacerdotes apud omnes gentes sunt venerabiles ob ministerium he hath utterly rejected them For why They respected not the persons of the Priests But vilely intreated them See Chron. 36.16 Ver. 17. As for us our eyes as yet failed With long and vain looking as Psal 119.82 123. For As for us some render Cum adhuc essemus while as yet we were sc a Nation for now we are none Fuimus Troes In our watching we have watched for a Nation sc for the Egyptians Jer. 2.18 36. 37.7 8. Ver. 18. They hunt our steps There is an elegancy in the Original as if we should say They hunt our haunts That we cannot go in our streets Because of their forts from whence they shoot at us Satan doth so much more cui nomina mille Mille nocendi artes Our end is come We are an undone people Ver. 19. Our persecutours are swifter then the Eagles Those swiftest of al foul whom Pindarus therefore calleth the Queen of Birds as the Dolphin is of fishes for like swiftnesse The Egyptians their pretended helpers were slow as snailes the Chaldees swifter then Eagles They pursued us Or they chased us or traced us like blood-hounds They laid wait for us in the Wildernesse They met us at every turn and left us no means of escape Ver. 20. The breath of our nostriles King Zedekiah in whose downfal we drew as it were our last breath The Chaldee Paraphrast understandeth it of Josiah with whom indeed dyed all the prosperity of the Jews as with Epaminondas did that of the Thebans and with Theodosius that of the Western Empire The Annointed of the Lord Who yet for his perfidy was vilely cast away like Saul as though he had not been annointed with oyle 2 Sam. 1.21 Was taken in their pits A term taken from hunters Ezek. 12.13 See ver 20. Jer. 52.8 Vnder his shadow As the chickens do under the hens Ver. 21. Rejoyce and be glad This is spoken to Edom by a certain Ironical and bitter concession q. d. Do so if thou hast any mind to it but thou shalt soon be made to change thy chear Thy flearing at us shall be soon turned into fearing for thy self thy mirth into mourning That dwellest in the land of Vz Job's country called also Siria saith R. Solomon and haply from Seir. Evil is at next door by to those who rejoyce at the evils of others The cup shall passe through unto thee The quassing cup of Gods Wrath Jer. 25.18 29. And shalt make thy self naked To the scorn of all Vt ebria omotae mentis as drunkards who are void of shame and common honesty baring those parts that nature would have covered See Jer. 49.10 Ver. 22. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished O daughter of Zion A word of comfort in the close of this doleful ditty The Sun of Righteousnesse loveth not to set in a cloud See Isa 40.1 Profane Elegies have no comfort in them as this hath He will no more carry thee away into Captivity i.
Disciples The punishment of strange language Mr. Whatel Prototyp saith a grave Divine was an heavy punishment next to our casting out of Paradise and the Flood Ver. 7. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee They will not See the like Joh. 5.40 and 8.44 A mans will is his hell saith Bernard And it is easier saith another to deal with twenty mens reasons then with one mans will What hope is there of those that will not hear or if they do yet have made their conclusion aforehand and will stir no more then a stake in the midst of a stream For they will not hearken unto me Speaking unto them in the Scriptures See Hos 8.12 Mat. 10.24 25. Joh. 15.18 c. Let this speech of God to the Prophet comfort faithful Ministers contra cervicosos cerebrosos istes hypocritas that reject or resist their preaching What are we that we may not be slighted when as Christ himself the Arch-Prophet is Curtius Impudent Heb. stiffe of forehead This was a point next the worst Illum ego perjisse dico cui perjit pudor said that heathen he is an undone man who is past shame Ver. 8. Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces I have steeled thy forehead and strengthned thine heart that thou shalt budge for none of them I have rendred thee insuperable Ver. 9. As an adamant harder then flint Heb. strong above a Rock instar rupis quae in mari vadoso horridi Jovis Joh. Wower Polymath irati ut ita dicam Neptuni fer vidis assultibus undique verberata non cedit aut minuitur sed obâ—â—ndit assuetum fluctibus latus firma duritie Durus ut his animus solido ex adamante creatus Hesiod tumentis undae impetum sustinet ac frangit This invincible courage and constancy in Gods Ministers the mad world calleth and counteth pride and pertinacy but these know not the power of the Spirit nor the privy armour of proof that such have about their hearts Fear them not c. See chap. 2.6 Ver. 10. Son of man all my words receive in thine heart c. This is to eat the roul to turn it in succum sanguinem that it may surely nourish See on ver 1 2 3. Go get thee to them of the captivity The fruit whereof they have lost in great part because so little amended thereby Vnto thy people For I can scarce find in my heart to own them So Exod. 32.7 God fathers that rebellious people upon Moses Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear q. d. let them chuse and if they have a mind to it be miserable by their own election See chap. 2.5 Ver. 12. Then the spirit took me up and I heard behind me c. This was for the Prophets encouragement and to put mettle into him as it were that he might the better bear up amidst all sith he should shortly bear a part in that Angelical consort whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret hath it their dayly service is singing of Psalmes Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place i. e. From heaven where Saints and Angels glorifie his name without ceasing or saciety Monica after a discourse with her son Augustine about the happiness of heaven concluded thus Quantum ad me astinet fili nulla re amplius delector in hac vita Quid hîc facio As for me what make I here sith I take no more pleasure in any thing that is here to be had A picture of a globe of the whole earth saith one set out with all the brave things that sea and land can afford with this sentence encircling it round To be with Christ is far better is a Christians Emblem and should be his ambition Ver. 13. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures In consent with the former doxology That touched one another Heb. kissed noting the love and good agreement that is betwixt the holy Angels no woman is so well affected to her sister as they are one to another in serving God and his people And the noise of the wheeles As the Angels so all actions and motions do as they can sing praise to God Ver. 14. So the spirit lifted me up As it did afterwards also Philip Act. 8.39 40. not visionally but really And took me away To Tel-abib And I went in bitternesse in the heat of my spirit Heb. I went bitter in the hot anger of my spirit q. d. I was in a great pet as considering that Gods truths must be spoken however they are taken Hic ecce pilluld voluminis in ore duleâ— in ventre dissoluta ventrem torquet lancinat Alapide and full ill they would be taken from me by mine untoward Country-men This made me for the time much out of temper but I soon denyed my self and got the better of mine unruly passions For The hand of the Lord was strong upon me I was overpowered by the Spirit of God who soon brought those high thoughts of mine into captivity and conformity to Christ 2 Cor. 10 5. Ver. 15. Then I came to them of the captivity of Tel-abib Which was the name of some chief place or plantation of the Jews in captivity saith Diodat It was in the middle part of Mesopotamia saith Junius between two rivers Chebar and Saocorah I sat where they sat Sculking and lusking or at least not acting according to my propheticke function and the gift bestowed upon me which I ought to have stirred up and exercised for the good of my fellow-captives This he freely confesseth as giving glory to God and taking shame to himself Seven dayes Which circumstance of time increased his sinnes saith Polanus Ver. 16. And it came to passe at the end of seven dayes Probably on the Sabbath-day that day of grace and opportunity of holiness God glorifieth his free-grace in coming to his offending Prophet as the Physician doth to his sick Patient and by setting him a work again sealing up his love to him like as he also did to the eleven Apostles by sending them abroad to preach the Gospel after that they had so basely deserted him at his apprehension and death upon the Cross Ver. 17. Son of man So Christ constantly calleth this Prophet to keep him humble See chap. 2.1 I have made thee a watch-man I who am the chief Bishop and Shepherd of souls 1 Pet. 2.25 have set thee in thy watchtower with charge to look well to my flock with golden fleeces precious souls that none be lost for want of warning See therefore that thou be Episcopus not Aposcopus an over-seer not a by-seer a Watcher not a sleeper somnolentia Pastorum est gaudium luporum Ephrem tract de tim Dei Shall the Shepherds sleep when as the wolves watch and worry the flock Act. 20.29 30. Herodotus telleth of one Euenius a City-shepherd Lib. 9. who for sleeping
so do many feed greedily on sins murthering morsels Ver. 15. Loe I have given thee Cows-dung This was some mitigation Something God will yield to his praying people when most bitterly bent against them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contabescerâ— foetidum fieri Ver. 16. Behold I will break the staff of bread Bread shall be very scarce and that which men have shall not nourish or satisfy them they shall have appetitum caninum See Isa 3.1 with the Note and take that good cousel Amos. 5 14 15. lest we know the worth of good by the want of it Ver. 17. And be astonied At their straits and disappointments And consume away for their iniquity Levit. 26.31 They shall pine away in their iniquity this is the last and worst of judgements there threatened after those other dismal ones CHAP. V. Ver. 1. ANd thou son of man See on chap. 2.1 Take thee a sharp knife This was the King of Babylon as Isa 7.20 The Turk is at this day such another Mahomet the first was in his time the death of 800000 men Selymus the second in revenge of the losse received at Lepanto Turk Hist 885. would have put to death all the Christians in his dominions Take the a barbers razor Not a deceitful razor as Psal 52.2 but one that will do the deed sharp and sure Pliny telleth us out of Varro Lib. 7. cap. 59. that the Romans had no barbers till 454 years after the City was built antè intensi fuere And cause it to passe upon thy head and upon thy beard As hairs are an ornament to the head and beard so are people to a City But as when they begin to be a burthen or trouble to either they are cut off and cast away so are people by Gods Judgements when by their sins they are offensive to him dealing as Dionysius did by his god Aesculapius from whom he presumed to pull his golden beard David felt himself shaved in his Embassadours so doth God in his servants whose very hairs are numbred Matth. 10.30 in his Ministers especially who by a specialty are called Gods men 1 Tim. 6.11 2 Tim. 3.17 with whom to meddle is more dangerous then to take a Lion by the beard or a bear by the hair Then take the ballances to weigh This sheweth that Gods Judgements are just to a hairs weight And capillus nous suam habet umbram saith Mimus And divide the hair Dii nos quasi pilas habent saith Plautus imo quasi pilos saith Another Ver. 2. Thou shalt burn with fire a third part i. e. with famine pestilence and other mischiefs during the siege of Jerusalem Pythagoras gave this precept among others Vnguium criniumque praesegmina ne contemnito But God findeth so little worth in wicked people that he regardeth them not but casteth them as excrements to the dunghil yea to hell Psal 9.17 And smite about it with a knife They shall be slain with that sharp knife or sword ver 1. after that the City is taken Thou shalt scatter in the wind Sundry of them shall fly for their lives but in running from death they shall but run to it Amos 9.1 2 3 4. 2.13 14 15 16. Ver. 3. Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number A remnant is still reserved that the Lord God may dwell among men Psal 68.18 See Jer. 44.28 2 King 25.12 Isa 1.9 6.10 Ver. 4. Then take of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire Thus evil shall hunt a wicked man to overthrow him Psal 140.11 See the Note there he shall not escape though he hath escaped his preservation is but a reservation to further mischief except he repent And burn them in the fire Such he meaneth as were combustible matter for there were a sort of precious ones amongst them who being brought by God through the fire were thereby refined as silver is refined and tryed as gold is tryed c. Zach. 13.9 See the Notes there Ver. 5. This is Jerusalem i. e. This head and beard so to be shaved ver 1. by the hair of the head some think the wise men of that City are figured out and by the hair of the beard are the strong men the razor of Gods severity maketh clean work leaveth no stub or stump behind it I have set it in the midst of the nations As the head heart and center of the earth See Psal 74.10 Ezek. 38.12 and God had peculiar ends it it that the Law might go forth out of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem and that all Nations might flow unto it Isa 2.2 3. Talis est Roma Christianis Such now is Rome to Christians saith à Lapide bur lay a straw there say we or as the Glosse saith upon some decrees of Popes Haec non credo I believe it not See Rev. 17.5 Ver. 6. And she hath changed my judgements into wickednesse This was a foul change this was to do evil as she could Jer. 3.5 this was ingratitude of the worst sort such as Socrates called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifest in â—ustice Such a wretched change is complained of Jer. 2.11 Rom. 1.23 25. Jude 4. but nowhere in so high an expession as this as One observeth More then the Nations Because the Jews had better Laws but worse dispositions then they Ver. 7. Because ye multiplyed sc Your transgressions and superstitions or because ye have abounded with blessings and made me so ill a requital Some render it Quia tumultuastis ves plus quam vicinae gentes and indeed there were many murthers committed amongst them and many revolts from forrain Princes whom they had sworn to serve Neither have done according to the judgement of the nations But have out-sinned them qui deos suos quamvis viles multos non mutant who change not their gods as you have done Me Jer. 2.10.11 but follow the natural light of reason some of them at least do so Rom. 2.14 which you have debauched See 1 Cor. 5.1 Ezech. 16.46 47 48. Ver. 8. Behold I even I am against thee Whether thou wilt believe it or not Thou holdest it unlikely but shalt find it true and that I am very serious not saying these things in terrorem only Ecce me adversum te venientem so some render it Behold I am upon my march against thee and will punish thee surely severely suddenly And will execute Judgements For the non-execution of my Judgements in the former sense taken as ver 7. In the sight of the nations In whose sight thou hast so sinned and who will rejoyce at thy sufferings Ver. 9. And I will do in thee that which I have not done None shall suffer so much here or sink so deep in hell as a profane Jew a carnal Gospeller who is therefore worse then others because he ought to be better Oh the height and weight of those Judgements that shall be heaped upon such See Lam.
saith an Expositor we also fear not to go down to the grave Rolloc so long as we may hear God saying unto us as once he did to old Jacob thinking of his journey to Egypt Fear not to go down into Egypt for I will go with thee and I will also bring thee up again Gen. 46.3 4. Further note how these three Martyrs carry themselves toward the tyrant they do simply obey his command and come forth they are not puffed up by the strangeness of the miracle wrought upon them neither do they tattle but suffer the matter it self and experience to speak shewing themselves to all sorts to be looked upon with greatest humility and modesty Ver. 27. And the Princes Governours and Captaines Who were more obstinate then the King and willing to have shut the windows leâ—t the light should shine in upon them but that there was no withstanding it Vpon whose bodyes the fire had no power See on ver 23. The creatures are at a league with the Saints Job 5.22 Ver. 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake Being convinced but not converted as appeareth by the next Chapter whatever Austin and others charitably thought to the contrary A wicked man may pray and praise God extemporally Job 27.10 And have changed the Kings word Chald. secundo loco habuerunt they have preferred Gods Word before it Ver. 29. Therefore I make a decree Magistrates then have to do with men in matters of Religion Deut. 13.6 Rom. 13.4 Which speak any thing amisse But was this all he would do for God after so clear convictions t' was very poor A professor of the Turks law proclaimeth before they attempt any thing that nothing be done against religion Ver. 30 Then the King promoted Restored them to their dignities and strictly forbad others to maligne or molest them CHAP. IV. Ver. 1. NEbuchadnezzar the King This bare title seemed sufficient to him who came now newly out of the fornace of sharp affliction whereby he was tamed and taken a link lower as we say Vnto all People Nations and languages This Epistolary Narrative or Proclamation was sent abroad a year or two before his death And here observe saith one an omission of twenty seven years history wherein the Church in Babylon had her Halcyons the Emperour being exercised in forrein wars Mr. Hueâ— and the Nobles disheartned from attempting any thing against those four Worthies as having had formerly such ill success That dwell in all the earth Thus this great King is made a Catholike Preacher of humility and moderation of mind Peace be multiplied unto you Courtesie and kind language in great ones draweth all hearts unto them as fair flowers do the eyes of beholders in the springtide Ver. 2. I thought it good Chald. It was meet or seemly