Vers 20. Hear counsel and receive instruction Or correction Here hee directs his speech to the younger sort and exhorts them 1 To hear counsel that is to keep the Commandement as vers 16. 2 To receive correction of Parents as vers 18. as the onely way to sound and lasting wisdome For Vexatio dat intellectum Piscator ictus sapit Quae nocent docent c. Or Salomon may here bring in the Father thus lessoning his untoward childe whom hee hath lashed For to correct and not instruct is to snuff the Lamp but not poure in oyl to feed it Vers 21. There are many devises in a mans heart They may purpose but God alone disposeth of all See the Note on chap. 16.1.9 Some think to rise by ill principles but it will not bee Some to bee rich but God crosseth them and holds them to prisoners pittances to hard meat as wee say Some to live long and to enjoy what they have gotten but they hear Thou fool Luk. 12. this very night shall thy soul bee taken from thee c. Some set themselves to root out true Religion to dethrone the Lord Christ c. But God sees and smiles looks and laughs Psal 2. The counsel of the Lord that shall stand when all is done Christ shall reign in the midst of his enemies the stone cut out of the mountains without hands shall bring down the golden Image with a vengeance and make it like the chaff of the Summer-floor Dan. 2.35 Sciat Celfitudo vestra nihil dubitet saith Luther in a letter to the Electour of Saxony longè aliter in coelo quà m Noribergae de hoc negotio conclusum esse Scult Annal. Let your highness bee sure that the Churches business is far otherwise ordered in Heaven than it is by the Emperour and States at Norinberg And Gaud eo quod Christus Dominus est alioqui totus desperassem I am glad that Christ is King for otherwise I had been utterly out of heart and hope saith holy Myconius in a Letter to Calvin upon the view of the Churches enemies Vers 22. The desire of a man is his kindness Or his mercy Many have a great mind to bee held merciful men and vainly give out what they would do if they had wherewith and perhaps they speak as they think too this may bee one of those many devises those variae vanae cogitationes in the heart of a man vers 21. But the poor man is better than a liar For though hee hath nothing to give yet having a giving affection hee is better than a lyar that is than such a rich man who before hee was rich would brag what hee would do if hee were rich and yet now is a niggard Saturatus pernoctabit Hee shall not go supperless to bed Vers 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life c. Life saturity and security from evil from the hurt if not from the smart of it are all assured here to those that fear God Who would not then turn spiritual purchaser See Chap. 22.4 Vers 24. A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosome The Latines say Hee wraps it in his cloak Manum habet sub pallio Hee puts it in his pocket say wee Erewhiles wee had him fast asleep and here going about his business as if hee were still asleep so lazie that any the least labour is grievous to him hee can hardly finde in his heart to feed himself so to uphold the life of his hands which hee should maintain with the labour of his hands 2 Thess 3.10 and with the sweat of his brows Gen. 3. Very sucklings get not their milk without much tugging and tyring themselves at the Dug Vers 25. Smite a scorner and the simple will leware Alterius perditio tua sit cautio saith the Wise-man Seest thou another man shipwrackt look well to thy tackling Poena ad paucos c. Let but a few bee punished and many will bee warned and wised any will but the scorner himself who will not bee better though braid in a mortar This scorner may very well bee the sluggard mentioned in the former verse Smite him never so much there is no beating any wit into him Pharaoh was not a button the better for all that hee suffered but Jethro taking notice of Gods heavy hand upon Pharaoh and likewise upon the Amalekites was thereby converted and became a Proselyte as Rabbi Salomon noteth upon this Text. Vers 26. Hee that wasteth his father That spoileth pilfereth pillageth preyeth upon his father Not so much as saying with that Scape-thrift in the Gospel Luke 15. Give mee the portion that falls to my share Idleness and incorrigibleness lead to this wickedness as may appear by the context Vers 27. Cease my son to hear the instruction Beware of false Prophets Mat. 7.24 See the Note there Take heed also what books yee read for as water relisheth of the soil it runs through so do the soul of the Authors that a man readeth Vers 28. An ungodly witness scorneth judgement As if hee were out of the reach of Gods rod. Eccles 8. Psal 50. And because judgement is not presently executed therefore his heart is set in him to do wickedly hee looks upon God as an Abbettor of his perjury His mouth devoureth iniquity as some savoury morsel But know they not that there will bee bitterness in the end Let them but mark what follows Vers 29. Judgements are prepared for scorners For these scorners that promise themselves impunity are judgements not one but many not appointed onely but prepared long since and now ready to bee executed CHAP. XX. Vers 1. Wine is a mocker c. FOr first it mocks the Drunkard and makes a fool of him promising him pleasure Decepit ebrietas Lotum quem Sodoma non decepit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but paying him with the stinging of an Adder and biting of a Cockatrice Chap. 23.32 See the Note there Wine is a comfortable creature Judg. 9.12 one of the chief lenitives of humane miseries as Plato calls it but excess of wine 1 Pet. 4.3 is as one well saith Blondus daemon dulce venenum suave peccatum quam qui in se habet se non habet quam qui facit non facit peccatum sed totus est peccatum That is a fair spoken Devil a sweet poison a sin which hee that hath in him hath not himself and which hee that runs into runs not into a single sin but is wholly turned into sin Secondly It renders a man a mocker even one of those scorners for whom judgements are prepared as Solomon had said in the fore-going verse See Hos 7.5 Isa 28.1 1 Sam. 25. Abigail would not tell Nabal of his danger till hee had slept out his Drunkenness lest shee should have met wich a mock if not with a knock Strong drink is raging All kinde of drink that will alienate the understanding of a man and make
over Gods own peculiar the people of his purchase Israel Gods first-born and in that respect higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.37 So that if Maximilian the Emperour of Germany could say Rex hominum Hispanus asinorum Gallus regum ego Joh. Mant. The Spaniard is King of Men the French is King of Asses and I am King of Kings how much better might Solomon have said so Vers 2. Vanity of Vanities Or most vain vanity therefore no happiness here to be had but in the reverential fear of God chap. 12.13 and this is the sum of the whole Sermon the result of the Discourse the impartial verdict brought in by one that could best tell and hee tells it over and over that men might the sooner believe him without putting themselves to the fruitless pains of trying any further conclusions Sinne hath hurled confusion over the world and brought a vanity on the creature This our first parents found and therefore named their second son Abel or Vanity David comes after and confirms it Psal 144.4 Adam is as Abel or Man is like to Vanity Adam is Abels mate Omnis Adam est totus Abel Nitsub fundatus constitutus there is an allusion in the Original to their two names yea All-Adam is all-Abel when hee is best underlaid so the Hebrew hath it every man at his best estate when he is settled upon his best bottome is altogether vanity Surely Selah 'T is so 'T is so you may seal to it Psal 39.5 But who alas hath beleeved our report These outward things are so near to us and so natural to us that although we can say nay swear with the Preacher Vanity of Vanities a heap a nest of vanities It is naught it is naught saith the buyer yet when gone apart wee close with them Fulg. triumphes Romanos ludosve cum spectarit appellavit vanitatem Author vitae apud Sur. Procop. lib. 2. de bello Vand. albeit wee know they are naught and will come to naught 1 Cor. 2.6 Neither will it ever bee otherwise with us till with Fulgentius we have found after much trial the vanity of all earthly triumphs till with Gilimer King of Vandalls led in triumph by Bellisarius wee cry out as here Vanity of Vanities all is vanity till with Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany whom of all men the world judged most happy wee cry out with detestation to all our honours pleasures trophees riches * Philip. Morn Abite hinc abite longe Get you hence let me hear no more of you Vers 3. What profit hath a man What durable profit Quid residui what overplus what more than will serve to satisfie back and belly Isa 57.10 Our life is called the life of our hands because it is maintained by the labour of our hands Si ventri bene si lateri as hee in Horace saith If the belly may be filled the back fitted that 's all that can here be had and that most men care to have Which if they have some have but Prisoners pittance so much as will keep life and soul together yet Quid amplius as the Vulgar renders this text what have they more to pay them for their pains Surely when all the account is subducted such a labouring mans happiness resolved into its final issue and conclusion there resteth nothing but ciphers This should make us more moderate in our desires and indeavours after earthly things sith we do but labour in the very fire and weary our selves for very vanity Hab. 2.13 They that seek after the Philosophers stone they must use so much gold and spend so much gold and then they can turn as much into gold by it as they have spent in making of it and so they have their labour for their pains Quid emolumenti What profit hath a man Do we not see many take a great deal of pains to go to hell whereinto at length they are turned as a Sumpter-horse is at night after all his hard travell with his back full of galls and bruises Vers 4. One generation passeth away c. Therefore no happiness here because no assurance of life or long continuance Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo Et subito casu quae valuere ruunt Xerxes looking upon his huge Army wept to think that within less than an hundred years not one of those many should be left alive Mortality is the stage of mutability Meer man is but the dream of a dream but the generation of a fancy but an empty vanity but the curious picture of nothing a poor feeble unable dying flash How then can he here work out unto himself an happiness worth having Hab. 2.6 Why should he lay up and load himself with thick clay as if his life were rivetted upon eternity But the Earth endureth for ever As a stage whereon the several Generations act their parts and go off as the center of the world and seat of living creatures it stands firm and unmoveable That was an od conceit of Platoes that the earth was a kind of living creature having stones for bones rivers for veins trees for hairs c. And that was worse of Aristotle teaching the worlds eternity which some smatterers in Philosophy fondly strive to maintain out of this text not rightly understanding the force of the Hebrew phrase For ever which oft-times and here signifies a periodical perpetuity a long indefinite time not an infinite See 2 Pet. 1.3 10. The whole Engine shall be changed By ever then is meant till the end of all things Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paus Psal 19.3 Vers 5. The Sun also ariseth That sweet and swift creature the Persians deified it So sweet that Eudoxus Professed himself willing to bee burnt up by the Sun presently so hee might bee admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it So swift that the Persians dedicated an horse to their God the Sun as the swiftest on earth to the swiftest in heaven He courseth about the world with incredible speed and rejoyceth as a Gyant to run a race Hee exceedeth the Eagles flight more than it goes beyond the slow motion of a snail Whether it run nearer the earth now by 9976 German miles than it did in Ptolomies days as some Mathematicians affirm I know not But that being of a fiery nature Hóm. 8. ad pop Antioch it should contrary to the nature of fire which is to fly upward send down its beams its heat light and influence this I admire with Chrysostome as a gracious work of God in making this great Servant of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his name in Hebrew signifies so sweetly serviceable And hasteth to the place Heb. panteth as if tired and even breathless A figurative speech like that Dan. 9.21 where the Angel Gabriel is said to fly swiftly or with weariness of flight to inform Daniel For use hereof hear the Poet.
that pinched with penury water their plants feed upon tears And although bread and other comforts cast upon such may seem cast down the waters because no hope of recompence yet thou shalt bee recompenced at the Resurrection of the Just saith Christ to such and blessed in the mean while Luk. 14.14 Temporalia Dei servis impensa non pereunt sed paerâ—uriunt Almes perisheth not but is put to use Vers 7. A time to rent and a time to sew As in making a new or translating an old garment Fuller Turks wonder at English for pincking or cutting their cloathes and making holes in whole cloth which time of it self would tear too soon It was a custom among the Jews to rent their cloathes in case of sad occurrences The Prophet Ahijah rent Jeroboams new garment in twelve peeces to shew that God would rend the Kingdom out of the hand of Solomon 1 King 11.31 Schismaticks rend the Church Hereticks the Scriptures God will stitch up all in his own time and heal the breaches thereof Psal 60.2 A time to keep silence and a time to speak It is a singular skill to time a word Isa 50.4 to set it upon its wheels Prov. 25.11 as Abigail did for her family 1 Sam. 25. as Esther did against Haman And it is an happy thing when a man can pray as one once did Det Deus ut sermo meus adeo commodus sit quam sit accommodus God grant my speech may bee as profitable as it is seasonable He that would be able to speak when and as he ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythagorica Cuspin de Coesarib 475. must first learn silence as the Pythagoreans did of old as the Turks doe at this day Perpetuum silentium tenent ut muti they are not suffered to speak Discamus prius non loqui saith Hierome upon this text Let us first learn not to speak that afterwards we may open our mouthes to speak wisely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cic. de Amiciâ— Silence is fitly set here before speaking and first takes its time and turn It is a good rule that one gives either keep silence or speak that that is better than silence Vers 8. A time to love and a time to hate Yet I like not his counsel that said Ama tanquam osurus odi tanquam amaturus Let a man chuse whom he may love and then love whom he hath chosen Let love be without dissimulation abhor the evil cleave to the good Rom. 12.9 Hate wee may but then it must be Non virum sed vitium not the man but his evil qualities whereof also we must seek to bereave him that he may bee totus desiderabilis altogether lovely Cant. 5.16 A time of war and a time of peace Time saith an Interpreter is a circle and the Preacher shutteth up this passage of time in a circle For having begun with a time to be born and a time to dye he endeth with a time of warre which is a time of dying and with a time of peace which is a time wherein people by bringing forth are multiplied Vers 9. What profit hath he that worketh c. i. e. How can any man by any means he can use help Cui bono or hinder this volubility and vanity that he meets with in every creature What profit see the Note on chap. 1.3 whereunto this verse relateth as being a conclusion of the principal argument Vers 10. I have seen the travell that God c. Not Fortune but Providence ordereth all crosse occurrences a wheel there is within a wheel Ezek. 1. then when men may think things run on wheels at sixes and sevens as they say Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God 1 Pet. 5.6 His holy hand hath a special stroke in all our travels Hee both ordaineth Act. 2. and ordereth all Gen. 50.20 altering the property Rom. 8.28 and disposing them to good raysing profit from all Thus men afflicted Job for covetousnesse the Devil for malice chap. 1. God for trial and exercise of his graces to bee exercised therein saith the text or as the word signifieth to bee humbled therewith to hide pride from man Job 33. to tame and take him a link lower Their hearts are brought down Isa 29.4 saith the Prophet they speak out of the ground that erst set their mouthes against Heaven and said I am and besides mee there is none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab or natu Mundus a mundicie Vers 11. He hath made every thing beautiful c. Plato was wont to say that God did always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work by Geometry Another sage said Pondere me sura numero Deus omnia fecit God hath done all in number weight and measure made and set all things in comely and curious order and equipage he hath also prefined afore-hand a convenient and beautiful season for every thing ordering the disorders of the world to his own glory and his Churches good Also he hath set the world in their heart i. e. Hee hath given to men the Creature to contemplate together with an earnest desire to search into Natures secrets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.22 The Vulgar renders this Text thus Et mundum tradidit disputationi corum And he hath delivered the world to their disputations But so foolishly and impiously have men disputed of God of his Providence of his Judgements of the chief happinesse c. that they have reasoned or rather wrangled away the truth being neither able to find out the beginning nor end of the causes or uses of Gods works See Rom. 1.21 22. Veritatem Philosophiae quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet said Picus Mirandula Philosophy inquires after truth Divinity findes it out and Religion only improves it Glossa Minor Vers 12. I know that there is no good in them i. e. No other good but for a man to rejoyce and doe good in his life i. e. Frui praesentibus facere quod in futuro profit to enjoy things present and to do that that may doe him good a thousand years hence to expend what he hath upon himself and to extend it unto others that are in necessity this is to lay up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come this is to lay hold upon eternal life 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 2 Thess 3. Vers 13. And enjoy the good of all his labour They that will not labour must not eat saith the Apostle As they that doe shall enjoy the good of all their labour eat the labour of their hands and be thrice happy Psal 12.8 12. Jabal and Jubal Gen. 4. Valeat possessor oportes Si comportatis rebus bone cogitat uti Horat. Psal 43.5 Frugality and Musick good husbandry and good content dwell together and yet not alwayes but where God gives the gift Hee gives strength to labour and health to enjoy the good of our labour This the
yonker thus bespeaking himself Rejoyce my soul in thy youth c. and then nips him on the crown again with that stinging But in the end of the verse Or else which I rather think by an ironical Concession hee bids him rejoyce c. yeelds him what hee would have by way of mockage and bitter-scoff like as Elias jeered the Baalites bidding them cry aloud unto their drowsie or busie God or as Micaiah bade Ahab by an holy scoff go up against Ramoth Gilead and prosper Mark 14.41 Or as our Saviour bade his drowsie Disciples Sleep on now and take your rest viz. if you can at least or have any minde to it with so many Bills and Halberds about your ears And let thine heart chear thee in the daies of thy youth In diebus electionum tuarum so Arias Montanus reads it in the daies of thy chusings that is Luke 12. when thou followest the choice and the chase of thine own desires and dost what thou wilt without controll Walk in the way of thine heart Which bids thee Eat drink and bee merry and had as lief bee knockt on the head as do otherwise Hence fasting is called an afflicting of the soul and the best finde it no less grievous to go about holy duties than it is to children to bee called from their sports and set to their books And in the sight of thine eyes Those windows of wickedness and loop-holes of lust But know Here is that which marrs all the mirth here is a cooler for the yonkers courage sowre sauce to his sweet meats for fear hee should surfeit Verbahaet Solomonis valde emphatica sunt saith Lavater there is a great deal of emphasis in these words of Solomon Let mee tell thee this as a Preacher saith hee And oh that I could get words to gore the very soul with smarting pain that this Doctrine might bee written in thy flesh That for all these things These tricae as the world accounts them these trifles and tricks of youth which Job and David bitterly bewailed as sore businesses God will bring thee to judgement Either in this life as hee did Absolom and Adoniah Hophni and Phinehas Nadab and Abihu or infallibly at thy deaths-day which indeed is thy dooms-day then God will bring thee perforce bee thou never so loth to come to it hee will hale thee to his tribunal bee it never so much against thy heart and against the hair with thee And as for the judgement what it shall bee God himself shews it Isa 28.17 Judgement will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters shall over-flow the hiding-place Where what is the hail saith One but the multitude of accusations which shall sweep away the vain hope that men have that the infinite mercy of God will save them howsoever they live And what is the hiding-place but the multitude of excuses which men are ready to make for themselves and which the waters of Gods justice shall quite destroy and overthrow Young men of all men are apt to make a Covenant with death and to put far away from them the thought of judgement But it boots them not so to do for Senibus mors in januis adolescentibus in insidiis saith Bernard Death doth not alwaies knock at door but comes often like a lightning or thunderbolt it blasteth the green corn and consumeth the new and strong building Now at death it will fare nothing better with the wilde and wicked youngster than with that theef that having stollen a Gelding rideth away bravely mounted till such time as being overtaken by hue and cry he is soon afterwards sentenced and put to death James 4.8 Vers 10. Therefore remove sorrow from thine heart One would have thought hee should have said rather considering the premises Remove joy from thy heart Let thy laughter be turned into mourning and thy joy into heaviness turn all the streams into that chanel that may drive that Mill that may grind the heart But by sorrow here or indignation as Tremellius renders it the Preacher means sin the cause of sorrow and so hee interprets himself in the next words Put away evil from thy flesh i. e. Mortifie thy lusts For childe-hood and youth are vanity The Septuagint and Vulgar render it Youth and pleasure are vain things They both will soon bee at an end CHAP. XII Vers 1. Remember now thy Creatour HEB. Creatours scil Father Son and Holy Ghost called by Elihu Eloa Gnosai God my Makers Job 35.10 and by David the Makers of Israel Psal 149.1 so Isa 54.5 Thy Makers is thine Husbands Let us make man Gen. 1.26 and verse 1. Dei creavit Those three in One and One in Three made all things but man hee made fearfully and wonderfully Psal 139.14 The Father did it Ephes 3.9 The Son Heb. 1.8 10. Col. 1.16 The Holy Ghost Psal 33.6 and 104.30 Job 36.13 and 33.4 To the making of Man a Council was called Gen. 1.29 Sun Moon and Stars are but the work of his fingers Psal 8.3 but Man is the work of his hands Psal 139.14 Thine hands have made mee or took special pains about mee and fashioned mee saith Job chap. 10.8 thou hast formed mee by the book saith David Psal 139.16 Hence the whole Church so celebrates this great work with Crowns cast down at the Creators feet Rev. 4.10 11. And hence young men also who are mostly most mindless of any thing serious for childe-hood and youth are vanity are here charged to remember their Creatour that is as dying David taught his young Son Solomon to know love and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind 1 Chron. 28.9 for words of knowledge in Scripture imply affection and practice Tam Dei meminisse opus est quam respirare To remember God is every whit as needful as to draw breath sith it is hee that gave us being at first and that still gives us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath Act. 17.25 Let every thing therefore that hath breath praise the Lord even so long as it hath breath yea let it spend and exhale it self in continual sallies as it were and egressions of affection unto God till it hath gotten not onely an union but an unity with him Of all things God cannot endure to bee forgotten In the daies of thy youth Augustus began his speech to his mutinous souldiers with Audite senem juvenes quem juvenem senes and ierunt You that are young hear mee that am old whom old men were content to hear when I was but young And Augustine beginneth one of his Sermons thus Ad vos mihi sermo O juvenes flos aetatis periculum mentis To you is my speech O young men the flower of age the danger of the mind To keep them from danger and direct them to their duty it is that the Preacher here exhorts them to remember