before me It was my duty so Junius To shew the signes and wonders Signs they were because evident testimonies of Gods Wisdom Justice Power Wonders because worthy to be wondred at Ver. 3. How great are his signes Mark how he is enlarged here so should we If David bad had the thing in band he would have cryed out also for his mercy endureth for ever But Nebuchadnezzar celebrateth his Kingdom only and that also he had learned of Daniel chap. 2. Ver. 4. I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my house Having subdued all mine enemies round about But in the year of my triumph behold a vision of my downfal Suspecta nobis debet esse tranquillitas And flourishing in my palace But flourishing estates free not the mind of burthensome cares Eccles 5.12 Ver. 5. I saw a dream which made me afraid It is seldom seen that God alloweth unto the greatest darlings of the world a perfect contentment Something they must complain of that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels and make their very felicity miserable Ver. 6. Therefore I made a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon Whom yet he had formerly found to be no better then Braghards and Impostours Was this man truly converted Ver. 7. Then came in the Magicians As if they would do the deed Seducers make up with boldnesse what they want of true worth 2 Pet. 2.19 Ver. 8. But at last Daniel came in before me And why at last Why was he not sooner sent for If the Soothsayers and Sorcerers could have served the turn Daniel had never been sought to This is the guise of graceless men they run not to God till all other refuges fail them According to the name of my god and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods Is this the language of a true Convert Should not former sinful practises be looked upon with a lively hatred and mentioned with utter distaste Ver. 9. Because I know that the spirit of the holy godâ— is in thee The spirit of divination and Prophecy And no secret troubleth thee Chald. puts thee to businesse Now he who had slighted Daniel before to get what he desired abaseth himself below the dignity of a King to him Ver. 10. Thus were the visions of my head in my bed He readily rememembreth this dream of his and roundly relateth it the more to befool the wise-men sith the Scripture whereof they were ignorant but Daniel well versed in revealeth sufficient direction for the interpretation thereof sc Ezek. 31.1 12. The wisdom of this World is not unlike the pains taken by Moles which dig dextrously under ground but are blind against the Sun-light Ver. 11. The tree grew and was strong See Ezek. 17.12 24. Plato compareth a man to a tree inverted with the root above and the branches below he also calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heavenly plant Homer calleth great men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 12. The leaves theref were fair and the fruit But because pride harboured under these leaves and poisoned these fair fruits they were broken down and trod under foot The beasts of the field had shadow under it Great is the benefit of civil government and far extending But mose men content themselves with a natural use of it as beasts of the field do of their food without improvement of any higher good Ver. 13. And behold a Watcher and an holy One i. e. An holy Angel active and watchful to know and do the will and commands of God for the good of the Church Hence Angels are said to be full of eyes Ezek. 1. and to stand alwaies beholding the face of God Matth. 18.10 as waiting an employment How ready was that Angel here ver 31. to interrupt the proud King from heaven and to tell him his doom So in the next words Ver. 14. How down the tree and cut off his branches One Angel seems to call to another to expedite the execution so earnest they are in the Churches revenge Rev. 18.21 Let the beasts get away Let this great Conquerour be stript at once of his train and dignity The Duke of Florence gave for his ensign a great
of one learned Gentleman who ran out of his wits after many years study upon it The Doctours are much divided about the beginning and ending of these seventy weeks I chuse rather thus to compute then to dispute From the outgoing of the word ver 25. seemeth to me to fix the beginning of these weeks on Cyrus his decree concerning the holy City and the Temple to be reedified The end and period of them must be at the death of Christ though some will have it at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans It is well observed by the learned that the Jews after their seventy years captivity have seven seventies of years granted for the enjoying of their own country Gods mercies bear the same proportion to his punishments which seven a complete number have to an unit besides the mercy of mercies the grace of the Messiah Vpon thy people Of whose welfare thou art so sollicitous and inquisitive To finish the transgression Transgressionem illam that great tranâ—gression of our first Parents in Paradise that whereby sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Now Christ by his death took away the power and destroyed the dominion of all sin Rom. 6.11 12. And to make an end of sins Heb. To seal up sins that they come not into Gods sight against us ever to be charged upon us A Metaphor say some from the Jews manner of writing in Rolles which being wrapped up and sealed on the backside all the writing was covered And to make reconciliation for iniquity viz. By the expiatory and propitiatory sacrifice of himself for his Elect whereby the divine Justice is fully satisfied And to bring in everlasting righteousnesse Those righteousnesses of the Saints Rev. 19 8. both Imputed and Imparted Righteousnesse called here everlasting as that which shall make the Saints accepted of God for ever never can be lost as Adams was And to seal up the vision and prophecy i. e. To fulfill all the Prophetical predictions concerning the life and death of the Lord Christ And to anoint the most holy This was done when Christ was baptized say some but others better