the Note there And their dark sayings Dark to those that are acute obtusi that have not their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.14 Legum obscuritates non assignemus culpae scribentium sed inscitiae non asse quentium saith hee in Gellius If the Law bee dark to any the fault is not in the Law-giver but in those that should better understand it Vers 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning Or the chief and principal point * The head or first-fruits the head and heigh of wisdome as the word here signifieth yea wisdome it self Job 28.28 This Solomon had learned by the instruction of his Father as it is in the next verse who had taught it him of a childe Prov. 4.4 with Psal 111.10 and therefore sets it here in the beginning of his works as the beginning of all Hoc est enim totus homo As in the end hee makes it the end of all Eccles 12.13 yea the All of man without which hee counts him not a compleat man though never so wise to the world-ward Heathen Sages as Seneca Socrates c. were wise in their Generation and had many excellent gifts but they missed of the main there was no fear of God before their eyes Being herein as Alchimists who miss of their end but yet finde many excellent things by the way These Merchants found goodly pearls but the pearl of price they failed of Mat. 13.45 46. The Prophet calls the fear of God our treasure Isa 33.6 But fools despise Fools so are all such as fear not God being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate or injudicious Tit. 1.16 Evil is Hebrew for a fool Nebulâ— of Nabal Fool of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When one highly commended the Cardinal Julian to Sigismund hee answered Tamen Romanus est Yet hee is a Popeling So yet hee is a Fool because void of Gods true fear Behold they have rejected the word of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rheâ— and what wisdome is in them Jer. 8.9 Vers 8. Hear the instruction of thy Father c. It is not fit to disobey God thy Father nor thy Teacher saith Aristotle Our Parents said Hierocles are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our houshold-gods and their words should bee received as Oracles This is a principal fruit of the fear of God which it here fitly followeth like as in the decalogue the Commandement for honouring of Parents is set next of all to those of the first Table nay is indeed as Philo saith of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mixt Commandement Vers 9. For they shall bee an ornament Virgil. Plato A mans wisdome maketh his face to shine Eccles 8.1 Tum pietate gravem c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither gold nor precious stone so glistereth saith Plato as the prudent mind of a pious person Nothing so beautifies as grace doth Moses and Joseph were fair to God and favoured of all men A Crown of Gold a Chain of Pearl are no such Ornaments as are here commended Vers 10. If sinners entice thee To an ill bargain to a match of mischief as Ahab did Jehosaphat as Potiphers wife would have done Joseph and truly that hee yeelded not was no less a wonder than that those three Worthies burnt not in the midst of the fiery furnace But as the Sun-shine puts out fire so did the fear of God the fire of lust Consent thou not But carry a severe rebuke in thy countenaâ—ce as God doth Psal 80.16 To rebuke them is the ready way to bee rid of them Vers 11. If they say The Dragon bites the Elephants â—ar and thence sucks his blood because hee knows that to bee the onely place that hee cannot reach with his trunck to defend So deal the red Dragon and his Angels with good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple â—om 16.18 With much fair speech shee caused him to yeeld with the flattering of her lips shee forced him Prov. 7.21 Come with mee If sinners have their Come should not Saints much more Come let us go to the house of the Lord Isa 2.3 Come let us walk in the light of the Lord Vers 5. Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also Zech. 8.21 should wee not incite intice wheâ— and provoke one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.24 sharpen and extimulate as Prov 27.17 rouse and stir up each other to love and good works 2 Pet. 1.13 Vers 12. Let us swallow them up alive As the Devil doth 1 Pet. 5.8 2 Tim. 2.26 Homo homini daemon The poor Indians have been heard to say It had been better that their Countrey had been given to the Devils of Hell than to the Spaniards and that if the cruel Spaniards go to Heaven when they dye they for their parts desire not to come there Vers 13. Wee shall finde all precious substance But those that rake together rem rem quocunque modo rem that count all good fish that comes to net will in the end catch the Devil and all Fill our houses with spoil Not considering that they consult shame to their houses by cutting off many people and sinning against their own souls Hab. 2.10 Hee that brings home a pack of plaguy cloaths hath no such great booty of it Vers 14. Let us all have one purse How much better were a wallet to beg from door to door than such a cursed hoard of evil-gotten goods Vers 15. Walk not thou in the way with them God will not take the wicked by the hand Psal 26. Job 8.20 Why then should wee Gather not my soul with sinners saith David O Lord let mee not go to Hell where the wicked are for Lord thou knowest I never loved their company here said a good Gentlewoman when shee was to dye being in much trouble of conscience Vers 16. For their feet run to evil By the abuse of their locomotive faculty given them to a better purpose They run as if they should not come time enough they take long strides toward the burning lake which is now but a little before them Vers 17. Surely in vain the net Which is to say Silly birds pick up the meat but see not the net and so become a prey to the fowler If the fruits of the flesh grow out of the trees of your hearts saith blessed Bradford surely Sermon of Repent pag. 70. surely the Devil is at Inne with you you are his birds whom when hee hath well fed hee will broach you and eat you chaw you and champ you world without end in eternal woe and misery Vers 18. And they lay wait Their sin will surely finde them out No doubt this man is a Murderer Nemo nequitiam gorit in pectâ—re qui non idem Nemesin in tergo said those Barbarians Act. 28.4 whom though hee had escaped the Sea yet
vengeance suffereth not to live Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth 1 King 9.26 Murder ever bleeds fresh in the eye of God to him many years yea that eternity that is past is but yesterday Vers 19. Which taketh away the life The greater wealth the greater spoil awaits a man As a tree with thick and large â—oughs every man desires to lop him Trithemius writeth that the Templars at the request of Philip King of France were put down and extinct upon pretext of heresie but indeed because they were rich and Philip sore longed after their possessions Cyprus for its great wealth Sixtus Rufus Virgil. Isidor became a spoil to the Romans Auri sacra fames c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covetousness is daring and desperate it rides without reins as Balaam did after the wages of wickedness the Mammon of iniquity Luk. 16.9 Vers 20. Wisdome Hebrew Wisdomes That is the most absolute and soveraign wisdome the Lord Jesus in whom are bid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Col. 2. who also is made unto us of God wisdome righteousness c. 1 Cor. 1.30 Cryeth without The Hebrew word signifies oft to shout for joy as Psal 81.2 Levit. 9. ult Christ surely cryed sweetly the roof of his mouth was like the best Wine that goeth down sweetly Cant. 7.9 with a desire did hee desire our salvation though hee well knew it should cost him so very dear Luk. 22.15 Shee uttereth her voice Verbis non solum desertiâ— sed exertis In the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto mee end drink John 7.37 c. Vers 21. In the cheef place of concourse Veritas non quaerit angulos Christ as his manner was preached in the Synagogues Paul disputed in the market with whomsoever hee met and preached in the midst of Mars-hill Act. 17.17.22 And at Rome his bonds in Christ were manifest in all Caesars Court Phil. 1.13 and in all other places Vers 22. How long yee simple ones The fatuelli that are easily perswaded into a fools Paradise These are the best sort of bad men The Apostle calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 16.18 Optimi putantur Pointifices saith Papirius Massonius a Popish Writer si vel lenitèr mali sint In vita Pauli 3. vel minus honi quà m caeteri mortale esse salent Those are thought to be very good Popes that are not stark naught or that have any good at all in them These Simplicians are much better than scorners that delight in their scorning but far beyond those fools that hate knowledge See a like gradation Psal 1.1 with the Note there Peccata non sunt paria Nemo repentè fit turpissimus All sins are not alike sinful and wicked men grow worse and worse Vers 23. Turn you at my reproof Hee that reproves and then directs not how to do better is as hee that snuffs a Lamp but poures not in oyl to maintain it Behold I will poure out my spirit Now if men make their hearts as an Adamant lest they should hear c. and wilfully withstand the Spirit let them read their neck-verse in the following words and in that parallel Text Zach. 7.11 12 13. Resisting the Spirit is a step to the unpardonable sin Vers 24. Because I have called and yee refused If any ask why did God suffer them to refuse and not make them yeeld I answer with Augustin Doctiorem quarat qui hanc quaestionem ei explicet Let him look one that can tell him for I cannot Vers 25. But yee have set at naughâ— As those recusant guests in the Gospel that pretended they therefore came not because they had bought Farms and Oxen but indeed it was because their Farms and Oxen had bought them They had either so much to do or so little to do that they could not make use of so fair an offer so sweet advice and advantage And would none of my reproof Ruinam praecedunt stillicidiâ— It is a sure presage and desert of ruine when men will not bee ruled The Cypress Prov. 29.1 the more it is watered the more it is withered The tree that is not for fruit is for the fire The earth that beareth thorns and briars onely is rejected c. Heb. 6.8 Vers 26. I will also laugh Quod Deus loquitur cum risu tu legas cum fletu If God laugh thou hast good cause to cry Augustin Note here the venemous nature of sin which is so offensive to God as it makes him against his ordinary wont merry at his Creatures misery who otherwise delights in mercy Mich. 7.18 When your fear cometh That terrible tempest Lactan. Instit Sâ—lust Job 15.21 22. Psal 11.6 Tullus Hostilius a prophane Prince set up and worshiped at Rome two new Gods viz. Pavor and Pallor as Lactantius testifieth Cataline was wont to bee afraid at any sudden noise as being haunted with the furies of his own evil conscience Daniel Thuaâ— So was our Richard the third after the murther of his two innocent Nephews and Charles the ninth of France after the Paristan Massacre These Tyrants became more terrible to themselves than ever they had been to others Vers 27. When your fear cometh as desolation Scilicet of war which laies heaps upon heaps and leaves not a stone upon a stone Aâ—at 24. As a whirlewind Suddenly and irresistibly and with a terrible noise and fragor Vers 28. Then shall they call c. This was Sauls misery The Philistims are upon mee and God will not answer mee This was Moaâ—s curse Isa 10.12 This was the case of Davids enemies Psal 18.41 A doleful case it is surely when a man shall lose his prayers and shall nor be a button the better for all his pretended orisons and devotions Prov. 28.9 Hee that turneth away his ear from hearing of the Law even his prayer shall bee abominable If God answer him at all it is according to the Idols of his heart Ezek. 14.3 with bitter answers as Judg. 10.13 14. Or if better yet it is but as hee answered the Israelites for Quails and afterwards for a King better have been without Deus saepe dat iratus quod negat propitius Giftless gifts God gives sometimes Josh 24.20 Hee will consume you after that hee hath done you good Vers 29. For that they hated knowledge These are the worst sort of sinners vers 22. that not onely slight knowledge but hate it as theeves do a torch in the night Herodot curse it as Ethiopians do the scorching Sun flie against it as Batts do against the light This is the condemnation this is Hell afore-hand John 3.20 And did not chuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refuse the evil Isa 7. and chuse the good chuse the things that please God Isa 56.4 that wherein hee delights Isa 65.12 Such a choise made Moses Heb. 11.25 and
a wicked man for his lying is loathsome Heb. stinketh and cometh to shame Prov. 13.5 Pilate for instance of whom Egesippus saith that hee was Vir nequam parvi faciens mendacium A naughty man and that made light of a lye It may seem so by that scornful question of his What 's truth Joh. 18.38 Tacitus also is by Tertullian said to bee mendaciorum loquacissimus where hee speaks of Christians hee writes so many lines so many lies Liers pervert the end for which God created speech which was to give light to the notions of the mind Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hands that shed innocent blood This is fitly subjoyned and set after a lying tongue because blood-shed is oft occasioned by lying nil est audacius illis Deprensis iram atque animos ex crimine sumunt Juvenal Ruffians revenge the lye given them with a stab Persecutors as in the French Massacre give out that Christians are the worst of men not fit to live for their notorious enormities and therefore not to bee pittied if taken from the earth Those that kill a Dog saith the French Proverb make the world beleeve hee was mad first so they alwaies belied the Church and traduced her to the world and then persecuted her first took away her veil and then wounded her Cant. 5.6 The Devil was first a slanderer and lyer and then a murtherer Hee cannot murder without hee slander first But God will destroy them that speak lies the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man Psal 5.6 Vers 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations This is the old Beldame the Mother of all the foregoing and following mischiefs and is therefore fitly set in the midst of the seven as having an influence into all From the eies the Wise-man descends to the mouth from the mouth to the hands from the hands to the heart from thence to the feet and so takes the parts in order as they stand But as for the heart it transfuseth its venome into all the rest and may say to them all as the heart of Apollodorus the Tyrant seemed to say to him who dreamed one night that hee was fleaed by the Scythians and boiled in a Caldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is I that have drawn thee to all this Those in Hell cry so doubtless Feet that bee swift As if they should come too late This is a foul abuse of the locomotive faculty given us by God for better purpose that wee should bee swift to hear run to and fro to encrease knowledge Dan. 12. walk in the way that is called holy go from strength to strength taking long strides towards Heaven Psal 84.7 Those then that walk in a contrary road and make all possible haste to heap up sin upon sin must needs be abominated and accursed of God Vers 19. A false witness that speaketh lies Heb. That blows abroad lies as with a pair of bellows that vents them boldly and freely in open Court in the face of the Countrey These Knights of the Post can lend an oath for a need as they did Jesabel against Naboth and like those in the history will not stick to swear that their friend or foe was at Rome and Interamna both at once God oft thundereth against such to shew his utter hatred of them and hath threatned that the winged flying-book that is full of curses within and without shall overtake them ere they get home and shall rest in the midst of their houses to consume them with the timber thereof and the stones thereof Zach. 5.4 And him that soweth discord See the Notes on vers 14. 16. Unity among brethren is fitly compared to a Cable-Rope which will not easily break but if once cut asunder its hard to tye a knot upon it what ill officers then are Breed-bates and boutefeus Vers 20. My Son keep thy Fathers Commandement The commandements of religious Parents are the very commandements of God himself and are therefore to bee as carefully kept as the apple of a mans eye Prov. 7.2 See the Note one Chap. 1.8 Vers 21. Binde them continually Observe them with as much care and conscience as thou art bound to do the Law of God given by Moses Deut. 6.8 See the Note there Ducet perducet Vers 22. When thou goest it shall lead thee No such guide to God as the Word which while a man holds to hee may safely say Lord if I bee deceived thou hast deceived mee If I bee out of the way thy word hath misled mee When thou sleepest it shall keep thee If thou sleep with some good meditation in thy mind it shall keep thee from foolish and sinful dreams and fancies and set thy heart in a holy frame when thou awakest Hee that raketh up his fire at night shall finde fire in the morning How precious are thy thoughts that is thoughts of thee unto mee O God Psal 139.17 what follows When I awake I am still with thee vers 18. Vers 23. For the Commandement is a Lamp Or Candle whereof there is no small use when men go to bed or rise betime Hee that hath the Word of Christ richly dwelling in him may lay his hand upon his heart and say as dying Oecolampadius did Hic sat lucis Here 's plenty of light Under the Law all was in riddles Moses was veyled And yet that saying was then verified Et latet lucet There was light enough to light men to Christ the end of the Law And reproofs of instruction Or corrections of instructions A lesson set on with a whipping is best remembred See the Note on Chap. 3.13 Vers 24. To keep thee from the evil woman Heb. From the woman of evil that is wholly given up to wickedness as Aaron saith of the people Exod. 32.22 and as Plautus In fermento tota jacet uxor In this sense Antichrist is called the man of sin 2 Thes 3. From the flattery of the tongue This is the proper effect of Gods word hid in the heart as an amulet Bellerophon and other Heathens without this preservative abstained from Adultery either for love of praise or fear of punishment or opinion of merit but this was not properly chastity but continency which kept them from the outward act sed non sine dolore not without inward lustings and hankerings after strange flesh Vellem si non essem Imperator said Scipio when a fair Harlot was offered to him I would if I were not a General Of a strange woman Filthiness as also swearing and drunkenness in a woman is most abominable Hence among other reasons saith one the whorish woman is called the strange woman Salust Vers 25. Lust not after her beauty Aureliae Orestillae praeter formam nihil unquam bonus landavit Aurelia Orestilla had beauty indeed but nothing else that was praise-worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian ver hist
as the Popes Canonists call it Divine Justice doth not use to kill Flyes with Beetles Vers 33. A wound and dishonour shall hee get Either from the husband of the Adulteress or from the Magistrate who will put him to death according to the Law of God Levit. 20. Deut. 22. and of divers Nations with whom Adultery is a capital crime And his reproach shall not bee wiped away See the Note in Chap. 5.9 How oft read we of David that hee was upright in all things save only in the matter of Uriah What an indeleble blot is that still upon him Vers 34. For jealousie is the rage Howbeit hee may not kill the Adulterer though taken in the act Custos utriusque tabula but prosecute the Law against him and appeal to the Magistrate who is the Lord-keeper of both Tables But if no Law will releeve a man yet let him know that hee shall do himself no disservice by making God his Chancellor CHAP. VII Vers 1. My Son keep my words ARistotle hath observed and daily experience makes it good that man shews his weakness no way more than about moderating the pleasure of his Tasting and Touching For as much as they belong to him not as a man but as a living creature Turpe est senescere atatem non tamen senescere lascivâ—am Nazianz Now therefore as where the hedge is lowest there the beast leaps over soonest So Satan will bee sure to assault us where wee are least able to withstand him And whereas old men have no cause to bee secure David was old when hee went in to Bathsheba and Lot not young when hee defloured his two daughters Of the Brabants it is said that quo magis senescunt to magis stâ—â—lâ—escunt Contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senâ—â—c quasi Semintâ—â— the elder the foolisher And the Heathen Sages say Metuendam â—sse senectam quod non veniat sola that old age is to bee feared as that which comes not alone but being it self a diseaseâ— it comes accompained with many diseases both of body and minde young men especially whom the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee hot and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to boyl and who think they have a licence helluari scortari fores effringere to drink and drab which they count and call a trick of youth have but more than need to bee constantly and carefully cautioned and called upon as here they are to fly fornication 1 Cor. 6.8 to fly youthful lusts 2 Tim. 2.22 with post-haste to flee them to abstain from fleshly lusts Tanquam à mellito veneno which war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 The body cannot bee so wounded with weapons as the soul is with lusts Holy Timothy so temperate a young man 1 Tim. 5.23 that Saint Paul was fain to prescribe him physick bidding him no longer to drink water but a little wine for his stomacks sake and his often infirmities contracted happily by his too much abstinence for the better keeping under his body and bringing it into subjection is in the same Chapter by the same Apostle exhorted 1 Tim. 5.2 to exhort the younger women with all Purity Whereby is intimated that through the deceit of his heart and the slipperiness of his age even while hee was pressing those young women to purity some impure motion might press in upon him Which though but a stranger to Timothy as Peter Martyr and others observe out of that passage in Nathans parable 2 Sam. 12.5 that lust was to David yet might prove a troublesome inmate if not suddenly ejected It is no marvel therefore that the Wiseman is so exceeding earnest with his Son about the business of abhorring harlotry the hatefulness whereof hee now paints out in a parable setting it forth in liveliest colours Vers 2. Keep my Commandements and live i. e. Live happily Isa 48.17 I am the Lord that teacheth thee to profit therefore keep my Commandements as if God should say it is for thy profit that I command thee and not for mine own In doing thereof there is great reward saith David Psal 19. and present reward saith Solomon here Do it and live In the Courts of earthly Princes there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delaies and changes Men are off and on in their promises they are also slow and slack in their performances But it is otherwise here The very entrance of thy word giveth light Psal 119.130 And the very onset of obedience giveth life It is but Hear and your souls shall live Isa 55.3 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with mee Rev. 22.12 And my Law as the apple of thine eye With all chariness and circumspection The least mote offends the eye and the least deviation violates the Law Sin is homogeneal all of a kind though not all of the same degree as the least pibble is a stone as well as the hugest rock and as the drop of a bucket is water as well as the main Ocean Hence the least sins are in Scripture reproached by the names of the greatest Malice is called man-slaughter Lust Adultery c. concupiscence is condemned by the Law even the first motions of sin though they never come to consent Rom. 7.7 Inward bleeding may kill a man De minutis non curat lex saith the Civilian But the Law of God is Spiritual though wee bee carnal And as the Sunshine shews us atomes and motes that till then wee discerned not so doth the Law discover and censure smallest failings It must therefore bee kept curiously even as the apple of the eye as that little man in the eye that cannot bee touched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab but hee will bee distempered Careful wee must bee even in the minutula legis the punctilios of duty Men will not lightly lose the least ends of gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nequa enim auri tantum massas tollâ—nt sed bractcolâ—s Vers 3. Binde them upon thy fingers That thou mayest have them alwaies in sight as God hath his people Isa 49.16 Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before mee The Hebrews here refer fingers to action heart to meditation and retention Men should have the Law of God at their fingers ends Any of us Jews saith Josephus being asked of any point of the Law answereth it as readily as if hee had been asked his own name they should also bee doers of the word and not hearers onely The hand is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instrument of action Aristot David lifted up both his hands to the word as if hee would pull it to him with both hands as if hee would do the deed in good earnest Psal 119.48 The Heavens are the work of Gods fingers Psal 8.3 The Law should bee of ours Vers 4. Say unto
superiour to fortune yet in an instant with his state in one battel overthrown into the bottome of misery and despair Ibid. 287. and that in the middest of his greatest strength Vers 19. Better it is to bee of an humble spirit An humble man is worth his weight in gold hee hath far more comfort in his losses than proud Giants have in their rapines and robberies Truth it is that meekness of spirit commonly draws on injuries A Crow will pull wooll from a Sheeps side shee durst not do so to a Wolf or Mastiff Howbeit it is much better to suffer wrong than to do it to bee patient than to bee insolent to bee lowly in heart and low of port than to enjoy the pleasures or treasures of sin for a season Vers 20. Hee that handleth a matter wisely shall finde good Doing things with due deliberation and circumspection things of weight and importance especially for here Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel wee may look for Gods blessing when the best that can come of rashness is repentance Youth rides in post to bee married but in the end findes the Inne of repentance to bee lodged in The best may bee sometimes miscarried by their passions to their cost as good Josiah was when hee encountred the King of Egypt and never so much as sent to Jeremy Zephany or any other Prophet then living to ask Shall I go up against Pharaoh or not And who so trusteth in the Lord happy is hee Let a man handle his matter never so wisely yet if hee trust to his own wisdome hee must not look to finde good God will cross even the likeliest projects of such and crack the strongest sinew in all the arm of flesh The Babylonians held their City impregnable and boasted as Xenophon witnesseth that they had twenty years provision afore-hand but God confuted their carnal confidence The Jews in Isaiah when they looked for an invasion looked in that day to the Armour of the house of the Forrest and gathered together the waters of the lower Pool numbred the houses and cast up the ditches to fortifie the wall but they looked not all this while to God their Maker c. therefore they had a day of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity by the Lord God of Hosts in the valley of Vision Isa 22.5 8 9 10. where the beginning is creature-confidence or self-conceitedness the end is commonly shame and confusion in any business Whereas hee that in the use of lawful means resteth upon God for direction and success though hee fail of his design yet hee knows whom hee hath trusted and God will know his soul in adversity Vers 21. The wise in heart shall bee called prudent Hee shall have the stile and esteem of an intelligent though not haply of an eloquent man Of some it may bee said Solin Praefat. as Solinus saith of his Poly-histor to his friend Antius Fermentum ut ita dicam cognitionis ei magis inesse quam bracteas eloquentiae deprehendas you may finde more worth of wisdome in them De libris Aâ—â—ici scriptum reliquit Cicero ces hoc ipso fulsse ornates quod ornamenta negligerent than force of words Bonaventure requireth to a perfect speech Congruity Truth and Ornament This latter some wise men want and it is their Ornament that they neglect Ornament as Tully writes of Atticus and as Beza writes of Calvin that hee was facundiae contemptor verborum parcus sed minime ineptus scriptor a plain but profitable Author And the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning That is eloquence with prudence edifieth and is of singular use for the laying forth of a mans talent to the good of others As one being asked whether light was pleasant replied That is a blinde mans question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so if any ask whether eloquence and a gracious utterance bee useful in the Church of God It is an insulse and inficete question Zanchy speaking of Calvin and Viret who were Preachers together at Geneva when hee first came thither out of Italy useth these words Zanch. Miscel Ep. ded Sicut in Calvino insignem doctrinam sic in Vireto singularem eloquentiam in commovendis affectibus efficacitatem admirabar i. e. As Calvin I admired for excellent learning so did I Viret no less for his singular eloquence and efficacy in drawing affections Beza also was of the same minde as appears by that Epigram of his Gallica mirata est Calvinum Ecclesia nuper Quo nemo docuit doctius Et miratur adhuc fundentem mella Viretum Quo nemo fatur dulcius Vers 22. Understanding is a well-spring of life Vena vitae as the heart is the principle of life the brain of sense so is wisdome in the heart of all good carriage in the life and of a timely laying hold upon eternal life besides the benefit that other men make of it by fetching water thence as from a common Well But the instruction of fools is folly When they would shew most gravity they betray their folly they act not from an inward principle therefore they cannot quit themselves so but that their folly at length will appear to all men that have their senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil There are that read the Text Castigatio stultorum stuititia est It is a folly to correct or instruct a fool for it is to no more purpose than to wash a Blackmore c. Vers 23. The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth Frameth his speech for him and seasoneth it with salt of grace ere it sets it as a dish before the hearers Nescit paenitenda loqui qui proferenda prius suo tradidit examini saith Cassiodere Lib. 10. Ep. 4. Hee cannot lightly speak amiss that weighs his words before hee utters them The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so melodious as that which comes from the depth of the breast Heart-sprung speech hath weight and worth in it And addeth learning to his lips By restraining talkativeness and making him as willing to hear as to speak to learn as to teach to bee an Auditour as an Oratour Vers 24. Pleasant words are as an hony-comb Dainty and delicious such as the Preacher set himself to search out Eccles 12.10 Such as his father David found Gods words to bee Psal 119.103 Wells of salvation Isa 12.2 Breasts of consolation Isa 66.11 The hony-drops of Christs mouth Cant 4. Oh hang upon his holy lips as they did Luke 19. ult Hast thou found hony with Sampson Eat it as hee did Prov. 25.6 Eat Gods book as John did Rev. 10.9 finde fatness and sweetness in it Psal 63.5 Get joy and gladness out of it Psal 51.8 And if at any time the word in searching our wounds put us to pain as hony will cause pain to exulcerate parts let us bear it and not bee like children who though they