when he ascended into heaven consecrating it to the service of God therein to be performed by the Elect throughout all eternity like as Moses once consecrated the most holy place to the ceremonial service there to be performed by the High-Priest Ver. 25. Know therefore and understand See on ver 24. Here the Angel brancheth the whole seventy sevens into three heads or into three distinct periods of time Shall be seven weeks Which make forty nine years these the Angel purposely speaketh of a part because they chiefly concerned the reparation of the City made under the Persian Monarchy Within this first seven weeks or forty nine years the street of Jerusalem was rebuilt and the wall with trench though the times proved troublous and full of straits And threescore and two weeks Which make four hundred thirty four years the events of which are mentioned ver 26. as those of the seven years following ver 27. out of which it might easily be supplyed and is therefore here omitted by the Angel Ver. 26. And after threescore and two weeks See on ver 25. within these threescore and two weeks befel the Jews many memorable things as may be seen chap. 8 11. Shall Messiah be cut off Excindetur not abscindetur cut off that is by wicked hands crucified and slain Act. 2.23 not only cast out of the synagogue and excommunicated as that malicious Rabbine read and sensed this text Others of the Jew Doctours by the evidence of these words have been compelled to confesse that Messiah is already come and that he was that Jesus whom their forefathers crucified See for this R. Samuels Epistle to R. Isâ—ak set down at large by Dionys Carthus in his Commentary on this text See also R. Osea his lamentation for this inexpiable guilt of the Jewish Nation recorded by Galatinus lib. 4. c. 18. Polanus reporteth that he living sometime in Moravia where he used the help of some Rabbines for the understanding of the Hebrew tongue heard them say that for this ninth chapters sake they acknowledged not Daniel to be authentical and therefore read it not amongst the people lest hereby they should be turned to Christ finding out how they had been by them deceived But not for himself i. e. Not for any fault of his nor yet for any good to himself but to mankind whence some render these words There being nothing therein for him Et non sibi vel nihil ei others when he shall have nothing i. e. nothing more to do at Jerusalem but shall utterly relinquish it and call his people out of it to Pella c. And the people of the Prince that shall come i. e. Titus his souldiers whose rage he himself could not repress Joseph but they would needs burn down the Temple which he would fain have preserved as one of the worlds wonders Messiah the Prince had a hand in it doubtless whence also those Roman forces are called his armyes Mat. 22.7 Shall destroy the City That slaughterhouse of the Saints And the Sanctuary That den of thieves And the end thereof shall be with a flood i. e. Their extirpation shall be suddain universal irresistible as was Noah's flood How this was fulfilled see Josephus Hegesippus Eusebius c. And unto the end of the war c. The Romans shall have somewhat to do but after tedious wars they shall effect it Ver. 27. And he Messiah shall confirm the Covenant See ver 24. with many Heb. with his Rabbines that is with his Elect. Confer Esa 53.11 Job 32.9 Jer. 41.2 For one week i. e. In the last seven years of the seventy And in the midst of the week i. e. In three years and a half he shall by his passion disannul the Jewish sacrifices and services And for the overspreading or wing or abominations i. e. For the abominable outrages committed by the seditious Jews those zelots as they called themselves who filled the Temple with dead bodyes Others from Mat. 24.15.16 with Luk. 20.20 21. think the Romans to be meant who set up their Eagles their ensignes in the Temple together with the images first of Caligula and then of Titus their Emperours Perpetuâ consummatiss consumptione urgentur Even untill the consummation Until the end and to the utmost The Jews have oft attempted but could never yet recover their country nor are like to do Shall be poured As if the windows of heaven were opened as once they were at the flood See ver 26. CHAP. X. Ver. 1. IN the third year of Cyrus King of Persia This whole chapter is but a Preface to the ensuing Prophecy or visional prediction recorded in the two following chapters It beginneth at the third year of Cyrus his Empire and reacheth till the time of the Jews rising from the dust of their
dastardly despondency of mind because his rising expectation it seems was frustrated 2. For a vain ambitious self-seeking which was not hid from God Ver. 2. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel unto thee O Baruch Whom he knoweth by name and for whom he hath in store an ample recompence of reward for never yet did any one do or suffer ought for Gods sake that complained of an hard bargain Ver. 3. Thou didst say i. e. Thou didst think like a poor pusillanimous creature as thou art But Jeremy could pitty him in this infirmity because it had sometime been his own case chap. 15. and may befal the best Pray for me I say pray for me said Father Latimer for sometimes I am so fearfull and fainthearted that I could even run into a mouse-hole For the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow So we do oft complain non quia dura sed quia mollâ—s patimur without cause through feeble-mindednesse And when we speak of our crosses we are eloquent oft beyond truth we add we multiply we rise in our discourse as here Ver. 4. Behold that which I have built c. A Metaphor as is before noted ab architectura agricultura I am turning all upside-down and wouldest thou only go free and untoucht of the common calamity T is no whit likely thou must share with the rest Ver. 5. And seekest thou great things for thy self This is saith One as if a man should haue his house on fire and instead of seeking to quench his house should go and trim up his chambers or as if when the ship is sinking he should seek to inrich