Aegypt Auson Therefore that was no evil counsel of the Poet. Imprimis reverere teipsum And Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time Vers 28. Mercy and truth preserve the King These are the best guard of his Body and supporters of his Throne Mildness and righteousness leuity and fidelity doe more safe-guard a Prince than munitions of rocks or any war-like preparations amidst which Henry the fourth of France perished when Queen Elizabeth of England lived and dyed with glory That French King being perswaded by the Duke of Sully not to re-admit the Jesuits answered Give me then security for my life But he was shortly after stabbed to death by their instigation when our Queen that stuck fast to her Principles was not more loved of her Friends than feared of her Foes being protected by God beyond expectation Our King John thought to strengthen himself by gathering mony the sinews of War but mean-while he lost his peoples affections those joynts of peace and came after endless turmoyls to an unhappy end So did our late Soveraign of bleeding memory Vers 29. The glory of young men is their strength sc If well used in following their Callings and fighting for their Countries as those young men of the Princes of the Provinces did 1 King 20.20 and not in quarrelling and Duelling as those yongsters of Helketh-hezzurim 2 Sam. 2. who sheathed their swords in their fellows bowels And the beauty of old men is their gray-head That silver crown of hoary hairs saith one which the finger of God doth set upon their heads makes them Venerable in all places where they come so that they carry an authority or majesty with them as it were See the Note on chap. 16.31 Vers 30. The blownesse of the wound cleanseth Some must be beaten black and blew ere they will be better neither is wit any thing worth with them till they have paid well for it The Jewes were ever best when in worst condition The Athenians Non nisi atrati would never mend till they were in mourning And Anglica geus est optima fleus pessima rident As a great States-man said of this Nation Physicians commonly cure a Lethargie by a Fever Chirurgians let their Patients bloud sometimes etiam ad deliquium animae The Scorpion heals his own wounds and the Viper being beaten and applied cures his own biting Surely as the scourging of the garment with a stick beats out the mothes and the dust so doe corrections corruptions from the heart and as launcing lets out filth so doth affliction sin CHAP. XXI Vers 1. The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord BEE Kings never so absolute and unaccountable to any yet are they ruled and over-ruled by Him that is higher than the highest Eccles 5.8 Gods heart is not in the Kings hand as that foolish Prince in Mexico pretends when at his Coronation he swears that it shall not rain unseasonably neither shall there be Famine or Pestilence during his Reign in his Dominions but the Kings heart that is his will desires devices resolutions are Gods to dispose of he turneth them this way or that way with as much ease as the Plowman doth the water-course with his paddle or the Gardiner with his hand Thus he turned the heart of Pharaoh to Joseph of Saul to David of Nebuchadnezzar to Jeremy of Darius to Daniel of Cyrus and afterwards of Alexander the great to the Jewes of some of the Roman Persecutors to the Primitive Christians and of Charls the fifth who ruled over twenty eight flourishing Kingdoms to the late Reformers Melanchthon Pomeran and other famous men of God whom when he had in his power after hee had conquered the Protestant Princes he not only determined not any thing extreamly against them Act. Mon. fol. 1784. but also intreating them gently he sent them away not so much as once forbidding them to publish openly the Doctrine that they professed albeit all Christendome had not a more prudent Prince than he was saith Mr. Fox nor the Church of Christ almost a sorer enemy Vers 2. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes See the Note on chap. 16.2 Such is our sinful Self-love that Suffenus-like wee easily admire that little Nothing of any good that is in us we so clasp and hugg the barn of our own brain with the Ape that we strangle it we set up a Counter for a thousand pounds and boast of those graces whereunto wee are perfect strangers We turn the perspective and gladly see our selves bigger others lesser than they are we flatter out own souls as Micah did his Judg. 17.13 Wherein it falls out oft as it did with the riflers of Semiramis her tomb who where they expected to finde the richest Treasure met with a deadly Poyson Seem wee never so just because first in our own cause God as Salomon saith of a mans Neighbour comes and searches us and then things appears otherwise Luke 16.15 Vers 3. Is more acceptable to the Lord Qui non vult ex rapina holocaustum as Heathens could see and say by the light of Nature The Jewes thought to expiate their miscarriages toward men and to set off with God by their Ceremonies and Sacrifices Isa 1. Jer. 7. Mich. 6. Some Heathens also as that Roman Emperour could say Non sic Deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret Wee have not been at so much charge with the gods that they should give us up into the enemies hands But the Scripture gave the Jewes to understand that to obey was better than sacrifice that God would have mercy and not sacrifice and that for a man to love God above all and his Neighbour as himself is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and sacrifices Mar. 12.33 The Heathens also were told as much by their Sages as Plato in his book intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Socrates reprehending the gilt-horned Bulls of the Grecians and the sumptuous sacrifices of the Trojans at length infers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It were a grievous thing if the gods should more respect mens offerings and Sacrifices than the holiness of their hearts and the righteousness of their lives c. Aristotle in his Rhetoricks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith he It is not likely that God takes pleasure in the costliness of sacrifices but rather in the good conversation of the sacrificers Vers 4. An high look and proud heart See the Note on Prov. 6.17 And the plowing of the wicked is sin As they plot and plow mischief being the Devils hindes and drudges so all their actions natural moral spiritual are turned into sin whether they plow or play or pray or eat or sleep to the impure and unbeleeving all things are impure Tit. 1.15 Their proud or big-swoln heart is full of filthy corrupt matter that woozeth out still and offendeth the eyes of Gods glory Every thing they do is as an evil vapour reaking
from that loathsome dunghil worse than those that came up from the five Cities of the plain Pride is like Copress which will turn wine or milk into Ink or leaven which turns a very Passeover into pollution or as the Sanies of a plaguesor which will render the richest Robe infectious Vers 5. The thoughts of the diligent tend onely c. The word rendred diligent signifies one that is sedulous and sollicitous in his business that weighs circumstances and waits opportunities that sits down first Qui res omnes suas ordina facit loco tempore c. Cujus limitatae velut judicio decisae actiones omnes Mercer and counts his costs Luke 12.28 that considers seriously and then executes speedily Such an one was Abrahams servant Gen. 24. Joseph Boaz Daniel And how should such a man chuse but thrive See the Note on Chapter 10.4 A sufficiency hee is sure of though not of a superfluity But of every one that is hasty And head-long that resolving to bee rich graspeth greedily all hee can come at accounting all good fish that comes to hand and not sticking at any injustice or cruelty that may make for his advantage The beggar will catch this man ere long the usurer will get him into his clutches and leave him never a feather to flye with There is a curse upon such precipitate practices though men bee never so industrious as in Jehoiachim Jer. 22. and Saul 1 Sam. 14. Those that making more haste than good speed to bee rich reach at things too high for them which David would not do Psal 131.1 may bee likened to the Panther which loves the dung of man so much as if it bee hanged a height from it it will skip and leap up and never leave till it have burst it self in peeces to get it Vers 6. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue As do Seducers Sycophants Flatterers corrupt Judges that say with shame Give yee mercenary pleaders that sell both their tongues and silence and help their Clients causes as the Wolf did the sheep of his cough by sucking his blood witnesses of the post that can lend an oath as Jezabels hired Rake-hels did and will not stick to swear if they may bee well paid for it that their friend or soe was at Rome and at Interamna both at once false Chapmen that say the best of their worst commodities and cheat the unwary buyer These and the like though for a while they may thrive and ruffle yet in the end they prosper not but perish with their wealth as the Toad doth with his mouth full of earth God blows upon their cursed hoards of evil-gotten goods scatterinrg them as chaff before the wind Destruction also dogs them at the heels both temporal and eternal This they are said to seek sc eventually though not intentionally they seek it because they not onely walk in the way to it but run and flye with post-haste as if they were afraid that they should come too late or that hell should bee full before they got thither Thus Balaams Ass never carries him fast enough after the wages of wickedness Set but a wedge of gold before Achan and Joshuah that could stop the Sun in his course cannot stay him from fingering of it Judas in selling his Master what hee doth doth quickly But with what issue What got Balaam but a sword in his ribs Achan but the stones about his ears Judas but the halter about his neck besides a worse thing in another world Thus many a wretched worldling spins a fair thred to strangle himself both temporally and eternally by covetousness they not onely kill others Prov. 1.19 but desperately drown themselves in perdition and destruction 1 Tim. 6.9 Fuge ergo dives ejufmodi exitum as St. Ambrose concludes the story of Ahabs and Jezabels fearful end sed fugies ejusmodi exitum si fugeris hujusmodi flagitium Fly O rich miser such an end Such an end you shall avoid if you carefully flye from such sinful courses Vers 7. The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them Heb. Shall saw them that is shall bring upon them exquisite and extream torments such as the Prophet Isaiah and those Martyrs Heb. 11.37 were put unto unjustly such as Agag suffered justly and those barbarous Ammorites 2 Sam. 12.31 Some render it dissecabit eos shall cut them in twain as that evil servant Luke 12.46 and those blasphemers of Daniels God Dan. 3.29 Others render it shall abide upon them or dwell with them Their ill-gotten goods vanish but their punishment remains Their stollen venison is soon eaten up but the shot is not yet paid there is a sad reckoning behinde God will rake out of their bellies those tid bits those murdering morsels Besides that for their last dish is served up astonishment and fearful expectation of just revenge The Hebrew word here translated destroy signifies also to terrifie and fear They shall bee a Magor-missabib to themselves Dio in Sever. as Pashur was Jer. 20.3 4. running from chamber to chamber to hide from the hand of Justice as that notable theef Bulas in the dayes of Severus the Emperour but they shall not escape their sin will finde them out God will pour upon them and not spare whether they bee private theeves Gell. lib. 11. cap. 16. or those publike robbers qui in auro purpura visuntur as Cato once said that are clad with purple and have gold chains about their necks corrupt Judges who judge for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him Such were Empson and Dudley in their generation Such was Judge Belknap in Richard the seconds dayes who being about to subscribe the Articles against proceedings of Parliament said there wanted but a Hurdle Speed 747. a Horse and a Halter to carry him where hee might suffer for assenting to them And that of these publick Theeves Solomon chiefly speaks here wee may well think by the following clause shewing the cause of their sore and sharp punishment because they refuse to do judgement Vers 8. The way of man is froward and strange And therefore strange because froward various and voluble so that you know not where to have him hee is so unconstant nor what to make of him hee is so uncertain and unsetled double-minded Jam. 1.8 double-tongued 1 Tim. 3.8 versut ulus versatilis Qui tantum constans in levitate sua Folieta Galeazo reports of Sfortia Duke of Millain that hee was a very Monster made up and compact of Vertue and Vice Such of old were Alcibiades and likewise Julian the Apostate of whom Marcellinus saith that by his vicious errours Obnubilabat gloriae multiplices cursus hee stained his many praise-worthy parts and practices Galba and our Richard the third are said to have been bad men good Princes And of King Henry the eighth saith Mr. Camden Fuerunt quidem in eo rege magnae virtutes nec minora vitia
iniquity as sure as the coat is on their back or the heart in their body Vers 16. The man that wandreth out of the way Let him wander while hee will that deviateth from the truth according to godliness hee cannot possibly wander so far as to miss of Hell God hath sworn in his wrath that no such vagrants shall enter into his rest Isa 50.11 Psal 95. Nay This shall they have of my hand Prov. 2.18 See the Note they shall lye down in sorrow they shall rest with Rephaims if at least they can rest in that restless resting-place of hell-fire in that Congregation-house of gehermal-giants where is punishment withour pitty misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without comfort mischief without measure torments without end and past imagination Vers 17. Hee that loveth pleasure c. Luxury is attended by beggery Pleasure may bee had but not loved Isaac loved Venison a little better haply than hee should Esau loved hunting hence hee grew prophane and though not a begger Seneca yet worse The Prodigal in the Gospel spent his substance with riotous living Luk. 16.13 So did Apicius the Romane who hearing that there were seven hundred Crowns onely remaining of a vast estate that his Father had left him Valer. feared want and hanged him M. Livius another waste-good boasted when hee died that hee had left nothing for his heir praeter coelum coenum more than air and mire Roger Ascham School-Master to Queen Elizabeth Camb. Elisab and her Secretary for the Latine tongue being too much addicted to dicing and cock-fighting lived and died a poor man Vers 18. The wicked shall bee a ransome Heb. Copher a cover or an expiation as Achan was for Israel and as those condemned persons among the Heathens Budaeu◠that in time of pestilence or contagious infection were offered up by way or publick expiation with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bee thou a reconciliation for us To this custome Saint Paul seems to allude 1 Cor. 4.13 Thus when Sauls sons were hanged Gods wrath was appeased 2 Sam. 21. and when guilty Jonah was cast into the Sea all was calm Thus God gave Egypt for Israels ransome yea Seba and Ethiopia Isa 43.3 And although hee may seem sometimes to sell his people for nought and not to encrease his wealth by their price Psal 44.12 yet when it comes to a critical point I will give men for thee and people for thy price Isa 43.4 See Prov. 11.8 with the Note there Vers 19. It is better to dwell in the wilderness Among ravenous beasts and venemous serpents in greatest danger and want of all necessary accommodation This is so much worse than the house-top as an angry and vexatious woman which like a mad dog bites all about her and makes them as mad as her self is worse than her that is not so much angry as unquiet brawling as Dogs bark sometimes in the night of custome or fancy and not provoked by any See supra vers 9. Vers 20. There is a treasure to bee desired Hee had said before Hee that loveth Wine and Oyl shall not bee rich Here hee shews that though these things may not bee loved or lavished yet they may and must bee had and heaped up in a way of good husbrandry for necessity yea for honest affluence that wee may not onely live but live comfortably that wee may not onely have prisoners pittance so much as will keep us alive but that wee may have plenty of things desirable both for profit as treasure and for delight as oyl And these things must not bee foolishly wasted as they are usually by unthrifts lest that make the wife that wants angry and unquiet as in the former verse Vers 21. Hee that followeth after righteousness Though for such a measure of it as hee desires hee cannot overtake or compass it If hee bee but doing at it Si faciat praecepta etiamsi non perficiat if hee think upon Gods Commandements to do them Psal 103.18 If though hee cannot open the door yet hee is lifting at the latch hee shall bee accepted yea rewarded Hee that follows after righteousness and mercy as an Apprentice follows his Trade though hee bee not his Craftsmaster shall surely finde righteousness with life and honour to boot And is not that a good thing a treasure to bee desired Vers 22. A wise man scaleth the City of the mighty Wisdome is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is profitable for all things of singular and sovereign use as in domestick and politick so in Military affairs and businesses Here Prudence is made out to bee better than Puissance and one wise man to bee too hard for many mighty though got into the strongest Garrisons In War wisdome is better than strength saith Solomon more than once Eccles 9.16 and Chap. 7.19 How did Archimedes hold out Syracuse against the Roman General by his singular skill and industry And how many strong Cities have been scaled and surpized by warlike wiles and stratagems as Babylon by Cyrus first Dio. and afterwards by Zopyrus Jerusalem by Pompey taking the opportunity of the seventh day Sabbath wherein hee knew the superstitious Jews would not stir to defend themselves and many others that might out of Histories bee instanced Vers 23. Who so keepeth his mouth and his tongue As hee that keepeth his doors fast locked preserveth himself from danger See the Note on Chap. 13.3 The large and loose use of the tongue brings a man oft to divers straights and miseries Vers 24. Proud and haughty scorner is his name An ill name hee gets him and lyes under the common reproach of a proud peevish person Hee seeks renown by his rage and revenge as Lamech that vaunted of his valour this way to his wives Alexander Pheraeus who consecrated the javelin wherewith hee had slain Polyphron Caelius the Lawyer that gloried to bee held the most froward and frample Roman alive c. But God loadeth such a man with disgrace as here and gives him his due character Men also will hate him and despise him for a son of Belial as Nabals servants said of him for a mad frantick fellow being once inraged cares not what hee sayes as Jonas what hee doth as Saul who dealing in proud wrath was so kindled by the Devil that hee could not bee quenched till hee fell into the unquenchable lake Besides the infamy that will never bee washed off the brand of reproach like that of Dathan and Abiram who rose up in proud wrath against Moses and Aaron and are therefore worthily stigmatized with a This is that Dathan Numb 26.9 like that other This is that King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28.22 and as wee commonly say of such an one that hee is a proud fool Vers 25. The desire of the sloathful killeth him Hee onely wisheth well to himself but refusing to labour pineth away in his iniquity Lev. 26.39 Neither grace nor wealth is
lie in vanity Jon. 2.8 transit voluptas manet dolor dolor est etiam ipsa voluptas Vers 4. Labour not to be rich The Courtier is still at his lesson Many gotten into Princes Palaces into places of profit fat offices mind nothing more than the feathering of their own nests raising of their own houses filling of their own coffers Such were Shebna Haman Sejanus of whom Tacitus makes this report Palam compositus pudor intus summa adipiscendi libido Quicquid non acquiritur damnum est Sen. that he made shew of modesty but was extream covetous insomuch saith Seneca that he thought all to be lost that he got not for himself How much better Joseph Nehemiah Daniel c. who being wholly for the publike as they had nothing to lose so they had as little to get but were above all price or sale Cease from thine own wisdome Cast away that carnal policy that would prompt thee to get rem rem quocunque modo rem wealth of any fashion This wisdome is by Saint James fitly stiled earthly sensual devilish Earthly managing the lusts of the eye to the ends of gain Sensual managing the lusts of the eye to ends of pleasure and Devilish managing the pride of life unto ends of power James 3.15 with 1 John 2.14.15 Vers 5. Wilt thou set thine eyes c. Hebr. Wilt thou cause thine eyes to fly after c. Wilt thou fly a fools pitch and go hawking after that that cannot be had or if had will not pay for the pains countervail the cost Wilt thou cast a leering look after such vanities Upon that which is not That hath no solid subsistence though the foolish world call it substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 The Greek word there used intimateth that there is nothing of any firmnesse or solid consistence in the Creature Heaven onely hath a foundation Heb. 11.10 Earth hath none but is hanged upon nothing as Job speaketh Ye rejoyce in a thing of nought saith the Prophet to them that drank wine in bowls c. Amos. 6.6 13. For riches certainly make themselves wings As the Heathens feigned of their God Plutus Under these wings let the Master hide himself as Esay 28.15 yet with those wings will they fly away without once taking leave leaving nothing but the print of talons in his heart to torment him Riches saith one were never true to those that trusted them To fly from us they make themselves great Eagles wings to fly to us or after us Ne passerinas quidem Augustin not so much as old sparrows wings Temporals saith another are as transitory as a hasty head-long torrent a shadow a ship a bird Mr Bolton an arrow a post that passeth by or if you can name any thing of swifter wing or sooner gone Vers 6. Eate thou not the bread of him that hath an evill eye That is of a miserly muckworm that wisheth thee choaked for so doing even then when he maketh greatest shew of hospitality and humanity Vers 7. For as he thinketh in his heart so is he Mens cujusque is est quisque The man is as his mind is or as he thinketh in his heart so he speaketh he cannot so dissemble but that eftsoons he blurteth out some word or sheweth some sign of his sordid disposition Some read it thus For as he grudgeth his own soul so he will say unto thee eat drink c. As he starves his own Genius and cannot afford himself a good meals-meat so he grudgeth at his guests whom yet he bids welcome Christ doth not so Cant. 5.1 Vers 8. The morsel which thou hast eaten That is That which thou hast eaten shall be so ill-sauced that thou shalt wish it up again and thou shalt repent thee of thy complements or of whatsoever other good speech thou hast used at table which was the salt wherewith our Saviour used to besprinkle the dishes wherever he dined Daniels hist Vers 9. Speak not in the ears of a fool That is Of a wilfull fool that seldome asketh Counsel but never followeth any as it is said of James King of Scotland See the notes on Prov. 9.7 8. and on Mat. 7.6 Vers 10. Remove not the ancient land-mark See the Note on chap. 22.28 Vers 11. For their Redeemer is mighty The thunder of his power who can understand Iob 26.14 And who knoweth the power of his wrath Psal 90.11 Oh contend not with him that is mightier than thou Eccles 6.10 God Almighty is in a special manner the Guardian of his Orphans and the great Master of the Wards Vers 12. Apply thy heart unto instruction Make thine heart to come to it though never so averse Call in thy scattered thoughts and busie them about the best things Anima dispersa fit minor This is the wise mans Counsel to the younger sort But because surdis plerunque fabulam few youths will be better advised therefore he bespeaks their Parents and Tutors in the next words Vers 13. With-hold not correction from the Childe See the Note on chap. 13.24 He shall not dye Or if he do yet not by thy default Thou hast delivered thine own soul howsoever If a Blackmore enter into the Bath though he become not white by it Yet the Bath-master hath his pay saith Keyserspergius The Physician hath his see whether the Patient recover or dye Vers 14. And shalt deliver his soul from hell Fond and foolish Parents are peremptores potiùs quam parentes rather Paricides than Parents â—ern Epist 12â— sith Qui non cum potest servat occidit by not saving their Children they slay them by cockting them in their sin they pitch them headlong into Hell Vers 15. My son if thine heart be wise Si vexatio det intellectum if either by instruction or correction I may make thee wise or well-spoken Bonum birum dicendi peritum as Quintilians Oratour cotus laetitia dissiliam I shall be a joyful man indeed Saint John had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth 3 Joh. â— And St. Paul could never bee thankful enough for such a mercy 1 Thess 3.9 Even mine Or even as I viz. was a comfort to my Parents Vers 17. Let not thine heart envie sinners Who have they never so much here they have but a pension an annuity a state of life granted them in the utmost and most remote part of our Inheritance But be thou in the fear of the Lord all day long An excellent means to cure one of the fret Probatum est Only it must be used constantly Men must wake with God walk with him and lye down with him be in continual communion with him and conformity unto him This is to bee in Heaven aforehand Vers 18. For surely there is an end Viz. Of their pomp and prosperity dum fanea quadam felicitate temporaliter floreant as Augustine hath it Aug.