his cabbin Seek them not For what so great felicity canst thou fancy to thy self in things so fading as the case now stands especially But thy life will I give thee for a prey Which in these killing and dying times in such dear years of time is no small mercy CHAP. XLVI Ver. 1. THe Word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah against the Gentiles God had at first set him over the nations and over the Kingdoms as a plenipotentiary to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant chap. 1.10 This power of his the Prophet had put forth and exercised against his own Nation of the Jews whom he had doomed to destruction and lived to see execution done accordingly Now he takes their enemies the neighbour Nations to do telling them severally what they shall trust to And this indeed the Prophet had done before in part and in fewer words under the type of a cup of wine to be divided among and drunk up by the Nations chap. 25.15 16. c. but here to the end of chap. 51. more plainly and plentifully Isaiah had done the same in effect chap. 13. to 24. Ezekiel also from chap. 25. to 33. that by the mouth of three such witnesses every word might stand and this burthen of the Nations might be confirmed Jeremiah beginneth fitly with the Egyptians who beside the old enmity had lately slain good King Josiah with whom dyed all the prosperity of the Jewish people who were thenceforth known as the Thebanes also were after the death of their Epaminondas only by their overthrows and calamities Ver. 22. Against Egypt First That the Jews might not rely on that broken reed as they did to their ruine because they would never be warned Against the army of Pharaoh Neche Who had beaten Nebuchadnezzar Priscus at Carchemish and gotten all the Country from Egypt to Euphrates but was afterwards himself beaten out again by Nebuchadnezzar the second surnamed Magnus in the first year of his reign which was the fourth year of Jehojakim Joseph l. 10. c. 7. Hypotuâ—ôsis Ironica State galeati loricati lanceati sed frustrà 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausan who also was glad to become his tributary Now this overthrow of the Egyptian who was driven out of all Syria as far as Pelusium by the Babylonian is here foretold Ver. 3. Order ye the buckler and sheild So Pharaoh is brought in bespeaking his forces when he was going to fight against Nebuchadnezzar Or so the Prophet bespeaketh the Egyptians Ironically and by way of scoff q. d. Do so but all shall be to no purpose see the like Isa 8.9 Congregamini vincemini yea though upon Pharaoh's should should be the same inscription that was once upon Agamemnon This is the terrour of all mortal wights Ver. 4. Harnesse the horses Those warlike creatures but yet vain things for safety Psal 33.17 Prov. 21.31 Egypt was famous for the best horses Deut. 17.16 1 King 10.26 28. but the Lord delighteth not in the strength of an horse c. Psal 147.10 11. Ver. 5. Wherefore have I seen them dismaià Surprized with a Panick terrour And are fled apace Heb. Fled a flight For fear was round about A proverbial form chap. 6.25 Ver. 6. Let not the swift flye away i. e. Think to save themselves by flight Nor the mighty man escape i. e. Think to save himself by his might be he never so stouth-earted Herod lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Toward the North i. e. Toward Carchemish the stage of the war where Pharaoh-Necho had beaten Nebuchadnezzar the elder and is now beaten in the same place by Nebuchadnezzar the younger alterna victoria Ver. 7. Who is this that cometh up like a flood Pharaoh with his forces is here notably described vivo sermonum colore and compared to an impetuous river that threatneth to overflow and swallow up all See Isa 8.7 Ver. 8. Egypt riseth up like a flood Nilus-like the Egyptians were an ancient proud luxurious people And he saith I will go up and cover the earth See the like vain vaunts of this proud people Exod. 1â— 9 10. Ver. 9. Come up ye horses i. e. Ye horsemen all the cavallery of Egypt as Exod. 14.7 And rage Or bestir your selves as if ye were wood or mad instar furiarum discurrite per campâ—s The Ethiopians and the Lybians The Africans that were confederates and Auxiliaries to the Egyptians Ver. 10. For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts See Esay 34.5 6 7 8. Ver. 11. Go up unto Gilead and take balm See chap. 8.22 with Gen. 37.25 q. d. thy calamity is no lesse uncurable then ignominious Ver. 12. The Nations have heard of thy shame Of the shameful defeat given thee so that thou who wast once a terrour to them art now a scorn For the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty And this is the sum of the talk that goeth of thee Ver. 13. The Word that the Lord spake Another Prophecy but against Egypt also God had yet a further quarrel to that Country for the death of good Josiah their delivering up Vriah Gods faithful servant to the sword of Jehoiakim their idolatry pride perfidy c. How Nebuchadnezzar should come and smite the land of Egypt In the five and
twentieth year of his reign as Jeremy also had set forth by a sign chap. 44.30 Ver. 14. Publish in Noph and in Tahpanes See chap. 44.1 For the sword shall devour round about thee Egypt was no whit amended by the former discomfiture at Carchemish therefore is now wholly subdued by the Babylonian Conquerour about three and twenty years after And the like befell the Greek Empire overturned by the Turks Ver. 15. They stood not because the Lord did drive them He struck a Panick terrour into them and then no wonder that men flee at the noise of a shaken leaf Ver. 16. Yea one fell upon another See ver 12. in a confused flight it is wont so to be And they said The Auxiliary and Stipendiary souldiers said so when once they saw that there was no good to be done for the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar having so wasted all Steperus est Ver. 17. Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noyse A meer flash one that vaunteth and vapoureth and that 's all So of Charles the eighth King of France Guicciardin saith that in his expedition to Naples he came into the field like thundering and lightning but went out like a snuffe more then a man at first and lesse then a woman at last He hath passed the time appointed He let slip his best opportunity which in giving battle is sometimes the losse of all Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem was for this fault called Carolus Cunctator i. e. the Delayer Ver. 18 As I live Formula jurandi Elliptica Deo propria let none presume to swear in that sort Surely as Tabor is among the mountains As Tabor surmounteth and commandeth the little hills round about it and Carmel the adjoyning sea over which it hangeth a promontory so shall Nebuchadnezzar come into Egypt and subdue the whole Country Ver. 19. O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt But not likely long to dwell there Furnish thy self to go into captivity Heb. make thee instruments or implements of captivity Sarcinis reculisque collectis prepare to be packing Ver. 20. Egypt is like a very fair heifer Vitula elegans a trim bullock Juvenca petusca worshipping Apis the Bull and Mnenis the Cow and unaccustomed to the yoke of subjection as Hos 10.11 but I shall bring her to it Destruction cometh Or excision from the North cometh cometh certo cito penitus venit Ezek. 7.6 there come those that shall cut up this fair heifer or fat calf Ver. 21. Also her hired men in the midst of her like fatted bullocks Heb. bullocks of the stall not like to do much good service in respect of their luxury and petulancy Fat Eglon had but sluggish souldiers Campania with her delicacies matred Hannibals forces These mercenaries carried themselves as if hired non ad militiam sed saginam not to fight but to fat themselves Ver. 22. The voyce thereof of Egypt shall go like a serpent Submissa voce loquetur she shall hisse and whisper as being daunted and damped Vox trepida prae metu instar serpentuÌ„ stâ—idula scarce able to mutter or utter ought for fear Esa â—9 4 Ver. 23. They shall cut down her forrest i. e. Her many Cities Herodotus telleth of one thousand and twenty Cities that were in the land of Egypt in the dayes of King Amasis Because they are more then the grashoppers The Babylonian fellers are Lib. 2. Diodor. l. 1. c. 31. and those many hands will make light work Ver. 24. The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded This is in plain termes Subjungit Epiphonema the sum of all that had been said before Ver. 25. The Lord of hosts the God of Israel saith And shall he say and not do Num. 23.19 shall the Word of God be broken Joh. 10.35 Ver. 26. Behold I will punish the multitude of No Called populous No Hâ—die dicitur Alexandria Nah. 3.8 populous as Nineveh so Galilee of the Gentiles some render it nourishing No. And their Kings Here Calvin conjectureth that Pharaoh had made many of his Princes Kings for his greater magnificence but this came down soon after A bulging wall is near unto a downfal And Pharaoh Hophra chap. 44.30 And all them that trust in him As the Jews in Egypt did Ver. 26. And afterward it shall be inhabited Fourty years after Ezek. 29.13 sc in the dayes of Amasis whom Cambyses the Persian conquered after which it remained subject to the Persian Monarchs 150. years saith Eusebius being but a base and tributary Kingdom Ver. 27. But fear not thou O my servant Jacob If Egypt find so much favour as ver 26. what mayst not thou hope for See the same chap. 30.10 Ver. 28. Fear thou not O Jacob c. See chap. 30.11 But correct thee in measure c. God dealeth much otherwise with his own people then he doth with unbeleevers whose prosperity as it is full of thornes so their adversity is but a foretaste of eternal torment whereas all things even afflictions also work together for good to them that love God c. CHAP. XLVII Ver. 1. BEfore that Pharaoh smote Gaza Called also Gazer and Gazera having its name not from the Persian Gaza signifying wealth or treasure but from an Hebrew word signifying strength It was first smitten by Pharaoh at his return from Carchemish likely after he had slain Josiah and afterwards worsted the Babylonian at Euphrates Next by Nebuchadnezzar this and the four other satrapies of the Philistines were overrun then when he came against Egypt After that it was besieged and taken by Alexander the great who laid it waste Yet was it built again and called Constantia after the name of Constantine the great his sister being one of the chief Cities in Syria and having received the faith Euseb de vit Constant l. 4. Ver. 2. Behold waters rise up out of the North The Chaldaean as a mighty torrent shall overflow the whole Country and bury all as it were in one universal grave of waters as once at the deluge So Esa 8.7 This seemeth to have been done somewhat before Egypt was destroyed when Moab Ammon and Syria and therein Palestine drank of the same cup. Ver. 3. The Fathers shall not look back to their children Though never so dear to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks call them and the Latines have their Filius of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but shall be sollicitous of their own lives only qui de Deo ne tantillum quidem fuerant solliciti For feeblenesse of hands Through fear and fail of vital spirits so as to forget natural affection also Ver. 4. Because of the day that cometh to spoile all the Philistines God will find a time of vengeance to fall upon the wicked enemies of his people though he bear long with them Patientia Dei quo diuturnior eo minacior The wicked practiseth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth The Lord shall laugh at him for he