pickpurses c. See the Notes upon chap. 7. And increaseth the transgressours amongst men Nothing hath ever so enriched helas the whorish woman Vide ubi supra Vers 29. Who hath woe who hath sorrow Whoredome is usually ushered in by drunkennesse Est Venus in vinis Hence Rev. 17.4 the Whore cometh forth with a cup as with an instrument fit for the fulfilling of her lust even as of old every one did openly bear in his hand at Rome the badge of that Art that he professed Salomon therefore having warned his yonker of Whoredome fitly shews him next the mischief of drunkennesse and this he doth by way of admiration or interrogation that the Drunkard may will he nill he see as in a glasse and so abhor his own absurdities miseries and mischiefs The best that can come of drunkennesse is repentance that fairest daughter of so foul a mother and that 's not without its woe and alas its sorrow and rednesse of eyes with weeping for sin But few drunkards are taken in that fault Who hath babling A great deal of small talk telling all that 's within Condita cum verax aperit praecordia Liber Herat. When the Wine is in the Wit is out Who hath rednesse of eyes Oculorum suffusio the Vulgar reads suffossio Drunkards have usually red and rich faces Nasos instar coctilis cancri Laveter Noses like a boyld Lobster plenty of Pustulaes or Quots as they call them Briefly Drunkennesse like another Africa is never without some new monster of mischief Vers 30. They that tarry long at the Wine These men doe not want time but waste it Pliny if he were alive would surely say to such as once he did to his Nephew Poteras has horas non per didisse Thou mightest have spent thy time much better How may those Wine-bibbers more justly lament their losse than good Bernard did and say each man for himself Totum vitae meae tempus perdidi quia perditè vixi Vers 31. Look not thou upon the Wine Many men dye of the wound in the eye It is not unlawful to look but because of looking comes lusting therefore Laws are to be laid upon our looks Vitiis nobis in animum per oculos est via saith Quintilian If we doe not let in sin at the window of the eye or by the door of the ear it cannot enter into our hearrs When it moveth it self aright When it sparkles and is Vinum Cos as they call the best Wine at Paris and Lovain that is Vinum Coloris Odoris Saporis Bee-hive of Rome prefac optimi Wine of the best colour smell and savour Vers 32. At the last it biteth like a Serpent Loe such is the guilt of sin such the end and effect of drunkenness torments here and tortures in hell Vers 34. Thine eyes shall behold stranger women See the Note on vers 29. Venter aestuans mero spumat in libidinem saith Hierom. A belly filled with wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristop Vina parant animos Veneri Ovid. foameth out filthinesse Wine is the milk of Venus saith another Drunkenness is the gallery that lechery walketh through saith a third Thine heart shall utter perverse things Prepostorous distorted dislocated matters solliciting thy Neighbours Wife to wickedness or otherwise vomiting out that which God hateth and godly men abhor Vers 35. Yea thou shalt be as he c. Thy brains shall crow and thou shalt be of Copernicus his opinion that the earth turns round Thou shalt also be fearlesse of the greatest danger and not refuse to sleep upon a Mast-pole dance upon a Weather-cock c. Vers 36. They have stricken me A drunken man we say takes no hurt feels no smart is turned into a very stock Dionysius the Heracleot felt not needles thrust into his fat belly Pliny mentioneth certain Bears that being sound asleep cannot be wakened with the sharpest prickles Mathiol in Dioscorid Mathiolus reports of the Asses of Hetruria that feeding upon Hen-bane they fall into such a dead sleep that being taken for dead they are half hideled ere they can bee arowsed Loe such is the Drunkards lethargy neither is he more insensible than sensual and irrecoverable CHAP. XXIV Vers 1. Be not thou envious against evil men HEbr. Men of evil such as are set upon sin as are like Caracalla qui nihil cogitabat boni qui id non didicerat quod ipse fatebatur saith Dio who never thought of any good c. Envie not such an one his pomp any more than we doe a dead corps his flowers and gayity See chap. 23.17 Neither desire to be with them That is to be in their estate so thou mightest be at their stay This hath been the folly of some of Gods people as David noteth Psal 73.10 For the which they have afterwards befooled and be-beasted themselves as he did vers 22. Vers 2. For their heart studieth destruction Great students they are wittily wicked but they consult shame and confusion to them and theirs And their lips talk of mischief The mischief that they machinate budgeth and blistereth out at their tongues ends They are even bigge with it and not well till delivered Vers 3. Through wisdome is an house builded q. d. I le shew thee a better project wouldest thou thrive and grow great Exercise godliness wish not wickedness See the Notes on chap. 3.16 17. Vers 4. With all precious and pleasant riches Riches imply 1 Plenty of that which is precious and pleasant 2 Propriety they must be good things that are our own And hereunto oeconomical prudence much conduceth God bestoweth abundance on the wicked ex largitate only out of a general providence but upon his people that are good husbands ex promisso by vertue of this and the like promises Vers 5. A wise man is strong See the Note on Chap. 21.22 Vers 6. For by wise counsel See the Note upon chap. 20.18 This Salust delivers as the sentence of the wisest Sages But Salomon said it long before Vers 7. Wisdome is too hard for a fool Hebr. Too high his pericranium comprehends it not neither indeed can doe 1 Cor. 2.14 He puts off the study of it pretending the impossibility of reaching to it He openeth not his mouth in the gate Hee were two fools if hee should for whiles he holds his tongue he is held wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 8. Shall be called a mischievous person Hebr. A master of sinful musings an Artist at any evil Josephus saith of Antipater that his course of life might fitly be called a Mystery of mischief quae altissimas egerat radices c. Vers 9. The thought of foolishnesse is sin The Schools doe well observe that outward sins are majoris infamiae of greater infamy but inward heart-sins are majoris reatus of greater guilt as wee see in Devils See the Note on Chap. 14.22 And the scorner is an abomination to men Witnesse Julian Lucian
cause That is Without calling being not thereunto required for this would speak thee spightful rash and revengeful as in the next verse And deceive not with thy lips When called to be a Witnesse speak thy mind simply and plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without preface or passion without varnish of fine words whereby to mislead the Judge or deceive the Jurors to bolster out a bad cause or out-face a good Vers 29. Say not I will doe so to him as he hath done to me Nothing is more natural than revenge of wrongs and the world approves it as right temper true touch As to put up wrongs is held towardise and unmanliness But we have not so learned Christ Nay those that never heard of Christ have spoken much against this vindictive disposition See the Note on chap. 20.22 and on Mat. 5.39 Rom. 12.17 I will render to the man according to his works But is not that Gods Office And will you needs leap into his Chair wring the Sword out of his hand or at least will you be a Pope in your own cause depose the Magistrate or appeal from him to yourself What Luciferian pride is this Nemo te impunè lacessit Is not God the God of recompences Vers 30. I went by the field of the slothful Not purposely to spy faults for Nemo curiosus quin malevolus but my business lay that way and I was willing to make the best of every thing that came before me By the vineyard of the man voyd of understanding Hebr. That had no heart that is that made no use of it that was not Egregie cordatus homo as one describes a wise man Vers 31. And loe it was all grown over with thorns So is the Spiritual sluggards soul with lusts and sins under the which lurketh that old Serpent Vers 32. Then I saw and considered it well I made my best use of it for mine own instruction A Bee can suck honey out of a flower which a Fly cannot doe So a spiritual mind can extract good out of every object and occurrence even out of other mens faults and follies he can gather grapes of thorns and figgs of thistles as here Well therefore may grace be called the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 for as God draws light out of darkness good out of evil c. so doth grace by an heavenly kind of Alchymy as I may so say And received instruction Exemplo alterius qui sapit ille sapit The worse others are the better should we be getting as farre off from the wicked as wee can in our daily practice and saving our selves from this untoward generation Vers 33. Yet a little sleep Mercer makes this to be the lesson that the Wiseman both learnt himself and also layes before others viz. to be content with a little sleep to be up and at it betimes c. that the begger catch us not But I rather incline to those that think that he here brings in the sluggard pleading for his sloth and by an elegant Mimesis imitates and personates him saying as he used to doe yet a little more sleep a little more slumber c. A little and yet sleeps in the plural A little he would have but a little will not serve his turn See the Note on chap. 6.9 c. Vers 34. So shall thy poverty come Swiftly and irresistably Seneca calls Sloth the Nurse of beggery the Mother of misery CHAP. XXV Vers 1. These also are Proverbs of Solomon which the men SAlomon hath his thousand out of this his Vine-yard of three thousand Proverbs 1 King 4.32 and these men of Hezekiah that kept and yet communicated the fruit thereof Prima sequmtem bonestum est in secundi◠tertiisque confistere Gic. de Orat. their two hundred Cant. 8.12 It is good for men to be doing what they are able for the glory of God and good of others If it be but to Copy out another mans Work and prepare it for the Press Them that any way honour God he will honour that is a bargain of his own making and we may trust to it Vers 2. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing That what we conceive not we may admire mirari non rimari and cry out with Paul O the depth Rom. 11.33 as the Romans dedicated to their Goddesse Victoria a certain Lake the depth whereof they could not dive into God is much to be magnified for what hee hath revealed unto his people in the holy Scriptures for their eternal good But those unsearchable secrets of his such as are the union of the three Persons into one Nature and of two Natures into one Person his wonderful Decrees and the no lesse wonderful execution thereof c. these make exceeding much to the glory of his infinite Wisdom and surpassing greatnesse Aristot in speaking whereof our safest eloquence is our silence sith tantum recedit quantum capitur saith Nazianzen much like that Pool spoken of by Polycritus which in compasse at the first scarce seemed to exceed the breadth of a shield but if any went in to wash it extended it self more and more But the honour of Kings is to search out a matter As Salomon did that of the two Harlots 1 King 3. Job 29.16 There are that divide this Book of Proverbs into three parts In the nine first Chapters things of a lower nature and fit for instruction of youth are set down and described Next From thence to this five and twentieth Chapter the wise man discourseth of all sorts of virtues and vices sutable to all sorts of People Lastly From this Chapter to the end he treateth for the most part of higher matters as of King-craft and State-business Vers 3. The Heaven for height c. It is a wonder that we can look up to so admirable an height and that the very eye is not tired in the way If this ascending line could be drawn right forwards some that have calculated curiously have found it 500 years journey to the starry sky Other Mathematicians say that if a stone should fall from the 8th Sphere and should pass every hour 100 miles it would be 65. years or more before it would come to ground I suppose there is as little credit to be given to these Aug de Civit. Dei l. 16. as to Aratus the Astrologer who boasted that he had found out and set down the whole number of the stars in heaven or as to Archimedes the Mathematician that said Sphinx Philosoph that he could by his Art cast up the just number of all the sands both in the habitable and inhabitable parts of the world And the earth for depth From the surface to the center how far it is cannot be known exactly as neither whether hell be there but that it is somewhere below may be gathered from Rev. 14.11 and other places Ubi sit sentient qui curiosius quaerunt And the heart of Kings is
own Lovers of pleasures are set as last and worst in that catalogue of wickednesse in the last daies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 3.4 Vers 9. Also my wisdome remained with mee Outward things are dead things and cannot touch the soul a lively spirit unless by way of taint Solomon if not at first yet at length was fearfully tainted by them making good that of the Poet Stultitiam patiuntur opes Ardua res haec est opibus non tradere mores Martial Et cum tot Croesos viceris esse Numam Vers 10. And what soever mine eyes desired c. I fed them with pleasant pictures shews sights and other objects of delight which yet have plus deceptionis quam delectationis able to entice and ready to kill the intangled Lactant. How many are there that have died of the wound in the eye David knowing the danger prayeth Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding of vanity Job steps one degree further from a prayer to a vow chap. 31. yea from a vow to an imprecation ver 7. If our first parents fell by following the sight of their eyes and lust of their hearts what can Solomon or any of us promise our selves qui animas etiam incarnavimus who have made our very spirit a lump of flesh prone to entertain vice yea to solicit it For my heart rejoyced in all my labour This is not every worldlings happiness For some live not to injoy what they have raked together as that rich fool in the Gospel others live indeed but live beside what they have gotten as not daring to diminish ought but defrauding their own genius and denying themselves necessaries So did not Solomon and yet hee found not the good hee sought for neither as hee tells us in the next words Nor is it want of variety in these pleasures but inward weakness an emptiness and insufficiency in the creature In heaven the objects of our delight and blessedness shall bee though uniform yet everlastingly pleasing Vers 11. Then I looked on all the works A necessary and profitable practice well worthy our imitation viz. to recognize and review what wee have done and to how little purpose wee have wearied our selves in the multitude of our counsells Esay 47.13 God looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited mee not Hee will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light Job 33.27 28. Tully could tell Nevius that if hee had but well weighed with himself those two words Quid ago What do I Orat. pro Quintio his lust and luxury would have been cooled and qualified And behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit In the very pursute of them is much anguish many grievances fears jealousies disgraces interruptions discontentments Next it is seldome seen that God allows to the greatest darlings of the world a perfect contentment Something they must have to complain of that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels and make their very felicity miserable Yet all this avails mee nothing so long as I see Mordecai saith Haman the Kings minion Lastly after the unsanctified enjoyment follows the sting of conscience that will inexpressibly vex and torment the soul throughout all eternity And there was no profit under the sun Nullae emolumenta laborum nothing but labour for travell no contentation but desperation no satisfaction but endless vexation as children tire themselves to catch a butterflie which when they have caught profits them nothing onely fouls their fingers Or rather as the dropsical body by striving to quench thirst by drinking doth but increase the disease and in the end destroy it self Vers 12. For what can the man doe that cometh after the King q. d. who is it that can out-doe me in this review and discovery Neither is this a vain-glorious vaunting of his own vertues but an Occupation or prevention of an objection thus Obj. It may be thou hast not perfectly known the difference of things and so hast not rightly determined Sol. To this he answers that he hath so quit himself in searching and trying the truth in these points that it is not for any other to goe beyond him And having removed this rub having carried this dead Amasa out of the way that might have hindred his Hearers march hee proceeds in his discourse Vers 13. Then I saw that wisdome excelleth folly i. e. Philosophy and Humane wisdome though it cannot perfect the mind nor make a man happy yet it is as farre beyond sensuality and brutishnesse as light is beyond darknesse Those that seek for the Philosophers Stone though they misse of their end yet they find many excellent things by the way So Philosophers Politicians Moralists though they missed of the pearl of price yet they sought out other goodly pearls with that wise Merchant Mat. 13.45 for the which they have their just praise and profit Vers 14. The wise mans eyes are in his head Hee judiciously pondereth things past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Descrip of the world chap. of China Heyl. Geog. and prudently ordereth things present and providently fore-seeth to prevent dangers likely to ensue The Chineses use to say of themselves that all other Nations of the world see but with one eye they only with two Italians tell us that whereas Spaniards seem wise and are fools French-men seem fools and are wise Portugals neither are wise nor so much as seem to bee so they themselves both seem wise and are so This I could sooner beleeve if from a better mouth than their own Romani sicut non acumina ita non imposturas habent saith Bellarm. The Romans those wittiest of the Italians are neither very subtile nor very simple But the fool walketh in darknesse Hee hath neither fight nor light but is acted and agitated by the Prince of Darkness who holds his black hand before the eye of such mens minds and blinds their understandings dealing with them as Pliny saith the Eagle deals with the Hart shee lights upon his horns and there flutters up and down filling his eyes with dust borne in her feathers that at last he may cast himself from a rock and so be made a prey unto her One event hapneth to them all As did to Josiah and Ahab in the manner of both their dying in battel They may be all wrapt up together in a common calamity Aug. and Sapientes sapienter in gehennam descendant the worlds great wise men goe very wisely down to hell there for want of saving grace fools and wiser men meet at one and the same Inne though by several wayes at one and the same Haven though from several coasts Vers 15. As it happeneth to the fool so it happeneth It is with men as with Counters though in the account one stand for a penny another for a pound yet in the bag there is no difference
between Him and thee therefore see to it that thou come to him with all possible reverence humility and self-abasement See Job 42.6 1 King 18.42 Matth. 26.38 It is observable that when the great Turk comes into his Mosche or Temple he lays by all his State and hath none to attend him all the while Therefore let thy words bee few But full as the Publicans were Luk. 18.13 O quam multa quam paucis Oh how much in a little said Tully of Brutus his Epistle so may wee say of that Publicans prayer how much more of the Lords prayer set in flat opposition to the Heathenish Battologies and vain repetitions usual with Pagans and Papagans c. See the Note on Mat. 6.7 8 9. It is reported of the ancient Christians of Aegypt Quod brevissimis raptim jaculatis orationibus uti voluerint ne per moras evanesceret hebetaretur intentio August that they made very short prayers that their devotion might not bee dulled by longer doings Cassian also makes mention of certain religious persons in his time Qui utilius censebant breves quidem orationes sed creberrimas fieri c. who thought it best that our prayers should bee short but frequent the one that there might bee continual intercourse maintained between God and us the other that by shortness wee might avoid the Devills darts which hee throws especially at us while wee are praying These bee good reasons and more may bee added out of Matth. 6. as that our Heavenly Father knows what wee need c. That which the Preacher here presseth is the transcendent Excellency and surpassing Majesty of Almighty God I am a great King saith Hee Mal. 1. And I look to bee served like my self Hos 14.2 Therefore take unto you words neither over curious nor over careless but such as are humble earnest direct to the point avoiding vain bablings needless and endless repetitions heartless digressions tedious prolixities wilde and idle discourses of such extemporary petitioners as not disposing their matter in due order by premeditation and withall being word-bound are forced to go forward and backward like Hounds at a loss and having hastily begun they know not how handsomly to make an end Vers 3. For a dream commeth through the multitude of business When all the rest of the senses are bound up by sleep the soul entreth into the shop of the fancy and operates there usually according to the businesses and imployments of the day past Tertull. de anima cap. 49. fierividentur quae fieri tamen non videntur saith Tertullian those things seem to bee done in a dream which yet are not seen to be done at all these are but vanae jactationes negotiosae animae the idle toffings of a busy minde In like sort a fool a heartless sapless fellow that being sensual and void of the spirit of grace and supplications hath neither the affections nor expressions of holy prayer multiplies words without knowledge thinks to make out in words what hee wants in worth being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch saith of Alcibicdes one that could talk much but speak little His voyce is known by multitude of words It is but a voyce that is heard it is but a sound that is made like the uncertain sound of a Trumpet that none can tell what it meaneth what to make of it Corniculas citius in Africa quam res rationâ—sque solidas in Turriani scriptis reperias saith one Beringer Contra Id. Cum. Lauret Aristot De divinat per insom So here If there be any worth of matter in the fools words it is but by chance as Aristotle saith that dreams doe by chance fore-tell those things that come to passe Let it be our care to shun as much as may be all lavish and superfluous talkativenesse and tediousnesse but especially in prayer lest wee offer the sacrifice of fools and God be angry with us For as it is not the loudnesse of a Preachers voyce but the weight and holiness of his matter and the spirit of the Preacher that moves a wife and intelligent hearer so it is not the labour of the lips but the travel of the heart that prevails with God The Baalites Prayer was not more tedious than Elijah's short yet more pithy than short And it was Elijah that spake loud and sped in heaven Let the fool learn therefore to shew more wit in his discourse than words lest being known by his voyce hee meet as the Nightingale did with some Laconian that will not let to tell him Vox in es praeterea nihil Thou art a voyce and that 's all Vers 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God deferre not to pay it See the Note on Deut. 23.21 It is in thy power to vow or not to vow Vovere nusquam est praeceptum saith Bellarmine We have no command to vow That of David Lib. 2. de Monac cap. 15. Vow and perform to the Lord your God is not purum praeceptum saith Mr. Cartwright a pure precept but like that other Be angry and sin not where anger is not commanded but limited So neither are wee simply commanded to vow but having voluntarily vowed we may not deferre to pay it delayes are taken for denials excuses for refusals For he hath no pleasure in fools He needs them as little as King Achish did 2 Sam. 22.15 he abhors them Psal 5.5 as deceitful workers as mockers of God Jephta in vovendo fuit stultus in praestando impius Jephta was a fool in vowing Hieron and wicked in performing But he that vowes a thing lawful and possible and yet de-deferres to perform it or seeks an evasion is two fools for fayling sith Vers 5. Better it is that thou shouldest not vow q. d. Who bad thee bee so forward Why wouldst thou become a voluntary Votary Dicta factis deficientibus erubescunt and so rashly ingage to the losse of thy liberty and the offence of thy God who expected thou shouldst have kept touch and not have dealt thus slipperily with him Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Acts 5.4 As the truth of Christ is in me saith Paul 2 Cor. 11.10 so he bindes himself by an oath as the learned have observed And as God is true our word toward you was not Yea and Nay 2 Cor. 1.19 20 for the Son of God who was preached among you by mee was not Yea and Nay but in him all the promises of God are Yea and Amen Why what of that might some say and what 's all this to the purpose Very much for it implieth that what a Christian doth promise to men how much more to God he is bound by the earnest penny of Gods Spirit to perform He dares no more alter or falsifie his word than the Spirit of God can lye And as he looks that Gods promises should bee made good to him so is hee careful to pay that
years So that hee bee trisaeclisenex as Nestor was of old and Johannes de temporibus a French-man not many ages since to whom I may add that old Parre old very old man that died of late years having been born in Henry the sevenths daies or Edward the fourths And his soul bee not filled with good Though hee bee filled with years and filled with children that may survive and succeed him in his estate yet if hee bee a covetous caytiff a miserable muckworm that injoyes nothing as in the former verse is not Master of his wealth but is mastered by it lives beside what hee hath and dies to save charges * As hee in Camd. Remains And also that hee have no burial Hee leaves nothing to bring him honestly home as they say or if hee do yet his ungrateful greedy heirs deny him that last honour Jer. 22.19 so that hee is buried with the burial of an Ass as Coniah suffered to rot and stink above ground as that Assyrian Monarch Isa 14. 19 20. and after him Alexander the Great who lay unburied thirty daies together So Pompey the Great of whom Claudian the Poet sings thus Nudus pascit aves jacet en qui possidet orbem Exiguae telluris inops And the like is storied of our William the Conquerour and divers other greedy engrossers of the worlds good See here the poisonful and pernicious nature of niggardise and covetousness that turns long life and large issue those sweetest blessings of God into bitter curses And withall take notice of the just hand of God upon covetous old men that they should want comely burial which is usually one of their greatest cares as Plutarch observeth For giving the reason why old men that are going out of the world should bee so earnestly bent upon the world hee saith it is out of fear that they shall not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 friends to keep them whiles alive and some to bury them when they are dead I say that an untimely birth I affirm it in the word of truth and upon mature deliberation That an untimely birth not onely a naked young childe as aforesaid that is carried ab utero ad urnam from the womb to the tomb from the birth to the burial but an abortive that coming too soon into the world comes not at all and by having no name findes it self a name as Pliny speaks of the herb Anonymus Vers 4. For hee cometh in with vanity c. As nothing being senseless of good or evil And departeth in darkness is buried in huggermugger And his Name shall bee covered c. that is there is no more talk of this abortive Vers 5. Moreover hee hath not seen the Sun A second priviledge and prerogative of the poor abortive None are so miserable wee see but they may bee comparatively happy It is ever best to look at those below us and then wee shall see cause to bee better contented This hath more rest than the other The Corn that is cropt as soon as it appeareth or is bruised in peeces when it lies in sprout is better than the old weed that is hated while it standeth and in the end is cut down for the fire Vers 6. Yea though hee live a thousand years Which yet never any man did Methusalah wanted thirty two of a thousand The reason thereof is given by Occolampadius quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis ut qui constet è centenario decies revoluto because the number of a thousand types out perâ—ection as consisting of an hundred ten times told But there is no perfection here saith hee Yet hath hee seen no good For All the daies of the afflicted are evil saith Solomon And mans daies are few and full of trouble Prov. 15.15 Job 14.1 Gen. 47.9 saith Job Few and evil are the daies of my pilgrimage saith Jacob and I have not attained to the daies of the years of the life of my Fathers c. For Abraham lived one hundred seventy five years and Isaac one hundred eighty near upon forty years longer than Jacob but to his small comfort for hee was blinde all that time yet nothing so blinde as the rich wretch in the Text qui privatus interno lumine tamen in hac vita din vult perpeti caecitatem suam as one speaketh who being blind as a Mole lies rooting and poring uncessantly in the bowels of the earth as if he would that way dig himself a new and a nearer way to Hell and with his own hands addeth to the load of this miserable life As hee hath done no good so hee hath seen or enjoyed none but goes to his place Do not all go to one place the place that Adam provided for all his posterity the house appointed for all living as Job calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.23 chap. 30.23 the Congregation-house as One renders it Heaven the Apostle calls the Congregation-house of the first-born whose names also are there said to bee written in Heaven But covetous persons as they are called the inhabitants of the earth Rev. 12. Jer. 17.13 in opposition to those Coelicola Citizens of Heaven the Saints so their names are written in the earth because they have forsaken the Lord Jer. 2.13 the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns that can hold no water What marvel then if they live long and yet see no good if they are driven to that doleful complaint that Saul made God hath forsaken mee 1 Sam. 28.15 and the Philistims are upon mee sickness death hell is upon mee I am even now about to make my bed in the dark and all the comfort I can have from God is that dismal sentence This shall yee have of mine hand yee shall lye down in sorrow Isa 50.11 Loe this is the cursed condition of the covetous carl as hee hath lived beside his goods having jaded his body broken his brains and burthened his conscience so hee dies hated of God and loathed of men the Earth groans under him Heaven is shut against him Hell gapes for him 1 Cor. 6.8 9. Phil. 3.18 Thus many a Miser spins a fair threed to strangle himself both temporally and eternally O that they would seriously think of this before the cold grave hold their bodies and hot hell torment their souls before death come with a writ of Habeas corpus and the Devil with a writ of Habeas animam as once to that rich fool Luk. 12. Vers 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth That is Dii boni quantum hominum unus exercet venter Seneca Deus homini augustum ventrem c. Sergius PP for food and rayment as 1 Tim. 6. a little whereof will content nature which hath therefore given us a little mouth and stomach to teach us moderation as Chrysostome well observeth to the shame of those beastly belly-gods that glut themselves and devour the creatures
man and who so wise as not sometimes to bee over-carried by his passion to his cost Oppression may express that from the meekest Moses that hee may sorely repent but knows not how to remedy Anger anteverts reason in the wisest sometimes and especially in case of calumny for the eye and the good name will bear no jeasts as the Proverb hath it A man can better bear a thultch on the back than a touch on the eye You shall finde some saith Erasmus that if death bee threatned can despise it but to bee belyed they cannot brook nor from revenge contain themselves How could wee digest that calumny might Erasmus well think then that hee basely casts upon our Profession in his Epistle to Bilihaldus Ubicunque regnat Lutherns ibi literarum est interitus duo tantum quaerunt censum uxorem Wheresoever Luther prevails learning goes down wealth and wives is all they look after How ill himself with all his wisdome could endure this kinde of oppression appears by his Hyperaspistes and many other his Apologies for by his playing on both hands Amama in Antibarb praefat Nec Evangelicorum vitavit censuras nec apud Episcopos Monachos gratiam inivit hee was beaten on both sides which made him little less than mad and it was but just upon him Davids grief was that his enemies traduced and abused him without cause Job and Jeremy make the same complaint and were much troubled Defamations they knew well do usually leave a kinde of lower estimation many times even where they are not beleeved Hence Paul's Apologies and self-commendation even to suspition of madness almost Calumniare audacter aliquid saltem adhaerebit Hence Basil in an Epistle ad Bosphorum Episcop Quo putas animum meum dolore affecit fama calumnia illius quam mihi offuderunt quidam non metuentes Judicem perditurum omnes loquentes mendacium Tanto videlicet ut prope totam noctem insomnem duxerim c. with what grief dost thou think saith Hee did that calumny oppress my mind which some not fearing the Judge that shall destroy all them that speak lies did cast upon mee Even so much that I slept not almost all the night so had the apprehended sadness possessed the secrets of mine heart c. And a gift destroyeth the heart i. e. Corrupts it makes it blinde and so destroies it Pliny as the Eagle lights upon the Harts horns flutters dust in his eyes and so by blinding him brings him to destruction See Deut. 16.19 with the Note Let a Judge bee both wise for his understanding and righteous for his will a gift will mar all as it is there it dazleth the eyes and maketh a wise man mad Vers 8. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning No right judgement can bee made of any thing unless wee can see the end of it God seems oft to go a contrary way to work but by that time both ends bee brought together all is as it should bee and it appears that hee doth all things in number weight and measure Acts and Mon. fol. 1377. Wee may learn said Mr. Hooper Martyr in a certain letter exhorting to patience by things that nourish and maintain us both meat and drink to what loathsome and abhorring they come unto before they work their perfection in us From life they bee brought to the fire and clean altered from what they were when they were alive from the fire to the trencher and knife and all to bee hacked from the trencher to the mouth and as small ground as the teeth can grinde them from the mouth into the stomach and there so boiled and digested before they nourish that whosoever saw the same would loathe and adhor his own nourishment till it come to perfection But as a man looketh for the nourishment of his meat when it is full digested and not before so must hee look for deliverance when hee hath suffered much trouble and for Salvation when hee hath passed thorow the straight gate c. Let the wise man look to the end and to the right which in the end God will do him in the destruction of his oppressours and this will patient his heart and heal his distemper Wee have heard of the patience of Job Job 5. and what end the Lord made with him Bee yee also patient you shall shortly have help if yee hold out waiting Mark the upright man and behold the just for whatever his beginning or his middle bee the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 Onely hee must hold out Faith and Patience and not fall off from good beginnings for as the evening crowneth the day and as the grace of an Interlude is in the last Scene so it is constancy that crowneth all graces and hee onely that continueth to the end that shall bee saved Laban was very kinde at first but hee shewed himself at parting Sauls three first years were good Judas carried himself fair usque ad loculorum officium saith Tertullian till the bag was committed to him Many set out for Heaven wiâ—h as much seeming resolution as Lots wife did out of Sodom as Orphah did out of Moab as the young man in the Gospel came to Christ But after a while they fall away they stumble at the cross and fall backwards Now to such it may well bee said The end is better than the beginning Better it had been for such never to have known the way of God c. Christ loves no lookers back See how hee thunders against them Heb. 10.26 27 38 39. So doth St. Paul against the Galatians because they did run well but lying down in that heat they caught a surfeit and fell into a consumption And the patient in spirit is better than the proud c. Pride is the Mother of impatiency as infidelity is of pride The just shall live by Faith live upon promises reversions hopes wait deliverance or want it if God will have it so But his soul which for want of Faith to ballast it is lifted up and so presumes to set God a time wherein to come or never come 2 King 6.33 is not upright in him some things hee doth as it were a mad man not knowing or greatly caring what hee doth saith Gregory Hee frets at God Greg. Pastor and rails at men laies about him on all hands and never ceaseth till in that distemperature hee depart the world which so oftentimes himself had distempered Daniel as the Chronicler concludes the life of our Henry the second Vers 9. Bee not hasty in thy Spirit to bee angry The hasty man wee say never wants woe For wrath is an evil counsellour and inwrappeth a man in manifold troubles mischiefs and miseries It makes man alike the Bee that vindictive creature which to bee revenged loseth her sting and becomes a drone or like Tamar who to bee even with her Father in Law defiled him and her self
world to his own glory For also there is that neither day nor night seeth c. i. e. Perdius pernox by day and by night I busied my self in this search so that a little sleep served my turn all the while Nullus mihi per otium exiit dies partem etiam noctium studiis vendico saith Seneca I studied day and night and followed it with all possible eagernesse Thuanus tells of a Country-man of his whom he called Franciscus Vieta Fontenejus a very learned man that hee was so set upon his study that for three daies together sometimes hee would sit close at it sine cibo somno nisi quem cubito innixus nec se loco movens capiebat without meat or sleep more than what for meer necessity of nature hee took leaning upon his Elbow Solomon seems by this text to have been as sharp set for the finding out the way of Divine Administration and the true reason of Divine dispensations But hee got little further than to see that it far exceeded all humane capacity and apprehension Majores majora noverunt Deus det vobis plus sapere quam dico saith a Father when hee said what hee could to some one of Gods works of wonder i. e. They who are more learned know and God grant you may understand more than I say Vers 17. That a man cannot finde out the work No not the wisest that is the very best Empirick in this kinde cannot Let him labour never so much to finde it hee shall but bee tossed in a Labyrinth or as a wayfaring man in a desert Granger If a man cannot define any thing because the forms of things are unknown if hee know not the creatures themselves ab imo ad summum from the lowest to the highest neither shall hee know the reasons and manner of them As a man may look on a Trade and never see the mystery of it hee may look on artificial things pictures watches c. and yet not see the Art whereby they are made As a man may look on the letter and never understand the sense So it is here and wee must content our selves with a learned ignorance Si nos non intelligimus quid quare fiat Aug. in Psal 148. debeamus hoc providentiae quod non fiat sine causa If wee understand not why any thing is done let us owe this duty to Providence to bee assured that it is not done without cause CHAP. IX Vers 1. For all this I considered in mine heart HEE that will rightly consider of any thing had need to consider of many things all that do concern it all that do give light unto it had need to bee looked into or else wee fall too short Sis ideo in partes circumspectissimus omnes Even to declare all this Or To clear up all this to my self Symmachus rendred it Ut ventilarem haec universa that I might sift and search out all these things by much tossing and turning of the thoughts Truth lies low and close and must with much industry bee drawn into the open light That the righteous and the wise These are terms convertible The worlds wisards shall one day cry out Nos insensati Wee fools counted their lives madness c. And their works Or Their services actions imployments all which together with themselves are in the hand of God who knows them by name and exerciseth a singular providence over them so that they are kept by the power of God through Faith unto salvation The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him Psal 89.22 What a sweet providence was it that when all the Males of Israel appeared thrice in the year before the Lord at Jerusalem none of their neighbour-Nations though professed enemies to Israel should so much as desire their Land Exod. 34.24 And again that after the slaughter of Gedaliah so pleasant a Country left utterly destitute of inhabitants and compassed about with such warlike Nations as the Ammonites Moabites Edomites Philistims c. was not invaded nor replanted by forreiners for seventy years space but the room kept empty till the return of the Naturals No man knows either love or hatred c. That is the thing hee either loves or hates say some Interpreters by reason of the fickleness of his easily alterable affections How soon was Amnons heart estranged from his Thamar and Ahashuerosh from his Minion Haman the Jews from John Baptist the Galatians from Paul c But I rather approve of those that refer this love and hatred unto God understanding them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a divine manner and make the meaning to bee that by the things of this life which come alike to all as the next verse hath it no man can make judgement of Gods love or hatred towards him The sun of prosperity shines as well upon brambles of the wilderness as fruit-trees of the Orchard the snow and hail of adversity lights upon the best gardens as well as upon the wilde waste Ahab's and Josia's ends concur in the very circumstances Saul and Jonathan though different in their deportments yet in their deaths they were not divided 2 Sam. 1.23 How far wide then is the Church of Rome that borrows her marks from the market plenty or cheapness c. And what an odde kinde of reasoning was that of her Champions with Marsh the Martyr whom they would have perswaded to leave his opinions Acts and Mon. fol. 1411. because all the bringers up and favourers of that Religion as the Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk for instance had evil luck and were either put to death or in prison and in danger of life Again the favourers of the Religion then used had wondrous good luck and prosperity in all things c. Vers 2. All things come alike to all See the Note on vers 1. Health Wealth Honours c. are cast upon good men and bad men promiscuously God makes a scatter of them as it were good men gather them bad men scramble for them Nihil est nisi mica panis The whole Turkish Empire saith Luther is nothing else but a crust cast by Heavens great House-keeper to his Doggs And hee that sweareth as hee that feareth an oath No surer sign of a prophane person than common and customary swearing Neither any so good an evidence of a gracious heart as not onely to forbear it for so one may do by education and civil conversation but to fear an oath out of an awful regard to the divine Majesty Plato and other Heathens shall rise up and condemn our common swearers for they when they would swear said no more but Ex animi sententia Suidas or if they would swear by their Jupiter out of the meer dread and reverence of his name they forbare to mention him Clinias the Pythagorean out of this regard would rather undergo a mulct of three talents Acts and
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
Christ have regested And is that the part and posture of a vigilant Christian Might it not better have beseemed you to have had your loyns girt up your lamp in your hand and your self to have waited for your Lords return that when hee came and knocked you might have opened unto him immediately Luk. 12.35 36 Or being got to bed must you needs mend one fault with another Is it such a pains to start up again and let in such a guest as comes not to take any thing from you but to enrich you much more than once the Ark did Obed-Edom And in this sense some take those words in the former verse for mine head is filled with dew c. as if Christ came unto her full of the dew of blessings to enrich her Sure it is that Christ is no beggerly or niggardly guest His reward is with him hee brings better commodities than Abrahams servants did to Laban or the Queen of Sheba to Solomon even purest gold whitest rayment soveraign eye-salve any thing every thing that heart can wish or need require Revel 3.17 19. How unworthily therefore deal they and how ill do they provide for themselves that either deny or delay to entertain him when either by the motions of his Spirit by the words of his mouth or by the works of his hands he knocks at the doors of their hearts and would come in to them How do they make void or reject the counsel of God against themselves with those unhappy Lawyers Luk. 7.30 being ingrati gratiae Dei as Ambrose speaketh and judging themselves unworthy of ever-lasting life with those perverse Jews Acts 13.46 Who can say it is otherwise than righteous that Christ should regest one day upon such ungrateful Gadarens Depart from mee yee wicked that such as say to him as Felix did once to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee Acts 24.26 should hear from him Get you to the Gods whom yee have chosen for I will not help you c. and that those that would not obey this sweet precept Open to mee c. Come down Zachaeus Luke 19.5 for to day I must abide at thy house c. should have no other left to obey but that dreadful Go yee cursed c. The Church here did but lust a while and linger when shee should have been up and about and shee soon rued it deerly bewailed it bitterly Now what was it that she did Did shee rate Christ for comming at such unseasonable hours did shee answer him currishly or drive him from her door No surely but onely pleads excuse and pretends inconvenience Shee had put off her cloathes washt her feet c. A great chare shee had done and it would have undone her doubtless to have dressed her again and set her fair feet on the foul ground There is none so wise as the sluggard Prov. 26.16 Hee hath got together a great many excuses which hee thinks will go for wisdome because by them hee thinks to sleep in a whole skin Sinne and shifting came into the world together But what saith the Apostle Surely his counsel is most excellent and worthy of all acceptation Heb. 12.25 See that yee refuse not him that speaketh sc by his Blood Word Sacraments motions of his Spirit Mercies c. Look to it as the Greek hath it that yee refuse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr that yee shift him not off by frivolous pretences and idle excuses as those recusant guests did Mat. 22.5 as Moses would have done Exod. 3.11 14. 4.1 10. and Jeremiah c. 1.6 So again Heb. 2.3 How shall wee escape if wee neglect so great salvation Hee saith not if wee reject renounce persecute but if wee neglect let slip undervalue c. If when God sends forth his mercy and his truth Psal 57.3 and looks that wee should send a Lamb to that Lamb of God the Ruler of the land Isa 16.1 wee send messages after him saying Wee will not have this man to rule over us Luk. 19.14 Wee break his cords those cords of love Hos 11.4 and kick against his bowels and instead of serving him make him to serve with our sins and even weary him with our iniquities Isa 43.24 How shall wee escape What hill shall hide us What will yee do in the end thereof Vers 4. My Beloved put in his hand by the hole Or Dimissit manuâ— a foramine He let fall his hand from the hole where hee was lifting at the latch or seeâ—ing to put by the bar hee took it so unkindly to bee so ill answered that hee â—â—parted in displeasure and would bee no further troublesome Sleep on noâ— quoth hee as Mark 14.41 and take your rest Hee that will hear let him â—â—ar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Pompâ—io Romano ap Plutarch and he that hath a minde to forbear let him forbear Ezek. 3.27 but at his own peril the best that can come of it is repentance that fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother Delicatares est Spiritus Dei saith one The â—pirit of God is a delicate thing and hee that grieves that holy thing whereby â—ee is sealed by giving way to a spirit of sloth and slumber may lose his joy of faith and go mourning to his grave And although with much a do he maâ— get assurance of pardon yet his conscience will be still trembling as Davids Psal 51. till God at length speak further peace Even as the water of the Sea after a storm is not presently still but moves and trembles a good while after the storm is over Take heed therefore Cavebis autem si pavebis Rom. 11.21 But to take the words as they are here translated My Beloved put in his hand by the hole that is hee touched mine heart by his holy Spirit and notwithstanding my discourteous dealing with him left a sweet remembrance of himself behind him As hee would not away but continued still knocking till hee had an answer so though the answer pleased him not yet hee called not for his love-tokens back again hee cast her not off as Ahashuerus did Vashti no hee hates putting away Mal. 2.16 but as the Sun with his bright beams follows the passenger that hath turned his back upon it So deals Christ by his back-sliding people Psal 23.6 Jonah 2.8 Jer. 3.22 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow mee all the daies of my life saith David follow mee though I forsake mine own mercies saith Jonah And as the same Sun-beams do convey the heat and influence thereof to the earth thereby calling out the herbs and flowers and healing those deformities that winter had brought upon it So doth Christ that Sun of Righteousness arise to his servants that are benighted with sin and sorrow with healing in his wings that is with the gratious influence of his holy Spirit conveying the vertues of his blood to their