he stirreth up himself and taketh better hold as resolved not to let him go without the blessing The like before him did good Hezekiah with whom he concurreth in the very letter of his request Esa 37.17 See the Notes there For our own righteousnesses Which are nothing better then a rotten rag a menstruous clout such as a man would not dain to take up or touch But for thy great mercies Through the merits of the promised Messiah Ver. 19. O Lord hear O Lord forgive This was to pray yea this was to strive in prayer Luk. 13.22 to strive as those of old did in the Grecian exercises some whereof were with fists and batts to strive and struggle even to an agony as the Greek word signifieth and as the Lord Christ did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 22.44 who being in an agony prayed yet the more earnestly he sweat and sweltered out as it were his soul through his body in prayer Be we now followers herein of Christ as dear children and of Daniel here who is a worthy pattern to pray by Cold suitours who want the aspiration of the spirit to pronounce Shibboleth do but beg a denial O Lord hearken and do defer not This is coelum tundere preces fundere Tertul. misericordiam extorquere as those Primitive Christians did to bounce at heaven gates Beneficium se putabit accepisse cum rogaretur ignoscere Ambr. orat de exit Theod. to tug hard with God to wring the blessing out of his hands who looks to be importuned and counts it for a kindness to be asked forgiveness as Ambrose saith of Theodosius the Emperour Ver. 20. And whilst I was speaking and praying When haply I had now new done and yet not so done but that my heart was yet lifting and lifting as a bell-rope is oft hoysing up after men have done ringing the bell And confessing my sins So precious a Saint was not without his sins These therefore he confesseth that he might be the fitter to beg mercy for the Church having first made his own peace with God and so in case to lift up pure hands in prayer The like doth David Psal 25 and 51. For the holy mountain of my God This was his main request and to God marvellous acceptable Surely if the Lord saw us Daniel like studying his share more then our own we might have what we would and God even think himself beholding to us as one phraseth it Ver. 21. Yea whilest I was speaking in prayer This he recognizeth and celebrateth as a sweet and singular mercy God sometimes heareth his people before they pray Isa 65.24 Psal 21.3 David was sure up betimes when he prevented the Lord with his prayer Psal 88.13 and 119.147 sometâ—mes whiles they are praying as he did those Act. 4.31 and 12.5 17. and Luther who came leaping out of his study where he had been praying with Vicimus Vicimus in his mouth that is we have gained the day got the conquest but if not so yet certainly when they have now prayed Isa 30.12 Jon. 2.1 Jer. 33.3 Mat. 7.7 Luther affirmeth that he oft gat more spiritual light by some one ardent prayer Ipse ego in una aliqua ardenti oratione meae plura saepe didici quam ex multorum librorum lectione aut accuratissima meditatione consequâ— potuissem Tom. 1. According to the account of Astronomers it must be abâ—ve 160. millions of miles from heaven to earth All this space the Angel came flying to Daniel in a little time then ever he could do by the reading of many books or by most accurate meditation thereupon Even the man Gabriel i. e. The Angel Gabriel in mans shape Whom I had seen in the vision And whom I had good cause to remember the longest day of my life for the good offices he had done me formerly Being caused to fly swiftly Heb. with wearinesse of flight Not that the Angels flee as fouls though a certain Frier a lyar certainly undertook to shew to the people a feather of the Angel Gabriels wings or that they are ever wearied with speeding Gods commissions and commands for the Churches good Sed datur hic assumptae speciei but these things are spoken to our apprehension Touched me With a familiar touch in token of encouragement prensando mimirum ut solent qui contactâ—â— familiari promptam benevelam que mentem indicant About the time of the evening oblation When the joynt prayers of Gods people were wont to come up before him quasi manu facta and Daniel hopeth they may do so again Qui nihil sperat nihil orat Ver. 22. And he informed me and talked with me Rather then the Saints shall want information and comfort God will spare one out of his own train to do them any good office Luk. 1.19 Gal. 3.19 neither will the greatest Angel in heaven grudge to serve them I am now come forth to give thee skill Not by infusion for so the Holy Ghost only but by instruction as was before noted It is well observed by one that this following Oration of the Angel containeth an Abridgment of the New Testament and a light to the Old for confirming Daniel is touching the ensuing deliverance out of Babylons captivity he further advertiseth and assureth him of the spiritual deliverance which Christ shall effect by his Gospel at his coming and therefore describing the times most accurately he plainly setteth forth the salvation of the Church Christian and the destruction of the stubborn and rebellious Jews who judge themselves unworthy of eternal life Ver. 23. At the beginning of thy supplications Thy prayer was scarce in thy mouth ere it was in Gods eare The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry Psal 34.15 See the Note He heard at the very first but answered not till Daniel had tugg'd with him See Jam. 5.16 17. For thâ—â— art greatly beloved Kimchi readeth it a man of measures a man every inch of thee But the word is not Hamiddoth but Chamudoth a man of desires a favourite in heaven Rerum expetendarum cupidâ—â— Vatab. De deratissimâ—â— es Trem. because desirous of things truely desireable Christ is said to be totus totus desiderabiliâ— lovely all over Can. 5.16 The Saints are also so in their measure as on the contrary the wicked are not desired Zeph. 2.1 but loathed and abhorred Prov. 13.5 Therefore understand the matter Good men shall know Gods secrets Gen. 18.17 19. Psal 25.14 Ver. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people i. e. Seventy weeks of years ten Jubilees which make up four hundred and ninety years Thus the very time is here particularly foretold when the Messiah should be revealed and put to death The like hereunto is not to be found in any other of the Prophets as Hierom well observeth This therefore is a noble Prophecy and many great wits have been exercised about it Cornelius a Lâ—pide speaketh