gold that is upon a foundation both fine and firm for gold hardly rusteth or cankereth whence it was likely that Tithonus and his Son Memnon when they built the City of Susa in Persia they joyned the stones together with gold as Cassiodorus writeth Christs power is founded upon his divine Nature and this is the Rock upon which the Church is built and whereby it is set in safety from all miseries and molestations satanical or secular The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Christ and the Father are one Psal 89.19 therefore none shall take her out of his hands God hath laid help upon one that is mighty even upon Emanuel the mighty strong God as hee is called Isa 9.6 declared to bee the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 that your Faith and hope might bee in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prorsus perpotuo perfecte 1 Pet. 1.21 Trust perfectly therefore to or hope to the end for the grace that is to bee brought unto you at the Revelation of Jesus sith hee is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him 1 Pet. 1.13 Heb. 7.25 His countenance is as Lebanon His aspect his look or general view i. e. Whatsoever of himself Christ is pleased to manifest and lay open unto us is pleasant and delightful goodly and glorious excellent and eximious choice as the Cedars that are chosen before other trees and why see the Note on chap. 1.17 Vers 16. His mouth is most sweet Heb. His palat that is his word and promises which are as it were the breath of Christs mouth is all sweet This shee had celebrated before vers 13. but as not satisfied therewith shee repeats it and rolls it again as sugar under her tongue Shee doubles this commendation to shew that that is the chief lovely thing in Christ his Word this fruit shee had found sweet unto her palat chap. 2.3 and shee spareth not to set it forth as here the second time Mallemus carere c. Wee had rather bee without Fire Water Bread Sun Air c. saith a Dutch Divine than that one sweet sentence of our blessed Saviour Come unto mee all yee that are weary c. Yea hee is altogether lovely Totus totus desiderabilis wholly amiable every whit of him to bee desired Moses thought him so when hee preferred the reproach of Christ the worst part of him the heaviest peece of his cross before all the treasures in Egypt that Magazin of the world Heb. 11.26 Those of this world see no such excellency and desireableness in Christ and his waies Psal 22.7 nor can do till soundly shaken Hag. 2.7 I will shake all Nations and then the desire of all Nations that is Christ shall come with stirring affections saying as Isa 26.9 with my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within mee will I seek thee early Loe this is the voice of every true childe of the Church and these desires of the righteous shall bee satisfied Prov. 10.24 This is my Beloved c. q.d. You may see I have cause to seek after him neither can you do better than to do likewise howsoever when you see him do my errand to him as vers 7. And here wee have most excellent Rhetorick which in the beginning of a speech requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milder affections in the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stronger passions that may leaved deepest impressions CHAP. VI. Vers 1. Whither is thy Beloved gone c ALL Christs Disciples are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquisitive after the truth that is in Jesus Ephes 4.21 and are fellow-helpers to it John 3.8 There is also quid divinum in auscultatione as one well noteth that is a strange and strong energy or forcibleness in hearing whether publiquely or in private conference Christ and his excellencies displayed and discoursed of Let but his name as an ointment bee powred out and the Virgins can do no less than love him Cant. 1.3 These daughters of Jerusalem are by hearing the Church describing her Spouse and painting him out in lively colours fired up to an holy contention in godliness and might they but know where to have him they would bee at any pains to partake of the benefit 1 Tim. 6.2 They wondred at first why shee should make such ado about Christ But when they conversed a while with her and had heard her speak with such affection and admiration they are turned and will now go seek him with her God is pleased many times to water the holy meetings and conferences of his people with blessing beyond expectation or belief Wee should frame our selves to an easie discourse of the glory of Christs Kingdome and talk of his power Psal 145.8 9. Our tongues in this argument should bee as the pen of a ready writer Psal 45.1 that wee may bee able to speak oft to one another with profit and power in the best thing Mal. 3.10 Little do wee know what a deal of good may bee done hereby Mr. Fox speaking of Gods little flock in the days of Henry the 8. saith in such rarity of good books and want of teachers Act. Mon. fol. 750. this one thing I cannot but marvell and muse at to note in the registers and consider how the word of God did multiply so exceedingly amongst them For I finde that one neighbour resorting and conferring with another eftsoons with a few words of their first or second talk did win and turn their minds to that wherein they desired to perswade them touching the truth of Gods Word and Sacraments c. In all ages such as were ordained to eternal life believed Acts 13.48 after that they had heard the Word of truth they beleeved and were sealed Irridentis vex non interrogantis Contrariwise reprobates either refuse to hear the Church preaching Christ John 8.47 Of else they hear and jear as Pilat with his What 's truth in meer mockage John 18.38 hear and blaspheme Acts 13.45 or at best hear and admire and that 's all they leave the Word where they found it for any thing they will practice They think they do a great chare to sit out a Sermon and then commend it But Wisdoms children will not onely justifie her Mat. 11.19 but also glorifie her Acts 13.48 they will seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Psal 105.4 Seek him in his holy Temple seek him in and with the Church as here They know that extra Ecclesiam nulla salus The Church is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 in as much as by her ministery the authority dignity knowledge virtue and use of the truth of the Gospel is preserved in the world and held out Philip. 2.16 as the hand holds forth the torch or the watch-tower the light and so the haven to the weather-beaten Mariners
bestowed upon her by her Spouse as a love-token that is with sound affections and holy actions Whereas wicked men are carried captive by the devill as the Egyptians once were by the Assyrians Isa 20.4 naked and bare-foot and so perish from the way Psal 2.12 O Princes daughter Thou that hast him for thy father in whose hands are all the corners of the earth and is supream King of the Universe This is such a priviledge and preferment as St. John stands amazed at 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold saith he qualem quantum what manner of love the Father hath shewed unto us that wee should bee called the sons and daughters of God Almighty 2 Cor. 6.18 All priviledges are summed up in this and John 1.12 it is called a power or prerogative royal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is to bee of the blood Royal of heaven It is to be an heir of God and coheir with Christ Kings can make their first-born onely heirs as Jehosaphat 2. Chron. 21.3 But all Gods children are first-born and so higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 The joynts of thy thighs are like jewels c. i. e. Thy loyns are compassed with the girdle of truth for so some render it The compassing of thy thighs or loyns And here if ever ungirt unblest Gird up therefore the loyns of your mindes 1 Pet. 1.13 gird your selves and serve God Luk. 17.8 Girding implies readiness nimbleness handiness handsomeness A loose discinct and diffluent minde is unfit for holy actions Vers 2. Thy navell is like a round goblet c. There be that expound this text of the two Sacraments The navell is Baptism that nourisheth new-born babes in the womb of the Church See hence the use of it even to Infants who can receive nourishment by the navell though they can neither take nor chew nor suck meat with hand or mouth Note this against Anabaptists saith Mr. Cotton upon these words this navell never wants liquor there is a continual matter of instruction and comfort to bee fetcht from Baptism against all temptations A Christian saith Chrysostome should never step out of doors or lye down in his bed or go into his closet but hee should remember that word Abrenuncio I forsake the devill and all his works c. Luther tells of a certain holy virgin that used to quench the Devills fiery darts with the water of Baptism For as often as shee was tempted to do any thing not beseeming her profession shee would resist the devil stedfast in the faith and stop his mouth with this short but full answer Christiana sum I am a Christian I have been Baptized into the death of Christ I have also put on Christ by Baptism I am a votary the vows of God are upon me c. But what an horrible shame is that to the Papists and what a sore stumbling-block must it needs be to the poor Jews that live amongst them that in Rome a Jewish maid may not be admitted into the stews of whoredome unless she will be first baptized This is related and bewayled by Espencaeus a moderate Papist De contin lib. 3. cap. 4. Thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with Lillies Some understand hereby that other Sacrament of the Lords Supper called an heap of wheat for its store of excellent nourishment and said to bee set about with lillies that is with Christians white and of holy conversation Basil calls such stars of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and flowers of the Churches Chrysostome calls them earthly Angels and saith that they were Puriores coelo purer than the heaven in their common conversation but especially when they came to the Lords table that dreadfultable as hee calleth it whereunto all must come with the best preparation they can make wash and bee clean wash their hands in innocency before they compass Gods Altar wash their hearts Jer. 4.14 their feet John 13.10 Hee that is washed sc for the out-side needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit An allusion to those that having bathed their bodies foul their feet by going out of the Bath and so are fain to wash them again The inwards and the feet in a sacrifice were to bee washed above the rest because the intrails contain the excrements and the legs tread in the dirt The soul is apt to gather soil by medling with earthly things though lawful how much more to be defiled with the soot of sin as if shee had lain among the pots All Christs Nazarites his Votaries must come to his feast purer than snow whiter than milk c. Lam 4.7 sith at this Sacrament they do renew the Nuptials of Christ and take a corporal oath to cleave close to him with full purpose of heart all the days of their lives As for those that presume to come unpreparedly that want their wedding garment they are no otherwise bidden to the feast of the King than Haman was to Queen Esthers Sin brought to the Sacrament petitions against a man as Esther did against Haman at the banquer of wine Esth 7.2 6. pick out that time and he shall find God no less angry than Haman did Ahasuerus For this is that which the Lord hath said I will be sanctified in all them that draw neer unto mee Of communicants God seems to say as Solomon did of Adonijah If hee shew himself a worthy man there shall not one hair of him fall to the earth but if wickedness bee found in him he shall die 1 King 1.52 Vers 3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes Fresh and lusty even and equal Understand the two Testaments hereunto resembled for their perfect agreement amiable proportion and swift running all the world over in a short time Eusebius saith that the Doctrine of both Testaments was presently after our Saviours resurrection carried abroad into all countries as it were upon Eagles wings The like may be said of Luther and his Collegues in Germany at the first Reformation there which as lightning was soon seen from one end of the heaven to the other So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed Act. 19.20 See the Notes on chap. 4.5 Vers 4. Thy neck is as a Tower of Ivory Most smooth white and upright Some do hereby understand Magistrates that support the State as the neck doth the head I bear up the pillars of it saith David Others will have the Ministers meant who being aloft in the Church are to the same instead of watch-towers or towers of defence And especially then when they are in their pulpits called towers in the Hebrew Neh. 8.4 reading and expounding Gods law unto his people Thine eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon Glazed with tears of compunction and compassion Nam faciles motus mens generosa capit and well cleared to look into her own heart and life Tears instead of gems were the ornaments of Davids bed saith Chrysostome And
seem to groan together with the fathfull Rom. 8. so here by a Prosopopâ—ia they are brought in as congratulating and applauding their deliverance Ver. 13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree There shall be a blessed change of men and of manners those who before were stark naught or good for naught yea vexatious and mischievous shall become fruitful and beneficial Spinis paliurus acutis Virg. Eclog. The Fir-tree is good for many uses the Myrtle brings berriers of excellent taste as Pliny tells us The Chaldee thus paraphraseth here Just men shall rise up instead of sinners and such at fear the Lord in the room of the unrighteous Sed cave ne hic somnies saith Oecolampadius but be warned you dream not as some do that in this world and before the day of Judgement the wicked shall all be rooted out For there will alwaies be Cains to persecute Abels c. And it shall be to the Lord for a name i. e. For an honour it shall be much for his glory which is the end that he propoundeth to himself in all that he doth and well he may sith 1. He is not in danger of doing any thing through vain-glory 2. He hath none higher then himself to whom to have respect For an everlasting sign In monumentum non momentaneum Heb. for a sign of pepetuity or eternity That shall not be cut off Or that it the Church shall not be cut off CHAP. LVI Ver. 1. Thus saith the Lord Keep ye judgement and do justice i. e. Repent ye as ye were exhorted chap. 55.6 7. and bring forth fruits meet for repentance as Matth. 3.8 for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.1 Tit. 2.12 Christ came to call sinners to repentance Mar. 2.17 and to good works of all sorts which are here called Judgement and Justice as he himself is here called not only Gods salvation but his righteousnesse Ver. 2. Blessed is the man that doth this And withal layeth hold on that i. e. That performeth the duties of both Tables of Piety and of Charity that maketh conscience of keeping the Sabbath especially the fourth Commandement standeth fitly in the heart of the Decalogue and betwixt the two tables of the Law as having an influence into both From polluting it Either by corporal labour or spiritual idlenesse spending the holy time holily And keepeth his hand from doing any evil That is righteous as well as religious not yielding his members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin Rom. 6.13 Ver. 3. Neither let the son of the stranger If a Proselite let not him interline the Covenant of Grace in Christ and say It belongeth not to me Let not him turn the back of his hand to the promise as if he were not concerned in it because no Jew born for now the partition-wall is by Christ to be broken down and the rigour of that old prohibition taken away Acts 10.34 35. Gal. 3.28 Colos 3.11 Ezek. 47.22 Neither let the Eunuch See the Note on Mat. 19.12 Ver. 4. For thus saith the Lord Who comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 those that are forsaken of their hopes Jer. 30.17 That keep my Sabbaths Which who so do not are worthily deemed to have no true goodnesse in them at all And choose the things that please me Chuse them upon mature deliberation and good advice as Moses did Heb. 11.25 By a free election as Psal 119.30 so shewing themselves wise Eunuchs Ennius such as have their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger deriveth it i. e. well-minded men egregiè cordati homines And take hold of my Covenant By a lively faith which is said to have two hands one wherewith she layeth hold on Christ and another whereby she giveth up her self unto him and although the Devil rap her on the fingers for so doing yet she is resolute and holds her own Ver. 5. Even unto them will I give in mine house In the Church of the New Testament Ephes 2.19 20 21. A place Heb. a hand A door-keepers place in Gods House is worth having Psal 84. this was that one thing that he so dearly begged Psal 27.4 And a name That new name Rev. 2.17 that power or prerogative royal that heavenly honour Nonnus there calleth it Joh. 1.12 viz. to be the Sons of God and so to be called 1 Joh. 3.1 to have both the comfort and the credit of it this is nomen in mundo prastantissimum none to this 2 Cor. 6. ult for if sons then heirs c. Rom. 8.16 17. Ver. 6. Also the sons of the stranger that joyneth Relinquishing his heathenish superstition and devoting himself to my fear The Levites had their name from the word here used and Leviathan whose scales and parts are so fast joyned and joynted together To love the name of the Lord to be his servants Plato could say Parere legibus est Deo servire haec summa est libertas To obey the laws is to serve God and this is the chiefest liberty this is perfect freedom But Plato never knew what it was to love to be Gods servant In Psal 1. Lex voluntarios quaerit saith Ambrose All Gods Souldiers are volunteires all his people free-hearted Psal 110.3 they wait for his Law Isa 42.8 See Deut 10.12 Every one that keepeth the Sabbath See on ver 2. Ver. 7. Even them will I bring unto my holy mountain i. e. Into my Church and Church-Assemblies Quaere whether Eunuches and strangers were made partakers of all holy services in the second Temple according to the letter Sure we are that that holy Eunuch Acts 8. and the rest of the Gentiles had and still have free admission under the Gospel And will make them joyful in mine house of prayer by their free accesse unto me and all good successe in their suits Pray that your joy may be full Joh. 16.24 Draw water with joy out of this well of salvation Isa 12. Rejoyce evermore and that you may so do Pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.16 17. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine Altar Their Evangelical Sacrifices of prayer praise alms obedience c. shall be accepted through Christ Heb. 13.10 15. who is the true altar that sanctifieth all that is offered on it Rev. 8.3 4. For mine house shall be called c. See on Mat. 21.13 Ver. 8. Which gathereth the out-casts of Israel According to that ancient promise of his Deut. 30.4 None of his shall be lost for looking after he will fetch back his banished as that witty woman said 2 Sam. 14.14 Yet will I gather others to him Strangers Eunuches all mine other sheep that are not yet of this fold Joh. 10 16. together with all my straglers those that are relapsed will I recover Ver. 9. All ye beasts of the field come to devour Statim quasi vehementer ira accensus c. All upon the suddain as one much enraged against
my glory i. e. In Christ who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and in sending of whom the glory of his truth wisdom power justice and goodness shone forth as the Sun at noon Ver. 19. And I will set a sign among them This sign may very well be that visible pouring out of the gifts of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost under the symbol of wind and fire Scultet Act. 2. together with the signes and wonders whereby the Apostles doctrine was confirmed Others make this signe to be the Profession of the Christian faith Some also the Doctrine of the Gospel and especially the Sacraments And I will send those that escape of them i. e. The Apostles and their fellow-helpers such as were Barnabas Silas Lucas c. To Tarshish Pul To all parts of the Word East West North and South That draw the bow The Mosches or Moscovites say the Septuagint the Turkes saith one of the Rabbines See the Notes on Rev. 9.15 16 17. Ver. 20. And they shall bring all your brethren Now become all your brethren in Christ Sanctior est copula cordis quam corporis Religion is the strongest eye Vpon horses and in charets and in litters i. e. With much swiftnesse and sweetnesse though sick weakly and unfit for travel yet rather in litters than not at all The Apostles became all things to all men that they might gain them to Christ Ver. 21. And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levites For Evangelical Pastors and Teachers who have a distinct function and employment in the Church of the New Testament as the Priests and Levites had in that of the Old to teach instruct and edifie Gods people Ver. 22. For as the new heaven So shall there be a true Church and a Ministry for the good of my people to the worlds end It shall not be taken away as is the Jewish Polity and Hierarchy Ver. 23. And it shall come to passe that from one new-Moon to another God shall be served with all diligence and delight In the Kingdom of Christ here but especially in heaven it shall be holy-day all the week as we say a constant solemnity a perpetual Sabbath Act. Mon. King Edgar ordained that the Lords day should be kept here in England from Saturday nine of the clock till Munday morning The Ebionites kept the Saturday with the Jews and the Sunday with the Christians But here it is foretold and we see it fulfilled that all flesh i. e. all the faithful whether Jews or Gentiles shall not only keep every day holy-day 1 Cor. 5.8 by resting from sin and rejoycing in God but shall also both in season and out of season have their Church-meetings for holy services worshipping God from day to day and from month to month as the phrase is Esth 3.7 in spirit and in truth and having the continual feast of a good conscience Ver. 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the carkasses Rhetoricians tell us that in the introduction to a discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milder affections suit best to insinuate but in the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passionate passages such as may leave a sting behind them and stick by the hearers This Art the Prophet here useth for being now to period his Prophecy he giveth all sorts to know what they shall trust to The godly shall go forth i. e. salvi evadent liberi abibunt they shall have safety here and salvation hereafter They shall also look upon the carkasses c. they shall be eye-witnesses of Gods exemplary judgements executed on the wicked that would not have Christ to reign over them Rev. 19.21 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord and from the presence of his power 2 Thes 1.9 This the righteous shall see and fear and laugh at them Psal 52.6 giving God the glory of his justice and goodness Some think they shall have at last day a real sight of hell and the damned there Rev. 14.10 and this may very well be Oh that wicked men would in their dayly meditations take a turn or two in hell and so be forewarned to fly from the wrath to come Is it nothing to have the worm of conscience ever grubbing upon their entrails and the fire of Gods vengeance feeding upon their souls and flesh throughout all eternity Oh that eternity of extremity Think of it seasonably and seriously that ye never suffer it The Jewish Masters have in some copies wholly left out this last verse as in other copies they repeat both here and in the end of Ecclesiastes Lamentations and Malachy the last verse save one which is more sweet and fuller of comfort and that for this reason that the Reader may not be sent away sad Amama in Antibarb and so fall into desperation But of that there is no such danger sith most people are over slight in their thoughts of hell-torments regarding them no more than they do a fire painted on the wall or a serpent wrought in Arras And besides Non sinit in Gehennam incidere Gehennae meminisse saith Chysostom to remember hell is a good means to preserve us from it This verse hath sufficient authority from our Saviours citing of it Mar. 9.44 See the Note there Plato also if that be any thing in his description of hell which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiery lake saith the same as here In Phaed. pag. 400. Inde dictus est Moses Atticus that their worm dyeth not neither is their fire quenched He might possibly have read Isaiah as he had done Moses T is thought Laertius telleth us that he travelled into Egypt where he conversed with some Hebrews and learned much of them And they shall be an abhorring to all flesh i. e. All good men abominate them now as so many living Ghosts walking carkases Eph. 2.2 Prov. 29. ult and shall much more at the last day when they shall arise again to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12. Scribendo haec studui bene de pietate mereri Sed quicquid potui Gratia Christs tua est A Commentary or Exposition upon The BOOK of the Prophet IEREMIAH CHAP. I. Ver. 1. THe words of Jeremiah Piscator rendereth it Acta Jeremiae The Acts of Jeremy Verba sive Res. as we say The Acts of the Apostles which Book also saith One might have been called in some sense The Passions of the Apostles who were for the testimony of Jesus in deaths often And the same we may safely say of Jeremy Serm. 4. contra A â—â—nos who although he were not omnis criminis per totam vitam expers which yet great Athanaesius affirmeth of him that is free from all fault for he had his out-bursts and himself relateth them yet he was Judaeorum integerrimus as of Phocion it is said that he was Atheniensum integerrimus a man of singular sanctimony and
neither know Gods will nor hold themselves much bound to do it Of the poorer sort in Swethland it is storied that they do alwayes break the Sabbath saying that 'T is for Gentlemen only to keep that day Ver. 5. I will get me unto the great men Who have been better bred and abound with liesure and other helps to holy living But these have altogether broken the yoke Of God of the Law and of Discipline These are lawless and awless and think they may lay the raines in the neck and run riot Ver. 6. Therefore a Lyon of the forrest shall slay them So Nebuchadnezzar is called for his cruelty a Wolf for his voracity and a Leopard for his sliness and swiftness All the malignities of other Creatures meet in the Churches enemies Ver. 7. How shall I pardon thee for this How with the safety of mine honour and justice Swearing then by creatures as by our Lady by St. Anne by this light c. or by Idols as by the Masse by the Rood c. or by qualities as by Faith Troth c. is not so small a sin as many deem it sith God maketh here a great question how he can pardon it For why it is a forsaking of him a giving away his honour to another a disgrace done to a mans self sith we alwaies swear by the greater Heb. 6.16 and a means to procure his utter mine without Gods greater mercy Amos 6.14 Zeph. 1.3 4 5. Men sport themselves with oaths as the Philistines did with Sampson which will at last pull the house about their ears Zach. 5.4 When I fed them to the full they then committed adultery Fulnesse in good men oft breeds forgetfulnesse and in bad men filthines◠Gula vestibulum luxuriae gluttony is the gallery that incontinency walketh through The Israelites ate and drank and rose up to play sc with their Midianitish Mistrisses to the provoking of Gods fierce wrath Fulness of bread made way to Sodoms sin Lunatikes when the Moon is declining and in the wain are sober enough but when full more wild and exorbitant Ceres and Bacchus are great friends to Venus c. Watch therefore and feed with fear And assembled themselves by troops Heb. they trooped themselves Libido effrons plu◠quam pecuina such was their impudency Ver. 8. They were as fed horses As stallions and stone-horses that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mare-mad as the Septuagint have it Ver. 9. Shall I not visit for these things i. e. Shall I not take cognisance of them and punish them surely and severely Ver. 10. Get yt up upon her battlements and destroy Ascendete exscindite up and lay about you lustily A commission granted out to the enemy to execute Divine vengeance God can never want a weapon to beat his rebels with But make not a full end See chap. 4.27 For they are not the Lords He disowneth them and giveth them primo occupaturo to him that shall first seize them as the Pope took upon him to do this Kingdom of England in the dayes of Henry 8. whom he had excommunicated and deprived Ver. 11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah Both Aholah and Aholibah are stark naught I renounce them therefore and shall take no further charge of them And why Ver. 12. They have belyed the Lord Or They give the Lord the lye as Montfort Earle of Lecester gave his Soveraign Henry 3. the lye Every unbeleever doth as much Daniels hist 172. Oecolamp upon the matter 1 Joh. 5.10 See the Note there Nam etiamsi non semper ore obloquitur factis tamen obluctatur And said It is not he sc That speaketh but the Prophets speak their own dreams and fancies Or as some render the text He is not there is no God to reward us if we do well or to punish us if we do worse See my Common-place of Atheisme Ver. 13. And the Prophets shall become wind All their threats and bugbear-tearms devised on purpose to affright silly people who are no wiser then to believe them shall come to nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. they are but bullatae nugae bruta fulmina bubbles of words brute light-bolts both they and their menaces shall vanish together they shall blow over Thus shall it be done unto them The evils that they foretell shall befall themselves not us nos male mulctabimus ipsos and we will see them soundly punished for false Prophets Poor Jeremy was ill-handled amongst them many times as we shall see in sundry Chapters following Hoc fuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ver. 14. Because ye speak this word Ungodly men shall one day answer with all the world on fire about their ears for all their hard and haughty speeches Jude 15. They shall find that neither their own words are wind but such as they shall give a sad account of nor the Prophets words wind unless it be to blow them into the bottomless lake and to torment their consciences haply in the mean while more then wind doth mens bodies when gotten once into the veines or bowels Behold I will make my words in thy mouth fire That 's somewhat worse then wind Oh fear this fire vengeance is in readiness for the disobedient 2 Cor 10.5 every whit as ready in Gods hand as in the Ministers mouth See Zach. 1.6 with the Notes Gen. 10.8 Ver. 15. It is a mighty Nation it is an ancient Nation As ancient as Nimrod the first founder of that first of the four Monarchies Hence Babylon is called the land of Nimrod Mic. 5. whom the Poets call Saturn and his son and successour Jupiter Belus A Nation whose language thou knowest not For the Babylonians spake Syriack Dan. 2.4 as did also the Jews afterwards viz. after the captivity in Babylon where they learnt it and lost their own language Ver. 16. Their quiver is an open Sepulchre As holding arrows that wound deadly and that shall dispatch many being drenched in their gall Ver. 17. And they shall eat up thy harvest Partim gladio partim gula Consider the calamity of war and take course to prevent it Ver. 18. I will not make a full end with thee In the midst of judgement God remembreth mercy See chap. 4 27. and here ver 10. Howbeit from this text some gather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that now in this last captivity of theirs God hath made a full end with the Jews and that wrath is come upon them to the utmost or to the end as the Greek hath it 1 Thes 2.16 Ver. 19. Wherefore doth the Lord our God all these things unto us Why could not they yet tell And had they not been oft enough if any thing were enough told wherefore But they were never willing to hear on that ear Some of our hearers turn the deaf ear and say What tell you us of these terrible things c. Many sit before us as senseless as
sit Gen. 34.20 to judge between party and party The young men from their musick From their ordinary and honest recreations and disports Ver. 15. The joy of our heart is ceased Heb. keepeth Sabbath i. e. is vanished and that because we made not Gods Sabbath our delight as Isa 58.13 Ver. 16. The crown is fallen from our head i. e. All our glory both of Church and State because we refused to serve God which indeed is to reign in righteousnesse Now neither is all this nor any of this spoken to exasperate or exulcerate peoples hearts to fret against God or to faint under their pressures but to put them upon the practice of true humiliation that so they may not lose the fruit of their Afflictions whence the following passage Woe unto us that we have sinned Which as it runneth sweetly and rythmically in the Original so it pointeth us to that savory and soveraign practice of lamenting our sins more then our miseries and humbling our selves to the utmost under the mighty hand of God that he may lift up in due season Ver. 17. For this our heart is faine Ponit symbolum vere contritionis we are sin-sick even at heart our sins are as so many daggers at our hearts or bearded arrows in our flesh For these things our eyes are dim we have well-nigh wept them out whereby neverthelesse out minds have been illightened Lachrymae sunt succus cordis contriti seu liquores animae patientis Ver. 18. Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate q. d. Next unto our sins which are our greatest sorrow nothing troubleth us more then this that the publike exercises of Piety are put down Sion the seat of Gods Sanctuary is desolate Ver. 19. Thou O Lord remainest for ever Alioqui totus totus desperassem as that good man said once in like case Otherwise I should have but small joy of my life But thou art everlasting and invariable in essence truth will and promises This is mine Anchor-hold Thy throne from generation to generation i. e. Thy most equal and righteous ordering of all things utut nobis quaedam confusiusculè currere videantur though some things may seem to us to be somewhat confusedly carried and even to run on wheels yet it shall one day appear that there was a wheel within a wheel Ezek. 1. that is an over ruling and all-disposing Providence Ver. 20. Wherefore dost thou forget us Sith thy Covenant runs otherwise 2 Sam. 7.14 See on ver 1. And forsakest us so long time Heb. to length of dayes as Psal 23 6. Not for Seventy years only but to the end of the world till wrath is come upon us to the utmost as 2 Thes 2. Ver. 21. Turn thou us unto thee That thou maist turn thee to us as Zach. 1.3 Let there be a through-reformation wrought in us and then a gracious restauration wrought for us Est Aposiopesis ad pathos Ver. 22. But thou hast utterly rejected us This is a sad Catastrophe or close of this doleful ditty Sometimes Gods suppliants are put hard to it in the course of their Prayers the last grain of their faith and patience seemeth to be put into the scale When the Son of man cometh with deliverance to his praying people shall he find faith in the earth Hard and scarce And yet he comes oft when they have even done looking for him he is seen in the Mount he helpeth those that are forsaken of their hopes Hallelujah Sure it is that God cannot utterly reject his people whom he hath chosen Rom. 11. Tremellius rendreth it and so the Margin of our Bibles hath it and I think better For wilt thou utterly reject us or be extreamly wrath with us sc supra modulum nostrum according to thine infinite power and above all that we are able to bear I cannot think it neither doth it consist with thy Covenant Here as also at the end of Ecclesiastes Isaiah and Malachy many of the Hebrew Bibles repeat the foregoing verse Turn thou us unto thee O Lord c. yet without pricks left any thing should seem added thereby to the holy Scriptures The reason here of read in the end of the Prophecy of Isa This is also here observed by the most renowned Mr. Thomas Gataker whom for honour sake I name and to whose most accurate and elaborate Annotations upon Isaiah and Jeremy I have been not a little beholden all along These he finished not long before his death to the great glory of God and good of his Church Fretum Magellanicum And of him and this worthy Work of his I may fitly say as a learned man doth of Magellanus the Portingal that great Navigator that the Strait or Sea now called by his name unâ navigatione simul immortalem gloriam mortem ei attulerit Boxhorn histor universal was both his death and his never-dying Monument 1 Sam. 7.12 Hitherto hath the Lord helped us A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK of the Prophet EZEKIEL CHAP. I. THe Book of the Prophet Ezekiel The Book of Ezekiel so the Hebrews call it and forbid any to read the beginning and ending of it till he be thirty years of age because it is so abstruse and mysterious Nazianzen calleth this Prophet The Beholder of great things In Apolog. and the Interpreter of visions and mysteries Another calleth him the Hieroglyphical Prophet A third Jeremy vailed a hand shut up A lap Ezâ—chiel scripturarum Oceanâ—â— et mysteriorum Dei labyrinthus Hieron Many both waters and readers have passed over this Prophet as dark difficult and lâ—ssâ— useful Greenhil praef Orat. 47. and you know not what is in it c. Contemporary he was to Jeremy though in another Country and a great confirmer of what he had foretold but could not be credited To him therefore as to many others Ezekiel became according to the import of his name The strength of God who mightily enabled him as Lavater well noteth with a stout and undaunted spirit to reprove both people and Princes and to threaten them more terribly and vehemently then Jeremy had done before him But in the substance of their Prophecies there is no small conformity Ferunt Ezechielem servum Jeremiae prius extitisse saith Nazianzen Some have affirmed that Ezekiel had sometimes been Jeremiah's servant as was afterwards Baruch Ver. 1. Now it came to passe in the thirtieth year sc Since the Book of the Law found and that famous Passeover kept in King Josiah's dayes 2 King 22. 23. since the eighteenth year of his reign ver 33 So elsewhere they began their account from some memorable mercy or remarkable accident as from the promise made to Abraham the birth of Isaac the departure out of Egypt the division of the Kingdom into that of Israel and the other of Judah c. In the fifth day of the month Which was the Sabbath-day say some confer chap. 3.16 Then was
the Lord God Sic ait Dominater Dominus Smite with thine hand Manibus pedibusque obnixe omnia facito do thine utmost by gestures and speeches to make this stupid people perceive their sin and danger Alasse for all the evil abominations Propter omnes abominationes pessimas we cannot call sin bad enough Oecolamp the worst word in a mans belly is too good for it O perdita Israel dicere vult quae tot malas abominationes operata es c. Ver. 12. He that is far off shall dye of the pestilence Pluribus verbis hunc locum tractat Ointments must not only be laid upon the part that aketh but also rubbed and chafed in so must menaces and promises that they may soak and sink into the soul Ver. 13. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord Vexatio dabit intellectum smart shall make wit Aug. See ver 10. Four times in this chapter are these words used Verba toties inculcata viva sunt vera sunt sana sunt plana sunt Among their idols See on ver 4. Where they did offer sweet savour Idolatry is costly Ver. 14. Then the wildernesse toward Diblath Which was horriditate nobile bordering upon that terrible howling wilderness mentioned by Moses Deut. 8.15 See Jer. 48.22 CHAP. VII Ver. 1. MOreover the word of the Lord came unto me Five or six years afore it fell out God loveth to foresignifie to premonish or ere he punish Let us upon whom the ends of the world are come take warning and think we hear the trump of God sounding as here An end is come is come is come it watcheth for thee behold it is come ver 2 3 6. Ver. 2. An end the end is come Exitium excidium Great Kingdoms have their times and their turnes their rise and their ruine The wickeds happinesse will take its end surely and swiftly Vpon the four corners of the land Heb. the four wings called also the four winds Mat. 24.31 They had defiled the land from corner to corner as Ezra 9.11 God therefore now would sweep it all over with the beesom of utter destruction Ver. 3. Now is the end come upon thee Even upon thee O Israel who would ever have thought it Lam. 4.12 And I will send mine anger upon thee Reveal it from heaven as Rom. 1.18 And will judge thee according to thy wayes i. e. I will punish thee for thy wayes as Hos 4.9 Obad. 15. And will recompense upon thee Heb. I will give or put upon thee all thine abominations q. d. Thou hast hitherto put them upon me but I will have a writ of remove and set them upon their own base as Zach. 5.11 Ver. 4. And mine eye shall not spare thee Chap. 5.11 See on Jer. 13.14 And thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee Vt quae antea latuerant in apertum prodeant And ye shall know that I am the Lord That smiteth you ver 9. An evil an only evil viz. Without mixture of mercy or that shall smite thee down at one only blow as 1 Sam. 26.8 See on Nahum 1.9 The Vulgar after the Chaldee rendreth it An evil after an evil q. d. Lighter and lesser judgements have done no good upon thee Now I will finish the work and cut it short in righteousnesse Rom. 9.28 Ruinam pracedunt stillicidia Ver. 6. An end is come the end is come Still the Prophet ringeth this doleful knell in their eares whom sin and Satan had cast into such a dead lethargy that they could not easily be arroused Battologia est sed necessaria verborum redundantia saith Pintus It watcheth for thee Which hitherto lay at the door Gen. 4.7 sleeping dog-sleep as we say In the Hebrew there is an elegant Agnomination between hakets an end and hekits watcheth See 2 Pet. 3.3 Ver. 7. The morning is come unto thee The morning of execution Visitaberis summo mane id est mature Piscat Florulenta felicitas occidit Oecol as Jer. 21.12 Psal 101.8 Confer Hos 10.15 Gen. 19.23.24 worse then the Sicilian Vespers or the French Massacre Thine utter destruction bene mane in te irruet shall be upon thee betimes as it was upon Sodom and as the morning light breaketh in upon those that are fast asleep Sicut decoctores multa sibi promittunt interim pereunt so it befalleth the wicked The day of trouble is near Hajom mehumah Day in Hebrew is thought to have its name from the stir and noise that is made in it the humming noise and bustle of businesse A troublesome and tumultuous day is here forethreatned such as that Esay 22.5 and Zeph. 1.14 15 16 17. Not the sounding again of the mountaines Not an empty sound Virgil. or an Echo resonabilis Echo but a worse matter that shall do more then beat the aire Ver. 8. Now will I shortly poure out my fury See on chap. 5.13 And I will judge thee c. See on ver 3. Ver. 9. I will recompense The same as before Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur That I am the Lord that smiteth Think not that I am made all of mercy or that I will ever serve you for a sinning-stock Ye shall know that I have verbera as well as ubera and can so set it on as no creature can take it off Ver. 10. The morning is gone forth Matutina sententia the decree bringeth forth as Zeph. 2.2 See there The rod hath blossomed You have had your Floralia and shall shortly have your Funeralia Nebuchadnezzar that rod of my wrath is at hand Pride hath budded And will shortly bring forth viz. the bitter fruit of your bold rebellion Not much unlike to this was the Almond rod seen by Jeremy chap. 1.11 Ver. 11. Violence is risen up into a rod of wickednesse Their oppressions speak them most wicked and will make them most wretched Nor of their multitude Or their tumultuous persons their Thraso's saith Tremellius quantumvis circumstrepant famulitio numeroso with all their traine and retinue that keep a clutter Neither shall there be wailing for them Their dearest friends shall not dare to lament the loss of them for fear of the enemyes who are present would punish it We read in the Roman history of one Vitia who was put to death by the command of Tiberius for that she had lamented Geminus her son executed as a friend to Sejanus Tacit. Ver. 12. The time is come the day draweth near Let this voyce ever sound in the ears of those negligent spirits who cry Cras Domine Advenit illud tempus pertigit illa dies whiling away their time as she Rev. 2 21. and so fooling away their own salvation as those Virgins Mat. 25. Let not the buyer rejoyce He shall have no such great joy of his purchase sith the enemy shall shortly take all qui latifundia habuerunt ne latum pedem retinebunt and no man shall be master of his own
the earth His wrath is like Elijah's cloud which was at first but a smal matter to see to or as thunder which we hear at first a little roaring noise afar off but stay a while it is a dreadful crack or as fire that at first burneth a little upon a few boards but when it prevaileth bursteth out in a most terrible flame Ver. 20. Shall shake at my presence And wriggle into their holes as worms do in time of thunder And the mountains shall be thrown down Hyperbolical threats to set forth the dreadfulnesse of Gods fierce wrath which burns as low as hell it self Ver. 21. And I will call for a sword Against Antiochus by the Maccabees against the Turk and Pope by the Christian Princes Hunniades Scanderbeg Queen Elizabeth the late and present Kings of Sweden the English and French forces in Flanders now before Gravelin after Dunkirk and Bergen taken from the Spaniard Certain it is that ere long the Beast and the false Prophet shall be taken and all the fouls of the heaven filled with the flesh of those Kings and Captains that fight against the Gospel Rev. 19.19 20 21. Ver. 22. An overflowing rain and great hail-stones As once at the general deluge destruction of Sodom discomfiture of the Kings of Canaan in Joshua's dayes chap. 10.11 Some think that these Judgements here threatened shall towards the end of the world be executed upon Antichrist and his adherents according to the letter See Rev 16.21 See the Note there Ver. 23. Thus will I magnify my self This end God proposeth to himself in all his works and well he may sith he hath none higher then himself to whom to have respect And let all this that hath been said comfort us against the rage and good successe if any such yet be of the Antichristian rout sith these are but as he said once of decaying Carthage the last sprunts and bites of dying wild beastes CHAP. XXXIX Ver. 1. PRophecy against Gog Prophecy again against him for my peoples greater comfort The Jews noted ever to have been a light aerial and fanatical nation apt to work themselves into the fools paradise of a sublime dotage they expounding this Prophecy according to the letter conclude that Christ is not yet come because these things here foretold are not yet fulfilled When he doth come they say he shall set up his kingdom at Jerusalem gather all Israel out of all coasts unto himself there send each one to his own Tribe and that most certainly by the operation of his holy Spirit There they shall be no sooner setled and the kingdom not yet fully stablished In frusta vel scintillas redigam te Pintus Sextabo te but Gog and Magog shall bring a huge army against Jerusalem where they shall fall by the sword lye unburied c. Ver. 2. And I will turn thee back Convertam vel Conteram te See ch 38.3 And leave but the sixth part of thee Or strike thee with six plagues or draw thee back with an hook of six teeth as chap. 38.4 And will cause thee to come This is much and oft inculcated that it is God who brings in and drives out the Churches enemies This is a quieting consideration Ver. 3. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand I will disarm thee Lib. 2. as Herodotus reporteth of Sennacherib and his Assyrians in Egypt that their quivers bow-strings and targets were gnawn to pieces by Mice and Rats in one night so that they were forced to flye for their lives And as our Chroniclers tell us that in the battle between Edward the third of England and Philip of France their fell such a piercing shower of rain as dissolved their strings and made their bowes unseful Dan. 237. Ver. 4. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel Thither thou shalt come indeed as Antiochus did into the Temple Antichrist into the Church of God 2 Thess 2. but there thou shalt take thy end Ver. 5. Thou shalt fall upon the open field Heb. the face of the field which thou shalt dung with thy dead carkasse Ver. 6. And I will send a fire on Magog So God will one day on Rome that Radix omnium malorum Rev. 18. And among them that dwell carelesly in the Isles Who must not think there to mott up themselves against my fire Ver. 7. I will not let them pollute my holy Name As if I were less able to deliver my people or less mindful of my Promises Ver. 8. Behold it is come and it is done It is as good as done So Babylon is fallen i. e. it will fall certainly quickly utterly This is the day O dieculam illam when shall it once be O mora Christe veni Ver. 9. And they that dwell Hyperbolical expressions though the Jews hold otherwise See on ver 1. Shall set on fire and burn the weapons Do not the Churches Champions so at this day ever since they proclaimed and proved the Pope to be that Antichrist burning up his weapons his false doctrines and heresies by the fire of Gods Word and giving their bodyes to be burned for the testimony of Jesus And they shall burn them with fire seven years i. e. Diutissime saepissime This seven years is not yet out The Jesuites say Satan sent Luther and God sent them to withstand him But there is a succession of Luthers to find them work enough still and to burn up their weapons that the Churches may be at rest Ver. 10. So that they shall take no wood This must needs be Hyperbolical as are also sundry other passages in holy Scripture When Luther burnt the Popes decrees and decretals at Wittenberg it was a fair fire doubtless as Solon once said of the fire he caused to be made at Athens of the bills and bonds of the Athenian usurers Ver. 11. I will give unto Gog a place there of graves That 's all the portion or possession he gets in the holy land On the East of the sea The dead sea or the lake of Sodom a fit place for Antichrist to be buried in he shall at last be cast alive into a worse lake Rev. 19.20 And it shall stop the noses of passengers By reason of stench or the mouthes of passengers from speaking evil of Gods people And they shall call it For a lasting monument of Gods great mercy in ridding the country of such Pests Ver. 12. And seven moneths shall the house of Israel be burying of them That is a long while like as the Reformed Churches were in â—ooting out Popery those damnable doctrines ceremonies images reliques bulls and books Here in England the Romish Religion stood a whole month and more after the death of Queen Mary as afore December 27. it was permitted that the Epistles Gospels ten Commandements Lords Prayer Creed and Letany should be used in the Vulgar tongue March 22. when the estates of the Realm were assembled by renewing of a law of
hath Christ the High-Priest of the Church Christian singular priviledges above all his brethren He shall sit in it to eat bread He shall sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high and enjoy heavens happiness which is oft compared to a feast as Mat. 8.11 22.1 2. See Esa 53.11 He shall ascend up into heaven and therehence come again to judge the quick and the dead Act. 1.11 Heb. 9.28 Some by Prince here understand the Ruler of the people see chap. 46.1 2. who is peculiarly licensed to enter in at the East-gate and there to sit and eat and drink his part of the Peace-offering Confer Exod. 24.11 It is not meant of Peter the Apostle to be sure much less of the Pope his pretended successour as some of his Parasites would have it Ver. 4. Then brought he me See on ver 1. The glory of the Lord See chap. 43.2 5. And I fell upon my face See chap. 43.3 1.28 Ver. 5. Mark well and behold with thine eyes Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgement See chap. 40.4 The refining of the Ministery and discipline of the Church with the same charge in regard of the excellency of the matter repeated for attention to ver 17. and laws prescribed to that purpose ver 17. to the end of the Chapter Ver. 6. And thou shalt say to the rebellious Heb. to rebellion Vulg. to the exasperating house Let it suffice you Ye have sinned enough and more then enough 1 Pet. 4.3 Now that I have set you up a new Temple turn over a new leaf for shame as chap. 43.10 when shall it once be Jer. 13. ult Ver. 7. Strangers Your selves are no better Am. 9 7. strangers from the covenants Eph. 2.12 degenerate children Esa 1.4 alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you Eph. 4.18 and through your blind leaders of the blind Priests of your own making c. Vncircumcised in heart Erroneous in judgment Vncircumcised in flesh Enormous in practice When ye offer my bread i. e. The fat and the blood as it followeth which I seem to feed upon as a man doth upon bread Because of all your abominations Or besides all your abominations mentioned ver 6. Ver. 8. For your selves Pro vestro arbitratu non pro mea voluntate as best suited with your own ends and fitted to your own humours Ver. 9. Shall enter into my sanctuary See a like prohibition 1 Tim. 3.3 8. Tit. 1.7 Such as were the Scribes and Pharisees the Arrian Bishops the Popish Priests the cleri ut vocant dehonestamenta amongst us till cast out Ver. 10. And the Levites The Apostate Priests that for fear or favour have comported with idolaters such as were the posterity of Ithamar those time-servers in Ezra chap. 2.61 63. those in the books of Macchabees Demas if Dorotheus may be believed Pau us Diaconus Pendleton Pflugius Sidonius Authours of the Interim in Germany c. They shall even bear their iniquity i. e. Degradation as a punishment of their iniquity Ver. 11. Yet they shall be Ministers in my sanctuary Though lapsed they shall not be altogether discarded see 2 King 23.9 Neh. 13.28 Capite minuuntur sed non Penitus eficiuntur partly for the honour of the Priesthood but principally for the encouragement of such as having fallen by infirmity rise again by repentance Ver. 12. Because they ministred unto them before their idols Being carryed down the stream of the times and hurryed away by violent temptation which they afterwards regretted and repented of So did not those Popish Bishops and Priests at the coming in of Queen Elizabeth who were therefore worthily turned out even fourteen Bishops six Abbots twelve Deanes as many Archdeacons Camd. Elis fifty Prebendaries fifteen Presidents of Colledges many Parsons and other stiffe Masse-Priests Ver. 13. And they shall not come near unto me How great then was the love of the Lord Jesus to Peter and the rest of his Disciples after his resurrection as in sending them that sweet message Mark 16.7 so in readmitting them to the work of the Ministery after so foul a revolt Joh. 20.21 22 23. And doth he not the very same still for his poor sinful servants who desire indeed to fear his name but are oft overtaken in a fault through infirmity of the flesh Surely Father Traves said Mr. Bradford Martyr in a letter to him I have clean forgotten God I am all secure idle proud-hearted utterly void of brotherly love I am envious and disdain others Act. Mon. 1511. I am a very stark hypocrite c. Thus he and much more to like purpose in his heavenly letters Ver. 14. But I will make them keepers Which was one of the meanest offices Ver. 15. But the Priests the sons of Zadok Who follow their fathers footsteps and are careful to fulfill the ministery that they have received in the Lord to be best in the worst times as right heires of Moses his benediction Deut. 33.9 c. Oecol Saith the Lord God Them that honour me I will honour 1 Sam. 2.20 This is a bargain of Gods own making Hujus rei fides penes Deum tota est we may trust to it Ver. 16. To my Table i. e. To mine Altar chap. 41.22 Mal. 1.7 12. which as oft as they do they receive a double pledge of the pardon of their own sins Joh. 20.23 Ver. 17. They shall be cloathed with linnen garments As so many earthly Angels Mat. 28.3 See Rev. 4.4 and 7.13 for innocency and victory over their corruptions And no wooll shall come upon them No brutish and sensual lusts and practises shall be found in them Lavat Ex brutorum lana vestes contexuntur Ver. 18. They shall have linnen bonnets upon their heads In token of constant subjection to God 1 Cor. 11. They shall have linnen breeches For honesty sake and to admonish them to procure and provide for things honest not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men 2 Cor. 8.21 With any thing that causeth sweat That they may not have an ill savour or seem to do Gods work to their own trouble the Lord loveth a cheerful giver Ver. 19 They shall put off their garments See chap. 42.14 They shall not sanctifie the people with their garments i. e. By the touch of their garments See Exod. 29.37 30.29 Ezek. 46.20 To sanctifie the people in this text is to perswade them that they are sanctified by the touch or sight of the Priestly vestments The Monkes at this day make the silly people beleeve that they cannot be damned when they dye if they be buried in a Franciscans coul In orat pro Rosc Comado Ver. 20. Neither shall they shave their heads What can the Popish shavelings say to this qui ne pilum ullum viri boni habere videntur as Cicero saith of Fannius Chaereas noting it to be a sign of
first universal secondly perpetual so was none of the former though the Roman was very large teaching from Euphrates to great Britaine and the Assyrian very lasting of a thousand and four hundred years duration Ver. 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit Chald. My spirit was stabbed thorough so that my body became as an empty sheath or scabbard Oh the rerrour of that last Judgement when such a man as Daniel was so affrighted to see the manner of it in vision only If the righteous scarcely be saved c. In the midst of my body Chald. of my sheath the body is but the souls sheath Pliny in the history of Hermotinus Clazometius Lib. 7. cap. 52. maketh use of the same Metaphor and compared to the soul it is but as a clay wall that encompasseth a treasure as a wodden box of a Jeweller as a course case to a rich instrument or as a mask to a beautiful face Ver. 16. I came near unto one of them that stood by i. e. To one of the holy Angels as ver 10. Let us have recourse in like case to Christs Ministers who are called Angels of the Churches like as Angels by a like change of name are called ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 The Preaching of the Gospel is taken from the Angels Luk. 2.10 and given to the Ministers hence Paul was sent to Ananias for further direction Act. 9. and Cornelius to Peter Act. 10. And asked him the truth i. e. The thing hereby signified See Joh. 1.17 14.7 holy minds are industrious after knowledge Ver. 17. These great beasts are four Kings i. e. A succession of Kings all of them truculent and savage toward the Saints Which shall arise out of the earth And as toads strive who shall dye with most earth in their mouths Ver. 18. But the Saints of the most high Or the most high Saints highly exalted in Christ and preferr'd far above those earth-sprung Mushrom-Monarchs ver 17. who are of the earth earthy and partake not of the inheritance of the Saints in light Now this is a very true definition of a Church saith Junius here viz. Caetus sanctorum ad excelsa a company of Saints partaking of an high and heavenly calling Heb. 3.1 Shall take the Kingdom Take it by force Matth. 11.12 lay hold on the promised inheritance yet not till it is given them and the time is come ver 22. Ver. 19. Then I would know the truth See ver 16. And take notice that godly minds are not content with the knowledge of things in gross but covet a particular and distinct knowledge Phil. 3.10 Ver. 20. And of the ten hornes See ver 7. And of the other that came up See ver 8. Whose look was more stout then his fellows i. e. Then the ten hornes Antichrist exalteth himself above Kings and above all that is August 2 Thes 2.4 See the Note there Ver. 21. I beheld and the same horn made war with the Saints With the Waldenses against whom the Pope turned his Croisado's Thuar those armies of the Cross which had been first appointed against the Saracens This war began in the year one thousand one hundred and sixty and yet continueth and must till the end of the reign of Antichrist ver 9 10 26. And prevailed against them As they did against the ancient Waldenses or Leonists and against their posterity lately in Piedmont Yea it is the opinion and fear of some great Divines that Antichrist before his abolition shall once again overflow the whole face of the West and suppresse the whole Protestant Churches Ver. 22. Vntill the ancient of dayes came Not by change of place but change of Providence Zach. 14.3 4. And judgment was given to the Saints As Approvers of Christs righteous judgment That the Saints possessed the Kingdom sc In Christ their head ver 10. Ver. 23. Thus he said So ready are the holy Angels to further good desires Mat. 28.1 2. Ver. 24. And the ten hornes out of this Kingdom He saith not Kingdoms this maketh against those that make the Seleucidae and Lagida the fourth Monarchy And he shall be diverse from the first For the first were secular Kings but he stileth himself chief Bishop and head of the Church having both Peters keyes and Pauls sword c. And he shall subdue three Kings See on ver 8. Ver. 25. And he shall speak great words As Pope Julius the third did when he called for his pork-flesh forbidden him by his Physician as naught for his gout al despito di Dio in despite of God Act. Mon. 1417. and missing a cold Peacock which he commanded to be set up for his supper he raged extreamly at his steward and being desired to be more patient he replied If God were so angry with our first Parents for an apple may not I who am his Vicar be so much more for my Peacock See on Rev. 13.5 And shall think to change times and laws i. e. He shall usurp a power over religion and mens consciences set up holydayes canonize Saints appoint fasts order times c. Vntill a time and times and half a time i. e. Untill that time which God alone knoweth and hath in his power Ver. 26. But the judgment shall sit And then an end of him howsoever Ver. 27. And the Kingdom and dominion When once Christs foes shall be in that place which is fittest for them viz. under his feet Ver. 28. Hitherto is the end of the matter This seemeth added to stop all curious enquiries after things not revealed My cogitations much troubled me For the ensuing troubles of Gods people under those godless tyrants And my countenance changed Chald. my brightnesses I looked wan and pale much study will cause it Eccles 12.12 as it did in Mr. Fox the Martyrologue so that his friends knew him not CHAP. VIII Ver. 1. IN the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar Which was his last year when Babylon was close besieged therefore Daniel was not now really at Shushan but in vision only ver 2. A vision appeared unto me Whilest waking likely and for further explication of the former vision chap. 7. whereof because Daniel made so good use ampliorem gratiam accipit saith Oecolampadius he now receiveth further grace Ver. 2. I saw in a vision God revealed himself to men waking in vision as well as in dreams Heb. 1.1 wherein the Prophets saw things actually done which hereby they knew were to be done 1 King 22.17 Anthenaeuâ— I was at Shushan Which signifieth a lilly so it was called for the pleasantness of the place now it is called Valdac of the poverty of the place Here it was that Alexander found fifty thousand talents of gold besides silver great store It was once the seat-royal of the Kings of Persia and gave name to the whole Province Susiâ—nt See Neh. 1.1 Esth 1.1 And I was by the river of Vlai Called by Heathen Authors Eulaeus but better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
dispersion say some to the end of the world say others with whom I concur A thing was revealed unto Daniel Who now must needs be very ancient yet at those years an hundred or more gave himself to understand and search into divine secrets The more any one knoweth of God the more he would still know Moses newly come from the Mount cryeth to God to shew him his glory David that gulf of holy learning is oft at his Teach me thy statutes c. And the thing was true i. e. Plain and proper not as former visions figurative and obscure But the time appointed was long sc Till all be fulfilled which will not be till the last judgment And he understood the thing And so was the better able to propound it to the Church For what a man doth not himself understand he cannot well and fitly deliver to others And had understood the vision sc Given unto him for unlesse God give us both Sight and Light we perceive not heavenly doctrine neither indeed can doe Ver. 2. In those dayes I Daniel was mourning Though a great man still and in great account yet not now so great at Court as to hinder and defeat the malicious designs of Cambyses his Counsellors who being bribed by the Jews Adversaries put a stop to the Temple-work at Jerusalem Ezra 4.1 2 3 4. This disaster cast good Daniel into his dumps so that he fasted three full weeks à tanto tali Abstinet ab omni cura cultuque corporis sua sponte See the like 1 Sam. 31.13 sed non à toto and longer might had not the Angel taken him off by an answer of peace ver 12. Three full weeks Heb. weeks of dayes to distinguish them from those Seventy weeks of years chap. 9.24 Ver. 3. I ate no pleasant bread Bread he ate for Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est life will fail if not maintained by food but course bread panem cibarium atrum siligineum and no more of that neither then needs must He voluntarily abridged himself of lawful delights macerating and mortifying his flesh that he might communicate with his poor afflicted brethren and pray the harder for them Fasting enflameth prayer and Prayer sanctifieth fasting Neither did I annoint my self at all All delights of sense must be laid asâ—ide in a time of solemn humiliation but yet without annoyance and uncomlinesse as musick mirth perfumes brave apparrel 2 Sam. 12.20 Jon. 3.8 Exod. 33.4 5 6. 1 Kings 21.27 chearfulnesse outward joy and pleasure Marke 2.20 Luke 5.35 with Mat. 9.15 Judg. 20.26 1 Sam. 7.6 It is spoken of as a foul sin Isa 58.3 behold in the day of your Fast ye find pleasure Ver. 4. And on the four and twentieth of the first moneth The day is thus noted because the matters here revealed were most memorable As I was by the side of the great river Meditating likely because the City was full of noise and tumult and praying as Acts 16.13 Broughton giveth this reason because Seleucus Nicator founder of the Seleucida much spoken of in the ensuing vision built his chief City upon this river Which is Hiddekel i. e. Sharp-swift called also Tigris from the swiftest of all beasts the Tiger Plin. l. 6. c. 7. but Curtius and Pliny say that Tigris in the Median language signifieth an Arrow Here Daniel was personally present and not visionally only See ver 7. Ver. 5. Then I lift up mine eyes and looked Viz. After my long fasting praying and meditating So Moses and Elias those great Fasters met together with our Saviour gloriously in the Mount at his Transfiguration It is abstinence not fulnesse that makes a man capable of heavenly visions oâ— divine glory Behold a certain man Heb one man a singular man a glorious person Messias the Prince described here by his habit and parts as a Judge say some or as a Priest say others See chap. 12.6 7. Rev 1.13 14 15. 10.5 Cloathed in linnen To shew his innocency and purity as also his righteousnesses Imputed and Imparted wherewith he cloatheth his Saints Rev. 19.8 that fine white linnen and shining Whose loins were girded with fine gold of Vphaz Or of Ophir Peru haply or Malaca or Sophala This golden girdle about his loines denoteth Christs strength and alacrity Psal 93.1 Luke 17.8 Ver. 6. His body also was like the Beryl Of an azure colour like the heavens The second Adam is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 Some render it the Chrysolite which is of the colour of the Sea to note say they his power to purge the Church by his Word Spirit and Judgements as by the water of the Sea And his face as the appearance of lightning Which both shineth and terrifieth and soon appeareth from the one end of the heaven to the other Matth. 24.27 Christ suddenly discovereth all things though never so remote Psal 90.8 Ezek. 1.13 And his eyes as lamps of fire To note his omniscience his wrath also and readinesse to revenge Jer. 32.19 And his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brasse To note his omnipotency in the execution of his wrath whilst he trampleth on his enemies Scintillantes purissimè as he that hath brazen arms and feet can easily break in pieces a potters vessel Ser pitus 1. Maris And the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude Or as the noise of many waters Rev. 1.15 noting the efficacy of Christs doctrine See Acts 2.4 Ver. 7. And I Daniel alone saw the vision Holy Prophets alone are capable of holy visions 2 Pet. 1.19 For the men that were with me saw not Sensible they were of some alteration upon the waters and somewhat wrought upon not for their information but separation from Daniel that he might more freely undergo the heavenly rapture See the like Acts 9.7 But a great quaking fell upon them Through sense of sin and fear of wrath This served to shew the truth of the vision Ver. 8. Therefore I was left alone Daniel though much affrighted keepeth his station when the rest fled and hid themselves Good is the counsel of the Apostle Heb. 12.13 Make straight steps unto your feet lest that which is halting be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed For my comlinesse c. See chap. 7.15 28. 8.27 Ver. 9. Yet heard I the voice of his words What these words were is not here expressed but by comparing they may be gathered to be the same with those chap. 8.18 bidding Gabriel to draw near and speak unto the Prophet Then was I in a deep sleep See chap. 8.18 The more the outward man is bound the fitter he is for holy Communion with God 2 Cor. 12.2 3. Ver. 10. And behold an hand touched me i. e. The hand of the Angel Gabriel who was sent by Christ to dictate unto Daniel the Prophecy following It is Christs use to signify Prophecyes by his Angel Rev. 1.1
was heavier than his groaning and yet his complaint was bitter too Chap. 23.2 Some holy men as Mr. Leaver have desired to see their sin in the most ugly colours Dr. Sibbes and God hath heard them But yet his hand was so heavy upon them that they went alwayes mourning to their graves And thought it fitter to leave it to Gods wisdome to mingle the portion of sorrow than to bee their own choosers And the stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy None but such as are of the family of Faith can conceive the surpassing sweetness of spiritual joy Gal. 6. The Cock on the dunghil knows not the worth of this Jewel It is joy unspeakable 1 Pet. 1.8 Such as none feel but those that stir up sighs unutterable Rom. 8.26 It is joy unspeakable and full of glory a hansel of Heaven a foretaste of eternal life It is the peace that passeth all understanding they that have it Phil. 4.7 understand not the full of it nor can relate the one half of it Paul said somewhat to the point when hee said I do over-abound exceedingly with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 7.4 Chrysost but words are too weak to utter it Father Latimer said somewhat when hee said it was the sweet-meats of the feast of a good conscience But sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est It is a thing fitter to bee beleeved than possible to bee discoursed Tell a man never so long what a sweet thing hony is hee can never beleeve you so well as if himself taste it Those that never yet tasted how good the Lord is are far from intermedling with the just mans joy Act. Mon. fol. 1668. The World wonders saith Mr. Philpot Martyr how wee can bee so merry in such extreme misery But our God is omnipotent which turneth misery into felicity Beleeve mee there is no such joy in the world as the people of Christ have under the Cross I speak it by experience c. Another holy Martyr Richard Collier after his condemnation sang a Psalm Ibid. 1533. Wherefore the Priests and the officers railed at him saying Hee was out of his wits Vers 11. The house of the wicked shall bee overthrown As Phocas his high walls were because sin was at the bottome Brimstone also shall bee scattered on the top Job 18.15 As it befel Dioclesian whose house was wholly consumed with fire from Heaven Wherewith himself also was so terrified that hee died within a while after Euseb de vit Const lib. 5. But the Tabernacle of the upright shall flourish The wicked have houses and are called the Inhabitants of the earth Rev. 12.12 The upright have Tabernacles or Tents that were transportative and taken down at pleasure Here they have no continuing City no mansion-place And yet that they have shall flourish Our bed is green the beams of our house are Cedar and our rafters of Firr Cant. 1.16 17. See 2 Sam. 23.4 Vers 12. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man Sin comes cloathed with a shew of reason Exod. 1.10 And lust will so blear the understanding that hee shall think that there is great sense in sinning Adam was not deceived 1 Tim. 2.14 That is hee was not so much deceived by his judgement though also by that too as by his affection to his wife which at length blinded his judgement The heart first deceives us with colours and when wee are once a doting after sin then wee joyn and deceive our hearts James 1.26 using fallacious and specious sophisms to make our selves think that lawful to day which wee our selves held unlawful yesterday and that wee are possest of those graces whereto wee are perfect strangers But the end thereof are the waies of death Via multiplex ad mortem The very first step in this evil way was a step to Hell But the journies end if men stop not or step not back in time is undoubted destruction Some flatter themselves as Micah Judg. 17.13 They flye to the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord And think to take Sanctuary and save themselves there from all danger as the Jews fable that Og King of Bashan escaped in the flood by riding astride upon the Ark without Wherein it falls out oft as it did with the riflers of Semiramis her tomb who where they expected to finde the richest treasure met with a deadly poison Or as it doth with him that lying asleep upon a steep rock and dreaming of great matters befallen him starts suddenly for joy and so breaks his neck at the bottome As hee that makes a bridge of his own shadow cannot but fall into the water So neither can hee escape the pit of Hell who laies his own presumption in place of Gods promise who casts himself upon the unknown mercies of God c. Vers 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful Nulla est sincera voluptas Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas Of carnal pleasures a man may break his neck before his fast All this avails mee nothing said Haman Omnia fui nihil profuit said that Emperour Vanity of vanity all is vanity said Solomon and not vanity onely but vexation of spirit Nothing in themselves and yet full of power and activity to inflict vengeance and vexation upon the spirit of a man so that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful Some kinde of frothy and flashy mirth wicked men may have such as may wet the mouth but not warm the heart smooth the brow but not fill the breast It is but a cold armful as Lycophron saith of an evil wife as they repent in the face Mat. 6.16 so they rejoyce in the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lyc. not in the heart 2 Cor. 5.12 Rident ringuntur there is a snare or a cord in the sin of the wicked that is to strangle their joy with but the righteous sing and are merry Prov. 29.6 Others may revel they onely must rejoyce Hos 9.1 And the end of that mirth is heaviness They dance to the Timbrel and Harp but suddenly they turn into Hell Job 21.12 13. and so their merry dance ends in a miserable downfal Luk. 6. Woe bee to you that laugh now Those merry Greeks that are so afraid of sadness that they banish all seriousness shall one day wring for it Adoniah's guests had soon enough of their good cheer and jollity So had Belshazzar and his combibones optimi Thou mad fool what dost thou Eccles 2. saith Salomon to the mirth-monger that holds it the onely happiness to laugh and bee fat Knowest thou not yet there will bee bitterness in the end Principium dulce est sed finis amoris amarus The candle of the wicked shall be put out in a vexing-snuff Their mirth as Comets blazeth much but ends in a pestilent vapour As lightning it soon vanisheth leaveth a greater darknesse behinde it and is
attended with the renting and roaring thunder of Gods wrath Vers 14. The Back-slider in heart shall bee filled with his own waies Hee hath made a match with mischief hee shall soon have enough of it hee hath sold himself to do wickedness and hee shall bee sure of his paiment hee hath drawn back to perdition hee hath stollen from his colours run away from his Captain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.38 hee shall have Marshal-Law for it God will serve such odious Apostates as Theodorick King of Gothes did a Deacon that to engratiate with this Arrian Prince turned Arrian instead of preferring him hee cut off his head Or as that Turk served the traitour that betrayed the Rhodes His promised wife and portion were presented but the Turk told him that hee would not have a Christian to bee his Son-in-law but hee must bee a Musulman that is a beleeving Turk both within and without And therefore hee caused his baptized skin as hee called it to bee taken off and him to bee cast in a bed strawed with salt that hee might get a new skin and so hee should bee his Son-in-Law But the wicked wretch ended his life with shame and torment But a good man shall bee satisfied from himself For hee hath a spring within his own breast hee needs not shark abroad hee hath an Autarkie a self-sufficiency 1 Tim. 6.6 Hic sat lucis said Oecolampadius claping his hand on his breast when sick and asked whether the light did not offend him Another being likewise sick and asked how hee did answered My body is weak my mind is well Mr. Bolton A third when the pangs of death were upon him being asked by a very dear friend that took him by the hand whether hee felt not much pain Truly no said hee the greatest I finde is your cold hand These good men knew within themselves that they had in Heaven a better and a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 within themselves they knew it not in others not in books but in their own experience and apprehension in the workings of their own hearts Their knowledge was non in eodicibus sed incordibus They could feelingly say that in doing of Gods will not onely for doing it or after it was now done but even whiles they were doing of it there was great reward Psal 19.11 Righteousness is its own reward and is never without a double joy to bee its strength Gaudium in re gaudium in spe gaudium de possessione Bern. gaudium de promissione gaudium de praesenti exhibitione gaudium de futura expectatione joy in hand and in hope in present possession and in certain reversion Vers 15. The simple beleeveth every word You may draw him any way with a wet finger perswade him to any thing as Rehoboam that old Baby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a very good rule of Epicharmus Bee not light of beleef Try before you trust look before you leap Bern. de bono desert Alioquâ— saliens antequà m videas casurus es antequà m debeas Wisdome would that as men should not bee over censorions This man blasphemeth said they of our Saviour so neither overcredulous as the giddy-headed Galathiaens were to their seducing Doctors Chap. 1.6 I wonder that yee are so soon removed c. Let us leave to the Papists Ministrorum muta officia populi caeca obsequia their Ministers dumb services their peoples blinde obediences And ever count it a singular folly to take mens bare authority in matters of faith and not to prove the spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 as those noble Beraeans did and are worthily renowned for it Act. 17. But the prudent man looketh well to his goings Hee looketh not so much what others beleeve or not beleeve do or not do as what hee is bound to beleeve or do Hee pins not his faith to another mans sleeve hee frames not his pace by another mans practice but walks by line and by rule treads gingerly steps warily lifts not up one foot till hee findes sure footing for the other as those Psal 35.6 This is to walk exactly accurately not as fools but as wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.15 Vers 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil Hee trembleth at the judgements whiles they hang in the threatnings meets God with intreaties of peace and so redeems his own sorrows Solo auditu contremisco saith Hierom Speaking of that terrible text Ezek. 16.42 I tremble at the very hearing of it So Erasmus repeating those words Ezek. 3.18 His blood will I require at thy hands These saith hee are fulmina non verba not words but thunderbolts A good childe if but threatned only will amend his fault yea if hee but hear others threatned Daniel was more troubled than Nebuchadnezzar was Dan. 4.18 Habakkuck when in a vision hee saw the judgements of God that were to come upon the Caldeans it made his very heart to ake and quake within him Chap. 3.16 But the fool rageth and is confident Some render it Rangeth and is confident transit confidit so the Vulgar and Original will well enough bear it hee passeth on from sin to sin like a mad man and yet perswades himself that all shall do well such a desperate fool was Balaam though the Angel met him with a drawn sword yet hee would needs on and what was the issue hee dyed by the sword of Israel though hee seemed a friend to Israel Not to bee warned is both a just presage and desert of ruine Vers 17. Hee that is soon angry dealeth foolishly Alexander in his hot blood slew his dearest friend whom hee would have revived again with his heart-blood Qui non moderabitur irae Infectum velit esse dolor quod suaserit mens Rash anger differs from madness saith Seneca in nothing but in time onely See my Common-place of Anger And a man of wicked devices is hated i. e. Hee that beareth a grudge intending revenge as one that onely wants and therefore waits a fit time as Absolom did for Amnon this is a dangerous man and deservedly detested of all It is counted Manhood indeed its Doghooâ—â— The Curs of Congo they say bite but never bark Esau threatned Jacob. 〈◊〉 â—â—ius lentus in meditando ubi prorupisset tristioribus dictis atrocia facta conjungebat The more hee meditated revenge the more did time and delay sharpen it and the further off bee threatned the heavier the stroke fell therefore hee was generally hated as an odious miscreant Vers 18. The simple inherit folly Acceperunt per successionem seu hareditario jure so one renders it they are as wise as their fore-fathers and they are resolved to bee no wiser Me ex ea opinione quam à majoribus accepi de cultis deorum nullius unquam movebit oratio said Tully I will never forsake that way of divine service that I have received from my fore-fathers for any mans pleasure